1 .\"@ nail.1 - S-nail(1) reference manual.
3 .\" Copyright (c) 2000-2008 Gunnar Ritter, Freiburg i. Br., Germany.
4 .\" Copyright (c) 2012 - 2017 Steffen (Daode) Nurpmeso <steffen@sdaoden.eu>.
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34 .\"@ S-nail(1): v14.9.0-pre3 / 2016-12-31
36 .ds VV \\%v14.9.0-pre3
46 .\" If not ~/.mailrc, it breaks POSIX compatibility. And adjust main.c.
51 .ds OU [no v15-compat]
52 .ds ID [v15 behaviour may differ]
53 .ds NQ [Only new quoting rules]
64 .Nd send and receive Internet mail
70 .\" Keep in SYNC: ./nail.1:"SYNOPSIS, main()
78 .Op Fl a Ar attachment
81 .Op Fl M Ar type | Fl m Ar file | Fl q Ar file | Fl t
83 .Op Fl S Ar var Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value
88 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns Ar mta-option ...
97 .Op Fl S Ar var Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value
100 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns Ar mta-option ...
108 .Op Fl L Ar spec-list
109 .Op Fl r Ar from-addr
110 .Op Fl S Ar var Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value
113 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns Ar mta-option ...
118 .Mx -toc -tree html pdf ps xhtml
121 .\" .Sh DESCRIPTION {{{
124 .Bd -filled -compact -offset indent
125 .Sy Compatibility note:
126 S-nail (\*(UA) will wrap up into \%S-mailx in v15.0 (circa 2018).
127 Backward incompatibility has to be expected \(en
130 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
131 rules, for example, and shell metacharacters will become meaningful.
132 New and old behaviour is flagged \*(IN and \*(OU, and setting
135 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
136 will choose new behaviour when applicable.
137 \*(OB flags what will vanish, and enabling
141 enables obsoletion warnings.
145 \*(UA provides a simple and friendly environment for sending and
147 It is intended to provide the functionality of the POSIX
149 command, but is MIME capable and optionally offers extensions for
150 line editing, S/MIME, SMTP and POP3, among others.
151 \*(UA divides incoming mail into its constituent messages and allows
152 the user to deal with them in any order.
156 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
157 for manipulating messages and sending mail.
158 It provides the user simple editing capabilities to ease the composition
159 of outgoing messages, and increasingly powerful and reliable
160 non-interactive scripting capabilities.
162 .\" .Ss "Options" {{{
165 .Bl -tag -width ".It Fl BaNg"
168 Explicitly control which of the
170 shall be loaded: if the letter
172 is (case-insensitively) part of the
176 is loaded, likewise the letter
178 controls loading of the user's personal
180 file, whereas the letters
184 explicitly forbid loading of any resource files.
185 This option should be used by scripts: to avoid environmental noise they
188 from any configuration files and create a script-local environment,
189 explicitly setting any of the desired
190 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
193 This option overrides
200 command for the given user email
202 after program startup is complete (all resource files are loaded, any
204 setting is being established; only
206 commands have not been evaluated yet).
207 Being a special incarnation of
209 macros for the purpose of bundling longer-lived settings, activating
210 such an email account also switches to the accounts
212 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
217 .It Fl a Ar file Ns Op Ar =input-charset Ns Op Ar #output-charset
220 to the message (for compose mode opportunities refer to
224 .Sx "Filename transformations"
227 will be performed, but shell word expansion is restricted to the tilde
231 not be accessible but contain a
233 character, then anything before the
235 will be used as the filename, anything thereafter as a character-set
238 If an input character-set is specified,
239 .Mx -ix "character-set specification"
240 but no output character-set, then the given input character-set is fixed
241 as-is, and no conversion will be applied;
242 giving the special string hyphen-minus
244 will be treated as if
246 has been specified (the default).
247 If an output character-set has also been given then the conversion will
248 be performed exactly as specified and on-the-fly, not considering the
249 file's type and content.
250 As an exception, if the output character-set is specified as hyphen-minus
252 then the default conversion algorithm (see
253 .Sx "Character sets" )
254 is applied (therefore no conversion is performed on-the-fly,
256 will be MIME-classified and its contents will be inspected first).
257 It is an error to specify anything but
259 if no character-set conversion is available
261 does not include the term
266 (\*(OB: \*(UA will always use line-buffered output, to gain
267 line-buffered input even in batch mode enable batch mode via
272 Send a blind carbon copy to
274 ess, if the setting of
277 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
279 The option may be used multiple times.
281 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
285 Send carbon copies to the given receiver, if so allowed by
287 May be used multiple times.
292 the internal variable
294 which enables debug messages and disables message delivery,
295 among others; effectively turns almost any operation into a dry-run.
301 and thus discard messages with an empty message part body.
302 This command line option is \*(OB.
306 Just check if mail is present (in the specified or system
308 if yes, return an exit status of zero, a non-zero value otherwise.
309 To restrict the set of mails to consider in this evaluation a message
310 specification can be added with the option
315 Save the message to send in a file named after the local part of the
316 first recipient's address (instead of in
321 Read in the contents of the user's
323 (or the specified file) for processing;
324 when \*(UA is quit, it writes undeleted messages back to this file
330 argument will undergo some special
331 .Sx "Filename transformations"
336 is not a argument to the flag
338 but is instead taken from the command line after option processing has
342 that starts with a hyphen-minus, prefix with a relative path, as in
343 .Ql ./-hyphenbox.mbox .
347 Display a summary of the
349 of all messages in the specified mailbox or system
352 A configurable summary view is available via the
358 Show a short usage summary.
359 Because of widespread use a
361 argument will have the same effect.
367 to ignore tty interrupt signals.
370 .It Fl L Ar spec-list
371 Display a summary of all
373 of only those messages in the specified mailbox or the system
379 .Sx "Specifying messages"
386 option has been given in addition no header summary is produced,
387 but \*(UA will instead indicate via its exit status whether
393 note that any verbose output is suppressed in this mode and must instead
394 be enabled explicitly (e.g., by using the option
399 Special send mode that will flag standard input with the MIME
403 and use it as the main message body.
404 \*(ID Using this option will bypass processing of
405 .Va message-inject-head ,
408 .Va message-inject-tail .
414 Special send mode that will MIME classify the specified
416 and use it as the main message body.
417 \*(ID Using this option will bypass processing of
418 .Va message-inject-head ,
421 .Va message-inject-tail .
427 inhibit the initial display of message headers when reading mail or
428 editing a mail folder by calling
430 for the internal variable
435 Standard flag that inhibits reading the system wide
440 allows more control over the startup sequence; also see
441 .Sx "Resource files" .
445 Special send mode that will initialize the message body with the
446 contents of the specified
448 which may be standard input
450 only in non-interactive context.
456 Any folder opened will be in read-only mode.
460 .It Fl r Ar from-addr
461 The source address that appears in the
464 header of a message (or in the
467 header if the former contains multiple addresses) is not used for
468 relaying and delegating a message over the wire via SMTP, but instead an
469 envelope will enwrap the message content and provide the necessary
470 information (i.e., the RFC 5321 reverse-path, also used to report, e.g.,
471 delivery errors) to transmit the message to its destination(s).
472 Whereas said headers and internal variables will be used by \*(UA to
473 create the envelope if the builtin SMTP
475 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) is used, a file-based MTA will instead use the
476 identity of the message-originating user.
478 This command line option can be used to specify the reverse-path, to be
479 passed to a file-based
481 when a message is sent, via
482 .Ql -f Ar from-addr .
485 include a user name, then the address components will be separated and
486 the name part will be passed to a file-based
492 is also assigned to the internal variable
494 Many default installations and sites disallow explicit overriding of the
495 user identity which could be adjusted by this option, unless either
497 has been configured accordingly, or the user is member of a group with
498 special privileges, respectively.
500 If an empty string is passed as
502 then the content of the variable
504 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
506 will be evaluated and used for this purpose whenever the file-based
509 Note that \*(UA by default, without
511 that is, neither passes
515 command line options to a file-based MTA by itself, unless this
516 automatic deduction is enforced by
518 ing the internal variable
519 .Va r-option-implicit .
523 .It Fl S Ar var Ns Op = Ns value
527 iable and, in case of a non-boolean variable which has a value, assign
531 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
535 may be overwritten from within resource files,
536 the command line setting will be reestablished after all resource files
541 Specify the subject of the message to be sent.
542 Newline (NL) and carriage-return (CR) bytes are invalid and will be
543 normalized to space (SP) characters.
547 The message given (on standard input) is expected to contain, separated
548 from the message body by an empty line, a message header with
553 fields giving its recipients, which will be added to any recipients
554 specified on the command line.
555 If a message subject is specified via
557 then it will be used in favour of one given on the command line.
573 .Ql Mail-Followup-To: ,
574 by default created automatically dependent on message context, will
575 be used if specified (a special address massage will however still occur
577 Any other custom header field (also see
580 is passed through entirely
581 unchanged, and in conjunction with the option
583 it is possible to embed
584 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
592 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
595 appropriate privileges presumed; effectively identical to
605 will also show the list of
607 .Ql $ \*(uA -Xversion -Xx .
612 ting the internal variable
614 enables display of some informational context messages.
615 Using it twice increases the level of verbosity.
619 Add the given (or multiple for a multiline argument)
621 to the list of commands to be executed,
622 as a last step of program startup, before normal operation starts.
623 This is the only possibility to execute commands in non-interactive mode
624 when reading startup files is actively prohibited.
625 The commands will be evaluated as a unit, just as via
627 but different to that errors won't stop evaluation.
631 .Va batch-exit-on-error .
636 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
637 even if not in interactive mode.
638 This can be used to, e.g., automatically format the composed message
639 text before sending the message:
640 .Bd -literal -offset indent
641 $ ( echo 'line one. Word. Word2.'; \e
642 echo '~| /usr/bin/fmt -tuw66' ) |\e
643 LC_ALL=C \*(uA -:/ -Sttycharset=utf-8 -d~ bob@exam.ple
649 In batch mode the full set of commands is available, just like in
650 interactive mode, standard input is made line buffered, and diverse
651 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
652 are adjusted for batch necessities, e.g., it
668 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
669 is enabled in compose mode.
670 The following prepares an email message in a batched dry run:
671 .Bd -literal -offset indent
672 $ LC_ALL=C printf 'm bob\en~s ubject\enText\en~.\enx\en' | \e
673 LC_ALL=C \*(uA -:/ -d# -X'alias bob bob@exam.ple'
678 This flag forces termination of option processing in order to prevent
681 It also forcefully puts \*(UA into send mode, see
682 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
690 argument, as well as all receivers established by the command line options
694 are subject to checks established via
697 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" .
699 .Op Ar mta-option ...
701 arguments that are given at the end of the command line after a
703 separator will be passed through to a file-based
705 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) and persist for an entire (interactive) session
706 \(en if the setting of the internal variable
708 allows their recognition; no such constraints apply to the variable
712 .\" .Ss "A starter" {{{
715 \*(UA is a direct descendant of
717 Mail, a successor of the Research
720 .Dq was there from the start
723 It thus represents the user side of the
725 mail system, whereas the system side (Mail-Transfer-Agent, MTA) was
726 traditionally taken by
728 and most MTAs provide a binary of this name for compatibility purposes.
733 of \*(UA then the system side is not a mandatory precondition for mail
737 Because \*(UA strives for compliance with POSIX
739 it is likely that some configuration settings have to be adjusted before
740 using it is a smooth experience.
743 resource file bends those standard imposed settings of the
744 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
745 a bit towards more user friendliness and safety, however, e.g., it
750 in order to suppress the automatic moving of messages to
752 that would otherwise occur (see
753 .Sx "Message states" ) ,
756 to not remove empty system (MBOX) mailbox files in order not to mangle
757 file permissions when files eventually get recreated \(en
758 \*(UA will remove all empty (MBOX) mailbox files unless this variable is
761 .Pf ( Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT )
762 mode has been enabled.
763 The file mode creation mask is explicitly managed via
769 in order to synchronize \*(UA with the exit status report of the used
774 to enter interactive startup even if the initial mailbox is empty,
776 to allow editing of headers as well as
778 to not strip down addresses in compose mode, and
780 to include the message that is being responded to when
785 contains some more complete configuration examples.
788 .\" .Ss "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" {{{
789 .Ss "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode"
791 To send a message to one or more people, using a local or a builtin
793 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) transport to actually deliver the generated mail
794 message, \*(UA can be invoked with arguments which are the names of
795 people to whom the mail will be sent, and the command line options
799 can be used to add (blind) carbon copy receivers:
801 .Bd -literal -offset indent
803 $ \*(uA -s ubject -a ttach.txt bill@exam.ple
805 # But... try it in an isolated dry-run mode (-d) first
806 $ LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d -:/ -Ssendwait \e
807 -b bcc@exam.ple -c cc@exam.ple \e
808 -. '(Lovely) Bob <bob@exam.ple>' eric@exam.ple
811 $ LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d -:/ -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait \e
812 -S 'mta=smtps://mylogin@exam.ple:465' -Ssmtp-auth=login \e
813 -S 'from=scriptreply@exam.ple' \e
819 If standard input is a terminal rather than the message to be sent,
820 the user is expected to type in the message contents.
821 In this compose mode \*(UA treats lines beginning with the character
823 special \(en these are so-called
824 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ,
825 which can be used to read in files, process shell commands, add and edit
826 attachments and more; e.g., the command escape
828 will start the text editor to revise the message in its current state,
830 allows editing of the most important message headers, with
832 custom headers can be created (more specifically than with
835 gives an overview of most other available command escapes.
839 at the beginning of an empty line leaves compose mode and causes the
840 message to be sent, whereas typing
843 twice will abort the current letter (saving its contents in the file
849 Messages are sent asynchronously, without supervision, unless the variable
851 is set, therefore send errors are not recognizable until then.
857 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
858 can be used to alter default behavior; e.g.,
863 will automatically startup a text editor when compose mode is entered,
865 allows editing of headers additionally to plain body content,
867 will cause the user to be prompted actively for carbon-copy recipients
870 will allow leaving compose mode by writing a line consisting solely of
876 hook variables may be set to
878 d macros to automatically adjust some settings dependent
879 on receiver, sender or subject contexts, and via the
880 .Va on-compose-done-shell
883 variables, the latter also to be set to a
885 d macro, increasingly powerful mechanisms to perform automated message
886 adjustments are available.
889 Especially for using public mail provider accounts with the SMTP
891 it is often necessary to set
895 (even finer control via
896 .Va smtp-hostname ) ,
897 which also causes creation of
901 header fields (even if empty) unless
903 is set; saving a copy of sent messages in a
905 mailbox may be desirable \(en as for most mailbox
907 targets the value will undergo
908 .Sx "Filename transformations" .
911 for the purpose of arranging a complete environment of settings that can
912 be switched to with a single command or command line option may be
915 contains example configurations for sending messages via some of the
916 well-known public mail providers and also gives a compact overview on
917 how to setup a secure SSL/TLS environment).
922 sandbox dry-run tests first will prove correctness.
926 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
927 will spread light on the different ways of how to specify user email
928 account credentials, the
930 variable chains, and accessing protocol-specific resources,
933 goes into the details of character encoding and how to use them for
934 representing messages and MIME part contents by specifying them in
936 and reading the section
937 .Sx "The mime.types files"
938 should help to understand how the MIME-type of outgoing attachments are
939 classified, and what can be done for fine-tuning.
940 Over the wire an intermediate, configurable
941 .Pf content-transfer-\: Va encoding
942 may be applied to the raw message part data.
945 Message recipients (as specified on the command line or defined in
950 may not only be email addressees but can also be names of mailboxes and
951 even complete shell command pipe specifications.
954 is not set then only network addresses (see
956 for a description of mail addresses) and plain user names (including MTA
957 aliases) may be used, other types will be filtered out, giving a warning
961 can be used to generate standard compliant network addresses.
963 .\" When changing any of the following adjust any RECIPIENTADDRSPEC;
964 .\" grep the latter for the complete picture
968 is set then extended recipient addresses will optionally be accepted:
969 Any name which starts with a vertical bar
971 character specifies a command pipe \(en the command string following the
973 is executed and the message is sent to its standard input;
974 Likewise, any name that starts with the character solidus
976 or the character sequence dot solidus
978 is treated as a file, regardless of the remaining content;
979 likewise a name that solely consists of a hyphen-minus
981 Any other name which contains an at sign
983 character is treated as a network address;
984 Any other name which starts with a plus sign
986 character specifies a mailbox name;
987 Any other name which contains a solidus
989 character but no exclamation mark
993 character before also specifies a mailbox name;
994 What remains is treated as a network address.
996 .Bd -literal -offset indent
997 $ echo bla | \*(uA -Sexpandaddr -s test ./mbox.mbox
998 $ echo bla | \*(uA -Sexpandaddr -s test '|cat >> ./mbox.mbox'
999 $ echo safe | LC_ALL=C \e
1000 \*(uA -:/ -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Snosave \e
1001 -Sexpandaddr=fail,-all,+addr,failinvaddr -s test \e
1006 It is possible to create personal distribution lists via the
1008 command, so that, for instance, the user can send mail to
1010 and have it go to a group of people.
1011 These aliases have nothing in common with the system wide aliases that
1012 may be used by the MTA, which are subject to the
1016 and are often tracked in a file
1022 Personal aliases will be expanded by \*(UA before the message is sent,
1023 and are thus a convenient alternative to specifying each addressee by
1024 itself; they correlate with the active set of
1031 .Dl alias cohorts bill jkf mark kridle@ucbcory ~/mail/cohorts.mbox
1034 To avoid environmental noise scripts should
1036 \*(UA from any configuration files and create a script-local
1037 environment, ideally with the command line options
1039 to disable any configuration file in conjunction with repetitions of
1041 to specify variables:
1043 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1044 $ env LC_ALL=C \*(uA -:/ \e
1045 -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Snosave -Sttycharset=utf-8 \e
1046 -Sexpandaddr=fail,-all,failinvaddr \e
1047 -S 'mta=smtps://mylogin@exam.ple:465' -Ssmtp-auth=login \e
1048 -S 'from=scriptreply@exam.ple' \e
1049 -s 'subject' -a attachment_file \e
1050 -. "Recipient 1 <rec1@exam.ple>" rec2@exam.ple \e
1055 As shown, scripts can
1057 a locale environment, the above specifies the all-compatible 7-bit clean
1060 but will nonetheless take and send UTF-8 in the message text by using
1062 In interactive mode, which is introduced in the next section, messages
1063 can be sent by calling the
1065 command with a list of recipient addresses \(em the semantics are
1066 completely identical to non-interactive message sending:
1068 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1069 $ \*(uA -d -Squiet -Semptystart
1070 "/var/spool/mail/user": 0 messages
1071 ? mail "Recipient 1 <rec1@exam.ple>", rec2@exam.ple
1072 ? # Will do the right thing (tm)
1073 ? m rec1@exam.ple rec2@exam.ple
1077 .\" .Ss "On reading mail, and interactive mode" {{{
1078 .Ss "On reading mail, and interactive mode"
1080 When invoked without addressees \*(UA enters interactive mode in which
1082 When used like that the user's system
1086 for an in-depth description of the different mailbox types that exist)
1087 is read in and a one line header of each message therein is displayed.
1088 The visual style of this summary of
1090 can be adjusted through the variable
1092 and the possible sorting criterion via
1098 can be performed with the command
1100 If the initially opened mailbox is empty \*(UA will instead exit
1101 immediately (after displaying a message) unless the variable
1110 will give a listing of all available commands and
1112 will give a summary of some common ones.
1113 If the \*(OPal documentation strings are available one can type
1116 and see the actual expansion of
1118 and what its purpose is, i.e., commands can be abbreviated
1119 (note that POSIX defines some abbreviations, so that the alphabetical
1120 order of commands does not necessarily relate to the abbreviations; it is
1121 possible to define overwrites with the
1124 These commands can also produce a more
1129 Messages are given numbers (starting at 1) which uniquely identify
1130 messages; the current message \(en the
1132 \(en will either be the first new message, or the first unread message,
1133 or the first message of the mailbox; the internal variable
1135 will instead cause usage of the last message for this purpose.
1140 ful of header summaries containing the
1144 will display only the summaries of the given messages, defaulting to the
1148 Message content can be displayed with the command
1155 controls whether and when \*(UA will use the configured
1157 for display instead of directly writing to the user terminal
1159 the sole difference to the command
1161 which will always use the
1165 will instead only show the first
1167 of a message (maybe even compressed if
1172 By default the current message
1174 is displayed, but like with many other commands it is possible to give
1175 a fancy message specification (see
1176 .Sx "Specifying messages" ) ,
1179 will display all unread messages,
1184 will type the messages 1 and 5,
1186 will type the messages 1 through 5, and
1190 will display the last and the next message, respectively.
1193 (a more substantial alias for
1195 will display a header summary of the given message specification list
1196 instead of their content, e.g., the following will search for subjects:
1199 .Dl from "'@Some subject to search for'"
1202 In the default setup all header fields of a message will be
1204 d, but fields can be white- or blacklisted for a variety of
1205 applications by using the command
1207 e.g., to restrict display to a very restricted set:
1208 .Ql Ic \:headerpick Cd \:type retain add Ar \:from to cc subject .
1209 In order to display all header fields of a message regardless of
1210 currently active ignore or retain lists, use the commands
1214 Note that historically the global
1216 not only adjusts the list of displayed headers, but also sets
1220 Dependent upon the configuration a line editor (see the section
1221 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
1222 aims at making user experience with the many
1225 When reading the system
1231 specified a mailbox explicitly prefixed with the special
1233 modifier (propagating the mailbox to a
1235 .Sx "primary system mailbox" ) ,
1236 then messages which have been read will be moved to a
1238 .Sx "secondary mailbox" ,
1241 file, automatically when the mailbox is left, either by changing the
1242 active mailbox or by quitting \*(UA (also see
1243 .Sx "Message states" )
1244 \(en this automatic moving from a system or primary to the secondary
1245 mailbox is not performed when the variable
1250 After examining a message the user can also
1254 to the sender and all recipients or
1256 exclusively to the sender(s).
1257 Messages can also be
1259 ed (shorter alias is
1261 Note that when replying to or forwarding a message recipient addresses
1262 will be stripped from comments and names unless the internal variable
1265 Deletion causes \*(UA to forget about the message;
1266 This is not irreversible, though, one can
1268 the message by giving its number,
1269 or the \*(UA session can be ended by giving the
1274 To end a mail processing session one may either issue
1276 to cause a full program exit, which possibly includes
1277 automatic moving of read messages to
1279 as well as updating the \*(OPal line editor
1283 instead in order to prevent any of these actions.
1286 .\" .Ss "HTML mail and MIME attachments" {{{
1287 .Ss "HTML mail and MIME attachments"
1289 Messages which are HTML-only get more and more common and of course many
1290 messages come bundled with a bouquet of MIME attachments.
1291 Whereas \*(UA \*(OPally supports a simple HTML-to-text converter to deal
1292 with HTML messages (see
1293 .Sx "The mime.types files" ) ,
1294 it normally cannot deal with any of these itself, but instead programs
1295 need to become registered to deal with specific MIME types or file
1297 These programs may either prepare plain text versions of their input
1298 in order to enable \*(UA to display the content on the terminal,
1299 or display the content themselves, for example in a graphical window.
1302 To install an external handler program for a specific MIME type set an
1304 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
1305 variable; to instead define a handler for a specific file extension set
1308 variable \(en these handlers take precedence.
1309 \*(OPally \*(UA supports mail user agent configuration as defined in
1310 RFC 1524; this mechanism, documented in the section
1311 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
1312 will be queried for display or quote handlers if none of the former two
1313 .\" TODO v15-compat "will be" -> "is"
1314 did; it will be the sole source for handlers of other purpose.
1315 A last source for handlers may be the MIME type definition itself, if
1316 the \*(UA specific type-marker extension was used when defining the type
1319 (Many of the builtin MIME types do so by default.)
1323 .Va mime-counter-evidence
1324 can be set to improve dealing with faulty MIME part declarations as are
1325 often seen in real-life messages.
1326 E.g., to display a HTML message inline (that is, converted to a more
1327 fancy plain text representation than the builtin converter is capable to
1328 produce) with either of the text-mode browsers
1332 teach \*(UA about MathML documents and make it display them as plain
1333 text, and to open PDF attachments in an external PDF viewer,
1334 asynchronously and with some other magic attached:
1336 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1337 if [ "$features" !@ +filter-html-tagsoup ]
1338 #set pipe-text/html='elinks -force-html -dump 1'
1339 set pipe-text/html='lynx -stdin -dump -force_html'
1340 # Display HTML as plain text instead
1341 #set pipe-text/html=@
1343 mimetype '@ application/mathml+xml mathml'
1344 wysh set pipe-application/pdf='@&=@ \e
1345 trap "rm -f \e"${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}\e"" EXIT;\e
1346 trap "trap \e"\e" INT QUIT TERM; exit 1" INT QUIT TERM;\e
1347 mupdf "${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}"'
1351 Note: special care must be taken when using such commands as mail
1352 viruses may be distributed by this method: if messages of type
1353 .Ql application/x-sh
1354 or files with the extension
1356 were blindly filtered through the shell, for example, a message sender
1357 could easily execute arbitrary code on the system \*(UA is running on.
1358 For more on MIME, also in respect to sending of messages, see the
1360 .Sx "The mime.types files" ,
1361 .Sx "The Mailcap files"
1366 .\" .Ss "Mailing lists" {{{
1369 \*(UA offers some support to ease handling of mailing lists.
1372 promotes all given arguments to known mailing lists, and
1374 sets their subscription attribute, creating them first as necessary.
1379 automatically, but only resets the subscription attribute.)
1380 Using the commands without arguments will show (a subset of) all
1381 currently defined mailing lists.
1386 can be used to mark out messages with configured list addresses
1387 in the header display.
1390 \*(OPally mailing lists may also be specified as (extended) regular
1391 expressions, which allows matching of many addresses with a single
1393 However, all fully qualified list addresses are matched via a fast
1394 dictionary, whereas expressions are placed in (a) list(s) which is
1395 (are) matched sequentially.
1397 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1398 set followup-to followup-to-honour=ask-yes reply-to-honour=ask-yes
1399 wysh mlist a1@b1.c1 a2@b2.c2 '.*@lists\e.c3$'
1400 mlsubscribe a4@b4.c4 exact@lists.c3
1405 .Va followup-to-honour
1407 .Ql Mail-\:Followup-\:To:
1408 header is honoured when the message is being replied to (via
1414 controls whether this header is created when sending mails; it will be
1415 created automatically for a couple of reasons, too, like when the
1417 .Dq mailing list specific
1422 is used to respond to a message with its
1423 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
1427 A difference in between the handling of known and subscribed lists is
1428 that the address of the sender is usually not part of a generated
1429 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
1430 when addressing the latter, whereas it is for the former kind of lists.
1431 Usually because there are exceptions: say, if multiple lists are
1432 addressed and not all of them are subscribed lists.
1434 For convenience \*(UA will, temporarily, automatically add a list
1435 address that is presented in the
1437 header of a message that is being responded to to the list of known
1439 Shall that header have existed \*(UA will instead, dependent on the
1441 .Va reply-to-honour ,
1444 for this purpose in order to accept a list administrators' wish that
1445 is supposed to have been manifested like that (but only if it provides
1446 a single address which resides on the same domain as what is stated in
1450 .\" .Ss "Resource files" {{{
1451 .Ss "Resource files"
1453 Upon startup \*(UA reads in several resource files:
1455 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa BaNg"
1458 System wide initialization file.
1459 Reading of this file can be suppressed, either by using the
1461 (and according argument) or
1463 command line options, or by setting the
1466 .Ev MAILX_NO_SYSTEM_RC .
1470 File giving initial commands.
1471 A different file can be chosen by setting the
1475 Reading of this file can be suppressed with the
1477 command line option.
1479 .It Va mailx-extra-rc
1480 Can be used to define an optional startup file to be read after all
1481 other resource files.
1482 It can be used to specify settings that are not understood by other
1484 implementations, for example.
1485 This variable is only honoured when defined in a resource file, e.g.,
1487 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" .
1491 The content of these files is interpreted as follows:
1494 .Bl -bullet -compact
1496 A lines' leading whitespace is removed.
1498 Empty lines are ignored.
1500 Any other line is interpreted as a command.
1501 It may be spread over multiple input lines if the newline character is
1503 by placing a reverse solidus character
1505 as the last character of the line; whereas any leading whitespace of
1506 follow lines is ignored, trailing whitespace before a escaped newline
1507 remains in the input.
1509 If the line (content) starts with the number sign
1511 then it is a comment-command \(en a real command! \(en and also ignored.
1512 This command is the only form of comment that is understood.
1516 Unless \*(UA is about to enter interactive mode syntax errors that occur
1517 while loading these files are treated as errors and cause program exit.
1518 More files with syntactically equal content can be
1520 The following, saved in a file, would be an examplary content:
1522 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1523 # This line is a comment command. And y\e
1524 es, it is really continued here.
1531 .\" .Ss "Character sets" {{{
1532 .Ss "Character sets"
1534 \*(OP \*(UA detects the character set of the terminal by using
1535 mechanisms that are controlled by the
1540 should give an overview); the \*(UA internal variable
1542 will be set to the detected terminal character set accordingly
1543 and will thus show up in the output of the commands
1549 However, a user supplied
1551 value is not overwritten by this detection mechanism: this
1553 must be used if the detection does not work properly,
1554 and it may be used to adjust the name of the locale character set.
1555 E.g., on BSD systems one may use a locale with the character set
1556 ISO8859-1, which is not a valid name for this character set; to be on
1557 the safe side, one may set
1559 to the correct name, which is ISO-8859-1.
1562 Note that changing the value does not mean much beside that,
1563 since several aspects of the real character set are implied by the
1564 locale environment of the system,
1565 and that stays unaffected by the content of an overwritten
1568 (This is mostly an issue when interactively using \*(UA, though.
1569 It is actually possible to send mail in a completely
1571 locale environment, an option that \*(UA's test-suite uses excessively.)
1574 If no character set conversion capabilities have been compiled into
1577 does not include the term
1581 will be the only supported character set,
1582 it is simply assumed that it can be used to exchange 8-bit messages
1583 (over the wire an intermediate
1584 .Pf content-transfer-\: Va encoding
1586 and the rest of this section does not apply;
1587 it may however still be necessary to explicitly set it if automatic
1588 detection fails, since in that case it defaults to the mentioned
1589 .\" (Keep in SYNC: ./nail.1:"Character sets", ./nail.h:CHARSET_*!)
