3 Backward-compatibility breakers
4 -------------------------------
6 - Recipients specified on the command line should be added to those
7 specified in the message when the -t option is set.
9 - The -q option makes me sad as it doesn't use *indentprefix* for the
10 quoted file. So either there should be -Q which does so, or -q should be
11 changed. Also see ~R below.
12 [Note: i think i go for the latter. Please complain.]
14 - At least optionally disallow silent discarding of invalid addresses,
15 i.e., cause sending to be aborted if not all recipient addresses pass the
18 - Ditto if a resource file can't be found that has been explicitly set via
19 environment variables there should be some feedback.
21 - I.e., it is fine to be silent unless an error occurs, but then please
22 report errors and offer (in interactive mode) the possibility to act at
25 -- While there. There should be some kind of "verbose" switch that - in
26 interactive mode - also gives *positive* feedback, as in "added
27 attachment X, charset Y", but without giving details about protocol
30 [It is terrible that there is almost no feedback in the UI. When
31 i temporarily implemented a sorted cmdtab i've often used wrong commands,
32 but got no feedback at all! E.g., wanted to "undelete 14", first did "u
33 14", then "und 14" and then realized my fault and did "undelete 14".
36 - POSIX says that, when written to DEAD: "If the file exists, the message
37 shall be written to replace the contents of the file". This is mentioned
38 for ASYNCHRONOUS EVENTS, but it's the only description of what should be
39 done in which way to DEAD. savedeadletter() yet appends. See ZOMBIE ,)
41 - Furthermore, *all* file operations yet append, even recipient target
42 files are appended. I don't know if this is really desirable behaviour,
43 but i have not thought about that for real. Maybe this should be at
46 - Maybe we should not use pipes to pagers at all.
47 This would also (beside getting rid of longjumps that cross allocations
48 afaik etc.) make it possible to honour the *crt* variable in respect
49 to what really is displayed, not in respect to message size.
50 It irritates me that a message with 5 visible lines but 115 header lines
51 goes through the pager, even if i have *crt=*.
52 P.S.: we could simply count the headers in addition?
54 - The IMAP cache is file-based, which is quite nice, since a filesystem
55 is a database. On the other hand it may be better if we could hook
56 into sqlite3, which is available almost everywhere by default, with
57 a clearly documented DB content (so that users can use sqlite3(1) to
58 dig into it). (And just in case S-nail will ever be able to read news
59 and/or have MTA functionality.)
60 One question would be wether compression should be applied.
62 - We should possibly get away of using command line utilities for
63 compression. (At least optionally?) Instead we should link against
64 zlib(3), bz2lib(3) and lzma(3), if found. Or we may use dlopen(3)
65 instead, if found, to avoid linking (though those libraries don't need
66 much linker work unless actually used afaik, 'should look in detail).
67 We should also drop lzw.c, it is used for the IMAP cache.
69 - We should maybe turn -~ into the meaning "force interactive".
70 We should extend cc-test.sh, then, to test some interactive things.
75 - We need a "void" box that can be jumped to, i.e., a state in which no box
78 (schdir(): realpath() local files before leaving CWD.., 2013-01-08)
79 did a first step to avoid "getting stuck" when the current folder becomes
81 That is however only a command-specific workaround for a deeper design
84 -- When a MBOX mailbox is removed while it is opened then changing the
85 folder is not possible. (At least when the only mail that was present
86 therein has been "move"d off that MBOX.) While trying this i got
87 a deallocation abort trap in lex.c:commands():385:
90 Note that Berkeley Mail (NetBSD mail(1) that is) seems to have the same
91 problem in respect to not allowing a hard-change, but only allows an exit
92 (not a quit thus). The error may still exist even there, it maybe that
93 it simply doesn't show up because a stack buffer is used ...
95 In interactive mode, dump the temporary file to the TMPDIR and inform the
96 user; it's up to him to decide what should happen.
98 Otherwise it must be possible to switch the folder (to the *void* one)
101 -- Also, when the folder is modified concurrently we should bail, or, in an
102 interactive session, prompt the user what to do.
104 - IDNA decoding. It may be that this will never be supported. But
105 wouldn't it be nice for at least viewing messages?
