1 .\"@ nail.1 - S-nail(1) reference manual.
3 .\" Copyright (c) 2012 - 2020 Steffen (Daode) Nurpmeso <steffen@sdaoden.eu>.
4 .\" SPDX-License-Identifier: ISC
6 .\" Permission to use, copy, modify, and/or distribute this software for any
7 .\" purpose with or without fee is hereby granted, provided that the above
8 .\" copyright notice and this permission notice appear in all copies.
10 .\" THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE AUTHOR DISCLAIMS ALL WARRANTIES
11 .\" WITH REGARD TO THIS SOFTWARE INCLUDING ALL IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF
12 .\" MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR BE LIABLE FOR
13 .\" ANY SPECIAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OR ANY DAMAGES
14 .\" WHATSOEVER RESULTING FROM LOSS OF USE, DATA OR PROFITS, WHETHER IN AN
15 .\" ACTION OF CONTRACT, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER TORTIOUS ACTION, ARISING OUT OF
16 .\" OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE USE OR PERFORMANCE OF THIS SOFTWARE.
19 .\"@ S-nail v14.9.22 / 2021-02-24
29 .ds VD \\%~/dead.letter
33 .ds vS /etc/mime.types
40 .ds ID [v15 behaviour may differ]
42 .ds NQ [Only new quoting rules]
45 .ds OU [no v15-compat]
49 .if !d str-Lb-libterminfo \
50 .ds str-Lb-libterminfo Terminal Information Library (libterminfo, \-lterminfo)
59 .Nd send and receive Internet mail
65 .\" Keep in SYNC: ./nail.1:"SYNOPSIS, main()
71 .Op : Ns Fl a Ar attachment Ns \&:
72 .Op : Ns Fl b Ar bcc-addr Ns \&:
73 .Op : Ns Fl C Ar """field:\0body""" Ns \&:
74 .Op : Ns Fl c Ar cc-addr Ns \&:
75 .Op Fl M Ar type | Fl m Ar file | Fl q Ar file | Fl t
77 .Oo : Ns Fl S\0 Ns Ar var Ns Oo Ns = Ns Ar value Ns Oc Ns : Ns Oc
79 .Op : Ns Fl T Ar """field:\0addr""" Ns \&:
80 .Op : Ns Fl X Ar cmd Ns \&:
81 .Op : Ns Fl Y Ar cmd Ns \&:
83 .Pf : Ar to-addr Ns \&:
84 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns : Ns Ar mta-option Ns \&:
92 .Op : Ns Fl C Ar """field:\0body""" Ns \&:
95 .Oo : Ns Fl S\0 Ns Ar var Ns Oo Ns = Ns Ar value Ns Oc Ns : Ns Oc
97 .Op : Ns Fl X Ar cmd Ns \&:
98 .Op : Ns Fl Y Ar cmd Ns \&:
99 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns : Ns Ar mta-option Ns \&:
106 .Op : Ns Fl C Ar """field:\0body""" Ns \&:
109 .Op Fl r Ar from-addr
110 .Oo : Ns Fl S\0 Ns Ar var Ns Oo Ns = Ns Ar value Ns Oc Ns : Ns Oc
111 .Op : Ns Fl X Ar cmd Ns \&:
112 .Op : Ns Fl Y Ar cmd Ns \&:
114 .Op Fl Fl \~ Ns : Ns Ar mta-option Ns \&:
120 .Fl V | Fl Fl version
125 .Mx -toc -tree html pdf ps xhtml
128 .\" .Sh DESCRIPTION {{{
131 .Bd -filled -compact -offset indent
133 S-nail (\*(UA) will see major changes in v15.0 (circa 2022).
134 Some backward incompatibilities cannot be avoided.
137 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ,
138 and shell metacharacters will become (more) meaningful.
139 Some commands accept new syntax today via
141 .Pf ( Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
142 Behaviour is flagged \*(IN and \*(OU,
146 .Pf ( Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" )
147 will choose new behaviour when applicable;
148 giving it a value makes
151 \*(OB flags what will vanish.
155 (with value) will be a default in v14.10.0!
159 \*(UA provides a simple and friendly environment for sending and
161 It is intended to provide the functionality of the POSIX
163 command, but is MIME capable and optionally offers extensions for
164 line editing, S/MIME, SMTP and POP3, among others.
165 \*(UA divides incoming mail into its constituent messages and allows
166 the user to deal with them in any order.
170 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
171 for manipulating messages and sending mail.
172 It provides the user simple editing capabilities to ease the composition
173 of outgoing messages, and increasingly powerful and reliable
174 non-interactive scripting capabilities.
176 .\" .Ss "Options" {{{
179 .Bl -tag -width ".It Fl BaNg"
181 .It Fl \&: Ar spec , Fl Fl resource-files Ns =..
182 Controls loading of (as via
184 .Sx "Resource files" :
186 is parsed case-insensitively, the letter
188 corresponds to the system wide
191 the user's personal file
193 The (original) system wide resource is also compiled-in, accessible via
199 disable usage of resource files.
200 Order matters, default is
202 This option overrides
206 .It Fl A Ar name , Fl Fl account Ns =..
210 after program startup is complete (resource files loaded, only
212 commands are to be executed), and switch to its
214 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
217 If activation fails the program
219 s if used non-interactively, or if any of
226 .It Fl a Ar file Ns Oo Ar =input-charset Ns Oo Ar #output-charset Oc Oc , \
230 For \*(CM opportunities refer to
235 is subject to tilde expansion (see
236 .Sx "Filename transformations"
239 if it is not accessible but contains a
241 character, anything before the last
243 will be used as the filename, anything thereafter as a character set
244 specification, as shown.
246 If only an input character set
247 .Mx -ix "character set specification"
248 is specified, the input side is fixed, and no character set conversion
249 will be applied; an empty or the special string hyphen-minus
254 If an output character set has also been specified the desired
255 conversion is performed immediately, not considering file type and
256 content, except for an empty string or hyphen-minus
258 which select the default conversion algorithm (see
259 .Sx "Character sets" ) :
260 no immediate conversion is performed,
262 and its contents will be MIME-classified
263 .Pf ( Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" , "The mime.types files")
264 first \(em only the latter mode is available unless
270 (\*(OB: \*(UA will always use line-buffered output, to gain
271 line-buffered input even in batch mode enable batch mode via
275 .It Fl b Ar addr , Fl Fl bcc Ns =..
276 \*(SM Send a blind carbon copy to recipient
278 The option may be used multiple times.
280 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
283 .It Fl C Ar """field: body""" , Fl Fl custom-header Ns =..
284 Create a custom header which persists for an entire session.
285 A custom header consists of the field name followed by a colon
287 and the field content body, for example
288 .Ql -C """Blah: Neminem laede; imo omnes, quantum potes, juva""" .
289 Standard header field names cannot be overwritten by custom headers.
290 Runtime adjustable custom headers are available via the variable
295 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ,
298 are the most flexible and powerful options to manage message headers.
299 This option may be used multiple times.
302 .It Fl c Ar addr , Fl Fl cc Ns =..
305 except it places the argument in the list of carbon copies.
308 .It Fl D , Fl Fl disconnected
314 .It Fl d , Fl Fl debug
315 Enter a debug-only sandbox mode by setting the internal variable
317 the same can be achieved via
318 .Ql Fl S Va \&\&debug
320 .Ql Ic set Va \&\&debug .
325 .It Fl E , Fl Fl discard-empty-messages
329 and thus discard messages with an empty message part body, successfully.
332 .It Fl e , Fl Fl check-and-exit
333 Just check if mail is present (in the system
335 or the one specified via
337 if yes, return an exit status of zero, a non-zero value otherwise.
338 To restrict the set of mails to consider in this evaluation a message
339 specification can be added with the option
341 Quickrun: does not open an interactive session.
345 \*(SM Save the message to send in a file named after the local part of
346 the first recipient's address (instead of in
350 .It Fl f , Fl Fl file
351 Read in the contents of the user's
353 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
355 (or the specified file) for processing;
356 when \*(UA is quit, it writes undeleted messages back to this file
362 argument will undergo some special
363 .Sx "Filename transformations"
368 is not an argument to the flag
370 but is instead taken from the command line after option processing has
374 that starts with a hyphen-minus, prefix with a relative path, as in
375 .Ql ./-hyphenbox.mbox .
378 .It Fl H , Fl Fl header-summary
391 A configurable summary view is available via the option
393 This mode does not honour
395 Quickrun: does not open an interactive session.
398 .It Fl h , Fl Fl help
399 Show a brief usage summary; use
401 for a list long options.
407 to ignore tty interrupt signals.
410 .It Fl L Ar spec , Fl Fl search Ns =..
413 of all messages that match the given
417 found by the same algorithm used by
421 .Sx "Specifying messages"
424 This mode does not honour
429 option has been given in addition no header summary is produced,
430 but \*(UA will instead indicate via its exit status whether
436 note that any verbose output is suppressed in this mode and must instead
437 be enabled explicitly (see
439 Quickrun: does not open an interactive session.
443 \*(SM Will flag standard input with the MIME
445 set to the given known
447 .Pf ( Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" , "The mime.types files" )
448 and use it as the main message body.
449 \*(ID Using this option will bypass processing of
450 .Va message-inject-head
452 .Va message-inject-tail .
458 \*(SM MIME classify the specified
460 and use it as the main message body.
461 \*(ID Using this option will bypass processing of
462 .Va message-inject-head
464 .Va message-inject-tail .
469 .It Fl N , Fl Fl no-header-summary
470 inhibit the initial display of message headers when reading mail or
475 for the internal variable
480 Standard flag that inhibits reading the system wide
485 allows more control over the startup sequence; also see
486 .Sx "Resource files" .
489 .It Fl q Ar file , Fl Fl quote-file Ns =..
490 \*(SM Initialize the message body with the contents of
492 which may be standard input
494 only in non-interactive context.
499 .It Fl R , Fl Fl read-only
504 opened will be in read-only mode.
508 .It Fl r Ar from-addr , Fl Fl from-address Ns =..
509 The RFC 5321 reverse-path used for relaying and delegating messages to
510 its destination(s), for example to report delivery errors, is normally
511 derived from the address which appears in the
513 header (or, if that contains multiple addresses, in
515 A file-based aka local executable
517 (Mail-Transfer-Agent), however, instead uses the local identity of the
521 When this command line option is used the given single addressee
523 will be assigned to the internal variable
525 but in addition the command line option
526 .Fl \&\&f Ar from-addr
527 will be passed to a file-based
529 whenever a message is sent.
532 include a user name the address components will be separated and
533 the name part will be passed to a file-based
537 Even though not a recipient the
543 If an empty string is passed as
545 then the content of the variable
547 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
549 will be evaluated and used for this purpose whenever the file-based
558 command line options are used when contacting a file-based MTA, unless
559 this automatic deduction is enforced by
561 ting the internal variable
562 .Va r-option-implicit .
565 Remarks: many default installations and sites disallow overriding the
566 local user identity like this unless either the MTA has been configured
567 accordingly or the user is member of a group with special privileges.
568 Passing an invalid address will cause an error.
572 .It Fl S Ar var Ns Oo = Ns value Oc , Fl Fl set Ns =..
574 (or, with a prefix string
577 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
580 iable and optionally assign
582 if supported; \*(ID the entire expression is evaluated as if specified
583 within dollar-single-quotes (see
584 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" )
585 if the internal variable
588 If the operation fails the program will exit if any of
593 Settings established via
595 cannot be changed from within
597 or an account switch initiated by
599 They will become mutable again before commands registered via
604 .It Fl s Ar subject , Fl Fl subject Ns =..
605 \*(SM Specify the subject of the message to be sent.
606 Newline (NL) and carriage-return (CR) bytes are invalid and will be
607 normalized to space (SP) characters.
610 .It Fl T Ar """field: addr""" , Fl Fl target Ns =..
613 to the list of receivers targeted by
615 for now supported are only
621 Field and body (address) are separated by a colon
623 and optionally blank (space, tabulator) characters.
629 is parsed like a message header address line, as if it would be part of
630 a template message fed in via
632 and the same modifier suffix is supported.
633 This option may be used multiple times.
636 .It Fl t , Fl Fl template
637 \*(SM The text message given (on standard input) is expected to contain,
638 separated from the message body by an empty line, one or multiple
639 plain text message headers.
640 \*(ID Readily prepared MIME mail messages cannot be passed.
641 Headers can span multiple consecutive lines if follow lines start with
642 any amount of whitespace.
643 A line starting with the number sign
645 in the first column is ignored.
646 Message recipients can be given via the message headers
652 modifier enforces treatment as a single addressee, for example
653 .Ql To?single: exa, <m@ple> )
656 they will be added to any recipients specified on the command line,
657 and are likewise subject to
660 If a message subject is specified via
662 then it will be used in favour of one given on the command line.
664 More optional headers are
678 .Ql Mail-Followup-To: ,
679 by default created automatically dependent on message context, will
680 be used if specified (a special address massage will however still occur
682 Any other custom header field (also see
687 is passed through entirely
688 unchanged, and in conjunction with the options
692 it is possible to embed
693 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
698 .It Fl u Ar user , Fl Fl inbox-of Ns =..
701 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
704 appropriate privileges presumed; effectively identical to
705 .Ql Fl \&\&f Ns \0%user .
708 .It Fl V , Fl Fl version
714 will also show the list of
716 .Ql $ \*(uA -:/ -Xversion -Xx .
719 .It Fl v , Fl Fl verbose
721 s the internal variable
723 to enable logging of informational context messages.
724 (Increases level of verbosity when used multiple times.)
729 .It Fl X Ar cmd , Fl Fl startup-cmd Ns =..
730 Add the given (or multiple for a multiline argument)
732 to a list of commands to be executed before normal operation starts.
733 The commands will be evaluated as a unit, just as via
741 .It Fl Y Ar cmd , Fl Fl cmd Ns =..
742 Add the given (or multiple for a multiline argument)
744 to a list of commands to be executed after normal operation has started.
745 The commands will be evaluated successively in the given order, and as
746 if given on the program's standard input \(em before interactive
747 prompting begins in interactive mode, after standard input has been
751 .It Fl ~ , Fl Fl enable-cmd-escapes
753 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
754 in \*(CM even in non-interactive use cases.
755 This can for example be used to automatically format the composed
756 message text before sending the message:
757 .Bd -literal -offset indent
758 $ ( echo 'line one. Word. Word2.';\e
759 echo '~| /usr/bin/fmt -tuw66' ) |\e
760 LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d~:/ -Sttycharset=utf-8 bob@exam.ple
764 .It Fl # , Fl Fl batch-mode
765 Enables batch mode: standard input is made line buffered, the complete
766 set of (interactive) commands is available, processing of
767 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
771 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
772 are adjusted for batch necessities, exactly as if done via
792 are looked up, and acted upon.
793 The following prepares an email message in a batched dry run:
794 .Bd -literal -offset indent
795 $ for name in bob alice@exam.ple lisa@exam.ple; do
796 printf 'mail %s\en~s ubject\enText\en~.\en' "${name}"
798 LC_ALL=C \*(uA -#:x -Smta=test \e
799 -X'alias bob bob@exam.ple'
803 .It Fl \&. , Fl Fl end-options
804 This flag forces termination of option processing in order to prevent
807 It also forcefully puts \*(UA into send mode, see
808 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
814 allows their recognition all
816 arguments given at the end of the command line after a
818 separator will be passed through to a file-based
820 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) and persist for the entire session.
822 constraints do not apply to the content of
824 Command line receiver address handling supports the
829 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
831 .Bd -literal -offset indent
832 $ \*(uA -#:/ -X 'addrcodec enc Hey, ho <silver@go>' -Xx
836 .\" .Ss "A starter" {{{ review
839 \*(UA is a direct descendant of
841 Mail, itself a successor to the Research
844 .Dq was there from the start
847 It thus represents the user side of the
849 mail system, whereas the system side (Mail-Transfer-Agent, MTA) was
850 traditionally taken by
852 (and most MTAs provide a binary of this name for compatibility reasons).
857 of \*(UA then the system side is not a mandatory precondition for mail
861 \*(UA strives for compliance with the POSIX
866 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
870 .Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT ,
871 needs to be set to adjust behaviour to be almost on par.
872 Almost, because there is one important difference: POSIX
873 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
874 is (\*(ID increasingly) used instead of the
875 .Sx "Old-style argument quoting"
876 that the standard documents, which is believed to be a feature.
877 The builtin as well as the (default) global
880 already bend the standard imposed settings a bit.
889 in order to suppress the automatic moving of messages to the
891 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
893 that would otherwise occur (see
894 .Sx "Message states" ) ,
897 to not remove empty system MBOX mailbox files (or all empty such files in
899 mode) to avoid mangling of file permissions when files eventually get
903 To enter interactive mode even if the initial mailbox is empty
907 to allow editing of headers as well as
909 to not strip down addresses in
913 to include the message that is being responded to when
915 ing, which is indented by an
917 that also deviates from standard imposed settings.
918 .Va mime-counter-evidence
919 is fully enabled, too.
921 .Va followup-to-honour
924 to comply with reply address desires.
927 Credentials and other settings are easily addressable by grouping them via
929 The file mode creation mask can be managed with
931 Files and shell pipe output can be
935 uation, also during startup from within the
936 .Sx "Resource files" .
937 Informational context can be available by
947 .\" .Ss "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" {{{
948 .Ss "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode"
950 To send a message to one or more people, using a local or built-in
952 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) transport to actually deliver the generated mail
953 message, \*(UA can be invoked with arguments which are the names of
954 people to whom the mail will be sent, and the command line options
958 can be used to add (blind) carbon copy receivers:
960 .Bd -literal -offset indent
962 $ echo Hello, world | \*(uA -:/ -Smta=test -s test $LOGNAME
964 # Via sendmail(1) MTA
965 $ </dev/null \*(uA -:x -s test $LOGNAME
967 # Debug dry-run mode:
968 $ </dev/null LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d -:/ \e
969 -Sttycharset=utf8 -Sfullnames \e
970 -b bcc@exam.ple -c cc@exam.ple -. \e
971 '(Lovely) Bob <bob@exam.ple>' eric@exam.ple
973 # With SMTP (no real sending due to -d debug dry-run)
974 $ LC_ALL=C \*(uA -d -:/ -Sv15-compat -Sttycharset=utf8 \e
975 -S mta=smtps://mylogin@exam.ple:465 -Ssmtp-auth=none \e
976 -S from=scriptreply@exam.ple \e
977 -a /etc/mail.rc --end-options \e
978 eric@exam.ple < /tmp/letter.txt
982 Email addresses and plain user names are subject to
984 filtering, names only are first expanded through
988 An address in angle brackets consisting only of a valid local user
990 will be converted to a fully qualified address if either
992 is not set, or set to a non-empty value; if set to the empty value the
993 conversion is left up to the
995 .\" When changing any of the following adjust any RECIPIENTADDRSPEC;
996 .\" grep the latter for the complete picture
999 fine-grained control of recipient address types other than user names
1000 and network addresses is possible.
1001 Recipients are classified as follows:
1002 any name that starts with a vertical bar
1004 character specifies a command pipe \(en the command string following the
1006 is executed and the message is sent to its standard input;
1007 likewise, any name that consists only of hyphen-minus
1009 or starts with the character solidus
1011 or the character sequence dot solidus
1013 is treated as a file, regardless of the remaining content.
1014 Any other name which contains a commercial at
1016 character is a network address;
1017 Any other name which starts with a plus sign
1019 character is a mailbox name;
1020 Any other name which contains a solidus
1022 character but no exclamation mark
1026 character before is also a mailbox name;
1027 What remains is treated as a network address.
1028 This classification can be avoided by using a
1031 .Sx "Compose mode" .
1033 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1034 $ echo bla | \*(uA -Sexpandaddr -s test ./mbox.mbox
1035 $ echo bla | \*(uA -Sexpandaddr -s test '|cat >> ./mbox.mbox'
1036 $ echo safe | LC_ALL=C \e
1037 \*(uA -:/ -Smta=test -Sv15-compat -Sttycharset=utf8 \e
1038 --set mime-force-sendout --set fullnames \e
1039 -S expandaddr=fail,-all,+addr,failinvaddr -s test \e
1040 --end-options 'Imagine John <cold@turk.ey>'
1044 Before messages are sent they undergo editing in
1045 .Sx "Compose mode" .
1046 But many settings are static and can be set more generally.
1047 The envelope sender address for example is defined by
1049 explicitly defining an originating
1051 may be desirable, especially with the built-in SMTP Mail-Transfer-Agent
1053 .Sx "Character sets"
1054 for outgoing message and MIME part content are configurable via
1056 whereas input data is assumed to be in
1058 Message data will be passed over the wire in a
1060 and MIME parts aka attachments need a
1062 usually taken out of
1063 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
1064 Saving copies of sent messages in a
1066 mailbox may be desirable \(en as for most mailbox
1069 .Sx "Filename transformations"
1073 For the purpose of arranging a complete environment of settings that can
1074 be switched to with a single command or command line option there are
1076 Alternatively a flat configuration could be possible, making use
1077 of so-called variable chains which automatically pick
1081 context-dependent variants some variables support: for example addressing
1082 .Ql Ic Folder Ns \& pop3://yaa@exam.ple
1084 .Va \&\&pop3-no-apop-yaa@exam.ple ,
1085 .Va \&\&pop3-no-apop-exam.ple
1090 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
1092 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" .
1095 To avoid environmental noise scripts should create a script-local
1096 environment, ideally with the command line options
1098 to disable configuration files in conjunction with repetitions of
1100 to specify variables:
1102 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1103 $ env LC_ALL=C \*(uA -:/ \e
1105 -Sttycharset=utf-8 -Smime-force-sendout \e
1106 -Sexpandaddr=fail,-all,failinvaddr \e
1107 -S mta=smtps://mylogin@exam.ple:465 -Ssmtp-auth=login \e
1108 -S from=scriptreply@exam.ple \e
1109 -s 'Subject to go' -a attachment_file \e
1111 'Recipient 1 <rec1@exam.ple>' rec2@exam.ple \e
1116 As shown, scripts producing messages can
1118 a locale environment, the above specifies the all-compatible 7-bit clean
1121 but will nonetheless take and send UTF-8 in the message text by using
1123 If character set conversion is compiled in
1127 invalid (according to
1129 character input data would normally cause errors; setting
1130 .Va mime-force-sendout
1131 will instead, as a last resort, classify the input as binary data, and
1132 therefore allow message creation to be successful.
1133 (Such content can then be inspected either by installing a
1134 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
1136 .Ql application/octet-stream ,
1137 or possibly automatically through
1138 .Va mime-counter-evidence ) .
1141 In interactive mode, introduced soon, messages can be sent by calling the
1143 command with a list of recipient addresses:
1145 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1146 $ \*(uA -:/ -Squiet -Semptystart -Sfullnames -Smta=test
1147 "/var/spool/mail/user": 0 messages
1148 ? mail "Recipient 1 <rec1@exam.ple>", rec2@exam.ple
1150 ? # Will do the right thing (tm)
1151 ? m rec1@exam.ple rec2@exam.ple
1155 .\" .Ss "Compose mode" {{{
1158 If standard input is a terminal rather than the message to be sent,
1159 the user is expected to type in the message contents.
1160 In compose mode lines beginning with the character
1162 (in fact the value of
1164 are special \(en these are so-called
1165 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
1166 which can be used to read in files, process shell commands, add and edit
1167 attachments and more.
1176 respectively, to revise the message in its current state,
1178 allows editing of the most important message headers, with the potent
1180 custom headers can be created, for example (more specifically than with
1186 gives an overview of most other available command escapes.
1189 To create file-carbon-copies the special recipient header
1191 may be used as often as desired, for example via
1193 Its entire value (or body in standard terms) is interpreted as a
1195 target, after having been subject to
1196 .Sx "Filename transformations" :
1197 this is the only way to create a file-carbon-copy without introducing an
1198 ambiguity regarding the interpretation of the address, file names with
1199 leading vertical bars or commercial ats can be used.
1200 Like all other recipients
1202 is subject to the checks of
1204 Any local file and pipe command addressee honours the setting of
1205 .Va mbox-fcc-and-pcc .
1208 Once finished with editing the command escape
1210 (see there) will call hooks, insert automatic injections and receivers,
1211 leave compose mode and send the message once it is completed.
1212 Aborting letter composition is possible with either of
1216 the latter of which will save the message in the file denoted by
1223 is set the effect of
1225 can also be achieved by typing end-of-transmission (EOT) via
1228 at the beginning of an empty line, and
1230 is always reachable by typing end-of-text (ETX) twice via
1235 The compose mode hooks
1236 .Va on-compose-enter , on-compose-splice , on-compose-leave
1238 .Va on-compose-cleanup
1241 d macros and provide reliable and increasingly powerful mechanisms to
1242 perform automated message adjustments dependent on message context,
1243 for example addition of message signatures
1244 .Pf ( Va message-inject-head , message-inject-tail )
1245 or creation of additional receiver lists (also by setting
1246 .Va autocc , autobcc ) .
1247 To achieve that the command
1249 may be used in order to query and adjust status of message(s).
1250 The splice hook can also make use of
1251 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
1252 (\*(ID The compose mode hooks work for
1253 .Ic forward , mail , reply
1258 only provide the hooks
1261 .Va on-resend-cleanup ,
1262 which are pretty restricted due to the nature of the operation.)
1265 .\" .Ss "On reading mail, and more on interactive mode" {{{
1266 .Ss "On reading mail, and more on interactive mode"
1268 When invoked without addressees \*(UA enters interactive mode in which
1270 When used like that the user's system
1272 (for more on mailbox types please see the command
1274 is read in and a one line header of each message therein is displayed if
1278 The visual style of this summary of
1280 can be adjusted through the variable
1282 and the possible sorting criterion via
1288 can be performed with the command
1290 If the initially opened mailbox is empty \*(UA will instead exit
1291 immediately (after displaying a message) unless the variable
1300 will give a listing of all available commands and
1302 will \*(OPally give a summary of some common ones.
1303 If the \*(OPal documentation strings are available (see
1307 .Pf "(or " Ql \&?X )
1308 and see the actual expansion of
1310 and what its purpose is, i.e., commands can be abbreviated
1311 (note that POSIX defines some abbreviations, so that the alphabetical
1312 order of commands does not necessarily relate to the abbreviations; it is
1313 however possible to define overwrites with
1314 .Ic commandalias ) .
1315 These commands can also produce a more
1320 Messages are given numbers (starting at 1) which uniquely identify
1321 messages; the current message \(en the
1323 \(en will either be the first new message, or the first unread message,
1324 or the first message of the mailbox; the internal variable
1326 will instead cause usage of the last message for this purpose.
1331 ful of header summaries containing the
1335 will display only the summaries of the given messages, defaulting to the
1339 Message content can be displayed with the command
1346 controls whether and when \*(UA will use the configured
1348 for display instead of directly writing to the user terminal
1350 the sole difference to the command
1352 which will always use the
1356 will instead only show the first
1358 of a message (maybe even compressed if
1361 Message display experience may improve by setting and adjusting
1362 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
1364 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" .
1367 By default the current message
1369 is displayed, but like with many other commands it is possible to give
1370 a fancy message specification (see
1371 .Sx "Specifying messages" ) ,
1374 will display all unread messages,
1379 will type the messages 1 and 5,
1381 will type the messages 1 through 5, and
1385 will display the previous and the next message, respectively.
1388 (a more substantial alias for
1390 will display a header summary of the given message specification list
1391 instead of their content; the following will search for subjects:
1394 .Dl ? from "'@Some subject to search for'"
1397 In the default setup all header fields of a message will be
1399 d, but fields can be white- or blacklisted for a variety of
1400 applications by using the command
1402 e.g., to restrict their display to a very restricted set for
1404 .Ql Ic \:headerpick Cd \:type retain Ar \:from to cc subject .
1405 In order to display all header fields of a message regardless of
1406 currently active ignore or retain lists, use the commands
1411 will show the raw message content.
1412 Note that historically the global
1414 not only adjusts the list of displayed headers, but also sets
1416 (\*(ID A yet somewhat restricted) Reliable scriptable message
1417 inspection is available via
1421 Dependent upon the configuration a line editor (see the section
1422 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
1423 aims at making the user experience with the many
1426 When reading the system
1432 specified a mailbox explicitly prefixed with the special
1434 modifier (to propagate it to a
1436 .Sx "primary system mailbox" ) ,
1437 then messages which have been read
1438 .Pf (see\0 Sx "Message states" )
1439 will be automatically moved to a
1441 .Sx "secondary mailbox" ,
1444 file, when the mailbox is left, either by changing the active mailbox or
1445 by quitting \*(UA \(en this automatic moving from a system- or primary-
1446 to the secondary mailbox is not performed when the variable
1449 Messages can also be explicitly
1451 d to other mailboxes, whereas
1453 keeps the original message.
1455 can be used to write out data content of specific parts of messages.
1458 After examining a message the user can
1460 to the sender and all recipients (which will also be placed in
1463 .Va recipients-in-cc
1466 exclusively to the sender(s).
1467 To comply with with the receivers desired reply address the
1471 .Va followup-to-honour
1474 should usually be set.
1479 know how to apply a special addressee massage, see
1480 .Sx "Mailing lists" .
1481 Dependent on the presence and value of
1483 the message being replied to will be included in a quoted form.
1485 ing a message will allow editing the new message: the original message
1486 will be contained in the message body, adjusted according to
1492 messages: the former will add a series of
1494 headers, whereas the latter will not; different to newly created
1495 messages editing is not possible and no copy will be saved even with
1497 unless the additional variable
1500 When sending, replying or forwarding messages comments and full names
1501 will be stripped from recipient addresses unless the internal variable
1506 Of course messages can be
1508 and they can spring into existence again via
1510 or when the \*(UA session is ended via the
1514 commands to perform a quick program termation.
1515 To end a mail processing session regularly and perform a full program
1516 exit one may issue the command
1518 It will, among others, move read messages to the
1520 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
1522 as necessary, discard deleted messages in the current mailbox,
1523 and update the \*(OPal (see
1527 By the way, whenever the main event loop is about to look out for the
1528 next input line it will trigger the hook
1529 .Va on-main-loop-tick .
1532 .\" .Ss "HTML mail and MIME attachments" {{{ review
1533 .Ss "HTML mail and MIME attachments"
1535 HTML-only messages become more and more common, and many messages come
1536 bundled with a bouquet of MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions)
1537 parts and attachments.
1538 To get a notion of MIME types \*(UA has a default set of types built-in,
1539 onto which the content of
1540 .Sx "The mime.types files"
1541 will be added (as configured and allowed by
1542 .Va mimetypes-load-control ) .
1543 Types can also become registered with the command
1545 To improve interaction with the faulty MIME part declarations of real life
1546 .Va mime-counter-evidence
1547 will allow verification of the given assertion, and the possible
1548 provision of an alternative, better MIME type.
1551 Whereas a simple HTML-to-text filter for displaying HTML messages is
1552 \*(OPally supported (indicated by
1553 .Ql ,+filter-html-tagsoup,
1556 MIME types other than plain text cannot be handled directly.
1557 Instead programs need to become registered to deal with specific MIME
1558 types or file extensions, either to prepare (re-)integrable plain text
1559 versions of their input (a mode which is called
1560 .Cd copiousoutput ) ,
1561 or to display the content externally, for example in a graphical window:
1562 the latter type is only considered by and for the command
1566 To install a handler program for a MIME type an according
1567 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
1568 variable needs to be set; to define a handler for a file extension
1570 can be used \(en these handlers take precedence.
1571 \*(OPally mail user agent configuration is supported (see
1572 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ) ,
1573 and will be queried for display or quote handlers after the former ones.
1574 Type-markers registered via
1576 are the last possible source for information how to handle a MIME type.
1579 For example, to display HTML messages integrated via the text browsers
1583 register a MathML MIME type and enable its plain text display, and to
1584 open PDF attachments in an external PDF viewer, asynchronously and with
1585 some other magic attached:
1587 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1588 ? if "$features" !% ,+filter-html-tagsoup,
1589 ? #set pipe-text/html='?* elinks -force-html -dump 1'
1590 ? set pipe-text/html='?* lynx -stdin -dump -force_html'
1591 ? # Display HTML as plain text instead
1592 ? #set pipe-text/html=?t
1594 ? mimetype ?t application/mathml+xml mathml
1595 ? wysh set pipe-application/pdf='?&=? \e
1596 trap "rm -f \e"${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}\e"" EXIT;\e
1597 trap "trap \e"\e" INT QUIT TERM; exit 1" INT QUIT TERM;\e
1598 mupdf "${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}"'
1602 .\" .Ss "Mailing lists" {{{
1605 Known or subscribed-to mailing lists may be flagged in the summary of
1610 and will gain special treatment when sending mails: the variable
1611 .Va followup-to-honour
1613 .Ql Mail-\:Followup-\:To:
1614 header is honoured when a message is being replied to
1621 controls creation of this header when creating
1623 s, if the necessary user setup
1624 .Pf ( from , sender ) ;
1625 is available; then, it may also be created automatically, for example
1626 when list-replying via
1634 is used and the messages
1635 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
1643 manage \*(UAs notion of which addresses are mailing lists.
1644 With the \*(OPal regular expression support any address
1645 .Mx -ix "magic regular expression characters"
1646 which contains any of the magic regular expression characters
1652 dependent on the host system)
1653 will be compiled and used as one, possibly matching many addresses.
1654 It is not possible to escape the
1656 in order to match special characters as-is, bracket expressions must be
1658 .Ql Ic search Li @subject@'[[]open bracket' .
1660 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1661 ? set followup-to followup-to-honour=ask-yes \e
1662 reply-to-honour=ask-yes
1663 ? mlist a1@b1.c1 a2@b2.c2 '.*@lists\e.c3$'
1664 ? mlsubscribe a4@b4.c4 exact@lists.c3
1668 Known and subscribed lists differ in that for the latter the
1670 s address is not part of a generated
1671 .Ql Mail-Followup-To: .
1672 There are exceptions, for example if multiple lists are addressed and
1673 not all have the subscription attribute.
1674 When replying to a message its list address
1676 header) is automatically and temporarily treated like a known
1678 dependent on the variable
1682 is used instead (if it is a single address on the same domain as
1684 in order to accept a list administrator's wish that is supposed to have
1685 been manifested like that.
1688 For convenience and compatibility with mail programs that do not honour
1689 the non-standard M-F-T, an automatic user entry in the carbon-copy
1691 address list of generated message can be created by setting
1692 .Va followup-to-add-cc .
1693 This entry will be added whenever the user will be placed in the
1694 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
1695 list, and is not a regular addressee already.
1696 .Va reply-to-swap-in
1697 tries to deal with the address rewriting that many mailing-lists nowadays
1698 perform to work around DKIM / DMARC etc. standard imposed problems.
1701 .\" .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME" {{{
1702 .Ss "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
1704 \*(OP S/MIME provides two central mechanisms:
1705 message signing and message encryption.
1706 A signed message contains some data in addition to the regular text.
1707 The data can be used to verify that the message has been sent using
1708 a valid certificate, that the sender address matches that in the
1709 certificate, and that the message text has not been altered.
1710 Signing a message does not change its regular text;
1711 it can be read regardless of whether the recipients software is able to
1713 It is thus usually possible to sign all outgoing messages if so desired.
1716 Encryption, in contrast, makes the message text invisible for all people
1717 except those who have access to the secret decryption key.
1718 To encrypt a message, the specific recipients public encryption key
1720 It is therefore not possible to send encrypted mail to people unless their
1721 key has been retrieved from either previous communication or public key
1723 Because signing is performed with private keys, and encryption with
1724 public keys, messages should always be signed before being encrypted.
1727 A central concept to S/MIME is that of the certification authority (CA).
1728 A CA is a trusted institution that issues certificates.
1729 For each of these certificates it can be verified that it really
1730 originates from the CA, provided that the CA's own certificate is
1732 A set of CA certificates is usually delivered and installed together
1733 with the cryptographical library that is used on the local system.
1734 Therefore reasonable security for S/MIME on the Internet is provided if
1735 the source that provides that library installation is trusted.
1736 It is also possible to use a specific pool of trusted certificates.
1738 .Va smime-ca-no-defaults
1739 should be set to avoid using the default certificate pool, and
1743 should be pointed to a trusted pool of certificates.
1744 A certificate cannot be more secure than the method its CA certificate
1745 has been retrieved with.
1748 This trusted pool of certificates is used by the command
1750 to ensure that the given S/MIME messages can be trusted.
1751 If so, verified sender certificates that were embedded in signed
1752 messages can be saved locally with the command
1754 and used by \*(UA to encrypt further communication with these senders:
1756 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1758 ? set smime-encrypt-USER@HOST=FILENAME \e
1759 smime-cipher-USER@HOST=AES256
1763 To sign outgoing messages, in order to allow receivers to verify the
1764 origin of these messages, a personal S/MIME certificate is required.
1765 \*(UA supports password-protected personal certificates (and keys), see
1766 .Va smime-sign-cert .
1768 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
1769 gives an overview of the possible sources of user credentials, and
1770 .Sx "S/MIME step by step"
1771 shows examplarily how a private S/MIME certificate can be obtained.
1772 In general, if such a private key plus certificate
1774 is available, all that needs to be done is to set some variables:
1776 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1777 ? set smime-sign-cert=ME@exam.ple.paired \e
1778 smime-sign-digest=SHA512 \e
1779 smime-sign from=myname@my.host
1783 Variables of interest for S/MIME in general are
1786 .Va smime-ca-flags ,
1787 .Va smime-ca-no-defaults ,
1789 .Va smime-crl-file .
1790 For S/MIME signing of interest are
1792 .Va smime-sign-cert ,
1793 .Va smime-sign-include-certs
1795 .Va smime-sign-digest .
1796 Additional variables of interest for S/MIME en- and decryption:
1799 .Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST .
1800 Variables of secondary interest may be
1801 .Va content-description-smime-message
1803 .Va content-description-smime-signature .
1804 S/MIME is available if
1810 \*(ID Note that neither S/MIME signing nor encryption applies to
1811 message subjects or other header fields yet.
1812 Thus they may not contain sensitive information for encrypted messages,
1813 and cannot be trusted even if the message content has been verified.
1814 When sending signed messages,
1815 it is recommended to repeat any important header information in the
1819 .\" .Ss "On URL syntax and credential lookup" {{{ review
1820 .Ss "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
1822 For accessing protocol-specific resources Uniform Resource Locators
1823 (URL, RFC 3986) have become omnipresent.
1824 Here they are expected in a
1826 variant, not used in data exchange, but only meant as a compact,
1827 easy-to-use way of defining and representing information in a well-known
1828 notation; as such they do not conform to any real standard.
1829 Optional parts are placed in brackets
1831 optional either because there also exist other ways to define the
1832 information, or because the part is protocol specific.
1834 for example is used by the \*(OPal Maildir
1836 type and the IMAP protocol, but not by POP3.
1841 are included in an URL server specification, URL percent encoded
1842 (RFC 3986) forms are needed, generable with
1846 .Dl PROTOCOL://[USER[:PASSWORD]@]server[:port][/path]
1850 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
1851 exist in multiple versions, called
1853 in this document: the plain
1858 .Ql variable-USER@HOST .
1859 If a port was specified
1867 is never in URL percent encoded form.
1868 For example, whether the hypothetical
1869 .Ql smtp://\:wings\:%3A\:of\:@a.dove
1870 including user and password was used, or whether it was
1872 and it came from a different source, to lookup the chain
1873 .Va tls-config-pairs
1875 .Ql tls-\:config-\:pairs-\:wings:of@a.dove
1877 .Ql tls-\:config-pairs\-\:a.dove ,
1878 before finally looking up the plain variable.
1881 The logic to collect (an
1883 s) credential information is as follows:
1887 A user is always required.
1890 has been given in the URL the variables
1895 Afterwards, when enforced by the \*(OPal variables
1896 .Va netrc-lookup-HOST
1899 .Sx "The .netrc file"
1900 of the user will be searched for a
1902 specific entry which provides a
1904 name: only unambiguous entries are used (one possible matching entry for
1907 If there is still no
1911 known to be a valid user on the current host, is used.
1914 Authentication: unless otherwise noted the chain
1915 .Va PROTOCOL-auth-USER@HOST , PROTOCOL-auth-HOST , PROTOCOL-auth
1916 is checked, falling back to a protocol-specific default as necessary.
1921 has been given in the URL, then if the
1923 has been found through the \*(OPal
1925 that may have also provided the password.
1927 .Va password-USER@HOST , password-HOST , password
1930 Thereafter the (now complete) \*(OPal chain
1931 .Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , netrc-lookup-HOST , netrc-lookup
1932 is checked, if set the
1934 cache is searched for a password only (multiple user accounts for
1935 a single machine may exist as well as a fallback entry without user
1936 but with a password).
1938 If at that point there is still no password available, but the
1939 (protocols') chosen authentication type requires a password, then in
1940 interactive mode the user will be prompted on the terminal.
1945 S/MIME verification works relative to the values found in the
1949 header field(s), which means the values of
1950 .Va smime-sign , smime-sign-cert , smime-sign-include-certs
1952 .Va smime-sign-digest
1953 will not be looked up using the
1957 chains from above, but instead use the corresponding values from the
1958 message that is being worked on.
1959 If no address matches we assume and use the setting of
1961 In unusual cases multiple and different
1965 combinations may therefore be involved \(en on the other hand those
1966 unusual cases become possible.
1967 The usual case is as short as:
1969 .Bd -literal -offset indent
1970 set mta=smtp://USER:PASS@HOST smtp-use-starttls \e
1971 smime-sign smime-sign-cert=+smime.pair \e
1978 contains complete example configurations.
1981 .\" .Ss "Encrypted network communication" {{{ review
1982 .Ss "Encrypted network communication"
1984 \*(OP SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) aka its successor TLS (Transport Layer
1985 Security) are protocols which aid in securing communication by providing
1986 a safely initiated and encrypted network connection.
1987 A central concept of TLS are certificates: as part of each network
1988 connection setup a (set of) certificates will be exchanged through which
1989 the identity of the network peer can be cryptographically verified;
1990 if possible the TLS/SNI (ServerNameIndication) extension will be enabled
1991 to allow servers fine-grained control over the certificates being used.
1992 A locally installed pool of trusted certificates will then be inspected,
1993 and verification will succeed if it contains a(n in)direct signer of the
1994 presented certificate(s).
1997 The local pool of trusted so-called CA (Certification Authority)
1998 certificates is usually delivered with and used along the TLS library.
1999 A custom pool of trusted certificates can be selected by pointing
2001 and/or (with special preparation)
2003 to the desired location; setting
2004 .Va tls-ca-no-defaults
2005 in addition will avoid additional inspection of the default pool.
2006 A certificate cannot be more secure than the method its CA certificate
2007 has been retrieved with.
2008 For inspection or other purposes, the certificate of a server (as seen
2009 when connecting to it) can be fetched with the command
2011 (port can usually be the protocol name, too, and
2013 is taken into account here):
2015 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2016 $ \*(uA -vX 'tls certchain SERVER-URL[:PORT]; x'
2020 A local pool of CA certificates is not strictly necessary, however,
2021 server certificates can also be verified via their fingerprint.
