6 1. What is Sylpheed Claws?
7 2. Switching between Sylpheed Claws and Sylpheed
8 * From Sylpheed to Sylpheed Claws
9 * From Sylpheed Claws to Sylpheed
10 3. Things Claws does different
11 * auto address replacement in summary view
12 * manual selection of MIME types for attachments
13 * sharing mail folders
14 * default to address for folders
15 * threading mode per folder
16 * simplify subject string
18 * user definable actions
19 * spell checking (with installation instructions)
21 * selective download, delete messages on server
23 5. How to request features
24 6. Installing Claws from CVS
29 1. What is Sylpheed Claws?
30 --------------------------
32 Sylpheed Claws is a bleeding edge branch of Sylpheed, a light weight mail
33 user agent for UNIX. Features in this branch may (or may not) end up in
36 Hiroyuki's ChangeLog is also included in the claws-branch distribution,
37 so it should be easy to spot which features were merged with Sylpheed
38 (and which features were not).
40 For brevity Sylpheed Claws is referred to as Claws, and Sylpheed as either
45 2. Switching between Sylpheed Claws and Sylpheed
46 ------------------------------------------------
48 From Sylpheed to Sylpheed Claws
49 -------------------------------
51 From the user perspective Claws is just a fancy Sylpheed, so it uses the
52 same sylpheed setting files located in ~/.sylpheed.
54 It's always a good idea to back up all files in ~/.sylpheed in case
55 you want to switch back to Sylpheed. (You don't have to backup the
58 There are some things that frequently come up when switching to Claws:
61 * Why does the advanced filtering system not work?
63 Claws uses the new filtering system as soon as you define a new rule for it.
64 Your old sylpheed filter rules will not be used. In subdirectory tools/ of
65 the distribution there is a Perl script called filter_conv.pl which converts
66 old filter rules to the claws filtering system.
69 * What happened to the compose email and compose news buttons?
71 There's a composite button for both composing mail and news. You can toggle
72 between composing mail and news by clicking on the button with the triangle.
75 * And to the Preferences and Execute buttons?
77 Sorry, they're not there.
80 From Sylpheed Claws to Sylpheed
81 -------------------------------
83 Moving from Claws to Sylpheed is also simple. Sylpheed should neglect the things
84 Claws put in the settings files. This also means that the old rules will work
87 If you want to switch back to Claws at a later time, make sure you back up at least
88 ~/.sylpheed/matcherrc (the Claws filtering rules), and ~/.sylpheed/sylpheedrc
89 (which may have some claws specific settings).
91 When switching back to Sylpheed you will not lose messages or message flags (color
92 labels, read / unread status of messages).
94 Switching between Sylpheed Claws and Sylpheed on a regular basis
95 ----------------------------------------------------------------
97 If you want to have both claws and main installed concurrently simply pass them
98 a different --prefix when doing ./configure. Then use the script 'sylpheed-switcher',
99 (which is provided in the tools directory), to launch the version you require without
100 fear of losing specific settings related to either claws or main. Further details can
101 be found in tools/README.
103 3. Things Claws does different
104 ------------------------------
106 Claws does a lot of things different. Here a quick run-down of things that
107 are hardly noticeable, but deserve mentioning:
109 * auto address replacement in summary view
110 -----------------------------------
111 This matches a plain email address with a person in the address book. This
112 feature is enabled in Common Preferences | Tab Display | SummaryView Group |
113 Display sender using addressbook
115 * manual selection of MIME types for attachments
116 -----------------------------------
117 You can change the MIME type of an attachment by right-clicking in the
118 attachment list, selecting Property in the menu. The MIME type list
119 is a combo box with the known MIME types.
121 * sharing mail folders
122 -----------------------------------
123 You can also share or use shared mail folders. Right-click a folder and
124 select Property. Change the Folder chmod setting.
