This file documents the Rmail mail reader.

Copyright (C) 1991 Free Software Foundation

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.

NOTE: The recommended mail reader in XEmacs is VM, which provides more flexibility than Rmail and stores mail in standard Unix-mail-format folders rather than in a special format.  VM comes with its own manual, included standard with XEmacs.

XEmacs also provides a sophisticated and comfortable front-end to the MH mail-processing system, called mh-e.

This manual documents the Rmail mail reader under Emacs.

Rmail is an Emacs subsystem for reading and disposing of mail that you receive.  Rmail stores mail messages in files called Rmail files.  You read the messages in an Rmail file in a special major mode, Rmail mode, which redefines most letters to run commands for managing mail.  To enter Rmail, type M-x rmail.  This reads your primary mail file, merges new mail in from your inboxes, displays the first new message, and lets you begin reading.

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 mail file.  You can also copy messages into other Rmail files and then edit those files with Rmail.

Rmail displays only one message at a time.  It is called the current message.  Rmail mode's special commands can move to another message, delete the message, copy the message into another file, or send a reply.

Within the Rmail file, messages are arranged sequentially in order of receipt.  They are also 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 using the j key (see Rmail Motion).

Following the usual conventions of Emacs, changes in an Rmail file become permanent only when the file is saved.  You can do this with s (rmail-save), which also expunges deleted messages from the file first (see Rmail Deletion).  To save the file without expunging, use C-x C-s.  Rmail saves the Rmail file automatically when moving new mail from an inbox file (see Rmail Inbox).

You can exit Rmail with q (rmail-quit); this expunges and saves the Rmail file and then switches to another buffer.  However, 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.  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.

Scrolling Within a Message
**************************

When Rmail displays a message that does not fit on the screen, you have to scroll through it.  You could use C-v, M-v, and M-<, but scrolling is so frequent in Rmail that it deserves to be easier to type.

SPC
     Scroll forward (scroll-up).

DEL
     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 SPC and DEL synonyms of C-v (scroll-up) and M-v (scroll-down)

The command . (rmail-beginning-of-message) scrolls back to the beginning of a selected message.  This is not quite the same as M-<: first, it does not set the mark; secondly, it resets the buffer boundaries to the current message if you have changed them.

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.  You can make any message current, given its message number, by using the j command, but people most often move sequentially through the file, since this is the order of receipt of messages.  When you enter Rmail, you are positioned at the first new message (new messages are those received after you last used Rmail), or at the last message if there are no new messages this time.  Move forward to see other new messages if there are any; move backward to re-examine old messages.

n
     Move to the next non-deleted message, skipping any intervening deleted

     messages (rmail-next-undeleted-message).

p
     Move to the previous non-deleted 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).

M-s REGEXP RET
     Move to the next message containing a match for REGEXP (rmail-search).  If REGEXP is empty, the last regexp used is used again.

- M-s REGEXP RET
     Move to the previous message containing a match for REGEXP. If REGEXP is empty, the last regexp used is used again.

To move among messages in Rmail, you can use n and p. These keys 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 (rmail-next-message) and M-p (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 just typing the digits. It is not necessary 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 searches only within the current message.  The purpose of M-s is to search for another message.  It reads a regular expression non-incrementally, then starts searching at the beginning of the following message for a match.  The message containing the match is selected.

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. See 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-last-message) selects the last message.

Deleting Messages
*****************

When you no longer need to keep a message, you can delete it.  This flags it as ignorable, and some Rmail commands will 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 (see Rmail Digest).

d
     Delete the current message and move to the next non-deleted message (rmail-delete-forward).

C-d
     Delete the current message and move to the previous non-deleted message (rmail-delete-backward).

u
     Undelete the current message, or move back to a deleted message and undelete it (rmail-undelete-previous-message).

e
x
     Expunge the Rmail file (rmail-expunge).  These two commands are synonyms.

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 non-deleted message.  If there is no non-deleted message to move to in the specified direction, the message that was just deleted remains current.

