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NAIL(1) User Commands NAIL(1)
NAME
nail - send and receive Internet mail
SYNOPSIS
nail [-BDdFintv~] [-R address ] [-s subject] [-a attachment ] [-c cc-
addr] [-b bcc-addr] [-r from-addr] [-h hops] [-A account] to-
addr . . .
nail [-BDdeHiInNRv~] [-T name] [-A account] -f [name]
nail [-BDdeinNRv~] [-A account] [-u user]
DESCRIPTION
Nail is an intelligent mail processing system, which has a command syn-
tax reminiscent of ed(1) with lines replaced by messages. It is based
on Berkeley Mail 8.1, is intended to provide the functionality of the
POSIX mailx command, and offers extensions for MIME, IMAP, POP3, SMTP,
and S/MIME. Nail provides enhanced features for interactive use, such
as caching and disconnected operation for IMAP, message threading,
scoring, and filtering. It is also usable as a mail batch language,
both for sending and receiving mail.
The following options are accepted:
-A name
Executes an account command (see below) for name after the
startup files have been read.
-a file
Attach the given file to the message.
-B Make standard input and standard output line-buffered.
-b address
Send blind carbon copies to list. List should be a comma-sepa-
rated list of names.
-c address
Send carbon copies to list of users.
-D Start in disconnected mode; see the description for the disconā
nected variable option.
-d Enables debugging messages and disables the actual delivery of
messages. Unlike -v, this option is intended for nail develop-
ment only.
-e Just check if mail is present in the system mailbox. If yes,
return an exit status of zero, else, a non-zero value.
-f [file]
Read in the contents of the user's mbox (or the specified file)
for processing; when nail is quit, it writes undeleted messages
back to this file. The string file is handled as described for
the folder command below.
-F Save the message to send in a file named after the local part of
the first recipient's address.
-H Print header summaries for all messages and exit.
-h hops
Invoke sendmail with the specified hop count. This option has
no effect when SMTP is used for sending mail.
-i Ignore tty interrupt signals. This is particularly useful when
using nail on noisy phone lines.
-I Shows the `Newsgroup:' or `Article-Id:' fields in the header
summary. Only applicable in combination with -f.
-n Inhibits reading /etc/mail.rc upon startup. This option should
be activated for nail scripts that are invoked on more than one
machine, because the contents of that file may differ between
them.
-N Inhibits the initial display of message headers when reading
mail or editing a mail folder.
-q file
Start the message with the contents of the specified file. May
be given in send mode only.
-r address
Sets the From address. Overrides any from variable specified in
environment or startup files. Tilde escapes are disabled. The
-r address options are passed to the mail transfer agent unless
SMTP is used. This option exists for compatibility only; it is
recommended to set the from variable directly instead.
-R | -R address
Without any argument any folders will be opened read-only. With
argument an reply-to adress is specifed on command line. Only
the first argument after the -R flag is used as the address.
-s subject
Specify subject on command line (only the first argument after
the -s flag is used as a subject; be careful to quote subjects
containing spaces).
-T name
Writes the `Message-Id:' and `Article-Id:' header fields of each
message read in the file name. Implies -I. Compressed files
are handled as described for the folder command below.
-t The message to be sent is expected to contain a message header
with `To:', `Cc:', or `Bcc:' fields giving its recipients.
Recipients specified on the command line are ignored.
-u user
Reads the mailbox of the given user name.
-v Verbose mode. The details of delivery are displayed on the
user's terminal.
-V Print nail's version and exit.
-~ Enable tilde escapes even if not in interactive mode.
Sending mail
To send a message to one or more people, nail can be invoked with argu-
ments which are the names of people to whom the mail will be sent. The
user is then expected to type in his message, followed by an `control-
D' at the beginning of a line. The section below Replying to or origi-
nating mail, describes some features of nail available to help when
composing letters.
Reading mail
In normal usage nail is given no arguments and checks the user's mail
out of the post office, then prints out a one line header of each
message found. The current message is initially the first message
(numbered 1) and can be printed using the print command which can be
abbreviated `p'). The user can move among the messages much as he
moves between lines in ed(1), with the commands `+' and `-' moving
backwards and forwards, and simple numbers.
Disposing of mail
After examining a message the user can delete `d') the message or reply
`r') to it. Deletion causes the nail program to forget about the mes-
sage. This is not irreversible; the message can be undeleted `u') by
giving its number, or the nail session can be aborted by giving the
exit `x') command. Deleted messages will, however, usually disappear
never to be seen again.
Specifying messages
Commands such as print and delete can be given a list of message num-
bers as arguments to apply to a number of messages at once. Thus
`delete 1 2' deletes messages 1 and 2, while `delete 1-5' deletes mes-
sages 1 through 5. In sorted or threaded mode (see the sort and thread
commands), `delete 1-5' deletes the messages that are located between
(and including) messages 1 through 5 in the sorted/threaded order, as
shown in the header summary. The following special message names
exist:
:n All new messages.
:o All old messages (any not in state read or new).
:u All unread messages.
:d All deleted messages (for the undelete command).
:r All read messages.
:f All `flagged' messages.
:a All answered messages (cf. the markanswered variable).
:t All messages marked as draft.
:k All `killed' messages.
:j All messages classified as junk.
. The current message.
; The message that was previously the current message.
, The parent message of the current message, that is the message
with the Message-ID given in the `In-Reply-To:' field or the
last entry of the `References:' field of the current message.
- The next previous undeleted message, or the next previous
deleted message for the undelete command. In sorted/threaded
mode, the next previous such message in the sorted/threaded
order.
+ The next undeleted message, or the next deleted message for the
undelete command. In sorted/threaded mode, the next such mes-
sage in the sorted/threaded order.
^ The first undeleted message, or the first deleted message for
the undelete command. In sorted/threaded mode, the first such
message in the sorted/threaded order.
$ The last message. In sorted/threaded mode, the last message in
the sorted/threaded order.
&x In threaded mode, selects the message addressed with x, where x
is any other message specification, and all messages from the
thread that begins at it. Otherwise, it is identical to x. If
x is omitted, the thread beginning with the current message is
selected.
* All messages.
` All messages that were included in the message list for the pre-
vious command.
/string
All messages that contain string in the subject field (case
ignored). See also the searchheaders variable. If string is
empty, the string from the previous specification of that type
is used again.
address
All messages from address.
(criterion)
All messages that satisfy the given IMAP-style SEARCH criterion.
This addressing mode is available with all types of folders; for
folders not located on IMAP servers, or for servers unable to
execute the SEARCH command, nail will perform the search
locally. Strings must be enclosed by double quotes `"' in their
entirety if they contain white space or parentheses; within the
quotes, only backslash `\' is recognized as an escape character.
All string searches are case-insensitive. When the description
indicates that the `envelope' representation of an address field
is used, this means that the search string is checked against
both a list constructed as
("real name" "source-route" "local-part" "domain-part")
for each address, and the addresses without real names from the
respective header field. Criteria can be nested using parenthe-
ses.
(criterion1 criterion2 ... criterionN)
All messages that satisfy all of the given criteria.
(or criterion1 criterion2)
All messages that satisfy either criterion1 or criterion2, or
both. To connect more than two criteria using `or', (or) speci-
fications have to be nested using additional parentheses, as
with `(or a (or b c))'; `(or a b c)' means ((a or b) and c).
For a simple `or' operation of independent criteria on the low-
est nesting level, it is possible to achieve similar effects by
using three separate criteria, as with `(a) (b) (c)'.
(not criterion)
All messages that do not satisfy criterion.
(bcc string)
All messages that contain string in the `envelope' representa-
tion of the Bcc: field.
(cc string)
All messages that contain string in the `envelope' representa-
tion of the Cc: field.
(from string)
All messages that contain string in the `envelope' representa-
tion of the From: field.
(subject string)
All messages that contain string in the Subject: field.
(to string)
All messages that contain string in the `envelope' representa-
tion of the To: field.
(header name string)
All messages that contain string in the specified Name: field.
(body string)
All messages that contain string in their body.
(text string)
All messages that contain string in their header or body.
(larger size)
All messages that are larger than size (in bytes).
(smaller size)
All messages that are smaller than size (in bytes).
