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>.
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34 .\"@ S-nail(1): v14.9.0-pre2 / 2016-10-31
36 .ds VV \\%v14.9.0-pre2
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.
153 .\" .Ss "Options" {{{
156 .Bl -tag -width ".Fl _ Ar _ddr"
159 Explicitly control which of the
161 shall be loaded: if the letter
163 is (case-insensitively) part of the
167 is loaded, likewise the letter
169 controls loading of the user's personal
171 file, whereas the letters
175 explicitly forbid loading of any resource files.
176 This option should be used by scripts: to avoid environmental noise they
179 from any configuration files and create a script-local environment,
180 explicitly setting any of the desired
181 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
184 This option overrides
191 command for the given user email
193 after program startup is complete.
194 Being a special incarnation of
196 macros for the purpose of bundling longer-lived settings, activating
197 such an email account also switches to the accounts system
206 The same filename conventions as described in the section
208 apply: shell word expansion is restricted to the tilde
212 not be accessible but contain a
214 character, then anything after the
216 is assumed to specify the input character set and anything before
218 the filename: this is the only option to specify (and fixate) the input
219 character set of text attachments from the command line, not using the
221 command of and in the compose mode that follows
223 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
224 for compose mode commands).
228 (\*(OB: \*(UA will always use line-buffered output, to gain
229 line-buffered input even in batch mode enable batch mode via
234 Send a blind carbon copy to
237 May be used multiple times.
239 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
243 Send carbon copies to the given receiver.
244 May be used multiple times.
249 the internal variable
251 which enables debug messages and disables message delivery,
252 among others; effectively turns almost any operation into a dry-run.
258 and thus discard messages with an empty message part body.
259 This command line flag is \*(OB.
263 Just check if mail is present (in the specified or system
265 if yes, return an exit status of zero, a non-zero value otherwise.
266 To restrict the set of mails to consider in this evaluation a message
267 specification can be added with the option
272 Save the message to send in a file named after the local part of the
273 first recipient's address (instead of in
278 Read in the contents of the user's
280 (or the specified file) for processing;
281 when \*(UA is quit, it writes undeleted messages back to this file
285 Some special conventions are recognized for the optional
287 argument which are documented for the
292 is not a argument to the flag
294 but is instead taken from the command line after option processing has
298 that starts with a hyphen, prefix it with a (relative) path, as in
299 .Ql ./-hyphenbox.mbox .
303 Display a summary of the
305 of all messages in the specified mailbox or system
308 A configurable summary view is available via the
314 Show a short usage summary.
315 Because of widespread use a
317 argument will have the same effect.
323 to ignore tty interrupt signals.
326 .It Fl L Ar spec-list
327 Display a summary of all
329 of only those messages in the specified mailbox or the system
335 .Sx "Specifying messages"
342 option has been given in addition no header summary is produced,
343 but \*(UA will instead indicate via its exit status whether
349 note that any verbose output is suppressed in this mode and must instead
350 be enabled explicitly (e.g., by using the option
355 Special send mode that will flag standard input with the MIME
359 and use it as the main message body.
360 \*(ID Using this option will bypass processing of
361 .Va message-inject-head ,
364 .Va message-inject-tail .
370 Special send mode that will MIME classify the specified
372 and use it as the main message body.
373 \*(ID Using this option will bypass processing of
374 .Va message-inject-head ,
377 .Va message-inject-tail .
385 and thus inhibit initial display of message headers when reading mail or
386 editing a mail folder.
390 Standard flag that inhibits reading the system wide
395 allows more control over the startup sequence; also see
396 .Sx "Resource files" .
400 Special send mode that will initialize the message body with the
401 contents of the specified
403 which may be standard input
405 only in non-interactive context.
411 Any folder opened will be in read-only mode.
414 .It Fl r Ar from-addr
417 is a valid address then it specifies the envelope sender address to be
418 passed to a file-based
420 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) as
422 when a message is send.
425 include a user name, then the address components will be separated and
426 the name part will be passed to file-based
432 will also be assigned to the
435 .Ql -Sfrom=from-addr ) ,
436 therefore affecting possible SMTP
438 data transfer; note this assignment does not cause value fixation.
440 If instead an empty string is passed as
442 then the content of the variable
444 will be evaluated and used for this purpose whenever the
447 Note that \*(UA by default, without
449 that is, neither passes
453 flags to a file-based MTA by itself.
456 .It Fl S Ar var Ns Op = Ns value
460 iable and, in case of a non-boolean variable which has a value, assign
464 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
468 may be overwritten from within resource files,
469 the command line setting will be reestablished after all resource files
474 Specify the subject of the message to be sent.
475 Newline (NL) and carriage-return (CR) bytes are invalid and will be
476 normalized to space (SP) characters.
480 The message given (on standard input) is expected to contain, separated
481 from the message body by an empty line, a message header with
486 fields giving its recipients, which will be added to any recipients
487 specified on the command line.
488 If a message subject is specified via
490 then it will be used in favour of one given on the command line.
506 .Ql Mail-Followup-To: ,
507 by default created automatically dependent on message context, will
508 be used if specified (a special address massage will however still occur
510 Any other (also custom) header field is passed through entirely
511 unchanged, and in conjunction with the option
513 it is possible to embed
514 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
520 Initially read the primary system mailbox of
522 appropriate privileges presumed; effectively identical to
532 will also show the list of
534 .Ql $ \*(uA -Xversion -Xx .
539 ting the internal variable
541 enables display of some informational context messages.
542 Using it twice increases the level of verbosity.
546 Add the given (or multiple for a multiline argument)
548 to the list of commands to be executed (as a unit, just as via
550 before normal operation starts.
554 .Va batch-exit-on-error ;
555 the only possibility to execute commands in non-interactive mode when
556 reading startup files is actively prohibited.
561 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
562 even if not in interactive mode.
563 This can be used to, e.g., automatically format the composed message
564 text before sending the message:
565 .Bd -literal -offset indent
566 $ ( echo 'line one. Word. Word2.'; \e
567 echo '~| /usr/bin/fmt -tuw66' ) |\e
568 LC_ALL=C \*(uA -:/ -Sttycharset=UTF-8 -d~ bob@exam.ple
574 In batch mode the full set of commands is available, just like in
575 interactive mode, standard input is made line buffered, and diverse
576 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
577 are adjusted for batch necessities, e.g., it
593 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
594 is enabled in compose mode.
595 The following prepares an email message in a batched dry run:
596 .Bd -literal -offset indent
597 $ LC_ALL=C printf 'm bob\en~s ubject\enText\en~.\enx\en' | \e
598 LC_ALL=C \*(uA -:/ -d# -X'alias bob bob@exam.ple'
603 This flag forces termination of option processing in order to prevent
606 It also forcefully puts \*(UA into send mode, see
607 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
611 In the above list of supported command line options,
615 are implemented by means of
617 ting the respective internal variable, as via
620 .Op Ar mta-option ...
622 arguments that are given at the end of the command line after a
624 separator will be passed through to a file-based
626 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) and persist for an entire (interactive) session
627 \(en if the setting of
629 allows their recognition; no such constraints apply to the variable
633 .\" .Ss "A starter" {{{
636 \*(UA is a direct descendant of
638 Mail, a successor of the Research
641 .Dq was there from the start
646 Mail reference manual begins with the following words:
648 .Bd -ragged -offset indent
649 Mail provides a simple and friendly environment for sending and
651 It divides incoming mail into its constituent messages and allows the
652 user to deal with them in any order.
653 In addition, it provides a set of
655 -like commands for manipulating messages and sending mail.
656 Mail offers the user simple editing capabilities to ease the composition
657 of outgoing messages, as well as providing the ability to define and
658 send to names which address groups of users.
662 \*(UA is thus the user side of the
664 mail system, whereas the system side (Mail-Transfer-Agent, MTA) was
665 traditionally taken by
667 and most MTAs provide a binary of this name for compatibility purposes.
672 of \*(UA then the system side is not a mandatory precondition for mail
676 Because \*(UA strives for compliance with POSIX
678 it is likely that some configuration settings have to be adjusted before
679 using it is a smooth experience.
682 resource file bends those standard imposed settings of the
683 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
684 a bit towards more user friendliness and safety, however, e.g., it
689 in order to suppress the automatic moving of messages to
691 that would otherwise occur (see
692 .Sx "Message states" ) ,
695 to not remove empty system (MBOX) mailbox files in order not to mangle
696 file permissions when files eventually get recreated; be aware that
697 \*(UA will (try to) remove all empty (MBOX) mailbox files unless this
698 variable is set in case
700 .Pf ( Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT )
701 mode has been enabled.
702 The file mode creation mask is explicitly managed via
708 in order to synchronize \*(UA with the exit status report of the used
713 to enter interactive startup even if the initial mailbox is empty,
715 to allow editing of headers as well as
717 to not strip down addresses in compose mode, and
719 to include the message that is being responded to when
724 contains some more complete configuration examples.
727 .\" .Ss "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" {{{
728 .Ss "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode"
730 To send a message to one or more people, using a local or a builtin
732 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) transport to actually deliver the generated mail
733 message, \*(UA can be invoked with arguments which are the names of
734 people to whom the mail will be sent, and the command line options
738 can be used to add (blind) carbon copy receivers:
740 .Bd -literal -offset indent
741 $ \*(uA -s ubject -a ttach.txt bill@exam.ple
742 # But... try it in an isolated dry-run mode first
743 $ LC_ALL=C \*(uA -:/ -d -vv -Ssendwait \e
744 -b bcc@exam.ple -c cc@exam.ple -. \e
745 '(Lovely) Bob <bob@exam.ple>' eric@exam.ple
747 $ LC_ALL=C \*(uA -:/ -d -vv -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait \e
748 -S 'mta=smtps://mylogin@exam.ple:465' -Ssmtp-auth=login \e
749 -S 'from=scriptreply@exam.ple' \e
755 If standard input is a terminal rather than the message to be sent,
756 the user is expected to type in the message contents.
757 In this compose mode \*(UA treats lines beginning with the character
759 special \(en these are so-called
760 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
761 which can be used to read in files, process shell commands, add and edit
762 attachments and more; e.g., the command escape
764 will start the text editor to revise the message in its current state,
766 allows editing of the most important message headers and
768 gives an overview of available command escapes.
772 at the beginning of an empty line leaves compose mode and causes the
773 message to be sent, whereas typing
776 twice will abort the current letter (saving its contents in the file
782 Messages are sent asynchronously, without supervision, unless the variable
784 is set, therefore send errors are not recognizable until then.
790 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
791 can be used to alter default behavior; e.g.,
796 will automatically startup a text editor when compose mode is entered,
798 allows editing of headers additionally to plain body content,
800 will cause the user to be prompted actively for carbon-copy recipients
803 will allow leaving compose mode by writing a line consisting solely of
809 hook macros may be set to automatically adjust some settings dependent
810 on receiver, sender or subject contexts.
813 Especially for using public mail provider accounts with the SMTP
815 it is often necessary to set
817 and saving a copy of sent messages in a
819 may be desirable \(en as for most mailbox file targets some special
820 syntax conventions are recognized (see the
822 command for more on that).
825 for the purpose of arranging a complete environment of settings that can
826 be switched to with a single command or command line option may be
829 contains example configurations for sending messages via some of the
830 well-known public mail providers and also gives a compact overview on
831 how to setup a secure SSL/TLS environment).
836 sandbox dry-run tests first will prove correctness.
840 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
841 will spread light on the different ways of how to specify user email
842 account credentials, the
844 variable chains, and accessing protocol-specific resources,
847 goes into the details of character encoding and how to use them for
848 representing messages and MIME part contents by specifying them in
850 and reading the section
851 .Sx "The mime.types files"
852 should help to understand how the MIME-type of outgoing attachments are
853 classified, and what can be done for fine-tuning.
854 Over the wire an intermediate, configurable
855 .Pf content-transfer-\: Va encoding
856 may be applied to the raw message part data.
859 Message recipients (as specified on the command line or defined in
864 may not only be email addressees but can also be names of mailboxes and
865 even complete shell command pipe specifications.
868 is not set then only network addresses (see
870 for a description of mail addresses) and plain user names (including MTA
871 aliases) may be used, other types will be filtered out, giving a warning
874 .\" When changing any of the following adjust any RECIPIENTADDRSPEC;
875 .\" grep the latter for the complete picture
879 is set then extended recipient addresses will optionally be accepted:
880 Any name which starts with a vertical bar
882 character specifies a command pipe \(en the command string following the
884 is executed and the message is sent to its standard input;
885 Likewise, any name that starts with the character solidus
887 or the character sequence dot solidus
889 is treated as a file, regardless of the remaining content;
890 likewise a name that solely consists of a hyphen
892 Any other name which contains an at sign
894 character is treated as a network address;
895 Any other name which starts with a plus sign
897 character specifies a mailbox name;
898 Any other name which contains a solidus
900 character but no exclamation mark
904 character before also specifies a mailbox name;
905 What remains is treated as a network address.
907 .Bd -literal -offset indent
908 $ echo bla | \*(uA -Sexpandaddr -s test ./mbox.mbox
909 $ echo bla | \*(uA -Sexpandaddr -s test '|cat >> ./mbox.mbox'
910 $ echo safe | LC_ALL=C \e
911 \*(uA -:/ -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Snosave \e
912 -Sexpandaddr=fail,-all,+addr -s test \e
917 It is possible to create personal distribution lists via the
919 command, so that, for instance, the user can send mail to
921 and have it go to a group of people.
922 These aliases have nothing in common with the system wide aliases that
923 may be used by the MTA, which are subject to the
927 and are often tracked in a file
933 Personal aliases will be expanded by \*(UA before the message is sent,
934 and are thus a convenient alternative to specifying each addressee by
938 .Dl alias cohorts bill jkf mark kridle@ucbcory ~/mail/cohorts.mbox
941 To avoid environmental noise scripts should
943 \*(UA from any configuration files and create a script-local
944 environment, ideally with the command line options
946 to disable any configuration file in conjunction with repetitions of
948 to specify variables:
950 .Bd -literal -offset indent
951 $ env LC_ALL=C \*(uA -:/ \e
952 -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Snosave -Sttycharset=utf-8 \e
953 -Sexpandaddr=fail,-all,+addr \e
954 -S 'mta=smtps://mylogin@exam.ple:465' -Ssmtp-auth=login \e
955 -S 'from=scriptreply@exam.ple' \e
956 -s 'subject' -a attachment_file \e
957 -. "Recipient 1 <rec1@exam.ple>" rec2@exam.ple \e
962 As shown, scripts can
964 a locale environment, the above specifies the all-compatible 7-bit clean
967 but will nonetheless take and send UTF-8 in the message text by using
969 In interactive mode, which is introduced in the next section, messages
970 can be sent by calling the
972 command with a list of recipient addresses \(em the semantics are
973 completely identical to non-interactive message sending:
975 .Bd -literal -offset indent
976 $ \*(uA -d -Squiet -Semptystart
977 "/var/spool/mail/user": 0 messages
978 ? mail "Recipient 1 <rec1@exam.ple>", rec2@exam.ple
979 ? # Will do the right thing (tm)
980 ? m rec1@exam.ple rec2@exam.ple
984 .\" .Ss "On reading mail, and interactive mode" {{{
985 .Ss "On reading mail, and interactive mode"
987 When invoked without addressees \*(UA enters interactive mode in which
989 When used like that the user's system
993 for an in-depth description of the different mailbox types that exist)
994 is read in and a one line header of each message therein is displayed.
995 The visual style of this summary of
997 can be adjusted through the variable
999 and the possible sorting criterion via
1005 can be performed with the command
1007 If the initially opened mailbox is empty \*(UA will instead exit
1008 immediately (after displaying a message) unless the variable
1017 will give a listing of all available commands and
1019 will give a summary of some common ones.
1020 If the \*(OPal documentation strings are available one can type
1023 and see the actual expansion of
1025 and what its purpose is, i.e., commands can be abbreviated
1026 (note that POSIX defines some abbreviations, so that the alphabetical
1027 order of commands does not necessarily relate to the abbreviations; it is
1028 possible to define overwrites with the
1031 These commands can also produce a more
1036 Messages are given numbers (starting at 1) which uniquely identify
1037 messages; the current message \(en the
1039 \(en will either be the first new message, or the first unread message,
1040 or the first message of the mailbox; the internal variable
1042 will instead cause usage of the last message for this purpose.
1047 ful of header summaries containing the
1051 will display only the summaries of the given messages, defaulting to the
1055 Message content can be displayed on the users' terminal with the
1059 If instead the command
1061 is used, only the first
1063 of a message will be shown.
1064 By default the current message
1066 is displayed, but like with many other commands it is possible to give
1067 a fancy message specification (see
1068 .Sx "Specifying messages" ) ,
1071 will display all unread messages,
1076 will type the messages 1 and 5,
1078 will type the messages 1 through 5, and
1082 will display the last and the next message, respectively.
1085 (a more substantial alias of the standard command
1087 will display a header summary of the given message specification list
1088 instead of their content, e.g., the following will search for subjects:
1091 .Dl from "'@Some subject to search for'"
1094 In the default setup all header fields of a message will be
1096 d, but fields can be white- or blacklisted for a variety of
1097 applications by using the command
1099 e.g., to restrict display to a very restricted set:
1100 .Ql Ic \:headerpick Cd \:type retain add Ar \:from to cc subject .
1101 In order to display all header fields of a message regardless of
1102 currently active ignore or retain lists, use the commands
1108 controls whether and when \*(UA will use the configured
1110 for display instead of directly writing to the user terminal
1112 (generally speaking).
1113 Note that historically the global
1115 not only adjusts the list of displayed headers, but also sets
1119 Dependent upon the configuration a line editor (see the section
1120 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
1121 aims at making user experience with the many
1124 When reading the system
1130 specified a mailbox explicitly prefixed with the special
1132 modifier (propagating the mailbox to a primary one) then messages which
1133 have been read will be moved to a secondary mailbox, the user's
1135 file, automatically when the mailbox is left, either by changing the
1136 active mailbox or by quitting \*(UA (also see
1137 .Sx "Message states" )
1138 \(en this automatic moving from a system or primary to the secondary
1139 mailbox is not performed when the variable
1144 After examining a message the user can also
1148 to the sender and all recipients or
1150 exclusively to the sender(s).
1151 Messages can also be
1153 ed (shorter alias is
1155 Note that when replying to or forwarding a message recipient addresses
1156 will be stripped from comments and names unless the internal variable
1159 Deletion causes \*(UA to forget about the message;
1160 This is not irreversible, though, one can
1162 the message by giving its number,
1163 or the \*(UA session can be ended by giving the
1168 To end a mail processing session one may either issue
1170 to cause a full program exit, which possibly includes
1171 automatic moving of read messages to
1173 as well as updating the \*(OPal line editor
1177 instead in order to prevent any of these actions.
1180 .\" .Ss "HTML mail and MIME attachments" {{{
1181 .Ss "HTML mail and MIME attachments"
1183 Messages which are HTML-only get more and more common and of course many
1184 messages come bundled with a bouquet of MIME attachments.
1185 Whereas \*(UA \*(OPally supports a simple HTML-to-text converter to deal
1186 with HTML messages (see
1187 .Sx "The mime.types files" ) ,
1188 it normally cannot deal with any of these itself, but instead programs
1189 need to become registered to deal with specific MIME types or file
1191 These programs may either prepare plain text versions of their input
1192 in order to enable \*(UA to display the content on the terminal,
1193 or display the content themselves, for example in a graphical window.
1196 To install an external handler program for a specific MIME type set an
1198 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
1199 variable; to instead define a handler for a specific file extension set
1202 variable \(en these handlers take precedence.
1203 \*(OPally \*(UA supports mail user agent configuration as defined in
1204 RFC 1524; this mechanism, documented in the section
1205 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
1206 will be queried for display or quote handlers if none of the former two
1207 .\" TODO v15-compat "will be" -> "is"
1208 did; it will be the sole source for handlers of other purpose.
1209 A last source for handlers may be the MIME type definition itself, if
1210 the \*(UA specific type-marker extension was used when defining the type
1213 (Many of the builtin MIME types do so by default.)
1217 .Va mime-counter-evidence
1218 can be set to improve dealing with faulty MIME part declarations as are
1219 often seen in real-life messages.
1220 E.g., to display a HTML message inline (that is, converted to a more
1221 fancy plain text representation than the builtin converter is capable to
1222 produce) with either of the text-mode browsers
1226 teach \*(UA about MathML documents and make it display them as plain
1227 text, and to open PDF attachments in an external PDF viewer,
1228 asynchronously and with some other magic attached:
1230 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1231 if $features !@ +filter-html-tagsoup
1232 #set pipe-text/html='elinks -force-html -dump 1'
1233 set pipe-text/html='lynx -stdin -dump -force_html'
1234 # Display HTML as plain text instead
1235 #set pipe-text/html=@
1237 mimetype '@ application/mathml+xml mathml'
1238 wysh set pipe-application/pdf='@&=@ \e
1239 trap "rm -f \e"${NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}\e"" EXIT;\e
1240 trap "trap \e"\e" INT QUIT TERM; exit 1" INT QUIT TERM;\e
1241 mupdf "${NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}"'
1245 Note: special care must be taken when using such commands as mail
1246 viruses may be distributed by this method: if messages of type
1247 .Ql application/x-sh
1248 or files with the extension
1250 were blindly filtered through the shell, for example, a message sender
1251 could easily execute arbitrary code on the system \*(UA is running on.
1252 For more on MIME, also in respect to sending of messages, see the
1254 .Sx "The mime.types files" ,
1255 .Sx "The Mailcap files"
1260 .\" .Ss "Mailing lists" {{{
1263 \*(UA offers some support to ease handling of mailing lists.
1266 promotes all given arguments to known mailing lists, and
1268 sets their subscription attribute, creating them first as necessary.
1273 automatically, but only resets the subscription attribute.)
1274 Using the commands without arguments will show (a subset of) all
1275 currently defined mailing lists.
1280 can be used to mark out messages with configured list addresses
1281 in the header display.
1284 \*(OPally mailing lists may also be specified as (extended) regular
1285 expressions, which allows matching of many addresses with a single
1287 However, all fully qualified list addresses are matched via a fast
1288 dictionary, whereas expressions are placed in (a) list(s) which is
1289 (are) matched sequentially.
1291 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1292 set followup-to followup-to-honour=ask-yes reply-to-honour=ask-yes
1293 wysh mlist a1@b1.c1 a2@b2.c2 '.*@lists\e.c3$'
1294 mlsubscribe a4@b4.c4 exact@lists.c3
1299 .Va followup-to-honour
1301 .Ql Mail-\:Followup-\:To:
1302 header is honoured when the message is being replied to (via
1308 controls whether this header is created when sending mails; it will be
1309 created automatically for a couple of reasons, too, like when the
1311 .Dq mailing list specific
1316 is used to respond to a message with its
1317 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
1321 A difference in between the handling of known and subscribed lists is
1322 that the address of the sender is usually not part of a generated
1323 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
1324 when addressing the latter, whereas it is for the former kind of lists.
1325 Usually because there are exceptions: say, if multiple lists are
1326 addressed and not all of them are subscribed lists.
1328 For convenience \*(UA will, temporarily, automatically add a list
1329 address that is presented in the
1331 header of a message that is being responded to to the list of known
1333 Shall that header have existed \*(UA will instead, dependent on the
1335 .Va reply-to-honour ,
1338 for this purpose in order to accept a list administrators' wish that
1339 is supposed to have been manifested like that (but only if it provides
1340 a single address which resides on the same domain as what is stated in
1344 .\" .Ss "Resource files" {{{
1345 .Ss "Resource files"
1347 Upon startup \*(UA reads in several resource files:
1349 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa _AIL_EXTRA_R_"
1352 System wide initialization file.
1353 Reading of this file can be suppressed, either by using the
1357 command line options, or by setting the
1360 .Ev NAIL_NO_SYSTEM_RC .
1364 File giving initial commands.
1365 A different file can be chosen by setting the
1369 Reading of this file can be suppressed with the
1371 command line option.
1373 .It Va NAIL_EXTRA_RC
1374 Can be used to define an optional startup file to be read after all
1375 other resource files.
1376 It can be used to specify settings that are not understood by other
1378 implementations, for example.
1379 This variable is only honoured when defined in a resource file, e.g.,
1381 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" .
1385 The content of these files is interpreted as follows:
1388 .Bl -bullet -compact
1390 A lines' leading whitespace is removed.
1392 Empty lines are ignored.
1394 Any other line is interpreted as a command.
1395 It may be spread over multiple input lines if the newline character is
1397 by placing a reverse solidus character
1399 as the last character of the line; whereas any leading whitespace of
1400 follow lines is ignored, trailing whitespace before a escaped newline
1401 remains in the input.
1403 If the line (content) starts with the number sign
1405 then it is a comment-command \(en a real command! \(en and also ignored.
1406 This command is the only form of comment that is understood.
1410 Unless \*(UA is about to enter interactive mode syntax errors that occur
1411 while loading these files are treated as errors and cause program exit.
1412 More files with syntactically equal content can be
1414 The following, saved in a file, would be an examplary content:
1416 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1417 # This line is a comment command. And y\e
1418 es, it is really continued here.
1425 .\" .Ss "Character sets" {{{
1426 .Ss "Character sets"
1428 \*(OP \*(UA detects the character set of the terminal by using
1429 mechanisms that are controlled by the
1434 should give an overview); the \*(UA internal variable
1436 will be set to the detected terminal character set accordingly
1437 and will thus show up in the output of the commands
1443 However, a user supplied
1445 value is not overwritten by this detection mechanism: this
1447 must be used if the detection does not work properly,
1448 and it may be used to adjust the name of the locale character set.
1449 E.g., on BSD systems one may use a locale with the character set
1450 ISO8859-1, which is not a valid name for this character set; to be on
1451 the safe side, one may set
1453 to the correct name, which is ISO-8859-1.
1456 Note that changing the value does not mean much beside that,
1457 since several aspects of the real character set are implied by the
1458 locale environment of the system,
1459 and that stays unaffected by the content of an overwritten
1462 (This is mostly an issue when interactively using \*(UA, though.
1463 It is actually possible to send mail in a completely
1465 locale environment, an option that \*(UA's test-suite uses excessively.)
1468 If no character set conversion capabilities have been compiled into
1471 does not include the term
1475 will be the only supported character set,
1476 it is simply assumed that it can be used to exchange 8-bit messages
1477 (over the wire an intermediate
1478 .Pf content-transfer-\: Va encoding
1480 and the rest of this section does not apply;
1481 it may however still be necessary to explicitly set it if automatic
1482 detection fails, since in that case it defaults to the mentioned
1483 .\" (Keep in SYNC: ./nail.1:"Character sets", ./nail.h:CHARSET_*!)
1487 When reading messages, their text is converted into
1489 as necessary in order to display them on the users terminal.
1490 Unprintable characters and invalid byte sequences are detected
1491 and replaced by proper substitution characters (unless the variable
1493 was set once \*(UA was started).