109 - Make it possible to reply to/save/write/xy part X.Y[.Z] by allowing its
110 specification directly, as in, e.g., ':w 1.2'. If doing so on an
111 embedded message/rfc822, e.g., a message embedded in a digest, it should
112 be possible to reply to the very message in respect to its header fields,
113 but (optionally?) keep the original Cc:'d. (Parts by Martin Neitzel)
115 -- In general i like the possibility of mutt(1) to toggle in between header
116 and header-ignore mode with a simple switch (h), and that *this toggle
117 is used when replying*. Yes i know mutt(1) sucks beside that in respect
118 to base64, MBOX, QP for CRLF files etc.
120 -- Also, mutt(1) quotes all text parts of a message, not only the first
121 one! This should at least be optionally available.
123 - If pipes fail for part viewers then at least the usual PART X.Y should be
124 shown, maybe even including some error message.
125 I had 'set pipe-text/html="lynx -dump -force_html /dev/stdin"' but NetBSD
126 does not have lynx(1), and i thought i've found a S-nail(1) bug.
129 = Update: (Change "Part X:" display message.., 2012-12-20) did one step,
130 but we need to rewrite the entire layers to handle that the separating
131 newline in between messages is considered to be part of it.
133 - I want to have a ~R tilde command that works like ~r except it performs
134 quoting of the input just as ~m does. Also see -q above.
136 - Offer the possibility to work with certificate fingerprints instead of
137 full certificates, in equal spirit to the current maintainers S-Postman
138 and Mercurial. S-nail(1) could simply offer something in equal spirit to
139 the formers --fingerprint, so that no other tool is necessary for
140 certificate management (for at least secure transport).
142 - It would be nice if it would be possible to define a format string for
143 *quote*, like 'set quote="format=some formats"'.
144 In general the current approach is somewhat messy IMO. I.e., it would
145 make more sense to act rather like mutt(1) and as written elsewhere in
146 this document, i.e., have some toggles that act on the display and use it
147 for multiple modes (show/reply/forward etc.)
148 Otherwise introduce commands which include all the headers plus, e.g.,
149 "hreply" or "freply", and then the ditto series, i.e., "hReply" ...
151 -- This would also mean that interactive message editing would work
154 - Command line editing should gain possibility of context sensitive tab
157 -- Note that the TTY is sick. If ^C on input it simply jumps to next
158 input, instead of saying "Interrupted, one more to die hard" or
159 something (talking about ~@ charset selection prompts in particular).
161 - For those who use S-nail(1) only with a MTA it may be desirable to have
162 some "smopts" expansion mechanism in equal spirit to NetBSD mailx(1).
164 - While talking about NetBSD mailx(1), the author can imagine that being
165 able to use the optional -H:xy stuff is sometimes nice.
167 - Check against RFC 5322.
168 Rework all the header parsing code. Actually understand the content,
169 classify the stuff so that it matches what is defined in RFC dependent on
170 header field. Place the result in objects that know what they represent.
171 See the name extraction topic below.
173 - Also check against newest POSIX.
174 Maybe add a bash(1)ish POSIXLY_CORRECT (or so) variable? Though..
176 - Maybe there should be an additional ZOMBIE directive that is served in
177 equal spirit to DEAD, but that could be a valid MBOX... ?
178 What i want is a *real* resend, best if possible from command line.
179 Meaning, also the possibility to postpone a message. In general.
181 - POP3 doesn't support "newmail" for real. If implemented, should it sync?
182 Look at POP3 impl. in general..
184 - Having a newsreader would be a really cool thing. (RFC 977 and 2980)
186 - There should be a way to ignore the From_ line, as opposed to the From:
187 line, i.e., distinctively.
189 - There should be a variable that controls wether leading and trailing
190 empty lines of parts and/or messages as such should be printed or not.
192 - RFC 2387: multipart/related.
194 - rfc2384.txt etc. I.e., Much better URL support.
196 - printhead()/hprf(): support %n newline format (%t tab?).
197 Make it possible to use the *datefield* algorithm for plain From_ derived
198 dates (needs a From_ parser, i.e., strptime()-alike).
199 Once we have that, rename *datefield-markout-older* to
200 *date-markout-older* ??