126 * default to address for folders
127 -----------------------------------
128 Most people filter mailing list mails to separate folders. Claws allows
129 you to associate a folder with a mailing list or a person. Right-click a
130 folder, select Property and change the Default To setting. When you
131 compose a new mail, when this folder is selected the recipient address
132 will be set to this address.
134 (NOTE: this is also a shoot-yourself-in-the-foot-setting! If you want
135 to send a private mail, don't have a folder selected with this setting
139 -----------------------------------
140 To use different icon sets you need to create a directory:
141 mkdir ~/.sylpheed/themes
142 Icon sets should be placed in this directory in their own sub-directory.
143 They are then selectable from Pixmap Theme on the Interface tab of Commmon
146 * user definable actions
147 -----------------------------------
148 The "actions" feature is a convenient way for the user to launch external
149 commands to process a complete message file including headers and body or
150 just one of its parts. It allows also the use of an external command to
151 filter the whole text or just a selected part in the message window or in
152 the compose window. This is a generic tool that allows to do any uncommon
153 actions on the messages, and thus extends the possibilities of Sylpheed.
154 For example, Sylpheed does not include the rot13 cyphering algorithm
155 popular in some newsgroups. It does not support natively armored
156 encryption or clear signing. It does not support uuencoded messages. As
157 all these features can be handled by external programs, the actions
158 provide a convenient way to use them from the menu bar.
163 To create a new action, go to Configuration -> Actions.... The "Action
164 Creation" dialog offers to enter the Menu name that will trigger the
165 command. The created menu will be found in the Tools -> Actions submenu.
166 By inserting a slash / in the menu name, you create a submenu.
168 The command is entered in the Command line entry. Note that Sylpheed
169 stores every single email in a separate file. This allows to use the
170 following syntax for the command:
172 * %f denotes the file name of the selected message. If you selected more
173 than one, then the command will be launched for each message with
174 the appropriate file name
175 * %F denotes the list of the file names of the selected message. If only
176 one message is selected, this amounts to %f, but if more messages
177 are selected, then the command will be launched only once with the
178 list of the file names. (You can use both %f and %F in one command:
179 then the command will be launched for each selected message with
180 the name of this message and with the list of all selected
181 messages. I did not find a practical example for this.)
182 * %p denotes the current selected message part of a multipart message.
183 The part is decoded accordingly. If the message is not a multipart
184 message, it denotes the message body.
185 * Prepending >: this will allow you to send to the command's standard
186 input a text that you will enter in a dialog window.
187 * Prepending *: this will allow you to send to the command's standard
188 input a text that you will enter in a dialog window. But in
189 contrast to prepending >, the entered text is hidden (useful when
191 * Appending an ampersand &: this will run the command asynchronously.
192 That means "fire and forget". Sylpheed won't wait for the command
193 to finish, nor will it catch its output or its error messages.
194 * Prepending the vertical bar | (pipe-in): this will send the current
195 displayed text or the current selected text from the message view
196 or the compose window to the command standard input. The command
197 will silently fail if more than one message is selected.
198 * Appending the vertical bar | (pipe-out): this will replace the current
199 displayed text or the current selected text from the message window
200 or the compose window by the command standard output. The command
201 will silently fail if more than one message is selected.
203 Note: It is not possible to use actions containing %f, %F or %p from the
206 When a command is run, and unless it is run asynchronously, Sylpheed will
207 be insensitive to any interaction and it will wait for the command to
208 finish. If the command takes too long (5 seconds), it will popup a dialog
209 window allowing to stop it. This dialog will also be displayed as soon as
210 the command has some output: error messages or even its standard output
211 when the command is not a "pipe-out" command. When multiple commands are
212 being run, they are run in parallel and each command output is separated
213 from the outputs of the others.