1495 .Va charset-unknown-8bit
1496 to deal with another hairy aspect of message interpretation.
1499 When sending messages all their parts and attachments are classified.
1500 Whereas no character set conversion is performed on those parts which
1501 appear to be binary data,
1502 the character set being used must be declared within the MIME header of
1503 an outgoing text part if it contains characters that do not conform to
1504 the set of characters that are allowed by the email standards.
1505 Permissible values for character sets can be declared using the
1509 which defines a catch-all last-resort fallback character set that is
1510 implicitly appended to the list of character-sets in
1514 When replying to a message and the variable
1515 .Va reply-in-same-charset
1516 is set then the character set of the message being replied to is tried
1518 And it is also possible to make \*(UA work even more closely related to
1519 the current locale setting automatically by using the variable
1520 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset ,
1521 please see there for more information.
1524 All the specified character sets are tried in order unless the
1525 conversion of the part or attachment succeeds.
1526 If none of the tried (8-bit) character sets is capable to represent the
1527 content of the part or attachment,
1528 then the message will not be sent and its text will optionally be
1532 In general, if the message
1533 .Dq Cannot convert from a to b
1534 appears, either some characters are not appropriate for the currently
1535 selected (terminal) character set,
1536 or the needed conversion is not supported by the system.
1537 In the first case, it is necessary to set an appropriate
1539 locale and/or the variable
1543 The best results are usually achieved when \*(UA is run in a UTF-8
1544 locale on a UTF-8 capable terminal, in which case the full Unicode
1545 spectrum of characters is available.
1546 In this setup characters from various countries can be displayed,
1547 while it is still possible to use more simple character sets for sending
1548 to retain maximum compatibility with older mail clients.
1551 On the other hand the POSIX standard defines a locale-independent 7-bit
1552 .Dq portable character set
1553 that should be used when overall portability is an issue, the even more
1554 restricted subset named
1555 .Dq portable filename character set
1556 consisting of A-Z, a-z, 0-9, period
1565 .\" .Ss "Message states" {{{
1566 .Ss "Message states"
1568 \*(UA differentiates in between several different message states;
1569 the current state will be reflected in header summary displays if
1571 is configured to do so (via the internal variable
1573 and messages can also be selected and be acted upon depending on their
1575 .Sx "Specifying messages" ) .
1576 When operating on the system
1578 or in primary mailboxes opened with the special prefix
1582 special actions, like the automatic moving of messages to the secondary
1584 mailbox may be applied when the mailbox is left (also implicitly via
1585 a successful exit of \*(UA, but not if the special command
1587 is used) \(en however, because this may be irritating to users which
1590 mail-user-agents, the default global
1596 variables in order to suppress this behaviour.
1598 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ql _reserved"
1600 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state.
1601 Such messages are retained even in the primary system mailbox.
1604 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state, but the
1605 message was present already when the mailbox has been opened last:
1606 Such messages are retained even in the primary system mailbox.
1609 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
1629 commands may also cause the next message to be marked as read, depending
1635 command is used, messages that are in the primary system mailbox or in
1636 mailboxes which were opened with the special
1640 state when the mailbox is left will be saved in
1642 unless the internal variable
1647 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
1653 can be used to access such messages.
1656 The message has been processed by a
1658 command and it will be retained in its current location.
1661 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
1667 command is used, messages that are in the primary system mailbox or in
1668 mailboxes which were opened with the special
1672 state when the mailbox is left will be deleted; they will be saved in
1674 when the internal variable
1680 .\" .Ss "Specifying messages" {{{
1681 .Ss "Specifying messages"
1688 can be given a list of message numbers as arguments to apply to a number
1689 of messages at once.
1692 deletes messages 1 and 2,
1695 will delete the messages 1 through 5.
1696 In sorted or threaded mode (see the
1700 will delete the messages that are located between (and including)
1701 messages 1 through 5 in the sorted/threaded order, as shown in the
1704 The following special message names exist:
1707 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ar _n_u"
1709 The current message, the so-called
1713 The message that was previously the current message.
1716 The parent message of the current message,
1717 that is the message with the Message-ID given in the
1719 field or the last entry of the
1721 field of the current message.
1724 The next previous undeleted message,
1725 or the next previous deleted message for the
1728 In sorted/threaded mode,
1729 the next previous such message in the sorted/threaded order.
1732 The next undeleted message,
1733 or the next deleted message for the
1736 In sorted/threaded mode,
1737 the next such message in the sorted/threaded order.
1740 The first undeleted message,
1741 or the first deleted message for the
1744 In sorted/threaded mode,
1745 the first such message in the sorted/threaded order.
1749 In sorted/threaded mode,
1750 the last message in the sorted/threaded order.
1754 selects the message addressed with
1758 is any other message specification,
1759 and all messages from the thread that begins at it.
1760 Otherwise it is identical to
1765 the thread beginning with the current message is selected.
1770 All messages that were included in the message list for the previous
1774 An inclusive range of message numbers.
1775 Selectors that may also be used as endpoints include any of
1780 .Dq any substring matches
1783 header, which will match addresses (too) even if
1785 is set (and POSIX says
1786 .Dq any address as shown in a header summary shall be matchable in this form ) ;
1789 variable is set, only the local part of the address is evaluated
1790 for the comparison, not ignoring case, and the setting of
1792 is completely ignored.
1793 For finer control and match boundaries use the
1797 .It Ar / Ns Ar string
1798 All messages that contain
1800 in the subject field (case ignored).
1807 the string from the previous specification of that type is used again.
1809 .It Xo Op Ar @ Ns Ar name-list Ns
1812 All messages that contain the given case-insensitive search
1814 ession; if the \*(OPal regular expression (see
1816 support is available
1818 will be interpreted as (an extended) one if any of the
1820 (extended) regular expression characters is seen.
1822 .Ar @ Ns Ar name-list
1823 part is missing, the search is restricted to the subject field body,
1826 specifies a comma-separated list of header fields to search, as in
1828 .Dl '@to,from,cc@Someone i ought to know'
1830 In order to search for a string that includes a
1832 (commercial at) character the
1834 is effectively non-optional, but may be given as the empty string.
1835 Some special header fields may be abbreviated:
1849 respectively and case-insensitively.
1854 can be used to search in (all of) the header(s) of the message, and the
1863 can be used to perform full text searches \(en whereas the former
1864 searches only the body, the latter also searches the message header.
1866 This message specification performs full text comparison, but even with
1867 regular expression support it is almost impossible to write a search
1868 expression that savely matches only a specific address domain.
1869 To request that the content of the header is treated as a list of
1870 addresses, and to strip those down to the plain email address which the
1871 search expression is to be matched against, prefix the header name
1872 (abbreviation) with a tilde
1875 .Dl @~f@@a\e.safe\e.domain\e.match$
1878 All messages of state
1882 is one or multiple of the following colon modifiers:
1884 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar :M"
1889 Old messages (any not in state
1915 Messages marked as draft.
1917 \*(OP Messages classified as spam.
1919 \*(OP Messages with unsure spam classification.
1925 \*(OP IMAP-style SEARCH expressions may also be used.
1926 This addressing mode is available with all types of folders;
1927 \*(UA will perform the search locally as necessary.
1928 Strings must be enclosed by double quotes
1930 in their entirety if they contain white space or parentheses;
1931 within the quotes, only reverse solidus
1933 is recognized as an escape character.
1934 All string searches are case-insensitive.
1935 When the description indicates that the
1937 representation of an address field is used,
1938 this means that the search string is checked against both a list
1941 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1942 (\*qname\*q \*qsource\*q \*qlocal-part\*q \*qdomain-part\*q)
1947 and the addresses without real names from the respective header field.
1948 These search expressions can be nested using parentheses, see below for
1952 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar _n_u"
1953 .It Ar ( criterion )
1954 All messages that satisfy the given
1956 .It Ar ( criterion1 criterion2 ... criterionN )
1957 All messages that satisfy all of the given criteria.
1959 .It Ar ( or criterion1 criterion2 )
1960 All messages that satisfy either
1965 To connect more than two criteria using
1967 specifications have to be nested using additional parentheses,
1969 .Ql (or a (or b c)) ,
1973 .Ql ((a or b) and c) .
1976 operation of independent criteria on the lowest nesting level,
1977 it is possible to achieve similar effects by using three separate
1981 .It Ar ( not criterion )
1982 All messages that do not satisfy
1984 .It Ar ( bcc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1985 All messages that contain
1987 in the envelope representation of the
1990 .It Ar ( cc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1991 All messages that contain
1993 in the envelope representation of the
1996 .It Ar ( from \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
1997 All messages that contain
1999 in the envelope representation of the
2002 .It Ar ( subject \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2003 All messages that contain
2008 .It Ar ( to \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2009 All messages that contain
2011 in the envelope representation of the
2014 .It Ar ( header name \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2015 All messages that contain
2020 .It Ar ( body \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2021 All messages that contain
2024 .It Ar ( text \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2025 All messages that contain
2027 in their header or body.
2028 .It Ar ( larger size )
2029 All messages that are larger than
2032 .It Ar ( smaller size )
2033 All messages that are smaller than
2037 .It Ar ( before date )
2038 All messages that were received before
2040 which must be in the form
2044 denotes the day of the month as one or two digits,
2046 is the name of the month \(en one of
2047 .Ql Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec ,
2050 is the year as four digits, e.g.,
2054 All messages that were received on the specified date.
2055 .It Ar ( since date )
2056 All messages that were received since the specified date.
2057 .It Ar ( sentbefore date )
2058 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
2059 .It Ar ( senton date )
2060 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
2061 .It Ar ( sentsince date )
2062 All messages that were sent since the specified date.
2064 The same criterion as for the previous search.
2065 This specification cannot be used as part of another criterion.
2066 If the previous command line contained more than one independent
2067 criterion then the last of those criteria is used.
2071 .\" .Ss "On URL syntax and credential lookup" {{{
2072 .Ss "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
2074 \*(IN For accessing protocol-specific resources usage of Uniform
2075 Resource Locators (URL, RFC 1738) has become omnipresent.
2076 \*(UA expects and understands URLs in the following form;
2079 denote optional parts, optional either because there also exist other
2080 ways to define the information in question or because support of the
2081 part is protocol-specific (e.g.,
2083 is used by the IMAP protocol but not by POP3);
2088 are specified they must be given in URL percent encoded form (RFC 3986;
2094 .Dl PROTOCOL://[USER[:PASSWORD]@]server[:port][/path]
2097 Note that these \*(UA URLs most often do not conform to any real
2098 standard, but instead represent a normalized variant of RFC 1738 \(en
2099 they are not used in data exchange but only meant as a compact,
2100 easy-to-use way of defining and representing information in
2101 a well-known notation.
2104 Many internal variables of \*(UA exist in multiple versions, called
2105 variable chains for the rest of this document: the plain
2110 .Ql variable-USER@HOST .
2117 had been specified in the respective URL, otherwise it refers to the plain
2123 that had been found when doing the user chain lookup as is described
2126 will never be in URL percent encoded form, whether it came from an URL
2127 or not; i.e., variable chain name extensions of
2128 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
2129 must not be URL percent encoded.
2132 For example, whether an hypothetical URL
2133 .Ql smtp://hey%3Ayou@our.house
2134 had been given that includes a user, or whether the URL was
2135 .Ql smtp://our.house
2136 and the user had been found differently, to lookup the variable chain
2137 .Va smtp-use-starttls
2138 \*(UA first looks for whether
2139 .Ql smtp-\:use-\:starttls-\:hey:you@our.house
2140 is defined, then whether
2141 .Ql smtp-\:use-\:starttls-\:our.house
2142 exists before finally ending up looking at the plain variable itself.
2145 \*(UA obeys the following logic scheme when dealing with the
2146 necessary credential information of an account:
2152 has been given in the URL the variables
2156 are looked up; if no such variable(s) can be found then \*(UA will,
2157 when enforced by the \*(OPal variables
2158 .Va netrc-lookup-HOST
2165 specific entry which provides a
2167 name: this lookup will only succeed if unambiguous (one possible matching
2170 It is possible to load encrypted
2175 If there is still no
2177 then \*(UA will fall back to the user who is supposed to run \*(UA,
2178 the identity of which has been fixated during \*(UA startup and is
2179 known to be a valid user on the current host.
2182 Authentication: unless otherwise noted this will lookup the
2183 .Va PROTOCOL-auth-USER@HOST , PROTOCOL-auth-HOST , PROTOCOL-auth
2184 variable chain, falling back to a protocol-specific default should this
2190 has been given in the URL, then if the
2192 has been found through the \*(OPal
2194 that may have already provided the password, too.
2195 Otherwise the variable chain
2196 .Va password-USER@HOST , password-HOST , password
2197 is looked up and used if existent.
2199 Afterwards the complete \*(OPal variable chain
2200 .Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , netrc-lookup-HOST , netrc-lookup
2204 cache is searched for a password only (multiple user accounts for
2205 a single machine may exist as well as a fallback entry without user
2206 but with a password).
2208 If at that point there is still no password available, but the
2209 (protocols') chosen authentication type requires a password, then in
2210 interactive mode the user will be prompted on the terminal.
2215 S/MIME verification works relative to the values found in the
2219 header field(s), which means that the values of
2220 .Va smime-sign , smime-sign-cert , smime-sign-include-certs
2222 .Va smime-sign-message-digest
2223 will not be looked up using the
2227 chains from above but instead use the corresponding values from the
2228 message that is being worked on.
2229 In unusual cases multiple and different
2233 combinations may therefore be involved \(en on the other hand those
2234 unusual cases become possible.
2235 The usual case is as short as:
2238 .Dl set mta=smtp://USER:PASS@HOST smtp-use-starttls \e
2239 .Dl \ \ \ \ smime-sign smime-sign-cert=+smime.pair
2244 contains complete example configurations.
2247 .\" .Ss "On terminal control and line editor" {{{
2248 .Ss "On terminal control and line editor"
2250 \*(OP Terminal control will be realized through one of the standard
2252 libraries, either the
2254 or, alternatively, the
2256 both of which will be initialized to work with the environment variable
2258 Terminal control will enhance or enable interactive usage aspects, e.g.,
2259 .Sx "Coloured display" ,
2260 and extend behaviour of the Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE), which may learn the
2261 byte-sequences of keys like the cursor and function keys, and which will
2262 automatically enter the so-called
2264 alternative screen shall the terminal support it.
2265 The internal variable
2267 can be used to overwrite settings or to learn (correct(ed)) keycodes.
2268 Actual interaction with the chosen library can be disabled completely by
2269 setting the internal variable
2270 .Va termcap-disable ;
2272 will be queried regardless, even if the \*(OPal support for the
2273 libraries has not been enabled at configuration time.
2276 \*(OP The builtin \*(UA Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE) should work in all
2277 environments which comply to the ISO C standard
2279 and will support wide glyphs if possible (the necessary functionality
2280 had been removed from ISO C, but was included in
2282 Prevent usage of a line editor in interactive mode by setting the
2284 .Va line-editor-disable .
2285 Especially if the \*(OPal terminal control support is missing setting
2286 entries in the internal variable
2288 will help shall the MLE misbehave, see there for more.
2289 The MLE can support a little bit of
2295 feature is available then input from line editor prompts will be saved
2296 in a history list that can be searched in and be expanded from.
2297 Such saving can be prevented by prefixing input with any amount of
2299 Aspects of history, like allowed content and maximum size, as well as
2300 whether history shall be saved persistently, can be configured with the
2304 .Va history-gabby-persist
2309 The MLE supports a set of editing and control commands.
2310 By default (as) many (as possible) of these will be assigned to a set of
2311 single-letter control codes, which should work on any terminal (and can
2312 be generated by holding the
2314 key while pressing the key of desire, e.g.,
2318 command is available then the MLE commands can also be accessed freely
2319 by assigning the command name, which is shown in parenthesis in the list
2320 below, to any desired key-sequence, and the MLE will instead and also use
2322 to establish its builtin key bindings
2323 (more of them if the \*(OPal terminal control is available),
2324 an action which can then be suppressed completely by setting
2325 .Va line-editor-no-defaults .
2326 The following uses the
2328 ell-style quote notation that is documented in the introduction of
2330 combinations not mentioned either cause job control signals or do not
2331 generate a (unique) keycode:
2335 .Bl -tag -compact -width "Ql _M"
2337 Go to the start of the line
2338 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-home ) .
2341 Move the cursor backward one character
2342 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-bwd ) .
2345 Forward delete the character under the cursor;
2346 quits \*(UA if used on the empty line unless the internal variable
2349 .Pf ( Cd mle-del-fwd ) .
2352 Go to the end of the line
2353 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-end ) .
2356 Move the cursor forward one character
2357 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-fwd ) .
2360 Cancel current operation, full reset.
2361 If there is an active history search or tabulator expansion then this
2362 command will first reset that, reverting to the former line content;
2363 thus a second reset is needed for a full reset in this case
2364 .Pf ( Cd mle-reset ) .
2367 Backspace: backward delete one character
2368 .Pf ( Cd mle-del-bwd ) .
2372 Horizontal tabulator:
2373 try to expand the word before the cursor, also supporting \*(UA
2376 .Pf ( Cd mle-complete ) .
2378 .Cd mle-quote-rndtrip .
2382 commit the current line
2383 .Pf ( Cd mle-commit ) .
2386 Cut all characters from the cursor to the end of the line
2387 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-end ) .
2391 .Pf ( Cd mle-repaint ) .
2394 \*(OP Go to the next history entry
2395 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-fwd ) .
2398 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2402 \*(OP Go to the previous history entry
2403 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-bwd ) .
2406 Toggle roundtrip mode shell quotes, where produced,
2408 .Pf ( Cd mle-quote-rndtrip ) .
2409 This setting is temporary, and will be forgotten once the command line
2413 \*(OP Complete the current line from (the remaining) older history entries
2414 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-srch-bwd ) .
2417 \*(OP Complete the current line from (the remaining) newer history entries
2418 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-srch-fwd ) .
2421 Paste the snarf buffer
2422 .Pf ( Cd mle-paste ) .
2429 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-line ) .
2432 Prompts for a Unicode character (its hexadecimal number) to be inserted
2433 .Pf ( Cd mle-prompt-char ) .
2434 Note this command needs to be assigned to a single-letter control code
2435 in order to become recognized and executed during input of
2436 a key-sequence (only three single-letter control codes can be used for
2437 that shortcut purpose); this control code is special-treated and cannot
2438 be part of any other sequence, because any occurrence will perform the
2440 function immediately.
2443 Cut the characters from the one preceding the cursor to the preceding
2445 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-word-bwd ) .
2448 Move the cursor forward one word boundary
2449 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-word-fwd ) .
2452 Move the cursor backward one word boundary
2453 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-word-bwd ) .
2456 Escape: reset a possibly used multibyte character input state machine
2457 and \*(OPally a lingering, incomplete key binding
2458 .Pf ( Cd mle-cancel ) .
2459 This command needs to be assigned to a single-letter control code in
2460 order to become recognized and executed during input of a key-sequence
2461 (only three single-letter control codes can be used for that shortcut
2463 This control code may also be part of a multi-byte sequence, but if
2464 a sequence is active and the very control code is currently also an
2465 expected input, then it will first be consumed by the active sequence.
2468 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2472 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2476 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2480 Cut the characters from the one after the cursor to the succeeding word
2482 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-word-fwd ) .
2492 this will immediately reset a possibly active search etc.
2496 ring the audible bell.
2500 .\" .Ss "Coloured display" {{{
2501 .Ss "Coloured display"
2503 \*(OP \*(UA can be configured to support a coloured display and font
2504 attributes by emitting ANSI / ISO 6429 SGR (select graphic rendition)
2506 Usage of colours and font attributes solely depends upon the
2507 capability of the detected terminal type that is defined by the
2508 environment variable
2510 and which can be fine-tuned by the user via the internal variable
2514 On top of what \*(UA knows about the terminal the boolean variable
2516 defines whether the actually applicable colour and font attribute
2517 sequences should also be generated when output is going to be paged
2518 through the external program defined by the environment variable
2523 This is not enabled by default because different pager programs need
2524 different command line switches or other configuration in order to
2525 support those sequences.
2526 \*(UA however knows about some widely used pagers and in a clean
2527 environment it is often enough to simply set
2529 please refer to that variable for more on this topic.
2534 is set then any active usage of colour and font attribute sequences
2535 is suppressed, but without affecting possibly established
2540 To define and control colours and font attributes a single multiplexer
2541 command family exists:
2543 shows or defines colour mappings for the given colour type (e.g.,
2546 can be used to remove mappings of a given colour type.
2547 Since colours are only available in interactive mode, it may make
2548 sense to conditionalize the colour setup by encapsulating it with
2551 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2552 if terminal && $features =@ +colour
2553 colour iso view-msginfo ft=bold,fg=green
2554 colour iso view-header ft=bold,fg=red "from,subject"
2555 colour iso view-header fg=red
2557 uncolour iso view-header from,subject
2558 colour iso view-header ft=bold,fg=magenta,bg=cyan
2559 colour 256 view-header ft=bold,fg=208,bg=230 subject,from
2560 colour mono view-header ft=bold
2561 colour mono view-header ft=bold,ft=reverse subject,from
2565 .\" }}} (DESCRIPTION)
2568 .\" .Sh COMMANDS {{{
2571 Each command is typed on a line by itself,
2572 and may take arguments following the command word.
2573 Command names may be abbreviated, in which case the first command that
2574 matches the given prefix will be used.
2577 can be used to show the list of all commands, either alphabetically
2578 sorted or in prefix search order (these do not match, also because the
2579 POSIX standard prescribes a set of abbreviations).
2580 \*(OPally the command
2584 when given an argument, will show a documentation string for the
2585 command matching the expanded argument, as in
2587 which should be a shorthand of
2589 Both commands support a more
2591 listing mode which includes the argument type of the command.
2594 For commands which take message lists as arguments, the next message
2595 forward that satisfies the command's requirements will be used shall no
2596 explicit message list have been specified.
2597 If there are no messages forward of the current message,
2598 the search proceeds backwards,
2599 and if there are no good messages at all,
2600 \*(UA shows an error message and aborts the command.
2601 \*(ID Non-message-list arguments can be quoted using the following methods:
2604 .Bl -bullet -compact -offset indent
2606 An argument can be enclosed between paired double-quotes
2611 any white space, shell word expansion, or reverse solidus characters
2612 (except as described next) within the quotes are treated literally as
2613 part of the argument.
2614 A double-quote will be treated literally within single-quotes and vice
2616 Inside such a quoted string the actually used quote character can be
2617 used nonetheless by escaping it with a reverse solidus
2623 An argument that is not enclosed in quotes, as above, can usually still
2624 contain space characters if those spaces are reverse solidus escaped, as in
2628 A reverse solidus outside of the enclosing quotes is discarded
2629 and the following character is treated literally as part of the argument.
2634 Some commands which do not take message-list arguments can also be
2635 prefixed with the special keyword
2637 to choose \*(INible argument quoting rules, and some new commands only
2638 support the new rules (without that keyword) and are flagged \*(NQ.
2639 In the future \*(UA will (mostly) use
2641 compatible argument parsing:
2642 Non-message-list arguments can be quoted using the following shell-style
2643 mechanisms: the escape character, single-quotes, double-quotes and
2644 dollar-single-quotes; any unquoted number sign
2646 that parses as a new token starts a comment that ends argument processing.
2647 The overall granularity of error reporting and diagnostics, also
2648 regarding function arguments and their content, will improve.
2652 .Bl -bullet -compact -offset indent
2654 The literal value of any character can be preserved by preceding it
2655 with the escape character reverse solidus
2659 will cause variable expansion of the given name: \*(UA
2660 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
2663 (shell) variables can be accessed through this mechanism, brace
2664 enclosing the name is supported.
2667 Arguments which are enclosed in
2668 .Ql 'single-\:quotes'
2669 retain their literal value.
2670 A single-quote cannot occur within single-quotes.
2673 The literal value of all characters enclosed in
2674 .Ql \(dqdouble-\:quotes\(dq
2675 is retained, with the exception of dollar
2677 which will cause variable expansion, as above, backquote (grave accent)
2679 (which not yet means anything special), reverse solidus
2681 which will escape any of the characters dollar
2683 (to prevent variable expansion), backquote (grave accent)
2687 (to prevent ending the quote) and reverse solidus
2689 (to prevent escaping, i.e., to embed a reverse solidus character as-is),
2690 but has no special meaning otherwise.
2693 Arguments enclosed in
2694 .Ql $'dollar-\:single-\:quotes'
2695 extend normal single quotes in that reverse solidus escape sequences are
2696 expanded as follows:
2698 .Bl -tag -compact -width "Ql \eNNN"
2704 an escape character.
2706 an escape character.
2718 emits a reverse solidus character.
2722 double quote (escaping is optional).
2724 eight-bit byte with the octal value
2726 (one to three octal digits), optionally prefixed by an additional
2728 A 0 byte will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
2730 eight-bit byte with the hexadecimal value
2732 (one or two hexadecimal characters).
2733 A 0 byte will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
2735 the Unicode / ISO-10646 character with the hexadecimal codepoint value
2737 (one to eight hexadecimal digits) \(em note that Unicode defines the
2738 maximum codepoint to be ever supported as
2743 This escape is only supported in locales which support Unicode (see
2744 .Sx "Character sets" ) ,
2745 in other cases the sequence will remain unexpanded unless the given code
2746 point is ASCII compatible or can be represented in the current locale.
2747 The character NUL will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
2751 except it takes only one to four hexadecimal digits.
2753 A mechanism that allows usage of the non-printable (ASCII and
2754 compatible) control codes 0 to 31: to create the printable
2755 representation of a control code the numeric value 64 is added, and the
2756 resulting ASCII character set code point is then printed, e.g., BEL is
2757 .Ql 7 + 64 = 71 = G .
2758 Whereas historically circumflex notation has often been used for
2759 visualization purposes of control codes, e.g.,
2761 the reverse solidus notation has been standardized:
2763 Some control codes also have standardized (ISO 10646, ISO C) alias
2764 representations, as shown above (e.g.,
2768 whenever such an alias exists \*(UA will use it for display purposes.
2769 The control code NUL
2771 ends argument processing without producing further output.
2773 Non-standard extension: expand the given variable name, as above.
2774 Brace enclosing the name is supported.
2776 Not yet supported, just to raise awareness: Non-standard extension.
2782 .Sy Compatibility notes:
2783 \*(ID Note these are new mechanisms which are not supported by all
2785 Round-tripping (feeding in things shown in list modes again) are not yet
2786 stable or possible at all.
2787 On new-style command lines it is wise to quote semicolon
2791 characters in order to ensure upward compatibility: the author would
2792 like to see things like
2793 .Ql ? echo $'trouble\etahead' | cat >> in_the_shell.txt
2795 .Ql ? top 2 5 10; type 3 22
2797 Before \*(UA will switch entirely to shell-style argument parsing there
2798 will be a transition phase where using
2800 will emit obsoletion warnings.
