2 [LAST REVISION: 2006-07-31]
4 Sylpheed-Claws - a GTK+ based, lightweight, and fast e-mail client
6 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
8 Copyright(C) 1999-2006 Hiroyuki Yamamoto <hiro-y@kcn.ne.jp> and the
11 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
12 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
13 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2, or (at your option)
16 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
17 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
18 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
19 GNU General Public License for more details.
21 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
22 along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
23 Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
25 For more details see the file COPYING.
27 ---------------------------------------------------------------------
31 1. What is Sylpheed-Claws?
38 8. Partial downloading of POP3 mails
42 12. How to request features
43 13. Installing Claws from CVS
48 1. What is Sylpheed-Claws?
49 --------------------------
51 Sylpheed-Claws is the extended version of Sylpheed, a lightweight and
52 highly configurable email client and news reader based on the GTK+ GUI
53 toolkit, it runs on the X Window System.
55 Sylpheed-Claws is free software distributed under the GNU GPL.
57 To run Sylpheed-Claws use 'sylpheed-claws' on the command line.
59 When sylpheed-claws is executed for the first time a configuration
60 'Wizard' will appear prompting you for the minimum information necesary
61 to create a new account.
67 Sylpheed-Claws' capabilities are extended by plugins. It comes with
68 the following plugins included, all of which, except SpamAssassin, are
69 built automatically if the required libraries are present.
71 Plugins are installed in $PREFIX/lib/sylpheed-claws/plugins/
72 and have a suffix of '.so'
73 To load a plugin go to '/Configuration/Plugins' and click
74 the 'Load Plugin' button.
75 Select the plugin that you want and click 'OK'
78 Enables the scanning of message attachments in mail
79 received from a POP, IMAP or LOCAL account using Clam
80 AntiVirus. It can optionally delete the mail or save it
81 to a designated folder. Preferences can be found in
82 '/Configuration/PreferencesPlugins/Clam AntiVirus'.
83 Clam AntiVirus is available from http://clamav.sourceforge.net/
86 Enables the viewing of html messages using the Dillo web
87 browser, version 0.7.0 or newer. It uses Dillo's --local
88 option by default for safe browsing. Preferences can be
89 found in '/Configuration/Preferences/Plugins/Dillo Browser'.
90 Dillo is available from http://www.dillo.org/
93 Handles core PGP functions and is required by the PGP/Inline
95 Uses GnuPG/GPGME, <ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/gpgme/>
98 Handles inline PGP signed and/or encrypted mails. You can
99 decrypt mails, verify signatures or sign and encrypt your
100 own mails. Uses GnuPG/GPGME, <ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/gpgme/>
103 Handles PGP/MIME signed and/or encrypted mails. You can
104 decrypt mails, verify signatures or sign and encrypt your
105 own mails. Uses GnuPG/GPGME, <ftp://ftp.gnupg.org/gcrypt/gpgme/>
108 Enables the scanning of incoming mail received from a POP,
109 IMAP or LOCAL account using SpamAssassin. It can optionally
110 delete mail identified as spam or save it to a designated
111 folder. Preferences can be found in '/Configuration/
112 Preferences/Plugins/SpamAssassin'.
113 SpamAssassin is available from http://spamassassin.apache.org/.
116 Places an icon in the system tray that indicates whether
117 you have any new mail. A tooltip also shows the current
118 new, unread and total number of messages
120 Additonal plugins can be found here:
121 http://www.sylpheed-claws.net/plugins.php
126 The "actions" feature is a convenient way for the user to launch external
127 commands to process a complete message file including headers and body or
128 just one of its parts. It allows also the use of an external command to
129 filter the whole text or just a selected part in the message window or in
130 the compose window. This is a generic tool that allows to do any uncommon
131 actions on the messages, and thus extends the possibilities of Sylpheed-Claws.
132 For example, Sylpheed-Claws does not include the rot13 cyphering algorithm
133 popular in some newsgroups. It does not support uuencoded messages. As
134 all these features can be handled by external programs, the actions
135 provide a convenient way to use them from the menu bar.
140 To create a new action, go to Configuration -> Actions.... The "Action
141 Creation" dialog offers to enter the Menu name that will trigger the
142 command. The created menu will be found in the Tools -> Actions submenu.
