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 v14.9.3 / 2017-08-03
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()
79 .Op : Ns Fl a Ar attachment Ns \&:
80 .Op : Ns Fl b Ar bcc-addr Ns \&:
81 .Op : Ns Fl c Ar cc-addr Ns \&:
82 .Op Fl M Ar type | Fl m Ar file | Fl q Ar file | Fl t
85 .Fl S Ar var Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value Ns
88 .Op : Ns Fl X Ar cmd Ns \&:
90 .Pf : Ar to-addr Ns \&:
91 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns : Ns Ar mta-option Ns \&:
100 .Op Fl r Ar from-addr
102 .Fl S Ar var Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value Ns
105 .Op : Ns Fl X Ar cmd Ns \&:
106 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns : Ns Ar mta-option Ns \&:
115 .Op Fl r Ar from-addr
117 .Fl S Ar var Ns Op Ns = Ns Ar value Ns
119 .Op : Ns Fl X Ar cmd Ns \&:
121 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns : Ns Ar mta-option Ns \&:
127 .Mx -toc -tree html pdf ps xhtml
130 .\" .Sh DESCRIPTION {{{
133 .Bd -filled -compact -offset indent
134 .Sy Compatibility note:
135 S-nail (\*(UA) will wrap up into \%S-mailx in v15.0 (circa 2020).
136 Backward incompatibility has to be expected \(en
139 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
140 rules, for example, and shell metacharacters will become meaningful.
141 New and old behaviour is flagged \*(IN and \*(OU, and setting
144 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
145 will choose new behaviour when applicable.
146 \*(OB flags what will vanish, and enabling
150 enables obsoletion warnings.
154 \*(UA provides a simple and friendly environment for sending and
156 It is intended to provide the functionality of the POSIX
158 command, but is MIME capable and optionally offers extensions for
159 line editing, S/MIME, SMTP and POP3, among others.
160 \*(UA divides incoming mail into its constituent messages and allows
161 the user to deal with them in any order.
165 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
166 for manipulating messages and sending mail.
167 It provides the user simple editing capabilities to ease the composition
168 of outgoing messages, and increasingly powerful and reliable
169 non-interactive scripting capabilities.
171 .\" .Ss "Options" {{{
174 .Bl -tag -width ".It Fl BaNg"
177 Explicitly control which of the
181 d (loaded): if the letter
183 is (case-insensitively) part of the
187 is sourced, likewise the letter
189 controls sourcing of the user's personal
191 file, whereas the letters
195 explicitly forbid sourcing of any resource files.
196 Scripts should use this option: to avoid environmental noise they should
198 from any configuration and create a script-specific environment, setting
200 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
203 and running configurating commands via
205 This option overrides
212 command for the given user email
214 after program startup is complete (all resource files are loaded, any
216 setting is being established; only
218 commands have not been evaluated yet).
219 Being a special incarnation of
221 macros for the purpose of bundling longer-lived
223 tings, activating such an email account also switches to the accounts
225 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
230 .It Fl a Ar file Ns Op Ar =input-charset Ns Op Ar #output-charset
233 to the message (for compose mode opportunities refer to
237 .Sx "Filename transformations"
240 will be performed, but shell word expansion is restricted to the tilde
244 not be accessible but contain a
246 character, then anything before the
248 will be used as the filename, anything thereafter as a character set
251 If an input character set is specified,
252 .Mx -ix "character set specification"
253 but no output character set, then the given input character set is fixed
254 as-is, and no conversion will be applied;
255 giving the empty string or the special string hyphen-minus
257 will be treated as if
259 has been specified (the default).
261 If an output character set has also been given then the conversion will
262 be performed exactly as specified and on-the-fly, not considering the
263 file's type and content.
264 As an exception, if the output character set is specified as the empty
265 string or hyphen-minus
267 then the default conversion algorithm (see
268 .Sx "Character sets" )
269 is applied (therefore no conversion is performed on-the-fly,
271 will be MIME-classified and its contents will be inspected first) \(em
272 without support for character set conversions
274 does not include the term
276 only this argument is supported.
279 (\*(OB: \*(UA will always use line-buffered output, to gain
280 line-buffered input even in batch mode enable batch mode via
285 Send a blind carbon copy to
292 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
294 The option may be used multiple times.
296 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
300 Send carbon copies to the given receiver, if so allowed by
302 May be used multiple times.
307 the internal variable
309 which enables debug messages and disables message delivery,
310 among others; effectively turns almost any operation into a dry-run.
316 and thus discard messages with an empty message part body.
317 This command line option is \*(OB.
321 Just check if mail is present (in the system
323 or the one specified via
325 if yes, return an exit status of zero, a non-zero value otherwise.
326 To restrict the set of mails to consider in this evaluation a message
327 specification can be added with the option
332 Save the message to send in a file named after the local part of the
333 first recipient's address (instead of in
338 Read in the contents of the user's
340 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
342 (or the specified file) for processing;
343 when \*(UA is quit, it writes undeleted messages back to this file
349 argument will undergo some special
350 .Sx "Filename transformations"
355 is not an argument to the flag
357 but is instead taken from the command line after option processing has
361 that starts with a hyphen-minus, prefix with a relative path, as in
362 .Ql ./-hyphenbox.mbox .
368 and exit; a configurable summary view is available via the
374 Show a short usage summary.
380 to ignore tty interrupt signals.
386 of all messages that match the given
390 .Sx "Specifying messages"
395 option has been given in addition no header summary is produced,
396 but \*(UA will instead indicate via its exit status whether
402 note that any verbose output is suppressed in this mode and must instead
403 be enabled explicitly (e.g., by using the option
408 Special send mode that will flag standard input with the MIME
412 and use it as the main message body.
413 \*(ID Using this option will bypass processing of
414 .Va message-inject-head
416 .Va message-inject-tail .
422 Special send mode that will MIME classify the specified
424 and use it as the main message body.
425 \*(ID Using this option will bypass processing of
426 .Va message-inject-head
428 .Va message-inject-tail .
434 inhibit the initial display of message headers when reading mail or
439 for the internal variable
444 Standard flag that inhibits reading the system wide
449 allows more control over the startup sequence; also see
450 .Sx "Resource files" .
454 Special send mode that will initialize the message body with the
455 contents of the specified
457 which may be standard input
459 only in non-interactive context.
467 opened will be in read-only mode.
471 .It Fl r Ar from-addr
472 Whereas the source address that appears in the
474 header of a message (or in the
476 header if the former contains multiple addresses) is honoured by the
477 builtin SMTP transport, it is not used by a file-based
479 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) for the RFC 5321 reverse-path used for relaying
480 and delegating a message to its destination(s), for delivery errors
481 etc., but it instead uses the local identity of the initiating user.
484 When this command line option is used the given
486 will be assigned to the internal variable
488 but in addition the command line option
489 .Fl \&\&f Ar from-addr
490 will be passed to a file-based
492 whenever a message is sent.
495 include a user name the address components will be separated and
496 the name part will be passed to a file-based
502 If an empty string is passed as
504 then the content of the variable
506 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
508 will be evaluated and used for this purpose whenever the file-based
517 command line options are used when contacting a file-based MTA, unless
518 this automatic deduction is enforced by
520 ing the internal variable
521 .Va r-option-implicit .
524 Remarks: many default installations and sites disallow overriding the
525 local user identity like this unless either the MTA has been configured
526 accordingly or the user is member of a group with special privileges.
530 .It Fl S Ar var Ns Op = Ns value
532 (or, with a prefix string
535 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
538 iable and optionally assign
541 If the operation fails the program will exit if any of
546 Settings established via
548 cannot be changed from within
550 or an account switch initiated by
552 They will become mutable again before commands registered via
558 Specify the subject of the message to be sent.
559 Newline (NL) and carriage-return (CR) bytes are invalid and will be
560 normalized to space (SP) characters.
564 The message given (on standard input) is expected to contain, separated
565 from the message body by an empty line, a message header with
570 fields giving its recipients, which will be added to any recipients
571 specified on the command line.
572 If a message subject is specified via
574 then it will be used in favour of one given on the command line.
590 .Ql Mail-Followup-To: ,
591 by default created automatically dependent on message context, will
592 be used if specified (a special address massage will however still occur
594 Any other custom header field (also see
598 is passed through entirely
599 unchanged, and in conjunction with the options
603 it is possible to embed
604 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
612 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
615 appropriate privileges presumed; effectively identical to
616 .Ql Fl \&\&f Ns \0%user .
625 will also show the list of
627 .Ql $ \*(uA -Xversion -Xx .
632 ting the internal variable
634 enables display of some informational context messages.
635 Using it twice increases the level of verbosity.
639 Add the given (or multiple for a multiline argument)
641 to the list of commands to be executed,
642 as a last step of program startup, before normal operation starts.
643 This is the only possibility to execute commands in non-interactive mode
644 when reading startup files is actively prohibited.
645 The commands will be evaluated as a unit, just as via
655 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
656 in compose mode even in non-interactive use cases.
657 This can be used to, e.g., automatically format the composed message
658 text before sending the message:
659 .Bd -literal -offset indent
660 $ ( echo 'line one. Word. Word2.';\e
661 echo '~| /usr/bin/fmt -tuw66' ) |\e
662 LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d~:/ -Sttycharset=utf-8 bob@exam.ple
667 Enables batch mode: standard input is made line buffered, the complete
668 set of (interactive) commands is available, processing of
669 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
670 is enabled in compose mode, and diverse
671 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
672 are adjusted for batch necessities, exactly as if done via
688 The following prepares an email message in a batched dry run:
689 .Bd -literal -offset indent
690 $ LC_ALL=C printf 'm bob\en~s ubject\enText\en~.\enx\en' |\e
691 LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d#:/ -X'alias bob bob@exam.ple'
696 This flag forces termination of option processing in order to prevent
699 It also forcefully puts \*(UA into send mode, see
700 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
706 arguments and all receivers established via
710 are subject to the checks established by
713 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" .
716 allows their recognition all
718 arguments given at the end of the command line after a
720 separator will be passed through to a file-based
722 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) and persist for the entire session.
724 constraints do not apply to the content of
728 .\" .Ss "A starter" {{{
731 \*(UA is a direct descendant of
733 Mail, itself a successor of the Research
736 .Dq was there from the start
739 It thus represents the user side of the
741 mail system, whereas the system side (Mail-Transfer-Agent, MTA) was
742 traditionally taken by
744 and most MTAs provide a binary of this name for compatibility purposes.
749 of \*(UA then the system side is not a mandatory precondition for mail
753 Because \*(UA strives for compliance with POSIX
755 it is likely that some configuration settings have to be adjusted before
756 using it is a smooth experience.
757 (Rather complete configuration examples can be found in the section
761 resource file bends those standard imposed settings of the
762 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
763 a bit towards more user friendliness and safety already.
771 in order to suppress the automatic moving of messages to the
773 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
775 that would otherwise occur (see
776 .Sx "Message states" ) ,
779 to not remove empty system MBOX mailbox files in order not to mangle
780 file permissions when files eventually get recreated (all empty (MBOX)
781 mailbox files will be removed unless this variable is set whenever
783 .Pf a.k.a.\0 Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT
784 mode has been enabled).
789 in order to synchronize \*(UA with the exit status report of the used
796 to enter interactive startup even if the initial mailbox is empty,
798 to allow editing of headers as well as
800 to not strip down addresses in compose mode, and
802 to include the message that is being responded to when
808 The file mode creation mask can be explicitly managed via the variable
810 Sufficient system support provided symbolic links will not be followed
811 when files are opened for writing.
812 Files and shell pipe output can be
814 d for evaluation, also during startup from within the
815 .Sx "Resource files" .
818 .\" .Ss "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" {{{
819 .Ss "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode"
821 To send a message to one or more people, using a local or a built-in
823 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) transport to actually deliver the generated mail
824 message, \*(UA can be invoked with arguments which are the names of
825 people to whom the mail will be sent, and the command line options
829 can be used to add (blind) carbon copy receivers:
831 .Bd -literal -offset indent
833 $ \*(uA -s ubject -a ttach.txt bill@exam.ple
835 # But... try it in an isolated dry-run mode (-d) first
836 $ LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d -:/ -Ssendwait -Sttycharset=utf8 \e
837 -b bcc@exam.ple -c cc@exam.ple \e
839 '(Lovely) Bob <bob@exam.ple>' eric@exam.ple
842 $ LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d -:/ -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Sttycharset=utf8 \e
843 -S mta=smtps://mylogin@exam.ple:465 -Ssmtp-auth=none \e
844 -S from=scriptreply@exam.ple \e
850 If standard input is a terminal rather than the message to be sent,
851 the user is expected to type in the message contents.
852 In this compose mode \*(UA treats lines beginning with the character
854 special \(en these are so-called
855 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ,
856 which can be used to read in files, process shell commands, add and edit
857 attachments and more; e.g., the command escape
859 will start the text editor to revise the message in its current state,
861 allows editing of the most important message headers, with
863 custom headers can be created (more specifically than with
866 gives an overview of most other available command escapes.
869 will leave compose mode and send the message once it is completed.
873 at the beginning of an empty line has the same effect, whereas typing
876 twice will abort the current letter (saving its contents in the file
887 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
888 can be used to alter default behavior.
889 E.g., messages are sent asynchronously, without supervision, unless the
892 is set, therefore send errors will not be recognizable until then.
897 will automatically startup a text editor when compose mode is entered,
899 allows editing of headers additionally to plain body content, whereas
903 will cause the user to be prompted actively for (blind) carbon-copy
904 recipients, respectively, whereas (the default)
906 will request confirmation whether the message shall be sent.
909 The envelope sender address is defined by
911 explicitly defining an originating
913 may be desired, especially with the builtin SMTP Mail-Transfer-Agent
916 for outgoing message and MIME part content are configurable via
918 whereas input data is assumed to be in
920 Message data will be passed over the wire in a
922 MIME parts a.k.a. attachments need to be assigned a
925 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
926 Saving a copy of sent messages in a
928 mailbox may be desirable \(en as for most mailbox
930 targets the value will undergo
931 .Sx "Filename transformations" .
936 sandbox dry-run tests will prove correctness.
939 Message recipients (as specified on the command line or defined in
944 may not only be email addressees but can also be names of mailboxes and
945 even complete shell command pipe specifications.
948 is not set then only network addresses (see
950 for a description of mail addresses) and plain user names (including MTA
951 aliases) may be used, other types will be filtered out, giving a warning
955 can be used to generate standard compliant network addresses.
957 .\" When changing any of the following adjust any RECIPIENTADDRSPEC;
958 .\" grep the latter for the complete picture
962 is set then extended recipient addresses will optionally be accepted:
963 Any name which starts with a vertical bar
965 character specifies a command pipe \(en the command string following the
967 is executed and the message is sent to its standard input;
968 Likewise, any name that starts with the character solidus
970 or the character sequence dot solidus
972 is treated as a file, regardless of the remaining content;
973 likewise a name that solely consists of a hyphen-minus
975 Any other name which contains a commercial at
977 character is treated as a network address;
978 Any other name which starts with a plus sign
980 character specifies a mailbox name;
981 Any other name which contains a solidus
983 character but no exclamation mark
987 character before also specifies a mailbox name;
988 What remains is treated as a network address.
990 .Bd -literal -offset indent
991 $ echo bla | \*(uA -Sexpandaddr -s test ./mbox.mbox
992 $ echo bla | \*(uA -Sexpandaddr -s test '|cat >> ./mbox.mbox'
993 $ echo safe | LC_ALL=C \e
994 \*(uA -:/ -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Sttycharset=utf8 \e
995 -Sexpandaddr=fail,-all,+addr,failinvaddr -s test \e
1000 It is possible to create personal distribution lists via the
1002 command, so that, for instance, the user can send mail to
1004 and have it go to a group of people.
1005 These aliases have nothing in common with the system wide aliases that
1006 may be used by the MTA, which are subject to the
1010 and are often tracked in a file
1016 Personal aliases will be expanded by \*(UA before the message is sent,
1017 and are thus a convenient alternative to specifying each addressee by
1018 itself; they correlate with the active set of
1025 .Dl alias cohorts bill jkf mark kridle@ucbcory ~/mail/cohorts.mbox
1028 .Va on-compose-enter , on-compose-leave
1030 .Va on-compose-cleanup
1031 hook variables may be set to
1033 d macros to automatically adjust some settings dependent
1034 on receiver, sender or subject contexts, and via the
1035 .Va on-compose-splice
1037 .Va on-compose-splice-shell
1038 variables, the former also to be set to a
1040 d macro, increasingly powerful mechanisms to perform automated message
1041 adjustments, including signature creation, are available.
1042 (\*(ID These hooks work for commands which newly create messages, namely
1043 .Ic forward , mail , reply
1048 for now provide only the hooks
1051 .Va on-resend-cleanup . )
1054 For the purpose of arranging a complete environment of settings that can
1055 be switched to with a single command or command line option there are
1057 Alternatively it is also possible to use a flat configuration, making use
1058 of so-called variable chains which automatically pick
1062 context-dependend variable variants: for example addressing
1063 .Ql Ic File Ns \& pop3://yaa@exam.ple
1065 .Va \&\&pop3-no-apop-yaa@exam.ple ,
1066 .Va \&\&pop3-no-apop-exam.ple
1071 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
1073 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" .
1076 To avoid environmental noise scripts should
1078 \*(UA from any configuration files and create a script-local
1079 environment, ideally with the command line options
1081 to disable any configuration file in conjunction with repetitions of
1083 to specify variables:
1085 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1086 $ env LC_ALL=C \*(uA -:/ \e
1087 -Sv15-compat -Ssendwait -Sttycharset=utf-8 \e
1088 -Sexpandaddr=fail,-all,failinvaddr \e
1089 -S mta=smtps://mylogin@exam.ple:465 -Ssmtp-auth=login \e
1090 -S from=scriptreply@exam.ple \e
1091 -s 'Subject to go' -a attachment_file \e
1093 'Recipient 1 <rec1@exam.ple>' rec2@exam.ple \e
1098 As shown, scripts can
1100 a locale environment, the above specifies the all-compatible 7-bit clean
1103 but will nonetheless take and send UTF-8 in the message text by using
1105 In interactive mode, which is introduced in the next section, messages
1106 can be sent by calling the
1108 command with a list of recipient addresses:
1110 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1111 $ \*(uA -d -Squiet -Semptystart
1112 "/var/spool/mail/user": 0 messages
1113 ? mail "Recipient 1 <rec1@exam.ple>", rec2@exam.ple
1115 ? # Will do the right thing (tm)
1116 ? m rec1@exam.ple rec2@exam.ple
1120 .\" .Ss "On reading mail, and interactive mode" {{{
1121 .Ss "On reading mail, and interactive mode"
1123 When invoked without addressees \*(UA enters interactive mode in which
1125 When used like that the user's system
1127 (for more on mailbox types please see the command
1129 is read in and a one line header of each message therein is displayed if
1133 The visual style of this summary of
1135 can be adjusted through the variable
1137 and the possible sorting criterion via
1143 can be performed with the command
1145 If the initially opened mailbox is empty \*(UA will instead exit
1146 immediately (after displaying a message) unless the variable
1155 will give a listing of all available commands and
1157 will give a summary of some common ones.
1158 If the \*(OPal documentation strings are available one can type
1161 and see the actual expansion of
1163 and what its purpose is, i.e., commands can be abbreviated
1164 (note that POSIX defines some abbreviations, so that the alphabetical
1165 order of commands does not necessarily relate to the abbreviations; it is
1166 however possible to define overwrites with
1167 .Ic commandalias ) .
1168 These commands can also produce a more
1173 Messages are given numbers (starting at 1) which uniquely identify
1174 messages; the current message \(en the
1176 \(en will either be the first new message, or the first unread message,
1177 or the first message of the mailbox; the internal variable
1179 will instead cause usage of the last message for this purpose.
1184 ful of header summaries containing the
1188 will display only the summaries of the given messages, defaulting to the
1192 Message content can be displayed with the command
1199 controls whether and when \*(UA will use the configured
1201 for display instead of directly writing to the user terminal
1203 the sole difference to the command
1205 which will always use the
1209 will instead only show the first
1211 of a message (maybe even compressed if
1214 Message display experience may improve by setting and adjusting
1215 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
1217 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" .
1220 By default the current message
1222 is displayed, but like with many other commands it is possible to give
1223 a fancy message specification (see
1224 .Sx "Specifying messages" ) ,
1227 will display all unread messages,
1232 will type the messages 1 and 5,
1234 will type the messages 1 through 5, and
1238 will display the last and the next message, respectively.
1241 (a more substantial alias for
1243 will display a header summary of the given message specification list
1244 instead of their content, e.g., the following will search for subjects:
1247 .Dl ? from "'@Some subject to search for'"
1250 In the default setup all header fields of a message will be
1252 d, but fields can be white- or blacklisted for a variety of
1253 applications by using the command
1255 e.g., to restrict their display to a very restricted set for
1257 .Ql Ic \:headerpick Cd \:type retain Ar \:from to cc subject .
1258 In order to display all header fields of a message regardless of
1259 currently active ignore or retain lists, use the commands
1264 will show the raw message content.
1265 Note that historically the global
1267 not only adjusts the list of displayed headers, but also sets
1271 Dependent upon the configuration a line editor (see the section
1272 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
1273 aims at making the user experience with the many
1276 When reading the system
1282 specified a mailbox explicitly prefixed with the special
1284 modifier (propagating the mailbox to a
1286 .Sx "primary system mailbox" ) ,
1287 then messages which have been read will be automatically moved to a
1289 .Sx "secondary mailbox" ,
1292 file, when the mailbox is left, either by changing the
1293 active mailbox or by quitting \*(UA (also see
1294 .Sx "Message states" )
1295 \(en this automatic moving from a system or primary to the secondary
1296 mailbox is not performed when the variable
1299 Messages can also be explicitly
1301 d to other mailboxes, whereas
1303 keeps the original message.
1305 can be used to write out data content of specific parts of messages.
1308 After examining a message the user can
1310 to the sender and all recipients (which will also be placed in
1313 .Va recipients-in-cc
1316 exclusively to the sender(s).
1318 ing a message will allow editing the new message: the original message
1319 will be contained in the message body, adjusted according to
1325 messages: the former will add a series of
1327 headers, whereas the latter will not; different to newly created
1328 messages editing is not possible and no copy will be saved even with
1330 unless the additional variable
1333 When sending, replying or forwarding messages comments and full names
1334 will be stripped from recipient addresses unless the internal variable
1337 Of course messages can be
1339 and they can spring into existence again via
1341 or when the \*(UA session is ended via the
1346 To end a mail processing session one may either issue
1348 to cause a full program exit, which possibly includes
1349 automatic moving of read messages to the
1351 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
1353 as well as updating the \*(OPal line editor
1357 instead in order to prevent any of these actions.
1360 .\" .Ss "HTML mail and MIME attachments" {{{
1361 .Ss "HTML mail and MIME attachments"
1363 Messages which are HTML-only become more and more common and of course
1364 many messages come bundled with a bouquet of MIME (Multipurpose Internet
1365 Mail Extensions) parts for, e.g., attachments.
1366 To get a notion of MIME types, \*(UA will first read
1367 .Sx "The mime.types files"
1368 (as configured and allowed by
1369 .Va mimetypes-load-control ) ,
1370 and then add onto that types registered directly with
1372 It (normally) has a default set of types built-in, too.
1373 To improve interaction with faulty MIME part declarations which are
1374 often seen in real-life messages, setting
1375 .Va mime-counter-evidence
1376 will allow \*(UA to verify the given assertion and possibly provide
1377 an alternative MIME type.
1380 Whereas \*(UA \*(OPally supports a simple HTML-to-text converter for
1381 HTML messages, it cannot handle MIME types other than plain text itself.
1382 Instead programs need to become registered to deal with specific MIME
1383 types or file extensions.
1384 These programs may either prepare plain text versions of their input in
1385 order to enable \*(UA to integrate their output neatlessly in its own
1386 message visualization (a mode which is called
1387 .Cd copiousoutput ) ,
1388 or display the content themselves, for example in an external graphical
1389 window: such handlers will only be considered by and for the command
1393 To install a handler program for a specific MIME type an according
1394 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
1395 variable needs to be set; to instead define a handler for a specific
1396 file extension the respective
1398 variable can be used \(en these handlers take precedence.
1399 \*(OPally \*(UA supports mail user agent configuration as defined in
1400 RFC 1524; this mechanism (see
1401 .Sx "The Mailcap files" )
1402 will be queried for display or quote handlers if none of the former two
1403 .\" TODO v15-compat "will be" -> "is"
1404 did; it will be the sole source for handlers of other purpose.
1405 A last source for handlers is the MIME type definition itself, when
1406 a (\*(UA specific) type-marker was registered with the command
1408 (which many built-in MIME types do).
1411 E.g., to display a HTML message inline (that is, converted to a more
1412 fancy plain text representation than the built-in converter is capable to
1413 produce) with either of the text-mode browsers
1417 teach \*(UA about MathML documents and make it display them as plain
1418 text, and to open PDF attachments in an external PDF viewer,
1419 asynchronously and with some other magic attached:
1421 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1422 ? if [ "$features" !% +filter-html-tagsoup ]
1423 ? #set pipe-text/html='@* elinks -force-html -dump 1'
1424 ? set pipe-text/html='@* lynx -stdin -dump -force_html'
1425 ? # Display HTML as plain text instead
1426 ? #set pipe-text/html=@
1428 ? mimetype @ application/mathml+xml mathml
1429 ? wysh set pipe-application/pdf='@&=@ \e
1430 trap "rm -f \e"${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}\e"" EXIT;\e
1431 trap "trap \e"\e" INT QUIT TERM; exit 1" INT QUIT TERM;\e
1432 mupdf "${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}"'
1436 .\" .Ss "Mailing lists" {{{
1439 \*(UA offers some support to ease handling of mailing lists.
1442 promotes all given arguments to known mailing lists, and
1444 sets their subscription attribute, creating them first as necessary.
1449 automatically, but only resets the subscription attribute.)
1450 Using the commands without arguments will show (a subset of) all
1451 currently defined mailing lists.
1456 can be used to mark out messages with configured list addresses
1457 in the header display.
1460 \*(OPally mailing lists may also be specified as (extended) regular
1461 expressions, which allows matching of many addresses with a single
1463 However, all fully qualified list addresses are matched via a fast
1464 dictionary, whereas expressions are placed in (a) list(s) which is
1465 (are) matched sequentially.
1467 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1468 ? set followup-to followup-to-honour=ask-yes \e
1469 reply-to-honour=ask-yes
1470 ? wysh mlist a1@b1.c1 a2@b2.c2 '.*@lists\e.c3$'
1471 ? mlsubscribe a4@b4.c4 exact@lists.c3
1476 .Va followup-to-honour
1478 .Ql Mail-\:Followup-\:To:
1479 header is honoured when the message is being replied to (via
1485 controls whether this header is created when sending mails; it will be
1486 created automatically for a couple of reasons, too, like when the
1488 .Dq mailing list specific
1493 is used to respond to a message with its
1494 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
1498 A difference in between the handling of known and subscribed lists is
1499 that the address of the sender is usually not part of a generated
1500 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
1501 when addressing the latter, whereas it is for the former kind of lists.
1502 Usually because there are exceptions: say, if multiple lists are
1503 addressed and not all of them are subscribed lists.
1505 For convenience \*(UA will, temporarily, automatically add a list
1506 address that is presented in the
1508 header of a message that is being responded to to the list of known
1510 Shall that header have existed \*(UA will instead, dependent on the
1512 .Va reply-to-honour ,
1515 for this purpose in order to accept a list administrators' wish that
1516 is supposed to have been manifested like that (but only if it provides
1517 a single address which resides on the same domain as what is stated in
1521 .\" .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME" {{{
1522 .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
1524 \*(OP S/MIME provides two central mechanisms:
1525 message signing and message encryption.
1526 A signed message contains some data in addition to the regular text.
1527 The data can be used to verify that the message was sent using a valid
1528 certificate, that the sender's address in the message header matches
1529 that in the certificate, and that the message text has not been altered.
1530 Signing a message does not change its regular text;
1531 it can be read regardless of whether the recipient's software is able to
1533 It is thus usually possible to sign all outgoing messages if so desired.
1536 Encryption, in contrast, makes the message text invisible for all people
1537 except those who have access to the secret decryption key.
1538 To encrypt a message, the specific recipient's public encryption key
1540 It is therefore not possible to send encrypted mail to people unless their
1541 key has been retrieved from either previous communication or public key
1543 A message should always be signed before it is encrypted.
1544 Otherwise, it is still possible that the encrypted message text is
1548 A central concept to S/MIME is that of the certification authority (CA).
1549 A CA is a trusted institution that issues certificates.
1550 For each of these certificates it can be verified that it really
1551 originates from the CA, provided that the CA's own certificate is
1553 A set of CA certificates is usually delivered with OpenSSL and installed
1555 If you trust the source of your OpenSSL software installation,
1556 this offers reasonable security for S/MIME on the Internet.
1558 .Va smime-ca-no-defaults
1559 to avoid using the default certificates and point
1563 to a trusted pool of certificates.
1564 In general, a certificate cannot be more secure than the method its CA
1565 certificate has been retrieved with.
1568 This trusted pool of certificates is used by the command
1570 to ensure that the given S/MIME messages can be trusted.
1571 If so, verified sender certificates that were embedded in signed
1572 messages can be saved locally with the command
1574 and used by \*(UA to encrypt further communication with these senders:
1576 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1578 ? set smime-encrypt-USER@HOST=FILENAME \e
1579 smime-cipher-USER@HOST=AES256
1583 To sign outgoing messages in order to allow receivers to verify the
1584 origin of these messages a personal S/MIME certificate is required.
1585 \*(UA supports password-protected personal certificates (and keys),
1586 for more on this, and its automatization, please see the section
1587 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
1589 .Sx "S/MIME step by step"
1590 shows examplarily how such a private certificate can be obtained.
1591 In general, if such a private key plus certificate
1593 is available, all that needs to be done is to set some variables:
1595 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1596 ? set smime-sign-cert=ME@HERE.com.paired \e
1597 smime-sign-message-digest=SHA256 \e
1602 Variables of interest for S/MIME in general are
1605 .Va smime-ca-flags ,
1606 .Va smime-ca-no-defaults ,
1608 .Va smime-crl-file .
1609 For S/MIME signing of interest are
1611 .Va smime-sign-cert ,
1612 .Va smime-sign-include-certs
1614 .Va smime-sign-message-digest .
1615 Additional variables of interest for S/MIME en- and decryption:
1618 .Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST .
1621 \*(ID Note that neither S/MIME signing nor encryption applies to
1622 message subjects or other header fields yet.
1623 Thus they may not contain sensitive information for encrypted messages,
1624 and cannot be trusted even if the message content has been verified.
1625 When sending signed messages,
1626 it is recommended to repeat any important header information in the
1630 .\" .Ss "On URL syntax and credential lookup" {{{
1631 .Ss "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
1633 \*(IN For accessing protocol-specific resources usage of Uniform
1634 Resource Locators (URL, RFC 1738) has become omnipresent.
1635 \*(UA expects and understands URLs in the following form;
1638 denote optional parts, optional either because there also exist other
1639 ways to define the information in question or because support of the
1640 part is protocol-specific (e.g.,
1642 is used by the local maildir and the IMAP protocol, but not by POP3);
1647 are specified they must be given in URL percent encoded form (RFC 3986;
1653 .Dl PROTOCOL://[USER[:PASSWORD]@]server[:port][/path]
1656 Note that these \*(UA URLs most often do not conform to any real
1657 standard, but instead represent a normalized variant of RFC 1738 \(en
1658 they are not used in data exchange but only meant as a compact,
1659 easy-to-use way of defining and representing information in
1660 a well-known notation.
1663 Many internal variables of \*(UA exist in multiple versions, called
1664 variable chains for the rest of this document: the plain
1669 .Ql variable-USER@HOST .
1676 had been specified in the respective URL, otherwise it refers to the plain
1682 that had been found when doing the user chain lookup as is described
1685 will never be in URL percent encoded form, whether it came from an URL
1686 or not; i.e., variable chain name extensions of
1687 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
1688 must not be URL percent encoded.
1691 For example, whether an hypothetical URL
1692 .Ql smtp://hey%3Ayou@our.house
1693 had been given that includes a user, or whether the URL was
1694 .Ql smtp://our.house
1695 and the user had been found differently, to lookup the variable chain
1696 .Va smtp-use-starttls
1697 \*(UA first looks for whether
1698 .Ql smtp-\:use-\:starttls-\:hey:you@our.house
1699 is defined, then whether
1700 .Ql smtp-\:use-\:starttls-\:our.house
1701 exists before finally ending up looking at the plain variable itself.
1704 \*(UA obeys the following logic scheme when dealing with the
1705 necessary credential information of an account:
1711 has been given in the URL the variables
1715 are looked up; if no such variable(s) can be found then \*(UA will,
1716 when enforced by the \*(OPal variables
1717 .Va netrc-lookup-HOST
1724 specific entry which provides a
1726 name: this lookup will only succeed if unambiguous (one possible matching
1729 It is possible to load encrypted
1734 If there is still no
1736 then \*(UA will fall back to the user who is supposed to run \*(UA,
1737 the identity of which has been fixated during \*(UA startup and is
1738 known to be a valid user on the current host.
1741 Authentication: unless otherwise noted this will lookup the
1742 .Va PROTOCOL-auth-USER@HOST , PROTOCOL-auth-HOST , PROTOCOL-auth
1743 variable chain, falling back to a protocol-specific default should this
1749 has been given in the URL, then if the
1751 has been found through the \*(OPal
1753 that may have already provided the password, too.
1754 Otherwise the variable chain
1755 .Va password-USER@HOST , password-HOST , password
1756 is looked up and used if existent.
1758 Afterwards the complete \*(OPal variable chain
1759 .Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , netrc-lookup-HOST , netrc-lookup
1763 cache is searched for a password only (multiple user accounts for
1764 a single machine may exist as well as a fallback entry without user
1765 but with a password).
1767 If at that point there is still no password available, but the
1768 (protocols') chosen authentication type requires a password, then in
1769 interactive mode the user will be prompted on the terminal.
1774 S/MIME verification works relative to the values found in the
1778 header field(s), which means that the values of
1779 .Va smime-sign , smime-sign-cert , smime-sign-include-certs
1781 .Va smime-sign-message-digest
1782 will not be looked up using the
1786 chains from above but instead use the corresponding values from the
1787 message that is being worked on.
1788 In unusual cases multiple and different
1792 combinations may therefore be involved \(en on the other hand those
1793 unusual cases become possible.
1794 The usual case is as short as:
1796 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1797 set mta=smtp://USER:PASS@HOST smtp-use-starttls \e
1798 smime-sign smime-sign-cert=+smime.pair
1804 contains complete example configurations.
1807 .\" .Ss "Encrypted network communication" {{{
1808 .Ss "Encrypted network communication"
1810 SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) a.k.a. its successor TLS (Transport Layer
1811 Security) are protocols which aid in securing communication by providing
1812 a safely initiated and encrypted network connection.
1813 A central concept of SSL/TLS is that of certificates: as part of each
1814 network connection setup a (set of) certificates will be exchanged, and
1815 by using those the identity of the network peer can be cryptographically
1817 SSL/TLS works by using a locally installed pool of trusted certificates,
1818 and verifying the connection peer succeeds if that provides
1819 a certificate which has been issued or is trusted by any certificate in
1820 the trusted local pool.
1823 The local pool of trusted so-called CA (Certification Authority)
1824 certificates is usually delivered with the used SSL/TLS library, and
1825 will be selected automatically, but it is also possible to create and
1826 use an own pool of trusted certificates.
1827 If this is desired, set
1828 .Va ssl-ca-no-defaults
1829 to avoid using the default certificate pool, and point
1833 to a trusted pool of certificates.
1834 A certificate cannot be more secure than the method its CA certificate
1835 has been retrieved with.
1838 It depends on the used protocol whether encrypted communication is
1839 possible, and which configuration steps have to be taken to enable it.
1840 Some protocols, e.g., POP3S, are implicitly encrypted, others, like
1841 POP3, can upgrade a plain text connection if so requested: POP3 offers
1843 which will be used if the variable (chain)
1844 .Va pop3-use-starttls
1847 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1848 shortcut encpop1 pop3s://pop1.exam.ple
1850 shortcut encpop2 pop3://pop2.exam.ple
1851 set pop3-use-starttls-pop2.exam.ple
1853 set mta=smtps://smtp.exam.ple:465
1854 set mta=smtp://smtp.exam.ple smtp-use-starttls
1858 Normally that is all there is to do, given that SSL/TLS libraries try to
1859 provide safe defaults, plenty of knobs however exist to adjust settings.
