The KMail Handbook
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# The KMail Handbook

Daniel Naber `<daniel.naber@t-online.de>`

David Rugge `<davidrugge@mediaone.net>`

Revision 1.7 (2004-07-13)

Copyright © 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002 David Rugge

Copyright © 2003 Daniel Naber

Copyright © 2004 Daniel Naber, Ingo Klöcker

KMail is KDE's powerful and user friendly email client.

List of Tables

3.1. ACL Rights Summary

List of Examples

4.1. Example

Chapter 1. Introduction
Introduction
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## Chapter 1. Introduction

Daniel Naber `<daniel.naber@t-online.de>`

Revision 1.7 (2004-07-13)

The KMail Team welcomes you to KMail, a user-friendly email client for the K Desktop Environment. Our goal is to make KMail a program that is beautiful and intuitive without sacrificing power.

If you have never set up an email client on a UNIX® system before, we suggest that you read through the Getting Started section first so that your setup goes smoothly.

Since most people do not read documentation anyway, here is a collection of the most helpful tips:

- You do not have to use your mouse to use KMail. Everything can be done by using Keyboard Shortcuts.

- Although KMail can be considered reliable you should keep backups of your messages, i.e. just copy the files and folders in `~/Mail` (including the hidden ones that start with a dot) to a safe place.

KMail's homepage can be found at http://kmail.kde.org. There you will find useful links, e.g. to the user and developer mailing lists. Please report bugs in KMail using Help->Report Bug....

We hope you will enjoy KMail!

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Chapter 2. Getting Started
Getting Started
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## Chapter 2. Getting Started

Daniel Naber `<daniel.naber@t-online.de>`

David Rugge `<davidrugge@mediaone.net>`

Michel Boyer de la Giroday `<michel@klaralvdalens-datakonsult.se>`

Revision 1.7 (2004-07-13)

This is a short introduction to KMail and its usage so you can start working with it right away. For more in-depth information see the Using KMail section. Note that KMail's installation is described in the appendix.

Invoking KMail for the first time creates a folder called `Mail` in your home folder. This folder contains the initial folders (`inbox`, `outbox`, `sent-mail`, `trash` and `drafts`). Use Settings->Configure KMail... to enter some initial information so KMail will be able to properly retrieve and send your messages.

The Configure window consists of six sections: Identities, Network, Appearance, Composer, Security, and Misc.

To begin sending and receiving messages you will only have to change some settings in the Identities and Network pages.

## Setting your Identity

The settings in the Identities page are fairly straightforward. Select your default identity and click Modify. Fill in the Your name field with your full name (e.g. `John Doe`) and the Organization field (optional) with the appropriate information.

Next, fill in the Email address field with your email address (e.g. `john@example.net`).

If you are using PGP or GnuPG you can set your OpenPGP keys and/or S/MIME certificates in the Cryptography tab.

Optionally, go to the Signature tab and enter your signature. This is a short text that will be automatically appended to all your messages. It has nothing to do with digital signatures.

Setting up your Account
Setting up your Account
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## Setting up your Account

The Network page contains the settings that tell KMail how to send and receive your email messages. Many of these settings can vary greatly depending on the setup of your system and on the kind of network that your mail server is located in. If you do not know what setting to choose or what to put in a field, consult your Internet Service Provider (ISP) or system administrator.

### Sending Messages

The Sending tab provides a list of ways to send messages. The first item in the list is the default way to send messages. Using the Add... button you can choose between two different ways of sending messages: SMTP and Sendmail. sendmail® here means a local software installation -- this has a reputation of being difficult to set up, so if you do not already have a working sendmail® configuration, choose SMTP and fill in the Name field with a descriptive name (e.g. `My Mail Account`) and the Host field with the name and domain of your mail server (e.g. `smtp.provider.com`). You will probably not need to change the Port setting (the default is `25`).

If you do want to use sendmail® and you are using a dial-up connection, follow the instructions for setting up sendmail for a dial-up connection in the FAQ section.

The way of sending messages configured here will be used for your default identity and for all other identities that have no own way of sending messages. You can use different ways of sending messages for different identities by selecting the Special transport checkbox in the Advanced tab of the Identities section.

A description of the other options can be found in the Configuration chapter.

#### Options relevant to Kolab server

When configuring a SMTP account with a Kolab server Host, you need to check the Server requires authentification option and to fill in your Kolab user's email address and password in the Login and Password fields. Select then the Security tab and click on the Check What the Server Supports for automated setup of your Security configuration. The default should be TLS/PLAIN. The Kolab server supports SSL/PLAIN as well. Those settings may of course be configured manually.

### Receiving Messages

To set up an account so you can receive mail, press the Add... button in the Receiving tab. You will then be prompted for the type of your email account. Most users should select POP3 or IMAP. If you want to use a local mailbox file, please see the FAQ about file locking.

You will then be presented with the Add account window. First, fill in the Name field to name your account. You can choose any name you like. Login, Password, and Host should be filled in with the appropriate information from your ISP or system administrator. You should not need to change the Port setting (the default for POP3 is `110`, the default for IMAP is `143`).

#### Options relevant to Kolab server

select Disconnected IMAP when choosing your Account Type. Fill in the Login and Password fields with respectively your user email address and password on the Kolab server. In the Security section click on the Check What the Server Support button for automated set-up of your Security configuration. The default should be TLS/PLAIN. The Kolab server supports SSL/PLAIN as well. Those settings may of course be configured manually.

If you want to use the "Out of Office" Replies functionality of the Kolab server, set-up the Filtering section of you DIMAP account by checking the Server supports Sieve option as well as Reuse host and login configuration, Managesieve port should be set to 2000 as default.

#### Options only relevant to DIMAP (Kolab server)

After having configured your Disconnect IMAP account, you need to activate the Groupware functionalities and set-up the Misc page for KMail.

In the Misc page, of the Configure dialog, choose the Groupware tab. Check the Enable IMAP resource functionality option and select Kolab (XML) as Format used for the groupware folders. The Resource folders are in account combo-box should be set on the Receiving (kolab user) account of your choice (if you happen to have several accounts).You may if you wish hide the groupware folder by checking this option. It is recommended to check both Groupware Compatibility and Legacy Options for compatibility with an eventual Kolab Microsoft Outlook client for sending invitations and replies from a Kolab KDE client.

#### Options only relevant to IMAP

If you are using IMAP, you can optionally specify a path in the Prefix to folders field. This tells KMail where it can find your folders on the server. If you also have a shell account on the server and the messages are stored in your home folder it might be useful to store the messages in a subfolder `Mail`. Use this as a value in the Prefix to folders field so that KMail does not mix up mailbox files and other files. If you are not interested in this feature, simple leave the field blank.

If you check Automatically compact folders KMail removes the messages you deleted from the server as soon as you leave a folder. Otherwise the messages are only marked as deleted and it is up to you to compact the folders manually by using the menu item File->Compact All Folders.

If you check Show hidden folders, folders whose name starts with a dot are also displayed.

#### Options only relevant to POP3

Select Leave fetched messages on the server if you want to leave your messages on the server after you downloaded them.

Select Exclude from "Check Mail" if you do not want to check this account whenever you use File->Check Mail. You can still check for new messages on this account with File->Check Mail In.

Select Enable interval mail checking if you want KMail to check for new messages automatically. The interval can be specified below under Check interval.

inbox is the default folder for incoming messages. If you want to change that for some reason, you can do so with Destination folder. But what you probably want is a filter, which has nothing to do with this option.

With Precommand you can specify any program that KMail will execute just before fetching mail. Please specify the full path (do not use “~”) and note that KMail will not continue until the program returns.

On the Extras tab you can select Use pipelining for faster mail download if this is supported by your server. You should carefully test this to make sure it works safely.

#### Options for both IMAP and POP3

If you select Store POP password in configuration file or Store IMAP password in configuration file KMail will remember your password so you will not have to type it every time you start KMail and fetch new mail.

### Warning

Be warned that KMail cannot really encrypt your password, so people who can access your configuration files (e.g. system administrators) can easily get your password if you select this option.

KMail supports encryption via SSL and TLS (TLS should be preferred if it is available).

For POP3 KMail supports:

- Clear text,

- PLAIN,

- LOGIN,

- CRAM-MD5 (recommended if DIGEST-MD5 is not available),

- DIGEST-MD5 (recommended) and

- APOP authentication.

DIGEST-MD5, CRAM-MD5 and APOP are secure on their own, the other options are only secure when used together with SSL or TLS. You should only use Clear text if your server does not support any of the other authentication methods. Additionally, for IMAP Anonymous is supported, but APOP is not. Use the Check what the server supports button on the Extras or Security tab to automatically select the most secure settings supported by your server.

You are now ready to send and receive mail. For IMAP, just open your folders in the folder tree in KMail's main window. KMail then connects to your server and displays the messages it finds. For POP3 use File->Check Mail.

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Testing your Setup
Testing your Setup
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## Testing your Setup

First, you should send yourself a message to test your configuration. To send a message, either hit Ctrl+N, select the New Message icon or select the Message->New Message... menu item. The composer window will appear. Fill in the To: field with your email address and type something in the Subject field. Send the message by selecting Message->Send.

To check your email, select File->Check Mail. In the lower right corner of the main window, a progress bar will indicate how many messages are being downloaded. If you receive the message you just sent, then congratulations! If, however, you receive any error messages while testing your setup, make sure that your network connection is working and recheck your settings at Settings->Configure KMail....

