1 .\"@ nail.1 - S-nail(1) reference manual.
3 .\" Copyright (c) 2000-2008 Gunnar Ritter, Freiburg i. Br., Germany.
4 .\" Copyright (c) 2012 - 2018 Steffen (Daode) Nurpmeso <steffen@sdaoden.eu>.
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34 .\"@ S-nail v14.9.10 / 2018-03-25
44 .ds VD \\%~/dead.letter
48 .ds vS /etc/mime.types
56 .ds OU [no v15-compat]
57 .ds ID [v15 behaviour may differ]
58 .ds NQ [Only new quoting rules]
62 .if !d str-Lb-libterminfo \
63 .ds str-Lb-libterminfo Terminal Information Library (libterminfo, \-lterminfo)
72 .Nd send and receive Internet mail
78 .\" Keep in SYNC: ./nail.1:"SYNOPSIS, main()
84 .Op : Ns Fl a Ar attachment Ns \&:
85 .Op : Ns Fl b Ar bcc-addr Ns \&:
86 .Op : Ns Fl C Ar """custom:\0header""" Ns \&:
87 .Op : Ns Fl c Ar cc-addr Ns \&:
88 .Op Fl M Ar type | Fl m Ar file | Fl q Ar file | Fl t
91 .Fl S\0 Ns Ar var Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value Ns
94 .Op : Ns Fl X Ar cmd Ns \&:
96 .Pf : Ar to-addr Ns \&:
97 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns : Ns Ar mta-option Ns \&:
105 .Op : Ns Fl C Ar """custom:\0header""" Ns \&:
107 .Op Fl r Ar from-addr
109 .Fl S Ar var Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value Ns
112 .Op : Ns Fl X Ar cmd Ns \&:
113 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns : Ns Ar mta-option Ns \&:
120 .Op : Ns Fl C Ar """custom:\0header""" Ns \&:
123 .Op Fl r Ar from-addr
125 .Fl S Ar var Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value Ns
127 .Op : Ns Fl X Ar cmd Ns \&:
129 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns : Ns Ar mta-option Ns \&:
135 .Fl V | Fl Fl version
140 .Mx -toc -tree html pdf ps xhtml
143 .\" .Sh DESCRIPTION {{{
146 .Bd -filled -compact -offset indent
147 .Sy Compatibility note:
148 S-nail (\*(UA) will wrap up into \%S-mailx in v15.0 (circa 2020).
149 Backward incompatibility has to be expected \(en
152 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
153 rules, for example, and shell metacharacters will become meaningful.
154 New and old behaviour is flagged \*(IN and \*(OU, and setting
157 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
158 will choose new behaviour when applicable.
159 \*(OB flags what will vanish, and enabling
163 enables obsoletion warnings.
167 \*(UA provides a simple and friendly environment for sending and
169 It is intended to provide the functionality of the POSIX
171 command, but is MIME capable and optionally offers extensions for
172 line editing, S/MIME, SMTP and POP3, among others.
173 \*(UA divides incoming mail into its constituent messages and allows
174 the user to deal with them in any order.
178 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
179 for manipulating messages and sending mail.
180 It provides the user simple editing capabilities to ease the composition
181 of outgoing messages, and increasingly powerful and reliable
182 non-interactive scripting capabilities.
184 .\" .Ss "Options" {{{
187 .Bl -tag -width ".It Fl BaNg"
190 Explicitly control which of the
194 d (loaded): if the letter
196 is (case-insensitively) part of the
200 is sourced, likewise the letter
202 controls sourcing of the user's personal
204 file, whereas the letters
208 explicitly forbid sourcing of any resource files.
209 Scripts should use this option: to avoid environmental noise they should
211 from any configuration and create a script-specific environment, setting
213 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
216 and running configurating commands via
218 This option overrides
225 command for the given user email
227 after program startup is complete (all resource files are loaded, any
229 setting is being established; only
231 commands have not been evaluated yet).
232 Being a special incarnation of
234 macros for the purpose of bundling longer-lived
236 tings, activating such an email account also switches to the accounts
238 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
241 If the operation fails the program will exit if it is used
242 non-interactively, or if any of
249 .It Fl a Ar file Ns Op Ar =input-charset Ns Op Ar #output-charset
252 to the message (for compose mode opportunities refer to
256 .Sx "Filename transformations"
259 will be performed, except that shell variables are not expanded.
262 not be accessible but contain a
264 character, then anything before the last
266 will be used as the filename, anything thereafter as a character set
269 If an input character set is specified,
270 .Mx -ix "character set specification"
271 but no output character set, then the given input character set is fixed
272 as-is, and no conversion will be applied;
273 giving the empty string or the special string hyphen-minus
275 will be treated as if
277 has been specified (the default).
279 If an output character set has also been given then the conversion will
280 be performed exactly as specified and on-the-fly, not considering the
281 file type and content.
282 As an exception, if the output character set is specified as the empty
283 string or hyphen-minus
285 then the default conversion algorithm (see
286 .Sx "Character sets" )
287 is applied (therefore no conversion is performed on-the-fly,
289 will be MIME-classified and its contents will be inspected first) \(em
290 without support for character set conversions
292 does not include the term
294 only this argument is supported.
297 (\*(OB: \*(UA will always use line-buffered output, to gain
298 line-buffered input even in batch mode enable batch mode via
303 Send a blind carbon copy to
310 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
315 The option may be used multiple times.
317 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
320 .It Fl C Ar """field: body"""
321 Create a custom header which persists for an entire session.
322 A custom header consists of the field name followed by a colon
324 and the field content body, e.g.,
325 .Ql -C """Blah: Neminem laede; imo omnes, quantum potes, juva""" .
326 Standard header field names cannot be overwritten by custom headers.
327 Runtime adjustable custom headers are available via the variable
332 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ,
333 is the most flexible and powerful option to manage message headers.
334 This option may be used multiple times.
340 except it places the argument in the list of carbon copies.
350 Almost enable a sandbox mode with the internal variable
352 the same can be achieved via
353 .Ql Fl S Va \&\&debug
355 .Ql Ic set Va \&\&debug .
361 and thus discard messages with an empty message part body.
365 Just check if mail is present (in the system
367 or the one specified via
369 if yes, return an exit status of zero, a non-zero value otherwise.
370 To restrict the set of mails to consider in this evaluation a message
371 specification can be added with the option
376 Save the message to send in a file named after the local part of the
377 first recipient's address (instead of in
382 Read in the contents of the user's
384 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
386 (or the specified file) for processing;
387 when \*(UA is quit, it writes undeleted messages back to this file
393 argument will undergo some special
394 .Sx "Filename transformations"
399 is not an argument to the flag
401 but is instead taken from the command line after option processing has
405 that starts with a hyphen-minus, prefix with a relative path, as in
406 .Ql ./-hyphenbox.mbox .
421 A configurable summary view is available via the option
423 This mode does not honour
428 Show a short usage summary.
434 to ignore tty interrupt signals.
440 of all messages that match the given
444 found by the same algorithm used by
448 .Sx "Specifying messages"
451 This mode does not honour
456 option has been given in addition no header summary is produced,
457 but \*(UA will instead indicate via its exit status whether
463 note that any verbose output is suppressed in this mode and must instead
464 be enabled explicitly (e.g., by using the option
469 Special send mode that will flag standard input with the MIME
473 and use it as the main message body.
474 \*(ID Using this option will bypass processing of
475 .Va message-inject-head
477 .Va message-inject-tail .
483 Special send mode that will MIME classify the specified
485 and use it as the main message body.
486 \*(ID Using this option will bypass processing of
487 .Va message-inject-head
489 .Va message-inject-tail .
495 inhibit the initial display of message headers when reading mail or
500 for the internal variable
505 Standard flag that inhibits reading the system wide
510 allows more control over the startup sequence; also see
511 .Sx "Resource files" .
515 Special send mode that will initialize the message body with the
516 contents of the specified
518 which may be standard input
520 only in non-interactive context.
530 opened will be in read-only mode.
534 .It Fl r Ar from-addr
535 Whereas the source address that appears in the
537 header of a message (or in the
539 header if the former contains multiple addresses) is honoured by the
540 built-in SMTP transport, it is not used by a file-based
542 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) for the RFC 5321 reverse-path used for relaying
543 and delegating a message to its destination(s), for delivery errors
544 etc., but it instead uses the local identity of the initiating user.
547 When this command line option is used the given
549 will be assigned to the internal variable
551 but in addition the command line option
552 .Fl \&\&f Ar from-addr
553 will be passed to a file-based
555 whenever a message is sent.
558 include a user name the address components will be separated and
559 the name part will be passed to a file-based
565 If an empty string is passed as
567 then the content of the variable
569 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
571 will be evaluated and used for this purpose whenever the file-based
580 command line options are used when contacting a file-based MTA, unless
581 this automatic deduction is enforced by
583 ing the internal variable
584 .Va r-option-implicit .
587 Remarks: many default installations and sites disallow overriding the
588 local user identity like this unless either the MTA has been configured
589 accordingly or the user is member of a group with special privileges.
590 Passing an invalid address will cause an error.
594 .It Fl S Ar var Ns Op = Ns value
596 (or, with a prefix string
599 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
602 iable and optionally assign
604 if supported; \*(ID the entire expression is evaluated as if specified
605 within dollar-single-quotes (see
606 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" )
607 if the internal variable
610 If the operation fails the program will exit if any of
615 Settings established via
617 cannot be changed from within
619 or an account switch initiated by
621 They will become mutable again before commands registered via
627 Specify the subject of the message to be sent.
628 Newline (NL) and carriage-return (CR) bytes are invalid and will be
629 normalized to space (SP) characters.
633 The message given (on standard input) is expected to contain, separated
634 from the message body by an empty line, one or multiple message headers.
635 Headers can span multiple consecutive lines if follow lines start with
636 any amount of whitespace.
637 A line starting with the number sign
639 in the first column is ignored.
640 Message recipients can be given via the message headers
646 they will be added to any recipients specified on the command line,
647 and are likewise subject to
650 If a message subject is specified via
652 then it will be used in favour of one given on the command line.
654 More optional headers are
668 .Ql Mail-Followup-To: ,
669 by default created automatically dependent on message context, will
670 be used if specified (a special address massage will however still occur
672 Any other custom header field (also see
677 is passed through entirely
678 unchanged, and in conjunction with the options
682 it is possible to embed
683 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
691 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
694 appropriate privileges presumed; effectively identical to
695 .Ql Fl \&\&f Ns \0%user .
704 will also show the list of
706 .Ql $ \*(uA -Xversion -Xx .
711 ting the internal variable
713 enables display of some informational context messages.
714 Using it twice increases the level of verbosity.
718 Add the given (or multiple for a multiline argument)
720 to the list of commands to be executed,
721 as a last step of program startup, before normal operation starts.
722 This is the only possibility to execute commands in non-interactive mode
723 when reading startup files has been disabled.
724 The commands will be evaluated as a unit, just as via
734 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
735 in compose mode even in non-interactive use cases.
736 This can be used to, e.g., automatically format the composed message
737 text before sending the message:
738 .Bd -literal -offset indent
739 $ ( echo 'line one. Word. Word2.';\e
740 echo '~| /usr/bin/fmt -tuw66' ) |\e
741 LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d~:/ -Sttycharset=utf-8 bob@exam.ple
746 Enables batch mode: standard input is made line buffered, the complete
747 set of (interactive) commands is available, processing of
748 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
749 is enabled in compose mode, and diverse
750 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
751 are adjusted for batch necessities, exactly as if done via
767 The following prepares an email message in a batched dry run:
768 .Bd -literal -offset indent
769 $ LC_ALL=C printf 'm bob\en~s ubject\enText\en~.\enx\en' |\e
770 LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d#:/ -X'alias bob bob@exam.ple'
775 This flag forces termination of option processing in order to prevent
778 It also forcefully puts \*(UA into send mode, see
779 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
785 arguments and all receivers established via
789 are subject to the checks established by
792 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ;
793 they all support the flag
797 allows their recognition all
799 arguments given at the end of the command line after a
801 separator will be passed through to a file-based
803 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) and persist for the entire session.
805 constraints do not apply to the content of
809 .\" .Ss "A starter" {{{
812 \*(UA is a direct descendant of
814 Mail, itself a successor of the Research
817 .Dq was there from the start
820 It thus represents the user side of the
822 mail system, whereas the system side (Mail-Transfer-Agent, MTA) was
823 traditionally taken by
825 and most MTAs provide a binary of this name for compatibility purposes.
830 of \*(UA then the system side is not a mandatory precondition for mail
834 Because \*(UA strives for compliance with POSIX
836 it is likely that some configuration settings have to be adjusted before
837 using it is a smooth experience.
838 (Rather complete configuration examples can be found in the section
843 .Sx "Resource files" )
844 template bends those standard imposed settings of the
845 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
846 a bit towards more user friendliness and safety, however.
854 in order to suppress the automatic moving of messages to the
856 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
858 that would otherwise occur (see
859 .Sx "Message states" ) ,
862 to not remove empty system MBOX mailbox files (or all empty such files if
864 .Pf a.k.a.\0 Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT
865 mode has been enabled) to avoid mangling of file permissions when files
866 eventually get recreated.
870 in order to synchronize \*(UA with the exit status report of the used
877 to enter interactive startup even if the initial mailbox is empty,
879 to allow editing of headers as well as
881 to not strip down addresses in compose mode, and
883 to include the message that is being responded to when
885 ing, which is indented by an
887 that also deviates from standard imposed settings.
888 .Va mime-counter-evidence
889 is fully enabled, too.
893 The file mode creation mask can be managed explicitly via the variable
895 Sufficient system support provided symbolic links will not be followed
896 when files are opened for writing.
897 Files and shell pipe output can be
899 d for evaluation, also during startup from within the
900 .Sx "Resource files" .
903 .\" .Ss "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" {{{
904 .Ss "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode"
906 To send a message to one or more people, using a local or built-in
908 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) transport to actually deliver the generated mail
909 message, \*(UA can be invoked with arguments which are the names of
910 people to whom the mail will be sent, and the command line options
914 can be used to add (blind) carbon copy receivers:
916 .Bd -literal -offset indent
918 $ \*(uA -s ubject -a ttach.txt bill@exam.ple
920 # But... try it in an isolated dry-run mode (-d) first
921 $ LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d -:/ -Ssendwait -Sttycharset=utf8 \e
922 -b bcc@exam.ple -c cc@exam.ple \e
924 '(Lovely) Bob <bob@exam.ple>' eric@exam.ple
927 $ LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d -:/ -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Sttycharset=utf8 \e
928 -S mta=smtps://mylogin@exam.ple:465 -Ssmtp-auth=none \e
929 -S from=scriptreply@exam.ple \e
935 If standard input is a terminal rather than the message to be sent,
936 the user is expected to type in the message contents.
937 In this compose mode \*(UA treats lines beginning with the character
939 special \(en these are so-called
940 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ,
941 which can be used to read in files, process shell commands, add and edit
942 attachments and more; e.g.,
950 respectively, to revise the message in its current state,
952 allows editing of the most important message headers, with the potent
954 custom headers can be created, for example (more specifically than with
959 gives an overview of most other available command escapes.
964 will leave compose mode and send the message once it is completed.
965 Aborting letter composition is possible with either of
969 the latter of which will save the message in the file denoted by
978 can also be achieved by typing end-of-transmission (EOT) via
981 at the beginning of an empty line, and
983 is always reachable by typing end-of-text (ETX) twice via
991 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
992 can be used to alter default behavior.
993 E.g., messages are sent asynchronously, without supervision, unless the
996 is set, therefore send errors will not be recognizable until then.
1001 will automatically startup an editor when compose mode is entered, and
1002 editing of headers additionally to plain body content can be enabled via
1004 \*(ID some, but not all headers can be created, edited or deleted in an
1009 will cause the user to be prompted actively for (blind) carbon-copy
1010 recipients, respectively, and (the default)
1012 will request confirmation whether the message shall be sent.
1015 The envelope sender address is defined by
1017 explicitly defining an originating
1019 may be desirable, especially with the built-in SMTP Mail-Transfer-Agent
1021 .Sx "Character sets"
1022 for outgoing message and MIME part content are configurable via
1024 whereas input data is assumed to be in
1026 Message data will be passed over the wire in a
1028 MIME parts a.k.a. attachments need to be assigned a
1030 usually taken out of
1031 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
1032 Saving a copy of sent messages in a
1034 mailbox may be desirable \(en as for most mailbox
1036 targets the value will undergo
1037 .Sx "Filename transformations" .
1042 sandbox dry-run tests will prove correctness.
1045 Message recipients (as specified on the command line or defined in
1052 filtering, and may not only be email addressees but can also be names of
1053 mailboxes and even complete shell command pipe specifications.
1056 is not set then only network addresses (see
1058 for a description of mail addresses) and plain user names (including MTA
1059 aliases) may be used, other types will be filtered out, giving a warning
1061 A network address that contains no domain-, but only a valid local user
1063 in angle brackets will be automatically expanded to a valid address when
1065 is set to a non-empty value; setting it to the empty value instructs
1068 will perform the necessary expansion.
1071 may help to generate standard compliant network addresses.
1073 .\" When changing any of the following adjust any RECIPIENTADDRSPEC;
1074 .\" grep the latter for the complete picture
1078 is set then an extended set of recipient addresses will be accepted:
1079 Any name that starts with a vertical bar
1081 character specifies a command pipe \(en the command string following the
1083 is executed and the message is sent to its standard input;
1084 Likewise, any name that consists only of hyphen-minus
1086 or starts with the character solidus
1088 or the character sequence dot solidus
1090 is treated as a file, regardless of the remaining content.
1091 Any other name which contains a commercial at
1093 character is a network address;
1094 Any other name which starts with a plus sign
1096 character is a mailbox name;
1097 Any other name which contains a solidus
1099 character but no exclamation mark
1103 character before is also a mailbox name;
1104 What remains is treated as a network address.
1106 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1107 $ echo bla | \*(uA -Sexpandaddr -s test ./mbox.mbox
1108 $ echo bla | \*(uA -Sexpandaddr -s test '|cat >> ./mbox.mbox'
1109 $ echo safe | LC_ALL=C \e
1110 \*(uA -:/ -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Sttycharset=utf8 \e
1111 -Sexpandaddr=fail,-all,+addr,failinvaddr -s test \e
1116 To create file-carbon-copies the special recipient header
1118 may be used as often as desired.
1119 Its entire value (or body in standard terms) is interpreted as a
1121 target, after having been subject to
1122 .Sx "Filename transformations" .
1123 Beside using the command escape
1127 header) this is the only way to create a file-carbon-copy without
1128 introducing an ambiguity regarding the interpretation of the address,
1129 e.g., to use file names with leading vertical bars or commercial ats.
1130 Like all other recipients
1132 is subject to the checks of
1136 It is possible to create personal distribution lists via the
1138 command, so that, for instance, the user can send mail to
1140 and have it go to a group of people.
1141 Different to the alias mechanism of a local
1143 which is often tracked in a file
1147 and the names of which are subject to the
1151 personal aliases will be expanded by \*(UA before the message is sent.
1152 They are thus a convenient alternative to specifying each addressee by
1153 itself, correlate with the active set of
1159 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1160 ? alias cohorts bill jkf mark kridle@ucbcory ~/cohorts.mbox
1161 ? alias mark mark@exam.ple
1165 .Va on-compose-enter , on-compose-leave
1167 .Va on-compose-cleanup
1168 hook variables may be set to
1170 d macros to automatically adjust some settings dependent
1171 on receiver, sender or subject contexts, and via the
1172 .Va on-compose-splice
1174 .Va on-compose-splice-shell
1175 variables, the former also to be set to a
1177 d macro, increasingly powerful mechanisms to perform automated message
1178 adjustments, including signature creation, are available.
1179 (\*(ID These hooks work for commands which newly create messages, namely
1180 .Ic forward , mail , reply
1185 for now provide only the hooks
1188 .Va on-resend-cleanup . )
1191 For the purpose of arranging a complete environment of settings that can
1192 be switched to with a single command or command line option there are
1194 Alternatively it is also possible to use a flat configuration, making use
1195 of so-called variable chains which automatically pick
1199 context-dependent variable variants: for example addressing
1200 .Ql Ic File Ns \& pop3://yaa@exam.ple
1202 .Va \&\&pop3-no-apop-yaa@exam.ple ,
1203 .Va \&\&pop3-no-apop-exam.ple
1208 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
1210 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" .
1213 To avoid environmental noise scripts should
1215 \*(UA from any configuration files and create a script-local
1216 environment, ideally with the command line options
1218 to disable any configuration file in conjunction with repetitions of
1220 to specify variables:
1222 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1223 $ env LC_ALL=C \*(uA -:/ \e
1224 -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Sttycharset=utf-8 \e
1225 -Sexpandaddr=fail,-all,failinvaddr \e
1226 -S mta=smtps://mylogin@exam.ple:465 -Ssmtp-auth=login \e
1227 -S from=scriptreply@exam.ple \e
1228 -s 'Subject to go' -a attachment_file \e
1230 'Recipient 1 <rec1@exam.ple>' rec2@exam.ple \e
1235 As shown, scripts can
1237 a locale environment, the above specifies the all-compatible 7-bit clean
1240 but will nonetheless take and send UTF-8 in the message text by using
1242 In interactive mode, which is introduced in the next section, messages
1243 can be sent by calling the
1245 command with a list of recipient addresses:
1247 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1248 $ \*(uA -d -Squiet -Semptystart
1249 "/var/spool/mail/user": 0 messages
1250 ? mail "Recipient 1 <rec1@exam.ple>", rec2@exam.ple
1252 ? # Will do the right thing (tm)
1253 ? m rec1@exam.ple rec2@exam.ple
1257 .\" .Ss "On reading mail, and interactive mode" {{{
1258 .Ss "On reading mail, and interactive mode"
1260 When invoked without addressees \*(UA enters interactive mode in which
1262 When used like that the user's system
1264 (for more on mailbox types please see the command
1266 is read in and a one line header of each message therein is displayed if
1270 The visual style of this summary of
1272 can be adjusted through the variable
1274 and the possible sorting criterion via
1280 can be performed with the command
1282 If the initially opened mailbox is empty \*(UA will instead exit
1283 immediately (after displaying a message) unless the variable
1292 will give a listing of all available commands and
1294 will \*(OPally give a summary of some common ones.
1295 If the \*(OPal documentation strings are available (see
1300 and see the actual expansion of
1302 and what its purpose is, i.e., commands can be abbreviated
1303 (note that POSIX defines some abbreviations, so that the alphabetical
1304 order of commands does not necessarily relate to the abbreviations; it is
1305 however possible to define overwrites with
1306 .Ic commandalias ) .
1307 These commands can also produce a more
1312 Messages are given numbers (starting at 1) which uniquely identify
1313 messages; the current message \(en the
1315 \(en will either be the first new message, or the first unread message,
1316 or the first message of the mailbox; the internal variable
1318 will instead cause usage of the last message for this purpose.
1323 ful of header summaries containing the
1327 will display only the summaries of the given messages, defaulting to the
1331 Message content can be displayed with the command
1338 controls whether and when \*(UA will use the configured
1340 for display instead of directly writing to the user terminal
1342 the sole difference to the command
1344 which will always use the
1348 will instead only show the first
1350 of a message (maybe even compressed if
1353 Message display experience may improve by setting and adjusting
1354 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
1356 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" .
1359 By default the current message
1361 is displayed, but like with many other commands it is possible to give
1362 a fancy message specification (see
1363 .Sx "Specifying messages" ) ,
1366 will display all unread messages,
1371 will type the messages 1 and 5,
1373 will type the messages 1 through 5, and
1377 will display the previous and the next message, respectively.
1380 (a more substantial alias for
1382 will display a header summary of the given message specification list
1383 instead of their content, e.g., the following will search for subjects:
1386 .Dl ? from "'@Some subject to search for'"
1389 In the default setup all header fields of a message will be
1391 d, but fields can be white- or blacklisted for a variety of
1392 applications by using the command
1394 e.g., to restrict their display to a very restricted set for
1396 .Ql Ic \:headerpick Cd \:type retain Ar \:from to cc subject .
1397 In order to display all header fields of a message regardless of
1398 currently active ignore or retain lists, use the commands
1403 will show the raw message content.
1404 Note that historically the global
1406 not only adjusts the list of displayed headers, but also sets
1408 (\*(ID A yet somewhat restricted) Reliable scriptable message
1409 inspection is available via
1413 Dependent upon the configuration a line editor (see the section
1414 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
1415 aims at making the user experience with the many
1418 When reading the system
1424 specified a mailbox explicitly prefixed with the special
1426 modifier (to propagate it to a
1428 .Sx "primary system mailbox" ) ,
1429 then messages which have been read
1430 .Pf (see\0 Sx "Message states" )
1431 will be automatically moved to a
1433 .Sx "secondary mailbox" ,
1436 file, when the mailbox is left, either by changing the active mailbox or
1437 by quitting \*(UA \(en this automatic moving from a system- or primary-
1438 to the secondary mailbox is not performed when the variable
1441 Messages can also be explicitly
1443 d to other mailboxes, whereas
1445 keeps the original message.
1447 can be used to write out data content of specific parts of messages.
1450 After examining a message the user can
1452 to the sender and all recipients (which will also be placed in
1455 .Va recipients-in-cc
1458 exclusively to the sender(s).
1461 knows how to apply a special addressee massage, see
1462 .Sx "Mailing lists" .
1464 ing a message will allow editing the new message: the original message
1465 will be contained in the message body, adjusted according to
1471 messages: the former will add a series of
1473 headers, whereas the latter will not; different to newly created
1474 messages editing is not possible and no copy will be saved even with
1476 unless the additional variable
1479 When sending, replying or forwarding messages comments and full names
1480 will be stripped from recipient addresses unless the internal variable
1485 Of course messages can be
1487 and they can spring into existence again via
1489 or when the \*(UA session is ended via the
1493 commands to perform a quick program termation.
1494 To end a mail processing session regulary and perform a full program
1495 exit one may issue the command
1497 It will, among others, move read messages to the
1499 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
1501 as necessary, discard deleted messages in the current mailbox,
1502 and update the \*(OPal (see
1508 .\" .Ss "HTML mail and MIME attachments" {{{
1509 .Ss "HTML mail and MIME attachments"
1511 Messages which are HTML-only become more and more common, and of course
1512 many messages come bundled with a bouquet of MIME (Multipurpose Internet
1513 Mail Extensions) parts.
1514 To get a notion of MIME types \*(UA has a default set of types built-in,
1515 onto which the content of
1516 .Sx "The mime.types files"
1517 will be added (as configured and allowed by
1518 .Va mimetypes-load-control ) .
1519 Types can also become registered with the command
1521 To improve interaction with faulty MIME part declarations which are
1522 often seen in real-life messages, setting
1523 .Va mime-counter-evidence
1524 will allow verification of the given assertion, and possible provision
1525 of an alternative, better MIME type.
1528 Whereas \*(UA \*(OPally supports a simple HTML-to-text filter for
1529 displaying HTML messages, it cannot handle MIME types other than plain
1531 Instead programs need to become registered to deal with specific MIME
1532 types or file extensions.
1533 These programs may either prepare plain text versions of their input in
1534 order to enable \*(UA to integrate their output neatlessly in its own
1535 message visualization (a mode which is called
1536 .Cd copiousoutput ) ,
1537 or display the content themselves, for example in an external graphical
1538 window: such handlers will only be considered by and for the command
1542 To install a handler program for a specific MIME type an according
1543 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
1544 variable needs to be set; to instead define a handler for a specific
1545 file extension the respective
1547 variable can be used \(en these handlers take precedence.
1548 \*(OPally \*(UA supports mail user agent configuration as defined in
1549 RFC 1524; this mechanism (see
1550 .Sx "The Mailcap files" )
1551 will be queried for display or quote handlers if none of the former two
1552 .\" TODO v15-compat "will be" -> "is"
1553 did; it will be the sole source for handlers of other purpose.
1554 A last source for handlers is the MIME type definition itself, if
1555 a type-marker has been registered with the command
1557 which many of the built-in MIME types do.
1560 For example, to display a HTML message inline (converted to a more fancy
1561 plain text representation than the built-in filter is capable to produce)
1562 with either of the text-mode browsers
1566 teach \*(UA about MathML documents and make it display them as plain
1567 text, and to open PDF attachments in an external PDF viewer,
1568 asynchronously and with some other magic attached:
1570 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1571 ? if [ "$features" !% +filter-html-tagsoup ]
1572 ? #set pipe-text/html='@* elinks -force-html -dump 1'
1573 ? set pipe-text/html='@* lynx -stdin -dump -force_html'
1574 ? # Display HTML as plain text instead
1575 ? #set pipe-text/html=@
1577 ? mimetype @ application/mathml+xml mathml
1578 ? wysh set pipe-application/pdf='@&=@ \e
1579 trap "rm -f \e"${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}\e"" EXIT;\e
1580 trap "trap \e"\e" INT QUIT TERM; exit 1" INT QUIT TERM;\e
1581 mupdf "${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}"'
1585 .\" .Ss "Mailing lists" {{{
1588 \*(UA offers some support to ease handling of mailing lists.
1591 promotes all given arguments to known mailing lists, and
1593 sets their subscription attribute, creating them first as necessary.
1598 automatically, but only resets the subscription attribute.)
1599 Using the commands without arguments will show (a subset of) all
1600 currently defined mailing lists.
1605 can be used to mark out messages with configured list addresses
1610 If the \*(OPal regular expression support is available a mailing list
1611 specification that contains any of the
1613 regular expression characters
1617 will be interpreted as one, which allows matching of many addresses with
1618 a single expression.
1619 However, all fully qualified list addresses are matched via a fast
1620 dictionary, whereas expressions are placed in (a) list(s) which is
1621 (are) matched sequentially.
1623 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1624 ? set followup-to followup-to-honour=ask-yes \e
1625 reply-to-honour=ask-yes
1626 ? wysh mlist a1@b1.c1 a2@b2.c2 '.*@lists\e.c3$'
1627 ? mlsubscribe a4@b4.c4 exact@lists.c3
1632 .Va followup-to-honour
1634 .Ql Mail-\:Followup-\:To:
1635 header is honoured when the message is being replied to (via
1641 controls whether this header is created when sending mails; it will be
1642 created automatically for a couple of reasons, too, like when the
1644 .Dq mailing list specific
1649 is used to respond to a message with its
1650 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
1654 A difference in between the handling of known and subscribed lists is
1655 that the address of the user is usually not part of a generated
1656 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
1657 when addressing the latter, whereas it is for the former kind of lists.
1658 Usually because there are exceptions: say, if multiple lists are
1659 addressed and not all of them are subscribed lists.
1661 For convenience \*(UA will, temporarily, automatically add a list
1662 address that is presented in the
1664 header of a message that is being responded to to the list of known
1666 Shall that header have existed \*(UA will instead, dependent on the
1668 .Va reply-to-honour ,
1671 for this purpose (if it provides a single address which resides on the
1672 same domain as what is stated in
1674 in order to accept a list administrator's wish that is supposed to have
1675 been manifested like that.
1678 .\" .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME" {{{
1679 .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
1681 \*(OP S/MIME provides two central mechanisms:
1682 message signing and message encryption.
1683 A signed message contains some data in addition to the regular text.
1684 The data can be used to verify that the message has been sent using
1685 a valid certificate, that the sender address matches that in the
1686 certificate, and that the message text has not been altered.
1687 Signing a message does not change its regular text;
1688 it can be read regardless of whether the recipients software is able to
1690 It is thus usually possible to sign all outgoing messages if so desired.
1693 Encryption, in contrast, makes the message text invisible for all people
1694 except those who have access to the secret decryption key.
1695 To encrypt a message, the specific recipients public encryption key
1697 It is therefore not possible to send encrypted mail to people unless their
1698 key has been retrieved from either previous communication or public key
1700 A message should always be signed before it is encrypted.
1703 A central concept to S/MIME is that of the certification authority (CA).
1704 A CA is a trusted institution that issues certificates.
1705 For each of these certificates it can be verified that it really
1706 originates from the CA, provided that the CA's own certificate is
1708 A set of CA certificates is usually delivered and installed together
1709 with the cryptographical library that is used on the local system.
1710 Therefore reasonable security for S/MIME on the Internet is provided if
1711 the source that provides that library installation is trusted.
1712 It is also possible to use a specific pool of trusted certificates.
1714 .Va smime-ca-no-defaults
1715 should be set to avoid using the default certificate pool, and
1719 should be pointed to a trusted pool of certificates.
1720 A certificate cannot be more secure than the method its CA certificate
1721 has been retrieved with.
1724 This trusted pool of certificates is used by the command
1726 to ensure that the given S/MIME messages can be trusted.
1727 If so, verified sender certificates that were embedded in signed
1728 messages can be saved locally with the command
1730 and used by \*(UA to encrypt further communication with these senders:
1732 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1734 ? set smime-encrypt-USER@HOST=FILENAME \e
1735 smime-cipher-USER@HOST=AES256
1739 To sign outgoing messages, in order to allow receivers to verify the
1740 origin of these messages, a personal S/MIME certificate is required.
1741 \*(UA supports password-protected personal certificates (and keys), see
1742 .Va smime-sign-cert .
1744 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
1745 gives an overview of the possible sources of user credentials, and
1746 .Sx "S/MIME step by step"
1747 shows examplarily how a private S/MIME certificate can be obtained.
1748 In general, if such a private key plus certificate
1750 is available, all that needs to be done is to set some variables:
1752 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1753 ? set smime-sign-cert=ME@exam.ple.paired \e
1754 smime-sign-digest=SHA512 \e
1759 Variables of interest for S/MIME in general are
1762 .Va smime-ca-flags ,
1763 .Va smime-ca-no-defaults ,
1765 .Va smime-crl-file .
1766 For S/MIME signing of interest are
1768 .Va smime-sign-cert ,
1769 .Va smime-sign-include-certs
1771 .Va smime-sign-digest .
1772 Additional variables of interest for S/MIME en- and decryption:
1775 .Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST .
1778 \*(ID Note that neither S/MIME signing nor encryption applies to
1779 message subjects or other header fields yet.
1780 Thus they may not contain sensitive information for encrypted messages,
1781 and cannot be trusted even if the message content has been verified.
1782 When sending signed messages,
1783 it is recommended to repeat any important header information in the
1787 .\" .Ss "On URL syntax and credential lookup" {{{
1788 .Ss "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
1790 \*(IN For accessing protocol-specific resources usage of Uniform
1791 Resource Locators (URL, RFC 1738) has become omnipresent.
1792 \*(UA expects and understands URLs in the following form;
1795 denote optional parts, optional either because there also exist other
1796 ways to define the information in question or because support of the
1797 part is protocol-specific, e.g.,
1799 is used by the \*(OPal Maildir directory and the IMAP protocol, but not
1804 are specified they must be given in URL percent encoded form (RFC 3986;
1810 .Dl PROTOCOL://[USER[:PASSWORD]@]server[:port][/path]
1813 Note that these \*(UA URLs most often do not conform to any real
1814 standard, but instead represent a normalized variant of RFC 1738 \(en
1815 they are not used in data exchange but only meant as a compact,
1816 easy-to-use way of defining and representing information in
1817 a well-known notation.
1820 Many internal variables of \*(UA exist in multiple versions, called
1821 variable chains for the rest of this document: the plain
1826 .Ql variable-USER@HOST .
1833 had been specified in the respective URL, otherwise it refers to the plain
1839 that had been found when doing the user chain lookup as is described
1842 will never be in URL percent encoded form, whether it came from an URL
1843 or not; i.e., variable chain name extensions of
1844 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
1845 must not be URL percent encoded.
1848 For example, whether an hypothetical URL
1849 .Ql smtp://hey%3Ayou@our.house
1850 had been given that includes a user, or whether the URL was
1851 .Ql smtp://our.house
1852 and the user had been found differently, to lookup the variable chain
1853 .Va smtp-use-starttls
1854 \*(UA first looks for whether
1855 .Ql smtp-\:use-\:starttls-\:hey:you@our.house
1856 is defined, then whether
1857 .Ql smtp-\:use-\:starttls-\:our.house
1858 exists before finally ending up looking at the plain variable itself.
1861 \*(UA obeys the following logic scheme when dealing with the
1862 necessary credential information of an account:
1868 has been given in the URL the variables
1873 If no such variable(s) can be found then \*(UA will,
1874 when enforced by the \*(OPal variables
1875 .Va netrc-lookup-HOST
1879 .Sx "The .netrc file"
1882 specific entry which provides a
1884 name: this lookup will only succeed if unambiguous (one possible matching
1888 If there is still no
1890 then \*(UA will fall back to the user who is supposed to run \*(UA,
1891 the identity of which has been fixated during \*(UA startup and is
1892 known to be a valid user on the current host.
1895 Authentication: unless otherwise noted this will lookup the
1896 .Va PROTOCOL-auth-USER@HOST , PROTOCOL-auth-HOST , PROTOCOL-auth
1897 variable chain, falling back to a protocol-specific default should this
1903 has been given in the URL, then if the
1905 has been found through the \*(OPal
1907 that may have already provided the password, too.
1908 Otherwise the variable chain
1909 .Va password-USER@HOST , password-HOST , password
1910 is looked up and used if existent.
1912 Afterwards the complete \*(OPal variable chain
1913 .Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , netrc-lookup-HOST , netrc-lookup
1917 cache is searched for a password only (multiple user accounts for
1918 a single machine may exist as well as a fallback entry without user
1919 but with a password).
1921 If at that point there is still no password available, but the
1922 (protocols') chosen authentication type requires a password, then in
1923 interactive mode the user will be prompted on the terminal.
1928 S/MIME verification works relative to the values found in the
1932 header field(s), which means that the values of
1933 .Va smime-sign , smime-sign-cert , smime-sign-include-certs
1935 .Va smime-sign-digest
1936 will not be looked up using the
1940 chains from above but instead use the corresponding values from the
1941 message that is being worked on.
1942 In unusual cases multiple and different
1946 combinations may therefore be involved \(en on the other hand those
1947 unusual cases become possible.
1948 The usual case is as short as:
1950 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1951 set mta=smtp://USER:PASS@HOST smtp-use-starttls \e
1952 smime-sign smime-sign-cert=+smime.pair
1958 contains complete example configurations.
1961 .\" .Ss "Encrypted network communication" {{{
1962 .Ss "Encrypted network communication"
1964 SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) a.k.a. its successor TLS (Transport Layer
1965 Security) are protocols which aid in securing communication by providing
1966 a safely initiated and encrypted network connection.
1967 A central concept of TLS is that of certificates: as part of each
1968 network connection setup a (set of) certificates will be exchanged, and
1969 by using those the identity of the network peer can be cryptographically
1970 verified; if possible the TLS/SNI (ServerNameIndication) extension will
1971 be enabled in order to allow servers fine-grained control over the
1972 certificates being used.
1973 TLS works by using a locally installed pool of trusted certificates,
1974 and verifying the connection peer succeeds if that provides
1975 a certificate which has been issued or is trusted by any certificate in
1976 the trusted local pool.
1979 The local pool of trusted so-called CA (Certification Authority)
1980 certificates is usually delivered with the used TLS library, and
1981 will be selected automatically.
1982 It is also possible to use a specific pool of trusted certificates.
1984 .Va tls-ca-no-defaults
1985 should be set to avoid using the default certificate pool, and
1987 and/or (with special preparation)
1989 should be pointed to a trusted pool of certificates.
