Sending mail

To send a message to one or more people, nail can be invoked with arguments which are the names of people to whom the mail will be sent. You are then expected to type in your message, followed by an `control-D' at the beginning of a line. The section below Replying to or originating mail, describes some features of nail available to help you compose your letter.

Reading mail

In normal usage nail is given no arguments and checks your 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'). You can move among the messages much as you move between lines in ed(1), with the commands `+' and `-' moving backwards and forwards, and simple numbers.

Disposing of mail

After examining a message you can delete `d') the message or reply `r') to it. Deletion causes the nail program to forget about the message. 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 numbers 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 messages 1 through 5. 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.

:r

All read messages.

/string

All messages that contain string in the subject field (case ignored).

address

All messages from address.

.

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.

+

The next undeleted message, or the next deleted message for the undelete command.

^

The first undeleted message, or the first deleted message for the undelete command.

$

The last message.

*

All messages.

Replying to or originating mail

You can use the reply command to set up a response to a message, sending it back to the person who it was from. Text you then type in, up to an end-of-file, defines the contents of the message. While you are 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 shifting 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 you 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

You can end a nail session with the quit `q') command. Messages which have been examined go to your 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, you 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 your 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 you send, 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 command 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 `+' character 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.

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 extension 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 application/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.

MIME conformance

Nail is intended to be a MIME-conformant mail user agent, with the following exception: No special handling of `multipart/alternative' messages is performed. All parts with content types of `text' or `message' are shown. This is done because the user should see as much information as possible.

Locale

Nail uses the LC_CTYPE locale setting to determine whether a character is printable. Thus, its value has to match the character set of the terminal nail runs on.

Character sets

If a message contains non-ASCII characters, the character set being used must be declared within the header. Its value can be declared using the charset variable. It is normally assumed that this is the terminal character set, too. If the latter differs from the one that should be used in outgoing mail, the ttycharset variable can be used for its declaration. An outgoing message is then converted, resulting in errors when this process cannot be done for the entire text; if the message contains NUL characters, it is not converted. Attachments are never converted. Any message that is displayed on a terminal is tried to convert, too, with characters not in the terminal character set replaced by question marks.

Commands

Each command is typed on a line by itself, and may take arguments following the command word. The command need not be typed in its entirety – the first command which matches the typed prefix is used. For commands 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 messages 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:

• 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.
• A backslash outside of the enclosing quotes is discarded and the following character is treated literally as part of the argument.
• 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 transformations, in sequence:

• 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.
• 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.

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 you have accounts on several machines. It can be used to inform nail that the listed addresses are really you. When you reply 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.

cd

Same as chdir.

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.

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 you quit.

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.

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.

dp or dt

Deletes the current message and prints the next message. If there is no next message, nail says `at EOF'.

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. On return from the editor, the message is read back in.

else

Marks the end of the then-part of an if statement and the beginning 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 modifying the user's system mailbox, his mbox file, or his edit file in -f.

file

(fi) The same as folder.

folders

List the names of the folders in your folder directory.

folder

(fold) The folder command switches to a new mail file or folder. With no arguments, it tells you which file you are currently reading. If you give it an argument, it will write out changes (such as deletions) you have made in the current file and read in the new file. Some special conventions are recognized for the name. # means the previous file, % means your system mailbox, %user means user's system mailbox, & means your mbox file, and +file means a file in your 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. A name of the form

       protocol://[user@]host[:port]
    

is taken as an internet mailbox specification. The supported protocols are currently pop3 (POP3) and pop3s (i. e. POP3 with SSL/TLS encryption).

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

(For) Like forward, but does not add any header lines. This is not a way to hide the sender's identity, but useful for sending a message again to the same recipients.

forward

(for) Takes a list of messages and a user name and sends each message to the named user.

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.

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 you are sending or receiving mail with the if command. For example, you can do:

        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 your terminal when you print a message. 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, including ignored fields. If ignore is executed with no arguments, it lists the current set of ignored fields.

inc

Same as newmail.

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 your home directory when you quit. This is the default action for messages if you do not have the hold option set.

newmail

Checks for new mail in the current folder without commiting 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.

preserve

(pre) A synonym for hold.

Pipe

(Pi) Like pipe but also pipes ignored header fields.

pipe

(pi) Takes a message list and a shell command and pipes the messages 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.

Print

(P) Like print but also prints out ignored header fields. 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.

quit

(q) Terminates the session, saving all undeleted, unsaved messages 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 command.

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.

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 your terminal when you print a message. All other header fields are suppressed. The Type and Print commands can be used to print a message in its entirety. If retain is executed with no arguments, 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.

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 variable (`unset save').

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 content information.

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 discouraged since it may strip header fields that are needed to decode the message correctly.

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.

size

Takes a message list and prints out the size in characters of each message.

source

The source command reads commands from a file.

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.

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.

undelete

(u) Takes a message list and marks each message as not being deleted.

unignore

Removes the header field names from the list of ignored fields.