218 Here are some examples that are listed in the same syntax as used for
219 storing the actions list. You can copy and past the definition in your
220 ~/.sylpheed/actionsrc file (exit Sylpheed before). The syntax is very
221 simple: one line per action, each action contains the menu name and the
222 command line separated by a colon and a space ": "
224 Purpose: rot13 cyphering
225 Definition: Rot13: |tr a-zA-Z n-za-mN-ZA-M|
226 Details: This will apply the rot13 cyphering algorithm to the
227 (selected) text in the message/compose view.
229 Purpose: Decoding uuencoded messages
230 Definition: UUdeview: xdeview %F&
231 Details: xdeview comes with uudeview. If an encoded file is split in
232 multiple messages, just select them all and run the command.
234 Purpose: Display uuencoded image
235 Definition: Display uuencoded: uudec %f&
236 Details: Displays uuencoded files. The uudec[1] script can be found in
237 the 'tools' directory of the distribution package.
239 Purpose: Alter messages
240 Definition: Edit message: gvim -f %F
241 Details: Allows editing of any received message. Can be used to remove
242 unneeded message parts, etc.
244 Purpose: Pretty format
245 Definition: Par: |par 72Tbgjqw74bEe B=._A_a 72bg|
246 Details: par is a utility that can pretty format any text. It does a
247 very good job in indenting quoted messages, and justifying
248 text. Used when composing a message
251 Definition: Part/Dillo: dillo %p&
252 Details: Browse the selected message part in Dillo.
255 Definition: GnuPG/Clear Sign: |gpg-sign-syl|
256 Details: Clear sign a message. The gpg-sign-syl[2] script is responsible
257 for asking the passphrase and for running gnupg.
259 Purpose: Verify Clear Signed
260 Definition: GnuPG/Verify: |gpg --no-tty --verify
261 Details: Verify clear signed messages. The result is displayed in the
262 actions output dialog.
264 Purpose: Decrypt ASCII Armored
265 Definition: GnuPG/Decrypt: *gpg --no-tty --command-fd 0 --passphrase-fd 0 --decrypt %f|
266 Details: Decrypt ASCII armored messages. The passphrase is entered
267 into the opened action's input dialog.
269 [1] The uudec script can be found in the 'tools' directory of the
270 distribution package. It needs uudecode and ImageMagick's display. The
271 latter can be replaced by any image viewer that can get input from
272 standard input. The script could also be modified to use temporary files
273 instead of standard input.
275 [2] The gpg-sign-syl script can be found in the 'tools' directory of the
276 distribution package.
278 * Spell checker for Sylpheed-Claws
279 -----------------------------------
281 b. Configuration and installation
288 The spell checker in sylpheed requires the Portable Spell Checker
289 Interface Library pspell (http://pspell.sourceforge.net), version
292 You will need also the actual spell checker. There are two alternatives:
294 i) ispell (http://fmg-www.cs.ucla.edu/fmg-members/geoff/ispell.html),
295 which is found on quasi every distribution. You have then to
296 install the pspell-ispell module found at the pspell site.
298 ii) aspell (http://aspell.sourceforge.net). This spell checker
299 must be installed after installing pspell. The version tested
300 is .33.7 alpha. It has three different suggestion modes (fast
301 -default- , normal, bad spellers), has the ability to learn
302 from mistakes (default).
304 And, last but not least, do not forget to install the dictionaries. Check
305 the corresponding spell checker home page for more information on this.
307 b. Configuring Sylpheed
308 -----------------------
310 Spell checking is enabled if you configure sylpheed appropriately. Add
311 the option '--enable-pspell' when configuring. E.g.:
313 ./configure --enable-pspell
315 The configure script needs 'pspell-config' in your path. If it is
316 in weird places, use '--with-pspell-prefix' to tell the path to
317 pspell-config. E.g., if pspell-config is really
318 /foo/bar/pspell-config, then use:
320 ./configure --enable-pspell --with-pspell-prefix=/foo/bar
322 If you have problems with not found includes or libraries, check
323 first where these are located, and add either options:
325 --with-pspell-includes=/foo/bar/include
329 --with-pspell-libs=/foo/bar/lib
333 Configure script summarizes the options compiled in. Check that
334 configure lists 'Pspell = yes'.
