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
527 .Ql $ \*(uA -Xversion -Xx .
532 ting the internal variable
534 enables display of some informational context messages.
535 Using it twice increases the level of verbosity.
539 Add the given (or multiple for a multiline argument)
541 to the list of commands to be executed (as a unit, just as via
543 before normal operation starts.
547 .Va batch-exit-on-error ;
548 the only possibility to execute commands in non-interactive mode when
549 reading startup files is actively prohibited.
555 even if not in interactive mode.
556 This can be used to, e.g., automatically format the composed message
557 text before sending the message:
558 .Bd -literal -offset indent
559 $ ( echo 'line one. Word. Word2.'; \e
560 echo '~| /usr/bin/fmt -tuw66' ) |\e
561 LC_ALL=C \*(uA -:/ -Sttycharset=UTF-8 -d~ bob@exam.ple
567 In batch mode the full set of commands is available, just like in
568 interactive mode, and diverse variable settings and internal states are
569 adjusted for batch necessities, e.g., it
585 is enabled in compose mode.
586 The following prepares an email message in a batched dry run:
587 .Bd -literal -offset indent
588 $ LC_ALL=C printf 'm bob\en~s ubject\enText\en~.\enx\en' | \e
589 LC_ALL=C \*(uA -:/ -d# -X'alias bob bob@exam.ple'
594 This flag forces termination of option processing in order to prevent
597 It also forcefully puts \*(UA into send mode, see
598 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
602 In the above list of supported command line options,
606 are implemented by means of
608 ting the respective option, as via
611 .Op Ar mta-option ...
613 arguments that are given at the end of the command line after a
615 separator will be passed through to a file-based
617 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) and persist for an entire (interactive) session
618 \(en if the setting of
620 allows their recognition; no such constraints apply to the variable
624 .\" .Ss "A starter" {{{
627 \*(UA is a direct descendant of
629 Mail, a successor of the Research
632 .Dq was there from the start
637 Mail reference manual begins with the following words:
639 .Bd -ragged -offset indent
640 Mail provides a simple and friendly environment for sending and
642 It divides incoming mail into its constituent messages and allows the
643 user to deal with them in any order.
644 In addition, it provides a set of
646 -like commands for manipulating messages and sending mail.
647 Mail offers the user simple editing capabilities to ease the composition
648 of outgoing messages, as well as providing the ability to define and
649 send to names which address groups of users.
653 \*(UA is thus the user side of the
655 mail system, whereas the system side (Mail-Transfer-Agent, MTA) was
656 traditionally taken by
658 and most MTAs provide a binary of this name for compatibility purposes.
663 of \*(UA then the system side is not a mandatory precondition for mail
667 Because \*(UA strives for compliance with POSIX
669 it is likely that some configuration settings have to be adjusted before
670 using it is a smooth experience.
673 resource file bends those standard imposed settings of the
674 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
675 a bit towards more user friendliness and safety, however, e.g., it
680 in order to suppress the automatic moving of messages to
682 that would otherwise occur (see
683 .Sx "Message states" )
686 to not remove empty files in order not to mangle file permissions when
687 files eventually get recreated (\*(UA actively manages the file mode
690 upon program startup).
693 in order to synchronize \*(UA with the exit status report of the used
698 contains some more complete configuration examples.
701 .\" .Ss "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" {{{
702 .Ss "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode"
704 To send a message to one or more people, using a local or a builtin
706 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) transport to actually deliver the generated mail
707 message, \*(UA can be invoked with arguments which are the names of
708 people to whom the mail will be sent, and the command line options
712 can be used to add (blind) carbon copy receivers:
714 .Bd -literal -offset indent
715 $ \*(uA -s ubject -a ttach.txt bill@exam.ple
716 # But... try it in an isolated dry-run mode first
717 $ LC_ALL=C \*(uA -:/ -d -vv -Ssendwait \e
718 -b bcc@exam.ple -c cc@exam.ple -. \e
719 '(Lovely) Bob <bob@exam.ple>' eric@exam.ple
721 $ LC_ALL=C \*(uA -:/ -d -vv -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait \e
722 -S 'mta=smtps://mylogin@exam.ple:465' -Ssmtp-auth=login \e
723 -S 'from=scriptreply@exam.ple' \e
729 If standard input is a terminal rather than the message to be sent,
730 the user is expected to type in the message contents.
731 In this compose mode \*(UA treats lines beginning with the character
733 special \(en these are so-called
735 which can be used to read in files, process shell commands, add and edit
736 attachments and more; e.g., the tilde escape
738 will start the text editor to revise the message in it's current state,
740 allows editing of the most important message headers and
742 gives an overview of available tilde escapes.
746 at the beginning of an empty line leaves compose mode and causes the
747 message to be sent, whereas typing
750 twice will abort the current letter (saving its contents in the file
756 Messages are sent asynchronously, without supervision, unless the variable
758 is set, therefore send errors are not recognizable until then.
764 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
765 can be used to alter default behavior; e.g.,
770 will automatically startup a text editor when compose mode is entered,
772 will cause the user to be prompted actively for carbon-copy recipients
775 option will allow leaving compose mode by writing a line consisting
781 hook macros may be set to automatically adjust some settings dependent
782 on receiver, sender or subject contexts.
785 Especially for using public mail provider accounts with the SMTP
787 it is often necessary to set
789 and saving a copy of sent messages in a
791 may be desirable \(en as for most mailbox file targets some special
792 syntax conventions are recognized (see the
794 command for more on that).
797 for the purpose of arranging a complete environment of settings that can
798 be switched to with a single command or command line option may be
801 contains example configurations for sending messages via some of the
802 well-known public mail providers and also gives a compact overview on
803 how to setup a secure SSL/TLS environment).
808 sandbox dry-run tests first will prove correctness.
812 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
813 will spread light on the different ways of how to specify user email
814 account credentials, the
816 variable chains, and accessing protocol-specific resources,
819 goes into the details of character encoding and how to use them for
820 representing messages and MIME part contents by specifying them in
822 and reading the section
823 .Sx "The mime.types files"
824 should help to understand how the MIME-type of outgoing attachments are
825 classified, and what can be done for fine-tuning.
828 Message recipients (as specified on the command line or defined in
833 may not only be email addressees but can also be names of mailboxes and
834 even complete shell command pipe specifications.
837 is not set then only network addresses (see
839 for a description of mail addresses) and plain user names (including MTA
840 aliases) may be used, other types will be filtered out, giving a warning
843 .\" When changing any of the following adjust any RECIPIENTADDRSPEC;
844 .\" grep the latter for the complete picture
848 is set then extended recipient addresses will optionally be accepted:
849 Any name which starts with a vertical bar
851 character specifies a command pipe \(en the command string following the
853 is executed and the message is sent to its standard input;
854 Likewise, any name that starts with the character solidus
856 or the character sequence dot solidus
858 is treated as a file, regardless of the remaining content.
859 Any other name which contains an at sign
861 character is treated as a network address;
862 Any other name which starts with a plus sign
864 character specifies a mailbox name;
865 Any other name which contains a solidus
867 character but no exclamation mark
871 character before also specifies a mailbox name;
872 What remains is treated as a network address.
874 .Bd -literal -offset indent
875 $ echo bla | \*(uA -Sexpandaddr -s test ./mbox.mbox
876 $ echo bla | \*(uA -Sexpandaddr -s test '|cat >> ./mbox.mbox'
877 $ echo safe | LC_ALL=C \e
878 \*(uA -:/ -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Snosave \e
879 -Sexpandaddr=fail,-all,+addr -s test \e
884 It is possible to create personal distribution lists via the
886 command, so that, for instance, the user can send mail to
888 and have it go to a group of people.
889 These aliases have nothing in common with the system wide aliases that
890 may be used by the MTA, which are subject to the
894 and are often tracked in a file
900 Personal aliases will be expanded by \*(UA before the message is sent,
901 and are thus a convenient alternative to specifying each addressee by
905 .Dl alias cohorts bill jkf mark kridle@ucbcory ~/mail/cohorts.mbox
908 To avoid environmental noise scripts should
910 \*(UA from any configuration files and create a script-local
911 environment, ideally with the command line options
913 to disable any configuration file in conjunction with repetitions of
915 to specify variables:
917 .Bd -literal -offset indent
918 $ env LC_ALL=C \*(uA -:/ \e
919 -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Snosave -Sttycharset=utf-8 \e
920 -Sexpandaddr=fail,-all,+addr \e
921 -S 'mta=smtps://mylogin@exam.ple:465' -Ssmtp-auth=login \e
922 -S 'from=scriptreply@exam.ple' \e
923 -s 'subject' -a attachment_file \e
924 -. "Recipient 1 <rec1@exam.ple>" rec2@exam.ple \e
929 As shown, scripts can
931 a locale environment, the above specifies the all-compatible 7-bit clean
934 but will nonetheless take and send UTF-8 in the message text by using
936 In interactive mode, which is introduced in the next section, messages
937 can be sent by calling the
939 command with a list of recipient addresses \(em the semantics are
940 completely identical to non-interactive message sending:
942 .Bd -literal -offset indent
943 $ \*(uA -d -Squiet -Semptystart
944 "/var/spool/mail/user": 0 messages
945 ? mail "Recipient 1 <rec1@exam.ple>", rec2@exam.ple
946 ? # Will do the right thing (tm)
947 ? m rec1@exam.ple rec2@exam.ple
951 .\" .Ss "On reading mail, and interactive mode" {{{
952 .Ss "On reading mail, and interactive mode"
954 When invoked without addressees \*(UA enters interactive mode in which
956 When used like that the user's system
960 for an in-depth description of the different mailbox types that exist)
961 is read in and a one line header of each message therein is displayed.
962 The visual style of this summary of
964 can be adjusted through the variable
966 and the possible sorting criterion via
972 can be performed with the command
974 If the initially opened mailbox is empty \*(UA will instead exit
975 immediately (after displaying a message) unless the variable
984 will give a listing of all available commands and
986 will give a summary of some common ones.
987 If the \*(OPal documentation strings are available one can type
990 and see the actual expansion of
992 and what it's purpose is, i.e., commands can be abbreviated
993 (note that POSIX defines some abbreviations, so that the alphabetical
994 order of commands doesn't necessarily relate to the abbreviations; it is
995 possible to define overwrites with the
998 These commands can also produce a more
1003 Messages are given numbers (starting at 1) which uniquely identify
1004 messages; the current message \(en the
1006 \(en will either be the first new message, or the first unread message,
1007 or the first message of the mailbox; the option
1009 will instead cause usage of the last message for this purpose.
1014 ful of header summaries containing the
1018 will display only the summaries of the given messages, defaulting to the
1022 Message content can be displayed on the users' terminal with the
1026 If instead the command
1028 is used, only the first
1030 of a message will be shown.
1031 By default the current message
1033 is displayed, but like with many other commands it is possible to give
1034 a fancy message specification (see
1035 .Sx "Specifying messages" ) ,
1038 will display all unread messages,
1043 will type the messages 1 and 5,
1045 will type the messages 1 through 5, and
1049 will display the last and the next message, respectively.
1052 (a more substantial alias of the standard command
1054 will display a header summary of the given message specification list
1055 instead of their content, e.g., the following will search for subjects:
1058 .Dl from "'@Some subject to search for'"
1061 In the default setup all header fields of a message will be
1063 d, but this can be changed: either by blacklisting a list of fields via
1065 or by whitelisting only a given list with the
1068 .Ql Ic \:retain Ns \0from_ date from to cc subject .
1069 In order to display all header fields of a message regardless of
1070 currently active ignore or retain lists, use the commands
1076 controls whether and when \*(UA will use the configured
1078 for display instead of directly writing to the user terminal
1080 (generally speaking).
1081 Note that historically the global
1083 not only adjusts the list of displayed headers, but also sets
1087 Dependent upon the configuration a line editor (see the section
1088 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
1089 aims at making user experience with the many
1092 When reading the system
1098 specified a mailbox explicitly prefixed with the special
1100 modifier (propagating the mailbox to a primary one) then messages which
1101 have been read will be moved to a secondary mailbox, the user's
1103 file, automatically when the mailbox is left, either by changing the
1104 active mailbox or by quitting \*(UA (also see
1105 .Sx "Message states" )
1106 \(en this automatic moving from a system or primary to the secondary
1107 mailbox is not performed when the variable
1112 After examining a message the user can also
1116 to the sender and all recipients or
1118 exclusively to the sender(s).
1119 Messages can also be
1121 ed (shorter alias is
1123 Note that when replying to or forwarding a message recipient addresses
1124 will be stripped from comments and names unless the option
1127 Deletion causes \*(UA to forget about the message;
1128 This is not irreversible, though, one can
1130 the message by giving its number,
1131 or the \*(UA session can be ended by giving the
1136 To end a mail processing session one may either issue
1138 to cause a full program exit, which possibly includes
1139 automatic moving of read messages to
1141 as well as updating the \*(OPal line editor
1145 instead in order to prevent any of these actions.
1148 .\" .Ss "HTML mail and MIME attachments" {{{
1149 .Ss "HTML mail and MIME attachments"
1151 Messages which are HTML-only get more and more common and of course many
1152 messages come bundled with a bouquet of MIME attachments.
1153 Whereas \*(UA \*(OPally supports a simple HTML-to-text converter to deal
1154 with HTML messages (see
1155 .Sx "The mime.types files" ) ,
1156 it normally can't deal with any of these itself, but instead programs
1157 need to become registered to deal with specific MIME types or file
1159 These programs may either prepare plain text versions of their input
1160 in order to enable \*(UA to display the content on the terminal,
1161 or display the content themselves, for example in a graphical window.
1164 To install an external handler program for a specific MIME type set an
1166 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
1167 variable; to instead define a handler for a specific file extension set
1170 variable \(en these handlers take precedence.
1171 \*(OPally \*(UA supports mail user agent configuration as defined in
1172 RFC 1524; this mechanism, documented in the section
1173 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
1174 will be queried for display or quote handlers if none of the former two
1175 .\" TODO v15-compat "will be" -> "is"
1176 did; it will be the sole source for handlers of other purpose.
1177 A last source for handlers may be the MIME type definition itself, if
1178 the \*(UA specific type-marker extension was used when defining the type
1181 (Many of the builtin MIME types do so by default.)
1185 .Va mime-counter-evidence
1186 can be set to improve dealing with faulty MIME part declarations as are
1187 often seen in real-life messages.
1188 E.g., to display a HTML message inline (that is, converted to a more
1189 fancy plain text representation than the builtin converter is capable to
1190 produce) with either of the text-mode browsers
1194 teach \*(UA about MathML documents and make it display them as plain
1195 text, and to open PDF attachments in an external PDF viewer,
1196 asynchronously and with some other magic attached:
1198 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1199 if $features !@ +filter-html-tagsoup
1200 #set pipe-text/html='elinks -force-html -dump 1'
1201 set pipe-text/html='lynx -stdin -dump -force_html'
1202 # Display HTML as plain text instead
1203 #set pipe-text/html=@
1205 mimetype '@ application/mathml+xml mathml'
1206 wysh set pipe-application/pdf='@&=@ \e
1207 trap "rm -f \e"${NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}\e"" EXIT;\e
1208 trap "trap \e"\e" INT QUIT TERM; exit 1" INT QUIT TERM;\e
1209 mupdf "${NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}"'
1213 Note: special care must be taken when using such commands as mail
1214 viruses may be distributed by this method: if messages of type
1215 .Ql application/x-sh
1216 or files with the extension
1218 were blindly filtered through the shell, for example, a message sender
1219 could easily execute arbitrary code on the system \*(UA is running on.
1220 For more on MIME, also in respect to sending of messages, see the
1222 .Sx "The mime.types files" ,
1223 .Sx "The Mailcap files"
1228 .\" .Ss "Mailing lists" {{{
1231 \*(UA offers some support to ease handling of mailing lists.
1234 promotes all given arguments to known mailing lists, and
1236 sets their subscription attribute, creating them first as necessary.
1241 automatically, but only resets the subscription attribute.)
1242 Using the commands without arguments will show (a subset of) all
1243 currently defined mailing lists.
1248 can be used to mark out messages with configured list addresses
1249 in the header display.
1252 \*(OPally mailing lists may also be specified as (extended) regular
1253 expressions, which allows matching of many addresses with a single
1255 However, all fully qualified list addresses are matched via a fast
1256 dictionary, whereas expressions are placed in (a) list(s) which is
1257 (are) matched sequentially.
1259 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1260 set followup-to followup-to-honour=ask-yes reply-to-honour=ask-yes
1261 wysh mlist a1@b1.c1 a2@b2.c2 '.*@lists\e.c3$'
1262 mlsubscribe a4@b4.c4 exact@lists.c3
1267 .Va followup-to-honour
1269 .Ql Mail-\:Followup-\:To:
1270 header is honoured when the message is being replied to (via
1276 controls whether this header is created when sending mails; it will be
1277 created automatically for a couple of reasons, too, like when the
1279 .Dq mailing list specific
1284 is used to respond to a message with its
1285 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
1289 A difference in between the handling of known and subscribed lists is
1290 that the address of the sender is usually not part of a generated
1291 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
1292 when addressing the latter, whereas it is for the former kind of lists.
1293 Usually because there are exceptions: say, if multiple lists are
1294 addressed and not all of them are subscribed lists.
1296 For convenience \*(UA will, temporarily, automatically add a list
1297 address that is presented in the
1299 header of a message that is being responded to to the list of known
1301 Shall that header have existed \*(UA will instead, dependent on the
1303 .Va reply-to-honour ,
1306 for this purpose in order to accept a list administrators' wish that
1307 is supposed to have been manifested like that (but only if it provides
1308 a single address which resides on the same domain as what is stated in
1312 .\" .Ss "Resource files" {{{
1313 .Ss "Resource files"
1315 Upon startup \*(UA reads in several resource files:
1317 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa _AIL_EXTRA_R_"
1320 System wide initialization file.
1321 Reading of this file can be suppressed, either by using the
1325 command line options, or by setting the
1328 .Ev NAIL_NO_SYSTEM_RC .
1332 File giving initial commands.
1333 A different file can be chosen by setting the
1337 Reading of this file can be suppressed with the
1339 command line option.
1341 .It Va NAIL_EXTRA_RC
1342 Can be used to define an optional startup file to be read after all
1343 other resource files.
1344 It can be used to specify settings that are not understood by other
1346 implementations, for example.
1347 This variable is only honoured when defined in a resource file, e.g.,
1349 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" .
1353 The content of these files is interpreted as follows:
1356 .Bl -bullet -compact
1358 A lines' leading whitespace is removed.
1360 Empty lines are ignored.
1362 Any other line is interpreted as a command.
1363 It may be spread over multiple input lines if the newline character is
1365 by placing a reverse solidus character
1367 as the last character of the line; whereas any leading whitespace of
1368 follow lines is ignored, trailing whitespace before a escaped newline
1369 remains in the input.
1371 If the line (content) starts with the number sign
1373 then it is a comment-command \(en a real command! \(en and also ignored.
1374 This command is the only form of comment that is understood.
1378 Unless \*(UA is about to enter interactive mode syntax errors that occur
1379 while loading these files are treated as errors and cause program exit.
1380 More files with syntactically equal content can be
1382 The following, saved in a file, would be an examplary content:
1384 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1385 # This line is a comment command. And y\e
1386 es, it is really continued here.
1393 .\" .Ss "Character sets" {{{
1394 .Ss "Character sets"
1396 \*(OP \*(UA detects the character set of the terminal by using
1397 mechanisms that are controlled by the
1402 should give an overview); the \*(UA internal variable
1404 will be set to the detected terminal character set accordingly
1405 and will thus show up in the output of the commands
1411 However, a user supplied
1413 value is not overwritten by this detection mechanism: this
1415 must be used if the detection doesn't work properly,
1416 and it may be used to adjust the name of the locale character set.
1417 E.g., on BSD systems one may use a locale with the character set
1418 ISO8859-1, which is not a valid name for this character set; to be on
1419 the safe side, one may set
1421 to the correct name, which is ISO-8859-1.
1424 Note that changing the value doesn't mean much beside that,
1425 since several aspects of the real character set are implied by the
1426 locale environment of the system,
1427 and that stays unaffected by the content of an overwritten
1430 (This is mostly an issue when interactively using \*(UA, though.
1431 It is actually possible to send mail in a completely
1433 locale environment, an option that \*(UA's test-suite uses excessively.)
1436 If no character set conversion capabilities have been compiled into
1439 doesn't include the term
1443 will be the only supported character set,
1444 it is simply assumed that it can be used to exchange 8-bit messages,
1445 and the rest of this section does not apply;
1446 it may however still be necessary to explicitly set it if automatic
1447 detection fails, since in that case it defaults to the mentioned
1448 .\" (Keep in SYNC: ./nail.1:"Character sets", ./nail.h:CHARSET_*!)
1452 When reading messages, their text is converted into
1454 as necessary in order to display them on the users terminal.
1455 Unprintable characters and invalid byte sequences are detected
1456 and replaced by proper substitution characters (unless the variable
1458 was set once \*(UA was started).
1460 .Va charset-unknown-8bit
1461 to deal with another hairy aspect of message interpretation.
1464 When sending messages all their parts and attachments are classified.
1465 Whereas no character set conversion is performed on those parts which
1466 appear to be binary data,
1467 the character set being used must be declared within the MIME header of
1468 an outgoing text part if it contains characters that do not conform to
1469 the set of characters that are allowed by the email standards.
1470 Permissible values for character sets can be declared using the
1474 which defines a catch-all last-resort fallback character set that is
1475 implicitly appended to the list of character-sets in
1479 When replying to a message and the variable
1480 .Va reply-in-same-charset
1481 is set then the character set of the message being replied to is tried
1483 And it is also possible to make \*(UA work even more closely related to
1484 the current locale setting automatically by using the variable
1485 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset ,
1486 please see there for more information.
1489 All the specified character sets are tried in order unless the
1490 conversion of the part or attachment succeeds.
1491 If none of the tried (8-bit) character sets is capable to represent the
1492 content of the part or attachment,
1493 then the message will not be sent and its text will optionally be
1497 In general, if the message
1498 .Dq Cannot convert from a to b
1499 appears, either some characters are not appropriate for the currently
1500 selected (terminal) character set,
1501 or the needed conversion is not supported by the system.
1502 In the first case, it is necessary to set an appropriate
1504 locale and/or the variable
1508 The best results are usually achieved when \*(UA is run in a UTF-8
1509 locale on a UTF-8 capable terminal, in which case the full Unicode
1510 spectrum of characters is available.
1511 In this setup characters from various countries can be displayed,
1512 while it is still possible to use more simple character sets for sending
1513 to retain maximum compatibility with older mail clients.
1516 On the other hand the POSIX standard defines a locale-independent 7-bit
1517 .Dq portable character set
1518 that should be used when overall portability is an issue, the even more
1519 restricted subset named
1520 .Dq portable filename character set
1521 consisting of A-Z, a-z, 0-9, period
1530 .\" .Ss "Message states" {{{
1531 .Ss "Message states"
1533 \*(UA differentiates in between several different message states;
1534 the current state will be reflected in header summary displays if
1536 is configured to do so (via the internal variable
1538 and messages can also be selected and be acted upon depending on their
1540 .Sx "Specifying messages" ) .
1541 When operating on the system
1543 box or in primary mailboxes opened with the special prefix
1547 special actions, like the automatic moving of messages to the secondary
1549 mailbox may be applied when the mailbox is left (also implicitly via
1550 a successful exit of \*(UA, but not if the special command
1552 is used) \(en however, because this may be irritating to users which
1555 mail-user-agents, the default global
1561 variables in order to suppress this behaviour.
1563 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ql _reserved"
1565 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state.
1566 Such messages are retained even in the primary system mailbox.
1569 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state, but the
1570 message was present already when the mailbox has been opened last:
1571 Such messages are retained even in the primary system mailbox.
1574 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
1594 commands may also cause the next message to be marked as read, depending
1600 command is used, messages that are in the primary system mailbox or in
1601 mailboxes which were opened with the special
1605 state when the mailbox is left will be saved in
1612 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
1618 can be used to access such messages.
1621 The message has been processed by a
1623 command and it will be retained in its current location.
1626 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
1632 command is used, messages that are in the primary system mailbox or in
1633 mailboxes which were opened with the special
1637 state when the mailbox is left will be deleted; they will be saved in
1645 .\" .Ss "Specifying messages" {{{
1646 .Ss "Specifying messages"
1653 can be given a list of message numbers as arguments to apply to a number
1654 of messages at once.
1657 deletes messages 1 and 2,
1660 will delete the messages 1 through 5.
1661 In sorted or threaded mode (see the
1665 will delete the messages that are located between (and including)
1666 messages 1 through 5 in the sorted/threaded order, as shown in the
1669 The following special message names exist:
1672 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ar _n_u"
1674 The current message, the so-called
1678 The message that was previously the current message.
1681 The parent message of the current message,
1682 that is the message with the Message-ID given in the
1684 field or the last entry of the
1686 field of the current message.
1689 The next previous undeleted message,
1690 or the next previous deleted message for the
1693 In sorted/threaded mode,
1694 the next previous such message in the sorted/threaded order.
1697 The next undeleted message,
1698 or the next deleted message for the
1701 In sorted/threaded mode,
1702 the next such message in the sorted/threaded order.
1705 The first undeleted message,
1706 or the first deleted message for the
1709 In sorted/threaded mode,
1710 the first such message in the sorted/threaded order.
1714 In sorted/threaded mode,
1715 the last message in the sorted/threaded order.
1719 selects the message addressed with
1723 is any other message specification,
1724 and all messages from the thread that begins at it.
1725 Otherwise it is identical to
1730 the thread beginning with the current message is selected.