201 Note that NetBSD's mail(1) has some other nice things.
202 Note also that our code is quite unflexible.
204 -- NetBSD's mail(1) has nice *indentprefix* and *indentpostscript*
205 variables (though prefix and appendix or prefix and suffix, but..).
206 Note that our code is quite unflexible.
208 - The "top" command should honour ignoretab, or there should be a very
209 special "top" ignoretab. It simply doesn't make sense to "top" 5 lines
210 when all that you get are Received: lines...
212 - In the very end it is not that hard to add (optional) MTA
213 functionality at a most simple level.
214 Use sqlite for aliases (and possibly cache), then.
216 - We should support IMAP compression over the wire.
222 + [v13:messed up] Use NetBSD KNF in respect to parens for return+.
223 + [v13:started] Add C99-likeish typedefs and use them everywhere.
224 + [v13:started] Don't use magic constants/values.
225 + [v13:started] Use const arguments whenever possible. Yet started, but
226 with ugly casts at some places because this is a can of worms.
227 + Inline functions? [Restrict pointers?]
228 + [v13:started] Document the functions in the interface declarators.
229 + [v13:started] Resort the functions and where they are implemented.
230 + Make more use of struct str, and offer more support functions for it.
231 + Make more use of value carriers in the call stack. There are functions
232 with an incredible amount of arguments, needlessly.
233 ++ E.g., use a struct readlinectx.
234 + Ftemp(): offer an operation mode enum that includes "do-unlink".
235 In general: now there is O_CLOEXEC etc. ...
236 + Lazy install sigchild handler etc.
238 - [v13:started] Improve name extraction rules. And field parsing. There
239 are structured and unstructured fields. There are quoted pairs and
240 comments etc. Rewrite the entire parsing mechanism to comply to RFC
241 5322, and try to merge all those many subparsers around in the codebase,
242 and accordingly. So much duplicated work ...
243 Name parsing has been improved a bit for v13, but it's still broken.
244 yankword(), *extract(), etc.: RFC 5322 says that comments in address
245 fields SHOULD NOT be used (mutt(1) maps them to full name-addr forms if
246 approbiate, even if that actually changes content!!?), and that full
247 name-addr SHOULD be used. Our functions are yet quite silly (i.e.,
248 leading comments remain, as in "(bier2) <a2@b2.de>", unless the address
249 doesn't come in angle brackets, trailing go away, as in "<a6@b6.de>
250 (bier6)", that becomes "<a6@b6.de>").
252 (co$mm1) abc@däf.de (cö,mm,2) ('c'o"m"m.3)
253 Should eventually become
254 co$mm1 cö,mm,2 'c'o"m"m.3 <abc@xn--df-via.de>
255 on the display, or, with IDNA decoding (and thus rather unlikely)
256 co$mm1 cö,mm,2 'c'o"m"m.3 <abc@däf.de>
257 It should NOT become this mutt(1)ism:
258 "co$mm1 cö,mm,2 'c'omm.3" <abc@däf.de>
261 - Think about a name bypass hashmap cache, and whenever we have to skin or
262 nalloc() or whatever, look in there. Maybe even an additional link for
263 non GFULL(/GSKIN) and fully skinned struct name objects.
264 The amount of duplicated work in this codebase is frustrating, but the
265 real healing would make necessary a complete rewrite of the name handling!
266 Such a cache would work without touching the current code flow ... or
267 allow a smooth transition to a new one anyway.
269 - Think about a value() cache. (Yet added boption() and soption() stubs.)
271 - Think about replacing the IMAP cache with an SQLITE3 interface.
272 Or rewrite it. Error handling etc. etc. is peculiar.
274 - The char classification stuff can be improved; currently each character
275 has exactly one classification bit set, even if multiple would apply
276 (e.g., HT=\t == CNTRL|SPACE|ASCII|BLANK). This would allow better
277 testing using our own classification functions in quite some places.
279 - The quoted-printable Content-Transfer-Encoding: supports soft linebreaks;
280 it happens that a lot of mailers (Apple Mail?, Microsoft Word, Yahoo!
281 Webmail) create HTML parts which solely consist of a single line,
282 created via soft linebreaks.