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Chapter 3. Using KMail
Using KMail
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## Chapter 3. Using KMail

Daniel Naber `<daniel.naber@t-online.de>`

Revision 1.7.50 (2004-09-24)

## The Main Window

The main window is the window that appears when KMail is started. It is by default divided into three panes:

Folder list (on the left)

  This pane contains the list of your message folders (other email programs may call them mailboxes). To select a folder, simply click on it. The messages contained in the folder will now appear in the Headers pane. The folder list can be displayed in both a short view, which takes up only a small portion of the left side of the screen, and a long view, which takes up the entire left side of the screen but is able to show more mailboxes. You can toggle between these two views under Appearance/Layout in the Settings->Configure KMail... dialog. Also see the Folders Section for more information about how to use folders.

Message list (in the upper right by default)

  This pane lists header information (message Status Flags, Sender, Subject, Date, and other optional columns like Size, Attachment Flag, Important Flag, etc.) for the messages in the currently selected folder. Clicking on a header will select that message and display it in the Message pane; you can also select more than one message by holding down the Ctrl key when clicking on messages. You may sort the messages by clicking on the column that you wish to sort; if you click on the same column more than once, sort order will toggle between ascending/descending and some alternative sorting criteria will become available (like sorting by Status when you click on the header of the Subject column). Clicking the right mousebutton on the list header shows a popup menu, which allows to show or hide several columns in the list.

Message preview pane (in the lower right by default)

  This pane displays the currently selected message. Attachments appear at the bottom of the message, either as icons or embedded in the message, depending on View->Attachments. For complex messages the structure of the message is shown in the message structure viewer below the preview pane. The placement of the preview pane as well as the placement of the structure viewer can be changed under Appearance/Layout in the Settings->Configure KMail... dialog. Moreover, you can disable the preview pane and you can choose when the message structure viewer should be shown. You can scroll through the message page-by-page using the Page Up and Page down keys, or line-by-line using the up arrow and down arrow keys; you can also use key shortcuts to skip through your messages without having to use the mouse.

Keyboard Shortcuts
Keyboard Shortcuts
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## Keyboard Shortcuts

The following keyboard shortcuts are supported in the main window:

Keyboard Shortcut | Action
--- | ---
Space | Scroll down in the current message or go to the next unread message if you are already at the bottom.
Right Arrow or N | Go to the next message in the current folder.
Left Arrow key or P | Go to the previous message in the current folder.
+ | Go to the next unread message in the current folder.
- | Go to the previous unread message in the current folder.
Ctrl++ | Go to the next folder with unread messages.
Ctrl+- | Go to the previous folder with unread messages.
Ctrl+Up Arrow | Go to the next folder in the folder list (if the folder list has focus.)
Ctrl+Down Arrow | Go to the previous folder in the folder list (if the folder list has focus.)
Ctrl+Left Arrow | Walk upwards in the list of folders. Use Ctrl+Space to actually enter the folder.
Ctrl+Right Arrow | Walk downwards in the list of folders. Use Ctrl+Space to actually enter the folder.
Ctrl+Space | Enter the folder that has focus, i.e. the folder that you navigated to using Ctrl+Left Arrow or Ctrl+Right Arrow.
Shift+Left Arrow and Shift+Right Arrow | Select messages in the header pane, starting with the current message.

For more keyboard shortcuts have a look at the Settings->Configure Shortcuts... dialog.

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The Composer Window
The Composer Window
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## The Composer Window

The composer window is used to write new messages; it can be invoked via Message->New Message... menu or from the New Message icon on the main window.

### Composing a Message

To write your message, fill in the appropriate fields in the composer window. Use the View menu to select which header fields are displayed. The Identity field offers a Sticky option; if it is checked, the current identity will become the default identity when you open a new composer next time.

There are a variety of shortcuts to help you with writing your messages. The ... buttons next to the To:, CC:, and BCC: fields will call up the address book so that you can select addresses from there.

When you start typing an address in the To:/CC:/BCC: fields, a popup will appear that offers matching addresses that have been used recently and matching addresses from your address book; if you do not like the automatic popup you can disable it by clicking with the right mouse button on the field and choosing a different completion mode.

Whenever you want to add more than one recipient in one of the fields, use a comma to separate each address from the next one. You may need to specify fully qualified addresses (i.e. `user@example.com`) even for local users, depending on your system configuration.

When you are finished with your message, click the Send Now icon (the envelope) to send the message now, or click the Send Later icon to put the message in the outbox. If your message is not finished yet, select Message->Save in Drafts Folder.

### Signing and Encrypting Messages

If you want to send an encrypted or digitally signed message, select the Sign Message or Encrypt Message icons in the toolbar. Moreover you can select the format that should be used to sign and/or encrypt the message. Depending on the installed encryption programs you can choose between:

Any

  KMail will use a format which is understood by all recipients of the message. The preferred format of the recipients can be specified in the KDE Address Book.

Inline OpenPGP (deprecated)

  This format is outdated. If you use this format then only the message text will be signed and/or encrypted. Attachments will neither be signed nor encrypted. HTML messages cannot be signed with this format. You should only use this format if necessary, i.e. if you send messages to users of email clients that cannot handle the more advanced formats.

PGP/MIME

  This format is the successor of the inline OpenPGP format. If you use this format then the message text and all attachments will be signed and/or encrypted (at least by default). This is the recommended format if you use OpenPGP.

S/MIME

  This format is an alternative format to PGP/MIME. If you use this format then the message text and all attachments will be signed and/or encrypted (at least by default). This format is mostly used by corporations.

S/MIME opaque

  This format is a variant of the S/MIME format. It should only be used if necessary.

### Creating HTML Messages

Note that HTML messages are often regarded as an annoyance; therefore, you should avoid sending HTML messages if possible. Particularly, you should never send HTML messages to a mailing list unless HTML messages are explicitly allowed.

In order to be able to create HTML messages you first have to enable the markup tools. To do this enable Formatting (HTML) in the Options menu. A toolbar with several tools to format the message will appear. Via the drop down box you can select between standard text and six different types of lists (three bulleted lists with different symbols and three numbered lists with different numbering). Moreover, you can select the font family, the font size, the font style (bold, italic, underlined) and the text color. Last but not least, you can select the alignment of the text (left aligned, centered, right aligned).

Creating tables and embedding images is currently not possible.

### Adding Attachments

You can attach files to your message by using one of the methods below:

- Click the Attach File (paper clip) icon and select the file you wish to attach;

- Drag a file from the desktop or another folder into the composer window;

- Drag a message from KMail's message list into the composer window -- that message will then be attached;

- Select one of the options in the Attach menu.

Once a file is attached to your message, it appears in the attachments pane at the bottom of the composer window. You can use the right mouse button on each attachment to View, Save or Remove the attachment.

Use the Properties item to open the Message Part Properties dialog. The first field contains the attachment's MIME type. Just like the Name field, it should be automatically filled with an appropriate value. Sometimes the MIME type value may be wrong. You can then type in any MIME type or choose from the list of common MIME types. You can also select an encoding method for your file from the list of encoding options (normally, the default value works fine). Check the Suggest automatic display option if you want to suggest to the recipient the automatic (inline) display of this attachment. Whether this works or not depends on the recipient's email client and on his settings.

You can also attach public keys to the message by using the appropriate options in the Attach menu. PGP key attachments are handled like file attachments.

### Checking the Spelling of your Message

KMail will automatically check the spelling of your message (in HTML mode this currently does not work) and display unknown words using red color. If there are too many unknown words KMail will disable its checking. To select the language used for checking, select View->Dictionary. You can disable automatic spellchecking in the Options menu.

To check the spelling of your message using a dialog, select Tools->Spelling.... KMail uses KSpell to check spelling, which is the KDE frontend to the ispell or aspell spelling checker. Note that you may first need to configure the spellchecker using Settings->Spellchecker....

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Message Folders
Message Folders
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## Message Folders

Message Folders are used to organize your email messages. By default, if you have no existing message folders, messages are stored in the folder `$`KDEHOME`/share/apps/kmail/`. If you have existing message folders in `~/Mail`, these will be used instead. When you first start KMail the inbox, outbox, sent-mail, trash and drafts folders are created. These folders each have special functions:

inbox:

  Where KMail by default puts your new messages when you ask it to check your mail.

outbox:

  Where messages are put while they are waiting to be delivered. Note that you should not drag and drop messages here to send them, use the Send icon in the composer window instead.

sent-mail:

  By default copies of all messages that you have sent are put into this folder.

trash:

  By default all messages that you have moved to trash are moved into this folder.

drafts:

  Contains messages you started to edit but then saved to this folder instead of sending them.

You may find that the standard folders are fine for your needs; eventually, though, you will probably need folders to help you organize your messages. To create a new folder, select Folder->New Folder...: the folder properties dialog will then prompt you for the necessary information. If you ever need to change the settings for a folder, select the folder you wish to modify in the Folders pane and select Folder->Properties.

To move messages from one folder into another, select the message(s) you want to move and press the M key or select Message->Move To. A list of folders will appear; select the folder from the list that you want to move the messages to. Messages can also be moved by dragging them from the Message list to a folder in the Folder list.

If you want to clear all of the messages out of a folder choose Folder->Move All Messages to Trash. You can use Folder->Delete Folder to remove a folder and all its messages and subfolders.

### Folder Properties

The folder's Properties dialog lets you rename and move a folder and specify all of its properties. Note that most properties are only available for your own folders and not for default folder like inbox etc.. Default folders also cannot be moved or renamed.

#### General

Rename a folder by changing the entry in the Name: field.

You can make a folder a subfolder of another folder by choosing a new parent folder using the Belongs to selection.

The Folder Icons section lets you choose icons that are different from the default ones in the folder list.

See the Folder Format section for information about the Mailbox format.

With the Identity section you can set the default identity that should be used for new messages if this folder is selected. Replies to messages that were sent directly to you will still default to the message's “To” address if an according identity is found.

