1 .\" Copyright (c) 1980, 1990, 1993
2 .\" The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
4 .\" Gunnar Ritter. All rights reserved.
5 .\" Copyright (c) 2012 - 2014 Steffen (Daode) Nurpmeso <sdaoden@users.sf.net>.
7 .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without
8 .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions
10 .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright
11 .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.
12 .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright
13 .\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the
14 .\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.
15 .\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software
16 .\" must display the following acknowledgement:
17 .\" This product includes software developed by the University of
18 .\" California, Berkeley and its contributors.
19 .\" This product includes software developed by Gunnar Ritter
20 .\" and his contributors.
21 .\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors
22 .\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software
23 .\" without specific prior written permission.
25 .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS 'AS IS' AND
26 .\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE
27 .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE
28 .\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE
29 .\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL
30 .\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS
31 .\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION)
32 .\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT
33 .\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY
34 .\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF
37 .\" S-nail(1): v14.7.3 / 2014-07-14
49 .\" If not ~/.mailrc, it breaks POSIX compatibility. And adjust main.c.
54 .ds OU [no v15-compat]
59 .Nd send and receive Internet mail
66 .Op Fl a Ar attachment
69 .Op Fl q Ar quote-file
71 .Op Fl S Ar variable Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value
77 .Op Fl - Ar mta-option ...
84 .Op Fl S Ar variable Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value
90 .Op Fl - Ar mta-option ...
96 .Op Fl S Ar variable Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value
99 .Op Fl - Ar mta-option ...
105 .Sh "TABLE OF CONTENTS"
110 . Sx USAGE INTRODUCTION
114 . Sx SPECIFYING MESSAGES
116 . Sx URL SYNTAX AND CREDENTIAL LOOKUP
120 . Sx COMMAND LINE EDITOR
126 . Sx VARIABLE OPTIONS
132 . Sx THE mime.types FILES
140 . Sx IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
147 .\" .Sh DESCRIPTION {{{
149 .Bd -filled -offset indent -compact
150 .Sy Compatibility note:
151 \*(UA and part of its configuration syntax will change in v15.0.
152 Until then there will exist a partial but growing number of
153 backward and forward compatibility configuration options.
154 To choose the new syntax and behaviour already today, the binary option
157 The manual will refer to it via \*(IN and \*(OU as necessary.
160 \*(UA is a mail processing system with a command syntax reminiscent of
162 with lines replaced by messages.
163 It is intended to provide the functionality of the POSIX
165 command and offers (mostly optional) extensions for line editing, IDNA,
166 MIME, S/MIME, SMTP and POP3 (and IMAP).
167 It is usable as a mail batch language.
169 In the following list of supported command line options,
177 are implemented by means of setting the respective option, as via
180 .Op Ar mta-option ...
182 arguments that are given at the end of the command line after an `--'
183 separator persist for an entire (interactive) session and will be passed
184 through unchanged to the mail-transfer-agent (MTA).
185 Additional MTA arguments can be specified via the option
186 .Va sendmail-arguments .
187 All of these are ignored when mail is send via SMTP data transfer.
189 .Bl -tag -width ".Fl A Ar account"
193 command (see below) for
195 after the startup files have been read.
197 Attach the given file to the message.
198 The same filename conventions as described in the section
202 Make standard input and standard output line-buffered.
204 Send blind carbon copies to the given list of addresses.
206 below goes into more detail on that.
208 Send carbon copies to the given list of addresses.
216 variable, which enables debug messages and disables message delivery.
217 Note that this is not a real `sandbox' mode.
221 variable and thus discard messages with an empty message part body.
222 This is useful for sending messages from scripts.
224 Just check if mail is present in the system mailbox.
225 If yes, return an exit status of zero, a non-zero value otherwise.
227 Save the message to send in a file named after the local part of the
228 first recipient's address.
230 Read in the contents of the user's
232 (or the specified file) for processing;
233 when \*(UA is quit, it writes undeleted messages back to this file.
236 is interpreted as described for the
241 is not a direct argument to the flag
243 but is instead taken from the command line after option processing has
246 Print a header summary of all messages and exit.
247 A configurable summary view is available via the
253 variable to ignore tty interrupt signals.
254 .It Fl L Ar spec-list
255 Print a header summary of only those messages that match the given
259 .Sx "Specifying messages"
264 option has been given in addition to
266 then printing of the header summary is suppressed,
267 and \*(UA will instead indicate via its exit status wether
269 matched any messages (`0') or not (`1');
270 note that messages are forcefully suppressed, then, and unless verbosity
271 is explicitly enabled (e.g., by using the
277 variable and thus inhibits the initial display of message headers when
278 reading mail or editing a mail folder.
280 Inhibits reading \*(UR upon startup.
281 This option should be activated for \*(UA scripts that are invoked on
282 more than one machine, because the contents of that file may differ
284 (The same behaviour can be achieved by setting the
285 .Ev NAIL_NO_SYSTEM_RC
286 environment variable.)
288 Start the message with the contents of the specified file.
289 May be given in send mode only.
291 Opens any folders read-only.
293 Sets the envelope sender address by passing an
296 option to the MTA when a message is send.
299 argument is given it'll be checked for validity and then fixated to
300 the given value, but otherwise the content of the variable
302 will be used for that purpose \(en i.e., it'll be passed through to
305 option whenever a message is send.
306 A valid non-empty value will also be set as if an additional
307 .Ns ` Ns Li "-Sfrom=VALUE" Ns '
308 option had been used and therefore affect sending of messages via SMTP
309 (as a consideration for `From:').
310 .It Fl S Ar variable Ns Op = Ns value
311 Sets the internal option
313 and, in case of a value option, assigns
316 Even though options set via
318 may be overwritten from within resource files,
319 the command line setting will be reestablished after all resources have
322 Specify the subject on the command line
323 (be careful to quote subjects containing spaces).
325 The message to be sent is expected to contain a message header with
326 `To:', `Cc:', or `Bcc:' fields giving its recipients and `Subject:'
327 giving the subject of the message.
328 Recipients and subject specified on the command line are ignored.
330 Read the system mailbox of
332 (appropriate privileges presumed), and `assume to be'
334 in some aspects, e.g. in respect to expansions of `%' etc.
338 Print \*(UA's version and exit.
342 option causes some verbosity (like printing of certificate chains).
343 Using it twice increases the level of verbosity.
347 even if not in interactive mode.
349 This sets multiple options to prepare \*(UA for working in batch mode
350 (most likely in non-interactive mode):
362 it also enables processing of
363 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
364 E.g., the following should send an email message to `alias'.
366 .Dl printf 'm alias\en~s Subject\enBody\en.\enx\en' | \
367 MAILRC=/dev/null s-nail -n -#
371 .\" .Sh "USAGE INTRODUCTION" {{{
372 .Sh "USAGE INTRODUCTION"
374 .\" .Ss "Sending mail" {{{
376 To send a message to one or more people,
377 \*(UA can be invoked with arguments which are the names of people to
378 whom the mail will be sent.
379 The user is then expected to type in the message contents.
380 In this compose mode \*(UA treats lines beginning with the character `~'
381 specially \(en these are so-called
383 which can be used to read in files, process shell commands, add and edit
384 attachments and more; e.g., the tilde escape `~e' will start the text
385 editor to revise the message in it's current state and `~h' allows
386 editing of the message recipients.
387 Typing `control-D' (`^D') at the beginning of an empty line leaves
388 compose mode and causes the message to be send.
390 \*(UA has a number of options which can be set in the \*(ur file
391 to alter its behavior, also in respect to sending; e.g.,
393 will automatically startup a text editor when compose mode is entered,
395 will cause the user to be prompted actively for carbon-copy recipients
398 option will allow leaving compose mode by writing a line consisting
399 solely of a dot (`.').
401 Message recipients (as specified in `To:', `Cc:' or `Bcc:') may not only
402 be email addressees but can also be names of mailboxes and even
403 complete pipe-command specifications.
404 Proper quoting may be necessary, e.g., to embed whitespace characters.
406 Any name which starts with a `|' (vertical bar) character
407 specifies a pipe \(en the command string following the `|' is executed
408 and the message is sent to its standard input;
409 Any other name which contains a `@' (at sign) character is treated as
411 Any other name which starts with a `+' (plus sign) character specifies
413 Any other name which contains a `/' (slash) character but no `!'
414 (exclamation mark) or `%' (percent sign) character before also specifies
416 What remains is treated as a network address (see
418 for a description of mail addresses).
420 It is possible to create personal distribution lists via the
422 command so that, for instance, the user can send mail to `cohorts'
423 and have it go to a group of people:
425 .Dl alias cohorts bill jkf mark kridle@ucbcory ~/mail/cohorts.mbox
427 Please note that this mechanism has nothing in common with the system
428 wide aliases that may be used by the local MTA (mail-transfer-agent)
429 and are often tracked in a file
436 Personal aliases will be expanded by \*(UA before the message is sent.
437 They are a convenient alternative to specifying each addressee by
441 .\" .Ss "Reading mail" {{{
443 When invoked without addressees \*(UA enters interactive mode in which
445 When used like that \*(UA checks mail out of the user's system mailbox,
446 then prints out a one line header of each message found.
449 option is set \*(UA will only print a notification message and exit if
450 the mailbox is empty.
451 Messages are given numbers (starting at 1) which uniquely identify
452 messages; the current message \(en the dot \(en will either be the first
453 new message, or the first unread message, or the first message of the
456 will reverse this behaviour by instead making the last respective
457 message the initial dot.
459 Messages can be printed with the
461 command, or short: `p'.
462 By default the current message (dot) is printed, but just like many
463 other commands it is possible to specify lists of messages, as is
465 .Sx "SPECIFYING MESSAGES" ;
466 e.g., `p:u' will display all unread messages, `p.' will print the dot,
467 `p 1 5' will print the messages 1 and 5 and `p-' and `p+' will print the
468 last and the next message, respectively.
469 Dependent upon the configuration a
470 .Sx "Command line editor"
471 aims at making user experience with the many
474 When reading the system mailbox or when
478 specified a mailbox explicitly prefixed with the special `%:' modifier
479 then messages which have been read will be moved to the user's
481 file automatically when the mailbox is left, either by changing the
482 active mailbox or by quitting \*(UA (also see
483 .Sx "MESSAGE STATES" Ns ) Ns .
485 After examining a message the user can also
490 Deletion causes the \*(UA program to forget about the message.
491 This is not irreversible;
494 (`u') the message by giving its number,
495 or the \*(UA session can be ended by giving the
498 Deleted messages will, however, usually disappear never to be seen
501 To end a mail processing session one may either issue
503 (`q') to cause a full program exit, which includes the possible
504 automatic move of read messages to
506 as well as updating the \*(OPal command line editor history file,
507 or perform the command
509 (`x') instead, which will not perform any of these actions.
512 .\" .Ss "Viewing HTML mail and MIME attachments" {{{
513 .Ss "Viewing HTML mail and MIME attachments"
514 Messages which are HTML-only get more and more common and of course many
515 messages come bundled with a bouquet of MIME attachments.
516 \*(UA can't deal with any of these itself, but instead programs need to
517 become registered to deal with specific MIME types or file extensions;
518 these programs may either prepare a plain text version of its input,
519 i.e., in order to enable \*(UA to display the content on the terminal
520 (or, as necessary and desired, through
522 ), or display the content themselves, for example in a graphical window.
523 The latter type of programs by default "blocks" \*(UA until the external
524 viewer has terminated, but asynchronous side-by-side execution is also
525 possible, in which case \*(UA will continue to display the message and
528 To install an external handler program for a specific MIME type set an
530 .Va pipe-CONTENT/SUBCONTENT
532 To define a handler for a specific file extension set the respective
534 variable \(en these handlers take precedence.
536 .Va mime-counter-evidence
537 can be set to improve dealing with faulty MIME part declarations as are
538 often seen in real-life messages.
539 E.g., to display a HTML message inline (that is, converted to plain
540 text) with either of the text-mode browsers
544 and to open PDF attachments in an external PDF viewer, asynchronously:
545 .Bd -literal -offset indent
546 #set pipe-text/html="elinks -force-html -dump 1"
547 set pipe-text/html="lynx -stdin -dump -force_html"
548 set pipe-application/pdf="@&cat > \e"/tmp/${NAIL_FILENAME}\e";\e
549 acroread \e"/tmp/${NAIL_FILENAME}\e";\e
550 rm \e"/tmp/${NAIL_FILENAME}\e""
553 Note: special care must be taken when using such commands as mail
554 viruses may be distributed by this method;
555 if messages of type `application/x-sh' or files with the extensions `sh'
556 were blindly filtered through the shell, for example, a message sender
557 could easily execute arbitrary code on the system \*(UA is running on.
558 For more on MIME, also in respect to sending of messages, see the
560 .Sx "The mime.types files"
565 .\" }}} (Usage introduction)
567 .\" .Sh "MESSAGE STATES" {{{
569 \*(UA differentiates in between the following message states:
570 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ar preserved"
572 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state.
573 Such messages are retained even in the system mailbox.
575 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state, but the
576 message was present already when the mailbox has been opened last:
577 Such messages are retained even in the system mailbox.
579 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
599 commands may also cause the next message to be marked as read, depending
603 Messages that are in the system mailbox or in mailboxes which were
604 opened with the special `%:' prefix and are in read state when the
605 mailbox is left (except when the
607 command is used) will be saved in
613 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
619 can be used to access such messages.
621 The message has been processed by a
623 command and it will be retained in its current location.
625 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
629 Messages that are in the system mailbox or in mailboxes which were
630 opened with the special `%:' prefix and are in saved state when the
631 mailbox is left (except when the
633 command is used) will be deleted; they will be saved in
641 .\" .Sh "SPECIFYING MESSAGES" {{{
642 .Sh "SPECIFYING MESSAGES"
647 can be given a list of message numbers as arguments to apply to a number
650 .Ns ` Ns Li "delete 1 2" Ns '
651 deletes messages 1 and 2,
653 .Ns ` Ns Li "delete 1-5" Ns '
654 will delete the messages 1 through 5.
655 In sorted or threaded mode (see the
660 .Ns ` Ns Li "delete 1-5" Ns '
661 will delete the messages that are located between (and including)
662 messages 1 through 5 in the sorted/threaded order, as shown in the
664 The following special message names exist:
666 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ar :n:u"
670 All old messages (any not in state read or new).
674 All deleted messages (for the
680 All `flagged' messages.
682 All answered messages
687 All messages marked as draft.
689 \*(OP All messages classified as spam.
693 The message that was previously the current message.
695 The parent message of the current message,
696 that is the message with the Message-ID given in the `In-Reply-To:' field
697 or the last entry of the `References:' field of the current message.
699 The next previous undeleted message,
700 or the next previous deleted message for the
703 In sorted/threaded mode,
704 the next previous such message in the sorted/threaded order.
706 The next undeleted message,
707 or the next deleted message for the
710 In sorted/threaded mode,
711 the next such message in the sorted/threaded order.
713 The first undeleted message,
714 or the first deleted message for the
717 In sorted/threaded mode,
718 the first such message in the sorted/threaded order.
721 In sorted/threaded mode,
722 the last message in the sorted/threaded order.
725 selects the message addressed with
729 is any other message specification,
730 and all messages from the thread that begins at it.
731 Otherwise it is identical to
736 the thread beginning with the current message is selected.
740 All messages that were included in the message list for the previous
742 .It Ar / Ns Ar string
743 All messages that contain
745 in the subject field (case ignored).
752 the string from the previous specification of that type is used again.
753 .It Xo Op Ar @ Ns Ar name-list Ns
756 All messages that contain the given case-insensitive search
758 ession; if the \*(OPal regular expression (see
762 will be interpreted as one if any of the `magic'al regular expression
765 .Ar @ Ns Ar name-list
766 part is missing, the search is restricted to the subject field body,
769 specifies a comma-separated list of header fields to search, as in
771 .Dl '@to,from,cc@Someone i ought to know'
773 The special name `header' (or `<') can be used to search in the header
774 of the message, and the special names `body' (or `>') and `text' (or `=')
775 can be used to perform full text searches \(en whereas the former
776 searches only the body, the latter also searches the message header.
777 In order to search for a string that includes a `@' (commercial at)
780 is effectively non-optional, but may be given as the empty string.
784 By default, this is a case-sensitive search for the complete email
789 only the local part of the addresses is evaluated for the comparison.
793 a case-sensitive search for the complete real name of a sender is
796 .Ns ` Ns Li "(from address)" Ns '
797 expression can be used instead if substring matches are desired.
801 \*(OP IMAP-style SEARCH expressions may also be used.
802 This addressing mode is available with all types of folders;
803 for folders not located on IMAP servers,
804 or for servers unable to execute the SEARCH command,
805 \*(UA will perform the search locally.
806 Strings must be enclosed by double quotes `"' in their entirety
807 if they contain white space or parentheses;
809 only backslash `\e' is recognized as an escape character.
810 All string searches are case-insensitive.
811 When the description indicates that the `envelope' representation of an
812 address field is used,
813 this means that the search string is checked against both a list
816 .Dl ( \*q Ns name Ns \*q \*q Ns source Ns \*q \*q Ns \
817 local-part Ns \*q \*q Ns domain-part Ns \*q )
820 and the addresses without real names from the respective header field.
821 These search expressions can be nested using parentheses, see below for
823 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ar :n:u"
825 All messages that satisfy the given
827 .It Ar ( criterion1 criterion2 ... criterionN )
828 All messages that satisfy all of the given criteria.
829 .It Ar ( or criterion1 criterion2 )
830 All messages that satisfy either
835 To connect more than two criteria using `or',
836 (or) specifications have to be nested using additional parentheses,
838 .Ns ` Ns Li "(or a (or b c))" Ns ',
840 .Ns ` Ns Li "(or a b c)" Ns '
842 .Ns ` Ns Li "((a or b) and c)" Ns '.
843 For a simple `or' operation of independent criteria on the lowest
845 it is possible to achieve similar effects by using three separate
847 .Ns ` Ns Li "(a) (b) (c)" Ns '.
848 .It Ar ( not criterion )
849 All messages that do not satisfy
851 .It Ar ( bcc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
852 All messages that contain
854 in the `envelope' representation of the `Bcc:' field.
855 .It Ar ( cc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
856 All messages that contain
858 in the `envelope' representation of the `Cc:' field.
859 .It Ar ( from \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
860 All messages that contain
862 in the `envelope' representation of the `From:' field.
863 .It Ar ( subject \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
864 All messages that contain
866 in the `Subject:' field.
867 .It Ar ( to \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
868 All messages that contain
870 in the `envelope' representation of the `To:' field.
871 .It Ar ( header name \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
872 All messages that contain
877 .It Ar ( body \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
878 All messages that contain
881 .It Ar ( text \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
882 All messages that contain
884 in their header or body.