283 To handle such mess we need to be able to break out of the input-line ==
284 output line relationship that is still fixated in the codebase.
285 I.e., it is not even sufficient to convert "rest" into an array, but best
286 would be if we would be able to sequentially work what we have, and
287 detect when it is safe to "dump that out".
288 This MUST be part of the send/mime layer rewrite in 15.0.
290 - I want a clean PTF interface for the actual layers. There should be no
291 switch() statements around that test for the type of BOX that is
292 currently open. Especially important for possible NEWS support, but the
293 code is a mess in general...
295 - I hate longjmp()s and signals. I suspect some pitfalls in the codebase.
296 All that stuff should at least be collected in a single place.
297 Just imagine how easy it could be done with a non-blocking select(2)
298 based event loop, ISIG off termios flags, etc. ach!!
300 I would like to see that compilation with a C++ compiler is possible,
301 though that would be a long way and be especially problematic due to the
302 (C ish) way enums are used.
304 - I never used anything but the *datefield* option, and it would really be
305 nice if the date strings would be parsed off into some 16 byte or what
306 storage when about to producing the summary, so that it would be directly
307 available and there would be no need to reread the mail. Moreover, or
308 even more than that - the m_date field exists and should possibly simply
309 be init, at least in these cases. (P.S.: this doesn't contradict the
310 statement somewhere else in this file that the structure should be
311 slacked; simply use multiple thereof or so)
313 - All error messages should not go to stderr but instead we should add our
314 own n_warn() family and use that. In the background we should have
315 a ring of error messages (oldest fall off), and a command that is capable
316 to display the ring. The command loop should recognize whenever an error
317 happened during the last command, and print something like "XY errors
318 occurred", followed by a (truncated as necessary) error report.
319 It simply doesn't make any sense to print errors on stderr if normal
320 output goes to stdout and scrolls it off the screen.
321 Note that yet some errors messages still go to stdout.
323 - Dramatically pimp the cc-test.sh script, and recognize and report
324 compilation errors, too.
325 WE NEED MORE AUTOMATIZED TESTING!
327 - An `account' should imply an environment snapshot of all variables.
328 I.e., variables which become modified while an account is active would
329 gain their old / a different value (back) when switching off this
330 account. We would need some "set-variable-global" or something, to
332 There should be an implicit account ("global" or "*" or whatever) that
333 can be switched back to.
335 -- It would be very nice if it would be possible to have
336 account-specific macros that will be lost when a user switches off
339 --- It would also be very nice if we could define macros while defining
340 account, i.e., recursive definition of macros...
341 See below on account/define though.
343 - At some later time extend the logic behind -# -- it should not have
344 a current folder, but start in VOID mode (...), and unless one is
345 explicitly chosen.. We need a reliable batch mode.
347 - (Support for mailcap files? As of RFC 1524? Unlikely. Though the
348 % expansions would be very helpful, especially once we can address
349 individuals parts as of v15.0!)
354 - Perform a WS check, and fix it.
355 (For 15.0: reformat, add vim(1) modelines and use s-it-mode.
356 To do so, write a small script and ensure no functional change occurred.)
358 - Deal with faulty message selection that may occur when selecting threads
359 via & (when at least mixed with other selectors).
361 -- Also (?same problem?) the thread sort doesn't get
370 The current sort fails to recognize that F and the thread starting at
371 B are related, which results in a mess.
373 - Drop the restriction that environment variables cannot be modified
374 from within interactive S-nail(1), check carefully what depends on
375 that (findmail() looks for MAIL, be aware of -u interaction etc.).
376 Drop tempdir, myname and homedir variables and always use functions to
377 look the values up (just make them function local variables where
379 If necessary, add more hooks in vars.c:_check_special_vars() (or
380 finally implement the value cache for real).
381 Drop main.c:_setup_vars(), then.
383 - If we do link against OpenSSL, try to compile a test program and use
384 the OpenSSL version of MD5 if possible.
386 I think this is the right time to change our config/make system so that
387 the Makefile is generated with only those files which are actually
388 needed. Move the Makefile vars to user.conf.