1860 For example certificate verification settings can be fine-tuned via
1862 and the SSL/TLS configuration basics are accessible via
1863 .Va ssl-config-pairs ,
1864 e.g., to specify the allowed protocols or cipher lists that
1865 a communication channel may use.
1866 In the past hints of how to restrict the set of protocols to highly
1867 secure ones were indicated, as of the time of this writing the allowed
1868 protocols or cipher list may need to become relaxed in order to be able
1869 to connect to some servers; the following example allows connecting to a
1871 that uses OpenSSL 0.9.8za from June 2014 (refer to
1872 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
1873 for more on variable chains):
1875 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1876 wysh set ssl-config-pairs-lion@exam.ple='MinProtocol=TLSv1.1,\e
1877 CipherList=TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:\e
1878 ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA:\e
1879 DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:@STRENGTH'
1885 can be used and should be referred to when creating a custom cipher list.
1886 Variables of interest for SSL/TLS in general are
1890 .Va ssl-ca-no-defaults ,
1891 .Va ssl-config-file ,
1892 .Va ssl-config-module ,
1893 .Va ssl-config-pairs
1901 .\" .Ss "Character sets" {{{
1902 .Ss "Character sets"
1904 \*(OP \*(UA detects the character set of the terminal by using
1905 mechanisms that are controlled by the
1907 environment variable
1912 in that order, see there).
1913 The internal variable
1915 will be set to the detected terminal character set accordingly,
1916 and will thus show up in the output of commands like, e.g.,
1922 However, the user may give a value for
1924 during startup, so that it is possible to send mail in a completely
1926 locale environment, an option which can be used to generate and send,
1927 e.g., 8-bit UTF-8 input data in a pure 7-bit US-ASCII
1929 environment (an example of this can be found in the section
1930 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" ) .
1931 Changing the value does not mean much beside that, because several
1932 aspects of the real character set are implied by the locale environment
1933 of the system, which stays unaffected by
1937 Messages and attachments which consist of 7-bit clean data will be
1938 classified as consisting of
1941 This is a problem if the
1943 character set is a multibyte character set that is also 7-bit clean.
1944 For example, the Japanese character set ISO-2022-JP is 7-bit clean but
1945 capable to encode the rich set of Japanese Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana
1946 characters: in order to notify receivers of this character set the mail
1947 message must be MIME encoded so that the character set ISO-2022-JP can
1949 To achieve this, the variable
1951 must be set to ISO-2022-JP.
1952 (Today a better approach regarding email is the usage of UTF-8, which
1953 uses 8-bit bytes for non-US-ASCII data.)
1956 If the \*(OPal character set conversion capabilities are not available
1958 does not include the term
1962 will be the only supported character set,
1963 it is simply assumed that it can be used to exchange 8-bit messages
1964 (over the wire an intermediate, configurable
1967 and the rest of this section does not apply;
1968 it may however still be necessary to explicitly set it if automatic
1969 detection fails, since in that case it defaults to
1970 .\" (Keep in SYNC: ./nail.1:"Character sets", ./config.h:CHARSET_*!)
1971 LATIN1 a.k.a. ISO-8859-1.
1974 \*(OP When reading messages, their text is converted into
1976 as necessary in order to display them on the users terminal.
1977 Unprintable characters and invalid byte sequences are detected
1978 and replaced by proper substitution characters.
1979 Character set mappings for source character sets can be established with
1982 which may be handy to work around faulty character set catalogues (e.g.,
1983 to add a missing LATIN1 to ISO-8859-1 mapping), or to enforce treatment
1984 of one character set as another one (e.g., to interpret LATIN1 as CP1252).
1986 .Va charset-unknown-8bit
1987 to deal with another hairy aspect of message interpretation.
1990 When sending messages all their parts and attachments are classified.
1991 Whereas no character set conversion is performed on those parts which
1992 appear to be binary data,
1993 the character set being used must be declared within the MIME header of
1994 an outgoing text part if it contains characters that do not conform to
1995 the set of characters that are allowed by the email standards.
1996 Permissible values for character sets used in outgoing messages can be
2001 which defines a catch-all last-resort fallback character set that is
2002 implicitly appended to the list of character sets in
2006 When replying to a message and the variable
2007 .Va reply-in-same-charset
2008 is set, then the character set of the message being replied to
2009 is tried first (still being a subject of
2010 .Ic charsetalias ) .
2011 And it is also possible to make \*(UA work even more closely related to
2012 the current locale setting automatically by using the variable
2013 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset ,
2014 please see there for more information.
2017 All the specified character sets are tried in order unless the
2018 conversion of the part or attachment succeeds.
2019 If none of the tried (8-bit) character sets is capable to represent the
2020 content of the part or attachment,
2021 then the message will not be sent and its text will optionally be
2025 In general, if a message saying
2026 .Dq cannot convert from a to b
2027 appears, either some characters are not appropriate for the currently
2028 selected (terminal) character set,
2029 or the needed conversion is not supported by the system.
2030 In the first case, it is necessary to set an appropriate
2032 locale and/or the variable
2036 The best results are usually achieved when \*(UA is run in a UTF-8
2037 locale on an UTF-8 capable terminal, in which case the full Unicode
2038 spectrum of characters is available.
2039 In this setup characters from various countries can be displayed,
2040 while it is still possible to use more simple character sets for sending
2041 to retain maximum compatibility with older mail clients.
2044 On the other hand the POSIX standard defines a locale-independent 7-bit
2045 .Dq portable character set
2046 that should be used when overall portability is an issue, the even more
2047 restricted subset named
2048 .Dq portable filename character set
2049 consists of A-Z, a-z, 0-9, period
2057 .\" .Ss "Message states" {{{
2058 .Ss "Message states"
2060 \*(UA differentiates in between several different message states;
2061 the current state will be reflected in header summary displays if
2063 is configured to do so (via the internal variable
2065 and messages can also be selected and be acted upon depending on their
2067 .Sx "Specifying messages" ) .
2068 When operating on the system
2072 .Sx "primary system mailbox" ,
2073 special actions, like the automatic moving of messages to the
2075 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
2077 may be applied when the mailbox is left (also implicitly via
2078 a successful exit of \*(UA, but not if the special command
2080 is used) \(en however, because this may be irritating to users which
2083 mail-user-agents, the default global
2089 variables in order to suppress this behaviour.
2091 .Bl -hang -width ".It Ql new"
2093 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state.
2094 Such messages are retained even in the
2096 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
2099 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state, but the
2100 message was present already when the mailbox has been opened last:
2101 Such messages are retained even in the
2103 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
2106 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
2125 will always try to automatically
2131 logical message, and may thus mark multiple messages as read, the
2133 command will do so if the internal variable
2138 command is used, messages that are in a
2140 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
2143 state when the mailbox is left will be saved in the
2145 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
2147 unless the internal variable
2152 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
2158 can be used to access such messages.
2161 The message has been processed by a
2163 command and it will be retained in its current location.
2166 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
2172 command is used, messages that are in a
2174 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
2177 state when the mailbox is left will be deleted; they will be saved in the
2179 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
2181 when the internal variable
2187 In addition to these message states, flags which otherwise have no
2188 technical meaning in the mail system except allowing special ways of
2189 addressing them when
2190 .Sx "Specifying messages"
2191 can be set on messages.
2192 These flags are saved with messages and are thus persistent, and are
2193 portable between a set of widely used MUAs.
2195 .Bl -hang -width ".It Ic answered"
2197 Mark messages as having been answered.
2199 Mark messages as being a draft.
2201 Mark messages which need special attention.
2205 .\" .Ss "Specifying messages" {{{
2206 .Ss "Specifying messages"
2213 can be given a list of message numbers as arguments to apply to a number
2214 of messages at once.
2217 deletes messages 1 and 2,
2220 will delete the messages 1 through 5.
2221 In sorted or threaded mode (see the
2225 will delete the messages that are located between (and including)
2226 messages 1 through 5 in the sorted/threaded order, as shown in the
2229 The following special message names exist:
2232 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ar BaNg"
2234 The current message, the so-called
2238 The message that was previously the current message.
2241 The parent message of the current message,
2242 that is the message with the Message-ID given in the
2244 field or the last entry of the
2246 field of the current message.
2249 The next previous undeleted message,
2250 or the next previous deleted message for the
2253 In sorted/threaded mode,
2254 the next previous such message in the sorted/threaded order.
2257 The next undeleted message,
2258 or the next deleted message for the
2261 In sorted/threaded mode,
2262 the next such message in the sorted/threaded order.
2265 The first undeleted message,
2266 or the first deleted message for the
2269 In sorted/threaded mode,
2270 the first such message in the sorted/threaded order.
2274 In sorted/threaded mode,
2275 the last message in the sorted/threaded order.
2279 selects the message addressed with
2283 is any other message specification,
2284 and all messages from the thread that begins at it.
2285 Otherwise it is identical to
2290 the thread beginning with the current message is selected.
2295 All messages that were included in the
2296 .Sx "Message list arguments"
2297 of the previous command.
2300 An inclusive range of message numbers.
2301 Selectors that may also be used as endpoints include any of
2306 .Dq any substring matches
2309 header, which will match addresses (too) even if
2311 is set (and POSIX says
2312 .Dq any address as shown in a header summary shall be matchable in this form ) ;
2315 variable is set, only the local part of the address is evaluated
2316 for the comparison, not ignoring case, and the setting of
2318 is completely ignored.
2319 For finer control and match boundaries use the
2323 .It Ar / Ns Ar string
2324 All messages that contain
2326 in the subject field (case ignored).
2333 the string from the previous specification of that type is used again.
2335 .It Xo Op Ar @ Ns Ar name-list Ns
2338 All messages that contain the given case-insensitive search
2340 ession; if the \*(OPal regular expression (see
2342 support is available
2344 will be interpreted as (an extended) one if any of the
2346 (extended) regular expression characters is seen: in this case this
2347 should match strings correctly which are in the locale
2351 .Ar @ Ns Ar name-list
2352 part is missing, the search is restricted to the subject field body,
2355 specifies a comma-separated list of header fields to search, as in
2357 .Dl '@to,from,cc@Someone i ought to know'
2359 In order to search for a string that includes a
2361 (commercial at) character the
2363 is effectively non-optional, but may be given as the empty string.
2364 Some special header fields may be abbreviated:
2378 respectively and case-insensitively.
2383 can be used to search in (all of) the header(s) of the message, and the
2392 can be used to perform full text searches \(en whereas the former
2393 searches only the body, the latter also searches the message header.
2395 This message specification performs full text comparison, but even with
2396 regular expression support it is almost impossible to write a search
2397 expression that savely matches only a specific address domain.
2398 To request that the content of the header is treated as a list of
2399 addresses, and to strip those down to the plain email address which the
2400 search expression is to be matched against, prefix the header name
2401 (abbreviation) with a tilde
2404 .Dl @~f@@a\e.safe\e.domain\e.match$
2407 All messages of state
2411 is one or multiple of the following colon modifiers:
2413 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar :M"
2418 Old messages (any not in state
2440 messages (cf. the variable
2441 .Va markanswered ) .
2446 \*(OP Messages classified as spam (see
2447 .Sx "Handling spam" . )
2449 \*(OP Messages with unsure spam classification.
2455 \*(OP IMAP-style SEARCH expressions may also be used.
2456 This addressing mode is available with all types of mailbox
2458 s; \*(UA will perform the search locally as necessary.
2459 Strings must be enclosed by double quotes
2461 in their entirety if they contain whitespace or parentheses;
2462 within the quotes, only reverse solidus
2464 is recognized as an escape character.
2465 All string searches are case-insensitive.
2466 When the description indicates that the
2468 representation of an address field is used,
2469 this means that the search string is checked against both a list
2472 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2473 (\*qname\*q \*qsource\*q \*qlocal-part\*q \*qdomain-part\*q)
2478 and the addresses without real names from the respective header field.
2479 These search expressions can be nested using parentheses, see below for
2483 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar _n_u"
2484 .It Ar ( criterion )
2485 All messages that satisfy the given
2487 .It Ar ( criterion1 criterion2 ... criterionN )
2488 All messages that satisfy all of the given criteria.
2490 .It Ar ( or criterion1 criterion2 )
2491 All messages that satisfy either
2496 To connect more than two criteria using
2498 specifications have to be nested using additional parentheses,
2500 .Ql (or a (or b c)) ,
2504 .Ql ((a or b) and c) .
2507 operation of independent criteria on the lowest nesting level,
2508 it is possible to achieve similar effects by using three separate
2512 .It Ar ( not criterion )
2513 All messages that do not satisfy
2515 .It Ar ( bcc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2516 All messages that contain
2518 in the envelope representation of the
2521 .It Ar ( cc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2522 All messages that contain
2524 in the envelope representation of the
2527 .It Ar ( from \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2528 All messages that contain
2530 in the envelope representation of the
2533 .It Ar ( subject \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2534 All messages that contain
2539 .It Ar ( to \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2540 All messages that contain
2542 in the envelope representation of the
2545 .It Ar ( header name \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2546 All messages that contain
2551 .It Ar ( body \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2552 All messages that contain
2555 .It Ar ( text \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2556 All messages that contain
2558 in their header or body.
2559 .It Ar ( larger size )
2560 All messages that are larger than
2563 .It Ar ( smaller size )
2564 All messages that are smaller than
2568 .It Ar ( before date )
2569 All messages that were received before
2571 which must be in the form
2575 denotes the day of the month as one or two digits,
2577 is the name of the month \(en one of
2578 .Ql Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec ,
2581 is the year as four digits, e.g.,
2585 All messages that were received on the specified date.
2586 .It Ar ( since date )
2587 All messages that were received since the specified date.
2588 .It Ar ( sentbefore date )
2589 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
2590 .It Ar ( senton date )
2591 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
2592 .It Ar ( sentsince date )
2593 All messages that were sent since the specified date.
2595 The same criterion as for the previous search.
2596 This specification cannot be used as part of another criterion.
2597 If the previous command line contained more than one independent
2598 criterion then the last of those criteria is used.
2602 .\" .Ss "On terminal control and line editor" {{{
2603 .Ss "On terminal control and line editor"
2605 \*(OP Terminal control will be realized through one of the standard
2607 libraries, either the
2609 or, alternatively, the
2611 both of which will be initialized to work with the environment variable
2613 Terminal control will enhance or enable interactive usage aspects, e.g.,
2614 .Sx "Coloured display" ,
2615 and extend behaviour of the Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE), which may learn the
2616 byte-sequences of keys like the cursor and function keys.
2619 The internal variable
2621 can be used to overwrite settings or to learn (correct(ed)) keycodes.
2622 \*(UA may also become a fullscreen application by entering the
2623 so-called ca-mode and switching to an alternative exclusive screen
2624 (content) shall the terminal support it and the internal variable
2626 has been set explicitly.
2627 Actual interaction with the chosen library can be disabled completely by
2628 setting the internal variable
2629 .Va termcap-disable ;
2631 will be queried regardless, which is true even if the \*(OPal library
2632 support has not been enabled at configuration time as long as some other
2633 \*(OP which (may) query terminal control sequences has been enabled.
2636 \*(OP The built-in Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE) should work in all
2637 environments which comply to the ISO C standard
2639 and will support wide glyphs if possible (the necessary functionality
2640 had been removed from ISO C, but was included in
2642 Prevent usage of a line editor in interactive mode by setting the
2644 .Va line-editor-disable .
2645 Especially if the \*(OPal terminal control support is missing setting
2646 entries in the internal variable
2648 will help shall the MLE misbehave, see there for more.
2649 The MLE can support a little bit of
2655 feature is available then input from line editor prompts will be saved
2656 in a history list that can be searched in and be expanded from.
2657 Such saving can be prevented by prefixing input with any amount of
2659 Aspects of history, like allowed content and maximum size, as well as
2660 whether history shall be saved persistently, can be configured with the
2664 .Va history-gabby-persist
2669 The MLE supports a set of editing and control commands.
2670 By default (as) many (as possible) of these will be assigned to a set of
2671 single-letter control codes, which should work on any terminal (and can
2672 be generated by holding the
2674 key while pressing the key of desire, e.g.,
2678 command is available then the MLE commands can also be accessed freely
2679 by assigning the command name, which is shown in parenthesis in the list
2680 below, to any desired key-sequence, and the MLE will instead and also use
2682 to establish its built-in key bindings
2683 (more of them if the \*(OPal terminal control is available),
2684 an action which can then be suppressed completely by setting
2685 .Va line-editor-no-defaults .
2686 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
2687 notation is used in the following;
2688 combinations not mentioned either cause job control signals or do not
2689 generate a (unique) keycode:
2693 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql \eBa"
2695 Go to the start of the line
2697 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-home ) .
2700 Move the cursor backward one character
2702 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-bwd ) .
2705 Forward delete the character under the cursor;
2706 quits \*(UA if used on the empty line unless the internal variable
2710 .Pf ( Cd mle-del-fwd ) .
2713 Go to the end of the line
2715 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-end ) .
2718 Move the cursor forward one character
2720 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-fwd ) .
2723 Cancel current operation, full reset.
2724 If there is an active history search or tabulator expansion then this
2725 command will first reset that, reverting to the former line content;
2726 thus a second reset is needed for a full reset in this case
2728 .Pf ( Cd mle-reset ) .
2731 Backspace: backward delete one character
2733 .Pf ( Cd mle-del-bwd ) .
2737 Horizontal tabulator:
2738 try to expand the word before the cursor, supporting the usual
2739 .Sx "Filename transformations"
2741 .Pf ( Cd mle-complete ) .
2743 .Cd mle-quote-rndtrip .
2747 commit the current line
2749 .Pf ( Cd mle-commit ) .
2752 Cut all characters from the cursor to the end of the line
2754 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-end ) .
2759 .Pf ( Cd mle-repaint ) .
2762 \*(OP Go to the next history entry
2764 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-fwd ) .
2767 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2771 \*(OP Go to the previous history entry
2773 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-bwd ) .
2776 Toggle roundtrip mode shell quotes, where produced,
2779 .Pf ( Cd mle-quote-rndtrip ) .
2780 This setting is temporary, and will be forgotten once the command line
2781 is committed; also see
2785 \*(OP Complete the current line from (the remaining) older history entries
2787 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-srch-bwd ) .
2790 \*(OP Complete the current line from (the remaining) newer history entries
2792 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-srch-fwd ) .
2795 Paste the snarf buffer
2797 .Pf ( Cd mle-paste ) .
2805 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-line ) .
2808 Prompts for a Unicode character (its hexadecimal number) to be inserted
2810 .Pf ( Cd mle-prompt-char ) .
2811 Note this command needs to be assigned to a single-letter control code
2812 in order to become recognized and executed during input of
2813 a key-sequence (only three single-letter control codes can be used for
2814 that shortcut purpose); this control code is special-treated and cannot
2815 be part of any other sequence, because any occurrence will perform the
2817 function immediately.
2820 Cut the characters from the one preceding the cursor to the preceding
2823 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-word-bwd ) .
2826 Move the cursor forward one word boundary
2828 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-word-fwd ) .
2831 Move the cursor backward one word boundary
2833 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-word-bwd ) .
2836 Escape: reset a possibly used multibyte character input state machine
2837 and \*(OPally a lingering, incomplete key binding
2839 .Pf ( Cd mle-cancel ) .
2840 This command needs to be assigned to a single-letter control code in
2841 order to become recognized and executed during input of a key-sequence
2842 (only three single-letter control codes can be used for that shortcut
2844 This control code may also be part of a multi-byte sequence, but if
2845 a sequence is active and the very control code is currently also an
2846 expected input, then it will first be consumed by the active sequence.
2849 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2853 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2857 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
2861 Cut the characters from the one after the cursor to the succeeding word
2864 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-word-fwd ) .
2875 this will immediately reset a possibly active search etc.
2880 ring the audible bell.
2884 .\" .Ss "Coloured display" {{{
2885 .Ss "Coloured display"
2887 \*(OP \*(UA can be configured to support a coloured display and font
2888 attributes by emitting ANSI a.k.a. ISO 6429 SGR (select graphic
2889 rendition) escape sequences.
2890 Usage of colours and font attributes solely depends upon the
2891 capability of the detected terminal type that is defined by the
2892 environment variable
2894 and which can be fine-tuned by the user via the internal variable
2898 On top of what \*(UA knows about the terminal the boolean variable
2900 defines whether the actually applicable colour and font attribute
2901 sequences should also be generated when output is going to be paged
2902 through the external program defined by the environment variable
2907 This is not enabled by default because different pager programs need
2908 different command line switches or other configuration in order to
2909 support those sequences.
2910 \*(UA however knows about some widely used pagers and in a clean
2911 environment it is often enough to simply set
2913 please refer to that variable for more on this topic.
2918 is set then any active usage of colour and font attribute sequences
2919 is suppressed, but without affecting possibly established
2924 To define and control colours and font attributes a single multiplexer
2925 command family exists:
2927 shows or defines colour mappings for the given colour type (e.g.,
2930 can be used to remove mappings of a given colour type.
2931 Since colours are only available in interactive mode, it may make
2932 sense to conditionalize the colour setup by encapsulating it with
2935 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2936 if terminal && [ "$features" =% +colour ]
2937 colour iso view-msginfo ft=bold,fg=green
2938 colour iso view-header ft=bold,fg=red from,subject
2939 colour iso view-header fg=red
2941 uncolour iso view-header from,subject
2942 colour iso view-header ft=bold,fg=magenta,bg=cyan
2943 colour 256 view-header ft=bold,fg=208,bg=230 "subject,from"
2944 colour mono view-header ft=bold
2945 colour mono view-header ft=bold,ft=reverse subject,from
2950 .\" .Ss "Handling spam" {{{
2953 \*(OP \*(UA can make use of several spam interfaces for the purpose of
2954 identification of, and, in general, dealing with spam messages.
2955 A precondition of most commands in order to function is that the
2957 variable is set to one of the supported interfaces.
2958 Once messages have been identified as spam their (volatile)
2960 state can be prompted: the
2964 message specifications will address respective messages and their
2966 entries will be used when displaying the
2968 in the header display.
2973 rates the given messages and sets their
2976 If the spam interface offers spam scores those can also be displayed in
2977 the header display by including the
2987 will interact with the Bayesian filter of the chosen interface and learn
2988 the given messages as
2992 respectively; the last command can be used to cause
2994 of messages; it adheres to their current
2996 state and thus reverts previous teachings.
3001 will simply set and clear, respectively, the mentioned volatile
3003 message flag, without any interface interaction.
3012 requires a running instance of the
3014 server in order to function, started with the option
3016 shall Bayesian filter learning be possible.
3018 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3019 $ spamd -i localhost:2142 -i /tmp/.spamsock -d [-L] [-l]
3020 $ spamd --listen=localhost:2142 --listen=/tmp/.spamsock \e
3021 --daemonize [--local] [--allow-tell]
3025 Thereafter \*(UA can make use of these interfaces:
3027 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3028 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=spamc -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
3029 -Sspamc-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \e
3030 -Sspamc-arguments="-U /tmp/.spamsock" -Sspamc-user=
3032 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=spamc -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
3033 -Sspamc-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \e
3034 -Sspamc-arguments="-d localhost -p 2142" -Sspamc-user=
3038 Using the generic filter approach allows usage of programs like
3040 Here is an example, requiring it to be accessible via
3043 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3044 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=filter -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
3045 -Sspamfilter-ham="bogofilter -n" \e
3046 -Sspamfilter-noham="bogofilter -N" \e
3047 -Sspamfilter-nospam="bogofilter -S" \e
3048 -Sspamfilter-rate="bogofilter -TTu 2>/dev/null" \e
3049 -Sspamfilter-spam="bogofilter -s" \e
3050 -Sspamfilter-rate-scanscore="1;^(.+)$"
3054 Because messages must exist on local storage in order to be scored (or
3055 used for Bayesian filter training), it is possibly a good idea to
3056 perform the local spam check last.
3057 Spam can be checked automatically when opening specific folders by
3058 setting a specialized form of the internal variable
3061 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3062 define spamdelhook {
3064 spamset (header x-dcc-brand-metrics "bulk")
3065 # Server-side spamassassin(1)
3066 spamset (header x-spam-flag "YES")
3067 del :s # TODO we HAVE to be able to do `spamrate :u ! :sS'
3073 set folder-hook-SOMEFOLDER=spamdelhook
3077 See also the documentation for the variables
3078 .Va spam-interface , spam-maxsize ,
3079 .Va spamc-command , spamc-arguments , spamc-user ,
3080 .Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , spamfilter-nospam , \
3083 .Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore .
3086 .\" }}} (DESCRIPTION)
3089 .\" .Sh COMMANDS {{{
3092 \*(UA reads input in lines.
3093 An unquoted reverse solidus
3095 at the end of a command line
3097 the newline character: it is discarded and the next line of input is
3098 used as a follow-up line, with all leading whitespace removed;
3099 once an entire line is completed, the whitespace characters
3100 .Cm space , tabulator , newline
3101 as well as those defined by the variable
3103 are removed from the beginning and end.
3104 Placing any whitespace characters at the beginning of a line will
3105 prevent a possible addition of the command line to the \*(OPal
3109 The beginning of such input lines is then scanned for the name of
3110 a known command: command names may be abbreviated, in which case the
3111 first command that matches the given prefix will be used.
3112 .Sx "Command modifiers"
3113 may prefix a command in order to modify its behaviour.
3114 A name may also be a
3116 which will become expanded until no more expansion is possible.
3117 Once the command that shall be executed is known, the remains of the
3118 input line will be interpreted according to command-specific rules,
3119 documented in the following.
3122 This behaviour is different to the
3124 ell, which is a programming language with syntactic elements of clearly
3125 defined semantics, and therefore capable to sequentially expand and
3126 evaluate individual elements of a line.
3127 \*(UA will never be able to handle
3128 .Ql ? set one=value two=$one
3129 in a single statement, because the variable assignment is performed by
3137 can be used to show the list of all commands, either alphabetically
3138 sorted or in prefix search order (these do not match, also because the
3139 POSIX standard prescribes a set of abbreviations).
3140 \*(OPally the command
3144 when given an argument, will show a documentation string for the
3145 command matching the expanded argument, as in
3147 which should be a shorthand of
3149 with these documentation strings both commands support a more
3151 listing mode which includes the argument type of the command and other
3152 information which applies; a handy suggestion might thus be:
3154 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3156 # Before v15: need to enable sh(1)ell-style on _entire_ line!
3157 localopts 1;wysh set verbose;ignerr eval "${@}";return ${?}
3159 ? commandalias xv '\ecall __xv'
3163 .\" .Ss "Command modifiers" {{{
3164 .Ss "Command modifiers"
3166 Commands may be prefixed by one or multiple command modifiers.
3170 The modifier reverse solidus
3173 to be placed first, prevents
3175 expansions on the remains of the line, e.g.,
3177 will always evaluate the command
3179 even if an (command)alias of the same name exists.
3181 content may itself contain further command modifiers, including
3182 an initial reverse solidus to prevent further expansions.
3188 indicates that any error generated by the following command should be
3189 ignored by the state machine and not cause a program exit with enabled
3191 or for the standardized exit cases in
3196 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
3197 will be set to the real exit status of the command regardless.
3202 does yet not implement any functionality.
3207 does yet not implement any functionality.
3210 Some commands support the
3213 modifier: if used, they expect the name of a variable, which can itself
3214 be a variable, i.e., shell expansion is applied, as their first
3215 argument, and will place their computation result in it instead of the
3216 default location (it is usually written to standard output).
3218 The given name will be tested for being a valid
3220 variable name, and may therefore only consist of upper- and lowercase
3221 characters, digits, and the underscore; the hyphen-minus may be used as
3222 a non-portable extension; digits may not be used as first, hyphen-minus
3223 may not be used as last characters.
3224 In addition the name may either not be one of the known
3225 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
3226 or must otherwise refer to a writable (non-boolean) value variable.
3227 The actual put operation may fail nonetheless, e.g., if the variable
3228 expects a number argument only a number will be accepted.
3229 Any error during these operations causes the command as such to fail,
3230 and the error number
3233 .Va ^ERR Ns -NOTSUP ,
3240 Last, but not least, the modifier
3243 can be used for some old and established commands to choose the new
3244 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
3245 rules over the traditional
3246 .Sx "Old-style argument quoting" .
3250 .\" .Ss "Message list arguments" {{{
3251 .Ss "Message list arguments"
3253 Some commands expect arguments that represent messages (actually
3254 their symbolic message numbers), as has been documented above under
3255 .Sx "Specifying messages"
3257 If no explicit message list has been specified, the next message
3258 forward that satisfies the command's requirements will be used,
3259 and if there are no messages forward of the current message,
3260 the search proceeds backwards;
3261 if there are no good messages at all to be found, an error message is
3262 shown and the command is aborted.
3265 .\" .Ss "Old-style argument quoting" {{{
3266 .Ss "Old-style argument quoting"
3268 \*(ID This section documents the old, traditional style of quoting
3269 non-message-list arguments to commands which expect this type of
3270 arguments: whereas still used by the majority of such commands, the new
3271 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
3272 may be available even for those via
3275 .Sx "Command modifiers" .
3276 Nonetheless care must be taken, because only new commands have been
3277 designed with all the capabilities of the new quoting rules in mind,
3278 which can, e.g., generate control characters.
3281 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
3283 An argument can be enclosed between paired double-quotes
3288 any whitespace, shell word expansion, or reverse solidus characters
3289 (except as described next) within the quotes are treated literally as
3290 part of the argument.
3291 A double-quote will be treated literally within single-quotes and vice
3293 Inside such a quoted string the actually used quote character can be
3294 used nonetheless by escaping it with a reverse solidus
3300 An argument that is not enclosed in quotes, as above, can usually still
3301 contain space characters if those spaces are reverse solidus escaped, as in
3305 A reverse solidus outside of the enclosing quotes is discarded
3306 and the following character is treated literally as part of the argument.
3310 .\" .Ss "Shell-style argument quoting" {{{
3311 .Ss "Shell-style argument quoting"
3313 Commands which don't expect message-list arguments use
3315 ell-style, and therefore POSIX standardized, argument parsing and
3317 \*(ID Most new commands only support these new rules and are flagged
3318 \*(NQ, some elder ones can use them with the command modifier
3320 in the future only this type of argument quoting will remain.
3323 A command line is parsed from left to right and an input token is
3324 completed whenever an unquoted, otherwise ignored, metacharacter is seen.
3325 Metacharacters are vertical bar
3331 as well as all characters from the variable
3334 .Cm space , tabulator , newline .
3335 The additional metacharacters left and right parenthesis
3337 and less-than and greater-than signs
3341 supports are not used, and are treated as ordinary characters: for one
3342 these characters are a vivid part of email addresses, and it seems
3343 highly unlikely that their function will become meaningful to \*(UA.
3345 .Bd -filled -offset indent
3346 .Sy Compatibility note:
3347 \*(ID Please note that even many new-style commands do not yet honour
3349 to parse their arguments: whereas the
3351 ell is a language with syntactic elements of clearly defined semantics,
3352 \*(UA parses entire input lines and decides on a per-command base what
3353 to do with the rest of the line.
3354 This also means that whenever an unknown command is seen all that \*(UA
3355 can do is cancellation of the processing of the remains of the line.
3357 It also often depends on an actual subcommand of a multiplexer command
3358 how the rest of the line should be treated, and until v15 we are not
3359 capable to perform this deep inspection of arguments.
3360 Nonetheless, at least the following commands which work with positional
3361 parameters fully support
3363 for an almost shell-compatible field splitting:
3364 .Ic call , call_if , read , vpospar , xcall .
3368 Any unquoted number sign
3370 at the beginning of a new token starts a comment that extends to the end
3371 of the line, and therefore ends argument processing.
3372 An unquoted dollar sign
3374 will cause variable expansion of the given name, which must be a valid
3376 ell-style variable name (see
3378 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
3381 (shell) variables can be accessed through this mechanism, brace
3382 enclosing the name is supported (i.e., to subdivide a token).
3385 Whereas the metacharacters
3386 .Cm space , tabulator , newline
3387 only complete an input token, vertical bar
3393 also act as control operators and perform control functions.
3394 For now supported is semicolon
3396 which terminates a single command, therefore sequencing the command line
3397 and making the remainder of the line a subject to reevaluation.
3398 With sequencing, multiple command argument types and quoting rules may
3399 therefore apply to a single line, which can become problematic before
3400 v15: e.g., the first of the following will cause surprising results.
3403 .Dl ? echo one; set verbose; echo verbose=$verbose.
3404 .Dl ? echo one; wysh set verbose; echo verbose=$verbose.
3407 Quoting is a mechanism that will remove the special meaning of
3408 metacharacters and reserved words, and will prevent expansion.
3409 There are four quoting mechanisms: the escape character, single-quotes,
3410 double-quotes and dollar-single-quotes:
3413 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
3415 The literal value of any character can be preserved by preceding it
3416 with the escape character reverse solidus
3420 Arguments which are enclosed in
3421 .Ql 'single-\:quotes'
3422 retain their literal value.
3423 A single-quote cannot occur within single-quotes.
3426 The literal value of all characters enclosed in
3427 .Ql \(dqdouble-\:quotes\(dq
3428 is retained, with the exception of dollar sign
3430 which will cause variable expansion, as above, backquote (grave accent)
3432 (which not yet means anything special), reverse solidus
3434 which will escape any of the characters dollar sign
3436 (to prevent variable expansion), backquote (grave accent)
3440 (to prevent ending the quote) and reverse solidus
3442 (to prevent escaping, i.e., to embed a reverse solidus character as-is),
3443 but has no special meaning otherwise.
3446 Arguments enclosed in
3447 .Ql $'dollar-\:single-\:quotes'
3448 extend normal single quotes in that reverse solidus escape sequences are
3449 expanded as follows:
3451 .Bl -tag -compact -width "Ql \eNNN"
3453 bell control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 BEL).
3455 backspace control characer (ASCII and ISO-10646 BS).
3457 escape control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 ESC).
3461 form feed control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 FF).
3463 line feed control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 LF).
3465 carriage return control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 CR).
3467 horizontal tabulator control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 HT).
3469 vertical tabulator control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 VT).
3471 emits a reverse solidus character.
3475 double quote (escaping is optional).
3477 eight-bit byte with the octal value
3479 (one to three octal digits), optionally prefixed by an additional
3481 A 0 byte will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
3483 eight-bit byte with the hexadecimal value
3485 (one or two hexadecimal characters).
3486 A 0 byte will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
3488 the Unicode / ISO-10646 character with the hexadecimal codepoint value
3490 (one to eight hexadecimal digits) \(em note that Unicode defines the
3491 maximum codepoint ever to be supported as
3496 This escape is only supported in locales that support Unicode (see
3497 .Sx "Character sets" ) ,
3498 in other cases the sequence will remain unexpanded unless the given code
3499 point is ASCII compatible or (if the \*(OPal character set conversion is
3500 available) can be represented in the current locale.
3501 The character NUL will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
3505 except it takes only one to four hexadecimal digits.
3507 Emits the non-printable (ASCII and compatible) C0 control codes
3508 0 (NUL) to 31 (US), and 127 (DEL).
3509 Printable representations of ASCII control codes can be created by
3510 mapping them to a different part of the ASCII character set, which is
3511 possible by adding the number 64 for the codes 0 to 31, e.g., 7 (BEL) is
3512 .Ql 7 + 64 = 71 = G .
3513 The real operation is a bitwise logical XOR with 64 (bit 7 set, see
3515 thus also covering code 127 (DEL), which is mapped to 63 (question mark):
3516 .Ql ? vexpr ^ 127 64 .
3518 Whereas historically circumflex notation has often been used for
3519 visualization purposes of control codes, e.g.,
3521 the reverse solidus notation has been standardized:
3523 Some control codes also have standardized (ISO-10646, ISO C) aliases,
3524 as shown above (e.g.,
3528 whenever such an alias exists it will be used for display purposes.
3529 The control code NUL
3531 a non-standard extension) will suppress further output for the remains
3532 of the token (which may extend beyond the current quote), or, depending
3533 on the context, the remains of all arguments for the current command.
3535 Non-standard extension: expand the given variable name, as above.
3536 Brace enclosing the name is supported.
3538 Not yet supported, just to raise awareness: Non-standard extension.
3545 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3546 ? echo 'Quotes '${HOME}' and 'tokens" differ!"# no comment
3547 ? echo Quotes ${HOME} and tokens differ! # comment
3548 ? echo Don"'"t you worry$'\ex21' The sun shines on us. $'\eu263A'
3552 .\" .Ss "Raw data arguments for codec commands" {{{
3553 .Ss "Raw data arguments for codec commands"
3555 A special set of commands, which all have the string
3557 in their name, e.g.,
3561 take raw string data as input, which means that the content of the
3562 command input line is passed completely unexpanded and otherwise
3563 unchanged: like this the effect of the actual codec is visible without
3564 any noise of possible shell quoting rules etc., i.e., the user can input
3565 one-to-one the desired or questionable data.
