4 S-nail(1) is a fork of Heirloom mailx(1), formerly known as nail(1).
5 It was forked from Heirloom mailx 12.5 on 2012-05-08.
7 S-nail is only a git(1) repository on
8 git.code.sf.net/p/s-nail/code
10 http://sourceforge.net/p/s-nail/code/
11 ) and a release tarball to be downloaded from
12 http://internode.dl.sourceforge.net/sourceforge/s-nail/s-nail.tar.gz.
14 Mail contact is supposed to live on nail-devel@lists.sourceforge.net.
16 The git(1) repository consists of three branches:
18 - master: rooted on top of *heirloom*, this adapts Heirloom mailx(1) as
19 S-nail(1). It thus changes the name and Makefile stuff and adds some
20 changes that i don't think will ever go into Heirloom mailx(1).
22 - heirloom: a full git(1) cvsimport of the Heirloom mailx(1) cvs(1)
25 - heirloom-plus: rooted on top of *heirloom*, this branch contains
26 patches that i or others have send to nail-devel@ and that i've
27 integrated into the code.
28 Note that due to heavy diverging of code maintenance of this branch
29 will be restricted to really security critical bugs.
31 [Heirloom file content follows]
33 Welcome to Heirloom mailx!
34 ==========================
36 Mailx is derived from Berkeley Mail and is intended provide the
37 functionality of the POSIX mailx command with additional support
38 for MIME, IMAP, POP3, SMTP, and S/MIME. It provides enhanced
39 features for interactive use, such as caching and disconnected
40 operation for IMAP, message threading, scoring, and filtering.
41 It is also usable as a mail batch language, both for sending
44 Until March 2006, this project has been developed under the
45 name "nail"; it is integrated into the Heirloom project now.
46 The old name will persist at some places. If you were calling
47 the program under the name "nail" and want to continue to do
48 so, create a symbolic link to the mailx binary.
50 New releases of mailx are announced on Freshmeat. If you want to get
51 notified by email on each release, use their subscription service at
52 <http://freshmeat.net/projects/mailx/>.
54 The project homepage is currently at
55 <http://heirloom.sourceforge.net/mailx.html>.
61 To compile and install mailx, look at the file 'INSTALL'. You can also
62 build mailx RPMs using 'rpmbuild -tb mailx-<version>.tar.bz2'.
64 You should always install the template for the system-wide configuration
65 file. If this is not possible because you lack the necessary permissions,
66 integrate its contents into your ~/.mailrc. This is because some of the
67 built-in defaults are not appropriate anymore for the Unix platforms of
68 today, but are still being kept for compatibility.
70 Mailx has been built successfully in the following environments using
71 the current configuration system:
73 Linux Kernel 2.0 and above; libc4, libc5, glibc 2.2 and above,
74 diet libc, uClibc; gcc, Intel C
75 Sun Solaris 2.6 and above; Sun C, gcc
78 HP HP-UX B.11.11, B.11.23; HP C/ANSI C, gcc
79 HP Tru64 UNIX 4.0G, 5.1B; Developers' Toolkit C, gcc
81 IBM AIX 5.1; VisualAge C, gcc
83 Control Data EP/IX 2.2.1AA; /svr4/bin/cc
86 Apple Mac OS X 10.2 Server
87 NEC UX/4800 Release11.5 Rev.A
89 DragonFlyBSD 1.3.7-DEVELOPMENT
91 If your system does not appear in this list, just try it out. Whether
92 it works or not, you should contact the development list and report the
95 But note that I strongly discourage from porting mailx to Windows
96 and environments that make Windows look Unix-like; I won't accept any
97 patches or suggestions that go in this direction. There are two major
98 reasons for this: First, any port makes maintaining harder; there are
99 always more work-arounds in the source, and introducing new features
100 involves the question whether they will work an all supported platforms.
101 The more different a platform behaves from, let's say, the common Unix
102 way, the more hacks have to be made, costing human time that could
103 otherwise have been used to enhance the software for Unix platforms.
104 Windows is just not worth this, and here we are at the second point:
105 Porting software to Windows encourages people to use -- that is: to buy
106 -- Windows. It supports a company that is known to threaten Open Source
107 software like mailx. In short, porting mailx (or similar free software)
108 to Windows has an ill effect on that software. Don't do it.
110 Note that my statement doesn't legally restrict you if you want to port
111 mailx to any platform. This would not be the way of free software either,
112 especially since I might be wrong in the future; as an example, porting
113 free software to mainframes of a certain company is considered a good
114 thing today. I just wish to express my opinion as a free software
115 developer, and to inform you that I don't maintain such a port.
121 Mailx supports the mbox and maildir mailbox formats.
123 The mbox format variant based on the 'Content-Length:' header field that
124 is used on most SVr4 systems by default is not supported by mailx. As this
125 format generally is a design flaw, you should fix your system by either
126 using procmail for local mail delivery, which is a good idea anyway, or
127 at least add the -E flag to the Mlocal line in /etc/sendmail.cf if using
130 Although it is not bad, just obsolete, similar considerations apply
131 to the MMDF format used on OpenServer systems; unless you switch to
132 procmail (or contribute support for this format), mailx will not be
133 able to read your mailbox there.
136 Questions, suggestions, bug reports
137 ===================================
139 Please use the 'nail-devel' mailing list for questions, suggestions,
140 or bug reports. This has at least three advantages over contacting me
143 1. Other people can comment on the issue. They might have solved a similar
144 problem, or might be willing to implement improvements.
146 2. Since all posts are archived, a problem needs to be commented once only,
147 and the answers are readily available on the web then.
149 3. Unless you had an acceptable reason to contact me directly, I will refuse
150 to give you technical answers by personal mail. Thus if you ignore this
151 advice, you will just have to resend your message to the list.
153 Also before you send something to the list, make sure that you did the
156 1. Check out that you are using a binary made from pristine sources of the
157 latest release. This is particularly important if you received your mailx
158 binaries from a third-party vendor. If you are unwilling to do this for
159 whatever reason, use the support channels of your vendor and avoid abusing
160 the Open Source development model.
162 2. Check that your issue is not already solved or commented in the existing
163 documentation. This does not only involve reading this file; you also
164 need to look at the manual page and the ChangeLog. After doing that, you
165 need to search the mailing list archive for related topics. Remember that
166 you are spending other people's spare time when you ask questions, and
167 that you just waste it if your question was a superfluous one.
169 3. If you are reporting a bug, try to reproduce it and include detailed
170 instructions for doing that in your report. If you cannot reproduce the
171 bug, document carefully what you have done before the problem occurred.
172 The more information you provide, the greater are the chances that the
173 bug can be fixed quickly.
175 Both the contact instructions and the list archive are available at
176 <https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/nail-devel>. You need
177 to subscribe in order to post to the list.
185 <gunnarr@acm.org> 01/03/07