390 (Possibly drop usage of compressions tools and link against the
391 compression libraries. Maybe dlopen() them? Otherwise leave that for
394 - Make *password* and *password-USER@HOST* global, introduce
395 *PROTOCOL-auth-password* and *PROTOCOL-auth-password-USER@HOST*.
396 Then, drop smtp_auth_var(), and change lookup_password_for_token() to
397 work like (PROTOCOL, user,host|TOKEN) -- *password* is a global override,
398 only if that is not set lookup protocol specific.
399 Use that single function from everywhere.
401 - Change **use-starttls* to the opposite. I.e., CAPA or whatever, if TLS
402 is supported, use automatically. *UNLESS* explicitly disabled.
404 - Add a global *keepalive*, add *keepalive-USER@HOST*. Add and use
405 a generic, single function to get the value for either protocol.
407 - NOTE: we do not really support IPv6 sofar in that we are not prepared to
408 deal with IPv6 addresses.
409 Introduce an URI abstraction structure in 14.5, and start using it, i.e.,
410 _pop3_user() and, very important, sopen().
411 Note this shit software use a lot of places which mess around...
413 - The account command involves a lot of code but it's only difference to
414 define is that a "fi" is executed. If we would have the possibility to
415 explicitly jump to VOID boxes, we could use QUIT->FOLDER instead of
416 FOLDER[OK? -> QUIT], and then it'd be up to the use to simply use a "fi"
417 at the end of a define. Or so.
418 See above for more on account/define though.
420 -- If *folder* is set to an IMAP box, and we're about to "mbox" data to
421 there, and we're currently on a POP3 server, and the connection fails,
422 we're completely lost and cannot even interrupt...
424 - mutt(1) dotlock ..., "mbox" command doesn'T work?
426 - ARGH! Should `folders' auto-login if *folder* is an IMAP account that is
427 not active? Why does _expand() use *mailname* to expand `@', not
428 getfold() (care: res may point into cbuf, savestr() or so!).
429 Why does demail() etc. treat *mailname* as a file (more or less), why do
430 we need *mailname* at all; we should have Folder objects, multiple of
431 which concurrently, one the active; a Folder may not become *folder*
432 unless it has write (store) capabilities). Maybe then `mbox' works fine
433 if connected to a POP3 server with a *MBOX* on an IMAP account that yet
434 never was connected and needs to read a password on the terminal before
435 the login works ... note the latter situation yet kills us since i think
436 INT is blocked during all that ;-((
438 - I had a connection collapse during a POP3 download, and neither was
439 there a chance to get access to the 22 yet downloaded mails (after
440 five minutes of waiting followed by CNTRL-C), nor did the layer
441 recognize this very well (got myriads of `POP3 connection already
442 closed.' messages, btw., the thirty-something messages which were not
443 yet downloaded caused (after CNTRL-C) this:
445 POP3 connection already closed.
446 POP3 connection already closed.
447 POP3 connection already closed.
448 POP3 connection already closed.
449 POP3 connection already closed.
450 POP3 connection already closed.
452 POP3 connection already closed.
453 POP3 connection already closed.
454 POP3 connection already closed.
455 POP3 connection already closed.
456 POP3 connection already closed.
457 POP3 connection already closed.
460 i had to switch off and back). At least we didn't crash.
461 Thereafter, still very unstable connection, i tried to login again:
464 Resolving host pop.gmail.com . . . done.
465 Connecting to 173.194.70.109:pop3s . . . connected.
466 Comparing DNS name: "pop.gmail.com"
467 POP3 connection already closed.
468 +OK Gpop ready for requests from XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
472 "/private/var/mail/steffen": 0 messages
474 Resolving host pop.gmail.com . . . done.
475 Connecting to 173.194.70.109:pop3s . . . connected.
476 Comparing DNS name: "pop.gmail.com"
483 - Add a value-duplication command, i.e.,
490 - Some (configurable?) verbosity for certificate validation.
492 Rework certificate handling to match RFC 6125! 14.4!
494 - #include cleanup. Much too much!
496 - Remove all occurrences of mbtowc() with mbrtowc(); temporarily add (some)
497 global mbstate_t objects until the send / MIME layer rewrite is done and
498 has the carrier. Use flip states and add aux funs with only update the
499 state+toggle on success -- CURRENTLY MBTOWC FAILURES ARE PRACTICALLY NOT
502 - Ensure that `.' and EOF on a line works with all TTY modes (*ignoreeof*
503 relationship, too)! EOF conditions in general!