885 .It Ar ( larger size )
886 All messages that are larger than
889 .It Ar ( smaller size )
890 All messages that are smaller than
893 .It Ar ( before date )
894 All messages that were received before
896 which must be in the form
897 .Li "d[d]-mon-yyyy" ,
898 where `d' denotes the day of the month as one or two digits,
899 `mon' is the name of the month \(en one of
900 `Jan', `Feb', `Mar', `Apr', `May', `Jun',
901 `Jul', `Aug', `Sep', `Oct', `Nov', or `Dec',
902 and `yyyy' is the year as four digits, e.g., "28-Dec-2012".
904 All messages that were received on the specified date.
905 .It Ar ( since date )
906 All messages that were received since the specified date.
907 .It Ar ( sentbefore date )
908 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
909 .It Ar ( senton date )
910 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
911 .It Ar ( sentsince date )
912 All messages that were sent since the specified date.
914 The same criterion as for the previous search.
915 This specification cannot be used as part of another criterion.
916 If the previous command line contained more than one independent
917 criterion then the last of those criteria is used.
921 .\" .Sh URL SYNTAX AND CREDENTIAL LOOKUP {{{
922 .Sh URL SYNTAX AND CREDENTIAL LOOKUP
923 \*(IN For accessing protocol-specific resources, like an IMAP mailbox,
924 usage of compact and standardized Uniform Resource Locators
925 (URL, RFC 1738) has become omnipresent.
926 \*(UA expects and understands URLs in the following form;
927 parts in brackets `[]' denote optional parts, optional either because
928 there also exist other ways to define the information in question or
929 because support of the part is protocol-specific \(en
930 e.g., `/path' is used by the IMAP protocol but not by POP3.
932 .Dl PROTOCOL://[USER[:PASSWORD]@]server[:port][/path]
934 If `USER' and `PASSWORD' are specified as part of an URL they must be
935 given in URL percent encoded (RFC 3986) form \(en the command
937 can be used to perform the encoding and show the encoded value.
938 (This doesn't really conform to any standard, but for one it isn't
939 used for any data exchange over the internet, and second it's easier for
942 on a string and use that instead of having to deal with several
943 different standards.)
944 On the other hand, values given in variables are expected not to be URL
947 Many variable options of \*(UA exist in multiple versions, called
948 variable-chains for the rest of this document: the plain `variable' as
949 well as `variable-HOST' and `variable-USER@HOST'.
950 Here `HOST' indeed means `server:port' if a `port' had been specified in
951 the respective URL, otherwise it refers to the plain `server'.
952 Also, `USER' isn't truly the `USER' that had been found when doing the
953 user chain lookup as is described below, i.e., this `USER' will never be
954 in URL percent encoded form, wether it came from an URL or not.
956 E.g., wether an hypothetic URL `smtp://hey%3Ayou@our.house' had been
957 given that includes a user, or wether the URL was `smtp://our.house' and
958 the user had been found differently, to lookup the variable chain
959 .Va smtp-use-starttls
960 \*(UA first looks for wether `smtp-use-starttls-hey:you@our.house'
961 is defined, then wether `smtp-use-starttls-our.house' exists before
962 finally ending up looking at the plain variable itself.
964 \*(UA adheres to the following logic scheme when dealing with the
965 necessary credential informations of an account:
966 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
968 If no `USER' is given the variables
972 are looked up; if no such variable(s) can be found then \*(UA will,
973 when enforced by the \*(OPal variables
974 .Va netrc-lookup-HOST
979 file for a `HOST' specific entry which provides a `login' name.
981 If there is still no `USER' then \*(UA will fall back to the user who is
982 supposed to run \*(UA: either the name that has been given with the
984 command line option (or, equivalent, but with less precedence, the
987 or `getpwuid(getuid())' a.k.a. the current user.
988 The identity of this user has been fixated during \*(UA startup and is
989 known to be a valid user on the current host.
991 Authentication: unless otherwise noted this will lookup the
992 .Va PROTOCOL-auth-USER@HOST ,
993 .Va PROTOCOL-auth-HOST ,
995 variable chain, falling back to a protocol-specific default should this
998 If no `PASSWORD' has been given in the URL \(en it should be noted once
999 that specifying the password in the URL is only syntactic sugar for the
1000 user, it'll never be part of an URL that \*(UA uses itself \(en,
1001 then if the `USER' has been found through the \*(OPal
1003 then that may have already provided the password, too.
1004 Otherwise the variable chain
1005 .Va password-USER@HOST ,
1010 \*(OP Then if any of the variables of the chain
1011 .Va agent-shell-lookup-USER@HOST ,
1012 .Va agent-shell-lookup-HOST
1014 .Va agent-shell-lookup
1015 is set the shell command specified therein is run and the output (less
1016 newline characters) will be used as the password.
1017 It is perfectly valid for such an agent to simply not return any data,
1018 in which case the password lookup is continued somewhere else;
1019 Any command failure is treated as a hard error, however.
1021 The next variable chain that is inspected is the \*(OPal
1022 .Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST ,
1023 .Va netrc-lookup-HOST ,
1025 but this time looking only for the password (multiple user accounts
1026 for a single machine may exist as well as a fallback entry without
1027 user but with a password).
1029 If at that point there is still no password available, but the
1030 (protocols') chosen authentication type requires a password, then in
1031 interactive mode the user will be prompted on the terminal.
1035 For SMTP the rules are a bit more complicated, since \*(UA will always
1038 instead of a given SMTP account in respect to S/MIME
1039 .Ns ( Va smime-sign ,
1042 .Va smime-sign-include-certs )
1043 \(en this is because S/MIME verification works relative to the values
1044 found in `From:' (or `Sender:').
1045 In unusual cases multiple and different `USER' and `HOST' combinations
1046 may therefore be involved when looking up values that make up an SMTP
1047 account; on the other hand those unusual cases become possible.
1048 The usual case may be as short as:
1050 .Dl set smtp=USER:PASS@HOST smtp-auth=plain smtp-use-starttls \e
1051 .Dl \ \ \ \ smime-sign smime-sign-cert=+smime.pair
1054 .\" .Sh CHARACTER SETS {{{
1056 \*(OP \*(UA detects the character set of the terminal by using
1057 mechanisms that are controlled by the
1062 should give an overview); the \*(UA internal variable
1064 will be set to the detected terminal character set accordingly
1065 and will thus show up in the output of the command
1068 However, a user supplied
1070 value is not overwritten by this detection mechanism;
1071 this feature must be used if the detection doesn't work properly,
1072 and it may be used to adjust the name of the locale character set.
1073 E.g., on BSD systems one may use a locale with the character set
1074 `ISO8859-1', which is not a valid name for this character set;
1075 to be on the safe side, one may set
1077 to the correct name, `ISO-8859-1'.
1079 Note that changing the value doesn't mean much beside that,
1080 since several aspects of the real character set are implied by the
1081 locale environment of the system,
1082 and that stays unaffected by the content of an overwritten
1085 (This is mostly an issue when interactively using \*(UA, though.
1086 It is actually possible to send mail in a completely "faked" locale
1089 If no character set conversion capabilities have been compiled into
1092 library has been found), then
1094 will be the only supported character set,
1095 it is simply assumed that it can be used to exchange 8 bit messages,
1096 and the rest of this section does not apply;
1097 it may however still be necessary to explicitly set it if automatic
1098 detection fails, since in that case it defaults to `ISO-8859-1'.
1100 When reading messages, their text is converted into
1102 as necessary in order to display them on the users terminal.
1103 Unprintable characters and invalid byte sequences are detected
1104 and replaced by proper substitution characters
1105 (unless the variable
1107 was set once \*(UA was started).
1109 When sending messages all their parts and attachments are classified.
1110 Whereas no character set conversion is performed on those parts which
1111 appear to be binary data,
1112 the character set being used must be declared within the MIME header of
1113 an outgoing text part if it contains characters that do not conform to
1114 the set of characters that are allowed by the email standards.
1115 Permissible values for character sets can be declared using the
1119 which defines a catch-all last-resort fallback character set that is
1120 implicitly appended to the list of character-sets in
1123 All the specified character sets are tried in order unless the
1124 conversion of the part or attachment succeeds.
1125 If none of the tried (8 bit) character sets is capable to represent the
1126 content of the part or attachment,
1127 then the message will not be sent and its text will be saved to
1129 In general, if the message `Cannot convert from a to b' appears, either
1130 some characters are not appropriate for the currently selected
1131 (terminal) character set,
1132 or the needed conversion is not supported by the system.
1133 In the first case, it is necessary to set an appropriate `LC_CTYPE'
1134 locale and/or the variable
1137 The best results are usually achieved when \*(UA is run in a UTF-8
1138 locale on a UTF-8 capable terminal,
1139 in which case the full Unicode spectrum of characters is available.
1140 In this setup characters from various countries can be displayed,
1141 while it is still possible to use more simple character sets for sending
1142 to retain maximum compatibility with older mail clients.
1145 .\" .Sh COMMAND LINE EDITOR {{{
1146 .Sh COMMAND LINE EDITOR
1147 \*(OP \*(UA can be configured to support a command line editor and
1148 command history lists which are saved in between sessions.
1149 One may link against fully-fledged external libraries
1150 .Ns ( Ns Xr readline 3 ,
1152 ) or use \*(UA's own command line editor NCL (nail-command-line)
1153 instead, which should work in all environments which comply to ISO
1154 C (ISO/IEC 9899:1990/Amendment 1:1995).
1155 When an external library is used, interactive behaviour of \*(UA relies
1156 on that library and may not correspond one-to-one to what is described
1159 Regardless of the actually used command line editor history entries
1160 will be created for lines entered in command mode only, and creation of
1161 such an entry can be forcefully suppressed by starting the line with
1163 Note that history handling is by itself an optional feature and may
1164 therefore not be available.
1165 For more information see the documentation of the options
1168 .Va line-editor-disable ,
1173 The builtin \*(UA command line editor supports the following operations;
1174 the notation `^-character' stands for the combination of the `control'
1175 key plus the mentioned character, e.g., `^A' means "hold control key
1176 while adding an A key on top of it":
1177 .Bl -tag -width "^M^"
1179 Go to the start of the line.
1181 Move the cursor backward one character.
1183 Forward delete the character under the cursor;
1184 quits \*(UA if used on the empty line, unless the
1188 Go to the end of the line.
1190 Move the cursor forward one character.
1192 Cancel current operation, full reset.
1193 If there is an active history search or tabulator expansion then this
1194 command will first reset that, reverting to the former line content;
1195 thus a second reset is needed for a full reset in this case.
1196 In all cases \*(UA will reset a possibly used multibyte character input
1199 The same as `backspace': backward delete one character.
1201 \*(OP The same as `horizontal tabulator': try to expand the "word"
1203 Here "expansion" refers to the \*(UA expansion, as documented for
1205 and thus includes shell word expansion (as a last step).
1206 I.e., this is \*(UA "expansion", not what one usually expects from
1209 The same as `ENTER': complete this line of input.
1211 Delete all characters from the cursor to the end of the line.
1215 \*(OP Go to the next history entry.
1220 \*(OP Go to the previous history entry.
1222 \*(OP Complete the current line from (the remaining older) history entries.
1224 The same as `^A' followed by `^K'.
1226 Delete the characters from the one preceding the cursor to the preceding
1229 Move the cursor forward one word boundary.
1231 Move the cursor backward one word boundary.
1234 If problems with commands that are based upon rightwise movement are
1235 encountered, adjustments of the option
1236 .Va line-editor-cursor-right
1237 may solve the problem, as documented for it.
1239 If the terminal produces key sequences which are compatible with
1241 then the left and right cursor keys will map to `^B' and `^F',
1242 respectively, the up and down cursor keys will map to `^P' and `^N',
1243 and the Home/End/PgUp/PgDown keys will call the
1245 command with the respective arguments `0', `$', `-' and `+'
1246 (i.e., perform scrolling through the header summary list).
1249 .\" .Ss "Coloured message display" {{{
1250 .Ss "Coloured message display"
1251 \*(OP \*(UA can be configured to support coloured message display.
1252 Colours are used only when the
1254 environment variable is set and the terminal type can be found in
1256 (or includes the string "color").
1257 On top of that the binary option
1259 defines wether ANSI colour sequences are generated when the output
1260 of a command needs to go through the
1264 ); this is not enabled by default.
1266 "Coloured message display" can be configured through font attributes
1267 (`ft=' \(en `bold', `invers' and `underline'), foreground (`fg=') and
1268 background (`bg=') colours (`black', `blue', `green', `red', `brown',
1269 `magenta', `cyan' and `white').
1270 Multiple specifications can be joined in a comma separated list, as in
1272 .Dl set colour-msginfo="ft=bold,fg=magenta,bg=cyan"
1274 Options to be set are
1275 .Va colour-msginfo ,
1276 .Va colour-partinfo ,
1280 .Va colour-uheader ,
1282 .Va colour-user-headers ,
1283 which is a list of headers to be colourized via
1285 instead of the default
1287 To forcefully disable colours, set
1288 .Va colour-disable .
1291 .\" .Sh "COMMANDS" {{{
1293 Each command is typed on a line by itself,
1294 and may take arguments following the command word.
1295 The command need not be typed in its entirety \(en
1296 the first command which matches the typed prefix is used.
1299 prints a sorted list of available commands, and the command
1301 when given an argument, will show a documentation string for the
1303 .Ns ` Ns Ic ? Ns Ar unc Ns ' ;
1304 documentation strings are however \*(OP.)
1306 For commands which take message lists as arguments,
1307 if no message list is given,
1308 then the next message forward which satisfies the command's requirements
1310 If there are no messages forward of the current message,
1311 the search proceeds backwards,
1312 and if there are no good messages at all,
1313 \*(UA types `no applicable messages' and aborts the command.
1314 If the command begins with a `#' (number sign) character,
1315 the line is ignored.
1317 The arguments to commands can be quoted, using the following methods:
1318 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
1320 An argument can be enclosed between paired double-quotes `"argument"' or
1321 single-quotes `'argument'';
1322 any white space, shell word expansion, or backslash characters (except
1323 as described next) within the quotes are treated literally as part of
1325 A double-quote will be treated literally within single-quotes and vice
1327 Inside such a quoted string the actually used quote character can be
1328 used nonetheless by escaping it with a backslash `\\', as in
1331 An argument that is not enclosed in quotes, as above, can usually still
1332 contain space characters if those spaces are backslash-escaped.
1334 A backslash outside of the enclosing quotes is discarded
1335 and the following character is treated literally as part of the argument.
1337 An unquoted backslash at the end of a command line is discarded and the
1338 next line continues the command.
1341 Filenames, where expected, are subsequently subjected to the following
1342 transformations, in sequence:
1343 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
1345 If the filename begins with an unquoted plus sign, and the
1347 variable is defined,
1348 the plus sign will be replaced by the value of the
1350 variable followed by a slash.
1353 variable is unset or is set to null, the filename will be unchanged.
1355 Shell word expansions are applied to the filename.
1356 If more than a single pathname results from this expansion and the
1357 command is expecting one file, an error results.
1361 The following commands are available:
1362 .Bl -tag -width ".Ic account"
1364 This is the comment-command and causes the entire line to be ignored.
1365 Note: since it is a normal command you cannot have trailing comments in
1366 lines from resource files etc.
1368 Interprets the remainder of the word as a macro name and passes it
1372 .Ns ` Ns Ic ~ Ns Ar mymacro Ns '
1373 is a shorter synonym for
1374 .Ns ` Ns Ic call Ar mymacro Ns ' .
1376 Print out the preceding message.
1377 If given a numeric argument n,
1378 goes to the n'th previous message and prints it.
1380 Prints a brief summary of commands.
1381 \*(OP Given an argument a synopsis for the command in question is
1383 note it is possible to abbreviate the command and see the expansion
1384 \(en try, e.g., `?h', `?hel' and `?help' and see how the display changes.
1386 Executes the shell (see
1390 ) command which follows.
1396 (ac) Creates, selects or lists an email account.
1397 An account is formed by a group of commands,
1398 primarily of those to set variables.
1400 of which the second is a `{',
1401 the first argument gives an account name,
1402 and the following lines create a group of commands for that account
1403 until a line containing a single `}' appears.
1404 With one argument the previously created group of commands for the
1405 account name is executed, and a
1407 command is executed for the system mailbox or inbox of that account.
1408 Without arguments the list of accounts and their contents are printed.
1410 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1412 set folder=imaps://mylogin@imap.myisp.example
1414 set from="myname@myisp.example (My Name)"
1415 set smtp=smtp://mylogin@smtp.myisp.example
1419 creates an account named `myisp' which can later be selected by
1420 specifying `account myisp'.
1421 The special account `null' (case-insensitive) always exists.
1423 can be used to localize account settings.
1424 Accounts can be deleted via
1427 (a) With no arguments, prints out all currently-defined aliases.
1428 With one argument, prints out that alias.
1429 With more than one argument,
1430 creates a new alias or changes an old one.
1432 can be used to delete aliases.
1434 (alt) The alternates command is useful if the user has accounts on
1436 It can be used to inform \*(UA that the listed addresses all belong to
1438 When replying to messages \*(UA will not send a copy of the message
1439 to any of the addresses listed on the alternates list.
1440 If the alternates command is given with no argument,
1441 the current set of alternate names is displayed.
1443 (ans) Takes a message list and marks each message as having been
1445 This mark has no technical meaning in the mail system;
1446 it just causes messages to be marked in the header summary,
1447 and makes them specially addressable.
1449 \*(OP Only applicable to cached IMAP mailboxes;
1450 takes a message list and reads the specified messages into the IMAP
1453 Calls a macro (see the
1460 \*(OP Only applicable to S/MIME signed messages.
1461 Takes a message list and a file name and saves the certificates
1462 contained within the message signatures to the named file in both
1463 human-readable and PEM format.
1464 The certificates can later be used to send encrypted messages to the
1465 respective message senders by setting
1466 .Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
1469 (ch) Changes the user's working directory to the specified one,
1470 or to the user's login directory, if none was given.
1473 Only applicable to threaded mode.
1474 Takes a message list and makes all replies to these messages invisible
1475 in header summaries,
1476 unless they are in state `new'.
1478 \*(OP (conn) If operating in disconnected mode on an IMAP mailbox,
1479 switch to online mode and connect to the mail server while retaining the
1481 See the description of the
1483 variable for more information.
1485 (c) The copy command does the same thing that
1487 does except that it does not mark the given messages for deletion when
1489 Compressed files and IMAP mailboxes are handled as described for the
1495 but saves the messages in a file named after the local part of the
1496 sender address of the first message.
1498 Print the current working directory.
1500 \*(OP (dec) For unencrypted messages,
1501 this command is identical to
1503 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
1505 \*(OP (Dec) Similar to
1507 but saves the messages in a file named after the local part of the
1508 sender address of the first message.
1510 (def) Without arguments the current list of macros, including their
1511 content, is printed.
1512 If arguments are given this command defines a macro.
1513 A macro definition is a sequence of commands in the following form:
1514 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1523 A defined macro can be explicitly invoked using
1527 or it can be implicitly invoked by setting the
1530 .Va folder-hook-fullname
1532 Macros can be deleted via
1535 (d) Takes a list of messages as argument and marks them all as deleted.