3566 To gain a level of expansion, the entire command line can be
3570 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3571 ? vput shcodec res encode /usr/Sch\[:o]nes Wetter/heute.txt
3573 $'/usr/Sch\eu00F6nes Wetter/heute.txt'
3575 $'/usr/Sch\eu00F6nes Wetter/heute.txt'
3576 ? eval shcodec d $res
3577 /usr/Sch\[:o]nes Wetter/heute.txt
3581 .\" .Ss "Filename transformations" {{{
3582 .Ss "Filename transformations"
3584 Filenames, where expected, and unless documented otherwise, are
3585 subsequently subject to the following filename transformations, in
3588 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
3590 If the given name is a registered
3592 it will be replaced with the expanded shortcut.
3595 The filename is matched against the following patterns or strings:
3597 .Bl -hang -compact -width ".Ar %user"
3599 (Number sign) is expanded to the previous file.
3601 (Percent sign) is replaced by the invoking
3602 .Mx -ix "primary system mailbox"
3603 user's primary system mailbox, which either is the (itself expandable)
3605 if that is set, the standardized absolute pathname indicated by
3607 if that is set, or a built-in compile-time default otherwise.
3609 Expands to the primary system mailbox of
3611 (and never the value of
3613 regardless of its actual setting).
3615 (Ampersand) is replaced with the invoking users
3616 .Mx -ix "secondary mailbox"
3617 secondary mailbox, the
3624 directory (if that variable is set).
3626 Expands to the same value as
3628 but has special meaning when used with, e.g., the command
3630 the file will be treated as a primary system mailbox by, e.g., the
3634 commands, meaning that messages that have been read in the current
3635 session will be moved to the
3637 mailbox instead of simply being flagged as read.
3641 Meta expansions are applied to the resulting filename, as applicable to
3642 the resulting file access protocol (also see
3643 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
3644 If the fully expanded filename results in multiple pathnames and the
3645 command is expecting only one file, an error results.
3647 For the file-protocol, a leading tilde
3649 character will be replaced by the expansion of
3651 except when followed by a valid user name, in which case the home
3652 directory of the given user is used instead.
3654 In addition a shell expansion as if specified in double-quotes (see
3655 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" )
3656 is applied, so that any occurrence of
3660 will be replaced by the expansion of the variable, if possible;
3661 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
3664 (shell) variables can be accessed through this mechanism.
3666 In interactive context, in order to allow simple value acceptance (via
3668 arguments will usually be displayed in a properly quoted form, e.g., a file
3669 .Ql diet\e is \ecurd.txt
3671 .Ql 'diet\e is \ecurd.txt' .
3675 .\" .Ss "Commands" {{{
3678 The following commands are available:
3680 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ic BaNg"
3687 command which follows, replacing unescaped exclamation marks with the
3688 previously executed command if the internal variable
3691 This command supports
3694 .Sx "Command modifiers" ,
3695 and manages the error number
3697 A 0 or positive exit status
3699 reflects the exit status of the command, negative ones that
3700 an error happened before the command was executed, or that the program
3701 did not exit cleanly, but, e.g., due to a signal: the error number is
3702 .Va ^ERR Ns -CHILD ,
3706 In conjunction with the
3708 modifier the following special cases exist:
3709 a negative exit status occurs if the collected data could not be stored
3710 in the given variable, which is a
3712 error that should otherwise not occur.
3713 .Va ^ERR Ns -CANCELED
3714 indicates that no temporary file could be created to collect the command
3715 output at first glance.
3716 In case of catchable out-of-memory situations
3718 will occur and \*(UA will try to store the empty string, just like with
3719 all other detected error conditions.
3724 The comment-command causes the entire line to be ignored.
3726 this really is a normal command which' purpose is to discard its
3729 indicating special character, which means that, e.g., trailing comments
3730 on a line are not possible.
3734 Goes to the next message in sequence and types it
3740 Display the preceding message, or the n'th previous message if given
3741 a numeric argument n.
3745 Show the current message number (the
3750 Show a brief summary of commands.
3751 \*(OP Given an argument a synopsis for the command in question is
3752 shown instead; commands can be abbreviated in general and this command
3753 can be used to see the full expansion of an abbreviation including the
3754 synopsis, try, e.g.,
3759 and see how the output changes.
3760 This mode also supports a more
3762 output, which will provide the informations documented for
3773 .It Ic account , unaccount
3774 (ac, una) Creates, selects or lists (an) account(s).
3775 Accounts are special incarnations of
3777 macros and group commands and variable settings which together usually
3778 arrange the environment for the purpose of creating an email account.
3779 Different to normal macros settings which are covered by
3781 \(en here by default enabled! \(en will not be reverted before the
3786 (case-insensitive) always exists, and all but it can be deleted by the
3787 latter command, and in one operation with the special name
3789 Also for all but it a possibly set
3790 .Va on-account-cleanup
3791 hook is called once they are left.
3793 Without arguments a listing of all defined accounts is shown.
3794 With one argument the given account is activated: the system
3796 of that account will be activated (as via
3798 a possibly installed
3800 will be run, and the internal variable
3803 The two argument form is identical to defining a macro as via
3805 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3807 set folder=~/mail inbox=+syste.mbox record=+sent.mbox
3808 set from='(My Name) myname@myisp.example'
3809 set mta=smtp://mylogin@smtp.myisp.example
3816 Perform email address codec transformations on raw-data argument, rather
3817 according to email standards (RFC 5322; \*(ID will furtherly improve).
3821 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) ,
3822 and manages the error number
3824 The first argument must be either
3825 .Ar [+[+[+]]]e[ncode] ,
3829 and specifies the operation to perform on the rest of the line.
3832 Decoding will show how a standard-compliant MUA will display the given
3833 argument, which should be an email address.
3834 Please be aware that most MUAs have difficulties with the address
3835 standards, and vary wildly when (comments) in parenthesis,
3837 strings, or quoted-pairs, as below, become involved.
3838 \*(ID \*(UA currently does not perform decoding when displaying addresses.
3841 Skinning is identical to decoding but only outputs the plain address,
3842 without any string, comment etc. components.
3843 Another difference is that it may fail with the error number
3847 if decoding fails to find a(n) (valid) email address, in which case the
3848 unmodified input will be output again.
3851 Encoding supports four different modes, lesser automated versions can be
3852 chosen by prefixing one, two or three plus signs: the standard imposes
3853 a special meaning on some characters, which thus have to be transformed
3854 to so-called quoted-pairs by pairing them with a reverse solidus
3856 in order to remove the special meaning; this might change interpretation
3857 of the entire argument from what has been desired, however!
3858 Specify one plus sign to remark that parenthesis shall be left alone,
3859 two for not turning double quotation marks into quoted-pairs, and three
3860 for also leaving any user-specified reverse solidus alone.
3861 The result will always be valid, if a successful exit status is reported.
3862 \*(ID Addresses need to be specified in between angle brackets
3865 if the construct becomes more difficult, otherwise the current parser
3866 will fail; it is not smart enough to guess right.
3868 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3869 ? addrc enc "Hey, you",<diet@exam.ple>\e out\e there
3870 "\e"Hey, you\e", \e\e out\e\e there" <diet@exam.ple>
3871 ? addrc d "\e"Hey, you\e", \e\e out\e\e there" <diet@exam.ple>
3872 "Hey, you", \e out\e there <diet@exam.ple>
3873 ? addrc s "\e"Hey, you\e", \e\e out\e\e there" <diet@exam.ple>
3880 .It Ic alias , unalias
3881 (a, una) Aliases are a method of creating personal distribution lists
3882 that map a single alias name to none to multiple real receivers;
3883 these aliases become expanded after message composing is completed.
3884 The latter command removes the given list of aliases, the special name
3886 will discard all existing aliases.
3888 The former command shows all currently defined aliases when used without
3889 arguments, and with one argument the expansion of the given alias.
3890 With more than one argument, creates or appends to the alias name given
3891 as the first argument the remaining arguments.
3892 Alias names adhere to the Postfix MTA
3894 rules and are thus restricted to alphabetic characters, digits, the
3895 underscore, hyphen-minus, the number sign, colon and commercial at,
3896 the last character can also be the dollar sign; the regular expression:
3897 .Ql [[:alnum:]_#:@-]+$? .
3898 As extensions the exclamation mark
3903 .Dq any character that has the high bit set
3908 .It Ic alternates , unalternates
3909 \*(NQ (alt) Manage a list of alternate addresses or names of the active user,
3910 members of which will be removed from recipient lists.
3911 The latter command removes the given list of alternates, the special name
3913 will discard all existing aliases.
3914 The former command manages the error number
3916 and shows the current set of alternates when used without arguments; in
3917 this mode it supports
3920 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
3921 Otherwise the given arguments (after being checked for validity) are
3922 appended to the list of alternate names; in
3924 mode they replace that list instead.
3925 There is a set of implicit alternates which is formed of the values of
3934 .It Ic answered , unanswered
3935 Take a message lists and mark each message as having been answered,
3936 having not been answered, respectively.
3937 Messages will be marked answered when being
3939 to automatically if the
3943 .Sx "Message states" .
3948 .It Ic bind , unbind
3949 \*(OP\*(NQ The bind command extends the MLE (see
3950 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
3951 with freely configurable key bindings.
3952 The latter command removes from the given context the given key binding,
3953 both of which may be specified as a wildcard
3957 will remove all bindings of all contexts.
3958 Due to initialization order unbinding will not work for built-in key
3959 bindings upon program startup, however: please use
3960 .Va line-editor-no-defaults
3961 for this purpose instead.
3964 With one argument the former command shows all key bindings for the
3965 given context, specifying an asterisk
3967 will show the bindings of all contexts; a more verbose listing will be
3968 produced if either of
3973 With two or more arguments a binding is (re)established:
3974 the first argument is the context to which the binding shall apply,
3975 the second argument is a comma-separated list of the
3977 which form the binding, and any remaining arguments form the expansion.
3978 To indicate that a binding shall not be auto-committed, but that the
3979 expansion shall instead be furtherly editable by the user, a commercial at
3981 (that will be removed) can be placed last in the expansion, from which
3982 leading and trailing whitespace will finally be removed.
3983 Reverse solidus cannot be used as the last character of expansion.
3986 Contexts define when a binding applies, i.e., a binding will not be seen
3987 unless the context for which it is defined for is currently active.
3988 This is not true for the shared binding
3990 which is the foundation for all other bindings and as such always
3991 applies, its bindings, however, only apply secondarily.
3992 The available contexts are the shared
3996 context which is used in all not otherwise documented situations, and
3998 which applies to compose mode only.
4002 which form the binding are specified as a comma-separated list of
4003 byte-sequences, where each list entry corresponds to one key(press).
4004 A list entry may, indicated by a leading colon character
4006 also refer to the name of a terminal capability; several dozen names
4007 will be compiled in and may be specified either by their
4009 or, if existing, by their
4011 name, regardless of the actually used \*(OPal terminal control library.
4012 It is possible to use any capability, as long as the name is resolvable
4013 by the \*(OPal control library or was defined via the internal variable
4015 Input sequences are not case-normalized, so that an exact match is
4016 required to update or remove a binding.
4019 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4020 ? bind base $'\eE',d mle-snarf-word-fwd # Esc(ape)
4021 ? bind base $'\eE',$'\ec?' mle-snarf-word-bwd # Esc, Delete
4022 ? bind default $'\ecA',:khome,w 'echo An editable binding@'
4023 ? bind default a,b,c rm -irf / @ # Another editable binding
4024 ? bind default :kf1 File %
4025 ? bind compose :kf1 ~e
4029 Note that the entire comma-separated list is first parsed (over) as a
4030 shell-token with whitespace as the field separator, before being parsed
4031 and expanded for real with comma as the field separator, therefore
4032 whitespace needs to be properly quoted, see
4033 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" .
4034 Using Unicode reverse solidus escape sequences renders a binding
4035 defunctional if the locale does not support Unicode (see
4036 .Sx "Character sets" ) ,
4037 and using terminal capabilities does so if no (corresponding) terminal
4038 control support is (currently) available.
4041 The following terminal capability names are built-in and can be used in
4043 or (if available) the two-letter
4046 See the respective manual for a list of capabilities.
4049 can be used to show all the capabilities of
4051 or the given terminal type;
4054 flag will also show supported (non-standard) extensions.
4057 .Bl -tag -compact -width kcuuf_or_kcuuf
4058 .It Cd kbs Ns \0or Cd kb
4060 .It Cd kdch1 Ns \0or Cd kD
4062 .It Cd kDC Ns \0or Cd *4
4063 \(em shifted variant.
4064 .It Cd kel Ns \0or Cd kE
4065 Clear to end of line.
4066 .It Cd kext Ns \0or Cd @9
4068 .It Cd kich1 Ns \0or Cd kI
4070 .It Cd kIC Ns \0or Cd #3
4071 \(em shifted variant.
4072 .It Cd khome Ns \0or Cd kh
4074 .It Cd kHOM Ns \0or Cd #2
4075 \(em shifted variant.
4076 .It Cd kend Ns \0or Cd @7
4078 .It Cd knp Ns \0or Cd kN
4080 .It Cd kpp Ns \0or Cd kP
4082 .It Cd kcub1 Ns \0or Cd kl
4083 Left cursor (with more modifiers: see below).
4084 .It Cd kLFT Ns \0or Cd #4
4085 \(em shifted variant.
4086 .It Cd kcuf1 Ns \0or Cd kr
4087 Right cursor (ditto).
4088 .It Cd kRIT Ns \0or Cd %i
4089 \(em shifted variant.
4090 .It Cd kcud1 Ns \0or Cd kd
4091 Down cursor (ditto).
4093 \(em shifted variant (only terminfo).
4094 .It Cd kcuu1 Ns \0or Cd ku
4097 \(em shifted variant (only terminfo).
4098 .It Cd kf0 Ns \0or Cd k0
4100 Add one for each function key up to
4105 .It Cd kf10 Ns \0or Cd k;
4107 .It Cd kf11 Ns \0or Cd F1
4109 Add one for each function key up to
4117 Some terminals support key-modifier combination extensions, e.g.,
4119 For example, the delete key,
4121 in its shifted variant, the name is mutated to
4123 then a number is appended for the states
4135 .Ql Shift+Alt+Control
4137 The same for the left cursor key,
4139 .Cd KLFT , KLFT3 , KLFT4 , KLFT5 , KLFT6 , KLFT7 , KLFT8 .
4142 It is advisable to use an initial escape or other control character (e.g.,
4144 for bindings which describe user key combinations (as opposed to purely
4145 terminal capability based ones), in order to avoid ambiguities whether
4146 input belongs to key sequences or not; it also reduces search time.
4149 may help shall keys and sequences be falsely recognized.
4154 \*(NQ Calls the given macro, which must have been created via
4159 Parameters given to macros are implicitly local to the macro's scope, and
4160 may be accessed via special (positional) parameters, e.g.,
4165 The positional parameters may be removed by
4167 ing them off the stack (exceeding the supported number of arguments
4169 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW ) ,
4170 and are otherwise controllable via
4175 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
4176 can be reverted before the current level regains control by setting
4178 for called macro(s) (or in them, of course).
4179 Macro execution can be terminated at any time by calling
4183 Calling macros recursively will at some time excess the stack size
4184 limit, causing a hard program abortion; if recursively calling a macro
4185 is the last command of the current macro, consider to use the command
4187 which will first release all resources of the current macro before
4188 replacing the current macro with the called one.
4189 Numeric and string operations can be performed via
4193 may be helpful to recreate argument lists.
4195 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4197 echo Parameter 1 of ${#} is ${1}, all: ${*} / ${@}
4200 call exmac Hello macro exmac!
4208 if the given macro has been created via
4210 but doesn't fail nor warn if the macro doesn't exist.
4214 (ch) Change the working directory to
4216 or the given argument.
4222 \*(OP Only applicable to S/MIME signed messages.
4223 Takes a message list and a filename and saves the certificates
4224 contained within the message signatures to the named file in both
4225 human-readable and PEM format.
4226 The certificates can later be used to send encrypted messages to the
4227 respective message senders by setting
4228 .Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
4233 .It Ic charsetalias , uncharsetalias
4234 \*(NQ Manage (character set conversion) character set alias mappings,
4235 as documented in the section
4236 .Sx "Character sets" .
4237 Character set aliases are expanded recursively, but no expansion is
4238 performed on values of the user-settable variables, e.g.,
4240 These are effectively no-operations if character set conversion
4241 is not available (i.e., no
4245 Without arguments the list of all currently defined aliases is shown,
4246 with one argument the expansion of the given alias.
4247 Otherwise all given arguments are treated as pairs of character sets and
4248 their desired target alias name, creating new or changing already
4249 existing aliases, as necessary.
4251 The latter deletes all aliases given as arguments, the special argument
4253 will remove all aliases.
4257 (ch) Change the working directory to
4259 or the given argument.
4265 .It Ic collapse , uncollapse
4266 Only applicable to threaded mode.
4267 Takes a message list and makes all replies to these messages invisible
4268 in header summaries, except for
4272 Also when a message with collapsed replies is displayed,
4273 all of these are automatically uncollapsed.
4274 The latter command undoes collapsing.
4279 .It Ic colour , uncolour
4280 \*(OP\*(NQ Manage colour mappings of and for a
4281 .Sx "Coloured display" .
4282 The type of colour is given as the (case-insensitive) first argument,
4283 which must be one of
4285 for 256-colour terminals,
4290 for the standard 8-colour ANSI / ISO 6429 color palette and
4294 for monochrome terminals.
4295 Monochrome terminals cannot deal with colours, but only (some) font
4299 Without further arguments the list of all currently defined mappings
4300 for the given colour type is shown (as a special case giving
4304 will show the mappings of all types).
4305 Otherwise the second argument defines the mappable slot, and the third
4306 argument a (comma-separated list of) colour and font attribute
4307 specification(s), and the optional fourth argument can be used to
4308 specify a precondition: if conditioned mappings exist they are tested in
4309 (creation) order unless a (case-insensitive) match has been found, and
4310 the default mapping (if any has been established) will only be chosen as
4312 The types of precondition available depend on the mappable slot (see
4313 .Sx "Coloured display"
4314 for some examples), the following of which exist:
4317 Mappings prefixed with
4319 are used for the \*(OPal built-in Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE, see
4320 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
4321 and do not support preconditions.
4323 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
4325 This mapping is used for the position indicator that is visible when
4326 a line cannot be fully displayed on the screen.
4333 Mappings prefixed with
4335 are used in header summaries, and they all understand the preconditions
4337 (the current message) and
4339 for elder messages (only honoured in conjunction with
4340 .Va datefield-markout-older ) .
4342 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
4344 This mapping is used for the
4346 that can be created with the
4350 formats of the variable
4353 For the complete header summary line except the
4355 and the thread structure.
4357 For the thread structure which can be created with the
4359 format of the variable
4364 Mappings prefixed with
4366 are used when displaying messages.
4368 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
4370 This mapping is used for so-called
4372 lines, which are MBOX file format specific header lines.
4375 A comma-separated list of headers to which the mapping applies may be
4376 given as a precondition; if the \*(OPal regular expression support is
4377 available then if any of the
4379 (extended) regular expression characters is seen the precondition will
4380 be evaluated as (an extended) one.
4382 For the introductional message info line.
4383 .It Ar view-partinfo
4384 For MIME part info lines.
4388 The following (case-insensitive) colour definitions and font attributes
4389 are understood, multiple of which can be specified in a comma-separated
4399 It is possible (and often applicable) to specify multiple font
4400 attributes for a single mapping.
4403 foreground colour attribute:
4413 To specify a 256-color mode a decimal number colour specification in
4414 the range 0 to 255, inclusive, is supported, and interpreted as follows:
4416 .Bl -tag -compact -width "999 - 999"
4418 the standard ISO 6429 colors, as above.
4420 high intensity variants of the standard colors.
4422 216 colors in tuples of 6.
4424 grayscale from black to white in 24 steps.
4426 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4428 fg() { printf "\e033[38;5;${1}m($1)"; }
4429 bg() { printf "\e033[48;5;${1}m($1)"; }
4431 while [ $i -lt 256 ]; do fg $i; i=$(($i + 1)); done
4432 printf "\e033[0m\en"
4434 while [ $i -lt 256 ]; do bg $i; i=$(($i + 1)); done
4435 printf "\e033[0m\en"
4439 background colour attribute (see
4441 for possible values).
4447 will remove for the given colour type (the special type
4449 selects all) the given mapping; if the optional precondition argument is
4450 given only the exact tuple of mapping and precondition is removed.
4453 will remove all mappings (no precondition allowed), thus
4455 will remove all established mappings.
4460 .It Ic commandalias , uncommandalias
4461 \*(NQ Define or list, and remove, respectively, command aliases.
4462 An (command)alias can be used everywhere a normal command can be used,
4463 but always takes precedence: any arguments that are given to the command
4464 alias are joined onto the alias expansion, and the resulting string
4465 forms the command line that is, in effect, executed.
4466 The latter command removes all given aliases, the special name
4468 will remove all existing aliases.
4469 When used without arguments the former shows a list of all currently
4470 known aliases, with one argument only the expansion of the given one.
4472 With two or more arguments a command alias is defined or updated: the
4473 first argument is the name under which the remaining command line should
4474 be accessible, the content of which can be just about anything.
4475 An alias may itself expand to another alias, but to avoid expansion loops
4476 further expansion will be prevented if an alias refers to itself or if
4477 an expansion depth limit is reached.
4478 Explicit expansion prevention is available via reverse solidus
4481 .Sx "Command modifiers" .
4482 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4484 \*(uA: `commandalias': no such alias: xx
4485 ? commandalias xx echo hello,
4487 commandalias xx 'echo hello,'
4496 (C) Copy messages to files whose names are derived from the author of
4497 the respective message and do not mark them as being saved;
4498 otherwise identical to
4503 (c) Copy messages to the named file and do not mark them as being saved;
4504 otherwise identical to
4509 Show the name of the current working directory, as reported by
4514 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
4515 The return status is tracked via
4520 \*(OP For unencrypted messages this command is identical to
4522 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
4526 \*(OP For unencrypted messages this command is identical to
4528 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
4532 .It Ic define , undefine
4533 Without arguments the current list of macros, including their content,
4534 is shown, otherwise a macro is defined, replacing an existing macro of
4536 A macro definition is a sequence of commands in the following form:
4537 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4546 A defined macro can be invoked explicitly by using the
4551 commands, or implicitly if a macro hook is triggered, e.g., a
4553 It is possible to localize adjustments, like creation, deletion and
4555 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
4558 command; the scope which is localized depends on how (i.e.,
4560 normal macro, folder hook, hook,
4562 switch) the macro is invoked.
4563 Execution of a macro body can be stopped from within by calling
4567 ed macro, given positional parameters can be
4569 ed, or become completely replaced, removed etc. via
4572 The latter command deletes the given macro, the special name
4574 will discard all existing macros.
4575 Creation and deletion of (a) macro(s) can be performed from within
4580 .It Ic delete , undelete
4581 (d, u) Marks the given message list as being or not being
4583 respectively; if no argument has been specified then the usual search
4584 for a visible message is performed, as documented for
4585 .Sx "Message list arguments" ,
4586 showing only the next input prompt if the search fails.
4587 Deleted messages will neither be saved in the
4589 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
4591 nor will they be available for most other commands.
4594 variable is set, the new
4596 or the last message restored, respectively, is automatically
4606 Superseded by the multiplexer
4612 Delete the given messages and automatically
4616 if one exists, regardless of the setting of
4623 up or down by one message when given
4627 argument, respectively.
4631 .It Ic draft , undraft
4632 Take message lists and mark each given message as being draft, or not
4633 being draft, respectively, as documented in the section
4634 .Sx "Message states" .
4638 \*(NQ (ec) Echoes arguments to standard output and writes a trailing
4639 newline, whereas the otherwise identical
4642 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
4644 .Sx "Filename transformations"
4645 are applied to the expanded arguments.
4651 except that is echoes to standard error.
4654 In interactive sessions the \*(OPal message ring queue for
4656 will be used instead, if available.
4662 but does not write a trailing newline.
4668 but does not write a trailing newline.
4672 (e) Point the text editor (as defined in
4674 at each message from the given list in turn.
4675 Modified contents are discarded unless the
4677 variable is set, and are not used unless the mailbox can be written to
4678 and the editor returns a successful exit status.
4683 .Ic if Ns \0/\: Ic elif Ns \0/\: Ic else Ns \0/\: Ic endif
4684 conditional \(em if the condition of a preceding
4686 was false, check the following condition and execute the following block
4687 if it evaluates true.
4692 .Ic if Ns \0/\: Ic elif Ns \0/\: Ic else Ns \0/\: Ic endif
4693 conditional \(em if none of the conditions of the preceding
4697 commands was true, the
4703 (en) Marks the end of an
4704 .Ic if Ns \0/\: Ic elif Ns \0/\: Ic else Ns \0/\: Ic endif
4705 conditional execution block.
4710 \*(NQ \*(UA has a strict notion about which variables are
4711 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
4712 and which are managed in the program
4714 Since some of the latter are a vivid part of \*(UAs functioning,
4715 however, they are transparently integrated into the normal handling of
4716 internal variables via
4720 To integrate other environment variables of choice into this
4721 transparent handling, and also to export internal variables into the
4722 process environment where they normally are not, a
4724 needs to become established with this command, as in, e.g.,
4727 .Dl environ link PERL5LIB TZ
4730 Afterwards changing such variables with
4732 will cause automatic updates of the program environment, and therefore
4733 be inherited by newly created child processes.
4734 Sufficient system support provided (it was in BSD as early as 1987, and
4735 is standardized since Y2K) removing such variables with
4737 will remove them also from the program environment, but in any way
4738 the knowledge they ever have been
4741 Note that this implies that
4743 may cause loss of such links.
4748 will remove an existing link, but leaves the variables as such intact.
4749 Additionally the subcommands
4753 are provided, which work exactly the same as the documented commands
4757 but (additionally un)link the variable(s) with the program environment
4758 and thus immediately export them to, or remove them from (if possible),
4759 respectively, the program environment.
4764 \*(OP Since \*(UA uses the console as a user interface it can happen
4765 that messages scroll by too fast to become recognized.
4766 An error message ring queue is available which stores duplicates of any
4767 error message and notifies the user in interactive sessions whenever
4768 a new error has occurred.
4769 The queue is finite: if its maximum size is reached any new message
4770 replaces the eldest.
4773 can be used to manage this message queue: if given
4775 or no argument the queue will be displayed and cleared,
4777 will only clear all messages from the queue.
4781 \*(NQ Construct a command by concatenating the arguments, separated with
4782 a single space character, and then evaluate the result.
4783 This command passes through the exit status
4787 of the evaluated command; also see
4789 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4800 call yyy '\ecall xxx' "b\e$'\et'u ' "
4808 (ex or x) Exit from \*(UA without changing the active mailbox and skip
4809 any saving of messages in the
4811 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
4813 as well as a possibly tracked line editor
4815 The optional status number argument will be passed through to
4817 \*(ID For now it can happen that the given status will be overwritten,
4818 later this will only occur if a later error needs to be reported onto an
4819 otherwise success indicating status.
4825 but open the mailbox read-only.
4830 (fi) The file command switches to a new mailbox.
4831 Without arguments it shows status information of the current mailbox.
4832 If an argument is given, it will write out changes (such as deletions)
4833 the user has made, open a new mailbox, update the internal variables
4834 .Va mailbox-resolved
4836 .Va mailbox-display ,
4837 and optionally display a summary of
4844 .Sx "Filename transformations"
4845 will be applied to the
4849 prefixes are, i.e., URL syntax is understood, e.g.,
4850 .Ql maildir:///tmp/mdirbox :
4851 if a protocol prefix is used the mailbox type is fixated and neither
4852 the auto-detection (read on) nor the
4855 \*(OPally URLs can also be used to access network resources, which may
4856 be accessed securely via
4857 .Sx "Encrypted network communication"
4858 if so supported, and it is possible to proxy all network traffic over
4859 a SOCKS5 server given via
4863 .Dl \*(IN protocol://[user[:password]@]host[:port][/path]
4864 .Dl \*(OU protocol://[user@]host[:port][/path]
4867 \*(OPally supported network protocols are
4871 (POP3 with SSL/TLS encrypted transport),
4877 part is valid only for IMAP; there it defaults to
4879 Network URLs require a special encoding as documented in the section
4880 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
4883 If the resulting file protocol (MBOX database)
4885 is located on a local filesystem then the list of all registered
4887 s is traversed in order to see whether a transparent intermediate
4888 conversion step is necessary to handle the given mailbox, in which case
4889 \*(UA will use the found hook to load and save data into and from
4890 a temporary file, respectively.
4891 Changing hooks will not affect already opened mailboxes.
4892 For example, the following creates hooks for the
4894 compression tool and a combined compressed and encrypted format:
4896 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4898 gzip 'gzip -dc' 'gzip -c' \e
4899 zst.pgp 'gpg -d | zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc | gpg -e'
4903 MBOX database files are generally locked during file operations in order
4904 to avoid inconsistencies due to concurrent modifications.
4905 \*(OPal Mailbox files which \*(UA treats as the system
4910 .Sx "primary system mailbox" Ns
4911 es in general will also be protected by so-called dotlock files, the
4912 traditional way of mail spool file locking: for any file
4916 will be created for the duration of the synchronization \(em
4917 as necessary a privilege-separated dotlock child process will be used
4918 to accommodate for necessary privilege adjustments in order to create
4919 the dotlock file in the same directory
4920 and with the same user and group identities as the file of interest.
4923 \*(UA by default uses tolerant POSIX rules when reading MBOX database
4924 files, but it will detect invalid message boundaries in this mode and
4925 complain (even more with
4927 if any is seen: in this case
4929 can be used to create a valid MBOX database from the invalid input.
4932 If no protocol has been fixated, and
4934 refers to a directory with the subdirectories
4939 then it is treated as a folder in
4942 The maildir format stores each message in its own file, and has been
4943 designed so that file locking is not necessary when reading or writing
4947 \*(ID If no protocol has been fixated and no existing file has
4948 been found, the variable
4950 controls the format of mailboxes yet to be created.
4955 .It Ic filetype , unfiletype
4956 \*(NQ Define or list, and remove, respectively, file handler hooks,
4957 which provide (shell) commands that enable \*(UA to load and save MBOX
4958 files from and to files with the registered file extensions;
4959 it will use an intermediate temporary file to store the plain data.
4960 The latter command removes the hooks for all given extensions,
4962 will remove all existing handlers.
4964 When used without arguments the former shows a list of all currently
4965 defined file hooks, with one argument the expansion of the given alias.
4966 Otherwise three arguments are expected, the first specifying the file
4967 extension for which the hook is meant, and the second and third defining
4968 the load- and save commands, respectively, to deal with the file type,
4969 both of which must read from standard input and write to standard
4971 Changing hooks will not affect already opened mailboxes (\*(ID except below).
4972 \*(ID For now too much work is done, and files are oftened read in twice
4973 where once would be sufficient: this can cause problems if a filetype is
4974 changed while such a file is opened; this was already so with the
4975 built-in support of .gz etc. in Heirloom, and will vanish in v15.
4976 \*(ID For now all handler strings are passed to the
4977 .Ev SHELL for evaluation purposes; in the future a
4979 prefix to load and save commands may mean to bypass this shell instance:
4980 placing a leading space will avoid any possible misinterpretations.
4981 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4982 ? filetype bz2 'bzip2 -dc' 'bzip2 -zc' \e
4983 gz 'gzip -dc' 'gzip -c' xz 'xz -dc' 'xz -zc' \e
4984 zst 'zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc' \e
4985 zst.pgp 'gpg -d | zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc | gpg -e'
4986 ? set record=+sent.zst.pgp
4991 .It Ic flag , unflag
4992 Take message lists and mark the messages as being flagged, or not being
4993 flagged, respectively, for urgent/special attention.
4995 .Sx "Message states" .
5004 With no arguments, list the names of the folders in the folder directory.
5005 With an existing folder as an argument,
5006 lists the names of folders below the named folder.
5012 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
5013 recipient's address (instead of in
5020 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
5021 recipient's address (instead of in
5028 but responds to all recipients regardless of the
5033 .It Ic followupsender
5036 but responds to the sender only regardless of the
5044 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the
5045 recipient's address (instead of in
5050 Takes a message and the address of a recipient
5051 and forwards the message to him.
5052 The text of the original message is included in the new one,
5053 with the value of the
5054 .Va forward-inject-head
5055 variable preceding it.
5056 To filter the included header fields to the desired subset use the
5058 slot of the white- and blacklisting command
5060 Only the first part of a multipart message is included unless
5061 .Va forward-as-attachment ,
5062 and recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names
5063 etc. unless the internal variable
5067 This may generate the errors
5068 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
5069 if no receiver has been specified,
5071 if some addressees where rejected by
5074 if no applicable messages have been given,
5076 if multiple messages have been specified,
5078 if an I/O error occurs,
5080 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
5086 (f) Takes a list of message specifications and displays a summary of
5087 their message headers, exactly as via
5089 An alias of this command is
5092 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
5103 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
5107 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
5110 .It Ic ghost , unghost
5113 .Ic uncommandalias .
5117 .It Ic headerpick , unheaderpick
5118 \*(NQ Multiplexer command to manage white- and blacklisting
5119 selections of header fields for a variety of applications.
5120 Without arguments the set of contexts that have settings is displayed.
5121 When given arguments, the first argument is the context to which the
5122 command applies, one of (case-insensitive)
5124 for display purposes (via, e.g.,
5127 for selecting which headers shall be stored persistently when
5133 ing messages (note that MIME related etc. header fields should not be
5134 ignored in order to not destroy usability of the message in this case),
5136 for stripping down messages when
5138 ing message (has no effect if
5139 .Va forward-as-attachment
5142 for defining user-defined set of fields for the command
5145 The current settings of the given context are displayed if it is the
5147 A second argument denotes the type of restriction that is to be chosen,
5148 it may be (a case-insensitive prefix of)
5152 for white- and blacklisting purposes, respectively.
5153 Establishing a whitelist suppresses inspection of the corresponding
5156 If no further argument is given the current settings of the given type
5157 will be displayed, otherwise the remaining arguments specify header
5158 fields, which \*(OPally may be given as regular expressions, to be added
5160 The special wildcard field (asterisk,
5162 will establish a (fast) shorthand setting which covers all fields.
5164 The latter command always takes three or more arguments and can be used
5165 to remove selections, i.e., from the given context, the given type of
5166 list, all the given headers will be removed, the special argument
5168 will remove all headers.
5172 (h) Show the current group of headers, the size of which depends on
5175 and the style of which can be adjusted with the variable
5177 If a message-specification is given the group of headers containing the
5178 first message therein is shown and the message at the top of the screen
5191 (this mode also supports a more
5195 the list of history entries;
5198 argument selects and evaluates the respective history entry,
5199 which will become the new history top; a negative number is used as an
5200 offset to the current command, e.g.,
5202 will select the last command, the history top.
5203 The default mode if no arguments are given is
5206 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor"
5207 for more on this topic.
5213 Takes a message list and marks each message therein to be saved in the
5218 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
5220 Does not override the
5223 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command, because a
5225 command issued after
5227 will display the following message, not the current one.
5232 (i) Part of the nestable
5233 .Ic if Ns \0/\: Ic elif Ns \0/\: Ic else Ns \0/\: Ic endif
5234 conditional execution construct \(em if the given condition is true then
5235 the encapsulated block is executed.
5236 The POSIX standards supports the (case-insensitive) conditions
5241 end, all remaining conditions are non-portable extensions.
5242 \*(ID These commands do not yet use
5243 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
5244 and therefore do not know about input tokens, so that syntax
5245 elements have to be surrounded by whitespace; in v15 \*(UA will inspect
5246 all conditions bracket group wise and consider the tokens, representing
5247 values and operators, therein, which also means that variables will
5248 already have been expanded at that time (just like in the shell).
5250 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5259 The (case-insensitive) condition
5261 erminal will evaluate to true if the standard input is a terminal, i.e.,
5262 in interactive sessions.
5263 Another condition can be any boolean value (see the section
5264 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
5265 for textual boolean representations) to mark an enwrapped block as
5268 .Dq always execute .
5269 (It shall be remarked that a faulty condition skips all branches until
5274 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
5275 will be used, and this command will simply interpret expanded tokens.)
5276 It is possible to check
5277 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
5280 variables for existence or compare their expansion against a user given
5281 value or another variable by using the
5283 .Pf ( Dq variable next )
5284 conditional trigger character;
5285 a variable on the right hand side may be signalled using the same
5287 Variable names may be enclosed in a pair of matching braces.
5288 When this mode has been triggered, several operators are available:
5291 Integer operators treat the arguments on the left and right hand side of
5292 the operator as integral numbers and compare them arithmetically.
