This is Info file ../info/emacs, produced by Makeinfo version 1.68 from the input file ../texi/emacs.texi. This is the thirteenth edition of the `GNU Emacs Manual', updated for Emacs version 20.7. INFO-DIR-SECTION Editors START-INFO-DIR-ENTRY * Emacs: (emacs). The extensible self-documenting text editor. END-INFO-DIR-ENTRY Published by the Free Software Foundation 59 Temple Place, Suite 330 Boston, MA 02111-1307 USA Copyright (C) 1985, 1986, 1987, 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999 Free Software Foundation, Inc. Permission is granted to make and distribute verbatim copies of this manual provided the copyright notice and this permission notice are preserved on all copies. Permission is granted to copy and distribute modified versions of this manual under the conditions for verbatim copying, provided also that the sections entitled "The GNU Manifesto", "Distribution" and "GNU General Public License" are included exactly as in the original, and provided that the entire resulting derived work is distributed under the terms of a permission notice identical to this one. Permission is granted to copy and distribute translations of this manual into another language, under the above conditions for modified versions, except that the sections entitled "The GNU Manifesto", "Distribution" and "GNU General Public License" may be included in a translation approved by the Free Software Foundation instead of in the original English.  File: emacs, Node: Sending Mail, Next: Rmail, Prev: Picture, Up: Top Sending Mail ************ To send a message in Emacs, you start by typing a command (`C-x m') to select and initialize the `*mail*' buffer. Then you edit the text and headers of the message in this buffer, and type another command (`C-c C-s' or `C-c C-c') to send the message. `C-x m' Begin composing a message to send (`compose-mail'). `C-x 4 m' Likewise, but display the message in another window (`compose-mail-other-window'). `C-x 5 m' Likewise, but make a new frame (`compose-mail-other-frame'). `C-c C-s' In Mail mode, send the message (`mail-send'). `C-c C-c' Send the message and bury the mail buffer (`mail-send-and-exit'). The command `C-x m' (`compose-mail') selects a buffer named `*mail*' and initializes it with the skeleton of an outgoing message. `C-x 4 m' (`compose-mail-other-window') selects the `*mail*' buffer in a different window, leaving the previous current buffer visible. `C-x 5 m' (`compose-mail-other-frame') creates a new frame to select the `*mail*' buffer. Because the mail-composition buffer is an ordinary Emacs buffer, you can switch to other buffers while in the middle of composing mail, and switch back later (or never). If you use the `C-x m' command again when you have been composing another message but have not sent it, you are asked to confirm before the old message is erased. If you answer `n', the `*mail*' buffer is left selected with its old contents, so you can finish the old message and send it. `C-u C-x m' is another way to do this. Sending the message marks the `*mail*' buffer "unmodified," which avoids the need for confirmation when `C-x m' is next used. If you are composing a message in the `*mail*' buffer and want to send another message before finishing the first, rename the `*mail*' buffer using `M-x rename-uniquely' (*note Misc Buffer::.). Then you can use `C-x m' or its variants described above to make a new `*mail*' buffer. Once you've done that, you can work with each mail buffer independently. * Menu: * Format: Mail Format. Format of the mail being composed. * Headers: Mail Headers. Details of permitted mail header fields. * Aliases: Mail Aliases. Abbreviating and grouping mail addresses. * Mode: Mail Mode. Special commands for editing mail being composed. * Spook: Distracting NSA. How to distract the NSA's attention. * Mail Methods:: Using alternative mail-composition methods.  File: emacs, Node: Mail Format, Next: Mail Headers, Up: Sending Mail The Format of the Mail Buffer ============================= In addition to the "text" or "body", a message has "header fields" which say who sent it, when, to whom, why, and so on. Some header fields, such as `Date' and `Sender', are created automatically when you send the message. Others, such as the recipient names, must be specified by you in order to send the message properly. Mail mode provides a few commands to help you edit some header fields, and some are preinitialized in the buffer automatically at times. You can insert and edit header fields using ordinary editing commands. The line in the buffer that says --text follows this line-- is a special delimiter that separates the headers you have specified from the text. Whatever follows this line is the text of the message; the headers precede it. The delimiter line itself does not appear in the message actually sent. The text used for the delimiter line is controlled by the variable `mail-header-separator'. Here is an example of what the headers and text in the mail buffer might look like. To: gnu@gnu.org CC: lungfish@spam.org, byob@spam.org Subject: The Emacs Manual --Text follows this line-- Please ignore this message.  