1990 A certificate cannot be more secure than the method its CA certificate
1991 has been retrieved with.
1992 For inspection or other purposes, the certificate of a server (as seen
1993 when connecting to it) can be fetched like this:
1995 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1996 $ </dev/null openssl s_client -showcerts -connect \e
1997 the-server.example:pop3s 2>&1 | tee log.txt
2001 \*(UA also supports a mode of operation in which certificates are not
2002 at all matched against a local pool of CA certificates.
2003 Instead a message digest will be calculated for the certificate
2004 presented by the connection peer, and be compared against
2006 (a variable chain that picks up
2010 context-dependent variable variants), and the connection will succeed if
2011 the calculated digest equals the expected one.
2012 The used message digest can be configured via (the chain)
2013 .Va tls-fingerprint-digest .
2019 It depends on the used protocol whether encrypted communication is
2020 possible, and which configuration steps have to be taken to enable it.
2021 Some protocols, e.g., POP3S, are implicitly encrypted, others, like
2022 POP3, can upgrade a plain text connection if so requested.
2023 For example, to use the
2025 that POP3 offers (a member of) the variable (chain)
2026 .Va pop3-use-starttls
2029 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2030 shortcut encpop1 pop3s://pop1.exam.ple
2032 shortcut encpop2 pop3://pop2.exam.ple
2033 set pop3-use-starttls-pop2.exam.ple
2035 set mta=smtps://smtp.exam.ple:465
2036 set mta=smtp://smtp.exam.ple smtp-use-starttls
2040 Normally that is all there is to do, given that TLS libraries try to
2041 provide safe defaults, plenty of knobs however exist to adjust settings.
2042 For example certificate verification settings can be fine-tuned via
2044 and the TLS configuration basics are accessible via
2045 .Va tls-config-pairs ,
2046 for example to specify the allowed protocols or cipher lists that
2047 a communication channel may use.
2048 In the past hints on how to restrict the set of protocols to highly
2049 secure ones were indicated, but as of the time of this writing the list
2050 of protocols or ciphers may need to become relaxed in order to be able
2051 to connect to some servers; the following example allows connecting to a
2053 that uses OpenSSL 0.9.8za from June 2014 (refer to
2054 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
2055 for more on variable chains):
2057 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2058 wysh set tls-config-pairs-lion@exam.ple='MinProtocol=TLSv1.1,\e
2059 CipherString=TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:\e
2060 ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA:\e
2061 DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:@STRENGTH'
2067 can be used and should be referred to when creating a custom cipher list.
2068 Variables of interest for TLS in general are
2072 .Va tls-ca-no-defaults ,
2073 .Va tls-config-file ,
2074 .Va tls-config-module ,
2075 .Va tls-config-pairs ,
2083 .\" .Ss "Character sets" {{{
2084 .Ss "Character sets"
2086 \*(OP \*(UA detects the character set of the terminal by using
2087 mechanisms that are controlled by the
2089 environment variable
2094 in that order, see there).
2095 The internal variable
2097 will be set to the detected terminal character set accordingly,
2098 and will thus show up in the output of commands like, e.g.,
2104 However, the user may give
2106 a value during startup, making it possible to send mail in a completely
2108 locale environment, an option which can be used to generate and send,
2109 e.g., 8-bit UTF-8 input data in a pure 7-bit US-ASCII
2111 environment (an example of this can be found in the section
2112 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" ) .
2113 Changing the value does not mean much beside that, because several
2114 aspects of the real character set are implied by the locale environment
2115 of the system, which stays unaffected by
2119 Messages and attachments which consist of 7-bit clean data will be
2120 classified as consisting of
2123 This is a problem if the
2125 character set is a multibyte character set that is also 7-bit clean.
2126 For example, the Japanese character set ISO-2022-JP is 7-bit clean but
2127 capable to encode the rich set of Japanese Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana
2128 characters: in order to notify receivers of this character set the mail
2129 message must be MIME encoded so that the character set ISO-2022-JP can
2131 To achieve this, the variable
2133 must be set to ISO-2022-JP.
2134 (Today a better approach regarding email is the usage of UTF-8, which
2135 uses 8-bit bytes for non-US-ASCII data.)
2138 If the \*(OPal character set conversion capabilities are not available
2140 does not include the term
2144 will be the only supported character set,
2145 it is simply assumed that it can be used to exchange 8-bit messages
2146 (over the wire an intermediate, configurable
2149 and the rest of this section does not apply;
2150 it may however still be necessary to explicitly set it if automatic
2151 detection fails, since in that case it defaults to
2152 .\" (Keep in SYNC: ./nail.1:"Character sets", ./config.h:CHARSET_*!)
2153 LATIN1 a.k.a. ISO-8859-1 unless the operating system environment is
2154 known to always and exclusively support UTF-8 locales.
2157 \*(OP When reading messages, their text is converted into
2159 as necessary in order to display them on the user's terminal.
2160 Unprintable characters and invalid byte sequences are detected
2161 and replaced by proper substitution characters.
2162 Character set mappings for source character sets can be established with
2165 which may be handy to work around faulty character set catalogues (e.g.,
2166 to add a missing LATIN1 to ISO-8859-1 mapping), or to enforce treatment
2167 of one character set as another one (e.g., to interpret LATIN1 as CP1252).
2169 .Va charset-unknown-8bit
2170 to deal with another hairy aspect of message interpretation.
2173 When sending messages their parts and attachments are classified.
2174 Whereas no character set conversion is performed on those parts which
2175 appear to be binary data,
2176 the character set being used must be declared within the MIME header of
2177 an outgoing text part if it contains characters that do not conform to
2178 the set of characters that are allowed by the email standards.
2179 Permissible values for character sets used in outgoing messages can be
2184 which defines a catch-all last-resort fallback character set that is
2185 implicitly appended to the list of character sets in
2189 When replying to a message and the variable
2190 .Va reply-in-same-charset
2191 is set, then the character set of the message being replied to
2192 is tried first (still being a subject of
2193 .Ic charsetalias ) .
2194 And it is also possible to make \*(UA work even more closely related to
2195 the current locale setting automatically by using the variable
2196 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset ,
2197 please see there for more information.
2200 All the specified character sets are tried in order unless the
2201 conversion of the part or attachment succeeds.
2202 If none of the tried (8-bit) character sets is capable to represent the
2203 content of the part or attachment,
2204 then the message will not be send and its text will optionally be
2208 In general, if a message saying
2209 .Dq cannot convert from a to b
2210 appears, either some characters are not appropriate for the currently
2211 selected (terminal) character set,
2212 or the needed conversion is not supported by the system.
2213 In the first case, it is necessary to set an appropriate
2215 locale and/or the variable
2219 The best results are usually achieved when \*(UA is run in a UTF-8
2220 locale on an UTF-8 capable terminal, in which case the full Unicode
2221 spectrum of characters is available.
2222 In this setup characters from various countries can be displayed,
2223 while it is still possible to use more simple character sets for sending
2224 to retain maximum compatibility with older mail clients.
2227 On the other hand the POSIX standard defines a locale-independent 7-bit
2228 .Dq portable character set
2229 that should be used when overall portability is an issue, the even more
2230 restricted subset named
2231 .Dq portable filename character set
2232 consists of A-Z, a-z, 0-9, period
2240 .\" .Ss "Message states" {{{
2241 .Ss "Message states"
2243 \*(UA differentiates in between several message states; the current
2244 state will be reflected in the summary of
2251 .Sx "Specifying messages"
2252 dependent on their state is possible.
2253 When operating on the system
2257 .Sx "primary system mailbox" ,
2258 special actions, like the automatic moving of messages to the
2260 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
2262 may be applied when the mailbox is left (also implicitly by program
2263 termination, unless the command
2265 was used) \(en however, because this may be irritating to users which
2268 mail-user-agents, the provided global
2270 template sets the internal
2274 variables in order to suppress this behaviour.
2276 .Bl -hang -width ".It Ql new"
2278 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state.
2279 Such messages are retained even in the
2281 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
2284 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state, but the
2285 message was present already when the mailbox has been opened last:
2286 Such messages are retained even in the
2288 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
2291 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
2310 will always try to automatically
2316 logical message, and may thus mark multiple messages as read, the
2318 command will do so if the internal variable
2324 command is used, messages that are in a
2326 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
2329 state when the mailbox is left will be saved in the
2331 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
2333 unless the internal variable
2338 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
2344 can be used to access such messages.
2347 The message has been processed by a
2349 command and it will be retained in its current location.
2352 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
2358 command is used, messages that are in a
2360 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
2363 state when the mailbox is left will be deleted; they will be saved in the
2365 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
2367 when the internal variable
2373 In addition to these message states, flags which otherwise have no
2374 technical meaning in the mail system except allowing special ways of
2375 addressing them when
2376 .Sx "Specifying messages"
2377 can be set on messages.
2378 These flags are saved with messages and are thus persistent, and are
2379 portable between a set of widely used MUAs.
2381 .Bl -hang -width ".It Ic answered"
2383 Mark messages as having been answered.
2385 Mark messages as being a draft.
2387 Mark messages which need special attention.
2391 .\" .Ss "Specifying messages" {{{
2392 .Ss "Specifying messages"
2394 \*(NQ Commands which take
2395 .Sx "Message list arguments" ,
2403 can be given a list of message numbers as arguments to apply to a number
2404 of messages at once.
2407 deletes messages 1 and 2,
2410 will delete the messages 1 through 5.
2411 In sorted or threaded mode (see the
2415 will delete the messages that are located between (and including)
2416 messages 1 through 5 in the sorted/threaded order, as shown in the
2419 The following special message names exist:
2422 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ar BaNg"
2424 The current message, the so-called
2428 The message that was previously the current message; needs to be quoted.
2431 The parent message of the current message,
2432 that is the message with the Message-ID given in the
2434 field or the last entry of the
2436 field of the current message.
2439 The previous undeleted message, or the previous deleted message for the
2445 ed mode, the previous such message in the according order.
2448 The next undeleted message, or the next deleted message for the
2454 ed mode, the next such message in the according order.
2457 The first undeleted message,
2458 or the first deleted message for the
2464 ed mode, the first such message in the according order.
2467 The last message; In
2471 ed mode, the last such message in the according order.
2479 mode, selects the message addressed with
2483 is any other message specification,
2484 and all messages from the thread that begins at it.
2485 Otherwise it is identical to
2490 the thread beginning with the current message is selected.
2496 All messages that were included in the
2497 .Sx "Message list arguments"
2498 of the previous command; needs to be quoted.
2501 An inclusive range of message numbers.
2502 Selectors that may also be used as endpoints include any of
2507 .Dq any substring matches
2510 header, which will match addresses (too) even if
2512 is set (and POSIX says
2513 .Dq any address as shown in a header summary shall be matchable in this form ) ;
2516 variable is set, only the local part of the address is evaluated
2517 for the comparison, not ignoring case, and the setting of
2519 is completely ignored.
2520 For finer control and match boundaries use the
2524 .It Ar / Ns Ar string
2525 All messages that contain
2527 in the subject field (case ignored according to locale).
2534 the string from the previous specification of that type is used again.
2537 .It Xo Op Ar @ Ns Ar name-list Ns
2540 All messages that contain the given case-insensitive search
2542 ession; If the \*(OPal regular expression support is available
2544 will be interpreted as (an extended) one if any of the
2546 regular expression characters
2551 .Ar @ Ns Ar name-list
2552 part is missing the search is restricted to the subject field body,
2555 specifies a comma-separated list of header fields to search, e.g.,
2558 .Dl '@to,from,cc@Someone i ought to know'
2561 In order to search for a string that includes a
2563 (commercial at) character the
2565 is effectively non-optional, but may be given as the empty string.
2566 Also, specifying an empty search
2568 ession will effectively test for existence of the given header fields.
2569 Some special header fields may be abbreviated:
2583 respectively and case-insensitively.
2584 \*(OPally, and just like
2587 will be interpreted as (an extended) regular expression if any of the
2589 regular expression characters is seen.
2596 can be used to search in (all of) the header(s) of the message, and the
2605 will perform full text searches \(en whereas the former searches only
2606 the body, the latter also searches the message header (\*(ID this mode
2607 yet brute force searches over the entire decoded content of messages,
2608 including administrativa strings).
2611 This specification performs full text comparison, but even with
2612 regular expression support it is almost impossible to write a search
2613 expression that safely matches only a specific address domain.
2614 To request that the body content of the header is treated as a list of
2615 addresses, and to strip those down to the plain email address which the
2616 search expression is to be matched against, prefix the effective
2622 .Dl '@~f,c@@a\e.safe\e.domain\e.match$'
2626 All messages of state or with matching condition
2630 is one or multiple of the following colon modifiers:
2632 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar :M"
2635 messages (cf. the variable
2636 .Va markanswered ) .
2648 Messages with receivers that match
2652 Messages with receivers that match
2659 Old messages (any not in state
2667 \*(OP Messages with unsure spam classification (see
2668 .Sx "Handling spam" ) .
2670 \*(OP Messages classified as spam.
2682 \*(OP IMAP-style SEARCH expressions may also be used.
2683 These consist of keywords and criterions, and because
2684 .Sx "Message list arguments"
2685 are split into tokens according to
2686 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
2687 it is necessary to quote the entire IMAP search expression in order to
2688 ensure that it remains a single token.
2689 This addressing mode is available with all types of mailbox
2691 s; \*(UA will perform the search locally as necessary.
2692 Strings must be enclosed by double quotes
2694 in their entirety if they contain whitespace or parentheses;
2695 within the quotes, only reverse solidus
2697 is recognized as an escape character.
2698 All string searches are case-insensitive.
2699 When the description indicates that the
2701 representation of an address field is used,
2702 this means that the search string is checked against both a list
2705 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2706 \&'(\*qname\*q \*qsource\*q \*qlocal-part\*q \*qdomain-part\*q)'
2711 and the addresses without real names from the respective header field.
2712 These search expressions can be nested using parentheses, see below for
2716 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar _n_u"
2717 .It Ar ( criterion )
2718 All messages that satisfy the given
2720 .It Ar ( criterion1 criterion2 ... criterionN )
2721 All messages that satisfy all of the given criteria.
2723 .It Ar ( or criterion1 criterion2 )
2724 All messages that satisfy either
2729 To connect more than two criteria using
2731 specifications have to be nested using additional parentheses,
2733 .Ql (or a (or b c)) ,
2737 .Ql ((a or b) and c) .
2740 operation of independent criteria on the lowest nesting level,
2741 it is possible to achieve similar effects by using three separate
2745 .It Ar ( not criterion )
2746 All messages that do not satisfy
2748 .It Ar ( bcc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2749 All messages that contain
2751 in the envelope representation of the
2754 .It Ar ( cc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2755 All messages that contain
2757 in the envelope representation of the
2760 .It Ar ( from \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2761 All messages that contain
2763 in the envelope representation of the
2766 .It Ar ( subject \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2767 All messages that contain
2772 .It Ar ( to \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2773 All messages that contain
2775 in the envelope representation of the
2778 .It Ar ( header name \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2779 All messages that contain
2784 .It Ar ( body \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2785 All messages that contain
2788 .It Ar ( text \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2789 All messages that contain
2791 in their header or body.
2792 .It Ar ( larger size )
2793 All messages that are larger than
2796 .It Ar ( smaller size )
2797 All messages that are smaller than
2801 .It Ar ( before date )
2802 All messages that were received before
2804 which must be in the form
2808 denotes the day of the month as one or two digits,
2810 is the name of the month \(en one of
2811 .Ql Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec ,
2814 is the year as four digits, e.g.,
2818 All messages that were received on the specified date.
2819 .It Ar ( since date )
2820 All messages that were received since the specified date.
2821 .It Ar ( sentbefore date )
2822 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
2823 .It Ar ( senton date )
2824 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
2825 .It Ar ( sentsince date )
2826 All messages that were sent since the specified date.
2828 The same criterion as for the previous search.
2829 This specification cannot be used as part of another criterion.
2830 If the previous command line contained more than one independent
2831 criterion then the last of those criteria is used.
2835 .\" .Ss "On terminal control and line editor" {{{
2836 .Ss "On terminal control and line editor"
2838 \*(OP Terminal control will be realized through one of the standard
2840 libraries, either the
2842 or, alternatively, the
2844 both of which will be initialized to work with the environment variable
2846 Terminal control will enhance or enable interactive usage aspects, e.g.,
2847 .Sx "Coloured display" ,
2848 and extend behaviour of the Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE), which may learn the
2849 byte-sequences of keys like the cursor- and function-keys.
2852 The internal variable
2854 can be used to overwrite settings or to learn (correct(ed)) keycodes.
2855 Actual library interaction can be disabled completely by setting
2856 .Va termcap-disable ;
2858 will be queried regardless, which is true even if the \*(OPal library
2859 support has not been enabled at configuration time as long as some other
2860 \*(OP which (may) query terminal control sequences has been enabled.
2861 \*(UA can be told to enter an alternative exclusive screen, the
2862 so-called ca-mode, by setting
2863 .Va termcap-ca-mode ;
2864 this requires sufficient terminal support, and the used
2866 may also need special configuration, dependent on the value of
2870 \*(OP The built-in Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE) should work in all
2871 environments which comply to the ISO C standard
2873 and will support wide glyphs if possible (the necessary functionality
2874 had been removed from ISO C, but was included in
2876 Usage of a line editor in interactive mode can be prevented by setting
2877 .Va line-editor-disable .
2878 Especially if the \*(OPal terminal control support is missing setting
2879 entries in the internal variable
2881 will help shall the MLE misbehave, see there for more.
2882 The MLE can support a little bit of
2888 feature is available then input from line editor prompts will be saved
2889 in a history list that can be searched in and be expanded from.
2890 Such saving can be prevented by prefixing input with any amount of
2892 Aspects of history, like allowed content and maximum size, as well as
2893 whether history shall be saved persistently, can be configured with the
2897 .Va history-gabby-persist
2902 The MLE supports a set of editing and control commands.
2903 By default (as) many (as possible) of these will be assigned to a set of
2904 single-letter control codes, which should work on any terminal (and can
2905 be generated by holding the
2907 key while pressing the key of desire, e.g.,
2911 command is available then the MLE commands can also be accessed freely
2912 by assigning the command name, which is shown in parenthesis in the list
2913 below, to any desired key-sequence, and the MLE will instead and also use
2915 to establish its built-in key bindings
2916 (more of them if the \*(OPal terminal control is available),
2917 an action which can then be suppressed completely by setting
2918 .Va line-editor-no-defaults .
2919 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
2920 notation is used in the following;
2921 combinations not mentioned either cause job control signals or do not
2922 generate a (unique) keycode:
2926 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql \eBa"
2928 Go to the start of the line
2930 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-home ) .
2933 Move the cursor backward one character
2935 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-bwd ) .
2938 Forward delete the character under the cursor;
2939 quits \*(UA if used on the empty line unless the internal variable
2943 .Pf ( Cd mle-del-fwd ) .
2946 Go to the end of the line
2948 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-end ) .
2951 Move the cursor forward one character
2953 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-fwd ) .
2956 Cancel current operation, full reset.
2957 If there is an active history search or tabulator expansion then this
2958 command will first reset that, reverting to the former line content;
2959 thus a second reset is needed for a full reset in this case
2961 .Pf ( Cd mle-reset ) .
2964 Backspace: backward delete one character
2966 .Pf ( Cd mle-del-bwd ) .
2970 Horizontal tabulator:
2971 try to expand the word before the cursor, supporting the usual
2972 .Sx "Filename transformations"
2974 .Pf ( Cd mle-complete ;
2976 .Cd mle-quote-rndtrip ) .
2980 commit the current line
2982 .Pf ( Cd mle-commit ) .
2985 Cut all characters from the cursor to the end of the line
2987 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-end ) .
2992 .Pf ( Cd mle-repaint ) .
2995 \*(OP Go to the next history entry
2997 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-fwd ) .
3000 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
3004 \*(OP Go to the previous history entry
3006 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-bwd ) .
3009 Toggle roundtrip mode shell quotes, where produced,
3012 .Pf ( Cd mle-quote-rndtrip ) .
3013 This setting is temporary, and will be forgotten once the command line
3014 is committed; also see
3018 \*(OP Complete the current line from (the remaining) older history entries
3020 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-srch-bwd ) .
3023 \*(OP Complete the current line from (the remaining) newer history entries
3025 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-srch-fwd ) .
3028 Paste the snarf buffer
3030 .Pf ( Cd mle-paste ) .
3038 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-line ) .
3041 Prompts for a Unicode character (hexadecimal number without prefix, see
3045 .Pf ( Cd mle-prompt-char ) .
3046 Note this command needs to be assigned to a single-letter control code
3047 in order to become recognized and executed during input of
3048 a key-sequence (only three single-letter control codes can be used for
3049 that shortcut purpose); this control code is then special-treated and
3050 thus cannot be part of any other sequence (because it will trigger the
3052 function immediately).
3055 Cut the characters from the one preceding the cursor to the preceding
3058 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-word-bwd ) .
3061 Move the cursor forward one word boundary
3063 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-word-fwd ) .
3066 Move the cursor backward one word boundary
3068 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-word-bwd ) .
3071 Escape: reset a possibly used multibyte character input state machine
3072 and \*(OPally a lingering, incomplete key binding
3074 .Pf ( Cd mle-cancel ) .
3075 This command needs to be assigned to a single-letter control code in
3076 order to become recognized and executed during input of a key-sequence
3077 (only three single-letter control codes can be used for that shortcut
3079 This control code may also be part of a multi-byte sequence, but if
3080 a sequence is active and the very control code is currently also an
3081 expected input, then the active sequence takes precedence and will
3082 consume the control code.
3085 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
3089 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
3093 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
3097 Cut the characters from the one after the cursor to the succeeding word
3100 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-word-fwd ) .
3107 Move the cursor forward one screen width
3109 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-screen-fwd ) .
3112 Move the cursor backward one screen width
3114 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-screen-bwd ) .
3117 \*(OP Move the cursor home and clear the screen
3119 .Pf ( Cd mle-clear-screen ) .
3126 this will immediately reset a possibly active search etc.
3131 ring the audible bell.
3135 .\" .Ss "Coloured display" {{{
3136 .Ss "Coloured display"
3138 \*(OP \*(UA can be configured to support a coloured display and font
3139 attributes by emitting ANSI a.k.a. ISO 6429 SGR (select graphic
3140 rendition) escape sequences.
3141 Usage of colours and font attributes solely depends upon the
3142 capability of the detected terminal type that is defined by the
3143 environment variable
3145 and which can be fine-tuned by the user via the internal variable
3149 On top of what \*(UA knows about the terminal the boolean variable
3151 defines whether the actually applicable colour and font attribute
3152 sequences should also be generated when output is going to be paged
3153 through the external program defined by the environment variable
3158 This is not enabled by default because different pager programs need
3159 different command line switches or other configuration in order to
3160 support those sequences.
3161 \*(UA however knows about some widely used pagers and in a clean
3162 environment it is often enough to simply set
3164 please refer to that variable for more on this topic.
3167 Colours and font attributes can be managed with the multiplexer command
3171 can be used to remove mappings of a given colour type.
3174 is set then any active usage of colour and font attribute sequences
3175 is suppressed without affecting possibly established
3178 Since colours are only available in interactive mode, it may make
3179 sense to conditionalize the colour setup by encapsulating it with
3182 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3183 if terminal && [ "$features" =% +colour ]
3184 colour iso view-msginfo ft=bold,fg=green
3185 colour iso view-header ft=bold,fg=red from,subject
3186 colour iso view-header fg=red
3188 uncolour iso view-header from,subject
3189 colour iso view-header ft=bold,fg=magenta,bg=cyan
3190 colour 256 view-header ft=bold,fg=208,bg=230 "subject,from"
3191 colour mono view-header ft=bold
3192 colour mono view-header ft=bold,ft=reverse subject,from
3197 .\" .Ss "Handling spam" {{{
3200 \*(OP \*(UA can make use of several spam interfaces for the purpose of
3201 identification of, and, in general, dealing with spam messages.
3202 A precondition of most commands in order to function is that the
3204 variable is set to one of the supported interfaces.
3205 .Sx "Specifying messages"
3206 that have been identified as spam is possible via their (volatile)
3212 specifications, and their
3214 entries will be used when displaying the
3222 rates the given messages and sets their
3225 If the spam interface offers spam scores these can be shown in
3234 will interact with the Bayesian filter of the chosen interface and learn
3235 the given messages as
3239 respectively; the last command can be used to cause
3241 of messages; it adheres to their current
3243 state and thus reverts previous teachings.
3248 will simply set and clear, respectively, the mentioned volatile
3250 message flag, without any interface interaction.
3259 requires a running instance of the
3261 server in order to function, started with the option
3263 shall Bayesian filter learning be possible.
3265 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3266 $ spamd -i localhost:2142 -i /tmp/.spamsock -d [-L] [-l]
3267 $ spamd --listen=localhost:2142 --listen=/tmp/.spamsock \e
3268 --daemonize [--local] [--allow-tell]
3272 Thereafter \*(UA can make use of these interfaces:
3274 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3275 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=spamc -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
3276 -Sspamc-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \e
3277 -Sspamc-arguments="-U /tmp/.spamsock" -Sspamc-user=
3279 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=spamc -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
3280 -Sspamc-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \e
3281 -Sspamc-arguments="-d localhost -p 2142" -Sspamc-user=
3285 Using the generic filter approach allows usage of programs like
3287 Here is an example, requiring it to be accessible via
3290 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3291 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=filter -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
3292 -Sspamfilter-ham="bogofilter -n" \e
3293 -Sspamfilter-noham="bogofilter -N" \e
3294 -Sspamfilter-nospam="bogofilter -S" \e
3295 -Sspamfilter-rate="bogofilter -TTu 2>/dev/null" \e
3296 -Sspamfilter-spam="bogofilter -s" \e
3297 -Sspamfilter-rate-scanscore="1;^(.+)$"
3301 Because messages must exist on local storage in order to be scored (or
3302 used for Bayesian filter training), it is possibly a good idea to
3303 perform the local spam check last.
3304 Spam can be checked automatically when opening specific folders by
3305 setting a specialized form of the internal variable
3308 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3309 define spamdelhook {
3311 spamset (header x-dcc-brand-metrics "bulk")
3312 # Server-side spamassassin(1)
3313 spamset (header x-spam-flag "YES")
3314 del :s # TODO we HAVE to be able to do `spamrate :u ! :sS'
3320 set folder-hook-SOMEFOLDER=spamdelhook
3324 See also the documentation for the variables
3325 .Va spam-interface , spam-maxsize ,
3326 .Va spamc-command , spamc-arguments , spamc-user ,
3327 .Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , spamfilter-nospam , \
3330 .Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore .
3333 .\" }}} (DESCRIPTION)
3336 .\" .Sh COMMANDS {{{
3339 \*(UA reads input in lines.
3340 An unquoted reverse solidus
3342 at the end of a command line
3344 the newline character: it is discarded and the next line of input is
3345 used as a follow-up line, with all leading whitespace removed;
3346 once an entire line is completed, the whitespace characters
3347 .Cm space , tabulator , newline
3348 as well as those defined by the variable
3350 are removed from the beginning and end.
3351 Placing any whitespace characters at the beginning of a line will
3352 prevent a possible addition of the command line to the \*(OPal
3356 The beginning of such input lines is then scanned for the name of
3357 a known command: command names may be abbreviated, in which case the
3358 first command that matches the given prefix will be used.
3359 .Sx "Command modifiers"
3360 may prefix a command in order to modify its behaviour.
3361 A name may also be a
3363 which will become expanded until no more expansion is possible.
3364 Once the command that shall be executed is known, the remains of the
3365 input line will be interpreted according to command-specific rules,
3366 documented in the following.
3369 This behaviour is different to the
3371 ell, which is a programming language with syntactic elements of clearly
3372 defined semantics, and therefore capable to sequentially expand and
3373 evaluate individual elements of a line.
3374 \*(UA will never be able to handle
3375 .Ql ? set one=value two=$one
3376 in a single statement, because the variable assignment is performed by
3384 can be used to show the list of all commands, either alphabetically
3385 sorted or in prefix search order (these do not match, also because the
3386 POSIX standard prescribes a set of abbreviations).
3387 \*(OPally the command
3391 when given an argument, will show a documentation string for the
3392 command matching the expanded argument, as in
3394 which should be a shorthand of
3396 with these documentation strings both commands support a more
3398 listing mode which includes the argument type of the command and other
3399 information which applies; a handy suggestion might thus be:
3401 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3403 # Before v15: need to enable sh(1)ell-style on _entire_ line!
3404 localopts yes;wysh set verbose;ignerr eval "${@}";return ${?}
3406 ? commandalias xv '\ecall __xv'
3410 .\" .Ss "Command modifiers" {{{
3411 .Ss "Command modifiers"
3413 Commands may be prefixed by one or multiple command modifiers.
3414 Some command modifiers can be used with a restricted set of commands
3419 will (\*(OPally) show which modifiers apply.
3423 The modifier reverse solidus
3426 to be placed first, prevents
3428 expansions on the remains of the line, e.g.,
3430 will always evaluate the command
3432 even if an (command)alias of the same name exists.
3434 content may itself contain further command modifiers, including
3435 an initial reverse solidus to prevent further expansions.
3441 indicates that any error generated by the following command should be
3442 ignored by the state machine and not cause a program exit with enabled
3444 or for the standardized exit cases in
3449 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
3450 will be set to the real exit status of the command regardless.
3455 will alter the called command to apply changes only temporarily,
3456 local to block-scope, and can thus only be used inside of a
3461 Specifying it implies the modifier
3463 Block-scope settings will not be inherited by macros deeper in the
3465 chain, and will be garbage collected once the current block is left.
3466 To record and unroll changes in the global scope use the command
3472 does yet not implement any functionality.
3477 does yet not implement any functionality.
3480 Some commands support the
3483 modifier: if used, they expect the name of a variable, which can itself
3484 be a variable, i.e., shell expansion is applied, as their first
3485 argument, and will place their computation result in it instead of the
3486 default location (it is usually written to standard output).
3488 The given name will be tested for being a valid
3490 variable name, and may therefore only consist of upper- and lowercase
3491 characters, digits, and the underscore; the hyphen-minus may be used as
3492 a non-portable extension; digits may not be used as first, hyphen-minus
3493 may not be used as last characters.
3494 In addition the name may either not be one of the known
3495 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
3496 or must otherwise refer to a writable (non-boolean) value variable.
3497 The actual put operation may fail nonetheless, e.g., if the variable
3498 expects a number argument only a number will be accepted.
3499 Any error during these operations causes the command as such to fail,
3500 and the error number
3503 .Va ^ERR Ns -NOTSUP ,
3508 but some commands deviate from the latter, which is documented.
3511 Last, but not least, the modifier
3514 can be used for some old and established commands to choose the new
3515 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
3516 rules over the traditional
3517 .Sx "Old-style argument quoting" .
3521 .\" .Ss "Old-style argument quoting" {{{
3522 .Ss "Old-style argument quoting"
3524 \*(ID This section documents the old, traditional style of quoting
3525 non-message-list arguments to commands which expect this type of
3526 arguments: whereas still used by the majority of such commands, the new
3527 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
3528 may be available even for those via
3531 .Sx "Command modifiers" .
3532 Nonetheless care must be taken, because only new commands have been
3533 designed with all the capabilities of the new quoting rules in mind,
3534 which can, e.g., generate control characters.
3537 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
3539 An argument can be enclosed between paired double-quotes
3544 any whitespace, shell word expansion, or reverse solidus characters
3545 (except as described next) within the quotes are treated literally as
3546 part of the argument.
3547 A double-quote will be treated literally within single-quotes and vice
3549 Inside such a quoted string the actually used quote character can be
3550 used nonetheless by escaping it with a reverse solidus
3556 An argument that is not enclosed in quotes, as above, can usually still
3557 contain space characters if those spaces are reverse solidus escaped, as in
3561 A reverse solidus outside of the enclosing quotes is discarded
3562 and the following character is treated literally as part of the argument.
3566 .\" .Ss "Shell-style argument quoting" {{{
3567 .Ss "Shell-style argument quoting"
3570 ell-style, and therefore POSIX standardized, argument parsing and
3571 quoting rules are used by most commands.
3572 \*(ID Most new commands only support these new rules and are flagged
3573 \*(NQ, some elder ones can use them with the command modifier
3575 in the future only this type of argument quoting will remain.
3578 A command line is parsed from left to right and an input token is
3579 completed whenever an unquoted, otherwise ignored, metacharacter is seen.
3580 Metacharacters are vertical bar
3586 as well as all characters from the variable
3589 .Cm space , tabulator , newline .
3590 The additional metacharacters left and right parenthesis
3592 and less-than and greater-than signs
3596 supports are not used, and are treated as ordinary characters: for one
3597 these characters are a vivid part of email addresses, and it seems
3598 highly unlikely that their function will become meaningful to \*(UA.
3600 .Bd -filled -offset indent
3601 .Sy Compatibility note:
3602 \*(ID Please note that even many new-style commands do not yet honour
3604 to parse their arguments: whereas the
3606 ell is a language with syntactic elements of clearly defined semantics,
3607 \*(UA parses entire input lines and decides on a per-command base what
3608 to do with the rest of the line.
3609 This also means that whenever an unknown command is seen all that \*(UA
3610 can do is cancellation of the processing of the remains of the line.
3612 It also often depends on an actual subcommand of a multiplexer command
3613 how the rest of the line should be treated, and until v15 we are not
3614 capable to perform this deep inspection of arguments.
3615 Nonetheless, at least the following commands which work with positional
3616 parameters fully support
3618 for an almost shell-compatible field splitting:
3619 .Ic call , call_if , read , vpospar , xcall .
3623 Any unquoted number sign
3625 at the beginning of a new token starts a comment that extends to the end
3626 of the line, and therefore ends argument processing.
3627 An unquoted dollar sign
3629 will cause variable expansion of the given name, which must be a valid
3631 ell-style variable name (see
3633 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
3636 (shell) variables can be accessed through this mechanism, brace
3637 enclosing the name is supported (i.e., to subdivide a token).
3640 Whereas the metacharacters
3641 .Cm space , tabulator , newline
3642 only complete an input token, vertical bar
3648 also act as control operators and perform control functions.
3649 For now supported is semicolon
3651 which terminates a single command, therefore sequencing the command line
3652 and making the remainder of the line a subject to reevaluation.
3653 With sequencing, multiple command argument types and quoting rules may
3654 therefore apply to a single line, which can become problematic before
3655 v15: e.g., the first of the following will cause surprising results.
3658 .Dl ? echo one; set verbose; echo verbose=$verbose.
3659 .Dl ? echo one; wysh set verbose; echo verbose=$verbose.
3662 Quoting is a mechanism that will remove the special meaning of
3663 metacharacters and reserved words, and will prevent expansion.
3664 There are four quoting mechanisms: the escape character, single-quotes,
3665 double-quotes and dollar-single-quotes:
3668 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
3670 The literal value of any character can be preserved by preceding it
3671 with the escape character reverse solidus
3675 Arguments which are enclosed in
3676 .Ql 'single-\:quotes'
3677 retain their literal value.
3678 A single-quote cannot occur within single-quotes.
3681 The literal value of all characters enclosed in
3682 .Ql \(dqdouble-\:quotes\(dq
3683 is retained, with the exception of dollar sign
3685 which will cause variable expansion, as above, backquote (grave accent)
3687 (which not yet means anything special), reverse solidus
3689 which will escape any of the characters dollar sign
3691 (to prevent variable expansion), backquote (grave accent)
3695 (to prevent ending the quote) and reverse solidus
3697 (to prevent escaping, i.e., to embed a reverse solidus character as-is),
3698 but has no special meaning otherwise.
3701 Arguments enclosed in
3702 .Ql $'dollar-\:single-\:quotes'
3703 extend normal single quotes in that reverse solidus escape sequences are
3704 expanded as follows:
3706 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".Ql \eNNN"
3708 bell control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 BEL).
3710 backspace control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 BS).
3712 escape control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 ESC).
3716 form feed control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 FF).
3718 line feed control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 LF).
3720 carriage return control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 CR).
3722 horizontal tabulator control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 HT).
3724 vertical tabulator control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 VT).
3726 emits a reverse solidus character.
3730 double quote (escaping is optional).
3732 eight-bit byte with the octal value
3734 (one to three octal digits), optionally prefixed by an additional
3736 A 0 byte will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
3738 eight-bit byte with the hexadecimal value
3740 (one or two hexadecimal characters, no prefix, see
3742 A 0 byte will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
3744 the Unicode / ISO-10646 character with the hexadecimal codepoint value
3746 (one to eight hexadecimal characters) \(em note that Unicode defines the
3747 maximum codepoint ever to be supported as
3752 This escape is only supported in locales that support Unicode (see
3753 .Sx "Character sets" ) ,
3754 in other cases the sequence will remain unexpanded unless the given code
3755 point is ASCII compatible or (if the \*(OPal character set conversion is
3756 available) can be represented in the current locale.
3757 The character NUL will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
3761 except it takes only one to four hexadecimal characters.
3763 Emits the non-printable (ASCII and compatible) C0 control codes
3764 0 (NUL) to 31 (US), and 127 (DEL).
3765 Printable representations of ASCII control codes can be created by
3766 mapping them to a different, visible part of the ASCII character set.
3767 Adding the number 64 achieves this for the codes 0 to 31, e.g., 7 (BEL):
3768 .Ql 7 + 64 = 71 = G .
3769 The real operation is a bitwise logical XOR with 64 (bit 7 set, see
3771 thus also covering code 127 (DEL), which is mapped to 63 (question mark):
3772 .Ql ? vexpr ^ 127 64 .
3774 Whereas historically circumflex notation has often been used for
3775 visualization purposes of control codes, e.g.,
3777 the reverse solidus notation has been standardized:
3779 Some control codes also have standardized (ISO-10646, ISO C) aliases,
3780 as shown above (e.g.,
3784 whenever such an alias exists it will be used for display purposes.
3785 The control code NUL
3787 a non-standard extension) will suppress further output for the remains
3788 of the token (which may extend beyond the current quote), or, depending
3789 on the context, the remains of all arguments for the current command.
3791 Non-standard extension: expand the given variable name, as above.
3792 Brace enclosing the name is supported.
3794 Not yet supported, just to raise awareness: Non-standard extension.
3801 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3802 ? echo 'Quotes '${HOME}' and 'tokens" differ!"# no comment
3803 ? echo Quotes ${HOME} and tokens differ! # comment
3804 ? echo Don"'"t you worry$'\ex21' The sun shines on us. $'\eu263A'
3808 .\" .Ss "Message list arguments" {{{
3809 .Ss "Message list arguments"
3811 Many commands operate on message list specifications, as documented in
3812 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
3813 The argument input is first split into individual tokens via
3814 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ,
3815 which are then interpreted as the mentioned specifications.
3816 If no explicit message list has been specified, many commands will
3817 search for and use the next message forward that satisfies the commands'
3818 requirements, and if there are no messages forward of the current
3819 message, the search proceeds backwards;
3820 if there are no good messages at all to be found, an error message is
3821 shown and the command is aborted.
3824 output of the command
3826 will indicate whether a command searches for a default message, or not.
