CLAWS-MAIL(1)

📦
version 4.4.0 · 7 versions
, in alpine 3.24, arch rolling, fedora 43, fedora 44, nixos 26.05, nixpkgs unstable, opensuse-leap 16.0

🦋 NAME 🦋

okay so bestie, gather round — this is the manual page for claws-mail, aka Claws Mail, and it's a GTK based fast email and news client. yes. an email client. that's the whole vibe. 💌

✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

claws-mail [options]...

that's it, that's the whole thing — you run it, you throw some options at it, it does stuff. slay.

💅 DESCRIPTION 💅

so Claws Mail is an email client (and also a news reader, multitasking queen) built on GTK, running on the X Window System, and it is literally aiming for:

  • Quick response ⚡
  • Graceful, and sophisticated interface 🎀
  • Easy configuration, intuitive operation 🫶
  • Abundant features ✨

and the features it has right now, currently implemented, no cap:

  • POP3 support
  • IMAP4rev1 support
  • integrated NetNews client
  • unlimited multiple account handling
  • thread display
  • filtering
  • MIME (attachments)
  • built-in image view
  • X-Face and (colour) Face support
  • multiple MH folder support
  • mbox importing / exporting
  • external editor support
  • message queueing
  • automatic mail checking
  • draft message function
  • template function
  • line-wrapping
  • clickable URI
  • XML-based address book
  • LDAP, vCard, and JPilot support
  • newly arrived and unread message management
  • Mew/Wanderlust-like key bind
  • printing
  • APOP authentication support
  • SMTP AUTH support
  • SSL support (POP3, SMTP, IMAP4rev1)
  • IPv6 support
  • drag & drop (partially implemented)
  • GnuPG support
  • automake + autoconf support
  • internationalization of UI messages by gettext
  • support of many code sets, including UTF-8 (Unicode)
  • support for plugins
and before you come for me — this list is not complete. it's giving "humble brag", ik. 💅

🔥 OPTIONS 🔥

here's the full roster, bestie, no skips:

  • --compose [address]
  • --compose-from-file file
  • --subscribe uri
  • --attach file1 [file2]...
  • --insert file1 [file2]...
  • --import-mbox file
  • --receive
  • --receive-all
  • --cancel-receiving
  • --cancel-sending
  • --search folder type request [recursive]
  • --send
  • --status
  • --status folder[/subfolder]
  • --status-full
  • --status-full folder[/subfolder]
  • --statistics
  • --reset-statistics
  • --select [#mh/mailbox/]folder[/msg|/msgid], a file:// uri or an absolute path
  • --online
  • --offline
  • --exit
  • --debug
  • --toggle-debug
  • --help
  • --version
  • --version-full
  • --config-dir
  • --alternate-config-dir directory
  • --geometry [WxH][+X+Y]
✨ want the tea on what each one actually does? scroll your lil self down to EXAMPLES, it's all there bestie.

🌸 FILES 🌸

all the places Claws Mail keeps its stuff. know them, love them, don't delete them randomly. 😭

  • $HOME/Mail — Default directory for mail storage.
  • $PREFIX/share/claws-mail — Global program directory.
  • $PREFIX/share/claws-mail/manual — Manual files in HTML, PDF, PostScript and plain text format.
  • $PREFIX/share/claws-mail/themes — Global themes directory.
  • $PREFIX/lib/claws-mail/plugins — Directory for plugins.
  • $PREFIX/include/claws-mail — Directory for header files.
  • $HOME/.claws-mail — Default directory for user's configuration files directory.
  • $HOME/.claws-mail/imapcache/* — IMAP caches.
  • $HOME/.claws-mail/addrbook/* — Addressbook files.
  • $HOME/.claws-mail/autofaces/* — Automatic Faces and X-Faces files for accounts.
  • $HOME/.claws-mail/certs/* — SSL certificates received from mail servers.
  • $HOME/.claws-mail/tagsdb — Tags directory.
  • $HOME/.claws-mail/templates — User-defined templates directory.
  • $HOME/.claws-mail/themes — User's themes directory.
  • $HOME/.claws-mail/accountrc — Configuration for account(s).
  • $HOME/.claws-mail/actionsrc — User-defined custom actions.
  • $HOME/.claws-mail/addrbook/attributesrc — User-defined address book custom attributes.
  • $HOME/.claws-mail/claws.log — Claws Mail logfile.
  • $HOME/.claws-mail/clawsrc — Main configuration file.
  • $HOME/.claws-mail/command_history — User-specified commands.
  • $HOME/.claws-mail/customheaderrc — Configuration for custom headers for sending mail.
  • $HOME/.claws-mail/dispheaderrc — Configuration for custom display of headers in message view.
  • $HOME/.claws-mail/extraheaderrc — Editable extra headers to be added to compose window combobox.
  • $HOME/.claws-mail/folderitemrc — All folders' attributes.
  • $HOME/.claws-mail/folderlist.xml — Folder hierarchy listing.
  • $HOME/.claws-mail/matcherrc — Filtering and Processing function configuration.
  • $HOME/.claws-mail/menurc — Menu shortcut-key configuration.
  • $HOME/.claws-mail/messagesearch_history — User-specified searches in message bodies.
  • $HOME/.claws-mail/quicksearch_history — User-specified quick-search list.
  • $HOME/.claws-mail/messagesearch_history — User-specified searches in message bodies.
  • $HOME/.claws-mail/oauth2rc — Oauth2 configuration.
  • $HOME/.claws-mail/summary*_history — User-specified searches in message list.
  • $HOME/.claws-mail/passwordstorerc — User saved passwords.
  • $HOME/.claws-mail/tagsrc — User-specified tag list.
  • $HOME/.claws-mail/toolbar*.xml — User-defined custom toolbars.
  • %TEMP%\claws-win32.log (Windows only) — Claws Mail output file when --debug is enabled. If %TEMP% is not set it defaults to windows directory (usually C:\Windows) or C:\ if windows directory is not available.
  • %APPDATA%\Claws-mail\claws.log (Windows only) — Claws Mail log file.
💀 yes, $HOME/.claws-mail/messagesearch_history is listed twice. i'm not touching that, i'm just the messenger. ✨

