1 .\"@ nail.1 - S-nail(1) reference manual.
3 .\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990, 1993
4 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
6 .\" Gunnar Ritter. All rights reserved.
7 .\" Copyright (c) 2012 - 2015 Steffen (Daode) Nurpmeso <sdaoden@users.sf.net>.
9 .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
10 .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
12 .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
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17 .\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
18 .\" must display the following acknowledgement:
19 .\" This product includes software developed by the University of
20 .\" California, Berkeley and its contributors.
21 .\" This product includes software developed by Gunnar Ritter
22 .\" and his contributors.
24 .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS 'AS IS' AND
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37 .\" S-nail(1): v14.8.10 / 2016-08-20
49 .\" If not ~/.mailrc, it breaks POSIX compatibility. And adjust main.c.
54 .ds OU [no v15-compat]
55 .ds ID [v15 behaviour may differ]
66 .Nd send and receive Internet mail
79 .Op Fl a Ar attachment
82 .Op Fl q Ar quote-file
84 .Op Fl S Ar variable Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value
89 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns Ar mta-option ...
98 .Op Fl S Ar variable Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value
101 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns Ar mta-option ...
108 .Op Fl L Ar spec-list
109 .Op Fl r Ar from-addr
110 .Op Fl S Ar variable Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value
113 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns Ar mta-option ...
118 .Mx -toc -tree html pdf ps xhtml
121 .\" .Sh DESCRIPTION {{{
124 .Bd -filled -compact -offset indent
125 .Sy Compatibility note:
126 S-nail (\*(UA) will wrap up into \%S-mailx in v15.0 (circa 2018).
127 A partial set of compatibility options exist, tagged as \*(IN and \*(OU,
128 yet complete compatibility won't be possible.
129 To choose upward compatible behaviour, please set the internal variable
131 Anything which will vanish in v15.0 is tagged \*(OB, and using
133 will print warnings for many use cases of obsolete features.
137 \*(UA is a mail processing system with a command syntax reminiscent of
139 with lines replaced by messages.
140 It is intended to provide the functionality of the POSIX
142 command, but is MIME capable and optionally offers extensions for
143 line editing, S/MIME, SMTP and POP3 among others.
144 It is usable as a mail batch language.
146 .\" .Ss "Options" {{{
149 .Bl -tag -width ".Fl _ Ar _ccount"
152 Explicitly control which of the
154 shall be loaded: if the letter
156 is (case-insensitively) part of the
160 is loaded, likewise the letter
162 controls loading of the user's personal
164 file, whereas the letters
168 explicitly forbid loading of any resource files.
169 This option should be used by scripts: to avoid environmental noise they
172 from any configuration files and create a script-local environment,
173 explicitly setting any desired variable via
175 This option overrides
182 command (see below) for
184 after the startup files have been read.
188 Attach the given file to the message.
189 The same filename conventions as described in the section
191 apply: shell word expansion is restricted to the tilde
196 not be accessible but contain a
198 character, then anything after the
200 is assumed to specify the input character set and anything before
202 the filename: this is the only option to specify the input character set
203 (and don't perform any character set conversion) for text attachments
204 from the command line, not using the
206 tilde escape command.
210 Make standard input and standard output line-buffered.
214 Send a blind carbon copy to
216 Can be used multiple times, but it is also possible to give
217 a comma-separated list of receivers in a single argument, proper shell
218 quoting provided, e.g.,
219 .Ql -b """qrec1 , rec2,rec3, Ex <am@ple>""" .
221 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
225 Send carbon copies to the given receiver(s).
226 Can be used multiple times.
232 variable which enables debug messages and disables message delivery,
233 among others; effectively turns almost any operation into a dry-run.
239 variable and thus discard messages with an empty message part body.
240 This is useful for sending messages from scripts.
244 Just check if mail is present (in the specified or system mailbox).
245 If yes, return an exit status of zero, a non-zero value otherwise.
246 To restrict the set of mails to consider in this evaluation a message
247 specification can be added with the option
252 Save the message to send in a file named after the local part of the
253 first recipient's address (instead of in
258 Read in the contents of the user's
260 (or the specified file) for processing;
261 when \*(UA is quit, it writes undeleted messages back to this file
265 Some special conventions are recognized for the string
267 which are documented for the
272 is not a direct argument to the flag
274 but is instead taken from the command line after option processing has
278 that starts with a hyphen, prefix it with a (relative) path, as in
279 .Ql ./-hyphenbox.mbox .
283 Display a summary of the
285 of all messages in the specified or system mailbox and exit.
286 A configurable summary view is available via the
292 Show a short usage summary.
293 Because of widespread use a
295 argument will have the same effect.
301 variable to ignore tty interrupt signals.
304 .It Fl L Ar spec-list
305 Display a summary of all
307 of only those messages in the specified or system mailbox that match the
312 .Sx "Specifying messages"
319 option has been given in addition no header summary is produced,
320 but \*(UA will instead indicate via its exit status wether
326 note that any verbose output is suppressed in this mode and must instead
327 be enabled explicitly (e.g., by using the option
334 variable and thus inhibit initial display of message headers when
335 reading mail or editing a mail folder.
339 Standard flag that inhibits reading the system wide
344 allows more control over the startup sequence; also see
345 .Sx "Resource files" .
349 Initialize the message body with the contents of the specified file,
350 which may be standard input
352 only in non-interactive context.
353 May be given in send mode only.
357 Any folder opened will be in read-only mode.
363 is a valid address then it specifies the envelope sender address to be
366 when a message is send.
369 include a user name, comments etc., then the components will be
370 separated and the name part will be passed to the MTA individually via
374 will also be assigned to the
376 variable, just as if additionally
378 had been specified (therefore affecting SMTP data transfer, too).
380 If instead an empty string is passed as
382 then the content of the variable
384 will be evaluated and used for this purpose whenever the MTA is
386 Note that \*(UA by default, without
388 that is, neither passes
392 flags to the MTA by itself.
395 .It Fl S Ar variable Ns Op = Ns value
396 Sets the internal option
398 and, in case of a value option, assigns
401 Even though variables set via
403 may be overwritten from within resource files,
404 the command line setting will be reestablished after all resource files
409 Specify the subject of the to-be-sent message.
413 The message given (on standard input) is expected to contain, separated
414 from the message body with an empty line, a message header with
419 fields giving its recipients, which will be added to those given on the
421 If a message subject is specified via
423 then it'll be used in favour of one given on the command line.
432 Note you can also specify
436 and the envelope address possibly specified with the option
439 The following, which are normally created automatically based
440 upon the message context, can also be specified:
445 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
446 (special address massage will however still occur for the latter).
447 In fact custom header fields may also be used, the content of which
448 is passed through unchanged.
452 can be embedded, too.
456 Read the system mailbox of
458 (appropriate privileges presumed), and
461 in some aspects, e.g. in respect to
470 Show \*(UA's version and exit.
476 option enables display of some informational context messages.
477 Using it twice increases the level of verbosity.
483 to the list of commands to be executed before normal operation starts.
487 .Va batch-exit-on-error ;
488 the only possibility to execute commands in non-interactive mode when
489 reading startup files is actively prohibited.
495 even if not in interactive mode.
500 In batch mode the full set of commands is available, just like in
501 interactive mode, and diverse variable settings and internal states are
502 adjusted for batch necessities, e.g., it sets
513 It also enables processing of
514 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
515 E.g., the following should send an email message to
517 .Bd -literal -offset indent
518 $ LC_ALL=C printf 'm bob\en~s ubject\enText\en~.\enx\en' | \e
519 LC_ALL=C \*(ua -:/ -d#
524 This flag forces termination of option processing in order to prevent
527 It also forcefully puts \*(UA into send mode, see
528 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
532 In the above list of supported command line options,
536 are implemented by means of setting the respective option, as via
539 .Op Ar mta-option ...
541 arguments that are given at the end of the command line after a
543 separator will be passed through to the mail-transfer-agent (MTA) and
544 persist for an entire (interactive) session \(en if the setting of
546 allows their recognition;
547 MTA arguments can also be specified in the variable
548 .Va sendmail-arguments ;
549 find MTA interaction described in more detail in the documentation of
551 MTA arguments are ignored when mail is send via SMTP data transfer.
554 .\" .Ss "A starter" {{{
557 \*(UA is a direct descendant of
559 Mail, a successor of the Research
562 .Dq was there from the start
567 Mail reference manual begins with the following words:
569 .Bd -ragged -offset indent
570 Mail provides a simple and friendly environment for sending and
572 It divides incoming mail into its constituent messages and allows the
573 user to deal with them in any order.
574 In addition, it provides a set of
576 -like commands for manipulating messages and sending mail.
577 Mail offers the user simple editing capabilities to ease the composition
578 of outgoing messages, as well as providing the ability to define and
579 send to names which address groups of users.
583 \*(UA is thus the user side of the
585 mail system, whereas the system side (mail-transfer-agent, MTA) was
586 traditionally taken by
592 are often used for this purpose instead.
593 If the \*(OPal SMTP is included in the
595 of \*(UA then the system side is not a mandatory precondition for mail
599 Because \*(UA strives for compliance with POSIX
601 it is likely that some configuration settings have to be adjusted before
602 using it is a smooth experience.
605 file already bends those standard settings a bit towards more user
606 friendliness and safety, e.g., it sets the
610 variables in order to suppress the automatic moving of messages to
612 that would otherwise occur (see
613 .Sx "Message states" )
616 to not remove empty files in order not to mangle file permissions when
617 files eventually get recreated.
620 option so that by default file grouping (via the
622 prefix as documented also for
627 contains some further suggestions.
630 .\" .Ss "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" {{{
631 .Ss "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode"
633 To send a message to one or more people, using a local
634 mail-transfer-agent (MTA; the executable path can be set via
636 or the \*(OPal builtin SMTP (set and see the variable
638 transport to actually deliver the generated mail message, \*(UA can be
639 invoked with arguments which are the names of people to whom the mail
642 .Bd -literal -offset indent
643 $ \*(ua -s Subject -a attachm.ent bill@host1 'Bob <bob@host2>'
644 # But... try it in an isolated dry-run mode first
645 $ LC_ALL=C \*(ua -:/ -d -vv -Sfrom="me <he@exam.ple>" \e
646 -b bcc@exam.ple -c cc@exam.ple \e
647 -s Subject -. "(Lovely) Bob <bob@host2>"
651 The command line options
655 can be used to add (blind) carbon copy receivers.
656 Almost always lists of addresses can be given where an address is
658 whereas comma-separated lists should be given, e.g.,
659 .Ql -c """r1@exam.ple , r2@exam.ple,r3@exam.ple""" ,
660 that very example could also be given as the whitespace-separated list
661 .Ql -c """r1@exam.ple r2@exam.ple r3@exam.ple""" ,
662 but which for obvious reasons would not work for
663 .Ql -c """R1 <r1@exam.ple>, R2 (heh!) <r2@exam.ple>""" .
666 The user is then expected to type in the message contents.
667 In this compose mode \*(UA treats lines beginning with the character
669 special \(en these are so-called
671 which can be used to read in files, process shell commands, add and edit
672 attachments and more; e.g., the tilde escape
674 will start the text editor to revise the message in it's current state,
676 allows editing of the message recipients and
678 gives an overview of available tilde escapes.
681 at the beginning of an empty line leaves compose mode and causes the
682 message to be sent, whereas typing
685 twice will abort the current letter (saving its contents in the file
693 A number of variables can be used to alter default behavior; e.g.,
698 will automatically startup a text editor when compose mode is entered,
700 will cause the user to be prompted actively for carbon-copy recipients
703 option will allow leaving compose mode by writing a line consisting
708 Very important, though, is to define which
710 may be used when sending messages, usually by setting the option
713 having read the section
714 .Sx "The mime.types files"
715 to understand how the MIME-type of outgoing attachments is classified
716 and the knowledge that messages are sent asynchronously unless
718 is set: only with it MTA delivery errors will be recognizable.
723 is often necessary (e.g., in conjunction with
725 or desirable, you may want to do some dry-run tests before you go.
726 Saving a copy of the sent messages in a
728 may also be desirable \(en as for most mailbox file targets some
729 special conventions are recognized, see the
731 command for more on that.
733 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
734 will spread some light on the
736 variable chains as well as on using URLs for accessing protocol-specific
741 contains an example configuration for sending messages via some of the
742 well-known public mail providers;
743 note it also gives a compact overview on how to setup a secure SSL/TLS
747 Message recipients (as specified on the command line or defined in
752 may not only be email addressees but can also be names of mailboxes and
753 even complete shell command pipe specifications.
754 Proper (shell) quoting is necessary, e.g., to embed whitespace characters.
755 (Recall that \*(UA deals with mail standards, therefore those define the
756 rules with which content is interpreted.)
759 is not set then only network addresses (see
761 for a description of mail addresses) and plain user names (including MTA
762 aliases) may be used, other types will be filtered out, giving a warning
765 .\" When changing any of the following adjust any RECIPIENTADDRSPEC;
766 .\" grep the latter for the complete picture
770 is set then extended recipient addresses will optionally be accepted:
771 Any name which starts with a vertical bar
773 character specifies a command pipe \(en the command string following the
775 is executed and the message is sent to its standard input;
776 Likewise, any name that starts with the character slash
778 or the character sequence dot slash
780 is treated as a file, regardless of the remaining content.
781 Any other name which contains an at sign
783 character is treated as a network address;
784 Any other name which starts with a plus sign
786 character specifies a mailbox name;
787 Any other name which contains a slash
789 character but no exclamation mark
793 character before also specifies a mailbox name;
794 What remains is treated as a network address.
796 .Bd -literal -offset indent
797 $ echo bla | \*(ua -Sexpandaddr -s test ./mbox.mbox
798 $ echo bla | \*(ua -Sexpandaddr -s test '|cat >> ./mbox.mbox'
799 $ echo safe | LC_ALL=C \e
800 \*(ua -:/ -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Snosave \e
801 -Sexpandaddr=fail,-all,+addr -s test \e
806 It is possible to create personal distribution lists via the
808 command, so that, for instance, the user can send mail to
810 and have it go to a group of people:
813 .Dl alias cohorts bill jkf mark kridle@ucbcory ~/mail/cohorts.mbox
816 Please note that this mechanism has nothing in common with the system
817 wide aliases that may be used by the local MTA (mail-transfer-agent),
818 which are subject to the
822 and are often tracked in a file
828 Personal aliases will be expanded by \*(UA before the message is sent,
829 and are thus a convenient alternative to specifying each addressee by
833 To avoid environmental noise scripts should
835 \*(UA from any configuration files and create a script-local
836 environment, ideally with the command line options
838 to disable any configuration file in conjunction with repititions of
840 to specify variables:
842 .Bd -literal -offset indent
843 $ env LC_ALL=C password=NOTSECRET \e
844 \*(ua -:/ -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Snosave \e
845 -Sexpandaddr=fail,-all,+addr \e
846 -S 'smtp=smtps://mylogin@some.host:465' -Ssmtp-auth=login \e
847 -S 'from=scriptreply@domain' \e
848 -s 'subject' -a attachment_file \e
849 -. "Recipient 1 <recipient1@domain>" recipient2@domain \e
854 In interactive mode, which is introduced in the next section, messages
855 can be sent by calling the
857 command with a list of recipient addresses \(em the semantics are
858 completely identical to non-interactive message sending, except that
859 it is likely necessary to separate recipient lists with commas:
861 .Bd -literal -offset indent
862 $ \*(ua -d -Squiet -Semptystart
863 "/var/spool/mail/user": 0 messages
864 ? mail "Recipient 1 <recipient1@domain>", recipient2@domain
865 ? # Will do the right thing (tm)
866 ? m recipient1@domain recipient2@domain
870 .\" .Ss "On reading mail, and interactive mode" {{{
871 .Ss "On reading mail, and interactive mode"
873 When invoked without addressees \*(UA enters interactive mode in which
875 When used like that the user's system mailbox (see the command
877 for an in-depth description of the different mailbox types that exist)
878 is read in and a one line header of each message therein is displayed.
879 The visual style of this summary of
881 can be adjusted through the variable
883 and the possible sorting criterion via
885 If the initially opened mailbox is empty \*(UA will instead exit
886 immediately (after displaying a message) unless the variable
895 will give a listing of all available commands and
897 will give a summary of some common ones.
898 If the \*(OPal documentation strings are available one can type
900 and see the actual expansion of
902 and what it's purpose is, i.e., commands can be abbreviated
903 (note that POSIX defines some abbreviations, so that the alphabetical
904 order of commands doesn't necessarily relate to the abbreviations; it is
905 possible to define overwrites with the
910 Messages are given numbers (starting at 1) which uniquely identify
911 messages; the current message \(en the
913 \(en will either be the first new message, or the first unread message,
914 or the first message of the mailbox; the option
916 will instead cause usage of the last message for this purpose.
921 ful of header summaries containing the
925 will display only the summaries of the given messages, defaulting to the
929 Messages can be displayed on the user's terminal with the
933 By default the current message
935 is displayed, but like with many other commands it is possible to give
936 a fancy message specification (see
937 .Sx "Specifying messages" ) ,
940 will display all unread messages,
945 will type the messages 1 and 5,
947 will type the messages 1 through 5, and
951 will display the last and the next message, respectively.
954 (a more substantial alias of the standard command
956 will display a header summary of the given message specification list
957 instead of their content, e.g., the following will search for subjects:
960 .Dl ? from """@Some subject to search for"""
963 In the default setup all header fields of a message will be displayed,
964 but this can be changed: either by blacklisting a list of fields via
966 or by whitelisting only a given list with the
969 .Ql Ic \:retain Ns \0date from to cc subject .
970 In order to display all header fields of a message regardless of
971 currently active ignore or retain lists, use the command
975 controls wether and when \*(UA will use the configured
977 for display instead of directly writing to the user terminal
978 (generally speaking).
979 Note that historically the global
981 not only adjusts the list of displayed headers, but also sets
985 Dependent upon the configuration a
986 .Sx "Command line editor"
987 aims at making user experience with the many
990 When reading the system mailbox or when
994 specified a mailbox explicitly prefixed with the special
996 modifier (propagating the mailbox to a primary one) then messages which
997 have been read will be moved to a secondary mailbox, the user's
999 file, automatically when the mailbox is left, either by changing the
1000 active mailbox or by quitting \*(UA (also see
1001 .Sx "Message states" )
1002 \(en this automatic moving from a system or primary to the secondary
1003 mailbox is not performed when the variable
1008 After examining a message the user can also
1012 to the sender and all recipients or
1014 exclusively to the sender(s).
1015 Messages can also be
1017 ed (shorter alias is
1019 Note that when replying to or forwarding a message recipient addresses
1020 will be stripped from comments and names unless the option
1023 Deletion causes \*(UA to forget about the message;
1024 This is not irreversible, though, one can
1026 the message by giving its number,
1027 or the \*(UA session can be ended by giving the
1032 To end a mail processing session one may either issue
1034 to cause a full program exit, which possibly includes
1035 automatic moving of read messages to
1037 as well as updating the \*(OPal command line editor history file,
1040 instead in order to prevent any of these actions.
1043 .\" .Ss "HTML mail and MIME attachments" {{{
1044 .Ss "HTML mail and MIME attachments"
1046 Messages which are HTML-only get more and more common and of course many
1047 messages come bundled with a bouquet of MIME attachments.
1048 Whereas \*(UA \*(OPally supports a simple HTML-to-text converter to deal
1049 with HTML messages (see
1050 .Sx "The mime.types files" ) ,
1051 it normally can't deal with any of these itself, but instead programs
1052 need to become registered to deal with specific MIME types or file
1054 These programs may either prepare plain text versions of their input
1055 in order to enable \*(UA to display the content on the terminal,
1056 or display the content themselves, for example in a graphical window.
1059 To install an external handler program for a specific MIME type set an
1061 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
1062 variable; to instead define a handler for a specific file extension set
1065 variable \(en these handlers take precedence.
1066 \*(OPally \*(UA supports mail user agent configuration as defined in
1067 RFC 1524; this mechanism, documented in the section
1068 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
1069 will be queried for display or quote handlers if none of the former two
1070 .\" TODO v15-compat "will be" -> "is"
1071 did; it will be the sole source for handlers of other purpose.
1072 A last source for handlers may be the MIME type definition itself, if
1073 the \*(UA specific type-marker extension was used when defining the type
1076 (Many of the builtin MIME types do so by default.)
1080 .Va mime-counter-evidence
1081 can be set to improve dealing with faulty MIME part declarations as are
1082 often seen in real-life messages.
1083 E.g., to display a HTML message inline (that is, converted to a more
1084 fancy plain text representation than the builtin converter is capable to
1085 produce) with either of the text-mode browsers
1089 teach \*(UA about MathML documents and make it display them as plain
1090 text, and to open PDF attachments in an external PDF viewer,
1091 asynchronously and with some other magic attached:
1093 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1094 if $features !@ HTML-FILTER
1095 #set pipe-text/html="elinks -force-html -dump 1"
1096 set pipe-text/html="lynx -stdin -dump -force_html"
1097 # Display HTML as plain text instead
1098 #set pipe-text/html=@
1100 mimetype '@ application/mathml+xml mathml'
1101 set pipe-application/pdf="@&=@ \e
1102 trap \e"rm -f \e\e\e"${NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}\e\e\e"\e" EXIT;\e
1103 trap \e"trap \e\e\e"\e\e\e" INT QUIT TERM; exit 1\e" \e INT QUIT TERM;\e
1104 xpdf \e"${NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}\e""
1108 Note: special care must be taken when using such commands as mail
1109 viruses may be distributed by this method: if messages of type
1110 .Ql application/x-sh
1111 or files with the extension
1113 were blindly filtered through the shell, for example, a message sender
1114 could easily execute arbitrary code on the system \*(UA is running on.
1115 For more on MIME, also in respect to sending of messages, see the
1117 .Sx "The mime.types files" ,
1118 .Sx "The Mailcap files"
1123 .\" .Ss "Mailing lists" {{{
1126 \*(UA offers some support to ease handling of mailing lists.
1129 promotes all given arguments to known mailing lists, and
1131 sets their subscription attribute, creating them first as necessary.
1136 automatically, but only resets the subscription attribute.)
1137 Using the commands without arguments will show (a subset of) all
1138 currently defined mailing lists.
1143 can be used to mark out messages with configured list addresses
1144 in the header display.
1147 \*(OPally mailing lists may also be specified as (extended) regular
1148 expressions, which allows matching of many addresses with a single
1150 However, all fully qualified list addresses are matched via a fast
1151 dictionary, whereas expressions are placed in (a) list(s) which is
1152 (are) matched sequentially.
1154 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1155 set followup-to followup-to-honour=ask-yes reply-to-honour=ask-yes
1156 mlist a1@b1.c1 a2@b2.c2 .*@lists.c3$
1157 mlsubscribe a4@b4.c4 exact@lists.c3
1162 .Va followup-to-honour
1164 .Ql Mail-\:Followup-\:To:
1165 header is honoured when the message is being replied to (via
1171 controls wether this header is created when sending mails; it will be
1172 created automatically for a couple of reasons, too, like when the
1174 .Dq mailing list specific
1179 is used to respond to a message with its
1180 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
1184 A difference in between the handling of known and subscribed lists is
1185 that the address of the sender is usually not part of a generated
1186 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
1187 when addressing the latter, whereas it is for the former kind of lists.
1188 Usually because there are exceptions: say, if multiple lists are
1189 addressed and not all of them are subscribed lists.
1191 For convenience \*(UA will, temporarily, automatically add a list
1192 address that is presented in the
1194 header of a message that is being responded to to the list of known
1196 Shall that header have existed \*(UA will instead, dependend on the
1198 .Va reply-to-honour ,
1201 for this purpose in order to accept a list administrators' wish that
1202 is supposed to have been manifested like that (but only if it provides
1203 a single address which resides on the same domain as what is stated in
1207 .\" .Ss "Resource files" {{{
1208 .Ss "Resource files"
1210 Upon startup \*(UA reads in several resource files:
1212 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa _AIL_EXTRA_R_"
1215 System wide initialization file.
1216 Reading of this file can be suppressed, either by using the
1220 command line options, or by setting the environment variable
1221 .Ev NAIL_NO_SYSTEM_RC .
1225 File giving initial commands.
1226 A different file can be chosen by setting the environment variable
1228 Reading of this file can be suppressed with the
1230 command line option.
1232 .It Va NAIL_EXTRA_RC
1233 Can be used to define an optional startup file to be read after all
1234 other resource files.
1235 It can be used to specify settings that are not understood by other
1237 implementations, for example.