143 By inserting a slash / in the menu name, you create a submenu.
145 The command is entered in the Command line entry. Note that Sylpheed-Claws
146 stores every single email in a separate file. This allows to use the
147 following syntax for the command:
149 * %f denotes the file name of the selected message. If you selected more
150 than one, then the command will be launched for each message with
151 the appropriate file name
152 * %F denotes the list of the file names of the selected message. If only
153 one message is selected, this amounts to %f, but if more messages
154 are selected, then the command will be launched only once with the
155 list of the file names. (You can use both %f and %F in one command:
156 then the command will be launched for each selected message with
157 the name of this message and with the list of all selected
158 messages. I did not find a practical example for this.)
159 * %p denotes the current selected message part of a multipart message.
160 The part is decoded accordingly. If the message is not a multipart
161 message, it denotes the message body.
162 * Prepending >: this will allow you to send to the command's standard
163 input a text that you will enter in a dialog window.
164 * Prepending *: this will allow you to send to the command's standard
165 input a text that you will enter in a dialog window. But in
166 contrast to prepending >, the entered text is hidden (useful when
168 * Appending an ampersand &: this will run the command asynchronously.
169 That means "fire and forget". Sylpheed-Claws won't wait for the
170 command to finish, nor will it catch its output or its error
172 * Prepending the vertical bar | (pipe-in): this will send the current
173 displayed text or the current selected text from the message view
174 or the compose window to the command standard input. The command
175 will silently fail if more than one message is selected.
176 * Appending the vertical bar | (pipe-out): this will replace the current
177 displayed text or the current selected text from the message window
178 or the compose window by the command standard output. The command
179 will silently fail if more than one message is selected.
181 Note: It is not possible to use actions containing %f, %F or %p from the
184 When a command is run, and unless it is run asynchronously, Sylpheed will
185 be insensitive to any interaction and it will wait for the command to
186 finish. If the command takes too long (5 seconds), it will popup a dialog
187 window allowing to stop it. This dialog will also be displayed as soon as
188 the command has some output: error messages or even its standard output
189 when the command is not a "pipe-out" command. When multiple commands are
190 being run, they are run in parallel and each command output is separated
191 from the outputs of the others.
196 Here are some examples that are listed in the same syntax as used for
197 storing the actions list. You can copy and past the definition in your
198 ~/.sylpheed-claws/actionsrc file (exit Sylpheed-Claws before). The syntax
199 is very simple: one line per action, each action contains the menu name
200 and the command line separated by a colon and a space ": "
202 Purpose: rot13 cyphering
203 Definition: Rot13: |tr a-zA-Z n-za-mN-ZA-M|
204 Details: This will apply the rot13 cyphering algorithm to the
205 (selected) text in the message/compose view.
207 Purpose: Decoding uuencoded messages
208 Definition: UUdeview: xdeview %F&
209 Details: xdeview comes with uudeview. If an encoded file is split in
210 multiple messages, just select them all and run the command.
212 Purpose: Display uuencoded image
213 Definition: Display uuencoded: uudec %f&
214 Details: Displays uuencoded files. The uudec[1] script can be found in
215 the 'tools' directory of the distribution package.
217 Purpose: Alter messages
218 Definition: Edit message: gvim -f %F
219 Details: Allows editing of any received message. Can be used to remove
220 unneeded message parts, etc.
222 Purpose: Pretty format
223 Definition: Par: |par 72Tbgjqw74bEe B=._A_a 72bg|
224 Details: par is a utility that can pretty format any text. It does a
225 very good job in indenting quoted messages, and justifying
226 text. Used when composing a message
229 Definition: Part/Dillo: dillo %p&
230 Details: Browse the selected message part in Dillo.
233 Definition: GnuPG/Clear Sign: |gpg-sign-syl|
234 Details: Clear sign a message. The gpg-sign-syl[2] script is responsible
235 for asking the passphrase and for running gnupg.
237 Purpose: Verify Clear Signed
238 Definition: GnuPG/Verify: |gpg --no-tty --verify
239 Details: Verify clear signed messages. The result is displayed in the
240 actions output dialog.