With Show Sender/Receiver you can set the visible columns in the header pane. This is useful if you use a folder to save your own sent messages.

Check Ignore new mail in this folder if you do not want to be informed about new mail that arrives in this folder. This is for example useful for the folder where you move all detected spam messages to.

Check Keep replies in this folder if you want replies to messages in this folder to be filed also into this folder rather than into a special sent-mail folder.

#### Old Message Expiry

Here you can select what should happen with old messages in this folder. If you enable Expire old messages in this folder then KMail will regularly, depending on your choice, either delete old messages or move old messages to another folder. You can also start expiration of old messages manually via Folder->Expire and via File->Expire All Folders

### Warning

Messages that are deleted during expiration of old messages cannot be restored, so be careful with this setting.

#### Mailing List

If you are going to use the folder for a mailing list then you should check Folder holds a mailing list to associate this folder with the mailing list. Next you should click on Detect Automatically. KMail will then try to guess some information about the mailing list from the currently selected message. If KMail could not determine some addresses then you can add the missing information manually. To do this first select the Address type for which you want to add an address. You can choose between:

Post to List

  This address is used for sending messages to the mailing list. This is usually an email address.

Subscribe to List

  This address is used for subscribing to the mailing list. This can be an email address or the address of a webpage.

Unsubscribe from List

  This address is used for unsubscribing from the mailing list. This can be an email address or the address of a webpage.

List Archives

  This is the address of the archive of the mailing list. This is usually the address of a webpage.

List Help

  This address is used for requesting help for this mailing list. This is usually an email address.

After selecting the appropriate Address type you enter the email address or the address of the webpage and then click on Add. With Remove you can remove addresses.

If all addresses have been added then you can execute an action, e.g. go to the list archives, by selecting the appropriate Address type and then clicking on Invoke Handler. If there is an email address and an address of a webpage for the desired action then you will have to select the Preferred handler prior to clicking on Invoke Handler. Select KMail; if you want to send a message to the email address and select Browser if you want to go to the webpage.

Alternatively to invoking the handler for Post to List you can send a new message to the mailing list via Message->New Message to Mailing-List... or by clicking with the middle mousebutton on the folder in the folder list.

#### Access Control tab (IMAP only)

Here you can manage the access control lists (ACLs) of IMAP folders.

The currently active ACL is shown in the list. It consists of pairs of User Ids and the Permissions granted to users identified by that User Id. [1] ACLs are settable per-folder.

### Note

As with everything else when using disconnected IMAP, you need to sync with the server for the changes to be transferred to the server.

IMAP ACLs define a lot of fine-grained permissions that you can grant or deny other users. For the sake of clarity, KMail will present them as the following five categories that you can choose from (see Table 3.1, “ ACL Rights Summary ” for the details if you already know IMAP ACLs).

None

  Grants the users identified by User Id no rights at all. This is also the default for users not explicitly (or implicitly, as a group) listed in the ACL. These users will not see this folder in the list of IMAP folders presented to them by their mail clients.

Read

  Grants the users identified by User Id reading rights for this folder. This also includes the ability for their mail clients to mark mails as read and store this information on the server.[2]

  These users will see this folder in the list of IMAP folders presented to them by their mail clients.

  Use this to create a shared folder that others can read, but not modify.

  If you were the editor of a company's news letter, you could create a folder for the purpose of distributing the news letter, grant everyone reading rights, and save the letter to this folder instead of sending it out by email to a catch-all address.

Append

  (also known as Post)

  Grants the users identified by User Id reading (see above) and posting rights for this folder.

  Use this to create a shared folder that others can read and post messages to, but can not otherwise modify.

  If you wanted to create a company-wide discussion forum, instead of using a web-based form or a separate company-private usenet server, you could create a bunch of folders (one per topic), and grant everyone reading and posting rights. Instead of posting to an NNTP server or writing their messages into a web form, people would just write emails and store them in the folder suiting the topic of the message.

Write

  Grants the users identified by User Id reading, posting (see above), and writing rights for this folder.

  The right to write to a folder includes deleting of messages, creating subfolders, and storing other attributes than read/unread on the server (e.g. answered).

  Use this to create a shared folder that everyone has (almost, see All ) the same rights for.

  In the Append example, you could assign write rights to a group of people acting as moderators, which would then be able to remove off-topic posts, and create sub-topic-folders for high-traffic folders.

All

  Grants the users identified by User Id reading, posting, writing (see above), as well as administration rights, i.e. the right to modify the ACL of this folder.

  This is the default set of rights for the owner of a folder.

Table 3.1, “ ACL Rights Summary ” summarizes the IMAP ACL rights associated with each permission level.

Table 3.1. ACL Rights Summary

ACL right | None | Read | Append | Write | All
--- | --- | --- | --- | --- | ---
Lookup |  | x | x | x | x
Read |  | x | x | x | x
Store Seen |  | x | x | x | x
Insert |  |  | x | x | x
Post |  |  | x | x | x
Write Flags |  |  |  | x | x
Create |  |  |  | x | x
Delete |  |  |  | x | x
Administer |  |  |  |  | x

### Folder Format

A message folder can be either in mbox or in maildir format. mbox saves all messages of a folder to one file, whereas maildir saves each message to its own file. maildir, which is the default format, can be considered more robust, but it can be slower on some file systems. If you are unsure, choose maildir.

Note that there is currently no feature in KMail that allows you to convert between both formats automatically, but you can just move all messages from an old mbox folder to a new maildir folder or vice-versa.

[1] Note that a single User Id might refer to more than one user. Depending on the IMAP server and its configuration, there may be User Ids that correspond to groups of users, anonymous users, or any user. Consult the manual of your specific IMAP server implementation for more information.

[2] Every user has its own list of read mail, so none of your unread mails will suddenly be marked as read just because someone else has already read them.

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Message Filters
Message Filters
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## Message Filters

After using KMail for a while, you may find that you have trouble sorting out the new messages in your inbox when they arrive. Filters allow you to automatically perform certain actions on incoming messages and to manually perform actions on selected messages in a folder.

Please note that the filters described in this section are applied after the messages have been downloaded from your account -- if you want to filter messages on the server, see Download Filters.

Filters consist of: filter criteria, whose rules are used as criteria to determine whether this filter should be applied to a given message; and a list of filter actions, which describe what is to be done with, or to, the message if the search pattern matches. Read more about filter criteria and filter actions in the following subsections.

### Note

Filters are considered one after the other, starting with the first filter in the list. The first one whose pattern matches the given message gets executed; you can request that the remaining filters also be applied, but the default is to stop processing at the first matching filter.

Usually, filters are used on incoming messages, but they can also be applied to sent messages or to an arbitrary message or group of messages. To selectively filter messages, select the messages you want to filter in the message list and either type Ctrl+J or select Message->Apply Filters: this will apply all filters that have been marked for manual filtering in the filter dialog to those messages.

### Fast Filter Creation

There are two methods for creating a filter; the quick method is to use Message->Create Filter: this will call the filter dialog and present you with a new filter which has the first rule of the search pattern and the first action (as Move into Folder) preset. In most cases, all you have to do is select the folder where the message should be moved to; but you can, of course, edit the filter as you like.

When creating a filter on mailing list messages this method will try really hard to find a criterion that uniquely identifies messages from that list; If it succeeds, the guessed name of the list is presented in the Message->Create Filter->Filter on Mailing-List... menu entry.

The second method is to manually construct a filter from scratch by calling the filter dialog through Settings->Configure Filters.... The filter dialog is described in detail in the following subsection.

### The Filter Dialog

This dialog allows you to manage and edit your list of filters.

You can reach it either via Message->Create Filter or Settings->Configure Filters....

The dialog is divided into four main sections:

Available Filters

  This group contains the list of filters and some action buttons to modify the filters, namely: to create new filters; to move them up or down the list; to delete them; or to rename them. If you select a filter from the list, its properties are shown in the right-hand half of the dialog.

Filter Criteria

  In this group you can edit the pattern that messages must match for the filter to be applied to them. You can select here whether all of the defined rules must match or whether it suffices that any one of them matches. See Search Patterns below for a detailed description of each search rule type.

  You can click on More to get an additional (initially empty) rule if you want to define more-complex patterns and on Fewer to remove the last rule. Clear clears the pattern, i.e. it removes all but two rules from screen and resets those two.

  Invalid or empty rules are not evaluated.

Filter Actions

  In this group you can edit the list of actions that are applied to all messages that match the defined filter criteria. See Filter Actions below for a detailed description of each action type.

  You can click on More to get a new, empty action (if you want to define more than one action) and on Fewer to remove the last action. Clear clears the list, i.e. it removes all but one action and resets that one.

  Invalid or empty actions are not executed.

Advanced Options

  In this group you can define a few advanced options for filters that allow you to refine your filtering.

  Using the first row of check boxes, you can toggle when the filter is applied: the to incoming messages option means that the filter is applied to messages when you receive them (i.e. on Check Mail); the to sent messages options means that the filter is applied to messages when you send them and the on manual filtering option controls whether to apply this filter when filtering is specifically selected (i.e. via Message->Apply Filters.)

  The If this filter matches, stop processing here check box in the second row controls whether or not the filters after the current filter will be applied, if the current filter matches.

  If the Add this filter to the Apply Filter menu check box in the third row is selected, this filter will be inserted in the Message->Apply Filter submenu. You can then apply this filter to a message. Another way of applying filters is to use Message->Apply Filters menu option, which applies all the filters - one after another until they are all used or one of the filters that matches has the If the filters matches, stop processing here.

### Note

Filters are automatically named unless you explicitly rename them using the Rename... button. The dialog assumes that it should continue auto-naming the filter as long as the filter name starts with “<”.