1238 This variable is only honoured when defined in a resource file.
1242 The content of these files is interpreted as follows:
1245 .Bl -bullet -compact
1247 A lines' leading whitespace is removed.
1249 Empty lines are ignored.
1251 Any other line is interpreted as a command.
1252 It may be spread over multiple input lines if the newline character is
1254 by placing a backslash character
1256 as the last character of the line; whereas any leading whitespace of
1257 follow lines is ignored, trailing whitespace before a escaped newline
1258 remains in the input.
1260 If the line (content) starts with the number sign
1262 then it is a comment-command \(en a real command! \(en and also ignored.
1263 This command is the only form of comment that is understood.
1269 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1270 # This line is a comment command. And y\e
1271 es, it is really continued here.
1278 .\" .Ss "Character sets" {{{
1279 .Ss "Character sets"
1281 \*(OP \*(UA detects the character set of the terminal by using
1282 mechanisms that are controlled by the
1287 should give an overview); the \*(UA internal variable
1289 will be set to the detected terminal character set accordingly
1290 and will thus show up in the output of the commands
1296 However, a user supplied
1298 value is not overwritten by this detection mechanism: this
1300 must be used if the detection doesn't work properly,
1301 and it may be used to adjust the name of the locale character set.
1302 E.g., on BSD systems one may use a locale with the character set
1303 ISO8859-1, which is not a valid name for this character set; to be on
1304 the safe side, one may set
1306 to the correct name, which is ISO-8859-1.
1309 Note that changing the value doesn't mean much beside that,
1310 since several aspects of the real character set are implied by the
1311 locale environment of the system,
1312 and that stays unaffected by the content of an overwritten
1315 (This is mostly an issue when interactively using \*(UA, though.
1316 It is actually possible to send mail in a completely
1318 locale environment, an option that \*(UA's test-suite uses excessively.)
1321 If no character set conversion capabilities have been compiled into
1324 doesn't include the term
1328 will be the only supported character set,
1329 it is simply assumed that it can be used to exchange 8-bit messages,
1330 and the rest of this section does not apply;
1331 it may however still be necessary to explicitly set it if automatic
1332 detection fails, since in that case it defaults to the mentioned
1333 .\" (Keep in SYNC: ./nail.1:"Character sets", ./nail.h:CHARSET_*!)
1337 When reading messages, their text is converted into
1339 as necessary in order to display them on the users terminal.
1340 Unprintable characters and invalid byte sequences are detected
1341 and replaced by proper substitution characters (unless the variable
1343 was set once \*(UA was started).
1345 .Va charset-unknown-8bit
1346 to deal with another hairy aspect of message interpretation.
1349 When sending messages all their parts and attachments are classified.
1350 Whereas no character set conversion is performed on those parts which
1351 appear to be binary data,
1352 the character set being used must be declared within the MIME header of
1353 an outgoing text part if it contains characters that do not conform to
1354 the set of characters that are allowed by the email standards.
1355 Permissible values for character sets can be declared using the
1359 which defines a catch-all last-resort fallback character set that is
1360 implicitly appended to the list of character-sets in
1364 When replying to a message and the variable
1365 .Va reply-in-same-charset
1366 is set then the character set of the message being replied to is tried
1368 And it is also possible to make \*(UA work even more closely related to
1369 the current locale setting automatically by using the variable
1370 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset ,
1371 please see there for more information.
1374 All the specified character sets are tried in order unless the
1375 conversion of the part or attachment succeeds.
1376 If none of the tried (8-bit) character sets is capable to represent the
1377 content of the part or attachment,
1378 then the message will not be sent and its text will optionally be
1382 In general, if the message
1383 .Dq Cannot convert from a to b
1384 appears, either some characters are not appropriate for the currently
1385 selected (terminal) character set,
1386 or the needed conversion is not supported by the system.
1387 In the first case, it is necessary to set an appropriate
1389 locale and/or the variable
1393 The best results are usually achieved when \*(UA is run in a UTF-8
1394 locale on a UTF-8 capable terminal, in which case the full Unicode
1395 spectrum of characters is available.
1396 In this setup characters from various countries can be displayed,
1397 while it is still possible to use more simple character sets for sending
1398 to retain maximum compatibility with older mail clients.
1401 On the other hand the POSIX standard defines a locale-independent 7-bit
1402 .Dq portable character set
1403 that should be used when overall portability is an issue, the even more
1404 restricted subset named
1405 .Dq portable filename character set
1406 consisting of A-Z, a-z, 0-9, period
1415 .\" .Ss "Message states" {{{
1416 .Ss "Message states"
1418 \*(UA differentiates in between several different message states;
1419 the current state will be reflected in header summary displays if
1421 is configured to do so (via the internal variable
1423 and messages can also be selected and be acted upon depending on their
1425 .Sx "Specifying messages" ) .
1426 When operating on the system mailbox or in primary mailboxes opened with
1431 special actions, like the automatic moving of messages to the secondary
1433 mailbox may be applied when the mailbox is left (also implicitly via
1434 a successful exit of \*(UA, but not if the special command
1436 is used) \(en however, because this may be irritating to users which
1439 mail-user-agents, the default global
1445 variables in order to suppress this behaviour.
1447 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ql _reserved"
1449 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state.
1450 Such messages are retained even in the system mailbox.
1453 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state, but the
1454 message was present already when the mailbox has been opened last:
1455 Such messages are retained even in the system mailbox.
1458 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
1478 commands may also cause the next message to be marked as read, depending
1484 command is used, messages that are in the system mailbox or in mailboxes
1485 which were opened with the special
1489 state when the mailbox is left will be saved in
1496 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
1502 can be used to access such messages.
1505 The message has been processed by a
1507 command and it will be retained in its current location.
1510 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
1516 command is used, messages that are in the system mailbox or in mailboxes
1517 which were opened with the special
1521 state when the mailbox is left will be deleted; they will be saved in
1529 .\" .Ss "Specifying messages" {{{
1530 .Ss "Specifying messages"
1537 can be given a list of message numbers as arguments to apply to a number
1538 of messages at once.
1541 deletes messages 1 and 2,
1544 will delete the messages 1 through 5.
1545 In sorted or threaded mode (see the
1549 will delete the messages that are located between (and including)
1550 messages 1 through 5 in the sorted/threaded order, as shown in the
1553 Multiple colon modifiers can be joined into one, e.g.,
1555 The following special message names exist:
1557 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ar _n_u"
1563 All old messages (any not in state
1588 All answered messages
1593 All messages marked as draft.
1595 \*(OP All messages classified as spam.
1597 \*(OP All messages with unsure spam classification.
1599 The current message, the so-called
1602 The message that was previously the current message.
1604 The parent message of the current message,
1605 that is the message with the Message-ID given in the
1607 field or the last entry of the
1609 field of the current message.
1611 The next previous undeleted message,
1612 or the next previous deleted message for the
1615 In sorted/threaded mode,
1616 the next previous such message in the sorted/threaded order.
1618 The next undeleted message,
1619 or the next deleted message for the
1622 In sorted/threaded mode,
1623 the next such message in the sorted/threaded order.
1625 The first undeleted message,
1626 or the first deleted message for the
1629 In sorted/threaded mode,
1630 the first such message in the sorted/threaded order.
1633 In sorted/threaded mode,
1634 the last message in the sorted/threaded order.
1638 selects the message addressed with
1642 is any other message specification,
1643 and all messages from the thread that begins at it.
1644 Otherwise it is identical to
1649 the thread beginning with the current message is selected.
1654 All messages that were included in the message list for the previous
1657 .It Ar / Ns Ar string
1658 All messages that contain
1660 in the subject field (case ignored).
1667 the string from the previous specification of that type is used again.
1669 .It Xo Op Ar @ Ns Ar name-list Ns
1672 All messages that contain the given case-insensitive search
1674 ession; if the \*(OPal regular expression (see
1676 support is available
1678 will be interpreted as (an extended) one if any of the
1680 (extended) regular expression characters is seen.
1682 .Ar @ Ns Ar name-list
1683 part is missing, the search is restricted to the subject field body,
1686 specifies a comma-separated list of header fields to search, as in
1688 .Dl '@to,from,cc@Someone i ought to know'
1690 In order to search for a string that includes a
1692 (commercial at) character the
1694 is effectively non-optional, but may be given as the empty string.
1695 Some special header fields may be abbreviated:
1709 respectively and case-insensitively.
1714 can be used to search in (all of) the header(s) of the message, and the
1723 can be used to perform full text searches \(en whereas the former
1724 searches only the body, the latter also searches the message header.
1726 This message specification performs full text comparison, but even with
1727 regular expression support it is almost impossible to write a search
1728 expression that savely matches only a specific address domain.
1729 To request that the content of the header is treated as a list of
1730 addresses, and to strip those down to the plain email address which the
1731 search expression is to be matched against, prefix the header name
1732 (abbreviation) with a tilde
1735 .Dl @~f@@a\e.safe\e.domain\e.match$
1739 .Dq any substring matches
1742 header, which will match addresses (too) even if
1744 is set (and POSIX says
1745 .Dq any address as shown in a header summary shall be matchable in this form ) ;
1748 variable is set, only the local part of the address is evaluated
1749 for the comparison, not ignoring case, and the setting of
1751 is completely ignored.
1752 For finer control and match boundaries use the
1754 search expression; the \*(OPal IMAP-style
1756 expression can also be used if substring matches are desired.
1760 \*(OP IMAP-style SEARCH expressions may also be used.
1761 This addressing mode is available with all types of folders;
1762 \*(UA will perform the search locally as necessary.
1763 Strings must be enclosed by double quotes
1765 in their entirety if they contain white space or parentheses;
1766 within the quotes, only backslash
1768 is recognized as an escape character.
1769 All string searches are case-insensitive.
1770 When the description indicates that the
1772 representation of an address field is used,
1773 this means that the search string is checked against both a list
1776 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1777 (\*qname\*q \*qsource\*q \*qlocal-part\*q \*qdomain-part\*q)
1782 and the addresses without real names from the respective header field.
1783 These search expressions can be nested using parentheses, see below for
1787 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar _n_u"
1788 .It Ar ( criterion )
1789 All messages that satisfy the given
1791 .It Ar ( criterion1 criterion2 ... criterionN )
1792 All messages that satisfy all of the given criteria.
1794 .It Ar ( or criterion1 criterion2 )
1795 All messages that satisfy either
1800 To connect more than two criteria using
1802 specifications have to be nested using additional parentheses,
1804 .Ql (or a (or b c)) ,
1808 .Ql ((a or b) and c) .
1811 operation of independent criteria on the lowest nesting level,
1812 it is possible to achieve similar effects by using three separate
1816 .It Ar ( not criterion )
1817 All messages that do not satisfy
1819 .It Ar ( bcc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1820 All messages that contain
1822 in the envelope representation of the
1825 .It Ar ( cc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1826 All messages that contain
1828 in the envelope representation of the
1831 .It Ar ( from \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1832 All messages that contain
1834 in the envelope representation of the
1837 .It Ar ( subject \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1838 All messages that contain
1843 .It Ar ( to \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1844 All messages that contain
1846 in the envelope representation of the
1849 .It Ar ( header name \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1850 All messages that contain
1855 .It Ar ( body \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1856 All messages that contain
1859 .It Ar ( text \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1860 All messages that contain
1862 in their header or body.
1863 .It Ar ( larger size )
1864 All messages that are larger than
1867 .It Ar ( smaller size )
1868 All messages that are smaller than
1872 .It Ar ( before date )
1873 All messages that were received before
1875 which must be in the form
1879 denotes the day of the month as one or two digits,
1881 is the name of the month \(en one of
1882 .Ql Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec ,
1885 is the year as four digits, e.g.,
1889 All messages that were received on the specified date.
1890 .It Ar ( since date )
1891 All messages that were received since the specified date.
1892 .It Ar ( sentbefore date )
1893 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
1894 .It Ar ( senton date )
1895 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
1896 .It Ar ( sentsince date )
1897 All messages that were sent since the specified date.
1899 The same criterion as for the previous search.
1900 This specification cannot be used as part of another criterion.
1901 If the previous command line contained more than one independent
1902 criterion then the last of those criteria is used.
1906 .\" .Ss "On URL syntax and credential lookup" {{{
1907 .Ss "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
1909 \*(IN For accessing protocol-specific resources usage of Uniform
1910 Resource Locators (URL, RFC 1738) has become omnipresent.
1911 \*(UA expects and understands URLs in the following form;
1914 denote optional parts, optional either because there also exist other
1915 ways to define the information in question or because support of the
1916 part is protocol-specific (e.g.,
1918 is used by the IMAP protocol but not by POP3);
1923 are specified they must be given in URL percent encoded form (RFC 3986;
1931 .Dl PROTOCOL://[USER[:PASSWORD]@]server[:port][/path]
1934 Note that these \*(UA URLs most often don't conform to any real
1935 standard, but instead represent a normalized variant of RFC 1738 \(en
1936 they are not used in data exchange but only ment as a compact,
1937 easy-to-use way of defining and representing information in
1938 a well-known notation.
1941 Many internal variables of \*(UA exist in multiple versions, called
1942 variable chains for the rest of this document: the plain
1947 .Ql variable-USER@HOST .
1954 had been specified in the respective URL, otherwise it refers to the plain
1960 that had been found when doing the user chain lookup as is described
1963 will never be in URL percent encoded form, wether it came from an URL or
1964 not; i.e., values of
1965 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
1966 must not be URL percent encoded.
1969 For example, wether an hypothetical URL
1970 .Ql smtp://hey%3Ayou@our.house
1971 had been given that includes a user, or wether the URL was
1972 .Ql smtp://our.house
1973 and the user had been found differently, to lookup the variable chain
1974 .Va smtp-use-starttls
1975 \*(UA first looks for wether
1976 .Ql smtp-\:use-\:starttls-\:hey:you@our.house
1977 is defined, then wether
1978 .Ql smtp-\:use-\:starttls-\:our.house
1979 exists before finally ending up looking at the plain variable itself.
1982 \*(UA obeys the following logic scheme when dealing with the
1983 necessary credential informations of an account:
1989 has been given in the URL the variables
1993 are looked up; if no such variable(s) can be found then \*(UA will,
1994 when enforced by the \*(OPal variables
1995 .Va netrc-lookup-HOST
2002 specific entry which provides a
2004 name: this lookup will only succeed if unambiguous (one possible matching
2008 If there is still no
2010 then \*(UA will fall back to the user who is supposed to run \*(UA:
2011 either the name that has been given with the
2013 command line option (or, equivalently, but with less precedence, the
2014 environment variable
2019 The identity of this user has been fixated during \*(UA startup and is
2020 known to be a valid user on the current host.
2023 Authentication: unless otherwise noted this will lookup the
2024 .Va PROTOCOL-auth-USER@HOST , PROTOCOL-auth-HOST , PROTOCOL-auth
2025 variable chain, falling back to a protocol-specific default should this
2031 has been given in the URL, then if the
2033 has been found through the \*(OPal
2035 then that may have already provided the password, too.
2036 Otherwise the variable chain
2037 .Va password-USER@HOST , password-HOST , password
2038 is looked up and used if existent.
2040 \*(OP Then if any of the variables of the chain
2041 .Va agent-shell-lookup-USER@HOST , agent-shell-lookup-HOST , \
2043 is set the shell command specified therein is run and the output (less
2044 newline characters) will be used as the password.
2045 It is perfectly valid for such an agent to simply not return any data,
2046 in which case the password lookup is continued somewhere else;
2047 Any command failure is treated as a hard error, however.
2049 Afterwards the complete \*(OPal variable chain
2050 .Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , netrc-lookup-HOST , netrc-lookup
2054 cache is searched for a password only (multiple user accounts for
2055 a single machine may exist as well as a fallback entry without user
2056 but with a password).
2058 If at that point there is still no password available, but the
2059 (protocols') chosen authentication type requires a password, then in
2060 interactive mode the user will be prompted on the terminal.
2065 S/MIME verification works relative to the values found in the
2069 header field(s), which means that the values of
2070 .Va smime-sign , smime-sign-cert , smime-sign-include-certs
2072 .Va smime-sign-message-digest
2073 will not be looked up using the
2077 chains from above but instead use the corresponding values from the
2078 message that is being worked on.
2079 In unusual cases multiple and different
2083 combinations may therefore be involved \(en on the other hand those
2084 unusual cases become possible.
2085 The usual case is as short as:
2088 .Dl set smtp=smtp://USER:PASS@HOST smtp-use-starttls \e
2089 .Dl \ \ \ \ smime-sign smime-sign-cert=+smime.pair
2094 contains complete example configurations.
2097 .\" .Ss "Command line editor" {{{
2098 .Ss "Command line editor"
2100 \*(OP \*(UA can be configured to support a command line editor and
2101 command history lists which are saved in between sessions.
2102 One may link against a fully-fledged external library
2103 .Pf ( Xr readline 6 )
2104 or use \*(UA's own command line editor NCL (Nail-Command-Line)
2105 instead, which should work in all environments which comply to the
2106 ISO C standard (ISO/IEC 9899:1990/Amendment 1:1995).
2107 When an external library is used, interactive behaviour of \*(UA relies
2108 on that library and may not correspond one-to-one to what is described
2112 Regardless of the actually used command line editor
2114 entries will be created for lines entered in command mode only, and
2115 creation of such an entry can be forcefully suppressed by starting the
2116 line with a space character.
2119 handling is by itself an optional feature and may therefore not be
2121 For more information see the documentation of the variables
2125 .Va history-gabby-persist ,
2128 .Va line-editor-disable .
2129 And there is also the \*(OPal
2131 will can be set to cause overall screen resets when \*(UA releases the
2132 terminal in interactive mode.
2135 The builtin \*(UA command line editor supports the following operations;
2138 stands for the combination of the
2140 key plus the mentioned character, e.g.,
2143 .Dq hold down control key and press the A key :
2146 .Bl -tag -compact -width "Ql _M"
2148 Go to the start of the line.
2150 Move the cursor backward one character.
2152 Forward delete the character under the cursor;
2153 quits \*(UA if used on the empty line unless the
2157 Go to the end of the line.
2159 Move the cursor forward one character.
2162 Cancel current operation, full reset.
2163 If there is an active history search or tabulator expansion then this
2164 command will first reset that, reverting to the former line content;
2165 thus a second reset is needed for a full reset in this case.
2166 In all cases \*(UA will reset a possibly used multibyte character input
2172 backward delete one character.
2176 .Dq horizontal tabulator :
2177 try to expand the word before the cursor.
2179 .Dq tabulator-completion
2180 as is known from the
2182 but really means the usual \*(UA expansion, as documented for
2184 yet it involves shell expansion as a last step, too.)
2189 complete this line of input.
2191 Delete all characters from the cursor to the end of the line.
2195 \*(OP Go to the next history entry.
2200 \*(OP Go to the previous history entry.
2202 \*(OP Complete the current line from (the remaining older) history entries.
2209 Delete the characters from the one preceding the cursor to the preceding
2212 Move the cursor forward one word boundary.
2214 Move the cursor backward one word boundary.
2218 If problems with commands that are based upon rightwise movement are
2219 encountered, adjustments of the option
2220 .Va line-editor-cursor-right
2221 may solve the problem, as documented for it.
2224 If the terminal produces key sequences which are compatible with
2226 then the left and right cursor keys will map to
2230 respectively, the up and down cursor keys will map to
2234 and the Home/End/PgUp/PgDown keys will call the
2236 command with the respective arguments
2242 (i.e., perform scrolling through the header summary list).
2243 Also the up and down cursor keys should invoke
2245 for up- and downwards movement if they are used while the
2250 .\" .Ss "Coloured display" {{{
2251 .Ss "Coloured display"
2253 \*(OP \*(UA can be configured to support a coloured display and font
2255 Colour usage depends on the value of the environment variable
2257 if that is not set or set to the value
2259 then this section doesn't apply, if the value includes the string
2261 or if it can be found (case-insensitively) in the variable
2263 then \*(UA will assume a colour-enabled display, but otherwise
2264 a monochrome display is assumed.
2267 On top of what \*(UA knows about the terminal the boolean variable
2269 defines wether colour and font attribute sequences should also be
2270 generated when the output of a command needs to go through the
2275 This is not enabled by default because different pager programs need
2276 different command line switches or other configuration in order to
2277 support those colour sequences.
2278 \*(UA knows about some widely used pagers and in a clean environment
2279 it is often enough to simply set
2281 please refer to that variable for more on this topic.
2286 is set then any active usage of colour and font attribute sequences
2287 is suppressed, but without affecting possibly established
2292 To define and control colours and font attributes a single multiplexer
2293 command family exists:
2295 shows or defines colour mappings for the given colour type (e.g.,
2298 can be used to remove mappings of a given colour type.
2299 Since colours are only available in interactive mode, it may make
2300 sense to conditionalize the colour setup by encapsulating it with
2303 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2305 colour iso view-msginfo ft=bold,fg=green
2306 colour iso view-header ft=bold,fg=red "from,subject"
2307 colour iso view-header fg=red
2309 uncolour iso view-header from,subject
2310 colour iso view-header ft=bold,fg=magenta,bg=cyan
2311 colour 256 view-header ft=bold,fg=208,bg=230 subject,from
2312 colour mono view-header ft=bold
2313 colour mono view-header ft=bold,ft=reverse subject,from
2317 .\" }}} (DESCRIPTION)
2320 .\" .Sh COMMANDS {{{
2323 Each command is typed on a line by itself,
2324 and may take arguments following the command word.
2325 The command need not be typed in its entirety \(en
2326 the first command which matches the typed prefix is used.
2327 An \(en alphabetically \(en sorted list of commands can be shown
2334 when given an argument, will show a documentation string for the
2335 command matching the expanded argument, as in
2337 which should be a shorthand of
2339 documentation strings are however \*(OPal.
2342 For commands which take message lists as arguments, the next message
2343 forward that satisfies the command's requirements will be used shall no
2344 explicit message list have been specified.
2345 If there are no messages forward of the current message,
2346 the search proceeds backwards,
2347 and if there are no good messages at all,
2349 .Dq no applicable messages
2350 and aborts the command.
2351 The arguments to commands can be quoted, using the following methods:
2354 .Bl -bullet -compact -offset indent
2356 An argument can be enclosed between paired double-quotes
2361 any white space, shell word expansion, or backslash characters (except
2362 as described next) within the quotes are treated literally as part of
2364 A double-quote will be treated literally within single-quotes and vice
2366 Inside such a quoted string the actually used quote character can be
2367 used nonetheless by escaping it with a backslash
2373 An argument that is not enclosed in quotes, as above, can usually still
2374 contain space characters if those spaces are backslash-escaped, as in
2378 A backslash outside of the enclosing quotes is discarded
2379 and the following character is treated literally as part of the argument.
2382 An unquoted backslash at the end of a command line is discarded and the
2383 next line continues the command.
2387 Filenames, where expected, are subsequently subjected to the following
2388 transformations, in sequence:
2391 .Bl -bullet -compact -offset indent
2393 If the filename begins with an unquoted plus sign, and the
2395 variable is defined,
2396 the plus sign will be replaced by the value of the
2398 variable followed by a slash.
2401 variable is unset or is set to null, the filename will be unchanged.
2404 Shell word expansions are applied to the filename.
2405 .\" TODO shell word expansion shell expand fexpand FEXP_NSHELL
2406 .Sy Compatibility note:
2407 on the long run support for complete shell word expansion will be
2408 replaced by an internally implemented restricted expansion mechanism in
2409 order to circumvent possible security impacts through shell expansion.
2410 Expect that a growing number of program parts only support this
2413 Meta expansions are applied to the filename: leading tilde characters
2415 will be replaced by the expansion of
2417 and any occurrence of
2421 will be replaced by the expansion of the variable, if possible;
2422 \*(UA internal as well as environmental (shell) variables can be
2423 accessed through this mechanism.
2424 In order to include a raw
2426 character precede it with a backslash
2428 to include a backslash double it.
2429 If more than a single pathname results from this expansion and the
2430 command is expecting one file, an error results.
2432 Note that in interactive display context, in order to allow simple
2433 value acceptance (typing
2435 backslash quoting is performed automatically as necessary, e.g., a file
2436 .Ql diet\e is \ecurd.txt
2437 will be displayed as
2438 .Ql diet\e\e is \e\ecurd.txt .
2442 The following commands are available:
2444 .Bl -tag -width ".Ic _ccount"
2451 ) command which follows.
2455 The comment-command causes the entire line to be ignored.
2457 this really is a normal command which' purpose is to discard its
2460 indicating special character, which means that, e.g., trailing comments
2461 on a line are not possible.