2802 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2803 echo 'Quotes '${HOME}' and 'tokens" differ!"# no comment
2804 echo Quotes ${HOME} and tokens differ! # comment
2805 echo Don"'"t you worry$'\ex21' The sun shines on us. $'\eu263A'
2809 In any event an unquoted reverse solidus at the end of a command line is
2810 discarded and the next line continues the command.
2811 \*(ID Note that line continuation is handled before the above parsing is
2812 applied, i.e., the parsers documented above will see merged lines.
2813 Filenames, where expected, are subsequently subjected to the following
2814 transformations, in sequence:
2817 .Bl -bullet -compact -offset indent
2819 If the filename begins with an unquoted plus sign, and the
2821 variable is defined,
2822 the plus sign will be replaced by the value of the
2824 variable followed by a solidus.
2827 variable is unset or is set to null, the filename will be unchanged.
2830 Meta expansions are applied to the filename: a leading tilde
2832 character will be replaced by the expansion of
2834 except when followed by a valid user name, in which case the home
2835 directory of the given user is used instead.
2840 will be replaced by the expansion of the variable, if possible; \*(UA
2841 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
2844 (shell) variables can be accessed through this mechanism, and the usual
2845 escape mechanism has to be applied to prevent interpretation.
2846 If the fully expanded filename results in multiple pathnames and the
2847 command is expecting only one file, an error results.
2849 In interactive context, in order to allow simple value acceptance (via
2851 arguments will usually be displayed in a properly quoted form, e.g., a file
2852 .Ql diet\e is \ecurd.txt
2854 .Ql 'diet\e is \ecurd.txt' .
2858 The following commands are available:
2860 .Bl -tag -width ".Ic _ccount"
2867 ) command which follows.
2871 The comment-command causes the entire line to be ignored.
2873 this really is a normal command which' purpose is to discard its
2876 indicating special character, which means that, e.g., trailing comments
2877 on a line are not possible.
2881 Goes to the next message in sequence and types it
2887 Display the preceding message, or the n'th previous message if given
2888 a numeric argument n.
2892 Show the current message number (the
2897 Show a brief summary of commands.
2900 output is available.
2901 \*(OP Given an argument a synopsis for the command in question is
2902 shown instead; commands can be abbreviated in general and this command
2903 can be used to see the full expansion of an abbreviation including the
2904 synopsis, try, e.g.,
2909 and see how the output changes.
2919 Interprets the remainder of the word as a macro name and passes it
2924 is a shorter synonym for
2925 .Ql call Ar mymacro .
2929 (ac) Creates, selects or lists (an) account(s).
2930 Accounts are special incarnations of
2932 macros and group commands and variable settings which together usually
2933 arrange the environment for the purpose of creating an email account.
2934 Different to normal macros settings which are covered by
2936 \(en here by default enabled! \(en will not be reverted before the
2941 (case-insensitive) always exists, and all but it can be deleted via
2944 Without arguments a listing of all defined accounts is shown.
2945 With one argument the given account is activated: the system
2947 of that account will be activated (as via
2949 and a possibly installed
2952 The two argument form is identical to defining a macro as via
2954 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2956 set folder=~/mail inbox=+syste.mbox record=+sent.mbox
2957 set from='myname@myisp.example (My Name)'
2958 set mta=smtp://mylogin@smtp.myisp.example
2964 (a) With no arguments, shows all currently-defined aliases.
2965 With one argument, shows that alias.
2966 With more than one argument,
2967 creates a new alias or appends to an existing one.
2969 can be used to delete aliases.
2973 (alt) Manage a list of alternate addresses / names of the active user,
2974 members of which will be removed from recipient lists when replying to
2977 variable is not set).
2978 If arguments are given the set of alternate names is replaced by them,
2979 without arguments the current set is displayed.
2983 Takes a message list and marks each message as having been answered.
2984 This mark has no technical meaning in the mail system;
2985 it just causes messages to be marked in the header summary,
2986 and makes them specially addressable.
2991 \*(OP\*(NQ The bind command extends the MLE (see
2992 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
2993 with freely configurable key bindings.
2994 With one argument all bindings for the given context are shown,
2995 specifying an asterisk
2997 will show the bindings of all contexts; a more verbose listing will be
2998 produced if either of
3003 With two or more arguments a binding is (re)established:
3004 the first argument is the context to which the binding shall apply,
3005 the second argument is a comma-separated list of the
3007 which form the binding, and any remaining arguments form the expansion.
3008 To indicate that a binding shall not be auto-committed, but that the
3009 expansion shall instead be furtherly editable by the user, an at-sign
3011 (that will be removed) can be placed last in the expansion, from which
3012 leading and trailing whitespace will finally be removed.
3013 Reverse solidus cannot be used as the last character of expansion.
3016 Contexts define when a binding applies, i.e., a binding will not be seen
3017 unless the context for which it is defined for is currently active.
3018 This is not true for the shared binding
3020 which is the foundation for all other bindings and as such always
3021 applies, its bindings, however, only apply secondarily.
3022 The available contexts are the shared
3026 context which is used in all not otherwise documented situations, and
3028 which applies to compose-mode only.
3032 which form the binding are specified as a comma-separated list of
3033 byte-sequences, where each list entry corresponds to one key(press).
3034 \*(OPally a list entry may, indicated by a leading colon character
3036 also refer to the name of a terminal capability;
3037 several dozen names will be compiled into \*(UA and may be specified
3040 or, if existing, by their
3042 name, regardless of the actually used terminal control library.
3043 It is however possible to use any capability, as long as the name is
3044 resolvable by the control library or defined in the internal variable
3046 Input sequences are not case-normalized, so that an exact match is
3047 required to update or remove a binding.
3050 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3051 bind base $'\eE',d mle-snarf-word-fwd # Esc(ape)
3052 bind base $'\eE',$'\ec?' mle-snarf-word-bwd # Esc, Delete
3053 bind default $'\ecA',:khome,w 'echo An editable binding@'
3054 bind default a,b,c rm -rf / @ # Another editable binding
3055 bind default :kf1 File %
3056 bind compose :kf1 ~e
3060 Note that the entire comma-separated list is first parsed (over) as a
3061 shell-token with whitespace as the field separator, before being parsed
3062 and expanded for real with comma as the field separator, therefore
3063 whitespace needs to be properly quoted:
3064 shell-style quoting is documented in the introduction of
3066 Using Unicode reverse solidus escape sequences renders a binding
3067 defunctional if the locale does not support Unicode (see
3068 .Sx "Character sets" ) ,
3069 and using terminal capabilities does so if no terminal control support
3070 is (currently) available.
3073 The following terminal capability names are builtin and can be used in
3075 or (if available) the two-letter
3077 notation regardless of the actually used library.
3078 See the respective manual for a list of capabilities.
3081 can be used to show all the capabilities of
3083 or the given terminal type;
3086 flag will also show supported (non-standard) extensions.
3089 .Bl -tag -compact -width kcuuf_or_kcuuf
3090 .It Cd kbs Ns \0or Cd kb
3092 .It Cd kdch1 Ns \0or Cd kD
3094 .It Cd kDC Ns \0or Cd *4
3095 \(em shifted variant.
3096 .It Cd kel Ns \0or Cd kE
3097 Clear to end of line.
3098 .It Cd kext Ns \0or Cd @9
3100 .It Cd kich1 Ns \0or Cd kI
3102 .It Cd kIC Ns \0or Cd #3
3103 \(em shifted variant.
3104 .It Cd khome Ns \0or Cd kh
3106 .It Cd kHOM Ns \0or Cd #2
3107 \(em shifted variant.
3108 .It Cd kend Ns \0or Cd @7
3110 .It Cd knp Ns \0or Cd kN
3112 .It Cd kpp Ns \0or Cd kP
3114 .It Cd kcub1 Ns \0or Cd kl
3115 Left cursor (with more modifiers: see below).
3116 .It Cd kLFT Ns \0or Cd #4
3117 \(em shifted variant.
3118 .It Cd kcuf1 Ns \0or Cd kr
3119 Right cursor (ditto).
3120 .It Cd kRIT Ns \0or Cd %i
3121 \(em shifted variant.
3122 .It Cd kcud1 Ns \0or Cd kd
3123 Down cursor (ditto).
3125 \(em shifted variant (only terminfo).
3126 .It Cd kcuu1 Ns \0or Cd ku
3129 \(em shifted variant (only terminfo).
3130 .It Cd kf0 Ns \0or Cd k0
3132 Add one for each function key up to
3137 .It Cd kf10 Ns \0or Cd k;
3139 .It Cd kf11 Ns \0or Cd F1
3141 Add one for each function key up to
3149 Some terminals support key-modifier combination extensions, e.g.,
3151 For example, the delete key,
3153 in its shifted variant, the name is mutated to
3155 then a number is appended for the states
3167 .Ql Shift+Alt+Control
3169 The same for the left cursor key,
3171 .Cd KLFT , KLFT3 , KLFT4 , KLFT5 , KLFT6 , KLFT7 , KLFT8 .
3174 Key bindings can be removed with the command
3176 It is advisable to use an initial escape or other control character (e.g.,
3178 for bindings which describe user key combinations (as opposed to purely
3179 terminal capability based ones), in order to avoid ambiguities whether
3180 input belongs to key sequences or not; it also reduces search time.
3183 may help shall keys and sequences be falsely recognized.
3188 Calls a macro that has been created via
3193 (ch) Change the working directory to
3195 or the given argument.
3201 \*(OP Only applicable to S/MIME signed messages.
3202 Takes a message list and a file name and saves the certificates
3203 contained within the message signatures to the named file in both
3204 human-readable and PEM format.
3205 The certificates can later be used to send encrypted messages to the
3206 respective message senders by setting
3207 .Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
3212 (ch) Change the working directory to
3214 or the given argument.
3220 Only applicable to threaded mode.
3221 Takes a message list and makes all replies to these messages invisible
3222 in header summaries, unless they are in state
3228 \*(OP\*(NQ Manage colour mappings for the type of colour given as the
3229 (case-insensitive) first argument, which must be one of
3231 for 256-colour terminals,
3236 for the standard 8-colour ANSI / ISO 6429 color palette and
3240 for monochrome terminals.
3241 Monochrome terminals cannot deal with colours, but only (some) font
3245 Without further arguments the list of all currently defined mappings
3246 for the given colour type is shown (as a special case giving
3250 will iterate over all types in order).
3251 Otherwise the second argument defines the mappable slot, the third
3252 argument a (comma-separated list of) colour and font attribute
3253 specification(s), and the optional fourth argument can be used to
3254 specify a precondition: if conditioned mappings exist they are tested in
3255 (creation) order unless a (case-insensitive) match has been found, and
3256 the default mapping (if any has been established) will only be chosen as
3258 The types of precondition available depend on the mappable slot, the
3259 following of which exist:
3262 Mappings prefixed with
3264 are used for the \*(OPal builtin Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE, see
3265 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
3266 and do not support preconditions.
3268 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
3270 This mapping is used for the position indicator that is visible when
3271 a line cannot be fully displayed on the screen.
3278 Mappings prefixed with
3280 are used in header summaries, and they all understand the preconditions
3282 (the current message) and
3284 for elder messages (only honoured in conjunction with
3285 .Va datefield-markout-older ) .
3287 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
3289 This mapping is used for the
3291 that can be created with the
3295 formats of the variable
3298 For the complete header summary line except the
3300 and the thread structure.
3302 For the thread structure which can be created with the
3304 format of the variable
3309 Mappings prefixed with
3311 are used when displaying messages.
3313 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
3315 This mapping is used for so-called
3317 lines, which are MBOX file format specific header lines.
3320 A comma-separated list of headers to which the mapping applies may be
3321 given as a precondition; if the \*(OPal regular expression support is
3322 available then if any of the
3324 (extended) regular expression characters is seen the precondition will
3325 be evaluated as (an extended) one.
3327 For the introductional message info line.
3328 .It Cd view-partinfo
3329 For MIME part info lines.
3333 The following (case-insensitive) colour definitions and font attributes
3334 are understood, multiple of which can be specified in a comma-separated
3344 It is possible (and often applicable) to specify multiple font
3345 attributes for a single mapping.
3348 foreground colour attribute:
3358 To specify a 256-color mode a decimal number colour specification in
3359 the range 0 to 255, inclusive, is supported, and interpreted as follows:
3361 .Bl -tag -compact -width "999 - 999"
3363 the standard ISO 6429 colors, as above.
3365 high intensity variants of the standard colors.
3367 216 colors in tuples of 6.
3369 grayscale from black to white in 24 steps.
3371 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3373 fg() { printf "\e033[38;5;${1}m($1)"; }
3374 bg() { printf "\e033[48;5;${1}m($1)"; }
3376 while [ $i -lt 256 ]; do fg $i; i=$(($i + 1)); done
3377 printf "\e033[0m\en"
3379 while [ $i -lt 256 ]; do bg $i; i=$(($i + 1)); done
3380 printf "\e033[0m\en"
3384 background colour attribute (see
3386 for possible values).
3390 Mappings may be removed with the command
3392 For a generic overview see the section
3393 .Sx "Coloured display" .
3398 (C) Copy messages to files whose names are derived from the author of
3399 the respective message and do not mark them as being saved;
3400 otherwise identical to
3405 (c) Copy messages to the named file and do not mark them as being saved;
3406 otherwise identical to
3411 \*(NQ With no arguments, shows all currently-defined custom headers.
3412 With one argument, shows that custom header.
3413 With more than one argument, creates a new or an additional custom
3414 header with the name given as the first argument, the content of
3415 which being defined by the concatenated remaining arguments.
3417 can be used to delete custom headers.
3418 \*(ID Overwriting of automatically managed headers is neither supported
3420 Defined custom headers will be injected into newly composed or forwarded
3423 .Dl customhdr OpenPGP id=12345678; url=http://www.YYY.ZZ
3427 may also be used to inject custom headers; it is covered by
3432 Show the name of the current working directory.
3436 \*(OP For unencrypted messages this command is identical to
3438 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
3442 \*(OP For unencrypted messages this command is identical to
3444 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
3448 Without arguments the current list of macros, including their content,
3449 is shown, otherwise a macro is defined.
3450 A macro definition is a sequence of commands in the following form:
3451 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3460 A defined macro can be invoked explicitly by using the
3464 commands, or implicitly if a macro hook is triggered, e.g., a
3466 Note that interpretation of
3468 depends on how (i.e.,
3470 normal macro, folder hook, hook, account switch) the macro is invoked.
3471 Macros can be deleted via
3475 Macro behaviour, including option localization, will change in v15.
3476 Please be aware of that and possibly embed a version check in a resource
3481 (d) Marks the given message list as
3483 Deleted messages will neither be saved in
3485 nor will they be available for most other commands.
3491 Superseded by the multiplexer
3497 Deletes the current message and displays the next message.
3498 If there is no next message, \*(UA says
3505 up or down by one message when given
3509 argument, respectively.
3513 Takes a message list and marks each given message as a draft.
3514 This mark has no technical meaning in the mail system;
3515 it just causes messages to be marked in the header summary,
3516 and makes them specially addressable.
3520 (ec) Echoes its arguments after applying
3522 expansions and filename transformations, as documented for
3527 (e) Point the text editor (as defined in
3529 at each message from the given list in turn.
3530 Modified contents are discarded unless the
3537 .Ic if Ns / Ns Ic elif Ns / Ns Ic else Ns / Ns Ic endif
3538 conditional \(em if the condition of a preceding
3540 was false, check the following condition and execute the following block
3541 if it evaluates true.
3546 .Ic if Ns / Ns Ic elif Ns / Ns Ic else Ns / Ns Ic endif
3547 conditional \(em if none of the conditions of the preceding
3551 commands was true, the
3557 (en) Marks the end of an
3558 .Ic if Ns / Ns Ic elif Ns / Ns Ic else Ns / Ns Ic endif
3559 conditional execution block.
3564 \*(NQ \*(UA has a strict notion about which variables are
3565 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
3566 and which are managed in the program
3568 Since some of the latter are a vivid part of \*(UAs functioning,
3569 however, they are transparently integrated into the normal handling of
3570 internal variables via
3574 To integrate other environment variables of choice into this
3575 transparent handling, and also to export internal variables into the
3576 process environment where they normally are not, a
3578 needs to become established with this command, as in, e.g.,
3581 .Dl environ link PERL5LIB from TZ
3584 Afterwards changing such variables with
3586 will cause automatic updates of the program environment, and therefore
3587 be inherited by newly created child processes.
3588 Sufficient system support provided (it was in BSD as early as 1987, and
3589 is standardized since Y2K) removing such variables with
3591 will remove them also from the program environment, but in any way
3592 the knowledge they ever have been
3595 Note this implies that
3597 may cause loss of links.
3602 will remove an existing link, but leaves the variables as such intact.
3603 Additionally the subcommands
3607 are provided, which work exactly the same as the documented commands
3611 but (additionally) link the variable(s) with the program environment and
3612 thus immediately export them to, or remove them from (if possible),
3613 respectively, the program environment.
3618 \*(OP Since \*(UA uses the console as a user interface it can happen
3619 that messages scroll by too fast to become recognized.
3620 Optionally an error message ring queue is available which stores
3621 duplicates of any error message and notifies the user in interactive
3622 sessions whenever a new error has occurred.
3623 The queue is finite: if its maximum size is reached any new message
3624 replaces the eldest.
3627 can be used to manage this message queue: if given
3629 or no argument the queue will be displayed and cleared,
3631 will only clear all messages from the queue.
3635 (ex or x) Exit from \*(UA without changing the active mailbox and skip
3636 any saving of messages in
3638 as well as a possibly tracked line editor history file.
3644 but open the mailbox readonly.
3648 (fi) The file command switches to a new mailbox.
3649 Without arguments it shows status information of the current mailbox.
3650 If an argument is given, it will write out changes (such as deletions)
3651 the user has made and open a new mailbox.
3652 Some special conventions are recognized for the
3656 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".Ar %:__lespec"
3658 (number sign) means the previous file,
3660 (percent sign) means the invoking user's system mailbox, which either
3661 is the (itself expandable)
3663 if that is set, the standardized absolute pathname indicated by
3665 if that is set, or a builtin compile-time default otherwise.
3667 means the primary system mailbox of
3669 (and never the value of
3671 regardless of its actual setting),
3673 (ampersand) means the invoking user's
3683 expands to the same value as
3685 but the file is handled as a primary system mailbox by, e.g., the
3689 commands, meaning that messages that have been read in the current
3690 session will be moved to the
3692 mailbox instead of simply being flagged as read.
3695 If the name matches one of the strings defined with the command
3697 it is replaced by its long form and expanded.
3698 If the name ends with
3703 it is treated as being compressed with
3708 respectively, and transparently handled through an intermediate
3709 (un)compression step (using a temporary file) with the according
3710 facility, sufficient support provided.
3711 Likewise, if the named file does not exist, but a file with one of the
3712 mentioned compression extensions does, then the name is automatically
3713 expanded and the compressed file is used.
3715 Otherwise, if the name ends with an extension for which
3716 .Va file-hook-load-EXTENSION
3718 .Va file-hook-save-EXTENSION
3719 variables are set, then the given hooks will be used to load and save
3721 and \*(UA will work with an intermediate temporary file.
3723 MBOX files (flat file-based mailboxes) are generally locked during file
3724 operations in order to avoid inconsistencies due to concurrent
3726 \*(OPal Mailbox files which \*(UA treats as the system
3729 and primary mailboxes will also be protected by so-called dotlock
3730 files, the traditional way of mail spool file locking: for any file
3734 will be created for the duration of the synchronization \(em
3735 as necessary a privilege-separated dotlock child process will be used
3736 to accommodate for necessary privilege adjustments in order to create
3737 the dotlock file in the same directory
3738 and with the same user and group identities as the file of interest.
3742 refers to a directory with the subdirectories
3747 then it is treated as a folder in
3749 format; \*(ID the variable
3751 can be used to control the format of yet non-existent folders.
3754 .Dl \*(IN protocol://[user[:password]@]host[:port][/path]
3755 .Dl \*(OU protocol://[user@]host[:port][/path]
3757 is taken as an Internet mailbox specification.
3758 The \*(OPally supported protocols are
3762 (POP3 with SSL/TLS encrypted transport).
3765 part is valid only for IMAP; there it defaults to
3767 Also see the section
3768 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
3772 contains special characters, in particular
3776 they must be escaped in URL notation \(en the command
3778 can be used to show the necessary conversion.
3782 Takes a message list and marks the messages as
3784 ged for urgent/special attention.
3785 This mark has no technical meaning in the mail system;
3786 it just causes messages to be highlighted in the header summary,
3787 and makes them specially addressable.
3796 With no arguments, list the names of the folders in the folder directory.
3797 With an existing folder as an argument,
3798 lists the names of folders below the named folder.
3804 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
3805 recipient's address (instead of in
3812 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
3813 recipient's address (instead of in
3820 but responds to all recipients regardless of the
3825 .It Ic followupsender
3828 but responds to the sender only regardless of the
3844 (f) Takes a list of message specifications and displays a summary of
3845 their message headers, exactly as via
3847 An alias of this command is
3850 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
3856 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the
3857 recipient's address (instead of in
3862 Takes a message and the address of a recipient
3863 and forwards the message to him.
3864 The text of the original message is included in the new one,
3865 with the value of the
3867 variable preceding it.
3868 To filter the included header fields to the desired subset use the
3870 slot of the white- and blacklisting command
3872 Only the first part of a multipart message is included unless
3873 .Va forward-as-attachment ,
3874 and recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names etc.
3875 unless the internal variable
3881 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
3886 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
3891 Define or list command aliases, so-called ghosts.
3892 Without arguments a list of all currently known aliases is shown.
3893 With one argument the expansion of the given alias is shown.
3894 With two or more arguments a command alias is defined or updated: the
3895 first argument is the name under which the remaining command line should
3896 be accessible, the content of which can be just about anything.
3897 A ghost can be used everywhere a normal command can be used, but always
3898 takes precedence; any arguments that are given to the command alias are
3899 joined onto the alias content, and the resulting string forms the
3900 command line that is, in effect, executed.
3903 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3905 `ghost': no such alias: "xx"
3908 ghost xx "echo hello,"
3918 \*(NQ Multiplexer command to establish white- and blacklisting
3919 selections of header fields for a variety of applications.
3920 Without any arguments the entire set of known contexts and their current
3921 settings is displayed.
3922 When given arguments, the first argument is the context to which the
3923 command applies, one of (case-insensitively)
3925 for display purposes (via, e.g.,
3928 for selecting which headers shall be stored persistently when
3934 ing messages (note that MIME related etc. header fields should not be
3935 ignored in order to not destroy usability of the message in this case),
3937 for stripping down messages when
3939 ing message (has no effect if
3940 .Va forward-as-attachment
3943 for defining user-defined set of fields for the command
3947 The current settings of the given context are displayed if only the
3948 first argument is given.
3949 A second argument denotes the type of restriction that is to be chosen,
3950 it may be (a case-insensitive prefix of)
3954 for white- and blacklisting purposes, respectively.
3955 Establishing a whitelist suppresses inspection of the corresponding
3957 If no further argument is given the current settings of the given type
3961 With four or more arguments the third denotes the action to be applied,
3966 for addition of fields, and
3970 for removal of fields from the given type of the given context.
3971 The fourth, and any following arguments are expected to specify the
3972 fields of desire, or \*(OPally, regular expression matches ought to
3974 The special wildcard field (asterisk,
3976 will establish a (fast) shorthand setting which covers all fields, or
3977 remove all fields in one operation, respectively.
3982 (h) Show the current group of headers, the size of which depends on
3985 and the style of which can be adjusted with the variable
3987 If a message-specification is given the group of headers containing the
3988 first message therein is shown and the message at the top of the screen
4003 the list of history entries;
4006 argument selects and shows the respective history entry \(en
4009 to accept it, and the history entry will become the new history top.
4010 The default mode if no arguments are given is
4017 Takes a message list and marks each message therein to be saved in the
4022 Does not override the
4025 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command, because a
4027 command issued after
4029 will display the following message, not the current one.
4034 (i) Part of the nestable
4035 .Ic if Ns / Ns Ic elif Ns / Ns Ic else Ns / Ns Ic endif
4036 conditional execution construct \(em if the given condition is true then
4037 the encapsulated block is executed.
4038 POSIX only supports the (case-insensitive) conditions
4043 end, all remaining conditions are non-portable extensions; note that
4044 falsely specified conditions cause the execution of the entire
4045 conditional construct until the (matching) closing
4047 command to be suppressed.
4048 The syntax of the nestable
4050 conditional execution construct requires that each condition and syntax
4051 element is surrounded by whitespace.
4053 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4062 The (case-insensitive) condition
4064 erminal will evaluate to true if the standard input is a terminal, i.e.,
4065 in interactive sessions.
4066 Another condition can be any boolean value (see the section
4067 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
4068 for textual boolean representations) to mark an enwrapped block as
4071 .Dq always execute .
4072 It is possible to check
4073 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
4076 variables for existence or compare their expansion against a user given
4077 value or another variable by using the
4079 .Pf ( Dq variable next )
4080 conditional trigger character;
4081 a variable on the right hand side may be signalled using the same
4083 The variable names may be enclosed in a pair of matching braces.
4086 The available comparison operators are
4090 (less than or equal to),
4096 (greater than or equal to),
4100 (is substring of) and
4102 (is not substring of).
4103 The values of the left and right hand side are treated as strings and
4104 are compared 8-bit byte-wise, ignoring case according to the rules of
4105 the US-ASCII encoding (therefore, dependent on the active locale,
4106 possibly producing false results for strings in the locale encoding).
4107 Except for the substring checks the comparison will instead be performed
4108 arithmetically if both, the user given value as well as the variable
4109 content, can be parsed as numbers (integers).
4110 An unset variable is treated as the empty string.
4113 When the \*(OPal regular expression support is available, the additional
4119 They treat the right hand side as an extended regular expression that is
4120 matched case-insensitively and according to the active
4122 locale, meaning that strings in the locale encoding should be matched
4126 Conditions can be joined via AND-OR lists (where the AND operator is
4128 and the OR operator is
4130 which have equal precedence and will be evaluated with left
4131 associativity, thus using the same syntax that is known for the
4133 It is also possible to form groups of conditions and lists by enclosing
4134 them in pairs of brackets
4135 .Ql [\ \&.\&.\&.\ ] ,
4136 which may be interlocked within each other, and also be joined via
4140 The results of individual conditions and entire groups may be modified
4141 via unary operators: the unary operator
4143 will reverse the result.
4145 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4149 if $ttycharset == "UTF-8"
4150 echo *ttycharset* is set to UTF-8, case-insensitively
4154 echo These two variables are equal
4156 if $version-major >= 15
4157 echo Running a new version..
