add better description of Actions

[claws.git] / README.claws

README.claws
------------

Summary:

1. What is Sylpheed Claws?
2. Switching between Sylpheed Claws and Sylpheed
   * From Sylpheed to Sylpheed Claws
   * From Sylpheed Claws to Sylpheed
3. Things Claws does different
   * auto address replacement in summary view
   * manual selection of MIME types for attachments
   * sharing mail folders
   * default to address for folders
   * threading mode per folder
   * simplify subject string
   * pixmap themes
   * user definable actions
   * spell checking (with installation instructions)
4. How to contribute
5. How to request features
6. Installing Claws from CVS
7. History



1. What is Sylpheed Claws?
--------------------------

Sylpheed Claws is a bleeding edge branch of Sylpheed, a light weight mail 
user agent for UNIX. Features in this branch may (or may not) end up in 
Sylpheed. 

Hiroyuki's ChangeLog is also included in the claws-branch distribution, 
so it should be easy to spot which features were merged with Sylpheed
(and which features were not).

For brevity Sylpheed Claws is referred to as Claws, and Sylpheed as either
Sylpheed or Main.



2. Switching between Sylpheed Claws and Sylpheed
------------------------------------------------

  From Sylpheed to Sylpheed Claws       
  -------------------------------

  From the user perspective Claws is just a fancy Sylpheed, so it uses the
  same sylpheed setting files located in ~/.sylpheed.

  It's always a good idea to back up all files in ~/.sylpheed in case
  you want to switch back to Sylpheed. (You don't have to backup the
  directories.)

  There are some things that frequently come up when switching to Claws:


  * Why does the advanced filtering system not work?

    Claws uses the new filtering system as soon as you define a new rule for it.
    Your old sylpheed filter rules will not be used. In subdirectory tools/ of
    the distribution there is a Perl script called filter_conv.pl which convers
    old filter rules to the claws filtering system.
  

  * What happened to the compose email and compose news buttons? 

    There's a composite button for both composing mail and news. You can toggle
    between composing mail and news by clicking on the button with the triangle.


  * And to the Preferences and Execute buttons?

    Sorry, they're not there.


  From Sylpheed Claws to Sylpheed
  -------------------------------

  Moving from Claws to Sylpheed is also simple. Sylpheed should neglect the things
  Claws put in the settings files. This also means that the old rules will work
  again. 

  If you want to switch back to Claws at a later time, make sure you back up at least
  ~/.sylpheed/filteringrc (the Claws filtering rules), and ~/.sylpheed/sylpheedrc 
  (which may have some claws specific settings).

  When switching back to Sylpheed you will not lose messages or message flags (color
  labels, read / unread status of messages). 



3. Things Claws does different
------------------------------

Claws does a lot of things different. Here a quick run-down of things that
are hardly noticable, but deserve mentioning:

* auto address replacement in summary view
-----------------------------------
  This matches a plain email address with a person in the address book. This
  feature is enabled in Common Preferences | Tab Display | SummaryView Group |
  Display sender using addressbook

* manual selection of MIME types for attachments
-----------------------------------
  You can change the MIME type of an attachment by right-clicking in the
  attachment list, selecting Property in the menu. The MIME type list
  is a combo box with the known MIME types.

* sharing mail folders   
 -----------------------------------
 You can also share or use shared mail folders. Right-click a folder and
  select Property. Change the Folder chmod setting.

* default to address for folders
 -----------------------------------
 Most people filter mailing list mails to separate folders. Claws allows
  you to associate a folder with a mailing list or a person. Right-click a
  folder, select Property and change the Default To setting. When you
  compose a new mail, when this folder is selected the recepient address
  will be set to this address.

  (NOTE: this is also a shoot-yourself-in-the-foot-setting! If you want
   to send a private mail, don't have a folder selected with this setting
   set.)

* pixmap themes
-----------------------------------
  To use different icon sets you need to create a directory: 
        mkdir ~/.sylpheed/themes
  Icon sets should be placed in this directory in their own sub-directory. 
  They are then selectable from Pixmap Theme on the Interface tab of Commmon
  Preferences. 

