1 .\"@ nail.1 - S-nail(1) reference manual.
3 .\" Copyright (c) 2000-2008 Gunnar Ritter, Freiburg i. Br., Germany.
4 .\" Copyright (c) 2012 - 2017 Steffen (Daode) Nurpmeso <steffen@sdaoden.eu>.
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34 .\"@ S-nail(1): v14.9.0-pre4 / 2017-04-13
36 .ds VV \\%v14.9.0-pre4
46 .\" If not ~/.mailrc, it breaks POSIX compatibility. And adjust main.c.
51 .ds OU [no v15-compat]
52 .ds ID [v15 behaviour may differ]
53 .ds NQ [Only new quoting rules]
64 .Nd send and receive Internet mail
70 .\" Keep in SYNC: ./nail.1:"SYNOPSIS, main()
78 .Op : Ns Fl a Ar attachment Ns \&:
79 .Op : Ns Fl b Ar bcc-addr Ns \&:
80 .Op : Ns Fl c Ar cc-addr Ns \&:
81 .Op Fl M Ar type | Fl m Ar file | Fl q Ar file | Fl t
84 .Fl S Ar var Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value Ns
87 .Op : Ns Fl X Ar cmd Ns \&:
89 .Pf : Ar to-addr Ns \&:
90 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns : Ns Ar mta-option Ns \&:
100 .Fl S Ar var Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value Ns
103 .Op : Ns Fl X Ar cmd Ns \&:
104 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns : Ns Ar mta-option Ns \&:
113 .Op Fl r Ar from-addr
115 .Fl S Ar var Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value Ns
117 .Op : Ns Fl X Ar cmd Ns \&:
119 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns : Ns Ar mta-option Ns \&:
124 .Mx -toc -tree html pdf ps xhtml
127 .\" .Sh DESCRIPTION {{{
130 .Bd -filled -compact -offset indent
131 .Sy Compatibility note:
132 S-nail (\*(UA) will wrap up into \%S-mailx in v15.0 (circa 2018).
133 Backward incompatibility has to be expected \(en
136 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
137 rules, for example, and shell metacharacters will become meaningful.
138 New and old behaviour is flagged \*(IN and \*(OU, and setting
141 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
142 will choose new behaviour when applicable.
143 \*(OB flags what will vanish, and enabling
147 enables obsoletion warnings.
151 \*(UA provides a simple and friendly environment for sending and
153 It is intended to provide the functionality of the POSIX
155 command, but is MIME capable and optionally offers extensions for
156 line editing, S/MIME, SMTP and POP3, among others.
157 \*(UA divides incoming mail into its constituent messages and allows
158 the user to deal with them in any order.
162 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
163 for manipulating messages and sending mail.
164 It provides the user simple editing capabilities to ease the composition
165 of outgoing messages, and increasingly powerful and reliable
166 non-interactive scripting capabilities.
168 .\" .Ss "Options" {{{
171 .Bl -tag -width ".It Fl BaNg"
174 Explicitly control which of the
176 shall be loaded: if the letter
178 is (case-insensitively) part of the
182 is loaded, likewise the letter
184 controls loading of the user's personal
186 file, whereas the letters
190 explicitly forbid loading of any resource files.
191 This option should be used by scripts: to avoid environmental noise they
194 from any configuration files and create a script-local environment,
195 explicitly setting any of the desired
196 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
199 This option overrides
206 command for the given user email
208 after program startup is complete (all resource files are loaded, any
210 setting is being established; only
212 commands have not been evaluated yet).
213 Being a special incarnation of
215 macros for the purpose of bundling longer-lived settings, activating
216 such an email account also switches to the accounts
218 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
223 .It Fl a Ar file Ns Op Ar =input-charset Ns Op Ar #output-charset
226 to the message (for compose mode opportunities refer to
230 .Sx "Filename transformations"
233 will be performed, but shell word expansion is restricted to the tilde
237 not be accessible but contain a
239 character, then anything before the
241 will be used as the filename, anything thereafter as a character set
244 If an input character set is specified,
245 .Mx -ix "character set specification"
246 but no output character set, then the given input character set is fixed
247 as-is, and no conversion will be applied;
248 giving the special string hyphen-minus
250 will be treated as if
252 has been specified (the default).
253 If an output character set has also been given then the conversion will
254 be performed exactly as specified and on-the-fly, not considering the
255 file's type and content.
256 As an exception, if the output character set is specified as hyphen-minus
258 then the default conversion algorithm (see
259 .Sx "Character sets" )
260 is applied (therefore no conversion is performed on-the-fly,
262 will be MIME-classified and its contents will be inspected first).
263 It is an error to specify anything but
265 if no character set conversion is available
267 does not include the term
272 (\*(OB: \*(UA will always use line-buffered output, to gain
273 line-buffered input even in batch mode enable batch mode via
278 Send a blind carbon copy to
280 ess, if the setting of
283 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
285 The option may be used multiple times.
287 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
291 Send carbon copies to the given receiver, if so allowed by
293 May be used multiple times.
298 the internal variable
300 which enables debug messages and disables message delivery,
301 among others; effectively turns almost any operation into a dry-run.
307 and thus discard messages with an empty message part body.
308 This command line option is \*(OB.
312 Just check if mail is present (in the system
314 or the one specified via
316 if yes, return an exit status of zero, a non-zero value otherwise.
317 To restrict the set of mails to consider in this evaluation a message
318 specification can be added with the option
323 Save the message to send in a file named after the local part of the
324 first recipient's address (instead of in
329 Read in the contents of the user's
331 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
333 (or the specified file) for processing;
334 when \*(UA is quit, it writes undeleted messages back to this file
340 argument will undergo some special
341 .Sx "Filename transformations"
346 is not a argument to the flag
348 but is instead taken from the command line after option processing has
352 that starts with a hyphen-minus, prefix with a relative path, as in
353 .Ql ./-hyphenbox.mbox .
359 and exit; a configurable summary view is available via the
365 Show a short usage summary.
371 to ignore tty interrupt signals.
377 of all messages that match the given
381 .Sx "Specifying messages"
388 option has been given in addition no header summary is produced,
389 but \*(UA will instead indicate via its exit status whether
395 note that any verbose output is suppressed in this mode and must instead
396 be enabled explicitly (e.g., by using the option
401 Special send mode that will flag standard input with the MIME
405 and use it as the main message body.
406 \*(ID Using this option will bypass processing of
407 .Va message-inject-head ,
410 .Va message-inject-tail .
416 Special send mode that will MIME classify the specified
418 and use it as the main message body.
419 \*(ID Using this option will bypass processing of
420 .Va message-inject-head ,
423 .Va message-inject-tail .
429 inhibit the initial display of message headers when reading mail or
430 editing a mail folder by calling
432 for the internal variable
437 Standard flag that inhibits reading the system wide
442 allows more control over the startup sequence; also see
443 .Sx "Resource files" .
447 Special send mode that will initialize the message body with the
448 contents of the specified
450 which may be standard input
452 only in non-interactive context.
458 Any folder opened will be in read-only mode.
462 .It Fl r Ar from-addr
463 The source address that appears in the
466 header of a message (or in the
469 header if the former contains multiple addresses) is not used for
470 relaying and delegating a message over the wire via SMTP, but instead an
471 envelope will enwrap the message content and provide the necessary
472 information (i.e., the RFC 5321 reverse-path, also used to report, e.g.,
473 delivery errors) to transmit the message to its destination(s).
474 Whereas said headers and internal variables will be used by \*(UA to
475 create the envelope if the builtin SMTP
477 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) is used, a file-based MTA will instead use the
478 identity of the message-originating user.
480 This command line option can be used to specify the reverse-path, to be
481 passed to a file-based
483 when a message is sent, via
484 .Ql -f Ar from-addr .
487 include a user name, then the address components will be separated and
488 the name part will be passed to a file-based
494 is also assigned to the internal variable
496 Many default installations and sites disallow explicit overriding of the
497 user identity which could be adjusted by this option, unless either
499 has been configured accordingly, or the user is member of a group with
500 special privileges, respectively.
502 If an empty string is passed as
504 then the content of the variable
506 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
508 will be evaluated and used for this purpose whenever the file-based
511 Note that \*(UA by default, without
513 that is, neither passes
517 command line options to a file-based MTA by itself, unless this
518 automatic deduction is enforced by
520 ing the internal variable
521 .Va r-option-implicit .
525 .It Fl S Ar var Ns Op = Ns value
529 iable and, in case of a non-boolean variable which has a value, assign
533 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
537 may be overwritten from within resource files,
538 the command line setting will be reestablished after all resource files
539 have been loaded in the order they have been given on the command line.
543 Specify the subject of the message to be sent.
544 Newline (NL) and carriage-return (CR) bytes are invalid and will be
545 normalized to space (SP) characters.
549 The message given (on standard input) is expected to contain, separated
550 from the message body by an empty line, a message header with
555 fields giving its recipients, which will be added to any recipients
556 specified on the command line.
557 If a message subject is specified via
559 then it will be used in favour of one given on the command line.
575 .Ql Mail-Followup-To: ,
576 by default created automatically dependent on message context, will
577 be used if specified (a special address massage will however still occur
579 Any other custom header field (also see
582 is passed through entirely
583 unchanged, and in conjunction with the option
585 it is possible to embed
586 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
594 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
597 appropriate privileges presumed; effectively identical to
607 will also show the list of
609 .Ql $ \*(uA -Xversion -Xx .
614 ting the internal variable
616 enables display of some informational context messages.
617 Using it twice increases the level of verbosity.
621 Add the given (or multiple for a multiline argument)
623 to the list of commands to be executed,
624 as a last step of program startup, before normal operation starts.
625 This is the only possibility to execute commands in non-interactive mode
626 when reading startup files is actively prohibited.
627 The commands will be evaluated as a unit, just as via
637 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
638 in compose mode even in non-interactive use cases.
639 This can be used to, e.g., automatically format the composed message
640 text before sending the message:
641 .Bd -literal -offset indent
642 $ ( echo 'line one. Word. Word2.';\e
643 echo '~| /usr/bin/fmt -tuw66' ) |\e
644 LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d~:/ -Sttycharset=utf-8 bob@exam.ple
649 Enables batch mode: standard input is made line buffered, the complete
650 set of (interactive) commands is available, processing of
651 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
652 is enabled in compose mode, and diverse
653 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
654 are adjusted for batch necessities, exactly as if done via
670 The following prepares an email message in a batched dry run:
671 .Bd -literal -offset indent
672 $ LC_ALL=C printf 'm bob\en~s ubject\enText\en~.\enx\en' |\e
673 LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d#:/ -X'alias bob bob@exam.ple'
678 This flag forces termination of option processing in order to prevent
681 It also forcefully puts \*(UA into send mode, see
682 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
690 argument, as well as all receivers established by the command line options
694 are subject to checks established via
697 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" .
699 .Op Ar mta-option ...
701 arguments that are given at the end of the command line after a
703 separator will be passed through to a file-based
705 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) and persist for an entire (interactive) session
706 \(en if the setting of the internal variable
708 allows their recognition; no such constraints apply to the variable
712 .\" .Ss "A starter" {{{
715 \*(UA is a direct descendant of
717 Mail, a successor of the Research
720 .Dq was there from the start
723 It thus represents the user side of the
725 mail system, whereas the system side (Mail-Transfer-Agent, MTA) was
726 traditionally taken by
728 and most MTAs provide a binary of this name for compatibility purposes.
733 of \*(UA then the system side is not a mandatory precondition for mail
737 Because \*(UA strives for compliance with POSIX
739 it is likely that some configuration settings have to be adjusted before
740 using it is a smooth experience.
743 resource file bends those standard imposed settings of the
744 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
745 a bit towards more user friendliness and safety, however, e.g., it
750 in order to suppress the automatic moving of messages to the
752 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
754 that would otherwise occur (see
755 .Sx "Message states" ) ,
758 to not remove empty system (MBOX) mailbox files in order not to mangle
759 file permissions when files eventually get recreated \(en
760 \*(UA will remove all empty (MBOX) mailbox files unless this variable is
763 mode has been enabled.
764 The file mode creation mask is explicitly managed via
770 in order to synchronize \*(UA with the exit status report of the used
775 to enter interactive startup even if the initial mailbox is empty,
777 to allow editing of headers as well as
779 to not strip down addresses in compose mode, and
781 to include the message that is being responded to when
786 contains some more complete configuration examples.
789 .\" .Ss "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" {{{
790 .Ss "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode"
792 To send a message to one or more people, using a local or a builtin
794 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) transport to actually deliver the generated mail
795 message, \*(UA can be invoked with arguments which are the names of
796 people to whom the mail will be sent, and the command line options
800 can be used to add (blind) carbon copy receivers:
802 .Bd -literal -offset indent
804 $ \*(uA -s ubject -a ttach.txt bill@exam.ple
806 # But... try it in an isolated dry-run mode (-d) first
807 $ LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d -:/ -Ssendwait \e
808 -b bcc@exam.ple -c cc@exam.ple \e
809 -. '(Lovely) Bob <bob@exam.ple>' eric@exam.ple
812 $ LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d -:/ -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait \e
813 -S mta=smtps://mylogin@exam.ple:465 -Ssmtp-auth=none \e
814 -S from=scriptreply@exam.ple \e
820 If standard input is a terminal rather than the message to be sent,
821 the user is expected to type in the message contents.
822 In this compose mode \*(UA treats lines beginning with the character
824 special \(en these are so-called
825 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ,
826 which can be used to read in files, process shell commands, add and edit
827 attachments and more; e.g., the command escape
829 will start the text editor to revise the message in its current state,
831 allows editing of the most important message headers, with
833 custom headers can be created (more specifically than with
836 gives an overview of most other available command escapes.
840 at the beginning of an empty line leaves compose mode and causes the
841 message to be sent, whereas typing
844 twice will abort the current letter (saving its contents in the file
855 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
856 can be used to alter default behavior.
857 E.g., messages are sent asynchronously, without supervision, unless the
860 is set, therefore send errors will not be recognizable until then.
865 will automatically startup a text editor when compose mode is entered,
867 allows editing of headers additionally to plain body content, whereas
871 will cause the user to be prompted actively for (blind) carbon-copy
872 recipients, respectively, if the given list is empty.
877 .Va on-compose-cleanup )
878 hook variables may be set to
880 d macros to automatically adjust some settings dependent
881 on receiver, sender or subject contexts, and via the
882 .Va on-compose-splice
884 .Va on-compose-splice-shell
885 variables, the former also to be set to a
887 d macro, increasingly powerful mechanisms to perform automated message
888 adjustments are available.
891 Especially for using public mail provider accounts with the SMTP
893 it is often necessary to set
897 (even finer control via
898 .Va smtp-hostname ) ,
899 which (even if empty) also causes creation of
905 is set; saving a copy of sent messages in a
907 mailbox may be desirable \(en as for most mailbox
909 targets the value will undergo
910 .Sx "Filename transformations" .
913 for the purpose of arranging a complete environment of settings that can
914 be switched to with a single command or command line option may be
917 contains example configurations for sending messages via some of the
918 well-known public mail providers and also gives a compact overview on
919 how to setup a secure SSL/TLS environment).
924 sandbox dry-run tests first will prove correctness.
928 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
929 will spread light on the different ways of how to specify user email
930 account credentials, the
932 variable chains, and accessing protocol-specific resources,
935 goes into the details of character encodings, and how to use them for
936 interpreting the input data given in
938 and representing messages and MIME part contents in
940 and reading the section
941 .Sx "The mime.types files"
942 should help to understand how the MIME-type of outgoing attachments are
943 classified, and what can be done for fine-tuning.
944 Over the wire an intermediate, configurable
945 .Pf content-transfer-\: Va encoding
946 may be applied to the raw message part data.
949 Message recipients (as specified on the command line or defined in
954 may not only be email addressees but can also be names of mailboxes and
955 even complete shell command pipe specifications.
958 is not set then only network addresses (see
960 for a description of mail addresses) and plain user names (including MTA
961 aliases) may be used, other types will be filtered out, giving a warning
965 can be used to generate standard compliant network addresses.
967 .\" When changing any of the following adjust any RECIPIENTADDRSPEC;
968 .\" grep the latter for the complete picture
972 is set then extended recipient addresses will optionally be accepted:
973 Any name which starts with a vertical bar
975 character specifies a command pipe \(en the command string following the
977 is executed and the message is sent to its standard input;
978 Likewise, any name that starts with the character solidus
980 or the character sequence dot solidus
982 is treated as a file, regardless of the remaining content;
983 likewise a name that solely consists of a hyphen-minus
985 Any other name which contains a commercial at
987 character is treated as a network address;
988 Any other name which starts with a plus sign
990 character specifies a mailbox name;
991 Any other name which contains a solidus
993 character but no exclamation mark
997 character before also specifies a mailbox name;
998 What remains is treated as a network address.
1000 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1001 $ echo bla | \*(uA -Sexpandaddr -s test ./mbox.mbox
1002 $ echo bla | \*(uA -Sexpandaddr -s test '|cat >> ./mbox.mbox'
1003 $ echo safe | LC_ALL=C \e
1004 \*(uA -:/ -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait \e
1005 -Sexpandaddr=fail,-all,+addr,failinvaddr -s test \e
1010 It is possible to create personal distribution lists via the
1012 command, so that, for instance, the user can send mail to
1014 and have it go to a group of people.
1015 These aliases have nothing in common with the system wide aliases that
1016 may be used by the MTA, which are subject to the
1020 and are often tracked in a file
1026 Personal aliases will be expanded by \*(UA before the message is sent,
1027 and are thus a convenient alternative to specifying each addressee by
1028 itself; they correlate with the active set of
1035 .Dl alias cohorts bill jkf mark kridle@ucbcory ~/mail/cohorts.mbox
1038 To avoid environmental noise scripts should
1040 \*(UA from any configuration files and create a script-local
1041 environment, ideally with the command line options
1043 to disable any configuration file in conjunction with repetitions of
1045 to specify variables:
1047 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1048 $ env LC_ALL=C \*(uA -:/ \e
1049 -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Sttycharset=utf-8 \e
1050 -Sexpandaddr=fail,-all,failinvaddr \e
1051 -S mta=smtps://mylogin@exam.ple:465 -Ssmtp-auth=login \e
1052 -S from=scriptreply@exam.ple \e
1053 -s 'Subject to go' -a attachment_file \e
1054 -. 'Recipient 1 <rec1@exam.ple>' rec2@exam.ple \e
1059 As shown, scripts can
1061 a locale environment, the above specifies the all-compatible 7-bit clean
1064 but will nonetheless take and send UTF-8 in the message text by using
1066 In interactive mode, which is introduced in the next section, messages
1067 can be sent by calling the
1069 command with a list of recipient addresses \(em the semantics are
1070 completely identical to non-interactive message sending:
1072 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1073 $ \*(uA -d -Squiet -Semptystart
1074 "/var/spool/mail/user": 0 messages
1075 ? mail "Recipient 1 <rec1@exam.ple>", rec2@exam.ple
1076 ? # Will do the right thing (tm)
1077 ? m rec1@exam.ple rec2@exam.ple
1081 .\" .Ss "On reading mail, and interactive mode" {{{
1082 .Ss "On reading mail, and interactive mode"
1084 When invoked without addressees \*(UA enters interactive mode in which
1086 When used like that the user's system
1090 for an in-depth description of the different mailbox types that exist)
1091 is read in and a one line header of each message therein is displayed.
1092 The visual style of this summary of
1094 can be adjusted through the variable
1096 and the possible sorting criterion via
1102 can be performed with the command
1104 If the initially opened mailbox is empty \*(UA will instead exit
1105 immediately (after displaying a message) unless the variable
1114 will give a listing of all available commands and
1116 will give a summary of some common ones.
1117 If the \*(OPal documentation strings are available one can type
1120 and see the actual expansion of
1122 and what its purpose is, i.e., commands can be abbreviated
1123 (note that POSIX defines some abbreviations, so that the alphabetical
1124 order of commands does not necessarily relate to the abbreviations; it is
1125 however possible to define overwrites with
1126 .Ic commandalias ) .
1127 These commands can also produce a more
1132 Messages are given numbers (starting at 1) which uniquely identify
1133 messages; the current message \(en the
1135 \(en will either be the first new message, or the first unread message,
1136 or the first message of the mailbox; the internal variable
1138 will instead cause usage of the last message for this purpose.
1143 ful of header summaries containing the
1147 will display only the summaries of the given messages, defaulting to the
1151 Message content can be displayed with the command
1158 controls whether and when \*(UA will use the configured
1160 for display instead of directly writing to the user terminal
1162 the sole difference to the command
1164 which will always use the
1168 will instead only show the first
1170 of a message (maybe even compressed if
1173 Message display experience may improve by setting and adjusting
1174 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
1176 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" .
1179 By default the current message
1181 is displayed, but like with many other commands it is possible to give
1182 a fancy message specification (see
1183 .Sx "Specifying messages" ) ,
1186 will display all unread messages,
1191 will type the messages 1 and 5,
1193 will type the messages 1 through 5, and
1197 will display the last and the next message, respectively.
1200 (a more substantial alias for
1202 will display a header summary of the given message specification list
1203 instead of their content, e.g., the following will search for subjects:
1206 .Dl from "'@Some subject to search for'"
1209 In the default setup all header fields of a message will be
1211 d, but fields can be white- or blacklisted for a variety of
1212 applications by using the command
1214 e.g., to restrict display to a very restricted set:
1215 .Ql Ic \:headerpick Cd \:type retain Ar \:from to cc subject .
1216 In order to display all header fields of a message regardless of
1217 currently active ignore or retain lists, use the commands
1222 will show the raw message content.
1223 Note that historically the global
1225 not only adjusts the list of displayed headers, but also sets
1229 Dependent upon the configuration a line editor (see the section
1230 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
1231 aims at making user experience with the many
1234 When reading the system
1240 specified a mailbox explicitly prefixed with the special
1242 modifier (propagating the mailbox to a
1244 .Sx "primary system mailbox" ) ,
1245 then messages which have been read will be moved to a
1247 .Sx "secondary mailbox" ,
1250 file, automatically when the mailbox is left, either by changing the
1251 active mailbox or by quitting \*(UA (also see
1252 .Sx "Message states" )
1253 \(en this automatic moving from a system or primary to the secondary
1254 mailbox is not performed when the variable
1257 Messages can also be explicitly
1259 d to other mailboxes, whereas
1261 keeps the original message.
1263 can be used to write out data content of specific parts of messages.
1266 After examining a message the user can
1268 to the sender and all recipients (which will also be placed in
1271 .Va recipients-in-cc
1274 exclusively to the sender(s).
1277 ed (shorter alias is
1279 When replying to or forwarding a message recipient addresses will be
1280 stripped from comments and names unless the internal variable
1287 messages: the former will add a series of
1289 headers, whereas the latter will not; different to newly created
1290 messages these will not save even with
1292 unless the additional variable
1295 Of course messages can also be
1297 but can spring into existence again via
1299 or when the \*(UA session is ended via the
1304 To end a mail processing session one may either issue
1306 to cause a full program exit, which possibly includes
1307 automatic moving of read messages to the
1309 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
1311 as well as updating the \*(OPal line editor
1315 instead in order to prevent any of these actions.
1318 .\" .Ss "HTML mail and MIME attachments" {{{
1319 .Ss "HTML mail and MIME attachments"
1321 Messages which are HTML-only become more and more common and of course
1322 many messages come bundled with a bouquet of MIME (Multipurpose Internet
1323 Mail Extensions) parts for, e.g., attachments.
1324 To get a notion of MIME types, \*(UA will first read
1325 .Sx "The mime.types files"
1326 (as configured and allowed by
1327 .Va mimetypes-load-control ) ,
1328 and then add onto that types registered directly with
1330 It (normally) has a default set of types builtin, too.
1331 To improve interaction with faulty MIME part declarations which are
1332 often seen in real-life messages, setting
1333 .Va mime-counter-evidence
1334 will allow \*(UA to verify the given assertion and possibly provide
1335 an alternative MIME type.
1338 Whereas \*(UA \*(OPally supports a simple HTML-to-text converter for
1339 HTML messages, it cannot handle MIME types other than plain text itself.
1340 Instead programs need to become registered to deal with specific MIME
1341 types or file extensions.
1342 These programs may either prepare plain text versions of their input in
1343 order to enable \*(UA to integrate their output neatlessly in its own
1344 message visualization (a mode which is called
1345 .Cd copiousoutput ) ,
1346 or display the content themselves, for example in an external graphical
1347 window: such handlers will only be considered by and for the command
1351 To install a handler program for a specific MIME type an according
1352 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
1353 variable needs to be set; to instead define a handler for a specific
1354 file extension the respective
1356 variable can be used \(en these handlers take precedence.
1357 \*(OPally \*(UA supports mail user agent configuration as defined in
1358 RFC 1524; this mechanism (see
1359 .Sx "The Mailcap files" )
1360 will be queried for display or quote handlers if none of the former two
1361 .\" TODO v15-compat "will be" -> "is"
1362 did; it will be the sole source for handlers of other purpose.
1363 A last source for handlers is the MIME type definition itself, when
1364 a (\*(UA specific) type-marker was registered with the command
1366 (which many builtin MIME types do).
1369 E.g., to display a HTML message inline (that is, converted to a more
1370 fancy plain text representation than the builtin converter is capable to
1371 produce) with either of the text-mode browsers
1375 teach \*(UA about MathML documents and make it display them as plain
1376 text, and to open PDF attachments in an external PDF viewer,
1377 asynchronously and with some other magic attached:
1379 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1380 if [ "$features" !@ +filter-html-tagsoup ]
1381 #set pipe-text/html='@* elinks -force-html -dump 1'
1382 set pipe-text/html='@* lynx -stdin -dump -force_html'
1383 # Display HTML as plain text instead
1384 #set pipe-text/html=@
1386 mimetype @ application/mathml+xml mathml
1387 wysh set pipe-application/pdf='@&=@ \e
1388 trap "rm -f \e"${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}\e"" EXIT;\e
1389 trap "trap \e"\e" INT QUIT TERM; exit 1" INT QUIT TERM;\e
1390 mupdf "${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}"'
1394 .\" .Ss "Mailing lists" {{{
1397 \*(UA offers some support to ease handling of mailing lists.
1400 promotes all given arguments to known mailing lists, and
1402 sets their subscription attribute, creating them first as necessary.
1407 automatically, but only resets the subscription attribute.)
1408 Using the commands without arguments will show (a subset of) all
1409 currently defined mailing lists.
1414 can be used to mark out messages with configured list addresses
1415 in the header display.
1418 \*(OPally mailing lists may also be specified as (extended) regular
1419 expressions, which allows matching of many addresses with a single
1421 However, all fully qualified list addresses are matched via a fast
1422 dictionary, whereas expressions are placed in (a) list(s) which is
1423 (are) matched sequentially.
1425 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1426 set followup-to followup-to-honour=ask-yes reply-to-honour=ask-yes
1427 wysh mlist a1@b1.c1 a2@b2.c2 '.*@lists\e.c3$'
1428 mlsubscribe a4@b4.c4 exact@lists.c3
1433 .Va followup-to-honour
1435 .Ql Mail-\:Followup-\:To:
1436 header is honoured when the message is being replied to (via
1442 controls whether this header is created when sending mails; it will be
1443 created automatically for a couple of reasons, too, like when the
1445 .Dq mailing list specific
1450 is used to respond to a message with its
1451 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
1455 A difference in between the handling of known and subscribed lists is
1456 that the address of the sender is usually not part of a generated
1457 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
1458 when addressing the latter, whereas it is for the former kind of lists.
1459 Usually because there are exceptions: say, if multiple lists are
1460 addressed and not all of them are subscribed lists.
1462 For convenience \*(UA will, temporarily, automatically add a list
1463 address that is presented in the
1465 header of a message that is being responded to to the list of known
1467 Shall that header have existed \*(UA will instead, dependent on the
1469 .Va reply-to-honour ,
1472 for this purpose in order to accept a list administrators' wish that
1473 is supposed to have been manifested like that (but only if it provides
1474 a single address which resides on the same domain as what is stated in
1478 .\" .Ss "Resource files" {{{
1479 .Ss "Resource files"
1481 Upon startup \*(UA reads in several resource files:
1483 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa BaNg"
1486 System wide initialization file.
1487 Reading of this file can be suppressed, either by using the
1489 (and according argument) or
1491 command line options, or by setting the
1494 .Ev MAILX_NO_SYSTEM_RC .
1498 File giving initial commands.
1499 A different file can be chosen by setting the
1503 Reading of this file can be suppressed with the
1505 command line option.
1507 .It Va mailx-extra-rc
1508 Can be used to define an optional startup file to be read after all
1509 other resource files.
1510 It can be used to specify settings that are not understood by other
1512 implementations, for example.
1513 This variable is only honoured when defined in a resource file, e.g.,
1515 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" .
1519 The content of these files is interpreted as follows:
1522 .Bl -bullet -compact
1524 The whitespace characters space, tabulator and newline,
1525 as well as those defined by the variable
1527 are removed from the beginning and end of input lines.
1529 Empty lines are ignored.
1531 Any other line is interpreted as a command.
1532 It may be spread over multiple input lines if the newline character is
1534 by placing a reverse solidus character
1536 as the last character of the line; whereas any leading whitespace of
1537 follow lines is ignored, trailing whitespace before a escaped newline
1538 remains in the input.
1540 If the line (content) starts with the number sign
1542 then it is a comment-command \(en a real command! \(en and also ignored.
1543 This command is the only form of comment that is understood.
1547 Unless \*(UA is about to enter interactive mode syntax errors that occur
1548 while loading these files are treated as errors and cause program exit.
1549 More files with syntactically equal content can be
1551 The following, saved in a file, would be an examplary content:
1553 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1554 # This line is a comment command. And y\e
1555 es, it is really continued here.
1562 .\" .Ss "Character sets" {{{
1563 .Ss "Character sets"
1565 \*(OP \*(UA detects the character set of the terminal by using
1566 mechanisms that are controlled by the
1571 should give an overview): the \*(UA internal variable
1573 will be set to the detected terminal character set accordingly,
1574 and will thus show up in the output of the commands
1580 However, a user supplied
1582 value is not overwritten by this detection mechanism.
1583 I.e., it is actually possible to send mail in a completely
1585 locale environment, an option which can be used to generate and send,
1586 e.g., UTF-8 input data in a
1588 environment (an example of this can be found in the section
1589 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" ) .
1590 Changing the value does not mean much beside that, because several
1591 aspects of the real character set are implied by the locale environment
1592 of the system, which stays unaffected by
1596 If no character set conversion capabilities have been compiled into
1599 does not include the term
1603 will be the only supported character set,
1604 it is simply assumed that it can be used to exchange 8-bit messages
1605 (over the wire an intermediate
1606 .Pf content-transfer-\: Va encoding
1608 and the rest of this section does not apply;
1609 it may however still be necessary to explicitly set it if automatic
1610 detection fails, since in that case it defaults to the mentioned
1611 .\" (Keep in SYNC: ./nail.1:"Character sets", ./config.h:CHARSET_*!)
1615 When reading messages, their text is converted into
1617 as necessary in order to display them on the users terminal.
1618 Unprintable characters and invalid byte sequences are detected
1619 and replaced by proper substitution characters.
1620 Character set mappings for source character sets can be established with
1623 which may be handy to work around faulty character set catalogues (e.g.,
1624 to add a missing LATIN1 to ISO-8859-1 mapping), or to enforce treatment
1625 of one character set as another one (e.g., to interpret LATIN1 as CP1252).
1627 .Va charset-unknown-8bit
1628 to deal with another hairy aspect of message interpretation.
1631 When sending messages all their parts and attachments are classified.
1632 Whereas no character set conversion is performed on those parts which
1633 appear to be binary data,
1634 the character set being used must be declared within the MIME header of
1635 an outgoing text part if it contains characters that do not conform to
1636 the set of characters that are allowed by the email standards.
1637 Permissible values for character sets can be declared using the
1641 which defines a catch-all last-resort fallback character set that is
1642 implicitly appended to the list of character sets in
1646 When replying to a message and the variable
1647 .Va reply-in-same-charset
1648 is set then the character set of the message being replied to is tried
1649 first (after mapping via
1650 .Ic charsetalias ) .
1651 And it is also possible to make \*(UA work even more closely related to
1652 the current locale setting automatically by using the variable
1653 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset ,
1654 please see there for more information.
1657 All the specified character sets are tried in order unless the
1658 conversion of the part or attachment succeeds.
1659 If none of the tried (8-bit) character sets is capable to represent the
1660 content of the part or attachment,
1661 then the message will not be sent and its text will optionally be
1665 In general, if the message
1666 .Dq Cannot convert from a to b
1667 appears, either some characters are not appropriate for the currently
1668 selected (terminal) character set,
1669 or the needed conversion is not supported by the system.
1670 In the first case, it is necessary to set an appropriate
1672 locale and/or the variable
1676 The best results are usually achieved when \*(UA is run in a UTF-8
1677 locale on a UTF-8 capable terminal, in which case the full Unicode
1678 spectrum of characters is available.
1679 In this setup characters from various countries can be displayed,
1680 while it is still possible to use more simple character sets for sending
1681 to retain maximum compatibility with older mail clients.