2022 For this a message digest will be calculated and compared against the
2024 .Va tls-fingerprint ,
2025 and verification will succeed if the fingerprint matches.
2026 The message digest (algorithm) can be configured via the variable chain
2027 .Va tls-fingerprint-digest ;
2031 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2032 $ \*(uA -X 'wysh set verbose; tls fingerprint SERVER-URL[:PORT]; x'
2036 It depends on the used protocol whether encrypted communication is
2037 possible, and which configuration steps have to be taken to enable it.
2038 Some protocols, like POP3S, are implicitly encrypted, others, like
2039 POP3, can upgrade a plain text connection if so requested.
2040 For example, to use the
2042 that POP3 offers (a member of) the variable (chain)
2043 .Va pop3-use-starttls
2044 needs to be set, with convenience via
2047 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2048 shortcut encpop1 pop3s://pop1.exam.ple
2050 shortcut encpop2 pop3://pop2.exam.ple
2051 set pop3-use-starttls-pop2.exam.ple
2053 set mta=smtps://smtp.exam.ple:465
2054 set mta=smtp://smtp.exam.ple smtp-use-starttls
2058 Normally that is all there is to do, given that TLS libraries try to
2059 provide safe defaults, plenty of knobs however exist to adjust settings.
2060 For example certificate verification settings can be fine-tuned via
2062 and the TLS configuration basics are accessible via
2063 .Va tls-config-pairs ,
2064 for example to control protocol versions or cipher lists.
2065 In the past hints on how to restrict the set of protocols to highly
2066 secure ones were indicated, but as of the time of this writing the list
2067 of protocols or ciphers may need to become relaxed in order to be able
2068 to connect to some servers; the following example allows connecting to a
2070 that uses OpenSSL 0.9.8za from June 2014 (refer to
2071 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
2072 for more on variable chains):
2074 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2075 wysh set tls-config-pairs-lion@exam.ple='MinProtocol=TLSv1.1,\e
2076 CipherString=TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:\e
2077 ECDHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:ECDHE-ECDSA-AES256-SHA:\e
2078 DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA:@STRENGTH'
2084 should be referred to when creating a custom cipher list.
2085 Variables of interest for TLS in general are
2089 .Va tls-ca-no-defaults ,
2090 .Va tls-config-file ,
2091 .Va tls-config-module ,
2092 .Va tls-config-pairs ,
2106 .\" .Ss "Character sets" review {{{
2107 .Ss "Character sets"
2109 \*(OP The user's locale environment is detected by looking at the
2111 environment variable.
2112 The internal variable
2114 will be set to the detected terminal character set accordingly,
2115 and will thus show up in the output of commands like
2119 This character set will be targeted when trying to display data,
2120 and user input data is expected to be in this character set, too.
2123 When creating messages their character input data is classified.
2124 7-bit clean text data and attachments will be classified as
2126 8-bit data will \*(OPally be converted into members of
2128 until a character set conversion succeeds.
2130 is the implied default last member of this list.
2131 If no 8-bit character set is capable to represent input data,
2132 no message will be sent, and its text will optionally be
2136 If that is not acceptable, for example in script environments,
2137 .Va mime-force-sendout
2138 can be set to force sending of non-convertible data as
2139 .Ql application/octet-stream
2140 classified binary content instead: like this receivers still have the
2141 option to inspect message content (for example via
2142 .Va mime-counter-evidence ) .
2143 If the \*(OPal character set conversion is not available
2148 is the only supported character set for non 7-bit clean data, and
2149 it is simply assumed it can be used to exchange 8-bit messages.
2153 may also be given an explicit value to send mail in a completely
2155 locale environment, which can be used to generate and send for
2156 example 8-bit UTF-8 input data in a pure 7-bit US-ASCII
2158 environment (an example of this can be found in the section
2159 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" ) .
2160 Due to lack of programming interfaces reading mail will not really work
2161 as expected in a faked environment: whereas
2163 might be addressable, any output will be made safely printable, as via
2166 according to the actual locale environment, which is not affected by
2170 Classifying 7-bit clean data as
2172 is a problem if the input character set
2173 .Pf ( Va ttycharset )
2174 is a multibyte character set that is itself 7-bit clean.
2175 For example, the Japanese character set ISO-2022-JP is, but is capable
2176 to encode the rich set of Japanese Kanji, Hiragana and Katakana
2177 characters: in order to notify receivers of this character set the mail
2178 message must be MIME encoded so that the character set ISO-2022-JP can
2179 be advertised, otherwise an invalid email message would result!
2180 To achieve this, the variable
2182 can be set to ISO-2022-JP.
2183 (Today a better approach regarding email is the usage of UTF-8, which
2184 uses 8-bit bytes for non-US-ASCII data.)
2187 When replying to a message and the variable
2188 .Va reply-in-same-charset
2189 is set, the character set of the message being replied to is tried first
2190 as a target character set (still being a subject of
2192 filtering, however).
2193 Another opportunity is
2194 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
2195 to reflect the user's locale environment automatically, it will treat
2197 as an implied member of (an unset)
2201 \*(OP When reading messages, their text data is converted into
2203 as necessary in order to display them on the user's terminal.
2204 Unprintable characters and invalid byte sequences are detected
2205 and replaced by substitution characters.
2206 Character set mappings for source character sets can be established with
2208 which may be handy to work around faulty or incomplete character set
2209 catalogues (one could for example add a missing LATIN1 to ISO-8859-1
2210 mapping), or to enforce treatment of one character set as another one
2211 .Pf ( Dq interpret LATIN1 as CP1252 ) .
2213 .Va charset-unknown-8bit
2214 to deal with another hairy aspect of message interpretation.
2217 In general, if a message saying
2218 .Dq cannot convert from a to b
2219 appears, either some characters are not appropriate for the currently
2220 selected (terminal) character set,
2221 or the needed conversion is not supported by the system.
2222 In the first case, it is necessary to set an appropriate
2224 locale and/or the variable
2226 The best results are usually achieved when running in a UTF-8
2227 locale on a UTF-8 capable terminal, in which case the full Unicode
2228 spectrum of characters is available.
2229 In this setup characters from various countries can be displayed,
2230 while it is still possible to use more simple character sets for sending
2231 to retain maximum compatibility with older mail clients.
2234 On the other hand the POSIX standard defines a locale-independent 7-bit
2235 .Dq portable character set
2236 that should be used when overall portability is an issue, the even more
2237 restricted subset named
2238 .Dq portable filename character set
2239 consists of A-Z, a-z, 0-9, period
2247 .\" .Ss "Message states" {{{
2248 .Ss "Message states"
2250 \*(UA differentiates in between several message states; the current
2251 state will be reflected in the summary of
2258 .Sx "Specifying messages"
2259 dependent on their state is possible.
2260 When operating on the system
2264 .Sx "primary system mailbox" ,
2265 special actions, like the automatic moving of messages to the
2267 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
2269 may be applied when the mailbox is left (also implicitly by program
2270 termination, unless the command
2272 was used) \(en however, because this may be irritating to users which
2275 mail-user-agents, the provided global
2277 template sets the internal
2281 variables in order to suppress this behaviour.
2283 .Bl -hang -width ".It Ql new"
2285 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state.
2286 Such messages are retained even in the
2288 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
2291 Message has neither been viewed nor moved to any other state, but the
2292 message was present already when the mailbox has been opened last:
2293 Such messages are retained even in the
2295 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
2298 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
2317 will always try to automatically
2323 logical message, and may thus mark multiple messages as read, the
2325 command will do so if the internal variable
2331 command is used, messages that are in a
2333 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
2336 state when the mailbox is left will be saved in the
2338 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
2340 unless the internal variable
2345 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
2351 can be used to access such messages.
2354 The message has been processed by a
2356 command and it will be retained in its current location.
2359 The message has been processed by one of the following commands:
2365 command is used, messages that are in a
2367 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
2370 state when the mailbox is left will be deleted; they will be saved in the
2372 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
2374 when the internal variable
2380 In addition to these message states, flags which otherwise have no
2381 technical meaning in the mail system except allowing special ways of
2382 addressing them when
2383 .Sx "Specifying messages"
2384 can be set on messages.
2385 These flags are saved with messages and are thus persistent, and are
2386 portable between a set of widely used MUAs.
2388 .Bl -hang -width ".It Ic answered"
2390 Mark messages as having been answered.
2392 Mark messages as being a draft.
2394 Mark messages which need special attention.
2398 .\" .Ss "Specifying messages" {{{
2399 .Ss "Specifying messages"
2404 .Sx "Message list arguments" ,
2411 can perform actions on a number of messages at once.
2412 Specifying invalid messages, or using illegal syntax, will cause errors
2413 to be reported through the
2414 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
2417 and companions, as well as the command exit status
2423 deletes the messages 1 and 2,
2426 will delete the messages 1 through 5.
2427 In sorted or threaded mode (see the
2431 will delete the messages that are located between (and including)
2432 messages 1 through 5 in the sorted/threaded order, as shown in the
2437 Errors can for example be
2439 when requesting an invalid message,
2441 if no applicable message can be found,
2442 .Va ^ERR Ns -CANCELED
2443 for missing informational data (mostly thread-related).
2445 for invalid syntax as well as
2447 for input/output errors can happen.
2448 The following special message names exist:
2451 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ar BaNg"
2453 The current message, the so-called
2457 The message that was previously the current message; needs to be quoted.
2460 The parent message of the current message,
2461 that is the message with the Message-ID given in the
2463 field or the last entry of the
2465 field of the current message.
2468 The previous undeleted message, or the previous deleted message for the
2474 ed mode, the previous such message in the according order.
2477 The next undeleted message, or the next deleted message for the
2483 ed mode, the next such message in the according order.
2486 The first undeleted message,
2487 or the first deleted message for the
2493 ed mode, the first such message in the according order.
2496 The last message; In
2500 ed mode, the last such message in the according order.
2508 mode, selects the message addressed with
2512 is any other message specification,
2513 and all messages from the thread that begins at it.
2514 Otherwise it is identical to
2519 the thread beginning with the current message is selected.
2525 All messages that were included in the
2526 .Sx "Message list arguments"
2527 of the previous command; needs to be quoted.
2528 (A convenient way to read all new messages is to select them via
2530 as below, and then to read them in order with the default command \(em
2532 \(em simply by successively typing
2539 An inclusive range of message numbers.
2540 Selectors that may also be used as endpoints include any of
2545 .Dq any substring matches
2548 header, which will match addresses (too) even if
2550 is set (and POSIX says
2551 .Dq any address as shown in a header summary shall be matchable in this form ) ;
2554 variable is set, only the local part of the address is evaluated
2555 for the comparison, not ignoring case, and the setting of
2557 is completely ignored.
2558 For finer control and match boundaries use the
2562 .It Ar / Ns Ar string
2563 All messages that contain
2565 in the subject field (case ignored according to locale).
2572 the string from the previous specification of that type is used again.
2575 .It Xo Op Ar @ Ns Ar name-list Ns
2578 All messages that contain the given case-insensitive search
2580 ession; If the \*(OPal regular expression support is available
2582 will be interpreted as (an extended) one if any of the
2584 .Sx "magic regular expression characters"
2587 .Ar @ Ns Ar name-list
2588 part is missing the search is restricted to the subject field body,
2591 specifies a comma-separated list of header fields to search, for example
2594 .Dl '@to,from,cc@Someone i ought to know'
2597 In order to search for a string that includes a
2599 (commercial at) character the
2601 is effectively non-optional, but may be given as the empty string.
2602 Also, specifying an empty search
2604 ession will effectively test for existence of the given header fields.
2605 Some special header fields may be abbreviated:
2619 respectively and case-insensitively.
2620 \*(OPally, and just like
2623 will be interpreted as (an extended) regular expression if any of the
2625 .Sx "magic regular expression characters"
2633 can be used to search in (all of) the header(s) of the message, and the
2642 will perform full text searches \(en whereas the former searches only
2643 the body, the latter also searches the message header (\*(ID this mode
2644 yet brute force searches over the entire decoded content of messages,
2645 including administrativa strings).
2648 This specification performs full text comparison, but even with
2649 regular expression support it is almost impossible to write a search
2650 expression that safely matches only a specific address domain.
2651 To request that the body content of the header is treated as a list of
2652 addresses, and to strip those down to the plain email address which the
2653 search expression is to be matched against, prefix the effective
2659 .Dl '@~f,c@@a\e.safe\e.domain\e.match$'
2663 All messages of state or with matching condition
2667 is one or multiple of the following colon modifiers:
2669 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar :M"
2672 messages (cf. the variable
2673 .Va markanswered ) .
2685 Messages with receivers that match
2689 Messages with receivers that match
2696 Old messages (any not in state
2704 \*(OP Messages with unsure spam classification (see
2705 .Sx "Handling spam" ) .
2707 \*(OP Messages classified as spam.
2719 \*(OP IMAP-style SEARCH expressions may also be used.
2720 These consist of keywords and criterions, and because
2721 .Sx "Message list arguments"
2722 are split into tokens according to
2723 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
2724 it is necessary to quote the entire IMAP search expression in order to
2725 ensure that it remains a single token.
2726 This addressing mode is available with all types of mailbox
2728 s; \*(UA will perform the search locally as necessary.
2729 Strings must be enclosed by double quotation marks
2731 in their entirety if they contain whitespace or parentheses;
2732 within the quotes, only reverse solidus
2734 is recognized as an escape character.
2735 All string searches are case-insensitive.
2736 When the description indicates that the
2738 representation of an address field is used,
2739 this means that the search string is checked against both a list
2742 .Bd -literal -offset indent
2743 \&'(\*qname\*q \*qsource\*q \*qlocal-part\*q \*qdomain-part\*q)'
2748 and the addresses without real names from the respective header field.
2749 These search expressions can be nested using parentheses, see below for
2753 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar _n_u"
2754 .It Ar ( criterion )
2755 All messages that satisfy the given
2757 .It Ar ( criterion1 criterion2 ... criterionN )
2758 All messages that satisfy all of the given criteria.
2760 .It Ar ( or criterion1 criterion2 )
2761 All messages that satisfy either
2766 To connect more than two criteria using
2768 specifications have to be nested using additional parentheses,
2770 .Ql (or a (or b c)) ,
2774 .Ql ((a or b) and c) .
2777 operation of independent criteria on the lowest nesting level,
2778 it is possible to achieve similar effects by using three separate
2782 .It Ar ( not criterion )
2783 All messages that do not satisfy
2785 .It Ar ( bcc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2786 All messages that contain
2788 in the envelope representation of the
2791 .It Ar ( cc \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2792 All messages that contain
2794 in the envelope representation of the
2797 .It Ar ( from \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2798 All messages that contain
2800 in the envelope representation of the
2803 .It Ar ( subject \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2804 All messages that contain
2809 .It Ar ( to \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2810 All messages that contain
2812 in the envelope representation of the
2815 .It Ar ( header name \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2816 All messages that contain
2821 .It Ar ( body \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2822 All messages that contain
2825 .It Ar ( text \*q Ns Ar string Ns Ar \*q )
2826 All messages that contain
2828 in their header or body.
2829 .It Ar ( larger size )
2830 All messages that are larger than
2833 .It Ar ( smaller size )
2834 All messages that are smaller than
2838 .It Ar ( before date )
2839 All messages that were received before
2841 which must be in the form
2845 denotes the day of the month as one or two digits,
2847 is the name of the month \(en one of
2848 .Ql Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec ,
2851 is the year as four digits, for example
2855 All messages that were received on the specified date.
2856 .It Ar ( since date )
2857 All messages that were received since the specified date.
2858 .It Ar ( sentbefore date )
2859 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
2860 .It Ar ( senton date )
2861 All messages that were sent on the specified date.
2862 .It Ar ( sentsince date )
2863 All messages that were sent since the specified date.
2865 The same criterion as for the previous search.
2866 This specification cannot be used as part of another criterion.
2867 If the previous command line contained more than one independent
2868 criterion then the last of those criteria is used.
2872 .\" .Ss "On terminal control and line editor" {{{ review
2873 .Ss "On terminal control and line editor"
2875 \*(OP Terminal control through one of the standard
2884 inal defined in the environment interactive usage aspects, for example
2885 .Sx "Coloured display" ,
2886 and insight of cursor and function keys for the Mailx-Line-Editor
2887 (MLE), will be enhanced or enabled.
2888 Library interaction can be disabled on a per-invocation basis via
2889 .Va termcap-disable ,
2890 whereas the internal variable
2892 is always used as a preferred source of terminal capabilities.
2893 (For a usage example see the
2896 .Sx "Not \(dqdefunctional\(dq, but the editor key does not work" . )
2899 \*(OP The built-in Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE) should work in all
2900 environments which comply to the ISO C standard
2902 and will support wide glyphs if possible (the necessary functionality
2903 had been removed from ISO C, but was included in
2905 Usage of a line editor in interactive mode can be prevented by setting
2906 .Va line-editor-disable .
2907 Especially if the \*(OPal terminal control support is missing setting
2910 will help shall the MLE misbehave, see there for more.
2911 The MLE can support a little bit of
2917 feature is available then input from line editor prompts will be saved
2918 in a history list that can be searched in and be expanded from.
2919 Such saving can be prevented by prefixing input with any amount of
2921 Aspects of history, like allowed content and maximum size, as well as
2922 whether history shall be saved persistently, can be configured with the
2926 .Va history-gabby-persist
2929 There also exists the macro hook
2930 .Va on-history-addition
2931 which can be used to apply finer control on what enters history.
2934 The MLE supports a set of editing and control commands.
2935 By default (as) many (as possible) of these will be assigned to a set of
2936 single-letter control codes, which should work on any terminal (and can
2937 be generated by holding the
2939 key while pressing the key of desire, for example
2943 command is available then the MLE commands can also be accessed freely
2944 by assigning the command name, which is shown in parenthesis in the list
2945 below, to any desired key-sequence, and the MLE will instead and also use
2947 to establish its built-in key bindings
2948 (more of them if the \*(OPal terminal control is available),
2949 an action which can then be suppressed completely by setting
2950 .Va line-editor-no-defaults .
2951 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
2952 notation is used in the following:
2956 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql \eBa"
2958 Go to the start of the line
2960 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-home ) .
2963 Move the cursor backward one character
2965 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-bwd ) .
2971 .Pf ( Cd mle-raise-int ) .
2974 Forward delete the character under the cursor;
2975 quits \*(UA if used on the empty line unless the internal variable
2979 .Pf ( Cd mle-del-fwd ) .
2982 Go to the end of the line
2984 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-end ) .
2987 Move the cursor forward one character
2989 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-fwd ) .
2992 Cancel current operation, full reset.
2993 If there is an active history search or tabulator expansion then this
2994 command will first reset that, reverting to the former line content;
2995 thus a second reset is needed for a full reset in this case
2997 .Pf ( Cd mle-reset ) .
3000 Backspace: backward delete one character
3002 .Pf ( Cd mle-del-bwd ) .
3006 Horizontal tabulator:
3007 try to expand the word before the cursor, supporting the usual
3008 .Sx "Filename transformations"
3010 .Pf ( Cd mle-complete ;
3012 .Cd mle-quote-rndtrip
3014 .Va line-editor-cpl-word-breaks ) .
3018 commit the current line
3020 .Pf ( Cd mle-commit ) .
3023 Cut all characters from the cursor to the end of the line
3025 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-end ) .
3030 .Pf ( Cd mle-repaint ) .
3033 \*(OP Go to the next history entry
3035 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-fwd ) .
3038 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
3042 \*(OP Go to the previous history entry
3044 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-bwd ) .
3047 Toggle roundtrip mode shell quotes, where produced,
3050 .Pf ( Cd mle-quote-rndtrip ) .
3051 This setting is temporary, and will be forgotten once the command line
3052 is committed; also see
3056 \*(OP Complete the current line from (the remaining) older history entries
3058 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-srch-bwd ) .
3061 \*(OP Complete the current line from (the remaining) newer history entries
3063 .Pf ( Cd mle-hist-srch-fwd ) .
3066 Paste the snarf buffer
3068 .Pf ( Cd mle-paste ) .
3076 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-line ) .
3079 Prompts for a Unicode character (hexadecimal number without prefix, see
3083 .Pf ( Cd mle-prompt-char ) .
3084 Note this command needs to be assigned to a single-letter control code
3085 in order to become recognized and executed during input of
3086 a key-sequence (only three single-letter control codes can be used for
3087 that shortcut purpose); this control code is then special-treated and
3088 thus cannot be part of any other sequence (because it will trigger the
3089 .Cd \&\&mle-prompt-char
3090 function immediately).
3093 Cut the characters from the one preceding the cursor to the preceding
3096 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-word-bwd ) .
3099 Move the cursor forward one word boundary
3101 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-word-fwd ) .
3104 Move the cursor backward one word boundary
3106 .Pf ( Cd mle-go-word-bwd ) .
3112 .Pf ( Cd mle-raise-tstp ) .
3115 Escape: reset a possibly used multibyte character input state machine
3116 and \*(OPally a lingering, incomplete key binding
3118 .Pf ( Cd mle-cancel ) .
3119 This command needs to be assigned to a single-letter control code in
3120 order to become recognized and executed during input of a key-sequence
3121 (only three single-letter control codes can be used for that shortcut
3123 This control code may also be part of a multi-byte sequence, but if
3124 a sequence is active and the very control code is currently also an
3125 expected input, then the active sequence takes precedence and will
3126 consume the control code.
3129 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
3133 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
3137 (\*(OPally context-dependent) Invokes the command
3141 Cut the characters from the one after the cursor to the succeeding word
3144 .Pf ( Cd mle-snarf-word-fwd ) .
3153 ring the audible bell.
3158 .Cd mle-clear-screen :
3159 move the cursor home and clear the screen.
3166 this will immediately reset a possibly active search etc.
3170 .Cd mle-go-screen-bwd :
3171 move the cursor backward one screen width.
3175 .Cd mle-go-screen-fwd :
3176 move the cursor forward one screen width.
3186 .\" .Ss "Coloured display" {{{ review
3187 .Ss "Coloured display"
3189 \*(OP Colours and font attributes through ANSI a.k.a. ISO 6429 SGR
3190 (select graphic rendition) escape sequences are optionally supported.
3191 Usage of colours and font attributes solely depends upon the
3192 capability of the detected terminal type
3194 and as fine-tuned through
3196 Colours and font attributes can be managed with the multiplexer command
3200 removes the given mappings.
3203 suppresses usage of colour and font attribute sequences, while leaving
3204 established mappings unchanged.
3207 Whether actually applicable colour and font attribute sequences should
3208 also be generated when output is going to be paged through the external
3212 ) depends upon the setting of
3214 because pagers usually need to be configured in order to support ISO
3216 Knowledge of some widely used pagers is however built-in, and in a clean
3217 environment it is often enough to simply set
3219 please refer to that variable for more on this topic.
3222 It might make sense to conditionalize colour setup on interactive mode via
3228 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3229 if terminal && "$features" =% ,+colour,
3230 colour iso view-msginfo ft=bold,fg=green
3231 colour iso view-header ft=bold,fg=red (from|subject) # regex
3232 colour iso view-header fg=red
3234 uncolour iso view-header from,subject
3235 colour iso view-header ft=bold,fg=magenta,bg=cyan
3236 colour 256 view-header ft=bold,fg=208,bg=230 "subject,from"
3237 colour mono view-header ft=bold
3238 colour mono view-header ft=bold,ft=reverse subject,from
3243 .\" .Ss "Handling spam" {{{
3246 \*(OP \*(UA can make use of several spam interfaces for the purpose of
3247 identification of, and, in general, dealing with spam messages.
3248 A precondition of most commands in order to function is that the
3250 variable is set to one of the supported interfaces.
3251 .Sx "Specifying messages"
3252 that have been identified as spam is possible via their (volatile)
3258 specifications, and their
3260 entries will be used when displaying the
3268 rates the given messages and sets their
3271 If the spam interface offers spam scores these can be shown in
3280 will interact with the Bayesian filter of the chosen interface and learn
3281 the given messages as
3285 respectively; the last command can be used to cause
3287 of messages; it adheres to their current
3289 state and thus reverts previous teachings.
3294 will simply set and clear, respectively, the mentioned volatile
3296 message flag, without any interface interaction.
3305 requires a running instance of the
3307 server in order to function, started with the option
3309 shall Bayesian filter learning be possible.
3311 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3312 $ spamd -i localhost:2142 -i /tmp/.spamsock -d [-L] [-l]
3313 $ spamd --listen=localhost:2142 --listen=/tmp/.spamsock \e
3314 --daemonize [--local] [--allow-tell]
3318 Thereafter \*(UA can make use of these interfaces:
3320 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3321 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=spamc -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
3322 -Sspamc-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \e
3323 -Sspamc-arguments="-U /tmp/.spamsock" -Sspamc-user=
3325 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=spamc -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
3326 -Sspamc-command=/usr/local/bin/spamc \e
3327 -Sspamc-arguments="-d localhost -p 2142" -Sspamc-user=
3331 Using the generic filter approach allows usage of programs like
3333 Here is an example, requiring it to be accessible via
3336 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3337 $ \*(uA -Sspam-interface=filter -Sspam-maxsize=500000 \e
3338 -Sspamfilter-ham="bogofilter -n" \e
3339 -Sspamfilter-noham="bogofilter -N" \e
3340 -Sspamfilter-nospam="bogofilter -S" \e
3341 -Sspamfilter-rate="bogofilter -TTu 2>/dev/null" \e
3342 -Sspamfilter-spam="bogofilter -s" \e
3343 -Sspamfilter-rate-scanscore="1;^(.+)$"
3347 Because messages must exist on local storage in order to be scored (or
3348 used for Bayesian filter training), it is possibly a good idea to
3349 perform the local spam check last.
3350 Spam can be checked automatically when opening specific folders by
3351 setting a specialized form of the internal variable
3354 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3355 define spamdelhook {
3357 spamset (header x-dcc-brand-metrics "bulk")
3358 # Server-side spamassassin(1)
3359 spamset (header x-spam-flag "YES")
3360 del :s # TODO we HAVE to be able to do `spamrate :u ! :sS'
3366 set folder-hook-SOMEFOLDER=spamdelhook
3370 See also the documentation for the variables
3371 .Va spam-interface , spam-maxsize ,
3372 .Va spamc-command , spamc-arguments , spamc-user ,
3373 .Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , spamfilter-nospam , \
3376 .Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore .
3379 .\" }}} (DESCRIPTION)
3382 .\" .Sh COMMANDS {{{
3385 \*(UA reads input in lines.
3386 An unquoted reverse solidus
3388 at the end of a command line
3390 the newline character: it is discarded and the next line of input is
3391 used as a follow-up line, with all leading whitespace removed;
3392 once an entire line is completed, the whitespace characters
3393 .Cm space , tabulator , newline
3394 as well as those defined by the variable
3396 are removed from the beginning and end.
3397 Placing any whitespace characters at the beginning of a line will
3398 prevent a possible addition of the command line to the \*(OPal
3402 The beginning of such input lines is then scanned for the name of
3403 a known command: command names may be abbreviated, in which case the
3404 first command that matches the given prefix will be used.
3405 .Sx "Command modifiers"
3406 may prefix a command in order to modify its behaviour.
3407 A name may also be a
3409 which will become expanded until no more expansion is possible.
3410 Once the command that shall be executed is known, the remains of the
3411 input line will be interpreted according to command-specific rules,
3412 documented in the following.
3415 This behaviour is different to the
3417 ell, which is a programming language with syntactic elements of clearly
3418 defined semantics, and therefore capable to sequentially expand and
3419 evaluate individual elements of a line.
3420 .Ql \&? set one=value two=$one
3421 for example will never possibly assign value to one, because the
3422 variable assignment is performed no sooner but by the command
3424 long after the expansion happened.
3427 A list of all commands in lookup order is dumped by the command
3429 \*(OPally the command
3433 when given an argument, will show a documentation string for the
3434 command matching the expanded argument, as in
3436 which should be a shorthand of
3438 with these documentation strings both commands support a more
3440 listing mode which includes the argument type of the command and other
3441 information which applies; a handy suggestion might thus be:
3443 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3445 # Before v15: need to enable sh(1)ell-style on _entire_ line!
3446 localopts yes;wysh set verbose;ignerr eval "${@}";return ${?}
3448 ? commandalias xv '\ecall __xv'
3452 .\" .Ss "Command modifiers" {{{
3453 .Ss "Command modifiers"
3455 Commands may be prefixed by none to multiple command modifiers.
3456 Some command modifiers can be used with a restricted set of commands
3461 will (\*(OPally) show which modifiers apply.
3465 The modifier reverse solidus
3468 to be placed first, prevents
3470 expansions on the remains of the line, for example
3472 will always evaluate the command
3474 even if an (command)alias of the same name exists.
3476 content may itself contain further command modifiers, including
3477 an initial reverse solidus to prevent further expansions.
3483 indicates that any error generated by the following command should be
3484 ignored by the state machine and not cause a program exit with enabled
3486 or for the standardized exit cases in
3491 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
3492 will be set to the real exit status of the command regardless.
3497 will alter the called command to apply changes only temporarily,
3498 local to block-scope, and can thus only be used inside of a
3503 Specifying it implies the modifier
3505 Local variables will not be inherited by macros deeper in the
3507 chain, and all local settings will be garbage collected once the local
3509 To record and unroll changes in the global scope use the command
3515 does yet not implement any functionality.
3520 does yet not implement any functionality.
3523 Some commands support the
3526 modifier: if used, they expect the name of a variable, which can itself
3527 be a variable, i.e., shell expansion is applied, as their first
3528 argument, and will place their computation result in it instead of the
3529 default location (it is usually written to standard output).
3531 The given name will be tested for being a valid
3533 variable name, and may therefore only consist of upper- and lowercase
3534 characters, digits, and the underscore; the hyphen-minus may be used as
3535 a non-portable extension; digits may not be used as first, hyphen-minus
3536 may not be used as last characters.
3537 In addition the name may either not be one of the known
3538 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
3539 or must otherwise refer to a writable (non-boolean) value variable.
3540 The actual put operation may fail nonetheless, for example if the
3541 variable expects a number argument only a number will be accepted.
3542 Any error during these operations causes the command as such to fail,
3543 and the error number
3546 .Va ^ERR Ns -NOTSUP ,
3551 but some commands deviate from the latter, which is documented.
3554 Last, but not least, the modifier
3557 can be used for some old and established commands to choose the new
3558 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
3559 rules over the traditional
3560 .Sx "Old-style argument quoting" .
3561 This modifier is implied if
3563 is set to a non-empty value.
3567 .\" .Ss "Old-style argument quoting" v15-compat: rename Obsolete.. {{{
3568 .Ss "Old-style argument quoting"
3570 \*(ID This section documents the traditional and POSIX standardized
3571 style of quoting non-message list arguments to commands which expect
3572 this type of arguments: whereas still used by the majority of such
3574 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
3575 may be available even for those via
3578 .Sx "Command modifiers" .
3579 Nonetheless care must be taken, because only new commands have been
3580 designed with all the capabilities of the new quoting rules in mind,
3581 which can, for example generate control characters.
3584 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
3586 An argument can be enclosed between paired double-quotes
3591 any whitespace, shell word expansion, or reverse solidus characters
3592 (except as described next) within the quotes are treated literally as
3593 part of the argument.
3594 A double-quote will be treated literally within single-quotes and vice
3596 Inside such a quoted string the actually used quote character can be
3597 used nonetheless by escaping it with a reverse solidus
3603 An argument that is not enclosed in quotes, as above, can usually still
3604 contain space characters if those spaces are reverse solidus escaped, as in
3608 A reverse solidus outside of the enclosing quotes is discarded
3609 and the following character is treated literally as part of the argument.
3613 .\" .Ss "Shell-style argument quoting" {{{
3614 .Ss "Shell-style argument quoting"
3617 ell-style, and therefore POSIX standardized, argument parsing and
3618 quoting rules are used by most commands.
3619 \*(ID Most new commands only support these new rules and are flagged
3620 \*(NQ, some elder ones can use them with the command modifier
3622 in the future only this type of argument quoting will remain.
3625 A command line is parsed from left to right and an input token is
3626 completed whenever an unquoted, otherwise ignored, metacharacter is seen.
3627 Metacharacters are vertical bar
3633 as well as all characters from the variable
3636 .Cm space , tabulator , newline .
3637 The additional metacharacters left and right parenthesis
3639 and less-than and greater-than signs
3643 supports are not used, and are treated as ordinary characters: for one
3644 these characters are a vivid part of email addresses, and it seems
3645 highly unlikely that their function will become meaningful to \*(UA.
3647 .Bd -filled -offset indent
3648 .Sy Compatibility note:
3649 \*(ID Please note that even many new-style commands do not yet honour
3651 to parse their arguments: whereas the
3653 ell is a language with syntactic elements of clearly defined semantics,
3654 \*(UA parses entire input lines and decides on a per-command base what
3655 to do with the rest of the line.
3656 This also means that whenever an unknown command is seen all that \*(UA
3657 can do is cancellation of the processing of the remains of the line.
3659 It also often depends on an actual subcommand of a multiplexer command
3660 how the rest of the line should be treated, and until v15 we are not
3661 capable to perform this deep inspection of arguments.
3662 Nonetheless, at least the following commands which work with positional
3663 parameters fully support
3665 for an almost shell-compatible field splitting:
3666 .Ic call , call_if , read , vpospar , xcall .
3670 Any unquoted number sign
3672 at the beginning of a new token starts a comment that extends to the end
3673 of the line, and therefore ends argument processing.
3674 An unquoted dollar sign
3676 will cause variable expansion of the given name, which must be a valid
3678 ell-style variable name (see
3680 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
3683 (shell) variables can be accessed through this mechanism, brace
3684 enclosing the name is supported (i.e., to subdivide a token).
3687 Whereas the metacharacters
3688 .Cm space , tabulator , newline
3689 only complete an input token, vertical bar
3695 also act as control operators and perform control functions.
3696 For now supported is semicolon
3698 which terminates a single command, therefore sequencing the command line
3699 and making the remainder of the line a subject to reevaluation.
3700 With sequencing, multiple command argument types and quoting rules may
3701 therefore apply to a single line, which can become problematic before
3702 v15: e.g., the first of the following will cause surprising results.
3705 .Dl ? echo one; set verbose; echo verbose=$verbose.
3706 .Dl ? echo one; wysh set verbose; echo verbose=$verbose.
3709 Quoting is a mechanism that will remove the special meaning of
3710 metacharacters and reserved words, and will prevent expansion.
3711 There are four quoting mechanisms: the escape character, single-quotes,
3712 double-quotes and dollar-single-quotes:
3715 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
3717 The literal value of any character can be preserved by preceding it
3718 with the escape character reverse solidus
3722 Arguments which are enclosed in
3723 .Ql 'single-\:quotes'
3724 retain their literal value.
3725 A single-quote cannot occur within single-quotes.
3728 The literal value of all characters enclosed in
3729 .Ql \(dqdouble-\:quotes\(dq
3730 is retained, with the exception of dollar sign
3732 which will cause variable expansion, as above, backquote (grave accent)
3734 (which not yet means anything special), reverse solidus
3736 which will escape any of the characters dollar sign
3738 (to prevent variable expansion), backquote (grave accent)
3742 (to prevent ending the quote) and reverse solidus
3744 (to prevent escaping, i.e., to embed a reverse solidus character as-is),
3745 but has no special meaning otherwise.
3748 Arguments enclosed in
3749 .Ql $'dollar-\:single-\:quotes'
3750 extend normal single quotes in that reverse solidus escape sequences are
3751 expanded as follows:
3753 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".Ql \eNNN"
3755 bell control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 BEL).
3757 backspace control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 BS).
3759 escape control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 ESC).
3763 form feed control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 FF).
3765 line feed control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 LF).
3767 carriage return control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 CR).
3769 horizontal tabulator control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 HT).
3771 vertical tabulator control character (ASCII and ISO-10646 VT).
3773 emits a reverse solidus character.
3777 double quote (escaping is optional).
3779 eight-bit byte with the octal value
3781 (one to three octal digits), optionally prefixed by an additional
3783 A 0 byte will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
3785 eight-bit byte with the hexadecimal value
3787 (one or two hexadecimal characters, no prefix, see
3789 A 0 byte will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
3791 the Unicode / ISO-10646 character with the hexadecimal codepoint value
3793 (one to eight hexadecimal characters) \(em note that Unicode defines the
3794 maximum codepoint ever to be supported as
3799 This escape is only supported in locales that support Unicode (see
3800 .Sx "Character sets" ) ,
3801 in other cases the sequence will remain unexpanded unless the given code
3802 point is ASCII compatible or (if the \*(OPal character set conversion is
3803 available) can be represented in the current locale.
3804 The character NUL will suppress further output for the quoted argument.
3808 except it takes only one to four hexadecimal characters.
3810 Emits the non-printable (ASCII and compatible) C0 control codes
3811 0 (NUL) to 31 (US), and 127 (DEL).
3812 Printable representations of ASCII control codes can be created by
3813 mapping them to a different, visible part of the ASCII character set.
3814 Adding the number 64 achieves this for the codes 0 to 31, here 7 (BEL):
3815 .Ql 7 + 64 = 71 = G .
3816 The real operation is a bitwise logical XOR with 64 (bit 7 set, see
3818 thus also covering code 127 (DEL), which is mapped to 63 (question mark):
3819 .Ql \&?\0vexpr\0^\0127\064 .
3821 Whereas historically circumflex notation has often been used for
3822 visualization purposes of control codes, as in
3824 the reverse solidus notation has been standardized:
3826 Some control codes also have standardized (ISO-10646, ISO C) aliases,
3832 whenever such an alias exists it will be used for display purposes.
3833 The control code NUL
3835 a non-standard extension) will suppress further output for the remains
3836 of the token (which may extend beyond the current quote), or, depending
3837 on the context, the remains of all arguments for the current command.
3839 Non-standard extension: expand the given variable name, as above.
3840 Brace enclosing the name is supported.
3842 Not yet supported, just to raise awareness: Non-standard extension.
3849 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3850 ? echo 'Quotes '${HOME}' and 'tokens" differ!"# no comment
3851 ? echo Quotes ${HOME} and tokens differ! # comment
3852 ? echo Don"'"t you worry$'\ex21' The sun shines on us. $'\eu263A'
3856 .\" .Ss "Message list arguments" {{{
3857 .Ss "Message list arguments"
3859 Many commands operate on message list specifications, as documented in
3860 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
3861 The argument input is first split into individual tokens via
3862 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ,
3863 which are then interpreted as the mentioned specifications.
3864 If no explicit message list has been specified, many commands will
3865 search for and use the next message forward that satisfies the commands'
3866 requirements, and if there are no messages forward of the current
3867 message, the search proceeds backwards;
3868 if there are no good messages at all to be found, an error message is
3869 shown and the command is aborted.
3872 output of the command
3874 will indicate whether a command searches for a default message, or not.
3877 .\" .Ss "Raw data arguments for codec commands" {{{
3878 .Ss "Raw data arguments for codec commands"
3880 A special set of commands, which all have the string
3886 take raw string data as input, which means that the content of the
3887 command input line is passed completely unexpanded and otherwise
3888 unchanged: like this the effect of the actual codec is visible without
3889 any noise of possible shell quoting rules etc., i.e., the user can input
3890 one-to-one the desired or questionable data.
3891 To gain a level of expansion, the entire command line can be
3893 uated first, for example
3895 .Bd -literal -offset indent
3896 ? vput shcodec res encode /usr/Sch\[:o]nes Wetter/heute.txt
3898 $'/usr/Sch\eu00F6nes Wetter/heute.txt'
3900 $'/usr/Sch\eu00F6nes Wetter/heute.txt'
3901 ? eval shcodec d $res
3902 /usr/Sch\[:o]nes Wetter/heute.txt
3906 .\" .Ss "Filename transformations" {{{
3907 .Ss "Filename transformations"
3909 Filenames, where expected, and unless documented otherwise, are
3910 subsequently subject to the following filename transformations, in
3913 .Bl -bullet -offset indent
3915 If the given name is a registered
3917 it will be replaced with the expanded shortcut.
3918 This step is mostly taken for
3923 The filename is matched against the following patterns or strings.
3927 expansion this step is mostly taken for
3933 .Bl -hang -compact -width ".Ar %user"
3935 (Number sign) is expanded to the previous file.
3938 (Percent sign) is replaced by the invoking
3939 .Mx -ix "primary system mailbox"
3940 user's primary system mailbox, which either is the (itself expandable)
3942 if that is set, the standardized absolute pathname indicated by
3944 if that is set, or a built-in compile-time default otherwise.
3947 the used name is actively checked for being a primary mailbox, first
3954 Expands to the primary system mailbox of
3956 (and never the value of
3958 regardless of its actual setting).
3961 (Ampersand) is replaced with the invoking user's
3962 .Mx -ix "secondary mailbox"
3963 secondary mailbox, the
3971 directory (if that variable is set).
3974 Expands to the same value as
3976 but has special meaning when used with, for example, the command
3978 the file will be treated as a primary system mailbox by, among others, the
3982 commands, meaning that messages that have been read in the current
3983 session will be moved to the
3985 mailbox instead of simply being flagged as read.
3990 Meta expansions may be applied to the resulting filename, as allowed by
3991 the operation and applicable to the resulting access protocol (also see
3992 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
3993 For the file-protocol, a leading tilde
3995 character will be replaced by the expansion of
3997 except when followed by a valid user name, in which case the home
3998 directory of the given user is used instead.
4000 A shell expansion as if specified in double-quotes (see
4001 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" )
4002 may be applied, so that any occurrence of
4006 will be replaced by the expansion of the variable, if possible;
4007 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
4010 (shell) variables can be accessed through this mechanism.
4012 Shell pathname wildcard pattern expansions
4014 may be applied as documented.
4015 If the fully expanded filename results in multiple pathnames and the
4016 command is expecting only one file, an error results.
4018 In interactive context, in order to allow simple value acceptance (via
4020 arguments will usually be displayed in a properly quoted form, so a file
4021 .Ql diet\e is \ecurd.txt
4023 .Ql 'diet\e is \ecurd.txt' .
4027 .\" .Ss "Commands" {{{
4030 The following commands are available:
4032 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ic BaNg"
4039 command which follows, replacing unescaped exclamation marks with the
4040 previously executed command if the internal variable
4043 This command supports
4046 .Sx "Command modifiers" ,
4047 and manages the error number
4049 A 0 or positive exit status
4051 reflects the exit status of the command, negative ones that
4052 an error happened before the command was executed, or that the program
4053 did not exit cleanly, but maybe due to a signal: the error number is
4054 .Va ^ERR Ns -CHILD ,
4058 In conjunction with the
4060 modifier the following special cases exist:
4061 a negative exit status occurs if the collected data could not be stored
4062 in the given variable, which is a
4064 error that should otherwise not occur.
4065 .Va ^ERR Ns -CANCELED
4066 indicates that no temporary file could be created to collect the command
4067 output at first glance.