### Note

If you apply filter changes, via OK or Apply, only valid filters are actually copied to the internal filter manager.

Similarly, empty rules and actions are removed from the pattern and action list respectively, before the filter is saved.

### Search Patterns

The most common use of filters is to filter on the sender of messages; this can be done by choosing From. A good bet for a mailing list would be <recipients>, but there are other criteria a filter can search for (note that all patterns are interpreted case-insensitively):

<message>

  Searches the whole message (i.e. headers, body and attachments, if any);

<body>

  Searches the body of the message (i.e. the whole message except the headers);

<any header>

  Searches the headers of the message;

<recipients>

  Searches the “To” and “CC” header fields of the message;

<size in bytes>

  Sets upper or lower bounds on the message size;

<age in days>

  Sets upper or lower bounds on the message age;

<status>

  Sets restrictions on the status of the message;

Any other name

  Searches the header field that is given by that name.

The list of possible rules depends on what you selected in the first drop down box. The available rules are:

Rule | Available for | Description
--- | --- | ---
contains/does not contain | all textual search items | Matches if the searched item contains (or does not contain) the given text.
equals/does not equal | most textual search items | Matches if the searched item is equal to (or not equal to) the given text.
matches regular expr./does not match reg. expr. | all textual search items | Matches if a part of the searched item matches the given regular expression (or does not match it). If the regular expression editor is installed then you can edit the regular expression by clicking on the Edit... button.
has an attachment/has no attachment | <message> | Matches if the message has an attachment (or does not have an attachment).
is in address book/is not in address book | most textual search items | Matches if the searched item contains an address that is in your address book (or if the searched items contains only unknown addresses). Of course, this rule makes only sense for address fields like From or <recipients>
is in category/is not in category | most textual search items | Matches if the searched item contains an address that is in the specified category in your address book (or if the searched item contains no address that is in the specified category). Again, this rule makes only sense for address fields.
is equal to/is not equal to | numerical search items | Matches if the value of the search item is equal to (or not equal to) the specified value.
is less than | numerical search items | Matches if the value of the search item is less than the specified value.
is greater than | numerical search items | Matches if the value of the search item is greater than the specified value.
is less than or equal to | numerical search items | Matches if the value of the search item is less than or equal to the specified value.
is greater than or equal to | numerical search items | Matches if the value of the search item is greater than or equal to the specified value.
is/is not | <status> | Matches if the message has (or does not have) the specified status.

### Filter Action

The most common use of filters is to sort incoming messages to certain folders; this can be done by choosing Move into Folder. Here is a list of all possible actions:

Move into Folder

  This will file the message into another folder, removing it from its current folder if necessary; you cannot, currently use IMAP folders as a target.

Copy to Folder

  This will copy the message to another folder.

  ### Note

  You currently cannot use IMAP folders as a target.

Set Identity To

  This will set the identity that will be used if you reply to this message.

Mark As

  This allows you to mark the message as read or important (flagged), but also as forwarded, replied, etc.

Send Fake MDN

  This will send a faked message disposition notification (i.e. a read receipt) to the sender of the message.

Set Transport To

  This will set the method of transport (e.g. SMTP) that will be used if you reply to the message.

Set Reply-To To

  This will modify the Reply-To field of this message. This can be useful for mailing lists that automatically set a Reply-To which you do not like.

Forward To

  This will forward the message inline (i.e. as if you selected Message->Forward->Inline...) to another email address.

Redirect To

  This will redirect the message as-is to another email address.

Confirm Delivery

  Will try to return a message to the sender that indicates successful delivery of their message, if the sender requested that.

  This action allows you to select who will get delivery receipts from you. Though you can globally enable the sending of delivery confirmations in the Configure KMail... dialog (Security page) we recommended not to send them to everyone, since this makes tracking of spam messages, for example, very easy for the sender.

Execute Command

  This will execute a program, but will not modify the message. Specify the full path to the program you want to execute; KMail will then block until the program returns. If you do not want KMail to block then append '&' to the command. You can feed the program with the parts of the mail: %0, %1, etc. stand for files representing the message parts; for common messages %0 is the text, %1 the first attachment and so on. Additionally, the whole message is fed into the program's stdin; and every occurrence of %{foo} is replaced by the content of the foo header.

  ### Warning

  This currently only works if the message has at least one attachment. No, not even %0 will work in the general case!

  ### Tip

  You can enter arbitrarily-complex shell commands here, since KMail uses a sub shell to execute the command line; therefore, even this command will work (within its limits): `uudecode `-o` `$(mktemp kmail-uudecoded.XXXXXX)` && echo `$'\a'``

Pipe Through

  This will feed the message to a program: if the program returns output, the entire message (including the headers) will be replaced with this output; if the program does not return output or exits with a return code other than 0 (indicating an error occurred), the message will not change. Specify the full path to the program. The same substitutions (%n, %{foo} as with execute command are performed on the command line.

  ### Warning

  Be cautious with this action, as it will easily mess up your messages if the filter program returns garbage or extra lines.

Remove Header

  Will remove all header fields with the given name from the message. This is useful mainly for removing bogus “Reply-To:” headers.

Add Header

  If no such field is already present this will add a new header field with the given name and value to the message; if there already is a header field with that name, it is overwritten with the given value; if there are already multiple headers with the given name (e.g. “Received:” headers), an arbitrary one of them is overwritten and the others are left unchanged -- this is a known limitation. You may want to combine this filter with the remove header filter above to make sure that there are no other headers with that name in the message.

Rewrite Header

  Will scan the given header field, modify its contents and write it back. The search string is always interpreted as a case-sensitive regular expression. The replacement string is inserted literally except for occurrences of `\n`, `$n` and `${nn}`, where `n` is a positive (single-digit, except for the third form) number or `0`. These constructs are interpreted as back references to substrings captured with parentheses in the search string.

  Analogous restrictions as in the add header action apply here, too.

Play Sound

  Will play the specified sound.

### Filter Examples

If I am subscribed to the (general) KDE List, I could create a folder for the list (I will call it `KDE-General`) and use a filter to automatically transfer new messages from my inbox to my `KDE-General` folder if they are from the KDE List. Here is how to create this filter:

Procedure 3.1. Filtering a mailing list

1. Try if Message->Create filter->Filter on Mailing-List... can identify the mailing list (the name of the list should then appear in the menu item); in this case, this works and I am presented a filter that has “List-Idcontains <kde.kde.org>” preset. You select the desired destination folder from the folder pull-down menu in the Filter Action group and that is it.

   If that does not work, think of a unique way of identifying the messages you want to filter. The (almost) unique property of my KDE List messages is that they always contain “kde@kde.org” in the To: or CC: field. It is only almost unique, because this fails for cross-posted messages.

2. Select Settings->Configure Filters....

3. Press the New button to create an empty filter. It will appear as <unknown>.

4. In the Filter Criteria area, select <recipients> from the first drop-down box, contains from the second drop-down box, and type `kde@kde.org` in the text field.

5. Skip down to the Filter Actions section. Select file into folder from the first drop-down box. A new drop-down box containing a list of folders will appear. Select the folder that you want the filtered messages to be transferred to. For this example, you would select KDE-General from the drop-down box.

You may find that you need to use more powerful criteria to properly filter your messages; for example, you may only want to filter the KDE List messages that are written by your friend `Fred Johnson <fj@anywhere.com>`. This is where the rest of the matching criteria section comes into play:

Procedure 3.2. Extending the filter

1. Open up the Configure Filters... window and select the filter you just created.

2. Since you want to filter all messages that have `kde@kde.org` in the To: or CC: field and that are from Fred, check the Match all of the following radio button.

3. Now, go to the second search rule and select the following from the pull-down menus: From, contains. Now, type `fj@anywhere.com` in the text field.

You now have a filter that transfers all KDE List messages that are from `fj@anywhere.com`.

### Filter Optimization

It is important to know that, for example, the order of the filters has an impact on the speed of the filter process. Here are some ideas which can help you to improve the filtering:

Stop filter processing as early as possible:

  If you know that a filter finally processes a certain class of messages, please make sure to check the option If this filter matches, stop processing here for the filter. This will avoid the evaluation of the filter rules of all subsequent filters. (See the advanced options in the Filter Dialog).

  An example is filtering messages from mailing lists via List-Id header into separate folders. Having found out that a message came from list A means that you can avoid checking the next filter for messages from list B.

Consider the costs of the evaluation of filter rules:

  The time required to evaluate a filter rule depends on the way the rule is constructed. In particular, scanning for a substring using the contains operation is faster than a pattern matching using the matches regular expr. operation.

  Another dependency is on the amount of data which is used for the evaluation of a filter rule. If the rule is based on a message header, its evaluation should normally be much faster than the evaluation of a rule based on the complete message.

  You should try to keep the filter rules as simple as possible.

Check the order of your filters:

  All the different filter actions have a different complexity. The most expensive filter actions are pipe through and execute command, because both need external programs to be run. Placing filters containing these filter actions behind other filters that can reduce the number of times these complex actions are required is useful, if the filter logic does allow this.

  An example is filtering messages from a mailing list and detecting spam messages. For the spam detection you will usually use an external tool via a pipe through action. Filtering the messages for the mailing list is done via the List-Id header. If you do not want to check the messages from the mailing list for spam too, it is better to use the filter for the mailing list messages before the filter for the spam detection. This way you avoid the expensive and slow spam check for all messages which were identified as mailing list messages.

### Filter Log

If you want to verify that your filters work as intended, you can open a viewer for the filter log via Tools->Filter Log Viewer....

In the viewer, there you can configure the logging of the filter processing. You can control the detail level of the log, clear the log or save the log into a file. The log can provide valuable information if you need to debug your filtering process.