1593 When reading messages, their text is converted into
1595 as necessary in order to display them on the users terminal.
1596 Unprintable characters and invalid byte sequences are detected
1597 and replaced by proper substitution characters (unless the variable
1599 was set once \*(UA was started).
1601 .Va charset-unknown-8bit
1602 to deal with another hairy aspect of message interpretation.
1605 When sending messages all their parts and attachments are classified.
1606 Whereas no character set conversion is performed on those parts which
1607 appear to be binary data,
1608 the character set being used must be declared within the MIME header of
1609 an outgoing text part if it contains characters that do not conform to
1610 the set of characters that are allowed by the email standards.
1611 Permissible values for character sets can be declared using the
1615 which defines a catch-all last-resort fallback character set that is
1616 implicitly appended to the list of character-sets in
1620 When replying to a message and the variable
1621 .Va reply-in-same-charset
1622 is set then the character set of the message being replied to is tried
1624 And it is also possible to make \*(UA work even more closely related to
1625 the current locale setting automatically by using the variable
1626 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset ,
1627 please see there for more information.
1630 All the specified character sets are tried in order unless the
1631 conversion of the part or attachment succeeds.
1632 If none of the tried (8-bit) character sets is capable to represent the
1633 content of the part or attachment,
1634 then the message will not be sent and its text will optionally be
1638 In general, if the message
1639 .Dq Cannot convert from a to b
1640 appears, either some characters are not appropriate for the currently
1641 selected (terminal) character set,
1642 or the needed conversion is not supported by the system.
1643 In the first case, it is necessary to set an appropriate
1645 locale and/or the variable
1649 The best results are usually achieved when \*(UA is run in a UTF-8
1650 locale on a UTF-8 capable terminal, in which case the full Unicode
1651 spectrum of characters is available.
1652 In this setup characters from various countries can be displayed,
1653 while it is still possible to use more simple character sets for sending
1654 to retain maximum compatibility with older mail clients.
1657 On the other hand the POSIX standard defines a locale-independent 7-bit
1658 .Dq portable character set
1659 that should be used when overall portability is an issue, the even more
1660 restricted subset named
1661 .Dq portable filename character set
1662 consisting of A-Z, a-z, 0-9, period
1670 .\" .Ss "Message states" {{{
1671 .Ss "Message states"
1673 \*(UA differentiates in between several different message states;
1674 the current state will be reflected in header summary displays if
1676 is configured to do so (via the internal variable
1678 and messages can also be selected and be acted upon depending on their
1680 .Sx "Specifying messages" ) .
1681 When operating on the system
1685 .Sx "primary system mailbox" ,
1686 special actions, like the automatic moving of messages to the
1688 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
1690 may be applied when the mailbox is left (also implicitly via
1691 a successful exit of \*(UA, but not if the special command
1693 is used) \(en however, because this may be irritating to users which
1696 mail-user-agents, the default global
1702 variables in order to suppress this behaviour.
1704 .Bl -hang -width ".It Ql new"
1706 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state.
1707 Such messages are retained even in the
1709 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
1712 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state, but the
1713 message was present already when the mailbox has been opened last:
1714 Such messages are retained even in the
1716 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
1719 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
1738 will always try to automatically
1744 logical message, and may thus mark multiple messages as read, the
1746 command will do so if the internal variable
1751 command is used, messages that are in a
1753 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
1756 state when the mailbox is left will be saved in
1758 unless the internal variable
1763 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
1769 can be used to access such messages.
1772 The message has been processed by a
1774 command and it will be retained in its current location.
1777 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
1783 command is used, messages that are in a
1785 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
1788 state when the mailbox is left will be deleted; they will be saved in
1790 when the internal variable
1796 In addition to these message states, flags which otherwise have no
1797 technical meaning in the mail system except allowing special ways of
1798 addressing them when
1799 .Sx "Specifying messages"
1800 can be set on messages.
1801 These flags are saved with messages and are thus persistent, and are
1802 portable between a set of widely used MUAs.
1804 .Bl -hang -width ".It Ic answered"
1806 Mark messages as having been answered.
1808 Mark messages as being a draft.
1810 Mark messages which need special attention.
1814 .\" .Ss "Specifying messages" {{{
1815 .Ss "Specifying messages"
1822 can be given a list of message numbers as arguments to apply to a number
1823 of messages at once.
1826 deletes messages 1 and 2,
1829 will delete the messages 1 through 5.
1830 In sorted or threaded mode (see the
1834 will delete the messages that are located between (and including)
1835 messages 1 through 5 in the sorted/threaded order, as shown in the
1838 The following special message names exist:
1841 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ar BaNg"
1843 The current message, the so-called
1847 The message that was previously the current message.
1850 The parent message of the current message,
1851 that is the message with the Message-ID given in the
1853 field or the last entry of the
1855 field of the current message.
1858 The next previous undeleted message,
1859 or the next previous deleted message for the
1862 In sorted/threaded mode,
1863 the next previous such message in the sorted/threaded order.
1866 The next undeleted message,
1867 or the next deleted message for the
1870 In sorted/threaded mode,
1871 the next such message in the sorted/threaded order.
1874 The first undeleted message,
1875 or the first deleted message for the
1878 In sorted/threaded mode,
1879 the first such message in the sorted/threaded order.
1883 In sorted/threaded mode,
1884 the last message in the sorted/threaded order.
1888 selects the message addressed with
1892 is any other message specification,
1893 and all messages from the thread that begins at it.
1894 Otherwise it is identical to
1899 the thread beginning with the current message is selected.
1904 All messages that were included in the
1905 .Sx "Message list arguments"
1906 of the previous command.
1909 An inclusive range of message numbers.
1910 Selectors that may also be used as endpoints include any of
1915 .Dq any substring matches
1918 header, which will match addresses (too) even if
1920 is set (and POSIX says
1921 .Dq any address as shown in a header summary shall be matchable in this form ) ;
1924 variable is set, only the local part of the address is evaluated
1925 for the comparison, not ignoring case, and the setting of
1927 is completely ignored.
1928 For finer control and match boundaries use the
1932 .It Ar / Ns Ar string
1933 All messages that contain
1935 in the subject field (case ignored).
1942 the string from the previous specification of that type is used again.
1944 .It Xo Op Ar @ Ns Ar name-list Ns
1947 All messages that contain the given case-insensitive search
1949 ession; if the \*(OPal regular expression (see
1951 support is available
1953 will be interpreted as (an extended) one if any of the
1955 (extended) regular expression characters is seen: in this case this
1956 should match strings correctly which are in the locale
1960 .Ar @ Ns Ar name-list
1961 part is missing, the search is restricted to the subject field body,
1964 specifies a comma-separated list of header fields to search, as in
1966 .Dl '@to,from,cc@Someone i ought to know'
1968 In order to search for a string that includes a
1970 (commercial at) character the
1972 is effectively non-optional, but may be given as the empty string.
1973 Some special header fields may be abbreviated:
1987 respectively and case-insensitively.
1992 can be used to search in (all of) the header(s) of the message, and the
2001 can be used to perform full text searches \(en whereas the former
2002 searches only the body, the latter also searches the message header.
2004 This message specification performs full text comparison, but even with
2005 regular expression support it is almost impossible to write a search
2006 expression that savely matches only a specific address domain.
2007 To request that the content of the header is treated as a list of
2008 addresses, and to strip those down to the plain email address which the
2009 search expression is to be matched against, prefix the header name
2010 (abbreviation) with a tilde
2013 .Dl @~f@@a\e.safe\e.domain\e.match$
2016 All messages of state
2020 is one or multiple of the following colon modifiers:
2022 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar :M"
2027 Old messages (any not in state
2049 messages (cf. the variable
2050 .Va markanswered ) .
2055 \*(OP Messages classified as spam (see
2056 .Sx "Handling spam" . )
2058 \*(OP Messages with unsure spam classification.
2064 \*(OP IMAP-style SEARCH expressions may also be used.
2065 This addressing mode is available with all types of folders;
2066 \*(UA will perform the search locally as necessary.
2067 Strings must be enclosed by double quotes
2069 in their entirety if they contain white space or parentheses;
2070 within the quotes, only reverse solidus
2072 is recognized as an escape character.
2073 All string searches are case-insensitive.
2074 When the description indicates that the
2076 representation of an address field is used,
2077 this means that the search string is checked against both a list
2080 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2081 (\*qname\*q \*qsource\*q \*qlocal-part\*q \*qdomain-part\*q)
2086 and the addresses without real names from the respective header field.
2087 These search expressions can be nested using parentheses, see below for
2091 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar _n_u"
2092 .It Ar ( criterion )
2093 All messages that satisfy the given
2095 .It Ar ( criterion1 criterion2 ... criterionN )
2096 All messages that satisfy all of the given criteria.
2098 .It Ar ( or criterion1 criterion2 )
2099 All messages that satisfy either
2104 To connect more than two criteria using
2106 specifications have to be nested using additional parentheses,
2108 .Ql (or a (or b c)) ,
2112 .Ql ((a or b) and c) .
2115 operation of independent criteria on the lowest nesting level,
2116 it is possible to achieve similar effects by using three separate
2120 .It Ar ( not criterion )
2121 All messages that do not satisfy
2123 .It Ar ( bcc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2124 All messages that contain
2126 in the envelope representation of the
2129 .It Ar ( cc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2130 All messages that contain
2132 in the envelope representation of the
2135 .It Ar ( from \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2136 All messages that contain
2138 in the envelope representation of the
2141 .It Ar ( subject \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2142 All messages that contain
2147 .It Ar ( to \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2148 All messages that contain
2150 in the envelope representation of the
2153 .It Ar ( header name \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2154 All messages that contain
2159 .It Ar ( body \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2160 All messages that contain
2163 .It Ar ( text \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2164 All messages that contain
2166 in their header or body.
2167 .It Ar ( larger size )
2168 All messages that are larger than
2171 .It Ar ( smaller size )
2172 All messages that are smaller than
2176 .It Ar ( before date )
2177 All messages that were received before
2179 which must be in the form
2183 denotes the day of the month as one or two digits,
2185 is the name of the month \(en one of
2186 .Ql Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec ,
2189 is the year as four digits, e.g.,
2193 All messages that were received on the specified date.
2194 .It Ar ( since date )
2195 All messages that were received since the specified date.
2196 .It Ar ( sentbefore date )
2197 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
2198 .It Ar ( senton date )
2199 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
2200 .It Ar ( sentsince date )
2201 All messages that were sent since the specified date.
2203 The same criterion as for the previous search.
2204 This specification cannot be used as part of another criterion.
2205 If the previous command line contained more than one independent
2206 criterion then the last of those criteria is used.
2210 .\" .Ss "On URL syntax and credential lookup" {{{
2211 .Ss "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
2213 \*(IN For accessing protocol-specific resources usage of Uniform
2214 Resource Locators (URL, RFC 1738) has become omnipresent.
2215 \*(UA expects and understands URLs in the following form;
2218 denote optional parts, optional either because there also exist other
2219 ways to define the information in question or because support of the
2220 part is protocol-specific (e.g.,
2222 is used by the IMAP protocol but not by POP3);
2227 are specified they must be given in URL percent encoded form (RFC 3986;
2233 .Dl PROTOCOL://[USER[:PASSWORD]@]server[:port][/path]
2236 Note that these \*(UA URLs most often do not conform to any real
2237 standard, but instead represent a normalized variant of RFC 1738 \(en
2238 they are not used in data exchange but only meant as a compact,
2239 easy-to-use way of defining and representing information in
2240 a well-known notation.
2243 Many internal variables of \*(UA exist in multiple versions, called
2244 variable chains for the rest of this document: the plain
2249 .Ql variable-USER@HOST .
2256 had been specified in the respective URL, otherwise it refers to the plain
2262 that had been found when doing the user chain lookup as is described
2265 will never be in URL percent encoded form, whether it came from an URL
2266 or not; i.e., variable chain name extensions of
2267 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
2268 must not be URL percent encoded.
2271 For example, whether an hypothetical URL
2272 .Ql smtp://hey%3Ayou@our.house
2273 had been given that includes a user, or whether the URL was
2274 .Ql smtp://our.house
2275 and the user had been found differently, to lookup the variable chain
2276 .Va smtp-use-starttls
2277 \*(UA first looks for whether
2278 .Ql smtp-\:use-\:starttls-\:hey:you@our.house
2279 is defined, then whether
2280 .Ql smtp-\:use-\:starttls-\:our.house
2281 exists before finally ending up looking at the plain variable itself.
2284 \*(UA obeys the following logic scheme when dealing with the
2285 necessary credential information of an account:
2291 has been given in the URL the variables
2295 are looked up; if no such variable(s) can be found then \*(UA will,
2296 when enforced by the \*(OPal variables
2297 .Va netrc-lookup-HOST
2304 specific entry which provides a
2306 name: this lookup will only succeed if unambiguous (one possible matching
2309 It is possible to load encrypted
2314 If there is still no
2316 then \*(UA will fall back to the user who is supposed to run \*(UA,
2317 the identity of which has been fixated during \*(UA startup and is
2318 known to be a valid user on the current host.
2321 Authentication: unless otherwise noted this will lookup the
2322 .Va PROTOCOL-auth-USER@HOST , PROTOCOL-auth-HOST , PROTOCOL-auth
2323 variable chain, falling back to a protocol-specific default should this
2329 has been given in the URL, then if the
2331 has been found through the \*(OPal
2333 that may have already provided the password, too.
2334 Otherwise the variable chain
2335 .Va password-USER@HOST , password-HOST , password
2336 is looked up and used if existent.
2338 Afterwards the complete \*(OPal variable chain
2339 .Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , netrc-lookup-HOST , netrc-lookup
2343 cache is searched for a password only (multiple user accounts for
2344 a single machine may exist as well as a fallback entry without user
2345 but with a password).
2347 If at that point there is still no password available, but the
2348 (protocols') chosen authentication type requires a password, then in
2349 interactive mode the user will be prompted on the terminal.
2354 S/MIME verification works relative to the values found in the
2358 header field(s), which means that the values of
2359 .Va smime-sign , smime-sign-cert , smime-sign-include-certs
2361 .Va smime-sign-message-digest
2362 will not be looked up using the
2366 chains from above but instead use the corresponding values from the
2367 message that is being worked on.
2368 In unusual cases multiple and different
2372 combinations may therefore be involved \(en on the other hand those
2373 unusual cases become possible.
2374 The usual case is as short as:
2377 .Dl set mta=smtp://USER:PASS@HOST smtp-use-starttls \e
2378 .Dl \ \ \ \ smime-sign smime-sign-cert=+smime.pair
2383 contains complete example configurations.
2386 .\" .Ss "On terminal control and line editor" {{{
2387 .Ss "On terminal control and line editor"
2389 \*(OP Terminal control will be realized through one of the standard
2391 libraries, either the
2393 or, alternatively, the
2395 both of which will be initialized to work with the environment variable
2397 Terminal control will enhance or enable interactive usage aspects, e.g.,
2398 .Sx "Coloured display" ,
2399 and extend behaviour of the Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE), which may learn the
2400 byte-sequences of keys like the cursor and function keys, and which will
2401 automatically enter the so-called
2403 alternative screen shall the terminal support it.
2404 The internal variable
2406 can be used to overwrite settings or to learn (correct(ed)) keycodes.
2407 Actual interaction with the chosen library can be disabled completely by
2408 setting the internal variable
2409 .Va termcap-disable ;
2411 will be queried regardless, even if the \*(OPal support for the
2412 libraries has not been enabled at configuration time.
2415 \*(OP The builtin \*(UA Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE) should work in all
2416 environments which comply to the ISO C standard
2418 and will support wide glyphs if possible (the necessary functionality
2419 had been removed from ISO C, but was included in
2421 Prevent usage of a line editor in interactive mode by setting the
2423 .Va line-editor-disable .
2424 Especially if the \*(OPal terminal control support is missing setting
2425 entries in the internal variable
2427 will help shall the MLE misbehave, see there for more.
2428 The MLE can support a little bit of
2434 feature is available then input from line editor prompts will be saved
2435 in a history list that can be searched in and be expanded from.
2436 Such saving can be prevented by prefixing input with any amount of
2438 Aspects of history, like allowed content and maximum size, as well as
2439 whether history shall be saved persistently, can be configured with the
2443 .Va history-gabby-persist
2448 The MLE supports a set of editing and control commands.
2449 By default (as) many (as possible) of these will be assigned to a set of
2450 single-letter control codes, which should work on any terminal (and can
2451 be generated by holding the
2453 key while pressing the key of desire, e.g.,
2457 command is available then the MLE commands can also be accessed freely
2458 by assigning the command name, which is shown in parenthesis in the list
2459 below, to any desired key-sequence, and the MLE will instead and also use
2461 to establish its builtin key bindings
2462 (more of them if the \*(OPal terminal control is available),
2463 an action which can then be suppressed completely by setting
2464 .Va line-editor-no-defaults .
2465 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
2466 notation is used in the following;
2467 combinations not mentioned either cause job control signals or do not
2468 generate a (unique) keycode:
2472 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql Ba"
2474 Go to the start of the line
2475 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-home ) .
2478 Move the cursor backward one character
2479 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-bwd ) .
2482 Forward delete the character under the cursor;
2483 quits \*(UA if used on the empty line unless the internal variable
2486 .Pf ( Cd mle-del-fwd ) .
2489 Go to the end of the line
2490 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-end ) .
2493 Move the cursor forward one character
2494 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-fwd ) .
2497 Cancel current operation, full reset.
2498 If there is an active history search or tabulator expansion then this
2499 command will first reset that, reverting to the former line content;
2500 thus a second reset is needed for a full reset in this case
2501 .Pf ( Cd mle-reset ) .
2504 Backspace: backward delete one character
2505 .Pf ( Cd mle-del-bwd ) .
2509 Horizontal tabulator:
2510 try to expand the word before the cursor, supporting the usual
2511 .Sx "Filename transformations"
2512 .Pf ( Cd mle-complete ) .
2514 .Cd mle-quote-rndtrip .
2518 commit the current line
2519 .Pf ( Cd mle-commit ) .
2522 Cut all characters from the cursor to the end of the line
2523 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-end ) .
2527 .Pf ( Cd mle-repaint ) .
2530 \*(OP Go to the next history entry
2531 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-fwd ) .
2534 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2538 \*(OP Go to the previous history entry
2539 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-bwd ) .
2542 Toggle roundtrip mode shell quotes, where produced,
2544 .Pf ( Cd mle-quote-rndtrip ) .
2545 This setting is temporary, and will be forgotten once the command line
2549 \*(OP Complete the current line from (the remaining) older history entries
2550 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-srch-bwd ) .
2553 \*(OP Complete the current line from (the remaining) newer history entries
2554 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-srch-fwd ) .
2557 Paste the snarf buffer
2558 .Pf ( Cd mle-paste ) .
2565 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-line ) .
2568 Prompts for a Unicode character (its hexadecimal number) to be inserted
2569 .Pf ( Cd mle-prompt-char ) .
2570 Note this command needs to be assigned to a single-letter control code
2571 in order to become recognized and executed during input of
2572 a key-sequence (only three single-letter control codes can be used for
2573 that shortcut purpose); this control code is special-treated and cannot
2574 be part of any other sequence, because any occurrence will perform the
2576 function immediately.
2579 Cut the characters from the one preceding the cursor to the preceding
2581 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-word-bwd ) .
2584 Move the cursor forward one word boundary
2585 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-word-fwd ) .
2588 Move the cursor backward one word boundary
2589 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-word-bwd ) .
2592 Escape: reset a possibly used multibyte character input state machine
2593 and \*(OPally a lingering, incomplete key binding
2594 .Pf ( Cd mle-cancel ) .
2595 This command needs to be assigned to a single-letter control code in
2596 order to become recognized and executed during input of a key-sequence
2597 (only three single-letter control codes can be used for that shortcut
2599 This control code may also be part of a multi-byte sequence, but if
2600 a sequence is active and the very control code is currently also an
2601 expected input, then it will first be consumed by the active sequence.
2604 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2608 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2612 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2616 Cut the characters from the one after the cursor to the succeeding word
2618 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-word-fwd ) .
2628 this will immediately reset a possibly active search etc.
2632 ring the audible bell.
2636 .\" .Ss "Coloured display" {{{
2637 .Ss "Coloured display"
2639 \*(OP \*(UA can be configured to support a coloured display and font
2640 attributes by emitting ANSI / ISO 6429 SGR (select graphic rendition)
2642 Usage of colours and font attributes solely depends upon the
2643 capability of the detected terminal type that is defined by the
2644 environment variable
2646 and which can be fine-tuned by the user via the internal variable
2650 On top of what \*(UA knows about the terminal the boolean variable
2652 defines whether the actually applicable colour and font attribute
2653 sequences should also be generated when output is going to be paged
2654 through the external program defined by the environment variable
2659 This is not enabled by default because different pager programs need
2660 different command line switches or other configuration in order to
2661 support those sequences.
2662 \*(UA however knows about some widely used pagers and in a clean
2663 environment it is often enough to simply set
2665 please refer to that variable for more on this topic.
2670 is set then any active usage of colour and font attribute sequences
2671 is suppressed, but without affecting possibly established
2676 To define and control colours and font attributes a single multiplexer
2677 command family exists:
2679 shows or defines colour mappings for the given colour type (e.g.,
2682 can be used to remove mappings of a given colour type.
2683 Since colours are only available in interactive mode, it may make
2684 sense to conditionalize the colour setup by encapsulating it with
2687 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2688 if terminal && $features =@ +colour
2689 colour iso view-msginfo ft=bold,fg=green
2690 colour iso view-header ft=bold,fg=red "from,subject"
2691 colour iso view-header fg=red
2693 uncolour iso view-header from,subject
2694 colour iso view-header ft=bold,fg=magenta,bg=cyan
2695 colour 256 view-header ft=bold,fg=208,bg=230 subject,from
2696 colour mono view-header ft=bold
2697 colour mono view-header ft=bold,ft=reverse subject,from
2701 .\" }}} (DESCRIPTION)
2704 .\" .Sh COMMANDS {{{
2707 Each command is typed on a line by itself,
2708 and may take arguments following the command word.
2709 An unquoted reverse solidus
2711 at the end of a command line
2713 the newline character: it is discarded and the next line of input is
2714 used as a follow-up line, with all leading whitespace removed;
2715 once the entire command line is completed, the processing that is
2716 documented in the following begins.
2719 Command names may be abbreviated, in which case the first command that
2720 matches the given prefix will be used.
2723 can be used to show the list of all commands, either alphabetically
2724 sorted or in prefix search order (these do not match, also because the
2725 POSIX standard prescribes a set of abbreviations).
2726 \*(OPally the command
2730 when given an argument, will show a documentation string for the
2731 command matching the expanded argument, as in
2733 which should be a shorthand of
2735 Both commands support a more
2737 listing mode which includes the argument type of the command,
2738 and other information which applies; a handy suggestion might be:
2740 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2742 # Be careful to choose sh(1)ell-style on _entire_ line!
2743 # Result status ends up in $!
2744 localopts 1;wysh set verbose;ignerr eval "${@}";return ${?}
2746 ? ghost xv '\ecall __xv'
2750 .\" .Ss "Command modifiers" {{{
2751 .Ss "Command modifiers"
2753 Commands may be prefixed by one or multiple command modifiers.
2758 The modifier reverse solidus
2761 to be placed first, prevents
2763 expansions on the remains of the line, e.g.,
2765 will always evaluate the command
2767 even if a ghost of the same name exists.
2769 content may itself contain further command modifiers, including
2770 an initial reverse solidus to prevent further expansions.
2776 indicates that any error generated by the following command should be
2777 ignored by the state machine, via, e.g.,
2778 .Va batch-exit-on-error .
2781 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
2782 will be set to the real exit status of the command regardless.
2785 Some commands support the
2788 modifier: if used, they expect the name of a variable as their first
2789 argument, and will place their computation result in it instead of the
2790 default location (it is usually written to standard output).
2791 The given name will be tested for being a valid
2793 variable name, and may therefore only consist of upper- and lowercase
2794 characters, digits, and the underscore; the hyphen-minus may be used as
2795 a non-portable extension.
2796 In addition the name may either not be one of the known
2797 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
2798 or must otherwise refer to a writable (non-boolean) value variable.
2799 It is a hard error that is tracked in
2801 if any of these tests fail.
2802 The actual put operation may fail nonetheless, e.g., if the variable
2803 expects a number argument only a number will be accepted.
2804 Some commands may report this as a hard failure in
2806 but most will use the soft exit status
2808 to indicate these failures.
2811 Last, but not least, the modifier
2814 can be used for some old and established commands to choose the new
2815 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
2816 rules over the traditional
2817 .Sx "Old-style argument quoting" .
2821 .\" .Ss "Message list arguments" {{{
2822 .Ss "Message list arguments"
2824 Some commands expect arguments that represent messages (actually
2825 their symbolic message numbers), as has been documented above under
2826 .Sx "Specifying messages"
2828 If no explicit message list has been specified, the next message
2829 forward that satisfies the command's requirements will be used,
2830 and if there are no messages forward of the current message,
2831 the search proceeds backwards;
2832 if there are no good messages at all to be found, an error message is
2833 shown and the command is aborted.
2836 .\" .Ss "Old-style argument quoting" {{{
2837 .Ss "Old-style argument quoting"
2839 \*(ID This section documents the old, traditional style of quoting
2840 non-message-list arguments to commands which expect this type of
2841 arguments: whereas still used by the majority of such commands, the new
2842 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
2843 may be available even for those via
2846 .Sx "Command modifiers" .
2847 Nonetheless care must be taken, because only new commands have been
2848 designed with all the capabilities of the new quoting rules in mind,
2849 which can, e.g., generate control characters.
2852 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
2854 An argument can be enclosed between paired double-quotes
2859 any white space, shell word expansion, or reverse solidus characters
2860 (except as described next) within the quotes are treated literally as
2861 part of the argument.
2862 A double-quote will be treated literally within single-quotes and vice
2864 Inside such a quoted string the actually used quote character can be
2865 used nonetheless by escaping it with a reverse solidus
2871 An argument that is not enclosed in quotes, as above, can usually still
2872 contain space characters if those spaces are reverse solidus escaped, as in
2876 A reverse solidus outside of the enclosing quotes is discarded
2877 and the following character is treated literally as part of the argument.
2881 .\" .Ss "Shell-style argument quoting" {{{
2882 .Ss "Shell-style argument quoting"
2884 Commands which don't expect message-list arguments use
2886 ell-style, and therefore POSIX standardized, argument parsing and
2888 \*(ID Most new commands only support these new rules and are flagged
2889 \*(NQ, some elder ones can use them with the command modifier
2891 in the future only this type of argument quoting will remain.
2894 A command line is parsed from left to right and an input token is
2895 completed whenever an unquoted, otherwise ignored, metacharacter is seen.
2896 Metacharacters are vertical bar
2903 .Cm space , tabulator , newline .
2904 The additional metacharacters left and right parenthesis
2906 and less-than and greater-than signs
2910 supports are not used, and are treated as ordinary characters: for one
2911 these characters are a vivid part of email addresses, and it also seems
2912 highly unlikely that their function will become meaningful to \*(UA.
2915 Any unquoted number sign
2917 at the beginning of new token starts a comment that extends to the end
2918 of the line, and therefore ends argument processing.
2921 will cause variable expansion of the given name:
2922 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
2925 (shell) variables can be accessed through this mechanism, brace
2926 enclosing the name is supported (i.e., to subdivide a token).
2929 Whereas the metacharacters
2930 .Cm space , tabulator , newline
2931 only complete an input token, vertical bar
2937 also act as control operators and perform control functions.
2938 For now supported is semicolon
2940 which terminates a single command, therefore sequencing the command line
2941 and making the remainder of the line a subject to reevaluation.
2942 With sequencing, multiple command argument types and quoting rules may
2943 therefore apply to a single line, which can become problematic before
2944 v15: e.g., the first of the following will cause surprising results.
2947 .Dl ? echo one; set verbose; echo verbose=$verbose.
2948 .Dl ? echo one; wysh set verbose; echo verbose=$verbose.
2951 Quoting is a mechanism that will remove the special meaning of
2952 metacharacters and reserved words, and will prevent expansion.
2953 There are four quoting mechanisms: the escape character, single-quotes,
2954 double-quotes and dollar-single-quotes:
2957 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
2959 The literal value of any character can be preserved by preceding it
2960 with the escape character reverse solidus
2964 Arguments which are enclosed in
2965 .Ql 'single-\:quotes'
2966 retain their literal value.
2967 A single-quote cannot occur within single-quotes.
2970 The literal value of all characters enclosed in
2971 .Ql \(dqdouble-\:quotes\(dq
2972 is retained, with the exception of dollar
2974 which will cause variable expansion, as above, backquote (grave accent)
2976 (which not yet means anything special), reverse solidus
2978 which will escape any of the characters dollar
2980 (to prevent variable expansion), backquote (grave accent)
2984 (to prevent ending the quote) and reverse solidus
2986 (to prevent escaping, i.e., to embed a reverse solidus character as-is),
2987 but has no special meaning otherwise.
2990 Arguments enclosed in
2991 .Ql $'dollar-\:single-\:quotes'
2992 extend normal single quotes in that reverse solidus escape sequences are
2993 expanded as follows:
2995 .Bl -tag -compact -width "Ql \eNNN"
3001 an escape character.
3003 an escape character.
3015 emits a reverse solidus character.
3019 double quote (escaping is optional).
3021 eight-bit byte with the octal value
3023 (one to three octal digits), optionally prefixed by an additional
3025 A 0 byte will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
3027 eight-bit byte with the hexadecimal value
3029 (one or two hexadecimal characters).
3030 A 0 byte will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
3032 the Unicode / ISO-10646 character with the hexadecimal codepoint value
3034 (one to eight hexadecimal digits) \(em note that Unicode defines the
3035 maximum codepoint ever to be supported as
3040 This escape is only supported in locales which support Unicode (see
3041 .Sx "Character sets" ) ,
3042 in other cases the sequence will remain unexpanded unless the given code
3043 point is ASCII compatible or can be represented in the current locale.
