\input texinfo @c -*-texinfo-*-
@setfilename message
-@settitle Message 5.8.7 Manual
+@settitle Message (Oort) Manual
@synindex fn cp
@synindex vr cp
@synindex pg cp
-@dircategory Editors
+@dircategory Emacs
@direntry
* Message: (message). Mail and news composition mode that goes with Gnus.
@end direntry
This file documents Message, the Emacs message composition mode.
-Copyright (C) 1996,97,98,99,2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+Copyright (C) 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000 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 1.1 or
-any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with the
-Invariant Sections being none, with the Front-Cover texts being ``A GNU
+any later version published by the Free Software Foundation; with no
+Invariant Sections, with the Front-Cover texts being ``A GNU
Manual'', and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the
license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation
-License''.
+License'' in the Emacs manual.
(a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: ``You have freedom to copy and modify
this GNU Manual, like GNU software. Copies published by the Free
Software Foundation raise funds for GNU development.''
+
+This document is part of a collection distributed under the GNU Free
+Documentation License. If you want to distribute this document
+separately from the collection, you can do so by adding a copy of the
+license to the document, as described in section 6 of the license.
@end ifnottex
@tex
@titlepage
-@title Message 5.8.7 Manual
+@title Message (Oort) Manual
@author by Lars Magne Ingebrigtsen
@page
@vskip 0pt plus 1filll
-Copyright @copyright{} 1996,97,98,99,2000 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
+Copyright @copyright{} 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999, 2000
+ 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 1.1 or
Invariant Sections being none, with the Front-Cover texts being ``A GNU
Manual'', and with the Back-Cover Texts as in (a) below. A copy of the
license is included in the section entitled ``GNU Free Documentation
-License''.
+License'' in the Emacs manual.
(a) The FSF's Back-Cover Text is: ``You have freedom to copy and modify
this GNU Manual, like GNU software. Copies published by the Free
Software Foundation raise funds for GNU development.''
+
+This document is part of a collection distributed under the GNU Free
+Documentation License. If you want to distribute this document
+separately from the collection, you can do so by adding a copy of the
+license to the document, as described in section 6 of the license.
@end titlepage
@page
* Key Index:: List of Message mode keys.
@end menu
-This manual corresponds to Message 5.8.7. Message is distributed with
+This manual corresponds to Oort Message. Message is distributed with
the Gnus distribution bearing the same version number as this manual.
@chapter Commands
@menu
+* Buffer Entry:: Commands after entering a Message buffer.
* Header Commands:: Commands for moving to headers.
* Movement:: Moving around in message buffers.
* Insertion:: Inserting things into message buffers.
* MIME:: @sc{mime} considerations.
+* Security:: Signing and encrypting messages.
* Various Commands:: Various things.
* Sending:: Actually sending the message.
* Mail Aliases:: How to use mail aliases.
+* Spelling:: Having Emacs check your spelling.
@end menu
+@node Buffer Entry
+@section Buffer Entry
+@cindex undo
+@kindex C-_
+
+You most often end up in a Message buffer when responding to some other
+message of some sort. Message does lots of handling of quoted text, and
+may remove signatures, reformat the text, or the like---depending on
+which used settings you're using. Message usually gets things right,
+but sometimes it stumbles. To help the user unwind these stumblings,
+Message sets the undo boundary before each major automatic action it
+takes. If you press the undo key (usually located at @kbd{C-_}) a few
+times, you will get back the un-edited message you're responding to.
+
+
@node Header Commands
@section Header Commands
messages. The default is @samp{.}, which means that all headers will be
removed.
+@item message-cite-prefix-regexp
+@vindex message-cite-prefix-regexp
+Regexp matching the longest possible citation prefix on a line.
+
@item message-citation-line-function
@vindex message-citation-line-function
+@cindex attribution line
Function called to insert the citation line. The default is
@code{message-insert-citation-line}, which will lead to citation lines
that look like:
Point will be at the beginning of the body of the message when this
function is called.