* user definable actions
-----------------------------------
  The "actions" feature is a convenient way for the user to launch external 
  commands to process a complete message file including headers and body or 
  just one of its parts. It allows also the use of an external command to 
  filter the whole text or just a selected part in the message window or in 
  the compose window. This is a generic tool that allows to do any uncommon 
  actions on the messages, and thus extends the possibilities of Sylpheed. 
  For example, Sylpheed does not include the rot13 cyphering algorithm 
  popular in some newsgroups. It does not support natively armored 
  encryption or clear signing. It does not support uuencoded messages. As 
  all these features can be handled by external programs, the actions 
  provide a convenient way to use them from the menu bar.

  a. Usage
  --------

  To create a new action, go to Configuration -> Actions.... The "Action
  Creation" dialog offers to enter the Menu name that will trigger the 
  command. The created menu will be found in the Tools -> Actions submenu. 
  By inserting a slash / in the menu name, you create a submenu.

  The command is entered in the Command line entry. Note that Sylpheed 
  stores every single email in a separate file. This allows to use the 
  following syntax for the command:

    * %f denotes the file name of the selected message. If you selected more
         than one, then the command will be launched for each message with 
         the appropriate file name
    * %F denotes the list of the file names of the selected message. If only
         one message is selected, this amounts to %f, but if more messages 
         are selected, then the command will be launched only once with the 
         list of the file names. (You can use both %f and %F in one command: 
         then the command will be launched for each selected message with 
         the name of this message and with the list of all selected 
         messages. I did not find a practical example for this.)
    * %p denotes the current selected message part of a multipart message. 
         The part is decoded accordingly. If the message is not a multipart 
         message, it denotes the message body.
    * Prepending >: this will allow you to send to the command's standard 
         input a text that you will enter in a dialog window.
    * Prepending *: this will allow you to send to the command's standard 
         input a text that you will enter in a dialog window. But in 
         contrast to prepending >, the entered text is hidded (useful when 
         entering passwords).
    * Appending an ampersand &: this will run the command asynchronously. 
         That means "fire and forget". Sylpheed won't wait for the command 
         to finish, nor will it catch it's output or it's error messages.
    * Prepending the vertical bar | (pipe-in): this will send the current 
         displayed text or the current selected text from the message view 
         or the compose window to the command standard input. The command 
         will silently fail if more than one message is selected.
    * Appending the vertical bar | (pipe-out): this will replace the current 
         displayed text or the current selected text from the message window
         or the compose window by the command standard output. The command
         will silently fail if more than one message is selected.

  Note: It is not possible to use actions containing %f, %F or %p from the
  compose window. 

  When a command is run, and unless it is run asynchronously, Sylpheed will
  be insensitive to any interaction and it will wait for the command to 
  finish. If the command takes too long (5 seconds), it will popup a dialog 
  window allowing to stop it. This dialog will also be displayed as soon as
  the command has some ouput: error messages or even its standard output 
  when the command is not a "pipe-out" command. When multiple commands are 
  being run, they are run in parallel and each command ouput is separated 
  from the outputs of the others.

  a. Examples
  -----------

  Here are some examples that are listed in the same syntax as used for 
  storing the actions list. You can copy and past the definition in your 
  ~/.sylpheed/actionsrc file (exit Sylpheed before). The syntax is very 
  simple: one line per action, each action contains the menu name and the 
  command line separated by a colon and a space ": "

  Purpose:      rot13 cyphering
  Definition:   Rot13: |tr a-zA-Z n-za-mN-ZA-M|
  Details:      This will apply the rot13 cyphering algorithm to the 
                (selected) text in the message/compose view.

  Purpose:      Decoding uuencoded messages
  Definition:   UUdeview: xdeview %F&
  Details:      xdeview comes with uudeview. If an encoded file is split in 
                multiple messages, just select them all and run the command.

  Purpose:      Display uuencoded image
  Definition:   Display uuencoded: uudec %f&
  Details:      Displays uuencoded files. The uudec script can be found in 
                the 'tools' directory of the distribution package.
 
  Purpose:      Alter messages
  Definition:   Edit message: gvim -f %F
  Details:      Allows editing of any received message. Can be used to remove 
                unneeded message parts, etc.

  Purpose:      Pretty format
  Definition:   Par: |par 72Tbgjqw74bEe B=._A_a 72bg
  Details:      par is a utility that can pretty format any text. It does a 
                very good job in indenting quoted messages, and justifying 
                text. Used when composing a message

  Purpose:      Browse
  Definition:   Part/Dillo: dillo %p&
  Details:      Browse the selected message part in Dillo.

  Purpose:      Clear Sign
  Definition:   GnuPG/Clear Sign: |gpg-sign|
  Details:      Clear sign a message. The gpg-sign script is responsible for 
                asking the passphrase and for running gnupg. 