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Download Filters
Download Filters
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## Download Filters

Download Filters can be used to filter mail from a POP server, before they are completely downloaded; you can use them to prevent KMail from downloading huge messages and save time this way.

In the configuration dialog of the POP account you can enable download filtering by checking the Filter messages if they are greater than box; once you have done that, you can specify a size which is used as a threshold: messages exceeding this size will be checked against the filter rules you defined -- if no filter rule matches, they will be shown in a confirmation dialog and you can decide what to do with them. The default size for filtering is 50,000 Bytes; this is a good value as the overhead is kept to a minimum -- every message that is looked at by the filter causes additional traffic because the header of the message is downloaded twice. The default action is Download mail to prevent the loss of messages.

### Warning

Be careful with the Delete mail from server option since once a mail is deleted on the server there is no way to get it back.

With a really good set of filter rules, it is possible that all messages that exceed the threshold size are automatically tagged (i.e. downloaded, kept on the server or deleted) and you would never be bugged by the confirmation dialog. Be careful though, since once a message is matched by a filter rule, you have no guarantee that you can change the action before it is executed: the confirmation dialog will be displayed only if there is a message left that was not matched by a filter rule.

### The Configure Pop Filter Dialog

Adding filter rules works similar as for message filters. On the left hand side you can manage the existing filters. Use the New button to add a filter. On the right hand side you can configure under which conditions the current filter should match. Using Filter Action you specify what will happen to a message that is matched by this rule. The available options are:

Download mail

  Will download the messages matched by the filter, just as any other message that does not exceed the threshold size.

Download mail later

  Will tag the messages for later download. This means the messages matched will stay on the POP server until you choose to download them by changing the action manually.

Delete mail from server

  Will delete the message from the server and does not download it. Once you deleted a message from the server, there is no way you can undo this. Be careful, as rules could match messages you actually want, too.

The option Always show matched 'Download Later' messages in confirmation dialog will cause the confirmation dialog to show up during mailbox check if at least one message was tagged for Download Later - even if all messages exceeding the threshold size were matched by a rule. This option is useful in the case you have messages matched by a rule and tagged for Download Later, but you do not get any message exceeding the size limit for a very long time. Without this option, the confirmation dialog would never show up and you would never have a chance to get the queued message by changing the action manually.

### The Confirmation Dialog

This dialog shows up whenever you have POP filtering switched on and messages were found on the server that exceed the threshold size you defined for the POP account. Now you have the chance to decide what you want to do with that message. The options are Download (green), Download later (yellow with egg watch) and Delete from server (red “X”). Be cautious with the delete option, since once you deleted a mail from the server, there is no way to undelete it again.

In the Filtered Messages section you can check the box if you receive messages that were automatically tagged for a certain action (download, download later, delete) by a filter rule. The checkbox is only enabled if you receive some messages that were matched by a filter rule; once you check it, a list similar to the one for the not-automatically-tagged messages will be displayed and you can change the action for every single message.

Please note that if there is a message exceeding the size limit, but all messages are matched by a filter rule the dialog will not be displayed. One exception occurs if you have checked Always show matched 'Download Later' messages in the Global Options section of the POP filter configuration dialog; then, the dialog will also be displayed if you only have matched messages, but at least one message was tagged for Download later.

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Using Multiple Accounts
Using Multiple Accounts
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## Using Multiple Accounts

Multiple accounts are used to check for messages from more than one email address and/or mail server. Select Settings->Configure KMail... and click on the Network page to add or change your account settings. See the Getting started section for more information on the settings in the Network page.

To check for messages from a particular account, use the File->Check Mail In submenu to select the account to check for mail. You can also press the mouse button on the Check Mail icon for some time to get a list of accounts.

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Signing and Encrypting Messages with PGP or GnuPG
Signing and Encrypting Messages with PGP or GnuPG
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## Signing and Encrypting Messages with PGP or GnuPG

### Note

There have been major changes in the way KMail handles signing/encryption. The following introduction applies to the previous version of KMail. You can still read the introduction to get an overview about how to sign/encrypt messages, but the details, especially those of the configuration, will differ.

This is a short introduction on how to setup KMail's PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) support; it gives some hints on the use of PGP too. It is written for people who are beginners in this area; if you are familiar with the use of PGP, you can skip most of the steps. This documentation, and the KMail user interface, generally talk only about “PGP”, but it applies to both PGP and GnuPG (GNU Privacy Guard), (although some GnuPG command-line parameters may be different.)

Please also check out the FAQ item about PGP.

### Warning

Attachments will not be signed/encrypted if you are using inline OpenPGP: to sign/encrypt attachments, you have to install GnuPG and some necessary libraries; then, you can decide for each attachment whether it should be signed/encrypted or not.

### Warning

KMail has to rely on PGP's output; this output is often different between different versions of PGP, so it is important that you test if encryption really works with your setup before you start using it seriously. KMail might not warn you if something fails -- enable Show signed/encrypted text after composing.

To setup and use PGP support in KMail it is necessary to have PGP installed and set up properly; of course, we cannot give you a full introduction of PGP here. We will only mention the steps you have to do to get PGP going. For details you should have a look at the excellent PGP documentation or The GNU Privacy Handbook.

It is certainly a good idea to study this documentation as well as an introduction into public key cryptography (e.g. out of the PGP 6.5.x package): there you can learn a lot about the basic concepts, which will help you to understand what is going on; also, many security related issues you should know about are discussed there.

Now, let us start.

### Preconditions

KMail expects that your PGP binary is called pgp; in the case of GnuPG, it expects the binary to be called gpg. If this is not the case for you, just make a symlink.

If you have not done so, you have to generate a key pair (secret and public key) for your identity. You must do this at the command line: use `pgp `-kg`` or `gpg `--gen-key``: KMail has no internal support for pgp's key generation at this time. The identity (normally your name followed by your email address within brackets, such as `John Doe <john@example.com>`) and your passphrase are important for the co-operation between KMail and PGP.

### PGP-Related Settings in KMail

Select the OpenPGP tab on the Security settings page; there you will find the following options:

Encryption tool

  Here you can choose if you want to use PGP, GnuPG or no encryption software at all; of course, the program you select has to be installed on your system (it is also important to select the correct version.)

Keep passphrase in memory

  When this option is off, KMail will ask for your passphrase each time you sign a message (before sending) or select an encrypted message; if you turn this option on, KMail will remember your passphrase from after your first successful input until you finish your KMail session. The passphrase is stored in memory and not written to the hard disk. If you use one of the Crypto-Plugins or if you use GnuPG with the gpg-agent then an external program will ask for your passphrase and optionally remember it for some time.

Always encrypt to self

  If this option is off and you want to send an encrypted message to somebody, then you cannot read this message any longer after you have composed and encrypted it. Turn this option on to keep sent encrypted messages readable for you too.

Show signed/encrypted text after composing

  This will show you the result of encrypting and signing before the message gets sent; this way, you can still cancel sending if encrypting failed. It is strongly recommended to use this option.

Always show the encryption keys for approval

  This will always open a dialog that lets you choose the keys used for each recipient when you are sending an encrypted message; if this option is off, KMail will show this dialog only when it cannot find a key for a recipient or when there are conflicting or unset encryption preferences.

Automatically sign messages using OpenPGP

  This lets you toggle whether to automatically sign your messages by default; of course, it is still possible to send unsigned messages by deselecting the icon in the composer window.

Automatically encrypt messages whenever possible

  If this option is on, KMail will automatically encrypt messages with the built-in OpenPGP support or the PGP/MIME-Plugin provided that, for every recipient, a trusted PGP key is found in your keyring and you did not tell KMail not to encrypt messages sent to certain recipients. If in doubt, KMail will ask whether the message should be encrypted or not.

Now that you have setup the encryption tool you have tell KMail which OpenPGP key you want to use for signing and for encrypting messages; to do this go to the Identities configuration and set the key that should be used on the Advanced tab of the identity configuration.

Now you are able to sign outgoing messages; to let people send you encrypted messages and to let them verify your signature you must send them your public key or upload your public key to a public PGP key server so that they can fetch your key from there. To send encrypted messages to other people or to verify their signed messages you will need their public keys; you can store your public key(s) on a public PGP key server such as http://www.cam.ac.uk.pgp.net/pgpnet/.

### Sign your Messages

You can compose your message as usual in the composer window of KMail. Before you send the message, check the Sign Message icon on the toolbar of the composer window; then, you can send the message. The identity you are using to write the current message needs to be connected to an OpenPGP Key in the Identity section of the Configure dialog. To sign the message, KMail needs to know your PGP passphrase: if you did not select Keep passphrase in memory in the Security section, KMail will ask you for it; otherwise, if you have already given the phrase to KMail, it will sign the message without any further prompt.

### Encrypt your Messages

To send an encrypted message to somebody of whom you have a public key, you simply create the message in the composer window. Before you send the message, check the Encrypt Message button in the toolbar of the composer window; note that you might not have to check the button if Automatically encrypt messages whenever possible is selected in KMail's configuration (see above). Then send the message.

If you checked the Encrypt Message button and KMail cannot find a matching key for a recipient, it will display a list containing all available keys in the Encryption Key Selection dialog; if KMail finds more than one trusted key for a recipient, it will display a list containing all matching keys for this recipient. In both cases you can select the key(s) which should be used for encrypting this message for the recipient in question. Using the Remember choice checkbox you can save your selection for future messages.

If you are using a key for the first time, there are conflicting Encryption Preferences, or if Always show the encryption keys for approval is selected in the Security section of KMail's configuration dialog the Encryption Key Approval dialog will appear; here, you can select different keys for the recipients and can set the Encryption Preference for each recipient. The default option, Encrypt whenever encryption is possible, will automatically encrypt your message if there is a trusted key for each recipient.