1684 On the other hand the POSIX standard defines a locale-independent 7-bit
1685 .Dq portable character set
1686 that should be used when overall portability is an issue, the even more
1687 restricted subset named
1688 .Dq portable filename character set
1689 consisting of A-Z, a-z, 0-9, period
1697 .\" .Ss "Message states" {{{
1698 .Ss "Message states"
1700 \*(UA differentiates in between several different message states;
1701 the current state will be reflected in header summary displays if
1703 is configured to do so (via the internal variable
1705 and messages can also be selected and be acted upon depending on their
1707 .Sx "Specifying messages" ) .
1708 When operating on the system
1712 .Sx "primary system mailbox" ,
1713 special actions, like the automatic moving of messages to the
1715 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
1717 may be applied when the mailbox is left (also implicitly via
1718 a successful exit of \*(UA, but not if the special command
1720 is used) \(en however, because this may be irritating to users which
1723 mail-user-agents, the default global
1729 variables in order to suppress this behaviour.
1731 .Bl -hang -width ".It Ql new"
1733 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state.
1734 Such messages are retained even in the
1736 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
1739 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state, but the
1740 message was present already when the mailbox has been opened last:
1741 Such messages are retained even in the
1743 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
1746 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
1765 will always try to automatically
1771 logical message, and may thus mark multiple messages as read, the
1773 command will do so if the internal variable
1778 command is used, messages that are in a
1780 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
1783 state when the mailbox is left will be saved in the
1785 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
1787 unless the internal variable
1792 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
1798 can be used to access such messages.
1801 The message has been processed by a
1803 command and it will be retained in its current location.
1806 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
1812 command is used, messages that are in a
1814 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
1817 state when the mailbox is left will be deleted; they will be saved in the
1819 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
1821 when the internal variable
1827 In addition to these message states, flags which otherwise have no
1828 technical meaning in the mail system except allowing special ways of
1829 addressing them when
1830 .Sx "Specifying messages"
1831 can be set on messages.
1832 These flags are saved with messages and are thus persistent, and are
1833 portable between a set of widely used MUAs.
1835 .Bl -hang -width ".It Ic answered"
1837 Mark messages as having been answered.
1839 Mark messages as being a draft.
1841 Mark messages which need special attention.
1845 .\" .Ss "Specifying messages" {{{
1846 .Ss "Specifying messages"
1853 can be given a list of message numbers as arguments to apply to a number
1854 of messages at once.
1857 deletes messages 1 and 2,
1860 will delete the messages 1 through 5.
1861 In sorted or threaded mode (see the
1865 will delete the messages that are located between (and including)
1866 messages 1 through 5 in the sorted/threaded order, as shown in the
1869 The following special message names exist:
1872 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ar BaNg"
1874 The current message, the so-called
1878 The message that was previously the current message.
1881 The parent message of the current message,
1882 that is the message with the Message-ID given in the
1884 field or the last entry of the
1886 field of the current message.
1889 The next previous undeleted message,
1890 or the next previous deleted message for the
1893 In sorted/threaded mode,
1894 the next previous such message in the sorted/threaded order.
1897 The next undeleted message,
1898 or the next deleted message for the
1901 In sorted/threaded mode,
1902 the next such message in the sorted/threaded order.
1905 The first undeleted message,
1906 or the first deleted message for the
1909 In sorted/threaded mode,
1910 the first such message in the sorted/threaded order.
1914 In sorted/threaded mode,
1915 the last message in the sorted/threaded order.
1919 selects the message addressed with
1923 is any other message specification,
1924 and all messages from the thread that begins at it.
1925 Otherwise it is identical to
1930 the thread beginning with the current message is selected.
1935 All messages that were included in the
1936 .Sx "Message list arguments"
1937 of the previous command.
1940 An inclusive range of message numbers.
1941 Selectors that may also be used as endpoints include any of
1946 .Dq any substring matches
1949 header, which will match addresses (too) even if
1951 is set (and POSIX says
1952 .Dq any address as shown in a header summary shall be matchable in this form ) ;
1955 variable is set, only the local part of the address is evaluated
1956 for the comparison, not ignoring case, and the setting of
1958 is completely ignored.
1959 For finer control and match boundaries use the
1963 .It Ar / Ns Ar string
1964 All messages that contain
1966 in the subject field (case ignored).
1973 the string from the previous specification of that type is used again.
1975 .It Xo Op Ar @ Ns Ar name-list Ns
1978 All messages that contain the given case-insensitive search
1980 ession; if the \*(OPal regular expression (see
1982 support is available
1984 will be interpreted as (an extended) one if any of the
1986 (extended) regular expression characters is seen: in this case this
1987 should match strings correctly which are in the locale
1991 .Ar @ Ns Ar name-list
1992 part is missing, the search is restricted to the subject field body,
1995 specifies a comma-separated list of header fields to search, as in
1997 .Dl '@to,from,cc@Someone i ought to know'
1999 In order to search for a string that includes a
2001 (commercial at) character the
2003 is effectively non-optional, but may be given as the empty string.
2004 Some special header fields may be abbreviated:
2018 respectively and case-insensitively.
2023 can be used to search in (all of) the header(s) of the message, and the
2032 can be used to perform full text searches \(en whereas the former
2033 searches only the body, the latter also searches the message header.
2035 This message specification performs full text comparison, but even with
2036 regular expression support it is almost impossible to write a search
2037 expression that savely matches only a specific address domain.
2038 To request that the content of the header is treated as a list of
2039 addresses, and to strip those down to the plain email address which the
2040 search expression is to be matched against, prefix the header name
2041 (abbreviation) with a tilde
2044 .Dl @~f@@a\e.safe\e.domain\e.match$
2047 All messages of state
2051 is one or multiple of the following colon modifiers:
2053 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar :M"
2058 Old messages (any not in state
2080 messages (cf. the variable
2081 .Va markanswered ) .
2086 \*(OP Messages classified as spam (see
2087 .Sx "Handling spam" . )
2089 \*(OP Messages with unsure spam classification.
2095 \*(OP IMAP-style SEARCH expressions may also be used.
2096 This addressing mode is available with all types of folders;
2097 \*(UA will perform the search locally as necessary.
2098 Strings must be enclosed by double quotes
2100 in their entirety if they contain whitespace or parentheses;
2101 within the quotes, only reverse solidus
2103 is recognized as an escape character.
2104 All string searches are case-insensitive.
2105 When the description indicates that the
2107 representation of an address field is used,
2108 this means that the search string is checked against both a list
2111 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2112 (\*qname\*q \*qsource\*q \*qlocal-part\*q \*qdomain-part\*q)
2117 and the addresses without real names from the respective header field.
2118 These search expressions can be nested using parentheses, see below for
2122 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar _n_u"
2123 .It Ar ( criterion )
2124 All messages that satisfy the given
2126 .It Ar ( criterion1 criterion2 ... criterionN )
2127 All messages that satisfy all of the given criteria.
2129 .It Ar ( or criterion1 criterion2 )
2130 All messages that satisfy either
2135 To connect more than two criteria using
2137 specifications have to be nested using additional parentheses,
2139 .Ql (or a (or b c)) ,
2143 .Ql ((a or b) and c) .
2146 operation of independent criteria on the lowest nesting level,
2147 it is possible to achieve similar effects by using three separate
2151 .It Ar ( not criterion )
2152 All messages that do not satisfy
2154 .It Ar ( bcc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2155 All messages that contain
2157 in the envelope representation of the
2160 .It Ar ( cc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2161 All messages that contain
2163 in the envelope representation of the
2166 .It Ar ( from \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2167 All messages that contain
2169 in the envelope representation of the
2172 .It Ar ( subject \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2173 All messages that contain
2178 .It Ar ( to \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2179 All messages that contain
2181 in the envelope representation of the
2184 .It Ar ( header name \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2185 All messages that contain
2190 .It Ar ( body \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2191 All messages that contain
2194 .It Ar ( text \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2195 All messages that contain
2197 in their header or body.
2198 .It Ar ( larger size )
2199 All messages that are larger than
2202 .It Ar ( smaller size )
2203 All messages that are smaller than
2207 .It Ar ( before date )
2208 All messages that were received before
2210 which must be in the form
2214 denotes the day of the month as one or two digits,
2216 is the name of the month \(en one of
2217 .Ql Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec ,
2220 is the year as four digits, e.g.,
2224 All messages that were received on the specified date.
2225 .It Ar ( since date )
2226 All messages that were received since the specified date.
2227 .It Ar ( sentbefore date )
2228 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
2229 .It Ar ( senton date )
2230 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
2231 .It Ar ( sentsince date )
2232 All messages that were sent since the specified date.
2234 The same criterion as for the previous search.
2235 This specification cannot be used as part of another criterion.
2236 If the previous command line contained more than one independent
2237 criterion then the last of those criteria is used.
2241 .\" .Ss "On URL syntax and credential lookup" {{{
2242 .Ss "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
2244 \*(IN For accessing protocol-specific resources usage of Uniform
2245 Resource Locators (URL, RFC 1738) has become omnipresent.
2246 \*(UA expects and understands URLs in the following form;
2249 denote optional parts, optional either because there also exist other
2250 ways to define the information in question or because support of the
2251 part is protocol-specific (e.g.,
2253 is used by the local maildir and the IMAP protocol, but not by POP3);
2258 are specified they must be given in URL percent encoded form (RFC 3986;
2264 .Dl PROTOCOL://[USER[:PASSWORD]@]server[:port][/path]
2267 Note that these \*(UA URLs most often do not conform to any real
2268 standard, but instead represent a normalized variant of RFC 1738 \(en
2269 they are not used in data exchange but only meant as a compact,
2270 easy-to-use way of defining and representing information in
2271 a well-known notation.
2274 Many internal variables of \*(UA exist in multiple versions, called
2275 variable chains for the rest of this document: the plain
2280 .Ql variable-USER@HOST .
2287 had been specified in the respective URL, otherwise it refers to the plain
2293 that had been found when doing the user chain lookup as is described
2296 will never be in URL percent encoded form, whether it came from an URL
2297 or not; i.e., variable chain name extensions of
2298 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
2299 must not be URL percent encoded.
2302 For example, whether an hypothetical URL
2303 .Ql smtp://hey%3Ayou@our.house
2304 had been given that includes a user, or whether the URL was
2305 .Ql smtp://our.house
2306 and the user had been found differently, to lookup the variable chain
2307 .Va smtp-use-starttls
2308 \*(UA first looks for whether
2309 .Ql smtp-\:use-\:starttls-\:hey:you@our.house
2310 is defined, then whether
2311 .Ql smtp-\:use-\:starttls-\:our.house
2312 exists before finally ending up looking at the plain variable itself.
2315 \*(UA obeys the following logic scheme when dealing with the
2316 necessary credential information of an account:
2322 has been given in the URL the variables
2326 are looked up; if no such variable(s) can be found then \*(UA will,
2327 when enforced by the \*(OPal variables
2328 .Va netrc-lookup-HOST
2335 specific entry which provides a
2337 name: this lookup will only succeed if unambiguous (one possible matching
2340 It is possible to load encrypted
2345 If there is still no
2347 then \*(UA will fall back to the user who is supposed to run \*(UA,
2348 the identity of which has been fixated during \*(UA startup and is
2349 known to be a valid user on the current host.
2352 Authentication: unless otherwise noted this will lookup the
2353 .Va PROTOCOL-auth-USER@HOST , PROTOCOL-auth-HOST , PROTOCOL-auth
2354 variable chain, falling back to a protocol-specific default should this
2360 has been given in the URL, then if the
2362 has been found through the \*(OPal
2364 that may have already provided the password, too.
2365 Otherwise the variable chain
2366 .Va password-USER@HOST , password-HOST , password
2367 is looked up and used if existent.
2369 Afterwards the complete \*(OPal variable chain
2370 .Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , netrc-lookup-HOST , netrc-lookup
2374 cache is searched for a password only (multiple user accounts for
2375 a single machine may exist as well as a fallback entry without user
2376 but with a password).
2378 If at that point there is still no password available, but the
2379 (protocols') chosen authentication type requires a password, then in
2380 interactive mode the user will be prompted on the terminal.
2385 S/MIME verification works relative to the values found in the
2389 header field(s), which means that the values of
2390 .Va smime-sign , smime-sign-cert , smime-sign-include-certs
2392 .Va smime-sign-message-digest
2393 will not be looked up using the
2397 chains from above but instead use the corresponding values from the
2398 message that is being worked on.
2399 In unusual cases multiple and different
2403 combinations may therefore be involved \(en on the other hand those
2404 unusual cases become possible.
2405 The usual case is as short as:
2408 .Dl set mta=smtp://USER:PASS@HOST smtp-use-starttls \e
2409 .Dl \ \ \ \ smime-sign smime-sign-cert=+smime.pair
2414 contains complete example configurations.
2417 .\" .Ss "On terminal control and line editor" {{{
2418 .Ss "On terminal control and line editor"
2420 \*(OP Terminal control will be realized through one of the standard
2422 libraries, either the
2424 or, alternatively, the
2426 both of which will be initialized to work with the environment variable
2428 Terminal control will enhance or enable interactive usage aspects, e.g.,
2429 .Sx "Coloured display" ,
2430 and extend behaviour of the Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE), which may learn the
2431 byte-sequences of keys like the cursor and function keys, and which will
2432 automatically enter the so-called
2434 alternative screen shall the terminal support it.
2435 The internal variable
2437 can be used to overwrite settings or to learn (correct(ed)) keycodes.
2438 Actual interaction with the chosen library can be disabled completely by
2439 setting the internal variable
2440 .Va termcap-disable ;
2442 will be queried regardless, even if the \*(OPal support for the
2443 libraries has not been enabled at configuration time.
2446 \*(OP The builtin \*(UA Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE) should work in all
2447 environments which comply to the ISO C standard
2449 and will support wide glyphs if possible (the necessary functionality
2450 had been removed from ISO C, but was included in
2452 Prevent usage of a line editor in interactive mode by setting the
2454 .Va line-editor-disable .
2455 Especially if the \*(OPal terminal control support is missing setting
2456 entries in the internal variable
2458 will help shall the MLE misbehave, see there for more.
2459 The MLE can support a little bit of
2465 feature is available then input from line editor prompts will be saved
2466 in a history list that can be searched in and be expanded from.
2467 Such saving can be prevented by prefixing input with any amount of
2469 Aspects of history, like allowed content and maximum size, as well as
2470 whether history shall be saved persistently, can be configured with the
2474 .Va history-gabby-persist
2479 The MLE supports a set of editing and control commands.
2480 By default (as) many (as possible) of these will be assigned to a set of
2481 single-letter control codes, which should work on any terminal (and can
2482 be generated by holding the
2484 key while pressing the key of desire, e.g.,
2488 command is available then the MLE commands can also be accessed freely
2489 by assigning the command name, which is shown in parenthesis in the list
2490 below, to any desired key-sequence, and the MLE will instead and also use
2492 to establish its builtin key bindings
2493 (more of them if the \*(OPal terminal control is available),
2494 an action which can then be suppressed completely by setting
2495 .Va line-editor-no-defaults .
2496 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
2497 notation is used in the following;
2498 combinations not mentioned either cause job control signals or do not
2499 generate a (unique) keycode:
2503 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql Ba"
2505 Go to the start of the line
2507 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-home ) .
2510 Move the cursor backward one character
2512 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-bwd ) .
2515 Forward delete the character under the cursor;
2516 quits \*(UA if used on the empty line unless the internal variable
2520 .Pf ( Cd mle-del-fwd ) .
2523 Go to the end of the line
2525 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-end ) .
2528 Move the cursor forward one character
2530 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-fwd ) .
2533 Cancel current operation, full reset.
2534 If there is an active history search or tabulator expansion then this
2535 command will first reset that, reverting to the former line content;
2536 thus a second reset is needed for a full reset in this case
2538 .Pf ( Cd mle-reset ) .
2541 Backspace: backward delete one character
2543 .Pf ( Cd mle-del-bwd ) .
2547 Horizontal tabulator:
2548 try to expand the word before the cursor, supporting the usual
2549 .Sx "Filename transformations"
2551 .Pf ( Cd mle-complete ) .
2553 .Cd mle-quote-rndtrip .
2557 commit the current line
2559 .Pf ( Cd mle-commit ) .
2562 Cut all characters from the cursor to the end of the line
2564 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-end ) .
2569 .Pf ( Cd mle-repaint ) .
2572 \*(OP Go to the next history entry
2574 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-fwd ) .
2577 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2581 \*(OP Go to the previous history entry
2583 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-bwd ) .
2586 Toggle roundtrip mode shell quotes, where produced,
2589 .Pf ( Cd mle-quote-rndtrip ) .
2590 This setting is temporary, and will be forgotten once the command line
2591 is committed; also see
2595 \*(OP Complete the current line from (the remaining) older history entries
2597 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-srch-bwd ) .
2600 \*(OP Complete the current line from (the remaining) newer history entries
2602 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-srch-fwd ) .
2605 Paste the snarf buffer
2607 .Pf ( Cd mle-paste ) .
2615 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-line ) .
2618 Prompts for a Unicode character (its hexadecimal number) to be inserted
2620 .Pf ( Cd mle-prompt-char ) .
2621 Note this command needs to be assigned to a single-letter control code
2622 in order to become recognized and executed during input of
2623 a key-sequence (only three single-letter control codes can be used for
2624 that shortcut purpose); this control code is special-treated and cannot
2625 be part of any other sequence, because any occurrence will perform the
2627 function immediately.
2630 Cut the characters from the one preceding the cursor to the preceding
2633 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-word-bwd ) .
2636 Move the cursor forward one word boundary
2638 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-word-fwd ) .
2641 Move the cursor backward one word boundary
2643 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-word-bwd ) .
2646 Escape: reset a possibly used multibyte character input state machine
2647 and \*(OPally a lingering, incomplete key binding
2649 .Pf ( Cd mle-cancel ) .
2650 This command needs to be assigned to a single-letter control code in
2651 order to become recognized and executed during input of a key-sequence
2652 (only three single-letter control codes can be used for that shortcut
2654 This control code may also be part of a multi-byte sequence, but if
2655 a sequence is active and the very control code is currently also an
2656 expected input, then it will first be consumed by the active sequence.
2659 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2663 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2667 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2671 Cut the characters from the one after the cursor to the succeeding word
2674 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-word-fwd ) .
2685 this will immediately reset a possibly active search etc.
2690 ring the audible bell.
2694 .\" .Ss "Coloured display" {{{
2695 .Ss "Coloured display"
2697 \*(OP \*(UA can be configured to support a coloured display and font
2698 attributes by emitting ANSI / ISO 6429 SGR (select graphic rendition)
2700 Usage of colours and font attributes solely depends upon the
2701 capability of the detected terminal type that is defined by the
2702 environment variable
2704 and which can be fine-tuned by the user via the internal variable
2708 On top of what \*(UA knows about the terminal the boolean variable
2710 defines whether the actually applicable colour and font attribute
2711 sequences should also be generated when output is going to be paged
2712 through the external program defined by the environment variable
2717 This is not enabled by default because different pager programs need
2718 different command line switches or other configuration in order to
2719 support those sequences.
2720 \*(UA however knows about some widely used pagers and in a clean
2721 environment it is often enough to simply set
2723 please refer to that variable for more on this topic.
2728 is set then any active usage of colour and font attribute sequences
2729 is suppressed, but without affecting possibly established
2734 To define and control colours and font attributes a single multiplexer
2735 command family exists:
2737 shows or defines colour mappings for the given colour type (e.g.,
2740 can be used to remove mappings of a given colour type.
2741 Since colours are only available in interactive mode, it may make
2742 sense to conditionalize the colour setup by encapsulating it with
2745 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2746 if terminal && $features =@ +colour
2747 colour iso view-msginfo ft=bold,fg=green
2748 colour iso view-header ft=bold,fg=red "from,subject"
2749 colour iso view-header fg=red
2751 uncolour iso view-header from,subject
2752 colour iso view-header ft=bold,fg=magenta,bg=cyan
2753 colour 256 view-header ft=bold,fg=208,bg=230 subject,from
2754 colour mono view-header ft=bold
2755 colour mono view-header ft=bold,ft=reverse subject,from
2759 .\" }}} (DESCRIPTION)
2762 .\" .Sh COMMANDS {{{
2765 Each command is typed on a line by itself,
2766 and may take arguments following the command word.
2767 An unquoted reverse solidus
2769 at the end of a command line
2771 the newline character: it is discarded and the next line of input is
2772 used as a follow-up line, with all leading whitespace removed;
2773 once the entire command line is completed, the processing that is
2774 documented in the following, after removal of the whitespace characters
2775 .Cm space , tabulator , newline
2776 as well as those defined by the variable
2778 from the beginning and end of the line, begins.
2779 Placing any whitespace characters at the beginning of a line will
2780 prevent a possible addition of the command line to the \*(OPal history.
2783 Command names may be abbreviated, in which case the first command that
2784 matches the given prefix will be used.
2787 can be used to show the list of all commands, either alphabetically
2788 sorted or in prefix search order (these do not match, also because the
2789 POSIX standard prescribes a set of abbreviations).
2790 \*(OPally the command
2794 when given an argument, will show a documentation string for the
2795 command matching the expanded argument, as in
2797 which should be a shorthand of
2799 with these documentation strings both commands support a more
2801 listing mode which includes the argument type of the command and other
2802 information which applies; a handy suggestion might thus be:
2804 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2806 # Before v15: need to enable sh(1)ell-style on _entire_ line!
2807 localopts 1;wysh set verbose;ignerr eval "${@}";return ${?}
2809 ? commandalias xv '\ecall __xv'
2813 .\" .Ss "Command modifiers" {{{
2814 .Ss "Command modifiers"
2816 Commands may be prefixed by one or multiple command modifiers.
2820 The modifier reverse solidus
2823 to be placed first, prevents
2825 expansions on the remains of the line, e.g.,
2827 will always evaluate the command
2829 even if an (command)alias of the same name exists.
2831 content may itself contain further command modifiers, including
2832 an initial reverse solidus to prevent further expansions.
2838 indicates that any error generated by the following command should be
2839 ignored by the state machine and not cause a program exit with enabled
2841 or for the standardized exit cases in
2846 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
2847 will be set to the real exit status of the command regardless.
2850 Some commands support the
2853 modifier: if used, they expect the name of a variable, which can itself
2854 be a variable, i.e., shell expansion is applied, as their first
2855 argument, and will place their computation result in it instead of the
2856 default location (it is usually written to standard output).
2858 The given name will be tested for being a valid
2860 variable name, and may therefore only consist of upper- and lowercase
2861 characters, digits, and the underscore; the hyphen-minus may be used as
2862 a non-portable extension; digits may not be used as first, hyphen-minus
2863 may not be used as last characters.
2864 In addition the name may either not be one of the known
2865 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
2866 or must otherwise refer to a writable (non-boolean) value variable.
2867 The actual put operation may fail nonetheless, e.g., if the variable
2868 expects a number argument only a number will be accepted.
2869 Any error during these operations causes the command as such to fail,
2870 and the error number
2873 .Va ^ERR Ns -NOTSUP ,
2880 Last, but not least, the modifier
2883 can be used for some old and established commands to choose the new
2884 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
2885 rules over the traditional
2886 .Sx "Old-style argument quoting" .
2890 .\" .Ss "Message list arguments" {{{
2891 .Ss "Message list arguments"
2893 Some commands expect arguments that represent messages (actually
2894 their symbolic message numbers), as has been documented above under
2895 .Sx "Specifying messages"
2897 If no explicit message list has been specified, the next message
2898 forward that satisfies the command's requirements will be used,
2899 and if there are no messages forward of the current message,
2900 the search proceeds backwards;
2901 if there are no good messages at all to be found, an error message is
2902 shown and the command is aborted.
2905 .\" .Ss "Old-style argument quoting" {{{
2906 .Ss "Old-style argument quoting"
2908 \*(ID This section documents the old, traditional style of quoting
2909 non-message-list arguments to commands which expect this type of
2910 arguments: whereas still used by the majority of such commands, the new
2911 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
2912 may be available even for those via
2915 .Sx "Command modifiers" .
2916 Nonetheless care must be taken, because only new commands have been
2917 designed with all the capabilities of the new quoting rules in mind,
2918 which can, e.g., generate control characters.
2921 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
2923 An argument can be enclosed between paired double-quotes
2928 any whitespace, shell word expansion, or reverse solidus characters
2929 (except as described next) within the quotes are treated literally as
2930 part of the argument.
2931 A double-quote will be treated literally within single-quotes and vice
2933 Inside such a quoted string the actually used quote character can be
2934 used nonetheless by escaping it with a reverse solidus
2940 An argument that is not enclosed in quotes, as above, can usually still
2941 contain space characters if those spaces are reverse solidus escaped, as in
2945 A reverse solidus outside of the enclosing quotes is discarded
2946 and the following character is treated literally as part of the argument.
2950 .\" .Ss "Shell-style argument quoting" {{{
2951 .Ss "Shell-style argument quoting"
2953 Commands which don't expect message-list arguments use
2955 ell-style, and therefore POSIX standardized, argument parsing and
2957 \*(ID Most new commands only support these new rules and are flagged
2958 \*(NQ, some elder ones can use them with the command modifier
2960 in the future only this type of argument quoting will remain.
2963 A command line is parsed from left to right and an input token is
2964 completed whenever an unquoted, otherwise ignored, metacharacter is seen.
2965 Metacharacters are vertical bar
2971 as well as all characters from the variable
2974 .Cm space , tabulator , newline .
2975 The additional metacharacters left and right parenthesis
2977 and less-than and greater-than signs
2981 supports are not used, and are treated as ordinary characters: for one
2982 these characters are a vivid part of email addresses, and it seems
2983 highly unlikely that their function will become meaningful to \*(UA.
2985 .Bd -filled -offset indent
2986 .Sy Compatibility note:
2987 \*(ID Please note that many even new-style commands do not yet honour
2989 to parse their arguments: whereas the
2991 ell is a language with syntactic elements of clearly defined semantics,
2992 \*(UA parses entire input lines and decides on a per-command base what
2993 to do with the rest of the line.
2994 Often it even depends on subcommands how the rest of the line should be
2995 treated, and until v15 we are not capable to perform this deep
2996 inspection of arguments.
2997 Nonetheless, at least the following commands which work with positional
2998 parameters fully support
3000 for an almost shell-compatible field splitting:
3001 .Ic call , call_if , read , vpospar , xcall .
3005 Any unquoted number sign
3007 at the beginning of a new token starts a comment that extends to the end
3008 of the line, and therefore ends argument processing.
3009 An unquoted dollar sign
3011 will cause variable expansion of the given name, which must be a valid
3013 ell-style variable name (see
3015 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
3018 (shell) variables can be accessed through this mechanism, brace
3019 enclosing the name is supported (i.e., to subdivide a token).
3022 Whereas the metacharacters
3023 .Cm space , tabulator , newline
3024 only complete an input token, vertical bar
3030 also act as control operators and perform control functions.
3031 For now supported is semicolon
3033 which terminates a single command, therefore sequencing the command line
3034 and making the remainder of the line a subject to reevaluation.
3035 With sequencing, multiple command argument types and quoting rules may
3036 therefore apply to a single line, which can become problematic before
3037 v15: e.g., the first of the following will cause surprising results.
3040 .Dl ? echo one; set verbose; echo verbose=$verbose.
3041 .Dl ? echo one; wysh set verbose; echo verbose=$verbose.
3044 Quoting is a mechanism that will remove the special meaning of
3045 metacharacters and reserved words, and will prevent expansion.
3046 There are four quoting mechanisms: the escape character, single-quotes,
3047 double-quotes and dollar-single-quotes:
3050 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
3052 The literal value of any character can be preserved by preceding it
3053 with the escape character reverse solidus
3057 Arguments which are enclosed in
3058 .Ql 'single-\:quotes'
3059 retain their literal value.
3060 A single-quote cannot occur within single-quotes.
3063 The literal value of all characters enclosed in
3064 .Ql \(dqdouble-\:quotes\(dq
3065 is retained, with the exception of dollar sign
3067 which will cause variable expansion, as above, backquote (grave accent)
3069 (which not yet means anything special), reverse solidus
3071 which will escape any of the characters dollar sign
3073 (to prevent variable expansion), backquote (grave accent)
3077 (to prevent ending the quote) and reverse solidus
3079 (to prevent escaping, i.e., to embed a reverse solidus character as-is),
3080 but has no special meaning otherwise.
3083 Arguments enclosed in
3084 .Ql $'dollar-\:single-\:quotes'
3085 extend normal single quotes in that reverse solidus escape sequences are
3086 expanded as follows:
3088 .Bl -tag -compact -width "Ql \eNNN"
3094 an escape character.
3096 an escape character.
3108 emits a reverse solidus character.
3112 double quote (escaping is optional).
3114 eight-bit byte with the octal value
3116 (one to three octal digits), optionally prefixed by an additional
3118 A 0 byte will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
3120 eight-bit byte with the hexadecimal value
3122 (one or two hexadecimal characters).
3123 A 0 byte will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
3125 the Unicode / ISO-10646 character with the hexadecimal codepoint value
3127 (one to eight hexadecimal digits) \(em note that Unicode defines the
3128 maximum codepoint ever to be supported as
3133 This escape is only supported in locales which support Unicode (see
3134 .Sx "Character sets" ) ,
3135 in other cases the sequence will remain unexpanded unless the given code
3136 point is ASCII compatible or can be represented in the current locale.
3137 The character NUL will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
3141 except it takes only one to four hexadecimal digits.
3143 Emits the non-printable (ASCII and compatible) C0 control codes
3144 0 (NUL) to 31 (US), and 127 (DEL).
3145 Printable representations of ASCII control codes can be created by
3146 mapping them to a different part of the ASCII character set, which is
3147 possible by adding the number 64 for the codes 0 to 31, e.g., 7 (BEL) is
3148 .Ql 7 + 64 = 71 = G .
3149 The real operation is a bitwise logical XOR with 64 (bit 7 set, see
3151 thus also covering code 127 (DEL), which is mapped to 63 (question mark):
3152 .Ql ? vexpr ^ 127 64 .
3154 Whereas historically circumflex notation has often been used for
3155 visualization purposes of control codes, e.g.,
3157 the reverse solidus notation has been standardized:
3159 Some control codes also have standardized (ISO 10646, ISO C) aliases,
3160 as shown above (e.g.,
3164 whenever such an alias exists it will be used for display purposes.
3165 The control code NUL
3167 a non-standard extension) will suppress further output for the remains
3168 of the token (which may extend beyond the current quote), or, depending
3169 on the context, the remains of all arguments for the current command.
3171 Non-standard extension: expand the given variable name, as above.
3172 Brace enclosing the name is supported.
3174 Not yet supported, just to raise awareness: Non-standard extension.
3181 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3182 echo 'Quotes '${HOME}' and 'tokens" differ!"# no comment
3183 echo Quotes ${HOME} and tokens differ! # comment
3184 echo Don"'"t you worry$'\ex21' The sun shines on us. $'\eu263A'
3188 .\" .Ss "Raw data arguments for codec commands" {{{
3189 .Ss "Raw data arguments for codec commands"
3191 A special set of commands, which all have the string
3193 in their name, e.g.,
3197 take raw string data as input, which means that the content of the
3198 command input line is passed completely unexpanded and otherwise
3199 unchanged: like this the effect of the actual codec is visible without
3200 any noise of possible shell quoting rules etc., i.e., the user can input
3201 one-to-one the desired or questionable data.
3202 To gain a level of expansion, the entire command line can be
3206 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3207 ? vput shcodec res encode /usr/Sch\[:o]nes Wetter/heute.txt
3209 $'/usr/Sch\eu00F6nes Wetter/heute.txt'
3211 $'/usr/Sch\eu00F6nes Wetter/heute.txt'
3212 ? eval shcodec d $res
3213 /usr/Sch\[:o]nes Wetter/heute.txt
3217 .\" .Ss "Filename transformations" {{{
3218 .Ss "Filename transformations"
3220 Filenames, where expected, and unless documented otherwise, are
3221 subsequently subject to the following filename transformations, in
3224 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
3226 If the given name is a registered
3228 it will be replaced with the expanded shortcut.
3231 The filename is matched against the following patterns or strings:
3233 .Bl -hang -compact -width ".Ar %user"
3235 (Number sign) is expanded to the previous file.
3237 (Percent sign) is replaced by the invoking
3238 .Mx -ix "primary system mailbox"
3239 user's primary system mailbox, which either is the (itself expandable)
3241 if that is set, the standardized absolute pathname indicated by
3243 if that is set, or a builtin compile-time default otherwise.
3245 Expands to the primary system mailbox of
3247 (and never the value of
3249 regardless of its actual setting).
3251 (Ampersand) is replaced with the invoking users
3252 .Mx -ix "secondary mailbox"
3253 secondary mailbox, the
3260 directory (if that variable is set).
3262 Expands to the same value as
3264 but has special meaning when used with, e.g., the command
3266 the file will be treated as a primary system mailbox by, e.g., the
3270 commands, meaning that messages that have been read in the current
3271 session will be moved to the
3273 mailbox instead of simply being flagged as read.
3277 Meta expansions are applied to the resulting filename, as applicable to
3278 the resulting file access protocol (also see
3279 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
3280 If the fully expanded filename results in multiple pathnames and the
3281 command is expecting only one file, an error results.
3283 For the file-protocol, a leading tilde
3285 character will be replaced by the expansion of
3287 except when followed by a valid user name, in which case the home
3288 directory of the given user is used instead.
3290 In addition a shell expansion as if specified in double-quotes (see
3291 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" )
3292 is applied, so that any occurrence of
3296 will be replaced by the expansion of the variable, if possible;
3297 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
3300 (shell) variables can be accessed through this mechanism.