5293 It is an error if any of the operands is not a valid integer, an empty
5294 argument (which implies it had been quoted) is treated as if it were 0.
5295 Available operators are
5299 (less than or equal to),
5305 (greater than or equal to), and
5310 String data operators compare the left and right hand side according to
5311 their textual content.
5312 Unset variables are treated as the empty string.
5313 The behaviour of string operators can be adjusted by prefixing the
5314 operator with the modifier trigger commercial at
5316 followed by none to multiple modifiers: for now supported is
5318 which turns the comparison into a case-insensitive one: this is
5319 implied if no modifier follows the trigger.
5322 Available string operators are
5326 (less than or equal to),
5332 (greater than or equal to),
5336 (is substring of) and
5338 (is not substring of).
5339 By default these operators work on bytes and (therefore) do not take
5340 into account character set specifics.
5341 If the case-insensitivity modifier has been used, case is ignored
5342 according to the rules of the US-ASCII encoding, i.e., bytes are
5346 When the \*(OPal regular expression support is available, the additional
5352 They treat the right hand side as an extended regular expression that is
5353 matched according to the active locale (see
5354 .Sx "Character sets" ) ,
5355 i.e., character sets should be honoured correctly.
5358 Conditions can be joined via AND-OR lists (where the AND operator is
5360 and the OR operator is
5362 which have equal precedence and will be evaluated with left
5363 associativity, thus using the same syntax that is known for the
5365 It is also possible to form groups of conditions and lists by enclosing
5366 them in pairs of brackets
5367 .Ql [\ \&.\&.\&.\ ] ,
5368 which may be interlocked within each other, and also be joined via
5372 The results of individual conditions and entire groups may be modified
5373 via unary operators: the unary operator
5375 will reverse the result.
5377 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5378 # (This not in v15, there [ -n "$debug"]!)
5382 if [ "$ttycharset" == UTF-8 ] || [ "$ttycharset" @i== UTF8 ]
5383 echo *ttycharset* is UTF-8, the former case-sensitive!
5386 if [ "${t1}" == "${t2}" ]
5387 echo These two variables are equal
5389 if [ "$features" =% +regex ] && [ "$TERM" @i=~ "^xterm\&.*" ]
5390 echo ..in an X terminal
5392 if [ [ true ] && [ [ "${debug}" != '' ] || \e
5393 [ "$verbose" != '' ] ] ]
5396 if true && [ "$debug" != '' ] || [ "${verbose}" != '' ]
5397 echo Left associativity, as is known from the shell
5406 Superseded by the multiplexer
5411 Shows the names of all available commands, alphabetically sorted.
5412 If given any non-whitespace argument the list will be shown in the order
5413 in which command prefixes are searched.
5414 \*(OP In conjunction with a set variable
5416 additional information will be provided for each command: the argument
5417 type will be indicated, the documentation string will be shown,
5418 and the set of command flags will show up:
5420 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql BaNg"
5421 .It Ql "vput modifier"
5422 command supports the command modifier
5424 .It Ql "errno in *!*"
5425 the error number is tracked in
5428 commands needs an active mailbox, a
5430 .It Ql "ok: batch or interactive"
5431 command may only be used in interactive or
5434 .It Ql "ok: send mode"
5435 command can be used in send mode.
5436 .It Ql "not ok: compose mode"
5437 command is not available when in compose mode.
5438 .It Ql "not ok: during startup"
5439 command cannot be used during program startup, e.g., while loading
5440 .Sx "Resource files" .
5441 .It Ql "ok: in subprocess"
5442 command is allowed to be used when running in a subprocess instance,
5443 e.g., from within a macro that is called via
5444 .Va on-compose-splice .
5450 This command can be used to localize changes to (linked)
5453 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
5454 meaning that their state will be reverted to the former one once the
5457 \*(ID Note in the future the coverage may be extended to none or any of
5467 It can only be used inside of macro definition blocks introduced by
5471 The covered scope of an
5473 is left once a different account is activated, and some macros, notably
5474 .Va folder-hook Ns s ,
5475 use their own specific notion of covered scope, here it will be extended
5476 until the folder is left again.
5479 This setting stacks up: i.e., if
5481 enables change localization and calls
5483 which explicitly resets localization, then any value changes within
5485 will still be reverted when the scope of
5488 (Caveats: if in this example
5490 changes to a different
5492 which sets some variables that are already covered by localizations,
5493 their scope will be extended, and in fact leaving the
5495 will (thus) restore settings in (likely) global scope which actually
5496 were defined in a local, macro private context!)
5499 This command takes one or two arguments, the optional first one
5500 specifies an attribute that may be one of
5502 which refers to the current scope and is thus the default,
5504 which causes any macro that is being
5506 ed to be started with localization enabled by default, as well as
5508 which (if enabled) disallows any called macro to turn off localization:
5509 like this it can be ensured that once the current scope regains control,
5510 any changes made in deeper levels have been reverted.
5511 The latter two are mutually exclusive.
5512 The (second) argument is interpreted as a boolean (string, see
5513 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" )
5514 and states whether the given attribute shall be turned on or off.
5516 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5517 define temporary_settings {
5518 set possibly_global_option1
5523 set possibly_global_option2
5530 Reply to messages that come in via known
5533 .Pf ( Ic mlsubscribe )
5534 mailing lists, or pretend to do so (see
5535 .Sx "Mailing lists" ) :
5538 functionality this will actively resort and even remove message
5539 recipients in order to generate a message that is supposed to be sent to
5541 For example it will also implicitly generate a
5542 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
5543 header if that seems useful, regardless of the setting of the variable
5545 For more documentation please refer to
5546 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
5548 This may generate the errors
5549 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
5550 if no receiver has been specified,
5552 if some addressees where rejected by
5555 if no applicable messages have been given,
5557 if an I/O error occurs,
5559 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
5562 Any error stops processing of further messages.
5568 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
5569 recipient's address (instead of in
5574 (m) Takes a (list of) recipient address(es) as (an) argument(s),
5575 or asks on standard input if none were given;
5576 then collects the remaining mail content and sends it out.
5577 Unless the internal variable
5579 is set recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names etc.
5580 For more documentation please refer to
5581 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
5583 This may generate the errors
5584 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
5585 if no receiver has been specified,
5587 if some addressees where rejected by
5590 if no applicable messages have been given,
5592 if multiple messages have been specified,
5594 if an I/O error occurs,
5596 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
5602 (mb) The given message list is to be sent to the
5604 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
5606 when \*(UA is quit; this is the default action unless the variable
5609 \*(ID This command can only be used in a
5611 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
5615 .It Ic mimetype , unmimetype
5616 Without arguments the content of the MIME type cache will displayed;
5617 a more verbose listing will be produced if either of
5622 When given arguments they will be joined, interpreted as shown in
5623 .Sx "The mime.types files"
5625 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ) ,
5626 and the resulting entry will be added (prepended) to the cache.
5627 In any event MIME type sources are loaded first as necessary \(en
5628 .Va mimetypes-load-control
5629 can be used to fine-tune which sources are actually loaded.
5631 The latter command deletes all specifications of the given MIME type, thus
5632 .Ql ? unmimetype text/plain
5633 will remove all registered specifications for the MIME type
5637 will discard all existing MIME types, just as will
5639 but which also reenables cache initialization via
5640 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
5644 .It Ic mlist , unmlist
5645 The latter command removes all given mailing-lists, the special name
5647 can be used to remove all registered lists.
5648 The former will list all currently defined mailing lists (and their
5649 attributes, if any) when used without arguments; a more verbose listing
5650 will be produced if either of
5655 Otherwise all given arguments will be added and henceforth be recognized
5657 If the \*(OPal regular expression support is available then mailing
5658 lists may also be specified as (extended) regular expressions (see
5664 \*(ID Only available in interactive mode, this command allows to display
5665 MIME parts which require external MIME handler programs to run which do
5666 not integrate in \*(UAs normal
5669 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ) .
5670 (\*(ID No syntax to directly address parts, this restriction may vanish.)
5671 The user will be asked for each non-text part of the given message in
5672 turn whether the registered handler shall be used to display the part.
5676 .It Ic mlsubscribe , unmlsubscribe
5677 The latter command removes the subscription attribute from all given
5678 mailing-lists, the special name
5680 can be used to do so for any registered list.
5681 The former will list all currently defined mailing lists which have
5682 a subscription attribute when used without arguments; a more verbose
5683 listing will be produced if either of
5688 Otherwise this attribute will be set for all given mailing lists,
5689 newly creating them as necessary (as via
5698 but moves the messages to a file named after the local part of the
5699 sender address of the first message (instead of in
5706 but marks the messages for deletion if they were transferred
5713 but also displays header fields which would not pass the
5715 selection, and all MIME parts.
5723 on the given messages, even in non-interactive mode and as long as the
5724 standard output is a terminal.
5730 \*(OP When used without arguments or if
5732 has been given the content of the
5734 cache is shown, loading it first as necessary.
5737 then the cache will only be initialized and
5739 will remove its contents.
5740 Note that \*(UA will try to load the file only once, use
5741 .Ql Ic \&\&netrc Ns \:\0\:clear
5742 to unlock further attempts.
5747 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ;
5749 .Sx "The .netrc file"
5750 documents the file format in detail.
5754 Checks for new mail in the current folder without committing any changes
5756 If new mail is present, a message is shown.
5760 the headers of each new message are also shown.
5761 This command is not available for all mailbox types.
5769 Goes to the next message in sequence and types it.
5770 With an argument list, types the next matching message.
5784 If the current folder is accessed via a network connection, a
5786 command is sent, otherwise no operation is performed.
5792 but also displays header fields which would not pass the
5794 selection, and all MIME parts.
5802 on the given messages, even in non-interactive mode and as long as the
5803 standard output is a terminal.
5811 but also pipes header fields which would not pass the
5813 selection, and all parts of MIME
5814 .Ql multipart/alternative
5819 (pi) Takes a message list and a shell command
5820 and pipes the messages through the command.
5821 Without an argument the current message is piped through the command
5828 every message is followed by a formfeed character.
5849 (q) Terminates the session, saving all undeleted, unsaved messages in
5852 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
5854 preserving all messages marked with
5858 or never referenced in the system
5860 and removing all other messages from the
5862 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
5863 If new mail has arrived during the session,
5865 .Dq You have new mail
5867 If given while editing a mailbox file with the command line option
5869 then the edit file is rewritten.
5870 A return to the shell is effected,
5871 unless the rewrite of edit file fails,
5872 in which case the user can escape with the exit command.
5873 The optional status number argument will be passed through to
5875 \*(ID For now it can happen that the given status will be overwritten,
5876 later this will only occur if a later error needs to be reported onto an
5877 otherwise success indicating status.
5881 \*(NQ Read a line from standard input, or the channel set active via
5883 and assign the data, which will be splitted as indicated by
5885 to the given variables.
5886 The variable names are checked by the same rules as documented for
5888 and the same error codes will be seen in
5892 indicates the number of bytes read, it will be
5894 with the error number
5898 in case of I/O errors, or
5901 If there are more fields than variables, assigns successive fields to the
5902 last given variable.
5903 If there are less fields than variables, assigns the empty string to the
5905 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5908 ? echo "<$a> <$b> <$c>"
5910 ? wysh set ifs=:; read a b c;unset ifs
5911 hey2.0,:"'you ",:world!:mars.:
5912 ? echo $?/$^ERRNAME / <$a><$b><$c>
5913 0/NONE / <hey2.0,><"'you ",><world!:mars.:><><>
5918 \*(NQ Read anything from standard input, or the channel set active via
5920 and assign the data to the given variable.
5921 The variable name is checked by the same rules as documented for
5923 and the same error codes will be seen in
5927 indicates the number of bytes read, it will be
5929 with the error number
5933 in case of I/O errors, or
5936 \*(ID The input data length is restricted to 31-bits.
5940 \*(NQ Manages input channels for
5944 to be used to avoid complicated or impracticable code, like calling
5946 from within a macro in non-interactive mode.
5947 Without arguments, or when the first argument is
5949 a listing of all known channels is printed.
5950 Channels can otherwise be
5952 d, and existing channels can be
5956 d by giving the string used for creation.
5958 The channel name is expected to be a file descriptor number, or,
5959 if parsing the numeric fails, an input file name that undergoes
5960 .Sx "Filename transformations" .
5961 E.g. (this example requires a modern shell):
5962 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5963 $ LC_ALL=C printf 'echon "hey, "\enread a\enyou\enecho $a' |\e
5966 $ LC_ALL=C printf 'echon "hey, "\enread a\enecho $a' |\e
5967 LC_ALL=C 6<<< 'you' \*(uA -R#X'readctl create 6'
5981 Removes the named files or directories.
5982 If a name refer to a mailbox, e.g., a Maildir mailbox, then a mailbox
5983 type specific removal will be performed, deleting the complete mailbox.
5984 The user is asked for confirmation in interactive mode.
5988 Takes the name of an existing folder
5989 and the name for the new folder
5990 and renames the first to the second one.
5991 Both folders must be of the same type.
5995 (R) Replies to only the sender of each message of the given message
5996 list, by using the first message as the template to quote, for the
6000 will exchange this command with
6002 Unless the internal variable
6004 is set the recipient address will be stripped from comments, names etc.
6006 headers will be inspected if
6010 This may generate the errors
6011 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
6012 if no receiver has been specified,
6014 if some addressees where rejected by
6017 if no applicable messages have been given,
6019 if an I/O error occurs,
6021 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
6027 (r) Take a message and group-responds to it by addressing the sender
6028 and all recipients, subject to
6032 .Va followup-to-honour ,
6035 .Va recipients-in-cc
6036 influence response behaviour.
6037 Unless the internal variable
6039 is set recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names etc.
6049 offers special support for replying to mailing lists.
6050 For more documentation please refer to
6051 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
6053 This may generate the errors
6054 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
6055 if no receiver has been specified,
6057 if some addressees where rejected by
6060 if no applicable messages have been given,
6062 if an I/O error occurs,
6064 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
6067 Any error stops processing of further messages.
6073 but initiates a group-reply regardless of the value of
6080 but responds to the sender only regardless of the value of
6087 but does not add any header lines.
6088 This is not a way to hide the sender's identity,
6089 but useful for sending a message again to the same recipients.
6093 Takes a list of messages and a user name
6094 and sends each message to the named user.
6096 and related header fields are prepended to the new copy of the message.
6099 is only performed if
6103 This may generate the errors
6104 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
6105 if no receiver has been specified,
6107 if some addressees where rejected by
6110 if no applicable messages have been given,
6112 if an I/O error occurs,
6114 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
6117 Any error stops processing of further messages.
6135 .It Ic respondsender
6141 (ret) Superseded by the multiplexer
6146 Only available inside the scope of a
6150 this will stop evaluation of any further macro content, and return
6151 execution control to the caller.
6152 The two optional parameters must be specified as positive decimal
6153 numbers and default to the value 0:
6154 the first argument specifies the signed 32-bit return value (stored in
6156 \*(ID and later extended to signed 64-bit),
6157 the second the signed 32-bit error number (stored in
6161 a non-0 exit status may cause the program to exit.
6167 but saves the messages in a file named after the local part of the
6168 sender of the first message instead of (in
6170 and) taking a filename argument; the variable
6172 is inspected to decide on the actual storage location.
6176 (s) Takes a message list and a filename and appends each message in turn
6177 to the end of the file.
6178 If no filename is given, the
6180 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
6183 The filename in quotes, followed by the generated character count
6184 is echoed on the user's terminal.
6187 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
6188 the messages are marked for deletion.
6189 .Sx "Filename transformations"
6191 To filter the saved header fields to the desired subset use the
6193 slot of the white- and blacklisting command
6197 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6201 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6205 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6210 Takes a message specification (list) and displays a header summary of
6211 all matching messages, as via
6213 This command is an alias of
6216 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
6220 Takes a message list and marks all messages as having been read.
6226 (se, \*(NQ uns) The latter command will delete all given variables,
6227 the former, when used without arguments, will show all variables which
6228 are currently known to \*(UA.
6229 A more verbose listing will be produced if
6235 Remarks: the list mode will not automatically link-in known
6237 variables, but only explicit addressing will, e.g., via
6239 using a variable in an
6241 condition or a string passed to
6245 ting, as well as some program-internal use cases.
6248 Otherwise the given variables (and arguments) are set or adjusted.
6249 Arguments are of the form
6251 (no space before or after
6255 if there is no value, i.e., a boolean variable.
6256 \*(ID In conjunction with the
6259 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
6260 can be used to quote arguments as necessary.
6261 \*(ID Otherwise quotation marks may be placed around any part of the
6262 assignment statement to quote blanks or tabs.
6265 .Dl ? wysh set indentprefix=' -> '
6268 If an argument begins with
6272 the effect is the same as invoking the
6274 command with the remaining part of the variable
6275 .Pf ( Ql unset save ) .
6280 that is known to map to an environment variable will automatically cause
6281 updates in the program environment (unsetting a variable in the
6282 environment requires corresponding system support) \(em use the command
6284 for further environmental control.
6289 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
6296 Apply shell quoting rules to the given raw-data arguments.
6300 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
6301 The first argument specifies the operation:
6305 cause shell quoting to be applied to the remains of the line, and
6306 expanded away thereof, respectively.
6307 If the former is prefixed with a plus-sign, the quoted result will not
6308 be roundtrip enabled, and thus can be decoded only in the very same
6309 environment that was used to perform the encode; also see
6310 .Cd mle-quote-rndtrip .
6311 If the coding operation fails the error number
6314 .Va ^ERR Ns -CANCELED ,
6315 and the unmodified input is used as the result; the error number may
6316 change again due to output or result storage errors.
6320 \*(NQ (sh) Invokes an interactive version of the shell,
6321 and returns its exit status.
6325 .It Ic shortcut , unshortcut
6326 Without arguments the list of all currently defined shortcuts is
6327 shown, with one argument the expansion of the given shortcut.
6328 Otherwise all given arguments are treated as pairs of shortcuts and
6329 their expansions, creating new or changing already existing shortcuts,
6331 The latter command will remove all given shortcuts, the special name
6333 will remove all registered shortcuts.
6337 \*(NQ Shift the positional parameter stack (starting at
6339 by the given number (which must be a positive decimal),
6340 or 1 if no argument has been given.
6341 It is an error if the value exceeds the number of positional parameters.
6342 If the given number is 0, no action is performed, successfully.
6343 The stack as such can be managed via
6345 Note this command will fail in
6347 and hook macros unless the positional parameter stack has been
6348 explicitly created in the current context via
6355 but performs neither MIME decoding nor decryption, so that the raw
6356 message text is shown.
6360 (si) Shows the size in characters of each message of the given
6365 \*(NQ Sleep for the specified number of seconds (and optionally
6366 milliseconds), by default interruptably.
6367 If a third argument is given the sleep will be uninterruptible,
6368 otherwise the error number
6372 if the sleep has been interrupted.
6373 The command will fail and the error number will be
6374 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW
6375 if the given duration(s) overflow the time datatype, and
6377 if the given durations are no valid integers.
6382 .It Ic sort , unsort
6383 The latter command disables sorted or threaded mode, returns to normal
6384 message order and, if the
6387 displays a header summary.
6388 The former command shows the current sorting criterion when used without
6389 an argument, but creates a sorted representation of the current folder
6390 otherwise, and changes the
6392 command and the addressing modes such that they refer to messages in
6394 Message numbers are the same as in regular mode.
6398 a header summary in the new order is also displayed.
6399 Automatic folder sorting can be enabled by setting the
6401 variable, as in, e.g.,
6402 .Ql set autosort=thread .
6403 Possible sorting criterions are:
6406 .Bl -tag -compact -width "subject"
6408 Sort the messages by their
6410 field, that is by the time they were sent.
6412 Sort messages by the value of their
6414 field, that is by the address of the sender.
6417 variable is set, the sender's real name (if any) is used.
6419 Sort the messages by their size.
6421 \*(OP Sort the message by their spam score, as has been classified by
6424 Sort the messages by their message status.
6426 Sort the messages by their subject.
6428 Create a threaded display.
6430 Sort messages by the value of their
6432 field, that is by the address of the recipient.
6435 variable is set, the recipient's real name (if any) is used.
6441 \*(NQ (so) The source command reads commands from the given file.
6442 .Sx "Filename transformations"
6444 If the given expanded argument ends with a vertical bar
6446 then the argument will instead be interpreted as a shell command and
6447 \*(UA will read the output generated by it.
6448 Dependent on the settings of
6452 and also dependent on whether the command modifier
6454 had been used, encountering errors will stop sourcing of the given input.
6457 cannot be used from within macros that execute as
6458 .Va folder-hook Ns s
6461 i.e., it can only be called from macros that were
6466 \*(NQ The difference to
6468 (beside not supporting pipe syntax aka shell command input) is that
6469 this command will not generate an error nor warn if the given file
6470 argument cannot be opened successfully.
6474 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and clears their
6480 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and causes the
6482 to forget it has ever used them to train its Bayesian filter.
6483 Unless otherwise noted the
6485 flag of the message is inspected to chose whether a message shall be
6493 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and informs the Bayesian filter of the
6497 This also clears the
6499 flag of the messages in question.
6503 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and rates them using the configured
6504 .Va spam-interface ,
6505 without modifying the messages, but setting their
6507 flag as appropriate; because the spam rating headers are lost the rate
6508 will be forgotten once the mailbox is left.
6509 Refer to the manual section
6511 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
6515 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and sets their
6521 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and informs the Bayesian filter of the
6527 flag of the messages in question.
6543 slot for white- and blacklisting header fields.
6547 (to) Takes a message list and types out the first
6549 lines of each message on the users' terminal.
6550 Unless a special selection has been established for the
6554 command, the only header fields that are displayed are
6565 It is possible to apply compression to what is displayed by setting
6567 Messages are decrypted and converted to the terminal character set
6572 (tou) Takes a message list and marks the messages for saving in the
6574 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
6576 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command,
6579 command will display the following message instead of the current one.
6585 but also displays header fields which would not pass the
6587 selection, and all visualizable parts of MIME
6588 .Ql multipart/alternative
6593 (t) Takes a message list and types out each message on the users terminal.
6594 The display of message headers is selectable via
6596 For MIME multipart messages, all parts with a content type of
6598 all parts which have a registered MIME type handler (see
6599 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" )
6600 which produces plain text output, and all
6602 parts are shown, others are hidden except for their headers.
6603 Messages are decrypted and converted to the terminal character set
6607 can be used to display parts which are not displayable as plain text.
6650 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6654 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6659 Superseded by the multiplexer
6670 .It Ic unmlsubscribe
6681 Takes a message list and marks each message as not having been read.
6685 Superseded by the multiplexer
6689 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6693 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6715 Perform URL percent codec operations on the raw-data argument, rather
6716 according to RFC 3986.
6720 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) ,
6721 and manages the error number
6723 This is a character set agnostic and thus locale dependent operation,
6724 and it may decode bytes which are invalid in the current
6726 \*(ID This command does not know about URLs beside that.
6728 The first argument specifies the operation:
6732 perform plain URL percent en- and decoding, respectively.
6736 perform a slightly modified operation which should be better for
6737 pathnames: it does not allow a tilde
6739 and will neither accept hyphen-minus
6743 as an initial character.
6744 The remains of the line form the URL data which is to be converted.
6745 If the coding operation fails the error number
6748 .Va ^ERR Ns -CANCELED ,
6749 and the unmodified input is used as the result; the error number may
6750 change again due to output or result storage errors.
6754 \*(NQ Edit the values of or create the given variable(s) in the
6756 Boolean variables cannot be edited, and variables can also not be
6762 \*(NQ This command produces the same output as the listing mode of
6766 ity adjustments, but only for the given variables.
6770 \*(OP Takes a message list and verifies each message.
6771 If a message is not a S/MIME signed message,
6772 verification will fail for it.
6773 The verification process checks if the message was signed using a valid
6775 if the message sender's email address matches one of those contained
6776 within the certificate,
6777 and if the message content has been altered.
6790 \*(NQ Evaluate arguments according to a given operator.
6791 This is a multiplexer command which can be used to perform signed 64-bit
6792 numeric calculations as well as byte string and string operations.
6793 It uses polish notation, i.e., the operator is the first argument and
6794 defines the number and type, and the meaning of the remaining arguments.
6795 An empty argument is replaced with a 0 if a number is expected.
6799 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
6802 The result that is shown in case of errors is always
6804 for usage errors and numeric operations, and the empty string for byte
6805 string and string operations;
6806 if the latter two fail to provide result data for
6808 errors, e.g., when a search operation failed, they also set the
6811 .Va ^ERR Ns -NODATA .
6812 Except when otherwise noted numeric arguments are parsed as signed 64-bit
6813 numbers, and errors will be reported in the error number
6815 as the numeric error
6816 .Va ^ERR Ns -RANGE .
6819 Numeric operations work on one or two signed 64-bit integers.
6820 One integer is expected by assignment (equals sign
6822 which does nothing but parsing the argument, thus detecting validity and
6823 possible overflow conditions, and unary not (tilde
6825 which creates the bitwise complement.
6826 Two integers are used by addition (plus sign
6828 subtraction (hyphen-minus
6830 multiplication (asterisk
6834 and modulo (percent sign
6836 as well as for the bitwise operators logical or (vertical bar
6839 bitwise and (ampersand
6842 bitwise xor (circumflex
6844 the bitwise signed left- and right shifts
6847 as well as for the unsigned right shift
6851 All numeric operators can be suffixed with a commercial at
6855 this will turn the operation into a saturated one, which means that
6856 overflow errors and division and modulo by zero are no longer reported
6857 via the exit status, but the result will linger at the minimum or
6858 maximum possible value, instead of overflowing (or trapping).
6859 This is true also for the argument parse step.
6860 For the bitwise shifts, the saturated maximum is 63.
6861 Any catched overflow will be reported via the error number
6864 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW .
6867 Character set agnostic string functions have no notion of locale
6868 settings and character sets.
6870 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm random"
6873 .Sx "Filename transformations"
6876 Generates a random string of the given length, or of
6878 bytes (a constant from
6880 if the value 0 is given; the random string will be base64url encoded
6881 according to RFC 4648, and thus be usable as a (portable) filename.
6885 Byte string operations work on 8-bit bytes and have no notion of locale
6886 settings and character sets, effectively assuming ASCII data.
6889 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm length"
6891 Queries the length of the given argument.
6894 Calculates the Chris Torek hash of the given argument.
6897 Byte-searches in the first for the second argument.
6898 Shows the resulting 0-based offset shall it have been found.
6903 but works case-insensitively according to the rules of the ASCII
6907 Creates a substring of its first argument.
6908 The second argument is the 0-based starting offset, a negative one
6909 counts from the end;
6910 the optional third argument specifies the length of the desired result,
6911 a negative length leaves off the given number of bytes at the end of the
6912 original string, by default the entire string is used;
6913 this operation tries to work around faulty arguments (set
6915 for error logs), but reports them via the error number
6918 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW .
6921 Trim away whitespace characters from both ends of the argument.
6924 Trim away whitespace characters from the begin of the argument.
6927 Trim away whitespace characters from the end of the argument.
6932 String operations work, sufficient support provided, according to the
6933 active user's locale encoding and character set (see
6934 .Sx "Character sets" ) .
6937 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm regex"
6939 (One-way) Converts the argument to something safely printable on the
6943 \*(OP A string operation that will try to match the first argument with
6944 the regular expression given as the second argument.
6945 If the optional third argument has been given then instead of showing
6946 the match offset a replacement operation is performed: the third
6947 argument is treated as if specified via dollar-single-quote (see
6948 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ) ,
6949 and any occurrence of a positional parameter, e.g.,
6951 is replaced by the corresponding match group of the regular expression:
6952 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6953 ? vexpr -@ +1 -9223372036854775808
6954 ? vput vexpr res ir bananarama \e
6955 (.*)NanA(.*) '\e${1}au\e$2'
6960 On otherwise identical case-insensitive equivalent to
6967 \*(NQ Manage the positional parameter stack (see
6971 If the first argument is
6973 then the positional parameter stack of the current context, or the
6974 global one, if there is none, is cleared.
6977 then the remaining arguments will be used to (re)create the stack,
6978 if the parameter stack size limit is excessed an
6979 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW
6983 If the first argument is
6985 a round-trip capable representation of the stack contents is created,
6986 with each quoted parameter separated from each other with the first
6989 and followed by the first character of
6991 if that is not empty and not identical to the first.
6992 If that results in no separation at all a
6998 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
6999 I.e., the subcommands
7003 can be used (in conjunction with
7005 to (re)create an argument stack from and to a single variable losslessly.
7007 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7008 ? vpospar set hey, "'you ", world!
7009 ? echo $#: <${1}><${2}><${3}>
7010 ? vput vpospar x quote
7012 ? echo $#: <${1}><${2}><${3}>
7013 ? eval vpospar set ${x}
7014 ? echo $#: <${1}><${2}><${3}>
7020 (v) Takes a message list and invokes the display editor on each message.
7021 Modified contents are discarded unless the
7023 variable is set, and are not used unless the mailbox can be written to
7024 and the editor returns a successful exit status.
7028 (w) For conventional messages the body without all headers is written.
7029 The original message is never marked for deletion in the originating
7031 The output is decrypted and converted to its native format as necessary.
7032 If the output file exists, the text is appended.
7033 If a message is in MIME multipart format its first part is written to
7034 the specified file as for conventional messages, handling of the remains
7035 depends on the execution mode.
7036 No special handling of compressed files is performed.
7038 In interactive mode the user is consecutively asked for the filenames of
7039 the processed parts.
7040 For convience saving of each part may be skipped by giving an empty
7041 value, the same result as writing it to
7043 Shell piping the part content by specifying a leading vertical bar
7045 character for the filename is supported.
7046 Other user input undergoes the usual
7047 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
7048 and contents of the destination file are overwritten if the file
7051 \*(ID In non-interactive mode any part which does not specify a filename
7052 is ignored, and suspicious parts of filenames of the remaining parts are
7053 URL percent encoded (as via
7055 to prevent injection of malicious character sequences, resulting in
7056 a filename that will be written into the current directory.
7057 Existing files will not be overwritten, instead the part number or
7058 a dot are appended after a number sign
7060 to the name until file creation succeeds (or fails due to other
7065 \*(NQ The sole difference to
7067 is that the new macro is executed in place of the current one, which
7068 will not regain control: all resources of the current macro will be
7070 This implies that any setting covered by
7072 will be forgotten and covered variables will become cleaned up.
7073 If this command is not used from within a
7075 ed macro it will silently be (a more expensive variant of)
7085 \*(NQ \*(UA presents message headers in
7087 fuls as described under the
7090 Without arguments this command scrolls to the next window of messages,
7091 likewise if the argument is
7095 scrolls to the last,
7097 scrolls to the first, and
7102 A number argument prefixed by
7106 indicates that the window is calculated in relation to the current
7107 position, and a number without a prefix specifies an absolute position.
7113 but scrolls to the next or previous window that contains at least one
7124 .\" .Sh COMMAND ESCAPES {{{
7125 .Sh "COMMAND ESCAPES"
7127 Here is a summary of the command escapes available in compose mode,
7128 which are used to perform special functions when composing messages.
7129 Command escapes are only recognized at the beginning of lines, and
7130 consist of a trigger (escape) and a command character.
7131 The actual escape character can be set via the internal variable
7133 it defaults to the tilde
7135 Otherwise ignored whitespace characters following the escape character
7136 will prevent a possible addition of the command line to the \*(OPal
7140 Unless otherwise noted all compose mode command escapes ensure proper
7141 updates of the variables which represent the error number
7147 is set they will, unless stated otherwise, error out message compose
7148 mode and cause a progam exit if an operation fails.
7149 It is however possible to place the character hyphen-minus
7151 after (possible whitespace following) the escape character, which has an
7152 effect equivalent to the command modifier
7154 If the \*(OPal key bindings are available it is possible to create
7156 ings specifically for the compose mode.
7159 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ic BaNg"
7162 Insert the string of text in the message prefaced by a single
7164 (If the escape character has been changed,
7165 that character must be doubled instead.)
7168 .It Ic ~! Ar command
7169 Execute the indicated shell
7171 which follows, replacing unescaped exclamation marks with the previously
7172 executed command if the internal variable
7174 is set, then return to the message.
7178 Same effect as typing the end-of-file character.
7181 .It Ic ~: Ar \*(UA-command Ns \0or Ic ~_ Ar \*(UA-command
7182 Execute the given \*(UA command.
7183 Not all commands, however, are allowed.
7186 .It Ic ~< Ar filename
7191 .It Ic ~<! Ar command
7193 is executed using the shell.
7194 Its standard output is inserted into the message.
7198 Write a summary of command escapes.
7201 .It Ic ~@ Op Ar filename...
7202 Append or edit the list of attachments.
7203 Does not manage the error number
7209 instead if this is a concern).
7212 arguments is expected as shell tokens (see
7213 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ;
7214 token-separating commas are ignored, too), to be
7215 interpreted as documented for the command line option
7217 with the message number exception as below.
7221 arguments the attachment list is edited, entry by entry;
7222 if a filename is left empty, that attachment is deleted from the list;
7223 once the end of the list is reached either new attachments may be
7224 entered or the session can be quit by committing an empty
7228 For all mode, if a given filename solely consists of the number sign
7230 followed by a valid message number of the currently active mailbox, then
7231 the given message is attached as a
7234 As the shell comment character the number sign must be quoted.
7237 .It Ic ~| Ar command
7238 Pipe the message through the specified filter command.
7239 If the command gives no output or terminates abnormally,
7240 retain the original text of the message.
7243 is often used as a rejustifying filter.
7247 .It Ic ~^ Ar cmd Op Ar subcmd Op Ar arg3 Op Ar arg4
7248 Low-level command meant for scripted message access, i.e., for
7249 .Va on-compose-splice
7251 .Va on-compose-splice-shell .
7252 The used protocol is likely subject to changes, and therefore the
7253 mentioned hooks receive the used protocol version as an initial line.
7254 In general the first field of a response line represents a status code
7255 which specifies whether a command was successful or not, whether result
7256 data is to be expected, and if, the format of the result data.
7257 Does not manage the error number
7261 because errors are reported via the protocol
7262 (hard errors like I/O failures cannot be handled).
7263 This command has read-only access to several virtual pseudo headers in
7264 the \*(UA private namespace, which may not exist (except for the first):
7268 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Va BaNg"
7269 .It Ql Mailx-Command:
7270 The name of the command that generates the message, one of
7278 .It Ql Mailx-Raw-To:
7279 .It Ql Mailx-Raw-Cc:
7280 .It Ql Mailx-Raw-Bcc:
7281 Represent the frozen initial state of these headers before any
7282 transformation (e.g.,
7285 .Va recipients-in-cc
7288 .It Ql Mailx-Orig-From:
7289 .It Ql Mailx-Orig-To:
7290 .It Ql Mailx-Orig-Cc:
7291 .It Ql Mailx-Orig-Bcc:
7292 The values of said headers of the original message which has been
7294 .Ic reply , forward , resend .
7298 The status codes are:
7302 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql 210"
7304 Status ok; the remains of the line are the result.
7307 Status ok; the rest of the line is optionally used for more status.
7308 What follows are lines of result addresses, terminated by an empty line.
7309 The address lines consist of two fields, the first of which is the
7310 plain address, e.g.,
7312 separated by a single ASCII SP space from the second which contains the
7313 unstripped address, even if that is identical to the first field, e.g.,
7314 .Ql (Lovely) Bob <bob@exam.ple> .
7315 All the input, including the empty line, must be consumed before further
7316 commands can be issued.
7319 Status ok; the rest of the line is optionally used for more status.
7320 What follows are lines of furtherly unspecified string content,
7321 terminated by an empty line.
7322 All the input, including the empty line, must be consumed before further
7323 commands can be issued.
7326 Syntax error; invalid command.
7329 Syntax error in parameters or arguments.
7332 Error: an argument fails verification.
7333 For example an invalid address has been specified, or an attempt was
7334 made to modify anything in \*(UA's own namespace.
7337 Error: an otherwise valid argument is rendered invalid due to context.
7338 For example, a second address is added to a header which may consist of
7339 a single address only.
7344 If a command indicates failure then the message will have remained
7346 Most commands can fail with
7348 if required arguments are missing (false command usage).
7349 The following (case-insensitive) commands are supported:
7352 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm header"
7354 This command allows listing, inspection, and editing of message headers.
7355 Header name case is not normalized, and case-insensitive comparison
7356 should be used when matching names.
7357 The second argument specifies the subcommand to apply, one of:
7359 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm remove"
7361 Without a third argument a list of all yet existing headers is given via
7363 this command is the default command of
7365 if no second argument has been given.
