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
22 * extended search in quick search
23 * 'dynamic' signatures
25 5. How to request features
26 6. Installing Claws from CVS
31 1. What is Sylpheed Claws?
32 --------------------------
34 Sylpheed Claws is a bleeding edge branch of Sylpheed, a light weight mail
35 user agent for UNIX. Features in this branch may (or may not) end up in
38 Hiroyuki's ChangeLog is also included in the claws-branch distribution,
39 so it should be easy to spot which features were merged with Sylpheed
40 (and which features were not).
42 For brevity Sylpheed Claws is referred to as Claws, and Sylpheed as either
47 2. Switching between Sylpheed Claws and Sylpheed
48 ------------------------------------------------
50 From Sylpheed to Sylpheed Claws
51 -------------------------------
53 From the user perspective Claws is just a fancy Sylpheed, so it uses the
54 same Sylpheed setting files located in ~/.sylpheed.
56 It's always a good idea to back up all files in ~/.sylpheed in case
57 you want to switch back to Sylpheed. (You don't have to backup the
60 There are some things that frequently come up when switching to Claws:
63 * What happened to my filter rules?
65 Claws uses a new filtering system. Your old Sylpheed filter rules will not
66 be used. In subdirectory tools/ of the distribution there is a Perl script
67 called filter_conv.pl which converts old filter rules to the claws
68 filtering system, see tools/README for details.
70 * What happened to the compose email and compose news buttons?
72 There's a composite button for both composing mail and news. You can toggle
73 between composing mail and news by clicking on the button with the triangle.
76 * And to the Preferences and Execute buttons?
78 Sorry, they're not there.
81 From Sylpheed Claws to Sylpheed
82 -------------------------------
84 Moving from Claws to Sylpheed is also simple. Sylpheed should neglect the things
85 Claws put in the settings files. This also means that the old rules will work
88 If you want to switch back to Claws at a later time, make sure you back up at least
89 ~/.sylpheed/matcherrc (the Claws filtering rules), and ~/.sylpheed/sylpheedrc
90 (which may have some claws specific settings).
92 When switching back to Sylpheed you will not lose messages or message flags (color
93 labels, read / unread status of messages).
95 Switching between Sylpheed Claws and Sylpheed on a regular basis
96 ----------------------------------------------------------------
98 If you want to have both claws and main installed concurrently simply pass them
99 a different --prefix when doing ./configure. Then use the script 'sylpheed-switcher',
100 (which is provided in the tools directory), to launch the version you require without
101 fear of losing specific settings related to either claws or main. Further details can
102 be found in tools/README.
104 3. Things Claws does different
105 ------------------------------
107 Claws does a lot of things different. Here a quick run-down of things that
108 are hardly noticeable, but deserve mentioning:
110 * auto address replacement in summary view
111 -----------------------------------
112 This matches a plain email address with a person in the address book. This
113 feature is enabled in Common Preferences | Tab Display | SummaryView Group |
114 Display sender using addressbook
116 * manual selection of MIME types for attachments
117 -----------------------------------
118 You can change the MIME type of an attachment by right-clicking in the
119 attachment list, selecting Property in the menu. The MIME type list
120 is a combo box with the known MIME types.
122 * sharing mail folders
123 -----------------------------------
124 You can also share or use shared mail folders. Right-click a folder and
125 select Property. Change the Folder chmod setting.
127 * default to address for folders
128 -----------------------------------
129 Most people filter mailing list mails to separate folders. Claws allows
130 you to associate a folder with a mailing list or a person. Right-click a
131 folder, select Property and change the Default To setting. When you
132 compose a new mail, when this folder is selected the recipient address
133 will be set to this address.
135 (NOTE: this is also a shoot-yourself-in-the-foot-setting! If you want
136 to send a private mail, don't have a folder selected with this setting
140 -----------------------------------
141 To use different icon sets you need to create a directory:
142 mkdir ~/.sylpheed/themes
143 Icon sets should be placed in this directory in their own sub-directory.
144 They are then selectable from Pixmap Theme on the Interface tab of Commmon
147 * user definable actions
148 -----------------------------------
149 The "actions" feature is a convenient way for the user to launch external
150 commands to process a complete message file including headers and body or
151 just one of its parts. It allows also the use of an external command to
152 filter the whole text or just a selected part in the message window or in
153 the compose window. This is a generic tool that allows to do any uncommon
154 actions on the messages, and thus extends the possibilities of Sylpheed.