As mentioned above, you will not be able to read your own encrypted sent messages if you do not check Always encrypt to self in the settings' Security page.

### Send your Public Key

Prepare a message to the person to whom you want to send your public key; then, choose, in the composer window's menu, Attach->Attach My Public Key: this will attach the public key you defined for the current identity to the message. Now you can send the message.

Remember that it is not safe at all if you sign the message to make sure that the receiver will get the correct key: there can be a man-in-the-middle attack, as somebody can change the key and sign the message with that other key. That is why the recipient should verify the attached key by checking the key's fingerprint against the one he received in a secure way from you; have a look at the PGP documentation for further details.

### You received an encrypted Message

All you have to do is to select the message in KMail. You will be prompted for your passphrase; then, KMail will try to decrypt the message and show you the plain text if the message had been encrypted with your public key: if not, then you will not be able to read it. KMail stores the messages encrypted, so nobody can read these messages without knowing your passphrase.

### Receiving a Public Key

You can receive a public key as an attachment or via http, ftp or a floppy. Before you can use this key to encrypt a message to the owner of the key, you should verify the key (check its fingerprint or look for trusted signatures); then, you can add this key to your public keyring by typing `pgp `-ka` `filename`` at the command line (if you are using PGP) or by typing `gpg `--import` `filename`` at the command line (if you are using GnuPG). If the key is not certified with a trusted signature you cannot use it to encrypt messages unless you have signed the key with your key.

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The Anti-Spam Wizard
The Anti-Spam Wizard
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## The Anti-Spam Wizard

### Basics

KMail does not have a built-in spam detection solution: the developers believe using external, but specialized, tools is the better approach. KMail uses these tools through its flexible filter architecture. The Anti-Spam Wizard helps you with the initial filter setup.

What can the wizard do to help you?

  It will give you some choices about how you want the spam filtering to be set up. Afterwards it will automatically create the appropriate filter rules.

What are the limitations of the wizard?

  It can only initially set up the filters for you; and it will provide a standard setup. Manual modifications in existing filters are not considered. Instead, these filters are overwritten by the wizard.

You can activate the wizard via Tools->Anti-Spam Wizard....

The wizard scans for known anti-spam tools on your computer. It is as well possible to use results of spam checks made by your provider by evaluating some header information which has been added to the messages. You can let the wizard prepare KMail to use one or many of them in parallel. However, note that anti-spam tool operations are usually time consuming. KMail can appear to be frozen during the scan of the messages for spam, you may encounter problems with the responsiveness of KMail. Please consider deleting the filter rules created by the wizard if the filtering becomes too slow for you. Here are some recommendations regarding the supported tools:

Bogofilter

  Bogofilter is a bayesian filter, that means it's spam detection relies on an initial training phase. On the other hand, it's a pretty fast tool. That's why it is recommended to be used by people which primarily want to have a fast spam detection, and which don't worry about the little training in the beginning before the detection rate increases significantly.

SpamAssassin

  SpamAssassin is a pretty complex tool to fight against spam. Although it's behavior depends heavily on it's configuration, that tool can detect spam quite well without any training. However, scanning a message takes a little longer compared to pure bayesian filters. Let's say, it's not the tool of choice for people without some background information about SpamAssassin's capabilities.

Annoyance-Filter

  Perhaps not so often used until distributions pick it up. It's clearly a tool for specialists.

GMX Spam Filter

  Given that you get your mail via the GMX freemail provider, your messages are scanned for spam. The result of that process is documented in a special header field of each message. It's possible to use the content of this header field to sort out spam. There is no slowdown in the filtering if only this tool is used, as the messages have already been processed.

### Advanced

Here are the details of how the wizard works: KMail can use several external tools to detect spam messages; it will try to automatically find out which of those tools are installed on your box and will show you these tools in a list. The list is ordered by the average speed of the filtering process of the tools. You can mark the tools which you want to be used by KMail to detect spam. Of course, you can close the wizard, install a tool, and restart the wizard again.

If you have marked at least one tool, KMail is able to provide filters which allow the classification of the messages as spam or not spam. It will also provide actions to let you manually classify messages. These actions will be available via the menu and via toolbar icons. If any of the tools you selected support Bayesian filtering (i.e. a method to detect spam based on statistical analysis of the messages) then these messages are not only marked but additionally transfered to the tools to let them learn so they can improve their detection rate.

On the second page, there you will be able to select some additional actions to be done in KMail with regard to spam messages: if you want messages detected as spam to be moved into a certain folder, please select the appropriate folder and mark the Move known spam to: option; if messages detected as spam should additionally be marked as read, then mark the Mark detected spam messages as read option.

Having checked at least one of the available tools will allow you to let the wizard finish the filter setup. The wizard will not take any modifications in existing filters formerly created by the wizard into consideration but will either append new filters or replace existing filters in any case; you may want to inspect the result of this process in the Filter Dialog. The wizard will also create toolbar buttons for marking messages as spam or as ham; keep in mind that classifying messages as spam will also move those messages to the folder you had specified for spam messages, if you haven't deselected the appropriate option.

### Some More Details for Experts

The wizard uses information stored in a special configuration file named `kmail.antispamrc` (stored in the global or local KDE config directory). It will first check the global config file and then the local config file: if the local config file contains entries with higher (newer) version numbers per-tool the configuration data from the local file for that tool is used; that way, both administrators and users can update the wizard configuration.

The local detection of spam messages is achieved by creating pipe through actions per-tool within a special filter. Another filter contains rules to check for detected spam messages and actions to mark them and (optionally, depending on the choice in the wizard) to move them into a folder. Both filters are configured to be applied on incoming messages and on manual filtering.

Two filters are needed for the classification of ham and spam. They contain actions to mark the messages appropriately. As mentioned above, the filter for classification as spam can have another action to move the message into a predefined folder. If the selected tools support Bayesian filtering, the wizard will create additional filter actions to pass the messages to the tools (via execute command actions) in the appropriate learn mode.

If you want to fine-tune the filtering process, you might be interested in the chapter about Filter Optimization.

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The Anti-Virus Wizard
The Anti-Virus Wizard
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## The Anti-Virus Wizard

### Basics

KMail does not have a built-in virus detection solution: the developers believe using external, but specialized, tools is the better approach. KMail uses these tools through its flexible filter architecture. The Anti-Virus Wizard helps you with the initial filter setup.

What can the wizard do to help you?

  It will give you some choices about how you want virus filtering to be set up. Afterwards it will automatically create the appropriate filter rules.

What are the limitations of the wizard?

  It can only initially set up the filters for you; and it will provide a standard setup. Modifying existing filters is not yet possible.

You can activate the wizard via Tools->Anti-Virus Wizard....

### Advanced

The Anti-Virus Wizard basically works exactly as the Anti-Spam Wizard. Here are the details of how the wizard works: KMail can use several external tools to detect messages containing viruses; it will try to automatically find out which of those tools are installed on your box and will show you the result of the search for each tool. You can mark the tools which you want to be used by KMail to detect viruses; marking tools which were not found is not possible because the appropriate checkboxes are disabled. Of course, you can close the wizard, install a tool, and restart the wizard again.

If you have marked at least one tool you will be able to select some actions to be done in KMail with regard to messages containing viruses: to let KMail detect messages containing viruses you definitely should mark the Check messages using the anti-virus tools option; if you want messages detected as virus-infected to be moved into a certain folder, please select the appropriate folder and mark the Move detected viral messages to the selected folder option; if messages detected as virus-infected should additionally be marked as read, then mark the Additionally, mark detected viral messages as read option.

Having checked at least one of these last options will allow you to let the wizard finish the filter setup. The wizard will not take any existing filter rules into consideration but will append new rules in any case; you may want to inspect the result of this process in the Filter Dialog.

### Details

The wizard uses information stored in a special configuration file named `kmail.antivirusrc` (stored in the global or local KDE config directory). It will first check the global config file and then the local config file: if the local config file contains entries with higher (newer) version numbers per-tool the configuration data from the local file for that tool is used; that way, both administrators and users can update the wizard configuration.

The detection of messages containing viruses is achieved by creating pipe through actions per-tool within a special filter. Another filter contains rules to check for detected viral messages and actions to mark them and (optionally, depending on the choice in the wizard) to move them into a folder. Both filters are configured to be applied on incoming messages and on manual filtering.

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Chapter 4. Configure KMail
Configure KMail
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## Chapter 4. Configure KMail

Daniel Naber `<daniel.naber@t-online.de>`

David Rugge `<davidrugge@mediaone.net>`

Marc Mutz `<mutz@kde.org>`

Michel Boyer de la Giroday `<michel@kdab.net>`

Revision 1.7 (2004-07-13)

## General Information

KMail's configuration window enables you to configure KMail in many ways. You can reach it via Settings->Configure KMail....

It is divided into six pages, each of them represented by one of the icons in the list on the left hand side of the dialog. Below the pages will be described in detail.

The dialog has several buttons:

Help

  This will open this manual at the appropriate page.

Defaults

  This will reset the configuration options on the current page back to the default values.

Load Profile...

  This will open a dialog which offers several configuration profiles. You can use these as starting points for your own configuration.

Reset

  This resets all changes you have made since you last saved the settings.

OK

  This saves the settings and closes the configuration dialog.

Apply

  This saves the settings without closing the configuration dialog.

Cancel

  This closes the configuration dialog without saving the changes you have made.

Identities Page
Identities Page
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## Identities Page

You can find a quick introduction to the Identities page in the Getting Started section.