3302 In interactive context, in order to allow simple value acceptance (via
3304 arguments will usually be displayed in a properly quoted form, e.g., a file
3305 .Ql diet\e is \ecurd.txt
3307 .Ql 'diet\e is \ecurd.txt' .
3311 .\" .Ss "Commands" {{{
3314 The following commands are available:
3316 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ic BaNg"
3323 command which follows, replacing unescaped exclamation marks with the
3324 previously executed command if the internal variable
3327 This command supports
3330 .Sx "Command modifiers" ,
3331 and manages the error number
3333 A 0 or positive exit status
3335 reflects the exit status of the command, negative ones that
3336 an error happened before the command was executed, or that the program
3337 did not exit cleanly, but, e.g., due to a signal: the error number is
3338 .Va ^ERR Ns -CHILD ,
3342 In conjunction with the
3344 modifier the following special cases exist:
3345 a negative exit status occurs if the collected data could not be stored
3346 in the given variable, which is a
3348 error that should otherwise not occur.
3349 .Va ^ERR Ns -CANCELED
3350 indicates that no temporary file could be created to collect the command
3351 output at first glance.
3352 In case of catchable out-of-memory situations
3354 will occur and \*(UA will try to store the empty string, just like with
3355 all other detected error conditions.
3360 The comment-command causes the entire line to be ignored.
3362 this really is a normal command which' purpose is to discard its
3365 indicating special character, which means that, e.g., trailing comments
3366 on a line are not possible.
3370 Goes to the next message in sequence and types it
3376 Display the preceding message, or the n'th previous message if given
3377 a numeric argument n.
3381 Show the current message number (the
3386 Show a brief summary of commands.
3387 \*(OP Given an argument a synopsis for the command in question is
3388 shown instead; commands can be abbreviated in general and this command
3389 can be used to see the full expansion of an abbreviation including the
3390 synopsis, try, e.g.,
3395 and see how the output changes.
3396 This mode also supports a more
3398 output, which will provide the informations documented for
3409 .It Ic account , unaccount
3410 (ac, una) Creates, selects or lists (an) account(s).
3411 Accounts are special incarnations of
3413 macros and group commands and variable settings which together usually
3414 arrange the environment for the purpose of creating an email account.
3415 Different to normal macros settings which are covered by
3417 \(en here by default enabled! \(en will not be reverted before the
3422 (case-insensitive) always exists, and all but it can be deleted by the
3423 latter command, and in one operation with the special name
3426 Without arguments a listing of all defined accounts is shown.
3427 With one argument the given account is activated: the system
3429 of that account will be activated (as via
3431 a possibly installed
3433 will be run, and the internal variable
3436 The two argument form is identical to defining a macro as via
3438 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3440 set folder=~/mail inbox=+syste.mbox record=+sent.mbox
3441 set from='(My Name) myname@myisp.example'
3442 set mta=smtp://mylogin@smtp.myisp.example
3449 Perform email address codec transformations on raw-data argument, rather
3450 according to email standards (RFC 5322; \*(ID will furtherly improve).
3454 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) ,
3455 and manages the error number
3457 The first argument must be either
3458 .Ar [+[+[+]]]e[ncode] ,
3462 and specifies the operation to perform on the rest of the line.
3465 Decoding will show how a standard-compliant MUA will display the given
3466 argument, which should be an email address.
3467 Please be aware that most MUAs have difficulties with the address
3468 standards, and vary wildly when (comments) in parenthesis,
3470 strings, or quoted-pairs, as below, become involved.
3471 \*(ID \*(UA currently does not perform decoding when displaying addresses.
3474 Skinning is identical to decoding but only outputs the plain address,
3475 without any string, comment etc. components.
3476 Another difference is that it may fail with the error number
3480 if decoding fails to find a(n) (valid) email address, in which case the
3481 unmodified input will be output again.
3484 Encoding supports four different modes, lesser automated versions can be
3485 chosen by prefixing one, two or three plus signs: the standard imposes
3486 a special meaning on some characters, which thus have to be transformed
3487 to so-called quoted-pairs by pairing them with a reverse solidus
3489 in order to remove the special meaning; this might change interpretation
3490 of the entire argument from what has been desired, however!
3491 Specify one plus sign to remark that parenthesis shall be left alone,
3492 two for not turning double quotation marks into quoted-pairs, and three
3493 for also leaving any user-specified reverse solidus alone.
3494 The result will always be valid, if a successful exit status is reported.
3495 \*(ID Addresses need to be specified in between angle brackets
3498 if the construct becomes more difficult, otherwise the current parser
3499 will fail; it is not smart enough to guess right.
3501 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3502 ? addrc enc "Hey, you",<diet@exam.ple>\e out\e there
3503 "\e"Hey, you\e", \e\e out\e\e there" <diet@exam.ple>
3504 ? addrc d "\e"Hey, you\e", \e\e out\e\e there" <diet@exam.ple>
3505 "Hey, you", \e out\e there <diet@exam.ple>
3506 ? addrc s "\e"Hey, you\e", \e\e out\e\e there" <diet@exam.ple>
3513 .It Ic alias , unalias
3514 (a, una) Aliases are a method of creating personal distribution lists
3515 that map a single alias name to none to multiple real receivers;
3516 these aliases become expanded after message composing is completed.
3517 The latter command removes the given list of aliases, the special name
3519 will discard all existing aliases.
3520 The former command shows all currently defined aliases when used without
3521 arguments, and with one argument the expansion of the given alias.
3522 With more than one argument, creates or appends to the alias name given
3523 as the first argument the remaining arguments.
3524 Alias names are restricted to alphabetic characters, digits, the
3525 underscore, hyphen-minus, the number sign, colon, commercial at and
3526 period, the last character can also be the dollar sign:
3527 .Ql [[:alnum:]_#:@.-]+$? .
3531 (alt) Manage a list of alternate addresses or names of the active user,
3532 members of which will be removed from recipient lists.
3533 Without arguments the current set of alternates is displayed, otherwise
3534 the set of alternate names is replaced by the given arguments, and the
3537 is updated accordingly.
3538 As an extension, if one argument is given and that is the hyphen-minus
3540 then the set of alternates is removed.
3541 There is a set of implicit alternates which is formed of the values of
3550 .It Ic answered , unanswered
3551 Take a message lists and mark each message as having been answered,
3552 having not been answered, respectively.
3553 Messages will be marked answered when being
3555 to automatically if the
3559 .Sx "Message states" .
3564 .It Ic bind , unbind
3565 \*(OP\*(NQ The bind command extends the MLE (see
3566 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
3567 with freely configurable key bindings.
3568 The latter command removes from the given context the given key binding,
3569 both of which may be specified as a wildcard
3573 will remove all bindings of all contexts.
3574 With one argument the former command shows all key bindings for the
3575 given context, specifying an asterisk
3577 will show the bindings of all contexts; a more verbose listing will be
3578 produced if either of
3583 With two or more arguments a binding is (re)established:
3584 the first argument is the context to which the binding shall apply,
3585 the second argument is a comma-separated list of the
3587 which form the binding, and any remaining arguments form the expansion.
3588 To indicate that a binding shall not be auto-committed, but that the
3589 expansion shall instead be furtherly editable by the user, a commercial at
3591 (that will be removed) can be placed last in the expansion, from which
3592 leading and trailing whitespace will finally be removed.
3593 Reverse solidus cannot be used as the last character of expansion.
3596 Contexts define when a binding applies, i.e., a binding will not be seen
3597 unless the context for which it is defined for is currently active.
3598 This is not true for the shared binding
3600 which is the foundation for all other bindings and as such always
3601 applies, its bindings, however, only apply secondarily.
3602 The available contexts are the shared
3606 context which is used in all not otherwise documented situations, and
3608 which applies to compose mode only.
3612 which form the binding are specified as a comma-separated list of
3613 byte-sequences, where each list entry corresponds to one key(press).
3614 \*(OPally a list entry may, indicated by a leading colon character
3616 also refer to the name of a terminal capability;
3617 several dozen names will be compiled into \*(UA and may be specified
3620 or, if existing, by their
3622 name, regardless of the actually used terminal control library.
3623 It is however possible to use any capability, as long as the name is
3624 resolvable by the control library or defined in the internal variable
3626 Input sequences are not case-normalized, so that an exact match is
3627 required to update or remove a binding.
3630 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3631 bind base $'\eE',d mle-snarf-word-fwd # Esc(ape)
3632 bind base $'\eE',$'\ec?' mle-snarf-word-bwd # Esc, Delete
3633 bind default $'\ecA',:khome,w 'echo An editable binding@'
3634 bind default a,b,c rm -rf / @ # Another editable binding
3635 bind default :kf1 File %
3636 bind compose :kf1 ~e
3640 Note that the entire comma-separated list is first parsed (over) as a
3641 shell-token with whitespace as the field separator, before being parsed
3642 and expanded for real with comma as the field separator, therefore
3643 whitespace needs to be properly quoted, see
3644 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" .
3645 Using Unicode reverse solidus escape sequences renders a binding
3646 defunctional if the locale does not support Unicode (see
3647 .Sx "Character sets" ) ,
3648 and using terminal capabilities does so if no terminal control support
3649 is (currently) available.
3652 The following terminal capability names are builtin and can be used in
3654 or (if available) the two-letter
3656 notation regardless of the actually used library.
3657 See the respective manual for a list of capabilities.
3660 can be used to show all the capabilities of
3662 or the given terminal type;
3665 flag will also show supported (non-standard) extensions.
3668 .Bl -tag -compact -width kcuuf_or_kcuuf
3669 .It Cd kbs Ns \0or Cd kb
3671 .It Cd kdch1 Ns \0or Cd kD
3673 .It Cd kDC Ns \0or Cd *4
3674 \(em shifted variant.
3675 .It Cd kel Ns \0or Cd kE
3676 Clear to end of line.
3677 .It Cd kext Ns \0or Cd @9
3679 .It Cd kich1 Ns \0or Cd kI
3681 .It Cd kIC Ns \0or Cd #3
3682 \(em shifted variant.
3683 .It Cd khome Ns \0or Cd kh
3685 .It Cd kHOM Ns \0or Cd #2
3686 \(em shifted variant.
3687 .It Cd kend Ns \0or Cd @7
3689 .It Cd knp Ns \0or Cd kN
3691 .It Cd kpp Ns \0or Cd kP
3693 .It Cd kcub1 Ns \0or Cd kl
3694 Left cursor (with more modifiers: see below).
3695 .It Cd kLFT Ns \0or Cd #4
3696 \(em shifted variant.
3697 .It Cd kcuf1 Ns \0or Cd kr
3698 Right cursor (ditto).
3699 .It Cd kRIT Ns \0or Cd %i
3700 \(em shifted variant.
3701 .It Cd kcud1 Ns \0or Cd kd
3702 Down cursor (ditto).
3704 \(em shifted variant (only terminfo).
3705 .It Cd kcuu1 Ns \0or Cd ku
3708 \(em shifted variant (only terminfo).
3709 .It Cd kf0 Ns \0or Cd k0
3711 Add one for each function key up to
3716 .It Cd kf10 Ns \0or Cd k;
3718 .It Cd kf11 Ns \0or Cd F1
3720 Add one for each function key up to
3728 Some terminals support key-modifier combination extensions, e.g.,
3730 For example, the delete key,
3732 in its shifted variant, the name is mutated to
3734 then a number is appended for the states
3746 .Ql Shift+Alt+Control
3748 The same for the left cursor key,
3750 .Cd KLFT , KLFT3 , KLFT4 , KLFT5 , KLFT6 , KLFT7 , KLFT8 .
3753 Key bindings can be removed with the command
3755 It is advisable to use an initial escape or other control character (e.g.,
3757 for bindings which describe user key combinations (as opposed to purely
3758 terminal capability based ones), in order to avoid ambiguities whether
3759 input belongs to key sequences or not; it also reduces search time.
3762 may help shall keys and sequences be falsely recognized.
3767 \*(NQ Calls the given macro, which must have been created via
3772 Parameters given to macros are implicitly local to the macro's scope, and
3773 may be accessed via special (positional) parameters, e.g.,
3778 The positional parameters may be removed by
3780 ing them off the stack (exceeding the supported number of arguments
3782 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW ) ,
3783 and are otherwise controllable via
3785 Macro execution can be terminated at any time by calling
3788 Calling macros recursively will at some time excess the stack size
3789 limit, causing a hard program abortion; if recursively calling a macro
3790 is the last command of the current macro, consider to use the command
3792 which will first release all resources of the current macro before
3793 replacing the current macro with the called one.
3794 Numeric and string operations can be performed via
3798 may be helpful to recreate argument lists.
3799 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3801 echo Parameter 1 of ${#} is ${1}, all: ${*} / ${@}
3804 call exmac Hello macro exmac!
3811 if the given macro has been created via
3813 but doesn't fail nor warn if the macro doesn't exist.
3817 (ch) Change the working directory to
3819 or the given argument.
3825 \*(OP Only applicable to S/MIME signed messages.
3826 Takes a message list and a file name and saves the certificates
3827 contained within the message signatures to the named file in both
3828 human-readable and PEM format.
3829 The certificates can later be used to send encrypted messages to the
3830 respective message senders by setting
3831 .Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
3836 .It Ic charsetalias , uncharsetalias
3837 \*(NQ Manage (character set conversion) character set alias mappings,
3838 as documented in the section
3839 .Sx "Character sets" .
3840 Character set aliases are expanded recursively, but no expansion is
3841 performed on values of the user-settable variables, e.g.,
3843 These are effectively no-operations if character set conversion
3844 is not available (i.e., no
3848 Without arguments the list of all currently defined aliases is shown,
3849 with one argument the expansion of the given alias.
3850 Otherwise all given arguments are treated as pairs of character sets and
3851 their desired target alias name, creating new or changing already
3852 existing aliases, as necessary.
3854 The latter deletes all aliases given as arguments, the special argument
3856 will remove all aliases.
3860 (ch) Change the working directory to
3862 or the given argument.
3868 .It Ic collapse , uncollapse
3869 Only applicable to threaded mode.
3870 Takes a message list and makes all replies to these messages invisible
3871 in header summaries, except for
3875 Also when a message with collapsed replies is displayed,
3876 all of these are automatically uncollapsed.
3877 The latter command undoes collapsing.
3882 .It Ic colour , uncolour
3883 \*(OP\*(NQ Manage colour mappings of and for a
3884 .Sx "Coloured display" .
3885 The type of colour is given as the (case-insensitive) first argument,
3886 which must be one of
3888 for 256-colour terminals,
3893 for the standard 8-colour ANSI / ISO 6429 color palette and
3897 for monochrome terminals.
3898 Monochrome terminals cannot deal with colours, but only (some) font
3902 Without further arguments the list of all currently defined mappings
3903 for the given colour type is shown (as a special case giving
3907 will show the mappings of all types).
3908 Otherwise the second argument defines the mappable slot, and the third
3909 argument a (comma-separated list of) colour and font attribute
3910 specification(s), and the optional fourth argument can be used to
3911 specify a precondition: if conditioned mappings exist they are tested in
3912 (creation) order unless a (case-insensitive) match has been found, and
3913 the default mapping (if any has been established) will only be chosen as
3915 The types of precondition available depend on the mappable slot (see
3916 .Sx "Coloured display"
3917 for some examples), the following of which exist:
3920 Mappings prefixed with
3922 are used for the \*(OPal builtin Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE, see
3923 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
3924 and do not support preconditions.
3926 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
3928 This mapping is used for the position indicator that is visible when
3929 a line cannot be fully displayed on the screen.
3936 Mappings prefixed with
3938 are used in header summaries, and they all understand the preconditions
3940 (the current message) and
3942 for elder messages (only honoured in conjunction with
3943 .Va datefield-markout-older ) .
3945 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
3947 This mapping is used for the
3949 that can be created with the
3953 formats of the variable
3956 For the complete header summary line except the
3958 and the thread structure.
3960 For the thread structure which can be created with the
3962 format of the variable
3967 Mappings prefixed with
3969 are used when displaying messages.
3971 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
3973 This mapping is used for so-called
3975 lines, which are MBOX file format specific header lines.
3978 A comma-separated list of headers to which the mapping applies may be
3979 given as a precondition; if the \*(OPal regular expression support is
3980 available then if any of the
3982 (extended) regular expression characters is seen the precondition will
3983 be evaluated as (an extended) one.
3985 For the introductional message info line.
3986 .It Ar view-partinfo
3987 For MIME part info lines.
3991 The following (case-insensitive) colour definitions and font attributes
3992 are understood, multiple of which can be specified in a comma-separated
4002 It is possible (and often applicable) to specify multiple font
4003 attributes for a single mapping.
4006 foreground colour attribute:
4016 To specify a 256-color mode a decimal number colour specification in
4017 the range 0 to 255, inclusive, is supported, and interpreted as follows:
4019 .Bl -tag -compact -width "999 - 999"
4021 the standard ISO 6429 colors, as above.
4023 high intensity variants of the standard colors.
4025 216 colors in tuples of 6.
4027 grayscale from black to white in 24 steps.
4029 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4031 fg() { printf "\e033[38;5;${1}m($1)"; }
4032 bg() { printf "\e033[48;5;${1}m($1)"; }
4034 while [ $i -lt 256 ]; do fg $i; i=$(($i + 1)); done
4035 printf "\e033[0m\en"
4037 while [ $i -lt 256 ]; do bg $i; i=$(($i + 1)); done
4038 printf "\e033[0m\en"
4042 background colour attribute (see
4044 for possible values).
4050 will remove for the given colour type (the special type
4052 selects all) the given mapping; if the optional precondition argument is
4053 given only the exact tuple of mapping and precondition is removed.
4056 will remove all mappings (no precondition allowed), thus
4058 will remove all established mappings.
4063 .It Ic commandalias , uncommandalias
4064 \*(NQ Define or list, and remove, respectively, command aliases.
4065 An (command)alias can be used everywhere a normal command can be used,
4066 but always takes precedence: any arguments that are given to the command
4067 alias are joined onto the alias expansion, and the resulting string
4068 forms the command line that is, in effect, executed.
4069 The latter command removes all given aliases, the special name
4071 will remove all existing aliases.
4072 When used without arguments the former shows a list of all currently
4073 known aliases, with one argument only the expansion of the given one.
4075 With two or more arguments a command alias is defined or updated: the
4076 first argument is the name under which the remaining command line should
4077 be accessible, the content of which can be just about anything.
4078 An alias may itself expand to another alias, but to avoid expansion loops
4079 further expansion will be prevented if an alias refers to itself or if
4080 an expansion depth limit is reached.
4081 Explicit expansion prevention via reverse solidus
4084 .Sx "Command modifiers" .
4085 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4087 \*(uA: `commandalias': no such alias: xx
4088 ? commandalias xx echo hello,
4090 commandalias xx 'echo hello,'
4099 (C) Copy messages to files whose names are derived from the author of
4100 the respective message and do not mark them as being saved;
4101 otherwise identical to
4106 (c) Copy messages to the named file and do not mark them as being saved;
4107 otherwise identical to
4112 Show the name of the current working directory, as reported by
4117 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
4118 The return status is tracked via
4123 \*(OP For unencrypted messages this command is identical to
4125 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
4129 \*(OP For unencrypted messages this command is identical to
4131 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
4135 .It Ic define , undefine
4136 Without arguments the current list of macros, including their content,
4137 is shown, otherwise a macro is defined, replacing an existing macro of
4139 A macro definition is a sequence of commands in the following form:
4140 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4149 A defined macro can be invoked explicitly by using the
4153 commands, or implicitly if a macro hook is triggered, e.g., a
4155 It is possible to localize adjustments, like creation, deletion and
4157 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
4160 command; the scope which is localized depends on how (i.e.,
4162 normal macro, folder hook, hook,
4164 switch) the macro is invoked.
4165 Execution of a macro body can be stopped from within by calling
4169 ed macro, given positional parameters can be
4173 The latter command deletes the given macro, the special name
4175 will discard all existing macros.
4176 Creation and deletion of (a) macro(s) can be performed from within
4181 .It Ic delete , undelete
4182 (d, u) Marks the given message list as being or not being
4184 respectively; if no argument has been specified then the usual search
4185 for a visible message is performed, as documented for
4186 .Sx "Message list arguments" ,
4187 showing only the next input prompt if the search fails.
4188 Deleted messages will neither be saved in the
4190 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
4192 nor will they be available for most other commands.
4195 variable is set, the new
4197 or the last message restored, respectively, is automatically
4207 Superseded by the multiplexer
4213 Delete the given messages and automatically
4217 if one exists, regardless of the setting of
4224 up or down by one message when given
4228 argument, respectively.
4232 .It Ic draft , undraft
4233 Take message lists and mark each given message as being draft, or not
4234 being draft, respectively, as documented in the section
4235 .Sx "Message states" .
4239 \*(NQ (ec) Echoes arguments to standard output and writes a trailing
4240 newline, whereas the otherwise identical
4243 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
4245 .Sx "Filename transformations"
4246 are applied to the expanded arguments.
4252 except that is echoes to standard error.
4255 In interactive sessions the \*(OPal message ring queue for
4257 will be used instead, if available.
4263 but does not write a trailing newline.
4269 but does not write a trailing newline.
4273 (e) Point the text editor (as defined in
4275 at each message from the given list in turn.
4276 Modified contents are discarded unless the
4278 variable is set, and are not used unless the mailbox can be written to
4279 and the editor returns a successful exit status.
4284 .Ic if Ns \0/\: Ic elif Ns \0/\: Ic else Ns \0/\: Ic endif
4285 conditional \(em if the condition of a preceding
4287 was false, check the following condition and execute the following block
4288 if it evaluates true.
4293 .Ic if Ns \0/\: Ic elif Ns \0/\: Ic else Ns \0/\: Ic endif
4294 conditional \(em if none of the conditions of the preceding
4298 commands was true, the
4304 (en) Marks the end of an
4305 .Ic if Ns \0/\: Ic elif Ns \0/\: Ic else Ns \0/\: Ic endif
4306 conditional execution block.
4311 \*(NQ \*(UA has a strict notion about which variables are
4312 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
4313 and which are managed in the program
4315 Since some of the latter are a vivid part of \*(UAs functioning,
4316 however, they are transparently integrated into the normal handling of
4317 internal variables via
4321 To integrate other environment variables of choice into this
4322 transparent handling, and also to export internal variables into the
4323 process environment where they normally are not, a
4325 needs to become established with this command, as in, e.g.,
4328 .Dl environ link PERL5LIB from TZ
4331 Afterwards changing such variables with
4333 will cause automatic updates of the program environment, and therefore
4334 be inherited by newly created child processes.
4335 Sufficient system support provided (it was in BSD as early as 1987, and
4336 is standardized since Y2K) removing such variables with
4338 will remove them also from the program environment, but in any way
4339 the knowledge they ever have been
4342 Note this implies that
4344 may cause loss of links.
4349 will remove an existing link, but leaves the variables as such intact.
4350 Additionally the subcommands
4354 are provided, which work exactly the same as the documented commands
4358 but (additionally) link the variable(s) with the program environment and
4359 thus immediately export them to, or remove them from (if possible),
4360 respectively, the program environment.
4365 \*(OP Since \*(UA uses the console as a user interface it can happen
4366 that messages scroll by too fast to become recognized.
4367 An error message ring queue is available which stores duplicates of any
4368 error message and notifies the user in interactive sessions whenever
4369 a new error has occurred.
4370 The queue is finite: if its maximum size is reached any new message
4371 replaces the eldest.
4374 can be used to manage this message queue: if given
4376 or no argument the queue will be displayed and cleared,
4378 will only clear all messages from the queue.
4382 \*(NQ Construct a command by concatenating the arguments, separated with
4383 a single space character, and then evaluate the result.
4384 This command passes through the exit status
4388 of the evaluated command; also see
4390 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4392 # Like this, sh(1)ell-stylish from begin to end: works!
4393 # Result status ends up in $!, then
4394 localopts 1;wysh set verbose;ignerr eval "${@}";return ${?}
4396 commandalias xv '\ecall xverbose'
4409 call yyy '\ecall xxx' "b\e$'\et'u ' "
4417 (ex or x) Exit from \*(UA without changing the active mailbox and skip
4418 any saving of messages in the
4420 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
4422 as well as a possibly tracked line editor history file.
4428 but open the mailbox read-only.
4433 (fi) The file command switches to a new mailbox.
4434 Without arguments it shows status information of the current mailbox.
4435 If an argument is given, it will write out changes (such as deletions)
4436 the user has made, open a new mailbox and update the internal variables
4437 .Va mailbox-resolved
4439 .Va mailbox-display .
4440 .Sx "Filename transformations"
4441 will be applied to the
4445 prefixes are understood, e.g.,
4446 .Ql maildir:///tmp/mdirbox :
4447 if a protocol prefix is used the mailbox type is fixated and neither
4448 the auto-detection (read on) nor the
4451 \*(OPally URLs can also be used to access network resources, see
4452 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" :
4455 .Dl \*(IN protocol://[user[:password]@]host[:port][/path]
4456 .Dl \*(OU protocol://[user@]host[:port][/path]
4459 \*(OPally supported network protocols are
4463 (POP3 with SSL/TLS encrypted transport),
4465 part is valid only for IMAP; there it defaults to
4467 Network URLs require a special encoding as documented in the said section.
4470 If the resulting file protocol (MBOX database)
4472 is located on a local filesystem then the list of all registered
4474 s is traversed in order to see whether a transparent intermediate
4475 conversion step is necessary to handle the given mailbox, in which case
4476 \*(UA will use the found hook to load and save data into and from
4477 a temporary file, respectively.
4478 Changing hooks will not affect already opened mailboxes.
4479 For example, the following creates hooks for the
4481 compression tool and a combined compressed and encrypted format:
4483 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4485 gzip 'gzip -dc' 'gzip -c' \e
4486 zst.pgp 'gpg -d | zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc | gpg -e'
4490 MBOX database files are generally locked during file operations in order
4491 to avoid inconsistencies due to concurrent modifications.
4492 \*(OPal Mailbox files which \*(UA treats as the system
4497 .Sx "primary system mailbox" Ns
4498 es in general will also be protected by so-called dotlock files, the
4499 traditional way of mail spool file locking: for any file
4503 will be created for the duration of the synchronization \(em
4504 as necessary a privilege-separated dotlock child process will be used
4505 to accommodate for necessary privilege adjustments in order to create
4506 the dotlock file in the same directory
4507 and with the same user and group identities as the file of interest.
4510 \*(UA by default uses tolerant POSIX rules when reading MBOX database
4511 files, but it will detect invalid message boundaries in this mode and
4512 complain (even more with
4514 if any is seen: in this case
4516 can be used to create a valid MBOX database from the invalid input.
4519 If no protocol has been fixated, and
4521 refers to a directory with the subdirectories
4526 then it is treated as a folder in
4529 \*(ID Also, if no protocol has been fixated and no existing file has
4530 been found, the variable
4532 controls the format of mailboxes yet to be created.
4537 .It Ic filetype , unfiletype
4538 \*(NQ Define or list, and remove, respectively, file handler hooks,
4539 which provide (shell) commands that enable \*(UA to load and save MBOX
4540 files from and to files with the registered file extensions;
4541 it will use an intermediate temporary file to store the plain data.
4542 The latter command removes the hooks for all given extensions,
4544 will remove all existing handlers.
4546 When used without arguments the former shows a list of all currently
4547 defined file hooks, with one argument the expansion of the given alias.
4548 Otherwise three arguments are expected, the first specifying the file
4549 extension for which the hook is meant, and the second and third defining
4550 the load- and save commands, respectively, to deal with the file type,
4551 both of which must read from standard input and write to standard
4553 Changing hooks will not affect already opened mailboxes (\*(ID except below).
4554 \*(ID For now too much work is done, and files are oftened read in twice
4555 where once would be sufficient: this can cause problems if a filetype is
4556 changed while such a file is opened; this was already so with the
4557 builtin support of .gz etc. in Heirloom, and will vanish in v15.
4558 \*(ID For now all handler strings are passed to the
4559 .Ev SHELL for evaluation purposes; in the future a
4561 prefix to load and save commands may mean to bypass this shell instance:
4562 placing a leading space will avoid any possible misinterpretations.
4563 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4564 filetype bz2 'bzip2 -dc' 'bzip2 -zc' \e
4565 gz 'gzip -dc' 'gzip -c' xz 'xz -dc' 'xz -zc' \e
4566 zst 'zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc' \e
4567 zst.pgp 'gpg -d | zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc | gpg -e'
4568 set record=+sent.zst.pgp
4573 .It Ic flag , unflag
4574 Take message lists and mark the messages as being flagged, or not being
4575 flagged, respectively, for urgent/special attention.
4577 .Sx "Message states" .
4586 With no arguments, list the names of the folders in the folder directory.
4587 With an existing folder as an argument,
4588 lists the names of folders below the named folder.
4594 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
4595 recipient's address (instead of in
4602 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
4603 recipient's address (instead of in
4610 but responds to all recipients regardless of the
4615 .It Ic followupsender
4618 but responds to the sender only regardless of the
4634 (f) Takes a list of message specifications and displays a summary of
4635 their message headers, exactly as via
4637 An alias of this command is
4640 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
4646 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the
4647 recipient's address (instead of in
4652 Takes a message and the address of a recipient
4653 and forwards the message to him.
4654 The text of the original message is included in the new one,
4655 with the value of the
4657 variable preceding it.
4658 To filter the included header fields to the desired subset use the
4660 slot of the white- and blacklisting command
4662 Only the first part of a multipart message is included unless
4663 .Va forward-as-attachment ,
4664 and recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names etc.
4665 unless the internal variable
4671 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
4676 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
4681 .It Ic ghost , unghost
4684 .Ic uncommandalias .
4688 .It Ic headerpick , unheaderpick
4689 \*(NQ Multiplexer command to manage white- and blacklisting
4690 selections of header fields for a variety of applications.
4691 Without arguments the set of contexts that have settings is displayed.
4692 When given arguments, the first argument is the context to which the
4693 command applies, one of (case-insensitively)
4695 for display purposes (via, e.g.,
4698 for selecting which headers shall be stored persistently when
4704 ing messages (note that MIME related etc. header fields should not be
4705 ignored in order to not destroy usability of the message in this case),
4707 for stripping down messages when
4709 ing message (has no effect if
4710 .Va forward-as-attachment
4713 for defining user-defined set of fields for the command
4717 The current settings of the given context are displayed if only the
4718 first argument is given.
4719 A second argument denotes the type of restriction that is to be chosen,
4720 it may be (a case-insensitive prefix of)
4724 for white- and blacklisting purposes, respectively.
4725 Establishing a whitelist suppresses inspection of the corresponding
4727 If no further argument is given the current settings of the given type
4728 will be displayed, otherwise the remaining arguments specify header
4729 fields, which \*(OPally may be given as regular expressions, to be be
4730 added to the given type.
4731 The special wildcard field (asterisk,
4733 will establish a (fast) shorthand setting which covers all fields.
4735 The latter command always takes three or more arguments and can be used
4736 to remove fields from the given type of list of the given context, the
4739 will remove all fields.
4744 (h) Show the current group of headers, the size of which depends on
4747 and the style of which can be adjusted with the variable
4749 If a message-specification is given the group of headers containing the
4750 first message therein is shown and the message at the top of the screen
4763 (this mode also supports a more
4767 the list of history entries;
4770 argument selects and evaluates the respective history entry,
4771 which will become the new history top; a negative number is used as an
4772 offset to the current command, e.g.,
4774 will select the last command, the history top.
4775 The default mode if no arguments are given is
4782 Takes a message list and marks each message therein to be saved in the
4787 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
4789 Does not override the
4792 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command, because a
4794 command issued after
4796 will display the following message, not the current one.
4801 (i) Part of the nestable
4802 .Ic if Ns \0/\: Ic elif Ns \0/\: Ic else Ns \0/\: Ic endif
4803 conditional execution construct \(em if the given condition is true then
4804 the encapsulated block is executed.
4805 The POSIX standards supports the (case-insensitive) conditions
4810 end, all remaining conditions are non-portable extensions.
4811 (Be aware that a faulty condition skips all following branches until
4813 \*(ID These commands do not yet use
4814 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
4815 and therefore do not know about input tokens, so that syntax
4816 elements have to be surrounded by whitespace; in v15 \*(UA will inspect
4817 all conditions bracket group wise and consider the tokens, representing
4818 values and operators, therein, which also means that variables will
4819 already have been expanded at that time (just like in the shell).
4821 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4830 The (case-insensitive) condition
4832 erminal will evaluate to true if the standard input is a terminal, i.e.,
4833 in interactive sessions.
4834 Another condition can be any boolean value (see the section
4835 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
4836 for textual boolean representations) to mark an enwrapped block as
4839 .Dq always execute .
4842 \*(ID It is possible to check
4843 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
4846 variables for existence or compare their expansion against a user given
4847 value or another variable by using the
4849 .Pf ( Dq variable next )
4850 conditional trigger character;
4851 a variable on the right hand side may be signalled using the same
4853 Variable names may be enclosed in a pair of matching braces.
4854 When this mode has been triggered, several operators are available:
4857 Integer operators treat the arguments on the left and right hand side of
4858 the operator as integral numbers and compare them arithmetically.
4859 It is an error if any of the operands is not a valid integer, an empty
4860 argument (which implies it had been quoted) is treated as if it were 0.
4861 Available operators are
4865 (less than or equal to),
4871 (greater than or equal to), and
4876 String data operators compare the left and right hand side according to
4877 their textual content.