3829 .\" .Ss "Raw data arguments for codec commands" {{{
3830 .Ss "Raw data arguments for codec commands"
3832 A special set of commands, which all have the string
3834 in their name, e.g.,
3838 take raw string data as input, which means that the content of the
3839 command input line is passed completely unexpanded and otherwise
3840 unchanged: like this the effect of the actual codec is visible without
3841 any noise of possible shell quoting rules etc., i.e., the user can input
3842 one-to-one the desired or questionable data.
3843 To gain a level of expansion, the entire command line can be
3847 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3848 ? vput shcodec res encode /usr/Sch\[:o]nes Wetter/heute.txt
3850 $'/usr/Sch\eu00F6nes Wetter/heute.txt'
3852 $'/usr/Sch\eu00F6nes Wetter/heute.txt'
3853 ? eval shcodec d $res
3854 /usr/Sch\[:o]nes Wetter/heute.txt
3858 .\" .Ss "Filename transformations" {{{
3859 .Ss "Filename transformations"
3861 Filenames, where expected, and unless documented otherwise, are
3862 subsequently subject to the following filename transformations, in
3865 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
3867 If the given name is a registered
3869 it will be replaced with the expanded shortcut.
3872 The filename is matched against the following patterns or strings:
3874 .Bl -hang -compact -width ".Ar %user"
3876 (Number sign) is expanded to the previous file.
3878 (Percent sign) is replaced by the invoking
3879 .Mx -ix "primary system mailbox"
3880 user's primary system mailbox, which either is the (itself expandable)
3882 if that is set, the standardized absolute pathname indicated by
3884 if that is set, or a built-in compile-time default otherwise.
3886 Expands to the primary system mailbox of
3888 (and never the value of
3890 regardless of its actual setting).
3892 (Ampersand) is replaced with the invoking user's
3893 .Mx -ix "secondary mailbox"
3894 secondary mailbox, the
3901 directory (if that variable is set).
3903 Expands to the same value as
3905 but has special meaning when used with, e.g., the command
3907 the file will be treated as a primary system mailbox by, e.g., the
3911 commands, meaning that messages that have been read in the current
3912 session will be moved to the
3914 mailbox instead of simply being flagged as read.
3918 Meta expansions may be applied to the resulting filename, as allowed by
3919 the operation and applicable to the resulting access protocol (also see
3920 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
3921 For the file-protocol, a leading tilde
3923 character will be replaced by the expansion of
3925 except when followed by a valid user name, in which case the home
3926 directory of the given user is used instead.
3928 A shell expansion as if specified in double-quotes (see
3929 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" )
3930 may be applied, so that any occurrence of
3934 will be replaced by the expansion of the variable, if possible;
3935 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
3938 (shell) variables can be accessed through this mechanism.
3940 Shell pathname wildcard pattern expansions
3942 may be applied as documented.
3943 If the fully expanded filename results in multiple pathnames and the
3944 command is expecting only one file, an error results.
3946 In interactive context, in order to allow simple value acceptance (via
3948 arguments will usually be displayed in a properly quoted form, e.g., a file
3949 .Ql diet\e is \ecurd.txt
3951 .Ql 'diet\e is \ecurd.txt' .
3955 .\" .Ss "Commands" {{{
3958 The following commands are available:
3960 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ic BaNg"
3967 command which follows, replacing unescaped exclamation marks with the
3968 previously executed command if the internal variable
3971 This command supports
3974 .Sx "Command modifiers" ,
3975 and manages the error number
3977 A 0 or positive exit status
3979 reflects the exit status of the command, negative ones that
3980 an error happened before the command was executed, or that the program
3981 did not exit cleanly, but, e.g., due to a signal: the error number is
3982 .Va ^ERR Ns -CHILD ,
3986 In conjunction with the
3988 modifier the following special cases exist:
3989 a negative exit status occurs if the collected data could not be stored
3990 in the given variable, which is a
3992 error that should otherwise not occur.
3993 .Va ^ERR Ns -CANCELED
3994 indicates that no temporary file could be created to collect the command
3995 output at first glance.
3996 In case of catchable out-of-memory situations
3998 will occur and \*(UA will try to store the empty string, just like with
3999 all other detected error conditions.
4004 The comment-command causes the entire line to be ignored.
4006 this really is a normal command which' purpose is to discard its
4009 indicating special character, which means that, e.g., trailing comments
4010 on a line are not possible (except for commands which use
4011 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ) .
4015 Goes to the next message in sequence and types it
4021 Display the preceding message, or the n'th previous message if given
4022 a numeric argument n.
4026 Shows the message number of the current message (the
4028 when used without arguments, that of the given list otherwise.
4029 Output numbers will be separated from each other with the first
4032 and followed by the first character of
4034 if that is not empty and not identical to the first.
4035 If that results in no separation at all a
4038 This command supports
4041 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) ,
4042 and manages the error number
4047 \*(OP Show a brief summary of commands.
4048 \*(OP Given an argument a synopsis for the command in question is
4049 shown instead; commands can be abbreviated in general and this command
4050 can be used to see the full expansion of an abbreviation including the
4051 synopsis, try, e.g.,
4056 and see how the output changes.
4057 This mode also supports a more
4059 output, which will provide the information documented for
4070 .It Ic account , unaccount
4071 (ac, una) Creates, selects or lists (an) account(s).
4072 Accounts are special incarnations of
4074 macros and group commands and variable settings which together usually
4075 arrange the environment for the purpose of creating an email account.
4076 Different to normal macros settings which are covered by
4078 \(en here by default enabled! \(en will not be reverted before the
4083 (case-insensitive) always exists, and all but it can be deleted by the
4084 latter command, and in one operation with the special name
4086 Also for all but it a possibly set
4087 .Va on-account-cleanup
4088 hook is called once they are left.
4090 Without arguments a listing of all defined accounts is shown.
4091 With one argument the given account is activated: the system
4093 of that account will be activated (as via
4095 a possibly installed
4097 will be run, and the internal variable
4100 The two argument form is identical to defining a macro as via
4102 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4104 set folder=~/mail inbox=+syste.mbox record=+sent.mbox
4105 set from='(My Name) myname@myisp.example'
4106 set mta=smtp://mylogin@smtp.myisp.example
4113 Perform email address codec transformations on raw-data argument, rather
4114 according to email standards (RFC 5322; \*(ID will furtherly improve).
4118 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) ,
4119 and manages the error number
4121 The first argument must be either
4122 .Ar [+[+[+]]]e[ncode] ,
4127 and specifies the operation to perform on the rest of the line.
4130 Decoding will show how a standard-compliant MUA will display the given
4131 argument, which should be an email address.
4132 Please be aware that most MUAs have difficulties with the address
4133 standards, and vary wildly when (comments) in parenthesis,
4135 strings, or quoted-pairs, as below, become involved.
4136 \*(ID \*(UA currently does not perform decoding when displaying addresses.
4139 Skinning is identical to decoding but only outputs the plain address,
4140 without any string, comment etc. components.
4141 Another difference is that it may fail with the error number
4145 if decoding fails to find a(n) (valid) email address, in which case the
4146 unmodified input will be output again.
4150 first performs a skin operation, and thereafter checks a valid
4151 address for whether it is a registered mailing list (see
4155 eventually reporting that state in the error number
4158 .Va ^ERR Ns -EXIST .
4159 (This state could later become overwritten by an I/O error, though.)
4162 Encoding supports four different modes, lesser automated versions can be
4163 chosen by prefixing one, two or three plus signs: the standard imposes
4164 a special meaning on some characters, which thus have to be transformed
4165 to so-called quoted-pairs by pairing them with a reverse solidus
4167 in order to remove the special meaning; this might change interpretation
4168 of the entire argument from what has been desired, however!
4169 Specify one plus sign to remark that parenthesis shall be left alone,
4170 two for not turning double quotation marks into quoted-pairs, and three
4171 for also leaving any user-specified reverse solidus alone.
4172 The result will always be valid, if a successful exit status is reported
4173 (\*(ID the current parser fails this assertion for some constructs).
4174 \*(ID Addresses need to be specified in between angle brackets
4177 if the construct becomes more difficult, otherwise the current parser
4178 will fail; it is not smart enough to guess right.
4180 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4181 ? addrc enc "Hey, you",<diet@exam.ple>\e out\e there
4182 "\e"Hey, you\e", \e\e out\e\e there" <diet@exam.ple>
4183 ? addrc d "\e"Hey, you\e", \e\e out\e\e there" <diet@exam.ple>
4184 "Hey, you", \e out\e there <diet@exam.ple>
4185 ? addrc s "\e"Hey, you\e", \e\e out\e\e there" <diet@exam.ple>
4192 .It Ic alias , unalias
4193 (a, una) Aliases are a method of creating personal distribution lists
4194 that map a single alias name to none to multiple real receivers;
4195 these aliases become expanded after message composing is completed.
4196 The latter command removes the given list of aliases, the special name
4198 will discard all existing aliases.
4200 The former command shows all currently defined aliases when used without
4201 arguments, and with one argument the expansion of the given alias.
4202 With more than one argument, creates or appends to the alias name given
4203 as the first argument the remaining arguments.
4204 Alias names adhere to the Postfix MTA
4206 rules and are thus restricted to alphabetic characters, digits, the
4207 underscore, hyphen-minus, the number sign, colon and commercial at,
4208 a dollar sign is allowed but in the first position;
4209 As extensions the exclamation mark
4214 .Dq any haracter that has the high bit set
4216 .Ql [[:alnum:]_#:@-][[:alnum:]_#:@$;.-]* .
4218 .\" ALIASCOLON next sentence
4219 \*(ID Unfortunately the colon is currently not supported, as it
4220 interferes with normal address parsing rules.
4221 .\" ALIASCOLON next sentence
4222 \*(ID Such high bit characters will likely cause warnings at the moment
4223 for the same reasons why colon is unsupported.
4227 .It Ic alternates , unalternates
4228 \*(NQ (alt) Manage a list of alternate addresses or names of the active
4229 user, members of which will be removed from recipient lists (except one).
4230 There is a set of implicit alternates which is formed of the values of
4240 The latter command removes the given list of alternates, the special name
4242 will discard all existing alternate names.
4244 The former command manages the error number
4246 It shows the current set of alternates when used without arguments; in
4247 this mode only it also supports
4250 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
4251 Otherwise the given arguments (after being checked for validity) are
4252 appended to the list of alternate names; in
4254 mode they replace that list instead.
4258 .It Ic answered , unanswered
4259 Take a message lists and mark each message as (not) having been answered.
4260 Messages will be marked answered when being
4262 to automatically if the
4266 .Sx "Message states" .
4271 .It Ic bind , unbind
4272 \*(OP\*(NQ The bind command extends the MLE (see
4273 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
4274 with freely configurable key bindings.
4275 The latter command removes from the given context the given key binding,
4276 both of which may be specified as a wildcard
4280 will remove all bindings of all contexts.
4281 Due to initialization order unbinding will not work for built-in key
4282 bindings upon program startup, however: please use
4283 .Va line-editor-no-defaults
4284 for this purpose instead.
4287 With one argument the former command shows all key bindings for the
4288 given context, specifying an asterisk
4290 will show the bindings of all contexts; a more verbose listing will be
4291 produced if either of
4296 With two or more arguments a binding is (re)established:
4297 the first argument is the context to which the binding shall apply,
4298 the second argument is a comma-separated list of the
4300 which form the binding, and any remaining arguments form the expansion.
4301 To indicate that a binding shall not be auto-committed, but that the
4302 expansion shall instead be furtherly editable by the user, a commercial at
4304 (that will be removed) can be placed last in the expansion, from which
4305 leading and trailing whitespace will finally be removed.
4306 Reverse solidus cannot be used as the last character of expansion.
4309 Contexts define when a binding applies, i.e., a binding will not be seen
4310 unless the context for which it is defined for is currently active.
4311 This is not true for the shared binding
4313 which is the foundation for all other bindings and as such always
4314 applies, its bindings, however, only apply secondarily.
4315 The available contexts are the shared
4319 context which is used in all not otherwise documented situations, and
4321 which applies to compose mode only.
4325 which form the binding are specified as a comma-separated list of
4326 byte-sequences, where each list entry corresponds to one key(press).
4327 A list entry may, indicated by a leading colon character
4329 also refer to the name of a terminal capability; several dozen names
4330 will be compiled in and may be specified either by their
4332 or, if existing, by their
4334 name, regardless of the actually used \*(OPal terminal control library.
4335 It is possible to use any capability, as long as the name is resolvable
4336 by the \*(OPal control library or was defined via the internal variable
4338 Input sequences are not case-normalized, so that an exact match is
4339 required to update or remove a binding.
4342 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4343 ? bind base $'\eE',d mle-snarf-word-fwd # Esc(ape)
4344 ? bind base $'\eE',$'\ec?' mle-snarf-word-bwd # Esc,Delete
4345 ? bind default $'\ecA',:khome,w 'echo Editable binding@'
4346 ? bind default a,b,c rm -irf / @ # Also editable
4347 ? bind default :kf1 File %
4348 ? bind compose :kf1 ~v
4352 Note that the entire comma-separated list is first parsed (over) as a
4353 shell-token with whitespace as the field separator, before being parsed
4354 and expanded for real with comma as the field separator, therefore
4355 whitespace needs to be properly quoted, see
4356 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" .
4357 Using Unicode reverse solidus escape sequences renders a binding
4358 defunctional if the locale does not support Unicode (see
4359 .Sx "Character sets" ) ,
4360 and using terminal capabilities does so if no (corresponding) terminal
4361 control support is (currently) available.
4364 The following terminal capability names are built-in and can be used in
4366 or (if available) the two-letter
4369 See the respective manual for a list of capabilities.
4372 can be used to show all the capabilities of
4374 or the given terminal type;
4377 flag will also show supported (non-standard) extensions.
4380 .Bl -tag -compact -width kcuuf_or_kcuuf
4381 .It Cd kbs Ns \0or Cd kb
4383 .It Cd kdch1 Ns \0or Cd kD
4385 .It Cd kDC Ns \0or Cd *4
4386 \(em shifted variant.
4387 .It Cd kel Ns \0or Cd kE
4388 Clear to end of line.
4389 .It Cd kext Ns \0or Cd @9
4391 .It Cd kich1 Ns \0or Cd kI
4393 .It Cd kIC Ns \0or Cd #3
4394 \(em shifted variant.
4395 .It Cd khome Ns \0or Cd kh
4397 .It Cd kHOM Ns \0or Cd #2
4398 \(em shifted variant.
4399 .It Cd kend Ns \0or Cd @7
4401 .It Cd knp Ns \0or Cd kN
4403 .It Cd kpp Ns \0or Cd kP
4405 .It Cd kcub1 Ns \0or Cd kl
4406 Left cursor (with more modifiers: see below).
4407 .It Cd kLFT Ns \0or Cd #4
4408 \(em shifted variant.
4409 .It Cd kcuf1 Ns \0or Cd kr
4410 Right cursor (ditto).
4411 .It Cd kRIT Ns \0or Cd %i
4412 \(em shifted variant.
4413 .It Cd kcud1 Ns \0or Cd kd
4414 Down cursor (ditto).
4416 \(em shifted variant (only terminfo).
4417 .It Cd kcuu1 Ns \0or Cd ku
4420 \(em shifted variant (only terminfo).
4421 .It Cd kf0 Ns \0or Cd k0
4423 Add one for each function key up to
4428 .It Cd kf10 Ns \0or Cd k;
4430 .It Cd kf11 Ns \0or Cd F1
4432 Add one for each function key up to
4440 Some terminals support key-modifier combination extensions, e.g.,
4442 For example, the delete key,
4444 in its shifted variant, the name is mutated to
4446 then a number is appended for the states
4458 .Ql Shift+Alt+Control
4460 The same for the left cursor key,
4462 .Cd KLFT , KLFT3 , KLFT4 , KLFT5 , KLFT6 , KLFT7 , KLFT8 .
4465 It is advisable to use an initial escape or other control character (e.g.,
4467 for bindings which describe user key combinations (as opposed to purely
4468 terminal capability based ones), in order to avoid ambiguities whether
4469 input belongs to key sequences or not; it also reduces search time.
4472 may help shall keys and sequences be falsely recognized.
4477 \*(NQ Calls the given macro, which must have been created via
4482 Calling macros recursively will at some time excess the stack size
4483 limit, causing a hard program abortion; if recursively calling a macro
4484 is the last command of the current macro, consider to use the command
4486 which will first release all resources of the current macro before
4487 replacing the current macro with the called one.
4488 Numeric and string operations can be performed via
4492 may be helpful to recreate argument lists.
4499 if the given macro has been created via
4501 but does not fail nor warn if the macro does not exist.
4505 (ch) Change the working directory to
4507 or the given argument.
4513 \*(OP Only applicable to S/MIME signed messages.
4514 Takes an optional message list and a filename and saves the certificates
4515 contained within the message signatures to the named file in both
4516 human-readable and PEM format.
4517 The certificates can later be used to send encrypted messages to the
4518 respective message senders by setting
4519 .Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
4524 .It Ic charsetalias , uncharsetalias
4525 \*(NQ Manage alias mappings for (conversion of)
4526 .Sx "Character sets" .
4527 Mappings are ineffective if character set conversion is not available
4531 Expansion happens recursively, but expansion is not performed for
4532 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
4536 The latter command deletes all aliases given as arguments,
4537 all aliases can be deleted at once with the special argument
4539 The former shows the list of all currently defined aliases if used
4540 without arguments, the expansion of the given alias with one argument.
4541 Otherwise all given arguments are treated as pairs of character sets and
4542 their desired target alias name, creating new or changing already
4543 existing aliases, as necessary.
4547 (ch) Change the working directory to
4549 or the given argument.
4555 .It Ic collapse , uncollapse
4561 Takes a message list and makes all replies to these messages invisible
4562 in header summaries, except for
4566 Also when a message with collapsed replies is displayed,
4567 all of these are automatically uncollapsed.
4568 The latter command undoes collapsing.
4571 .\" FIXME review until this point
4574 .It Ic colour , uncolour
4575 \*(OP\*(NQ Manage colour mappings of and for a
4576 .Sx "Coloured display" .
4577 The type of colour is given as the (case-insensitive) first argument,
4578 which must be one of
4580 for 256-colour terminals,
4585 for the standard 8-colour ANSI / ISO 6429 colour palette and
4589 for monochrome terminals.
4590 Monochrome terminals cannot deal with colours, but only (some) font
4594 Without further arguments the list of all currently defined mappings
4595 for the given colour type is shown (as a special case giving
4599 will show the mappings of all types).
4600 Otherwise the second argument defines the mappable slot, and the third
4601 argument a (comma-separated list of) colour and font attribute
4602 specification(s), and the optional fourth argument can be used to
4603 specify a precondition: if conditioned mappings exist they are tested in
4604 (creation) order unless a (case-insensitive) match has been found, and
4605 the default mapping (if any has been established) will only be chosen as
4607 The types of precondition available depend on the mappable slot (see
4608 .Sx "Coloured display"
4609 for some examples), the following of which exist:
4612 Mappings prefixed with
4614 are used for the \*(OPal built-in Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE, see
4615 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
4616 and do not support preconditions.
4618 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
4620 This mapping is used for the position indicator that is visible when
4621 a line cannot be fully displayed on the screen.
4628 Mappings prefixed with
4630 are used in header summaries, and they all understand the preconditions
4632 (the current message) and
4634 for elder messages (only honoured in conjunction with
4635 .Va datefield-markout-older ) .
4637 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
4639 This mapping is used for the
4641 that can be created with the
4645 formats of the variable
4648 For the complete header summary line except the
4650 and the thread structure.
4652 For the thread structure which can be created with the
4654 format of the variable
4659 Mappings prefixed with
4661 are used when displaying messages.
4663 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
4665 This mapping is used for so-called
4667 lines, which are MBOX file format specific header lines.
4670 A comma-separated list of headers to which the mapping applies may be
4671 given as a precondition; if the \*(OPal regular expression support is
4672 available then if any of the
4674 (extended) regular expression characters is seen the precondition will
4675 be evaluated as (an extended) one.
4677 For the introductional message info line.
4678 .It Ar view-partinfo
4679 For MIME part info lines.
4683 The following (case-insensitive) colour definitions and font attributes
4684 are understood, multiple of which can be specified in a comma-separated
4694 It is possible (and often applicable) to specify multiple font
4695 attributes for a single mapping.
4698 foreground colour attribute:
4708 To specify a 256-colour mode a decimal number colour specification in
4709 the range 0 to 255, inclusive, is supported, and interpreted as follows:
4711 .Bl -tag -compact -width "999 - 999"
4713 the standard ISO 6429 colours, as above.
4715 high intensity variants of the standard colours.
4717 216 colours in tuples of 6.
4719 grayscale from black to white in 24 steps.
4721 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4723 fg() { printf "\e033[38;5;${1}m($1)"; }
4724 bg() { printf "\e033[48;5;${1}m($1)"; }
4726 while [ $i -lt 256 ]; do fg $i; i=$(($i + 1)); done
4727 printf "\e033[0m\en"
4729 while [ $i -lt 256 ]; do bg $i; i=$(($i + 1)); done
4730 printf "\e033[0m\en"
4734 background colour attribute (see
4736 for possible values).
4742 will remove for the given colour type (the special type
4744 selects all) the given mapping; if the optional precondition argument is
4745 given only the exact tuple of mapping and precondition is removed.
4748 will remove all mappings (no precondition allowed), thus
4750 will remove all established mappings.
4755 .It Ic commandalias , uncommandalias
4756 \*(NQ Define or list, and remove, respectively, command aliases.
4757 An (command)alias can be used everywhere a normal command can be used,
4758 but always takes precedence: any arguments that are given to the command
4759 alias are joined onto the alias expansion, and the resulting string
4760 forms the command line that is, in effect, executed.
4761 The latter command removes all given aliases, the special name
4763 will remove all existing aliases.
4764 When used without arguments the former shows a list of all currently
4765 known aliases, with one argument only the expansion of the given one.
4767 With two or more arguments a command alias is defined or updated: the
4768 first argument is the name under which the remaining command line should
4769 be accessible, the content of which can be just about anything.
4770 An alias may itself expand to another alias, but to avoid expansion loops
4771 further expansion will be prevented if an alias refers to itself or if
4772 an expansion depth limit is reached.
4773 Explicit expansion prevention is available via reverse solidus
4776 .Sx "Command modifiers" .
4777 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4779 \*(uA: `commandalias': no such alias: xx
4780 ? commandalias xx echo hello,
4782 commandalias xx 'echo hello,'
4791 (C) Copy messages to files whose names are derived from the author of
4792 the respective message and do not mark them as being saved;
4793 otherwise identical to
4798 (c) Copy messages to the named file and do not mark them as being saved;
4799 otherwise identical to
4804 Show the name of the current working directory, as reported by
4809 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
4810 The return status is tracked via
4815 \*(OP For unencrypted messages this command is identical to
4817 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
4821 \*(OP For unencrypted messages this command is identical to
4823 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
4828 .It Ic define , undefine
4829 The latter command deletes the given macro, the special name
4831 will discard all existing macros.
4832 Deletion of (a) macro(s) can be performed from within running (a)
4833 macro(s), including self-deletion.
4834 Without arguments the former command prints the current list of macros,
4835 including their content, otherwise it it defines a macro, replacing an
4836 existing one of the same name as applicable.
4839 A defined macro can be invoked explicitly by using the
4844 commands, or implicitly if a macro hook is triggered, e.g., a
4846 Execution of a macro body can be stopped from within by calling
4850 Temporary macro block-scope variables can be created or deleted with the
4852 command modifier in conjunction with the commands
4857 To enforce unrolling of changes made to (global)
4858 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
4861 can be used instead; its covered scope depends on how (i.e.,
4863 normal macro, folder hook, hook,
4865 switch) the macro is invoked.
4870 ed macro, the given positional parameters are implicitly local
4871 to the macro's scope, and may be accessed via the variables
4877 and any other positive unsigned decimal number less than or equal to
4879 Positional parameters can be
4881 ed, or become completely replaced, removed etc. via
4884 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4894 echo Parameter 1 of ${#} is ${1}, all: ${*} / ${@}
4897 call exmac Hello macro exmac!
4898 echo ${?}/${!}/${^ERRNAME}
4904 .It Ic delete , undelete
4905 (d, u) Marks the given message list as being or not being
4907 respectively; if no argument has been specified then the usual search
4908 for a visible message is performed, as documented for
4909 .Sx "Message list arguments" ,
4910 showing only the next input prompt if the search fails.
4911 Deleted messages will neither be saved in the
4913 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
4915 nor will they be available for most other commands.
4918 variable is set, the new
4920 or the last message restored, respectively, is automatically
4929 \*(NQ Digging (information out of) messages is possible through
4931 objects, which can be
4933 d for the given message number; in compose mode the hyphen-minus
4935 will instead open the message that is being composed.
4936 If a hyphen-minus is given as the optional third argument then output
4937 will be generated on the standard output channel instead of being
4938 subject to consumation by the
4946 d again by giving the same identifier used for creation;
4947 this step could be omitted: objects will be automatically closed
4948 when the active mailbox or the compose mode is left, respectively.
4949 In all other cases the second argument is an object identifier,
4950 and the third and all following arguments are interpreted as via
4953 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ) :
4954 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4955 ? vput = msgno; digmsg create $msgno
4956 ? digmsg $msgno header list; readall x; echon $x
4957 210 Subject From To Message-ID References In-Reply-To Status
4958 ? digmsg $msgno header show Status;readall x;echon $x
4962 ? digmsg remove $msgno
4970 Superseded by the multiplexer
4976 Delete the given messages and automatically
4980 if one exists, regardless of the setting of
4987 up or down by one message when given
4991 argument, respectively.
4995 .It Ic draft , undraft
4996 Take message lists and mark each given message as being draft, or not
4997 being draft, respectively, as documented in the section
4998 .Sx "Message states" .
5002 \*(NQ (ec) Echoes arguments to standard output and writes a trailing
5003 newline, whereas the otherwise identical
5006 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
5008 .Sx "Filename transformations"
5009 are applied to the expanded arguments.
5010 This command also supports
5013 .Sx "Command modifiers" ,
5014 and manages the error number
5016 if data is stored in a variable then the return value reflects the
5017 length of the result string in case of success and is
5025 except that is echoes to standard error.
5028 In interactive sessions the \*(OPal message ring queue for
5030 will be used instead, if available and
5038 but does not write or store a trailing newline.
5044 but does not write or store a trailing newline.
5050 at each message from the given list in turn.
5051 Modified contents are discarded unless the
5053 variable is set, and are not used unless the mailbox can be written to
5054 and the editor returns a successful exit status.
5056 can be used instead for a more display oriented editor.
5061 .Ic if Ns \0/\: Ic elif Ns \0/\: Ic else Ns \0/\: Ic endif
5062 conditional \(em if the condition of a preceding
5064 was false, check the following condition and execute the following block
5065 if it evaluates true.
5070 .Ic if Ns \0/\: Ic elif Ns \0/\: Ic else Ns \0/\: Ic endif
5071 conditional \(em if none of the conditions of the preceding
5075 commands was true, the
5081 (en) Marks the end of an
5082 .Ic if Ns \0/\: Ic elif Ns \0/\: Ic else Ns \0/\: Ic endif
5083 conditional execution block.
5088 \*(NQ \*(UA has a strict notion about which variables are
5089 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
5090 and which are managed in the program
5092 Since some of the latter are a vivid part of \*(UAs functioning,
5093 however, they are transparently integrated into the normal handling of
5094 internal variables via
5098 To integrate other environment variables of choice into this
5099 transparent handling, and also to export internal variables into the
5100 process environment where they normally are not, a
5102 needs to become established with this command, as in, e.g.,
5105 .Dl environ link PERL5LIB TZ
5108 Afterwards changing such variables with
5110 will cause automatic updates of the program environment, and therefore
5111 be inherited by newly created child processes.
5112 Sufficient system support provided (it was in BSD as early as 1987, and
5113 is standardized since Y2K) removing such variables with
5115 will remove them also from the program environment, but in any way
5116 the knowledge they ever have been
5119 Note that this implies that
5121 may cause loss of such links.
5126 will remove an existing link, but leaves the variables as such intact.
5127 Additionally the subcommands
5131 are provided, which work exactly the same as the documented commands
5135 but (additionally un)link the variable(s) with the program environment
5136 and thus immediately export them to, or remove them from (if possible),
5137 respectively, the program environment.
5142 \*(OP Since \*(UA uses the console as a user interface it can happen
5143 that messages scroll by too fast to become recognized.
5144 An error message ring queue is available which stores duplicates of any
5145 error message and notifies the user in interactive sessions whenever
5146 a new error has occurred.
5147 The queue is finite: if its maximum size is reached any new message
5148 replaces the eldest.
5151 can be used to manage this message queue: if given
5153 or no argument the queue will be displayed and cleared,
5155 will only clear all messages from the queue.
5159 \*(NQ Construct a command by concatenating the arguments, separated with
5160 a single space character, and then evaluate the result.
5161 This command passes through the exit status
5165 of the evaluated command; also see
5167 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5178 call yyy '\ecall xxx' "b\e$'\et'u ' "
5186 (ex or x) Exit from \*(UA without changing the active mailbox and skip
5187 any saving of messages in the
5189 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
5191 as well as a possibly tracked line editor
5193 The optional status number argument will be passed through to
5195 \*(ID For now it can happen that the given status will be overwritten,
5196 later this will only occur if a later error needs to be reported onto an
5197 otherwise success indicating status.
5203 but open the mailbox read-only.
5208 (fi) The file command switches to a new mailbox.
5209 Without arguments it shows status information of the current mailbox.
5210 If an argument is given, it will write out changes (such as deletions)
5211 the user has made, open a new mailbox, update the internal variables
5212 .Va mailbox-resolved
5214 .Va mailbox-display ,
5215 execute an according
5217 if one is installed, and optionally display a summary of
5224 .Sx "Filename transformations"
5225 will be applied to the
5229 prefixes are, i.e., URL syntax is understood, e.g.,
5230 .Ql mbox:///tmp/mdirbox :
5231 if a protocol prefix is used the mailbox type is fixated and neither
5232 the auto-detection (read on) nor the
5235 \*(OPally URLs can also be used to access network resources, which may
5236 be accessed securely via
5237 .Sx "Encrypted network communication"
5238 if so supported, and it is possible to proxy all network traffic over
5239 a SOCKS5 server given via
5243 .Dl \*(IN protocol://[user[:password]@]host[:port][/path]
5244 .Dl \*(OU protocol://[user@]host[:port][/path]
5247 \*(OPally supported network protocols are
5251 (POP3 with TLS encrypted transport),
5257 part is valid only for IMAP; there it defaults to
5259 Network URLs require a special encoding as documented in the section
5260 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
5263 If the resulting file protocol (MBOX database)
5265 is located on a local filesystem then the list of all registered
5267 s is traversed in order to see whether a transparent intermediate
5268 conversion step is necessary to handle the given mailbox, in which case
5269 \*(UA will use the found hook to load and save data into and from
5270 a temporary file, respectively.
5271 Changing hooks will not affect already opened mailboxes.
5272 For example, the following creates hooks for the
5274 compression tool and a combined compressed and encrypted format:
5276 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5278 gzip 'gzip -dc' 'gzip -c' \e
5279 zst.pgp 'gpg -d | zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc | gpg -e'
5283 MBOX databases will always be protected via file-region locks
5285 during file operations in order to avoid inconsistencies due to
5286 concurrent modifications.
5287 .Mx -ix "dotlock files"
5288 \*(OP In addition mailbox files treated as the system
5293 .Sx "primary system mailbox" Ns
5294 es in general will also be protected by so-called dotlock files,
5295 the traditional way of mail spool file locking: for any file
5299 will be created for the duration of the synchronization \(em
5300 as necessary an external privileged dotlock helper will be used
5301 to create the dotlock file in the same directory and with the same user
5302 and group identities as the file of interest.
5304 can be used to turn off additional dotlock files, shall the need arise.
5307 \*(UA by default uses tolerant POSIX rules when reading MBOX database
5308 files, but it will detect invalid message boundaries in this mode and
5309 complain (even more with
5311 if any is seen: in this case
5313 can be used to create a valid MBOX database from the invalid input.
5316 \*(OP If no protocol has been fixated, and
5318 refers to a directory with the subdirectories
5323 then it is treated as a folder in
5326 The maildir format stores each message in its own file, and has been
5327 designed so that file locking is not necessary when reading or writing
5331 \*(ID If no protocol has been fixated and no existing file has
5332 been found, the variable
5334 controls the format of mailboxes yet to be created.
5339 .It Ic filetype , unfiletype
5340 \*(NQ Define or list, and remove, respectively, file handler hooks,
5341 which provide (shell) commands that enable \*(UA to load and save MBOX
5342 files from and to files with the registered file extensions;
5343 it will use an intermediate temporary file to store the plain data.
5344 The latter command removes the hooks for all given extensions,
5346 will remove all existing handlers.
5348 When used without arguments the former shows a list of all currently
5349 defined file hooks, with one argument the expansion of the given alias.
5350 Otherwise three arguments are expected, the first specifying the file
5351 extension for which the hook is meant, and the second and third defining
5352 the load- and save commands, respectively, to deal with the file type,
5353 both of which must read from standard input and write to standard
5355 Changing hooks will not affect already opened mailboxes (\*(ID except below).
5356 \*(ID For now too much work is done, and files are oftened read in twice
5357 where once would be sufficient: this can cause problems if a filetype is
5358 changed while such a file is opened; this was already so with the
5359 built-in support of .gz etc. in Heirloom, and will vanish in v15.
5360 \*(ID For now all handler strings are passed to the
5361 .Ev SHELL for evaluation purposes; in the future a
5363 prefix to load and save commands may mean to bypass this shell instance:
5364 placing a leading space will avoid any possible misinterpretations.
5365 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5366 ? filetype bz2 'bzip2 -dc' 'bzip2 -zc' \e
5367 gz 'gzip -dc' 'gzip -c' xz 'xz -dc' 'xz -zc' \e
5368 zst 'zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc' \e
5369 zst.pgp 'gpg -d | zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc | gpg -e'
5370 ? set record=+sent.zst.pgp
5375 .It Ic flag , unflag
5376 Take message lists and mark the messages as being flagged, or not being
5377 flagged, respectively, for urgent/special attention.
5379 .Sx "Message states" .
5388 With no arguments, list the names of the folders in the folder directory.
5389 With an existing folder as an argument,
5390 lists the names of folders below the named folder.
5396 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
5397 recipient's address (instead of in
5404 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
5405 recipient's address (instead of in
5412 but responds to all recipients regardless of the
5417 .It Ic followupsender
5420 but responds to the sender only regardless of the
5428 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the
5429 recipient's address (instead of in
5434 Takes a message and the address of a recipient
5435 and forwards the message to him.
5436 The text of the original message is included in the new one,
5437 with the value of the
5438 .Va forward-inject-head
5439 variable preceding, and the value of
5440 .Va forward-inject-tail
5442 To filter the included header fields to the desired subset use the
5444 slot of the white- and blacklisting command
5446 Only the first part of a multipart message is included unless
5447 .Va forward-as-attachment ,
5448 and recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names
5449 etc. unless the internal variable
5453 This may generate the errors
5454 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
5455 if no receiver has been specified,
5457 if some addressees where rejected by
5460 if no applicable messages have been given,
5462 if multiple messages have been specified,
5464 if an I/O error occurs,
5466 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
5472 (f) Takes a list of message specifications and displays a summary of
5473 their message headers, exactly as via
5475 making the first message of the result the new
5477 (the last message if
5480 An alias of this command is
5483 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
5494 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
5498 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
5501 .It Ic ghost , unghost
5504 .Ic uncommandalias .
5508 .It Ic headerpick , unheaderpick
5509 \*(NQ Multiplexer command to manage white- and blacklisting
5510 selections of header fields for a variety of applications.
5511 Without arguments the set of contexts that have settings is displayed.
5512 When given arguments, the first argument is the context to which the
5513 command applies, one of (case-insensitive)
5515 for display purposes (via, e.g.,
5518 for selecting which headers shall be stored persistently when
5524 ing messages (note that MIME related etc. header fields should not be
5525 ignored in order to not destroy usability of the message in this case),
5527 for stripping down messages when
5529 ing message (has no effect if
5530 .Va forward-as-attachment
5533 for defining user-defined set of fields for the command
5536 The current settings of the given context are displayed if it is the
5538 A second argument denotes the type of restriction that is to be chosen,
5539 it may be (a case-insensitive prefix of)
5543 for white- and blacklisting purposes, respectively.
5544 Establishing a whitelist suppresses inspection of the corresponding
5547 If no further argument is given the current settings of the given type
5548 will be displayed, otherwise the remaining arguments specify header
5549 fields, which \*(OPally may be given as regular expressions, to be added
5551 The special wildcard field (asterisk,
5553 will establish a (fast) shorthand setting which covers all fields.
5555 The latter command always takes three or more arguments and can be used
5556 to remove selections, i.e., from the given context, the given type of
5557 list, all the given headers will be removed, the special argument
5559 will remove all headers.
5563 (h) Show the current group of headers, the size of which depends on
5566 in interactive mode, and the format of which can be defined with
5568 If a message-specification is given the group of headers containing the
5569 first message therein is shown and the message at the top of the screen
5572 the last message is targeted if
5583 \*(OP Without arguments or when given
5585 all history entries are shown (this mode also supports a more
5589 will replace the list of entries with the content of
5593 will dump the current list to said file, replacing former content.
5595 will delete all history entries.
5596 The argument can also be a signed decimal
5598 which will select and evaluate the respective history entry, and move it
5599 to the top of the history; a negative number is used as an offset to the
5600 current command, e.g.,
5602 will select the last command, the history top.
5604 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor"
5605 for more on this topic.
5611 Takes a message list and marks each message therein to be saved in the
5616 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
5618 Does not override the
5621 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command, because a
5623 command issued after
5625 will display the following message, not the current one.
5630 (i) Part of the nestable
5631 .Ic if Ns \0/\: Ic elif Ns \0/\: Ic else Ns \0/\: Ic endif
5632 conditional execution construct \(em if the given condition is true then
5633 the encapsulated block is executed.
5634 The POSIX standards supports the (case-insensitive) conditions
5639 end, all remaining conditions are non-portable extensions.
5640 \*(ID These commands do not yet use
5641 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
5642 and therefore do not know about input tokens, so that syntax
5643 elements have to be surrounded by whitespace; in v15 \*(UA will inspect
5644 all conditions bracket group wise and consider the tokens, representing
5645 values and operators, therein, which also means that variables will
5646 already have been expanded at that time (just like in the shell).
5648 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5657 The (case-insensitive) condition
5659 erminal will evaluate to true if the standard input is a terminal, i.e.,
5660 in interactive sessions.
5661 Another condition can be any boolean value (see the section
5662 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
5663 for textual boolean representations) to mark an enwrapped block as
5666 .Dq always execute .
5667 (It shall be remarked that a faulty condition skips all branches until
5672 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
5673 will be used, and this command will simply interpret expanded tokens.)
5674 It is possible to check
5675 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
5678 variables for existence or compare their expansion against a user given
5679 value or another variable by using the
5681 .Pf ( Dq variable next )
5682 conditional trigger character;
5683 a variable on the right hand side may be signalled using the same
5685 Variable names may be enclosed in a pair of matching braces.
5686 When this mode has been triggered, several operators are available:
5689 Integer operators treat the arguments on the left and right hand side of
5690 the operator as integral numbers and compare them arithmetically.
