* sharing mail folders
* default to address for folders
* threading mode per folder
- * quotation wrapping
+ * simplify subject string
+ * pixmap themes
+ * user definable actions
* spell checking (with installation instructions)
+ * new cache
+ * selective download, delete messages on server
4. How to contribute
5. How to request features
-6. History
+6. Installing Claws from CVS
+7. History
-------------------------------
From the user perspective Claws is just a fancy Sylpheed, so it uses the
- same sylpheed setting files located in ~/.sylpheed.
+ 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
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 my filter rules?
+ Claws uses a new filtering system. 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 converts old filter rules to the claws
+ filtering system, see tools/README for details.
+
* What happened to the compose email and compose news buttons?
There's a composite button for both composing mail and news. You can toggle
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
+ ~/.sylpheed/matcherrc (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).
+ Switching between Sylpheed Claws and Sylpheed on a regular basis
+ ----------------------------------------------------------------
+ If you want to have both claws and main installed concurrently simply pass them
+ a different --prefix when doing ./configure. Then use the script 'sylpheed-switcher',
+ (which is provided in the tools directory), to launch the version you require without
+ fear of losing specific settings related to either claws or main. Further details can
+ be found in tools/README.
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:
+are hardly noticeable, 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
+ -----------------------------------
+ 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
+ -----------------------------------
+ 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
+ compose a new mail, when this folder is selected the recipient 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.)
-* quotation wrapping
- Quotation is wrapped like VIM would wrap it (at least that was the
- goal). To enable this feature go to Common preferences->Compose and
- make sure Wrap quotation is enabled. The text is automatically
- wrapped when you reply to an e-mail if this feature is enabled.
+* 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 hidden (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 its output or its 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 output: 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 output 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[1] 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-syl|
+ Details: Clear sign a message. The gpg-sign-syl[2] script is responsible
+ for asking the passphrase and for running gnupg.
+
+ Purpose: Verify Clear Signed
+ Definition: GnuPG/Verify: |gpg --no-tty --verify
+ 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.
+
+ [1] The uudec 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.
+
+ [2] The gpg-sign-syl script can be found in the 'tools' directory of the
+ distribution package.
* Spell checker for Sylpheed-Claws
-
+-----------------------------------
a. Requirements
b. Configuration and installation
c. Usage
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:
+ Note:
+ As for version 0.8.3 (and cvs version 0.8.2claws3), Sylpheed-Claws uses
+ the new GNU/aspell 0.50 for spell checking instead of the obsolete pspell
+ and old aspell 0.33.x. You will need to upgrade your system. See
+ http://www.gnu.org/software/aspell for instructions on how to do this.
- 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.
+ The spell checker in Sylpheed requires the new GNU/aspell library
+ (http://www.gnu.org/software/aspell), version 0.50 or newer.
- 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.
+ You also need the dictionaries. Check GNU/aspell home page for how
+ to download and install them.
+
+ NB: The old dictionaries used by the old aspell will not work.
b. Configuring Sylpheed
-----------------------
- Spell checking is enabled if you configure sylpheed appropriately. Add
- the option '--enable-pspell' when configuring. E.g.:
+ Spell checking is enabled if you configure Sylpheed appropriately. Add
+ the option '--enable-aspell' when configuring. E.g.:
- ./configure --enable-pspell
+ ./configure --enable-aspell
- 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:
+ The configure script needs the 'aspell' executable to be in your path.
+ If it is in unusual places, use '--with-aspell-prefix' to tell the path of
+ the aspell executable. E.g., if aspell's full path is
+ /foo/bar/bin/aspell, then use:
- ./configure --enable-pspell --with-pspell-prefix=/foo/bar
+ ./configure --enable-aspell --with-aspell-prefix=/foo/bar
- If you have problems with not found includes or libraries, check
- first where these are located, and add either options:
+ The '--with-aspell-prefix=PREFIX' option will let the configure
+ script search for includes and libraries in PREFIX/include and PREFIX/lib.
- --with-pspell-includes=/foo/bar/include
+ You can also specify manually the includes and libraries path by using
+ either following options:
- or
+ --with-aspell-includes=/foo/bar/include
- --with-pspell-libs=/foo/bar/lib
+ and/or
+
+ --with-aspell-libs=/rab/oof/lib
as appropriate.
- Configure script summarizes the options compiled in. Check that
- configure lists 'Pspell = yes'.
+ The configure script summarizes the options compiled in. Check that
+ it lists 'GNU/aspell = yes'.
Then proceed as usual, with 'make' and 'make install'.
c. Usage
--------
- After successful compiling, you need to tell sylpheed where your
- dictionaries reside. First run 'pspell-config pkgdatadir' on the
- shell to get their path.