4068 In case of catchable out-of-memory situations
4070 will occur and \*(UA will try to store the empty string, just like with
4071 all other detected error conditions.
4076 The comment-command causes the entire line to be ignored.
4078 this really is a normal command which' purpose is to discard its
4081 indicating special character, which means that for example trailing
4082 comments on a line are not possible (except for commands which use
4083 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ) .
4087 Goes to the next message in sequence and types it
4093 Display the preceding message, or the n'th previous message if given
4094 a numeric argument n.
4098 Shows the message number of the current message (the
4100 when used without arguments, that of the given list otherwise.
4101 Output numbers will be separated from each other with the first
4104 and followed by the first character of
4106 if that is not empty and not identical to the first.
4107 If that results in no separation at all a
4110 This command supports
4113 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) ,
4114 and manages the error number
4119 \*(OP Show a brief summary of commands.
4120 \*(OP Given an argument a synopsis for the command in question is
4121 shown instead; commands can be abbreviated in general and this command
4122 can be used to see the full expansion of an abbreviation including the
4123 synopsis, try, for example
4128 and see how the output changes.
4129 To avoid that aliases are resolved the modifier
4131 can be prepended to the argument, but note it must be quoted.
4132 This mode also supports a more
4134 output, which will provide the information documented for
4145 .It Ic account , unaccount
4146 (ac, una) Creates, selects or lists (an) account(s).
4147 Accounts are special incarnations of
4149 macros and group commands and variable settings which together usually
4150 arrange the environment for the purpose of creating an email account.
4151 Different to normal macros settings which are covered by
4153 \(en here by default enabled! \(en will not be reverted before the
4158 (case-insensitive) always exists, and all but it can be deleted by the
4159 latter command, and in one operation with the special name
4161 Also for all but it a possibly set
4162 .Va on-account-cleanup
4163 hook is called once they are left, also for program exit.
4165 Without arguments a listing of all defined accounts is shown.
4166 With one argument the given account is activated: the system
4168 of that account will be activated (as via
4170 a possibly installed
4172 will be run, and the internal variable
4175 The two argument form behaves identical to defining a macro as via
4177 Important settings for accounts include
4178 .Va folder , from , hostname , inbox , mta , password
4181 .Pf ( Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) ,
4182 as well as things like
4183 .Va tls-config-pairs
4184 .Pf ( Sx "Encrypted network communication" ) ,
4185 and protocol specifics like
4186 .Va imap-auth , pop3-auth , smtp-auth .
4187 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4189 set folder=~/mail inbox=+syste.mbox record=+sent.mbox
4190 set from='(My Name) myname@myisp.example'
4191 set mta=smtp://mylogin@smtp.myisp.example
4198 Perform email address codec transformations on raw-data argument, rather
4199 according to email standards (RFC 5322; \*(ID will furtherly improve).
4203 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) ,
4204 and manages the error number
4206 The first argument must be either
4207 .Ar [+[+[+]]]e[ncode] ,
4212 and specifies the operation to perform on the rest of the line.
4215 Decoding will show how a standard-compliant MUA will display the given
4216 argument, which should be an email address.
4217 Please be aware that most MUAs have difficulties with the address
4218 standards, and vary wildly when (comments) in parenthesis,
4220 strings, or quoted-pairs, as below, become involved.
4221 \*(ID \*(UA currently does not perform decoding when displaying addresses.
4224 Skinning is identical to decoding but only outputs the plain address,
4225 without any string, comment etc. components.
4226 Another difference is that it may fail with the error number
4230 if decoding fails to find a(n) (valid) email address, in which case the
4231 unmodified input will be output again.
4235 first performs a skin operation, and thereafter checks a valid
4236 address for whether it is a registered mailing list (see
4240 eventually reporting that state in the error number
4243 .Va ^ERR Ns -EXIST .
4244 (This state could later become overwritten by an I/O error, though.)
4247 Encoding supports four different modes, lesser automated versions can be
4248 chosen by prefixing one, two or three plus signs: the standard imposes
4249 a special meaning on some characters, which thus have to be transformed
4250 to so-called quoted-pairs by pairing them with a reverse solidus
4252 in order to remove the special meaning; this might change interpretation
4253 of the entire argument from what has been desired, however!
4254 Specify one plus sign to remark that parenthesis shall be left alone,
4255 two for not turning double quotation marks into quoted-pairs, and three
4256 for also leaving any user-specified reverse solidus alone.
4257 The result will always be valid, if a successful exit status is reported
4258 (\*(ID the current parser fails this assertion for some constructs).
4259 \*(ID Addresses need to be specified in between angle brackets
4262 if the construct becomes more difficult, otherwise the current parser
4263 will fail; it is not smart enough to guess right.
4265 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4266 ? addrc enc "Hey, you",<diet@exam.ple>\e out\e there
4267 "\e"Hey, you\e", \e\e out\e\e there" <diet@exam.ple>
4268 ? addrc d "\e"Hey, you\e", \e\e out\e\e there" <diet@exam.ple>
4269 "Hey, you", \e out\e there <diet@exam.ple>
4270 ? addrc s "\e"Hey, you\e", \e\e out\e\e there" <diet@exam.ple>
4277 .It Ic alias , unalias
4278 \*(NQ(a, una) Define or list, and remove, respectively, address aliases,
4279 which are a method of creating personal distribution lists that map
4280 a single name to none to multiple receivers, to be expanded after
4282 is left; the expansion correlates with
4284 The latter command removes all given aliases, the special name asterisk
4286 will remove all existing aliases.
4287 When used without arguments the former shows a list of all currently
4288 known aliases, with one argument only the target(s) of the given one.
4289 When given two arguments, hyphen-minus
4291 being the first, the target(s) of the second is/are expanded recursively.
4294 In all other cases the given alias is newly defined, or will be appended
4295 to: arguments must either be themselves valid alias names, or any
4296 other address type (see
4297 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" ) .
4298 Recursive expansion of aliases can be prevented by prefixing the desired
4299 argument with the modifier reverse solidus
4301 A valid alias name conforms to
4303 syntax, but follow-up characters can also be the number sign
4314 .Dq any character that has the high bit set .
4317 may be the last character.
4321 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" .
4324 .\" ALIASCOLON next sentence
4325 \*(ID Unfortunately the colon is currently not supported, as it
4326 interferes with normal address parsing rules.
4327 .\" ALIASCOLON next sentence
4328 \*(ID Such high bit characters will likely cause warnings at the moment
4329 for the same reasons why colon is unsupported; also, in the future
4330 locale dependent character set validity checks will be performed.
4332 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4333 ? alias cohorts bill jkf mark kridle@ucbcory ~/cohorts.mbox
4334 ? alias mark mark@exam.ple
4335 ? set mta-aliases=/etc/aliases
4341 .It Ic alternates , unalternates
4342 \*(NQ (alt) Manage a list of alternate addresses or names of the active
4343 user, members of which will be removed from recipient lists (except one).
4344 There is a set of implicit alternates which is formed of the values of
4354 The latter command removes the given list of alternates, the special name
4356 will discard all existing alternate names.
4358 The former command manages the error number
4360 It shows the current set of alternates when used without arguments; in
4361 this mode only it also supports
4364 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
4365 Otherwise the given arguments (after being checked for validity) are
4366 appended to the list of alternate names; in
4368 mode they replace that list instead.
4372 .It Ic answered , unanswered
4373 Take a message lists and mark each message as (not) having been answered.
4374 Messages will be marked answered when being
4376 to automatically if the
4380 .Sx "Message states" .
4385 .It Ic bind , unbind
4386 \*(OP\*(NQ The bind command extends the MLE (see
4387 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
4388 with freely configurable key bindings.
4389 The latter command removes from the given context the given key binding,
4390 both of which may be specified as a wildcard
4394 will remove all bindings of all contexts.
4395 Due to initialization order unbinding will not work for built-in key
4396 bindings upon program startup, however: please use
4397 .Va line-editor-no-defaults
4398 for this purpose instead.
4401 With zero arguments, or with a context name the former command shows
4402 all key bindings (of the given context; an asterisk
4404 will iterate over all contexts); a more verbose listing will be
4405 produced if either of
4410 With two or more arguments a specific binding is shown, or
4411 (re)established: the first argument is the context to which the binding
4412 shall apply, the second argument is a comma-separated list of the
4414 which form the binding.
4415 Further arguments will be joined to form the expansion, and cause the
4416 binding to be created or updated.
4417 To indicate that a binding shall not be auto-committed, but that the
4418 expansion shall instead be furtherly editable by the user, a commercial at
4420 (that will be removed) can be placed last in the expansion, from which
4421 leading and trailing whitespace will finally be removed.
4422 Reverse solidus cannot be used as the last character of expansion.
4423 An empty expansion will be rejected.
4426 Contexts define when a binding applies, i.e., a binding will not be seen
4427 unless the context for which it is defined for is currently active.
4428 This is not true for the shared binding
4430 which is the foundation for all other bindings and as such always
4431 applies, its bindings, however, only apply secondarily.
4432 The available contexts are the shared
4436 context which is used in all not otherwise documented situations, and
4438 which applies only to
4439 .Sx "Compose mode" .
4442 Bindings are specified as a comma-separated list of byte-sequences,
4443 where each list entry corresponds to one
4446 Byte sequence boundaries will be forcefully terminated after
4447 .Va bind-inter-byte-timeout
4448 milliseconds, whereas key sequences can be timed out via
4449 .Va bind-inter-key-timeout .
4450 A list entry may, indicated by a leading colon character
4452 also refer to the name of a terminal capability; several dozen names
4453 are compiled in and may be specified either by their
4455 or, if existing, by their
4457 name, regardless of the actually used \*(OPal terminal control library.
4458 But any capability may be used, as long as the name is resolvable by the
4459 \*(OPal control library, or was defined via the internal variable
4461 Input sequences are not case-normalized, an exact match is required to
4462 update or remove a binding.
4463 It is advisable to use an initial escape or other control character (like
4465 for user (as opposed to purely terminal capability based) bindings in
4466 order to avoid ambiguities; it also reduces search time.
4469 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4470 ? bind base a,b echo one
4471 ? bind base $'\eE',d mle-snarf-word-fwd # Esc(ape)
4472 ? bind base $'\eE',$'\ec?' mle-snarf-word-bwd # Esc,Delete
4473 ? bind default $'\ecA',:khome,w 'echo Editable binding@'
4474 ? bind default a,b,c rm -irf / @ # Also editable
4475 ? bind default :kf1 File %
4476 ? bind compose :kf1 ~v
4480 Note that the entire comma-separated list is first parsed (over) as a
4481 shell-token with whitespace as the field separator, then parsed and
4482 expanded for real with comma as the field separator, therefore
4483 whitespace needs to be properly quoted, see
4484 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" .
4485 Using Unicode reverse solidus escape sequences renders a binding
4486 defunctional if the locale does not support Unicode (see
4487 .Sx "Character sets" ) ,
4488 and using terminal capabilities does so if no (corresponding) terminal
4489 control support is (currently) available.
4490 Adding, deleting or modifying a key binding invalidates the internal
4491 prebuilt lookup tree, it will be recreated as necessary: this process
4492 will be visualized in most
4499 The following terminal capability names are built-in and can be used in
4501 or (if available) the two-letter
4504 See the respective manual for a list of capabilities.
4507 can be used to show all the capabilities of
4509 or the given terminal type;
4512 flag will also show supported (non-standard) extensions.
4515 .Bl -tag -compact -width kcuuf_or_kcuuf
4516 .It Cd kbs Ns \0or Cd kb
4518 .It Cd kdch1 Ns \0or Cd kD
4520 .It Cd kDC Ns \0or Cd *4
4521 \(em shifted variant.
4522 .It Cd kel Ns \0or Cd kE
4523 Clear to end of line.
4524 .It Cd kext Ns \0or Cd @9
4526 .It Cd kich1 Ns \0or Cd kI
4528 .It Cd kIC Ns \0or Cd #3
4529 \(em shifted variant.
4530 .It Cd khome Ns \0or Cd kh
4532 .It Cd kHOM Ns \0or Cd #2
4533 \(em shifted variant.
4534 .It Cd kend Ns \0or Cd @7
4536 .It Cd knp Ns \0or Cd kN
4538 .It Cd kpp Ns \0or Cd kP
4540 .It Cd kcub1 Ns \0or Cd kl
4541 Left cursor (with more modifiers: see below).
4542 .It Cd kLFT Ns \0or Cd #4
4543 \(em shifted variant.
4544 .It Cd kcuf1 Ns \0or Cd kr
4545 Right cursor (ditto).
4546 .It Cd kRIT Ns \0or Cd %i
4547 \(em shifted variant.
4548 .It Cd kcud1 Ns \0or Cd kd
4549 Down cursor (ditto).
4551 \(em shifted variant (only terminfo).
4552 .It Cd kcuu1 Ns \0or Cd ku
4555 \(em shifted variant (only terminfo).
4556 .It Cd kf0 Ns \0or Cd k0
4558 Add one for each function key up to
4563 .It Cd kf10 Ns \0or Cd k;
4565 .It Cd kf11 Ns \0or Cd F1
4567 Add one for each function key up to
4575 Some terminals support key-modifier combination extensions, e.g.,
4577 For example, the delete key,
4579 in its shifted variant, the name is mutated to
4581 then a number is appended for the states
4593 .Ql Shift+Alt+Control
4595 The same for the left cursor key,
4597 .Cd KLFT , KLFT3 , KLFT4 , KLFT5 , KLFT6 , KLFT7 , KLFT8 .
4602 \*(NQ Calls the given macro, which must have been created via
4604 (see there for more), otherwise an
4607 Calling macros recursively will at some time excess the stack size
4608 limit, causing a hard program abortion; if recursively calling a macro
4609 is the last command of the current macro, consider to use the command
4611 which will first release all resources of the current macro before
4612 replacing the current macro with the called one.
4619 if the given macro has been created via
4621 but does not fail nor warn if the macro does not exist.
4630 \*(OP Only applicable to S/MIME signed messages.
4631 Takes an optional message list and a filename and saves the certificates
4632 contained within the message signatures to the named file in both
4633 human-readable and PEM format.
4634 The certificates can later be used to send encrypted messages to the
4635 respective message senders by setting
4636 .Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
4641 .It Ic charsetalias , uncharsetalias
4642 \*(NQ Manage alias mappings for (conversion of)
4643 .Sx "Character sets" .
4644 Alias processing is not performed for
4645 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
4648 and mappings are ineffective if character set conversion is not available
4652 Expansion happens recursively for cases where aliases point to other
4653 aliases (built-in loop limit: 8).
4655 The latter command deletes all aliases given as arguments,
4656 or all at once when given the asterisk
4658 The former shows the list of all currently defined aliases if used
4659 without arguments, or the target of the given single argument;
4660 when given two arguments, hyphen-minus
4662 being the first, the second is instead expanded recursively.
4663 In all other cases the given arguments are treated as pairs of character
4664 sets and their desired target alias name, creating new or updating
4665 already existing aliases.
4669 \*(NQ(ch) Change the working directory to
4671 or the given argument.
4677 .It Ic collapse , uncollapse
4683 Takes a message list and makes all replies to these messages invisible
4684 in header summaries, except for
4688 Also when a message with collapsed replies is displayed,
4689 all of these are automatically uncollapsed.
4690 The latter command undoes collapsing.
4693 .\" FIXME review until this point
4696 .It Ic colour , uncolour
4697 \*(OP\*(NQ Manage colour mappings of and for a
4698 .Sx "Coloured display" .
4699 Without arguments the former shows all currently defined mappings.
4700 Otherwise a colour type is expected (case-insensitively),
4703 for 256-colour terminals,
4708 for the standard 8-colour ANSI / ISO 6429 colour palette, and
4712 for monochrome terminals, which only support (some) font attributes.
4713 Without further arguments the list of all currently defined mappings
4714 of the given type is shown (here the special
4718 also show all currently defined mappings).
4721 Otherwise the second argument defines the mappable slot, the third
4722 argument a (comma-separated list of) colour and font attribute
4723 specification(s), and the optionally supported fourth argument can be
4724 used to specify a precondition: if conditioned mappings exist they are
4725 tested in (creation) order unless a (case-insensitive) match has been
4726 found, and the default mapping (if any has been established) will only
4727 be chosen as a last resort.
4728 The types of available preconditions depend on the mappable slot,
4729 the following of which exist:
4732 Mappings prefixed with
4734 are used for the \*(OPal built-in Mailx-Line-Editor (MLE, see
4735 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
4736 and do not support preconditions.
4738 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
4740 This mapping is used for the position indicator that is visible when
4741 a line cannot be fully displayed on the screen.
4746 Used for the occasionally appearing error indicator that is joined onto
4748 \*(ID Also used for error messages written on standard error .
4752 Mappings prefixed with
4754 are used in header summaries, and they all understand the preconditions
4756 (the current message) and
4758 for elder messages (only honoured in conjunction with
4759 .Va datefield-markout-older ) .
4761 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
4763 This mapping is used for the
4765 that can be created with the
4769 formats of the variable
4772 For the complete header summary line except the
4774 and the thread structure.
4776 For the thread structure which can be created with the
4778 format of the variable
4783 Mappings prefixed with
4785 are used when displaying messages.
4787 .Bl -tag -compact -width view-partinfo
4789 This mapping is used for so-called
4791 lines, which are MBOX file format specific header lines (also see
4792 .Va mbox-rfc4155 ) .
4795 A comma-separated list of headers to which the mapping applies may be
4796 given as a precondition; if the \*(OPal regular expression support is
4797 available then if any of the
4799 .Sx "magic regular expression characters"
4800 is seen the precondition will be evaluated as (an extended) one.
4802 For the introductional message info line.
4803 .It Ar view-partinfo
4804 For MIME part info lines.
4808 The following (case-insensitive) colour definitions and font attributes
4809 are understood, multiple of which can be specified in a comma-separated
4819 It is possible (and often applicable) to specify multiple font
4820 attributes for a single mapping.
4823 foreground colour attribute, in order (numbers 0 - 7)
4833 To specify a 256-colour mode a decimal number colour specification in
4834 the range 0 to 255, inclusive, is supported, and interpreted as follows:
4836 .Bl -tag -compact -width "999 - 999"
4838 the standard ISO 6429 colours, as above.
4840 high intensity variants of the standard colours.
4842 216 colours in tuples of 6.
4844 grayscale from black to white in 24 steps.
4846 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4848 fg() { printf "\e033[38;5;${1}m($1)"; }
4849 bg() { printf "\e033[48;5;${1}m($1)"; }
4851 while [ $i -lt 256 ]; do fg $i; i=$(($i + 1)); done
4852 printf "\e033[0m\en"
4854 while [ $i -lt 256 ]; do bg $i; i=$(($i + 1)); done
4855 printf "\e033[0m\en"
4859 background colour attribute (see
4861 for possible values).
4867 will remove for the given colour type (the special type
4869 selects all) the given mapping; if the optional precondition argument is
4870 given only the exact tuple of mapping and precondition is removed.
4873 will remove all mappings (no precondition allowed), thus
4875 will remove all established mappings.
4880 .It Ic commandalias , uncommandalias
4881 \*(NQ Define or list, and remove, respectively, command aliases.
4882 An (command)alias can be used everywhere a normal command can be used,
4883 but always takes precedence: any arguments that are given to the command
4884 alias are joined onto the alias expansion, and the resulting string
4885 forms the command line that is, in effect, executed.
4886 The latter command removes all given aliases, the special name asterisk
4888 will remove all existing aliases.
4889 When used without arguments the former shows a list of all currently
4890 known aliases, with one argument only the expansion of the given one.
4892 With two or more arguments a command alias is defined or updated: the
4893 first argument is the name under which the remaining command line should
4894 be accessible, the content of which can be just about anything.
4895 An alias may itself expand to another alias, but to avoid expansion loops
4896 further expansion will be prevented if an alias refers to itself or if
4897 an expansion depth limit is reached.
4898 Explicit expansion prevention is available via reverse solidus
4901 .Sx "Command modifiers" .
4902 .Bd -literal -offset indent
4904 \*(uA: `commandalias': no such alias: xx
4905 ? commandalias xx echo hello,
4907 commandalias xx 'echo hello,'
4918 but copy the messages to a file named after the local part of the
4919 sender of the first message instead of taking a filename argument;
4921 is inspected to decide on the actual storage location.
4925 (c) Copy messages to the named file and do not mark them as being saved;
4926 otherwise identical to
4932 \*(NQ A multiplexer command which provides C-style string operations on
4933 8-bit bytes without a notion of locale settings and character sets,
4934 effectively assuming ASCII data.
4935 For numeric and other operations refer to
4939 .Sx "Command modifiers" ,
4943 for usage errors and numeric results, the empty string otherwise;
4944 missing data errors, as for unsuccessful searches, result in the
4946 error number being set to
4947 .Va ^ERR Ns -NODATA .
4948 Where the question mark
4950 modifier suffix is supported, a case-insensitive (ASCII mapping)
4951 operation mode is supported; the keyword
4959 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm length"
4961 Queries the length of the given argument.
4963 .It Cm hash , Cm hash32
4964 Calculates a hash value of the given argument.
4965 The latter will return a 32-bit result regardless of host environment.
4967 modifier suffix is supported.
4968 These use Chris Torek's hash algorithm, the resulting hash value is
4969 bit mixed as shown by Bret Mulvey.
4972 Search for the second in the first argument.
4973 Shows the resulting 0-based offset shall it have been found.
4975 modifier suffix is supported.
4978 Creates a substring of its first argument.
4979 The optional second argument is the 0-based starting offset,
4980 a negative one counts from the end;
4981 the optional third argument specifies the length of the desired result,
4982 a negative length leaves off the given number of bytes at the end of the
4983 original string; by default the entire string is used.
4984 This operation tries to work around faulty arguments (set
4986 for error logs), but reports them via the error number
4989 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW .
4992 Trim away whitespace characters from both ends of the argument.
4995 Trim away whitespace characters from the begin of the argument.
4998 Trim away whitespace characters from the end of the argument.
5004 Show the name of the current working directory, as reported by
5009 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
5010 The return status is tracked via
5015 \*(OP For unencrypted messages this command is identical to
5017 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
5021 \*(OP For unencrypted messages this command is identical to
5023 Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and then copied.
5028 .It Ic define , undefine
5029 The latter command deletes the given macro, the special name
5031 will discard all existing macros.
5032 Deletion of (a) macro(s) can be performed from within running (a)
5033 macro(s), including self-deletion.
5034 Without arguments the former command prints the current list of macros,
5035 including their content, otherwise it defines a macro, replacing an
5036 existing one of the same name as applicable.
5039 A defined macro can be invoked explicitly by using the
5044 commands, or implicitly if a macro hook is triggered, for example a
5046 Execution of a macro body can be stopped from within by calling
5050 Temporary macro block-scope variables can be created or deleted with the
5052 command modifier in conjunction with the commands
5057 To enforce unrolling of changes made to (global)
5058 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
5061 can be used instead; its covered scope depends on how (i.e.,
5063 normal macro, folder hook, hook,
5065 switch) the macro is invoked.
5070 ed macro, the given positional parameters are implicitly local
5071 to the macro's scope, and may be accessed via the variables
5077 and any other positive unsigned decimal number less than or equal to
5079 Positional parameters can be
5081 ed, or become completely replaced, removed etc. via
5083 A helpful command for numeric computation and string evaluations is
5086 offers C-style byte string operations.
5088 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5097 echo Parameter 1 of ${#} is ${1}, all: ${*} / ${@}
5100 call exmac Hello macro exmac!
5101 echo ${?}/${!}/${^ERRNAME}
5107 .It Ic delete , undelete
5108 (d, u) Marks the given message list as being or not being
5110 respectively; if no argument has been specified then the usual search
5111 for a visible message is performed, as documented for
5112 .Sx "Message list arguments" ,
5113 showing only the next input prompt if the search fails.
5114 Deleted messages will neither be saved in the
5116 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
5118 nor will they be available for most other commands.
5121 variable is set, the new
5123 or the last message restored, respectively, is automatically
5132 \*(NQ Digging (information out of) messages is possible through
5134 objects, which can be
5136 d for the given message number; in
5140 will instead open the message that is being composed.
5141 If a hyphen-minus is given as the optional third argument then output
5142 will be generated on the standard output channel instead of being
5143 subject to consumption by the
5150 Note: output must be consumed before normal processing can continue; for
5152 objects this means each command output has to be read until the end of
5153 file (EOF) state occurs.
5158 d again by giving the same identifier used for creation;
5159 this step could be omitted: objects will be automatically closed
5162 (mailbox) or the compose mode is left, respectively.
5163 In all other use cases the second argument is an object identifier,
5164 and the third and all following arguments are interpreted as via
5167 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ) :
5169 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5170 ? vput = msgno; digmsg create $msgno
5171 ? digmsg $msgno header list; readall x; echon $x
5172 210 Subject From To Message-ID References In-Reply-To
5173 ? digmsg $msgno header show Subject;readall x;echon $x
5177 ? digmsg remove $msgno
5185 Superseded by the multiplexer
5191 Delete the given messages and automatically
5195 if one exists, regardless of the setting of
5202 up or down by one message when given
5206 argument, respectively.
5210 .It Ic draft , undraft
5211 Take message lists and mark each given message as being draft, or not
5212 being draft, respectively, as documented in the section
5213 .Sx "Message states" .
5217 \*(NQ(ec) Print the given strings, equivalent to the shell utility
5220 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
5221 expansion is performed and, different to the otherwise identical
5223 a trailing newline is echoed.
5226 .Sx "Command modifiers"
5227 is supported, and the error number
5229 is managed: if data is stored in a variable then the return value
5230 reflects the length of the result string in case of success and is
5235 this command traditionally (in BSD Mail) also performed
5236 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
5237 which is standard incompatible and hard to handle because quoting
5238 transformation patterns is not possible; the subcommand
5242 can be used to expand filenames.
5248 but the message is written to standard error, and prefixed by
5252 In interactive sessions the \*(OPal message ring queue for
5254 will be used instead, if available and
5262 but does not write or store a trailing newline.
5268 but does not write or store a trailing newline.
5274 at each message from the given list in turn.
5275 Modified contents are discarded unless the
5277 variable is set, and are not used unless the mailbox can be written to
5278 and the editor returns a successful exit status.
5280 can be used instead for a more display oriented editor.
5286 (see there for more),
5287 .Ic elif , else , endif
5288 conditional \(em if the condition of a preceding
5290 was false, check the following condition and execute the following block
5291 if it evaluates true.
5297 (see there for more),
5298 .Ic elif , else , endif
5299 conditional \(em if none of the conditions of the preceding
5303 commands was true, the
5309 (en) Marks the end of an
5311 (see there for more),
5312 .Ic elif , else , endif
5313 conditional execution block.
5318 \*(NQ There is a strict separation in between
5319 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
5322 which is inherited by child processes.
5323 Some variables of the latter are however vivid for program operation,
5324 their purpose is known, therefore they have been integrated
5325 transparently into handling of the former, as accessible via
5329 To integrate any other environment variable, and/or to export internal
5330 variables into the process environment where they normally are not, a
5332 needs to become established with this command, for example
5335 .Dl environ link PERL5LIB TZ
5338 Afterwards changing such variables with
5340 will cause automatic updates of the environment, too.
5341 Sufficient system support provided (it was in BSD as early as 1987, and
5342 is standardized since Y2K) removing such variables with
5344 will remove them also from the environment, but in any way the knowledge
5350 may cause loss of such links.
5355 removes an existing link without otherwise touching variables, the
5359 subcommands are identical to
5363 but additionally update the program environment accordingly; removing
5364 a variable breaks any freely established
5370 \*(OP As console user interfaces at times scroll error messages by too
5371 fast and/or out of scope, data can additionally be sent to an error queue
5372 manageable by this command:
5374 or no argument will display and clear the queue,
5377 As the queue becomes filled with
5379 entries the eldest entries are being dropped.
5380 There are also the variables
5383 .Va ^ERRQUEUE-EXISTS .
5387 \*(NQ Construct a command by concatenating the arguments, separated with
5388 a single space character, and then evaluate the result.
5389 This command passes through the exit status
5393 of the evaluated command; also see
5395 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5406 call yyy '\ecall xxx' "b\e$'\et'u ' "
5414 (ex or x) Exit from \*(UA without changing the active mailbox and skip
5415 any saving of messages in the
5417 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
5419 as well as a possibly tracked line editor
5422 .Va on-account-cleanup
5423 will be invoked, however.
5424 The optional status number argument will be passed through to
5426 \*(ID For now it can happen that the given status will be overwritten,
5427 later this will only occur if a later error needs to be reported onto an
5428 otherwise success indicating status.
5434 but open the mailbox read-only.
5443 .It Ic filetype , unfiletype
5444 \*(NQ Define, list, and remove, respectively, file handler hooks,
5445 which provide (shell) commands that enable \*(UA to load and save MBOX
5446 files from and to files with the registered file extensions, as shown
5449 The extensions are used case-insensitively, yet the auto-completion
5450 feature of for example
5452 will only work case-sensitively.
5453 An intermediate temporary file will be used to store the expanded data.
5454 The latter command will remove hooks for all given extensions, asterisk
5456 will remove all existing handlers.
5458 When used without arguments the former shows a list of all currently
5459 defined file hooks, with one argument the expansion of the given alias.
5460 Otherwise three arguments are expected, the first specifying the file
5461 extension for which the hook is meant, and the second and third defining
5462 the load- and save commands to deal with the file type, respectively,
5463 both of which must read from standard input and write to standard
5465 Changing hooks will not affect already opened mailboxes (\*(ID except below).
5466 \*(ID For now too much work is done, and files are oftened read in twice
5467 where once would be sufficient: this can cause problems if a filetype is
5468 changed while such a file is opened; this was already so with the
5469 built-in support of .gz etc. in Heirloom, and will vanish in v15.
5470 \*(ID For now all handler strings are passed to the
5471 .Ev SHELL for evaluation purposes; in the future a
5473 prefix to load and save commands may mean to bypass this shell instance:
5474 placing a leading space will avoid any possible misinterpretations.
5475 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5476 ? filetype bz2 'bzip2 -dc' 'bzip2 -zc' \e
5477 gz 'gzip -dc' 'gzip -c' xz 'xz -dc' 'xz -zc' \e
5478 zst 'zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc' \e
5479 zst.pgp 'gpg -d | zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc | gpg -e'
5480 ? set record=+sent.zst.pgp
5485 .It Ic flag , unflag
5486 Take message lists and mark the messages as being flagged, or not being
5487 flagged, respectively, for urgent/special attention.
5489 .Sx "Message states" .
5495 but open the mailbox read-only.
5500 (fold) Open a new, or show status information of the current mailbox.
5501 If an argument is given, changes (such as deletions) will be written
5502 out, a new mailbox will be opened, the internal variables
5503 .Va mailbox-resolved
5506 will be updated, a set according
5508 is executed, and optionally a summary of
5510 is displayed if the variable
5515 .Sx "Filename transformations"
5516 will be applied to the
5520 prefixes are, i.e., URL (see
5521 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" )
5522 syntax is understood, as in
5523 .Ql mbox:///tmp/somefolder .
5524 If a protocol prefix is used the mailbox type is fixated, otherwise
5525 opening none-existing
5527 uses the protocol defined in
5535 (MBOX database), as well as
5537 (electronic mail message \*(ID read-only) the list of all registered
5539 s is traversed to check whether hooks shall be used to load (and save)
5540 data from (and to) the given
5542 Changing hooks will not affect already opened mailboxes.
5543 For example, the following creates hooks for the
5545 compression tool and a combined compressed and encrypted format:
5547 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5549 gzip 'gzip -dc' 'gzip -c' \e
5550 zst.pgp 'gpg -d | zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc | gpg -e'
5554 For historic reasons
5556 s provide limited (case-sensitive) auto-completion capabilities.
5561 provided that corresponding handlers are installed.
5562 It will neither find
5566 however, but an explicit
5567 .Ql \&? file mbox.GZ
5568 will find and use the handler for
5570 \*(ID The latter mode can only be used for MBOX files.
5573 EML files consist of only one mail message,
5574 \*(ID and can only be opened read-only.
5575 When reading MBOX files tolerant POSIX rules are used by default.
5576 Invalid message boundaries that can be found quite often in historic
5577 MBOX files will be complained about (even more with
5579 in this case the method described for
5581 can be used to create a valid MBOX database from the invalid input.
5584 MBOX databases and EML files will always be protected via file-region locks
5586 during file operations to protect against concurrent modifications.
5587 .Mx -ix "dotlock files"
5593 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
5594 will also be protected by so-called dotlock files,
5595 the traditional way of mail spool file locking: for any file
5599 will be created during the synchronization, in the same directory and
5600 with the same user and group identities as the file of interest \(em
5601 as necessary created by an external privileged dotlock helper.
5603 disables dotlock files.
5606 .Sx "Howto handle stale dotlock files" .
5609 \*(OP If no protocol has been fixated, and
5611 refers to a directory with the subdirectories
5616 then it is treated as a folder in
5619 The maildir format stores each message in its own file, and has been
5620 designed so that file locking is not necessary when reading or writing
5624 \*(OPally URLs can be used to access network resources, securely via
5625 .Sx "Encrypted network communication" ,
5627 Network communication socket timeouts are configurable via
5628 .Va socket-connect-timeout .
5629 All network traffic may be proxied over a SOCKS server via
5633 .Dl \*(IN protocol://[user[:password]@]host[:port][/path]
5634 .Dl \*(OU protocol://[user@]host[:port][/path]
5637 \*(OPally supported network protocols are
5641 (POP3 with TLS encrypted transport),
5647 part is valid only for IMAP; there it defaults to
5649 Network URLs require a special encoding as documented in the section
5650 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
5655 Lists the names of all folders below the given argument or
5657 For file-based protocols
5659 will be used for display purposes.
5663 .It Ic Followup , followup
5664 \*(CM(F,fo) Similar to
5668 respectively, but save the message in a file named after the local part
5669 of the (first) recipient's address, possibly overwriting
5682 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the
5683 recipient's address (instead of in
5688 \*(CM Take a message list and the address of a recipient, subject to
5690 to whom the messages are sent.
5691 The text of the original message is included in the new one,
5692 enclosed by the values of
5693 .Va forward-inject-head
5695 .Va forward-inject-tail .
5696 .Va content-description-forwarded-message
5698 The list of included headers can be filtered with the
5700 slot of the white- and blacklisting command
5702 Only the first part of a multipart message is included but for
5703 .Va forward-as-attachment .
5705 This may generate the errors
5706 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
5707 if no receiver has been specified, or was rejected by
5711 if an I/O error occurs,
5713 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
5716 It can also fail with errors of
5717 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
5718 Any error stops processing of further messages.
5722 (f) Takes a list of message specifications and displays a summary of
5723 their message headers, exactly as via
5725 making the first message of the result the new
5727 (the last message if
5730 An alias of this command is
5733 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
5744 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
5748 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
5751 .It Ic ghost , unghost
5754 .Ic uncommandalias .
5758 .It Ic headerpick , unheaderpick
5759 \*(NQ Multiplexer command to manage white- and blacklisting
5760 selections of header fields for a variety of applications.
5761 Without arguments the set of contexts that have settings is displayed.
5762 When given arguments, the first argument is the context to which the
5763 command applies, one of (case-insensitive)
5765 for display purposes (for example
5768 for selecting which headers shall be stored persistently when
5774 ing messages (note that MIME related etc. header fields should not be
5775 ignored in order to not destroy usability of the message in this case),
5777 for stripping down messages when
5779 ing message (has no effect if
5780 .Va forward-as-attachment
5783 for defining user-defined set of fields for the command
5786 The current settings of the given context are displayed if it is the
5788 A second argument denotes the type of restriction that is to be chosen,
5789 it may be (a case-insensitive prefix of)
5793 for white- and blacklisting purposes, respectively.
5794 Establishing a whitelist suppresses inspection of the corresponding
5797 If no further argument is given the current settings of the given type
5798 will be displayed, otherwise the remaining arguments specify header
5799 fields, which \*(OPally may be given as regular expressions, to be added
5801 The special wildcard field (asterisk,
5803 will establish a (fast) shorthand setting which covers all fields.
5805 The latter command always takes three or more arguments and can be used
5806 to remove selections, i.e., from the given context, the given type of
5807 list, all the given headers will be removed, the special argument
5809 will remove all headers.
5813 (h) Show the current group of headers, the size of which depends on
5816 in interactive mode, and the format of which can be defined with
5818 If a message-specification is given the group of headers containing the
5819 first message therein is shown and the message at the top of the screen
5822 the last message is targeted if
5833 \*(OP Without arguments or when given
5835 all history entries are shown (this mode also supports a more
5839 will replace the list of entries with the content of
5843 will dump all entries to said file, replacing former content, and
5845 will delete all entries.
5846 The argument can also be a signed decimal
5848 which will select and evaluate the respective history entry, and move it
5849 to the top of the history; a negative number is used as an offset to the
5850 current command so that
5852 will select the last command, the history top, whereas
5854 will delete all given entries
5855 .Pf ( Ar :NUMBER: ) .
5857 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" .
5863 Takes a message list and marks each message therein to be saved in the
5868 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
5870 Does not override the
5873 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command, because a
5875 command issued after
5877 will display the following message, not the current one.
5883 .Ic \&\&if , Ic elif , else , endif
5884 conditional execution construct \(em if the given condition is true then
5885 the encapsulated block is executed.
5886 The POSIX standard only supports the (case-insensitive) conditions
5891 end, the remaining are non-portable extensions.
5892 \*(ID In conjunction with the
5895 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
5896 and more test operators are available.
5898 .Bd -literal -offset indent
5907 Further (case-insensitive) one-argument conditions are
5909 erminal which evaluates to true in interactive terminal sessions
5910 (running with standard input or standard output attached to a terminal,
5913 command line options
5918 have been used), as well as any boolean value (see
5919 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
5920 for textual boolean representations) to mark an enwrapped block as
5923 .Dq always execute .
5924 (Remarks: condition syntax errors skip all branches until
5930 It is possible to check
5931 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
5934 variables for existence or compare their expansion against a user given
5935 value or another variable by using the
5937 .Pf ( Dq variable next )
5938 conditional trigger character;
5939 a variable on the right hand side may be signalled using the same
5941 Variable names may be enclosed in a pair of matching braces.
5942 When this mode has been triggered, several operators are available
5945 they are always available, and there is no trigger: variables will have
5946 been expanded by the shell-compatible parser before the
5948 etc. command sees them).
5951 \*(IN Two argument conditions.
5952 Variables can be tested for existence and expansion:
5954 will test whether the given variable exists, so that
5956 will evaluate to true when
5961 .Ql -n """$editalong"""
5962 will be true if the variable is set and expands to a non-empty string,
5963 .Ql -z $'\e$editalong'
5964 only if the expansion is empty, whether the variable exists or not.
5965 The remaining conditions take three arguments.
5968 Integer operators treat the arguments on the left and right hand side of
5969 the operator as integral numbers and compare them arithmetically.
5970 It is an error if any of the operands is not a valid integer, an empty
5971 argument (which implies it had been quoted) is treated as if it were 0.
5972 Via the question mark
5974 modifier suffix a saturated operation mode is available where numbers
5975 will linger at the minimum or maximum possible value, instead of
5976 overflowing (or trapping), the keyword
5983 are therefore identical.
5984 Available operators are
5988 (less than or equal to),
5994 (greater than or equal to), and
5999 String and regular expression data operators compare the left and right
6000 hand side according to their textual content.
6001 Unset variables are treated as the empty string.
6002 Via the question mark
6004 modifier suffix a case-insensitive operation mode is available, the keyword
6013 Available string operators are
6017 (less than or equal to),
6023 (greater than or equal to),
6027 (is substring of) and
6029 (is not substring of).
6030 By default these operators work on bytes and (therefore) do not take
6031 into account character set specifics.
6032 If the case-insensitivity modifier has been used, case is ignored
6033 according to the rules of the US-ASCII encoding, i.e., bytes are
6037 When the \*(OPal regular expression support is available, the additional
6043 They treat the right hand side as an extended regular expression that is
6044 matched according to the active locale (see
6045 .Sx "Character sets" ) ,
6046 i.e., character sets should be honoured correctly.
6049 Conditions can be joined via AND-OR lists (where the AND operator is
6051 and the OR operator is
6053 which have equal precedence and will be evaluated with left
6054 associativity, thus using the same syntax that is known for the
6056 It is also possible to form groups of conditions and lists by enclosing
6057 them in pairs of brackets
6058 .Ql [\ \&.\&.\&.\ ] ,
6059 which may be interlocked within each other, and also be joined via
6063 The results of individual conditions and entire groups may be modified
6064 via unary operators: the unary operator
6066 will reverse the result.
6068 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6069 wysh set v15-compat=yes # with value: automatic "wysh"!
6070 if -N debug;echo *debug* set;else;echo not;endif
6071 if "$ttycharset" == UTF-8 || "$ttycharset" ==?cas UTF8
6072 echo ttycharset is UTF-8, the former case-sensitive!
6075 if [ "${t1}" == "${t2}" ]
6076 echo These two variables are equal
6078 if "$features" =% ,+regex, && "$TERM" =~?case ^xterm\&.*
6079 echo ..in an X terminal
6081 if [ [ true ] && [ [ "${debug}" != '' ] || \e
6082 [ "$verbose" != '' ] ] ]
6085 if true && [ -n "$debug" || -n "${verbose}" ]
6086 echo Left associativity, as is known from the shell
6095 Superseded by the multiplexer
6100 Shows the names of all available commands, in command lookup order.
6101 \*(OP In conjunction with a set variable
6103 additional information will be provided for each command: the argument
6104 type will be indicated, the documentation string will be shown,
6105 and the set of command flags will show up:
6107 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql NEEDS_BOX"
6109 command supports the command modifier
6112 command supports the command modifier
6115 the error number is tracked in
6118 whether the command needs an active mailbox, a
6121 indicators whether command is \&.\h'.3m'.\h'.3m'.
6122 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql SUBPROCESS"
6123 .It Ql batch/interactive
6124 usable in interactive or batch mode
6127 usable in send mode.
6129 allowed to be used when running in a subprocess instance,
6130 for example from within a macro that is called via
6131 .Va on-compose-splice .
6134 indicators whether command is not \&.\h'.3m'.\h'.3m'.
6135 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql COMPOSE_MODE"
6140 available during program startup, like in
6141 .Sx "Resource files" .
6144 The command produces
6153 Enforce change localization of
6158 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
6159 meaning that their state will be reverted to the former one once the
6162 Just like the command modifier
6164 which provides block-scope localization for some commands (instead),
6165 it can only be used inside of macro definition blocks introduced by
6169 The covered scope of an
6171 is left once a different account is activated, and some macros, notably
6172 .Va folder-hook Ns s ,
6173 use their own specific notion of covered scope, here it will be extended
6174 until the folder is left again.
6177 This setting stacks up: i.e., if
6179 enables change localization and calls
6181 which explicitly resets localization, then any value changes within
6183 will still be reverted when the scope of
6186 (Caveats: if in this example
6188 changes to a different
6190 which sets some variables that are already covered by localizations,
6191 their scope will be extended, and in fact leaving the
6193 will (thus) restore settings in (likely) global scope which actually
6194 were defined in a local, macro private context!)