1735 All messages that were included in the message list for the previous
1739 An inclusive range of message numbers.
1740 Selectors that may also be used as endpoints include any of
1745 .Dq any substring matches
1748 header, which will match addresses (too) even if
1750 is set (and POSIX says
1751 .Dq any address as shown in a header summary shall be matchable in this form ) ;
1754 variable is set, only the local part of the address is evaluated
1755 for the comparison, not ignoring case, and the setting of
1757 is completely ignored.
1758 For finer control and match boundaries use the
1762 .It Ar / Ns Ar string
1763 All messages that contain
1765 in the subject field (case ignored).
1772 the string from the previous specification of that type is used again.
1774 .It Xo Op Ar @ Ns Ar name-list Ns
1777 All messages that contain the given case-insensitive search
1779 ession; if the \*(OPal regular expression (see
1781 support is available
1783 will be interpreted as (an extended) one if any of the
1785 (extended) regular expression characters is seen.
1787 .Ar @ Ns Ar name-list
1788 part is missing, the search is restricted to the subject field body,
1791 specifies a comma-separated list of header fields to search, as in
1793 .Dl '@to,from,cc@Someone i ought to know'
1795 In order to search for a string that includes a
1797 (commercial at) character the
1799 is effectively non-optional, but may be given as the empty string.
1800 Some special header fields may be abbreviated:
1814 respectively and case-insensitively.
1819 can be used to search in (all of) the header(s) of the message, and the
1828 can be used to perform full text searches \(en whereas the former
1829 searches only the body, the latter also searches the message header.
1831 This message specification performs full text comparison, but even with
1832 regular expression support it is almost impossible to write a search
1833 expression that savely matches only a specific address domain.
1834 To request that the content of the header is treated as a list of
1835 addresses, and to strip those down to the plain email address which the
1836 search expression is to be matched against, prefix the header name
1837 (abbreviation) with a tilde
1840 .Dl @~f@@a\e.safe\e.domain\e.match$
1843 All messages of state
1847 is one or multiple of the following colon modifiers:
1849 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar :M"
1854 Old messages (any not in state
1880 Messages marked as draft.
1882 \*(OP Messages classified as spam.
1884 \*(OP Messages with unsure spam classification.
1890 \*(OP IMAP-style SEARCH expressions may also be used.
1891 This addressing mode is available with all types of folders;
1892 \*(UA will perform the search locally as necessary.
1893 Strings must be enclosed by double quotes
1895 in their entirety if they contain white space or parentheses;
1896 within the quotes, only reverse solidus
1898 is recognized as an escape character.
1899 All string searches are case-insensitive.
1900 When the description indicates that the
1902 representation of an address field is used,
1903 this means that the search string is checked against both a list
1906 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1907 (\*qname\*q \*qsource\*q \*qlocal-part\*q \*qdomain-part\*q)
1912 and the addresses without real names from the respective header field.
1913 These search expressions can be nested using parentheses, see below for
1917 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar _n_u"
1918 .It Ar ( criterion )
1919 All messages that satisfy the given
1921 .It Ar ( criterion1 criterion2 ... criterionN )
1922 All messages that satisfy all of the given criteria.
1924 .It Ar ( or criterion1 criterion2 )
1925 All messages that satisfy either
1930 To connect more than two criteria using
1932 specifications have to be nested using additional parentheses,
1934 .Ql (or a (or b c)) ,
1938 .Ql ((a or b) and c) .
1941 operation of independent criteria on the lowest nesting level,
1942 it is possible to achieve similar effects by using three separate
1946 .It Ar ( not criterion )
1947 All messages that do not satisfy
1949 .It Ar ( bcc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1950 All messages that contain
1952 in the envelope representation of the
1955 .It Ar ( cc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1956 All messages that contain
1958 in the envelope representation of the
1961 .It Ar ( from \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1962 All messages that contain
1964 in the envelope representation of the
1967 .It Ar ( subject \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1968 All messages that contain
1973 .It Ar ( to \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1974 All messages that contain
1976 in the envelope representation of the
1979 .It Ar ( header name \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1980 All messages that contain
1985 .It Ar ( body \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1986 All messages that contain
1989 .It Ar ( text \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1990 All messages that contain
1992 in their header or body.
1993 .It Ar ( larger size )
1994 All messages that are larger than
1997 .It Ar ( smaller size )
1998 All messages that are smaller than
2002 .It Ar ( before date )
2003 All messages that were received before
2005 which must be in the form
2009 denotes the day of the month as one or two digits,
2011 is the name of the month \(en one of
2012 .Ql Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec ,
2015 is the year as four digits, e.g.,
2019 All messages that were received on the specified date.
2020 .It Ar ( since date )
2021 All messages that were received since the specified date.
2022 .It Ar ( sentbefore date )
2023 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
2024 .It Ar ( senton date )
2025 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
2026 .It Ar ( sentsince date )
2027 All messages that were sent since the specified date.
2029 The same criterion as for the previous search.
2030 This specification cannot be used as part of another criterion.
2031 If the previous command line contained more than one independent
2032 criterion then the last of those criteria is used.
2036 .\" .Ss "On URL syntax and credential lookup" {{{
2037 .Ss "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
2039 \*(IN For accessing protocol-specific resources usage of Uniform
2040 Resource Locators (URL, RFC 1738) has become omnipresent.
2041 \*(UA expects and understands URLs in the following form;
2044 denote optional parts, optional either because there also exist other
2045 ways to define the information in question or because support of the
2046 part is protocol-specific (e.g.,
2048 is used by the IMAP protocol but not by POP3);
2053 are specified they must be given in URL percent encoded form (RFC 3986;
2059 .Dl PROTOCOL://[USER[:PASSWORD]@]server[:port][/path]
2062 Note that these \*(UA URLs most often don't conform to any real
2063 standard, but instead represent a normalized variant of RFC 1738 \(en
2064 they are not used in data exchange but only meant as a compact,
2065 easy-to-use way of defining and representing information in
2066 a well-known notation.
2069 Many internal variables of \*(UA exist in multiple versions, called
2070 variable chains for the rest of this document: the plain
2075 .Ql variable-USER@HOST .
2082 had been specified in the respective URL, otherwise it refers to the plain
2088 that had been found when doing the user chain lookup as is described
2091 will never be in URL percent encoded form, whether it came from an URL
2092 or not; i.e., values of
2093 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
2094 must not be URL percent encoded.
2097 For example, whether an hypothetical URL
2098 .Ql smtp://hey%3Ayou@our.house
2099 had been given that includes a user, or whether the URL was
2100 .Ql smtp://our.house
2101 and the user had been found differently, to lookup the variable chain
2102 .Va smtp-use-starttls
2103 \*(UA first looks for whether
2104 .Ql smtp-\:use-\:starttls-\:hey:you@our.house
2105 is defined, then whether
2106 .Ql smtp-\:use-\:starttls-\:our.house
2107 exists before finally ending up looking at the plain variable itself.
2110 \*(UA obeys the following logic scheme when dealing with the
2111 necessary credential information of an account:
2117 has been given in the URL the variables
2121 are looked up; if no such variable(s) can be found then \*(UA will,
2122 when enforced by the \*(OPal variables
2123 .Va netrc-lookup-HOST
2130 specific entry which provides a
2132 name: this lookup will only succeed if unambiguous (one possible matching
2135 It is possible to load encrypted
2140 If there is still no
2142 then \*(UA will fall back to the user who is supposed to run \*(UA,
2143 the identity of which has been fixated during \*(UA startup and is
2144 known to be a valid user on the current host.
2147 Authentication: unless otherwise noted this will lookup the
2148 .Va PROTOCOL-auth-USER@HOST , PROTOCOL-auth-HOST , PROTOCOL-auth
2149 variable chain, falling back to a protocol-specific default should this
2155 has been given in the URL, then if the
2157 has been found through the \*(OPal
2159 that may have already provided the password, too.
2160 Otherwise the variable chain
2161 .Va password-USER@HOST , password-HOST , password
2162 is looked up and used if existent.
2164 Afterwards the complete \*(OPal variable chain
2165 .Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , netrc-lookup-HOST , netrc-lookup
2169 cache is searched for a password only (multiple user accounts for
2170 a single machine may exist as well as a fallback entry without user
2171 but with a password).
2173 If at that point there is still no password available, but the
2174 (protocols') chosen authentication type requires a password, then in
2175 interactive mode the user will be prompted on the terminal.
2180 S/MIME verification works relative to the values found in the
2184 header field(s), which means that the values of
2185 .Va smime-sign , smime-sign-cert , smime-sign-include-certs
2187 .Va smime-sign-message-digest
2188 will not be looked up using the
2192 chains from above but instead use the corresponding values from the
2193 message that is being worked on.
2194 In unusual cases multiple and different
2198 combinations may therefore be involved \(en on the other hand those
2199 unusual cases become possible.
2200 The usual case is as short as:
2203 .Dl set mta=smtp://USER:PASS@HOST smtp-use-starttls \e
2204 .Dl \ \ \ \ smime-sign smime-sign-cert=+smime.pair
2209 contains complete example configurations.
2212 .\" .Ss "On terminal control and line editor" {{{
2213 .Ss "On terminal control and line editor"
2215 \*(OP Terminal control will be realized through one of the standard
2217 libraries, either the
2219 or, alternatively, the
2221 both of which will be initialized to work with the environment variable
2223 Terminal control will enhance or enable interactive usage aspects, e.g.,
2224 .Sx "Coloured display" ,
2225 and extend behaviour of the Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE), which may learn the
2226 byte-sequences of keys like the cursor and function keys, and which will
2227 automatically enter the so-called
2229 alternative screen shall the terminal support it.
2230 The internal variable
2232 can be used to overwrite settings or to learn (correct(ed)) keycodes.
2233 Actual interaction with the chosen library can be disabled completely by
2234 setting the internal variable
2235 .Va termcap-disable ;
2237 will be queried regardless, even if the \*(OPal support for the
2238 libraries has not been enabled at configuration time.
2241 \*(OP The builtin \*(UA Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE) should work in all
2242 environments which comply to the ISO C standard
2244 and will support wide glyphs if possible (the necessary functionality
2245 had been removed from ISO C, but was included in
2247 Prevent usage of a line editor in interactive mode by setting the
2249 .Va line-editor-disable .
2250 Especially if the \*(OPal terminal control support is missing setting
2251 entries in the internal variable
2253 will help shall the MLE misbehave, see there for more.
2254 The MLE can support a little bit of
2260 feature is available then input from line editor prompts will be saved
2261 in a history list that can be searched in and be expanded from.
2262 Such saving can be prevented by prefixing input with any amount of
2264 Aspects of history, like allowed content and maximum size, as well as
2265 whether history shall be saved persistently, can be configured with the
2269 .Va history-gabby-persist
2274 The MLE supports a set of editing and control commands.
2275 By default (as) many (as possible) of these will be assigned to a set of
2276 single-letter control codes, which should work on any terminal.
2279 command is available then the MLE commands can also be accessed freely
2280 by assigning the command name, which is shown in parenthesis in the list
2281 below, to any desired key-sequence, and the MLE will instead and also use
2283 to establish its builtin key bindings
2284 (more of them if the \*(OPal terminal control is available),
2285 an action which can then be suppressed completely by setting
2286 .Va line-editor-no-defaults .
2287 The following uses the
2289 ell-style quote notation that is documented in the introductional
2292 combinations not mentioned either cause job control signals or don't
2293 generate a (unique) keycode:
2297 .Bl -tag -compact -width "Ql _M"
2299 Go to the start of the line
2300 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-home ) .
2303 Move the cursor backward one character
2304 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-bwd ) .
2307 Forward delete the character under the cursor;
2308 quits \*(UA if used on the empty line unless the
2311 .Pf ( Cd mle-del-fwd ) .
2314 Go to the end of the line
2315 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-end ) .
2318 Move the cursor forward one character
2319 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-fwd ) .
2322 Cancel current operation, full reset.
2323 If there is an active history search or tabulator expansion then this
2324 command will first reset that, reverting to the former line content;
2325 thus a second reset is needed for a full reset in this case
2326 .Pf ( Cd mle-reset ) .
2329 Backspace: backward delete one character
2330 .Pf ( Cd mle-del-bwd ) .
2334 Horizontal tabulator:
2335 try to expand the word before the cursor, also supporting \*(UA
2338 .Pf ( Cd mle-complete ) .
2340 .Cd mle-quote-rndtrip .
2344 commit the current line
2345 .Pf ( Cd mle-commit ) .
2348 Cut all characters from the cursor to the end of the line
2349 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-end ) .
2353 .Pf ( Cd mle-repaint ) .
2356 \*(OP Go to the next history entry
2357 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-fwd ) .
2364 \*(OP Go to the previous history entry
2365 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-bwd ) .
2368 Toggle roundtrip mode shell quotes, where produced,
2370 .Pf ( Cd mle-quote-rndtrip ) .
2371 This setting is temporary, and will be forgotten once the command line
2375 \*(OP Complete the current line from (the remaining) older history entries
2376 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-srch-bwd ) .
2379 \*(OP Complete the current line from (the remaining) newer history entries
2380 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-srch-fwd ) .
2383 Paste the snarf buffer
2384 .Pf ( Cd mle-paste ) .
2391 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-line ) .
2394 Prompts for a Unicode character (its hexadecimal number) to be inserted
2395 .Pf ( Cd mle-prompt-char ) .
2396 Note this command needs to be assigned to a single-letter control code
2397 in order to become recognized and executed during input of
2398 a key-sequence (only four single-letter control codes can be used for
2399 that shortcut purpose); this control code is special-treated and can't
2400 be part of any other sequence, because any occurrence will perform the
2402 function immediately.
2405 Cut the characters from the one preceding the cursor to the preceding
2407 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-word-bwd ) .
2410 Move the cursor forward one word boundary
2411 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-word-fwd ) .
2414 Move the cursor backward one word boundary
2415 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-word-bwd ) .
2418 Escape: reset a possibly used multibyte character input state machine
2419 and \*(OPally a lingering, incomplete key binding
2420 .Pf ( Cd mle-cancel ) .
2421 This command needs to be assigned to a single-letter control code in
2422 order to become recognized and executed during input of a key-sequence
2423 (only four single-letter control codes can be used for that shortcut
2425 This control code may also be part of a multi-byte sequence, but if
2426 a sequence is active and the very control code is currently also an
2427 expected input, then it will first be consumed by the active sequence.
2442 Cut the characters from the one after the cursor to the succeeding word
2444 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-word-fwd ) .
2454 this will immediately reset a possibly active search etc.
2458 ring the audible bell.
2462 .\" .Ss "Coloured display" {{{
2463 .Ss "Coloured display"
2465 \*(OP \*(UA can be configured to support a coloured display and font
2466 attributes by emitting ANSI / ISO 6429 SGR (select graphic rendition)
2468 Usage of colours and font attributes solely depends upon the
2469 capability of the detected terminal type that is defined by the
2470 environment variable
2472 and which can be fine-tuned by the user via the internal variable
2476 On top of what \*(UA knows about the terminal the boolean variable
2478 defines whether the actually applicable colour and font attribute
2479 sequences should also be generated when output is going to be paged
2480 through the external program defined by the environment variable
2485 This is not enabled by default because different pager programs need
2486 different command line switches or other configuration in order to
2487 support those sequences.
2488 \*(UA however knows about some widely used pagers and in a clean
2489 environment it is often enough to simply set
2491 please refer to that variable for more on this topic.
2496 is set then any active usage of colour and font attribute sequences
2497 is suppressed, but without affecting possibly established
2502 To define and control colours and font attributes a single multiplexer
2503 command family exists:
2505 shows or defines colour mappings for the given colour type (e.g.,
2508 can be used to remove mappings of a given colour type.
2509 Since colours are only available in interactive mode, it may make
2510 sense to conditionalize the colour setup by encapsulating it with
2513 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2514 if terminal && $features =@ +colour
2515 colour iso view-msginfo ft=bold,fg=green
2516 colour iso view-header ft=bold,fg=red "from,subject"
2517 colour iso view-header fg=red
2519 uncolour iso view-header from,subject
2520 colour iso view-header ft=bold,fg=magenta,bg=cyan
2521 colour 256 view-header ft=bold,fg=208,bg=230 subject,from
2522 colour mono view-header ft=bold
2523 colour mono view-header ft=bold,ft=reverse subject,from
2527 .\" }}} (DESCRIPTION)
2530 .\" .Sh COMMANDS {{{
2533 Each command is typed on a line by itself,
2534 and may take arguments following the command word.
2535 Command names may be abbreviated, in which case the first command that
2536 matches the given prefix will be used.
2539 can be used to show the list of all commands, either alphabetically
2540 sorted or in prefix search order (these don't match, also because the
2541 POSIX standard prescribes a set of abbreviations).
2542 \*(OPally the command
2546 when given an argument, will show a documentation string for the
2547 command matching the expanded argument, as in
2549 which should be a shorthand of
2551 Both commands support a more
2553 listing mode which includes the argument type of the command.
2556 For commands which take message lists as arguments, the next message
2557 forward that satisfies the command's requirements will be used shall no
2558 explicit message list have been specified.
2559 If there are no messages forward of the current message,
2560 the search proceeds backwards,
2561 and if there are no good messages at all,
2562 \*(UA shows an error message and aborts the command.
2563 \*(ID Non-message-list arguments can be quoted using the following methods:
2566 .Bl -bullet -compact -offset indent
2568 An argument can be enclosed between paired double-quotes
2573 any white space, shell word expansion, or reverse solidus characters
2574 (except as described next) within the quotes are treated literally as
2575 part of the argument.
2576 A double-quote will be treated literally within single-quotes and vice
2578 Inside such a quoted string the actually used quote character can be
2579 used nonetheless by escaping it with a reverse solidus
2585 An argument that is not enclosed in quotes, as above, can usually still
2586 contain space characters if those spaces are reverse solidus escaped, as in
2590 A reverse solidus outside of the enclosing quotes is discarded
2591 and the following character is treated literally as part of the argument.
2596 Some commands which don't take message-list arguments can also be
2597 prefixed with the special keyword
2599 to choose \*(INible behaviour, and some new commands support only the
2600 new quoting style (without that keyword) and are flagged \*(NQ.
2601 In the future \*(UA will (mostly) use
2603 compatible argument parsing:
2604 Non-message-list arguments can be quoted using the following shell-style
2605 mechanisms: the escape character, single-quotes, double-quotes and
2606 dollar-single-quotes; any unquoted number sign
2608 starts a comment that ends argument processing.
2609 The overall granularity of error reporting and diagnostics, also
2610 regarding function arguments and their content, will improve.
2614 .Bl -bullet -compact -offset indent
2616 The literal value of any character can be preserved by preceding it
2617 with the escape character reverse solidus
2621 will cause variable expansion of the given name: \*(UA
2622 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
2625 (shell) variables can be accessed through this mechanism, brace
2626 enclosing the name is supported.
2629 Arguments which are enclosed in
2630 .Ql 'single-\:quotes'
2631 retain their literal value.
2632 A single-quote cannot occur within single-quotes.
2635 The literal value of all characters enclosed in
2636 .Ql \(dqdouble-\:quotes\(dq
2637 is retained, with the exception of dollar
2639 which will cause variable expansion, as above, backquote (grave accent)
2641 (which not yet means anything special), reverse solidus
2643 which will escape any of the characters dollar
2645 (to prevent variable expansion), backquote (grave accent)
2649 (to prevent ending the quote) and reverse solidus
2651 (to prevent escaping, i.e., to embed a reverse solidus character as-is),
2652 but has no special meaning otherwise.
2655 Arguments enclosed in
2656 .Ql $'dollar-\:single-\:quotes'
2657 extend normal single quotes in that reverse solidus escape sequences are
2658 expanded as follows:
2660 .Bl -tag -compact -width "Ql \eNNN"
2666 an escape character.
2668 an escape character.
2680 emits a reverse solidus character.
2684 double quote (escaping is optional).
2686 eight-bit byte with the octal value
2688 (one to three octal digits), optionally with an additional
2691 A 0 byte will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
2693 eight-bit byte with the hexadecimal value
2695 (one or two hexadecimal characters).
2696 A 0 byte will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
2698 the Unicode / ISO-10646 character with the hexadecimal codepoint value
2700 (one to eight hexadecimal digits) \(em note that Unicode defines the
2701 maximum codepoint to be ever supported as
2706 This escape is only supported in locales which support Unicode (see
2707 .Sx "Character sets" ) ,
2708 in other cases the sequence will remain unexpanded unless the given code
2709 point is ASCII compatible or can be represented in the current locale.
2710 The character NUL will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
2714 except it takes only one to four hexadecimal digits.
2719 This is a mechanism that allows usage of the non-printable (ASCII and
2720 compatible) control codes 0 to 31: to be able to create a printable
2721 representation the numeric value 64 is added to the control code of
2722 desire, and the resulting ASCII character set code point is then
2723 printed, e.g., BEL is
2724 .Ql 7 + 64 = 71 = G .
2725 Often circumflex notation is used for the visualization purpose, e.g,
2727 but the reverse solid notation has been standardized:
2729 The control code NUL
2731 ends argument processing without producing further output.
2733 Non-standard extension: expand the given variable name, as above.
2734 Brace enclosing the name is supported.
2736 Not yet supported, just to raise awareness: Non-standard extension.
2742 .Sy Compatibility notes:
2743 \*(ID Note these are new mechanisms which are not supported by all
2745 Round-tripping (feeding in things shown in list modes again) are not yet
2746 stable or possible at all.
2747 On new-style command lines it is wise to quote semicolon
2751 characters in order to ensure upward compatibility: the author would
2752 like to see things like
2753 .Ql ? echo $'trouble\etahead' | cat >> in_the_shell.txt
2755 .Ql ? top 2 5 10; type 3 22
2757 Before \*(UA will switch entirely to shell-style argument parsing there
2758 will be a transition phase where using
2760 will emit obsoletion warnings.
2761 E.g., the following are equivalent:
2763 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2764 mlist @any\e\e.where\e\e.example\e\e.com
2765 wysh mlist '@any\e.where\e.example\e.com' # This is a comment
2766 wysh mlist $'@any\e\e\ex2Ewhere\e\e.example\e\e\e56com' # A comment
2767 wysh mlist "@any\e.where\e.example\e.com"
2771 In any event an unquoted reverse solidus at the end of a command line is
2772 discarded and the next line continues the command.
2773 \*(ID Note that line continuation is handled before the above parsing is
2774 applied, i.e., the parsers documented above will see merged lines.
2775 Filenames, where expected, are subsequently subjected to the following
2776 transformations, in sequence:
2779 .Bl -bullet -compact -offset indent
2781 If the filename begins with an unquoted plus sign, and the
2783 variable is defined,
2784 the plus sign will be replaced by the value of the
2786 variable followed by a solidus.
2789 variable is unset or is set to null, the filename will be unchanged.
2792 Meta expansions are applied to the filename: a leading tilde
2794 character will be replaced by the expansion of
2796 except when followed by a valid user name, in which case the home
2797 directory of the given user is used instead.
2802 will be replaced by the expansion of the variable, if possible; \*(UA
2803 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
2806 (shell) variables can be accessed through this mechanism, and the usual
2807 escape mechanism has to be applied to prevent interpretation.
2808 If the fully expanded filename results in multiple pathnames and the
2809 command is expecting only one file, an error results.
2811 In interactive context, in order to allow simple value acceptance (via
2813 arguments will usually be displayed in a properly quoted form, e.g., a file
2814 .Ql diet\e is \ecurd.txt
2816 .Ql 'diet\e is \ecurd.txt' .
2820 The following commands are available:
2822 .Bl -tag -width ".Ic _ccount"
2829 ) command which follows.
2833 The comment-command causes the entire line to be ignored.
2835 this really is a normal command which' purpose is to discard its
2838 indicating special character, which means that, e.g., trailing comments
2839 on a line are not possible.
2843 Goes to the next message in sequence and types it
2849 Display the preceding message, or the n'th previous message if given
2850 a numeric argument n.
2854 Show the current message number (the
2859 Show a brief summary of commands.
2862 output is available.
2863 \*(OP Given an argument a synopsis for the command in question is
2864 shown instead; commands can be abbreviated in general and this command
2865 can be used to see the full expansion of an abbreviation including the
2866 synopsis, try, e.g.,
2871 and see how the output changes.
2881 Interprets the remainder of the word as a macro name and passes it
2886 is a shorter synonym for
2887 .Ql call Ar mymacro .
2891 (ac) Creates, selects or lists (an) account(s).
2892 Accounts are special incarnations of
2894 macros and group commands and variable settings which together usually
2895 arrange the environment for the purpose of creating an email account.
2896 Different to normal macros settings which are covered by
2898 \(en here by default enabled! \(en will not be reverted before the
2903 (case-insensitive) always exists, and all but it can be deleted via
2906 Without arguments a listing of all defined accounts is shown.
2907 With one argument the given account is activated: the system
2909 box of that account will be activated (as via
2911 and a possibly installed
2914 The two argument form is identical to defining a macro as via
2916 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2918 set folder=~/mail MAIL=+syste.mbox record=+sent.mbox
2919 set from='myname@myisp.example (My Name)'
2920 set mta=smtp://mylogin@smtp.myisp.example
2926 (a) With no arguments, shows all currently-defined aliases.
2927 With one argument, shows that alias.
2928 With more than one argument,
2929 creates a new alias or appends to an existing one.
2931 can be used to delete aliases.
2935 (alt) Manage a list of alternate addresses / names of the active user,
2936 members of which will be removed from recipient lists when replying to
2939 variable is not set).
2940 If arguments are given the set of alternate names is replaced by them,
2941 without arguments the current set is displayed.
2945 Takes a message list and marks each message as having been answered.
2946 This mark has no technical meaning in the mail system;
2947 it just causes messages to be marked in the header summary,
2948 and makes them specially addressable.