  Purpose:      Verify Clear Signed
  Definition:   GnuPG/Verify: |gpg --no-tty --verify %f&
  Details:      Verify clear signed messages. The result is displayed in the
                actions output dialog.

  Purpose:      Decrypt ASCII Armored
  Definition:   GnuPG/Decrypt: *gpg --no-tty --command-fd 0 --passphrase-fd 0 --decrypt %f|
  Details:      Decrypt ASCII armored messages. The passphrase is entered 
                into the opened action's input dialog.

  The gpg-sign script can be found in the 'tools' directory of the 
  distribution package. It needs the ssh-askpass utility found in OpenSSH. 
  It can be replaced by any X11 tool that asks some (hidden) text which is 
  then sent to standard output.

  The guudecode script can be found in the 'tools' directory of the 
  distribution package. It needs uudecode and ImageMagick's display. The 
  latter can be replaced by any image viewer that can get input from 
  standard input. The script could also be modified to use temporary files 
  instead of standard input. 


* Spell checker for Sylpheed-Claws
-----------------------------------
  a. Requirements
  b. Configuration and installation
  c. Usage
  d. Known problems

  a. Requirements
  ---------------

  The spell checker in sylpheed requires the Portable Spell Checker
  Interface Library pspell (http://pspell.sourceforge.net), version
  0.12.2 or newer.

  You will need also the actual spell checker.  There are two alternatives:

     i) ispell (http://fmg-www.cs.ucla.edu/fmg-members/geoff/ispell.html),
        which is found on quasi every distribution.  You have then to
        install the pspell-ispell module found at the pspell site.

    ii) aspell (http://aspell.sourceforge.net).  This spell checker
        must be installed after installing pspell.  The version tested
        is .33.7 alpha. It has three different suggestion modes (fast
        -default- , normal, bad spellers), has the ability to learn
        from mistakes (default). 

  And, last but not least, do not forget to install the dictionaries. Check
  the corresponding spell checker home page for more information on this.

  b. Configuring Sylpheed
  -----------------------

  Spell checking is enabled if you configure sylpheed appropriately. Add
  the option '--enable-pspell' when configuring. E.g.:

  ./configure --enable-pspell

  The configure script needs 'pspell-config' in your path.  If it is
  in weird places, use '--with-pspell-prefix' to tell the path to
  pspell-config.  E.g., if pspell-config is really
  /foo/bar/pspell-config, then use:

  ./configure --enable-pspell --with-pspell-prefix=/foo/bar

  If you have problems with not found includes or libraries, check
  first where these are located, and add either options:

  --with-pspell-includes=/foo/bar/include

  or 

  --with-pspell-libs=/foo/bar/lib

  as appropriate.

  Configure script summarizes the options compiled in. Check that
  configure lists 'Pspell = yes'.

  Then proceed as usual, with 'make' and 'make install'.

  c. Usage
  --------

  NOTE: if you upgraded from 0.7.0claws, please reselect your default
  dictionary in the preferences.

  After successful compiling, you need to tell sylpheed where your
  dictionaries reside.  First run 'pspell-config pkgdatadir' on the
  shell to get their path.

  Then run sylpheed and go to Configuration -> Common preferences ->
  Spell Checker.  Check the box 'Enable spell checker (EXPERIMENTAL)' and
  use the file selector ('...' button) to select the path where the
  dictionaries reside.  Within the file selector, go to that directory
  and select *any* file in the file lists.  Click ok. You should then
  be able to select your default dictionary.

  When composing, misspelled words are highlighted.  Click on any
  highlighted word with the right mouse button to get a list of
  suggestions.  The first entry of the menu just displays the unknown
  word.  Selecting "Accept in this session" (or hitting MOD1-Space, 
  where MOD1 is usually the ALT key), will ignore this word and accept
  it in this message.  Selecting the next entry "Add to dictionary", which
  is bound to MOD1-Enter combination will add the unknown word to the
  dictionary to learn it.  The next entries are the suggested words. 
  The first 15 suggestions can be accessed typing one of the first letters
  of latin alphabet (if this does not suit your language, please send
  a mail to melvin.hadasht@free.fr).  If you are using an aspell 
  dictionary, you can use its 'learn from mistake' feature, by pressing
  the MOD1 key and selecting the suggestion (with the keyboard or with
  the mouse).  See pspell manual §4.7.1 for an explanation of this 
  feature. 