5691 It is an error if any of the operands is not a valid integer, an empty
5692 argument (which implies it had been quoted) is treated as if it were 0.
5693 Available operators are
5697 (less than or equal to),
5703 (greater than or equal to), and
5708 String data operators compare the left and right hand side according to
5709 their textual content.
5710 Unset variables are treated as the empty string.
5711 The behaviour of string operators can be adjusted by prefixing the
5712 operator with the modifier trigger commercial at
5714 followed by none to multiple modifiers: for now supported is
5716 which turns the comparison into a case-insensitive one: this is
5717 implied if no modifier follows the trigger.
5720 Available string operators are
5724 (less than or equal to),
5730 (greater than or equal to),
5734 (is substring of) and
5736 (is not substring of).
5737 By default these operators work on bytes and (therefore) do not take
5738 into account character set specifics.
5739 If the case-insensitivity modifier has been used, case is ignored
5740 according to the rules of the US-ASCII encoding, i.e., bytes are
5744 When the \*(OPal regular expression support is available, the additional
5750 They treat the right hand side as an extended regular expression that is
5751 matched according to the active locale (see
5752 .Sx "Character sets" ) ,
5753 i.e., character sets should be honoured correctly.
5756 Conditions can be joined via AND-OR lists (where the AND operator is
5758 and the OR operator is
5760 which have equal precedence and will be evaluated with left
5761 associativity, thus using the same syntax that is known for the
5763 It is also possible to form groups of conditions and lists by enclosing
5764 them in pairs of brackets
5765 .Ql [\ \&.\&.\&.\ ] ,
5766 which may be interlocked within each other, and also be joined via
5770 The results of individual conditions and entire groups may be modified
5771 via unary operators: the unary operator
5773 will reverse the result.
5775 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5776 # (This not in v15, there [ -n "$debug"]!)
5780 if [ "$ttycharset" == UTF-8 ] || \e
5781 [ "$ttycharset" @i== UTF8 ]
5782 echo *ttycharset* is UTF-8, the former case-sensitive!
5785 if [ "${t1}" == "${t2}" ]
5786 echo These two variables are equal
5788 if [ "$features" =% +regex ] && \e
5789 [ "$TERM" @i=~ "^xterm\&.*" ]
5790 echo ..in an X terminal
5792 if [ [ true ] && [ [ "${debug}" != '' ] || \e
5793 [ "$verbose" != '' ] ] ]
5796 if true && [ "$debug" != '' ] || [ "${verbose}" != '' ]
5797 echo Left associativity, as is known from the shell
5806 Superseded by the multiplexer
5811 Shows the names of all available commands, alphabetically sorted.
5812 If given any non-whitespace argument the list will be shown in the order
5813 in which command prefixes are searched.
5814 \*(OP In conjunction with a set variable
5816 additional information will be provided for each command: the argument
5817 type will be indicated, the documentation string will be shown,
5818 and the set of command flags will show up:
5820 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql NEEDS_BOX"
5822 command supports the command modifier
5825 command supports the command modifier
5828 the error number is tracked in
5831 whether the command needs an active mailbox, a
5834 indicators whether command is \&.\h'.3m'.\h'.3m'.
5835 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql SUBPROCESS"
5836 .It Ql batch/interactive
5837 usable in interactive or batch mode
5840 usable in send mode.
5842 allowed to be used when running in a subprocess instance,
5843 e.g., from within a macro that is called via
5844 .Va on-compose-splice .
5847 indicators whether command is not \&.\h'.3m'.\h'.3m'.
5848 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql COMPOSE_MODE"
5850 available in compose mode.
5852 available during program startup, e.g., in
5853 .Sx "Resource files" .
5856 The command produces
5865 This command can be used to localize changes to (linked)
5868 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
5869 meaning that their state will be reverted to the former one once the
5872 Just like the command modifier
5874 which provides block-scope localization for some commands (instead),
5875 it can only be used inside of macro definition blocks introduced by
5879 The covered scope of an
5881 is left once a different account is activated, and some macros, notably
5882 .Va folder-hook Ns s ,
5883 use their own specific notion of covered scope, here it will be extended
5884 until the folder is left again.
5887 This setting stacks up: i.e., if
5889 enables change localization and calls
5891 which explicitly resets localization, then any value changes within
5893 will still be reverted when the scope of
5896 (Caveats: if in this example
5898 changes to a different
5900 which sets some variables that are already covered by localizations,
5901 their scope will be extended, and in fact leaving the
5903 will (thus) restore settings in (likely) global scope which actually
5904 were defined in a local, macro private context!)
5907 This command takes one or two arguments, the optional first one
5908 specifies an attribute that may be one of
5910 which refers to the current scope and is thus the default,
5912 which causes any macro that is being
5914 ed to be started with localization enabled by default, as well as
5916 which (if enabled) disallows any called macro to turn off localization:
5917 like this it can be ensured that once the current scope regains control,
5918 any changes made in deeper levels have been reverted.
5919 The latter two are mutually exclusive, and neither affects
5921 The (second) argument is interpreted as a boolean (string, see
5922 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" )
5923 and states whether the given attribute shall be turned on or off.
5925 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5926 define temporary_settings {
5927 set possibly_global_option1
5929 set localized_option1
5930 set localized_option2
5932 set possibly_global_option2
5939 Reply to messages that come in via known
5942 .Pf ( Ic mlsubscribe )
5943 mailing lists, or pretend to do so (see
5944 .Sx "Mailing lists" ) :
5947 functionality this will actively resort and even remove message
5948 recipients in order to generate a message that is supposed to be sent to
5950 For example it will also implicitly generate a
5951 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
5952 header if that seems useful, regardless of the setting of the variable
5954 For more documentation please refer to
5955 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
5957 This may generate the errors
5958 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
5959 if no receiver has been specified,
5961 if some addressees where rejected by
5964 if no applicable messages have been given,
5966 if an I/O error occurs,
5968 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
5971 Occurance of some of the errors depend on the value of
5973 Any error stops processing of further messages.
5979 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
5980 recipient's address (instead of in
5985 (m) Takes a (list of) recipient address(es) as (an) argument(s),
5986 or asks on standard input if none were given;
5987 then collects the remaining mail content and sends it out.
5988 Unless the internal variable
5990 is set recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names etc.
5991 For more documentation please refer to
5992 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
5994 This may generate the errors
5995 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
5996 if no receiver has been specified,
5998 if some addressees where rejected by
6001 if no applicable messages have been given,
6003 if multiple messages have been specified,
6005 if an I/O error occurs,
6007 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
6010 Occurance of some of the errors depend on the value of
6015 (mb) The given message list is to be sent to the
6017 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
6019 when \*(UA is quit; this is the default action unless the variable
6022 \*(ID This command can only be used in a
6024 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
6028 .It Ic mimetype , unmimetype
6029 Without arguments the content of the MIME type cache will displayed;
6030 a more verbose listing will be produced if either of
6035 When given arguments they will be joined, interpreted as shown in
6036 .Sx "The mime.types files"
6038 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ) ,
6039 and the resulting entry will be added (prepended) to the cache.
6040 In any event MIME type sources are loaded first as necessary \(en
6041 .Va mimetypes-load-control
6042 can be used to fine-tune which sources are actually loaded.
6044 The latter command deletes all specifications of the given MIME type, thus
6045 .Ql ? unmimetype text/plain
6046 will remove all registered specifications for the MIME type
6050 will discard all existing MIME types, just as will
6052 but which also reenables cache initialization via
6053 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
6057 .It Ic mlist , unmlist
6058 The latter command removes all given mailing lists, the special name
6060 can be used to remove all registered lists.
6061 The former will list all currently defined mailing lists (and their
6062 attributes, if any) when used without arguments; a more verbose listing
6063 will be produced if either of
6068 Otherwise all given arguments will be added and henceforth be recognized
6070 If the \*(OPal regular expression support is available then any argument
6071 which contains any of the
6073 regular expression characters
6077 will be interpreted as one, which allows matching of many addresses with
6078 a single expression.
6081 pair of commands manages subscription attributes of mailing lists.
6085 \*(ID Only available in interactive mode, this command allows one to
6086 display MIME parts which require external MIME handler programs to run
6087 which do not integrate in \*(UAs normal
6090 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ) .
6091 (\*(ID No syntax to directly address parts, this restriction may vanish.)
6092 The user will be asked for each non-text part of the given message in
6093 turn whether the registered handler shall be used to display the part.
6097 .It Ic mlsubscribe , unmlsubscribe
6098 The latter command removes the subscription attribute from all given
6099 mailing lists, the special name
6101 can be used to do so for any registered list.
6102 The former will list all currently defined mailing lists which have
6103 a subscription attribute when used without arguments; a more verbose
6104 listing will be produced if either of
6109 Otherwise this attribute will be set for all given mailing lists,
6110 newly creating them as necessary (as via
6119 but moves the messages to a file named after the local part of the
6120 sender address of the first message (instead of in
6127 but marks the messages for deletion if they were transferred
6134 but also displays header fields which would not pass the
6136 selection, and all MIME parts.
6144 on the given messages, even in non-interactive mode and as long as the
6145 standard output is a terminal.
6151 \*(OP When used without arguments or if
6153 has been given the content of the
6155 cache is shown, loading it first as necessary.
6158 then the cache will only be initialized and
6160 will remove its contents.
6161 Note that \*(UA will try to load the file only once, use
6162 .Ql Ic \&\&netrc Ns \:\0\:clear
6163 to unlock further attempts.
6168 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ;
6170 .Sx "The .netrc file"
6171 documents the file format in detail.
6175 Checks for new mail in the current folder without committing any changes
6177 If new mail is present, a message is shown.
6181 the headers of each new message are also shown.
6182 This command is not available for all mailbox types.
6190 Goes to the next message in sequence and types it.
6191 With an argument list, types the next matching message.
6205 If the current folder is accessed via a network connection, a
6207 command is sent, otherwise no operation is performed.
6213 but also displays header fields which would not pass the
6215 selection, and all MIME parts.
6223 on the given messages, even in non-interactive mode and as long as the
6224 standard output is a terminal.
6232 but also pipes header fields which would not pass the
6234 selection, and all parts of MIME
6235 .Ql multipart/alternative
6240 (pi) Takes an optional message list and shell command (that defaults to
6242 and pipes the messages through the command.
6246 every message is followed by a formfeed character.
6267 (q) Terminates the session, saving all undeleted, unsaved messages in
6270 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
6272 preserving all messages marked with
6276 or never referenced in the system
6278 and removing all other messages from the
6280 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
6281 If new mail has arrived during the session,
6283 .Dq You have new mail
6285 If given while editing a mailbox file with the command line option
6287 then the edit file is rewritten.
6288 A return to the shell is effected,
6289 unless the rewrite of edit file fails,
6290 in which case the user can escape with the exit command.
6291 The optional status number argument will be passed through to
6293 \*(ID For now it can happen that the given status will be overwritten,
6294 later this will only occur if a later error needs to be reported onto an
6295 otherwise success indicating status.
6299 \*(NQ Read a line from standard input, or the channel set active via
6301 and assign the data, which will be split as indicated by
6303 to the given variables.
6304 The variable names are checked by the same rules as documented for
6306 and the same error codes will be seen in
6310 indicates the number of bytes read, it will be
6312 with the error number
6316 in case of I/O errors, or
6319 If there are more fields than variables, assigns successive fields to the
6320 last given variable.
6321 If there are less fields than variables, assigns the empty string to the
6323 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6326 ? echo "<$a> <$b> <$c>"
6328 ? wysh set ifs=:; read a b c;unset ifs
6329 hey2.0,:"'you ",:world!:mars.:
6330 ? echo $?/$^ERRNAME / <$a><$b><$c>
6331 0/NONE / <hey2.0,><"'you ",><world!:mars.:><><>
6336 \*(NQ Read anything from standard input, or the channel set active via
6338 and assign the data to the given variable.
6339 The variable name is checked by the same rules as documented for
6341 and the same error codes will be seen in
6345 indicates the number of bytes read, it will be
6347 with the error number
6351 in case of I/O errors, or
6354 \*(ID The input data length is restricted to 31-bits.
6358 \*(NQ Manages input channels for
6362 to be used to avoid complicated or impracticable code, like calling
6364 from within a macro in non-interactive mode.
6365 Without arguments, or when the first argument is
6367 a listing of all known channels is printed.
6368 Channels can otherwise be
6370 d, and existing channels can be
6374 d by giving the string used for creation.
6376 The channel name is expected to be a file descriptor number, or,
6377 if parsing the numeric fails, an input file name that undergoes
6378 .Sx "Filename transformations" .
6379 E.g. (this example requires a modern shell):
6380 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6381 $ LC_ALL=C printf 'echon "hey, "\enread a\enyou\enecho $a' |\e
6384 $ LC_ALL=C printf 'echon "hey, "\enread a\enecho $a' |\e
6385 LC_ALL=C 6<<< 'you' \*(uA -R#X'readctl create 6'
6391 Removes the named files or directories.
6392 .Sx "Filename transformations"
6393 including shell pathname wildcard pattern expansions
6395 are performed on the arguments.
6396 If a name refer to a mailbox, e.g., a Maildir mailbox, then a mailbox
6397 type specific removal will be performed, deleting the complete mailbox.
6398 The user is asked for confirmation in interactive mode.
6402 Takes the name of an existing folder
6403 and the name for the new folder
6404 and renames the first to the second one.
6405 .Sx "Filename transformations"
6406 including shell pathname wildcard pattern expansions
6408 are performed on both arguments.
6409 Both folders must be of the same type.
6415 except that it replies to only the sender of each message of the given
6416 list, by using the first message as the template to quote, for the
6420 will exchange this command with
6425 (r) Take a message and group-responds to it by addressing the sender
6426 and all recipients, subject to
6430 .Va followup-to-honour ,
6433 .Va recipients-in-cc
6434 influence response behaviour.
6435 Unless the internal variable
6437 is set recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names etc.
6440 .Va quote-as-attachment
6441 configure whether responded-to message shall be quoted etc.; setting
6443 will exchange this command with
6447 offers special support for replying to mailing lists.
6448 For more documentation please refer to
6449 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
6451 This may generate the errors
6452 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
6453 if no receiver has been specified,
6455 if some addressees where rejected by
6458 if no applicable messages have been given,
6460 if an I/O error occurs,
6462 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
6465 Occurance of some of the errors depend on the value of
6467 Any error stops processing of further messages.
6473 but initiates a group-reply regardless of the value of
6480 but responds to the sender only regardless of the value of
6487 but does not add any header lines.
6488 This is not a way to hide the sender's identity,
6489 but useful for sending a message again to the same recipients.
6493 Takes a list of messages and a user name
6494 and sends each message to the named user.
6496 and related header fields are prepended to the new copy of the message.
6499 is only performed if
6503 This may generate the errors
6504 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
6505 if no receiver has been specified,
6507 if some addressees where rejected by
6510 if no applicable messages have been given,
6512 if an I/O error occurs,
6514 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
6517 Occurance of some of the errors depend on the value of
6519 Any error stops processing of further messages.
6537 .It Ic respondsender
6543 (ret) Superseded by the multiplexer
6548 Only available inside the scope of a
6552 this will stop evaluation of any further macro content, and return
6553 execution control to the caller.
6554 The two optional parameters must be specified as positive decimal
6555 numbers and default to the value 0:
6556 the first argument specifies the signed 32-bit return value (stored in
6558 \*(ID and later extended to signed 64-bit),
6559 the second the signed 32-bit error number (stored in
6563 a non-0 exit status may cause the program to exit.
6569 but saves the messages in a file named after the local part of the
6570 sender of the first message instead of (in
6572 and) taking a filename argument; the variable
6574 is inspected to decide on the actual storage location.
6578 (s) Takes a message list and a filename and appends each message in turn
6579 to the end of the file.
6580 .Sx "Filename transformations"
6581 including shell pathname wildcard pattern expansions
6583 is performed on the filename.
6584 If no filename is given, the
6586 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
6589 The filename in quotes, followed by the generated character count
6590 is echoed on the user's terminal.
6593 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
6594 the messages are marked for deletion.
6595 .Sx "Filename transformations"
6597 To filter the saved header fields to the desired subset use the
6599 slot of the white- and blacklisting command
6603 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6607 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6611 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6616 Takes a message specification (list) and displays a header summary of
6617 all matching messages, as via
6619 This command is an alias of
6622 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
6626 Takes a message list and marks all messages as having been read.
6632 (se, \*(NQ uns) The latter command will delete all given global
6633 variables, or only block-scope local ones if the
6635 command modifier has been used.
6636 The former, when used without arguments, will show all
6637 currently known variables, being more verbose if either of
6642 Remarks: this list mode will not automatically link-in known
6644 variables, but only explicit addressing will, e.g., via
6646 using a variable in an
6648 condition or a string passed to
6652 ting, as well as some program-internal use cases.
6655 Otherwise the given variables (and arguments) are set or adjusted.
6656 Arguments are of the form
6658 (no space before or after
6662 if there is no value, i.e., a boolean variable.
6663 If a name begins with
6667 the effect is the same as invoking the
6669 command with the remaining part of the variable
6670 .Pf ( Ql unset save ) .
6671 \*(ID In conjunction with the
6673 .Pf (or\0 Cm local )
6675 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
6676 can be used to quote arguments as necessary.
6677 \*(ID Otherwise quotation marks may be placed around any part of the
6678 assignment statement to quote blanks or tabs.
6681 When operating in global scope any
6683 that is known to map to an environment variable will automatically cause
6684 updates in the program environment (unsetting a variable in the
6685 environment requires corresponding system support) \(em use the command
6687 for further environmental control.
6688 If the command modifier
6690 has been used to alter the command to work in block-scope all variables
6691 have values (may they be empty), and creation of names which shadow
6692 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
6693 is actively prevented (\*(ID shadowing of linked
6695 variables and free-form versions of variable chains is not yet detected).
6699 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
6703 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6704 ? wysh set indentprefix=' -> '
6705 ? wysh set atab=$'\t' aspace=' ' zero=0
6711 Apply shell quoting rules to the given raw-data arguments.
6715 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
6716 The first argument specifies the operation:
6720 cause shell quoting to be applied to the remains of the line, and
6721 expanded away thereof, respectively.
6722 If the former is prefixed with a plus-sign, the quoted result will not
6723 be roundtrip enabled, and thus can be decoded only in the very same
6724 environment that was used to perform the encode; also see
6725 .Cd mle-quote-rndtrip .
6726 If the coding operation fails the error number
6729 .Va ^ERR Ns -CANCELED ,
6730 and the unmodified input is used as the result; the error number may
6731 change again due to output or result storage errors.
6735 \*(NQ (sh) Invokes an interactive version of the shell,
6736 and returns its exit status.
6740 .It Ic shortcut , unshortcut
6741 Without arguments the list of all currently defined shortcuts is
6742 shown, with one argument the expansion of the given shortcut.
6743 Otherwise all given arguments are treated as pairs of shortcuts and
6744 their expansions, creating new or changing already existing shortcuts,
6746 The latter command will remove all given shortcuts, the special name
6748 will remove all registered shortcuts.
6752 \*(NQ Shift the positional parameter stack (starting at
6754 by the given number (which must be a positive decimal),
6755 or 1 if no argument has been given.
6756 It is an error if the value exceeds the number of positional parameters.
6757 If the given number is 0, no action is performed, successfully.
6758 The stack as such can be managed via
6760 Note this command will fail in
6762 and hook macros unless the positional parameter stack has been
6763 explicitly created in the current context via
6770 but performs neither MIME decoding nor decryption, so that the raw
6771 message text is shown.
6775 (si) Shows the size in characters of each message of the given
6780 \*(NQ Sleep for the specified number of seconds (and optionally
6781 milliseconds), by default interruptably.
6782 If a third argument is given the sleep will be uninterruptible,
6783 otherwise the error number
6787 if the sleep has been interrupted.
6788 The command will fail and the error number will be
6789 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW
6790 if the given duration(s) overflow the time datatype, and
6792 if the given durations are no valid integers.
6797 .It Ic sort , unsort
6798 The latter command disables sorted or threaded mode, returns to normal
6799 message order and, if the
6802 displays a header summary.
6803 The former command shows the current sorting criterion when used without
6804 an argument, but creates a sorted representation of the current folder
6805 otherwise, and changes the
6807 command and the addressing modes such that they refer to messages in
6809 Message numbers are the same as in regular mode.
6813 a header summary in the new order is also displayed.
6814 Automatic folder sorting can be enabled by setting the
6816 variable, as in, e.g.,
6817 .Ql set autosort=thread .
6818 Possible sorting criterions are:
6821 .Bl -tag -compact -width "subject"
6823 Sort the messages by their
6825 field, that is by the time they were sent.
6827 Sort messages by the value of their
6829 field, that is by the address of the sender.
6832 variable is set, the sender's real name (if any) is used.
6834 Sort the messages by their size.
6836 \*(OP Sort the message by their spam score, as has been classified by
6839 Sort the messages by their message status.
6841 Sort the messages by their subject.
6843 Create a threaded display.
6845 Sort messages by the value of their
6847 field, that is by the address of the recipient.
6850 variable is set, the recipient's real name (if any) is used.
6856 \*(NQ (so) The source command reads commands from the given file.
6857 .Sx "Filename transformations"
6859 If the given expanded argument ends with a vertical bar
6861 then the argument will instead be interpreted as a shell command and
6862 \*(UA will read the output generated by it.
6863 Dependent on the settings of
6867 and also dependent on whether the command modifier
6869 had been used, encountering errors will stop sourcing of the given input.
6872 cannot be used from within macros that execute as
6873 .Va folder-hook Ns s
6876 i.e., it can only be called from macros that were
6881 \*(NQ The difference to
6883 (beside not supporting pipe syntax aka shell command input) is that
6884 this command will not generate an error nor warn if the given file
6885 argument cannot be opened successfully.
6889 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and clears their
6895 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and causes the
6897 to forget it has ever used them to train its Bayesian filter.
6898 Unless otherwise noted the
6900 flag of the message is inspected to chose whether a message shall be
6908 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and informs the Bayesian filter of the
6912 This also clears the
6914 flag of the messages in question.
6918 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and rates them using the configured
6919 .Va spam-interface ,
6920 without modifying the messages, but setting their
6922 flag as appropriate; because the spam rating headers are lost the rate
6923 will be forgotten once the mailbox is left.
6924 Refer to the manual section
6926 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
6930 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and sets their
6936 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and informs the Bayesian filter of the
6942 flag of the messages in question.
6954 \*(NQ TLS information and management command multiplexer to aid in
6955 .Sx "Encrypted network communication" .
6958 if so documented (see
6959 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
6960 The result that is shown in case of errors is always the empty string,
6961 errors can be identified via the error number
6963 For example, string length overflows are catched and set
6966 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW .
6967 Note this command of course honours the overall TLS configuration.
6968 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6969 ? vput tls result fingerprint pop3s://ex.am.ple
6970 ? echo $?/$!/$^ERRNAME: $result
6973 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm random"
6976 .Va tls-fingerprint-digest Ns
6977 ed fingerprint of the certificate of the given HOST
6978 .Pf ( Ql server:port ,
6979 where the port defaults to the HTTPS port, 443).
6981 is actively ignored for the runtime of this command.
6982 Only available if the term
6996 slot for white- and blacklisting header fields.
7000 (to) Takes a message list and types out the first
7002 lines of each message on the user's terminal.
7003 Unless a special selection has been established for the
7007 command, the only header fields that are displayed are
7018 It is possible to apply compression to what is displayed by setting
7020 Messages are decrypted and converted to the terminal character set
7025 (tou) Takes a message list and marks the messages for saving in the
7027 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
7029 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command,
7032 command will display the following message instead of the current one.
7038 but also displays header fields which would not pass the
7040 selection, and all visualizable parts of MIME
7041 .Ql multipart/alternative
7046 (t) Takes a message list and types out each message on the user's terminal.
7047 The display of message headers is selectable via
7049 For MIME multipart messages, all parts with a content type of
7051 all parts which have a registered MIME type handler (see
7052 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" )
7053 which produces plain text output, and all
7055 parts are shown, others are hidden except for their headers.
7056 Messages are decrypted and converted to the terminal character set
7060 can be used to display parts which are not displayable as plain text.
7103 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
7107 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
7112 Superseded by the multiplexer
7123 .It Ic unmlsubscribe
7134 Takes a message list and marks each message as not having been read.
7138 Superseded by the multiplexer
7142 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
7146 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
7168 Perform URL percent codec operations on the raw-data argument, rather
7169 according to RFC 3986.
7173 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) ,
7174 and manages the error number
7176 This is a character set agnostic and thus locale dependent operation,
7177 and it may decode bytes which are invalid in the current
7179 \*(ID This command does not know about URLs beside that.
7181 The first argument specifies the operation:
7185 perform plain URL percent en- and decoding, respectively.
7189 perform a slightly modified operation which should be better for
7190 pathnames: it does not allow a tilde
7192 and will neither accept hyphen-minus
7196 as an initial character.
7197 The remains of the line form the URL data which is to be converted.
7198 If the coding operation fails the error number
7201 .Va ^ERR Ns -CANCELED ,
7202 and the unmodified input is used as the result; the error number may
7203 change again due to output or result storage errors.
7207 \*(NQ This command produces the same output as the listing mode of
7211 ity adjustments, but only for the given variables.
7215 \*(OP Takes a message list and verifies each message.
7216 If a message is not a S/MIME signed message,
7217 verification will fail for it.
7218 The verification process checks if the message was signed using a valid
7220 if the message sender's email address matches one of those contained
7221 within the certificate,
7222 and if the message content has been altered.
7230 of \*(UA, as well as the build and running system environment.
7231 This command can produce a more
7233 output, and supports
7236 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
7241 \*(NQ Evaluate arguments according to a given operator.
7242 This is a multiplexer command which can be used to perform signed 64-bit
7243 numeric calculations as well as byte string and string operations.
7244 It uses polish notation, i.e., the operator is the first argument and
7245 defines the number and type, and the meaning of the remaining arguments.
7246 An empty argument is replaced with a 0 if a number is expected.
7250 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
7253 The result that is shown in case of errors is always
7255 for usage errors and numeric operations, and the empty string for byte
7256 string and string operations;
7257 if the latter two fail to provide result data for
7259 errors, e.g., when a search operation failed, they also set the
7262 .Va ^ERR Ns -NODATA .
7263 Except when otherwise noted numeric arguments are parsed as signed 64-bit
7264 numbers, and errors will be reported in the error number
7266 as the numeric error
7267 .Va ^ERR Ns -RANGE .
7270 Numeric operations work on one or two signed 64-bit integers.
7271 Numbers prefixed with
7275 are interpreted as hexadecimal (base 16) numbers, whereas
7277 indicates octal (base 8), and
7281 denote binary (base 2) numbers.
7282 It is possible to use any base in between 2 and 36, inclusive, with the
7284 notation, where the base is given as an unsigned decimal number, e.g.,
7286 is a different way of specifying a hexadecimal number.
7287 Unsigned interpretation of a number can be enforced by prefixing a
7289 (case-insensitively), e.g.,
7291 this is not necessary for power-of-two bases (2, 4, 8, 16 and 32),
7292 which will be interpreted as unsigned by default, but it still makes
7293 a difference regarding overflow detection and overflow constant.
7294 It is possible to enforce signed interpretation by (instead) prefixing a
7296 (case-insensitively).
7299 One integer is expected by assignment (equals sign
7301 which does nothing but parsing the argument, thus detecting validity and
7302 possible overflow conditions, and unary not (tilde
7304 which creates the bitwise complement.
7305 Two integers are used by addition (plus sign
7307 subtraction (hyphen-minus
7309 multiplication (asterisk
7313 and modulo (percent sign
7315 as well as for the bitwise operators logical or (vertical bar
7318 bitwise and (ampersand
7321 bitwise xor (circumflex
7323 the bitwise signed left- and right shifts
7326 as well as for the unsigned right shift
7330 Another numeric operation is
7332 which takes a number base in between 2 and 36, inclusive, and will act
7333 on the second number given just the same as what equals sign
7335 does, but the number result will be formatted in the base given.
7338 All numeric operators can be prefixed with a commercial at
7342 this will turn the operation into a saturated one, which means that
7343 overflow errors and division and modulo by zero are no longer reported
7344 via the exit status, but the result will linger at the minimum or
7345 maximum possible value, instead of overflowing (or trapping).
7346 This is true also for the argument parse step.
7347 For the bitwise shifts, the saturated maximum is 63.
7348 Any catched overflow will be reported via the error number
7351 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW .
7352 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7353 ? vexpr @- +1 -9223372036854775808
7354 ? echo $?/$!/$^ERRNAME
7358 Character set agnostic string functions have no notion of locale
7359 settings and character sets.
7361 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm random"
7364 .Sx "Filename transformations"
7367 Generates a random string of the given length, or of
7369 bytes (a constant from
7371 if the value 0 is given; the random string will be base64url encoded
7372 according to RFC 4648, and thus be usable as a (portable) filename.
7376 Byte string operations work on 8-bit bytes and have no notion of locale
7377 settings and character sets, effectively assuming ASCII data.
7380 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm length"
7382 Queries the length of the given argument.
7385 Calculates the Chris Torek hash of the given argument.
7388 Byte-searches in the first for the second argument.
7389 Shows the resulting 0-based offset shall it have been found.
7394 but works case-insensitively according to the rules of the ASCII
7398 Creates a substring of its first argument.
7399 The second argument is the 0-based starting offset, a negative one
7400 counts from the end;
7401 the optional third argument specifies the length of the desired result,
7402 a negative length leaves off the given number of bytes at the end of the
7403 original string, by default the entire string is used;
7404 this operation tries to work around faulty arguments (set
7406 for error logs), but reports them via the error number
7409 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW .
7412 Trim away whitespace characters from both ends of the argument.
7415 Trim away whitespace characters from the begin of the argument.
7418 Trim away whitespace characters from the end of the argument.
7423 String operations work, sufficient support provided, according to the
7424 active user's locale encoding and character set (see
7425 .Sx "Character sets" ) .
7428 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm regex"
7430 (One-way) Converts the argument to something safely printable on the
7434 \*(OP A string operation that will try to match the first argument with
7435 the regular expression given as the second argument.
7436 If the optional third argument has been given then instead of showing
7437 the match offset a replacement operation is performed: the third
7438 argument is treated as if specified within dollar-single-quote (see
7439 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ) ,
7440 and any occurrence of a positional parameter, e.g.,
7442 is replaced by the corresponding match group of the regular expression:
7443 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7444 ? vput vexpr res regex bananarama \e
7445 (.*)NanA(.*) '\e${1}au\e$2'
7446 ? echo $?/$!/$^ERRNAME: $res
7450 On otherwise identical case-insensitive equivalent to
7452 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7453 ? vput vexpr res ire bananarama \e
7454 (.*)NanA(.*) '\e${1}au\e$2'
7455 ? echo $?/$!/$^ERRNAME: $res
7462 \*(NQ Manage the positional parameter stack (see
7466 If the first argument is
7468 then the positional parameter stack of the current context, or the
7469 global one, if there is none, is cleared.
7472 then the remaining arguments will be used to (re)create the stack,
7473 if the parameter stack size limit is excessed an
7474 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW
7478 If the first argument is
7480 a round-trip capable representation of the stack contents is created,
7481 with each quoted parameter separated from each other with the first
7484 and followed by the first character of
7486 if that is not empty and not identical to the first.
7487 If that results in no separation at all a
7493 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
7494 I.e., the subcommands
7498 can be used (in conjunction with
7500 to (re)create an argument stack from and to a single variable losslessly.
7502 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7503 ? vpospar set hey, "'you ", world!
7504 ? echo $#: <${1}><${2}><${3}>
7505 ? vput vpospar x quote
7507 ? echo $#: <${1}><${2}><${3}>
7508 ? eval vpospar set ${x}
7509 ? echo $#: <${1}><${2}><${3}>
7515 (v) Takes a message list and invokes the
7517 display editor on each message.
7518 Modified contents are discarded unless the
7520 variable is set, and are not used unless the mailbox can be written to
7521 and the editor returns a successful exit status.
7523 can be used instead for a less display oriented editor.
7527 (w) For conventional messages the body without all headers is written.
7528 The original message is never marked for deletion in the originating
7530 The output is decrypted and converted to its native format as necessary.
7531 If the output file exists, the text is appended.
7532 If a message is in MIME multipart format its first part is written to
7533 the specified file as for conventional messages, handling of the remains
7534 depends on the execution mode.
7535 No special handling of compressed files is performed.
7537 In interactive mode the user is consecutively asked for the filenames of
7538 the processed parts.
7539 For convience saving of each part may be skipped by giving an empty
7540 value, the same result as writing it to
7542 Shell piping the part content by specifying a leading vertical bar
7544 character for the filename is supported.
7545 Other user input undergoes the usual
7546 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
7547 including shell pathname wildcard pattern expansions
7549 and shell variable expansion for the message as such, not the individual
7550 parts, and contents of the destination file are overwritten if the file
7553 \*(ID In non-interactive mode any part which does not specify a filename
7554 is ignored, and suspicious parts of filenames of the remaining parts are
7555 URL percent encoded (as via
7557 to prevent injection of malicious character sequences, resulting in
7558 a filename that will be written into the current directory.
7559 Existing files will not be overwritten, instead the part number or
7560 a dot are appended after a number sign
7562 to the name until file creation succeeds (or fails due to other
7567 \*(NQ The sole difference to
7569 is that the new macro is executed in place of the current one, which
7570 will not regain control: all resources of the current macro will be
7572 This implies that any setting covered by
7574 will be forgotten and covered variables will become cleaned up.
7575 If this command is not used from within a
7577 ed macro it will silently be (a more expensive variant of)
7587 \*(NQ \*(UA presents message headers in
7589 fuls as described under the
7592 Without arguments this command scrolls to the next window of messages,
7593 likewise if the argument is
7597 scrolls to the last,
7599 scrolls to the first, and
7604 A number argument prefixed by
7608 indicates that the window is calculated in relation to the current
7609 position, and a number without a prefix specifies an absolute position.
7615 but scrolls to the next or previous window that contains at least one
7626 .\" .Sh COMMAND ESCAPES {{{
7627 .Sh "COMMAND ESCAPES"
7629 Command escapes are available in compose mode, and are used to perform
7630 special functions when composing messages.
7631 Command escapes are only recognized at the beginning of lines, and
7632 consist of a trigger (escape), and a command character.
7633 The actual escape character can be set via the internal variable
7635 it defaults to the tilde
7637 Otherwise ignored whitespace characters following the escape character
7638 will prevent a possible addition of the command line to the \*(OPal
7642 Unless otherwise noted all compose mode command escapes ensure proper
7643 updates of the variables which represent the error number
7649 is set they will, unless stated otherwise, error out message compose mode
7650 and cause a program exit if an operation fails;
7651 an effect equivalent to the command modifier
7653 can however be achieved by placing a hyphen-minus
7655 after (possible whitespace following) the escape character.
7656 If the \*(OPal key bindings are available it is possible to create
7658 ings specifically for the compose mode.
7661 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ic BaNg"
7664 Insert the string of text in the message prefaced by a single
7666 (If the escape character has been changed,
7667 that character must be doubled instead.)
7670 .It Ic ~! Ar command
7671 Execute the indicated shell
7673 which follows, replacing unescaped exclamation marks with the previously
7674 executed command if the internal variable
7676 is set, then return to the message.
7680 End compose mode and send the message.
7682 .Va on-compose-splice-shell
7684 .Va on-compose-splice ,
7685 in order, will be called when set, after which
7687 will be checked, a set
7688 .Va on-compose-leave
7689 hook will be called,
7693 will be joined in if set,
7695 will be honoured in interactive mode, finally a given
7696 .Va message-inject-tail
7697 will be incorporated, after which the compose mode is left.
7700 .It Ic ~: Ar \*(UA-command Ns \0or Ic ~_ Ar \*(UA-command
7701 Execute the given \*(UA command.
7702 Not all commands, however, are allowed.
7705 .It Ic ~< Ar filename
7710 .It Ic ~<! Ar command
7712 is executed using the shell.
7713 Its standard output is inserted into the message.
7717 \*(OP Write a summary of command escapes.
7720 .It Ic ~@ Op Ar filename...
7721 Append or edit the list of attachments.
7722 Does not manage the error number
7728 instead if this is a concern).
7729 The append mode expects a list of
7731 arguments as shell tokens (see
7732 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ;
7733 token-separating commas are ignored, too), to be
7734 interpreted as documented for the command line option
7736 with the message number exception as below.
7740 arguments the attachment list is edited, entry by entry;
7741 if a filename is left empty, that attachment is deleted from the list;
7742 once the end of the list is reached either new attachments may be
7743 entered or the session can be quit by committing an empty
7746 In non-interactive mode or in batch mode
7748 the list of attachments is effectively not edited but instead recreated;
7749 again, an empty input ends list creation.
7751 For all modes, if a given filename solely consists of the number sign
7753 followed by either a valid message number of the currently active
7754 mailbox, or by a period
7756 referring to the current message of the active mailbox, the so-called
7758 then the given message is attached as a
7761 The number sign must be quoted to avoid misinterpretation with the shell
7765 .It Ic ~| Ar command
7766 Pipe the message text through the specified filter command.
7767 If the command gives no output or terminates abnormally,
7768 retain the original text of the message.
7771 is often used as a rejustifying filter.
7773 If the first character of the command is a vertical bar, then the entire
7774 message including header fields is subject to the filter command, e.g.,
7775 .Ql ~|| echo Fcc: /tmp/test; cat
7776 will prepend a file-carbon-copy message header.
7782 .It Ic ~^ Ar cmd Op Ar subcmd Op Ar arg3 Op Ar arg4
7783 Low-level compose mode command which shares the semantic with
7785 and is meant for scripted message access, i.e., for
7786 .Va on-compose-splice
7788 .Va on-compose-splice-shell .
7789 The used protocol is likely subject to changes, and therefore the
7790 mentioned hooks receive the used protocol version as an initial line.
7791 In general the first field of a response line represents a status code
7792 which specifies whether a command was successful or not, whether result
7793 data is to be expected, and if, the format of the result data.
7794 Does not manage the error number
7798 because errors are reported via the protocol
7799 (hard errors like I/O failures cannot be handled).
7802 This command has read-only access to several virtual pseudo headers in
7803 the \*(UA private namespace which optionally (except for the
7804 non-optional first) exist in compose mode:
7808 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Va BaNg"
7809 .It Ql Mailx-Command:
7810 The name of the command that generates the message, one of
7818 .It Ql Mailx-Raw-To:
7819 .It Ql Mailx-Raw-Cc:
7820 .It Ql Mailx-Raw-Bcc:
7821 Represent the frozen initial state of these headers before any
7822 transformation (e.g.,
7825 .Va recipients-in-cc
7828 .It Ql Mailx-Orig-From:
7829 .It Ql Mailx-Orig-To:
7830 .It Ql Mailx-Orig-Cc:
7831 .It Ql Mailx-Orig-Bcc:
7832 The values of said headers of the original message which has been
7834 .Ic reply , forward , resend .
7839 Error status code lines may optionally contain additional context.
7840 The status codes are:
7844 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql 210"
7846 Status ok; the remains of the line are the result.
7849 Status ok; the rest of the line is optionally used for more status.
7850 What follows are lines of result addresses, terminated by an empty line.
7851 The address lines consist of two fields, the first of which is the
7852 plain address, e.g.,
7854 separated by a single ASCII SP space from the second which contains the
7855 unstripped address, even if that is identical to the first field, e.g.,
7856 .Ql (Lovely) Bob <bob@exam.ple> .