4158 if $features =@ +regex
4159 if $TERM =~ "^xterm\&.*"
4160 echo ..in an X terminal
4163 if [ [ true ] && [ [ ${debug} ] || [ $verbose ] ] ]
4166 if true && $debug || ${verbose}
4167 echo Left associativity, as is known from the shell
4169 if ! ! true && ! [ ! $debug && ! $verbose ]
4170 echo Unary operator support
4180 Superseded by the multiplexer
4185 Shows the names of all available commands, alphabetically sorted.
4186 If given any non-whitespace argument the list will be shown in the order
4187 in which command prefixes are searched.
4190 output is available.
4194 This command can be used to localize changes to variables, meaning that
4195 their state will be reverted to the former one once the covered scope
4197 It can only be used inside of macro definition blocks introduced by
4201 and is interpreted as a boolean (string, see
4202 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ) ;
4205 of an account is left once it is switched off again.
4206 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4207 define temporary_settings {
4222 enables change localization and calls
4224 which explicitly resets localization, then any value changes within
4226 will still be reverted by
4228 \*(ID Once the outermost level, the one which enabled localization
4229 first, is left, but no earlier, all adjustments will be unrolled.
4230 \*(ID Likewise worth knowing, if in this example
4232 changes to a different
4234 which sets some variables that are yet covered by localizations, their
4235 scope will be extended, and in fact leaving the
4237 will (thus) restore settings in (likely) global scope which actually
4238 were defined in a local, private context.
4242 Reply to messages that come in via known
4245 .Pf ( Ic mlsubscribe )
4246 mailing lists, or pretend to do so (see
4247 .Sx "Mailing lists" ) :
4250 functionality this will actively resort and even remove message
4251 recipients in order to generate a message that is supposed to be sent to
4253 For example it will also implicitly generate a
4254 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
4255 header if that seems useful, regardless of the setting of the variable
4262 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
4263 recipient's address (instead of in
4268 (m) Takes a (list of) recipient address(es) as (an) argument(s),
4269 or asks on standard input if none were given;
4270 then collects the remaining mail content and sends it out.
4274 (mb) The given message list is to be sent to
4276 when \*(UA is quit; this is the default action unless the variable
4279 \*(ID This command can only be used in a primary system mailbox (see
4284 Without any arguments the content of the MIME type cache will displayed.
4285 Otherwise each argument defines a complete MIME type specification of
4286 a type that shall be added (prepended) to the cache.
4287 In any event MIME type sources are loaded first as necessary \(en
4288 .Va mimetypes-load-control
4289 can be used to fine-tune which sources are actually loaded.
4290 Refer to the section on
4291 .Sx "The mime.types files"
4292 for more on MIME type specifications and this topic in general.
4293 MIME type unregistration and cache resets can be triggered with
4298 Without arguments the list of all currently defined mailing lists
4299 (and their attributes, if any) is shown; a more verbose listing will be
4300 produced if either of
4305 Otherwise all given arguments (which need not be quoted except for
4306 whitespace) will be added and henceforth be recognized as mailing lists.
4307 Mailing lists may be removed via the command
4310 If the \*(OPal regular expression support is available then mailing
4311 lists may also be specified as (extended) regular expressions (see
4317 Without arguments the list of all currently defined mailing lists which
4318 have a subscription attribute is shown; a more verbose listing will be
4319 produced if either of
4324 Otherwise this attribute will be set for all given mailing lists,
4325 newly creating them as necessary (as via
4327 Subscription attributes may be removed via the command
4336 but moves the messages to a file named after the local part of the
4337 sender address of the first message (instead of in
4344 but marks the messages for deletion if they were transferred
4351 but also displays header fields which would not pass the
4353 selection, and all MIME parts.
4361 on the given messages, even in non-interactive mode and as long as the
4362 standard output is a terminal.
4368 \*(OP When used without arguments or if
4370 has been given the content of the
4372 cache is shown, loading it first as necessary.
4375 then the cache will only be initialized and
4377 will remove its contents.
4378 Note that \*(UA will try to load the file only once, use
4379 .Ql Ic \&\&netrc Ns \:\0\:clear
4380 to unlock further attempts.
4385 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ;
4387 .Sx "The .netrc file"
4388 documents the file format in detail.
4392 Checks for new mail in the current folder without committing any changes
4394 If new mail is present, a message is shown.
4398 the headers of each new message are also shown.
4399 This command is not available for all mailbox types.
4407 Goes to the next message in sequence and types it.
4408 With an argument list, types the next matching message.
4422 If the current folder is accessed via a network connection, a
4424 command is sent, otherwise no operation is performed.
4430 but also displays header fields which would not pass the
4432 selection, and all MIME parts.
4440 on the given messages, even in non-interactive mode and as long as the
4441 standard output is a terminal.
4449 but also pipes header fields which would not pass the
4451 selection, and all parts of MIME
4452 .Ql multipart/alternative
4457 (pi) Takes a message list and a shell command
4458 and pipes the messages through the command.
4459 Without an argument the current message is piped through the command
4466 every message is followed by a formfeed character.
4487 (q) Terminates the session, saving all undeleted, unsaved messages in
4490 preserving all messages marked with
4494 or never referenced in the system
4496 and removing all other messages from the primary system mailbox.
4497 If new mail has arrived during the session,
4499 .Dq You have new mail
4501 If given while editing a mailbox file with the command line flag
4503 then the edit file is rewritten.
4504 A return to the shell is effected,
4505 unless the rewrite of edit file fails,
4506 in which case the user can escape with the exit command.
4520 Removes the named files or directories.
4521 If a name refer to a mailbox, e.g., a Maildir mailbox, then a mailbox
4522 type specific removal will be performed, deleting the complete mailbox.
4523 The user is asked for confirmation in interactive mode.
4527 Takes the name of an existing folder
4528 and the name for the new folder
4529 and renames the first to the second one.
4530 Both folders must be of the same type.
4534 (R) Reply to originator.
4535 Does not reply to other recipients of the original message.
4537 will exchange this command with
4539 Unless the internal variable
4541 is set the recipient address will be stripped from comments, names etc.
4545 (r) Take a message and group-responds to it by addressing the sender
4548 .Va followup-to-honour ,
4551 .Va recipients-in-cc
4552 influence response behaviour.
4555 offers special support for replying to mailing lists.
4556 Unless the internal variable
4558 is set recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names etc.
4571 but initiates a group-reply regardless of the value of
4578 but responds to the sender only regardless of the value of
4585 but does not add any header lines.
4586 This is not a way to hide the sender's identity,
4587 but useful for sending a message again to the same recipients.
4591 Takes a list of messages and a user name
4592 and sends each message to the named user.
4594 and related header fields are prepended to the new copy of the message.
4612 .It Ic respondsender
4618 (ret) Superseded by the multiplexer
4625 but saves the messages in a file named after the local part of the
4626 sender of the first message instead of (in
4628 and) taking a filename argument.
4632 (s) Takes a message list and a filename and appends each message in turn
4633 to the end of the file.
4634 If no filename is given, the
4637 The filename in quotes, followed by the generated character count
4638 is echoed on the user's terminal.
4639 If editing a primary system mailbox the messages are marked for deletion.
4640 Filename interpretation as described for the
4642 command is performed.
4646 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
4651 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
4656 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
4661 Takes a message specification (list) and displays a header summary of
4662 all matching messages, as via
4664 This command is an alias of
4667 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
4671 Takes a message list and marks all messages as having been read.
4675 (se) Without arguments this command shows all internal variables which
4676 are currently known to \*(UA (they have been set).
4677 A more verbose listing will be produced if either of
4681 are set, in which case variables may be preceded with a comment line
4682 that gives some context of what \*(UA knows about the given variable.
4684 Otherwise the given variables (and arguments) are set or adjusted.
4685 Arguments are of the form
4687 (no space before or after
4691 if there is no value, i.e., a boolean variable.
4692 Quotation marks may be placed around any part of the assignment
4693 statement to quote blanks or tabs, e.g.,
4695 .Dl set indentprefix='->'
4697 If an argument begins with
4701 the effect is the same as invoking the
4703 command with the remaining part of the variable
4704 .Pf ( Ql unset save ) .
4708 that is known to map to an environment variable will automatically cause
4709 updates in the program environment (unsetting a variable in the
4710 environment requires corresponding system support).
4711 Please use the command
4713 for further environmental control.
4718 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
4724 (sh) Invokes an interactive version of the shell.
4728 Without arguments the list of all currently defined shortcuts is
4730 Otherwise all given arguments (which need not be quoted except for
4731 whitespace) are treated as pairs of shortcuts and their expansions,
4732 creating new or changing already existing shortcuts, as necessary.
4733 Shortcuts may be removed via the command
4735 The expansion strings should be in the syntax that has been described
4744 but performs neither MIME decoding nor decryption, so that the raw
4745 message text is shown.
4749 (si) Shows the size in characters of each message of the given
4754 Shows the current sorting criterion when used without an argument.
4755 Otherwise creates a sorted representation of the current folder,
4758 command and the addressing modes such that they refer to messages in
4760 Message numbers are the same as in regular mode.
4764 a header summary in the new order is also displayed.
4765 Automatic folder sorting can be enabled by setting the
4767 variable, as in, e.g.,
4768 .Ql set autosort=thread .
4769 Possible sorting criterions are:
4771 .Bl -tag -compact -width "subject"
4773 Sort the messages by their
4775 field, that is by the time they were sent.
4777 Sort messages by the value of their
4779 field, that is by the address of the sender.
4782 variable is set, the sender's real name (if any) is used.
4784 Sort the messages by their size.
4786 \*(OP Sort the message by their spam score, as has been classified by
4789 Sort the messages by their message status.
4791 Sort the messages by their subject.
4793 Create a threaded display.
4795 Sort messages by the value of their
4797 field, that is by the address of the recipient.
4800 variable is set, the recipient's real name (if any) is used.
4805 (so) The source command reads commands from the given file, which is
4806 subject to the usual filename expansions (see introductional words of
4808 If the given argument ends with a vertical bar
4810 then the argument will instead be interpreted as a shell command and
4811 \*(UA will read the output generated by it.
4812 Interpretation of commands read is stopped when an error is encountered.
4815 cannot be used from within macros that execute as
4816 .Va folder-hook Ns s
4819 i.e., it can only be called from macros that were
4826 (beside not supporting pipe syntax aka shell command input) is that
4827 this command will not generate an error if the given file argument
4828 cannot be opened successfully.
4832 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and clears their
4838 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and causes the
4840 to forget it has ever used them to train its Bayesian filter.
4841 Unless otherwise noted the
4843 flag of the message is inspected to chose whether a message shall be
4851 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and informs the Bayesian filter of the
4855 This also clears the
4857 flag of the messages in question.
4861 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and rates them using the configured
4862 .Va spam-interface ,
4863 without modifying the messages, but setting their
4865 flag as appropriate; because the spam rating headers are lost the rate
4866 will be forgotten once the mailbox is left.
4867 Refer to the manual section
4869 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
4873 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and sets their
4879 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and informs the Bayesian filter of the
4885 flag of the messages in question.
4894 Create a threaded representation of the current folder,
4895 i.\|e. indent messages that are replies to other messages in the header
4896 display and change the
4898 command and the addressing modes such that they refer to messages in the
4900 Message numbers are the same as in unthreaded mode.
4904 a header summary in threaded order is also displayed.
4913 slot for white- and blacklisting header fields.
4917 (to) Takes a message list and types out the first
4919 lines of each message on the users' terminal.
4920 Unless a special selection has been established for the
4924 command, the only header fields that are displayed are
4935 It is possible to apply compression to what is displayed by setting
4937 Messages are decrypted and converted to the terminal character set
4942 (tou) Takes a message list and marks the messages for saving in
4944 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command,
4947 command will display the following message instead of the current one.
4953 but also displays header fields which would not pass the
4955 selection, and all parts of MIME
4956 .Ql multipart/alternative
4961 (t) Takes a message list and types out each message on the users'
4965 For MIME multipart messages, all parts with a content type of
4969 are shown, the other are hidden except for their headers.
4970 Messages are decrypted and converted to the terminal character set
4975 Delete all given accounts.
4976 An error message is shown if a given account is not defined.
4979 will discard all existing accounts.
4983 (una) Takes a list of names defined by alias commands
4984 and discards the remembered groups of users.
4987 will discard all existing aliases.
4991 Takes a message list and marks each message as not having been answered.
4997 ing, specified by its context and input sequence, both of which may be
4998 specified as a wildcard (asterisk,
5002 will remove all bindings of all contexts.
5006 Only applicable to threaded mode.
5007 Takes a message list and makes the message and all replies to it visible
5008 in header summaries again.
5009 When a message becomes the current message,
5010 it is automatically made visible.
5011 Also when a message with collapsed replies is displayed,
5012 all of these are automatically uncollapsed.
5018 mapping for the given colour type (see
5020 for a list of types) and mapping; if the optional precondition argument
5021 is used then only the exact tuple of mapping and precondition is removed.
5024 will remove all mappings (no precondition allowed).
5026 .Sx "Coloured display"
5027 for the general picture.
5031 Deletes the custom headers given as arguments.
5032 It is not possible to delete a specific body of a custom header with
5033 multiple bodies (i.e., multiple instances of the same header).
5036 will remove all custom headers.
5040 Undefine all given macros.
5041 An error message is shown if a given macro is not defined.
5044 will discard all existing macros.
5048 (u) Takes a message list and marks each message as not being deleted.
5052 Takes a message list and
5058 Takes a message list and marks each message as not being
5063 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
5068 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
5073 Remove all the given command
5077 will remove all ghosts.
5081 Superseded by the multiplexer
5086 Delete all given MIME types, e.g.,
5087 .Ql unmimetype text/plain
5088 will remove all registered specifications for the MIME type
5092 will discard all existing MIME types, just as will
5094 but which also reenables cache initialization via
5095 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
5099 Forget about all the given mailing lists.
5102 will remove all lists.
5107 .It Ic unmlsubscribe
5108 Remove the subscription attribute from all given mailing lists.
5111 will clear the attribute from all lists which have it set.
5122 Takes a message list and marks each message as not having been read.
5126 Superseded by the multiplexer
5131 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
5136 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
5141 (uns) Takes a list of internal variable names and discards their
5142 remembered values; the reverse of
5149 Deletes the shortcut names given as arguments.
5152 will remove all shortcuts.
5156 Disable sorted or threaded mode
5162 return to normal message order and,
5166 displays a header summary.
5176 Perform URL percent codec operations, rather according to RFC 3986,
5177 on all given strings.
5178 This is character set agnostic and thus locale dependent, and it may
5179 decode bytes which are invalid in the current locale, unless the input
5180 solely consists of characters in the portable character set, see
5181 .Sx "Character sets" .
5182 The first argument specifies the operation:
5186 perform plain URL percent en- and decoding, respectively.
5190 perform a slightly modified operation which should be better for
5191 pathnames: it does not allow a tilde
5193 and will neither accept hyphen
5197 as an initial character.
5201 Edit the values of or create the given variable(s) in the
5203 Boolean variables cannot be edited.
5207 This command produces the same output as the listing mode of
5211 ity adjustments, but only for the given variables.
5215 \*(OP Takes a message list and verifies each message.
5216 If a message is not a S/MIME signed message,
5217 verification will fail for it.
5218 The verification process checks if the message was signed using a valid
5220 if the message sender's email address matches one of those contained
5221 within the certificate,
5222 and if the message content has been altered.
5234 (v) Takes a message list and invokes the display editor on each message.
5235 Modified contents are discarded unless the
5241 (w) For conventional messages the body without all headers is written.
5242 The original message is never marked for deletion in the originating
5244 The output is decrypted and converted to its native format as necessary.
5245 If the output file exists, the text is appended.
5246 If a message is in MIME multipart format its first part is written to
5247 the specified file as for conventional messages, handling of the remains
5248 depends on the execution mode.
5249 No special handling of compressed files is performed.
5251 In interactive mode the user is consecutively asked for the filenames of
5252 the processed parts.
5253 For convience saving of each part may be skipped by giving an empty
5254 value, the same result as writing it to
5256 Shell piping the part content by specifying a leading vertical bar
5258 character for the filename is supported.
5259 Other user input is expanded as usually for folders, e.g., tilde
5260 expansion is performed, and contents of the destination file are
5261 overwritten if the file previously existed.
5263 \*(ID In non-interactive mode any part which does not specify a filename
5264 is ignored, and suspicious parts of filenames of the remaining parts are
5265 URL percent encoded (as via
5267 to prevent injection of malicious character sequences, resulting in
5268 a filename that will be written into the current directory.
5269 Existing files will not be overwritten, instead the part number or
5270 a dot are appended after a number sign
5272 to the name until file creation succeeds (or fails due to other
5282 \*(UA presents message headers in
5284 fuls as described under the
5287 Without arguments this command scrolls to the next window of messages,
5288 likewise if the argument is
5292 scrolls to the last,
5294 scrolls to the first, and
5299 A number argument prefixed by
5303 indicates that the window is calculated in relation to the current
5304 position, and a number without a prefix specifies an absolute position.
5310 but scrolls to the next or previous window that contains at least one
5319 .\" .Sh COMMAND ESCAPES {{{
5320 .Sh "COMMAND ESCAPES"
5322 Here is a summary of the command escapes available in compose mode,
5323 which are used to perform special functions when composing messages.
5324 Command escapes are only recognized at the beginning of lines.
5325 The actual escape character can be set via the internal variable
5327 it defaults to the tilde
5330 .Bl -tag -width ".Ic __ filename"
5333 Insert the string of text in the message prefaced by a single
5335 (If the escape character has been changed,
5336 that character must be doubled
5337 in order to send it at the beginning of a line.)
5340 .It Ic ~! Ar command
5341 Execute the indicated shell
5343 then return to the message.
5347 Same effect as typing the end-of-file character.
5350 .It Ic ~: Ar \*(UA-command Ns \0or Ic ~_ Ar \*(UA-command
5351 Execute the given \*(UA command.
5352 Not all commands, however, are allowed.
5356 Write a summary of command escapes.
5359 .It Ic ~< Ar filename
5364 .It Ic ~<! Ar command
5366 is executed using the shell.
5367 Its standard output is inserted into the message.
5370 .It Ic ~@ Op Ar filename...
5371 With no arguments, edit the attachment list interactively.
5372 If an attachment's file name is left empty,
5373 that attachment is deleted from the list.
5374 When the end of the attachment list is reached,
5375 \*(UA will ask for further attachments until an empty name is given.
5376 If a given file name solely consists of the number sign
5378 followed by a valid message number of the currently active mailbox, then
5379 the given message is attached as a MIME
5381 and the rest of this section does not apply.
5383 If character set conversion has been compiled into \*(UA, then this mode
5384 gives the user the option to specify input and output character sets,
5385 unless the file extension indicates binary content, in which case \*(UA
5386 asks whether this step shall be skipped for the attachment in question.
5387 If not skipped, then the charset that succeeds to represent the
5388 attachment data will be used in the
5390 MIME parameter of the mail message:
5392 .Bl -bullet -compact
5394 If input and output character sets are specified, then the conversion is
5395 performed on the fly.
5396 The user will be asked repeatedly until the desired conversion succeeds.
5398 If only an output character set is specified, then the input is assumed
5401 charset and will be converted to the given output charset on the fly.
5402 The user will be asked repeatedly until the desired conversion succeeds.
5404 If no character sets are specified at all then the algorithm that is
5405 documented in the section
5406 .Sx "Character sets"
5407 is applied, but directly and on the fly.
5408 The user will be asked repeatedly until the desired conversion succeeds.
5410 Finally, if an input-, but no output character set is specified, then no
5411 conversion is ever performed, but the
5413 MIME parameter value will still be set to the user input.
5415 The character set selection loop can be left by typing
5417 i.e., causing an interrupt.
5418 .\" \*(OU next sentence
5419 Note that before \*(UA version 15.0 this terminates the entire
5420 current attachment selection, not only the character set selection.
5423 Without character set conversion support, \*(UA will ask for the input
5424 character set only, and it will set the
5426 MIME parameter value to the given input, if any;
5427 if no user input is seen then the
5429 character set will be used for the parameter value instead.
5430 Note that the file extension check is not performed in this mode, since
5431 no conversion will take place anyway.
5433 Note that in non-interactive mode, for reproduceabilities sake, there
5434 will always be two questions for each attachment, regardless of whether
5435 character set conversion is available and what the file extension is.
5436 The first asks for the filename, and the second asks for the input
5437 character set to be passed through to the corresponding MIME parameter;
5438 no conversion will be tried if there is input to the latter question,
5439 otherwise the usual conversion algorithm, as above, is applied.
5440 For message attachments, the answer to the second question is completely
5445 arguments are specified for the
5447 command they are treated as a file list of
5449 -style quoted arguments, optionally also separated by commas, which are
5450 expanded and then appended to the existing list of message attachments.
5451 Message attachments can only be added via the first method.
5452 In this mode the (text) attachments are assumed to be in
5454 encoding, and will be evaluated as documented in the section
5455 .Sx "Character sets" .
5459 Inserts the string contained in the
5462 .Ql Ic ~i Ns \0Sign ) .
5463 The escape sequences tabulator
5471 Inserts the string contained in the
5474 .Ql Ic ~i Ns \0sign ) .
5475 The escape sequences tabulator
5482 .It Ic ~b Ar name ...
5483 Add the given names to the list of blind carbon copy recipients.
5486 .It Ic ~c Ar name ...
5487 Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients.
5491 Read the file specified by the
5493 variable into the message.
5497 Invoke the text editor on the message collected so far.
5498 After the editing session is finished,
5499 the user may continue appending text to the message.
5502 .It Ic ~F Ar messages
5503 Read the named messages into the message being sent, including all
5504 message headers and MIME parts.
5505 If no messages are specified, read in the current message.
5508 .It Ic ~f Ar messages
5509 Read the named messages into the message being sent.
5510 If no messages are specified, read in the current message.
5511 Strips down the list of header fields according to the
5513 white- and blacklist selection of
5515 For MIME multipart messages,
5516 only the first displayable part is included.
5520 Edit the message header fields
5525 by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
5526 The default values for these fields originate from the
5534 Edit the message header fields
5540 by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
5543 .It Ic ~i Ar variable
5544 Insert the value of the specified variable into the message,
5545 adding a newline character at the end.
5546 The message remains unaltered if the variable is unset or empty.
5547 The escape sequences tabulator
5554 .It Ic ~M Ar messages
5555 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
5558 If no messages are specified, read the current message.
5561 .It Ic ~m Ar messages
5562 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
5565 If no messages are specified, read the current message.
5566 Strips down the list of header fields according to the
5568 white- and blacklist selection of
5570 For MIME multipart messages,
5571 only the first displayable part is included.
5575 Display the message collected so far,
5576 prefaced by the message header fields
5577 and followed by the attachment list, if any.
5581 Abort the message being sent,
5582 copying it to the file specified by the
5589 .It Ic ~R Ar filename
5590 Read the named file into the message, indented by
5594 .It Ic ~r Ar filename
5595 Read the named file into the message.
5599 Cause the named string to become the current subject field.
5600 Newline (NL) and carriage-return (CR) bytes are invalid and will be
5601 normalized to space (SP) characters.
5604 .It Ic ~t Ar name ...
5605 Add the given name(s) to the direct recipient list.
5608 .It Ic ~U Ar messages
5609 Read in the given / current message(s) excluding all headers, indented by
5613 .It Ic ~u Ar messages
5614 Read in the given / current message(s), excluding all headers.
5618 Invoke an alternate editor (defined by the
5620 environment variable) on the message collected so far.
5621 Usually, the alternate editor will be a screen editor.
5622 After the editor is quit,
5623 the user may resume appending text to the end of the message.
5626 .It Ic ~w Ar filename
5627 Write the message onto the named file.
5629 the message is appended to it.
5635 except that the message is not saved at all.
5638 .It Ic ~| Ar command
5639 Pipe the message through the specified filter command.
5640 If the command gives no output or terminates abnormally,
5641 retain the original text of the message.
5644 is often used as a rejustifying filter.
5649 .\" .Sh INTERNAL VARIABLES {{{
5650 .Sh "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
5652 Internal \*(UA variables are controlled via the
5656 commands; prefixing a variable name with the string
5660 has the same effect as using
5666 Creation or editing of variables can be performed in the
5671 will give more insight on the given variable(s), and
5673 when called without arguments, will show a listing of all variables.
5674 Both commands support a more
5677 Some well-known variables will also become inherited from the
5680 implicitly, others can be explicitly imported with the command
5682 and henceforth share the said properties.
5685 Two different kind of internal variables exist.
5686 There are boolean variables, which can only be in one of the two states
5690 and value variables with a(n optional) string value.
5691 For the latter proper quoting is necessary upon assignment time, the
5692 introduction of the section
5694 documents the supported quoting rules.
5696 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5697 wysh set one=val\e 1 two="val 2" \e
5698 three='val "3"' four=$'val \e'4\e''
5699 varshow one two three four
5700 unset one two three four
5704 Dependent upon the actual option the string values will be interpreted
5705 as numbers, colour names, normal text etc., but there also exists
5706 a special kind of string value, the
5707 .Dq boolean string ,
5708 which must either be a decimal integer (in which case
5712 and any other value is true) or any of the (case-insensitive) strings
5718 for a false boolean and
5724 for a true boolean; a special kind of boolean string is the
5726 which is a boolean string that can optionally be prefixed with the
5727 (case-insensitive) term
5731 which causes prompting of the user in interactive mode, with the given
5732 boolean as the default value.
5734 .\" .Ss "Initial settings" {{{
5735 .\" (Keep in SYNC: ./nail.h:okeys, ./nail.rc, ./nail.1:"Initial settings")
5736 .Ss "Initial Settings"
5738 The standard POSIX 2008/Cor 2-2016 mandates the following initial
5744 .Pf no Va autoprint ,
5758 .Pf no Va ignoreeof ,
5760 .Pf no Va keepsave ,
5762 .Pf no Va outfolder ,
5770 .Pf no Va sendwait ,
5779 Notes: \*(UA does not support the
5781 variable \(en use command line options or
5783 to pass options through to a
5785 And the default global
5787 file (which is loaded unless the
5789 command line flag has been used or the
5790 .Ev NAIL_NO_SYSTEM_RC
5791 environment variable is set) bends those initial settings a bit, e.g.,
5792 it sets the variables
5797 to name a few, establishes a default
5799 selection etc., and should thus be taken into account.
5802 .\" .Ss "Variables" {{{
5805 .Bl -tag -width ".It Va _utoprin_"
5807 .It Va -account-name
5808 \*(RO Is set to the active
5813 \*(RO The status of the last command.
5816 .It Va -folder-resolved
5817 \*(RO Set to the fully resolved path of
5819 once that evaluation has occurred; rather internal.
5822 .It Va -mailbox-display
5823 \*(RO The name of the current mailbox
5825 possibly abbreviated for display purposes.
5828 .It Va -mailbox-resolved
5829 \*(RO The fully resolved path of the current mailbox.
5832 .It Va add-file-recipients
5833 \*(BO When file or pipe recipients have been specified,
5834 mention them in the corresponding address fields of the message instead
5835 of silently stripping them from their recipient list.