1536 Deleted messages will not be saved in
1538 nor will they be available for most other commands.
1543 \*(OP (disco) If operating in online mode on an IMAP mailbox,
1544 switch to disconnected mode while retaining the mailbox status.
1545 See the description of the
1548 A list of messages may optionally be given as argument;
1549 the respective messages are then read into the cache before the
1550 connection is closed.
1551 Thus `disco *' makes the entire mailbox available for disconnected use.
1552 .It Ic dp Ns \ or Ic dt
1553 Deletes the current message and prints the next message.
1554 If there is no next message, \*(UA says `at EOF'.
1556 Takes a message list and marks each given message as a draft.
1557 This mark has no technical meaning in the mail system;
1558 it just causes messages to be marked in the header summary,
1559 and makes them specially addressable.
1561 Echoes its arguments,
1562 resolving special names as documented for the command
1564 The escape sequences `\ea', `\eb', `\ec', `\ef', `\en', `\er', `\et',
1565 `\ev', `\e\e', and `\e0octal-num\fR' are interpreted just as they are by
1567 (proper quoting provided).
1569 (e) Point the text editor at each message from the given list in turn.
1570 Modified contents are discarded unless the
1579 conditional \(em if the condition of a preceeding
1581 was false, check the following condition and execute the following block
1582 if it evaluates true.
1589 conditional \(em if none of the conditions of the preceeding
1593 commands was true, the
1602 conditional execution block.
1604 (ex or x) Effects an immediate return to the Shell without modifying the
1605 user's system mailbox, his
1607 file, or his edit file in
1609 as well as a possibly tracked command line editor history file.
1611 Print the list of features that have been compiled into \*(UA.
1613 (fi) The file command switches to a new mailbox.
1614 With no arguments, it tells the user which mailbox is the active one.
1615 If an argument is given, it will write out changes (such as deletions)
1616 the user has made and open a new mailbox; the command
1618 can be used to open a mailbox and make it readonly.
1619 Some special conventions are recognized for the
1622 .Bl -tag -offset indent -width ".Ar %:filespec"
1624 (number sign) means the previous file,
1626 (percent sign) means the invoking user's system mailbox
1631 means the system mailbox of `user'
1632 (and never the value of
1634 regardless of its actual setting),
1636 (ampersand) means the invoking user's
1640 means a `file' in the
1644 expands to the same value as `filespec',
1645 but the file is handled as a system mailbox by, e.g., the
1649 commands, meaning that messages that have been read in the current
1650 session will be moved to the
1652 mailbox instead of simply being flagged as read.
1655 If the name matches one of the strings defined with the command
1657 it is replaced by its long form and expanded.
1658 If the name ends with `.gz', `.bz2' or `.xz' it is treated as being
1664 respectively, and transparently handled through an intermediate
1665 (un)compression step (using a temporary file) with the respective
1666 utility, which thus must be available in the path.
1667 Likewise, if the named file doesn't exist, but a file with one of the
1668 mentioned compression extensions does, then the name is automatically
1669 expanded and the compressed file is used.
1670 If `name' refers to a directory with the subdirectories `tmp', `new',
1671 and `cur', then it is treated as a folder in `maildir' format.
1674 .Dl \*(IN protocol://[user[:password]@]host[:port][/path]
1675 .Dl \*(OU protocol://[user@]host[:port][/path]
1677 is taken as an Internet mailbox specification.
1678 The \*(OPally supported protocols are `imap' (IMAP v4r1), `imaps'
1679 (IMAP with SSL/TLS encrypted transport), `pop3' (POP3) and `pop3s' (POP3
1680 with SSL/TLS encrypted transport).
1681 The `[/path]' part is valid only for IMAP; there it defaults to `INBOX'.
1682 Also see the section
1683 .Sx "URL SYNTAX AND CREDENTIAL LOOKUP" .
1685 \*(OU If `user' contains special characters, in particular `/' or `%',
1686 they must be escaped in URL notation \(en the command
1688 can be used to show the necessary conversion.
1689 The optional `path' part applies to IMAP only;
1690 if it is omitted, the default `INBOX' is used.
1692 If \*(UA is connected to an IMAP server,
1693 a name of the form `@mailbox' refers to the `mailbox' on that server,
1694 but otherwise a `@' prefix has no special meaning.
1696 (fl) Takes a message list and marks the messages as `flagged' for
1697 urgent/special attention.
1698 This mark has no technical meaning in the mail system;
1699 it just causes messages to be highlighted in the header summary,
1700 and makes them specially addressable.
1705 With no arguments, list the names of the folders in the folder directory.
1706 With an existing folder as an argument,
1707 lists the names of folders below the named folder;
1708 e.\|g. the command `folders @' lists the folders on the base level of
1709 the current IMAP server.
1710 See also the variable
1711 .Va imap-list-depth .
1715 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
1716 recipient's address.
1720 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
1721 recipient's address.
1725 but responds to all recipients regardless of the
1730 .It Ic followupsender
1733 but responds to the sender only regardless of the
1739 (fwd) Takes a message and the address of a recipient
1740 and forwards the message to him.
1741 The text of the original message is included in the new one,
1742 with the value of the
1744 variable printed before.
1749 commands specify which header fields are included in the new message.
1750 Only the first part of a multipart message is included unless the
1751 .Va forward-as-attachment
1756 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the
1757 recipient's address.
1759 (f) Takes a list of messages and prints their message headers,
1760 piped through the pager if the output does not fit on the screen.
1762 Specifies which header fields are to be ignored with the command
1764 This command has no effect when the
1765 .Va forward-as-attachment
1768 Specifies which header fields are to be retained with the command
1773 This command has no effect when the
1774 .Va forward-as-attachment
1777 Without arguments it lists all currently defined command aliases,
1779 With two arguments it defines a new command alias: the first argument is
1780 the name under which the second should be accessible.
1781 The content of the second argument can be just about anything.
1782 A ghost can be used everywhere a normal command can be used, but always
1783 takes precedence; any arguments that are given to the command alias are
1784 joined onto the alias content, and the resulting string forms the
1785 command line that is, in effect, executed.
1789 .Dl ? ghost ls '!ls -latro'
1792 (h) Lists the current range of headers, which is an 18-message group.
1793 If a `+' argument is given the next 18-message group is printed,
1794 likewise the previous is printed if the argument was `-'.
1803 the list of history entries;
1806 argument selects and shows the respective history entry \(en
1807 press `ENTER' to accept it, and the history entry will become the new
1809 The default mode if no arguments are given is
1812 (ho, also preserve) Takes a message list and marks each message therein
1813 to be saved in the user's system mailbox instead of in
1815 Does not override the
1818 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command,
1821 command issued after
1823 will display the following message, not the current one.
1825 Part of the nestable
1830 conditional execution construct \(em if the given condition is false
1831 execute the following block.
1832 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1840 Note that POSIX only supports the conditions `[Rr]eceive', `[Ss]end'
1841 and `[Tt]erm' (execute if standard input is a tty).
1842 Extensions are `0' (never execute) and `1' (always execute);
1843 it is also possible to conditionalize upon wether an option is set,
1844 or set to a specific value, by using the `$' conditional trigger, e.g.:
1845 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1849 if $encoding == "UTF-8"
1852 if $encoding != "UTF-8"
1857 The first form simply checks wether an option is set, the other two also
1858 perform value content comparison (equality and non-equality,
1859 respectively); an unset value is treated as the empty string, then.
1860 The \*(OPal regular expression support adds `=~' and `!~' tests, which
1861 treat the right hand side as a regular expression that is matched
1862 case-insensitively, e.g., `^UTF.*' (see
1866 Add the list of header fields named to the ignored list.
1867 Header fields in the ignore list are not printed on the terminal when
1868 a message is printed.
1869 This command is very handy for suppression of certain machine-generated
1875 commands can be used to print a message in its entirety, including
1877 It lists the current set of ignored fields if no arguments were given.
1879 \*(OP Sends command strings directly to the current IMAP server.
1880 \*(UA operates always in IMAP `selected state' on the current mailbox;
1881 commands that change this will produce undesirable results and should be
1883 Useful IMAP commands are:
1884 .Bl -tag -offset indent -width ".Ic getquotearoot"
1886 Takes the name of an IMAP mailbox as an argument and creates it.
1888 (RFC 2087) Takes the name of an IMAP mailbox as an argument
1889 and prints the quotas that apply to the mailbox.
1890 Not all IMAP servers support this command.
1892 (RFC 2342) Takes no arguments and prints the Personal Namespaces,
1893 the Other User's Namespaces and the Shared Namespaces.
1894 Each namespace type is printed in parentheses;
1895 if there are multiple namespaces of the same type,
1896 inner parentheses separate them.
1897 For each namespace a prefix and a hierarchy separator is listed.
1898 Not all IMAP servers support this command.
1904 Prints the names of all available commands, alphabetically sorted.
1906 Can only be used inside of a macro definition block introduced by
1910 and is interpreted as a boolean (value `0' means false, everything
1912 Any option that had been set while `localopts' was in effect will be
1913 reverted to its former value once the block is left / the `account'
1915 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1916 define temporary_settings {
1926 Note that these options stack upon each other, i.e., if macro1 sets
1927 `localopts' and calls macro2, which explicitly resets `localopts', then
1928 any values set within macro2 will still be cleaned up by macro1.
1932 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
1933 recipient's address.
1935 (m) Takes a (list of) recipient address(es) as (an) argument(s),
1936 or asks on standard input if none were given;
1937 then collects the remaining mail content and sends it out.
1939 The given message list is to be sent to `mbox' when \*(UA is quit.
1940 This is the default action unless the
1943 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command, as a
1945 command issued after
1947 will display the following message, not the current one.
1956 In the former case all sources are loaded first as necessary.
1958 .Va mimetypes-load-control
1959 option can be used to fine-tune which sources are loaded.
1963 but marks the messages for deletion if they were transferred
1966 Takes a message list and invokes the
1968 on that list, printing a form-feed (`\\f') in between messages.
1972 but also prints ignored header fields and all MIME parts.
1976 but moves the messages to a file named after the local part of the
1977 sender address of the first message.
1986 In the former case the file is loaded first as necessary.
1990 .Sx "URL SYNTAX AND CREDENTIAL LOOKUP" ;
1993 documents the file format in detail.
1995 Checks for new mail in the current folder without committing any changes
1997 If new mail is present, a message is printed.
2001 the headers of each new message are also printed.
2003 (n) (like `+' or `ENTER') Goes to the next message in sequence
2005 With an argument list, types the next matching message.
2013 If the current folder is located on an IMAP or POP3 server,
2014 a `NOOP' command is sent.
2015 Otherwise, no operation is performed.
2019 but also pipes ignored header fields and all parts of MIME
2020 `multipart/alternative' messages.
2022 (pi) Takes a message list and a shell command
2023 and pipes the messages through the command.
2024 Without an argument the current message is piped through the command
2031 every message is followed by a formfeed character.
2038 but also prints out ignored header fields and all parts of MIME
2039 `multipart/alternative' messages.
2046 (p) Takes a message list and types out each message on the user's
2048 If the message is a MIME multipart message,
2049 all parts with a content type of `text' or `message' are shown,
2050 the other are hidden except for their headers.
2051 Messages are decrypted and converted to the terminal character set
2054 (q) Terminates the session, saving all undeleted, unsaved messages in
2057 preserving all messages marked with
2061 or never referenced in his system mailbox,
2062 and removing all other messages from his system mailbox.
2063 If new mail has arrived during the session,
2064 the message `You have new mail' is given.
2065 If given while editing a mailbox file with the command line flag
2067 then the edit file is rewritten.
2068 A return to the shell is effected,
2069 unless the rewrite of edit file fails,
2070 in which case the user can escape with the exit command.
2078 (rem) Removes the named folders.
2079 The user is asked for confirmation in interactive mode.
2081 (ren) Takes the name of an existing folder
2082 and the name for the new folder
2083 and renames the first to the second one.
2084 Both folders must be of the same type
2085 and must be located on the current server for IMAP.
2087 (R) Reply to originator.
2088 Does not reply to other recipients of the original message.
2090 (r) Takes a message list and sends mail to the sender and all recipients
2091 of the specified messages.
2092 The default message must not be deleted.
2096 but responds to all recipients regardless of the
2104 but responds to the sender only regardless of the
2112 but does not add any header lines.
2113 This is not a way to hide the sender's identity,
2114 but useful for sending a message again to the same recipients.
2116 Takes a list of messages and a user name
2117 and sends each message to the named user.
2118 `Resent-From:' and related header fields are prepended to the new copy
2129 .It Ic respondsender
2133 Add the list of header fields named to the retained list.
2134 Only the header fields in the retain list are shown on the terminal when
2135 a message is printed, all other header fields are suppressed.
2140 commands can be used to print a message in its entirety.
2141 The current set of retained fields is shown if
2143 is used without arguments.
2145 Without arguments this prints informations about the current mailbox,
2146 otherwise it switches to a new mailbox and makes it readonly; also see
2154 but saves the messages in a file named after the local part of the
2155 sender of the first message instead of taking a filename argument.
2157 (s) Takes a message list and a filename and appends each message in turn
2158 to the end of the file.
2159 If no filename is given, the
2162 The filename in quotes, followed by the line count and character count
2163 is echoed on the user's terminal.
2164 If editing a system mailbox the messages are marked for deletion.
2165 Compressed files and IMAP mailboxes are handled as described for the
2167 command line option above.
2180 Header fields thus marked are filtered out when saving a message by
2182 or when automatically saving to
2184 This command should only be applied to header fields that do not contain
2185 information needed to decode the message,
2186 as MIME content fields do.
2187 If saving messages on an IMAP account ignoring fields makes it
2188 impossible to copy the data directly on the server,
2189 thus operation usually becomes much slower.
2199 Header fields thus marked are the only ones saved with a message when
2202 or when automatically saving to
2207 The use of this command is strongly discouraged since it may strip
2208 header fields that are needed to decode the message correctly.
2210 Takes a message list and marks all messages as having been read.
2212 (se) With no arguments, prints all variable values.
2213 Otherwise, sets an option.
2214 Arguments are of the form `option=value' (no space before or after `='),
2215 or plain `option' if there is no value.
2216 Quotation marks may be placed around any part of the assignment
2217 statement to quote blanks or tabs, e.g.,
2219 .Dl set indentprefix="->"
2221 If an argument begins with `no', as in `set nosave',
2222 the effect is the same as invoking the
2224 command with the remaining part of the variable (`unset save').
2228 except that the options are also exported into the program environment;
2229 since this task requires native host support the command will always
2230 report error if that is not available (but still act like
2233 This operation is a no-op unless all resource files have been loaded.
2237 (sh) Invokes an interactive version of the shell.
2239 Defines a shortcut name and its string for expansion,
2240 as described for the
2243 If used without arguments the currently defined shortcuts are printed.
2247 but performs neither MIME decoding nor decryption so that the raw
2248 message text is shown.
2250 Print the size in characters of each message of the given message-list.
2252 Create a sorted representation of the current folder,
2255 command and the addressing modes such that they refer to messages in the
2257 Message numbers are the same as in regular mode.
2261 a header summary in the new order is also printed.
2262 Possible sorting criteria are:
2263 .Bl -tag -offset indent -width "subject"
2265 Sort the messages by their `Date:' field,
2266 that is by the time they were sent.
2268 Sort messages by the value of their `From:' field,
2269 that is by the address of the sender.
2273 the sender's real name (if any) is used.
2275 Sort the messages by their size.
2277 \*(OP Sort the message by their spam score, as has been classified via
2281 Sort the messages by their message status (new, read, old, etc.).
2283 Sort the messages by their subject.
2285 Create a threaded order,
2289 Sort messages by the value of their `To:' field,
2290 that is by the address of the recipient.
2294 the recipient's real name (if any) is used.
2297 If no argument is given,
2298 the current sorting criterion is printed.
2300 The source command reads commands from a file.
2302 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and clears their `is-spam' flag.
2304 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and forces the spam detector to forget it
2305 has ever used them to train its Bayesian filter, wether as `ham' or
2308 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and teaches them to the spam detector as
2310 This also clears the `is-spam' flag of the messages in question.
2312 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and rates them using the configured spam
2313 detector, setting their `is-spam' flag as appropriate.
2314 Note that the messages are not modified, and due to that the rating will
2315 get lost once the mailbox is left.
2316 Refer to the manual section
2318 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
2320 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and sets their `is-spam' flag.
2322 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and teaches them to the spam detector as
2324 This also sets the `is-spam' flag of the messages in question.
2326 (th) Create a threaded representation of the current folder,
2327 i.\|e. indent messages that are replies to other messages in the header
2328 display and change the
2330 command and the addressing modes such that they refer to messages in the
2332 Message numbers are the same as in unthreaded mode.
2336 a header summary in threaded order is also printed.
2338 Takes a message list and prints the top few lines of each.
2339 The number of lines printed is controlled by the variable
2341 and defaults to five.
2343 Takes a message list and marks the messages for saving in
2345 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command,
2348 command issued after `touch' will display the following message instead
2351 (T) Identical to the
2358 Delete all given accounts.
2359 An error message is printed if a given account is not defined.
2360 Attempts to delete the currently active account are rejected.
2362 Takes a list of names defined by alias commands
2363 and discards the remembered groups of users.
2365 Takes a message list and marks each message as not having been answered.
2367 (unc) Only applicable to threaded mode.
2368 Takes a message list and makes the message and all replies to it visible
2369 in header summaries again.
2370 When a message becomes the current message,
2371 it is automatically made visible.
2372 Also when a message with collapsed replies is printed,
2373 all of these are automatically uncollapsed.
2375 Undefine all given macros.
2376 An error message is printed if a given macro is not defined.
2378 (u) Takes a message list and marks each message as not being deleted.
2380 Takes a message list and
2381 .Ns un Ns Ic draft Ns
2384 Takes a message list and marks each message as not being
2387 Removes the header field names from the list of ignored fields for the
2390 The special name `*' will remove all fields.
2392 Removes the header field names from the list of retained fields for the
2395 The special name `*' will remove all fields.
2397 Remove an existing command
2400 Removes the header field names from the list of ignored fields.
2401 The special name `*' will remove all fields.
2406 (U) Takes a message list and marks each message as not having been read.
2408 Removes the header field names from the list of retained fields.
2409 The special name `*' will remove all fields.
2411 Removes the header field names from the list of ignored fields for
2413 The special name `*' will remove all fields.
2415 Removes the header field names from the list of retained fields for
2417 The special name `*' will remove all fields.
2419 Takes a list of option names and discards their remembered values;
2425 except that the options are also removed from the program environment;
2426 since this task requires native host support the command will always
2427 report error if that is not available (but still act like
2430 This operation is a no-op unless all resource files have been loaded.
2434 Deletes the shortcut names given as arguments.
2436 Disable sorted or threaded mode
2442 return to normal message order and,
2446 print a header summary.