7857 Non-network addressees, however, place a single-letter indicating
7858 the address type in the first field (hyphen-minus
7860 for files, vertical bar
7862 for pipes, and number sign
7864 for names: what is supposed to become expanded via
7866 ), and only the second field contains a value.
7867 All the input, including the empty line, must be consumed before further
7868 commands can be issued.
7871 Status ok; the rest of the line is optionally used for more status.
7872 What follows are lines of furtherly unspecified string content,
7873 terminated by an empty line.
7874 All the input, including the empty line, must be consumed before further
7875 commands can be issued.
7878 Syntax error; invalid command.
7881 Syntax error in parameters or arguments.
7884 Error: an argument fails verification.
7885 For example an invalid address has been specified (also see
7887 or an attempt was made to modify anything in \*(UA's own namespace,
7888 or a modifying subcommand has been used on a read-only message.
7891 Error: an otherwise valid argument is rendered invalid due to context.
7892 For example, a second address is added to a header which may consist of
7893 a single address only.
7898 If a command indicates failure then the message will have remained
7900 Most commands can fail with
7902 if required arguments are missing (false command usage).
7903 The following (case-insensitive) commands are supported:
7906 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm version"
7908 This command will print the protocol version via 210.
7911 This command allows listing, inspection, and editing of message headers.
7912 Header name case is not normalized, and case-insensitive comparison
7913 should be used when matching names.
7914 The second argument specifies the subcommand to apply, one of:
7916 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm remove"
7918 Without a third argument a list of all yet existing headers is given via
7920 this command is the default command of
7922 if no second argument has been given.
7923 A third argument restricts output to the given header only, which may
7926 if no such field is defined.
7929 Shows the content of the header given as the third argument.
7930 Dependent on the header type this may respond with
7934 any failure results in
7938 This will remove all instances of the header given as the third
7943 if no such header can be found, and
7945 on \*(UA namespace violations.
7948 This will remove from the header given as the third argument the
7949 instance at the list position (counting from one!) given with the fourth
7954 if the list position argument is not a number or on \*(UA namespace
7957 if no such header instance exists.
7960 Create a new or an additional instance of the header given in the third
7961 argument, with the header body content as given in the fourth argument
7962 (the remains of the line).
7965 if the third argument specifies a free-form header field name that is
7966 invalid, or if body content extraction fails to succeed,
7968 if any extracted address does not pass syntax and/or security checks or
7969 on \*(UA namespace violations, and
7971 to indicate prevention of excessing a single-instance header \(em note that
7973 can be appended to (a space separator will be added automatically first).
7976 is returned upon success, followed by the name of the header and the list
7977 position of the newly inserted instance.
7978 The list position is always 1 for single-instance header fields.
7979 All free-form header fields are managed in a single list.
7984 This command allows listing, removal and addition of message attachments.
7985 The second argument specifies the subcommand to apply, one of:
7987 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm remove"
7989 List all attachments via
7993 if no attachments exist.
7994 This command is the default command of
7996 if no second argument has been given.
7999 This will remove the attachment given as the third argument, and report
8003 if no such attachment can be found.
8004 If there exists any path component in the given argument, then an exact
8005 match of the path which has been used to create the attachment is used
8006 directly, but if only the basename of that path matches then all
8007 attachments are traversed to find an exact match first, and the removal
8008 occurs afterwards; if multiple basenames match, a
8011 Message attachments are treated as absolute pathnames.
8013 If no path component exists in the given argument, then all attachments
8014 will be searched for
8016 parameter matches as well as for matches of the basename of the path
8017 which has been used when the attachment has been created; multiple
8022 This will interpret the third argument as a number and remove the
8023 attachment at that list position (counting from one!), reporting
8027 if the argument is not a number or
8029 if no such attachment exists.
8032 Adds the attachment given as the third argument, specified exactly as
8033 documented for the command line option
8035 and supporting the message number extension as documented for
8039 upon success, with the index of the new attachment following,
8041 if the given file cannot be opened,
8043 if an on-the-fly performed character set conversion fails, otherwise
8045 is reported; this is also reported if character set conversion is
8046 requested but not available.
8049 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
8051 and prints any known attributes of the first found attachment via
8055 if no such attachment can be found.
8056 The attributes are written as lines of keyword and value tuples, the
8057 keyword being separated from the rest of the line with an ASCII SP space
8061 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
8063 and is otherwise identical to
8066 .It Cm attribute-set
8067 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
8069 and will assign the attribute given as the fourth argument, which is
8070 expected to be a value tuple of keyword and other data, separated by
8071 a ASCII SP space or TAB tabulator character.
8072 If the value part is empty, then the given attribute is removed, or
8073 reset to a default value if existence of the attribute is crucial.
8077 upon success, with the index of the found attachment following,
8079 for message attachments or if the given keyword is invalid, and
8081 if no such attachment can be found.
8082 The following keywords may be used (case-insensitively):
8084 .Bl -hang -compact -width ".It Ql filename"
8086 Sets the filename of the MIME part, i.e., the name that is used for
8087 display and when (suggesting a name for) saving (purposes).
8088 .It Ql content-description
8089 Associate some descriptive information to the attachment's content, used
8090 in favour of the plain filename by some MUAs.
8092 May be used for uniquely identifying MIME entities in several contexts;
8093 this expects a special reference address format as defined in RFC 2045
8096 upon address content verification failure.
8098 Defines the media type/subtype of the part, which is managed
8099 automatically, but can be overwritten.
8100 .It Ql content-disposition
8101 Automatically set to the string
8105 .It Cm attribute-set-at
8106 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
8108 and is otherwise identical to
8117 .Ql Ic ~i Ns \| Va Sign .
8122 .Ql Ic ~i Ns \| Va sign .
8125 .It Ic ~b Ar name ...
8126 Add the given names to the list of blind carbon copy recipients.
8129 .It Ic ~c Ar name ...
8130 Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients.
8134 Read the file specified by the
8136 variable into the message.
8142 on the message collected so far, then return to compose mode.
8144 can be used for a more display oriented editor, and
8146 offers a pipe-based editing approach.
8149 .It Ic ~F Ar messages
8150 Read the named messages into the message being sent, including all
8151 message headers and MIME parts.
8152 If no messages are specified, read in the current message, the
8156 .It Ic ~f Ar messages
8157 Read the named messages into the message being sent.
8158 If no messages are specified, read in the current message, the
8160 Strips down the list of header fields according to the
8162 white- and blacklist selection of
8164 For MIME multipart messages,
8165 only the first displayable part is included.
8169 Edit the message header fields
8174 by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
8175 The default values for these fields originate from the
8183 Edit the message header fields
8189 by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
8192 .It Ic ~I Ar variable
8193 Insert the value of the specified variable into the message.
8194 The message remains unaltered if the variable is unset or empty.
8195 Any embedded character sequences
8197 horizontal tabulator and
8199 line feed are expanded in
8201 mode; otherwise the expansion should occur at
8203 time (\*(ID by using the command modifier
8207 .It Ic ~i Ar variable
8210 but appends a newline character.
8213 .It Ic ~M Ar messages
8214 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
8217 If no messages are specified, read the current message, the
8221 .It Ic ~m Ar messages
8222 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
8225 If no messages are specified, read the current message, the
8227 Strips down the list of header fields according to the
8229 white- and blacklist selection of
8231 For MIME multipart messages,
8232 only the first displayable part is included.
8236 Display the message collected so far,
8237 prefaced by the message header fields
8238 and followed by the attachment list, if any.
8242 Read in the given / current message(s) according to the algorithm of
8247 Abort the message being sent,
8248 copying it to the file specified by the
8255 .It Ic ~R Ar filename
8258 but indent each line that has been read by
8262 .It Ic ~r Ar filename Op Ar HERE-delimiter
8263 Read the named file, object to the usual
8264 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
8265 into the message; if (the expanded)
8269 then standard input is used, e.g., for pasting purposes.
8270 Only in this latter mode
8272 may be given: if it is data will be read in until the given
8274 is seen on a line by itself, and encountering EOF is an error; the
8276 is a required argument in non-interactive mode; if it is single-quote
8277 quoted then the pasted content will not be expanded, \*(ID otherwise
8278 a future version of \*(UA may perform shell-style expansion on the content.
8282 Cause the named string to become the current subject field.
8283 Newline (NL) and carriage-return (CR) bytes are invalid and will be
8284 normalized to space (SP) characters.
8287 .It Ic ~t Ar name ...
8288 Add the given name(s) to the direct recipient list.
8291 .It Ic ~U Ar messages
8292 Read in the given / current message(s) excluding all headers, indented by
8296 .It Ic ~u Ar messages
8297 Read in the given / current message(s), excluding all headers.
8303 editor on the message collected so far, then return to compose mode.
8305 can be used for a less display oriented editor, and
8307 offers a pipe-based editing approach.
8310 .It Ic ~w Ar filename
8311 Write the message onto the named file, which is object to the usual
8312 .Sx "Filename transformations" .
8314 the message is appended to it.
8320 except that the message is not saved at all.
8326 .\" .Sh INTERNAL VARIABLES {{{
8327 .Sh "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
8329 Internal \*(UA variables are controlled via the
8333 commands; prefixing a variable name with the string
8337 has the same effect as using
8344 will give more insight on the given variable(s), and
8346 when called without arguments, will show a listing of all variables.
8347 Both commands support a more
8350 Some well-known variables will also become inherited from the
8353 implicitly, others can be imported explicitly with the command
8355 and henceforth share said properties.
8358 Two different kinds of internal variables exist, and both of which can
8360 There are boolean variables, which can only be in one of the two states
8364 and value variables with a(n optional) string value.
8365 For the latter proper quoting is necessary upon assignment time, the
8366 introduction of the section
8368 documents the supported quoting rules.
8370 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8371 ? wysh set one=val\e 1 two="val 2" \e
8372 three='val "3"' four=$'val \e'4\e''; \e
8373 varshow one two three four; \e
8374 unset one two three four
8378 Dependent upon the actual option string values may become interpreted as
8379 colour names, command specifications, normal text, etc.
8380 They may be treated as numbers, in which case decimal values are
8381 expected if so documented, but otherwise any numeric format and
8382 base that is valid and understood by the
8384 command may be used, too.
8387 There also exists a special kind of string value, the
8388 .Dq boolean string ,
8389 which must either be a decimal integer (in which case
8393 and any other value is true) or any of the (case-insensitive) strings
8399 for a false boolean and
8405 for a true boolean; a special kind of boolean string is the
8407 which is a boolean string that can optionally be prefixed with the
8408 (case-insensitive) term
8412 which causes prompting of the user in interactive mode, with the given
8413 boolean as the default value.
8416 Variable chains extend a plain
8421 .Ql variable-USER@HOST
8425 will be converted to all lowercase when looked up (but not when the
8426 variable is set or unset!), \*(OPally IDNA converted, and indeed means
8430 had been specified in the contextual Uniform Resource Locator URL, see
8431 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
8432 Even though this mechanism is based on URLs no URL percent encoding may
8433 be applied to neither of
8437 variable chains need to be specified using raw data;
8438 the mentioned section contains examples.
8439 Variables which support chains are explicitly documented as such, and
8440 \*(UA treats the base name of any such variable special, meaning that
8441 users should not create custom names like
8443 in order to avoid false classifications and treatment of such variables.
8445 .\" .Ss "Initial settings" {{{
8446 .\" (Keep in SYNC: ./nail.h:okeys, ./nail.rc, ./nail.1:"Initial settings")
8447 .Ss "Initial settings"
8449 The standard POSIX 2008/Cor 2-2016 mandates the following initial
8455 .Pf no Va autoprint ,
8469 .Pf no Va ignoreeof ,
8471 .Pf no Va keepsave ,
8473 .Pf no Va outfolder ,
8481 .Pf no Va sendwait ,
8490 Notes: \*(UA does not support the
8492 variable \(en use command line options or
8494 to pass options through to a
8496 And the default global
8498 file, which is loaded unless the
8500 (with according argument) or
8502 command line options have been used, or the
8503 .Ev MAILX_NO_SYSTEM_RC
8504 environment variable is set (see
8505 .Sx "Resource files" )
8506 bends those initial settings a bit, e.g., it sets the variables
8511 to name a few, establishes a default
8513 selection etc., and should thus be taken into account.
8516 .\" .Ss "Variables" {{{
8519 .Bl -tag -width ".It Va BaNg"
8523 \*(RO The exit status of the last command, or the
8528 This status has a meaning in the state machine: in conjunction with
8530 any non-0 exit status will cause a program exit, and in
8532 mode any error while loading (any of the) resource files will have the
8536 .Sx "Command modifiers" ,
8537 can be used to instruct the state machine to ignore errors.
8541 \*(RO The current error number
8542 .Pf ( Xr errno 3 ) ,
8543 which is set after an error occurred; it is also available via
8545 and the error name and documentation string can be queried via
8549 \*(ID This machinery is new and the error number is only really usable
8550 if a command explicitly states that it manages the variable
8552 for others errno will be used in case of errors, or
8554 if that is 0: it thus may or may not reflect the real error.
8555 The error number may be set with the command
8561 \*(RO This is a multiplexer variable which performs dynamic expansion of
8562 the requested state or condition, of which there are:
8565 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Va BaNg"
8569 .It Va ^ERR , ^ERRDOC , ^ERRNAME
8570 The number, documentation, and name of the current
8572 respectively, which is usually set after an error occurred.
8573 The documentation is an \*(OP, the name is used if not available.
8574 \*(ID This machinery is new and is usually reliable only if a command
8575 explicitly states that it manages the variable
8577 which is effectively identical to
8579 Each of those variables can be suffixed with a hyphen minus followed by
8580 a name or number, in which case the expansion refers to the given error.
8581 Note this is a direct mapping of (a subset of) the system error values:
8582 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8584 eval echo \e$1: \e$^ERR-$1:\e
8585 \e$^ERRNAME-$1: \e$^ERRDOC-$1
8586 vput vexpr i + "$1" 1
8598 \*(RO Expands all positional parameters (see
8600 separated by the first character of the value of
8602 \*(ID The special semantics of the equally named special parameter of the
8604 are not yet supported.
8608 \*(RO Expands all positional parameters (see
8610 separated by a space character.
8611 If placed in double quotation marks, each positional parameter is
8612 properly quoted to expand to a single parameter again.
8616 \*(RO Expands to the number of positional parameters, i.e., the size of
8617 the positional parameter stack in decimal.
8621 \*(RO Inside the scope of a
8625 ed macro this expands to the name of the calling macro, or to the empty
8626 string if the macro is running from top-level.
8627 For the \*(OPal regular expression search and replace operator of
8629 this expands to the entire matching expression.
8630 It represents the program name in global context.
8634 \*(RO Access of the positional parameter stack.
8635 All further parameters can be accessed with this syntax, too, e.g.,
8638 etc.; positional parameters can be shifted off the stack by calling
8640 The parameter stack contains, e.g., the arguments of a
8644 d macro, the matching groups of the \*(OPal regular expression search
8645 and replace expression of
8647 and can be explicitly created or overwritten with the command
8652 \*(RO Is set to the active
8656 .It Va add-file-recipients
8657 \*(BO When file or pipe recipients have been specified,
8658 mention them in the corresponding address fields of the message instead
8659 of silently stripping them from their recipient list.
8660 By default such addressees are not mentioned.
8664 \*(BO Causes only the local part to be evaluated
8665 when comparing addresses.
8669 \*(BO Causes messages saved in the
8671 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
8673 to be appended to the end rather than prepended.
8674 This should always be set.
8678 \*(BO Causes the prompts for
8682 lists to appear after the message has been edited.
8686 \*(BO If set, \*(UA asks for files to attach at the end of each message.
8687 An empty line finalizes the list.
8691 \*(BO Causes the user to be prompted for carbon copy recipients
8692 (at the end of each message if
8700 \*(BO Causes the user to be prompted for blind carbon copy
8701 recipients (at the end of each message if
8709 \*(BO Causes the user to be prompted for confirmation to send the
8710 message or reenter compose mode after having been shown an envelope
8712 This is by default enabled.
8716 \*(BO\*(OP Causes the user to be prompted if the message is to be
8717 signed at the end of each message.
8720 variable is ignored when this variable is set.
8724 .\" The alternative *ask* is not documented on purpose
8725 \*(BO Causes \*(UA to prompt for the subject upon entering compose mode
8726 unless a subject already exists.
8730 A sequence of characters to display in the
8734 as shown in the display of
8736 each for one type of messages (see
8737 .Sx "Message states" ) ,
8738 with the default being
8741 .Ql NU\ \ *HMFAT+\-$~
8744 variable is set, in the following order:
8746 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql _"
8768 \*(ID start of a (collapsed) thread in threaded mode (see
8772 \*(ID an uncollapsed thread in threaded mode; only used in conjunction with
8777 classified as possible spam.
8783 Specifies a list of recipients to which a blind carbon copy of each
8784 outgoing message will be sent automatically.
8788 Specifies a list of recipients to which a carbon copy of each outgoing
8789 message will be sent automatically.
8793 \*(BO Causes threads to be collapsed automatically when .Ql thread Ns
8796 mode is entered (see the
8802 \*(BO Enable automatic
8804 ing of a(n existing)
8810 commands, e.g., the message that becomes the new
8812 is shown automatically, as via
8819 Causes sorted mode (see the
8821 command) to be entered automatically with the value of this variable as
8822 sorting method when a folder is opened, e.g.,
8823 .Ql set autosort=thread .
8827 \*(BO Enables the substitution of all not (reverse-solidus) escaped
8830 characters by the contents of the last executed command for the
8832 shell escape command and
8834 one of the compose mode
8835 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
8836 If this variable is not set no reverse solidus stripping is performed.
8840 \*(OP Terminals generate multi-byte sequences for certain forms of
8841 input, for example for function and other special keys.
8842 Some terminals however do not write these multi-byte sequences as
8843 a whole, but byte-by-byte, and the latter is what \*(UA actually reads.
8844 This variable specifies the timeout in milliseconds that the MLE (see
8845 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
8846 waits for more bytes to arrive unless it considers a sequence
8852 \*(BO Sets some cosmetical features to traditional BSD style;
8853 has the same affect as setting
8855 and all other variables prefixed with
8857 it also changes the behaviour of
8859 (which does not exist in BSD).
8863 \*(BO Changes the letters shown in the first column of a header
8864 summary to traditional BSD style.
8868 \*(BO Changes the display of columns in a header summary to traditional
8873 \*(BO Changes some informational messages to traditional BSD style.
8879 field to appear immediately after the
8881 field in message headers and with the
8883 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
8889 .It Va build-cc , build-ld , build-os , build-rest
8890 \*(RO The build environment, including the compiler, the linker, the
8891 operating system \*(UA has been build for, usually taken from
8895 and then lowercased, as well as all the rest that may possibly be useful
8896 to include in a bug report, respectively.
8900 The value that should appear in the
8904 MIME header fields when no character set conversion of the message data
8906 This defaults to US-ASCII, and the chosen character set should be
8907 US-ASCII compatible.
8911 \*(OP The default 8-bit character set that is used as an implicit last
8912 member of the variable
8914 This defaults to UTF-8 if character set conversion capabilities are
8915 available, and to ISO-8859-1 otherwise (unless the operating system
8916 environment is known to always and exclusively support UTF-8 locales),
8917 in which case the only supported character set is
8919 and this variable is effectively ignored.
8920 Refer to the section
8921 .Sx "Character sets"
8922 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
8925 .It Va charset-unknown-8bit
8926 \*(OP RFC 1428 specifies conditions when internet mail gateways shall
8928 the content of a mail message by using a character set with the name
8930 Because of the unclassified nature of this character set \*(UA will not
8931 be capable to convert this character set to any other character set.
8932 If this variable is set any message part which uses the character set
8934 is assumed to really be in the character set given in the value,
8935 otherwise the (final) value of
8937 is used for this purpose.
8939 This variable will also be taken into account if a MIME type (see
8940 .Sx "The mime.types files" )
8941 of a MIME message part that uses the
8943 character set is forcefully treated as text.
8947 The default value for the
8952 .It Va colour-disable
8953 \*(BO\*(OP Forcefully disable usage of colours.
8954 Also see the section
8955 .Sx "Coloured display" .
8959 \*(BO\*(OP Whether colour shall be used for output that is paged through
8961 Note that pagers may need special command line options, e.g.,
8969 in order to support colours.
8970 Often doing manual adjustments is unnecessary since \*(UA may perform
8971 adjustments dependent on the value of the environment variable
8973 (see there for more).
8977 .It Va contact-mail , contact-web
8978 \*(RO Addresses for contact per email and web, respectively, e.g., for
8979 bug reports, suggestions, or help regarding \*(UA.
8980 The former can be used directly:
8981 .Ql ? Ns \| Ic eval Ns \| Ic mail Ns \| $contact-mail .
8985 In a(n interactive) terminal session, then if this valued variable is
8986 set it will be used as a threshold to determine how many lines the given
8987 output has to span before it will be displayed via the configured
8991 can be forced by setting this to the value
8993 setting it without a value will deduce the current height of the
8994 terminal screen to compute the threshold (see
8999 \*(ID At the moment this uses the count of lines of the message in wire
9000 format, which, dependent on the
9002 of the message, is unrelated to the number of display lines.
9003 (The software is old and historically the relation was a given thing.)
9007 Define a set of custom headers to be injected into newly composed or
9009 A custom header consists of the field name followed by a colon
9011 and the field content body.
9012 Standard header field names cannot be overwritten by a custom header.
9013 Different to the command line option
9015 the variable value is interpreted as a comma-separated list of custom
9016 headers: to include commas in header bodies they need to become escaped
9017 with reverse solidus
9019 Headers can be managed more freely in compose mode via
9022 .Dl ? set customhdr='Hdr1: Body1-1\e, Body1-2, Hdr2: Body2'
9026 Controls the appearance of the
9028 date and time format specification of the
9030 variable, that is used, for example, when viewing the summary of
9032 If unset, then the local receiving date is used and displayed
9033 unformatted, otherwise the message sending
9035 It is possible to assign a
9037 format string and control formatting, but embedding newlines via the
9039 format is not supported, and will result in display errors.
9041 .Ql %Y-%m-%d %H:%M ,
9043 .Va datefield-markout-older .
9046 .It Va datefield-markout-older
9047 Only used in conjunction with
9049 Can be used to create a visible distinction of messages dated more than
9050 a day in the future, or older than six months, a concept comparable to the
9052 option of the POSIX utility
9054 If set to the empty string, then the plain month, day and year of the
9056 will be displayed, but a
9058 format string to control formatting can be assigned.
9064 \*(BO Enables debug messages and obsoletion warnings, disables the
9065 actual delivery of messages and also implies
9071 .It Va disposition-notification-send
9073 .Ql Disposition-Notification-To:
9074 header (RFC 3798) with the message.
9078 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-HOST
9080 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
9081 .\" for SMTP accounts on a specific host.
9082 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-USER@HOST
9084 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
9085 .\"for a specific account.
9089 \*(BO When dot is set, a period
9091 on a line by itself during message input in (interactive or batch
9093 compose mode will be treated as end-of-message (in addition to the
9094 normal end-of-file condition).
9095 This behaviour is implied in
9101 .It Va dotlock-disable
9102 \*(BO\*(OP Disable creation of
9107 .It Va dotlock-ignore-error
9108 \*(OB\*(BO\*(OP Ignore failures when creating
9110 .Sx "dotlock files" .
9117 If this variable is set then the editor is started automatically when
9118 a message is composed in interactive mode.
9119 If the value starts with the letter
9121 then this acts as if
9125 .Pf (see\0 Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" )
9129 variable is implied for this automatically spawned editor session.
9133 \*(BO When a message is edited while being composed,
9134 its header is included in the editable text.
9138 \*(BO When entering interactive mode \*(UA normally writes
9139 .Dq \&No mail for user
9140 and exits immediately if a mailbox is empty or does not exist.
9141 If this variable is set \*(UA starts even with an empty or non-existent
9142 mailbox (the latter behaviour furtherly depends upon
9148 \*(BO Let each command with a non-0 exit status, including every
9152 s a non-0 status, cause a program exit unless prefixed by
9155 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
9157 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ,
9158 but which use a different modifier for ignoring the error.
9159 Please refer to the variable
9161 for more on this topic.
9165 The first character of this value defines the escape character for
9166 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
9168 The default value is the character tilde
9170 If set to the empty string, command escapes are disabled.
9174 If unset then file and command pipeline address targets are not allowed,
9175 and any such address will be filtered out, giving a warning message.
9176 If set then all possible recipient address specifications will be
9177 accepted unless a possible value content is more specific (also see
9178 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" ) ;
9179 if desired so only in interactive mode, or when tilde commands were
9180 enabled explicitly via
9184 the (case-insensitive) value
9186 can be used (this really acts like
9187 .Ql restrict,-all,+name,+addr ,
9188 so that care for ordering issues must be taken).
9190 The value is actually interpreted as a comma-separated list.
9193 the existence of disallowed addressees is treated as a hard send error
9194 instead of only causing them to be filtered out.
9195 Address targets can be added and subtracted by prefixing with a plus sign
9201 addresses all possible address specifications,
9205 command pipeline targets,
9207 plain user names and (MTA) aliases and
9210 Targets are interpreted in the given order, so that
9211 .Ql restrict,\:fail,\:+file,\:-all,\:+addr
9212 will cause hard errors for any non-network address recipient address
9213 unless \*(UA is in interactive mode or has been started with the
9217 command line option; in the latter case(s) any address may be used, then.
9219 Historically invalid network addressees were silently stripped off.
9220 To change this so that any encountered invalid email address causes
9221 a hard error it must be ensured that
9223 is an entry in the above list, which automatically enables network
9224 addressees; it really acts like
9225 .Ql failinvaddr,+addr ,
9226 so that care for ordering issues must be taken.
9229 is present a few address providers (for example
9231 and all recipients given on the command line) will be will evaluated as
9232 if specified within dollar-single-quotes (see
9233 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ) .
9237 Unless this variable is set additional
9239 (Mail-Transfer-Agent)
9240 arguments from the command line, as can be given after a
9242 separator, results in a program termination with failure status.
9243 The same can be accomplished by using the special (case-insensitive) value
9245 A lesser strict variant is the otherwise identical
9247 which does accept such arguments in interactive mode, or if tilde
9248 commands were enabled explicitly by using one of the command line options
9252 The empty value will allow unconditional usage.
9256 \*(RO String giving a list of optional features.
9257 Features are preceded with a plus sign
9259 if they are available, with a hyphen-minus
9262 The output of the command
9264 will include this information in a more pleasant output.
9268 \*(BO This setting reverses the meanings of a set of reply commands,
9269 turning the lowercase variants, which by default address all recipients
9270 included in the header of a message
9271 .Pf ( Ic reply , respond , followup )
9272 into the uppercase variants, which by default address the sender only
9273 .Pf ( Ic Reply , Respond , Followup )
9276 .Ic replysender , respondsender , followupsender
9278 .Ic replyall , respondall , followupall
9279 are not affected by the current setting of
9284 The default path under which mailboxes are to be saved:
9285 filenames that begin with the plus sign
9287 will have the plus sign replaced with the value of this variable if set,
9288 otherwise the plus sign will remain unchanged when doing
9289 .Sx "Filename transformations" ;
9292 for more on this topic, and know about standard imposed implications of
9294 The value supports a subset of transformations itself, and if the
9295 non-empty value does not start with a solidus
9299 will be prefixed automatically.
9300 Once the actual value is evaluated first, the internal variable
9302 will be updated for caching purposes.
9305 .It Va folder-hook-FOLDER , Va folder-hook
9308 macro which will be called whenever a
9311 The macro will also be invoked when new mail arrives,
9312 but message lists for commands executed from the macro
9313 only include newly arrived messages then.
9315 are activated by default in a folder hook, causing the covered settings
9316 to be reverted once the folder is left again.
9318 The specialized form will override the generic one if
9320 matches the file that is opened.
9321 Unlike other folder specifications, the fully expanded name of a folder,
9322 without metacharacters, is used to avoid ambiguities.
9323 However, if the mailbox resides under
9327 specification is tried in addition, e.g., if
9331 (and thus relative to the user's home directory) then
9332 .Pa /home/usr1/mail/sent
9334 .Ql folder-hook-/home/usr1/mail/sent
9335 first, but then followed by
9336 .Ql folder-hook-+sent .
9339 .It Va folder-resolved
9340 \*(RO Set to the fully resolved path of
9342 once that evaluation has occurred; rather internal.
9346 \*(BO Controls whether a
9347 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
9348 header is generated when sending messages to known mailing lists.
9350 .Va followup-to-honour
9352 .Ic mlist , mlsubscribe , reply
9357 .It Va followup-to-honour
9359 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
9360 header is honoured when group-replying to a message via
9364 This is a quadoption; if set without a value it defaults to
9374 .It Va forward-as-attachment
9375 \*(BO Original messages are normally sent as inline text with the
9378 and only the first part of a multipart message is included.
9379 With this setting enabled messages are sent as unmodified MIME
9381 attachments with all of their parts included.
9385 .It Va forward-inject-head , forward-inject-tail
9386 The strings to put before and after the text of a message with the
9388 command, respectively.
9389 The former defaults to
9390 .Ql -------- Original Message --------\en .
9391 Special format directives in these strings will be expanded if possible,
9392 and if so configured the output will be folded according to
9394 for more please refer to
9395 .Va quote-inject-head .
9396 These variables are ignored if the
9397 .Va forward-as-attachment
9403 The address (or a list of addresses) to put into the
9405 field of the message header, quoting RFC 5322:
9406 the author(s) of the message, that is, the mailbox(es) of the person(s)
9407 or system(s) responsible for the writing of the message.
9408 According to that RFC setting the
9410 variable is required if
9412 contains more than one address.
9413 Dependent on the context these addresses are handled as if they were in
9418 If a file-based MTA is used, then
9420 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
9422 can nonetheless be enforced to appear as the envelope sender address at
9423 the MTA protocol level (the RFC 5321 reverse-path), either by using the
9425 command line option (with an empty argument; see there for the complete
9426 picture on this topic), or by setting the internal variable
9427 .Va r-option-implicit .
9430 If the machine's hostname is not valid at the Internet (for example at
9431 a dialup machine) then either this variable or
9435 adds even more fine-tuning capabilities with
9437 have to be set: if so the message and MIME part related unique ID fields
9441 will be created (except when disallowed by
9442 .Va message-id-disable
9449 \*(BO Due to historical reasons comments and name parts of email
9450 addresses are removed by default when sending mail, replying to or
9451 forwarding a message.
9452 If this variable is set such stripping is not performed.
9455 \*(OB Predecessor of
9456 .Va forward-inject-head .
9460 \*(BO Causes the header summary to be written at startup and after
9461 commands that affect the number of messages or the order of messages in
9466 mode a header summary will also be displayed on folder changes.
9467 The command line option
9475 A format string to use for the summary of
9477 Format specifiers in the given string start with a percent sign
9479 and may be followed by an optional decimal number indicating the field
9480 width \(em if that is negative, the field is to be left-aligned.
9481 Names and addresses are subject to modifications according to
9485 Valid format specifiers are:
9488 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql _%%_"
9490 A plain percent sign.
9493 a space character but for the current message
9495 for which it expands to
9498 .Va headline-plain ) .
9501 a space character but for the current message
9503 for which it expands to
9506 .Va headline-plain ) .
9508 \*(OP The spam score of the message, as has been classified via the
9511 Shows only a replacement character if there is no spam support.
9513 Message attribute character (status flag); the actual content can be
9517 The date found in the
9519 header of the message when
9521 is set (the default), otherwise the date when the message was received.
9522 Formatting can be controlled by assigning a
9527 .Va datefield-markout-older ) .
9529 The indenting level in
9535 The address of the message sender.
9537 The message thread tree structure.
9538 (Note that this format does not support a field width, and honours
9539 .Va headline-plain . )
9541 The number of lines of the message, if available.
9545 The number of octets (bytes) in the message, if available.
9547 Message subject (if any).
9549 Message subject (if any) in double quotes.
9551 Message recipient flags: is the addressee of the message a known or
9552 subscribed mailing list \(en see
9557 The position in threaded/sorted order.
9559 The value 0 except in an IMAP mailbox,
9560 where it expands to the UID of the message.
9564 .Ql %>\&%a\&%m\ %-18f\ %16d\ %4l/%\-5o\ %i%-s ,
9566 .Ql %>\&%a\&%m\ %20-f\ \ %16d\ %3l/%\-5o\ %i%-S
9578 .It Va headline-bidi
9579 Bidirectional text requires special treatment when displaying headers,
9580 because numbers (in dates or for file sizes etc.) will not affect the
9581 current text direction, in effect resulting in ugly line layouts when
9582 arabic or other right-to-left text is to be displayed.
9583 On the other hand only a minority of terminals is capable to correctly
9584 handle direction changes, so that user interaction is necessary for
9586 Note that extended host system support is required nonetheless, e.g.,
9587 detection of the terminal character set is one precondition;
9588 and this feature only works in an Unicode (i.e., UTF-8) locale.
9590 In general setting this variable will cause \*(UA to encapsulate text
9591 fields that may occur when displaying
9593 (and some other fields, like dynamic expansions in
9595 with special Unicode control sequences;
9596 it is possible to fine-tune the terminal support level by assigning
9598 no value (or any value other than
9603 will make \*(UA assume that the terminal is capable to properly deal
9604 with Unicode version 6.3, in which case text is embedded in a pair of
9605 U+2068 (FIRST STRONG ISOLATE) and U+2069 (POP DIRECTIONAL ISOLATE)
9607 In addition no space on the line is reserved for these characters.
9609 Weaker support is chosen by using the value
9611 (Unicode 6.3, but reserve the room of two spaces for writing the control
9612 sequences onto the line).
9617 select Unicode 1.1 support (U+200E, LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK); the latter
9618 again reserves room for two spaces in addition.
9621 .It Va headline-plain
9622 \*(BO On Unicode (UTF-8) aware terminals enhanced graphical symbols are
9623 used by default for certain entries of
9625 If this variable is set only basic US-ASCII symbols will be used.
9629 \*(OP If a line editor is available then this can be set to
9630 name the (expandable) path of the location of a permanent
9636 .It Va history-gabby
9637 \*(BO\*(OP Add more entries to the
9639 as is normally done.
9642 .It Va history-gabby-persist
9643 \*(BO\*(OP \*(UA's own MLE will not save the additional
9645 entries in persistent storage unless this variable is set.
9646 On the other hand it will not loose the knowledge of whether
9647 a persistent entry was gabby or not.
9653 \*(OP Setting this variable imposes a limit on the number of concurrent
9656 If set to the value 0 then no further history entries will be added,
9657 and loading and incorporation of the
9659 upon program startup can also be suppressed by doing this.
9660 Runtime changes will not be reflected before the
9662 is saved or loaded (again).
9666 \*(BO This setting controls whether messages are held in the system
9668 and it is set by default.
9672 Used instead of the value obtained from
9676 as the hostname when expanding local addresses, e.g., in
9679 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" ,
9680 especially for expansion of network addresses that contain domain-less
9681 valid user names in angle brackets).
9684 or this variable Is set the message and MIME part related unique ID fields
9688 will be created (except when disallowed by
9689 .Va message-id-disable
9692 If the \*(OPal IDNA support is available (see
9694 variable assignment is aborted when a necessary conversion fails.
9696 Setting it to the empty string will cause the normal hostname to be
9697 used, but nonetheless enables creation of said ID fields.
9698 \*(IN in conjunction with the built-in SMTP
9701 also influences the results:
9702 one should produce some test messages with the desired combination of
9711 \*(BO\*(OP Can be used to turn off the automatic conversion of domain
9712 names according to the rules of IDNA (internationalized domain names
9714 Since the IDNA code assumes that domain names are specified with the
9716 character set, an UTF-8 locale charset is required to represent all
9717 possible international domain names (before conversion, that is).
9721 The input field separator that is used (\*(ID by some functions) to
9722 determine where to split input data.
9724 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It MMM"
9726 Unsetting is treated as assigning the default value,
9729 If set to the empty value, no field splitting will be performed.
9731 If set to a non-empty value, all whitespace characters are extracted
9732 and assigned to the variable
9736 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It MMM"
9739 will be ignored at the beginning and end of input.
9740 Diverging from POSIX shells default whitespace is removed in addition,
9741 which is owed to the entirely different line content extraction rules.
9743 Each occurrence of a character of
9745 will cause field-splitting, any adjacent
9747 characters will be skipped.
9752 \*(RO Automatically deduced from the whitespace characters in
9757 \*(BO Ignore interrupt signals from the terminal while entering
9758 messages; instead echo them as
9760 characters and discard the current line.
9764 \*(BO Ignore end-of-file conditions
9765 .Pf ( Ql control-D )
9766 in compose mode on message input and in interactive command input.
9767 If set an interactive command input session can only be left by
9768 explicitly using one of the commands
9772 and message input in compose mode can only be terminated by entering
9775 on a line by itself or by using the
9777 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ;
9778 Setting this implies the behaviour that
9786 If this is set to a non-empty string it will specify the user's
9788 .Sx "primary system mailbox" ,
9791 and the system-dependent default, and (thus) be used to replace
9794 .Sx "Filename transformations" ;
9797 for more on this topic.
9798 The value supports a subset of transformations itself.
9806 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
9809 option for indenting messages,
9810 in place of the POSIX mandated default tabulator character
9817 \*(BO If set, an empty
9819 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
9820 file is not removed.
9821 Note that, in conjunction with
9823 mode any empty file will be removed unless this variable is set.
9824 This may improve the interoperability with other mail user agents
9825 when using a common folder directory, and prevents malicious users
9826 from creating fake mailboxes in a world-writable spool directory.
9827 \*(ID Only local regular (MBOX) files are covered, Maildir and other
9828 mailbox types will never be removed, even if empty.
9831 .It Va keep-content-length
9832 \*(BO When (editing messages and) writing MBOX mailbox files \*(UA can
9837 header fields that some MUAs generate by setting this variable.
9838 Since \*(UA does neither use nor update these non-standardized header
9839 fields (which in itself shows one of their conceptual problems),
9840 stripping them should increase interoperability in between MUAs that
9841 work with with same mailbox files.
9842 Note that, if this is not set but
9843 .Va writebackedited ,
9844 as below, is, a possibly performed automatic stripping of these header
9845 fields already marks the message as being modified.
9846 \*(ID At some future time \*(UA will be capable to rewrite and apply an
9848 to modified messages, and then those fields will be stripped silently.
9852 \*(BO When a message is saved it is usually discarded from the
9853 originating folder when \*(UA is quit.
9854 This setting causes all saved message to be retained.
9857 .It Va line-editor-disable
9858 \*(BO Turn off any enhanced line editing capabilities (see
9859 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor"
9863 .It Va line-editor-no-defaults
9864 \*(BO\*(OP Do not establish any default key binding.
9868 Error log message prefix string
9869 .Pf ( Ql "\*(uA: " ) .
9872 .It Va mailbox-display
9873 \*(RO The name of the current mailbox
9875 possibly abbreviated for display purposes.
9878 .It Va mailbox-resolved
9879 \*(RO The fully resolved path of the current mailbox.