6197 This command takes one or two arguments, the optional first one
6198 specifies an attribute that may be one of
6200 which refers to the current scope and is thus the default,
6202 which causes any macro that is being
6204 ed to be started with localization enabled by default, as well as
6206 which (if enabled) disallows any called macro to turn off localization:
6207 like this it can be ensured that once the current scope regains control,
6208 any changes made in deeper levels have been reverted.
6209 The latter two are mutually exclusive, and neither affects
6211 The (second) argument is interpreted as a boolean (string, see
6212 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" )
6213 and states whether the given attribute shall be turned on or off.
6215 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6216 define temporary_settings {
6217 set possibly_global_option1
6219 set localized_option1
6220 set localized_option2
6222 set possibly_global_option2
6229 .It Ic Lfollowup , Lreply
6230 \*(CM Reply to messages that come in via known
6233 .Pf ( Ic mlsubscribe )
6234 mailing lists, or pretend to do so (see
6235 .Sx "Mailing lists" ) :
6240 respectively, functionality this will actively resort and even remove
6241 message recipients in order to generate a message that is supposed to be
6242 sent to a mailing list.
6243 For example it will also implicitly generate a
6244 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
6245 header if that seems useful, regardless of the setting of the variable
6247 For more documentation please refer to
6248 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
6250 This may generate the errors
6251 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
6252 if no receiver has been specified,
6254 if some addressees where rejected by
6257 if an I/O error occurs,
6259 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
6262 It can also fail with errors of
6263 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
6264 Occurrence of some of the errors depend on the value of
6266 Any error stops processing of further messages.
6272 but saves the message in a file named after the local part of the first
6273 recipient's address (instead of in
6278 \*(CM(m) Takes a (list of) recipient address(es) as (an) argument(s),
6279 or asks on standard input if none were given;
6280 then collects the remaining mail content and sends it out.
6281 Unless the internal variable
6283 is set recipient addresses will be stripped from comments, names etc.
6284 For more documentation please refer to
6285 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
6287 This may generate the errors
6288 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
6289 if no receiver has been specified,
6291 if some addressees where rejected by
6294 if multiple messages have been specified,
6296 if an I/O error occurs,
6298 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
6301 It can also fail with errors of
6302 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
6303 Occurrence of some of the errors depend on the value of
6308 \*(OP When used without arguments or if
6310 has been given the content of
6311 .Sx "The Mailcap files"
6312 cache is shown, (re-)initializing it first (as necessary.
6315 then the cache will only be (re-)initialized, and
6317 will remove its contents.
6318 Note that \*(UA will try to load the files only once, use
6319 .Ql Ic \&\&mailcap Ns \:\0\:clear
6320 to unlock further attempts.
6321 Loading and parsing can be made more
6326 (mb) The given message list is to be sent to the
6328 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
6330 when \*(UA is quit; this is the default action unless the variable
6333 \*(ID This command can only be used in a
6335 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
6339 .It Ic mimetype , unmimetype
6340 \*(NQ Without arguments the content of the MIME type cache will displayed;
6341 a more verbose listing will be produced if either of
6346 When given arguments they will be joined, interpreted as shown in
6347 .Sx "The mime.types files"
6349 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ) ,
6350 and the resulting entry will be added (prepended) to the cache.
6351 In any event MIME type sources are loaded first as necessary \(en
6352 .Va mimetypes-load-control
6353 can be used to fine-tune which sources are actually loaded.
6355 The latter command deletes all specifications of the given MIME type, thus
6356 .Ql \&? unmimetype text/plain
6357 will remove all registered specifications for the MIME type
6361 will discard all existing MIME types, just as will
6363 but which also reenables cache initialization via
6364 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
6368 \*(ID Only available in interactive mode, this command allows execution
6369 of external MIME type handlers which do not integrate into the normal
6372 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ) .
6373 (\*(ID No syntax to directly address parts, this restriction may vanish.)
6374 The user will be asked for each non-text part of the given message in
6375 turn whether the registered handler shall be used to display the part.
6379 .It Ic mlist , unmlist
6380 \*(NQ Manage the list of known
6381 .Sx "Mailing lists" ;
6382 subscriptions are controlled via
6384 The latter command deletes all given arguments,
6385 or all at once when given the asterisk
6387 The former shows the list of all currently known lists if used
6388 without arguments, otherwise the given arguments will become known.
6389 \*(OP In the latter case, arguments which contain any of the
6391 .Sx "magic regular expression characters"
6392 will be interpreted as one, possibly matching many addresses;
6393 these will be sequentially matched via linked lists instead of being
6394 looked up in a dictionary.
6398 .It Ic mlsubscribe , unmlsubscribe
6399 Building upon the command pair
6400 .Ic mlist , unmlist ,
6401 but only managing the subscription attribute of mailing lists.
6402 (The former will also create not yet existing mailing lists.)
6408 but move the messages to a file named after the local part of the
6409 sender of the first message instead of taking a filename argument;
6411 is inspected to decide on the actual storage location.
6417 but marks the messages for deletion if they were transferred
6424 but also displays header fields which would not pass the
6426 selection, and all MIME parts.
6434 on the given messages, even in non-interactive mode and as long as the
6435 standard output is a terminal.
6441 \*(OP When used without arguments or if
6443 has been given the content of the
6445 cache is shown, (re-)initializing it first (as necessary).
6448 then the cache will only be (re-)initialized, and
6450 will remove its contents.
6454 \*(OP When used without arguments, or when the argument was
6458 cache is shown, initializing it as necessary.
6461 then the cache will be (re)loaded, whereas
6464 Loading and parsing can be made more
6467 will query the cache for the URL given as the second argument
6468 .Pf ( Ql [USER@]HOST ) .
6473 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ;
6475 .Sx "The .netrc file"
6476 documents the file format in detail.
6480 Checks for new mail in the current folder without committing any changes
6482 If new mail is present, a message is shown.
6486 the headers of each new message are also shown.
6487 This command is not available for all mailbox types.
6495 Goes to the next message in sequence and types it.
6496 With an argument list, types the next matching message.
6510 If the current folder is accessed via a network connection, a
6512 command is sent, otherwise no operation is performed.
6518 but also displays header fields which would not pass the
6520 selection, and all MIME parts.
6528 on the given messages, even in non-interactive mode and as long as the
6529 standard output is a terminal.
6537 but also pipes header fields which would not pass the
6539 selection, and all parts of MIME
6540 .Ql multipart/alternative
6545 (pi) Takes an optional message list and shell command (that defaults to
6547 and pipes the messages through the command.
6551 every message is followed by a formfeed character.
6572 (q) Terminates the session, saving all undeleted, unsaved messages in
6575 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
6577 preserving all messages marked with
6581 or never referenced in the system
6583 and removing all other messages from the
6585 .Sx "primary system mailbox" .
6586 If new mail has arrived during the session,
6588 .Dq You have new mail
6590 If given while editing a mailbox file with the command line option
6592 then the edit file is rewritten.
6593 A return to the shell is effected,
6594 unless the rewrite of edit file fails,
6595 in which case the user can escape with the exit command.
6596 The optional status number argument will be passed through to
6598 \*(ID For now it can happen that the given status will be overwritten,
6599 later this will only occur if a later error needs to be reported onto an
6600 otherwise success indicating status.
6604 \*(NQ Read a line from standard input, or the channel set active via
6606 and assign the data, which will be split as indicated by
6608 to the given variables.
6609 The variable names are checked by the same rules as documented for
6611 and the same error codes will be seen in
6615 indicates the number of bytes read, it will be
6617 with the error number
6621 in case of I/O errors, or
6624 If there are more fields than variables, assigns successive fields to the
6625 last given variable.
6626 If there are less fields than variables, assigns the empty string to the
6628 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6631 ? echo "<$a> <$b> <$c>"
6633 ? wysh set ifs=:; read a b c;unset ifs
6634 hey2.0,:"'you ",:world!:mars.:
6635 ? echo $?/$^ERRNAME / <$a><$b><$c>
6636 0/NONE / <hey2.0,><"'you ",><world!:mars.:><><>
6643 but splits on shell token boundaries (see
6644 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" )
6647 \*(ID Could become a
6650 .Ql read --tokenize -- .
6654 \*(NQ Read anything from standard input, or the channel set active via
6656 and assign the data to the given variable.
6657 The variable name is checked by the same rules as documented for
6659 and the same error codes will be seen in
6663 indicates the number of bytes read, it will be
6665 with the error number
6669 in case of I/O errors, or
6672 \*(ID The input data length is restricted to 31-bits.
6676 \*(NQ Manages input channels for
6681 to be used to avoid complicated or impracticable code, like calling
6683 from within a macro in non-interactive mode.
6684 Without arguments, or when the first argument is
6686 a listing of all known channels is printed.
6687 Channels can otherwise be
6689 d, and existing channels can be
6693 d by giving the string used for creation.
6695 The channel name is expected to be a file descriptor number, or,
6696 if parsing the numeric fails, an input file name that undergoes
6697 .Sx "Filename transformations" .
6698 For example (this example requires a modern shell):
6699 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6700 $ printf 'echon "hey, "\enread a\enyou\enecho $a' |\e
6703 $ LC_ALL=C printf 'echon "hey, "\enread a\enecho $a' |\e
6704 LC_ALL=C 6<<< 'you' \*(uA -R#X'readctl create 6'
6710 \*(NQ Removes the named files or directories.
6711 If a name refers to a mailbox, say a Maildir mailbox, then a mailbox
6712 type specific removal will be performed, deleting the complete mailbox.
6713 In interactive mode the user is asked for confirmation.
6717 \*(NQ Takes the name of an existing folder
6718 and the name for the new folder
6719 and renames the first to the second one.
6720 .Sx "Filename transformations"
6721 including shell pathname wildcard pattern expansions
6723 are performed on both arguments.
6724 Both folders must be of the same type.
6728 .It Ic Reply , Respond
6729 \*(CM(R) Identical to
6731 except that it replies to only the sender of each message of the given
6732 list, by using the first message as the template to quote, for the
6736 will exchange this command with
6741 .It Ic reply , respond
6742 \*(CM(r) Take a message (list) and group-respond (to each in turn)
6743 by addressing the sender and all recipients, subject to
6749 .Va followup-to-honour ,
6752 .Va recipients-in-cc
6753 influence response behaviour.
6756 .Va quote-as-attachment
6757 configure whether responded-to message shall be quoted etc.,
6758 .Va content-description-quote-attachment
6762 will exchange this command with
6766 offers special support for replying to mailing lists.
6767 For more documentation please refer to
6768 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
6770 This may generate the errors
6771 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
6772 if no receiver has been specified, or was rejected by
6776 if an I/O error occurs,
6778 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
6781 It can also fail with errors of
6782 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
6783 Any error stops processing of further messages.
6789 but does not add any header lines.
6790 This is not a way to hide the sender's identity,
6791 but useful for sending a message again to the same recipients.
6795 Takes a list of messages and a name,
6796 and sends each message to the given addressee, which is subject to
6799 and related header fields are prepended to the new copy of the message.
6802 is only performed if
6805 \*(ID\*(CM is not entered, the only supported hooks are
6808 .Va on-resend-cleanup .
6810 This may generate the errors
6811 .Va ^ERR Ns -DESTADDRREQ
6812 if no receiver has been specified, or was rejected by
6816 if an I/O error occurs,
6818 if a necessary character set conversion fails, and
6821 It can also fail with errors of
6822 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
6823 Any error stops processing of further messages.
6827 (ret) Superseded by the multiplexer
6832 Only available inside of a
6836 this command returns control of execution to the outer scope.
6837 The two optional parameters are positive decimal numbers and default to 0:
6838 the first specifies the 32-bit return value (stored in
6840 \*(ID and later extended to 64-bit),
6841 the second the 32-bit error number (stored in
6845 a non-0 exit status may cause the program to exit.
6851 but saves the messages in a file named after the local part of the
6852 sender of the first message instead of taking a filename argument;
6854 is inspected to decide on the actual storage location.
6858 (s) Takes a message list and a filename and appends each message in turn
6859 to the end of the file.
6860 .Sx "Filename transformations"
6861 including shell pathname wildcard pattern expansions
6863 is performed on the filename.
6864 If no filename is given, the
6866 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
6869 The filename in quotes, followed by the generated character count
6870 is echoed on the user's terminal.
6873 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
6874 the messages are marked for deletion.
6875 To filter the saved header fields to the desired subset use the
6877 slot of the white- and blacklisting command
6883 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6887 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6891 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
6896 Takes a message specification (list) and displays a header summary of
6897 all matching messages, as via
6899 This command is an alias of
6902 .Sx "Specifying messages" .
6906 Takes a message list and marks all messages as having been read.
6912 (se, \*(NQ uns) The latter command will delete all given global
6913 variables, or only block-scope local ones if the
6915 command modifier has been used.
6916 The former, when used without arguments, will show all
6917 currently known variables, being more verbose if either of
6922 Remarks: this list mode will not automatically link-in (known)
6924 variables, this only happens for explicit addressing, examples are
6926 using a variable in an
6928 condition or a string passed to
6932 ting, as well as some program-internal use cases (look-ups).
6935 Otherwise the given variables (and arguments) are set or adjusted.
6936 Arguments are of the form
6938 (no space before or after
6942 if there is no value, i.e., a boolean variable.
6943 If a name begins with
6947 the effect is the same as invoking the
6949 command with the remaining part of the variable
6950 .Pf ( Ql unset save ) .
6951 \*(ID In conjunction with the
6953 .Pf (or\0 Cm local )
6955 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
6956 can be used to quote arguments as necessary.
6957 \*(ID Otherwise quotation marks may be placed around any part of the
6958 assignment statement to quote blanks or tabs.
6961 When operating in global scope any
6963 that is known to map to an environment variable will automatically cause
6964 updates in the program environment (unsetting a variable in the
6965 environment requires corresponding system support) \(em use the command
6967 for further environmental control.
6968 If the command modifier
6970 has been used to enforce local scoping then the given user variables
6971 will be garbage collected when the local scope is left;
6973 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES" ,
6976 behaves the same as if
6978 would have been set (temporarily), which means that changes are
6979 inherited by deeper scopes.
6983 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
6987 .Bd -literal -offset indent
6988 ? wysh set indentprefix=' -> '
6989 ? wysh set atab=$'\t' aspace=' ' zero=0
6995 Apply shell quoting rules to the given raw-data arguments.
6999 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
7000 The first argument specifies the operation:
7004 cause shell quoting to be applied to the remains of the line, and
7005 expanded away thereof, respectively.
7006 If the former is prefixed with a plus-sign, the quoted result will not
7007 be roundtrip enabled, and thus can be decoded only in the very same
7008 environment that was used to perform the encode; also see
7009 .Cd mle-quote-rndtrip .
7010 If the coding operation fails the error number
7013 .Va ^ERR Ns -CANCELED ,
7014 and the unmodified input is used as the result; the error number may
7015 change again due to output or result storage errors.
7019 \*(NQ (sh) Invokes an interactive version of the shell,
7020 and returns its exit status.
7024 .It Ic shortcut , unshortcut
7025 \*(NQ Manage the file- or pathname shortcuts as documented for
7027 The latter command deletes all shortcuts given as arguments,
7028 or all at once when given the asterisk
7030 The former shows the list of all currently defined shortcuts if used
7031 without arguments, the target of the given with a single argument.
7032 Otherwise arguments are treated as pairs of shortcuts and their desired
7033 expansion, creating new or updating already existing ones.
7037 \*(NQ Shift the positional parameter stack (starting at
7039 by the given number (which must be a positive decimal),
7040 or 1 if no argument has been given.
7041 It is an error if the value exceeds the number of positional parameters.
7042 If the given number is 0, no action is performed, successfully.
7043 The stack as such can be managed via
7045 Note this command will fail in
7047 and hook macros unless the positional parameter stack has been
7048 explicitly created in the current context via
7055 but performs neither MIME decoding nor decryption, so that the raw
7056 message text is shown.
7060 (si) Shows the size in characters of each message of the given
7065 \*(NQ Sleep for the specified number of seconds (and optionally
7066 milliseconds), by default interruptible.
7067 If a third argument is given the sleep will be uninterruptible,
7068 otherwise the error number
7072 if the sleep has been interrupted.
7073 The command will fail and the error number will be
7074 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW
7075 if the given duration(s) overflow the time datatype, and
7077 if the given durations are no valid integers.
7082 .It Ic sort , unsort
7083 The latter command disables sorted or threaded mode, returns to normal
7084 message order and, if the
7087 displays a header summary.
7088 The former command shows the current sorting criterion when used without
7089 an argument, but creates a sorted representation of the current folder
7090 otherwise, and changes the
7092 command and the addressing modes such that they refer to messages in
7094 Message numbers are the same as in regular mode.
7098 a header summary in the new order is also displayed.
7099 Automatic folder sorting can be enabled by setting the
7102 .Ql set autosort=thread .
7103 Possible sorting criterions are:
7106 .Bl -tag -compact -width "subject"
7108 Sort the messages by their
7110 field, that is by the time they were sent.
7112 Sort messages by the value of their
7114 field, that is by the address of the sender.
7117 variable is set, the sender's real name (if any) is used.
7119 Sort the messages by their size.
7121 \*(OP Sort the message by their spam score, as has been classified by
7124 Sort the messages by their message status.
7126 Sort the messages by their subject.
7128 Create a threaded display.
7130 Sort messages by the value of their
7132 field, that is by the address of the recipient.
7135 variable is set, the recipient's real name (if any) is used.
7141 \*(NQ (so) The source command reads commands from the given file.
7142 .Sx "Filename transformations"
7144 If the given expanded argument ends with a vertical bar
7146 then the argument will instead be interpreted as a shell command and
7147 \*(UA will read the output generated by it.
7148 Dependent on the settings of
7152 and also dependent on whether the command modifier
7154 had been used, encountering errors will stop sourcing of the given input.
7157 cannot be used from within macros that execute as
7158 .Va folder-hook Ns s
7161 i.e., it can only be called from macros that were
7166 \*(NQ The difference to
7168 (beside not supporting pipe syntax aka shell command input) is that
7169 this command will not generate an error nor warn if the given file
7170 argument cannot be opened successfully.
7174 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and clears their
7180 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and causes the
7182 to forget it has ever used them to train its Bayesian filter.
7183 Unless otherwise noted the
7185 flag of the message is inspected to chose whether a message shall be
7193 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and informs the Bayesian filter of the
7197 This also clears the
7199 flag of the messages in question.
7203 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and rates them using the configured
7204 .Va spam-interface ,
7205 without modifying the messages, but setting their
7207 flag as appropriate; because the spam rating headers are lost the rate
7208 will be forgotten once the mailbox is left.
7209 Refer to the manual section
7211 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
7215 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and sets their
7221 \*(OP Takes a list of messages and informs the Bayesian filter of the
7227 flag of the messages in question.
7239 \*(NQ TLS information and management command multiplexer to aid in
7240 .Sx "Encrypted network communication" ,
7241 mostly available only if the term
7247 if so documented (see
7248 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
7249 The result that is shown in case of errors is always the empty string,
7250 errors can be identified via the error number
7252 For example, string length overflows are caught and set
7255 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW .
7256 The TLS configuration is honoured, especially
7259 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7260 ? vput tls result fingerprint pop3s://ex.am.ple
7261 ? echo $?/$!/$^ERRNAME: $result
7264 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm random"
7266 Show the complete verified peer certificate chain.
7267 Includes informational fields in conjunction with
7270 Show only the peer certificate, without any signers.
7271 Includes informational fields in conjunction with
7275 .Va tls-fingerprint-digest Ns
7276 ed fingerprint of the certificate of the given HOST
7277 .Pf ( Ql server:port ,
7278 where the port defaults to the HTTPS port, 443).
7280 is actively ignored for the runtime of this command.
7291 slot for white- and blacklisting header fields.
7295 (to) Takes a message list and types out the first
7297 lines of each message on the user's terminal.
7298 Unless a special selection has been established for the
7302 command, the only header fields that are displayed are
7313 It is possible to apply compression to what is displayed by setting
7315 Messages are decrypted and converted to the terminal character set
7320 (tou) Takes a message list and marks the messages for saving in the
7322 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
7324 \*(UA deviates from the POSIX standard with this command,
7327 command will display the following message instead of the current one.
7333 but also displays header fields which would not pass the
7335 selection, and all visualizable parts of MIME
7336 .Ql multipart/alternative
7341 (t) Takes a message list and types out each message on the user's terminal.
7342 The display of message headers is selectable via
7344 For MIME multipart messages, all parts with a content type of
7346 all parts which have a registered MIME type handler (see
7347 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" )
7348 which produces plain text output, and all
7350 parts are shown, others are hidden except for their headers.
7351 Messages are decrypted and converted to the terminal character set
7355 can be used to display parts which are not displayable as plain text.
7398 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
7402 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
7407 Superseded by the multiplexer
7418 .It Ic unmlsubscribe
7429 Takes a message list and marks each message as not having been read.
7433 Superseded by the multiplexer
7437 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
7441 \*(OB Superseded by the multiplexer
7463 Perform URL percent codec operations on the raw-data argument, rather
7464 according to RFC 3986.
7465 The first argument specifies the operation:
7469 perform plain URL percent en- and decoding, respectively.
7473 perform a slightly modified operation which should be better for
7474 pathnames: it does not allow a tilde
7476 and will neither accept hyphen-minus
7480 as an initial character.
7481 The remains of the line form the URL data which is to be converted.
7482 This is a character set agnostic operation,
7483 and it may thus decode bytes which are invalid in the current
7489 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) ,
7490 and manages the error number
7492 If the coding operation fails the error number
7495 .Va ^ERR Ns -CANCELED ,
7496 and the unmodified input is used as the result; the error number may
7497 change again due to output or result storage errors.
7498 \*(ID This command does not know about URLs beside what is documented.
7502 subcommand, shall the URL be displayed.)
7506 \*(NQ This command produces the same output as the listing mode of
7510 ity adjustments, but only for the given variables.
7514 \*(OP Takes a message list and verifies each message.
7515 If a message is not a S/MIME signed message,
7516 verification will fail for it.
7517 The verification process checks if the message was signed using a valid
7519 if the message sender's email address matches one of those contained
7520 within the certificate,
7521 and if the message content has been altered.
7529 of \*(UA, optionally in a more
7531 form which also includes the build and running system environment.
7532 This command supports
7535 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
7540 \*(NQ A multiplexer command which offers signed 64-bit numeric
7541 calculations, as well as other, mostly string-based operations.
7542 C-style byte string operations are available via
7544 The first argument defines the number, type, and meaning of the
7545 remaining arguments.
7546 An empty number argument is treated as 0.
7550 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
7551 The result shown in case of errors is
7553 for usage errors and numeric operations, the empty string otherwise;
7555 errors, like when a search operation failed, will also set the
7558 .Va ^ERR Ns -NODATA .
7559 Except when otherwise noted numeric arguments are parsed as signed 64-bit
7560 numbers, and errors will be reported in the error number
7562 as the numeric error
7563 .Va ^ERR Ns -RANGE .
7566 Numeric operations work on one or two signed 64-bit integers.
7567 Numbers prefixed with
7571 are interpreted as hexadecimal (base 16) numbers, whereas
7573 indicates octal (base 8), and
7577 denote binary (base 2) numbers.
7578 It is possible to use any base in between 2 and 36, inclusive, with the
7580 notation, where the base is given as an unsigned decimal number, so
7582 is a different way of specifying a hexadecimal number.
7583 Unsigned interpretation of a number can be enforced by prefixing an
7585 (case-insensitively), as in
7587 this is not necessary for power-of-two bases (2, 4, 8, 16 and 32),
7588 which will be interpreted as unsigned by default, but it still makes
7589 a difference regarding overflow detection and overflow constant.
7590 It is possible to enforce signed interpretation by (instead) prefixing a
7592 (case-insensitively).
7593 The number sign notation uses a permissive parse mode and as such
7594 supports complicated conditions out of the box:
7595 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7596 ? wysh set ifs=:;read i;unset ifs;echo $i;vexpr pb 2 10#$i
7603 One integer is expected by assignment (equals sign
7605 which does nothing but parsing the argument, thus detecting validity and
7606 possible overflow conditions, unary not (tilde
7608 which creates the bitwise complement, and unary plus and minus.
7609 Two integers are used by addition (plus sign
7611 subtraction (hyphen-minus
7613 multiplication (asterisk
7617 and modulo (percent sign
7619 as well as for the bitwise operators logical or (vertical bar
7622 bitwise and (ampersand
7625 bitwise xor (circumflex
7627 the bitwise signed left- and right shifts
7630 as well as for the unsigned right shift
7634 Another numeric operation is
7636 which takes a number base in between 2 and 36, inclusive, and will act
7637 on the second number given just the same as what equals sign
7639 does, but the number result will be formatted in the base given, as
7640 a signed 64-bit number unless unsigned interpretation of the input
7641 number had been forced (with an u prefix).
7644 Numeric operations support a saturated mode via the question mark
7646 modifier suffix; the keyword
7653 are therefore identical.
7654 In saturated mode overflow errors and division and modulo by zero are no
7655 longer reported via the exit status, but the result will linger at the
7656 minimum or maximum possible value, instead of overflowing (or trapping).
7657 This is true also for the argument parse step.
7658 For the bitwise shifts, the saturated maximum is 63.
7659 Any caught overflow will be reported via the error number
7662 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW .
7664 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7665 ? vput vexpr res -? +1 -9223372036854775808
7666 ? echo $?/$!/$^ERRNAME:$res
7667 0/75/OVERFLOW:-9223372036854775808
7671 Character set agnostic string functions have no notion of locale
7672 settings and character sets.
7674 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm random"
7676 Outputs the current date and time in UTC (Coordinated Universal Time)
7677 with values named such that
7678 .Ql vput vexpr x date-utc; eval wysh set $x
7679 creates accessible variables.
7680 .It Cm date-stamp-utc
7681 Outputs a RFC 3339 internet date/time format of UTC.
7683 The seconds and nanoseconds since the Unix epoch (1970-01-01T00:00:00)
7689 .Ql vput vexpr x epoch; eval wysh set $x
7690 creates accessible variables.
7693 .Sx "Filename transformations"
7695 .It Cm file-stat , file-lstat
7697 .Sx "Filename transformations"
7698 on the argument, then call
7702 respectively, and output values such that
7703 .Ql vput vexpr x file-stat FILE; eval wysh set $x
7704 creates accessible variables.
7709 to denote directories, commercial at
7711 for links, number sign
7713 for block devices, percent sign
7715 for for character devices, vertical bar
7717 for FIFOs, equal sign
7719 for sockets, and the period
7723 Generates a random string of the given length, or of
7725 bytes (a constant from
7727 if the value 0 is given; the random string will be base64url encoded
7728 according to RFC 4648, and thus be usable as a (portable) filename.
7732 String operations work, sufficient support provided, according to the
7733 active user's locale encoding and character set (see
7734 .Sx "Character sets" ) .
7735 Where the question mark
7737 modifier suffix is supported, a case-insensitive operation mode is
7738 available; the keyword
7744 are therefore identical.
7746 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm regex"
7748 (One-way) Converts the argument to something safely printable on the
7752 \*(OP A string operation that will try to match the first argument with
7753 the regular expression given as the second argument.
7755 modifier suffix is supported.
7756 If the optional third argument has been given then instead of showing
7757 the match offset a replacement operation is performed: the third
7758 argument is treated as if specified within dollar-single-quote (see
7759 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ) ,
7760 and any occurrence of a positional parameter, for example
7762 etc. is replaced with the according match group of the regular expression:
7763 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7764 ? vput vexpr res regex bananarama \e
7765 (.*)NanA(.*) '\e${1}au\e$2'
7766 ? echo $?/$!/$^ERRNAME:$res:
7768 ? vput vexpr res regex?case bananarama \e
7769 (.*)NanA(.*) '\e${1}uauf\e$2'
7770 ? echo $?/$!/$^ERRNAME:$res:
7771 0/0/NONE:bauauframa:
7778 \*(NQ Manage the positional parameter stack (see
7782 If the first argument is
7784 then the positional parameter stack of the current context, or the
7785 global one, if there is none, is cleared.
7788 then the remaining arguments will be used to (re)create the stack,
7789 if the parameter stack size limit is excessed an
7790 .Va ^ERR Ns -OVERFLOW
7794 If the first argument is
7796 a round-trip capable representation of the stack contents is created,
7797 with each quoted parameter separated from each other with the first
7800 and followed by the first character of
7802 if that is not empty and not identical to the first.
7803 If that results in no separation at all a
7809 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
7810 I.e., the subcommands
7814 can be used (in conjunction with
7816 to (re)create an argument stack from and to a single variable losslessly.
7818 .Bd -literal -offset indent
7819 ? vpospar set hey, "'you ", world!
7820 ? echo $#: <${1}><${2}><${3}>
7821 ? vput vpospar x quote
7823 ? echo $#: <${1}><${2}><${3}>
7824 ? eval vpospar set ${x}
7825 ? echo $#: <${1}><${2}><${3}>
7831 (v) Takes a message list and invokes the
7833 display editor on each message.
7834 Modified contents are discarded unless the
7836 variable is set, and are not used unless the mailbox can be written to
7837 and the editor returns a successful exit status.
7839 can be used instead for a less display oriented editor.
7843 (w) For conventional messages the body without all headers is written.
7844 The original message is never marked for deletion in the originating
7846 The output is decrypted and converted to its native format as necessary.
7847 If the output file exists, the text is appended.
7848 If a message is in MIME multipart format its first part is written to
7849 the specified file as for conventional messages, handling of the remains
7850 depends on the execution mode.
7851 No special handling of compressed files is performed.
7853 In interactive mode the user is consecutively asked for the filenames of
7854 the processed parts.
7855 For convenience saving of each part may be skipped by giving an empty
7856 value, the same result as writing it to
7858 Shell piping the part content by specifying a leading vertical bar
7860 character for the filename is supported.
7861 Other user input undergoes the usual
7862 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
7863 including shell pathname wildcard pattern expansions
7865 and shell variable expansion for the message as such, not the individual
7866 parts, and contents of the destination file are overwritten if the file
7868 Character set conversion to
7870 is performed when saving text data.
7872 \*(ID In non-interactive mode any part which does not specify a filename
7873 is ignored, and suspicious parts of filenames of the remaining parts are
7874 URL percent encoded (as via
7876 to prevent injection of malicious character sequences, resulting in
7877 a filename that will be written into the current directory.
7878 Existing files will not be overwritten, instead the part number or
7879 a dot are appended after a number sign
7881 to the name until file creation succeeds (or fails due to other
7886 \*(NQ The sole difference to
7888 is that the new macro is executed in place of the current one, which
7889 will not regain control: all resources of the current macro will be
7891 This implies that any setting covered by
7893 will be forgotten and covered variables will become cleaned up.
7894 If this command is not used from within a
7896 ed macro it will silently be (a more expensive variant of)
7906 \*(NQ \*(UA presents message headers in
7908 fuls as described under the
7911 Without arguments this command scrolls to the next window of messages,
7912 likewise if the argument is
7916 scrolls to the last,
7918 scrolls to the first, and
7923 A number argument prefixed by
7927 indicates that the window is calculated in relation to the current
7928 position, and a number without a prefix specifies an absolute position.
7934 but scrolls to the next or previous window that contains at least one
7945 .\" .Sh COMMAND ESCAPES {{{
7946 .Sh "COMMAND ESCAPES"
7948 Command escapes are available in
7950 during interactive usage, when explicitly requested via
7954 They perform special functions, like editing headers of the message
7955 being composed, calling normal
7957 yielding a shell, etc.
7958 Command escapes are only recognized at the beginning of lines, and
7959 consist of an escape followed by a command character.
7962 character is the tilde
7966 Unless otherwise documented command escapes ensure proper updates of
7973 controls whether a failed operation errors out message compose mode and
7974 causes program exit.
7975 Escapes may be prefixed by none to multiple single character command
7976 modifiers, interspersed whitespace is ignored:
7980 An effect equivalent to the command modifier
7982 can be achieved with hyphen-minus
7990 uates the remains of the line; also see
7991 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" .
7992 \*(ID For now the entire input line is evaluated as a whole; to avoid
7993 that control operators like semicolon
7995 are interpreted unintentionally, they must be quoted.
7999 Addition of the command line to the \*(OPal history can be prevented by
8000 placing whitespace directly after
8004 ings support a compose mode specific context.
8005 The following command escapes are supported:
8008 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ic BaNg"
8011 Insert the string of text in the message prefaced by a single
8013 (If the escape character has been changed,
8014 that character must be doubled instead.)
8017 .It Ic ~! Ar command
8018 Execute the indicated shell
8020 which follows, replacing unescaped exclamation marks with the previously
8021 executed command if the internal variable
8023 is set, then return to the message.
8027 End compose mode and send the message.
8029 .Va on-compose-splice-shell
8031 .Va on-compose-splice ,
8032 in order, will be called when set, after which, in interactive mode
8035 .Va askcc , askbcc )
8038 will be checked as well as
8041 .Va on-compose-leave
8042 hook will be called,
8046 will be joined in if set,
8048 .Va message-inject-tail
8049 will be incorporated, after which the compose mode is left.
8052 .It Ic ~: Ar \*(UA-command Ns \0or Ic ~_ Ar \*(UA-command
8053 Can be used to execute
8055 (which are allowed in compose mode).
8058 .It Ic ~< Ar filename
8063 .It Ic ~<! Ar command
8065 is executed using the shell.
8066 Its standard output is inserted into the message.
8070 \*(OP Write a summary of command escapes.
8073 .It Ic ~@ Op Ar filename...
8074 Append or edit the list of attachments.
8075 Does not manage the error number
8081 if error handling is necessary).
8082 The append mode expects a list of
8084 arguments as shell tokens (see
8085 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ;
8086 token-separating commas are ignored, too), to be
8087 interpreted as documented for the command line option
8089 with the message number exception as below.
8093 arguments the attachment list is edited, entry by entry;
8094 if a filename is left empty, that attachment is deleted from the list;
8095 once the end of the list is reached either new attachments may be
8096 entered or the session can be quit by committing an empty
8099 In non-interactive mode or in batch mode
8101 the list of attachments is effectively not edited but instead recreated;
8102 again, an empty input ends list creation.
8104 For all modes, if a given filename solely consists of the number sign
8106 followed by either a valid message number of the currently active
8107 mailbox, or by a period
8109 referring to the current message of the active mailbox, the so-called
8111 then the given message is attached as a
8114 The number sign must be quoted to avoid misinterpretation as a shell
8118 .It Ic ~| Ar command
8119 Pipe the message text through the specified filter command.
8120 If the command gives no output or terminates abnormally,
8121 retain the original text of the message.
8124 is often used as a rejustifying filter.
8126 If the first character of the command is a vertical bar, then the entire
8127 message including header fields is subject to the filter command, so
8128 .Ql ~|| echo Fcc: /tmp/test; cat
8129 will prepend a file-carbon-copy message header.
8135 .It Ic ~^ Ar cmd Op Ar subcmd Op Ar arg3 Op Ar arg4
8136 Inspect and modify the message using the semantics of
8138 therefore arguments are evaluated according to
8139 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" .
8144 are not managed: errors are handled via the protocol,
8145 and hard errors like I/O failures cannot be handled.
8148 The protocol consists of command lines followed by (a) response line(s).
8149 The first field of the response line represents a status code
8150 which specifies whether a command was successful or not, whether result
8151 data is to be expected, and if, the format of the result data.
8152 Response data will be shell quoted as necessary for consumption by
8159 Error status code lines may optionally contain additional context:
8163 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql 210"
8165 Status ok; the remains of the line are the result.
8168 Status ok; the rest of the line is optionally used for more status.
8169 What follows are lines of result addresses, terminated by an empty line.
8170 All the input, including the empty line, must be consumed before further
8171 commands can be issued.
8172 Address lines consist of two token, first the plain network address, e.g.,
8174 followed by the (quoted) full address as known:
8175 .Ql '(Lovely) Bob <bob@exam.ple>' .
8176 Non-network addresses use the first field to indicate the type (hyphen-minus
8178 for files, vertical bar
8180 for pipes, and number sign
8182 for names which will undergo
8184 processing) instead, the actual value will be in the second field.
8187 Status ok; the rest of the line is optionally used for more status.
8188 What follows are lines of furtherly unspecified (quoted) string content,
8189 terminated by an empty line.
8190 All the input, including the empty line, must be consumed before further
8191 commands can be issued.
8194 Syntax error; invalid command.
8197 Syntax error or otherwise invalid parameters or arguments.
8200 Error: an argument fails verification.
8201 For example an invalid address has been specified (also see
8203 or an attempt was made to modify anything in \*(UA's own namespace,
8204 or a modifying subcommand has been used on a read-only message.
8207 Error: an otherwise valid argument is rendered invalid due to context.
8208 For example, a second address is added to a header which may consist of
8209 a single address only.
8214 If a command indicates failure then the message will have remained
8216 Most commands can fail with
8218 if required arguments are missing, or excessive arguments have been
8219 given (false command usage).
8220 (\*(ID The latter does not yet occur regularly, because as stated in
8221 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
8222 our argument parser is not yet smart enough to work on subcommand base;
8223 for example one might get excess argument error for a three argument
8224 subcommand that receives four arguments, but not for a four argument
8225 subcommand which receives six arguments: here excess will be joined.)
8226 The following (case-insensitive) commands are supported:
8229 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm version"
8231 This command allows listing, removal and addition of message attachments.
8232 The second argument specifies the subcommand to apply, one of:
8234 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm remove"
8236 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
8238 and prints any known attributes of the first found attachment via
8242 if no such attachment can be found.
8243 The attributes are written as lines with a keyword and a value token.
8246 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
8248 and is otherwise identical to
8251 .It Cm attribute-set
8252 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
8254 and will set the attribute given as the fourth to the value given as
8255 the fifth token argument.
8256 If the value is an empty token, then the given attribute is removed,
8257 or reset to a default value if existence of the attribute is crucial.
8261 upon success, with the index of the found attachment following,
8263 for message attachments or if the given keyword is invalid, and
8265 if no such attachment can be found.
8266 The following keywords may be used (case-insensitively):
8268 .Bl -hang -compact -width ".It Ql filename"
8270 Sets the filename of the MIME part, i.e., the name that is used for
8271 display and when (suggesting a name for) saving (purposes).
8272 .It Ql content-description
8273 Associate some descriptive information to the attachment's content, used
8274 in favour of the plain filename by some MUAs.
8276 May be used for uniquely identifying MIME entities in several contexts;
8277 this expects a special reference address format as defined in RFC 2045
8280 upon address content verification failure.
8282 Defines the media type/subtype of the part, which is managed
8283 automatically, but can be overwritten.
8284 .It Ql content-disposition
8285 Automatically set to the string
8289 .It Cm attribute-set-at
8290 This uses the same search mechanism as described for
8292 and is otherwise identical to
8296 Adds the attachment given as the third argument, specified exactly as
8297 documented for the command line option
8299 and supporting the message number extension as documented for
8303 upon success, with the index of the new attachment following,
8305 if the given file cannot be opened,
8307 if an on-the-fly performed character set conversion fails, otherwise
8309 is reported; this is also reported if character set conversion is
8310 requested but not available.
8313 List all attachments via
8317 if no attachments exist.
8318 This command is the default command of
8320 if no second argument has been given.
8323 This will remove the attachment given as the third argument, and report
8327 if no such attachment can be found.
8328 If there exists any path component in the given argument, then an exact
8329 match of the path which has been used to create the attachment is used
8330 directly, but if only the basename of that path matches then all
8331 attachments are traversed to find an exact match first, and the removal
8332 occurs afterwards; if multiple basenames match, a
8335 Message attachments are treated as absolute pathnames.
8337 If no path component exists in the given argument, then all attachments
8338 will be searched for
8340 parameter matches as well as for matches of the basename of the path
8341 which has been used when the attachment has been created; multiple
8346 This will interpret the third argument as a number and remove the
8347 attachment at that list position (counting from one!), reporting
8351 if the argument is not a number or
8353 if no such attachment exists.
8358 This command allows listing, inspection, and editing of message headers.
8359 Header name case is not normalized, so that case-insensitive comparison
8360 should be used when matching names.
8361 The second argument specifies the subcommand to apply, one of:
8364 .Bl -hang -width ".It Cm remove"
8366 Create a new or an additional instance of the header given in the third
8367 argument, with the header body content as given in the fourth token.
8370 if the third argument specifies a free-form header field name that is
8371 invalid, or if body content extraction fails to succeed,
8373 if any extracted address does not pass syntax and/or security checks or
8374 on \*(UA namespace violations, and
8376 to indicate prevention of excessing a single-instance header \(em note that
8378 can be appended to (a space separator will be added automatically first).
8385 modifier to enforce treatment as a single addressee, for example
8386 .Ql header insert To?single: 'exa, <m@ple>' ;
8392 is returned upon success, followed by the name of the header and the list
8393 position of the newly inserted instance.
8394 The list position is always 1 for single-instance header fields.
8395 All free-form header fields are managed in a single list; also see
8399 Without a third argument a list of all yet existing headers is given via
8401 this command is the default command of
8403 if no second argument has been given.
8404 A third argument restricts output to the given header only, which may
8407 if no such field is defined.
8410 This will remove all instances of the header given as the third
8415 if no such header can be found, and
8417 on \*(UA namespace violations.
8420 This will remove from the header given as the third argument the
8421 instance at the list position (counting from one!) given with the fourth
8426 if the list position argument is not a number or on \*(UA namespace
8429 if no such header instance exists.
8432 Shows the content of the header given as the third argument.
8433 Dependent on the header type this may respond with
8437 any failure results in
8443 In compose-mode read-only access to optional pseudo headers in the \*(UA
8444 private namespace is available:
8448 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Va BaNg"
8449 .It Ql Mailx-Command:
8450 The name of the command that generates the message, one of
8457 This pseudo header always exists (in compose-mode).
8459 .It Ql Mailx-Raw-To:
8460 .It Ql Mailx-Raw-Cc:
8461 .It Ql Mailx-Raw-Bcc:
8462 Represent the frozen initial state of these headers before any
8466 .Va recipients-in-cc
8469 .It Ql Mailx-Orig-Sender:
8470 .It Ql Mailx-Orig-From:
8471 .It Ql Mailx-Orig-To:
8472 .It Ql Mailx-Orig-Cc:
8473 .It Ql Mailx-Orig-Bcc:
8474 The values of said headers of the original message which has been
8476 .Ic reply , forward , resend .
8477 The sender field is special as it is filled in with the sole sender
8478 according to RFC 5322 rules, it may thus be equal to the from field.
8483 Show an abstract of the above commands via
8487 This command will print the protocol version via
8495 .Ql Ic ~i Ns \| Va Sign .
8500 .Ql Ic ~i Ns \| Va sign .
8503 .It Ic ~b Ar name ...
8504 Add the given names to the list of blind carbon copy recipients.
8507 .It Ic ~c Ar name ...
8508 Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients.