To make all deleted messages disappear from the Rmail file, type e (rmail-expunge).  Until you do this, you can still undelete the deleted messages.

To undelete, type u (rmail-undelete-previous-message), which cancels the effect of a d command (usually).  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.  This does not work when the d skips a few already-deleted messages that follow the message being deleted; in that case 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 you intended to undelete.  You can also reach that message with M-p commands and then type u.

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.  See Rmail Labels.

Rmail Files and Inboxes
***********************

Unix places your incoming mail in a file called your inbox. When you start up Rmail, it copies the new messages from your inbox into your primary mail file, an Rmail file which also contains other messages saved from previous Rmail sessions.  In this file, you actually read the mail with Rmail.  The operation is called getting new mail. You can repeat it at any time using the g key in Rmail.  The inbox file name is /usr/spool/mail/USERNAME in Berkeley Unix, /usr/mail/USERNAME in system V.

There are two reason for having separate Rmail files and inboxes.

 1. The format in which Unix delivers the mail in the inbox is not adequate for Rmail mail storage.  It has no way to record attributes (such as deleted) or user-specified labels; it has no way to record old headers and reformatted headers; it has no way to record cached summary line information.

 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 Unix 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.

When getting new mail, Rmail first copies the new mail from the inbox file to the Rmail file and saves the Rmail file.  It then deletes the inbox file.  This way a system crash may cause duplication of mail between the inbox and the Rmail file, but it cannot lose mail.

Copying mail from an inbox in the system's mailer directory actually puts it in an intermediate file, ~/.newmail.  This is because the interlocking is done by a C program that copies to another file. ~/.newmail is deleted after mail merging is successful.  If there is a crash at the wrong time, this file will continue to exist and will be used as an inbox the next time you get new mail.

Multiple Mail Files
*******************

Rmail operates by default on your primary mail file, which is named ~/RMAIL and which receives your incoming mail from your system inbox file. You can also have other mail files and edit them with Rmail.  These files can receive mail through their own inboxes, or you can move messages into them by explicit command in Rmail (see Rmail Output).

i FILE RET
     Read FILE into Emacs and run Rmail on it (rmail-input).

M-x set-rmail-inbox-list RET FILES RET
     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 mail file, you may use the i (rmail-input) command in Rmail.  This visits the file, puts it in Rmail mode, and then gets new mail from the file's inboxes if any.  You can also use M-x rmail-input even when not in Rmail.

The file you read with i does not have to be in Rmail file format. It could also be Unix mail format, mmdf format, or it could be a mixture of all three, as long as each message has one of the three formats. Rmail recognizes all three and converts all the messages to proper Rmail format before showing you the file.

Each Rmail file can contain a list of inbox file names; you can specify this list with M-x set-rmail-inbox-list RET FILES RET.  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 it is explicitly changed.

If an Rmail file has inboxes, new mail is merged in from the inboxes when you bring the Rmail file into Rmail, and when you use the g (rmail-get-new-mail) command.  If the Rmail file specifies no inboxes, then no new mail is merged in at these times.  A special exception is made for your primary mail file: Rmail uses the standard system inbox for it if it does not specify an inbox.

To merge mail from a file that is not the usual inbox, give the g key a numeric argument, as in C-u g.  Rmail prompts you for a file name and merges mail from that file.  The inbox file is not deleted or changed at all when you use g with an argument, so this is a general way of merging one file of messages into another.

Copying Messages Out to Files
*****************************

o FILE RET
     Append a copy of the current message to the file FILE, writing it in Rmail file format (rmail-output-to-rmail-file).

C-o FILE RET
     Append a copy of the current message to the file FILE, writing it in Unix mail file format (rmail-output).

If an Rmail file has no inboxes, use explicit o commands to write Rmail files.

o (rmail-output-to-rmail-file) appends the current message in Rmail format to the end of a specified file.  This is the best command to use to move messages between Rmail files.  If you are currently visiting the other Rmail file, copying is done into the other file's Emacs buffer instead.  You should eventually save the buffer on disk.