+ NOTE: if you upgraded from Sylpheed-Claws 0.8.2 (or cvs version 0.8.2claws2)
+ or earlier, please check if the dictionary path was updated in the
+ Configuration -> Common Preferences -> Spell Checker menu. If not, update
+ it accordingly as explained below.
+
+ After successful compiling, you need to tell Sylpheed where your
+ dictionaries reside. The configure script should have found it,
+ but in case it did not, run 'aspell config dict-dir' on the
+ shell to get the path to the dictionaries.
- Then run sylpheed and go to Configuration -> Common preferences ->
- Spell Checker. Check the box 'Enable spell checker (EXPERIMENTAL)' and
+ Then run Sylpheed and go to Configuration -> Common preferences ->
+ Spell Checker. Check the box 'Enable spell checker' 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
+ and select *any* file in the file lists. Click OK. Then, you should
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. You can also accept the highlighted word to the
- session dictionary (equivalent to an 'ignore' option of other spell
- checker), or you can add it to you personal dictionary.
+ 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 your
+ personal dictionary to learn it. The next entries are the suggested words.
+ The first 15 suggestions can be accessed by 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). Aspell has a 'learn from mistake'
+ function that can be used by pressing the MOD1 key and selecting the
+ suggestion (with the keyboard or with the mouse). See GNU/aspell manual
+ ยง6.3 for an explanation of this feature (also called 'replacement storing').
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.
+ configuration menu. 'Check all' highlights all misspelled words.
With this menu, you can also change the dictionary while editing.
- You can change the suggestion mode and toggle the learn from
- misktakes 'feature' (useful only with aspell).
+ Finally, you can change the suggestion mode, and the learn from
+ misktakes feature.
+
+ 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.
-
+ No known problems as the time of this writing (0.8.2claws3).
+
+* 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:
+ \[sylpheed:[0-9]{5}\]
+
+* new cache
+-----------------------------------
+ New cache is a new data cache structure for sylpheed, that will
+ solve many of the problems sylpheed currently has with updates to
+ flags. But you will also notice a large speed gain when you open
+ these folders.
+
+ New cache uses two new configuration parameters that can be
+ adjusted in ~/.sylpheed/sylpheedrc (no gui for them available yet).
+
+ cache_max_mem_usage (default: 4096)
+ the maximum kB of memory sylpheed should use.
+ It will try to keep the memory usage below this
+ value, but it will always use the assigned
+ amount of memory for speed gain.
+
+ cache_min_keep_time (default: 15)
+ the minimum time in minutes sylpheed will keep
+ the folder cache in memory. If a cache is more
+ recent than this time it will not be freed even
+ if the memory usage is above the maximum. You
+ should probably set this value higher than your
+ mail check interval. Otherwise the cache will
+ always be freed between checks even if the folder
+ is accessed on every check, which will cause much
+ disk IO.
+
+ The check if memory can be freed is currently done after the
+ active folder has been changed or whenever a new cache is read,
+ i.e. triggered by mail incorporation.
+
+ New mails in MH folders are not detected automatically like before,
+ when you enter the folder. You have to update the folder manually,
+ or activate the auto update setting in the options.
There are a lot more options. If you find one, don't hesitate to
mention it.
+* selective download, delete messages on server
+-----------------------------------
+ The selective download window lets you select messages, that
+ should be retrieved from or deleted on the server.
+ The selection can be automated by setting up a *global*
+ filtering rule (folder based rules are ignored), e.g
+ subject match "SPAM" delete_on_server
+ Next time, you retrieve the headers using selective download,
+ all messages that matched this criteria are marked.
+ NOTE: Selective download is a pop3 only feature and makes
+ no sense if used as a folder processing filter.
+
+* Custom toolbar
+----------------
+ Configuration->Custom toolbar lets you define the toolbar
+ you want. The configuration dialog enables you to set an icon,
+ an appropriate text and map an action to it. Actions to choose
+ from are predefined. You may as well have your "Sylpheed Actions"
+ (refer to "user definable actions" above) on your toolbar.
+ Example:
+ * Configuration->Actions
+ - add an entry "Dillo: dillo %p&"
+ * Configuration->Custom toolbar
+ - select Sylpheed Actions Feature
+ - select "Dillo: dillo %p&" from drop down list
+ - choose an icon and click ok
+
4. How to contribute
Sylpheed Main:
submit it to the Sylpheed ML, Hiroyuki, or Paul Mangan
- (for incorporation on the Sylpheed Patches page)
+ (for incorporation on the Sylpheed Patches page,
+ <http://www.thewildbeast.co.uk/sylpheed/>)
Sylpheed Claws:
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
+ Of course you can also post to the sylpheed claws users
mailing list.
Also, we really try to incorporate good contributions, but sometimes we
-6. History
+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. See also ac/README.
+
+7. History
----------
TODO
projects / claws.git / blobdiff