(before date)
All messages that were received before date; date must be in the
form d[d]-mon-yyyy, where d[d] is the day of the month as one or
two digits, mon is the name of the monthāone of `Jan', `Feb',
`Mar', `Apr', `May', `Jun', `Jul', `Aug', `Sep', `Oct', `Nov',
or `Dec', and yyyy is the year as four digits; e.g.
"30-Aug-2004".
(on date)
All messages that were received on the specified date.
(since date)
All messages that were received since the specified date.
(sentbefore date)
All messages that were sent on the specified date.
(senton date)
All messages that were sent on the specified date.
(sentsince date)
All messages that were sent since the specified date.
() The same criterion as for the previous search. This specifica-
tion cannot be used as part of another criterion. If the previ-
ous command line contained more than one independent criterion,
the last of those criteria is used.
A practical method to read a set of messages is to issue a from command
with the search criteria first to check for appropriate messages, and
to read each single message then by typing ``' repeatedly.
Replying to or originating mail
The reply command can be used to set up a response to a message, send-
ing it back to the person who it was from. Text the user types in
then, up to an end-of-file, defines the contents of the message. While
the user is composing a message, nail treats lines beginning with the
character `~' specially. For instance, typing `~m' (alone on a line)
will place a copy of the current message into the response right shift-
ing it by a tabstop (see indentprefix variable, below). Other escapes
will set up subject fields, add and delete recipients to the message,
attach files to it and allow the user to escape to an editor to revise
the message or to a shell to run some commands. (These options are
given in the summary below.)
Ending a mail processing session
The user can end a nail session with the quit (`q') command. Messages
which have been examined go to the user's mbox file unless they have
been deleted in which case they are discarded. Unexamined messages go
back to the post office. (See the -f option above).
Personal and systemwide distribution lists
It is also possible to create a personal distribution lists so that,
for instance, the user can send mail to `cohorts' and have it go to a
group of people. Such lists can be defined by placing a line like
alias cohorts bill ozalp jkf mark kridle@ucbcory
in the file .mailrc in the user's home directory. The current list of
such aliases can be displayed with the alias command in nail. System
wide distribution lists can be created by editing /etc/aliases, see
aliases(5) and sendmail(8); these are kept in a different syntax. In
mail the user sends, personal aliases will be expanded in mail sent to
others so that they will be able to reply to the recipients. System
wide aliases are not expanded when the mail is sent, but any reply
returned to the machine will have the system wide alias expanded as all
mail goes through sendmail.
Recipient address specifications
When an address is used to name a recipient (in any of To, Cc, or Bcc),
names of local mail folders and pipes to external commands can also be
specified; the message text is then written to them. The rules are:
Any name which starts with a `|' character specifies a pipe, the com-
mand string following the `|' is executed and the message is sent to
its standard input; any other name which contains a `@' character is
treated as a mail address; any other name which starts with a `+' char-
acter specifies a folder name; any other name which contains a `/'
character but no `!' or `%' character before also specifies a folder
name; what remains is treated as a mail address. Compressed folders
are handled as described for the folder command below.
Network mail (Internet / ARPA, UUCP, Berknet)
See mailaddr(7) for a description of network addresses. Nail has a
number of options which can be set in the .mailrc file to alter its
behavior; thus `set askcc' enables the askcc feature. (These options
are summarized below).
MIME types
For any outgoing attachment, nail tries to determine the content type.
It does this by reading MIME type files whose lines have the following
syntax:
type/subtype extension [extension . . .]
where type/subtype are strings describing the file contents, and exten-
sion is the part of a filename starting after the last dot. Any line
not immediately beginning with an ASCII alphabetical character is
ignored by nail. If there is a match with the extension of the file to
attach, the given type/subtype pair is used. Otherwise, or if the
filename has no extension, the content types text/plain or applica-
tion/octet-stream are used, the first for text or international text
files, the second for any file that contains formatting characters
other than newlines and horizontal tabulators.
Character sets
Nail normally detects the character set of the terminal using the
LC_CTYPE locale setting. If the locale cannot be used appropriately,
the ttycharset variable should be set to provide an explicit value.
When reading messages, their text is converted to the terminal charac-
ter set if possible. Unprintable characters and illegal byte sequences
are detected and replaced by Unicode substitute characters or question
marks unless the print-all-chars is set at initialization time.
The character set for outgoing messages is not necessarily the same as
the one used on the terminal. If an outgoing text message contains
characters not representable in US-ASCII, the character set being used
must be declared within its header. Permissible values can be declared
using the sendcharsets variable, separated by commas; nail tries each
of the values in order and uses the first appropriate one. If the mes-
sage contains characters that cannot be represented in any of the given
character sets, the message will not be sent, and its text will be
saved to the `dead.letter' file. Messages that contains NUL bytes are
not converted.
Outgoing attachments are also not converted even if they are plain
text. If the sendcharsets variable contains more than one character
set name, the ~@ tilde escape will ask for the character sets for indi-
vidual attachments if it is invoked without arguments.
Best results are usually achieved when nail is run in a UTF-8 locale on
a UTF-8 capable terminal. In this setup, characters from various coun-
tries can be displayed, while it is still possible to use more simple
character sets for sending to retain maximum compatibility with older
mail clients.
Commands
Each command is typed on a line by itself, and may take arguments fol-
lowing the command word. The command need not be typed in its entirety
ā the first command which matches the typed prefix is used. For com-
mands which take message lists as arguments, if no message list is
given, then the next message forward which satisfies the command's
requirements is used. If there are no messages forward of the current
message, the search proceeds backwards, and if there are no good mes-
sages at all, nail types `applicable messages' and aborts the command.
If the command begins with a # sign, the line is ignored.
The arguments to commands can be quoted, using the following methods:
Ā· An argument can be enclosed between paired double-quotes "" or
single-quotes ''; any white space, shell word expansion, or
backslash characters within the quotes are treated literally as
part of the argument. A double-quote will be treated literally
within single-quotes and vice versa. These special properties of
the quote marks occur only when they are paired at the beginning
and end of the argument.
Ā· A backslash outside of the enclosing quotes is discarded and the
following character is treated literally as part of the argu-
ment.
Ā· An unquoted backslash at the end of a command line is discarded
and the next line continues the command.
Filenames, where expected, are subjected to the following transforma-
tions, in sequence:
Ā· If the filename begins with an unquoted plus sign, and the
folder variable is defined, the plus sign will be replaced by
the value of the folder variable followed by a slash. If the
folder variable is unset or is set to null, the filename will be
unchanged.
Ā· Shell word expansions are applied to the filename. If more than
a single pathname results from this expansion and the command is
expecting one file, an error results.
The following commands are provided:
- Print out the preceding message. If given a numeric argument n,
goes to the n'th previous message and prints it.
? Prints a brief summary of commands.
! Executes the shell (see sh(1) and csh(1)) command which follows.
| A synonym for the pipe command.
account
(ac) Creates, selects or lists an email account. An account is
formed by a group of commands, primarily of those to set vari-
ables. With two arguments, of which the second is a `{', the
first argument gives an account name, and the following lines
create a group of commands for that account until a line con-
taining a single `}' appears. With one argument, the previously
created group of commands for the account name is executed, and
a folder command is executed for the system mailbox or inbox of
that account. Without arguments, the list of accounts and their
contents are printed. As an example,
account myisp {
set folder=imaps://mylogin@imap.myisp.example
set record=+Sent
set from="myname@myisp.example (My Name)"
set smtp=smtp.myisp.example
}
creates an account named `myisp' which can later be selected by
specifying `account myisp'.
alias (a) With no arguments, prints out all currently-defined aliases.