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 values; the inverse of set.

unshortcut

Deletes the shortcut names given as arguments.

visual

(v) Takes a message list and invokes the display editor on each message.

write

(w) For conventional messages, the body without all headers is written. The output is converted to its native format, if necessary. If the output file exists, the text is appended.—If a message is in MIME multipart format, its first part is written to the specified file as for conventional messages, and the user is asked for a filename to save each other part. In non-interactive mode, only the parts of the multipart message that have a filename given in the part header are written, the other are discarded. 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.

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 window 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.

Tilde escapes

Here is a summary of the tilde escapes, which are used when composing messages to perform special functions. Tilde escapes are only recognized 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' (newline) are understood.

~a

Inserts the string contained in the sign variable (same as `~i sign'). The escape sequences `\t' (tabulator) and `\n' (newline) 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 your home directory into the message.

~e

Invoke the text editor on the message collected so far. After the editing session is finished, you may continue appending text to the message.

~fmessages

Read the named messages into the message being sent. If no messages are specified, read in the current message. Message headers currently being ignored (by the ignore or retain command) are not included.

~Fmessages

Identical to ~f, except all message headers are included.

~h

Edit the message header fields 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.

~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 specified, read the current message. Message headers currently being ignored (by the ignore or retain command) are not included.

~Mmessages

Identical to ~m, except all message headers 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.letter' in your home directory if save is set.

~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 you quit the editor, you may resume appending text to the end of your 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 command gives no output or terminates abnormally, retain the original 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 you have changed the escape character, then you should double that character in order to send it.

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 you for the subject of each message you send. If you respond 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 message. Responding with a newline indicates not to include an attachment.

askcc

Causes you to be prompted for additional carbon copy recipients (at the end of each message if askatend or bsdcompat is set). Responding with a newline indicates your satisfaction with the current list.

askbcc

Causes you 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 your satisfaction with the current list.

autoinc

Same as newmail.

autoprint

Causes the delete command to behave like dp - thus, after deleting a message, the next one will be typed automatically.

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 prefixed with `bsd', setting prompt to `& ', and changing the default pager to more.

bsdflags

Changes the letters printed in the first column of a header summary to traditional BSD style.

bsdheadline

Changes the display of columns in a header summary to traditional 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.

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.

dot

The binary option dot causes nail to interpret a period alone on a line as the terminator of a message you are sending.

editheaders

When a message is edited while being composed, its header is included in the editable text. `To:', `Cc:', `Bcc:', and `Subject:' 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 MUAs 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.

header

Causes the header summary to be written at startup; enabled by default.

hold

This option is used to hold messages in the system mailbox by default.

ignore

Causes interrupt signals from your 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.

keep

This option causes nail to truncate your 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 you save a message, nail usually discards it from the originating folder when you quit. To retain all saved messages, set this option.

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.

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 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.

quiet

Suppresses the printing of the version when first invoked.

Replyall

Reverses the sense of reply and Reply commands.

save

When you abort a message with two RUBOUT (interrupt characters) nail copies the partial letter to the file `dead.letter' in your 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 specifications.

showto

Causes the recipient of the message to be shown in the header summary if the message was sent by the user.

ssl-no-default-ca

Do not load the default CA locations to verify SSL/TLS server certificates.

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, the actual delivery of messages is displayed on the user's terminal.

String Options

The string options include the following:

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.

charset

The name of the character set used by nail. If unset, iso-8859-1 is the default. The character set of all outgoing messages that contain non-ASCII characters is declared using its value.

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 character to use in the place of ~ to denote escapes.

folder

The name of the directory to use for storing folders of messages. If this name begins with a `/', nail considers it to be an absolute pathname; otherwise, the folder directory is found relative to your home directory.

from

The address to put into the `From:' field of the message header. If replying to a message, this address is handled as if it were in the alternates list. If this variable is set, a `Sender:' field containing the user's name is also generated, unless the variable smtp is set and its value differs from localhost. If the machine's hostname is not valid at the Internet (for example at a dialup machine), you have to set this variable or hostname to get correct Message-ID header fields.

hostname

Use this string as hostname when expanding local addresses instead of the value obtained from uname(2) and getaddrinfo(3).

indentprefix

String used by the `~m' and `~M' tilde escapes and by the quote option for indenting messages, in place of the normal tab character (^I). Be sure to quote the value if it contains spaces or tabs.

LISTER

Pathname of the directory lister to use in the folders command. 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 understood.

MAILX_TAIL

A string to put at the end of each new message. The escape sequences `\t' (tabulator) and `\n' (newline) are understood.

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/nail.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.

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 compatibility 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 distributed 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 running on.

pop3-keepalive

Many POP3 servers will close the connection after a period of inactivity. 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 automatic ~m command then. If the string allheaders is assigned, all headers are printed above the message body, thus quote acts like an automatic ~M command then.

screen

When nail initially prints the message headers, it determines the number to print by looking at the speed of your terminal. The faster your terminal, the more it prints. This option overrides this calculation and specifies how many message headers you want printed. This number is also used for scrolling with the z command.