File: emacs, Node: Mail Headers, Next: Mail Aliases, Prev: Mail Format, Up: Sending Mail Mail Header Fields ================== A header field in the mail buffer starts with a field name at the beginning of a line, terminated by a colon. Upper and lower case are equivalent in field names (and in mailing addresses also). After the colon and optional whitespace comes the contents of the field. You can use any name you like for a header field, but normally people use only standard field names with accepted meanings. Here is a table of fields commonly used in outgoing messages. `To' This field contains the mailing addresses to which the message is addressed. If you list more than one address, use commas, not spaces, to separate them. `Subject' The contents of the `Subject' field should be a piece of text that says what the message is about. The reason `Subject' fields are useful is that most mail-reading programs can provide a summary of messages, listing the subject of each message but not its text. `CC' This field contains additional mailing addresses to send the message to, like `To' except that these readers should not regard the message as directed at them. `BCC' This field contains additional mailing addresses to send the message to, which should not appear in the header of the message actually sent. Copies sent this way are called "blind carbon copies". To send a blind carbon copy of every outgoing message to yourself, set the variable `mail-self-blind' to `t'. `FCC' This field contains the name of one file and directs Emacs to append a copy of the message to that file when you send the message. If the file is in Rmail format, Emacs writes the message in Rmail format; otherwise, Emacs writes the message in system mail file format. To put a fixed file name in the `FCC' field each time you start editing an outgoing message, set the variable `mail-archive-file-name' to that file name. Unless you remove the `FCC' field before sending, the message will be written into that file when it is sent. `From' Use the `From' field to say who you are, when the account you are using to send the mail is not your own. The contents of the `From' field should be a valid mailing address, since replies will normally go there. If you don't specify the `From' field yourself, Emacs uses the value of `user-mail-address' as the default. `Reply-to' Use this field to direct replies to a different address. Most mail-reading programs (including Rmail) automatically send replies to the `Reply-to' address in preference to the `From' address. By adding a `Reply-to' field to your header, you can work around any problems your `From' address may cause for replies. To put a fixed `Reply-to' address into every outgoing message, set the variable `mail-default-reply-to' to that address (as a string). Then `mail' initializes the message with a `Reply-to' field as specified. You can delete or alter that header field before you send the message, if you wish. When Emacs starts up, if the environment variable `REPLYTO' is set, `mail-default-reply-to' is initialized from that environment variable. `In-reply-to' This field contains a piece of text describing a message you are replying to. Some mail systems can use this information to correlate related pieces of mail. Normally this field is filled in by Rmail when you reply to a message in Rmail, and you never need to think about it (*note Rmail::.). `References' This field lists the message IDs of related previous messages. Rmail sets up this field automatically when you reply to a message. The `To', `CC', `BCC' and `FCC' header fields can appear any number of times, and each such header field can contain multiple addresses, separated by commas. This way, you can specify any number of places to send the message. A `To', `CC', or `BCC' field can also have continuation lines: one or more lines starting with whitespace, following the starting line of the field, are considered part of the field. Here's an example of a `To' field with a continuation line: To: foo@here.net, this@there.net, me@gnu.cambridge.mass.usa.earth.spiral3281 When you send the message, if you didn't write a `From' field yourself, Emacs puts in one for you. The variable `mail-from-style' controls the format: `nil' Use just the email address, as in `king@grassland.com'. `parens' Use both email address and full name, as in `king@grassland.com (Elvis Parsley)'. `angles' Use both email address and full name, as in `Elvis Parsley '. `system-default' Allow the system to insert the `From' field.  File: emacs, Node: Mail Aliases, Next: Mail Mode, Prev: Mail Headers, Up: Sending Mail Mail Aliases ============ You can define "mail aliases" in a file named `~/.mailrc'. These are short mnemonic names which stand for mail addresses or groups of mail addresses. Like many other mail programs, Emacs expands aliases when they occur in the `To', `From', `CC', `BCC', and `Reply-to' fields, plus their `Resent-' variants. To define an alias in `~/.mailrc', write a line in the following format: alias SHORTADDRESS FULLADDRESSES Here FULLADDRESSES stands for one or more mail addresses for SHORTADDRESS to expand into. Separate multiple addresses with spaces; if an address contains a space, quote the whole address with a pair of double-quotes. For instance, to make `maingnu' stand for `gnu@gnu.org' plus a local address of your own, put in this line: alias maingnu gnu@gnu.org local-gnu Emacs also recognizes include commands in `.mailrc' files. They look like this: source FILENAME The file `~/.mailrc' is used primarily by other mail-reading programs; it can contain various other commands. Emacs ignores everything in it except for alias definitions and include commands. Another way to define a mail alias, within Emacs alone, is with the `define-mail-alias' command. It prompts for the alias and then the full address. You can use it to define aliases in your `.emacs' file, like this: (define-mail-alias "maingnu" "gnu@gnu.org") `define-mail-alias' records aliases by adding them to a variable named `mail-aliases'. If you are comfortable with manipulating Lisp lists, you can set `mail-aliases' directly. The initial value of `mail-aliases' is `t', which means that Emacs should read `.mailrc' to get the proper value. You can specify a different file name to use instead of `~/.mailrc' by setting the variable `mail-personal-alias-file'. Normally, Emacs expands aliases when you send the message. You do not need to expand mail aliases before sending the message, but you can expand them if you want to see where the mail will actually go. To do this, use the command `M-x expand-mail-aliases'; it expands all mail aliases currently present in the mail headers that hold addresses. If you like, you can have mail aliases expand as abbrevs, as soon