5836 By default such addressees are not mentioned.
5840 \*(BO Causes only the local part to be evaluated
5841 when comparing addresses.
5845 \*(BO Causes messages saved in
5847 to be appended to the end rather than prepended.
5848 This should always be set.
5852 \*(BO Causes \*(UA to prompt for the subject of each message sent.
5853 If the user responds with simply a newline,
5854 no subject field will be sent.
5858 \*(BO Causes the prompts for
5862 lists to appear after the message has been edited.
5866 \*(BO If set, \*(UA asks for files to attach at the end of each message,
5867 shall the list be found empty at that time.
5868 An empty line finalizes the list.
5872 \*(BO Causes the user to be prompted for carbon copy recipients
5873 (at the end of each message if
5877 are set) shall the list be found empty (at that time).
5878 An empty line finalizes the list.
5882 \*(BO Causes the user to be prompted for blind carbon copy
5883 recipients (at the end of each message if
5887 are set) shall the list be found empty (at that time).
5888 An empty line finalizes the list.
5892 \*(BO\*(OP Causes the user to be prompted if the message is to be
5893 signed at the end of each message.
5896 variable is ignored when this variable is set.
5900 \*(BO Alternative name for
5907 .It Va attachment-ask-content-description , \
5908 attachment-ask-content-disposition , \
5909 attachment-ask-content-id , \
5910 attachment-ask-content-type
5911 \*(BO If set then the user will be prompted for some attachment
5912 information when editing the attachment list.
5913 It is advisable to not use these but for the first of the variables;
5914 even for that it has to be noted that the data is used
5920 A sequence of characters to display in the
5924 as shown in the display of
5926 each for one type of messages (see
5927 .Sx "Message states" ) ,
5928 with the default being
5931 .Ql NU\ \ *HMFAT+\-$~
5934 variable is set, in the following order:
5936 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql _"
5958 start of a collapsed thread.
5960 an uncollapsed thread (TODO ignored for now).
5964 classified as possible spam.
5970 Specifies a list of recipients to which a blind carbon copy of each
5971 outgoing message will be sent automatically.
5975 Specifies a list of recipients to which a carbon copy of each outgoing
5976 message will be sent automatically.
5980 \*(BO Causes threads to be collapsed automatically when threaded mode
5987 \*(BO Causes the delete command to behave like
5989 thus, after deleting a message the next one will be typed automatically.
5993 \*(BO\*(OB Causes threaded mode (see the
5995 command) to be entered automatically when a folder is opened.
5997 .Ql autosort=thread .
6001 Causes sorted mode (see the
6003 command) to be entered automatically with the value of this variable as
6004 sorting method when a folder is opened, e.g.,
6005 .Ql set autosort=thread .
6009 \*(BO Enables the substitution of
6011 by the contents of the last command line in shell escapes.
6014 .It Va batch-exit-on-error
6015 \*(BO If the batch mode has been enabled via the
6017 command line option, then this variable will be consulted whenever \*(UA
6018 completes one operation (returns to the command prompt); if it is set
6019 then \*(UA will terminate if the last operation generated an error.
6023 \*(OP Terminals generate multi-byte sequences for certain forms of
6024 input, for example for function and other special keys.
6025 Some terminals however do not write these multi-byte sequences as
6026 a whole, but byte-by-byte, and the latter is what \*(UA actually reads.
6027 This variable specifies the timeout in milliseconds that the MLE (see
6028 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
6029 waits for more bytes to arrive unless it considers a sequence
6035 \*(BO Causes automatic display of a header summary after executing a
6037 command, and thus complements the standard variable
6039 which controls header summary display on program startup.
6040 It is only meaningful if
6046 \*(BO Sets some cosmetical features to traditional BSD style;
6047 has the same affect as setting
6049 and all other variables prefixed with
6051 it also changes the behaviour of
6053 (which does not exist in BSD).
6057 \*(BO Changes the letters shown in the first column of a header
6058 summary to traditional BSD style.
6062 \*(BO Changes the display of columns in a header summary to traditional
6067 \*(BO Changes some informational messages to traditional BSD style.
6073 field to appear immediately after the
6075 field in message headers and with the
6077 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
6081 The value that should appear in the
6085 MIME header fields when no character set conversion of the message data
6087 This defaults to US-ASCII, and the chosen character set should be
6088 US-ASCII compatible.
6092 \*(OP The default 8-bit character set that is used as an implicit last
6093 member of the variable
6095 This defaults to UTF-8.
6096 If no character set conversion capabilities are available in \*(UA then
6097 the only supported character set is
6099 Refer to the section
6100 .Sx "Character sets"
6101 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
6104 .It Va charset-unknown-8bit
6105 \*(OP RFC 1428 specifies conditions when internet mail gateways shall
6107 the content of a mail message by using a character set with the name
6109 Because of the unclassified nature of this character set \*(UA will not
6110 be capable to convert this character set to any other character set.
6111 If this variable is set any message part which uses the character set
6113 is assumed to really be in the character set given in the value,
6114 otherwise the (final) value of
6116 is used for this purpose.
6118 This variable will also be taken into account if a MIME type (see
6119 .Sx "The mime.types files" )
6120 of a MIME message part that uses the
6122 character set is forcefully treated as text.
6126 The default value for the
6131 .It Va colour-disable
6132 \*(BO\*(OP Forcefully disable usage of colours.
6133 Also see the section
6134 .Sx "Coloured display" .
6138 \*(BO\*(OP Whether colour shall be used for output that is paged through
6140 Note that pagers may need special flags, e.g.,
6148 in order to support colours.
6149 Often doing manual adjustments is unnecessary since \*(UA may perform
6150 adjustments dependent on the value of the environment variable
6152 (see there for more).
6156 In a(n interactive) terminal session, then if this valued variable is
6157 set it will be used as a threshold to determine how many lines the given
6158 output has to span before it will be displayed via the configured
6162 can be forced by setting this to the value
6164 setting it without a value will deduce the current height of the
6165 terminal screen to compute the treshold (see
6173 \*(OB A variable counterpart of the
6175 command (see there for documentation), interpreted as a comma-separated
6176 list of custom headers to be injected, to include commas in the header
6177 bodies escape them with reverse solidus, e.g.:
6179 .Dl set customhdr='Hdr1: Body1-1\e, Body1-2, Hdr2: Body2'
6185 the message date, if any is to be displayed according to the format of
6187 is by default taken from the
6189 line of the message.
6190 If this variable is set the date as given in the
6192 header field is used instead, converted to local time.
6193 To control the display format of the date assign a valid
6198 format should not be used, because \*(UA does not take embedded newlines
6199 into account when calculating how many lines fit onto the screen.)
6201 .Va datefield-markout-older .
6204 .It Va datefield-markout-older
6205 This variable, when set in addition to
6209 messages (concept is rather comparable to the
6211 option of the POSIX utility
6213 The content interpretation is identical to
6218 \*(BO Enables debug messages and obsoletion warnings, disables the
6219 actual delivery of messages and also implies
6225 .It Va disposition-notification-send
6227 .Ql Disposition-Notification-To:
6228 header (RFC 3798) with the message.
6232 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-HOST
6234 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
6235 .\" for SMTP accounts on a specific host.
6236 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-USER@HOST
6238 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
6239 .\"for a specific account.
6243 \*(BO When dot is set, a period
6245 on a line by itself during message input in (interactive) compose mode
6246 will be treated as end-of-message (in addition to the normal end-of-file
6255 .It Va dotlock-ignore-error
6256 \*(BO\*(OP Synchronization of mailboxes which \*(UA treats as system
6257 mailboxes (see the command
6259 will be protected with so-called dotlock files\(emthe traditional mail
6260 spool file locking method\(emin addition to system file locking.
6261 Because \*(UA ships with a privilege-separated dotlock creation program
6262 that should always be able to create such a dotlock file there is no
6263 good reason to ignore dotlock file creation errors, and thus these are
6264 fatal unless this variable is set.
6268 \*(BO If this variable is set then the editor is started automatically
6269 when a message is composed in interactive mode, as if the
6271 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
6275 variable is implied for this automatically spawned editor session.
6279 \*(BO When a message is edited while being composed,
6280 its header is included in the editable text.
6290 fields are accepted within the header, other fields are ignored.
6294 \*(BO When entering interactive mode \*(UA normally writes
6295 .Dq \&No mail for user
6296 and exits immediately if a mailbox is empty or does not exist.
6297 If this variable is set \*(UA starts even with an empty or nonexistent
6298 mailbox (the latter behaviour furtherly depends upon
6305 .Ql Content-Transfer-Encoding
6306 to use in outgoing text messages and message parts, where applicable.
6307 (7-bit clean text messages are sent as-is, without a transfer encoding.)
6310 .Bl -tag -compact -width "_%%_"
6313 8-bit transport effectively causes the raw data be passed through
6314 unchanged, but may cause problems when transferring mail messages over
6315 channels that are not ESMTP (RFC 1869) compliant.
6316 Also, several input data constructs are not allowed by the
6317 specifications and may cause a different transfer-encoding to be used.
6318 .It Ql quoted-printable
6320 Quoted-printable encoding is 7-bit clean and has the property that ASCII
6321 characters are passed through unchanged, so that an english message can
6322 be read as-is; it is also acceptible for other single-byte locales that
6323 share many characters with ASCII, like, e.g., ISO-8859-1.
6324 The encoding will cause a large overhead for messages in other character
6325 sets: e.g., it will require up to twelve (12) bytes to encode a single
6326 UTF-8 character of four (4) bytes.
6328 .Pf (Or\0 Ql b64 . )
6329 The default encoding, it is 7-bit clean and will always be used for
6331 This encoding has a constant input:output ratio of 3:4, regardless of
6332 the character set of the input data it will encode three bytes of input
6333 to four bytes of output.
6334 This transfer-encoding is not human readable without performing
6340 If defined, the first character of the value of this variable
6341 gives the character to use in place of
6344 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
6348 If not set then file and command pipeline targets are not allowed,
6349 and any such address will be filtered out, giving a warning message.
6350 If set without a value then all possible recipient address
6351 specifications will be accepted \(en see the section
6352 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode"
6354 To accept them, but only in interactive mode, or when tilde commands
6355 were enabled explicitly by using one of the command line options
6359 set this to the (case-insensitive) value
6361 (note right now this is actually like setting
6362 .Ql restrict,-all,+name,+addr ) .
6364 In fact the value is interpreted as a comma-separated list of values.
6367 then the existence of disallowed specifications is treated as a hard
6368 send error instead of only filtering them out.
6369 The remaining values specify whether a specific type of recipient
6370 address specification is allowed (optionally indicated by a plus sign
6372 prefix) or disallowed (prefixed with a hyphen
6376 addresses all possible address specifications,
6380 command pipeline targets,
6382 plain user names and (MTA) aliases (\*(OB
6384 may be used as an alternative syntax to
6389 These kind of values are interpreted in the given order, so that
6390 .Ql restrict,\:fail,\:+file,\:-all,\:+addr
6391 will cause hard errors for any non-network address recipient address
6392 unless \*(UA is in interactive mode or has been started with the
6396 command line option; in the latter case(s) any address may be used, then.
6400 Unless this variable is set additional
6402 (Mail-Transfer-Agent)
6403 arguments from the command line, as can be given after a
6405 separator, are ignored due to safety reasons.
6406 However, if set to the special (case-insensitive) value
6408 then the presence of additional MTA arguments is treated as a hard
6409 error that causes \*(UA to exit with failure status.
6410 A lesser strict variant is the otherwise identical
6412 which does accept such arguments in interactive mode, or if tilde
6413 commands were enabled explicitly by using one of the command line options
6420 \*(RO String giving a list of features \*(UA, preceded with a plus-sign
6422 if the feature is available, and a minus-sign
6425 The output of the command
6427 will include this information.
6431 \*(BO This setting reverses the meanings of a set of reply commands,
6432 turning the lowercase variants, which by default address all recipients
6433 included in the header of a message
6434 .Pf ( Ic reply , respond , followup )
6435 into the uppercase variants, which by default address the sender only
6436 .Pf ( Ic Reply , Respond , Followup )
6439 .Ic replysender , respondsender , followupsender
6441 .Ic replyall , respondall , followupall
6442 are not affected by the current setting of
6447 .It Va file-hook-load-EXTENSION , file-hook-save-EXTENSION
6448 It is possible to install file hooks which will be used by the
6450 command in order to be able to transparently handle (through an
6451 intermediate temporary file) files with specific
6453 s: the variable values can include shell snippets and are expected to
6454 write data to standard output / read data from standard input,
6456 \*(ID The variables may not be changed while there is a mailbox
6458 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6459 set file-hook-load-xy='echo >&2 XY-LOAD; gzip -cd' \e
6460 file-hook-save-xy='echo >&2 XY-SAVE; gzip -c' \e
6461 record=+null-sent.xy
6466 The default path under which mailboxes are to be saved:
6467 file names that begin with the plus-sign
6469 will be expanded by prefixing them with the value of this variable.
6470 The same special syntax conventions as documented for the
6472 command may be used; if the non-empty value does not start with a solidus
6476 will be prefixed automatically.
6477 If unset or the empty string any
6479 prefixing file names will remain unexpanded.
6483 This variable can be set to the name of a
6485 macro which will be called whenever a
6488 The macro will also be invoked when new mail arrives,
6489 but message lists for commands executed from the macro
6490 only include newly arrived messages then.
6492 are activated by default in a folder hook, causing the covered settings
6493 to be reverted once the folder is left again.
6496 Macro behaviour, including option localization, will change in v15.
6497 Please be aware of that and possibly embed a version check in a resource
6501 .It Va folder-hook-FOLDER
6506 Unlike other folder specifications, the fully expanded name of a folder,
6507 without metacharacters, is used to avoid ambiguities.
6508 However, if the mailbox resides under
6512 specification is tried in addition, e.g., if
6516 (and thus relative to the user's home directory) then
6517 .Pa /home/usr1/mail/sent
6519 .Ql folder-hook-/home/usr1/mail/sent
6520 first, but then followed by
6521 .Ql folder-hook-+sent .
6525 \*(BO Controls whether a
6526 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
6527 header is generated when sending messages to known mailing lists.
6529 .Va followup-to-honour
6531 .Ic mlist , mlsubscribe , reply
6536 .It Va followup-to-honour
6538 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
6539 header is honoured when group-replying to a message via
6543 This is a quadoption; if set without a value it defaults to
6553 .It Va forward-as-attachment
6554 \*(BO Original messages are normally sent as inline text with the
6557 and only the first part of a multipart message is included.
6558 With this setting enabled messages are sent as unmodified MIME
6560 attachments with all of their parts included.
6564 The address (or a list of addresses) to put into the
6566 field of the message header, quoting RFC 5322:
6567 the author(s) of the message, that is, the mailbox(es) of the person(s)
6568 or system(s) responsible for the writing of the message.
6571 ing to messages these addresses are handled as if they were in the
6575 If the machine's hostname is not valid at the Internet (for example at
6576 a dialup machine) then either this variable or
6578 (\*(IN and with a defined SMTP protocol in
6581 adds even more fine-tuning capabilities),
6585 contains more than one address,
6588 variable is required (according to the standard RFC 5322).
6592 \*(BO When replying to or forwarding a message \*(UA normally removes
6593 the comment and name parts of email addresses.
6594 If this variable is set such stripping is not performed,
6595 and comments, names etc. are retained.
6599 The string to put before the text of a message with the
6603 .Va forward-as-attachment
6606 .Dq -------- Original Message --------
6607 if unset; No heading is put if it is set to the empty string.
6611 \*(BO Causes the header summary to be written at startup and after
6612 commands that affect the number of messages or the order of messages in
6613 the current folder; enabled by default.
6614 The command line option
6620 complements this and controls header summary display on folder changes.
6625 A format string to use for the summary of
6627 similar to the ones used for
6630 Format specifiers in the given string start with a percent character
6632 and may be followed by an optional decimal number indicating the field
6633 width \(em if that is negative, the field is to be left-aligned.
6634 Valid format specifiers are:
6637 .Bl -tag -compact -width "_%%_"
6639 A plain percent character.
6642 a space character but for the current message
6644 for which it expands to
6648 a space character but for the current message
6650 for which it expands to
6653 \*(OP The spam score of the message, as has been classified via the
6656 Shows only a replacement character if there is no spam support.
6658 Message attribute character (status flag); the actual content can be
6662 The date when the message was received, or the date found in the
6666 variable is set (optionally to a date display format string).
6668 The indenting level in threaded mode.
6670 The address of the message sender.
6672 The message thread tree structure.
6673 (Note that this format does not support a field width.)
6675 The number of lines of the message, if available.
6679 The number of octets (bytes) in the message, if available.
6681 Message subject (if any).
6683 Message subject (if any) in double quotes.
6685 Message recipient flags: is the addressee of the message a known or
6686 subscribed mailing list \(en see
6691 The position in threaded/sorted order.
6695 .Ql %>\&%a\&%m\ %-18f\ %16d\ %4l/%\-5o\ %i%-s ,
6697 .Ql %>\&%a\&%m\ %20-f\ \ %16d\ %3l/%\-5o\ %i%-S
6708 .It Va headline-bidi
6709 Bidirectional text requires special treatment when displaying headers,
6710 because numbers (in dates or for file sizes etc.) will not affect the
6711 current text direction, in effect resulting in ugly line layouts when
6712 arabic or other right-to-left text is to be displayed.
6713 On the other hand only a minority of terminals is capable to correctly
6714 handle direction changes, so that user interaction is necessary for
6716 Note that extended host system support is required nonetheless, e.g.,
6717 detection of the terminal character set is one precondition;
6718 and this feature only works in an Unicode (i.e., UTF-8) locale.
6720 In general setting this variable will cause \*(UA to encapsulate text
6721 fields that may occur when displaying
6723 (and some other fields, like dynamic expansions in
6725 with special Unicode control sequences;
6726 it is possible to fine-tune the terminal support level by assigning
6728 no value (or any value other than
6733 will make \*(UA assume that the terminal is capable to properly deal
6734 with Unicode version 6.3, in which case text is embedded in a pair of
6735 U+2068 (FIRST STRONG ISOLATE) and U+2069 (POP DIRECTIONAL ISOLATE)
6737 In addition no space on the line is reserved for these characters.
6739 Weaker support is chosen by using the value
6741 (Unicode 6.3, but reserve the room of two spaces for writing the control
6742 sequences onto the line).
6747 select Unicode 1.1 support (U+200E, LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK); the latter
6748 again reserves room for two spaces in addition.
6752 \*(OP If a line editor is available then this can be set to
6753 name the (expandable) path of the location of a permanent history file.
6756 .It Va history-gabby
6757 \*(BO\*(OP Add more entries to the history as is normally done.
6760 .It Va history-gabby-persist
6761 \*(BO\*(OP \*(UA's own MLE will not save the additional
6763 entries in persistent storage unless this variable is set.
6764 On the other hand it will not loose the knowledge of whether
6765 a persistent entry was gabby or not.
6771 \*(OP If a line editor is available this value restricts the
6772 amount of history entries that are saved into a set and valid
6774 A value of less than 0 disables this feature;
6775 note that loading and incorporation of
6777 upon program startup can also be suppressed by doing this.
6778 If unset or 0, a default value will be used.
6779 Dependent on the available line editor this will also define the
6780 number of history entries in memory;
6781 it is also editor-specific whether runtime updates of this value will
6786 \*(BO This setting controls whether messages are held in the system
6788 and it is set by default.
6792 Use this string as hostname when expanding local addresses instead of
6793 the value obtained from
6802 Note that when SMTP transport is not used (via
6804 then it is normally the responsibility of the MTA to create these
6805 fields, \*(IN in conjunction with SMTP however
6807 also influences the results:
6808 you should produce some test messages with the desired combination of
6817 \*(BO\*(OP Can be used to turn off the automatic conversion of domain
6818 names according to the rules of IDNA (internationalized domain names
6820 Since the IDNA code assumes that domain names are specified with the
6822 character set, an UTF-8 locale charset is required to represent all
6823 possible international domain names (before conversion, that is).
6827 \*(BO Ignore interrupt signals from the terminal while entering
6828 messages; instead echo them as
6830 characters and discard the current line.
6834 \*(BO Ignore end-of-file conditions
6835 .Pf ( Ql control-D )
6836 in compose mode on message input and in interactive command input.
6837 If set an interactive command input session can only be left by
6838 explicitly using one of the commands
6842 and message input in compose mode can only be terminated by entering
6845 on a line by itself or by using the
6847 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ;
6849 overrides a setting of
6854 If this is set to a non-empty string it will be used for expansions of
6859 The value supports a subset of filename expansions itself.
6867 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
6870 option for indenting messages,
6871 in place of the normal tabulator character
6873 which is the default.
6874 Be sure to quote the value if it contains spaces or tabs.
6878 \*(BO If set, an empty system (MBOX) mailbox file is not removed.
6879 Note that, in conjunction with
6882 .Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT )
6883 any empty file will be removed unless this variable is set.
6884 This may improve the interoperability with other mail user agents
6885 when using a common folder directory, and prevents malicious users
6886 from creating fake mailboxes in a world-writable spool directory.
6887 \*(ID Only local regular (MBOX) files are covered, Maildir or other
6888 mailbox types will never be removed, even if empty.
6891 .It Va keep-content-length
6892 \*(BO When (editing messages and) writing
6894 mailbox files \*(UA can be told to keep the
6898 header fields that some MUAs generate by setting this variable.
6899 Since \*(UA does neither use nor update these non-standardized header
6900 fields (which in itself shows one of their conceptual problems),
6901 stripping them should increase interoperability in between MUAs that
6902 work with with same mailbox files.
6903 Note that, if this is not set but
6904 .Va writebackedited ,
6905 as below, is, a possibly performed automatic stripping of these header
6906 fields already marks the message as being modified.
6910 \*(BO When a message is saved it is usually discarded from the
6911 originating folder when \*(UA is quit.
6912 This setting causes all saved message to be retained.
6915 .It Va line-editor-disable
6916 \*(BO Turn off any enhanced line editing capabilities (see
6917 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor"
6921 .It Va line-editor-no-defaults
6922 \*(BO\*(OP Do not establish any default key binding.
6926 \*(BO When a message is replied to and this variable is set,
6927 it is marked as having been answered.
6928 This mark has no technical meaning in the mail system;
6929 it just causes messages to be marked in the header summary,
6930 and makes them specially addressable.
6934 \*(BO Internal development variable.
6937 .It Va message-id-disable
6938 \*(BO By setting this variable the generation of
6940 can be completely suppressed, effectively leaving this task up to the
6942 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) or the SMTP server.
6943 (According to RFC 5321 your SMTP server is not required to add this
6944 field by itself, so you should ensure that it accepts messages without a
6948 .It Va message-inject-head
6949 A string to put at the beginning of each new message.
6950 The escape sequences tabulator
6957 .It Va message-inject-tail
6958 A string to put at the end of each new message.
6959 The escape sequences tabulator
6967 \*(BO Usually, when an
6969 expansion contains the sender, the sender is removed from the expansion.
6970 Setting this option suppresses these removals.
6975 option to be passed through to the
6977 (Mail-Transfer-Agent); though most of the modern MTAs no longer document
6978 this flag, no MTA is known which does not support it (for historical
6982 .It Va mime-allow-text-controls
6983 \*(BO When sending messages, each part of the message is MIME-inspected
6984 in order to classify the
6987 .Ql Content-Transfer-Encoding:
6990 that is required to send this part over mail transport, i.e.,
6991 a computation rather similar to what the
6993 command produces when used with the
6997 This classification however treats text files which are encoded in
6998 UTF-16 (seen for HTML files) and similar character sets as binary
6999 octet-streams, forcefully changing any
7004 .Ql application/octet-stream :
7005 If that actually happens a yet unset charset MIME parameter is set to
7007 effectively making it impossible for the receiving MUA to automatically
7008 interpret the contents of the part.
7010 If this variable is set, and the data was unambiguously identified as
7011 text data at first glance (by a
7015 file extension), then the original
7017 will not be overwritten.
7020 .It Va mime-alternative-favour-rich
7021 \*(BO If this variable is set then rich MIME alternative parts (e.g.,
7022 HTML) will be preferred in favour of included plain text versions when
7023 displaying messages, provided that a handler exists which produces
7024 output that can be (re)integrated into \*(UA's normal visual display.
7025 (E.g., at the time of this writing some newsletters ship their full
7026 content only in the rich HTML part, whereas the plain text part only
7027 contains topic subjects.)
7030 .It Va mime-counter-evidence
7033 field is used to decide how to handle MIME parts.
7034 Some MUAs however do not use
7036 or a similar mechanism to correctly classify content, but simply specify
7037 .Ql application/octet-stream ,
7038 even for plain text attachments like
7040 If this variable is set then \*(UA will try to classify such MIME
7041 message parts on its own, if possible, for example via a possibly
7042 existing attachment filename.
7043 A non-empty value may also be given, in which case a number is expected,
7044 actually a carrier of bits.
7045 Creating the bit-carrying number is a simple addition:
7046 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7047 ? !echo Value should be set to $((2 + 4 + 8))
7048 Value should be set to 14
7051 .Bl -bullet -compact
7053 If bit two is set (2) then the detected
7055 content-type will be carried along with the message and be used for
7057 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
7058 is responsible for the MIME part, shall that question arise;
7059 when displaying such a MIME part the part-info will indicate the
7060 overridden content-type by showing a plus-sign
7063 If bit three is set (4) then the counter-evidence is always produced
7064 and a positive result will be used as the MIME type, even forcefully
7065 overriding the parts given MIME type.
7067 If bit four is set (8) then as a last resort the actual content of
7068 .Ql application/octet-stream
7069 parts will be inspected, so that data which looks like plain text can be
7074 .It Va mimetypes-load-control
7075 Can be used to control which of the
7077 databases are loaded by \*(UA, as furtherly described in the section
7078 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
7081 is part of the option value, then the user's personal
7083 file will be loaded (if it exists); likewise the letter
7085 controls loading of the system wide
7086 .Pa /etc/mime.types ;
7087 directives found in the user file take precedence, letter matching is
7089 If this variable is not set \*(UA will try to load both files.
7090 Incorporation of the \*(UA-builtin MIME types cannot be suppressed,
7091 but they will be matched last (the order can be listed via
7094 More sources can be specified by using a different syntax: if the
7095 value string contains an equals sign
7097 then it is instead parsed as a comma-separated list of the described
7100 pairs; the given filenames will be expanded and loaded, and their
7101 content may use the extended syntax that is described in the section
7102 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
7103 Directives found in such files always take precedence (are prepended to
7104 the MIME type cache).