2953 \*(OP\*(NQ The bind command extends the MLE (see
2954 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
2955 with freely configurable key bindings.
2956 With one argument all bindings for the given context are shown,
2957 specifying an asterisk
2959 will show the bindings of all contexts; a more verbose listing will be
2960 produced if either of
2965 With two or more arguments a binding is (re)established:
2966 the first argument is the context to which the binding shall apply,
2967 the second argument is a comma-separated list of the
2969 which form the binding, and any remaining arguments form the expansion.
2970 To indicate that a binding shall not be auto-committed, but that the
2971 expansion shall instead be furtherly editable by the user, an at-sign
2973 (that will be removed) can be placed last in the expansion, from which
2974 leading and trailing whitespace will finally be removed.
2977 Contexts define when a binding applies, i.e., a binding won't be seen
2978 unless the context for which it is defined for is currently active.
2979 This is not true for the binding
2981 which always applies, but which will be searched secondarily to a more
2982 specialized context and may thus have some or all of its key bindings
2983 transparently replaced by equal bindings of more specialized contexts.
2984 The available contexts are
2986 which always applies, and
2988 which applies to compose-mode.
2992 which form the binding are specified as a comma-separated list of
2993 byte-sequences, where each list entry corresponds to one key(press).
2994 \*(OPally a list entry may, indicated by a leading colon character
2996 also refer to the name of a terminal capability;
2997 several dozen names will be compiled into \*(UA and may be specified
3000 or, if existing, by their
3002 name, regardless of the actually used terminal control library.
3003 It is however possible to use any capability, as long as the name is
3004 resolvable by the control library or defined in the internal variable
3006 Input sequences are not case-normalized, so that an exact match is
3007 required to update or remove a binding.
3010 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3011 bind base $'\eE',d mle-snarf-word-fwd # Esc(ape)
3012 bind base $'\eE',$'\ec?' mle-snarf-word-bwd # Esc, Delete
3013 bind compose :kf1 ~e
3014 bind base $'\ecA',:khome,w 'echo An editable binding@'
3015 bind base a,b,c rm -rf / @ # Another editable binding
3019 Note that the entire comma-separated list is first parsed (over) as a
3020 shell-token with whitespace as the field separator, before being parsed
3021 and expanded for real with comma as the field separator, therefore
3022 whitespace needs to be properly quoted:
3023 shell-style quoting is documented in the introductional section of
3025 Using Unicode reverse solidus escape sequences renders a binding
3026 defunctional if the locale doesn't support Unicode (see
3027 .Sx "Character sets" ) ,
3028 and using terminal capabilities does so if no terminal control support
3029 is (currently) available.
3032 The following terminal capability names are builtin and can be used in
3034 or (if available) the two-letter
3036 notation regardless of the actually used library.
3037 See the respective manual for a list of capabilities.
3040 can be used to show all the capabilities of
3042 or the given terminal type;
3045 flag will also show supported (non-standard) extensions.
3048 .Bl -tag -compact -width kcuuf_or_kcuuf
3049 .It Cd kbs Ns \0or Cd kb
3051 .It Cd kdch1 Ns \0or Cd kD
3053 .It Cd kDC Ns \0or Cd *4
3054 \(em shifted variant.
3055 .It Cd kel Ns \0or Cd kE
3056 Clear to end of line.
3057 .It Cd kext Ns \0or Cd @9
3059 .It Cd kich1 Ns \0or Cd kI
3061 .It Cd kIC Ns \0or Cd #3
3062 \(em shifted variant.
3063 .It Cd khome Ns \0or Cd kh
3065 .It Cd kHOM Ns \0or Cd #2
3066 \(em shifted variant.
3067 .It Cd kend Ns \0or Cd @7
3069 .It Cd knp Ns \0or Cd kN
3071 .It Cd kpp Ns \0or Cd kP
3073 .It Cd kcub1 Ns \0or Cd kl
3074 Left cursor (with more modifiers: see below).
3075 .It Cd kLFT Ns \0or Cd #4
3076 \(em shifted variant.
3077 .It Cd kcuf1 Ns \0or Cd kr
3078 Right cursor (ditto).
3079 .It Cd kRIT Ns \0or Cd %i
3080 \(em shifted variant.
3081 .It Cd kcud1 Ns \0or Cd kd
3082 Down cursor (ditto).
3084 \(em shifted variant (only terminfo).
3085 .It Cd kcuu1 Ns \0or Cd ku
3088 \(em shifted variant (only terminfo).
3089 .It Cd kf0 Ns \0or Cd k0
3091 Add one for each function key up to
3096 .It Cd kf10 Ns \0or Cd k;
3098 .It Cd kf11 Ns \0or Cd F1
3100 Add one for each function key up to
3108 Some terminals support key-modifier combination extensions, e.g.,
3110 For example, the delete key,
3112 in its shifted variant, the name is mutated to
3114 then a number is appended for the states
3126 .Ql Shift+Alt+Control
3128 The same for the left cursor key,
3130 .Cd KLFT , KLFT3 , KLFT4 , KLFT5 , KLFT6 , KLFT7 , KLFT8 .
3133 Key bindings can be removed with the command
3135 It is advisable to use an initial escape or other control character (e.g.,
3137 for bindings which describe user key combinations (as opposed to purely
3138 terminal capability based ones), in order to avoid ambiguities whether
3139 input belongs to key sequences or not; it also reduces search time.
3142 may help shall keys and sequences be falsely recognized.
3147 Calls a macro that has been created via
3152 (ch) Change the working directory to
3154 or the given argument.
3160 \*(OP Only applicable to S/MIME signed messages.
3161 Takes a message list and a file name and saves the certificates
3162 contained within the message signatures to the named file in both
3163 human-readable and PEM format.
3164 The certificates can later be used to send encrypted messages to the
3165 respective message senders by setting
3166 .Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
3171 (ch) Change the working directory to
3173 or the given argument.
3179 Only applicable to threaded mode.
3180 Takes a message list and makes all replies to these messages invisible
3181 in header summaries, unless they are in state
3187 \*(OP\*(NQ Manage colour mappings for the type of colour given as the
3188 (case-insensitive) first argument, which must be one of
3190 for 256-colour terminals,
3195 for the standard 8-colour ANSI / ISO 6429 color palette and
3199 for monochrome terminals.
3200 Monochrome terminals cannot deal with colours, but only (some) font
3204 Without further arguments the list of all currently defined mappings
3205 for the given colour type is shown (as a special case giving
3209 will iterate over all types in order).
3210 Otherwise the second argument defines the mappable slot, the third
3211 argument a (comma-separated list of) colour and font attribute
3212 specification(s), and the optional fourth argument can be used to
3213 specify a precondition: if conditioned mappings exist they are tested in
3214 (creation) order unless a (case-insensitive) match has been found, and
3215 the default mapping (if any has been established) will only be chosen as
3217 The types of precondition available depend on the mappable slot, the
3218 following of which exist:
3221 Mappings prefixed with
3223 are used for the \*(OPal builtin Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE, see
3224 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
3225 and don't support preconditions.
3227 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
3229 This mapping is used for the position indicator that is visible when
3230 a line cannot be fully displayed on the screen.
3237 Mappings prefixed with
3239 are used in header summaries, and they all understand the preconditions
3241 (the current message) and
3243 for elder messages (only honoured in conjunction with
3244 .Va datefield-markout-older ) .
3246 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
3248 This mapping is used for the
3250 that can be created with the
3254 formats of the variable
3257 For the complete header summary line except the
3259 and the thread structure.
3261 For the thread structure which can be created with the
3263 format of the variable
3268 Mappings prefixed with
3270 are used when displaying messages.
3272 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
3274 This mapping is used for so-called
3276 lines, which are MBOX file format specific header lines.
3279 A comma-separated list of headers to which the mapping applies may be
3280 given as a precondition; if the \*(OPal regular expression support is
3281 available then if any of the
3283 (extended) regular expression characters is seen the precondition will
3284 be evaluated as (an extended) one.
3286 For the introductional message info line.
3287 .It Cd view-partinfo
3288 For MIME part info lines.
3292 The following (case-insensitive) colour definitions and font attributes
3293 are understood, multiple of which can be specified in a comma-separated
3303 It is possible (and often applicable) to specify multiple font
3304 attributes for a single mapping.
3307 foreground colour attribute:
3317 To specify a 256-color mode a decimal number colour specification in
3318 the range 0 to 255, inclusive, is supported, and interpreted as follows:
3320 .Bl -tag -compact -width "999 - 999"
3322 the standard ISO 6429 colors, as above.
3324 high intensity variants of the standard colors.
3326 216 colors in tuples of 6.
3328 grayscale from black to white in 24 steps.
3330 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3332 fg() { printf "\e033[38;5;${1}m($1)"; }
3333 bg() { printf "\e033[48;5;${1}m($1)"; }
3335 while [ $i -lt 256 ]; do fg $i; i=$(($i + 1)); done
3336 printf "\e033[0m\en"
3338 while [ $i -lt 256 ]; do bg $i; i=$(($i + 1)); done
3339 printf "\e033[0m\en"
3343 background colour attribute (see
3345 for possible values).
3349 Mappings may be removed with the command
3351 For a generic overview see the section
3352 .Sx "Coloured display" .
3357 (C) Copy messages to files whose names are derived from the author of
3358 the respective message and don't mark them as being saved;
3359 otherwise identical to
3364 (c) Copy messages to the named file and don't mark them as being saved;
3365 otherwise identical to
3370 \*(NQ With no arguments, shows all currently-defined custom headers.
3371 With one argument, shows that custom header.
3372 With more than one argument, creates a new or replaces an existing
3373 custom header with the name given as the first argument, the content of
3374 which being defined by the concatenated remaining arguments.
3376 can be used to delete custom headers.
3377 \*(ID Overwriting of automatically managed headers is neither supported
3379 Defined custom headers will be injected into newly composed or forwarded
3382 .Dl customhdr OpenPGP id=12345678; url=http://www.YYY.ZZ
3386 may also be used to inject custom headers; it is covered by
3391 Show the name of the current working directory.
3395 \*(OP For unencrypted messages this command is identical to
3397 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
3401 \*(OP For unencrypted messages this command is identical to
3403 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
3407 Without arguments the current list of macros, including their content,
3408 is shown, otherwise a macro is defined.
3409 A macro definition is a sequence of commands in the following form:
3410 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3419 A defined macro can be invoked explicitly by using the
3423 commands, or implicitly if a macro hook is triggered, e.g., a
3425 Note that interpretation of
3427 depends on how (i.e.,
3429 normal macro, folder hook, hook, account switch) the macro is invoked.
3430 Macros can be deleted via
3434 Macro behaviour, including option localization, will change in v15.
3435 Please be aware of that and possibly embed a version check in a resource
3440 (d) Marks the given message list as
3442 Deleted messages will neither be saved in
3444 nor will they be available for most other commands.
3456 Deletes the current message and displays the next message.
3457 If there is no next message, \*(UA says
3464 up or down by one message when given
3468 argument, respectively.
3472 Takes a message list and marks each given message as a draft.
3473 This mark has no technical meaning in the mail system;
3474 it just causes messages to be marked in the header summary,
3475 and makes them specially addressable.
3479 (ec) Echoes its arguments after applying
3481 expansions and filename transformations, as documented for
3486 (e) Point the text editor (as defined in
3488 at each message from the given list in turn.
3489 Modified contents are discarded unless the
3496 .Ic if Ns / Ns Ic elif Ns / Ns Ic else Ns / Ns Ic endif
3497 conditional \(em if the condition of a preceding
3499 was false, check the following condition and execute the following block
3500 if it evaluates true.
3505 .Ic if Ns / Ns Ic elif Ns / Ns Ic else Ns / Ns Ic endif
3506 conditional \(em if none of the conditions of the preceding
3510 commands was true, the
3516 (en) Marks the end of an
3517 .Ic if Ns / Ns Ic elif Ns / Ns Ic else Ns / Ns Ic endif
3518 conditional execution block.
3523 \*(NQ \*(UA has a strict notion about which variables are
3524 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
3525 and which are managed in the program
3527 Since some of the latter are a vivid part of \*(UAs functioning,
3528 however, they are transparently integrated into the normal handling of
3529 internal variables via
3533 To integrate other environment variables of choice into this
3534 transparent handling, and also to export internal variables into the
3535 process environment where they normally are not, a
3537 needs to become established with this command, as in, e.g.,
3540 .Dl environ link PERL5LIB from TZ
3543 Afterwards changing such variables with
3545 will cause automatic updates of the program environment, and therefore
3546 be inherited by newly created child processes.
3547 Sufficient system support provided (it was in BSD as early as 1987, and
3548 is standardized since Y2K) removing such variables with
3550 will remove them also from the program environment, but in any way
3551 the knowledge they ever have been
3554 Note this implies that
3556 may cause loss of links.
3561 will remove an existing link, but leaves the variables as such intact.
3562 Additionally the subcommands
3566 are provided, which work exactly the same as the documented commands
3570 but (additionally) link the variable(s) with the program environment and
3571 thus immediately export them to, or remove them from (if possible),
3572 respectively, the program environment.
3577 \*(OP Since \*(UA uses the console as a user interface it can happen
3578 that messages scroll by too fast to become recognized.
3579 Optionally an error message ring queue is available which stores
3580 duplicates of any error message and notifies the user in interactive
3581 sessions whenever a new error has occurred.
3582 The queue is finite: if its maximum size is reached any new message
3583 replaces the eldest.
3586 can be used to manage this message queue: if given
3588 or no argument the queue will be displayed and cleared,
3590 will only clear all messages from the queue.
3594 (ex or x) Exit from \*(UA without changing the active mailbox and skip
3595 any saving of messages in
3597 as well as a possibly tracked line editor history file.
3603 but open the mailbox readonly.
3607 (fi) The file command switches to a new mailbox.
3608 Without arguments it shows status information of the current mailbox.
3609 If an argument is given, it will write out changes (such as deletions)
3610 the user has made and open a new mailbox.
3611 Some special conventions are recognized for the
3615 .Bl -tag -compact -offset indent -width ".Ar %:__lespec"
3617 (number sign) means the previous file,
3619 (percent sign) means the invoking user's system
3623 means the primary system mailbox of
3625 (and never the value of
3627 regardless of its actual setting),
3629 (ampersand) means the invoking user's
3639 expands to the same value as
3641 but the file is handled as a primary system mailbox by, e.g., the
3645 commands, meaning that messages that have been read in the current
3646 session will be moved to the
3648 mailbox instead of simply being flagged as read.
3651 If the name matches one of the strings defined with the command
3653 it is replaced by its long form and expanded.
3654 If the name ends with
3659 it is treated as being compressed with
3664 respectively, and transparently handled through an intermediate
3665 (un)compression step (using a temporary file) with the according
3666 facility, sufficient support provided.
3667 Likewise, if the named file doesn't exist, but a file with one of the
3668 mentioned compression extensions does, then the name is automatically
3669 expanded and the compressed file is used.
3671 Otherwise, if the name ends with an extension for which
3672 .Va file-hook-load-EXTENSION
3674 .Va file-hook-save-EXTENSION
3675 variables are set, then the given hooks will be used to load and save
3677 and \*(UA will work with an intermediate temporary file.
3679 MBOX files (flat file-based mailboxes) are generally locked during file
3680 operations in order to avoid inconsistencies due to concurrent
3682 \*(OPal Mailbox files which \*(UA treats as system
3684 boxes or primary mailboxes will also be protected by so-called dotlock
3685 files, the traditional way of mail spool file locking: for any file
3689 will be created for the duration of the synchronization \(em
3690 as necessary a privilege-separated dotlock child process will be used
3691 to accommodate for necessary privilege adjustments in order to create
3692 the dotlock file in the same directory
3693 and with the same user and group identities as the file of interest.
3697 refers to a directory with the subdirectories
3702 then it is treated as a folder in
3704 format; \*(ID the variable
3706 can be used to control the format of yet non-existent folders.
3709 .Dl \*(IN protocol://[user[:password]@]host[:port][/path]
3710 .Dl \*(OU protocol://[user@]host[:port][/path]
3712 is taken as an Internet mailbox specification.
3713 The \*(OPally supported protocols are
3717 (POP3 with SSL/TLS encrypted transport).
3720 part is valid only for IMAP; there it defaults to
3722 Also see the section
3723 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
3727 contains special characters, in particular
3731 they must be escaped in URL notation \(en the command
3733 can be used to show the necessary conversion.
3737 Takes a message list and marks the messages as
3739 ged for urgent/special attention.
3740 This mark has no technical meaning in the mail system;
3741 it just causes messages to be highlighted in the header summary,
3742 and makes them specially addressable.
3751 With no arguments, list the names of the folders in the folder directory.
3752 With an existing folder as an argument,
3753 lists the names of folders below the named folder.
3759 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
3760 recipient's address (instead of in
3767 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
3768 recipient's address (instead of in
3775 but responds to all recipients regardless of the
3780 .It Ic followupsender
3783 but responds to the sender only regardless of the
3799 (f) Takes a list of message specifications and displays a summary of
3800 their message headers, exactly as via
3802 An alias of this command is
3805 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
3811 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the
3812 recipient's address (instead of in
3817 Takes a message and the address of a recipient
3818 and forwards the message to him.
3819 The text of the original message is included in the new one,
3820 with the value of the
3822 variable preceding it.
3827 commands specify which header fields are included in the new message.
3828 Only the first part of a multipart message is included unless the
3829 .Va forward-as-attachment
3833 is set recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names etc.
3837 Specifies which header fields are to be ignored with the command
3839 This command has no effect when the
3840 .Va forward-as-attachment
3845 Specifies which header fields are to be retained with the command
3850 This command has no effect when the
3851 .Va forward-as-attachment
3856 Define or list command aliases, so-called ghosts.
3857 Without arguments a list of all currently known aliases is shown.
3858 With one argument the expansion of the given alias is shown.
3859 With two or more arguments a command alias is defined or updated: the
3860 first argument is the name under which the remaining command line should
3861 be accessible, the content of which can be just about anything.
3862 A ghost can be used everywhere a normal command can be used, but always
3863 takes precedence; any arguments that are given to the command alias are
3864 joined onto the alias content, and the resulting string forms the
3865 command line that is, in effect, executed.
3868 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3870 `ghost': no such alias: "xx"
3873 ghost xx "echo hello,"
3882 (h) Show the current group of headers, the size of which depends on
3885 and the style of which can be adjusted with the variable
3887 If a message-specification is given the group of headers containing the
3888 first message therein is shown and the message at the top of the screen
3903 the list of history entries;
3906 argument selects and shows the respective history entry \(en
3909 to accept it, and the history entry will become the new history top.
3910 The default mode if no arguments are given is
3917 Takes a message list and marks each message therein to be saved in the
3922 Does not override the
3925 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command, because a
3927 command issued after
3929 will display the following message, not the current one.
3934 (i) Part of the nestable
3935 .Ic if Ns / Ns Ic elif Ns / Ns Ic else Ns / Ns Ic endif
3936 conditional execution construct \(em if the given condition is true then
3937 the encapsulated block is executed.
3938 POSIX only supports the (case-insensitive) conditions
3943 end, all remaining conditions are non-portable extensions; note that
3944 falsely specified conditions cause the execution of the entire
3945 conditional construct until the (matching) closing
3947 command to be suppressed.
3948 The syntax of the nestable
3950 conditional execution construct requires that each condition and syntax
3951 element is surrounded by whitespace.
3953 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3962 The (case-insensitive) condition
3964 erminal will evaluate to true if the standard input is a terminal, i.e.,
3965 in interactive sessions.
3966 Another condition can be any boolean value (see the section
3967 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
3968 for textual boolean representations) to mark an enwrapped block as
3971 .Dq always execute .
3972 It is possible to check
3973 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
3976 variables for existence or compare their expansion against a user given
3977 value or another variable by using the
3979 .Pf ( Dq variable next )
3980 conditional trigger character;
3981 a variable on the right hand side may be signalled using the same
3983 The variable names may be enclosed in a pair of matching braces.
3986 The available comparison operators are
3990 (less than or equal to),
3996 (greater than or equal to),
4000 (is substring of) and
4002 (is not substring of).
4003 The values of the left and right hand side are treated as strings and
4004 are compared 8-bit byte-wise, ignoring case according to the rules of
4005 the US-ASCII encoding (therefore, dependent on the active locale,
4006 possibly producing false results for strings in the locale encoding).
4007 Except for the substring checks the comparison will instead be performed
4008 arithmetically if both, the user given value as well as the variable
4009 content, can be parsed as numbers (integers).
4010 An unset variable is treated as the empty string.
4013 When the \*(OPal regular expression support is available, the additional
4019 They treat the right hand side as an extended regular expression that is
4020 matched case-insensitively and according to the active
4022 locale, meaning that strings in the locale encoding should be matched
4026 Conditions can be joined via AND-OR lists (where the AND operator is
4028 and the OR operator is
4030 which have equal precedence and will be evaluated with left
4031 associativity, thus using the same syntax that is known for the
4033 It is also possible to form groups of conditions and lists by enclosing
4034 them in pairs of brackets
4035 .Ql [\ \&.\&.\&.\ ] ,
4036 which may be interlocked within each other, and also be joined via
4040 The results of individual conditions and entire groups may be modified
4041 via unary operators: the unary operator
4043 will reverse the result.
4045 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4049 if $ttycharset == "UTF-8"
4050 echo *ttycharset* is set to UTF-8, case-insensitively
4054 echo These two variables are equal
4056 if $version-major >= 15
4057 echo Running a new version..
4058 if $features =@ +regex
4059 if $TERM =~ "^xterm\&.*"
4060 echo ..in an X terminal
4063 if [ [ true ] && [ [ ${debug} ] || [ $verbose ] ] ]
4066 if true && $debug || ${verbose}
4067 echo Left associativity, as is known from the shell
4069 if ! ! true && ! [ ! $debug && ! $verbose ]
4070 echo Unary operator support
4078 Without arguments the list of ignored header fields is shown,
4079 otherwise the given list of header fields is added to the ignore list:
4080 Header fields in the ignore list are not shown on the terminal when
4081 a message is displayed.
4082 To display a message in its entirety, use the commands
4093 Shows the names of all available commands, alphabetically sorted.
4094 If given any non-whitespace argument the list will be shown in the order
4095 in which command prefixes are searched.
4098 output is available.
4102 This command can be used to localize changes to variables, meaning that
4103 their state will be reverted to the former one once the covered scope
4105 It can only be used inside of macro definition blocks introduced by
4109 and is interpreted as a boolean (string, see
4110 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ) ;
4113 of an account is left once it is switched off again.
4114 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4115 define temporary_settings {
4130 enables change localization and calls
4132 which explicitly resets localization, then any value changes within
4134 will still be reverted by
4136 \*(ID Once the outermost level, the one which enabled localization
4137 first, is left, but no earlier, all adjustments will be unrolled.
4138 \*(ID Likewise worth knowing, if in this example
4140 changes to a different
4142 which sets some variables that are yet covered by localizations, their
4143 scope will be extended, and in fact leaving the
4145 will (thus) restore settings in (likely) global scope which actually
4146 were defined in a local, private context.
4150 Reply to messages that come in via known
4153 .Pf ( Ic mlsubscribe )
4154 mailing lists, or pretend to do so (see
4155 .Sx "Mailing lists" ) :
4158 functionality this will actively resort and even remove message
4159 recipients in order to generate a message that is supposed to be sent to
4161 For example it will also implicitly generate a
4162 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
4163 header if that seems useful, regardless of the setting of the variable
4170 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
4171 recipient's address (instead of in
4176 (m) Takes a (list of) recipient address(es) as (an) argument(s),
4177 or asks on standard input if none were given;
4178 then collects the remaining mail content and sends it out.
4182 (mb) The given message list is to be sent to
4184 when \*(UA is quit; this is the default action unless the
4187 \*(ID This command can only be used in a primary system mailbox (see
4192 Without any arguments the content of the MIME type cache will displayed.
4193 Otherwise each argument defines a complete MIME type specification of
4194 a type that shall be added (prepended) to the cache.
4195 In any event MIME type sources are loaded first as necessary \(en
4196 .Va mimetypes-load-control
4197 can be used to fine-tune which sources are actually loaded.
4198 Refer to the section on
4199 .Sx "The mime.types files"
4200 for more on MIME type specifications and this topic in general.
4201 MIME type unregistration and cache resets can be triggered with
4206 Without arguments the list of all currently defined mailing lists
4207 (and their attributes, if any) is shown; a more verbose listing will be
4208 produced if either of
4213 Otherwise all given arguments (which need not be quoted except for
4214 whitespace) will be added and henceforth be recognized as mailing lists.
4215 Mailing lists may be removed via the command
4218 If the \*(OPal regular expression support is available then mailing
4219 lists may also be specified as (extended) regular expressions (see
4225 Without arguments the list of all currently defined mailing lists which
4226 have a subscription attribute is shown; a more verbose listing will be
4227 produced if either of
4232 Otherwise this attribute will be set for all given mailing lists,
4233 newly creating them as necessary (as via
4235 Subscription attributes may be removed via the command
4244 but moves the messages to a file named after the local part of the
4245 sender address of the first message (instead of in
4252 but marks the messages for deletion if they were transferred
4259 but also displays ignored header fields and all MIME parts.
4267 on the given messages, even in non-interactive mode and as long as the
4268 standard output is a terminal.
4274 \*(OP When used without arguments or if
4276 has been given the content of the
4278 cache is shown, loading it first as necessary.
4281 then the cache will only be initialized and
4283 will remove its contents.
4284 Note that \*(UA will try to load the file only once, use
4285 .Ql Ic \&\&netrc Ns \:\0\:clear
4286 to unlock further attempts.
4291 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ;
4293 .Sx "The .netrc file"
4294 documents the file format in detail.