8512 Read the file specified by the
8514 variable into the message.
8520 on the message collected so far, then return to compose mode.
8522 can be used for a more display oriented editor, and
8524 offers a pipe-based editing approach.
8527 .It Ic ~F Ar messages
8528 Read the named messages into the message being sent, including all
8529 message headers and MIME parts, and honouring
8532 .Va forward-inject-head
8534 .Va forward-inject-tail .
8535 If no messages are specified, read in the current message, the
8539 .It Ic ~f Ar messages
8540 Read the named messages into the message being sent.
8541 If no messages are specified, read in the current message, the
8543 Strips down the list of header fields according to the
8548 white- and blacklist selection of
8553 .Va forward-inject-head
8555 .Va forward-inject-tail .
8556 For MIME multipart messages,
8557 only the first displayable part is included.
8561 In interactive mode, edit the message header fields
8566 by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
8567 The default values for these fields originate from the
8572 In non-interactive mode this sets
8573 .Va ^ERR Ns -NOTTY .
8577 In interactive mode, edit the message header fields
8583 by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to edit the field.
8584 In non-interactive mode this sets
8585 .Va ^ERR Ns -NOTTY .
8588 .It Ic ~I Ar variable
8589 Insert the value of the specified variable into the message.
8590 The message remains unaltered if the variable is unset or empty.
8591 Any embedded character sequences
8593 horizontal tabulator and
8595 line feed are expanded in
8597 mode; otherwise the expansion should occur at
8599 time (\*(ID by using the command modifier
8603 .It Ic ~i Ar variable
8606 but appends a newline character.
8609 .It Ic ~M Ar messages
8610 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
8613 If no messages are specified, read the current message, the
8618 .Va forward-inject-head
8620 .Va forward-inject-tail .
8623 .It Ic ~m Ar messages
8624 Read the named messages into the message being sent,
8627 If no messages are specified, read the current message, the
8629 Strips down the list of header fields according to the
8631 white- and blacklist selection of
8636 .Va forward-inject-head
8638 .Va forward-inject-tail .
8639 For MIME multipart messages,
8640 only the first displayable part is included.
8644 Display the message collected so far,
8645 prefaced by the message header fields
8646 and followed by the attachment list, if any.
8650 Read in the given / current message(s) using the algorithm of
8652 (except that is implicitly assumed, even if not set), honouring
8657 Abort the message being sent,
8658 copying it to the file specified by the
8665 .It Ic ~R Ar filename
8668 but indent each line that has been read by
8672 .It Ic ~r Ar filename Op Ar HERE-delimiter
8673 Read the named file, object to
8674 .Sx "Filename transformations"
8675 excluding shell globs and variable expansions, into the message; if
8679 then standard input is used (for pasting, for example).
8680 Only in this latter mode
8682 may be given: if it is data will be read in until the given
8684 is seen on a line by itself, and encountering EOF is an error; the
8686 is a required argument in non-interactive mode; if it is single-quote
8687 quoted then the pasted content will not be expanded, \*(ID otherwise
8688 a future version of \*(UA may perform shell-style expansion on the content.
8692 Cause the named string to become the current subject field.
8693 Newline (NL) and carriage-return (CR) bytes are invalid and will be
8694 normalized to space (SP) characters.
8697 .It Ic ~t Ar name ...
8698 Add the given name(s) to the direct recipient list.
8701 .It Ic ~U Ar messages
8702 Read in the given / current message(s) excluding all headers, indented by
8707 .Va forward-inject-head
8709 .Va forward-inject-tail .
8712 .It Ic ~u Ar messages
8713 Read in the given / current message(s), excluding all headers.
8717 .Va forward-inject-head
8719 .Va forward-inject-tail .
8725 editor on the message collected so far, then return to compose mode.
8727 can be used for a less display oriented editor, and
8729 offers a pipe-based editing approach.
8732 .It Ic ~w Ar filename
8733 Write the message onto the named file, which is object to the usual
8734 .Sx "Filename transformations" .
8736 the message is appended to it.
8742 except that the message is not saved at all.
8748 .\" .Sh INTERNAL VARIABLES {{{
8749 .Sh "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
8751 Internal \*(UA variables are controlled via the
8755 commands; prefixing a variable name with the string
8759 has the same effect as using
8766 will give more insight on the given variable(s), and
8768 when called without arguments, will show a listing of all variables.
8769 Both commands support a more
8772 Some well-known variables will also become inherited from the
8775 implicitly, others can be imported explicitly with the command
8777 and henceforth share said properties.
8780 Two different kinds of internal variables exist, and both of which can
8782 There are boolean variables, which can only be in one of the two states
8786 and value variables with a(n optional) string value.
8787 For the latter proper quoting is necessary upon assignment time, the
8788 introduction of the section
8790 documents the supported quoting rules.
8792 .Bd -literal -offset indent
8793 ? wysh set one=val\e 1 two="val 2" \e
8794 three='val "3"' four=$'val \e'4\e''; \e
8795 varshow one two three four; \e
8796 unset one two three four
8800 Dependent upon the actual option string values may become interpreted as
8801 colour names, command specifications, normal text, etc.
8802 They may be treated as numbers, in which case decimal values are
8803 expected if so documented, but otherwise any numeric format and
8804 base that is valid and understood by the
8806 command may be used, too.
8809 There also exists a special kind of string value, the
8810 .Dq boolean string ,
8811 which must either be a decimal integer (in which case
8815 and any other value is true) or any of the (case-insensitive) strings
8821 for a false boolean and
8829 a special kind of boolean string is the
8831 it can optionally be prefixed with the (case-insensitive) term
8835 in interactive mode the user will be prompted, otherwise the actual
8839 Variable chains extend a plain
8844 .Ql variable-USER@HOST
8848 will be converted to all lowercase when looked up (but not when the
8849 variable is set or unset!), \*(OPally IDNA converted, and indeed means
8853 had been specified in the contextual Uniform Resource Locator URL, see
8854 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
8855 Even though this mechanism is based on URLs no URL percent encoding may
8856 be applied to neither of
8860 variable chains need to be specified using raw data;
8861 the mentioned section contains examples.
8862 Variables which support chains are explicitly documented as such, and
8863 \*(UA treats the base name of any such variable special, meaning that
8864 users should not create custom names like
8866 in order to avoid false classifications and treatment of such variables.
8868 .\" .Ss "Initial settings" {{{
8869 .\" (Keep in SYNC: mx/nail.h:okeys, ./nail.rc, ./nail.1:"Initial settings")
8870 .Ss "Initial settings"
8872 The standard POSIX 2008/Cor 2-2016 mandates the following initial
8878 .Pf no Va autoprint ,
8892 .Pf no Va ignoreeof ,
8894 .Pf no Va keepsave ,
8896 .Pf no Va outfolder ,
8904 .Pf no Va sendwait ,
8913 However, \*(UA has built-in some initial (and some default) settings
8914 which (may) diverge, others may become adjusted by one of the
8915 .Sx "Resource files" .
8916 Displaying the former is accomplished via
8918 .Ql $ \*(uA -:/ -v -Xset -Xx .
8919 In general this implementation sets (and has extended the meaning of)
8921 and does not support the
8923 variable \(en use command line options or
8925 to pass options through to a
8927 The default global resource file sets, among others, the variables
8932 establishes a default
8934 selection etc., and should thus be taken into account.
8937 .\" .Ss "Variables" {{{
8940 .Bl -tag -width ".It Va BaNg"
8944 \*(RO The exit status of the last command, or the
8949 This status has a meaning in the state machine: in conjunction with
8951 any non-0 exit status will cause a program exit, and in
8953 mode any error while loading (any of the) resource files will have the
8957 .Sx "Command modifiers" ,
8958 can be used to instruct the state machine to ignore errors.
8962 \*(RO The current error number
8963 .Pf ( Xr errno 3 ) ,
8964 which is set after an error occurred; it is also available via
8966 and the error name and documentation string can be queried via
8970 \*(ID This machinery is new and the error number is only really usable
8971 if a command explicitly states that it manages the variable
8973 for others errno will be used in case of errors, or
8975 if that is 0: it thus may or may not reflect the real error.
8976 The error number may be set with the command
8982 \*(RO This is a multiplexer variable which performs dynamic expansion of
8983 the requested state or condition, of which there are:
8985 .Bl -tag -width ".It Va BaNg"
8989 .It Va ^ERR , ^ERRDOC , ^ERRNAME
8990 The number, documentation, and name of the current
8992 respectively, which is usually set after an error occurred.
8993 The documentation is an \*(OP, the name is used if not available.
8994 \*(ID This machinery is new and is usually reliable only if a command
8995 explicitly states that it manages the variable
8997 which is effectively identical to
8999 Each of those variables can be suffixed with a hyphen minus followed by
9000 a name or number, in which case the expansion refers to the given error.
9001 Note this is a direct mapping of (a subset of) the system error values:
9002 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9004 eval echo \e$1: \e$^ERR-$1:\e
9005 \e$^ERRNAME-$1: \e$^ERRDOC-$1
9006 vput vexpr i + "$1" 1
9016 .It Va ^ERRQUEUE-COUNT , ^ERRQUEUE-EXISTS
9017 The number of messages present in the \*(OPal log queue of
9019 and a boolean which indicates whether the queue is not empty,
9020 respectively; both are always 0 unless
9029 \*(RO Expands all positional parameters (see
9031 separated by the first character of the value of
9033 \*(ID The special semantics of the equally named special parameter of the
9035 are not yet supported.
9039 \*(RO Expands all positional parameters (see
9041 separated by a space character.
9042 If placed in double quotation marks, each positional parameter is
9043 properly quoted to expand to a single parameter again.
9047 \*(RO Expands to the number of positional parameters, i.e., the size of
9048 the positional parameter stack in decimal.
9052 \*(RO Inside the scope of a
9056 ed macro this expands to the name of the calling macro, or to the empty
9057 string if the macro is running from top-level.
9058 For the \*(OPal regular expression search and replace operator of
9060 this expands to the entire matching expression.
9061 It represents the program name in global context.
9065 \*(RO Access of the positional parameter stack.
9066 All further parameters can be accessed with this syntax, too,
9069 etc.; positional parameters can be shifted off the stack by calling
9071 The parameter stack contains, for example, the arguments of a
9075 d macro, the matching groups of the \*(OPal regular expression search
9076 and replace expression of
9078 and can be explicitly created or overwritten with the command
9083 \*(RO Is set to the active
9087 .It Va add-file-recipients
9088 \*(BO When file or pipe recipients have been specified,
9089 mention them in the corresponding address fields of the message instead
9090 of silently stripping them from their recipient list.
9091 By default such addressees are not mentioned.
9095 \*(BO Causes only the local part to be evaluated
9096 when comparing addresses.
9100 \*(BO Causes messages saved in the
9102 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
9104 to be appended to the end rather than prepended.
9105 This should always be set.
9109 \*(BO Causes the prompts for
9113 lists to appear after the message has been edited.
9117 \*(BO If set, \*(UA asks an interactive user for files to attach at the
9118 end of each message; An empty line finalizes the list.
9122 \*(BO Causes the interactive user to be prompted for carbon copy
9123 recipients (at the end of each message if
9131 \*(BO Causes the interactive user to be prompted for blind carbon copy
9132 recipients (at the end of each message if
9140 \*(BO Causes the interactive user to be prompted for confirmation to
9141 send the message or reenter compose mode after having been shown
9142 a preliminary envelope summary.
9146 \*(BO\*(OP Causes the interactive user to be prompted if the message is
9147 to be signed at the end of each message.
9150 variable is ignored when this variable is set.
9154 .\" The alternative *ask* is not documented on purpose
9155 \*(BO Causes \*(UA to prompt the interactive user for the subject upon
9156 entering compose mode unless a subject already exists.
9160 A sequence of characters to display in the
9164 as shown in the display of
9166 each for one type of messages (see
9167 .Sx "Message states" ) ,
9168 with the default being
9171 .Ql NU\ \ *HMFAT+\-$~
9174 variable is set, in the following order:
9176 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql _"
9198 \*(ID start of a (collapsed) thread in threaded mode (see
9202 \*(ID an uncollapsed thread in threaded mode; only used in conjunction with
9207 classified as possible spam.
9213 Specifies a list of recipients to which a blind carbon copy of each
9214 outgoing message will be sent automatically.
9218 Specifies a list of recipients to which a carbon copy of each outgoing
9219 message will be sent automatically.
9223 \*(BO Causes threads to be collapsed automatically when .Ql thread Ns
9226 mode is entered (see the
9232 \*(BO Enable automatic
9234 ing of a(n existing)
9240 commands: the message that becomes the new
9242 is shown automatically, as via
9249 Causes sorted mode (see the
9251 command) to be entered automatically with the value of this variable as
9252 sorting method when a folder is opened, for example
9253 .Ql set autosort=thread .
9257 \*(BO Enables the substitution of all not (reverse-solidus) escaped
9260 characters by the contents of the last executed command for the
9262 shell escape command and
9264 one of the compose mode
9265 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
9266 If this variable is not set no reverse solidus stripping is performed.
9270 \*(OB Predecessor of
9271 .Va bind-inter-byte-timeout .
9272 \*(ID Setting this automatically sets the successor.
9275 .It Va bind-inter-byte-timeout
9276 \*(OP Terminals may generate multi-byte sequences for special function
9277 keys, for example, but these sequences may not become read as a unit.
9278 And multi-byte sequences can be defined freely via
9280 This variable specifies the timeout in milliseconds that the MLE (see
9281 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
9282 waits for more bytes to arrive unless it considers a sequence
9284 The default is 200, the maximum is about 10 seconds.
9285 In the following example the comments state which sequences are
9286 affected by this timeout:
9287 .Bd -literal -offset indent
9288 ? bind base abc echo 0 # abc
9289 ? bind base ab,c echo 1 # ab
9290 ? bind base abc,d echo 2 # abc
9291 ? bind base ac,d echo 3 # ac
9292 ? bind base a,b,c echo 4
9293 ? bind base a,b,c,d echo 5
9294 ? bind base a,b,cc,dd echo 6 # cc and dd
9298 .It Va bind-inter-key-timeout
9301 sequences do not time out by default.
9302 If this variable is set, then the current key sequence is forcefully
9303 terminated once the timeout (in milliseconds) triggers.
9304 The value should be (maybe significantly) larger than
9305 .Va bind-inter-byte-timeout ,
9306 but may not excess the maximum, too.
9310 \*(BO Sets some cosmetical features to traditional BSD style;
9311 has the same affect as setting
9313 and all other variables prefixed with
9315 it also changes the behaviour of
9317 (which does not exist in BSD).
9321 \*(BO Changes the letters shown in the first column of a header
9322 summary to traditional BSD style.
9326 \*(BO Changes the display of columns in a header summary to traditional
9331 \*(BO Changes some informational messages to traditional BSD style.
9337 field to appear immediately after the
9339 field in message headers and with the
9341 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
9347 .It Va build-cc , build-ld , build-os , build-rest
9348 \*(RO The build environment, including the compiler, the linker, the
9349 operating system \*(UA has been build for, usually taken from
9353 and then lowercased, as well as all the possibly interesting rest of the
9354 configuration and build environment.
9355 This information is also available in the
9357 output of the command
9362 The value that should appear in the
9366 MIME header fields when no character set conversion of the message data
9368 This defaults to US-ASCII, and the chosen character set should be
9369 US-ASCII compatible.
9373 \*(OP The default 8-bit character set that is used as an implicit last
9374 member of the variable
9376 This defaults to UTF-8 if character set conversion capabilities are
9377 available, and to ISO-8859-1 otherwise (unless the operating system
9378 environment is known to always and exclusively support UTF-8 locales),
9379 in which case the only supported character set is
9381 and this variable is effectively ignored.
9384 .It Va charset-unknown-8bit
9385 \*(OP RFC 1428 specifies conditions when internet mail gateways shall
9387 the content of a mail message by using a character set with the name
9389 Because of the unclassified nature of this character set \*(UA will not
9390 be capable to convert this character set to any other character set.
9391 If this variable is set any message part which uses the character set
9393 is assumed to really be in the character set given in the value,
9394 otherwise the (final) value of
9396 is used for this purpose.
9398 This variable will also be taken into account if a MIME type (see
9399 .Sx "The mime.types files" )
9400 of a MIME message part that uses the
9402 character set is forcefully treated as text.
9406 The default value for the
9411 .It Va colour-disable
9412 \*(BO\*(OP Forcefully disable usage of colours.
9413 Also see the section
9414 .Sx "Coloured display" .
9418 \*(BO\*(OP Whether colour shall be used for output that is paged through
9420 Note that pagers may need special command line options, for example
9428 in order to support colours.
9429 Often doing manual adjustments is unnecessary since \*(UA may perform
9430 adjustments dependent on the value of the environment variable
9432 (see there for more).
9436 .It Va contact-mail , contact-web
9437 \*(RO Addresses for contact per email and web, respectively, for
9438 bug reports, suggestions, or anything else regarding \*(UA.
9439 The former can be used directly:
9440 .Ql \&? Ns \| Ic eval Ns \| Ic mail Ns \| $contact-mail .
9446 .It Va content-description-forwarded-message , \
9447 content-description-quote-attachment , \
9448 content-description-smime-message , \
9449 content-description-smime-signature
9450 \*(OP(partially) Strings which will be placed in according
9451 .Ql Content-Description:
9452 headers if non-empty.
9453 They all have default values, for example
9454 .Ql Forwarded message .
9458 In a(n interactive) terminal session, then if this valued variable is
9459 set it will be used as a threshold to determine how many lines the given
9460 output has to span before it will be displayed via the configured
9464 can be forced by setting this to the value
9466 setting it without a value will deduce the current height of the
9467 terminal screen to compute the threshold (see
9472 \*(ID At the moment this uses the count of lines of the message in wire
9473 format, which, dependent on the
9475 of the message, is unrelated to the number of display lines.
9476 (The software is old and historically the relation was a given thing.)
9480 Define a set of custom headers to be injected into newly composed or
9482 A custom header consists of the field name followed by a colon
9484 and the field content body.
9485 Standard header field names cannot be overwritten by a custom header,
9486 with the exception of
9490 Different to the command line option
9492 the variable value is interpreted as a comma-separated list of custom
9493 headers: to include commas in header bodies they need to become escaped
9494 with reverse solidus
9496 Headers can be managed more freely in
9501 .Dl ? set customhdr='Hdr1: Body1-1\e, Body1-2, Hdr2: Body2'
9505 Controls the appearance of the
9507 date and time format specification of the
9509 variable, that is used, for example, when viewing the summary of
9511 If unset, then the local receiving date is used and displayed
9512 unformatted, otherwise the message sending
9514 It is possible to assign a
9516 format string and control formatting, but embedding newlines via the
9518 format is not supported, and will result in display errors.
9520 .Ql %Y-%m-%d %H:%M ,
9522 .Va datefield-markout-older .
9525 .It Va datefield-markout-older
9526 Only used in conjunction with
9528 Can be used to create a visible distinction of messages dated more than
9529 a day in the future, or older than six months, a concept comparable to the
9531 option of the POSIX utility
9533 If set to the empty string, then the plain month, day and year of the
9535 will be displayed, but a
9537 format string to control formatting can be assigned.
9543 \*(BO (Almost) Enter a debug-only sandbox mode which generates many
9544 log messages, disables the actual delivery of messages, and also implies
9552 .It Va disposition-notification-send
9554 .Ql Disposition-Notification-To:
9555 header (RFC 3798) with the message.
9559 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-HOST
9561 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
9562 .\" for SMTP accounts on a specific host.
9563 .\" TODO .It Va disposition-notification-send-USER@HOST
9565 .\".Va disposition-notification-send
9566 .\"for a specific account.
9570 \*(BO When dot is set, a period
9572 on a line by itself during message input in (interactive or batch
9575 will be treated as end-of-message (in addition to the
9576 normal end-of-file condition).
9577 This behaviour is implied in
9583 .It Va dotlock-disable
9584 \*(BO\*(OP Disable creation of
9589 .It Va dotlock-ignore-error
9590 \*(OB\*(BO\*(OP Ignore failures when creating
9592 .Sx "dotlock files" .
9599 If this variable is set then the editor is started automatically when
9600 a message is composed in interactive mode.
9601 If the value starts with the letter
9603 then this acts as if
9607 .Pf (see\0 Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" )
9611 variable is implied for this automatically spawned editor session.
9615 \*(BO When a message is edited while being composed,
9616 its header is included in the editable text.
9620 \*(BO When entering interactive mode \*(UA normally writes
9621 .Dq \&No mail for user
9622 and exits immediately if a mailbox is empty or does not exist.
9623 If this variable is set \*(UA starts even with an empty or non-existent
9624 mailbox (the latter behaviour furtherly depends upon
9630 \*(BO Let each command with a non-0 exit status, including every
9634 s a non-0 status, cause a program exit unless prefixed by
9637 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) .
9639 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ,
9640 but which use a different modifier for ignoring the error.
9641 Please refer to the variable
9643 for more on this topic.
9647 \*(OP Maximum number of entries in the
9653 The first character of this value defines the escape character for
9654 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
9656 .Sx "Compose mode" .
9657 The default value is the character tilde
9659 If set to the empty string, command escapes are disabled.
9664 If unset only user name and email address recipients are allowed
9665 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" .
9666 If set without value all possible recipient types will be accepted.
9667 A value is parsed as a comma-separated list of case-insensitive strings,
9668 and if that contains
9670 behaviour equals the former except when in interactive mode or if
9671 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
9676 in which case it equals the latter, allowing all address types.
9679 .Ql restrict,\:-all,\:+name,\:+addr ,
9680 so care for ordering issues must be taken.
9683 Recipient types can be added and removed with a plus sign
9687 prefix, respectively.
9688 By default invalid or disallowed types are filtered out and
9689 cause a warning, hard send errors need to be enforced by including
9697 header targets regardless of other settings,
9699 file targets (it includes
9702 command pipeline targets,
9704 user names still unexpanded after
9708 processing and thus left for expansion by the
9710 (invalid for the built-in SMTP one), and
9713 Targets are interpreted in the given order, so that
9714 .Ql restrict,\:fail,\:+file,\:-all,\:+addr
9715 will cause hard errors for any non-network address recipient address
9716 unless running interactively or having been started with the option
9720 in the latter case(s) any type may be used.
9723 User name receivers addressing valid local users can be expanded to
9724 fully qualified network addresses (also see
9729 Historically invalid recipients were stripped off without causing
9730 errors, this can be changed by making
9732 an entry of the list (it really acts like
9733 .Ql failinvaddr,\:+addr ) .
9736 .Pf (really\0\: Ql domaincheck,\:+addr )
9737 compares address domain names against a whitelist and strips off
9739 for hard errors) addressees which fail this test; the domain name
9741 and the non-empty value of
9743 (the real hostname otherwise) are always whitelisted,
9744 .Va expandaddr-domaincheck
9745 can be set to extend this list.
9746 Finally some address providers (for example
9748 and all other command line recipients) will be evaluated as
9749 if specified within dollar-single-quotes (see
9750 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" )
9751 if the value list contains the string
9756 .It Va expandaddr-domaincheck
9757 Can be set to a comma-separated list of domain names which should be
9758 whitelisted for the evaluation of the
9762 IDNA encoding is not automatically performed,
9764 can be used to prepare the domain (of an address).
9768 Unless this variable is set additional
9770 (Mail-Transfer-Agent)
9771 arguments from the command line, as can be given after a
9773 separator, results in a program termination with failure status.
9774 The same can be accomplished by using the special (case-insensitive) value
9776 A lesser strict variant is the otherwise identical
9778 which does accept such arguments in interactive mode, or if tilde
9779 commands were enabled explicitly by using one of the command line options
9783 The empty value will allow unconditional usage.
9787 \*(RO String giving a list of optional features.
9788 Features are preceded with a plus sign
9790 if they are available, with a hyphen-minus
9793 To ease substring matching the string starts and ends with a comma.
9794 The output of the command
9796 includes this information in a more pleasant output.
9800 \*(BO This setting reverses the meanings of a set of reply commands,
9801 turning the lowercase variants, which by default address all recipients
9802 included in the header of a message
9803 .Pf ( Ic reply , respond , followup )
9804 into the uppercase variants, which by default address the sender only
9805 .Pf ( Ic Reply , Respond , Followup )
9810 The default path under which mailboxes are to be saved:
9811 filenames that begin with the plus sign
9813 will have the plus sign replaced with the value of this variable if set,
9814 otherwise the plus sign will remain unchanged when doing
9815 .Sx "Filename transformations" ;
9818 for more on this topic, and know about standard imposed implications of
9820 The value supports a subset of transformations itself, and if the
9821 non-empty value does not start with a solidus
9825 will be prefixed automatically.
9826 Once the actual value is evaluated first, the internal variable
9828 will be updated for caching purposes.
9831 .It Va folder-hook-FOLDER , Va folder-hook
9834 macro which will be called whenever a
9837 The macro will also be invoked when new mail arrives,
9838 but message lists for commands executed from the macro
9839 only include newly arrived messages then.
9841 are activated by default in a folder hook, causing the covered settings
9842 to be reverted once the folder is left again.
9844 The specialized form will override the generic one if
9846 matches the file that is opened.
9847 Unlike other folder specifications, the fully expanded name of a folder,
9848 without metacharacters, is used to avoid ambiguities.
9849 However, if the mailbox resides under
9853 specification is tried in addition, so that if
9857 (and thus relative to the user's home directory) then
9858 .Pa /home/usr1/mail/sent
9860 .Ql folder-hook-/home/usr1/mail/sent
9861 first, but then followed by
9862 .Ql folder-hook-+sent .
9865 .It Va folder-resolved
9866 \*(RO Set to the fully resolved path of
9868 once that evaluation has occurred; rather internal.
9872 \*(BO Controls whether a
9873 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
9874 header is generated when sending messages to known mailing lists.
9875 The user as determined via
9877 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
9879 will be placed in there if any list addressee is not a subscribed list.
9881 .Va followup-to-honour
9883 .Ic mlist , mlsubscribe , reply
9888 .It Va followup-to-add-cc
9889 \*(BO Controls whether the user will be added to the messages'
9891 list in addition to placing an entry in
9892 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
9897 .It Va followup-to-honour
9899 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
9900 header is honoured when group-replying to a message via
9907 if set without a value it defaults to
9913 .It Va forward-add-cc
9914 \*(BO Whether senders of messages forwarded via
9915 .Ic ~F , ~f , ~m , ~U
9918 shall be made members of the carbon copies
9923 .It Va forward-as-attachment
9924 \*(BO Original messages are normally sent as inline text with the
9927 and only the first part of a multipart message is included.
9928 With this setting enabled messages are sent as unmodified MIME
9930 attachments with all of their parts included.
9934 .It Va forward-inject-head , forward-inject-tail
9935 The strings to put before and after the text of a message with the
9937 command, respectively.
9938 The former defaults to
9939 .Ql -------- Original Message --------\en .
9940 Special format directives in these strings will be expanded if possible,
9941 and if so configured the output will be folded according to
9943 for more please refer to
9944 .Va quote-inject-head .
9945 Injections will not be performed by
9948 .Va forward-as-attachment
9950 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
9951 .Ic ~F , ~f , ~M , ~m , ~U , ~u
9957 The address (or a list of addresses) to put into the
9959 field of the message header, quoting RFC 5322:
9960 the author(s) of the message, that is, the mailbox(es) of the person(s)
9961 or system(s) responsible for the writing of the message.
9962 According to that RFC setting the
9964 variable is required if
9966 contains more than one address.
9967 \*(ID Please expect automatic management of the
9972 Dependent on the context these addresses are handled as if they were in
9977 If a file-based MTA is used, then
9979 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
9981 can nonetheless be used as the envelope sender address at the MTA
9982 protocol level (the RFC 5321 reverse-path), either via the
9984 command line option (without argument; see there for more), or by setting
9985 .Va r-option-implicit .
9988 If the machine's hostname is not valid at the Internet (for example at
9989 a dialup machine), then either this variable or
9993 adds even more fine-tuning capabilities with
9995 have to be set: if so the message and MIME part related unique ID fields
9999 will be created (except when disallowed by
10000 .Va message-id-disable
10007 \*(BO Due to historical reasons comments and name parts of email
10008 addresses are removed by default when sending mail, replying to or
10009 forwarding a message.
10010 If this variable is set such stripping is not performed.
10013 \*(OB Predecessor of
10014 .Va forward-inject-head .
10018 \*(BO Causes the header summary to be written at startup and after
10019 commands that affect the number of messages or the order of messages in
10024 mode a header summary will also be displayed on folder changes.
10025 The command line option
10033 A format string to use for the summary of
10035 Format specifiers in the given string start with a percent sign
10037 and may be followed by an optional decimal number indicating the field
10038 width \(em if that is negative, the field is to be left-aligned.
10039 Names and addresses are subject to modifications according to
10043 Valid format specifiers are:
10046 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql _%%_"
10048 A plain percent sign.
10051 a space character but for the current message
10053 for which it expands to
10056 .Va headline-plain ) .
10059 a space character but for the current message
10061 for which it expands to
10064 .Va headline-plain ) .
10066 \*(OP The spam score of the message, as has been classified via the
10069 Shows only a replacement character if there is no spam support.
10071 Message attribute character (status flag); the actual content can be
10072 adjusted by setting
10075 The date found in the
10077 header of the message when
10079 is set (the default), otherwise the date when the message was received.
10080 Formatting can be controlled by assigning a
10085 .Va datefield-markout-older ) .
10087 The indenting level in
10093 The address of the message sender.
10095 The message thread tree structure.
10096 (Note that this format does not support a field width, and honours
10097 .Va headline-plain . )
10099 Mailing list status: is the addressee of the message a known
10108 announces the presence of a RFC 2369
10110 header, which makes a message a valuable target of
10113 The number of lines of the message, if available.
10117 The number of octets (bytes) in the message, if available.
10119 Message subject (if any) in double quotes.
10121 Message subject (if any).
10123 The position in threaded/sorted order.
10125 The value 0 except in an IMAP mailbox,
10126 where it expands to the UID of the message.
10130 .Ql %>\&%a\&%m\ %-18f\ %16d\ %4l/%\-5o\ %i%-s ,
10132 .Ql %>\&%a\&%m\ %20-f\ \ %16d\ %3l/%\-5o\ %i%-S
10140 .Va headline-bidi .
10144 .It Va headline-bidi
10145 Bidirectional text requires special treatment when displaying headers,
10146 because numbers (in dates or for file sizes etc.) will not affect the
10147 current text direction, in effect resulting in ugly line layouts when
10148 arabic or other right-to-left text is to be displayed.
10149 On the other hand only a minority of terminals is capable to correctly
10150 handle direction changes, so that user interaction is necessary for
10151 acceptable results.
10152 Note that extended host system support is required nonetheless, e.g.,
10153 detection of the terminal character set is one precondition;
10154 and this feature only works in an Unicode (i.e., UTF-8) locale.
10156 In general setting this variable will cause \*(UA to encapsulate text
10157 fields that may occur when displaying
10159 (and some other fields, like dynamic expansions in
10161 with special Unicode control sequences;
10162 it is possible to fine-tune the terminal support level by assigning
10164 no value (or any value other than
10169 will make \*(UA assume that the terminal is capable to properly deal
10170 with Unicode version 6.3, in which case text is embedded in a pair of
10171 U+2068 (FIRST STRONG ISOLATE) and U+2069 (POP DIRECTIONAL ISOLATE)
10173 In addition no space on the line is reserved for these characters.
10175 Weaker support is chosen by using the value
10177 (Unicode 6.3, but reserve the room of two spaces for writing the control
10178 sequences onto the line).
10183 select Unicode 1.1 support (U+200E, LEFT-TO-RIGHT MARK); the latter
10184 again reserves room for two spaces in addition.
10187 .It Va headline-plain
10188 \*(BO On Unicode (UTF-8) aware terminals enhanced graphical symbols are
10189 used by default for certain entries of
10191 If this variable is set only basic US-ASCII symbols will be used.
10194 .It Va history-file
10195 \*(OP The (expandable) location of a permanent
10197 file for the MLE line editor
10198 .Pf ( Sx "On terminal control and line editor" ) .
10203 .It Va history-gabby
10204 \*(OP Add more entries to the MLE
10206 as is normally done.
10207 A comma-separated list of case-insensitive strings can be used to
10208 fine-tune which gabby entries shall be allowed.
10211 erroneous commands will also be added.
10213 adds all optional entries, and is the fallback chattiness identifier of
10214 .Va on-history-addition .
10217 .It Va history-gabby-persist
10220 entries will not be saved in persistent storage unless this variable is set.
10221 The knowledge of whether a persistent entry was gabby is not lost.
10226 .It Va history-size
10227 \*(OP Setting this variable imposes a limit on the number of concurrent
10230 If set to the value 0 then no further history entries will be added,
10231 and loading and incorporation of the
10233 upon program startup can also be suppressed by doing this.
10234 Runtime changes will not be reflected before the
10236 is saved or loaded (again).
10240 \*(BO This setting controls whether messages are held in the system
10242 and it is set by default.
10246 Used instead of the value obtained from
10250 as the hostname when expanding local addresses, for example in
10253 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" ,
10254 for expansion of addresses that have a valid user-, but no domain
10255 name in angle brackets).
10258 or this variable is set the message and MIME part related unique ID fields
10262 will be created (except when disallowed by
10263 .Va message-id-disable
10266 If the \*(OPal IDNA support is available (see
10268 variable assignment is aborted when a necessary conversion fails.
10270 Setting it to the empty string will cause the normal hostname to be
10271 used, but nonetheless enables creation of said ID fields.
10272 \*(IN in conjunction with the built-in SMTP
10275 also influences the results:
10276 one should produce some test messages with the desired combination of
10284 .It Va idna-disable
10285 \*(BO\*(OP Can be used to turn off the automatic conversion of domain
10286 names according to the rules of IDNA (internationalized domain names
10288 Since the IDNA code assumes that domain names are specified with the
10290 character set, an UTF-8 locale charset is required to represent all
10291 possible international domain names (before conversion, that is).
10295 The input field separator that is used (\*(ID by some functions) to
10296 determine where to split input data.
10298 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It MMM"
10300 Unsetting is treated as assigning the default value,
10303 If set to the empty value, no field splitting will be performed.
10305 If set to a non-empty value, all whitespace characters are extracted
10306 and assigned to the variable
10310 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It MMM"
10313 will be ignored at the beginning and end of input.
10314 Diverging from POSIX shells default whitespace is removed in addition,
10315 which is owed to the entirely different line content extraction rules.
10317 Each occurrence of a character of
10319 will cause field-splitting, any adjacent
10321 characters will be skipped.
10326 \*(RO Automatically deduced from the whitespace characters in
10331 \*(BO Ignore interrupt signals from the terminal while entering
10332 messages; instead echo them as
10334 characters and discard the current line.
10338 \*(BO Ignore end-of-file conditions
10339 .Pf ( Ql control-D )
10342 on message input and in interactive command input.
10343 If set an interactive command input session can only be left by
10344 explicitly using one of the commands
10348 and message input in compose mode can only be terminated by entering
10351 on a line by itself or by using the
10353 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ;
10354 Setting this implies the behaviour that
10362 If this is set to a non-empty string it will specify the user's
10364 .Sx "primary system mailbox" ,
10367 and the system-dependent default, and (thus) be used to replace
10370 .Sx "Filename transformations" ;
10373 for more on this topic.
10374 The value supports a subset of transformations itself.
10376 .It Va indentprefix
10381 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
10384 option for indenting messages,
10385 in place of the POSIX mandated default tabulator character
10392 \*(BO If set, an empty
10394 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
10395 file is not removed.
10396 Note that, in conjunction with
10398 mode any empty file will be removed unless this variable is set.
10399 This may improve the interoperability with other mail user agents
10400 when using a common folder directory, and prevents malicious users
10401 from creating fake mailboxes in a world-writable spool directory.
10402 \*(ID Only local regular (MBOX) files are covered, Maildir and other
10403 mailbox types will never be removed, even if empty.
10406 .It Va keep-content-length
10407 \*(BO When (editing messages and) writing MBOX mailbox files \*(UA can
10408 be told to keep the
10409 .Ql Content-Length:
10412 header fields that some MUAs generate by setting this variable.
10413 Since \*(UA does neither use nor update these non-standardized header
10414 fields (which in itself shows one of their conceptual problems),
10415 stripping them should increase interoperability in between MUAs that
10416 work with with same mailbox files.
10417 Note that, if this is not set but
10418 .Va writebackedited ,
10419 as below, is, a possibly performed automatic stripping of these header
10420 fields already marks the message as being modified.
10421 \*(ID At some future time \*(UA will be capable to rewrite and apply an
10423 to modified messages, and then those fields will be stripped silently.
10427 \*(BO When a message is saved it is usually discarded from the
10428 originating folder when \*(UA is quit.
10429 This setting causes all saved message to be retained.
10432 .It Va line-editor-cpl-word-breaks
10433 \*(OP List of bytes which are used by the
10435 tabulator completion to decide where word boundaries exist, by default
10437 \*(ID This mechanism is yet restricted.
10440 .It Va line-editor-disable
10441 \*(BO Turn off any line editing capabilities (from \*(UAs POW, see
10442 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor"
10446 .It Va line-editor-no-defaults
10447 \*(BO\*(OP Do not establish any default key binding.
10451 Error log message prefix string
10452 .Pf ( Ql "\*(uA: " ) .
10455 .It Va mailbox-display
10456 \*(RO The name of the current mailbox
10457 .Pf ( Ic folder ) ,
10458 possibly abbreviated for display purposes.
10461 .It Va mailbox-resolved
10462 \*(RO The fully resolved path of the current mailbox.
10465 .It Va mailcap-disable
10466 \*(BO\*(OP Turn off consideration of MIME type handlers from,
10467 and implicit loading of
10468 .Sx "The Mailcap files" .
10471 .It Va mailx-extra-rc
10472 An additional startup file that is loaded as the last of the
10473 .Sx "Resource files" .
10474 Use this file for commands that are not understood by other POSIX
10476 implementations, i.e., mostly anything which is not covered by
10477 .Sx "Initial settings" .
10480 .It Va markanswered
10481 \*(BO When a message is replied to and this variable is set,
10482 it is marked as having been
10485 .Sx "Message states" .
10488 .It Va mbox-fcc-and-pcc
10489 \*(BO By default all file and pipe message receivers (see
10491 will be fed valid MBOX database entry message data (see
10493 .Va mbox-rfc4155 ) ,
10494 and existing file targets will become extended in compliance to RFC 4155.
10495 If this variable is unset then a plain standalone RFC 5322 message will
10496 be written, and existing file targets will be overwritten.
10499 .It Va mbox-rfc4155
10500 \*(BO When opening MBOX mailbox databases, and in order to achieve
10501 compatibility with old software, the very tolerant POSIX standard rules
10502 for detecting message boundaries (so-called
10504 lines) are used instead of the stricter rules from the standard RFC 4155.
10505 This behaviour can be switched by setting this variable.
10507 This may temporarily be handy when \*(UA complains about invalid
10509 lines when opening a MBOX: in this case setting this variable and
10510 re-opening the mailbox in question may correct the result.
10511 If so, copying the entire mailbox to some other file, as in
10512 .Ql copy * SOME-FILE ,
10513 will perform proper, all-compatible
10515 quoting for all detected messages, resulting in a valid MBOX mailbox.
10516 (\*(ID The better and non-destructive approach is to re-encode invalid
10517 messages, as if it would be created anew, instead of mangling the
10519 lines; this requires the structural code changes of the v15 rewrite.)
10520 Finally the variable can be unset again:
10521 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10523 localopts yes; wysh set mbox-rfc4155;\e
10524 wysh File "${1}"; copy * "${2}"
10526 call mboxfix /tmp/bad.mbox /tmp/good.mbox
10531 \*(BO Internal development variable.
10532 (Keeps memory debug enabled even if
10537 .It Va message-id-disable
10538 \*(BO By setting this variable the generation of
10542 message and MIME part headers can be completely suppressed, effectively
10543 leaving this task up to the
10545 (Mail-Transfer-Agent) or the SMTP server.
10546 Note that according to RFC 5321 a SMTP server is not required to add this
10547 field by itself, so it should be ensured that it accepts messages without
10551 .It Va message-inject-head
10552 A string to put at the beginning of each new message, followed by a newline.
10553 \*(OB The escape sequences tabulator
10557 are understood (use the
10561 ting the variable(s) instead).
10564 .It Va message-inject-tail
10565 A string to put at the end of each new message, followed by a newline.
10566 \*(OB The escape sequences tabulator
10570 are understood (use the
10574 ting the variable(s) instead).
10576 .Va on-compose-leave .
10580 \*(BO Usually, when an
10582 expansion contains the sender, the sender is removed from the expansion.
10583 Setting this option suppresses these removals.
10588 option to be passed through to the
10590 (Mail-Transfer-Agent); though most of the modern MTAs no longer document
10591 this flag, no MTA is known which does not support it (for historical
10595 .It Va mime-allow-text-controls
10596 \*(BO When sending messages, each part of the message is MIME-inspected
10597 in order to classify the
10600 .Ql Content-Transfer-Encoding:
10602 .Va mime-encoding )
10603 that is required to send this part over mail transport, i.e.,
10604 a computation rather similar to what the
10606 command produces when used with the
10610 This classification however treats text files which are encoded in
10611 UTF-16 (seen for HTML files) and similar character sets as binary
10612 octet-streams, forcefully changing any
10617 .Ql application/octet-stream :
10618 If that actually happens a yet unset charset MIME parameter is set to
10620 effectively making it impossible for the receiving MUA to automatically
10621 interpret the contents of the part.
10623 If this variable is set, and the data was unambiguously identified as
10624 text data at first glance (by a
10628 file extension), then the original
10630 will not be overwritten.
10633 .It Va mime-alternative-favour-rich
10634 \*(BO If this variable is set then rich MIME alternative parts (e.g.,
10635 HTML) will be preferred in favour of included plain text versions when
10636 displaying messages, provided that a handler exists which produces
10637 output that can be (re)integrated into \*(UA's normal visual display.
10640 .It Va mime-counter-evidence
10643 field is used to decide how to handle MIME parts.
10644 Some MUAs, however, do not use
10645 .Sx "The mime.types files"
10647 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" )
10648 or a similar mechanism to correctly classify content, but specify an
10649 unspecific MIME type
10650 .Pf ( Ql application/octet-stream )
10651 even for plain text attachments.
10652 If this variable is set then \*(UA will try to re-classify such MIME
10653 message parts, if possible, for example via a possibly existing
10654 attachment filename.
10655 A non-empty value may also be given, in which case a number is expected,
10656 actually a carrier of bits, best specified as a binary value, like
10659 .Bl -bullet -compact
10661 If bit two is set (counting from 1, decimal 2) then the detected
10663 will be carried along with the message and be used for deciding which
10664 MIME handler is to be used, for example;
10665 when displaying such a MIME part the part-info will indicate the
10666 overridden content-type by showing a plus sign
10669 If bit three is set (decimal 4) then the counter-evidence is always
10670 produced and a positive result will be used as the MIME type, even
10671 forcefully overriding the parts given MIME type.