242 Purpose: Decrypt ASCII Armored
243 Definition: GnuPG/Decrypt: *gpg --no-tty --command-fd 0 --passphrase-fd 0 --decrypt %f|
244 Details: Decrypt ASCII armored messages. The passphrase is entered
245 into the opened action's input dialog.
247 [1] The uudec script can be found in the 'tools' directory of the
248 distribution package. It needs uudecode and ImageMagick's display. The
249 latter can be replaced by any image viewer that can get input from
250 standard input. The script could also be modified to use temporary files
251 instead of standard input.
253 [2] The gpg-sign-syl script can be found in the 'tools' directory of the
254 distribution package.
260 Claws has support for different icon sets. Several icon sets can be
261 downloaded from http://www.sylpheed-claws.net/themes.php
262 You will need to create a directory called 'themes' in your config
263 directory, unpack them into this directory, and then use the interface
264 to select them, /Configuration/Preferences/Display/Themes
266 This interface can also be used to install new themes.
273 b. Configuration and installation
280 The spell checker in Sylpheed-Claws requires the GNU/aspell library
281 (http://www.gnu.org/software/aspell), version 0.50 or newer.
283 You also need the dictionaries. Check GNU/aspell home page for how
284 to download and install them.
286 NB: The old dictionaries used by the old aspell will not work.
291 Spell checking is enabled automatically if the aspell executable is
292 found. If it is in unusual places, use '--with-aspell-prefix' to state
293 the path to the aspell executable. E.g., if aspell's full path is
294 /foo/bar/bin/aspell, then use:
296 ./configure --with-aspell-prefix=/foo/bar
298 The '--with-aspell-prefix=PREFIX' option will let the configure
299 script search for includes and libraries in PREFIX/include and PREFIX/lib.
301 You can also manually specify the includes and libraries path by using
302 either following options:
304 --with-aspell-includes=/foo/bar/include
308 --with-aspell-libs=/rab/oof/lib
312 The configure script summarizes the options compiled in. Check that
313 it lists 'GNU/aspell = yes'.
315 Then proceed as usual, with 'make' and 'make install'.
320 After successful compiling, you need to tell Sylpheed-Claws where your
321 dictionaries reside. The configure script should have found it, but in
322 case it did not, run 'aspell config dict-dir' on the shell to get the
323 path to the dictionaries.
325 Then run Sylpheed and go to /Configuration/Preferences/Compose/Spell Checking.
326 Check the box 'Enable spell checker' and use the directory selector to select
327 the path where the dictionaries reside. Within the file selector, go to that
328 directory and select *any* file in the file lists. Click OK. Then, you should
329 be able to select your default dictionary.
331 When composing, misspelled words are highlighted. Click on any
332 highlighted word with the right mouse button to get a list of
333 suggestions. The first entry of the menu just displays the unknown
334 word. Selecting 'Accept in this session' (or hitting MOD1-Space,
335 where MOD1 is usually the ALT key) will ignore this word and accept
336 it in this message. Selecting the next entry, "Add to dictionary", which
337 is bound to MOD1-Enter combination, will add the unknown word to your
338 personal dictionary to learn it. The next entries are the suggested words.
339 The first 15 suggestions can be accessed by typing one of the first letters
340 of Latin alphabet (if this does not suit your language, please send
341 a mail to melvin.hadasht@free.fr). Aspell has a 'learn from mistake'
342 function that can be used by pressing the MOD1 key and selecting the
343 suggestion (with the keyboard or with the mouse). See GNU/aspell manual
344 §6.3 for an explanation of this feature (also called 'replacement storing').
346 If you click with the right mouse button everywhere else, or if you
347 shift-right-click even on a misspelled word, you get the
348 configuration menu. 'Check all' highlights all misspelled words.
349 With this menu, you can also change the dictionary while editing.
350 Finally, you can change the suggestion mode, and the learn from
353 Spell checking can also be done using keyboard shortcuts. In the
354 'Edit' menu of the compose window, there are two menus 'Check backwards
355 misspelled word' and 'Forward to next misspelled word'. Add to them
356 appropriate keyboard shortcuts. 'Check backwards misspelled word'
357 checks backwards from cursor position for the first misspelled word.