2465 Goes to the next message in sequence and types it
2471 Display the preceding message, or the n'th previous message if given
2472 a numeric argument n.
2476 Show the current message number (the
2481 Show a brief summary of commands.
2482 \*(OP Given an argument a synopsis for the command in question is
2483 shown instead; commands can be abbreviated in general and this command
2484 can be used to see the full expansion of an abbreviation including the
2485 synopsis, try, e.g.,
2490 and see how the output changes.
2500 Interprets the remainder of the word as a macro name and passes it
2505 is a shorter synonym for
2506 .Ql call Ar mymacro .
2510 (ac) Creates, selects or lists (an) account(s).
2511 An account is a group of commands and variable settings which together
2512 usually arrange the environment for the purpose of creating a system login.
2513 Without any argument a listing of all defined accounts and their content
2515 A specific account can be activated by giving solely its name, resulting
2516 in the system mailbox or inbox of that account to be activated as via an
2517 explicit use of the command
2519 The two argument form is identical to defining a macro as via
2522 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2526 set from="myname@myisp.example (My Name)"
2527 set smtp=smtp://mylogin@smtp.myisp.example
2531 creates an account named
2533 which can later be selected by specifying
2537 (case-insensitive) always exists.
2539 are enabled by default and localize account settings \(en different to
2540 normal macros the settings will be reverted once the account is switched off.
2541 Accounts can be deleted via
2546 (a) With no arguments, shows all currently-defined aliases.
2547 With one argument, shows that alias.
2548 With more than one argument,
2549 creates a new alias or appends to an existing one.
2551 can be used to delete aliases.
2555 (alt) Manage a list of alternate addresses / names of the active user,
2556 members of which will be removed from recipient lists when replying to
2559 variable is not set).
2560 If arguments are given the set of alternate names is replaced by them,
2561 without arguments the current set is displayed.
2565 Takes a message list and marks each message as having been answered.
2566 This mark has no technical meaning in the mail system;
2567 it just causes messages to be marked in the header summary,
2568 and makes them specially addressable.
2572 Calls a macro that has been created via
2577 (ch) Change the working directory to
2579 or the given argument.
2585 \*(OP Only applicable to S/MIME signed messages.
2586 Takes a message list and a file name and saves the certificates
2587 contained within the message signatures to the named file in both
2588 human-readable and PEM format.
2589 The certificates can later be used to send encrypted messages to the
2590 respective message senders by setting
2591 .Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
2596 (ch) Change the working directory to
2598 or the given argument.
2604 Only applicable to threaded mode.
2605 Takes a message list and makes all replies to these messages invisible
2606 in header summaries, unless they are in state
2612 \*(OP Manage colour mappings for the type of colour given as the
2613 (case-insensitive) first argument, which must be one of
2615 for 256-colour terminals,
2620 for the standard 8-colour ANSI / ISO 6429 color palette and
2624 for monochrome terminals.
2625 Monochrome terminals cannot deal with colours, but only (some) font
2629 Without further arguments the list of all currently defined mappings for
2630 the given colour type is shown.
2631 Otherwise the second argument defines the mappable slot, the third
2632 argument a (comma-separated list of) colour and font attribute
2633 specification(s), and the optional fourth argument can be used to
2634 specify a precondition: if conditioned mappings exist they are tested in
2635 (creation) order unless a (case-insensitive) match has been found, and
2636 the default mapping (if any has been established) will only be chosen as
2638 The types of precondition available depend on the mappable slot, the
2639 following of which exist:
2642 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
2644 Mappings prefixed with
2646 are used in header summaries, and they all understand the preconditions
2648 (the current message) and
2650 for elder messages (only honoured in conjunction with
2651 .Va datefield-markout-older ) .
2652 This mapping is used for the
2654 that can be created with the
2658 formats of the variable
2661 For the complete header summary line except the
2663 and the thread structure.
2665 For the thread structure which can be created with the
2667 format of the variable
2671 Mappings prefixed with
2673 are used when displaying messages.
2674 This mapping is used for so-called
2676 lines, which are MBOX file format specific header lines.
2679 A comma-separated list of headers to which the mapping applies may be
2680 given as a precondition; if the \*(OPal regular expression support is
2681 available then if any of the
2683 (extended) regular expression characters is seen the precondition will
2684 be evaluated as (an extended) one.
2686 For the introductional message info line.
2687 .It Cd view-partinfo
2688 For MIME part info lines.
2692 The following (case-insensitive) colour definitions and font attributes
2693 are understood, multiple of which can be specified in a comma-separated
2703 It is possible (and often applicable) to specify multiple font
2704 attributes for a single mapping.
2707 foreground colour attribute:
2717 To specify a 256-color mode a decimal number colour specification in
2718 the range 0 to 255, inclusive, is supported, and interpreted as follows:
2720 .Bl -tag -compact -width "999 - 999"
2722 the standard ISO 6429 colors, as above.
2724 high intensity variants of the standard colors.
2726 216 colors in tuples of 6.
2728 grayscale from black to white in 24 steps.
2730 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2732 fg() { printf "\e033[38;5;${1}m($1)"; }
2733 bg() { printf "\e033[48;5;${1}m($1)"; }
2735 while [ $i -lt 256 ]; do fg $i; i=$(($i + 1)); done
2736 printf "\e033[0m\en"
2738 while [ $i -lt 256 ]; do bg $i; i=$(($i + 1)); done
2739 printf "\e033[0m\en"
2743 background colour attribute (see
2745 for possible values).
2749 Mappings may be removed with the command
2751 For a generic overview see the section
2752 .Sx "Coloured display" .
2757 (C) Copy messages to files whose names are derived from the author of
2758 the respective message and don't mark them as being saved;
2759 otherwise identical to
2764 (c) Copy messages to the named file and don't mark them as being saved;
2765 otherwise identical to
2770 With no arguments, shows all currently-defined custom headers.
2771 With one argument, shows that custom header.
2772 With more than one argument, creates a new or replaces an existing
2773 custom header with the name given as the first argument, the content of
2774 which being defined by the concatenated remaining arguments.
2776 can be used to delete custom headers.
2777 \*(ID Overwriting of automatically managed headers is neither supported
2779 Defined custom headers will be injected into newly composed or forwarded
2782 .Dl customhdr OpenPGP id=12345678; url=http://www.YYY.ZZ
2786 may also be used to inject custom headers; it is covered by
2791 Show the name of the current working directory.
2795 \*(OP For unencrypted messages this command is identical to
2797 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
2801 \*(OP For unencrypted messages this command is identical to
2803 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
2807 Without arguments the current list of macros, including their content,
2808 is shown, otherwise a macro is defined.
2809 A macro definition is a sequence of commands in the following form:
2810 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2819 A defined macro can be invoked explicitly by using the
2823 commands, or implicitly if a macro hook is triggered, e.g., a
2825 Note that interpretation of
2827 depends on how (i.e.,
2829 normal macro, folder hook, hook, account switch) the macro is invoked.
2830 Macros can be deleted via
2834 Macro behaviour, including option localization, will change in v15.
2835 Please be aware of that and possibly embed a version check in a resource
2840 (d) Marks the given message list as
2842 Deleted messages will neither be saved in
2844 nor will they be available for most other commands.
2856 Deletes the current message and displays the next message.
2857 If there is no next message, \*(UA says
2864 up or down by one message when given
2868 argument, respectively.
2872 Takes a message list and marks each given message as a draft.
2873 This mark has no technical meaning in the mail system;
2874 it just causes messages to be marked in the header summary,
2875 and makes them specially addressable.
2879 (ec) Echoes its arguments,
2880 resolving special names as documented for the command
2882 The escape sequences
2894 are interpreted just as they are by
2896 (proper quoting provided).
2900 (e) Point the text editor (as defined in
2902 at each message from the given list in turn.
2903 Modified contents are discarded unless the
2910 .Ic if Ns / Ns Ic elif Ns / Ns Ic else Ns / Ns Ic endif
2911 conditional \(em if the condition of a preceeding
2913 was false, check the following condition and execute the following block
2914 if it evaluates true.
2919 .Ic if Ns / Ns Ic elif Ns / Ns Ic else Ns / Ns Ic endif
2920 conditional \(em if none of the conditions of the preceeding
2924 commands was true, the
2930 (en) Marks the end of an
2931 .Ic if Ns / Ns Ic elif Ns / Ns Ic else Ns / Ns Ic endif
2932 conditional execution block.
2936 \*(OP Since \*(UA uses the console as a user interface it can happen
2937 that messages scroll by too fast to become recognized.
2938 Optionally an error message ring queue is available which stores
2939 duplicates of any error message and notifies the user in interactive
2940 sessions whenever a new error has occurred.
2941 The queue is finite: if its maximum size is reached any new message
2942 replaces the eldest.
2945 can be used to manage this message queue: if given
2947 or no argument the queue will be displayed and cleared,
2949 will only clear all messages from the queue.
2953 (ex or x) Exit from \*(UA without changing the active mailbox and skip
2954 any saving of messages in
2956 as well as a possibly tracked command line editor history file.
2960 Show the list of features that have been compiled into \*(UA.
2961 (Outputs the contents of the variable
2968 but open the mailbox readonly.
2972 (fi) The file command switches to a new mailbox.
2973 Without arguments it shows status information of the current mailbox.
2974 If an argument is given, it will write out changes (such as deletions)
2975 the user has made and open a new mailbox.
2976 Some special conventions are recognized for the
2980 .Bl -tag -compact -offset indent -width ".Ar %:__lespec"
2982 (number sign) means the previous file,
2984 (percent sign) means the invoking user's system mailbox,
2986 means the system mailbox of
2988 (and never the value of
2990 regardless of its actual setting),
2992 (ampersand) means the invoking user's
3002 expands to the same value as
3004 but the file is handled as a system mailbox by, e.g., the
3008 commands, meaning that messages that have been read in the current
3009 session will be moved to the
3011 mailbox instead of simply being flagged as read.
3014 If the name matches one of the strings defined with the command
3016 it is replaced by its long form and expanded.
3017 If the name ends with
3022 it is treated as being compressed with
3027 respectively, and transparently handled through an intermediate
3028 (un)compression step (using a temporary file) with the according
3029 facility, sufficient support provided.
3030 Likewise, if the named file doesn't exist, but a file with one of the
3031 mentioned compression extensions does, then the name is automatically
3032 expanded and the compressed file is used.
3034 Otherwise, if the name ends with an extension for which
3035 .Va file-hook-load-EXTENSION
3037 .Va file-hook-save-EXTENSION
3038 variables are set, then the given hooks will be used to load and save
3040 and \*(UA will work with an intermediate temporary file.
3042 MBOX files (flat file-based mailboxes) are generally locked during file
3043 operations in order to avoid inconsistencies due to concurrent
3045 \*(OPal Mailbox files which \*(UA treats as system or primary mailboxes
3046 will also be protected by so-called dotlock files, the traditional way
3047 of mail spool file locking: for any file
3051 will be created for the duration of the synchronization \(em
3052 as necessary a privilege-separated dotlock child process will be used
3053 to accommodate for necessary privilege adjustments in order to create
3054 the dotlock file in the same directory
3055 and with the same user and group identities as the file of interest.
3058 for fine-tuning the handling of MBOX files.
3062 refers to a directory with the subdirectories
3067 then it is treated as a folder in
3072 .Dl \*(IN protocol://[user[:password]@]host[:port][/path]
3073 .Dl \*(OU protocol://[user@]host[:port][/path]
3075 is taken as an Internet mailbox specification.
3076 The \*(OPally supported protocols are
3080 (POP3 with SSL/TLS encrypted transport).
3083 part is valid only for IMAP; there it defaults to
3085 Also see the section
3086 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
3090 contains special characters, in particular
3094 they must be escaped in URL notation \(en the command
3096 can be used to show the necessary conversion.
3100 Takes a message list and marks the messages as
3102 ged for urgent/special attention.
3103 This mark has no technical meaning in the mail system;
3104 it just causes messages to be highlighted in the header summary,
3105 and makes them specially addressable.
3114 With no arguments, list the names of the folders in the folder directory.
3115 With an existing folder as an argument,
3116 lists the names of folders below the named folder.
3122 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
3123 recipient's address (instead of in
3130 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
3131 recipient's address (instead of in
3138 but responds to all recipients regardless of the
3143 .It Ic followupsender
3146 but responds to the sender only regardless of the
3162 (f) Takes a list of message specifications and displays a summary of
3163 their message headers, as via
3165 An alias of this command is
3168 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
3174 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the
3175 recipient's address (instead of in
3180 Takes a message and the address of a recipient
3181 and forwards the message to him.
3182 The text of the original message is included in the new one,
3183 with the value of the
3185 variable preceding it.
3190 commands specify which header fields are included in the new message.
3191 Only the first part of a multipart message is included unless the
3192 .Va forward-as-attachment
3196 is set recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names etc.
3200 Specifies which header fields are to be ignored with the command
3202 This command has no effect when the
3203 .Va forward-as-attachment
3208 Specifies which header fields are to be retained with the command
3213 This command has no effect when the
3214 .Va forward-as-attachment
3219 Define or list command aliases, so-called ghosts.
3220 Without arguments a list of all currently known aliases is shown.
3221 With one argument the expansion of the given alias is shown.
3222 With two or more arguments a command alias is defined or updated: the
3223 first argument is the name under which the remaining command line should
3224 be accessible, the content of which can be just about anything.
3225 A ghost can be used everywhere a normal command can be used, but always
3226 takes precedence; any arguments that are given to the command alias are
3227 joined onto the alias content, and the resulting string forms the
3228 command line that is, in effect, executed.
3231 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3233 `ghost': no such alias: "xx"
3236 ghost xx "echo hello,"
3245 (h) Show the current group of headers, the size of which depends on
3248 and the style of which can be adjusted with the variable
3250 If a message-specification is given the group of headers containing the
3251 first message therein is shown and the message at the top of the screen
3266 the list of history entries;
3269 argument selects and shows the respective history entry \(en
3272 to accept it, and the history entry will become the new history top.
3273 The default mode if no arguments are given is
3280 Takes a message list and marks each message therein to be saved in the
3281 user's system mailbox instead of in
3283 Does not override the
3286 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command, because a
3288 command issued after
3290 will display the following message, not the current one.
3295 (i) Part of the nestable
3296 .Ic if Ns / Ns Ic elif Ns / Ns Ic else Ns / Ns Ic endif
3297 conditional execution construct \(em if the given condition is true then
3298 the encapsulated block is executed.
3299 POSIX only supports the (case-insensitive) conditions
3304 end, all remaining conditions are non-portable extensions; note that
3305 falsely specified conditions cause the execution of the entire
3306 conditional construct until the (matching) closing
3308 command to be suppressed.
3309 The syntax of the nestable
3311 conditional execution construct requires that each condition and syntax
3312 element is surrounded by whitespace.
3314 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3323 The (case-insensitive) condition
3325 erminal will evaluate to true if the standard input is a terminal, i.e.,
3326 in interactive sessions.
3327 Another condition can be any boolean value (see the section
3328 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
3329 for textual boolean representations) to mark an enwrapped block as
3332 .Dq always execute .
3333 It is possible to check
3334 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
3337 variables for existence or compare their expansion against a user given
3338 value or another variable by using the
3340 .Pf ( Dq variable next )
3341 conditional trigger character;
3342 a variable on the right hand side may be signalled using the same
3344 The variable names may be enclosed in a pair of matching braces.
3347 The available comparison operators are
3351 (less than or equal to),
3357 (greater than or equal to),
3361 (is substring of) and
3363 (is not substring of).
3364 The values of the left and right hand side are treated as strings and
3365 are compared 8-bit byte-wise, ignoring case according to the rules of
3366 the US-ASCII encoding (therefore, dependend on the active locale,
3367 possibly producing false results for strings in the locale encoding).
3368 Except for the substring checks the comparison will instead be performed
3369 arithmetically if both, the user given value as well as the variable
3370 content, can be parsed as numbers (integers).
3371 An unset variable is treated as the empty string.
3374 When the \*(OPal regular expression support is available, the additional
3380 They treat the right hand side as an extended regular expression that is
3381 matched case-insensitively and according to the active
3383 locale, meaning that strings in the locale encoding should be matched
3387 Conditions can be joined via AND-OR lists (where the AND operator is
3389 and the OR operator is
3391 which have equal precedence and will be evaluated with left
3392 associativity, thus using the same syntax that is known for the
3394 It is also possible to form groups of conditions and lists by enclosing
3395 them in pairs of brackets
3396 .Ql [\ \&.\&.\&.\ ] ,
3397 which may be interlocked within each other, and also be joined via
3401 The results of individual conditions and entire groups may be modified
3402 via unary operators: the unary operator
3404 will reverse the result.
3406 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3410 if $ttycharset == "UTF-8"
3411 echo *ttycharset* is set to UTF-8, case-insensitively
3415 echo These two variables are equal
3417 if $version-major >= 15
3418 echo Running a new version..
3419 if $features =@ "regex"
3420 if $TERM =~ "^xterm\&.*"
3421 echo ..in an X terminal
3424 if [ [ true ] && [ [ ${debug} ] || [ $verbose ] ] ]
3427 if true && $debug || ${verbose}
3428 echo Left associativity, as is known from the shell
3430 if ! ! true && ! [ ! $debug && ! $verbose ]
3431 echo Unary operator support
3439 Without arguments the list of ignored header fields is shown,
3440 otherwise the given list of header fields is added to the ignore list:
3441 Header fields in the ignore list are not shown on the terminal when
3442 a message is displayed.
3443 To display a message in its entirety, use the commands
3454 Shows the names of all available commands, alphabetically sorted.
3458 This command can be used to localize changes to variables, meaning that
3459 their state will be reverted to the former one once the covered scope
3461 It can only be used inside of macro definition blocks introduced by
3465 and is interpreted as a boolean (string, see
3466 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ) ;
3469 of an account is left once it is switched off again.
3470 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3471 define temporary_settings {
3486 enables change localization and calls
3488 which explicitly resets localization, then any value changes within
3490 will still be reverted by
3495 Reply to messages that come in via known
3498 .Pf ( Ic mlsubscribe )
3499 mailing lists, or pretend to do so (see
3500 .Sx "Mailing lists" ) :
3503 functionality this will actively resort and even remove message
3504 recipients in order to generate a message that is supposed to be sent to
3506 For example it will also implicitly generate a
3507 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
3508 header if that seems useful, regardless of the setting of the variable
3515 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
3516 recipient's address (instead of in
3521 (m) Takes a (list of) recipient address(es) as (an) argument(s),
3522 or asks on standard input if none were given;
3523 then collects the remaining mail content and sends it out.
3527 (mb) The given message list is to be sent to
3529 when \*(UA is quit; this is the default action unless the
3532 \*(ID This command can only be used in a system mailbox (see
3537 Without any arguments the content of the MIME type cache will displayed.
3538 Otherwise each argument defines a complete MIME type specification of
3539 a type that shall be added (prepended) to the cache.
3540 In any event MIME type sources are loaded first as necessary \(en
3541 .Va mimetypes-load-control
3542 can be used to fine-tune which sources are actually loaded.
3543 Refer to the section on
3544 .Sx "The mime.types files"
3545 for more on MIME type specifications and this topic in general.
3546 MIME type unregistration and cache resets can be triggered with
3551 Without arguments the list of all currently defined mailing lists
3552 (and their attributes, if any) is shown; a more verbose listing will be
3553 produced if either of
3558 Otherwise all given arguments (which need not be quoted except for
3559 whitespace) will be added and henceforth be recognized as mailing lists.
3560 Mailing lists may be removed via the command
3563 If the \*(OPal regular expression support is available then mailing
3564 lists may also be specified as (extended) regular expressions (see
3570 Without arguments the list of all currently defined mailing lists which
3571 have a subscription attribute is shown; a more verbose listing will be
3572 produced if either of
3577 Otherwise this attribute will be set for all given mailing lists,
3578 newly creating them as necessary (as via
3580 Subscription attributes may be removed via the command
3589 but moves the messages to a file named after the local part of the
3590 sender address of the first message (instead of in
3597 but marks the messages for deletion if they were transferred
3604 but also displays ignored header fields and all MIME parts.
3612 on the given messages, even in non-interactive mode and as long as the
3613 standard output is a terminal.
3619 \*(OP When used without arguments or if
3621 has been given the content of the
3623 cache is shown, loading it first as necessary,
3626 then the cache will only be initialized and
3628 will remove its contents.
3629 Note that \*(UA will try to load the file only once, use
3630 .Ql Ic netrc Ns \:\0\:clear
3631 to unlock further attempts.
3635 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ;
3637 .Sx "The .netrc file"
3638 documents the file format in detail.
3642 Checks for new mail in the current folder without committing any changes
3644 If new mail is present, a message is shown.
3648 the headers of each new message are also shown.
3656 Goes to the next message in sequence and types it.
3657 With an argument list, types the next matching message.
3671 If the current folder is accessed via a network connection, a
3673 command is sent, otherwise no operation is performed.
3679 but also displays ignored header fields and all MIME parts.
3687 on the given messages, even in non-interactive mode and as long as the
3688 standard output is a terminal.
3696 but also pipes ignored header fields and all parts of MIME
3697 .Ql multipart/alternative
3702 (pi) Takes a message list and a shell command
3703 and pipes the messages through the command.
3704 Without an argument the current message is piped through the command
3711 every message is followed by a formfeed character.
3732 (q) Terminates the session, saving all undeleted, unsaved messages in
3735 preserving all messages marked with
3739 or never referenced in the system mailbox,
3740 and removing all other messages from the system mailbox.
3741 If new mail has arrived during the session,
3743 .Dq You have new mail
3745 If given while editing a mailbox file with the command line flag
3747 then the edit file is rewritten.
3748 A return to the shell is effected,
3749 unless the rewrite of edit file fails,
3750 in which case the user can escape with the exit command.
3764 Removes the named folders.
3765 The user is asked for confirmation in interactive mode.
3769 Takes the name of an existing folder
3770 and the name for the new folder
3771 and renames the first to the second one.
3772 Both folders must be of the same type.
3776 (R) Reply to originator.
3777 Does not reply to other recipients of the original message.
3779 will exchange this command with
3783 is set the recipient address will be stripped from comments, names etc.
3787 (r) Take a message and group-responds to it by addressing the sender
3790 .Va followup-to-honour ,
3793 .Va recipients-in-cc
3794 influence response behaviour.
3797 offers special support for replying to mailing lists.
3800 is set recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names etc.
3813 but initiates a group-reply regardless of the value of
3820 but responds to the sender only regardless of the value of
3827 but does not add any header lines.
3828 This is not a way to hide the sender's identity,
3829 but useful for sending a message again to the same recipients.
3833 Takes a list of messages and a user name
3834 and sends each message to the named user.
3836 and related header fields are prepended to the new copy of the message.
3854 .It Ic respondsender
3860 (ret) Without arguments the list of retained header fields is shown,
3861 otherwise the given list of header fields is added to the retain list:
3862 Header fields in the retain list are shown on the terminal when
3863 a message is displayed, all other header fields are suppressed.
3864 To display a message in its entirety, use the commands
3873 takes precedence over the mentioned.
3879 but saves the messages in a file named after the local part of the
3880 sender of the first message instead of (in
3882 and) taking a filename argument.
3886 (s) Takes a message list and a filename and appends each message in turn
3887 to the end of the file.
3888 If no filename is given, the
3891 The filename in quotes, followed by the generated character count
3892 is echoed on the user's terminal.
3893 If editing a system mailbox the messages are marked for deletion.
3894 Filename interpretation as described for the
3896 command is performed.
3913 Header fields thus marked are filtered out when saving a message by
3915 or when automatically saving to
3917 This command should only be applied to header fields that do not contain
3918 information needed to decode the message,
3919 as MIME content fields do.
3931 Header fields thus marked are the only ones saved with a message when
3934 or when automatically saving to
3939 The use of this command is strongly discouraged since it may strip
3940 header fields that are needed to decode the message correctly.
3944 Takes a message specification (list) and displays a header summary of
3945 all matching messages, as via
3947 This command is an alias of
3950 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
3954 Takes a message list and marks all messages as having been read.
3958 (se) Without arguments this command shows all variables and their
3959 values which are currently known to \*(UA.
3960 Setting any of the variables
3964 changes the output format to BSD style, otherwise a properly quoted
3965 listing is produced.
3970 has been set twice then the listing is modified to mark out assembled
3973 Otherwise modifies (set and unsets) the given variables.
3974 Arguments are of the form
3976 (no space before or after
3980 if there is no value.