With one argument, prints out that alias. With more than one
argument, creates a new alias or changes an old one.
alternates
(alt) The alternates command is useful if the user has accounts
on several machines. It can be used to inform nail that the
listed addresses all belong to the invoking user. When he
replies to messages, nail will not send a copy of the message to
any of the addresses listed on the alternates list. If the
alternates command is given with no argument, the current set of
alternate names is displayed.
answered
(ans) Takes a message list and marks each message as a having
been answered. This mark has no technical meaning in the mail
system; it just causes messages to be marked in the header sum-
mary, and makes them specially addressable.
cache Only applicable to cached IMAP mailboxes; takes a message list
and reads the specified messages into the IMAP cache.
call Calls a macro (see the define command).
cd Same as chdir.
certsave
Only applicable to S/MIME signed messages. Takes a message list
and a file name and saves the certificates contained within the
message signatures to the named file in both human-readable and
PEM format. The certificates can later be used to send
encrypted messages to the messages' originators by setting the
smime-encrypt-user@host variable.
chdir (ch) Changes the user's working directory to that specified, if
given. If no directory is given, then changes to the user's
login directory.
classify
(cl) Takes a list of messages and examines their contents for
characteristics of junk mail using Bayesian filtering. Messages
considered to be junk are then marked as such. The junk mail
database is not changed.
collapse
(coll) Only applicable to threaded mode. Takes a message list
and makes all replies to these messages invisible in header sum-
maries, unless they are in state `new'.
connect
(conn) If operating in disconnected mode on an IMAP mailbox,
switch to online mode and connect to the mail server while
retaining the mailbox status. See the description of the disā
connected variable for more information.
copy (c) The copy command does the same thing that save does, except
that it does not mark the messages it is used on for deletion
when the user quits. Compressed files and IMAP mailboxes are
handled as described for the folder command.
Copy (C) Similar to copy, but saves the messages in a file named
after the local part of the sender address of the first message.
decrypt
(dec) For unencrypted messages, this command is identical to
copy. Encrypted messages are first decrypted, if possible, and
then copied.
Decrypt
(Dec) Similar to decrypt, but saves the messages in a file named
after the local part of the sender address of the first message.
define (def) Defines a macro. A macro definition is a sequence of com-
mands in the following form:
define name {
command1
command2
...
commandN
}
Once defined, a macro can be explicitly invoked using the call
command, or can be implicitly invoked by setting the folder-hook
or folder-hook-fullname variables.
defines
Prints the currently defined macros including their contents.
delete (d) Takes a list of messages as argument and marks them all as
deleted. Deleted messages will not be saved in mbox, nor will
they be available for most other commands.
discard
Same as ignore.
disconnect
(disco) If operating in online mode on an IMAP mailbox, switch
to disconnected mode while retaining the mailbox status. See
the description of the disconnected variable for more informa-
tion. A list of messages may optionally be given as argument;
the respective messages are then read into the cache before the
connection is closed. Thus `disco *' makes the entire current
mailbox available for disconnected use.
dp or dt
Deletes the current message and prints the next message. If
there is no next message, nail says `at EOF'.
draft Takes a message list and marks each message as a draft. This
mark has no technical meaning in the mail system; it just causes
messages to be marked in the header summary, and makes them spe-
cially addressable.
echo Echoes its arguments, resolving special names as documented for
the folder command. The escape sequences `\a', `\b', `\c',
`\f', `\n', `\r', `\t', `\v', `\\', and `\0num' are interpreted
as with the echo(1) command.
edit (e) Takes a list of messages and points the text editor at each
one in turn. Modified contents are discarded unless the writeā
backedited variable is set.
else Marks the end of the then-part of an if statement and the begin-
ning of the part to take effect if the condition of the if
statement is false.
endif Marks the end of an if statement.
exit (ex or x) Effects an immediate return to the Shell without modi-
fying the user's system mailbox, his mbox file, or his edit file
in -f.
file (fi) The same as folder.
flag (fl) Takes a message list and marks the messages as `flagged'
for urgent/special attention. This mark has no technical mean-
ing in the mail system; it just causes messages to be high-
lighted in the header summary, and makes them specially address-
able.
folders
With no arguments, list the names of the folders in the folder
directory. With an existing folder as an argument, lists then
names of folders below the named folder; e.g. the command `fold-
ers @' lists the folders on the base level of the current IMAP
server. See also the imap-list-depth variable.
folder (fold) The folder command switches to a new mail file or folder.
With no arguments, it tells the user which file he is currently
reading. If an argument is given, it will write out changes
(such as deletions) the user has made in the current file and
read in the new file. Some special conventions are recognized
for the name. # means the previous file, % means the invoking
user's system mailbox, %user means user's system mailbox, &
means the invoking user's mbox file, and +file means a file in
the folder directory. %:filespec expands to the same value as
filespec, but the file is handled as a system mailbox e. g. by
the mbox and save commands. If the name matches one of the
strings defined with the shortcut command, it is replaced by its
long form and expanded. If the name ends with .gz or .bz2, it
is treated as compressed with gzip(1) or bzip2(1), respectively.
Likewise, if name does not exist, but either name.gz or name.bz2
exists, the compressed file is used. If name refers to a direc-
tory with the subdirectories `tmp', `new', and `cur', it is
treated as a folder in maildir format. A name of the form
protocol://[user@]host[:port][/file]
is taken as an Internet mailbox specification. The supported
protocols are currently imap (IMAP v4r1), imaps (IMAP with
SSL/TLS encryption), pop3 (POP3), and pop3s (POP3 with SSL/TLS
encryption). If user contains special characters, in particular
`/' or `%', they must be escaped in URL notation, as `%2F' or
`%25'. The optional file part applies to IMAP only; if it is
omitted, the default `INBOX' is used. If nail is connected to
an IMAP server, a name of the form @mailbox refers to the mailā
box on that server. If the `folder' variable refers to an IMAP
account, the special name `%' selects the `INBOX' on that
account.
Followup
(F) Similar to Respond, but saves the message in a file named
after the local part of the first recipient's address.
followup
(fo) Similar to respond, but saves the message in a file named
after the local part of the first recipient's address.
followupall
Similar to followup, but responds to all recipients regardless
of the flipr and Replyall variables.
followupsender
Similar to Followup, but responds to the sender only regardless
of the flipr and Replyall variables.
forward
(fwd) Takes a message and the address of a recipient and for-
wards the message to him. The text of the original message is
included in the new one, with the value of the fwdheading vari-
able printed before. The fwdignore and fwdretain commands spec-
ify which header fields are included in the new message. Only
the first part of a multipart message is included unless the
forward-as-attachment option is set.
Forward
(Fwd) Similar to forward, but saves the message in a file named
after the local part of the recipient's address.
from (f) Takes a list of messages and prints their message headers,
piped through the pager if the output does not fit on the
screen.
fwdignore
Specifies which header fields are to be ignored with the forward
command. This command has no effect when the forward-as-attachā
ment option is set.
fwdretain
Specifies which header fields are to be retained with the forā
ward command. fwdretain overrides fwdignore. This command has
no effect when the forward-as-attachment option is set.
good (go) Takes a list of messages and marks all of them as not being
junk mail. Data from these messages is then inserted into the
junk mail database for future classification.
headers
(h) Lists the current range of headers, which is an 18-message
group. If a `+' argument is given, then the next 18-message
group is printed, and if a `-' argument is given, the previous
18-message group is printed.
help A synonym for ?.
hold (ho, also preserve) Takes a message list and marks each message
therein to be saved in the user's system mailbox instead of in
mbox. Does not override the delete command. nail deviates from
the POSIX standard with this command, as a `next' command issued
after `hold' will display the following message, not the current
one.
if Commands in nail's startup files can be executed conditionally
depending on whether the user is sending or receiving mail with
the if command. For example:
if receive
commands . . .
endif
An else form is also available:
if receive
commands . . .
else
commands . . .
endif
Note that the only allowed conditions are receive, send, and
term (execute command if standard input is a tty).
ignore Add the list of header fields named to the ignored list. Header
fields in the ignore list are not printed on the terminal when a
message is printed. This command is very handy for suppression
of certain machine-generated header fields. The Type and Print
commands can be used to print a message in its entirety, includ-
ing ignored fields. If ignore is executed with no arguments, it
lists the current set of ignored fields.
imap Sends command strings directly to the current IMAP server. Nail
operates always in IMAP selected state on the current mailbox;
commands that change this will produce undesirable results and
should be avoided. Useful IMAP commands are:
create Takes the name of an IMAP mailbox as an argument and cre-
ates it.
getquotaroot
Takes the name of an IMAP mailbox as an argument and
prints the quotas that apply to the mailbox. Not all
IMAP servers support this command.
namespace
Takes no arguments and prints the Personal Namespaces,
the Other User's Namespaces, and the Shared Namespaces.
