\input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
@c %**start of header
@setfilename mailutils.info
@settitle GNU Mailutils Manual
@setchapternewpage odd
@c %**end of header

@include version.texi
@include rendition.texi
@include macros.texi

@c Define indices
@defcodeindex op
@defcodeindex fl
@c Same as ky, but used for configuration keywords.
@defcodeindex kw

@c Combine indices.
@syncodeindex op fn
@syncodeindex tp fn
@syncodeindex fl cp
@c FIXME: Should kw be separate?
@syncodeindex kw ky

@ifinfo
@dircategory Email
@direntry
* Mailutils: (mailutils).       GNU Mail Utilities.
@end direntry
@dircategory Individual utilities
@direntry
* comsatd: (mailutils)comsatd.          Comsat Daemon.
* frm: (mailutils)frm.                  List Headers from a Mailbox.
* guimb: (mailutils)guimb.              Mailbox Processing Language.
* imap4d: (mailutils)imap4d.            IMAP4 Daemon.
* mail: (mailutils)mail.                Send and Receive Mail.
* maidag: (mailutils)maidag.            A General-Purpose Mail Delivery Agent.
* messages: (mailutils)messages.        Count Messages in a Mailbox.
* movemail: (mailutils)movemail.        Move Mail between Mailboxes.
* pop3d: (mailutils)pop3d.              POP3 Daemon.
* readmsg: (mailutils)readmsg.          Extract Messages from a Folder.
* sieve: (mailutils)sieve.              Mail Filtering Utility.
* mimeview: (mailutils)mimeview.        View MIME Messages.
* mu: (mailutils)mu.                    Mailutils Multi-Purpose Tool
@end direntry
@end ifinfo

@copying
Published by the Free Software Foundation,
51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor
Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA

Copyright @copyright{} 1999-2004, 2008-2012, 2014-2015 Free Software
Foundation, Inc.

Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document
under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2 or
any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
Invariant Sections, no Front-Cover, and no Back-Cover texts.
A copy of the license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free
Documentation License''.
@end copying

@titlepage
@title GNU Mailutils
@subtitle version @value{VERSION}, @value{UPDATED}
@author Alain Magloire, Sergey Poznyakoff et al.
@page
@vskip 0pt plus 1filll
@insertcopying
@end titlepage

@ifnothtml
@page
@summarycontents
@page
@end ifnothtml
@contents

@ifnottex
@node Top
@top GNU Mailutils

This edition of the @cite{GNU Mailutils Manual}, last updated on
@value{UPDATED}, documents GNU Mailutils Version @value{VERSION}.
@end ifnottex

@menu
* Introduction::            Preliminary Information.
* Programs::                Mailutils Programs.
* Libraries::               Mailutils Libraries.
* Sieve Language::          The Sieve Language.
* Reporting Bugs::          How to Report a Bug.
* News::                    Getting News About GNU Mailutils.
* Acknowledgement::         Thanks and Credits.

Appendices

* References::              References.
* Date Input Formats::
* Usage Vars::              Configuring Help Summary
* GNU FDL::                 This manual is under the GNU Free
                            Documentation License.

Indices

* Function Index::          All Mailutils Functions.
* Variable Index::          All Mailutils Variables.
* Keyword Index::           Index of Keywords.
* Program Index::           All Mailutils Programs.
* Concept Index::           Index of Concepts.

@detailmenu
 --- The Detailed Node Listing ---

Introduction

* Book Contents::               What this Book Contains
* History::                     A bit of History

Mailutils Programs

* command line::      Command Line Syntax.  
* configuration::     Common Configuration File.
* debugging::

* frm and from::      List Headers from a Mailbox.
* mail::              Send and Receive Mail.
* messages::          Count the Number of Messages in a Mailbox.
* movemail::          Moves Mail from the User Maildrop to the Local File.
* readmsg::           Extract Messages from a Folder.

* sieve::             Mail Filtering Utility.
* guimb::             Mailbox Scanning and Processing Language.

* maidag::            General-purpose Mail Delivery Agent.

* mimeview::          Universal File Viewer.

* pop3d::             POP3 Daemon.
* imap4d::            IMAP4 Daemon.
* comsatd::           Comsat Daemon.

* mh::                The MH Message Handling System.

* mu::                Mailutils Multi-Purpose Tool.

Command Line

* Option Basics::       Basic Notions About Command Line Options.
* Common Options::      Options That are Common for All Utilities.