The C-o (rmail-output) command in Rmail appends a copy of the current message to a specified file, in Unix mail file format.  This is useful for moving messages into files to be read by other mail processors that do not understand Rmail format.

Copying a message with o or C-o gives the original copy of the message the filed attribute. filed appears in the mode line when such a message is current.

Normally you should use only o to output messages to other Rmail files, never C-o.  But it is also safe if you always use C-o, never o.  When a file is visited in Rmail, the last message is checked, and if it is in Unix format, the entire file is scanned and all Unix-format messages are converted to Rmail format. (The reason for checking the last message is that scanning the file is slow and most Rmail files have only Rmail format messages.)  If you use C-o consistently, the last message is guaranteed to be in Unix format, so Rmail will convert all messages properly.

When you and other users want to append mail to the same file, you probably always want to use C-o instead of o.  Other mail processors may not know Rmail format but will know Unix format.

In any case, always use o to add to an Rmail file that is being visited in Rmail.  Adding messages with C-o to the actual disk file will trigger a ``simultaneous editing'' warning when you ask to save the Emacs buffer, and the messages will be lost if you do save.

Labels
******

Each message can have various labels assigned to it as a means of classification.  A label has a name; different names mean 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. All other labels are assigned by the user.

a LABEL RET
     Assign the label LABEL to the current message (rmail-add-label).

k LABEL RET
     Remove the label LABEL from the current message (rmail-kill-label).

C-M-n LABELS RET
     Move to the next message that has one of the labels LABELS (rmail-next-labeled-message).

C-M-p LABELS RET
     Move to the previous message that has one of the labels LABELS (rmail-previous-labeled-message).

C-M-l LABELS RET
     Make a summary of all messages containing any of the labels LABELS (rmail-summary-by-labels).

Specifying an empty string for one these commands means to use the last label specified for any of these commands.

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 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 RET (rmail-next-labeled-message) moves to the next message that has one of the labels LABELS.  LABELS is one or more label names, separated by commas.  C-M-p (rmail-previous-labeled-message) is similar, but moves backwards to previous messages.  A preceding numeric argument to either one serves as a repeat count.

The command C-M-l LABELS RET (rmail-summary-by-labels) displays a summary containing only the messages that have at least one of a specified set of messages.  The argument LABELS is one or more label names, separated by commas. See 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.

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.

deleted
     Means the message is deleted.  Assigned by deletion commands and removed by undeletion commands (see Rmail Deletion).

filed
     Means the message has been copied to some other file.  Assigned by the file output commands (see Rmail Files).

answered
     Means you have mailed an answer to the message.  Assigned by the r command (rmail-reply).  See Rmail Reply.

forwarded
     Means you have forwarded the message to other users.  Assigned by the f command (rmail-forward).  See Rmail Reply.

edited
     Means you have edited the text of the message within Rmail. See Rmail Editing.

All other labels are assigned or removed only by the user, and it is up to the user to decide what they mean.

Summaries
*********

A summary is a buffer Rmail creates and displays to give you an overview of the mail in an Rmail file.  It contains one line per message; each line shows the message number, the sender, the labels, and the subject.  When you select the summary buffer, you can use a number of commands to select messages by moving in the summary buffer, or to delete or undelete messages.

A summary buffer applies to a single Rmail file only; if you are editing multiple Rmail files, they have separate summary buffers.  The summary buffer name is generated by appending -summary to the Rmail buffer's name.  Only one summary buffer is displayed at a time unless you make several windows and select the summary buffers by hand.

Making Summaries
================

Here are the commands to create a summary for the current Rmail file. Summaries do not update automatically; to make an updated summary, you must use one of the commands again.

h
C-M-h
     Summarize all messages (rmail-summary).

l LABELS RET
C-M-l LABELS RET
     Summarize message that have one or more of the specified labels (rmail-summary-by-labels).

