appenddeadletter
Type: Boolean.
Default: False.
If this variable is True, the contents of canceled letter is
appended to the user's dead.letter file. Otherwise it overwrites
its contents.
askbcc
Type: Boolean.
Default: False.
When set to True the user will be prompted to enter Bcc
field before composing the message.
askcc
Type: Boolean.
Default: True.
When set to True the user will be prompted to enter Cc
field before composing the message.
asksub
Type: Boolean.
Default: True in interactive mode, False otherwise.
When set to True the user will be prompted to enter Subject
field before composing the message.
autoinc
Type: Boolean.
Default: True.
Automatically incorporate newly arrived messages.
autoprint
Type: Boolean.
Default: False.
Causes the delete command to behave like dp - thus, after deleting a
message, the next one will be typed automatically.
bang
Type: Boolean.
Default: False.
When set, every occurrence of ! in arguments to !
command is replaced with the last executed command.
datefield
Type: Boolean.
Default: False.
By default the date in a header summary is taken from the SMTP
envelope of the message. Setting this variable tells mail
to use the date from Date: header field, converted to
localtime. Notice, that for messages lacking this field mail
will fall back to using SMTP envelope.
charset
Type: string
Default: ‘auto’
The value of this variable controls the output character set for the
header fields encoding using RFC 2047. If the variable is unset, no
decoding is performed and the fields are printed as they are. If the
variable is set to ‘auto’, mail tries to deduce the
name of the character set from the value of LC_ALL environment
variable. Otherwise, its value is taken as the name of the charset.
cmd
Type: String.
Default: Unset.
Contains default shell command for pipe.
columns
Type: Numeric.
Default: Detected at startup by querying the terminal device. If this
fails, the value of environment variable COLUMNS is used.
This variable contains the number of columns on terminal screen.
crt
Type: Boolean or Numeric
Default: True in interactive mode, False otherwise.
The variable crt determines the minimum number of lines the body
of the message must contain in order to be piped through pager command
specified by environment variable PAGER. If crt is set
to a numeric value, this value is taken as the threshold. Otherwise,
if crt is set without a value, then the height of the terminal
screen is used to compute the threshold. The number of lines on
screen is controlled by screen variable.
decode-fallback
Type: String.
Default: ‘none’.
This variable controls the way to represent characters that cannot
be rendered using current character set. It can have three values:
- ‘none’
- Such characters are not printed at all. The conversion process stops
at the first character that cannot be rendered.
- ‘copy-pass’
- The characters are displayed ‘as is’. Notice, that depending on
your setup, this may screw-up your terminal settings.
- ‘copy-octal’
- Unprintable characters are represented by their octal codes. Printable
ones are printed ‘as is’.
dot
Type: Boolean.
Default: False.
If True, causes mail to interpret a period alone on a line as the
terminator of a message you are sending.
emptystart
Type: Boolean.
Default: False.
If the mailbox is empty, mail normally prints ‘No mail for user’ and
exits immediately. If this option is set, mail will start no matter is
the mailbox empty or not.
editheaders
Type: Boolean.
Default: False.
When set, mail will include message headers in the text to
be the ~e and ~v escapes, thus allowing you to customize
the headers.
escape
Type: String.
Default: ~
If defined, the first character of this option gives the character to
denoting escapes.
flipr
Type: Boolean
Default: Unset
The variable flipr if set swaps the meanings of reply
and Reply commands (see Replying).
folder
Type: String.
Default: Unset.
The name of the directory to use for storing folders of messages. If
unset, $HOME is assumed.
header
Type: Boolean.
Default: True, unless started with --nosum (-N) option.
Whether to run headers command automatically after entering
interactive mode.
hold
Type: Boolean.
Default: False.
When set to True, the read or saved messages will be stored in
user's mailbox ($HOME/mbox). Otherwise, they will be held in
system mailbox also. This option is in effect only when operating
upon user's system mailbox.
ignore
Type: Boolean.
Default: False.
When set to True, mail will ignore keyboard interrupts
when composing messages. Otherwise an interrupt will be taken as a
signal to abort composing.
ignoreeof
Type: Boolean.
Default: False.
Controls whether typing EOF character terminates the letter being
composed.
indentprefix
Type: String.
Default: "\t" (a tab character).
String used by the ~m tilde escape for indenting quoted messages.
inplacealiases
Type: Boolean
Default: False
If set, mail will expand aliases in the address header field
before entering send mode (see Composing Mail). By default, the
address header fields are left intact while composing, the alias
expansion takes place immediately before sending message.
keepsave
Type: Boolean.
Default: False.
Controls whether saved messages should be kept in system mailbox too.