3981 Quotation marks may be placed around any part of the assignment
3982 statement to quote blanks or tabs, e.g.,
3984 .Dl set indentprefix="->"
3986 If an argument begins with
3990 the effect is the same as invoking the
3992 command with the remaining part of the variable
3993 .Pf ( Ql unset save ) .
3999 except that the variables are also exported into the program environment;
4000 since this task requires native host support the command will always
4001 report error if that is not available (but still act like
4004 This operation is a no-op unless all resource files have been loaded.
4010 (sh) Invokes an interactive version of the shell.
4014 Without arguments the list of all currently defined shortcuts is
4016 Otherwise all given arguments (which need not be quoted except for
4017 whitespace) are treated as pairs of shortcuts and their expansions,
4018 creating new or changing already existing shortcuts, as necessary.
4019 Shortcuts may be removed via the command
4021 The expansion strings should be in the syntax that has been described
4030 but performs neither MIME decoding nor decryption, so that the raw
4031 message text is shown.
4035 (si) Shows the size in characters of each message of the given
4040 Shows the current sorting criterion when used without an argument.
4041 Otherwise creates a sorted representation of the current folder,
4044 command and the addressing modes such that they refer to messages in
4046 Message numbers are the same as in regular mode.
4050 a header summary in the new order is also displayed.
4051 Automatic folder sorting can be enabled by setting the
4053 variable, as in, e.g.,
4054 .Ql set autosort=thread .
4055 Possible sorting criterions are:
4057 .Bl -tag -compact -offset indent -width "subject"
4059 Sort the messages by their
4061 field, that is by the time they were sent.
4063 Sort messages by the value of their
4065 field, that is by the address of the sender.
4068 variable is set, the sender's real name (if any) is used.
4070 Sort the messages by their size.
4072 \*(OP Sort the message by their spam score, as has been classified by
4075 Sort the messages by their message status.
4077 Sort the messages by their subject.
4079 Create a threaded display.
4081 Sort messages by the value of their
4083 field, that is by the address of the recipient.
4086 variable is set, the recipient's real name (if any) is used.
4091 (so) The source command reads commands from the given file, which is
4092 subject to the usual filename expansions (see introductional words of
4094 If the given argument ends with a vertical bar
4096 then the argument will instead be interpreted as a shell command and
4097 \*(UA will read the output generated by it.
4103 (beside not supporting pipe syntax a.k.a. shell command input) is that
4104 this command will not generate an error if the given file argument
4105 cannot be opened successfully.
4106 This can matter in, e.g., resource files, since loading of those is
4107 stopped when an error is encountered.
4111 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and clears their
4117 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and causes the
4119 to forget it has ever used them to train its Bayesian filter.
4120 Unless otherwise noted the
4122 flag of the message is inspected to chose wether a message shall be
4130 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and informs the Bayesian filter of the
4134 This also clears the
4136 flag of the messages in question.
4140 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and rates them using the configured
4141 .Va spam-interface ,
4142 without modifying the messages, but setting their
4144 flag as appropriate; because the spam rating headers are lost the rate
4145 will be forgotten once the mailbox is left.
4146 Refer to the manual section
4148 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
4152 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and sets their
4158 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and informs the Bayesian filter of the
4164 flag of the messages in question.
4173 Create a threaded representation of the current folder,
4174 i.\|e. indent messages that are replies to other messages in the header
4175 display and change the
4177 command and the addressing modes such that they refer to messages in the
4179 Message numbers are the same as in unthreaded mode.
4183 a header summary in threaded order is also displayed.
4187 (to) Takes a message list and displays the top few lines of each.
4188 The number of lines shown is controlled by the variable
4190 and defaults to five.
4194 (tou) Takes a message list and marks the messages for saving in
4196 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command,
4199 command will display the following message instead of the current one.
4205 but also displays out ignored header fields and all parts of MIME
4206 .Ql multipart/alternative
4211 (t) Takes a message list and types out each message on the user's
4217 For MIME multipart messages, all parts with a content type of
4221 are shown, the other are hidden except for their headers.
4222 Messages are decrypted and converted to the terminal character set
4227 Delete all given accounts.
4228 An error message is shown if a given account is not defined.
4231 will discard all existing accounts.
4235 (una) Takes a list of names defined by alias commands
4236 and discards the remembered groups of users.
4239 will discard all existing aliases.
4243 Takes a message list and marks each message as not having been answered.
4247 Only applicable to threaded mode.
4248 Takes a message list and makes the message and all replies to it visible
4249 in header summaries again.
4250 When a message becomes the current message,
4251 it is automatically made visible.
4252 Also when a message with collapsed replies is displayed,
4253 all of these are automatically uncollapsed.
4259 mapping for the given colour type (see
4261 for a list of types) and mapping; if the optional precondition argument
4262 is used then only the exact tuple of mapping and precondition is removed.
4265 will remove all mappings (no precondition allowed).
4267 .Sx "Coloured display"
4268 for the general picture.
4272 Deletes the custom headers given as arguments.
4275 will remove all custom headers.
4279 Undefine all given macros.
4280 An error message is shown if a given macro is not defined.
4283 will discard all existing macros.
4287 (u) Takes a message list and marks each message as not being deleted.
4291 Takes a message list and
4297 Takes a message list and marks each message as not being
4302 Removes the header field names from the list of ignored fields for the
4307 will remove all fields.
4311 Removes the header field names from the list of retained fields for the
4316 will remove all fields.
4320 Remove all the given command
4324 will remove all ghosts.
4328 Removes the header field names from the list of ignored fields.
4331 will remove all fields.
4335 Delete all given MIME types, e.g.,
4336 .Ql unmimetype text/plain
4337 will remove all registered specifications for the MIME type
4341 will discard all existing MIME types, just as will
4343 but which also reenables cache initialization via
4344 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
4348 Forget about all the given mailing lists.
4351 will remove all lists.
4356 .It Ic unmlsubscribe
4357 Remove the subscription attribute from all given mailing lists.
4360 will clear the attribute from all lists which have it set.
4371 Takes a message list and marks each message as not having been read.
4375 Removes the header field names from the list of retained fields.
4378 will remove all fields.
4382 Removes the header field names from the list of ignored fields for
4386 will remove all fields.
4390 Removes the header field names from the list of retained fields for
4394 will remove all fields.
4398 (uns) Takes a list of option names and discards their remembered values;
4406 except that the variables are also removed from the program environment;
4407 since this task requires native host support the command will always
4408 report error if that is not available (but still act like
4411 This operation is a no-op unless all resource files have been loaded.
4417 Deletes the shortcut names given as arguments.
4420 will remove all shortcuts.
4424 Disable sorted or threaded mode
4430 return to normal message order and,
4434 displays a header summary.
4444 Decode the given URL-encoded string arguments and show the results.
4445 Note the resulting strings may not be valid in the current locale, see
4450 URL-encode the given arguments and show the results.
4451 Because the arguments effectively are in the character set of the
4452 current locale the results will vary accordingly unless the input solely
4453 consists of characters in the portable character set, see
4454 .Sx "Character sets" .
4458 Edit the values of or create the given variable(s) in the
4460 Boolean variables cannot be edited.
4464 Show informations about all the given variables.
4465 \*(UA knows about a finite set of known builtin variables that are
4466 subdivided further in boolean and value variants;
4467 they may have special properties, like
4469 (setting may not be changed) and
4471 meaning that the value is generated on-the-fly as necessary.
4472 Beside those known variables an infinite number of unknown, so-called
4474 variables, which are expected to be able to store values, may exist.
4475 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4477 ? varshow sendwait version-major foo bar
4478 "sendwait": (73) boolean: set=1 (ENVIRON=0)
4479 "version-major": (192) value, read-only, virtual:\e
4480 set=1 (ENVIRON=0) value<14>
4481 "foo": (assembled) set=1 (ENVIRON=0) value<bar>
4482 "bar": (assembled) set=0 (ENVIRON=0) value<NULL>
4487 \*(OP Takes a message list and verifies each message.
4488 If a message is not a S/MIME signed message,
4489 verification will fail for it.
4490 The verification process checks if the message was signed using a valid
4492 if the message sender's email address matches one of those contained
4493 within the certificate,
4494 and if the message content has been altered.
4498 (v) Takes a message list and invokes the display editor on each message.
4499 Modified contents are discarded unless the
4505 (w) For conventional messages the body without all headers is written.
4506 The output is decrypted and converted to its native format as necessary.
4507 If the output file exists, the text is appended.
4508 If a message is in MIME multipart format its first part is written to
4509 the specified file as for conventional messages,
4510 and the user is asked for a filename to save each other part.
4511 For convience saving of each part may be skipped by giving an empty value;
4512 the same result can also be achieved by writing it to
4514 For the second and subsequent parts a leading
4516 character causes the part to be piped to the remainder of the user input
4517 interpreted as a shell command;
4518 otherwise the user input is expanded as usually for folders,
4519 e.g., tilde expansion is performed.
4520 In non-interactive mode, only the parts of the multipart message
4521 that have a filename given in the part header are written,
4522 the others are discarded.
4523 The original message is never marked for deletion in the originating
4526 the contents of the destination file are overwritten if the file
4528 No special handling of compressed files is performed.
4537 \*(UA presents message headers in windowfuls as described under the
4540 This command scrolls to the next window of messages.
4541 If an argument is given,
4542 it specifies the window to use.
4543 A number prefixed by
4547 indicates that the window is calculated in relation to the current position.
4548 A number without a prefix specifies an absolute window number,
4551 lets \*(UA scroll to the last window of messages.
4557 but scrolls to the next or previous window that contains at least one
4566 .\" .Sh TILDE ESCAPES {{{
4569 Here is a summary of the tilde escapes,
4570 which are used to perform special functions when composing messages.
4571 Tilde escapes are only recognized at the beginning of lines.
4574 is somewhat of a misnomer since the actual escape character can be
4575 changed by adjusting the option
4578 .Bl -tag -width ".Ic __ filename"
4581 Insert the string of text in the message prefaced by a single
4583 (If the escape character has been changed,
4584 that character must be doubled
4585 in order to send it at the beginning of a line.)
4588 .It Ic ~! Ar command
4589 Execute the indicated shell
4591 then return to the message.
4595 Same effect as typing the end-of-file character.
4598 .It Ic ~: Ar \*(UA-command Ns \0or Ic ~_ Ar \*(UA-command
4599 Execute the given \*(UA command.
4600 Not all commands, however, are allowed.
4604 Write a summary of command escapes.
4607 .It Ic ~< Ar filename
4612 .It Ic ~<! Ar command
4614 is executed using the shell.
4615 Its standard output is inserted into the message.
4618 .It Ic ~@ Op Ar filename...
4619 With no arguments, edit the attachment list interactively.
4620 If an attachment's file name is left empty,
4621 that attachment is deleted from the list.
4622 When the end of the attachment list is reached,
4623 \*(UA will ask for further attachments until an empty name is given.
4624 If a given file name solely consists of the number sign
4626 followed by a valid message number of the currently active mailbox, then
4627 the given message is attached as a MIME
4629 and the rest of this section does not apply.
4631 If character set conversion has been compiled into \*(UA, then this mode
4632 gives the user the option to specify input and output character sets,
4633 unless the file extension indicates binary content, in which case \*(UA
4634 asks wether this step shall be skipped for the attachment in question.
4635 If not skipped, then the charset that succeeds to represent the
4636 attachment data will be used in the
4638 MIME parameter of the mail message:
4640 .Bl -bullet -compact
4642 If input and output character sets are specified, then the conversion is
4643 performed on the fly.
4644 The user will be asked repeatedly until the desired conversion succeeds.
4646 If only an output character set is specified, then the input is assumed
4649 charset and will be converted to the given output charset on the fly.
4650 The user will be asked repeatedly until the desired conversion succeeds.
4652 If no character sets are specified at all then the algorithm that is
4653 documented in the section
4654 .Sx "Character sets"
4655 is applied, but directly and on the fly.
4656 The user will be asked repeatedly until the desired conversion succeeds.
4658 Finally, if an input-, but no output character set is specified, then no
4659 conversion is ever performed, but the
4661 MIME parameter value will still be set to the user input.
4663 The character set selection loop can be left by typing
4665 i.e., causing an interrupt.
4666 .\" \*(OU next sentence
4667 Note that before \*(UA version 15.0 this terminates the entire
4668 current attachment selection, not only the character set selection.
4671 Without character set conversion support, \*(UA will ask for the input
4672 character set only, and it'll set the
4674 MIME parameter value to the given input, if any;
4675 if no user input is seen then the
4677 character set will be used for the parameter value instead.
4678 Note that the file extension check isn't performed in this mode, since
4679 no conversion will take place anyway.
4681 Note that in non-interactive mode, for reproduceabilities sake, there
4682 will always be two questions for each attachment, regardless of wether
4683 character set conversion is available and what the file extension is.
4684 The first asks for the filename, and the second asks for the input
4685 character set to be passed through to the corresponding MIME parameter;
4686 no conversion will be tried if there is input to the latter question,
4687 otherwise the usual conversion algorithm, as above, is applied.
4688 For message attachments, the answer to the second question is completely
4693 arguments are specified for the
4695 command they are treated as a comma-separated list of files,
4696 which are all expanded and appended to the end of the attachment list.
4697 (Commas need to be escaped with backslash, but filenames with leading or
4698 trailing whitespace can only be added via the command line or the first
4700 Message attachments can only be added via the first method;
4701 filenames which clash with message numbers can only be added via the
4702 command line or the second method.)
4703 In this mode the (text) attachments are assumed to be in
4705 encoding, and will be evaluated as documented in the section
4706 .Sx "Character sets" .
4710 Inserts the string contained in the
4713 .Ql Ic ~i Ns \0Sign ) .
4714 The escape sequences tabulator
4722 Inserts the string contained in the
4725 .Ql Ic ~i Ns \0sign ) .
4726 The escape sequences tabulator
4733 .It Ic ~b Ar name ...
4734 Add the given names to the list of blind carbon copy recipients.
4737 .It Ic ~c Ar name ...
4738 Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients.
4742 Read the file specified by the
4744 variable into the message.
4748 Invoke the text editor on the message collected so far.
4749 After the editing session is finished,
4750 the user may continue appending text to the message.
4753 .It Ic ~F Ar messages
4754 Read the named messages into the message being sent, including all
4755 message headers and MIME parts.
4756 If no messages are specified, read in the current message.
4759 .It Ic ~f Ar messages
4760 Read the named messages into the message being sent.
4761 If no messages are specified, read in the current message.
4765 lists are used to modify the message headers.
4766 For MIME multipart messages,
4767 only the first displayable part is included.
4771 Edit the message header fields
4776 by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
4777 The default values for these fields originate from the
4785 Edit the message header fields
4791 by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
4794 .It Ic ~i Ar variable
4795 Insert the value of the specified variable into the message,
4796 adding a newline character at the end.
4797 The message remains unaltered if the variable is unset or empty.
4798 The escape sequences tabulator
4805 .It Ic ~M Ar messages
4806 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
4809 If no messages are specified, read the current message.
4812 .It Ic ~m Ar messages
4813 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
4816 If no messages are specified, read the current message.
4820 lists are used to modify the message headers.
4821 For MIME multipart messages,
4822 only the first displayable part is included.
4826 Display the message collected so far,
4827 prefaced by the message header fields
4828 and followed by the attachment list, if any.
4832 Abort the message being sent,
4833 copying it to the file specified by the
4840 .It Ic ~R Ar filename
4841 Read the named file into the message, indented by
4845 .It Ic ~r Ar filename
4846 Read the named file into the message.
4850 Cause the named string to become the current subject field.
4853 .It Ic ~t Ar name ...
4854 Add the given name(s) to the direct recipient list.
4857 .It Ic ~U Ar messages
4858 Read in the given / current message(s) excluding all headers, indented by
4862 .It Ic ~u Ar messages
4863 Read in the given / current message(s), excluding all headers.
4867 Invoke an alternate editor (defined by the
4869 option) on the message collected so far.
4870 Usually, the alternate editor will be a screen editor.
4871 After the editor is quit,
4872 the user may resume appending text to the end of the message.
4875 .It Ic ~w Ar filename
4876 Write the message onto the named file.
4878 the message is appended to it.
4884 except that the message is not saved at all.
4887 .It Ic ~| Ar command
4888 Pipe the message through the specified filter command.
4889 If the command gives no output or terminates abnormally,
4890 retain the original text of the message.
4893 is often used as a rejustifying filter.
4898 .\" .Sh INTERNAL VARIABLES {{{
4899 .Sh "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
4901 Internal \*(UA variables are controlled via the
4905 commands; prefixing a variable name with the string
4909 has the same effect as using
4915 Creation or editing of variables can be performed in the
4920 will give more insight on the given variable(s), and
4922 when called without arguments, will show a listing of all variables.
4923 Variables are also implicitly inherited from the program
4925 and can be set explicitly via the command line option
4929 Two different kind of variables exist.
4930 There are boolean variables, which can only be in one of the two states
4934 and value variables with a(n optional) string value.
4935 For the latter proper quoting is necessary upon assignment time:
4936 To embed whitespace (space and tabulator) in a value it either needs to
4937 be escaped with a backslash character, or the entire value must be
4938 enclosed in (double or single) quotation marks;
4939 To use quotation marks identical to those used to enclose the value,
4940 escape them with a backslash character.
4941 The backslash character has no special meaning except in these cases.
4943 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4944 set one=val\e 1 two="val 2" \e
4945 three='val "3"' four='val \e'4\e''
4946 varshow one two three four
4947 unset one two three four
4951 Dependent upon the actual option the string values will be interpreted
4952 as numbers, colour names, normal text etc., but there also exists
4953 a special kind of string value, the
4954 .Dq boolean string ,
4955 which must either be a decimal integer (in which case
4959 and any other value is true) or any of the (case-insensitive) strings
4964 for a false boolean and
4969 for a true boolean; a special kind of boolean string is the
4971 which is a boolean string that can optionally be prefixed with the
4972 (case-insensitive) term
4976 which causes prompting of the user in interactive mode, with the given
4977 boolean as the default value.
4979 .\" .Ss "Initial settings" {{{
4980 .\" (Keep in SYNC: ./main.c:_startup(), ./nail.rc, ./nail.1:"Initial settings"!)
4981 .Ss "Initial Settings"
4983 The standard POSIX 2008/Cor 1-2013 mandates the following initial
4989 .Pf no Va autoprint ,
5003 .Pf no Va ignoreeof ,
5005 .Pf no Va keepsave ,
5007 .Pf no Va outfolder ,
5012 (note that \*(UA deviates from the standard by using
5016 special prompt escape results in
5024 .Pf no Va sendwait ,
5033 Notes: \*(UA doesn't support the
5035 variable \(en use command line options or
5036 .Va sendmail-arguments
5037 to pass options through to a MTA.
5038 And the default global
5040 file (which is loaded unless the
5042 command line flag has been used or the
5043 .Ev NAIL_NO_SYSTEM_RC
5044 environment variable is set) bends those initial settings a bit, e.g.,
5045 it sets the variables
5050 to name a few, calls
5052 etc., and should thus be taken into account.
5055 .\" .Ss "Variables" {{{
5058 .Bl -tag -width ".It Va _utoprin_"
5060 .It Va add-file-recipients
5061 \*(BO When file or pipe recipients have been specified,
5062 mention them in the corresponding address fields of the message instead
5063 of silently stripping them from their recipient list.
5064 By default such addressees are not mentioned.
5066 .Mx Va agent-shell-lookup
5067 .It Va agent-shell-lookup-USER@HOST , agent-shell-lookup-HOST , \
5069 \*(IN\*(OP Account passwords can be fetched via an external agent
5070 program in order to permit encrypted password storage \(en see
5071 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
5072 for more on credential lookup.
5073 If this is set then the content is interpreted as a shell command the
5074 output of which (with newline characters removed) is treated as the
5075 account password shall the command succeed (and have produced non-empty
5076 non-newline output); e.g., via
5078 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5079 $ echo PASSWORD > .pass
5081 $ eval `gpg-agent --daemon \e
5082 --pinentry-program=/usr/bin/pinentry-curses \e
5083 --max-cache-ttl 99999 --default-cache-ttl 99999`
5084 $ echo 'set agent-shell-lookup="gpg -d .pass.gpg"' \e
5088 A couple of environment variables will be set for the agent:
5090 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ev _AIL_TMPDIR[337]"
5092 The temporary directory that \*(UA uses.
5093 Usually identical to
5095 but guaranteed to be set and usable by child processes;
5096 to ensure the latter condition for
5102 for which the password is looked up.
5103 .It Ev NAIL_USER_ENC
5104 The URL percent-encoded variant of
5107 The plain machine hostname of the user account.
5108 .It Ev NAIL_HOST_PORT
5111 (hostname possibly including port) of the user account.
5116 \*(BO Causes only the local part to be evaluated
5117 when comparing addresses.
5121 \*(BO Causes messages saved in
5123 to be appended to the end rather than prepended.
5124 This should always be set.
5128 \*(BO Causes \*(UA to prompt for the subject of each message sent.
5129 If the user responds with simply a newline,
5130 no subject field will be sent.
5134 \*(BO Causes the prompts for
5138 lists to appear after the message has been edited.
5142 \*(BO If set, \*(UA asks for files to attach at the end of each message,
5143 shall the list be found empty at that time.
5144 An empty line finalizes the list.
5148 \*(BO Causes the user to be prompted for carbon copy recipients
5149 (at the end of each message if
5153 are set) shall the list be found empty (at that time).
5154 An empty line finalizes the list.
5158 \*(BO Causes the user to be prompted for blind carbon copy
5159 recipients (at the end of each message if
5163 are set) shall the list be found empty (at that time).
5164 An empty line finalizes the list.
5168 \*(BO\*(OP Causes the user to be prompted if the message is to be
5169 signed at the end of each message.
5172 variable is ignored when this variable is set.
5176 \*(BO Alternative name for
5183 .It Va attachment-ask-content-description , \
5184 attachment-ask-content-disposition , \
5185 attachment-ask-content-id , \
5186 attachment-ask-content-type
5187 \*(BO If set then the user will be prompted for some attachment
5188 information when editing the attachment list.
5189 It is advisable to not use these but for the first of the variables;
5190 even for that it has to be noted that the data is used
5196 A sequence of characters to display in the
5200 as shown in the display of
5202 each for one type of messages (see
5203 .Sx "Message states" ) ,
5204 with the default being
5207 .Ql NU\ \ *HMFAT+\-$~
5210 variable is set, in the following order:
5212 .Bl -tag -compact -offset indent -width ".It Ql _"
5234 start of a collapsed thread.
5236 an uncollapsed thread (TODO ignored for now).
5240 classified as possible spam.
5246 Specifies a list of recipients to which a blind carbon copy of each
5247 outgoing message will be sent automatically.
5251 Specifies a list of recipients to which a carbon copy of each outgoing
5252 message will be sent automatically.
5256 \*(BO Causes threads to be collapsed automatically when threaded mode
5263 \*(BO Causes the delete command to behave like
5265 thus, after deleting a message the next one will be typed automatically.
5269 \*(BO\*(OB Causes threaded mode (see the
5271 command) to be entered automatically when a folder is opened.
5273 .Ql autosort=thread .
5277 Causes sorted mode (see the
5279 command) to be entered automatically with the value of this option as
5280 sorting method when a folder is opened, e.g.,
5281 .Ql set autosort=thread .
5285 \*(BO Enables the substitution of
5287 by the contents of the last command line in shell escapes.
5290 .It Va batch-exit-on-error
5291 \*(BO If the batch mode has been enabled via the
5293 command line option, then this variable will be consulted whenever \*(UA
5294 completes one operation (returns to the command prompt); if it is set
5295 then \*(UA will terminate if the last operation generated an error.
5299 \*(BO Causes automatic display of a header summary after executing a
5305 \*(BO Sets some cosmetical features to traditional BSD style;
5306 has the same affect as setting
5308 and all other variables prefixed with
5310 it also changes the meaning of the \*(UA specific
5313 escape sequence and changes behaviour of
5315 (which doesn't exist in BSD).
5319 \*(BO Changes the letters shown in the first column of a header
5320 summary to traditional BSD style.
5324 \*(BO Changes the display of columns in a header summary to traditional
5329 \*(BO Changes some informational messages to traditional BSD style.
5335 field to appear immediately after the
5337 field in message headers and with the
5339 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
5343 \*(BO Changes the output format of the
5345 command to traditional BSD style.