Mailutils Configuration File

* conf-syntax::         Configuration File Syntax
* Include::             Include Statement
* Logging Statement::
* Debug Statement::
* Mailbox Statement::
* Locking Statement::
* Mailer Statement::
* ACL Statement::
* Tcp-wrappers Statement::
* Server Settings::
* Auth Statement::
* PAM Statement::
* Virtdomain Statement::
* Radius Statement::
* SQL Statement::
* LDAP Statement::
* TLS Statement::
* GSASL Statement::

Configuration File Syntax

* Comments::
* Statements::
* Paths::

Server Settings

* General Server Configuration::
* Server Statement::

Debugging

* Level Syntax::
* Level BNF::
* Debugging Categories::

@command{mail} --- Send and Receive Mail

* Invoking Mail::            Command Line Options.
* Specifying Messages::      How to Specify Message Sets.
* Composing Mail::           Composing Mail.
* Reading Mail::             Reading Mail.
* Scripting::                Scripting.
* Mail Variables::           How to Alter the Behavior of @command{mail}.
* Mail Configuration Files:: Personal and System-wide Configuration Files.

Composing Mail

* Quitting Compose Mode::
* Getting Help on Compose Escapes::
* Editing the Message::
* Modifying the Headers::
* Enclosing Another Message::
* Adding a File to the Message::
* Printing And Saving the Message::
* Signing the Message::
* Printing Another Message::
* Inserting Value of a Mail Variable::
* Executing Other Mail Commands::
* Executing Shell Commands::

Reading Mail

* Quitting the Program::
* Obtaining Online Help::
* Moving Within a Mailbox::
* Changing mailbox/directory::
* Controlling Header Display::
* Displaying Information::
* Displaying Messages::
* Marking Messages::
* Disposing of Messages::
* Saving Messages::
* Editing Messages::
* Aliasing::
* Replying::
* Controlling Sender Fields::
* Incorporating New Mail::
* Shell Escapes::

@command{movemail} --- Moves Mail from the User Maildrop to the Local File

* Movemail Configuration::
* Movemail Options::     Description of the Available Options
* Ownership::            Setting Destination Mailbox Ownership
* Summary::              Short Movemail Invocation Summary

@command{readmsg} --- Extract Messages from a Folder

* Opt-readmsg::   Invocation of @command{readmsg}.
* Conf-readmsg::  Configuration of @command{readmsg}.

@command{sieve}

* sieve interpreter::   A Sieve Interpreter
* sieve.scm::           A Sieve to Scheme Translator and Filter

A Sieve Interpreter

* Invoking Sieve::
* Sieve Configuration::
* Logging and Debugging::
* Extending Sieve::

@command{guimb} --- A Mailbox Scanning and Processing Language

* Specifying Scheme Program to Execute::
* Specifying Mailboxes to Operate Upon::
* Passing Options to Scheme::
* Command Line Option Summary::

maidag

* Sendmail-maidag::         Using @command{maidag} with Sendmail.
* Exim-maidag::             Using @command{maidag} with Exim.
* MeTA1-maidag::            Using @command{maidag} with MeTA1.
* Mailbox Quotas::
* Maidag Scripting::
* Forwarding::
* Url-mode::                Delivering Messages to a URL.
* Remote Mailbox Delivery::
* Conf-maidag::             Maidag Configuration File Summary

Mailbox Quotas

* DBM Quotas::          Keeping Quotas in DBM File.
* SQL Quotas::          Keeping Quotas in SQL Database.

Maidag Scripting

* Sieve Maidag Filters::
* Scheme Maidag Filters::
* Python Maidag Filters::

mimeview

* Mimeview Invocation::
* Mimeview Config::

POP3 Daemon

* Login delay::
* Auto-expire::
* Bulletins::
* Conf-pop3d::           Pop3d Configuration
* Command line options::

IMAP4 Daemon

* Namespace::       Namespace.
* Conf-imap4d::     Configuration.
* Starting imap4d:: Invocation Options.

Comsat Daemon

* Starting comsatd::       Invocation.
* Configuring comsatd::    Configuration of @command{comsatd}.
* dot.biffrc::             A per-user configuration file.

Configuring @command{comsatd}

* General Settings::
* Security Settings::

MH --- The MH Message Handling System

* Diffs::      Major differences between Mailutils MH and other MH
               implementations.