This variable is in effect only when operating upon a user's system
mailbox.
mailx
Type: Boolean.
Default: False.
When set, enables mailx compatibility mode. This mode
has the following effects:
- When composing a message mail will ask
for
Cc and Bcc addresses after composing the body.
The default behavior is to ask for these values before composing
the body.
- In send mode, if the composition was interrupted, mail
will exit with zero status. By default it exits with zero status only
if the message was sent successfully.
metamail
Type: Boolean or String.
Default: True.
This variable controls operation of decode command. If
it is unset, decode will not attempt any interpretation
of the content of message parts. Otherwise, if metamail
is set to true, decode will use internal metamail
support to interpret message parts. Finally, if metamail
is assigned a string, this string is treated as command line of
the external metamail command which will be used to
display parts of a multipart message. For example:
# Disable MIME interpretation:
set nometamail
# Enable built-in MIME support:
set metamail
# Use external program to display MIME parts:
set metamail="metamail -m mail -p"
mimenoask
Type: String
Default: Empty
By default mail asks for comnfirmation before running
interpreter to view a part of the multi-part message. If this variable
is set, its value is treated as a comma-separated list of MIME types
for which no confirmation is needed. Elements of this list may include
shell-style globbing patterns, e.g. setting
set mimenoask=text/*,image/jpeg
will disable prompting before displaying any textual files, no
matter what their subtype is, and before displaying files with
type ‘image/jpeg’.
metoo
Type: Boolean.
Default: False.
Usually, when an alias 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.
mode
Type: String.
Default: The name of current operation mode.
Setting this variable does not affect the operation mode of the program.
outfolder
Type: String.
Default: Unset.
Contains the directory in which files created by save,
write, etc. commands will be stored. When unset, current
directory is assumed.
page
Type: Boolean.
Default: False.
If set to True, the pipe command will emit a linefeed
character after printing each message.
prompt
Type: String.
Default: "? "
Contains the command prompt sequence.
quit
Type: Boolean.
Default: False, unless started with --quit (-q) option.
When set, causes keyboard interrupts to terminate the program.
rc
Type: Boolean.
Default: True, unless started with --norc (-N) option.
When this variable is set, mail will read the system-wide
configuration file upon startup. See Mail Configuration Files.
record
Type: String.
Default: Unset.
When set, any outgoing message will be saved to the named file.
recursivealiases
Type: Boolean
Default: True
When set, mail will expand aliases recursively.
regex
Type: Boolean.
Default: True.
Setting this to True enables use of regular expressions in
‘/.../’ message specifications.
replyprefix
Type: String
Default: ‘Re: ’
Sets the prefix that will be used when constructing the subject line
of a reply message.
replyregex
Type: String
Default: ‘^re: *’
Sets the regular expression used to recognize subjects of reply
messages. If the Subject header of the message matches this
expression, the value of replyprefix will not be prepended to
it before replying. The expression should be a POSIX extended regular
expression. The comparison is case-insensitive.
For example, to recognize usual English, Polish, Norwegian and German
reply subject styles, use:
set replyregex="^(re|odp|aw|ang)(\\[[0-9]+\\])?:[[:blank:]]"
(Notice the quoting of backslash characters).
save
Type: Boolean.
Default: True.
When set, the aborted messages will be stored in the user's
dead.file. See also appenddeadletter.
screen
Type: Numeric.
Default: Detected at startup by querying the terminal device. If this
fails, the value of environment variable LINES is used.
This variable contains the number of lines on terminal screen.
sendmail
Type: String.
Default: sendmail:/usr/lib/sendmail
Contains the URL of mail transport agent.
Sign
Type: String.
Default: Unset.
Contains the filename holding users signature. The contents of this
file is appended to the end of a message being composed by ~A
escape.
sign
Type: String.
Default: Unset.
Contains the user's signature. The contents of this variable is appended
to the end of a message being composed by ~a escape. Use
Sign variable, if your signature occupies more than one line.
showto
Type: Boolean
Default: unset
If this variable is set, mail will show To: addresses
instead of From: for all messages that come from the user that
invoked the program.
subject
Type: String.
Default: Unset.
Contains default subject line. This will be used when asksub is
off.
toplines
Type: Numeric.
Default: 5
Number of lines to be displayed by top and Top commands.
verbose
Type: Boolean.
Default: False.
When set, the actual delivery of messages is displayed on the user's terminal.
xmailer
Type: Boolean.
Default: Set.
Controls whether the header ‘X-Mailer’ should be added to
outgoing messages. The default value of this header is
X-Mailer: mail (GNU Mailutils 1.0)