Each namespace type is printed in parentheses; if there
are multiple namespaces of the same type, inner parenthe-
ses separate them. For each namespace, a namespace pre-
fix and a hierarchy separator is listed. Not all IMAP
servers support this command.
inc Same as newmail.
junk (j) Takes a list of messages and marks all of them as junk mail.
Data from these messages is then inserted into the junk mail
database for future classification.
kill (k) Takes a list of messages and `kills' them. Killed messages
are not printed in header summaries, and are ignored by the next
command. The kill command also sets the score of the messages
to negative infinity, so that subsequent score commands will not
unkill them again. Killing is only effective for the current
session on a folder; when it is quit, all messages are automati-
cally unkilled.
list Prints the names of all available commands.
Mail (M) Similar to mail, but saves the message in a file named after
the local part of the first recipient's address.
mail (m) Takes as argument login names and distribution group names
and sends mail to those people.
mbox Indicate that a list of messages be sent to mbox in the user's
home directory when nail is quit. This is the default action
for messages if unless the hold option is set. nail deviates
from the POSIX standard with this command, as a `next' command
issued after `mbox' will display the following message, not the
current one.
move (mv) Acts like copy, but marks the messages for deletion if they
were transferred successfully.
Move (Mv) Similar to move, but moves the messages to a file named
after the local part of the sender address of the first message.
newmail
Checks for new mail in the current folder without committing any
changes before. If new mail is present, a message is printed.
If the header variable is set, the headers of each new message
are also printed.
next (n) like + or CR) Goes to the next message in sequence and types
it. With an argument list, types the next matching message.
New Same as unread.
new Same as unread.
online Same as connect.
noop If the current folder is located on an IMAP or POP3 server, a
NOOP command is sent. Otherwise, no operation is performed.
Pipe (Pi) Like pipe but also pipes ignored header fields and all
parts of MIME multipart/alternative messages.
pipe (pi) Takes a message list and a shell command and pipes the mes-
sages through the command. Without an argument, the current
message is piped through the command given by the cmd variable.
If the page variable is set, every message is followed by a
formfeed character.
preserve
(pre) A synonym for hold.
Print (P) Like print but also prints out ignored header fields and all
parts of MIME multipart/alternative messages. See also print,
ignore, and retain.
print (p) Takes a message list and types out each message on the
user's terminal. If the message is a MIME multipart message,
all parts with a content type of `text' or `message' are shown,
the other are hidden except for their headers. Messages are
decrypted and converted to the terminal character set if neces-
sary.
probability
(prob) For each word given as argument, the contents of its junk
mail database entry are printed.
quit (q) Terminates the session, saving all undeleted, unsaved mes-
sages in the user's mbox file in his login directory, preserving
all messages marked with hold or preserve or never referenced in
his system mailbox, and removing all other messages from his
system mailbox. If new mail has arrived during the session, the
message `You have new mail' is given. If given while editing a
mailbox file with the -f flag, then the edit file is rewritten.
A return to the Shell is effected, unless the rewrite of edit
file fails, in which case the user can escape with the exit com-
mand.
redirect
(red) Same as resend.
Redirect
(Red) Same as Resend.
remove (rem) Removes the named folders. The user is asked for confir-
mation in interactive mode.
rename (ren) Takes the name of an existing folder and the name for the
new folder and renames the first to the second one. Both fold-
ers must be of the same type and must be located on the current
server for IMAP.
Reply (R) Reply to originator. Does not reply to other recipients of
the original message.
reply (r) Takes a message list and sends mail to the sender and all
recipients of the specified message. The default message must
not be deleted.
replyall
Similar to reply, but responds to all recipients regardless of
the flipr and Replyall variables.
replysender
Similar to Reply, but responds to the sender only regardless of
the flipr and Replyall variables.
Resend Like resend, but does not add any header lines. This is not a
way to hide the sender's identity, but useful for sending a mes-
sage again to the same recipients.
resend Takes a list of messages and a user name and sends each message
to the named user. `Resent-From:' and related header fields are
prepended to the new copy of the message.
Respond
Same as Reply.
respond
Same as reply.
respondall
Same as replyall.
respondsender
Same as replysender.
retain Add the list of header fields named to the retained list. Only
the header fields in the retain list are shown on the terminal
when a message is printed. All other header fields are sup-
pressed. The Type and Print commands can be used to print a
message in its entirety. If retain is executed with no argu-
ments, it lists the current set of retained fields.
Save (S) Similar to save, but saves the messages in a file named
after the local part of the sender of the first message instead
of taking a filename argument.
save (s) Takes a message list and a filename and appends each message
in turn to the end of the file. If no filename is given, the
mbox file is used. The filename in quotes, followed by the line
count and character count is echoed on the user's terminal. If
editing a system mailbox, the messages are marked for deletion.
Compressed files and IMAP mailboxes are handled as described for
the -f command line option above.
savediscard
Same as saveignore.
saveignore
Saveignore is to save what ignore is to print and type. Header
fields thus marked are filtered out when saving a message by
save or when automatically saving to mbox. This command should
only be applied to header fields that do not contain information
needed to decode the message, as MIME content fields do. If
saving messages on an IMAP account, ignoring fields makes it
impossible to copy the data directly on the server, thus opera-
tion usually becomes much slower.
saveretain
Saveretain is to save what retain is to print and type. Header
fields thus marked are the only ones saved with a message when
saving by save or when automatically saving to mbox. Saveretain
overrides saveignore. The use of this command is strongly dis-
couraged since it may strip header fields that are needed to
decode the message correctly.
score (sc) Takes a message list and a floating point number and adds
the number to the score of each given message. All messages
start at score 0 when a folder is opened. When the score of a
message becomes negative, it is `killed' with the effects
described for the kill command; otherwise if it was negative
before and becomes positive, it is `unkilled'. Scores only
refer to the currently opened instance of a folder.
set (se) With no arguments, prints all variable values, piped
through the pager if the output does not fit on the screen.
Otherwise, sets option. Arguments are of the form option=value
(no space before or after =) or option. Quotation marks may be
placed around any part of the assignment statement to quote
blanks or tabs, i.e. `set indentprefix="->"'. If an argument
begins with no, as in `set nosave', the effect is the same as
invoking the unset command with the remaining part of the vari-
able (`unset save').
seen Takes a message list and marks all messages as having been read.
shell (sh) Invokes an interactive version of the shell.
shortcut
Defines a shortcut name and its string for expansion, as
described for the folder command. With no arguments, a list of
defined shortcuts is printed.
show (Sh) Like print, but performs neither MIME decoding nor decryp-
tion so that the raw message text is shown.
size Takes a message list and prints out the size in characters of
each message.
sort Create a sorted representation of the current folder, and change
the next command and the addressing modes such that they refer
to messages in the sorted order. Message numbers are the same
as in regular mode. If the header variable is set, a header
summary in the new order is also printed. Possible sorting cri-
teria are:
date Sort the messages by their `Date:' field, that is by the
time they were sent.
from Sort messages by the value of their `From:' field, that
is by the address of the sender. If the showname vari-
able is set, the sender's real name (if any) is used.
size Sort the messages by their size.
score Sort the messages by their score.
status Sort the messages by their message status (new, read,
old, etc.).
subject
Sort the messages by their subject.
thread Create a threaded order, as with the thread command.
to Sort messages by the value of their `To:' field, that is
by the address of the recipient. If the showname vari-
able is set, the recipient's real name (if any) is used.
If no argument is given, the current sorting criterion is
printed.
source The source command reads commands from a file.
thread (th) Create a threaded representation of the current folder,
i.e. indent messages that are replies to other messages in the
header display, and change the next command and the addressing
modes such that they refer to messages in the threaded order.
Message numbers are the same as in unthreaded mode. If the
header variable is set, a header summary in threaded order is
also printed.
top Takes a message list and prints the top few lines of each. The
number of lines printed is controlled by the variable toplines
and defaults to five.
touch Takes a message list and marks the messages for saving in the
mbox file. nail deviates from the POSIX standard with this com-
mand, as a `next' command issued after `mbox' will display the
following message, not the current one.
