1 .\"@ nail.1 - S-nail(1) reference manual.
3 .\" Copyright (c) 2000-2008 Gunnar Ritter, Freiburg i. Br., Germany.
4 .\" Copyright (c) 2012 - 2016 Steffen (Daode) Nurpmeso <steffen@sdaoden.eu>.
6 .\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990, 1993
7 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
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34 .\" S-nail(1): v14.9.0-pre1 / 2016-09-15
36 .ds VV \\%v14.9.0-pre1
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 Fl a Ar attachment
81 .Op Fl M Ar type | Fl m Ar file | Fl q Ar file | Fl t
83 .Op Fl S Ar var Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value
88 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns Ar mta-option ...
97 .Op Fl S Ar var Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value
100 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns Ar mta-option ...
108 .Op Fl L Ar spec-list
109 .Op Fl r Ar from-addr
110 .Op Fl S Ar var Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value
113 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns Ar mta-option ...
118 .Mx -toc -tree html pdf ps xhtml
121 .\" .Sh DESCRIPTION {{{
124 .Bd -filled -compact -offset indent
125 .Sy Compatibility note:
126 S-nail (\*(UA) will wrap up into \%S-mailx in v15.0 (circa 2018).
127 Backward incompatibility has to be expected \(en
131 -style argument quoting rules, for example.
132 New and old behaviour is flagged \*(IN and \*(OU, and setting
135 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
136 will choose new behaviour when applicable.
137 \*(OB flags what will vanish, and enabling
141 enables obsoletion warnings.
145 \*(UA is a mail processing system with a command syntax reminiscent of
147 with lines replaced by messages.
148 It is intended to provide the functionality of the POSIX
150 command, but is MIME capable and optionally offers extensions for
151 line editing, S/MIME, SMTP and POP3 among others.
152 It is usable as a mail batch language.
154 .\" .Ss "Options" {{{
157 .Bl -tag -width ".Fl _ Ar _ddr"
160 Explicitly control which of the
162 shall be loaded: if the letter
164 is (case-insensitively) part of the
168 is loaded, likewise the letter
170 controls loading of the user's personal
172 file, whereas the letters
176 explicitly forbid loading of any resource files.
177 This option should be used by scripts: to avoid environmental noise they
180 from any configuration files and create a script-local environment,
181 explicitly setting any of the desired
182 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
185 This option overrides
192 command for the given user email
194 after program startup is complete.
195 Being a special incarnation of
197 macros for the purpose of bundling longer-lived settings, activating
198 such an email account also switches to the accounts
204 Attach the given file to the message.
205 The same filename conventions as described in the section
207 apply: shell word expansion is restricted to the tilde
211 not be accessible but contain a
213 character, then anything after the
215 is assumed to specify the input character set and anything before
217 the filename: this is the only option to specify the input character set
218 (and don't perform any character set conversion) for text attachments
219 from the command line, not using the
221 tilde escape command.
225 Make standard input and standard output line-buffered.
229 Send a blind carbon copy to
232 May be used multiple times.
234 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
238 Send carbon copies to the given receiver.
239 May be used multiple times.
244 the internal variable
246 which enables debug messages and disables message delivery,
247 among others; effectively turns almost any operation into a dry-run.
253 and thus discard messages with an empty message part body.
254 This is useful for sending messages from scripts.
258 Just check if mail is present (in the specified or system
260 box): if yes, return an exit status of zero, a non-zero value otherwise.
261 To restrict the set of mails to consider in this evaluation a message
262 specification can be added with the option
267 Save the message to send in a file named after the local part of the
268 first recipient's address (instead of in
273 Read in the contents of the user's
275 (or the specified file) for processing;
276 when \*(UA is quit, it writes undeleted messages back to this file
280 Some special conventions are recognized for the optional
282 argument which are documented for the
287 is not a argument to the flag
289 but is instead taken from the command line after option processing has
293 that starts with a hyphen, prefix it with a (relative) path, as in
294 .Ql ./-hyphenbox.mbox .
298 Display a summary of the
300 of all messages in the specified or system
303 A configurable summary view is available via the
309 Show a short usage summary.
310 Because of widespread use a
312 argument will have the same effect.
318 to ignore tty interrupt signals.
321 .It Fl L Ar spec-list
322 Display a summary of all
324 of only those messages in the specified or system
326 box that match the given
330 .Sx "Specifying messages"
337 option has been given in addition no header summary is produced,
338 but \*(UA will instead indicate via its exit status whether
344 note that any verbose output is suppressed in this mode and must instead
345 be enabled explicitly (e.g., by using the option
350 Special send mode that will flag standard input with the MIME
354 and use it as the main message body.
355 \*(ID Using this option will bypass processing of
356 .Va message-inject-head ,
359 .Va message-inject-tail .
365 Special send mode that will MIME classify the specified
367 and use it as the main message body.
368 \*(ID Using this option will bypass processing of
369 .Va message-inject-head ,
372 .Va message-inject-tail .
380 and thus inhibit initial display of message headers when reading mail or
381 editing a mail folder.
385 Standard flag that inhibits reading the system wide
390 allows more control over the startup sequence; also see
391 .Sx "Resource files" .
395 Special send mode that will initialize the message body with the
396 contents of the specified
398 which may be standard input
400 only in non-interactive context.
406 Any folder opened will be in read-only mode.
409 .It Fl r Ar from-addr
412 is a valid address then it specifies the envelope sender address to be
413 passed to a file-based
415 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) as
417 when a message is send.
420 include a user name, then the address components will be separated and
421 the name part will be passed to file-based
427 will also be assigned to the
430 .Ql -Sfrom=from-addr ) ,
431 therefore affecting possible SMTP
433 data transfer; note this assignment does not cause value fixation.
435 If instead an empty string is passed as
437 then the content of the variable
439 will be evaluated and used for this purpose whenever the
442 Note that \*(UA by default, without
444 that is, neither passes
448 flags to a file-based MTA by itself.
451 .It Fl S Ar var Ns Op = Ns value
455 iable and, in case of a non-boolean variable which has a value, assign
459 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
463 may be overwritten from within resource files,
464 the command line setting will be reestablished after all resource files
469 Specify the subject of the to-be-sent message.
473 The message given (on standard input) is expected to contain, separated
474 from the message body by an empty line, a message header with
479 fields giving its recipients, which will be added to any recipients
480 specified on the command line.
481 If a message subject is specified via
483 then it'll be used in favour of one given on the command line.
499 .Ql Mail-Followup-To: ,
500 by default created automatically dependent on message context, will
501 be used if specified (a special address massage will however still occur
503 Any other (even custom) header field is passed through entirely
504 unchanged, and in conjunction with the option
506 it is even possible to embed
513 Initially read the primary system mailbox of
515 appropriate privileges presumed; effectively identical to
525 will also show the list of
531 ting the internal variable
533 enables display of some informational context messages.
534 Using it twice increases the level of verbosity.
538 Add the given (or multiple for a multiline argument)
540 to the list of commands to be executed (as a unit, just as via
542 before normal operation starts.
546 .Va batch-exit-on-error ;
547 the only possibility to execute commands in non-interactive mode when
548 reading startup files is actively prohibited.
554 even if not in interactive mode.
555 This can be used to, e.g., automatically format the composed message
556 text before sending the message:
557 .Bd -literal -offset indent
558 $ ( echo 'line one. Word. Word2.'; \e
559 echo '~| /usr/bin/fmt -tuw66' ) |\e
560 LC_ALL=C \*(uA -:/ -Sttycharset=UTF-8 -d~ bob@exam.ple
566 In batch mode the full set of commands is available, just like in
567 interactive mode, and diverse variable settings and internal states are
568 adjusted for batch necessities, e.g., it
584 is enabled in compose mode.
585 The following prepares an email message in a batched dry run:
586 .Bd -literal -offset indent
587 $ LC_ALL=C printf 'm bob\en~s ubject\enText\en~.\enx\en' | \e
588 LC_ALL=C \*(uA -:/ -d# -X'alias bob bob@exam.ple'
593 This flag forces termination of option processing in order to prevent
596 It also forcefully puts \*(UA into send mode, see
597 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
601 In the above list of supported command line options,
605 are implemented by means of
607 ting the respective option, as via
610 .Op Ar mta-option ...
612 arguments that are given at the end of the command line after a
614 separator will be passed through to a file-based
616 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) and persist for an entire (interactive) session
617 \(en if the setting of
619 allows their recognition; no such constraints apply to the variable
623 .\" .Ss "A starter" {{{
626 \*(UA is a direct descendant of
628 Mail, a successor of the Research
631 .Dq was there from the start
636 Mail reference manual begins with the following words:
638 .Bd -ragged -offset indent
639 Mail provides a simple and friendly environment for sending and
641 It divides incoming mail into its constituent messages and allows the
642 user to deal with them in any order.
643 In addition, it provides a set of
645 -like commands for manipulating messages and sending mail.
646 Mail offers the user simple editing capabilities to ease the composition
647 of outgoing messages, as well as providing the ability to define and
648 send to names which address groups of users.
652 \*(UA is thus the user side of the
654 mail system, whereas the system side (Mail-Transfer-Agent, MTA) was
655 traditionally taken by
657 and most MTAs provide a binary of this name for compatibility purposes.
662 of \*(UA then the system side is not a mandatory precondition for mail
666 Because \*(UA strives for compliance with POSIX
668 it is likely that some configuration settings have to be adjusted before
669 using it is a smooth experience.
672 file already bends those standard imposed settings a bit towards more
673 user friendliness and safety, e.g., it
675 s the internal variables
679 in order to suppress the automatic moving of messages to
681 that would otherwise occur (see
682 .Sx "Message states" )
685 to not remove empty files in order not to mangle file permissions when
686 files eventually get recreated (\*(UA actively manages the file mode
689 upon program startup).
693 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
694 isn't set by default so that file grouping (via the
696 prefix as documented for
698 is not functional by default.
701 contains some suggestions.
704 .\" .Ss "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" {{{
705 .Ss "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode"
707 To send a message to one or more people, using a local or a builtin
709 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) transport to actually deliver the generated mail
710 message, \*(UA can be invoked with arguments which are the names of
711 people to whom the mail will be sent, and the command line options
715 can be used to add (blind) carbon copy receivers:
717 .Bd -literal -offset indent
718 $ \*(uA -s ubject -a ttach.txt bill@exam.ple
719 # But... try it in an isolated dry-run mode first
720 $ LC_ALL=C \*(uA -:/ -d -vv -Ssendwait \e
721 -b bcc@exam.ple -c cc@exam.ple -. \e
722 '(Lovely) Bob <bob@exam.ple>' eric@exam.ple
724 $ LC_ALL=C \*(uA -:/ -d -vv -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait \e
725 -S 'mta=smtps://mylogin@exam.ple:465' -Ssmtp-auth=login \e
726 -S 'from=scriptreply@exam.ple' \e
732 If standard input is a terminal rather than the message to be sent,
733 the user is expected to type in the message contents.
734 In this compose mode \*(UA treats lines beginning with the character
736 special \(en these are so-called
738 which can be used to read in files, process shell commands, add and edit
739 attachments and more; e.g., the tilde escape
741 will start the text editor to revise the message in it's current state,
743 allows editing of the most important message headers and
745 gives an overview of available tilde escapes.
749 at the beginning of an empty line leaves compose mode and causes the
750 message to be sent, whereas typing
753 twice will abort the current letter (saving its contents in the file
759 Messages are sent asynchronously, without supervision, unless the variable
761 is set, therefore send errors are not recognizable until then.
767 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
768 can be used to alter default behavior; e.g.,
773 will automatically startup a text editor when compose mode is entered,
775 will cause the user to be prompted actively for carbon-copy recipients
778 option will allow leaving compose mode by writing a line consisting
784 hook macros may be set to automatically adjust some settings dependent
785 on receiver, sender or subject contexts.
788 Especially for using public mail provider accounts with the SMTP
790 it is often necessary to set
792 and saving a copy of sent messages in a
794 may be desirable \(en as for most mailbox file targets some special
795 syntax conventions are recognized (see the
797 command for more on that).
800 for the purpose of arranging a complete environment of settings that can
801 be switched to with a single command or command line option may be
804 contains example configurations for sending messages via some of the
805 well-known public mail providers and also gives a compact overview on
806 how to setup a secure SSL/TLS environment).
811 sandbox dry-run tests first will prove correctness.
815 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
816 will spread light on the different ways of how to specify user email
817 account credentials, the
819 variable chains, and accessing protocol-specific resources,
822 goes into the details of character encoding and how to use them for
823 representing messages and MIME part contents by specifying them in
825 and reading the section
826 .Sx "The mime.types files"
827 should help to understand how the MIME-type of outgoing attachments are
828 classified, and what can be done for fine-tuning.
831 Message recipients (as specified on the command line or defined in
836 may not only be email addressees but can also be names of mailboxes and
837 even complete shell command pipe specifications.
840 is not set then only network addresses (see
842 for a description of mail addresses) and plain user names (including MTA
843 aliases) may be used, other types will be filtered out, giving a warning
846 .\" When changing any of the following adjust any RECIPIENTADDRSPEC;
847 .\" grep the latter for the complete picture
851 is set then extended recipient addresses will optionally be accepted:
852 Any name which starts with a vertical bar
854 character specifies a command pipe \(en the command string following the
856 is executed and the message is sent to its standard input;
857 Likewise, any name that starts with the character solidus
859 or the character sequence dot solidus
861 is treated as a file, regardless of the remaining content.
862 Any other name which contains an at sign
864 character is treated as a network address;
865 Any other name which starts with a plus sign
867 character specifies a mailbox name;
868 Any other name which contains a solidus
870 character but no exclamation mark
874 character before also specifies a mailbox name;
875 What remains is treated as a network address.
877 .Bd -literal -offset indent
878 $ echo bla | \*(uA -Sexpandaddr -s test ./mbox.mbox
879 $ echo bla | \*(uA -Sexpandaddr -s test '|cat >> ./mbox.mbox'
880 $ echo safe | LC_ALL=C \e
881 \*(uA -:/ -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Snosave \e
882 -Sexpandaddr=fail,-all,+addr -s test \e
887 It is possible to create personal distribution lists via the
889 command, so that, for instance, the user can send mail to
891 and have it go to a group of people.
892 These aliases have nothing in common with the system wide aliases that
893 may be used by the MTA, which are subject to the
897 and are often tracked in a file
903 Personal aliases will be expanded by \*(UA before the message is sent,
904 and are thus a convenient alternative to specifying each addressee by
908 .Dl alias cohorts bill jkf mark kridle@ucbcory ~/mail/cohorts.mbox
911 To avoid environmental noise scripts should
913 \*(UA from any configuration files and create a script-local
914 environment, ideally with the command line options
916 to disable any configuration file in conjunction with repetitions of
918 to specify variables:
920 .Bd -literal -offset indent
921 $ env LC_ALL=C \*(uA -:/ \e
922 -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Snosave -Sttycharset=utf-8 \e
923 -Sexpandaddr=fail,-all,+addr \e
924 -S 'mta=smtps://mylogin@exam.ple:465' -Ssmtp-auth=login \e
925 -S 'from=scriptreply@exam.ple' \e
926 -s 'subject' -a attachment_file \e
927 -. "Recipient 1 <rec1@exam.ple>" rec2@exam.ple \e
932 As shown, scripts can
934 a locale environment, the above specifies the all-compatible 7-bit clean
937 but will nonetheless take and send UTF-8 in the message text by using
939 In interactive mode, which is introduced in the next section, messages
940 can be sent by calling the
942 command with a list of recipient addresses \(em the semantics are
943 completely identical to non-interactive message sending:
945 .Bd -literal -offset indent
946 $ \*(uA -d -Squiet -Semptystart
947 "/var/spool/mail/user": 0 messages
948 ? mail "Recipient 1 <rec1@exam.ple>", rec2@exam.ple
949 ? # Will do the right thing (tm)
950 ? m rec1@exam.ple rec2@exam.ple
954 .\" .Ss "On reading mail, and interactive mode" {{{
955 .Ss "On reading mail, and interactive mode"
957 When invoked without addressees \*(UA enters interactive mode in which
959 When used like that the user's system
963 for an in-depth description of the different mailbox types that exist)
964 is read in and a one line header of each message therein is displayed.
965 The visual style of this summary of
967 can be adjusted through the variable
969 and the possible sorting criterion via
971 If the initially opened mailbox is empty \*(UA will instead exit
972 immediately (after displaying a message) unless the variable
981 will give a listing of all available commands and
983 will give a summary of some common ones.
984 If the \*(OPal documentation strings are available one can type
986 and see the actual expansion of
988 and what it's purpose is, i.e., commands can be abbreviated
989 (note that POSIX defines some abbreviations, so that the alphabetical
990 order of commands doesn't necessarily relate to the abbreviations; it is
991 possible to define overwrites with the
996 Messages are given numbers (starting at 1) which uniquely identify
997 messages; the current message \(en the
999 \(en will either be the first new message, or the first unread message,
1000 or the first message of the mailbox; the option
1002 will instead cause usage of the last message for this purpose.
1007 ful of header summaries containing the
1011 will display only the summaries of the given messages, defaulting to the
1015 Message content can be displayed on the users' terminal with the
1019 If instead the command
1021 is used, only the first
1023 of a message will be shown.
1024 By default the current message
1026 is displayed, but like with many other commands it is possible to give
1027 a fancy message specification (see
1028 .Sx "Specifying messages" ) ,
1031 will display all unread messages,
1036 will type the messages 1 and 5,
1038 will type the messages 1 through 5, and
1042 will display the last and the next message, respectively.
1045 (a more substantial alias of the standard command
1047 will display a header summary of the given message specification list
1048 instead of their content, e.g., the following will search for subjects:
1051 .Dl from "'@Some subject to search for'"
1054 In the default setup all header fields of a message will be
1056 d, but this can be changed: either by blacklisting a list of fields via
1058 or by whitelisting only a given list with the
1061 .Ql Ic \:retain Ns \0from_ date from to cc subject .
1062 In order to display all header fields of a message regardless of
1063 currently active ignore or retain lists, use the commands
1069 controls whether and when \*(UA will use the configured
1071 for display instead of directly writing to the user terminal
1073 (generally speaking).
1074 Note that historically the global
1076 not only adjusts the list of displayed headers, but also sets
1080 Dependent upon the configuration a line editor (see the section
1081 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
1082 aims at making user experience with the many
1085 When reading the system
1091 specified a mailbox explicitly prefixed with the special
1093 modifier (propagating the mailbox to a primary one) then messages which
1094 have been read will be moved to a secondary mailbox, the user's
1096 file, automatically when the mailbox is left, either by changing the
1097 active mailbox or by quitting \*(UA (also see
1098 .Sx "Message states" )
1099 \(en this automatic moving from a system or primary to the secondary
1100 mailbox is not performed when the variable
1105 After examining a message the user can also
1109 to the sender and all recipients or
1111 exclusively to the sender(s).
1112 Messages can also be
1114 ed (shorter alias is
1116 Note that when replying to or forwarding a message recipient addresses
1117 will be stripped from comments and names unless the option
1120 Deletion causes \*(UA to forget about the message;
1121 This is not irreversible, though, one can
1123 the message by giving its number,
1124 or the \*(UA session can be ended by giving the
1129 To end a mail processing session one may either issue
1131 to cause a full program exit, which possibly includes
1132 automatic moving of read messages to
1134 as well as updating the \*(OPal line editor
1138 instead in order to prevent any of these actions.
1141 .\" .Ss "HTML mail and MIME attachments" {{{
1142 .Ss "HTML mail and MIME attachments"
1144 Messages which are HTML-only get more and more common and of course many
1145 messages come bundled with a bouquet of MIME attachments.
1146 Whereas \*(UA \*(OPally supports a simple HTML-to-text converter to deal
1147 with HTML messages (see
1148 .Sx "The mime.types files" ) ,
1149 it normally can't deal with any of these itself, but instead programs
1150 need to become registered to deal with specific MIME types or file
1152 These programs may either prepare plain text versions of their input
1153 in order to enable \*(UA to display the content on the terminal,
1154 or display the content themselves, for example in a graphical window.
1157 To install an external handler program for a specific MIME type set an
1159 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
1160 variable; to instead define a handler for a specific file extension set
1163 variable \(en these handlers take precedence.
1164 \*(OPally \*(UA supports mail user agent configuration as defined in
1165 RFC 1524; this mechanism, documented in the section
1166 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
1167 will be queried for display or quote handlers if none of the former two
1168 .\" TODO v15-compat "will be" -> "is"
1169 did; it will be the sole source for handlers of other purpose.
1170 A last source for handlers may be the MIME type definition itself, if
1171 the \*(UA specific type-marker extension was used when defining the type
1174 (Many of the builtin MIME types do so by default.)
1178 .Va mime-counter-evidence
1179 can be set to improve dealing with faulty MIME part declarations as are
1180 often seen in real-life messages.
1181 E.g., to display a HTML message inline (that is, converted to a more
1182 fancy plain text representation than the builtin converter is capable to
1183 produce) with either of the text-mode browsers
1187 teach \*(UA about MathML documents and make it display them as plain
1188 text, and to open PDF attachments in an external PDF viewer,
1189 asynchronously and with some other magic attached:
1191 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1192 if $features !@ +filter-html-tagsoup
1193 #set pipe-text/html='elinks -force-html -dump 1'
1194 set pipe-text/html='lynx -stdin -dump -force_html'
1195 # Display HTML as plain text instead
1196 #set pipe-text/html=@
1198 mimetype '@ application/mathml+xml mathml'
1199 wysh set pipe-application/pdf='@&=@ \e
1200 trap "rm -f \e"${NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}\e"" EXIT;\e
1201 trap "trap \e"\e" INT QUIT TERM; exit 1" INT QUIT TERM;\e
1202 mupdf "${NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}"'
1206 Note: special care must be taken when using such commands as mail
1207 viruses may be distributed by this method: if messages of type
1208 .Ql application/x-sh
1209 or files with the extension
1211 were blindly filtered through the shell, for example, a message sender
1212 could easily execute arbitrary code on the system \*(UA is running on.
1213 For more on MIME, also in respect to sending of messages, see the
1215 .Sx "The mime.types files" ,
1216 .Sx "The Mailcap files"
1221 .\" .Ss "Mailing lists" {{{
1224 \*(UA offers some support to ease handling of mailing lists.
1227 promotes all given arguments to known mailing lists, and
1229 sets their subscription attribute, creating them first as necessary.
1234 automatically, but only resets the subscription attribute.)
1235 Using the commands without arguments will show (a subset of) all
1236 currently defined mailing lists.
1241 can be used to mark out messages with configured list addresses
1242 in the header display.
1245 \*(OPally mailing lists may also be specified as (extended) regular
1246 expressions, which allows matching of many addresses with a single
1248 However, all fully qualified list addresses are matched via a fast
1249 dictionary, whereas expressions are placed in (a) list(s) which is
1250 (are) matched sequentially.
1252 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1253 set followup-to followup-to-honour=ask-yes reply-to-honour=ask-yes
1254 wysh mlist a1@b1.c1 a2@b2.c2 '.*@lists\e.c3$'
1255 mlsubscribe a4@b4.c4 exact@lists.c3
1260 .Va followup-to-honour
1262 .Ql Mail-\:Followup-\:To:
1263 header is honoured when the message is being replied to (via
1269 controls whether this header is created when sending mails; it will be
1270 created automatically for a couple of reasons, too, like when the
1272 .Dq mailing list specific
1277 is used to respond to a message with its
1278 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
1282 A difference in between the handling of known and subscribed lists is
1283 that the address of the sender is usually not part of a generated
1284 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
1285 when addressing the latter, whereas it is for the former kind of lists.
1286 Usually because there are exceptions: say, if multiple lists are
1287 addressed and not all of them are subscribed lists.
1289 For convenience \*(UA will, temporarily, automatically add a list
1290 address that is presented in the
1292 header of a message that is being responded to to the list of known
1294 Shall that header have existed \*(UA will instead, dependent on the
1296 .Va reply-to-honour ,
1299 for this purpose in order to accept a list administrators' wish that
1300 is supposed to have been manifested like that (but only if it provides
1301 a single address which resides on the same domain as what is stated in
1305 .\" .Ss "Resource files" {{{
1306 .Ss "Resource files"
1308 Upon startup \*(UA reads in several resource files:
1310 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa _AIL_EXTRA_R_"
1313 System wide initialization file.
1314 Reading of this file can be suppressed, either by using the
1318 command line options, or by setting the
1321 .Ev NAIL_NO_SYSTEM_RC .
1325 File giving initial commands.
1326 A different file can be chosen by setting the
1330 Reading of this file can be suppressed with the
1332 command line option.
1334 .It Va NAIL_EXTRA_RC
1335 Can be used to define an optional startup file to be read after all
1336 other resource files.
1337 It can be used to specify settings that are not understood by other
1339 implementations, for example.
1340 This variable is only honoured when defined in a resource file, e.g.,
1342 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" .
1346 The content of these files is interpreted as follows:
1349 .Bl -bullet -compact
1351 A lines' leading whitespace is removed.
1353 Empty lines are ignored.
1355 Any other line is interpreted as a command.
1356 It may be spread over multiple input lines if the newline character is
1358 by placing a reverse solidus character
1360 as the last character of the line; whereas any leading whitespace of
1361 follow lines is ignored, trailing whitespace before a escaped newline
1362 remains in the input.
1364 If the line (content) starts with the number sign
1366 then it is a comment-command \(en a real command! \(en and also ignored.
1367 This command is the only form of comment that is understood.
1371 Unless \*(UA is about to enter interactive mode syntax errors that occur
1372 while loading these files are treated as errors and cause program exit.
1373 More files with syntactically equal content can be
1375 The following, saved in a file, would be an examplary content:
1377 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1378 # This line is a comment command. And y\e
1379 es, it is really continued here.
1386 .\" .Ss "Character sets" {{{
1387 .Ss "Character sets"
1389 \*(OP \*(UA detects the character set of the terminal by using
1390 mechanisms that are controlled by the
1395 should give an overview); the \*(UA internal variable
1397 will be set to the detected terminal character set accordingly
1398 and will thus show up in the output of the commands
1404 However, a user supplied
1406 value is not overwritten by this detection mechanism: this
1408 must be used if the detection doesn't work properly,
1409 and it may be used to adjust the name of the locale character set.
1410 E.g., on BSD systems one may use a locale with the character set
1411 ISO8859-1, which is not a valid name for this character set; to be on
1412 the safe side, one may set
1414 to the correct name, which is ISO-8859-1.