3044 The character NUL will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
3048 except it takes only one to four hexadecimal digits.
3050 Emits the non-printable (ASCII and compatible) C0 control codes
3051 0 (NUL) to 31 (US), and 127 (DEL).
3052 Printable representations of ASCII control codes can be created by
3053 mapping them to a different part of the ASCII character set, which is
3054 possible by adding the number 64 for the codes 0 to 31, e.g., 7 (BEL) is
3055 .Ql 7 + 64 = 71 = G .
3056 The real operation is a bitwise logical XOR with 64 (bit 7 set, see
3058 thus also covering code 127 (DEL), which is mapped to 63 (question mark):
3059 .Ql ? vexpr ^ 127 64 .
3061 Whereas historically circumflex notation has often been used for
3062 visualization purposes of control codes, e.g.,
3064 the reverse solidus notation has been standardized:
3066 Some control codes also have standardized (ISO 10646, ISO C) aliases,
3067 as shown above (e.g.,
3071 whenever such an alias exists it will be used for display purposes.
3072 The control code NUL
3074 a non-standard extension) ends argument processing without producing
3077 Non-standard extension: expand the given variable name, as above.
3078 Brace enclosing the name is supported.
3080 Not yet supported, just to raise awareness: Non-standard extension.
3087 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3088 echo 'Quotes '${HOME}' and 'tokens" differ!"# no comment
3089 echo Quotes ${HOME} and tokens differ! # comment
3090 echo Don"'"t you worry$'\ex21' The sun shines on us. $'\eu263A'
3094 .\" .Ss "Filename transformations" {{{
3095 .Ss "Filename transformations"
3097 Filenames, where expected, and unless documented otherwise, are
3098 subsequently subject to the following filename transformations, in
3101 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
3103 If the given name is a registered
3105 it will be replaced with the expanded shortcut.
3108 The filename is matched against the following patterns or strings:
3110 .Bl -hang -compact -width ".Ar %user"
3112 (Number sign) is expanded to the previous file.
3114 (Percent sign) is replaced by the invoking
3115 .Mx -ix "primary system mailbox"
3116 user's primary system mailbox, which either is the (itself expandable)
3118 if that is set, the standardized absolute pathname indicated by
3120 if that is set, or a builtin compile-time default otherwise.
3122 Expands to the primary system mailbox of
3124 (and never the value of
3126 regardless of its actual setting).
3128 (Ampersand) is replaced with the invoking users
3129 .Mx -ix "secondary mailbox"
3130 secondary mailbox, the
3137 directory (if that variable is set).
3139 Expands to the same value as
3141 but has special meaning when used with, e.g., the command
3143 the file will be treated as a primary system mailbox by, e.g., the
3147 commands, meaning that messages that have been read in the current
3148 session will be moved to the
3150 mailbox instead of simply being flagged as read.
3154 Meta expansions are applied to the resulting filename, as applicable to
3155 the resulting file access protocol (also see
3156 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
3157 If the fully expanded filename results in multiple pathnames and the
3158 command is expecting only one file, an error results.
3160 For the file-protocol, a leading tilde
3162 character will be replaced by the expansion of
3164 except when followed by a valid user name, in which case the home
3165 directory of the given user is used instead.
3171 will be replaced by the expansion of the variable, if possible;
3172 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
3175 (shell) variables can be accessed through this mechanism, and the usual
3176 escape mechanism has to be applied to prevent interpretation.
3178 In interactive context, in order to allow simple value acceptance (via
3180 arguments will usually be displayed in a properly quoted form, e.g., a file
3181 .Ql diet\e is \ecurd.txt
3183 .Ql 'diet\e is \ecurd.txt' .
3187 .\" .Ss "Commands" {{{
3190 The following commands are available:
3192 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ic BaNg"
3197 command which follows, replacing unescaped exclamation marks with the
3198 previously executed command if the internal variable
3204 The comment-command causes the entire line to be ignored.
3206 this really is a normal command which' purpose is to discard its
3209 indicating special character, which means that, e.g., trailing comments
3210 on a line are not possible.
3214 Goes to the next message in sequence and types it
3220 Display the preceding message, or the n'th previous message if given
3221 a numeric argument n.
3225 Show the current message number (the
3230 Show a brief summary of commands.
3231 \*(OP Given an argument a synopsis for the command in question is
3232 shown instead; commands can be abbreviated in general and this command
3233 can be used to see the full expansion of an abbreviation including the
3234 synopsis, try, e.g.,
3239 and see how the output changes.
3240 This mode also supports a more
3242 output, which will provide the informations documented for
3253 \*(NQ Interprets the remainder of the word as a macro name and passes
3258 is a shorter synonym for
3259 .Ql call Ar mymacro .
3263 (ac) Creates, selects or lists (an) account(s).
3264 Accounts are special incarnations of
3266 macros and group commands and variable settings which together usually
3267 arrange the environment for the purpose of creating an email account.
3268 Different to normal macros settings which are covered by
3270 \(en here by default enabled! \(en will not be reverted before the
3275 (case-insensitive) always exists, and all but it can be deleted via
3278 Without arguments a listing of all defined accounts is shown.
3279 With one argument the given account is activated: the system
3281 of that account will be activated (as via
3283 a possibly installed
3285 will be run, and the internal variable
3288 The two argument form is identical to defining a macro as via
3290 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3292 set folder=~/mail inbox=+syste.mbox record=+sent.mbox
3293 set from='myname@myisp.example (My Name)'
3294 set mta=smtp://mylogin@smtp.myisp.example
3300 \*(NQ Interprets the given arguments as an email address specification,
3301 formats it as induced by email standards, and then shows the result.
3305 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
3306 The return status is tracked via
3308 \*(ID This will improve further.
3312 (a) With no arguments, shows all currently-defined aliases.
3313 With one argument, shows that alias.
3314 With more than one argument,
3315 creates a new alias or appends to an existing one.
3317 can be used to delete aliases.
3321 (alt) Manage a list of alternate addresses or names of the active user,
3322 members of which will be removed from recipient lists when replying to
3325 variable is not set).
3326 Without arguments the current set of alternates is displayed, otherwise
3327 the set of alternate names is replaced by the given arguments, and the
3330 is updated accordingly.
3334 Takes a message list and marks each message as having been answered.
3335 Messages will be marked answered when being
3337 to automatically if the
3341 .Sx "Message states" .
3346 \*(OP\*(NQ The bind command extends the MLE (see
3347 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
3348 with freely configurable key bindings.
3349 With one argument all bindings for the given context are shown,
3350 specifying an asterisk
3352 will show the bindings of all contexts; a more verbose listing will be
3353 produced if either of
3358 With two or more arguments a binding is (re)established:
3359 the first argument is the context to which the binding shall apply,
3360 the second argument is a comma-separated list of the
3362 which form the binding, and any remaining arguments form the expansion.
3363 To indicate that a binding shall not be auto-committed, but that the
3364 expansion shall instead be furtherly editable by the user, an at-sign
3366 (that will be removed) can be placed last in the expansion, from which
3367 leading and trailing whitespace will finally be removed.
3368 Reverse solidus cannot be used as the last character of expansion.
3371 Contexts define when a binding applies, i.e., a binding will not be seen
3372 unless the context for which it is defined for is currently active.
3373 This is not true for the shared binding
3375 which is the foundation for all other bindings and as such always
3376 applies, its bindings, however, only apply secondarily.
3377 The available contexts are the shared
3381 context which is used in all not otherwise documented situations, and
3383 which applies to compose mode only.
3387 which form the binding are specified as a comma-separated list of
3388 byte-sequences, where each list entry corresponds to one key(press).
3389 \*(OPally a list entry may, indicated by a leading colon character
3391 also refer to the name of a terminal capability;
3392 several dozen names will be compiled into \*(UA and may be specified
3395 or, if existing, by their
3397 name, regardless of the actually used terminal control library.
3398 It is however possible to use any capability, as long as the name is
3399 resolvable by the control library or defined in the internal variable
3401 Input sequences are not case-normalized, so that an exact match is
3402 required to update or remove a binding.
3405 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3406 bind base $'\eE',d mle-snarf-word-fwd # Esc(ape)
3407 bind base $'\eE',$'\ec?' mle-snarf-word-bwd # Esc, Delete
3408 bind default $'\ecA',:khome,w 'echo An editable binding@'
3409 bind default a,b,c rm -rf / @ # Another editable binding
3410 bind default :kf1 File %
3411 bind compose :kf1 ~e
3415 Note that the entire comma-separated list is first parsed (over) as a
3416 shell-token with whitespace as the field separator, before being parsed
3417 and expanded for real with comma as the field separator, therefore
3418 whitespace needs to be properly quoted, see
3419 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" .
3420 Using Unicode reverse solidus escape sequences renders a binding
3421 defunctional if the locale does not support Unicode (see
3422 .Sx "Character sets" ) ,
3423 and using terminal capabilities does so if no terminal control support
3424 is (currently) available.
3427 The following terminal capability names are builtin and can be used in
3429 or (if available) the two-letter
3431 notation regardless of the actually used library.
3432 See the respective manual for a list of capabilities.
3435 can be used to show all the capabilities of
3437 or the given terminal type;
3440 flag will also show supported (non-standard) extensions.
3443 .Bl -tag -compact -width kcuuf_or_kcuuf
3444 .It Cd kbs Ns \0or Cd kb
3446 .It Cd kdch1 Ns \0or Cd kD
3448 .It Cd kDC Ns \0or Cd *4
3449 \(em shifted variant.
3450 .It Cd kel Ns \0or Cd kE
3451 Clear to end of line.
3452 .It Cd kext Ns \0or Cd @9
3454 .It Cd kich1 Ns \0or Cd kI
3456 .It Cd kIC Ns \0or Cd #3
3457 \(em shifted variant.
3458 .It Cd khome Ns \0or Cd kh
3460 .It Cd kHOM Ns \0or Cd #2
3461 \(em shifted variant.
3462 .It Cd kend Ns \0or Cd @7
3464 .It Cd knp Ns \0or Cd kN
3466 .It Cd kpp Ns \0or Cd kP
3468 .It Cd kcub1 Ns \0or Cd kl
3469 Left cursor (with more modifiers: see below).
3470 .It Cd kLFT Ns \0or Cd #4
3471 \(em shifted variant.
3472 .It Cd kcuf1 Ns \0or Cd kr
3473 Right cursor (ditto).
3474 .It Cd kRIT Ns \0or Cd %i
3475 \(em shifted variant.
3476 .It Cd kcud1 Ns \0or Cd kd
3477 Down cursor (ditto).
3479 \(em shifted variant (only terminfo).
3480 .It Cd kcuu1 Ns \0or Cd ku
3483 \(em shifted variant (only terminfo).
3484 .It Cd kf0 Ns \0or Cd k0
3486 Add one for each function key up to
3491 .It Cd kf10 Ns \0or Cd k;
3493 .It Cd kf11 Ns \0or Cd F1
3495 Add one for each function key up to
3503 Some terminals support key-modifier combination extensions, e.g.,
3505 For example, the delete key,
3507 in its shifted variant, the name is mutated to
3509 then a number is appended for the states
3521 .Ql Shift+Alt+Control
3523 The same for the left cursor key,
3525 .Cd KLFT , KLFT3 , KLFT4 , KLFT5 , KLFT6 , KLFT7 , KLFT8 .
3528 Key bindings can be removed with the command
3530 It is advisable to use an initial escape or other control character (e.g.,
3532 for bindings which describe user key combinations (as opposed to purely
3533 terminal capability based ones), in order to avoid ambiguities whether
3534 input belongs to key sequences or not; it also reduces search time.
3537 may help shall keys and sequences be falsely recognized.
3542 \*(NQ Calls the given macro, which must have been created via
3544 Parameters given to macros are implicitly local to the macro's scope, and
3545 may be accessed via the special parameter syntax that is known from the
3552 Positional parameters may be removed by
3554 ing them off the stack.
3555 Macro execution can be terminated at any time by calling
3557 Numeric and string operations can be performed via
3561 may be helpful to recreate argument lists.
3562 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3564 echo Parameter 1 of ${#} is ${1}, all: ${*} / ${@}
3567 call exmac Hello macro exmac!
3574 if the given macro has been created via
3576 but doesn't fail nor warn if the macro doesn't exist.
3580 (ch) Change the working directory to
3582 or the given argument.
3588 \*(OP Only applicable to S/MIME signed messages.
3589 Takes a message list and a file name and saves the certificates
3590 contained within the message signatures to the named file in both
3591 human-readable and PEM format.
3592 The certificates can later be used to send encrypted messages to the
3593 respective message senders by setting
3594 .Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
3599 (ch) Change the working directory to
3601 or the given argument.
3607 Only applicable to threaded mode.
3608 Takes a message list and makes all replies to these messages invisible
3609 in header summaries, unless they are in state
3615 \*(OP\*(NQ Manage colour mappings of and for a
3616 .Sx "Coloured display" .
3617 The type of colour is given as the (case-insensitive) first argument,
3618 which must be one of
3620 for 256-colour terminals,
3625 for the standard 8-colour ANSI / ISO 6429 color palette and
3629 for monochrome terminals.
3630 Monochrome terminals cannot deal with colours, but only (some) font
3634 Without further arguments the list of all currently defined mappings
3635 for the given colour type is shown (as a special case giving
3639 will show the mappings of all types).
3640 Otherwise the second argument defines the mappable slot, and the third
3641 argument a (comma-separated list of) colour and font attribute
3642 specification(s), and the optional fourth argument can be used to
3643 specify a precondition: if conditioned mappings exist they are tested in
3644 (creation) order unless a (case-insensitive) match has been found, and
3645 the default mapping (if any has been established) will only be chosen as
3647 The types of precondition available depend on the mappable slot (see
3648 .Sx "Coloured display"
3649 for some examples), the following of which exist:
3652 Mappings prefixed with
3654 are used for the \*(OPal builtin Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE, see
3655 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
3656 and do not support preconditions.
3658 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
3660 This mapping is used for the position indicator that is visible when
3661 a line cannot be fully displayed on the screen.
3668 Mappings prefixed with
3670 are used in header summaries, and they all understand the preconditions
3672 (the current message) and
3674 for elder messages (only honoured in conjunction with
3675 .Va datefield-markout-older ) .
3677 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
3679 This mapping is used for the
3681 that can be created with the
3685 formats of the variable
3688 For the complete header summary line except the
3690 and the thread structure.
3692 For the thread structure which can be created with the
3694 format of the variable
3699 Mappings prefixed with
3701 are used when displaying messages.
3703 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
3705 This mapping is used for so-called
3707 lines, which are MBOX file format specific header lines.
3710 A comma-separated list of headers to which the mapping applies may be
3711 given as a precondition; if the \*(OPal regular expression support is
3712 available then if any of the
3714 (extended) regular expression characters is seen the precondition will
3715 be evaluated as (an extended) one.
3717 For the introductional message info line.
3718 .It Ar view-partinfo
3719 For MIME part info lines.
3723 The following (case-insensitive) colour definitions and font attributes
3724 are understood, multiple of which can be specified in a comma-separated
3734 It is possible (and often applicable) to specify multiple font
3735 attributes for a single mapping.
3738 foreground colour attribute:
3748 To specify a 256-color mode a decimal number colour specification in
3749 the range 0 to 255, inclusive, is supported, and interpreted as follows:
3751 .Bl -tag -compact -width "999 - 999"
3753 the standard ISO 6429 colors, as above.
3755 high intensity variants of the standard colors.
3757 216 colors in tuples of 6.
3759 grayscale from black to white in 24 steps.
3761 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3763 fg() { printf "\e033[38;5;${1}m($1)"; }
3764 bg() { printf "\e033[48;5;${1}m($1)"; }
3766 while [ $i -lt 256 ]; do fg $i; i=$(($i + 1)); done
3767 printf "\e033[0m\en"
3769 while [ $i -lt 256 ]; do bg $i; i=$(($i + 1)); done
3770 printf "\e033[0m\en"
3774 background colour attribute (see
3776 for possible values).
3780 Mappings may be removed with the command
3782 For a generic overview see the section
3783 .Sx "Coloured display" .
3788 (C) Copy messages to files whose names are derived from the author of
3789 the respective message and do not mark them as being saved;
3790 otherwise identical to
3795 (c) Copy messages to the named file and do not mark them as being saved;
3796 otherwise identical to
3801 Show the name of the current working directory, as reported by
3806 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
3807 The return status is tracked via
3812 \*(OP For unencrypted messages this command is identical to
3814 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
3818 \*(OP For unencrypted messages this command is identical to
3820 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
3824 Without arguments the current list of macros, including their content,
3825 is shown, otherwise a macro is defined.
3826 A macro definition is a sequence of commands in the following form:
3827 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3836 A defined macro can be invoked explicitly by using the
3840 commands, or implicitly if a macro hook is triggered, e.g., a
3842 It is possible to localize adjustments, like creation, deletion and
3844 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
3847 command; the scope which is localized depends on how (i.e.,
3849 normal macro, folder hook, hook,
3851 switch) the macro is invoked.
3852 Execution of a macro body can be stopped from within by calling
3856 ed macro, given positional parameters can be
3859 Macros can be deleted via
3864 (d) Marks the given message list as
3866 Deleted messages will neither be saved in
3868 nor will they be available for most other commands.
3871 variable is set, automatically
3884 Superseded by the multiplexer
3890 Delete the given messages and automatically
3894 if one exists, regardless of the setting of
3901 up or down by one message when given
3905 argument, respectively.
3909 Takes a message list and marks each given message as a draft.
3911 .Sx "Message states" .
3915 \*(NQ (ec) Echoes arguments to standard output and writes a trailing
3916 newline, whereas the otherwise identical
3919 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
3921 .Sx "Filename transformations"
3922 are applied to the expanded arguments.
3928 except that is echoes to standard error.
3936 but does not write a trailing newline.
3942 but does not write a trailing newline.
3946 (e) Point the text editor (as defined in
3948 at each message from the given list in turn.
3949 Modified contents are discarded unless the
3956 .Ic if Ns / Ns Ic elif Ns / Ns Ic else Ns / Ns Ic endif
3957 conditional \(em if the condition of a preceding
3959 was false, check the following condition and execute the following block
3960 if it evaluates true.
3965 .Ic if Ns / Ns Ic elif Ns / Ns Ic else Ns / Ns Ic endif
3966 conditional \(em if none of the conditions of the preceding
3970 commands was true, the
3976 (en) Marks the end of an
3977 .Ic if Ns / Ns Ic elif Ns / Ns Ic else Ns / Ns Ic endif
3978 conditional execution block.
3983 \*(NQ \*(UA has a strict notion about which variables are
3984 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
3985 and which are managed in the program
3987 Since some of the latter are a vivid part of \*(UAs functioning,
3988 however, they are transparently integrated into the normal handling of
3989 internal variables via
3993 To integrate other environment variables of choice into this
3994 transparent handling, and also to export internal variables into the
3995 process environment where they normally are not, a
3997 needs to become established with this command, as in, e.g.,
4000 .Dl environ link PERL5LIB from TZ
4003 Afterwards changing such variables with
4005 will cause automatic updates of the program environment, and therefore
4006 be inherited by newly created child processes.
4007 Sufficient system support provided (it was in BSD as early as 1987, and
4008 is standardized since Y2K) removing such variables with
4010 will remove them also from the program environment, but in any way
4011 the knowledge they ever have been
4014 Note this implies that
4016 may cause loss of links.
4021 will remove an existing link, but leaves the variables as such intact.
4022 Additionally the subcommands
4026 are provided, which work exactly the same as the documented commands
4030 but (additionally) link the variable(s) with the program environment and
4031 thus immediately export them to, or remove them from (if possible),
4032 respectively, the program environment.
4037 \*(OP Since \*(UA uses the console as a user interface it can happen
4038 that messages scroll by too fast to become recognized.
4039 Optionally an error message ring queue is available which stores
4040 duplicates of any error message and notifies the user in interactive
4041 sessions whenever a new error has occurred.
4042 The queue is finite: if its maximum size is reached any new message
4043 replaces the eldest.
4046 can be used to manage this message queue: if given
4048 or no argument the queue will be displayed and cleared,
4050 will only clear all messages from the queue.
4054 \*(NQ Construct a command by concatenating the arguments, separated with
4055 a single space character, and then evaluate the result.
4056 This command passes through the status of the evaluated command.
4059 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4061 # Like this, sh(1)ell-stylish from begin to end: works!
4062 # Result status ends up in $!, then
4063 localopts 1;wysh set verbose;ignerr eval "${@}";return ${?}
4065 ghost xv '\ecall xverbose'
4078 call yyy '~xxx' "b\e$'\et'u ' "
4086 (ex or x) Exit from \*(UA without changing the active mailbox and skip
4087 any saving of messages in
4089 as well as a possibly tracked line editor history file.
4095 but open the mailbox read-only.
4100 (fi) The file command switches to a new mailbox.
4101 Without arguments it shows status information of the current mailbox.
4102 If an argument is given, it will write out changes (such as deletions)
4103 the user has made and open a new mailbox.
4104 .Sx "Filename transformations"
4105 will be applied to the
4110 If the name ends with
4115 it is treated as being compressed with
4120 respectively, and transparently handled through an intermediate
4121 (un)compression step (using a temporary file) with the according
4122 facility, sufficient support provided.
4123 Likewise, if the named file does not exist, but a file with one of the
4124 mentioned compression extensions does, then the name is automatically
4125 expanded and the compressed file is used.
4128 Otherwise, if the name ends with an extension for which
4129 .Va file-hook-load-EXTENSION
4131 .Va file-hook-save-EXTENSION
4132 variables are set, then the given hooks will be used to load and save
4134 and \*(UA will work with an intermediate temporary file.
4136 MBOX files (flat file-based mailboxes) are generally locked during file
4137 operations in order to avoid inconsistencies due to concurrent
4139 \*(OPal Mailbox files which \*(UA treats as the system
4144 .Sx "primary system mailbox" Ns
4145 es in general will also be protected by so-called dotlock files, the
4146 traditional way of mail spool file locking: for any file
4150 will be created for the duration of the synchronization \(em
4151 as necessary a privilege-separated dotlock child process will be used
4152 to accommodate for necessary privilege adjustments in order to create
4153 the dotlock file in the same directory
4154 and with the same user and group identities as the file of interest.
4157 \*(UA by default uses tolerant POSIX rules when reading MBOX database
4158 files, but it will detect invalid message boundaries in this mode and
4159 complain (even more with
4161 if any is seen: in this case
4163 can be used to create a valid MBOX database from the invalid input.
4168 refers to a directory with the subdirectories
4173 then it is treated as a folder in
4175 format; \*(ID the variable
4177 can be used to control the format of yet non-existent folders.
4181 .Dl \*(IN protocol://[user[:password]@]host[:port][/path]
4182 .Dl \*(OU protocol://[user@]host[:port][/path]
4185 is taken as an Internet mailbox specification.
4186 The \*(OPally supported protocols are
4190 (POP3 with SSL/TLS encrypted transport).
4193 part is valid only for IMAP; there it defaults to
4195 Also see the section
4196 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
4201 contains special characters, in particular
4205 they must be escaped in URL notation \(en the command
4207 can be used to show the necessary conversion.
4212 Takes a message list and marks the messages as flagged for
4213 urgent/special attention.
4215 .Sx "Message states" .
4224 With no arguments, list the names of the folders in the folder directory.
4225 With an existing folder as an argument,
4226 lists the names of folders below the named folder.
4232 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
4233 recipient's address (instead of in
4240 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
4241 recipient's address (instead of in
4248 but responds to all recipients regardless of the
4253 .It Ic followupsender
4256 but responds to the sender only regardless of the
4272 (f) Takes a list of message specifications and displays a summary of
4273 their message headers, exactly as via
4275 An alias of this command is
4278 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
4284 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the
4285 recipient's address (instead of in
4290 Takes a message and the address of a recipient
4291 and forwards the message to him.
4292 The text of the original message is included in the new one,
4293 with the value of the
4295 variable preceding it.
4296 To filter the included header fields to the desired subset use the
4298 slot of the white- and blacklisting command
4300 Only the first part of a multipart message is included unless
4301 .Va forward-as-attachment ,
4302 and recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names etc.
4303 unless the internal variable
4309 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
4314 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
4319 Define or list command aliases, so-called ghosts.
4320 A ghost can be used everywhere a normal command can be used, but always
4321 takes precedence: any arguments that are given to the command alias are
4322 joined onto the alias content, and the resulting string forms the
4323 command line that is, in effect, executed.
4324 Command ghosts can be removed with
4326 Without arguments a list of all currently known aliases is shown.
4327 With one argument the expansion of the given alias is shown.
4329 With two or more arguments a command alias is defined or updated: the
4330 first argument is the name under which the remaining command line should
4331 be accessible, the content of which can be just about anything.
4332 A ghost may itself expand to another ghost, but to avoid expansion loops
4333 further expansion will be prevented if a ghost refers to itself or if an
4334 expansion depth limit is reached.
4335 Explicit expansion prevention is available via reverse solidus
4338 .Sx "Command modifiers" .
4339 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4341 \*(uA: `ghost': no such alias: xx
4344 ghost xx "echo hello,"
4354 \*(NQ Multiplexer command to establish white- and blacklisting
4355 selections of header fields for a variety of applications.
4356 Without arguments the set of contexts that have settings is displayed.
4357 When given arguments, the first argument is the context to which the
4358 command applies, one of (case-insensitively)
4360 for display purposes (via, e.g.,
4363 for selecting which headers shall be stored persistently when
4369 ing messages (note that MIME related etc. header fields should not be
4370 ignored in order to not destroy usability of the message in this case),
4372 for stripping down messages when
4374 ing message (has no effect if
4375 .Va forward-as-attachment
4378 for defining user-defined set of fields for the command
4382 The current settings of the given context are displayed if only the
4383 first argument is given.
4384 A second argument denotes the type of restriction that is to be chosen,
4385 it may be (a case-insensitive prefix of)
4389 for white- and blacklisting purposes, respectively.
4390 Establishing a whitelist suppresses inspection of the corresponding
4392 If no further argument is given the current settings of the given type
4396 With four or more arguments the third denotes the action to be applied,
4401 for addition of fields, and
4405 for removal of fields from the given type of the given context.
4406 The fourth, and any following arguments are expected to specify the
4407 fields of desire, or \*(OPally, regular expression matches ought to
4409 The special wildcard field (asterisk,
4411 will establish a (fast) shorthand setting which covers all fields, or
4412 remove all fields in one operation, respectively.
4417 (h) Show the current group of headers, the size of which depends on
4420 and the style of which can be adjusted with the variable
4422 If a message-specification is given the group of headers containing the
4423 first message therein is shown and the message at the top of the screen
4438 the list of history entries;
4441 argument selects and evaluates the respective history entry,
4442 which will become the new history top; a negative number is used as an
4443 offset to the current command, e.g.,
4445 will select the last command, the history top.
4446 The default mode if no arguments are given is
4453 Takes a message list and marks each message therein to be saved in the
4458 Does not override the
4461 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command, because a
4463 command issued after
4465 will display the following message, not the current one.
4470 (i) Part of the nestable
4471 .Ic if Ns / Ns Ic elif Ns / Ns Ic else Ns / Ns Ic endif
4472 conditional execution construct \(em if the given condition is true then
4473 the encapsulated block is executed.
4474 POSIX only supports the (case-insensitive) conditions
4479 end, all remaining conditions are non-portable extensions; note that
4480 falsely specified conditions cause the execution of the entire
4481 conditional construct until the (matching) closing
4483 command to be suppressed.
4484 The syntax of the nestable
4486 conditional execution construct requires that each condition and syntax
4487 element is surrounded by whitespace.
4489 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4498 The (case-insensitive) condition
4500 erminal will evaluate to true if the standard input is a terminal, i.e.,
4501 in interactive sessions.
4502 Another condition can be any boolean value (see the section
4503 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
4504 for textual boolean representations) to mark an enwrapped block as
4507 .Dq always execute .
4508 It is possible to check
4509 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
4512 variables for existence or compare their expansion against a user given
4513 value or another variable by using the
4515 .Pf ( Dq variable next )
4516 conditional trigger character;
4517 a variable on the right hand side may be signalled using the same
4519 The variable names may be enclosed in a pair of matching braces.
4522 The available comparison operators are
4526 (less than or equal to),
4532 (greater than or equal to),
4536 (is substring of) and
4538 (is not substring of).
4539 The values of the left and right hand side are treated as strings and
4540 are compared 8-bit byte-wise, ignoring case according to the rules of
4541 the US-ASCII encoding (therefore, dependent on the active locale,
4542 possibly producing false results for strings in the locale encoding).
4543 Except for the substring checks the comparison will instead be performed
4544 arithmetically if both, the user given value as well as the variable
4545 content, can be parsed as numbers (integers).
4546 An unset variable is treated as the empty string.
4549 When the \*(OPal regular expression support is available, the additional
4555 They treat the right hand side as an extended regular expression that is
4556 matched case-insensitively and according to the active
4558 locale, meaning that strings in the locale encoding should be matched
4562 Conditions can be joined via AND-OR lists (where the AND operator is
4564 and the OR operator is
4566 which have equal precedence and will be evaluated with left
4567 associativity, thus using the same syntax that is known for the
4569 It is also possible to form groups of conditions and lists by enclosing
4570 them in pairs of brackets
4571 .Ql [\ \&.\&.\&.\ ] ,
4572 which may be interlocked within each other, and also be joined via
4576 The results of individual conditions and entire groups may be modified
4577 via unary operators: the unary operator
4579 will reverse the result.
4581 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4585 if [ "$ttycharset" == UTF-8 ] || [ "$ttycharset" == UTF8 ]
4586 echo *ttycharset* is set to UTF-8, case-insensitively
4589 if [ "${t1}" == "${t2}" ]
4590 echo These two variables are equal
4592 if [ "$version-major" >= 15 ]
4593 echo Running a new version..
4594 if [ "$features" =@ +regex ]
4595 if [ "$TERM" =~ "^xterm\&.*" ]
4596 echo ..in an X terminal
4599 if [ [ true ] && [ [ "${debug}" != '' ] || \e
4600 [ "$verbose" != '' ] ] ]
4603 if true && [ "$debug" != '' ] || [ "${verbose}" != '' ]
4604 echo Left associativity, as is known from the shell
4606 if ! ! true && ! [ ! "$debug" && ! "$verbose" ]
4607 echo Unary operator support
4617 Superseded by the multiplexer
4622 Shows the names of all available commands, alphabetically sorted.
4623 If given any non-whitespace argument the list will be shown in the order
4624 in which command prefixes are searched.