358 If it finds one, it displays the suggestions lists which can be handled
359 with the keyboard as described before. When the suggestion menu is
360 closed, the cursor returns to its original position to be able to
361 continue editing. The 'Forward to next misspelled word' do the same
362 thing in the other direction but moves the cursor at the end of the
363 misspelled word. This way, you can spell check easily a whole message
364 starting from its beginning and using the 'Forward to next misspelled
365 word' keyboard short cut.
368 6. Quick Search with extended search
369 ------------------------------------
370 Quick Search, with its powerful Extended search function,
371 enables searching through folder's messages.
373 Extended Search allows one to define criteria that messages must
374 have in order to match and be displayed in the summary view pane.
375 Search types titled From, Subject and To are self explanatory.
376 Search type extended allows one to use Sylpheed's powerful
377 filtering engine to select messages. Examples:
378 from regexpcase "foo"
379 subject regexp "Bug" & to regexp "sylpheed-claws"
381 Additionally, it is possible to use simpler yet equally
382 powerfull patterns for message selections. Mutt users will
383 immediately recognise most of the available patterns:
385 Pattern Parameter Selects
386 ----------------------------------------------------
388 ag # messages whose age is greater than #
389 al # messages whose age is lower than #
390 b S messages which contain S in the message body
391 B S messages which contain S in the whole message
392 c S messages carbon-copied to S
393 C S message is either to: or cc: to S
395 e S messages which contain S in the Sender field
396 E S true if execute "S" succeeds
397 f S messages originating from user S
399 h S messages which contain header S
400 i S messages which contain S in Message-Id header
401 I S messages which contain S in inreplyto header
403 n S messages which are in newsgroup S
406 r messages which have been replied to
408 s S messages which contain S in subject
409 se # messages whose score is equal to #
410 sg # messages whose score is greater than #
411 sl # messages whose score is lower than #
412 Se # messages whose size is equal to #
413 Sg # messages whose size is greater than #
414 Ss # messages whose size is smaller than #
415 t S messages which have been sent to S
418 x S messages which contain S in References header
419 y S messages which contain S in X-Label header
422 S means regexp string
424 It is possible to use logical operators AND (&), OR (|) and
425 NOT (! or ~). Case sensitive search is achieved with %.
429 f "john beavis" messages from john beavis
430 %f "John Beavis" messages from John Beavis (case sensitive)
431 ~s foo messages which do not have foo in the subject
432 f foo & ~s bar messages from foo that do not have bar in thesubject
438 /Configuration/Preferences/Customize Toolbars lets you define the
439 toolbar you want. The configuration dialog enables you to set an icon,
440 an appropriate text, and map an action to it. Actions to choose
441 from are predefined. You can also have your "Sylpheed-Claws Actions"
442 (refer to "Actions" above) on your toolbar.
445 * Configuration->Actions
446 - add an entry "Dillo: dillo %p&"
447 * Configuration->Custom toolbar
448 - select Sylpheed Actions Feature
449 - select "Dillo: dillo %p&" from drop down list
450 - choose an icon and click ok
454 8. Partial downloading of POP3 mails
455 ------------------------------------
456 Messages over the configured size limit, (/[Account preferences]/
457 Receive/Message size limit), will be partially retrieved. These
458 messages will have a Notice View displayed (above the Message View),
459 informing of the partially retrieved state and the total size of the
460 message. The Notice View will also contain two buttons, 'Mark for
461 download' and 'Mark for deletion'. If the user clicks 'Mark for
462 download', the message will be downloaded in full at the next message
463 retrieval, (and the partial one deleted); if the user checks 'Mark for
464 deletion' it will be removed from the server after the normal delay
465 as specified in the POP3 account's 'Receive' preferences.
466 If a user moves a partially retrieved message to the Trash folder
467 it will be deleted on the server at the next retrieval after the
468 Trash folder has been emptied.
476 allow_jisx0201_kana (default: 0)
477 allow JIS X 0201 Kana (half-width kana) on sending.