2451 Decode the given URL-encoded string arguments and show the results.
2453 URL-encode the given arguments and show the results.
2455 Edit the values of the given variable(s) in the
2457 Binary variables, as well as variables which are not currently set are
2460 Show information about all given options.
2462 \*(OP (verif) Takes a message list and verifies each message.
2463 If a message is not an S/MIME signed message,
2464 verification will fail for it.
2465 The verification process checks if the message was signed using a valid
2467 if the message sender's email address matches one of those contained
2468 within the certificate,
2469 and if the message content has been altered.
2471 (v) Takes a message list and invokes the display editor on each message.
2472 Modified contents are discarded unless the
2476 (w) For conventional messages the body without all headers is written.
2477 The output is decrypted and converted to its native format as necessary.
2478 If the output file exists, the text is appended.
2479 If a message is in MIME multipart format its first part is written to
2480 the specified file as for conventional messages,
2481 and the user is asked for a filename to save each other part.
2482 For convience saving of each part may be skipped by giving an empty value;
2483 the same result can also be achieved by writing it to
2485 For the second and subsequent parts a leading `|' character causes the
2486 part to be piped to the remainder of the user input interpreted as
2488 otherwise the user input is expanded as usually for folders,
2489 e.g., tilde expansion is performed.
2490 In non-interactive mode, only the parts of the multipart message
2491 that have a filename given in the part header are written,
2492 the others are discarded.
2493 The original message is never marked for deletion in the originating
2496 the contents of the destination file are overwritten if the file
2498 No special handling of compressed files is performed.
2503 \*(UA presents message headers in windowfuls as described under the
2506 This command scrolls to the next window of messages.
2507 If an argument is given,
2508 it specifies the window to use.
2509 A number prefixed by `+' or `\-' indicates
2510 that the window is calculated in relation to the current position.
2511 A number without a prefix specifies an absolute window number,
2512 and a `$' lets \*(UA scroll to the last window of messages.
2516 but scrolls to the next or previous window that contains at least one
2517 new or `flagged' message.
2521 .\" .Sh "TILDE ESCAPES" {{{
2523 Here is a summary of the tilde escapes,
2524 which are used to perform special functions when composing messages.
2525 Tilde escapes are only recognized at the beginning of lines.
2526 The name `tilde escape' is somewhat of a misnomer since the actual
2527 escape character can be set by the option
2529 .Bl -tag -width ".Ic ~< filename"
2531 Insert the string of text in the message prefaced by a single `~'.
2532 (If the escape character has been changed,
2533 that character must be doubled
2534 in order to send it at the beginning of a line.)
2535 .It Ic ~! Ar command
2536 Execute the indicated shell
2538 then return to the message.
2540 Same effect as typing the end-of-file character.
2541 .It Ic ~: Ar \*(UA-command Ns \ or Ic ~_ Ar \*(UA-command
2542 Execute the given \*(UA command.
2543 Not all commands, however, are allowed.
2545 Write a summary of command escapes.
2546 .It Ic ~< Ar filename
2549 .It Ic ~<! Ar command
2551 is executed using the shell.
2552 Its standard output is inserted into the message.
2553 .It Ic ~@ Op Ar filename...
2554 With no arguments, edit the attachment list interactively.
2555 If an attachment's file name is left empty,
2556 that attachment is deleted from the list.
2557 When the end of the attachment list is reached,
2558 \*(UA will ask for further attachments until an empty name is given.
2559 If a given file name solely consists of the number sign `#' followed
2560 by a valid message number of the currently active mailbox, the given
2561 message is attached as a MIME `message/rfc822' and the rest of this
2562 section does not apply.
2564 If character set conversion has been compiled into \*(UA, then this mode
2565 gives the user the option to specify input and output character sets,
2566 unless the file extension indicates binary content, in which case \*(UA
2567 asks wether this step shall be skipped for the attachment in question.
2568 If not skipped, then the charset that succeeds to represent the
2569 attachment data will be used in the `charset=' MIME parameter of the
2573 If input and output character sets are specified, then the conversion is
2574 performed on the fly.
2575 The user will be asked repeatedly until the desired conversion succeeds.
2577 If only an output character set is specified, then the input is assumed
2580 charset and will be converted to the given output charset on the fly.
2581 The user will be asked repeatedly until the desired conversion succeeds.
2583 If no character sets are specified at all then the algorithm that is
2584 documented in the section
2586 is applied, but directly and on the fly.
2587 The user will be asked repeatedly until the desired conversion succeeds.
2589 Finally, if an input-, but no output character set is specified, then no
2590 conversion is ever performed, but the `charset=' MIME parameter will
2591 still be set to the user input.
2593 The character set selection loop can be left by typing `control-C',
2594 i.e., causing an interrupt.
2595 .\" \*(OU next sentence
2596 Note that before \*(UA version 15.0 this terminates the entire
2597 current attachment selection, not only the character set selection.
2600 Without character set conversion support, \*(UA will ask for the input
2601 character set only, and it'll set the `charset=' MIME parameter to the
2602 given input, if any;
2603 if no user input is seen then the
2605 character set will be used for the `charset=' parameter instead.
2606 Note that the file extension check isn't performed in this mode, since
2607 no conversion will take place anyway.
2609 Note that in non-interactive mode, for reproduceabilities sake, there
2610 will always be two questions for each attachment, regardless of wether
2611 character set conversion is available and what the file extension is.
2612 The first asks for the filename, and the second asks for the input
2613 character set to be passed through to the `charset=' MIME parameter;
2614 no conversion will be tried if there is input to the latter question,
2615 otherwise the usual conversion algorithm, as above, is applied.
2616 For message attachments, the answer to the second question is completely
2621 arguments are specified,
2622 they are treated as a comma separated list of files,
2623 which are all expanded and appended to the end of the attachment list.
2624 (Filenames with commas, or with leading or trailing whitespace can only
2625 be added via the command line or the first method.
2626 Message attachments can only be added via the first method;
2627 filenames which clash with message numbers can only be added via the
2628 command line or the second method.)
2629 In this mode the (text) attachments are assumed to be in
2631 encoding, and will be evaluated as documented in the section
2632 .Sx "CHARACTER SETS" .
2634 Inserts the string contained in the
2636 variable (same as `~i Sign').
2637 The escape sequences `\et' (tabulator) and `\en' (newline) are understood.
2639 Inserts the string contained in the
2641 variable (same as `~i sign').
2642 The escape sequences `\et' (tabulator) and `\en' (newline) are understood.
2643 .It Ic ~b Ar name ...
2644 Add the given names to the list of blind carbon copy recipients.
2645 .It Ic ~c Ar name ...
2646 Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients.
2648 Read the file specified by the
2650 variable into the message.
2652 Invoke the text editor on the message collected so far.
2653 After the editing session is finished,
2654 the user may continue appending text to the message.
2655 .It Ic ~F Ar messages
2656 Read the named messages into the message being sent, including all
2657 message headers and MIME parts.
2658 If no messages are specified, read in the current message.
2659 .It Ic ~f Ar messages
2660 Read the named messages into the message being sent.
2661 If no messages are specified, read in the current message.
2662 Message headers currently being ignored (by the
2666 command) are not included.
2667 For MIME multipart messages,
2668 only the first printable part is included.
2670 Edit the message header fields `From:', `Reply-To:', `Sender:' and
2671 `Organization:' by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit
2673 The default values for these fields originate from the
2681 Edit the message header fields `To:', `Cc:', `Bcc:', and `Subject:' by
2682 typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
2683 .It Ic ~i Ar variable
2684 Insert the value of the specified variable into the message,
2685 adding a newline character at the end.
2686 The message remains unaltered if the variable is unset or empty.
2687 The escape sequences `\et' (tabulator) and `\en' (newline) are understood.
2688 .It Ic ~M Ar messages
2689 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
2692 If no messages are specified, read the current message.
2693 .It Ic ~m Ar messages
2694 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
2697 If no messages are specified, read the current message.
2698 Message headers currently being ignored (by the
2702 commands) are not included.
2703 For MIME multipart messages,
2704 only the first printable part is included.
2706 Print out the message collected so far,
2707 prefaced by the message header fields
2708 and followed by the attachment list, if any.
2710 Abort the message being sent,
2711 copying it to the file specified by the
2716 .It Ic ~R Ar filename
2717 Read the named file into the message, indented by
2719 .It Ic ~r Ar filename
2720 Read the named file into the message.
2722 Cause the named string to become the current subject field.
2723 .It Ic ~t Ar name ...
2724 Add the given name(s) to the direct recipient list.
2725 .It Ic ~U Ar messages
2726 Like `~m', but exclude all message headers.
2727 .It Ic ~u Ar messages
2728 Like `~f', but exclude all message headers.
2730 Invoke an alternate editor (defined by the
2732 option) on the message collected so far.
2733 Usually, the alternate editor will be a screen editor.
2734 After the editor is quit,
2735 the user may resume appending text to the end of the message.
2736 .It Ic ~w Ar filename
2737 Write the message onto the named file.
2739 the message is appended to it.
2741 Same as `~q', except that the message is not saved at all.
2742 .It Ic ~| Ar command
2743 Pipe the message through the specified filter command.
2744 If the command gives no output or terminates abnormally,
2745 retain the original text of the message.
2748 is often used as a rejustifying filter.
2752 .\" .Sh "VARIABLE OPTIONS" {{{
2753 .Sh "VARIABLE OPTIONS"
2754 Options are controlled via
2758 commands, see the corresponding entries for a syntax description;
2761 can also be accomplished by prefixing a variable name with the string
2764 e.g., "unset crt" will have the same effect as "set nocrt".
2766 An option is also set if it has been passed to \*(UA as part of the
2767 program environment or when it has been set explicitly via the
2769 command line option.
2771 \*(UA differentiates in between different kind of options:
2772 binary options, which can only be in the two states set and unset,
2773 as well as value options which have an assigned string value.
2774 (For the latter kind proper quoting is important upon assignment time.)
2777 will show informations about all given variables and
2779 when used without arguments, will print a listing of all currently set
2780 variables, including values of string variables.
2781 Beside those internal variables \*(UA uses several
2785 .\" .Ss "Initial settings" {{{
2786 .\" (Keep in sync: ./main.c:_startup(), ./nail.rc, ./nail.1:"Initial settings"!)
2787 .Ss "Initial Settings"
2788 The standard POSIX 2008/Cor 1-2013 mandates the following initial
2790 .Ns no Ns Va allnet ,
2791 .Ns no Ns Va append ,
2793 .Ns no Ns Va askbcc ,
2794 .Ns no Ns Va autoprint ,
2798 .Ns no Ns Va debug ,
2802 .Ns no Ns Va flipr ,
2803 .Ns no Ns Va folder ,
2806 .Ns no Ns Va ignore ,
2807 .Ns no Ns Va ignoreeof ,
2809 .Ns no Ns Va keepsave ,
2810 .Ns no Ns Va metoo ,
2811 .Ns no Ns Va outfolder ,
2815 (note that \*(UA deviates from the standard by using "\\& ", but the
2818 escape results in "?" being printed unless
2822 .Ns no Ns Va record ,
2824 .Ns no Ns Va sendwait ,
2825 .Ns no Ns Va showto ,
2831 Notes: \*(UA doesn't support the
2833 variable \(en use command line options or
2834 .Va sendmail-arguments
2835 to pass options through to a MTA.
2838 .\" .Ss "Binary options" {{{
2839 .Ss "Binary options"
2840 .Bl -tag -width ".Va autoprint"
2841 .It Va add-file-recipients
2842 When file or pipe recipients have been specified,
2843 mention them in the corresponding address fields of the message instead
2844 of silently stripping them from their recipient list.
2845 By default such addressees are not mentioned.
2847 Causes only the local part to be evaluated
2848 when comparing addresses.
2850 Causes messages saved in
2852 to be appended to the end rather than prepended.
2853 This should always be set.
2854 .It Va ask Ns \ or Va asksub
2855 Causes \*(UA to prompt for the subject of each message sent.
2856 If the user responds with simply a newline,
2857 no subject field will be sent.
2859 Causes the prompts for `Cc:' and `Bcc:' lists to appear after the
2860 message has been edited.
2862 If set, \*(UA asks for files to attach at the end of each message.
2863 An empty line finalizes the list.
2865 Causes the user to be prompted for additional carbon copy recipients (at
2866 the end of each message if
2871 An empty line finalizes the list.
2873 Causes the user to be prompted for additional blind carbon copy
2874 recipients (at the end of each message if
2879 An empty line finalizes the list.
2881 \*(OP Causes the user to be prompted if the message is to be signed at
2882 the end of each message.
2885 variable is ignored when this variable is set.
2887 Causes threads to be collapsed automatically when threaded mode is
2892 Causes the delete command to behave like `dp -';
2893 thus, after deleting a message the next one will be typed automatically.
2895 Causes threaded mode (see the
2897 command) to be entered automatically when a folder is opened.
2899 Enables the substitution of `!' by the contents of the last command line
2901 .It Va batch-exit-on-error
2902 If the batch mode has been enabled via the
2904 command line option, then this variable will be consulted whenever \*(UA
2905 completes one operation (returns to the command prompt); if it is set
2906 then \*(UA will terminate if the last operation generated an error.
2908 Causes automatic display of a header summary after executing a
2912 Sets some cosmetical features to traditional BSD style;
2913 has the same affect as setting
2915 and all other variables prefixed with `bsd';
2916 it also changes the meaning of the \*(UA specific `\\&'
2920 Changes the letters printed in the first column of a header summary
2921 to traditional BSD style.
2923 Changes the display of columns in a header summary to traditional BSD
2926 Changes some informational messages to traditional BSD style.
2928 Causes the `Subject:' field to appear immediately after the `To:' field
2929 in message headers and with the `~h'
2930 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
2932 Changes the output format of the
2934 command to traditional BSD style.
2935 .It Va colour-disable
2936 \*(OP Forcefully disable usage of colours.
2937 Also see the section
2938 .Sx "Coloured message display" .
2940 \*(OP Wether colour shall be used for output that is paged through
2942 Note that pagers may need special flags, e.g.,
2950 in order to support colours; therefore \*(UA will inspect the variable
2952 \(en if that starts with the string `less' a non-existing
2953 environment variable
2955 will be set to "FRSXi", likewise for `lv'
2957 will be optionally set to "-c".
2958 Also see the section
2959 .Sx "Coloured message display"
2962 Prints debugging messages and disables the actual delivery of messages.
2965 this option is intended for \*(UA development only.
2967 \*(OP When an IMAP mailbox is selected and this variable is set,
2968 no connection to the server is initiated.
2969 Instead, data is obtained from the local cache (see
2972 Mailboxes that are not present in the cache
2973 and messages that have not yet entirely been fetched from the server
2975 to fetch all messages in a mailbox at once,
2977 .Ns ` Ns Li copy * /dev/null Ns '
2978 can be used while still in connected mode.
2979 Changes that are made to IMAP mailboxes in disconnected mode are queued
2980 and committed later when a connection to that server is made.
2981 This procedure is not completely reliable since it cannot be guaranteed
2982 that the IMAP unique identifiers (UIDs) on the server still match the
2983 ones in the cache at that time.
2986 when this problem occurs.
2987 .It Va disconnected-USER@HOST
2988 The specified account is handled as described for the
2991 but other accounts are not affected.
2992 .It Va disposition-notification-send
2993 \*(OP Emit a `Disposition-Notification-To:' header (RFC 3798) with the
2998 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-HOST
3000 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
3001 .\" for SMTP accounts on a specific host.
3002 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-USER@HOST
3004 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
3005 .\"for a specific account.
3007 When dot is set, a dot (`.') on a line by itself during message input
3008 from a terminal shall be treated as end-of-message (in addition to the
3009 normal end-of-file condition).
3014 is ignored and using a dot is the only method to terminate input mode.
3016 If this variable is set then the editor is started automatically when
3017 composing a message in an interactive mode,
3023 variable is implied for this automatically spawned editor session.
3025 When a message is edited while being composed,
3026 its header is included in the editable text.
3027 The `To:', `Cc:', `Bcc:', `Subject:', `From:', `Reply-To:', `Sender:',
3028 and 'Organization:' fields are accepted within the header,
3029 other fields are ignored.
3031 If set, an empty mailbox file is not removed.
3032 This may improve the interoperability with other mail user agents
3033 when using a common folder directory.
3035 If the mailbox is empty \*(UA normally prints `No mail for user' and
3037 If this option is set \*(UA starts even with an empty mailbox.
3043 commands and vice-versa.
3044 .It Va forward-as-attachment
3045 Original messages are normally sent as inline text with the
3048 and only the first part of a multipart message is included.
3049 With this option messages are sent as MIME `message/rfc822' attachments
3050 with all of their parts included.
3055 options are ignored when the
3056 .Va forward-as-attachment
3059 When replying to a message \*(UA normally removes the comment parts of
3061 which by convention contain the full names of the recipients.
3062 If this variable is set such stripping is not performed,
3063 and comments are retained.
3065 Causes the header summary to be written at startup and after commands
3066 that affect the number of messages or the order of messages in the
3067 current folder; enabled by default.
3068 The command line option
3072 .It Va history-gabby
3073 \*(OP Add more entries to the history as is normally done.
3074 .It Va history-gabby-persist
3075 \*(OP \*(UAs own NCL will not save the additional (gabby) history
3076 entries in persistent storage unless this variable is also set.
3080 This option is used to hold messages in the system mailbox by default.
3082 \*(OP Can be used to turn off the automatic conversion of domain names
3083 according to the rules of IDNA (internationalized domain names for
3085 Since the IDNA code assumes domain names are specified with the
3087 character set, an UTF-8 locale charset is required to represent
3088 all possible international domain names (before conversion, that is).
3090 Ignore interrupt signals from the terminal while entering messages;
3091 instead echo them as `@' characters and discard the current line.
3093 Ignore end-of-file conditions (`control-D') on message input,
3094 which instead can be terminated only by entering a
3096 (`.') on a line by itself or by using the `~.'
3097 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
3098 This option also applies to \*(UA command mode.
3099 .It Va imap-use-starttls
3100 \*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a `STARTTLS' command to make an unencrypted
3101 IMAP session SSL/TLS encrypted.
3102 This functionality is not supported by all servers,
3103 and is not used if the session is already encrypted by the IMAPS method.
3104 .It Va imap-use-starttls-USER@HOST
3106 .Va imap-use-starttls
3107 for a specific account.
3109 This option causes \*(UA to truncate the user's system mailbox instead
3110 of deleting it when it is empty.
3111 This should always be set since it prevents malicious users from
3112 creating fake mail folders in a world-writable spool directory.
3114 When a message is saved it is usually discarded from the originating
3115 folder when \*(UA is quit.
3116 Setting this option causes all saved message to be retained.
3117 .It Va line-editor-disable
3118 Turn off any enhanced command line editing capabilities (see
3119 .Sx COMMAND LINE EDITOR
3122 When a message is replied to and this variable is set,
3123 it is marked as having been answered.