1417 Note that changing the value doesn't mean much beside that,
1418 since several aspects of the real character set are implied by the
1419 locale environment of the system,
1420 and that stays unaffected by the content of an overwritten
1423 (This is mostly an issue when interactively using \*(UA, though.
1424 It is actually possible to send mail in a completely
1426 locale environment, an option that \*(UA's test-suite uses excessively.)
1429 If no character set conversion capabilities have been compiled into
1432 doesn't include the term
1436 will be the only supported character set,
1437 it is simply assumed that it can be used to exchange 8-bit messages,
1438 and the rest of this section does not apply;
1439 it may however still be necessary to explicitly set it if automatic
1440 detection fails, since in that case it defaults to the mentioned
1441 .\" (Keep in SYNC: ./nail.1:"Character sets", ./nail.h:CHARSET_*!)
1445 When reading messages, their text is converted into
1447 as necessary in order to display them on the users terminal.
1448 Unprintable characters and invalid byte sequences are detected
1449 and replaced by proper substitution characters (unless the variable
1451 was set once \*(UA was started).
1453 .Va charset-unknown-8bit
1454 to deal with another hairy aspect of message interpretation.
1457 When sending messages all their parts and attachments are classified.
1458 Whereas no character set conversion is performed on those parts which
1459 appear to be binary data,
1460 the character set being used must be declared within the MIME header of
1461 an outgoing text part if it contains characters that do not conform to
1462 the set of characters that are allowed by the email standards.
1463 Permissible values for character sets can be declared using the
1467 which defines a catch-all last-resort fallback character set that is
1468 implicitly appended to the list of character-sets in
1472 When replying to a message and the variable
1473 .Va reply-in-same-charset
1474 is set then the character set of the message being replied to is tried
1476 And it is also possible to make \*(UA work even more closely related to
1477 the current locale setting automatically by using the variable
1478 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset ,
1479 please see there for more information.
1482 All the specified character sets are tried in order unless the
1483 conversion of the part or attachment succeeds.
1484 If none of the tried (8-bit) character sets is capable to represent the
1485 content of the part or attachment,
1486 then the message will not be sent and its text will optionally be
1490 In general, if the message
1491 .Dq Cannot convert from a to b
1492 appears, either some characters are not appropriate for the currently
1493 selected (terminal) character set,
1494 or the needed conversion is not supported by the system.
1495 In the first case, it is necessary to set an appropriate
1497 locale and/or the variable
1501 The best results are usually achieved when \*(UA is run in a UTF-8
1502 locale on a UTF-8 capable terminal, in which case the full Unicode
1503 spectrum of characters is available.
1504 In this setup characters from various countries can be displayed,
1505 while it is still possible to use more simple character sets for sending
1506 to retain maximum compatibility with older mail clients.
1509 On the other hand the POSIX standard defines a locale-independent 7-bit
1510 .Dq portable character set
1511 that should be used when overall portability is an issue, the even more
1512 restricted subset named
1513 .Dq portable filename character set
1514 consisting of A-Z, a-z, 0-9, period
1523 .\" .Ss "Message states" {{{
1524 .Ss "Message states"
1526 \*(UA differentiates in between several different message states;
1527 the current state will be reflected in header summary displays if
1529 is configured to do so (via the internal variable
1531 and messages can also be selected and be acted upon depending on their
1533 .Sx "Specifying messages" ) .
1534 When operating on the system
1536 box or in primary mailboxes opened with the special prefix
1540 special actions, like the automatic moving of messages to the secondary
1542 mailbox may be applied when the mailbox is left (also implicitly via
1543 a successful exit of \*(UA, but not if the special command
1545 is used) \(en however, because this may be irritating to users which
1548 mail-user-agents, the default global
1554 variables in order to suppress this behaviour.
1556 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ql _reserved"
1558 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state.
1559 Such messages are retained even in the primary system mailbox.
1562 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state, but the
1563 message was present already when the mailbox has been opened last:
1564 Such messages are retained even in the primary system mailbox.
1567 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
1587 commands may also cause the next message to be marked as read, depending
1593 command is used, messages that are in the primary system mailbox or in
1594 mailboxes which were opened with the special
1598 state when the mailbox is left will be saved in
1605 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
1611 can be used to access such messages.
1614 The message has been processed by a
1616 command and it will be retained in its current location.
1619 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
1625 command is used, messages that are in the primary system mailbox or in
1626 mailboxes which were opened with the special
1630 state when the mailbox is left will be deleted; they will be saved in
1638 .\" .Ss "Specifying messages" {{{
1639 .Ss "Specifying messages"
1646 can be given a list of message numbers as arguments to apply to a number
1647 of messages at once.
1650 deletes messages 1 and 2,
1653 will delete the messages 1 through 5.
1654 In sorted or threaded mode (see the
1658 will delete the messages that are located between (and including)
1659 messages 1 through 5 in the sorted/threaded order, as shown in the
1662 Multiple colon modifiers can be joined into one, e.g.,
1664 The following special message names exist:
1666 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ar _n_u"
1672 All old messages (any not in state
1697 All answered messages
1702 All messages marked as draft.
1704 \*(OP All messages classified as spam.
1706 \*(OP All messages with unsure spam classification.
1708 The current message, the so-called
1711 The message that was previously the current message.
1713 The parent message of the current message,
1714 that is the message with the Message-ID given in the
1716 field or the last entry of the
1718 field of the current message.
1720 The next previous undeleted message,
1721 or the next previous deleted message for the
1724 In sorted/threaded mode,
1725 the next previous such message in the sorted/threaded order.
1727 The next undeleted message,
1728 or the next deleted message for the
1731 In sorted/threaded mode,
1732 the next such message in the sorted/threaded order.
1734 The first undeleted message,
1735 or the first deleted message for the
1738 In sorted/threaded mode,
1739 the first such message in the sorted/threaded order.
1742 In sorted/threaded mode,
1743 the last message in the sorted/threaded order.
1747 selects the message addressed with
1751 is any other message specification,
1752 and all messages from the thread that begins at it.
1753 Otherwise it is identical to
1758 the thread beginning with the current message is selected.
1763 All messages that were included in the message list for the previous
1766 .It Ar / Ns Ar string
1767 All messages that contain
1769 in the subject field (case ignored).
1776 the string from the previous specification of that type is used again.
1778 .It Xo Op Ar @ Ns Ar name-list Ns
1781 All messages that contain the given case-insensitive search
1783 ession; if the \*(OPal regular expression (see
1785 support is available
1787 will be interpreted as (an extended) one if any of the
1789 (extended) regular expression characters is seen.
1791 .Ar @ Ns Ar name-list
1792 part is missing, the search is restricted to the subject field body,
1795 specifies a comma-separated list of header fields to search, as in
1797 .Dl '@to,from,cc@Someone i ought to know'
1799 In order to search for a string that includes a
1801 (commercial at) character the
1803 is effectively non-optional, but may be given as the empty string.
1804 Some special header fields may be abbreviated:
1818 respectively and case-insensitively.
1823 can be used to search in (all of) the header(s) of the message, and the
1832 can be used to perform full text searches \(en whereas the former
1833 searches only the body, the latter also searches the message header.
1835 This message specification performs full text comparison, but even with
1836 regular expression support it is almost impossible to write a search
1837 expression that savely matches only a specific address domain.
1838 To request that the content of the header is treated as a list of
1839 addresses, and to strip those down to the plain email address which the
1840 search expression is to be matched against, prefix the header name
1841 (abbreviation) with a tilde
1844 .Dl @~f@@a\e.safe\e.domain\e.match$
1848 .Dq any substring matches
1851 header, which will match addresses (too) even if
1853 is set (and POSIX says
1854 .Dq any address as shown in a header summary shall be matchable in this form ) ;
1857 variable is set, only the local part of the address is evaluated
1858 for the comparison, not ignoring case, and the setting of
1860 is completely ignored.
1861 For finer control and match boundaries use the
1863 search expression; the \*(OPal IMAP-style
1865 expression can also be used if substring matches are desired.
1869 \*(OP IMAP-style SEARCH expressions may also be used.
1870 This addressing mode is available with all types of folders;
1871 \*(UA will perform the search locally as necessary.
1872 Strings must be enclosed by double quotes
1874 in their entirety if they contain white space or parentheses;
1875 within the quotes, only reverse solidus
1877 is recognized as an escape character.
1878 All string searches are case-insensitive.
1879 When the description indicates that the
1881 representation of an address field is used,
1882 this means that the search string is checked against both a list
1885 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1886 (\*qname\*q \*qsource\*q \*qlocal-part\*q \*qdomain-part\*q)
1891 and the addresses without real names from the respective header field.
1892 These search expressions can be nested using parentheses, see below for
1896 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar _n_u"
1897 .It Ar ( criterion )
1898 All messages that satisfy the given
1900 .It Ar ( criterion1 criterion2 ... criterionN )
1901 All messages that satisfy all of the given criteria.
1903 .It Ar ( or criterion1 criterion2 )
1904 All messages that satisfy either
1909 To connect more than two criteria using
1911 specifications have to be nested using additional parentheses,
1913 .Ql (or a (or b c)) ,
1917 .Ql ((a or b) and c) .
1920 operation of independent criteria on the lowest nesting level,
1921 it is possible to achieve similar effects by using three separate
1925 .It Ar ( not criterion )
1926 All messages that do not satisfy
1928 .It Ar ( bcc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1929 All messages that contain
1931 in the envelope representation of the
1934 .It Ar ( cc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1935 All messages that contain
1937 in the envelope representation of the
1940 .It Ar ( from \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1941 All messages that contain
1943 in the envelope representation of the
1946 .It Ar ( subject \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1947 All messages that contain
1952 .It Ar ( to \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1953 All messages that contain
1955 in the envelope representation of the
1958 .It Ar ( header name \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1959 All messages that contain
1964 .It Ar ( body \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1965 All messages that contain
1968 .It Ar ( text \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1969 All messages that contain
1971 in their header or body.
1972 .It Ar ( larger size )
1973 All messages that are larger than
1976 .It Ar ( smaller size )
1977 All messages that are smaller than
1981 .It Ar ( before date )
1982 All messages that were received before
1984 which must be in the form
1988 denotes the day of the month as one or two digits,
1990 is the name of the month \(en one of
1991 .Ql Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec ,
1994 is the year as four digits, e.g.,
1998 All messages that were received on the specified date.
1999 .It Ar ( since date )
2000 All messages that were received since the specified date.
2001 .It Ar ( sentbefore date )
2002 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
2003 .It Ar ( senton date )
2004 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
2005 .It Ar ( sentsince date )
2006 All messages that were sent since the specified date.
2008 The same criterion as for the previous search.
2009 This specification cannot be used as part of another criterion.
2010 If the previous command line contained more than one independent
2011 criterion then the last of those criteria is used.
2015 .\" .Ss "On URL syntax and credential lookup" {{{
2016 .Ss "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
2018 \*(IN For accessing protocol-specific resources usage of Uniform
2019 Resource Locators (URL, RFC 1738) has become omnipresent.
2020 \*(UA expects and understands URLs in the following form;
2023 denote optional parts, optional either because there also exist other
2024 ways to define the information in question or because support of the
2025 part is protocol-specific (e.g.,
2027 is used by the IMAP protocol but not by POP3);
2032 are specified they must be given in URL percent encoded form (RFC 3986;
2040 .Dl PROTOCOL://[USER[:PASSWORD]@]server[:port][/path]
2043 Note that these \*(UA URLs most often don't conform to any real
2044 standard, but instead represent a normalized variant of RFC 1738 \(en
2045 they are not used in data exchange but only meant as a compact,
2046 easy-to-use way of defining and representing information in
2047 a well-known notation.
2050 Many internal variables of \*(UA exist in multiple versions, called
2051 variable chains for the rest of this document: the plain
2056 .Ql variable-USER@HOST .
2063 had been specified in the respective URL, otherwise it refers to the plain
2069 that had been found when doing the user chain lookup as is described
2072 will never be in URL percent encoded form, whether it came from an URL
2073 or not; i.e., values of
2074 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
2075 must not be URL percent encoded.
2078 For example, whether an hypothetical URL
2079 .Ql smtp://hey%3Ayou@our.house
2080 had been given that includes a user, or whether the URL was
2081 .Ql smtp://our.house
2082 and the user had been found differently, to lookup the variable chain
2083 .Va smtp-use-starttls
2084 \*(UA first looks for whether
2085 .Ql smtp-\:use-\:starttls-\:hey:you@our.house
2086 is defined, then whether
2087 .Ql smtp-\:use-\:starttls-\:our.house
2088 exists before finally ending up looking at the plain variable itself.
2091 \*(UA obeys the following logic scheme when dealing with the
2092 necessary credential information of an account:
2098 has been given in the URL the variables
2102 are looked up; if no such variable(s) can be found then \*(UA will,
2103 when enforced by the \*(OPal variables
2104 .Va netrc-lookup-HOST
2111 specific entry which provides a
2113 name: this lookup will only succeed if unambiguous (one possible matching
2116 It is possible to load encrypted
2121 If there is still no
2123 then \*(UA will fall back to the user who is supposed to run \*(UA,
2124 the identity of which has been fixated during \*(UA startup and is
2125 known to be a valid user on the current host.
2128 Authentication: unless otherwise noted this will lookup the
2129 .Va PROTOCOL-auth-USER@HOST , PROTOCOL-auth-HOST , PROTOCOL-auth
2130 variable chain, falling back to a protocol-specific default should this
2136 has been given in the URL, then if the
2138 has been found through the \*(OPal
2140 that may have already provided the password, too.
2141 Otherwise the variable chain
2142 .Va password-USER@HOST , password-HOST , password
2143 is looked up and used if existent.
2145 Afterwards the complete \*(OPal variable chain
2146 .Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , netrc-lookup-HOST , netrc-lookup
2150 cache is searched for a password only (multiple user accounts for
2151 a single machine may exist as well as a fallback entry without user
2152 but with a password).
2154 If at that point there is still no password available, but the
2155 (protocols') chosen authentication type requires a password, then in
2156 interactive mode the user will be prompted on the terminal.
2161 S/MIME verification works relative to the values found in the
2165 header field(s), which means that the values of
2166 .Va smime-sign , smime-sign-cert , smime-sign-include-certs
2168 .Va smime-sign-message-digest
2169 will not be looked up using the
2173 chains from above but instead use the corresponding values from the
2174 message that is being worked on.
2175 In unusual cases multiple and different
2179 combinations may therefore be involved \(en on the other hand those
2180 unusual cases become possible.
2181 The usual case is as short as:
2184 .Dl set mta=smtp://USER:PASS@HOST smtp-use-starttls \e
2185 .Dl \ \ \ \ smime-sign smime-sign-cert=+smime.pair
2190 contains complete example configurations.
2193 .\" .Ss "On terminal control and line editor" {{{
2194 .Ss "On terminal control and line editor"
2196 \*(OP Terminal control will be realized through one of the standard
2198 libraries, either the
2200 or, alternatively, the
2202 both of which will be initialized to work with the environment variable
2204 Terminal control will enhance or enable interactive usage aspects, e.g.,
2205 .Sx "Coloured display" ,
2206 and extend behaviour of the Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE), which may learn the
2207 byte-sequences of keys like the cursor and function keys, and which will
2208 automatically enter the so-called
2210 alternative screen shall the terminal support it.
2211 The internal variable
2213 can be used to overwrite settings or to learn (correct(ed)) keycodes.
2214 Actual interaction with the chosen library can be disabled completely by
2215 setting the internal variable
2216 .Va termcap-disable ;
2218 will be queried regardless, even if the \*(OPal support for the
2219 libraries has not been enabled at configuration time.
2222 \*(OP The builtin \*(UA Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE) should work in all
2223 environments which comply to the ISO C standard
2225 and will support wide glyphs if possible (the necessary functionality
2226 had been removed from ISO C, but was included in
2228 Prevent usage of a line editor in interactive mode by setting the
2230 .Va line-editor-disable .
2231 Especially if the \*(OPal terminal control support is missing setting
2232 entries in the internal variable
2234 will help shall the MLE misbehave, see there for more.
2235 The MLE can support a little bit of
2241 feature is available then input from line editor prompts will be saved
2242 in a history list that can be searched in and be expanded from.
2243 Such saving can be prevented by prefixing input with any amount of
2245 Aspects of history, like allowed content and maximum size, as well as
2246 whether history shall be saved persistently, can be configured with the
2250 .Va history-gabby-persist
2255 The MLE supports a set of editing and control commands.
2256 By default (as) many (as possible) of these will be assigned to a set of
2257 single-letter control codes, which should work on any terminal.
2260 command is available then the MLE commands can also be accessed freely
2261 by assigning the command name, which is shown in parenthesis in the list
2262 below, to any desired key-sequence, and the MLE will instead and also use
2264 to establish its builtin key bindings
2265 (more of them if the \*(OPal terminal control is available),
2266 an action which can then be suppressed completely by setting
2267 .Va line-editor-no-defaults .
2268 The following uses the
2270 ell-style quote notation that is documented in the introductional
2273 combinations not mentioned either cause job control signals or don't
2274 generate a (unique) keycode:
2278 .Bl -tag -compact -width "Ql _M"
2280 Go to the start of the line
2281 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-home ) .
2284 Move the cursor backward one character
2285 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-bwd ) .
2288 Forward delete the character under the cursor;
2289 quits \*(UA if used on the empty line unless the
2292 .Pf ( Cd mle-del-fwd ) .
2295 Go to the end of the line
2296 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-end ) .
2299 Move the cursor forward one character
2300 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-fwd ) .
2303 Cancel current operation, full reset.
2304 If there is an active history search or tabulator expansion then this
2305 command will first reset that, reverting to the former line content;
2306 thus a second reset is needed for a full reset in this case
2307 .Pf ( Cd mle-reset ) .
2310 Backspace: backward delete one character
2311 .Pf ( Cd mle-del-bwd ) .
2315 Horizontal tabulator:
2316 try to expand the word before the cursor, also supporting \*(UA
2319 .Pf ( Cd mle-complete ) .
2321 .Cd mle-quote-rndtrip .
2325 commit the current line
2326 .Pf ( Cd mle-commit ) .
2329 Cut all characters from the cursor to the end of the line
2330 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-end ) .
2334 .Pf ( Cd mle-repaint ) .
2337 \*(OP Go to the next history entry
2338 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-fwd ) .
2345 \*(OP Go to the previous history entry
2346 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-bwd ) .
2349 Toggle roundtrip mode shell quotes, where produced,
2351 .Pf ( Cd mle-quote-rndtrip ) .
2352 This setting is temporary, and will be forgotten once the command line
2356 \*(OP Complete the current line from (the remaining) older history entries
2357 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-srch-bwd ) .
2360 \*(OP Complete the current line from (the remaining) newer history entries
2361 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-srch-fwd ) .
2364 Paste the snarf buffer
2365 .Pf ( Cd mle-paste ) .
2372 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-line ) .
2375 Prompts for a Unicode character (its hexadecimal number) to be inserted
2376 .Pf ( Cd mle-prompt-char ) .
2377 Note this command needs to be assigned to a single-letter control code
2378 in order to become recognized and executed during input of
2379 a key-sequence (only four single-letter control codes can be used for
2380 that shortcut purpose); this control code is special-treated and can't
2381 be part of any other sequence, because any occurrence will perform the
2383 function immediately.
2386 Cut the characters from the one preceding the cursor to the preceding
2388 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-word-bwd ) .
2391 Move the cursor forward one word boundary
2392 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-word-fwd ) .
2395 Move the cursor backward one word boundary
2396 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-word-bwd ) .
2399 Escape: reset a possibly used multibyte character input state machine
2400 and \*(OPally a lingering, incomplete key binding
2401 .Pf ( Cd mle-cancel ) .
2402 This command needs to be assigned to a single-letter control code in
2403 order to become recognized and executed during input of a key-sequence
2404 (only four single-letter control codes can be used for that shortcut
2406 This control code may also be part of a multi-byte sequence, but if
2407 a sequence is active and the very control code is currently also an
2408 expected input, then it will first be consumed by the active sequence.
2423 Cut the characters from the one after the cursor to the succeeding word
2425 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-word-fwd ) .
2435 this will immediately reset a possibly active search etc.
2439 ring the audible bell.
2443 .\" .Ss "Coloured display" {{{
2444 .Ss "Coloured display"
2446 \*(OP \*(UA can be configured to support a coloured display and font
2447 attributes by emitting ANSI / ISO 6429 SGR (select graphic rendition)
2449 Usage of colours and font attributes solely depends upon the
2450 capability of the detected terminal type that is defined by the
2451 environment variable
2453 and which can be fine-tuned by the user via the internal variable
2457 On top of what \*(UA knows about the terminal the boolean variable
2459 defines whether the actually applicable colour and font attribute
2460 sequences should also be generated when output is going to be paged
2461 through the external program defined by the environment variable
2466 This is not enabled by default because different pager programs need
2467 different command line switches or other configuration in order to
2468 support those sequences.
2469 \*(UA however knows about some widely used pagers and in a clean
2470 environment it is often enough to simply set
2472 please refer to that variable for more on this topic.
2477 is set then any active usage of colour and font attribute sequences
2478 is suppressed, but without affecting possibly established
2483 To define and control colours and font attributes a single multiplexer
2484 command family exists:
2486 shows or defines colour mappings for the given colour type (e.g.,
2489 can be used to remove mappings of a given colour type.
2490 Since colours are only available in interactive mode, it may make
2491 sense to conditionalize the colour setup by encapsulating it with
2494 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2495 if terminal && $features =@ +colour
2496 colour iso view-msginfo ft=bold,fg=green
2497 colour iso view-header ft=bold,fg=red "from,subject"
2498 colour iso view-header fg=red
2500 uncolour iso view-header from,subject
2501 colour iso view-header ft=bold,fg=magenta,bg=cyan
2502 colour 256 view-header ft=bold,fg=208,bg=230 subject,from
2503 colour mono view-header ft=bold
2504 colour mono view-header ft=bold,ft=reverse subject,from
2508 .\" }}} (DESCRIPTION)
2511 .\" .Sh COMMANDS {{{
2514 Each command is typed on a line by itself,
2515 and may take arguments following the command word.
2516 Command names may be abbreviated, in which case the first command that
2517 matches the given prefix will be used.
2520 can be used to show the list of all commands, either alphabetically
2521 sorted or in prefix search order (these don't match, also because the
2522 POSIX standard prescribes a set of abbreviations); a more verbose
2523 listing will be produced if either of
2528 \*(OPally the command
2532 when given an argument, will show a documentation string for the
2533 command matching the expanded argument, as in
2535 which should be a shorthand of
2539 For commands which take message lists as arguments, the next message
2540 forward that satisfies the command's requirements will be used shall no
2541 explicit message list have been specified.
2542 If there are no messages forward of the current message,
2543 the search proceeds backwards,
2544 and if there are no good messages at all,
2545 \*(UA shows an error message and aborts the command.
2546 \*(ID Non-message-list arguments can be quoted using the following methods:
2549 .Bl -bullet -compact -offset indent
2551 An argument can be enclosed between paired double-quotes
2556 any white space, shell word expansion, or reverse solidus characters
2557 (except as described next) within the quotes are treated literally as
2558 part of the argument.
2559 A double-quote will be treated literally within single-quotes and vice
2561 Inside such a quoted string the actually used quote character can be
2562 used nonetheless by escaping it with a reverse solidus
2568 An argument that is not enclosed in quotes, as above, can usually still
2569 contain space characters if those spaces are reverse solidus escaped, as in
2573 A reverse solidus outside of the enclosing quotes is discarded
2574 and the following character is treated literally as part of the argument.
2579 Some commands which don't take message-list arguments can also be
2580 prefixed with the special keyword
2582 to choose \*(INible behaviour, and some new commands support only the
2583 new quoting style (without that keyword) and are flagged \*(NQ.
2584 In the future \*(UA will (mostly) use
2586 compatible argument parsing:
2587 Non-message-list arguments can be quoted using the following shell-style
2588 mechanisms: the escape character, single-quotes, double-quotes and
2589 dollar-single-quotes; any unquoted number sign
2591 starts a comment that ends argument processing.
2592 The overall granularity of error reporting and diagnostics, also
2593 regarding function arguments and their content, will improve.
2597 .Bl -bullet -compact -offset indent
2599 The literal value of any character can be preserved by preceding it
2600 with the escape character reverse solidus
2604 will cause variable expansion of the given name: \*(UA
2605 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
2608 (shell) variables can be accessed through this mechanism, brace
2609 enclosing the name is supported.
2612 Arguments which are enclosed in
2613 .Ql 'single-\:quotes'
2614 retain their literal value.
2615 A single-quote cannot occur within single-quotes.
2618 The literal value of all characters enclosed in
2619 .Ql \(dqdouble-\:quotes\(dq
2620 is retained, with the exception of dollar
2622 which will cause variable expansion, as above, backquote (grave accent)
2624 (which not yet means anything special), reverse solidus
2626 which will escape any of the characters dollar
2628 (to prevent variable expansion), backquote (grave accent)
2632 (to prevent ending the quote) and reverse solidus
2634 (to prevent escaping, i.e., to embed a reverse solidus character as-is),
2635 but has no special meaning otherwise.
2638 Arguments enclosed in
2639 .Ql $'dollar-\:single-\:quotes'
2640 extend normal single quotes in that reverse solidus escape sequences are
2641 expanded as follows:
2643 .Bl -tag -compact -width "Ql \eNNN"
2649 an escape character.
2651 an escape character.
2663 emits a reverse solidus character.
2667 double quote (escaping is optional).
2669 eight-bit byte with the octal value
2671 (one to three octal digits), optionally with an additional
2674 A 0 byte will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
2676 eight-bit byte with the hexadecimal value
2678 (one or two hexadecimal characters).
2679 A 0 byte will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
2681 the Unicode / ISO-10646 character with the hexadecimal codepoint value
2683 (one to eight hexadecimal digits) \(em note that Unicode defines the
2684 maximum codepoint to be ever supported as
2689 This escape is only supported in locales which support Unicode (see
2690 .Sx "Character sets" ) ,
2691 in other cases the sequence will remain unexpanded unless the given code
2692 point is ASCII compatible or can be represented in the current locale.
2693 The character NUL will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
2697 except it takes only one to four hexadecimal digits.