10673 If bit four is set (decimal 8) as a last resort the actual content of
10674 .Ql application/octet-stream
10675 parts will be inspected, so that data which looks like plain text can be
10677 This mode is even more relaxed when data is to be displayed to the user
10678 or used as a message quote (data consumers which mangle data for display
10679 purposes, which includes masking of control characters, for example).
10684 .It Va mime-encoding
10686 .Ql Content-Transfer-Encoding
10687 to use in outgoing text messages and message parts, where applicable
10688 (7-bit clean text messages are without an encoding if possible):
10691 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql _%%_"
10693 .Pf (Or\0 Ql 8b . )
10694 8-bit transport effectively causes the raw data be passed through
10695 unchanged, but may cause problems when transferring mail messages over
10696 channels that are not ESMTP (RFC 1869) compliant.
10697 Also, several input data constructs are not allowed by the
10698 specifications and may cause a different transfer-encoding to be used.
10699 By established rules and popular demand occurrences of
10703 will be MBOXO quoted (prefixed with greater-than sign
10705 instead of causing a non-destructive encoding like
10706 .Ql quoted-printable
10707 to be chosen, unless context (like message signing) requires otherwise.
10709 .It Ql quoted-printable
10710 .Pf (Or\0 Ql qp . )
10711 Quoted-printable encoding is 7-bit clean and has the property that ASCII
10712 characters are passed through unchanged, so that an english message can
10713 be read as-is; it is also acceptable for other single-byte locales that
10714 share many characters with ASCII, for example ISO-8859-1.
10715 The encoding will cause a large overhead for messages in other character
10716 sets: for example it will require up to twelve (12) bytes to encode
10717 a single UTF-8 character of four (4) bytes.
10718 It is the default encoding.
10721 .Pf (Or\0 Ql b64 . )
10722 This encoding is 7-bit clean and will always be used for binary data.
10723 This encoding has a constant input:output ratio of 3:4, regardless of
10724 the character set of the input data it will encode three bytes of input
10725 to four bytes of output.
10726 This transfer-encoding is not human readable without performing
10732 .It Va mime-force-sendout
10733 \*(BO\*(OP Whenever it is not acceptable to fail sending out messages
10734 because of non-convertible character content this variable may be set.
10735 It will, as a last resort, classify the part content as
10736 .Ql application/octet-stream .
10737 Please refer to the section
10738 .Sx "Character sets"
10739 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
10742 .It Va mimetypes-load-control
10743 Can be used to control which of
10744 .Sx "The mime.types files"
10745 are loaded: if the letter
10747 is part of the option value, then the user's personal
10749 file will be loaded (if it exists); likewise the letter
10751 controls loading of the system wide
10753 directives found in the user file take precedence, letter matching is
10755 If this variable is not set \*(UA will try to load both files.
10756 Incorporation of the \*(UA-built-in MIME types cannot be suppressed,
10757 but they will be matched last (the order can be listed via
10760 More sources can be specified by using a different syntax: if the
10761 value string contains an equals sign
10763 then it is instead parsed as a comma-separated list of the described
10766 pairs; the given filenames will be expanded and loaded, and their
10767 content may use the extended syntax that is described in the section
10768 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
10769 Directives found in such files always take precedence (are prepended to
10770 the MIME type cache).
10775 Select an alternate Mail-Transfer-Agent by either specifying the full
10776 pathname of an executable (a
10778 prefix may be given), or \*(OPally a SMTP aka SUBMISSION protocol URL \*(IN:
10780 .Dl submissions://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
10783 .Ql [smtp://]server[:port] . )
10784 The default has been chosen at compile time.
10785 MTA data transfers are always performed in asynchronous child processes,
10786 and without supervision unless either the
10793 \*(OPally expansion of
10795 can be performed by setting
10799 For testing purposes there is the
10801 pseudo-MTA, which dumps to standard output or optionally to a file,
10803 .Va mbox-fcc-and-pcc :
10805 .Bd -literal -offset indent
10806 $ echo text | \*(uA -:/ -Smta=test -s ubject ex@am.ple
10807 $ </dev/null \*(uA -:/ -Smta=test://./xy ex@am.ple
10811 For a file-based MTA it may be necessary to set
10813 in in order to choose the right target of a modern
10816 It will be passed command line arguments from several possible sources:
10819 if set, from the command line if given and the variable
10822 Argument processing of the MTA will be terminated with a
10827 The otherwise occurring implicit usage of the following MTA command
10828 line arguments can be disabled by setting the boolean variable
10829 .Va mta-no-default-arguments
10830 (which will also disable passing
10834 (for not treating a line with only a dot
10836 character as the end of input),
10838 (shall the variable
10844 variable is set); in conjunction with the
10846 command line option or
10847 .Va r-option-implicit
10849 as well as possibly
10851 will (not) be passed.
10854 \*(OPally \*(UA can send mail over SMTP aka SUBMISSION network
10855 connections to a single defined smart host by setting this variable to
10856 a SMTP or SUBMISSION URL (see
10857 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
10858 An authentication scheme can be specified via the variable chain
10860 Encrypted network connections are \*(OPally available, the section
10861 .Sx "Encrypted network communication"
10862 should give an overview and provide links to more information on this.
10863 Note that with some mail providers it may be necessary to set the
10865 variable in order to use a specific combination of
10870 Network communication socket timeouts are configurable via
10871 .Va socket-connect-timeout .
10872 All generated network traffic may be proxied over a SOCKS
10874 it can be logged by setting
10877 The following SMTP variants may be used:
10881 The plain SMTP protocol (RFC 5321) that normally lives on the
10882 server port 25 and requires setting the
10883 .Va smtp-use-starttls
10884 variable to enter a TLS encrypted session state.
10885 Assign a value like \*(IN
10886 .Ql smtp://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
10888 .Ql smtp://server[:port] )
10889 to choose this protocol.
10891 The so-called SMTPS which is supposed to live on server port 465
10892 and is automatically TLS secured.
10893 Unfortunately it never became a standardized protocol and may thus not
10894 be supported by your hosts network service database
10895 \(en in fact the port number has already been reassigned to other
10898 SMTPS is nonetheless a commonly offered protocol and thus can be
10899 chosen by assigning a value like \*(IN
10900 .Ql smtps://[user[:password]@]server[:port]
10902 .Ql smtps://server[:port] ) ;
10903 due to the mentioned problems it is usually necessary to explicitly
10904 specify the port as
10908 The SUBMISSION protocol (RFC 6409) lives on server port 587 and
10909 is identically to the SMTP protocol from \*(UA's point of view;
10910 it requires setting
10911 .Va smtp-use-starttls
10912 to enter a TLS secured session state; e.g., \*(IN
10913 .Ql submission://[user[:password]@]server[:port] .
10915 The SUBMISSIONS protocol (RFC 8314) that lives on server port 465 and is
10916 TLS secured by default.
10917 It can be chosen by assigning a value like \*(IN
10918 .Ql submissions://[user[:password]@]server[:port] .
10919 Due to the problems mentioned for SMTPS above and the fact that
10920 SUBMISSIONS is new and a successor that lives on the same port as the
10921 historical engineering mismanagement named SMTPS, it is usually
10922 necessary to explicitly specify the port as
10929 \*(OP If set to a path pointing to a text file in valid MTA (Postfix)
10931 format, the file is loaded and cached (manageable with
10933 and henceforth plain
10937 message receiver names are recursively expanded as a last expansion
10938 step, after the distribution lists which can be created with
10942 content support: only local addresses (names) which are valid usernames
10943 .Pf ( Ql [a-z_][a-z0-9_-]*[$]? )
10944 are treated as expandable aliases, and \*(ID
10945 .Ql :include:/file/name
10946 directives are not supported.
10951 it can be asserted that only expanded names (mail addresses) are passed
10952 through to the MTA.
10955 .It Va mta-arguments
10956 Arguments to pass through to a file-based
10958 (Mail-Transfer-Agent), parsed according to
10959 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
10960 into an array of arguments which will be joined onto MTA options
10961 from other sources, for example
10962 .Ql \&? wysh set mta-arguments='-t -X \&"/tmp/my log\&"' .
10965 .It Va mta-no-default-arguments
10966 \*(BO Avoids passing standard command line options to a file-based
10968 (please see there).
10971 .It Va mta-no-receiver-arguments
10972 \*(BO By default all receiver addresses will be passed as command line
10973 options to a file-based
10975 Setting this variable disables this behaviour to aid those MTAs which
10976 employ special treatment of such arguments.
10977 Doing so can make it necessary to pass a
10980 .Va mta-arguments ,
10981 to testify the MTA that it should use the passed message as a template.
10985 Many systems use a so-called
10987 environment to ensure compatibility with
10989 This works by inspecting the name that was used to invoke the mail
10991 If this variable is set then the mailwrapper (the program that is
10992 actually executed when calling the file-based
10994 will treat its contents as that name.
10998 \*(BO In violation of RFC 5322 some MTAs do not remove
11000 header lines from transported messages after having noted the respective
11001 receivers for addressing purposes.
11002 (The MTAs Exim and Courier for example require the command line option
11004 to enforce removal.)
11005 Unless this is set corresponding receivers are addressed by
11006 protocol-specific means or MTA command line options only, the header
11007 itself is stripped before being sent over the wire.
11009 .Mx Va netrc-lookup
11010 .It Va netrc-lookup-USER@HOST , netrc-lookup-HOST , netrc-lookup
11011 \*(BO\*(IN\*(OP Used to control usage of the user's
11013 file for lookup of account credentials, as documented in the section
11014 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup"
11015 and for the command
11018 .Sx "The .netrc file"
11019 documents the file format.
11031 then \*(UA will read the output of a shell pipe instead of the user's
11033 file if this variable is set (to the desired shell command).
11034 This can be used to, for example, store
11037 .Ql \&? set netrc-pipe='gpg -qd ~/.netrc.pgp' .
11041 \*(OP If this variable has the value
11043 newly created local folders will be in Maildir instead of MBOX format.
11047 Checks for new mail in the current folder each time the prompt is shown.
11048 A Maildir folder must be re-scanned to determine if new mail has arrived.
11049 If this variable is set to the special value
11051 then a Maildir folder will not be rescanned completely, but only
11052 timestamp changes are detected.
11053 Maildir folders are \*(OPal.
11057 \*(BO Causes a non-absolute filename specified in
11059 as well as the sender-based filenames of the
11065 commands to be interpreted relative to the
11067 directory rather than relative to the current directory.
11069 .Mx Va on-account-cleanup
11070 .It Va on-account-cleanup-ACCOUNT , Va on-account-cleanup
11071 Macro hook which will be called once an
11073 is left, as the very last step before unrolling per-account
11075 This hook is run even in case of fatal errors, including those generated
11076 by switching to the account as such, and it is advisable to perform only
11077 absolutely necessary actions, like cleaning up
11080 The specialized form is used in favour of the generic one if found.
11083 .It Va on-compose-cleanup
11084 Macro hook which will be called after the message has been sent (or not,
11085 in case of failures), as the very last step before unrolling compose mode
11087 This hook is run even in case of fatal errors, and it is advisable to
11088 perform only absolutely necessary actions, like cleaning up
11092 For compose mode hooks that may affect the message content please see
11093 .Va on-compose-enter , on-compose-leave , on-compose-splice .
11094 \*(ID This hook exists because
11095 .Ic alias , alternates , commandalias , shortcut ,
11096 to name a few, are neither covered by
11100 changes applied in compose mode will continue to be in effect thereafter.
11105 .It Va on-compose-enter , on-compose-leave
11106 Macro hooks which will be called once compose mode is entered,
11107 and after composing has been finished, respectively;
11108 the exact order of the steps taken is documented for
11111 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
11112 Context about the message being worked on can be queried via
11115 are enabled for these hooks, and changes on variables will be forgotten
11116 after the message has been sent.
11117 .Va on-compose-cleanup
11118 can be used to perform other necessary cleanup steps.
11121 Here is an example that injects a signature via
11122 .Va message-inject-tail ;
11124 .Va on-compose-splice
11125 to simply inject the file of desire via
11129 may be a better approach.
11131 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11133 vput ! i cat ~/.mysig
11135 vput csop message-inject-tail trim-end $i
11139 readctl create ~/.mysig
11143 vput csop message-inject-tail trim-end $i
11145 readctl remove ~/.mysig
11148 set on-compose-leave=t_ocl
11154 .It Va on-compose-splice , on-compose-splice-shell
11155 These hooks run once the normal compose mode is finished, but before the
11156 .Va on-compose-leave
11157 macro hook is called etc.
11158 Both hooks will be executed in a subprocess, with their input and output
11159 connected to \*(UA such that they can act as if they would be an
11161 The difference in between them is that the latter is a
11163 command, whereas the former is a normal
11165 d macro, but which is restricted to a small set of commands (the
11167 output of for example
11169 will indicate said capability).
11171 are enabled for these hooks (in the parent process), causing any setting
11172 to be forgotten after the message has been sent;
11173 .Va on-compose-cleanup
11174 can be used to perform other cleanup as necessary.
11177 During execution of these hooks \*(UA will temporarily forget whether it
11178 has been started in interactive mode, (a restricted set of)
11179 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
11180 will always be available, and for guaranteed reproducibilities sake
11184 will be set to their defaults.
11185 The compose mode command
11187 has been especially designed for scriptability (via these hooks).
11188 The first line the hook will read on its standard input is the protocol
11189 version of said command escape, currently
11191 backward incompatible protocol changes have to be expected.
11194 Care must be taken to avoid deadlocks and other false control flow:
11195 if both involved processes wait for more input to happen at the
11196 same time, or one does not expect more input but the other is stuck
11197 waiting for consumption of its output, etc.
11198 There is no automatic synchronization of the hook: it will not be
11199 stopped automatically just because it, e.g., emits
11201 The hooks will however receive a termination signal if the parent enters
11202 an error condition.
11203 \*(ID Protection against and interaction with signals is not yet given;
11204 it is likely that in the future these scripts will be placed in an
11205 isolated session, which is signalled in its entirety as necessary.
11207 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11208 define ocs_signature {
11210 echo '~< ~/.mysig' # '~<! fortune pathtofortunefile'
11212 set on-compose-splice=ocs_signature
11214 wysh set on-compose-splice-shell=$'\e
11216 printf "hello $version! Headers: ";\e
11217 echo \e'~^header list\e';\e
11218 read status result;\e
11219 echo "status=$status result=$result";\e
11224 echo Splice protocol version is $version
11225 echo '~^h l'; read hl; vput csop es subs "${hl}" 0 1
11227 echoerr 'Cannot read header list'; echo '~x'; xit
11229 if "$hl" !%?case ' cc'
11230 echo '~^h i cc "Diet is your <mirr.or>"'; read es;\e
11231 vput csop es substring "${es}" 0 1
11233 echoerr 'Cannot insert Cc: header'; echo '~x'
11234 # (no xit, macro finishes anyway)
11238 set on-compose-splice=ocsm
11243 .It Va on-history-addition
11244 This hook will be called if an entry is about to be added to the
11246 of the MLE, as documented in
11247 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" .
11248 It will be called with three arguments: the first is the name of the
11251 the second is either an empty string or the matching
11253 type, and the third being the complete command line to be added.
11254 The entry will not be added to history if the hook uses a non-0
11256 \*(ID A future version will give the expanded command name as the third
11257 argument, followed by the tokenized command line as parsed in the
11258 remaining arguments, the first of which is the original unexpanded
11259 command name; i.e., one may do
11260 .Ql Ic shift Ns \| 4
11261 and will then be able to access the positional parameters as usual via
11266 .It Va on-main-loop-tick
11267 This hook will be called whenever the program's main event loop is
11268 about to read the next input line.
11269 Note variable and other changes it performs are not scoped as via
11273 .It Va on-program-exit
11274 This hook will be called when the program exits, whether via
11278 or because the send mode is done.
11280 this runs late and so terminal settings etc. are already teared down.
11283 .It Va on-resend-cleanup
11285 .Va on-compose-cleanup ,
11286 but is only triggered by
11290 .It Va on-resend-enter
11292 .Va on-compose-enter ,
11293 but is only triggered by
11295 currently there is no
11297 support, for example.
11301 \*(BO If set, each message feed through the command given for
11303 is followed by a formfeed character
11307 .It Va password-USER@HOST , password-HOST , password
11308 \*(IN Variable chain that sets a password, which is used in case none has
11309 been given in the protocol and account-specific URL;
11310 as a last resort \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal if
11311 the authentication method requires a password.
11312 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
11313 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
11315 .It Va password-USER@HOST
11316 \*(OU (see the chain above for \*(IN)
11317 Set the password for
11321 If no such variable is defined for a host,
11322 the user will be asked for a password on standard input.
11323 Specifying passwords in a startup file is generally a security risk;
11324 the file should be readable by the invoking user only.
11328 \*(BO Send messages to the
11330 command without performing MIME and character set conversions.
11334 .It Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
11335 When a MIME message part of type
11337 (case-insensitive) is displayed or quoted,
11338 its text is filtered through the value of this variable interpreted as
11340 Note that only parts which can be displayed inline as plain text (see
11341 .Cd copiousoutput )
11342 are displayed unless otherwise noted, other MIME parts will only be
11343 considered by and for the command
11347 The special value question mark
11349 forces interpretation of the message part as plain text, for example
11350 .Ql set pipe-application/xml=?
11351 will henceforth display XML
11353 (The same could also be achieved by adding a MIME type marker with the
11356 And \*(OPally MIME type handlers may be defined via
11357 .Sx "The Mailcap files"
11358 \(em these directives,
11360 has already been used, should be referred to for further documentation.
11365 can in fact be used as a trigger character to adjust usage and behaviour
11366 of a following shell command specification more thoroughly by appending
11367 more special characters which refer to further mailcap directives, for
11368 example the following hypothetical command specification could be used:
11370 .Bd -literal -offset indent
11371 ? set pipe-X/Y='?!++=? vim ${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}'
11375 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql __"
11377 The command produces plain text to be integrated in \*(UAs output:
11378 .Cd copiousoutput .
11381 If set the handler will not be invoked when a message is to be quoted,
11382 but only when it will be displayed:
11383 .Cd x-mailx-noquote .
11386 Run the command asynchronously, i.e., without blocking \*(UA:
11387 .Cd x-mailx-async .
11388 The standard output of the command will go to
11392 The command must be run on an interactive terminal, \*(UA will
11393 temporarily release the terminal to it:
11394 .Cd needsterminal .
11397 Request creation of a zero-sized temporary file, the absolute pathname
11398 of which will be made accessible via the environment variable
11399 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY :
11400 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile .
11401 If given twice then the file will be unlinked automatically by \*(UA
11402 when the command loop is entered again at latest:
11403 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink ;
11404 it is an error to use automatic deletion in conjunction with
11405 .Cd x-mailx-async .
11408 Normally the MIME part content is passed to the handler via standard
11409 input; if this flag is set then the data will instead be written into
11410 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
11411 .Pf ( Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill ) ,
11412 the creation of which is implied; in order to cause automatic deletion
11413 of the temporary file two plus signs
11415 still have to be used.
11418 To avoid ambiguities with normal shell command content another
11419 question mark can be used to forcefully terminate interpretation of
11420 remaining characters.
11421 (Any character not in this list will have the same effect.)
11425 Some information about the MIME part to be displayed is embedded into
11426 the environment of the shell command:
11429 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ev _AIL__ILENAME__ENERATED"
11431 .It Ev MAILX_CONTENT
11432 The MIME content-type of the part, if known, the empty string otherwise.
11435 .It Ev MAILX_CONTENT_EVIDENCE
11437 .Va mime-counter-evidence
11438 includes the carry-around-bit (2), then this will be set to the detected
11439 MIME content-type; not only then identical to
11440 .Ev \&\&MAILX_CONTENT
11444 .It Ev MAILX_EXTERNAL_BODY_URL
11446 .Ql message/external-body access-type=url
11447 will store the access URL in this variable, it is empty otherwise.
11448 URL targets should not be activated automatically, without supervision.
11451 .It Ev MAILX_FILENAME
11452 The filename, if any is set, the empty string otherwise.
11455 .It Ev MAILX_FILENAME_GENERATED
11459 .It Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY
11460 If temporary file creation has been requested through the command prefix
11461 this variable will be set and contain the absolute pathname of the
11467 .It Va pipe-EXTENSION
11468 This is identical to
11469 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE
11472 (normalized to lowercase using character mappings of the ASCII charset)
11473 names a file extension, for example
11475 Handlers registered using this method take precedence.
11478 .It Va pop3-auth-USER@HOST , pop3-auth-HOST , pop3-auth
11479 \*(OP\*(IN Variable chain that sets the POP3 authentication method.
11480 Supported are the default
11487 .Sx "But, how about XOAUTH2 / OAUTHBEARER?" ) ,
11492 for TLS secured connections which pass a client certificate via
11493 .Va tls-config-pairs .
11494 There may be the \*(OPal method \*(IN
11497 does not need any user credentials,
11503 the remains also require a
11506 solely builds upon the credentials passed via a client certificate,
11507 and is usually the way to go since tested servers do not actually follow
11508 RFC 4422, and fail if additional credentials are actually passed.
11513 method will \*(OPally be replaced with APOP if possible (see there).
11515 .Mx Va pop3-bulk-load
11516 .It Va pop3-bulk-load-USER@HOST , pop3-bulk-load-HOST , pop3-bulk-load
11517 \*(BO\*(OP When accessing a POP3 server \*(UA loads the headers of
11518 the messages, and only requests the message bodies on user request.
11519 For the POP3 protocol this means that the message headers will be
11521 If this variable is set then \*(UA will download only complete messages
11522 from the given POP3 server(s) instead.
11524 .Mx Va pop3-keepalive
11525 .It Va pop3-keepalive-USER@HOST , pop3-keepalive-HOST , pop3-keepalive
11526 \*(OP POP3 servers close the connection after a period of inactivity;
11527 the standard requires this to be at least 10 minutes,
11528 but practical experience may vary.
11529 Setting this variable to a numeric value greater than
11533 command to be sent each value seconds if no other operation is performed.
11535 .Mx Va pop3-no-apop
11536 .It Va pop3-no-apop-USER@HOST , pop3-no-apop-HOST , pop3-no-apop
11537 \*(BO\*(OP Unless this variable is set the MD5 based
11539 authentication method will be used instead of a chosen
11542 when connecting to a POP3 server that advertises support.
11545 is that only a single packet is sent for the user/password tuple.
11546 (Originally also that the password is not sent in clear text over the
11547 wire, but for one MD5 does not any longer offer sufficient security,
11548 and then today transport is almost ever TLS secured.)
11550 .Va pop3-no-apop-HOST
11553 .Mx Va pop3-use-starttls
11554 .It Va pop3-use-starttls-USER@HOST , pop3-use-starttls-HOST , pop3-use-starttls
11555 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a
11557 command to make an unencrypted POP3 session TLS encrypted.
11558 This functionality is not supported by all servers,
11559 and is not used if the session is already encrypted by the POP3S method.
11561 .Va pop3-use-starttls-HOST
11567 \*(BO This flag enables POSIX mode, which changes behaviour of \*(UA
11568 where that deviates from standardized behaviour.
11569 It is automatically squared with the environment variable
11570 .Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT ,
11571 changing the one will adjust the other.
11572 The following behaviour is covered and enforced by this mechanism:
11575 .Bl -bullet -compact
11577 In non-interactive mode, any error encountered while loading resource
11578 files during program startup will cause a program exit, whereas in
11579 interactive mode such errors will stop loading of the currently loaded
11580 (stack of) file(s, i.e., recursively).
11581 These exits can be circumvented on a per-command base by using
11584 .Sx "Command modifiers" ,
11585 for each command which shall be allowed to fail.
11589 will replace the list of alternate addresses instead of appending to it.
11590 In addition alternates will only be honoured for any sort of message
11595 The variable inserting
11596 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
11602 will expand embedded character sequences
11604 horizontal tabulator and
11607 \*(ID For compatibility reasons this step will always be performed.
11610 Reading in messages via
11612 .Pf ( Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" )
11621 Upon changing the active
11625 will be displayed even if
11632 implies the behaviour described by
11638 is extended to cover any empty mailbox, not only empty
11640 .Sx "primary system mailbox" Ns
11641 es: they will be removed when they are left in empty state otherwise.
11646 .It Va print-alternatives
11647 \*(BO When a MIME message part of type
11648 .Ql multipart/alternative
11649 is displayed and it contains a subpart of type
11651 other parts are normally discarded.
11652 Setting this variable causes all subparts to be displayed,
11653 just as if the surrounding part was of type
11654 .Ql multipart/mixed .
11658 The string used as a prompt in interactive mode.
11659 Whenever the variable is evaluated the value is treated as if specified
11660 within dollar-single-quotes (see
11661 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting" ) .
11662 This (post-assignment, i.e., second) expansion can be used to embed
11663 status information, for example
11668 .Va mailbox-display .
11670 In order to embed characters which should not be counted when
11671 calculating the visual width of the resulting string, enclose the
11672 characters of interest in a pair of reverse solidus escaped brackets:
11674 a slot for coloured prompts is also available with the \*(OPal command
11676 Prompting may be prevented by setting this to the null string
11678 .Ql set noprompt ) .
11682 This string is used for secondary prompts, but is otherwise identical to
11689 \*(BO Suppresses the printing of the version when first invoked.
11693 If set messages processed by variants of
11697 will start with the original message, lines of which prefixed by
11699 taking into account
11703 No headers will be quoted when set without value or for
11710 selection will be included in the quote,
11712 embeds the (body) contents of all MIME parts, and
11714 also includes all headers.
11715 The quoted message will be enclosed by the expansions of
11716 .Va quote-inject-head
11718 .Va quote-inject-tail .
11721 .Va quote-as-attachment
11725 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
11728 .It Va quote-add-cc
11729 \*(BO Whether senders of messages quoted via
11731 shall be made members of the carbon copies
11736 .It Va quote-as-attachment
11737 \*(BO Add the original message in its entirety as a
11739 MIME attachment when replying to a message.
11740 Note this works regardless of the setting of
11745 Can be set to a string consisting of non-whitespace ASCII characters
11746 which shall be treated as quotation leaders, the default being
11751 \*(OP Can be set in addition to
11753 and creates a more fancy quotation in that leading quotation characters
11754 .Pf ( Va quote-chars )
11755 are compressed and overlong lines are folded.
11757 can be set to either one, two or three (space separated) numeric values,
11758 which are interpreted as the maximum (goal) and the minimum line length,
11759 respectively, in a spirit rather equal to the
11761 program, but line- instead of paragraph-based.
11762 The third value is used as the maximum line length instead of the first
11763 if no better break point can be found; it is ignored unless it is larger
11764 than the minimum and smaller than the maximum.
11765 If not set explicitly the minimum will reflect the goal algorithmically.
11766 The goal cannot be smaller than the length of
11768 plus some additional pad; necessary adjustments take place silently.
11773 .It Va quote-inject-head , quote-inject-tail
11774 The strings to put before and after the text of a
11776 d message, if non-empty, and respectively.
11777 The former defaults to
11778 .Ql %f wrote:\en\en .
11779 Special format directives will be expanded if possible, and if so
11780 configured the output will be folded according to
11782 Format specifiers in the given strings start with a percent sign
11784 and expand values of the original message, unless noted otherwise.
11785 Note that names and addresses are not subject to the setting of
11787 Valid format specifiers are:
11790 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ql _%%_"
11792 A plain percent sign.
11794 The address(es) of the sender(s).
11796 The date found in the
11798 header of the message when
11800 is set (the default), otherwise the date when the message was received.
11801 Formatting can be controlled by assigning a
11806 .Va datefield-markout-older ) .
11808 The full name(s) (name and address, as given) of the sender(s).
11813 The real name(s) of the sender(s) if there is one and
11815 allows usage, the address(es) otherwise.
11817 The senders real name(s) if there is one, the address(es) otherwise.
11822 .It Va r-option-implicit
11823 \*(BO Setting this option evaluates the contents of
11825 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
11827 and passes the results onto the used (file-based) MTA as described for the
11829 option (empty argument case).
11832 .It Va recipients-in-cc
11839 as well as addressees which possibly came in via
11842 .Ql Mail-Followup-To:
11843 are by default merged into the new
11845 If this variable is set a sensitive algorithm tries to place in
11847 only the sender of the message being replied to, others are placed in
11852 Unless this variable is defined, no copies of outgoing mail will be saved.
11853 If defined it gives the pathname, subject to the usual
11854 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
11855 of a folder where all new, replied-to or forwarded messages are saved:
11856 when saving to this folder fails the message is not sent, but instead
11860 The standard defines that relative (fully expanded) paths are to be
11861 interpreted relative to the current directory
11863 to force interpretation relative to
11866 needs to be set in addition.
11869 .It Va record-files
11870 \*(BO If this variable is set the meaning of
11872 will be extended to cover messages which target only file and pipe
11875 These address types will not appear in recipient lists unless
11876 .Va add-file-recipients
11880 .It Va record-resent
11881 \*(BO If this variable is set the meaning of
11883 will be extended to also cover the
11890 .It Va reply-in-same-charset
11891 \*(BO If this variable is set \*(UA first tries to use the same
11892 character set of the original message for replies.
11893 If this fails, the mechanism described in
11894 .Sx "Character sets"
11895 is evaluated as usual.
11898 .It Va reply-strings
11899 Can be set to a comma-separated list of (case-insensitive according to
11900 ASCII rules) strings which shall be recognized in addition to the
11901 built-in strings as
11903 reply message indicators \(en built-in are
11905 which is mandated by RFC 5322, as well as the german
11910 which often has been seen in the wild;
11911 I.e., the separating colon has to be specified explicitly.
11915 A list of addresses to put into the
11917 field of the message header.
11918 Members of this list are handled as if they were in the
11927 .It Va reply-to-honour
11930 header is honoured when replying to a message via
11937 if set without a value it defaults to
11941 .It Va reply-to-swap-in
11942 Standards like DKIM and (in conjunction with) DMARC caused many
11943 .Sx "Mailing lists"
11944 to use sender address rewriting in the style of
11945 .Ql Name via List <list@address> ,
11946 where the original sender address often being placed in
11948 If this is set and a
11950 exists, and consists of only one addressee (!), then that is used in
11951 place of the pretended sender.
11952 This works independently from
11953 .Va reply-to-honour .
11954 The optional value, a comma-separated list of strings, offers more
11955 fine-grained control on when swapping shall be used; for now supported is
11957 here swapping occurs if the sender is a mailing-list as defined by
11961 .It Va rfc822-body-from_
11962 \*(BO This variable can be used to force displaying a so-called
11964 line for messages that are embedded into an envelope mail via the
11966 MIME mechanism, for more visual convenience, also see
11971 \*(BO Enable saving of (partial) messages in
11973 upon interrupt or delivery error.
11977 The number of lines that represents a
11986 line display and scrolling via
11988 If this variable is not set \*(UA falls back to a calculation based upon
11989 the detected terminal window size and the baud rate: the faster the
11990 terminal, the more will be shown.
11991 Overall screen dimensions and pager usage is influenced by the
11992 environment variables
12000 .It Va searchheaders
12001 \*(BO Expand message list specifiers in the form
12003 to all messages containing the substring
12005 in the header field
12007 The string search is case insensitive.
12010 .It Va sendcharsets
12011 \*(OP A comma-separated list of character set names that can be used in
12012 outgoing internet mail.
12013 The value of the variable
12015 is automatically appended to this list of character sets.
12016 If no character set conversion capabilities are compiled into \*(UA then
12017 the only supported charset is
12020 .Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
12021 and refer to the section
12022 .Sx "Character sets"
12023 for the complete picture of character set conversion in \*(UA.
12026 .It Va sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
12027 \*(BO\*(OP If this variable is set, but
12029 is not, then \*(UA acts as if
12031 had been set to the value of the variable
12033 In effect this combination passes through the message data in the
12034 character set of the current locale encoding:
12035 therefore mail message text will be (assumed to be) in ISO-8859-1
12036 encoding when send from within a ISO-8859-1 locale, and in UTF-8
12037 encoding when send from within an UTF-8 locale.
12041 never comes into play as
12043 is implicitly assumed to be 8-bit and capable to represent all files the
12044 user may specify (as is the case when no character set conversion
12045 support is available in \*(UA and the only supported character set is
12048 .Sx "Character sets" ) .
12049 This might be a problem for scripts which use the suggested
12051 setting, since in this case the character set is US-ASCII by definition,
12052 so that it is better to also override
12054 then; and/or do something like the following in the resource file:
12055 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12056 # Avoid ASCII "propagates to 8-bit" when scripting
12057 \eif ! t && "$LC_ALL" != C && "$LC_CTYPE" != C
12058 \eset sendcharsets-else-ttycharset
12064 An address that is put into the
12066 field of outgoing messages, quoting RFC 5322: the mailbox of the agent
12067 responsible for the actual transmission of the message.
12068 This field should normally not be used unless the
12070 field contains more than one address, on which case it is required.
12071 \*(ID Please expect automatic management of the
12076 Dependent on the context this address is handled as if it were in
12081 .Va r-option-implicit .
12084 \*(OB Predecessor of
12087 .It Va sendmail-arguments
12088 \*(OB Predecessor of
12089 .Va mta-arguments .
12091 .It Va sendmail-no-default-arguments
12092 \*(OB\*(BO Predecessor of
12093 .Va mta-no-default-arguments .
12095 .It Va sendmail-progname
12096 \*(OB Predecessor of
12101 Sending messages to the chosen
12103 or to command-pipe receivers (see
12104 .Sx "On sending mail, and non-interactive mode" )
12105 will be performed asynchronously.
12106 This means that only startup errors of the respective program will be
12107 recognizable, but no delivery errors.
12108 Also, no guarantees can be made as to when the respective program will
12109 actually run, as well as to when they will have produced output.
12111 If this variable is set then child program exit is waited for, and its
12112 exit status code is used to decide about success.
12113 Remarks: in conflict with the POSIX standard this variable is built-in
12114 to be initially set.
12115 Another difference is that it can have a value, which is interpreted as
12116 a comma-separated list of case-insensitive strings naming specific
12117 subsystems for which synchronousness shall be ensured (only).
12118 Possible values are
12124 for command-pipe receivers.
12128 \*(BO This setting causes \*(UA to start at the last message
12129 instead of the first one when opening a mail folder, as well as with
12136 \*(BO Causes \*(UA to use the sender's real name instead of the plain
12137 address in the header field summary and in message specifications.
12141 \*(BO Causes the recipient of the message to be shown in the header
12142 summary if the message was sent by the user.
12149 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
12151 .Va message-inject-tail ,
12152 .Va on-compose-leave
12154 .Va on-compose-splice .
12161 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" .
12163 .Va message-inject-tail ,
12164 .Va on-compose-leave
12166 .Va on-compose-splice .
12171 .Va on-compose-splice
12173 .Va on-compose-splice-shell
12175 .Va on-compose-leave
12177 .Va message-inject-tail
12181 .It Va skipemptybody
12182 \*(BO If an outgoing message has an empty first or only message part, do
12183 not send, but discard it, successfully (also see the command line option
12188 .It Va smime-ca-dir , smime-ca-file
12189 \*(OP Specify the location of trusted CA certificates in PEM (Privacy
12190 Enhanced Mail) for the purpose of verification of S/MIME signed messages.
12192 documents the necessary preparation steps to use the former.
12193 The set of CA certificates which are built into the TLS library can
12194 be explicitly turned off by setting
12195 .Va smime-ca-no-defaults ,
12196 and further fine-tuning is possible via
12197 .Va smime-ca-flags .
12200 .It Va smime-ca-flags
12201 \*(OP Can be used to fine-tune behaviour of the X509 CA certificate
12202 storage, and the certificate verification that is used.
12203 The actual values and their meanings are documented for
12207 .It Va smime-ca-no-defaults
12208 \*(BO\*(OP Do not load the default CA locations that are built into the
12209 used to TLS library to verify S/MIME signed messages.
12211 .Mx Va smime-cipher
12212 .It Va smime-cipher-USER@HOST , smime-cipher
12213 \*(OP Specifies the cipher to use when generating S/MIME encrypted
12214 messages (for the specified account).
12215 RFC 5751 mandates a default of
12218 Possible values are (case-insensitive and) in decreasing cipher strength:
12226 (DES EDE3 CBC, 168 bits; default if
12228 is not available) and
12230 (DES CBC, 56 bits).
12232 The actually available cipher algorithms depend on the cryptographic
12233 library that \*(UA uses.
12234 \*(OP Support for more cipher algorithms may be available through
12235 dynamic loading via
12236 .Xr EVP_get_cipherbyname 3
12237 (OpenSSL) if \*(UA has been compiled to support this.
12240 .It Va smime-crl-dir
12241 \*(OP Specifies a directory that contains files with CRLs in PEM format
12242 to use when verifying S/MIME messages.
12245 .It Va smime-crl-file
12246 \*(OP Specifies a file that contains a CRL in PEM format to use when
12247 verifying S/MIME messages.
12250 .It Va smime-encrypt-USER@HOST
12251 \*(OP If this variable is set, messages send to the given receiver are
12252 encrypted before sending.
12253 The value of the variable must be set to the name of a file that
12254 contains a certificate in PEM format.
12256 If a message is sent to multiple recipients,
12257 each of them for whom a corresponding variable is set will receive an
12258 individually encrypted message;
12259 other recipients will continue to receive the message in plain text
12261 .Va smime-force-encryption
12263 It is recommended to sign encrypted messages, i.e., to also set the
12266 .Va content-description-smime-message
12267 will be inspected for messages which become encrypted.
12270 .It Va smime-force-encryption
12271 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to refuse sending unencrypted messages.
12275 \*(BO\*(OP S/MIME sign outgoing messages with the user's
12277 private key and include the users certificate as a MIME attachment.
12278 Signing a message enables a recipient to verify that the sender used
12279 a valid certificate,
12280 that the email addresses in the certificate match those in the message
12281 header and that the message content has not been altered.
12282 It does not change the message text,
12283 and people will be able to read the message as usual.
12284 .Va content-description-smime-signature
12287 .Va smime-sign-cert , smime-sign-include-certs
12289 .Va smime-sign-digest .
12291 .Mx Va smime-sign-cert
12292 .It Va smime-sign-cert-USER@HOST , smime-sign-cert
12293 \*(OP Points to a file in PEM format.
12294 For the purpose of signing and decryption this file needs to contain the
12295 user's private key, followed by his certificate.
12297 For message signing
12299 is always derived from the value of
12301 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
12303 For the purpose of encryption the recipients public encryption key
12304 (certificate) is expected; the command
12306 can be used to save certificates of signed messages (the section
12307 .Sx "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
12308 gives some details).
12309 This mode of operation is usually driven by the specialized form.
12311 When decrypting messages the account is derived from the recipient
12316 of the message, which are searched for addresses for which such
12318 \*(UA always uses the first address that matches,
12319 so if the same message is sent to more than one of the user addresses
12320 using different encryption keys, decryption might fail.
12322 Password-encrypted keys may be used for signing and decryption.
12323 Automated password lookup is possible via the
12325 .Ql USER@HOST.smime-cert-key
12326 for the private key, and
12327 .Ql USER@HOST.smime-cert-cert
12328 for the certificate stored in the same file.
12329 For example, the hypothetical address
12331 could be driven with a private key / certificate pair path defined in
12332 .Va \&\&smime-sign-cert-bob@exam.ple ,
12333 and the needed passwords would then be looked up as
12334 .Ql bob@exam.ple.smime-cert-key
12336 .Ql bob@exam.ple.smime-cert-cert .
12337 When decrypting the value of
12339 will be tried as a fallback to provide the necessary
12341 To include intermediate certificates, use
12342 .Va smime-sign-include-certs .
12343 The possible password sources are documented in
12344 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
12346 .Mx Va smime-sign-digest
12347 .It Va smime-sign-digest-USER@HOST , smime-sign-digest
12348 \*(OP Specifies the message digest to use when signing S/MIME messages.
12349 Please remember that for this use case
12351 refers to the variable
12353 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
12355 The available algorithms depend on the used cryptographic library, but
12356 at least one usable built-in algorithm is ensured as a default.
12357 If possible the standard RFC 5751 will be violated by using
12359 instead of the mandated
12361 due to security concerns.
12362 This variable is ignored for very old (released before 2010)
12363 cryptographic libraries which do not offer the necessary interface:
12364 it will be logged if that happened.
12366 \*(UA will try to add built-in support for the following message
12367 digests, names are case-insensitive:
12374 as well as the widely available
12379 and the proposed insecure
12383 More digests may \*(OPally be available through dynamic loading via the
12385 .Xr EVP_get_digestbyname 3 .
12387 .Mx Va smime-sign-include-certs
12388 .It Va smime-sign-include-certs-USER@HOST , smime-sign-include-certs
12389 \*(OP If used, this is supposed to a consist of a comma-separated list
12390 of files, each of which containing a single certificate in PEM format to
12391 be included in the S/MIME message in addition to the
12392 .Va smime-sign-cert
12394 This can be used to include intermediate certificates of the certificate
12395 authority, in order to allow the receiver's S/MIME implementation to
12396 perform a verification of the entire certificate chain, starting from
12397 a local root certificate, over the intermediate certificates, down to the
12398 .Va smime-sign-cert .
12399 Even though top level certificates may also be included in the chain,
12400 they will not be used for the verification on the receiver's side.
12402 For the purpose of the mechanisms involved here,
12404 refers to the content of the internal variable
12406 (or, if that contains multiple addresses,
12409 .Ql USER@HOST.smime-include-certs
12410 will be used for performing password lookups for these certificates,
12411 shall they have been given one, therefore the lookup can be automated
12412 via the mechanisms described in
12413 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" .
12415 .It Va smime-sign-message-digest-USER@HOST , smime-sign-message-digest
12416 \*(OB\*(OP Predecessor(s) of
12417 .Va smime-sign-digest .
12420 \*(OB\*(OP To use the built-in SMTP transport, specify a SMTP URL in
12422 \*(ID For compatibility reasons a set
12424 is used in preference of
12428 .It Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST , smtp-auth-HOST , smtp-auth
12429 \*(OP Variable chain that controls the SMTP
12431 authentication method, possible values are
12442 .Sx "But, how about XOAUTH2 / OAUTHBEARER?" )
12447 for TLS secured connections which pass a client certificate via
12448 .Va tls-config-pairs .
12449 There may be the \*(OPal methods
12456 do not need any user credentials,
12460 require a user name, and all other methods require a
12465 solely builds upon the credentials passed via a client certificate,
12466 and is usually the way to go since tested servers do not actually follow
12467 RFC 4422 aka RFC 4954, and fail if additional credentials are passed.
12474 .Va smtp-auth-password
12476 .Va smtp-auth-user .
12478 .Va smtp-auth-USER@HOST :
12479 may override dependent on sender address in the variable
12482 .It Va smtp-auth-password
12483 \*(OP\*(OU Sets the global fallback password for SMTP authentication.
12484 If the authentication method requires a password, but neither
12485 .Va smtp-auth-password
12487 .Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
12489 \*(UA will ask for a password on the user's terminal.