3124 This mark has no technical meaning in the mail system;
3125 it just causes messages to be marked in the header summary,
3126 and makes them specially addressable.
3127 .It Va message-id-disable
3128 By setting this option the generation of `Message-ID:' can be completely
3129 suppressed, effectively leaving this task up to the mail-transfer-agent
3130 (MTA) or the SMTP server.
3131 (According to RFC 5321 your SMTP server is not required to add this
3132 field by itself, so you should ensure that it accepts messages without
3135 Usually, when a group is expanded that contains the sender,
3136 the sender is removed from the expansion.
3137 Setting this option causes the sender to be included in the group.
3138 .It Va mime-allow-text-controls
3139 When sending messages, each part of the message is MIME-inspected in
3140 order to classify the `Content-Type:' and `Content-Transfer-Encoding:'
3141 that is required to send this part over mail transport, i.e.,
3142 a computation rather similar to what the
3144 command produces when used with the
3148 This classification however treats text files which are encoded in
3149 UTF-16 (often found for HTML files) and similar character sets as binary
3150 octet-streams, forcefully changing any `text/plain' or `text/html'
3151 specification to `application/octet-stream';
3152 if that actually happens, then a yet unset charset MIME parameter is set
3153 to `binary', effectively making it impossible for the receiving MUA to
3154 automatically interpret the contents of the part.
3156 If this option is set, and the data was unambiguously identified as text
3157 data at first glance (by a `.txt' or `.html' file extension), then the
3158 original `Content-Type:' will not be overwritten.
3159 .It Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , \
3160 Va netrc-lookup-HOST , \
3162 \*(IN \*(OP Used to control usage of the users
3164 file for lookup of account credentials, as documented in the section
3165 .Sx "URL SYNTAX AND CREDENTIAL LOOKUP"
3170 documents the file format.
3172 Causes the filename given in the
3175 and the sender-based filenames for the
3179 commands to be interpreted relative to the directory given in the
3181 variable rather than to the current directory,
3182 unless it is set to an absolute pathname.
3184 If set, each message the
3186 command prints out is followed by a formfeed character.
3188 Send messages to the
3190 command without performing MIME and character set conversions.
3191 .It Va pop3-bulk-load
3192 \*(OP When accessing a POP3 server \*(UA loads the headers of the
3193 messages, and only requests the message bodies on user request.
3194 For the POP3 protocol this means that the message headers will be
3196 If this option is set then \*(UA will download only complete messages
3197 from POP3 servers instead.
3200 a macro that temporarily sets this option, then accesses a POP3 account
3201 that is known to only get small text messages, and then unsets this
3204 \*(OP Unless this variable is set the `APOP' authentication method
3205 will be used when connecting to a POP3 server that advertises support.
3206 The advantage of APOP over `USER/PASS' authentication is that the
3207 password is not sent in clear text over the wire and that only a single
3208 packet is sent for the user/password tuple.
3209 .It Va pop3-no-apop-HOST
3210 \*(IN Disables the `APOP' authentication method for a specific host.
3211 .It Va pop3-no-apop-USER@HOST
3212 Disables the `APOP' authentication method for a specific account.
3213 .It Va pop3-use-starttls
3214 \*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a `STLS' command to make an unencrypted POP3
3215 session SSL/TLS encrypted.
3216 This functionality is not supported by all servers,
3217 and is not used if the session is already encrypted by the POP3S method.
3218 .It Va pop3-use-starttls-HOST
3220 .Va pop3-use-starttls
3221 for a specific host.
3222 .It Va pop3-use-starttls-USER@HOST
3224 .Va pop3-use-starttls
3225 for a specific account.
3226 .It Va print-all-chars
3227 This option causes all characters to be considered printable.
3228 It is only effective if given in a startup file.
3229 With this option set some character sequences in messages may put the
3230 user's terminal in an undefined state when printed;
3231 it should only be used as a last resort if no working system locale can
3233 .It Va print-alternatives
3234 When a MIME message part of type `multipart/alternative' is displayed
3235 and it contains a subpart of type `text/plain',
3236 other parts are normally discarded.
3237 Setting this variable causes all subparts to be displayed,
3238 just as if the surrounding part was of type `multipart/mixed'.
3240 Suppresses the printing of the version when first invoked.
3241 .It Va quote-as-attachment
3242 If this is set, then the original message is added in its entirety
3243 as a `message/rfc822' MIME attachment when replying to a message.
3244 Note this works regardless of the setting of
3246 .It Va recipients-in-cc
3247 On group replies, specify only the sender of the original mail in `To:'
3248 and mention it's other recipients in the secondary `Cc:'.
3249 .It Va record-resent
3250 If both this variable and the
3257 commands save messages to the
3259 folder as it is normally only done for newly composed messages.
3260 .It Va reply-in-same-charset
3261 If this variable is set \*(UA first tries to use the same character set
3262 of the original message for replies.
3263 If this fails, the mechanism described in
3265 is evaluated as usual.
3267 Reverses the sense of
3272 .It Va rfc822-body-from_
3273 This variable can be used to force the display of a so-called `From_'
3274 line for messages that are embedded into an envelope mail via the
3275 `message/rfc822' MIME mechanism.
3277 When the user aborts a message with two `RUBOUT' (interrupt,
3278 `control-C') characters,
3279 \*(UA will copy the partial letter to the file
3281 This option is set by default.
3282 .It Va searchheaders
3283 Expand message-list specifiers in the form `/x:y' to all messages
3284 containing the substring `y' in the header field `x'.
3285 The string search is case insensitive.
3286 .It Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
3287 \*(OP If this variable is set, but
3289 is not, then \*(UA acts as if
3291 had been set to the value of the variable
3293 In effect this combination passes through the message data in the
3294 character set of the current locale (given that
3296 hasn't been set manually), i.e., without converting it to the
3298 fallback character set.
3299 Thus, mail message text will be in `ISO-8859-1' encoding when send from
3300 within a `ISO-8859-1' locale, and in `UTF-8' encoding when send from
3301 within an `UTF-8' locale.
3302 If no character set conversion capabilities are available in \*(UA then
3303 the only supported character set is
3306 When sending a message wait until the MTA exits before accepting further
3308 If the MTA returns a non-zero exit status,
3309 the exit status of \*(ua will also be non-zero.
3311 Setting this option causes \*(UA to start at the last message instead of
3312 the first one when opening a mail folder.
3314 Causes \*(UA to use the sender's real name instead of the plain address
3315 in the header field summary and in message specifications.
3317 Causes the recipient of the message to be shown in the header summary
3318 if the message was sent by the user.
3319 .It Va skipemptybody
3320 If an outgoing message does not contain any text in its first or only
3322 do not send it but discard it silently (see also the command line option
3325 .It Va smime-force-encryption
3326 \*(OP Causes \*(UA to refuse sending unencrypted messages.
3328 \*(OP S/MIME sign outgoing messages with the user's private key and
3329 include the user's certificate as a MIME attachment.
3330 Signing a message enables a recipient to verify that the sender used
3331 a valid certificate,
3332 that the email addresses in the certificate match those in the message
3333 header and that the message content has not been altered.
3334 It does not change the message text,
3335 and people will be able to read the message as usual.
3339 .Va smime-sign-include-certs .
3340 .It Va smime-no-default-ca
3341 \*(OP Don't load default CA locations when verifying S/MIME signed
3343 .It Va smtp-use-starttls
3344 \*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a `STARTTLS' command to make an SMTP session
3346 .It Va smtp-use-starttls-HOST
3348 .Va smtp-use-starttls
3349 for SMTP accounts on a specific host.
3350 .It Va smtp-use-starttls-USER@HOST
3352 .Va smtp-use-starttls
3353 for a specific account.
3354 .It Va ssl-no-default-ca
3355 \*(OP Don't load default CA locations to verify SSL/TLS server
3358 \*(OP Accept SSLv2 connections.
3359 These are normally not allowed because this protocol version is insecure.
3360 .It Va keep-content-length
3361 When (editing messages and) writing
3363 mailbox files \*(UA can be told to keep the `Content-Length:' and
3364 `Lines:' header fields that some MUAs generate by setting this variable.
3365 Since \*(UA does neither use nor update these non-standardized header
3366 fields (which in itself shows one of their conceptual problems),
3367 stripping them should increase interoperability in between MUAs that
3368 work with with same mailbox files.
3369 Note that, if this is not set but
3370 .Va writebackedited ,
3371 as below, is, a possibly performed automatic stripping of these header
3372 fields already marks the message as being modified.
3374 Setting this option enables upward compatibility with \*(UA version 15.0
3375 in respect to which configuration options are available and how they are
3377 This manual uses \*(IN and \*(OU to refer to the new and the old way of
3378 doing things, respectively.
3380 Setting this option, also controllable via the command line option
3382 causes \*(UA to be more verbose, so that, e.g., certificate chains will
3383 be displayed on the users terminal.
3384 Setting this binary options twice increases the level of verbosity, in
3385 which case even details of the actual message delivery and protocol
3386 conversations are also shown.
3389 is sufficient to disable verbosity as such.
3390 .It Va writebackedited
3391 If this variable is set messages modified using the
3395 commands are written back to the current folder when it is quit;
3396 it is only honoured for writable folders in MBOX format, though.
3397 Note that the editor will be pointed to the raw message content in that
3398 case, i.e., neither MIME decoding nor decryption will have been
3400 and proper RFC 4155 `From ' quoting of newly added or edited content is
3401 also left as an excercise to the user.
3405 .\" .Ss "Value options" {{{
3407 .Bl -tag -width ".Va autoprint"
3408 .It Va agent-shell-lookup-USER@HOST , \
3409 Va agent-shell-lookup-HOST , \
3410 Va agent-shell-lookup
3411 \*(IN \*(OP Account passwords can be fetched via an external agent
3412 program in order to permit encrypted password storage \(en see
3413 .Sx "URL SYNTAX AND CREDENTIAL LOOKUP"
3414 for more on credential lookup.
3415 If this is set then the content is interpreted as a shell command the
3416 output of which (with newline characters removed) is treated as the
3417 account password shall the command succeed; e.g., via
3419 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3420 $ echo PASSWORD > .pass
3422 $ eval `gpg-agent --daemon \e
3423 --pinentry-program=/usr/bin/pinentry-curses \e
3424 --max-cache-ttl 99999 --default-cache-ttl 99999`
3425 $ echo 'set agent-shell-lookup="gpg -d .pass.gpg"' \e
3429 A couple of environment variables will be set for the agent:
3430 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ev NAIL_HOST_PORT"
3432 The user (`USER') for which the password is looked up.
3433 .It Ev NAIL_USER_ENC
3434 The URL percent-encoded variant of
3437 The plain machine hostname of the user account.
3438 .It Ev NAIL_HOST_PORT
3439 The `HOST' (hostname possibly including port) of the user account.
3442 A sequence of characters to print in the `attribute' column of a header
3444 each for one type of messages in the following order:
3445 new (N), unread but old (U), new but read (R), read and old (O), saved
3446 (S), preserved (P), mboxed (M), flagged (F), answered (A), draft (T),
3447 start of a collapsed thread (+), collapsed (\-), classified as spam ($).
3448 The default is `NUROSPMFAT+\-$',
3449 or `NU\ \ *HMFAT+\-$' if
3453 environment variable are set.
3455 Specifies a list of recipients to which a blind carbon copy of each
3456 outgoing message will be sent automatically.
3458 Specifies a list of recipients to which a carbon copy of each outgoing
3459 message will be sent automatically.
3461 Causes sorted mode (see the
3463 command) to be entered automatically with the value of this option as
3464 sorting method when a folder is opened.
3466 The value that should appear in the `charset=' parameter of
3467 `Content-Type:' MIME header fields when no character set conversion of
3468 the message data was performed.
3469 This defaults to `US-ASCII', and the chosen character set should be
3470 `US-ASCII' compatible.
3472 \*(OP The default 8 bit character set that is used as an implied last
3473 member of the variable
3475 Defaults to `UTF-8'.
3476 If no character set conversion capabilities are available in \*(UA then
3477 the only supported character set is
3479 Refer to the section
3481 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
3483 The default value for the
3487 \*(OP The colour specification for so-called `From_' lines.
3489 .Sx "Coloured message display"
3490 for the format of the value.
3491 .It Va colour-header
3492 \*(OP The colour specification for header lines.
3494 .Sx "Coloured message display"
3495 for the format of the value.
3496 .It Va colour-msginfo
3497 \*(OP The colour specification for the introductional message info line.
3499 .Sx "Coloured message display"
3500 for the format of the value.
3501 .It Va colour-partinfo
3502 \*(OP The colour specification for MIME part info lines.
3504 .Sx "Coloured message display"
3505 for the format of the value.
3507 \*(OP A comma-separated list of
3509 inals for which coloured message display can be used.
3510 Entries only need to be added if the string "color" isn't part of the
3511 terminal name itself; the default value is
3513 .Dl cons25,linux,rxvt,rxvt-unicode,\:screen,\:sun,\:vt100,\:vt220,\:\
3515 .It Va colour-uheader
3516 \*(OP The colour specification for those header lines that have been
3518 .Va colour-user-headers
3521 .Sx "Coloured message display"
3522 for the format of the value.
3523 .It Va colour-user-headers
3524 A comma separated list of (case-insensitive) header names which should
3525 be colourized with the alternative
3528 The default value is `from,subject'.
3530 The valued option crt is used as a threshold to determine how long
3531 a message must be before
3536 is set without a value then the height of the terminal screen stored in
3537 the system is used to compute the threshold (see
3543 The date in a header summary is normally the date of the mailbox `From\ '
3544 line of the message.
3545 If this variable is set, then the date as given in the `Date:' field is
3546 used, converted to local time.
3547 It is possible to control the display of the date by assigning a value,
3550 function will be used to format the date accordingly.
3551 Please read your system manual for the available formats.
3552 Note that the `%n' format should not be used, because \*(UA doesn't
3553 take embedded newlines into account when calculating how many lines fit
3555 .It Va datefield-markout-older
3556 This option, when set in addition to
3558 modifies the display of messages that are not really current in a way
3559 that is rather comparable to the
3564 The interpretation of the value is identical to what has been described
3568 Suggestion for the MIME encoding to use in outgoing text messages
3570 Valid values are the default `quoted-printable', `8bit' and `base64'.
3571 `8bit' may cause problems with when transferring mail messages over
3572 channels that are not ESMTP (RFC 1869) compliant.
3573 If there is no need to encode a message,
3574 `7bit' transfer mode is always used regardless of this variable.
3575 Binary data is always encoded as `base64'.
3577 If defined, the first character of this option
3578 gives the character to use in place of `~' to denote
3579 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
3581 The name of the directory to use for storing folders of messages.
3582 All folder names that begin with `+' refer to files below it.
3583 The same special conventions as documented for the
3585 command may be used when specifying a new value for
3587 but be aware that the expansion is fully performed immediately.
3588 E.g., if the expanded name refers to an IMAP account, all names that
3589 begin with `+' refer to IMAP mailboxes below the
3593 Note: some IMAP servers do not accept the creation of mailboxes in
3594 the hierarchy base, but require that they are created as subfolders of
3595 `INBOX' \(en with such servers a folder name of the form
3597 .Dl imaps://mylogin@imap.myisp.example/INBOX.
3599 should be used (the last character is the server's hierarchy delimiter).
3600 Folder names prefixed by `+' will then refer to folders below `INBOX',
3601 while folder names prefixed by `@' refer to folders below the hierarchy
3605 namespace command for a method to detect the appropriate prefix and
3608 When a folder is opened and this variable is set,
3609 the macro corresponding to the value of this variable is executed.
3610 The macro is also invoked when new mail arrives,
3611 but message lists for commands executed from the macro
3612 only include newly arrived messages then.
3613 .It Va folder-hook-fullname
3614 When a folder named `fullname' is opened,
3615 the macro corresponding to the value of this variable is executed.
3616 Unlike other folder specifications,
3617 the fully expanded name of a folder, without metacharacters,
3618 is used to avoid ambiguities.
3619 The macro specified with
3621 is not executed if this variable is effective for a folder
3624 ed from within the actually executed macro).
3626 The address (or a list of addresses) to put into the `From:' field of
3627 the message header, quoting RFC 5322:
3628 the author(s) of the message, that is, the mailbox(es) of the person(s)
3629 or system(s) responsible for the writing of the message.
3630 If replying to messages these addresses are handled as if they were in
3634 If the machine's hostname is not valid at the Internet (for example at
3635 a dialup machine) then either this variable or
3640 adds even more fine-tuning capabilities),
3644 contains more than one address,
3647 variable is required (according to the standard RFC 5322).
3649 The string to print before the text of a message with the
3653 .Va forward-as-attachment
3655 Defaults to `-------- Original Message --------' if unset.
3656 No heading is printed if it is set to the empty string.
3658 A format string to use for the header summary,
3662 A `%' character introduces a format specifier.
3663 It may be followed by a number indicating the field width.
3664 If the (possibly implicitly implied) field width is negative, the field
3665 is to be left-aligned.
3666 Valid format specifiers are:
3667 .Bl -tag -offset indent -width "%%"
3671 The date when the message was received.
3673 The indenting level in threaded mode.
3675 The address of the message sender.
3677 The message thread structure.
3678 (Note that this format doesn't support a field width.)
3680 The number of lines of the message.
3684 The number of octets (bytes) in the message.
3686 Message subject (if any).
3688 Message subject (if any) in double quotes.
3690 The position in threaded/sorted order.
3692 A `>' for the current message, otherwise ` '.
3694 A `<' for the current message, otherwise ` '.
3696 The spam score of the message, as has been classified via the command
3702 The default is `%>\&%a\&%m\ %-18f\ %16d\ %4l/%\-5o\ %i%-s',
3703 or `%>\&%a\&%m\ %20-f\ \ %16d\ %3l/%\-5o\ %i%-S' if
3710 .It Va headline-bidi
3711 Bidirectional text requires special treatment when displaying headers,
3712 because numbers (in dates or for file sizes etc.) will not affect the
3713 current text direction, in effect resulting in ugly line layouts when
3714 arabic or other right-to-left text is to be displayed.
3715 On the other hand only a minority of terminals is capable to correctly
3716 handle direction changes, so that user interaction is necessary for
3718 Note that extended host system support is required nonetheless, e.g.,
3719 detection of the terminal character set is one precondition;
3720 and this feature only works in an Unicode (i.e., UTF-8) locale.
3722 In general setting this variable will cause \*(UA to encapsulate text
3723 fields that may occur when printing
3725 (and some other fields, like dynamic expansions in
3727 with special Unicode control sequences;
3728 it is possible to fine-tune the terminal support level by assigning
3730 no value (or any value other than `1', `2' and `3') will make \*(UA
3731 assume that the terminal is capable to properly deal with Unicode
3732 version 6.3, in which case text is embedded in a pair of U+2068 (FIRST
3733 STRONG ISOLATE) and U+2069 (POP DIRECTIONAL ISOLATE) characters.
3734 In addition no space on the line is reserved for these characters.
3736 Weaker support is chosen by using the value `1' (Unicode 6.3, but
3737 reserve the room of two spaces for writing the control sequences onto
3739 The values `2' and `3' select Unicode 1.1 support (U+200E, LEFT-TO-RIGHT
3740 MARK); the latter again reserves room for two spaces in addition.
3742 Use this string as hostname when expanding local addresses instead of
3743 the value obtained from
3747 i.e., in `Message-ID:' and `From:' fields.