2702 This is a mechanism that allows usage of the non-printable (ASCII and
2703 compatible) control codes 0 to 31: to be able to create a printable
2704 representation the numeric value 64 is added to the control code of
2705 desire, and the resulting ASCII character set code point is then
2706 printed, e.g., BEL is
2707 .Ql 7 + 64 = 71 = G .
2708 Often circumflex notation is used for the visualization purpose, e.g,
2710 but the reverse solid notation has been standardized:
2712 The control code NUL
2714 ends argument processing without producing further output.
2716 Non-standard extension: expand the given variable name, as above.
2717 Brace enclosing the name is supported.
2719 Not yet supported, just to raise awareness: Non-standard extension.
2725 .Sy Compatibility notes:
2726 \*(ID Note these are new mechanisms which are not supported by all
2728 Round-tripping (feeding in things shown in list modes again) are not yet
2729 stable or possible at all.
2730 On new-style command lines it is wise to quote semicolon
2734 characters in order to ensure upward compatibility: the author would
2735 like to see things like
2736 .Ql ? echo $'trouble\etahead' | cat >> in_the_shell.txt
2738 .Ql ? top 2 5 10; type 3 22
2740 Before \*(UA will switch entirely to shell-style argument parsing there
2741 will be a transition phase where using
2743 will emit obsoletion warnings.
2744 E.g., the following are equivalent:
2746 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2747 mlist @any\e\e.where\e\e.example\e\e.com
2748 wysh mlist '@any\e.where\e.example\e.com' # This is a comment
2749 wysh mlist $'@any\e\e\ex2Ewhere\e\e.example\e\e\e56com' # A comment
2750 wysh mlist "@any\e.where\e.example\e.com"
2754 In any event an unquoted reverse solidus at the end of a command line is
2755 discarded and the next line continues the command.
2756 \*(ID Note that line continuation is handled before the above parsing is
2757 applied, i.e., the parsers documented above will see merged lines.
2758 Filenames, where expected, are subsequently subjected to the following
2759 transformations, in sequence:
2762 .Bl -bullet -compact -offset indent
2764 If the filename begins with an unquoted plus sign, and the
2766 variable is defined,
2767 the plus sign will be replaced by the value of the
2769 variable followed by a solidus.
2772 variable is unset or is set to null, the filename will be unchanged.
2775 Meta expansions are applied to the filename: a leading tilde
2777 character will be replaced by the expansion of
2779 except when followed by a valid user name, in which case the home
2780 directory of the given user is used instead.
2785 will be replaced by the expansion of the variable, if possible; \*(UA
2786 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
2789 (shell) variables can be accessed through this mechanism, and the usual
2790 escape mechanism has to be applied to prevent interpretation.
2791 If the fully expanded filename results in multiple pathnames and the
2792 command is expecting only one file, an error results.
2794 In interactive context, in order to allow simple value acceptance (via
2796 arguments will usually be displayed in a properly quoted form, e.g., a file
2797 .Ql diet\e is \ecurd.txt
2799 .Ql 'diet\e is \ecurd.txt' .
2803 The following commands are available:
2805 .Bl -tag -width ".Ic _ccount"
2812 ) command which follows.
2816 The comment-command causes the entire line to be ignored.
2818 this really is a normal command which' purpose is to discard its
2821 indicating special character, which means that, e.g., trailing comments
2822 on a line are not possible.
2826 Goes to the next message in sequence and types it
2832 Display the preceding message, or the n'th previous message if given
2833 a numeric argument n.
2837 Show the current message number (the
2842 Show a brief summary of commands.
2843 \*(OP Given an argument a synopsis for the command in question is
2844 shown instead; commands can be abbreviated in general and this command
2845 can be used to see the full expansion of an abbreviation including the
2846 synopsis, try, e.g.,
2851 and see how the output changes.
2861 Interprets the remainder of the word as a macro name and passes it
2866 is a shorter synonym for
2867 .Ql call Ar mymacro .
2871 (ac) Creates, selects or lists (an) account(s).
2872 Accounts are special incarnations of
2874 macros and group commands and variable settings which together usually
2875 arrange the environment for the purpose of creating an email account.
2876 Different to normal macros settings which are covered by
2878 \(en here by default enabled! \(en will not be reverted before the
2883 (case-insensitive) always exists, and all but it can be deleted via
2886 Without arguments a listing of all defined accounts is shown.
2887 With one argument the given account is activated: the system
2889 box of that account will be activated (as via
2891 and a possibly installed
2894 The two argument form is identical to defining a macro as via
2896 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2898 set folder=~/mail MAIL=+syste.mbox record=+sent.mbox
2899 set from='myname@myisp.example (My Name)'
2900 set mta=smtp://mylogin@smtp.myisp.example
2906 (a) With no arguments, shows all currently-defined aliases.
2907 With one argument, shows that alias.
2908 With more than one argument,
2909 creates a new alias or appends to an existing one.
2911 can be used to delete aliases.
2915 (alt) Manage a list of alternate addresses / names of the active user,
2916 members of which will be removed from recipient lists when replying to
2919 variable is not set).
2920 If arguments are given the set of alternate names is replaced by them,
2921 without arguments the current set is displayed.
2925 Takes a message list and marks each message as having been answered.
2926 This mark has no technical meaning in the mail system;
2927 it just causes messages to be marked in the header summary,
2928 and makes them specially addressable.
2933 \*(OP\*(NQ The bind command extends the MLE (see
2934 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
2935 with freely configurable key bindings.
2936 With one argument all bindings for the given context are shown,
2937 specifying an asterisk
2939 will show the bindings of all contexts; a more verbose listing will be
2940 produced if either of
2945 With two or more arguments a binding is (re)established:
2946 the first argument is the context to which the binding shall apply,
2947 the second argument is a comma-separated list of the
2949 which form the binding, and any remaining arguments form the expansion.
2950 To indicate that a binding shall not be auto-committed, but that the
2951 expansion shall instead be furtherly editable by the user, an at-sign
2953 (that will be removed) can be placed last in the expansion, from which
2954 leading and trailing whitespace will finally be removed.
2957 Contexts define when a binding applies, i.e., a binding won't be seen
2958 unless the context for which it is defined for is currently active.
2959 This is not true for the binding
2961 which always applies, but which will be searched secondarily to a more
2962 specialized context and may thus have some or all of its key bindings
2963 transparently replaced by equal bindings of more specialized contexts.
2964 The available contexts are
2966 which always applies, and
2968 which applies to compose-mode.
2972 which form the binding are specified as a comma-separated list of
2973 byte-sequences, where each list entry corresponds to one key(press).
2974 \*(OPally a list entry may, indicated by a leading colon character
2976 also refer to the name of a terminal capability;
2977 several dozen names will be compiled into \*(UA and may be specified
2980 or, if existing, by their
2982 name, regardless of the actually used terminal control library.
2983 It is however possible to use any capability, as long as the name is
2984 resolvable by the control library or defined in the internal variable
2986 Input sequences are not case-normalized, so that an exact match is
2987 required to update or remove a binding.
2990 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2991 bind base $'\eE',d mle-snarf-word-fwd # Esc(ape)
2992 bind base $'\eE',$'\ec?' mle-snarf-word-bwd # Esc, Delete
2993 bind compose :kf1 ~e
2994 bind base $'\ecA',:khome,w 'echo An editable binding@'
2995 bind base a,b,c rm -rf / @ # Another editable binding
2999 Note that the entire comma-separated list is first parsed (over) as a
3000 shell-token with whitespace as the field separator, before being parsed
3001 and expanded for real with comma as the field separator, therefore
3002 whitespace needs to be properly quoted:
3003 shell-style quoting is documented in the introductional section of
3005 Using Unicode reverse solidus escape sequences renders a binding
3006 defunctional if the locale doesn't support Unicode (see
3007 .Sx "Character sets" ) ,
3008 and using terminal capabilities does so if no terminal control support
3009 is (currently) available.
3012 The following terminal capability names are builtin and can be used in
3014 or (if available) the two-letter
3016 notation regardless of the actually used library.
3017 See the respective manual for a list of capabilities.
3020 can be used to show all the capabilities of
3022 or the given terminal type;
3025 flag will also show supported (non-standard) extensions.
3028 .Bl -tag -compact -width kcuuf_or_kcuuf
3029 .It Cd kbs Ns \0or Cd kb
3031 .It Cd kdch1 Ns \0or Cd kD
3033 .It Cd kDC Ns \0or Cd *4
3034 \(em shifted variant.
3035 .It Cd kel Ns \0or Cd kE
3036 Clear to end of line.
3037 .It Cd kext Ns \0or Cd @9
3039 .It Cd kich1 Ns \0or Cd kI
3041 .It Cd kIC Ns \0or Cd #3
3042 \(em shifted variant.
3043 .It Cd khome Ns \0or Cd kh
3045 .It Cd kHOM Ns \0or Cd #2
3046 \(em shifted variant.
3047 .It Cd kend Ns \0or Cd @7
3049 .It Cd knp Ns \0or Cd kN
3051 .It Cd kpp Ns \0or Cd kP
3053 .It Cd kcub1 Ns \0or Cd kl
3054 Left cursor (with more modifiers: see below).
3055 .It Cd kLFT Ns \0or Cd #4
3056 \(em shifted variant.
3057 .It Cd kcuf1 Ns \0or Cd kr
3058 Right cursor (ditto).
3059 .It Cd kRIT Ns \0or Cd %i
3060 \(em shifted variant.
3061 .It Cd kcud1 Ns \0or Cd kd
3062 Down cursor (ditto).
3064 \(em shifted variant (only terminfo).
3065 .It Cd kcuu1 Ns \0or Cd ku
3068 \(em shifted variant (only terminfo).
3069 .It Cd kf0 Ns \0or Cd k0
3071 Add one for each function key up to
3076 .It Cd kf10 Ns \0or Cd k;
3078 .It Cd kf11 Ns \0or Cd F1
3080 Add one for each function key up to
3088 Some terminals support key-modifier combination extensions, e.g.,
3090 For example, the delete key,
3092 in its shifted variant, the name is mutated to
3094 then a number is appended for the states
3106 .Ql Shift+Alt+Control
3108 The same for the left cursor key,
3110 .Cd KLFT , KLFT3 , KLFT4 , KLFT5 , KLFT6 , KLFT7 , KLFT8 .
3113 Key bindings can be removed with the command
3115 It is advisable to use an initial escape or other control character (e.g.,
3117 for bindings which describe user key combinations (as opposed to purely
3118 terminal capability based ones), in order to avoid ambiguities whether
3119 input belongs to key sequences or not; it also reduces search time.
3122 may help shall keys and sequences be falsely recognized.
3127 Calls a macro that has been created via
3132 (ch) Change the working directory to
3134 or the given argument.
3140 \*(OP Only applicable to S/MIME signed messages.
3141 Takes a message list and a file name and saves the certificates
3142 contained within the message signatures to the named file in both
3143 human-readable and PEM format.
3144 The certificates can later be used to send encrypted messages to the
3145 respective message senders by setting
3146 .Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
3151 (ch) Change the working directory to
3153 or the given argument.
3159 Only applicable to threaded mode.
3160 Takes a message list and makes all replies to these messages invisible
3161 in header summaries, unless they are in state
3167 \*(OP\*(NQ Manage colour mappings for the type of colour given as the
3168 (case-insensitive) first argument, which must be one of
3170 for 256-colour terminals,
3175 for the standard 8-colour ANSI / ISO 6429 color palette and
3179 for monochrome terminals.
3180 Monochrome terminals cannot deal with colours, but only (some) font
3184 Without further arguments the list of all currently defined mappings
3185 for the given colour type is shown (as a special case giving
3189 will iterate over all types in order).
3190 Otherwise the second argument defines the mappable slot, the third
3191 argument a (comma-separated list of) colour and font attribute
3192 specification(s), and the optional fourth argument can be used to
3193 specify a precondition: if conditioned mappings exist they are tested in
3194 (creation) order unless a (case-insensitive) match has been found, and
3195 the default mapping (if any has been established) will only be chosen as
3197 The types of precondition available depend on the mappable slot, the
3198 following of which exist:
3201 Mappings prefixed with
3203 are used for the \*(OPal builtin Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE, see
3204 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
3205 and don't support preconditions.
3207 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
3209 This mapping is used for the position indicator that is visible when
3210 a line cannot be fully displayed on the screen.
3217 Mappings prefixed with
3219 are used in header summaries, and they all understand the preconditions
3221 (the current message) and
3223 for elder messages (only honoured in conjunction with
3224 .Va datefield-markout-older ) .
3226 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
3228 This mapping is used for the
3230 that can be created with the
3234 formats of the variable
3237 For the complete header summary line except the
3239 and the thread structure.
3241 For the thread structure which can be created with the
3243 format of the variable
3248 Mappings prefixed with
3250 are used when displaying messages.
3252 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
3254 This mapping is used for so-called
3256 lines, which are MBOX file format specific header lines.
3259 A comma-separated list of headers to which the mapping applies may be
3260 given as a precondition; if the \*(OPal regular expression support is
3261 available then if any of the
3263 (extended) regular expression characters is seen the precondition will
3264 be evaluated as (an extended) one.
3266 For the introductional message info line.
3267 .It Cd view-partinfo
3268 For MIME part info lines.
3272 The following (case-insensitive) colour definitions and font attributes
3273 are understood, multiple of which can be specified in a comma-separated
3283 It is possible (and often applicable) to specify multiple font
3284 attributes for a single mapping.
3287 foreground colour attribute:
3297 To specify a 256-color mode a decimal number colour specification in
3298 the range 0 to 255, inclusive, is supported, and interpreted as follows:
3300 .Bl -tag -compact -width "999 - 999"
3302 the standard ISO 6429 colors, as above.
3304 high intensity variants of the standard colors.
3306 216 colors in tuples of 6.
3308 grayscale from black to white in 24 steps.
3310 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3312 fg() { printf "\e033[38;5;${1}m($1)"; }
3313 bg() { printf "\e033[48;5;${1}m($1)"; }
3315 while [ $i -lt 256 ]; do fg $i; i=$(($i + 1)); done
3316 printf "\e033[0m\en"
3318 while [ $i -lt 256 ]; do bg $i; i=$(($i + 1)); done
3319 printf "\e033[0m\en"
3323 background colour attribute (see
3325 for possible values).
3329 Mappings may be removed with the command
3331 For a generic overview see the section
3332 .Sx "Coloured display" .
3337 (C) Copy messages to files whose names are derived from the author of
3338 the respective message and don't mark them as being saved;
3339 otherwise identical to
3344 (c) Copy messages to the named file and don't mark them as being saved;
3345 otherwise identical to
3350 \*(NQ With no arguments, shows all currently-defined custom headers.
3351 With one argument, shows that custom header.
3352 With more than one argument, creates a new or replaces an existing
3353 custom header with the name given as the first argument, the content of
3354 which being defined by the concatenated remaining arguments.
3356 can be used to delete custom headers.
3357 \*(ID Overwriting of automatically managed headers is neither supported
3359 Defined custom headers will be injected into newly composed or forwarded
3362 .Dl customhdr OpenPGP id=12345678; url=http://www.YYY.ZZ
3366 may also be used to inject custom headers; it is covered by
3371 Show the name of the current working directory.
3375 \*(OP For unencrypted messages this command is identical to
3377 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
3381 \*(OP For unencrypted messages this command is identical to
3383 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
3387 Without arguments the current list of macros, including their content,
3388 is shown, otherwise a macro is defined.
3389 A macro definition is a sequence of commands in the following form:
3390 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3399 A defined macro can be invoked explicitly by using the
3403 commands, or implicitly if a macro hook is triggered, e.g., a
3405 Note that interpretation of
3407 depends on how (i.e.,
3409 normal macro, folder hook, hook, account switch) the macro is invoked.
3410 Macros can be deleted via
3414 Macro behaviour, including option localization, will change in v15.
3415 Please be aware of that and possibly embed a version check in a resource
3420 (d) Marks the given message list as
3422 Deleted messages will neither be saved in
3424 nor will they be available for most other commands.
3436 Deletes the current message and displays the next message.
3437 If there is no next message, \*(UA says
3444 up or down by one message when given
3448 argument, respectively.
3452 Takes a message list and marks each given message as a draft.
3453 This mark has no technical meaning in the mail system;
3454 it just causes messages to be marked in the header summary,
3455 and makes them specially addressable.
3459 (ec) Echoes its arguments after applying
3461 expansions and filename transformations, as documented for
3466 (e) Point the text editor (as defined in
3468 at each message from the given list in turn.
3469 Modified contents are discarded unless the
3476 .Ic if Ns / Ns Ic elif Ns / Ns Ic else Ns / Ns Ic endif
3477 conditional \(em if the condition of a preceding
3479 was false, check the following condition and execute the following block
3480 if it evaluates true.
3485 .Ic if Ns / Ns Ic elif Ns / Ns Ic else Ns / Ns Ic endif
3486 conditional \(em if none of the conditions of the preceding
3490 commands was true, the
3496 (en) Marks the end of an
3497 .Ic if Ns / Ns Ic elif Ns / Ns Ic else Ns / Ns Ic endif
3498 conditional execution block.
3503 \*(NQ \*(UA has a strict notion about which variables are
3504 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
3505 and which are managed in the program
3507 Since some of the latter are a vivid part of \*(UAs functioning,
3508 however, they are transparently integrated into the normal handling of
3509 internal variables via
3513 To integrate other environment variables of choice into this
3514 transparent handling, and also to export internal variables into the
3515 process environment where they normally are not, a
3517 needs to become established with this command, as in, e.g.,
3520 .Dl environ link PERL5LIB from TZ
3523 Afterwards changing such variables with
3525 will cause automatic updates of the program environment, and therefore
3526 be inherited by newly created child processes.
3527 Sufficient system support provided (it was in BSD as early as 1987, and
3528 is standardized since Y2K) removing such variables with
3530 will remove them also from the program environment, but in any way
3531 the knowledge they ever have been
3534 Note this implies that
3536 may cause loss of links.
3541 will remove an existing link, but leaves the variables as such intact.
3542 Additionally the subcommands
3546 are provided, which work exactly the same as the documented commands
3550 but (additionally) link the variable(s) with the program environment and
3551 thus immediately export them to, or remove them from (if possible),
3552 respectively, the program environment.
3557 \*(OP Since \*(UA uses the console as a user interface it can happen
3558 that messages scroll by too fast to become recognized.
3559 Optionally an error message ring queue is available which stores
3560 duplicates of any error message and notifies the user in interactive
3561 sessions whenever a new error has occurred.
3562 The queue is finite: if its maximum size is reached any new message
3563 replaces the eldest.
3566 can be used to manage this message queue: if given
3568 or no argument the queue will be displayed and cleared,
3570 will only clear all messages from the queue.
3574 (ex or x) Exit from \*(UA without changing the active mailbox and skip
3575 any saving of messages in
3577 as well as a possibly tracked line editor history file.
3583 but open the mailbox readonly.
3587 (fi) The file command switches to a new mailbox.
3588 Without arguments it shows status information of the current mailbox.
3589 If an argument is given, it will write out changes (such as deletions)
3590 the user has made and open a new mailbox.
3591 Some special conventions are recognized for the
3595 .Bl -tag -compact -offset indent -width ".Ar %:__lespec"
3597 (number sign) means the previous file,
3599 (percent sign) means the invoking user's system
3603 means the primary system mailbox of
3605 (and never the value of
3607 regardless of its actual setting),
3609 (ampersand) means the invoking user's
3619 expands to the same value as
3621 but the file is handled as a primary system mailbox by, e.g., the
3625 commands, meaning that messages that have been read in the current
3626 session will be moved to the
3628 mailbox instead of simply being flagged as read.
3631 If the name matches one of the strings defined with the command
3633 it is replaced by its long form and expanded.
3634 If the name ends with
3639 it is treated as being compressed with
3644 respectively, and transparently handled through an intermediate
3645 (un)compression step (using a temporary file) with the according
3646 facility, sufficient support provided.
3647 Likewise, if the named file doesn't exist, but a file with one of the
3648 mentioned compression extensions does, then the name is automatically
3649 expanded and the compressed file is used.
3651 Otherwise, if the name ends with an extension for which
3652 .Va file-hook-load-EXTENSION
3654 .Va file-hook-save-EXTENSION
3655 variables are set, then the given hooks will be used to load and save
3657 and \*(UA will work with an intermediate temporary file.
3659 MBOX files (flat file-based mailboxes) are generally locked during file
3660 operations in order to avoid inconsistencies due to concurrent
3662 \*(OPal Mailbox files which \*(UA treats as system
3664 boxes or primary mailboxes will also be protected by so-called dotlock
3665 files, the traditional way of mail spool file locking: for any file
3669 will be created for the duration of the synchronization \(em
3670 as necessary a privilege-separated dotlock child process will be used
3671 to accommodate for necessary privilege adjustments in order to create
3672 the dotlock file in the same directory
3673 and with the same user and group identities as the file of interest.
3677 refers to a directory with the subdirectories
3682 then it is treated as a folder in
3684 format; \*(ID the variable
3686 can be used to control the format of yet non-existent folders.
3689 .Dl \*(IN protocol://[user[:password]@]host[:port][/path]
3690 .Dl \*(OU protocol://[user@]host[:port][/path]
3692 is taken as an Internet mailbox specification.
3693 The \*(OPally supported protocols are
3697 (POP3 with SSL/TLS encrypted transport).
3700 part is valid only for IMAP; there it defaults to
3702 Also see the section
3703 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
3707 contains special characters, in particular
3711 they must be escaped in URL notation \(en the command
3713 can be used to show the necessary conversion.
3717 Takes a message list and marks the messages as
3719 ged for urgent/special attention.
3720 This mark has no technical meaning in the mail system;
3721 it just causes messages to be highlighted in the header summary,
3722 and makes them specially addressable.
3731 With no arguments, list the names of the folders in the folder directory.
3732 With an existing folder as an argument,
3733 lists the names of folders below the named folder.
3739 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
3740 recipient's address (instead of in
3747 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
3748 recipient's address (instead of in
3755 but responds to all recipients regardless of the
3760 .It Ic followupsender
3763 but responds to the sender only regardless of the
3779 (f) Takes a list of message specifications and displays a summary of
3780 their message headers, exactly as via
3782 An alias of this command is
3785 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
3791 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the
3792 recipient's address (instead of in
3797 Takes a message and the address of a recipient
3798 and forwards the message to him.
3799 The text of the original message is included in the new one,
3800 with the value of the
3802 variable preceding it.
3807 commands specify which header fields are included in the new message.
3808 Only the first part of a multipart message is included unless the
3809 .Va forward-as-attachment
3813 is set recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names etc.
3817 Specifies which header fields are to be ignored with the command
3819 This command has no effect when the
3820 .Va forward-as-attachment
3825 Specifies which header fields are to be retained with the command
3830 This command has no effect when the
3831 .Va forward-as-attachment
3836 Define or list command aliases, so-called ghosts.
3837 Without arguments a list of all currently known aliases is shown.
3838 With one argument the expansion of the given alias is shown.
3839 With two or more arguments a command alias is defined or updated: the
3840 first argument is the name under which the remaining command line should
3841 be accessible, the content of which can be just about anything.
3842 A ghost can be used everywhere a normal command can be used, but always
3843 takes precedence; any arguments that are given to the command alias are
3844 joined onto the alias content, and the resulting string forms the
3845 command line that is, in effect, executed.
3848 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3850 `ghost': no such alias: "xx"
3853 ghost xx "echo hello,"
3862 (h) Show the current group of headers, the size of which depends on
3865 and the style of which can be adjusted with the variable
3867 If a message-specification is given the group of headers containing the
3868 first message therein is shown and the message at the top of the screen
3883 the list of history entries;
3886 argument selects and shows the respective history entry \(en
3889 to accept it, and the history entry will become the new history top.
3890 The default mode if no arguments are given is
3897 Takes a message list and marks each message therein to be saved in the
3902 Does not override the
3905 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command, because a
3907 command issued after
3909 will display the following message, not the current one.
3914 (i) Part of the nestable
3915 .Ic if Ns / Ns Ic elif Ns / Ns Ic else Ns / Ns Ic endif
3916 conditional execution construct \(em if the given condition is true then
3917 the encapsulated block is executed.
3918 POSIX only supports the (case-insensitive) conditions
3923 end, all remaining conditions are non-portable extensions; note that
3924 falsely specified conditions cause the execution of the entire
3925 conditional construct until the (matching) closing
3927 command to be suppressed.
3928 The syntax of the nestable
3930 conditional execution construct requires that each condition and syntax
3931 element is surrounded by whitespace.
3933 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3942 The (case-insensitive) condition
3944 erminal will evaluate to true if the standard input is a terminal, i.e.,
3945 in interactive sessions.
3946 Another condition can be any boolean value (see the section
3947 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
3948 for textual boolean representations) to mark an enwrapped block as
3951 .Dq always execute .
3952 It is possible to check
3953 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
3956 variables for existence or compare their expansion against a user given
3957 value or another variable by using the
3959 .Pf ( Dq variable next )
3960 conditional trigger character;
3961 a variable on the right hand side may be signalled using the same
3963 The variable names may be enclosed in a pair of matching braces.
3966 The available comparison operators are
3970 (less than or equal to),
3976 (greater than or equal to),
3980 (is substring of) and
3982 (is not substring of).
3983 The values of the left and right hand side are treated as strings and
3984 are compared 8-bit byte-wise, ignoring case according to the rules of
3985 the US-ASCII encoding (therefore, dependent on the active locale,
3986 possibly producing false results for strings in the locale encoding).
3987 Except for the substring checks the comparison will instead be performed
3988 arithmetically if both, the user given value as well as the variable
3989 content, can be parsed as numbers (integers).
3990 An unset variable is treated as the empty string.
3993 When the \*(OPal regular expression support is available, the additional
3999 They treat the right hand side as an extended regular expression that is
4000 matched case-insensitively and according to the active
4002 locale, meaning that strings in the locale encoding should be matched
4006 Conditions can be joined via AND-OR lists (where the AND operator is
4008 and the OR operator is
4010 which have equal precedence and will be evaluated with left
4011 associativity, thus using the same syntax that is known for the
4013 It is also possible to form groups of conditions and lists by enclosing
4014 them in pairs of brackets
4015 .Ql [\ \&.\&.\&.\ ] ,
4016 which may be interlocked within each other, and also be joined via
4020 The results of individual conditions and entire groups may be modified
4021 via unary operators: the unary operator
4023 will reverse the result.