336 Then proceed as usual, with 'make' and 'make install'.
341 NOTE: if you upgraded from 0.7.0claws, please reselect your default
342 dictionary in the preferences.
344 After successful compiling, you need to tell sylpheed where your
345 dictionaries reside. First run 'pspell-config pkgdatadir' on the
346 shell to get their path.
348 Then run sylpheed and go to Configuration -> Common preferences ->
349 Spell Checker. Check the box 'Enable spell checker (EXPERIMENTAL)' and
350 use the file selector ('...' button) to select the path where the
351 dictionaries reside. Within the file selector, go to that directory
352 and select *any* file in the file lists. Click ok. You should then
353 be able to select your default dictionary.
355 When composing, misspelled words are highlighted. Click on any
356 highlighted word with the right mouse button to get a list of
357 suggestions. The first entry of the menu just displays the unknown
358 word. Selecting "Accept in this session" (or hitting MOD1-Space,
359 where MOD1 is usually the ALT key), will ignore this word and accept
360 it in this message. Selecting the next entry "Add to dictionary", which
361 is bound to MOD1-Enter combination will add the unknown word to the
362 dictionary to learn it. The next entries are the suggested words.
363 The first 15 suggestions can be accessed typing one of the first letters
364 of Latin alphabet (if this does not suit your language, please send
365 a mail to melvin.hadasht@free.fr). If you are using an aspell
366 dictionary, you can use its 'learn from mistake' feature, by pressing
367 the MOD1 key and selecting the suggestion (with the keyboard or with
368 the mouse). See pspell manual ยง4.7.1 for an explanation of this
371 If you click with the right mouse button everywhere else, or if you
372 shift-right-click even on a misspelled word, you get the
373 configuration menu. 'Check all' highlights all misspelled words.
374 With this menu, you can also change the dictionary while editing.
375 Finally, you can change the suggestion mode, and the learn from
376 misktakes feature (only when using an aspell dictionary).
378 Spell checking can also be done using keyboard shortcuts. In the
379 "Edit" menu of the compose window, there are two menus "Check backwards
380 misspelled word" and "Forward to next misspelled word". Add to them
381 appropriate keyboard shortcuts. "Check backwards misspelled word"
382 checks backwards from cursor position for the first misspelled word.
383 If it finds one, it displays the suggestions lists which can be handled
384 with the keyboard as described before. When the suggestion menu is
385 closed, the cursor returns to its original position to be able to
386 continue editing. The "Forward to next misspelled word" do the same
387 thing in the other direction but moves the cursor at the end of the
388 misspelled word. This way, you can spell check easily a whole message
389 starting from its beginning and using the "Forward to next misspelled
390 word" keyboard short cut.
398 The only real known problems until now are configuration and
399 compilation problems due to libtool interaction with pspell.
401 If you do not compile pspell/aspell/pspell-ispell yourself, you
402 need to install them with their devel packages.
404 Pspell work with dynamic linking of libraries and thus uses the
405 libltdl library of libtool. If you have weird problems when
406 configuring showing 'libtool', chances are the libtool used when
407 compiling the pspell package is not compatible with what you have
408 on your system. The best solution, is to install the latest
409 libtool AND compile yourself pspell package. I can't help more
410 than that in this issue.
412 After successfully compiled and used sylpheed with spell checking,
413 the same problem can appear if you upgrade your libtool to a
414 version which libltdl is incompatible to your older one. The
415 symptoms are a crash when starting to compose. Disabling spell
416 checking avoids the problem. The solution should be to recompile pspell.
