| Linux / Unix Command: formail |
NAME
formail - mail (re)formatterSYNOPSIS
formail [+skip] [-total] [-bczfrktedqBY] [-p prefix][-D maxlen idcache]
[-l folder]
[-x headerfield] [-X headerfield]
[-a headerfield] [-A headerfield]
[-i headerfield] [-I headerfield]
[-u headerfield] [-U headerfield]
[-R oldfield newfield]
[-n [maxprocs ]] [-m minfields] [-s [command [arg ...]]]
formail -v
DESCRIPTION
formail is a filter that can be used to force mail into mailbox format, perform `From ' escaping, generate auto-replying headers, do simple header munging/extracting or split up a mailbox/digest/articles file. The mail/mailbox/article contents will be expected on stdin.If formail is supposed to determine the sender of the mail, but is unable to find any, it will substitute `foo@bar'.
If formail is started without any command line options, it will force any mail coming from stdin into mailbox format and will escape all bogus `From ' lines with a `>'.
OPTIONS
- -v
- Formail will print its version number and exit.
- -b
- Don't escape any bogus mailbox headers (i.e., lines starting with `From ').
- -p prefix
- Define a different quotation prefix. If unspecified it defaults to `>'.
- -Y
- Assume traditional Berkeley mailbox format, ignoring any Content-Length: fields.
- -c
- Concatenate continued fields in the header. Might be convenient when postprocessing mail with standard (line oriented) text utilities.
- -z
- Ensure a whitespace exists between field name and content. Zap fields which contain only a single whitespace character. Zap leading and trailing whitespace on fields extracted with -x.
- -f
- Force formail to simply pass along any non-mailbox format (i.e., don't generate a `From ' line as the first line).
- -r
- Generate an auto-reply header. This will normally throw away all the existing fields (except X-Loop:) in the original message, fields you wish to preserve need to be named using the -i option. If you use this option in conjunction with -k, you can prevent the body from being `escaped' by also specifying -b.
- -k
- When generating the auto-reply header or when extracting fields, keep the body as well.
- -t
- Trust the sender to have used a valid return address in his header. This causes formail to select the header sender instead of the envelope sender for the reply. This option should be used when generating auto-reply headers from news articles or when the sender of the message is expecting a reply.
- -s
- The input will be split up into separate mail messages, and piped into a program one by one (a new program is started for every part). -s has to be the last option specified, the first argument following it is expected to be the name of a program, any other arguments will be passed along to it. If you omit the program, then formail will simply concatenate the split mails on stdout again. See FILENO.
- -n [maxprocs]
- Tell formail not to wait for every program to finish before starting the next (causes splits to be processed in parallel). Maxprocs optionally specifies an upper limit on the number of concurrently running processes.
- -e
- Do not require empty lines to be preceding the header of a new message (i.e., the messages could start on every line).
- -d
- Tell formail that the messages it is supposed to split need not be in strict mailbox format (i.e., allows you to split digests/articles or non-standard mailbox formats). This disables recognition of the Content-Length: field.
- -l folder
- Generate a log summary in the same style as procmail. This includes the entire "From " line, the Subject: header field, the folder, and the size of the message in bytes. The mailstat command can be used to summarize logs in this format.
- -B
- Makes formail assume that it is splitting up a BABYL rmail file.
- -m minfields
- Allows you to specify the number of consecutive headerfields formail needs to find before it decides it found the start of a new message, it defaults to 2.
- -q
- Tells formail to (still detect but) be quiet about write errors, duplicate messages and mismatched Content-Length: fields. This option is on by default, to make it display the messages use -q-.
- -D maxlen idcache
- Formail will detect if the Message-ID of the current message has already been seen using an idcache file of approximately maxlen size. If not splitting, it will return success if a duplicate has been found. If splitting, it will not output duplicate messages. If used in conjunction with -r, formail will look at the mail address of the envelope sender instead at the Message-ID.
- -x headerfield
- Extract the contents of this headerfield from the header. Line continuations will be left intact; if you want the value on a single line then you'll also need the -c option.
- -X headerfield
- Same as -x, but also preserves/includes the field name.
- -a headerfield
- Append a custom headerfield onto the header; but only if a similar field does not exist yet. If you specify either one of the field names Message-ID: or Resent-Message-ID: with no field contents, then formail will generate a unique message-ID for you.
- -A headerfield
- Append a custom headerfield onto the header in any case.
- -i headerfield
- Same as -A, except that any existing similar fields are renamed by prepending an ``Old-'' prefix. If headerfield consists only of a field-name, it will not be appended.
- -I headerfield
- Same as -i, except that any existing similar fields are simply removed. If headerfield consists only of a field-name, it effectively deletes the field.
- -u headerfield
- Make the first occurrence of this field unique, and thus delete all subsequent occurrences of it.
- -U headerfield
- Make the last occurrence of this field unique, and thus delete all preceding occurrences of it.
- -R oldfield newfield
- Renames all occurrences of the fieldname oldfield into newfield.
- +skip
- Skip the first skip messages while splitting.
- -total
- Output at most total messages while splitting.
SEE ALSO
mail(1), binmail(1), sendmail(8), procmail(1), sed(1), sh(1), RFC822, RFC2822, RFC1123Important: Use the man command (% man) to see how a command is used on your particular computer.