9882 .It Va mailx-extra-rc
9883 An additional startup file that is loaded as the last of the
9884 .Sx "Resource files" .
9885 Use this file for commands that are not understood by other POSIX
9887 implementations, i.e., mostly anything which is not covered by
9888 .Sx "Initial settings" .
9892 \*(BO When a message is replied to and this variable is set,
9893 it is marked as having been
9896 .Sx "Message states" .
9900 \*(BO When opening MBOX mailbox databases \*(UA by default uses tolerant
9901 POSIX rules for detecting message boundaries (so-called
9903 lines) due to compatibility reasons, instead of the stricter rules that
9904 have been standardized in RFC 4155.
9905 This behaviour can be switched to the stricter RFC 4155 rules by
9906 setting this variable.
9907 (This is never necessary for any message newly generated by \*(UA,
9908 it only applies to messages generated by buggy or malicious MUAs, or may
9909 occur in old MBOX databases: \*(UA itself will choose a proper
9911 to avoid false interpretation of
9913 content lines in the MBOX database.)
9915 This may temporarily be handy when \*(UA complains about invalid
9917 lines when opening a MBOX: in this case setting this variable and
9918 re-opening the mailbox in question may correct the result.
9919 If so, copying the entire mailbox to some other file, as in
9920 .Ql copy * SOME-FILE ,
9921 will perform proper, all-compatible
9923 quoting for all detected messages, resulting in a valid MBOX mailbox.
9924 Finally the variable can be unset again:
9925 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9927 localopts yes; wysh set mbox-rfc4155;\e
9928 wysh File "${1}"; eval copy * "${2}"
9930 call mboxfix /tmp/bad.mbox /tmp/good.mbox
9935 \*(BO Internal development variable.
9938 .It Va message-id-disable
9939 \*(BO By setting this variable the generation of
9943 message and MIME part headers can be completely suppressed, effectively
9944 leaving this task up to the
9946 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) or the SMTP server.
9947 Note that according to RFC 5321 a SMTP server is not required to add this
9948 field by itself, so it should be ensured that it accepts messages without
9952 .It Va message-inject-head
9953 A string to put at the beginning of each new message, followed by a newline.
9954 \*(OB The escape sequences tabulator
9958 are understood (use the
9962 ting the variable(s) instead).
9965 .It Va message-inject-tail
9966 A string to put at the end of each new message, followed by a newline.
9967 \*(OB The escape sequences tabulator
9971 are understood (use the
9975 ting the variable(s) instead).
9979 \*(BO Usually, when an
9981 expansion contains the sender, the sender is removed from the expansion.
9982 Setting this option suppresses these removals.
9987 option to be passed through to the
9989 (Mail-Transfer-Agent); though most of the modern MTAs no longer document
9990 this flag, no MTA is known which does not support it (for historical
9994 .It Va mime-allow-text-controls
9995 \*(BO When sending messages, each part of the message is MIME-inspected
9996 in order to classify the
9999 .Ql Content-Transfer-Encoding:
10001 .Va mime-encoding )
10002 that is required to send this part over mail transport, i.e.,
10003 a computation rather similar to what the
10005 command produces when used with the
10009 This classification however treats text files which are encoded in
10010 UTF-16 (seen for HTML files) and similar character sets as binary
10011 octet-streams, forcefully changing any
10016 .Ql application/octet-stream :
10017 If that actually happens a yet unset charset MIME parameter is set to
10019 effectively making it impossible for the receiving MUA to automatically
10020 interpret the contents of the part.
10022 If this variable is set, and the data was unambiguously identified as
10023 text data at first glance (by a
10027 file extension), then the original
10029 will not be overwritten.
10032 .It Va mime-alternative-favour-rich
10033 \*(BO If this variable is set then rich MIME alternative parts (e.g.,
10034 HTML) will be preferred in favour of included plain text versions when
10035 displaying messages, provided that a handler exists which produces
10036 output that can be (re)integrated into \*(UA's normal visual display.
10037 (E.g., at the time of this writing some newsletters ship their full
10038 content only in the rich HTML part, whereas the plain text part only
10039 contains topic subjects.)
10042 .It Va mime-counter-evidence
10045 field is used to decide how to handle MIME parts.
10046 Some MUAs, however, do not use
10047 .Sx "The mime.types files"
10049 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" )
10050 or a similar mechanism to correctly classify content, but specify an
10051 unspecific MIME type
10052 .Pf ( Ql application/octet-stream )
10053 even for plain text attachments.
10054 If this variable is set then \*(UA will try to re-classify such MIME
10055 message parts, if possible, for example via a possibly existing
10056 attachment filename.
10057 A non-empty value may also be given, in which case a number is expected,
10058 actually a carrier of bits, best specified as a binary value, e.g.,
10061 .Bl -bullet -compact
10063 If bit two is set (counting from 1, decimal 2) then the detected
10065 will be carried along with the message and be used for deciding which
10066 MIME handler is to be used, for example;
10067 when displaying such a MIME part the part-info will indicate the
10068 overridden content-type by showing a plus sign
10071 If bit three is set (decimal 4) then the counter-evidence is always
10072 produced and a positive result will be used as the MIME type, even
10073 forcefully overriding the parts given MIME type.
10075 If bit four is set (decimal 8) as a last resort the actual content of
10076 .Ql application/octet-stream
10077 parts will be inspected, so that data which looks like plain text can be
10079 This mode is even more relaxed when data is to be displayed to the user
10080 or used as a message quote (data consumers which mangle data for display
10081 purposes, which includes masking of control characters, for example).
10085 .It Va mime-encoding
10087 .Ql Content-Transfer-Encoding
10088 to use in outgoing text messages and message parts, where applicable.
10089 (7-bit clean text messages are sent as-is, without a transfer encoding.)
10092 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql _%%_"
10094 .Pf (Or\0 Ql 8b . )
10095 8-bit transport effectively causes the raw data be passed through
10096 unchanged, but may cause problems when transferring mail messages over
10097 channels that are not ESMTP (RFC 1869) compliant.
10098 Also, several input data constructs are not allowed by the
10099 specifications and may cause a different transfer-encoding to be used.
10100 .It Ql quoted-printable
10101 .Pf (Or\0 Ql qp . )
10102 Quoted-printable encoding is 7-bit clean and has the property that ASCII
10103 characters are passed through unchanged, so that an english message can
10104 be read as-is; it is also acceptable for other single-byte locales that
10105 share many characters with ASCII, like, e.g., ISO-8859-1.
10106 The encoding will cause a large overhead for messages in other character
10107 sets: e.g., it will require up to twelve (12) bytes to encode a single
10108 UTF-8 character of four (4) bytes.
10109 It is the default encoding.
10111 .Pf (Or\0 Ql b64 . )
10112 This encoding is 7-bit clean and will always be used for binary data.
10113 This encoding has a constant input:output ratio of 3:4, regardless of
10114 the character set of the input data it will encode three bytes of input
10115 to four bytes of output.
10116 This transfer-encoding is not human readable without performing
10121 .It Va mimetypes-load-control
10122 Can be used to control which of
10123 .Sx "The mime.types files"
10124 are loaded: if the letter
10126 is part of the option value, then the user's personal
10128 file will be loaded (if it exists); likewise the letter
10130 controls loading of the system wide
10132 directives found in the user file take precedence, letter matching is
10134 If this variable is not set \*(UA will try to load both files.
10135 Incorporation of the \*(UA-built-in MIME types cannot be suppressed,
10136 but they will be matched last (the order can be listed via
10139 More sources can be specified by using a different syntax: if the
10140 value string contains an equals sign
10142 then it is instead parsed as a comma-separated list of the described
10145 pairs; the given filenames will be expanded and loaded, and their
10146 content may use the extended syntax that is described in the section
10147 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
10148 Directives found in such files always take precedence (are prepended to
10149 the MIME type cache).
10154 To choose an alternate Mail-Transfer-Agent, set this option to either
10155 the full pathname of an executable (optionally prefixed with the protocol
10157 or \*(OPally a SMTP a.k.a. SUBMISSION protocol URL, e.g., \*(IN
10159 .Dl smtps?://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
10162 .Ql [smtp://]server[:port] . )
10163 The default has been chosen at compile time.
10164 All supported data transfers are executed in child processes, which
10165 run asynchronously and without supervision unless either the
10170 If such a child receives a TERM signal, it will abort and
10177 For a file-based MTA it may be necessary to set
10179 in in order to choose the right target of a modern
10182 It will be passed command line arguments from several possible sources:
10185 if set, from the command line if given and the variable
10188 Argument processing of the MTA will be terminated with a
10193 The otherwise occurring implicit usage of the following MTA command
10194 line arguments can be disabled by setting the boolean variable
10195 .Va mta-no-default-arguments
10196 (which will also disable passing
10200 (for not treating a line with only a dot
10202 character as the end of input),
10204 (shall the variable
10210 variable is set); in conjunction with the
10212 command line option \*(UA will also (not) pass
10214 as well as possibly
10218 \*(OPally \*(UA can send mail over SMTP a.k.a. SUBMISSION network
10219 connections to a single defined smart host by setting this variable to
10220 a SMTP or SUBMISSION URL (see
10221 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
10222 An authentication scheme can be specified via the variable chain
10224 Encrypted network connections are \*(OPally available, the section
10225 .Sx "Encrypted network communication"
10226 should give an overview and provide links to more information on this.
10227 Note that with some mail providers it may be necessary to set the
10229 variable in order to use a specific combination of
10234 \*(UA also supports forwarding of all network traffic over a specified
10236 The following SMTP variants may be used:
10240 The plain SMTP protocol (RFC 5321) that normally lives on the
10241 server port 25 and requires setting the
10242 .Va smtp-use-starttls
10243 variable to enter a TLS encrypted session state.
10244 Assign a value like \*(IN
10245 .Ql smtp://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
10247 .Ql smtp://server[:port] )
10248 to choose this protocol.
10250 The so-called SMTPS which is supposed to live on server port 465
10251 and is automatically TLS secured.
10252 Unfortunately it never became a standardized protocol and may thus not
10253 be supported by your hosts network service database
10254 \(en in fact the port number has already been reassigned to other
10257 SMTPS is nonetheless a commonly offered protocol and thus can be
10258 chosen by assigning a value like \*(IN
10259 .Ql smtps://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
10261 .Ql smtps://server[:port] ) ;
10262 due to the mentioned problems it is usually necessary to explicitly
10263 specify the port as
10267 The SUBMISSION protocol (RFC 6409) lives on server port 587 and
10268 is identically to the SMTP protocol from \*(UA's point of view;
10269 it requires setting
10270 .Va smtp-use-starttls
10271 to enter a TLS secured session state; e.g., \*(IN
10272 .Ql submission://[user[:password]@]server[:port] .
10274 The SUBMISSIONS protocol (RFC 8314) that lives on server port 465 and is
10275 TLS secured by default.
10276 It can be chosen by assigning a value like \*(IN
10277 .Ql submissions://[user[:password]@]server[:port] .
10278 Due to the problems mentioned for SMTPS above and the fact that
10279 SUBMISSIONS is new and a successor that lives on the same port as the
10280 historical engineering mismanagement named SMTPS, it is usually
10281 necessary to explicitly specify the port as
10287 .It Va mta-arguments
10288 Arguments to pass through to a file-based
10290 can be given via this variable, which is parsed according to
10291 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
10292 into an array of arguments, and which will be joined onto MTA options
10293 from other sources, and then passed individually to the MTA:
10294 .Ql ? wysh set mta-arguments='-t -X \&"/tmp/my log\&"' .
10297 .It Va mta-no-default-arguments
10298 \*(BO Unless this variable is set \*(UA will pass some well known
10299 standard command line options to a file-based
10301 (Mail-Transfer-Agent), see there for more.
10304 .It Va mta-no-receiver-arguments
10305 \*(BO By default a file-based
10307 will be passed all receiver addresses on the command line.
10308 This variable can be set to suppress any such argument.
10312 Many systems use a so-called
10314 environment to ensure compatibility with
10316 This works by inspecting the name that was used to invoke the mail
10318 If this variable is set then the mailwrapper (the program that is
10319 actually executed when calling the file-based
10321 will treat its contents as that name.
10323 .Mx Va netrc-lookup
10324 .It Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , netrc-lookup-HOST , netrc-lookup
10325 \*(BO\*(IN\*(OP Used to control usage of the user's
10327 file for lookup of account credentials, as documented in the section
10328 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
10329 and for the command
10332 .Sx "The .netrc file"
10333 documents the file format.
10345 then \*(UA will read the output of a shell pipe instead of the user's
10347 file if this variable is set (to the desired shell command).
10348 This can be used to, e.g., store
10351 .Ql ? set netrc-pipe='gpg -qd ~/.netrc.pgp' .
10355 \*(OP If this variable has the value
10357 newly created local folders will be in Maildir instead of MBOX format.
10361 Checks for new mail in the current folder each time the prompt is shown.
10362 A Maildir folder must be re-scanned to determine if new mail has arrived.
10363 If this variable is set to the special value
10365 then a Maildir folder will not be rescanned completely, but only
10366 timestamp changes are detected.
10367 Maildir folders are \*(OPal.
10371 \*(BO Unless specified as absolute pathnames, causes the filename given
10375 and the sender-based filenames for the
10379 commands to be interpreted relative to the directory given in the
10381 variable rather than relative to the current directory.
10383 .Mx Va on-account-cleanup
10384 .It Va on-account-cleanup-ACCOUNT , Va on-account-cleanup
10385 Macro hook which will be called once an
10387 is left, as the very last step before unrolling per-account
10389 This hook is run even in case of fatal errors, and it is advisable to
10390 perform only absolutely necessary actions, like cleaning up
10393 The specialized form is used in favour of the generic one if found.
10396 .It Va on-compose-cleanup
10397 Macro hook which will be called after the message has been sent (or not,
10398 in case of failures), as the very last step before unrolling compose mode
10400 This hook is run even in case of fatal errors, and it is advisable to
10401 perform only absolutely necessary actions, like cleaning up
10405 For compose mode hooks that may affect the message content please see
10406 .Va on-compose-enter , on-compose-leave , on-compose-splice .
10407 \*(ID This hook exists because
10408 .Ic alias , alternates , commandalias , shortcut ,
10409 to name a few, are not covered by
10411 changes applied in compose mode will continue to be in effect thereafter.
10416 .It Va on-compose-enter , on-compose-leave
10417 Macro hooks which will be called once compose mode is entered,
10418 and after composing has been finished, but before a set
10419 .Va message-inject-tail
10420 has been injected etc., respectively.
10422 are enabled for these hooks, and changes on variables will be forgotten
10423 after the message has been sent.
10424 .Va on-compose-cleanup
10425 can be used to perform other necessary cleanup steps.
10427 The following (read-only) variables will be set temporarily during
10428 execution of the macros to represent respective message headers, to
10429 the empty string otherwise; most of them correspond to according virtual
10430 message headers that can be accessed via
10433 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
10435 .Va on-compose-splice
10439 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Va mailx_subject"
10440 .It Va mailx-command
10441 The command that generates the message.
10442 .It Va mailx-subject
10446 .It Va mailx-sender
10448 .It Va mailx-to , mailx-cc , mailx-bcc
10449 The list of receiver addresses as a space-separated list.
10450 .It Va mailx-raw-to , mailx-raw-cc , mailx-raw-bcc
10451 The list of receiver addresses before any mangling (due to, e.g.,
10454 .Va recipients-in-cc )
10455 as a space-separated list.
10456 .It Va mailx-orig-from
10457 When replying, forwarding or resending, this will be set to the
10459 of the given message.
10460 .It Va mailx-orig-to , mailx-orig-cc , mailx-orig-bcc
10461 When replying, forwarding or resending, this will be set to the
10462 receivers of the given message.
10466 Here is am example that injects a signature via
10467 .Va message-inject-tail ;
10469 .Va on-compose-splice
10470 to simply inject the file of desire via
10474 may be a better approach.
10476 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10478 vput ! i cat ~/.mysig
10480 vput vexpr message-inject-tail trim-end $i
10484 readctl create ~/.mysig
10488 vput vexpr message-inject-tail trim-end $i
10490 readctl remove ~/.mysig
10493 set on-compose-leave=t_ocl
10499 .It Va on-compose-splice , on-compose-splice-shell
10500 These hooks run once the normal compose mode is finished, but before the
10501 .Va on-compose-leave
10502 macro hook is called, the
10503 .Va message-inject-tail
10505 Both hooks will be executed in a subprocess, with their input and output
10506 connected to \*(UA such that they can act as if they would be an
10508 The difference in between them is that the latter is a
10510 command, whereas the former is a normal \*(UA macro, but which is
10511 restricted to a small set of commands (the
10515 will indicate said capability).
10517 are enabled for these hooks (in the parent process), causing any setting
10518 to be forgotten after the message has been sent;
10519 .Va on-compose-cleanup
10520 can be used to perform other cleanup as necessary.
10523 During execution of these hooks \*(UA will temporarily forget whether it
10524 has been started in interactive mode, (a restricted set of)
10525 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
10526 will always be available, and for guaranteed reproducibilities sake
10530 will be set to their defaults.
10531 The compose mode command
10533 has been especially designed for scriptability (via these hooks).
10534 The first line the hook will read on its standard input is the protocol
10535 version of said command escape, currently
10537 backward incompatible protocol changes have to be expected.
10540 Care must be taken to avoid deadlocks and other false control flow:
10541 if both involved processes wait for more input to happen at the
10542 same time, or one does not expect more input but the other is stuck
10543 waiting for consumption of its output, etc.
10544 There is no automatic synchronization of the hook: it will not be
10545 stopped automatically just because it, e.g., emits
10547 The hooks will however receive a termination signal if the parent enters
10548 an error condition.
10549 \*(ID Protection against and interaction with signals is not yet given;
10550 it is likely that in the future these scripts will be placed in an
10551 isolated session, which is signalled in its entirety as necessary.
10553 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10554 define ocs_signature {
10556 echo '~< ~/.mysig' # '~<! fortune pathtofortunefile'
10558 set on-compose-splice=ocs_signature
10560 wysh set on-compose-splice-shell=$'\e
10562 printf "hello $version! Headers: ";\e
10563 echo \e'~^header list\e';\e
10564 read status result;\e
10565 echo "status=$status result=$result";\e
10570 echo Splice protocol version is $version
10571 echo '~^h l'; read hl; vput vexpr es substring "${hl}" 0 1
10573 echoerr 'Cannot read header list'; echo '~x'; xit
10575 if [ "$hl" @i!% ' cc' ]
10576 echo '~^h i cc Diet is your <mirr.or>'; read es;\e
10577 vput vexpr es substring "${es}" 0 1
10579 echoerr 'Cannot insert Cc: header'; echo '~x'
10580 # (no xit, macro finishs anyway)
10584 set on-compose-splice=ocsm
10589 .It Va on-resend-cleanup
10591 .Va on-compose-cleanup ,
10592 but is only triggered by
10596 .It Va on-resend-enter
10598 .Va on-compose-enter ,
10599 but is only triggered by
10604 \*(BO If set, each message feed through the command given for
10606 is followed by a formfeed character
10610 .It Va password-USER@HOST , password-HOST , password
10611 \*(IN Variable chain that sets a password, which is used in case none has
10612 been given in the protocol and account-specific URL;
10613 as a last resort \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal if
10614 the authentication method requires a password.
10615 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
10616 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
10618 .It Va password-USER@HOST
10619 \*(OU (see the chain above for \*(IN)
10620 Set the password for
10624 If no such variable is defined for a host,
10625 the user will be asked for a password on standard input.
10626 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
10627 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
10631 \*(BO Send messages to the
10633 command without performing MIME and character set conversions.
10637 .It Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
10638 When a MIME message part of type
10640 (case-insensitive) is displayed or quoted,
10641 its text is filtered through the value of this variable interpreted as
10643 Note that only parts which can be displayed inline as plain text (see
10644 .Cd copiousoutput )
10645 are displayed unless otherwise noted, other MIME parts will only be
10646 considered by and for the command
10650 The special value commercial at
10652 forces interpretation of the message part as plain text, e.g.,
10653 .Ql set pipe-application/xml=@
10654 will henceforth display XML
10656 (The same could also be achieved by adding a MIME type marker with the
10659 And \*(OPally MIME type handlers may be defined via
10660 .Sx "The Mailcap files"
10661 \(em these directives,
10663 has already been used, should be referred to for further documentation.
10668 can in fact be used as a trigger character to adjust usage and behaviour
10669 of a following shell command specification more thoroughly by appending
10670 more special characters which refer to further mailcap directives, e.g.,
10671 the following hypothetical command specification could be used:
10673 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10674 ? set pipe-X/Y='@!++=@vim ${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}'
10678 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql __"
10680 The command produces plain text to be integrated in \*(UAs output:
10681 .Cd copiousoutput .
10684 If set the handler will not be invoked when a message is to be quoted,
10685 but only when it will be displayed:
10686 .Cd x-mailx-noquote .
10689 Run the command asynchronously, i.e., without blocking \*(UA:
10690 .Cd x-mailx-async .
10693 The command must be run on an interactive terminal, \*(UA will
10694 temporarily release the terminal to it:
10695 .Cd needsterminal .
10698 Request creation of a zero-sized temporary file, the absolute pathname
10699 of which will be made accessible via the environment variable
10700 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY :
10701 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile .
10702 If given twice then the file will be unlinked automatically by \*(UA
10703 when the command loop is entered again at latest:
10704 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink .
10707 Normally the MIME part content is passed to the handler via standard
10708 input; if this flag is set then the data will instead be written into
10709 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
10710 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill ) ,
10711 the creation of which is implied; note however that in order to cause
10712 deletion of the temporary file you still have to use two plus signs
10717 To avoid ambiguities with normal shell command content you can use
10718 another commercial at to forcefully terminate interpretation of
10719 remaining characters.
10720 (Any character not in this list will have the same effect.)
10724 Some information about the MIME part to be displayed is embedded into
10725 the environment of the shell command:
10728 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ev _AIL__ILENAME__ENERATED"
10730 .It Ev MAILX_CONTENT
10731 The MIME content-type of the part, if known, the empty string otherwise.
10734 .It Ev MAILX_CONTENT_EVIDENCE
10736 .Va mime-counter-evidence
10737 includes the carry-around-bit (2), then this will be set to the detected
10738 MIME content-type; not only then identical to
10739 .Ev \&\&MAILX_CONTENT
10743 .It Ev MAILX_EXTERNAL_BODY_URL
10745 .Ql message/external-body access-type=url
10746 will store the access URL in this variable, it is empty otherwise.
10747 URL targets should not be activated automatically, without supervision.
10750 .It Ev MAILX_FILENAME
10751 The filename, if any is set, the empty string otherwise.
10754 .It Ev MAILX_FILENAME_GENERATED
10758 .It Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
10759 If temporary file creation has been requested through the command prefix
10760 this variable will be set and contain the absolute pathname of the
10766 .It Va pipe-EXTENSION
10767 This is identical to
10768 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
10771 (normalized to lowercase using character mappings of the ASCII charset)
10772 names a file extension, e.g.,
10774 Handlers registered using this method take precedence.
10777 .It Va pop3-auth-USER@HOST , pop3-auth-HOST , pop3-auth
10778 \*(OP\*(IN Variable chain that sets the POP3 authentication method.
10779 The only possible value as of now is
10781 which is thus the default.
10783 .Mx Va pop3-bulk-load
10784 .It Va pop3-bulk-load-USER@HOST , pop3-bulk-load-HOST , pop3-bulk-load
10785 \*(BO\*(OP When accessing a POP3 server \*(UA loads the headers of
10786 the messages, and only requests the message bodies on user request.
10787 For the POP3 protocol this means that the message headers will be
10789 If this variable is set then \*(UA will download only complete messages
10790 from the given POP3 server(s) instead.
10792 .Mx Va pop3-keepalive
10793 .It Va pop3-keepalive-USER@HOST , pop3-keepalive-HOST , pop3-keepalive
10794 \*(OP POP3 servers close the connection after a period of inactivity;
10795 the standard requires this to be at least 10 minutes,
10796 but practical experience may vary.
10797 Setting this variable to a numeric value greater than
10801 command to be sent each value seconds if no other operation is performed.
10803 .Mx Va pop3-no-apop
10804 .It Va pop3-no-apop-USER@HOST , pop3-no-apop-HOST , pop3-no-apop
10805 \*(BO\*(OP Unless this variable is set the
10807 authentication method will be used when connecting to a POP3 server that
10808 advertises support.
10811 is that the password is not sent in clear text over the wire and that
10812 only a single packet is sent for the user/password tuple.
10814 .Va pop3-no-apop-HOST
10817 .Mx Va pop3-use-starttls
10818 .It Va pop3-use-starttls-USER@HOST , pop3-use-starttls-HOST , pop3-use-starttls
10819 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a
10821 command to make an unencrypted POP3 session TLS encrypted.
10822 This functionality is not supported by all servers,
10823 and is not used if the session is already encrypted by the POP3S method.
10825 .Va pop3-use-starttls-HOST
10831 \*(BO This flag enables POSIX mode, which changes behaviour of \*(UA
10832 where that deviates from standardized behaviour.
10833 It will be set implicitly before the
10834 .Sx "Resource files"
10835 are loaded if the environment variable
10836 .Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT
10837 is set, and adjusting any of those two will be reflected by the other
10839 The following behaviour is covered and enforced by this mechanism:
10842 .Bl -bullet -compact
10844 In non-interactive mode, any error encountered while loading resource
10845 files during program startup will cause a program exit, whereas in
10846 interactive mode such errors will stop loading of the currently loaded
10847 (stack of) file(s, i.e., recursively).
10848 These exits can be circumvented on a per-command base by using
10851 .Sx "Command modifiers" ,
10852 for each command which shall be allowed to fail.
10856 will replace the list of alternate addresses instead of appending to it.
10857 In addition alternates will only be honoured for any sort of message
10862 The variable inserting
10863 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
10869 will expand embedded character sequences
10871 horizontal tabulator and
10874 \*(ID For compatibility reasons this step will always be performed.
10877 Upon changing the active
10881 will be displayed even if
10888 implies the behaviour described by
10894 is extended to cover any empty mailbox, not only empty
10896 .Sx "primary system mailbox" Ns
10897 es: they will be removed when they are left in empty state otherwise.
10902 .It Va print-alternatives
10903 \*(BO When a MIME message part of type
10904 .Ql multipart/alternative
10905 is displayed and it contains a subpart of type
10907 other parts are normally discarded.
10908 Setting this variable causes all subparts to be displayed,
10909 just as if the surrounding part was of type
10910 .Ql multipart/mixed .
10914 The string used as a prompt in interactive mode.
10915 Whenever the variable is evaluated the value is treated as if specified
10916 within dollar-single-quotes (see
10917 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ) .
10918 This (post-assignment, i.e., second) expansion can be used to embed
10919 status information, for example
10924 .Va mailbox-display .
10926 In order to embed characters which should not be counted when
10927 calculating the visual width of the resulting string, enclose the
10928 characters of interest in a pair of reverse solidus escaped brackets:
10930 a slot for coloured prompts is also available with the \*(OPal command
10932 Prompting may be prevented by setting this to the null string
10934 .Ql set noprompt ) .
10938 This string is used for secondary prompts, but is otherwise identical to
10945 \*(BO Suppresses the printing of the version when first invoked.
10951 message is started with the quoted original message,
10952 the lines of which are prefixed by the value of the variable
10954 taking into account
10958 If set to the empty value, the quoted message will be preceded and
10959 followed by the expansions of the values of
10960 .Va quote-inject-head
10962 .Va quote-inject-tail ,
10964 None of the headers of the quoted message is included in the quote if
10967 and only the headers selected by the
10970 selection are put above the message body for
10972 whereas all headers and all MIME parts are included for
10975 .Va quote-as-attachment
10979 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
10982 .It Va quote-as-attachment
10983 \*(BO Add the original message in its entirety as a
10985 MIME attachment when replying to a message.
10986 Note this works regardless of the setting of
10991 Can be set to a string consisting of non-whitespace ASCII characters
10992 which shall be treated as quotation leaders, the default being
10997 \*(OP Can be set in addition to
10999 and creates a more fancy quotation in that leading quotation characters
11000 .Pf ( Va quote-chars )
11001 are compressed and overlong lines are folded.
11003 can be set to either one, two or three (space separated) numeric values,
11004 which are interpreted as the maximum (goal) and the minimum line length,
11005 respectively, in a spirit rather equal to the
11007 program, but line- instead of paragraph-based.
11008 The third value is used as the maximum line length instead of the first
11009 if no better break point can be found; it is ignored unless it is larger
11010 than the minimum and smaller than the maximum.
11011 If not set explicitly the minimum will reflect the goal algorithmically.
11012 The goal cannot be smaller than the length of
11014 plus some additional pad; necessary adjustments take place silently.
11019 .It Va quote-inject-head , quote-inject-tail
11020 The strings to put before and after the text of a
11022 d message, respectively.
11023 The former defaults to
11024 .Ql %f wrote:\en\en .
11025 Special format directives will be expanded if possible, and if so
11026 configured the output will be folded according to
11028 Format specifiers in the given strings start with a percent sign
11030 and expand values of the original message, unless noted otherwise.
11031 Note that names and addresses are not subject to the setting of
11033 Valid format specifiers are:
11036 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql _%%_"
11038 A plain percent sign.
11040 The address(es) of the sender(s).
11042 The date found in the
11044 header of the message when
11046 is set (the default), otherwise the date when the message was received.
11047 Formatting can be controlled by assigning a
11052 .Va datefield-markout-older ) .
11054 The full name(s) (name and address, as given) of the sender(s).
11059 The real name(s) of the sender(s) if there is one and
11061 allows usage, the address(es) otherwise.
11063 The senders real name(s) if there is one, the address(es) otherwise.
11068 .It Va r-option-implicit
11069 \*(BO Setting this option evaluates the contents of
11071 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
11073 and passes the results onto the used (file-based) MTA as described for the
11075 option (empty argument case).
11078 .It Va recipients-in-cc
11085 are by default merged into the new
11087 If this variable is set, only the original
11091 the rest is merged into
11096 Unless this variable is defined, no copies of outgoing mail will be saved.
11097 If defined it gives the pathname, subject to the usual
11098 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
11099 of a folder where all new, replied-to or forwarded messages are saved:
11100 when saving to this folder fails the message is not sent, but instead
11104 The standard defines that relative (fully expanded) paths are to be
11105 interpreted relative to the current directory
11107 to force interpretation relative to
11110 needs to be set in addition.
11113 .It Va record-files
11114 \*(BO If this variable is set the meaning of
11116 will be extended to cover messages which target only file and pipe
11119 These address types will not appear in recipient lists unless
11120 .Va add-file-recipients
11124 .It Va record-resent
11125 \*(BO If this variable is set the meaning of
11127 will be extended to also cover the
11134 .It Va reply-in-same-charset
11135 \*(BO If this variable is set \*(UA first tries to use the same
11136 character set of the original message for replies.
11137 If this fails, the mechanism described in
11138 .Sx "Character sets"
11139 is evaluated as usual.
11142 .It Va reply-strings
11143 Can be set to a comma-separated list of (case-insensitive according to
11144 ASCII rules) strings which shall be recognized in addition to the
11145 built-in strings as
11147 reply message indicators \(en built-in are
11149 which is mandated by RFC 5322, as well as the german
11154 which often has been seen in the wild;
11155 I.e., the separating colon has to be specified explicitly.
11159 A list of addresses to put into the
11161 field of the message header.
11162 Members of this list are handled as if they were in the
11171 .It Va reply-to-honour
11174 header is honoured when replying to a message via
11178 This is a quadoption; if set without a value it defaults to
11182 .It Va rfc822-body-from_
11183 \*(BO This variable can be used to force displaying a so-called
11185 line for messages that are embedded into an envelope mail via the
11187 MIME mechanism, for more visual convenience.
11191 \*(BO Enable saving of (partial) messages in
11193 upon interrupt or delivery error.
11197 The number of lines that represents a
11206 line display and scrolling via
11208 If this variable is not set \*(UA falls back to a calculation based upon
11209 the detected terminal window size and the baud rate: the faster the
11210 terminal, the more will be shown.
11211 Overall screen dimensions and pager usage is influenced by the
11212 environment variables
11220 .It Va searchheaders
11221 \*(BO Expand message-list specifiers in the form
11223 to all messages containing the substring
11225 in the header field
11227 The string search is case insensitive.
11230 .It Va sendcharsets
11231 \*(OP A comma-separated list of character set names that can be used in
11232 outgoing internet mail.
11233 The value of the variable
11235 is automatically appended to this list of character sets.
11236 If no character set conversion capabilities are compiled into \*(UA then
11237 the only supported charset is
11240 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
11241 and refer to the section
11242 .Sx "Character sets"
11243 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
11246 .It Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
11247 \*(BO\*(OP If this variable is set, but
11249 is not, then \*(UA acts as if
11251 had been set to the value of the variable
11253 In effect this combination passes through the message data in the
11254 character set of the current locale encoding:
11255 therefore mail message text will be (assumed to be) in ISO-8859-1
11256 encoding when send from within a ISO-8859-1 locale, and in UTF-8
11257 encoding when send from within an UTF-8 locale.
11261 never comes into play as
11263 is implicitly assumed to be 8-bit and capable to represent all files the
11264 user may specify (as is the case when no character set conversion
11265 support is available in \*(UA and the only supported character set is
11267 .Sx "Character sets" ) .
11268 This might be a problem for scripts which use the suggested
11270 setting, since in this case the character set is US-ASCII by definition,
11271 so that it is better to also override
11277 An address that is put into the
11279 field of outgoing messages, quoting RFC 5322: the mailbox of the agent
11280 responsible for the actual transmission of the message.
11281 This field should normally not be used unless the
11283 field contains more than one address, on which case it is required.
11284 Dependent on the context this address is handled as if it were in
11289 .Va r-option-implicit .
11292 \*(OB Predecessor of
11295 .It Va sendmail-arguments
11296 \*(OB Predecessor of
11297 .Va mta-arguments .
11299 .It Va sendmail-no-default-arguments
11300 \*(OB\*(BO Predecessor of
11301 .Va mta-no-default-arguments .
11303 .It Va sendmail-progname
11304 \*(OB Predecessor of
11309 \*(BO When sending a message wait until the
11311 (including the built-in SMTP one) exits before accepting further commands.
11313 with this variable set errors reported by the MTA will be recognizable!
11314 If the MTA returns a non-zero exit status,
11315 the exit status of \*(UA will also be non-zero.
11319 \*(BO This setting causes \*(UA to start at the last message
11320 instead of the first one when opening a mail folder, as well as with
11327 \*(BO Causes \*(UA to use the sender's real name instead of the plain
11328 address in the header field summary and in message specifications.
11332 \*(BO Causes the recipient of the message to be shown in the header
11333 summary if the message was sent by the user.
11340 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
11342 .Va message-inject-tail ,
11343 .Va on-compose-leave
11345 .Va on-compose-splice .
11352 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
11354 .Va message-inject-tail ,
11355 .Va on-compose-leave
11357 .Va on-compose-splice .
11362 .Va on-compose-splice
11364 .Va on-compose-splice-shell
11366 .Va on-compose-leave
11368 .Va message-inject-tail
11372 .It Va skipemptybody
11373 \*(BO If an outgoing message does not contain any text in its first or
11374 only message part, do not send it but discard it silently (see also the
11375 command line option
11380 .It Va smime-ca-dir , smime-ca-file
11381 \*(OP Specify the location of trusted CA certificates in PEM (Privacy
11382 Enhanced Mail) for the purpose of verification of S/MIME signed messages.
11384 documents the necessary preparation steps to use the former.
11385 The set of CA certificates which are built into the TLS library can
11386 be explicitly turned off by setting
11387 .Va smime-ca-no-defaults ,
11388 and further fine-tuning is possible via
11389 .Va smime-ca-flags .
11392 .It Va smime-ca-flags
11393 \*(OP Can be used to fine-tune behaviour of the X509 CA certificate
11394 storage, and the certificate verification that is used.
11395 The actual values and their meanings are documented for
11399 .It Va smime-ca-no-defaults
11400 \*(BO\*(OP Do not load the default CA locations that are built into the
11401 used to TLS library to verify S/MIME signed messages.
11403 .Mx Va smime-cipher
11404 .It Va smime-cipher-USER@HOST , smime-cipher
11405 \*(OP Specifies the cipher to use when generating S/MIME encrypted
11406 messages (for the specified account).
11407 RFC 5751 mandates a default of
11410 Possible values are (case-insensitive and) in decreasing cipher strength:
11418 (DES EDE3 CBC, 168 bits; default if
11420 is not available) and
11422 (DES CBC, 56 bits).
11424 The actually available cipher algorithms depend on the cryptographic
11425 library that \*(UA uses.
11426 \*(OP Support for more cipher algorithms may be available through
11427 dynamic loading via, e.g.,
11428 .Xr EVP_get_cipherbyname 3
11429 (OpenSSL) if \*(UA has been compiled to support this.
11432 .It Va smime-crl-dir
11433 \*(OP Specifies a directory that contains files with CRLs in PEM format
11434 to use when verifying S/MIME messages.
11437 .It Va smime-crl-file
11438 \*(OP Specifies a file that contains a CRL in PEM format to use when
11439 verifying S/MIME messages.
11442 .It Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
11443 \*(OP If this variable is set, messages send to the given receiver are
11444 encrypted before sending.
11445 The value of the variable must be set to the name of a file that
11446 contains a certificate in PEM format.
11448 If a message is sent to multiple recipients,
11449 each of them for whom a corresponding variable is set will receive an
11450 individually encrypted message;
11451 other recipients will continue to receive the message in plain text
11453 .Va smime-force-encryption
11455 It is recommended to sign encrypted messages, i.e., to also set the
11460 .It Va smime-force-encryption
11461 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to refuse sending unencrypted messages.
11465 \*(BO\*(OP S/MIME sign outgoing messages with the user's private key
11466 and include the user's certificate as a MIME attachment.
11467 Signing a message enables a recipient to verify that the sender used
11468 a valid certificate,
11469 that the email addresses in the certificate match those in the message
11470 header and that the message content has not been altered.
11471 It does not change the message text,
11472 and people will be able to read the message as usual.
11474 .Va smime-sign-cert , smime-sign-include-certs
11476 .Va smime-sign-digest .
11478 .Mx Va smime-sign-cert
11479 .It Va smime-sign-cert-USER@HOST , smime-sign-cert
11480 \*(OP Points to a file in PEM format.
11481 For the purpose of signing and decryption this file needs to contain the
11482 user's private key, followed by his certificate.
11484 For message signing
11486 is always derived from the value of
11488 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
11490 For the purpose of encryption the recipient's public encryption key
11491 (certificate) is expected; the command
11493 can be used to save certificates of signed messages (the section
11494 .Sx "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
11495 gives some details).
11496 This mode of operation is usually driven by the specialized form.
11498 When decrypting messages the account is derived from the recipient
11503 of the message, which are searched for addresses for which such
11505 \*(UA always uses the first address that matches,
11506 so if the same message is sent to more than one of the user's addresses
11507 using different encryption keys, decryption might fail.