3750 transport is not used then it is normally the responsibility of the MTA
3751 to create these fields, \*(IN in conjunction with
3755 also influences the results;
3756 you should produce some test messages with the desired combination of
3763 \*(OP Sets the IMAP authentication method.
3764 Valid values are `login' for the usual password-based authentication
3766 `cram-md5', which is a password-based authentication that does not send
3767 the password over the network in clear text,
3768 and `gssapi' for GSS-API based authentication.
3769 .It Va imap-auth-USER@HOST
3770 Sets the IMAP authentication method for a specific account.
3772 \*(OP Enables caching of IMAP mailboxes.
3773 The value of this variable must point to a directory that is either
3774 existent or can be created by \*(UA.
3775 All contents of the cache can be deleted by \*(UA at any time;
3776 it is not safe to make assumptions about them.
3777 .It Va imap-keepalive
3778 \*(OP IMAP servers may close the connection after a period of
3779 inactivity; the standard requires this to be at least 30 minutes,
3780 but practical experience may vary.
3781 Setting this variable to a numeric `value' greater than 0 causes
3782 a `NOOP' command to be sent each `value' seconds if no other operation
3784 .It Va imap-list-depth
3785 \*(OP When retrieving the list of folders on an IMAP server, the
3787 command stops after it has reached a certain depth to avoid possible
3789 The value of this variable sets the maximum depth allowed.
3791 If the folder separator on the current IMAP server is a slash `/',
3792 this variable has no effect and the
3794 command does not descend to subfolders.
3796 String used by the `~m', `~M' and `~R'
3800 option for indenting messages,
3801 in place of the normal tabulator character (`^I'), which is the default.
3802 Be sure to quote the value if it contains spaces or tabs.
3803 .It Va line-editor-cursor-right
3804 \*(OP If the builtin command line editor is used, actions which are
3805 based on rightwise movement may not work on some terminals.
3806 If you encounter such problems, set this variable to the terminal
3807 control sequence that is necessary to move the cursor one column to the
3809 The default is `\\033[C', which should work for most terminals.
3810 Less often occur `\\033OC' and `\\014'.
3811 Note that `ESCAPE' and other control character have to be written as
3812 shell-style escape sequences, e.g., `\\033' for `ESCAPE'.
3814 Is used as the user's mailbox, if set.
3815 Otherwise, a system-dependent default is used.
3816 Supports a logical subset of the special conventions that are documented
3822 .It Va mime-counter-evidence
3823 Normally the `Content-Type:' field is used to decide how to treat
3824 a messages MIME part.
3825 Some MUAs however don't use
3827 or a similar mechanism to correctly classify content,
3828 but simply specify `application/octet-stream',
3829 even for plain text attachments like `text/diff'.
3830 If this variable is set then \*(UA will use the file extension of
3831 attachments to classify such MIME message parts, if possible.
3833 This can also be given a non-empty value: in this case the value is
3834 expected to be a number, actually a carrier of bits.
3835 If bit two is set (0x2) then the detected "real" content-type will be
3836 carried along with the message and be used for detecting which
3837 .Va pipe-CONTENT/SUBCONTENT
3838 is responsible for the MIME part, shall that question arise;
3839 when displaying such a MIME part the part-info will indicate the
3840 overridden content-type by showing a plus-sign (`+').
3841 .It Va mimetypes-load-control
3842 This option can be used to control which of the
3844 MIME type databases are loaded by \*(UA.
3845 If the letter `u' (or `U') is part of this options value, then the
3848 file will be loaded (if it exists);
3849 likewise the letter `s' (or `S') controls loading of the system wide
3850 .Pa /etc/mime.types .
3851 If this option is not set \*(UA will try to load both files instead.
3852 Incorporation of the MIME types that are compiled into \*(UA cannot be
3854 .It Va NAIL_EXTRA_RC
3855 The name of an optional startup file to be read after \*(ur.
3856 This variable is ignored if it is imported from the environment;
3857 it has an effect only if it is set in \*(UR or \*(ur to allow bypassing
3858 the configuration with, e.g., `MAILRC=/dev/null'.
3859 Use this file for commands that are not understood by other \*(UA
3862 A string to put at the beginning of each new message.
3863 The escape sequences `\et' (tabulator) and `\en' (newline) are understood.
3864 .It Va NAIL_HISTFILE
3865 \*(OP If a command line editor is available then this can be set to
3866 name the (expandable) path of the location of a permanent history file.
3867 .It Va NAIL_HISTSIZE
3868 \*(OP If a command line editor is available this value restricts the
3869 amount of history entries that are saved into a set and valid
3871 A value of less than 0 disables this feature;
3872 note that loading and incorporation of
3874 upon program startup can also be suppressed by doing this.
3875 An unset or invalid value, or 0, causes a default value to be used.
3876 Dependent on the available command line editor this will also define the
3877 number of history entries in memory;
3878 it is also editor-specific wether runtime updates of this value will be
3881 A string to put at the end of each new message.
3882 The escape sequences `\et' (tabulator) and `\en' (newline) are understood.
3884 If this variable has the value `maildir',
3885 newly created local folders will be in `maildir' format.
3887 Checks for new mail in the current folder each time the prompt is
3889 For IMAP mailboxes the server is then polled for new mail,
3890 which may result in delayed operation if the connection to the server is
3892 A `maildir' folder must be re-scanned to determine if new mail has
3895 If this variable is set to the special value `nopoll' an IMAP server is
3896 not actively asked for new mail,
3897 but new mail may still be detected and announced with any other IMAP
3898 command that is sent to the server.
3899 A `maildir' folder is not scanned, then.
3901 In either case the IMAP server may send notifications about messages
3902 that have been deleted on the server by another process or client.
3903 In this case, `Expunged X messages' is printed regardless of this
3905 and message numbers may have changed.
3907 The value to put into the `Organization:' field of the message header.
3909 \*(IN Sets a global fallback password, which is used in case none has
3910 been given in the protocol and account-specific URL and neither is there
3911 a matching `password-USER@HOST' nor a matching `password-HOST';
3912 as a last resort \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal if
3913 the authentication method requires a password.
3914 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
3915 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
3916 .It Va password-HOST
3919 for accounts on a specific host.
3920 .It Va password-USER@HOST
3925 for a specific account.
3927 Set the password for `user' when connecting to `host'.
3928 If no such variable is defined for a host,
3929 the user will be asked for a password on standard input.
3930 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
3931 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
3932 .It Va pipe-CONTENT/SUBCONTENT
3933 When a MIME message part of type `CONTENT/SUBCONTENT' (normalized to
3934 lowercase) type is displayed or quoted,
3935 its text is filtered through the value of this variable interpreted as
3937 Some information about the MIME part to be displayed is embedded into
3938 the environment of the shell command:
3939 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ev NAIL_FILENAME_GENERATED"
3940 .It Ev NAIL_FILENAME
3941 The filename, if any is set, the empty string otherwise.
3942 .It Ev NAIL_FILENAME_GENERATED
3945 if that isn't empty, but otherwise a combination of a random string
3946 (always) and the `SUBCONTENT' of the MIME part, if the latter is known.
3948 The MIME content-type of the part, if known, the empty string otherwise.
3949 .It Ev NAIL_CONTENT_EVIDENCE
3951 .Va mime-counter-evidence
3952 includes the carry-around-bit (2), then this will be set to the detected
3953 MIME content-type; not only then identical to
3958 The special value `@' can be used to force interpretation of the message
3959 part as plain text, e.g., `set pipe-application/pgp-signature=@' will
3960 henceforth treat signatures as plain text and display them "as is".
3962 Also, if a normal shell command is prefixed with `@', then the command
3963 will only be used to prepare the MIME message part if the message is
3964 displayed by itself, but not when multiple messages are displayed at
3967 Finally, if a normal shell command is prefixed with `@&', then, in
3968 addition to what has been described for the plain `@' shell command
3969 prefix, the command will be run asynchronously, i.e., without blocking
3970 \*(UA, which may be a handy way to display a, e.g., PDF file while also
3971 continuing to read the mail message.
3972 .It Va pipe-EXTENSION
3973 This is identical to
3974 .Va pipe-CONTENT/SUBCONTENT
3975 except that `EXTENSION' (normalized to lowercase using character
3976 mappings of the ASCII charset) names a file extension, e.g., `xhtml'.
3977 Handlers registered using this method take precedence.
3978 .It Va pop3-keepalive
3979 \*(OP POP3 servers close the connection after a period of inactivity;
3980 the standard requires this to be at least 10 minutes,
3981 but practical experience may vary.
3982 Setting this variable to a numeric `value' greater than 0 causes
3983 a `NOOP' command to be sent each `value' seconds if no other operation
3986 The string printed when a command is accepted.
3987 Prompting may be prevented by either setting this to the null string
3990 The same XSI escape sequences that are understood by the
3992 command may be used within
3995 In addition, the following \*(UA specific additional sequences are
3997 `\\&', which expands to `?' unless
3999 is set, in which case it expands to `&';
4000 note that "\\& " is the default value for
4002 `\\?', which will expand to `1' if the last command failed, and to `0'
4004 `\\$', which will expand to the name of the currently active
4006 if any, and to the empty string otherwise,
4007 and `\\@', which will expand to the name of the currently active mailbox.
4008 (Note that the prompt buffer is size-limited, excess is cut off.)
4014 to encapsulate the expansions of the `\\$' and `\\@' escape sequences as
4015 necessary to correctly display bidirectional text, this is not true for
4016 the final string that makes up
4018 as such, i.e., real BIDI handling is not supported.
4020 When a newer version of the
4022 .Sx COMMAND LINE EDITOR
4023 is used, any escape sequence must itself be encapsulated with another
4024 escape character for usage with the
4026 mechanism: \*(UA configures the control character `\\01' for this.
4028 If set, \*(UA starts a replying message with the original message
4029 prefixed by the value of the variable
4031 Normally, a heading consisting of `Fromheaderfield wrote:' is printed
4032 before the quotation.
4033 If the string `noheading' is assigned to the
4035 variable, this heading is omitted.
4036 If the string `headers' is assigned, the headers selected by the
4037 .Ic ignore Ns / Ns Ic retain
4038 commands are printed above the message body,
4041 acts like an automatic `~m'
4044 If the string `allheaders' is assigned, all headers are printed above
4045 the message body and all MIME parts are included,
4048 act like an automatic `~M' command.
4050 .Va quote-as-attachment .
4052 \*(OP Can be set in addition to
4054 Setting this turns on a more fancy quotation algorithm in that leading
4055 quotation characters are compressed and overlong lines are folded.
4057 can be set to either one or two (space separated) numeric values,
4058 which are interpreted as the maximum (goal) and the minimum line length,
4059 respectively, in a spirit rather equal to the
4061 program, but line-, not paragraph-based.
4062 If not set explicitly the minimum will reflect the goal algorithmically.
4063 The goal can't be smaller than the length of
4065 plus some additional pad.
4066 Necessary adjustments take place silently.
4068 If defined, gives the pathname of the folder used to record all outgoing
4070 If not defined, then outgoing mail is not saved.
4071 When saving to this folder fails the message is not sent,
4072 but instead saved to
4075 A list of addresses to put into the `Reply-To:' field of the message
4077 Members of this list are handled as if they were in the
4081 When \*(UA initially prints the message headers it determines the number
4082 to print by looking at the speed of the terminal.
4083 The faster the terminal, the more it prints.
4084 This option overrides this calculation and specifies how many message
4085 headers are printed.
4086 This number is also used for scrolling with the
4090 \*(OP A comma-separated list of character set names that can be used in
4091 outgoing Internet mail.
4092 The value of the variable
4094 is automatically appended to this list of character-sets.
4095 If no character set conversion capabilities are compiled into \*(UA then
4096 the only supported charset is
4099 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
4100 and refer to the section
4102 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
4104 An address that is put into the `Sender:' field of outgoing messages,
4105 quoting RFC 5322: the mailbox of the agent responsible for the actual
4106 transmission of the message.
4107 This field should normally not be used unless the `From:' field contains
4108 more than one address, on which case it is required.
4111 address is handled as if it were in the
4115 To use an alternate mail delivery system,
4116 set this option to the full pathname of the program to use.
4117 It may be necessary to set
4118 .Va sendmail-progname
4120 .It Va sendmail-arguments
4121 Arguments to pass through to the Mail-Transfer-Agent can be given via
4123 These will be joined onto MTA options that have been given on the
4126 .Dl set sendmail-arguments='-t -X \&"/tmp/my log\&"'
4127 .It Va sendmail-progname
4128 Many systems use a so-called
4130 environment to ensure compatibility with
4132 This works by inspecting the name that was used to invoke the mail
4134 If this variable is set then the mailwrapper (the program that is
4135 actually executed when calling `sendmail') will treat its contents as
4137 The default is `sendmail'.
4139 A string for use with the `~A' tilde escape.
4141 A string for use with the `~a' tilde escape.
4143 Must correspond to the name of a readable file if set.
4144 The file's content is then appended to each singlepart message
4145 and to the first part of each multipart message.
4146 Be warned that there is no possibility to edit the signature for an
4149 \*(OP Specifies a directory with CA certificates in PEM (Privacy
4150 Enhanced Mail) format for verification of S/MIME signed messages.
4151 .It Va smime-ca-file
4152 \*(OP Specifies a file with CA certificates in PEM format for
4153 verification of S/MIME signed messages.
4154 .It Va smime-cipher-USER@HOST
4155 \*(OP Specifies a cipher to use when generating S/MIME encrypted
4156 messages for the specified account.
4157 RFC 5751 mandates a default of `aes-128' (AES-128 CBC).
4159 The actually available cipher algorithms depend on the cryptographic
4160 library that \*(UA uses; possible values are, in decreasing cipher
4162 `aes-256' (AES-256 CBC), `aes-192' (AES-192 CBC), `aes-128' (AES-128 CBC),
4163 `des3' (DES EDE3 CBC, 168 bits; default if `aes-128' isn't available)
4164 and `des' (DES CBC, 56 bits).
4166 The following ciphers have been obsoleted and are no longer mentioned by
4167 the S/MIME specification (RFC 5751), but may be selected if available:
4168 `rc2-64' (RC2 CBC, 64 bits) and `rc2-40' (RC2 CBC, 40 bits).
4169 .It Va smime-crl-file
4170 \*(OP Specifies a file that contains a CRL in PEM format to use when
4171 verifying S/MIME messages.
4172 .It Va smime-crl-dir
4173 \*(OP Specifies a directory that contains files with CRLs in PEM format
4174 to use when verifying S/MIME messages.
4175 .It Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
4176 \*(OP If this variable is set, messages send to the given receiver are
4177 encrypted before sending.
4178 The value of the variable must be set to the name of a file that
4179 contains a certificate in PEM format.
4181 If a message is sent to multiple recipients,
4182 each of them for whom a corresponding variable is set will receive an
4183 individually encrypted message;
4184 other recipients will continue to receive the message in plain text
4186 .Va smime-force-encryption
4188 It is recommended to sign encrypted messages, i.e., to also set the
4191 .It Va smime-sign-cert
4192 \*(OP Points to a file in PEM format.
4193 For the purpose of signing and decryption this file needs to contain the
4194 user's private key as well as his certificate.
4196 For the purpose of encryption the recipient's public encryption key
4197 (certificate) is expected; the command
4199 can be used to save certificates of signed messages (the section
4200 .Sx "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
4201 gives some details).
4202 This mode of operation is usually driven via
4203 .Va smime-sign-cert-USER@HOST ,
4205 .It Va smime-sign-cert-USER@HOST
4208 for a specific account.
4209 For message signing `USER@HOST' is always derived from the value of
4211 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
4215 When decrypting messages the account is derived from the recipient
4216 fields (`To:' and `Cc:') of the message, which are searched for
4217 addresses for which such a variable is set.
4218 \*(UA always uses the first address that matches,
4219 so if the same message is sent to more than one of the user's addresses
4220 using different encryption keys, decryption might fail.
4221 .It Va smime-sign-include-certs
4222 \*(OP If used, this is supposed to a consist of a comma-separated list
4223 of files, each of which containing a single certificate in PEM format to
4224 be included in the S/MIME message in addition to the
4227 This is most useful for long certificate chains if it is desired to aid
4228 the receiving party's verification process.
4229 Note that top level certificates may also be included in the chain but
4230 don't play a role for verification.
4234 .Va smime-sign-cert-USER@HOST .
4235 .It Va smime-sign-include-certs-USER@HOST
4237 .Va smime-sign-include-certs
4238 for a specific account.
4240 \*(OP Normally \*(UA invokes the program defined via
4242 to transfer messages.
4245 variable will instead cause `SMTP' network connections be made to the
4246 server specified therein in order to directly submit the message.
4247 \*(UA knows about three different "SMTP protocols":
4248 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
4250 The plain `SMTP' protocol (RFC 5321) that normally lives on the
4251 server port 25 and requires setting of the
4252 .Va smtp-use-starttls
4253 variable as above to enter a SSL/TLS encrypted session state.
4254 Assign a value like \*(IN `[smtp://][user[:password]@]server[:port]'
4255 (\*(OU `[smtp://]server[:port]')
4256 to choose this protocol.
4258 Then the so-called `SMTPS' which is supposed to live on server port 465
4259 and is automatically SSL/TLS secured.
4260 Unfortunately it never became a standardized protocol and may thus not
4261 be supported by your hosts network service database
4262 \(en in fact the port number has already been reassigned to other
4265 `SMTPS' is nonetheless a commonly offered "protocol" and thus can be
4266 chosen by assigning a value like \*(IN
4267 `smtps://[user[:password]@]server[:port]'
4268 (\*(OU `smtps://server[:port]');
4269 due to the mentioned problems it is usually necessary to explicitly
4270 specify the port as `:465', however.
4272 Finally there is the `SUBMISSION' protocol (RFC 6409), which usually
4273 lives on server port 587 and is practically identically to the `SMTP'
4274 protocol from \*(UAs point of view beside that; it requires setting the
4275 .Va smtp-use-starttls
4276 variable to enter a SSL/TLS secured session state.
4277 Assign a value like \*(IN `submission://[user[:password]@]server[:port]'
4278 (\*(OU `submission://server[:port]').
4281 The SMTP transfer is executed in a child process, which runs
4282 asynchronously unless either the
4287 If it receives a TERM signal, it will abort and save the message to
4290 \*(OP Sets the SMTP authentication method.
4291 Possible values are `none' (the default), `plain', `login'
4292 as well as the \*(OPal methods `cram-md5' and `gssapi'.