480 bold_unread (default: 1)
481 show unread messages using bold font in summary view
484 cache_max_mem_usage (default: 4096)
485 the maximum kB of memory sylpheed should use.
486 It will try to keep the memory usage below this
487 value, but it will always use the assigned
488 amount of memory for speed gain.
490 cache_min_keep_time (default: 15)
491 the minimum time in minutes sylpheed will keep
492 the folder cache in memory. If a cache is more
493 recent than this time it will not be freed even
494 if the memory usage is above the maximum. You
495 should probably set this value higher than your
496 mail check interval. Otherwise the cache will
497 always be freed between checks even if the folder
498 is accessed on every check, which will cause much
501 compose_no_markup (default: 0)
502 prevent italic and bold text in the Compose dialog
504 0: normal (markup) 1: no markup
506 enable_hscrollbar (default: 1)
507 enable horizontal scroll bar in summary view
510 enable_rules_hint (default: 1)
511 enable alternate coloring of items in GtkTreeView
514 enable_swap_from (default: 0)
515 display sender's email address in To column in Sent
516 folder instead of recipient's
519 folderview_vscrollbar_policy (default: 0)
520 specify the policy of vertical scroll bar of folder view
521 0: always 1: automatic 2: never
523 hover_timeout (default: 500)
524 time in milliseconds that will cause a folder tree to
525 expand during drag n drop when the mouse cover is held
528 statusbar_update_step (default: 10)
529 update stepping in progress bars
531 textview_cursor_visible (default: 0)
532 display the cursor in the message view
535 thread_by_subject_max_age (default: 10)
536 number of days to include a message in a thread when using
537 'Thread using subject in addition to standard headers'
539 toolbar_detachable (default: 0)
540 hide handles in the toolbar
543 utf8_instead_of_locale_for_broken_mail (default: 0)
544 use UTF-8 encoding for broken mails instead of current
548 warn_dnd (default: 1)
549 display a confirmation dialog on drag n drop of folders
554 You will find all of these tools in the 'tools' directory:
557 send PDFs from Adobe Reader 7
559 import mbox files exported by calypso
561 convert mbox format to MH format
563 convert a Eudora (v.3?) addressbook to vCard
566 convert sylpheed main's filter rules, (< 0.9.99),
567 into Claws' filtering format
569 convert sylpheed main's filter rules, (>= 0.9.99),
570 into Claws' filtering format
572 Actions script to lookup the selected text on
573 Freshmeat www.freshmeat.net using the configured
576 convert a gif file to an xface
578 Actions script to lookup selected message-id on
579 google using mozilla.
581 Actions script to lookup up the selected text on
582 google using the configured browser
584 GnuPG cleartext-signing script for use with
587 Service Menus for Konqueror to allow attaching files and
588 compressing/attaching files/directories to a new Compose
591 convert a Kmail addressbook to a Sylpheed
594 new version of the address book conversion script
595 for newer versions of Kmail/Kaddressbook
597 convert a maildir format mailbox into MH format
599 search any searchable website for the selected text
601 enables sending files from the Nautilus file manager
604 enable OpenOffice to send documents through
607 convert an Outlook contacts list to a Sylpheed
610 process a Sylpheed mail and print it using enscript
611 if available or lpr if not
613 convert an addressbook exported from The Bat! into
614 a Sylpheed addressbook
616 integrate a Thunderbird folder tree into Claws
618 attempt to view an attachment as plain text
620 translators' tool that eases the creation of
623 decode UUencoded mails, for use with Actions
625 import an Evolution vCard
628 11. How to contribute
629 ---------------------
631 You are encourged to send patches via the Sylpheed-Claws sourceforge
632 project's Patch Tracker.
633 http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?atid=384600&group_id=25528&func=browse
635 If that's too troublesome, either contact Paul Mangan
636 <claws@thewildbeast.co.uk> or consider posting to the
637 Sylpheed-Claws-users mailing list.
638 http://www.sylpheed-claws.net/MLs.php
640 Bugs can be reported with Claws' bugzilla at:
641 http://www.thewildbeast.co.uk/sylpheed-claws/bugzilla/index.cgi
643 Of course, you can also post to the Sylpheed-Claws-users mailing list.
645 Also, we really try to incorporate good contributions, but sometimes we
646 don't have enough time. If the contribution is really big, or requires
647 a long time to stabilise, send a mail to Paul Mangan
648 <claws@thewildbeast.co.uk>. We can probably arrange access to the
649 Sylpheed-Claws CVS tree.
653 12. How to request features
654 ---------------------------
656 Ask around in Sylpheed-Claws-users ML. Note that some developers may
657 have already thought about your feature, may,perhaps, be implementing it,
658 or the feature was already discussed and rejected for whatever reason.