4878 Unset variables are treated as the empty string.
4879 The behaviour of string operators can be adjusted by prefixing the
4880 operator with the modifier trigger commercial at
4882 followed by none to multiple modifiers: for now supported is
4884 which turns the comparison into a case-insensitive one: this is
4885 implied if no modifier follows the trigger.
4888 Available string operators are
4892 (less than or equal to),
4898 (greater than or equal to),
4902 (is substring of) and
4904 (is not substring of).
4905 By default these operators work on bytes and (therefore) do not take
4906 into account character set specifics.
4907 If the case-insensitivity modifier has been used, case is ignored
4908 according to the rules of the US-ASCII encoding, i.e., bytes are
4912 When the \*(OPal regular expression support is available, the additional
4918 They treat the right hand side as an extended regular expression that is
4919 matched according to the active
4921 locale, i.e., character sets should be honoured correctly.
4924 Conditions can be joined via AND-OR lists (where the AND operator is
4926 and the OR operator is
4928 which have equal precedence and will be evaluated with left
4929 associativity, thus using the same syntax that is known for the
4931 It is also possible to form groups of conditions and lists by enclosing
4932 them in pairs of brackets
4933 .Ql [\ \&.\&.\&.\ ] ,
4934 which may be interlocked within each other, and also be joined via
4938 The results of individual conditions and entire groups may be modified
4939 via unary operators: the unary operator
4941 will reverse the result.
4943 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4947 if [ "$ttycharset" == UTF-8 ] || [ "$ttycharset" @i== UTF8 ]
4948 echo *ttycharset* is UTF-8, the former case-sensitive!
4951 if [ "${t1}" == "${t2}" ]
4952 echo These two variables are equal
4954 # This is a string test, -ge has been added for v14.9.0
4955 if [ "$features" =% +regex ] && [ "$TERM" @i=~ "^xterm\&.*" ]
4956 echo ..in an X terminal
4958 if [ [ true ] && [ [ "${debug}" != '' ] || \e
4959 [ "$verbose" != '' ] ] ]
4962 if true && [ "$debug" != '' ] || [ "${verbose}" != '' ]
4963 echo Left associativity, as is known from the shell
4965 if ! ! true && ! [ ! "$debug" && ! "$verbose" ]
4966 echo Unary operator support
4975 Superseded by the multiplexer
4980 Shows the names of all available commands, alphabetically sorted.
4981 If given any non-whitespace argument the list will be shown in the order
4982 in which command prefixes are searched.
4983 \*(OP In conjunction with a set variable
4985 additional information will be provided for each command: the argument
4986 type will be indicated, the documentation string will be shown,
4987 and the set of command flags will show up:
4989 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql BaNg"
4990 .It Ql "vput modifier"
4991 command supports the command modifier
4993 .It Ql "errno in *!*"
4994 the error number is tracked in
4997 commands needs an active mailbox, a
4999 .It Ql "ok: batch or interactive"
5000 command may only be used in interactive or
5003 .It Ql "ok: send mode"
5004 command can be used in send mode.
5005 .It Ql "not ok: compose mode"
5006 command is not available when in compose mode.
5007 .It Ql "not ok: during startup"
5008 command cannot be used during program startup, e.g., while loading
5009 .Sx "Resource files" .
5010 .It Ql "ok: in subprocess"
5011 command is allowed to be used when running in a subprocess instance,
5012 e.g., from within a macro that is called via
5013 .Va on-compose-splice .
5018 This command can be used to localize changes to variables, meaning that
5019 their state will be reverted to the former one once the covered scope
5021 It can only be used inside of macro definition blocks introduced by
5025 and is interpreted as a boolean (string, see
5026 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ) ;
5029 of an account is left once it is switched off again.
5030 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5031 define temporary_settings {
5032 set possibly_global_option1
5037 set possibly_global_option2
5046 enables change localization and calls
5048 which explicitly resets localization, then any value changes within
5050 will still be reverted by
5052 \*(ID Once the outermost level, the one which enabled localization
5053 first, is left, but no earlier, all adjustments will be unrolled.
5054 \*(ID Likewise worth knowing, if in this example
5056 changes to a different
5058 which sets some variables that are yet covered by localizations, their
5059 scope will be extended, and in fact leaving the
5061 will (thus) restore settings in (likely) global scope which actually
5062 were defined in a local, private context.
5066 Reply to messages that come in via known
5069 .Pf ( Ic mlsubscribe )
5070 mailing lists, or pretend to do so (see
5071 .Sx "Mailing lists" ) :
5074 functionality this will actively resort and even remove message
5075 recipients in order to generate a message that is supposed to be sent to
5077 For example it will also implicitly generate a
5078 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
5079 header if that seems useful, regardless of the setting of the variable
5081 For more documentation please refer to
5082 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
5088 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
5089 recipient's address (instead of in
5094 (m) Takes a (list of) recipient address(es) as (an) argument(s),
5095 or asks on standard input if none were given;
5096 then collects the remaining mail content and sends it out.
5097 For more documentation please refer to
5098 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
5102 (mb) The given message list is to be sent to the
5104 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
5106 when \*(UA is quit; this is the default action unless the variable
5109 \*(ID This command can only be used in a
5111 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
5115 .It Ic mimetype , unmimetype
5116 Without arguments the content of the MIME type cache will displayed;
5117 a more verbose listing will be produced if either of
5122 When given arguments they will be joined, interpreted as shown in
5123 .Sx "The mime.types files"
5125 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ) ,
5126 and the resulting entry will be added (prepended) to the cache.
5127 In any event MIME type sources are loaded first as necessary \(en
5128 .Va mimetypes-load-control
5129 can be used to fine-tune which sources are actually loaded.
5131 The latter command deletes all specifications of the given MIME type, thus
5132 .Ql ? unmimetype text/plain
5133 will remove all registered specifications for the MIME type
5137 will discard all existing MIME types, just as will
5139 but which also reenables cache initialization via
5140 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
5144 .It Ic mlist , unmlist
5145 The latter command removes all given mailing-lists, the special name
5147 can be used to remove all registered lists.
5148 The former will list all currently defined mailing lists (and their
5149 attributes, if any) when used without arguments; a more verbose listing
5150 will be produced if either of
5155 Otherwise all given arguments will be added and henceforth be recognized
5157 If the \*(OPal regular expression support is available then mailing
5158 lists may also be specified as (extended) regular expressions (see
5164 .It Ic mlsubscribe , unmlsubscribe
5165 The latter command removes the subscription attribute from all given
5166 mailing-lists, the special name
5168 can be used to do so for any registered list.
5169 The former will list all currently defined mailing lists which have
5170 a subscription attribute when used without arguments; a more verbose
5171 listing will be produced if either of
5176 Otherwise this attribute will be set for all given mailing lists,
5177 newly creating them as necessary (as via
5186 but moves the messages to a file named after the local part of the
5187 sender address of the first message (instead of in
5194 but marks the messages for deletion if they were transferred
5201 but also displays header fields which would not pass the
5203 selection, and all MIME parts.
5211 on the given messages, even in non-interactive mode and as long as the
5212 standard output is a terminal.
5218 \*(OP When used without arguments or if
5220 has been given the content of the
5222 cache is shown, loading it first as necessary.
5225 then the cache will only be initialized and
5227 will remove its contents.
5228 Note that \*(UA will try to load the file only once, use
5229 .Ql Ic \&\&netrc Ns \:\0\:clear
5230 to unlock further attempts.
5235 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ;
5237 .Sx "The .netrc file"
5238 documents the file format in detail.
5242 Checks for new mail in the current folder without committing any changes
5244 If new mail is present, a message is shown.
5248 the headers of each new message are also shown.
5249 This command is not available for all mailbox types.
5257 Goes to the next message in sequence and types it.
5258 With an argument list, types the next matching message.
5272 If the current folder is accessed via a network connection, a
5274 command is sent, otherwise no operation is performed.
5280 but also displays header fields which would not pass the
5282 selection, and all MIME parts.
5290 on the given messages, even in non-interactive mode and as long as the
5291 standard output is a terminal.
5297 \*(ID Only available in interactive mode, this command allows to show
5298 MIME parts which require external MIME handler programs to run which do
5299 not integrate in \*(UAs normal
5302 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ) .
5303 The user will be asked for each non-text part of the given message in
5304 (\*(ID no syntax to directly address parts, this restriction may vanish)
5305 turn whether the registered handler shall be used to display the part.
5311 but also pipes header fields which would not pass the
5313 selection, and all parts of MIME
5314 .Ql multipart/alternative
5319 (pi) Takes a message list and a shell command
5320 and pipes the messages through the command.
5321 Without an argument the current message is piped through the command
5328 every message is followed by a formfeed character.
5349 (q) Terminates the session, saving all undeleted, unsaved messages in
5352 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
5354 preserving all messages marked with
5358 or never referenced in the system
5360 and removing all other messages from the
5362 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
5363 If new mail has arrived during the session,
5365 .Dq You have new mail
5367 If given while editing a mailbox file with the command line option
5369 then the edit file is rewritten.
5370 A return to the shell is effected,
5371 unless the rewrite of edit file fails,
5372 in which case the user can escape with the exit command.
5376 \*(NQ Read a line from standard input, or the channel set active via
5378 and assign the data, which will be splitted as indicated by
5380 to the given variables.
5381 The variable names are checked by the same rules as documented for
5383 and the same error codes will be seen in
5387 indicates the number of bytes read, it will be
5389 with the error number
5393 in case of I/O errors, or
5396 If there are more fields than variables, assigns successive fields to the
5397 last given variable.
5398 If there are less fields than variables, assigns the empty string to the
5400 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5403 ? echo "<$a> <$b> <$c>"
5405 ? wysh set ifs=:; read a b c;unset ifs
5406 hey2.0,:"'you ",:world!:mars.:
5407 ? echo $?/$^ERRNAME / <$a><$b><$c>
5408 0/NONE / <hey2.0,><"'you ",><world!:mars.:><><>
5413 \*(NQ Manages input channels for
5415 to be used to avoid complicated or impracticable code, like calling
5417 from within a macro in non-interactive mode.
5418 Without arguments, or when the first argument is
5420 a listing of all known channels is printed.
5421 Channels can otherwise be
5423 d, and existing channels can be
5427 d by giving the string used for creation.
5429 The channel name is expected to be a file descriptor number, or,
5430 if parsing the numeric fails, an input file name that undergoes
5431 .Sx "Filename transformations" .
5432 E.g. (this example requires a modern shell):
5433 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5434 $ LC_ALL=C printf 'echon "hey, "\enread a\enyou\enecho $a' |\e
5437 $ LC_ALL=C printf 'echon "hey, "\enread a\enecho $a' |\e
5438 LC_ALL=C 6<<< 'you' \*(uA -R#X'readctl create 6'
5452 Removes the named files or directories.
5453 If a name refer to a mailbox, e.g., a Maildir mailbox, then a mailbox
5454 type specific removal will be performed, deleting the complete mailbox.
5455 The user is asked for confirmation in interactive mode.
5459 Takes the name of an existing folder
5460 and the name for the new folder
5461 and renames the first to the second one.
5462 Both folders must be of the same type.
5466 (R) Reply to originator.
5467 Does not reply to other recipients of the original message.
5469 will exchange this command with
5471 Unless the internal variable
5473 is set the recipient address will be stripped from comments, names etc.
5477 (r) Take a message and group-responds to it by addressing the sender
5478 and all recipients, subject to
5482 .Va followup-to-honour ,
5485 .Va recipients-in-cc
5486 influence response behaviour.
5487 Unless the internal variable
5489 is set recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names etc.
5499 offers special support for replying to mailing lists.
5500 For more documentation please refer to
5501 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
5507 but initiates a group-reply regardless of the value of
5514 but responds to the sender only regardless of the value of
5521 but does not add any header lines.
5522 This is not a way to hide the sender's identity,
5523 but useful for sending a message again to the same recipients.
5527 Takes a list of messages and a user name
5528 and sends each message to the named user.
5530 and related header fields are prepended to the new copy of the message.
5533 is only performed if
5553 .It Ic respondsender
5559 (ret) Superseded by the multiplexer
5564 Only available inside the scope of a
5568 this will stop evaluation of any further macro content, and return
5569 execution control to the caller.
5570 The two optional parameters must be specified as positive decimal
5571 numbers and default to the value 0:
5572 the first argument specifies the signed 32-bit return value (stored in
5574 and later extended to signed 64-bit),
5575 the second the signed 32-bit error number (stored in
5579 a non-0 exit status may cause the program to exit.
5585 but saves the messages in a file named after the local part of the
5586 sender of the first message instead of (in
5588 and) taking a filename argument; the variable
5590 is inspected to decide on the actual storage location.
5594 (s) Takes a message list and a filename and appends each message in turn
5595 to the end of the file.
5596 If no filename is given, the
5598 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
5601 The filename in quotes, followed by the generated character count
5602 is echoed on the user's terminal.
5605 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
5606 the messages are marked for deletion.
5607 .Sx "Filename transformations"
5612 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
5617 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
5622 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
5627 Takes a message specification (list) and displays a header summary of
5628 all matching messages, as via
5630 This command is an alias of
5633 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
5637 Takes a message list and marks all messages as having been read.
5643 (se, \*(NQ uns) The latter commands will delete all given variables,
5644 the former, when used without arguments, will show all variables which
5645 are currently known to \*(UA; a more verbose listing will be produced if
5652 Otherwise the given variables (and arguments) are set or adjusted.
5653 Arguments are of the form
5655 (no space before or after
5659 if there is no value, i.e., a boolean variable.
5660 Quotation marks may be placed around any part of the assignment
5661 statement to quote blanks or tabs, e.g.,
5663 .Dl set indentprefix='->'
5665 If an argument begins with
5669 the effect is the same as invoking the
5671 command with the remaining part of the variable
5672 .Pf ( Ql unset save ) .
5676 that is known to map to an environment variable will automatically cause
5677 updates in the program environment (unsetting a variable in the
5678 environment requires corresponding system support) \(em use the command
5680 for further environmental control.
5685 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
5692 Apply shell quoting rules to the given raw-data arguments.
5696 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) ,
5697 The first argument specifies the operation:
5701 cause shell quoting to be applied to the remains of the line, and
5702 expanded away thereof, respectively.
5703 If the former is prefixed with a plus-sign, the quoted result will not
5704 be roundtrip enabled, and thus can be decoded only in the very same
5705 environment that was used to perform the encode; also see
5706 .Cd mle-quote-rndtrip .
5707 If the coding operation fails the error number
5710 .Va ^ERR Ns -CANCELED ,
5711 and the unmodified input is used as the result; the error number may
5712 change again due to output or result storage errors.
5716 (sh) Invokes an interactive version of the shell,
5717 and returns its exit status.
5721 .It Ic shortcut , unshortcut
5722 Without arguments the list of all currently defined shortcuts is
5723 shown, with one argument the expansion of the given shortcut.
5724 Otherwise all given arguments are treated as pairs of shortcuts and
5725 their expansions, creating new or changing already existing shortcuts,
5727 The latter command will remove all given shortcuts, the special name
5729 will remove all registered shortcuts.
5733 Shift the positional parameter stack (starting at
5735 by the given number (which must be an unsigned, positive, decimal),
5736 or 1 if no argument has been given.
5737 It is an error if the value exceeds the number of positional parameters.
5738 If the given number is 0, no action is performed, successfully.
5739 The stack as such can be managed via
5741 Note this command will fail in
5743 and hook macros unless the positional parameter stack has been
5744 explicitly created in the current context via
5751 but performs neither MIME decoding nor decryption, so that the raw
5752 message text is shown.
5756 (si) Shows the size in characters of each message of the given
5761 \*(NQ Sleep for the specified number of seconds (and optionally
5762 milliseconds), by default interruptably.
5763 If a third argument is given the sleep will be uninterruptible,
5764 otherwise the error number
5768 if the sleep has been interrupted.
5769 The command will fail and the error number will be
5770 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW
5771 if the given duration(s) overflow the time datatype, and
5773 if the given durations are no valid integers.
5778 .It Ic sort , unsort
5779 The latter command disables sorted or threaded mode, returns to normal
5780 message order and, if the
5783 displays a header summary.
5784 The former command shows the current sorting criterion when used without
5785 an argument, but creates a sorted representation of the current folder
5786 otherwise, and changes the
5788 command and the addressing modes such that they refer to messages in
5790 Message numbers are the same as in regular mode.
5794 a header summary in the new order is also displayed.
5795 Automatic folder sorting can be enabled by setting the
5797 variable, as in, e.g.,
5798 .Ql set autosort=thread .
5799 Possible sorting criterions are:
5802 .Bl -tag -compact -width "subject"
5804 Sort the messages by their
5806 field, that is by the time they were sent.
5808 Sort messages by the value of their
5810 field, that is by the address of the sender.
5813 variable is set, the sender's real name (if any) is used.
5815 Sort the messages by their size.
5817 \*(OP Sort the message by their spam score, as has been classified by
5820 Sort the messages by their message status.
5822 Sort the messages by their subject.
5824 Create a threaded display.
5826 Sort messages by the value of their
5828 field, that is by the address of the recipient.
5831 variable is set, the recipient's real name (if any) is used.
5837 \*(NQ (so) The source command reads commands from the given file.
5838 .Sx "Filename transformations"
5840 If the given expanded argument ends with a vertical bar
5842 then the argument will instead be interpreted as a shell command and
5843 \*(UA will read the output generated by it.
5844 Interpretation of commands read is stopped when an error is encountered.
5847 cannot be used from within macros that execute as
5848 .Va folder-hook Ns s
5851 i.e., it can only be called from macros that were
5856 \*(NQ The difference to
5858 (beside not supporting pipe syntax aka shell command input) is that
5859 this command will not generate an error nor warn if the given file
5860 argument cannot be opened successfully.
5864 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and clears their
5870 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and causes the
5872 to forget it has ever used them to train its Bayesian filter.
5873 Unless otherwise noted the
5875 flag of the message is inspected to chose whether a message shall be
5883 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and informs the Bayesian filter of the
5887 This also clears the
5889 flag of the messages in question.
5893 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and rates them using the configured
5894 .Va spam-interface ,
5895 without modifying the messages, but setting their
5897 flag as appropriate; because the spam rating headers are lost the rate
5898 will be forgotten once the mailbox is left.
5899 Refer to the manual section
5901 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
5905 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and sets their
5911 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and informs the Bayesian filter of the
5917 flag of the messages in question.
5934 slot for white- and blacklisting header fields.
5938 (to) Takes a message list and types out the first
5940 lines of each message on the users' terminal.
5941 Unless a special selection has been established for the
5945 command, the only header fields that are displayed are
5956 It is possible to apply compression to what is displayed by setting
5958 Messages are decrypted and converted to the terminal character set
5963 (tou) Takes a message list and marks the messages for saving in the
5965 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
5967 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command,
5970 command will display the following message instead of the current one.
5976 but also displays header fields which would not pass the
5978 selection, and all visualizable parts of MIME
5979 .Ql multipart/alternative
5984 (t) Takes a message list and types out each message on the users terminal.
5985 The display of message headers is selectable via
5987 For MIME multipart messages, all parts with a content type of
5989 all parts which have a registered MIME type handler (see
5990 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" )
5991 which produces plain text output, and all
5993 parts are shown, others are hidden except for their headers.
5994 Messages are decrypted and converted to the terminal character set
5998 can be used to display parts which are not displayable as plain text.
6042 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6047 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6052 Superseded by the multiplexer
6063 .It Ic unmlsubscribe
6074 Takes a message list and marks each message as not having been read.
6078 Superseded by the multiplexer
6083 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6088 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6111 Perform URL percent codec operations on the raw-data argument, rather
6112 according to RFC 3986.
6116 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) ,
6117 and manages the error number
6119 This is a character set agnostic and thus locale dependent operation,
6120 and it may decode bytes which are invalid in the current
6122 \*(ID This command does not about URLs beside that.
6124 The first argument specifies the operation:
6128 perform plain URL percent en- and decoding, respectively.
6132 perform a slightly modified operation which should be better for
6133 pathnames: it does not allow a tilde
6135 and will neither accept hyphen-minus
6139 as an initial character.
6140 The remains of the line form the URL data which is to be converted.
6141 If the coding operation fails the error number
6144 .Va ^ERR Ns -CANCELED ,
6145 and the unmodified input is used as the result; the error number may
6146 change again due to output or result storage errors.
6150 \*(NQ Edit the values of or create the given variable(s) in the
6152 Boolean variables cannot be edited, and variables can also not be
6158 \*(NQ This command produces the same output as the listing mode of
6162 ity adjustments, but only for the given variables.
6166 \*(OP Takes a message list and verifies each message.
6167 If a message is not a S/MIME signed message,
6168 verification will fail for it.
6169 The verification process checks if the message was signed using a valid
6171 if the message sender's email address matches one of those contained
6172 within the certificate,
6173 and if the message content has been altered.
6186 \*(NQ Evaluate arguments according to a given operator.
6187 This is a multiplexer command which can be used to perform signed 64-bit
6188 numeric calculations as well as byte string and string operations.
6189 It uses polish notation, i.e., the operator is the first argument and
6190 defines the number and type, and the meaning of the remaining arguments.
6191 An empty argument is replaced with a 0 if a number is expected.
6195 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
6198 The result that is shown in case of errors is always
6200 for usage errors and numeric operations, and the empty string for byte
6201 string and string operations;
6202 if the latter two fail to provide result data for
6204 errors, e.g., when a search operation failed, they also set the
6207 .Va ^ERR Ns -NODATA .
6208 Except when otherwise noted numeric arguments are parsed as signed 64-bit
6209 numbers, and errors will be reported in the error number
6211 as the numeric error
6212 .Va ^ERR Ns -RANGE .
6215 Numeric operations work on one or two signed 64-bit integers.
6216 One integer is expected by assignment (equals sign
6218 which does nothing but parsing the argument, thus detecting validity and
6219 possible overflow conditions, and unary not (tilde
6221 which creates the bitwise complement.
6222 Two integers are used by addition (plus sign
6224 subtraction (hyphen-minus
6226 multiplication (asterisk
6230 and modulo (percent sign
6232 as well as for the bitwise operators logical or (vertical bar
6235 bitwise and (ampersand
6238 bitwise xor (circumflex
6240 the bitwise signed left- and right shifts
6243 as well as for the unsigned right shift
6247 All numeric operators can be suffixed with a commercial at
6251 this will turn the operation into a saturated one, which means that
6252 overflow errors and division and modulo by zero are no longer reported
6253 via the exit status, but the result will linger at the minimum or
6254 maximum possible value, instead of overflowing (or trapping).
6255 This is true also for the argument parse step.
6256 For the bitwise shifts, the saturated maximum is 63.
6257 Any catched overflow will be reported via the error number
6260 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW .
6263 Character set agnostic string functions have no notion of locale
6264 settings and character sets.
6267 which performs the usual
6268 .Sx "Filename transformations"
6269 on its argument, and
6271 which generates a random string of the given length, or of
6273 bytes (a constant from
6275 if the value 0 is given; the random string will be base64url encoded
6276 according to RFC 4648, and thus be usable as a (portable) filename.
6279 Byte string operations work on 8-bit bytes and have no notion of locale
6280 settings and character sets, effectively assuming ASCII data.
6281 Operations that take one argument are
6283 which queries the length of the given argument, and
6285 which calculates the Chris Torek hash of the given argument.
6288 Byte string operations with two or more arguments are
6290 which byte-searches in the first for the second argument, and shows the
6291 resulting 0-based offset shall it have been found,
6293 which is identical to
6295 but works case-insensitively according to the rules of the ASCII
6298 will show a substring of its first argument:
6299 the second argument is the 0-based starting offset, the optional third
6300 argument can be used to specify the length of the desired substring,
6301 by default the entire string is used;
6302 this operation tries to work around faulty arguments (set
6304 for error logs), but reports them via the error number
6307 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW .
6310 String operations work, sufficient support provided, according to the
6312 locale and therefore with the user's locale encoding / character set.
6313 There is the one argument operation
6315 which (one-way) converts the argument to something safely printable on
6321 is a string operation that will try to match the first argument with the
6322 regular expression given as the second argument, as does
6324 but which is case-insensitive.
6325 If the optional third argument has been given then instead of showing
6326 the match offset a replacement operation is performed:
6327 the third argument is treated as if specified via dollar-single-quote
6329 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ) ,
6330 and any occurrence of a positional parameter, e.g.,
6332 is replaced by the corresponding match group of the regular expression.
6334 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6335 ? vexpr -@ +1 -9223372036854775808
6336 ? vput vexpr res ir bananarama (.*)NanA(.*) '\e${1}au\e$2'
6343 \*(NQ Manage the positional parameter stack (see
6347 If the first argument is
6349 then the positional parameter stack of the current context, or the
6350 global one, if there is none, is cleared.
6353 then the remaining arguments will be used to (re)create the stack,
6354 if the parameter stack size limit is excessed an
6355 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW
6359 If the first argument is
6361 a round-trip capable representation of the stack contents is created,
6362 with each quoted parameter separated from each other with the first
6365 and followed by the first character of
6367 if that is not empyty and not identical to the first.
6368 If that results in no separation at all a
6374 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
6375 I.e., the subcommands
6379 can be used (in conjunction with
6381 to (re)create an argument stack from and to a single variable losslessly.
6383 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6384 ? vpospar set hey, "'you ", world!
6385 ? echo $#: <${1}><${2}><${3}>
6386 ? vput vpospar x quote
6388 ? echo $#: <${1}><${2}><${3}>
6389 ? eval vpospar set ${x}
6390 ? echo $#: <${1}><${2}><${3}>
6396 (v) Takes a message list and invokes the display editor on each message.
6397 Modified contents are discarded unless the
6399 variable is set, and are not used unless the mailbox can be written to
6400 and the editor returns a successful exit status.
6404 (w) For conventional messages the body without all headers is written.
6405 The original message is never marked for deletion in the originating
6407 The output is decrypted and converted to its native format as necessary.
6408 If the output file exists, the text is appended.
6409 If a message is in MIME multipart format its first part is written to
6410 the specified file as for conventional messages, handling of the remains
6411 depends on the execution mode.
6412 No special handling of compressed files is performed.
6414 In interactive mode the user is consecutively asked for the filenames of
6415 the processed parts.
6416 For convience saving of each part may be skipped by giving an empty
6417 value, the same result as writing it to
6419 Shell piping the part content by specifying a leading vertical bar
6421 character for the filename is supported.
6422 Other user input undergoes the usual
6423 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
6424 and contents of the destination file are overwritten if the file
6427 \*(ID In non-interactive mode any part which does not specify a filename
6428 is ignored, and suspicious parts of filenames of the remaining parts are
6429 URL percent encoded (as via
6431 to prevent injection of malicious character sequences, resulting in
6432 a filename that will be written into the current directory.
6433 Existing files will not be overwritten, instead the part number or
6434 a dot are appended after a number sign
6436 to the name until file creation succeeds (or fails due to other
6441 \*(NQ This command works only inside of a
6443 ed macro: the sole difference to
6445 is that the new macro is executed in place of the current one, which
6446 will not regain control; all resources of the current macro will be
6447 released before control is given to the replacer.
6448 Note this implies that
6450 may become cleaned up if the teared down macro context is the outermost
6451 level of the cleanup stack.
6460 \*(NQ \*(UA presents message headers in
6462 fuls as described under the
6465 Without arguments this command scrolls to the next window of messages,
6466 likewise if the argument is
6470 scrolls to the last,
6472 scrolls to the first, and
6477 A number argument prefixed by
6481 indicates that the window is calculated in relation to the current
6482 position, and a number without a prefix specifies an absolute position.
6488 but scrolls to the next or previous window that contains at least one
6498 .\" .Sh COMMAND ESCAPES {{{
6499 .Sh "COMMAND ESCAPES"
6501 Here is a summary of the command escapes available in compose mode,
6502 which are used to perform special functions when composing messages.
6503 Command escapes are only recognized at the beginning of lines, and
6504 consist of a trigger (escape) and a command character.
6505 The actual escape character can be set via the internal variable
6507 it defaults to the tilde
6509 Otherwise ignored whitespace characters following the escape character
6510 will prevent a possible addition of the command line to the \*(OPal
6514 Unless otherwise noted all compose mode commands ensure proper updates
6515 of the variables which represent the error number
6521 is set they will, unless stated otherwise, error out message compose
6522 mode if an operation fails.
6523 It is however possible to place the character hyphen-minus
6525 after (possible whitespace following) the escape character, which has an
6526 effect equivalent to the command modifier
6530 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ic BaNg"
6533 Insert the string of text in the message prefaced by a single
6535 (If the escape character has been changed,
6536 that character must be doubled instead.)
6539 .It Ic ~! Ar command
6540 Execute the indicated shell
6542 which follows, replacing unescaped exclamation marks with the previously
6543 executed command if the internal variable
6545 is set, then return to the message.
6549 Same effect as typing the end-of-file character.
6552 .It Ic ~: Ar \*(UA-command Ns \0or Ic ~_ Ar \*(UA-command
6553 Execute the given \*(UA command.
6554 Not all commands, however, are allowed.
6558 Write a summary of command escapes.
6561 .It Ic ~< Ar filename
6566 .It Ic ~<! Ar command
6568 is executed using the shell.
6569 Its standard output is inserted into the message.
6572 .It Ic ~@ Op Ar filename...
6573 Append or edit the list of attachments.
6574 Does not manage the error number
6580 instead if this is a concern).
6583 arguments is expected (see
6584 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ;
6585 any token-separating commas are ignored), to be
6586 interpreted as documented for the command line option
6588 with the message number exception as below.
6591 arguments the attachment list is edited, entry by entry;
6592 if a filename is left empty, that attachment is deleted from the list;
6593 once the end of the list is reached either new attachments may be
6594 entered or the session can be quit by committing an empty
6597 For each mode, if a given file name solely consists of the number sign
6599 followed by a valid message number of the currently active mailbox, then
6600 the given message is attached as a MIME
6602 part (note the number sign is the comment character and must be quoted).
6606 Inserts the string contained in the
6609 .Ql Ic ~i Ns \0Sign ) .
6614 ting the variable(s) instead!) The escape sequences tabulator
6622 Inserts the string contained in the
6625 .Ql Ic ~i Ns \0sign ) .
6630 ting the variable(s) instead!) The escape sequences tabulator
6637 .It Ic ~b Ar name ...
6638 Add the given names to the list of blind carbon copy recipients.
6641 .It Ic ~c Ar name ...
6642 Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients.
6646 Read the file specified by the
6648 variable into the message.
6652 Invoke the text editor on the message collected so far.
6653 After the editing session is finished,
6654 the user may continue appending text to the message.
6657 .It Ic ~F Ar messages
6658 Read the named messages into the message being sent, including all
6659 message headers and MIME parts.
6660 If no messages are specified, read in the current message.
6663 .It Ic ~f Ar messages
6664 Read the named messages into the message being sent.
6665 If no messages are specified, read in the current message.
6666 Strips down the list of header fields according to the
6668 white- and blacklist selection of
6670 For MIME multipart messages,
6671 only the first displayable part is included.
6675 Edit the message header fields
6680 by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
6681 The default values for these fields originate from the
6689 Edit the message header fields
6695 by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
6698 .It Ic ~i Ar variable
6699 Insert the value of the specified variable into the message,
6700 adding a newline character at the end.
6701 The message remains unaltered if the variable is unset or empty.
6706 ting the variable(s) instead!) The escape sequences tabulator
6713 .It Ic ~M Ar messages
6714 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
6717 If no messages are specified, read the current message.
6720 .It Ic ~m Ar messages
6721 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
6724 If no messages are specified, read the current message.
6725 Strips down the list of header fields according to the
6727 white- and blacklist selection of
6729 For MIME multipart messages,
6730 only the first displayable part is included.
6734 Display the message collected so far,
6735 prefaced by the message header fields
6736 and followed by the attachment list, if any.
6740 Abort the message being sent,
6741 copying it to the file specified by the
6748 .It Ic ~R Ar filename
6751 but indent each line that has been read by
6755 .It Ic ~r Ar filename Op Ar HERE-delimiter
6756 Read the named file, object to the usual
6757 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
6758 into the message; if (the expanded)
6762 then standard input is used, e.g., for pasting purposes.
6763 Only in this latter mode
6765 may be given: if it is data will be read in until the given
6767 is seen on a line by itself, and encountering EOF is an error; the
6769 is a required argument in non-interactive mode; if it is single-quote
6770 quoted then the pasted content will not be expanded, \*(ID otherwise
6771 a future version of \*(UA may perform shell-style expansion on the content.
6775 Cause the named string to become the current subject field.
6776 Newline (NL) and carriage-return (CR) bytes are invalid and will be
6777 normalized to space (SP) characters.
6780 .It Ic ~t Ar name ...
6781 Add the given name(s) to the direct recipient list.
6784 .It Ic ~U Ar messages
6785 Read in the given / current message(s) excluding all headers, indented by
6789 .It Ic ~u Ar messages
6790 Read in the given / current message(s), excluding all headers.
6794 Invoke an alternate editor (defined by the
6796 environment variable) on the message collected so far.
6797 Usually, the alternate editor will be a screen editor.
6798 After the editor is quit,
6799 the user may resume appending text to the end of the message.
6802 .It Ic ~w Ar filename
6803 Write the message onto the named file, which is object to the usual
6804 .Sx "Filename transformations" .
6806 the message is appended to it.
6812 except that the message is not saved at all.