as you type them in (*note Abbrevs::.). To enable this feature, execute the following: (add-hook 'mail-setup-hook 'mail-abbrevs-setup) This can go in your `.emacs' file. *Note Hooks::. If you use this feature, you must use `define-mail-abbrev' instead of `define-mail-alias'; the latter does not work with this package. Note that the mail abbreviation package uses the variable `mail-abbrevs' instead of `mail-aliases', and that all alias names are converted to lower case. The mail abbreviation package also provides the `C-c C-a' (`mail-interactive-insert-alias') command, which reads an alias name (with completion) and inserts its definition at point. This is useful when editing the message text itself or a header field such as `Subject' in which Emacs does not normally expand aliases. Note that abbrevs expand only if you insert a word-separator character afterward. However, you can rebind `C-n' and `M->' to cause expansion as well. Here's how to do that: (add-hook 'mail-setup-hook '(lambda () (substitute-key-definition 'next-line 'mail-abbrev-next-line mail-mode-map global-map) (substitute-key-definition 'end-of-buffer 'mail-abbrev-end-of-buffer mail-mode-map global-map)))  File: emacs, Node: Mail Mode, Next: Distracting NSA, Prev: Mail Aliases, Up: Sending Mail Mail Mode ========= The major mode used in the mail buffer is Mail mode, which is much like Text mode except that various special commands are provided on the `C-c' prefix. These commands all have to do specifically with editing or sending the message. In addition, Mail mode defines the character `%' as a word separator; this is helpful for using the word commands to edit mail addresses. Mail mode is normally used in buffers set up automatically by the `mail' command and related commands. However, you can also switch to Mail mode in a file-visiting buffer. That is a useful thing to do if you have saved draft message text in a file. * Menu: * Mail Sending:: Commands to send the message. * Header Editing:: Commands to move to header fields and edit them. * Citing Mail:: Copying all or part of a message you are replying to. * Mail Mode Misc:: Spell checking, signatures, etc.  File: emacs, Node: Mail Sending, Next: Header Editing, Up: Mail Mode Mail Sending ------------ Mail mode has two commands for sending the message you have been editing: `C-c C-s' Send the message, and leave the mail buffer selected (`mail-send'). `C-c C-c' Send the message, and select some other buffer (`mail-send-and-exit'). `C-c C-s' (`mail-send') sends the message and marks the mail buffer unmodified, but leaves that buffer selected so that you can modify the message (perhaps with new recipients) and send it again. `C-c C-c' (`mail-send-and-exit') sends and then deletes the window or switches to another buffer. It puts the mail buffer at the lowest priority for reselection by default, since you are finished with using it. This is the usual way to send the message. In a file-visiting buffer, sending the message does not clear the modified flag, because only saving the file should do that. As a result, you don't get a warning if you try to send the same message twice. When you send a message that contains non-ASCII characters, they need to be encoded with a coding system (*note Coding Systems::.). Usually the coding system is specified automatically by your chosen language environment (*note Language Environments::.). You can explicitly specify the coding system for outgoing mail by setting the variable `sendmail-coding-system'. If the coding system thus determined does not handle the characters in a particular message, Emacs asks you to select the coding system to use, showing a list of possible coding systems.  File: emacs, Node: Header Editing, Next: Citing Mail, Prev: Mail Sending, Up: Mail Mode Mail Header Editing ------------------- Mail mode provides special commands to move to particular header fields and to complete addresses in headers. `C-c C-f C-t' Move to the `To' header field, creating one if there is none (`mail-to'). `C-c C-f C-s' Move to the `Subject' header field, creating one if there is none (`mail-subject'). `C-c C-f C-c' Move to the `CC' header field, creating one if there is none (`mail-cc'). `C-c C-f C-b' Move to the `BCC' header field, creating one if there is none (`mail-bcc'). `C-c C-f C-f' Move to the `FCC' header field, creating one if there is none (`mail-fcc'). `M-' Complete a mailing address (`mail-complete'). There are five commands to move point to particular header fields, all based on the prefix `C-c C-f' (`C-f' is for "field"). They are listed in the table above. If the field in question does not exist, these commands create one. We provide special motion commands for these particular fields because they are the fields users most often want to edit. While editing a header field that contains mailing addresses, such as `To:', `CC:' and `BCC:', you can complete a mailing address by typing `M-' (`mail-complete'). It inserts the full name corresponding to the address, if it can determine the full name. The variable `mail-complete-style' controls whether to insert the full name, and what style to use, as in `mail-from-style' (*note Mail Headers::.). For completion purposes, the valid mailing addresses are taken to be the local users' names plus your personal mail aliases. You can specify additional sources of valid addresses; use the customization buffer to see the options for this. If you type `M-' in the body of the message, it invokes `ispell-complete-word', as in Text mode.  