7109 To choose an alternate Mail-Transfer-Agent, set this option to either
7110 the full pathname of an executable (optionally prefixed with a
7112 protocol indicator), or \*(OPally a SMTP protocol URL, e.g., \*(IN
7114 .Dl smtps?://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
7117 .Ql [smtp://]server[:port] . )
7118 The default has been chosen at compie time.
7119 All supported data transfers are executed in child processes, which
7120 run asynchronously, and without supervision, unless either the
7125 If such a child receives a TERM signal, it will abort and
7132 For a file-based MTA it may be necessary to set
7134 in in order to choose the right target of a modern
7137 It will be passed command line arguments from several possible sources:
7140 if set, from the command line if given and the variable
7143 Argument processing of the MTA will be terminated with a
7148 The otherwise occurring implicit usage of the following MTA command
7149 line arguments can be disabled by setting the boolean variable
7150 .Va mta-no-default-arguments
7151 (which will also disable passing
7155 (for not treating a line with only a dot
7157 character as the end of input),
7165 variable is set); in conjunction with the
7167 command line option \*(UA will also pass
7173 \*(OP \*(UA can send mail over SMTP network connections to a single
7174 defined SMTP smarthost, the access URL of which has to be assigned to
7176 To use this mode it is helpful to read
7177 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
7178 It may be necessary to set the
7180 variable in order to use a specific combination of
7185 with some mail providers.
7188 .Bl -bullet -compact
7190 The plain SMTP protocol (RFC 5321) that normally lives on the
7191 server port 25 and requires setting the
7192 .Va smtp-use-starttls
7193 variable to enter a SSL/TLS encrypted session state.
7194 Assign a value like \*(IN
7195 .Ql smtp://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
7197 .Ql smtp://server[:port] )
7198 to choose this protocol.
7200 The so-called SMTPS which is supposed to live on server port 465
7201 and is automatically SSL/TLS secured.
7202 Unfortunately it never became a standardized protocol and may thus not
7203 be supported by your hosts network service database
7204 \(en in fact the port number has already been reassigned to other
7207 SMTPS is nonetheless a commonly offered protocol and thus can be
7208 chosen by assigning a value like \*(IN
7209 .Ql smtps://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
7211 .Ql smtps://server[:port] ) ;
7212 due to the mentioned problems it is usually necessary to explicitly
7217 Finally there is the SUBMISSION protocol (RFC 6409), which usually
7218 lives on server port 587 and is practically identically to the SMTP
7219 protocol from \*(UA's point of view beside that; it requires setting the
7220 .Va smtp-use-starttls
7221 variable to enter a SSL/TLS secured session state.
7222 Assign a value like \*(IN
7223 .Ql submission://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
7225 .Ql submission://server[:port] ) .
7230 .It Va mta-arguments
7231 Arguments to pass through to a file-based
7233 can be given via this variable, the content of which will be split up in
7234 a vector of arguments, to be joined onto other possible MTA options:
7236 .Dl set mta-arguments='-t -X \&"/tmp/my log\&"'
7239 .It Va mta-no-default-arguments
7240 \*(BO Unless this variable is set \*(UA will pass some well known
7241 standard command line options to a file-based
7243 (Mail-Transfer-Agent), see there for more.
7247 Many systems use a so-called
7249 environment to ensure compatibility with
7251 This works by inspecting the name that was used to invoke the mail
7253 If this variable is set then the mailwrapper (the program that is
7254 actually executed when calling the file-based
7256 will treat its contents as that name.
7261 .It Va NAIL_EXTRA_RC
7262 The name of an optional startup file to be read last.
7263 This variable has an effect only if it is set in any of the
7264 .Sx "Resource files" ,
7265 it is not imported from the environment.
7266 Use this file for commands that are not understood by other POSIX
7271 .It Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , netrc-lookup-HOST , netrc-lookup
7272 \*(BO\*(IN\*(OP Used to control usage of the users
7274 file for lookup of account credentials, as documented in the section
7275 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
7279 .Sx "The .netrc file"
7280 documents the file format.
7292 then \*(UA will read the output of a shell pipe instead of the users
7294 file if this variable is set (to the desired shell command).
7295 This can be used to, e.g., store
7299 .Dl set netrc-pipe='gpg -qd ~/.netrc.pgp'
7303 If this variable has the value
7305 newly created local folders will be in Maildir format.
7309 Checks for new mail in the current folder each time the prompt is shown.
7310 A Maildir folder must be re-scanned to determine if new mail has arrived.
7311 If this variable is set to the special value
7313 then a Maildir folder will not be rescanned completely, but only
7314 timestamp changes are detected.
7318 .It Va on-compose-enter , on-compose-leave
7319 \*(ID Macro hooks which will be executed before compose mode is
7320 entered, and after composing has been finished, respectively.
7321 Please note that this interface is very likely to change in v15, and
7322 should therefore possibly even be seen as experimental.
7324 are by default enabled for these hooks, causing any setting to be
7325 forgotten after the message has been sent.
7326 The following variables will be set temporarily during execution of the
7329 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Va compose_subject"
7332 .It Va compose-sender
7334 .It Va compose-to , compose-cc , compose-bcc
7335 The list of receiver addresses as a space-separated list.
7336 .It Va compose-subject
7342 \*(BO Causes the filename given in the
7345 and the sender-based filenames for the
7349 commands to be interpreted relative to the directory given in the
7351 variable rather than to the current directory,
7352 unless it is set to an absolute pathname.
7356 \*(BO If set, each message feed through the command given for
7358 is followed by a formfeed character
7362 .It Va password-USER@HOST , password-HOST , password
7363 \*(IN Variable chain that sets a password, which is used in case none has
7364 been given in the protocol and account-specific URL;
7365 as a last resort \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal if
7366 the authentication method requires a password.
7367 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
7368 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
7370 .It Va password-USER@HOST
7371 \*(OU (see the chain above for \*(IN)
7372 Set the password for
7376 If no such variable is defined for a host,
7377 the user will be asked for a password on standard input.
7378 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
7379 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
7383 \*(BO Send messages to the
7385 command without performing MIME and character set conversions.
7389 .It Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
7390 When a MIME message part of type
7392 (case-insensitive) is displayed or quoted,
7393 its text is filtered through the value of this variable interpreted as
7397 forces interpretation of the message part as plain text, e.g.,
7398 .Ql set pipe-application/xml=@
7399 will henceforth display XML
7401 (The same could also be achieved by adding a MIME type marker with the
7404 And \*(OPally MIME type handlers may be defined via
7405 .Sx "The Mailcap files"
7406 \(em corresponding flag strings are shown in parenthesis below.)
7411 can in fact be used to adjust usage and behaviour of a following shell
7412 command specification by appending trigger characters to it, e.g., the
7413 following hypothetical command specification could be used:
7414 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7415 set pipe-X/Y='@*!++=@vim ${NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}'
7419 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql __"
7421 Simply by using the special
7423 prefix the MIME type (shell command) handler will only be invoked to
7424 display or convert the MIME part if the message is addressed directly
7425 and alone by itself.
7426 Use this trigger to disable this and always invoke the handler
7427 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-always ) .
7430 If set the handler will not be invoked when a message is to be quoted,
7431 but only when it will be displayed
7432 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-noquote ) .
7435 The command will be run asynchronously, i.e., without blocking \*(UA,
7436 which may be a handy way to display a, e.g., PDF file while also
7437 continuing to read the mail message
7438 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-async ) .
7439 Asynchronous execution implies
7443 The command must be run on an interactive terminal, \*(UA will
7444 temporarily release the terminal to it
7445 .Pf ( Cd needsterminal ) .
7446 This flag is mutual exclusive with
7448 will only be used in interactive mode and implies
7452 Request creation of a zero-sized temporary file, the absolute pathname
7453 of which will be made accessible via the environment variable
7454 .Ev NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
7455 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-tmpfile ) .
7456 If this trigger is given twice then the file will be unlinked
7457 automatically by \*(UA when the command loop is entered again at latest
7458 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink ) .
7459 (Do not use this for asynchronous handlers.)
7462 Normally the MIME part content is passed to the handler via standard
7463 input; if this flag is set then the data will instead be written into
7464 .Ev NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
7465 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill ) ,
7466 the creation of which is implied; note however that in order to cause
7467 deletion of the temporary file you still have to use two plus signs
7472 To avoid ambiguities with normal shell command content you can use
7473 another at-sign to forcefully terminate interpretation of remaining
7475 (Any character not in this list will have the same effect.)
7479 Some information about the MIME part to be displayed is embedded into
7480 the environment of the shell command:
7483 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ev _AIL__ILENAME__ENERATED"
7486 The MIME content-type of the part, if known, the empty string otherwise.
7489 .It Ev NAIL_CONTENT_EVIDENCE
7491 .Va mime-counter-evidence
7492 includes the carry-around-bit (2), then this will be set to the detected
7493 MIME content-type; not only then identical to
7494 .Ev \&\&NAIL_CONTENT
7498 .It Ev NAIL_FILENAME
7499 The filename, if any is set, the empty string otherwise.
7502 .It Ev NAIL_FILENAME_GENERATED
7506 .It Ev NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
7507 If temporary file creation has been requested through the command prefix
7508 this variable will be set and contain the absolute pathname of the
7513 The temporary directory that \*(UA uses.
7514 Usually identical to
7516 but guaranteed to be set and usable by child processes;
7517 to ensure the latter condition for
7519 also, it will be set.
7524 .It Va pipe-EXTENSION
7525 This is identical to
7526 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
7529 (normalized to lowercase using character mappings of the ASCII charset)
7530 names a file extension, e.g.,
7532 Handlers registered using this method take precedence.
7535 .It Va pop3-auth-USER@HOST , pop3-auth-HOST , pop3-auth
7536 \*(OP\*(IN Variable chain that sets the POP3 authentication method.
7537 The only possible value as of now is
7539 which is thus the default.
7542 .Mx Va pop3-bulk-load
7543 .It Va pop3-bulk-load-USER@HOST , pop3-bulk-load-HOST , pop3-bulk-load
7544 \*(BO\*(OP When accessing a POP3 server \*(UA loads the headers of
7545 the messages, and only requests the message bodies on user request.
7546 For the POP3 protocol this means that the message headers will be
7548 If this variable is set then \*(UA will download only complete messages
7549 from the given POP3 server(s) instead.
7551 .Mx Va pop3-keepalive
7552 .It Va pop3-keepalive-USER@HOST , pop3-keepalive-HOST , pop3-keepalive
7553 \*(OP POP3 servers close the connection after a period of inactivity;
7554 the standard requires this to be at least 10 minutes,
7555 but practical experience may vary.
7556 Setting this variable to a numeric value greater than
7560 command to be sent each value seconds if no other operation is performed.
7563 .It Va pop3-no-apop-USER@HOST , pop3-no-apop-HOST , pop3-no-apop
7564 \*(BO\*(OP Unless this variable is set the
7566 authentication method will be used when connecting to a POP3 server that
7570 is that the password is not sent in clear text over the wire and that
7571 only a single packet is sent for the user/password tuple.
7573 .Va pop3-no-apop-HOST
7576 .Mx Va pop3-use-starttls
7577 .It Va pop3-use-starttls-USER@HOST , pop3-use-starttls-HOST , pop3-use-starttls
7578 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a
7580 command to make an unencrypted POP3 session SSL/TLS encrypted.
7581 This functionality is not supported by all servers,
7582 and is not used if the session is already encrypted by the POP3S method.
7584 .Va pop3-use-starttls-HOST
7589 \*(BO This flag enables POSIX mode, which changes behaviour of \*(UA
7590 where that deviates from standardized behaviour.
7591 It will be set implicitly before the
7592 .Sx "Resource files"
7593 are loaded if the environment variable
7595 is set, and adjusting any of those two will be reflected by the other
7599 .It Va print-alternatives
7600 \*(BO When a MIME message part of type
7601 .Ql multipart/alternative
7602 is displayed and it contains a subpart of type
7604 other parts are normally discarded.
7605 Setting this variable causes all subparts to be displayed,
7606 just as if the surrounding part was of type
7607 .Ql multipart/mixed .
7611 The string used as a prompt in interactive mode.
7612 Whenever the variable is evaluated the value is shell-expanded using
7613 dollar-single-quote expansion mode (see
7615 and it is an error if the prompt expands to more than a single token.
7616 This (post-assignment, i.e., second) expansion can be used to embed
7617 status information, for example
7621 .Va -mailbox-display .
7622 In order to embed characters which should not be counted when
7623 calculating the visual width of the resulting string, enclose the
7624 characters of interest in a pair of reverse solidus escaped brackets:
7626 Prompting may be prevented by setting this to the null string
7628 .Ql set noprompt ) .
7632 This string is used for secondary prompts, but is otherwise identical to
7639 \*(BO Suppresses the printing of the version when first invoked.
7643 If set, \*(UA starts a replying message with the original message
7644 prefixed by the value of the variable
7646 Normally, a heading consisting of
7647 .Dq Fromheaderfield wrote:
7648 is put before the quotation.
7653 variable, this heading is omitted.
7656 is assigned, only the headers selected by the
7659 selection are put above the message body,
7662 acts like an automatic
7664 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
7668 is assigned, all headers are put above the message body and all MIME
7669 parts are included, making
7671 act like an automatic
7674 .Va quote-as-attachment .
7677 .It Va quote-as-attachment
7678 \*(BO Add the original message in its entirety as a
7680 MIME attachment when replying to a message.
7681 Note this works regardless of the setting of
7686 \*(OP Can be set in addition to
7688 Setting this turns on a more fancy quotation algorithm in that leading
7689 quotation characters are compressed and overlong lines are folded.
7691 can be set to either one or two (space separated) numeric values,
7692 which are interpreted as the maximum (goal) and the minimum line length,
7693 respectively, in a spirit rather equal to the
7695 program, but line-, not paragraph-based.
7696 If not set explicitly the minimum will reflect the goal algorithmically.
7697 The goal cannot be smaller than the length of
7699 plus some additional pad.
7700 Necessary adjustments take place silently.
7703 .It Va recipients-in-cc
7704 \*(BO On group replies, specify only the sender of the original mail in
7706 and mention the other recipients in the secondary
7708 By default all recipients of the original mail will be addressed via
7713 If defined, gives the pathname of the folder used to record all outgoing
7715 If not defined, then outgoing mail is not saved.
7716 When saving to this folder fails the message is not sent,
7717 but instead saved to
7721 .It Va record-resent
7722 \*(BO If both this variable and the
7729 commands save messages to the
7731 folder as it is normally only done for newly composed messages.
7734 .It Va reply-in-same-charset
7735 \*(BO If this variable is set \*(UA first tries to use the same
7736 character set of the original message for replies.
7737 If this fails, the mechanism described in
7738 .Sx "Character sets"
7739 is evaluated as usual.
7742 .It Va reply_strings
7743 Can be set to a comma-separated list of (case-insensitive according to
7744 ASCII rules) strings which shall be recognized in addition to the
7747 reply message indicators \(en builtin are
7749 which is mandated by RFC 5322, as well as the german
7754 A list of addresses to put into the
7756 field of the message header.
7757 Members of this list are handled as if they were in the
7762 .It Va reply-to-honour
7765 header is honoured when replying to a message via
7769 This is a quadoption; if set without a value it defaults to
7773 .It Va rfc822-body-from_
7774 \*(BO This variable can be used to force displaying a so-called
7776 line for messages that are embedded into an envelope mail via the
7778 MIME mechanism, for more visual convenience.
7782 \*(BO Enable saving of (partial) messages in
7784 upon interrupt or delivery error.
7788 The number of lines that represents a
7797 line display and scrolling via
7799 If this variable is not set \*(UA falls back to a calculation based upon
7800 the detected terminal window size and the baud rate: the faster the
7801 terminal, the more will be shown.
7802 Overall screen dimensions and pager usage is influenced by the
7803 environment variables
7811 .It Va searchheaders
7812 \*(BO Expand message-list specifiers in the form
7814 to all messages containing the substring
7818 The string search is case insensitive.
7822 \*(OP A comma-separated list of character set names that can be used in
7823 outgoing internet mail.
7824 The value of the variable
7826 is automatically appended to this list of character-sets.
7827 If no character set conversion capabilities are compiled into \*(UA then
7828 the only supported charset is
7831 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
7832 and refer to the section
7833 .Sx "Character sets"
7834 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
7837 .It Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
7838 \*(BO\*(OP If this variable is set, but
7840 is not, then \*(UA acts as if
7842 had been set to the value of the variable
7844 In effect this combination passes through the message data in the
7845 character set of the current locale (given that
7847 has not been set manually), i.e., without converting it to the
7849 fallback character set.
7850 Thus, mail message text will be in ISO-8859-1 encoding when send from
7851 within a ISO-8859-1 locale, and in UTF-8 encoding when send from within
7853 If no character set conversion capabilities are available in \*(UA then
7854 the only supported character set is
7859 An address that is put into the
7861 field of outgoing messages, quoting RFC 5322: the mailbox of the agent
7862 responsible for the actual transmission of the message.
7863 This field should normally not be used unless the
7865 field contains more than one address, on which case it is required.
7868 address is handled as if it were in the
7874 \*(OB Predecessor of
7878 .It Va sendmail-arguments
7879 \*(OB Predecessor of
7883 .It Va sendmail-no-default-arguments
7884 \*(OB\*(BO Predecessor of
7885 .Va mta-no-default-arguments .
7888 .It Va sendmail-progname
7889 \*(OB Predecessor of
7894 \*(BO When sending a message wait until the
7896 (including the builtin SMTP one) exits before accepting further commands.
7898 with this variable set errors reported by the MTA will be recognizable!
7899 If the MTA returns a non-zero exit status,
7900 the exit status of \*(UA will also be non-zero.
7904 \*(BO This setting causes \*(UA to start at the last message
7905 instead of the first one when opening a mail folder.
7909 \*(BO Causes \*(UA to use the sender's real name instead of the plain
7910 address in the header field summary and in message specifications.
7914 \*(BO Causes the recipient of the message to be shown in the header
7915 summary if the message was sent by the user.
7919 The string to expand
7922 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ) .
7926 The string to expand
7929 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ) .
7933 Must correspond to the name of a readable file if set.
7934 The file's content is then appended to each singlepart message
7935 and to the first part of each multipart message.
7936 Be warned that there is no possibility to edit the signature for an
7940 .It Va skipemptybody
7941 \*(BO If an outgoing message does not contain any text in its first or
7942 only message part, do not send it but discard it silently (see also the
7948 \*(OP Specifies a directory with CA certificates in PEM (Privacy
7949 Enhanced Mail) format for verification of S/MIME signed messages.
7952 .It Va smime-ca-file
7953 \*(OP Specifies a file with CA certificates in PEM format for
7954 verification of S/MIME signed messages.
7957 .It Va smime-cipher-USER@HOST , smime-cipher
7958 \*(OP Specifies the cipher to use when generating S/MIME encrypted
7959 messages (for the specified account).
7960 RFC 5751 mandates a default of
7963 Possible values are (case-insensitive and) in decreasing cipher strength:
7971 (DES EDE3 CBC, 168 bits; default if
7973 is not available) and
7977 The actually available cipher algorithms depend on the cryptographic
7978 library that \*(UA uses.
7979 \*(OP Support for more cipher algorithms may be available through
7980 dynamic loading via, e.g.,
7981 .Xr EVP_get_cipherbyname 3
7982 (OpenSSL) if \*(UA has been compiled to support this.
7985 .It Va smime-crl-dir
7986 \*(OP Specifies a directory that contains files with CRLs in PEM format
7987 to use when verifying S/MIME messages.
7990 .It Va smime-crl-file
7991 \*(OP Specifies a file that contains a CRL in PEM format to use when
7992 verifying S/MIME messages.
7995 .It Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
7996 \*(OP If this variable is set, messages send to the given receiver are
7997 encrypted before sending.
7998 The value of the variable must be set to the name of a file that
7999 contains a certificate in PEM format.
8001 If a message is sent to multiple recipients,
8002 each of them for whom a corresponding variable is set will receive an
8003 individually encrypted message;
8004 other recipients will continue to receive the message in plain text
8006 .Va smime-force-encryption
8008 It is recommended to sign encrypted messages, i.e., to also set the
8013 .It Va smime-force-encryption
8014 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to refuse sending unencrypted messages.
8017 .It Va smime-no-default-ca
8018 \*(BO\*(OP Do not load default CA locations when verifying S/MIME
8023 \*(BO\*(OP S/MIME sign outgoing messages with the user's private key
8024 and include the user's certificate as a MIME attachment.
8025 Signing a message enables a recipient to verify that the sender used
8026 a valid certificate,
8027 that the email addresses in the certificate match those in the message
8028 header and that the message content has not been altered.
8029 It does not change the message text,
8030 and people will be able to read the message as usual.
8032 .Va smime-sign-cert , smime-sign-include-certs
8034 .Va smime-sign-message-digest .
8036 .Mx Va smime-sign-cert
8037 .It Va smime-sign-cert-USER@HOST , smime-sign-cert
8038 \*(OP Points to a file in PEM format.
8039 For the purpose of signing and decryption this file needs to contain the
8040 user's private key as well as his certificate.
8044 is always derived from the value of
8046 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
8048 For the purpose of encryption the recipient's public encryption key
8049 (certificate) is expected; the command
8051 can be used to save certificates of signed messages (the section
8052 .Sx "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
8053 gives some details).
8054 This mode of operation is usually driven by the specialized form.
8056 When decrypting messages the account is derived from the recipient
8061 of the message, which are searched for addresses for which such
8063 \*(UA always uses the first address that matches,
8064 so if the same message is sent to more than one of the user's addresses
8065 using different encryption keys, decryption might fail.
8067 .Mx Va smime-sign-include-certs
8068 .It Va smime-sign-include-certs-USER@HOST , smime-sign-include-certs
8069 \*(OP If used, this is supposed to a consist of a comma-separated list
8070 of files, each of which containing a single certificate in PEM format to
8071 be included in the S/MIME message in addition to the
8074 This is most useful for long certificate chains if it is desired to aid
8075 the receiving parties verification process.
8076 Note that top level certificates may also be included in the chain but
8077 do not play a role for verification.
8079 .Va smime-sign-cert .
8080 Remember that for this
8082 refers to the variable
8084 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
8087 .Mx Va smime-sign-message-digest
8088 .It Va smime-sign-message-digest-USER@HOST , smime-sign-message-digest
8089 \*(OP Specifies the message digest to use when signing S/MIME messages.
8090 RFC 5751 mandates a default of
8092 Possible values are (case-insensitive and) in decreasing cipher strength:
8100 The actually available message digest algorithms depend on the
8101 cryptographic library that \*(UA uses.
8102 \*(OP Support for more message digest algorithms may be available
8103 through dynamic loading via, e.g.,
8104 .Xr EVP_get_digestbyname 3
8105 (OpenSSL) if \*(UA has been compiled to support this.
8106 Remember that for this
8108 refers to the variable
8110 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
8115 \*(OB\*(OP To use the builtin SMTP transport, specify a SMTP URL in
8117 \*(ID For compatibility reasons a set
8119 is used in preference of
8123 .It Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST , smtp-auth-HOST , smtp-auth
8124 \*(OP Variable chain that controls the SMTP
8126 authentication method, possible values are
8132 as well as the \*(OPal methods
8138 method does not need any user credentials,
8140 requires a user name and all other methods require a user name and
8148 .Va smtp-auth-password
8150 .Va smtp-auth-user ) .
8155 .Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST :
8156 may override dependent on sender address in the variable
8159 .It Va smtp-auth-password
8160 \*(OP\*(OU Sets the global fallback password for SMTP authentication.
8161 If the authentication method requires a password, but neither
8162 .Va smtp-auth-password
8164 .Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
8166 \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal.
8168 .It Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
8170 .Va smtp-auth-password
8171 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
8174 .It Va smtp-auth-user
8175 \*(OP\*(OU Sets the global fallback user name for SMTP authentication.
8176 If the authentication method requires a user name, but neither
8179 .Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
8181 \*(UA will ask for a user name on the user's terminal.
8183 .It Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
8186 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
8190 .It Va smtp-hostname
8191 \*(OP\*(IN Normally \*(UA uses the variable
8193 to derive the necessary
8195 information in order to issue a
8202 can be used to use the
8204 from the SMTP account
8211 from the content of this variable (or, if that is the empty string,
8213 or the local hostname as a last resort).
8214 This often allows using an address that is itself valid but hosted by
8215 a provider other than which (in
8217 is about to send the message.
8218 Setting this variable also influences the generated
8221 .Mx Va smtp-use-starttls
8222 .It Va smtp-use-starttls-USER@HOST , smtp-use-starttls-HOST , smtp-use-starttls
8223 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a
8225 command to make an SMTP
8227 session SSL/TLS encrypted, i.e., to enable transport layer security.
8231 .It Va spam-interface
8232 \*(OP In order to use any of the spam-related commands (like, e.g.,
8234 the desired spam interface must be defined by setting this variable.
8235 Please refer to the manual section
8237 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
8238 All or none of the following interfaces may be available:
8240 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ql _ilte_"
8246 .Pf ( Lk http://spamassassin.apache.org SpamAssassin )
8248 Different to the generic filter interface \*(UA will automatically add
8249 the correct arguments for a given command and has the necessary
8250 knowledge to parse the program's output.
8253 will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if
8258 Shall it be necessary to define a specific connection type (rather than
8259 using a configuration file for that), the variable
8261 can be used as in, e.g.,
8262 .Ql -d server.example.com -p 783 .
8263 It is also possible to specify a per-user configuration via
8265 Note that this interface does not inspect the
8267 flag of a message for the command
8271 generic spam filter support via freely configurable hooks.
8272 This interface is meant for programs like
8274 and requires according behaviour in respect to the hooks' exit
8275 status for at least the command
8278 meaning a message is spam,
8282 for unsure and any other return value indicating a hard error);
8283 since the hooks can include shell code snippets diverting behaviour
8284 can be intercepted as necessary.
8286 .Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , spamfilter-nospam , \
8289 .Va spamfilter-spam ;
8292 contains examples for some programs.
8293 The process environment of the hooks will have the variables
8294 .Ev NAIL_TMPDIR , TMPDIR
8296 .Ev NAIL_FILENAME_GENERATED
8298 Note that spam score support for
8300 is not supported unless the \*(OPtional regular expression support is
8302 .Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore
8309 \*(OP Messages that exceed this size will not be passed through to the
8311 .Va spam-interface .
8312 If unset or 0, the default of 420000 bytes is used.
8315 .It Va spamc-command
8316 \*(OP The path to the
8320 .Va spam-interface .
8321 Note that the path is not expanded, but used
8323 A fallback path will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if the
8324 executable had been found during compilation.
8327 .It Va spamc-arguments
8328 \*(OP Even though \*(UA deals with most arguments for the
8331 automatically, it may at least sometimes be desirable to specify
8332 connection-related ones via this variable, e.g.,
8333 .Ql -d server.example.com -p 783 .
8337 \*(OP Specify a username for per-user configuration files for the
8339 .Va spam-interface .
8340 If this is set to the empty string then \*(UA will use the name of the
8349 .It Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , \
8350 spamfilter-nospam , spamfilter-rate , spamfilter-spam
8351 \*(OP Command and argument hooks for the
8353 .Va spam-interface .