6815 .It Ic ~| Ar command
6816 Pipe the message through the specified filter command.
6817 If the command gives no output or terminates abnormally,
6818 retain the original text of the message.
6821 is often used as a rejustifying filter.
6825 .It Ic ~^ Ar cmd Op Ar subcmd Op Ar arg3 Op Ar arg4
6826 Low-level command meant for scripted message access, i.e., for
6827 .Va on-compose-splice-shell
6829 .Va on-compose-splice .
6830 The used protocol is likely subject to changes, and therefore the
6831 mentioned hooks receive the used protocol version as an initial line.
6832 In general the first field of a response line represents a status code
6833 which specifies whether a command was successful or not, whether result
6834 data is to be expected, and if, the format of the result data.
6835 Does not manage the error number
6839 because errors are reported via the protocol
6840 (hard errors like I/O failures cannot be handled).
6841 The status codes are:
6844 .Bl -tag -compact -width _210_
6846 Status ok; the remains of the line are the result.
6848 Status ok; the rest of the line is optionally used for more status.
6849 What follows are lines of result addresses, terminated by an empty line.
6850 The address lines consist of two fields, the first of which is the
6851 plain address, e.g.,
6853 separated by a single ASCII SP space from the second which contains the
6854 unstripped address, even if that is identical to the first field, e.g.,
6855 .Ql (Lovely) Bob <bob@exam.ple> .
6856 (All the input, including the empty line, must be consumed before
6857 further commands can be issued.)
6859 Status ok; the rest of the line is optionally used for more status.
6860 What follows are lines of furtherly unspecified string content,
6861 terminated by an empty line.
6863 including the empty line, must be consumed before further commands can
6866 Syntax error; invalid command.
6868 Syntax error in parameters or arguments.
6870 Error: an argument fails verification.
6871 For example an invalid address has been specified.
6873 Error: an otherwise valid argument is rendered invalid due to context.
6874 For example, a second address is added to a header which may consist of
6875 a single address only.
6879 If a command indicates failure then the message will have remained
6881 Most commands can fail with
6883 if required arguments are missing (false command usage).
6884 The following commands are supported, and, as usual, case-insensitive:
6887 .Bl -hang -width header
6889 This command allows listing, inspection, and editing of message headers.
6890 Header name case is not normalized, and case-insensitive comparison
6891 should be used when matching names.
6892 The second argument specifies the subcommand to apply, one of:
6894 .Bl -hang -width remove
6896 Without a third argument a list of all yet existing headers is given via
6898 this command is the default command of
6900 if no second argument has been given.
6901 A third argument restricts output to the given header only, which may
6904 if no such field is defined.
6907 Shows the content of the header given as the third argument.
6908 Dependent on the header type this may respond with
6912 any failure results in
6916 This will remove all instances of the header given as the third
6921 if no such header can be found.
6924 This will remove from the header given as the third argument the
6925 instance at the list position (counting from one!) given with the fourth
6930 if the list position argument is not a number or
6932 if no such header instance exists.
6935 Create a new or an additional instance of the header given in the third
6936 argument, with the header body content as given in the fourth argument
6937 (the remains of the line).
6940 if the third argument specifies a free-form header field name that is
6941 invalid, or if body content extraction fails to succeed,
6943 if any extracted address does not pass syntax and/or security checks, and
6945 to indicate prevention of excessing a single-instance header \(em note that
6947 can be appended to (a space separator will be added automatically first).
6950 is returned upon success, followed by the name of the header and the list
6951 position of the newly inserted instance.
6952 The list position is always 1 for single-instance header fields.
6953 All free-form header fields are managed in a single list.
6958 This command allows listing, removal and addition of message attachments.
6959 The second argument specifies the subcommand to apply, one of:
6961 .Bl -hang -width remove
6963 List all attachments via
6967 if no attachments exist.
6968 This command is the default command of
6970 if no second argument has been given.
6973 This will remove the attachment given as the third argument, and report
6977 if no such attachment can be found.
6978 If there exists any path component in the given argument, then an exact
6979 match of the path which has been used to create the attachment is used
6980 directly, but if only the basename of that path matches then all
6981 attachments are traversed to find an exact match first, and the removal
6982 occurs afterwards; if multiple basenames match, a
6985 Message attachments are treated as absolute pathnames.
6987 If no path component exists in the given argument, then all attachments
6988 will be searched for
6990 parameter matches as well as for matches of the basename of the path
6991 which has been used when the attachment has been created; multiple
6996 This will interpret the third argument as a number and remove the
6997 attachment at that list position (counting from one!), reporting
7001 if the argument is not a number or
7003 if no such attachment exists.
7006 Adds the attachment given as the third argument, specified exactly as
7007 documented for the command line option
7009 and supporting the message number extension as documented for
7013 upon success, with the index of the new attachment following,
7015 if the given file cannot be opened,
7017 if an on-the-fly performed character set conversion fails, otherwise
7019 is reported; this is also reported if character set conversion is
7020 requested but not available.
7023 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
7025 and prints any known attributes of the first found attachment via
7029 if no such attachment can be found.
7030 The attributes are written as lines of keyword and value tuples, the
7031 keyword being separated from the rest of the line with an ASCII SP space
7035 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
7037 and is otherwise identical to
7040 .It Cm attribute-set
7041 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
7043 and will assign the attribute given as the fourth argument, which is
7044 expected to be a value tuple of keyword and other data, separated by
7045 a ASCII SP space or TAB tabulator character.
7046 If the value part is empty, then the given attribute is removed, or
7047 reset to a default value if existence of the attribute is crucial.
7051 upon success, with the index of the found attachment following,
7053 for message attachments or if the given keyword is invalid, and
7055 if no such attachment can be found.
7056 The following keywords may be used (case-insensitively):
7058 .Bl -hang -compact -width ".Ql filename"
7060 Sets the filename of the MIME part, i.e., the name that is used for
7061 display and when (suggesting a name for) saving (purposes).
7062 .It Ql content-description
7063 Associate some descriptive information to the attachment's content, used
7064 in favour of the plain filename by some MUAs.
7066 May be used for uniquely identifying MIME entities in several contexts;
7067 this expects a special reference address format as defined in RFC 2045
7070 upon address content verification failure.
7072 Defines the media type/subtype of the part, which is managed
7073 automatically, but can be overwritten.
7074 .It Ql content-disposition
7075 Automatically set to the string
7079 .It Cm attribute-set-at
7080 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
7082 and is otherwise identical to
7092 .\" .Sh INTERNAL VARIABLES {{{
7093 .Sh "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
7095 Internal \*(UA variables are controlled via the
7099 commands; prefixing a variable name with the string
7103 has the same effect as using
7109 Creation or editing of variables can be performed in the
7114 will give more insight on the given variable(s), and
7116 when called without arguments, will show a listing of all variables.
7117 Both commands support a more
7120 Some well-known variables will also become inherited from the
7123 implicitly, others can be explicitly imported with the command
7125 and henceforth share said properties.
7128 Two different kind of internal variables exist.
7129 There are boolean variables, which can only be in one of the two states
7133 and value variables with a(n optional) string value.
7134 For the latter proper quoting is necessary upon assignment time, the
7135 introduction of the section
7137 documents the supported quoting rules.
7139 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7140 wysh set one=val\e 1 two="val 2" \e
7141 three='val "3"' four=$'val \e'4\e''; \e
7142 varshow one two three four; \e
7143 unset one two three four
7147 Dependent upon the actual option the string values will be interpreted
7148 as numbers, colour names, normal text etc., but there also exists
7149 a special kind of string value, the
7150 .Dq boolean string ,
7151 which must either be a decimal integer (in which case
7155 and any other value is true) or any of the (case-insensitive) strings
7161 for a false boolean and
7167 for a true boolean; a special kind of boolean string is the
7169 which is a boolean string that can optionally be prefixed with the
7170 (case-insensitive) term
7174 which causes prompting of the user in interactive mode, with the given
7175 boolean as the default value.
7177 .\" .Ss "Initial settings" {{{
7178 .\" (Keep in SYNC: ./nail.h:okeys, ./nail.rc, ./nail.1:"Initial settings")
7179 .Ss "Initial settings"
7181 The standard POSIX 2008/Cor 2-2016 mandates the following initial
7187 .Pf no Va autoprint ,
7201 .Pf no Va ignoreeof ,
7203 .Pf no Va keepsave ,
7205 .Pf no Va outfolder ,
7213 .Pf no Va sendwait ,
7222 Notes: \*(UA does not support the
7224 variable \(en use command line options or
7226 to pass options through to a
7228 And the default global
7230 file, which is loaded unless the
7232 (with according argument) or
7234 command line options have been used, or the
7235 .Ev MAILX_NO_SYSTEM_RC
7236 environment variable is set (see
7237 .Sx "Resource files" )
7238 bends those initial settings a bit, e.g., it sets the variables
7243 to name a few, establishes a default
7245 selection etc., and should thus be taken into account.
7248 .\" .Ss "Variables" {{{
7251 .Bl -tag -width ".It Va BaNg"
7255 \*(RO The exit status of the last command, or the
7260 This status has a meaning in the state machine: in conjunction with
7262 any non-0 exit status will cause a program exit, and in
7264 mode any error while loading (any of the) resource files will have the
7268 .Sx "Command modifiers" ,
7269 can be used to instruct the state machine to ignore errors.
7273 \*(RO The current error number
7274 .Pf ( Xr errno 3 ) ,
7275 which is set after an error occurred; it is also available via
7277 and the error name and documentation string can be queried via
7281 \*(ID This machinery is new and the error number is only really usable
7282 if a command explicitly states that it manages the variable
7284 for others errno will be used in case of errors, or
7286 if that is 0: it thus may or may not reflect the real error.
7287 The error number may be set with the command
7293 \*(RO This is a multiplexer variable which performs dynamic expansion of
7294 the requested state or condition, of which there are:
7297 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Va BaNg"
7301 .It Va ^ERR , ^ERRDOC , ^ERRNAME
7302 The number, documentation, and name of the current
7304 respectively, which is usually set after an error occurred.
7305 \*(ID This machinery is new and is usually reliable only if a command
7306 explicitly states that it manages the variable
7308 which is effectively identical to
7310 Each of those variables can be suffixed with a hyphen minus followed by
7311 a name or number, in which case the expansion refers to the given error.
7312 Note this is a direct mapping of (a subset of) the system error values:
7313 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7315 eval echo \e$1: \e$^ERR-$1: \e$^ERRNAME-$1: \e$^ERRDOC-$1
7316 vput vexpr i + "$1" 1
7328 \*(RO Expands all positional parameters (see
7330 separated by a space character.
7331 \*(ID The special semantics of the equally named special parameter of the
7333 are not yet supported.
7337 \*(RO Expands all positional parameters (see
7339 separated by a space character.
7340 If placed in double quotation marks, each positional parameter is
7341 properly quoted to expand to a single parameter again.
7345 \*(RO Expands to the number of positional parameters in decimal.
7349 \*(RO Inside the scope of a
7353 ed macro this expands to the name of the calling macro, or to the empty
7354 string if the macro is running from top-level.
7355 For the \*(OPal regular expression search and replace operator of
7357 this expands to the entire matching expression.
7358 It represents the program name in global context.
7362 \*(RO Access of the positional parameter stack.
7363 All further parameters can be accessed with this syntax, too, e.g.,
7366 etc.; positional parameters can be shifted off the stack by calling
7368 The parameter stack contains, e.g., the arguments of a
7372 d macro, the matching groups of the \*(OPal regular expression search
7373 and replace expression of
7375 and can be explicitly created or overwritten with the command
7380 \*(RO Is set to the active
7384 .It Va add-file-recipients
7385 \*(BO When file or pipe recipients have been specified,
7386 mention them in the corresponding address fields of the message instead
7387 of silently stripping them from their recipient list.
7388 By default such addressees are not mentioned.
7392 \*(BO Causes only the local part to be evaluated
7393 when comparing addresses.
7397 \*(RO Is set to the list of
7402 \*(BO Causes messages saved in the
7404 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
7406 to be appended to the end rather than prepended.
7407 This should always be set.
7411 \*(BO Causes \*(UA to prompt for the subject of each message sent.
7412 If the user responds with simply a newline,
7413 no subject field will be sent.
7417 \*(BO Causes the prompts for
7421 lists to appear after the message has been edited.
7425 \*(BO If set, \*(UA asks for files to attach at the end of each message,
7426 shall the list be found empty at that time.
7427 An empty line finalizes the list.
7431 \*(BO Causes the user to be prompted for carbon copy recipients
7432 (at the end of each message if
7436 are set) shall the list be found empty (at that time).
7437 An empty line finalizes the list.
7441 \*(BO Causes the user to be prompted for blind carbon copy
7442 recipients (at the end of each message if
7446 are set) shall the list be found empty (at that time).
7447 An empty line finalizes the list.
7451 \*(BO\*(OP Causes the user to be prompted if the message is to be
7452 signed at the end of each message.
7455 variable is ignored when this variable is set.
7459 \*(BO Alternative name for
7464 A sequence of characters to display in the
7468 as shown in the display of
7470 each for one type of messages (see
7471 .Sx "Message states" ) ,
7472 with the default being
7475 .Ql NU\ \ *HMFAT+\-$~
7478 variable is set, in the following order:
7480 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql _"
7502 start of a collapsed thread.
7504 an uncollapsed thread (TODO ignored for now).
7508 classified as possible spam.
7514 Specifies a list of recipients to which a blind carbon copy of each
7515 outgoing message will be sent automatically.
7519 Specifies a list of recipients to which a carbon copy of each outgoing
7520 message will be sent automatically.
7524 \*(BO Causes threads to be collapsed automatically when threaded mode
7531 \*(BO Enable automatic
7533 ing of a(n existing)
7539 commands, e.g., the message that becomes the new
7541 is shown automatically, as via
7548 \*(BO\*(OB Causes threaded mode (see the
7550 command) to be entered automatically when a folder is opened.
7552 .Ql autosort=thread .
7556 Causes sorted mode (see the
7558 command) to be entered automatically with the value of this variable as
7559 sorting method when a folder is opened, e.g.,
7560 .Ql set autosort=thread .
7564 \*(BO Enables the substitution of all not (reverse-solidus) escaped
7567 characters by the contents of the last executed command for the
7569 shell escape command and
7571 one of the compose mode
7572 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
7573 If this variable is not set no reverse solidus stripping is performed.
7576 .It Va batch-exit-on-error
7577 \*(OB\*(BO Predecessor of
7582 \*(OP Terminals generate multi-byte sequences for certain forms of
7583 input, for example for function and other special keys.
7584 Some terminals however do not write these multi-byte sequences as
7585 a whole, but byte-by-byte, and the latter is what \*(UA actually reads.
7586 This variable specifies the timeout in milliseconds that the MLE (see
7587 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
7588 waits for more bytes to arrive unless it considers a sequence
7594 \*(BO Sets some cosmetical features to traditional BSD style;
7595 has the same affect as setting
7597 and all other variables prefixed with
7599 it also changes the behaviour of
7601 (which does not exist in BSD).
7605 \*(BO Changes the letters shown in the first column of a header
7606 summary to traditional BSD style.
7610 \*(BO Changes the display of columns in a header summary to traditional
7615 \*(BO Changes some informational messages to traditional BSD style.
7621 field to appear immediately after the
7623 field in message headers and with the
7625 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
7629 .It Va build-os , build-osenv
7630 \*(RO The operating system \*(UA has been build for, usually taken from
7636 respectively, the former being lowercased.
7640 The value that should appear in the
7644 MIME header fields when no character set conversion of the message data
7646 This defaults to US-ASCII, and the chosen character set should be
7647 US-ASCII compatible.
7651 \*(OP The default 8-bit character set that is used as an implicit last
7652 member of the variable
7654 This defaults to UTF-8 if character set conversion capabilities are
7655 available, and to ISO-8859-1 otherwise, in which case the only supported
7658 and this variable is effectively ignored.
7659 Refer to the section
7660 .Sx "Character sets"
7661 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
7664 .It Va charset-unknown-8bit
7665 \*(OP RFC 1428 specifies conditions when internet mail gateways shall
7667 the content of a mail message by using a character set with the name
7669 Because of the unclassified nature of this character set \*(UA will not
7670 be capable to convert this character set to any other character set.
7671 If this variable is set any message part which uses the character set
7673 is assumed to really be in the character set given in the value,
7674 otherwise the (final) value of
7676 is used for this purpose.
7678 This variable will also be taken into account if a MIME type (see
7679 .Sx "The mime.types files" )
7680 of a MIME message part that uses the
7682 character set is forcefully treated as text.
7686 The default value for the
7691 .It Va colour-disable
7692 \*(BO\*(OP Forcefully disable usage of colours.
7693 Also see the section
7694 .Sx "Coloured display" .
7698 \*(BO\*(OP Whether colour shall be used for output that is paged through
7700 Note that pagers may need special command line options, e.g.,
7708 in order to support colours.
7709 Often doing manual adjustments is unnecessary since \*(UA may perform
7710 adjustments dependent on the value of the environment variable
7712 (see there for more).
7716 .It Va contact-mail , contact-web
7717 \*(RO Addresses for contact per email and web, respectively, e.g., for
7718 bug reports, suggestions, or help regarding \*(UA.
7719 The former can be used directly:
7720 .Ql ? eval mail $contact-mail .
7724 In a(n interactive) terminal session, then if this valued variable is
7725 set it will be used as a threshold to determine how many lines the given
7726 output has to span before it will be displayed via the configured
7730 can be forced by setting this to the value
7732 setting it without a value will deduce the current height of the
7733 terminal screen to compute the treshold (see
7738 \*(ID At the moment this uses the count of lines of the message in wire
7739 format, which, dependent on the
7741 of the message, is unrelated to the number of display lines.
7742 (The software is old and historically the relation was a given thing.)
7746 Define a set of custom headers to be injected into newly composed or
7747 forwarded messages; it is also possible to create custom headers in
7750 which can be automated by setting one of the hooks
7751 .Va on-compose-splice-shell
7753 .Va on-compose-splice .
7754 The value is interpreted as a comma-separated list of custom headers to
7755 be injected, to include commas in the header bodies escape them with
7757 \*(ID Overwriting of automatically managed headers is neither supported
7760 .Dl set customhdr='Hdr1: Body1-1\e, Body1-2, Hdr2: Body2'
7764 Controls the appearance of the
7766 date and time format specification of the
7768 variable, that is used, for example, when viewing the summary of
7770 If unset, then the local receiving date is used and displayed
7771 unformatted, otherwise the message sending
7773 It is possible to assign a
7775 format string and control formatting, but embedding newlines via the
7777 format is not supported, and will result in display errors.
7779 .Ql %Y-%m-%d %H:%M ,
7781 .Va datefield-markout-older .
7784 .It Va datefield-markout-older
7785 Only used in conjunction with
7787 Can be used to create a visible distinction of messages dated more than
7788 a day in the future, or older than six months, a concept comparable to the
7790 option of the POSIX utility
7792 If set to the empty string, then the plain month, day and year of the
7794 will be displayed, but a
7796 format string to control formatting can be assigned.
7802 \*(BO Enables debug messages and obsoletion warnings, disables the
7803 actual delivery of messages and also implies
7809 .It Va disposition-notification-send
7811 .Ql Disposition-Notification-To:
7812 header (RFC 3798) with the message.
7816 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-HOST
7818 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
7819 .\" for SMTP accounts on a specific host.
7820 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-USER@HOST
7822 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
7823 .\"for a specific account.
7827 \*(BO When dot is set, a period
7829 on a line by itself during message input in (interactive or batch
7831 compose mode will be treated as end-of-message (in addition to the
7832 normal end-of-file condition).
7833 This behaviour is implied in
7839 .It Va dotlock-ignore-error
7840 \*(BO\*(OP Synchronization of mailboxes which \*(UA treats as
7842 .Sx "primary system mailbox" Ns
7843 es (see, e.g., the notes on
7844 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
7845 as well as the documentation of
7847 will be protected with so-called dotlock files\(emthe traditional mail
7848 spool file locking method\(emin addition to system file locking.
7849 Because \*(UA ships with a privilege-separated dotlock creation program
7850 that should always be able to create such a dotlock file there is no
7851 good reason to ignore dotlock file creation errors, and thus these are
7852 fatal unless this variable is set.
7856 \*(BO If this variable is set then the editor is started automatically
7857 when a message is composed in interactive mode, as if the
7859 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
7863 variable is implied for this automatically spawned editor session.
7867 \*(BO When a message is edited while being composed,
7868 its header is included in the editable text.
7878 fields are accepted within the header, other fields are ignored.
7882 \*(BO When entering interactive mode \*(UA normally writes
7883 .Dq \&No mail for user
7884 and exits immediately if a mailbox is empty or does not exist.
7885 If this variable is set \*(UA starts even with an empty or non-existent
7886 mailbox (the latter behaviour furtherly depends upon
7893 .Ql Content-Transfer-Encoding
7894 to use in outgoing text messages and message parts, where applicable.
7895 (7-bit clean text messages are sent as-is, without a transfer encoding.)
7898 .Bl -tag -compact -width "_%%_"
7901 8-bit transport effectively causes the raw data be passed through
7902 unchanged, but may cause problems when transferring mail messages over
7903 channels that are not ESMTP (RFC 1869) compliant.
7904 Also, several input data constructs are not allowed by the
7905 specifications and may cause a different transfer-encoding to be used.
7906 .It Ql quoted-printable
7908 Quoted-printable encoding is 7-bit clean and has the property that ASCII
7909 characters are passed through unchanged, so that an english message can
7910 be read as-is; it is also acceptible for other single-byte locales that
7911 share many characters with ASCII, like, e.g., ISO-8859-1.
7912 The encoding will cause a large overhead for messages in other character
7913 sets: e.g., it will require up to twelve (12) bytes to encode a single
7914 UTF-8 character of four (4) bytes.
7916 .Pf (Or\0 Ql b64 . )
7917 The default encoding, it is 7-bit clean and will always be used for
7919 This encoding has a constant input:output ratio of 3:4, regardless of
7920 the character set of the input data it will encode three bytes of input
7921 to four bytes of output.
7922 This transfer-encoding is not human readable without performing
7928 \*(BO Let each command with a non-0 exit status, including every
7932 s a non-0 status, cause a program exit unless prefixed by
7935 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) ;
7936 please refer to the variable
7938 for more on this topic.
7942 The first character of this value defines the escape character for
7943 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
7945 The default value is the character tilde
7947 If set to the empty string, command escapes are disabled.
7951 If not set then file and command pipeline targets are not allowed,
7952 and any such address will be filtered out, giving a warning message.
7953 If set without a value then all possible recipient address
7954 specifications will be accepted \(en see the section
7955 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode"
7957 To accept them, but only in interactive mode, or when tilde commands
7958 were enabled explicitly by using one of the command line options
7962 set this to the (case-insensitive) value
7964 (it actually acts like
7965 .Ql restrict,-all,+name,+addr ,
7966 so that care for ordering issues must be taken) .
7968 In fact the value is interpreted as a comma-separated list of values.
7971 then the existence of disallowed specifications is treated as a hard
7972 send error instead of only filtering them out.
7973 The remaining values specify whether a specific type of recipient
7974 address specification is allowed (optionally indicated by a plus sign
7976 prefix) or disallowed (prefixed with a hyphen-minus
7980 addresses all possible address specifications,
7984 command pipeline targets,
7986 plain user names and (MTA) aliases (\*(OB
7988 may be used as an alternative syntax to
7993 These kind of values are interpreted in the given order, so that
7994 .Ql restrict,\:fail,\:+file,\:-all,\:+addr
7995 will cause hard errors for any non-network address recipient address
7996 unless \*(UA is in interactive mode or has been started with the
8000 command line option; in the latter case(s) any address may be used, then.
8002 Historically invalid network addressees are silently stripped off.
8003 To change this and ensure that any encountered invalid email address
8004 instead causes a hard error, ensure the string
8006 is an entry in the above list.
8007 Setting this automatically enables network addressees
8008 (it actually acts like
8009 .Ql failinvaddr,+addr ,
8010 so that care for ordering issues must be taken) .
8014 Unless this variable is set additional
8016 (Mail-Transfer-Agent)
8017 arguments from the command line, as can be given after a
8019 separator, are ignored due to safety reasons.
8020 However, if set to the special (case-insensitive) value
8022 then the presence of additional MTA arguments is treated as a hard
8023 error that causes \*(UA to exit with failure status.
8024 A lesser strict variant is the otherwise identical
8026 which does accept such arguments in interactive mode, or if tilde
8027 commands were enabled explicitly by using one of the command line options
8034 \*(RO String giving a list of features \*(UA, preceded with a plus sign
8036 if the feature is available, and a hyphen-minus
8039 The output of the command
8041 will include this information.
8045 \*(BO This setting reverses the meanings of a set of reply commands,
8046 turning the lowercase variants, which by default address all recipients
8047 included in the header of a message
8048 .Pf ( Ic reply , respond , followup )
8049 into the uppercase variants, which by default address the sender only
8050 .Pf ( Ic Reply , Respond , Followup )
8053 .Ic replysender , respondsender , followupsender
8055 .Ic replyall , respondall , followupall
8056 are not affected by the current setting of
8061 The default path under which mailboxes are to be saved:
8062 file names that begin with the plus sign
8064 will have the plus sign replaced with the value of this variable if set,
8065 otherwise the plus sign will remain unchanged when doing
8066 .Sx "Filename transformations" ;
8069 for more on this topic.
8070 The value supports a subset of transformations itself, and if the
8071 non-empty value does not start with a solidus
8075 will be prefixed automatically.
8076 Once the actual value is evaluated first, the internal variable
8078 will be updated for caching purposes.
8082 This variable can be set to the name of a
8084 macro which will be called whenever a
8087 The macro will also be invoked when new mail arrives,
8088 but message lists for commands executed from the macro
8089 only include newly arrived messages then.
8091 are activated by default in a folder hook, causing the covered settings
8092 to be reverted once the folder is left again.
8095 Macro behaviour, including option localization, will change in v15.
8096 One should be aware of that and possibly embed version checks in the
8097 used resource file(s).
8100 .It Va folder-hook-FOLDER
8105 Unlike other folder specifications, the fully expanded name of a folder,
8106 without metacharacters, is used to avoid ambiguities.
8107 However, if the mailbox resides under
8111 specification is tried in addition, e.g., if
8115 (and thus relative to the user's home directory) then
8116 .Pa /home/usr1/mail/sent
8118 .Ql folder-hook-/home/usr1/mail/sent
8119 first, but then followed by
8120 .Ql folder-hook-+sent .
8123 .It Va folder-resolved
8124 \*(RO Set to the fully resolved path of
8126 once that evaluation has occurred; rather internal.
8130 \*(BO Controls whether a
8131 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
8132 header is generated when sending messages to known mailing lists.
8134 .Va followup-to-honour
8136 .Ic mlist , mlsubscribe , reply
8141 .It Va followup-to-honour
8143 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
8144 header is honoured when group-replying to a message via
8148 This is a quadoption; if set without a value it defaults to
8158 .It Va forward-as-attachment
8159 \*(BO Original messages are normally sent as inline text with the
8162 and only the first part of a multipart message is included.
8163 With this setting enabled messages are sent as unmodified MIME
8165 attachments with all of their parts included.
8169 The address (or a list of addresses) to put into the
8171 field of the message header, quoting RFC 5322:
8172 the author(s) of the message, that is, the mailbox(es) of the person(s)
8173 or system(s) responsible for the writing of the message.
8176 ing to messages these addresses are handled as if they were in the
8180 If the machine's hostname is not valid at the Internet (for example at
8181 a dialup machine) then either this variable or
8183 (\*(IN and with a defined SMTP protocol in
8186 adds even more fine-tuning capabilities),
8190 contains more than one address,
8193 variable is required (according to the standard RFC 5322).
8195 If a file-based MTA is used, then
8197 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
8199 can nonetheless be enforced to appear as the envelope sender address at
8200 the MTA protocol level (the RFC 5321 reverse-path), either by using the
8202 command line option (with an empty argument; see there for the complete
8203 picture on this topic), or by setting the internal variable
8204 .Va r-option-implicit .
8208 \*(BO When replying to or forwarding a message \*(UA normally removes
8209 the comment and name parts of email addresses.
8210 If this variable is set such stripping is not performed,
8211 and comments, names etc. are retained.
8215 The string to put before the text of a message with the
8219 .Va forward-as-attachment
8222 .Dq -------- Original Message --------
8223 if unset; No heading is put if it is set to the empty string.
8227 \*(BO Causes the header summary to be written at startup and after
8228 commands that affect the number of messages or the order of messages in
8233 mode a header summary will also be displayed on folder changes.
8234 The command line option
8242 A format string to use for the summary of
8244 similar to the ones used for
8247 Format specifiers in the given string start with a percent sign
8249 and may be followed by an optional decimal number indicating the field
8250 width \(em if that is negative, the field is to be left-aligned.
8251 Valid format specifiers are:
8254 .Bl -tag -compact -width "_%%_"
8256 A plain percent sign.
8259 a space character but for the current message
8261 for which it expands to
8265 a space character but for the current message
8267 for which it expands to
8270 \*(OP The spam score of the message, as has been classified via the
8273 Shows only a replacement character if there is no spam support.
8275 Message attribute character (status flag); the actual content can be
8279 The date found in the
8281 header of the message when
8283 is set (the default), otherwise the date when the message was received.
8284 Formatting can be controlled by assigning a
8289 The indenting level in threaded mode.
8291 The address of the message sender.
8293 The message thread tree structure.
8294 (Note that this format does not support a field width.)
8296 The number of lines of the message, if available.
8300 The number of octets (bytes) in the message, if available.
8302 Message subject (if any).
8304 Message subject (if any) in double quotes.
8306 Message recipient flags: is the addressee of the message a known or
8307 subscribed mailing list \(en see
8312 The position in threaded/sorted order.
8316 .Ql %>\&%a\&%m\ %-18f\ %16d\ %4l/%\-5o\ %i%-s ,
8318 .Ql %>\&%a\&%m\ %20-f\ \ %16d\ %3l/%\-5o\ %i%-S
8329 .It Va headline-bidi
8330 Bidirectional text requires special treatment when displaying headers,
8331 because numbers (in dates or for file sizes etc.) will not affect the
8332 current text direction, in effect resulting in ugly line layouts when
8333 arabic or other right-to-left text is to be displayed.
8334 On the other hand only a minority of terminals is capable to correctly
8335 handle direction changes, so that user interaction is necessary for
8337 Note that extended host system support is required nonetheless, e.g.,
8338 detection of the terminal character set is one precondition;
8339 and this feature only works in an Unicode (i.e., UTF-8) locale.
8341 In general setting this variable will cause \*(UA to encapsulate text
8342 fields that may occur when displaying
8344 (and some other fields, like dynamic expansions in
8346 with special Unicode control sequences;
8347 it is possible to fine-tune the terminal support level by assigning
8349 no value (or any value other than
8354 will make \*(UA assume that the terminal is capable to properly deal
8355 with Unicode version 6.3, in which case text is embedded in a pair of
8356 U+2068 (FIRST STRONG ISOLATE) and U+2069 (POP DIRECTIONAL ISOLATE)
8358 In addition no space on the line is reserved for these characters.
8360 Weaker support is chosen by using the value
8362 (Unicode 6.3, but reserve the room of two spaces for writing the control
8363 sequences onto the line).
8368 select Unicode 1.1 support (U+200E, LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK); the latter
8369 again reserves room for two spaces in addition.
8373 \*(OP If a line editor is available then this can be set to
8374 name the (expandable) path of the location of a permanent history file.
8379 .It Va history-gabby
8380 \*(BO\*(OP Add more entries to the history as is normally done.
8383 .It Va history-gabby-persist
8384 \*(BO\*(OP \*(UA's own MLE will not save the additional
8386 entries in persistent storage unless this variable is set.
8387 On the other hand it will not loose the knowledge of whether
8388 a persistent entry was gabby or not.
8394 \*(OP Setting this variable imposes a limit on the number of concurrent
8396 If set to the value 0 then no further history entries will be added, and
8397 loading and incorporation of the
8399 upon program startup can also be suppressed by doing this.
8400 Runtime changes will not be reflected, but will affect the number of
8401 entries saved to permanent storage.
8405 \*(BO This setting controls whether messages are held in the system
8407 and it is set by default.
8411 Use this string as hostname when expanding local addresses instead of
8412 the value obtained from
8416 It is used, e.g., in
8420 fields, as well as when generating
8422 MIME part related unique ID fields.
8423 Setting it to the empty string will cause the normal hostname to be
8424 used, but nonetheless enables creation of said ID fields.
8425 \*(IN in conjunction with the builtin SMTP
8428 also influences the results:
8429 one should produce some test messages with the desired combination of
8438 \*(BO\*(OP Can be used to turn off the automatic conversion of domain
8439 names according to the rules of IDNA (internationalized domain names
8441 Since the IDNA code assumes that domain names are specified with the
8443 character set, an UTF-8 locale charset is required to represent all
8444 possible international domain names (before conversion, that is).
8448 The input field separator that is used (\*(ID by some functions) to
8449 determine where to split input data.
8451 .Bl -tag -compact -width MMM
8453 Unsetting is treated as assigning the default value,
8456 If set to the empty value, no field splitting will be performed.
8458 If set to a non-empty value, all whitespace characters are extracted
8459 and assigned to the variable
8463 .Bl -tag -compact -width MMM
8466 will be ignored at the beginning and end of input.