🎀 EXAMPLES 🎀

to run this program the standard way, you literally just type:

claws-mail

or, if you're feeling spicy, you can run it with the following options:

  • --compose [address] — To open a Compose window.
  • --compose "mailto:%t?subject=%s&cc=%c&body=%b" — This syntax can be used in web-browsers and CLI to open a pre-populated Compose window. Possible fields after the destination recipient are: subject, from, cc, bcc, in-reply-to, body, insert (insert a file in body part, needs an absolute path), attach (attach a file, needs an absolute path, see also: --attach).
  • --compose-from-file file — Open composition window with data from the given file. Use - as file name for reading from standard input. Content format: headers first (To: header required) until an empty line is found, then mail body until end of file.
  • --subscribe uri — Subscribe to the given URI if possible.
  • --attach file1 [file2]... — Open composition window with specified files attached.
  • --insert file1 [file2]... — Open composition window with specified files inserted.
  • --receive — Receive new messages.
  • --receive-all — Receive new messages from all accounts.
  • --cancel-receiving — Cancel receiving of messages.
  • --cancel-sending — Cancel sending of messages.
  • --search folder type request [recursive] — Searches mail:
folder ex.: "#mh/Mailbox/inbox" or "Mail"
type: s[ubject],f[rom],t[o],e[xtended],m[ixed] or g: tag
request: search string
recursive: false if arg. starts with 0, n, N, f or F
  • --send — Send all queued messages.
  • --status — Show the total number of messages:
[new][unread][unread answers to marked][total]
  • --status folder[/subfolder] — Show the total number of messages in the specified folder:
[new][unread][unread answers to marked][total]
  • --status-full — Show the total number of messages per folder:
[new][unread][unread answers to marked][total]
  • --status-full folder[/subfolder] — Show the total number of messages int the specified folder:
[new][unread][unread answers to marked][total]
  • --statistics — Show session statistics.
  • --reset-statistics — Reset session statistics.
  • --select #mh/Mailbox/inbox/123
  • --select file://home/johndoe/Mail/inbox/123
  • --select /home/johndoe/Mail/inbox/123 — On startup, jump to the specified folder/message.
  • --online — Start Claws Mail in (or switch to, if already running) online mode.
  • --offline — Start Claws Mail in (or switch to, if already running) offline mode.
  • --exit — Exit Claws Mail.
  • --debug — For debug mode (on Windows systems output is written to a file instead of standard error output, see Windows only on FILES section).
  • --toggle-debug — Toggle debug mode of the running Claws Mail instance.
  • --help — Display the help message.
  • --version — Display version number.
  • --version-full — Display version number and compiled-in features.
  • --config-dir — Display the CONFIG-DIR.
  • --alternate-config-dir dir — Start Claws Mail with the configuration stored in the [dir] directory.
  • --geometry [WxH][+X+Y] — Set initial X geometry of main window.

🌈 ENVIRONMENT 🌈

the env vars, bestie. they're watching. 👀

  • CLAWS_NO_CRASH — If defined disables crash dialog (only if Claws Mail has been built with crash dialog feature enabled).
  • DISPLAY — Default host and display number to use.
  • ETPANSERVER, ETPANPORT — When using a tunnel command to open server connections these temporary variables are set to the server name and server port respectively in the environment of the running command.
  • GPG_AGENT_INFO — The information to access the GPG agent if using GPG agent is enabled in GPG plugin preferences (this is usually set by the agent when launched, otherwise it likely means the GPG agent is not running).
  • G_BROKEN_FILENAMES — Assumes that filenames are in the locale encoding rather than in UTF-8.
  • HOME — Full path of the user's home directory.
  • LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LANG — Locale to use for non-windows systems (the first one not empty is used).
  • PILOT_CHARSET — If defined overrides default J-Pilot charset (CP1252).
  • POSIXLY_CORRECT — If defined regular expressions matching follows POSIX standards.
  • SESSION_MANAGER — If defined tries to use the Session Manager (only if Claws Mail has been built with libSM feature enabled).
  • SHELL — If defined overrides default shell "sh" used by Spamassassin plugin to launch spamc wrappers.
  • SSL_CERT_DIR — Use this CA certificates directory instead known system directories.
  • SSL_CERT_FILE — Use this CA certificates file instead of searching known system files.
  • USER — Used to initialize default "user_id" preference in newly created accounts.

