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 * What happened to my filter rules?
63 Claws uses a new filtering system. Your old Sylpheed filter rules will not
64 be used. In subdirectory tools/ of the distribution there is a Perl script
65 called filter_conv.pl which converts old filter rules to the claws
66 filtering system, see tools/README for details.
68 * What happened to the compose email and compose news buttons?
70 There's a composite button for both composing mail and news. You can toggle
71 between composing mail and news by clicking on the button with the triangle.
74 * And to the Preferences and Execute buttons?
76 Sorry, they're not there.
79 From Sylpheed Claws to Sylpheed
80 -------------------------------
82 Moving from Claws to Sylpheed is also simple. Sylpheed should neglect the things
83 Claws put in the settings files. This also means that the old rules will work
86 If you want to switch back to Claws at a later time, make sure you back up at least
87 ~/.sylpheed/matcherrc (the Claws filtering rules), and ~/.sylpheed/sylpheedrc
88 (which may have some claws specific settings).
90 When switching back to Sylpheed you will not lose messages or message flags (color
91 labels, read / unread status of messages).
93 Switching between Sylpheed Claws and Sylpheed on a regular basis
94 ----------------------------------------------------------------
96 If you want to have both claws and main installed concurrently simply pass them
97 a different --prefix when doing ./configure. Then use the script 'sylpheed-switcher',
98 (which is provided in the tools directory), to launch the version you require without
99 fear of losing specific settings related to either claws or main. Further details can
100 be found in tools/README.
102 3. Things Claws does different
103 ------------------------------
105 Claws does a lot of things different. Here a quick run-down of things that
106 are hardly noticeable, but deserve mentioning:
108 * auto address replacement in summary view
109 -----------------------------------
110 This matches a plain email address with a person in the address book. This
111 feature is enabled in Common Preferences | Tab Display | SummaryView Group |
112 Display sender using addressbook
114 * manual selection of MIME types for attachments
115 -----------------------------------
116 You can change the MIME type of an attachment by right-clicking in the
117 attachment list, selecting Property in the menu. The MIME type list
118 is a combo box with the known MIME types.
120 * sharing mail folders
121 -----------------------------------
122 You can also share or use shared mail folders. Right-click a folder and
123 select Property. Change the Folder chmod setting.
125 * default to address for folders
126 -----------------------------------
127 Most people filter mailing list mails to separate folders. Claws allows
128 you to associate a folder with a mailing list or a person. Right-click a
129 folder, select Property and change the Default To setting. When you
130 compose a new mail, when this folder is selected the recipient address
131 will be set to this address.
133 (NOTE: this is also a shoot-yourself-in-the-foot-setting! If you want
134 to send a private mail, don't have a folder selected with this setting
138 -----------------------------------
139 To use different icon sets you need to create a directory:
140 mkdir ~/.sylpheed/themes
141 Icon sets should be placed in this directory in their own sub-directory.
142 They are then selectable from Pixmap Theme on the Interface tab of Commmon
145 * user definable actions
146 -----------------------------------
147 The "actions" feature is a convenient way for the user to launch external
148 commands to process a complete message file including headers and body or
149 just one of its parts. It allows also the use of an external command to
150 filter the whole text or just a selected part in the message window or in
151 the compose window. This is a generic tool that allows to do any uncommon
152 actions on the messages, and thus extends the possibilities of Sylpheed.
153 For example, Sylpheed does not include the rot13 cyphering algorithm
154 popular in some newsgroups. It does not support natively armored
155 encryption or clear signing. It does not support uuencoded messages. As
156 all these features can be handled by external programs, the actions
157 provide a convenient way to use them from the menu bar.
162 To create a new action, go to Configuration -> Actions.... The "Action
163 Creation" dialog offers to enter the Menu name that will trigger the
164 command. The created menu will be found in the Tools -> Actions submenu.
165 By inserting a slash / in the menu name, you create a submenu.
167 The command is entered in the Command line entry. Note that Sylpheed
168 stores every single email in a separate file. This allows to use the
169 following syntax for the command:
171 * %f denotes the file name of the selected message. If you selected more
172 than one, then the command will be launched for each message with
173 the appropriate file name
174 * %F denotes the list of the file names of the selected message. If only
175 one message is selected, this amounts to %f, but if more messages
176 are selected, then the command will be launched only once with the
177 list of the file names. (You can use both %f and %F in one command:
178 then the command will be launched for each selected message with
179 the name of this message and with the list of all selected
180 messages. I did not find a practical example for this.)