8467 Diverging from POSIX shells default whitespace is removed in addition,
8468 which is owed to the entirely different line content extraction rules.
8470 Each occurrence of a character of
8472 will cause field-splitting, any adjacent
8474 characters will be skipped.
8479 \*(RO Automatically deduced from the whitespace characters in
8484 \*(BO Ignore interrupt signals from the terminal while entering
8485 messages; instead echo them as
8487 characters and discard the current line.
8491 \*(BO Ignore end-of-file conditions
8492 .Pf ( Ql control-D )
8493 in compose mode on message input and in interactive command input.
8494 If set an interactive command input session can only be left by
8495 explicitly using one of the commands
8499 and message input in compose mode can only be terminated by entering
8502 on a line by itself or by using the
8504 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ;
8505 Setting this implies the behaviour that
8513 If this is set to a non-empty string it will specify the users
8515 .Sx "primary system mailbox" ,
8518 and the system-dependent default, and (thus) be used to replace
8521 .Sx "Filename transformations" ;
8524 for more on this topic.
8525 The value supports a subset of transformations itself.
8533 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
8536 option for indenting messages,
8537 in place of the normal tabulator character
8539 which is the default.
8540 Be sure to quote the value if it contains spaces or tabs.
8544 \*(BO If set, an empty
8546 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
8547 file is not removed.
8548 Note that, in conjunction with
8550 any empty file will be removed unless this variable is set.
8551 This may improve the interoperability with other mail user agents
8552 when using a common folder directory, and prevents malicious users
8553 from creating fake mailboxes in a world-writable spool directory.
8554 \*(ID Only local regular (MBOX) files are covered, Maildir or other
8555 mailbox types will never be removed, even if empty.
8558 .It Va keep-content-length
8559 \*(BO When (editing messages and) writing MBOX mailbox files \*(UA can
8564 header fields that some MUAs generate by setting this variable.
8565 Since \*(UA does neither use nor update these non-standardized header
8566 fields (which in itself shows one of their conceptual problems),
8567 stripping them should increase interoperability in between MUAs that
8568 work with with same mailbox files.
8569 Note that, if this is not set but
8570 .Va writebackedited ,
8571 as below, is, a possibly performed automatic stripping of these header
8572 fields already marks the message as being modified.
8576 \*(BO When a message is saved it is usually discarded from the
8577 originating folder when \*(UA is quit.
8578 This setting causes all saved message to be retained.
8581 .It Va line-editor-disable
8582 \*(BO Turn off any enhanced line editing capabilities (see
8583 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor"
8587 .It Va line-editor-no-defaults
8588 \*(BO\*(OP Do not establish any default key binding.
8592 Error log message prefix string
8593 .Pf ( Ql "\*(uA: " ) .
8596 .It Va mailbox-display
8597 \*(RO The name of the current mailbox
8599 possibly abbreviated for display purposes.
8602 .It Va mailbox-resolved
8603 \*(RO The fully resolved path of the current mailbox.
8606 .It Va mailx-extra-rc
8607 An additional startup file that is loaded as the last of the
8608 .Sx "Resource files" .
8609 Use this file for commands that are not understood by other POSIX
8611 implementations, i.e., mostly anything which is not covered by
8612 .Sx "Initial settings" .
8616 \*(BO When a message is replied to and this variable is set,
8617 it is marked as having been
8620 .Sx "Message states" .
8624 \*(BO When opening MBOX mailbox databases \*(UA by default uses tolerant
8625 POSIX rules for detecting message boundaries (so-called
8627 lines) due to compatibility reasons, instead of the stricter rules that
8628 have been standardized in RFC 4155.
8629 This behaviour can be switched to the stricter RFC 4155 rules by
8630 setting this variable.
8631 (This is never necessary for any message newly generated by \*(UA,
8632 it only applies to messages generated by buggy or malicious MUAs, or may
8633 occur in old MBOX databases: \*(UA itself will choose a proper
8637 lines cannot be misinterpreted as message boundaries.)
8639 This may temporarily be handy when \*(UA complains about invalid
8641 lines when opening a MBOX: in this case setting this variable and
8642 re-opening the mailbox in question may correct the result.
8643 If so, copying the entire mailbox to some other file, as in
8644 .Ql copy * SOME-FILE ,
8645 will perform proper, all-compatible
8647 quoting for all detected messages, resulting in a valid MBOX mailbox.
8648 Finally the variable can be unset again:
8649 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8651 localopts yes; wysh set mbox-rfc4155;\e
8652 wysh File "${1}"; eval copy * "${2}"
8654 call mboxfix /tmp/bad.mbox /tmp/good.mbox
8659 \*(BO Internal development variable.
8662 .It Va message-id-disable
8663 \*(BO By setting this variable the generation of
8665 can be completely suppressed, effectively leaving this task up to the
8667 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) or the SMTP server.
8668 (According to RFC 5321 a SMTP server is not required to add this
8669 field by itself, so it should be ensured that it accepts messages without
8671 This variable also affects automatic generation of
8676 .It Va message-inject-head
8677 A string to put at the beginning of each new message.
8678 The escape sequences tabulator
8685 .It Va message-inject-tail
8686 A string to put at the end of each new message.
8687 The escape sequences tabulator
8695 \*(BO Usually, when an
8697 expansion contains the sender, the sender is removed from the expansion.
8698 Setting this option suppresses these removals.
8703 option to be passed through to the
8705 (Mail-Transfer-Agent); though most of the modern MTAs no longer document
8706 this flag, no MTA is known which does not support it (for historical
8710 .It Va mime-allow-text-controls
8711 \*(BO When sending messages, each part of the message is MIME-inspected
8712 in order to classify the
8715 .Ql Content-Transfer-Encoding:
8718 that is required to send this part over mail transport, i.e.,
8719 a computation rather similar to what the
8721 command produces when used with the
8725 This classification however treats text files which are encoded in
8726 UTF-16 (seen for HTML files) and similar character sets as binary
8727 octet-streams, forcefully changing any
8732 .Ql application/octet-stream :
8733 If that actually happens a yet unset charset MIME parameter is set to
8735 effectively making it impossible for the receiving MUA to automatically
8736 interpret the contents of the part.
8738 If this variable is set, and the data was unambiguously identified as
8739 text data at first glance (by a
8743 file extension), then the original
8745 will not be overwritten.
8748 .It Va mime-alternative-favour-rich
8749 \*(BO If this variable is set then rich MIME alternative parts (e.g.,
8750 HTML) will be preferred in favour of included plain text versions when
8751 displaying messages, provided that a handler exists which produces
8752 output that can be (re)integrated into \*(UA's normal visual display.
8753 (E.g., at the time of this writing some newsletters ship their full
8754 content only in the rich HTML part, whereas the plain text part only
8755 contains topic subjects.)
8758 .It Va mime-counter-evidence
8761 field is used to decide how to handle MIME parts.
8762 Some MUAs, however, do not use
8763 .Sx "The mime.types files"
8765 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" )
8766 or a similar mechanism to correctly classify content, but specify an
8767 unspecific MIME type
8768 .Pf ( Ql application/octet-stream )
8769 even for plain text attachments.
8770 If this variable is set then \*(UA will try to re-classify such MIME
8771 message parts, if possible, for example via a possibly existing
8772 attachment filename.
8773 A non-empty value may also be given, in which case a number is expected,
8774 actually a carrier of bits.
8775 Creating the bit-carrying number is a simple addition:
8776 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8777 ? !echo Value should be set to $((2 + 4 + 8))
8778 Value should be set to 14
8781 .Bl -bullet -compact
8783 If bit two is set (2) then the detected
8785 will be carried along with the message and be used for deciding which
8786 MIME handler is to be used, for example;
8787 when displaying such a MIME part the part-info will indicate the
8788 overridden content-type by showing a plus sign
8791 If bit three is set (4) then the counter-evidence is always produced
8792 and a positive result will be used as the MIME type, even forcefully
8793 overriding the parts given MIME type.
8795 If bit four is set (8) then as a last resort the actual content of
8796 .Ql application/octet-stream
8797 parts will be inspected, so that data which looks like plain text can be
8802 .It Va mimetypes-load-control
8803 Can be used to control which of
8804 .Sx "The mime.types files"
8805 are loaded: if the letter
8807 is part of the option value, then the user's personal
8809 file will be loaded (if it exists); likewise the letter
8811 controls loading of the system wide
8812 .Pa /etc/mime.types ;
8813 directives found in the user file take precedence, letter matching is
8815 If this variable is not set \*(UA will try to load both files.
8816 Incorporation of the \*(UA-builtin MIME types cannot be suppressed,
8817 but they will be matched last (the order can be listed via
8820 More sources can be specified by using a different syntax: if the
8821 value string contains an equals sign
8823 then it is instead parsed as a comma-separated list of the described
8826 pairs; the given filenames will be expanded and loaded, and their
8827 content may use the extended syntax that is described in the section
8828 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
8829 Directives found in such files always take precedence (are prepended to
8830 the MIME type cache).
8835 To choose an alternate Mail-Transfer-Agent, set this option to either
8836 the full pathname of an executable (optionally prefixed with a
8838 protocol indicator), or \*(OPally a SMTP protocol URL, e.g., \*(IN
8840 .Dl smtps?://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
8843 .Ql [smtp://]server[:port] . )
8844 The default has been chosen at compie time.
8845 All supported data transfers are executed in child processes, which
8846 run asynchronously, and without supervision, unless either the
8851 If such a child receives a TERM signal, it will abort and
8858 For a file-based MTA it may be necessary to set
8860 in in order to choose the right target of a modern
8863 It will be passed command line arguments from several possible sources:
8866 if set, from the command line if given and the variable
8869 Argument processing of the MTA will be terminated with a
8874 The otherwise occurring implicit usage of the following MTA command
8875 line arguments can be disabled by setting the boolean variable
8876 .Va mta-no-default-arguments
8877 (which will also disable passing
8881 (for not treating a line with only a dot
8883 character as the end of input),
8891 variable is set); in conjunction with the
8893 command line option \*(UA will also (not) pass
8899 \*(OP \*(UA can send mail over SMTP network connections to a single
8900 defined SMTP smarthost, the access URL of which has to be assigned to
8902 To use this mode it is helpful to read
8903 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
8904 It may be necessary to set the
8906 variable in order to use a specific combination of
8911 with some mail providers.
8914 .Bl -bullet -compact
8916 The plain SMTP protocol (RFC 5321) that normally lives on the
8917 server port 25 and requires setting the
8918 .Va smtp-use-starttls
8919 variable to enter a SSL/TLS encrypted session state.
8920 Assign a value like \*(IN
8921 .Ql smtp://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
8923 .Ql smtp://server[:port] )
8924 to choose this protocol.
8926 The so-called SMTPS which is supposed to live on server port 465
8927 and is automatically SSL/TLS secured.
8928 Unfortunately it never became a standardized protocol and may thus not
8929 be supported by your hosts network service database
8930 \(en in fact the port number has already been reassigned to other
8933 SMTPS is nonetheless a commonly offered protocol and thus can be
8934 chosen by assigning a value like \*(IN
8935 .Ql smtps://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
8937 .Ql smtps://server[:port] ) ;
8938 due to the mentioned problems it is usually necessary to explicitly
8943 Finally there is the SUBMISSION protocol (RFC 6409), which usually
8944 lives on server port 587 and is practically identically to the SMTP
8945 protocol from \*(UA's point of view beside that; it requires setting the
8946 .Va smtp-use-starttls
8947 variable to enter a SSL/TLS secured session state.
8948 Assign a value like \*(IN
8949 .Ql submission://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
8951 .Ql submission://server[:port] ) .
8956 .It Va mta-arguments
8957 Arguments to pass through to a file-based
8959 can be given via this variable, which is parsed according to
8960 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
8961 into an array of arguments, and which will be joined onto MTA options
8962 from other sources, and then passed individually to the MTA:
8964 .Dl wysh set mta-arguments='-t -X \&"/tmp/my log\&"'
8967 .It Va mta-no-default-arguments
8968 \*(BO Unless this variable is set \*(UA will pass some well known
8969 standard command line options to a file-based
8971 (Mail-Transfer-Agent), see there for more.
8975 Many systems use a so-called
8977 environment to ensure compatibility with
8979 This works by inspecting the name that was used to invoke the mail
8981 If this variable is set then the mailwrapper (the program that is
8982 actually executed when calling the file-based
8984 will treat its contents as that name.
8989 .It Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , netrc-lookup-HOST , netrc-lookup
8990 \*(BO\*(IN\*(OP Used to control usage of the users
8992 file for lookup of account credentials, as documented in the section
8993 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
8997 .Sx "The .netrc file"
8998 documents the file format.
9010 then \*(UA will read the output of a shell pipe instead of the users
9012 file if this variable is set (to the desired shell command).
9013 This can be used to, e.g., store
9017 .Dl set netrc-pipe='gpg -qd ~/.netrc.pgp'
9021 If this variable has the value
9023 newly created local folders will be in Maildir instead of MBOX format.
9027 Checks for new mail in the current folder each time the prompt is shown.
9028 A Maildir folder must be re-scanned to determine if new mail has arrived.
9029 If this variable is set to the special value
9031 then a Maildir folder will not be rescanned completely, but only
9032 timestamp changes are detected.
9036 \*(BO Causes the filename given in the
9039 and the sender-based filenames for the
9043 commands to be interpreted relative to the directory given in the
9045 variable rather than to the current directory,
9046 unless it is set to an absolute pathname.
9049 .It Va on-compose-cleanup
9050 Macro hook which will be called after the message has been sent (or not,
9051 in case of failures), as the very last step before unrolling compose mode
9053 This hook is run even in case of fatal errors, and it is advisable to
9054 perform only absolutely necessary actions, like cleaning up
9057 For compose mode hooks that may affect the message content please see
9058 .Va on-compose-enter , on-compose-leave , on-compose-splice .
9059 \*(ID This hook exists only because
9060 .Ic alias , alternates , commandalias , shortcut ,
9061 to name a few, are currently not covered by
9063 or a similar mechanism: any changes applied in compose mode will
9064 continue to be in effect thereafter.
9068 .It Va on-compose-enter , on-compose-leave
9069 Macro hooks which will be called before compose mode is entered,
9070 and after composing has been finished (but before the
9072 is injected, etc.), respectively.
9074 are enabled for these hooks, causing any setting to be forgotten after
9075 the message has been sent;
9076 .Va on-compose-cleanup
9077 can be used to perform any other necessary cleanup.
9078 The following (read-only) variables will be set temporarily during
9079 execution of the macros to represent the according message headers, or
9080 the empty string for non-existent:
9082 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Va compose_subject"
9085 .It Va compose-sender
9087 .It Va compose-to , compose-cc , compose-bcc
9088 The list of receiver addresses as a space-separated list.
9089 .It Va compose-subject
9096 .It Va on-compose-splice-shell , on-compose-splice
9097 These hooks run once the normal compose mode is finished, but before the
9098 .Va on-compose-leave
9099 macro hook is called, the
9102 Both hooks will be executed in a subprocess, with their input and output
9103 connected to \*(UA such that they can act as if they would be an
9105 The difference in between them is that the former is a
9107 command, whereas the latter is a normal \*(UA macro, but which is
9108 restricted to a small set of commands (the
9112 will indicate said capability).
9114 are enabled for these hooks (in the parent process), causing any setting
9115 to be forgotten after the message has been sent;
9116 .Va on-compose-cleanup
9117 can be used to perform other cleanup as necessary.
9120 During execution of these hooks \*(UA will temporarily forget whether it
9121 has been started in interactive mode, (a restricted set of)
9122 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
9123 will always be available, and for guaranteed reproducibilities sake
9127 will be set to their defaults.
9128 The compose mode command
9130 has been especially designed for scriptability (via these hooks).
9131 The first line the hook will read on its standard input is the protocol
9132 version of said command escape, currently
9134 backward incompatible protocol changes have to be expected.
9137 Care must be taken to avoid deadlocks and other false control flow:
9138 if both involved processes wait for more input to happen at the
9139 same time, or one doesn't expect more input but the other is stuck
9140 waiting for consumption of its output, etc.
9141 There is no automatic synchronization of the hook: it will not be
9142 stopped automatically just because it, e.g., emits
9144 The hooks will however receive a termination signal if the parent enters
9146 \*(ID Protection against and interaction with signals is not yet given;
9147 it is likely that in the future these scripts will be placed in an
9148 isolated session, which is signalled in its entirety as necessary.
9150 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9151 wysh set on-compose-splice-shell=$'\e
9153 printf "hello $version! Headers: ";\e
9154 echo \e'~^header list\e';\e
9155 read status result;\e
9156 echo "status=$status result=$result";\e
9159 set on-compose-splice=ocsm
9162 echo Splice protocol version is $ver
9163 echo '~^h l'; read hl; vput vexpr es substring "${hl}" 0 1
9165 echoerr 'Cannot read header list'; echo '~x'; xit
9167 if [ "$hl" @i!@ ' cc' ]
9168 echo '~^h i cc Diet is your <mirr.or>'; read es;\e
9169 vput vexpr es substring "${es}" 0 1
9171 echoerr 'Cannot insert Cc: header'; echo '~x'
9180 \*(BO If set, each message feed through the command given for
9182 is followed by a formfeed character
9186 .It Va password-USER@HOST , password-HOST , password
9187 \*(IN Variable chain that sets a password, which is used in case none has
9188 been given in the protocol and account-specific URL;
9189 as a last resort \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal if
9190 the authentication method requires a password.
9191 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
9192 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
9194 .It Va password-USER@HOST
9195 \*(OU (see the chain above for \*(IN)
9196 Set the password for
9200 If no such variable is defined for a host,
9201 the user will be asked for a password on standard input.
9202 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
9203 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
9207 \*(BO Send messages to the
9209 command without performing MIME and character set conversions.
9213 .It Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
9214 When a MIME message part of type
9216 (case-insensitive) is displayed or quoted,
9217 its text is filtered through the value of this variable interpreted as
9219 Note that only parts which can be displayed inline as plain text (see
9221 are displayed unless otherwise noted, other MIME parts will only be
9222 considered by and for the command
9224 The special value commercial at
9226 forces interpretation of the message part as plain text, e.g.,
9227 .Ql set pipe-application/xml=@
9228 will henceforth display XML
9230 (The same could also be achieved by adding a MIME type marker with the
9233 And \*(OPally MIME type handlers may be defined via
9234 .Sx "The Mailcap files"
9235 \(em these directives,
9237 has already been used, should be referred to for further documentation.
9242 can in fact be used as a trigger character to adjust usage and behaviour
9243 of a following shell command specification more thoroughly by appending
9244 more special characters which refer to further mailcap directives, e.g.,
9245 the following hypothetical command specification could be used:
9247 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9248 set pipe-X/Y='@!++=@vim ${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}'
9252 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql __"
9254 The command produces plain text to be integrated in \*(UAs output:
9258 If set the handler will not be invoked when a message is to be quoted,
9259 but only when it will be displayed:
9260 .Cd x-mailx-noquote .
9263 Run the command asynchronously, i.e., without blocking \*(UA:
9267 The command must be run on an interactive terminal, \*(UA will
9268 temporarily release the terminal to it:
9272 Request creation of a zero-sized temporary file, the absolute pathname
9273 of which will be made accessible via the environment variable
9274 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY :
9275 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile .
9276 If given twice then the file will be unlinked automatically by \*(UA
9277 when the command loop is entered again at latest:
9278 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink .
9281 Normally the MIME part content is passed to the handler via standard
9282 input; if this flag is set then the data will instead be written into
9283 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
9284 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill ) ,
9285 the creation of which is implied; note however that in order to cause
9286 deletion of the temporary file you still have to use two plus signs
9291 To avoid ambiguities with normal shell command content you can use
9292 another commercial at to forcefully terminate interpretation of
9293 remaining characters.
9294 (Any character not in this list will have the same effect.)
9298 Some information about the MIME part to be displayed is embedded into
9299 the environment of the shell command:
9302 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ev _AIL__ILENAME__ENERATED"
9304 .It Ev MAILX_CONTENT
9305 The MIME content-type of the part, if known, the empty string otherwise.
9308 .It Ev MAILX_CONTENT_EVIDENCE
9310 .Va mime-counter-evidence
9311 includes the carry-around-bit (2), then this will be set to the detected
9312 MIME content-type; not only then identical to
9313 .Ev \&\&MAILX_CONTENT
9317 .It Ev MAILX_FILENAME
9318 The filename, if any is set, the empty string otherwise.
9321 .It Ev MAILX_FILENAME_GENERATED
9325 .It Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
9326 If temporary file creation has been requested through the command prefix
9327 this variable will be set and contain the absolute pathname of the
9333 .It Va pipe-EXTENSION
9334 This is identical to
9335 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
9338 (normalized to lowercase using character mappings of the ASCII charset)
9339 names a file extension, e.g.,
9341 Handlers registered using this method take precedence.
9344 .It Va pop3-auth-USER@HOST , pop3-auth-HOST , pop3-auth
9345 \*(OP\*(IN Variable chain that sets the POP3 authentication method.
9346 The only possible value as of now is
9348 which is thus the default.
9351 .Mx Va pop3-bulk-load
9352 .It Va pop3-bulk-load-USER@HOST , pop3-bulk-load-HOST , pop3-bulk-load
9353 \*(BO\*(OP When accessing a POP3 server \*(UA loads the headers of
9354 the messages, and only requests the message bodies on user request.
9355 For the POP3 protocol this means that the message headers will be
9357 If this variable is set then \*(UA will download only complete messages
9358 from the given POP3 server(s) instead.
9360 .Mx Va pop3-keepalive
9361 .It Va pop3-keepalive-USER@HOST , pop3-keepalive-HOST , pop3-keepalive
9362 \*(OP POP3 servers close the connection after a period of inactivity;
9363 the standard requires this to be at least 10 minutes,
9364 but practical experience may vary.
9365 Setting this variable to a numeric value greater than
9369 command to be sent each value seconds if no other operation is performed.
9372 .It Va pop3-no-apop-USER@HOST , pop3-no-apop-HOST , pop3-no-apop
9373 \*(BO\*(OP Unless this variable is set the
9375 authentication method will be used when connecting to a POP3 server that
9379 is that the password is not sent in clear text over the wire and that
9380 only a single packet is sent for the user/password tuple.
9382 .Va pop3-no-apop-HOST
9385 .Mx Va pop3-use-starttls
9386 .It Va pop3-use-starttls-USER@HOST , pop3-use-starttls-HOST , pop3-use-starttls
9387 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a
9389 command to make an unencrypted POP3 session SSL/TLS encrypted.
9390 This functionality is not supported by all servers,
9391 and is not used if the session is already encrypted by the POP3S method.
9393 .Va pop3-use-starttls-HOST
9399 \*(BO This flag enables POSIX mode, which changes behaviour of \*(UA
9400 where that deviates from standardized behaviour.
9401 It will be set implicitly before the
9402 .Sx "Resource files"
9403 are loaded if the environment variable
9405 is set, and adjusting any of those two will be reflected by the other
9407 The following behaviour is covered and enforced by this mechanism:
9410 .Bl -bullet -compact
9412 In non-interactive mode, any error encountered while loading resource
9413 files during program startup will cause a program exit, whereas in
9414 interactive mode such errors will stop loading of the currently loaded
9415 (stack of) file(s, i.e., recursively).
9416 These exits can be circumvented on a per-command base by using
9419 .Sx "Command modifiers" ,
9420 for each command which shall be allowed to fail.
9425 implies the behaviour described by
9431 is extended to cover any empty mailbox, not only empty
9433 .Sx "primary system mailbox" Ns
9434 es: they will be removed when they are left in empty state otherwise.
9437 Upon changing the active
9441 will be displayed even if
9448 .It Va print-alternatives
9449 \*(BO When a MIME message part of type
9450 .Ql multipart/alternative
9451 is displayed and it contains a subpart of type
9453 other parts are normally discarded.
9454 Setting this variable causes all subparts to be displayed,
9455 just as if the surrounding part was of type
9456 .Ql multipart/mixed .
9460 The string used as a prompt in interactive mode.
9461 Whenever the variable is evaluated the value is expanded as via
9462 dollar-single-quote expansion (see
9463 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ) .
9464 This (post-assignment, i.e., second) expansion can be used to embed
9465 status information, for example
9470 .Va mailbox-display .
9472 In order to embed characters which should not be counted when
9473 calculating the visual width of the resulting string, enclose the
9474 characters of interest in a pair of reverse solidus escaped brackets:
9476 a slot for coloured prompts is also available with the \*(OPal command
9478 Prompting may be prevented by setting this to the null string
9480 .Ql set noprompt ) .
9484 This string is used for secondary prompts, but is otherwise identical to
9491 \*(BO Suppresses the printing of the version when first invoked.
9495 If set, \*(UA starts a replying message with the original message
9496 prefixed by the value of the variable
9498 Normally, a heading consisting of
9499 .Dq Fromheaderfield wrote:
9500 is put before the quotation.
9505 variable, this heading is omitted.
9508 is assigned, only the headers selected by the
9511 selection are put above the message body,
9514 acts like an automatic
9516 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
9520 is assigned, all headers are put above the message body and all MIME
9521 parts are included, making
9523 act like an automatic
9526 .Va quote-as-attachment .
9529 .It Va quote-as-attachment
9530 \*(BO Add the original message in its entirety as a
9532 MIME attachment when replying to a message.
9533 Note this works regardless of the setting of
9538 \*(OP Can be set in addition to
9540 Setting this turns on a more fancy quotation algorithm in that leading
9541 quotation characters are compressed and overlong lines are folded.
9543 can be set to either one or two (space separated) numeric values,
9544 which are interpreted as the maximum (goal) and the minimum line length,
9545 respectively, in a spirit rather equal to the
9547 program, but line-, not paragraph-based.
9548 If not set explicitly the minimum will reflect the goal algorithmically.
9549 The goal cannot be smaller than the length of
9551 plus some additional pad.
9552 Necessary adjustments take place silently.
9555 .It Va r-option-implicit
9556 \*(BO Setting this option evaluates the contents of
9558 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
9560 and passes the results onto the used (file-based) MTA as described for the
9562 option (empty argument case).
9565 .It Va recipients-in-cc
9572 are by default merged into the new
9574 If this variable is set, only the original
9578 the rest is merged into
9583 Unless this variable is defined, no copies of outgoing mail will be saved.
9584 If defined it gives the pathname, subject to the usual
9585 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
9586 of a folder where all new, replied-to or forwarded messages are saved:
9587 when saving to this folder fails the message is not sent, but instead
9591 The standard defines that relative (fully expanded) paths are to be
9592 interpreted relative to the current directory
9594 to force interpretation relative to
9597 needs to be set in addition.
9601 \*(BO If this variable is set the meaning of
9603 will be extended to cover messages which target only file and pipe
9606 These address types will not appear in recipient lists unless
9607 .Va add-file-recipients
9611 .It Va record-resent
9612 \*(BO If this variable is set the meaning of
9614 will be extended to also cover the
9621 .It Va reply-in-same-charset
9622 \*(BO If this variable is set \*(UA first tries to use the same
9623 character set of the original message for replies.
9624 If this fails, the mechanism described in
9625 .Sx "Character sets"
9626 is evaluated as usual.
9629 .It Va reply-strings
9630 Can be set to a comma-separated list of (case-insensitive according to
9631 ASCII rules) strings which shall be recognized in addition to the
9634 reply message indicators \(en builtin are
9636 which is mandated by RFC 5322, as well as the german
9641 which often has been seen in the wild;
9642 I.e., the separating colon has to be specified explicitly.
9646 A list of addresses to put into the
9648 field of the message header.
9649 Members of this list are handled as if they were in the
9654 .It Va reply-to-honour
9657 header is honoured when replying to a message via
9661 This is a quadoption; if set without a value it defaults to
9665 .It Va rfc822-body-from_
9666 \*(BO This variable can be used to force displaying a so-called
9668 line for messages that are embedded into an envelope mail via the
9670 MIME mechanism, for more visual convenience.
9674 \*(BO Enable saving of (partial) messages in
9676 upon interrupt or delivery error.
9680 The number of lines that represents a
9689 line display and scrolling via
9691 If this variable is not set \*(UA falls back to a calculation based upon
9692 the detected terminal window size and the baud rate: the faster the
9693 terminal, the more will be shown.
9694 Overall screen dimensions and pager usage is influenced by the
9695 environment variables
9703 .It Va searchheaders
9704 \*(BO Expand message-list specifiers in the form
9706 to all messages containing the substring
9710 The string search is case insensitive.
9714 \*(OP A comma-separated list of character set names that can be used in
9715 outgoing internet mail.
9716 The value of the variable
9718 is automatically appended to this list of character sets.
9719 If no character set conversion capabilities are compiled into \*(UA then
9720 the only supported charset is
9723 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
9724 and refer to the section
9725 .Sx "Character sets"
9726 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
9729 .It Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
9730 \*(BO\*(OP If this variable is set, but
9732 is not, then \*(UA acts as if
9734 had been set to the value of the variable
9736 In effect this combination passes through the message data in the
9737 character set of the current locale (given that
9739 has not been set manually), i.e., without converting it to the
9741 fallback character set.
9742 Thus, mail message text will be in ISO-8859-1 encoding when send from
9743 within a ISO-8859-1 locale, and in UTF-8 encoding when send from within
9745 If no character set conversion capabilities are available in \*(UA then
9746 the only supported character set is
9751 An address that is put into the
9753 field of outgoing messages, quoting RFC 5322: the mailbox of the agent
9754 responsible for the actual transmission of the message.
9755 This field should normally not be used unless the
9757 field contains more than one address, on which case it is required.
9760 address is handled as if it were in the
9764 .Va r-option-implicit .
9768 \*(OB Predecessor of
9772 .It Va sendmail-arguments
9773 \*(OB Predecessor of
9777 .It Va sendmail-no-default-arguments
9778 \*(OB\*(BO Predecessor of
9779 .Va mta-no-default-arguments .
9782 .It Va sendmail-progname
9783 \*(OB Predecessor of
9788 \*(BO When sending a message wait until the
9790 (including the builtin SMTP one) exits before accepting further commands.
9792 with this variable set errors reported by the MTA will be recognizable!
9793 If the MTA returns a non-zero exit status,
9794 the exit status of \*(UA will also be non-zero.
9798 \*(BO This setting causes \*(UA to start at the last message
9799 instead of the first one when opening a mail folder.
9803 \*(BO Causes \*(UA to use the sender's real name instead of the plain
9804 address in the header field summary and in message specifications.
9808 \*(BO Causes the recipient of the message to be shown in the header
9809 summary if the message was sent by the user.
9813 The string to expand
9816 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ) .
9820 The string to expand
9823 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ) .
9827 Must correspond to the name of a readable file if set.
9828 The file's content is then appended to each singlepart message
9829 and to the first part of each multipart message.
9830 Be warned that there is no possibility to edit the signature for an
9834 .It Va skipemptybody
9835 \*(BO If an outgoing message does not contain any text in its first or
9836 only message part, do not send it but discard it silently (see also the
9842 .It Va smime-ca-dir , smime-ca-file
9843 \*(OP Specify the location of trusted CA certificates in PEM (Privacy
9844 Enhanced Mail) format as a directory and a file, respectively, for the
9845 purpose of verification of S/MIME signed messages.
9846 It is possible to set both, the file will be loaded immediately, the
9847 directory will be searched whenever no match has yet been found.
9848 The set of CA certificates which are built into the SSL/TLS library can
9849 be explicitly turned off by setting
9850 .Va smime-ca-no-defaults ,
9851 and further fine-tuning is possible via
9852 .Va smime-ca-flags .
9855 .It Va smime-ca-flags
9856 \*(OP Can be used to fine-tune behaviour of the X509 CA certificate
9857 storage, and the certificate verification that is used.
9858 The actual values and their meanings are documented for
9862 .It Va smime-ca-no-defaults
9863 \*(BO\*(OP Do not load the default CA locations that are built into the
9864 used to SSL/TLS library to verify S/MIME signed messages.
9867 .It Va smime-cipher-USER@HOST , smime-cipher
9868 \*(OP Specifies the cipher to use when generating S/MIME encrypted
9869 messages (for the specified account).
9870 RFC 5751 mandates a default of
9873 Possible values are (case-insensitive and) in decreasing cipher strength:
9881 (DES EDE3 CBC, 168 bits; default if
9883 is not available) and
9887 The actually available cipher algorithms depend on the cryptographic
9888 library that \*(UA uses.
9889 \*(OP Support for more cipher algorithms may be available through
9890 dynamic loading via, e.g.,
9891 .Xr EVP_get_cipherbyname 3
9892 (OpenSSL) if \*(UA has been compiled to support this.
9895 .It Va smime-crl-dir
9896 \*(OP Specifies a directory that contains files with CRLs in PEM format
9897 to use when verifying S/MIME messages.
9900 .It Va smime-crl-file
9901 \*(OP Specifies a file that contains a CRL in PEM format to use when
9902 verifying S/MIME messages.
9905 .It Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
9906 \*(OP If this variable is set, messages send to the given receiver are
9907 encrypted before sending.
9908 The value of the variable must be set to the name of a file that
9909 contains a certificate in PEM format.
9911 If a message is sent to multiple recipients,
9912 each of them for whom a corresponding variable is set will receive an
9913 individually encrypted message;
9914 other recipients will continue to receive the message in plain text
9916 .Va smime-force-encryption
9918 It is recommended to sign encrypted messages, i.e., to also set the
9923 .It Va smime-force-encryption
9924 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to refuse sending unencrypted messages.