4625 In conjunction with a set variable
4627 additional information will be provided for each command: the argument
4628 type will be indicated, the \*(OPal documentation string will be shown,
4629 and the set of command flags will show up:
4631 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql BaNg"
4632 .It Ql "vput modifier"
4633 command supports the command modifier
4635 .It Ql "status in *!*"
4636 the soft exit status is tracked in
4639 commands needs an active mailbox, a
4641 .It Ql "ok: batch or interactive"
4642 command may only be used in interactive or
4645 .It Ql "ok: send mode"
4646 command can be used in send mode.
4647 .It Ql "not ok: compose mode"
4648 command is not available when in compose-mode.
4649 .It Ql "not ok: during startup"
4650 command cannot be used during program startup, e.g., while loading
4651 .Sx "Resource files" .
4652 .It Ql "ok: in subprocess"
4653 command is allowed to be used when running in a subprocess instance,
4654 e.g., from within a macro that is called via
4655 .Va on-compose-done .
4660 This command can be used to localize changes to variables, meaning that
4661 their state will be reverted to the former one once the covered scope
4663 It can only be used inside of macro definition blocks introduced by
4667 and is interpreted as a boolean (string, see
4668 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ) ;
4671 of an account is left once it is switched off again.
4672 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4673 define temporary_settings {
4674 set possibly_global_option1
4679 set possibly_global_option2
4688 enables change localization and calls
4690 which explicitly resets localization, then any value changes within
4692 will still be reverted by
4694 \*(ID Once the outermost level, the one which enabled localization
4695 first, is left, but no earlier, all adjustments will be unrolled.
4696 \*(ID Likewise worth knowing, if in this example
4698 changes to a different
4700 which sets some variables that are yet covered by localizations, their
4701 scope will be extended, and in fact leaving the
4703 will (thus) restore settings in (likely) global scope which actually
4704 were defined in a local, private context.
4708 Reply to messages that come in via known
4711 .Pf ( Ic mlsubscribe )
4712 mailing lists, or pretend to do so (see
4713 .Sx "Mailing lists" ) :
4716 functionality this will actively resort and even remove message
4717 recipients in order to generate a message that is supposed to be sent to
4719 For example it will also implicitly generate a
4720 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
4721 header if that seems useful, regardless of the setting of the variable
4728 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
4729 recipient's address (instead of in
4734 (m) Takes a (list of) recipient address(es) as (an) argument(s),
4735 or asks on standard input if none were given;
4736 then collects the remaining mail content and sends it out.
4740 (mb) The given message list is to be sent to
4742 when \*(UA is quit; this is the default action unless the variable
4745 \*(ID This command can only be used in a
4747 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
4751 Without any arguments the content of the MIME type cache will displayed.
4752 Otherwise each argument defines a complete MIME type specification of
4753 a type that shall be added (prepended) to the cache.
4754 In any event MIME type sources are loaded first as necessary \(en
4755 .Va mimetypes-load-control
4756 can be used to fine-tune which sources are actually loaded.
4757 Refer to the section on
4758 .Sx "The mime.types files"
4759 for more on MIME type specifications and this topic in general.
4760 MIME type unregistration and cache resets can be triggered with
4765 Without arguments the list of all currently defined mailing lists
4766 (and their attributes, if any) is shown; a more verbose listing will be
4767 produced if either of
4772 Otherwise all given arguments (which need not be quoted except for
4773 whitespace) will be added and henceforth be recognized as mailing lists.
4774 Mailing lists may be removed via the command
4777 If the \*(OPal regular expression support is available then mailing
4778 lists may also be specified as (extended) regular expressions (see
4784 Without arguments the list of all currently defined mailing lists which
4785 have a subscription attribute is shown; a more verbose listing will be
4786 produced if either of
4791 Otherwise this attribute will be set for all given mailing lists,
4792 newly creating them as necessary (as via
4794 Subscription attributes may be removed via the command
4803 but moves the messages to a file named after the local part of the
4804 sender address of the first message (instead of in
4811 but marks the messages for deletion if they were transferred
4818 but also displays header fields which would not pass the
4820 selection, and all MIME parts.
4828 on the given messages, even in non-interactive mode and as long as the
4829 standard output is a terminal.
4835 \*(OP When used without arguments or if
4837 has been given the content of the
4839 cache is shown, loading it first as necessary.
4842 then the cache will only be initialized and
4844 will remove its contents.
4845 Note that \*(UA will try to load the file only once, use
4846 .Ql Ic \&\&netrc Ns \:\0\:clear
4847 to unlock further attempts.
4852 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ;
4854 .Sx "The .netrc file"
4855 documents the file format in detail.
4859 Checks for new mail in the current folder without committing any changes
4861 If new mail is present, a message is shown.
4865 the headers of each new message are also shown.
4866 This command is not available for all mailbox types.
4874 Goes to the next message in sequence and types it.
4875 With an argument list, types the next matching message.
4889 If the current folder is accessed via a network connection, a
4891 command is sent, otherwise no operation is performed.
4897 but also displays header fields which would not pass the
4899 selection, and all MIME parts.
4907 on the given messages, even in non-interactive mode and as long as the
4908 standard output is a terminal.
4916 but also pipes header fields which would not pass the
4918 selection, and all parts of MIME
4919 .Ql multipart/alternative
4924 (pi) Takes a message list and a shell command
4925 and pipes the messages through the command.
4926 Without an argument the current message is piped through the command
4933 every message is followed by a formfeed character.
4954 (q) Terminates the session, saving all undeleted, unsaved messages in
4957 preserving all messages marked with
4961 or never referenced in the system
4963 and removing all other messages from the
4965 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
4966 If new mail has arrived during the session,
4968 .Dq You have new mail
4970 If given while editing a mailbox file with the command line option
4972 then the edit file is rewritten.
4973 A return to the shell is effected,
4974 unless the rewrite of edit file fails,
4975 in which case the user can escape with the exit command.
4979 \*(NQ Read a line from standard input, and assign the splitted and
4980 trimmed line data to the given variables.
4981 The variable names are check by the same rules as documented for
4983 If there are more fields than variables, assign successive fields to the
4984 last given variable.
4985 If there are less fields than variables, assign the empty string to the
4987 The return status is tracked via
4989 even though variable names are checked errors may still happen if it is
4990 tried to set, e.g., strings to variables which expect number settings;
4991 it thus only happens if names are used which have special meaning to \*(UA.
4992 \*(ID This command will likely be extended towards more
4994 compatibility: for now splitting always occurs at whitespace, reverse
4995 solidus newline escaping is always supported, and the \*(OPal line
4996 editing features are always available when on an interactive terminal.
4997 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5000 ? echo "<$a> <$b> <$c>"
5016 Removes the named files or directories.
5017 If a name refer to a mailbox, e.g., a Maildir mailbox, then a mailbox
5018 type specific removal will be performed, deleting the complete mailbox.
5019 The user is asked for confirmation in interactive mode.
5023 Takes the name of an existing folder
5024 and the name for the new folder
5025 and renames the first to the second one.
5026 Both folders must be of the same type.
5030 (R) Reply to originator.
5031 Does not reply to other recipients of the original message.
5033 will exchange this command with
5035 Unless the internal variable
5037 is set the recipient address will be stripped from comments, names etc.
5041 (r) Take a message and group-responds to it by addressing the sender
5044 .Va followup-to-honour ,
5047 .Va recipients-in-cc
5048 influence response behaviour.
5051 offers special support for replying to mailing lists.
5052 Unless the internal variable
5054 is set recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names etc.
5067 but initiates a group-reply regardless of the value of
5074 but responds to the sender only regardless of the value of
5081 but does not add any header lines.
5082 This is not a way to hide the sender's identity,
5083 but useful for sending a message again to the same recipients.
5087 Takes a list of messages and a user name
5088 and sends each message to the named user.
5090 and related header fields are prepended to the new copy of the message.
5108 .It Ic respondsender
5114 (ret) Superseded by the multiplexer
5119 Only available inside the scope of a
5123 this will stop evaluation of any further macro content, and return
5124 execution control to the caller.
5125 If no arguments are specified, the return value, which will be stored in
5127 as well as the macro command exit status, which is made available in
5130 If only the return value is given the command exit status will be 0.
5131 Both optional parameters must be specified as unsigned (positive)
5134 \*(ID Notes: any non-0 command exit status is treated as a hard error
5135 by the state machinery, and will be propagated up and cause, e.g.,
5136 a file inclusion via
5138 to fail; this two argument form likely is a temporary hack that will
5145 but saves the messages in a file named after the local part of the
5146 sender of the first message instead of (in
5148 and) taking a filename argument.
5152 (s) Takes a message list and a filename and appends each message in turn
5153 to the end of the file.
5154 If no filename is given, the
5157 The filename in quotes, followed by the generated character count
5158 is echoed on the user's terminal.
5161 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
5162 the messages are marked for deletion.
5163 .Sx "Filename transformations"
5168 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
5173 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
5178 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
5183 Takes a message specification (list) and displays a header summary of
5184 all matching messages, as via
5186 This command is an alias of
5189 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
5193 Takes a message list and marks all messages as having been read.
5197 (se) Without arguments this command shows all internal variables which
5198 are currently known to \*(UA (they have been set).
5199 A more verbose listing will be produced if either of
5203 are set, in which case variables may be preceded with a comment line
5204 that gives some context of what \*(UA knows about the given variable.
5206 Otherwise the given variables (and arguments) are set or adjusted.
5207 Arguments are of the form
5209 (no space before or after
5213 if there is no value, i.e., a boolean variable.
5214 Quotation marks may be placed around any part of the assignment
5215 statement to quote blanks or tabs, e.g.,
5217 .Dl set indentprefix='->'
5219 If an argument begins with
5223 the effect is the same as invoking the
5225 command with the remaining part of the variable
5226 .Pf ( Ql unset save ) .
5230 that is known to map to an environment variable will automatically cause
5231 updates in the program environment (unsetting a variable in the
5232 environment requires corresponding system support).
5233 Please use the command
5235 for further environmental control.
5240 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
5246 (sh) Invokes an interactive version of the shell.
5250 Without arguments the list of all currently defined shortcuts is
5252 Otherwise all given arguments (which need not be quoted except for
5253 whitespace) are treated as pairs of shortcuts and their expansions,
5254 creating new or changing already existing shortcuts, as necessary.
5255 Shortcuts may be removed via the command
5260 Only available inside the scope of a
5262 ed macro, this will shift the positional parameters (starting at
5264 by the given number (which must be an unsigned, positive, decimal),
5265 or 1 if no argument has been given.
5266 It is an error if the value exceeds the number of positional parameters.
5267 If the given number is 0, no action is performed, successfully.
5273 but performs neither MIME decoding nor decryption, so that the raw
5274 message text is shown.
5278 (si) Shows the size in characters of each message of the given
5283 Shows the current sorting criterion when used without an argument.
5284 Otherwise creates a sorted representation of the current folder,
5287 command and the addressing modes such that they refer to messages in
5289 Message numbers are the same as in regular mode.
5293 a header summary in the new order is also displayed.
5294 Automatic folder sorting can be enabled by setting the
5296 variable, as in, e.g.,
5297 .Ql set autosort=thread .
5298 Possible sorting criterions are:
5300 .Bl -tag -compact -width "subject"
5302 Sort the messages by their
5304 field, that is by the time they were sent.
5306 Sort messages by the value of their
5308 field, that is by the address of the sender.
5311 variable is set, the sender's real name (if any) is used.
5313 Sort the messages by their size.
5315 \*(OP Sort the message by their spam score, as has been classified by
5318 Sort the messages by their message status.
5320 Sort the messages by their subject.
5322 Create a threaded display.
5324 Sort messages by the value of their
5326 field, that is by the address of the recipient.
5329 variable is set, the recipient's real name (if any) is used.
5334 (so) The source command reads commands from the given file.
5335 .Sx "Filename transformations"
5337 If the given expanded argument ends with a vertical bar
5339 then the argument will instead be interpreted as a shell command and
5340 \*(UA will read the output generated by it.
5341 Interpretation of commands read is stopped when an error is encountered.
5344 cannot be used from within macros that execute as
5345 .Va folder-hook Ns s
5348 i.e., it can only be called from macros that were
5355 (beside not supporting pipe syntax aka shell command input) is that
5356 this command will not generate an error nor warn if the given file
5357 argument cannot be opened successfully.
5361 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and clears their
5367 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and causes the
5369 to forget it has ever used them to train its Bayesian filter.
5370 Unless otherwise noted the
5372 flag of the message is inspected to chose whether a message shall be
5380 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and informs the Bayesian filter of the
5384 This also clears the
5386 flag of the messages in question.
5390 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and rates them using the configured
5391 .Va spam-interface ,
5392 without modifying the messages, but setting their
5394 flag as appropriate; because the spam rating headers are lost the rate
5395 will be forgotten once the mailbox is left.
5396 Refer to the manual section
5398 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
5402 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and sets their
5408 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and informs the Bayesian filter of the
5414 flag of the messages in question.
5423 Create a threaded representation of the current folder,
5424 i.\|e. indent messages that are replies to other messages in the header
5425 display and change the
5427 command and the addressing modes such that they refer to messages in the
5429 Message numbers are the same as in unthreaded mode.
5433 a header summary in threaded order is also displayed.
5442 slot for white- and blacklisting header fields.
5446 (to) Takes a message list and types out the first
5448 lines of each message on the users' terminal.
5449 Unless a special selection has been established for the
5453 command, the only header fields that are displayed are
5464 It is possible to apply compression to what is displayed by setting
5466 Messages are decrypted and converted to the terminal character set
5471 (tou) Takes a message list and marks the messages for saving in
5473 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command,
5476 command will display the following message instead of the current one.
5482 but also displays header fields which would not pass the
5484 selection, and all parts of MIME
5485 .Ql multipart/alternative
5490 (t) Takes a message list and types out each message on the users'
5494 For MIME multipart messages, all parts with a content type of
5498 are shown, the other are hidden except for their headers.
5499 Messages are decrypted and converted to the terminal character set
5504 Delete all given accounts.
5505 An error message is shown if a given account is not defined.
5508 will discard all existing accounts.
5512 (una) Takes a list of names defined by alias commands
5513 and discards the remembered groups of users.
5516 will discard all existing aliases.
5520 Takes a message list and marks each message as not having been answered.
5526 ing, specified by its context and input sequence, both of which may be
5527 specified as a wildcard (asterisk,
5531 will remove all bindings of all contexts.
5535 Only applicable to threaded mode.
5536 Takes a message list and makes the message and all replies to it visible
5537 in header summaries again.
5538 When a message becomes the current message,
5539 it is automatically made visible.
5540 Also when a message with collapsed replies is displayed,
5541 all of these are automatically uncollapsed.
5547 mapping for the given colour type (see
5549 for a list of types) and mapping; if the optional precondition argument
5550 is used then only the exact tuple of mapping and precondition is removed.
5553 will remove all mappings (no precondition allowed).
5555 .Sx "Coloured display"
5556 for the general picture.
5560 Undefine all given macros.
5561 An error message is shown if a given macro is not defined.
5564 will discard all existing macros.
5568 (u) Takes a message list and marks each message as not being deleted.
5571 variable is set, the last message restored will be
5573 d automatically; if no message list had been specified then the usual
5574 search for a visible message is performed, as documented for
5576 showing only the next input prompt if the search fails.
5584 Takes a message list and
5590 Takes a message list and marks each message as not being
5595 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
5600 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
5605 Remove all the given command
5609 will remove all ghosts.
5613 Superseded by the multiplexer
5618 Delete all given MIME types, e.g.,
5619 .Ql unmimetype text/plain
5620 will remove all registered specifications for the MIME type
5624 will discard all existing MIME types, just as will
5626 but which also reenables cache initialization via
5627 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
5631 Forget about all the given mailing lists.
5634 will remove all lists.
5639 .It Ic unmlsubscribe
5640 Remove the subscription attribute from all given mailing lists.
5643 will clear the attribute from all lists which have it set.
5654 Takes a message list and marks each message as not having been read.
5658 Superseded by the multiplexer
5663 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
5668 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
5673 (uns) Takes a list of internal variable names and discards their
5674 remembered values; the reverse of
5681 Deletes the shortcut names given as arguments.
5684 will remove all shortcuts.
5688 Disable sorted or threaded mode
5694 return to normal message order and,
5698 displays a header summary.
5708 \*(NQ Perform URL percent codec operations, rather according to RFC 3986.
5712 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
5713 The return status is tracked via
5715 This is a character set agnostic and thus locale dependent operation,
5716 and it may decode bytes which are invalid in the current locale, unless
5717 the input solely consists of characters in the portable character set, see
5718 .Sx "Character sets" .
5719 \*(ID This command does not about URLs beside that.
5721 The first argument specifies the operation:
5725 perform plain URL percent en- and decoding, respectively.
5729 perform a slightly modified operation which should be better for
5730 pathnames: it does not allow a tilde
5732 and will neither accept hyphen-minus
5736 as an initial character.
5737 The remaining arguments form the URL data which is to be converted.
5741 Edit the values of or create the given variable(s) in the
5743 Boolean variables cannot be edited.
5747 This command produces the same output as the listing mode of
5751 ity adjustments, but only for the given variables.
5755 \*(OP Takes a message list and verifies each message.
5756 If a message is not a S/MIME signed message,
5757 verification will fail for it.
5758 The verification process checks if the message was signed using a valid
5760 if the message sender's email address matches one of those contained
5761 within the certificate,
5762 and if the message content has been altered.
5775 \*(NQ Evaluate arguments according to a given operator.
5776 This is a multiplexer command which can be used to perform signed 64-bit
5777 numeric calculations as well as string operations.
5778 It uses polish notation, i.e., the operator is the first argument and
5779 defines the number and type, and the meaning of the remaining arguments.
5780 An empty argument is replaced with a 0 if a number is expected.
5784 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
5785 The return status is tracked via
5787 the result that is shown in case of (soft) errors is
5789 In general only invalid use cases cause hard errors which are reflected in
5791 and affect the state machine.
5794 Numeric operations work on one or two signed 64-bit integers.
5795 One integer is expected by assignment (equals sign
5797 which does nothing but parsing the argument, thus detecting validity and
5798 possible overflow conditions, and unary not (tilde
5800 which creates the bitwise complement.
5801 Two integers are used by addition (plus
5805 multiplication (asterisk
5811 as well as for the bitwise operators logical or (vertical bar
5814 bitwise and (ampersand
5817 bitwise xor (circumflex
5819 the bitwise signed left- and right shifts
5822 as well as for the unsigned right shift
5826 All numeric operators can be suffixed with an at sign
5830 this will turn the operation into a saturated one, which means that
5831 overflow errors and division and modulo by zero are still reflected in
5832 the return status, but the result will linger at the minimum or maximum
5833 possible value, instead of overflowing (or trapping).
5834 For the bitwise shifts, the saturated maximum is 63.
5835 If in saturated mode the overflow occurs during parsing the numbers,
5836 then the actual operation will not be performed but the given maximum
5837 value is used as the result immediately.
5840 String operations that take one argument are
5842 which queries the length of the given argument, and
5844 which performs the usual
5845 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
5847 Two or more arguments are used by
5849 which searches in the first for the second argument, and shows the
5850 resulting 0-based offset shall it have been found,
5852 which is identical to
5854 but works case-insensitively according to the rules of the ASCII
5857 will show a substring of its first argument:
5858 the second argument is the 0-based starting offset, the optional third
5859 argument can be used to specify the length of the desired substring,
5860 by default the entire string is used;
5861 this operation tries to work around faulty arguments, but the (soft)
5862 return status will still reflect them (set
5869 will try to match the first argument with the regular expression given
5870 in the second argument, as does
5872 but which is case-insensitive.
5873 These operators match according to the active
5875 locale and thus should match correctly strings in the locale encoding.
5876 If the optional third argument has been given then instead of showing
5877 the match offset a replacement operation is performed:
5878 the third argument is treated as if specified via dollar-single-quote
5880 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ) ,
5881 and any occurrence of a positional parameter, e.g.,
5883 is replaced by the corresponding match group of the regular expression.
5885 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5886 ? vexpr -@ +1 -9223372036854775808
5887 ? vput vexpr res ir bananarama (.*)nana(.*) '\e${1}au\e$2'
5894 (v) Takes a message list and invokes the display editor on each message.
5895 Modified contents are discarded unless the
5901 (w) For conventional messages the body without all headers is written.
5902 The original message is never marked for deletion in the originating
5904 The output is decrypted and converted to its native format as necessary.
5905 If the output file exists, the text is appended.
5906 If a message is in MIME multipart format its first part is written to
5907 the specified file as for conventional messages, handling of the remains
5908 depends on the execution mode.
5909 No special handling of compressed files is performed.
5911 In interactive mode the user is consecutively asked for the filenames of
5912 the processed parts.
5913 For convience saving of each part may be skipped by giving an empty
5914 value, the same result as writing it to
5916 Shell piping the part content by specifying a leading vertical bar
5918 character for the filename is supported.
5919 Other user input undergoes the usual
5920 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
5921 and contents of the destination file are overwritten if the file
5924 \*(ID In non-interactive mode any part which does not specify a filename
5925 is ignored, and suspicious parts of filenames of the remaining parts are
5926 URL percent encoded (as via
5928 to prevent injection of malicious character sequences, resulting in
5929 a filename that will be written into the current directory.
5930 Existing files will not be overwritten, instead the part number or
5931 a dot are appended after a number sign
5933 to the name until file creation succeeds (or fails due to other
5943 \*(UA presents message headers in
5945 fuls as described under the
5948 Without arguments this command scrolls to the next window of messages,
5949 likewise if the argument is
5953 scrolls to the last,
5955 scrolls to the first, and
5960 A number argument prefixed by
5964 indicates that the window is calculated in relation to the current
5965 position, and a number without a prefix specifies an absolute position.
5971 but scrolls to the next or previous window that contains at least one
5981 .\" .Sh COMMAND ESCAPES {{{
5982 .Sh "COMMAND ESCAPES"
5984 Here is a summary of the command escapes available in compose mode,
5985 which are used to perform special functions when composing messages.
5986 Command escapes are only recognized at the beginning of lines.
5987 The actual escape character can be set via the internal variable
5989 it defaults to the tilde
5993 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ic BaNg"
5996 Insert the string of text in the message prefaced by a single
5998 (If the escape character has been changed,
5999 that character must be doubled
6000 in order to send it at the beginning of a line.)
6003 .It Ic ~! Ar command
6004 Execute the indicated shell
6006 which follows, replacing unescaped exclamation marks with the previously
6007 executed command if the internal variable
6009 is set, then return to the message.
6013 Same effect as typing the end-of-file character.
6016 .It Ic ~: Ar \*(UA-command Ns \0or Ic ~_ Ar \*(UA-command
6017 Execute the given \*(UA command.
6018 Not all commands, however, are allowed.
6022 Write a summary of command escapes.
6025 .It Ic ~< Ar filename
6030 .It Ic ~<! Ar command
6032 is executed using the shell.
6033 Its standard output is inserted into the message.
6036 .It Ic ~@ Op Ar filename...
6037 Append or edit the list of attachments.
6040 arguments is expected (see
6041 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ;
6042 any token-separating commas are ignored), to be
6043 interpreted as documented for the command line option
6045 with the message number exception as below.
6048 arguments the attachment list is edited, entry by entry;
6049 if a filename is left empty, that attachment is deleted from the list;
6050 once the end of the list is reached either new attachments may be
6051 entered or the session can be quit by committing an empty
6054 For each mode, if a given file name solely consists of the number sign
6056 followed by a valid message number of the currently active mailbox, then
6057 the given message is attached as a MIME
6059 part (note the number sign is the comment character and must be quoted).
6063 Inserts the string contained in the
6066 .Ql Ic ~i Ns \0Sign ) .
6071 ting the variable(s) instead!) The escape sequences tabulator
6079 Inserts the string contained in the
6082 .Ql Ic ~i Ns \0sign ) .
6087 ting the variable(s) instead!) The escape sequences tabulator
6094 .It Ic ~b Ar name ...
6095 Add the given names to the list of blind carbon copy recipients.
6098 .It Ic ~c Ar name ...
6099 Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients.
6103 Read the file specified by the
6105 variable into the message.
6109 Invoke the text editor on the message collected so far.
6110 After the editing session is finished,
6111 the user may continue appending text to the message.
6114 .It Ic ~F Ar messages
6115 Read the named messages into the message being sent, including all
6116 message headers and MIME parts.
6117 If no messages are specified, read in the current message.
6120 .It Ic ~f Ar messages
6121 Read the named messages into the message being sent.
6122 If no messages are specified, read in the current message.
6123 Strips down the list of header fields according to the
6125 white- and blacklist selection of
6127 For MIME multipart messages,
6128 only the first displayable part is included.
6132 Edit the message header fields
6137 by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
6138 The default values for these fields originate from the
6146 Edit the message header fields
6152 by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
6155 .It Ic ~i Ar variable
6156 Insert the value of the specified variable into the message,
6157 adding a newline character at the end.
6158 The message remains unaltered if the variable is unset or empty.
6163 ting the variable(s) instead!) The escape sequences tabulator
6170 .It Ic ~M Ar messages
6171 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
6174 If no messages are specified, read the current message.
6177 .It Ic ~m Ar messages
6178 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
6181 If no messages are specified, read the current message.
6182 Strips down the list of header fields according to the
6184 white- and blacklist selection of
6186 For MIME multipart messages,
6187 only the first displayable part is included.
6191 Display the message collected so far,
6192 prefaced by the message header fields
6193 and followed by the attachment list, if any.
6197 Abort the message being sent,
6198 copying it to the file specified by the
6205 .It Ic ~R Ar filename
6206 Read the named file into the message, indented by
6210 .It Ic ~r Ar filename
6211 Read the named file into the message.
6215 Cause the named string to become the current subject field.
6216 Newline (NL) and carriage-return (CR) bytes are invalid and will be
6217 normalized to space (SP) characters.
6220 .It Ic ~t Ar name ...
6221 Add the given name(s) to the direct recipient list.
6224 .It Ic ~U Ar messages
6225 Read in the given / current message(s) excluding all headers, indented by
6229 .It Ic ~u Ar messages
6230 Read in the given / current message(s), excluding all headers.
6234 Invoke an alternate editor (defined by the
6236 environment variable) on the message collected so far.
6237 Usually, the alternate editor will be a screen editor.
6238 After the editor is quit,
6239 the user may resume appending text to the end of the message.
6242 .It Ic ~w Ar filename
6243 Write the message onto the named file.
6245 the message is appended to it.
6251 except that the message is not saved at all.
6254 .It Ic ~| Ar command
6255 Pipe the message through the specified filter command.
6256 If the command gives no output or terminates abnormally,
6257 retain the original text of the message.
6260 is often used as a rejustifying filter.
6264 .It Ic ~^ Ar cmd Op Ar subcmd Op Ar arg3 Op Ar arg4
6265 Low-level command ment for scripted message access, i.e., for
6266 .Va on-compose-done-shell
6268 .Va on-compose-done .
6269 The used protocol is likely subject to changes, and therefore the
6270 mentioned hooks receive the used protocol version as an initial line.
6271 In general the first field of a response line represents a status code
6272 which specifies whether a command was successful or not, whether result
6273 data is to be expected, and if, the format of the result data.
6274 The status codes are:
6277 .Bl -tag -compact -width _210_
6279 Status ok; the remains of the line are the result.
6281 Status ok; the rest of the line is optionally used for more status.
6282 What follows are lines of result addresses, terminated by an empty line.
6283 The address lines consist of two fields, the first of which is the
6284 plain address, e.g.,
6286 separated by a single ASCII SP space from the second which contains the
6287 unstripped address, even if that is identical to the first field, e.g.,
6288 .Ql (Lovely) Bob <bob@exam.ple> .
6290 Status ok; the rest of the line is optionally used for more status.
6291 What follows are lines of furtherly unspecified string content,
6292 terminated by an empty line.
6293 (All the input, including the empty line, must be consumed before
6294 further commands can be issued.)
6296 Syntax error; invalid command.
6298 Syntax error in parameters or arguments.
6300 Error: an argument fails verification.
6301 For example an invalid address has been specified.
6303 Error: an otherwise valid argument is rendered invalid due to context.
6304 For example, a second address is added to a header which may consist of
6305 a single address only.
6309 If a command indicates failure then the message will have remained
6311 Most commands can fail with
6313 if required arguments are missing (false command usage).
6314 The following commands are supported, and, as usual, case-insensitive:
6317 .Bl -hang -width header
6319 This command allows listing, inspection, and editing of message headers.
6320 The second argument specifies the subcommand to apply, one of:
6323 .Bl -hang -compact -width remove
6325 Without a third argument a list of all yet existing headers is given via
6327 this command is the default command of
6329 if no second argument has been given.
6330 A third argument restricts output to the given header only, which may
6333 if no such field is defined.
6336 Shows the content of the header given as the third argument.
6337 Dependent on the header type this may respond with
6341 any failure results in
6345 This will remove all instances of the header given as the third
6350 if no such header can be found.
6353 Create a new or an additional instance of the header given in the third
6354 argument, with the header body content as given in the fourth argument
6355 (the remains of the line).
6358 if the third argument specifies a free-form header field name that is
6359 invalid, or if body content extraction fails to succeed,
6361 if any extracted address does not pass syntax and/or security checks, and
6363 to indicate prevention of excessing a single-instance header \(em note that
6365 can be appended to (a space separator will be added automatically first).
6367 is returned upon success.
6372 This command allows listing, removal and addition of message attachments.
6373 The second argument specifies the subcommand to apply, one of:
6376 .Bl -hang -compact -width remove
6378 List all attachments via
6382 if no attachments exist.
6383 This command is the default command of
6385 if no second argument has been given.
6388 This will remove the attachment given as the third argument, and report
6392 if no such attachment can be found.
6393 If there exists any path component in the given argument, then an exact
6394 match of the path which has been used to create the attachment is used
6395 directly, but if only the basename of that path matches then all
6396 attachments are traversed to find an exact match first, and the removal
6397 occurs afterwards; if multiple basenames match, a
6400 Message attachments are treated as absolute pathnames.
6402 If no path component exists in the given argument, then all attachments
6403 will be searched for
6405 parameter matches as well as for matches of the basename of the path
6406 which has been used when the attachment has been created; multiple
6411 This will interpret the third argument as a number and remove the
6412 attachment at that list position (counting from one!), reporting
6416 if the argument is not a number or
6418 if no such attachment exists.