155 For example, Sylpheed does not include the rot13 cyphering algorithm
156 popular in some newsgroups. It does not support natively armored
157 encryption or clear signing. It does not support uuencoded messages. As
158 all these features can be handled by external programs, the actions
159 provide a convenient way to use them from the menu bar.
164 To create a new action, go to Configuration -> Actions.... The "Action
165 Creation" dialog offers to enter the Menu name that will trigger the
166 command. The created menu will be found in the Tools -> Actions submenu.
167 By inserting a slash / in the menu name, you create a submenu.
169 The command is entered in the Command line entry. Note that Sylpheed
170 stores every single email in a separate file. This allows to use the
171 following syntax for the command:
173 * %f denotes the file name of the selected message. If you selected more
174 than one, then the command will be launched for each message with
175 the appropriate file name
176 * %F denotes the list of the file names of the selected message. If only
177 one message is selected, this amounts to %f, but if more messages
178 are selected, then the command will be launched only once with the
179 list of the file names. (You can use both %f and %F in one command:
180 then the command will be launched for each selected message with
181 the name of this message and with the list of all selected
182 messages. I did not find a practical example for this.)
183 * %p denotes the current selected message part of a multipart message.
184 The part is decoded accordingly. If the message is not a multipart
185 message, it denotes the message body.
186 * Prepending >: this will allow you to send to the command's standard
187 input a text that you will enter in a dialog window.
188 * Prepending *: this will allow you to send to the command's standard
189 input a text that you will enter in a dialog window. But in
190 contrast to prepending >, the entered text is hidden (useful when
192 * Appending an ampersand &: this will run the command asynchronously.
193 That means "fire and forget". Sylpheed won't wait for the command
194 to finish, nor will it catch its output or its error messages.
195 * Prepending the vertical bar | (pipe-in): this will send the current
196 displayed text or the current selected text from the message view
197 or the compose window to the command standard input. The command
198 will silently fail if more than one message is selected.
199 * Appending the vertical bar | (pipe-out): this will replace the current
200 displayed text or the current selected text from the message window
201 or the compose window by the command standard output. The command
202 will silently fail if more than one message is selected.
204 Note: It is not possible to use actions containing %f, %F or %p from the
207 When a command is run, and unless it is run asynchronously, Sylpheed will
208 be insensitive to any interaction and it will wait for the command to
209 finish. If the command takes too long (5 seconds), it will popup a dialog
210 window allowing to stop it. This dialog will also be displayed as soon as
211 the command has some output: error messages or even its standard output
212 when the command is not a "pipe-out" command. When multiple commands are
213 being run, they are run in parallel and each command output is separated
214 from the outputs of the others.
219 Here are some examples that are listed in the same syntax as used for
220 storing the actions list. You can copy and past the definition in your
221 ~/.sylpheed/actionsrc file (exit Sylpheed before). The syntax is very
222 simple: one line per action, each action contains the menu name and the
223 command line separated by a colon and a space ": "
225 Purpose: rot13 cyphering
226 Definition: Rot13: |tr a-zA-Z n-za-mN-ZA-M|
227 Details: This will apply the rot13 cyphering algorithm to the
228 (selected) text in the message/compose view.
230 Purpose: Decoding uuencoded messages
231 Definition: UUdeview: xdeview %F&
232 Details: xdeview comes with uudeview. If an encoded file is split in
233 multiple messages, just select them all and run the command.
235 Purpose: Display uuencoded image
236 Definition: Display uuencoded: uudec %f&
237 Details: Displays uuencoded files. The uudec[1] script can be found in
238 the 'tools' directory of the distribution package.
240 Purpose: Alter messages
241 Definition: Edit message: gvim -f %F
242 Details: Allows editing of any received message. Can be used to remove
243 unneeded message parts, etc.