4293 The `none' method doesn't need any user credentials,
4294 `gssapi' requires a user name
4295 and all other methods require a user name and a password.
4302 .Va smtp-auth-password
4304 .Va smtp-auth-user Ns
4306 .It Va smtp-auth-HOST
4309 for SMTP accounts on a specific host.
4310 .It Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST
4313 for a specific account.
4314 (\*(OU For specific values of sender addresses, dependend upon the variable
4317 .It Va smtp-auth-password
4318 \*(OP \*(OU Sets the global fallback password for SMTP authentication.
4319 If the authentication method requires a password, but neither
4320 .Va smtp-auth-password
4322 .Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
4324 \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal.
4325 .It Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
4327 .Va smtp-auth-password
4328 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
4330 .It Va smtp-auth-user
4331 \*(OP \*(OU Sets the global fallback user name for SMTP authentication.
4332 If the authentication method requires a user name, but neither
4335 .Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
4337 \*(UA will ask for a user name on the user's terminal.
4338 .It Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
4341 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
4343 .It Va smtp-hostname
4344 \*(IN Normally \*(UA uses the variable
4346 to derive the necessary `USER@HOST' information to issue a
4347 `MAIL FROM:<>' SMTP command.
4350 can be used to use the `USER' from the SMTP account
4355 and the `HOST' from the content of this variable
4356 (or, if that is the empty string,
4358 or the local hostname as a last resort).
4359 This often allows using an address that is itself valid but hosted by
4360 a provider other than which is about to send the message in
4362 Setting this variable also influences the generated `Message-Id:'.
4364 \*(OP The path to the spam detector.
4365 Note that the path is not expanded, but used "as is".
4366 A fallback path will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if the
4368 executable had been found during compilation.
4370 \*(OP Can be used to specify the host on which
4372 listens for connections; if not set, defaults to `localhost'.
4374 \*(OP Spam detectors like
4376 decline to work with messages which exceed a specific size;
4377 if this variable is set then \*(UA won't even try to pass messages which
4378 exceed the given limit.
4379 The default is 420000 bytes.
4381 \*(OP Can be used to explicitly specify the port on which
4383 listens for connections.
4385 \*(OP If the spam detector listens on a path-based UNIX domain socket,
4386 then setting this variable to the fully qualified path will force its
4387 usage for communication.
4389 \*(OP This can be used to support multiple, per-used configuration files
4390 of the spam detector.
4391 Note that \*(UA doesn't automatically set this to reflect a possibly set
4395 \*(OP Specifies a directory with CA certificates in PEM (Pricacy
4396 Enhanced Mail) for verification of of SSL/TLS server certificates.
4398 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
4399 for more information.
4401 \*(OP Specifies a file with CA certificates in PEM format for
4402 verification of SSL/TLS server certificates.
4404 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
4405 for more information.
4407 \*(OP Sets the file name for a SSL/TLS client certificate required by
4409 .It Va ssl-cert-USER@HOST
4410 Sets an account-specific file name for a SSL/TLS client certificate
4411 required by some servers.
4414 for the specified account.
4415 .It Va ssl-cipher-list
4416 \*(OP Specifies a list of ciphers for SSL/TLS connections.
4419 for more information.
4421 \*(OP Specifies a file that contains a CRL in PEM format to use when
4422 verifying SSL/TLS server certificates.
4424 \*(OP Specifies a directory that contains files with CRLs in PEM format
4425 to use when verifying SSL/TLS server certificates.
4427 \*(OP Sets the file name for the private key of a SSL/TLS client
4429 If unset, the name of the certificate file is used.
4430 The file is expected to be in PEM format.
4431 .It Va ssl-key-USER@HOST
4432 Sets an account-specific file name for the private key of a SSL/TLS
4436 for the specified account.
4438 \*(OP Selects the used TLS/SSL protocol version.
4439 The actually available protocol versions depend on the TLS/SSL
4440 library that \*(UA uses; possible values are, from newest to oldest:
4441 `tls1.2', `tls1.1', `tls1', `ssl3' and `ssl2'.
4445 to any of these values will fixate the used protocol, which means that
4446 connections will fail if the server doesn't support it.
4447 The value `auto', which is the default, chooses a compatibility method
4448 that automatically uses the newest protocol version that the server
4449 is capable to understand.
4451 It has to be noted that `auto' is used as a fallback method if
4452 the actual setting of
4454 isn't supported by the used TLS/SSL library \(em in this case an error
4455 message will be printed first, however.
4456 .It Va ssl-method-USER@HOST
4459 for a specific account.
4461 \*(OP Gives the pathname to an entropy daemon socket, see
4463 Note that (as of 2014) not all OpenSSL installations include this
4465 .It Va ssl-rand-file
4466 \*(OP Gives the pathname to a file with entropy data, see
4467 .Xr RAND_load_file 3 .
4468 If the file is a regular file writable by the invoking user,
4469 new data is written to it after it has been loaded.
4471 \*(OP Sets the action to be performed if an error occurs during SSL/TLS
4472 server certificate validation.
4474 `strict' (fail and close connection immediately),
4475 `ask' (ask whether to continue on standard input),
4476 `warn' (print a warning and continue),
4477 `ignore' (do not perform validation).
4478 The default is `ask'.
4479 .It Va ssl-verify-USER@HOST
4482 for a specific account.
4484 If only set without an assigned value, then this option inhibits the
4485 generation of the `Message-Id:' and `User-Agent:' header fields that
4486 include obvious references to \*(UA.
4487 There are two pitfalls associated with this:
4488 First, the message id of outgoing messages is not known anymore.
4489 Second, an expert may still use the remaining information in the header
4490 to track down the originating mail user agent.
4491 If set to the value `noagent', then the mentioned `Message-Id:'
4492 suppression doesn't occur.
4494 If defined, gives the number of lines of a message to be printed out
4495 with the top command;
4496 normally, the first five lines are printed.
4498 The character set of the terminal \*(UA operates on,
4499 and the one and only supported character set that \*(UA can use if no
4500 character set conversion capabilities have been compiled into it,
4501 in which case it defaults to `ISO-8859-1' unless it can deduce a value
4502 from the `LC_CTYPE' locale environment.
4503 Refer to the section
4505 for the complete picture about character sets.
4507 \*(IN Sets a global fallback user name, which is used in case none has
4508 been given in the protocol and account-specific URL and there is also
4511 This variable defaults to the value of
4516 for a specific host.
4519 .\" }}} (Variable options)
4521 .\" .Sh ENVIRONMENT {{{
4523 Besides the variables described above,
4524 \*(UA uses the following environment variables:
4525 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ev MAILRC"
4527 The user's preferred width in column positions for the terminal screen
4528 or window (only used during startup).
4530 The name of the file to use for saving aborted messages.
4531 This defaults to `dead.letter' in the user's home directory.
4533 Pathname of the text editor to use in the
4537 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
4538 A default editor is used if this value is not defined.
4540 The user's home directory.
4541 .It Ev LANG , Ev LC_ALL , Ev LC_COLLATE , Ev LC_CTYPE , Ev LC_MESSAGES
4545 The user's preferred number of lines on a page or the vertical screen or
4546 window size in lines (only used during startup).
4548 Pathname of the directory lister to use in the
4550 command when operating on local mailboxes.
4554 The name of the user's mbox file.
4555 Supports a logical subset of the special conventions that are documented
4561 The fallback default is `mbox' in the user's home directory.
4563 Is used as a startup file instead of \*(ur if set.
4564 When \*(UA scripts are invoked on behalf of other users,
4565 this variable should be set to
4567 to avoid side-effects from reading their configuration files.
4569 If this variable is set and
4571 is not, it is treated as a startup configuration file and read.
4572 .It Ev NAIL_NO_SYSTEM_RC
4573 If this variable is set then reading of \*(UR at startup is inhibited,
4574 i.e., the same effect is achieved as if \*(UA had been started up with
4578 \*(IN \*(OP This variable overrides the default location of the user's
4582 Pathname of the program to use in the more command or when the
4585 The default paginator is
4588 Pathname of the shell to use in the
4590 command and the `~!'
4591 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
4592 A default shell is used if this option is not defined.
4594 Changes the letters printed in the first column of a header summary.
4596 \*(OP The terminal type for which output is to be prepared.
4598 Used as directory for temporary files instead of
4602 Can be used to force identification as
4604 i.e., identical to the
4606 command line option.
4608 Pathname of the text editor to use in the
4611 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" .
4617 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa /etc/mime.types"
4619 File giving initial commands.
4621 System wide initialization file.
4622 .It Pa ~/.mime.types
4623 Personal MIME types.
4624 .It Pa /etc/mime.types
4625 System wide MIME types.
4627 \*(IN \*(OP The default location of the users
4629 file \(en the section
4630 .Sx "THE .netrc FILE"
4631 documents the file format.
4635 .\" .Sh "THE mime.types FILES" {{{
4636 .Sh "THE mime.types FILES"
4637 For any outgoing attachment \*(UA tries to determine the content type.
4638 It does this by reading MIME type files whose lines have the following
4641 .Dl type/subtype extension [extension ...]
4643 where `type/subtype' are strings describing the file contents,
4644 and `extension' is the part of a filename starting after the last dot.
4645 Any line not immediately beginning with an ASCII alphabetical character
4646 is ignored by \*(UA.
4648 .Va mimetypes-load-control
4649 can be used to control the sources of MIME types, and the
4651 command can be used to show the list of mime types known to \*(UA.
4652 If there is a match with the `extension' of the file to attach,
4653 the given `type/subtype' pair is used.
4654 Otherwise, or if the filename has no extension,
4655 the content types `text/plain' or `application/octet-stream' are used,
4656 dependent upon file content inspection.
4658 .Va mime-allow-text-controls .
4661 .\" .Sh THE .netrc FILE {{{
4665 file contains user credentials for machine accounts.
4666 The default location in the user's home directory may be
4669 environment variable.
4670 The file consists of space, tabulator or newline separated tokens.
4671 \*(UA implements a parser that supports a superset of the original BSD
4672 syntax, but users should nonetheless be aware of portability glitches
4673 of that file format, shall their
4675 be usable across multiple programs and platforms:
4678 BSD doesn't support single, but only double quotation marks;
4679 e.g., `password="pass with spaces"'.
4681 BSD (only?) supports escaping of single characters via a backslash
4682 (e.g., a space can be escaped via `\e '), in- as well as outside of
4685 BSD doesn't require the final quotation mark of the final user input
4688 At least Hewlett-Packard seems to support a format which also allows
4689 tokens to be separated with commas \(en this format is not supported!
4691 Whereas other programs may require that the
4693 file is accessible by only the user if it contains a
4697 than anonymous, \*(UA will always require these strict permissions.
4700 Of the following list of supported tokens \*(UA only uses (and caches)
4701 `machine', `login' and `password':
4702 .Bl -tag -width password
4703 .It Ic machine Ar name
4704 The hostname of the entries machine, lowercase-normalized by \*(UA
4706 Any further file content, until either end-of-file or the occurrence
4711 first-class token is bound (only related) to the machine
4714 As an extension that shouldn't be the cause of any worries
4715 \*(UA supports a single wildcard prefix for
4718 .Dl *.example.com login USER password PASSWORD
4719 .Dl imap.example.com login USER password PASSWORD
4721 which would match `smtp.example.com' as well as `pop3.example.com', but
4722 neither `example.com' nor `local.smtp.example.com'.
4723 Note that in the example `imap.example.com' will not be matched by the
4724 wildcard, since the exact match takes precedence (it is however faster
4725 to specify it the other way around).
4729 except that it is a fallback entry that is used shall none of the
4730 specified machines match; only one default token may be specified,
4731 and it must be the last first-class token.
4732 .It Ic login Ar name
4733 The user name on the remote machine.
4734 .It Ic password Ar string
4735 The user's password on the remote machine.
4736 .It Ic account Ar string
4737 Supply an additional account password.
4738 This is merely for FTP purposes.
4739 .It Ic macdef Ar name
4741 A macro is defined with the specified
4743 it is formed from all lines beginning with the next line and continuing
4744 until a blank line is (consecutive newline characters are) encountered.
4747 entries cannot be utilized by multiple machines, too, but must be
4748 defined following the
4750 they are intended to be used with.)
4753 exists, it is automatically run as the last step of the login process.
4754 This is merely for FTP purposes.
4758 .\" .Sh EXAMPLES {{{
4761 .\" .Ss "Getting started" {{{
4762 .Ss "Getting started"
4763 The \*(UA command has two distinct usages, according to whether one
4764 wants to send or receive mail.
4765 Sending mail is simple: to send a message to a user whose email address
4766 is, say, `<bill@host.example>', use the shell command:
4768 .Dl $ \*(ua bill@host.example
4770 then type your message.
4771 \*(UA will prompt you for a message `Subject:' first;
4772 after that, lines typed by you form the body of the message.
4773 When you reach the end of the message,
4774 type an EOT (`control\-D') at the beginning of a line,
4775 which will cause \*(UA to echo `EOT' and return you to the shell.
4777 If, while you are composing the message you decide that you do not wish
4778 to send it after all, you can abort the letter by typing two `RUBOUT'
4779 (interrupt, `control-C') characters.
4780 Typing a single `RUBOUT' causes \*(UA to print
4781 .Ns ` Ns Li (Interrupt -- one more to kill letter) Ns '.
4782 Typing a second `RUBOUT' causes \*(UA to save your partial letter on the
4785 and abort the letter.
4786 Once you have sent mail to someone, there is no way to undo the act, so
4789 If you want to send the same message to several other people,
4790 you can list their email addresses on the command line.
4791 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4792 $ \*(ua sam@workstation.example bob@server.example
4794 Tuition fees are due next Friday. Don't forget!
4800 will sendout to `<sam@workstation.example>' and `<bob@server.example>'.
4801 To read your mail, simply type
4805 \*(UA will respond by typing its version number and date and then
4806 listing the messages you have waiting.
4807 Then it will type a prompt and await your command.
4808 The messages are assigned numbers starting with 1 \(en you refer to the
4809 messages with these numbers.
4810 \*(UA keeps track of which messages are `new' (have been sent since you
4811 last read your mail) and `read' (have been read by you).
4812 New messages have an `N' next to them in the header listing and old,
4813 but unread messages have a `U' next to them.
4814 \*(UA keeps track of new/old and read/unread messages by putting a
4815 header field called `Status' into your messages.
4817 To look at a specific message, use the
4819 command, which may be abbreviated to simply `t'.
4820 For example, if you had the following messages:
4821 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4822 O 1 drfoo@myhost.example Wed Sep 1 19:52 5/421 "Fees"
4823 O 2 sam@friends.example Thu Sep 2 00:08 30/895
4826 you could examine the first message by giving the command:
4830 which might cause \*(UA to respond with, for example:
4831 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4832 [-- Message 1 -- 5 lines, 421 bytes --]:
4833 From drfoo@myhost.example Wed Sep 1 19:52:25 2004
4837 Tuition fees are due next Wednesday. Don't forget!
4840 Many \*(UA commands that operate on messages take a message number as an
4841 argument, just as the shown
4844 For these commands, there is a notion of a current message.
4845 When you enter the \*(UA program,
4846 the current message is initially the first (or the first recent) one.
4847 Thus, you can often omit the message number and use, for example, `t` to
4848 type the current message.
4849 As a further shorthand, you can type a message by simply giving its
4850 message number \(en hence `1` would type the first message.
4852 Frequently, it is useful to read the messages in your mailbox in order,
4854 You can read the next message in \*(UA by simply typing a newline.
4855 As a special case, you can type a newline as your first command to
4856 \*(UA to type the first message.
4858 If, after typing a message, you wish to immediately send a reply,
4859 you can do so with the command
4863 takes a message number as an argument.
4864 \*(UA then begins a message addressed to the user who sent you the
4865 message and let you type in your letter in reply, followed by
4866 a `control-D' (`^D') at the beginning of a line, as before.
4868 Note that \*(UA copies the subject header from the original message.
4869 This is useful in that correspondence about a particular matter will
4870 tend to retain the same subject heading, making it easy to recognize.
4871 If there are other header fields in the message, like `Cc:',
4872 the information found will also be used.
4874 Sometimes you will receive a message that has been sent to several
4875 people and wish to reply only to the person who sent it.
4877 (with a capital `R') replies to a message, but sends a copy to the
4880 If you wish, while reading your mail, to send a message to someone,
4881 but not as a reply to one of your messages, you can send the message
4884 command, which takes as arguments the names of the recipients you wish
4886 For example, to send a message to `<frank@machine.example>':
4888 .Dl mail frank@machine.example
4890 To delete a message from the mail folder, you can use the command
4892 In addition to not saving deleted messages,
4893 \*(UA will not let you type them, either.
4894 The effect is to make the message disappear altogether, along with its
4897 Many features of \*(UA can be tailored to your liking with the
4899 command; it has two forms, depending on whether you are setting
4900 a `binary' or a `valued' option.
4901 Binary options are either on or off \(en for example, the
4903 option informs \*(UA that each time you send a message, you want it to
4904 prompt you for a `Cc:' header to be included in the message.
4907 option, you would type
4911 Valued options are values which \*(UA uses to adapt to your tastes.
4914 option tells \*(UA where to save messages sent by you,
4915 and is specified by, e.g.,
4919 Note that no spaces are allowed in `set record=Sent'.
4921 \*(UA includes a simple facility for maintaining groups of messages
4922 together in folders.
4923 To use the folder facility, you must tell \*(UA where you wish to keep
4925 Each folder of messages will be a single file.
4926 For convenience, all of your folders are kept in a single directory of
4928 To tell \*(UA where your folder directory is, put a line of the form
4930 .Dl set folder=letters
4933 If, as in the example above, your folder directory does not begin with
4934 a `/', \*(UA will assume that your folder directory is to be found
4935 starting from your home directory.
4937 Anywhere a file name is expected, you can use a folder name, preceded
4939 For example, to put a message into a folder with the
4941 command, you can use:
4945 to save the current message in the `classwork' folder.
4946 If the `classwork' folder does not yet exist, it will be created.
4947 Note that messages which are saved with the
4949 command are automatically removed from your system mailbox.
4951 In order to make a copy of a message in a folder without causing
4952 that message to be removed from your system mailbox, use the
4954 command, which is identical in all other respects to the
4961 can be used to direct \*(UA to the contents of a different folder.
4964 .Dl folder +classwork
4966 directs \*(UA to read the contents of the `classwork' folder.
4967 All of the commands that you can use on your system mailbox are also
4968 applicable to folders, including
4973 To inquire which folder you are currently editing, use `folder' without
4975 And to list your current set of folders, use the
4981 command is available to print out a brief summary of the most important
4984 While typing in a message to be sent to others it is often useful to be
4985 able to invoke the text editor on the partial message, print the
4986 message, execute a shell command, or do some other auxiliary function.
4987 \*(UA provides these capabilities through
4988 .Sx "TILDE ESCAPES" ,
4989 which consist of a tilde (`~') at the beginning of a line, followed by
4990 a single character which indicates the function to be performed.