5349 The value that should appear in the
5353 MIME header fields when no character set conversion of the message data
5355 This defaults to US-ASCII, and the chosen character set should be
5356 US-ASCII compatible.
5360 \*(OP The default 8-bit character set that is used as an implicit last
5361 member of the variable
5363 This defaults to UTF-8.
5364 If no character set conversion capabilities are available in \*(UA then
5365 the only supported character set is
5367 Refer to the section
5368 .Sx "Character sets"
5369 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
5372 .It Va charset-unknown-8bit
5373 \*(OP RFC 1428 specifies conditions when internet mail gateways shall
5375 the content of a mail message by using a character set with the name
5377 Because of the unclassified nature of this character set \*(UA will not
5378 be capable to convert this character set to any other character set.
5379 If this variable is set any message part which uses the character set
5381 is assumed to really be in the character set given in the value,
5382 otherwise the (final) value of
5384 is used for this purpose.
5386 This variable will also be taken into account if a MIME type (see
5387 .Sx "The mime.types files" )
5388 of a MIME message part that uses the
5390 character set is forcefully treated as text.
5394 The default value for the
5399 .It Va colour-disable
5400 \*(BO\*(OP Forcefully disable usage of colours.
5401 Also see the section
5402 .Sx "Coloured display" .
5406 \*(BO\*(OP Wether colour shall be used for output that is paged through
5408 Note that pagers may need special flags, e.g.,
5416 in order to support colours; therefore \*(UA will inspect the variable
5418 \(en if that starts with the string
5420 a non-existing environment variable
5427 will optionally be set to
5429 Also see the section
5430 .Sx "Coloured display"
5435 \*(OP A comma-separated list of
5437 inals for which coloured display can be used.
5438 Entries only need to be added if the string
5440 isn't part of the terminal name itself; the default value is
5442 .\" (Keep in SYNC: ./nail.h:n_COLOUR_TERMS, ./nail.1:*colour-terms*"!)
5443 .Dl aterm,cons25,gnome,konsole,\:kterm,\:linux,\:\
5444 rxvt,\:rxvt-unicode,\:screen,\:sun,\:vt100,\:vt220,\:wsvt25,\:xterm
5448 In a(n interactive) terminal session, then if this valued option is set
5449 it'll be used as a threshold to determine how many lines the given
5450 output has to span before it will be displayed via the configured
5454 can be forced by setting this to the value
5456 setting it without a value will deduce the current height of the
5457 terminal screen to compute the treshold (see
5465 \*(OB A variable counterpart of the
5467 command (see there for documentation), interpreted as a comma-separated
5468 list of custom headers to be injected, to include commas in the header
5469 bodies escape them with backslash, e.g.:
5471 .Dl set customhdr="Hdr1: Body1-1\e, Body1-2, Hdr2: Body2"
5477 the message date, if any is to be displayed according to the format of
5479 is by default taken from the
5481 line of the message.
5482 If this variable is set the date as given in the
5484 header field is used instead, converted to local time.
5485 To control the display format of the date assign a valid
5490 format should not be used, because \*(UA doesn't take embedded newlines
5491 into account when calculating how many lines fit onto the screen.)
5493 .Va datefield-markout-older .
5496 .It Va datefield-markout-older
5497 This option, when set in addition to
5501 messages (concept is rather comparable to the
5503 option of the POSIX utility
5505 The content interpretation is identical to
5510 \*(BO Enables debug messages and obsoletion warnings, disables the
5511 actual delivery of messages and also implies
5517 .It Va disposition-notification-send
5519 .Ql Disposition-Notification-To:
5520 header (RFC 3798) with the message.
5524 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-HOST
5526 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
5527 .\" for SMTP accounts on a specific host.
5528 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-USER@HOST
5530 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
5531 .\"for a specific account.
5535 \*(BO When dot is set, a period
5537 on a line by itself during message input in (interactive) compose mode
5538 will be treated as end-of-message (in addition to the normal end-of-file
5547 .It Va dotlock-ignore-error
5548 \*(BO\*(OP Synchronization of mailboxes which \*(UA treats as system
5549 mailboxes (see the command
5551 will be protected with so-called dotlock files\(emthe traditional mail
5552 spool file locking method\(emin addition to system file locking.
5553 Because \*(UA ships with a privilege-separated dotlock creation program
5554 that should always be able to create such a dotlock file there is no
5555 good reason to ignore dotlock file creation errors, and thus these are
5556 fatal unless this variable is set.
5560 \*(BO If this variable is set then the editor is started automatically
5561 when a message is composed in interactive mode, as if the
5567 variable is implied for this automatically spawned editor session.
5571 \*(BO When a message is edited while being composed,
5572 its header is included in the editable text.
5582 fields are accepted within the header, other fields are ignored.
5586 \*(BO When entering interactive mode \*(UA normally writes
5587 .Dq \&No mail for user
5588 and exits immediately if a mailbox is empty or doesn't exist.
5589 If this option is set \*(UA starts even with an empty or nonexistent
5590 mailbox (the latter behaviour furtherly depends upon
5596 Suggestion for the MIME encoding to use in outgoing text messages
5598 Valid values are the default
5599 .Ql quoted-printable ,
5604 may cause problems when transferring mail messages over channels that
5605 are not ESMTP (RFC 1869) compliant.
5606 If there is no need to encode a message,
5608 transfer mode is always used regardless of this variable.
5609 Binary data is always encoded as
5614 If defined, the first character of this option
5615 gives the character to use in place of
5618 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
5622 If not set then file and command pipeline targets are not allowed,
5623 and any such address will be filtered out, giving a warning message.
5624 If set without a value then all possible recipient address
5625 specifications will be accepted \(en see the section
5626 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode"
5628 To accept them, but only in interactive mode, or when tilde commands
5629 were enabled explicitly by using one of the command line options
5633 set this to the (case-insensitive) value
5635 (note right now this is actually like setting
5636 .Ql restrict,-all,+name,+addr ) .
5638 In fact the value is interpreted as a comma-separated list of values.
5641 then the existence of disallowed specifications is treated as a hard
5642 send error instead of only filtering them out.
5643 The remaining values specify wether a specific type of recipient
5644 address specification is allowed (optionally indicated by a plus sign
5646 prefix) or disallowed (prefixed with a hyphen
5650 addresses all possible address specifications,
5654 command pipeline targets,
5656 plain user names and (MTA) aliases (\*(OB
5658 may be used as an alternative syntax to
5663 These kind of values are interpreted in the given order, so that
5664 .Ql restrict,\:fail,\:+file,\:-all,\:+addr
5665 will cause hard errors for any non-network address recipient address
5666 unless \*(UA is in interactive mode or has been started with the
5670 command line option; in the latter case(s) any address may be used, then.
5674 Unless this variable is set additional mail-transfer-agent (MTA)
5675 arguments from the command line, as can be given after a
5677 separator, are ignored due to safety reasons.
5678 However, if set to the special (case-insensitive) value
5680 then the presence of additional MTA arguments is treated as a hard
5681 error that causes \*(UA to exit with failure status.
5682 A lesser strict variant is the otherwise identical
5684 which does accept such arguments in interactive mode, or if tilde
5685 commands were enabled explicitly by using one of the command line options
5692 \*(RO Information on the features compiled into \*(UA \(en the content
5693 of this variable is identical to the output of the command
5698 \*(BO This option reverses the meanings of a set of reply commands,
5699 turning the lowercase variants, which by default address all recipients
5700 included in the header of a message
5701 .Pf ( Ic reply , respond , followup )
5702 into the uppercase variants, which by default address the sender only
5703 .Pf ( Ic Reply , Respond , Followup )
5706 .Ic replysender , respondsender , followupsender
5708 .Ic replyall , respondall , followupall
5709 are not affected by the current setting of
5714 .It Va file-hook-load-EXTENSION , file-hook-save-EXTENSION
5715 It is possible to install file hooks which will be used by the
5717 command in order to be able to transparently handle (through an
5718 intermediate temporary file) files with specific
5720 s: the variable values can include shell snippets and are expected to
5721 write data to standard output / read data from standard input,
5723 \*(ID The variables may not be changed while there is a mailbox
5725 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5726 set file-hook-load-xy='echo >&2 XY-LOAD; gzip -cd' \e
5727 file-hook-save-xy='echo >&2 XY-SAVE; gzip -c' \e
5728 record=+null-sent.xy
5733 The name of the directory to use for storing folders of messages.
5734 All folder names that begin with
5736 refer to files below it.
5737 The same special conventions as documented for the
5739 command may be used when specifying a new value for
5741 but be aware that the expansion is fully performed immediately.
5745 This variable can be set to the name of a
5747 macro which will be called whenever a
5750 The macro will also be invoked when new mail arrives,
5751 but message lists for commands executed from the macro
5752 only include newly arrived messages then.
5754 are activated by default in a folder hook, causing the covered settings
5755 to be reverted once the folder is left again.
5758 Macro behaviour, including option localization, will change in v15.
5759 Please be aware of that and possibly embed a version check in a resource
5763 .It Va folder-hook-FOLDER
5768 Unlike other folder specifications, the fully expanded name of a folder,
5769 without metacharacters, is used to avoid ambiguities.
5770 However, if the mailbox resides under
5774 specification is tried in addition, e.g., if
5778 (and thus relative to the user's home directory) then
5779 .Pa /home/usr1/mail/sent
5781 .Ql folder-hook-/home/usr1/mail/sent
5782 first, but then followed by
5783 .Ql folder-hook-+sent .
5787 \*(BO Controls wether a
5788 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
5789 header is generated when sending messages to known mailing lists.
5791 .Va followup-to-honour
5793 .Ic mlist , mlsubscribe , reply
5798 .It Va followup-to-honour
5800 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
5801 header is honoured when group-replying to a message via
5805 This is a quadoption; if set without a value it defaults to
5815 .It Va forward-as-attachment
5816 \*(BO Original messages are normally sent as inline text with the
5819 and only the first part of a multipart message is included.
5820 With this option messages are sent as unmodified MIME
5822 attachments with all of their parts included.
5826 The address (or a list of addresses) to put into the
5828 field of the message header, quoting RFC 5322:
5829 the author(s) of the message, that is, the mailbox(es) of the person(s)
5830 or system(s) responsible for the writing of the message.
5831 If replying to messages these addresses are handled as if they were in
5835 If the machine's hostname is not valid at the Internet (for example at
5836 a dialup machine) then either this variable or
5841 adds even more fine-tuning capabilities),
5845 contains more than one address,
5848 variable is required (according to the standard RFC 5322).
5852 \*(BO When replying to or forwarding a message \*(UA normally removes
5853 the comment and name parts of email addresses.
5854 If this variable is set such stripping is not performed,
5855 and comments, names etc. are retained.
5859 The string to put before the text of a message with the
5863 .Va forward-as-attachment
5866 .Dq -------- Original Message --------
5867 if unset; No heading is put if it is set to the empty string.
5871 \*(BO Causes the header summary to be written at startup and after
5872 commands that affect the number of messages or the order of messages in
5873 the current folder; enabled by default.
5874 The command line option
5882 A format string to use for the summary of
5884 similar to the ones used for
5887 Format specifiers in the given string start with a percent character
5889 and may be followed by an optional decimal number indicating the field
5890 width \(em if that is negative, the field is to be left-aligned.
5891 Valid format specifiers are:
5894 .Bl -tag -compact -offset indent -width "_%%_"
5896 A plain percent character.
5899 a space character but for the current message
5901 for which it expands to
5905 a space character but for the current message
5907 for which it expands to
5910 \*(OP The spam score of the message, as has been classified via the
5913 Shows only a replacement character if there is no spam support.
5915 Message attribute character (status flag); the actual content can be
5919 The date when the message was received, or the date found in the
5923 variable is set (optionally to a date display format string).
5925 The indenting level in threaded mode.
5927 The address of the message sender.
5929 The message thread tree structure.
5930 (Note that this format doesn't support a field width.)
5932 The number of lines of the message, if available.
5936 The number of octets (bytes) in the message, if available.
5938 Message subject (if any).
5940 Message subject (if any) in double quotes.
5942 Message recipient flags: is the addressee of the message a known or
5943 subscribed mailing list \(en see
5948 The position in threaded/sorted order.
5952 .Ql %>\&%a\&%m\ %-18f\ %16d\ %4l/%\-5o\ %i%-s ,
5954 .Ql %>\&%a\&%m\ %20-f\ \ %16d\ %3l/%\-5o\ %i%-S
5965 .It Va headline-bidi
5966 Bidirectional text requires special treatment when displaying headers,
5967 because numbers (in dates or for file sizes etc.) will not affect the
5968 current text direction, in effect resulting in ugly line layouts when
5969 arabic or other right-to-left text is to be displayed.
5970 On the other hand only a minority of terminals is capable to correctly
5971 handle direction changes, so that user interaction is necessary for
5973 Note that extended host system support is required nonetheless, e.g.,
5974 detection of the terminal character set is one precondition;
5975 and this feature only works in an Unicode (i.e., UTF-8) locale.
5977 In general setting this variable will cause \*(UA to encapsulate text
5978 fields that may occur when displaying
5980 (and some other fields, like dynamic expansions in
5982 with special Unicode control sequences;
5983 it is possible to fine-tune the terminal support level by assigning
5985 no value (or any value other than
5990 will make \*(UA assume that the terminal is capable to properly deal
5991 with Unicode version 6.3, in which case text is embedded in a pair of
5992 U+2068 (FIRST STRONG ISOLATE) and U+2069 (POP DIRECTIONAL ISOLATE)
5994 In addition no space on the line is reserved for these characters.
5996 Weaker support is chosen by using the value
5998 (Unicode 6.3, but reserve the room of two spaces for writing the control
5999 sequences onto the line).
6004 select Unicode 1.1 support (U+200E, LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK); the latter
6005 again reserves room for two spaces in addition.
6009 \*(OP If a command line editor is available then this can be set to
6010 name the (expandable) path of the location of a permanent history file.
6013 .It Va history-gabby
6014 \*(BO\*(OP Add more entries to the history as is normally done.
6017 .It Va history-gabby-persist
6018 \*(BO\*(OP \*(UA's own MLE will not save the additional
6020 entries in persistent storage unless this variable is set.
6021 On the other hand it will not loose the knowledge of wether a persistent
6022 entry was gabby or not.
6028 \*(OP If a command line editor is available this value restricts the
6029 amount of history entries that are saved into a set and valid
6031 A value of less than 0 disables this feature;
6032 note that loading and incorporation of
6034 upon program startup can also be suppressed by doing this.
6035 An unset or invalid value, or 0, causes a default value to be used.
6036 Dependent on the available command line editor this will also define the
6037 number of history entries in memory;
6038 it is also editor-specific wether runtime updates of this value will be
6043 \*(BO This option is used to hold messages in the system mailbox,
6044 and it is set by default.
6048 Use this string as hostname when expanding local addresses instead of
6049 the value obtained from
6060 transport is not used then it is normally the responsibility of the MTA
6061 to create these fields, \*(IN in conjunction with
6065 also influences the results;
6066 you should produce some test messages with the desired combination of
6075 \*(BO\*(OP Can be used to turn off the automatic conversion of domain
6076 names according to the rules of IDNA (internationalized domain names
6078 Since the IDNA code assumes that domain names are specified with the
6080 character set, an UTF-8 locale charset is required to represent all
6081 possible international domain names (before conversion, that is).
6085 \*(BO Ignore interrupt signals from the terminal while entering
6086 messages; instead echo them as
6088 characters and discard the current line.
6092 \*(BO Ignore end-of-file conditions
6093 .Pf ( Ql control-D )
6094 in compose mode on message input and in interactive command input.
6095 If set an interactive command input session can only be left by
6096 explicitly using one of the commands
6100 and message input in compose mode can only be terminated by entering
6103 on a line by itself or by using the
6105 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" ;
6107 overrides a setting of
6119 option for indenting messages,
6120 in place of the normal tabulator character
6122 which is the default.
6123 Be sure to quote the value if it contains spaces or tabs.
6127 \*(BO If set, an empty mailbox file is not removed.
6128 This may improve the interoperability with other mail user agents
6129 when using a common folder directory, and prevents malicious users
6130 from creating fake mailboxes in a world-writable spool directory.
6131 Note this only applies to local regular (MBOX) files, other mailbox
6132 types will never be removed.
6135 .It Va keep-content-length
6136 \*(BO When (editing messages and) writing
6138 mailbox files \*(UA can be told to keep the
6142 header fields that some MUAs generate by setting this variable.
6143 Since \*(UA does neither use nor update these non-standardized header
6144 fields (which in itself shows one of their conceptual problems),
6145 stripping them should increase interoperability in between MUAs that
6146 work with with same mailbox files.
6147 Note that, if this is not set but
6148 .Va writebackedited ,
6149 as below, is, a possibly performed automatic stripping of these header
6150 fields already marks the message as being modified.
6154 \*(BO When a message is saved it is usually discarded from the
6155 originating folder when \*(UA is quit.
6156 Setting this option causes all saved message to be retained.
6159 .It Va line-editor-cursor-right
6160 \*(OP If the builtin command line editor is used, actions which are
6161 based on rightwise movement may not work on some terminals.
6162 If you encounter such problems, set this variable to the terminal
6163 control sequence that is necessary to move the cursor one column to the
6167 which should work for most terminals.
6174 and other control character have to be written as shell-style escape
6181 .It Va line-editor-disable
6182 \*(BO Turn off any enhanced line editing capabilities (see
6183 .Sx "Command line editor"
6188 \*(BO When a message is replied to and this variable is set,
6189 it is marked as having been answered.
6190 This mark has no technical meaning in the mail system;
6191 it just causes messages to be marked in the header summary,
6192 and makes them specially addressable.
6196 \*(BO \*(UA generates and expects fully RFC 4155 compliant MBOX text
6198 Messages which are fetched over the network or from within already
6199 existing Maildir (or any non-MBOX) mailboxes may require so-called
6201 quoting (insertion of additional
6203 characters to prevent line content misinterpretation) to be applied in
6204 order to be storable in MBOX mailboxes, however, dependent on the
6205 circumspection of the message producer.
6206 (E.g., \*(UA itself will, when newly generating messages, choose a
6207 .Pf Content-Transfer- Va encoding
6208 that prevents the necessity for such quoting \(en a necessary
6209 precondition to ensure message checksums won't change.)
6211 By default \*(UA will perform this
6213 quoting in a way that results in a MBOX file that is compatible with
6214 the POSIX MBOX layout, which means that, in order not to exceed the
6215 capabilities of simple applications, many more
6217 lines get quoted (thus modified) than necessary according to RFC 4155.
6218 Set this option to instead generate MBOX files which comply to RFC 4155.
6222 \*(BO Internal development variable.
6225 .It Va message-id-disable
6226 \*(BO By setting this option the generation of
6228 can be completely suppressed, effectively leaving this task up to the
6229 mail-transfer-agent (MTA) or the SMTP server.
6230 (According to RFC 5321 your SMTP server is not required to add this
6231 field by itself, so you should ensure that it accepts messages without a
6235 .It Va message-inject-head
6236 A string to put at the beginning of each new message.
6237 The escape sequences tabulator
6244 .It Va message-inject-tail
6245 A string to put at the end of each new message.
6246 The escape sequences tabulator
6254 \*(BO Usually, when an
6256 expansion contains the sender, the sender is removed from the expansion.
6257 Setting this option suppresses these removals.
6262 option to be passed to mail-transfer-agents (MTAs);
6263 though most of the modern MTAs don't (no longer) document this flag, no
6264 MTA is known which doesn't support it (for historical compatibility).
6267 .It Va mime-allow-text-controls
6268 \*(BO When sending messages, each part of the message is MIME-inspected
6269 in order to classify the
6272 .Ql Content-Transfer-Encoding:
6275 that is required to send this part over mail transport, i.e.,
6276 a computation rather similar to what the
6278 command produces when used with the
6282 This classification however treats text files which are encoded in
6283 UTF-16 (seen for HTML files) and similar character sets as binary
6284 octet-streams, forcefully changing any
6289 .Ql application/octet-stream :
6290 If that actually happens a yet unset charset MIME parameter is set to
6292 effectively making it impossible for the receiving MUA to automatically
6293 interpret the contents of the part.
6295 If this option is set, and the data was unambiguously identified as text
6296 data at first glance (by a
6300 file extension), then the original
6302 will not be overwritten.
6305 .It Va mime-alternative-favour-rich
6306 \*(BO If this variable is set then rich MIME alternative parts (e.g.,
6307 HTML) will be preferred in favour of included plain text versions when
6308 displaying messages, provided that a handler exists which produces
6309 output that can be (re)integrated into \*(UA's normal visual display.
6310 (E.g., at the time of this writing some newsletters ship their full
6311 content only in the rich HTML part, whereas the plain text part only
6312 contains topic subjects.)
6315 .It Va mime-counter-evidence
6318 field is used to decide how to handle MIME parts.
6319 Some MUAs however don't use
6321 or a similar mechanism to correctly classify content, but simply specify
6322 .Ql application/octet-stream ,
6323 even for plain text attachments like
6325 If this variable is set then \*(UA will try to classify such MIME
6326 message parts on its own, if possible, for example via a possibly
6327 existent attachment filename.
6328 A non-empty value may also be given, in which case a number is expected,
6329 actually a carrier of bits.
6330 Creating the bit-carrying number is a simple addition:
6331 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6332 ? !echo Value should be set to $((2 + 4 + 8))
6333 Value should be set to 14
6336 .Bl -bullet -compact
6338 If bit two is set (2) then the detected
6340 content-type will be carried along with the message and be used for
6342 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
6343 is responsible for the MIME part, shall that question arise;
6344 when displaying such a MIME part the part-info will indicate the
6345 overridden content-type by showing a plus-sign
6348 If bit three is set (4) then the counter-evidence is always produced
6349 and a positive result will be used as the MIME type, even forcefully
6350 overriding the parts given MIME type.
6352 If bit four is set (8) then as a last resort the actual content of
6353 .Ql application/octet-stream
6354 parts will be inspected, so that data which looks like plain text can be
6359 .It Va mimetypes-load-control
6360 This option can be used to control which of the
6362 databases are loaded by \*(UA, as furtherly described in the section
6363 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
6366 is part of the option value, then the user's personal
6368 file will be loaded (if it exists); likewise the letter
6370 controls loading of the system wide
6371 .Pa /etc/mime.types ;
6372 directives found in the user file take precedence, letter matching is
6374 If this option is not set \*(UA will try to load both files.
6375 Incorporation of the \*(UA-builtin MIME types cannot be suppressed,
6376 but they will be matched last.
6378 More sources can be specified by using a different syntax: if the
6379 value string contains an equals sign
6381 then it is instead parsed as a comma-separated list of the described
6384 pairs; the given filenames will be expanded and loaded, and their
6385 content may use the extended syntax that is described in the section
6386 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
6387 Directives found in such files always take precedence (are prepended to
6388 the MIME type cache).
6391 .It Va NAIL_EXTRA_RC
6392 The name of an optional startup file to be read last.
6393 This variable has an effect only if it is set in any of the
6394 .Sx "Resource files" ,
6395 it is not imported from the environment.
6396 Use this file for commands that are not understood by other POSIX
6401 .It Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , netrc-lookup-HOST , netrc-lookup
6402 \*(BO\*(IN\*(OP Used to control usage of the users
6404 file for lookup of account credentials, as documented in the section
6405 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
6409 .Sx "The .netrc file"
6410 documents the file format.
6414 If this variable has the value
6416 newly created local folders will be in Maildir format.
6420 Checks for new mail in the current folder each time the prompt is shown.
6421 A Maildir folder must be re-scanned to determine if new mail has arrived.
6422 If this variable is set to the special value
6424 then a Maildir folder will not be rescanned completely, but only
6425 timestamp changes are detected.
6429 .It Va on-compose-enter , on-compose-leave
6430 \*(ID Macro hooks which will be executed before compose mode is
6431 entered, and after composing has been finished, respectively.
6432 Please note that this interface is very likely to change in v15, and
6433 should therefore possibly even be seen as experimental.
6435 are by default enabled for these hooks, causing any setting to be
6436 forgotten after the message has been sent.
6437 The following variables will be set temporarily during execution of the
6440 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Va compose_subject"
6443 .It Va compose-sender
6445 .It Va compose-to , compose-cc , compose-bcc
6446 The list of receiver addresses as a space-separated list.
6447 .It Va compose-subject
6453 \*(BO Causes the filename given in the
6456 and the sender-based filenames for the
6460 commands to be interpreted relative to the directory given in the
6462 variable rather than to the current directory,
6463 unless it is set to an absolute pathname.