12491 .It Va smtp-auth-password-USER@HOST
12493 .Va smtp-auth-password
12494 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
12497 .It Va smtp-auth-user
12498 \*(OP\*(OU Sets the global fallback user name for SMTP authentication.
12499 If the authentication method requires a user name, but neither
12502 .Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
12504 \*(UA will ask for a user name on the user's terminal.
12506 .It Va smtp-auth-user-USER@HOST
12509 for specific values of sender addresses, dependent upon the variable
12513 .It Va smtp-hostname
12514 \*(OP\*(IN Normally \*(UA uses the variable
12516 to derive the necessary
12518 information in order to issue a
12525 can be used to use the
12527 from the SMTP account
12535 if the empty string is given, or the local hostname as a last resort).
12536 This often allows using an address that is itself valid but hosted by
12537 a provider other than from which (in
12539 the message is sent.
12540 Setting this variable also influences generated
12545 If the \*(OPal IDNA support is available (see
12547 variable assignment is aborted when a necessary conversion fails.
12549 .Mx Va smtp-use-starttls
12550 .It Va smtp-use-starttls-USER@HOST , smtp-use-starttls-HOST , smtp-use-starttls
12551 \*(BO\*(OP Causes \*(UA to issue a
12553 command to make an SMTP
12555 session TLS encrypted, i.e., to enable transport layer security.
12558 .It Va socket-connect-timeout
12559 \*(OP A positive number that defines the timeout to wait for
12560 establishing a socket connection before forcing
12561 .Va ^ERR Ns -TIMEDOUT .
12564 .It Va socks-proxy-USER@HOST , socks-proxy-HOST , socks-proxy
12565 \*(OP If set to the URL of a SOCKS5 server then all network activities
12566 are proxied through it, except for the single DNS name lookup necessary
12567 to resolve the proxy URL (unnecessary when given an already resolved IP
12569 It is automatically squared with the environment variable
12571 changing the one will adjust the other.
12572 This example creates a local SOCKS5 proxy on port 10000 that forwards to
12577 and from which actual network traffic happens:
12578 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12579 $ ssh -D 10000 USER@HOST
12580 $ \*(uA -Ssocks-proxy=[socks5://]localhost:10000
12581 # or =localhost:10000; no local DNS: =127.0.0.1:10000
12585 .It Va spam-interface
12586 \*(OP In order to use any of the spam-related commands (like
12588 the desired spam interface must be defined by setting this variable.
12589 Please refer to the manual section
12590 .Sx "Handling spam"
12591 for the complete picture of spam handling in \*(UA.
12592 All or none of the following interfaces may be available:
12594 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ql _ilte_"
12600 .Pf ( Lk http://spamassassin.apache.org SpamAssassin )
12602 Different to the generic filter interface \*(UA will automatically add
12603 the correct arguments for a given command and has the necessary
12604 knowledge to parse the program's output.
12605 A default value for
12607 will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if
12611 during compilation.
12612 Shall it be necessary to define a specific connection type (rather than
12613 using a configuration file for that), the variable
12614 .Va spamc-arguments
12615 can be used as in for example
12616 .Ql -d server.example.com -p 783 .
12617 It is also possible to specify a per-user configuration via
12619 Note that this interface does not inspect the
12621 flag of a message for the command
12625 generic spam filter support via freely configurable hooks.
12626 This interface is meant for programs like
12628 and requires according behaviour in respect to the hooks' exit
12629 status for at least the command
12632 meaning a message is spam,
12636 for unsure and any other return value indicating a hard error);
12637 since the hooks can include shell code snippets diverting behaviour
12638 can be intercepted as necessary.
12640 .Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , spamfilter-nospam , \
12643 .Va spamfilter-spam ;
12645 .Sx "Handling spam"
12646 contains examples for some programs.
12647 The process environment of the hooks will have the variable
12648 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_GENERATED
12650 Note that spam score support for
12652 is not supported unless the \*(OPtional regular expression support is
12654 .Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore
12660 .It Va spam-maxsize
12661 \*(OP Messages that exceed this size will not be passed through to the
12663 .Va spam-interface .
12664 If unset or 0, the default of 420000 bytes is used.
12667 .It Va spamc-command
12668 \*(OP The path to the
12672 .Va spam-interface .
12673 Note that the path is not expanded, but used
12675 A fallback path will have been compiled into the \*(UA binary if the
12676 executable had been found during compilation.
12679 .It Va spamc-arguments
12680 \*(OP Even though \*(UA deals with most arguments for the
12683 automatically, it may at least sometimes be desirable to specify
12684 connection-related ones via this variable, for example
12685 .Ql -d server.example.com -p 783 .
12689 \*(OP Specify a username for per-user configuration files for the
12691 .Va spam-interface .
12692 If this is set to the empty string then \*(UA will use the name of the
12701 .It Va spamfilter-ham , spamfilter-noham , \
12702 spamfilter-nospam , spamfilter-rate , spamfilter-spam
12703 \*(OP Command and argument hooks for the
12705 .Va spam-interface .
12707 .Sx "Handling spam"
12708 contains examples for some programs.
12711 .It Va spamfilter-rate-scanscore
12712 \*(OP Because of the generic nature of the
12715 spam scores are not supported for it by default, but if the \*(OPnal
12716 regular expression support is available then setting this variable can
12717 be used to overcome this restriction.
12718 It is interpreted as follows: first a number (digits) is parsed that
12719 must be followed by a semicolon
12721 and an extended regular expression.
12722 Then the latter is used to parse the first output line of the
12723 .Va spamfilter-rate
12724 hook, and, in case the evaluation is successful, the group that has been
12725 specified via the number is interpreted as a floating point scan score.
12727 .It Va ssl-ca-dir-USER@HOST , ssl-ca-dir-HOST , ssl-ca-dir ,\
12728 ssl-ca-file-USER@HOST , ssl-ca-file-HOST , ssl-ca-file
12729 \*(OB\*(OP Predecessors of
12733 .It Va ssl-ca-flags-USER@HOST , ssl-ca-flags-HOST , ssl-ca-flags
12734 \*(OB\*(OP Predecessor of
12737 .It Va ssl-ca-no-defaults-USER@HOST , ssl-ca-no-defaults-HOST ,\
12739 \*(OB\*(BO\*(OP Predecessor of
12740 .Va tls-ca-no-defaults .
12742 .It Va ssl-cert-USER@HOST , ssl-cert-HOST , ssl-cert
12743 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
12746 .Va tls-config-pairs .
12748 .It Va ssl-cipher-list-USER@HOST , ssl-cipher-list-HOST , ssl-cipher-list
12749 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
12752 .Va tls-config-pairs .
12754 .It Va ssl-config-file
12755 \*(OB\*(OP Predecessor of
12756 .Va tls-config-file .
12758 .It Va ssl-config-module-USER@HOST , ssl-config-module-HOST ,\
12760 \*(OB\*(OP Predecessor of
12761 .Va tls-config-module .
12763 .It Va ssl-config-pairs-USER@HOST , ssl-config-pairs-HOST , ssl-config-pairs
12764 \*(OB\*(OP Predecessor of
12765 .Va tls-config-pairs .
12767 .It Va ssl-crl-dir , ssl-crl-file
12768 \*(OB\*(OP Predecessors of
12772 .It Va ssl-curves-USER@HOST , ssl-curves-HOST , ssl-curves
12773 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
12776 .Va tls-config-pairs .
12778 .It Va ssl-features
12779 \*(OB\*(OP\*(RO Predecessor of
12782 .It Va ssl-key-USER@HOST , ssl-key-HOST , ssl-key
12783 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
12786 .Va tls-config-pairs .
12788 .It Va ssl-method-USER@HOST , ssl-method-HOST , ssl-method
12789 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
12792 .Va tls-config-pairs .
12794 .It Va ssl-protocol-USER@HOST , ssl-protocol-HOST , ssl-protocol
12795 \*(OB\*(OP Please use the
12798 .Va tls-config-pairs .
12800 .It Va ssl-rand-file
12801 \*(OB\*(OP Predecessor of
12802 .Va tls-rand-file .
12804 .It Va ssl-verify-USER@HOST , ssl-verify-HOST , ssl-verify
12805 \*(OB\*(OP Predecessor of
12810 If only set without an assigned value, then this setting inhibits the
12816 header fields that include obvious references to \*(UA.
12817 There are two pitfalls associated with this:
12818 First, the message id of outgoing messages is not known anymore.
12819 Second, an expert may still use the remaining information in the header
12820 to track down the originating mail user agent.
12821 If set to the value
12827 suppression does not occur.
12830 .It Va system-mailrc
12831 \*(RO The compiled in path of the system wide initialization file
12833 .Sx "Resource files" :
12839 (\*(OP) This specifies a comma-separated list of
12844 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" ,
12845 escape commas with reverse solidus
12847 to be used to overwrite or define entries.
12849 this variable will only be queried once at program startup and can
12850 thus only be specified in resource files or on the command line.
12851 It will always be inspected, regardless of whether
12853 denotes termcap/terminfo library support via
12857 String capabilities form
12859 pairs and are expected unless noted otherwise.
12860 Numerics have to be notated as
12862 where the number is expected in normal decimal notation.
12863 Finally, booleans do not have any value but indicate a true or false
12864 state simply by being defined or not; this indeed means that \*(UA
12865 does not support undefining an existing boolean.
12866 String capability values will undergo some expansions before use:
12867 for one notations like
12870 .Ql control-LETTER ,
12871 and for clarification purposes
12873 can be used to specify
12875 (the control notation
12877 could lead to misreadings when a left bracket follows, which it does for
12878 the standard CSI sequence);
12879 finally three letter octal sequences, as in
12882 To specify that a terminal supports 256-colours, and to define sequences
12883 that home the cursor and produce an audible bell, one might write:
12885 .Bd -literal -offset indent
12886 ? set termcap='Co#256,home=\eE[H,bel=^G'
12890 The following terminal capabilities are or may be meaningful for the
12891 operation of the built-in line editor or \*(UA in general:
12894 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Cd yay"
12896 .Cd auto_right_margin :
12897 boolean which indicates if the right margin needs special treatment; the
12899 capability is related, for more see
12901 This capability is only used when backed by library support.
12903 .It Cd clear Ns \0or Cd cl
12905 clear the screen and home cursor.
12906 (Will be simulated via
12912 .It Cd colors Ns \0or Cd Co
12914 numeric capability specifying the maximum number of colours.
12915 Note that \*(UA does not actually care about the terminal beside that,
12916 but always emits ANSI / ISO 6429 escape sequences; also see
12920 .Cd carriage_return :
12921 move to the first column in the current row.
12922 The default built-in fallback is
12925 .It Cd cub1 Ns \0or Cd le
12927 move the cursor left one space (non-destructively).
12928 The default built-in fallback is
12931 .It Cd cuf1 Ns \0or Cd nd
12933 move the cursor right one space (non-destructively).
12934 The default built-in fallback is
12936 which is used by most terminals.
12942 .It Cd ed Ns \0or Cd cd
12947 .It Cd el Ns \0or Cd ce
12949 clear to the end of line.
12950 (Will be simulated via
12952 plus repetitions of space characters.)
12954 .It Cd home Ns \0or Cd ho
12958 .It Cd hpa Ns \0or Cd ch
12959 .Cd column_address :
12960 move the cursor (to the given column parameter) in the current row.
12961 (Will be simulated via
12966 .\" mx_HAVE_TERMCAP
12967 .It Cd rmcup Ns \0or Cd te Ns \0/ Cd smcup Ns \0or Cd ti
12970 .Cd enter_ca_mode ,
12971 respectively: exit and enter the alternative screen ca-mode,
12972 effectively turning \*(UA into a fullscreen application.
12973 This must be enabled explicitly by setting
12974 .Va termcap-ca-mode .
12976 .It Cd smkx Ns \0or Cd ks Ns \0/ Cd rmkx Ns \0or Cd ke
12980 respectively: enable and disable the keypad.
12981 This is always enabled if available, because it seems even keyboards
12982 without keypads generate other key codes for, e.g., cursor keys in that
12983 case, and only if enabled we see the codes that we are interested in.
12985 .It Cd xenl Ns \0or Cd xn
12986 .Cd eat_newline_glitch :
12987 boolean which indicates whether a newline written in the last column of an
12988 .Cd auto_right_margin
12989 indicating terminal is ignored.
12990 With it the full terminal width is available even on autowrap terminals.
12991 This will be inspected even without
12997 Many more capabilities which describe key-sequences are documented for
13002 .It Va termcap-ca-mode
13003 \*(OP Allow usage of the
13008 abilities in order to enter an alternative exclusive screen, the
13009 so-called ca-mode; this usually requires special configuration of the
13011 also dependent on the value of
13014 this variable will only be queried once at program startup and can
13015 thus only be specified in resource files or on the command line.
13018 .It Va termcap-disable
13019 \*(OP Disable any interaction with a terminal control library.
13020 If set only some generic fallback built-ins and possibly the content of
13022 describe the terminal to \*(UA.
13024 this variable will only be queried once at program startup and can
13025 thus only be specified in resource files or on the command line.
13029 .It Va tls-ca-dir-USER@HOST , tls-ca-dir-HOST , tls-ca-dir ,\
13030 tls-ca-file-USER@HOST , tls-ca-file-HOST , tls-ca-file
13031 \*(OP Directory and file, respectively, for pools of trusted CA
13032 certificates in PEM (Privacy Enhanced Mail) format, for the purpose of
13033 verification of TLS server certificates.
13034 Concurrent use is possible, the file is loaded once needed first, the
13035 directory lookup is performed anew as a last resort whenever necessary.
13036 The CA certificate pool built into the TLS library can be disabled via
13037 .Va tls-ca-no-defaults ,
13038 further fine-tuning is possible via
13040 The directory search requires special filename conventions, please see
13041 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
13048 .Mx Va tls-ca-flags
13049 .It Va tls-ca-flags-USER@HOST , tls-ca-flags-HOST , tls-ca-flags
13050 \*(OP Can be used to fine-tune behaviour of the X509 CA certificate
13051 storage, and the certificate verification that is used (also see
13053 The value is expected to consist of a comma-separated list of
13054 configuration directives, with any intervening whitespace being ignored.
13055 The directives directly map to flags that can be passed to
13056 .Xr X509_STORE_set_flags 3 ,
13057 which are usually defined in a file
13058 .Pa openssl/x509_vfy.h ,
13059 and the availability of which depends on the used TLS library
13060 version: a directive without mapping is ignored (error log subject to
13062 Directives currently understood (case-insensitively) include:
13065 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Cd BaNg"
13066 .It Cd no-alt-chains
13067 If the initial chain is not trusted, do not attempt to build an
13069 Setting this flag will make OpenSSL certificate verification match that
13070 of older OpenSSL versions, before automatic building and checking of
13071 alternative chains has been implemented; also see
13072 .Cd trusted-first .
13073 .It Cd no-check-time
13074 Do not check certificate/CRL validity against current time.
13075 .It Cd partial-chain
13076 By default partial, incomplete chains which cannot be verified up to the
13077 chain top, a self-signed root certificate, will not verify.
13078 With this flag set, a chain succeeds to verify if at least one signing
13079 certificate of the chain is in any of the configured trusted stores of
13081 The OpenSSL manual page
13082 .Xr SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations 3
13083 gives some advise how to manage your own trusted store of CA certificates.
13085 Disable workarounds for broken certificates.
13086 .It Cd trusted-first
13087 Try building a chain using issuers in the trusted store first to avoid
13088 problems with server-sent legacy intermediate certificates.
13089 Newer versions of OpenSSL support alternative chain checking and enable
13090 it by default, resulting in the same behaviour; also see
13091 .Cd no-alt-chains .
13095 .Mx Va tls-ca-no-defaults
13096 .It Va tls-ca-no-defaults-USER@HOST , tls-ca-no-defaults-HOST ,\
13098 \*(BO\*(OP Do not load the default CA locations that are built into the
13099 used to TLS library to verify TLS server certificates.
13102 .It Va tls-config-file
13103 \*(OP If this variable is set
13104 .Xr CONF_modules_load_file 3
13106 .Ql ,+modules-load-file,
13109 is used to allow resource file based configuration of the TLS library.
13110 This happens once the library is used first, which may also be early
13111 during startup (logged with
13113 If a non-empty value is given then the given file, after performing
13114 .Sx "Filename transformations" ,
13115 will be used instead of the TLS libraries global default, and it is an
13116 error if the file cannot be loaded.
13117 The application name will always be passed as
13119 Some TLS libraries support application-specific configuration via
13120 resource files loaded like this, please see
13121 .Va tls-config-module .
13123 .Mx Va tls-config-module
13124 .It Va tls-config-module-USER@HOST , tls-config-module-HOST ,\
13126 \*(OP If file based application-specific configuration via
13127 .Va tls-config-file
13128 is available, announced as
13132 indicating availability of
13133 .Xr SSL_CTX_config 3 ,
13134 then, it becomes possible to use a central TLS configuration file
13135 for all programs, including \*(uA, for example
13136 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13137 # Register a configuration section for \*(uA
13138 \*(uA = mailx_master
13139 # The top configuration section creates a relation
13140 # in between dynamic SSL configuration and an actual
13141 # program specific configuration section
13143 ssl_conf = mailx_tls_config
13144 # And that program specific configuration section now
13145 # can map diverse tls-config-module names to sections,
13146 # as in: tls-config-module=account_xy
13148 account_xy = mailx_account_xy
13149 account_yz = mailx_account_yz
13151 MinProtocol = TLSv1.2
13154 CipherString = TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:
13155 MinProtocol = TLSv1.1
13160 .Mx Va tls-config-pairs
13161 .It Va tls-config-pairs-USER@HOST , tls-config-pairs-HOST , tls-config-pairs
13162 \*(OP The value of this variable chain will be interpreted as
13163 a comma-separated list of directive/value pairs.
13164 Directives and values need to be separated by equals signs
13166 any whitespace surrounding pair members is removed.
13167 Keys are (usually) case-insensitive.
13168 Different to when placing these pairs in a
13169 .Va tls-config-module
13171 .Va tls-config-file ,
13174 need to be escaped with a reverse solidus
13176 when included in pairs; also different: if the equals sign
13178 is preceded with an asterisk
13180 .Sx "Filename transformations"
13181 will be performed on the value; it is an error if these fail.
13182 Unless proper support is announced by
13184 .Pf ( Ql ,+conf-ctx, )
13185 only the keys below are supported, otherwise the pairs will be used
13186 directly as arguments to the function
13187 .Xr SSL_CONF_cmd 3 .
13190 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Cd C_rtificate_"
13192 Filename of a TLS client certificate (chain) required by some servers.
13193 Fallback support via
13194 .Xr SSL_CTX_use_certificate_chain_file 3 .
13195 .Sx "Filename transformations"
13198 will be set to the same value if not initialized explicitly.
13199 Some services support so-called
13201 authentication if a TLS client certificate was successfully presented
13202 during connection establishment
13203 .Pf ( Dq connecting is authenticating ) .
13205 .It Cd CipherString
13206 A list of ciphers for TLS connections, see
13208 By default no list of ciphers is set, resulting in a
13209 .Cd Protocol Ns - Ns
13210 specific list of ciphers (the protocol standards define lists of
13211 acceptable ciphers; possibly cramped by the used TLS library).
13212 Fallback support via
13213 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_cipher_list 3 .
13215 .It Cd Ciphersuites
13216 A list of ciphers used for TLSv1.3 connections, see
13218 These will be joined onto the list of ciphers from
13223 .Ql ,+ctx-set-ciphersuites, ,
13225 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_ciphersuites 3 .
13228 A list of supported elliptic curves, if applicable.
13229 By default no curves are set.
13230 Fallback support via
13231 .Xr SSL_CTX_set1_curves_list 3 ,
13234 .It Cd MaxProtocol , MinProtocol
13235 The maximum and minimum supported TLS versions, respectively.
13239 .Ql ,+ctx-set-maxmin-proto, ,
13241 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_max_proto_version 3
13243 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_min_proto_version 3 ;
13244 these fallbacks use an internal parser which understands the strings
13250 and the special value
13252 which disables the given limit.
13255 Various flags to set.
13257 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_options 3 ,
13258 in which case any other value but (exactly)
13260 results in an error.
13263 Filename of the private key in PEM format of a TLS client certificate.
13264 If unset, the value of
13267 .Sx "Filename transformations"
13270 .Xr SSL_CTX_use_PrivateKey_file 3 .
13273 The used TLS protocol.
13279 .Ql ctx-set-maxmin-proto
13286 .Xr SSL_CTX_set_options 3 ,
13287 driven via an internal parser which understands the strings
13293 and the special value
13295 Multiple protocols may be given as a comma-separated list, any
13296 whitespace is ignored, an optional plus sign
13298 prefix enables, a hyphen-minus
13300 prefix disables a protocol, so that
13302 enables only the TLSv1.2 protocol.
13308 .It Va tls-crl-dir , tls-crl-file
13309 \*(OP Specify a directory / a file, respectively, that contains a CRL in
13310 PEM format to use when verifying TLS server certificates.
13313 .It Va tls-features
13314 \*(OP\*(RO This expands to a comma-separated list of the TLS library
13315 identity and optional features.
13316 To ease substring matching the string starts and ends with a comma.
13317 Currently supported identities are
13321 (OpenSSL v3.0.0 series),
13323 (OpenSSL v1.1.x series)
13326 (elder OpenSSL series, other clones).
13327 Optional features are preceded with a plus sign
13329 when available, and with a hyphen-minus
13333 Currently known features are
13335 .Pf ( Va tls-config-pairs ) ,
13337 .Pf ( Va tls-config-module ) ,
13338 .Ql ctx-set-ciphersuites
13339 .Pf ( Cd Ciphersuites
13341 .Va tls-config-pairs ) ,
13342 .Ql ctx-set-maxmin-proto
13343 .Pf ( Va tls-config-pairs ) ,
13344 .Ql modules-load-file
13345 .Pf ( Va tls-config-file ) ,
13348 .Pf ( Va tls-rand-file ) .
13350 .Mx Va tls-fingerprint
13351 .It Va tls-fingerprint-USER@HOST , tls-fingerprint-HOST , tls-fingerprint
13352 \*(OP It is possible to replace the verification of the connection
13353 peer certificate against the entire local pool of CAs (for more see
13354 .Sx "Encrypted network communication" )
13355 with the comparison against a precalculated certificate message digest,
13356 the so-called fingerprint, to be specified as the used
13357 .Va tls-fingerprint-digest .
13358 This fingerprint can for example be calculated with
13359 .Ql Ic tls Ns \:\0\:fingerprint HOST .
13361 .Mx Va tls-fingerprint-digest
13362 .It Va tls-fingerprint-digest-USER@HOST , tls-fingerprint-digest-HOST , \
13363 tls-fingerprint-digest
13364 \*(OP The message digest to be used when creating TLS certificate
13365 fingerprints, the defaults, if available, in test order, being
13368 For the complete list of digest algorithms refer to
13369 .Va smime-sign-digest .
13372 .It Va tls-rand-file
13376 .Ql ,+tls-rand-file,
13377 then this will be queried to find a file with random entropy data which
13378 can be used to seed the P(seudo)R(andom)N(umber)G(enerator), see
13379 .Xr RAND_load_file 3 .
13380 The default filename
13381 .Pf ( Xr RAND_file_name 3 ,
13384 will be used if this variable is not set or empty, or if the
13385 .Sx "Filename transformations"
13387 Shall seeding the PRNG have been successful,
13388 .Xr RAND_write_file 3
13389 will be called to update the entropy.
13390 Remarks: libraries which do not announce this feature seed the PRNG by
13394 .It Va tls-verify-USER@HOST , tls-verify-HOST , tls-verify
13395 \*(OP Variable chain that sets the action to be performed if an error
13396 occurs during TLS server certificate validation against the
13397 specified or default trust stores
13400 or the TLS library built-in defaults (unless usage disallowed via
13401 .Va tls-ca-no-defaults ) ,
13402 and as fine-tuned via
13404 Valid (case-insensitive) values are
13406 (fail and close connection immediately),
13408 (ask whether to continue on standard input),
13410 (show a warning and continue),
13412 (do not perform validation).
13417 If defined, gives the number of lines of a message to be displayed
13420 if unset, the first five lines are printed, if set to 0 the variable
13423 If the value is negative then its absolute value will be used for
13424 unsigned right shifting (see
13432 \*(BO If set then the
13434 command series will strip adjacent empty lines and quotations.
13438 The character set of the terminal \*(UA operates on,
13439 and the one and only supported character set that \*(UA can use if no
13440 character set conversion capabilities have been compiled into it,
13441 in which case it defaults to ISO-8859-1.
13442 Otherwise it defaults to UTF-8.
13443 Sufficient locale support provided the default will be preferably
13444 deduced from the locale environment if that is set (for example
13446 see there for more); runtime locale changes will be reflected by
13448 except during the program startup phase and if
13450 had been used to freeze the given value.
13451 Refer to the section
13452 .Sx "Character sets"
13453 for the complete picture about character sets.
13456 .It Va typescript-mode
13457 \*(BO A special multiplex variable that disables all variables and
13458 settings which result in behaviour that interferes with running \*(UA in
13461 .Va colour-disable ,
13462 .Va line-editor-disable
13463 and (before startup completed only)
13464 .Va termcap-disable .
13465 Unsetting it does not restore the former state of the covered settings.
13469 For a safe-by-default policy the process file mode creation mask
13473 on program startup after the resource files have been loaded,
13474 and unless this variable is set.
13475 By assigning this an empty value the active setting will not be changed,
13476 otherwise the given value will be made the new file mode creation mask.
13477 Child processes inherit the file mode creation mask of their parent.
13480 .It Va user-HOST , user
13481 \*(IN Variable chain that sets a global fallback user name, used in case
13482 none has been given in the protocol and account-specific URL.
13483 This variable defaults to the name of the user who runs \*(UA.
13487 Enable upward compatibility with \*(UA version 15.0 in respect to which
13488 configuration options are available and how they are handled.
13489 If set to a non-empty value the command modifier
13491 is implied and thus enforces
13492 .Sx "Shell-style argument quoting"
13494 .Sx "Old-style argument quoting"
13495 for all commands which support both.
13496 This manual uses \*(IN and \*(OU to refer to the new and the old way of
13497 doing things, respectively.
13501 Verbose mode enables logging of informational context messages.
13502 Historically a \*(BO variable, this can either be set multiple times
13503 (what the command line option
13505 uses), or be assigned a numeric value in order to increase verbosity.
13506 Assigning the value 0 disables verbosity and thus (almost) equals
13508 The maximum number is 3.
13518 .It Va version , version-date , \
13519 version-hexnum , version-major , version-minor , version-update
13520 \*(RO \*(UA version information: the first variable is a string with
13521 the complete version identification, the second the release date in ISO
13522 8601 notation without time.
13523 The third is a 32-bit hexadecimal number with the upper 8 bits storing
13524 the major, followed by the minor and update version numbers which occupy
13526 The latter three variables contain only decimal digits: the major, minor
13527 and update version numbers.
13528 The output of the command
13530 will include this information.
13533 .It Va writebackedited
13534 If this variable is set messages modified using the
13538 commands are written back to the current folder when it is quit;
13539 it is only honoured for writable folders in MBOX format, though.
13540 Note that the editor will be pointed to the raw message content in that
13541 case, i.e., neither MIME decoding nor decryption will have been
13542 performed, and proper
13545 quoting of newly added or edited content is also left as an exercise
13548 .\" }}} (Variables)
13550 .\" }}} (INTERNAL VARIABLES)
13553 .\" .Sh ENVIRONMENT {{{
13557 .Dq environment variable
13558 should be considered an indication that these variables are either
13559 standardized as vivid parts of process environments, or that they are
13560 commonly found in there.
13561 The process environment is inherited from the
13563 once \*(UA is started, and unless otherwise explicitly noted handling of
13564 the following variables transparently integrates into that of the
13565 .Sx "INTERNAL VARIABLES"
13566 from \*(UA's point of view.
13567 This means they can be managed via
13571 causing automatic program environment updates (to be inherited by
13572 newly created child processes).
13575 In order to integrate other environment variables equally they need to
13576 be imported (linked) with the command
13578 This command can also be used to set and unset non-integrated
13579 environment variables from scratch, sufficient system support provided.
13580 The following example, applicable to a POSIX shell, sets the
13582 environment variable for \*(UA only, and beforehand exports the
13584 in order to affect any further processing in the running shell:
13586 .Bd -literal -offset indent
13587 $ EDITOR="vim -u ${HOME}/.vimrc"
13589 $ COLUMNS=80 \*(uA -R
13592 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ev BaNg"
13595 The user's preferred width in column positions for the terminal screen.
13596 Queried and used once on program startup in interactive or batch
13598 mode, actively managed for child processes and the MLE (see
13599 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" )
13600 in interactive mode thereafter.
13601 Non-interactive mode always uses, and the fallback default is
13602 a compile-time constant, by default 80 columns.
13607 are both set but not both are usable (empty, not a number, or 0) at
13608 program startup, then the real terminal screen size will be (tried to
13609 be) determined once.
13612 manages these variables, and unsets them for pipe specifications etc.)
13616 The name of the (mailbox)
13618 to use for saving aborted messages if
13620 is set; this defaults to
13624 is set no output will be generated, otherwise the contents of the file
13627 .Sx "Filename transformations"
13634 Pathname of the text editor to use for the
13638 .Pf (see\0 Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ) ;
13640 is used for a more display oriented editor.
13644 The user's home directory.
13645 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
13646 The calling user's home directory will be used instead if this directory
13647 does not exist, is not accessible or cannot be read;
13648 it will always be used for the root user.
13649 (No test for being writable is performed to allow usage by
13650 non-privileged users within read-only jails, but dependent on settings
13651 this directory is a default write target for, for example,
13659 .It Ev LC_ALL , LC_CTYPE , LANG
13660 \*(OP The (names in lookup order of the)
13664 which indicates the used
13665 .Sx "Character sets" .
13666 Runtime changes trigger automatic updates of the entire locale system,
13667 which includes updating
13669 (except during startup if the variable has been frozen via
13674 The user's preferred number of lines for the terminal screen.
13675 The behaviour is as described for
13677 yet the compile-time constant used in non-interactive mode and as
13678 a fallback defaults to 24 (lines).
13682 Pathname of the directory lister to use in the
13684 command when operating on local mailboxes.
13687 (path search through
13692 Upon startup \*(UA will actively ensure that this variable refers to the
13693 name of the user who runs \*(UA, in order to be able to pass a verified
13694 name to any newly created child process.
13698 Is used as the user's
13700 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
13704 If the environmental fallback is also not set, a built-in compile-time
13706 This is assumed to be an absolute pathname.
13710 \*(OP Override the default path search of
13711 .Sx "The Mailcap files" :
13712 any existing file therein will be loaded in sequence, appending any
13713 content to the list of MIME type handler directives.
13714 The RFC 1524 standard imposed default value is assigned otherwise:
13715 .Ql ~/.mailcap:\:/etc/mailcap:\:/usr/etc/mailcap:\:/usr/local/etc/mailcap .
13716 (The default value is a compile-time \*(OP.)
13720 Is used as a startup file instead of
13723 In order to avoid side-effects from configuration files scripts should
13724 either set this variable to
13728 command line option should be used.
13731 .It Ev MAILX_NO_SYSTEM_RC
13732 If this variable is set then reading of
13735 .Va system-mailrc )
13736 at startup is inhibited, i.e., the same effect is achieved as if \*(UA
13737 had been started up with the option
13739 (and according argument) or
13741 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment.
13745 The name of the user's
13747 .Sx "secondary mailbox"
13749 A logical subset of the special
13750 .Sx "Filename transformations"
13756 Traditionally this MBOX is used as the file to save messages from the
13758 .Sx "primary system mailbox"
13759 that have been read.
13761 .Sx "Message states" .
13765 \*(IN\*(OP This variable overrides the default location of the user's
13771 Pathname of the program to use for backing the command
13775 variable enforces usage of a pager for output.
13776 The default paginator is
13778 (path search through
13781 \*(UA inspects the contents of this variable: if its contains the string
13783 then a non-existing environment variable
13785 will be set to (the portable)
13790 will optionally be set to
13797 A colon-separated list of directories that is searched by the shell when
13798 looking for commands, for example
13799 .Ql /bin:/usr/bin:/usr/local/bin .
13802 .It Ev POSIXLY_CORRECT
13803 This environment entry is automatically squared with
13808 The shell to use for the commands
13813 .Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES"
13814 and when starting subprocesses.
13815 A default shell is used if this environment variable is not defined.
13818 .It Ev SOCKS5_PROXY
13819 This environment entry is automatically squared with
13823 .It Ev SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH
13824 Specifies a time in seconds since the Unix epoch (1970-01-01) to be
13825 used in place of the current time.
13826 This variable is looked up upon program startup, and its existence will
13827 switch \*(UA to a reproducible mode
13828 .Pf ( Lk https://reproducible-builds.org )
13829 which uses deterministic random numbers, a special fixated pseudo
13832 This operation mode is used for development and by software packagers.
13833 \*(ID Currently an invalid setting is only ignored, rather than causing
13834 a program abortion.
13836 .Dl $ SOURCE_DATE_EPOCH=`date +%s` \*(uA
13840 \*(OP The terminal type for which output is to be prepared.
13841 For extended colour and font control please refer to
13842 .Sx "Coloured display" ,
13843 and for terminal management in general to
13844 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor" .
13848 Except for the root user this variable defines the directory for
13849 temporary files to be used instead of
13851 (or the given compile-time constant) if set, existent, accessible as
13852 well as read- and writable.
13853 This variable is only used when it resides in the process environment,
13854 but \*(UA will ensure at startup that this environment variable is
13855 updated to contain a usable temporary directory.
13861 (see there), but this variable is not standardized, should therefore not
13862 be used, and is only corrected if already set.
13866 Pathname of the text editor to use for the
13870 .Pf (see\0 Sx "COMMAND ESCAPES" ) ;
13872 is used for a less display oriented editor.
13882 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa BaNg"
13885 .It Pa ~/.mailcap , /etc/mailcap
13886 \*(OP Personal and system-wide MIME type handler definition files, see
13887 .Sx "The Mailcap files" .
13888 (The shown names are part of the RFC 1524 standard search path
13891 .It Pa \*(ur , \*(UR
13892 User-specific and system-wide files giving initial commands, the
13893 .Sx "Resource files" .
13894 (The used filenames come from
13897 .Va system-mailrc ,
13902 The default value for
13907 .It Pa \*(vU , \*(vS
13908 Personal and system-wide MIME types, see
13909 .Sx "The mime.types files" .
13913 \*(IN\*(OP The default location of the user's
13915 file \(en the section
13916 .Sx "The .netrc file"
13917 documents the file format.
13918 The used path can be set via
13928 \*(OP Possible location for persistent random entropy seed storage, see
13929 .Va tls-rand-file .
13933 .\" .Ss "Resource files" {{{
13934 .Ss "Resource files"
13936 Upon startup \*(UA reads in several resource files, in order:
13938 .Bl -tag -width ".It Pa BaNg"
13941 System wide initialization file
13942 .Pf ( Va system-mailrc ) .
13943 Reading of this file can be suppressed, either by using the
13945 (and according argument) or
13947 command line options, or by setting the
13950 .Ev MAILX_NO_SYSTEM_RC .
13954 File giving initial commands.
13955 A different file can be chosen by setting the
13959 Reading of this file can be suppressed with the
13961 command line option.
13963 .It Va mailx-extra-rc
13964 Defines a startup file to be read after all other resource files.
13965 It can be used to specify settings that are not understood by other
13967 implementations, for example.
13971 The content of these files is interpreted as follows:
13974 .Bl -bullet -compact
13976 The whitespace characters space, tabulator and newline,
13977 as well as those defined by the variable
13979 are removed from the beginning and end of input lines.
13981 Empty lines are ignored.
13983 Any other line is interpreted as a command.
13984 It may be spread over multiple input lines if the newline character is
13986 by placing a reverse solidus character
13988 as the last character of the line; whereas any leading whitespace of
13989 follow lines is ignored, trailing whitespace before a escaped newline
13990 remains in the input.
13992 If the line (content) starts with the number sign
13994 then it is a comment-command and also ignored.
13995 (The comment-command is a real command, which does nothing, and
13996 therefore the usual follow lines mechanism applies!)
14000 Errors while loading these files are subject to the settings of
14004 More files with syntactically equal content can be
14006 The following, saved in a file, would be an examplary content:
14008 .Bd -literal -offset indent
14009 # This line is a comment command. And y\e
14010 es, it is really continued here.
14017 .\" .Ss "The mime.types files" {{{
14018 .Ss "The mime.types files"
14021 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments"
14022 \*(UA needs to learn about MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions)
14023 media types in order to classify message and attachment content.
14024 One source for them are
14026 files, the loading of which can be controlled by setting the variable
14027 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
14028 Another is the command
14030 which also offers access to \*(UAs MIME type cache.
14032 files have the following syntax:
14034 .Bd -literal -offset indent
14035 type/subtype extension [extension ...]
14036 # For example text/html html htm
14042 define the MIME media type, as standardized in RFC 2046:
14044 is used to declare the general type of data, while the
14046 specifies a specific format for that type of data.
14047 One or multiple filename
14049 s, separated by whitespace, can be bound to the media type format.
14050 Comments may be introduced anywhere on a line with a number sign
14052 causing the remaining line to be discarded.
14054 \*(UA also supports an extended, non-portable syntax in especially
14055 crafted files, which can be loaded via the alternative value syntax of
14056 .Va mimetypes-load-control ,
14057 and prepends an optional
14061 .Dl [type-marker ]type/subtype extension [extension ...]
14064 The following type markers are supported:
14067 .Bl -tag -compact -width ".It Ar _n_u"
14069 Treat message parts with this content as plain text.
14074 Treat message parts with this content as HTML tagsoup.
14075 If the \*(OPal HTML-tagsoup-to-text converter is not available treat
14076 the content as plain text instead.
14080 but instead of falling back to plain text require an explicit content
14081 handler to be defined.
14083 If no handler can be found a text message is displayed which says so.
14084 This can be annoying, for example signatures serve a contextual purpose,
14085 their content is of no use by itself.
14086 This marker will avoid displaying the text message.
14091 for sending messages:
14093 .Va mime-allow-text-controls ,
14094 .Va mimetypes-load-control .
14095 For reading etc. messages:
14096 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ,
14097 .Sx "The Mailcap files" ,
14099 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
14100 .Va mimetypes-load-control ,
14101 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE ,
14102 .Va pipe-EXTENSION .
14105 .\" .Ss "The Mailcap files" {{{ review
14106 .Ss "The Mailcap files"
14108 \*(OP RFC 1524 defines a
14109 .Dq User Agent Configuration Mechanism
14110 to be used to inform mail user agent programs about the locally
14111 installed facilities for handling various data formats, i.e., about
14112 commands and how they can be used to display, edit et cetera MIME part
14113 contents, as well as a default path search that includes multiple
14114 possible locations of resource files, and the
14116 environment variable to overwrite that.
14117 Handlers found from doing the path search will be cached, the command
14119 operates on that cache, and the variable
14120 .Va mailcap-disable
14121 will suppress automatic loading, and usage of any mailcap handlers.
14122 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments"
14123 gives a general overview of how MIME types are handled.
14127 files consist of a set of newline separated entries.
14128 Comment lines start with a number sign
14130 (in the first column!) and are ignored.
14131 Empty lines are ignored.
14132 All other lines are interpreted as mailcap entries.
14133 An entry definition may be split over multiple lines by placing the
14134 reverse solidus character
14136 last in all but the final line.
14137 The standard does not specify how leading whitespace of successive lines
14138 is to be treated, therefore they are retained.
14142 entries consist of a number of semicolon
14145 The first two fields are mandatory and must occur in the specified
14146 order, the remaining fields are optional and may appear in any order.
14147 Leading and trailing whitespace of field content is ignored (removed).
14148 The reverse solidus
14150 character can be used to escape any following character including
14151 semicolon and itself in the content of the second field, and in value
14152 parts of any optional key/value field.
14155 The first field defines the MIME
14157 the entry is about to handle (case-insensitively).
14158 If the subtype is specified as an asterisk
14160 the entry is meant to match all subtypes of the named type, e.g.,
14162 would match any audio type.
14163 The second field is the
14165 shell command used to display MIME parts of the given type.
14168 Data consuming shell commands will be fed message (MIME part) data on
14169 standard input unless one or more instances of the (unquoted) string
14171 are used: these formats will be replaced with a temporary file(name)
14172 that has been prefilled with the parts data.
14173 Data producing shell commands are expected to generata data on their
14174 standard output unless that format is used.
14175 In all cases any given
14177 format is replaced with a properly shell quoted filename.
14178 When a command requests a temporary file via
14180 then that will be removed again, as if the
14181 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile
14183 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill
14184 flags had been set; unless the command requests
14187 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
14188 flag is also implied; see below for more.
14191 Optional fields define single-word flags (case-insensitive), or key
14192 / value pairs consisting of a case-insensitive keyword, an equals sign
14194 and a shell command; whitespace surrounding the equals sign is removed.
14195 Optional fields include the following:
14198 .Bl -tag -width ".It Cd BaNg"
14200 A program that can be used to compose a new body or body part in the
14202 (Currently unused.)
14204 .It Cd composetyped
14207 field, but is to be used when the composing program needs to specify the
14209 header field to be applied to the composed data.
14210 (Currently unused.)
14213 .It Cd copiousoutput
14214 A flag field which indicates that the output of the
14216 command is integrable into \*(UAs normal visual display.
14217 It is mutually exclusive with
14218 .Cd needsterminal .
14221 A textual description that describes this type of data.
14222 The text may optionally be enclosed within double quotation marks
14226 A program that can be used to edit a body or body part in the given
14228 (Currently unused.)
14230 .It Cd nametemplate
14231 This field specifies a filename format for the
14233 format used in the shell command fields, in which
14235 will be replaced by a random string.
14236 (The filename is also stored in and passed to subprocesses via
14237 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY . )
14238 The standard says this is
14239 .Dq only expected to be relevant in environments \
14240 where filename extensions are meaningful ,
14241 and so this field is ignored unless the
14243 is a prefix, optionally followed by (ASCII) alphabetic and numeric
14244 characters, the underscore and the period.
14245 For example, to specify that a JPG file is to be passed to an image
14246 viewer with a name ending in
14248 .Ql nametemplate=%s.jpg
14252 .It Cd needsterminal
14253 This flag field indicates that the given shell command must be run on
14254 an interactive terminal.
14255 \*(UA will temporarily release the terminal to the given command in
14256 interactive mode, in non-interactive mode this entry will be entirely
14257 ignored; this flag implies
14258 .Cd x-mailx-noquote .
14261 A program that can be used to print a message or body part in the given
14263 (Currently unused.)
14266 Specifies a program to be run to test some condition, for example, the
14267 machine architecture, or the window system in use, to determine whether
14268 or not this mailcap entry applies.
14269 If the test fails, a subsequent mailcap entry should be sought; also see
14270 .Cd x-mailx-test-once .