7366 A third argument restricts output to the given header only, which may
7369 if no such field is defined.
7372 Shows the content of the header given as the third argument.
7373 Dependent on the header type this may respond with
7377 any failure results in
7381 This will remove all instances of the header given as the third
7386 if no such header can be found, and
7388 on \*(UA namespace violations.
7391 This will remove from the header given as the third argument the
7392 instance at the list position (counting from one!) given with the fourth
7397 if the list position argument is not a number or on \*(UA namespace
7400 if no such header instance exists.
7403 Create a new or an additional instance of the header given in the third
7404 argument, with the header body content as given in the fourth argument
7405 (the remains of the line).
7408 if the third argument specifies a free-form header field name that is
7409 invalid, or if body content extraction fails to succeed,
7411 if any extracted address does not pass syntax and/or security checks or
7412 on \*(UA namespace violations, and
7414 to indicate prevention of excessing a single-instance header \(em note that
7416 can be appended to (a space separator will be added automatically first).
7419 is returned upon success, followed by the name of the header and the list
7420 position of the newly inserted instance.
7421 The list position is always 1 for single-instance header fields.
7422 All free-form header fields are managed in a single list.
7427 This command allows listing, removal and addition of message attachments.
7428 The second argument specifies the subcommand to apply, one of:
7430 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm remove"
7432 List all attachments via
7436 if no attachments exist.
7437 This command is the default command of
7439 if no second argument has been given.
7442 This will remove the attachment given as the third argument, and report
7446 if no such attachment can be found.
7447 If there exists any path component in the given argument, then an exact
7448 match of the path which has been used to create the attachment is used
7449 directly, but if only the basename of that path matches then all
7450 attachments are traversed to find an exact match first, and the removal
7451 occurs afterwards; if multiple basenames match, a
7454 Message attachments are treated as absolute pathnames.
7456 If no path component exists in the given argument, then all attachments
7457 will be searched for
7459 parameter matches as well as for matches of the basename of the path
7460 which has been used when the attachment has been created; multiple
7465 This will interpret the third argument as a number and remove the
7466 attachment at that list position (counting from one!), reporting
7470 if the argument is not a number or
7472 if no such attachment exists.
7475 Adds the attachment given as the third argument, specified exactly as
7476 documented for the command line option
7478 and supporting the message number extension as documented for
7482 upon success, with the index of the new attachment following,
7484 if the given file cannot be opened,
7486 if an on-the-fly performed character set conversion fails, otherwise
7488 is reported; this is also reported if character set conversion is
7489 requested but not available.
7492 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
7494 and prints any known attributes of the first found attachment via
7498 if no such attachment can be found.
7499 The attributes are written as lines of keyword and value tuples, the
7500 keyword being separated from the rest of the line with an ASCII SP space
7504 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
7506 and is otherwise identical to
7509 .It Cm attribute-set
7510 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
7512 and will assign the attribute given as the fourth argument, which is
7513 expected to be a value tuple of keyword and other data, separated by
7514 a ASCII SP space or TAB tabulator character.
7515 If the value part is empty, then the given attribute is removed, or
7516 reset to a default value if existence of the attribute is crucial.
7520 upon success, with the index of the found attachment following,
7522 for message attachments or if the given keyword is invalid, and
7524 if no such attachment can be found.
7525 The following keywords may be used (case-insensitively):
7527 .Bl -hang -compact -width ".It Ql filename"
7529 Sets the filename of the MIME part, i.e., the name that is used for
7530 display and when (suggesting a name for) saving (purposes).
7531 .It Ql content-description
7532 Associate some descriptive information to the attachment's content, used
7533 in favour of the plain filename by some MUAs.
7535 May be used for uniquely identifying MIME entities in several contexts;
7536 this expects a special reference address format as defined in RFC 2045
7539 upon address content verification failure.
7541 Defines the media type/subtype of the part, which is managed
7542 automatically, but can be overwritten.
7543 .It Ql content-disposition
7544 Automatically set to the string
7548 .It Cm attribute-set-at
7549 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
7551 and is otherwise identical to
7560 .Ql Ic ~i Ns \| Va Sign .
7565 .Ql Ic ~i Ns \| Va sign .
7568 .It Ic ~b Ar name ...
7569 Add the given names to the list of blind carbon copy recipients.
7572 .It Ic ~c Ar name ...
7573 Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients.
7577 Read the file specified by the
7579 variable into the message.
7583 Invoke the text editor on the message collected so far.
7584 After the editing session is finished,
7585 the user may continue appending text to the message.
7588 .It Ic ~F Ar messages
7589 Read the named messages into the message being sent, including all
7590 message headers and MIME parts.
7591 If no messages are specified, read in the current message, the
7595 .It Ic ~f Ar messages
7596 Read the named messages into the message being sent.
7597 If no messages are specified, read in the current message, the
7599 Strips down the list of header fields according to the
7601 white- and blacklist selection of
7603 For MIME multipart messages,
7604 only the first displayable part is included.
7608 Edit the message header fields
7613 by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
7614 The default values for these fields originate from the
7622 Edit the message header fields
7628 by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
7631 .It Ic ~I Ar variable
7632 Insert the value of the specified variable into the message.
7633 The message remains unaltered if the variable is unset or empty.
7634 Any embedded character sequences
7636 horizontal tabulator and
7638 line feed are expanded in
7640 mode; otherwise the expansion should occur at
7642 time by using the command modifier
7646 .It Ic ~i Ar variable
7647 Insert the value of the specified variable followed by a newline
7648 character into the message.
7649 The message remains unaltered if the variable is unset or empty.
7650 Any embedded character sequences
7652 horizontal tabulator and
7654 line feed are expanded in
7656 mode; otherwise the expansion should occur at
7658 time by using the command modifier
7662 .It Ic ~M Ar messages
7663 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
7666 If no messages are specified, read the current message, the
7670 .It Ic ~m Ar messages
7671 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
7674 If no messages are specified, read the current message, the
7676 Strips down the list of header fields according to the
7678 white- and blacklist selection of
7680 For MIME multipart messages,
7681 only the first displayable part is included.
7685 Display the message collected so far,
7686 prefaced by the message header fields
7687 and followed by the attachment list, if any.
7691 Abort the message being sent,
7692 copying it to the file specified by the
7699 .It Ic ~R Ar filename
7702 but indent each line that has been read by
7706 .It Ic ~r Ar filename Op Ar HERE-delimiter
7707 Read the named file, object to the usual
7708 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
7709 into the message; if (the expanded)
7713 then standard input is used, e.g., for pasting purposes.
7714 Only in this latter mode
7716 may be given: if it is data will be read in until the given
7718 is seen on a line by itself, and encountering EOF is an error; the
7720 is a required argument in non-interactive mode; if it is single-quote
7721 quoted then the pasted content will not be expanded, \*(ID otherwise
7722 a future version of \*(UA may perform shell-style expansion on the content.
7726 Cause the named string to become the current subject field.
7727 Newline (NL) and carriage-return (CR) bytes are invalid and will be
7728 normalized to space (SP) characters.
7731 .It Ic ~t Ar name ...
7732 Add the given name(s) to the direct recipient list.
7735 .It Ic ~U Ar messages
7736 Read in the given / current message(s) excluding all headers, indented by
7740 .It Ic ~u Ar messages
7741 Read in the given / current message(s), excluding all headers.
7745 Invoke an alternate editor (defined by the
7747 environment variable) on the message collected so far.
7748 Usually, the alternate editor will be a screen editor.
7749 After the editor is quit,
7750 the user may resume appending text to the end of the message.
7753 .It Ic ~w Ar filename
7754 Write the message onto the named file, which is object to the usual
7755 .Sx "Filename transformations" .
7757 the message is appended to it.
7763 except that the message is not saved at all.
7769 .\" .Sh INTERNAL VARIABLES {{{
7770 .Sh "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
7772 Internal \*(UA variables are controlled via the
7776 commands; prefixing a variable name with the string
7780 has the same effect as using
7786 Creation or editing of variables can be performed in the
7791 will give more insight on the given variable(s), and
7793 when called without arguments, will show a listing of all variables.
7794 Both commands support a more
7797 Some well-known variables will also become inherited from the
7800 implicitly, others can be imported explicitly with the command
7802 and henceforth share said properties.
7805 Two different kinds of internal variables exist, and both of which can
7807 There are boolean variables, which can only be in one of the two states
7811 and value variables with a(n optional) string value.
7812 For the latter proper quoting is necessary upon assignment time, the
7813 introduction of the section
7815 documents the supported quoting rules.
7817 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7818 ? wysh set one=val\e 1 two="val 2" \e
7819 three='val "3"' four=$'val \e'4\e''; \e
7820 varshow one two three four; \e
7821 unset one two three four
7825 Dependent upon the actual option the string values will be interpreted
7826 as numbers, colour names, normal text etc., but there also exists
7827 a special kind of string value, the
7828 .Dq boolean string ,
7829 which must either be a decimal integer (in which case
7833 and any other value is true) or any of the (case-insensitive) strings
7839 for a false boolean and
7845 for a true boolean; a special kind of boolean string is the
7847 which is a boolean string that can optionally be prefixed with the
7848 (case-insensitive) term
7852 which causes prompting of the user in interactive mode, with the given
7853 boolean as the default value.
7856 Variable chains extend a plain
7861 .Ql variable-USER@HOST
7869 had been specified in the contextual Uniform Resource Locator URL (see
7870 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
7871 Even though this mechanism is based on URLs no URL percent encoding may
7872 be applied to neither of
7876 variable chains need to be specified using raw data.
7877 Variables which support chains are explicitly documented as such.
7879 .\" .Ss "Initial settings" {{{
7880 .\" (Keep in SYNC: ./nail.h:okeys, ./nail.rc, ./nail.1:"Initial settings")
7881 .Ss "Initial settings"
7883 The standard POSIX 2008/Cor 2-2016 mandates the following initial
7889 .Pf no Va autoprint ,
7903 .Pf no Va ignoreeof ,
7905 .Pf no Va keepsave ,
7907 .Pf no Va outfolder ,
7915 .Pf no Va sendwait ,
7924 Notes: \*(UA does not support the
7926 variable \(en use command line options or
7928 to pass options through to a
7930 And the default global
7932 file, which is loaded unless the
7934 (with according argument) or
7936 command line options have been used, or the
7937 .Ev MAILX_NO_SYSTEM_RC
7938 environment variable is set (see
7939 .Sx "Resource files" )
7940 bends those initial settings a bit, e.g., it sets the variables
7945 to name a few, establishes a default
7947 selection etc., and should thus be taken into account.
7950 .\" .Ss "Variables" {{{
7953 .Bl -tag -width ".It Va BaNg"
7957 \*(RO The exit status of the last command, or the
7962 This status has a meaning in the state machine: in conjunction with
7964 any non-0 exit status will cause a program exit, and in
7966 mode any error while loading (any of the) resource files will have the
7970 .Sx "Command modifiers" ,
7971 can be used to instruct the state machine to ignore errors.
7975 \*(RO The current error number
7976 .Pf ( Xr errno 3 ) ,
7977 which is set after an error occurred; it is also available via
7979 and the error name and documentation string can be queried via
7983 \*(ID This machinery is new and the error number is only really usable
7984 if a command explicitly states that it manages the variable
7986 for others errno will be used in case of errors, or
7988 if that is 0: it thus may or may not reflect the real error.
7989 The error number may be set with the command
7995 \*(RO This is a multiplexer variable which performs dynamic expansion of
7996 the requested state or condition, of which there are:
7999 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Va BaNg"
8003 .It Va ^ERR , ^ERRDOC , ^ERRNAME
8004 The number, documentation, and name of the current
8006 respectively, which is usually set after an error occurred.
8007 \*(ID This machinery is new and is usually reliable only if a command
8008 explicitly states that it manages the variable
8010 which is effectively identical to
8012 Each of those variables can be suffixed with a hyphen minus followed by
8013 a name or number, in which case the expansion refers to the given error.
8014 Note this is a direct mapping of (a subset of) the system error values:
8015 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8017 eval echo \e$1: \e$^ERR-$1: \e$^ERRNAME-$1: \e$^ERRDOC-$1
8018 vput vexpr i + "$1" 1
8030 \*(RO Expands all positional parameters (see
8032 separated by a space character.
8033 \*(ID The special semantics of the equally named special parameter of the
8035 are not yet supported.
8039 \*(RO Expands all positional parameters (see
8041 separated by a space character.
8042 If placed in double quotation marks, each positional parameter is
8043 properly quoted to expand to a single parameter again.
8047 \*(RO Expands to the number of positional parameters, i.e., the size of
8048 the positional parameter stack in decimal.
8052 \*(RO Inside the scope of a
8056 ed macro this expands to the name of the calling macro, or to the empty
8057 string if the macro is running from top-level.
8058 For the \*(OPal regular expression search and replace operator of
8060 this expands to the entire matching expression.
8061 It represents the program name in global context.
8065 \*(RO Access of the positional parameter stack.
8066 All further parameters can be accessed with this syntax, too, e.g.,
8069 etc.; positional parameters can be shifted off the stack by calling
8071 The parameter stack contains, e.g., the arguments of a
8075 d macro, the matching groups of the \*(OPal regular expression search
8076 and replace expression of
8078 and can be explicitly created or overwritten with the command
8083 \*(RO Is set to the active
8087 .It Va add-file-recipients
8088 \*(BO When file or pipe recipients have been specified,
8089 mention them in the corresponding address fields of the message instead
8090 of silently stripping them from their recipient list.
8091 By default such addressees are not mentioned.
8095 \*(BO Causes only the local part to be evaluated
8096 when comparing addresses.
8100 \*(BO Causes messages saved in the
8102 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
8104 to be appended to the end rather than prepended.
8105 This should always be set.
8109 \*(BO Causes the prompts for
8113 lists to appear after the message has been edited.
8117 \*(BO If set, \*(UA asks for files to attach at the end of each message.
8118 An empty line finalizes the list.
8122 \*(BO Causes the user to be prompted for carbon copy recipients
8123 (at the end of each message if
8131 \*(BO Causes the user to be prompted for blind carbon copy
8132 recipients (at the end of each message if
8140 \*(BO Causes the user to be prompted for confirmation to send the
8141 message or reenter compose mode after having been shown an envelope
8143 This is by default enabled.
8147 \*(BO\*(OP Causes the user to be prompted if the message is to be
8148 signed at the end of each message.
8151 variable is ignored when this variable is set.
8155 .\" The alternative *ask* is not documented on purpose
8156 \*(BO Causes \*(UA to prompt for the subject upon entering compose mode
8157 unless a subject already exists.
8161 A sequence of characters to display in the
8165 as shown in the display of
8167 each for one type of messages (see
8168 .Sx "Message states" ) ,
8169 with the default being
8172 .Ql NU\ \ *HMFAT+\-$~
8175 variable is set, in the following order:
8177 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql _"
8199 start of a collapsed thread.
8201 an uncollapsed thread (TODO ignored for now).
8205 classified as possible spam.
8211 Specifies a list of recipients to which a blind carbon copy of each
8212 outgoing message will be sent automatically.
8216 Specifies a list of recipients to which a carbon copy of each outgoing
8217 message will be sent automatically.
8221 \*(BO Causes threads to be collapsed automatically when threaded mode
8228 \*(BO Enable automatic
8230 ing of a(n existing)
8236 commands, e.g., the message that becomes the new
8238 is shown automatically, as via
8245 Causes sorted mode (see the
8247 command) to be entered automatically with the value of this variable as
8248 sorting method when a folder is opened, e.g.,
8249 .Ql set autosort=thread .
8253 \*(BO Enables the substitution of all not (reverse-solidus) escaped
8256 characters by the contents of the last executed command for the
8258 shell escape command and
8260 one of the compose mode
8261 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
8262 If this variable is not set no reverse solidus stripping is performed.
8266 \*(OP Terminals generate multi-byte sequences for certain forms of
8267 input, for example for function and other special keys.
8268 Some terminals however do not write these multi-byte sequences as
8269 a whole, but byte-by-byte, and the latter is what \*(UA actually reads.
8270 This variable specifies the timeout in milliseconds that the MLE (see
8271 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
8272 waits for more bytes to arrive unless it considers a sequence
8278 \*(BO Sets some cosmetical features to traditional BSD style;
8279 has the same affect as setting
8281 and all other variables prefixed with
8283 it also changes the behaviour of
8285 (which does not exist in BSD).
8289 \*(BO Changes the letters shown in the first column of a header
8290 summary to traditional BSD style.
8294 \*(BO Changes the display of columns in a header summary to traditional
8299 \*(BO Changes some informational messages to traditional BSD style.
8305 field to appear immediately after the
8307 field in message headers and with the
8309 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
8313 .It Va build-os , build-osenv
8314 \*(RO The operating system \*(UA has been build for, usually taken from
8320 respectively, the former being lowercased.
8324 The value that should appear in the
8328 MIME header fields when no character set conversion of the message data
8330 This defaults to US-ASCII, and the chosen character set should be
8331 US-ASCII compatible.
8335 \*(OP The default 8-bit character set that is used as an implicit last
8336 member of the variable
8338 This defaults to UTF-8 if character set conversion capabilities are
8339 available, and to ISO-8859-1 otherwise, in which case the only supported
8342 and this variable is effectively ignored.
8343 Refer to the section
8344 .Sx "Character sets"
8345 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
8348 .It Va charset-unknown-8bit
8349 \*(OP RFC 1428 specifies conditions when internet mail gateways shall
8351 the content of a mail message by using a character set with the name
8353 Because of the unclassified nature of this character set \*(UA will not
8354 be capable to convert this character set to any other character set.
8355 If this variable is set any message part which uses the character set
8357 is assumed to really be in the character set given in the value,
8358 otherwise the (final) value of
8360 is used for this purpose.
8362 This variable will also be taken into account if a MIME type (see
8363 .Sx "The mime.types files" )
8364 of a MIME message part that uses the
8366 character set is forcefully treated as text.
8370 The default value for the
8375 .It Va colour-disable
8376 \*(BO\*(OP Forcefully disable usage of colours.
8377 Also see the section
8378 .Sx "Coloured display" .
8382 \*(BO\*(OP Whether colour shall be used for output that is paged through
8384 Note that pagers may need special command line options, e.g.,
8392 in order to support colours.
8393 Often doing manual adjustments is unnecessary since \*(UA may perform
8394 adjustments dependent on the value of the environment variable
8396 (see there for more).
8400 .It Va contact-mail , contact-web
8401 \*(RO Addresses for contact per email and web, respectively, e.g., for
8402 bug reports, suggestions, or help regarding \*(UA.
8403 The former can be used directly:
8404 .Ql ? Ns \| Ic eval Ns \| Ic mail Ns \| $contact-mail .
8408 In a(n interactive) terminal session, then if this valued variable is
8409 set it will be used as a threshold to determine how many lines the given
8410 output has to span before it will be displayed via the configured
8414 can be forced by setting this to the value
8416 setting it without a value will deduce the current height of the
8417 terminal screen to compute the treshold (see
8422 \*(ID At the moment this uses the count of lines of the message in wire
8423 format, which, dependent on the
8425 of the message, is unrelated to the number of display lines.
8426 (The software is old and historically the relation was a given thing.)
8430 Define a set of custom headers to be injected into newly composed or
8431 forwarded messages; it is also possible to create custom headers in
8434 which can be automated by setting one of the hooks
8435 .Va on-compose-splice
8437 .Va on-compose-splice-shell .
8438 The value is interpreted as a comma-separated list of custom headers to
8439 be injected, to include commas in the header bodies escape them with
8441 \*(ID Overwriting of automatically managed headers is neither supported
8444 .Dl ? set customhdr='Hdr1: Body1-1\e, Body1-2, Hdr2: Body2'
8448 Controls the appearance of the
8450 date and time format specification of the
8452 variable, that is used, for example, when viewing the summary of
8454 If unset, then the local receiving date is used and displayed
8455 unformatted, otherwise the message sending
8457 It is possible to assign a
8459 format string and control formatting, but embedding newlines via the
8461 format is not supported, and will result in display errors.
8463 .Ql %Y-%m-%d %H:%M ,
8465 .Va datefield-markout-older .
8468 .It Va datefield-markout-older
8469 Only used in conjunction with
8471 Can be used to create a visible distinction of messages dated more than
8472 a day in the future, or older than six months, a concept comparable to the
8474 option of the POSIX utility
8476 If set to the empty string, then the plain month, day and year of the
8478 will be displayed, but a
8480 format string to control formatting can be assigned.
8486 \*(BO Enables debug messages and obsoletion warnings, disables the
8487 actual delivery of messages and also implies
8493 .It Va disposition-notification-send
8495 .Ql Disposition-Notification-To:
8496 header (RFC 3798) with the message.
8500 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-HOST
8502 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
8503 .\" for SMTP accounts on a specific host.
8504 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-USER@HOST
8506 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
8507 .\"for a specific account.
8511 \*(BO When dot is set, a period
8513 on a line by itself during message input in (interactive or batch
8515 compose mode will be treated as end-of-message (in addition to the
8516 normal end-of-file condition).
8517 This behaviour is implied in
8523 .It Va dotlock-ignore-error
8524 \*(BO\*(OP Synchronization of mailboxes which \*(UA treats as
8526 .Sx "primary system mailbox" Ns
8527 es (see, e.g., the notes on
8528 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
8529 as well as the documentation of
8531 will be protected with so-called dotlock files\(emthe traditional mail
8532 spool file locking method\(emin addition to system file locking.
8533 Because \*(UA ships with a privilege-separated dotlock creation program
8534 that should always be able to create such a dotlock file there is no
8535 good reason to ignore dotlock file creation errors, and thus these are
8536 fatal unless this variable is set.
8540 \*(BO If this variable is set then the editor is started automatically
8541 when a message is composed in interactive mode, as if the
8543 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
8547 variable is implied for this automatically spawned editor session.
8551 \*(BO When a message is edited while being composed,
8552 its header is included in the editable text.
8556 \*(BO When entering interactive mode \*(UA normally writes
8557 .Dq \&No mail for user
8558 and exits immediately if a mailbox is empty or does not exist.
8559 If this variable is set \*(UA starts even with an empty or non-existent
8560 mailbox (the latter behaviour furtherly depends upon
8566 \*(BO Let each command with a non-0 exit status, including every
8570 s a non-0 status, cause a program exit unless prefixed by
8573 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
8575 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ,
8576 but which use a different modifier for ignoring the error.
8577 Please refer to the variable
8579 for more on this topic.
8583 The first character of this value defines the escape character for
8584 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
8586 The default value is the character tilde
8588 If set to the empty string, command escapes are disabled.
8592 If not set then file and command pipeline targets are not allowed,
8593 and any such address will be filtered out, giving a warning message.
8594 If set without a value then all possible recipient address
8595 specifications will be accepted \(en see the section
8596 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode"
8598 To accept them, but only in interactive mode, or when tilde commands
8599 were enabled explicitly by using one of the command line options
8603 set this to the (case-insensitive) value
8605 (it actually acts like
8606 .Ql restrict,-all,+name,+addr ,
8607 so that care for ordering issues must be taken) .
8609 In fact the value is interpreted as a comma-separated list of values.
8612 then the existence of disallowed specifications is treated as a hard
8613 send error instead of only filtering them out.
8614 The remaining values specify whether a specific type of recipient
8615 address specification is allowed (optionally indicated by a plus sign
8617 prefix) or disallowed (prefixed with a hyphen-minus
8621 addresses all possible address specifications,
8625 command pipeline targets,
8627 plain user names and (MTA) aliases and
8630 These kind of values are interpreted in the given order, so that
8631 .Ql restrict,\:fail,\:+file,\:-all,\:+addr
8632 will cause hard errors for any non-network address recipient address
8633 unless \*(UA is in interactive mode or has been started with the
8637 command line option; in the latter case(s) any address may be used, then.
8639 Historically invalid network addressees are silently stripped off.
8640 To change this so that any encountered invalid email address causes
8641 a hard error it must be ensured that
8643 is an entry in the above list.
8644 Setting this automatically enables network addressees
8645 (it actually acts like
8646 .Ql failinvaddr,+addr ,
8647 so that care for ordering issues must be taken) .
8651 Unless this variable is set additional
8653 (Mail-Transfer-Agent)
8654 arguments from the command line, as can be given after a
8656 separator, are ignored due to safety reasons.
8657 However, if set to the special (case-insensitive) value
8659 then the presence of additional MTA arguments is treated as a hard
8660 error that causes \*(UA to exit with failure status.
8661 A lesser strict variant is the otherwise identical
8663 which does accept such arguments in interactive mode, or if tilde
8664 commands were enabled explicitly by using one of the command line options
8671 \*(RO String giving a list of optional features, preceded with a plus sign
8673 if it is available, and a hyphen-minus
8676 The output of the command
8678 will include this information in a more pleasant output.
8682 \*(BO This setting reverses the meanings of a set of reply commands,
8683 turning the lowercase variants, which by default address all recipients
8684 included in the header of a message
8685 .Pf ( Ic reply , respond , followup )
8686 into the uppercase variants, which by default address the sender only
8687 .Pf ( Ic Reply , Respond , Followup )
8690 .Ic replysender , respondsender , followupsender
8692 .Ic replyall , respondall , followupall
8693 are not affected by the current setting of
8698 The default path under which mailboxes are to be saved:
8699 filenames that begin with the plus sign
8701 will have the plus sign replaced with the value of this variable if set,
8702 otherwise the plus sign will remain unchanged when doing
8703 .Sx "Filename transformations" ;
8706 for more on this topic.
8707 The value supports a subset of transformations itself, and if the
8708 non-empty value does not start with a solidus
8712 will be prefixed automatically.
8713 Once the actual value is evaluated first, the internal variable
8715 will be updated for caching purposes.
8718 .It Va folder-hook-FOLDER , Va folder-hook
8721 macro which will be called whenever a
8724 The macro will also be invoked when new mail arrives,
8725 but message lists for commands executed from the macro
8726 only include newly arrived messages then.
8728 are activated by default in a folder hook, causing the covered settings
8729 to be reverted once the folder is left again.
8731 The specialized form will override the generic one if
8733 matches the file that is opened.
8734 Unlike other folder specifications, the fully expanded name of a folder,
8735 without metacharacters, is used to avoid ambiguities.
8736 However, if the mailbox resides under
8740 specification is tried in addition, e.g., if
8744 (and thus relative to the user's home directory) then
8745 .Pa /home/usr1/mail/sent
8747 .Ql folder-hook-/home/usr1/mail/sent
8748 first, but then followed by
8749 .Ql folder-hook-+sent .
8752 .It Va folder-resolved
8753 \*(RO Set to the fully resolved path of
8755 once that evaluation has occurred; rather internal.
8759 \*(BO Controls whether a
8760 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
8761 header is generated when sending messages to known mailing lists.
8763 .Va followup-to-honour
8765 .Ic mlist , mlsubscribe , reply
8770 .It Va followup-to-honour
8772 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
8773 header is honoured when group-replying to a message via
8777 This is a quadoption; if set without a value it defaults to
8787 .It Va forward-as-attachment
8788 \*(BO Original messages are normally sent as inline text with the
8791 and only the first part of a multipart message is included.
8792 With this setting enabled messages are sent as unmodified MIME
8794 attachments with all of their parts included.
8797 .It Va forward-inject-head
8798 The string to put before the text of a message with the
8800 command instead of the default
8801 .Dq -------- Original Message -------- .
8802 No heading is put if it is set to the empty string.
8803 This variable is ignored if the
8804 .Va forward-as-attachment
8810 The address (or a list of addresses) to put into the
8812 field of the message header, quoting RFC 5322:
8813 the author(s) of the message, that is, the mailbox(es) of the person(s)
8814 or system(s) responsible for the writing of the message.
8815 According to that RFC setting the
8817 variable is required if
8819 contains more than one address.
8822 ing to messages these addresses are handled as if they were in the
8827 If a file-based MTA is used, then
8829 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
8831 can nonetheless be enforced to appear as the envelope sender address at
8832 the MTA protocol level (the RFC 5321 reverse-path), either by using the
8834 command line option (with an empty argument; see there for the complete
8835 picture on this topic), or by setting the internal variable
8836 .Va r-option-implicit .
8839 If the machine's hostname is not valid at the Internet (for example at
8840 a dialup machine) then either this variable or
8844 adds even more fine-tuning capabilities with
8845 .Va smtp-hostname ) ,
8846 have to be set; if so the message and MIME part related unique ID fields
8850 will be created (except when disallowed by
8851 .Va message-id-disable
8858 \*(BO Due to historical reasons comments and name parts of email
8859 addresses are removed by default when sending mail, replying to or
8860 forwarding a message.
8861 If this variable is set such stripping is not performed.
8864 \*(OB Predecessor of
8865 .Va forward-inject-head .
8869 \*(BO Causes the header summary to be written at startup and after
8870 commands that affect the number of messages or the order of messages in
8875 mode a header summary will also be displayed on folder changes.
8876 The command line option
8884 A format string to use for the summary of
8886 similar to the ones used for
8889 Format specifiers in the given string start with a percent sign
8891 and may be followed by an optional decimal number indicating the field
8892 width \(em if that is negative, the field is to be left-aligned.
8893 Valid format specifiers are:
8896 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql _%%_"
8898 A plain percent sign.
8901 a space character but for the current message
8903 for which it expands to
8907 a space character but for the current message
8909 for which it expands to
8912 \*(OP The spam score of the message, as has been classified via the
8915 Shows only a replacement character if there is no spam support.
8917 Message attribute character (status flag); the actual content can be
8921 The date found in the
8923 header of the message when
8925 is set (the default), otherwise the date when the message was received.
8926 Formatting can be controlled by assigning a
8931 The indenting level in threaded mode.
8933 The address of the message sender.
8935 The message thread tree structure.
8936 (Note that this format does not support a field width.)
8938 The number of lines of the message, if available.
8942 The number of octets (bytes) in the message, if available.
8944 Message subject (if any).
8946 Message subject (if any) in double quotes.
8948 Message recipient flags: is the addressee of the message a known or
8949 subscribed mailing list \(en see
8954 The position in threaded/sorted order.
8958 .Ql %>\&%a\&%m\ %-18f\ %16d\ %4l/%\-5o\ %i%-s ,
8960 .Ql %>\&%a\&%m\ %20-f\ \ %16d\ %3l/%\-5o\ %i%-S
8971 .It Va headline-bidi
8972 Bidirectional text requires special treatment when displaying headers,
8973 because numbers (in dates or for file sizes etc.) will not affect the
8974 current text direction, in effect resulting in ugly line layouts when
8975 arabic or other right-to-left text is to be displayed.
8976 On the other hand only a minority of terminals is capable to correctly
8977 handle direction changes, so that user interaction is necessary for
8979 Note that extended host system support is required nonetheless, e.g.,
8980 detection of the terminal character set is one precondition;
8981 and this feature only works in an Unicode (i.e., UTF-8) locale.
8983 In general setting this variable will cause \*(UA to encapsulate text
8984 fields that may occur when displaying
8986 (and some other fields, like dynamic expansions in
8988 with special Unicode control sequences;
8989 it is possible to fine-tune the terminal support level by assigning
8991 no value (or any value other than
8996 will make \*(UA assume that the terminal is capable to properly deal
8997 with Unicode version 6.3, in which case text is embedded in a pair of
8998 U+2068 (FIRST STRONG ISOLATE) and U+2069 (POP DIRECTIONAL ISOLATE)
9000 In addition no space on the line is reserved for these characters.
9002 Weaker support is chosen by using the value
9004 (Unicode 6.3, but reserve the room of two spaces for writing the control
9005 sequences onto the line).
9010 select Unicode 1.1 support (U+200E, LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK); the latter
9011 again reserves room for two spaces in addition.
9015 \*(OP If a line editor is available then this can be set to
9016 name the (expandable) path of the location of a permanent history file.
9021 .It Va history-gabby
9022 \*(BO\*(OP Add more entries to the history as is normally done.
9025 .It Va history-gabby-persist
9026 \*(BO\*(OP \*(UA's own MLE will not save the additional
9028 entries in persistent storage unless this variable is set.
9029 On the other hand it will not loose the knowledge of whether
9030 a persistent entry was gabby or not.
9036 \*(OP Setting this variable imposes a limit on the number of concurrent
9038 If set to the value 0 then no further history entries will be added, and
9039 loading and incorporation of the
9041 upon program startup can also be suppressed by doing this.
9042 Runtime changes will not be reflected, but will affect the number of
9043 entries saved to permanent storage.
9047 \*(BO This setting controls whether messages are held in the system
9049 and it is set by default.
9053 Used instead of the value obtained from
9057 as the hostname when expanding local addresses, e.g., in
9061 or this variable Is set the message and MIME part related unique ID fields
9065 will be created (except when disallowed by
9066 .Va message-id-disable
9069 Setting it to the empty string will cause the normal hostname to be
9070 used, but nonetheless enables creation of said ID fields.
9071 \*(IN in conjunction with the built-in SMTP
9074 also influences the results:
9075 one should produce some test messages with the desired combination of
9084 \*(BO\*(OP Can be used to turn off the automatic conversion of domain
9085 names according to the rules of IDNA (internationalized domain names
9087 Since the IDNA code assumes that domain names are specified with the
9089 character set, an UTF-8 locale charset is required to represent all
9090 possible international domain names (before conversion, that is).
9094 The input field separator that is used (\*(ID by some functions) to
9095 determine where to split input data.
9097 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It MMM"
9099 Unsetting is treated as assigning the default value,
9102 If set to the empty value, no field splitting will be performed.
9104 If set to a non-empty value, all whitespace characters are extracted
9105 and assigned to the variable
9109 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It MMM"
9112 will be ignored at the beginning and end of input.
9113 Diverging from POSIX shells default whitespace is removed in addition,
9114 which is owed to the entirely different line content extraction rules.
9116 Each occurrence of a character of
9118 will cause field-splitting, any adjacent
9120 characters will be skipped.
9125 \*(RO Automatically deduced from the whitespace characters in
9130 \*(BO Ignore interrupt signals from the terminal while entering
9131 messages; instead echo them as
9133 characters and discard the current line.
9137 \*(BO Ignore end-of-file conditions
9138 .Pf ( Ql control-D )
9139 in compose mode on message input and in interactive command input.
9140 If set an interactive command input session can only be left by
9141 explicitly using one of the commands
9145 and message input in compose mode can only be terminated by entering
9148 on a line by itself or by using the
9150 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ;
9151 Setting this implies the behaviour that
9159 If this is set to a non-empty string it will specify the users
9161 .Sx "primary system mailbox" ,
9164 and the system-dependent default, and (thus) be used to replace
9167 .Sx "Filename transformations" ;
9170 for more on this topic.
9171 The value supports a subset of transformations itself.
9179 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
9182 option for indenting messages,
9183 in place of the normal tabulator character
9185 which is the default.
9186 Be sure to quote the value if it contains spaces or tabs.
9190 \*(BO If set, an empty
9192 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
9193 file is not removed.
9194 Note that, in conjunction with
9196 mode any empty file will be removed unless this variable is set.
9197 This may improve the interoperability with other mail user agents
9198 when using a common folder directory, and prevents malicious users
9199 from creating fake mailboxes in a world-writable spool directory.
9200 \*(ID Only local regular (MBOX) files are covered, Maildir or other
9201 mailbox types will never be removed, even if empty.
9204 .It Va keep-content-length
9205 \*(BO When (editing messages and) writing MBOX mailbox files \*(UA can
9210 header fields that some MUAs generate by setting this variable.
9211 Since \*(UA does neither use nor update these non-standardized header
9212 fields (which in itself shows one of their conceptual problems),
9213 stripping them should increase interoperability in between MUAs that
9214 work with with same mailbox files.
9215 Note that, if this is not set but
9216 .Va writebackedited ,
9217 as below, is, a possibly performed automatic stripping of these header
9218 fields already marks the message as being modified.
9219 \*(ID At some future time \*(UA will be capable to rewrite and apply an
9221 to modified messages, and then those fields will be stripped silently.
9225 \*(BO When a message is saved it is usually discarded from the
9226 originating folder when \*(UA is quit.
9227 This setting causes all saved message to be retained.
9230 .It Va line-editor-disable
9231 \*(BO Turn off any enhanced line editing capabilities (see
9232 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor"
9236 .It Va line-editor-no-defaults
9237 \*(BO\*(OP Do not establish any default key binding.
9241 Error log message prefix string
9242 .Pf ( Ql "\*(uA: " ) .
9245 .It Va mailbox-display
9246 \*(RO The name of the current mailbox
9248 possibly abbreviated for display purposes.
9251 .It Va mailbox-resolved
9252 \*(RO The fully resolved path of the current mailbox.
9255 .It Va mailx-extra-rc
9256 An additional startup file that is loaded as the last of the
9257 .Sx "Resource files" .