File: emacs, Node: Citing Mail, Next: Mail Mode Misc, Prev: Header Editing, Up: Mail Mode Citing Mail ----------- Mail mode also has commands for yanking or "citing" all or part of a message that you are replying to. These commands are active only when you started sending a message using an Rmail command. `C-c C-y' Yank the selected message from Rmail (`mail-yank-original'). `C-c C-r' Yank the region from the Rmail buffer (`mail-yank-region'). `C-c C-q' Fill each paragraph cited from another message (`mail-fill-yanked-message'). When mail sending is invoked from the Rmail mail reader using an Rmail command, `C-c C-y' can be used inside the mail buffer to insert the text of the message you are replying to. Normally it indents each line of that message three spaces and eliminates most header fields. A numeric argument specifies the number of spaces to indent. An argument of just `C-u' says not to indent at all and not to eliminate anything. `C-c C-y' always uses the current message from the Rmail buffer, so you can insert several old messages by selecting one in Rmail, switching to `*mail*' and yanking it, then switching back to Rmail to select another. You can specify the text for `C-c C-y' to insert at the beginning of each line: set `mail-yank-prefix' to the desired string. (A value of `nil' means to use indentation; this is the default.) However, `C-u C-c C-y' never adds anything at the beginning of the inserted lines, regardless of the value of `mail-yank-prefix'. To yank just a part of an incoming message, set the region in Rmail to the part you want; then go to the `*Mail*' message and type `C-c C-r' (`mail-yank-region'). Each line that is copied is indented or prefixed according to `mail-yank-prefix'. After using `C-c C-y' or `C-c C-r', you can type `C-c C-q' (`mail-fill-yanked-message') to fill the paragraphs of the yanked old message or messages. One use of `C-c C-q' fills all such paragraphs, each one individually. To fill a single paragraph of the quoted message, use `M-q'. If filling does not automatically handle the type of citation prefix you use, try setting the fill prefix explicitly. *Note Filling::.  File: emacs, Node: Mail Mode Misc, Prev: Citing Mail, Up: Mail Mode Mail Mode Miscellany -------------------- `C-c C-t' Move to the beginning of the message body text (`mail-text'). `C-c C-w' Insert the file `~/.signature' at the end of the message text (`mail-signature'). `C-c C-i FILE ' Insert the contents of FILE at the end of the outgoing message (`mail-attach-file'). `M-x ispell-message' Do spelling correction on the message text, but not on citations from other messages. `C-c C-t' (`mail-text') moves point to just after the header separator line--that is, to the beginning of the message body text. `C-c C-w' (`mail-signature') adds a standard piece of text at the end of the message to say more about who you are. The text comes from the file `~/.signature' in your home directory. To insert your signature automatically, set the variable `mail-signature' to `t'; then starting a mail message automatically inserts the contents of your `~/.signature' file. If you want to omit your signature from a particular message, delete it from the buffer before you send the message. You can also set `mail-signature' to a string; then that string is inserted automatically as your signature when you start editing a message to send. If you set it to some other Lisp expression, the expression is evaluated each time, and its value (which should be a string) specifies the signature. You can do spelling correction on the message text you have written with the command `M-x ispell-message'. If you have yanked an incoming message into the outgoing draft, this command skips what was yanked, but it checks the text that you yourself inserted. (It looks for indentation or `mail-yank-prefix' to distinguish the cited lines from your input.) *Note Spelling::. To include a file in the outgoing message, you can use `C-x i', the usual command to insert a file in the current buffer. But it is often more convenient to use a special command, `C-c C-i' (`mail-attach-file'). This command inserts the file contents at the end of the buffer, after your signature if any, with a delimiter line that includes the file name. Turning on Mail mode (which `C-x m' does automatically) runs the normal hooks `text-mode-hook' and `mail-mode-hook'. Initializing a new outgoing message runs the normal hook `mail-setup-hook'; if you want to add special fields to your mail header or make other changes to the appearance of the mail buffer, use that hook. *Note Hooks::. The main difference between these hooks is just when they are invoked. Whenever you type `M-x mail', `mail-mode-hook' runs as soon as the `*mail*' buffer is created. Then the `mail-setup' function puts in the default contents of the buffer. After these default contents are inserted, `mail-setup-hook' runs.  File: emacs, Node: Distracting NSA, Next: Mail Methods, Prev: Mail Mode, Up: Sending Mail Distracting the NSA =================== `M-x spook' adds a line of randomly chosen keywords to an outgoing mail message. The keywords are chosen from a list of words that suggest you are discussing something subversive. The idea behind this feature is the suspicion that the NSA snoops on all electronic mail messages that contain keywords suggesting they might find them interesting. (The NSA says they don't, but that's what they *would* say.) The idea is that if lots of people add suspicious words to their messages, the NSA will get so busy with spurious input that they will have to give up reading it all. Here's how to insert spook keywords automatically whenever you start entering an outgoing message: (add-hook 'mail-setup-hook 'spook) Whether or not this confuses the NSA, it at least amuses people.  File: emacs, Node: Mail Methods, Prev: Distracting NSA, Up: Sending Mail Mail-Composition Methods ======================== This chapter describes the usual Emacs mode for editing and sending mail--Mail mode. Emacs has alternative facilities for editing and sending mail, including MH-E and Message mode, not documented in this manual. You can choose any of them as your preferred method. The commands `C-x m', `C-x 4 m' and `C-x 5 m' use whichever agent you have specified. So do various other Emacs commands and facilities that send mail. To specify your mail-composition method, set the variable `mail-user-agent'. Currently legitimate values include `sendmail-user-agent', `mh-e-user-agent', and `message-user-agent'. If you select a different mail-composition method, the information in this chapter about the `*mail*' buffer and Mail mode does not apply; other methods may use completely different commands with a different format in a differently named buffer.  