Type (T) Identical to the Print command.
type (t) A synonym for print.
unalias
Takes a list of names defined by alias commands and discards the
remembered groups of users. The group names no longer have any
significance.
unanswered
Takes a message list and marks each message as not having been
answered.
uncollapse
(unc) Only applicable to threaded mode. Takes a message list
and makes the message and all replies to it visible in header
summaries again. When a message becomes the current message, it
is automatically made visible. Also when a message with col-
lapsed replies is printed, all of these are automatically uncol-
lapsed.
undef Undefines each of the named macros. It is not an error to use a
name that does not belong to one of the currently defined
macros.
undelete
(u) Takes a message list and marks each message as not being
deleted.
undraft
Takes a message list and marks each message as a draft.
unflag Takes a message list and marks each message as not being
`flagged'.
unfwdignore
Removes the header field names from the list of ignored fields
for the forward command.
unfwdretain
Removes the header field names from the list of retained fields
for the forward command.
ungood Takes a message list and undoes the effect of a good command
that was previously applied on exactly these messages.
unignore
Removes the header field names from the list of ignored fields.
unjunk Takes a message list and undoes the effect of a junk command
that was previously applied on exactly these messages.
unkill Takes a message list and `unkills' each message. Also sets the
score of the messages to 0.
Unread Same as unread.
unread (U) Takes a message list and marks each message as not having
been read.
unretain
Removes the header field names from the list of retained fields.
unsaveignore
Removes the header field names from the list of ignored fields
for saving.
unsaveretain
Removes the header field names from the list of retained fields
for saving.
unset Takes a list of option names and discards their remembered val-
ues; the inverse of set.
unshortcut
Deletes the shortcut names given as arguments.
unsort Disable sorted or threaded mode (see the sort and thread com-
mands), return to normal message order and, if the header vari-
able is set, print a header summary.
unthread
(unth) Same as unsort.
verify (verif) Takes a message list and verifies each message. If a
message is not an S/MIME signed message, verification will fail
for it. The verification process checks if the message was
signed using a valid certificate, if the message sender's email
address matches one of those contained within the certificate,
and if the message content has been altered.
visual (v) Takes a message list and invokes the display editor on each
message. Modified contents are discarded unless the writeā
backedited variable is set.
write (w) For conventional messages, the body without all headers is
written. The output is decrypted and converted to its native
format, if necessary. If the output file exists, the text is
appended.āIf a message is in MIME multipart format, its first
part is written to the specified file as for conventional mes-
sages, and the user is asked for a filename to save each other
part; if the contents of the first part are not to be saved,
`write /dev/null' can be used. If the filename given starts
with a `|' character, the part is piped through the remainder of
the filename interpreted as a shell command. In non-interactive
mode, only the parts of the multipart message that have a file-
name given in the part header are written, the other are dis-
carded. The original message is never marked for deletion in
the originating mail folder. For attachments, the contents of
the destination file are overwritten if the file previously
existed. No special handling of compressed files is performed.
xit (x) A synonym for exit.
z Nail presents message headers in windowfuls as described under
the headers command. The z command scrolls to the next window
of messages. If an argument is given, it specifies the window
to use. A number prefixed by `+' or `-' indicates that the win-
dow is calculated in relation to the current position. A number
without a prefix specifies an absolute window number, and a `$'
lets nail scroll to the last window of messages.
Z Similar to z, but scrolls to the next or previous window that
contains at least one new or `flagged' message.
Tilde escapes
Here is a summary of the tilde escapes, which are used when composing
messages to perform special functions. Tilde escapes are only recog-
nized at the beginning of lines. The name `tilde escape' is somewhat
of a misnomer since the actual escape character can be set by the
option escape.
~!command
Execute the indicated shell command, then return to the message.
~. Same effect as typing the end-of-file character.
~<filename
Identical to ~r.
~<!command
Command is executed using the shell. Its standard output is
inserted into the message.
~@ [filename . . . ]
With no arguments, edit the attachment list. First, the user
can edit all existing attachment data. If an attachment's file
name is left empty, that attachment is deleted from the list.
When the end of the attachment list is reached, nail will ask
for further attachments, until an empty file name is given. If
filename arguments are specified, all of them are appended to
the end of the attachment list. Filenames which contain white
space can only be specified with the first method (no filename
arguments).
~A Inserts the string contained in the Sign variable (same as `~i
Sign'). The escape sequences `\t' (tabulator) and `\n' (new-
line) are understood.
~a Inserts the string contained in the sign variable (same as `~i
sign'). The escape sequences `\t' (tabulator) and `\n' (new-
line) are understood.
~bname . . .
Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients but do
not make the names visible in the Cc: line (`blind' carbon
copy).
~cname . . .
Add the given names to the list of carbon copy recipients.
~d Read the file `dead.letter' from the user's home directory into
the message.
~e Invoke the text editor on the message collected so far. After
the editing session is finished, the user may continue appending
text to the message.
~fmessages
Read the named messages into the message being sent. If no mes-
sages are specified, read in the current message. Message head-
ers currently being ignored (by the ignore or retain command)
are not included. For MIME multipart messages, only the first
printable part is included.
~Fmessages
Identical to ~f, except all message headers and all MIME parts
are included.
~h Edit the message header fields `To:', `Cc:', `Bcc:', and `Sub-
ject:' by typing each one in turn and allowing the user to
append text to the end or modify the field by using the current
terminal erase and kill characters.
~H Edit the message header fields `From:', `Reply-To:', `Sender:',
and `Organization:' in the same manner as described for ~h. The
default values for these fields originate from the from,
replyto, and ORGANIZATION variables. If this tilde command has
been used, changing the variables has no effect on the current
message anymore.
~ivariable
Insert the value of the specified variable into the message
adding a newline character at the end. If the variable is unset
or empty, the message remains unaltered. The escape sequences
`\t' (tabulator) and `\n' (newline) are understood.
~mmessages
Read the named messages into the message being sent, indented by
a tab or by the value of indentprefix. If no messages are spec-
ified, read the current message. Message headers currently
being ignored (by the ignore or retain command) are not
included. For MIME multipart messages, only the first printable
part is included.
~Mmessages
Identical to ~m, except all message headers and all MIME parts
are included.
~p Print out the message collected so far, prefaced by the message
header fields and followed by the attachment list, if any. If
the message text is longer than the screen size, it is piped
through the pager.
~q Abort the message being sent, copying the message to `dead.let-
ter' in the user's home directory if save is set.
~Rstring
Use string as the Reply-To field.
~rfilename
Read the named file into the message.
~sstring
Cause the named string to become the current subject field.
~tname . . .
Add the given names to the direct recipient list.
~v Invoke an alternate editor (defined by the VISUAL option) on the
message collected so far. Usually, the alternate editor will be
a screen editor. After the editor is quit, the user may resume
appending text to the end of the message.
~wfilename
Write the message onto the named file. If the file exists, the
message is appended to it.
~x Same as ~q, except that the message is not saved to the
`dead.letter' file.
~|command
Pipe the message through the command as a filter. If the com-
mand gives no output or terminates abnormally, retain the origi-
nal text of the message. The command fmt(1) is often used as
command to rejustify the message.
~:nail-command
Execute the given nail command. Not all commands, however, are
allowed.
~_nail-command
Identical to ~:.
~~string
Insert the string of text in the message prefaced by a single ~.
If the escape character has been changed, that character must be
doubled in order to send it at the beginning of a line.
Variable options
Options are controlled via set and unset commands, see their entries
for a syntax description. An option is also set if it is passed to
nail as part of the environment (this is not restricted to specific
variables as in the POSIX standard). A value given in a startup file
overrides a value imported from the environment. Options may be either
binary, in which case it is only significant to see whether they are
set or not; or string, in which case the actual value is of interest.