4025 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4029 if $ttycharset == "UTF-8"
4030 echo *ttycharset* is set to UTF-8, case-insensitively
4034 echo These two variables are equal
4036 if $version-major >= 15
4037 echo Running a new version..
4038 if $features =@ +regex
4039 if $TERM =~ "^xterm\&.*"
4040 echo ..in an X terminal
4043 if [ [ true ] && [ [ ${debug} ] || [ $verbose ] ] ]
4046 if true && $debug || ${verbose}
4047 echo Left associativity, as is known from the shell
4049 if ! ! true && ! [ ! $debug && ! $verbose ]
4050 echo Unary operator support
4058 Without arguments the list of ignored header fields is shown,
4059 otherwise the given list of header fields is added to the ignore list:
4060 Header fields in the ignore list are not shown on the terminal when
4061 a message is displayed.
4062 To display a message in its entirety, use the commands
4073 Shows the names of all available commands, alphabetically sorted.
4074 If given any non-whitespace argument the list will be shown in the order
4075 in which command prefixes are searched.
4078 output is available.
4082 This command can be used to localize changes to variables, meaning that
4083 their state will be reverted to the former one once the covered scope
4085 It can only be used inside of macro definition blocks introduced by
4089 and is interpreted as a boolean (string, see
4090 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ) ;
4093 of an account is left once it is switched off again.
4094 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4095 define temporary_settings {
4110 enables change localization and calls
4112 which explicitly resets localization, then any value changes within
4114 will still be reverted by
4116 \*(ID Once the outermost level, the one which enabled localization
4117 first, is left, but no earlier, all adjustments will be unrolled.
4118 \*(ID Likewise worth knowing, if in this example
4120 changes to a different
4122 which sets some variables that are yet covered by localizations, their
4123 scope will be extended, and in fact leaving the
4125 will (thus) restore settings in (likely) global scope which actually
4126 were defined in a local, private context.
4130 Reply to messages that come in via known
4133 .Pf ( Ic mlsubscribe )
4134 mailing lists, or pretend to do so (see
4135 .Sx "Mailing lists" ) :
4138 functionality this will actively resort and even remove message
4139 recipients in order to generate a message that is supposed to be sent to
4141 For example it will also implicitly generate a
4142 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
4143 header if that seems useful, regardless of the setting of the variable
4150 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
4151 recipient's address (instead of in
4156 (m) Takes a (list of) recipient address(es) as (an) argument(s),
4157 or asks on standard input if none were given;
4158 then collects the remaining mail content and sends it out.
4162 (mb) The given message list is to be sent to
4164 when \*(UA is quit; this is the default action unless the
4167 \*(ID This command can only be used in a primary system mailbox (see
4172 Without any arguments the content of the MIME type cache will displayed.
4173 Otherwise each argument defines a complete MIME type specification of
4174 a type that shall be added (prepended) to the cache.
4175 In any event MIME type sources are loaded first as necessary \(en
4176 .Va mimetypes-load-control
4177 can be used to fine-tune which sources are actually loaded.
4178 Refer to the section on
4179 .Sx "The mime.types files"
4180 for more on MIME type specifications and this topic in general.
4181 MIME type unregistration and cache resets can be triggered with
4186 Without arguments the list of all currently defined mailing lists
4187 (and their attributes, if any) is shown; a more verbose listing will be
4188 produced if either of
4193 Otherwise all given arguments (which need not be quoted except for
4194 whitespace) will be added and henceforth be recognized as mailing lists.
4195 Mailing lists may be removed via the command
4198 If the \*(OPal regular expression support is available then mailing
4199 lists may also be specified as (extended) regular expressions (see
4205 Without arguments the list of all currently defined mailing lists which
4206 have a subscription attribute is shown; a more verbose listing will be
4207 produced if either of
4212 Otherwise this attribute will be set for all given mailing lists,
4213 newly creating them as necessary (as via
4215 Subscription attributes may be removed via the command
4224 but moves the messages to a file named after the local part of the
4225 sender address of the first message (instead of in
4232 but marks the messages for deletion if they were transferred
4239 but also displays ignored header fields and all MIME parts.
4247 on the given messages, even in non-interactive mode and as long as the
4248 standard output is a terminal.
4254 \*(OP When used without arguments or if
4256 has been given the content of the
4258 cache is shown, loading it first as necessary.
4261 then the cache will only be initialized and
4263 will remove its contents.
4264 Note that \*(UA will try to load the file only once, use
4265 .Ql Ic \&\&netrc Ns \:\0\:clear
4266 to unlock further attempts.
4271 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ;
4273 .Sx "The .netrc file"
4274 documents the file format in detail.
4278 Checks for new mail in the current folder without committing any changes
4280 If new mail is present, a message is shown.
4284 the headers of each new message are also shown.
4285 This command is not available for all mailbox types.
4293 Goes to the next message in sequence and types it.
4294 With an argument list, types the next matching message.
4308 If the current folder is accessed via a network connection, a
4310 command is sent, otherwise no operation is performed.
4316 but also displays ignored header fields and all MIME parts.
4324 on the given messages, even in non-interactive mode and as long as the
4325 standard output is a terminal.
4333 but also pipes ignored header fields and all parts of MIME
4334 .Ql multipart/alternative
4339 (pi) Takes a message list and a shell command
4340 and pipes the messages through the command.
4341 Without an argument the current message is piped through the command
4348 every message is followed by a formfeed character.
4369 (q) Terminates the session, saving all undeleted, unsaved messages in
4372 preserving all messages marked with
4376 or never referenced in the system
4378 box, and removing all other messages from the primary system mailbox.
4379 If new mail has arrived during the session,
4381 .Dq You have new mail
4383 If given while editing a mailbox file with the command line flag
4385 then the edit file is rewritten.
4386 A return to the shell is effected,
4387 unless the rewrite of edit file fails,
4388 in which case the user can escape with the exit command.
4402 Removes the named files or directories.
4403 If a name refer to a mailbox, e.g., a Maildir mailbox, then a mailbox
4404 type specific removal will be performed, deleting the complete mailbox.
4405 The user is asked for confirmation in interactive mode.
4409 Takes the name of an existing folder
4410 and the name for the new folder
4411 and renames the first to the second one.
4412 Both folders must be of the same type.
4416 (R) Reply to originator.
4417 Does not reply to other recipients of the original message.
4419 will exchange this command with
4423 is set the recipient address will be stripped from comments, names etc.
4427 (r) Take a message and group-responds to it by addressing the sender
4430 .Va followup-to-honour ,
4433 .Va recipients-in-cc
4434 influence response behaviour.
4437 offers special support for replying to mailing lists.
4440 is set recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names etc.
4453 but initiates a group-reply regardless of the value of
4460 but responds to the sender only regardless of the value of
4467 but does not add any header lines.
4468 This is not a way to hide the sender's identity,
4469 but useful for sending a message again to the same recipients.
4473 Takes a list of messages and a user name
4474 and sends each message to the named user.
4476 and related header fields are prepended to the new copy of the message.
4494 .It Ic respondsender
4500 (ret) Without arguments the list of retained header fields is shown,
4501 otherwise the given list of header fields is added to the retain list:
4502 Header fields in the retain list are shown on the terminal when
4503 a message is displayed, all other header fields are suppressed.
4504 To display a message in its entirety, use the commands
4513 takes precedence over the mentioned.
4519 but saves the messages in a file named after the local part of the
4520 sender of the first message instead of (in
4522 and) taking a filename argument.
4526 (s) Takes a message list and a filename and appends each message in turn
4527 to the end of the file.
4528 If no filename is given, the
4531 The filename in quotes, followed by the generated character count
4532 is echoed on the user's terminal.
4533 If editing a primary system mailbox the messages are marked for deletion.
4534 Filename interpretation as described for the
4536 command is performed.
4553 Header fields thus marked are filtered out when saving a message by
4555 or when automatically saving to
4557 This command should only be applied to header fields that do not contain
4558 information needed to decode the message,
4559 as MIME content fields do.
4571 Header fields thus marked are the only ones saved with a message when
4574 or when automatically saving to
4579 The use of this command is strongly discouraged since it may strip
4580 header fields that are needed to decode the message correctly.
4584 Takes a message specification (list) and displays a header summary of
4585 all matching messages, as via
4587 This command is an alias of
4590 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
4594 Takes a message list and marks all messages as having been read.
4598 (se) Without arguments this command shows all internal variables which
4599 are currently known to \*(UA (they have been set).
4600 A more verbose listing will be produced if either of
4604 are set, in which case variables may be preceded with a comment line
4605 that gives some context of what \*(UA knows about the given variable.
4607 Otherwise the given variables (and arguments) are set or adjusted.
4608 Arguments are of the form
4610 (no space before or after
4614 if there is no value, i.e., a boolean variable.
4615 Quotation marks may be placed around any part of the assignment
4616 statement to quote blanks or tabs, e.g.,
4618 .Dl set indentprefix='->'
4620 If an argument begins with
4624 the effect is the same as invoking the
4626 command with the remaining part of the variable
4627 .Pf ( Ql unset save ) .
4631 that is known to map to an environment variable will automatically cause
4632 updates in the program environment (unsetting a variable in the
4633 environment requires corresponding system support).
4634 Please use the command
4636 for further environmental control.
4641 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
4647 (sh) Invokes an interactive version of the shell.
4651 Without arguments the list of all currently defined shortcuts is
4653 Otherwise all given arguments (which need not be quoted except for
4654 whitespace) are treated as pairs of shortcuts and their expansions,
4655 creating new or changing already existing shortcuts, as necessary.
4656 Shortcuts may be removed via the command
4658 The expansion strings should be in the syntax that has been described
4667 but performs neither MIME decoding nor decryption, so that the raw
4668 message text is shown.
4672 (si) Shows the size in characters of each message of the given
4677 Shows the current sorting criterion when used without an argument.
4678 Otherwise creates a sorted representation of the current folder,
4681 command and the addressing modes such that they refer to messages in
4683 Message numbers are the same as in regular mode.
4687 a header summary in the new order is also displayed.
4688 Automatic folder sorting can be enabled by setting the
4690 variable, as in, e.g.,
4691 .Ql set autosort=thread .
4692 Possible sorting criterions are:
4694 .Bl -tag -compact -offset indent -width "subject"
4696 Sort the messages by their
4698 field, that is by the time they were sent.
4700 Sort messages by the value of their
4702 field, that is by the address of the sender.
4705 variable is set, the sender's real name (if any) is used.
4707 Sort the messages by their size.
4709 \*(OP Sort the message by their spam score, as has been classified by
4712 Sort the messages by their message status.
4714 Sort the messages by their subject.
4716 Create a threaded display.
4718 Sort messages by the value of their
4720 field, that is by the address of the recipient.
4723 variable is set, the recipient's real name (if any) is used.
4728 (so) The source command reads commands from the given file, which is
4729 subject to the usual filename expansions (see introductional words of
4731 If the given argument ends with a vertical bar
4733 then the argument will instead be interpreted as a shell command and
4734 \*(UA will read the output generated by it.
4735 Interpretation of commands read is stopped when an error is encountered.
4738 cannot be used from within macros that execute as
4739 .Va folder-hook Ns s
4742 i.e., it can only be called from macros that were
4749 (beside not supporting pipe syntax aka shell command input) is that
4750 this command will not generate an error if the given file argument
4751 cannot be opened successfully.
4755 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and clears their
4761 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and causes the
4763 to forget it has ever used them to train its Bayesian filter.
4764 Unless otherwise noted the
4766 flag of the message is inspected to chose whether a message shall be
4774 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and informs the Bayesian filter of the
4778 This also clears the
4780 flag of the messages in question.
4784 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and rates them using the configured
4785 .Va spam-interface ,
4786 without modifying the messages, but setting their
4788 flag as appropriate; because the spam rating headers are lost the rate
4789 will be forgotten once the mailbox is left.
4790 Refer to the manual section
4792 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
4796 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and sets their
4802 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and informs the Bayesian filter of the
4808 flag of the messages in question.
4817 Create a threaded representation of the current folder,
4818 i.\|e. indent messages that are replies to other messages in the header
4819 display and change the
4821 command and the addressing modes such that they refer to messages in the
4823 Message numbers are the same as in unthreaded mode.
4827 a header summary in threaded order is also displayed.
4841 (to) Takes a message list and types out the first
4843 lines of each message on the users' terminal.
4844 The only header fields that are displayed are
4851 will instead honour configured lists).
4852 It is possible to apply compression to what is displayed by setting
4854 Messages are decrypted and converted to the terminal character set
4859 (tou) Takes a message list and marks the messages for saving in
4861 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command,
4864 command will display the following message instead of the current one.
4870 but also displays out ignored header fields and all parts of MIME
4871 .Ql multipart/alternative
4876 (t) Takes a message list and types out each message on the users'
4882 For MIME multipart messages, all parts with a content type of
4886 are shown, the other are hidden except for their headers.
4887 Messages are decrypted and converted to the terminal character set
4892 Delete all given accounts.
4893 An error message is shown if a given account is not defined.
4896 will discard all existing accounts.
4900 (una) Takes a list of names defined by alias commands
4901 and discards the remembered groups of users.
4904 will discard all existing aliases.
4908 Takes a message list and marks each message as not having been answered.
4914 ing, specified by its context and input sequence, both of which may be
4915 specified as a wildcard (asterisk,
4919 will remove all bindings of all contexts.
4923 Only applicable to threaded mode.
4924 Takes a message list and makes the message and all replies to it visible
4925 in header summaries again.
4926 When a message becomes the current message,
4927 it is automatically made visible.
4928 Also when a message with collapsed replies is displayed,
4929 all of these are automatically uncollapsed.
4935 mapping for the given colour type (see
4937 for a list of types) and mapping; if the optional precondition argument
4938 is used then only the exact tuple of mapping and precondition is removed.
4941 will remove all mappings (no precondition allowed).
4943 .Sx "Coloured display"
4944 for the general picture.
4948 Deletes the custom headers given as arguments.
4951 will remove all custom headers.
4955 Undefine all given macros.
4956 An error message is shown if a given macro is not defined.
4959 will discard all existing macros.
4963 (u) Takes a message list and marks each message as not being deleted.
4967 Takes a message list and
4973 Takes a message list and marks each message as not being
4978 Removes the header field names from the list of ignored fields for the
4983 will remove all fields.
4987 Removes the header field names from the list of retained fields for the
4992 will remove all fields.
4996 Remove all the given command
5000 will remove all ghosts.
5004 Removes the header field names from the list of ignored fields.
5007 will remove all fields.
5011 Delete all given MIME types, e.g.,
5012 .Ql unmimetype text/plain
5013 will remove all registered specifications for the MIME type
5017 will discard all existing MIME types, just as will
5019 but which also reenables cache initialization via
5020 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
5024 Forget about all the given mailing lists.
5027 will remove all lists.
5032 .It Ic unmlsubscribe
5033 Remove the subscription attribute from all given mailing lists.
5036 will clear the attribute from all lists which have it set.
5047 Takes a message list and marks each message as not having been read.
5051 Removes the header field names from the list of retained fields.
5054 will remove all fields.
5058 Removes the header field names from the list of ignored fields for
5062 will remove all fields.
5066 Removes the header field names from the list of retained fields for
5070 will remove all fields.
5074 (uns) Takes a list of internal variable names and discards their
5075 remembered values; the reverse of
5082 Deletes the shortcut names given as arguments.
5085 will remove all shortcuts.
5089 Disable sorted or threaded mode
5095 return to normal message order and,
5099 displays a header summary.
5109 Decode the given URL-encoded string arguments and show the results.
5110 Note the resulting strings may not be valid in the current locale, see
5115 URL-encode the given arguments and show the results.
5116 Because the arguments effectively are in the character set of the
5117 current locale the results will vary accordingly unless the input solely
5118 consists of characters in the portable character set, see
5119 .Sx "Character sets" .
5123 Edit the values of or create the given variable(s) in the
5125 Boolean variables cannot be edited.
5129 This command produces the same output as the listing mode of
5133 ity adjustments, but only for the given variables.
5137 \*(OP Takes a message list and verifies each message.
5138 If a message is not a S/MIME signed message,
5139 verification will fail for it.
5140 The verification process checks if the message was signed using a valid
5142 if the message sender's email address matches one of those contained
5143 within the certificate,
5144 and if the message content has been altered.
5156 (v) Takes a message list and invokes the display editor on each message.
5157 Modified contents are discarded unless the
5163 (w) For conventional messages the body without all headers is written.
5164 The output is decrypted and converted to its native format as necessary.
5165 If the output file exists, the text is appended.
5166 If a message is in MIME multipart format its first part is written to
5167 the specified file as for conventional messages,
5168 and the user is asked for a filename to save each other part.
5169 For convience saving of each part may be skipped by giving an empty value;
5170 the same result can also be achieved by writing it to
5172 For the second and subsequent parts a leading
5174 character causes the part to be piped to the remainder of the user input
5175 interpreted as a shell command;
5176 otherwise the user input is expanded as usually for folders,
5177 e.g., tilde expansion is performed.
5178 In non-interactive mode, only the parts of the multipart message
5179 that have a filename given in the part header are written,
5180 the others are discarded.
5181 The original message is never marked for deletion in the originating
5184 the contents of the destination file are overwritten if the file
5186 No special handling of compressed files is performed.
5195 \*(UA presents message headers in windowfuls as described under the
5198 This command scrolls to the next window of messages.
5199 If an argument is given, it specifies the window to use.
5200 A number prefixed by
5204 indicates that the window is calculated in relation to the current position.
5205 A number without a prefix specifies an absolute window number,
5208 lets \*(UA scroll to the last window of messages.
5214 but scrolls to the next or previous window that contains at least one
5223 .\" .Sh TILDE ESCAPES {{{
5226 Here is a summary of the tilde escapes,
5227 which are used to perform special functions when composing messages.
5228 Tilde escapes are only recognized at the beginning of lines.
5231 is somewhat of a misnomer since the actual escape character can be
5232 changed by adjusting the option
5235 .Bl -tag -width ".Ic __ filename"
5238 Insert the string of text in the message prefaced by a single
5240 (If the escape character has been changed,
5241 that character must be doubled
5242 in order to send it at the beginning of a line.)
5245 .It Ic ~! Ar command
5246 Execute the indicated shell
5248 then return to the message.
5252 Same effect as typing the end-of-file character.
5255 .It Ic ~: Ar \*(UA-command Ns \0or Ic ~_ Ar \*(UA-command
5256 Execute the given \*(UA command.
5257 Not all commands, however, are allowed.
5261 Write a summary of command escapes.
5264 .It Ic ~< Ar filename
5269 .It Ic ~<! Ar command
5271 is executed using the shell.
5272 Its standard output is inserted into the message.
5275 .It Ic ~@ Op Ar filename...
5276 With no arguments, edit the attachment list interactively.
5277 If an attachment's file name is left empty,
5278 that attachment is deleted from the list.
5279 When the end of the attachment list is reached,
5280 \*(UA will ask for further attachments until an empty name is given.
5281 If a given file name solely consists of the number sign
5283 followed by a valid message number of the currently active mailbox, then
5284 the given message is attached as a MIME
5286 and the rest of this section does not apply.
5288 If character set conversion has been compiled into \*(UA, then this mode
5289 gives the user the option to specify input and output character sets,
5290 unless the file extension indicates binary content, in which case \*(UA
5291 asks whether this step shall be skipped for the attachment in question.
5292 If not skipped, then the charset that succeeds to represent the
5293 attachment data will be used in the
5295 MIME parameter of the mail message:
5297 .Bl -bullet -compact
5299 If input and output character sets are specified, then the conversion is
5300 performed on the fly.
5301 The user will be asked repeatedly until the desired conversion succeeds.
5303 If only an output character set is specified, then the input is assumed
5306 charset and will be converted to the given output charset on the fly.
5307 The user will be asked repeatedly until the desired conversion succeeds.
5309 If no character sets are specified at all then the algorithm that is
5310 documented in the section
5311 .Sx "Character sets"
5312 is applied, but directly and on the fly.
5313 The user will be asked repeatedly until the desired conversion succeeds.
5315 Finally, if an input-, but no output character set is specified, then no
5316 conversion is ever performed, but the
5318 MIME parameter value will still be set to the user input.
5320 The character set selection loop can be left by typing
5322 i.e., causing an interrupt.
5323 .\" \*(OU next sentence
5324 Note that before \*(UA version 15.0 this terminates the entire
5325 current attachment selection, not only the character set selection.
5328 Without character set conversion support, \*(UA will ask for the input
5329 character set only, and it'll set the
5331 MIME parameter value to the given input, if any;
5332 if no user input is seen then the
5334 character set will be used for the parameter value instead.
5335 Note that the file extension check isn't performed in this mode, since
5336 no conversion will take place anyway.
5338 Note that in non-interactive mode, for reproduceabilities sake, there
5339 will always be two questions for each attachment, regardless of whether
5340 character set conversion is available and what the file extension is.
5341 The first asks for the filename, and the second asks for the input
5342 character set to be passed through to the corresponding MIME parameter;
5343 no conversion will be tried if there is input to the latter question,
5344 otherwise the usual conversion algorithm, as above, is applied.
5345 For message attachments, the answer to the second question is completely
5350 arguments are specified for the
5352 command they are treated as a file list of
5354 -style quoted arguments, optionally also separated by commas, which are
5355 expanded and then appended to the existing list of message attachments.
5356 Message attachments can only be added via the first method.
5357 In this mode the (text) attachments are assumed to be in
5359 encoding, and will be evaluated as documented in the section
5360 .Sx "Character sets" .
5364 Inserts the string contained in the
5367 .Ql Ic ~i Ns \0Sign ) .
5368 The escape sequences tabulator
5376 Inserts the string contained in the
5379 .Ql Ic ~i Ns \0sign ) .
5380 The escape sequences tabulator
5387 .It Ic ~b Ar name ...
5388 Add the given names to the list of blind carbon copy recipients.
5391 .It Ic ~c Ar name ...
5392 Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients.
5396 Read the file specified by the
5398 variable into the message.
5402 Invoke the text editor on the message collected so far.
5403 After the editing session is finished,
5404 the user may continue appending text to the message.
5407 .It Ic ~F Ar messages
5408 Read the named messages into the message being sent, including all
5409 message headers and MIME parts.
5410 If no messages are specified, read in the current message.
5413 .It Ic ~f Ar messages
5414 Read the named messages into the message being sent.
5415 If no messages are specified, read in the current message.
5419 lists are used to modify the message headers.
5420 For MIME multipart messages,
5421 only the first displayable part is included.
5425 Edit the message header fields
5430 by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
5431 The default values for these fields originate from the
5439 Edit the message header fields
5445 by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
5448 .It Ic ~i Ar variable
5449 Insert the value of the specified variable into the message,
5450 adding a newline character at the end.
5451 The message remains unaltered if the variable is unset or empty.
5452 The escape sequences tabulator
5459 .It Ic ~M Ar messages
5460 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
5463 If no messages are specified, read the current message.
5466 .It Ic ~m Ar messages
5467 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
5470 If no messages are specified, read the current message.
5474 lists are used to modify the message headers.
5475 For MIME multipart messages,
5476 only the first displayable part is included.
5480 Display the message collected so far,
5481 prefaced by the message header fields
5482 and followed by the attachment list, if any.
5486 Abort the message being sent,
5487 copying it to the file specified by the
5494 .It Ic ~R Ar filename
5495 Read the named file into the message, indented by
5499 .It Ic ~r Ar filename
5500 Read the named file into the message.
5504 Cause the named string to become the current subject field.
5507 .It Ic ~t Ar name ...
5508 Add the given name(s) to the direct recipient list.
5511 .It Ic ~U Ar messages
5512 Read in the given / current message(s) excluding all headers, indented by
5516 .It Ic ~u Ar messages
5517 Read in the given / current message(s), excluding all headers.
5521 Invoke an alternate editor (defined by the
5523 option) on the message collected so far.
5524 Usually, the alternate editor will be a screen editor.
5525 After the editor is quit,
5526 the user may resume appending text to the end of the message.
5529 .It Ic ~w Ar filename
5530 Write the message onto the named file.
5532 the message is appended to it.
5538 except that the message is not saved at all.
5541 .It Ic ~| Ar command
5542 Pipe the message through the specified filter command.
5543 If the command gives no output or terminates abnormally,
5544 retain the original text of the message.
5547 is often used as a rejustifying filter.
5552 .\" .Sh INTERNAL VARIABLES {{{
5553 .Sh "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
5555 Internal \*(UA variables are controlled via the
5559 commands; prefixing a variable name with the string
5563 has the same effect as using
5569 Creation or editing of variables can be performed in the
5574 will give more insight on the given variable(s), and
5576 when called without arguments, will show a listing of all variables.
5577 Some well-known variables will also become inherited from the
5580 implicitly, others can be explicitly imported with the command
5582 and henceforth share the said properties.
5585 Two different kind of internal variables exist.
5586 There are boolean variables, which can only be in one of the two states
5590 and value variables with a(n optional) string value.
5591 For the latter proper quoting is necessary upon assignment time, the
5592 introduction of the section
5594 documents the supported quoting rules.
5596 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5597 wysh set one=val\e 1 two="val 2" \e
5598 three='val "3"' four=$'val \e'4\e''
5599 varshow one two three four
5600 unset one two three four
5604 Dependent upon the actual option the string values will be interpreted
5605 as numbers, colour names, normal text etc., but there also exists
5606 a special kind of string value, the
5607 .Dq boolean string ,
5608 which must either be a decimal integer (in which case
5612 and any other value is true) or any of the (case-insensitive) strings
5618 for a false boolean and
5624 for a true boolean; a special kind of boolean string is the
5626 which is a boolean string that can optionally be prefixed with the
5627 (case-insensitive) term
5631 which causes prompting of the user in interactive mode, with the given
5632 boolean as the default value.
5634 .\" .Ss "Initial settings" {{{
5635 .\" (Keep in SYNC: ./nail.h:okeys, ./nail.rc, ./nail.1:"Initial settings")
5636 .Ss "Initial Settings"
5638 The standard POSIX 2008/Cor 1-2013 mandates the following initial
5644 .Pf no Va autoprint ,
5658 .Pf no Va ignoreeof ,
5660 .Pf no Va keepsave ,
5662 .Pf no Va outfolder ,
5667 (note that \*(UA deviates from the standard by using
5671 special prompt escape results in
5679 .Pf no Va sendwait ,
5688 Notes: \*(UA doesn't support the
5690 variable \(en use command line options or
5692 to pass options through to a
5694 And the default global
5696 file (which is loaded unless the
5698 command line flag has been used or the
5699 .Ev NAIL_NO_SYSTEM_RC
5700 environment variable is set) bends those initial settings a bit, e.g.,
5701 it sets the variables
5706 to name a few, calls
5708 etc., and should thus be taken into account.