  If you click with the right mouse button everywhere else, or if you
  shift-right-click even on a misspelled word, you get the
  configuration  menu.  'Check all' highlights all misspelled words.
  With this menu, you can also change the dictionary while editing.
  FInally, you can change the suggestion mode misktakes 'feature' 
  (useful only with aspell).

  Spell checking can also be done using keyboard shortcuts.  In the
  "Edit" menu of the compose window, there are two menus "Check backwards
  misspelled word" and "Forward to next misspelled word".  Add to them 
  appropriate keyboard shortcuts.  "Check backwards misspelled word" 
  checks backwards from cursor position for the first misspelled word.
  If it finds one, it displays the suggestions lists which can be handled
  with the keyboard as described before. When the suggestion menu is 
  closed, the cursor returns to its original position to be able to 
  continue editing.  The "Forward to next misspelled word" do the same 
  thing in the other direction but moves the cursor at the end of the
  misspelled word.  This way, you can spell check easily a whole message
  starting from its beginning and using the "Forward to next misspelled
  word" keyboard short cut.
  

  d. Known problems
  -----------------

    i) libtool

    The only real known problems until now are configuration and
    compilation problems  due to libtool interaction with pspell. 

    If you do not compile pspell/aspell/pspell-ispell yourself, you
    need to install them with their devel packages.

    Pspell work with dynamic linking of libraries and thus uses the
    libltdl library of libtool.  If you have weird problems when
    configuring showing 'libtool', chances are the libtool used when
    compiling the pspell package is not compatible with what you have
    on your system.  The best solution, is to install the latest
    libtool AND compile yourself pspell package.  I can't help more
    than that in this issue.

    After successfully compiled and used sylpheed with spell checking,
    the same problem can appear if you upgrade your libtool to a
    version which libltdl is incompatible to your older one.    The
    symptoms are a crash when starting to compose.  Disabling spell
    checking avoids the problem. The solution should be to recompile pspell.

    ii) New installed ispell dictionary are not detected

    Installing a new ispell dictionary needs an additional step. Go
    to the 'pkgdatadir' and run 'make-ispell-pwli'.  You may need to
    su root.

* simplify subject string
    It is possible to remove parts of string from the subject line.
    Example: [Sylpheed-claws-users] This is a test
    becomes: This is a test
    This is a per folder property. Right click on a folder and select
    property, enable Simplify Subject RegExp check box. Example
    regexp for the above is: \[Sylpheed-claws-(devel|users)\]
    Another example for the Sylpheed mailing list (not claws!) is:
    \[sylpheed:[0-9]{5}\]

There are a lot more options. If you find one, don't hesitate to
mention it.



4. How to contribute
--------------------

Sylpheed Main: 

        submit it to the Sylpheed ML, Hiroyuki, or Paul Mangan
        (for incorporation on the Sylpheed Patches page,
         <http://www.thewildbeast.co.uk/sylpheed/>)

Sylpheed Claws:

        It is highly recommended to use the sourceforge project page
        of claws. Check: 
        http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=384600&group_id=25528&func=browse

        If that's too troublesome, either contact Paul Mangan or consider
        posting to the sylpheed claws users mailing list.

        Bugs can be reported in the same way; the recommended web page:
        http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=25528&atid=384598

        Ofcourse you can also post to the sylpheed claws users
        mailing list.

Also, we really try to incorporate good contributions, but sometimes we
don't have enough time. If the contribution is really big, or requires
a long time to stabilize, send a mail to Paul Mangan. We can probably
arrange access to the Claws branch.



5. How to request features
--------------------------

Ask around in both Sylpheed ML and Sylpheed Claws Users ML. Note
that some developers may already thought about your feature, may
perhaps be implementing it - or the feature was already discussed
and rejected for whatever reason.  You might want to go ahead and 
hack a patch for it. (That would be very cool!) Another
possibility is to use the Feature Request Tracker at the
sourceforge project page.



6. Installing Claws from CVS
----------------------------

  a. Downloading
  --------------

  To download the latest cvs cd to the directory where you wish to download
  to and type the following information:

  cvs -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sylpheed-claws.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/sylpheed-claws login

  When prompted for a password press the RETURN key.
  After anonymously logging in:

  cvs -z3 -d:pserver:anonymous@cvs.sylpheed-claws.sourceforge.net:/cvsroot/sylpheed-claws co sylpheed-claws 


  b. Installing
  -------------

  To compile and install use the following commands:

  ./autogen.sh          [add configure options as required]
  make
  make install          [as root]

  You will need a full set of development tools installed to be able to run
  autogen.sh.

7. History
----------

TODO