11509 For signing and decryption purposes it is possible to use encrypted
11510 keys, and the pseudo-host(s)
11511 .Ql USER@HOST.smime-cert-key
11512 for the private key
11514 .Ql USER@HOST.smime-cert-cert
11515 for the certificate stored in the same file)
11516 will be used for performing any necessary password lookup,
11517 therefore the lookup can be automated via the mechanisms described in
11518 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
11519 For example, the hypothetical address
11521 could be driven with a private key / certificate pair path defined in
11522 .Va \&\&smime-sign-cert-bob@exam.ple ,
11523 and needed passwords would then be looked up via the pseudo hosts
11524 .Ql bob@exam.ple.smime-cert-key
11526 .Ql bob@exam.ple.smime-cert-cert ) .
11527 To include intermediate certificates, use
11528 .Va smime-sign-include-certs .
11530 .Mx Va smime-sign-digest
11531 .It Va smime-sign-digest-USER@HOST , smime-sign-digest
11532 \*(OP Specifies the message digestto use when signing S/MIME messages.
11533 Please remember that for this use case
11535 refers to the variable
11537 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
11539 The available algorithms depend on the used cryptographic library, but
11540 at least one usable builtin algorithm is ensured as a default.
11541 If possible the standard RFC 5751 will be violated by using
11543 instead of the mandated
11545 due to security concerns.
11547 \*(UA will try to add built-in support for the following message
11548 digests, names are case-insensitive:
11555 as well as the widely available
11560 and the proposed insecure
11564 More digests may \*(OPally be available through dynamic loading via,
11565 e.g., the OpenSSL function
11566 .Xr EVP_get_digestbyname 3 .
11568 .Mx Va smime-sign-include-certs
11569 .It Va smime-sign-include-certs-USER@HOST , smime-sign-include-certs
11570 \*(OP If used, this is supposed to a consist of a comma-separated list
11571 of files, each of which containing a single certificate in PEM format to
11572 be included in the S/MIME message in addition to the
11573 .Va smime-sign-cert
11575 This can be used to include intermediate certificates of the certificate
11576 authority, in order to allow the receiver's S/MIME implementation to
11577 perform a verification of the entire certificate chain, starting from
11578 a local root certificate, over the intermediate certificates, down to the
11579 .Va smime-sign-cert .
11580 Even though top level certificates may also be included in the chain,
11581 they won't be used for the verification on the receiver's side.
11583 For the purpose of the mechanisms involved here,
11585 refers to the content of the internal variable
11587 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
11590 .Ql USER@HOST.smime-include-certs
11591 will be used for performing password lookups for these certificates,
11592 shall they have been given one, therefore the lookup can be automated
11593 via the mechanisms described in
11594 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
11596 .It Va smime-sign-message-digest-USER@HOST , smime-sign-message-digest
11597 \*(OB\*(OP Predecessor(s) of
11598 .Va smime-sign-digest .
11601 \*(OB\*(OP To use the built-in SMTP transport, specify a SMTP URL in
11603 \*(ID For compatibility reasons a set
11605 is used in preference of
11609 .It Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST , smtp-auth-HOST , smtp-auth
11610 \*(OP Variable chain that controls the SMTP
11612 authentication method, possible values are
11618 as well as the \*(OPal methods
11624 method does not need any user credentials,
11626 requires a user name and all other methods require a user name and
11634 .Va smtp-auth-password
11636 .Va smtp-auth-user ) .
11641 .Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST :
11642 may override dependent on sender address in the variable
11645 .It Va smtp-auth-password
11646 \*(OP\*(OU Sets the global fallback password for SMTP authentication.
11647 If the authentication method requires a password, but neither
11648 .Va smtp-auth-password
11650 .Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
11652 \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal.
11654 .It Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
11656 .Va smtp-auth-password
11657 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
11660 .It Va smtp-auth-user
11661 \*(OP\*(OU Sets the global fallback user name for SMTP authentication.
11662 If the authentication method requires a user name, but neither
11665 .Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
11667 \*(UA will ask for a user name on the user's terminal.
11669 .It Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
11672 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
11676 .It Va smtp-hostname
11677 \*(OP\*(IN Normally \*(UA uses the variable
11679 to derive the necessary
11681 information in order to issue a
11688 can be used to use the
11690 from the SMTP account
11697 from the content of this variable (or, if that is the empty string,
11699 or the local hostname as a last resort).
11700 This often allows using an address that is itself valid but hosted by
11701 a provider other than which (in
11703 is about to send the message.
11704 Setting this variable also influences generated
11709 If the \*(OPal IDNA support is available (see
11711 variable assignment is aborted when a necessary conversion fails.
11713 .Mx Va smtp-use-starttls
11714 .It Va smtp-use-starttls-USER@HOST , smtp-use-starttls-HOST , smtp-use-starttls
11715 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a
11717 command to make an SMTP
11719 session TLS encrypted, i.e., to enable transport layer security.
11722 .It Va socks-proxy-USER@HOST , socks-proxy-HOST , socks-proxy
11723 \*(OP If this is set to the hostname (SOCKS URL) of a SOCKS5 server then
11724 \*(UA will proxy all of its network activities through it.
11725 This can be used to proxy SMTP, POP3 etc. network traffic through the
11726 Tor anonymizer, for example.
11727 The following would create a local SOCKS proxy on port 10000 that
11728 forwards to the machine
11730 and from which the network traffic is actually instantiated:
11731 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11732 # Create local proxy server in terminal 1 forwarding to HOST
11733 $ ssh -D 10000 USER@HOST
11734 # Then, start a client that uses it in terminal 2
11735 $ \*(uA -Ssocks-proxy-USER@HOST=localhost:10000
11739 .It Va spam-interface
11740 \*(OP In order to use any of the spam-related commands (like, e.g.,
11742 the desired spam interface must be defined by setting this variable.
11743 Please refer to the manual section
11744 .Sx "Handling spam"
11745 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
11746 All or none of the following interfaces may be available:
11748 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ql _ilte_"
11754 .Pf ( Lk http://spamassassin.apache.org SpamAssassin )
11756 Different to the generic filter interface \*(UA will automatically add
11757 the correct arguments for a given command and has the necessary
11758 knowledge to parse the program's output.
11759 A default value for
11761 will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if
11765 during compilation.
11766 Shall it be necessary to define a specific connection type (rather than
11767 using a configuration file for that), the variable
11768 .Va spamc-arguments
11769 can be used as in, e.g.,
11770 .Ql -d server.example.com -p 783 .
11771 It is also possible to specify a per-user configuration via
11773 Note that this interface does not inspect the
11775 flag of a message for the command
11779 generic spam filter support via freely configurable hooks.
11780 This interface is meant for programs like
11782 and requires according behaviour in respect to the hooks' exit
11783 status for at least the command
11786 meaning a message is spam,
11790 for unsure and any other return value indicating a hard error);
11791 since the hooks can include shell code snippets diverting behaviour
11792 can be intercepted as necessary.
11794 .Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , spamfilter-nospam , \
11797 .Va spamfilter-spam ;
11799 .Sx "Handling spam"
11800 contains examples for some programs.
11801 The process environment of the hooks will have the variable
11802 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_GENERATED
11804 Note that spam score support for
11806 is not supported unless the \*(OPtional regular expression support is
11808 .Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore
11814 .It Va spam-maxsize
11815 \*(OP Messages that exceed this size will not be passed through to the
11817 .Va spam-interface .
11818 If unset or 0, the default of 420000 bytes is used.
11821 .It Va spamc-command
11822 \*(OP The path to the
11826 .Va spam-interface .
11827 Note that the path is not expanded, but used
11829 A fallback path will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if the
11830 executable had been found during compilation.
11833 .It Va spamc-arguments
11834 \*(OP Even though \*(UA deals with most arguments for the
11837 automatically, it may at least sometimes be desirable to specify
11838 connection-related ones via this variable, e.g.,
11839 .Ql -d server.example.com -p 783 .
11843 \*(OP Specify a username for per-user configuration files for the
11845 .Va spam-interface .
11846 If this is set to the empty string then \*(UA will use the name of the
11855 .It Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , \
11856 spamfilter-nospam , spamfilter-rate , spamfilter-spam
11857 \*(OP Command and argument hooks for the
11859 .Va spam-interface .
11861 .Sx "Handling spam"
11862 contains examples for some programs.
11865 .It Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore
11866 \*(OP Because of the generic nature of the
11869 spam scores are not supported for it by default, but if the \*(OPnal
11870 regular expression support is available then setting this variable can
11871 be used to overcome this restriction.
11872 It is interpreted as follows: first a number (digits) is parsed that
11873 must be followed by a semicolon
11875 and an extended regular expression.
11876 Then the latter is used to parse the first output line of the
11877 .Va spamfilter-rate
11878 hook, and, in case the evaluation is successful, the group that has been
11879 specified via the number is interpreted as a floating point scan score.
11881 .It Va ssl-ca-dir-USER@HOST , ssl-ca-dir-HOST , ssl-ca-dir ,\
11882 ssl-ca-file-USER@HOST , ssl-ca-file-HOST , ssl-ca-file
11883 \*(OB\*(OP Predecessors of
11887 .It Va ssl-ca-flags-USER@HOST , ssl-ca-flags-HOST , ssl-ca-flags
11888 \*(OB\*(OP Predecessor of
11891 .It Va ssl-ca-no-defaults-USER@HOST , ssl-ca-no-defaults-HOST ,\
11893 \*(OB\*(BO\*(OP Predecessor of
11894 .Va tls-ca-no-defaults .
11896 .It Va ssl-cert-USER@HOST , ssl-cert-HOST , ssl-cert
11897 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11900 .Va tls-config-pairs .
11902 .It Va ssl-cipher-list-USER@HOST , ssl-cipher-list-HOST , ssl-cipher-list
11903 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11906 .Va tls-config-pairs .
11908 .It Va ssl-config-file
11909 \*(OB\*(OP Predecessor of
11910 .Va tls-config-file .
11912 .It Va ssl-config-module-USER@HOST , ssl-config-module-HOST ,\
11914 \*(OB\*(OP Predecessor of
11915 .Va tls-config-module .
11917 .It Va ssl-config-pairs-USER@HOST , ssl-config-pairs-HOST , ssl-config-pairs
11918 \*(OB\*(OP Predecessor of
11919 .Va tls-config-pairs .
11921 .It Va ssl-crl-dir , ssl-crl-file
11922 \*(OB\*(OP Predecessors of
11926 .It Va ssl-curves-USER@HOST , ssl-curves-HOST , ssl-curves
11927 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11930 .Va tls-config-pairs .
11932 .It Va ssl-features
11933 \*(OB\*(OP\*(RO Predecessor of
11936 .It Va ssl-key-USER@HOST , ssl-key-HOST , ssl-key
11937 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11940 .Va tls-config-pairs .
11942 .It Va ssl-method-USER@HOST , ssl-method-HOST , ssl-method
11943 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11946 .Va tls-config-pairs .
11948 .It Va ssl-protocol-USER@HOST , ssl-protocol-HOST , ssl-protocol
11949 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11952 .Va tls-config-pairs .
11954 .It Va ssl-rand-file
11955 \*(OB\*(OP Predecessor of
11956 .Va tls-rand-file .
11958 .It Va ssl-verify-USER@HOST , ssl-verify-HOST , ssl-verify
11959 \*(OB\*(OP Predecessor of
11964 If only set without an assigned value, then this setting inhibits the
11970 header fields that include obvious references to \*(UA.
11971 There are two pitfalls associated with this:
11972 First, the message id of outgoing messages is not known anymore.
11973 Second, an expert may still use the remaining information in the header
11974 to track down the originating mail user agent.
11975 If set to the value
11981 suppression does not occur.
11984 .It Va system-mailrc
11985 \*(RO The compiled in path of the system wide initialization file
11987 .Sx "Resource files" :
11993 (\*(OP) This specifies a comma-separated list of
11998 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" ,
11999 escape commas with reverse solidus) to be used to overwrite or define
12002 this variable will only be queried once at program startup and can
12003 thus only be specified in resource files or on the command line.
12006 String capabilities form
12008 pairs and are expected unless noted otherwise.
12009 Numerics have to be notated as
12011 where the number is expected in normal decimal notation.
12012 Finally, booleans do not have any value but indicate a true or false
12013 state simply by being defined or not; this indeed means that \*(UA
12014 does not support undefining an existing boolean.
12015 String capability values will undergo some expansions before use:
12016 for one notations like
12019 .Ql control-LETTER ,
12020 and for clarification purposes
12022 can be used to specify
12024 (the control notation
12026 could lead to misreadings when a left bracket follows, which it does for
12027 the standard CSI sequence);
12028 finally three letter octal sequences, as in
12031 To specify that a terminal supports 256-colours, and to define sequences
12032 that home the cursor and produce an audible bell, one might write:
12034 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12035 ? set termcap='Co#256,home=\eE[H,bel=^G'
12039 The following terminal capabilities are or may be meaningful for the
12040 operation of the built-in line editor or \*(UA in general:
12043 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Cd yay"
12045 .It Cd colors Ns \0or Cd Co
12047 numeric capability specifying the maximum number of colours.
12048 Note that \*(UA does not actually care about the terminal beside that,
12049 but always emits ANSI / ISO 6429 escape sequences.
12052 .It Cd rmcup Ns \0or Cd te Ns \0/ Cd smcup Ns \0or Cd ti
12055 .Cd enter_ca_mode ,
12056 respectively: exit and enter the alternative screen ca-mode,
12057 effectively turning \*(UA into a fullscreen application.
12058 This must be enabled explicitly by setting
12059 .Va termcap-ca-mode .
12061 .It Cd smkx Ns \0or Cd ks Ns \0/ Cd rmkx Ns \0or Cd ke
12065 respectively: enable and disable the keypad.
12066 This is always enabled if available, because it seems even keyboards
12067 without keypads generate other key codes for, e.g., cursor keys in that
12068 case, and only if enabled we see the codes that we are interested in.
12070 .It Cd ed Ns \0or Cd cd
12074 .It Cd clear Ns \0or Cd cl
12076 clear the screen and home cursor.
12077 (Will be simulated via
12082 .It Cd home Ns \0or Cd ho
12087 .It Cd el Ns \0or Cd ce
12089 clear to the end of line.
12090 (Will be simulated via
12092 plus repetitions of space characters.)
12094 .It Cd hpa Ns \0or Cd ch
12095 .Cd column_address :
12096 move the cursor (to the given column parameter) in the current row.
12097 (Will be simulated via
12103 .Cd carriage_return :
12104 move to the first column in the current row.
12105 The default built-in fallback is
12108 .It Cd cub1 Ns \0or Cd le
12110 move the cursor left one space (non-destructively).
12111 The default built-in fallback is
12114 .It Cd cuf1 Ns \0or Cd nd
12116 move the cursor right one space (non-destructively).
12117 The default built-in fallback is
12119 which is used by most terminals.
12127 Many more capabilities which describe key-sequences are documented for
12132 .It Va termcap-ca-mode
12133 \*(OP Allow usage of the
12137 terminal capabilities, see
12140 this variable will only be queried once at program startup and can
12141 thus only be specified in resource files or on the command line.
12144 .It Va termcap-disable
12145 \*(OP Disable any interaction with a terminal control library.
12146 If set only some generic fallback built-ins and possibly the content of
12148 describe the terminal to \*(UA.
12150 this variable will only be queried once at program startup and can
12151 thus only be specified in resource files or on the command line.
12155 .It Va tls-ca-dir-USER@HOST , tls-ca-dir-HOST , tls-ca-dir ,\
12156 tls-ca-file-USER@HOST , tls-ca-file-HOST , tls-ca-file
12157 \*(OP Directory and file, respectively, for pools of trusted CA
12158 certificates in PEM (Privacy Enhanced Mail) format, for the purpose of
12159 verification of TLS server certificates.
12160 Concurrent use is possible, the file is loaded once needed first, the
12161 directory lookup is performed anew as a last resort whenever necessary.
12162 The CA certificate pool built into the TLS library can be disabled via
12163 .Va tls-ca-no-defaults ,
12164 further fine-tuning is possible via
12166 Note the directory search variant requires the certificate files to
12167 adhere special filename conventions, please see
12168 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
12175 .Mx Va tls-ca-flags
12176 .It Va tls-ca-flags-USER@HOST , tls-ca-flags-HOST , tls-ca-flags
12177 \*(OP Can be used to fine-tune behaviour of the X509 CA certificate
12178 storage, and the certificate verification that is used (also see
12180 The value is expected to consist of a comma-separated list of
12181 configuration directives, with any intervening whitespace being ignored.
12182 The directives directly map to flags that can be passed to
12183 .Xr X509_STORE_set_flags 3 ,
12184 which are usually defined in a file
12185 .Pa openssl/x509_vfy.h ,
12186 and the availability of which depends on the used TLS library
12187 version: a directive without mapping is ignored (error log subject to
12189 Directives currently understood (case-insensitively) include:
12192 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Cd BaNg"
12193 .It Cd no-alt-chains
12194 If the initial chain is not trusted, do not attempt to build an
12196 Setting this flag will make OpenSSL certificate verification match that
12197 of older OpenSSL versions, before automatic building and checking of
12198 alternative chains has been implemented; also see
12199 .Cd trusted-first .
12200 .It Cd no-check-time
12201 Do not check certificate/CRL validity against current time.
12202 .It Cd partial-chain
12203 By default partial, incomplete chains which cannot be verified up to the
12204 chain top, a self-signed root certificate, will not verify.
12205 With this flag set, a chain succeeds to verify if at least one signing
12206 certificate of the chain is in any of the configured trusted stores of
12208 The OpenSSL manual page
12209 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
12210 gives some advise how to manage your own trusted store of CA certificates.
12212 Disable workarounds for broken certificates.
12213 .It Cd trusted-first
12214 Try building a chain using issuers in the trusted store first to avoid
12215 problems with server-sent legacy intermediate certificates.
12216 Newer versions of OpenSSL support alternative chain checking and enable
12217 it by default, resulting in the same behaviour; also see
12218 .Cd no-alt-chains .
12222 .Mx Va tls-ca-no-defaults
12223 .It Va tls-ca-no-defaults-USER@HOST , tls-ca-no-defaults-HOST ,\
12225 \*(BO\*(OP Do not load the default CA locations that are built into the
12226 used to TLS library to verify TLS server certificates.
12229 .It Va tls-config-file
12230 \*(OP If this variable is set
12231 .Xr CONF_modules_load_file 3
12233 .Ql +modules-load-file
12236 is used to allow resource file based configuration of the TLS library.
12237 This happens once the library is used first, which may also be early
12238 during startup (logged with
12240 If a non-empty value is given then the given file, after performing
12241 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
12242 will be used instead of the TLS libraries global default, and it is an
12243 error if the file cannot be loaded.
12244 The application name will always be passed as
12246 Some TLS libraries support application-specific configuration via
12247 resource files loaded like this, please see
12248 .Va tls-config-module .
12250 .Mx Va tls-config-module
12251 .It Va tls-config-module-USER@HOST , tls-config-module-HOST ,\
12253 \*(OP If file based application-specific configuration via
12254 .Va tls-config-file
12255 is available, announced as
12259 indicating availability of
12260 .Xr SSL_CTX_config 3 ,
12261 then, it becomes possible to use a central TLS configuration file
12262 for all programs, including \*(uA, e.g.:
12263 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12264 # Register a configuration section for \*(uA
12265 \*(uA = mailx_master
12266 # The top configuration section creates a relation
12267 # in between dynamic SSL configuration and an actual
12268 # program specific configuration section
12270 ssl_conf = mailx_tls_config
12271 # Well that actual program specific configuration section
12272 # now can map individual tls-config-module names to sections,
12273 # e.g., tls-config-module=account_xy
12275 account_xy = mailx_account_xy
12276 account_yz = mailx_account_yz
12278 MinProtocol = TLSv1.2
12281 CipherString = TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:
12282 MinProtocol = TLSv1.1
12287 .Mx Va tls-config-pairs
12288 .It Va tls-config-pairs-USER@HOST , tls-config-pairs-HOST , tls-config-pairs
12289 \*(OP The value of this variable chain will be interpreted as
12290 a comma-separated list of directive/value pairs.
12291 Directives and values need to be separated by equals signs
12293 any whitespace surrounding pair members is removed.
12294 Keys are (usually) case-insensitive.
12295 Different to when placing these pairs in a
12296 .Va tls-config-module
12298 .Va tls-config-file ,
12301 need to be escaped with a reverse solidus
12303 when included in pairs; also different: if the equals sign
12305 is preceded with an asterisk
12307 .Sx "Filename transformations"
12308 will be performed on the value; it is an error if these fail.
12309 Unless proper support is announced by
12311 .Pf ( Ql +conf-ctx )
12312 only the keys below are supported, otherwise the pairs will be used
12313 directly as arguments to the function
12314 .Xr SSL_CONF_cmd 3 .
12317 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Cd C_rtificate_"
12319 Filename of a TLS client certificate (chain) required by some servers.
12320 Fallback support via
12321 .Xr SSL_CTX_use_certificate_chain_file 3 .
12322 .Sx "Filename transformations"
12324 .\" v15compat: remove the next sentence
12326 if you use this you need to specify the private key via
12331 .It Cd CipherString
12332 A list of ciphers for TLS connections, see
12334 By default no list of ciphers is set, resulting in a
12335 .Cd Protocol Ns - Ns
12336 specific list of ciphers (the protocol standards define lists of
12337 acceptable ciphers; possibly cramped by the used TLS library).
12338 Fallback support via
12339 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_cipher_list 3 .
12341 .It Cd Ciphersuites
12342 A list of ciphers used for TLSv1.3 connections, see
12344 These will be joined onto the list of ciphers from
12349 .Ql +ctx-set-ciphersuites ,
12351 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_ciphersuites 3 .
12354 A list of supported elliptic curves, if applicable.
12355 By default no curves are set.
12356 Fallback support via
12357 .Xr SSL_CTX_set1_curves_list 3 ,
12360 .It Cd MaxProtocol , MinProtocol
12361 The maximum and minimum supported TLS versions, respectively.
12365 .Ql +ctx-set-maxmin-proto ,
12367 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_max_proto_version 3
12369 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_min_proto_version 3 ;
12370 these fallbacks use an internal parser which understands the strings
12376 and the special value
12378 which disables the given limit.
12381 Various flags to set.
12383 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_options 3 ,
12384 in which case any other value but (exactly)
12386 results in an error.
12389 Filename of the private key in PEM format of a TLS client certificate.
12390 If unset, the name of the certificate file is used.
12391 .Sx "Filename transformations"
12394 .Xr SSL_CTX_use_PrivateKey_file 3 .
12395 .\" v15compat: remove the next sentence
12397 if you use this you need to specify the certificate (chain) via
12403 The used TLS protocol.
12409 .Ql ctx-set-maxmin-proto
12416 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_options 3 ,
12417 driven via an internal parser which understands the strings
12423 and the special value
12425 Multiple protocols may be given as a comma-separated list, any
12426 whitespace is ignored, an optional plus sign
12428 prefix enables, a hyphen-minus
12430 prefix disables a protocol, so that
12432 enables only the TLSv1.2 protocol.
12438 .It Va tls-crl-dir , tls-crl-file
12439 \*(OP Specify a directory / a file, respectively, that contains a CRL in
12440 PEM format to use when verifying TLS server certificates.
12443 .It Va tls-features
12444 \*(OP\*(RO This expands to a comma separated list of the TLS library
12445 identity and optional SSL library features.
12446 Currently supported identities are
12450 (OpenSSL v1.1.x series)
12453 (elder OpenSSL series, other clones).
12454 Optional features are preceded with a plus sign
12456 when available, and with a hyphen-minus
12460 Currently known features are
12461 .Ql modules-load-file
12462 .Pf ( Va tls-config-file ) ,
12464 .Pf ( Va tls-config-pairs ) ,
12466 .Pf ( Va tls-config-module ) ,
12467 .Ql ctx-set-maxmin-proto
12468 .Pf ( Va tls-config-pairs ) ,
12469 .Ql ctx-set-ciphersuites
12473 .Va tls-config-pairs ) .
12475 .Mx Va tls-fingerprint
12476 .It Va tls-fingerprint-USER@HOST , tls-fingerprint-HOST , tls-fingerprint
12477 \*(OP It is possible to replace the verification of the connection
12478 peer certificate against the entire local pool of CAs (for more see
12479 .Sx "Encrypted network communication" )
12480 with the comparison against a precalculated certificate message digest,
12481 the so-called fingerprint, to be specified as the used
12482 .Va tls-fingerprint-digest .
12483 This fingerprint can be calculated with, e.g.,
12484 .Ql Ic tls Ns \:\0\:fingerprint HOST .
12486 .Mx Va tls-fingerprint-digest
12487 .It Va tls-fingerprint-digest-USER@HOST , tls-fingerprint-digest-HOST , \
12488 tls-fingerprint-digest
12489 \*(OP The message digest to be used when creating TLS certificate
12490 fingerprints, the defaults, if available, in test order, being
12493 For the complete list of digest algorithms refer to
12494 .Va smime-sign-digest .
12497 .It Va tls-rand-file
12498 \*(OP Gives the filename to a file with random entropy data, see
12499 .Xr RAND_load_file 3 .
12500 If this variable is not set, or set to the empty string, or if the
12501 .Sx "Filename transformations"
12503 .Xr RAND_file_name 3
12504 will be used to create the filename.
12505 If the SSL PRNG was seeded successfully
12506 The file will be updated
12507 .Pf ( Xr RAND_write_file 3 )
12508 if and only if seeding and buffer stirring succeeds.
12511 .It Va tls-verify-USER@HOST , tls-verify-HOST , tls-verify
12512 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the action to be performed if an error
12513 occurs during TLS server certificate validation against the
12514 specified or default trust stores
12517 or the TLS library built-in defaults (unless usage disallowed via
12518 .Va tls-ca-no-defaults ) ,
12519 and as fine-tuned via
12521 Valid (case-insensitive) values are
12523 (fail and close connection immediately),
12525 (ask whether to continue on standard input),
12527 (show a warning and continue),
12529 (do not perform validation).
12534 If defined, gives the number of lines of a message to be displayed
12537 if unset, the first five lines are printed, if set to 0 the variable
12540 If the value is negative then its absolute value will be used for
12541 unsigned right shifting (see
12549 \*(BO If set then the
12551 command series will strip adjacent empty lines and quotations.
12555 The character set of the terminal \*(UA operates on,
12556 and the one and only supported character set that \*(UA can use if no
12557 character set conversion capabilities have been compiled into it,
12558 in which case it defaults to ISO-8859-1.
12559 Otherwise it defaults to UTF-8.
12560 Sufficient locale support provided the default will be preferably
12561 deduced from the locale environment if that is set (e.g.,
12563 see there for more); runtime locale changes will be reflected by
12565 except during the program startup phase and if
12567 had been used to freeze the given value.
12568 Refer to the section
12569 .Sx "Character sets"
12570 for the complete picture about character sets.
12573 .It Va typescript-mode
12574 \*(BO A special multiplex variable that disables all variables and
12575 settings which result in behaviour that interferes with running \*(UA in
12578 .Va colour-disable ,
12579 .Va line-editor-disable
12580 and (before startup completed only)
12581 .Va termcap-disable .
12582 Unsetting it does not restore the former state of the covered settings.
12586 For a safe-by-default policy the process file mode creation mask
12590 on program startup by default.
12591 Child processes inherit the file mode creation mask of their parent, and
12592 by setting this variable to an empty value no change will be applied,
12593 and the inherited value will be used.
12594 Otherwise the given value will be made the new file mode creation mask.
12597 .It Va user-HOST , user
12598 \*(IN Variable chain that sets a global fallback user name, which is
12599 used in case none has been given in the protocol and account-specific
12601 This variable defaults to the name of the user who runs \*(UA.
12605 \*(BO Setting this enables upward compatibility with \*(UA
12606 version 15.0 in respect to which configuration options are available and
12607 how they are handled.
12608 This manual uses \*(IN and \*(OU to refer to the new and the old way of
12609 doing things, respectively.
12613 \*(BO This setting, also controllable via the command line option
12615 causes \*(UA to be more verbose, e.g., it will display obsoletion
12616 warnings and TLS certificate chains.
12617 Even though marked \*(BO this option may be set twice in order to
12618 increase the level of verbosity even more, in which case even details of
12619 the actual message delivery and protocol conversations are shown.
12622 is sufficient to disable verbosity as such.
12629 .It Va version , version-date , \
12630 version-hexnum , version-major , version-minor , version-update
12631 \*(RO \*(UA version information: the first variable is a string with
12632 the complete version identification, the second the release date in ISO
12633 8601 notation without time.
12634 The third is a 32-bit hexadecimal number with the upper 8 bits storing
12635 the major, followed by the minor and update version numbers which occupy
12637 The latter three variables contain only decimal digits: the major, minor
12638 and update version numbers.
12639 The output of the command
12641 will include this information.
12644 .It Va writebackedited
12645 If this variable is set messages modified using the
12649 commands are written back to the current folder when it is quit;
12650 it is only honoured for writable folders in MBOX format, though.
12651 Note that the editor will be pointed to the raw message content in that
12652 case, i.e., neither MIME decoding nor decryption will have been
12653 performed, and proper RFC 4155
12655 quoting of newly added or edited content is also left as an exercise to
12658 .\" }}} (Variables)
12660 .\" }}} (INTERNAL VARIABLES)
12663 .\" .Sh ENVIRONMENT {{{
12667 .Dq environment variable
12668 should be considered an indication that these variables are either
12669 standardized as vivid parts of process environments, or that they are
12670 commonly found in there.
12671 The process environment is inherited from the
12673 once \*(UA is started, and unless otherwise explicitly noted handling of
12674 the following variables transparently integrates into that of the
12675 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
12676 from \*(UA's point of view.
12677 This means that, e.g., they can be managed via
12681 causing automatic program environment updates (to be inherited by
12682 newly created child processes).
12685 In order to transparently integrate other environment variables equally
12686 they need to be imported (linked) with the command
12688 This command can also be used to set and unset non-integrated
12689 environment variables from scratch, sufficient system support provided.
12690 The following example, applicable to a POSIX shell, sets the
12692 environment variable for \*(UA only, and beforehand exports the
12694 in order to affect any further processing in the running shell:
12696 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12697 $ EDITOR="vim -u ${HOME}/.vimrc"
12699 $ COLUMNS=80 \*(uA -R
12702 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ev BaNg"
12705 The user's preferred width in column positions for the terminal screen
12707 Queried and used once on program startup, actively managed for child
12708 processes and the MLE (see
12709 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
12710 in interactive mode thereafter.
12711 Ignored in non-interactive mode, which always uses 80 columns, unless in
12717 The name of the (mailbox)
12719 to use for saving aborted messages if
12721 is set; this defaults to
12725 is set no output will be generated, otherwise the contents of the file
12730 Pathname of the text editor to use for the
12734 .Pf (see\0 Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ) ;
12736 is used for a more display oriented editor.
12740 The user's home directory.
12741 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
12742 The calling user's home directory will be used instead if this directory
12743 does not exist, is not accessible or cannot be read;
12744 it will always be used for the root user.
12745 (No test for being writable is performed to allow usage by
12746 non-privileged users within read-only jails, but dependent on the
12747 variable settings this directory is a default write target, e.g. for
12755 .It Ev LC_ALL , LC_CTYPE , LANG
12756 \*(OP The (names in lookup order of the)
12760 which indicates the used
12761 .Sx "Character sets" .
12762 Runtime changes trigger automatic updates of the entire locale system,
12763 which includes updating
12765 (except during startup if the variable has been frozen via
12770 The user's preferred number of lines on a page or the vertical screen
12771 or window size in lines.
12772 Queried and used once on program startup, actively managed for child
12773 processes in interactive mode thereafter.
12774 Ignored in non-interactive mode, which always uses 24 lines, unless in
12780 Pathname of the directory lister to use in the
12782 command when operating on local mailboxes.
12785 (path search through
12790 Upon startup \*(UA will actively ensure that this variable refers to the
12791 name of the user who runs \*(UA, in order to be able to pass a verified
12792 name to any newly created child process.
12796 Is used as the user's
12798 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
12802 This is assumed to be an absolute pathname.
12803 If this environmental fallback is also not set, a built-in compile-time
12808 \*(OP Overrides the default path search for
12809 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
12810 which is defined in the standard RFC 1524 as
12811 .Ql ~/.mailcap:\:/etc/mailcap:\:/usr/etc/mailcap:\:/usr/local/etc/mailcap .
12812 .\" TODO we should have a mailcaps-default virtual RDONLY option!
12813 (\*(UA makes it a configuration option, however.)
12814 Note this is not a search path, but a path search.
12818 Is used as a startup file instead of
12821 In order to avoid side-effects from configuration files scripts should
12822 either set this variable to
12826 command line option should be used.
12829 .It Ev MAILX_NO_SYSTEM_RC
12830 If this variable is set then reading of
12833 .Va system-mailrc )
12834 at startup is inhibited, i.e., the same effect is achieved as if \*(UA
12835 had been started up with the option
12837 (and according argument) or
12839 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
12843 The name of the user's
12845 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
12847 A logical subset of the special
12848 .Sx "Filename transformations"
12854 Traditionally this MBOX is used as the file to save messages from the
12856 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
12857 that have been read.
12859 .Sx "Message states" .
12863 \*(IN\*(OP This variable overrides the default location of the user's
12869 Pathname of the program to use for backing the command
12873 variable enforces usage of a pager for output.
12874 The default paginator is
12876 (path search through
12879 \*(UA inspects the contents of this variable: if its contains the string
12881 then a non-existing environment variable
12888 will optionally be set to
12895 A colon-separated list of directories that is searched by the shell when
12896 looking for commands, e.g.,
12897 .Ql /bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin .
12900 .It Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT
12901 This variable is automatically looked for upon startup, see
12907 The shell to use for the commands
12912 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
12913 and when starting subprocesses.
12914 A default shell is used if this environment variable is not defined.
12917 .It Ev SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
12918 Specifies a time in seconds since the Unix epoch (1970-01-01) to be
12919 used in place of the current time.
12920 This variable is looked up upon program startup, and its existence will
12921 switch \*(UA to a reproducible mode
12922 .Pf ( Lk https://reproducible-builds.org )
12923 which uses deterministic random numbers, a special fixated pseudo
12926 This operation mode is used for development and by software packagers.
12927 \*(ID Currently an invalid setting is only ignored, rather than causing
12928 a program abortion.
12930 .Dl $ SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH=`date +%s` \*(uA
12934 \*(OP The terminal type for which output is to be prepared.
12935 For extended colour and font control please refer to
12936 .Sx "Coloured display" ,
12937 and for terminal management in general to
12938 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" .
12942 Except for the root user this variable defines the directory for
12943 temporary files to be used instead of
12945 (or the given compile-time constant) if set, existent, accessible as
12946 well as read- and writable.
12947 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment,
12948 but \*(UA will ensure at startup that this environment variable is
12949 updated to contain a usable temporary directory.
12955 (see there), but this variable is not standardized, should therefore not
12956 be used, and is only corrected if already set.
12960 Pathname of the text editor to use for the
12964 .Pf (see\0 Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ) ;
12966 is used for a less display oriented editor.
12976 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa BaNg"
12978 User-specific file giving initial commands, one of the
12979 .Sx "Resource files" .
12980 The actual value is read from
12984 System wide initialization file, one of the
12985 .Sx "Resource files" .
12986 The actual value is read from
12987 .Va system-mailrc .
12991 \*(OP Personal MIME type handler definition file, see
12992 .Sx "The Mailcap files" .
12993 This location is part of the RFC 1524 standard search path, which is
12994 a configuration option and can be overridden via
12998 .It Pa /etc/mailcap
12999 \*(OP System wide MIME type handler definition file, see
13000 .Sx "The Mailcap files" .
13001 This location is part of the RFC 1524 standard search path, which is
13002 a configuration option and can be overridden via
13006 The default value for
13011 Personal MIME types, see
13012 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
13016 System wide MIME types, see
13017 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
13021 \*(IN\*(OP The default location of the user's
13023 file \(en the section
13024 .Sx "The .netrc file"
13025 documents the file format.
13026 The actually used path can be overridden via
13036 .\" .Ss "Resource files" {{{
13037 .Ss "Resource files"
13039 Upon startup \*(UA reads in several resource files, in order:
13041 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa BaNg"
13044 System wide initialization file
13045 .Pf ( Va system-mailrc ) .
13046 Reading of this file can be suppressed, either by using the
13048 (and according argument) or
13050 command line options, or by setting the
13053 .Ev MAILX_NO_SYSTEM_RC .
13057 File giving initial commands.
13058 A different file can be chosen by setting the
13062 Reading of this file can be suppressed with the
13064 command line option.
13066 .It Va mailx-extra-rc
13067 Defines a startup file to be read after all other resource files.
13068 It can be used to specify settings that are not understood by other
13070 implementations, for example.
13071 This variable is only honoured when defined in a resource file, e.g.,
13073 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" .
13077 The content of these files is interpreted as follows:
13080 .Bl -bullet -compact
13082 The whitespace characters space, tabulator and newline,
13083 as well as those defined by the variable
13085 are removed from the beginning and end of input lines.
13087 Empty lines are ignored.
13089 Any other line is interpreted as a command.
13090 It may be spread over multiple input lines if the newline character is
13092 by placing a reverse solidus character
13094 as the last character of the line; whereas any leading whitespace of
13095 follow lines is ignored, trailing whitespace before a escaped newline
13096 remains in the input.
13098 If the line (content) starts with the number sign
13100 then it is a comment-command and also ignored.
13101 (The comment-command is a real command, which does nothing, and
13102 therefore the usual follow lines mechanism applies!)
13106 Unless \*(UA is about to enter interactive mode syntax errors that occur
13107 while loading these files are treated as errors and cause program exit.
13108 More files with syntactically equal content can be
13110 The following, saved in a file, would be an examplary content:
13112 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13113 # This line is a comment command. And y\e
13114 es, it is really continued here.
13121 .\" .Ss "The mime.types files" {{{
13122 .Ss "The mime.types files"
13125 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments"
13126 \*(UA needs to learn about MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions)
13127 media types in order to classify message and attachment content.
13128 One source for them are
13130 files, the loading of which can be controlled by setting the variable
13131 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
13132 Another is the command
13134 which also offers access to \*(UAs MIME type cache.
13136 files have the following syntax:
13138 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13139 type/subtype extension [extension ...]
13140 # E.g., text/html html htm
13146 define the MIME media type, as standardized in RFC 2046:
13148 is used to declare the general type of data, while the
13150 specifies a specific format for that type of data.
13151 One or multiple filename
13153 s, separated by whitespace, can be bound to the media type format.
13154 Comments may be introduced anywhere on a line with a number sign
13156 causing the remaining line to be discarded.
13158 \*(UA also supports an extended, non-portable syntax in especially
13159 crafted files, which can be loaded via the alternative value syntax of
13160 .Va mimetypes-load-control ,
13161 and prepends an optional
13165 .Dl [type-marker ]type/subtype extension [extension ...]
13168 The following type markers are supported:
13171 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar _n_u"
13173 Treat message parts with this content as plain text.
13178 Treat message parts with this content as HTML tagsoup.
13179 If the \*(OPal HTML-tagsoup-to-text converter is not available treat
13180 the content as plain text instead.
13184 but instead of falling back to plain text require an explicit content
13185 handler to be defined.
13187 If no handler can be found a text message is displayed which says so.
13188 This can be annoying, for example signatures serve a contextual purpose,
13189 their content is of no use by itself.