+Note that Gnus provides a feature where clicking on `writes:' hides the
+cited text. If you change the citation line too much, readers of your
+messages will have to adjust their Gnus, too. See the variable
+@code{gnus-cite-attribution-suffix}. @xref{Article Highlighting, ,
+Article Highlighting, gnus}, for details.
+
@item message-yank-prefix
@vindex message-yank-prefix
@cindex yanking
@cindex quoting
When you are replying to or following up an article, you normally want
-to quote the person you are answering. Inserting quoted text is done by
-@dfn{yanking}, and each quoted line you yank will have
+to quote the person you are answering. Inserting quoted text is done
+by @dfn{yanking}, and each quoted line you yank (except earlier
+quotes, see @code{message-yank-cited-prefix}) will have
@code{message-yank-prefix} prepended to it. The default is @samp{> }.
+@item message-yank-cited-prefix
+@vindex message-yank-cited-prefix
+@cindex yanking
+@cindex cited
+@cindex quoting
+The @code{message-yank-prefix} prefix is not used on already cited
+lines, instead the contents of this variable is used as yank prefix.
+The default is @samp{>}.
+
@item message-indentation-spaces
@vindex message-indentation-spaces
Number of spaces to indent yanked messages.
language (@pxref{Composing, , Composing, emacs-mime, The Emacs MIME
Manual}).
+@node Security
+@section Security
+@cindex Security
+@cindex S/MIME
+@cindex PGP/MIME
+@cindex sign
+@cindex encrypt
+
+Using the MML language, Message is able to create digitally signed and
+digitally encrypted messages. Message (or rather MML) currently support
+PGP/MIME and S/MIME. Instructing MML to perform security operations on
+a MIME part is done using the @code{C-c C-m s} key map for signing and the
+@code{C-c C-m c} key map for encryption, as follows.
+
+@table @kbd
+
+@item C-c C-m s s
+@kindex C-c C-m s s
+@findex mml-secure-sign-smime
+
+Digitally sign current MIME part using S/MIME.
+
+@item C-c C-m s p
+@kindex C-c C-m s p
+@findex mml-secure-sign-pgp
+
+Digitally sign current MIME part using PGP/MIME.
+
+@item C-c C-m c s
+@kindex C-c C-m c s
+@findex mml-secure-encrypt-smime
+
+Digitally encrypt current MIME part using S/MIME.
+
+@item C-c C-m c p
+@kindex C-c C-m c p
+@findex mml-secure-encrypt-pgpmime
+
+Digitally encrypt current MIME part using PGP/MIME.
+
+@end table
+
+These commands do not immediately sign or encrypt the message, they
+merely insert proper MML tags to instruct the MML engine to perform that
+operation when the message is actually sent. They may perform other
+operations too, such as locating and retrieving a S/MIME certificate of
+the person you wish to send encrypted mail to.
+
+Since signing and especially encryption often is used when sensitive
+information is sent, you may want to have some way to ensure that your
+mail is actually signed or encrypted. After invoking the above
+sign/encrypt commands, it is possible to preview the raw article by
+using @code{C-u C-m P} (@code{mml-preview}). Then you can verify that
+your long rant about what your ex-significant other or whomever actually
+did with that funny looking person at that strange party the other
+night, actually will be sent encrypted.
+
+@emph{Note!} Neither PGP/MIME nor S/MIME encrypt/signs RFC822 headers.
+They only operate on the MIME object. Keep this in mind before sending
+mail with a sensitive Subject line.
+
+Actually using the security commands above is not very difficult. At
+least not compared with making sure all involved programs talk with each
+other properly. Thus, we now describe what external libraries or
+programs are required to make things work, and some small general hints.
+
+@subsection Using S/MIME
+
+@emph{Note!} This section assume you have a basic familiarity with
+modern cryptography, S/MIME, various PKCS standards, OpenSSL and so on.
+
+The S/MIME support in Message (and MML) require OpenSSL. OpenSSL
+perform the actual S/MIME sign/encrypt operations. OpenSSL can be found
+at @code{http://www.openssl.org/}. OpenSSL 0.9.6 and later should work.