4298 Checks for new mail in the current folder without committing any changes
4300 If new mail is present, a message is shown.
4304 the headers of each new message are also shown.
4305 This command is not available for all mailbox types.
4313 Goes to the next message in sequence and types it.
4314 With an argument list, types the next matching message.
4328 If the current folder is accessed via a network connection, a
4330 command is sent, otherwise no operation is performed.
4336 but also displays ignored header fields and all MIME parts.
4344 on the given messages, even in non-interactive mode and as long as the
4345 standard output is a terminal.
4353 but also pipes ignored header fields and all parts of MIME
4354 .Ql multipart/alternative
4359 (pi) Takes a message list and a shell command
4360 and pipes the messages through the command.
4361 Without an argument the current message is piped through the command
4368 every message is followed by a formfeed character.
4389 (q) Terminates the session, saving all undeleted, unsaved messages in
4392 preserving all messages marked with
4396 or never referenced in the system
4398 box, and removing all other messages from the primary system mailbox.
4399 If new mail has arrived during the session,
4401 .Dq You have new mail
4403 If given while editing a mailbox file with the command line flag
4405 then the edit file is rewritten.
4406 A return to the shell is effected,
4407 unless the rewrite of edit file fails,
4408 in which case the user can escape with the exit command.
4422 Removes the named files or directories.
4423 If a name refer to a mailbox, e.g., a Maildir mailbox, then a mailbox
4424 type specific removal will be performed, deleting the complete mailbox.
4425 The user is asked for confirmation in interactive mode.
4429 Takes the name of an existing folder
4430 and the name for the new folder
4431 and renames the first to the second one.
4432 Both folders must be of the same type.
4436 (R) Reply to originator.
4437 Does not reply to other recipients of the original message.
4439 will exchange this command with
4443 is set the recipient address will be stripped from comments, names etc.
4447 (r) Take a message and group-responds to it by addressing the sender
4450 .Va followup-to-honour ,
4453 .Va recipients-in-cc
4454 influence response behaviour.
4457 offers special support for replying to mailing lists.
4460 is set recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names etc.
4473 but initiates a group-reply regardless of the value of
4480 but responds to the sender only regardless of the value of
4487 but does not add any header lines.
4488 This is not a way to hide the sender's identity,
4489 but useful for sending a message again to the same recipients.
4493 Takes a list of messages and a user name
4494 and sends each message to the named user.
4496 and related header fields are prepended to the new copy of the message.
4514 .It Ic respondsender
4520 (ret) Without arguments the list of retained header fields is shown,
4521 otherwise the given list of header fields is added to the retain list:
4522 Header fields in the retain list are shown on the terminal when
4523 a message is displayed, all other header fields are suppressed.
4524 To display a message in its entirety, use the commands
4533 takes precedence over the mentioned.
4539 but saves the messages in a file named after the local part of the
4540 sender of the first message instead of (in
4542 and) taking a filename argument.
4546 (s) Takes a message list and a filename and appends each message in turn
4547 to the end of the file.
4548 If no filename is given, the
4551 The filename in quotes, followed by the generated character count
4552 is echoed on the user's terminal.
4553 If editing a primary system mailbox the messages are marked for deletion.
4554 Filename interpretation as described for the
4556 command is performed.
4573 Header fields thus marked are filtered out when saving a message by
4575 or when automatically saving to
4577 This command should only be applied to header fields that do not contain
4578 information needed to decode the message,
4579 as MIME content fields do.
4591 Header fields thus marked are the only ones saved with a message when
4594 or when automatically saving to
4599 The use of this command is strongly discouraged since it may strip
4600 header fields that are needed to decode the message correctly.
4604 Takes a message specification (list) and displays a header summary of
4605 all matching messages, as via
4607 This command is an alias of
4610 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
4614 Takes a message list and marks all messages as having been read.
4618 (se) Without arguments this command shows all internal variables which
4619 are currently known to \*(UA (they have been set).
4620 A more verbose listing will be produced if either of
4624 are set, in which case variables may be preceded with a comment line
4625 that gives some context of what \*(UA knows about the given variable.
4627 Otherwise the given variables (and arguments) are set or adjusted.
4628 Arguments are of the form
4630 (no space before or after
4634 if there is no value, i.e., a boolean variable.
4635 Quotation marks may be placed around any part of the assignment
4636 statement to quote blanks or tabs, e.g.,
4638 .Dl set indentprefix='->'
4640 If an argument begins with
4644 the effect is the same as invoking the
4646 command with the remaining part of the variable
4647 .Pf ( Ql unset save ) .
4651 that is known to map to an environment variable will automatically cause
4652 updates in the program environment (unsetting a variable in the
4653 environment requires corresponding system support).
4654 Please use the command
4656 for further environmental control.
4661 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
4667 (sh) Invokes an interactive version of the shell.
4671 Without arguments the list of all currently defined shortcuts is
4673 Otherwise all given arguments (which need not be quoted except for
4674 whitespace) are treated as pairs of shortcuts and their expansions,
4675 creating new or changing already existing shortcuts, as necessary.
4676 Shortcuts may be removed via the command
4678 The expansion strings should be in the syntax that has been described
4687 but performs neither MIME decoding nor decryption, so that the raw
4688 message text is shown.
4692 (si) Shows the size in characters of each message of the given
4697 Shows the current sorting criterion when used without an argument.
4698 Otherwise creates a sorted representation of the current folder,
4701 command and the addressing modes such that they refer to messages in
4703 Message numbers are the same as in regular mode.
4707 a header summary in the new order is also displayed.
4708 Automatic folder sorting can be enabled by setting the
4710 variable, as in, e.g.,
4711 .Ql set autosort=thread .
4712 Possible sorting criterions are:
4714 .Bl -tag -compact -offset indent -width "subject"
4716 Sort the messages by their
4718 field, that is by the time they were sent.
4720 Sort messages by the value of their
4722 field, that is by the address of the sender.
4725 variable is set, the sender's real name (if any) is used.
4727 Sort the messages by their size.
4729 \*(OP Sort the message by their spam score, as has been classified by
4732 Sort the messages by their message status.
4734 Sort the messages by their subject.
4736 Create a threaded display.
4738 Sort messages by the value of their
4740 field, that is by the address of the recipient.
4743 variable is set, the recipient's real name (if any) is used.
4748 (so) The source command reads commands from the given file, which is
4749 subject to the usual filename expansions (see introductional words of
4751 If the given argument ends with a vertical bar
4753 then the argument will instead be interpreted as a shell command and
4754 \*(UA will read the output generated by it.
4755 Interpretation of commands read is stopped when an error is encountered.
4758 cannot be used from within macros that execute as
4759 .Va folder-hook Ns s
4762 i.e., it can only be called from macros that were
4769 (beside not supporting pipe syntax aka shell command input) is that
4770 this command will not generate an error if the given file argument
4771 cannot be opened successfully.
4775 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and clears their
4781 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and causes the
4783 to forget it has ever used them to train its Bayesian filter.
4784 Unless otherwise noted the
4786 flag of the message is inspected to chose whether a message shall be
4794 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and informs the Bayesian filter of the
4798 This also clears the
4800 flag of the messages in question.
4804 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and rates them using the configured
4805 .Va spam-interface ,
4806 without modifying the messages, but setting their
4808 flag as appropriate; because the spam rating headers are lost the rate
4809 will be forgotten once the mailbox is left.
4810 Refer to the manual section
4812 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
4816 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and sets their
4822 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and informs the Bayesian filter of the
4828 flag of the messages in question.
4837 Create a threaded representation of the current folder,
4838 i.\|e. indent messages that are replies to other messages in the header
4839 display and change the
4841 command and the addressing modes such that they refer to messages in the
4843 Message numbers are the same as in unthreaded mode.
4847 a header summary in threaded order is also displayed.
4861 (to) Takes a message list and types out the first
4863 lines of each message on the users' terminal.
4864 The only header fields that are displayed are
4871 will instead honour configured lists).
4872 It is possible to apply compression to what is displayed by setting
4874 Messages are decrypted and converted to the terminal character set
4879 (tou) Takes a message list and marks the messages for saving in
4881 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command,
4884 command will display the following message instead of the current one.
4890 but also displays out ignored header fields and all parts of MIME
4891 .Ql multipart/alternative
4896 (t) Takes a message list and types out each message on the users'
4902 For MIME multipart messages, all parts with a content type of
4906 are shown, the other are hidden except for their headers.
4907 Messages are decrypted and converted to the terminal character set
4912 Delete all given accounts.
4913 An error message is shown if a given account is not defined.
4916 will discard all existing accounts.
4920 (una) Takes a list of names defined by alias commands
4921 and discards the remembered groups of users.
4924 will discard all existing aliases.
4928 Takes a message list and marks each message as not having been answered.
4934 ing, specified by its context and input sequence, both of which may be
4935 specified as a wildcard (asterisk,
4939 will remove all bindings of all contexts.
4943 Only applicable to threaded mode.
4944 Takes a message list and makes the message and all replies to it visible
4945 in header summaries again.
4946 When a message becomes the current message,
4947 it is automatically made visible.
4948 Also when a message with collapsed replies is displayed,
4949 all of these are automatically uncollapsed.
4955 mapping for the given colour type (see
4957 for a list of types) and mapping; if the optional precondition argument
4958 is used then only the exact tuple of mapping and precondition is removed.
4961 will remove all mappings (no precondition allowed).
4963 .Sx "Coloured display"
4964 for the general picture.
4968 Deletes the custom headers given as arguments.
4971 will remove all custom headers.
4975 Undefine all given macros.
4976 An error message is shown if a given macro is not defined.
4979 will discard all existing macros.
4983 (u) Takes a message list and marks each message as not being deleted.
4987 Takes a message list and
4993 Takes a message list and marks each message as not being
4998 Removes the header field names from the list of ignored fields for the
5003 will remove all fields.
5007 Removes the header field names from the list of retained fields for the
5012 will remove all fields.
5016 Remove all the given command
5020 will remove all ghosts.
5024 Removes the header field names from the list of ignored fields.
5027 will remove all fields.
5031 Delete all given MIME types, e.g.,
5032 .Ql unmimetype text/plain
5033 will remove all registered specifications for the MIME type
5037 will discard all existing MIME types, just as will
5039 but which also reenables cache initialization via
5040 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
5044 Forget about all the given mailing lists.
5047 will remove all lists.
5052 .It Ic unmlsubscribe
5053 Remove the subscription attribute from all given mailing lists.
5056 will clear the attribute from all lists which have it set.
5067 Takes a message list and marks each message as not having been read.
5071 Removes the header field names from the list of retained fields.
5074 will remove all fields.
5078 Removes the header field names from the list of ignored fields for
5082 will remove all fields.
5086 Removes the header field names from the list of retained fields for
5090 will remove all fields.
5094 (uns) Takes a list of internal variable names and discards their
5095 remembered values; the reverse of
5102 Deletes the shortcut names given as arguments.
5105 will remove all shortcuts.
5109 Disable sorted or threaded mode
5115 return to normal message order and,
5119 displays a header summary.
5129 Perform URL percent codec operations, rather according to RFC 3986,
5130 on all given strings.
5131 This is character set agnostic and thus locale dependent, and it may
5132 decode bytes which are invalid in the current locale, unless the input
5133 solely consists of characters in the portable character set, see
5134 .Sx "Character sets" .
5135 The first argument specifies the operation:
5139 perform plain URL percent en- and decoding, respectively.
5143 perform a slightly modified operation which should be better for
5144 pathnames: it doesn't allow a tilde
5146 and will neither accept hyphen
5150 as an initial character.
5154 Edit the values of or create the given variable(s) in the
5156 Boolean variables cannot be edited.
5160 This command produces the same output as the listing mode of
5164 ity adjustments, but only for the given variables.
5168 \*(OP Takes a message list and verifies each message.
5169 If a message is not a S/MIME signed message,
5170 verification will fail for it.
5171 The verification process checks if the message was signed using a valid
5173 if the message sender's email address matches one of those contained
5174 within the certificate,
5175 and if the message content has been altered.
5187 (v) Takes a message list and invokes the display editor on each message.
5188 Modified contents are discarded unless the
5194 (w) For conventional messages the body without all headers is written.
5195 The original message is never marked for deletion in the originating
5197 The output is decrypted and converted to its native format as necessary.
5198 If the output file exists, the text is appended.
5199 If a message is in MIME multipart format its first part is written to
5200 the specified file as for conventional messages, handling of the remains
5201 depends on the execution mode.
5202 No special handling of compressed files is performed.
5204 In interactive mode the user is consecutively asked for the filenames of
5205 the processed parts.
5206 For convience saving of each part may be skipped by giving an empty
5207 value, the same result as writing it to
5209 Shell piping the part content by specifying a leading vertical bar
5211 character for the filename is supported.
5212 Other user input is expanded as usually for folders, e.g., tilde
5213 expansion is performed, and contents of the destination file are
5214 overwritten if the file previously existed.
5216 \*(ID In non-interactive mode any part which does not specify a filename
5217 is ignored, and suspicious parts of filenames of the remaining parts are
5218 URL percent encoded (as via
5220 to prevent injection of malicious character sequences, resulting in
5221 a filename that will be written into the current directory.
5222 Existing files won't be overwritten, instead the part number or
5223 a dot are appended after a number sign
5225 to the name until file creation succeeds (or fails due to other
5235 \*(UA presents message headers in
5237 fuls as described under the
5240 Without arguments this command scrolls to the next window of messages,
5241 likewise if the argument is
5245 scrolls to the last,
5247 scrolls to the first, and
5252 A number argument prefixed by
5256 indicates that the window is calculated in relation to the current
5257 position, and a number without a prefix specifies an absolute position.
5263 but scrolls to the next or previous window that contains at least one
5272 .\" .Sh TILDE ESCAPES {{{
5275 Here is a summary of the tilde escapes,
5276 which are used to perform special functions when composing messages.
5277 Tilde escapes are only recognized at the beginning of lines.
5280 is somewhat of a misnomer since the actual escape character can be
5281 changed by adjusting the option
5284 .Bl -tag -width ".Ic __ filename"
5287 Insert the string of text in the message prefaced by a single
5289 (If the escape character has been changed,
5290 that character must be doubled
5291 in order to send it at the beginning of a line.)
5294 .It Ic ~! Ar command
5295 Execute the indicated shell
5297 then return to the message.
5301 Same effect as typing the end-of-file character.
5304 .It Ic ~: Ar \*(UA-command Ns \0or Ic ~_ Ar \*(UA-command
5305 Execute the given \*(UA command.
5306 Not all commands, however, are allowed.
5310 Write a summary of command escapes.
5313 .It Ic ~< Ar filename
5318 .It Ic ~<! Ar command
5320 is executed using the shell.
5321 Its standard output is inserted into the message.
5324 .It Ic ~@ Op Ar filename...
5325 With no arguments, edit the attachment list interactively.
5326 If an attachment's file name is left empty,
5327 that attachment is deleted from the list.
5328 When the end of the attachment list is reached,
5329 \*(UA will ask for further attachments until an empty name is given.
5330 If a given file name solely consists of the number sign
5332 followed by a valid message number of the currently active mailbox, then
5333 the given message is attached as a MIME
5335 and the rest of this section does not apply.
5337 If character set conversion has been compiled into \*(UA, then this mode
5338 gives the user the option to specify input and output character sets,
5339 unless the file extension indicates binary content, in which case \*(UA
5340 asks whether this step shall be skipped for the attachment in question.
5341 If not skipped, then the charset that succeeds to represent the
5342 attachment data will be used in the
5344 MIME parameter of the mail message:
5346 .Bl -bullet -compact
5348 If input and output character sets are specified, then the conversion is
5349 performed on the fly.
5350 The user will be asked repeatedly until the desired conversion succeeds.
5352 If only an output character set is specified, then the input is assumed
5355 charset and will be converted to the given output charset on the fly.
5356 The user will be asked repeatedly until the desired conversion succeeds.
5358 If no character sets are specified at all then the algorithm that is
5359 documented in the section
5360 .Sx "Character sets"
5361 is applied, but directly and on the fly.
5362 The user will be asked repeatedly until the desired conversion succeeds.
5364 Finally, if an input-, but no output character set is specified, then no
5365 conversion is ever performed, but the
5367 MIME parameter value will still be set to the user input.
5369 The character set selection loop can be left by typing
5371 i.e., causing an interrupt.
5372 .\" \*(OU next sentence
5373 Note that before \*(UA version 15.0 this terminates the entire
5374 current attachment selection, not only the character set selection.
5377 Without character set conversion support, \*(UA will ask for the input
5378 character set only, and it'll set the
5380 MIME parameter value to the given input, if any;
5381 if no user input is seen then the
5383 character set will be used for the parameter value instead.
5384 Note that the file extension check isn't performed in this mode, since
5385 no conversion will take place anyway.
5387 Note that in non-interactive mode, for reproduceabilities sake, there
5388 will always be two questions for each attachment, regardless of whether
5389 character set conversion is available and what the file extension is.
5390 The first asks for the filename, and the second asks for the input
5391 character set to be passed through to the corresponding MIME parameter;
5392 no conversion will be tried if there is input to the latter question,
5393 otherwise the usual conversion algorithm, as above, is applied.
5394 For message attachments, the answer to the second question is completely
5399 arguments are specified for the
5401 command they are treated as a file list of
5403 -style quoted arguments, optionally also separated by commas, which are
5404 expanded and then appended to the existing list of message attachments.
5405 Message attachments can only be added via the first method.
5406 In this mode the (text) attachments are assumed to be in
5408 encoding, and will be evaluated as documented in the section
5409 .Sx "Character sets" .
5413 Inserts the string contained in the
5416 .Ql Ic ~i Ns \0Sign ) .
5417 The escape sequences tabulator
5425 Inserts the string contained in the
5428 .Ql Ic ~i Ns \0sign ) .
5429 The escape sequences tabulator
5436 .It Ic ~b Ar name ...
5437 Add the given names to the list of blind carbon copy recipients.
5440 .It Ic ~c Ar name ...
5441 Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients.
5445 Read the file specified by the
5447 variable into the message.
5451 Invoke the text editor on the message collected so far.
5452 After the editing session is finished,
5453 the user may continue appending text to the message.
5456 .It Ic ~F Ar messages
5457 Read the named messages into the message being sent, including all
5458 message headers and MIME parts.
5459 If no messages are specified, read in the current message.
5462 .It Ic ~f Ar messages
5463 Read the named messages into the message being sent.
5464 If no messages are specified, read in the current message.
5468 lists are used to modify the message headers.
5469 For MIME multipart messages,
5470 only the first displayable part is included.
5474 Edit the message header fields
5479 by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
5480 The default values for these fields originate from the
5488 Edit the message header fields
5494 by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
5497 .It Ic ~i Ar variable
5498 Insert the value of the specified variable into the message,
5499 adding a newline character at the end.
5500 The message remains unaltered if the variable is unset or empty.
5501 The escape sequences tabulator
5508 .It Ic ~M Ar messages
5509 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
5512 If no messages are specified, read the current message.
5515 .It Ic ~m Ar messages
5516 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
5519 If no messages are specified, read the current message.
5523 lists are used to modify the message headers.
5524 For MIME multipart messages,
5525 only the first displayable part is included.
5529 Display the message collected so far,
5530 prefaced by the message header fields
5531 and followed by the attachment list, if any.
5535 Abort the message being sent,
5536 copying it to the file specified by the
5543 .It Ic ~R Ar filename
5544 Read the named file into the message, indented by
5548 .It Ic ~r Ar filename
5549 Read the named file into the message.
5553 Cause the named string to become the current subject field.
5556 .It Ic ~t Ar name ...
5557 Add the given name(s) to the direct recipient list.
5560 .It Ic ~U Ar messages
5561 Read in the given / current message(s) excluding all headers, indented by
5565 .It Ic ~u Ar messages
5566 Read in the given / current message(s), excluding all headers.
5570 Invoke an alternate editor (defined by the
5572 option) on the message collected so far.
5573 Usually, the alternate editor will be a screen editor.
5574 After the editor is quit,
5575 the user may resume appending text to the end of the message.
5578 .It Ic ~w Ar filename
5579 Write the message onto the named file.
5581 the message is appended to it.
5587 except that the message is not saved at all.
5590 .It Ic ~| Ar command
5591 Pipe the message through the specified filter command.
5592 If the command gives no output or terminates abnormally,
5593 retain the original text of the message.
5596 is often used as a rejustifying filter.
5601 .\" .Sh INTERNAL VARIABLES {{{
5602 .Sh "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
5604 Internal \*(UA variables are controlled via the
5608 commands; prefixing a variable name with the string
5612 has the same effect as using
5618 Creation or editing of variables can be performed in the
5623 will give more insight on the given variable(s), and
5625 when called without arguments, will show a listing of all variables.
5626 Some well-known variables will also become inherited from the
5629 implicitly, others can be explicitly imported with the command
5631 and henceforth share the said properties.
5634 Two different kind of internal variables exist.
5635 There are boolean variables, which can only be in one of the two states
5639 and value variables with a(n optional) string value.
5640 For the latter proper quoting is necessary upon assignment time, the
5641 introduction of the section
5643 documents the supported quoting rules.
5645 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5646 wysh set one=val\e 1 two="val 2" \e
5647 three='val "3"' four=$'val \e'4\e''
5648 varshow one two three four
5649 unset one two three four
5653 Dependent upon the actual option the string values will be interpreted
5654 as numbers, colour names, normal text etc., but there also exists
5655 a special kind of string value, the
5656 .Dq boolean string ,
5657 which must either be a decimal integer (in which case
5661 and any other value is true) or any of the (case-insensitive) strings
5667 for a false boolean and
5673 for a true boolean; a special kind of boolean string is the
5675 which is a boolean string that can optionally be prefixed with the
5676 (case-insensitive) term
5680 which causes prompting of the user in interactive mode, with the given
5681 boolean as the default value.
5683 .\" .Ss "Initial settings" {{{
5684 .\" (Keep in SYNC: ./nail.h:okeys, ./nail.rc, ./nail.1:"Initial settings")
5685 .Ss "Initial Settings"
5687 The standard POSIX 2008/Cor 2-2016 mandates the following initial
5693 .Pf no Va autoprint ,
5707 .Pf no Va ignoreeof ,
5709 .Pf no Va keepsave ,
5711 .Pf no Va outfolder ,
5716 (note that \*(UA deviates from the standard by using
5720 special prompt escape results in
5728 .Pf no Va sendwait ,
5737 Notes: \*(UA doesn't support the
5739 variable \(en use command line options or
5741 to pass options through to a
5743 And the default global
5745 file (which is loaded unless the
5747 command line flag has been used or the
5748 .Ev NAIL_NO_SYSTEM_RC
5749 environment variable is set) bends those initial settings a bit, e.g.,
5750 it sets the variables
5755 to name a few, calls
5757 etc., and should thus be taken into account.
5760 .\" .Ss "Variables" {{{
5763 .Bl -tag -width ".It Va _utoprin_"
5765 .It Va add-file-recipients
5766 \*(BO When file or pipe recipients have been specified,
5767 mention them in the corresponding address fields of the message instead
5768 of silently stripping them from their recipient list.
5769 By default such addressees are not mentioned.
5773 \*(BO Causes only the local part to be evaluated
5774 when comparing addresses.
5778 \*(BO Causes messages saved in
5780 to be appended to the end rather than prepended.
5781 This should always be set.
5785 \*(BO Causes \*(UA to prompt for the subject of each message sent.
5786 If the user responds with simply a newline,
5787 no subject field will be sent.
5791 \*(BO Causes the prompts for
5795 lists to appear after the message has been edited.
5799 \*(BO If set, \*(UA asks for files to attach at the end of each message,
5800 shall the list be found empty at that time.
5801 An empty line finalizes the list.
5805 \*(BO Causes the user to be prompted for carbon copy recipients
5806 (at the end of each message if
5810 are set) shall the list be found empty (at that time).
5811 An empty line finalizes the list.
5815 \*(BO Causes the user to be prompted for blind carbon copy
5816 recipients (at the end of each message if
5820 are set) shall the list be found empty (at that time).
5821 An empty line finalizes the list.
5825 \*(BO\*(OP Causes the user to be prompted if the message is to be
5826 signed at the end of each message.
5829 variable is ignored when this variable is set.
5833 \*(BO Alternative name for
5840 .It Va attachment-ask-content-description , \
5841 attachment-ask-content-disposition , \
5842 attachment-ask-content-id , \
5843 attachment-ask-content-type
5844 \*(BO If set then the user will be prompted for some attachment
5845 information when editing the attachment list.
5846 It is advisable to not use these but for the first of the variables;
5847 even for that it has to be noted that the data is used
5853 A sequence of characters to display in the
5857 as shown in the display of
5859 each for one type of messages (see
5860 .Sx "Message states" ) ,
5861 with the default being
5864 .Ql NU\ \ *HMFAT+\-$~
5867 variable is set, in the following order:
5869 .Bl -tag -compact -offset indent -width ".It Ql _"
5891 start of a collapsed thread.
5893 an uncollapsed thread (TODO ignored for now).
5897 classified as possible spam.
5903 Specifies a list of recipients to which a blind carbon copy of each
5904 outgoing message will be sent automatically.
5908 Specifies a list of recipients to which a carbon copy of each outgoing
5909 message will be sent automatically.
5913 \*(BO Causes threads to be collapsed automatically when threaded mode
5920 \*(BO Causes the delete command to behave like
5922 thus, after deleting a message the next one will be typed automatically.
5926 \*(BO\*(OB Causes threaded mode (see the
5928 command) to be entered automatically when a folder is opened.
5930 .Ql autosort=thread .
5934 Causes sorted mode (see the
5936 command) to be entered automatically with the value of this option as
5937 sorting method when a folder is opened, e.g.,
5938 .Ql set autosort=thread .
5942 \*(BO Enables the substitution of
5944 by the contents of the last command line in shell escapes.