181 * %p denotes the current selected message part of a multipart message.
182 The part is decoded accordingly. If the message is not a multipart
183 message, it denotes the message body.
184 * Prepending >: this will allow you to send to the command's standard
185 input a text that you will enter in a dialog window.
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. But in
188 contrast to prepending >, the entered text is hidden (useful when
190 * Appending an ampersand &: this will run the command asynchronously.
191 That means "fire and forget". Sylpheed won't wait for the command
192 to finish, nor will it catch its output or its error messages.
193 * Prepending the vertical bar | (pipe-in): this will send the current
194 displayed text or the current selected text from the message view
195 or the compose window to the command standard input. The command
196 will silently fail if more than one message is selected.
197 * Appending the vertical bar | (pipe-out): this will replace the current
198 displayed text or the current selected text from the message window
199 or the compose window by the command standard output. The command
200 will silently fail if more than one message is selected.
202 Note: It is not possible to use actions containing %f, %F or %p from the
205 When a command is run, and unless it is run asynchronously, Sylpheed will
206 be insensitive to any interaction and it will wait for the command to
207 finish. If the command takes too long (5 seconds), it will popup a dialog
208 window allowing to stop it. This dialog will also be displayed as soon as
209 the command has some output: error messages or even its standard output
210 when the command is not a "pipe-out" command. When multiple commands are
211 being run, they are run in parallel and each command output is separated
212 from the outputs of the others.
217 Here are some examples that are listed in the same syntax as used for
218 storing the actions list. You can copy and past the definition in your
219 ~/.sylpheed/actionsrc file (exit Sylpheed before). The syntax is very
220 simple: one line per action, each action contains the menu name and the
221 command line separated by a colon and a space ": "
223 Purpose: rot13 cyphering
224 Definition: Rot13: |tr a-zA-Z n-za-mN-ZA-M|
225 Details: This will apply the rot13 cyphering algorithm to the
226 (selected) text in the message/compose view.
228 Purpose: Decoding uuencoded messages
229 Definition: UUdeview: xdeview %F&
230 Details: xdeview comes with uudeview. If an encoded file is split in
231 multiple messages, just select them all and run the command.
233 Purpose: Display uuencoded image
234 Definition: Display uuencoded: uudec %f&
235 Details: Displays uuencoded files. The uudec[1] script can be found in
236 the 'tools' directory of the distribution package.
238 Purpose: Alter messages
239 Definition: Edit message: gvim -f %F
240 Details: Allows editing of any received message. Can be used to remove
241 unneeded message parts, etc.
243 Purpose: Pretty format
244 Definition: Par: |par 72Tbgjqw74bEe B=._A_a 72bg|
245 Details: par is a utility that can pretty format any text. It does a
246 very good job in indenting quoted messages, and justifying
247 text. Used when composing a message
250 Definition: Part/Dillo: dillo %p&
251 Details: Browse the selected message part in Dillo.
254 Definition: GnuPG/Clear Sign: |gpg-sign-syl|
255 Details: Clear sign a message. The gpg-sign-syl[2] script is responsible
256 for asking the passphrase and for running gnupg.
258 Purpose: Verify Clear Signed
259 Definition: GnuPG/Verify: |gpg --no-tty --verify
260 Details: Verify clear signed messages. The result is displayed in the
261 actions output dialog.
263 Purpose: Decrypt ASCII Armored
264 Definition: GnuPG/Decrypt: *gpg --no-tty --command-fd 0 --passphrase-fd 0 --decrypt %f|
265 Details: Decrypt ASCII armored messages. The passphrase is entered
266 into the opened action's input dialog.
268 [1] The uudec script can be found in the 'tools' directory of the
269 distribution package. It needs uudecode and ImageMagick's display. The
270 latter can be replaced by any image viewer that can get input from
271 standard input. The script could also be modified to use temporary files
272 instead of standard input.
274 [2] The gpg-sign-syl script can be found in the 'tools' directory of the
275 distribution package.