5711 .\" .Ss "Variables" {{{
5714 .Bl -tag -width ".It Va _utoprin_"
5716 .It Va add-file-recipients
5717 \*(BO When file or pipe recipients have been specified,
5718 mention them in the corresponding address fields of the message instead
5719 of silently stripping them from their recipient list.
5720 By default such addressees are not mentioned.
5724 \*(BO Causes only the local part to be evaluated
5725 when comparing addresses.
5729 \*(BO Causes messages saved in
5731 to be appended to the end rather than prepended.
5732 This should always be set.
5736 \*(BO Causes \*(UA to prompt for the subject of each message sent.
5737 If the user responds with simply a newline,
5738 no subject field will be sent.
5742 \*(BO Causes the prompts for
5746 lists to appear after the message has been edited.
5750 \*(BO If set, \*(UA asks for files to attach at the end of each message,
5751 shall the list be found empty at that time.
5752 An empty line finalizes the list.
5756 \*(BO Causes the user to be prompted for carbon copy recipients
5757 (at the end of each message if
5761 are set) shall the list be found empty (at that time).
5762 An empty line finalizes the list.
5766 \*(BO Causes the user to be prompted for blind carbon copy
5767 recipients (at the end of each message if
5771 are set) shall the list be found empty (at that time).
5772 An empty line finalizes the list.
5776 \*(BO\*(OP Causes the user to be prompted if the message is to be
5777 signed at the end of each message.
5780 variable is ignored when this variable is set.
5784 \*(BO Alternative name for
5791 .It Va attachment-ask-content-description , \
5792 attachment-ask-content-disposition , \
5793 attachment-ask-content-id , \
5794 attachment-ask-content-type
5795 \*(BO If set then the user will be prompted for some attachment
5796 information when editing the attachment list.
5797 It is advisable to not use these but for the first of the variables;
5798 even for that it has to be noted that the data is used
5804 A sequence of characters to display in the
5808 as shown in the display of
5810 each for one type of messages (see
5811 .Sx "Message states" ) ,
5812 with the default being
5815 .Ql NU\ \ *HMFAT+\-$~
5818 variable is set, in the following order:
5820 .Bl -tag -compact -offset indent -width ".It Ql _"
5842 start of a collapsed thread.
5844 an uncollapsed thread (TODO ignored for now).
5848 classified as possible spam.
5854 Specifies a list of recipients to which a blind carbon copy of each
5855 outgoing message will be sent automatically.
5859 Specifies a list of recipients to which a carbon copy of each outgoing
5860 message will be sent automatically.
5864 \*(BO Causes threads to be collapsed automatically when threaded mode
5871 \*(BO Causes the delete command to behave like
5873 thus, after deleting a message the next one will be typed automatically.
5877 \*(BO\*(OB Causes threaded mode (see the
5879 command) to be entered automatically when a folder is opened.
5881 .Ql autosort=thread .
5885 Causes sorted mode (see the
5887 command) to be entered automatically with the value of this option as
5888 sorting method when a folder is opened, e.g.,
5889 .Ql set autosort=thread .
5893 \*(BO Enables the substitution of
5895 by the contents of the last command line in shell escapes.
5898 .It Va batch-exit-on-error
5899 \*(BO If the batch mode has been enabled via the
5901 command line option, then this variable will be consulted whenever \*(UA
5902 completes one operation (returns to the command prompt); if it is set
5903 then \*(UA will terminate if the last operation generated an error.
5907 \*(OP Terminals generate multi-byte sequences for certain forms of
5908 input, for example for function and other special keys.
5909 Some terminals however do not write these multi-byte sequences as
5910 a whole, but byte-by-byte, and the latter is what \*(UA actually reads.
5911 This variable specifies the timeout in milliseconds that the MLE (see
5912 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
5913 waits for more bytes to arrive unless it considers a sequence
5919 \*(BO Causes automatic display of a header summary after executing a
5921 command, and thus complements the standard variable
5923 which controls header summary display on program startup.
5924 It is only meaningful if
5930 \*(BO Sets some cosmetical features to traditional BSD style;
5931 has the same affect as setting
5933 and all other variables prefixed with
5935 it also changes the meaning of the \*(UA specific
5938 escape sequence and changes behaviour of
5940 (which doesn't exist in BSD).
5944 \*(BO Changes the letters shown in the first column of a header
5945 summary to traditional BSD style.
5949 \*(BO Changes the display of columns in a header summary to traditional
5954 \*(BO Changes some informational messages to traditional BSD style.
5960 field to appear immediately after the
5962 field in message headers and with the
5964 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
5968 The value that should appear in the
5972 MIME header fields when no character set conversion of the message data
5974 This defaults to US-ASCII, and the chosen character set should be
5975 US-ASCII compatible.
5979 \*(OP The default 8-bit character set that is used as an implicit last
5980 member of the variable
5982 This defaults to UTF-8.
5983 If no character set conversion capabilities are available in \*(UA then
5984 the only supported character set is
5986 Refer to the section
5987 .Sx "Character sets"
5988 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
5991 .It Va charset-unknown-8bit
5992 \*(OP RFC 1428 specifies conditions when internet mail gateways shall
5994 the content of a mail message by using a character set with the name
5996 Because of the unclassified nature of this character set \*(UA will not
5997 be capable to convert this character set to any other character set.
5998 If this variable is set any message part which uses the character set
6000 is assumed to really be in the character set given in the value,
6001 otherwise the (final) value of
6003 is used for this purpose.
6005 This variable will also be taken into account if a MIME type (see
6006 .Sx "The mime.types files" )
6007 of a MIME message part that uses the
6009 character set is forcefully treated as text.
6013 The default value for the
6018 .It Va colour-disable
6019 \*(BO\*(OP Forcefully disable usage of colours.
6020 Also see the section
6021 .Sx "Coloured display" .
6025 \*(BO\*(OP Whether colour shall be used for output that is paged through
6027 Note that pagers may need special flags, e.g.,
6035 in order to support colours.
6036 Often doing manual adjustments is unnecessary since \*(UA may perform
6037 adjustments dependend on the value of the environment variable
6039 (see there for more).
6043 In a(n interactive) terminal session, then if this valued option is set
6044 it'll be used as a threshold to determine how many lines the given
6045 output has to span before it will be displayed via the configured
6049 can be forced by setting this to the value
6051 setting it without a value will deduce the current height of the
6052 terminal screen to compute the treshold (see
6060 \*(OB A variable counterpart of the
6062 command (see there for documentation), interpreted as a comma-separated
6063 list of custom headers to be injected, to include commas in the header
6064 bodies escape them with reverse solidus, e.g.:
6066 .Dl set customhdr='Hdr1: Body1-1\e, Body1-2, Hdr2: Body2'
6072 the message date, if any is to be displayed according to the format of
6074 is by default taken from the
6076 line of the message.
6077 If this variable is set the date as given in the
6079 header field is used instead, converted to local time.
6080 To control the display format of the date assign a valid
6085 format should not be used, because \*(UA doesn't take embedded newlines
6086 into account when calculating how many lines fit onto the screen.)
6088 .Va datefield-markout-older .
6091 .It Va datefield-markout-older
6092 This option, when set in addition to
6096 messages (concept is rather comparable to the
6098 option of the POSIX utility
6100 The content interpretation is identical to
6105 \*(BO Enables debug messages and obsoletion warnings, disables the
6106 actual delivery of messages and also implies
6112 .It Va disposition-notification-send
6114 .Ql Disposition-Notification-To:
6115 header (RFC 3798) with the message.
6119 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-HOST
6121 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
6122 .\" for SMTP accounts on a specific host.
6123 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-USER@HOST
6125 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
6126 .\"for a specific account.
6130 \*(BO When dot is set, a period
6132 on a line by itself during message input in (interactive) compose mode
6133 will be treated as end-of-message (in addition to the normal end-of-file
6142 .It Va dotlock-ignore-error
6143 \*(BO\*(OP Synchronization of mailboxes which \*(UA treats as system
6144 mailboxes (see the command
6146 will be protected with so-called dotlock files\(emthe traditional mail
6147 spool file locking method\(emin addition to system file locking.
6148 Because \*(UA ships with a privilege-separated dotlock creation program
6149 that should always be able to create such a dotlock file there is no
6150 good reason to ignore dotlock file creation errors, and thus these are
6151 fatal unless this variable is set.
6155 \*(BO If this variable is set then the editor is started automatically
6156 when a message is composed in interactive mode, as if the
6162 variable is implied for this automatically spawned editor session.
6166 \*(BO When a message is edited while being composed,
6167 its header is included in the editable text.
6177 fields are accepted within the header, other fields are ignored.
6181 \*(BO When entering interactive mode \*(UA normally writes
6182 .Dq \&No mail for user
6183 and exits immediately if a mailbox is empty or doesn't exist.
6184 If this option is set \*(UA starts even with an empty or nonexistent
6185 mailbox (the latter behaviour furtherly depends upon
6191 Suggestion for the MIME encoding to use in outgoing text messages
6193 Valid values are the default
6194 .Ql quoted-printable ,
6199 may cause problems when transferring mail messages over channels that
6200 are not ESMTP (RFC 1869) compliant.
6201 If there is no need to encode a message,
6203 transfer mode is always used regardless of this variable.
6204 Binary data is always encoded as
6209 If defined, the first character of this option
6210 gives the character to use in place of
6213 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
6217 If not set then file and command pipeline targets are not allowed,
6218 and any such address will be filtered out, giving a warning message.
6219 If set without a value then all possible recipient address
6220 specifications will be accepted \(en see the section
6221 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode"
6223 To accept them, but only in interactive mode, or when tilde commands
6224 were enabled explicitly by using one of the command line options
6228 set this to the (case-insensitive) value
6230 (note right now this is actually like setting
6231 .Ql restrict,-all,+name,+addr ) .
6233 In fact the value is interpreted as a comma-separated list of values.
6236 then the existence of disallowed specifications is treated as a hard
6237 send error instead of only filtering them out.
6238 The remaining values specify whether a specific type of recipient
6239 address specification is allowed (optionally indicated by a plus sign
6241 prefix) or disallowed (prefixed with a hyphen
6245 addresses all possible address specifications,
6249 command pipeline targets,
6251 plain user names and (MTA) aliases (\*(OB
6253 may be used as an alternative syntax to
6258 These kind of values are interpreted in the given order, so that
6259 .Ql restrict,\:fail,\:+file,\:-all,\:+addr
6260 will cause hard errors for any non-network address recipient address
6261 unless \*(UA is in interactive mode or has been started with the
6265 command line option; in the latter case(s) any address may be used, then.
6269 Unless this variable is set additional
6271 (Mail-Transfer-Agent)
6272 arguments from the command line, as can be given after a
6274 separator, are ignored due to safety reasons.
6275 However, if set to the special (case-insensitive) value
6277 then the presence of additional MTA arguments is treated as a hard
6278 error that causes \*(UA to exit with failure status.
6279 A lesser strict variant is the otherwise identical
6281 which does accept such arguments in interactive mode, or if tilde
6282 commands were enabled explicitly by using one of the command line options
6289 \*(RO String giving a list of features \*(UA, preceded with a plus-sign
6291 if the feature is available, and a minus-sign
6294 The output of the command
6296 will include this information.
6300 \*(BO This option reverses the meanings of a set of reply commands,
6301 turning the lowercase variants, which by default address all recipients
6302 included in the header of a message
6303 .Pf ( Ic reply , respond , followup )
6304 into the uppercase variants, which by default address the sender only
6305 .Pf ( Ic Reply , Respond , Followup )
6308 .Ic replysender , respondsender , followupsender
6310 .Ic replyall , respondall , followupall
6311 are not affected by the current setting of
6316 .It Va file-hook-load-EXTENSION , file-hook-save-EXTENSION
6317 It is possible to install file hooks which will be used by the
6319 command in order to be able to transparently handle (through an
6320 intermediate temporary file) files with specific
6322 s: the variable values can include shell snippets and are expected to
6323 write data to standard output / read data from standard input,
6325 \*(ID The variables may not be changed while there is a mailbox
6327 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6328 set file-hook-load-xy='echo >&2 XY-LOAD; gzip -cd' \e
6329 file-hook-save-xy='echo >&2 XY-SAVE; gzip -c' \e
6330 record=+null-sent.xy
6335 The default path under which mailboxes are to be saved:
6336 file names that begin with the plus-sign
6338 will be expanded by prefixing them with the value of this variable.
6339 The same special syntax conventions as documented for the
6341 command may be used; if the non-empty value doesn't start with a solidus
6345 will be prefixed automatically.
6346 If unset or the empty string any
6348 prefixing file names will remain unexpanded.
6352 This variable can be set to the name of a
6354 macro which will be called whenever a
6357 The macro will also be invoked when new mail arrives,
6358 but message lists for commands executed from the macro
6359 only include newly arrived messages then.
6361 are activated by default in a folder hook, causing the covered settings
6362 to be reverted once the folder is left again.
6365 Macro behaviour, including option localization, will change in v15.
6366 Please be aware of that and possibly embed a version check in a resource
6370 .It Va folder-hook-FOLDER
6375 Unlike other folder specifications, the fully expanded name of a folder,
6376 without metacharacters, is used to avoid ambiguities.
6377 However, if the mailbox resides under
6381 specification is tried in addition, e.g., if
6385 (and thus relative to the user's home directory) then
6386 .Pa /home/usr1/mail/sent
6388 .Ql folder-hook-/home/usr1/mail/sent
6389 first, but then followed by
6390 .Ql folder-hook-+sent .
6394 \*(BO Controls whether a
6395 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
6396 header is generated when sending messages to known mailing lists.
6398 .Va followup-to-honour
6400 .Ic mlist , mlsubscribe , reply
6405 .It Va followup-to-honour
6407 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
6408 header is honoured when group-replying to a message via
6412 This is a quadoption; if set without a value it defaults to
6422 .It Va forward-as-attachment
6423 \*(BO Original messages are normally sent as inline text with the
6426 and only the first part of a multipart message is included.
6427 With this option messages are sent as unmodified MIME
6429 attachments with all of their parts included.
6433 The address (or a list of addresses) to put into the
6435 field of the message header, quoting RFC 5322:
6436 the author(s) of the message, that is, the mailbox(es) of the person(s)
6437 or system(s) responsible for the writing of the message.
6440 ing to messages these addresses are handled as if they were in the
6444 If the machine's hostname is not valid at the Internet (for example at
6445 a dialup machine) then either this variable or
6447 (\*(IN and with a defined SMTP protocol in
6450 adds even more fine-tuning capabilities),
6454 contains more than one address,
6457 variable is required (according to the standard RFC 5322).
6461 \*(BO When replying to or forwarding a message \*(UA normally removes
6462 the comment and name parts of email addresses.
6463 If this variable is set such stripping is not performed,
6464 and comments, names etc. are retained.
6468 The string to put before the text of a message with the
6472 .Va forward-as-attachment
6475 .Dq -------- Original Message --------
6476 if unset; No heading is put if it is set to the empty string.
6480 \*(BO Causes the header summary to be written at startup and after
6481 commands that affect the number of messages or the order of messages in
6482 the current folder; enabled by default.
6483 The command line option
6489 complements this and controls header summary display on folder changes.
6494 A format string to use for the summary of
6496 similar to the ones used for
6499 Format specifiers in the given string start with a percent character
6501 and may be followed by an optional decimal number indicating the field
6502 width \(em if that is negative, the field is to be left-aligned.
6503 Valid format specifiers are:
6506 .Bl -tag -compact -offset indent -width "_%%_"
6508 A plain percent character.
6511 a space character but for the current message
6513 for which it expands to
6517 a space character but for the current message
6519 for which it expands to
6522 \*(OP The spam score of the message, as has been classified via the
6525 Shows only a replacement character if there is no spam support.
6527 Message attribute character (status flag); the actual content can be
6531 The date when the message was received, or the date found in the
6535 variable is set (optionally to a date display format string).
6537 The indenting level in threaded mode.
6539 The address of the message sender.
6541 The message thread tree structure.
6542 (Note that this format doesn't support a field width.)
6544 The number of lines of the message, if available.
6548 The number of octets (bytes) in the message, if available.
6550 Message subject (if any).
6552 Message subject (if any) in double quotes.
6554 Message recipient flags: is the addressee of the message a known or
6555 subscribed mailing list \(en see
6560 The position in threaded/sorted order.
6564 .Ql %>\&%a\&%m\ %-18f\ %16d\ %4l/%\-5o\ %i%-s ,
6566 .Ql %>\&%a\&%m\ %20-f\ \ %16d\ %3l/%\-5o\ %i%-S
6577 .It Va headline-bidi
6578 Bidirectional text requires special treatment when displaying headers,
6579 because numbers (in dates or for file sizes etc.) will not affect the
6580 current text direction, in effect resulting in ugly line layouts when
6581 arabic or other right-to-left text is to be displayed.
6582 On the other hand only a minority of terminals is capable to correctly
6583 handle direction changes, so that user interaction is necessary for
6585 Note that extended host system support is required nonetheless, e.g.,
6586 detection of the terminal character set is one precondition;
6587 and this feature only works in an Unicode (i.e., UTF-8) locale.
6589 In general setting this variable will cause \*(UA to encapsulate text
6590 fields that may occur when displaying
6592 (and some other fields, like dynamic expansions in
6594 with special Unicode control sequences;
6595 it is possible to fine-tune the terminal support level by assigning
6597 no value (or any value other than
6602 will make \*(UA assume that the terminal is capable to properly deal
6603 with Unicode version 6.3, in which case text is embedded in a pair of
6604 U+2068 (FIRST STRONG ISOLATE) and U+2069 (POP DIRECTIONAL ISOLATE)
6606 In addition no space on the line is reserved for these characters.
6608 Weaker support is chosen by using the value
6610 (Unicode 6.3, but reserve the room of two spaces for writing the control
6611 sequences onto the line).
6616 select Unicode 1.1 support (U+200E, LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK); the latter
6617 again reserves room for two spaces in addition.
6621 \*(OP If a line editor is available then this can be set to
6622 name the (expandable) path of the location of a permanent history file.
6625 .It Va history-gabby
6626 \*(BO\*(OP Add more entries to the history as is normally done.
6629 .It Va history-gabby-persist
6630 \*(BO\*(OP \*(UA's own MLE will not save the additional
6632 entries in persistent storage unless this variable is set.
6633 On the other hand it will not loose the knowledge of whether
6634 a persistent entry was gabby or not.
6640 \*(OP If a line editor is available this value restricts the
6641 amount of history entries that are saved into a set and valid
6643 A value of less than 0 disables this feature;
6644 note that loading and incorporation of
6646 upon program startup can also be suppressed by doing this.
6647 If unset or 0, a default value will be used.
6648 Dependent on the available line editor this will also define the
6649 number of history entries in memory;
6650 it is also editor-specific whether runtime updates of this value will
6655 \*(BO This option is used to hold messages in the system
6657 box, and it is set by default.
6661 Use this string as hostname when expanding local addresses instead of
6662 the value obtained from
6671 Note that when SMTP transport is not used (via
6673 then it is normally the responsibility of the MTA to create these
6674 fields, \*(IN in conjunction with SMTP however
6676 also influences the results:
6677 you should produce some test messages with the desired combination of
6686 \*(BO\*(OP Can be used to turn off the automatic conversion of domain
6687 names according to the rules of IDNA (internationalized domain names
6689 Since the IDNA code assumes that domain names are specified with the
6691 character set, an UTF-8 locale charset is required to represent all
6692 possible international domain names (before conversion, that is).
6696 \*(BO Ignore interrupt signals from the terminal while entering
6697 messages; instead echo them as
6699 characters and discard the current line.
6703 \*(BO Ignore end-of-file conditions
6704 .Pf ( Ql control-D )
6705 in compose mode on message input and in interactive command input.
6706 If set an interactive command input session can only be left by
6707 explicitly using one of the commands
6711 and message input in compose mode can only be terminated by entering
6714 on a line by itself or by using the
6716 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" ;
6718 overrides a setting of
6730 option for indenting messages,
6731 in place of the normal tabulator character
6733 which is the default.
6734 Be sure to quote the value if it contains spaces or tabs.
6738 \*(BO If set, an empty mailbox file is not removed.
6739 This may improve the interoperability with other mail user agents
6740 when using a common folder directory, and prevents malicious users
6741 from creating fake mailboxes in a world-writable spool directory.
6742 Note this only applies to local regular (MBOX) files, other mailbox
6743 types will never be removed.
6746 .It Va keep-content-length
6747 \*(BO When (editing messages and) writing
6749 mailbox files \*(UA can be told to keep the
6753 header fields that some MUAs generate by setting this variable.
6754 Since \*(UA does neither use nor update these non-standardized header
6755 fields (which in itself shows one of their conceptual problems),
6756 stripping them should increase interoperability in between MUAs that
6757 work with with same mailbox files.
6758 Note that, if this is not set but
6759 .Va writebackedited ,
6760 as below, is, a possibly performed automatic stripping of these header
6761 fields already marks the message as being modified.
6765 \*(BO When a message is saved it is usually discarded from the
6766 originating folder when \*(UA is quit.
6767 Setting this option causes all saved message to be retained.
6770 .It Va line-editor-disable
6771 \*(BO Turn off any enhanced line editing capabilities (see
6772 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor"
6776 .It Va line-editor-no-defaults
6777 \*(BO\*(OP Do not establish any default key binding.
6781 \*(BO When a message is replied to and this variable is set,
6782 it is marked as having been answered.
6783 This mark has no technical meaning in the mail system;
6784 it just causes messages to be marked in the header summary,
6785 and makes them specially addressable.
6789 \*(BO Internal development variable.
6792 .It Va message-id-disable
6793 \*(BO By setting this option the generation of
6795 can be completely suppressed, effectively leaving this task up to the
6797 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) or the SMTP server.
6798 (According to RFC 5321 your SMTP server is not required to add this
6799 field by itself, so you should ensure that it accepts messages without a
6803 .It Va message-inject-head
6804 A string to put at the beginning of each new message.
6805 The escape sequences tabulator
6812 .It Va message-inject-tail
6813 A string to put at the end of each new message.
6814 The escape sequences tabulator
6822 \*(BO Usually, when an
6824 expansion contains the sender, the sender is removed from the expansion.
6825 Setting this option suppresses these removals.
6830 option to be passed through to the
6832 (Mail-Transfer-Agent); though most of the modern MTAs no longer document
6833 this flag, no MTA is known which doesn't support it (for historical
6837 .It Va mime-allow-text-controls
6838 \*(BO When sending messages, each part of the message is MIME-inspected
6839 in order to classify the
6842 .Ql Content-Transfer-Encoding:
6845 that is required to send this part over mail transport, i.e.,
6846 a computation rather similar to what the
6848 command produces when used with the
6852 This classification however treats text files which are encoded in
6853 UTF-16 (seen for HTML files) and similar character sets as binary
6854 octet-streams, forcefully changing any
6859 .Ql application/octet-stream :
6860 If that actually happens a yet unset charset MIME parameter is set to
6862 effectively making it impossible for the receiving MUA to automatically
6863 interpret the contents of the part.
6865 If this option is set, and the data was unambiguously identified as text
6866 data at first glance (by a
6870 file extension), then the original
6872 will not be overwritten.
6875 .It Va mime-alternative-favour-rich
6876 \*(BO If this variable is set then rich MIME alternative parts (e.g.,
6877 HTML) will be preferred in favour of included plain text versions when
6878 displaying messages, provided that a handler exists which produces
6879 output that can be (re)integrated into \*(UA's normal visual display.
6880 (E.g., at the time of this writing some newsletters ship their full
6881 content only in the rich HTML part, whereas the plain text part only
6882 contains topic subjects.)
6885 .It Va mime-counter-evidence
6888 field is used to decide how to handle MIME parts.
6889 Some MUAs however don't use
6891 or a similar mechanism to correctly classify content, but simply specify
6892 .Ql application/octet-stream ,
6893 even for plain text attachments like
6895 If this variable is set then \*(UA will try to classify such MIME
6896 message parts on its own, if possible, for example via a possibly
6897 existent attachment filename.
6898 A non-empty value may also be given, in which case a number is expected,
6899 actually a carrier of bits.
6900 Creating the bit-carrying number is a simple addition:
6901 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6902 ? !echo Value should be set to $((2 + 4 + 8))
6903 Value should be set to 14
6906 .Bl -bullet -compact
6908 If bit two is set (2) then the detected
6910 content-type will be carried along with the message and be used for
6912 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
6913 is responsible for the MIME part, shall that question arise;
6914 when displaying such a MIME part the part-info will indicate the
6915 overridden content-type by showing a plus-sign
6918 If bit three is set (4) then the counter-evidence is always produced
6919 and a positive result will be used as the MIME type, even forcefully
6920 overriding the parts given MIME type.
6922 If bit four is set (8) then as a last resort the actual content of
6923 .Ql application/octet-stream
6924 parts will be inspected, so that data which looks like plain text can be
6929 .It Va mimetypes-load-control
6930 This option can be used to control which of the
6932 databases are loaded by \*(UA, as furtherly described in the section
6933 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
6936 is part of the option value, then the user's personal
6938 file will be loaded (if it exists); likewise the letter
6940 controls loading of the system wide
6941 .Pa /etc/mime.types ;
6942 directives found in the user file take precedence, letter matching is
6944 If this option is not set \*(UA will try to load both files.
6945 Incorporation of the \*(UA-builtin MIME types cannot be suppressed,
6946 but they will be matched last.
6948 More sources can be specified by using a different syntax: if the
6949 value string contains an equals sign
6951 then it is instead parsed as a comma-separated list of the described
6954 pairs; the given filenames will be expanded and loaded, and their
6955 content may use the extended syntax that is described in the section
6956 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
6957 Directives found in such files always take precedence (are prepended to
6958 the MIME type cache).