File: emacs, Node: Rmail, Next: Dired, Prev: Sending Mail, Up: Top Reading Mail with Rmail *********************** Rmail is an Emacs subsystem for reading and disposing of mail that you receive. Rmail stores mail messages in files called Rmail files. Reading the message in an Rmail file is done in a special major mode, Rmail mode, which redefines most letters to run commands for managing mail. The command `rmail-mode' is used to switch into Rmail mode, and it runs the hook `rmail-mode-hook' as usual, but don't run this command by hand; it can't do a reasonable job unless the buffer is visiting a proper Rmail file. * Menu: * Basic: Rmail Basics. Basic concepts of Rmail, and simple use. * Scroll: Rmail Scrolling. Scrolling through a message. * Motion: Rmail Motion. Moving to another message. * Deletion: Rmail Deletion. Deleting and expunging messages. * Inbox: Rmail Inbox. How mail gets into the Rmail file. * Files: Rmail Files. Using multiple Rmail files. * Output: Rmail Output. Copying message out to files. * Labels: Rmail Labels. Classifying messages by labeling them. * Attrs: Rmail Attributes. Certain standard labels, called attributes. * Reply: Rmail Reply. Sending replies to messages you are viewing. * Summary: Rmail Summary. Summaries show brief info on many messages. * Sort: Rmail Sorting. Sorting messages in Rmail. * Display: Rmail Display. How Rmail displays a message; customization. * Editing: Rmail Editing. Editing message text and headers in Rmail. * Digest: Rmail Digest. Extracting the messages from a digest message. * Out of Rmail:: Converting an Rmail file to mailbox format. * Rot13: Rmail Rot13. Reading messages encoded in the rot13 code. * Movemail: Movemail. More details of fetching new mail.  File: emacs, Node: Rmail Basics, Next: Rmail Scrolling, Up: Rmail Basic Concepts of Rmail ======================= Using Rmail in the simplest fashion, you have one Rmail file `~/RMAIL' in which all of your mail is saved. It is called your "primary Rmail file". The command `M-x rmail' reads your primary Rmail file, merges new mail in from your inboxes, displays the first message you haven't read yet, and lets you begin reading. The variable `rmail-file-name' specifies the name of the primary Rmail file. Rmail uses narrowing to hide all but one message in the Rmail file. The message that is shown is called the "current message". Rmail mode's special commands can do such things as delete the current message, copy it into another file, send a reply, or move to another message. You can also create multiple Rmail files and use Rmail to move messages between them. Within the Rmail file, messages are normally arranged sequentially in order of receipt; you can specify other ways to sort them. Messages are assigned consecutive integers as their "message numbers". The number of the current message is displayed in Rmail's mode line, followed by the total number of messages in the file. You can move to a message by specifying its message number with the `j' key (*note Rmail Motion::.). Following the usual conventions of Emacs, changes in an Rmail file become permanent only when the file is saved. You can save it with `s' (`rmail-save'), which also expunges deleted messages from the file first (*note Rmail Deletion::.). To save the file without expunging, use `C-x C-s'. Rmail also saves the Rmail file after merging new mail from an inbox file (*note Rmail Inbox::.). You can exit Rmail with `q' (`rmail-quit'); this expunges and saves the Rmail file and then switches to another buffer. But there is no need to `exit' formally. If you switch from Rmail to editing in other buffers, and never happen to switch back, you have exited. (The Rmail command `b', `rmail-bury', does this for you.) Just make sure to save the Rmail file eventually (like any other file you have changed). `C-x s' is a good enough way to do this (*note Saving::.).  File: emacs, Node: Rmail Scrolling, Next: Rmail Motion, Prev: Rmail Basics, Up: Rmail Scrolling Within a Message ========================== When Rmail displays a message that does not fit on the screen, you must scroll through it to read the rest. You could do this with `C-v', `M-v' and `M-<', but in Rmail scrolling is so frequent that it deserves to be easier to type. `' Scroll forward (`scroll-up'). `' Scroll backward (`scroll-down'). `.' Scroll to start of message (`rmail-beginning-of-message'). Since the most common thing to do while reading a message is to scroll through it by screenfuls, Rmail makes and synonyms of `C-v' (`scroll-up') and `M-v' (`scroll-down') The command `.' (`rmail-beginning-of-message') scrolls back to the beginning of the selected message. This is not quite the same as `M-<': for one thing, it does not set the mark; for another, it resets the buffer boundaries to the current message if you have changed them.  