245 Purpose: Pretty format
246 Definition: Par: |par 72Tbgjqw74bEe B=._A_a 72bg|
247 Details: par is a utility that can pretty format any text. It does a
248 very good job in indenting quoted messages, and justifying
249 text. Used when composing a message
252 Definition: Part/Dillo: dillo %p&
253 Details: Browse the selected message part in Dillo.
256 Definition: GnuPG/Clear Sign: |gpg-sign-syl|
257 Details: Clear sign a message. The gpg-sign-syl[2] script is responsible
258 for asking the passphrase and for running gnupg.
260 Purpose: Verify Clear Signed
261 Definition: GnuPG/Verify: |gpg --no-tty --verify
262 Details: Verify clear signed messages. The result is displayed in the
263 actions output dialog.
265 Purpose: Decrypt ASCII Armored
266 Definition: GnuPG/Decrypt: *gpg --no-tty --command-fd 0 --passphrase-fd 0 --decrypt %f|
267 Details: Decrypt ASCII armored messages. The passphrase is entered
268 into the opened action's input dialog.
270 [1] The uudec script can be found in the 'tools' directory of the
271 distribution package. It needs uudecode and ImageMagick's display. The
272 latter can be replaced by any image viewer that can get input from
273 standard input. The script could also be modified to use temporary files
274 instead of standard input.
276 [2] The gpg-sign-syl script can be found in the 'tools' directory of the
277 distribution package.
279 * Spell checker for Sylpheed-Claws
280 -----------------------------------
282 b. Configuration and installation
290 As for version 0.8.3 (and cvs version 0.8.2claws3), Sylpheed-Claws uses
291 the new GNU/aspell 0.50 for spell checking instead of the obsolete pspell
292 and old aspell 0.33.x. You will need to upgrade your system. See
293 http://www.gnu.org/software/aspell for instructions on how to do this.
295 The spell checker in Sylpheed requires the new GNU/aspell library
296 (http://www.gnu.org/software/aspell), version 0.50 or newer.
298 You also need the dictionaries. Check GNU/aspell home page for how
299 to download and install them.
301 NB: The old dictionaries used by the old aspell will not work.
303 b. Configuring Sylpheed
304 -----------------------
306 Spell checking is enabled if you configure Sylpheed appropriately. Add
307 the option '--enable-aspell' when configuring. E.g.:
309 ./configure --enable-aspell
311 The configure script needs the 'aspell' executable to be in your path.
312 If it is in unusual places, use '--with-aspell-prefix' to tell the path of
313 the aspell executable. E.g., if aspell's full path is
314 /foo/bar/bin/aspell, then use:
316 ./configure --enable-aspell --with-aspell-prefix=/foo/bar
318 The '--with-aspell-prefix=PREFIX' option will let the configure
319 script search for includes and libraries in PREFIX/include and PREFIX/lib.
321 You can also specify manually the includes and libraries path by using
322 either following options:
324 --with-aspell-includes=/foo/bar/include
328 --with-aspell-libs=/rab/oof/lib
332 The configure script summarizes the options compiled in. Check that
333 it lists 'GNU/aspell = yes'.
335 Then proceed as usual, with 'make' and 'make install'.
340 NOTE: if you upgraded from Sylpheed-Claws 0.8.2 (or cvs version 0.8.2claws2)
341 or earlier, please check if the dictionary path was updated in the
342 Configuration -> Common Preferences -> Spell Checker menu. If not, update
343 it accordingly as explained below.
345 After successful compiling, you need to tell Sylpheed where your
346 dictionaries reside. The configure script should have found it,
347 but in case it did not, run 'aspell config dict-dir' on the
348 shell to get the path to the dictionaries.
350 Then run Sylpheed and go to Configuration -> Common preferences ->
351 Spell Checker. Check the box 'Enable spell checker' and
352 use the file selector ('...' button) to select the path where the
353 dictionaries reside. Within the file selector, go to that directory
354 and select *any* file in the file lists. Click OK. Then, you should
355 be able to select your default dictionary.
357 When composing, misspelled words are highlighted. Click on any
358 highlighted word with the right mouse button to get a list of
359 suggestions. The first entry of the menu just displays the unknown
360 word. Selecting 'Accept in this session' (or hitting MOD1-Space,
361 where MOD1 is usually the ALT key) will ignore this word and accept
362 it in this message. Selecting the next entry, "Add to dictionary", which
363 is bound to MOD1-Enter combination, will add the unknown word to your
364 personal dictionary to learn it. The next entries are the suggested words.