6467 \*(BO If set, each message feed through the command given for
6469 is followed by a formfeed character
6473 .It Va password-USER@HOST , password-HOST , password
6474 \*(IN Variable chain that sets a password, which is used in case none has
6475 been given in the protocol and account-specific URL;
6476 as a last resort \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal if
6477 the authentication method requires a password.
6478 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
6479 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
6481 .It Va password-USER@HOST
6482 \*(OU (see the chain above for \*(IN)
6483 Set the password for
6487 If no such variable is defined for a host,
6488 the user will be asked for a password on standard input.
6489 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
6490 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
6494 \*(BO Send messages to the
6496 command without performing MIME and character set conversions.
6500 .It Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
6501 When a MIME message part of type
6503 (case-insensitive) is displayed or quoted,
6504 its text is filtered through the value of this variable interpreted as
6508 forces interpretation of the message part as plain text, e.g.,
6509 .Ql set pipe-application/xml=@
6510 will henceforth display XML
6512 (The same could also be achieved by adding a MIME type marker with the
6515 And \*(OPally MIME type handlers may be defined via
6516 .Sx "The Mailcap files"
6517 \(em corresponding flag strings are shown in parenthesis below.)
6522 can in fact be used to adjust usage and behaviour of a following shell
6523 command specification by appending trigger characters to it, e.g., the
6524 following hypothetical command specification could be used:
6525 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6526 set pipe-X/Y="@*!++=@vim ${NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}"
6530 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql __"
6532 Simply by using the special
6534 prefix the MIME type (shell command) handler will only be invoked to
6535 display or convert the MIME part if the message is addressed directly
6536 and alone by itself.
6537 Use this trigger to disable this and always invoke the handler
6538 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-always ) .
6541 If set the handler will not be invoked when a message is to be quoted,
6542 but only when it will be displayed
6543 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-noquote ) .
6546 The command will be run asynchronously, i.e., without blocking \*(UA,
6547 which may be a handy way to display a, e.g., PDF file while also
6548 continuing to read the mail message
6549 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-async ) .
6550 Asynchronous execution implies
6554 The command must be run on an interactive terminal, \*(UA will
6555 temporarily release the terminal to it
6556 .Pf ( Cd needsterminal ) .
6557 This flag is mutual exclusive with
6559 will only be used in interactive mode and implies
6563 Request creation of a zero-sized temporary file, the absolute pathname
6564 of which will be made accessable via the environment variable
6565 .Ev NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
6566 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-tmpfile ) .
6567 If this trigger is given twice then the file will be unlinked
6568 automatically by \*(UA when the command loop is entered again at latest
6569 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink ) .
6570 (Don't use this for asynchronous handlers.)
6573 Normally the MIME part content is passed to the handler via standard
6574 input; if this flag is set then the data will instead be written into
6575 .Ev NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
6576 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill ) ,
6577 the creation of which is implied; note however that in order to cause
6578 deletion of the temporary file you still have to use two plus signs
6583 To avoid ambiguities with normal shell command content you can use
6584 another at-sign to forcefully terminate interpretation of remaining
6586 (Any character not in this list will have the same effect.)
6590 Some information about the MIME part to be displayed is embedded into
6591 the environment of the shell command:
6594 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ev _AIL__ILENAME__ENERATED"
6597 The MIME content-type of the part, if known, the empty string otherwise.
6600 .It Ev NAIL_CONTENT_EVIDENCE
6602 .Va mime-counter-evidence
6603 includes the carry-around-bit (2), then this will be set to the detected
6604 MIME content-type; not only then identical to
6605 .Ev \&\&NAIL_CONTENT
6609 .It Ev NAIL_FILENAME
6610 The filename, if any is set, the empty string otherwise.
6613 .It Ev NAIL_FILENAME_GENERATED
6617 .It Ev NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
6618 If temporary file creation has been requested through the command prefix
6619 this variable will be set and contain the absolute pathname of the
6624 The temporary directory that \*(UA uses.
6625 Usually identical to
6627 but guaranteed to be set and usable by child processes;
6628 to ensure the latter condition for
6635 .It Va pipe-EXTENSION
6636 This is identical to
6637 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
6640 (normalized to lowercase using character mappings of the ASCII charset)
6641 names a file extension, e.g.,
6643 Handlers registered using this method take precedence.
6646 .It Va pop3-auth-USER@HOST , pop3-auth-HOST , pop3-auth
6647 \*(OP\*(IN Variable chain that sets the POP3 authentication method.
6648 The only possible value as of now is
6650 which is thus the default.
6653 .Mx Va pop3-bulk-load
6654 .It Va pop3-bulk-load-USER@HOST , pop3-bulk-load-HOST , pop3-bulk-load
6655 \*(BO\*(OP When accessing a POP3 server \*(UA loads the headers of
6656 the messages, and only requests the message bodies on user request.
6657 For the POP3 protocol this means that the message headers will be
6659 If this option is set then \*(UA will download only complete messages
6660 from the given POP3 server(s) instead.
6662 .Mx Va pop3-keepalive
6663 .It Va pop3-keepalive-USER@HOST , pop3-keepalive-HOST , pop3-keepalive
6664 \*(OP POP3 servers close the connection after a period of inactivity;
6665 the standard requires this to be at least 10 minutes,
6666 but practical experience may vary.
6667 Setting this variable to a numeric value greater than
6671 command to be sent each value seconds if no other operation is performed.
6674 .It Va pop3-no-apop-USER@HOST , pop3-no-apop-HOST , pop3-no-apop
6675 \*(BO\*(OP Unless this variable is set the
6677 authentication method will be used when connecting to a POP3 server that
6681 is that the password is not sent in clear text over the wire and that
6682 only a single packet is sent for the user/password tuple.
6684 .Va pop3-no-apop-HOST
6687 .Mx Va pop3-use-starttls
6688 .It Va pop3-use-starttls-USER@HOST , pop3-use-starttls-HOST , pop3-use-starttls
6689 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a
6691 command to make an unencrypted POP3 session SSL/TLS encrypted.
6692 This functionality is not supported by all servers,
6693 and is not used if the session is already encrypted by the POP3S method.
6695 .Va pop3-use-starttls-HOST
6699 .It Va print-alternatives
6700 \*(BO When a MIME message part of type
6701 .Ql multipart/alternative
6702 is displayed and it contains a subpart of type
6704 other parts are normally discarded.
6705 Setting this variable causes all subparts to be displayed,
6706 just as if the surrounding part was of type
6707 .Ql multipart/mixed .
6711 The string shown when a command is accepted.
6712 Prompting may be prevented by either setting this to the null string
6715 The same XSI escape sequences that are understood by the
6717 command may be used within
6720 In addition, the following \*(UA specific additional sequences are
6727 is set, in which case it expands to
6731 is the default value of
6734 which will expand to
6736 if the last command failed and to
6740 which will expand to the name of the currently active
6742 if any, and to the empty string otherwise, and
6744 which will expand to the name of the currently active mailbox.
6745 (Note that the prompt buffer is size-limited, excess is cut off.)
6751 to encapsulate the expansions of the
6755 escape sequences as necessary to correctly display bidirectional text,
6756 this is not true for the final string that makes up
6758 as such, i.e., real BIDI handling is not supported.
6762 \*(BO Suppresses the printing of the version when first invoked.
6766 If set, \*(UA starts a replying message with the original message
6767 prefixed by the value of the variable
6769 Normally, a heading consisting of
6770 .Dq Fromheaderfield wrote:
6771 is put before the quotation.
6776 variable, this heading is omitted.
6779 is assigned, the headers selected by the
6780 .Ic ignore Ns / Ns Ic retain
6781 commands are put above the message body,
6784 acts like an automatic
6790 is assigned, all headers are put above the message body and all MIME
6791 parts are included, making
6793 act like an automatic
6796 .Va quote-as-attachment .
6799 .It Va quote-as-attachment
6800 \*(BO Add the original message in its entirety as a
6802 MIME attachment when replying to a message.
6803 Note this works regardless of the setting of
6808 \*(OP Can be set in addition to
6810 Setting this turns on a more fancy quotation algorithm in that leading
6811 quotation characters are compressed and overlong lines are folded.
6813 can be set to either one or two (space separated) numeric values,
6814 which are interpreted as the maximum (goal) and the minimum line length,
6815 respectively, in a spirit rather equal to the
6817 program, but line-, not paragraph-based.
6818 If not set explicitly the minimum will reflect the goal algorithmically.
6819 The goal can't be smaller than the length of
6821 plus some additional pad.
6822 Necessary adjustments take place silently.
6825 .It Va recipients-in-cc
6826 \*(BO On group replies, specify only the sender of the original mail in
6828 and mention the other recipients in the secondary
6830 By default all recipients of the original mail will be addressed via
6835 If defined, gives the pathname of the folder used to record all outgoing
6837 If not defined, then outgoing mail is not saved.
6838 When saving to this folder fails the message is not sent,
6839 but instead saved to
6843 .It Va record-resent
6844 \*(BO If both this variable and the
6851 commands save messages to the
6853 folder as it is normally only done for newly composed messages.
6856 .It Va reply-in-same-charset
6857 \*(BO If this variable is set \*(UA first tries to use the same
6858 character set of the original message for replies.
6859 If this fails, the mechanism described in
6860 .Sx "Character sets"
6861 is evaluated as usual.
6864 .It Va reply_strings
6865 Can be set to a comma-separated list of (case-insensitive according to
6866 ASCII rules) strings which shall be recognized in addition to the
6869 reply message indicators \(en builtin are
6871 which is mandated by RFC 5322, as well as the german
6876 A list of addresses to put into the
6878 field of the message header.
6879 Members of this list are handled as if they were in the
6884 .It Va reply-to-honour
6887 header is honoured when replying to a message via
6891 This is a quadoption; if set without a value it defaults to
6895 .It Va rfc822-body-from_
6896 \*(BO This variable can be used to force displaying a so-called
6898 line for messages that are embedded into an envelope mail via the
6900 MIME mechanism, for more visual convenience.
6904 \*(BO Enable saving of (partial) messages in
6906 upon interrupt or delivery error.
6910 When \*(UA initially displays the message headers it determines the
6911 number to display by looking at the speed of the terminal.
6912 The faster the terminal, the more will be shown.
6913 This option specifies the number to use and overrides the calculation.
6914 This number is also used for scrolling with the
6917 Overall screen dimensions and pager usage is influenced by the
6918 environment variables
6926 .It Va searchheaders
6927 \*(BO Expand message-list specifiers in the form
6929 to all messages containing the substring
6933 The string search is case insensitive.
6937 \*(OP A comma-separated list of character set names that can be used in
6938 outgoing internet mail.
6939 The value of the variable
6941 is automatically appended to this list of character-sets.
6942 If no character set conversion capabilities are compiled into \*(UA then
6943 the only supported charset is
6946 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
6947 and refer to the section
6948 .Sx "Character sets"
6949 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
6952 .It Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
6953 \*(BO\*(OP If this variable is set, but
6955 is not, then \*(UA acts as if
6957 had been set to the value of the variable
6959 In effect this combination passes through the message data in the
6960 character set of the current locale (given that
6962 hasn't been set manually), i.e., without converting it to the
6964 fallback character set.
6965 Thus, mail message text will be in ISO-8859-1 encoding when send from
6966 within a ISO-8859-1 locale, and in UTF-8 encoding when send from within
6968 If no character set conversion capabilities are available in \*(UA then
6969 the only supported character set is
6974 An address that is put into the
6976 field of outgoing messages, quoting RFC 5322: the mailbox of the agent
6977 responsible for the actual transmission of the message.
6978 This field should normally not be used unless the
6980 field contains more than one address, on which case it is required.
6983 address is handled as if it were in the
6989 To use an alternate mail transport agent (MTA),
6990 set this option to the full pathname of the program to use.
6991 It may be necessary to set
6992 .Va sendmail-progname
6995 The MTA will be passed command line arguments from several possible
6996 sources: from the variable
6997 .Va sendmail-arguments
6998 if set, from the command line if given and the variable
7001 Argument processing of the MTA will be terminated with a
7005 The otherwise occurring implicit usage of the following MTA command line
7006 arguments can be disabled by setting the boolean option
7007 .Va sendmail-no-default-arguments
7008 (which will also disable passing
7012 (for not treating a line with only a dot
7014 character as the end of input),
7022 option is set); in conjunction with the
7024 command line option \*(UA will also pass
7030 .It Va sendmail-arguments
7031 Arguments to pass through to the Mail-Transfer-Agent can be given via
7033 The content of this variable will be split up in a vector of arguments
7034 which will be joined onto other possible MTA options:
7036 .Dl set sendmail-arguments='-t -X \&"/tmp/my log\&"'
7039 .It Va sendmail-no-default-arguments
7040 \*(BO Unless this option is set \*(UA will pass some well known
7041 standard command line options to the defined
7043 program, see there for more.
7046 .It Va sendmail-progname
7047 Many systems use a so-called
7049 environment to ensure compatibility with
7051 This works by inspecting the name that was used to invoke the mail
7053 If this variable is set then the mailwrapper (the program that is
7054 actually executed when calling
7056 will treat its contents as that name.
7062 \*(BO When sending a message wait until the MTA (including the builtin
7063 SMTP one) exits before accepting further commands.
7065 with this variable set errors reported by the MTA will be recognizable!
7066 If the MTA returns a non-zero exit status,
7067 the exit status of \*(ua will also be non-zero.
7071 \*(BO Setting this option causes \*(UA to start at the last message
7072 instead of the first one when opening a mail folder.
7076 \*(BO Causes \*(UA to use the sender's real name instead of the plain
7077 address in the header field summary and in message specifications.
7081 \*(BO Causes the recipient of the message to be shown in the header
7082 summary if the message was sent by the user.
7086 A string for use with the
7092 A string for use with the
7098 Must correspond to the name of a readable file if set.
7099 The file's content is then appended to each singlepart message
7100 and to the first part of each multipart message.
7101 Be warned that there is no possibility to edit the signature for an
7105 .It Va skipemptybody
7106 \*(BO If an outgoing message does not contain any text in its first or
7107 only message part, do not send it but discard it silently (see also the
7113 \*(OP Specifies a directory with CA certificates in PEM (Privacy
7114 Enhanced Mail) format for verification of S/MIME signed messages.
7117 .It Va smime-ca-file
7118 \*(OP Specifies a file with CA certificates in PEM format for
7119 verification of S/MIME signed messages.
7122 .It Va smime-cipher-USER@HOST , smime-cipher
7123 \*(OP Specifies the cipher to use when generating S/MIME encrypted
7124 messages (for the specified account).
7125 RFC 5751 mandates a default of
7128 Possible values are (case-insensitive and) in decreasing cipher strength:
7136 (DES EDE3 CBC, 168 bits; default if
7138 isn't available) and
7142 The actually available cipher algorithms depend on the cryptographic
7143 library that \*(UA uses.
7144 \*(OP Support for more cipher algorithms may be available through
7145 dynamic loading via, e.g.,
7146 .Xr EVP_get_cipherbyname 3
7147 (OpenSSL) if \*(UA has been compiled to support this.
7150 .It Va smime-crl-dir
7151 \*(OP Specifies a directory that contains files with CRLs in PEM format
7152 to use when verifying S/MIME messages.
7155 .It Va smime-crl-file
7156 \*(OP Specifies a file that contains a CRL in PEM format to use when
7157 verifying S/MIME messages.
7160 .It Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
7161 \*(OP If this variable is set, messages send to the given receiver are
7162 encrypted before sending.
7163 The value of the variable must be set to the name of a file that
7164 contains a certificate in PEM format.
7166 If a message is sent to multiple recipients,
7167 each of them for whom a corresponding variable is set will receive an
7168 individually encrypted message;
7169 other recipients will continue to receive the message in plain text
7171 .Va smime-force-encryption
7173 It is recommended to sign encrypted messages, i.e., to also set the
7178 .It Va smime-force-encryption
7179 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to refuse sending unencrypted messages.
7182 .It Va smime-no-default-ca
7183 \*(BO\*(OP Don't load default CA locations when verifying S/MIME signed
7188 \*(BO\*(OP S/MIME sign outgoing messages with the user's private key
7189 and include the user's certificate as a MIME attachment.
7190 Signing a message enables a recipient to verify that the sender used
7191 a valid certificate,
7192 that the email addresses in the certificate match those in the message
7193 header and that the message content has not been altered.
7194 It does not change the message text,
7195 and people will be able to read the message as usual.
7197 .Va smime-sign-cert , smime-sign-include-certs
7199 .Va smime-sign-message-digest .
7201 .Mx Va smime-sign-cert
7202 .It Va smime-sign-cert-USER@HOST , smime-sign-cert
7203 \*(OP Points to a file in PEM format.
7204 For the purpose of signing and decryption this file needs to contain the
7205 user's private key as well as his certificate.
7209 is always derived from the value of
7211 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
7213 For the purpose of encryption the recipient's public encryption key
7214 (certificate) is expected; the command
7216 can be used to save certificates of signed messages (the section
7217 .Sx "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
7218 gives some details).
7219 This mode of operation is usually driven by the specialized form.
7221 When decrypting messages the account is derived from the recipient
7226 of the message, which are searched for addresses for which such
7228 \*(UA always uses the first address that matches,
7229 so if the same message is sent to more than one of the user's addresses
7230 using different encryption keys, decryption might fail.
7232 .Mx Va smime-sign-include-certs
7233 .It Va smime-sign-include-certs-USER@HOST , smime-sign-include-certs
7234 \*(OP If used, this is supposed to a consist of a comma-separated list
7235 of files, each of which containing a single certificate in PEM format to
7236 be included in the S/MIME message in addition to the
7239 This is most useful for long certificate chains if it is desired to aid
7240 the receiving party's verification process.
7241 Note that top level certificates may also be included in the chain but
7242 don't play a role for verification.
7244 .Va smime-sign-cert .
7245 Remember that for this
7247 refers to the variable
7249 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
7252 .Mx Va smime-sign-message-digest
7253 .It Va smime-sign-message-digest-USER@HOST , smime-sign-message-digest
7254 \*(OP Specifies the message digest to use when signing S/MIME messages.
7255 RFC 5751 mandates a default of
7257 Possible values are (case-insensitive and) in decreasing cipher strength:
7265 The actually available message digest algorithms depend on the
7266 cryptographic library that \*(UA uses.
7267 \*(OP Support for more message digest algorithms may be available
7268 through dynamic loading via, e.g.,
7269 .Xr EVP_get_digestbyname 3
7270 (OpenSSL) if \*(UA has been compiled to support this.
7271 Remember that for this
7273 refers to the variable
7275 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
7281 \*(OP Normally \*(UA invokes the program defined via
7283 to transfer messages, as described in
7284 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
7287 variable will instead cause SMTP network connections be made to the
7288 server specified therein in order to directly submit the message.
7289 \*(UA knows about three different
7290 .Dq SMTP protocols :
7292 .Bl -bullet -compact
7294 The plain SMTP protocol (RFC 5321) that normally lives on the
7295 server port 25 and requires setting the
7296 .Va smtp-use-starttls
7297 variable to enter a SSL/TLS encrypted session state.
7298 Assign a value like \*(IN
7299 .Ql [smtp://][user[:password]@]server[:port]
7301 .Ql [smtp://]server[:port] )
7302 to choose this protocol.
7304 Then the so-called SMTPS which is supposed to live on server port 465
7305 and is automatically SSL/TLS secured.
7306 Unfortunately it never became a standardized protocol and may thus not
7307 be supported by your hosts network service database
7308 \(en in fact the port number has already been reassigned to other
7311 SMTPS is nonetheless a commonly offered protocol and thus can be
7312 chosen by assigning a value like \*(IN
7313 .Ql smtps://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
7315 .Ql smtps://server[:port] ) ;
7316 due to the mentioned problems it is usually necessary to explicitly
7321 Finally there is the SUBMISSION protocol (RFC 6409), which usually
7322 lives on server port 587 and is practically identically to the SMTP
7323 protocol from \*(UA's point of view beside that; it requires setting the
7324 .Va smtp-use-starttls
7325 variable to enter a SSL/TLS secured session state.
7326 Assign a value like \*(IN
7327 .Ql submission://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
7329 .Ql submission://server[:port] ) .
7332 For more on credentials etc. please see
7333 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
7334 The SMTP transfer is executed in a child process, which runs
7335 asynchronously unless either the
7340 If it receives a TERM signal, it will abort and save the message to
7345 .It Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST , smtp-auth-HOST , smtp-auth
7346 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the SMTP authentication method.
7353 as well as the \*(OPal methods
7359 method doesn't need any user credentials,
7361 requires a user name and all other methods require a user name and
7369 .Va smtp-auth-password
7371 .Va smtp-auth-user ) .
7376 .Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST :
7377 may override dependend on sender address in the variable
7380 .It Va smtp-auth-password
7381 \*(OP\*(OU Sets the global fallback password for SMTP authentication.
7382 If the authentication method requires a password, but neither
7383 .Va smtp-auth-password
7385 .Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
7387 \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal.
7389 .It Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
7391 .Va smtp-auth-password
7392 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
7395 .It Va smtp-auth-user
7396 \*(OP\*(OU Sets the global fallback user name for SMTP authentication.
7397 If the authentication method requires a user name, but neither
7400 .Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
7402 \*(UA will ask for a user name on the user's terminal.
7404 .It Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
7407 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
7411 .It Va smtp-hostname
7412 \*(IN Normally \*(UA uses the variable
7414 to derive the necessary
7416 information to issue a
7421 can be used to use the
7423 from the SMTP account
7430 from the content of this variable (or, if that is the empty string,
7432 or the local hostname as a last resort).
7433 This often allows using an address that is itself valid but hosted by
7434 a provider other than which (in
7436 is about to send the message.
7437 Setting this variable also influences the generated
7440 .Mx Va smtp-use-starttls
7441 .It Va smtp-use-starttls-USER@HOST , smtp-use-starttls-HOST , smtp-use-starttls
7442 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a
7444 command to make an SMTP session SSL/TLS encrypted, i.e., to enable
7445 transport layer security.
7449 .It Va spam-interface
7450 \*(OP In order to use any of the spam-related commands (like, e.g.,
7452 the desired spam interface must be defined by setting this variable.
7453 Please refer to the manual section
7455 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
7456 All or none of the following interfaces may be available:
7458 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ql _ilte_"
7464 .Pf ( Lk http://spamassassin.apache.org SpamAssassin )
7466 Different to the generic filter interface \*(UA will automatically add
7467 the correct arguments for a given command and has the necessary
7468 knowledge to parse the program's output.
7471 will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if
7476 Shall it be necessary to define a specific connection type (rather than
7477 using a configuration file for that), the variable
7479 can be used as in, e.g.,
7480 .Ql -d server.example.com -p 783 .
7481 It is also possible to specify a per-user configuration via
7483 Note that this interface doesn't inspect the
7485 flag of a message for the command
7489 \*(UA will directly communicate with the
7495 stream socket as specified in
7497 It is possible to specify a per-user configuration via
7501 generic spam filter support via freely configurable hooks.
7502 This interface is ment for programs like
7506 and requires according behaviour in respect to the hooks' exit
7507 status for at least the command
7510 meaning a message is spam,
7514 for unsure and any other return value indicating a hard error);
7515 since the hooks can include shell code snippets diverting behaviour
7516 can be intercepted as necessary.
7518 .Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , spamfilter-nospam , \
7521 .Va spamfilter-spam ;
7524 contains examples for some programs.
7525 The process environment of the hooks will have the variables
7526 .Ev NAIL_TMPDIR , TMPDIR
7528 .Ev NAIL_FILENAME_GENERATED
7530 Note that spam score support for
7532 isn't supported unless the \*(OPtional regular expression support is
7534 .Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore
7541 \*(OP Messages that exceed this size won't be passed through to the
7543 .Va spam-interface .
7544 The default is 420000 bytes.
7547 .It Va spamc-command
7548 \*(OP The path to the
7552 .Va spam-interface .
7553 Note that the path is not expanded, but used
7555 A fallback path will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if the
7556 executable had been found during compilation.
7559 .It Va spamc-arguments
7560 \*(OP Even though \*(UA deals with most arguments for the
7563 automatically, it may at least sometimes be desirable to specifiy
7564 connection-related ones via this variable, e.g.,
7565 .Ql -d server.example.com -p 783 .
7569 \*(OP Specify a username for per-user configuration files for the
7571 .Va spam-interface .
7572 If this is set to the empty string then \*(UA will use the name of the
7578 \*(OP Specify the path of the
7580 domain socket on which
7582 listens for connections for the
7584 .Va spam-interface .
7585 Note that the path is not expanded, but used
7590 \*(OP Specify a username for per-user configuration files for the
7592 .Va spam-interface .