6963 To choose an alternate Mail-Transfer-Agent, set this option to either
6964 the full pathname of an executable (optionally prefixed with a
6966 protocol indicator), or \*(OPally a SMTP protocol URL, e.g., \*(IN
6968 .Dl smtps?://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
6971 .Ql [smtp://]server[:port] . )
6972 The default has been chosen at compie time.
6973 All supported data transfers are executed in child processes, which
6974 run asynchronously, and without supervision, unless either the
6979 If such a child receives a TERM signal, it will abort and
6986 For a file-based MTA it may be necessary to set
6988 in in order to choose the right target of a modern
6991 It will be passed command line arguments from several possible sources:
6994 if set, from the command line if given and the variable
6997 Argument processing of the MTA will be terminated with a
7002 The otherwise occurring implicit usage of the following MTA command
7003 line arguments can be disabled by setting the boolean option
7004 .Va mta-no-default-arguments
7005 (which will also disable passing
7009 (for not treating a line with only a dot
7011 character as the end of input),
7019 option is set); in conjunction with the
7021 command line option \*(UA will also pass
7027 \*(OP \*(UA can send mail over SMTP network connections to a single
7028 defined SMTP smarthost, the access URL of which has to be assigned to
7030 To use this mode it is helpful to read
7031 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
7032 It may be necessary to set the
7034 variable in order to use a specific combination of
7039 with some mail providers.
7042 .Bl -bullet -compact
7044 The plain SMTP protocol (RFC 5321) that normally lives on the
7045 server port 25 and requires setting the
7046 .Va smtp-use-starttls
7047 variable to enter a SSL/TLS encrypted session state.
7048 Assign a value like \*(IN
7049 .Ql smtp://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
7051 .Ql smtp://server[:port] )
7052 to choose this protocol.
7054 The so-called SMTPS which is supposed to live on server port 465
7055 and is automatically SSL/TLS secured.
7056 Unfortunately it never became a standardized protocol and may thus not
7057 be supported by your hosts network service database
7058 \(en in fact the port number has already been reassigned to other
7061 SMTPS is nonetheless a commonly offered protocol and thus can be
7062 chosen by assigning a value like \*(IN
7063 .Ql smtps://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
7065 .Ql smtps://server[:port] ) ;
7066 due to the mentioned problems it is usually necessary to explicitly
7071 Finally there is the SUBMISSION protocol (RFC 6409), which usually
7072 lives on server port 587 and is practically identically to the SMTP
7073 protocol from \*(UA's point of view beside that; it requires setting the
7074 .Va smtp-use-starttls
7075 variable to enter a SSL/TLS secured session state.
7076 Assign a value like \*(IN
7077 .Ql submission://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
7079 .Ql submission://server[:port] ) .
7084 .It Va mta-arguments
7085 Arguments to pass through to a file-based
7087 can be given via this variable, the content of which will be split up in
7088 a vector of arguments, to be joined onto other possible MTA options:
7090 .Dl set mta-arguments='-t -X \&"/tmp/my log\&"'
7093 .It Va mta-no-default-arguments
7094 \*(BO Unless this option is set \*(UA will pass some well known
7095 standard command line options to a file-based
7097 (Mail-Transfer-Agent), see there for more.
7101 Many systems use a so-called
7103 environment to ensure compatibility with
7105 This works by inspecting the name that was used to invoke the mail
7107 If this variable is set then the mailwrapper (the program that is
7108 actually executed when calling the file-based
7110 will treat its contents as that name.
7115 .It Va NAIL_EXTRA_RC
7116 The name of an optional startup file to be read last.
7117 This variable has an effect only if it is set in any of the
7118 .Sx "Resource files" ,
7119 it is not imported from the environment.
7120 Use this file for commands that are not understood by other POSIX
7125 .It Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , netrc-lookup-HOST , netrc-lookup
7126 \*(BO\*(IN\*(OP Used to control usage of the users
7128 file for lookup of account credentials, as documented in the section
7129 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
7133 .Sx "The .netrc file"
7134 documents the file format.
7146 then \*(UA will read the output of a shell pipe instead of the users
7148 file if this variable is set (to the desired shell command).
7149 This can be used to, e.g., store
7153 .Dl set netrc-pipe='gpg -qd ~/.netrc.pgp'
7157 If this variable has the value
7159 newly created local folders will be in Maildir format.
7163 Checks for new mail in the current folder each time the prompt is shown.
7164 A Maildir folder must be re-scanned to determine if new mail has arrived.
7165 If this variable is set to the special value
7167 then a Maildir folder will not be rescanned completely, but only
7168 timestamp changes are detected.
7172 .It Va on-compose-enter , on-compose-leave
7173 \*(ID Macro hooks which will be executed before compose mode is
7174 entered, and after composing has been finished, respectively.
7175 Please note that this interface is very likely to change in v15, and
7176 should therefore possibly even be seen as experimental.
7178 are by default enabled for these hooks, causing any setting to be
7179 forgotten after the message has been sent.
7180 The following variables will be set temporarily during execution of the
7183 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Va compose_subject"
7186 .It Va compose-sender
7188 .It Va compose-to , compose-cc , compose-bcc
7189 The list of receiver addresses as a space-separated list.
7190 .It Va compose-subject
7196 \*(BO Causes the filename given in the
7199 and the sender-based filenames for the
7203 commands to be interpreted relative to the directory given in the
7205 variable rather than to the current directory,
7206 unless it is set to an absolute pathname.
7210 \*(BO If set, each message feed through the command given for
7212 is followed by a formfeed character
7216 .It Va password-USER@HOST , password-HOST , password
7217 \*(IN Variable chain that sets a password, which is used in case none has
7218 been given in the protocol and account-specific URL;
7219 as a last resort \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal if
7220 the authentication method requires a password.
7221 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
7222 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
7224 .It Va password-USER@HOST
7225 \*(OU (see the chain above for \*(IN)
7226 Set the password for
7230 If no such variable is defined for a host,
7231 the user will be asked for a password on standard input.
7232 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
7233 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
7237 \*(BO Send messages to the
7239 command without performing MIME and character set conversions.
7243 .It Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
7244 When a MIME message part of type
7246 (case-insensitive) is displayed or quoted,
7247 its text is filtered through the value of this variable interpreted as
7251 forces interpretation of the message part as plain text, e.g.,
7252 .Ql set pipe-application/xml=@
7253 will henceforth display XML
7255 (The same could also be achieved by adding a MIME type marker with the
7258 And \*(OPally MIME type handlers may be defined via
7259 .Sx "The Mailcap files"
7260 \(em corresponding flag strings are shown in parenthesis below.)
7265 can in fact be used to adjust usage and behaviour of a following shell
7266 command specification by appending trigger characters to it, e.g., the
7267 following hypothetical command specification could be used:
7268 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7269 set pipe-X/Y='@*!++=@vim ${NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}'
7273 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql __"
7275 Simply by using the special
7277 prefix the MIME type (shell command) handler will only be invoked to
7278 display or convert the MIME part if the message is addressed directly
7279 and alone by itself.
7280 Use this trigger to disable this and always invoke the handler
7281 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-always ) .
7284 If set the handler will not be invoked when a message is to be quoted,
7285 but only when it will be displayed
7286 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-noquote ) .
7289 The command will be run asynchronously, i.e., without blocking \*(UA,
7290 which may be a handy way to display a, e.g., PDF file while also
7291 continuing to read the mail message
7292 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-async ) .
7293 Asynchronous execution implies
7297 The command must be run on an interactive terminal, \*(UA will
7298 temporarily release the terminal to it
7299 .Pf ( Cd needsterminal ) .
7300 This flag is mutual exclusive with
7302 will only be used in interactive mode and implies
7306 Request creation of a zero-sized temporary file, the absolute pathname
7307 of which will be made accessible via the environment variable
7308 .Ev NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
7309 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-tmpfile ) .
7310 If this trigger is given twice then the file will be unlinked
7311 automatically by \*(UA when the command loop is entered again at latest
7312 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink ) .
7313 (Don't use this for asynchronous handlers.)
7316 Normally the MIME part content is passed to the handler via standard
7317 input; if this flag is set then the data will instead be written into
7318 .Ev NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
7319 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill ) ,
7320 the creation of which is implied; note however that in order to cause
7321 deletion of the temporary file you still have to use two plus signs
7326 To avoid ambiguities with normal shell command content you can use
7327 another at-sign to forcefully terminate interpretation of remaining
7329 (Any character not in this list will have the same effect.)
7333 Some information about the MIME part to be displayed is embedded into
7334 the environment of the shell command:
7337 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ev _AIL__ILENAME__ENERATED"
7340 The MIME content-type of the part, if known, the empty string otherwise.
7343 .It Ev NAIL_CONTENT_EVIDENCE
7345 .Va mime-counter-evidence
7346 includes the carry-around-bit (2), then this will be set to the detected
7347 MIME content-type; not only then identical to
7348 .Ev \&\&NAIL_CONTENT
7352 .It Ev NAIL_FILENAME
7353 The filename, if any is set, the empty string otherwise.
7356 .It Ev NAIL_FILENAME_GENERATED
7360 .It Ev NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
7361 If temporary file creation has been requested through the command prefix
7362 this variable will be set and contain the absolute pathname of the
7367 The temporary directory that \*(UA uses.
7368 Usually identical to
7370 but guaranteed to be set and usable by child processes;
7371 to ensure the latter condition for
7378 .It Va pipe-EXTENSION
7379 This is identical to
7380 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
7383 (normalized to lowercase using character mappings of the ASCII charset)
7384 names a file extension, e.g.,
7386 Handlers registered using this method take precedence.
7389 .It Va pop3-auth-USER@HOST , pop3-auth-HOST , pop3-auth
7390 \*(OP\*(IN Variable chain that sets the POP3 authentication method.
7391 The only possible value as of now is
7393 which is thus the default.
7396 .Mx Va pop3-bulk-load
7397 .It Va pop3-bulk-load-USER@HOST , pop3-bulk-load-HOST , pop3-bulk-load
7398 \*(BO\*(OP When accessing a POP3 server \*(UA loads the headers of
7399 the messages, and only requests the message bodies on user request.
7400 For the POP3 protocol this means that the message headers will be
7402 If this option is set then \*(UA will download only complete messages
7403 from the given POP3 server(s) instead.
7405 .Mx Va pop3-keepalive
7406 .It Va pop3-keepalive-USER@HOST , pop3-keepalive-HOST , pop3-keepalive
7407 \*(OP POP3 servers close the connection after a period of inactivity;
7408 the standard requires this to be at least 10 minutes,
7409 but practical experience may vary.
7410 Setting this variable to a numeric value greater than
7414 command to be sent each value seconds if no other operation is performed.
7417 .It Va pop3-no-apop-USER@HOST , pop3-no-apop-HOST , pop3-no-apop
7418 \*(BO\*(OP Unless this variable is set the
7420 authentication method will be used when connecting to a POP3 server that
7424 is that the password is not sent in clear text over the wire and that
7425 only a single packet is sent for the user/password tuple.
7427 .Va pop3-no-apop-HOST
7430 .Mx Va pop3-use-starttls
7431 .It Va pop3-use-starttls-USER@HOST , pop3-use-starttls-HOST , pop3-use-starttls
7432 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a
7434 command to make an unencrypted POP3 session SSL/TLS encrypted.
7435 This functionality is not supported by all servers,
7436 and is not used if the session is already encrypted by the POP3S method.
7438 .Va pop3-use-starttls-HOST
7442 .It Va print-alternatives
7443 \*(BO When a MIME message part of type
7444 .Ql multipart/alternative
7445 is displayed and it contains a subpart of type
7447 other parts are normally discarded.
7448 Setting this variable causes all subparts to be displayed,
7449 just as if the surrounding part was of type
7450 .Ql multipart/mixed .
7454 The string shown when a command is accepted.
7455 Prompting may be prevented by setting this to the null string
7457 .Pf no Va prompt ) .
7458 If a value is assigned the following \*(UA specific additional sequences
7465 is set, in which case it expands to
7469 is the default value of
7472 which will expand to
7474 if the last command failed and to
7478 which will expand to the name of the currently active
7480 if any, and to the empty string otherwise, and
7482 which will expand to the name of the currently active mailbox.
7483 (Note that the prompt buffer is size-limited, excess is cut off.)
7489 to encapsulate the expansions of the
7493 escape sequences as necessary to correctly display bidirectional text,
7494 this is not true for the final string that makes up
7496 as such, i.e., real BIDI handling is not supported.
7500 \*(BO Suppresses the printing of the version when first invoked.
7504 If set, \*(UA starts a replying message with the original message
7505 prefixed by the value of the variable
7507 Normally, a heading consisting of
7508 .Dq Fromheaderfield wrote:
7509 is put before the quotation.
7514 variable, this heading is omitted.
7517 is assigned, the headers selected by the
7518 .Ic ignore Ns / Ns Ic retain
7519 commands are put above the message body,
7522 acts like an automatic
7528 is assigned, all headers are put above the message body and all MIME
7529 parts are included, making
7531 act like an automatic
7534 .Va quote-as-attachment .
7537 .It Va quote-as-attachment
7538 \*(BO Add the original message in its entirety as a
7540 MIME attachment when replying to a message.
7541 Note this works regardless of the setting of
7546 \*(OP Can be set in addition to
7548 Setting this turns on a more fancy quotation algorithm in that leading
7549 quotation characters are compressed and overlong lines are folded.
7551 can be set to either one or two (space separated) numeric values,
7552 which are interpreted as the maximum (goal) and the minimum line length,
7553 respectively, in a spirit rather equal to the
7555 program, but line-, not paragraph-based.
7556 If not set explicitly the minimum will reflect the goal algorithmically.
7557 The goal can't be smaller than the length of
7559 plus some additional pad.
7560 Necessary adjustments take place silently.
7563 .It Va recipients-in-cc
7564 \*(BO On group replies, specify only the sender of the original mail in
7566 and mention the other recipients in the secondary
7568 By default all recipients of the original mail will be addressed via
7573 If defined, gives the pathname of the folder used to record all outgoing
7575 If not defined, then outgoing mail is not saved.
7576 When saving to this folder fails the message is not sent,
7577 but instead saved to
7581 .It Va record-resent
7582 \*(BO If both this variable and the
7589 commands save messages to the
7591 folder as it is normally only done for newly composed messages.
7594 .It Va reply-in-same-charset
7595 \*(BO If this variable is set \*(UA first tries to use the same
7596 character set of the original message for replies.
7597 If this fails, the mechanism described in
7598 .Sx "Character sets"
7599 is evaluated as usual.
7602 .It Va reply_strings
7603 Can be set to a comma-separated list of (case-insensitive according to
7604 ASCII rules) strings which shall be recognized in addition to the
7607 reply message indicators \(en builtin are
7609 which is mandated by RFC 5322, as well as the german
7614 A list of addresses to put into the
7616 field of the message header.
7617 Members of this list are handled as if they were in the
7622 .It Va reply-to-honour
7625 header is honoured when replying to a message via
7629 This is a quadoption; if set without a value it defaults to
7633 .It Va rfc822-body-from_
7634 \*(BO This variable can be used to force displaying a so-called
7636 line for messages that are embedded into an envelope mail via the
7638 MIME mechanism, for more visual convenience.
7642 \*(BO Enable saving of (partial) messages in
7644 upon interrupt or delivery error.
7648 The number of lines that represents a
7657 line display and scrolling via
7659 If this variable is not set \*(UA falls back to a calculation based upon
7660 the detected terminal window size and the baud rate: the faster the
7661 terminal, the more will be shown.
7662 Overall screen dimensions and pager usage is influenced by the
7663 environment variables
7671 .It Va searchheaders
7672 \*(BO Expand message-list specifiers in the form
7674 to all messages containing the substring
7678 The string search is case insensitive.
7682 \*(OP A comma-separated list of character set names that can be used in
7683 outgoing internet mail.
7684 The value of the variable
7686 is automatically appended to this list of character-sets.
7687 If no character set conversion capabilities are compiled into \*(UA then
7688 the only supported charset is
7691 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
7692 and refer to the section
7693 .Sx "Character sets"
7694 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
7697 .It Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
7698 \*(BO\*(OP If this variable is set, but
7700 is not, then \*(UA acts as if
7702 had been set to the value of the variable
7704 In effect this combination passes through the message data in the
7705 character set of the current locale (given that
7707 hasn't been set manually), i.e., without converting it to the
7709 fallback character set.
7710 Thus, mail message text will be in ISO-8859-1 encoding when send from
7711 within a ISO-8859-1 locale, and in UTF-8 encoding when send from within
7713 If no character set conversion capabilities are available in \*(UA then
7714 the only supported character set is
7719 An address that is put into the
7721 field of outgoing messages, quoting RFC 5322: the mailbox of the agent
7722 responsible for the actual transmission of the message.
7723 This field should normally not be used unless the
7725 field contains more than one address, on which case it is required.
7728 address is handled as if it were in the
7734 \*(OB Predecessor of
7738 .It Va sendmail-arguments
7739 \*(OB Predecessor of
7743 .It Va sendmail-no-default-arguments
7744 \*(OB\*(BO Predecessor of
7745 .Va mta-no-default-arguments .
7748 .It Va sendmail-progname
7749 \*(OB Predecessor of
7754 \*(BO When sending a message wait until the
7756 (including the builtin SMTP one) exits before accepting further commands.
7758 with this variable set errors reported by the MTA will be recognizable!
7759 If the MTA returns a non-zero exit status,
7760 the exit status of \*(UA will also be non-zero.
7764 \*(BO Setting this option causes \*(UA to start at the last message
7765 instead of the first one when opening a mail folder.
7769 \*(BO Causes \*(UA to use the sender's real name instead of the plain
7770 address in the header field summary and in message specifications.
7774 \*(BO Causes the recipient of the message to be shown in the header
7775 summary if the message was sent by the user.
7779 A string for use with the
7785 A string for use with the
7791 Must correspond to the name of a readable file if set.
7792 The file's content is then appended to each singlepart message
7793 and to the first part of each multipart message.
7794 Be warned that there is no possibility to edit the signature for an
7798 .It Va skipemptybody
7799 \*(BO If an outgoing message does not contain any text in its first or
7800 only message part, do not send it but discard it silently (see also the
7806 \*(OP Specifies a directory with CA certificates in PEM (Privacy
7807 Enhanced Mail) format for verification of S/MIME signed messages.
7810 .It Va smime-ca-file
7811 \*(OP Specifies a file with CA certificates in PEM format for
7812 verification of S/MIME signed messages.
7815 .It Va smime-cipher-USER@HOST , smime-cipher
7816 \*(OP Specifies the cipher to use when generating S/MIME encrypted
7817 messages (for the specified account).
7818 RFC 5751 mandates a default of
7821 Possible values are (case-insensitive and) in decreasing cipher strength:
7829 (DES EDE3 CBC, 168 bits; default if
7831 isn't available) and
7835 The actually available cipher algorithms depend on the cryptographic
7836 library that \*(UA uses.
7837 \*(OP Support for more cipher algorithms may be available through
7838 dynamic loading via, e.g.,
7839 .Xr EVP_get_cipherbyname 3
7840 (OpenSSL) if \*(UA has been compiled to support this.
7843 .It Va smime-crl-dir
7844 \*(OP Specifies a directory that contains files with CRLs in PEM format
7845 to use when verifying S/MIME messages.
7848 .It Va smime-crl-file
7849 \*(OP Specifies a file that contains a CRL in PEM format to use when
7850 verifying S/MIME messages.
7853 .It Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
7854 \*(OP If this variable is set, messages send to the given receiver are
7855 encrypted before sending.
7856 The value of the variable must be set to the name of a file that
7857 contains a certificate in PEM format.
7859 If a message is sent to multiple recipients,
7860 each of them for whom a corresponding variable is set will receive an
7861 individually encrypted message;
7862 other recipients will continue to receive the message in plain text
7864 .Va smime-force-encryption
7866 It is recommended to sign encrypted messages, i.e., to also set the
7871 .It Va smime-force-encryption
7872 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to refuse sending unencrypted messages.
7875 .It Va smime-no-default-ca
7876 \*(BO\*(OP Don't load default CA locations when verifying S/MIME signed
7881 \*(BO\*(OP S/MIME sign outgoing messages with the user's private key
7882 and include the user's certificate as a MIME attachment.
7883 Signing a message enables a recipient to verify that the sender used
7884 a valid certificate,
7885 that the email addresses in the certificate match those in the message
7886 header and that the message content has not been altered.
7887 It does not change the message text,
7888 and people will be able to read the message as usual.
7890 .Va smime-sign-cert , smime-sign-include-certs
7892 .Va smime-sign-message-digest .
7894 .Mx Va smime-sign-cert
7895 .It Va smime-sign-cert-USER@HOST , smime-sign-cert
7896 \*(OP Points to a file in PEM format.
7897 For the purpose of signing and decryption this file needs to contain the
7898 user's private key as well as his certificate.
7902 is always derived from the value of
7904 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
7906 For the purpose of encryption the recipient's public encryption key
7907 (certificate) is expected; the command
7909 can be used to save certificates of signed messages (the section
7910 .Sx "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
7911 gives some details).
7912 This mode of operation is usually driven by the specialized form.
7914 When decrypting messages the account is derived from the recipient
7919 of the message, which are searched for addresses for which such
7921 \*(UA always uses the first address that matches,
7922 so if the same message is sent to more than one of the user's addresses
7923 using different encryption keys, decryption might fail.
7925 .Mx Va smime-sign-include-certs
7926 .It Va smime-sign-include-certs-USER@HOST , smime-sign-include-certs
7927 \*(OP If used, this is supposed to a consist of a comma-separated list
7928 of files, each of which containing a single certificate in PEM format to
7929 be included in the S/MIME message in addition to the
7932 This is most useful for long certificate chains if it is desired to aid
7933 the receiving party's verification process.
7934 Note that top level certificates may also be included in the chain but
7935 don't play a role for verification.
7937 .Va smime-sign-cert .
7938 Remember that for this
7940 refers to the variable
7942 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
7945 .Mx Va smime-sign-message-digest
7946 .It Va smime-sign-message-digest-USER@HOST , smime-sign-message-digest
7947 \*(OP Specifies the message digest to use when signing S/MIME messages.
7948 RFC 5751 mandates a default of
7950 Possible values are (case-insensitive and) in decreasing cipher strength:
7958 The actually available message digest algorithms depend on the
7959 cryptographic library that \*(UA uses.
7960 \*(OP Support for more message digest algorithms may be available
7961 through dynamic loading via, e.g.,
7962 .Xr EVP_get_digestbyname 3
7963 (OpenSSL) if \*(UA has been compiled to support this.
7964 Remember that for this
7966 refers to the variable
7968 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
7973 \*(OB\*(OP To use the builtin SMTP transport, specify a SMTP URL in
7975 \*(ID For compatibility reasons a set
7977 is used in preference of
7981 .It Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST , smtp-auth-HOST , smtp-auth
7982 \*(OP Variable chain that controls the SMTP
7984 authentication method, possible values are
7990 as well as the \*(OPal methods
7996 method doesn't need any user credentials,
7998 requires a user name and all other methods require a user name and
8006 .Va smtp-auth-password
8008 .Va smtp-auth-user ) .
8013 .Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST :
8014 may override dependent on sender address in the variable
8017 .It Va smtp-auth-password
8018 \*(OP\*(OU Sets the global fallback password for SMTP authentication.
8019 If the authentication method requires a password, but neither
8020 .Va smtp-auth-password
8022 .Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
8024 \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal.
8026 .It Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
8028 .Va smtp-auth-password
8029 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
8032 .It Va smtp-auth-user
8033 \*(OP\*(OU Sets the global fallback user name for SMTP authentication.
8034 If the authentication method requires a user name, but neither
8037 .Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
8039 \*(UA will ask for a user name on the user's terminal.
8041 .It Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
8044 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
8048 .It Va smtp-hostname
8049 \*(OP\*(IN Normally \*(UA uses the variable
8051 to derive the necessary
8053 information in order to issue a
8060 can be used to use the
8062 from the SMTP account
8069 from the content of this variable (or, if that is the empty string,
8071 or the local hostname as a last resort).
8072 This often allows using an address that is itself valid but hosted by
8073 a provider other than which (in
8075 is about to send the message.
8076 Setting this variable also influences the generated
8079 .Mx Va smtp-use-starttls
8080 .It Va smtp-use-starttls-USER@HOST , smtp-use-starttls-HOST , smtp-use-starttls
8081 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a
8083 command to make an SMTP
8085 session SSL/TLS encrypted, i.e., to enable transport layer security.
8089 .It Va spam-interface
8090 \*(OP In order to use any of the spam-related commands (like, e.g.,
8092 the desired spam interface must be defined by setting this variable.
8093 Please refer to the manual section
8095 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
8096 All or none of the following interfaces may be available:
8098 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ql _ilte_"
8104 .Pf ( Lk http://spamassassin.apache.org SpamAssassin )
8106 Different to the generic filter interface \*(UA will automatically add
8107 the correct arguments for a given command and has the necessary
8108 knowledge to parse the program's output.
8111 will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if
8116 Shall it be necessary to define a specific connection type (rather than
8117 using a configuration file for that), the variable
8119 can be used as in, e.g.,
8120 .Ql -d server.example.com -p 783 .
8121 It is also possible to specify a per-user configuration via
8123 Note that this interface doesn't inspect the
8125 flag of a message for the command
8129 generic spam filter support via freely configurable hooks.
8130 This interface is meant for programs like
8132 and requires according behaviour in respect to the hooks' exit
8133 status for at least the command
8136 meaning a message is spam,
8140 for unsure and any other return value indicating a hard error);
8141 since the hooks can include shell code snippets diverting behaviour
8142 can be intercepted as necessary.
8144 .Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , spamfilter-nospam , \
8147 .Va spamfilter-spam ;
8150 contains examples for some programs.
8151 The process environment of the hooks will have the variables
8152 .Ev NAIL_TMPDIR , TMPDIR
8154 .Ev NAIL_FILENAME_GENERATED
8156 Note that spam score support for
8158 isn't supported unless the \*(OPtional regular expression support is
8160 .Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore
8167 \*(OP Messages that exceed this size won't be passed through to the
8169 .Va spam-interface .
8170 If unset or 0, the default of 420000 bytes is used.
8173 .It Va spamc-command
8174 \*(OP The path to the
8178 .Va spam-interface .
8179 Note that the path is not expanded, but used
8181 A fallback path will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if the
8182 executable had been found during compilation.
8185 .It Va spamc-arguments
8186 \*(OP Even though \*(UA deals with most arguments for the
8189 automatically, it may at least sometimes be desirable to specify
8190 connection-related ones via this variable, e.g.,
8191 .Ql -d server.example.com -p 783 .
8195 \*(OP Specify a username for per-user configuration files for the
8197 .Va spam-interface .