8356 contains examples for some programs.
8359 .It Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore
8360 \*(OP Because of the generic nature of the
8363 spam scores are not supported for it by default, but if the \*(OPtional
8364 regular expression support is available then setting this variable can
8365 be used to overcome this restriction.
8366 It is interpreted as follows: first a number (digits) is parsed that
8367 must be followed by a semicolon
8369 and an extended regular expression.
8370 Then the latter is used to parse the first output line of the
8372 hook, and, in case the evaluation is successful, the group that has been
8373 specified via the number is interpreted as a floating point scan score.
8377 \*(OP Specifies a directory with CA certificates in PEM (Pricacy
8378 Enhanced Mail) for verification of of SSL/TLS server certificates.
8380 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
8381 for more information.
8385 \*(OP Specifies a file with CA certificates in PEM format for
8386 verification of SSL/TLS server certificates.
8388 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
8389 for more information.
8392 .It Va ssl-cert-USER@HOST , ssl-cert-HOST , ssl-cert
8393 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the file name for a SSL/TLS client
8394 certificate required by some servers.
8395 This is a direct interface to the
8399 function of the OpenSSL library, if available.
8401 .Mx Va ssl-cipher-list
8402 .It Va ssl-cipher-list-USER@HOST , ssl-cipher-list-HOST , ssl-cipher-list
8403 \*(OP Specifies a list of ciphers for SSL/TLS connections.
8404 This is a direct interface to the
8408 function of the OpenSSL library, if available; see
8410 for more information.
8411 By default \*(UA does not set a list of ciphers, in effect using a
8413 specific cipher (protocol standards ship with a list of acceptable
8414 ciphers), possibly cramped to what the actually used SSL/TLS library
8415 supports \(en the manual section
8416 .Sx "An example configuration"
8417 also contains a SSL/TLS use case.
8420 .It Va ssl-config-file
8421 \*(OP If this variable is set \*(UA will call
8422 .Xr CONF_modules_load_file 3
8423 to allow OpenSSL to be configured according to the host system wide
8425 If a non-empty value is given then this will be used to specify the
8426 configuration file to be used instead of the global OpenSSL default;
8427 note that in this case it is an error if the file cannot be loaded.
8428 The application name will always be passed as
8433 \*(OP Specifies a file that contains a CRL in PEM format to use when
8434 verifying SSL/TLS server certificates.
8438 \*(OP Specifies a directory that contains files with CRLs in PEM format
8439 to use when verifying SSL/TLS server certificates.
8442 .It Va ssl-key-USER@HOST , ssl-key-HOST , ssl-key
8443 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the file name for the private key of
8444 a SSL/TLS client certificate.
8445 If unset, the name of the certificate file is used.
8446 The file is expected to be in PEM format.
8447 This is a direct interface to the
8451 function of the OpenSSL library, if available.
8454 .It Va ssl-method-USER@HOST , ssl-method-HOST , ssl-method
8455 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the newer and more flexible
8457 instead: if both values are set,
8459 will take precedence!
8460 Can be set to the following values, the actually used
8462 specification to which it is mapped is shown in parenthesis:
8464 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, TLSv1.2 ) ,
8466 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, TLSv1.1 ) ,
8468 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, TLSv1 )
8471 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, SSLv3 ) ;
8476 and thus includes the SSLv3 protocol.
8477 Note that SSLv2 is no longer supported at all.
8480 .It Va ssl-no-default-ca
8481 \*(BO\*(OP Do not load default CA locations to verify SSL/TLS server
8485 .It Va ssl-protocol-USER@HOST , ssl-protocol-HOST , ssl-protocol
8486 \*(OP Specify the used SSL/TLS protocol.
8487 This is a direct interface to the
8491 function of the OpenSSL library, if available;
8492 otherwise an \*(UA internal parser is used which understands the
8493 following subset of (case-insensitive) command strings:
8499 as well as the special value
8501 Multiple specifications may be given via a comma-separated list which
8502 ignores any whitespace.
8505 plus prefix will enable a protocol, a
8507 minus prefix will disable it, so that
8509 will enable only the TLSv1.2 protocol.
8511 It depends upon the used TLS/SSL library which protocols are actually
8512 supported and which protocols are used if
8514 is not set, but note that SSLv2 is no longer supported at all and
8516 Especially for older protocols explicitly securing
8518 may be worthwile, see
8519 .Sx "An example configuration" .
8523 \*(OP Gives the pathname to an entropy daemon socket, see
8525 Not all SSL/TLS libraries support this.
8528 .It Va ssl-rand-file
8529 \*(OP Gives the filename to a file with random entropy data, see
8530 .Xr RAND_load_file 3 .
8531 If this variable is not set, or set to the empty string, or if the
8532 filename expansion failed, then
8533 .Xr RAND_file_name 3
8534 will be used to create the filename if, and only if,
8536 documents that the SSL PRNG is not yet sufficiently seeded.
8537 If \*(UA successfully seeded the SSL PRNG then it will update the file
8538 .Pf ( Xr RAND_write_file 3 ) .
8539 This variable is only used if
8541 is not set (or not supported by the SSL/TLS library).
8544 .It Va ssl-verify-USER@HOST , ssl-verify-HOST , ssl-verify
8545 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the action to be performed if an error
8546 occurs during SSL/TLS server certificate validation.
8547 Valid (case-insensitive) values are
8549 (fail and close connection immediately),
8551 (ask whether to continue on standard input),
8553 (show a warning and continue),
8555 (do not perform validation).
8561 If only set without an assigned value, then this setting inhibits the
8566 header fields that include obvious references to \*(UA.
8567 There are two pitfalls associated with this:
8568 First, the message id of outgoing messages is not known anymore.
8569 Second, an expert may still use the remaining information in the header
8570 to track down the originating mail user agent.
8575 suppression does not occur.
8580 (\*(OP) This specifies a comma-separated list of
8585 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" ,
8586 escape commas with reverse solidus) to be used to overwrite or define
8588 Note that this variable will only be queried once at program startup and
8589 can thus only be specified in resource files or on the command line.
8592 String capabilities form
8594 pairs and are expected unless noted otherwise.
8595 Numerics have to be notated as
8597 where the number is expected in normal decimal notation.
8598 Finally, booleans do not have any value but indicate a true or false
8599 state simply by being defined or not; this indeed means that \*(UA
8600 does not support undefining an existing boolean.
8601 String capability values will undergo some expansions before use:
8602 for one notations like
8605 .Ql control-LETTER ,
8606 and for clarification purposes
8608 can be used to specify
8610 (the control notation
8612 could lead to misreadings when a left bracket follows, which it does for
8613 the standard CSI sequence);
8614 finally three letter octal sequences, as in
8617 To specify that a terminal supports 256-colours, and to define sequences
8618 that home the cursor and produce an audible bell, one might write:
8620 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8621 set termcap='Co#256,home=\eE[H,bel=^G'
8625 The following terminal capabilities are or may be meaningful for the
8626 operation of the builtin line editor or \*(UA in general:
8629 .Bl -tag -compact -width yay
8631 .It Cd colors Ns \0or Cd Co
8633 numeric capability specifying the maximum number of colours.
8634 Note that \*(UA does not actually care about the terminal beside that,
8635 but always emits ANSI / ISO 6429 escape sequences.
8638 .It Cd rmcup Ns \0or Cd te Ns \0/ Cd smcup Ns \0or Cd ti
8642 respectively: exit and enter the alternative screen
8644 effectively turning \*(UA into a fullscreen application.
8645 To disable that, set (at least) one to the empty string.
8647 .It Cd smkx Ns \0or Cd ks Ns \0/ Cd rmkx Ns \0or Cd ke
8651 respectively: enable and disable the keypad.
8652 This is always enabled if available, because it seems even keyboards
8653 without keypads generate other key codes for, e.g., cursor keys in that
8654 case, and only if enabled we see the codes that we are interested in.
8656 .It Cd ed Ns \0or Cd cd
8660 .It Cd clear Ns \0or Cd cl
8662 clear the screen and home cursor.
8663 (Will be simulated via
8668 .It Cd home Ns \0or Cd ho
8673 .It Cd el Ns \0or Cd ce
8675 clear to the end of line.
8676 (Will be simulated via
8678 plus repetitions of space characters.)
8680 .It Cd hpa Ns \0or Cd ch
8681 .Cd column_address :
8682 move the cursor (to the given column parameter) in the current row.
8683 (Will be simulated via
8689 .Cd carriage_return :
8690 move to the first column in the current row.
8691 The default builtin fallback is
8694 .It Cd cub1 Ns \0or Cd le
8696 move the cursor left one space (non-destructively).
8697 The default builtin fallback is
8700 .It Cd cuf1 Ns \0or Cd nd
8702 move the cursor right one space (non-destructively).
8703 The default builtin fallback is
8705 which is used by most terminals.
8713 Many more capabilities which describe key-sequences are documented for
8717 .It Va termcap-disable
8718 \*(OP Disable any interaction with a terminal control library.
8719 If set only some generic fallback builtins and possibly the content of
8721 describe the terminal to \*(UA.
8723 that this variable will only be queried once at program startup and can
8724 thus only be specified in resource files or on the command line.
8728 If defined, gives the number of lines of a message to be displayed
8731 if unset, the first five lines are printed, if set to 0 the variable
8734 If the value is negative then its absolute value will be used for right
8737 height; (shifting bitwise is like dividing algorithmically, but since
8738 it takes away bits the value decreases pretty fast).
8742 \*(BO If set then the
8744 command series will strip adjacent empty lines and quotations.
8748 The character set of the terminal \*(UA operates on,
8749 and the one and only supported character set that \*(UA can use if no
8750 character set conversion capabilities have been compiled into it,
8751 in which case it defaults to ISO-8859-1 unless it can deduce a value
8755 Refer to the section
8756 .Sx "Character sets"
8757 for the complete picture about character sets.
8760 .It Va typescript-mode
8761 \*(BO A special multiplex variable that disables all variables and
8762 settings which result in behaviour that interferes with running \*(UA in
8765 .Va colour-disable ,
8766 .Va line-editor-disable
8767 and (before startup completed only)
8768 .Va termcap-disable .
8769 Unsetting it does not restore the former state of the covered settings.
8773 For a safety-by-default policy \*(UA sets its process
8777 but this variable can be used to override that:
8778 set it to an empty value to do not change the (current) setting,
8779 otherwise the process file mode creation mask is updated to the new value.
8780 Child processes inherit the process file mode creation mask.
8783 .It Va user-HOST , user
8784 \*(IN Variable chain that sets a global fallback user name, which is
8785 used in case none has been given in the protocol and account-specific
8787 This variable defaults to the name of the user who runs \*(UA.
8791 \*(BO Setting this enables upward compatibility with \*(UA
8792 version 15.0 in respect to which configuration options are available and
8793 how they are handled.
8794 This manual uses \*(IN and \*(OU to refer to the new and the old way of
8795 doing things, respectively.
8799 \*(BO This setting, also controllable via the command line option
8801 causes \*(UA to be more verbose, e.g., it will display obsoletion
8802 warnings and SSL/TLS certificate chains.
8803 Even though marked \*(BO this option may be set twice in order to
8804 increase the level of verbosity even more, in which case even details of
8805 the actual message delivery and protocol conversations are shown.
8808 is sufficient to disable verbosity as such.
8814 .It Va version , version-major , version-minor , version-update
8815 \*(RO \*(UA version information: the first variable contains a string
8816 containing the complete version identification, the latter three contain
8817 only digits: the major, minor and update version numbers.
8818 The output of the command
8820 will include this information.
8823 .It Va writebackedited
8824 If this variable is set messages modified using the
8828 commands are written back to the current folder when it is quit;
8829 it is only honoured for writable folders in MBOX format, though.
8830 Note that the editor will be pointed to the raw message content in that
8831 case, i.e., neither MIME decoding nor decryption will have been
8832 performed, and proper RFC 4155
8834 quoting of newly added or edited content is also left as an excercise to
8838 .\" }}} (INTERNAL VARIABLES)
8841 .\" .Sh ENVIRONMENT {{{
8845 .Dq environment variable
8846 should be considered an indication that these variables are either
8847 standardized as vivid parts of process environments, or that they are
8848 commonly found in there.
8849 The process environment is inherited from the
8851 once \*(UA is started, and unless otherwise explicitly noted handling of
8852 the following variables transparently integrates into that of the
8853 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
8854 from \*(UA's point of view.
8855 This means that, e.g., they can be managed via
8859 causing automatic program environment updates (to be inherited by
8860 newly created child processes).
8863 In order to transparently integrate other environment variables equally
8864 they need to be imported (linked) with the command
8866 This command can also be used to set and unset non-integrated
8867 environment variables from scratch, sufficient system support provided.
8868 The following example, applicable to a POSIX shell, sets the
8870 environment variable for \*(UA only, and beforehand exports the
8872 in order to affect any further processing in the running shell:
8874 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8875 $ EDITOR="vim -u ${HOME}/.vimrc"
8877 $ COLUMNS=80 \*(uA -R
8880 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ev _AILR_"
8883 The user's preferred width in column positions for the terminal screen
8885 Queried and used once on program startup, actively managed for child
8886 processes and the MLE (see
8887 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
8888 in interactive mode thereafter.
8892 The name of the (mailbox)
8894 to use for saving aborted messages if
8896 is set; this defaults to
8903 is set no output will be generated, otherwise the contents of the file
8908 Pathname of the text editor to use in the
8912 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
8913 A default editor is used if this value is not defined.
8917 The user's home directory.
8918 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
8925 .It Ev LANG , LC_ALL , LC_COLLATE , LC_CTYPE , LC_MESSAGES
8929 .Sx "Character sets" .
8933 The user's preferred number of lines on a page or the vertical screen
8934 or window size in lines.
8935 Queried and used once on program startup, actively managed for child
8936 processes in interactive mode thereafter.
8940 Pathname of the directory lister to use in the
8942 command when operating on local mailboxes.
8945 (path search through
8950 Upon startup \*(UA will actively ensure that this variable refers to the
8951 name of the user who runs \*(UA, in order to be able to pass a verified
8952 name to any newly created child process.
8956 Is used as the user's primary system mailbox, unless
8960 This is assumed to be an absolute pathname.
8964 \*(OP Overrides the default path search for
8965 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
8966 which is defined in the standard RFC 1524 as
8967 .Ql ~/.mailcap:\:/etc/mailcap:\:/usr/etc/mailcap:\:/usr/local/etc/mailcap .
8968 .\" TODO we should have a mailcaps-default virtual RDONLY option!
8969 (\*(UA makes it a configuration option, however.)
8970 Note this is not a search path, but a path search.
8974 Is used as a startup file instead of
8977 When \*(UA scripts are invoked on behalf of other users,
8978 either this variable should be set to
8982 command line option should be used in order to avoid side-effects from
8983 reading their configuration files.
8984 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
8988 The name of the user's mbox file.
8989 A logical subset of the special conventions that are documented for the
8991 command and the internal variable
8994 The fallback default is
8999 Traditionally this secondary mailbox is used as the file to save
9000 messages from the primary system mailbox that have been read.
9002 .Sx "Message states" .
9005 .It Ev NAIL_NO_SYSTEM_RC
9006 If this variable is set then reading of
9008 at startup is inhibited, i.e., the same effect is achieved as if \*(UA
9009 had been started up with the option
9011 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
9015 \*(IN\*(OP This variable overrides the default location of the user's
9021 Pathname of the program to use for backing the command
9025 variable enforces usage of a pager for output.
9026 The default paginator is
9028 (path search through
9031 \*(UA inspects the contents of this variable: if its contains the string
9033 then a non-existing environment variable
9040 dependent on whether terminal control support is available and whether
9041 that supports full (alternative) screen mode or not (also see
9042 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" ) .
9046 will optionally be set to
9053 A colon-separated list of directories that is searched by the shell when
9054 looking for commands, e.g.,
9055 .Ql /bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin .
9058 .It Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT
9059 This variable is automatically looked for upon startup, see
9065 The shell to use for the commands
9070 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
9071 and when starting subprocesses.
9072 A default shell is used if this environment variable is not defined.
9075 .It Ev SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
9076 If set, this specifies a time in seconds since the Unix epoch
9077 (1970-01-01) to be used in place of the current time.
9078 This is for the sake of reproduceability of tests, to be used during
9079 development or by software packagers.
9083 \*(OP The terminal type for which output is to be prepared.
9084 For extended colour and font control please refer to
9085 .Sx "Coloured display" ,
9086 and for terminal management in general to
9087 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" .
9091 Used as directory for temporary files instead of
9094 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
9100 (see there), but this variable is not standardized, should therefore not
9101 be used, and is only corrected if already set.
9105 Pathname of the text editor to use in the
9109 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
9117 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa _etc/mime.type_"
9119 File giving initial commands.
9122 System wide initialization file.
9126 \*(OP Personal MIME type handler definition file, see
9127 .Sx "The Mailcap files" .
9128 (RFC 1524 location, the actual path is a configuration option.)
9132 \*(OP System wide MIME type handler definition file, see
9133 .Sx "The Mailcap files" .
9134 (RFC 1524 location, the actual path is a configuration option.)
9137 .It Pa ~/.mime.types
9138 Personal MIME types, see
9139 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
9142 .It Pa /etc/mime.types
9143 System wide MIME types, see
9144 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
9148 \*(IN\*(OP The default location of the users
9150 file \(en the section
9151 .Sx "The .netrc file"
9152 documents the file format.
9155 .\" .Ss "The mime.types files" {{{
9156 .Ss "The mime.types files"
9158 When sending messages \*(UA tries to determine the content type of all
9160 When displaying message content or attachments \*(UA uses the content
9161 type to decide whether it can directly display data or whether it needs
9162 to deal with content handlers.
9163 It learns about M(ultipurpose) I(nternet) M(ail) E(xtensions) types and
9164 how to treat them by reading
9166 files, the loading of which can be controlled by setting the variable
9167 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
9170 can also be used to deal with MIME types.)
9172 files have the following syntax:
9175 .Dl type/subtype extension [extension ...]
9180 are strings describing the file contents, and one or multiple
9182 s, separated by whitespace, name the part of a filename starting after
9183 the last dot (of interest).
9184 Comments may be introduced anywhere on a line with a number sign
9186 causing the remaining line to be discarded.
9188 \*(UA also supports an extended, non-portable syntax in specially
9189 crafted files, which can be loaded via the alternative value syntax of
9190 .Va mimetypes-load-control
9191 and prepends an optional
9195 .Dl [type-marker ]type/subtype extension [extension ...]
9198 The following type markers are supported:
9201 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar _n_u"
9203 Treat message parts with this content as plain text.
9208 Treat message parts with this content as HTML tagsoup.
9209 If the \*(OPal HTML-tagsoup-to-text converter is not available treat
9210 the content as plain text instead.
9214 but instead of falling back to plain text require an explicit content
9215 handler to be defined.
9220 for sending messages:
9222 .Va mime-allow-text-controls ,
9223 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
9224 For reading etc. messages:
9225 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ,
9226 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
9228 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
9229 .Va mimetypes-load-control ,
9230 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE ,
9231 .Va pipe-EXTENSION .
9234 .\" .Ss "The Mailcap files" {{{
9235 .Ss "The Mailcap files"
9238 .Dq User Agent Configuration Mechanism
9239 which \*(UA \*(OPally supports.
9240 It defines a file format to be used to inform mail user agent programs
9241 about the locally-installed facilities for handling various data
9242 formats, i.e., about commands and how they can be used to display, edit
9243 etc. MIME part contents, as well as a default path search that includes
9244 multiple possible locations of
9248 environment variable that can be used to overwrite that (repeating here
9249 that it is not a search path, but instead a path search specification).
9250 Any existing files will be loaded in sequence, appending any content to
9251 the list of MIME type handler directives.
9255 files consist of a set of newline separated entries.
9256 Comment lines start with a number sign
9258 (in the first column!) and are ignored.
9259 Empty lines are also ignored.
9260 All other lines form individual entries that must adhere to the syntax
9262 To extend a single entry (not comment) its line can be continued on
9263 follow lines if newline characters are
9265 by preceding them with the reverse solidus character
9267 The standard does not specify how leading whitespace of follow lines
9268 is to be treated, therefore \*(UA retains it.
9272 entries consist of a number of semicolon
9274 separated fields, and the reverse solidus
9276 character can be used to escape any following character including
9277 semicolon and itself.
9278 The first two fields are mandatory and must occur in the specified
9279 order, the remaining fields are optional and may appear in any order.
9280 Leading and trailing whitespace of content is ignored (removed).
9283 The first field defines the MIME
9285 the entry is about to handle (case-insensitively, and no reverse solidus
9286 escaping is possible in this field).
9287 If the subtype is specified as an asterisk
9289 the entry is meant to match all subtypes of the named type, e.g.,
9291 would match any audio type.
9292 The second field defines the shell command which shall be used to
9294 MIME parts of the given type; it is implicitly called the
9301 shell commands message (MIME part) data is passed via standard input
9302 unless the given shell command includes one or more instances of the
9305 in which case these instances will be replaced with a temporary filename
9306 and the data will have been stored in the file that is being pointed to.
9309 shell commands data is assumed to be generated on standard output unless
9310 the given command includes (one ore multiple)
9312 In any case any given
9314 format is replaced with a(n already) properly quoted filename.
9315 Note that when a command makes use of a temporary file via
9317 then \*(UA will remove it again, as if the
9318 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile ,
9319 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill
9321 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
9322 flags had been set; see below for more.
9325 The optional fields either define a shell command or an attribute (flag)
9326 value, the latter being a single word and the former being a keyword
9327 naming the field followed by an equals sign
9329 succeeded by a shell command, and as usual for any
9331 content any whitespace surrounding the equals sign will be removed, too.
9332 Optional fields include the following:
9335 .Bl -tag -width textualnewlines
9337 A program that can be used to compose a new body or body part in the
9344 field, but is to be used when the composing program needs to specify the
9346 header field to be applied to the composed data.
9350 A program that can be used to edit a body or body part in the given
9355 A program that can be used to print a message or body part in the given
9360 Specifies a program to be run to test some condition, e.g., the machine
9361 architecture, or the window system in use, to determine whether or not
9362 this mailcap entry applies.
9363 If the test fails, a subsequent mailcap entry should be sought; also see
9364 .Cd x-mailx-test-once .
9366 .It Cd needsterminal
9367 This flag field indicates that the given shell command must be run on
9368 an interactive terminal.
9369 \*(UA will temporarily release the terminal to the given command in
9370 interactive mode, in non-interactive mode this entry will be entirely
9371 ignored; this flag implies
9372 .Cd x-mailx-noquote .
9374 .It Cd copiousoutput
9375 A flag field which indicates that the output of the
9377 command will be an extended stream of textual output that can be
9378 (re)integrated into \*(UA's normal visual display.
9379 It is mutually exclusive with
9382 .Cd x-mailx-always .
9384 .It Cd textualnewlines
9385 A flag field which indicates that this type of data is line-oriented and
9388 all newlines should be converted to canonical form (CRLF) before
9389 encoding, and will be in that form after decoding.
9393 This field gives a file name format, in which
9395 will be replaced by a random string, the joined combination of which
9396 will be used as the filename denoted by
9397 .Ev NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY .
9398 One could specify that a GIF file being passed to an image viewer should
9399 have a name ending in
9402 .Ql nametemplate=%s.gif .
9403 Note that \*(UA ignores the name template unless that solely specifies
9404 a filename suffix that consists of (ASCII) alphabetic and numeric
9405 characters, the underscore and dot only.
9408 Names a file, in X11 bitmap (xbm) format, which points to an appropriate
9409 icon to be used to visually denote the presence of this kind of data.
9410 This field is not used by \*(UA.
9413 A textual description that describes this type of data.
9415 .It Cd x-mailx-always
9416 Extension flag field that denotes that the given
9418 command shall be executed even if multiple messages will be displayed
9420 Normally messages which require external viewers that produce output
9421 which does not integrate into \*(UA's visual display (i.e., do not have
9423 set) have to be addressed directly and individually.
9424 (To avoid cases where, e.g., a thousand PDF viewer instances are spawned
9427 .It Cd x-mailx-even-if-not-interactive
9428 An extension flag test field \(em by default handlers without
9430 are entirely ignored in non-interactive mode, but if this flag is set
9431 then their use will be considered.
9432 It is an error if this flag is set for commands that use the flag
9435 .It Cd x-mailx-noquote
9436 An extension flag field that indicates that even a
9439 command shall not be used to generate message quotes
9440 (as it would be by default).
9442 .It Cd x-mailx-async
9443 Extension flag field that denotes that the given
9445 command shall be executed asynchronously, without blocking \*(UA.
9446 Cannot be used in conjunction with
9449 .It Cd x-mailx-test-once
9450 Extension flag which denotes whether the given
9452 command shall be evaluated once only and the (boolean) result be cached.
9453 This is handy if some global unchanging condition is to be queried, like
9454 .Dq running under the X Window System .
9456 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile
9457 Extension flag field that requests creation of a zero-sized temporary
9458 file, the name of which is to be placed in the environment variable
9459 .Ev NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY .
9460 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
9464 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill
9465 Normally the MIME part content is passed to the handler via standard
9466 input; if this flag is set then the data will instead be written into
9468 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile .
9469 In order to cause deletion of the temporary file you will have to set
9470 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
9472 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
9476 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
9477 Extension flag field that requests that the temporary file shall be
9478 deleted automatically when the command loop is entered again at latest.
9479 (Do not use this for asynchronous handlers.)
9480 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
9482 format, or without also setting
9485 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill .
9487 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-keep
9490 implies the three tmpfile related flags above, but if you want, e.g.,
9492 and deal with the temporary file yourself, you can add in this flag to
9494 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink .
9499 The standard includes the possibility to define any number of additional
9500 entry fields, prefixed by
9502 Flag fields apply to the entire
9504 entry \(em in some unusual cases, this may not be desirable, but
9505 differentiation can be accomplished via separate entries, taking
9506 advantage of the fact that subsequent entries are searched if an earlier
9507 one does not provide enough information.
9510 command needs to specify the
9514 command shall not, the following will help out the latter (with enabled
9518 level \*(UA will show information about handler evaluation):
9520 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9521 application/postscript; ps-to-terminal %s; needsterminal
9522 application/postscript; ps-to-terminal %s; compose=idraw %s
9526 In fields any occurrence of the format string
9528 will be replaced by the
9531 Named parameters from the
9533 field may be placed in the command execution line using
9535 followed by the parameter name and a closing
9538 The entire parameter should appear as a single command line argument,
9539 regardless of embedded spaces; thus:
9541 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9543 Content-type: multipart/mixed; boundary=42
9546 multipart/*; /usr/local/bin/showmulti \e
9547 %t %{boundary} ; composetyped = /usr/local/bin/makemulti
9549 # Executed shell command
9550 /usr/local/bin/showmulti multipart/mixed 42
9554 .\" TODO v15: Mailcap: %n,%F
9555 Note that \*(UA does not support handlers for multipart MIME parts as
9556 shown in this example (as of today).