505 -- NCL / current expand-on-tab: fexpand() should take additional size_t* to
506 store the number of the results OR should "return char** array", so that
507 individual results can be addressed.
508 Then we could simply print "\nALL-RESULTS\n" and NOT expand the current
509 line if the result is ambiguous, i.e., we have more than one possible
511 However, we would then need something to print the results page-wise,
512 in case we have so many of them that they don't fit on the screen.
515 - Add TODO notes for those RFCs:
516 RFC 5322 - The basic format of email messages.
517 MIME (Multimeda) email extensions
518 RFC 2405 - The format of MIME message bodies.
519 RFC 2406 - Common multimedia types.
520 RFC 2017 - URL External-Body Access-Type
521 RFC 3676 - Updates to the text/plain MIME type and extensions for flowed
522 text (format=flowed).
523 RFC 2407 - Encoding of non-ASCII text in message headers.
524 RFC 2183 - The Content-Disposition Header
525 RFC 2231 - Encoding of character set and language information in MIME
527 SMTP (Simple Mail Transfer Protocol)
528 RFC 5321 - Simple Mail Transfer Protocol.
529 RFC 6409 - Message Submission for Mail
530 RFC 4954 - SMTP Authentication
531 RFC 3207 - SMTP over TLS
532 RFC 6152 - SMTP Service Extension for 8-bit MIME Transport
533 Post Office Protocol (POP)
534 RFC 1939 - Post Office Protocol v3
535 RFC 2449 - POP3 Extensions (including SASL)
536 RFC 2595 - TLS for POP3 (among others)
538 RFC 4422 - Simple Authentication and Security layer (SASL)
539 RFC 5246 - Transport Layer Security (TLS)
540 RFC 977 - Network News Transfer Protocol
541 RFC 2980 - Common NNTP Extensions
543 - IMAP: if i `d' a message then this is a local change (in the meanwhile);
544 yet, when i `u' it, that will go through the server, needlessly.
546 - I got an email in base64 that obviously used CRNL line endings, and once
547 i've replied the CR where quoted as *control* characters.
548 Get rid of those (kwcrtest.mbox; may be hard to do everywhere for some
554 Received SIGPIPE during IMAP operation
555 IMAP write error: error:00000000:lib(0):func(0):reason(0)
560 >>> T1027 FETCH 51:52 (FLAGS UID)
561 IMAP write error: Bad file descriptor
562 >>> T1028 FETCH 51:52 (RFC822.HEADER)
563 IMAP write error: Bad file descriptor
564 IMAP connection closed.
565 IMAP connection closed.
566 IMAP connection closed.
567 IMAP connection closed.
568 IMAP connection closed.
569 IMAP connection closed.
570 IMAP connection closed.
571 IMAP connection closed.
572 New mail has arrived.
573 Loaded 2 new messages.
574 >>> T1029 FETCH 51:52 (RFC822.HEADER)
575 IMAP write error: Bad file descriptor
576 IMAP connection closed.
577 IMAP connection closed.
578 IMAP connection closed.
579 IMAP connection closed.
580 IMAP connection closed.
582 IMAP connection closed.
583 IMAP connection closed.
584 IMAP connection closed.
585 IMAP connection closed.
586 IMAP connection closed.
588 - The codebase has a lot of problems with type mixing; int,off_t,size_t are
589 often used INTERCHANGEABLY to store the same size / value; especially
590 IMAP seems to be quite weird. I've yet changed some off_t to size_t,
591 which is not a good idea for 32-bit and large files, but (a) it's
592 questionable wether we could handle those anyway and (b) all bets are off
593 since pieces of code also use int storage for them, iirc.
594 This will be a long-term problem.
596 - edit.c doesn't do NEED_BODY (yeah, IMAP won't work anyway).
598 Release S-nail v20 on 2018-03-25, the 40th anniversary of Mail.
599 With a clean, conforming and efficient codebase, then.
601 vim:set fenc=utf-8:s-ts-mode