5947 .It Va batch-exit-on-error
5948 \*(BO If the batch mode has been enabled via the
5950 command line option, then this variable will be consulted whenever \*(UA
5951 completes one operation (returns to the command prompt); if it is set
5952 then \*(UA will terminate if the last operation generated an error.
5956 \*(OP Terminals generate multi-byte sequences for certain forms of
5957 input, for example for function and other special keys.
5958 Some terminals however do not write these multi-byte sequences as
5959 a whole, but byte-by-byte, and the latter is what \*(UA actually reads.
5960 This variable specifies the timeout in milliseconds that the MLE (see
5961 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
5962 waits for more bytes to arrive unless it considers a sequence
5968 \*(BO Causes automatic display of a header summary after executing a
5970 command, and thus complements the standard variable
5972 which controls header summary display on program startup.
5973 It is only meaningful if
5979 \*(BO Sets some cosmetical features to traditional BSD style;
5980 has the same affect as setting
5982 and all other variables prefixed with
5984 it also changes the meaning of the \*(UA specific
5987 escape sequence and changes behaviour of
5989 (which doesn't exist in BSD).
5993 \*(BO Changes the letters shown in the first column of a header
5994 summary to traditional BSD style.
5998 \*(BO Changes the display of columns in a header summary to traditional
6003 \*(BO Changes some informational messages to traditional BSD style.
6009 field to appear immediately after the
6011 field in message headers and with the
6013 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
6017 The value that should appear in the
6021 MIME header fields when no character set conversion of the message data
6023 This defaults to US-ASCII, and the chosen character set should be
6024 US-ASCII compatible.
6028 \*(OP The default 8-bit character set that is used as an implicit last
6029 member of the variable
6031 This defaults to UTF-8.
6032 If no character set conversion capabilities are available in \*(UA then
6033 the only supported character set is
6035 Refer to the section
6036 .Sx "Character sets"
6037 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
6040 .It Va charset-unknown-8bit
6041 \*(OP RFC 1428 specifies conditions when internet mail gateways shall
6043 the content of a mail message by using a character set with the name
6045 Because of the unclassified nature of this character set \*(UA will not
6046 be capable to convert this character set to any other character set.
6047 If this variable is set any message part which uses the character set
6049 is assumed to really be in the character set given in the value,
6050 otherwise the (final) value of
6052 is used for this purpose.
6054 This variable will also be taken into account if a MIME type (see
6055 .Sx "The mime.types files" )
6056 of a MIME message part that uses the
6058 character set is forcefully treated as text.
6062 The default value for the
6067 .It Va colour-disable
6068 \*(BO\*(OP Forcefully disable usage of colours.
6069 Also see the section
6070 .Sx "Coloured display" .
6074 \*(BO\*(OP Whether colour shall be used for output that is paged through
6076 Note that pagers may need special flags, e.g.,
6084 in order to support colours.
6085 Often doing manual adjustments is unnecessary since \*(UA may perform
6086 adjustments dependend on the value of the environment variable
6088 (see there for more).
6092 In a(n interactive) terminal session, then if this valued option is set
6093 it'll be used as a threshold to determine how many lines the given
6094 output has to span before it will be displayed via the configured
6098 can be forced by setting this to the value
6100 setting it without a value will deduce the current height of the
6101 terminal screen to compute the treshold (see
6109 \*(OB A variable counterpart of the
6111 command (see there for documentation), interpreted as a comma-separated
6112 list of custom headers to be injected, to include commas in the header
6113 bodies escape them with reverse solidus, e.g.:
6115 .Dl set customhdr='Hdr1: Body1-1\e, Body1-2, Hdr2: Body2'
6121 the message date, if any is to be displayed according to the format of
6123 is by default taken from the
6125 line of the message.
6126 If this variable is set the date as given in the
6128 header field is used instead, converted to local time.
6129 To control the display format of the date assign a valid
6134 format should not be used, because \*(UA doesn't take embedded newlines
6135 into account when calculating how many lines fit onto the screen.)
6137 .Va datefield-markout-older .
6140 .It Va datefield-markout-older
6141 This option, when set in addition to
6145 messages (concept is rather comparable to the
6147 option of the POSIX utility
6149 The content interpretation is identical to
6154 \*(BO Enables debug messages and obsoletion warnings, disables the
6155 actual delivery of messages and also implies
6161 .It Va disposition-notification-send
6163 .Ql Disposition-Notification-To:
6164 header (RFC 3798) with the message.
6168 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-HOST
6170 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
6171 .\" for SMTP accounts on a specific host.
6172 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-USER@HOST
6174 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
6175 .\"for a specific account.
6179 \*(BO When dot is set, a period
6181 on a line by itself during message input in (interactive) compose mode
6182 will be treated as end-of-message (in addition to the normal end-of-file
6191 .It Va dotlock-ignore-error
6192 \*(BO\*(OP Synchronization of mailboxes which \*(UA treats as system
6193 mailboxes (see the command
6195 will be protected with so-called dotlock files\(emthe traditional mail
6196 spool file locking method\(emin addition to system file locking.
6197 Because \*(UA ships with a privilege-separated dotlock creation program
6198 that should always be able to create such a dotlock file there is no
6199 good reason to ignore dotlock file creation errors, and thus these are
6200 fatal unless this variable is set.
6204 \*(BO If this variable is set then the editor is started automatically
6205 when a message is composed in interactive mode, as if the
6211 variable is implied for this automatically spawned editor session.
6215 \*(BO When a message is edited while being composed,
6216 its header is included in the editable text.
6226 fields are accepted within the header, other fields are ignored.
6230 \*(BO When entering interactive mode \*(UA normally writes
6231 .Dq \&No mail for user
6232 and exits immediately if a mailbox is empty or doesn't exist.
6233 If this option is set \*(UA starts even with an empty or nonexistent
6234 mailbox (the latter behaviour furtherly depends upon
6240 Suggestion for the MIME encoding to use in outgoing text messages
6242 Valid values are the default
6243 .Ql quoted-printable ,
6248 may cause problems when transferring mail messages over channels that
6249 are not ESMTP (RFC 1869) compliant.
6250 If there is no need to encode a message,
6252 transfer mode is always used regardless of this variable.
6253 Binary data is always encoded as
6258 If defined, the first character of this option
6259 gives the character to use in place of
6262 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
6266 If not set then file and command pipeline targets are not allowed,
6267 and any such address will be filtered out, giving a warning message.
6268 If set without a value then all possible recipient address
6269 specifications will be accepted \(en see the section
6270 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode"
6272 To accept them, but only in interactive mode, or when tilde commands
6273 were enabled explicitly by using one of the command line options
6277 set this to the (case-insensitive) value
6279 (note right now this is actually like setting
6280 .Ql restrict,-all,+name,+addr ) .
6282 In fact the value is interpreted as a comma-separated list of values.
6285 then the existence of disallowed specifications is treated as a hard
6286 send error instead of only filtering them out.
6287 The remaining values specify whether a specific type of recipient
6288 address specification is allowed (optionally indicated by a plus sign
6290 prefix) or disallowed (prefixed with a hyphen
6294 addresses all possible address specifications,
6298 command pipeline targets,
6300 plain user names and (MTA) aliases (\*(OB
6302 may be used as an alternative syntax to
6307 These kind of values are interpreted in the given order, so that
6308 .Ql restrict,\:fail,\:+file,\:-all,\:+addr
6309 will cause hard errors for any non-network address recipient address
6310 unless \*(UA is in interactive mode or has been started with the
6314 command line option; in the latter case(s) any address may be used, then.
6318 Unless this variable is set additional
6320 (Mail-Transfer-Agent)
6321 arguments from the command line, as can be given after a
6323 separator, are ignored due to safety reasons.
6324 However, if set to the special (case-insensitive) value
6326 then the presence of additional MTA arguments is treated as a hard
6327 error that causes \*(UA to exit with failure status.
6328 A lesser strict variant is the otherwise identical
6330 which does accept such arguments in interactive mode, or if tilde
6331 commands were enabled explicitly by using one of the command line options
6338 \*(RO String giving a list of features \*(UA, preceded with a plus-sign
6340 if the feature is available, and a minus-sign
6343 The output of the command
6345 will include this information.
6349 \*(BO This option reverses the meanings of a set of reply commands,
6350 turning the lowercase variants, which by default address all recipients
6351 included in the header of a message
6352 .Pf ( Ic reply , respond , followup )
6353 into the uppercase variants, which by default address the sender only
6354 .Pf ( Ic Reply , Respond , Followup )
6357 .Ic replysender , respondsender , followupsender
6359 .Ic replyall , respondall , followupall
6360 are not affected by the current setting of
6365 .It Va file-hook-load-EXTENSION , file-hook-save-EXTENSION
6366 It is possible to install file hooks which will be used by the
6368 command in order to be able to transparently handle (through an
6369 intermediate temporary file) files with specific
6371 s: the variable values can include shell snippets and are expected to
6372 write data to standard output / read data from standard input,
6374 \*(ID The variables may not be changed while there is a mailbox
6376 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6377 set file-hook-load-xy='echo >&2 XY-LOAD; gzip -cd' \e
6378 file-hook-save-xy='echo >&2 XY-SAVE; gzip -c' \e
6379 record=+null-sent.xy
6384 The default path under which mailboxes are to be saved:
6385 file names that begin with the plus-sign
6387 will be expanded by prefixing them with the value of this variable.
6388 The same special syntax conventions as documented for the
6390 command may be used; if the non-empty value doesn't start with a solidus
6394 will be prefixed automatically.
6395 If unset or the empty string any
6397 prefixing file names will remain unexpanded.
6401 This variable can be set to the name of a
6403 macro which will be called whenever a
6406 The macro will also be invoked when new mail arrives,
6407 but message lists for commands executed from the macro
6408 only include newly arrived messages then.
6410 are activated by default in a folder hook, causing the covered settings
6411 to be reverted once the folder is left again.
6414 Macro behaviour, including option localization, will change in v15.
6415 Please be aware of that and possibly embed a version check in a resource
6419 .It Va folder-hook-FOLDER
6424 Unlike other folder specifications, the fully expanded name of a folder,
6425 without metacharacters, is used to avoid ambiguities.
6426 However, if the mailbox resides under
6430 specification is tried in addition, e.g., if
6434 (and thus relative to the user's home directory) then
6435 .Pa /home/usr1/mail/sent
6437 .Ql folder-hook-/home/usr1/mail/sent
6438 first, but then followed by
6439 .Ql folder-hook-+sent .
6443 \*(BO Controls whether a
6444 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
6445 header is generated when sending messages to known mailing lists.
6447 .Va followup-to-honour
6449 .Ic mlist , mlsubscribe , reply
6454 .It Va followup-to-honour
6456 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
6457 header is honoured when group-replying to a message via
6461 This is a quadoption; if set without a value it defaults to
6471 .It Va forward-as-attachment
6472 \*(BO Original messages are normally sent as inline text with the
6475 and only the first part of a multipart message is included.
6476 With this option messages are sent as unmodified MIME
6478 attachments with all of their parts included.
6482 The address (or a list of addresses) to put into the
6484 field of the message header, quoting RFC 5322:
6485 the author(s) of the message, that is, the mailbox(es) of the person(s)
6486 or system(s) responsible for the writing of the message.
6489 ing to messages these addresses are handled as if they were in the
6493 If the machine's hostname is not valid at the Internet (for example at
6494 a dialup machine) then either this variable or
6496 (\*(IN and with a defined SMTP protocol in
6499 adds even more fine-tuning capabilities),
6503 contains more than one address,
6506 variable is required (according to the standard RFC 5322).
6510 \*(BO When replying to or forwarding a message \*(UA normally removes
6511 the comment and name parts of email addresses.
6512 If this variable is set such stripping is not performed,
6513 and comments, names etc. are retained.
6517 The string to put before the text of a message with the
6521 .Va forward-as-attachment
6524 .Dq -------- Original Message --------
6525 if unset; No heading is put if it is set to the empty string.
6529 \*(BO Causes the header summary to be written at startup and after
6530 commands that affect the number of messages or the order of messages in
6531 the current folder; enabled by default.
6532 The command line option
6538 complements this and controls header summary display on folder changes.
6543 A format string to use for the summary of
6545 similar to the ones used for
6548 Format specifiers in the given string start with a percent character
6550 and may be followed by an optional decimal number indicating the field
6551 width \(em if that is negative, the field is to be left-aligned.
6552 Valid format specifiers are:
6555 .Bl -tag -compact -offset indent -width "_%%_"
6557 A plain percent character.
6560 a space character but for the current message
6562 for which it expands to
6566 a space character but for the current message
6568 for which it expands to
6571 \*(OP The spam score of the message, as has been classified via the
6574 Shows only a replacement character if there is no spam support.
6576 Message attribute character (status flag); the actual content can be
6580 The date when the message was received, or the date found in the
6584 variable is set (optionally to a date display format string).
6586 The indenting level in threaded mode.
6588 The address of the message sender.
6590 The message thread tree structure.
6591 (Note that this format doesn't support a field width.)
6593 The number of lines of the message, if available.
6597 The number of octets (bytes) in the message, if available.
6599 Message subject (if any).
6601 Message subject (if any) in double quotes.
6603 Message recipient flags: is the addressee of the message a known or
6604 subscribed mailing list \(en see
6609 The position in threaded/sorted order.
6613 .Ql %>\&%a\&%m\ %-18f\ %16d\ %4l/%\-5o\ %i%-s ,
6615 .Ql %>\&%a\&%m\ %20-f\ \ %16d\ %3l/%\-5o\ %i%-S
6626 .It Va headline-bidi
6627 Bidirectional text requires special treatment when displaying headers,
6628 because numbers (in dates or for file sizes etc.) will not affect the
6629 current text direction, in effect resulting in ugly line layouts when
6630 arabic or other right-to-left text is to be displayed.
6631 On the other hand only a minority of terminals is capable to correctly
6632 handle direction changes, so that user interaction is necessary for
6634 Note that extended host system support is required nonetheless, e.g.,
6635 detection of the terminal character set is one precondition;
6636 and this feature only works in an Unicode (i.e., UTF-8) locale.
6638 In general setting this variable will cause \*(UA to encapsulate text
6639 fields that may occur when displaying
6641 (and some other fields, like dynamic expansions in
6643 with special Unicode control sequences;
6644 it is possible to fine-tune the terminal support level by assigning
6646 no value (or any value other than
6651 will make \*(UA assume that the terminal is capable to properly deal
6652 with Unicode version 6.3, in which case text is embedded in a pair of
6653 U+2068 (FIRST STRONG ISOLATE) and U+2069 (POP DIRECTIONAL ISOLATE)
6655 In addition no space on the line is reserved for these characters.
6657 Weaker support is chosen by using the value
6659 (Unicode 6.3, but reserve the room of two spaces for writing the control
6660 sequences onto the line).
6665 select Unicode 1.1 support (U+200E, LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK); the latter
6666 again reserves room for two spaces in addition.
6670 \*(OP If a line editor is available then this can be set to
6671 name the (expandable) path of the location of a permanent history file.
6674 .It Va history-gabby
6675 \*(BO\*(OP Add more entries to the history as is normally done.
6678 .It Va history-gabby-persist
6679 \*(BO\*(OP \*(UA's own MLE will not save the additional
6681 entries in persistent storage unless this variable is set.
6682 On the other hand it will not loose the knowledge of whether
6683 a persistent entry was gabby or not.
6689 \*(OP If a line editor is available this value restricts the
6690 amount of history entries that are saved into a set and valid
6692 A value of less than 0 disables this feature;
6693 note that loading and incorporation of
6695 upon program startup can also be suppressed by doing this.
6696 If unset or 0, a default value will be used.
6697 Dependent on the available line editor this will also define the
6698 number of history entries in memory;
6699 it is also editor-specific whether runtime updates of this value will
6704 \*(BO This option is used to hold messages in the system
6706 box, and it is set by default.
6710 Use this string as hostname when expanding local addresses instead of
6711 the value obtained from
6720 Note that when SMTP transport is not used (via
6722 then it is normally the responsibility of the MTA to create these
6723 fields, \*(IN in conjunction with SMTP however
6725 also influences the results:
6726 you should produce some test messages with the desired combination of
6735 \*(BO\*(OP Can be used to turn off the automatic conversion of domain
6736 names according to the rules of IDNA (internationalized domain names
6738 Since the IDNA code assumes that domain names are specified with the
6740 character set, an UTF-8 locale charset is required to represent all
6741 possible international domain names (before conversion, that is).
6745 \*(BO Ignore interrupt signals from the terminal while entering
6746 messages; instead echo them as
6748 characters and discard the current line.
6752 \*(BO Ignore end-of-file conditions
6753 .Pf ( Ql control-D )
6754 in compose mode on message input and in interactive command input.
6755 If set an interactive command input session can only be left by
6756 explicitly using one of the commands
6760 and message input in compose mode can only be terminated by entering
6763 on a line by itself or by using the
6765 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" ;
6767 overrides a setting of
6779 option for indenting messages,
6780 in place of the normal tabulator character
6782 which is the default.
6783 Be sure to quote the value if it contains spaces or tabs.
6787 \*(BO If set, an empty mailbox file is not removed.
6788 This may improve the interoperability with other mail user agents
6789 when using a common folder directory, and prevents malicious users
6790 from creating fake mailboxes in a world-writable spool directory.
6791 Note this only applies to local regular (MBOX) files, other mailbox
6792 types will never be removed.
6795 .It Va keep-content-length
6796 \*(BO When (editing messages and) writing
6798 mailbox files \*(UA can be told to keep the
6802 header fields that some MUAs generate by setting this variable.
6803 Since \*(UA does neither use nor update these non-standardized header
6804 fields (which in itself shows one of their conceptual problems),
6805 stripping them should increase interoperability in between MUAs that
6806 work with with same mailbox files.
6807 Note that, if this is not set but
6808 .Va writebackedited ,
6809 as below, is, a possibly performed automatic stripping of these header
6810 fields already marks the message as being modified.
6814 \*(BO When a message is saved it is usually discarded from the
6815 originating folder when \*(UA is quit.
6816 Setting this option causes all saved message to be retained.
6819 .It Va line-editor-disable
6820 \*(BO Turn off any enhanced line editing capabilities (see
6821 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor"
6825 .It Va line-editor-no-defaults
6826 \*(BO\*(OP Do not establish any default key binding.
6830 \*(BO When a message is replied to and this variable is set,
6831 it is marked as having been answered.
6832 This mark has no technical meaning in the mail system;
6833 it just causes messages to be marked in the header summary,
6834 and makes them specially addressable.
6838 \*(BO Internal development variable.
6841 .It Va message-id-disable
6842 \*(BO By setting this option the generation of
6844 can be completely suppressed, effectively leaving this task up to the
6846 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) or the SMTP server.
6847 (According to RFC 5321 your SMTP server is not required to add this
6848 field by itself, so you should ensure that it accepts messages without a
6852 .It Va message-inject-head
6853 A string to put at the beginning of each new message.
6854 The escape sequences tabulator
6861 .It Va message-inject-tail
6862 A string to put at the end of each new message.
6863 The escape sequences tabulator
6871 \*(BO Usually, when an
6873 expansion contains the sender, the sender is removed from the expansion.
6874 Setting this option suppresses these removals.
6879 option to be passed through to the
6881 (Mail-Transfer-Agent); though most of the modern MTAs no longer document
6882 this flag, no MTA is known which doesn't support it (for historical
6886 .It Va mime-allow-text-controls
6887 \*(BO When sending messages, each part of the message is MIME-inspected
6888 in order to classify the
6891 .Ql Content-Transfer-Encoding:
6894 that is required to send this part over mail transport, i.e.,
6895 a computation rather similar to what the
6897 command produces when used with the
6901 This classification however treats text files which are encoded in
6902 UTF-16 (seen for HTML files) and similar character sets as binary
6903 octet-streams, forcefully changing any
6908 .Ql application/octet-stream :
6909 If that actually happens a yet unset charset MIME parameter is set to
6911 effectively making it impossible for the receiving MUA to automatically
6912 interpret the contents of the part.
6914 If this option is set, and the data was unambiguously identified as text
6915 data at first glance (by a
6919 file extension), then the original
6921 will not be overwritten.
6924 .It Va mime-alternative-favour-rich
6925 \*(BO If this variable is set then rich MIME alternative parts (e.g.,
6926 HTML) will be preferred in favour of included plain text versions when
6927 displaying messages, provided that a handler exists which produces
6928 output that can be (re)integrated into \*(UA's normal visual display.
6929 (E.g., at the time of this writing some newsletters ship their full
6930 content only in the rich HTML part, whereas the plain text part only
6931 contains topic subjects.)
6934 .It Va mime-counter-evidence
6937 field is used to decide how to handle MIME parts.
6938 Some MUAs however don't use
6940 or a similar mechanism to correctly classify content, but simply specify
6941 .Ql application/octet-stream ,
6942 even for plain text attachments like
6944 If this variable is set then \*(UA will try to classify such MIME
6945 message parts on its own, if possible, for example via a possibly
6946 existent attachment filename.
6947 A non-empty value may also be given, in which case a number is expected,
6948 actually a carrier of bits.
6949 Creating the bit-carrying number is a simple addition:
6950 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6951 ? !echo Value should be set to $((2 + 4 + 8))
6952 Value should be set to 14
6955 .Bl -bullet -compact
6957 If bit two is set (2) then the detected
6959 content-type will be carried along with the message and be used for
6961 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
6962 is responsible for the MIME part, shall that question arise;
6963 when displaying such a MIME part the part-info will indicate the
6964 overridden content-type by showing a plus-sign
6967 If bit three is set (4) then the counter-evidence is always produced
6968 and a positive result will be used as the MIME type, even forcefully
6969 overriding the parts given MIME type.
6971 If bit four is set (8) then as a last resort the actual content of
6972 .Ql application/octet-stream
6973 parts will be inspected, so that data which looks like plain text can be
6978 .It Va mimetypes-load-control
6979 This option can be used to control which of the
6981 databases are loaded by \*(UA, as furtherly described in the section
6982 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
6985 is part of the option value, then the user's personal
6987 file will be loaded (if it exists); likewise the letter
6989 controls loading of the system wide
6990 .Pa /etc/mime.types ;
6991 directives found in the user file take precedence, letter matching is
6993 If this option is not set \*(UA will try to load both files.
6994 Incorporation of the \*(UA-builtin MIME types cannot be suppressed,
6995 but they will be matched last.
6997 More sources can be specified by using a different syntax: if the
6998 value string contains an equals sign
7000 then it is instead parsed as a comma-separated list of the described
7003 pairs; the given filenames will be expanded and loaded, and their
7004 content may use the extended syntax that is described in the section
7005 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
7006 Directives found in such files always take precedence (are prepended to
7007 the MIME type cache).
7012 To choose an alternate Mail-Transfer-Agent, set this option to either
7013 the full pathname of an executable (optionally prefixed with a
7015 protocol indicator), or \*(OPally a SMTP protocol URL, e.g., \*(IN
7017 .Dl smtps?://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
7020 .Ql [smtp://]server[:port] . )
7021 The default has been chosen at compie time.
7022 All supported data transfers are executed in child processes, which
7023 run asynchronously, and without supervision, unless either the
7028 If such a child receives a TERM signal, it will abort and
7035 For a file-based MTA it may be necessary to set
7037 in in order to choose the right target of a modern
7040 It will be passed command line arguments from several possible sources:
7043 if set, from the command line if given and the variable
7046 Argument processing of the MTA will be terminated with a
7051 The otherwise occurring implicit usage of the following MTA command
7052 line arguments can be disabled by setting the boolean option
7053 .Va mta-no-default-arguments
7054 (which will also disable passing
7058 (for not treating a line with only a dot
7060 character as the end of input),
7068 option is set); in conjunction with the
7070 command line option \*(UA will also pass
7076 \*(OP \*(UA can send mail over SMTP network connections to a single
7077 defined SMTP smarthost, the access URL of which has to be assigned to
7079 To use this mode it is helpful to read
7080 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
7081 It may be necessary to set the
7083 variable in order to use a specific combination of
7088 with some mail providers.
7091 .Bl -bullet -compact
7093 The plain SMTP protocol (RFC 5321) that normally lives on the
7094 server port 25 and requires setting the
7095 .Va smtp-use-starttls
7096 variable to enter a SSL/TLS encrypted session state.
7097 Assign a value like \*(IN
7098 .Ql smtp://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
7100 .Ql smtp://server[:port] )
7101 to choose this protocol.
7103 The so-called SMTPS which is supposed to live on server port 465
7104 and is automatically SSL/TLS secured.
7105 Unfortunately it never became a standardized protocol and may thus not
7106 be supported by your hosts network service database
7107 \(en in fact the port number has already been reassigned to other
7110 SMTPS is nonetheless a commonly offered protocol and thus can be
7111 chosen by assigning a value like \*(IN
7112 .Ql smtps://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
7114 .Ql smtps://server[:port] ) ;
7115 due to the mentioned problems it is usually necessary to explicitly
7120 Finally there is the SUBMISSION protocol (RFC 6409), which usually
7121 lives on server port 587 and is practically identically to the SMTP
7122 protocol from \*(UA's point of view beside that; it requires setting the
7123 .Va smtp-use-starttls
7124 variable to enter a SSL/TLS secured session state.
7125 Assign a value like \*(IN
7126 .Ql submission://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
7128 .Ql submission://server[:port] ) .
7133 .It Va mta-arguments
7134 Arguments to pass through to a file-based
7136 can be given via this variable, the content of which will be split up in
7137 a vector of arguments, to be joined onto other possible MTA options:
7139 .Dl set mta-arguments='-t -X \&"/tmp/my log\&"'
7142 .It Va mta-no-default-arguments
7143 \*(BO Unless this option is set \*(UA will pass some well known
7144 standard command line options to a file-based
7146 (Mail-Transfer-Agent), see there for more.