13190 This marker will avoid displaying the text message.
13195 for sending messages:
13197 .Va mime-allow-text-controls ,
13198 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
13199 For reading etc. messages:
13200 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ,
13201 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
13203 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
13204 .Va mimetypes-load-control ,
13205 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE ,
13206 .Va pipe-EXTENSION .
13209 .\" .Ss "The Mailcap files" {{{
13210 .Ss "The Mailcap files"
13212 .\" TODO MAILCAP DISABLED
13213 .Sy This feature is not available in v14.9.0, sorry!
13215 .Dq User Agent Configuration Mechanism
13216 which \*(UA \*(OPally supports (see
13217 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ) .
13218 It defines a file format to be used to inform mail user agent programs
13219 about the locally-installed facilities for handling various data
13220 formats, i.e., about commands and how they can be used to display, edit
13221 et cetera MIME part contents, as well as a default path search that
13222 includes multiple possible locations of
13226 environment variable that can be used to overwrite that (repeating here
13227 that it is not a search path, but instead a path search specification).
13228 Any existing files will be loaded in sequence, appending any content to
13229 the list of MIME type handler directives.
13233 files consist of a set of newline separated entries.
13234 Comment lines start with a number sign
13236 (in the first column!) and are ignored.
13237 Empty lines are also ignored.
13238 All other lines form individual entries that must adhere to the syntax
13240 To extend a single entry (not comment) its line can be continued on
13241 follow lines if newline characters are
13243 by preceding them with the reverse solidus character
13245 The standard does not specify how leading whitespace of follow lines
13246 is to be treated, therefore \*(UA retains it.
13250 entries consist of a number of semicolon
13252 separated fields, and the reverse solidus
13254 character can be used to escape any following character including
13255 semicolon and itself.
13256 The first two fields are mandatory and must occur in the specified
13257 order, the remaining fields are optional and may appear in any order.
13258 Leading and trailing whitespace of content is ignored (removed).
13261 The first field defines the MIME
13263 the entry is about to handle (case-insensitively, and no reverse solidus
13264 escaping is possible in this field).
13265 If the subtype is specified as an asterisk
13267 the entry is meant to match all subtypes of the named type, e.g.,
13269 would match any audio type.
13270 The second field defines the shell command which shall be used to
13272 MIME parts of the given type; it is implicitly called the
13279 shell commands message (MIME part) data is passed via standard input
13280 unless the given shell command includes one or more instances of the
13283 in which case these instances will be replaced with a temporary filename
13284 and the data will have been stored in the file that is being pointed to.
13287 shell commands data is assumed to be generated on standard output unless
13288 the given command includes (one ore multiple)
13290 In any case any given
13292 format is replaced with a(n already) properly quoted filename.
13293 Note that when a command makes use of a temporary file via
13295 then \*(UA will remove it again, as if the
13296 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile ,
13297 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill
13299 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
13300 flags had been set; see below for more.
13303 The optional fields either define a shell command or an attribute (flag)
13304 value, the latter being a single word and the former being a keyword
13305 naming the field followed by an equals sign
13307 succeeded by a shell command, and as usual for any
13309 content any whitespace surrounding the equals sign will be removed, too.
13310 Optional fields include the following:
13313 .Bl -tag -width ".It Cd BaNg"
13315 A program that can be used to compose a new body or body part in the
13317 (Currently unused.)
13319 .It Cd composetyped
13322 field, but is to be used when the composing program needs to specify the
13324 header field to be applied to the composed data.
13325 (Currently unused.)
13328 A program that can be used to edit a body or body part in the given
13330 (Currently unused.)
13333 A program that can be used to print a message or body part in the given
13335 (Currently unused.)
13338 Specifies a program to be run to test some condition, e.g., the machine
13339 architecture, or the window system in use, to determine whether or not
13340 this mailcap entry applies.
13341 If the test fails, a subsequent mailcap entry should be sought; also see
13342 .Cd x-mailx-test-once .
13345 .It Cd needsterminal
13346 This flag field indicates that the given shell command must be run on
13347 an interactive terminal.
13348 \*(UA will temporarily release the terminal to the given command in
13349 interactive mode, in non-interactive mode this entry will be entirely
13350 ignored; this flag implies
13351 .Cd x-mailx-noquote .
13354 .It Cd copiousoutput
13355 A flag field which indicates that the output of the
13357 command will be an extended stream of textual output that can be
13358 (re)integrated into \*(UA's normal visual display.
13359 It is mutually exclusive with
13360 .Cd needsterminal .
13362 .It Cd textualnewlines
13363 A flag field which indicates that this type of data is line-oriented and
13364 that, if encoded in
13366 all newlines should be converted to canonical form (CRLF) before
13367 encoding, and will be in that form after decoding.
13368 (Currently unused.)
13370 .It Cd nametemplate
13371 This field gives a filename format, in which
13373 will be replaced by a random string, the joined combination of which
13374 will be used as the filename denoted by
13375 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY .
13376 One could specify that a GIF file being passed to an image viewer should
13377 have a name ending in
13380 .Ql nametemplate=%s.gif .
13381 Note that \*(UA ignores the name template unless that solely specifies
13382 a filename suffix that consists of (ASCII) alphabetic and numeric
13383 characters, the underscore and dot only.
13386 Names a file, in X11 bitmap (xbm) format, which points to an appropriate
13387 icon to be used to visually denote the presence of this kind of data.
13388 This field is not used by \*(UA.
13391 A textual description that describes this type of data.
13394 .It Cd x-mailx-even-if-not-interactive
13395 An extension flag test field \(em by default handlers without
13397 are entirely ignored in non-interactive mode, but if this flag is set
13398 then their use will be considered.
13399 It is an error if this flag is set for commands that use the flag
13400 .Cd needsterminal .
13403 .It Cd x-mailx-noquote
13404 An extension flag field that indicates that even a
13407 command shall not be used to generate message quotes
13408 (as it would be by default).
13411 .It Cd x-mailx-async
13412 Extension flag field that denotes that the given
13414 command shall be executed asynchronously, without blocking \*(UA.
13415 Cannot be used in conjunction with
13416 .Cd needsterminal .
13419 .It Cd x-mailx-test-once
13420 Extension flag which denotes whether the given
13422 command shall be evaluated once only and the (boolean) result be cached.
13423 This is handy if some global unchanging condition is to be queried, like
13424 .Dq running under the X Window System .
13427 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile
13428 Extension flag field that requests creation of a zero-sized temporary
13429 file, the name of which is to be placed in the environment variable
13430 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY .
13431 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
13436 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill
13437 Normally the MIME part content is passed to the handler via standard
13438 input; if this flag is set then the data will instead be written into
13440 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile .
13441 In order to cause deletion of the temporary file you will have to set
13442 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
13444 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
13449 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
13450 Extension flag field that requests that the temporary file shall be
13451 deleted automatically when the command loop is entered again at latest.
13452 (Do not use this for asynchronous handlers.)
13453 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
13455 format, or in conjunction with
13456 .Cd x-mailx-async ,
13457 or without also setting
13458 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile
13460 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill .
13463 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-keep
13466 implies the three tmpfile related flags above, but if you want, e.g.,
13468 and deal with the temporary file yourself, you can add in this flag to
13470 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink .
13475 The standard includes the possibility to define any number of additional
13476 entry fields, prefixed by
13478 Flag fields apply to the entire
13480 entry \(em in some unusual cases, this may not be desirable, but
13481 differentiation can be accomplished via separate entries, taking
13482 advantage of the fact that subsequent entries are searched if an earlier
13483 one does not provide enough information.
13486 command needs to specify the
13490 command shall not, the following will help out the latter (with enabled
13494 level \*(UA will show information about handler evaluation):
13496 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13497 application/postscript; ps-to-terminal %s; needsterminal
13498 application/postscript; ps-to-terminal %s; compose=idraw %s
13502 In fields any occurrence of the format string
13504 will be replaced by the
13507 Named parameters from the
13509 field may be placed in the command execution line using
13511 followed by the parameter name and a closing
13514 The entire parameter should appear as a single command line argument,
13515 regardless of embedded spaces; thus:
13517 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13519 Content-type: multipart/mixed; boundary=42
13522 multipart/*; /usr/local/bin/showmulti \e
13523 %t %{boundary} ; composetyped = /usr/local/bin/makemulti
13525 # Executed shell command
13526 /usr/local/bin/showmulti multipart/mixed 42
13530 .\" TODO v15: Mailcap: %n,%F
13531 Note that \*(UA does not support handlers for multipart MIME parts as
13532 shown in this example (as of today).
13533 \*(UA does not support the additional formats
13537 An example file, also showing how to properly deal with the expansion of
13539 which includes any quotes that are necessary to make it a valid shell
13540 argument by itself and thus will cause undesired behaviour when placed
13541 in additional user-provided quotes:
13543 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13545 text/richtext; richtext %s; copiousoutput
13547 text/x-perl; perl -cWT %s
13549 application/pdf; \e
13551 trap "rm -f ${infile}" EXIT\e; \e
13552 trap "exit 75" INT QUIT TERM\e; \e
13554 x-mailx-async; x-mailx-tmpfile-keep
13556 application/*; echo "This is \e"%t\e" but \e
13557 is 50 \e% Greek to me" \e; < %s head -c 1024 | cat -vet; \e
13558 copiousoutput; x-mailx-noquote
13563 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ,
13564 .Sx "The mime.types files" ,
13567 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
13568 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE ,
13569 .Va pipe-EXTENSION .
13572 .\" .Ss "The .netrc file" {{{
13573 .Ss "The .netrc file"
13577 file contains user credentials for machine accounts.
13578 The default location
13580 may be overridden by the
13582 environment variable.
13583 It is possible to load encrypted
13585 files by using an appropriate value in
13589 The file consists of space, tabulator or newline separated tokens.
13590 \*(UA implements a parser that supports a superset of the original BSD
13591 syntax, but users should nonetheless be aware of portability glitches
13592 of that file format, shall their
13594 be usable across multiple programs and platforms:
13597 .Bl -bullet -compact
13599 BSD does not support single, but only double quotation marks, e.g.,
13600 .Ql password="pass with spaces" .
13602 BSD (only?) supports escaping of single characters via a reverse solidus
13603 (e.g., a space can be escaped via
13605 in- as well as outside of a quoted string.
13607 BSD does not require a final quotation mark of the last user input token.
13609 The original BSD (Berknet) parser also supported a format which allowed
13610 tokens to be separated with commas \(en whereas at least Hewlett-Packard
13611 still seems to support this syntax, \*(UA does not!
13613 As a non-portable extension some widely-used programs support
13614 shell-style comments: if an input line starts, after any amount of
13615 whitespace, with a number sign
13617 then the rest of the line is ignored.
13619 Whereas other programs may require that the
13621 file is accessible by only the user if it contains a
13623 token for any other
13627 \*(UA will always require these strict permissions.
13631 Of the following list of supported tokens \*(UA only uses (and caches)
13636 At runtime the command
13638 can be used to control \*(UA's
13642 .Bl -tag -width ".It Cd BaNg"
13643 .It Cd machine Ar name
13644 The hostname of the entries' machine, lowercase-normalized by \*(UA
13646 Any further file content, until either end-of-file or the occurrence
13651 first-class token is bound (only related) to the machine
13654 As an extension that should not be the cause of any worries
13655 \*(UA supports a single wildcard prefix for
13657 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13658 machine *.example.com login USER password PASS
13659 machine pop3.example.com login USER password PASS
13660 machine smtp.example.com login USER password PASS
13666 .Ql pop3.example.com ,
13670 .Ql local.smtp.example.com .
13671 Note that in the example neither
13672 .Ql pop3.example.com
13674 .Ql smtp.example.com
13675 will be matched by the wildcard, since the exact matches take
13676 precedence (it is however faster to specify it the other way around).
13679 This is the same as
13681 except that it is a fallback entry that is used shall none of the
13682 specified machines match; only one default token may be specified,
13683 and it must be the last first-class token.
13685 .It Cd login Ar name
13686 The user name on the remote machine.
13688 .It Cd password Ar string
13689 The user's password on the remote machine.
13691 .It Cd account Ar string
13692 Supply an additional account password.
13693 This is merely for FTP purposes.
13695 .It Cd macdef Ar name
13697 A macro is defined with the specified
13699 it is formed from all lines beginning with the next line and continuing
13700 until a blank line is (consecutive newline characters are) encountered.
13703 entries cannot be utilized by multiple machines, too, but must be
13704 defined following the
13706 they are intended to be used with.)
13709 exists, it is automatically run as the last step of the login process.
13710 This is merely for FTP purposes.
13717 .\" .Sh EXAMPLES {{{
13720 .\" .Ss "An example configuration" {{{
13721 .Ss "An example configuration"
13723 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13724 # This example assumes v15.0 compatibility mode
13727 # Request strict TLL transport layer security checks
13728 set tls-verify=strict
13730 # Where are the up-to-date TLS certificates?
13731 # (Since we manage up-to-date ones explicitly, do not use any,
13732 # possibly outdated, default certificates shipped with OpenSSL)
13733 #set tls-ca-dir=/etc/ssl/certs
13734 set tls-ca-file=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
13735 set tls-ca-no-defaults
13736 #set tls-ca-flags=partial-chain
13737 wysh set smime-ca-file="${tls-ca-file}" \e
13738 smime-ca-no-defaults #smime-ca-flags="${tls-ca-flags}"
13740 # This could be outsourced to a central configuration file via
13741 # tls-config-file plus tls-config-module if the used library allows.
13742 # CipherString: explicitly define the list of ciphers, which may
13743 # improve security, especially with protocols older than TLS v1.2.
13744 # See ciphers(1). Possibly best to only use tls-config-pairs-HOST
13745 # (or -USER@HOST), as necessary, again..
13746 # Note that TLSv1.3 uses Ciphersuites= instead, which will join
13747 # with CipherString (if protocols older than v1.3 are allowed)
13748 # Curves: especially with TLSv1.3 curves selection may be desired.
13749 # MinProtocol,MaxProtocol: do not use protocols older than TLS v1.2.
13750 # Change this only when the remote server does not support it:
13751 # maybe use chain support via tls-config-pairs-HOST / -USER@HOST
13752 # to define such explicit exceptions, then, e.g.
13753 # MinProtocol=TLSv1.1
13754 if [ "$tls-features" =% +ctx-set-maxmin-proto ]
13755 wysh set tls-config-pairs='\e
13756 CipherString=TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:@STRENGTH,\e
13757 Curves=P-521:P-384:P-256,\e
13758 MinProtocol=TLSv1.1'
13760 wysh set tls-config-pairs='\e
13761 CipherString=TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:@STRENGTH,\e
13762 Curves=P-521:P-384:P-256,\e
13763 Protocol=-ALL\e,+TLSv1.1 \e, +TLSv1.2\e, +TLSv1.3'
13766 # Essential setting: select allowed character sets
13767 set sendcharsets=utf-8,iso-8859-1
13769 # A very kind option: when replying to a message, first try to
13770 # use the same encoding that the original poster used herself!
13771 set reply-in-same-charset
13773 # When replying, do not merge From: and To: of the original message
13774 # into To:. Instead old From: -> new To:, old To: -> merge Cc:.
13775 set recipients-in-cc
13777 # When sending messages, wait until the Mail-Transfer-Agent finishs.
13778 # Only like this you will be able to see errors reported through the
13779 # exit status of the MTA (including the built-in SMTP one)!
13782 # Only use built-in MIME types, no mime.types(5) files
13783 set mimetypes-load-control
13785 # Default directory where we act in (relative to $HOME)
13787 # A leading "+" (often) means: under *folder*
13788 # *record* is used to save copies of sent messages
13789 set MBOX=+mbox.mbox DEAD=+dead.txt \e
13790 record=+sent.mbox record-files record-resent
13792 # Make "file mymbox" and "file myrec" go to..
13793 shortcut mymbox %:+mbox.mbox myrec +sent.mbox
13795 # Not really optional, e.g., for S/MIME
13796 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
13798 # It may be necessary to set hostname and/or smtp-hostname
13799 # if the "SERVER" of mta and "domain" of from do not match.
13800 # The `urlencode' command can be used to encode USER and PASS
13801 set mta=(smtps?|submission)://[USER[:PASS]@]SERVER[:PORT] \e
13802 smtp-auth=login/plain... \e
13805 # Never refuse to start into interactive mode, and more
13807 colour-pager crt= \e
13808 followup-to followup-to-honour=ask-yes fullnames \e
13809 history-file=+.\*(uAhist history-size=-1 history-gabby \e
13810 mime-counter-evidence=0b1111 \e
13811 prompt='?\e$?!\e$!/\e$^ERRNAME[\e$account#\e$mailbox-display]? ' \e
13812 reply-to-honour=ask-yes \e
13815 # Only include the selected header fields when typing messages
13816 headerpick type retain from_ date from to cc subject \e
13817 message-id mail-followup-to reply-to
13818 # ...when forwarding messages
13819 headerpick forward retain subject date from to cc
13820 # ...when saving message, etc.
13821 #headerpick save ignore ^Original-.*$ ^X-.*$
13823 # Some mailing lists
13824 mlist '@xyz-editor\e.xyz$' '@xyzf\e.xyz$'
13825 mlsubscribe '^xfans@xfans\e.xyz$'
13827 # Handle a few file extensions (to store MBOX databases)
13828 filetype bz2 'bzip2 -dc' 'bzip2 -zc' \e
13829 gz 'gzip -dc' 'gzip -c' xz 'xz -dc' 'xz -zc' \e
13830 zst 'zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc' \e
13831 zst.pgp 'gpg -d | zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc | gpg -e'
13833 # A real life example of a very huge free mail provider
13834 # Instead of directly placing content inside `account',
13835 # we `define' a macro: like that we can switch "accounts"
13836 # from within *on-compose-splice*, for example!
13838 set folder=~/spool/XooglX inbox=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
13839 set from='Your Name <address@examp.ple>'
13841 set pop3-no-apop-pop.gmXil.com
13842 shortcut pop %:pop3s://pop.gmXil.com
13843 shortcut imap %:imaps://imap.gmXil.com
13844 # Or, entirely IMAP based setup
13845 #set folder=imaps://imap.gmail.com record="+[Gmail]/Sent Mail" \e
13846 # imap-cache=~/spool/cache
13848 set mta=smtp://USER:PASS@smtp.gmXil.com smtp-use-starttls
13850 set mta=smtps://USER:PASS@smtp.gmail.com:465
13856 # Here is a pretty large one which does not allow sending mails
13857 # if there is a domain name mismatch on the SMTP protocol level,
13858 # which would bite us if the value of from does not match, e.g.,
13859 # for people who have a sXXXXeforge project and want to speak
13860 # with the mailing list under their project account (in from),
13861 # still sending the message through their normal mail provider
13863 set folder=~/spool/XandeX inbox=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
13864 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
13866 shortcut pop %:pop3s://pop.yaXXex.com
13867 shortcut imap %:imaps://imap.yaXXex.com
13869 set mta=smtps://USER:PASS@smtp.yaXXex.com:465 \e
13870 hostname=yaXXex.com smtp-hostname=
13876 # Create some new commands so that, e.g., `ls /tmp' will..
13877 commandalias lls '!ls ${LS_COLOUR_FLAG} -aFlrS'
13878 commandalias llS '!ls ${LS_COLOUR_FLAG} -aFlS'
13880 set pipe-message/external-body='@* echo $MAILX_EXTERNAL_BODY_URL'
13882 # We do not support gpg(1) directly yet. But simple --clearsign'd
13883 # message parts can be dealt with as follows:
13886 wysh set pipe-text/plain=$'@*#++=@\e
13887 < "${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}" awk \e
13888 -v TMPFILE="${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}" \e'\e
13890 /^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----/,/^$/ {\e
13893 print "--- GPG --verify ---";\e
13894 system("gpg --verify " TMPFILE " 2>&1");\e
13895 print "--- GPG --verify ---";\e
13899 /^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----/,\e
13900 /^-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----/{\e
13907 commandalias V '\e'call V
13911 When storing passwords in
13913 appropriate permissions should be set on this file with
13914 .Ql $ chmod 0600 \*(ur .
13917 is available user credentials can be stored in the central
13919 file instead; e.g., here is a different version of the example account
13920 that sets up SMTP and POP3:
13922 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13924 set folder=~/spool/XandeX inbox=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
13925 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
13927 # Load an encrypted ~/.netrc by uncommenting the next line
13928 #set netrc-pipe='gpg -qd ~/.netrc.pgp'
13930 set mta=smtps://smtp.yXXXXx.ru:465 \e
13931 smtp-hostname= hostname=yXXXXx.com
13932 set pop3-keepalive=240 pop3-no-apop-pop.yXXXXx.ru
13933 commandalias xp fi pop3s://pop.yXXXXx.ru
13945 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13946 machine *.yXXXXx.ru login USER password PASS
13950 This configuration should now work just fine:
13953 .Dl $ echo text | \*(uA -dvv -AXandeX -s Subject user@exam.ple
13956 .\" .Ss "S/MIME step by step" {{{
13957 .Ss "S/MIME step by step"
13959 \*(OP The first thing that is needed for
13960 .Sx "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
13961 is a personal certificate, and a private key.
13962 The certificate contains public information, in particular a name and
13963 email address(es), and the public key that can be used by others to
13964 encrypt messages for the certificate holder (the owner of the private
13967 signed messages generated with that certificate('s private key).
13968 Whereas the certificate is included in each signed message, the private
13969 key must be kept secret.
13970 It is used to decrypt messages that were previously encrypted with the
13971 public key, and to sign messages.
13974 For personal use it is recommended that get a S/MIME certificate from
13975 one of the major CAs on the Internet.
13976 Many CAs offer such certificates for free.
13977 Usually offered is a combined certificate and private key in PKCS#12
13978 format which \*(UA does not accept directly.
13979 To convert it to PEM format, the following shell command can be used;
13980 please read on for how to use these PEM files.
13982 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13983 $ openssl pkcs12 -in cert.p12 -out certpem.pem -clcerts -nodes
13985 $ openssl pkcs12 -in cert.p12 -out cert.pem -clcerts -nokeys
13986 $ openssl pkcs12 -in cert.p12 -out key.pem -nocerts -nodes
13991 .Lk https://www.CAcert.org
13992 which issues client and server certificates to members of their
13993 community for free; their root certificate
13994 .Pf ( Lk https://\:www.cacert.org/\:certs/\:root.crt )
13995 is often not in the default set of trusted CA root certificates, though,
13996 which means their root certificate has to be downloaded separately,
13997 and needs to be part of the S/MIME certificate validation chain by
14000 or as a vivid member of the
14001 .Va smime-ca-file .
14002 But let us take a step-by-step tour on how to setup S/MIME with
14003 a certificate from CAcert.org despite this situation!
14006 First of all you will have to become a member of the CAcert.org
14007 community, simply by registrating yourself via the web interface.
14008 Once you are, create and verify all email addresses you want to be able
14009 to create signed and encrypted messages for/with using the corresponding
14010 entries of the web interface.
14011 Now ready to create S/MIME certificates, so let us create a new
14012 .Dq client certificate ,
14013 ensure to include all email addresses that should be covered by the
14014 certificate in the following web form, and also to use your name as the
14018 Create a private key and a certificate request on your local computer
14019 (please see the manual pages of the used commands for more in-depth
14020 knowledge on what the used arguments etc. do):
14023 .Dl $ openssl req -nodes -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout key.pem -out creq.pem
14026 Afterwards copy-and-paste the content of
14028 into the certificate-request (CSR) field of the web form on the
14029 CAcert.org website (you may need to unfold some
14030 .Dq advanced options
14031 to see the corresponding text field).
14032 This last step will ensure that your private key (which never left your
14033 box) and the certificate belong together (through the public key that
14034 will find its way into the certificate via the certificate-request).
14035 You are now ready and can create your CAcert certified certificate.
14036 Download and store or copy-and-paste it as
14041 In order to use your new S/MIME setup a combined private key/public key
14042 (certificate) file has to be created:
14045 .Dl $ cat key.pem pub.crt > ME@HERE.com.paired
14048 This is the file \*(UA will work with.
14049 If you have created your private key with a passphrase then \*(UA will
14050 ask you for it whenever a message is signed or decrypted, unless this
14051 operation has been automatized as described in
14052 .Sx "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME" .
14053 Set the following variables to henceforth use S/MIME (setting
14055 is of interest for verification only):
14057 .Bd -literal -offset indent
14058 ? set smime-ca-file=ALL-TRUSTED-ROOT-CERTS-HERE \e
14059 smime-sign-cert=ME@HERE.com.paired \e
14060 smime-sign-digest=SHA512 \e
14066 .\" .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or TLS" {{{
14067 .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or TLS"
14069 \*(OP Certification authorities (CAs) issue certificate revocation
14070 lists (CRLs) on a regular basis.
14071 These lists contain the serial numbers of certificates that have been
14072 declared invalid after they have been issued.
14073 Such usually happens because the private key for the certificate has
14075 because the owner of the certificate has left the organization that is
14076 mentioned in the certificate, etc.
14077 To seriously use S/MIME or TLS verification,
14078 an up-to-date CRL is required for each trusted CA.
14079 There is otherwise no method to distinguish between valid and
14080 invalidated certificates.
14081 \*(UA currently offers no mechanism to fetch CRLs, nor to access them on
14082 the Internet, so they have to be retrieved by some external mechanism.
14085 \*(UA accepts CRLs in PEM format only;
14086 CRLs in DER format must be converted, like, e.\|g.:
14089 .Dl $ openssl crl \-inform DER \-in crl.der \-out crl.pem
14092 To tell \*(UA about the CRLs, a directory that contains all CRL files
14093 (and no other files) must be created.
14098 variables, respectively, must then be set to point to that directory.
14099 After that, \*(UA requires a CRL to be present for each CA that is used
14100 to verify a certificate.
14109 In general it is a good idea to turn on
14115 twice) if something does not work well.
14116 Very often a diagnostic message can be produced that leads to the
14117 problems' solution.
14119 .\" .Ss "\*(UA shortly hangs on startup" {{{
14120 .Ss "\*(UA shortly hangs on startup"
14122 This can have two reasons, one is the necessity to wait for a file lock
14123 and cannot be helped, the other being that \*(UA calls the function
14125 in order to query the nodename of the box (sometimes the real one is
14126 needed instead of the one represented by the internal variable
14128 One may have varying success by ensuring that the real hostname and
14132 or, more generally, that the name service is properly setup \(en
14135 return the expected value?
14136 Does this local hostname have a domain suffix?
14137 RFC 6762 standardized the link-local top-level domain
14139 try again after adding an (additional) entry with this extension.
14142 .\" .Ss "I cannot login to Google mail aka GMail" {{{
14143 .Ss "I cannot login to Google mail aka GMail"
14145 Since 2014 some free service providers classify programs as
14147 unless they use a special authentication method (OAuth 2.0) which
14148 was not standardized for non-HTTP protocol authentication token query
14149 until August 2015 (RFC 7628).
14152 Different to Kerberos / GSSAPI, which is developed since the mid of the
14153 1980s, where a user can easily create a local authentication ticket for
14154 her- and himself with the locally installed
14156 program, that protocol has no such local part but instead requires
14157 a world-wide-web query to create or fetch a token; since there is no
14158 local cache this query would have to be performed whenever \*(UA is
14159 invoked (in interactive sessions situation may differ).
14162 \*(UA does not support OAuth.
14163 Because of this it is necessary to declare \*(UA a
14164 .Dq less secure app
14165 (on the providers account web page) in order to read and send mail.
14166 However, it also seems possible to take the following steps instead:
14171 give the provider the number of a mobile phone,
14174 .Dq 2-Step Verification ,
14176 create an application specific password (16 characters), and
14178 use that special password instead of the real Google account password in
14179 \*(UA (for more on that see the section
14180 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
14184 .\" .Ss "Not \(dqdefunctional\(dq, but the editor key does not work" {{{
14185 .Ss "Not \(dqdefunctional\(dq, but the editor key does not work"
14187 It can happen that the terminal library (see
14188 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor",
14191 reports different codes than the terminal really sends, in which case
14192 \*(UA will tell that a key binding is functional, but will not be able to
14193 recognize it because the received data does not match anything expected.
14194 Especially without the \*(OPal terminal capability library support one
14195 reason for this may be that the (possibly even non-existing) keypad
14196 is not turned on and the resulting layout reports the keypad control
14197 codes for the normal keyboard keys.
14202 ings will show the byte sequences that are expected.
14205 To overcome the situation, use, e.g., the program
14207 in conjunction with the command line option
14209 if available, to see the byte sequences which are actually produced
14210 by keypresses, and use the variable
14212 to make \*(UA aware of them.
14213 E.g., the terminal this is typed on produces some false sequences, here
14214 an example showing the shifted home key:
14216 .Bd -literal -offset indent
14219 # 1B 5B=[ 31=1 3B=; 32=2 48=H
14224 ? \*(uA -v -Stermcap='kHOM=\eE[H'
14231 .\" .Ss "Can \*(UA git-send-email?" {{{
14232 .Ss "Can \*(UA git-send-email?"
14235 Put (at least parts of) the following in your
14238 .Bd -literal -offset indent
14240 smtpserver = /usr/bin/s-mailx
14241 smtpserveroption = -t
14242 #smtpserveroption = -Sexpandaddr
14243 smtpserveroption = -Athe-account-you-need
14246 suppressfrom = false
14247 assume8bitEncoding = UTF-8
14250 chainreplyto = true
14261 .\" .Sh "IMAP CLIENT" {{{
14264 \*(OPally there is IMAP client support available.
14265 This part of the program is obsolete and will vanish in v15 with the
14266 large MIME and I/O layer rewrite, because it uses old-style blocking I/O
14267 and makes excessive use of signal based long code jumps.
14268 Support can hopefully be readded later based on a new-style I/O, with
14269 SysV signal handling.
14270 In fact the IMAP support had already been removed from the codebase, but
14271 was reinstantiated on user demand: in effect the IMAP code is at the
14272 level of \*(UA v14.8.16 (with
14274 being the sole exception), and should be treated with some care.
14281 protocol prefixes, and an IMAP-based
14284 IMAP URLs (paths) undergo inspections and possible transformations
14285 before use (and the command
14287 can be used to manually apply them to any given argument).
14288 Hierarchy delimiters are normalized, a step which is configurable via the
14290 variable chain, but defaults to the first seen delimiter otherwise.
14291 \*(UA supports internationalised IMAP names, and en- and decodes the
14292 names from and to the
14294 as necessary and possible.
14295 If a mailbox name is expanded (see
14296 .Sx "Filename transformations" )
14297 to an IMAP mailbox, all names that begin with `+' then refer to IMAP
14298 mailboxes below the
14300 target box, while folder names prefixed by `@' refer to folders below
14301 the hierarchy base, e.g., the following lists all folders below the
14302 current one when in an IMAP mailbox:
14306 Note: some IMAP servers do not accept the creation of mailboxes in
14307 the hierarchy base, but require that they are created as subfolders of
14308 `INBOX' \(en with such servers a folder name of the form
14310 .Dl imaps://mylogin@imap.myisp.example/INBOX.
14312 should be used (the last character is the server's hierarchy
14314 The following IMAP-specific commands exist:
14317 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ic BaNg"
14320 Only applicable to cached IMAP mailboxes;
14321 takes a message list and reads the specified messages into the IMAP
14326 If operating in disconnected mode on an IMAP mailbox,
14327 switch to online mode and connect to the mail server while retaining
14328 the mailbox status.
14329 See the description of the
14331 variable for more information.
14335 If operating in online mode on an IMAP mailbox,
14336 switch to disconnected mode while retaining the mailbox status.
14337 See the description of the
14340 A list of messages may optionally be given as argument;
14341 the respective messages are then read into the cache before the
14342 connection is closed, thus
14344 makes the entire mailbox available for disconnected use.
14348 Sends command strings directly to the current IMAP server.
14349 \*(UA operates always in IMAP `selected state' on the current mailbox;
14350 commands that change this will produce undesirable results and should be
14352 Useful IMAP commands are:
14353 .Bl -tag -offset indent -width ".Ic getquotearoot"
14355 Takes the name of an IMAP mailbox as an argument and creates it.
14357 (RFC 2087) Takes the name of an IMAP mailbox as an argument
14358 and prints the quotas that apply to the mailbox.
14359 Not all IMAP servers support this command.
14361 (RFC 2342) Takes no arguments and prints the Personal Namespaces,
14362 the Other User's Namespaces and the Shared Namespaces.
14363 Each namespace type is printed in parentheses;
14364 if there are multiple namespaces of the same type,
14365 inner parentheses separate them.
14366 For each namespace a prefix and a hierarchy separator is listed.
14367 Not all IMAP servers support this command.
14372 Perform IMAP path transformations.
14376 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) ,
14377 and manages the error number
14379 The first argument specifies the operation:
14381 normalizes hierarchy delimiters (see
14383 and converts the strings from the locale
14385 to the internationalized variant used by IMAP,
14387 performs the reverse operation.
14392 The following IMAP-specific internal variables exist:
14395 .Bl -tag -width ".It Va BaNg"
14397 .It Va disconnected
14398 \*(BO When an IMAP mailbox is selected and this variable is set,
14399 no connection to the server is initiated.
14400 Instead, data is obtained from the local cache (see
14403 Mailboxes that are not present in the cache
14404 and messages that have not yet entirely been fetched from the server
14406 to fetch all messages in a mailbox at once,
14408 .No ` Ns Li copy * /dev/null Ns '
14409 can be used while still in connected mode.
14410 Changes that are made to IMAP mailboxes in disconnected mode are queued
14411 and committed later when a connection to that server is made.
14412 This procedure is not completely reliable since it cannot be guaranteed
14413 that the IMAP unique identifiers (UIDs) on the server still match the
14414 ones in the cache at that time.
14417 when this problem occurs.
14419 .It Va disconnected-USER@HOST
14420 The specified account is handled as described for the
14423 but other accounts are not affected.
14426 .It Va imap-auth-USER@HOST , imap-auth
14427 Sets the IMAP authentication method.
14428 Valid values are `login' for the usual password-based authentication
14430 `cram-md5', which is a password-based authentication that does not send
14431 the password over the network in clear text,
14432 and `gssapi' for GSS-API based authentication.
14436 Enables caching of IMAP mailboxes.
14437 The value of this variable must point to a directory that is either
14438 existent or can be created by \*(UA.
14439 All contents of the cache can be deleted by \*(UA at any time;
14440 it is not safe to make assumptions about them.
14443 .It Va imap-delim-USER@HOST , imap-delim-HOST , imap-delim
14444 The hierarchy separator used by the IMAP server.
14445 Whenever an IMAP path is specified it will undergo normalization.
14446 One of the normalization steps is the squeezing and adjustment of
14447 hierarchy separators.
14448 If this variable is set, any occurrence of any character of the given
14449 value that exists in the path will be replaced by the first member of
14450 the value; an empty value will cause the default to be used, it is
14452 If not set, we will reuse the first hierarchy separator character that
14453 is discovered in a user-given mailbox name.
14455 .Mx Va imap-keepalive
14456 .It Va imap-keepalive-USER@HOST , imap-keepalive-HOST , imap-keepalive
14457 IMAP servers may close the connection after a period of
14458 inactivity; the standard requires this to be at least 30 minutes,
14459 but practical experience may vary.
14460 Setting this variable to a numeric `value' greater than 0 causes
14461 a `NOOP' command to be sent each `value' seconds if no other operation
14465 .It Va imap-list-depth
14466 When retrieving the list of folders on an IMAP server, the
14468 command stops after it has reached a certain depth to avoid possible
14470 The value of this variable sets the maximum depth allowed.
14472 If the folder separator on the current IMAP server is a slash `/',
14473 this variable has no effect and the
14475 command does not descend to subfolders.
14477 .Mx Va imap-use-starttls
14478 .It Va imap-use-starttls-USER@HOST , imap-use-starttls-HOST , imap-use-starttls
14479 Causes \*(UA to issue a `STARTTLS' command to make an unencrypted
14480 IMAP session TLS encrypted.
14481 This functionality is not supported by all servers,
14482 and is not used if the session is already encrypted by the IMAPS method.
14488 .\" .Sh "SEE ALSO" {{{
14498 .Xr spamassassin 1 ,
14507 .Xr mailwrapper 8 ,
14513 .\" .Sh HISTORY {{{
14516 M. Douglas McIlroy writes in his article
14517 .Dq A Research UNIX Reader: Annotated Excerpts \
14518 from the Programmer's Manual, 1971-1986
14521 command already appeared in First Edition
14525 .Bd -ragged -offset indent
14526 Electronic mail was there from the start.
14527 Never satisfied with its exact behavior, everybody touched it at one
14528 time or another: to assure the safety of simultaneous access, to improve
14529 privacy, to survive crashes, to exploit uucp, to screen out foreign
14530 freeloaders, or whatever.
14531 Not until v7 did the interface change (Thompson).
14532 Later, as mail became global in its reach, Dave Presotto took charge and
14533 brought order to communications with a grab-bag of external networks
14539 Mail was written in 1978 by Kurt Shoens and developed as part of the
14542 distribution until 1995.
14543 Mail has then seen further development in open source
14545 variants, noticeably by Christos Zoulas in
14547 Based upon this Nail, later Heirloom Mailx, was developed by Gunnar
14548 Ritter in the years 2000 until 2008.
14549 Since 2012 S-nail is maintained by Steffen (Daode) Nurpmeso.
14550 This man page is derived from
14551 .Dq The Mail Reference Manual
14552 that was originally written by Kurt Shoens.
14560 .An "Kurt Shoens" ,
14561 .An "Edward Wang" ,
14562 .An "Keith Bostic" ,
14563 .An "Christos Zoulas" ,
14564 .An "Gunnar Ritter" .
14565 \*(UA is developed by
14566 .An "Steffen Nurpmeso" Aq steffen@sdaoden.eu .
14569 .\" .Sh CAVEATS {{{
14572 \*(ID Interrupting an operation via
14576 from anywhere else but a command prompt is very problematic and likely
14577 to leave the program in an undefined state: many library functions
14578 cannot deal with the
14580 that this software (still) performs; even though efforts have been taken
14581 to address this, no sooner but in v15 it will have been worked out:
14582 interruptions have not been disabled in order to allow forceful breakage
14583 of hanging network connections, for example (all this is unrelated to
14587 The SMTP and POP3 protocol support of \*(UA is very basic.
14588 Also, if it fails to contact its upstream SMTP server, it will not make
14589 further attempts to transfer the message at a later time (setting
14594 If this is a concern, it might be better to set up a local SMTP server
14595 that is capable of message queuing.
14602 After deleting some message of a POP3 mailbox the header summary falsely
14603 claims that there are no messages to display, one needs to perform
14604 a scroll or dot movement to restore proper state.
14610 mode a power user may encounter crashes very occasionally (this is may
14615 in the source repository lists future directions.
14618 Please report bugs to the
14620 address, e.g., from within \*(uA:
14621 .\" v15-compat: drop eval as `mail' will expand variable?
14622 .Ql ? Ns \| Ic eval Ns \| Ic mail Ns \| $contact-mail .
14625 output of the command
14627 may be helpful, e.g.,
14629 .Bd -literal -offset indent
14630 ? wysh set escape=! verbose; vput version xy; unset verbose;\e
14631 eval mail $contact-mail
14638 Information on the web at
14639 .Ql $ \*(uA -X 'echo Ns \| $ Ns Va contact-web Ns ' -Xx .