6421 Adds the attachment given as the third argument, specified exactly as
6422 documented for the command line option
6424 and supporting the message number extension as documented for
6428 upon success, with the index of the new attachment following,
6430 if the given file cannot be opened,
6432 if an on-the-fly performed character set conversion fails, otherwise
6434 is reported; this is also reported if character-set conversion is
6435 requested but not available.
6438 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
6440 and prints any known attributes of the first found attachment via
6444 if no such attachment can be found.
6445 The attributes are written as lines of keyword and value tuples, the
6446 keyword being separated from the rest of the line with an ASCII SP space
6450 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
6452 and is otherwise identical to
6455 .It Ar attribute-set
6456 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
6458 and will assign the attribute given as the fourth argument, which is
6459 expected to be a value tuple of keyword and other data, separated by
6460 a ASCII SP space or TAB tabulator character.
6461 If the value part is empty, then the given attribute is removed, or
6462 reset to a default value if existence of the attribute is crucial.
6465 upon success, with the index of the found attachment following,
6467 for message attachments or if the given keyword is invalid, and
6469 if no such attachment can be found.
6470 The following keywords may be used (case-insensitively):
6472 .Bl -hang -compact -width ".Ql filename"
6474 Sets the filename of the MIME part, i.e., the name that is used for
6475 display and when (suggesting a name for) saving (purposes).
6476 .It Ql content-description
6477 Associate some descriptive information to the attachment's content, used
6478 in favour of the plain filename by some MUAs.
6480 May be used for uniquely identifying MIME entities in several contexts;
6481 this expects a special reference address format as defined in RFC 2045
6484 upon address content verification failure.
6486 Specifies the media type and subtype of the part; managed automatically.
6487 .It Ql content-disposition
6488 Automatically set to the string
6492 .It Ar attribute-set-at
6493 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
6495 and is otherwise identical to
6505 .\" .Sh INTERNAL VARIABLES {{{
6506 .Sh "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
6508 Internal \*(UA variables are controlled via the
6512 commands; prefixing a variable name with the string
6516 has the same effect as using
6522 Creation or editing of variables can be performed in the
6527 will give more insight on the given variable(s), and
6529 when called without arguments, will show a listing of all variables.
6530 Both commands support a more
6533 Some well-known variables will also become inherited from the
6536 implicitly, others can be explicitly imported with the command
6538 and henceforth share said properties.
6541 Two different kind of internal variables exist.
6542 There are boolean variables, which can only be in one of the two states
6546 and value variables with a(n optional) string value.
6547 For the latter proper quoting is necessary upon assignment time, the
6548 introduction of the section
6550 documents the supported quoting rules.
6552 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6553 wysh set one=val\e 1 two="val 2" \e
6554 three='val "3"' four=$'val \e'4\e''
6555 varshow one two three four
6556 unset one two three four
6560 Dependent upon the actual option the string values will be interpreted
6561 as numbers, colour names, normal text etc., but there also exists
6562 a special kind of string value, the
6563 .Dq boolean string ,
6564 which must either be a decimal integer (in which case
6568 and any other value is true) or any of the (case-insensitive) strings
6574 for a false boolean and
6580 for a true boolean; a special kind of boolean string is the
6582 which is a boolean string that can optionally be prefixed with the
6583 (case-insensitive) term
6587 which causes prompting of the user in interactive mode, with the given
6588 boolean as the default value.
6590 .\" .Ss "Initial settings" {{{
6591 .\" (Keep in SYNC: ./nail.h:okeys, ./nail.rc, ./nail.1:"Initial settings")
6592 .Ss "Initial Settings"
6594 The standard POSIX 2008/Cor 2-2016 mandates the following initial
6600 .Pf no Va autoprint ,
6614 .Pf no Va ignoreeof ,
6616 .Pf no Va keepsave ,
6618 .Pf no Va outfolder ,
6626 .Pf no Va sendwait ,
6635 Notes: \*(UA does not support the
6637 variable \(en use command line options or
6639 to pass options through to a
6641 And the default global
6643 file, which is loaded unless the
6645 (with according argument) or
6647 command line options have been used, or the
6648 .Ev MAILX_NO_SYSTEM_RC
6649 environment variable is set, see
6650 .Sx "Resource files" )
6651 bends those initial settings a bit, e.g., it sets the variables
6656 to name a few, establishes a default
6658 selection etc., and should thus be taken into account.
6661 .\" .Ss "Variables" {{{
6664 .Bl -tag -width ".It Va BaNg"
6668 \*(RO The (hard) exit status of the last command.
6669 This exit status has a meaning for the state machine, in parts
6670 prescribed by the POSIX standard, and, e.g., for
6673 .Va batch-exit-on-error .
6674 This is why \*(UA also knows about a
6676 exit status, which is tracked in
6683 exit status of the last command, which, different to
6685 has no meaning for the state machine, and can therefore easily transport
6686 different error-indicating values.
6687 It is directly addressable with the command
6698 \*(RO Only available inside the scope of a
6700 ed macro, this will expand to all parameters of the macro, separated by
6702 \*(ID The special semantics of the equally named special parameter of the
6704 are not yet supported.
6708 \*(RO Only available inside the scope of a
6710 ed macro, this will expand to all parameters of the macro, separated by
6712 \*(ID The special semantics of the equally named special parameter of the
6714 are not yet supported.
6718 \*(RO Only available inside the scope of a
6720 ed macro, this will expand to the number of positional parameters in
6725 \*(RO Available inside the scope of a
6729 ed macro, this expands to the name of the calling macro, or to the empty
6730 string if the macro is running from top-level.
6731 For the \*(OPal regular expression search and replace operator of
6733 this expands to the entire matching expression.
6737 \*(RO Available inside the scope of a
6741 ed macro, this will access the first positional parameter passed.
6742 All further parameters can be accessed with this syntax, too, e.g.,
6745 etc.; positional parameters can be shifted off the stack by calling
6747 Positional parameters are also accessible in the \*(OPal regular
6748 expression search and replace expression of
6753 \*(RO Is set to the active
6758 \*(RO Is set to the list of
6762 .It Va -folder-resolved
6763 \*(RO Set to the fully resolved path of
6765 once that evaluation has occurred; rather internal.
6768 .It Va -mailbox-display
6769 \*(RO The name of the current mailbox
6771 possibly abbreviated for display purposes.
6774 .It Va -mailbox-resolved
6775 \*(RO The fully resolved path of the current mailbox.
6778 .It Va add-file-recipients
6779 \*(BO When file or pipe recipients have been specified,
6780 mention them in the corresponding address fields of the message instead
6781 of silently stripping them from their recipient list.
6782 By default such addressees are not mentioned.
6786 \*(BO Causes only the local part to be evaluated
6787 when comparing addresses.
6791 \*(BO Causes messages saved in
6793 to be appended to the end rather than prepended.
6794 This should always be set.
6798 \*(BO Causes \*(UA to prompt for the subject of each message sent.
6799 If the user responds with simply a newline,
6800 no subject field will be sent.
6804 \*(BO Causes the prompts for
6808 lists to appear after the message has been edited.
6812 \*(BO If set, \*(UA asks for files to attach at the end of each message,
6813 shall the list be found empty at that time.
6814 An empty line finalizes the list.
6818 \*(BO Causes the user to be prompted for carbon copy recipients
6819 (at the end of each message if
6823 are set) shall the list be found empty (at that time).
6824 An empty line finalizes the list.
6828 \*(BO Causes the user to be prompted for blind carbon copy
6829 recipients (at the end of each message if
6833 are set) shall the list be found empty (at that time).
6834 An empty line finalizes the list.
6838 \*(BO\*(OP Causes the user to be prompted if the message is to be
6839 signed at the end of each message.
6842 variable is ignored when this variable is set.
6846 \*(BO Alternative name for
6851 A sequence of characters to display in the
6855 as shown in the display of
6857 each for one type of messages (see
6858 .Sx "Message states" ) ,
6859 with the default being
6862 .Ql NU\ \ *HMFAT+\-$~
6865 variable is set, in the following order:
6867 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql _"
6889 start of a collapsed thread.
6891 an uncollapsed thread (TODO ignored for now).
6895 classified as possible spam.
6901 Specifies a list of recipients to which a blind carbon copy of each
6902 outgoing message will be sent automatically.
6906 Specifies a list of recipients to which a carbon copy of each outgoing
6907 message will be sent automatically.
6911 \*(BO Causes threads to be collapsed automatically when threaded mode
6918 \*(BO Enable automatic
6920 ing of a(n existing)
6926 commands, e.g., the message that becomes the new
6928 is shown automatically, as via
6935 \*(BO\*(OB Causes threaded mode (see the
6937 command) to be entered automatically when a folder is opened.
6939 .Ql autosort=thread .
6943 Causes sorted mode (see the
6945 command) to be entered automatically with the value of this variable as
6946 sorting method when a folder is opened, e.g.,
6947 .Ql set autosort=thread .
6951 \*(BO Enables the substitution of all not (reverse-solidus) escaped
6954 characters by the contents of the last executed command for the
6956 shell escape command and
6958 one of the compose mode
6959 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
6960 If this variable is not set no reverse solidus stripping is performed.
6963 .It Va batch-exit-on-error
6964 If the batch mode has been enabled via the
6966 command line option, then this variable will be consulted whenever \*(UA
6967 completes one operation.
6968 It is ment as a convenient alternative to manually testing
6970 If any value is set, a number is expected; if it is
6972 then each failed operation will cause \*(UA to exit.
6974 \*(ID If it is set without a value, then only top-level operations that
6976 .Dq on the command-prompt ,
6977 i.e., neither in running macros nor from within source files etc., are
6978 considered, unless a main operation that directly affects the return
6979 value, like, e.g., a failed
6981 command, is affected; this mode of operation is likely to change in v15,
6982 and tests should be performed to see whether the desired effect is seen.
6986 \*(OP Terminals generate multi-byte sequences for certain forms of
6987 input, for example for function and other special keys.
6988 Some terminals however do not write these multi-byte sequences as
6989 a whole, but byte-by-byte, and the latter is what \*(UA actually reads.
6990 This variable specifies the timeout in milliseconds that the MLE (see
6991 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
6992 waits for more bytes to arrive unless it considers a sequence
6998 \*(BO Causes automatic display of a header summary after executing a
7000 command, and thus complements the standard variable
7002 which controls header summary display on program startup.
7003 It is only meaningful if
7009 \*(BO Sets some cosmetical features to traditional BSD style;
7010 has the same affect as setting
7012 and all other variables prefixed with
7014 it also changes the behaviour of
7016 (which does not exist in BSD).
7020 \*(BO Changes the letters shown in the first column of a header
7021 summary to traditional BSD style.
7025 \*(BO Changes the display of columns in a header summary to traditional
7030 \*(BO Changes some informational messages to traditional BSD style.
7036 field to appear immediately after the
7038 field in message headers and with the
7040 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
7044 The value that should appear in the
7048 MIME header fields when no character set conversion of the message data
7050 This defaults to US-ASCII, and the chosen character set should be
7051 US-ASCII compatible.
7055 \*(OP The default 8-bit character set that is used as an implicit last
7056 member of the variable
7058 This defaults to UTF-8 if character-set conversion capabilities are
7059 available, and to ISO-8859-1 otherwise, in which case the only supported
7062 and this variable is effectively ignored.
7063 Refer to the section
7064 .Sx "Character sets"
7065 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
7068 .It Va charset-unknown-8bit
7069 \*(OP RFC 1428 specifies conditions when internet mail gateways shall
7071 the content of a mail message by using a character set with the name
7073 Because of the unclassified nature of this character set \*(UA will not
7074 be capable to convert this character set to any other character set.
7075 If this variable is set any message part which uses the character set
7077 is assumed to really be in the character set given in the value,
7078 otherwise the (final) value of
7080 is used for this purpose.
7082 This variable will also be taken into account if a MIME type (see
7083 .Sx "The mime.types files" )
7084 of a MIME message part that uses the
7086 character set is forcefully treated as text.
7090 The default value for the
7095 .It Va colour-disable
7096 \*(BO\*(OP Forcefully disable usage of colours.
7097 Also see the section
7098 .Sx "Coloured display" .
7102 \*(BO\*(OP Whether colour shall be used for output that is paged through
7104 Note that pagers may need special command line options, e.g.,
7112 in order to support colours.
7113 Often doing manual adjustments is unnecessary since \*(UA may perform
7114 adjustments dependent on the value of the environment variable
7116 (see there for more).
7120 In a(n interactive) terminal session, then if this valued variable is
7121 set it will be used as a threshold to determine how many lines the given
7122 output has to span before it will be displayed via the configured
7126 can be forced by setting this to the value
7128 setting it without a value will deduce the current height of the
7129 terminal screen to compute the treshold (see
7134 \*(ID At the moment this uses the count of lines of the message in wire
7135 format, which, dependent on the
7137 of the message, is unrelated to the number of display lines.
7138 (The software is old and historically the relation was a given thing.)
7142 Define a set of custom headers to be injected into newly composed or
7143 forwarded messages; it is also possible to create custom headers in
7146 which can be automated by setting one of the hooks
7147 .Va on-compose-done-shell
7149 .Va on-compose-done .
7150 The value is interpreted as a comma-separated list of custom headers to
7151 be injected, to include commas in the header bodies escape them with
7153 \*(ID Overwriting of automatically managed headers is neither supported
7156 .Dl set customhdr='Hdr1: Body1-1\e, Body1-2, Hdr2: Body2'
7160 Controls the appearance of the
7162 date and time format specification of the
7164 variable, that is used, for example, when viewing the summary of
7166 If unset, then the local receiving date is used and displayed
7167 unformatted, otherwise the message sending
7169 It is possible to assign a
7171 format string and control formatting, but embedding newlines via the
7173 format is not supported, and will result in display errors.
7175 .Ql %Y-%m-%d %H:%M ,
7177 .Va datefield-markout-older .
7180 .It Va datefield-markout-older
7181 Only used in conjunction with
7183 Can be used to create a visible distinction of messages dated more than
7184 a day in the future, or older than six months, a concept comparable to the
7186 option of the POSIX utility
7188 If set to the empty string, then the plain month, day and year of the
7190 will be displayed, but a
7192 format string to control formatting can be assigned.
7198 \*(BO Enables debug messages and obsoletion warnings, disables the
7199 actual delivery of messages and also implies
7205 .It Va disposition-notification-send
7207 .Ql Disposition-Notification-To:
7208 header (RFC 3798) with the message.
7212 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-HOST
7214 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
7215 .\" for SMTP accounts on a specific host.
7216 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-USER@HOST
7218 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
7219 .\"for a specific account.
7223 \*(BO When dot is set, a period
7225 on a line by itself during message input in (interactive) compose mode
7226 will be treated as end-of-message (in addition to the normal end-of-file
7235 .It Va dotlock-ignore-error
7236 \*(BO\*(OP Synchronization of mailboxes which \*(UA treats as
7238 .Sx "primary system mailbox" Ns
7239 es (see, e.g., the notes on
7240 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
7241 as well as the documentation of
7243 will be protected with so-called dotlock files\(emthe traditional mail
7244 spool file locking method\(emin addition to system file locking.
7245 Because \*(UA ships with a privilege-separated dotlock creation program
7246 that should always be able to create such a dotlock file there is no
7247 good reason to ignore dotlock file creation errors, and thus these are
7248 fatal unless this variable is set.
7252 \*(BO If this variable is set then the editor is started automatically
7253 when a message is composed in interactive mode, as if the
7255 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
7259 variable is implied for this automatically spawned editor session.
7263 \*(BO When a message is edited while being composed,
7264 its header is included in the editable text.
7274 fields are accepted within the header, other fields are ignored.
7278 \*(BO When entering interactive mode \*(UA normally writes
7279 .Dq \&No mail for user
7280 and exits immediately if a mailbox is empty or does not exist.
7281 If this variable is set \*(UA starts even with an empty or nonexistent
7282 mailbox (the latter behaviour furtherly depends upon
7289 .Ql Content-Transfer-Encoding
7290 to use in outgoing text messages and message parts, where applicable.
7291 (7-bit clean text messages are sent as-is, without a transfer encoding.)
7294 .Bl -tag -compact -width "_%%_"
7297 8-bit transport effectively causes the raw data be passed through
7298 unchanged, but may cause problems when transferring mail messages over
7299 channels that are not ESMTP (RFC 1869) compliant.
7300 Also, several input data constructs are not allowed by the
7301 specifications and may cause a different transfer-encoding to be used.
7302 .It Ql quoted-printable
7304 Quoted-printable encoding is 7-bit clean and has the property that ASCII
7305 characters are passed through unchanged, so that an english message can
7306 be read as-is; it is also acceptible for other single-byte locales that
7307 share many characters with ASCII, like, e.g., ISO-8859-1.
7308 The encoding will cause a large overhead for messages in other character
7309 sets: e.g., it will require up to twelve (12) bytes to encode a single
7310 UTF-8 character of four (4) bytes.
7312 .Pf (Or\0 Ql b64 . )
7313 The default encoding, it is 7-bit clean and will always be used for
7315 This encoding has a constant input:output ratio of 3:4, regardless of
7316 the character set of the input data it will encode three bytes of input
7317 to four bytes of output.
7318 This transfer-encoding is not human readable without performing
7324 If defined, the first character of the value of this variable
7325 gives the character to use in place of tilde
7328 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
7329 If set to the empty string, command escapes are disabled.
7333 If not set then file and command pipeline targets are not allowed,
7334 and any such address will be filtered out, giving a warning message.
7335 If set without a value then all possible recipient address
7336 specifications will be accepted \(en see the section
7337 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode"
7339 To accept them, but only in interactive mode, or when tilde commands
7340 were enabled explicitly by using one of the command line options
7344 set this to the (case-insensitive) value
7346 (it actually acts like
7347 .Ql restrict,-all,+name,+addr ,
7348 so that care for ordering issues must be taken) .
7350 In fact the value is interpreted as a comma-separated list of values.
7353 then the existence of disallowed specifications is treated as a hard
7354 send error instead of only filtering them out.
7355 The remaining values specify whether a specific type of recipient
7356 address specification is allowed (optionally indicated by a plus sign
7358 prefix) or disallowed (prefixed with a hyphen-minus
7362 addresses all possible address specifications,
7366 command pipeline targets,
7368 plain user names and (MTA) aliases (\*(OB
7370 may be used as an alternative syntax to
7375 These kind of values are interpreted in the given order, so that
7376 .Ql restrict,\:fail,\:+file,\:-all,\:+addr
7377 will cause hard errors for any non-network address recipient address
7378 unless \*(UA is in interactive mode or has been started with the
7382 command line option; in the latter case(s) any address may be used, then.
7384 Historically invalid network addressees are silently stripped off.
7385 To change this and ensure that any encountered invalid email address
7386 instead causes a hard error, ensure the string
7388 is an entry in the above list.
7389 Setting this automatically enables network addressees
7390 (it actually acts like
7391 .Ql failinvaddr,+addr ,
7392 so that care for ordering issues must be taken) .
7396 Unless this variable is set additional
7398 (Mail-Transfer-Agent)
7399 arguments from the command line, as can be given after a
7401 separator, are ignored due to safety reasons.
7402 However, if set to the special (case-insensitive) value
7404 then the presence of additional MTA arguments is treated as a hard
7405 error that causes \*(UA to exit with failure status.
7406 A lesser strict variant is the otherwise identical
7408 which does accept such arguments in interactive mode, or if tilde
7409 commands were enabled explicitly by using one of the command line options
7416 \*(RO String giving a list of features \*(UA, preceded with a plus-sign
7418 if the feature is available, and a minus-sign
7421 The output of the command
7423 will include this information.
7427 \*(BO This setting reverses the meanings of a set of reply commands,
7428 turning the lowercase variants, which by default address all recipients
7429 included in the header of a message
7430 .Pf ( Ic reply , respond , followup )
7431 into the uppercase variants, which by default address the sender only
7432 .Pf ( Ic Reply , Respond , Followup )
7435 .Ic replysender , respondsender , followupsender
7437 .Ic replyall , respondall , followupall
7438 are not affected by the current setting of
7443 .It Va file-hook-load-EXTENSION , file-hook-save-EXTENSION
7444 It is possible to install file hooks which will be used by the
7446 command in order to be able to transparently handle (through an
7447 intermediate temporary file) files with specific
7449 s: the variable values can include shell snippets and are expected to
7450 write data to standard output / read data from standard input,
7452 \*(ID The variables may not be changed while there is a mailbox
7454 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7455 set file-hook-load-xy='echo >&2 XY-LOAD; gzip -cd' \e
7456 file-hook-save-xy='echo >&2 XY-SAVE; gzip -c' \e
7457 record=+null-sent.xy
7462 The default path under which mailboxes are to be saved:
7463 file names that begin with the plus-sign
7465 will have the plus-sign replaced with the value of this variable if set,
7466 otherwise the plus-sign will remain unchanged when doing
7467 .Sx "Filename transformations" ;
7470 for more on this topic.
7471 The value supports a subset of transformations itself, and if the
7472 non-empty value does not start with a solidus
7476 will be prefixed automatically.
7480 This variable can be set to the name of a
7482 macro which will be called whenever a
7485 The macro will also be invoked when new mail arrives,
7486 but message lists for commands executed from the macro
7487 only include newly arrived messages then.
7489 are activated by default in a folder hook, causing the covered settings
7490 to be reverted once the folder is left again.
7493 Macro behaviour, including option localization, will change in v15.
7494 One should be aware of that and possibly embed version checks in the
7495 used resource file(s).
7498 .It Va folder-hook-FOLDER
7503 Unlike other folder specifications, the fully expanded name of a folder,
7504 without metacharacters, is used to avoid ambiguities.
7505 However, if the mailbox resides under
7509 specification is tried in addition, e.g., if
7513 (and thus relative to the user's home directory) then
7514 .Pa /home/usr1/mail/sent
7516 .Ql folder-hook-/home/usr1/mail/sent
7517 first, but then followed by
7518 .Ql folder-hook-+sent .
7522 \*(BO Controls whether a
7523 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
7524 header is generated when sending messages to known mailing lists.
7526 .Va followup-to-honour
7528 .Ic mlist , mlsubscribe , reply
7533 .It Va followup-to-honour
7535 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
7536 header is honoured when group-replying to a message via
7540 This is a quadoption; if set without a value it defaults to
7550 .It Va forward-as-attachment
7551 \*(BO Original messages are normally sent as inline text with the
7554 and only the first part of a multipart message is included.
7555 With this setting enabled messages are sent as unmodified MIME
7557 attachments with all of their parts included.
7561 The address (or a list of addresses) to put into the
7563 field of the message header, quoting RFC 5322:
7564 the author(s) of the message, that is, the mailbox(es) of the person(s)
7565 or system(s) responsible for the writing of the message.
7568 ing to messages these addresses are handled as if they were in the
7572 If the machine's hostname is not valid at the Internet (for example at
7573 a dialup machine) then either this variable or
7575 (\*(IN and with a defined SMTP protocol in
7578 adds even more fine-tuning capabilities),
7582 contains more than one address,
7585 variable is required (according to the standard RFC 5322).
7587 If a file-based MTA is used, then
7589 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
7591 can nonetheless be enforced to appear as the envelope sender address at
7592 the MTA protocol level (the RFC 5321 reverse-path), either by using the
7594 command line option (with an empty argument; see there for the complete
7595 picture on this topic), or by setting the internal variable
7596 .Va r-option-implicit .
7600 \*(BO When replying to or forwarding a message \*(UA normally removes
7601 the comment and name parts of email addresses.
7602 If this variable is set such stripping is not performed,
7603 and comments, names etc. are retained.
7607 The string to put before the text of a message with the
7611 .Va forward-as-attachment
7614 .Dq -------- Original Message --------
7615 if unset; No heading is put if it is set to the empty string.
7619 \*(BO Causes the header summary to be written at startup and after
7620 commands that affect the number of messages or the order of messages in
7621 the current folder; enabled by default.
7622 The command line option
7628 complements this and controls header summary display on folder changes.
7633 A format string to use for the summary of
7635 similar to the ones used for
7638 Format specifiers in the given string start with a percent character
7640 and may be followed by an optional decimal number indicating the field
7641 width \(em if that is negative, the field is to be left-aligned.
7642 Valid format specifiers are:
7645 .Bl -tag -compact -width "_%%_"
7647 A plain percent character.
7650 a space character but for the current message
7652 for which it expands to
7656 a space character but for the current message
7658 for which it expands to
7661 \*(OP The spam score of the message, as has been classified via the
7664 Shows only a replacement character if there is no spam support.
7666 Message attribute character (status flag); the actual content can be
7670 The date found in the
7672 header of the message when
7674 is set (the default), otherwise the date when the message was received.
7675 Formatting can be controlled by assigning a
7680 The indenting level in threaded mode.
7682 The address of the message sender.
7684 The message thread tree structure.
7685 (Note that this format does not support a field width.)
7687 The number of lines of the message, if available.
7691 The number of octets (bytes) in the message, if available.
7693 Message subject (if any).
7695 Message subject (if any) in double quotes.
7697 Message recipient flags: is the addressee of the message a known or
7698 subscribed mailing list \(en see
7703 The position in threaded/sorted order.
7707 .Ql %>\&%a\&%m\ %-18f\ %16d\ %4l/%\-5o\ %i%-s ,
7709 .Ql %>\&%a\&%m\ %20-f\ \ %16d\ %3l/%\-5o\ %i%-S
7720 .It Va headline-bidi
7721 Bidirectional text requires special treatment when displaying headers,
7722 because numbers (in dates or for file sizes etc.) will not affect the
7723 current text direction, in effect resulting in ugly line layouts when
7724 arabic or other right-to-left text is to be displayed.
7725 On the other hand only a minority of terminals is capable to correctly
7726 handle direction changes, so that user interaction is necessary for
7728 Note that extended host system support is required nonetheless, e.g.,
7729 detection of the terminal character set is one precondition;
7730 and this feature only works in an Unicode (i.e., UTF-8) locale.
7732 In general setting this variable will cause \*(UA to encapsulate text
7733 fields that may occur when displaying
7735 (and some other fields, like dynamic expansions in
7737 with special Unicode control sequences;
7738 it is possible to fine-tune the terminal support level by assigning
7740 no value (or any value other than
7745 will make \*(UA assume that the terminal is capable to properly deal
7746 with Unicode version 6.3, in which case text is embedded in a pair of
7747 U+2068 (FIRST STRONG ISOLATE) and U+2069 (POP DIRECTIONAL ISOLATE)
7749 In addition no space on the line is reserved for these characters.
7751 Weaker support is chosen by using the value
7753 (Unicode 6.3, but reserve the room of two spaces for writing the control
7754 sequences onto the line).
7759 select Unicode 1.1 support (U+200E, LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK); the latter
7760 again reserves room for two spaces in addition.
7764 \*(OP If a line editor is available then this can be set to
7765 name the (expandable) path of the location of a permanent history file.
7770 .It Va history-gabby
7771 \*(BO\*(OP Add more entries to the history as is normally done.
7774 .It Va history-gabby-persist
7775 \*(BO\*(OP \*(UA's own MLE will not save the additional
7777 entries in persistent storage unless this variable is set.
7778 On the other hand it will not loose the knowledge of whether
7779 a persistent entry was gabby or not.
7785 \*(OP Setting this variable imposes a limit on the number of concurrent
7787 If set to the value 0 then no further history entries will be added, and
7788 loading and incorporation of the
7790 upon program startup can also be suppressed by doing this.
7791 Runtime changes will not be reflected, but will affect the number of
7792 entries saved to permanent storage.
7796 \*(BO This setting controls whether messages are held in the system
7798 and it is set by default.
7802 Use this string as hostname when expanding local addresses instead of
7803 the value obtained from
7807 It is used, e.g., in
7811 fields, as well as when generating
7813 MIME part related unique ID fields.
7814 Setting it to the empty string will cause the normal hostname to be
7815 used, but nonetheless enables creation of said ID fields.
7816 \*(IN in conjunction with the builtin SMTP
7819 also influences the results:
7820 one should produce some test messages with the desired combination of
7829 \*(BO\*(OP Can be used to turn off the automatic conversion of domain
7830 names according to the rules of IDNA (internationalized domain names
7832 Since the IDNA code assumes that domain names are specified with the
7834 character set, an UTF-8 locale charset is required to represent all
7835 possible international domain names (before conversion, that is).
7839 \*(BO Ignore interrupt signals from the terminal while entering
7840 messages; instead echo them as
7842 characters and discard the current line.
7846 \*(BO Ignore end-of-file conditions
7847 .Pf ( Ql control-D )
7848 in compose mode on message input and in interactive command input.
7849 If set an interactive command input session can only be left by
7850 explicitly using one of the commands
7854 and message input in compose mode can only be terminated by entering
7857 on a line by itself or by using the
7859 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ;
7861 overrides a setting of
7866 If this is set to a non-empty string it will specify the users
7868 .Sx "primary system mailbox" ,
7871 and the system-dependent default, and (thus) be used to replace
7874 .Sx "Filename transformations" ;
7877 for more on this topic.
7878 The value supports a subset of transformations itself.
7886 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
7889 option for indenting messages,
7890 in place of the normal tabulator character
7892 which is the default.
7893 Be sure to quote the value if it contains spaces or tabs.
7897 \*(BO If set, an empty system (MBOX) mailbox file is not removed.
7898 Note that, in conjunction with
7901 .Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT )
7902 any empty file will be removed unless this variable is set.
7903 This may improve the interoperability with other mail user agents
7904 when using a common folder directory, and prevents malicious users
7905 from creating fake mailboxes in a world-writable spool directory.
7906 \*(ID Only local regular (MBOX) files are covered, Maildir or other
7907 mailbox types will never be removed, even if empty.
7910 .It Va keep-content-length
7911 \*(BO When (editing messages and) writing
7913 mailbox files \*(UA can be told to keep the
7917 header fields that some MUAs generate by setting this variable.
7918 Since \*(UA does neither use nor update these non-standardized header
7919 fields (which in itself shows one of their conceptual problems),
7920 stripping them should increase interoperability in between MUAs that
7921 work with with same mailbox files.