Binary options
The binary options include the following:
allnet Causes only the local part to be evaluated when comparing
addresses.
append Causes messages saved in mbox to be appended to the end rather
than prepended. This should always be set.
ask or asksub
Causes nail to prompt for the subject of each message sent. If
the user responds with simply a newline, no subject field will
be sent.
askatend
Causes the prompts for `Cc:' and `Bcc:' lists to appear after
the message has been edited.
askattach
If set, nail asks for files to attach at the end of each mes-
sage. Responding with a newline indicates not to include an
attachment.
askcc Causes the user to be prompted for additional carbon copy recip-
ients (at the end of each message if askatend or bsdcompat is
set). Responding with a newline indicates the user's satisfac-
tion with the current list.
askbcc Causes the user to be prompted for additional blind carbon copy
recipients (at the end of each message if askatend or bsdcompat
is set). Responding with a newline indicates the user's satis-
faction with the current list.
asksign
Causes the user to be prompted if the message is to be signed at
the end of each message. The smime-sign variable is ignored
when this variable is set.
autocollapse
Causes threads to be collapsed automatically when threaded mode
is entered (see the collapse command).
autoinc
Same as newmail.
autoprint
Causes the delete command to behave like dp - thus, after delet-
ing a message, the next one will be typed automatically.
autothread
Causes threaded mode (see the thread command) to be entered
automatically when a folder is opened.
bang Enables the substitution of `!' by the contents of the last
command line in shell escapes.
bsdannounce
Causes automatic display of a header summary after executing a
folder command.
bsdcompat
Sets some cosmetical features to traditional BSD style; has the
same affect as setting `askatend' and all other variables pre-
fixed with `bsd', setting prompt to `& ', and changing the
default pager to more.
bsdflags
Changes the letters printed in the first column of a header sum-
mary to traditional BSD style.
bsdheadline
Changes the display of columns in a header summary to tradi-
tional BSD style.
bsdmsgs
Changes some informational messages to traditional BSD style.
bsdorder
Causes the `Subject:' field to appear immediately after the
`To:' field in message headers and with the ~h tilde command.
bsdset Changes the output format of the set command to traditional BSD
style.
chained-junk-tokens
Normally, the Bayesian junk mail filter bases its classifica-
tions on single word tokens extracted from messages. If this
option is set, adjacent words are combined to pairs, which are
then used as additional tokens. This usually improves the accu-
racy of the filter, but also increases the junk mail database
five- to tenfold.
datefield
The date in a header summary is normally the date of the mailbox
`From ' line of the message. If this variable is set, the date
as given in the `Date:' header field is used, converted to local
time.
debug Prints debugging messages and disables the actual delivery of
messages. Unlike verbose, this option is intended for nail
development only.
disconnected
When an IMAP mailbox is selected and this variable is set, no
connection to the server is initiated. Instead, data is
obtained from the local cache (see imap-cache). Mailboxes that
are not present in the cache and messages that have not yet
entirely been fetched from the server are not available; to
fetch all messages in a mailbox at once, the command `copy *
/dev/null' can be used while still in online mode. Changes that
are made to IMAP mailboxes in disconnected mode are queued and
committed later when a connection to that server is opened in
online mode. This procedure is not completely reliable since it
cannot be guaranteed that the IMAP unique identifiers (UIDs) on
the server still match the ones in the cache at that time. Data
is saved to `dead.letter' when this problem occurs.
disconnected-user@host
The specified account is handled as described for the disconā
nected variable above, but other accounts are not affected.
dot The binary option dot causes nail to interpret a period alone on
a line as the terminator of a message the user is sending.
editheaders
When a message is edited while being composed, its header is
included in the editable text. `To:', `Cc:', `Bcc:', `Sub-
ject:', `From:', `Reply-To:', `Sender:', and 'Organization:'
fields are accepted within the header, other fields are ignored.
emptybox
If set, an empty mailbox file is not removed. This may improve
the interoperability with other mail user agents when using a
common folder directory.
emptystart
If the mailbox is empty, nail normally prints `No mail for user'
and exits immediately. If this option is set, nail starts even
with an empty mailbox.
flipr Exchanges the Respond with the respond commands and vice-versa.
forward-as-attachment
Original messages are normally sent as inline text with the forā
ward command, and only the first part of a multipart message is
included. With this option, messages are sent as MIME mesā
sage/rfc822 attachments, and all of their parts are included.
The fwdignore and fwdretain options are ignored when the forā
ward-as-attachment option is set.
fullnames
When replying to a message, nail normally removes the comment
parts of email addresses, which by convention contain the full
names of the recipients. If this variable is set, such strip-
ping is not performed, and comments are retained.
header Causes the header summary to be written at startup and after
commands that affect the number of messages or the order of mes-
sages in the current folder; enabled by default.
hold This option is used to hold messages in the system mailbox by
default.
ignore Causes interrupt signals from the terminal to be ignored and
echoed as @'s.
ignoreeof
An option related to dot is ignoreeof which makes nail refuse to
accept a control-d as the end of a message. Ignoreeof also
applies to nail command mode.
imap-use-starttls
Causes nail to issue a STARTTLS command to make an unencrypted
IMAP session SSL/TLS encrypted. This functionality is not sup-
ported by all servers, and is not used if the session is already
encrypted by the IMAPS method.
imap-use-starttls-user@host
Activates imap-use-starttls for a specific account.
keep This option causes nail to truncate the user's system mailbox
instead of deleting it when it is empty. This should always be
set, since it prevents malicious users from creating fake mail
folders in a world-writable spool directory.
keepsave
When a message is saved, it is usually discarded from the origi-
nating folder when nail is quit. Setting this option causes all
saved message to be retained.
markanswered
When a message is replied to and this variable is set, it is
marked as having been answered. This mark has no technical
meaning in the mail system; it just causes messages to be marked
in the header summary, and makes them specially addressable.
metoo Usually, when a group is expanded that contains the sender, the
sender is removed from the expansion. Setting this option
causes the sender to be included in the group.
newmail
Checks for new mail in the current folder each time the prompt
is printed. For IMAP mailboxes, the server is then polled for
new mail, which may result in delayed operation if the connec-
tion to the server is slow. A maildir folder must be re-scanned
to determine if new mail has arrived.
If this variable is set to the special value nopoll, an IMAP
server is not actively asked for new mail, but new mail may
still be detected and announced with any other IMAP command that
is sent to the server. A maildir folder is not scanned then.
In any case, the IMAP server may send notifications about mes-
sages that have been deleted on the server by another process or
client. In this case, `Expunged n messages' is printed regard-
less of this variable, and message numbers may have changed.
noheader
Setting the option noheader is the same as giving the -N flag on
the command line.
outfolder
Causes the filename given in the record variable and the sender-
based filenames for the Copy and Save commands to be interpreted
relative to the directory given in the folder variable rather
than to the current directory unless it is an absolute pathname.
page If set, each message the pipe command prints out is followed by
a formfeed character.
piperaw
Send messages to the pipe command without performing MIME and
character set conversions.
pop3-use-apop
If this variable is set, the APOP authentication method is used
when a connection to a POP3 server is initiated. The advantage
of this method over the usual USER/PASS authentication is that
the password is not sent over the network in clear text. The
connection fails if the server does not support the APOP com-
mand.
pop3-use-apop-user@host
Enables pop3-use-apop for a specific account.
pop3-use-starttls
Causes nail to issue a STLS command to make an unencrypted POP3
session SSL/TLS encrypted. This functionality is not supported
by all servers, and is not used if the session is already
encrypted by the POP3S method.
pop3-use-starttls-user@host
Activates pop3-use-starttls for a specific account.
print-all-chars
This option causes all characters to be considered printable.
It is only effective if given in a startup file. With this
option set, some character sequences in messages may put the
user's terminal in an undefined state when printed; it should
only be used as a last resort if no working system locale can be
found.
print-alternatives
When a MIME message part of type multipart/alternative is dis-
played and it contains a subpart of type text/plain, other parts
are normally discarded. Setting this variable causes all sub-
parts to be displayed, just as if the surrounding part was of
type multipart/mixed.
quiet Suppresses the printing of the version when first invoked.
record-resent
If both this variable and the record variable are set, the
resend and Resend commands save messages to the record folder as
it is normally only done for newly composed messages.
reply-in-same-charset
If this variable is set, nail first tries to use the same char-
acter set of the original message for replies. If this fails,
the sendcharsets variable is evaluated as usual.