4991 For example, to print the text of the message so far, use:
4995 which will print a line of dashes, the recipients of your message, and
4996 the text of the message so far.
4997 A list of the most important tilde escapes is available with `~?'.
5000 .\" .Ss "IMAP or POP3 client setup" {{{
5001 .Ss "IMAP or POP3 client setup"
5002 \*(OP First you need the following data from your ISP:
5003 the host name of the IMAP or POP3 server,
5004 user name and password for this server,
5005 and a notice whether the server uses SSL/TLS encryption.
5006 Assuming the SSL/TLS secured host name of your IMAP account is
5007 `server.myisp.example' and your user name for that server is `mylogin',
5008 you could refer to this account using the
5012 command line option with
5014 .Dl imaps://mylogin@server.myisp.example
5016 (This string is not necessarily the same as your Internet mail address.)
5017 Even if the server does not accept IMAPS or POP3S connections,
5018 it is possible that it supports the `STARTTLS' method of upgrading
5019 already connected, but not yet authenticated sessions to use SSL/TLS
5021 The only reliable method to see if this works is to try it; enter one of
5023 .Dl set imap-use-starttls
5024 .Dl set pop3-use-starttls
5026 before you initiate the connection, dependent on the actual protocol.
5030 command can be used to avoid typing that many characters every time you
5033 .Dl shortcut myisp %:imaps://mylogin@server.myisp.example
5035 You might want to put this string into a startup file.
5037 is one of those commands that are specific to \*(UA and will thus
5038 confuse other implementations of POSIX
5040 so it should possibly not be placed in \*(ur.
5043 .Dl set NAIL_EXTRA_RC=.\*(uarc
5045 in \*(ur and create a file
5047 containing all the commands that are specific to \*(UA.
5048 You can then access your remote mailbox by invoking
5052 on the command line, or by executing
5057 If you want to use more than one IMAP mailbox on a server,
5058 or if you want to use the IMAP server for mail storage too, the
5060 command (which is also \*(UA-specific) is possibly more appropriate.
5061 You can put the following in
5063 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5065 set folder=imaps://mylogin@server.myisp.example
5066 set record=+Sent MBOX=+mbox outfolder
5070 and can then access incoming mail for this account by invoking
5071 `\*(ua \-A myisp' on the command line or by executing `ac myisp' within
5073 After that, a command like `copy 1 +otherfolder' will refer to
5074 `otherfolder' on the IMAP server.
5075 In particular, `fi&' will change to the `mbox' folder,
5076 and `fi+Sent' will show your recorded sent mail,
5077 with both folders located on the IMAP server.
5079 \*(UA will ask you for a password string each time you connect to
5081 If you can reasonably trust the security of your workstation,
5082 you can give this password in the startup file as
5084 .Dl set password-mylogin@server.myisp.example="SECRET"
5086 You should change the permissions of this file to 0600, see
5089 \*(UA supports different authentication methods for both IMAP and POP3.
5090 If Kerberos is used at your location,
5091 you can try to activate (the optional) GSS-API based authentication via
5093 .Dl set imap-auth=gssapi
5095 The advantage of this method is that \*(UA doesn't need to know your
5096 password at all, nor does it have to send sensitive data over the network.
5097 If that isn't possible, try to use authentication methods that at least
5098 avoid sending the password in clear over the wire, which is especially
5099 important if SSL/TLS cannot be used, e.g.,
5101 .Dl set imap-auth=cram-md5
5103 For POP3 \*(UA will try to use the `APOP' mechanism automatically unless
5104 explicitly disabled.
5105 If the server does not offer any such authentication methods,
5106 conventional user/password based authentication must be used.
5107 It is sometimes helpful, especially when setting up an account or when
5108 there are authentification problems, to enable verbosity by setting the
5110 option \(en \*(UA will display all data sent to the server in clear text
5111 on the screen when this option is set.
5112 (Because this may also include passwords you should take care that no
5113 unauthorized person can look at your terminal when this option is set.)
5115 If you regularly use the same workstation to access IMAP accounts,
5116 you can greatly enhance performance by enabling local caching of IMAP
5118 For any message that has been fully or partially fetched from the server,
5119 a local copy is made and is used when the message is accessed again,
5120 so most data is transferred over the network once only.
5121 To enable the IMAP cache, select a local directory name and put
5123 .Dl set imap-cache=~/localdirectory
5125 in the (\*(UA-specific) startup file.
5126 All files within that directory can be overwritten or deleted by \*(UA
5128 so you should not use the directory to store other information.
5130 Once the cache contains some messages,
5131 it is not strictly necessary anymore to open a connection to the IMAP
5132 server to access them.
5133 When \*(UA is invoked with the option
5138 only cached data is used for any folder you open.
5139 Messages that have not yet been completely cached are not available
5140 then, but all other messages can be handled as usual.
5141 Changes made to IMAP mailboxes in
5143 mode are committed to the IMAP server next time it is being connected to.
5144 Synchronizing the local status with the status on the server is thus
5145 partially within your responsibility;
5146 if you forget to initiate a connection to the server again before you
5147 leave your location,
5148 changes made on one workstation are not available on others.
5149 Also if you alter IMAP mailboxes from a workstation while uncommitted
5150 changes are still pending on another,
5151 the latter data may become invalid.
5152 The same might also happen because of internal server status changes.
5153 You should thus carefully evaluate this feature in your environment
5154 before you rely on it.
5156 Many servers will close the connection after a short period of
5157 inactivity \(en use one of
5159 .Dl set pop3-keepalive=30
5160 .Dl set imap-keepalive=240
5162 to send a keepalive message each 30 seconds for POP3,
5163 or each 4 minutes for IMAP.
5165 If you encounter problems connecting to a SSL/TLS server,
5170 variables (see the OpenSSL FAQ for more information) or specify the
5171 protocol version with
5173 Contact your ISP if you need a client certificate or if verification of
5174 the server certificate fails.
5175 If the failed certificate is indeed valid,
5176 fetch its CA certificate by executing the shell command
5178 .Dl $ </dev/null openssl s_client \-showcerts \-connect \e
5179 .Dl \ \ \ \ \ \ server.myisp.example:imaps 2>&1 | tee log.txt
5183 ) and put it into the file specified with
5185 The data you need is located at the end of the certificate chain
5186 within (and including) the `BEGIN CERTIFICATE'
5187 and `END CERTIFICATE' lines.
5188 Note that the example above is \fBinsecure\fR!
5189 One should use the `-verify' and `-CAfile' options of
5191 to be "on the safe side" regarding the fetched certificates.
5194 .\" .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME" {{{
5195 .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
5196 \*(OP S/MIME provides two central mechanisms:
5197 message signing and message encryption.
5198 A signed message contains some data in addition to the regular text.
5199 The data can be used to verify that the message was sent using a valid
5200 certificate, that the sender's address in the message header matches
5201 that in the certificate, and that the message text has not been altered.
5202 Signing a message does not change its regular text;
5203 it can be read regardless of whether the recipient's software is able to
5205 It is thus usually possible to sign all outgoing messages if so desired.
5206 Encryption, in contrast, makes the message text invisible for all people
5207 except those who have access to the secret decryption key.
5208 To encrypt a message, the specific recipient's public encryption key
5210 It is thus not possible to send encrypted mail to people unless their
5211 key has been retrieved from either previous communication or public key
5213 A message should always be signed before it is encrypted.
5214 Otherwise, it is still possible that the encrypted message text is
5217 A central concept to S/MIME is that of the certification authority (CA).
5218 A CA is a trusted institution that issues certificates.
5219 For each of these certificates it can be verified that it really
5220 originates from the CA, provided that the CA's own certificate is
5222 A set of CA certificates is usually delivered with OpenSSL and installed
5224 If you trust the source of your OpenSSL software installation,
5225 this offers reasonable security for S/MIME on the Internet.
5226 In general, a certificate cannot be more secure than the method its CA
5227 certificate has been retrieved with, though.
5228 Thus if you download a CA certificate from the Internet,
5229 you can only trust the messages you verify using that certificate as
5230 much as you trust the download process.
5232 The first thing you need for participating in S/MIME message exchange is
5233 your personal certificate, including a private key.
5234 The certificate contains public information, in particular your name and
5235 your email address, and the public key that is used by others to encrypt
5237 and to verify signed messages they supposedly received from you.
5238 The certificate is included in each signed message you send.
5239 The private key must be kept secret.
5240 It is used to decrypt messages that were previously encrypted with your
5241 public key, and to sign messages.
5243 For personal use it is recommended that you get a S/MIME certificate
5244 from one of the major CAs on the Internet using your WWW browser.
5245 (Many CAs offer such certificates for free.)
5246 You will usually receive a combined certificate and private key in
5247 PKCS#12 format which \*(UA does not directly accept.
5248 To convert it to PEM format, use the following shell command:
5250 .Dl $ openssl pkcs12 \-in cert.p12 \-out cert.pem \-clcerts \-nodes
5252 If you omit the `\-nodes' parameter, you can specifiy an additional `PEM
5253 pass phrase' for protecting the private key.
5254 \*(UA will then ask you for that pass phrase each time it signs or
5258 .Dl set smime-sign-cert-myname@myisp.example=cert.pem
5260 to make this private key and certificate known to \*(UA.
5261 You can now sign outgoing messages.
5267 From each signed message you send,
5268 the recipient can fetch your certificate and use it to send encrypted
5270 Accordingly if somebody sends you a signed message, you can do the same.
5273 command to check the validity of the certificate.
5274 After that, retrieve the certificate and tell \*(UA that it should use
5277 .Dl certsave filename
5278 .Dl set smime-encrypt-USER@HOST=filename
5280 You should carefully consider if you prefer to store encrypted messages
5282 If you do, anybody who has access to your mail folders can read them,
5283 but if you do not, you might be unable to read them yourself later if
5284 you happen to lose your private key.
5287 command saves messages in decrypted form, while the
5292 commands leave them encrypted.
5294 Note that neither S/MIME signing nor encryption applies to message
5295 subjects or other header fields.
5296 Thus they may not contain sensitive information for encrypted messages,
5297 and cannot be trusted even if the message content has been verified.
5298 When sending signed messages,
5299 it is recommended to repeat any important header information in the
5303 .\" .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or SSL/TLS" {{{
5304 .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or SSL/TLS"
5305 \*(OP Certification authorities (CAs) issue certificate revocation
5306 lists (CRLs) on a regular basis.
5307 These lists contain the serial numbers of certificates that have been
5308 declared invalid after they have been issued.
5309 Such usually happens because the private key for the certificate has
5311 because the owner of the certificate has left the organization that is
5312 mentioned in the certificate, etc.
5313 To seriously use S/MIME or SSL/TLS verification,
5314 an up-to-date CRL is required for each trusted CA.
5315 There is otherwise no method to distinguish between valid and
5316 invalidated certificates.
5317 \*(UA currently offers no mechanism to fetch CRLs, nor to access them on
5318 the Internet, so you have to retrieve them by some external mechanism.
5320 \*(UA accepts CRLs in PEM format only;
5321 CRLs in DER format must be converted, like, e.\|g.:
5323 .Dl $ openssl crl \-inform DER \-in crl.der \-out crl.pem
5325 To tell \*(UA about the CRLs, a directory that contains all CRL files
5326 (and no other files) must be created.
5331 variables, respectively, must then be set to point to that directory.
5332 After that, \*(UA requires a CRL to be present for each CA that is used
5333 to verify a certificate.
5336 .\" .Ss "Handling spam" {{{
5338 \*(OP \*(UA can make use of spam detection and learning facilities \(en
5339 more precisely, SpamAssassin (\%<http://spamassassin.apache.org>).
5340 A very comprehensive documentation of
5342 can be found at the O'Reilly Commons
5343 (\%<http://commons.oreilly.com/wiki/index.php/SpamAssassin>).
5345 Currently \*(UA supports interaction with
5347 only via its daemonized
5350 server / client pair, which means that, in order to detect and work
5351 with spam through \*(UA, an instance of the
5353 daemon must be running (the examples are equivalent):
5354 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5355 $ spamd -i localhost:2142 -i /tmp/.spamsock -d [-L] [-l]
5356 $ spamd --listen=localhost:2142 --listen=/tmp/.spamsock \\
5357 --daemonize [--local] [--allow-tell]
5362 should only listen on a local, path-based UNIX domain socket instead of
5363 offering its service over the network, it maybe necessary to use
5366 option instead of the shown
5368 In order to support training of the Bayesian classifier through \*(UA,
5370 must have been started with the
5376 is running \*(UA can classify messages by using the client side program,
5379 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5380 $ \*(ua -Sspam-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \\
5381 -Sspam-socket=/tmp/.spamsock -Sspam-maxsize=500000
5384 The commands offered are
5388 which simply set an `is-spam' flag that can be used for, e.g., message
5391 which passes messages through to the spam detector in order to gain
5392 a spam score and conditionally set the `is-spam' flag accordingly,
5393 as well as the Bayesian filter related
5399 Because messages must exist on local storage in order to be scored (or
5400 used for Bayesian filter training), it is possibly a good idea to
5401 perform the local spam check last:
5402 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5403 define spamdelhook {
5405 spamset (header x-dcc-brand-metrics "bulk")
5406 # Server-side spamassassin(1)
5407 spamset (header x-spam-flag "YES")
5408 del :s # TODO we HAVE to be able to do `spamrate :u ! :s'
5409 # And finally the local spamc(1)
5413 set folder-hook-FOLDER=spamdelhook
5416 See also the documentation for the variables
5426 .\" .Ss "Sending mail from scripts" {{{
5427 .Ss "Sending mail from scripts"
5428 If you want to send mail from scripts, you must be aware that \*(UA
5429 reads the user's configuration files by default.
5430 So unless your script is only intended for your own personal use
5431 (as, e.g., a cron job), you need to circumvent this:
5433 .Dl MAILRC=/dev/null LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 \*(ua \-n
5435 You then need to create a script-local configuration for \*(UA.
5436 This can be done by either pointing the
5438 variable to a custom configuration file,
5439 by passing the configuration in environment variables,
5442 command line option to specify options.
5443 Since many configuration options are not valid shell variables, the
5445 command is useful if the approach via environment variables is used:
5446 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5447 env MAILRC=/dev/null LC_ALL=C password=secret \*(ua -n -Sv15-compat \e
5448 -S 'smtp=smtps://mylogin@some.host:465' -Ssmtp-auth=login \e
5449 -S 'from=scriptreply@domain' \e
5450 -s 'subject' -a attachment_file recipient@domain < content_file
5455 .\" .Sh "SEE ALSO" {{{
5470 .Xr spamassassin 1 ,
5488 .\" .Sh "IMPLEMENTATION NOTES" {{{
5489 .Sh "IMPLEMENTATION NOTES"
5490 The character set conversion uses and relies upon the
5493 Its functionality differs widely between the various system environments
5496 Limitations with IMAP mailboxes are:
5497 It is not possible to edit messages, but it is possible to append them.
5498 Thus to edit a message, create a local copy of it, edit it, append it,
5499 and delete the original.
5500 The line count for the header display is only appropriate if the entire
5501 message has been downloaded from the server.
5502 The marking of messages as `new' is performed by the IMAP server;
5507 will not cause it to be reset, and if the
5509 variable is unset, messages that arrived during a session will not be
5510 in state `new' anymore when the folder is opened again.
5511 Also if commands queued in disconnected mode are committed,
5512 the IMAP server will delete the `new' flag for all messages in the
5514 and new messages will appear as unread when it is selected for viewing
5516 The `flagged', `answered', and `draft' attributes are usually permanent,
5517 but some IMAP servers are known to drop them without notification.
5518 Message numbers may change with IMAP every time before the prompt is
5519 printed if \*(UA is notified by the server that messages have been
5520 deleted by some other client or process.
5521 In this case, `Expunged n messages' is printed, and message numbers may
5524 Limitations with POP3 mailboxes are:
5525 It is not possible to edit messages, they can only be copied and deleted.
5526 The line count for the header display is only appropriate if the entire
5527 message has been downloaded from the server.
5528 The status field of a message is maintained by the server between
5529 connections; some servers do not update it at all, and with a server
5530 that does, the `exit' command will not cause the message status to be
5532 The `newmail' command and the `newmail' variable have no effect.
5533 It is not possible to rename or to remove POP3 mailboxes.
5535 If a `RUBOUT' (interrupt, `control-C') is typed while an IMAP or POP3
5536 operation is in progress, \*(UA will wait until the operation can be
5538 and will then return to the command loop and print the prompt again.
5539 When a second `RUBOUT' is typed while \*(UA is waiting for the operation
5540 to complete, the operation itself will be cancelled.
5541 In this case, data that has not been fetched yet will have to be fetched
5542 before the next command can be performed.
5543 If the cancelled operation was using an SSL/TLS encrypted channel,
5544 an error in the SSL transport will very likely result and render the
5545 connection unusable.
5547 As \*(UA is a mail user agent, it provides only basic SMTP services.
5548 If it fails to contact its upstream SMTP server, it will not make
5549 further attempts to transfer the message at a later time,
5550 and it does not leave other information about this condition than an
5551 error message on the terminal and an entry in
5553 This is usually not a problem if the SMTP server is located in the same
5554 local network as the computer on which \*(UA is run.
5555 However, care should be taken when using a remote server of an ISP;
5556 it might be better to set up a local SMTP server then which just acts as
5559 \*(UA immediately contacts the SMTP server (or
5561 ) even when operating in
5564 It would not make much sense for \*(UA to defer outgoing mail since SMTP
5565 servers usually provide much more elaborated delay handling than \*(UA
5566 could perform as a client.
5567 Thus the recommended setup for sending mail in
5569 mode is to configure a local SMTP server such that it sends outgoing
5570 mail as soon as an external network connection is available again,
5571 i.e., to advise it to do that from a network startup script.
5576 A \fImail\fR command appeared in Version 1 AT&T Unix.
5577 Berkeley Mail was written in 1978 by Kurt Shoens.
5578 This man page is derived from from The Mail Reference Manual originally
5579 written by Kurt Shoens.
5580 "Heirloom Mailx" enhancements are maintained and documented by Gunnar
5582 "S-nail" is maintained and documented by Steffen (Daode) Nurpmeso.
5584 Portions of this text are reprinted and reproduced in electronic form
5585 from IEEE Std 1003.1, 2003 Edition, Standard for Information Technology
5586 \(en Operating System Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base
5587 Specifications Issue 6, Copyright \(co 2001-2003 by the Institute of
5588 Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group.
5589 In the event of any discrepancy between this version and the original
5590 IEEE and The Open Group Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group
5591 Standard is the referee document.
5592 The original Standard can be obtained online at
5593 \%<http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html>.
5594 Redistribution of this material is permitted so long as this notice
5600 .An "Christos Zoulas" ,
5601 .An "Gunnar Ritter" ,
5602 .An Steffen Po Daode Pc Nurpmeso Aq s-nail-users@lists.sourceforge.net
5605 Too many (see the file `TODO' from the distribution or the repository).