365 The first 15 suggestions can be accessed by typing one of the first letters
366 of Latin alphabet (if this does not suit your language, please send
367 a mail to melvin.hadasht@free.fr). Aspell has a 'learn from mistake'
368 function that can be used by pressing the MOD1 key and selecting the
369 suggestion (with the keyboard or with the mouse). See GNU/aspell manual
370 §6.3 for an explanation of this feature (also called 'replacement storing').
372 If you click with the right mouse button everywhere else, or if you
373 shift-right-click even on a misspelled word, you get the
374 configuration menu. 'Check all' highlights all misspelled words.
375 With this menu, you can also change the dictionary while editing.
376 Finally, you can change the suggestion mode, and the learn from
379 Spell checking can also be done using keyboard shortcuts. In the
380 'Edit' menu of the compose window, there are two menus 'Check backwards
381 misspelled word' and 'Forward to next misspelled word'. Add to them
382 appropriate keyboard shortcuts. 'Check backwards misspelled word'
383 checks backwards from cursor position for the first misspelled word.
384 If it finds one, it displays the suggestions lists which can be handled
385 with the keyboard as described before. When the suggestion menu is
386 closed, the cursor returns to its original position to be able to
387 continue editing. The 'Forward to next misspelled word' do the same
388 thing in the other direction but moves the cursor at the end of the
389 misspelled word. This way, you can spell check easily a whole message
390 starting from its beginning and using the 'Forward to next misspelled
391 word' keyboard short cut.
397 No known problems as the time of this writing (0.8.2claws3).
399 * simplify subject string
400 -----------------------------------
401 It is possible to remove parts of string from the subject line.
402 Example: [Sylpheed-claws-users] This is a test
403 becomes: This is a test
404 This is a per folder property. Right click on a folder and select
405 property, enable Simplify Subject RegExp check box. Example
406 regexp for the above is: \[Sylpheed-claws-(devel|users)\]
407 Another example for the Sylpheed mailing list (not claws!) is:
408 \[sylpheed:[0-9]{5}\]
411 -----------------------------------
412 New cache is a new data cache structure for sylpheed, that will
413 solve many of the problems sylpheed currently has with updates to
414 flags. But you will also notice a large speed gain when you open
417 New cache uses two new configuration parameters that can be
418 adjusted in ~/.sylpheed/sylpheedrc (no gui for them available yet).
420 cache_max_mem_usage (default: 4096)
421 the maximum kB of memory sylpheed should use.
422 It will try to keep the memory usage below this
423 value, but it will always use the assigned
424 amount of memory for speed gain.
426 cache_min_keep_time (default: 15)
427 the minimum time in minutes sylpheed will keep
428 the folder cache in memory. If a cache is more
429 recent than this time it will not be freed even
430 if the memory usage is above the maximum. You
431 should probably set this value higher than your
432 mail check interval. Otherwise the cache will
433 always be freed between checks even if the folder
434 is accessed on every check, which will cause much
437 The check if memory can be freed is currently done after the
438 active folder has been changed or whenever a new cache is read,
439 i.e. triggered by mail incorporation.
441 New mails in MH folders are not detected automatically like before,
442 when you enter the folder. You have to update the folder manually,
443 or activate the auto update setting in the options.
445 There are a lot more options. If you find one, don't hesitate to
448 * selective download, delete messages on server
449 -----------------------------------
450 The selective download window lets you select messages, that
451 should be retrieved from or deleted on the server.
452 The selection can be automated by setting up a *global*
453 filtering rule (folder based rules are ignored), e.g
454 subject match "SPAM" delete_on_server
455 Next time, you retrieve the headers using selective download,
456 all messages that matched this criteria are marked.
457 NOTE: Selective download is a pop3 only feature and makes
458 no sense if used as a folder processing filter.
462 Configuration->Custom toolbar lets you define the toolbar
463 you want. The configuration dialog enables you to set an icon,
464 an appropriate text and map an action to it. Actions to choose
465 from are predefined. You may as well have your "Sylpheed Actions"
466 (refer to "user definable actions" above) on your toolbar.