7150 Many systems use a so-called
7152 environment to ensure compatibility with
7154 This works by inspecting the name that was used to invoke the mail
7156 If this variable is set then the mailwrapper (the program that is
7157 actually executed when calling the file-based
7159 will treat its contents as that name.
7164 .It Va NAIL_EXTRA_RC
7165 The name of an optional startup file to be read last.
7166 This variable has an effect only if it is set in any of the
7167 .Sx "Resource files" ,
7168 it is not imported from the environment.
7169 Use this file for commands that are not understood by other POSIX
7174 .It Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , netrc-lookup-HOST , netrc-lookup
7175 \*(BO\*(IN\*(OP Used to control usage of the users
7177 file for lookup of account credentials, as documented in the section
7178 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
7182 .Sx "The .netrc file"
7183 documents the file format.
7195 then \*(UA will read the output of a shell pipe instead of the users
7197 file if this variable is set (to the desired shell command).
7198 This can be used to, e.g., store
7202 .Dl set netrc-pipe='gpg -qd ~/.netrc.pgp'
7206 If this variable has the value
7208 newly created local folders will be in Maildir format.
7212 Checks for new mail in the current folder each time the prompt is shown.
7213 A Maildir folder must be re-scanned to determine if new mail has arrived.
7214 If this variable is set to the special value
7216 then a Maildir folder will not be rescanned completely, but only
7217 timestamp changes are detected.
7221 .It Va on-compose-enter , on-compose-leave
7222 \*(ID Macro hooks which will be executed before compose mode is
7223 entered, and after composing has been finished, respectively.
7224 Please note that this interface is very likely to change in v15, and
7225 should therefore possibly even be seen as experimental.
7227 are by default enabled for these hooks, causing any setting to be
7228 forgotten after the message has been sent.
7229 The following variables will be set temporarily during execution of the
7232 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Va compose_subject"
7235 .It Va compose-sender
7237 .It Va compose-to , compose-cc , compose-bcc
7238 The list of receiver addresses as a space-separated list.
7239 .It Va compose-subject
7245 \*(BO Causes the filename given in the
7248 and the sender-based filenames for the
7252 commands to be interpreted relative to the directory given in the
7254 variable rather than to the current directory,
7255 unless it is set to an absolute pathname.
7259 \*(BO If set, each message feed through the command given for
7261 is followed by a formfeed character
7265 .It Va password-USER@HOST , password-HOST , password
7266 \*(IN Variable chain that sets a password, which is used in case none has
7267 been given in the protocol and account-specific URL;
7268 as a last resort \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal if
7269 the authentication method requires a password.
7270 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
7271 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
7273 .It Va password-USER@HOST
7274 \*(OU (see the chain above for \*(IN)
7275 Set the password for
7279 If no such variable is defined for a host,
7280 the user will be asked for a password on standard input.
7281 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
7282 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
7286 \*(BO Send messages to the
7288 command without performing MIME and character set conversions.
7292 .It Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
7293 When a MIME message part of type
7295 (case-insensitive) is displayed or quoted,
7296 its text is filtered through the value of this variable interpreted as
7300 forces interpretation of the message part as plain text, e.g.,
7301 .Ql set pipe-application/xml=@
7302 will henceforth display XML
7304 (The same could also be achieved by adding a MIME type marker with the
7307 And \*(OPally MIME type handlers may be defined via
7308 .Sx "The Mailcap files"
7309 \(em corresponding flag strings are shown in parenthesis below.)
7314 can in fact be used to adjust usage and behaviour of a following shell
7315 command specification by appending trigger characters to it, e.g., the
7316 following hypothetical command specification could be used:
7317 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7318 set pipe-X/Y='@*!++=@vim ${NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}'
7322 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql __"
7324 Simply by using the special
7326 prefix the MIME type (shell command) handler will only be invoked to
7327 display or convert the MIME part if the message is addressed directly
7328 and alone by itself.
7329 Use this trigger to disable this and always invoke the handler
7330 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-always ) .
7333 If set the handler will not be invoked when a message is to be quoted,
7334 but only when it will be displayed
7335 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-noquote ) .
7338 The command will be run asynchronously, i.e., without blocking \*(UA,
7339 which may be a handy way to display a, e.g., PDF file while also
7340 continuing to read the mail message
7341 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-async ) .
7342 Asynchronous execution implies
7346 The command must be run on an interactive terminal, \*(UA will
7347 temporarily release the terminal to it
7348 .Pf ( Cd needsterminal ) .
7349 This flag is mutual exclusive with
7351 will only be used in interactive mode and implies
7355 Request creation of a zero-sized temporary file, the absolute pathname
7356 of which will be made accessible via the environment variable
7357 .Ev NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
7358 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-tmpfile ) .
7359 If this trigger is given twice then the file will be unlinked
7360 automatically by \*(UA when the command loop is entered again at latest
7361 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink ) .
7362 (Don't use this for asynchronous handlers.)
7365 Normally the MIME part content is passed to the handler via standard
7366 input; if this flag is set then the data will instead be written into
7367 .Ev NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
7368 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill ) ,
7369 the creation of which is implied; note however that in order to cause
7370 deletion of the temporary file you still have to use two plus signs
7375 To avoid ambiguities with normal shell command content you can use
7376 another at-sign to forcefully terminate interpretation of remaining
7378 (Any character not in this list will have the same effect.)
7382 Some information about the MIME part to be displayed is embedded into
7383 the environment of the shell command:
7386 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ev _AIL__ILENAME__ENERATED"
7389 The MIME content-type of the part, if known, the empty string otherwise.
7392 .It Ev NAIL_CONTENT_EVIDENCE
7394 .Va mime-counter-evidence
7395 includes the carry-around-bit (2), then this will be set to the detected
7396 MIME content-type; not only then identical to
7397 .Ev \&\&NAIL_CONTENT
7401 .It Ev NAIL_FILENAME
7402 The filename, if any is set, the empty string otherwise.
7405 .It Ev NAIL_FILENAME_GENERATED
7409 .It Ev NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
7410 If temporary file creation has been requested through the command prefix
7411 this variable will be set and contain the absolute pathname of the
7416 The temporary directory that \*(UA uses.
7417 Usually identical to
7419 but guaranteed to be set and usable by child processes;
7420 to ensure the latter condition for
7427 .It Va pipe-EXTENSION
7428 This is identical to
7429 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
7432 (normalized to lowercase using character mappings of the ASCII charset)
7433 names a file extension, e.g.,
7435 Handlers registered using this method take precedence.
7438 .It Va pop3-auth-USER@HOST , pop3-auth-HOST , pop3-auth
7439 \*(OP\*(IN Variable chain that sets the POP3 authentication method.
7440 The only possible value as of now is
7442 which is thus the default.
7445 .Mx Va pop3-bulk-load
7446 .It Va pop3-bulk-load-USER@HOST , pop3-bulk-load-HOST , pop3-bulk-load
7447 \*(BO\*(OP When accessing a POP3 server \*(UA loads the headers of
7448 the messages, and only requests the message bodies on user request.
7449 For the POP3 protocol this means that the message headers will be
7451 If this option is set then \*(UA will download only complete messages
7452 from the given POP3 server(s) instead.
7454 .Mx Va pop3-keepalive
7455 .It Va pop3-keepalive-USER@HOST , pop3-keepalive-HOST , pop3-keepalive
7456 \*(OP POP3 servers close the connection after a period of inactivity;
7457 the standard requires this to be at least 10 minutes,
7458 but practical experience may vary.
7459 Setting this variable to a numeric value greater than
7463 command to be sent each value seconds if no other operation is performed.
7466 .It Va pop3-no-apop-USER@HOST , pop3-no-apop-HOST , pop3-no-apop
7467 \*(BO\*(OP Unless this variable is set the
7469 authentication method will be used when connecting to a POP3 server that
7473 is that the password is not sent in clear text over the wire and that
7474 only a single packet is sent for the user/password tuple.
7476 .Va pop3-no-apop-HOST
7479 .Mx Va pop3-use-starttls
7480 .It Va pop3-use-starttls-USER@HOST , pop3-use-starttls-HOST , pop3-use-starttls
7481 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a
7483 command to make an unencrypted POP3 session SSL/TLS encrypted.
7484 This functionality is not supported by all servers,
7485 and is not used if the session is already encrypted by the POP3S method.
7487 .Va pop3-use-starttls-HOST
7491 .It Va print-alternatives
7492 \*(BO When a MIME message part of type
7493 .Ql multipart/alternative
7494 is displayed and it contains a subpart of type
7496 other parts are normally discarded.
7497 Setting this variable causes all subparts to be displayed,
7498 just as if the surrounding part was of type
7499 .Ql multipart/mixed .
7503 The string shown when a command is accepted.
7504 Prompting may be prevented by setting this to the null string
7506 .Pf no Va prompt ) .
7507 If a value is assigned the following \*(UA specific additional sequences
7514 is set, in which case it expands to
7518 is the default value of
7521 which will expand to
7523 if the last command failed and to
7527 which will expand to the name of the currently active
7529 if any, and to the empty string otherwise, and
7531 which will expand to the name of the currently active mailbox.
7532 (Note that the prompt buffer is size-limited, excess is cut off.)
7538 to encapsulate the expansions of the
7542 escape sequences as necessary to correctly display bidirectional text,
7543 this is not true for the final string that makes up
7545 as such, i.e., real BIDI handling is not supported.
7549 \*(BO Suppresses the printing of the version when first invoked.
7553 If set, \*(UA starts a replying message with the original message
7554 prefixed by the value of the variable
7556 Normally, a heading consisting of
7557 .Dq Fromheaderfield wrote:
7558 is put before the quotation.
7563 variable, this heading is omitted.
7566 is assigned, the headers selected by the
7567 .Ic ignore Ns / Ns Ic retain
7568 commands are put above the message body,
7571 acts like an automatic
7577 is assigned, all headers are put above the message body and all MIME
7578 parts are included, making
7580 act like an automatic
7583 .Va quote-as-attachment .
7586 .It Va quote-as-attachment
7587 \*(BO Add the original message in its entirety as a
7589 MIME attachment when replying to a message.
7590 Note this works regardless of the setting of
7595 \*(OP Can be set in addition to
7597 Setting this turns on a more fancy quotation algorithm in that leading
7598 quotation characters are compressed and overlong lines are folded.
7600 can be set to either one or two (space separated) numeric values,
7601 which are interpreted as the maximum (goal) and the minimum line length,
7602 respectively, in a spirit rather equal to the
7604 program, but line-, not paragraph-based.
7605 If not set explicitly the minimum will reflect the goal algorithmically.
7606 The goal can't be smaller than the length of
7608 plus some additional pad.
7609 Necessary adjustments take place silently.
7612 .It Va recipients-in-cc
7613 \*(BO On group replies, specify only the sender of the original mail in
7615 and mention the other recipients in the secondary
7617 By default all recipients of the original mail will be addressed via
7622 If defined, gives the pathname of the folder used to record all outgoing
7624 If not defined, then outgoing mail is not saved.
7625 When saving to this folder fails the message is not sent,
7626 but instead saved to
7630 .It Va record-resent
7631 \*(BO If both this variable and the
7638 commands save messages to the
7640 folder as it is normally only done for newly composed messages.
7643 .It Va reply-in-same-charset
7644 \*(BO If this variable is set \*(UA first tries to use the same
7645 character set of the original message for replies.
7646 If this fails, the mechanism described in
7647 .Sx "Character sets"
7648 is evaluated as usual.
7651 .It Va reply_strings
7652 Can be set to a comma-separated list of (case-insensitive according to
7653 ASCII rules) strings which shall be recognized in addition to the
7656 reply message indicators \(en builtin are
7658 which is mandated by RFC 5322, as well as the german
7663 A list of addresses to put into the
7665 field of the message header.
7666 Members of this list are handled as if they were in the
7671 .It Va reply-to-honour
7674 header is honoured when replying to a message via
7678 This is a quadoption; if set without a value it defaults to
7682 .It Va rfc822-body-from_
7683 \*(BO This variable can be used to force displaying a so-called
7685 line for messages that are embedded into an envelope mail via the
7687 MIME mechanism, for more visual convenience.
7691 \*(BO Enable saving of (partial) messages in
7693 upon interrupt or delivery error.
7697 The number of lines that represents a
7706 line display and scrolling via
7708 If this variable is not set \*(UA falls back to a calculation based upon
7709 the detected terminal window size and the baud rate: the faster the
7710 terminal, the more will be shown.
7711 Overall screen dimensions and pager usage is influenced by the
7712 environment variables
7720 .It Va searchheaders
7721 \*(BO Expand message-list specifiers in the form
7723 to all messages containing the substring
7727 The string search is case insensitive.
7731 \*(OP A comma-separated list of character set names that can be used in
7732 outgoing internet mail.
7733 The value of the variable
7735 is automatically appended to this list of character-sets.
7736 If no character set conversion capabilities are compiled into \*(UA then
7737 the only supported charset is
7740 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
7741 and refer to the section
7742 .Sx "Character sets"
7743 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
7746 .It Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
7747 \*(BO\*(OP If this variable is set, but
7749 is not, then \*(UA acts as if
7751 had been set to the value of the variable
7753 In effect this combination passes through the message data in the
7754 character set of the current locale (given that
7756 hasn't been set manually), i.e., without converting it to the
7758 fallback character set.
7759 Thus, mail message text will be in ISO-8859-1 encoding when send from
7760 within a ISO-8859-1 locale, and in UTF-8 encoding when send from within
7762 If no character set conversion capabilities are available in \*(UA then
7763 the only supported character set is
7768 An address that is put into the
7770 field of outgoing messages, quoting RFC 5322: the mailbox of the agent
7771 responsible for the actual transmission of the message.
7772 This field should normally not be used unless the
7774 field contains more than one address, on which case it is required.
7777 address is handled as if it were in the
7783 \*(OB Predecessor of
7787 .It Va sendmail-arguments
7788 \*(OB Predecessor of
7792 .It Va sendmail-no-default-arguments
7793 \*(OB\*(BO Predecessor of
7794 .Va mta-no-default-arguments .
7797 .It Va sendmail-progname
7798 \*(OB Predecessor of
7803 \*(BO When sending a message wait until the
7805 (including the builtin SMTP one) exits before accepting further commands.
7807 with this variable set errors reported by the MTA will be recognizable!
7808 If the MTA returns a non-zero exit status,
7809 the exit status of \*(UA will also be non-zero.
7813 \*(BO Setting this option causes \*(UA to start at the last message
7814 instead of the first one when opening a mail folder.
7818 \*(BO Causes \*(UA to use the sender's real name instead of the plain
7819 address in the header field summary and in message specifications.
7823 \*(BO Causes the recipient of the message to be shown in the header
7824 summary if the message was sent by the user.
7828 A string for use with the
7834 A string for use with the
7840 Must correspond to the name of a readable file if set.
7841 The file's content is then appended to each singlepart message
7842 and to the first part of each multipart message.
7843 Be warned that there is no possibility to edit the signature for an
7847 .It Va skipemptybody
7848 \*(BO If an outgoing message does not contain any text in its first or
7849 only message part, do not send it but discard it silently (see also the
7855 \*(OP Specifies a directory with CA certificates in PEM (Privacy
7856 Enhanced Mail) format for verification of S/MIME signed messages.
7859 .It Va smime-ca-file
7860 \*(OP Specifies a file with CA certificates in PEM format for
7861 verification of S/MIME signed messages.
7864 .It Va smime-cipher-USER@HOST , smime-cipher
7865 \*(OP Specifies the cipher to use when generating S/MIME encrypted
7866 messages (for the specified account).
7867 RFC 5751 mandates a default of
7870 Possible values are (case-insensitive and) in decreasing cipher strength:
7878 (DES EDE3 CBC, 168 bits; default if
7880 isn't available) and
7884 The actually available cipher algorithms depend on the cryptographic
7885 library that \*(UA uses.
7886 \*(OP Support for more cipher algorithms may be available through
7887 dynamic loading via, e.g.,
7888 .Xr EVP_get_cipherbyname 3
7889 (OpenSSL) if \*(UA has been compiled to support this.
7892 .It Va smime-crl-dir
7893 \*(OP Specifies a directory that contains files with CRLs in PEM format
7894 to use when verifying S/MIME messages.
7897 .It Va smime-crl-file
7898 \*(OP Specifies a file that contains a CRL in PEM format to use when
7899 verifying S/MIME messages.
7902 .It Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
7903 \*(OP If this variable is set, messages send to the given receiver are
7904 encrypted before sending.
7905 The value of the variable must be set to the name of a file that
7906 contains a certificate in PEM format.
7908 If a message is sent to multiple recipients,
7909 each of them for whom a corresponding variable is set will receive an
7910 individually encrypted message;
7911 other recipients will continue to receive the message in plain text
7913 .Va smime-force-encryption
7915 It is recommended to sign encrypted messages, i.e., to also set the
7920 .It Va smime-force-encryption
7921 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to refuse sending unencrypted messages.
7924 .It Va smime-no-default-ca
7925 \*(BO\*(OP Don't load default CA locations when verifying S/MIME signed
7930 \*(BO\*(OP S/MIME sign outgoing messages with the user's private key
7931 and include the user's certificate as a MIME attachment.
7932 Signing a message enables a recipient to verify that the sender used
7933 a valid certificate,
7934 that the email addresses in the certificate match those in the message
7935 header and that the message content has not been altered.
7936 It does not change the message text,
7937 and people will be able to read the message as usual.
7939 .Va smime-sign-cert , smime-sign-include-certs
7941 .Va smime-sign-message-digest .
7943 .Mx Va smime-sign-cert
7944 .It Va smime-sign-cert-USER@HOST , smime-sign-cert
7945 \*(OP Points to a file in PEM format.
7946 For the purpose of signing and decryption this file needs to contain the
7947 user's private key as well as his certificate.
7951 is always derived from the value of
7953 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
7955 For the purpose of encryption the recipient's public encryption key
7956 (certificate) is expected; the command
7958 can be used to save certificates of signed messages (the section
7959 .Sx "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
7960 gives some details).
7961 This mode of operation is usually driven by the specialized form.
7963 When decrypting messages the account is derived from the recipient
7968 of the message, which are searched for addresses for which such
7970 \*(UA always uses the first address that matches,
7971 so if the same message is sent to more than one of the user's addresses
7972 using different encryption keys, decryption might fail.
7974 .Mx Va smime-sign-include-certs
7975 .It Va smime-sign-include-certs-USER@HOST , smime-sign-include-certs
7976 \*(OP If used, this is supposed to a consist of a comma-separated list
7977 of files, each of which containing a single certificate in PEM format to
7978 be included in the S/MIME message in addition to the
7981 This is most useful for long certificate chains if it is desired to aid
7982 the receiving party's verification process.
7983 Note that top level certificates may also be included in the chain but
7984 don't play a role for verification.
7986 .Va smime-sign-cert .
7987 Remember that for this
7989 refers to the variable
7991 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
7994 .Mx Va smime-sign-message-digest
7995 .It Va smime-sign-message-digest-USER@HOST , smime-sign-message-digest
7996 \*(OP Specifies the message digest to use when signing S/MIME messages.
7997 RFC 5751 mandates a default of
7999 Possible values are (case-insensitive and) in decreasing cipher strength:
8007 The actually available message digest algorithms depend on the
8008 cryptographic library that \*(UA uses.
8009 \*(OP Support for more message digest algorithms may be available
8010 through dynamic loading via, e.g.,
8011 .Xr EVP_get_digestbyname 3
8012 (OpenSSL) if \*(UA has been compiled to support this.
8013 Remember that for this
8015 refers to the variable
8017 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
8022 \*(OB\*(OP To use the builtin SMTP transport, specify a SMTP URL in
8024 \*(ID For compatibility reasons a set
8026 is used in preference of
8030 .It Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST , smtp-auth-HOST , smtp-auth
8031 \*(OP Variable chain that controls the SMTP
8033 authentication method, possible values are
8039 as well as the \*(OPal methods
8045 method doesn't need any user credentials,
8047 requires a user name and all other methods require a user name and
8055 .Va smtp-auth-password
8057 .Va smtp-auth-user ) .
8062 .Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST :
8063 may override dependent on sender address in the variable
8066 .It Va smtp-auth-password
8067 \*(OP\*(OU Sets the global fallback password for SMTP authentication.
8068 If the authentication method requires a password, but neither
8069 .Va smtp-auth-password
8071 .Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
8073 \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal.
8075 .It Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
8077 .Va smtp-auth-password
8078 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
8081 .It Va smtp-auth-user
8082 \*(OP\*(OU Sets the global fallback user name for SMTP authentication.
8083 If the authentication method requires a user name, but neither
8086 .Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
8088 \*(UA will ask for a user name on the user's terminal.
8090 .It Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
8093 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
8097 .It Va smtp-hostname
8098 \*(OP\*(IN Normally \*(UA uses the variable
8100 to derive the necessary
8102 information in order to issue a
8109 can be used to use the
8111 from the SMTP account
8118 from the content of this variable (or, if that is the empty string,
8120 or the local hostname as a last resort).
8121 This often allows using an address that is itself valid but hosted by
8122 a provider other than which (in
8124 is about to send the message.
8125 Setting this variable also influences the generated
8128 .Mx Va smtp-use-starttls
8129 .It Va smtp-use-starttls-USER@HOST , smtp-use-starttls-HOST , smtp-use-starttls
8130 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a
8132 command to make an SMTP
8134 session SSL/TLS encrypted, i.e., to enable transport layer security.
8138 .It Va spam-interface
8139 \*(OP In order to use any of the spam-related commands (like, e.g.,
8141 the desired spam interface must be defined by setting this variable.
8142 Please refer to the manual section
8144 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
8145 All or none of the following interfaces may be available:
8147 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ql _ilte_"
8153 .Pf ( Lk http://spamassassin.apache.org SpamAssassin )
8155 Different to the generic filter interface \*(UA will automatically add
8156 the correct arguments for a given command and has the necessary
8157 knowledge to parse the program's output.
8160 will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if
8165 Shall it be necessary to define a specific connection type (rather than
8166 using a configuration file for that), the variable
8168 can be used as in, e.g.,
8169 .Ql -d server.example.com -p 783 .
8170 It is also possible to specify a per-user configuration via
8172 Note that this interface doesn't inspect the
8174 flag of a message for the command
8178 generic spam filter support via freely configurable hooks.
8179 This interface is meant for programs like
8181 and requires according behaviour in respect to the hooks' exit
8182 status for at least the command
8185 meaning a message is spam,
8189 for unsure and any other return value indicating a hard error);
8190 since the hooks can include shell code snippets diverting behaviour
8191 can be intercepted as necessary.
8193 .Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , spamfilter-nospam , \
8196 .Va spamfilter-spam ;
8199 contains examples for some programs.
8200 The process environment of the hooks will have the variables
8201 .Ev NAIL_TMPDIR , TMPDIR
8203 .Ev NAIL_FILENAME_GENERATED
8205 Note that spam score support for
8207 isn't supported unless the \*(OPtional regular expression support is
8209 .Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore
8216 \*(OP Messages that exceed this size won't be passed through to the
8218 .Va spam-interface .
8219 If unset or 0, the default of 420000 bytes is used.
8222 .It Va spamc-command
8223 \*(OP The path to the
8227 .Va spam-interface .
8228 Note that the path is not expanded, but used
8230 A fallback path will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if the
8231 executable had been found during compilation.
8234 .It Va spamc-arguments
8235 \*(OP Even though \*(UA deals with most arguments for the
8238 automatically, it may at least sometimes be desirable to specify
8239 connection-related ones via this variable, e.g.,
8240 .Ql -d server.example.com -p 783 .
8244 \*(OP Specify a username for per-user configuration files for the
8246 .Va spam-interface .
8247 If this is set to the empty string then \*(UA will use the name of the
8256 .It Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , \
8257 spamfilter-nospam , spamfilter-rate , spamfilter-spam
8258 \*(OP Command and argument hooks for the
8260 .Va spam-interface .
8263 contains examples for some programs.
8266 .It Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore
8267 \*(OP Because of the generic nature of the
8270 spam scores are not supported for it by default, but if the \*(OPtional
8271 regular expression support is available then setting this variable can
8272 be used to overcome this restriction.
8273 It is interpreted as follows: first a number (digits) is parsed that
8274 must be followed by a semicolon
8276 and an extended regular expression.
8277 Then the latter is used to parse the first output line of the
8279 hook, and, in case the evaluation is successful, the group that has been
8280 specified via the number is interpreted as a floating point scan score.
8284 \*(OP Specifies a directory with CA certificates in PEM (Pricacy
8285 Enhanced Mail) for verification of of SSL/TLS server certificates.
8287 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
8288 for more information.
8292 \*(OP Specifies a file with CA certificates in PEM format for
8293 verification of SSL/TLS server certificates.
8295 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
8296 for more information.
8299 .It Va ssl-cert-USER@HOST , ssl-cert-HOST , ssl-cert
8300 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the file name for a SSL/TLS client
8301 certificate required by some servers.
8302 This is a direct interface to the
8306 function of the OpenSSL library, if available.
8308 .Mx Va ssl-cipher-list
8309 .It Va ssl-cipher-list-USER@HOST , ssl-cipher-list-HOST , ssl-cipher-list
8310 \*(OP Specifies a list of ciphers for SSL/TLS connections.
8311 This is a direct interface to the
8315 function of the OpenSSL library, if available; see
8317 for more information.
8318 By default \*(UA doesn't set a list of ciphers, which in effect will use a
8320 specific cipher (protocol standards ship with a list of acceptable
8321 ciphers), possibly cramped to what the actually used SSL/TLS library
8322 supports \(en the manual section
8323 .Sx "An example configuration"
8324 also contains a SSL/TLS use case.