659 You might want to go ahead and hack a patch for it. (That would be very
660 cool!) Another possibility is to use the Feature Request Tracker at the
662 http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=25528&atid=384601
666 13. Installing Sylpheed-Claws from CVS
667 --------------------------------------
672 To download the latest cvs cd to the directory where you wish to download
673 to and type the following information:
675 cvs -z3 -d:pserver:cvs@sunsite.dk:/pack/anoncvs login
681 cvs -z3 -d:pserver:cvs@sunsite.dk:/pack/anoncvs co -r gtk2 sylpheedclaws/sylpheed-claws
687 To compile and install use the following commands:
689 ./autogen.sh [add configure options as required]
691 make install [as root]
693 You will need a full set of development tools installed to be able to run
694 autogen.sh. See also ac/README.
735 2004-05-31 0.9.11claws
736 2004-03-08 0.9.10claws
737 2004-02-06 0.9.9claws
738 2003-12-19 0.9.8claws
739 2003-11-26 0.9.7claws
740 2003-10-02 0.9.6claws
741 2003-09-10 0.9.5claws
742 2003-08-04 0.9.4claws
743 2003-07-12 0.9.3claws
744 2003-05-24 0.9.0claws
745 2003-03-12 0.8.11claws
746 2003-02-12 0.8.10claws
747 2003-01-24 0.8.9claws
748 2002-12-26 0.8.8claws
749 2002-12-23 0.8.7claws
750 2002-11-25 0.8.6claws
751 2002-10-07 0.8.5claws
752 2002-09-22 0.8.3claws
753 2002-08-28 0.8.2claws
754 2002-07-30 0.8.1claws
755 2002-07-23 0.8.0claws
756 2002-06-15 0.7.8claws
757 2002-05-18 0.7.6claws
758 2002-04-28 0.7.5claws
759 2002-03-11 0.7.4claws
760 2002-02-19 0.7.2claws
761 2002-02-14 0.7.1claws
762 2002-01-14 0.7.0claws
763 2001-12-16 0.6.6claws
764 2001-10-16 0.6.5claws8
765 2001-09-30 0.6.2claws
766 2001-08-14 0.6.1claws
767 2001-07-13 0.5.1claws
768 2001-07-01 0.5.0claws3
769 2001-06-16 0.4.99claws
770 2001-05-29 0.4.99claws3
771 2001-05-11 0.4.67claws1
778 http://www.sylpheed-claws.net/
780 http://www.sylpheed-claws.net/faq/
782 http://sourceforge.net/projects/sylpheed-claws/
784 http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=25528&package_id=147457
786 http://www.sylpheed-claws.net/plugins.php
788 http://www.sylpheed-claws.net/themes.php
790 http://cvs.sunsite.dk/viewcvs.cgi/sylpheedclaws/sylpheed-claws/?only_with_tag=gtk2
792 http://www.sylpheed-claws.net/MLs.php
793 Users Mailing List archive
794 http://lists.sunsite.dk/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi/28
795 Commits Announcement List archive
796 http://lists.sunsite.dk/cgi-bin/ezmlm-cgi/27
798 http://www.thewildbeast.co.uk/sylpheed-claws/bugzilla/index.cgi
799 Feature Request Tracker
800 http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=25528&atid=384601
802 http://sourceforge.net/tracker/?group_id=25528&atid=384600
803 Internationalisation Status
804 http://www.sylpheed-claws.net/i18n.php
806 http://www.sylpheed-claws.net/sponsors.php
808 http://planet.sylpheed-claws.net/
809 Sylpheed-Claws for Windows homepage
810 http://www.sylpheed-claws.net/win32/