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.

smtp

Normally, nail invokes sendmail(8) directly to transfer messages. If smtp is set, a SMTP connection to the server specified by the value of this variable is used instead. If the SMTP server does not use the standard port, a value of server:port can be given, with port as a name or as a number.

ssl-ca-dir

Specifies a directory with CA certificates for verification. See SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations(3) for more information.

ssl-ca-file

Specifies a file with CA certificates for verification. See SSL_CTX_load_verify_locations(3) for more information.

ssl-cert

Sets the file name for a SSL/TLS client certificate required by some servers.

ssl-cert-user@host

Sets an account-specific file name for a SSL/TLS client certificate required by some servers. Overrides ssl-cert for the specified account.

ssl-cipher-list

Specifies a list of ciphers for SSL/TLS connections. See ciphers(1) for more information.

ssl-key

Sets the file name for the private key of a SSL/TLS client certificate. If unset, the name of the certificate file is used. The file is expected to be in PEM format.

ssl-key-user@host

Sets an account-specific file name for the private key of a SSL/TLS client certificate. Overrides ssl-key for the specified account.

ssl-method

Selects a SSL/TLS protocol version; valid values are `ssl2', `ssl3', and `tls1'. If unset, the method is selected automatically, if possible.

ssl-rand-egd

Gives the pathname to an entropy daemon socket, see RAND_egd(3).

ssl-rand-file

Gives the pathname to a file with entropy data, see RAND_load_file(3). If the file is a regular file writable by the invoking user, new data is written to it after it has been loaded.

ssl-verify

Sets the action to be performed if an error occurs during SSL/TLS server certificate validation. Valid values are `strict' (fail and close connection immediately), `ask' (ask whether to continue on standard input), `warn' (print a warning and continue), `ignore' (do not perform validation). The default is `ask'.

record

If defined, gives the pathname of the file used to record all outgoing mail. If not defined, then outgoing mail is not so saved.

replyto

The address to put into the `Reply-To:' field of the message header. If replying to a message, this address is handled as if it were in the alternates list.

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 signature for an individual message.

toplines

If defined, gives the number of lines of a message to be printed out with the top command; normally, the first five lines are printed.

ttycharset

The character set of the terminal nail operates on. There is normally no need to set this variable since nail can determine this automatically by looking at the LC_CTYPE locale setting; if this succeeds, the value is assigned at startup and will be displayed by the set command. Note that this is not necessarily a character set name that can be used in Internet messages. If unset, its default is the value of the charset variable.

VISUAL

Pathname of the text editor to use in the visual command and ~v escape.

POP3 client setup

First, you need the following data from your ISP: the host name of its POP3 server, user name and password for this server, and a notice whether the server uses SSL/TLS encryption. Assuming the host name is `server.myisp.example' and your user name for that server is `myname', you can refer to this account using the folder command or -f command line option with

    pop3://myname@server.myisp.example

(replace `pop3://' with `pop3s://' if the server supports SSL/TLS). The string is not necessarily the same as your internet mail address. As you probably want messages to be deleted from this account after saving them, prefix it with `%:'. The shortcut command can be used to avoid typing that many characters every time you want to connect:

    shortcut myisp %:pop3://myname@server.myisp.example

You probably want to put this string into a startup file. As the shortcut command is nail-specific and will confuse other mailx implementations, it should not be used in ~/.mailrc, instead, put

    set NAIL_EXTRA_RC=~/.nailrc

in ~/.mailrc and create a file ~/.nailrc containing the shortcut command above. Nail will ask you for a password string each time you connect to this account. If you can reasonably trust the security of the machine you are working on, you can give this password in the startup file as

    set password-myname@server.myisp.example="SECRET"

You should change the permissions of this file to 0600, see chmod(1). Many POP3 servers will close the connection after a short period of inactivity. Use

    set pop3-keepalive=30

to send a keepalive message each 30 seconds. If you encounter problems connecting to a SSL/TLS server, try the ssl-rand-egd and ssl-rand-file variables (see the OpenSSL FAQ for more information) or specify the protocol version with ssl-method. Contact your ISP if you need a client certificate or if verification of the server certificate fails. If the failed certificate is indeed valid, fetch it by executing

    openssl s_client -connect server.myisp.example:pop3s

(see s_client(1)) and put it into the file specified with ssl-ca-file.

Reading HTML mail

You need the w3m utility or another command-line web browser that can write plain text to standard output.

    set pipe-text/html="w3m -dump -T text/html"

will then cause HTML text to be converted into a more friendly form, the command string depends on the browser you are using.

Viewing PDF attachments

Most PDF viewers do not accept input directly from a pipe. It is thus necessary to store the attachment in a temporary file, as with

    set pipe-application-pdf="cat >/tmp/nail$$.pdf; acroread /tmp/nail$$.pdf; rm /tmp/nail$$.pdf"