Replyall
Reverses the sense of reply and Reply commands.
save When the user aborts a message with two RUBOUT (interrupt char-
acters) nail copies the partial letter to the file `dead.letter'
in the home directory. This option is set by default.
searchheaders
If this option is set, then a message-list specifier in the form
`/x:y' will expand to all messages containing the substring `y'
in the header field `x'. The string search is case insensitive.
sendwait
When sending a message, wait until the mail transfer agent exits
before accepting further commands. If the mail transfer agent
returns a non-zero exit status, the exit status of nail will
also be non-zero.
showlast
Setting this option causes nail to start at the last message
instead of the first one when opening a mail folder.
showname
Causes nail to use the sender's real name instead of the plain
address in the header field summary and in message specifica-
tions.
showto Causes the recipient of the message to be shown in the header
summary if the message was sent by the user.
smime-force-encryption
Causes nail to refuse sending unencrypted messages.
smime-sign
If this variable is set, outgoing messages are S/MIME signed
with the user's private key. Signing a message enables a recip-
ient to verify that the sender used a valid certificate, that
the email addresses in the certificate match those in the mes-
sage header, and that the message content has not been altered.
It does not change the message text, and people will be able to
read the message as usual.
smime-no-default-ca
Do not load the default CA locations when verifying S/MIME
signed messages. Only applicable if S/MIME support is built
using OpenSSL.
smtp-use-starttls
Causes nail to issue a STARTTLS command to make an SMTP session
SSL/TLS encrypted. Not all servers support this command;
because of common implementation defects, it cannot be automati-
cally determined whether a server supports it or not.
ssl-no-default-ca
Do not load the default CA locations to verify SSL/TLS server
certificates. Only applicable if SSL/TLS support is built using
OpenSSL.
ssl-v2-allow
Accept SSLv2 connections. These are normally not allowed
because this protocol version is insecure.
stealthmua
Inhibits the generation of the `Message-Id:' and `User-Agent:'
header fields that include obvious references to nail. There
are two pitfalls associated with this: First, the message id of
outgoing messages is not known anymore. Second, an expert may
still use the remaining information in the header to track down
the originating mail user agent.
verbose
Setting the option verbose is the same as using the -v flag on
the command line. When nail runs in verbose mode, details of
the actual message delivery and protocol conversations for IMAP,
POP3, and SMTP, as well as of other internal processes, are dis-
played on the user's terminal, This is sometimes useful to debug
problems. Nail prints all data that is sent to remote servers
in clear texts, including passwords, so care should be taken
that no unauthorized option can view the screen if this option
is enabled.
writebackedited
If this variable is set, messages modified using the edit or
visual commands are written back to the current folder when it
is quit. This is only possible for writable folders in mbox
format. Setting this variable also disables MIME decoding and
decryption for the editing commands.
String Options
The string options include the following:
attrlist
A sequence of characters to print in the `attribute' column of a
header summary, each for one type of messages in the following
order: new, unread but old, new but read, read and old, saved,
preserved, mboxed, flagged, answered, draft, killed, start of a
collapsed thread, collapsed, classified as junk. The default is
`NUROSPMFATK+-J', or `NU *HMFATK+-J' if bsdflags or the SYSV3
environment variable are set.
autobcc
Specifies a list of recipients to which a blind carbon copy of
each outgoing message will be sent automatically.
autocc Specifies a list of recipients to which a carbon copy of each
outgoing message will be sent automatically.
autosort
Causes sorted mode (see the sort command) to be entered automat-
ically with the value of this option as sorting method when a
folder is opened.
cmd The default value for the pipe command.
crt The valued option crt is used as a threshold to determine how
long a message must be before PAGER is used to read it. If crt
is set without a value, then the height of the terminal screen
stored in the system is used to compute the threshold (see
stty(1)).
DEAD The name of the file to use for saving aborted messages. This
defaults to `dead.letter' in the user's home directory.
EDITOR Pathname of the text editor to use in the edit command and ~e
escape. If not defined, then a default editor is used.
encoding
The default MIME encoding to use in outgoing text messages and
message parts. Valid values are 8bit or quoted-printable. The
default is 8bit. In case the mail transfer system is not ESMTP
compliant, quoted-printable should be used instead. If there is
no need to encode a message, 7bit transfer mode is used, without
regard to the value of this variable. Binary data is always
encoded in base64 mode.
escape If defined, the first character of this option gives the charac-
ter to use in the place of ~ to denote escapes.
folder The name of the directory to use for storing folders of mes-
sages. All folder names that begin with `+' refer to files
below that directory. If the directory name begins with a `/',
nail considers it to be an absolute pathname; otherwise, the
folder directory is found relative to the user's home directory.
The directory name may also refer to an IMAP account; any names
that begin with `+' then refer to IMAP mailboxes on that
account. An IMAP folder is normally given in the form
imaps://mylogin@imap.myisp.example
In this case, the `+' and `@' prefixes for folder names have the
same effect (see the folder command).
Some IMAP servers do not accept the creation of mailboxes in the
hierarchy base; they require that they are created as subfolders
of `INBOX'. With such servers, a folder name of the form
imaps://mylogin@imap.myisp.example/INBOX.
should be used (the last character is the server's hierarchy
delimiter). Folder names prefixed by `+' will then refer to
folders below `INBOX', while folder names prefixed by `@' refer
to folders below the hierarchy base. See the imap namespace
command for a method to detect the appropriate prefix and delim-
iter.
folder-hook
When a folder is opened and this variable is set, the macro cor-
responding to the value of this variable is executed. The macro
is also invoked when new mail arrives, but message lists for
commands executed from the macro only include newly arrived mes-
sages then.
folder-hook-fullname
When a folder named fullname is opened, the macro corresponding
to the value of this variable is executed. Unlike other folder
specifications, the fully expanded name of a folder, without
metacharacters, is used to avoid ambiguities. The macro speci-
fied with folder-hook is not executed if this variable is effec-
tive for a folder (unless it is explicitly invoked within the
called macro).
from The address (or a list of addresses) to put into the `From:'
field of the message header. If replying to a message, these
addresses are handled as if they were in the alternates list.
If the machine's hostname is not valid at the Internet (for
example at a dialup machine), either this variable or hostname
have to be set to get correct Message-ID header fields. If from
contains more than one address, the sender variable must also be
set.
fwdheading
The string to print before the text of a message with the forā
ward command (unless the forward-as-attachment variable is set).
Defaults to ``-------- Original Message --------'' if unset. If
it is set to the empty string, no heading is printed.
headline
A format string to use for the header summary, similar to printf
formats. A `%' character introduces a format specifier. It may
be followed by a number indicating the field width. If the
field is a number, the width may be negative, which indicates
that it is to be left-aligned. Valid format specifiers are:
%a Message attributes.
%c The score of the message.
%d The date when the message was received.
%e The indenting level in threaded mode.
%f The address of the message sender.
%i The message thread structure.
%l The number of lines of the message.
%m Message number.
%o The number of octets (bytes) in the message.
%s Message subject (if any).
%S Message subject (if any) in double quotes.
%t The position in threaded/sorted order.
%> A `>' for the current message, otherwise ` '.
%< A `<' for the current message, otherwise ` '.
%% A `%' character.
The default is `%>%a%m %18f %16d %4l/%-5o %i%s', or
`%>%a%m %20f %16d %3l/%-5o %i%S' if bsdcompat is set.
hostname
Use this string as hostname when expanding local addresses
instead of the value obtained from uname(2) and getaddrinfo(3).
imap-auth
Sets the IMAP authentication method. Valid values are `login'
for the usual password-based authentication (the default),
`cram-md5', which is a password-based authentication that does
not send the password over the network in clear text, and `gss-
api' for GSSAPI-based authentication.
imap-auth-user@host
Sets the IMAP authentication method for a specific account.
imap-cache
Enables caching of IMAP mailboxes. The value of this variable
must point to a directory that is either existent or can be cre-
ated by nail. All contents of the cache can be deleted by nail
at any time; it is not safe to make assumptions about them.
imap-keepalive
IMAP servers may close the connection after a period of inactiv-
ity; the standard requires this to be at least 30 minutes, but
practical experience may vary. Setting this variable to a
numeric value greater than 0 causes a NOOP command to be sent
each value seconds if no other operation is performed.
imap-list-depth
When retrieving the list of folders on an IMAP server, the foldā
ers command stops after it has reached a certain depth to avoid
possible infinite loops. The value of this variable sets the
maximum depth allowed. The default is 2. If the folder separa-
tor on the current IMAP server is a slash `/', this variable has
no effect, and the folders command does not descend to subfold-
ers.
indentprefix
String used by the `~m' and `~M' tilde escapes and by the quote
option for indenting messages, in place of the normal tab char-
acter (^I). Be sure to quote the value if it contains spaces or
tabs.
junkdb The location of the junk mail database. The string is treated
like a folder name, as described for the folder command.