8198 If this is set to the empty string then \*(UA will use the name of the
8207 .It Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , \
8208 spamfilter-nospam , spamfilter-rate , spamfilter-spam
8209 \*(OP Command and argument hooks for the
8211 .Va spam-interface .
8214 contains examples for some programs.
8217 .It Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore
8218 \*(OP Because of the generic nature of the
8221 spam scores are not supported for it by default, but if the \*(OPtional
8222 regular expression support is available then setting this variable can
8223 be used to overcome this restriction.
8224 It is interpreted as follows: first a number (digits) is parsed that
8225 must be followed by a semicolon
8227 and an extended regular expression.
8228 Then the latter is used to parse the first output line of the
8230 hook, and, in case the evaluation is successful, the group that has been
8231 specified via the number is interpreted as a floating point scan score.
8235 \*(OP Specifies a directory with CA certificates in PEM (Pricacy
8236 Enhanced Mail) for verification of of SSL/TLS server certificates.
8238 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
8239 for more information.
8243 \*(OP Specifies a file with CA certificates in PEM format for
8244 verification of SSL/TLS server certificates.
8246 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
8247 for more information.
8250 .It Va ssl-cert-USER@HOST , ssl-cert-HOST , ssl-cert
8251 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the file name for a SSL/TLS client
8252 certificate required by some servers.
8253 This is a direct interface to the
8257 function of the OpenSSL library, if available.
8259 .Mx Va ssl-cipher-list
8260 .It Va ssl-cipher-list-USER@HOST , ssl-cipher-list-HOST , ssl-cipher-list
8261 \*(OP Specifies a list of ciphers for SSL/TLS connections.
8262 This is a direct interface to the
8266 function of the OpenSSL library, if available; see
8268 for more information.
8269 By default \*(UA doesn't set a list of ciphers, which in effect will use a
8271 specific cipher (protocol standards ship with a list of acceptable
8272 ciphers), possibly cramped to what the actually used SSL/TLS library
8273 supports \(en the manual section
8274 .Sx "An example configuration"
8275 also contains a SSL/TLS use case.
8278 .It Va ssl-config-file
8279 \*(OP If this variable is set \*(UA will call
8280 .Xr CONF_modules_load_file 3
8281 to allow OpenSSL to be configured according to the host system wide
8283 If a non-empty value is given then this will be used to specify the
8284 configuration file to be used instead of the global OpenSSL default;
8285 note that in this case it is an error if the file cannot be loaded.
8286 The application name will always be passed as
8291 \*(OP Specifies a file that contains a CRL in PEM format to use when
8292 verifying SSL/TLS server certificates.
8296 \*(OP Specifies a directory that contains files with CRLs in PEM format
8297 to use when verifying SSL/TLS server certificates.
8300 .It Va ssl-key-USER@HOST , ssl-key-HOST , ssl-key
8301 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the file name for the private key of
8302 a SSL/TLS client certificate.
8303 If unset, the name of the certificate file is used.
8304 The file is expected to be in PEM format.
8305 This is a direct interface to the
8309 function of the OpenSSL library, if available.
8312 .It Va ssl-method-USER@HOST , ssl-method-HOST , ssl-method
8313 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the newer and more flexible
8315 instead: if both values are set,
8317 will take precedence!
8318 Can be set to the following values, the actually used
8320 specification to which it is mapped is shown in parenthesis:
8322 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, TLSv1.2 ) ,
8324 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, TLSv1.1 ) ,
8326 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, TLSv1 )
8329 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, SSLv3 ) ;
8334 and thus includes the SSLv3 protocol.
8335 Note that SSLv2 is no longer supported at all.
8338 .It Va ssl-no-default-ca
8339 \*(BO\*(OP Don't load default CA locations to verify SSL/TLS server
8343 .It Va ssl-protocol-USER@HOST , ssl-protocol-HOST , ssl-protocol
8344 \*(OP Specify the used SSL/TLS protocol.
8345 This is a direct interface to the
8349 function of the OpenSSL library, if available;
8350 otherwise an \*(UA internal parser is used which understands the
8351 following subset of (case-insensitive) command strings:
8357 as well as the special value
8359 Multiple specifications may be given via a comma-separated list which
8360 ignores any whitespace.
8363 plus prefix will enable a protocol, a
8365 minus prefix will disable it, so that
8367 will enable only the TLSv1.2 protocol.
8369 It depends upon the used TLS/SSL library which protocols are actually
8370 supported and which protocols are used if
8372 is not set, but note that SSLv2 is no longer supported at all and
8374 Especially for older protocols explicitly securing
8376 may be worthwile, see
8377 .Sx "An example configuration" .
8381 \*(OP Gives the pathname to an entropy daemon socket, see
8383 Not all SSL/TLS libraries support this.
8386 .It Va ssl-rand-file
8387 \*(OP Gives the filename to a file with random entropy data, see
8388 .Xr RAND_load_file 3 .
8389 If this variable is not set, or set to the empty string, or if the
8390 filename expansion failed, then
8391 .Xr RAND_file_name 3
8392 will be used to create the filename if, and only if,
8394 documents that the SSL PRNG is not yet sufficiently seeded.
8395 If \*(UA successfully seeded the SSL PRNG then it'll update the file via
8396 .Xr RAND_write_file 3 .
8397 This variable is only used if
8399 is not set (or not supported by the SSL/TLS library).
8402 .It Va ssl-verify-USER@HOST , ssl-verify-HOST , ssl-verify
8403 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the action to be performed if an error
8404 occurs during SSL/TLS server certificate validation.
8405 Valid (case-insensitive) values are
8407 (fail and close connection immediately),
8409 (ask whether to continue on standard input),
8411 (show a warning and continue),
8413 (do not perform validation).
8419 If only set without an assigned value, then this option inhibits the
8424 header fields that include obvious references to \*(UA.
8425 There are two pitfalls associated with this:
8426 First, the message id of outgoing messages is not known anymore.
8427 Second, an expert may still use the remaining information in the header
8428 to track down the originating mail user agent.
8433 suppression doesn't occur.
8438 (\*(OP) This specifies a comma-separated list of
8443 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" ,
8444 escape commas with reverse solidus) to be used to overwrite or define
8446 Note that this variable will only be queried once at program startup and
8447 can thus only be specified in resource files or on the command line.
8450 String capabilities form
8452 pairs and are expected unless noted otherwise.
8453 Numerics have to be notated as
8455 where the number is expected in normal decimal notation.
8456 Finally, booleans don't have any value but indicate a true or false
8457 state simply by being defined or not; this indeed means that \*(UA
8458 doesn't support undefining an existing boolean.
8459 String capability values will undergo some expansions before use:
8460 for one notations like
8463 .Ql control-LETTER ,
8464 and for clarification purposes
8466 can be used to specify
8468 (the control notation
8470 could lead to misreadings when a left bracket follows, which it does for
8471 the standard CSI sequence);
8472 finally three letter octal sequences, as in
8475 To specify that a terminal supports 256-colours, and to define sequences
8476 that home the cursor and produce an audible bell, one might write:
8478 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8479 set termcap='Co#256,home=\eE[H,bel=^G'
8483 The following terminal capabilities are or may be meaningful for the
8484 operation of the builtin line editor or \*(UA in general:
8487 .Bl -tag -compact -width yay
8489 .It Cd colors Ns \0or Cd Co
8491 numeric capability specifying the maximum number of colours.
8492 Note that \*(UA doesn't actually care about the terminal beside that,
8493 but always emits ANSI / ISO 6429 escape sequences.
8496 .It Cd rmcup Ns \0or Cd te Ns \0/ Cd smcup Ns \0or Cd ti
8500 respectively: exit and enter the alternative screen
8502 effectively turning \*(UA into a fullscreen application.
8503 To disable that, set (at least) one to the empty string.
8505 .It Cd smkx Ns \0or Cd ks Ns \0/ Cd rmkx Ns \0or Cd ke
8509 respectively: enable and disable the keypad.
8510 This is always enabled if available, because it seems even keyboards
8511 without keypads generate other key codes for, e.g., cursor keys in that
8512 case, and only if enabled we see the codes that we are interested in.
8514 .It Cd ed Ns \0or Cd cd
8518 .It Cd clear Ns \0or Cd cl
8520 clear the screen and home cursor.
8521 (Will be simulated via
8526 .It Cd home Ns \0or Cd ho
8531 .It Cd el Ns \0or Cd ce
8533 clear to the end of line.
8534 (Will be simulated via
8536 plus repetitions of space characters.)
8538 .It Cd hpa Ns \0or Cd ch
8539 .Cd column_address :
8540 move the cursor (to the given column parameter) in the current row.
8541 (Will be simulated via
8547 .Cd carriage_return :
8548 move to the first column in the current row.
8549 The default builtin fallback is
8552 .It Cd cub1 Ns \0or Cd le
8554 move the cursor left one space (non-destructively).
8555 The default builtin fallback is
8558 .It Cd cuf1 Ns \0or Cd nd
8560 move the cursor right one space (non-destructively).
8561 The default builtin fallback is
8563 which is used by most terminals.
8571 Many more capabilities which describe key-sequences are documented for
8575 .It Va termcap-disable
8576 \*(OP Disable any interaction with a terminal control library.
8577 If set only some generic fallback builtins and possibly the content of
8579 describe the terminal to \*(UA.
8581 that this variable will only be queried once at program startup and can
8582 thus only be specified in resource files or on the command line.
8586 If defined, gives the number of lines of a message to be displayed
8589 if unset, the first five lines are printed, if set to 0 the variable
8592 If the value is negative then its absolute value will be used for right
8595 height; (shifting bitwise is like dividing algorithmically, but since
8596 it takes away bits the value decreases pretty fast).
8600 \*(BO If set then the
8602 command series will strip adjacent empty lines and quotations.
8606 The character set of the terminal \*(UA operates on,
8607 and the one and only supported character set that \*(UA can use if no
8608 character set conversion capabilities have been compiled into it,
8609 in which case it defaults to ISO-8859-1 unless it can deduce a value
8613 Refer to the section
8614 .Sx "Character sets"
8615 for the complete picture about character sets.
8619 For a safety-by-default policy \*(UA sets its process
8623 but this variable can be used to override that:
8624 set it to an empty value to don't change the (current) setting,
8625 otherwise the process file mode creation mask is updated to the new value.
8626 Child processes inherit the process file mode creation mask.
8629 .It Va user-HOST , user
8630 \*(IN Variable chain that sets a global fallback user name, which is
8631 used in case none has been given in the protocol and account-specific
8633 This variable defaults to the name of the user who runs \*(UA.
8637 \*(BO Setting this option enables upward compatibility with \*(UA
8638 version 15.0 in respect to which configuration options are available and
8639 how they are handled.
8640 This manual uses \*(IN and \*(OU to refer to the new and the old way of
8641 doing things, respectively.
8645 \*(BO Setting this option, also controllable via the command line option
8647 causes \*(UA to be more verbose, e.g., it will display obsoletion
8648 warnings and SSL/TLS certificate chains.
8649 Even though marked \*(BO this option may be set twice in order to
8650 increase the level of verbosity even more, in which case even details of
8651 the actual message delivery and protocol conversations are shown.
8654 is sufficient to disable verbosity as such.
8660 .It Va version , version-major , version-minor , version-update
8661 \*(RO \*(UA version information: the first variable contains a string
8662 containing the complete version identification, the latter three contain
8663 only digits: the major, minor and update version numbers.
8664 The output of the command
8666 will include this information.
8669 .It Va writebackedited
8670 If this variable is set messages modified using the
8674 commands are written back to the current folder when it is quit;
8675 it is only honoured for writable folders in MBOX format, though.
8676 Note that the editor will be pointed to the raw message content in that
8677 case, i.e., neither MIME decoding nor decryption will have been
8678 performed, and proper RFC 4155
8680 quoting of newly added or edited content is also left as an excercise to
8684 .\" }}} (INTERNAL VARIABLES)
8687 .\" .Sh ENVIRONMENT {{{
8691 .Dq environment variable
8692 should be considered an indication that these variables are either
8693 standardized as vivid parts of process environments, or that they are
8694 commonly found in there.
8695 The process environment is inherited from the
8697 once \*(UA is started, and unless otherwise explicitly noted handling of
8698 the following variables transparently integrates into that of the
8699 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
8700 from \*(UA's point of view.
8701 This means that, e.g., they can be managed via
8705 causing automatic program environment updates (to be inherited by
8706 newly created child processes).
8709 In order to transparently integrate other environment variables equally
8710 they need to be imported (linked) with the command
8712 This command can also be used to set and unset non-integrated
8713 environment variables from scratch, sufficient system support provided.
8714 The following example, applicable to a POSIX shell, sets the
8716 environment variable for \*(UA only, and beforehand exports the
8718 in order to affect any further processing in the running shell:
8720 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8721 $ EDITOR="vim -u ${HOME}/.vimrc"
8723 $ COLUMNS=80 \*(uA -R
8726 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ev _AILR_"
8729 The user's preferred width in column positions for the terminal screen
8731 Queried and used once on program startup, actively managed for child
8732 processes and the MLE (see
8733 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
8734 in interactive mode thereafter.
8738 The name of the (mailbox)
8740 to use for saving aborted messages if
8742 is set; this defaults to
8749 is set no output will be generated, otherwise the contents of the file
8754 Pathname of the text editor to use in the
8758 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
8759 A default editor is used if this value is not defined.
8763 The user's home directory.
8764 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
8771 .It Ev LANG , LC_ALL , LC_COLLATE , LC_CTYPE , LC_MESSAGES
8775 .Sx "Character sets" .
8779 The user's preferred number of lines on a page or the vertical screen
8780 or window size in lines.
8781 Queried and used once on program startup, actively managed for child
8782 processes in interactive mode thereafter.
8786 Pathname of the directory lister to use in the
8788 command when operating on local mailboxes.
8791 (path search through
8796 Upon startup \*(UA will actively ensure that this variable refers to the
8797 name of the user who runs \*(UA, in order to be able to pass a verified
8798 name to any newly created child process.
8802 Is used as the user's primary system mailbox, if set.
8803 Otherwise, a system-dependent default is used.
8804 Supports the special syntax conventions that are documented for the
8810 \*(OP Overrides the default path search for
8811 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
8812 which is defined in the standard RFC 1524 as
8813 .Ql ~/.mailcap:\:/etc/mailcap:\:/usr/etc/mailcap:\:/usr/local/etc/mailcap .
8814 .\" TODO we should have a mailcaps-default virtual RDONLY option!
8815 (\*(UA makes it a configuration option, however.)
8816 Note this is not a search path, but a path search.
8820 Is used as a startup file instead of
8823 When \*(UA scripts are invoked on behalf of other users,
8824 either this variable should be set to
8828 command line option should be used in order to avoid side-effects from
8829 reading their configuration files.
8830 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
8834 The name of the user's mbox file.
8835 A logical subset of the special conventions that are documented for the
8840 The fallback default is
8845 Traditionally this secondary mailbox is used as the file to save
8846 messages from the primary system mailbox that have been read.
8848 .Sx "Message states" .
8851 .It Ev NAIL_NO_SYSTEM_RC
8852 If this variable is set then reading of
8854 at startup is inhibited, i.e., the same effect is achieved as if \*(UA
8855 had been started up with the option
8857 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
8861 \*(IN\*(OP This variable overrides the default location of the user's
8867 Pathname of the program to use for backing the command
8871 variable enforces usage of a pager for output.
8872 The default paginator is
8874 (path search through
8877 \*(UA inspects the contents of this variable: if its contains the string
8879 then a non-existing environment variable
8886 dependent on whether terminal control support is available and whether
8887 that supports full (alternative) screen mode or not (also see
8888 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" ) .
8892 will optionally be set to
8899 A colon-separated list of directories that is searched by the shell when
8900 looking for commands, e.g.,
8901 .Ql /bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin .
8905 The shell to use for the commands
8911 and when starting subprocesses.
8912 A default shell is used if this option is not defined.
8915 .It Ev SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
8916 If set, this specifies a time in seconds since the Unix epoch
8917 (1970-01-01) to be used in place of the current time.
8918 This is for the sake of reproduceability of tests, to be used during
8919 development or by software packagers.
8923 \*(OP The terminal type for which output is to be prepared.
8924 For extended colour and font control please refer to
8925 .Sx "Coloured display" ,
8926 and for terminal management in general to
8927 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" .
8931 Used as directory for temporary files instead of
8934 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
8940 (see there), but this variable is not standardized, should therefore not
8941 be used, and is only corrected if already set.
8945 Pathname of the text editor to use in the
8949 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
8957 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa _etc/mime.type_"
8959 File giving initial commands.
8962 System wide initialization file.
8966 \*(OP Personal MIME type handler definition file, see
8967 .Sx "The Mailcap files" .
8968 (RFC 1524 location, the actual path is a configuration option.)
8972 \*(OP System wide MIME type handler definition file, see
8973 .Sx "The Mailcap files" .
8974 (RFC 1524 location, the actual path is a configuration option.)
8977 .It Pa ~/.mime.types
8978 Personal MIME types, see
8979 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
8982 .It Pa /etc/mime.types
8983 System wide MIME types, see
8984 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
8988 \*(IN\*(OP The default location of the users
8990 file \(en the section
8991 .Sx "The .netrc file"
8992 documents the file format.
8995 .\" .Ss "The mime.types files" {{{
8996 .Ss "The mime.types files"
8998 When sending messages \*(UA tries to determine the content type of all
9000 When displaying message content or attachments \*(UA uses the content
9001 type to decide whether it can directly display data or whether it needs
9002 to deal with content handlers.
9003 It learns about MIME types and how to treat them by reading
9005 files, the loading of which can be controlled by setting the variable
9006 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
9009 can also be used to deal with MIME types.)
9011 files have the following syntax:
9014 .Dl type/subtype extension [extension ...]
9019 are strings describing the file contents, and one or multiple
9021 s, separated by whitespace, name the part of a filename starting after
9022 the last dot (of interest).
9023 Comments may be introduced anywhere on a line with a number sign
9025 causing the remaining line to be discarded.
9027 \*(UA also supports an extended, non-portable syntax in specially
9028 crafted files, which can be loaded via the alternative value syntax of
9029 .Va mimetypes-load-control
9030 and prepends an optional
9034 .Dl [type-marker ]type/subtype extension [extension ...]
9037 The following type markers are supported:
9040 .Bl -tag -compact -offset indent -width ".It Ar _n_u"
9042 Treat message parts with this content as plain text.
9047 Treat message parts with this content as HTML tagsoup.
9048 If the \*(OPal HTML-tagsoup-to-text converter is not available treat
9049 the content as plain text instead.
9053 but instead of falling back to plain text require an explicit content
9054 handler to be defined.
9059 for sending messages:
9061 .Va mime-allow-text-controls ,
9062 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
9063 For reading etc. messages:
9064 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ,
9065 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
9067 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
9068 .Va mimetypes-load-control ,
9069 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE ,
9070 .Va pipe-EXTENSION .
9073 .\" .Ss "The Mailcap files" {{{
9074 .Ss "The Mailcap files"
9077 .Dq User Agent Configuration Mechanism
9078 which \*(UA \*(OPally supports.
9079 It defines a file format to be used to inform mail user agent programs
9080 about the locally-installed facilities for handling various data
9081 formats, i.e., about commands and how they can be used to display, edit
9082 etc. MIME part contents, as well as a default path search that includes
9083 multiple possible locations of
9087 environment variable that can be used to overwrite that (repeating here
9088 that it is not a search path, but instead a path search specification).
9089 Any existing files will be loaded in sequence, appending any content to
9090 the list of MIME type handler directives.
9094 files consist of a set of newline separated entries.
9095 Comment lines start with a number sign
9097 (in the first column!) and are ignored.
9098 Empty lines are also ignored.
9099 All other lines form individual entries that must adhere to the syntax
9101 To extend a single entry (not comment) its line can be continued on
9102 follow lines if newline characters are
9104 by preceding them with the reverse solidus character
9106 The standard doesn't specify how leading whitespace of follow lines is
9107 to be treated, therefore \*(UA retains it.
9111 entries consist of a number of semicolon
9113 separated fields, and the reverse solidus
9115 character can be used to escape any following character including
9116 semicolon and itself.
9117 The first two fields are mandatory and must occur in the specified
9118 order, the remaining fields are optional and may appear in any order.
9119 Leading and trailing whitespace of content is ignored (removed).
9122 The first field defines the MIME
9124 the entry is about to handle (case-insensitively, and no reverse solidus
9125 escaping is possible in this field).
9126 If the subtype is specified as an asterisk
9128 the entry is meant to match all subtypes of the named type, e.g.,
9130 would match any audio type.
9131 The second field defines the shell command which shall be used to
9133 MIME parts of the given type; it is implicitly called the
9140 shell commands message (MIME part) data is passed via standard input
9141 unless the given shell command includes one or more instances of the
9144 in which case these instances will be replaced with a temporary filename
9145 and the data will have been stored in the file that is being pointed to.
9148 shell commands data is assumed to be generated on standard output unless
9149 the given command includes (one ore multiple)
9151 In any case any given
9153 format is replaced with a(n already) properly quoted filename.
9154 Note that when a command makes use of a temporary file via
9156 then \*(UA will remove it again, as if the
9157 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile ,
9158 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill
9160 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
9161 flags had been set; see below for more.
9164 The optional fields either define a shell command or an attribute (flag)
9165 value, the latter being a single word and the former being a keyword
9166 naming the field followed by an equals sign
9168 succeeded by a shell command, and as usual for any
9170 content any whitespace surrounding the equals sign will be removed, too.
9171 Optional fields include the following:
9174 .Bl -tag -width textualnewlines
9176 A program that can be used to compose a new body or body part in the
9183 field, but is to be used when the composing program needs to specify the
9185 header field to be applied to the composed data.
9189 A program that can be used to edit a body or body part in the given
9194 A program that can be used to print a message or body part in the given
9199 Specifies a program to be run to test some condition, e.g., the machine
9200 architecture, or the window system in use, to determine whether or not
9201 this mailcap entry applies.
9202 If the test fails, a subsequent mailcap entry should be sought; also see
9203 .Cd x-mailx-test-once .
9205 .It Cd needsterminal
9206 This flag field indicates that the given shell command must be run on
9207 an interactive terminal.
9208 \*(UA will temporarily release the terminal to the given command in
9209 interactive mode, in non-interactive mode this entry will be entirely
9210 ignored; this flag implies
9211 .Cd x-mailx-noquote .
9213 .It Cd copiousoutput
9214 A flag field which indicates that the output of the
9216 command will be an extended stream of textual output that can be
9217 (re)integrated into \*(UA's normal visual display.
9218 It is mutually exclusive with
9221 .Cd x-mailx-always .
9223 .It Cd textualnewlines
9224 A flag field which indicates that this type of data is line-oriented and
9227 all newlines should be converted to canonical form (CRLF) before
9228 encoding, and will be in that form after decoding.
9232 This field gives a file name format, in which
9234 will be replaced by a random string, the joined combination of which
9235 will be used as the filename denoted by
9236 .Ev NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY .
9237 One could specify that a GIF file being passed to an image viewer should
9238 have a name ending in
9241 .Ql nametemplate=%s.gif .
9242 Note that \*(UA ignores the name template unless that solely specifies
9243 a filename suffix that consists of (ASCII) alphabetic and numeric
9244 characters, the underscore and dot only.
9247 Names a file, in X11 bitmap (xbm) format, which points to an appropriate
9248 icon to be used to visually denote the presence of this kind of data.
9249 This field is not used by \*(UA.
9252 A textual description that describes this type of data.
9254 .It Cd x-mailx-always
9255 Extension flag field that denotes that the given
9257 command shall be executed even if multiple messages will be displayed
9259 Normally messages which require external viewers that produce output
9260 which doesn't integrate into \*(UA's visual display (i.e., don't have
9262 set) have to be addressed directly and individually.
9263 (To avoid cases where, e.g., a thousand PDF viewer instances are spawned
9266 .It Cd x-mailx-even-if-not-interactive
9267 An extension flag test field \(em by default handlers without
9269 are entirely ignored in non-interactive mode, but if this flag is set
9270 then their use will be considered.
9271 It is an error if this flag is set for commands that use the flag
9274 .It Cd x-mailx-noquote
9275 An extension flag field that indicates that even a
9278 command shall not be used to generate message quotes
9279 (as it would be by default).
9281 .It Cd x-mailx-async
9282 Extension flag field that denotes that the given
9284 command shall be executed asynchronously, without blocking \*(UA.
9285 Cannot be used in conjunction with
9288 .It Cd x-mailx-test-once
9289 Extension flag which denotes whether the given
9291 command shall be evaluated once only and the (boolean) result be cached.
9292 This is handy if some global unchanging condition is to be queried, like
9293 .Dq running under the X Window System .
9295 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile
9296 Extension flag field that requests creation of a zero-sized temporary
9297 file, the name of which is to be placed in the environment variable
9298 .Ev NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY .
9299 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
9303 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill
9304 Normally the MIME part content is passed to the handler via standard
9305 input; if this flag is set then the data will instead be written into
9307 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile .
9308 In order to cause deletion of the temporary file you will have to set
9309 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
9311 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
9315 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
9316 Extension flag field that requests that the temporary file shall be
9317 deleted automatically when the command loop is entered again at latest.
9318 (Don't use this for asynchronous handlers.)
9319 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
9321 format, or without also setting
9324 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill .
9326 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-keep
9329 implies the three tmpfile related flags above, but if you want, e.g.,
9331 and deal with the temporary file yourself, you can add in this flag to
9333 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink .
9338 The standard includes the possibility to define any number of additional
9339 entry fields, prefixed by
9341 Flag fields apply to the entire
9343 entry \(em in some unusual cases, this may not be desirable, but
9344 differentiation can be accomplished via separate entries, taking
9345 advantage of the fact that subsequent entries are searched if an earlier
9346 one does not provide enough information.
9349 command needs to specify the
9353 command shall not, the following will help out the latter (with enabled
9357 level \*(UA will show information about handler evaluation):
9359 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9360 application/postscript; ps-to-terminal %s; needsterminal
9361 application/postscript; ps-to-terminal %s; compose=idraw %s
9365 In fields any occurrence of the format string
9367 will be replaced by the
9370 Named parameters from the
9372 field may be placed in the command execution line using
9374 followed by the parameter name and a closing
9377 The entire parameter should appear as a single command line argument,
9378 regardless of embedded spaces; thus:
9380 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9382 Content-type: multipart/mixed; boundary=42
9385 multipart/*; /usr/local/bin/showmulti \e
9386 %t %{boundary} ; composetyped = /usr/local/bin/makemulti
9388 # Executed shell command
9389 /usr/local/bin/showmulti multipart/mixed 42
9393 .\" TODO v15: Mailcap: %n,%F
9394 Note that \*(UA doesn't support handlers for multipart MIME parts as
9395 shown in this example (as of today).