7922 Note that, if this is not set but
7923 .Va writebackedited ,
7924 as below, is, a possibly performed automatic stripping of these header
7925 fields already marks the message as being modified.
7929 \*(BO When a message is saved it is usually discarded from the
7930 originating folder when \*(UA is quit.
7931 This setting causes all saved message to be retained.
7934 .It Va line-editor-disable
7935 \*(BO Turn off any enhanced line editing capabilities (see
7936 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor"
7940 .It Va line-editor-no-defaults
7941 \*(BO\*(OP Do not establish any default key binding.
7944 .It Va mailx-extra-rc
7945 An additional startup file that is loaded as the last of the
7946 .Sx "Resource files" .
7947 Use this file for commands that are not understood by other POSIX
7953 \*(BO When a message is replied to and this variable is set,
7954 it is marked as having been
7957 .Sx "Message states" .
7961 \*(BO If this is set then when opening MBOX mailbox files \*(UA will not
7962 use the tolerant POSIX rules for detecting message boundaries (so-called
7964 lines), as it does by default for compatibility reasons, but the more
7965 strict rules that have been defined in RFC 4155.
7966 When saving to MBOX mailboxes this indicates when so-called
7968 quoting is to be applied \(em note this is never necessary for any
7969 message newly generated by \*(UA, it only applies to messages generated
7970 by buggy or malicious MUAs.
7971 (\*(UA will use a proper
7975 lines cannot be misinterpreted as message boundaries.)
7977 This should not be set normally, but may be handy when \*(UA complains
7978 about having seen invalid
7980 lines when opening a MBOX: in this case temporarily setting this
7981 variable, re-opening the mailbox in question, unsetting this variable
7982 again and then invoking
7983 .Ql copy * SOME-FILE
7984 will perform proper, POSIX-compliant
7986 quoting for all detected messages, resulting in a valid MBOX mailbox.
7990 \*(BO Internal development variable.
7993 .It Va message-id-disable
7994 \*(BO By setting this variable the generation of
7996 can be completely suppressed, effectively leaving this task up to the
7998 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) or the SMTP server.
7999 (According to RFC 5321 a SMTP server is not required to add this
8000 field by itself, so it should be ensured that it accepts messages without
8002 This variable also affects automatic generation of
8007 .It Va message-inject-head
8008 A string to put at the beginning of each new message.
8009 The escape sequences tabulator
8016 .It Va message-inject-tail
8017 A string to put at the end of each new message.
8018 The escape sequences tabulator
8026 \*(BO Usually, when an
8028 expansion contains the sender, the sender is removed from the expansion.
8029 Setting this option suppresses these removals.
8034 option to be passed through to the
8036 (Mail-Transfer-Agent); though most of the modern MTAs no longer document
8037 this flag, no MTA is known which does not support it (for historical
8041 .It Va mime-allow-text-controls
8042 \*(BO When sending messages, each part of the message is MIME-inspected
8043 in order to classify the
8046 .Ql Content-Transfer-Encoding:
8049 that is required to send this part over mail transport, i.e.,
8050 a computation rather similar to what the
8052 command produces when used with the
8056 This classification however treats text files which are encoded in
8057 UTF-16 (seen for HTML files) and similar character sets as binary
8058 octet-streams, forcefully changing any
8063 .Ql application/octet-stream :
8064 If that actually happens a yet unset charset MIME parameter is set to
8066 effectively making it impossible for the receiving MUA to automatically
8067 interpret the contents of the part.
8069 If this variable is set, and the data was unambiguously identified as
8070 text data at first glance (by a
8074 file extension), then the original
8076 will not be overwritten.
8079 .It Va mime-alternative-favour-rich
8080 \*(BO If this variable is set then rich MIME alternative parts (e.g.,
8081 HTML) will be preferred in favour of included plain text versions when
8082 displaying messages, provided that a handler exists which produces
8083 output that can be (re)integrated into \*(UA's normal visual display.
8084 (E.g., at the time of this writing some newsletters ship their full
8085 content only in the rich HTML part, whereas the plain text part only
8086 contains topic subjects.)
8089 .It Va mime-counter-evidence
8092 field is used to decide how to handle MIME parts.
8093 Some MUAs however do not use
8095 or a similar mechanism to correctly classify content, but simply specify
8096 .Ql application/octet-stream ,
8097 even for plain text attachments like
8099 If this variable is set then \*(UA will try to classify such MIME
8100 message parts on its own, if possible, for example via a possibly
8101 existing attachment filename.
8102 A non-empty value may also be given, in which case a number is expected,
8103 actually a carrier of bits.
8104 Creating the bit-carrying number is a simple addition:
8105 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8106 ? !echo Value should be set to $((2 + 4 + 8))
8107 Value should be set to 14
8110 .Bl -bullet -compact
8112 If bit two is set (2) then the detected
8114 content-type will be carried along with the message and be used for
8116 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
8117 is responsible for the MIME part, shall that question arise;
8118 when displaying such a MIME part the part-info will indicate the
8119 overridden content-type by showing a plus-sign
8122 If bit three is set (4) then the counter-evidence is always produced
8123 and a positive result will be used as the MIME type, even forcefully
8124 overriding the parts given MIME type.
8126 If bit four is set (8) then as a last resort the actual content of
8127 .Ql application/octet-stream
8128 parts will be inspected, so that data which looks like plain text can be
8133 .It Va mimetypes-load-control
8134 Can be used to control which of the
8136 databases are loaded by \*(UA, as furtherly described in the section
8137 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
8140 is part of the option value, then the user's personal
8142 file will be loaded (if it exists); likewise the letter
8144 controls loading of the system wide
8145 .Pa /etc/mime.types ;
8146 directives found in the user file take precedence, letter matching is
8148 If this variable is not set \*(UA will try to load both files.
8149 Incorporation of the \*(UA-builtin MIME types cannot be suppressed,
8150 but they will be matched last (the order can be listed via
8153 More sources can be specified by using a different syntax: if the
8154 value string contains an equals sign
8156 then it is instead parsed as a comma-separated list of the described
8159 pairs; the given filenames will be expanded and loaded, and their
8160 content may use the extended syntax that is described in the section
8161 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
8162 Directives found in such files always take precedence (are prepended to
8163 the MIME type cache).
8168 To choose an alternate Mail-Transfer-Agent, set this option to either
8169 the full pathname of an executable (optionally prefixed with a
8171 protocol indicator), or \*(OPally a SMTP protocol URL, e.g., \*(IN
8173 .Dl smtps?://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
8176 .Ql [smtp://]server[:port] . )
8177 The default has been chosen at compie time.
8178 All supported data transfers are executed in child processes, which
8179 run asynchronously, and without supervision, unless either the
8184 If such a child receives a TERM signal, it will abort and
8191 For a file-based MTA it may be necessary to set
8193 in in order to choose the right target of a modern
8196 It will be passed command line arguments from several possible sources:
8199 if set, from the command line if given and the variable
8202 Argument processing of the MTA will be terminated with a
8207 The otherwise occurring implicit usage of the following MTA command
8208 line arguments can be disabled by setting the boolean variable
8209 .Va mta-no-default-arguments
8210 (which will also disable passing
8214 (for not treating a line with only a dot
8216 character as the end of input),
8224 variable is set); in conjunction with the
8226 command line option \*(UA will also (not) pass
8232 \*(OP \*(UA can send mail over SMTP network connections to a single
8233 defined SMTP smarthost, the access URL of which has to be assigned to
8235 To use this mode it is helpful to read
8236 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
8237 It may be necessary to set the
8239 variable in order to use a specific combination of
8244 with some mail providers.
8247 .Bl -bullet -compact
8249 The plain SMTP protocol (RFC 5321) that normally lives on the
8250 server port 25 and requires setting the
8251 .Va smtp-use-starttls
8252 variable to enter a SSL/TLS encrypted session state.
8253 Assign a value like \*(IN
8254 .Ql smtp://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
8256 .Ql smtp://server[:port] )
8257 to choose this protocol.
8259 The so-called SMTPS which is supposed to live on server port 465
8260 and is automatically SSL/TLS secured.
8261 Unfortunately it never became a standardized protocol and may thus not
8262 be supported by your hosts network service database
8263 \(en in fact the port number has already been reassigned to other
8266 SMTPS is nonetheless a commonly offered protocol and thus can be
8267 chosen by assigning a value like \*(IN
8268 .Ql smtps://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
8270 .Ql smtps://server[:port] ) ;
8271 due to the mentioned problems it is usually necessary to explicitly
8276 Finally there is the SUBMISSION protocol (RFC 6409), which usually
8277 lives on server port 587 and is practically identically to the SMTP
8278 protocol from \*(UA's point of view beside that; it requires setting the
8279 .Va smtp-use-starttls
8280 variable to enter a SSL/TLS secured session state.
8281 Assign a value like \*(IN
8282 .Ql submission://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
8284 .Ql submission://server[:port] ) .
8289 .It Va mta-arguments
8290 Arguments to pass through to a file-based
8292 can be given via this variable, the content of which will be split up in
8293 a vector of arguments, to be joined onto other possible MTA options:
8295 .Dl set mta-arguments='-t -X \&"/tmp/my log\&"'
8298 .It Va mta-no-default-arguments
8299 \*(BO Unless this variable is set \*(UA will pass some well known
8300 standard command line options to a file-based
8302 (Mail-Transfer-Agent), see there for more.
8306 Many systems use a so-called
8308 environment to ensure compatibility with
8310 This works by inspecting the name that was used to invoke the mail
8312 If this variable is set then the mailwrapper (the program that is
8313 actually executed when calling the file-based
8315 will treat its contents as that name.
8320 .It Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , netrc-lookup-HOST , netrc-lookup
8321 \*(BO\*(IN\*(OP Used to control usage of the users
8323 file for lookup of account credentials, as documented in the section
8324 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
8328 .Sx "The .netrc file"
8329 documents the file format.
8341 then \*(UA will read the output of a shell pipe instead of the users
8343 file if this variable is set (to the desired shell command).
8344 This can be used to, e.g., store
8348 .Dl set netrc-pipe='gpg -qd ~/.netrc.pgp'
8352 If this variable has the value
8354 newly created local folders will be in Maildir format.
8358 Checks for new mail in the current folder each time the prompt is shown.
8359 A Maildir folder must be re-scanned to determine if new mail has arrived.
8360 If this variable is set to the special value
8362 then a Maildir folder will not be rescanned completely, but only
8363 timestamp changes are detected.
8367 .It Va on-compose-done-shell , on-compose-done
8368 These hooks run once the normal compose mode is finished, but before the
8369 .Va on-compose-leave
8370 macro hook is called, the
8373 Both hooks will be executed in a subprocess, with their input and output
8374 connected to \*(UA such that they can act as if they would be an
8376 The difference in between them is that the former is a
8378 command, whereas the latter is a normal \*(UA macro, but which is
8379 restricted to a small set of commands (the
8383 will indicate said capability), just enough for the purpose of
8384 controlling the real \*(UA instance sufficiently.
8386 are enabled for these hooks (in the parent process), causing any setting
8387 to be forgotten after the message has been sent.
8389 During execution of these hook \*(UA will temporarily forget whether it
8390 has been started in interactive mode, (a restricted set of)
8391 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
8392 will always be available, and for guaranteed reproduceabilities sake
8394 will be set to its default.
8395 The compose mode command
8397 has been especially designed for scriptability (via these hooks).
8398 The first line the hook will read on its standard input is the protocol
8399 version of said command escape, currently
8401 backward incompatible protocol changes are to be expected in the
8402 future, and it is advisable to make use of the protocol version.
8403 \*(ID because most \*(UA commands do not take this new functionality
8404 into account but are ment for human interaction special care must be
8405 taken to avoid deadlocks because of unexpected control flow; i.e., that
8406 both involved processes wait for more input to happen at the same time,
8407 or one doesn't expect more input but the other is stuck waiting for
8408 consumation of its output.
8409 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8410 wysh set on-compose-done-shell=$'\e
8412 printf "hello $version! Headers: ";\e
8413 echo \e'~^header list\e';\e
8414 read status result;\e
8415 echo "status=$status result=$result";\e
8418 set on-compose-done=ocdm
8421 echo version is $ver, escape=$escape
8422 if [ "$features" !@ +regex ]
8423 echoerr 'Need regular-expression support, aborting send'
8426 echo '~^header list'
8429 echoerr 'Failed to read header list, bailing out'
8432 if [ "$hl" !@ ' cc' ]
8433 echo '~^header insert cc Diet is your <mirr.or>'
8436 echoerr 'Failed to insert Cc: header, bailing out'
8440 echo '~:set from="Hoola Hoop <hh@exam.ple>"'
8446 .It Va on-compose-enter , on-compose-leave
8447 Macro hooks which will be executed before compose mode is entered, and
8448 after composing has been finished (but before the
8450 is injected, etc.), respectively.
8452 are enabled for these hooks, causing any setting to be forgotten after
8453 the message has been sent.
8454 The following (read-only) variables will be set temporarily during
8455 execution of the macros:
8457 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Va compose_subject"
8460 .It Va compose-sender
8462 .It Va compose-to , compose-cc , compose-bcc
8463 The list of receiver addresses as a space-separated list.
8464 .It Va compose-subject
8470 \*(BO Causes the filename given in the
8473 and the sender-based filenames for the
8477 commands to be interpreted relative to the directory given in the
8479 variable rather than to the current directory,
8480 unless it is set to an absolute pathname.
8484 \*(BO If set, each message feed through the command given for
8486 is followed by a formfeed character
8490 .It Va password-USER@HOST , password-HOST , password
8491 \*(IN Variable chain that sets a password, which is used in case none has
8492 been given in the protocol and account-specific URL;
8493 as a last resort \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal if
8494 the authentication method requires a password.
8495 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
8496 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
8498 .It Va password-USER@HOST
8499 \*(OU (see the chain above for \*(IN)
8500 Set the password for
8504 If no such variable is defined for a host,
8505 the user will be asked for a password on standard input.
8506 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
8507 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
8511 \*(BO Send messages to the
8513 command without performing MIME and character set conversions.
8517 .It Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
8518 When a MIME message part of type
8520 (case-insensitive) is displayed or quoted,
8521 its text is filtered through the value of this variable interpreted as
8525 forces interpretation of the message part as plain text, e.g.,
8526 .Ql set pipe-application/xml=@
8527 will henceforth display XML
8529 (The same could also be achieved by adding a MIME type marker with the
8532 And \*(OPally MIME type handlers may be defined via
8533 .Sx "The Mailcap files"
8534 \(em corresponding flag strings are shown in parenthesis below.)
8539 can in fact be used to adjust usage and behaviour of a following shell
8540 command specification by appending trigger characters to it, e.g., the
8541 following hypothetical command specification could be used:
8542 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8543 set pipe-X/Y='@*!++=@vim ${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}'
8547 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql __"
8549 Simply by using the special
8551 prefix the MIME type (shell command) handler will only be invoked to
8552 display or convert the MIME part if the message is addressed directly
8553 and alone by itself.
8554 Use this trigger to disable this and always invoke the handler
8555 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-always ) .
8558 If set the handler will not be invoked when a message is to be quoted,
8559 but only when it will be displayed
8560 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-noquote ) .
8563 The command will be run asynchronously, i.e., without blocking \*(UA,
8564 which may be a handy way to display a, e.g., PDF file while also
8565 continuing to read the mail message
8566 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-async ) .
8567 Asynchronous execution implies
8571 The command must be run on an interactive terminal, \*(UA will
8572 temporarily release the terminal to it
8573 .Pf ( Cd needsterminal ) .
8574 This flag is mutual exclusive with
8576 will only be used in interactive mode and implies
8580 Request creation of a zero-sized temporary file, the absolute pathname
8581 of which will be made accessible via the environment variable
8582 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
8583 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-tmpfile ) .
8584 If this trigger is given twice then the file will be unlinked
8585 automatically by \*(UA when the command loop is entered again at latest
8586 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink ) .
8587 (Do not use this for asynchronous handlers.)
8590 Normally the MIME part content is passed to the handler via standard
8591 input; if this flag is set then the data will instead be written into
8592 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
8593 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill ) ,
8594 the creation of which is implied; note however that in order to cause
8595 deletion of the temporary file you still have to use two plus signs
8600 To avoid ambiguities with normal shell command content you can use
8601 another at-sign to forcefully terminate interpretation of remaining
8603 (Any character not in this list will have the same effect.)
8607 Some information about the MIME part to be displayed is embedded into
8608 the environment of the shell command:
8611 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ev _AIL__ILENAME__ENERATED"
8613 .It Ev MAILX_CONTENT
8614 The MIME content-type of the part, if known, the empty string otherwise.
8617 .It Ev MAILX_CONTENT_EVIDENCE
8619 .Va mime-counter-evidence
8620 includes the carry-around-bit (2), then this will be set to the detected
8621 MIME content-type; not only then identical to
8622 .Ev \&\&MAILX_CONTENT
8626 .It Ev MAILX_FILENAME
8627 The filename, if any is set, the empty string otherwise.
8630 .It Ev MAILX_FILENAME_GENERATED
8634 .It Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
8635 If temporary file creation has been requested through the command prefix
8636 this variable will be set and contain the absolute pathname of the
8642 .It Va pipe-EXTENSION
8643 This is identical to
8644 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
8647 (normalized to lowercase using character mappings of the ASCII charset)
8648 names a file extension, e.g.,
8650 Handlers registered using this method take precedence.
8653 .It Va pop3-auth-USER@HOST , pop3-auth-HOST , pop3-auth
8654 \*(OP\*(IN Variable chain that sets the POP3 authentication method.
8655 The only possible value as of now is
8657 which is thus the default.
8660 .Mx Va pop3-bulk-load
8661 .It Va pop3-bulk-load-USER@HOST , pop3-bulk-load-HOST , pop3-bulk-load
8662 \*(BO\*(OP When accessing a POP3 server \*(UA loads the headers of
8663 the messages, and only requests the message bodies on user request.
8664 For the POP3 protocol this means that the message headers will be
8666 If this variable is set then \*(UA will download only complete messages
8667 from the given POP3 server(s) instead.
8669 .Mx Va pop3-keepalive
8670 .It Va pop3-keepalive-USER@HOST , pop3-keepalive-HOST , pop3-keepalive
8671 \*(OP POP3 servers close the connection after a period of inactivity;
8672 the standard requires this to be at least 10 minutes,
8673 but practical experience may vary.
8674 Setting this variable to a numeric value greater than
8678 command to be sent each value seconds if no other operation is performed.
8681 .It Va pop3-no-apop-USER@HOST , pop3-no-apop-HOST , pop3-no-apop
8682 \*(BO\*(OP Unless this variable is set the
8684 authentication method will be used when connecting to a POP3 server that
8688 is that the password is not sent in clear text over the wire and that
8689 only a single packet is sent for the user/password tuple.
8691 .Va pop3-no-apop-HOST
8694 .Mx Va pop3-use-starttls
8695 .It Va pop3-use-starttls-USER@HOST , pop3-use-starttls-HOST , pop3-use-starttls
8696 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a
8698 command to make an unencrypted POP3 session SSL/TLS encrypted.
8699 This functionality is not supported by all servers,
8700 and is not used if the session is already encrypted by the POP3S method.
8702 .Va pop3-use-starttls-HOST
8707 \*(BO This flag enables POSIX mode, which changes behaviour of \*(UA
8708 where that deviates from standardized behaviour.
8709 It will be set implicitly before the
8710 .Sx "Resource files"
8711 are loaded if the environment variable
8713 is set, and adjusting any of those two will be reflected by the other
8717 .It Va print-alternatives
8718 \*(BO When a MIME message part of type
8719 .Ql multipart/alternative
8720 is displayed and it contains a subpart of type
8722 other parts are normally discarded.
8723 Setting this variable causes all subparts to be displayed,
8724 just as if the surrounding part was of type
8725 .Ql multipart/mixed .
8729 The string used as a prompt in interactive mode.
8730 Whenever the variable is evaluated the value is expanded as via
8731 dollar-single-quote expansion (see
8732 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ) .
8733 This (post-assignment, i.e., second) expansion can be used to embed
8734 status information, for example
8739 .Va -mailbox-display .
8741 In order to embed characters which should not be counted when
8742 calculating the visual width of the resulting string, enclose the
8743 characters of interest in a pair of reverse solidus escaped brackets:
8745 a slot for coloured prompts is also available with the \*(OPal command
8747 Prompting may be prevented by setting this to the null string
8749 .Ql set noprompt ) .
8753 This string is used for secondary prompts, but is otherwise identical to
8760 \*(BO Suppresses the printing of the version when first invoked.
8764 If set, \*(UA starts a replying message with the original message
8765 prefixed by the value of the variable
8767 Normally, a heading consisting of
8768 .Dq Fromheaderfield wrote:
8769 is put before the quotation.
8774 variable, this heading is omitted.
8777 is assigned, only the headers selected by the
8780 selection are put above the message body,
8783 acts like an automatic
8785 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
8789 is assigned, all headers are put above the message body and all MIME
8790 parts are included, making
8792 act like an automatic
8795 .Va quote-as-attachment .
8798 .It Va quote-as-attachment
8799 \*(BO Add the original message in its entirety as a
8801 MIME attachment when replying to a message.
8802 Note this works regardless of the setting of
8807 \*(OP Can be set in addition to
8809 Setting this turns on a more fancy quotation algorithm in that leading
8810 quotation characters are compressed and overlong lines are folded.
8812 can be set to either one or two (space separated) numeric values,
8813 which are interpreted as the maximum (goal) and the minimum line length,
8814 respectively, in a spirit rather equal to the
8816 program, but line-, not paragraph-based.
8817 If not set explicitly the minimum will reflect the goal algorithmically.
8818 The goal cannot be smaller than the length of
8820 plus some additional pad.
8821 Necessary adjustments take place silently.
8824 .It Va r-option-implicit
8825 \*(BO Setting this option evaluates the contents of
8827 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
8829 and passes the results onto the used (file-based) MTA as described for the
8831 option (empty argument case).
8834 .It Va recipients-in-cc
8835 \*(BO On group replies, specify only the sender of the original mail in
8837 and mention the other recipients in the secondary
8839 By default all recipients of the original mail will be addressed via
8844 If defined, gives the pathname of the folder used to record all outgoing
8846 If not defined, then outgoing mail is not saved.
8847 When saving to this folder fails the message is not sent,
8848 but instead saved to
8852 .It Va record-resent
8853 \*(BO If both this variable and the
8860 commands save messages to the
8862 folder as it is normally only done for newly composed messages.
8865 .It Va reply-in-same-charset
8866 \*(BO If this variable is set \*(UA first tries to use the same
8867 character set of the original message for replies.
8868 If this fails, the mechanism described in
8869 .Sx "Character sets"
8870 is evaluated as usual.
8873 .It Va reply-strings
8874 Can be set to a comma-separated list of (case-insensitive according to
8875 ASCII rules) strings which shall be recognized in addition to the
8878 reply message indicators \(en builtin are
8880 which is mandated by RFC 5322, as well as the german
8885 which often has been seen in the wild;
8886 I.e., the separating colon has to be specified explicitly.
8890 A list of addresses to put into the
8892 field of the message header.
8893 Members of this list are handled as if they were in the
8898 .It Va reply-to-honour
8901 header is honoured when replying to a message via
8905 This is a quadoption; if set without a value it defaults to
8909 .It Va rfc822-body-from_
8910 \*(BO This variable can be used to force displaying a so-called
8912 line for messages that are embedded into an envelope mail via the
8914 MIME mechanism, for more visual convenience.
8918 \*(BO Enable saving of (partial) messages in
8920 upon interrupt or delivery error.
8924 The number of lines that represents a
8933 line display and scrolling via
8935 If this variable is not set \*(UA falls back to a calculation based upon
8936 the detected terminal window size and the baud rate: the faster the
8937 terminal, the more will be shown.
8938 Overall screen dimensions and pager usage is influenced by the
8939 environment variables
8947 .It Va searchheaders
8948 \*(BO Expand message-list specifiers in the form
8950 to all messages containing the substring
8954 The string search is case insensitive.
8958 \*(OP A comma-separated list of character set names that can be used in
8959 outgoing internet mail.
8960 The value of the variable
8962 is automatically appended to this list of character-sets.
8963 If no character set conversion capabilities are compiled into \*(UA then
8964 the only supported charset is
8967 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
8968 and refer to the section
8969 .Sx "Character sets"
8970 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
8973 .It Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
8974 \*(BO\*(OP If this variable is set, but
8976 is not, then \*(UA acts as if
8978 had been set to the value of the variable
8980 In effect this combination passes through the message data in the
8981 character set of the current locale (given that
8983 has not been set manually), i.e., without converting it to the
8985 fallback character set.
8986 Thus, mail message text will be in ISO-8859-1 encoding when send from
8987 within a ISO-8859-1 locale, and in UTF-8 encoding when send from within
8989 If no character set conversion capabilities are available in \*(UA then
8990 the only supported character set is
8995 An address that is put into the
8997 field of outgoing messages, quoting RFC 5322: the mailbox of the agent
8998 responsible for the actual transmission of the message.
8999 This field should normally not be used unless the
9001 field contains more than one address, on which case it is required.
9004 address is handled as if it were in the
9008 .Va r-option-implicit .
9012 \*(OB Predecessor of
9016 .It Va sendmail-arguments
9017 \*(OB Predecessor of
9021 .It Va sendmail-no-default-arguments
9022 \*(OB\*(BO Predecessor of
9023 .Va mta-no-default-arguments .
9026 .It Va sendmail-progname
9027 \*(OB Predecessor of
9032 \*(BO When sending a message wait until the
9034 (including the builtin SMTP one) exits before accepting further commands.
9036 with this variable set errors reported by the MTA will be recognizable!
9037 If the MTA returns a non-zero exit status,
9038 the exit status of \*(UA will also be non-zero.
9042 \*(BO This setting causes \*(UA to start at the last message
9043 instead of the first one when opening a mail folder.
9047 \*(BO Causes \*(UA to use the sender's real name instead of the plain
9048 address in the header field summary and in message specifications.
9052 \*(BO Causes the recipient of the message to be shown in the header
9053 summary if the message was sent by the user.
9057 The string to expand
9060 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ) .
9064 The string to expand
9067 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ) .
9071 Must correspond to the name of a readable file if set.
9072 The file's content is then appended to each singlepart message
9073 and to the first part of each multipart message.
9074 Be warned that there is no possibility to edit the signature for an
9078 .It Va skipemptybody
9079 \*(BO If an outgoing message does not contain any text in its first or
9080 only message part, do not send it but discard it silently (see also the
9086 \*(OP Specifies a directory with CA certificates in PEM (Privacy
9087 Enhanced Mail) format for verification of S/MIME signed messages.
9090 .It Va smime-ca-file
9091 \*(OP Specifies a file with CA certificates in PEM format for
9092 verification of S/MIME signed messages.
9095 .It Va smime-cipher-USER@HOST , smime-cipher
9096 \*(OP Specifies the cipher to use when generating S/MIME encrypted
9097 messages (for the specified account).
9098 RFC 5751 mandates a default of
9101 Possible values are (case-insensitive and) in decreasing cipher strength:
9109 (DES EDE3 CBC, 168 bits; default if
9111 is not available) and
9115 The actually available cipher algorithms depend on the cryptographic
9116 library that \*(UA uses.
9117 \*(OP Support for more cipher algorithms may be available through
9118 dynamic loading via, e.g.,
9119 .Xr EVP_get_cipherbyname 3
9120 (OpenSSL) if \*(UA has been compiled to support this.
9123 .It Va smime-crl-dir
9124 \*(OP Specifies a directory that contains files with CRLs in PEM format
9125 to use when verifying S/MIME messages.
9128 .It Va smime-crl-file
9129 \*(OP Specifies a file that contains a CRL in PEM format to use when
9130 verifying S/MIME messages.
9133 .It Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
9134 \*(OP If this variable is set, messages send to the given receiver are
9135 encrypted before sending.
9136 The value of the variable must be set to the name of a file that
9137 contains a certificate in PEM format.
9139 If a message is sent to multiple recipients,
9140 each of them for whom a corresponding variable is set will receive an
9141 individually encrypted message;
9142 other recipients will continue to receive the message in plain text
9144 .Va smime-force-encryption
9146 It is recommended to sign encrypted messages, i.e., to also set the
9151 .It Va smime-force-encryption
9152 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to refuse sending unencrypted messages.
9155 .It Va smime-no-default-ca
9156 \*(BO\*(OP Do not load default CA locations when verifying S/MIME
9161 \*(BO\*(OP S/MIME sign outgoing messages with the user's private key
9162 and include the user's certificate as a MIME attachment.
9163 Signing a message enables a recipient to verify that the sender used
9164 a valid certificate,
9165 that the email addresses in the certificate match those in the message
9166 header and that the message content has not been altered.
9167 It does not change the message text,
9168 and people will be able to read the message as usual.
9170 .Va smime-sign-cert , smime-sign-include-certs
9172 .Va smime-sign-message-digest .
9174 .Mx Va smime-sign-cert
9175 .It Va smime-sign-cert-USER@HOST , smime-sign-cert
9176 \*(OP Points to a file in PEM format.
9177 For the purpose of signing and decryption this file needs to contain the
9178 user's private key as well as his certificate.
9182 is always derived from the value of
9184 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
9186 For the purpose of encryption the recipient's public encryption key
9187 (certificate) is expected; the command
9189 can be used to save certificates of signed messages (the section
9190 .Sx "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
9191 gives some details).
9192 This mode of operation is usually driven by the specialized form.
9194 When decrypting messages the account is derived from the recipient
9199 of the message, which are searched for addresses for which such
9201 \*(UA always uses the first address that matches,
9202 so if the same message is sent to more than one of the user's addresses
9203 using different encryption keys, decryption might fail.
9205 For signing and decryption purposes it is possible to use encrypted
9206 keys, and the pseudo-host(s)
9207 .Ql USER@HOST.smime-cert-key
9210 .Ql USER@HOST.smime-cert-cert
9211 for the certificate stored in the same file)
9212 will be used for performing any necessary password lookup,
9213 therefore the lookup can be automatized via the mechanisms described in
9214 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
9215 For example, the hypothetical address
9217 could be driven with a private key / certificate pair path defined in
9218 .Va \&\&smime-sign-cert-bob@exam.ple ,
9219 and needed passwords would then be looked up via the pseudo hosts
9220 .Ql bob@exam.ple.smime-cert-key
9222 .Ql bob@exam.ple.smime-cert-cert ) .