C-M-r RCPTS RET
     Summarize messages that have one or more of the specified recipients (rmail-summary-by-recipients).

The h or C-M-h (rmail-summary) command fills the summary buffer for the current Rmail file with a summary of all the messages in the file.  It then displays and selects the summary buffer in another window.

The l or C-M-l LABELS RET (rmail-summary-by-labels) makes a partial summary mentioning only the messages that have one or more of the labels LABELS.  LABELS should contain label names separated by commas.

C-M-r RCPTS RET (rmail-summary-by-recipients) makes a partial summary mentioning only the messages that have one or more of the recipients RCPTS.  RCPTS should contain mailing addresses separated by commas.

Note that there is only one summary buffer for any Rmail file; making one kind of summary discards any previously made summary.

Editing in Summaries
====================

Summary buffers are given the major mode Rmail Summary mode, which provides the following special commands:

j
     Select the message described by the line that point is on (rmail-summary-goto-msg).

C-n
     Move to next line and select its message in Rmail (rmail-summary-next-all).

C-p
     Move to previous line and select its message (rmail-summary-
     previous-all).

n
     Move to next line, skipping lines saying `deleted', and select its message (rmail-summary-next-msg).

p
     Move to previous line, skipping lines saying `deleted', and select its message (rmail-summary-previous-msg).

d
     Delete the current line's message, then do like n (rmail-summary-delete-forward).

u
     Undelete and select this message or the previous deleted message in the summary (rmail-summary-undelete).

SPC
     Scroll the other window (presumably Rmail) forward (rmail-summary-scroll-msg-up).

DEL
     Scroll the other window backward (rmail-summary-scroll-msg-down).

x
     Kill the summary window (rmail-summary-exit).

q
     Exit Rmail (rmail-summary-quit).

The keys C-n(rmail-summary-next-all) and C-p (rmail-summary-previous-all) are modified in Rmail Summary mode. In addition to moving point in the summary buffer, they also cause the line's message to become current in the associated Rmail buffer.  That buffer is also made visible in another window if it is not currently visible.

n and p are similar to C-n and C-p, but skip lines that say `message deleted'.  They are like the n and p keys of Rmail itself.  Note, however, that in a partial summary these commands move only among the message listed in the summary.

The other Emacs cursor motion commands are not changed in Rmail Summary mode, so it is easy to get the point on a line whose message is not selected in Rmail.  This can also happen if you switch to the Rmail window and switch messages there.  To get the Rmail buffer back in sync with the summary, use the j (rmail-summary-goto-msg) command, which selects the message of the current summary line in Rmail.

Deletion and undeletion can also be done from the summary buffer. They always work based on where point is located in the summary buffer, ignoring which message is selected in Rmail.  d (rmail-summary-delete-forward) deletes the current line's message, then moves to the next line whose message is not deleted and selects that message.  The inverse is u (rmail-summary-undelete), which moves back (if necessary) to a line whose message is deleted, undeletes that message, and selects it in Rmail.

When moving through messages with the summary buffer, it is convenient to be able to scroll the message while remaining in the summary window. The commands SPC (rmail-summary-scroll-msg-up) and DEL (rmail-summary-scroll-msg-down) do this.  They scroll the message just as they do when the Rmail buffer is selected.

When you are finished using the summary, type x (rmail-summary-exit) to kill the summary buffer's window.

You can also exit Rmail while in the summary.  q (rmail-summary-quit) kills the summary window, then saves the Rmail file and switches to another buffer.

Sending Replies
***************

Rmail has several commands that use Mail mode to send mail.  Only the special commands of Rmail for entering Mail mode are documented here. Note that the usual keys for sending mail, C-x m and C-x 4 m, are available in Rmail mode and work just as they usually do.

m
     Send a message (rmail-mail).

c
     Continue editing already started outgoing message (rmail-continue).

r
     Send a reply to the current Rmail message (rmail-reply).

f
     Forward current message to other users (rmail-forward).