+Version 0.9.5a cannot extract mail addresses from certificates, and it
+insert a spurious CR character into MIME separators so you may wish to
+avoid it if you would like to avoid being regarded as someone who send
+strange mail. (Although by sending S/MIME messages you've probably
+already lost that contest.)
+
+To be able to send encrypted mail, a personal certificate is not
+required. Message (MML) need a certificate for the person to whom you
+wish to communicate with though. You're asked for this when you type
+@code{C-c C-m c s}. Currently there are two ways to retrieve this
+certificate, from a local file or from DNS. If you chose a local file,
+it need to contain a X.509 certificate in PEM format. If you chose DNS,
+you're asked for the domain name where the certificate is stored, the
+default is a good guess. To my belief, Message (MML) is the first mail
+agent in the world to support retrieving S/MIME certificates from DNS,
+so you're not likely to find very many certificates out there. At least
+there should be one, stored at the domain @code{simon.josefsson.org}.
+LDAP is a more popular method of distributing certificates, support for
+it is planned. (Meanwhile, you can use @code{ldapsearch} from the
+command line to retrieve a certificate into a file and use it.)
+
+As for signing messages, OpenSSL can't perform signing operations
+without some kind of configuration. Especially, you need to tell it
+where your private key and your certificate is stored. MML uses an
+Emacs interface to OpenSSL, aptly named @code{smime.el}, and it contain
+a @code{custom} group used for this configuration. So, try @code{M-x
+customize-group RET smime RET} and look around.
+
+Currently there is no support for talking to a CA (or RA) to create your
+own certificate. None is planned either. You need to do this manually
+with OpenSSL or using some other program. I used Netscape and got a
+free S/MIME certificate from one of the big CA's on the net. Netscape
+is able to export your private key and certificate in PKCS #12 format.
+Use OpenSSL to convert this into a plain X.509 certificate in PEM format
+as follows.
+
+@example
+$ openssl pkcs12 -in ns.p12 -clcerts -nodes > key+cert.pem
+@end example
+
+The @code{key+cert.pem} file should be pointed to from the
+@code{smime-keys} variable. You should now be able to send signed mail.
+
+@emph{Note!} Your private key is store unencrypted in the file, so take
+care in handling it.
+
+@subsection Using PGP/MIME
+
+PGP/MIME requires an external OpenPGP implementation, such as GNU
+Privacy Guard (@code{http://www.gnupg.org/}). It also requires an Emacs
+interface to it, such as Mailcrypt (available from
+@code{http://www.nb.net/~lbudney/linux/software/mailcrypt.html}) or
+Florian Weimer's @code{gpg.el}.
+
+Creating your own OpenPGP key is described in detail in the
+documentation of your OpenPGP implementation, so we refer to it.
@node Various Commands
@section Various Commands
expansions have to be done explicitly.
+@node Spelling
+@section Spelling
+@cindex spelling
+@findex ispell-message
+
+There are two popular ways to have Emacs spell-check your messages:
+@code{ispell} and @code{flyspell}. @code{ispell} is the older and
+probably more popular package. You typically first write the message,
+and then run the entire thing through @code{ispell} and fix all the
+typos. To have this happen automatically when you send a message, put
+something like the following in your @file{.emacs} file:
+
+@lisp
+(add-hook 'message-send-hook 'ispell-message)
+@end lisp
+
+@vindex ispell-message-dictionary-alist
+If you're in the habit of writing in different languages, this can be
+controlled by the @code{ispell-message-dictionary-alist} variable:
+
+@lisp
+(setq ispell-message-dictionary-alist
+ '(("^Newsgroups:.*\\bde\\." . "deutsch8")
+ (".*" . "default")))
+@end lisp
+
+@code{ispell} depends on having the external @samp{ispell} command
+installed.
+
+The other popular method is using @code{flyspell}. This package checks
+your spelling while you're writing, and marks any mis-spelled words in
+various ways.
+
+To use @code{flyspell}, put something like the following in your
+@file{.emacs} file:
+
+@lisp
+(defun my-message-setup-routine ()
+ (flyspell-mode 1))
+(add-hook 'message-setup-hook 'my-message-setup-routine)
+@end lisp
+
+@code{flyspell} depends on having the external @samp{