File: emacs, Node: Rmail Motion, Next: Rmail Deletion, Prev: Rmail Scrolling, Up: Rmail Moving Among Messages ===================== The most basic thing to do with a message is to read it. The way to do this in Rmail is to make the message current. The usual practice is to move sequentially through the file, since this is the order of receipt of messages. When you enter Rmail, you are positioned at the first message that you have not yet made current (that is, the first one that has the `unseen' attribute; *note Rmail Attributes::.). Move forward to see the other new messages; move backward to reexamine old messages. `n' Move to the next nondeleted message, skipping any intervening deleted messages (`rmail-next-undeleted-message'). `p' Move to the previous nondeleted message (`rmail-previous-undeleted-message'). `M-n' Move to the next message, including deleted messages (`rmail-next-message'). `M-p' Move to the previous message, including deleted messages (`rmail-previous-message'). `j' Move to the first message. With argument N, move to message number N (`rmail-show-message'). `>' Move to the last message (`rmail-last-message'). `<' Move to the first message (`rmail-first-message'). `M-s REGEXP ' Move to the next message containing a match for REGEXP (`rmail-search'). `- M-s REGEXP ' Move to the previous message containing a match for REGEXP. `n' and `p' are the usual way of moving among messages in Rmail. They move through the messages sequentially, but skip over deleted messages, which is usually what you want to do. Their command definitions are named `rmail-next-undeleted-message' and `rmail-previous-undeleted-message'. If you do not want to skip deleted messages--for example, if you want to move to a message to undelete it--use the variants `M-n' and `M-p' (`rmail-next-message' and `rmail-previous-message'). A numeric argument to any of these commands serves as a repeat count. In Rmail, you can specify a numeric argument by typing just the digits. You don't need to type `C-u' first. The `M-s' (`rmail-search') command is Rmail's version of search. The usual incremental search command `C-s' works in Rmail, but it searches only within the current message. The purpose of `M-s' is to search for another message. It reads a regular expression (*note Regexps::.) nonincrementally, then searches starting at the beginning of the following message for a match. It then selects that message. If REGEXP is empty, `M-s' reuses the regexp used the previous time. To search backward in the file for another message, give `M-s' a negative argument. In Rmail you can do this with `- M-s'. It is also possible to search for a message based on labels. *Note Rmail Labels::. To move to a message specified by absolute message number, use `j' (`rmail-show-message') with the message number as argument. With no argument, `j' selects the first message. `<' (`rmail-first-message') also selects the first message. `>' (`rmail-last-message') selects the last message.  File: emacs, Node: Rmail Deletion, Next: Rmail Inbox, Prev: Rmail Motion, Up: Rmail Deleting Messages ================= When you no longer need to keep a message, you can "delete" it. This flags it as ignorable, and some Rmail commands pretend it is no longer present; but it still has its place in the Rmail file, and still has its message number. "Expunging" the Rmail file actually removes the deleted messages. The remaining messages are renumbered consecutively. Expunging is the only action that changes the message number of any message, except for undigestifying (*note Rmail Digest::.). `d' Delete the current message, and move to the next nondeleted message (`rmail-delete-forward'). `C-d' Delete the current message, and move to the previous nondeleted message (`rmail-delete-backward'). `u' Undelete the current message, or move back to a deleted message and undelete it (`rmail-undelete-previous-message'). `x' Expunge the Rmail file (`rmail-expunge'). There are two Rmail commands for deleting messages. Both delete the current message and select another message. `d' (`rmail-delete-forward') moves to the following message, skipping messages already deleted, while `C-d' (`rmail-delete-backward') moves to the previous nondeleted message. If there is no nondeleted message to move to in the specified direction, the message that was just deleted remains current. A numeric argument to either command reverses the direction of motion after deletion. Whenever Rmail deletes a message, it invokes the function(s) listed in `rmail-delete-message-hook'. When the hook functions are invoked, the message has been marked deleted, but it is still the current message in the Rmail buffer. To make all the deleted messages finally vanish from the Rmail file, type `x' (`rmail-expunge'). Until you do this, you can still "undelete" the deleted messages. The undeletion command, `u' (`rmail-undelete-previous-message'), is designed to cancel the effect of a `d' command in most cases. It undeletes the current message if the current message is deleted. Otherwise it moves backward to previous messages until a deleted message is found, and undeletes that message. You can usually undo a `d' with a `u' because the `u' moves back to and undeletes the message that the `d' deleted. But this does not work when the `d' skips a few already-deleted messages that follow the message being deleted; then the `u' command undeletes the last of the messages that were skipped. There is no clean way to avoid this problem. However, by repeating the `u' command, you can eventually get back to the message that you intend to undelete. You can also select a particular deleted message with the `M-p' command, then type `u' to undelete it. A deleted message has the `deleted' attribute, and as a result `deleted' appears in the mode line when the current message is deleted. In fact, deleting or undeleting a message is nothing more than adding or removing this attribute. *Note Rmail Attributes::.  File: emacs, Node: Rmail Inbox, Next: Rmail Files, Prev: Rmail Deletion, Up: Rmail Rmail Files and Inboxes ======================= The operating system places incoming mail for you in a file that we call your "inbox". When you start up Rmail, it runs a C program called `movemail' to copy the new messages from your inbox into your primary Rmail file, which also contains other messages saved from previous Rmail sessions. It is in this file that you actually read the mail with Rmail. This operation is called "getting new mail". You can get new mail at any time in Rmail by typing `g'. The variable `rmail-primary-inbox-list' contains a list of the files which are inboxes for your primary Rmail file. If you don't set this variable explicitly, it is initialized from the `MAIL' environment variable, or, as a last resort, set to `nil', which means to use the default inbox. The default inbox is `/var/mail/USERNAME', `/usr/spool/mail/USERNAME', or `/usr/mail/USERNAME', depending on your operating system. To see what the default is on your system, use `C-h v rmail-primary-inbox '. You can specify the inbox file(s) for any Rmail file with the command `set-rmail-inbox-list'; see *Note Rmail Files::. There are two reasons for having separate Rmail files and inboxes. 