8327 .It Va ssl-config-file
8328 \*(OP If this variable is set \*(UA will call
8329 .Xr CONF_modules_load_file 3
8330 to allow OpenSSL to be configured according to the host system wide
8332 If a non-empty value is given then this will be used to specify the
8333 configuration file to be used instead of the global OpenSSL default;
8334 note that in this case it is an error if the file cannot be loaded.
8335 The application name will always be passed as
8340 \*(OP Specifies a file that contains a CRL in PEM format to use when
8341 verifying SSL/TLS server certificates.
8345 \*(OP Specifies a directory that contains files with CRLs in PEM format
8346 to use when verifying SSL/TLS server certificates.
8349 .It Va ssl-key-USER@HOST , ssl-key-HOST , ssl-key
8350 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the file name for the private key of
8351 a SSL/TLS client certificate.
8352 If unset, the name of the certificate file is used.
8353 The file is expected to be in PEM format.
8354 This is a direct interface to the
8358 function of the OpenSSL library, if available.
8361 .It Va ssl-method-USER@HOST , ssl-method-HOST , ssl-method
8362 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the newer and more flexible
8364 instead: if both values are set,
8366 will take precedence!
8367 Can be set to the following values, the actually used
8369 specification to which it is mapped is shown in parenthesis:
8371 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, TLSv1.2 ) ,
8373 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, TLSv1.1 ) ,
8375 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, TLSv1 )
8378 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, SSLv3 ) ;
8383 and thus includes the SSLv3 protocol.
8384 Note that SSLv2 is no longer supported at all.
8387 .It Va ssl-no-default-ca
8388 \*(BO\*(OP Don't load default CA locations to verify SSL/TLS server
8392 .It Va ssl-protocol-USER@HOST , ssl-protocol-HOST , ssl-protocol
8393 \*(OP Specify the used SSL/TLS protocol.
8394 This is a direct interface to the
8398 function of the OpenSSL library, if available;
8399 otherwise an \*(UA internal parser is used which understands the
8400 following subset of (case-insensitive) command strings:
8406 as well as the special value
8408 Multiple specifications may be given via a comma-separated list which
8409 ignores any whitespace.
8412 plus prefix will enable a protocol, a
8414 minus prefix will disable it, so that
8416 will enable only the TLSv1.2 protocol.
8418 It depends upon the used TLS/SSL library which protocols are actually
8419 supported and which protocols are used if
8421 is not set, but note that SSLv2 is no longer supported at all and
8423 Especially for older protocols explicitly securing
8425 may be worthwile, see
8426 .Sx "An example configuration" .
8430 \*(OP Gives the pathname to an entropy daemon socket, see
8432 Not all SSL/TLS libraries support this.
8435 .It Va ssl-rand-file
8436 \*(OP Gives the filename to a file with random entropy data, see
8437 .Xr RAND_load_file 3 .
8438 If this variable is not set, or set to the empty string, or if the
8439 filename expansion failed, then
8440 .Xr RAND_file_name 3
8441 will be used to create the filename if, and only if,
8443 documents that the SSL PRNG is not yet sufficiently seeded.
8444 If \*(UA successfully seeded the SSL PRNG then it'll update the file via
8445 .Xr RAND_write_file 3 .
8446 This variable is only used if
8448 is not set (or not supported by the SSL/TLS library).
8451 .It Va ssl-verify-USER@HOST , ssl-verify-HOST , ssl-verify
8452 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the action to be performed if an error
8453 occurs during SSL/TLS server certificate validation.
8454 Valid (case-insensitive) values are
8456 (fail and close connection immediately),
8458 (ask whether to continue on standard input),
8460 (show a warning and continue),
8462 (do not perform validation).
8468 If only set without an assigned value, then this option inhibits the
8473 header fields that include obvious references to \*(UA.
8474 There are two pitfalls associated with this:
8475 First, the message id of outgoing messages is not known anymore.
8476 Second, an expert may still use the remaining information in the header
8477 to track down the originating mail user agent.
8482 suppression doesn't occur.
8487 (\*(OP) This specifies a comma-separated list of
8492 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" ,
8493 escape commas with reverse solidus) to be used to overwrite or define
8495 Note that this variable will only be queried once at program startup and
8496 can thus only be specified in resource files or on the command line.
8499 String capabilities form
8501 pairs and are expected unless noted otherwise.
8502 Numerics have to be notated as
8504 where the number is expected in normal decimal notation.
8505 Finally, booleans don't have any value but indicate a true or false
8506 state simply by being defined or not; this indeed means that \*(UA
8507 doesn't support undefining an existing boolean.
8508 String capability values will undergo some expansions before use:
8509 for one notations like
8512 .Ql control-LETTER ,
8513 and for clarification purposes
8515 can be used to specify
8517 (the control notation
8519 could lead to misreadings when a left bracket follows, which it does for
8520 the standard CSI sequence);
8521 finally three letter octal sequences, as in
8524 To specify that a terminal supports 256-colours, and to define sequences
8525 that home the cursor and produce an audible bell, one might write:
8527 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8528 set termcap='Co#256,home=\eE[H,bel=^G'
8532 The following terminal capabilities are or may be meaningful for the
8533 operation of the builtin line editor or \*(UA in general:
8536 .Bl -tag -compact -width yay
8538 .It Cd colors Ns \0or Cd Co
8540 numeric capability specifying the maximum number of colours.
8541 Note that \*(UA doesn't actually care about the terminal beside that,
8542 but always emits ANSI / ISO 6429 escape sequences.
8545 .It Cd rmcup Ns \0or Cd te Ns \0/ Cd smcup Ns \0or Cd ti
8549 respectively: exit and enter the alternative screen
8551 effectively turning \*(UA into a fullscreen application.
8552 To disable that, set (at least) one to the empty string.
8554 .It Cd smkx Ns \0or Cd ks Ns \0/ Cd rmkx Ns \0or Cd ke
8558 respectively: enable and disable the keypad.
8559 This is always enabled if available, because it seems even keyboards
8560 without keypads generate other key codes for, e.g., cursor keys in that
8561 case, and only if enabled we see the codes that we are interested in.
8563 .It Cd ed Ns \0or Cd cd
8567 .It Cd clear Ns \0or Cd cl
8569 clear the screen and home cursor.
8570 (Will be simulated via
8575 .It Cd home Ns \0or Cd ho
8580 .It Cd el Ns \0or Cd ce
8582 clear to the end of line.
8583 (Will be simulated via
8585 plus repetitions of space characters.)
8587 .It Cd hpa Ns \0or Cd ch
8588 .Cd column_address :
8589 move the cursor (to the given column parameter) in the current row.
8590 (Will be simulated via
8596 .Cd carriage_return :
8597 move to the first column in the current row.
8598 The default builtin fallback is
8601 .It Cd cub1 Ns \0or Cd le
8603 move the cursor left one space (non-destructively).
8604 The default builtin fallback is
8607 .It Cd cuf1 Ns \0or Cd nd
8609 move the cursor right one space (non-destructively).
8610 The default builtin fallback is
8612 which is used by most terminals.
8620 Many more capabilities which describe key-sequences are documented for
8624 .It Va termcap-disable
8625 \*(OP Disable any interaction with a terminal control library.
8626 If set only some generic fallback builtins and possibly the content of
8628 describe the terminal to \*(UA.
8630 that this variable will only be queried once at program startup and can
8631 thus only be specified in resource files or on the command line.
8635 If defined, gives the number of lines of a message to be displayed
8638 if unset, the first five lines are printed, if set to 0 the variable
8641 If the value is negative then its absolute value will be used for right
8644 height; (shifting bitwise is like dividing algorithmically, but since
8645 it takes away bits the value decreases pretty fast).
8649 \*(BO If set then the
8651 command series will strip adjacent empty lines and quotations.
8655 The character set of the terminal \*(UA operates on,
8656 and the one and only supported character set that \*(UA can use if no
8657 character set conversion capabilities have been compiled into it,
8658 in which case it defaults to ISO-8859-1 unless it can deduce a value
8662 Refer to the section
8663 .Sx "Character sets"
8664 for the complete picture about character sets.
8668 For a safety-by-default policy \*(UA sets its process
8672 but this variable can be used to override that:
8673 set it to an empty value to don't change the (current) setting,
8674 otherwise the process file mode creation mask is updated to the new value.
8675 Child processes inherit the process file mode creation mask.
8678 .It Va user-HOST , user
8679 \*(IN Variable chain that sets a global fallback user name, which is
8680 used in case none has been given in the protocol and account-specific
8682 This variable defaults to the name of the user who runs \*(UA.
8686 \*(BO Setting this option enables upward compatibility with \*(UA
8687 version 15.0 in respect to which configuration options are available and
8688 how they are handled.
8689 This manual uses \*(IN and \*(OU to refer to the new and the old way of
8690 doing things, respectively.
8694 \*(BO Setting this option, also controllable via the command line option
8696 causes \*(UA to be more verbose, e.g., it will display obsoletion
8697 warnings and SSL/TLS certificate chains.
8698 Even though marked \*(BO this option may be set twice in order to
8699 increase the level of verbosity even more, in which case even details of
8700 the actual message delivery and protocol conversations are shown.
8703 is sufficient to disable verbosity as such.
8709 .It Va version , version-major , version-minor , version-update
8710 \*(RO \*(UA version information: the first variable contains a string
8711 containing the complete version identification, the latter three contain
8712 only digits: the major, minor and update version numbers.
8713 The output of the command
8715 will include this information.
8718 .It Va writebackedited
8719 If this variable is set messages modified using the
8723 commands are written back to the current folder when it is quit;
8724 it is only honoured for writable folders in MBOX format, though.
8725 Note that the editor will be pointed to the raw message content in that
8726 case, i.e., neither MIME decoding nor decryption will have been
8727 performed, and proper RFC 4155
8729 quoting of newly added or edited content is also left as an excercise to
8733 .\" }}} (INTERNAL VARIABLES)
8736 .\" .Sh ENVIRONMENT {{{
8740 .Dq environment variable
8741 should be considered an indication that these variables are either
8742 standardized as vivid parts of process environments, or that they are
8743 commonly found in there.
8744 The process environment is inherited from the
8746 once \*(UA is started, and unless otherwise explicitly noted handling of
8747 the following variables transparently integrates into that of the
8748 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
8749 from \*(UA's point of view.
8750 This means that, e.g., they can be managed via
8754 causing automatic program environment updates (to be inherited by
8755 newly created child processes).
8758 In order to transparently integrate other environment variables equally
8759 they need to be imported (linked) with the command
8761 This command can also be used to set and unset non-integrated
8762 environment variables from scratch, sufficient system support provided.
8763 The following example, applicable to a POSIX shell, sets the
8765 environment variable for \*(UA only, and beforehand exports the
8767 in order to affect any further processing in the running shell:
8769 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8770 $ EDITOR="vim -u ${HOME}/.vimrc"
8772 $ COLUMNS=80 \*(uA -R
8775 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ev _AILR_"
8778 The user's preferred width in column positions for the terminal screen
8780 Queried and used once on program startup, actively managed for child
8781 processes and the MLE (see
8782 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
8783 in interactive mode thereafter.
8787 The name of the (mailbox)
8789 to use for saving aborted messages if
8791 is set; this defaults to
8798 is set no output will be generated, otherwise the contents of the file
8803 Pathname of the text editor to use in the
8807 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
8808 A default editor is used if this value is not defined.
8812 The user's home directory.
8813 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
8820 .It Ev LANG , LC_ALL , LC_COLLATE , LC_CTYPE , LC_MESSAGES
8824 .Sx "Character sets" .
8828 The user's preferred number of lines on a page or the vertical screen
8829 or window size in lines.
8830 Queried and used once on program startup, actively managed for child
8831 processes in interactive mode thereafter.
8835 Pathname of the directory lister to use in the
8837 command when operating on local mailboxes.
8840 (path search through
8845 Upon startup \*(UA will actively ensure that this variable refers to the
8846 name of the user who runs \*(UA, in order to be able to pass a verified
8847 name to any newly created child process.
8851 Is used as the user's primary system mailbox, if set.
8852 Otherwise, a system-dependent default is used.
8853 Supports the special syntax conventions that are documented for the
8859 \*(OP Overrides the default path search for
8860 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
8861 which is defined in the standard RFC 1524 as
8862 .Ql ~/.mailcap:\:/etc/mailcap:\:/usr/etc/mailcap:\:/usr/local/etc/mailcap .
8863 .\" TODO we should have a mailcaps-default virtual RDONLY option!
8864 (\*(UA makes it a configuration option, however.)
8865 Note this is not a search path, but a path search.
8869 Is used as a startup file instead of
8872 When \*(UA scripts are invoked on behalf of other users,
8873 either this variable should be set to
8877 command line option should be used in order to avoid side-effects from
8878 reading their configuration files.
8879 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
8883 The name of the user's mbox file.
8884 A logical subset of the special conventions that are documented for the
8889 The fallback default is
8894 Traditionally this secondary mailbox is used as the file to save
8895 messages from the primary system mailbox that have been read.
8897 .Sx "Message states" .
8900 .It Ev NAIL_NO_SYSTEM_RC
8901 If this variable is set then reading of
8903 at startup is inhibited, i.e., the same effect is achieved as if \*(UA
8904 had been started up with the option
8906 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
8910 \*(IN\*(OP This variable overrides the default location of the user's
8916 Pathname of the program to use for backing the command
8920 variable enforces usage of a pager for output.
8921 The default paginator is
8923 (path search through
8926 \*(UA inspects the contents of this variable: if its contains the string
8928 then a non-existing environment variable
8935 dependent on whether terminal control support is available and whether
8936 that supports full (alternative) screen mode or not (also see
8937 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" ) .
8941 will optionally be set to
8948 A colon-separated list of directories that is searched by the shell when
8949 looking for commands, e.g.,
8950 .Ql /bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin .
8954 The shell to use for the commands
8960 and when starting subprocesses.
8961 A default shell is used if this option is not defined.
8964 .It Ev SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
8965 If set, this specifies a time in seconds since the Unix epoch
8966 (1970-01-01) to be used in place of the current time.
8967 This is for the sake of reproduceability of tests, to be used during
8968 development or by software packagers.
8972 \*(OP The terminal type for which output is to be prepared.
8973 For extended colour and font control please refer to
8974 .Sx "Coloured display" ,
8975 and for terminal management in general to
8976 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" .
8980 Used as directory for temporary files instead of
8983 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
8989 (see there), but this variable is not standardized, should therefore not
8990 be used, and is only corrected if already set.
8994 Pathname of the text editor to use in the
8998 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
9006 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa _etc/mime.type_"
9008 File giving initial commands.
9011 System wide initialization file.
9015 \*(OP Personal MIME type handler definition file, see
9016 .Sx "The Mailcap files" .
9017 (RFC 1524 location, the actual path is a configuration option.)
9021 \*(OP System wide MIME type handler definition file, see
9022 .Sx "The Mailcap files" .
9023 (RFC 1524 location, the actual path is a configuration option.)
9026 .It Pa ~/.mime.types
9027 Personal MIME types, see
9028 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
9031 .It Pa /etc/mime.types
9032 System wide MIME types, see
9033 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
9037 \*(IN\*(OP The default location of the users
9039 file \(en the section
9040 .Sx "The .netrc file"
9041 documents the file format.
9044 .\" .Ss "The mime.types files" {{{
9045 .Ss "The mime.types files"
9047 When sending messages \*(UA tries to determine the content type of all
9049 When displaying message content or attachments \*(UA uses the content
9050 type to decide whether it can directly display data or whether it needs
9051 to deal with content handlers.
9052 It learns about MIME types and how to treat them by reading
9054 files, the loading of which can be controlled by setting the variable
9055 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
9058 can also be used to deal with MIME types.)
9060 files have the following syntax:
9063 .Dl type/subtype extension [extension ...]
9068 are strings describing the file contents, and one or multiple
9070 s, separated by whitespace, name the part of a filename starting after
9071 the last dot (of interest).
9072 Comments may be introduced anywhere on a line with a number sign
9074 causing the remaining line to be discarded.
9076 \*(UA also supports an extended, non-portable syntax in specially
9077 crafted files, which can be loaded via the alternative value syntax of
9078 .Va mimetypes-load-control
9079 and prepends an optional
9083 .Dl [type-marker ]type/subtype extension [extension ...]
9086 The following type markers are supported:
9089 .Bl -tag -compact -offset indent -width ".It Ar _n_u"
9091 Treat message parts with this content as plain text.
9096 Treat message parts with this content as HTML tagsoup.
9097 If the \*(OPal HTML-tagsoup-to-text converter is not available treat
9098 the content as plain text instead.
9102 but instead of falling back to plain text require an explicit content
9103 handler to be defined.
9108 for sending messages:
9110 .Va mime-allow-text-controls ,
9111 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
9112 For reading etc. messages:
9113 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ,
9114 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
9116 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
9117 .Va mimetypes-load-control ,
9118 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE ,
9119 .Va pipe-EXTENSION .
9122 .\" .Ss "The Mailcap files" {{{
9123 .Ss "The Mailcap files"
9126 .Dq User Agent Configuration Mechanism
9127 which \*(UA \*(OPally supports.
9128 It defines a file format to be used to inform mail user agent programs
9129 about the locally-installed facilities for handling various data
9130 formats, i.e., about commands and how they can be used to display, edit
9131 etc. MIME part contents, as well as a default path search that includes
9132 multiple possible locations of
9136 environment variable that can be used to overwrite that (repeating here
9137 that it is not a search path, but instead a path search specification).
9138 Any existing files will be loaded in sequence, appending any content to
9139 the list of MIME type handler directives.
9143 files consist of a set of newline separated entries.
9144 Comment lines start with a number sign
9146 (in the first column!) and are ignored.
9147 Empty lines are also ignored.
9148 All other lines form individual entries that must adhere to the syntax
9150 To extend a single entry (not comment) its line can be continued on
9151 follow lines if newline characters are
9153 by preceding them with the reverse solidus character
9155 The standard doesn't specify how leading whitespace of follow lines is
9156 to be treated, therefore \*(UA retains it.
9160 entries consist of a number of semicolon
9162 separated fields, and the reverse solidus
9164 character can be used to escape any following character including
9165 semicolon and itself.
9166 The first two fields are mandatory and must occur in the specified
9167 order, the remaining fields are optional and may appear in any order.
9168 Leading and trailing whitespace of content is ignored (removed).
9171 The first field defines the MIME
9173 the entry is about to handle (case-insensitively, and no reverse solidus
9174 escaping is possible in this field).
9175 If the subtype is specified as an asterisk
9177 the entry is meant to match all subtypes of the named type, e.g.,
9179 would match any audio type.
9180 The second field defines the shell command which shall be used to
9182 MIME parts of the given type; it is implicitly called the
9189 shell commands message (MIME part) data is passed via standard input
9190 unless the given shell command includes one or more instances of the
9193 in which case these instances will be replaced with a temporary filename
9194 and the data will have been stored in the file that is being pointed to.
9197 shell commands data is assumed to be generated on standard output unless
9198 the given command includes (one ore multiple)
9200 In any case any given
9202 format is replaced with a(n already) properly quoted filename.
9203 Note that when a command makes use of a temporary file via
9205 then \*(UA will remove it again, as if the
9206 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile ,
9207 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill
9209 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
9210 flags had been set; see below for more.
9213 The optional fields either define a shell command or an attribute (flag)
9214 value, the latter being a single word and the former being a keyword
9215 naming the field followed by an equals sign
9217 succeeded by a shell command, and as usual for any
9219 content any whitespace surrounding the equals sign will be removed, too.
9220 Optional fields include the following:
9223 .Bl -tag -width textualnewlines
9225 A program that can be used to compose a new body or body part in the
9232 field, but is to be used when the composing program needs to specify the
9234 header field to be applied to the composed data.
9238 A program that can be used to edit a body or body part in the given
9243 A program that can be used to print a message or body part in the given
9248 Specifies a program to be run to test some condition, e.g., the machine
9249 architecture, or the window system in use, to determine whether or not
9250 this mailcap entry applies.
9251 If the test fails, a subsequent mailcap entry should be sought; also see
9252 .Cd x-mailx-test-once .
9254 .It Cd needsterminal
9255 This flag field indicates that the given shell command must be run on
9256 an interactive terminal.
9257 \*(UA will temporarily release the terminal to the given command in
9258 interactive mode, in non-interactive mode this entry will be entirely
9259 ignored; this flag implies
9260 .Cd x-mailx-noquote .
9262 .It Cd copiousoutput
9263 A flag field which indicates that the output of the
9265 command will be an extended stream of textual output that can be
9266 (re)integrated into \*(UA's normal visual display.
9267 It is mutually exclusive with
9270 .Cd x-mailx-always .
9272 .It Cd textualnewlines
9273 A flag field which indicates that this type of data is line-oriented and
9276 all newlines should be converted to canonical form (CRLF) before
9277 encoding, and will be in that form after decoding.
9281 This field gives a file name format, in which
9283 will be replaced by a random string, the joined combination of which
9284 will be used as the filename denoted by
9285 .Ev NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY .
9286 One could specify that a GIF file being passed to an image viewer should
9287 have a name ending in
9290 .Ql nametemplate=%s.gif .
9291 Note that \*(UA ignores the name template unless that solely specifies
9292 a filename suffix that consists of (ASCII) alphabetic and numeric
9293 characters, the underscore and dot only.
9296 Names a file, in X11 bitmap (xbm) format, which points to an appropriate
9297 icon to be used to visually denote the presence of this kind of data.
9298 This field is not used by \*(UA.
9301 A textual description that describes this type of data.
9303 .It Cd x-mailx-always
9304 Extension flag field that denotes that the given
9306 command shall be executed even if multiple messages will be displayed
9308 Normally messages which require external viewers that produce output
9309 which doesn't integrate into \*(UA's visual display (i.e., don't have
9311 set) have to be addressed directly and individually.
9312 (To avoid cases where, e.g., a thousand PDF viewer instances are spawned
9315 .It Cd x-mailx-even-if-not-interactive
9316 An extension flag test field \(em by default handlers without
9318 are entirely ignored in non-interactive mode, but if this flag is set
9319 then their use will be considered.
9320 It is an error if this flag is set for commands that use the flag
9323 .It Cd x-mailx-noquote
9324 An extension flag field that indicates that even a
9327 command shall not be used to generate message quotes
9328 (as it would be by default).
9330 .It Cd x-mailx-async
9331 Extension flag field that denotes that the given
9333 command shall be executed asynchronously, without blocking \*(UA.
9334 Cannot be used in conjunction with
9337 .It Cd x-mailx-test-once
9338 Extension flag which denotes whether the given
9340 command shall be evaluated once only and the (boolean) result be cached.
9341 This is handy if some global unchanging condition is to be queried, like
9342 .Dq running under the X Window System .
9344 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile
9345 Extension flag field that requests creation of a zero-sized temporary
9346 file, the name of which is to be placed in the environment variable
9347 .Ev NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY .
9348 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
9352 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill
9353 Normally the MIME part content is passed to the handler via standard
9354 input; if this flag is set then the data will instead be written into
9356 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile .
9357 In order to cause deletion of the temporary file you will have to set
9358 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
9360 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
9364 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
9365 Extension flag field that requests that the temporary file shall be
9366 deleted automatically when the command loop is entered again at latest.
9367 (Don't use this for asynchronous handlers.)
9368 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
9370 format, or without also setting
9373 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill .
9375 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-keep
9378 implies the three tmpfile related flags above, but if you want, e.g.,
9380 and deal with the temporary file yourself, you can add in this flag to
9382 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink .
9387 The standard includes the possibility to define any number of additional
9388 entry fields, prefixed by
9390 Flag fields apply to the entire
9392 entry \(em in some unusual cases, this may not be desirable, but
9393 differentiation can be accomplished via separate entries, taking
9394 advantage of the fact that subsequent entries are searched if an earlier
9395 one does not provide enough information.
9398 command needs to specify the
9402 command shall not, the following will help out the latter (with enabled
9406 level \*(UA will show information about handler evaluation):
9408 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9409 application/postscript; ps-to-terminal %s; needsterminal
9410 application/postscript; ps-to-terminal %s; compose=idraw %s
9414 In fields any occurrence of the format string
9416 will be replaced by the
9419 Named parameters from the
9421 field may be placed in the command execution line using
9423 followed by the parameter name and a closing
9426 The entire parameter should appear as a single command line argument,
9427 regardless of embedded spaces; thus:
9429 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9431 Content-type: multipart/mixed; boundary=42
9434 multipart/*; /usr/local/bin/showmulti \e
9435 %t %{boundary} ; composetyped = /usr/local/bin/makemulti
9437 # Executed shell command
9438 /usr/local/bin/showmulti multipart/mixed 42
9442 .\" TODO v15: Mailcap: %n,%F
9443 Note that \*(UA doesn't support handlers for multipart MIME parts as
9444 shown in this example (as of today).
9445 \*(UA doesn't support the additional formats
9449 An example file, also showing how to properly deal with the expansion of
9451 which includes any quotes that are necessary to make it a valid shell
9452 argument by itself and thus will cause undesired behaviour when placed
9453 in additional user-provided quotes:
9455 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9457 text/richtext; richtext %s; copiousoutput
9459 text/x-perl; perl -cWT %s
9463 trap "rm -f ${infile}" EXIT\e; \e
9464 trap "exit 75" INT QUIT TERM\e; \e
9466 x-mailx-async; x-mailx-tmpfile-keep
9468 application/*; echo "This is \e"%t\e" but \e
9469 is 50 \e% Greek to me" \e; < %s head -c 1024 | cat -vET; \e
9470 copiousoutput; x-mailx-noquote
9475 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ,
9476 .Sx "The mime.types files" ,
9479 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
9480 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE ,
9481 .Va pipe-EXTENSION .