Major differences between Mailutils MH and other MH implementations

* Format String Diffs::
* Profile Variable Diffs::
* Program Diffs::

MU

* mu invocation syntax::
* mu help::
* mu info::
* mu cflags::
* mu ldflags::
* mu query::
* mu 2047::
* mu filter::
* mu acl::
* mu wicket::
* mu dbm::
* mu logger::
* mu pop::
* mu imap::

mu dbm

* Create a Database::
* Add Records to a Database::
* Delete Records::
* List the Database::
* Dump the Database::
* Dump Formats::
* Dbm Exit Codes::

Sieve Language

* Lexical Structure::
* Syntax::
* Preprocessor::
* Require Statement::
* Comparators::
* Tests::
* Actions::
* GNU Extensions::

Syntax

* Commands::
* Actions Described::
* Control Flow::
* Tests and Conditions::

Preprocessor

* #include::        Include the contents of a file.
* #searchpath::     Modify the current search path.

Tests

* Built-in Tests::
* External Tests::

Actions

* Built-in Actions::
* External Actions::

Date Input Formats

* General date syntax::            Common rules.
* Calendar date items::            19 Dec 1994.
* Time of day items::              9:20pm.
* Time zone items::                @sc{est}, @sc{pdt}, @sc{gmt}.
* Day of week items::              Monday and others.
* Relative items in date strings:: next tuesday, 2 years ago.
* Pure numbers in date strings::   19931219, 1440.
* Seconds since the Epoch::        @@1078100502.
* Specifying time zone rules::     TZ="America/New_York", TZ="UTC0".
* Authors of get_date::            Bellovin, Eggert, Salz, Berets, et al.

@end detailmenu
@end menu

@node Introduction
@chapter Introduction
GNU Mailutils is a set of libraries and utilities for handling
electronic mail.  It addresses a wide audience and can be of interest
to application developers, casual users and system administrators alike.

It provides programmers with a consistent API allowing them to
handle a variety of different mailbox formats transparently and
without having to delve into complexities of their internal structure.
While doing so, it also provides interfaces that simplify common
programming tasks, such as handling lists, parsing configuration
files, etc.  The philosophy of Mailutils is to have a single and
consistent programming interface for various objects designed to
handle the same task.  It tries to use their similarities to create an
interface that hides their differences and complexities.  This covers
a wide variety of programming tasks: apart from mailbox handling,
Mailutils also contains a unified iterface for work with various DBM
databases and much more.

The utilities built upon these libraries share that same distinctive
feature: no matter what is the internal structure of an object, it is
always handled the same way as other objects that do the same task.
Again, the most common example of this approach are, of course,
mailboxes.  Whatever Mailutils program you use, you can be sure it is
able to handle various mailbox formats.  You even don't have to inform
it about what type a mailbox is: it will do its best to discover it
automatically.

This approach sometimes covers entities which are seldom regarded as
compatible.  For example, using Mailutils it is possible to treat an SMTP
connection as a mailbox opened only for appending new messages.  This
in turn, provides a way for extending the functionality of some
utilities.  As an example, using this concept of mailboxes, the usual
mail delivery agent becomes able to do things usually reserved for
mail transport agents only!

At the core of Mailutils is @file{libmailutils}, a library which
provides an API for accessing a generalized mailbox.  A set of
complementary libraries provide methods for handling particular
mailbox implementations: UNIX mailbox, Maildir, MH, POP3, IMAP4,
even SMTP.  Mailutils offers functions for almost any mail-related
task, such as parsing of messages, email addresses and URLs, handling
MIME messages, listing mail folders, mailcap facilities, extensible
Sieve filtering, access control lists.  It supports various modern
data security and authentication techniques: TLS encryption, SASL and
GSSAPI, to name a few.  Mailutils is able to work with a wide
variety of authorization databases, ranging from traditional system
password database up to RADIUS, SQL and LDAP.

The utilities provided by Mailutils include @command{imap4d} and
@command{pop3d} mail servers, mail reporting utility
@command{comsatd}, general-purpose mail delivery agent
@command{maidag}, mail filtering program @command{sieve}, an implementation
of MH message handling system and much more.

All utilities share the same subset of command line options and use
a unified configuration mechanism, which allows to easily configure
the package as a whole.

This software is part of the GNU Project and is copyrighted by the
Free Software Foundation.  All libraries are distributed under the
terms of the Lesser GNU Public License.  The documentation is licensed
under the GNU FDL, and everything else is licensed under the GNU GPL.

@menu
* Book Contents::               What this Book Contains
* History::                     A bit of History
@end menu

@node Book Contents
@section What this Book Contains

@FIXME{This is more a plan on how the document should be structured,
than a description of its actual structure.  However it is:}

  This book addresses a wide audience of both system administrators
and users that aim to use Mailutils programs, and programmers who wish
to use Mailutils libraries in their programs.  Given this audience,
the book is divided in three major parts.