277 * Spell checker for Sylpheed-Claws
278 -----------------------------------
280 b. Configuration and installation
288 As for version 0.8.3 (and cvs version 0.8.2claws3), Sylpheed-Claws uses
289 the new GNU/aspell 0.50 for spell checking instead of the obsolete pspell
290 and old aspell 0.33.x. You will need to upgrade your system. See
291 http://www.gnu.org/software/aspell for instructions on how to do this.
293 The spell checker in Sylpheed requires the new GNU/aspell library
294 (http://www.gnu.org/software/aspell), version 0.50 or newer.
296 You also need the dictionaries. Check GNU/aspell home page for how
297 to download and install them.
299 NB: The old dictionaries used by the old aspell will not work.
301 b. Configuring Sylpheed
302 -----------------------
304 Spell checking is enabled if you configure Sylpheed appropriately. Add
305 the option '--enable-aspell' when configuring. E.g.:
307 ./configure --enable-aspell
309 The configure script needs the 'aspell' executable to be in your path.
310 If it is in unusual places, use '--with-aspell-prefix' to tell the path of
311 the aspell executable. E.g., if aspell's full path is
312 /foo/bar/bin/aspell, then use:
314 ./configure --enable-aspell --with-aspell-prefix=/foo/bar
316 The '--with-aspell-prefix=PREFIX' option will let the configure
317 script search for includes and libraries in PREFIX/include and PREFIX/lib.
319 You can also specify manually the includes and libraries path by using
320 either following options:
322 --with-aspell-includes=/foo/bar/include
326 --with-aspell-libs=/rab/oof/lib
330 The configure script summarizes the options compiled in. Check that
331 it lists 'GNU/aspell = yes'.
333 Then proceed as usual, with 'make' and 'make install'.
338 NOTE: if you upgraded from Sylpheed-Claws 0.8.2 (or cvs version 0.8.2claws2)
339 or earlier, please check if the dictionary path was updated in the
340 Configuration -> Common Preferences -> Spell Checker menu. If not, update
341 it accordingly as explained below.
343 After successful compiling, you need to tell Sylpheed where your
344 dictionaries reside. The configure script should have found it,
345 but in case it did not, run 'aspell config dict-dir' on the
346 shell to get the path to the dictionaries.
348 Then run Sylpheed and go to Configuration -> Common preferences ->
349 Spell Checker. Check the box 'Enable spell checker' 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. Then, you should
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 your
362 personal dictionary to learn it. The next entries are the suggested words.
363 The first 15 suggestions can be accessed by 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). Aspell has a 'learn from mistake'
366 function that can be used by pressing the MOD1 key and selecting the
367 suggestion (with the keyboard or with the mouse). See GNU/aspell manual
368 ยง6.3 for an explanation of this feature (also called 'replacement storing').
370 If you click with the right mouse button everywhere else, or if you
371 shift-right-click even on a misspelled word, you get the
372 configuration menu. 'Check all' highlights all misspelled words.
373 With this menu, you can also change the dictionary while editing.
374 Finally, you can change the suggestion mode, and the learn from
377 Spell checking can also be done using keyboard shortcuts. In the
378 'Edit' menu of the compose window, there are two menus 'Check backwards
379 misspelled word' and 'Forward to next misspelled word'. Add to them
380 appropriate keyboard shortcuts. 'Check backwards misspelled word'
381 checks backwards from cursor position for the first misspelled word.
382 If it finds one, it displays the suggestions lists which can be handled
383 with the keyboard as described before. When the suggestion menu is
384 closed, the cursor returns to its original position to be able to
385 continue editing. The 'Forward to next misspelled word' do the same
386 thing in the other direction but moves the cursor at the end of the
387 misspelled word. This way, you can spell check easily a whole message
388 starting from its beginning and using the 'Forward to next misspelled
389 word' keyboard short cut.