The files in the junk mail database are normally stored in comā
press(1) format for saving space. If processing time is consid-
ered more important, uncompress(1) can be used to store them in
plain form. Nail will then work using the uncompressed files.
LISTER Pathname of the directory lister to use in the folders command
when operating on local mailboxes. Default is /bin/ls.
MAIL Is used as the user's mailbox, if set. Otherwise, a system-
dependent default is used. Can be a protocol:// string (see the
folder command for more information).
MAILX_HEAD
A string to put at the beginning of each new message. The
escape sequences `\t' (tabulator) and `\n' (newline) are under-
stood.
MAILX_TAIL
A string to put at the end of each new message. The escape
sequences `\t' (tabulator) and `\n' (newline) are understood.
maximum-unencoded-line-length
Messages that contain lines longer than the value of this vari-
able are encoded in quoted-printable even if they contain only
ASCII characters. The maximum effective value is 950. If set
to 0, all ASCII text messages are encoded in quoted-printable.
S/MIME signed messages are always encoded in quoted-printable
regardless of the value of this variable.
MBOX The name of the mbox file. It can be the name of a folder. The
default is `mbox' in the user's home directory.
NAIL_EXTRA_RC
The name of an optional startup file to be read after ~/.mailrc.
This variable is ignored if it is imported from the environment;
it has an effect only if it is set in /etc/mail.rc or ~/.mailrc
to allow bypassing the configuration with e. g.
`MAILRC=/dev/null'. Use this file for nail commands that are
not understood by other mailx implementations.
newfolders
If this variable has the value maildir, newly created local
folders will be in maildir format.
nss-config-dir
A directory that contains the files certN.db to retrieve cer-
tificates, keyN.db to retrieve private keys, and secmod.db,
where N is a digit. These are usually taken from Mozilla
installations, so an appropriate value might be
`~/.mozilla/firefox/default.clm'. Nail opens these files read-
only and does not modify them. However, if the files are modi-
fied by Mozilla while nail is running, it will print a `Bad
database' message. It may be necessary to create copies of
these files that are exclusively used by nail then. Only appli-
cable if S/MIME and SSL/TLS support is built using Network Secu-
rity Services (NSS).
ORGANIZATION
The value to put into the `Organization:' field of the message
header.
PAGER Pathname of the program to use in the more command or when crt
variable is set. The default paginator pg(1) or, in BSD compat-
ibility mode, more(1) is used if this option is not defined.
password-user@host
Set the password for user when connecting to host. If no such
variable is defined for a host, the user will be asked for a
password on standard input. Specifying passwords in a startup
file is generally a security risk, the file should be readable
by the invoking user only.
pipe-content/subcontent
When a MIME message part of content/subcontent type is displayed
or it is replied to, its text is filtered through the value of
this variable interpreted as a shell command. Special care must
be taken when using such commands as mail viruses may be dis-
tributed by this method; if messages of type application/x-sh
were filtered through the shell, for example, a message sender
could easily execute arbitrary code on the system nail is run-
ning on.
pop3-keepalive
POP3 servers may close the connection after a period of inactiv-
ity; the standard requires this to be at least 10 minutes, but
practical experience may vary. Setting this variable to a
numeric value greater than 0 causes a NOOP command to be sent
each value seconds if no other operation is performed.
prompt The string printed when a command is accepted. Defaults to
`? ', or to `& ' if the bsdcompat variable is set.
quote If set, nail starts a replying message with the original message
prefixed by the value of the variable indentprefix. Normally, a
heading consisting of `Fromheaderfield wrote:' is printed before
the quotation. If the string noheading is assigned to the quote
variable, this heading is omitted. If the string headers is
assigned, the headers selected by the ignore/retain commands are
printed above the message body, thus quote acts like an auto-
matic ~m command then. If the string allheaders is assigned,
all headers are printed above the message body, and all MIME
parts are included, thus quote acts like an automatic ~M command
then.
record If defined, gives the pathname of the folder used to record all
outgoing mail. If not defined, then outgoing mail is not so
saved. When saving to this folder fails, the message is not
sent but saved to the `dead.letter' file instead.
replyto
A list of addresses to put into the `Reply-To:' field of the
message header. If replying to a message, such addresses are
handled as if they were in the alternates list.
screen When nail initially prints the message headers, it determines
the number to print by looking at the speed of the terminal.
The faster the terminal, the more it prints. This option over-
rides this calculation and specifies how many message headers
are printed. This number is also used for scrolling with the z
command.
sendcharsets
A comma-separated list of character set names that can be used
in Internet mail. When a message that contains characters not
representable in US-ASCII is prepared for sending, nail tries to
convert its text to each of the given character sets in order
and uses the first appropriate one. The default is `utf-8'.
Character sets assigned to this variable should be ordered in
ascending complexity. That is, the list should start with e.g.
`iso-8859-1' for compatibility with older mail clients, might
contain some other language-specific character sets, and should
end with `utf-8' to handle messages that combine texts in multi-
ple languages.
sender An address that is put into the `Sender:' field of outgoing mes-
sages. This field needs not normally be present. It is, how-
ever, required if the `From:' field contains more than one
address. It can also be used to indicate that a message was
sent on behalf of somebody other; in this case, `From:' should
contain the address of the person that took responsibility for
the message, and `Sender:' should contain the address of the
person that actually sent the message. The sender address is
handled as if it were in the alternates list.
sendmail
To use an alternate mail delivery system, set this option to the
full pathname of the program to use. This should be used with
care.
SHELL Pathname of the shell to use in the ! command and the ~! escape.
A default shell is used if this option is not defined.
Sign A string for use with the ~A command.
sign A string for use with the ~a command.
signature
Must correspond to the name of a readable file if set.
The file's content is then appended to each singlepart
message and to the first part of each multipart message.
Be warned that there is no possibility to edit the signa-
ture for an individual message.
smime-ca-dir
Specifies a directory with CA certificates for verifica-
tion of S/MIME signed messages. The format is the same
as described in SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations(3). Only
applicable if S/MIME support is built using OpenSSL.
smime-ca-file
Specifies a file with CA certificates for verification of
S/MIME signed messages. The format is the same as
described in SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations(3). Only
applicable if S/MIME support is built using OpenSSL.
smime-cipher-user@host
Specifies a cipher to use when generating S/MIME
encrypted messages for user@host. Valid ciphers are
rc2-40 (RC2 with 40 bits), rc2-64 (RC2 with 64 bits), des
(DES, 56 bits) and des-ede3 (3DES, 112/168 bits). The
default is 3DES. It is not recommended to use the other
ciphers unless a recipient's client is actually unable to
handle 3DES since they are comparatively weak; but even
so, the recipient should upgrade his software in prefer-
ence.
smime-crl-file
Specifies a file that contains a CRL in PEM format to use
when verifying S/MIME messages. Only applicable if
S/MIME support is built using OpenSSL.
smime-crl-dir
Specifies a directory that contains files with CRLs in
PEM format to use when verifying S/MIME messages. Only
applicable if S/MIME support is built using OpenSSL.
smime-encrypt-user@host
If this variable is set, messages to user@host are
encrypted before sending. If S/MIME support is built
using OpenSSL, the value of the variable must be set to
the name of a file that contains a certificate in PEM
format. If S/MIME support is built using NSS, the value
of this variable is ignored, but if multiple certificates
for user@host are available, the smime-nickname-user@host
variable should be set. Otherwise a certificate for the
recipient is automatically retrieved from the certificate
database, if possible.
If a message is sent to multiple recipients, each of them
for whom a corresponding variable is set will receive an
individually encrypted message; other recipients will
continue to receive the message in plain text unless the
smime-force-encryption variable is set. It is recom-
mended to sign encrypted messages, i.e. to also set the
smime-sign variable.
smime-nickname-user@host
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