  The first part provides a detailed description of each Mailutils
utility, and advices on how to use them in various situations.  This
part is intended for users and system administrators who are using
Mailutils programs.  If you are not interested in programming using
Mailutils, this is the only part you need to read.

  Subsequent parts address programmers.

  The second part is a tutorial which provides an introduction to
programming techniques for writing mail applications using GNU
Mailutils.

  Finally, the third part contains a complete Mailutils library
reference. 

  This version of the book is not finished.  The places that may
contain inaccurate information carry prominent notices stating so.
For updated versions of the documentation, visit
@uref{http://mailutils.org/manual}.  All material that ends up in this
document is first published in the Mailutils Wiki, available at
@uref{http://mailutils.org/wiki}.  Be sure to visit it for latest
updates.

  If you have any questions that are not answered there, feel free to
ask them at the mailing list @email{bug-mailutils@@gnu.org}. 

@FIXME{Mailutils 3.0 introduced such amount of changes, most of which
being a complete rewrite of the existing codebase, that the library
tutorial and reference became hopelessly obsolete.  It is my deep
conviction that using incorrect documentation is much worse than
having no documentation at all, therefore I have withdrawn the
obsolete parts from this edition of GNU Mailutils manual.  I am doing
my best to document new Mailutils libraries and hope to be able to
re-introduce these parts of the documentation soon.}

@node History
@section A bit of History, and why use this package?
@UNREVISED

This package started off to try and handle large mailbox files more
gracefully then available at that time POP3 servers did.  While it
handles this task, it also allows you to support a variety of
different mailbox formats without any real effort on your part. Also,
if a new format is added at a later date, your program will support
that new format automatically as soon as it is compiled against the
new library. 

@node Reporting Bugs
@chapter Reporting Bugs

Email bug reports to @email{bug-mailutils@@gnu.org}.

As the purpose of bug reporting is to improve software, please be sure
to include maximum information when reporting a bug.  The information
needed is:

@itemize
@item Version of the package you are using.
@item Compilation options used when configuring the package.
@item Conditions under which the bug appears.
@end itemize

The archives of bug-mailutils mailing list are available from
@url{http://mail.gnu.org/@/mailman/@/listinfo/@/bug-mailutils}.

@node Programs
@chapter Mailutils Programs
@cindex Programs
@include programs.texi

@node Libraries
@chapter Mailutils Libraries
@cindex Libraries
@WRITEME

@node Sieve Language
@chapter Sieve Language
@cindex Sieve Language
@include sieve.texi

@node News
@chapter Getting News About GNU Mailutils

The two places to look for any news regarding GNU Mailutils are the
Mailutils homepage at @url{http://mailutils.org} or
@url{http://www.gnu.org/@/software/@/mailutils}, and the project page
at @url{http://savannah.gnu.org/@/projects/@/mailutils}. 

The updated versions of this manual are available online from
@uref{http://mailutils.org/manual}.  See also
@uref{http://mailutils.org/wiki, Mailutils Wiki} for the latest
updates.

@node Acknowledgement
@chapter Acknowledgement

In no particular order,

@itemize @bullet
@item
Jakob Kaivo @email{jkaivo@@ndn.net},
@item
Jeff Bailey @email{jbailey@@gnu.org},
@item
Sean Perry @email{shaleh@@debian.org},
@item
Thomas Fletcher @email{thomasf@@qnx.com},
@item
Dave Inglis @email{dinglis@@qnx.com},
@item
Brian Edmond @email{briane@@qnx.com},
@item
Sam Roberts @email{sroberts@@uniserve.com},
@item
Sergey Poznyakoff @email{gray@@Mirddin.farlep.net},
@item
Fran@,{c}ois Pinard  @email{pinard@@IRO.UMontreal.CA}.
@item
Jordi Mallach @email{jordi@@sindominio.net}
@item
Wojciech Polak @email{polak@@gnu.org}
@end itemize

@node References
@appendix References
@WRITEME

@node Date Input Formats
@appendix Date Input Formats
@include getdate.texi

@node Usage Vars
@appendix Configuring Help Summary
@include usage.texi

@node GNU FDL
@appendix GNU Free Documentation License
@include fdl.texi

@node Function Index
@unnumbered Function Index

This is an alphabetical list of all Mailutils functions.

@printindex fn
@page

@node Variable Index
@unnumbered Variable Index
@printindex vr
@page

@node Keyword Index
@unnumbered Keyword Index
@printindex ky
@page

@node Program Index
@unnumbered Program Index

@printindex pg
@page

@node Concept Index
@unnumbered Concept Index

This is a general index of all issues discussed in this manual

@printindex cp

@bye