418 ii) New installed ispell dictionary are not detected
420 Installing a new ispell dictionary needs an additional step. Go
421 to the 'pkgdatadir' and run 'make-ispell-pwli'. You may need to
424 * simplify subject string
425 -----------------------------------
426 It is possible to remove parts of string from the subject line.
427 Example: [Sylpheed-claws-users] This is a test
428 becomes: This is a test
429 This is a per folder property. Right click on a folder and select
430 property, enable Simplify Subject RegExp check box. Example
431 regexp for the above is: \[Sylpheed-claws-(devel|users)\]
432 Another example for the Sylpheed mailing list (not claws!) is:
433 \[sylpheed:[0-9]{5}\]
436 -----------------------------------
437 New cache is a new data cache structure for sylpheed, that will
438 solve many of the problems sylpheed currently has with updates to
439 flags. But you will also notice a large speed gain when you open
442 New cache uses two new configuration parameters that can be
443 adjusted in ~/.sylpheed/sylpheedrc (no gui for them available yet).
445 cache_max_mem_usage (default: 4096)
446 the maximum kB of memory sylpheed should use.
447 It will try to keep the memory usage below this
448 value, but it will always use the assigned
449 amount of memory for speed gain.
451 cache_min_keep_time (default: 15)
452 the minimum time in minutes sylpheed will keep
453 the folder cache in memory. If a cache is more
454 recent than this time it will not be freed even
455 if the memory usage is above the maximum. You
456 should probably set this value higher than your
457 mail check interval. Otherwise the cache will
458 always be freed between checks even if the folder
459 is accessed on every check, which will cause much
462 The check if memory can be freed is currently done after the
463 active folder has been changed or whenever a new cache is read,
464 i.e. triggered by mail incorporation.
466 New mails in MH folders are not detected automatically like before,
467 when you enter the folder. You have to update the folder manually,
468 or activate the auto update setting in the options.
470 There are a lot more options. If you find one, don't hesitate to
473 * selective download, delete messages on server
474 -----------------------------------
475 The selective download window lets you select messages, that
476 should be retrieved from or deleted on the server.
477 The selection can be automated by setting up a *global*
478 filtering rule (folder based rules are ignored), e.g
479 subject match "SPAM" delete_on_server
480 Next time, you retrieve the headers using selective download,
481 all messages that matched this criteria are marked.
490 submit it to the Sylpheed ML, Hiroyuki, or Paul Mangan
491 (for incorporation on the Sylpheed Patches page,
492 <http://www.thewildbeast.co.uk/sylpheed/>)
496 It is highly recommended to use the sourceforge project page
498 http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=384600&group_id=25528&func=browse
500 If that's too troublesome, either contact Paul Mangan or consider
501 posting to the sylpheed claws users mailing list.
503 Bugs can be reported in the same way; the recommended web page:
504 http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=25528&atid=384598
506 Of course you can also post to the sylpheed claws users
509 Also, we really try to incorporate good contributions, but sometimes we
510 don't have enough time. If the contribution is really big, or requires
511 a long time to stabilize, send a mail to Paul Mangan. We can probably
512 arrange access to the Claws branch.
516 5. How to request features
517 --------------------------
519 Ask around in both Sylpheed ML and Sylpheed Claws Users ML. Note
520 that some developers may already thought about your feature, may
521 perhaps be implementing it - or the feature was already discussed
522 and rejected for whatever reason. You might want to go ahead and
523 hack a patch for it. (That would be very cool!) Another
524 possibility is to use the Feature Request Tracker at the
525 sourceforge project page.
529 6. Installing Claws from CVS
530 ----------------------------
535 To download the latest cvs cd to the directory where you wish to download
536 to and type the following information:
538 cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sylpheed-claws.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/sylpheed-claws login
540 When prompted for a password press the RETURN key.
541 After anonymously logging in:
543 cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sylpheed-claws.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/sylpheed-claws co sylpheed-claws
549 To compile and install use the following commands:
551 ./autogen.sh [add configure options as required]
553 make install [as root]
555 You will need a full set of development tools installed to be able to run
556 autogen.sh. See also ac/README.
projects / claws.git / blob