9223 To include intermediate certificates, use
9224 .Va smime-sign-include-certs .
9226 .Mx Va smime-sign-include-certs
9227 .It Va smime-sign-include-certs-USER@HOST , smime-sign-include-certs
9228 \*(OP If used, this is supposed to a consist of a comma-separated list
9229 of files, each of which containing a single certificate in PEM format to
9230 be included in the S/MIME message in addition to the
9233 This can be used to include intermediate certificates of the certificate
9234 authority, in order to allow the receiver's S/MIME implementation to
9235 perform a verification of the entire certificate chain, starting from
9236 a local root certificate, over the intermediate certificates, down to the
9237 .Va smime-sign-cert .
9238 Even though top level certificates may also be included in the chain,
9239 they won't be used for the verification on the receiver's side.
9241 For the purpose of the mechanisms involved here,
9243 refers to the content of the internal variable
9245 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
9248 .Ql USER@HOST.smime-include-certs
9249 will be used for performing password lookups for these certificates,
9250 shall they have been given one, therefore the lookup can be automatized
9251 via the mechanisms described in
9252 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
9254 .Mx Va smime-sign-message-digest
9255 .It Va smime-sign-message-digest-USER@HOST , smime-sign-message-digest
9256 \*(OP Specifies the message digest to use when signing S/MIME messages.
9257 RFC 5751 mandates a default of
9259 Possible values are (case-insensitive and) in decreasing cipher strength:
9267 The actually available message digest algorithms depend on the
9268 cryptographic library that \*(UA uses.
9269 \*(OP Support for more message digest algorithms may be available
9270 through dynamic loading via, e.g.,
9271 .Xr EVP_get_digestbyname 3
9272 (OpenSSL) if \*(UA has been compiled to support this.
9273 Remember that for this
9275 refers to the variable
9277 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
9282 \*(OB\*(OP To use the builtin SMTP transport, specify a SMTP URL in
9284 \*(ID For compatibility reasons a set
9286 is used in preference of
9290 .It Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST , smtp-auth-HOST , smtp-auth
9291 \*(OP Variable chain that controls the SMTP
9293 authentication method, possible values are
9299 as well as the \*(OPal methods
9305 method does not need any user credentials,
9307 requires a user name and all other methods require a user name and
9315 .Va smtp-auth-password
9317 .Va smtp-auth-user ) .
9322 .Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST :
9323 may override dependent on sender address in the variable
9326 .It Va smtp-auth-password
9327 \*(OP\*(OU Sets the global fallback password for SMTP authentication.
9328 If the authentication method requires a password, but neither
9329 .Va smtp-auth-password
9331 .Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
9333 \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal.
9335 .It Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
9337 .Va smtp-auth-password
9338 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
9341 .It Va smtp-auth-user
9342 \*(OP\*(OU Sets the global fallback user name for SMTP authentication.
9343 If the authentication method requires a user name, but neither
9346 .Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
9348 \*(UA will ask for a user name on the user's terminal.
9350 .It Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
9353 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
9357 .It Va smtp-hostname
9358 \*(OP\*(IN Normally \*(UA uses the variable
9360 to derive the necessary
9362 information in order to issue a
9369 can be used to use the
9371 from the SMTP account
9378 from the content of this variable (or, if that is the empty string,
9380 or the local hostname as a last resort).
9381 This often allows using an address that is itself valid but hosted by
9382 a provider other than which (in
9384 is about to send the message.
9385 Setting this variable also influences generated
9391 .Mx Va smtp-use-starttls
9392 .It Va smtp-use-starttls-USER@HOST , smtp-use-starttls-HOST , smtp-use-starttls
9393 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a
9395 command to make an SMTP
9397 session SSL/TLS encrypted, i.e., to enable transport layer security.
9401 .It Va spam-interface
9402 \*(OP In order to use any of the spam-related commands (like, e.g.,
9404 the desired spam interface must be defined by setting this variable.
9405 Please refer to the manual section
9407 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
9408 All or none of the following interfaces may be available:
9410 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ql _ilte_"
9416 .Pf ( Lk http://spamassassin.apache.org SpamAssassin )
9418 Different to the generic filter interface \*(UA will automatically add
9419 the correct arguments for a given command and has the necessary
9420 knowledge to parse the program's output.
9423 will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if
9428 Shall it be necessary to define a specific connection type (rather than
9429 using a configuration file for that), the variable
9431 can be used as in, e.g.,
9432 .Ql -d server.example.com -p 783 .
9433 It is also possible to specify a per-user configuration via
9435 Note that this interface does not inspect the
9437 flag of a message for the command
9441 generic spam filter support via freely configurable hooks.
9442 This interface is meant for programs like
9444 and requires according behaviour in respect to the hooks' exit
9445 status for at least the command
9448 meaning a message is spam,
9452 for unsure and any other return value indicating a hard error);
9453 since the hooks can include shell code snippets diverting behaviour
9454 can be intercepted as necessary.
9456 .Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , spamfilter-nospam , \
9459 .Va spamfilter-spam ;
9462 contains examples for some programs.
9463 The process environment of the hooks will have the variable
9464 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_GENERATED
9466 Note that spam score support for
9468 is not supported unless the \*(OPtional regular expression support is
9470 .Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore
9477 \*(OP Messages that exceed this size will not be passed through to the
9479 .Va spam-interface .
9480 If unset or 0, the default of 420000 bytes is used.
9483 .It Va spamc-command
9484 \*(OP The path to the
9488 .Va spam-interface .
9489 Note that the path is not expanded, but used
9491 A fallback path will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if the
9492 executable had been found during compilation.
9495 .It Va spamc-arguments
9496 \*(OP Even though \*(UA deals with most arguments for the
9499 automatically, it may at least sometimes be desirable to specify
9500 connection-related ones via this variable, e.g.,
9501 .Ql -d server.example.com -p 783 .
9505 \*(OP Specify a username for per-user configuration files for the
9507 .Va spam-interface .
9508 If this is set to the empty string then \*(UA will use the name of the
9517 .It Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , \
9518 spamfilter-nospam , spamfilter-rate , spamfilter-spam
9519 \*(OP Command and argument hooks for the
9521 .Va spam-interface .
9524 contains examples for some programs.
9527 .It Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore
9528 \*(OP Because of the generic nature of the
9531 spam scores are not supported for it by default, but if the \*(OPtional
9532 regular expression support is available then setting this variable can
9533 be used to overcome this restriction.
9534 It is interpreted as follows: first a number (digits) is parsed that
9535 must be followed by a semicolon
9537 and an extended regular expression.
9538 Then the latter is used to parse the first output line of the
9540 hook, and, in case the evaluation is successful, the group that has been
9541 specified via the number is interpreted as a floating point scan score.
9545 \*(OP Specifies a directory with CA certificates in PEM (Pricacy
9546 Enhanced Mail) for verification of of SSL/TLS server certificates.
9548 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
9549 for more information.
9553 \*(OP Specifies a file with CA certificates in PEM format for
9554 verification of SSL/TLS server certificates.
9556 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
9557 for more information.
9560 .It Va ssl-cert-USER@HOST , ssl-cert-HOST , ssl-cert
9561 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the file name for a SSL/TLS client
9562 certificate required by some servers.
9563 This is a direct interface to the
9567 function of the OpenSSL library, if available.
9569 .Mx Va ssl-cipher-list
9570 .It Va ssl-cipher-list-USER@HOST , ssl-cipher-list-HOST , ssl-cipher-list
9571 \*(OP Specifies a list of ciphers for SSL/TLS connections.
9572 This is a direct interface to the
9576 function of the OpenSSL library, if available; see
9578 for more information.
9579 By default \*(UA does not set a list of ciphers, in effect using a
9581 specific cipher (protocol standards ship with a list of acceptable
9582 ciphers), possibly cramped to what the actually used SSL/TLS library
9583 supports \(en the manual section
9584 .Sx "An example configuration"
9585 also contains a SSL/TLS use case.
9588 .It Va ssl-config-file
9589 \*(OP If this variable is set \*(UA will call
9590 .Xr CONF_modules_load_file 3
9591 to allow OpenSSL to be configured according to the host system wide
9593 If a non-empty value is given then this will be used to specify the
9594 configuration file to be used instead of the global OpenSSL default;
9595 note that in this case it is an error if the file cannot be loaded.
9596 The application name will always be passed as
9601 \*(OP Specifies a file that contains a CRL in PEM format to use when
9602 verifying SSL/TLS server certificates.
9606 \*(OP Specifies a directory that contains files with CRLs in PEM format
9607 to use when verifying SSL/TLS server certificates.
9610 .It Va ssl-key-USER@HOST , ssl-key-HOST , ssl-key
9611 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the file name for the private key of
9612 a SSL/TLS client certificate.
9613 If unset, the name of the certificate file is used.
9614 The file is expected to be in PEM format.
9615 This is a direct interface to the
9619 function of the OpenSSL library, if available.
9622 .It Va ssl-method-USER@HOST , ssl-method-HOST , ssl-method
9623 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the newer and more flexible
9625 instead: if both values are set,
9627 will take precedence!
9628 Can be set to the following values, the actually used
9630 specification to which it is mapped is shown in parenthesis:
9632 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, TLSv1.2 ) ,
9634 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, TLSv1.1 ) ,
9636 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, TLSv1 )
9639 .Pf ( Ql -ALL, SSLv3 ) ;
9644 and thus includes the SSLv3 protocol.
9645 Note that SSLv2 is no longer supported at all.
9648 .It Va ssl-no-default-ca
9649 \*(BO\*(OP Do not load default CA locations to verify SSL/TLS server
9653 .It Va ssl-protocol-USER@HOST , ssl-protocol-HOST , ssl-protocol
9654 \*(OP Specify the used SSL/TLS protocol.
9655 This is a direct interface to the
9659 function of the OpenSSL library, if available;
9660 otherwise an \*(UA internal parser is used which understands the
9661 following subset of (case-insensitive) command strings:
9667 as well as the special value
9669 Multiple specifications may be given via a comma-separated list which
9670 ignores any whitespace.
9673 plus prefix will enable a protocol, a
9675 minus prefix will disable it, so that
9677 will enable only the TLSv1.2 protocol.
9679 It depends upon the used TLS/SSL library which protocols are actually
9680 supported and which protocols are used if
9682 is not set, but note that SSLv2 is no longer supported at all and
9684 Especially for older protocols explicitly securing
9686 may be worthwile, see
9687 .Sx "An example configuration" .
9691 \*(OP Gives the pathname to an entropy daemon socket, see
9693 Not all SSL/TLS libraries support this.
9696 .It Va ssl-rand-file
9697 \*(OP Gives the filename to a file with random entropy data, see
9698 .Xr RAND_load_file 3 .
9699 If this variable is not set, or set to the empty string, or if the
9700 .Sx "Filename transformations"
9702 .Xr RAND_file_name 3
9703 will be used to create the filename if, and only if,
9705 documents that the SSL PRNG is not yet sufficiently seeded.
9706 If \*(UA successfully seeded the SSL PRNG then it will update the file
9707 .Pf ( Xr RAND_write_file 3 ) .
9708 This variable is only used if
9710 is not set (or not supported by the SSL/TLS library).
9713 .It Va ssl-verify-USER@HOST , ssl-verify-HOST , ssl-verify
9714 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the action to be performed if an error
9715 occurs during SSL/TLS server certificate validation.
9716 Valid (case-insensitive) values are
9718 (fail and close connection immediately),
9720 (ask whether to continue on standard input),
9722 (show a warning and continue),
9724 (do not perform validation).
9730 If only set without an assigned value, then this setting inhibits the
9736 header fields that include obvious references to \*(UA.
9737 There are two pitfalls associated with this:
9738 First, the message id of outgoing messages is not known anymore.
9739 Second, an expert may still use the remaining information in the header
9740 to track down the originating mail user agent.
9747 suppression does not occur.
9752 (\*(OP) This specifies a comma-separated list of
9757 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" ,
9758 escape commas with reverse solidus) to be used to overwrite or define
9760 Note that this variable will only be queried once at program startup and
9761 can thus only be specified in resource files or on the command line.
9764 String capabilities form
9766 pairs and are expected unless noted otherwise.
9767 Numerics have to be notated as
9769 where the number is expected in normal decimal notation.
9770 Finally, booleans do not have any value but indicate a true or false
9771 state simply by being defined or not; this indeed means that \*(UA
9772 does not support undefining an existing boolean.
9773 String capability values will undergo some expansions before use:
9774 for one notations like
9777 .Ql control-LETTER ,
9778 and for clarification purposes
9780 can be used to specify
9782 (the control notation
9784 could lead to misreadings when a left bracket follows, which it does for
9785 the standard CSI sequence);
9786 finally three letter octal sequences, as in
9789 To specify that a terminal supports 256-colours, and to define sequences
9790 that home the cursor and produce an audible bell, one might write:
9792 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9793 set termcap='Co#256,home=\eE[H,bel=^G'
9797 The following terminal capabilities are or may be meaningful for the
9798 operation of the builtin line editor or \*(UA in general:
9801 .Bl -tag -compact -width yay
9803 .It Cd colors Ns \0or Cd Co
9805 numeric capability specifying the maximum number of colours.
9806 Note that \*(UA does not actually care about the terminal beside that,
9807 but always emits ANSI / ISO 6429 escape sequences.
9810 .It Cd rmcup Ns \0or Cd te Ns \0/ Cd smcup Ns \0or Cd ti
9814 respectively: exit and enter the alternative screen
9816 effectively turning \*(UA into a fullscreen application.
9817 To disable that, set (at least) one to the empty string.
9819 .It Cd smkx Ns \0or Cd ks Ns \0/ Cd rmkx Ns \0or Cd ke
9823 respectively: enable and disable the keypad.
9824 This is always enabled if available, because it seems even keyboards
9825 without keypads generate other key codes for, e.g., cursor keys in that
9826 case, and only if enabled we see the codes that we are interested in.
9828 .It Cd ed Ns \0or Cd cd
9832 .It Cd clear Ns \0or Cd cl
9834 clear the screen and home cursor.
9835 (Will be simulated via
9840 .It Cd home Ns \0or Cd ho
9845 .It Cd el Ns \0or Cd ce
9847 clear to the end of line.
9848 (Will be simulated via
9850 plus repetitions of space characters.)
9852 .It Cd hpa Ns \0or Cd ch
9853 .Cd column_address :
9854 move the cursor (to the given column parameter) in the current row.
9855 (Will be simulated via
9861 .Cd carriage_return :
9862 move to the first column in the current row.
9863 The default builtin fallback is
9866 .It Cd cub1 Ns \0or Cd le
9868 move the cursor left one space (non-destructively).
9869 The default builtin fallback is
9872 .It Cd cuf1 Ns \0or Cd nd
9874 move the cursor right one space (non-destructively).
9875 The default builtin fallback is
9877 which is used by most terminals.
9885 Many more capabilities which describe key-sequences are documented for
9889 .It Va termcap-disable
9890 \*(OP Disable any interaction with a terminal control library.
9891 If set only some generic fallback builtins and possibly the content of
9893 describe the terminal to \*(UA.
9895 that this variable will only be queried once at program startup and can
9896 thus only be specified in resource files or on the command line.
9900 If defined, gives the number of lines of a message to be displayed
9903 if unset, the first five lines are printed, if set to 0 the variable
9906 If the value is negative then its absolute value will be used for right
9909 height; (shifting bitwise is like dividing algorithmically, but since
9910 it takes away bits the value decreases pretty fast).
9914 \*(BO If set then the
9916 command series will strip adjacent empty lines and quotations.
9920 The character set of the terminal \*(UA operates on,
9921 and the one and only supported character set that \*(UA can use if no
9922 character set conversion capabilities have been compiled into it,
9923 in which case it defaults to ISO-8859-1 unless it can deduce a value
9927 It defaults to UTF-8 if conversion is available.
9928 Refer to the section
9929 .Sx "Character sets"
9930 for the complete picture about character sets.
9933 .It Va typescript-mode
9934 \*(BO A special multiplex variable that disables all variables and
9935 settings which result in behaviour that interferes with running \*(UA in
9938 .Va colour-disable ,
9939 .Va line-editor-disable
9940 and (before startup completed only)
9941 .Va termcap-disable .
9942 Unsetting it does not restore the former state of the covered settings.
9946 For a safety-by-default policy \*(UA sets its process
9950 but this variable can be used to override that:
9951 set it to an empty value to do not change the (current) setting,
9952 otherwise the process file mode creation mask is updated to the new value.
9953 Child processes inherit the process file mode creation mask.
9956 .It Va user-HOST , user
9957 \*(IN Variable chain that sets a global fallback user name, which is
9958 used in case none has been given in the protocol and account-specific
9960 This variable defaults to the name of the user who runs \*(UA.
9964 \*(BO Setting this enables upward compatibility with \*(UA
9965 version 15.0 in respect to which configuration options are available and
9966 how they are handled.
9967 This manual uses \*(IN and \*(OU to refer to the new and the old way of
9968 doing things, respectively.
9972 \*(BO This setting, also controllable via the command line option
9974 causes \*(UA to be more verbose, e.g., it will display obsoletion
9975 warnings and SSL/TLS certificate chains.
9976 Even though marked \*(BO this option may be set twice in order to
9977 increase the level of verbosity even more, in which case even details of
9978 the actual message delivery and protocol conversations are shown.
9981 is sufficient to disable verbosity as such.
9987 .It Va version , version-major , version-minor , version-update
9988 \*(RO \*(UA version information: the first variable contains a string
9989 containing the complete version identification, the latter three contain
9990 only digits: the major, minor and update version numbers.
9991 The output of the command
9993 will include this information.
9996 .It Va writebackedited
9997 If this variable is set messages modified using the
10001 commands are written back to the current folder when it is quit;
10002 it is only honoured for writable folders in MBOX format, though.
10003 Note that the editor will be pointed to the raw message content in that
10004 case, i.e., neither MIME decoding nor decryption will have been
10005 performed, and proper RFC 4155
10007 quoting of newly added or edited content is also left as an excercise to
10010 .\" }}} (Variables)
10011 .\" }}} (INTERNAL VARIABLES)
10014 .\" .Sh ENVIRONMENT {{{
10018 .Dq environment variable
10019 should be considered an indication that these variables are either
10020 standardized as vivid parts of process environments, or that they are
10021 commonly found in there.
10022 The process environment is inherited from the
10024 once \*(UA is started, and unless otherwise explicitly noted handling of
10025 the following variables transparently integrates into that of the
10026 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
10027 from \*(UA's point of view.
10028 This means that, e.g., they can be managed via
10032 causing automatic program environment updates (to be inherited by
10033 newly created child processes).
10036 In order to transparently integrate other environment variables equally
10037 they need to be imported (linked) with the command
10039 This command can also be used to set and unset non-integrated
10040 environment variables from scratch, sufficient system support provided.
10041 The following example, applicable to a POSIX shell, sets the
10043 environment variable for \*(UA only, and beforehand exports the
10045 in order to affect any further processing in the running shell:
10047 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10048 $ EDITOR="vim -u ${HOME}/.vimrc"
10050 $ COLUMNS=80 \*(uA -R
10053 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ev BaNg"
10056 The user's preferred width in column positions for the terminal screen
10058 Queried and used once on program startup, actively managed for child
10059 processes and the MLE (see
10060 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
10061 in interactive mode thereafter.
10065 The name of the (mailbox)
10067 to use for saving aborted messages if
10069 is set; this defaults to
10076 is set no output will be generated, otherwise the contents of the file
10081 Pathname of the text editor to use in the
10085 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
10086 A default editor is used if this value is not defined.
10090 The user's home directory.
10091 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
10098 .It Ev LANG , LC_ALL , LC_COLLATE , LC_CTYPE , LC_MESSAGES
10102 .Sx "Character sets" .
10106 The user's preferred number of lines on a page or the vertical screen
10107 or window size in lines.
10108 Queried and used once on program startup, actively managed for child
10109 processes in interactive mode thereafter.
10113 Pathname of the directory lister to use in the
10115 command when operating on local mailboxes.
10118 (path search through
10123 Upon startup \*(UA will actively ensure that this variable refers to the
10124 name of the user who runs \*(UA, in order to be able to pass a verified
10125 name to any newly created child process.
10129 Is used as the users
10131 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
10135 This is assumed to be an absolute pathname.
10139 \*(OP Overrides the default path search for
10140 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
10141 which is defined in the standard RFC 1524 as
10142 .Ql ~/.mailcap:\:/etc/mailcap:\:/usr/etc/mailcap:\:/usr/local/etc/mailcap .
10143 .\" TODO we should have a mailcaps-default virtual RDONLY option!
10144 (\*(UA makes it a configuration option, however.)
10145 Note this is not a search path, but a path search.
10149 Is used as a startup file instead of
10152 When \*(UA scripts are invoked on behalf of other users,
10153 either this variable should be set to
10157 command line option should be used in order to avoid side-effects from
10158 reading their configuration files.
10159 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
10162 .It Ev MAILX_NO_SYSTEM_RC
10163 If this variable is set then reading of
10165 at startup is inhibited, i.e., the same effect is achieved as if \*(UA
10166 had been started up with the option
10168 (and according argument) or
10170 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
10174 The name of the users mbox file.
10175 A logical subset of the special
10176 .Sx "Filename transformations"
10180 The fallback default is
10187 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
10188 is used as the file to save messages from the
10190 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
10191 that have been read.
10193 .Sx "Message states" .
10197 \*(IN\*(OP This variable overrides the default location of the user's
10203 Pathname of the program to use for backing the command
10207 variable enforces usage of a pager for output.
10208 The default paginator is
10210 (path search through
10213 \*(UA inspects the contents of this variable: if its contains the string
10215 then a non-existing environment variable
10222 dependent on whether terminal control support is available and whether
10223 that supports full (alternative) screen mode or not (also see
10224 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" ) .
10228 will optionally be set to
10235 A colon-separated list of directories that is searched by the shell when
10236 looking for commands, e.g.,
10237 .Ql /bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin .
10240 .It Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT
10241 This variable is automatically looked for upon startup, see
10247 The shell to use for the commands
10252 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
10253 and when starting subprocesses.
10254 A default shell is used if this environment variable is not defined.
10257 .It Ev SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
10258 If set, this specifies a time in seconds since the Unix epoch
10259 (1970-01-01) to be used in place of the current time.
10260 This is for the sake of reproduceability of tests, to be used during
10261 development or by software packagers.
10265 \*(OP The terminal type for which output is to be prepared.
10266 For extended colour and font control please refer to
10267 .Sx "Coloured display" ,
10268 and for terminal management in general to
10269 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" .
10273 Used as directory for temporary files instead of
10276 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment,
10277 but \*(UA will ensure at startup that this environment variable is
10278 updated to contain a usable temporary directory.
10284 (see there), but this variable is not standardized, should therefore not
10285 be used, and is only corrected if already set.
10289 Pathname of the text editor to use in the
10293 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
10301 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa BaNg"
10303 File giving initial commands.
10306 System wide initialization file.
10310 \*(OP Personal MIME type handler definition file, see
10311 .Sx "The Mailcap files" .
10312 (RFC 1524 location, the actual path is a configuration option.)
10315 .It Pa /etc/mailcap
10316 \*(OP System wide MIME type handler definition file, see
10317 .Sx "The Mailcap files" .
10318 (RFC 1524 location, the actual path is a configuration option.)
10321 .It Pa ~/.mime.types
10322 Personal MIME types, see
10323 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
10326 .It Pa /etc/mime.types
10327 System wide MIME types, see
10328 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
10332 \*(IN\*(OP The default location of the users
10334 file \(en the section
10335 .Sx "The .netrc file"
10336 documents the file format.
10339 .\" .Ss "The mime.types files" {{{
10340 .Ss "The mime.types files"
10342 When sending messages \*(UA tries to determine the content type of all
10344 When displaying message content or attachments \*(UA uses the content
10345 type to decide whether it can directly display data or whether it needs
10346 to deal with content handlers.
10347 It learns about M(ultipurpose) I(nternet) M(ail) E(xtensions) types and
10348 how to treat them by reading
10350 files, the loading of which can be controlled by setting the variable
10351 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
10354 can also be used to deal with MIME types.)
10356 files have the following syntax:
10359 .Dl type/subtype extension [extension ...]
10364 are strings describing the file contents, and one or multiple
10366 s, separated by whitespace, name the part of a filename starting after
10367 the last dot (of interest).
10368 Comments may be introduced anywhere on a line with a number sign
10370 causing the remaining line to be discarded.
10372 \*(UA also supports an extended, non-portable syntax in specially
10373 crafted files, which can be loaded via the alternative value syntax of
10374 .Va mimetypes-load-control
10375 and prepends an optional
10379 .Dl [type-marker ]type/subtype extension [extension ...]
10382 The following type markers are supported:
10385 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar _n_u"
10387 Treat message parts with this content as plain text.
10392 Treat message parts with this content as HTML tagsoup.
10393 If the \*(OPal HTML-tagsoup-to-text converter is not available treat
10394 the content as plain text instead.
10398 but instead of falling back to plain text require an explicit content
10399 handler to be defined.
10404 for sending messages:
10406 .Va mime-allow-text-controls ,
10407 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
10408 For reading etc. messages:
10409 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ,
10410 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
10412 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
10413 .Va mimetypes-load-control ,
10414 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE ,
10415 .Va pipe-EXTENSION .
10418 .\" .Ss "The Mailcap files" {{{
10419 .Ss "The Mailcap files"
10421 .\" TODO MAILCAP DISABLED
10422 .Sy This feature is not available in v14.9.0, sorry!
10424 .Dq User Agent Configuration Mechanism
10425 which \*(UA \*(OPally supports.
10426 It defines a file format to be used to inform mail user agent programs
10427 about the locally-installed facilities for handling various data
10428 formats, i.e., about commands and how they can be used to display, edit
10429 etc. MIME part contents, as well as a default path search that includes
10430 multiple possible locations of
10434 environment variable that can be used to overwrite that (repeating here
10435 that it is not a search path, but instead a path search specification).
10436 Any existing files will be loaded in sequence, appending any content to
10437 the list of MIME type handler directives.
10441 files consist of a set of newline separated entries.
10442 Comment lines start with a number sign
10444 (in the first column!) and are ignored.
10445 Empty lines are also ignored.
10446 All other lines form individual entries that must adhere to the syntax
10448 To extend a single entry (not comment) its line can be continued on
10449 follow lines if newline characters are
10451 by preceding them with the reverse solidus character
10453 The standard does not specify how leading whitespace of follow lines
10454 is to be treated, therefore \*(UA retains it.
10458 entries consist of a number of semicolon
10460 separated fields, and the reverse solidus
10462 character can be used to escape any following character including
10463 semicolon and itself.
10464 The first two fields are mandatory and must occur in the specified
10465 order, the remaining fields are optional and may appear in any order.
10466 Leading and trailing whitespace of content is ignored (removed).
10469 The first field defines the MIME
10471 the entry is about to handle (case-insensitively, and no reverse solidus
10472 escaping is possible in this field).
10473 If the subtype is specified as an asterisk
10475 the entry is meant to match all subtypes of the named type, e.g.,
10477 would match any audio type.
10478 The second field defines the shell command which shall be used to
10480 MIME parts of the given type; it is implicitly called the
10487 shell commands message (MIME part) data is passed via standard input
10488 unless the given shell command includes one or more instances of the
10491 in which case these instances will be replaced with a temporary filename
10492 and the data will have been stored in the file that is being pointed to.
10495 shell commands data is assumed to be generated on standard output unless
10496 the given command includes (one ore multiple)
10498 In any case any given
10500 format is replaced with a(n already) properly quoted filename.
10501 Note that when a command makes use of a temporary file via
10503 then \*(UA will remove it again, as if the
10504 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile ,
10505 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill
10507 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
10508 flags had been set; see below for more.
10511 The optional fields either define a shell command or an attribute (flag)
10512 value, the latter being a single word and the former being a keyword
10513 naming the field followed by an equals sign
10515 succeeded by a shell command, and as usual for any
10517 content any whitespace surrounding the equals sign will be removed, too.
10518 Optional fields include the following:
10521 .Bl -tag -width ".It Cd BaNg"
10523 A program that can be used to compose a new body or body part in the
10525 (Currently unused.)
10527 .It Cd composetyped
10530 field, but is to be used when the composing program needs to specify the
10532 header field to be applied to the composed data.
10533 (Currently unused.)
10536 A program that can be used to edit a body or body part in the given
10538 (Currently unused.)
10541 A program that can be used to print a message or body part in the given
10543 (Currently unused.)
10546 Specifies a program to be run to test some condition, e.g., the machine
10547 architecture, or the window system in use, to determine whether or not
10548 this mailcap entry applies.
10549 If the test fails, a subsequent mailcap entry should be sought; also see
10550 .Cd x-mailx-test-once .
10552 .It Cd needsterminal
10553 This flag field indicates that the given shell command must be run on
10554 an interactive terminal.
10555 \*(UA will temporarily release the terminal to the given command in
10556 interactive mode, in non-interactive mode this entry will be entirely
10557 ignored; this flag implies
10558 .Cd x-mailx-noquote .
10560 .It Cd copiousoutput
10561 A flag field which indicates that the output of the
10563 command will be an extended stream of textual output that can be
10564 (re)integrated into \*(UA's normal visual display.
10565 It is mutually exclusive with
10568 .Cd x-mailx-always .
10570 .It Cd textualnewlines
10571 A flag field which indicates that this type of data is line-oriented and
10572 that, if encoded in
10574 all newlines should be converted to canonical form (CRLF) before
10575 encoding, and will be in that form after decoding.
10576 (Currently unused.)
10578 .It Cd nametemplate
10579 This field gives a file name format, in which
10581 will be replaced by a random string, the joined combination of which
10582 will be used as the filename denoted by
10583 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY .
10584 One could specify that a GIF file being passed to an image viewer should
10585 have a name ending in
10588 .Ql nametemplate=%s.gif .
10589 Note that \*(UA ignores the name template unless that solely specifies
10590 a filename suffix that consists of (ASCII) alphabetic and numeric
10591 characters, the underscore and dot only.
10594 Names a file, in X11 bitmap (xbm) format, which points to an appropriate
10595 icon to be used to visually denote the presence of this kind of data.