9258 Use this file for commands that are not understood by other POSIX
9260 implementations, i.e., mostly anything which is not covered by
9261 .Sx "Initial settings" .
9265 \*(BO When a message is replied to and this variable is set,
9266 it is marked as having been
9269 .Sx "Message states" .
9273 \*(BO When opening MBOX mailbox databases \*(UA by default uses tolerant
9274 POSIX rules for detecting message boundaries (so-called
9276 lines) due to compatibility reasons, instead of the stricter rules that
9277 have been standardized in RFC 4155.
9278 This behaviour can be switched to the stricter RFC 4155 rules by
9279 setting this variable.
9280 (This is never necessary for any message newly generated by \*(UA,
9281 it only applies to messages generated by buggy or malicious MUAs, or may
9282 occur in old MBOX databases: \*(UA itself will choose a proper
9284 to avoid false interpretation of
9286 content lines in the MBOX database.)
9288 This may temporarily be handy when \*(UA complains about invalid
9290 lines when opening a MBOX: in this case setting this variable and
9291 re-opening the mailbox in question may correct the result.
9292 If so, copying the entire mailbox to some other file, as in
9293 .Ql copy * SOME-FILE ,
9294 will perform proper, all-compatible
9296 quoting for all detected messages, resulting in a valid MBOX mailbox.
9297 Finally the variable can be unset again:
9298 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9300 localopts yes; wysh set mbox-rfc4155;\e
9301 wysh File "${1}"; eval copy * "${2}"
9303 call mboxfix /tmp/bad.mbox /tmp/good.mbox
9308 \*(BO Internal development variable.
9311 .It Va message-id-disable
9312 \*(BO By setting this variable the generation of
9316 message and MIME part headers can be completely suppressed, effectively
9317 leaving this task up to the
9319 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) or the SMTP server.
9320 Note that according to RFC 5321 a SMTP server is not required to add this
9321 field by itself, so it should be ensured that it accepts messages without
9325 .It Va message-inject-head
9326 A string to put at the beginning of each new message, followed by a newline.
9327 \*(OB The escape sequences tabulator
9331 are understood (use the
9335 ting the variable(s) instead).
9338 .It Va message-inject-tail
9339 A string to put at the end of each new message, followed by a newline.
9340 \*(OB The escape sequences tabulator
9344 are understood (use the
9348 ting the variable(s) instead).
9352 \*(BO Usually, when an
9354 expansion contains the sender, the sender is removed from the expansion.
9355 Setting this option suppresses these removals.
9360 option to be passed through to the
9362 (Mail-Transfer-Agent); though most of the modern MTAs no longer document
9363 this flag, no MTA is known which does not support it (for historical
9367 .It Va mime-allow-text-controls
9368 \*(BO When sending messages, each part of the message is MIME-inspected
9369 in order to classify the
9372 .Ql Content-Transfer-Encoding:
9375 that is required to send this part over mail transport, i.e.,
9376 a computation rather similar to what the
9378 command produces when used with the
9382 This classification however treats text files which are encoded in
9383 UTF-16 (seen for HTML files) and similar character sets as binary
9384 octet-streams, forcefully changing any
9389 .Ql application/octet-stream :
9390 If that actually happens a yet unset charset MIME parameter is set to
9392 effectively making it impossible for the receiving MUA to automatically
9393 interpret the contents of the part.
9395 If this variable is set, and the data was unambiguously identified as
9396 text data at first glance (by a
9400 file extension), then the original
9402 will not be overwritten.
9405 .It Va mime-alternative-favour-rich
9406 \*(BO If this variable is set then rich MIME alternative parts (e.g.,
9407 HTML) will be preferred in favour of included plain text versions when
9408 displaying messages, provided that a handler exists which produces
9409 output that can be (re)integrated into \*(UA's normal visual display.
9410 (E.g., at the time of this writing some newsletters ship their full
9411 content only in the rich HTML part, whereas the plain text part only
9412 contains topic subjects.)
9415 .It Va mime-counter-evidence
9418 field is used to decide how to handle MIME parts.
9419 Some MUAs, however, do not use
9420 .Sx "The mime.types files"
9422 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" )
9423 or a similar mechanism to correctly classify content, but specify an
9424 unspecific MIME type
9425 .Pf ( Ql application/octet-stream )
9426 even for plain text attachments.
9427 If this variable is set then \*(UA will try to re-classify such MIME
9428 message parts, if possible, for example via a possibly existing
9429 attachment filename.
9430 A non-empty value may also be given, in which case a number is expected,
9431 actually a carrier of bits.
9432 Creating the bit-carrying number is a simple addition:
9433 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9434 ? !echo Value should be set to $((2 + 4 + 8))
9435 Value should be set to 14
9438 .Bl -bullet -compact
9440 If bit two is set (2) then the detected
9442 will be carried along with the message and be used for deciding which
9443 MIME handler is to be used, for example;
9444 when displaying such a MIME part the part-info will indicate the
9445 overridden content-type by showing a plus sign
9448 If bit three is set (4) then the counter-evidence is always produced
9449 and a positive result will be used as the MIME type, even forcefully
9450 overriding the parts given MIME type.
9452 If bit four is set (8) then as a last resort the actual content of
9453 .Ql application/octet-stream
9454 parts will be inspected, so that data which looks like plain text can be
9459 .It Va mime-encoding
9461 .Ql Content-Transfer-Encoding
9462 to use in outgoing text messages and message parts, where applicable.
9463 (7-bit clean text messages are sent as-is, without a transfer encoding.)
9466 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql _%%_"
9469 8-bit transport effectively causes the raw data be passed through
9470 unchanged, but may cause problems when transferring mail messages over
9471 channels that are not ESMTP (RFC 1869) compliant.
9472 Also, several input data constructs are not allowed by the
9473 specifications and may cause a different transfer-encoding to be used.
9474 .It Ql quoted-printable
9476 Quoted-printable encoding is 7-bit clean and has the property that ASCII
9477 characters are passed through unchanged, so that an english message can
9478 be read as-is; it is also acceptible for other single-byte locales that
9479 share many characters with ASCII, like, e.g., ISO-8859-1.
9480 The encoding will cause a large overhead for messages in other character
9481 sets: e.g., it will require up to twelve (12) bytes to encode a single
9482 UTF-8 character of four (4) bytes.
9484 .Pf (Or\0 Ql b64 . )
9485 The default encoding, it is 7-bit clean and will always be used for
9487 This encoding has a constant input:output ratio of 3:4, regardless of
9488 the character set of the input data it will encode three bytes of input
9489 to four bytes of output.
9490 This transfer-encoding is not human readable without performing
9495 .It Va mimetypes-load-control
9496 Can be used to control which of
9497 .Sx "The mime.types files"
9498 are loaded: if the letter
9500 is part of the option value, then the user's personal
9502 file will be loaded (if it exists); likewise the letter
9504 controls loading of the system wide
9505 .Pa /etc/mime.types ;
9506 directives found in the user file take precedence, letter matching is
9508 If this variable is not set \*(UA will try to load both files.
9509 Incorporation of the \*(UA-built-in MIME types cannot be suppressed,
9510 but they will be matched last (the order can be listed via
9513 More sources can be specified by using a different syntax: if the
9514 value string contains an equals sign
9516 then it is instead parsed as a comma-separated list of the described
9519 pairs; the given filenames will be expanded and loaded, and their
9520 content may use the extended syntax that is described in the section
9521 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
9522 Directives found in such files always take precedence (are prepended to
9523 the MIME type cache).
9528 To choose an alternate Mail-Transfer-Agent, set this option to either
9529 the full pathname of an executable (optionally prefixed with a
9531 protocol indicator), or \*(OPally a SMTP protocol URL, e.g., \*(IN
9533 .Dl smtps?://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
9536 .Ql [smtp://]server[:port] . )
9537 The default has been chosen at compile time.
9538 All supported data transfers are executed in child processes, which
9539 run asynchronously and without supervision unless either the
9544 If such a child receives a TERM signal, it will abort and
9551 For a file-based MTA it may be necessary to set
9553 in in order to choose the right target of a modern
9556 It will be passed command line arguments from several possible sources:
9559 if set, from the command line if given and the variable
9562 Argument processing of the MTA will be terminated with a
9567 The otherwise occurring implicit usage of the following MTA command
9568 line arguments can be disabled by setting the boolean variable
9569 .Va mta-no-default-arguments
9570 (which will also disable passing
9574 (for not treating a line with only a dot
9576 character as the end of input),
9584 variable is set); in conjunction with the
9586 command line option \*(UA will also (not) pass
9592 \*(OPally \*(UA can send mail over SMTP network connections to a single
9593 defined SMTP smart host by specifying a SMTP URL as the value (see
9594 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
9595 Encrypted network connections are \*(OPally available, the section
9596 .Sx "Encrypted network communication"
9597 should give an overview and provide links to more information on this.
9598 \*(UA also supports forwarding of all network traffic over a specified
9600 Note that with some mail providers it may be necessary to set the
9602 variable in order to use a specific combination of
9607 The following SMTP variants may be used:
9611 The plain SMTP protocol (RFC 5321) that normally lives on the
9612 server port 25 and requires setting the
9613 .Va smtp-use-starttls
9614 variable to enter a SSL/TLS encrypted session state.
9615 Assign a value like \*(IN
9616 .Ql smtp://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
9618 .Ql smtp://server[:port] )
9619 to choose this protocol.
9621 The so-called SMTPS which is supposed to live on server port 465
9622 and is automatically SSL/TLS secured.
9623 Unfortunately it never became a standardized protocol and may thus not
9624 be supported by your hosts network service database
9625 \(en in fact the port number has already been reassigned to other
9628 SMTPS is nonetheless a commonly offered protocol and thus can be
9629 chosen by assigning a value like \*(IN
9630 .Ql smtps://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
9632 .Ql smtps://server[:port] ) ;
9633 due to the mentioned problems it is usually necessary to explicitly
9638 Finally there is the SUBMISSION protocol (RFC 6409), which usually
9639 lives on server port 587 and is practically identically to the SMTP
9640 protocol from \*(UA's point of view beside that; it requires setting the
9641 .Va smtp-use-starttls
9642 variable to enter a SSL/TLS secured session state.
9643 Assign a value like \*(IN
9644 .Ql submission://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
9646 .Ql submission://server[:port] ) .
9651 .It Va mta-arguments
9652 Arguments to pass through to a file-based
9654 can be given via this variable, which is parsed according to
9655 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
9656 into an array of arguments, and which will be joined onto MTA options
9657 from other sources, and then passed individually to the MTA:
9658 .Ql ? wysh set mta-arguments='-t -X \&"/tmp/my log\&"' .
9661 .It Va mta-no-default-arguments
9662 \*(BO Unless this variable is set \*(UA will pass some well known
9663 standard command line options to a file-based
9665 (Mail-Transfer-Agent), see there for more.
9669 Many systems use a so-called
9671 environment to ensure compatibility with
9673 This works by inspecting the name that was used to invoke the mail
9675 If this variable is set then the mailwrapper (the program that is
9676 actually executed when calling the file-based
9678 will treat its contents as that name.
9681 .It Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , netrc-lookup-HOST , netrc-lookup
9682 \*(BO\*(IN\*(OP Used to control usage of the users
9684 file for lookup of account credentials, as documented in the section
9685 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
9689 .Sx "The .netrc file"
9690 documents the file format.
9702 then \*(UA will read the output of a shell pipe instead of the users
9704 file if this variable is set (to the desired shell command).
9705 This can be used to, e.g., store
9708 .Ql ? set netrc-pipe='gpg -qd ~/.netrc.pgp' .
9712 If this variable has the value
9714 newly created local folders will be in Maildir instead of MBOX format.
9718 Checks for new mail in the current folder each time the prompt is shown.
9719 A Maildir folder must be re-scanned to determine if new mail has arrived.
9720 If this variable is set to the special value
9722 then a Maildir folder will not be rescanned completely, but only
9723 timestamp changes are detected.
9727 \*(BO Causes the filename given in the
9730 and the sender-based filenames for the
9734 commands to be interpreted relative to the directory given in the
9736 variable rather than to the current directory,
9737 unless it is set to an absolute pathname.
9739 .Mx Va on-account-cleanup
9740 .It Va on-account-cleanup-ACCOUNT , Va on-account-cleanup
9741 Macro hook which will be called once an
9743 is left, as the very last step before unrolling per-account
9745 This hook is run even in case of fatal errors, and it is advisable to
9746 perform only absolutely necessary actions, like cleaning up
9749 The specialized form is used in favour of the generic one if found.
9752 .It Va on-compose-cleanup
9753 Macro hook which will be called after the message has been sent (or not,
9754 in case of failures), as the very last step before unrolling compose mode
9756 This hook is run even in case of fatal errors, and it is advisable to
9757 perform only absolutely necessary actions, like cleaning up
9761 For compose mode hooks that may affect the message content please see
9762 .Va on-compose-enter , on-compose-leave , on-compose-splice .
9763 \*(ID This hook exists because
9764 .Ic alias , alternates , commandalias , shortcut ,
9765 to name a few, are not covered by
9767 changes applied in compose mode will continue to be in effect thereafter.
9772 .It Va on-compose-enter , on-compose-leave
9773 Macro hooks which will be called once compose mode is entered,
9774 and after composing has been finished, but before a set
9775 .Va message-inject-tail
9776 has been injected etc., respectively.
9778 are enabled for these hooks, and changes on variables will be forgotten
9779 after the message has been sent.
9780 .Va on-compose-cleanup
9781 can be used to perform other necessary cleanup steps.
9783 The following (read-only) variables will be set temporarily during
9784 execution of the macros to represent the according message headers, or
9785 the empty string for non-existent; they correspond to accoding virtual
9786 temporary message headers that can be accessed (also from within
9787 .Va on-compose-splice
9791 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" :
9794 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Va mailx_subject"
9795 .It Va mailx-command
9796 The command that generates the message.
9797 .It Va mailx-subject
9803 .It Va mailx-to , mailx-cc , mailx-bcc
9804 The list of receiver addresses as a space-separated list.
9805 .It Va mailx-raw-to , mailx-raw-cc , mailx-raw-bcc
9806 The list of receiver addresses before any mangling (due to, e.g.,
9809 .Va recipients-in-cc )
9810 as a space-separated list.
9811 .It Va mailx-orig-from
9812 When replying, forwarding or resending, this will be set to the
9814 of the given message.
9815 .It Va mailx-orig-to , mailx-orig-cc , mailx-orig-bcc
9816 When replying, forwarding or resending, this will be set to the
9817 receivers of the given message.
9821 Here is am example that injects a signature via
9822 .Va message-inject-tail ;
9824 .Va on-compose-splice
9825 to simply inject the file of desire via
9829 may be a better approach.
9831 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9833 vput ! i cat ~/.mysig
9835 vput vexpr message-inject-tail trim-end $i
9839 readctl create ~/.mysig
9843 vput vexpr message-inject-tail trim-end $i
9845 readctl remove ~/.mysig
9848 set on-compose-leave=t_ocl
9854 .It Va on-compose-splice , on-compose-splice-shell
9855 These hooks run once the normal compose mode is finished, but before the
9856 .Va on-compose-leave
9857 macro hook is called, the
9858 .Va message-inject-tail
9860 Both hooks will be executed in a subprocess, with their input and output
9861 connected to \*(UA such that they can act as if they would be an
9863 The difference in between them is that the latter is a
9865 command, whereas the former is a normal \*(UA macro, but which is
9866 restricted to a small set of commands (the
9870 will indicate said capability).
9872 are enabled for these hooks (in the parent process), causing any setting
9873 to be forgotten after the message has been sent;
9874 .Va on-compose-cleanup
9875 can be used to perform other cleanup as necessary.
9878 During execution of these hooks \*(UA will temporarily forget whether it
9879 has been started in interactive mode, (a restricted set of)
9880 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
9881 will always be available, and for guaranteed reproducibilities sake
9885 will be set to their defaults.
9886 The compose mode command
9888 has been especially designed for scriptability (via these hooks).
9889 The first line the hook will read on its standard input is the protocol
9890 version of said command escape, currently
9892 backward incompatible protocol changes have to be expected.
9895 Care must be taken to avoid deadlocks and other false control flow:
9896 if both involved processes wait for more input to happen at the
9897 same time, or one does not expect more input but the other is stuck
9898 waiting for consumption of its output, etc.
9899 There is no automatic synchronization of the hook: it will not be
9900 stopped automatically just because it, e.g., emits
9902 The hooks will however receive a termination signal if the parent enters
9904 \*(ID Protection against and interaction with signals is not yet given;
9905 it is likely that in the future these scripts will be placed in an
9906 isolated session, which is signalled in its entirety as necessary.
9908 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9909 define ocs_signature {
9911 echo '~< ~/.mysig' # '~<! fortune pathtofortunefile'
9913 set on-compose-splice=ocs_signature
9915 wysh set on-compose-splice-shell=$'\e
9917 printf "hello $version! Headers: ";\e
9918 echo \e'~^header list\e';\e
9919 read status result;\e
9920 echo "status=$status result=$result";\e
9925 echo Splice protocol version is $version
9926 echo '~^h l'; read hl; vput vexpr es substring "${hl}" 0 1
9928 echoerr 'Cannot read header list'; echo '~x'; xit
9930 if [ "$hl" @i!% ' cc' ]
9931 echo '~^h i cc Diet is your <mirr.or>'; read es;\e
9932 vput vexpr es substring "${es}" 0 1
9934 echoerr 'Cannot insert Cc: header'; echo '~x'
9935 # (no xit, macro finishs anyway)
9939 set on-compose-splice=ocsm
9944 .It Va on-resend-cleanup
9946 .Va on-compose-cleanup ,
9947 but is only triggered by
9951 .It Va on-resend-enter
9953 .Va on-compose-enter ,
9954 but is only triggered by
9959 \*(BO If set, each message feed through the command given for
9961 is followed by a formfeed character
9965 .It Va password-USER@HOST , password-HOST , password
9966 \*(IN Variable chain that sets a password, which is used in case none has
9967 been given in the protocol and account-specific URL;
9968 as a last resort \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal if
9969 the authentication method requires a password.
9970 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
9971 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
9973 .It Va password-USER@HOST
9974 \*(OU (see the chain above for \*(IN)
9975 Set the password for
9979 If no such variable is defined for a host,
9980 the user will be asked for a password on standard input.
9981 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
9982 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
9986 \*(BO Send messages to the
9988 command without performing MIME and character set conversions.
9992 .It Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
9993 When a MIME message part of type
9995 (case-insensitive) is displayed or quoted,
9996 its text is filtered through the value of this variable interpreted as
9998 Note that only parts which can be displayed inline as plain text (see
10000 are displayed unless otherwise noted, other MIME parts will only be
10001 considered by and for the command
10005 The special value commercial at
10007 forces interpretation of the message part as plain text, e.g.,
10008 .Ql set pipe-application/xml=@
10009 will henceforth display XML
10011 (The same could also be achieved by adding a MIME type marker with the
10014 And \*(OPally MIME type handlers may be defined via
10015 .Sx "The Mailcap files"
10016 \(em these directives,
10018 has already been used, should be referred to for further documentation.
10023 can in fact be used as a trigger character to adjust usage and behaviour
10024 of a following shell command specification more thoroughly by appending
10025 more special characters which refer to further mailcap directives, e.g.,
10026 the following hypothetical command specification could be used:
10028 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10029 ? set pipe-X/Y='@!++=@vim ${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}'
10033 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql __"
10035 The command produces plain text to be integrated in \*(UAs output:
10036 .Cd copiousoutput .
10039 If set the handler will not be invoked when a message is to be quoted,
10040 but only when it will be displayed:
10041 .Cd x-mailx-noquote .
10044 Run the command asynchronously, i.e., without blocking \*(UA:
10045 .Cd x-mailx-async .
10048 The command must be run on an interactive terminal, \*(UA will
10049 temporarily release the terminal to it:
10050 .Cd needsterminal .
10053 Request creation of a zero-sized temporary file, the absolute pathname
10054 of which will be made accessible via the environment variable
10055 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY :
10056 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile .
10057 If given twice then the file will be unlinked automatically by \*(UA
10058 when the command loop is entered again at latest:
10059 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink .
10062 Normally the MIME part content is passed to the handler via standard
10063 input; if this flag is set then the data will instead be written into
10064 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
10065 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill ) ,
10066 the creation of which is implied; note however that in order to cause
10067 deletion of the temporary file you still have to use two plus signs
10072 To avoid ambiguities with normal shell command content you can use
10073 another commercial at to forcefully terminate interpretation of
10074 remaining characters.
10075 (Any character not in this list will have the same effect.)
10079 Some information about the MIME part to be displayed is embedded into
10080 the environment of the shell command:
10083 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ev _AIL__ILENAME__ENERATED"
10085 .It Ev MAILX_CONTENT
10086 The MIME content-type of the part, if known, the empty string otherwise.
10089 .It Ev MAILX_CONTENT_EVIDENCE
10091 .Va mime-counter-evidence
10092 includes the carry-around-bit (2), then this will be set to the detected
10093 MIME content-type; not only then identical to
10094 .Ev \&\&MAILX_CONTENT
10098 .It Ev MAILX_FILENAME
10099 The filename, if any is set, the empty string otherwise.
10102 .It Ev MAILX_FILENAME_GENERATED
10106 .It Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
10107 If temporary file creation has been requested through the command prefix
10108 this variable will be set and contain the absolute pathname of the
10114 .It Va pipe-EXTENSION
10115 This is identical to
10116 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
10119 (normalized to lowercase using character mappings of the ASCII charset)
10120 names a file extension, e.g.,
10122 Handlers registered using this method take precedence.
10125 .It Va pop3-auth-USER@HOST , pop3-auth-HOST , pop3-auth
10126 \*(OP\*(IN Variable chain that sets the POP3 authentication method.
10127 The only possible value as of now is
10129 which is thus the default.
10131 .Mx Va pop3-bulk-load
10132 .It Va pop3-bulk-load-USER@HOST , pop3-bulk-load-HOST , pop3-bulk-load
10133 \*(BO\*(OP When accessing a POP3 server \*(UA loads the headers of
10134 the messages, and only requests the message bodies on user request.
10135 For the POP3 protocol this means that the message headers will be
10137 If this variable is set then \*(UA will download only complete messages
10138 from the given POP3 server(s) instead.
10140 .Mx Va pop3-keepalive
10141 .It Va pop3-keepalive-USER@HOST , pop3-keepalive-HOST , pop3-keepalive
10142 \*(OP POP3 servers close the connection after a period of inactivity;
10143 the standard requires this to be at least 10 minutes,
10144 but practical experience may vary.
10145 Setting this variable to a numeric value greater than
10149 command to be sent each value seconds if no other operation is performed.
10151 .Mx Va pop3-no-apop
10152 .It Va pop3-no-apop-USER@HOST , pop3-no-apop-HOST , pop3-no-apop
10153 \*(BO\*(OP Unless this variable is set the
10155 authentication method will be used when connecting to a POP3 server that
10156 advertises support.
10159 is that the password is not sent in clear text over the wire and that
10160 only a single packet is sent for the user/password tuple.
10162 .Va pop3-no-apop-HOST
10165 .Mx Va pop3-use-starttls
10166 .It Va pop3-use-starttls-USER@HOST , pop3-use-starttls-HOST , pop3-use-starttls
10167 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a
10169 command to make an unencrypted POP3 session SSL/TLS encrypted.
10170 This functionality is not supported by all servers,
10171 and is not used if the session is already encrypted by the POP3S method.
10173 .Va pop3-use-starttls-HOST
10179 \*(BO This flag enables POSIX mode, which changes behaviour of \*(UA
10180 where that deviates from standardized behaviour.
10181 It will be set implicitly before the
10182 .Sx "Resource files"
10183 are loaded if the environment variable
10184 .Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT
10185 is set, and adjusting any of those two will be reflected by the other
10187 The following behaviour is covered and enforced by this mechanism:
10190 .Bl -bullet -compact
10192 In non-interactive mode, any error encountered while loading resource
10193 files during program startup will cause a program exit, whereas in
10194 interactive mode such errors will stop loading of the currently loaded
10195 (stack of) file(s, i.e., recursively).
10196 These exits can be circumvented on a per-command base by using
10199 .Sx "Command modifiers" ,
10200 for each command which shall be allowed to fail.
10204 will replace the list of alternate addresses instead of appending to it.
10207 The variable inserting
10208 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
10214 will expand embedded character sequences
10216 horizontal tabulator and
10219 \*(ID For compatibility reasons this step will always be performed.
10222 Upon changing the active
10226 will be displayed even if
10233 implies the behaviour described by
10239 is extended to cover any empty mailbox, not only empty
10241 .Sx "primary system mailbox" Ns
10242 es: they will be removed when they are left in empty state otherwise.
10247 .It Va print-alternatives
10248 \*(BO When a MIME message part of type
10249 .Ql multipart/alternative
10250 is displayed and it contains a subpart of type
10252 other parts are normally discarded.
10253 Setting this variable causes all subparts to be displayed,
10254 just as if the surrounding part was of type
10255 .Ql multipart/mixed .
10259 The string used as a prompt in interactive mode.
10260 Whenever the variable is evaluated the value is expanded as via
10261 dollar-single-quote expansion (see
10262 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ) .
10263 This (post-assignment, i.e., second) expansion can be used to embed
10264 status information, for example
10269 .Va mailbox-display .
10271 In order to embed characters which should not be counted when
10272 calculating the visual width of the resulting string, enclose the
10273 characters of interest in a pair of reverse solidus escaped brackets:
10275 a slot for coloured prompts is also available with the \*(OPal command
10277 Prompting may be prevented by setting this to the null string
10279 .Ql set noprompt ) .
10283 This string is used for secondary prompts, but is otherwise identical to
10290 \*(BO Suppresses the printing of the version when first invoked.
10294 If set, \*(UA starts a replying message with the original message
10295 prefixed by the value of the variable
10297 Normally, a heading consisting of
10298 .Dq Fromheaderfield wrote:
10299 is put before the quotation.
10304 variable, this heading is omitted.
10307 is assigned, only the headers selected by the
10310 selection are put above the message body,
10313 acts like an automatic
10315 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
10319 is assigned, all headers are put above the message body and all MIME
10320 parts are included, making
10322 act like an automatic
10325 .Va quote-as-attachment .
10328 .It Va quote-as-attachment
10329 \*(BO Add the original message in its entirety as a
10331 MIME attachment when replying to a message.
10332 Note this works regardless of the setting of
10337 \*(OP Can be set in addition to
10339 Setting this turns on a more fancy quotation algorithm in that leading
10340 quotation characters are compressed and overlong lines are folded.
10342 can be set to either one or two (space separated) numeric values,
10343 which are interpreted as the maximum (goal) and the minimum line length,
10344 respectively, in a spirit rather equal to the
10346 program, but line-, not paragraph-based.
10347 If not set explicitly the minimum will reflect the goal algorithmically.
10348 The goal cannot be smaller than the length of
10350 plus some additional pad.
10351 Necessary adjustments take place silently.
10354 .It Va r-option-implicit
10355 \*(BO Setting this option evaluates the contents of
10357 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
10359 and passes the results onto the used (file-based) MTA as described for the
10361 option (empty argument case).
10364 .It Va recipients-in-cc
10371 are by default merged into the new
10373 If this variable is set, only the original
10377 the rest is merged into
10382 Unless this variable is defined, no copies of outgoing mail will be saved.
10383 If defined it gives the pathname, subject to the usual
10384 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
10385 of a folder where all new, replied-to or forwarded messages are saved:
10386 when saving to this folder fails the message is not sent, but instead
10390 The standard defines that relative (fully expanded) paths are to be
10391 interpreted relative to the current directory
10393 to force interpretation relative to
10396 needs to be set in addition.
10399 .It Va record-files
10400 \*(BO If this variable is set the meaning of
10402 will be extended to cover messages which target only file and pipe
10405 These address types will not appear in recipient lists unless
10406 .Va add-file-recipients
10410 .It Va record-resent
10411 \*(BO If this variable is set the meaning of
10413 will be extended to also cover the
10420 .It Va reply-in-same-charset
10421 \*(BO If this variable is set \*(UA first tries to use the same
10422 character set of the original message for replies.
10423 If this fails, the mechanism described in
10424 .Sx "Character sets"
10425 is evaluated as usual.
10428 .It Va reply-strings
10429 Can be set to a comma-separated list of (case-insensitive according to
10430 ASCII rules) strings which shall be recognized in addition to the
10431 built-in strings as
10433 reply message indicators \(en built-in are
10435 which is mandated by RFC 5322, as well as the german
10440 which often has been seen in the wild;
10441 I.e., the separating colon has to be specified explicitly.
10445 A list of addresses to put into the
10447 field of the message header.
10448 Members of this list are handled as if they were in the
10457 .It Va reply-to-honour
10460 header is honoured when replying to a message via
10464 This is a quadoption; if set without a value it defaults to
10468 .It Va rfc822-body-from_
10469 \*(BO This variable can be used to force displaying a so-called
10471 line for messages that are embedded into an envelope mail via the
10473 MIME mechanism, for more visual convenience.
10477 \*(BO Enable saving of (partial) messages in
10479 upon interrupt or delivery error.
10483 The number of lines that represents a
10492 line display and scrolling via
10494 If this variable is not set \*(UA falls back to a calculation based upon
10495 the detected terminal window size and the baud rate: the faster the
10496 terminal, the more will be shown.
10497 Overall screen dimensions and pager usage is influenced by the
10498 environment variables
10506 .It Va searchheaders
10507 \*(BO Expand message-list specifiers in the form
10509 to all messages containing the substring
10511 in the header field
10513 The string search is case insensitive.
10516 .It Va sendcharsets
10517 \*(OP A comma-separated list of character set names that can be used in
10518 outgoing internet mail.
10519 The value of the variable
10521 is automatically appended to this list of character sets.
10522 If no character set conversion capabilities are compiled into \*(UA then
10523 the only supported charset is
10526 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
10527 and refer to the section
10528 .Sx "Character sets"
10529 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
10532 .It Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
10533 \*(BO\*(OP If this variable is set, but
10535 is not, then \*(UA acts as if
10537 had been set to the value of the variable
10539 In effect this combination passes through the message data in the
10540 character set of the current locale encoding:
10541 therefore mail message text will be (assumed to be) in ISO-8859-1
10542 encoding when send from within a ISO-8859-1 locale, and in UTF-8
10543 encoding when send from within an UTF-8 locale.
10547 never comes into play as
10549 is implicitly assumed to be 8-bit and capable to represent all files the
10550 user may specify (as is the case when no character set conversion
10551 support is available in \*(UA and the only supported character set is
10553 .Sx "Character sets" ) .
10554 This might be a problem for scripts which use the suggested
10556 setting, since in this case the character set is US-ASCII by definition,
10557 so that it is better to also override
10563 An address that is put into the
10565 field of outgoing messages, quoting RFC 5322: the mailbox of the agent
10566 responsible for the actual transmission of the message.
10567 This field should normally not be used unless the
10569 field contains more than one address, on which case it is required.
10572 address is handled as if it were in the
10576 .Va r-option-implicit .
10579 \*(OB Predecessor of
10582 .It Va sendmail-arguments
10583 \*(OB Predecessor of
10584 .Va mta-arguments .
10586 .It Va sendmail-no-default-arguments
10587 \*(OB\*(BO Predecessor of
10588 .Va mta-no-default-arguments .
10590 .It Va sendmail-progname
10591 \*(OB Predecessor of
10596 \*(BO When sending a message wait until the
10598 (including the built-in SMTP one) exits before accepting further commands.
10600 with this variable set errors reported by the MTA will be recognizable!
10601 If the MTA returns a non-zero exit status,
10602 the exit status of \*(UA will also be non-zero.
10606 \*(BO This setting causes \*(UA to start at the last message
10607 instead of the first one when opening a mail folder.
10611 \*(BO Causes \*(UA to use the sender's real name instead of the plain
10612 address in the header field summary and in message specifications.
10616 \*(BO Causes the recipient of the message to be shown in the header
10617 summary if the message was sent by the user.
10624 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
10626 .Va message-inject-tail ,
10627 .Va on-compose-leave
10629 .Va on-compose-splice .
10636 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
10638 .Va message-inject-tail ,
10639 .Va on-compose-leave
10641 .Va on-compose-splice .
10646 .Va on-compose-splice
10648 .Va on-compose-splice-shell
10650 .Va on-compose-leave
10652 .Va message-inject-tail
10656 .It Va skipemptybody
10657 \*(BO If an outgoing message does not contain any text in its first or
10658 only message part, do not send it but discard it silently (see also the
10659 command line option
10664 .It Va smime-ca-dir , smime-ca-file
10665 \*(OP Specify the location of trusted CA certificates in PEM (Privacy
10666 Enhanced Mail) format as a directory and a file, respectively, for the
10667 purpose of verification of S/MIME signed messages.
10668 It is possible to set both, the file will be loaded immediately, the
10669 directory will be searched whenever no match has yet been found.
10670 The set of CA certificates which are built into the SSL/TLS library can
10671 be explicitly turned off by setting
10672 .Va smime-ca-no-defaults ,
10673 and further fine-tuning is possible via
10674 .Va smime-ca-flags .
10677 .It Va smime-ca-flags
10678 \*(OP Can be used to fine-tune behaviour of the X509 CA certificate
10679 storage, and the certificate verification that is used.
10680 The actual values and their meanings are documented for
10684 .It Va smime-ca-no-defaults
10685 \*(BO\*(OP Do not load the default CA locations that are built into the
10686 used to SSL/TLS library to verify S/MIME signed messages.
10688 .Mx Va smime-cipher
10689 .It Va smime-cipher-USER@HOST , smime-cipher
10690 \*(OP Specifies the cipher to use when generating S/MIME encrypted
10691 messages (for the specified account).
10692 RFC 5751 mandates a default of
10695 Possible values are (case-insensitive and) in decreasing cipher strength:
10703 (DES EDE3 CBC, 168 bits; default if
10705 is not available) and
10707 (DES CBC, 56 bits).
10709 The actually available cipher algorithms depend on the cryptographic
10710 library that \*(UA uses.
10711 \*(OP Support for more cipher algorithms may be available through
10712 dynamic loading via, e.g.,
10713 .Xr EVP_get_cipherbyname 3
10714 (OpenSSL) if \*(UA has been compiled to support this.
10717 .It Va smime-crl-dir
10718 \*(OP Specifies a directory that contains files with CRLs in PEM format
10719 to use when verifying S/MIME messages.
10722 .It Va smime-crl-file
10723 \*(OP Specifies a file that contains a CRL in PEM format to use when
10724 verifying S/MIME messages.
10727 .It Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
10728 \*(OP If this variable is set, messages send to the given receiver are
10729 encrypted before sending.
10730 The value of the variable must be set to the name of a file that
10731 contains a certificate in PEM format.
10733 If a message is sent to multiple recipients,
10734 each of them for whom a corresponding variable is set will receive an
10735 individually encrypted message;
10736 other recipients will continue to receive the message in plain text
10738 .Va smime-force-encryption
10740 It is recommended to sign encrypted messages, i.e., to also set the
10745 .It Va smime-force-encryption
10746 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to refuse sending unencrypted messages.
10750 \*(BO\*(OP S/MIME sign outgoing messages with the user's private key
10751 and include the user's certificate as a MIME attachment.
10752 Signing a message enables a recipient to verify that the sender used
10753 a valid certificate,
10754 that the email addresses in the certificate match those in the message
10755 header and that the message content has not been altered.
10756 It does not change the message text,
10757 and people will be able to read the message as usual.
10759 .Va smime-sign-cert , smime-sign-include-certs
10761 .Va smime-sign-message-digest .
10763 .Mx Va smime-sign-cert
10764 .It Va smime-sign-cert-USER@HOST , smime-sign-cert
10765 \*(OP Points to a file in PEM format.
10766 For the purpose of signing and decryption this file needs to contain the
10767 user's private key, followed by his certificate.
10769 For message signing
10771 is always derived from the value of
10773 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
10775 For the purpose of encryption the recipient's public encryption key
10776 (certificate) is expected; the command
10778 can be used to save certificates of signed messages (the section
10779 .Sx "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
10780 gives some details).
10781 This mode of operation is usually driven by the specialized form.
10783 When decrypting messages the account is derived from the recipient
10788 of the message, which are searched for addresses for which such
10790 \*(UA always uses the first address that matches,
10791 so if the same message is sent to more than one of the user's addresses
10792 using different encryption keys, decryption might fail.