1. The inbox file format varies between operating systems and according to the other mail software in use. Only one part of Rmail needs to know about the alternatives, and it need only understand how to convert all of them to Rmail's own format. 2. It is very cumbersome to access an inbox file without danger of losing mail, because it is necessary to interlock with mail delivery. Moreover, different operating systems use different interlocking techniques. The strategy of moving mail out of the inbox once and for all into a separate Rmail file avoids the need for interlocking in all the rest of Rmail, since only Rmail operates on the Rmail file. Rmail was written to use Babyl format as its internal format. Since then, we have recognized that the usual inbox format on Unix and GNU systems is adequate for the job, and we plan to change Rmail to use that as its internal format. However, the Rmail file will still be separate from the inbox file, even on systems where their format is the same.  File: emacs, Node: Rmail Files, Next: Rmail Output, Prev: Rmail Inbox, Up: Rmail Multiple Rmail Files ==================== Rmail operates by default on your "primary Rmail file", which is named `~/RMAIL' and receives your incoming mail from your system inbox file. But you can also have other Rmail files and edit them with Rmail. These files can receive mail through their own inboxes, or you can move messages into them with explicit Rmail commands (*note Rmail Output::.). `i FILE ' Read FILE into Emacs and run Rmail on it (`rmail-input'). `M-x set-rmail-inbox-list FILES ' Specify inbox file names for current Rmail file to get mail from. `g' Merge new mail from current Rmail file's inboxes (`rmail-get-new-mail'). `C-u g FILE ' Merge new mail from inbox file FILE. To run Rmail on a file other than your primary Rmail file, you may use the `i' (`rmail-input') command in Rmail. This visits the file in Rmail mode. You can use `M-x rmail-input' even when not in Rmail. The file you read with `i' should normally be a valid Rmail file. If it is not, Rmail tries to decompose it into a stream of messages in various known formats. If it succeeds, it converts the whole file to an Rmail file. If you specify a file name that doesn't exist, `i' initializes a new buffer for creating a new Rmail file. You can also select an Rmail file from a menu. Choose first the menu bar Classify item, then from the Classify menu choose the Input Rmail File item; then choose the Rmail file you want. The variables `rmail-secondary-file-directory' and `rmail-secondary-file-regexp' specify which files to offer in the menu: the first variable says which directory to find them in; the second says which files in that directory to offer (all those that match the regular expression). These variables also apply to choosing a file for output (*note Rmail Output::.). Each Rmail file can contain a list of inbox file names; you can specify this list with `M-x set-rmail-inbox-list FILES '. The argument can contain any number of file names, separated by commas. It can also be empty, which specifies that this file should have no inboxes. Once a list of inboxes is specified, the Rmail file remembers it permanently until you specify a different list. As a special exception, if your primary Rmail file does not specify any inbox files, it uses your standard system inbox. The `g' command (`rmail-get-new-mail') merges mail into the current Rmail file from its specified inboxes. If the Rmail file has no inboxes, `g' does nothing. The command `M-x rmail' also merges new mail into your primary Rmail file. To merge mail from a file that is not the usual inbox, give the `g' key a numeric argument, as in `C-u g'. Then it reads a file name and merges mail from that file. The inbox file is not deleted or changed in any way when `g' with an argument is used. This is, therefore, a general way of merging one file of messages into another.  File: emacs, Node: Rmail Output, Next: Rmail Labels, Prev: Rmail Files, Up: Rmail Copying Messages Out to Files ============================= These commands copy messages from an Rmail file into another file. `o FILE ' Append a copy of the current message to the file FILE, using Rmail file format by default (`rmail-output-to-rmail-file'). `C-o FILE ' Append a copy of the current message to the file FILE, using system inbox file format by default (`rmail-output'). `w FILE ' Output just the message body to the file FILE, taking the default file name from the message `Subject' header. The commands `o' and `C-o' copy the current message into a specified file. This file may be an Rmail file or it may be in system inbox format; the output commands ascertain the file's format and write the copied message in that format. When copying a message to a file in Unix mail file format, these commands include whichever header fields are currently visible. Use the `t' command first, if you wish, to specify which headers to show (and copy). The `o' and `C-o' commands differ in two ways: each has its own separate default file name, and each specifies a choice of format to use when the file does not already exist. The `o' command uses Rmail format when it creates a new file, while `C-o' uses system inbox format for a new file. The default file name for `o' is the file name used last with `o', and the default file name for `C-o' is the file name used last with `C-o'. If the output file is an Rmail file currently visited in an Emacs buffer, the