9928 \*(BO\*(OP S/MIME sign outgoing messages with the user's private key
9929 and include the user's certificate as a MIME attachment.
9930 Signing a message enables a recipient to verify that the sender used
9931 a valid certificate,
9932 that the email addresses in the certificate match those in the message
9933 header and that the message content has not been altered.
9934 It does not change the message text,
9935 and people will be able to read the message as usual.
9937 .Va smime-sign-cert , smime-sign-include-certs
9939 .Va smime-sign-message-digest .
9941 .Mx Va smime-sign-cert
9942 .It Va smime-sign-cert-USER@HOST , smime-sign-cert
9943 \*(OP Points to a file in PEM format.
9944 For the purpose of signing and decryption this file needs to contain the
9945 user's private key, followed by his certificate.
9949 is always derived from the value of
9951 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
9953 For the purpose of encryption the recipient's public encryption key
9954 (certificate) is expected; the command
9956 can be used to save certificates of signed messages (the section
9957 .Sx "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
9958 gives some details).
9959 This mode of operation is usually driven by the specialized form.
9961 When decrypting messages the account is derived from the recipient
9966 of the message, which are searched for addresses for which such
9968 \*(UA always uses the first address that matches,
9969 so if the same message is sent to more than one of the user's addresses
9970 using different encryption keys, decryption might fail.
9972 For signing and decryption purposes it is possible to use encrypted
9973 keys, and the pseudo-host(s)
9974 .Ql USER@HOST.smime-cert-key
9977 .Ql USER@HOST.smime-cert-cert
9978 for the certificate stored in the same file)
9979 will be used for performing any necessary password lookup,
9980 therefore the lookup can be automatized via the mechanisms described in
9981 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
9982 For example, the hypothetical address
9984 could be driven with a private key / certificate pair path defined in
9985 .Va \&\&smime-sign-cert-bob@exam.ple ,
9986 and needed passwords would then be looked up via the pseudo hosts
9987 .Ql bob@exam.ple.smime-cert-key
9989 .Ql bob@exam.ple.smime-cert-cert ) .
9990 To include intermediate certificates, use
9991 .Va smime-sign-include-certs .
9993 .Mx Va smime-sign-include-certs
9994 .It Va smime-sign-include-certs-USER@HOST , smime-sign-include-certs
9995 \*(OP If used, this is supposed to a consist of a comma-separated list
9996 of files, each of which containing a single certificate in PEM format to
9997 be included in the S/MIME message in addition to the
10000 This can be used to include intermediate certificates of the certificate
10001 authority, in order to allow the receiver's S/MIME implementation to
10002 perform a verification of the entire certificate chain, starting from
10003 a local root certificate, over the intermediate certificates, down to the
10004 .Va smime-sign-cert .
10005 Even though top level certificates may also be included in the chain,
10006 they won't be used for the verification on the receiver's side.
10008 For the purpose of the mechanisms involved here,
10010 refers to the content of the internal variable
10012 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
10015 .Ql USER@HOST.smime-include-certs
10016 will be used for performing password lookups for these certificates,
10017 shall they have been given one, therefore the lookup can be automatized
10018 via the mechanisms described in
10019 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
10021 .Mx Va smime-sign-message-digest
10022 .It Va smime-sign-message-digest-USER@HOST , smime-sign-message-digest
10023 \*(OP Specifies the message digest to use when signing S/MIME messages.
10024 RFC 5751 mandates a default of
10026 Possible values are (case-insensitive and) in decreasing cipher strength:
10034 The actually available message digest algorithms depend on the
10035 cryptographic library that \*(UA uses.
10036 \*(OP Support for more message digest algorithms may be available
10037 through dynamic loading via, e.g.,
10038 .Xr EVP_get_digestbyname 3
10039 (OpenSSL) if \*(UA has been compiled to support this.
10040 Remember that for this
10042 refers to the variable
10044 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
10049 \*(OB\*(OP To use the builtin SMTP transport, specify a SMTP URL in
10051 \*(ID For compatibility reasons a set
10053 is used in preference of
10057 .It Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST , smtp-auth-HOST , smtp-auth
10058 \*(OP Variable chain that controls the SMTP
10060 authentication method, possible values are
10066 as well as the \*(OPal methods
10072 method does not need any user credentials,
10074 requires a user name and all other methods require a user name and
10082 .Va smtp-auth-password
10084 .Va smtp-auth-user ) .
10089 .Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST :
10090 may override dependent on sender address in the variable
10093 .It Va smtp-auth-password
10094 \*(OP\*(OU Sets the global fallback password for SMTP authentication.
10095 If the authentication method requires a password, but neither
10096 .Va smtp-auth-password
10098 .Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
10100 \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal.
10102 .It Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
10104 .Va smtp-auth-password
10105 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
10108 .It Va smtp-auth-user
10109 \*(OP\*(OU Sets the global fallback user name for SMTP authentication.
10110 If the authentication method requires a user name, but neither
10113 .Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
10115 \*(UA will ask for a user name on the user's terminal.
10117 .It Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
10120 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
10124 .It Va smtp-hostname
10125 \*(OP\*(IN Normally \*(UA uses the variable
10127 to derive the necessary
10129 information in order to issue a
10136 can be used to use the
10138 from the SMTP account
10145 from the content of this variable (or, if that is the empty string,
10147 or the local hostname as a last resort).
10148 This often allows using an address that is itself valid but hosted by
10149 a provider other than which (in
10151 is about to send the message.
10152 Setting this variable also influences generated
10158 .Mx Va smtp-use-starttls
10159 .It Va smtp-use-starttls-USER@HOST , smtp-use-starttls-HOST , smtp-use-starttls
10160 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a
10162 command to make an SMTP
10164 session SSL/TLS encrypted, i.e., to enable transport layer security.
10168 .It Va spam-interface
10169 \*(OP In order to use any of the spam-related commands (like, e.g.,
10171 the desired spam interface must be defined by setting this variable.
10172 Please refer to the manual section
10173 .Sx "Handling spam"
10174 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
10175 All or none of the following interfaces may be available:
10177 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ql _ilte_"
10183 .Pf ( Lk http://spamassassin.apache.org SpamAssassin )
10185 Different to the generic filter interface \*(UA will automatically add
10186 the correct arguments for a given command and has the necessary
10187 knowledge to parse the program's output.
10188 A default value for
10190 will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if
10194 during compilation.
10195 Shall it be necessary to define a specific connection type (rather than
10196 using a configuration file for that), the variable
10197 .Va spamc-arguments
10198 can be used as in, e.g.,
10199 .Ql -d server.example.com -p 783 .
10200 It is also possible to specify a per-user configuration via
10202 Note that this interface does not inspect the
10204 flag of a message for the command
10208 generic spam filter support via freely configurable hooks.
10209 This interface is meant for programs like
10211 and requires according behaviour in respect to the hooks' exit
10212 status for at least the command
10215 meaning a message is spam,
10219 for unsure and any other return value indicating a hard error);
10220 since the hooks can include shell code snippets diverting behaviour
10221 can be intercepted as necessary.
10223 .Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , spamfilter-nospam , \
10226 .Va spamfilter-spam ;
10228 .Sx "Handling spam"
10229 contains examples for some programs.
10230 The process environment of the hooks will have the variable
10231 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_GENERATED
10233 Note that spam score support for
10235 is not supported unless the \*(OPtional regular expression support is
10237 .Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore
10243 .It Va spam-maxsize
10244 \*(OP Messages that exceed this size will not be passed through to the
10246 .Va spam-interface .
10247 If unset or 0, the default of 420000 bytes is used.
10250 .It Va spamc-command
10251 \*(OP The path to the
10255 .Va spam-interface .
10256 Note that the path is not expanded, but used
10258 A fallback path will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if the
10259 executable had been found during compilation.
10262 .It Va spamc-arguments
10263 \*(OP Even though \*(UA deals with most arguments for the
10266 automatically, it may at least sometimes be desirable to specify
10267 connection-related ones via this variable, e.g.,
10268 .Ql -d server.example.com -p 783 .
10272 \*(OP Specify a username for per-user configuration files for the
10274 .Va spam-interface .
10275 If this is set to the empty string then \*(UA will use the name of the
10284 .It Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , \
10285 spamfilter-nospam , spamfilter-rate , spamfilter-spam
10286 \*(OP Command and argument hooks for the
10288 .Va spam-interface .
10290 .Sx "Handling spam"
10291 contains examples for some programs.
10294 .It Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore
10295 \*(OP Because of the generic nature of the
10298 spam scores are not supported for it by default, but if the \*(OPnal
10299 regular expression support is available then setting this variable can
10300 be used to overcome this restriction.
10301 It is interpreted as follows: first a number (digits) is parsed that
10302 must be followed by a semicolon
10304 and an extended regular expression.
10305 Then the latter is used to parse the first output line of the
10306 .Va spamfilter-rate
10307 hook, and, in case the evaluation is successful, the group that has been
10308 specified via the number is interpreted as a floating point scan score.
10312 .It Va ssl-ca-dir , ssl-ca-file
10313 \*(OP Specify the location of trusted CA certificates in PEM (Privacy
10314 Enhanced Mail) format as a directory and a file, respectively, for the
10315 purpose of verification of SSL/TLS server certificates.
10316 It is possible to set both, the file will be loaded immediately, the
10317 directory will be searched whenever no match has yet been found.
10318 The set of CA certificates which are built into the SSL/TLS library can
10319 be explicitly turned off by setting
10320 .Va ssl-ca-no-defaults ,
10321 and further fine-tuning is possible via
10324 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
10325 for more information.
10329 .It Va ssl-ca-flags
10330 \*(OP Can be used to fine-tune behaviour of the X509 CA certificate
10331 storage, and the certificate verification that is used (also see
10333 The value is expected to consist of a comma-separated list of
10334 configuration directives, with any intervening whitespace being ignored.
10335 The directives directly map to flags that can be passed to
10336 .Xr X509_STORE_set_flags 3 ,
10337 which are usually defined in a file
10338 .Pa openssl/x509_vfy.h ,
10339 and the availability of which depends on the used SSL/TLS library
10340 version: a directive without mapping is ignored (error log subject to
10342 Directives currently understood (case-insensitively) include:
10345 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Cd BaNg"
10346 .It Cd no-alt-chains
10347 If the initial chain is not trusted, do not attempt to build an
10349 Setting this flag will make OpenSSL certificate verification match that
10350 of older OpenSSL versions, before automatic building and checking of
10351 alternative chains has been implemented; also see
10352 .Cd trusted-first .
10353 .It Cd no-check-time
10354 Do not check certificate/CRL validity against current time.
10355 .It Cd partial-chain
10356 By default partial, incomplete chains which cannot be verified up to the
10357 chain top, a self-signed root certificate, will not verify.
10358 With this flag set, a chain succeeds to verify if at least one signing
10359 certificate of the chain is in any of the configured trusted stores of
10361 The OpenSSL manual page
10362 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
10363 gives some advise how to manage your own trusted store of CA certificates.
10365 Disable workarounds for broken certificates.
10366 .It Cd trusted-first
10367 Try building a chain using issuers in the trusted store first to avoid
10368 problems with server-sent legacy intermediate certificates.
10369 Newer versions of OpenSSL support alternative chain checking and enable
10370 it by default, resulting in the same behaviour; also see
10371 .Cd no-alt-chains .
10376 .It Va ssl-ca-no-defaults
10377 \*(BO\*(OP Do not load the default CA locations that are built into the
10378 used to SSL/TLS library to verify SSL/TLS server certificates.
10381 .It Va ssl-cert-USER@HOST , ssl-cert-HOST , ssl-cert
10382 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the file name for a SSL/TLS client
10383 certificate required by some servers.
10384 This is a direct interface to the
10388 function of the OpenSSL library, if available.
10390 .Mx Va ssl-cipher-list
10391 .It Va ssl-cipher-list-USER@HOST , ssl-cipher-list-HOST , ssl-cipher-list
10392 \*(OP Specifies a list of ciphers for SSL/TLS connections.
10393 This is a direct interface to the
10397 function of the OpenSSL library, if available; see
10400 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_cipher_list 3
10401 for more information.
10402 By default \*(UA does not set a list of ciphers, in effect using a
10404 specific cipher (protocol standards ship with a list of acceptable
10405 ciphers), possibly cramped to what the actually used SSL/TLS library
10406 supports \(en the manual section
10407 .Sx "An example configuration"
10408 also contains a SSL/TLS use case.
10411 .It Va ssl-config-file
10412 \*(OP If this variable is set \*(UA will call
10413 .Xr CONF_modules_load_file 3
10414 to allow OpenSSL to be configured according to the host system wide
10416 If a non-empty value is given then this will be used to specify the
10417 configuration file to be used instead of the global OpenSSL default;
10418 note that in this case it is an error if the file cannot be loaded.
10419 The application name will always be passed as
10423 .It Va ssl-curves-USER@HOST , ssl-curves-HOST , ssl-curves
10424 \*(OP Specifies a list of supported curves for SSL/TLS connections.
10425 This is a direct interface to the
10429 function of the OpenSSL library, if available; see
10430 .Xr SSL_CTX_set1_curves_list 3
10431 for more information.
10432 By default \*(UA does not set a list of curves.
10436 .It Va ssl-crl-dir , ssl-crl-file
10437 \*(OP Specify a directory / a file, respectively that contains a CRL in
10438 PEM format to use when verifying SSL/TLS server certificates.
10441 .It Va ssl-key-USER@HOST , ssl-key-HOST , ssl-key
10442 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the file name for the private key of
10443 a SSL/TLS client certificate.
10444 If unset, the name of the certificate file is used.
10445 The file is expected to be in PEM format.
10446 This is a direct interface to the
10450 function of the OpenSSL library, if available.
10453 .It Va ssl-method-USER@HOST , ssl-method-HOST , ssl-method
10454 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the newer and more flexible
10456 instead: if both values are set,
10458 will take precedence!
10459 Can be set to the following values, the actually used
10461 specification to which it is mapped is shown in parenthesis:
10463 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, TLSv1.2 ) ,
10465 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, TLSv1.1 ) ,
10467 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, TLSv1 )
10470 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, SSLv3 ) ;
10475 and thus includes the SSLv3 protocol.
10476 Note that SSLv2 is no longer supported at all.
10478 .Mx Va ssl-protocol
10479 .It Va ssl-protocol-USER@HOST , ssl-protocol-HOST , ssl-protocol
10480 \*(OP Specify the used SSL/TLS protocol.
10481 This is a direct interface to the
10485 function of the OpenSSL library, if available;
10486 otherwise an \*(UA internal parser is used which understands the
10487 following subset of (case-insensitive) command strings:
10493 as well as the special value
10495 Multiple specifications may be given via a comma-separated list which
10496 ignores any whitespace.
10499 plus sign prefix will enable a protocol, a
10501 hyphen-minus prefix will disable it, so that
10503 will enable only the TLSv1.2 protocol.
10505 It depends upon the used TLS/SSL library which protocols are actually
10506 supported and which protocols are used if
10508 is not set, but note that SSLv2 is no longer supported at all and
10510 Especially for older protocols explicitly securing
10511 .Va ssl-cipher-list
10512 may be worthwile, see
10513 .Sx "An example configuration" .
10516 .It Va ssl-rand-egd
10517 \*(OP Gives the pathname to an entropy daemon socket, see
10519 Not all SSL/TLS libraries support this.
10522 .It Va ssl-rand-file
10523 \*(OP Gives the filename to a file with random entropy data, see
10524 .Xr RAND_load_file 3 .
10525 If this variable is not set, or set to the empty string, or if the
10526 .Sx "Filename transformations"
10528 .Xr RAND_file_name 3
10529 will be used to create the filename if, and only if,
10531 documents that the SSL PRNG is not yet sufficiently seeded.
10532 If \*(UA successfully seeded the SSL PRNG then it will update the file
10533 .Pf ( Xr RAND_write_file 3 ) .
10534 This variable is only used if
10536 is not set (or not supported by the SSL/TLS library).
10539 .It Va ssl-verify-USER@HOST , ssl-verify-HOST , ssl-verify
10540 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the action to be performed if an error
10541 occurs during SSL/TLS server certificate validation against the
10542 specified or default trust stores
10545 or the SSL/TLS library builtin defaults (unless usage disallowed via
10546 .Va ssl-ca-no-defaults ) ,
10547 and as fine-tuned via
10549 Valid (case-insensitive) values are
10551 (fail and close connection immediately),
10553 (ask whether to continue on standard input),
10555 (show a warning and continue),
10557 (do not perform validation).
10563 If only set without an assigned value, then this setting inhibits the
10569 header fields that include obvious references to \*(UA.
10570 There are two pitfalls associated with this:
10571 First, the message id of outgoing messages is not known anymore.
10572 Second, an expert may still use the remaining information in the header
10573 to track down the originating mail user agent.
10574 If set to the value
10580 suppression does not occur.
10585 (\*(OP) This specifies a comma-separated list of
10590 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" ,
10591 escape commas with reverse solidus) to be used to overwrite or define
10593 Note that this variable will only be queried once at program startup and
10594 can thus only be specified in resource files or on the command line.
10597 String capabilities form
10599 pairs and are expected unless noted otherwise.
10600 Numerics have to be notated as
10602 where the number is expected in normal decimal notation.
10603 Finally, booleans do not have any value but indicate a true or false
10604 state simply by being defined or not; this indeed means that \*(UA
10605 does not support undefining an existing boolean.
10606 String capability values will undergo some expansions before use:
10607 for one notations like
10610 .Ql control-LETTER ,
10611 and for clarification purposes
10613 can be used to specify
10615 (the control notation
10617 could lead to misreadings when a left bracket follows, which it does for
10618 the standard CSI sequence);
10619 finally three letter octal sequences, as in
10622 To specify that a terminal supports 256-colours, and to define sequences
10623 that home the cursor and produce an audible bell, one might write:
10625 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10626 set termcap='Co#256,home=\eE[H,bel=^G'
10630 The following terminal capabilities are or may be meaningful for the
10631 operation of the builtin line editor or \*(UA in general:
10634 .Bl -tag -compact -width yay
10636 .It Cd colors Ns \0or Cd Co
10638 numeric capability specifying the maximum number of colours.
10639 Note that \*(UA does not actually care about the terminal beside that,
10640 but always emits ANSI / ISO 6429 escape sequences.
10643 .It Cd rmcup Ns \0or Cd te Ns \0/ Cd smcup Ns \0or Cd ti
10646 .Cd enter_ca_mode ,
10647 respectively: exit and enter the alternative screen
10649 effectively turning \*(UA into a fullscreen application.
10650 To disable that, set (at least) one to the empty string.
10652 .It Cd smkx Ns \0or Cd ks Ns \0/ Cd rmkx Ns \0or Cd ke
10656 respectively: enable and disable the keypad.
10657 This is always enabled if available, because it seems even keyboards
10658 without keypads generate other key codes for, e.g., cursor keys in that
10659 case, and only if enabled we see the codes that we are interested in.
10661 .It Cd ed Ns \0or Cd cd
10665 .It Cd clear Ns \0or Cd cl
10667 clear the screen and home cursor.
10668 (Will be simulated via
10673 .It Cd home Ns \0or Cd ho
10678 .It Cd el Ns \0or Cd ce
10680 clear to the end of line.
10681 (Will be simulated via
10683 plus repetitions of space characters.)
10685 .It Cd hpa Ns \0or Cd ch
10686 .Cd column_address :
10687 move the cursor (to the given column parameter) in the current row.
10688 (Will be simulated via
10694 .Cd carriage_return :
10695 move to the first column in the current row.
10696 The default builtin fallback is
10699 .It Cd cub1 Ns \0or Cd le
10701 move the cursor left one space (non-destructively).
10702 The default builtin fallback is
10705 .It Cd cuf1 Ns \0or Cd nd
10707 move the cursor right one space (non-destructively).
10708 The default builtin fallback is
10710 which is used by most terminals.
10718 Many more capabilities which describe key-sequences are documented for
10722 .It Va termcap-disable
10723 \*(OP Disable any interaction with a terminal control library.
10724 If set only some generic fallback builtins and possibly the content of
10726 describe the terminal to \*(UA.
10728 that this variable will only be queried once at program startup and can
10729 thus only be specified in resource files or on the command line.
10733 If defined, gives the number of lines of a message to be displayed
10736 if unset, the first five lines are printed, if set to 0 the variable
10739 If the value is negative then its absolute value will be used for
10740 unsigned right shifting (see
10748 \*(BO If set then the
10750 command series will strip adjacent empty lines and quotations.
10754 The character set of the terminal \*(UA operates on,
10755 and the one and only supported character set that \*(UA can use if no
10756 character set conversion capabilities have been compiled into it,
10757 in which case it defaults to ISO-8859-1 unless it can deduce a value
10760 locale environment.
10761 It defaults to UTF-8 if conversion is available.
10762 Refer to the section
10763 .Sx "Character sets"
10764 for the complete picture about character sets.
10767 .It Va typescript-mode
10768 \*(BO A special multiplex variable that disables all variables and
10769 settings which result in behaviour that interferes with running \*(UA in
10772 .Va colour-disable ,
10773 .Va line-editor-disable
10774 and (before startup completed only)
10775 .Va termcap-disable .
10776 Unsetting it does not restore the former state of the covered settings.
10780 For a safety-by-default policy \*(UA sets its process
10784 but this variable can be used to override that:
10785 set it to an empty value to do not change the (current) setting,
10786 otherwise the process file mode creation mask is updated to the new value.
10787 Child processes inherit the process file mode creation mask.
10790 .It Va user-HOST , user
10791 \*(IN Variable chain that sets a global fallback user name, which is
10792 used in case none has been given in the protocol and account-specific
10794 This variable defaults to the name of the user who runs \*(UA.
10798 \*(BO Setting this enables upward compatibility with \*(UA
10799 version 15.0 in respect to which configuration options are available and
10800 how they are handled.
10801 This manual uses \*(IN and \*(OU to refer to the new and the old way of
10802 doing things, respectively.
10806 \*(BO This setting, also controllable via the command line option
10808 causes \*(UA to be more verbose, e.g., it will display obsoletion
10809 warnings and SSL/TLS certificate chains.
10810 Even though marked \*(BO this option may be set twice in order to
10811 increase the level of verbosity even more, in which case even details of
10812 the actual message delivery and protocol conversations are shown.
10815 is sufficient to disable verbosity as such.
10822 .It Va version , version-date , version-major , version-minor , version-update
10823 \*(RO \*(UA version information: the first variable contains a string
10824 containing the complete version identification, the latter three contain
10825 only digits: the major, minor and update version numbers.
10826 The date is in ISO 8601 notation.
10827 The output of the command
10829 will include this information.
10832 .It Va writebackedited
10833 If this variable is set messages modified using the
10837 commands are written back to the current folder when it is quit;
10838 it is only honoured for writable folders in MBOX format, though.
10839 Note that the editor will be pointed to the raw message content in that
10840 case, i.e., neither MIME decoding nor decryption will have been
10841 performed, and proper RFC 4155
10843 quoting of newly added or edited content is also left as an excercise to
10846 .\" }}} (Variables)
10847 .\" }}} (INTERNAL VARIABLES)
10850 .\" .Sh ENVIRONMENT {{{
10854 .Dq environment variable
10855 should be considered an indication that these variables are either
10856 standardized as vivid parts of process environments, or that they are
10857 commonly found in there.
10858 The process environment is inherited from the
10860 once \*(UA is started, and unless otherwise explicitly noted handling of
10861 the following variables transparently integrates into that of the
10862 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
10863 from \*(UA's point of view.
10864 This means that, e.g., they can be managed via
10868 causing automatic program environment updates (to be inherited by
10869 newly created child processes).
10872 In order to transparently integrate other environment variables equally
10873 they need to be imported (linked) with the command
10875 This command can also be used to set and unset non-integrated
10876 environment variables from scratch, sufficient system support provided.
10877 The following example, applicable to a POSIX shell, sets the
10879 environment variable for \*(UA only, and beforehand exports the
10881 in order to affect any further processing in the running shell:
10883 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10884 $ EDITOR="vim -u ${HOME}/.vimrc"
10886 $ COLUMNS=80 \*(uA -R
10889 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ev BaNg"
10892 The user's preferred width in column positions for the terminal screen
10894 Queried and used once on program startup, actively managed for child
10895 processes and the MLE (see
10896 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
10897 in interactive mode thereafter.
10898 Ignored in non-interactive mode, which always uses 80 columns.
10902 The name of the (mailbox)
10904 to use for saving aborted messages if
10906 is set; this defaults to
10913 is set no output will be generated, otherwise the contents of the file
10918 Pathname of the text editor to use in the
10922 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
10923 A default editor is used if this value is not defined.
10927 The user's home directory.
10928 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
10935 .It Ev LANG , LC_ALL , LC_COLLATE , LC_CTYPE , LC_MESSAGES
10939 .Sx "Character sets" .
10943 The user's preferred number of lines on a page or the vertical screen
10944 or window size in lines.
10945 Queried and used once on program startup, actively managed for child
10946 processes in interactive mode thereafter.
10947 Ignored in non-interactive mode, which always uses 24 lines.
10951 Pathname of the directory lister to use in the
10953 command when operating on local mailboxes.
10956 (path search through
10961 Upon startup \*(UA will actively ensure that this variable refers to the
10962 name of the user who runs \*(UA, in order to be able to pass a verified
10963 name to any newly created child process.
10967 Is used as the users
10969 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
10973 This is assumed to be an absolute pathname.
10977 \*(OP Overrides the default path search for
10978 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
10979 which is defined in the standard RFC 1524 as
10980 .Ql ~/.mailcap:\:/etc/mailcap:\:/usr/etc/mailcap:\:/usr/local/etc/mailcap .
10981 .\" TODO we should have a mailcaps-default virtual RDONLY option!
10982 (\*(UA makes it a configuration option, however.)
10983 Note this is not a search path, but a path search.
10987 Is used as a startup file instead of
10990 When \*(UA scripts are invoked on behalf of other users,
10991 either this variable should be set to
10995 command line option should be used in order to avoid side-effects from
10996 reading their configuration files.
10997 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
11000 .It Ev MAILX_NO_SYSTEM_RC
11001 If this variable is set then reading of
11003 at startup is inhibited, i.e., the same effect is achieved as if \*(UA
11004 had been started up with the option
11006 (and according argument) or
11008 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
11012 The name of the users
11014 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
11016 A logical subset of the special
11017 .Sx "Filename transformations"
11021 The fallback default is
11026 Traditionally this MBOX is used as the file to save messages from the
11028 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
11029 that have been read.
11031 .Sx "Message states" .
11035 \*(IN\*(OP This variable overrides the default location of the user's
11041 Pathname of the program to use for backing the command
11045 variable enforces usage of a pager for output.
11046 The default paginator is
11048 (path search through
11051 \*(UA inspects the contents of this variable: if its contains the string
11053 then a non-existing environment variable
11060 dependent on whether terminal control support is available and whether
11061 that supports full (alternative) screen mode or not (also see
11062 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" ) .
11066 will optionally be set to
11073 A colon-separated list of directories that is searched by the shell when
11074 looking for commands, e.g.,
11075 .Ql /bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin .
11078 .It Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT
11079 This variable is automatically looked for upon startup, see
11085 The shell to use for the commands
11090 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
11091 and when starting subprocesses.
11092 A default shell is used if this environment variable is not defined.
11095 .It Ev SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
11096 This specifies a time in seconds since the Unix epoch (1970-01-01) to be
11097 used in place of the current time.
11098 This variable is looked up upon program startup, and its existence will
11099 switch \*(UA to a completely reproducible mode which causes
11100 deterministic random numbers, a special fixed (non-existent?)
11102 and more to be used and set.
11103 It is to be used during development or by software packagers.
11104 \*(ID Currently an invalid setting is only ignored, rather than causing
11105 a program abortion.
11107 .Dl $ SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH=`date +%s` \*(uA
11111 \*(OP The terminal type for which output is to be prepared.
11112 For extended colour and font control please refer to
11113 .Sx "Coloured display" ,
11114 and for terminal management in general to
11115 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" .
11119 Used as directory for temporary files instead of
11122 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment,
11123 but \*(UA will ensure at startup that this environment variable is
11124 updated to contain a usable temporary directory.
11130 (see there), but this variable is not standardized, should therefore not
11131 be used, and is only corrected if already set.
11135 Pathname of the text editor to use in the
11139 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
11147 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa BaNg"
11149 File giving initial commands.
11152 System wide initialization file.
11156 \*(OP Personal MIME type handler definition file, see
11157 .Sx "The Mailcap files" .
11158 This location is part of the RFC 1524 standard search path, which is
11159 a configuration option and can be overridden via
11163 .It Pa /etc/mailcap
11164 \*(OP System wide MIME type handler definition file, see
11165 .Sx "The Mailcap files" .
11166 This location is part of the RFC 1524 standard search path, which is
11167 a configuration option and can be overridden via
11170 .It Pa ~/.mime.types
11171 Personal MIME types, see
11172 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
11173 The actually used path is a configuration option.
11176 .It Pa /etc/mime.types
11177 System wide MIME types, see
11178 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
11179 The actually used path is a configuration option.
11183 \*(IN\*(OP The default location of the users
11185 file \(en the section
11186 .Sx "The .netrc file"
11187 documents the file format.
11188 The actually used path is a configuration option and can be overridden via
11195 The actually used path is a compile-time constant.
11198 .\" .Ss "The mime.types files" {{{
11199 .Ss "The mime.types files"
11202 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments"
11203 \*(UA needs to learn about MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions)
11204 media types in order to classify message and attachment content.
11205 One source for them are
11207 files, the loading of which can be controlled by setting the variable
11208 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
11209 Another is the command
11211 which also offers access to \*(UAs MIME type cache.
11213 files have the following syntax:
11215 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11216 type/subtype extension [extension ...]
11217 # E.g., text/html html htm
11223 define the MIME media type, as standardized in RFC 2046:
11225 is used to declare the general type of data, while the
11227 specifies a specific format for that type of data.
11228 One or multiple filename
11230 s, separated by whitespace, can be bound to the media type format.
11231 Comments may be introduced anywhere on a line with a number sign
11233 causing the remaining line to be discarded.
11235 \*(UA also supports an extended, non-portable syntax in especially
11236 crafted files, which can be loaded via the alternative value syntax of
11237 .Va mimetypes-load-control ,
11238 and prepends an optional
11242 .Dl [type-marker ]type/subtype extension [extension ...]
11245 The following type markers are supported:
11248 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar _n_u"
11250 Treat message parts with this content as plain text.
11255 Treat message parts with this content as HTML tagsoup.
11256 If the \*(OPal HTML-tagsoup-to-text converter is not available treat
11257 the content as plain text instead.
11261 but instead of falling back to plain text require an explicit content
11262 handler to be defined.
11267 for sending messages:
11269 .Va mime-allow-text-controls ,
11270 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
11271 For reading etc. messages:
11272 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ,
11273 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
11275 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
11276 .Va mimetypes-load-control ,
11277 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE ,
11278 .Va pipe-EXTENSION .
11281 .\" .Ss "The Mailcap files" {{{
11282 .Ss "The Mailcap files"
11284 .\" TODO MAILCAP DISABLED
11285 .Sy This feature is not available in v14.9.0, sorry!
11287 .Dq User Agent Configuration Mechanism
11288 which \*(UA \*(OPally supports (see
11289 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ) .
11290 It defines a file format to be used to inform mail user agent programs
11291 about the locally-installed facilities for handling various data
11292 formats, i.e., about commands and how they can be used to display, edit
11293 etc. MIME part contents, as well as a default path search that includes
11294 multiple possible locations of
11298 environment variable that can be used to overwrite that (repeating here
11299 that it is not a search path, but instead a path search specification).
11300 Any existing files will be loaded in sequence, appending any content to
11301 the list of MIME type handler directives.
11305 files consist of a set of newline separated entries.
11306 Comment lines start with a number sign
11308 (in the first column!) and are ignored.
11309 Empty lines are also ignored.
11310 All other lines form individual entries that must adhere to the syntax
11312 To extend a single entry (not comment) its line can be continued on
11313 follow lines if newline characters are
11315 by preceding them with the reverse solidus character
11317 The standard does not specify how leading whitespace of follow lines
11318 is to be treated, therefore \*(UA retains it.
11322 entries consist of a number of semicolon
11324 separated fields, and the reverse solidus
11326 character can be used to escape any following character including
11327 semicolon and itself.
11328 The first two fields are mandatory and must occur in the specified
11329 order, the remaining fields are optional and may appear in any order.
11330 Leading and trailing whitespace of content is ignored (removed).
11333 The first field defines the MIME
11335 the entry is about to handle (case-insensitively, and no reverse solidus
11336 escaping is possible in this field).
11337 If the subtype is specified as an asterisk
11339 the entry is meant to match all subtypes of the named type, e.g.,
11341 would match any audio type.
11342 The second field defines the shell command which shall be used to
11344 MIME parts of the given type; it is implicitly called the
11351 shell commands message (MIME part) data is passed via standard input
11352 unless the given shell command includes one or more instances of the
11355 in which case these instances will be replaced with a temporary filename
11356 and the data will have been stored in the file that is being pointed to.
11359 shell commands data is assumed to be generated on standard output unless
11360 the given command includes (one ore multiple)
11362 In any case any given
11364 format is replaced with a(n already) properly quoted filename.
11365 Note that when a command makes use of a temporary file via
11367 then \*(UA will remove it again, as if the
11368 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile ,
11369 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill
11371 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
11372 flags had been set; see below for more.