395 No known problems as the time of this writing (0.8.2claws3).
397 * simplify subject string
398 -----------------------------------
399 It is possible to remove parts of string from the subject line.
400 Example: [Sylpheed-claws-users] This is a test
401 becomes: This is a test
402 This is a per folder property. Right click on a folder and select
403 property, enable Simplify Subject RegExp check box. Example
404 regexp for the above is: \[Sylpheed-claws-(devel|users)\]
405 Another example for the Sylpheed mailing list (not claws!) is:
406 \[sylpheed:[0-9]{5}\]
409 -----------------------------------
410 New cache is a new data cache structure for sylpheed, that will
411 solve many of the problems sylpheed currently has with updates to
412 flags. But you will also notice a large speed gain when you open
415 New cache uses two new configuration parameters that can be
416 adjusted in ~/.sylpheed/sylpheedrc (no gui for them available yet).
418 cache_max_mem_usage (default: 4096)
419 the maximum kB of memory sylpheed should use.
420 It will try to keep the memory usage below this
421 value, but it will always use the assigned
422 amount of memory for speed gain.
424 cache_min_keep_time (default: 15)
425 the minimum time in minutes sylpheed will keep
426 the folder cache in memory. If a cache is more
427 recent than this time it will not be freed even
428 if the memory usage is above the maximum. You
429 should probably set this value higher than your
430 mail check interval. Otherwise the cache will
431 always be freed between checks even if the folder
432 is accessed on every check, which will cause much
435 The check if memory can be freed is currently done after the
436 active folder has been changed or whenever a new cache is read,
437 i.e. triggered by mail incorporation.
439 New mails in MH folders are not detected automatically like before,
440 when you enter the folder. You have to update the folder manually,
441 or activate the auto update setting in the options.
443 There are a lot more options. If you find one, don't hesitate to
446 * selective download, delete messages on server
447 -----------------------------------
448 The selective download window lets you select messages, that
449 should be retrieved from or deleted on the server.
450 The selection can be automated by setting up a *global*
451 filtering rule (folder based rules are ignored), e.g
452 subject match "SPAM" delete_on_server
453 Next time, you retrieve the headers using selective download,
454 all messages that matched this criteria are marked.
455 NOTE: Selective download is a pop3 only feature and makes
456 no sense if used as a folder processing filter.
460 Configuration->Custom toolbar lets you define the toolbar
461 you want. The configuration dialog enables you to set an icon,
462 an appropriate text and map an action to it. Actions to choose
463 from are predefined. You may as well have your "Sylpheed Actions"
464 (refer to "user definable actions" above) on your toolbar.
466 * Configuration->Actions
467 - add an entry "Dillo: dillo %p&"
468 * Configuration->Custom toolbar
469 - select Sylpheed Actions Feature
470 - select "Dillo: dillo %p&" from drop down list
471 - choose an icon and click ok
480 submit it to the Sylpheed ML, Hiroyuki, or Paul Mangan
481 (for incorporation on the Sylpheed Patches page,
482 <http://www.thewildbeast.co.uk/sylpheed/>)
486 It is highly recommended to use the sourceforge project page
488 http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=384600&group_id=25528&func=browse
490 If that's too troublesome, either contact Paul Mangan or consider
491 posting to the sylpheed claws users mailing list.
493 Bugs can be reported in the same way; the recommended web page:
494 http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=25528&atid=384598
496 Of course you can also post to the sylpheed claws users
499 Also, we really try to incorporate good contributions, but sometimes we
500 don't have enough time. If the contribution is really big, or requires
501 a long time to stabilize, send a mail to Paul Mangan. We can probably
502 arrange access to the Claws branch.
506 5. How to request features
507 --------------------------
509 Ask around in both Sylpheed ML and Sylpheed Claws Users ML. Note
510 that some developers may already thought about your feature, may
511 perhaps be implementing it - or the feature was already discussed
512 and rejected for whatever reason. You might want to go ahead and
513 hack a patch for it. (That would be very cool!) Another
514 possibility is to use the Feature Request Tracker at the
515 sourceforge project page.
519 6. Installing Claws from CVS
520 ----------------------------
525 To download the latest cvs cd to the directory where you wish to download
526 to and type the following information:
528 cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sylpheed-claws.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/sylpheed-claws login
530 When prompted for a password press the RETURN key.
531 After anonymously logging in:
533 cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sylpheed-claws.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/sylpheed-claws co sylpheed-claws
539 To compile and install use the following commands:
541 ./autogen.sh [add configure options as required]
543 make install [as root]
545 You will need a full set of development tools installed to be able to run
546 autogen.sh. See also ac/README.
projects / claws.git / blob