10596 This field is not used by \*(UA.
10599 A textual description that describes this type of data.
10601 .It Cd x-mailx-always
10602 Extension flag field that denotes that the given
10604 command shall be executed even if multiple messages will be displayed
10606 Normally messages which require external viewers that produce output
10607 which does not integrate into \*(UA's visual display (i.e., do not have
10609 set) have to be addressed directly and individually.
10610 (To avoid cases where, e.g., a thousand PDF viewer instances are spawned
10613 .It Cd x-mailx-even-if-not-interactive
10614 An extension flag test field \(em by default handlers without
10616 are entirely ignored in non-interactive mode, but if this flag is set
10617 then their use will be considered.
10618 It is an error if this flag is set for commands that use the flag
10619 .Cd needsterminal .
10621 .It Cd x-mailx-noquote
10622 An extension flag field that indicates that even a
10625 command shall not be used to generate message quotes
10626 (as it would be by default).
10628 .It Cd x-mailx-async
10629 Extension flag field that denotes that the given
10631 command shall be executed asynchronously, without blocking \*(UA.
10632 Cannot be used in conjunction with
10633 .Cd needsterminal .
10635 .It Cd x-mailx-test-once
10636 Extension flag which denotes whether the given
10638 command shall be evaluated once only and the (boolean) result be cached.
10639 This is handy if some global unchanging condition is to be queried, like
10640 .Dq running under the X Window System .
10642 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile
10643 Extension flag field that requests creation of a zero-sized temporary
10644 file, the name of which is to be placed in the environment variable
10645 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY .
10646 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
10650 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill
10651 Normally the MIME part content is passed to the handler via standard
10652 input; if this flag is set then the data will instead be written into
10654 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile .
10655 In order to cause deletion of the temporary file you will have to set
10656 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
10658 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
10662 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
10663 Extension flag field that requests that the temporary file shall be
10664 deleted automatically when the command loop is entered again at latest.
10665 (Do not use this for asynchronous handlers.)
10666 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
10668 format, or without also setting
10669 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile
10671 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill .
10673 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-keep
10676 implies the three tmpfile related flags above, but if you want, e.g.,
10678 and deal with the temporary file yourself, you can add in this flag to
10680 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink .
10685 The standard includes the possibility to define any number of additional
10686 entry fields, prefixed by
10688 Flag fields apply to the entire
10690 entry \(em in some unusual cases, this may not be desirable, but
10691 differentiation can be accomplished via separate entries, taking
10692 advantage of the fact that subsequent entries are searched if an earlier
10693 one does not provide enough information.
10696 command needs to specify the
10700 command shall not, the following will help out the latter (with enabled
10704 level \*(UA will show information about handler evaluation):
10706 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10707 application/postscript; ps-to-terminal %s; needsterminal
10708 application/postscript; ps-to-terminal %s; compose=idraw %s
10712 In fields any occurrence of the format string
10714 will be replaced by the
10717 Named parameters from the
10719 field may be placed in the command execution line using
10721 followed by the parameter name and a closing
10724 The entire parameter should appear as a single command line argument,
10725 regardless of embedded spaces; thus:
10727 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10729 Content-type: multipart/mixed; boundary=42
10732 multipart/*; /usr/local/bin/showmulti \e
10733 %t %{boundary} ; composetyped = /usr/local/bin/makemulti
10735 # Executed shell command
10736 /usr/local/bin/showmulti multipart/mixed 42
10740 .\" TODO v15: Mailcap: %n,%F
10741 Note that \*(UA does not support handlers for multipart MIME parts as
10742 shown in this example (as of today).
10743 \*(UA does not support the additional formats
10747 An example file, also showing how to properly deal with the expansion of
10749 which includes any quotes that are necessary to make it a valid shell
10750 argument by itself and thus will cause undesired behaviour when placed
10751 in additional user-provided quotes:
10753 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10755 text/richtext; richtext %s; copiousoutput
10757 text/x-perl; perl -cWT %s
10759 application/pdf; \e
10761 trap "rm -f ${infile}" EXIT\e; \e
10762 trap "exit 75" INT QUIT TERM\e; \e
10764 x-mailx-async; x-mailx-tmpfile-keep
10766 application/*; echo "This is \e"%t\e" but \e
10767 is 50 \e% Greek to me" \e; < %s head -c 1024 | cat -vET; \e
10768 copiousoutput; x-mailx-noquote
10773 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ,
10774 .Sx "The mime.types files" ,
10777 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
10778 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE ,
10779 .Va pipe-EXTENSION .
10782 .\" .Ss "The .netrc file" {{{
10783 .Ss "The .netrc file"
10787 file contains user credentials for machine accounts.
10788 The default location in the user's
10790 directory may be overridden by the
10792 environment variable.
10793 The file consists of space, tabulator or newline separated tokens.
10794 \*(UA implements a parser that supports a superset of the original BSD
10795 syntax, but users should nonetheless be aware of portability glitches
10796 of that file format, shall their
10798 be usable across multiple programs and platforms:
10801 .Bl -bullet -compact
10803 BSD does not support single, but only double quotation marks, e.g.,
10804 .Ql password="pass with spaces" .
10806 BSD (only?) supports escaping of single characters via a reverse solidus
10807 (e.g., a space can be escaped via
10809 in- as well as outside of a quoted string.
10811 BSD does not require a final quotation mark of the last user input token.
10813 The original BSD (Berknet) parser also supported a format which allowed
10814 tokens to be separated with commas \(en whereas at least Hewlett-Packard
10815 still seems to support this syntax, \*(UA does not!
10817 As a non-portable extension some widely-used programs support
10818 shell-style comments: if an input line starts, after any amount of
10819 whitespace, with a number sign
10821 then the rest of the line is ignored.
10823 Whereas other programs may require that the
10825 file is accessible by only the user if it contains a
10827 token for any other
10831 \*(UA will always require these strict permissions.
10835 Of the following list of supported tokens \*(UA only uses (and caches)
10840 At runtime the command
10842 can be used to control \*(UA's
10846 .Bl -tag -width ".It Cd BaNg"
10847 .It Cd machine Ar name
10848 The hostname of the entries' machine, lowercase-normalized by \*(UA
10850 Any further file content, until either end-of-file or the occurrence
10855 first-class token is bound (only related) to the machine
10858 As an extension that should not be the cause of any worries
10859 \*(UA supports a single wildcard prefix for
10861 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10862 machine *.example.com login USER password PASS
10863 machine pop3.example.com login USER password PASS
10864 machine smtp.example.com login USER password PASS
10870 .Ql pop3.example.com ,
10874 .Ql local.smtp.example.com .
10875 Note that in the example neither
10876 .Ql pop3.example.com
10878 .Ql smtp.example.com
10879 will be matched by the wildcard, since the exact matches take
10880 precedence (it is however faster to specify it the other way around).
10883 This is the same as
10885 except that it is a fallback entry that is used shall none of the
10886 specified machines match; only one default token may be specified,
10887 and it must be the last first-class token.
10889 .It Cd login Ar name
10890 The user name on the remote machine.
10892 .It Cd password Ar string
10893 The user's password on the remote machine.
10895 .It Cd account Ar string
10896 Supply an additional account password.
10897 This is merely for FTP purposes.
10899 .It Cd macdef Ar name
10901 A macro is defined with the specified
10903 it is formed from all lines beginning with the next line and continuing
10904 until a blank line is (consecutive newline characters are) encountered.
10907 entries cannot be utilized by multiple machines, too, but must be
10908 defined following the
10910 they are intended to be used with.)
10913 exists, it is automatically run as the last step of the login process.
10914 This is merely for FTP purposes.
10921 .\" .Sh EXAMPLES {{{
10924 .\" .Ss "An example configuration" {{{
10925 .Ss "An example configuration"
10927 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10928 # This example assumes v15.0 compatibility mode
10931 # Where are the up-to-date SSL certificates?
10932 #set ssl-ca-dir=/etc/ssl/certs
10933 set ssl-ca-file=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
10935 # (Since we manage up-to-date ones explicitly, do not use any,
10936 # possibly outdated, default certificates shipped with OpenSSL)
10937 set ssl-no-default-ca
10939 # Do not use protocols older than TLS v1.2.
10940 # Change this only when the remote server does not support it:
10941 # maybe use ssl-protocol-HOST (or -USER@HOST) syntax to define
10942 # such explicit exceptions, then
10943 set ssl-protocol='-ALL,+TLSv1.2'
10945 # Explicitly define the list of ciphers, which may improve security,
10946 # especially with protocols older than TLS v1.2. See ciphers(1).
10947 # Including "@STRENGTH" will sort the final list by algorithm strength.
10948 # In reality it is possibly best to only use ssl-cipher-list-HOST
10949 # (or -USER@HOST), as necessary, again..
10950 set ssl-cipher-list=TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:@STRENGTH
10951 # TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA:\e
10952 DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:@STRENGTH
10953 # ALL:!aNULL:!MEDIUM:!LOW:!MD5:!RC4:!EXPORT:@STRENGTH
10955 # Request strict transport security checks!
10956 set ssl-verify=strict
10958 # Essential setting: select allowed character sets
10959 set sendcharsets=utf-8,iso-8859-1
10961 # A very kind option: when replying to a message, first try to
10962 # use the same encoding that the original poster used herself!
10963 set reply-in-same-charset
10965 # When replying to or forwarding a message the comment and name
10966 # parts of email addresses are removed unless this variable is set
10969 # When sending messages, wait until the Mail-Transfer-Agent finishs.
10970 # Only like this you will be able to see errors reported through the
10971 # exit status of the MTA (including the builtin SMTP one)!
10974 # Only use builtin MIME types, no mime.types(5) files
10975 set mimetypes-load-control
10977 # Default directory where we act in (relative to $HOME)
10979 # A leading "+" (often) means: under *folder*
10980 # *record* is used to save copies of sent messages
10981 set MBOX=+mbox.mbox record=+sent.mbox DEAD=+dead.txt
10983 # Make "file mymbox" and "file myrec" go to..
10984 shortcut mymbox %:+mbox.mbox myrec +sent.mbox
10986 # Not really optional, e.g., for S/MIME
10987 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
10989 # It may be necessary to set hostname and/or smtp-hostname
10990 # if the "SERVER" of mta and "domain" of from do not match.
10991 # The `urlencode' command can be used to encode USER and PASS
10992 set mta=(smtps?|submission)://[USER[:PASS]@]SERVER[:PORT] \e
10993 smtp-auth=login/plain... \e
10996 # Never refuse to start into interactive mode, and more
10998 colour-pager crt= \e
10999 followup-to followup-to-honour=ask-yes \e
11000 history-file=+.\*(uAhist history-size=-1 history-gabby \e
11001 mime-counter-evidence=0xE \e
11002 prompt='?\e?!\e![\e${-account}#\e${-mailbox-display}]? ' \e
11003 reply-to-honour=ask-yes \e
11006 # Only include the selected header fields when typing messages
11007 headerpick type retain add from_ date from to cc subject \e
11008 message-id mail-followup-to reply-to
11009 # ...when forwarding messages
11010 headerpick forward retain add subject date from to cc
11011 # ...when saving message, etc.
11012 #headerpick save ignore add ^Original-.*$ ^X-.*$
11014 # Some mailing lists
11015 mlist '@xyz-editor\e.xyz$' '@xyzf\e.xyz$'
11016 mlsubscribe '^xfans@xfans\e.xyz$'
11018 # A real life example of a very huge free mail provider
11020 set folder=~/spool/XooglX inbox=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
11021 set from='Your Name <address@examp.ple>'
11022 set mta=smtp://USER:PASS@smtp.gmXil.com smtp-use-starttls
11025 # Here is a pretty large one which does not allow sending mails
11026 # if there is a domain name mismatch on the SMTP protocol level,
11027 # which would bite us if the value of from does not match, e.g.,
11028 # for people who have a sXXXXeforge project and want to speak
11029 # with the mailing list under their project account (in from),
11030 # still sending the message through their normal mail provider
11032 set folder=~/spool/XandeX inbox=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
11033 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
11034 set mta=smtps://USER:PASS@smtp.yaXXex.ru:465 \e
11035 hostname=yaXXex.com smtp-hostname=
11038 # Create some new commands so that, e.g., `ls /tmp' will..
11039 wysh ghost lls '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFlrS'
11040 wysh ghost llS '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFlS'
11041 wysh ghost ls '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFrS'
11042 wysh ghost lS '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFS'
11043 wysh ghost lla '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFlr'
11044 wysh ghost llA '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFl'
11045 wysh ghost la '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFr'
11046 wysh ghost lA '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aF'
11047 wysh ghost ll '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFltr'
11048 wysh ghost lL '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFlt'
11049 wysh ghost l '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFtr'
11050 wysh ghost L '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFt'
11052 # We do not support gpg(1) directly yet. But simple --clearsign'd
11053 # message parts can be dealt with as follows:
11055 wysh set pipe-text/plain=$'@*#++=@\e
11056 < "${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}" awk \e
11057 -v TMPFILE="${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}" \e'\e
11059 /^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----/,/^$/{\e
11062 print "--- GPG --verify ---";\e
11063 system("gpg --verify " TMPFILE " 2>&1");\e
11064 print "--- GPG --verify ---";\e
11068 /^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----/,\e
11069 /^-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----/{\e
11079 !printf 'Key IDs to gpg --recv-keys: ';\e
11081 gpg --recv-keys ${keyids};
11087 When storing passwords in
11089 appropriate permissions should be set on this file with
11090 .Ql $ chmod 0600 \*(ur .
11093 is available user credentials can be stored in the central
11095 file instead; e.g., here is a different version of the example account
11096 that sets up SMTP and POP3:
11098 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11103 set folder=~/spool/XandeX inbox=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
11104 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
11106 # Load an encrypted ~/.netrc by uncommenting the next line
11107 #set netrc-pipe='gpg -qd ~/.netrc.pgp'
11109 set mta=smtps://smtp.yXXXXx.ru:465 \e
11110 smtp-hostname= hostname=yXXXXx.com
11111 set pop3-keepalive=240 pop3-no-apop-pop.yXXXXx.ru
11112 ghost xp fi pop3s://pop.yXXXXx.ru
11121 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11122 machine *.yXXXXx.ru login USER password PASS
11126 This configuration should now work just fine:
11129 .Dl $ echo text | \*(uA -vv -AXandeX -s Subject user@exam.ple
11132 .\" .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME" {{{
11133 .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
11135 \*(OP S/MIME provides two central mechanisms:
11136 message signing and message encryption.
11137 A signed message contains some data in addition to the regular text.
11138 The data can be used to verify that the message was sent using a valid
11139 certificate, that the sender's address in the message header matches
11140 that in the certificate, and that the message text has not been altered.
11141 Signing a message does not change its regular text;
11142 it can be read regardless of whether the recipient's software is able to
11146 It is thus usually possible to sign all outgoing messages if so desired.
11147 Encryption, in contrast, makes the message text invisible for all people
11148 except those who have access to the secret decryption key.
11149 To encrypt a message, the specific recipient's public encryption key
11151 It is therefore not possible to send encrypted mail to people unless their
11152 key has been retrieved from either previous communication or public key
11154 A message should always be signed before it is encrypted.
11155 Otherwise, it is still possible that the encrypted message text is
11159 A central concept to S/MIME is that of the certification authority (CA).
11160 A CA is a trusted institution that issues certificates.
11161 For each of these certificates it can be verified that it really
11162 originates from the CA, provided that the CA's own certificate is
11164 A set of CA certificates is usually delivered with OpenSSL and installed
11166 If you trust the source of your OpenSSL software installation,
11167 this offers reasonable security for S/MIME on the Internet.
11169 .Va smime-no-default-ca
11170 to avoid using the default certificate and point
11174 to a trusted pool of certificates.
11175 In general, a certificate cannot be more secure than the method its CA
11176 certificate has been retrieved with.
11179 The first thing you need for participating in S/MIME message exchange is
11180 your personal certificate, including a private key.
11181 The certificate contains public information, in particular your name and
11182 your email address(es), and the public key that is used by others to
11183 encrypt messages for you,
11184 and to verify signed messages they supposedly received from you.
11185 The certificate is included in each signed message you send.
11186 The private key must be kept secret.
11187 It is used to decrypt messages that were previously encrypted with your
11188 public key, and to sign messages.
11191 For personal use it is recommended that you get a S/MIME certificate
11192 from one of the major CAs on the Internet using your WWW browser.
11193 Many CAs offer such certificates for free.
11195 .Lk https://www.CAcert.org
11196 which issues client and server certificates to members of their
11197 community for free; their root certificate
11198 .Pf ( Lk https://\:www.cacert.org/\:certs/\:root.crt )
11199 is often not in the default set of trusted CA root certificates, though,
11200 which means you will have to download their root certificate separately
11201 and ensure it is part of our S/MIME certificate validation chain by
11204 or as a vivid member of the
11205 .Va smime-ca-file .
11206 But let us take a step-by-step tour on how to setup S/MIME with
11207 a certificate from CAcert.org despite this situation!
11210 First of all you will have to become a member of the CAcert.org
11211 community, simply by registrating yourself via the web interface.
11212 Once you are, create and verify all email addresses you want to be able
11213 to create signed and encrypted messages for/with using the corresponding
11214 entries of the web interface.
11215 Now ready to create S/MIME certificates, so let us create a new
11216 .Dq client certificate ,
11217 ensure to include all email addresses that should be covered by the
11218 certificate in the following web form, and also to use your name as the
11222 Create a private key and a certificate request on your local computer
11223 (please see the manual pages of the used commands for more in-depth
11224 knowledge on what the used arguments etc. do):
11227 .Dl openssl req -nodes -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout key.pem -out creq.pem
11230 Afterwards copy-and-paste the content of
11232 into the certificate-request (CSR) field of the web form on the
11233 CAcert.org website (you may need to unfold some
11234 .Dq advanced options
11235 to see the corresponding text field).
11236 This last step will ensure that your private key (which never left your
11237 box) and the certificate belong together (through the public key that
11238 will find its way into the certificate via the certificate-request).
11239 You are now ready and can create your CAcert certified certificate.
11240 Download and store or copy-and-paste it as
11245 In order to use your new S/MIME setup a combined private key/public key
11246 (certificate) file has to be created:
11249 .Dl cat key.pem pub.crt > ME@HERE.com.paired
11252 This is the file \*(UA will work with.
11253 If you have created your private key with a passphrase then \*(UA will
11254 ask you for it whenever a message is signed or decrypted.
11255 Set the following variables to henceforth use S/MIME (setting
11257 is of interest for verification only):
11259 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11260 set smime-ca-file=ALL-TRUSTED-ROOT-CERTS-HERE \e
11261 smime-sign-cert=ME@HERE.com.paired \e
11262 smime-sign-message-digest=SHA256 \e
11267 From each signed message you send, the recipient can fetch your
11268 certificate and use it to send encrypted mail back to you.
11269 Accordingly if somebody sends you a signed message, you can do the same,
11272 command to check the validity of the certificate.
11275 Variables of interest for S/MIME signing:
11277 .Va smime-ca-file ,
11278 .Va smime-crl-dir ,
11279 .Va smime-crl-file ,
11280 .Va smime-no-default-ca ,
11282 .Va smime-sign-cert ,
11283 .Va smime-sign-include-certs
11285 .Va smime-sign-message-digest .
11288 After it has been verified save the certificate via
11290 and tell \*(UA that it should use it for encryption for further
11291 communication with that somebody:
11293 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11295 set smime-encrypt-USER@HOST=FILENAME \e
11296 smime-cipher-USER@HOST=AES256
11300 Additional variables of interest for S/MIME en- and decryption:
11303 .Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST .
11306 You should carefully consider if you prefer to store encrypted messages
11308 If you do, anybody who has access to your mail folders can read them,
11309 but if you do not, you might be unable to read them yourself later if
11310 you happen to lose your private key.
11313 command saves messages in decrypted form, while the
11317 commands leave them encrypted.
11320 Note that neither S/MIME signing nor encryption applies to message
11321 subjects or other header fields yet.
11322 Thus they may not contain sensitive information for encrypted messages,
11323 and cannot be trusted even if the message content has been verified.
11324 When sending signed messages,
11325 it is recommended to repeat any important header information in the
11329 .\" .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or SSL/TLS" {{{
11330 .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or SSL/TLS"
11332 \*(OP Certification authorities (CAs) issue certificate revocation
11333 lists (CRLs) on a regular basis.
11334 These lists contain the serial numbers of certificates that have been
11335 declared invalid after they have been issued.
11336 Such usually happens because the private key for the certificate has
11338 because the owner of the certificate has left the organization that is
11339 mentioned in the certificate, etc.
11340 To seriously use S/MIME or SSL/TLS verification,
11341 an up-to-date CRL is required for each trusted CA.
11342 There is otherwise no method to distinguish between valid and
11343 invalidated certificates.
11344 \*(UA currently offers no mechanism to fetch CRLs, nor to access them on
11345 the Internet, so they have to be retrieved by some external mechanism.
11348 \*(UA accepts CRLs in PEM format only;
11349 CRLs in DER format must be converted, like, e.\|g.:
11352 .Dl $ openssl crl \-inform DER \-in crl.der \-out crl.pem
11355 To tell \*(UA about the CRLs, a directory that contains all CRL files
11356 (and no other files) must be created.
11361 variables, respectively, must then be set to point to that directory.
11362 After that, \*(UA requires a CRL to be present for each CA that is used
11363 to verify a certificate.
11366 .\" .Ss "Handling spam" {{{
11367 .Ss "Handling spam"
11369 \*(OP \*(UA can make use of several spam interfaces for the purpose of
11370 identification of, and, in general, dealing with spam messages.
11371 A precondition of most commands in order to function is that the
11373 variable is set to one of the supported interfaces.
11374 Once messages have been identified as spam their (volatile)
11376 state can be prompted: the
11380 message specifications will address respective messages and their
11382 entries will be used when displaying the
11384 in the header display.
11389 rates the given messages and sets their
11392 If the spam interface offers spam scores those can also be displayed in
11393 the header display by including the
11403 will interact with the Bayesian filter of the chosen interface and learn
11404 the given messages as
11408 respectively; the last command can be used to cause
11410 of messages; it adheres to their current
11412 state and thus reverts previous teachings.
11417 will simply set and clear, respectively, the mentioned volatile
11419 message flag, without any interface interaction.
11428 requires a running instance of the
11430 server in order to function, started with the option
11432 shall Bayesian filter learning be possible.
11434 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11435 $ spamd -i localhost:2142 -i /tmp/.spamsock -d [-L] [-l]
11436 $ spamd --listen=localhost:2142 --listen=/tmp/.spamsock \e
11437 --daemonize [--local] [--allow-tell]
11441 Thereafter \*(UA can make use of these interfaces:
11443 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11444 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=spamc -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
11445 -Sspamc-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \e
11446 -Sspamc-arguments="-U /tmp/.spamsock" -Sspamc-user=
11448 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=spamc -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
11449 -Sspamc-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \e
11450 -Sspamc-arguments="-d localhost -p 2142" -Sspamc-user=
11454 Using the generic filter approach allows usage of programs like
11456 Here is an example, requiring it to be accessible via
11459 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11460 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=filter -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
11461 -Sspamfilter-ham="bogofilter -n" \e
11462 -Sspamfilter-noham="bogofilter -N" \e
11463 -Sspamfilter-nospam="bogofilter -S" \e
11464 -Sspamfilter-rate="bogofilter -TTu 2>/dev/null" \e
11465 -Sspamfilter-spam="bogofilter -s" \e
11466 -Sspamfilter-rate-scanscore="1;^(.+)$"
11470 Because messages must exist on local storage in order to be scored (or
11471 used for Bayesian filter training), it is possibly a good idea to
11472 perform the local spam check last:
11474 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11475 define spamdelhook {
11477 spamset (header x-dcc-brand-metrics "bulk")
11478 # Server-side spamassassin(1)
11479 spamset (header x-spam-flag "YES")
11480 del :s # TODO we HAVE to be able to do `spamrate :u ! :sS'
11481 move :S +maybe-spam
11484 move :S +maybe-spam
11486 set folder-hook-FOLDER=spamdelhook
11490 See also the documentation for the variables
11491 .Va spam-interface , spam-maxsize ,
11492 .Va spamc-command , spamc-arguments , spamc-user ,
11493 .Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , spamfilter-nospam , \
11496 .Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore .
11504 In general it is a good idea to turn on
11510 twice) if something does not work well.
11511 Very often a diagnostic message can be produced that leads to the
11512 problems' solution.
11514 .\" .Ss "\*(UA shortly hangs on startup" {{{
11515 .Ss "\*(UA shortly hangs on startup"
11517 This can have two reasons, one is the necessity to wait for a file lock
11518 and cannot be helped, the other being that \*(UA calls the function
11520 in order to query the nodename of the box (sometimes the real one is
11521 needed instead of the one represented by the internal variable
11523 One may have varying success by ensuring that the real hostname and
11527 or, more generally, that the name service is properly setup \(en
11530 return the expected value?
11531 Does this local hostname has a domain suffix?
11532 RFC 6762 standardized the link-local top-level domain
11534 try again after adding an (additional) entry with this extension.
11537 .\" .Ss "\*(UA exits quick, and output is cleared away" {{{
11538 .Ss "\*(UA exits quick, and output is cleared away"
11540 When this happens even with
11542 set, then this most likely indicates a problem with the creation of
11543 so-called dotlock files: setting
11544 .Va dotlock-ignore-error
11545 should overcome this situation.
11546 This only avoids symptoms, it does not address the problem, though.
11547 Since the output is cleared away \*(UA has support for
11548 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" ,
11549 and switches to the
11551 which causes the output clearance: by doing
11552 .Ql set termcap='smcup='
11553 this mode can be suppressed, and by setting
11555 (twice) the actual problem should be reported.
11558 .\" .Ss "I cannot login to Google mail aka GMail" {{{
11559 .Ss "I cannot login to Google mail aka GMail"
11561 Since 2014 some free service providers classify programs as
11563 unless they use a special authentification method (OAuth 2.0) which
11564 was not standardized for non-HTTP protocol authentication token query
11565 until August 2015 (RFC 7628).
11568 Different to Kerberos / GSSAPI, which is developed since the mid of the
11569 1980s, where a user can easily create a local authentication ticket for
11570 her- and himself with the locally installed
11572 program, that protocol has no such local part but instead requires
11573 a world-wide-web query to create or fetch a token; since there is no
11574 local cache this query would have to be performed whenever \*(UA is
11575 invoked (in interactive sessions situation may differ).
11578 \*(UA does not support OAuth.
11579 Because of this it is necessary to declare \*(UA a
11580 .Dq less secure app
11581 (on the providers account web page) in order to read and send mail.
11582 However, it also seems possible to take the following steps instead:
11587 give the provider the number of a mobile phone,
11590 .Dq 2-Step Verification ,
11592 create an application specific password (16 characters), and
11594 use that special password instead of the real Google account password in
11595 \*(UA (for more on that see the section
11596 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
11600 .\" .Ss "Not \(dqdefunctional\(dq, but the editor key does not work" {{{
11601 .Ss "Not \(dqdefunctional\(dq, but the editor key does not work"
11603 It can happen that the terminal library (see
11604 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor",
11607 reports different codes than the terminal really sends, in which case
11608 \*(UA will tell that a key binding is functional, but will not be able to
11609 recognize it because the received data does not match anything expected.
11614 ings will show the byte sequences that are expected.
11617 To overcome the situation, use, e.g., the program
11619 in conjunction with the command line option
11621 if available, to see the byte sequences which are actually produced
11622 by keypresses, and use the variable
11624 to make \*(UA aware of them.
11625 E.g., the terminal this is typed on produces some false sequences, here
11626 an example showing the shifted home key:
11628 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11631 # 1B 5B=[ 31=1 3B=; 32=2 48=H
11636 ? \*(uA -v -Stermcap='kHOM=\eE[H'
11645 .\" .Sh "SEE ALSO" {{{
11655 .Xr spamassassin 1 ,
11664 .Xr mailwrapper 8 ,
11669 .\" .Sh HISTORY {{{
11672 M. Douglas McIlroy writes in his article
11673 .Dq A Research UNIX Reader: Annotated Excerpts \
11674 from the Programmer's Manual, 1971-1986
11677 command already appeared in First Edition
11681 .Bd -ragged -offset indent
11682 Electronic mail was there from the start.
11683 Never satisfied with its exact behavior, everybody touched it at one
11684 time or another: to assure the safety of simultaneous access, to improve
11685 privacy, to survive crashes, to exploit uucp, to screen out foreign
11686 freeloaders, or whatever.
11687 Not until v7 did the interface change (Thompson).
11688 Later, as mail became global in its reach, Dave Presotto took charge and
11689 brought order to communications with a grab-bag of external networks
11695 Mail was written in 1978 by Kurt Shoens and developed as part of the
11698 distribution until 1995.
11699 Mail has then seen further development in open source
11701 variants, noticeably by Christos Zoulas in
11703 Based upon this Nail, later Heirloom Mailx, was developed by Gunnar
11704 Ritter in the years 2000 until 2008.
11705 Since 2012 S-nail is maintained by Steffen (Daode) Nurpmeso.
11706 This man page is derived from
11707 .Dq The Mail Reference Manual
11708 that was originally written by Kurt Shoens.
11714 .An "Kurt Shoens" ,
11715 .An "Edward Wang" ,
11716 .An "Keith Bostic" ,
11717 .An "Christos Zoulas" ,
11718 .An "Gunnar Ritter" ,
11719 .An "Steffen Nurpmeso" Aq Mt s-nail-users@lists.sourceforge.net
11721 .Mt s-mailx@sdaoden.eu ) .
11724 .\" .Sh CAVEATS {{{
11727 \*(ID Interrupting an operation via
11731 is often problematic: many library functions cannot deal with the
11733 that this software (still) performs.
11736 The SMTP and POP3 protocol support of \*(UA is very basic.
11737 Also, if it fails to contact its upstream SMTP server, it will not make
11738 further attempts to transfer the message at a later time (setting
11743 If this is a concern, it might be better to set up a local SMTP server
11744 that is capable of message queuing.
11750 After deleting some message of a POP3 mailbox the header summary falsely
11751 claims that there are no messages to display, one needs to perform
11752 a scroll or dot movement to restore proper state.
11754 In threaded display a power user may encounter crashes very
11755 occasionally (this is may and very).
11759 in the source repository lists future directions.