9396 \*(UA doesn't support the additional formats
9400 An example file, also showing how to properly deal with the expansion of
9402 which includes any quotes that are necessary to make it a valid shell
9403 argument by itself and thus will cause undesired behaviour when placed
9404 in additional user-provided quotes:
9406 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9408 text/richtext; richtext %s; copiousoutput
9410 text/x-perl; perl -cWT %s
9414 trap "rm -f ${infile}" EXIT\e; \e
9415 trap "exit 75" INT QUIT TERM\e; \e
9417 x-mailx-async; x-mailx-tmpfile-keep
9419 application/*; echo "This is \e"%t\e" but \e
9420 is 50 \e% Greek to me" \e; < %s head -c 1024 | cat -vET; \e
9421 copiousoutput; x-mailx-noquote
9426 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ,
9427 .Sx "The mime.types files" ,
9430 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
9431 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE ,
9432 .Va pipe-EXTENSION .
9435 .\" .Ss "The .netrc file" {{{
9436 .Ss "The .netrc file"
9440 file contains user credentials for machine accounts.
9441 The default location in the user's
9443 directory may be overridden by the
9445 environment variable.
9446 The file consists of space, tabulator or newline separated tokens.
9447 \*(UA implements a parser that supports a superset of the original BSD
9448 syntax, but users should nonetheless be aware of portability glitches
9449 of that file format, shall their
9451 be usable across multiple programs and platforms:
9454 .Bl -bullet -compact
9456 BSD doesn't support single, but only double quotation marks, e.g.,
9457 .Ql password="pass with spaces" .
9459 BSD (only?) supports escaping of single characters via a reverse solidus
9460 (e.g., a space can be escaped via
9462 in- as well as outside of a quoted string.
9464 BSD doesn't require the final quotation mark of the final user input token.
9466 The original BSD (Berknet) parser also supported a format which allowed
9467 tokens to be separated with commas \(en whereas at least Hewlett-Packard
9468 still seems to support this syntax, \*(UA does not!
9470 As a non-portable extension some widely-used programs support
9471 shell-style comments: if an input line starts, after any amount of
9472 whitespace, with a number sign
9474 then the rest of the line is ignored.
9476 Whereas other programs may require that the
9478 file is accessible by only the user if it contains a
9484 \*(UA will always require these strict permissions.
9488 Of the following list of supported tokens \*(UA only uses (and caches)
9493 At runtime the command
9495 can be used to control \*(UA's
9499 .Bl -tag -width password
9500 .It Cd machine Ar name
9501 The hostname of the entries' machine, lowercase-normalized by \*(UA
9503 Any further file content, until either end-of-file or the occurrence
9508 first-class token is bound (only related) to the machine
9511 As an extension that shouldn't be the cause of any worries
9512 \*(UA supports a single wildcard prefix for
9514 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9515 machine *.example.com login USER password PASS
9516 machine pop3.example.com login USER password PASS
9517 machine smtp.example.com login USER password PASS
9523 .Ql pop3.example.com ,
9527 .Ql local.smtp.example.com .
9528 Note that in the example neither
9529 .Ql pop3.example.com
9531 .Ql smtp.example.com
9532 will be matched by the wildcard, since the exact matches take
9533 precedence (it is however faster to specify it the other way around).
9538 except that it is a fallback entry that is used shall none of the
9539 specified machines match; only one default token may be specified,
9540 and it must be the last first-class token.
9542 .It Cd login Ar name
9543 The user name on the remote machine.
9545 .It Cd password Ar string
9546 The user's password on the remote machine.
9548 .It Cd account Ar string
9549 Supply an additional account password.
9550 This is merely for FTP purposes.
9552 .It Cd macdef Ar name
9554 A macro is defined with the specified
9556 it is formed from all lines beginning with the next line and continuing
9557 until a blank line is (consecutive newline characters are) encountered.
9560 entries cannot be utilized by multiple machines, too, but must be
9561 defined following the
9563 they are intended to be used with.)
9566 exists, it is automatically run as the last step of the login process.
9567 This is merely for FTP purposes.
9574 .\" .Sh EXAMPLES {{{
9577 .\" .Ss "An example configuration" {{{
9578 .Ss "An example configuration"
9580 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9581 # This example assumes v15.0 compatibility mode
9584 # Where are the up-to-date SSL certificates?
9585 #set ssl-ca-dir=/etc/ssl/certs
9586 set ssl-ca-file=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
9588 # (Since we manage up-to-date ones explicitly, don't use any,
9589 # possibly outdated, default certificates shipped with OpenSSL)
9590 set ssl-no-default-ca
9592 # Don't use protocols older than TLS v1.2.
9593 # Change this only when the remote server doesn't support it:
9594 # maybe use ssl-protocol-HOST (or -USER@HOST) syntax to define
9595 # such explicit exceptions, then
9596 set ssl-protocol='-ALL,+TLSv1.2'
9598 # Explicitly define the list of ciphers, which may improve security,
9599 # especially with protocols older than TLS v1.2. See ciphers(1).
9600 # Including "@STRENGTH" will sort the final list by algorithm strength.
9601 # In reality it is possibly best to only use ssl-cipher-list-HOST
9602 # (or -USER@HOST), as necessary, again..
9603 set ssl-cipher-list=TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:!MEDIUM:!LOW:!EXPORT:@STRENGTH
9604 # ALL:!aNULL:!MEDIUM:!LOW:!MD5:!RC4:!EXPORT:@STRENGTH
9606 # Request strict transport security checks!
9607 set ssl-verify=strict
9609 # Essential setting: select allowed character sets
9610 set sendcharsets=utf-8,iso-8859-1
9612 # A very kind option: when replying to a message, first try to
9613 # use the same encoding that the original poster used herself!
9614 set reply-in-same-charset
9616 # When replying to or forwarding a message the comment and name
9617 # parts of email addresses are removed unless this variable is set
9620 # When sending messages, wait until the Mail-Transfer-Agent finishs.
9621 # Only like this you'll be able to see errors reported through the
9622 # exit status of the MTA (including the builtin SMTP one)!
9625 # Only use builtin MIME types, no mime.types(5) files
9626 set mimetypes-load-control
9628 # Default directory where we act in (relative to $HOME)
9630 # A leading "+" (often) means: under *folder*
9631 # *record* is used to save copies of sent messages
9632 set MBOX=+mbox.mbox record=+sent.mbox DEAD=+dead.txt
9634 # Make "file mymbox" and "file myrec" go to..
9635 shortcut mymbox %:+mbox.mbox myrec +sent.mbox
9637 # Not really optional, e.g., for S/MIME
9638 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
9640 # It may be necessary to set hostname and/or smtp-hostname
9641 # if the "SERVER" of mta and "domain" of from don't match.
9642 # The `urlencode' command can be used to encode USER and PASS
9643 set mta=(smtps?|submission)://[USER[:PASS]@]SERVER[:PORT] \e
9644 smtp-auth=login/plain... \e
9647 # Never refuse to start into interactive mode, and more
9649 colour-pager crt= \e
9650 followup-to followup-to-honour=ask-yes \e
9651 history-file=+.\*(uAhist history-size=-1 history-gabby \e
9652 mime-counter-evidence=0xE \e
9653 prompt='?\e?[\e$ \e@]\e& ' \e
9654 reply-to-honour=ask-yes \e
9657 # When `t'yping messages, show only these headers
9658 # (use `T'ype for all headers and `S'how for raw message)
9659 retain date from to cc subject
9661 # Some mailing lists
9662 mlist '@xyz-editor\e.xyz$' '@xyzf\e.xyz$'
9663 mlsubscribe '^xfans@xfans\e.xyz$'
9665 # A real life example of a very huge free mail provider
9667 set folder=~/spool/XooglX MAIL=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
9668 set from='Your Name <address@examp.ple>'
9669 set mta=smtp://USER:PASS@smtp.gmXil.com smtp-use-starttls
9672 # Here is a pretty large one which does not allow sending mails
9673 # if there is a domain name mismatch on the SMTP protocol level,
9674 # which would bite us if the value of from does not match, e.g.,
9675 # for people who have a sXXXXeforge project and want to speak
9676 # with the mailing list under their project account (in from),
9677 # still sending the message through their normal mail provider
9679 set folder=~/spool/XandeX MAIL=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
9680 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
9681 set mta=smtps://USER:PASS@smtp.yaXXex.ru:465 \e
9682 hostname=yaXXex.com smtp-hostname=
9685 # Create some new commands so that, e.g., `ls /tmp' will..
9686 wysh ghost lls '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFlrS'
9687 wysh ghost llS '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFlS'
9688 wysh ghost ls '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFrS'
9689 wysh ghost lS '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFS'
9690 wysh ghost lla '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFlr'
9691 wysh ghost llA '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFl'
9692 wysh ghost la '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFr'
9693 wysh ghost lA '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aF'
9694 wysh ghost ll '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFltr'
9695 wysh ghost lL '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFlt'
9696 wysh ghost l '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFtr'
9697 wysh ghost L '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFt'
9699 # We don't support gpg(1) directly yet. But simple --clearsign'd
9700 # message parts can be dealt with as follows:
9702 wysh set pipe-text/plain=$'@*#++=@\e
9703 < "${NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}" awk \e
9704 -v TMPFILE="${NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}" \e'\e
9706 /^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----/,/^$/{\e
9709 print "--- GPG --verify ---";\e
9710 system("gpg --verify " TMPFILE " 2>&1");\e
9711 print "--- GPG --verify ---";\e
9715 /^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----/,\e
9716 /^-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----/{\e
9726 !printf 'Key IDs to gpg --recv-keys: ';\e
9728 gpg --recv-keys ${keyids};
9734 When storing passwords in
9736 appropriate permissions should be set on this file with
9737 .Ql $ chmod 0600 \*(ur .
9740 is available user credentials can be stored in the central
9742 file instead; e.g., here is a different version of the example account
9743 that sets up SMTP and POP3:
9745 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9747 set folder=~/spool/XandeX MAIL=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
9748 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
9750 # Load an encrypted ~/.netrc by uncommenting the next line
9751 #set netrc-pipe='gpg -qd ~/.netrc.pgp'
9753 set mta=smtps://smtp.yXXXXx.ru:465 \e
9754 smtp-hostname= hostname=yXXXXx.com
9755 set pop3-keepalive=240 pop3-no-apop-pop.yXXXXx.ru
9756 ghost xp fi pop3s://pop.yXXXXx.ru
9765 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9766 machine *.yXXXXx.ru login USER password PASS
9770 This configuration should now work just fine:
9773 .Dl $ echo text | \*(uA -vv -AXandeX -s Subject user@exam.ple
9776 .\" .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME" {{{
9777 .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
9779 \*(OP S/MIME provides two central mechanisms:
9780 message signing and message encryption.
9781 A signed message contains some data in addition to the regular text.
9782 The data can be used to verify that the message was sent using a valid
9783 certificate, that the sender's address in the message header matches
9784 that in the certificate, and that the message text has not been altered.
9785 Signing a message does not change its regular text;
9786 it can be read regardless of whether the recipient's software is able to
9790 It is thus usually possible to sign all outgoing messages if so desired.
9791 Encryption, in contrast, makes the message text invisible for all people
9792 except those who have access to the secret decryption key.
9793 To encrypt a message, the specific recipient's public encryption key
9795 It is therefore not possible to send encrypted mail to people unless their
9796 key has been retrieved from either previous communication or public key
9798 A message should always be signed before it is encrypted.
9799 Otherwise, it is still possible that the encrypted message text is
9803 A central concept to S/MIME is that of the certification authority (CA).
9804 A CA is a trusted institution that issues certificates.
9805 For each of these certificates it can be verified that it really
9806 originates from the CA, provided that the CA's own certificate is
9808 A set of CA certificates is usually delivered with OpenSSL and installed
9810 If you trust the source of your OpenSSL software installation,
9811 this offers reasonable security for S/MIME on the Internet.
9813 .Va ssl-no-default-ca
9817 .Va smime-ca-dir . )
9818 In general, a certificate cannot be more secure than the method its CA
9819 certificate has been retrieved with, though.
9820 Thus if you download a CA certificate from the Internet,
9821 you can only trust the messages you verify using that certificate as
9822 much as you trust the download process.
9825 The first thing you need for participating in S/MIME message exchange is
9826 your personal certificate, including a private key.
9827 The certificate contains public information, in particular your name and
9828 your email address(es), and the public key that is used by others to
9829 encrypt messages for you,
9830 and to verify signed messages they supposedly received from you.
9831 The certificate is included in each signed message you send.
9832 The private key must be kept secret.
9833 It is used to decrypt messages that were previously encrypted with your
9834 public key, and to sign messages.
9837 For personal use it is recommended that you get a S/MIME certificate
9838 from one of the major CAs on the Internet using your WWW browser.
9839 Many CAs offer such certificates for free.
9841 .Lk https://www.CAcert.org
9842 which issues client and server certificates to members of their
9843 community for free; their root certificate
9844 .Pf ( Lk https://\:www.cacert.org/\:certs/\:root.crt )
9845 is often not in the default set of trusted CA root certificates, though,
9846 which means you will have to download their root certificate separately
9847 and ensure it is part of our S/MIME certificate validation chain by
9850 or as a vivid member of the
9852 But let's take a step-by-step tour on how to setup S/MIME with
9853 a certificate from CAcert.org despite this situation!
9856 First of all you will have to become a member of the CAcert.org
9857 community, simply by registrating yourself via the web interface.
9858 Once you are, create and verify all email addresses you want to be able
9859 to create signed and encrypted messages for/with using the corresponding
9860 entries of the web interface.
9861 Now ready to create S/MIME certificates, so let's create a new
9862 .Dq client certificate ,
9863 ensure to include all email addresses that should be covered by the
9864 certificate in the following web form, and also to use your name as the
9868 Create a private key and a certificate request on your local computer
9869 (please see the manual pages of the used commands for more in-depth
9870 knowledge on what the used arguments etc. do):
9873 .Dl openssl req -nodes -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout key.pem -out creq.pem
9876 Afterwards copy-and-paste the content of
9878 into the certificate-request (CSR) field of the web form on the
9879 CAcert.org website (you may need to unfold some
9880 .Dq advanced options
9881 to see the corresponding text field).
9882 This last step will ensure that your private key (which never left your
9883 box) and the certificate belong together (through the public key that
9884 will find its way into the certificate via the certificate-request).
9885 You are now ready and can create your CAcert certified certificate.
9886 Download and store or copy-and-paste it as
9891 In order to use your new S/MIME setup you will have to create
9892 a combined private key/public key (certificate) file:
9895 .Dl cat key.pem pub.crt > ME@HERE.com.paired
9898 This is the file \*(UA will work with.
9899 If you have created your private key with a passphrase then \*(UA will
9900 ask you for it whenever a message is signed or decrypted.
9901 Set the following variables to henceforth use S/MIME (setting
9903 is of interest for verification only):
9905 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9906 set smime-ca-file=ALL-TRUSTED-ROOT-CERTS-HERE \e
9907 smime-sign-cert=ME@HERE.com.paired \e
9908 smime-sign-message-digest=SHA256 \e
9913 From each signed message you send, the recipient can fetch your
9914 certificate and use it to send encrypted mail back to you.
9915 Accordingly if somebody sends you a signed message, you can do the same,
9918 command to check the validity of the certificate.
9921 Variables of interest for S/MIME signing:
9925 .Va smime-crl-file ,
9926 .Va smime-no-default-ca ,
9928 .Va smime-sign-cert ,
9929 .Va smime-sign-include-certs
9931 .Va smime-sign-message-digest .
9934 After it has been verified save the certificate via
9936 and tell \*(UA that it should use it for encryption for further
9937 communication with that somebody:
9939 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9941 set smime-encrypt-USER@HOST=FILENAME \e
9942 smime-cipher-USER@HOST=AES256
9946 Additional variables of interest for S/MIME en- and decryption:
9949 .Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST .
9952 You should carefully consider if you prefer to store encrypted messages
9954 If you do, anybody who has access to your mail folders can read them,
9955 but if you do not, you might be unable to read them yourself later if
9956 you happen to lose your private key.
9959 command saves messages in decrypted form, while the
9963 commands leave them encrypted.
9966 Note that neither S/MIME signing nor encryption applies to message
9967 subjects or other header fields yet.
9968 Thus they may not contain sensitive information for encrypted messages,
9969 and cannot be trusted even if the message content has been verified.
9970 When sending signed messages,
9971 it is recommended to repeat any important header information in the
9975 .\" .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or SSL/TLS" {{{
9976 .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or SSL/TLS"
9978 \*(OP Certification authorities (CAs) issue certificate revocation
9979 lists (CRLs) on a regular basis.
9980 These lists contain the serial numbers of certificates that have been
9981 declared invalid after they have been issued.
9982 Such usually happens because the private key for the certificate has
9984 because the owner of the certificate has left the organization that is
9985 mentioned in the certificate, etc.
9986 To seriously use S/MIME or SSL/TLS verification,
9987 an up-to-date CRL is required for each trusted CA.
9988 There is otherwise no method to distinguish between valid and
9989 invalidated certificates.
9990 \*(UA currently offers no mechanism to fetch CRLs, nor to access them on
9991 the Internet, so you have to retrieve them by some external mechanism.
9994 \*(UA accepts CRLs in PEM format only;
9995 CRLs in DER format must be converted, like, e.\|g.:
9998 .Dl $ openssl crl \-inform DER \-in crl.der \-out crl.pem
10001 To tell \*(UA about the CRLs, a directory that contains all CRL files
10002 (and no other files) must be created.
10007 variables, respectively, must then be set to point to that directory.
10008 After that, \*(UA requires a CRL to be present for each CA that is used
10009 to verify a certificate.
10012 .\" .Ss "Handling spam" {{{
10013 .Ss "Handling spam"
10015 \*(OP \*(UA can make use of several spam interfaces for the purpose of
10016 identification of, and, in general, dealing with spam messages.
10017 A precondition of most commands in order to function is that the
10019 variable is set to one of the supported interfaces.
10020 Once messages have been identified as spam their (volatile)
10022 state can be prompted: the
10026 message specifications will address respective messages and their
10028 entries will be used when displaying the
10030 in the header display.
10035 rates the given messages and sets their
10038 If the spam interface offers spam scores those can also be displayed in
10039 the header display by including the
10049 will interact with the Bayesian filter of the chosen interface and learn
10050 the given messages as
10054 respectively; the last command can be used to cause
10056 of messages; it adheres to their current
10058 state and thus reverts previous teachings.
10063 will simply set and clear, respectively, the mentioned volatile
10065 message flag, without any interface interaction.
10074 requires a running instance of the
10076 server in order to function, started with the option
10078 shall Bayesian filter learning be possible.
10080 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10081 $ spamd -i localhost:2142 -i /tmp/.spamsock -d [-L] [-l]
10082 $ spamd --listen=localhost:2142 --listen=/tmp/.spamsock \e
10083 --daemonize [--local] [--allow-tell]
10087 Thereafter \*(UA can make use of these interfaces:
10089 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10090 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=spamc -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
10091 -Sspamc-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \e
10092 -Sspamc-arguments="-U /tmp/.spamsock" -Sspamc-user=
10094 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=spamc -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
10095 -Sspamc-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \e
10096 -Sspamc-arguments="-d localhost -p 2142" -Sspamc-user=
10100 Using the generic filter approach allows usage of programs like
10102 Here is an example, requiring it to be accessible via
10105 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10106 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=filter -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
10107 -Sspamfilter-ham="bogofilter -n" \e
10108 -Sspamfilter-noham="bogofilter -N" \e
10109 -Sspamfilter-nospam="bogofilter -S" \e
10110 -Sspamfilter-rate="bogofilter -TTu 2>/dev/null" \e
10111 -Sspamfilter-spam="bogofilter -s" \e
10112 -Sspamfilter-rate-scanscore="1;^(.+)$"
10116 Because messages must exist on local storage in order to be scored (or
10117 used for Bayesian filter training), it is possibly a good idea to
10118 perform the local spam check last:
10120 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10121 define spamdelhook {
10123 spamset (header x-dcc-brand-metrics "bulk")
10124 # Server-side spamassassin(1)
10125 spamset (header x-spam-flag "YES")
10126 del :s # TODO we HAVE to be able to do `spamrate :u ! :sS'
10127 move :S +maybe-spam
10130 move :S +maybe-spam
10132 set folder-hook-FOLDER=spamdelhook
10136 See also the documentation for the variables
10137 .Va spam-interface , spam-maxsize ,
10138 .Va spamc-command , spamc-arguments , spamc-user ,
10139 .Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , spamfilter-nospam , \
10142 .Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore .
10150 In general it is a good idea to turn on
10156 twice) if something doesn't work well.
10157 Very often a diagnostic message can be produced that leads to the
10158 problems' solution.
10160 .\" .Ss "\*(UA shortly hangs on startup" {{{
10161 .Ss "\*(UA shortly hangs on startup"
10163 This can have two reasons, one is the necessity to wait for a file lock
10164 and can't be helped, the other being that \*(UA calls the function
10166 in order to query the nodename of the box (sometimes the real one is
10167 needed instead of the one represented by the internal variable
10169 You may have varying success by ensuring that the real hostname and
10173 or, more generally, that the name service is properly setup \(en
10176 return what you'd expect?
10177 Does this local hostname has a domain suffix?
10178 RFC 6762 standardized the link-local top-level domain
10182 .\" .Ss "I can't login to Google mail aka GMail" {{{
10183 .Ss "I can't login to Google mail aka GMail"
10185 Since 2014 some free service providers classify programs as
10187 unless they use a special authentification method (OAuth 2.0) which
10188 wasn't standardized for non-HTTP protocol authentication token query
10189 until August 2015 (RFC 7628).
10192 Different to Kerberos / GSSAPI, which is developed since the mid of the
10193 1980s, where a user can easily create a local authentication ticket for
10194 her- and himself with the locally installed
10196 program, that protocol has no such local part but instead requires
10197 a world-wide-web query to create or fetch a token; since there is no
10198 local cache this query has to be performed whenever \*(UA is invoked
10199 from the command line (in interactive sessions situation may differ).
10202 \*(UA doesn't support OAuth.
10203 Because of this it is necessary to declare \*(UA a
10204 .Dq less secure app
10205 (on the providers account web page) in order to read and send mail.
10206 However, it also seems possible to take the following steps instead:
10211 give the provider the number of a mobile phone,
10214 .Dq 2-Step Verification ,
10216 create an application specific password (16 characters), and
10218 use that special password instead of your real Google account password in
10219 \*(UA (for more on that see the section
10220 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
10224 .\" .Ss "Not \(dqdefunctional\(dq, but the editor key won't work" {{{
10225 .Ss "Not \(dqdefunctional\(dq, but the editor key won't work"
10227 It can happen that the terminal library (see
10228 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor",
10231 reports different codes than the terminal really sends, in which case
10232 \*(UA will tell that a key binding is functional, but won't be able to
10233 recognize it because the received data doesn't match anything expected.
10234 The verbose listing of
10236 ings will show the byte sequences that are expected.
10239 To overcome the situation, use, e.g., the program
10241 in conjunction with the
10243 flag if available, to see the byte sequences which are actually produced
10244 by keypresses, and use the variable
10246 to make \*(UA aware of them.
10247 E.g., the terminal this is typed on produces some false sequences, here
10248 an example showing the shifted home key:
10250 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10253 # 1B 5B=[ 31=1 3B=; 32=2 48=H
10258 ? \*(uA -v -Stermcap='kHOM=\eE[H'
10267 .\" .Sh "SEE ALSO" {{{
10277 .Xr spamassassin 1 ,
10286 .Xr mailwrapper 8 ,
10291 .\" .Sh HISTORY {{{
10294 M. Douglas McIlroy writes in his article
10295 .Dq A Research UNIX Reader: Annotated Excerpts \
10296 from the Programmer's Manual, 1971-1986
10299 command already appeared in First Edition
10303 .Bd -ragged -offset indent
10304 Electronic mail was there from the start.
10305 Never satisfied with its exact behavior, everybody touched it at one
10306 time or another: to assure the safety of simultaneous access, to improve
10307 privacy, to survive crashes, to exploit uucp, to screen out foreign
10308 freeloaders, or whatever.
10309 Not until v7 did the interface change (Thompson).
10310 Later, as mail became global in its reach, Dave Presotto took charge and
10311 brought order to communications with a grab-bag of external networks
10317 Mail was written in 1978 by Kurt Shoens and developed as part of the
10320 distribution until 1995.
10321 Mail has then seen further development in open source
10323 variants, noticeably by Christos Zoulas in
10325 Basing upon this Nail, later Heirloom Mailx, was developed by Gunnar
10326 Ritter in the years 2000 until 2008.
10327 Since 2012 S-nail is maintained by Steffen (Daode) Nurpmeso.
10328 This man page is derived from
10329 .Dq The Mail Reference Manual
10330 that was originally written by Kurt Shoens.
10336 .An "Kurt Shoens" ,
10337 .An "Edward Wang" ,
10338 .An "Keith Bostic" ,
10339 .An "Christos Zoulas" ,
10340 .An "Gunnar Ritter" ,
10341 .An "Steffen Nurpmeso" Aq Mt s-nail-users@lists.sourceforge.net
10343 .Mt s-mailx@sdaoden.eu ) .
10346 .\" .Sh CAVEATS {{{
10349 \*(ID Interrupting an operation via
10353 is often problematic: many library functions cannot deal with the
10355 that this software (still) performs.
10358 The SMTP and POP3 protocol support of \*(UA is very basic.
10359 Also, if it fails to contact its upstream SMTP server, it will not make
10360 further attempts to transfer the message at a later time (setting
10365 If this is a concern, it might be better to set up a local SMTP server
10366 that is capable of message queuing.
10372 After deleting some message of a POP3 mailbox the header summary falsely
10373 claims that there are no messages to display, you need to perform
10374 a scroll or dot movement to restore proper state.
10376 In threaded display a power user may encounter crashes very
10377 occasionally (this is may and very).
10381 in the source repository lists future directions.