10794 For signing and decryption purposes it is possible to use encrypted
10795 keys, and the pseudo-host(s)
10796 .Ql USER@HOST.smime-cert-key
10797 for the private key
10799 .Ql USER@HOST.smime-cert-cert
10800 for the certificate stored in the same file)
10801 will be used for performing any necessary password lookup,
10802 therefore the lookup can be automatized via the mechanisms described in
10803 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
10804 For example, the hypothetical address
10806 could be driven with a private key / certificate pair path defined in
10807 .Va \&\&smime-sign-cert-bob@exam.ple ,
10808 and needed passwords would then be looked up via the pseudo hosts
10809 .Ql bob@exam.ple.smime-cert-key
10811 .Ql bob@exam.ple.smime-cert-cert ) .
10812 To include intermediate certificates, use
10813 .Va smime-sign-include-certs .
10815 .Mx Va smime-sign-include-certs
10816 .It Va smime-sign-include-certs-USER@HOST , smime-sign-include-certs
10817 \*(OP If used, this is supposed to a consist of a comma-separated list
10818 of files, each of which containing a single certificate in PEM format to
10819 be included in the S/MIME message in addition to the
10820 .Va smime-sign-cert
10822 This can be used to include intermediate certificates of the certificate
10823 authority, in order to allow the receiver's S/MIME implementation to
10824 perform a verification of the entire certificate chain, starting from
10825 a local root certificate, over the intermediate certificates, down to the
10826 .Va smime-sign-cert .
10827 Even though top level certificates may also be included in the chain,
10828 they won't be used for the verification on the receiver's side.
10830 For the purpose of the mechanisms involved here,
10832 refers to the content of the internal variable
10834 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
10837 .Ql USER@HOST.smime-include-certs
10838 will be used for performing password lookups for these certificates,
10839 shall they have been given one, therefore the lookup can be automatized
10840 via the mechanisms described in
10841 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
10843 .Mx Va smime-sign-message-digest
10844 .It Va smime-sign-message-digest-USER@HOST , smime-sign-message-digest
10845 \*(OP Specifies the message digest to use when signing S/MIME messages.
10846 RFC 5751 mandates a default of
10848 Possible values are (case-insensitive and) in decreasing cipher strength:
10856 The actually available message digest algorithms depend on the
10857 cryptographic library that \*(UA uses.
10858 \*(OP Support for more message digest algorithms may be available
10859 through dynamic loading via, e.g.,
10860 .Xr EVP_get_digestbyname 3
10861 (OpenSSL) if \*(UA has been compiled to support this.
10862 Remember that for this
10864 refers to the variable
10866 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
10870 \*(OB\*(OP To use the built-in SMTP transport, specify a SMTP URL in
10872 \*(ID For compatibility reasons a set
10874 is used in preference of
10878 .It Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST , smtp-auth-HOST , smtp-auth
10879 \*(OP Variable chain that controls the SMTP
10881 authentication method, possible values are
10887 as well as the \*(OPal methods
10893 method does not need any user credentials,
10895 requires a user name and all other methods require a user name and
10903 .Va smtp-auth-password
10905 .Va smtp-auth-user ) .
10910 .Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST :
10911 may override dependent on sender address in the variable
10914 .It Va smtp-auth-password
10915 \*(OP\*(OU Sets the global fallback password for SMTP authentication.
10916 If the authentication method requires a password, but neither
10917 .Va smtp-auth-password
10919 .Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
10921 \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal.
10923 .It Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
10925 .Va smtp-auth-password
10926 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
10929 .It Va smtp-auth-user
10930 \*(OP\*(OU Sets the global fallback user name for SMTP authentication.
10931 If the authentication method requires a user name, but neither
10934 .Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
10936 \*(UA will ask for a user name on the user's terminal.
10938 .It Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
10941 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
10945 .It Va smtp-hostname
10946 \*(OP\*(IN Normally \*(UA uses the variable
10948 to derive the necessary
10950 information in order to issue a
10957 can be used to use the
10959 from the SMTP account
10966 from the content of this variable (or, if that is the empty string,
10968 or the local hostname as a last resort).
10969 This often allows using an address that is itself valid but hosted by
10970 a provider other than which (in
10972 is about to send the message.
10973 Setting this variable also influences generated
10979 .Mx Va smtp-use-starttls
10980 .It Va smtp-use-starttls-USER@HOST , smtp-use-starttls-HOST , smtp-use-starttls
10981 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a
10983 command to make an SMTP
10985 session SSL/TLS encrypted, i.e., to enable transport layer security.
10988 .It Va socks-proxy-USER@HOST , socks-proxy-HOST , socks-proxy
10989 \*(OP If this is set to the hostname (SOCKS URL) of a SOCKS5 server then
10990 \*(UA will proxy all of its network activities through it.
10991 This can be used to proxy SMTP, POP3 etc. network traffic through the
10992 Tor anonymizer, for example.
10993 The following would create a local SOCKS proxy on port 10000 that
10994 forwards to the machine
10996 and from which the network traffic is actually instantiated:
10997 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10998 # Create local proxy server in terminal 1 forwarding to HOST
10999 $ ssh -D 10000 USER@HOST
11000 # Then, start a client that uses it in terminal 2
11001 $ \*(uA -Ssocks-proxy-USER@HOST=localhost:10000
11005 .It Va spam-interface
11006 \*(OP In order to use any of the spam-related commands (like, e.g.,
11008 the desired spam interface must be defined by setting this variable.
11009 Please refer to the manual section
11010 .Sx "Handling spam"
11011 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
11012 All or none of the following interfaces may be available:
11014 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ql _ilte_"
11020 .Pf ( Lk http://spamassassin.apache.org SpamAssassin )
11022 Different to the generic filter interface \*(UA will automatically add
11023 the correct arguments for a given command and has the necessary
11024 knowledge to parse the program's output.
11025 A default value for
11027 will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if
11031 during compilation.
11032 Shall it be necessary to define a specific connection type (rather than
11033 using a configuration file for that), the variable
11034 .Va spamc-arguments
11035 can be used as in, e.g.,
11036 .Ql -d server.example.com -p 783 .
11037 It is also possible to specify a per-user configuration via
11039 Note that this interface does not inspect the
11041 flag of a message for the command
11045 generic spam filter support via freely configurable hooks.
11046 This interface is meant for programs like
11048 and requires according behaviour in respect to the hooks' exit
11049 status for at least the command
11052 meaning a message is spam,
11056 for unsure and any other return value indicating a hard error);
11057 since the hooks can include shell code snippets diverting behaviour
11058 can be intercepted as necessary.
11060 .Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , spamfilter-nospam , \
11063 .Va spamfilter-spam ;
11065 .Sx "Handling spam"
11066 contains examples for some programs.
11067 The process environment of the hooks will have the variable
11068 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_GENERATED
11070 Note that spam score support for
11072 is not supported unless the \*(OPtional regular expression support is
11074 .Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore
11080 .It Va spam-maxsize
11081 \*(OP Messages that exceed this size will not be passed through to the
11083 .Va spam-interface .
11084 If unset or 0, the default of 420000 bytes is used.
11087 .It Va spamc-command
11088 \*(OP The path to the
11092 .Va spam-interface .
11093 Note that the path is not expanded, but used
11095 A fallback path will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if the
11096 executable had been found during compilation.
11099 .It Va spamc-arguments
11100 \*(OP Even though \*(UA deals with most arguments for the
11103 automatically, it may at least sometimes be desirable to specify
11104 connection-related ones via this variable, e.g.,
11105 .Ql -d server.example.com -p 783 .
11109 \*(OP Specify a username for per-user configuration files for the
11111 .Va spam-interface .
11112 If this is set to the empty string then \*(UA will use the name of the
11121 .It Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , \
11122 spamfilter-nospam , spamfilter-rate , spamfilter-spam
11123 \*(OP Command and argument hooks for the
11125 .Va spam-interface .
11127 .Sx "Handling spam"
11128 contains examples for some programs.
11131 .It Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore
11132 \*(OP Because of the generic nature of the
11135 spam scores are not supported for it by default, but if the \*(OPnal
11136 regular expression support is available then setting this variable can
11137 be used to overcome this restriction.
11138 It is interpreted as follows: first a number (digits) is parsed that
11139 must be followed by a semicolon
11141 and an extended regular expression.
11142 Then the latter is used to parse the first output line of the
11143 .Va spamfilter-rate
11144 hook, and, in case the evaluation is successful, the group that has been
11145 specified via the number is interpreted as a floating point scan score.
11149 .It Va ssl-ca-dir-USER@HOST , ssl-ca-dir-HOST , ssl-ca-dir ,\
11150 ssl-ca-file-USER@HOST , ssl-ca-file-HOST , ssl-ca-file
11151 \*(OP Specify the location of trusted CA certificates in PEM (Privacy
11152 Enhanced Mail) format as a directory and a file, respectively, for the
11153 purpose of verification of SSL/TLS server certificates.
11154 It is possible to set both, the file will be loaded immediately, the
11155 directory will be searched whenever no match has yet been found.
11156 The set of CA certificates which are built into the SSL/TLS library can
11157 be explicitly turned off by setting
11158 .Va ssl-ca-no-defaults ,
11159 and further fine-tuning is possible via
11162 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
11163 for more information.
11164 \*(UA will try to use the TLS/SNI (ServerNameIndication) extension when
11165 establishing TLS connections to servers identified with hostnames.
11168 .Mx Va ssl-ca-flags
11169 .It Va ssl-ca-flags-USER@HOST , ssl-ca-flags-HOST , ssl-ca-flags
11170 \*(OP Can be used to fine-tune behaviour of the X509 CA certificate
11171 storage, and the certificate verification that is used (also see
11173 The value is expected to consist of a comma-separated list of
11174 configuration directives, with any intervening whitespace being ignored.
11175 The directives directly map to flags that can be passed to
11176 .Xr X509_STORE_set_flags 3 ,
11177 which are usually defined in a file
11178 .Pa openssl/x509_vfy.h ,
11179 and the availability of which depends on the used SSL/TLS library
11180 version: a directive without mapping is ignored (error log subject to
11182 Directives currently understood (case-insensitively) include:
11185 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Cd BaNg"
11186 .It Cd no-alt-chains
11187 If the initial chain is not trusted, do not attempt to build an
11189 Setting this flag will make OpenSSL certificate verification match that
11190 of older OpenSSL versions, before automatic building and checking of
11191 alternative chains has been implemented; also see
11192 .Cd trusted-first .
11193 .It Cd no-check-time
11194 Do not check certificate/CRL validity against current time.
11195 .It Cd partial-chain
11196 By default partial, incomplete chains which cannot be verified up to the
11197 chain top, a self-signed root certificate, will not verify.
11198 With this flag set, a chain succeeds to verify if at least one signing
11199 certificate of the chain is in any of the configured trusted stores of
11201 The OpenSSL manual page
11202 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
11203 gives some advise how to manage your own trusted store of CA certificates.
11205 Disable workarounds for broken certificates.
11206 .It Cd trusted-first
11207 Try building a chain using issuers in the trusted store first to avoid
11208 problems with server-sent legacy intermediate certificates.
11209 Newer versions of OpenSSL support alternative chain checking and enable
11210 it by default, resulting in the same behaviour; also see
11211 .Cd no-alt-chains .
11215 .Mx Va ssl-ca-no-defaults
11216 .It Va ssl-ca-no-defaults-USER@HOST , ssl-ca-no-defaults-HOST ,\
11218 \*(BO\*(OP Do not load the default CA locations that are built into the
11219 used to SSL/TLS library to verify SSL/TLS server certificates.
11222 .It Va ssl-cert-USER@HOST , ssl-cert-HOST , ssl-cert
11223 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11226 .Va ssl-config-pairs .
11228 .Mx Va ssl-cipher-list
11229 .It Va ssl-cipher-list-USER@HOST , ssl-cipher-list-HOST , ssl-cipher-list
11230 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11233 .Va ssl-config-pairs .
11236 .It Va ssl-config-file
11237 \*(OP If this variable is set
11238 .Xr CONF_modules_load_file 3
11240 .Ql +modules-load-file
11243 is used to allow resource file based configuration of the SSL/TLS library.
11244 This happens once the library is used first, which may also be early
11245 during startup (logged with
11247 If a non-empty value is given then the given file, after performing
11248 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
11249 will be used instead of the global OpenSSL default, and it is an error
11250 if the file cannot be loaded.
11251 The application name will always be passed as
11253 Some SSL/TLS libraries support application-specific configuration via
11254 resource files loaded like this, please see
11255 .Va ssl-config-module .
11257 .Mx Va ssl-config-module
11258 .It Va ssl-config-module-USER@HOST , ssl-config-module-HOST ,\
11260 \*(OP If file based application-specific configuration via
11261 .Va ssl-config-file
11262 is available, announced as
11266 indicating availability of
11267 .Xr SSL_CTX_config 3 ,
11268 then, it becomes possible to use a central SSL/TLS configuration file
11269 for all programs, including \*(uA, e.g.:
11270 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11271 # Register a configuration section for \*(uA
11272 \*(uA = mailx_master
11273 # The top configuration section creates a relation
11274 # in between dynamic SSL configuration and an actual
11275 # program specific configuration section
11277 ssl_conf = mailx_ssl_config
11278 # Well that actual program specific configuration section
11279 # now can map individual ssl-config-module names to sections,
11280 # e.g., ssl-config-module=account_xy
11282 account_xy = mailx_account_xy
11283 account_yz = mailx_account_yz
11285 MinProtocol = TLSv1.2
11288 CipherString = TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:
11289 MinProtocol = TLSv1.1
11294 .Mx Va ssl-config-pairs
11295 .It Va ssl-config-pairs-USER@HOST , ssl-config-pairs-HOST , ssl-config-pairs
11296 \*(OP The value of this variable chain will be interpreted as
11297 a comma-separated list of directive/value pairs.
11298 Different to when placing these pairs in a
11299 .Va ssl-config-module
11301 .Va ssl-config-file
11304 need to be escaped with a reverse solidus
11306 when included in pairs.
11307 Just likewise directives and values need to be separated by equals signs
11309 any whitespace surrounding pair members is removed.
11310 Keys are (usually) case-insensitive.
11311 Unless proper support is announced by
11313 .Pf ( Ql +conf-ctx )
11314 only the keys below are supported, otherwise the pairs will be used
11315 directly as arguments to the function
11316 .Xr SSL_CONF_cmd 3 .
11319 may be preceded with an asterisk
11322 .Sx "Filename transformations"
11323 shall be performed on the value; it is an error if these fail.
11326 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Cd C_rtificate"
11328 Filename of a SSL/TLS client certificate (chain) required by some servers.
11329 Fallback support via
11330 .Xr SSL_CTX_use_certificate_chain_file 3 .
11331 .Sx "Filename transformations"
11333 .\" v15compat: remove the next sentence
11335 if you use this you need to specify the private key via
11341 A list of ciphers for SSL/TLS connections, see
11343 By default no list of ciphers is set, resulting in a
11344 .Cd Protocol Ns - Ns
11345 specific list of ciphers (the protocol standards define lists of
11346 acceptable ciphers; possibly cramped by the used SSL/TLS library).
11347 Fallback support via
11348 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_cipher_list 3 .
11351 A list of supported elliptic curves, if applicable.
11352 By default no curves are set.
11353 Fallback support via
11354 .Xr SSL_CTX_set1_curves_list 3 ,
11357 .It Cd MaxProtocol , MinProtocol
11358 The maximum and minimum supported SSL/TLS versions, respectively.
11359 Optional fallback support via
11360 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_max_proto_version 3
11362 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_min_proto_version 3
11366 .Ql +ctx-set-maxmin-proto ,
11367 otherwise this directive results in an error.
11368 The fallback uses an internal parser which understands the strings
11373 and the special value
11375 which disables the given limit.
11378 Various flags to set.
11380 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_options 3 ,
11381 in which case any other value but (exactly)
11383 results in an error.
11386 Filename of the private key in PEM format of a SSL/TLS client certificate.
11387 If unset, the name of the certificate file is used.
11388 .Sx "Filename transformations"
11391 .Xr SSL_CTX_use_PrivateKey_file 3 .
11392 .\" v15compat: remove the next sentence
11394 if you use this you need to specify the certificate (chain) via
11400 The used SSL/TLS protocol.
11406 .Ql ctx-set-maxmin-proto
11413 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_options 3 ,
11414 driven via an internal parser which understands the strings
11419 and the special value
11421 Multiple protocols may be given as a comma-separated list, any
11422 whitespace is ignored, an optional plus sign
11424 prefix enables, a hyphen-minus
11426 prefix disables a protocol, so that
11428 enables only the TLSv1.2 protocol.
11434 .It Va ssl-crl-dir , ssl-crl-file
11435 \*(OP Specify a directory / a file, respectively that contains a CRL in
11436 PEM format to use when verifying SSL/TLS server certificates.
11439 .It Va ssl-curves-USER@HOST , ssl-curves-HOST , ssl-curves
11440 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11443 .Va ssl-config-pairs .
11446 .It Va ssl-features
11447 \*(OP\*(RO This expands to a comma separated list of the TLS/SSL library
11448 identity and optional TLS/SSL library features.
11449 Currently supported identities are
11453 (OpenSSL v1.1.x series)
11456 (elder OpenSSL series, other clones).
11457 Optional features are preceded with a plus sign
11459 when available, and with a hyphen-minus
11462 .Ql modules-load-file
11463 .Pf ( Va ssl-config-file ) ,
11465 .Pf ( Va ssl-config-pairs ) ,
11467 .Pf ( Va ssl-config-module ) ,
11468 .Ql ctx-set-maxmin-proto
11469 .Pf ( Va ssl-config-pairs )
11472 .Pf ( Va ssl-rand-egd ) .
11475 .It Va ssl-key-USER@HOST , ssl-key-HOST , ssl-key
11476 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11479 .Va ssl-config-pairs .
11481 .It Va ssl-method-USER@HOST , ssl-method-HOST , ssl-method
11482 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11485 .Va ssl-config-pairs .
11487 .Mx Va ssl-protocol
11488 .It Va ssl-protocol-USER@HOST , ssl-protocol-HOST , ssl-protocol
11489 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
11492 .Va ssl-config-pairs .
11495 .It Va ssl-rand-egd
11496 \*(OP Gives the pathname to an entropy daemon socket, see
11498 Not all SSL/TLS libraries support this,
11500 announces availability with
11504 .It Va ssl-rand-file
11505 \*(OP Gives the filename to a file with random entropy data, see
11506 .Xr RAND_load_file 3 .
11507 If this variable is not set, or set to the empty string, or if the
11508 .Sx "Filename transformations"
11510 .Xr RAND_file_name 3
11511 will be used to create the filename.
11512 If the SSL PRNG was seeded successfully
11513 The file will be updated
11514 .Pf ( Xr RAND_write_file 3 )
11515 if and only if seeding and buffer stirring succeeds.
11516 This variable is only used if
11518 is not set (or not supported by the SSL/TLS library).
11521 .It Va ssl-verify-USER@HOST , ssl-verify-HOST , ssl-verify
11522 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the action to be performed if an error
11523 occurs during SSL/TLS server certificate validation against the
11524 specified or default trust stores
11527 or the SSL/TLS library built-in defaults (unless usage disallowed via
11528 .Va ssl-ca-no-defaults ) ,
11529 and as fine-tuned via
11531 Valid (case-insensitive) values are
11533 (fail and close connection immediately),
11535 (ask whether to continue on standard input),
11537 (show a warning and continue),
11539 (do not perform validation).
11545 If only set without an assigned value, then this setting inhibits the
11551 header fields that include obvious references to \*(UA.
11552 There are two pitfalls associated with this:
11553 First, the message id of outgoing messages is not known anymore.
11554 Second, an expert may still use the remaining information in the header
11555 to track down the originating mail user agent.
11556 If set to the value
11562 suppression does not occur.
11567 (\*(OP) This specifies a comma-separated list of
11572 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" ,
11573 escape commas with reverse solidus) to be used to overwrite or define
11576 this variable will only be queried once at program startup and can
11577 thus only be specified in resource files or on the command line.
11580 String capabilities form
11582 pairs and are expected unless noted otherwise.
11583 Numerics have to be notated as
11585 where the number is expected in normal decimal notation.
11586 Finally, booleans do not have any value but indicate a true or false
11587 state simply by being defined or not; this indeed means that \*(UA
11588 does not support undefining an existing boolean.
11589 String capability values will undergo some expansions before use:
11590 for one notations like
11593 .Ql control-LETTER ,
11594 and for clarification purposes
11596 can be used to specify
11598 (the control notation
11600 could lead to misreadings when a left bracket follows, which it does for
11601 the standard CSI sequence);
11602 finally three letter octal sequences, as in
11605 To specify that a terminal supports 256-colours, and to define sequences
11606 that home the cursor and produce an audible bell, one might write:
11608 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11609 ? set termcap='Co#256,home=\eE[H,bel=^G'
11613 The following terminal capabilities are or may be meaningful for the
11614 operation of the built-in line editor or \*(UA in general:
11617 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Cd yay"
11619 .It Cd colors Ns \0or Cd Co
11621 numeric capability specifying the maximum number of colours.
11622 Note that \*(UA does not actually care about the terminal beside that,
11623 but always emits ANSI / ISO 6429 escape sequences.
11626 .It Cd rmcup Ns \0or Cd te Ns \0/ Cd smcup Ns \0or Cd ti
11629 .Cd enter_ca_mode ,
11630 respectively: exit and enter the alternative screen ca-mode,
11631 effectively turning \*(UA into a fullscreen application.
11632 This must be enabled explicitly by setting
11633 .Va termcap-ca-mode .
11635 .It Cd smkx Ns \0or Cd ks Ns \0/ Cd rmkx Ns \0or Cd ke
11639 respectively: enable and disable the keypad.
11640 This is always enabled if available, because it seems even keyboards
11641 without keypads generate other key codes for, e.g., cursor keys in that
11642 case, and only if enabled we see the codes that we are interested in.
11644 .It Cd ed Ns \0or Cd cd
11648 .It Cd clear Ns \0or Cd cl
11650 clear the screen and home cursor.
11651 (Will be simulated via
11656 .It Cd home Ns \0or Cd ho
11661 .It Cd el Ns \0or Cd ce
11663 clear to the end of line.
11664 (Will be simulated via
11666 plus repetitions of space characters.)
11668 .It Cd hpa Ns \0or Cd ch
11669 .Cd column_address :
11670 move the cursor (to the given column parameter) in the current row.
11671 (Will be simulated via
11677 .Cd carriage_return :
11678 move to the first column in the current row.
11679 The default built-in fallback is
11682 .It Cd cub1 Ns \0or Cd le
11684 move the cursor left one space (non-destructively).
11685 The default built-in fallback is
11688 .It Cd cuf1 Ns \0or Cd nd
11690 move the cursor right one space (non-destructively).
11691 The default built-in fallback is
11693 which is used by most terminals.
11701 Many more capabilities which describe key-sequences are documented for
11706 .It Va termcap-ca-mode
11707 \*(OP Allow usage of the
11711 terminal capabilities, effectively turning \*(UA into a fullscreen
11712 application, as documented for
11715 this variable will only be queried once at program startup and can
11716 thus only be specified in resource files or on the command line.
11719 .It Va termcap-disable
11720 \*(OP Disable any interaction with a terminal control library.
11721 If set only some generic fallback built-ins and possibly the content of
11723 describe the terminal to \*(UA.
11725 this variable will only be queried once at program startup and can
11726 thus only be specified in resource files or on the command line.
11730 If defined, gives the number of lines of a message to be displayed
11733 if unset, the first five lines are printed, if set to 0 the variable
11736 If the value is negative then its absolute value will be used for
11737 unsigned right shifting (see
11745 \*(BO If set then the
11747 command series will strip adjacent empty lines and quotations.
11751 The character set of the terminal \*(UA operates on,
11752 and the one and only supported character set that \*(UA can use if no
11753 character set conversion capabilities have been compiled into it,
11754 in which case it defaults to ISO-8859-1 unless it can deduce a value
11755 from the locale specified in the
11757 environment variable (if supported, see there for more).
11758 It defaults to UTF-8 if conversion is available.
11759 Refer to the section
11760 .Sx "Character sets"
11761 for the complete picture about character sets.
11764 .It Va typescript-mode
11765 \*(BO A special multiplex variable that disables all variables and
11766 settings which result in behaviour that interferes with running \*(UA in
11769 .Va colour-disable ,
11770 .Va line-editor-disable
11771 and (before startup completed only)
11772 .Va termcap-disable .
11773 Unsetting it does not restore the former state of the covered settings.
11777 For a safety-by-default policy \*(UA sets its process
11781 but this variable can be used to override that:
11782 set it to an empty value to do not change the (current) setting (on
11783 startup), otherwise the process file mode creation mask is updated to
11785 Child processes inherit the process file mode creation mask.
11788 .It Va user-HOST , user
11789 \*(IN Variable chain that sets a global fallback user name, which is
11790 used in case none has been given in the protocol and account-specific
11792 This variable defaults to the name of the user who runs \*(UA.
11796 \*(BO Setting this enables upward compatibility with \*(UA
11797 version 15.0 in respect to which configuration options are available and
11798 how they are handled.
11799 This manual uses \*(IN and \*(OU to refer to the new and the old way of
11800 doing things, respectively.
11804 \*(BO This setting, also controllable via the command line option
11806 causes \*(UA to be more verbose, e.g., it will display obsoletion
11807 warnings and SSL/TLS certificate chains.
11808 Even though marked \*(BO this option may be set twice in order to
11809 increase the level of verbosity even more, in which case even details of
11810 the actual message delivery and protocol conversations are shown.
11813 is sufficient to disable verbosity as such.
11820 .It Va version , version-date , version-major , version-minor , version-update
11821 \*(RO \*(UA version information: the first variable contains a string
11822 containing the complete version identification, the latter three contain
11823 only digits: the major, minor and update version numbers.
11824 The date is in ISO 8601 notation.
11825 The output of the command
11827 will include this information.
11830 .It Va writebackedited
11831 If this variable is set messages modified using the
11835 commands are written back to the current folder when it is quit;
11836 it is only honoured for writable folders in MBOX format, though.
11837 Note that the editor will be pointed to the raw message content in that
11838 case, i.e., neither MIME decoding nor decryption will have been
11839 performed, and proper RFC 4155
11841 quoting of newly added or edited content is also left as an excercise to
11844 .\" }}} (Variables)
11846 .\" }}} (INTERNAL VARIABLES)
11849 .\" .Sh ENVIRONMENT {{{
11853 .Dq environment variable
11854 should be considered an indication that these variables are either
11855 standardized as vivid parts of process environments, or that they are
11856 commonly found in there.
11857 The process environment is inherited from the
11859 once \*(UA is started, and unless otherwise explicitly noted handling of
11860 the following variables transparently integrates into that of the
11861 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
11862 from \*(UA's point of view.
11863 This means that, e.g., they can be managed via
11867 causing automatic program environment updates (to be inherited by
11868 newly created child processes).
11871 In order to transparently integrate other environment variables equally
11872 they need to be imported (linked) with the command
11874 This command can also be used to set and unset non-integrated
11875 environment variables from scratch, sufficient system support provided.
11876 The following example, applicable to a POSIX shell, sets the
11878 environment variable for \*(UA only, and beforehand exports the
11880 in order to affect any further processing in the running shell:
11882 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11883 $ EDITOR="vim -u ${HOME}/.vimrc"
11885 $ COLUMNS=80 \*(uA -R
11888 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ev BaNg"
11891 The user's preferred width in column positions for the terminal screen
11893 Queried and used once on program startup, actively managed for child
11894 processes and the MLE (see
11895 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
11896 in interactive mode thereafter.
11897 Ignored in non-interactive mode, which always uses 80 columns, unless in
11903 The name of the (mailbox)
11905 to use for saving aborted messages if
11907 is set; this defaults to
11914 is set no output will be generated, otherwise the contents of the file
11919 Pathname of the text editor to use in the
11923 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
11924 A default editor is used if this value is not defined.
11928 The user's home directory.
11929 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
11930 The calling user's home directory will be used instead if this directory
11931 does not exist, is not accessible or cannot be read.
11932 (No test for being writable is performed to allow usage by
11933 non-privileged users within read-only jails, but dependent on the
11934 variable settings this directory is a default write target, e.g. for
11942 .It Ev LC_ALL , LC_CTYPE , LANG
11943 \*(OP The (names in lookup order of the)
11947 which indicates the used
11948 .Sx "Character sets" .
11949 Runtime changes trigger automatic updates of the entire locale system,
11950 updating and overwriting also a
11956 The user's preferred number of lines on a page or the vertical screen
11957 or window size in lines.
11958 Queried and used once on program startup, actively managed for child
11959 processes in interactive mode thereafter.
11960 Ignored in non-interactive mode, which always uses 24 lines, unless in
11966 Pathname of the directory lister to use in the
11968 command when operating on local mailboxes.
11971 (path search through
11976 Upon startup \*(UA will actively ensure that this variable refers to the
11977 name of the user who runs \*(UA, in order to be able to pass a verified
11978 name to any newly created child process.
11982 Is used as the users
11984 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
11988 This is assumed to be an absolute pathname.
11992 \*(OP Overrides the default path search for
11993 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
11994 which is defined in the standard RFC 1524 as
11995 .Ql ~/.mailcap:\:/etc/mailcap:\:/usr/etc/mailcap:\:/usr/local/etc/mailcap .
11996 .\" TODO we should have a mailcaps-default virtual RDONLY option!
11997 (\*(UA makes it a configuration option, however.)
11998 Note this is not a search path, but a path search.
12002 Is used as a startup file instead of
12005 In order to avoid side-effects from configuration files scripts should
12006 either set this variable to
12010 command line option should be used.
12013 .It Ev MAILX_NO_SYSTEM_RC
12014 If this variable is set then reading of
12016 at startup is inhibited, i.e., the same effect is achieved as if \*(UA
12017 had been started up with the option
12019 (and according argument) or
12021 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
12025 The name of the users
12027 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
12029 A logical subset of the special
12030 .Sx "Filename transformations"
12036 Traditionally this MBOX is used as the file to save messages from the
12038 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
12039 that have been read.
12041 .Sx "Message states" .
12045 \*(IN\*(OP This variable overrides the default location of the user's
12051 Pathname of the program to use for backing the command
12055 variable enforces usage of a pager for output.
12056 The default paginator is
12058 (path search through
12061 \*(UA inspects the contents of this variable: if its contains the string
12063 then a non-existing environment variable
12070 will optionally be set to
12077 A colon-separated list of directories that is searched by the shell when
12078 looking for commands, e.g.,
12079 .Ql /bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin .
12082 .It Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT
12083 This variable is automatically looked for upon startup, see
12089 The shell to use for the commands
12094 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
12095 and when starting subprocesses.
12096 A default shell is used if this environment variable is not defined.
12099 .It Ev SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
12100 This specifies a time in seconds since the Unix epoch (1970-01-01) to be
12101 used in place of the current time.
12102 This variable is looked up upon program startup, and its existence will
12103 switch \*(UA to a completely reproducible mode which causes
12104 deterministic random numbers, a special fixed (non-existent?)
12106 and more to be used and set.
12107 It is to be used during development or by software packagers.
12108 \*(ID Currently an invalid setting is only ignored, rather than causing
12109 a program abortion.
12111 .Dl $ SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH=`date +%s` \*(uA
12115 \*(OP The terminal type for which output is to be prepared.
12116 For extended colour and font control please refer to
12117 .Sx "Coloured display" ,
12118 and for terminal management in general to
12119 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" .
12123 Used as directory for temporary files instead of
12125 if set, existent, accessible as well as read- and writable.
12126 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment,
12127 but \*(UA will ensure at startup that this environment variable is
12128 updated to contain a usable temporary directory.
12134 (see there), but this variable is not standardized, should therefore not
12135 be used, and is only corrected if already set.
12139 Pathname of the text editor to use in the
12143 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
12153 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa BaNg"
12155 File giving initial commands, one of the
12156 .Sx "Resource files" .
12159 System wide initialization file, one of the
12160 .Sx "Resource files" .
12164 \*(OP Personal MIME type handler definition file, see
12165 .Sx "The Mailcap files" .
12166 This location is part of the RFC 1524 standard search path, which is
12167 a configuration option and can be overridden via
12171 .It Pa /etc/mailcap
12172 \*(OP System wide MIME type handler definition file, see
12173 .Sx "The Mailcap files" .
12174 This location is part of the RFC 1524 standard search path, which is
12175 a configuration option and can be overridden via
12179 The default value for
12181 The actually used path is a configuration option.
12184 .It Pa ~/.mime.types
12185 Personal MIME types, see
12186 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
12187 The actually used path is a configuration option.
12190 .It Pa /etc/mime.types
12191 System wide MIME types, see
12192 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
12193 The actually used path is a configuration option.
12197 \*(IN\*(OP The default location of the users
12199 file \(en the section
12200 .Sx "The .netrc file"
12201 documents the file format.
12202 The actually used path is a configuration option and can be overridden via
12209 The actually used path is a compile-time constant.
12213 .\" .Ss "Resource files" {{{
12214 .Ss "Resource files"
12216 Upon startup \*(UA reads in several resource files:
12218 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa BaNg"
12221 System wide initialization file.
12222 Reading of this file can be suppressed, either by using the
12224 (and according argument) or
12226 command line options, or by setting the
12229 .Ev MAILX_NO_SYSTEM_RC .
12233 File giving initial commands.
12234 A different file can be chosen by setting the
12238 Reading of this file can be suppressed with the
12240 command line option.
12242 .It Va mailx-extra-rc
12243 Defines a startup file to be read after all other resource files.
12244 It can be used to specify settings that are not understood by other
12246 implementations, for example.
12247 This variable is only honoured when defined in a resource file, e.g.,
12249 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" .
12253 The content of these files is interpreted as follows:
12256 .Bl -bullet -compact
12258 The whitespace characters space, tabulator and newline,
12259 as well as those defined by the variable
12261 are removed from the beginning and end of input lines.
12263 Empty lines are ignored.
12265 Any other line is interpreted as a command.
12266 It may be spread over multiple input lines if the newline character is
12268 by placing a reverse solidus character
12270 as the last character of the line; whereas any leading whitespace of
12271 follow lines is ignored, trailing whitespace before a escaped newline
12272 remains in the input.
12274 If the line (content) starts with the number sign
12276 then it is a comment-command and also ignored.
12277 (The comment-command is a real command, which does nothing, and
12278 therefore the usual follow lines mechanism applies!)
12282 Unless \*(UA is about to enter interactive mode syntax errors that occur
12283 while loading these files are treated as errors and cause program exit.
12284 More files with syntactically equal content can be
12286 The following, saved in a file, would be an examplary content:
12288 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12289 # This line is a comment command. And y\e
12290 es, it is really continued here.
12297 .\" .Ss "The mime.types files" {{{
12298 .Ss "The mime.types files"
12301 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments"
12302 \*(UA needs to learn about MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions)
12303 media types in order to classify message and attachment content.
12304 One source for them are
12306 files, the loading of which can be controlled by setting the variable
12307 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
12308 Another is the command
12310 which also offers access to \*(UAs MIME type cache.
12312 files have the following syntax:
12314 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12315 type/subtype extension [extension ...]
12316 # E.g., text/html html htm
12322 define the MIME media type, as standardized in RFC 2046:
12324 is used to declare the general type of data, while the
12326 specifies a specific format for that type of data.
12327 One or multiple filename
12329 s, separated by whitespace, can be bound to the media type format.
12330 Comments may be introduced anywhere on a line with a number sign
12332 causing the remaining line to be discarded.
12334 \*(UA also supports an extended, non-portable syntax in especially
12335 crafted files, which can be loaded via the alternative value syntax of
12336 .Va mimetypes-load-control ,
12337 and prepends an optional
12341 .Dl [type-marker ]type/subtype extension [extension ...]
12344 The following type markers are supported:
12347 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar _n_u"
12349 Treat message parts with this content as plain text.
12354 Treat message parts with this content as HTML tagsoup.
12355 If the \*(OPal HTML-tagsoup-to-text converter is not available treat
12356 the content as plain text instead.
12360 but instead of falling back to plain text require an explicit content
12361 handler to be defined.
12363 If no handler can be found a text message is displayed which says so.
12364 This can be annoying, for example signatures serve a contextual purpose,
12365 their content is of no use by itself.
12366 This marker will avoid displaying the text message.
12371 for sending messages:
12373 .Va mime-allow-text-controls ,
12374 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
12375 For reading etc. messages:
12376 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ,
12377 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
12379 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
12380 .Va mimetypes-load-control ,
12381 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE ,
12382 .Va pipe-EXTENSION .
12385 .\" .Ss "The Mailcap files" {{{
12386 .Ss "The Mailcap files"
12388 .\" TODO MAILCAP DISABLED
12389 .Sy This feature is not available in v14.9.0, sorry!
12391 .Dq User Agent Configuration Mechanism
12392 which \*(UA \*(OPally supports (see
12393 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ) .