output commands copy the message into that buffer. It is up to you to save the buffer eventually in its file. Sometimes you may receive a message whose body holds the contents of a file. You can save the body to a file (excluding the message header) with the `w' command (`rmail-output-body-to-file'). Often these messages contain the intended file name in the `Subject' field, so the `w' command uses the `Subject' field as the default for the output file name. However, the file name is read using the minibuffer, so you can specify a different name if you wish. You can also output a message to an Rmail file chosen with a menu. Choose first the menu bar Classify item, then from the Classify menu choose the Output Rmail File menu item; then choose the Rmail file you want. This outputs the current message to that file, like the `o' command. The variables `rmail-secondary-file-directory' and `rmail-secondary-file-regexp' specify which files to offer in the menu: the first variable says which directory to find them in; the second says which files in that directory to offer (all those that match the regular expression). Copying a message gives the original copy of the message the `filed' attribute, so that `filed' appears in the mode line when such a message is current. If you like to keep just a single copy of every mail message, set the variable `rmail-delete-after-output' to `t'; then the `o' and `C-o' commands delete the original message after copying it. (You can undelete the original afterward if you wish.) Copying messages into files in system inbox format uses the header fields that are displayed in Rmail at the time. Thus, if you use the `t' command to view the entire header and then copy the message, the entire header is copied. *Note Rmail Display::. The variable `rmail-output-file-alist' lets you specify intelligent defaults for the output file, based on the contents of the current message. The value should be a list whose elements have this form: (REGEXP . NAME-EXP) If there's a match for REGEXP in the current message, then the default file name for output is NAME-EXP. If multiple elements match the message, the first matching element decides the default file name. The subexpression NAME-EXP may be a string constant giving the file name to use, or more generally it may be any Lisp expression that returns a file name as a string. `rmail-output-file-alist' applies to both `o' and `C-o'.  File: emacs, Node: Rmail Labels, Next: Rmail Attributes, Prev: Rmail Output, Up: Rmail Labels ====== Each message can have various "labels" assigned to it as a means of classification. Each label has a name; different names are different labels. Any given label is either present or absent on a particular message. A few label names have standard meanings and are given to messages automatically by Rmail when appropriate; these special labels are called "attributes". (*Note Rmail Attributes::.) All other labels are assigned only by users. `a LABEL ' Assign the label LABEL to the current message (`rmail-add-label'). `k LABEL ' Remove the label LABEL from the current message (`rmail-kill-label'). `C-M-n LABELS ' Move to the next message that has one of the labels LABELS (`rmail-next-labeled-message'). `C-M-p LABELS ' Move to the previous message that has one of the labels LABELS (`rmail-previous-labeled-message'). `C-M-l LABELS ' Make a summary of all messages containing any of the labels LABELS (`rmail-summary-by-labels'). The `a' (`rmail-add-label') and `k' (`rmail-kill-label') commands allow you to assign or remove any label on the current message. If the LABEL argument is empty, it means to assign or remove the same label most recently assigned or removed. Once you have given messages labels to classify them as you wish, there are two ways to use the labels: in moving and in summaries. The command `C-M-n LABELS ' (`rmail-next-labeled-message') moves to the next message that has one of the labels LABELS. The argument LABELS specifies one or more label names, separated by commas. `C-M-p' (`rmail-previous-labeled-message') is similar, but moves backwards to previous messages. A numeric argument to either command serves as a repeat count. The command `C-M-l LABELS ' (`rmail-summary-by-labels') displays a summary containing only the messages that have at least one of a specified set of labels. The argument LABELS is one or more label names, separated by commas. *Note Rmail Summary::, for information on summaries. If the LABELS argument to `C-M-n', `C-M-p' or `C-M-l' is empty, it means to use the last set of labels specified for any of these commands.  File: emacs, Node: Rmail Attributes, Next: Rmail Reply, Prev: Rmail Labels, Up: Rmail Rmail Attributes ================ Some labels such as `deleted' and `filed' have built-in meanings and are assigned to or removed from messages automatically at appropriate times; these labels are called "attributes". Here is a list of Rmail attributes: `unseen' Means the message has never been current. Assigned to messages when they come from an inbox file, and removed when a message is made current. When you start Rmail, it initially shows the first message that has this attribute. `deleted' Means the message is deleted. Assigned by deletion commands and removed by undeletion commands (*note Rmail Deletion::.). `filed' Means the message has been copied to some other file. Assigned by the file output commands (*note Rmail Files::.). `answered' Means you have mailed an answer to the message. Assigned by the `r' command (`rmail-reply'). *Note Rmail Reply::. `forwarded' Means you have forwarded the message. Assigned by the `f' command (`rmail-forward'). *Note Rmail Reply::. `edited' Means you have edited the text of the message within Rmail. *Note Rmail Editing::. `resent' Means you have resent the message. Assigned by the command `M-x rmail-resend'. *Note Rmail Reply::. All other labels are assigned or removed only by the user, and have no standard meaning.