and that's part 1 bestie — there's more coming, so don't go anywhere. 💖

🐛 BUGS 🐛

Okay bestie, found a glitch? First, vibe check the existing ones — you can search for already-known bugs and report brand new ones over on the Claws Mail bugzilla:

<https://www.thewildbeast.co.uk/claws-mail/bugzilla/>

No gatekeeping, no "it's probably just you" — if it's broken, they wanna know. 💅

1999-2022 The Claws Mail team and Hiroyuki Yamamoto

And babes, portions are also Copyright — this is a whole collab album, not a solo project:

  • (C) 2007-2009 g10 Code GmbH
  • (C) 1999-2005 Nullsoft, Inc.
  • (C) 1991-1993, 1996-2000, 2001 Free Software Foundation, Inc.
  • (C) 2001 Thomas Link, Hiroyuki Yamamoto
  • (C) 1995-1997 Peter Mattis and Spencer Kimball
  • (C) 1995-1997 Peter Mattis, Spencer Kimball, Josh MacDonald
  • (C) 1997-1998 Jay Painter <jpaint@serv.net> <jpaint@gimp.org>
  • (C) 1999-2003 Michael Natterer <mitch@gimp.org>
  • (C) 2000 Evan Martin
  • (C) 1998 Lars Hamann and Stefan Jeske
  • (C) 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009 GNOME Foundation
  • (C) 2004-2006 Christian Hammond
  • (C) 2003-2004 Pawel Salek
  • (C) 2001, 2002 - DINH Viet Hoa
  • (C) 1999-2000, Gael Roualland <gael.roualland@iname.com>
  • (C) 1998-2002 Sendmail, Inc.
  • (C) 2007-2008 Juha Kautto (juha at xfce.org)
  • (C) 1994-2002 World Wide Web Consortium
  • (C) 1999 Graham Davison
  • (C) 1999 Eric Busboom
  • (C) 2000, Eric Busboom, <http://www.softwarestudio.org>
  • (C) 2002-2007 Randall Hand <yerase@yerot.com>
  • (C) 2001 by Werner Koch <dd9jn@gnu.org>
  • (C) 2004 Apache Software Foundation
  • (C) 2008 Mikkel Kamstrup Erlandsen
  • (C) 2002 Red Hat, Inc.; Copyright 1998, 2001 Tim Janik
  • (C) 2008-2009 Christian Hammond, David Trowbridge
  • (C) 2003-2005 Lars Lindner <lars.lindner@gmx.net>
  • (C) 2004,2005 Nathan J. Conrad <t98502@users.sourceforge.net>
  • (C) 2004 Karl Soderstrom <ks@xanadunet.net>
  • (C) 2000 Helix Code, Inc. (www.helixcode.com)

Like… look at that credits roll. Actual legends, every single one. 🌈

📜 LICENSE 📜

This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.

Ngl, peep the COPYING file sitting in the toplevel distribution directory if you want the full license lore. It's all in there. 📖

💖 AUTHORS 💖

The Claws Mail Team — the main characters 🫶

  • Holger Berndt <berndth@users.sf.net>
  • Tristan Chabredier <wwp@claws-mail.org>
  • Darko Koruga <darko@users.sf.net>
  • Ricardo Mones Lastra <ricardo@mones.org>
  • Paul Mangan <paul@claws-mail.org>
  • Salvatore De Paolis <iwkse@claws-mail.org>
  • Michael Rasmussen <mir@datanom.net>

Previous team members — the OGs, the founding era, respect where respect is due 👑

Hoà Viêt Dinh, Keith Edmunds, Match Grun, Melvin Hadasht, Oliver Haertel, Christoph Hohmann, Alfons Hoogervorst, Andrej Kacian, Werner Koch, Charles Lehner, Colin Leroy, Thorsten Maerz, Pawel Pekala, Leandro A. F. Pereira, Luke Plant, Martin Schaaf, Carsten Schurig, Fabien Vantard, Sergey Vlasov and Hiroyuki Yamamoto.

🔗 SEE ALSO 🔗

And that's the whole page, bestie — you read it all, slay ✨ Officially stamped by The Claws Mail team, dated February 17, 2024, filed under CLAWS MAIL(1). Go forth and configure your mail like the icon you are. 💜🦋🎀

📦 where this page comes from