12394 It defines a file format to be used to inform mail user agent programs
12395 about the locally-installed facilities for handling various data
12396 formats, i.e., about commands and how they can be used to display, edit
12397 et cetera MIME part contents, as well as a default path search that
12398 includes multiple possible locations of
12402 environment variable that can be used to overwrite that (repeating here
12403 that it is not a search path, but instead a path search specification).
12404 Any existing files will be loaded in sequence, appending any content to
12405 the list of MIME type handler directives.
12409 files consist of a set of newline separated entries.
12410 Comment lines start with a number sign
12412 (in the first column!) and are ignored.
12413 Empty lines are also ignored.
12414 All other lines form individual entries that must adhere to the syntax
12416 To extend a single entry (not comment) its line can be continued on
12417 follow lines if newline characters are
12419 by preceding them with the reverse solidus character
12421 The standard does not specify how leading whitespace of follow lines
12422 is to be treated, therefore \*(UA retains it.
12426 entries consist of a number of semicolon
12428 separated fields, and the reverse solidus
12430 character can be used to escape any following character including
12431 semicolon and itself.
12432 The first two fields are mandatory and must occur in the specified
12433 order, the remaining fields are optional and may appear in any order.
12434 Leading and trailing whitespace of content is ignored (removed).
12437 The first field defines the MIME
12439 the entry is about to handle (case-insensitively, and no reverse solidus
12440 escaping is possible in this field).
12441 If the subtype is specified as an asterisk
12443 the entry is meant to match all subtypes of the named type, e.g.,
12445 would match any audio type.
12446 The second field defines the shell command which shall be used to
12448 MIME parts of the given type; it is implicitly called the
12455 shell commands message (MIME part) data is passed via standard input
12456 unless the given shell command includes one or more instances of the
12459 in which case these instances will be replaced with a temporary filename
12460 and the data will have been stored in the file that is being pointed to.
12463 shell commands data is assumed to be generated on standard output unless
12464 the given command includes (one ore multiple)
12466 In any case any given
12468 format is replaced with a(n already) properly quoted filename.
12469 Note that when a command makes use of a temporary file via
12471 then \*(UA will remove it again, as if the
12472 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile ,
12473 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill
12475 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
12476 flags had been set; see below for more.
12479 The optional fields either define a shell command or an attribute (flag)
12480 value, the latter being a single word and the former being a keyword
12481 naming the field followed by an equals sign
12483 succeeded by a shell command, and as usual for any
12485 content any whitespace surrounding the equals sign will be removed, too.
12486 Optional fields include the following:
12489 .Bl -tag -width ".It Cd BaNg"
12491 A program that can be used to compose a new body or body part in the
12493 (Currently unused.)
12495 .It Cd composetyped
12498 field, but is to be used when the composing program needs to specify the
12500 header field to be applied to the composed data.
12501 (Currently unused.)
12504 A program that can be used to edit a body or body part in the given
12506 (Currently unused.)
12509 A program that can be used to print a message or body part in the given
12511 (Currently unused.)
12514 Specifies a program to be run to test some condition, e.g., the machine
12515 architecture, or the window system in use, to determine whether or not
12516 this mailcap entry applies.
12517 If the test fails, a subsequent mailcap entry should be sought; also see
12518 .Cd x-mailx-test-once .
12521 .It Cd needsterminal
12522 This flag field indicates that the given shell command must be run on
12523 an interactive terminal.
12524 \*(UA will temporarily release the terminal to the given command in
12525 interactive mode, in non-interactive mode this entry will be entirely
12526 ignored; this flag implies
12527 .Cd x-mailx-noquote .
12530 .It Cd copiousoutput
12531 A flag field which indicates that the output of the
12533 command will be an extended stream of textual output that can be
12534 (re)integrated into \*(UA's normal visual display.
12535 It is mutually exclusive with
12536 .Cd needsterminal .
12538 .It Cd textualnewlines
12539 A flag field which indicates that this type of data is line-oriented and
12540 that, if encoded in
12542 all newlines should be converted to canonical form (CRLF) before
12543 encoding, and will be in that form after decoding.
12544 (Currently unused.)
12546 .It Cd nametemplate
12547 This field gives a filename format, in which
12549 will be replaced by a random string, the joined combination of which
12550 will be used as the filename denoted by
12551 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY .
12552 One could specify that a GIF file being passed to an image viewer should
12553 have a name ending in
12556 .Ql nametemplate=%s.gif .
12557 Note that \*(UA ignores the name template unless that solely specifies
12558 a filename suffix that consists of (ASCII) alphabetic and numeric
12559 characters, the underscore and dot only.
12562 Names a file, in X11 bitmap (xbm) format, which points to an appropriate
12563 icon to be used to visually denote the presence of this kind of data.
12564 This field is not used by \*(UA.
12567 A textual description that describes this type of data.
12570 .It Cd x-mailx-even-if-not-interactive
12571 An extension flag test field \(em by default handlers without
12573 are entirely ignored in non-interactive mode, but if this flag is set
12574 then their use will be considered.
12575 It is an error if this flag is set for commands that use the flag
12576 .Cd needsterminal .
12579 .It Cd x-mailx-noquote
12580 An extension flag field that indicates that even a
12583 command shall not be used to generate message quotes
12584 (as it would be by default).
12587 .It Cd x-mailx-async
12588 Extension flag field that denotes that the given
12590 command shall be executed asynchronously, without blocking \*(UA.
12591 Cannot be used in conjunction with
12592 .Cd needsterminal .
12595 .It Cd x-mailx-test-once
12596 Extension flag which denotes whether the given
12598 command shall be evaluated once only and the (boolean) result be cached.
12599 This is handy if some global unchanging condition is to be queried, like
12600 .Dq running under the X Window System .
12603 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile
12604 Extension flag field that requests creation of a zero-sized temporary
12605 file, the name of which is to be placed in the environment variable
12606 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY .
12607 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
12612 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill
12613 Normally the MIME part content is passed to the handler via standard
12614 input; if this flag is set then the data will instead be written into
12616 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile .
12617 In order to cause deletion of the temporary file you will have to set
12618 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
12620 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
12625 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
12626 Extension flag field that requests that the temporary file shall be
12627 deleted automatically when the command loop is entered again at latest.
12628 (Do not use this for asynchronous handlers.)
12629 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
12631 format, or in conjunction with
12632 .Cd x-mailx-async ,
12633 or without also setting
12634 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile
12636 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill .
12639 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-keep
12642 implies the three tmpfile related flags above, but if you want, e.g.,
12644 and deal with the temporary file yourself, you can add in this flag to
12646 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink .
12651 The standard includes the possibility to define any number of additional
12652 entry fields, prefixed by
12654 Flag fields apply to the entire
12656 entry \(em in some unusual cases, this may not be desirable, but
12657 differentiation can be accomplished via separate entries, taking
12658 advantage of the fact that subsequent entries are searched if an earlier
12659 one does not provide enough information.
12662 command needs to specify the
12666 command shall not, the following will help out the latter (with enabled
12670 level \*(UA will show information about handler evaluation):
12672 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12673 application/postscript; ps-to-terminal %s; needsterminal
12674 application/postscript; ps-to-terminal %s; compose=idraw %s
12678 In fields any occurrence of the format string
12680 will be replaced by the
12683 Named parameters from the
12685 field may be placed in the command execution line using
12687 followed by the parameter name and a closing
12690 The entire parameter should appear as a single command line argument,
12691 regardless of embedded spaces; thus:
12693 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12695 Content-type: multipart/mixed; boundary=42
12698 multipart/*; /usr/local/bin/showmulti \e
12699 %t %{boundary} ; composetyped = /usr/local/bin/makemulti
12701 # Executed shell command
12702 /usr/local/bin/showmulti multipart/mixed 42
12706 .\" TODO v15: Mailcap: %n,%F
12707 Note that \*(UA does not support handlers for multipart MIME parts as
12708 shown in this example (as of today).
12709 \*(UA does not support the additional formats
12713 An example file, also showing how to properly deal with the expansion of
12715 which includes any quotes that are necessary to make it a valid shell
12716 argument by itself and thus will cause undesired behaviour when placed
12717 in additional user-provided quotes:
12719 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12721 text/richtext; richtext %s; copiousoutput
12723 text/x-perl; perl -cWT %s
12725 application/pdf; \e
12727 trap "rm -f ${infile}" EXIT\e; \e
12728 trap "exit 75" INT QUIT TERM\e; \e
12730 x-mailx-async; x-mailx-tmpfile-keep
12732 application/*; echo "This is \e"%t\e" but \e
12733 is 50 \e% Greek to me" \e; < %s head -c 1024 | cat -vET; \e
12734 copiousoutput; x-mailx-noquote
12739 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ,
12740 .Sx "The mime.types files" ,
12743 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
12744 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE ,
12745 .Va pipe-EXTENSION .
12748 .\" .Ss "The .netrc file" {{{
12749 .Ss "The .netrc file"
12753 file contains user credentials for machine accounts.
12754 The default location in the user's
12756 directory may be overridden by the
12758 environment variable.
12759 The file consists of space, tabulator or newline separated tokens.
12760 \*(UA implements a parser that supports a superset of the original BSD
12761 syntax, but users should nonetheless be aware of portability glitches
12762 of that file format, shall their
12764 be usable across multiple programs and platforms:
12767 .Bl -bullet -compact
12769 BSD does not support single, but only double quotation marks, e.g.,
12770 .Ql password="pass with spaces" .
12772 BSD (only?) supports escaping of single characters via a reverse solidus
12773 (e.g., a space can be escaped via
12775 in- as well as outside of a quoted string.
12777 BSD does not require a final quotation mark of the last user input token.
12779 The original BSD (Berknet) parser also supported a format which allowed
12780 tokens to be separated with commas \(en whereas at least Hewlett-Packard
12781 still seems to support this syntax, \*(UA does not!
12783 As a non-portable extension some widely-used programs support
12784 shell-style comments: if an input line starts, after any amount of
12785 whitespace, with a number sign
12787 then the rest of the line is ignored.
12789 Whereas other programs may require that the
12791 file is accessible by only the user if it contains a
12793 token for any other
12797 \*(UA will always require these strict permissions.
12801 Of the following list of supported tokens \*(UA only uses (and caches)
12806 At runtime the command
12808 can be used to control \*(UA's
12812 .Bl -tag -width ".It Cd BaNg"
12813 .It Cd machine Ar name
12814 The hostname of the entries' machine, lowercase-normalized by \*(UA
12816 Any further file content, until either end-of-file or the occurrence
12821 first-class token is bound (only related) to the machine
12824 As an extension that should not be the cause of any worries
12825 \*(UA supports a single wildcard prefix for
12827 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12828 machine *.example.com login USER password PASS
12829 machine pop3.example.com login USER password PASS
12830 machine smtp.example.com login USER password PASS
12836 .Ql pop3.example.com ,
12840 .Ql local.smtp.example.com .
12841 Note that in the example neither
12842 .Ql pop3.example.com
12844 .Ql smtp.example.com
12845 will be matched by the wildcard, since the exact matches take
12846 precedence (it is however faster to specify it the other way around).
12849 This is the same as
12851 except that it is a fallback entry that is used shall none of the
12852 specified machines match; only one default token may be specified,
12853 and it must be the last first-class token.
12855 .It Cd login Ar name
12856 The user name on the remote machine.
12858 .It Cd password Ar string
12859 The user's password on the remote machine.
12861 .It Cd account Ar string
12862 Supply an additional account password.
12863 This is merely for FTP purposes.
12865 .It Cd macdef Ar name
12867 A macro is defined with the specified
12869 it is formed from all lines beginning with the next line and continuing
12870 until a blank line is (consecutive newline characters are) encountered.
12873 entries cannot be utilized by multiple machines, too, but must be
12874 defined following the
12876 they are intended to be used with.)
12879 exists, it is automatically run as the last step of the login process.
12880 This is merely for FTP purposes.
12887 .\" .Sh EXAMPLES {{{
12890 .\" .Ss "An example configuration" {{{
12891 .Ss "An example configuration"
12893 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12894 # This example assumes v15.0 compatibility mode
12897 # Request strict SSL/TLS transport security checks
12898 set ssl-verify=strict
12900 # Where are the up-to-date SSL/TLS certificates?
12901 # (Since we manage up-to-date ones explicitly, do not use any,
12902 # possibly outdated, default certificates shipped with OpenSSL)
12903 #set ssl-ca-dir=/etc/ssl/certs
12904 set ssl-ca-file=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
12905 set ssl-ca-no-defaults
12906 #set ssl-ca-flags=partial-chain
12907 wysh set smime-ca-file="${ssl-ca-file}" \e
12908 smime-ca-no-defaults #smime-ca-flags="${ssl-ca-flags}"
12910 # This could be outsourced to a central configuration file via
12911 # ssl-config-file plus ssl-config-module if the used library allows.
12912 # CipherList: explicitly define the list of ciphers, which may
12913 # improve security, especially with protocols older than TLS v1.2.
12914 # See ciphers(1). Possibly best to only use ssl-cipher-list-HOST
12915 # (or -USER@HOST), as necessary, again..
12916 # Curves: especially with TLSv1.3 curves selection may be desired.
12917 # MinProtocol,MaxProtocol: do not use protocols older than TLS v1.2.
12918 # Change this only when the remote server does not support it:
12919 # maybe use chain support via ssl-config-pairs-HOST / -USER@HOST
12920 # to define such explicit exceptions, then, e.g.
12921 # MinProtocol=TLSv1.1
12922 if [ "$ssl-features" =% +ctx-set-maxmin-proto ]
12923 wysh set ssl-config-pairs='\e
12924 CipherList=TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:@STRENGTH,\e
12925 Curves=P-521:P-384:P-256,\e
12926 MinProtocol=TLSv1.1'
12928 wysh set ssl-config-pairs='\e
12929 CipherList=TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:@STRENGTH,\e
12930 Curves=P-521:P-384:P-256,\e
12931 Protocol=-ALL\e,+TLSv1.1 \e, +TLSv1.2'
12934 # Essential setting: select allowed character sets
12935 set sendcharsets=utf-8,iso-8859-1
12937 # A very kind option: when replying to a message, first try to
12938 # use the same encoding that the original poster used herself!
12939 set reply-in-same-charset
12941 # When replying, do not merge From: and To: of the original message
12942 # into To:. Instead old From: -> new To:, old To: -> merge Cc:.
12943 set recipients-in-cc
12945 # When sending messages, wait until the Mail-Transfer-Agent finishs.
12946 # Only like this you will be able to see errors reported through the
12947 # exit status of the MTA (including the built-in SMTP one)!
12950 # Only use built-in MIME types, no mime.types(5) files
12951 set mimetypes-load-control
12953 # Default directory where we act in (relative to $HOME)
12955 # A leading "+" (often) means: under *folder*
12956 # *record* is used to save copies of sent messages
12957 set MBOX=+mbox.mbox DEAD=+dead.txt \e
12958 record=+sent.mbox record-files record-resent
12960 # Make "file mymbox" and "file myrec" go to..
12961 shortcut mymbox %:+mbox.mbox myrec +sent.mbox
12963 # Not really optional, e.g., for S/MIME
12964 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
12966 # It may be necessary to set hostname and/or smtp-hostname
12967 # if the "SERVER" of mta and "domain" of from do not match.
12968 # The `urlencode' command can be used to encode USER and PASS
12969 set mta=(smtps?|submission)://[USER[:PASS]@]SERVER[:PORT] \e
12970 smtp-auth=login/plain... \e
12973 # Never refuse to start into interactive mode, and more
12975 colour-pager crt= \e
12976 followup-to followup-to-honour=ask-yes fullnames \e
12977 history-file=+.\*(uAhist history-size=-1 history-gabby \e
12978 mime-counter-evidence=0xE \e
12979 prompt='?\e$?!\e$!/\e$^ERRNAME[\e$account#\e$mailbox-display]? ' \e
12980 reply-to-honour=ask-yes \e
12983 # Only include the selected header fields when typing messages
12984 headerpick type retain from_ date from to cc subject \e
12985 message-id mail-followup-to reply-to
12986 # ...when forwarding messages
12987 headerpick forward retain subject date from to cc
12988 # ...when saving message, etc.
12989 #headerpick save ignore ^Original-.*$ ^X-.*$
12991 # Some mailing lists
12992 mlist '@xyz-editor\e.xyz$' '@xyzf\e.xyz$'
12993 mlsubscribe '^xfans@xfans\e.xyz$'
12995 # Handle a few file extensions (to store MBOX databases)
12996 filetype bz2 'bzip2 -dc' 'bzip2 -zc' \e
12997 gz 'gzip -dc' 'gzip -c' xz 'xz -dc' 'xz -zc' \e
12998 zst 'zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc' \e
12999 zst.pgp 'gpg -d | zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc | gpg -e'
13001 # A real life example of a very huge free mail provider
13002 # Instead of directly placing content inside `account',
13003 # we `define' a macro: like that we can switch "accounts"
13004 # from within *on-compose-splice*, for example!
13006 set folder=~/spool/XooglX inbox=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
13007 set from='Your Name <address@examp.ple>'
13009 set pop3-no-apop-pop.gmXil.com
13010 shortcut pop %:pop3s://pop.gmXil.com
13011 shortcut imap %:imaps://imap.gmXil.com
13013 set mta=smtp://USER:PASS@smtp.gmXil.com smtp-use-starttls
13015 set mta=smtps://USER:PASS@smtp.gmail.com:465
13021 # Here is a pretty large one which does not allow sending mails
13022 # if there is a domain name mismatch on the SMTP protocol level,
13023 # which would bite us if the value of from does not match, e.g.,
13024 # for people who have a sXXXXeforge project and want to speak
13025 # with the mailing list under their project account (in from),
13026 # still sending the message through their normal mail provider
13028 set folder=~/spool/XandeX inbox=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
13029 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
13031 shortcut pop %:pop3s://pop.yaXXex.com
13032 shortcut imap %:imaps://imap.yaXXex.com
13034 set mta=smtps://USER:PASS@smtp.yaXXex.com:465 \e
13035 hostname=yaXXex.com smtp-hostname=
13041 # Create some new commands so that, e.g., `ls /tmp' will..
13042 commandalias lls '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFlrS'
13043 commandalias llS '!ls ${LS_COLOR_FLAG} -aFlS'
13045 # We do not support gpg(1) directly yet. But simple --clearsign'd
13046 # message parts can be dealt with as follows:
13049 wysh set pipe-text/plain=$'@*#++=@\e
13050 < "${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}" awk \e
13051 -v TMPFILE="${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}" \e'\e
13053 /^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----/,/^$/ {\e
13056 print "--- GPG --verify ---";\e
13057 system("gpg --verify " TMPFILE " 2>&1");\e
13058 print "--- GPG --verify ---";\e
13062 /^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----/,\e
13063 /^-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----/{\e
13070 commandalias V '\e'call V
13074 When storing passwords in
13076 appropriate permissions should be set on this file with
13077 .Ql $ chmod 0600 \*(ur .
13080 is available user credentials can be stored in the central
13082 file instead; e.g., here is a different version of the example account
13083 that sets up SMTP and POP3:
13085 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13087 set folder=~/spool/XandeX inbox=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
13088 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
13090 # Load an encrypted ~/.netrc by uncommenting the next line
13091 #set netrc-pipe='gpg -qd ~/.netrc.pgp'
13093 set mta=smtps://smtp.yXXXXx.ru:465 \e
13094 smtp-hostname= hostname=yXXXXx.com
13095 set pop3-keepalive=240 pop3-no-apop-pop.yXXXXx.ru
13096 commandalias xp fi pop3s://pop.yXXXXx.ru
13108 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13109 machine *.yXXXXx.ru login USER password PASS
13113 This configuration should now work just fine:
13116 .Dl $ echo text | \*(uA -dvv -AXandeX -s Subject user@exam.ple
13119 .\" .Ss "S/MIME step by step" {{{
13120 .Ss "S/MIME step by step"
13122 \*(OP The first thing you need for participating in S/MIME message
13123 exchange is your personal certificate, including a private key.
13124 The certificate contains public information, in particular your name and
13125 your email address(es), and the public key that is used by others to
13126 encrypt messages for you,
13127 and to verify signed messages they supposedly received from you.
13128 The certificate is included in each signed message you send.
13129 The private key must be kept secret.
13130 It is used to decrypt messages that were previously encrypted with your
13131 public key, and to sign messages.
13134 For personal use it is recommended that you get a S/MIME certificate
13135 from one of the major CAs on the Internet using your WWW browser.
13136 Many CAs offer such certificates for free.
13138 .Lk https://www.CAcert.org
13139 which issues client and server certificates to members of their
13140 community for free; their root certificate
13141 .Pf ( Lk https://\:www.cacert.org/\:certs/\:root.crt )
13142 is often not in the default set of trusted CA root certificates, though,
13143 which means you will have to download their root certificate separately
13144 and ensure it is part of our S/MIME certificate validation chain by
13147 or as a vivid member of the
13148 .Va smime-ca-file .
13149 But let us take a step-by-step tour on how to setup S/MIME with
13150 a certificate from CAcert.org despite this situation!
13153 First of all you will have to become a member of the CAcert.org
13154 community, simply by registrating yourself via the web interface.
13155 Once you are, create and verify all email addresses you want to be able
13156 to create signed and encrypted messages for/with using the corresponding
13157 entries of the web interface.
13158 Now ready to create S/MIME certificates, so let us create a new
13159 .Dq client certificate ,
13160 ensure to include all email addresses that should be covered by the
13161 certificate in the following web form, and also to use your name as the
13165 Create a private key and a certificate request on your local computer
13166 (please see the manual pages of the used commands for more in-depth
13167 knowledge on what the used arguments etc. do):
13170 .Dl $ openssl req -nodes -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout key.pem -out creq.pem
13173 Afterwards copy-and-paste the content of
13175 into the certificate-request (CSR) field of the web form on the
13176 CAcert.org website (you may need to unfold some
13177 .Dq advanced options
13178 to see the corresponding text field).
13179 This last step will ensure that your private key (which never left your
13180 box) and the certificate belong together (through the public key that
13181 will find its way into the certificate via the certificate-request).
13182 You are now ready and can create your CAcert certified certificate.
13183 Download and store or copy-and-paste it as
13188 In order to use your new S/MIME setup a combined private key/public key
13189 (certificate) file has to be created:
13192 .Dl $ cat key.pem pub.crt > ME@HERE.com.paired
13195 This is the file \*(UA will work with.
13196 If you have created your private key with a passphrase then \*(UA will
13197 ask you for it whenever a message is signed or decrypted.
13198 Set the following variables to henceforth use S/MIME (setting
13200 is of interest for verification only):
13202 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13203 ? set smime-ca-file=ALL-TRUSTED-ROOT-CERTS-HERE \e
13204 smime-sign-cert=ME@HERE.com.paired \e
13205 smime-sign-message-digest=SHA256 \e
13211 .\" .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or SSL/TLS" {{{
13212 .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or SSL/TLS"
13214 \*(OP Certification authorities (CAs) issue certificate revocation
13215 lists (CRLs) on a regular basis.
13216 These lists contain the serial numbers of certificates that have been
13217 declared invalid after they have been issued.
13218 Such usually happens because the private key for the certificate has
13220 because the owner of the certificate has left the organization that is
13221 mentioned in the certificate, etc.
13222 To seriously use S/MIME or SSL/TLS verification,
13223 an up-to-date CRL is required for each trusted CA.
13224 There is otherwise no method to distinguish between valid and
13225 invalidated certificates.
13226 \*(UA currently offers no mechanism to fetch CRLs, nor to access them on
13227 the Internet, so they have to be retrieved by some external mechanism.
13230 \*(UA accepts CRLs in PEM format only;
13231 CRLs in DER format must be converted, like, e.\|g.:
13234 .Dl $ openssl crl \-inform DER \-in crl.der \-out crl.pem
13237 To tell \*(UA about the CRLs, a directory that contains all CRL files
13238 (and no other files) must be created.
13243 variables, respectively, must then be set to point to that directory.
13244 After that, \*(UA requires a CRL to be present for each CA that is used
13245 to verify a certificate.
13254 In general it is a good idea to turn on
13260 twice) if something does not work well.
13261 Very often a diagnostic message can be produced that leads to the
13262 problems' solution.
13264 .\" .Ss "\*(UA shortly hangs on startup" {{{
13265 .Ss "\*(UA shortly hangs on startup"
13267 This can have two reasons, one is the necessity to wait for a file lock
13268 and cannot be helped, the other being that \*(UA calls the function
13270 in order to query the nodename of the box (sometimes the real one is
13271 needed instead of the one represented by the internal variable
13273 One may have varying success by ensuring that the real hostname and
13277 or, more generally, that the name service is properly setup \(en
13280 return the expected value?
13281 Does this local hostname have a domain suffix?
13282 RFC 6762 standardized the link-local top-level domain
13284 try again after adding an (additional) entry with this extension.
13287 .\" .Ss "I cannot login to Google mail aka GMail" {{{
13288 .Ss "I cannot login to Google mail aka GMail"
13290 Since 2014 some free service providers classify programs as
13292 unless they use a special authentification method (OAuth 2.0) which
13293 was not standardized for non-HTTP protocol authentication token query
13294 until August 2015 (RFC 7628).
13297 Different to Kerberos / GSSAPI, which is developed since the mid of the
13298 1980s, where a user can easily create a local authentication ticket for
13299 her- and himself with the locally installed
13301 program, that protocol has no such local part but instead requires
13302 a world-wide-web query to create or fetch a token; since there is no
13303 local cache this query would have to be performed whenever \*(UA is
13304 invoked (in interactive sessions situation may differ).
13307 \*(UA does not support OAuth.
13308 Because of this it is necessary to declare \*(UA a
13309 .Dq less secure app
13310 (on the providers account web page) in order to read and send mail.
13311 However, it also seems possible to take the following steps instead:
13316 give the provider the number of a mobile phone,
13319 .Dq 2-Step Verification ,
13321 create an application specific password (16 characters), and
13323 use that special password instead of the real Google account password in
13324 \*(UA (for more on that see the section
13325 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
13329 .\" .Ss "Not \(dqdefunctional\(dq, but the editor key does not work" {{{
13330 .Ss "Not \(dqdefunctional\(dq, but the editor key does not work"
13332 It can happen that the terminal library (see
13333 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor",
13336 reports different codes than the terminal really sends, in which case
13337 \*(UA will tell that a key binding is functional, but will not be able to
13338 recognize it because the received data does not match anything expected.
13339 Especially without the \*(OPal terminal capability library support one
13340 reason for this may be that the (possibly even non-existing) keypad
13341 is not turned on and the resulting layout reports the keypad control
13342 codes for the normal keyboard keys.
13347 ings will show the byte sequences that are expected.
13350 To overcome the situation, use, e.g., the program
13352 in conjunction with the command line option
13354 if available, to see the byte sequences which are actually produced
13355 by keypresses, and use the variable
13357 to make \*(UA aware of them.
13358 E.g., the terminal this is typed on produces some false sequences, here
13359 an example showing the shifted home key:
13361 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13364 # 1B 5B=[ 31=1 3B=; 32=2 48=H
13369 ? \*(uA -v -Stermcap='kHOM=\eE[H'
13379 .\" .Sh "IMAP CLIENT" {{{
13382 \*(OPally there is IMAP client support available.
13383 This part of the program is obsolete and will vanish in v15 with the
13384 large MIME and I/O layer rewrite, because it uses old-style blocking I/O
13385 and makes excessive use of signal based long code jumps.
13386 Support can hopefully be readded later based on a new-style I/O, with
13387 SysV signal handling.
13388 In fact the IMAP support had already been removed from the codebase, but
13389 was reinstantiated on user demand: in effect the IMAP code is at the
13390 level of \*(UA v14.8.16 (with
13392 being the sole exception), and should be treated with some care.
13399 protocol prefixes, and an IMAP-based
13402 IMAP URLs (paths) undergo inspections and possible transformations
13403 before use (and the command
13405 can be used to manually apply them to any given argument).
13406 Hierarchy delimiters are normalized, a step which is configurable via the
13408 variable chain, but defaults to the first seen delimiter otherwise.
13409 \*(UA supports internationalised IMAP names, and en- and decodes the
13410 names from and to the
13412 as necessary and possible.
13413 If a mailbox name is expanded (see
13414 .Sx "Filename transformations" )
13415 to an IMAP mailbox, all names that begin with `+' then refer to IMAP
13416 mailboxes below the
13418 target box, while folder names prefixed by `@' refer to folders below
13419 the hierarchy base.
13422 Note: some IMAP servers do not accept the creation of mailboxes in
13423 the hierarchy base, but require that they are created as subfolders of
13424 `INBOX' \(en with such servers a folder name of the form
13426 .Dl imaps://mylogin@imap.myisp.example/INBOX.
13428 should be used (the last character is the server's hierarchy
13430 The following IMAP-specific commands exist:
13433 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ic BaNg"
13436 Only applicable to cached IMAP mailboxes;
13437 takes a message list and reads the specified messages into the IMAP
13442 If operating in disconnected mode on an IMAP mailbox,
13443 switch to online mode and connect to the mail server while retaining
13444 the mailbox status.
13445 See the description of the
13447 variable for more information.
13451 If operating in online mode on an IMAP mailbox,
13452 switch to disconnected mode while retaining the mailbox status.
13453 See the description of the
13456 A list of messages may optionally be given as argument;
13457 the respective messages are then read into the cache before the
13458 connection is closed, thus
13460 makes the entire mailbox available for disconnected use.
13464 Sends command strings directly to the current IMAP server.
13465 \*(UA operates always in IMAP `selected state' on the current mailbox;
13466 commands that change this will produce undesirable results and should be
13468 Useful IMAP commands are:
13469 .Bl -tag -offset indent -width ".Ic getquotearoot"
13471 Takes the name of an IMAP mailbox as an argument and creates it.
13473 (RFC 2087) Takes the name of an IMAP mailbox as an argument
13474 and prints the quotas that apply to the mailbox.
13475 Not all IMAP servers support this command.
13477 (RFC 2342) Takes no arguments and prints the Personal Namespaces,
13478 the Other User's Namespaces and the Shared Namespaces.
13479 Each namespace type is printed in parentheses;
13480 if there are multiple namespaces of the same type,
13481 inner parentheses separate them.
13482 For each namespace a prefix and a hierarchy separator is listed.
13483 Not all IMAP servers support this command.
13488 Perform IMAP path transformations.
13492 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) ,
13493 and manages the error number
13495 The first argument specifies the operation:
13497 normalizes hierarchy delimiters (see
13499 and converts the strings from the locale
13501 to the internationalized variant used by IMAP,
13503 performs the reverse operation.
13508 The following IMAP-specific internal variables exist:
13511 .Bl -tag -width ".It Va BaNg"
13513 .It Va disconnected
13514 \*(BO When an IMAP mailbox is selected and this variable is set,
13515 no connection to the server is initiated.
13516 Instead, data is obtained from the local cache (see
13519 Mailboxes that are not present in the cache
13520 and messages that have not yet entirely been fetched from the server
13522 to fetch all messages in a mailbox at once,
13524 .No ` Ns Li copy * /dev/null Ns '
13525 can be used while still in connected mode.
13526 Changes that are made to IMAP mailboxes in disconnected mode are queued
13527 and committed later when a connection to that server is made.
13528 This procedure is not completely reliable since it cannot be guaranteed
13529 that the IMAP unique identifiers (UIDs) on the server still match the
13530 ones in the cache at that time.
13533 when this problem occurs.
13535 .It Va disconnected-USER@HOST
13536 The specified account is handled as described for the
13539 but other accounts are not affected.
13542 .It Va imap-auth-USER@HOST , imap-auth
13543 Sets the IMAP authentication method.
13544 Valid values are `login' for the usual password-based authentication
13546 `cram-md5', which is a password-based authentication that does not send
13547 the password over the network in clear text,
13548 and `gssapi' for GSS-API based authentication.
13552 Enables caching of IMAP mailboxes.
13553 The value of this variable must point to a directory that is either
13554 existent or can be created by \*(UA.
13555 All contents of the cache can be deleted by \*(UA at any time;
13556 it is not safe to make assumptions about them.
13559 .It Va imap-delim-USER@HOST , imap-delim-HOST , imap-delim
13560 The hierarchy separator used by the IMAP server.
13561 Whenever an IMAP path is specified it will undergo normalization.
13562 One of the normalization steps is the squeezing and adjustment of
13563 hierarchy separators.
13564 If this variable is set, any occurrence of any character of the given
13565 value that exists in the path will be replaced by the first member of
13566 the value; an empty value will cause the default to be used, it is
13568 If not set, we will reuse the first hierarchy separator character that
13569 is discovered in a user-given mailbox name.
13571 .Mx Va imap-keepalive
13572 .It Va imap-keepalive-USER@HOST , imap-keepalive-HOST , imap-keepalive
13573 IMAP servers may close the connection after a period of
13574 inactivity; the standard requires this to be at least 30 minutes,
13575 but practical experience may vary.
13576 Setting this variable to a numeric `value' greater than 0 causes
13577 a `NOOP' command to be sent each `value' seconds if no other operation
13581 .It Va imap-list-depth
13582 When retrieving the list of folders on an IMAP server, the
13584 command stops after it has reached a certain depth to avoid possible
13586 The value of this variable sets the maximum depth allowed.
13588 If the folder separator on the current IMAP server is a slash `/',
13589 this variable has no effect and the
13591 command does not descend to subfolders.
13593 .Mx Va imap-use-starttls
13594 .It Va imap-use-starttls-USER@HOST , imap-use-starttls-HOST , imap-use-starttls
13595 Causes \*(UA to issue a `STARTTLS' command to make an unencrypted
13596 IMAP session SSL/TLS encrypted.
13597 This functionality is not supported by all servers,
13598 and is not used if the session is already encrypted by the IMAPS method.
13604 .\" .Sh "SEE ALSO" {{{
13614 .Xr spamassassin 1 ,
13623 .Xr mailwrapper 8 ,
13629 .\" .Sh HISTORY {{{
13632 M. Douglas McIlroy writes in his article
13633 .Dq A Research UNIX Reader: Annotated Excerpts \
13634 from the Programmer's Manual, 1971-1986
13637 command already appeared in First Edition
13641 .Bd -ragged -offset indent
13642 Electronic mail was there from the start.
13643 Never satisfied with its exact behavior, everybody touched it at one
13644 time or another: to assure the safety of simultaneous access, to improve
13645 privacy, to survive crashes, to exploit uucp, to screen out foreign
13646 freeloaders, or whatever.
13647 Not until v7 did the interface change (Thompson).
13648 Later, as mail became global in its reach, Dave Presotto took charge and
13649 brought order to communications with a grab-bag of external networks
13655 Mail was written in 1978 by Kurt Shoens and developed as part of the
13658 distribution until 1995.
13659 Mail has then seen further development in open source
13661 variants, noticeably by Christos Zoulas in
13663 Based upon this Nail, later Heirloom Mailx, was developed by Gunnar
13664 Ritter in the years 2000 until 2008.
13665 Since 2012 S-nail is maintained by Steffen (Daode) Nurpmeso.
13666 This man page is derived from
13667 .Dq The Mail Reference Manual
13668 that was originally written by Kurt Shoens.
13676 .An "Kurt Shoens" ,
13677 .An "Edward Wang" ,
13678 .An "Keith Bostic" ,
13679 .An "Christos Zoulas" ,
13680 .An "Gunnar Ritter" .
13681 \*(UA is developed by
13682 .An "Steffen Nurpmeso" Aq steffen@sdaoden.eu .
13685 .\" .Sh CAVEATS {{{
13688 \*(ID Interrupting an operation via
13692 from anywhere else but a command prompt is very problematic and likely
13693 to leave the program in an undefined state: many library functions
13694 cannot deal with the
13696 that this software (still) performs; even though efforts have been taken
13697 to address this, no sooner but in v15 it will have been worked out:
13698 interruptions have not been disabled in order to allow forceful breakage
13699 of hanging network connections, for example (all this is unrelated to
13703 The SMTP and POP3 protocol support of \*(UA is very basic.
13704 Also, if it fails to contact its upstream SMTP server, it will not make
13705 further attempts to transfer the message at a later time (setting
13710 If this is a concern, it might be better to set up a local SMTP server
13711 that is capable of message queuing.
13718 After deleting some message of a POP3 mailbox the header summary falsely
13719 claims that there are no messages to display, one needs to perform
13720 a scroll or dot movement to restore proper state.
13722 In threaded display a power user may encounter crashes very
13723 occasionally (this is may and very).
13727 in the source repository lists future directions.
13730 Please report bugs to the
13732 address, e.g., from within \*(uA:
13733 .\" v15-compat: drop eval as `mail' will expand variable?
13734 .Ql ? Ns \| Ic eval Ns \| Ic mail Ns \| $contact-mail .
13735 More information is available on the web:
13736 .Ql $ \*(uA -X 'echo Ns \| $ Ns Va contact-web Ns ' -Xx .