468 * Configuration->Actions
469 - add an entry "Dillo: dillo %p&"
470 * Configuration->Custom toolbar
471 - select Sylpheed Actions Feature
472 - select "Dillo: dillo %p&" from drop down list
473 - choose an icon and click ok
475 * extended search in quick search
476 ---------------------------------
477 This feature allows one to define criteria that messages have
478 to match in order to be displayed in the summary view pane.
479 Search types titled From, Subject and To are self explanatory.
480 Search type extended allows one to use Sylpheed's powerful
481 filtering engine to select messages. Examples:
482 from regexpcase "foo"
483 subject regexp "Bug" & to regexp "sylpheed-claws"
485 Additionally, it is possible to use simpler yet equally
486 powerfull patterns for message selections. Mutt users will
487 immediately recognize most of the available patterns:
489 Pattern Parameter Selects
490 ----------------------------------------------------
492 ag # messages whose age is greater than #
493 al # messages whose age is lower than #
494 b S messages which contain S in the message body
495 B S messages which contain S in the whole message
496 c S messages carbon-copied to S
497 C S message is either to: or cc: to S
499 e S messages which contain S in the Sender field
500 E S true if execute "S" succeeds
501 f S messages originating from user S
503 h S messages which contain header S
504 i S messages which contain S in Message-Id header
505 I S messages which contain S in inreplyto header
507 n S messages which are in newsgroup S
510 r messages which have been replied to
512 s S messages which contain S in subject
513 se # messages whose score is equal to #
514 sg # messages whose score is greater than #
515 sl # messages whose score is lower than #
516 Se # messages whose size is equal to #
517 Sg # messages whose size is greater than #
518 Ss # messages whose size is smaller than #
519 t S messages which have been sent to S
522 x S messages which contain S in References header
523 y S messages which contain S in X-Label header
526 S means regexp string
528 It is possible to use logical operators AND (&), OR (|) and
529 NOT (! or ~). Case sensitive search is achieved with %.
533 f "john beavis" messages from john beavis
534 %f "John Beavis" messages from John Beavis (case sensitive)
535 ~s foo messages which do not have foo in the subject
536 f foo & ~s bar messages from foo that do not have bar in thesubject
538 * 'dynamic' signatures
539 ----------------------
540 To use program output, e.g. fortune, as a message signature
541 use a | (pipe) symbol. For example, in the Account Preferences
542 'Compose' tab, enter the following in the Signature File box:
552 submit it to the Sylpheed ML, Hiroyuki, or Paul Mangan
553 (for incorporation on the Sylpheed Patches page,
554 <http://www.thewildbeast.co.uk/sylpheed/>)
558 It is highly recommended to use the sourceforge project page
560 http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=384600&group_id=25528&func=browse
562 If that's too troublesome, either contact Paul Mangan or consider
563 posting to the sylpheed claws users mailing list.
565 Bugs can be reported in the same way; the recommended web page:
566 http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=25528&atid=384598
568 Of course you can also post to the sylpheed claws users
571 Also, we really try to incorporate good contributions, but sometimes we
572 don't have enough time. If the contribution is really big, or requires
573 a long time to stabilize, send a mail to Paul Mangan. We can probably
574 arrange access to the Claws branch.
578 5. How to request features
579 --------------------------
581 Ask around in both Sylpheed ML and Sylpheed Claws Users ML. Note
582 that some developers may already thought about your feature, may
583 perhaps be implementing it - or the feature was already discussed
584 and rejected for whatever reason. You might want to go ahead and
585 hack a patch for it. (That would be very cool!) Another
586 possibility is to use the Feature Request Tracker at the
587 sourceforge project page.
591 6. Installing Claws from CVS
592 ----------------------------
597 To download the latest cvs cd to the directory where you wish to download
598 to and type the following information:
600 cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sylpheed-claws.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/sylpheed-claws login
602 When prompted for a password press the RETURN key.
603 After anonymously logging in:
605 cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sylpheed-claws.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/sylpheed-claws co sylpheed-claws
611 To compile and install use the following commands:
613 ./autogen.sh [add configure options as required]
615 make install [as root]
617 You will need a full set of development tools installed to be able to run
618 autogen.sh. See also ac/README.