14271 Standard I/O of the test program is redirected from and to
14275 is not supported (the data does not yet exist).
14277 .It Cd textualnewlines
14278 A flag field which indicates that this type of data is line-oriented and
14279 that, if encoded in
14281 all newlines should be converted to canonical form (CRLF) before
14282 encoding, and will be in that form after decoding.
14283 (Currently unused.)
14286 Names a file, in X11 bitmap (xbm) format, which points to an appropriate
14287 icon to be used to visually denote the presence of this kind of data.
14288 This field is not used by \*(UA.
14291 .It Cd x-mailx-async
14292 Extension flag field that denotes that the given
14294 command shall be executed asynchronously, without blocking \*(UA.
14295 Cannot be used in conjunction with
14296 .Cd needsterminal ;
14297 the standard output of the command will go to
14301 .It Cd x-mailx-noquote
14302 An extension flag field that indicates that even a
14305 command shall not be used when
14307 ing messages, as it would by default.
14310 .It Cd x-mailx-test-once
14311 Extension flag which denotes whether the given
14313 command shall be evaluated once only with its exit status being cached.
14314 This is handy if some global unchanging condition is to be queried, like
14315 .Dq running under the X Window System .
14318 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile
14319 Extension flag field that requests creation of a zero-sized temporary
14320 file, the name of which is to be placed in the environment variable
14321 .Ev MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY .
14322 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
14324 format (because that is implemented by means of this temporary file).
14327 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-fill
14328 Normally the MIME part content is passed to the handler via standard
14329 input; if this flag is set then the data will instead be written into
14331 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile .
14332 In order to cause deletion of the temporary file you will have to set
14333 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
14335 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
14340 .It Cd x-mailx-tmpfile-unlink
14341 Extension flag field that requests that the temporary file shall be
14342 deleted automatically when the command loop is entered again at latest.
14343 It is an error to use this flag with commands that include a
14345 format, or in conjunction with
14346 .Cd x-mailx-async .
14347 .Cd x-mailx-tmpfile
14351 .It Cd x-mailx-last-resort
14352 An extension flag that indicates that this handler shall only be used
14353 as a last resort, when no other source (see
14354 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" )
14355 provides a MIME handler.
14358 .It Cd x-mailx-ignore
14359 An extension that enforces that this handler is not used at all.
14364 The standard includes the possibility to define any number of additional
14365 fields, prefixed by
14367 Flag fields apply to the entire
14369 entry \(em in some unusual cases, this may not be desirable, but
14370 differentiation can be accomplished via separate entries, taking
14371 advantage of the fact that subsequent entries are searched if an earlier
14372 one does not provide enough information.
14375 command needs to specify the
14379 command shall not, the following will help out the latter:
14381 .Bd -literal -offset indent
14382 application/postscript; ps-to-terminal %s; needsterminal
14383 application/postscript; ps-to-terminal %s; compose=idraw %s
14387 In value parts of command fields any occurrence of the format string
14389 will be replaced by the
14392 Any named parameter from a messages'
14394 field may be embedded into the command line using the format
14396 followed by the parameter name and a closing brace
14399 The entire parameter should appear as a single command line argument,
14400 regardless of embedded spaces, shell quoting will be performed by the
14401 RFC 1524 processor, thus:
14403 .Bd -literal -offset indent
14405 Content-type: multipart/mixed; boundary=42
14408 multipart/*; /usr/local/bin/showmulti \e
14409 %t %{boundary} ; composetyped = /usr/local/bin/makemulti
14411 # Executed shell command
14412 /usr/local/bin/showmulti multipart/mixed 42
14416 Note that \*(UA does not support handlers for multipart MIME parts as
14417 shown in this example (as of today).
14418 It does not support the additional formats
14422 An example file, also showing how to properly deal with the expansion of
14424 which includes any quotes that are necessary to make it a valid shell
14425 argument by itself and thus will cause undesired behaviour when placed
14426 in additional user-provided quotes:
14428 .Bd -literal -offset indent
14430 text/richtext; richtext %s; copiousoutput
14432 text/x-perl; perl -cWT %s; nametemplate = %s.pl
14434 # Exit EX_TEMPFAIL=75 on signal
14435 application/pdf; \e
14437 trap "rm -f ${infile}" EXIT\e; \e
14438 trap "exit 75" INT QUIT TERM\e; \e
14439 mupdf "${infile}"; \e
14440 test = [ -n "${DISPLAY}" ]; \e
14441 nametemplate = %s.pdf; x-mailx-async
14442 application/pdf; pdftotext -layout - -; copiousoutput
14444 application/*; echo "This is \e\e"%t\e\e" but \e
14445 is 50 \e% Greek to me" \e; < %s head -c 512 | cat -vet; \e
14446 copiousoutput; x-mailx-noquote; x-mailx-last-resort
14451 .Sx "HTML mail and MIME attachments" ,
14452 .Sx "The mime.types files" ,
14455 .Va mime-counter-evidence ,
14456 .Va pipe-TYPE/SUBTYPE ,
14457 .Va pipe-EXTENSION .
14460 .\" .Ss "The .netrc file" {{{ review
14461 .Ss "The .netrc file"
14463 User credentials for machine accounts (see
14464 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" )
14465 can be placed in the
14467 file, which will be loaded and cached when requested by
14469 The default location
14471 may be overridden by the
14473 environment variable.
14474 As long as syntax constraints are honoured the file source may be
14475 replaced with the output of the shell command set in
14477 to load an encrypted file, for example.
14478 The cache can be managed with the command
14482 The file consists of space, tabulator or newline separated tokens.
14483 This parser implements a superset of the original BSD syntax, but users
14484 should nonetheless be aware of portability glitches, shall their
14486 be usable across multiple programs and platforms:
14489 .Bl -bullet -compact
14491 BSD only supports double quotation marks, for example
14492 .Ql password """pass with spaces""" .
14494 BSD (only?) supports escaping of single characters via a reverse solidus
14495 (a space could be escaped via
14497 in- as well as outside of a quoted string.
14498 This method is assumed to be present, and will actively be used to quote
14499 double quotation marks
14501 and reverse solidus
14503 characters inside the
14507 tokens, for example for display purposes.
14509 BSD does not require a final quotation mark of the last user input token.
14511 The original BSD (Berknet) parser also supported a format which allowed
14512 tokens to be separated with commas \(en whereas at least Hewlett-Packard
14513 still seems to support this syntax, this parser does not!
14515 As a non-portable extension some widely-used programs support
14516 shell-style comments: if an input line starts, after any amount of
14517 whitespace, with a number sign
14519 then the rest of the line is ignored.
14521 Whereas other programs may require that the
14523 file is accessible by only the user if it contains a
14525 token for any other
14529 this parser will always require these strict permissions.
14533 Of the following list of supported tokens this parser uses (and caches)
14540 entry will not be used.
14542 .Bl -tag -width ".It Cd BaNg"
14543 .It Cd machine Ar name
14544 The hostname of the entries' machine, lowercase-normalized before use.
14545 Any further file content, until either end-of-file or the occurrence
14550 first-class token is bound (only related) to the machine
14553 As an extension that should not be the cause of any worries this parser
14554 supports a single wildcard prefix for
14556 .Bd -literal -offset indent
14557 machine *.example.com login USER password PASS
14558 machine pop3.example.com login USER password PASS
14559 machine smtp.example.com login USER password PASS
14565 .Ql pop3.example.com ,
14569 .Ql local.smtp.example.com .
14570 In the example neither
14571 .Ql pop3.example.com
14573 .Ql smtp.example.com
14574 will be matched by the wildcard, since the exact matches take
14575 precedence (it is however faster to specify it the other way around).
14578 This is the same as
14580 except that it is a fallback entry that is used shall none of the
14581 specified machines match; only one default token may be specified,
14582 and it must be the last first-class token.
14584 .It Cd login Ar name
14585 The user name on the remote machine.
14587 .It Cd password Ar string
14588 The user's password on the remote machine.
14590 .It Cd account Ar string
14591 Supply an additional account password.
14592 This is merely for FTP purposes.
14594 .It Cd macdef Ar name
14596 A macro is defined with the specified
14598 it is formed from all lines beginning with the next line and continuing
14599 until a blank line is (consecutive newline characters are) encountered.
14602 entries cannot be utilized by multiple machines, too, but must be
14603 defined following the
14605 they are intended to be used with.)
14608 exists, it is automatically run as the last step of the login process.
14609 This is merely for FTP purposes.
14616 .\" .Sh EXAMPLES {{{
14619 .\" .Ss "An example configuration" {{{
14620 .Ss "An example configuration"
14622 .Bd -literal -offset indent
14623 # This example assumes v15.0 compatibility mode
14626 # Request strict TLL transport layer security checks
14627 set tls-verify=strict
14629 # Where are the up-to-date TLS certificates?
14630 # (Since we manage up-to-date ones explicitly, do not use any,
14631 # possibly outdated, default certificates shipped with OpenSSL)
14632 #set tls-ca-dir=/etc/ssl/certs
14633 set tls-ca-file=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
14634 set tls-ca-no-defaults
14635 #set tls-ca-flags=partial-chain
14636 wysh set smime-ca-file="${tls-ca-file}" \e
14637 smime-ca-no-defaults #smime-ca-flags="${tls-ca-flags}"
14639 # This could be outsourced to a central configuration file via
14640 # tls-config-file plus tls-config-module if the used library allows.
14641 # CipherString: explicitly define the list of ciphers, which may
14642 # improve security, especially with protocols older than TLS v1.2.
14643 # See ciphers(1). Possibly best to only use tls-config-pairs-HOST
14644 # (or -USER@HOST), as necessary, again..
14645 # Note that TLSv1.3 uses Ciphersuites= instead, which will join
14646 # with CipherString (if protocols older than v1.3 are allowed)
14647 # Curves: especially with TLSv1.3 curves selection may be desired.
14648 # MinProtocol,MaxProtocol: do not use protocols older than TLS v1.2.
14649 # Change this only when the remote server does not support it:
14650 # maybe use chain support via tls-config-pairs-HOST / -USER@HOST
14651 # to define such explicit exceptions, then, e.g.,
14652 # MinProtocol=TLSv1.1
14653 if "$tls-features" =% ,+ctx-set-maxmin-proto,
14654 wysh set tls-config-pairs='\e
14655 CipherString=TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:@STRENGTH,\e
14656 Curves=P-521:P-384:P-256,\e
14657 MinProtocol=TLSv1.1'
14659 wysh set tls-config-pairs='\e
14660 CipherString=TLSv1.2:!aNULL:!eNULL:@STRENGTH,\e
14661 Curves=P-521:P-384:P-256,\e
14662 Protocol=-ALL\e,+TLSv1.1 \e, +TLSv1.2\e, +TLSv1.3'
14665 # Essential setting: select allowed character sets
14666 set sendcharsets=utf-8,iso-8859-1
14668 # A very kind option: when replying to a message, first try to
14669 # use the same encoding that the original poster used herself!
14670 set reply-in-same-charset
14672 # When replying, do not merge From: and To: of the original message
14673 # into To:. Instead old From: -> new To:, old To: -> merge Cc:.
14674 set recipients-in-cc
14676 # When sending messages, wait until the Mail-Transfer-Agent finishs.
14677 # Only like this you will be able to see errors reported through the
14678 # exit status of the MTA (including the built-in SMTP one)!
14681 # Only use built-in MIME types, no mime.types(5) files
14682 set mimetypes-load-control
14684 # Default directory where we act in (relative to $HOME)
14686 # A leading "+" (often) means: under *folder*
14687 # *record* is used to save copies of sent messages
14688 set MBOX=+mbox.mbox DEAD=+dead.txt \e
14689 record=+sent.mbox record-files record-resent
14691 # Make "file mymbox" and "file myrec" go to..
14692 shortcut mymbox %:+mbox.mbox myrec +sent.mbox
14694 # Not really optional, e.g., for S/MIME
14695 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
14697 # It may be necessary to set hostname and/or smtp-hostname
14698 # if the "SERVER" of mta and "domain" of from do not match.
14699 # The `urlencode' command can be used to encode USER and PASS
14700 set mta=(smtps?|submissions?)://[USER[:PASS]@]SERVER[:PORT] \e
14701 smtp-auth=login/plain... \e
14704 # Never refuse to start into interactive mode, and more
14706 colour-pager crt= \e
14707 followup-to followup-to-honour=ask-yes fullnames \e
14708 history-file=+.\*(uAhist history-size=-1 history-gabby \e
14709 mime-counter-evidence=0b1111 \e
14710 prompt='?\e$?!\e$!/\e$^ERRNAME[\e$account#\e$mailbox-display]? ' \e
14711 reply-to-honour=ask-yes \e
14714 # Only include the selected header fields when typing messages
14715 headerpick type retain from_ date from to cc subject \e
14716 message-id mail-followup-to reply-to
14717 # ...when forwarding messages
14718 headerpick forward retain subject date from to cc
14719 # ...when saving message, etc.
14720 #headerpick save ignore ^Original-.*$ ^X-.*$
14722 # Some mailing lists
14723 mlist '@xyz-editor\e.xyz$' '@xyzf\e.xyz$'
14724 mlsubscribe '^xfans@xfans\e.xyz$'
14726 # Handle a few file extensions (to store MBOX databases)
14727 filetype bz2 'bzip2 -dc' 'bzip2 -zc' \e
14728 gz 'gzip -dc' 'gzip -c' xz 'xz -dc' 'xz -zc' \e
14729 zst 'zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc' \e
14730 zst.pgp 'gpg -d | zstd -dc' 'zstd -19 -zc | gpg -e'
14732 # A real life example of a very huge free mail provider
14733 # Instead of directly placing content inside `account',
14734 # we `define' a macro: like that we can switch "accounts"
14735 # from within *on-compose-splice*, for example!
14737 set folder=~/spool/XooglX inbox=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
14738 set from='Your Name <address@examp.ple>'
14740 set pop3-no-apop-pop.gmXil.com
14741 shortcut pop %:pop3s://pop.gmXil.com
14742 shortcut imap %:imaps://imap.gmXil.com
14743 # Or, entirely IMAP based setup
14744 #set folder=imaps://imap.gmail.com record="+[Gmail]/Sent Mail" \e
14745 # imap-cache=~/spool/cache
14747 set mta=smtp://USER:PASS@smtp.gmXil.com smtp-use-starttls
14749 set mta=smtps://USER:PASS@smtp.gmail.com:465
14755 # Here is a pretty large one which does not allow sending mails
14756 # if there is a domain name mismatch on the SMTP protocol level,
14757 # which would bite us if the value of from does not match, e.g.,
14758 # for people who have a sXXXXeforge project and want to speak
14759 # with the mailing list under their project account (in from),
14760 # still sending the message through their normal mail provider
14762 set folder=~/spool/XandeX inbox=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
14763 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
14765 shortcut pop %:pop3s://pop.yaXXex.com
14766 shortcut imap %:imaps://imap.yaXXex.com
14768 set mta=smtps://USER:PASS@smtp.yaXXex.com:465 \e
14769 hostname=yaXXex.com smtp-hostname=
14775 # Create some new commands so that, e.g., `ls /tmp' will..
14776 commandalias lls '!ls ${LS_COLOUR_FLAG} -aFlrS'
14777 commandalias llS '!ls ${LS_COLOUR_FLAG} -aFlS'
14779 set pipe-message/external-body='?* echo $MAILX_EXTERNAL_BODY_URL'
14781 # We do not support gpg(1) directly yet. But simple --clearsign'd
14782 # message parts can be dealt with as follows:
14785 wysh set pipe-text/plain=$'?*#++=?\e
14786 < "${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}" awk \e
14787 -v TMPFILE="${MAILX_FILENAME_TEMPORARY}" \e'\e
14789 /^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----/,/^$/ {\e
14792 print "--- GPG --verify ---";\e
14793 system("gpg --verify " TMPFILE " 2>&1");\e
14794 print "--- GPG --verify ---";\e
14798 /^-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----/,\e
14799 /^-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----/{\e
14806 commandalias V '\e'call V
14810 When storing passwords in
14812 appropriate permissions should be set on this file with
14813 .Ql $ chmod 0600 \*(ur .
14816 is available user credentials can be stored in the central
14818 file instead; e.g., here is a different version of the example account
14819 that sets up SMTP and POP3:
14821 .Bd -literal -offset indent
14823 set folder=~/spool/XandeX inbox=+syste.mbox sent=+sent
14824 set from='Your Name <address@exam.ple>'
14826 # Load an encrypted ~/.netrc by uncommenting the next line
14827 #set netrc-pipe='gpg -qd ~/.netrc.pgp'
14829 set mta=smtps://smtp.yXXXXx.ru:465 \e
14830 smtp-hostname= hostname=yXXXXx.com
14831 set pop3-keepalive=240 pop3-no-apop-pop.yXXXXx.ru
14832 commandalias xp fi pop3s://pop.yXXXXx.ru
14844 .Bd -literal -offset indent
14845 machine *.yXXXXx.ru login USER password PASS
14849 This configuration should now work just fine:
14852 .Dl $ echo text | \*(uA -dvv -AXandeX -s Subject user@exam.ple
14855 .\" .Ss "S/MIME step by step" {{{
14856 .Ss "S/MIME step by step"
14858 \*(OP The first thing that is needed for
14859 .Sx "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME"
14860 is a personal certificate, and a private key.
14861 The certificate contains public information, in particular a name and
14862 email address(es), and the public key that can be used by others to
14863 encrypt messages for the certificate holder (the owner of the private
14866 signed messages generated with that certificate('s private key).
14867 Whereas the certificate is included in each signed message, the private
14868 key must be kept secret.
14869 It is used to decrypt messages that were previously encrypted with the
14870 public key, and to sign messages.
14873 For personal use it is recommended to get a S/MIME certificate from
14874 one of the major CAs on the Internet.
14875 Many CAs offer such certificates for free.
14876 Usually offered is a combined certificate and private key in PKCS#12
14877 format which \*(UA does not accept directly.
14878 To convert it to PEM format, the following shell command can be used;
14879 please read on for how to use these PEM files.
14881 .Bd -literal -offset indent
14882 $ openssl pkcs12 -in cert.p12 -out certpem.pem -clcerts -nodes
14884 $ openssl pkcs12 -in cert.p12 -out cert.pem -clcerts -nokeys
14885 $ openssl pkcs12 -in cert.p12 -out key.pem -nocerts -nodes
14890 .Lk https://www.CAcert.org
14891 which issues client and server certificates to members of their
14892 community for free; their root certificate
14893 .Pf ( Lk https://\:www.cacert.org/\:certs/\:root.crt )
14894 is often not in the default set of trusted CA root certificates, though,
14895 which means their root certificate has to be downloaded separately,
14896 and needs to be part of the S/MIME certificate validation chain by
14899 or as a vivid member of the
14900 .Va smime-ca-file .
14901 But let us take a step-by-step tour on how to setup S/MIME with
14902 a certificate from CAcert.org despite this situation!
14905 First of all you will have to become a member of the CAcert.org
14906 community, simply by registrating yourself via the web interface.
14907 Once you are, create and verify all email addresses you want to be able
14908 to create signed and encrypted messages for/with using the corresponding
14909 entries of the web interface.
14910 Now ready to create S/MIME certificates, so let us create a new
14911 .Dq client certificate ,
14912 ensure to include all email addresses that should be covered by the
14913 certificate in the following web form, and also to use your name as the
14917 Create a private key and a certificate request on your local computer
14918 (please see the manual pages of the used commands for more in-depth
14919 knowledge on what the used arguments etc. do):
14922 .Dl $ openssl req -nodes -newkey rsa:4096 -keyout key.pem -out creq.pem
14925 Afterwards copy-and-paste the content of
14927 into the certificate-request (CSR) field of the web form on the
14928 CAcert.org website (you may need to unfold some
14929 .Dq advanced options
14930 to see the corresponding text field).
14931 This last step will ensure that your private key (which never left your
14932 box) and the certificate belong together (through the public key that
14933 will find its way into the certificate via the certificate-request).
14934 You are now ready and can create your CAcert certified certificate.
14935 Download and store or copy-and-paste it as
14940 In order to use your new S/MIME setup a combined private key/public key
14941 (certificate) file has to be created:
14944 .Dl $ cat key.pem pub.crt > ME@HERE.com.paired
14947 This is the file \*(UA will work with.
14948 If you have created your private key with a passphrase then \*(UA will
14949 ask you for it whenever a message is signed or decrypted, unless this
14950 operation has been automated as described in
14951 .Sx "Signed and encrypted messages with S/MIME" .
14952 Set the following variables to henceforth use S/MIME (setting
14954 is of interest for verification only):
14956 .Bd -literal -offset indent
14957 ? set smime-ca-file=ALL-TRUSTED-ROOT-CERTS-HERE \e
14958 smime-sign-cert=ME@HERE.com.paired \e
14959 smime-sign-digest=SHA512 \e
14960 smime-sign from=myname@my.host
14965 .\" .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or TLS" {{{
14966 .Ss "Using CRLs with S/MIME or TLS"
14968 \*(OP Certification authorities (CAs) issue certificate revocation
14969 lists (CRLs) on a regular basis.
14970 These lists contain the serial numbers of certificates that have been
14971 declared invalid after they have been issued.
14972 Such usually happens because the private key for the certificate has
14974 because the owner of the certificate has left the organization that is
14975 mentioned in the certificate, etc.
14976 To seriously use S/MIME or TLS verification,
14977 an up-to-date CRL is required for each trusted CA.
14978 There is otherwise no method to distinguish between valid and
14979 invalidated certificates.
14980 \*(UA currently offers no mechanism to fetch CRLs, nor to access them on
14981 the Internet, so they have to be retrieved by some external mechanism.
14984 \*(UA accepts CRLs in PEM format only;
14985 CRLs in DER format must be converted, like, e.\|g.:
14988 .Dl $ openssl crl \-inform DER \-in crl.der \-out crl.pem
14991 To tell \*(UA about the CRLs, a directory that contains all CRL files
14992 (and no other files) must be created.
14997 variables, respectively, must then be set to point to that directory.
14998 After that, \*(UA requires a CRL to be present for each CA that is used
14999 to verify a certificate.
15008 In general it is a good idea to turn on
15014 twice) if something does not work well.
15015 Very often a diagnostic message can be produced that leads to the
15016 problems' solution.
15018 .\" .Ss "\*(UA shortly hangs on startup" {{{
15019 .Ss "\*(UA shortly hangs on startup"
15021 This can have two reasons, one is the necessity to wait for a file lock
15022 and cannot be helped, the other being that \*(UA calls the function
15024 in order to query the nodename of the box (sometimes the real one is
15025 needed instead of the one represented by the internal variable
15027 One may have varying success by ensuring that the real hostname and
15031 or, more generally, that the name service is properly setup \(en
15034 return the expected value?
15035 Does this local hostname have a domain suffix?
15036 RFC 6762 standardized the link-local top-level domain
15038 try again after adding an (additional) entry with this extension.
15041 .\" .Ss "I cannot login to Google mail (via OAuth)" {{{
15042 .Ss "I cannot login to Google mail \&(via OAuth\&)"
15044 Since 2014 some free service providers classify programs as
15046 unless they use a special authentication method (OAuth 2.0) which
15047 was not standardized for non-HTTP protocol authentication token query
15048 until August 2015 (RFC 7628).
15051 Different to Kerberos / GSSAPI, which is developed since the mid of the
15052 1980s, where a user can easily create a local authentication ticket for
15053 her- and himself with the locally installed
15055 program, that protocol has no such local part but instead requires
15056 a world-wide-web query to create or fetch a token; since there is no
15057 local cache this query would have to be performed whenever \*(UA is
15058 invoked (in interactive sessions situation may differ).
15061 \*(UA does not directly support OAuth.
15062 It, however, supports XOAUTH2 / OAUTHBEARER, see
15063 .Sx "But, how about XOAUTH2 / OAUTHBEARER?"
15064 If that is not used it is necessary to declare \*(UA a
15065 .Dq less secure app
15066 (on the providers account web page) in order to read and send mail.
15067 However, it also seems possible to take the following steps instead:
15072 give the provider the number of a mobile phone,
15075 .Dq 2-Step Verification ,
15077 create an application specific password (16 characters), and
15079 use that special password instead of the real Google account password in
15080 \*(UA (for more on that see the section
15081 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) .
15085 .\" .Ss "But, how about XOAUTH2 / OAUTHBEARER?" {{{
15086 .Ss "But, how about XOAUTH2 / OAUTHBEARER?"
15089 .Sx "I cannot login to Google mail \&(via OAuth\&)"
15090 one OAuth-based authentication method is available:
15091 the OAuth 2.0 bearer token usage as standardized in RFC 6750 (according
15092 SASL mechanism in RFC 7628), also known as XOAUTH2 and OAUTHBEARER,
15093 allows fetching a temporary access token via the web that can locally be
15096 The protocol is simple and extendable, token updates or even password
15097 changes via a simple TLS secured server login would be possible in
15098 theory, but today a web browser and an external support tool are
15099 prerequisites for using this authentication method.
15100 The token times out and must be periodically refreshed via the web.
15103 Some hurdles must be taken before being able to use this method.
15104 Using GMail as an example, an application (that is a name) must be
15105 registered, for which credentials, a
15108 .Dq client secret ,
15109 need to be created and saved locally (in a secure way).
15110 These initial configuration steps can be performed at
15111 .Lk https://console.developers.google.com/apis/credentials .
15112 Thereafter a refresh token can be requested;
15113 a python program to do this for GMail accounts is
15114 .Lk https://github.com/google/\:gmail-oauth2-tools/\:raw/\:\
15115 master/\:python/\:oauth2.py :
15117 .Bd -literal -offset indent
15118 $ python oauth2.py --user=EMAIL \e
15119 --client-id=THE-ID --client-secret=THE-SECRET \e
15120 --generate_oauth2_token
15121 To authorize token, visit this url and follow the directions:
15122 https://accounts.google.com/o/oauth2/auth?client_id=...
15123 Enter verification code: ...
15126 Access Token Expiration Seconds: 3600
15127 $ # Of which the last three are actual token responses.
15128 $ # Thereafter access tokens can regularly be refreshed
15129 $ # via the created refresh token (read on)
15133 The generated refresh token must also be saved locally (securely).
15134 The procedure as a whole can be read at
15135 .Lk https://github.com/google/\:gmail-oauth2-tools/\:wiki/\:\
15136 OAuth2DotPyRunThrough .
15137 Since periodic timers are not yet supported, keeping an access token
15138 up-to-date (from within \*(UA) can only be performed via the hook
15139 .Va on-main-loop-tick ,
15140 or (for sending only)
15141 .Va on-compose-enter
15142 (for more on authentication please see the section
15143 .Sx "On URL syntax and credential lookup" ) :
15145 .Bd -literal -offset indent
15146 set on-main-loop-tick=o-m-l-t on-compose-enter=o-c-e
15148 xcall update_access_token
15151 xcall update_access_token
15154 set access_token_=0
15155 define update_access_token {
15156 local set i epoch_sec epoch_nsec
15158 eval set $i # set epoch_sec/_nsec of vexpr epoch
15159 vput vexpr i + $access_token_ 2100
15160 if $epoch_sec -ge $i
15161 vput ! password python oauth2.py --user=EMAIL \e
15162 --client-id=THE-ID --client-secret=THE-SECRET \e
15163 --refresh-token=THE-REFRESH-TOKEN |\e
15164 sed '1b PASS;d; :PASS s/^.\e{1,\e}:\e(.\e{1,\e}\e)$/\e1/'
15165 vput csop password trim "$password"
15167 echo password is <$password>
15169 set access_token_=$epoch_sec
15175 .\" .Ss "Not \(dqdefunctional\(dq, but the editor key does not work" {{{ review
15176 .Ss "Not \(dqdefunctional\(dq, but the editor key does not work"
15178 Two thinkable situations: the first is a shadowed sequence; setting
15180 or the most possible
15182 mode, causes a printout of the
15184 tree after that is built; being a cache, this happens only upon startup
15185 or after modifying bindings.
15188 Or second, terminal libraries (see
15189 .Sx "On terminal control and line editor",
15192 may report different codes than the terminal really sends, rendering
15193 bindings dysfunctional because expected and received data do not match; the
15197 ings will show the byte sequences that are expected.
15198 (One common source of problems is that the \(em possibly even
15199 non-existing \(em keypad is not turned on, and the resulting layout
15200 reports the keypad control codes for the normal keyboard keys.)
15203 To overcome the situation use for example the program
15207 if available, to see the byte sequences which are actually produced
15208 by keypresses, and use the variable
15210 to make \*(UA aware of them.
15211 The terminal this is typed on produces some unexpected sequences,
15212 here for an example the shifted home key:
15214 .Bd -literal -offset indent
15217 # 1B 5B=[ 31=1 3B=; 32=2 48=H
15222 $ \*(uA -v -Stermcap='kHOM=\eE[H'
15229 .\" .Ss "Can \*(UA git-send-email?" {{{
15230 .Ss "Can \*(UA git-send-email?"
15233 Put (at least parts of) the following in your
15236 .Bd -literal -offset indent
15238 smtpserver = /usr/bin/\*(uA
15239 smtpserveroption = -t
15240 #smtpserveroption = -Sexpandaddr
15241 smtpserveroption = -Athe-account-you-need
15244 suppressfrom = false
15245 assume8bitEncoding = UTF-8
15248 chainreplyto = true
15256 Patches can also be send directly, for example:
15258 .Bd -literal -offset indent
15259 $ git format-patch -M --stdout HEAD^ |
15260 \*(uA -A the-account-you-need -t RECEIVER
15264 .\" .Ss "Howto handle stale dotlock files" {{{
15265 .Ss "Howto handle stale dotlock files"
15268 sometimes fails to open MBOX mail databases because creation of
15270 .Sx "dotlock files"
15271 is impossible due to existing but unowned lock files.
15272 \*(UA does not offer an option to deal with those files, because it is
15273 considered a site policy what counts as unowned, and what not.
15274 The site policy is usually defined by administrator(s), and expressed in
15275 the configuration of a locally installed MTA (for example Postfix
15276 .Ql stale_lock_time=500s ) .
15277 Therefore the suggestion:
15279 .Bd -literal -offset indent
15280 $ </dev/null \*(uA -s 'MTA: be no frog, handle lock' $LOGNAME
15284 By sending a mail to yourself the local MTA can use its normal queue
15285 mechanism to try the delivery multiple times, finally decide a lock file
15286 has become stale, and remove it.
15292 .\" .Sh "IMAP CLIENT" {{{
15295 \*(OPally there is IMAP client support available.
15296 This part of the program is obsolete and will vanish in v15 with the
15297 large MIME and I/O layer rewrite, because it uses old-style blocking I/O
15298 and makes excessive use of signal based long code jumps.
15299 Support can hopefully be readded later based on a new-style I/O, with
15300 SysV signal handling.
15301 In fact the IMAP support had already been removed from the codebase, but
15302 was reinstantiated on user demand: in effect the IMAP code is at the
15303 level of \*(UA v14.8.16 (with
15305 being the sole exception), and should be treated with some care.
15312 protocol prefixes, and an IMAP-based
15315 IMAP URLs (paths) undergo inspections and possible transformations
15316 before use (and the command
15318 can be used to manually apply them to any given argument).
15319 Hierarchy delimiters are normalized, a step which is configurable via the
15321 variable chain, but defaults to the first seen delimiter otherwise.
15322 \*(UA supports internationalised IMAP names, and en- and decodes the
15323 names from and to the
15325 as necessary and possible.
15326 If a mailbox name is expanded (see
15327 .Sx "Filename transformations" )
15328 to an IMAP mailbox, all names that begin with `+' then refer to IMAP
15329 mailboxes below the
15331 target box, while folder names prefixed by `@' refer to folders below
15332 the hierarchy base, so the following will list all folders below the
15333 current one when in an IMAP mailbox:
15337 Note: some IMAP servers do not accept the creation of mailboxes in
15338 the hierarchy base, but require that they are created as subfolders of
15339 `INBOX' \(en with such servers a folder name of the form
15341 .Dl imaps://mylogin@imap.myisp.example/INBOX.
15343 should be used (the last character is the server's hierarchy
15345 The following IMAP-specific commands exist:
15348 .Bl -tag -width ".It Ic BaNg"
15351 Only applicable to cached IMAP mailboxes;
15352 takes a message list and reads the specified messages into the IMAP
15357 If operating in disconnected mode on an IMAP mailbox,
15358 switch to online mode and connect to the mail server while retaining
15359 the mailbox status.
15360 See the description of the
15362 variable for more information.
15366 If operating in online mode on an IMAP mailbox,
15367 switch to disconnected mode while retaining the mailbox status.
15368 See the description of the
15371 A list of messages may optionally be given as argument;
15372 the respective messages are then read into the cache before the
15373 connection is closed, thus
15375 makes the entire mailbox available for disconnected use.
15379 Sends command strings directly to the current IMAP server.
15380 \*(UA operates always in IMAP `selected state' on the current mailbox;
15381 commands that change this will produce undesirable results and should be
15383 Useful IMAP commands are:
15384 .Bl -tag -offset indent -width ".Ic getquotearoot"
15386 Takes the name of an IMAP mailbox as an argument and creates it.
15388 (RFC 2087) Takes the name of an IMAP mailbox as an argument
15389 and prints the quotas that apply to the mailbox.
15390 Not all IMAP servers support this command.
15392 (RFC 2342) Takes no arguments and prints the Personal Namespaces,
15393 the Other User's Namespaces and the Shared Namespaces.
15394 Each namespace type is printed in parentheses;
15395 if there are multiple namespaces of the same type,
15396 inner parentheses separate them.
15397 For each namespace a prefix and a hierarchy separator is listed.
15398 Not all IMAP servers support this command.
15403 Perform IMAP path transformations.
15407 .Sx "Command modifiers" ) ,
15408 and manages the error number
15410 The first argument specifies the operation:
15412 normalizes hierarchy delimiters (see
15414 and converts the strings from the locale
15416 to the internationalized variant used by IMAP,
15418 performs the reverse operation.
15419 Encoding will honour the (global) value of
15425 The following IMAP-specific internal variables exist:
15428 .Bl -tag -width ".It Va BaNg"
15430 .It Va disconnected
15431 \*(BO When an IMAP mailbox is selected and this variable is set,
15432 no connection to the server is initiated.
15433 Instead, data is obtained from the local cache (see
15436 Mailboxes that are not present in the cache
15437 and messages that have not yet entirely been fetched from the server
15439 to fetch all messages in a mailbox at once,
15441 .No ` Ns Li copy * /dev/null Ns '
15442 can be used while still in connected mode.
15443 Changes that are made to IMAP mailboxes in disconnected mode are queued
15444 and committed later when a connection to that server is made.
15445 This procedure is not completely reliable since it cannot be guaranteed
15446 that the IMAP unique identifiers (UIDs) on the server still match the
15447 ones in the cache at that time.
15450 when this problem occurs.
15452 .It Va disconnected-USER@HOST
15453 The specified account is handled as described for the
15456 but other accounts are not affected.
15459 .It Va imap-auth-USER@HOST , imap-auth
15460 Sets the IMAP authentication method.
15461 Supported are the default
15468 .Sx "But, how about XOAUTH2 / OAUTHBEARER?" ) ,
15473 (for TLS secured connections which pass a client certificate via
15474 .Va tls-config-pairs ) ,
15475 as well as the \*(OPal
15487 which only need the former.
15489 solely builds upon the credentials passed via a client certificate,
15490 and is usually the way to go since tested servers do not actually follow
15491 RFC 4422, and fail if additional credentials are actually passed.
15495 Enables caching of IMAP mailboxes.
15496 The value of this variable must point to a directory that is either
15497 existent or can be created by \*(UA.
15498 All contents of the cache can be deleted by \*(UA at any time;
15499 it is not safe to make assumptions about them.
15502 .It Va imap-delim-USER@HOST , imap-delim-HOST , imap-delim
15503 The hierarchy separator used by the IMAP server.
15504 Whenever an IMAP path is specified it will undergo normalization.
15505 One of the normalization steps is the squeezing and adjustment of
15506 hierarchy separators.
15507 If this variable is set, any occurrence of any character of the given
15508 value that exists in the path will be replaced by the first member of
15509 the value; an empty value will cause the default to be used, it is
15511 If not set, we will reuse the first hierarchy separator character that
15512 is discovered in a user-given mailbox name.
15514 .Mx Va imap-keepalive
15515 .It Va imap-keepalive-USER@HOST , imap-keepalive-HOST , imap-keepalive
15516 IMAP servers may close the connection after a period of
15517 inactivity; the standard requires this to be at least 30 minutes,
15518 but practical experience may vary.
15519 Setting this variable to a numeric `value' greater than 0 causes
15520 a `NOOP' command to be sent each `value' seconds if no other operation
15524 .It Va imap-list-depth
15525 When retrieving the list of folders on an IMAP server, the
15527 command stops after it has reached a certain depth to avoid possible
15529 The value of this variable sets the maximum depth allowed.
15531 If the folder separator on the current IMAP server is a slash `/',
15532 this variable has no effect and the
15534 command does not descend to subfolders.
15536 .Mx Va imap-use-starttls
15537 .It Va imap-use-starttls-USER@HOST , imap-use-starttls-HOST , imap-use-starttls
15538 Causes \*(UA to issue a `STARTTLS' command to make an unencrypted
15539 IMAP session TLS encrypted.
15540 This functionality is not supported by all servers,
15541 and is not used if the session is already encrypted by the IMAPS method.
15547 .\" .Sh "SEE ALSO" {{{
15557 .Xr spamassassin 1 ,
15566 .Pf (or\0 Xr regex 7 ) ,
15567 .Xr mailwrapper 8 ,
15573 .\" .Sh HISTORY {{{
15576 M. Douglas McIlroy writes in his article
15577 .Dq A Research UNIX Reader: Annotated Excerpts \
15578 from the Programmer's Manual, 1971-1986
15581 command already appeared in First Edition
15585 .Bd -ragged -offset indent
15586 Electronic mail was there from the start.
15587 Never satisfied with its exact behavior, everybody touched it at one
15588 time or another: to assure the safety of simultaneous access, to improve
15589 privacy, to survive crashes, to exploit uucp, to screen out foreign
15590 freeloaders, or whatever.
15591 Not until v7 did the interface change (Thompson).
15592 Later, as mail became global in its reach, Dave Presotto took charge and
15593 brought order to communications with a grab-bag of external networks
15599 Mail, in large parts compatible with
15601 mail, was written in 1978 by Kurt Shoens and developed as part of the
15604 distribution until 1995.
15605 This manual page is derived from
15606 .Dq The Mail Reference Manual
15607 that Kurt Shoens wrote for Mail 1.3, included in 3BSD in 1980.
15612 denominator became standardized as
15614 in the X/Open Portability Guide Issue 2 (January 1987).
15615 After the rise of Open Source
15618 Mail saw continuous development in the individual code forks,
15619 noticeably by Christos Zoulas in
15621 Based upon this Nail, later Heirloom Mailx, was developed by Gunnar
15622 Ritter in the years 2000 until 2008.
15623 Since 2012 S-nail is maintained by Steffen Nurpmeso.
15626 Electronic mail exchange in general is a concept even older.
15627 The earliest well documented electronic mail system was part of the
15628 Compatible Time Sharing System (CTSS) at MIT, its MAIL command had been
15629 proposed in a staff planning memo at the end of 1964 and was implemented
15630 in mid-1965 when Tom Van Vleck and Noel Morris wrote the necessary code.
15631 Similar communication programs were built for other timesharing systems.
15632 One of the most ambitious and influential was Murray Turoff's EMISARI.
15633 Created in 1971 for the United States Office of Emergency Preparedness,
15634 EMISARI combined private electronic messages with a chat system, public
15635 postings, voting, and a user directory.
15638 During the 1960s it was common to connect a large number of terminals to
15639 a single, central computer.
15640 Connecting two computers together was relatively unusual.
15641 This began to change with the development of the ARPANET, the ancestor
15642 of today's Internet.
15643 In 1971 Ray Tomlinson adapted the SNDMSG program, originally developed
15644 for the University of California at Berkeley timesharing system, to give
15645 it the ability to transmit a message across the network into the mailbox
15646 of a user on a different computer.
15647 For the first time it was necessary to specify the recipient's computer
15648 as well as an account name.
15649 Tomlinson decided that the underused commercial at
15651 would work to separate the two.
15654 Sending a message across the network was originally treated as a special
15655 instance of transmitting a file, and so a MAIL command was included in
15656 RFC 385 on file transfer in 1972.
15657 Because it was not always clear when or where a message had come from,
15658 RFC 561 in 1973 aimed to formalize electronic mail headers, including
15663 In 1975 RFC 680 described fields to help with the transmission of
15664 messages to multiple users, including
15669 In 1977 these features and others went from best practices to a binding
15670 standard in RFC 733.
15671 Queen Elizabeth II of England became the first head of state to send
15672 electronic mail on March 26 1976 while ceremonially opening a building
15673 in the British Royal Signals and Radar Establishment (RSRE) in Malvern.
15680 .An "Kurt Shoens" ,
15681 .An "Edward Wang" ,
15682 .An "Keith Bostic" ,
15683 .An "Christos Zoulas" ,
15684 .An "Gunnar Ritter" .
15685 \*(UA is developed by
15686 .An "Steffen Nurpmeso" Aq s-mailx@lists.sdaoden.eu .
15689 .\" .Sh CAVEATS {{{
15692 \*(ID Interrupting an operation via
15696 from anywhere else but a command prompt is very problematic and likely
15697 to leave the program in an undefined state: many library functions
15698 cannot deal with the
15700 that this software (still) performs; even though efforts have been taken
15701 to address this, no sooner but in v15 it will have been worked out:
15702 interruptions have not been disabled in order to allow forceful breakage
15703 of hanging network connections, for example (all this is unrelated to
15707 The SMTP and POP3 protocol support of \*(UA is very basic.
15708 Also, if it fails to contact its upstream SMTP server, it will not make
15709 further attempts to transfer the message at a later time (setting
15714 If this is a concern, it might be better to set up a local SMTP server
15715 that is capable of message queuing.
15722 When a network-based mailbox is open, directly changing to another
15723 network-based mailbox of a different protocol (i.e., from POP3 to IMAP
15724 or vice versa) will cause a
15728 After deleting some message of a POP3 mailbox the header summary falsely
15729 claims that there are no messages to display, one needs to perform
15730 a scroll or dot movement to restore proper state.
15737 mode a power user may encounter crashes very occasionally (this is may
15741 Please report bugs to the
15743 address, for example from within \*(uA:
15744 .\" v15-compat: drop eval as `mail' will expand variable?
15745 .Ql \&? Ns \| Ic eval Ns \| Ic mail Ns \| $contact-mail .
15748 output of the command
15752 .Bd -literal -offset indent
15753 ? wysh set escape=! verbose; vput version xy; unset verbose;\e
15754 eval mail $contact-mail
15761 Information on the web at
15762 .Ql $ \*(uA -X 'echo Ns \| $ Ns Va contact-web Ns ; x' .