7593 If this is set to the empty string then \*(UA will use the name of the
7602 .It Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , \
7603 spamfilter-nospam , spamfilter-rate , spamfilter-spam
7604 \*(OP Command and argument hooks for the
7606 .Va spam-interface .
7609 contains examples for some programs.
7612 .It Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore
7613 \*(OP Because of the generic nature of the
7616 spam scores are not supported for it by default, but if the \*(OPtional
7617 regular expression support is available then setting this variable can
7618 be used to overcome this restriction.
7619 It is interpreted as follows: first a number (digits) is parsed that
7620 must be followed by a semicolon
7622 and an extended regular expression.
7623 Then the latter is used to parse the first output line of the
7625 hook, and, in case the evaluation is successful, the group that has been
7626 specified via the number is interpreted as a floating point scan score.
7630 \*(OP Specifies a directory with CA certificates in PEM (Pricacy
7631 Enhanced Mail) for verification of of SSL/TLS server certificates.
7633 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
7634 for more information.
7638 \*(OP Specifies a file with CA certificates in PEM format for
7639 verification of SSL/TLS server certificates.
7641 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
7642 for more information.
7645 .It Va ssl-cert-USER@HOST , ssl-cert-HOST , ssl-cert
7646 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the file name for a SSL/TLS client
7647 certificate required by some servers.
7648 This is a direct interface to the
7652 function of the OpenSSL library, if available.
7654 .Mx Va ssl-cipher-list
7655 .It Va ssl-cipher-list-USER@HOST , ssl-cipher-list-HOST , ssl-cipher-list
7656 \*(OP Specifies a list of ciphers for SSL/TLS connections.
7657 This is a direct interface to the
7661 function of the OpenSSL library, if available; see
7663 for more information.
7664 By default \*(UA doesn't set a list of ciphers, which in effect will use a
7666 specific cipher (protocol standards ship with a list of acceptable
7667 ciphers), possibly cramped to what the actually used SSL/TLS library
7668 supports \(en the manual section
7669 .Sx "An example configuration"
7670 also contains a SSL/TLS use case.
7673 .It Va ssl-config-file
7674 \*(OP If this variable is set \*(UA will call
7675 .Xr CONF_modules_load_file 3
7676 to allow OpenSSL to be configured according to the host system wide
7678 If a non-empty value is given then this will be used to specify the
7679 configuration file to be used instead of the global OpenSSL default;
7680 note that in this case it is an error if the file cannot be loaded.
7681 The application name will always be passed as
7686 \*(OP Specifies a file that contains a CRL in PEM format to use when
7687 verifying SSL/TLS server certificates.
7691 \*(OP Specifies a directory that contains files with CRLs in PEM format
7692 to use when verifying SSL/TLS server certificates.
7695 .It Va ssl-key-USER@HOST , ssl-key-HOST , ssl-key
7696 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the file name for the private key of
7697 a SSL/TLS client certificate.
7698 If unset, the name of the certificate file is used.
7699 The file is expected to be in PEM format.
7700 This is a direct interface to the
7704 function of the OpenSSL library, if available.
7707 .It Va ssl-method-USER@HOST , ssl-method-HOST , ssl-method
7709 \*(OB Please use the newer and more flexible
7711 instead: if both values are set,
7713 will take precedence!
7714 Can be set to the following values, the actually used
7716 specification to which it is mapped is shown in parenthesis:
7718 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, TLSv1.2 ) ,
7720 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, TLSv1.1 ) ,
7722 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, TLSv1 )
7725 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, SSLv3 ) ;
7730 and thus includes the SSLv3 protocol.
7731 Note that SSLv2 is no longer supported at all.
7734 .It Va ssl-no-default-ca
7735 \*(BO\*(OP Don't load default CA locations to verify SSL/TLS server
7739 .It Va ssl-protocol-USER@HOST , ssl-protocol-HOST , ssl-protocol
7740 \*(OP Specify the used SSL/TLS protocol.
7741 This is a direct interface to the
7745 function of the OpenSSL library, if available;
7746 otherwise an \*(UA internal parser is used which understands the
7747 following subset of (case-insensitive) command strings:
7753 as well as the special value
7755 Multiple specifications may be given via a comma-separated list which
7756 ignores any whitespace.
7759 plus prefix will enable a protocol, a
7761 minus prefix will disable it, so that
7763 will enable only the TLSv1.2 protocol.
7765 It depends upon the used TLS/SSL library which protocols are actually
7766 supported and which protocols are used if
7768 is not set, but note that SSLv2 is no longer supported at all and
7770 Especially for older protocols explicitly securing
7772 may be worthwile, see
7773 .Sx "An example configuration" .
7777 \*(OP Gives the pathname to an entropy daemon socket, see
7779 Not all SSL/TLS libraries support this.
7782 .It Va ssl-rand-file
7783 \*(OP Gives the filename to a file with random entropy data, see
7784 .Xr RAND_load_file 3 .
7785 If this variable is not set, or set to the empty string, or if the
7786 filename expansion failed, then
7787 .Xr RAND_file_name 3
7788 will be used to create the filename if, and only if,
7790 documents that the SSL PRNG is not yet sufficiently seeded.
7791 If \*(UA successfully seeded the SSL PRNG then it'll update the file via
7792 .Xr RAND_write_file 3 .
7793 This variable is only used if
7795 is not set (or not supported by the SSL/TLS library).
7798 .It Va ssl-verify-USER@HOST , ssl-verify-HOST , ssl-verify
7799 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the action to be performed if an error
7800 occurs during SSL/TLS server certificate validation.
7801 Valid (case-insensitive) values are
7803 (fail and close connection immediately),
7805 (ask whether to continue on standard input),
7807 (show a warning and continue),
7809 (do not perform validation).
7815 If only set without an assigned value, then this option inhibits the
7820 header fields that include obvious references to \*(UA.
7821 There are two pitfalls associated with this:
7822 First, the message id of outgoing messages is not known anymore.
7823 Second, an expert may still use the remaining information in the header
7824 to track down the originating mail user agent.
7829 suppression doesn't occur.
7833 \*(BY\*(OP If terminal capability queries
7834 .Pf ( Xr termcap 5 ,
7836 are supported and this option is set then \*(UA will try to
7838 .Dq alternate screen
7839 when in interactive mode if the
7841 inal allows to do so, so that the terminal will go back to the
7842 normal screen, leaving all the text there intact, when \*(UA exits.
7845 even when supported for this to produce appealing results the used
7847 and possibly configured
7848 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
7849 applications that take control over the terminal need to have
7850 corresponding support and must be configured accordingly, too, e.g., the
7852 pager should be driven with the
7858 If defined, gives the number of lines of a message to be displayed
7861 normally, the first five lines are printed.
7865 The character set of the terminal \*(UA operates on,
7866 and the one and only supported character set that \*(UA can use if no
7867 character set conversion capabilities have been compiled into it,
7868 in which case it defaults to ISO-8859-1 unless it can deduce a value
7872 Refer to the section
7873 .Sx "Character sets"
7874 for the complete picture about character sets.
7877 .It Va user-HOST , user
7878 \*(IN Variable chain that sets a global fallback user name, which is
7879 used in case none has been given in the protocol and account-specific
7881 This variable defaults to the value of the first of
7885 that is set (the former being SystemV and POSIX standard, the latter BSD).
7889 \*(BO Setting this option enables upward compatibility with \*(UA
7890 version 15.0 in respect to which configuration options are available and
7891 how they are handled.
7892 This manual uses \*(IN and \*(OU to refer to the new and the old way of
7893 doing things, respectively.
7897 \*(BO Setting this option, also controllable via the command line option
7899 causes \*(UA to be more verbose, e.g., it will display obsoletion
7900 warnings and SSL/TLS certificate chains.
7901 Even though marked \*(BO this option may be set twice in order to
7902 increase the level of verbosity even more, in which case even details of
7903 the actual message delivery and protocol conversations are shown.
7906 is sufficient to disable verbosity as such.
7912 .It Va version , version-major , version-minor , version-update
7913 \*(RO \*(UA version information: the first variable contains a string
7914 containing the complete version identification \(en this is identical to
7915 the output of the command
7917 The latter three contain only digits: the major, minor and update
7921 .It Va writebackedited
7922 If this variable is set messages modified using the
7926 commands are written back to the current folder when it is quit;
7927 it is only honoured for writable folders in MBOX format, though.
7928 Note that the editor will be pointed to the raw message content in that
7929 case, i.e., neither MIME decoding nor decryption will have been
7930 performed, and proper RFC 4155
7932 quoting of newly added or edited content is also left as an excercise to
7936 .\" }}} (INTERNAL VARIABLES)
7939 .\" .Sh ENVIRONMENT {{{
7943 .Dq environment variable
7944 should be considered an indication that the following variables are
7945 either standardized as being vivid parts of process environments, or
7946 are commonly found in there.
7947 The process environment is inherited from the
7949 once \*(UA is started, and unless otherwise explicitly noted variables
7950 in there integrate into the normal handling of
7951 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
7952 from \*(UAs point of view, i.e., they can be
7954 as such in resource files and need not necessarily come from the process
7955 environment and be managed via
7959 E.g., the following example, applicable to a POSIX shell, sets the
7961 environment variable for \*(UA only, and beforehand exports the
7963 in order to affect any further processing in the running shell:
7965 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7966 $ EDITOR="vim -u ${HOME}/.vimrc"
7968 $ COLUMNS=80 \*(ua -R
7971 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ev _AILR_"
7974 The user's preferred width in column positions for the terminal screen
7976 Queried and used once on program startup.
7980 The name of the file to use for saving aborted messages if
7982 is set; this defaults to
7990 Pathname of the text editor to use in the
7994 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
7995 A default editor is used if this value is not defined.
7999 The user's home directory.
8000 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
8003 to update the value at runtime.
8010 .It Ev LANG , LC_ALL , LC_COLLATE , LC_CTYPE , LC_MESSAGES
8014 .Sx "Character sets" .
8018 The user's preferred number of lines on a page or the vertical screen
8019 or window size in lines.
8020 Queried and used once on program startup.
8024 Pathname of the directory lister to use in the
8026 command when operating on local mailboxes.
8029 (path search through
8034 Force identification as the given user, i.e., identical to the
8036 command line option.
8037 This variable is standardized and therefore used in preference to the
8040 it is only used when it resides in the process environment.
8041 \*(ID The variable can be updated at runtime via
8043 but without having an effect on \*(UA itself.
8047 Is used as the user's mailbox, if set.
8048 Otherwise, a system-dependent default is used.
8049 Supports a logical subset of the special conventions that are documented
8058 \*(OP Overrides the default path search for
8059 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
8060 which is defined in the standard RFC 1524 as
8061 .Ql ~/.mailcap:\:/etc/mailcap:\:/usr/etc/mailcap:\:/usr/local/etc/mailcap .
8062 .\" TODO we should have a mailcaps-default virtual RDONLY option!
8063 (\*(UA makes it a configuration option, however.)
8064 Note this is not a search path, but a path search.
8068 Is used as a startup file instead of
8071 When \*(UA scripts are invoked on behalf of other users,
8072 either this variable should be set to
8076 command line option should be used in order to avoid side-effects from
8077 reading their configuration files.
8078 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
8082 The name of the user's mbox file.
8083 A logical subset of the special conventions that are documented for the
8088 The fallback default is
8093 Traditionally this secondary mailbox is used as the file to save
8094 messages from the system mailbox that have been read.
8096 .Sx "Message states" .
8099 .It Ev NAIL_NO_SYSTEM_RC
8100 If this variable is set then reading of
8102 at startup is inhibited, i.e., the same effect is achieved as if \*(UA
8103 had been started up with the option
8105 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
8109 \*(IN\*(OP This variable overrides the default location of the user's
8115 Pathname of the program to use in the more command or when the
8118 The default paginator is
8120 (path search through
8125 A list of directories that is searched by the shell when looking for
8126 commands (as such only recognized in the process environment).
8130 The shell to use for the commands
8136 and when starting subprocesses.
8137 A default shell is used if this option is not defined.
8141 \*(OP The terminal type for which output is to be prepared.
8142 For extended colour and font control please refer to
8143 .Sx "Coloured display" ,
8144 and for terminal capability queries to
8149 Used as directory for temporary files instead of
8152 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
8155 to update the value at runtime.
8159 This variable comes from the BSD world and is only used if the POSIX
8160 standard environment variable
8162 which originates in SysV
8165 Force identification as the given user, i.e., identical to the
8167 command line option.
8168 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
8169 \*(ID The variable can be updated at runtime via
8171 but without having an effect on \*(UA itself.
8175 Pathname of the text editor to use in the
8179 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
8187 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa _etc/mime.type_"
8189 File giving initial commands.
8192 System wide initialization file.
8196 \*(OP Personal MIME type handler definition file, see
8197 .Sx "The Mailcap files" .
8198 (RFC 1524 location, the actual path is a configuration option.)
8202 \*(OP System wide MIME type handler definition file, see
8203 .Sx "The Mailcap files" .
8204 (RFC 1524 location, the actual path is a configuration option.)
8207 .It Pa ~/.mime.types
8208 Personal MIME types, see
8209 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
8212 .It Pa /etc/mime.types
8213 System wide MIME types, see
8214 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
8218 \*(IN\*(OP The default location of the users
8220 file \(en the section
8221 .Sx "The .netrc file"
8222 documents the file format.
8225 .\" .Ss "The mime.types files" {{{
8226 .Ss "The mime.types files"
8228 When sending messages \*(UA tries to determine the content type of all
8230 When displaying message content or attachments \*(UA uses the content
8231 type to decide wether it can directly display data or wether it needs to
8232 deal with content handlers.
8233 It learns about MIME types and how to treat them by reading
8235 files, the loading of which can be controlled by setting the variable
8236 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
8239 can also be used to deal with MIME types.)
8241 files have the following syntax:
8244 .Dl type/subtype extension [extension ...]
8249 are strings describing the file contents, and one or multiple
8251 s, separated by whitespace, name the part of a filename starting after
8252 the last dot (of interest).
8253 Comments may be introduced anywhere on a line with a number sign
8255 causing the remaining line to be discarded.
8257 \*(UA also supports an extended, non-portable syntax in specially
8258 crafted files, which can be loaded via the alternative value syntax of
8259 .Va mimetypes-load-control
8260 and prepends an optional
8264 .Dl [type-marker ]type/subtype extension [extension ...]
8267 The following type markers are supported:
8270 .Bl -tag -compact -offset indent -width ".It Ar _n_u"
8272 Treat message parts with this content as plain text.
8277 Treat message parts with this content as HTML tagsoup.
8278 If the \*(OPal HTML-tagsoup-to-text converter is not available treat
8279 the content as plain text instead.
8283 but instead of falling back to plain text require an explicit content
8284 handler to be defined.
8289 for sending messages:
8291 .Va mime-allow-text-controls ,
8292 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
8293 For reading etc. messages:
8294 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ,
8295 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
8297 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
8298 .Va mimetypes-load-control ,
8299 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE ,
8300 .Va pipe-EXTENSION .
8303 .\" .Ss "The Mailcap files" {{{
8304 .Ss "The Mailcap files"
8307 .Dq User Agent Configuration Mechanism
8308 which \*(UA \*(OPally supports.
8309 It defines a file format to be used to inform mail user agent programs
8310 about the locally-installed facilities for handling various data
8311 formats, i.e., about commands and how they can be used to display, edit
8312 etc. MIME part contents, as well as a default path search that includes
8313 multiple possible locations of
8317 environment variable that can be used to overwrite that (repeating here
8318 that it is not a search path, but instead a path search specification).
8319 Any existing files will be loaded in sequence, appending any content to
8320 the list of MIME type handler directives.
8324 files consist of a set of newline separated entries.
8325 Comment lines start with a number sign
8327 (in the first column!) and are ignored.
8328 Empty lines are also ignored.
8329 All other lines form individual entries that must adhere to the syntax
8331 To extend a single entry (not comment) its line can be continued on
8332 follow lines if newline characters are
8334 by preceding them with the backslash character
8336 The standard doesn't specify how leading whitespace of follow lines is
8337 to be treated, therefore \*(UA retains it.
8341 entries consist of a number of semicolon
8343 separated fields, and the backslash
8345 character can be used to escape any following character including
8346 semicolon and itself.
8347 The first two fields are mandatory and must occur in the specified
8348 order, the remaining fields are optional and may appear in any order.
8349 Leading and trailing whitespace of content is ignored (removed).
8352 The first field defines the MIME
8354 the entry is about to handle (case-insensitively, and no backslash
8355 escaping is possible in this field).
8356 If the subtype is specified as an asterisk
8358 the entry is ment to match all subtypes of the named type, e.g.,
8360 would match any audio type.
8361 The second field defines the shell command which shall be used to
8363 MIME parts of the given type; it is implicitly called the
8370 shell commands message (MIME part) data is passed via standard input
8371 unless the given shell command includes one or more instances of the
8374 in which case these instances will be replaced with a temporary filename
8375 and the data will have been stored in the file that is being pointed to.
8378 shell commands data is assumed to be generated on standard output unless
8379 the given command includes (one ore multiple)
8381 In any case any given
8383 format is replaced with a(n already) properly quoted filename.
8384 Note that when a command makes use of a temporary file via
8386 then \*(UA will remove it again, as if the
8387 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile ,
8388 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill
8390 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
8391 flags had been set; see below for more.
8394 The optional fields either define a shell command or an attribute (flag)
8395 value, the latter being a single word and the former being a keyword
8396 naming the field followed by an equals sign
8398 succeeded by a shell command, and as usual for any
8400 content any whitespace surrounding the equals sign will be removed, too.
8401 Optional fields include the following:
8404 .Bl -tag -width textualnewlines
8406 A program that can be used to compose a new body or body part in the
8413 field, but is to be used when the composing program needs to specify the
8415 header field to be applied to the composed data.
8419 A program that can be used to edit a body or body part in the given
8424 A program that can be used to print a message or body part in the given
8429 Specifies a program to be run to test some condition, e.g., the machine
8430 architecture, or the window system in use, to determine whether or not
8431 this mailcap entry applies.
8432 If the test fails, a subsequent mailcap entry should be sought; also see
8433 .Cd x-mailx-test-once .
8435 .It Cd needsterminal
8436 This flag field indicates that the given shell command must be run on
8437 an interactive terminal.
8438 \*(UA will temporarily release the terminal to the given command in
8439 interactive mode, in non-interactive mode this entry will be entirely
8440 ignored; this flag implies
8441 .Cd x-mailx-noquote .
8443 .It Cd copiousoutput
8444 A flag field which indicates that the output of the
8446 command will be an extended stream of textual output that can be
8447 (re)integrated into \*(UA's normal visual display.
8448 It is mutually exclusive with
8451 .Cd x-mailx-always .
8453 .It Cd textualnewlines
8454 A flag field which indicates that this type of data is line-oriented and
8457 all newlines should be converted to canonical form (CRLF) before
8458 encoding, and will be in that form after decoding.
8462 This field gives a file name format, in which
8464 will be replaced by a random string, the joined combination of which
8465 will be used as the filename denoted by
8466 .Ev NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY .
8467 One could specify that a GIF file being passed to an image viewer should
8468 have a name ending in
8471 .Ql nametemplate=%s.gif .
8472 Note that \*(UA ignores the name template unless that solely specifies
8473 a filename suffix that consists of (ASCII) alphabetic and numeric
8474 characters, the underscore and dot only.
8477 Names a file, in X11 bitmap (xbm) format, which points to an appropriate
8478 icon to be used to visually denote the presence of this kind of data.
8479 This field is not used by \*(UA.
8482 A textual description that describes this type of data.
8484 .It Cd x-mailx-always
8485 Extension flag field that denotes that the given
8487 command shall be executed even if multiple messages will be displayed
8489 Normally messages which require external viewers that produce output
8490 which doesn't integrate into \*(UA's visual display (i.e., don't have
8492 set) have to be addressed directly and individually.
8493 (To avoid cases where, e.g., a thousand PDF viewer instances are spawned
8496 .It Cd x-mailx-even-if-not-interactive
8497 An extension flag test field \(em by default handlers without
8499 are entirely ignored in non-interactive mode, but if this flag is set
8500 then their use will be considered.
8501 It is an error if this flag is set for commands that use the flag
8504 .It Cd x-mailx-noquote
8505 An extension flag field that indicates that even a
8508 command shall not be used to generate message quotes
8509 (as it would be by default).
8511 .It Cd x-mailx-async
8512 Extension flag field that denotes that the given
8514 command shall be executed asynchronously, without blocking \*(UA.
8515 Cannot be used in conjunction with
8518 .It Cd x-mailx-test-once
8519 Extension flag which denotes wether the given
8521 command shall be evaluated once only and the (boolean) result be cached.
8522 This is handy if some global unchanging condition is to be queried, like
8523 .Dq running under the X Window System .
8525 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile
8526 Extension flag field that requests creation of a zero-sized temporary
8527 file, the name of which is to be placed in the environment variable
8528 .Ev NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY .
8529 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
8533 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill
8534 Normally the MIME part content is passed to the handler via standard
8535 input; if this flag is set then the data will instead be written into
8537 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile .
8538 In order to cause deletion of the temporary file you will have to set
8539 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
8541 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
8545 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
8546 Extension flag field that requests that the temporary file shall be
8547 deleted automatically when the command loop is entered again at latest.
8548 (Don't use this for asynchronous handlers.)
8549 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
8551 format, or without also setting
8554 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill .
8556 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-keep
8559 implies the three tmpfile related flags above, but if you want, e.g.,
8561 and deal with the temporary file yourself, you can add in this flag to
8563 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink .
8568 The standard includes the possibility to define any number of additional
8569 entry fields, prefixed by
8571 Flag fields apply to the entire
8573 entry \(em in some unusual cases, this may not be desirable, but
8574 differentiation can be accomplished via separate entries, taking
8575 advantage of the fact that subsequent entries are searched if an earlier
8576 one does not provide enough information.
8579 command needs to specify the
8583 command shall not, the following will help out the latter (with enabled
8587 level \*(UA will show informations about handler evaluation):
8589 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8590 application/postscript; ps-to-terminal %s; needsterminal
8591 application/postscript; ps-to-terminal %s; compose=idraw %s
8595 In fields any occurrence of the format string
8597 will be replaced by the
8600 Named parameters from the
8602 field may be placed in the command execution line using
8604 followed by the parameter name and a closing
8607 The entire parameter should appear as a single command line argument,
8608 regardless of embedded spaces; thus:
8610 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8612 Content-type: multipart/mixed; boundary=42
8615 multipart/*; /usr/local/bin/showmulti \e
8616 %t %{boundary} ; composetyped = /usr/local/bin/makemulti
8618 # Executed shell command
8619 /usr/local/bin/showmulti multipart/mixed 42
8623 .\" TODO v15: Mailcap: %n,%F
8624 Note that \*(UA doesn't support handlers for multipart MIME parts as
8625 shown in this example (as of today).
8626 \*(UA doesn't support the additional formats
8630 An example file, also showing how to properly deal with the expansion of
8632 which includes any quotes that are necessary to make it a valid shell
8633 argument by itself and thus will cause undesired behaviour when placed
8634 in additional user-provided quotes:
8636 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8638 text/richtext; richtext %s; copiousoutput
8640 text/x-perl; perl -cWT %s
8644 trap "rm -f ${infile}" EXIT\e; \e
8645 trap "exit 75" INT QUIT TERM\e; \e
8647 x-mailx-async; x-mailx-tmpfile-keep
8649 application/*; echo "This is \e"%t\e" but \e
8650 is 50 \e% Greek to me" \e; < %s head -c 1024 | cat -vET; \e
8651 copiousoutput; x-mailx-noquote
8656 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ,
8657 .Sx "The mime.types files" ,
8660 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
8661 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE ,
8662 .Va pipe-EXTENSION .
8665 .\" .Ss "The .netrc file" {{{
8666 .Ss "The .netrc file"
8670 file contains user credentials for machine accounts.
8671 The default location in the user's
8673 directory may be overridden by the
8675 environment variable.
8676 The file consists of space, tabulator or newline separated tokens.
8677 \*(UA implements a parser that supports a superset of the original BSD
8678 syntax, but users should nonetheless be aware of portability glitches
8679 of that file format, shall their
8681 be usable across multiple programs and platforms:
8684 .Bl -bullet -compact
8686 BSD doesn't support single, but only double quotation marks, e.g.,
8687 .Ql password="pass with spaces" .
8689 BSD (only?) supports escaping of single characters via a backslash
8690 (e.g., a space can be escaped via
8692 in- as well as outside of a quoted string.