9557 \*(UA does not support the additional formats
9561 An example file, also showing how to properly deal with the expansion of
9563 which includes any quotes that are necessary to make it a valid shell
9564 argument by itself and thus will cause undesired behaviour when placed
9565 in additional user-provided quotes:
9567 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9569 text/richtext; richtext %s; copiousoutput
9571 text/x-perl; perl -cWT %s
9575 trap "rm -f ${infile}" EXIT\e; \e
9576 trap "exit 75" INT QUIT TERM\e; \e
9578 x-mailx-async; x-mailx-tmpfile-keep
9580 application/*; echo "This is \e"%t\e" but \e
9581 is 50 \e% Greek to me" \e; < %s head -c 1024 | cat -vET; \e
9582 copiousoutput; x-mailx-noquote
9587 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ,
9588 .Sx "The mime.types files" ,
9591 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
9592 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE ,
9593 .Va pipe-EXTENSION .
9596 .\" .Ss "The .netrc file" {{{
9597 .Ss "The .netrc file"
9601 file contains user credentials for machine accounts.
9602 The default location in the user's
9604 directory may be overridden by the
9606 environment variable.
9607 The file consists of space, tabulator or newline separated tokens.
9608 \*(UA implements a parser that supports a superset of the original BSD
9609 syntax, but users should nonetheless be aware of portability glitches
9610 of that file format, shall their
9612 be usable across multiple programs and platforms:
9615 .Bl -bullet -compact
9617 BSD does not support single, but only double quotation marks, e.g.,
9618 .Ql password="pass with spaces" .
9620 BSD (only?) supports escaping of single characters via a reverse solidus
9621 (e.g., a space can be escaped via
9623 in- as well as outside of a quoted string.
9625 BSD does not require a final quotation mark of the last user input token.
9627 The original BSD (Berknet) parser also supported a format which allowed
9628 tokens to be separated with commas \(en whereas at least Hewlett-Packard
9629 still seems to support this syntax, \*(UA does not!
9631 As a non-portable extension some widely-used programs support
9632 shell-style comments: if an input line starts, after any amount of
9633 whitespace, with a number sign
9635 then the rest of the line is ignored.
9637 Whereas other programs may require that the
9639 file is accessible by only the user if it contains a
9645 \*(UA will always require these strict permissions.
9649 Of the following list of supported tokens \*(UA only uses (and caches)
9654 At runtime the command
9656 can be used to control \*(UA's
9660 .Bl -tag -width password
9661 .It Cd machine Ar name
9662 The hostname of the entries' machine, lowercase-normalized by \*(UA
9664 Any further file content, until either end-of-file or the occurrence
9669 first-class token is bound (only related) to the machine
9672 As an extension that should not be the cause of any worries
9673 \*(UA supports a single wildcard prefix for
9675 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9676 machine *.example.com login USER password PASS
9677 machine pop3.example.com login USER password PASS
9678 machine smtp.example.com login USER password PASS
9684 .Ql pop3.example.com ,
9688 .Ql local.smtp.example.com .
9689 Note that in the example neither
9690 .Ql pop3.example.com
9692 .Ql smtp.example.com
9693 will be matched by the wildcard, since the exact matches take
9694 precedence (it is however faster to specify it the other way around).
9699 except that it is a fallback entry that is used shall none of the
9700 specified machines match; only one default token may be specified,
9701 and it must be the last first-class token.
9703 .It Cd login Ar name
9704 The user name on the remote machine.
9706 .It Cd password Ar string
9707 The user's password on the remote machine.
9709 .It Cd account Ar string
9710 Supply an additional account password.
9711 This is merely for FTP purposes.
9713 .It Cd macdef Ar name
9715 A macro is defined with the specified
9717 it is formed from all lines beginning with the next line and continuing
9718 until a blank line is (consecutive newline characters are) encountered.
9721 entries cannot be utilized by multiple machines, too, but must be
9722 defined following the
9724 they are intended to be used with.)
9727 exists, it is automatically run as the last step of the login process.
9728 This is merely for FTP purposes.
9735 .\" .Sh EXAMPLES {{{
9738 .\" .Ss "An example configuration" {{{
9739 .Ss "An example configuration"
9741 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9742 # This example assumes v15.0 compatibility mode
9745 # Where are the up-to-date SSL certificates?
9746 #set ssl-ca-dir=/etc/ssl/certs
9747 set ssl-ca-file=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
9749 # (Since we manage up-to-date ones explicitly, do not use any,
9750 # possibly outdated, default certificates shipped with OpenSSL)
9751 set ssl-no-default-ca
9753 # Do not use protocols older than TLS v1.2.
9754 # Change this only when the remote server does not support it:
9755 # maybe use ssl-protocol-HOST (or -USER@HOST) syntax to define
9756 # such explicit exceptions, then
9757 set ssl-protocol='-ALL,+TLSv1.2'
9759 # Explicitly define the list of ciphers, which may improve security,
9760 # especially with protocols older than TLS v1.2. See ciphers(1).
9761 # Including "@STRENGTH" will sort the final list by algorithm strength.
9762 # In reality it is possibly best to only use ssl-cipher-list-HOST
9763 # (or -USER@HOST), as necessary, again..
9764 set ssl-cipher-list=TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:!MEDIUM:!LOW:!EXPORT:@STRENGTH
9765 # ALL:!aNULL:!MEDIUM:!LOW:!MD5:!RC4:!EXPORT:@STRENGTH
9767 # Request strict transport security checks!
9768 set ssl-verify=strict
9770 # Essential setting: select allowed character sets
9771 set sendcharsets=utf-8,iso-8859-1
9773 # A very kind option: when replying to a message, first try to
9774 # use the same encoding that the original poster used herself!
9775 set reply-in-same-charset
9777 # When replying to or forwarding a message the comment and name
9778 # parts of email addresses are removed unless this variable is set
9781 # When sending messages, wait until the Mail-Transfer-Agent finishs.
9782 # Only like this you will be able to see errors reported through the
9783 # exit status of the MTA (including the builtin SMTP one)!
9786 # Only use builtin MIME types, no mime.types(5) files
9787 set mimetypes-load-control
9789 # Default directory where we act in (relative to $HOME)
9791 # A leading "+" (often) means: under *folder*
9792 # *record* is used to save copies of sent messages
9793 set MBOX=+mbox.mbox record=+sent.mbox DEAD=+dead.txt
9795 # Make "file mymbox" and "file myrec" go to..
9796 shortcut mymbox %:+mbox.mbox myrec +sent.mbox
9798 # Not really optional, e.g., for S/MIME
9799 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
9801 # It may be necessary to set hostname and/or smtp-hostname
9802 # if the "SERVER" of mta and "domain" of from do not match.
9803 # The `urlencode' command can be used to encode USER and PASS
9804 set mta=(smtps?|submission)://[USER[:PASS]@]SERVER[:PORT] \e
9805 smtp-auth=login/plain... \e
9808 # Never refuse to start into interactive mode, and more
9810 colour-pager crt= \e
9811 followup-to followup-to-honour=ask-yes \e
9812 history-file=+.\*(uAhist history-size=-1 history-gabby \e
9813 mime-counter-evidence=0xE \e
9814 prompt='[\e${-account-name} \e${-mailbox-display}]? ' \e
9815 reply-to-honour=ask-yes \e
9818 # Only include the selected header fields when typing messages
9819 headerpick type retain add from_ date from to cc subject \e
9820 message-id mail-followup-to reply-to
9821 # ...when forwarding messages
9822 headerpick forward retain add subject date from to cc
9823 # ...when saving message, etc.
9824 #headerpick save ignore add ^Original-.*$ ^X-.*$
9826 # Some mailing lists
9827 mlist '@xyz-editor\e.xyz$' '@xyzf\e.xyz$'
9828 mlsubscribe '^xfans@xfans\e.xyz$'
9830 # A real life example of a very huge free mail provider
9832 set folder=~/spool/XooglX inbox=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
9833 set from='Your Name <address@examp.ple>'
9834 set mta=smtp://USER:PASS@smtp.gmXil.com smtp-use-starttls
9837 # Here is a pretty large one which does not allow sending mails
9838 # if there is a domain name mismatch on the SMTP protocol level,
9839 # which would bite us if the value of from does not match, e.g.,
9840 # for people who have a sXXXXeforge project and want to speak
9841 # with the mailing list under their project account (in from),
9842 # still sending the message through their normal mail provider
9844 set folder=~/spool/XandeX inbox=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
9845 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
9846 set mta=smtps://USER:PASS@smtp.yaXXex.ru:465 \e
9847 hostname=yaXXex.com smtp-hostname=
9850 # Create some new commands so that, e.g., `ls /tmp' will..
9851 wysh ghost lls '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFlrS'
9852 wysh ghost llS '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFlS'
9853 wysh ghost ls '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFrS'
9854 wysh ghost lS '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFS'
9855 wysh ghost lla '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFlr'
9856 wysh ghost llA '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFl'
9857 wysh ghost la '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFr'
9858 wysh ghost lA '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aF'
9859 wysh ghost ll '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFltr'
9860 wysh ghost lL '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFlt'
9861 wysh ghost l '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFtr'
9862 wysh ghost L '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFt'
9864 # We do not support gpg(1) directly yet. But simple --clearsign'd
9865 # message parts can be dealt with as follows:
9867 wysh set pipe-text/plain=$'@*#++=@\e
9868 < "${NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}" awk \e
9869 -v TMPFILE="${NAIL_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}" \e'\e
9871 /^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----/,/^$/{\e
9874 print "--- GPG --verify ---";\e
9875 system("gpg --verify " TMPFILE " 2>&1");\e
9876 print "--- GPG --verify ---";\e
9880 /^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----/,\e
9881 /^-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----/{\e
9891 !printf 'Key IDs to gpg --recv-keys: ';\e
9893 gpg --recv-keys ${keyids};
9899 When storing passwords in
9901 appropriate permissions should be set on this file with
9902 .Ql $ chmod 0600 \*(ur .
9905 is available user credentials can be stored in the central
9907 file instead; e.g., here is a different version of the example account
9908 that sets up SMTP and POP3:
9910 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9912 set folder=~/spool/XandeX inbox=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
9913 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
9915 # Load an encrypted ~/.netrc by uncommenting the next line
9916 #set netrc-pipe='gpg -qd ~/.netrc.pgp'
9918 set mta=smtps://smtp.yXXXXx.ru:465 \e
9919 smtp-hostname= hostname=yXXXXx.com
9920 set pop3-keepalive=240 pop3-no-apop-pop.yXXXXx.ru
9921 ghost xp fi pop3s://pop.yXXXXx.ru
9930 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9931 machine *.yXXXXx.ru login USER password PASS
9935 This configuration should now work just fine:
9938 .Dl $ echo text | \*(uA -vv -AXandeX -s Subject user@exam.ple
9941 .\" .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME" {{{
9942 .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
9944 \*(OP S/MIME provides two central mechanisms:
9945 message signing and message encryption.
9946 A signed message contains some data in addition to the regular text.
9947 The data can be used to verify that the message was sent using a valid
9948 certificate, that the sender's address in the message header matches
9949 that in the certificate, and that the message text has not been altered.
9950 Signing a message does not change its regular text;
9951 it can be read regardless of whether the recipient's software is able to
9955 It is thus usually possible to sign all outgoing messages if so desired.
9956 Encryption, in contrast, makes the message text invisible for all people
9957 except those who have access to the secret decryption key.
9958 To encrypt a message, the specific recipient's public encryption key
9960 It is therefore not possible to send encrypted mail to people unless their
9961 key has been retrieved from either previous communication or public key
9963 A message should always be signed before it is encrypted.
9964 Otherwise, it is still possible that the encrypted message text is
9968 A central concept to S/MIME is that of the certification authority (CA).
9969 A CA is a trusted institution that issues certificates.
9970 For each of these certificates it can be verified that it really
9971 originates from the CA, provided that the CA's own certificate is
9973 A set of CA certificates is usually delivered with OpenSSL and installed
9975 If you trust the source of your OpenSSL software installation,
9976 this offers reasonable security for S/MIME on the Internet.
9978 .Va smime-no-default-ca
9979 to avoid using the default certificate and point
9983 to a trusted pool of certificates.
9984 In general, a certificate cannot be more secure than the method its CA
9985 certificate has been retrieved with.
9988 The first thing you need for participating in S/MIME message exchange is
9989 your personal certificate, including a private key.
9990 The certificate contains public information, in particular your name and
9991 your email address(es), and the public key that is used by others to
9992 encrypt messages for you,
9993 and to verify signed messages they supposedly received from you.
9994 The certificate is included in each signed message you send.
9995 The private key must be kept secret.
9996 It is used to decrypt messages that were previously encrypted with your
9997 public key, and to sign messages.
10000 For personal use it is recommended that you get a S/MIME certificate
10001 from one of the major CAs on the Internet using your WWW browser.
10002 Many CAs offer such certificates for free.
10004 .Lk https://www.CAcert.org
10005 which issues client and server certificates to members of their
10006 community for free; their root certificate
10007 .Pf ( Lk https://\:www.cacert.org/\:certs/\:root.crt )
10008 is often not in the default set of trusted CA root certificates, though,
10009 which means you will have to download their root certificate separately
10010 and ensure it is part of our S/MIME certificate validation chain by
10013 or as a vivid member of the
10014 .Va smime-ca-file .
10015 But let us take a step-by-step tour on how to setup S/MIME with
10016 a certificate from CAcert.org despite this situation!
10019 First of all you will have to become a member of the CAcert.org
10020 community, simply by registrating yourself via the web interface.
10021 Once you are, create and verify all email addresses you want to be able
10022 to create signed and encrypted messages for/with using the corresponding
10023 entries of the web interface.
10024 Now ready to create S/MIME certificates, so let us create a new
10025 .Dq client certificate ,
10026 ensure to include all email addresses that should be covered by the
10027 certificate in the following web form, and also to use your name as the
10031 Create a private key and a certificate request on your local computer
10032 (please see the manual pages of the used commands for more in-depth
10033 knowledge on what the used arguments etc. do):
10036 .Dl openssl req -nodes -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout key.pem -out creq.pem
10039 Afterwards copy-and-paste the content of
10041 into the certificate-request (CSR) field of the web form on the
10042 CAcert.org website (you may need to unfold some
10043 .Dq advanced options
10044 to see the corresponding text field).
10045 This last step will ensure that your private key (which never left your
10046 box) and the certificate belong together (through the public key that
10047 will find its way into the certificate via the certificate-request).
10048 You are now ready and can create your CAcert certified certificate.
10049 Download and store or copy-and-paste it as
10054 In order to use your new S/MIME setup you will have to create
10055 a combined private key/public key (certificate) file:
10058 .Dl cat key.pem pub.crt > ME@HERE.com.paired
10061 This is the file \*(UA will work with.
10062 If you have created your private key with a passphrase then \*(UA will
10063 ask you for it whenever a message is signed or decrypted.
10064 Set the following variables to henceforth use S/MIME (setting
10066 is of interest for verification only):
10068 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10069 set smime-ca-file=ALL-TRUSTED-ROOT-CERTS-HERE \e
10070 smime-sign-cert=ME@HERE.com.paired \e
10071 smime-sign-message-digest=SHA256 \e
10076 From each signed message you send, the recipient can fetch your
10077 certificate and use it to send encrypted mail back to you.
10078 Accordingly if somebody sends you a signed message, you can do the same,
10081 command to check the validity of the certificate.
10084 Variables of interest for S/MIME signing:
10086 .Va smime-ca-file ,
10087 .Va smime-crl-dir ,
10088 .Va smime-crl-file ,
10089 .Va smime-no-default-ca ,
10091 .Va smime-sign-cert ,
10092 .Va smime-sign-include-certs
10094 .Va smime-sign-message-digest .
10097 After it has been verified save the certificate via
10099 and tell \*(UA that it should use it for encryption for further
10100 communication with that somebody:
10102 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10104 set smime-encrypt-USER@HOST=FILENAME \e
10105 smime-cipher-USER@HOST=AES256
10109 Additional variables of interest for S/MIME en- and decryption:
10112 .Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST .
10115 You should carefully consider if you prefer to store encrypted messages
10117 If you do, anybody who has access to your mail folders can read them,
10118 but if you do not, you might be unable to read them yourself later if
10119 you happen to lose your private key.
10122 command saves messages in decrypted form, while the
10126 commands leave them encrypted.
10129 Note that neither S/MIME signing nor encryption applies to message
10130 subjects or other header fields yet.
10131 Thus they may not contain sensitive information for encrypted messages,
10132 and cannot be trusted even if the message content has been verified.
10133 When sending signed messages,
10134 it is recommended to repeat any important header information in the
10138 .\" .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or SSL/TLS" {{{
10139 .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or SSL/TLS"
10141 \*(OP Certification authorities (CAs) issue certificate revocation
10142 lists (CRLs) on a regular basis.
10143 These lists contain the serial numbers of certificates that have been
10144 declared invalid after they have been issued.
10145 Such usually happens because the private key for the certificate has
10147 because the owner of the certificate has left the organization that is
10148 mentioned in the certificate, etc.
10149 To seriously use S/MIME or SSL/TLS verification,
10150 an up-to-date CRL is required for each trusted CA.
10151 There is otherwise no method to distinguish between valid and
10152 invalidated certificates.
10153 \*(UA currently offers no mechanism to fetch CRLs, nor to access them on
10154 the Internet, so you have to retrieve them by some external mechanism.
10157 \*(UA accepts CRLs in PEM format only;
10158 CRLs in DER format must be converted, like, e.\|g.:
10161 .Dl $ openssl crl \-inform DER \-in crl.der \-out crl.pem
10164 To tell \*(UA about the CRLs, a directory that contains all CRL files
10165 (and no other files) must be created.
10170 variables, respectively, must then be set to point to that directory.
10171 After that, \*(UA requires a CRL to be present for each CA that is used
10172 to verify a certificate.
10175 .\" .Ss "Handling spam" {{{
10176 .Ss "Handling spam"
10178 \*(OP \*(UA can make use of several spam interfaces for the purpose of
10179 identification of, and, in general, dealing with spam messages.
10180 A precondition of most commands in order to function is that the
10182 variable is set to one of the supported interfaces.
10183 Once messages have been identified as spam their (volatile)
10185 state can be prompted: the
10189 message specifications will address respective messages and their
10191 entries will be used when displaying the
10193 in the header display.
10198 rates the given messages and sets their
10201 If the spam interface offers spam scores those can also be displayed in
10202 the header display by including the
10212 will interact with the Bayesian filter of the chosen interface and learn
10213 the given messages as
10217 respectively; the last command can be used to cause
10219 of messages; it adheres to their current
10221 state and thus reverts previous teachings.
10226 will simply set and clear, respectively, the mentioned volatile
10228 message flag, without any interface interaction.
10237 requires a running instance of the
10239 server in order to function, started with the option
10241 shall Bayesian filter learning be possible.
10243 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10244 $ spamd -i localhost:2142 -i /tmp/.spamsock -d [-L] [-l]
10245 $ spamd --listen=localhost:2142 --listen=/tmp/.spamsock \e
10246 --daemonize [--local] [--allow-tell]
10250 Thereafter \*(UA can make use of these interfaces:
10252 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10253 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=spamc -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
10254 -Sspamc-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \e
10255 -Sspamc-arguments="-U /tmp/.spamsock" -Sspamc-user=
10257 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=spamc -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
10258 -Sspamc-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \e
10259 -Sspamc-arguments="-d localhost -p 2142" -Sspamc-user=
10263 Using the generic filter approach allows usage of programs like
10265 Here is an example, requiring it to be accessible via
10268 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10269 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=filter -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
10270 -Sspamfilter-ham="bogofilter -n" \e
10271 -Sspamfilter-noham="bogofilter -N" \e
10272 -Sspamfilter-nospam="bogofilter -S" \e
10273 -Sspamfilter-rate="bogofilter -TTu 2>/dev/null" \e
10274 -Sspamfilter-spam="bogofilter -s" \e
10275 -Sspamfilter-rate-scanscore="1;^(.+)$"
10279 Because messages must exist on local storage in order to be scored (or
10280 used for Bayesian filter training), it is possibly a good idea to
10281 perform the local spam check last:
10283 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10284 define spamdelhook {
10286 spamset (header x-dcc-brand-metrics "bulk")
10287 # Server-side spamassassin(1)
10288 spamset (header x-spam-flag "YES")
10289 del :s # TODO we HAVE to be able to do `spamrate :u ! :sS'
10290 move :S +maybe-spam
10293 move :S +maybe-spam
10295 set folder-hook-FOLDER=spamdelhook
10299 See also the documentation for the variables
10300 .Va spam-interface , spam-maxsize ,
10301 .Va spamc-command , spamc-arguments , spamc-user ,
10302 .Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , spamfilter-nospam , \
10305 .Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore .
10313 In general it is a good idea to turn on
10319 twice) if something does not work well.
10320 Very often a diagnostic message can be produced that leads to the
10321 problems' solution.
10323 .\" .Ss "\*(UA shortly hangs on startup" {{{
10324 .Ss "\*(UA shortly hangs on startup"
10326 This can have two reasons, one is the necessity to wait for a file lock
10327 and cannot be helped, the other being that \*(UA calls the function
10329 in order to query the nodename of the box (sometimes the real one is
10330 needed instead of the one represented by the internal variable
10332 You may have varying success by ensuring that the real hostname and
10336 or, more generally, that the name service is properly setup \(en
10339 return what you would expect?
10340 Does this local hostname has a domain suffix?
10341 RFC 6762 standardized the link-local top-level domain
10345 .\" .Ss "\*(UA exits quick, and output is cleared away" {{{
10346 .Ss "\*(UA exits quick, and output is cleared away"
10348 When this happens even with
10350 set, then this most likely indicates a problem with the creation of
10351 so-called dotlock files: setting
10352 .Va dotlock-ignore-error
10353 should overcome this situation.
10354 This only avoids symptoms, it does not address the problem, though.
10355 Since the output is cleared away \*(UA has support for
10356 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" ,
10357 and switches to the
10359 which causes the output clearance: by doing
10360 .Ql set termcap='smcup='
10361 this mode can be suppressed, and by setting
10363 (twice) the actual problem should be reported.
10366 .\" .Ss "I cannot login to Google mail aka GMail" {{{
10367 .Ss "I cannot login to Google mail aka GMail"
10369 Since 2014 some free service providers classify programs as
10371 unless they use a special authentification method (OAuth 2.0) which
10372 was not standardized for non-HTTP protocol authentication token query
10373 until August 2015 (RFC 7628).
10376 Different to Kerberos / GSSAPI, which is developed since the mid of the
10377 1980s, where a user can easily create a local authentication ticket for
10378 her- and himself with the locally installed
10380 program, that protocol has no such local part but instead requires
10381 a world-wide-web query to create or fetch a token; since there is no
10382 local cache this query has to be performed whenever \*(UA is invoked
10383 from the command line (in interactive sessions situation may differ).
10386 \*(UA does not support OAuth.
10387 Because of this it is necessary to declare \*(UA a
10388 .Dq less secure app
10389 (on the providers account web page) in order to read and send mail.
10390 However, it also seems possible to take the following steps instead:
10395 give the provider the number of a mobile phone,
10398 .Dq 2-Step Verification ,
10400 create an application specific password (16 characters), and
10402 use that special password instead of your real Google account password in
10403 \*(UA (for more on that see the section
10404 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
10408 .\" .Ss "Not \(dqdefunctional\(dq, but the editor key does not work" {{{
10409 .Ss "Not \(dqdefunctional\(dq, but the editor key does not work"
10411 It can happen that the terminal library (see
10412 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor",
10415 reports different codes than the terminal really sends, in which case
10416 \*(UA will tell that a key binding is functional, but will not be able to
10417 recognize it because the received data does not match anything expected.
10418 The verbose listing of
10420 ings will show the byte sequences that are expected.
10423 To overcome the situation, use, e.g., the program
10425 in conjunction with the
10427 flag if available, to see the byte sequences which are actually produced
10428 by keypresses, and use the variable
10430 to make \*(UA aware of them.
10431 E.g., the terminal this is typed on produces some false sequences, here
10432 an example showing the shifted home key:
10434 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10437 # 1B 5B=[ 31=1 3B=; 32=2 48=H
10442 ? \*(uA -v -Stermcap='kHOM=\eE[H'
10451 .\" .Sh "SEE ALSO" {{{
10461 .Xr spamassassin 1 ,
10470 .Xr mailwrapper 8 ,
10475 .\" .Sh HISTORY {{{
10478 M. Douglas McIlroy writes in his article
10479 .Dq A Research UNIX Reader: Annotated Excerpts \
10480 from the Programmer's Manual, 1971-1986
10483 command already appeared in First Edition
10487 .Bd -ragged -offset indent
10488 Electronic mail was there from the start.
10489 Never satisfied with its exact behavior, everybody touched it at one
10490 time or another: to assure the safety of simultaneous access, to improve
10491 privacy, to survive crashes, to exploit uucp, to screen out foreign
10492 freeloaders, or whatever.
10493 Not until v7 did the interface change (Thompson).
10494 Later, as mail became global in its reach, Dave Presotto took charge and
10495 brought order to communications with a grab-bag of external networks
10501 Mail was written in 1978 by Kurt Shoens and developed as part of the
10504 distribution until 1995.
10505 Mail has then seen further development in open source
10507 variants, noticeably by Christos Zoulas in
10509 Basing upon this Nail, later Heirloom Mailx, was developed by Gunnar
10510 Ritter in the years 2000 until 2008.
10511 Since 2012 S-nail is maintained by Steffen (Daode) Nurpmeso.
10512 This man page is derived from
10513 .Dq The Mail Reference Manual
10514 that was originally written by Kurt Shoens.
10520 .An "Kurt Shoens" ,
10521 .An "Edward Wang" ,
10522 .An "Keith Bostic" ,
10523 .An "Christos Zoulas" ,
10524 .An "Gunnar Ritter" ,
10525 .An "Steffen Nurpmeso" Aq Mt s-nail-users@lists.sourceforge.net
10527 .Mt s-mailx@sdaoden.eu ) .
10530 .\" .Sh CAVEATS {{{
10533 \*(ID Interrupting an operation via
10537 is often problematic: many library functions cannot deal with the
10539 that this software (still) performs.
10542 The SMTP and POP3 protocol support of \*(UA is very basic.
10543 Also, if it fails to contact its upstream SMTP server, it will not make
10544 further attempts to transfer the message at a later time (setting
10549 If this is a concern, it might be better to set up a local SMTP server
10550 that is capable of message queuing.
10556 After deleting some message of a POP3 mailbox the header summary falsely
10557 claims that there are no messages to display, you need to perform
10558 a scroll or dot movement to restore proper state.
10560 In threaded display a power user may encounter crashes very
10561 occasionally (this is may and very).
10565 in the source repository lists future directions.