This page allows you to create one or more Identities, i.e. combinations of name, email address and other settings. For example, you can create one identity for business communication and one for personal communication. If you have more than one email address, you can create one identity per address. You will then be able to select an identity on a per-message basis.

The page consists of a list of identities and buttons to manage them. The identities list will always show at least one identity, which is then the Default identity.

To add a new identity to the identity list, click on the New... button. The New identity dialog will then appear.

### The New Identity Dialog

You have to enter the name of the new identity into the New Identity edit field. This will be the name shown in the identity list.

You can choose how the new identity should be initialized by checking one of the three radio buttons in the middle of the dialog:

With empty fields

  All fields of the new identity are cleared or preset with standard values.

Use Control Center settings

  Uses the settings of the Control Center's default email profile (you can edit that one under Internet & Network->Email in the Control Center).

Duplicate existing identity

  Copies all fields from an existing identity. You can choose which identity to copy from by selecting the corresponding entry in the Existing identities popup.

### General

The General tab allows you to specify some basic settings for the currently selected identity.

Your name

  Enter your full name here (sometimes also called display name). Although this field is not strictly mandatory, it is recommended to enter the correct value here.

Organization

  Enter your organization here. This field is optional.

Email address

  Enter your email address here, i.e. something like `joe@example.com`.

Example 4.1. Example

So if your address is `Joe User <joe@example.com>`, you should enter `Joe User` into the Your name field and `joe@example.com` into the Email address field.

### Cryptography

The Cryptography tab allows you to specify OpenPGP and S/MIME keys associated with this identity, as well as choosing the preferred (cryptographic) message format to use.

OpenPGP signing key

  Here you can select the key to be used when OpenPGP-signing messages written with this identity in effect.

  For brevity, only the short key id of selected keys is shown. Hovering with the mouse over the key list will show more information in a tooltip.

  To clear the label press the Clear button.

  To change the selected key, press the Change... button. A dialog listing all secret OpenPGP keys will be shown allowing you to select the one to use.

OpenPGP encryption key

  Here you can select the key to OpenPGP-encrypt messages to when this identity and Always encrypt to self are in effect. This key is also used for the Attach->Attach My Public Key function of the Composer.

  To change the selected key, press the Change... button. A dialog listing all OpenPGP keys found in your keyring will be shown allowing you to select the one to use.

  You can clear the list of keys and get more information about them in the same way as described for OpenPGP signing key .

S/MIME signing certificate

  Here you can select the certificate to be used when S/MIME-signing messages written with this identity in effect.

  To change the selected certificate, press the Change... button. A dialog listing all secret S/MIME signing certificates will be shown allowing you to select the one to use.

  You can clear the list of certificates and get more information about them in the same way as described for OpenPGP signing key .

S/MIME encryption certificate

  Here you can select the certificate to S/MIME-encrypt messages to when this identity and Always encrypt to self are in effect.

  To change the selected certificate, press the Change... button. A dialog listing all S/MIME encryption certificates found in your local keybox will be shown allowing you to select the one to use.

  You can clear the list of certificates and get more information about them in the same way as described for OpenPGP signing key .

Preferred crypto message format

  Here you can choose which cryptographic message format to use by default with this identity.

  You can either select any of the four formats supported by KMail or leave the option at the recommended default setting of Any, which will choose a suitable format based on the recipients of the message, or might even go so far as to create two copies of the message, one S/MIME signed and/or encrypted, the other OpenPGP signed and/or encrypted.

### Advanced

The Advanced tab allows you to specify some rarely used or otherwise specialized settings for the currently selected identity.

Reply-To address

  Enter the address to which replies to your messages should be sent. Only fill out this field if it is different from your normal address (specified using the Name and Email Address on the General tab), since replies default to the sender's address anyway.

  ### Note

  This field is only useful if you want replies to your mail to go somewhere else than your regular email address, e.g. if you are using this identity to send messages from an email address that cannot receive messages. Note that some mailing lists overwrite this header field with their post address to make sure that replies go to the list instead of individuals. So the usefulness of this field is very limited and it should only be used in rare cases.

BCC address

  Optionally enter an address to which blind copies of your messages should be sent to. Note that a BCC is only send to this address, when View->BCC is activated while composing a message. If you want to send a BCC regardless of this setting, you should look at the Headers tab of the Composer page.

Sent-mail folder

  Select the folder into which messages should be filed after sending when using this identity. IMAP users should consider changing this to an IMAP folder, so their sent-mail is stored on a server instead of being stored in a local folder. This way they can access these messages at a different location.

  ### Tip

  You can exercise more fine-grained control over where to file sent messages by creating a corresponding message filter that is applied to outgoing messages.

Drafts folder

  Select the folder into which drafts should be filed when using this identity. IMAP users should consider changing this to an IMAP folder, so their drafts are stored on a server instead of being stored in a local folder. This way they can easily continue to work on their drafts at a different location.

Special transport

  Select or enter an alternative SMTP server to be used when sending messages using this identity.

  ### Note

  You need to configure outgoing mail servers first, before you can choose them from the list. You can do this on the Sending tab of the Accounts page.

### Signature

This tab allows you to specify a signature (sometimes called “footer” or “disclaimer”) to be appended to each message sent using this identity.

### Note

This type of signature has nothing to do with the (digital) signatures for which you can select the keys to use on the Cryptography tab. It is just bad wording to call this a signature, but since the term is already used everywhere else, we keep this notation. Just keep in mind that these signatures and digital signatures are two completely different things.

Check the Enable signature option if you want to be able to append the signature when using this identity. To automatically append it to every new message you also have to select Automatically append signature in the Composer configuration page.

KMail can obtain the signature text from various sources. The traditional way on Unix is to read the text from a file called `.signature` in your home folder. This file can be shared between several programs, so you get the same signature in each mail program you use.

To read the text from a text file you select Obtain signature text from file. Enter the filename in the Specify file edit field or hit the button to the right of it to browse your filesystem. If you want to edit the file, hit the Edit File button.

KMail can also read the signature text from the output of a command. Thus, you can use programs such as fortune to create a new signature text for every message. Everything the program prints onto stdout is caught and used as the signature text.

To read the text from the output of a command you select Obtain signature text from Output of Command. Enter the command (preferably with full path) in the Specify command edit field.

As a third option, you can enter the signature text directly in KMail's configuration dialog. To do this, select Obtain signature text from input field below and enter the text into the appearing text box.

### Note

On the Internet, signatures are by convention separated from the body of the message by a line containing only the three character “-- ” (dash, dash, space). KMail will automatically prepend the signature text with this line if it is not already present in the signature text.

If you do not wish the separator to be prepended automatically by KMail, simply add it to the signature text yourself.

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Accounts Page
Accounts Page
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## Accounts Page

You can find a quick introduction to the Accounts page in the Setting up your Account section.

This page allows you to create one or more (incoming and outgoing) accounts, i.e. combinations of mail servers, login information and other settings. Typically, you will create one outgoing (used for sending messages) and one incoming (used to retrieve messages) account. You can create as many accounts as you want, though, and assign each one to different identities or decide on a per-message basis.

### Sending

The Sending tab allows you to define new outgoing mail servers and set some common options.

For basic information, see Setting up your Account: Sending.

When you click Add... or Modify... the Add transport or Modify transport dialogs will open respectively. For sending via sendmail or similar programs you can specify a name and the location of the sendmail program. For SMTP you can specify Name, Host, and Port of the server. Server requires authentication will enable the Login and Password fields and the Authentication method buttons on the Security tab. If you are not sure about the security settings you can make KMail test for the best settings by using Check What the Server Supports.

Confirm before send will pop up a confirmation box every time you send a message.

Send messages in outbox folder lets you specify when queued messages, i.e. messages in the outbox folder pending to be sent, should be sent. You can choose between:

Never Automatically

  Queued messages will only be sent if you select File->Send queued messages.

On Manual Mail Checks

  Queued messages will be sent after you have manually checked for new mail, e.g. with File->Check Mail. Of course, you can also manually send the queued messages with File->Send queued messages.

On All Mail Checks

  Queued messages will be sent after all checks for new mail, i.e. after automatic mail checks as well as after manual mail checks. Of course, you can also manually send the queued messages with File->Send queued messages.

Default send method lets you define what happens when a message is sent. If Send now is selected, the message is sent to the mail server immediately, while if Send later is selected, the message is queued in the outbox to be sent later with the File->Send Queued Messages command or automatically when you check your mail, depending on the setting of Send messages in outbox folder above.

Message property lets you select how your message will be encoded when it is sent. Allow 8-bit means that KMail will send your message in 8-bit ASCII, which means that all special characters such as accented letters will be sent as-is. If MIME Compliant (Quoted Printable) is selected, special characters will be encoded using standard MIME encodings, which may be more portable to mailing systems other than 8-bit ASCII. We recommend to use MIME Compliant.

### Note

Even with Allow 8-bit selected KMail will use MIME Compliant encoding in some situations, for example for sending cryptographically signed messages.

Default domain lets you specify which domain name should be used to complete email addresses that only consist of the recipient's user name. For example when you set the default domain to `kde.org` then messages you send to `johndoe` will be sent to `johndoe@kde.org`.

### Receiving

For basic information, see Setting up your Account: Receiving.

Check mail on startup lets you specify whether KMail should check for new mail immediately after it has been started.

With New Mail Notification you can set how KMail will notify you if new messages have arrived: Beep will play a short beep sound; if Detailed new mail notification is enabled then KMail will show the number of new messages for each folder provided you have chosen to be notified with a dialog. More advanced notification options, like showing a dialog or running a certain command, are available via the Other Actions button.