8694 BSD doesn't require the final quotation mark of the final user input token.
8696 The original BSD (Berknet) parser also supported a format which allowed
8697 tokens to be separated with commas \(en whereas at least Hewlett-Packard
8698 still seems to support this syntax, \*(UA does not!
8700 As a non-portable extension some widely-used programs support
8701 shell-style comments: if an input line starts, after any amount of
8702 whitespace, with a number sign
8704 then the rest of the line is ignored.
8706 Whereas other programs may require that the
8708 file is accessible by only the user if it contains a
8714 \*(UA will always require these strict permissions.
8718 Of the following list of supported tokens \*(UA only uses (and caches)
8723 At runtime the command
8725 can be used to control \*(UAs
8729 .Bl -tag -width password
8730 .It Cd machine Ar name
8731 The hostname of the entries' machine, lowercase-normalized by \*(UA
8733 Any further file content, until either end-of-file or the occurrence
8738 first-class token is bound (only related) to the machine
8741 As an extension that shouldn't be the cause of any worries
8742 \*(UA supports a single wildcard prefix for
8744 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8745 machine *.example.com login USER password PASS
8746 machine pop3.example.com login USER password PASS
8747 machine smtp.example.com login USER password PASS
8753 .Ql pop3.example.com ,
8757 .Ql local.smtp.example.com .
8758 Note that in the example neither
8759 .Ql pop3.example.com
8761 .Ql smtp.example.com
8762 will be matched by the wildcard, since the exact matches take
8763 precedence (it is however faster to specify it the other way around).
8768 except that it is a fallback entry that is used shall none of the
8769 specified machines match; only one default token may be specified,
8770 and it must be the last first-class token.
8772 .It Cd login Ar name
8773 The user name on the remote machine.
8775 .It Cd password Ar string
8776 The user's password on the remote machine.
8778 .It Cd account Ar string
8779 Supply an additional account password.
8780 This is merely for FTP purposes.
8782 .It Cd macdef Ar name
8784 A macro is defined with the specified
8786 it is formed from all lines beginning with the next line and continuing
8787 until a blank line is (consecutive newline characters are) encountered.
8790 entries cannot be utilized by multiple machines, too, but must be
8791 defined following the
8793 they are intended to be used with.)
8796 exists, it is automatically run as the last step of the login process.
8797 This is merely for FTP purposes.
8804 .\" .Sh EXAMPLES {{{
8807 .\" .Ss "An example configuration" {{{
8808 .Ss "An example configuration"
8810 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8811 # This example assumes v15.0 compatibility mode
8814 # Where are the up-to-date SSL certificates?
8815 #set ssl-ca-dir=/etc/ssl/certs
8816 set ssl-ca-file=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
8818 # (Since we manage up-to-date ones explicitly, don't use any,
8819 # possibly outdated, default certificates shipped with OpenSSL
8820 set ssl-no-default-ca
8822 # Don't use protocols older than TLS v1.2.
8823 # Change this only when the remote server doesn't support it:
8824 # maybe use ssl-protocol-HOST (or -USER@HOST) syntax to define
8825 # such explicit exceptions, then
8826 set ssl-protocol="-ALL,+TLSv1.2"
8828 # Explicitly define the list of ciphers, which may improve security,
8829 # especially with protocols older than TLS v1.2. See ciphers(1).
8830 # Hint: it is important to include "@STRENGTH": only with it the
8831 # final list will be sorted by algorithm strength.
8832 # This is an example: in reality it is possibly best to only use
8833 # ssl-cipher-list-HOST (or -USER@HOST), as necessary, again..
8834 set ssl-cipher-list="ALL:!aNULL:!MEDIUM:!LOW:\e
8835 !MD5:!RC4:!EXPORT:@STRENGTH"
8837 # Request strict transport security checks!
8838 set ssl-verify=strict
8840 # Essential setting: select allowed character sets
8841 set sendcharsets=utf-8,iso-8859-1
8843 # A very kind option: when replying to a message, first try to
8844 # use the same encoding that the original poster used herself!
8845 set reply-in-same-charset
8847 # When replying to or forwarding a message the comment and name
8848 # parts of email addresses are removed unless this variable is set
8851 # When sending messages, wait until the Mail-Transfer-Agent finishs.
8852 # Only like this you'll be able to see errors reported through the
8853 # exit status of the MTA (including the builtin SMTP one)!
8856 # Only use builtin MIME types, no mime.types(5) files
8857 set mimetypes-load-control
8859 # Default directory where we act in (relative to $HOME)
8861 # A leading "+" (often) means: under *folder*
8862 # *record* is used to save copies of sent messages
8863 set MBOX=+mbox.mbox record=+sent.mbox DEAD=+dead.mbox
8865 # Make "file mymbox" and "file myrec" go to..
8866 shortcut mymbox %:+mbox.mbox myrec +sent.mbox
8868 # Not really optional, e.g., for S/MIME
8869 set from="Your Name <youremail@domain>"
8871 # It may be necessary to set hostname and/or smtp-hostname
8872 # if the "SERVER" of smtp and "domain" of from don't match.
8873 # The `urlencode' command can be used to encode USER and PASS
8874 set smtp=(smtp[s]/submission)://[USER[:PASS]@]SERVER[:PORT] \e
8875 smtp-auth=login/plain... \e
8878 # Never refuse to start into interactive mode, and more
8880 colour-pager crt= \e
8881 followup-to followup-to-honour=ask-yes \e
8882 history-file=+.\*(uahist history-size=-1 history-gabby \e
8883 mime-counter-evidence=0xE \e
8884 prompt="\e033[31m?\e?[\e$ \e@]\e& \e033[0m" \e
8885 reply-to-honour=ask-yes
8887 # When `p'rinting messages, show only these headers
8888 # (use `P'rint for all headers and `S'how for raw message)
8889 retain date from to cc subject
8891 # Some mailing lists
8892 mlist @xyz-editor.xyz$ @xyzf.xyz$
8893 mlsubscribe ^xfans@xfans.xyz$
8895 # A real life example of a very huge free mail provider
8897 set from="Your Name <youremail@domain>"
8898 # (The plain smtp:// proto is optional)
8899 set smtp=USER:PASS@smtp.gmXil.com smtp-use-starttls
8902 # Here is a pretty large one which does not allow sending mails
8903 # if there is a domain name mismatch on the SMTP protocol level,
8904 # which would bite us if the value of from does not match, e.g.,
8905 # for people who have a sXXXXeforge project and want to speak
8906 # with the mailing list under their project account (in from),
8907 # still sending the message through their normal mail provider
8909 set from="Your Name <youremail@domain>"
8910 set smtp=smtps://USER:PASS@smtp.yaXXex.ru:465 \e
8911 hostname=yaXXex.com smtp-hostname=
8914 # Create some new commands so that, e.g., `ls /tmp' will..
8925 ghost llS !ls -aFlrS
8928 # We don't support gpg(1) directly yet. But simple --clearsign'd
8929 # message parts can be dealt with as follows:
8932 set pipe-text/plain="@*#++=@\e
8933 < \e"${NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}\e" awk \e
8934 -v TMPFILE=\e"${NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}\e" '\e
8936 /^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----/,/^$/ {\e
8939 print \e"--- GPG --verify ---\e";\e
8940 system(\e"gpg --verify \e" TMPFILE \e" 2>&1\e");\e
8941 print \e"--- GPG --verify ---\e";\e
8945 /^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----/,\e
8946 /^-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----/ {\e
8956 !printf 'Key IDs to gpg --recv-keys: ';\e
8958 gpg --recv-keys ${keyids};
8964 When storing passwords in
8966 appropriate permissions should be set on this file with
8967 .Ql $ chmod 0600 \*(ur .
8970 is available user credentials can be stored in the central
8972 file instead; e.g., here is a different version of the example account
8973 that sets up SMTP and POP3:
8975 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8977 set from="Your Name <youremail@domain>"
8979 #set agent-shell-lookup="gpg -d .pass.gpg"
8981 set smtp=smtps://smtp.yXXXXx.ru:465 \e
8982 smtp-hostname= hostname=yXXXXx.com
8983 set pop3-keepalive=240 pop3-no-apop-pop.yXXXXx.ru
8984 ghost xp fi pop3s://pop.yXXXXx.ru
8993 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8994 machine *.yXXXXx.ru login USER password PASS
8999 .Va agent-shell-lookup
9000 is available things could be diversified further by using encrypted
9001 password storage: for this, don't specify
9005 file and instead uncomment the line that defines agent lookup in the
9008 above, then create the encrypted password storage file
9011 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9014 $ eval `gpg-agent --daemon \e
9015 --pinentry-program=/usr/bin/pinentry-curses \e
9016 --max-cache-ttl 99999 --default-cache-ttl 99999`
9020 This configuration should now work just fine (use the
9022 command line option for a(n almost) dry-run):
9025 .Dl $ echo text | \*(ua -vv -AXandeX -s Subject some@where
9028 .\" .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME" {{{
9029 .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
9031 \*(OP S/MIME provides two central mechanisms:
9032 message signing and message encryption.
9033 A signed message contains some data in addition to the regular text.
9034 The data can be used to verify that the message was sent using a valid
9035 certificate, that the sender's address in the message header matches
9036 that in the certificate, and that the message text has not been altered.
9037 Signing a message does not change its regular text;
9038 it can be read regardless of whether the recipient's software is able to
9042 It is thus usually possible to sign all outgoing messages if so desired.
9043 Encryption, in contrast, makes the message text invisible for all people
9044 except those who have access to the secret decryption key.
9045 To encrypt a message, the specific recipient's public encryption key
9047 It is therefore not possible to send encrypted mail to people unless their
9048 key has been retrieved from either previous communication or public key
9050 A message should always be signed before it is encrypted.
9051 Otherwise, it is still possible that the encrypted message text is
9055 A central concept to S/MIME is that of the certification authority (CA).
9056 A CA is a trusted institution that issues certificates.
9057 For each of these certificates it can be verified that it really
9058 originates from the CA, provided that the CA's own certificate is
9060 A set of CA certificates is usually delivered with OpenSSL and installed
9062 If you trust the source of your OpenSSL software installation,
9063 this offers reasonable security for S/MIME on the Internet.
9065 .Va ssl-no-default-ca
9069 .Va smime-ca-dir . )
9070 In general, a certificate cannot be more secure than the method its CA
9071 certificate has been retrieved with, though.
9072 Thus if you download a CA certificate from the Internet,
9073 you can only trust the messages you verify using that certificate as
9074 much as you trust the download process.
9077 The first thing you need for participating in S/MIME message exchange is
9078 your personal certificate, including a private key.
9079 The certificate contains public information, in particular your name and
9080 your email address(es), and the public key that is used by others to
9081 encrypt messages for you,
9082 and to verify signed messages they supposedly received from you.
9083 The certificate is included in each signed message you send.
9084 The private key must be kept secret.
9085 It is used to decrypt messages that were previously encrypted with your
9086 public key, and to sign messages.
9089 For personal use it is recommended that you get a S/MIME certificate
9090 from one of the major CAs on the Internet using your WWW browser.
9091 Many CAs offer such certificates for free.
9093 .Lk https://www.CAcert.org
9094 which issues client and server certificates to members of their
9095 community for free; their root certificate
9096 .Pf ( Lk https://\:www.cacert.org/\:certs/\:root.crt )
9097 is often not in the default set of trusted CA root certificates, though,
9098 which means you will have to download their root certificate separately
9099 and ensure it is part of our S/MIME certificate validation chain by
9102 or as a vivid member of the
9104 But let's take a step-by-step tour on how to setup S/MIME with
9105 a certificate from CAcert.org despite this situation!
9108 First of all you will have to become a member of the CAcert.org
9109 community, simply by registrating yourself via the web interface.
9110 Once you are, create and verify all email addresses you want to be able
9111 to create signed and encrypted messages for/with using the corresponding
9112 entries of the web interface.
9113 Now ready to create S/MIME certificates, so let's create a new
9114 .Dq client certificate ,
9115 ensure to include all email addresses that should be covered by the
9116 certificate in the following web form, and also to use your name as the
9120 Create a private key and a certificate request on your local computer
9121 (please see the manual pages of the used commands for more in-depth
9122 knowledge on what the used arguments etc. do):
9125 .Dl openssl req -nodes -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout key.pem -out creq.pem
9128 Afterwards copy-and-paste the content of
9130 into the certificate-request (CSR) field of the web form on the
9131 CAcert.org website (you may need to unfold some
9132 .Dq advanced options
9133 to see the corresponding text field).
9134 This last step will ensure that your private key (which never left your
9135 box) and the certificate belong together (through the public key that
9136 will find its way into the certificate via the certificate-request).
9137 You are now ready and can create your CAcert certified certificate.
9138 Download and store or copy-and-paste it as
9143 In order to use your new S/MIME setup you will have to create
9144 a combined private key/public key (certificate) file:
9147 .Dl cat key.pem pub.crt > ME@HERE.com.paired
9150 This is the file \*(UA will work with.
9151 If you have created your private key with a passphrase then \*(UA will
9152 ask you for it whenever a message is signed or decrypted.
9153 Set the following variables to henceforth use S/MIME (setting
9155 is of interest for verification only):
9157 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9158 set smime-ca-file=ALL-TRUSTED-ROOT-CERTS-HERE \e
9159 smime-sign-cert=ME@HERE.com.paired \e
9160 smime-sign-message-digest=SHA256 \e
9165 From each signed message you send, the recipient can fetch your
9166 certificate and use it to send encrypted mail back to you.
9167 Accordingly if somebody sends you a signed message, you can do the same,
9170 command to check the validity of the certificate.
9173 Variables of interest for S/MIME signing:
9177 .Va smime-crl-file ,
9178 .Va smime-no-default-ca ,
9180 .Va smime-sign-cert ,
9181 .Va smime-sign-include-certs
9183 .Va smime-sign-message-digest .
9186 After it has been verified save the certificate via
9188 and tell \*(UA that it should use it for encryption for further
9189 communication with that somebody:
9191 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9193 set smime-encrypt-USER@HOST=FILENAME \e
9194 smime-cipher-USER@HOST=AES256
9198 Additional variables of interest for S/MIME en- and decryption:
9201 .Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST .
9204 You should carefully consider if you prefer to store encrypted messages
9206 If you do, anybody who has access to your mail folders can read them,
9207 but if you do not, you might be unable to read them yourself later if
9208 you happen to lose your private key.
9211 command saves messages in decrypted form, while the
9215 commands leave them encrypted.
9218 Note that neither S/MIME signing nor encryption applies to message
9219 subjects or other header fields yet.
9220 Thus they may not contain sensitive information for encrypted messages,
9221 and cannot be trusted even if the message content has been verified.
9222 When sending signed messages,
9223 it is recommended to repeat any important header information in the
9227 .\" .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or SSL/TLS" {{{
9228 .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or SSL/TLS"
9230 \*(OP Certification authorities (CAs) issue certificate revocation
9231 lists (CRLs) on a regular basis.
9232 These lists contain the serial numbers of certificates that have been
9233 declared invalid after they have been issued.
9234 Such usually happens because the private key for the certificate has
9236 because the owner of the certificate has left the organization that is
9237 mentioned in the certificate, etc.
9238 To seriously use S/MIME or SSL/TLS verification,
9239 an up-to-date CRL is required for each trusted CA.
9240 There is otherwise no method to distinguish between valid and
9241 invalidated certificates.
9242 \*(UA currently offers no mechanism to fetch CRLs, nor to access them on
9243 the Internet, so you have to retrieve them by some external mechanism.
9246 \*(UA accepts CRLs in PEM format only;
9247 CRLs in DER format must be converted, like, e.\|g.:
9250 .Dl $ openssl crl \-inform DER \-in crl.der \-out crl.pem
9253 To tell \*(UA about the CRLs, a directory that contains all CRL files
9254 (and no other files) must be created.
9259 variables, respectively, must then be set to point to that directory.
9260 After that, \*(UA requires a CRL to be present for each CA that is used
9261 to verify a certificate.
9264 .\" .Ss "Handling spam" {{{
9267 \*(OP \*(UA can make use of several spam interfaces for the purpose of
9268 identification of, and, in general, dealing with spam messages.
9269 A precondition of most commands in order to function is that the
9271 variable is set to one of the supported interfaces.
9272 Once messages have been identified as spam their (volatile)
9274 state can be prompted: the
9278 message specifications will address respective messages and their
9280 entries will be used when displaying the
9282 in the header display.
9287 rates the given messages and sets their
9290 If the spam interface offers spam scores those can also be displayed in
9291 the header display by including the
9301 will interact with the Bayesian filter of the chosen interface and learn
9302 the given messages as
9306 respectively; the last command can be used to cause
9308 of messages; it adheres to their current
9310 state and thus reverts previous teachings.
9315 will simply set and clear, respectively, the mentioned volatile
9317 message flag, without any interface interaction.
9324 .Va spam-interface Ns s
9328 require a running instance of the
9330 server in order to function, started with the option
9332 shall Bayesian filter learning be possible.
9334 only works via a local path-based
9336 socket, but otherwise the following will be equivalently fine:
9338 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9339 $ spamd -i localhost:2142 -i /tmp/.spamsock -d [-L] [-l]
9340 $ spamd --listen=localhost:2142 --listen=/tmp/.spamsock \e
9341 --daemonize [--local] [--allow-tell]
9345 Thereafter \*(UA can make use of these interfaces:
9347 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9348 $ \*(ua -Sspam-interface=spamd -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
9349 -Sspamd-socket=/tmp/.spamsock -Sspamd-user=
9351 $ \*(ua -Sspam-interface=spamc -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
9352 -Sspamc-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \e
9353 -Sspamc-arguments="-U /tmp/.spamsock" -Sspamc-user=
9355 $ \*(ua -Sspam-interface=spamc -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
9356 -Sspamc-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \e
9357 -Sspamc-arguments="-d localhost -p 2142" -Sspamc-user=
9361 Using the generic filter approach allows usage of programs like
9365 Here is an example for the former, requiring it to be accessible via
9368 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9369 $ \*(ua -Sspam-interface=filter -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
9370 -Sspamfilter-ham="bogofilter -n" \e
9371 -Sspamfilter-noham="bogofilter -N" \e
9372 -Sspamfilter-nospam="bogofilter -S" \e
9373 -Sspamfilter-rate="bogofilter -TTu 2>/dev/null" \e
9374 -Sspamfilter-spam="bogofilter -s" \e
9375 -Sspamfilter-rate-scanscore="1;^(.+)$"
9379 Because messages must exist on local storage in order to be scored (or
9380 used for Bayesian filter training), it is possibly a good idea to
9381 perform the local spam check last:
9383 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9384 define spamdelhook {
9386 spamset (header x-dcc-brand-metrics "bulk")
9387 # Server-side spamassassin(1)
9388 spamset (header x-spam-flag "YES")
9389 del :s # TODO we HAVE to be able to do `spamrate :u ! :sS'
9395 set folder-hook-FOLDER=spamdelhook
9399 See also the documentation for the variables
9400 .Va spam-interface , spam-maxsize ,
9401 .Va spamc-command , spamc-arguments , spamc-user ,
9402 .Va spamd-socket , spamd-user ,
9403 .Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , spamfilter-nospam , \
9406 .Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore .
9414 .\" .Ss "\*(UA shortly hangs on startup" {{{
9415 .Ss "\*(UA shortly hangs on startup"
9417 This can have two reasons, one is the necessity to wait for a file lock
9418 and can't be helped, the other being that \*(UA calls the function
9420 in order to query the nodename of the box (sometimes the real one is
9421 needed instead of the one represented by the internal variable
9423 You may have varying success by ensuring that the real hostname and
9427 or, more generally, that the name service is properly setup \(en
9430 return what you'd expect?
9431 Does this local hostname has a domain suffix?
9432 RFC 6762 standardized the link-local top-level domain
9436 .\" .Ss "I can't login to Google mail a.k.a. GMail" {{{
9437 .Ss "I can't login to Google mail a.k.a. GMail"
9439 Since 2014 some free service providers classify programs as
9441 unless they use a special authentification method (OAuth 2.0) which
9442 wasn't standardized for non-HTTP protocol authentication token query
9443 until August 2015 (RFC 7628).
9446 Different to Kerberos / GSSAPI, which is developed since the mid of the
9447 1980s, where a user can easily create a local authentication ticket for
9448 her- and himself with the locally installed
9450 program, that protocol has no such local part but instead requires
9451 a world-wide-web query to create or fetch a token; since there is no
9452 local cache this query has to be performed whenever \*(UA is invoked
9453 from the command line (in interactive sessions situation may differ).
9456 \*(UA doesn't support OAuth.
9457 Because of this it is necessary to declare \*(UA a
9459 (on the providers account web page) in order to read and send mail.
9460 However, it also seems possible to take the following steps instead:
9465 give the provider the number of a mobile phone,
9468 .Dq 2-Step Verification ,
9470 create an application specific password (16 characters), and
9472 use that special password instead of your real Google account password in
9473 S-nail (for more on that see the section
9474 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
9480 .\" .Sh "SEE ALSO" {{{
9498 .Xr spamassassin 1 ,
9524 M. Douglas McIlroy writes in his article
9525 .Dq A Research UNIX Reader: Annotated Excerpts \
9526 from the Programmer's Manual, 1971-1986
9529 command already appeared in First Edition
9533 .Bd -ragged -offset indent
9534 Electronic mail was there from the start.
9535 Never satisfied with its exact behavior, everybody touched it at one
9536 time or another: to assure the safety of simultaneous access, to improve
9537 privacy, to survive crashes, to exploit uucp, to screen out foreign
9538 freeloaders, or whatever.
9539 Not until v7 did the interface change (Thompson).
9540 Later, as mail became global in its reach, Dave Presotto took charge and
9541 brought order to communications with a grab-bag of external networks
9547 Mail was written in 1978 by Kurt Shoens and developed as part of the
9550 distribution until 1995.
9551 Mail has then seen further development in open source
9553 variants, noticeably by Christos Zoulas in
9555 Basing upon this Nail, later Heirloom Mailx, was developed by Gunnar
9556 Ritter in the years 2000 until 2008.
9557 Since 2012 S-nail is maintained by Steffen (Daode) Nurpmeso.
9558 This man page is derived from
9559 .Dq The Mail Reference Manual
9560 that was originally written by Kurt Shoens.
9567 .An "Christos Zoulas" ,
9568 .An "Gunnar Ritter" ,
9569 .An "Steffen Nurpmeso" Aq Mt s-nail-users@lists.sourceforge.net
9571 .Mt s-mailx@sdaoden.eu ) .
9577 The character set conversion uses and relies upon the
9580 Its functionality differs widely between the various system environments
9584 Limitations with POP3 mailboxes are:
9585 It is not possible to edit messages, they can only be copied and deleted.
9586 The line count for the header display is only appropriate if the entire
9587 message has been downloaded from the server.
9588 The status field of a message is maintained by the server between
9589 connections; some servers do not update it at all, and with a server
9592 command will not cause the message status to be reset.
9597 variable have no effect.
9598 It is not possible to rename or to remove POP3 mailboxes.
9605 is typed while a POP3 operation is in progress, \*(UA will wait
9606 until the operation can be safely aborted, and will then return to the
9607 command loop and print the prompt again.
9610 is typed while \*(UA is waiting for the operation to complete, the
9611 operation itself will be cancelled.
9612 In this case, data that has not been fetched yet will have to be fetched
9613 before the next command can be performed.
9614 If the cancelled operation was using an SSL/TLS encrypted channel,
9615 an error in the SSL transport will very likely result and render the
9616 connection unusable.
9619 As \*(UA is a mail user agent, it provides only basic SMTP services.
9620 If it fails to contact its upstream SMTP server, it will not make
9621 further attempts to transfer the message at a later time,
9622 and it does not leave other information about this condition than an
9623 error message on the terminal and an entry in
9625 This is usually not a problem if the SMTP server is located in the same
9626 local network as the computer on which \*(UA is run.
9627 However, care should be taken when using a remote server of an ISP;
9628 it might be better to set up a local SMTP server then which just acts as
9632 \*(UA immediately contacts the SMTP server (or
9634 It would not make much sense for \*(UA to defer outgoing mail since SMTP
9635 servers usually provide much more elaborated delay handling than \*(UA
9636 could perform as a client.
9644 from the distribution or the repository.
9646 After deleting some message of a POP3 mailbox the header summary falsely
9647 claims that there are no messages to display, you need to perform
9648 a scroll or dot movement to restore proper state.
9650 In threaded display a power user may encounter crashes very
9651 occasionally (this is may and very).