11375 The optional fields either define a shell command or an attribute (flag)
11376 value, the latter being a single word and the former being a keyword
11377 naming the field followed by an equals sign
11379 succeeded by a shell command, and as usual for any
11381 content any whitespace surrounding the equals sign will be removed, too.
11382 Optional fields include the following:
11385 .Bl -tag -width ".It Cd BaNg"
11387 A program that can be used to compose a new body or body part in the
11389 (Currently unused.)
11391 .It Cd composetyped
11394 field, but is to be used when the composing program needs to specify the
11396 header field to be applied to the composed data.
11397 (Currently unused.)
11400 A program that can be used to edit a body or body part in the given
11402 (Currently unused.)
11405 A program that can be used to print a message or body part in the given
11407 (Currently unused.)
11410 Specifies a program to be run to test some condition, e.g., the machine
11411 architecture, or the window system in use, to determine whether or not
11412 this mailcap entry applies.
11413 If the test fails, a subsequent mailcap entry should be sought; also see
11414 .Cd x-mailx-test-once .
11417 .It Cd needsterminal
11418 This flag field indicates that the given shell command must be run on
11419 an interactive terminal.
11420 \*(UA will temporarily release the terminal to the given command in
11421 interactive mode, in non-interactive mode this entry will be entirely
11422 ignored; this flag implies
11423 .Cd x-mailx-noquote .
11426 .It Cd copiousoutput
11427 A flag field which indicates that the output of the
11429 command will be an extended stream of textual output that can be
11430 (re)integrated into \*(UA's normal visual display.
11431 It is mutually exclusive with
11432 .Cd needsterminal .
11434 .It Cd textualnewlines
11435 A flag field which indicates that this type of data is line-oriented and
11436 that, if encoded in
11438 all newlines should be converted to canonical form (CRLF) before
11439 encoding, and will be in that form after decoding.
11440 (Currently unused.)
11442 .It Cd nametemplate
11443 This field gives a file name format, in which
11445 will be replaced by a random string, the joined combination of which
11446 will be used as the filename denoted by
11447 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY .
11448 One could specify that a GIF file being passed to an image viewer should
11449 have a name ending in
11452 .Ql nametemplate=%s.gif .
11453 Note that \*(UA ignores the name template unless that solely specifies
11454 a filename suffix that consists of (ASCII) alphabetic and numeric
11455 characters, the underscore and dot only.
11458 Names a file, in X11 bitmap (xbm) format, which points to an appropriate
11459 icon to be used to visually denote the presence of this kind of data.
11460 This field is not used by \*(UA.
11463 A textual description that describes this type of data.
11466 .It Cd x-mailx-even-if-not-interactive
11467 An extension flag test field \(em by default handlers without
11469 are entirely ignored in non-interactive mode, but if this flag is set
11470 then their use will be considered.
11471 It is an error if this flag is set for commands that use the flag
11472 .Cd needsterminal .
11475 .It Cd x-mailx-noquote
11476 An extension flag field that indicates that even a
11479 command shall not be used to generate message quotes
11480 (as it would be by default).
11483 .It Cd x-mailx-async
11484 Extension flag field that denotes that the given
11486 command shall be executed asynchronously, without blocking \*(UA.
11487 Cannot be used in conjunction with
11488 .Cd needsterminal .
11491 .It Cd x-mailx-test-once
11492 Extension flag which denotes whether the given
11494 command shall be evaluated once only and the (boolean) result be cached.
11495 This is handy if some global unchanging condition is to be queried, like
11496 .Dq running under the X Window System .
11499 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile
11500 Extension flag field that requests creation of a zero-sized temporary
11501 file, the name of which is to be placed in the environment variable
11502 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY .
11503 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
11508 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill
11509 Normally the MIME part content is passed to the handler via standard
11510 input; if this flag is set then the data will instead be written into
11512 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile .
11513 In order to cause deletion of the temporary file you will have to set
11514 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
11516 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
11521 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
11522 Extension flag field that requests that the temporary file shall be
11523 deleted automatically when the command loop is entered again at latest.
11524 (Do not use this for asynchronous handlers.)
11525 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
11527 format, or in conjunction with
11528 .Cd x-mailx-async ,
11529 or without also setting
11530 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile
11532 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill .
11535 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-keep
11538 implies the three tmpfile related flags above, but if you want, e.g.,
11540 and deal with the temporary file yourself, you can add in this flag to
11542 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink .
11547 The standard includes the possibility to define any number of additional
11548 entry fields, prefixed by
11550 Flag fields apply to the entire
11552 entry \(em in some unusual cases, this may not be desirable, but
11553 differentiation can be accomplished via separate entries, taking
11554 advantage of the fact that subsequent entries are searched if an earlier
11555 one does not provide enough information.
11558 command needs to specify the
11562 command shall not, the following will help out the latter (with enabled
11566 level \*(UA will show information about handler evaluation):
11568 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11569 application/postscript; ps-to-terminal %s; needsterminal
11570 application/postscript; ps-to-terminal %s; compose=idraw %s
11574 In fields any occurrence of the format string
11576 will be replaced by the
11579 Named parameters from the
11581 field may be placed in the command execution line using
11583 followed by the parameter name and a closing
11586 The entire parameter should appear as a single command line argument,
11587 regardless of embedded spaces; thus:
11589 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11591 Content-type: multipart/mixed; boundary=42
11594 multipart/*; /usr/local/bin/showmulti \e
11595 %t %{boundary} ; composetyped = /usr/local/bin/makemulti
11597 # Executed shell command
11598 /usr/local/bin/showmulti multipart/mixed 42
11602 .\" TODO v15: Mailcap: %n,%F
11603 Note that \*(UA does not support handlers for multipart MIME parts as
11604 shown in this example (as of today).
11605 \*(UA does not support the additional formats
11609 An example file, also showing how to properly deal with the expansion of
11611 which includes any quotes that are necessary to make it a valid shell
11612 argument by itself and thus will cause undesired behaviour when placed
11613 in additional user-provided quotes:
11615 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11617 text/richtext; richtext %s; copiousoutput
11619 text/x-perl; perl -cWT %s
11621 application/pdf; \e
11623 trap "rm -f ${infile}" EXIT\e; \e
11624 trap "exit 75" INT QUIT TERM\e; \e
11626 x-mailx-async; x-mailx-tmpfile-keep
11628 application/*; echo "This is \e"%t\e" but \e
11629 is 50 \e% Greek to me" \e; < %s head -c 1024 | cat -vET; \e
11630 copiousoutput; x-mailx-noquote
11635 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ,
11636 .Sx "The mime.types files" ,
11639 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
11640 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE ,
11641 .Va pipe-EXTENSION .
11644 .\" .Ss "The .netrc file" {{{
11645 .Ss "The .netrc file"
11649 file contains user credentials for machine accounts.
11650 The default location in the user's
11652 directory may be overridden by the
11654 environment variable.
11655 The file consists of space, tabulator or newline separated tokens.
11656 \*(UA implements a parser that supports a superset of the original BSD
11657 syntax, but users should nonetheless be aware of portability glitches
11658 of that file format, shall their
11660 be usable across multiple programs and platforms:
11663 .Bl -bullet -compact
11665 BSD does not support single, but only double quotation marks, e.g.,
11666 .Ql password="pass with spaces" .
11668 BSD (only?) supports escaping of single characters via a reverse solidus
11669 (e.g., a space can be escaped via
11671 in- as well as outside of a quoted string.
11673 BSD does not require a final quotation mark of the last user input token.
11675 The original BSD (Berknet) parser also supported a format which allowed
11676 tokens to be separated with commas \(en whereas at least Hewlett-Packard
11677 still seems to support this syntax, \*(UA does not!
11679 As a non-portable extension some widely-used programs support
11680 shell-style comments: if an input line starts, after any amount of
11681 whitespace, with a number sign
11683 then the rest of the line is ignored.
11685 Whereas other programs may require that the
11687 file is accessible by only the user if it contains a
11689 token for any other
11693 \*(UA will always require these strict permissions.
11697 Of the following list of supported tokens \*(UA only uses (and caches)
11702 At runtime the command
11704 can be used to control \*(UA's
11708 .Bl -tag -width ".It Cd BaNg"
11709 .It Cd machine Ar name
11710 The hostname of the entries' machine, lowercase-normalized by \*(UA
11712 Any further file content, until either end-of-file or the occurrence
11717 first-class token is bound (only related) to the machine
11720 As an extension that should not be the cause of any worries
11721 \*(UA supports a single wildcard prefix for
11723 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11724 machine *.example.com login USER password PASS
11725 machine pop3.example.com login USER password PASS
11726 machine smtp.example.com login USER password PASS
11732 .Ql pop3.example.com ,
11736 .Ql local.smtp.example.com .
11737 Note that in the example neither
11738 .Ql pop3.example.com
11740 .Ql smtp.example.com
11741 will be matched by the wildcard, since the exact matches take
11742 precedence (it is however faster to specify it the other way around).
11745 This is the same as
11747 except that it is a fallback entry that is used shall none of the
11748 specified machines match; only one default token may be specified,
11749 and it must be the last first-class token.
11751 .It Cd login Ar name
11752 The user name on the remote machine.
11754 .It Cd password Ar string
11755 The user's password on the remote machine.
11757 .It Cd account Ar string
11758 Supply an additional account password.
11759 This is merely for FTP purposes.
11761 .It Cd macdef Ar name
11763 A macro is defined with the specified
11765 it is formed from all lines beginning with the next line and continuing
11766 until a blank line is (consecutive newline characters are) encountered.
11769 entries cannot be utilized by multiple machines, too, but must be
11770 defined following the
11772 they are intended to be used with.)
11775 exists, it is automatically run as the last step of the login process.
11776 This is merely for FTP purposes.
11783 .\" .Sh EXAMPLES {{{
11786 .\" .Ss "An example configuration" {{{
11787 .Ss "An example configuration"
11789 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11790 # This example assumes v15.0 compatibility mode
11793 # Request strict transport security checks!
11794 set ssl-verify=strict
11796 # Where are the up-to-date SSL certificates?
11797 # (Since we manage up-to-date ones explicitly, do not use any,
11798 # possibly outdated, default certificates shipped with OpenSSL)
11799 #set ssl-ca-dir=/etc/ssl/certs
11800 set ssl-ca-file=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
11801 set ssl-ca-no-defaults
11802 #set ssl-ca-flags=partial-chain
11803 wysh set smime-ca-file="${ssl-ca-file}" \e
11804 smime-ca-no-defaults #smime-ca-flags="${ssl-ca-flags}"
11806 # Do not use protocols older than TLS v1.2.
11807 # Change this only when the remote server does not support it:
11808 # maybe use ssl-protocol-HOST (or -USER@HOST) syntax to define
11809 # such explicit exceptions, then, e.g.
11810 # set ssl-protocol-exam.ple='-ALL,+TLSv1.1'
11811 set ssl-protocol='-ALL,+TLSv1.2'
11813 # Explicitly define the list of ciphers, which may improve security,
11814 # especially with protocols older than TLS v1.2. See ciphers(1).
11815 # Including "@STRENGTH" will sort the final list by algorithm strength.
11816 # In reality it is possibly best to only use ssl-cipher-list-HOST
11817 # (or -USER@HOST), as necessary, again..
11818 set ssl-cipher-list=TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:@STRENGTH
11819 # - TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:\e
11820 # ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA:\e
11821 # DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:@STRENGTH
11822 # -ALL:!aNULL:!eNULL:!MEDIUM:!LOW:!MD5:!RC4:!EXPORT:@STRENGTH
11823 # Especially with TLSv1.3 curves selection may be desired:
11824 #set ssl-curves=P-521:P-384:P-256
11826 # Essential setting: select allowed character sets
11827 set sendcharsets=utf-8,iso-8859-1
11829 # A very kind option: when replying to a message, first try to
11830 # use the same encoding that the original poster used herself!
11831 set reply-in-same-charset
11833 # When replying, do not merge From: and To: of the original message
11834 # into To:. Instead old From: -> new To:, old To: -> merge Cc:.
11835 set recipients-in-cc
11837 # When sending messages, wait until the Mail-Transfer-Agent finishs.
11838 # Only like this you will be able to see errors reported through the
11839 # exit status of the MTA (including the builtin SMTP one)!
11842 # Only use builtin MIME types, no mime.types(5) files
11843 set mimetypes-load-control
11845 # Default directory where we act in (relative to $HOME)
11847 # A leading "+" (often) means: under *folder*
11848 # *record* is used to save copies of sent messages
11849 set MBOX=+mbox.mbox DEAD=+dead.txt \e
11850 record=+sent.mbox record-files record-resent
11852 # Make "file mymbox" and "file myrec" go to..
11853 shortcut mymbox %:+mbox.mbox myrec +sent.mbox
11855 # Not really optional, e.g., for S/MIME
11856 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
11858 # It may be necessary to set hostname and/or smtp-hostname
11859 # if the "SERVER" of mta and "domain" of from do not match.
11860 # The `urlencode' command can be used to encode USER and PASS
11861 set mta=(smtps?|submission)://[USER[:PASS]@]SERVER[:PORT] \e
11862 smtp-auth=login/plain... \e
11865 # Never refuse to start into interactive mode, and more
11867 colour-pager crt= \e
11868 followup-to followup-to-honour=ask-yes \e
11869 history-file=+.\*(uAhist history-size=-1 history-gabby \e
11870 mime-counter-evidence=0xE \e
11871 prompt='?\e?!\e![\e${account}#\e${mailbox-display}]? ' \e
11872 reply-to-honour=ask-yes \e
11875 # Only include the selected header fields when typing messages
11876 headerpick type retain from_ date from to cc subject \e
11877 message-id mail-followup-to reply-to
11878 # ...when forwarding messages
11879 headerpick forward retain subject date from to cc
11880 # ...when saving message, etc.
11881 #headerpick save ignore ^Original-.*$ ^X-.*$
11883 # Some mailing lists
11884 mlist '@xyz-editor\e.xyz$' '@xyzf\e.xyz$'
11885 mlsubscribe '^xfans@xfans\e.xyz$'
11887 # Handle a few file extensions (to store MBOX databases)
11888 filetype bz2 'bzip2 -dc' 'bzip2 -zc' \e
11889 gz 'gzip -dc' 'gzip -c' xz 'xz -dc' 'xz -zc' \e
11890 zst 'zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc' \e
11891 zst.pgp 'gpg -d | zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc | gpg -e'
11893 # A real life example of a very huge free mail provider
11894 # Instead of directly placing content inside `account',
11895 # we `define' a macro: like that we can switch "accounts"
11896 # from within *on-compose-splice*, for example!
11898 set folder=~/spool/XooglX inbox=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
11899 set from='Your Name <address@examp.ple>'
11900 set mta=smtp://USER:PASS@smtp.gmXil.com smtp-use-starttls
11906 # Here is a pretty large one which does not allow sending mails
11907 # if there is a domain name mismatch on the SMTP protocol level,
11908 # which would bite us if the value of from does not match, e.g.,
11909 # for people who have a sXXXXeforge project and want to speak
11910 # with the mailing list under their project account (in from),
11911 # still sending the message through their normal mail provider
11913 set folder=~/spool/XandeX inbox=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
11914 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
11915 set mta=smtps://USER:PASS@smtp.yaXXex.ru:465 \e
11916 hostname=yaXXex.com smtp-hostname=
11922 # Create some new commands so that, e.g., `ls /tmp' will..
11923 commandalias lls '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFlrS'
11924 commandalias llS '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFlS'
11926 # We do not support gpg(1) directly yet. But simple --clearsign'd
11927 # message parts can be dealt with as follows:
11930 wysh set pipe-text/plain=$'@*#++=@\e
11931 < "${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}" awk \e
11932 -v TMPFILE="${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}" \e'\e
11934 /^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----/,/^$/ {\e
11937 print "--- GPG --verify ---";\e
11938 system("gpg --verify " TMPFILE " 2>&1");\e
11939 print "--- GPG --verify ---";\e
11943 /^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----/,\e
11944 /^-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----/{\e
11951 commandalias V '\e'call V
11955 When storing passwords in
11957 appropriate permissions should be set on this file with
11958 .Ql $ chmod 0600 \*(ur .
11961 is available user credentials can be stored in the central
11963 file instead; e.g., here is a different version of the example account
11964 that sets up SMTP and POP3:
11966 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11968 set folder=~/spool/XandeX inbox=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
11969 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
11971 # Load an encrypted ~/.netrc by uncommenting the next line
11972 #set netrc-pipe='gpg -qd ~/.netrc.pgp'
11974 set mta=smtps://smtp.yXXXXx.ru:465 \e
11975 smtp-hostname= hostname=yXXXXx.com
11976 set pop3-keepalive=240 pop3-no-apop-pop.yXXXXx.ru
11977 commandalias xp fi pop3s://pop.yXXXXx.ru
11989 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11990 machine *.yXXXXx.ru login USER password PASS
11994 This configuration should now work just fine:
11997 .Dl $ echo text | \*(uA -dvv -AXandeX -s Subject user@exam.ple
12000 .\" .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME" {{{
12001 .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
12003 \*(OP S/MIME provides two central mechanisms:
12004 message signing and message encryption.
12005 A signed message contains some data in addition to the regular text.
12006 The data can be used to verify that the message was sent using a valid
12007 certificate, that the sender's address in the message header matches
12008 that in the certificate, and that the message text has not been altered.
12009 Signing a message does not change its regular text;
12010 it can be read regardless of whether the recipient's software is able to
12014 It is thus usually possible to sign all outgoing messages if so desired.
12015 Encryption, in contrast, makes the message text invisible for all people
12016 except those who have access to the secret decryption key.
12017 To encrypt a message, the specific recipient's public encryption key
12019 It is therefore not possible to send encrypted mail to people unless their
12020 key has been retrieved from either previous communication or public key
12022 A message should always be signed before it is encrypted.
12023 Otherwise, it is still possible that the encrypted message text is
12027 A central concept to S/MIME is that of the certification authority (CA).
12028 A CA is a trusted institution that issues certificates.
12029 For each of these certificates it can be verified that it really
12030 originates from the CA, provided that the CA's own certificate is
12032 A set of CA certificates is usually delivered with OpenSSL and installed
12034 If you trust the source of your OpenSSL software installation,
12035 this offers reasonable security for S/MIME on the Internet.
12037 .Va smime-ca-no-defaults
12038 to avoid using the default certificate and point
12042 to a trusted pool of certificates.
12043 In general, a certificate cannot be more secure than the method its CA
12044 certificate has been retrieved with.
12047 The first thing you need for participating in S/MIME message exchange is
12048 your personal certificate, including a private key.
12049 The certificate contains public information, in particular your name and
12050 your email address(es), and the public key that is used by others to
12051 encrypt messages for you,
12052 and to verify signed messages they supposedly received from you.
12053 The certificate is included in each signed message you send.
12054 The private key must be kept secret.
12055 It is used to decrypt messages that were previously encrypted with your
12056 public key, and to sign messages.
12059 For personal use it is recommended that you get a S/MIME certificate
12060 from one of the major CAs on the Internet using your WWW browser.
12061 Many CAs offer such certificates for free.
12063 .Lk https://www.CAcert.org
12064 which issues client and server certificates to members of their
12065 community for free; their root certificate
12066 .Pf ( Lk https://\:www.cacert.org/\:certs/\:root.crt )
12067 is often not in the default set of trusted CA root certificates, though,
12068 which means you will have to download their root certificate separately
12069 and ensure it is part of our S/MIME certificate validation chain by
12072 or as a vivid member of the
12073 .Va smime-ca-file .
12074 But let us take a step-by-step tour on how to setup S/MIME with
12075 a certificate from CAcert.org despite this situation!
12078 First of all you will have to become a member of the CAcert.org
12079 community, simply by registrating yourself via the web interface.
12080 Once you are, create and verify all email addresses you want to be able
12081 to create signed and encrypted messages for/with using the corresponding
12082 entries of the web interface.
12083 Now ready to create S/MIME certificates, so let us create a new
12084 .Dq client certificate ,
12085 ensure to include all email addresses that should be covered by the
12086 certificate in the following web form, and also to use your name as the
12090 Create a private key and a certificate request on your local computer
12091 (please see the manual pages of the used commands for more in-depth
12092 knowledge on what the used arguments etc. do):
12095 .Dl openssl req -nodes -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout key.pem -out creq.pem
12098 Afterwards copy-and-paste the content of
12100 into the certificate-request (CSR) field of the web form on the
12101 CAcert.org website (you may need to unfold some
12102 .Dq advanced options
12103 to see the corresponding text field).
12104 This last step will ensure that your private key (which never left your
12105 box) and the certificate belong together (through the public key that
12106 will find its way into the certificate via the certificate-request).
12107 You are now ready and can create your CAcert certified certificate.
12108 Download and store or copy-and-paste it as
12113 In order to use your new S/MIME setup a combined private key/public key
12114 (certificate) file has to be created:
12117 .Dl cat key.pem pub.crt > ME@HERE.com.paired
12120 This is the file \*(UA will work with.
12121 If you have created your private key with a passphrase then \*(UA will
12122 ask you for it whenever a message is signed or decrypted.
12123 Set the following variables to henceforth use S/MIME (setting
12125 is of interest for verification only):
12127 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12128 set smime-ca-file=ALL-TRUSTED-ROOT-CERTS-HERE \e
12129 smime-sign-cert=ME@HERE.com.paired \e
12130 smime-sign-message-digest=SHA256 \e
12135 From each signed message you send, the recipient can fetch your
12136 certificate and use it to send encrypted mail back to you.
12137 Accordingly if somebody sends you a signed message, you can do the same,
12140 command to check the validity of the certificate.
12143 Variables of interest for S/MIME signing:
12145 .Va smime-ca-file ,
12146 .Va smime-ca-flags ,
12147 .Va smime-ca-no-defaults ,
12148 .Va smime-crl-dir ,
12149 .Va smime-crl-file ,
12151 .Va smime-sign-cert ,
12152 .Va smime-sign-include-certs
12154 .Va smime-sign-message-digest .
12157 After it has been verified save the certificate via
12159 and tell \*(UA that it should use it for encryption for further
12160 communication with that somebody:
12162 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12164 set smime-encrypt-USER@HOST=FILENAME \e
12165 smime-cipher-USER@HOST=AES256
12169 Additional variables of interest for S/MIME en- and decryption:
12172 .Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST .
12175 You should carefully consider if you prefer to store encrypted messages
12177 If you do, anybody who has access to your mail folders can read them,
12178 but if you do not, you might be unable to read them yourself later if
12179 you happen to lose your private key.
12182 command saves messages in decrypted form, while the
12186 commands leave them encrypted.
12189 Note that neither S/MIME signing nor encryption applies to message
12190 subjects or other header fields yet.
12191 Thus they may not contain sensitive information for encrypted messages,
12192 and cannot be trusted even if the message content has been verified.
12193 When sending signed messages,
12194 it is recommended to repeat any important header information in the
12198 .\" .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or SSL/TLS" {{{
12199 .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or SSL/TLS"
12201 \*(OP Certification authorities (CAs) issue certificate revocation
12202 lists (CRLs) on a regular basis.
12203 These lists contain the serial numbers of certificates that have been
12204 declared invalid after they have been issued.
12205 Such usually happens because the private key for the certificate has
12207 because the owner of the certificate has left the organization that is
12208 mentioned in the certificate, etc.
12209 To seriously use S/MIME or SSL/TLS verification,
12210 an up-to-date CRL is required for each trusted CA.
12211 There is otherwise no method to distinguish between valid and
12212 invalidated certificates.
12213 \*(UA currently offers no mechanism to fetch CRLs, nor to access them on
12214 the Internet, so they have to be retrieved by some external mechanism.
12217 \*(UA accepts CRLs in PEM format only;
12218 CRLs in DER format must be converted, like, e.\|g.:
12221 .Dl $ openssl crl \-inform DER \-in crl.der \-out crl.pem
12224 To tell \*(UA about the CRLs, a directory that contains all CRL files
12225 (and no other files) must be created.
12230 variables, respectively, must then be set to point to that directory.
12231 After that, \*(UA requires a CRL to be present for each CA that is used
12232 to verify a certificate.
12235 .\" .Ss "Handling spam" {{{
12236 .Ss "Handling spam"
12238 \*(OP \*(UA can make use of several spam interfaces for the purpose of
12239 identification of, and, in general, dealing with spam messages.
12240 A precondition of most commands in order to function is that the
12242 variable is set to one of the supported interfaces.
12243 Once messages have been identified as spam their (volatile)
12245 state can be prompted: the
12249 message specifications will address respective messages and their
12251 entries will be used when displaying the
12253 in the header display.
12258 rates the given messages and sets their
12261 If the spam interface offers spam scores those can also be displayed in
12262 the header display by including the
12272 will interact with the Bayesian filter of the chosen interface and learn
12273 the given messages as
12277 respectively; the last command can be used to cause
12279 of messages; it adheres to their current
12281 state and thus reverts previous teachings.
12286 will simply set and clear, respectively, the mentioned volatile
12288 message flag, without any interface interaction.
12297 requires a running instance of the
12299 server in order to function, started with the option
12301 shall Bayesian filter learning be possible.
12303 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12304 $ spamd -i localhost:2142 -i /tmp/.spamsock -d [-L] [-l]
12305 $ spamd --listen=localhost:2142 --listen=/tmp/.spamsock \e
12306 --daemonize [--local] [--allow-tell]
12310 Thereafter \*(UA can make use of these interfaces:
12312 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12313 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=spamc -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
12314 -Sspamc-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \e
12315 -Sspamc-arguments="-U /tmp/.spamsock" -Sspamc-user=
12317 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=spamc -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
12318 -Sspamc-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \e
12319 -Sspamc-arguments="-d localhost -p 2142" -Sspamc-user=
12323 Using the generic filter approach allows usage of programs like
12325 Here is an example, requiring it to be accessible via
12328 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12329 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=filter -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
12330 -Sspamfilter-ham="bogofilter -n" \e
12331 -Sspamfilter-noham="bogofilter -N" \e
12332 -Sspamfilter-nospam="bogofilter -S" \e
12333 -Sspamfilter-rate="bogofilter -TTu 2>/dev/null" \e
12334 -Sspamfilter-spam="bogofilter -s" \e
12335 -Sspamfilter-rate-scanscore="1;^(.+)$"
12339 Because messages must exist on local storage in order to be scored (or
12340 used for Bayesian filter training), it is possibly a good idea to
12341 perform the local spam check last:
12343 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12344 define spamdelhook {
12346 spamset (header x-dcc-brand-metrics "bulk")
12347 # Server-side spamassassin(1)
12348 spamset (header x-spam-flag "YES")
12349 del :s # TODO we HAVE to be able to do `spamrate :u ! :sS'
12350 move :S +maybe-spam
12353 move :S +maybe-spam
12355 set folder-hook-FOLDER=spamdelhook
12359 See also the documentation for the variables
12360 .Va spam-interface , spam-maxsize ,
12361 .Va spamc-command , spamc-arguments , spamc-user ,
12362 .Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , spamfilter-nospam , \
12365 .Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore .
12373 In general it is a good idea to turn on
12379 twice) if something does not work well.
12380 Very often a diagnostic message can be produced that leads to the
12381 problems' solution.
12383 .\" .Ss "\*(UA shortly hangs on startup" {{{
12384 .Ss "\*(UA shortly hangs on startup"
12386 This can have two reasons, one is the necessity to wait for a file lock
12387 and cannot be helped, the other being that \*(UA calls the function
12389 in order to query the nodename of the box (sometimes the real one is
12390 needed instead of the one represented by the internal variable
12392 One may have varying success by ensuring that the real hostname and
12396 or, more generally, that the name service is properly setup \(en
12399 return the expected value?
12400 Does this local hostname has a domain suffix?
12401 RFC 6762 standardized the link-local top-level domain
12403 try again after adding an (additional) entry with this extension.
12406 .\" .Ss "\*(UA exits quick, and output is cleared away" {{{
12407 .Ss "\*(UA exits quick, and output is cleared away"
12409 When this happens even with
12411 set, then this most likely indicates a problem with the creation of
12412 so-called dotlock files: setting
12413 .Va dotlock-ignore-error
12414 should overcome this situation.
12415 This only avoids symptoms, it does not address the problem, though.
12416 Since the output is cleared away \*(UA has support for
12417 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" ,
12418 and switches to the
12420 which causes the output clearance: by doing
12421 .Ql set termcap='smcup='
12422 this mode can be suppressed, and by setting
12424 (twice) the actual problem should be reported.
12427 .\" .Ss "I cannot login to Google mail aka GMail" {{{
12428 .Ss "I cannot login to Google mail aka GMail"
12430 Since 2014 some free service providers classify programs as
12432 unless they use a special authentification method (OAuth 2.0) which
12433 was not standardized for non-HTTP protocol authentication token query
12434 until August 2015 (RFC 7628).
12437 Different to Kerberos / GSSAPI, which is developed since the mid of the
12438 1980s, where a user can easily create a local authentication ticket for
12439 her- and himself with the locally installed
12441 program, that protocol has no such local part but instead requires
12442 a world-wide-web query to create or fetch a token; since there is no
12443 local cache this query would have to be performed whenever \*(UA is
12444 invoked (in interactive sessions situation may differ).
12447 \*(UA does not support OAuth.
12448 Because of this it is necessary to declare \*(UA a
12449 .Dq less secure app
12450 (on the providers account web page) in order to read and send mail.
12451 However, it also seems possible to take the following steps instead:
12456 give the provider the number of a mobile phone,
12459 .Dq 2-Step Verification ,
12461 create an application specific password (16 characters), and
12463 use that special password instead of the real Google account password in
12464 \*(UA (for more on that see the section
12465 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
12469 .\" .Ss "Not \(dqdefunctional\(dq, but the editor key does not work" {{{
12470 .Ss "Not \(dqdefunctional\(dq, but the editor key does not work"
12472 It can happen that the terminal library (see
12473 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor",
12476 reports different codes than the terminal really sends, in which case
12477 \*(UA will tell that a key binding is functional, but will not be able to
12478 recognize it because the received data does not match anything expected.
12483 ings will show the byte sequences that are expected.
12486 To overcome the situation, use, e.g., the program
12488 in conjunction with the command line option
12490 if available, to see the byte sequences which are actually produced
12491 by keypresses, and use the variable
12493 to make \*(UA aware of them.
12494 E.g., the terminal this is typed on produces some false sequences, here
12495 an example showing the shifted home key:
12497 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12500 # 1B 5B=[ 31=1 3B=; 32=2 48=H
12505 ? \*(uA -v -Stermcap='kHOM=\eE[H'
12514 .\" .Sh "SEE ALSO" {{{
12524 .Xr spamassassin 1 ,
12533 .Xr mailwrapper 8 ,
12538 .\" .Sh HISTORY {{{
12541 M. Douglas McIlroy writes in his article
12542 .Dq A Research UNIX Reader: Annotated Excerpts \
12543 from the Programmer's Manual, 1971-1986
12546 command already appeared in First Edition
12550 .Bd -ragged -offset indent
12551 Electronic mail was there from the start.
12552 Never satisfied with its exact behavior, everybody touched it at one
12553 time or another: to assure the safety of simultaneous access, to improve
12554 privacy, to survive crashes, to exploit uucp, to screen out foreign
12555 freeloaders, or whatever.
12556 Not until v7 did the interface change (Thompson).
12557 Later, as mail became global in its reach, Dave Presotto took charge and
12558 brought order to communications with a grab-bag of external networks
12564 Mail was written in 1978 by Kurt Shoens and developed as part of the
12567 distribution until 1995.
12568 Mail has then seen further development in open source
12570 variants, noticeably by Christos Zoulas in
12572 Based upon this Nail, later Heirloom Mailx, was developed by Gunnar
12573 Ritter in the years 2000 until 2008.
12574 Since 2012 S-nail is maintained by Steffen (Daode) Nurpmeso.
12575 This man page is derived from
12576 .Dq The Mail Reference Manual
12577 that was originally written by Kurt Shoens.
12583 .An "Kurt Shoens" ,
12584 .An "Edward Wang" ,
12585 .An "Keith Bostic" ,
12586 .An "Christos Zoulas" ,
12587 .An "Gunnar Ritter" ,
12588 .An "Steffen Nurpmeso" .
12595 provide contact addresses:
12597 .\" v15-compat: drop eval as `mail' will expand variable?
12598 .Dl ? echo $contact-web; eval mail $contact-mail
12601 .\" .Sh CAVEATS {{{
12604 \*(ID Interrupting an operation via
12608 from anywhere else but a command prompt is very problematic and likely
12609 to leave the program in an undefined state: many library functions
12610 cannot deal with the
12612 that this software (still) performs; even though efforts have been taken
12613 to address this, no sooner but in v15 it will have been worked out:
12614 interruptions have not been disabled in order to allow forceful breakage
12615 of hanging network connections, for example (all this is unrelated to
12619 The SMTP and POP3 protocol support of \*(UA is very basic.
12620 Also, if it fails to contact its upstream SMTP server, it will not make
12621 further attempts to transfer the message at a later time (setting
12626 If this is a concern, it might be better to set up a local SMTP server
12627 that is capable of message queuing.
12633 After deleting some message of a POP3 mailbox the header summary falsely
12634 claims that there are no messages to display, one needs to perform
12635 a scroll or dot movement to restore proper state.
12637 In threaded display a power user may encounter crashes very
12638 occasionally (this is may and very).
12642 in the source repository lists future directions.