9484 .\" .Ss "The .netrc file" {{{
9485 .Ss "The .netrc file"
9489 file contains user credentials for machine accounts.
9490 The default location in the user's
9492 directory may be overridden by the
9494 environment variable.
9495 The file consists of space, tabulator or newline separated tokens.
9496 \*(UA implements a parser that supports a superset of the original BSD
9497 syntax, but users should nonetheless be aware of portability glitches
9498 of that file format, shall their
9500 be usable across multiple programs and platforms:
9503 .Bl -bullet -compact
9505 BSD doesn't support single, but only double quotation marks, e.g.,
9506 .Ql password="pass with spaces" .
9508 BSD (only?) supports escaping of single characters via a reverse solidus
9509 (e.g., a space can be escaped via
9511 in- as well as outside of a quoted string.
9513 BSD doesn't require the final quotation mark of the final user input token.
9515 The original BSD (Berknet) parser also supported a format which allowed
9516 tokens to be separated with commas \(en whereas at least Hewlett-Packard
9517 still seems to support this syntax, \*(UA does not!
9519 As a non-portable extension some widely-used programs support
9520 shell-style comments: if an input line starts, after any amount of
9521 whitespace, with a number sign
9523 then the rest of the line is ignored.
9525 Whereas other programs may require that the
9527 file is accessible by only the user if it contains a
9533 \*(UA will always require these strict permissions.
9537 Of the following list of supported tokens \*(UA only uses (and caches)
9542 At runtime the command
9544 can be used to control \*(UA's
9548 .Bl -tag -width password
9549 .It Cd machine Ar name
9550 The hostname of the entries' machine, lowercase-normalized by \*(UA
9552 Any further file content, until either end-of-file or the occurrence
9557 first-class token is bound (only related) to the machine
9560 As an extension that shouldn't be the cause of any worries
9561 \*(UA supports a single wildcard prefix for
9563 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9564 machine *.example.com login USER password PASS
9565 machine pop3.example.com login USER password PASS
9566 machine smtp.example.com login USER password PASS
9572 .Ql pop3.example.com ,
9576 .Ql local.smtp.example.com .
9577 Note that in the example neither
9578 .Ql pop3.example.com
9580 .Ql smtp.example.com
9581 will be matched by the wildcard, since the exact matches take
9582 precedence (it is however faster to specify it the other way around).
9587 except that it is a fallback entry that is used shall none of the
9588 specified machines match; only one default token may be specified,
9589 and it must be the last first-class token.
9591 .It Cd login Ar name
9592 The user name on the remote machine.
9594 .It Cd password Ar string
9595 The user's password on the remote machine.
9597 .It Cd account Ar string
9598 Supply an additional account password.
9599 This is merely for FTP purposes.
9601 .It Cd macdef Ar name
9603 A macro is defined with the specified
9605 it is formed from all lines beginning with the next line and continuing
9606 until a blank line is (consecutive newline characters are) encountered.
9609 entries cannot be utilized by multiple machines, too, but must be
9610 defined following the
9612 they are intended to be used with.)
9615 exists, it is automatically run as the last step of the login process.
9616 This is merely for FTP purposes.
9623 .\" .Sh EXAMPLES {{{
9626 .\" .Ss "An example configuration" {{{
9627 .Ss "An example configuration"
9629 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9630 # This example assumes v15.0 compatibility mode
9633 # Where are the up-to-date SSL certificates?
9634 #set ssl-ca-dir=/etc/ssl/certs
9635 set ssl-ca-file=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
9637 # (Since we manage up-to-date ones explicitly, don't use any,
9638 # possibly outdated, default certificates shipped with OpenSSL)
9639 set ssl-no-default-ca
9641 # Don't use protocols older than TLS v1.2.
9642 # Change this only when the remote server doesn't support it:
9643 # maybe use ssl-protocol-HOST (or -USER@HOST) syntax to define
9644 # such explicit exceptions, then
9645 set ssl-protocol='-ALL,+TLSv1.2'
9647 # Explicitly define the list of ciphers, which may improve security,
9648 # especially with protocols older than TLS v1.2. See ciphers(1).
9649 # Including "@STRENGTH" will sort the final list by algorithm strength.
9650 # In reality it is possibly best to only use ssl-cipher-list-HOST
9651 # (or -USER@HOST), as necessary, again..
9652 set ssl-cipher-list=TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:!MEDIUM:!LOW:!EXPORT:@STRENGTH
9653 # ALL:!aNULL:!MEDIUM:!LOW:!MD5:!RC4:!EXPORT:@STRENGTH
9655 # Request strict transport security checks!
9656 set ssl-verify=strict
9658 # Essential setting: select allowed character sets
9659 set sendcharsets=utf-8,iso-8859-1
9661 # A very kind option: when replying to a message, first try to
9662 # use the same encoding that the original poster used herself!
9663 set reply-in-same-charset
9665 # When replying to or forwarding a message the comment and name
9666 # parts of email addresses are removed unless this variable is set
9669 # When sending messages, wait until the Mail-Transfer-Agent finishs.
9670 # Only like this you'll be able to see errors reported through the
9671 # exit status of the MTA (including the builtin SMTP one)!
9674 # Only use builtin MIME types, no mime.types(5) files
9675 set mimetypes-load-control
9677 # Default directory where we act in (relative to $HOME)
9679 # A leading "+" (often) means: under *folder*
9680 # *record* is used to save copies of sent messages
9681 set MBOX=+mbox.mbox record=+sent.mbox DEAD=+dead.txt
9683 # Make "file mymbox" and "file myrec" go to..
9684 shortcut mymbox %:+mbox.mbox myrec +sent.mbox
9686 # Not really optional, e.g., for S/MIME
9687 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
9689 # It may be necessary to set hostname and/or smtp-hostname
9690 # if the "SERVER" of mta and "domain" of from don't match.
9691 # The `urlencode' command can be used to encode USER and PASS
9692 set mta=(smtps?|submission)://[USER[:PASS]@]SERVER[:PORT] \e
9693 smtp-auth=login/plain... \e
9696 # Never refuse to start into interactive mode, and more
9698 colour-pager crt= \e
9699 followup-to followup-to-honour=ask-yes \e
9700 history-file=+.\*(uAhist history-size=-1 history-gabby \e
9701 mime-counter-evidence=0xE \e
9702 prompt='?\e?[\e$ \e@]\e& ' \e
9703 reply-to-honour=ask-yes \e
9706 # When `t'yping messages, show only these headers
9707 # (use `T'ype for all headers and `S'how for raw message)
9708 retain date from to cc subject
9710 # Some mailing lists
9711 mlist '@xyz-editor\e.xyz$' '@xyzf\e.xyz$'
9712 mlsubscribe '^xfans@xfans\e.xyz$'
9714 # A real life example of a very huge free mail provider
9716 set folder=~/spool/XooglX MAIL=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
9717 set from='Your Name <address@examp.ple>'
9718 set mta=smtp://USER:PASS@smtp.gmXil.com smtp-use-starttls
9721 # Here is a pretty large one which does not allow sending mails
9722 # if there is a domain name mismatch on the SMTP protocol level,
9723 # which would bite us if the value of from does not match, e.g.,
9724 # for people who have a sXXXXeforge project and want to speak
9725 # with the mailing list under their project account (in from),
9726 # still sending the message through their normal mail provider
9728 set folder=~/spool/XandeX MAIL=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
9729 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
9730 set mta=smtps://USER:PASS@smtp.yaXXex.ru:465 \e
9731 hostname=yaXXex.com smtp-hostname=
9734 # Create some new commands so that, e.g., `ls /tmp' will..
9735 wysh ghost lls '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFlrS'
9736 wysh ghost llS '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFlS'
9737 wysh ghost ls '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFrS'
9738 wysh ghost lS '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFS'
9739 wysh ghost lla '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFlr'
9740 wysh ghost llA '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFl'
9741 wysh ghost la '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFr'
9742 wysh ghost lA '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aF'
9743 wysh ghost ll '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFltr'
9744 wysh ghost lL '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFlt'
9745 wysh ghost l '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFtr'
9746 wysh ghost L '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFt'
9748 # We don't support gpg(1) directly yet. But simple --clearsign'd
9749 # message parts can be dealt with as follows:
9751 wysh set pipe-text/plain=$'@*#++=@\e
9752 < "${NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}" awk \e
9753 -v TMPFILE="${NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}" \e'\e
9755 /^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----/,/^$/{\e
9758 print "--- GPG --verify ---";\e
9759 system("gpg --verify " TMPFILE " 2>&1");\e
9760 print "--- GPG --verify ---";\e
9764 /^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----/,\e
9765 /^-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----/{\e
9775 !printf 'Key IDs to gpg --recv-keys: ';\e
9777 gpg --recv-keys ${keyids};
9783 When storing passwords in
9785 appropriate permissions should be set on this file with
9786 .Ql $ chmod 0600 \*(ur .
9789 is available user credentials can be stored in the central
9791 file instead; e.g., here is a different version of the example account
9792 that sets up SMTP and POP3:
9794 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9796 set folder=~/spool/XandeX MAIL=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
9797 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
9799 # Load an encrypted ~/.netrc by uncommenting the next line
9800 #set netrc-pipe='gpg -qd ~/.netrc.pgp'
9802 set mta=smtps://smtp.yXXXXx.ru:465 \e
9803 smtp-hostname= hostname=yXXXXx.com
9804 set pop3-keepalive=240 pop3-no-apop-pop.yXXXXx.ru
9805 ghost xp fi pop3s://pop.yXXXXx.ru
9814 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9815 machine *.yXXXXx.ru login USER password PASS
9819 This configuration should now work just fine:
9822 .Dl $ echo text | \*(uA -vv -AXandeX -s Subject user@exam.ple
9825 .\" .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME" {{{
9826 .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
9828 \*(OP S/MIME provides two central mechanisms:
9829 message signing and message encryption.
9830 A signed message contains some data in addition to the regular text.
9831 The data can be used to verify that the message was sent using a valid
9832 certificate, that the sender's address in the message header matches
9833 that in the certificate, and that the message text has not been altered.
9834 Signing a message does not change its regular text;
9835 it can be read regardless of whether the recipient's software is able to
9839 It is thus usually possible to sign all outgoing messages if so desired.
9840 Encryption, in contrast, makes the message text invisible for all people
9841 except those who have access to the secret decryption key.
9842 To encrypt a message, the specific recipient's public encryption key
9844 It is therefore not possible to send encrypted mail to people unless their
9845 key has been retrieved from either previous communication or public key
9847 A message should always be signed before it is encrypted.
9848 Otherwise, it is still possible that the encrypted message text is
9852 A central concept to S/MIME is that of the certification authority (CA).
9853 A CA is a trusted institution that issues certificates.
9854 For each of these certificates it can be verified that it really
9855 originates from the CA, provided that the CA's own certificate is
9857 A set of CA certificates is usually delivered with OpenSSL and installed
9859 If you trust the source of your OpenSSL software installation,
9860 this offers reasonable security for S/MIME on the Internet.
9862 .Va ssl-no-default-ca
9866 .Va smime-ca-dir . )
9867 In general, a certificate cannot be more secure than the method its CA
9868 certificate has been retrieved with, though.
9869 Thus if you download a CA certificate from the Internet,
9870 you can only trust the messages you verify using that certificate as
9871 much as you trust the download process.
9874 The first thing you need for participating in S/MIME message exchange is
9875 your personal certificate, including a private key.
9876 The certificate contains public information, in particular your name and
9877 your email address(es), and the public key that is used by others to
9878 encrypt messages for you,
9879 and to verify signed messages they supposedly received from you.
9880 The certificate is included in each signed message you send.
9881 The private key must be kept secret.
9882 It is used to decrypt messages that were previously encrypted with your
9883 public key, and to sign messages.
9886 For personal use it is recommended that you get a S/MIME certificate
9887 from one of the major CAs on the Internet using your WWW browser.
9888 Many CAs offer such certificates for free.
9890 .Lk https://www.CAcert.org
9891 which issues client and server certificates to members of their
9892 community for free; their root certificate
9893 .Pf ( Lk https://\:www.cacert.org/\:certs/\:root.crt )
9894 is often not in the default set of trusted CA root certificates, though,
9895 which means you will have to download their root certificate separately
9896 and ensure it is part of our S/MIME certificate validation chain by
9899 or as a vivid member of the
9901 But let's take a step-by-step tour on how to setup S/MIME with
9902 a certificate from CAcert.org despite this situation!
9905 First of all you will have to become a member of the CAcert.org
9906 community, simply by registrating yourself via the web interface.
9907 Once you are, create and verify all email addresses you want to be able
9908 to create signed and encrypted messages for/with using the corresponding
9909 entries of the web interface.
9910 Now ready to create S/MIME certificates, so let's create a new
9911 .Dq client certificate ,
9912 ensure to include all email addresses that should be covered by the
9913 certificate in the following web form, and also to use your name as the
9917 Create a private key and a certificate request on your local computer
9918 (please see the manual pages of the used commands for more in-depth
9919 knowledge on what the used arguments etc. do):
9922 .Dl openssl req -nodes -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout key.pem -out creq.pem
9925 Afterwards copy-and-paste the content of
9927 into the certificate-request (CSR) field of the web form on the
9928 CAcert.org website (you may need to unfold some
9929 .Dq advanced options
9930 to see the corresponding text field).
9931 This last step will ensure that your private key (which never left your
9932 box) and the certificate belong together (through the public key that
9933 will find its way into the certificate via the certificate-request).
9934 You are now ready and can create your CAcert certified certificate.
9935 Download and store or copy-and-paste it as
9940 In order to use your new S/MIME setup you will have to create
9941 a combined private key/public key (certificate) file:
9944 .Dl cat key.pem pub.crt > ME@HERE.com.paired
9947 This is the file \*(UA will work with.
9948 If you have created your private key with a passphrase then \*(UA will
9949 ask you for it whenever a message is signed or decrypted.
9950 Set the following variables to henceforth use S/MIME (setting
9952 is of interest for verification only):
9954 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9955 set smime-ca-file=ALL-TRUSTED-ROOT-CERTS-HERE \e
9956 smime-sign-cert=ME@HERE.com.paired \e
9957 smime-sign-message-digest=SHA256 \e
9962 From each signed message you send, the recipient can fetch your
9963 certificate and use it to send encrypted mail back to you.
9964 Accordingly if somebody sends you a signed message, you can do the same,
9967 command to check the validity of the certificate.
9970 Variables of interest for S/MIME signing:
9974 .Va smime-crl-file ,
9975 .Va smime-no-default-ca ,
9977 .Va smime-sign-cert ,
9978 .Va smime-sign-include-certs
9980 .Va smime-sign-message-digest .
9983 After it has been verified save the certificate via
9985 and tell \*(UA that it should use it for encryption for further
9986 communication with that somebody:
9988 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9990 set smime-encrypt-USER@HOST=FILENAME \e
9991 smime-cipher-USER@HOST=AES256
9995 Additional variables of interest for S/MIME en- and decryption:
9998 .Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST .
10001 You should carefully consider if you prefer to store encrypted messages
10003 If you do, anybody who has access to your mail folders can read them,
10004 but if you do not, you might be unable to read them yourself later if
10005 you happen to lose your private key.
10008 command saves messages in decrypted form, while the
10012 commands leave them encrypted.
10015 Note that neither S/MIME signing nor encryption applies to message
10016 subjects or other header fields yet.
10017 Thus they may not contain sensitive information for encrypted messages,
10018 and cannot be trusted even if the message content has been verified.
10019 When sending signed messages,
10020 it is recommended to repeat any important header information in the
10024 .\" .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or SSL/TLS" {{{
10025 .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or SSL/TLS"
10027 \*(OP Certification authorities (CAs) issue certificate revocation
10028 lists (CRLs) on a regular basis.
10029 These lists contain the serial numbers of certificates that have been
10030 declared invalid after they have been issued.
10031 Such usually happens because the private key for the certificate has
10033 because the owner of the certificate has left the organization that is
10034 mentioned in the certificate, etc.
10035 To seriously use S/MIME or SSL/TLS verification,
10036 an up-to-date CRL is required for each trusted CA.
10037 There is otherwise no method to distinguish between valid and
10038 invalidated certificates.
10039 \*(UA currently offers no mechanism to fetch CRLs, nor to access them on
10040 the Internet, so you have to retrieve them by some external mechanism.
10043 \*(UA accepts CRLs in PEM format only;
10044 CRLs in DER format must be converted, like, e.\|g.:
10047 .Dl $ openssl crl \-inform DER \-in crl.der \-out crl.pem
10050 To tell \*(UA about the CRLs, a directory that contains all CRL files
10051 (and no other files) must be created.
10056 variables, respectively, must then be set to point to that directory.
10057 After that, \*(UA requires a CRL to be present for each CA that is used
10058 to verify a certificate.
10061 .\" .Ss "Handling spam" {{{
10062 .Ss "Handling spam"
10064 \*(OP \*(UA can make use of several spam interfaces for the purpose of
10065 identification of, and, in general, dealing with spam messages.
10066 A precondition of most commands in order to function is that the
10068 variable is set to one of the supported interfaces.
10069 Once messages have been identified as spam their (volatile)
10071 state can be prompted: the
10075 message specifications will address respective messages and their
10077 entries will be used when displaying the
10079 in the header display.
10084 rates the given messages and sets their
10087 If the spam interface offers spam scores those can also be displayed in
10088 the header display by including the
10098 will interact with the Bayesian filter of the chosen interface and learn
10099 the given messages as
10103 respectively; the last command can be used to cause
10105 of messages; it adheres to their current
10107 state and thus reverts previous teachings.
10112 will simply set and clear, respectively, the mentioned volatile
10114 message flag, without any interface interaction.
10123 requires a running instance of the
10125 server in order to function, started with the option
10127 shall Bayesian filter learning be possible.
10129 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10130 $ spamd -i localhost:2142 -i /tmp/.spamsock -d [-L] [-l]
10131 $ spamd --listen=localhost:2142 --listen=/tmp/.spamsock \e
10132 --daemonize [--local] [--allow-tell]
10136 Thereafter \*(UA can make use of these interfaces:
10138 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10139 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=spamc -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
10140 -Sspamc-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \e
10141 -Sspamc-arguments="-U /tmp/.spamsock" -Sspamc-user=
10143 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=spamc -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
10144 -Sspamc-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \e
10145 -Sspamc-arguments="-d localhost -p 2142" -Sspamc-user=
10149 Using the generic filter approach allows usage of programs like
10151 Here is an example, requiring it to be accessible via
10154 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10155 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=filter -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
10156 -Sspamfilter-ham="bogofilter -n" \e
10157 -Sspamfilter-noham="bogofilter -N" \e
10158 -Sspamfilter-nospam="bogofilter -S" \e
10159 -Sspamfilter-rate="bogofilter -TTu 2>/dev/null" \e
10160 -Sspamfilter-spam="bogofilter -s" \e
10161 -Sspamfilter-rate-scanscore="1;^(.+)$"
10165 Because messages must exist on local storage in order to be scored (or
10166 used for Bayesian filter training), it is possibly a good idea to
10167 perform the local spam check last:
10169 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10170 define spamdelhook {
10172 spamset (header x-dcc-brand-metrics "bulk")
10173 # Server-side spamassassin(1)
10174 spamset (header x-spam-flag "YES")
10175 del :s # TODO we HAVE to be able to do `spamrate :u ! :sS'
10176 move :S +maybe-spam
10179 move :S +maybe-spam
10181 set folder-hook-FOLDER=spamdelhook
10185 See also the documentation for the variables
10186 .Va spam-interface , spam-maxsize ,
10187 .Va spamc-command , spamc-arguments , spamc-user ,
10188 .Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , spamfilter-nospam , \
10191 .Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore .
10199 In general it is a good idea to turn on
10205 twice) if something doesn't work well.
10206 Very often a diagnostic message can be produced that leads to the
10207 problems' solution.
10209 .\" .Ss "\*(UA shortly hangs on startup" {{{
10210 .Ss "\*(UA shortly hangs on startup"
10212 This can have two reasons, one is the necessity to wait for a file lock
10213 and can't be helped, the other being that \*(UA calls the function
10215 in order to query the nodename of the box (sometimes the real one is
10216 needed instead of the one represented by the internal variable
10218 You may have varying success by ensuring that the real hostname and
10222 or, more generally, that the name service is properly setup \(en
10225 return what you'd expect?
10226 Does this local hostname has a domain suffix?
10227 RFC 6762 standardized the link-local top-level domain
10231 .\" .Ss "\*(UA exits quick, and output is cleared away" {{{
10232 .Ss "\*(UA exits quick, and output is cleared away"
10234 When this happens even with
10236 set, then this most likely indicates a problem with the creation of
10237 so-called dotlock files: setting
10238 .Va dotlock-ignore-error
10239 should overcome this situation.
10240 This only avoids symptoms, it doesn't address the problem, though.
10241 Since the output is cleared away \*(UA has support for
10242 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" ,
10243 and switches to the
10245 which causes the output clearance: by doing
10246 .Ql set termcap='smcup='
10247 this mode can be suppressed, and by setting
10249 (twice) the actual problem should be reported.
10252 .\" .Ss "I can't login to Google mail aka GMail" {{{
10253 .Ss "I can't login to Google mail aka GMail"
10255 Since 2014 some free service providers classify programs as
10257 unless they use a special authentification method (OAuth 2.0) which
10258 wasn't standardized for non-HTTP protocol authentication token query
10259 until August 2015 (RFC 7628).
10262 Different to Kerberos / GSSAPI, which is developed since the mid of the
10263 1980s, where a user can easily create a local authentication ticket for
10264 her- and himself with the locally installed
10266 program, that protocol has no such local part but instead requires
10267 a world-wide-web query to create or fetch a token; since there is no
10268 local cache this query has to be performed whenever \*(UA is invoked
10269 from the command line (in interactive sessions situation may differ).
10272 \*(UA doesn't support OAuth.
10273 Because of this it is necessary to declare \*(UA a
10274 .Dq less secure app
10275 (on the providers account web page) in order to read and send mail.
10276 However, it also seems possible to take the following steps instead:
10281 give the provider the number of a mobile phone,
10284 .Dq 2-Step Verification ,
10286 create an application specific password (16 characters), and
10288 use that special password instead of your real Google account password in
10289 \*(UA (for more on that see the section
10290 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
10294 .\" .Ss "Not \(dqdefunctional\(dq, but the editor key won't work" {{{
10295 .Ss "Not \(dqdefunctional\(dq, but the editor key won't work"
10297 It can happen that the terminal library (see
10298 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor",
10301 reports different codes than the terminal really sends, in which case
10302 \*(UA will tell that a key binding is functional, but won't be able to
10303 recognize it because the received data doesn't match anything expected.
10304 The verbose listing of
10306 ings will show the byte sequences that are expected.
10309 To overcome the situation, use, e.g., the program
10311 in conjunction with the
10313 flag if available, to see the byte sequences which are actually produced
10314 by keypresses, and use the variable
10316 to make \*(UA aware of them.
10317 E.g., the terminal this is typed on produces some false sequences, here
10318 an example showing the shifted home key:
10320 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10323 # 1B 5B=[ 31=1 3B=; 32=2 48=H
10328 ? \*(uA -v -Stermcap='kHOM=\eE[H'
10337 .\" .Sh "SEE ALSO" {{{
10347 .Xr spamassassin 1 ,
10356 .Xr mailwrapper 8 ,
10361 .\" .Sh HISTORY {{{
10364 M. Douglas McIlroy writes in his article
10365 .Dq A Research UNIX Reader: Annotated Excerpts \
10366 from the Programmer's Manual, 1971-1986
10369 command already appeared in First Edition
10373 .Bd -ragged -offset indent
10374 Electronic mail was there from the start.
10375 Never satisfied with its exact behavior, everybody touched it at one
10376 time or another: to assure the safety of simultaneous access, to improve
10377 privacy, to survive crashes, to exploit uucp, to screen out foreign
10378 freeloaders, or whatever.
10379 Not until v7 did the interface change (Thompson).
10380 Later, as mail became global in its reach, Dave Presotto took charge and
10381 brought order to communications with a grab-bag of external networks
10387 Mail was written in 1978 by Kurt Shoens and developed as part of the
10390 distribution until 1995.
10391 Mail has then seen further development in open source
10393 variants, noticeably by Christos Zoulas in
10395 Basing upon this Nail, later Heirloom Mailx, was developed by Gunnar
10396 Ritter in the years 2000 until 2008.
10397 Since 2012 S-nail is maintained by Steffen (Daode) Nurpmeso.
10398 This man page is derived from
10399 .Dq The Mail Reference Manual
10400 that was originally written by Kurt Shoens.
10406 .An "Kurt Shoens" ,
10407 .An "Edward Wang" ,
10408 .An "Keith Bostic" ,
10409 .An "Christos Zoulas" ,
10410 .An "Gunnar Ritter" ,
10411 .An "Steffen Nurpmeso" Aq Mt s-nail-users@lists.sourceforge.net
10413 .Mt s-mailx@sdaoden.eu ) .
10416 .\" .Sh CAVEATS {{{
10419 \*(ID Interrupting an operation via
10423 is often problematic: many library functions cannot deal with the
10425 that this software (still) performs.
10428 The SMTP and POP3 protocol support of \*(UA is very basic.
10429 Also, if it fails to contact its upstream SMTP server, it will not make
10430 further attempts to transfer the message at a later time (setting
10435 If this is a concern, it might be better to set up a local SMTP server
10436 that is capable of message queuing.
10442 After deleting some message of a POP3 mailbox the header summary falsely
10443 claims that there are no messages to display, you need to perform
10444 a scroll or dot movement to restore proper state.
10446 In threaded display a power user may encounter crashes very
10447 occasionally (this is may and very).
10451 in the source repository lists future directions.