To reply to a the message you are reading in Rmail, type r (rmail-reply).  This displays the *mail* buffer in another window, much like C-x 4 m, but pre-initializes the Subject, To, CC, and In-reply-to header fields based on the message you reply to.  The To field is given the sender of that message, and the CC gets all the recipients of that message. Recipients that match elements of the list rmail-dont-reply-to are omitted; by default, this list contains your own mailing address.

Once you have initialized the *mail* buffer this way, sending the mail goes as usual.  You can edit the presupplied header fields if they are not what you want.

One additional Mail mode command is available when you invoke mail from Rmail: C-c C-y (mail-yank-original) inserts into the outgoing message a copy of the current Rmail message.  Normally this is the message you are replying to, but you can also switch to the Rmail buffer, select a different message, switch back, and yank the new current message.  Normally the yanked message is indented four spaces and has most header fields deleted from it; an argument to C-c C-y specifies the amount to indent.  C-u C-c C-y neither indents the message nor deletes any header fields.

Another frequent reason to send mail in Rmail is to forward the current message to other users.  f (rmail-forward) makes this easy by preinitializing the *mail* buffer with the current message as the text and a subject designating a forwarded message.  All you have to do is fill in the recipients and send.

You can use the m (rmail-mail) command to start editing an outgoing message that is not a reply.  It leaves the header fields empty. Its only difference from C-x 4 m is that it makes the Rmail buffer accessible for C-c y, just as r does.  Thus m can be used to reply to or forward a message; it can do anything r or f can do.

The c (rmail-continue) command resumes editing the *mail* buffer, to finish editing an outgoing message you were already composing, or to alter a message you have sent.

Editing Within a Message
************************

Rmail mode provides a few special commands for moving within and editing the current message.  In addition, the usual Emacs commands are available (except for a few, such as C-M-n and C-M-h, that are redefined by Rmail for other purposes).  However, the Rmail buffer is normally read-only, and to alter it you must use the Rmail command w described below.

t
     Toggle display of original headers (rmail-toggle-headers).

w
     Edit current message (rmail-edit-current-message).

Rmail reformats the header of each message before displaying it. Normally this involves deleting most header fields, on the grounds that they are not interesting.  The variable rmail-ignored-headers should contain a regexp that matches the header fields to discard in this way.  The original headers are saved permanently; to see what they look like, use the t (rmail-toggle-headers) command.  This discards the reformatted headers of the current message and displays it with the original headers.  Repeating t reformats the message again.  Selecting the message again also reformats.

The Rmail buffer is normally read-only, and most of the characters you would type to modify it (including most letters) are redefined as Rmail commands.  This is usually not a problem since people rarely want to change the text of a message.  When you do want to do this, type w (rmail-edit-current-message), which changes from Rmail mode to Rmail Edit mode, another major mode which is nearly the same as Text mode.  The mode line indicates this change.

In Rmail Edit mode, letters insert themselves as usual and the Rmail commands are not available.  When you are finished editing the message and are ready to go back to Rmail, type C-c C-c, which switches back to Rmail mode.  To return to Rmail mode but cancel all the editing you have done, type C-c C-].

Entering Rmail Edit mode calls the value of the variable text-mode-hook with no arguments, if that value exists and is not nil.  It then does the same with the variable rmail-edit-mode-hook and finally adds the attribute edited to the message.

Digest Messages
***************

A digest message is a message which exists to contain and carry several other messages.  Digests are used on moderated mailing lists.  All messages that arrive for the list during a period of time, such as one day, are put inside a single digest which is then sent to the subscribers. Transmitting the single digest uses much less computer time than transmitting the individual messages even though the total size is the same, because the per-message overhead in network mail transmission is considerable.

When you receive a digest message, the most convenient way to read it is to undigestify it: to turn it back into many individual messages. You can then read and delete the individual messages as it suits you.

To undigestify a message, select it and then type M-x undigestify-rmail-message.  This copies each submessage as a separate Rmail message and inserts them all following the digest.  The digest message itself is flagged as deleted.