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Appearance Page
Appearance Page
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## Appearance Page

### Fonts

This section allows you to change the type, size and character set of the display fonts. Message Body sets the font for the reader pane, Composer sets the font for writing messages in the composer window. There is a separate entry for Message List - Date Field so you can choose a monospaced font for the date field for better readability.

### Colors

This section allows you to change the color of the text. Recycle colors on deep quoting means that even text that is quoted more than three times will appear in color. Note that the Quoted text colors only work in the message reader, not in the composer.

### Layout

Show HTML status bar activates a bar at the left side of the reader pane that tells you if a message is HTML or not. This is important because HTML messages might imitate the look of a signed and encrypted message, so you should be aware of the fact that you are reading a HTML message. The HTML status bar itself cannot be influenced by the HTML code of the message.

The Window Layout section lets you choose the layout of the main window. You can choose where you want the Message Preview Pane or choose not to have it at all.

The Message Structure Viewer option lets you choose when the structure viewer will be shown: the structure viewer is a part of the main window that lets you access all parts of a message. Show never will disable the structure viewer (note that you can still access attachments as icons), Show always will show the structure viewer even if there is only one plaintext part. Show only for non-plaintext messages will display the structure viewer only if it makes sense, i.e. if the current message has attachments or has HTML parts.

### Headers

With Display message sizes selected there will be another column in the header pane that shows the messages' size.

Show crypto icons will add more status information to the Subject columns in the header pane: every message that has been signed will have a small Signed icon in front of the subject, every message that has been encrypted will have a small Encrypted icon in front of the subject. Note that you have to select a message once before these icons will appear, until then only question marks will be displayed.

Thread list of message headers will put all the messages in the header pane in a kind of tree list, so that the replies to a message are directly below that message.

With Message header threading options you can select whether threads should appear expanded (open) by default or whether they should be collapsed (closed). You can of course still open/close threads using the +/- buttons.

With Date Display you can choose between several date formats. The Localized Format is the one you can specify under Country & Language in KControl. For the Custom format you can get a description of the possible values by pressing Shift+F1 and then clicking on Custom option.

### System Tray

If you enable the system tray icon then a small KMail icon with the number of unread messages will be shown in the system tray. You can enable KMail's system tray icon with Enable system tray icon, and with System Tray Mode you can specify whether the tray icon should always be shown or only if you have unread messages.

If the icon is visible then you can hide KMail's main window by clicking on the icon or by clicking on the window close button. By clicking on the icon you can make KMail's main window visible again. If you click on the icon with the right mousebutton then you get a menu with a few useful commands. You can check for new mail, create a new message or quit KMail. Additionally, there is the entry New Messages In which lists all folders containing unread messages. If you choose one of those folders then this folder will be selected in KMail's main window.

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Composer Page
Composer Page
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## Composer Page

### General

Automatically append signature

  If checked, your signature as defined in the identity page is automatically included at the end of all messages you create (i.e. new messages, replies, etc.).

Use smart quoting

  If checked, KMail will break long lines but will try to keep the correct quoting (e.g. the “> ” will always be at the start of the line).

Automatically request message disposition notifications

  If checked, Options->Request Disposition Notification will default to on. Check this option only if you know what you are doing. MDNs are considered a nuisance (or are simply ignored) by a lot of people. It is better to decide to request them on a message-by-message basis.

Word wrap at column

  Lets you turn word wrapping on and off in the composer window and lets you set the column at which words will be wrapped (you probably should not need to change the default value, which is `78`).

Autosave interval

  A backup copy of the text in the composer window can be created regularly. This option lets you specify the interval used to create the backup. You can disable autosaving by setting it to the value `0`.

External Editor

  If you do not like the Composer you can use a different editor. Note that the composer window will still open and the external editor will open as soon as you type just one character in the body of the message. If you are done, save the text and exit the editor. The text will now appear in the composer window, where you can send it. Note that your editor may not return immediately, you have to use e.g. `gvim `-f` `%f`` for gvim.

### Phrases

The Phrases tab lets you define the automatically generated lines that are added to message replies, forwarded messages, and the character that is added in front of quoted text. There are special %-denoted characters that will insert certain values, which are also displayed at the top of the Phrases section. You can add reply phrases in languages other than your default KDE language using the Add... button. You can then choose between different languages with the Language drop down box. This will only work for languages whose i18n package you have installed.

### Subject

This section contains a list of prefixes for “Reply” and “Forward”. If you receive messages that use prefixes different to the standard ones, you can add them here so KMail will recognize them. This way KMail can ignore them for sorting messages and when setting the subject of a reply or a forwarded messages, and optionally replace them with “Re:” or “Fwd:” respectively.

### Charset

Here you can manage the default charsets used for your own messages. Every message you send will be checked if it is written in one of the listed charsets, starting at the top of the list. If it is, this charset will be used. If it is not, a dialog will show up and tell you that you manually have to choose a charset using Options->Set Encoding.

If you select Keep original charset when replying or forwarding (if possible), the original message's charset will be kept, unless there are now characters that cannot be represented using that charset.

### Headers

Check the Use custom message-id suffix checkbox if you want KMail to generate Message-Id's with a custom suffix. Enter the desired suffix in the Custom message-id suffix field. Please make sure that the suffix that you specify is world-wide unique. The best thing is to use the name of a domain which you are the owner of. If you do not check Use custom Message-Id suffix then KMail will automatically generate the complete Message-Id. If you do not know what this is all about do not check this option.

The Define custom mime header fields list sets the headers that KMail will use for its outgoing messages. You can both invent new fields and overwrite existing ones. This feature is only useful for advanced users.

### Attachments

If you have to send attachments with filenames containing non-English characters to users of Outlook(TM) or Outlook Express(TM) then you might want to check the Outlook-compatible attachment naming option. KMail will then encode the attachment names in a non-standard way that is understood by Outlook(TM).

Note that KMail will create non-standard compliant messages, and consequently it is possible that your messages will not be understood by standard-compliant mail clients. So, unless you have no other choice, you should not enable this option.

Check the Enable detection of missing attachments checkbox if you want KMail to warn you whenever you are about to send a message without attachments although the message text contains certain words which indicate that you wanted to include an attachment. The list of key words can be modified.

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Security Page
Security Page
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## Security Page

### Reading

On this tab you can configure security-relevant options for reading messages.

Prefer HTML to plain text

  If checked, KMail will show HTML messages with their HTML formatting and layout. We strongly recommend to leave this option off, as security problems with HTML might show up. When this option is off, you can still read HTML messages, but only as plain text.

Allow messages to load external references from the Internet

  If checked, KMail can load external images, style sheets etc. from the Internet when you look at an HTML message. We strongly recommend to leave this option off (although it has no effect if you only view plain text messages). By adding external references to their messages, people sending spam can detect that and when you have looked at their message. Note that this option has no effect on Java™, JavaScript and Plugins - these are disabled anyway and cannot be enabled at all.

Message Disposition Notifications

  MDNs are a generalization of what is commonly called a “read receipt”. The message author requests a disposition notification to be sent and the receiver's mail program generates a reply from which the author can learn what happened to his message. Common disposition types include “displayed” (i.e. read), “deleted” and “dispatched” (e.g. forwarded).

  The following options (listed as Send policy) are available to control when KMail sends MDNs:

  Ignore (recommended)

    Ignores any request for disposition notifications. No MDN will ever be sent automatically.

  Ask

    Answers requests only after asking the user for permission. This way, you can send MDNs for selected messages while denying or ignoring them for others.

  Deny

    Always sends a “denied” notification. This is only slightly better than always sending MDNs. The author will still know that the messages has been acted upon, he just cannot tell whether it was deleted or read etc.

  Always send

    Always sends the requested disposition notification. That means that the author of the message gets to know when the message was acted upon and, in addition, what happened to it (displayed, deleted, etc.). This option is strongly discouraged, but since it makes sense where privacy is not a concern, e.g. in customer relationship management, it has been made available.

  If you are unsure, experiment a while with Ask and if you find KMails questions annoying, switch to Ignore.

  The following options (listed as Quote original message) are available to control how much of the original message KMail sends back in MDNs.

  Nothing

    No parts of the message other than the mandatory message-id and the original recipient is included in the MDN reply. This preserves enough information for the sender to find the message in his sent messages for which this MDN was generated.

  Full message

    Attaches the complete message to the disposition notification. Usually, this is overkill. It does not add any valueable information that cannot be deduced from the message headers alone, but people sometimes insist on this, since it is much easier for humans to correlate the content of the message than just the headers to what they sent earlier.

  Only headers

    Attaches only the headers to the disposition notification. This is usually enough to enable both humans (by subject) and computers (by message-id) to easily correlate MDN and original message.

  If unsure, leave the option at the default.

Do not send MDNs in response to encrypted messages

  This option suppresses the sending of MDNs if the message is encrypted (partially or in whole). This thwarts attempts to use KMail's MDN feature as an oracle to deduce whether you were able to decrypt the message or not.

  Strictly speaking, this option is not needed, since KMail sends MDNs regardless of whether the message could be successfully decrypted or not (the disposition notification request resides in the unencrypted part of the message), but it gives the security-conscious user the choice to either send them always if requested (option unchecked), or never (option checked).

  If unsure, leave the option checked.

Automatically import keys and certificates

  If checked, KMail automatically imports any attachments containing OpenPGP keys into your local keyring, and any attachments containing S/MIME keys into your local key box.

  ### Note

  Verifying S/MIME signatures always involves importing the contained certificates. This option thus does not affect this. It is also unrelated to GPG's `auto-key-retrieve` feature, where GPG will try to import unknown keys from a key server.

### Composing

On this tab you can configure security-relevant options for composing messages.

Automatically sign messages

  If checked, the Options->Sign Message option in the composer will default to on.

  However, you can still switch it on and off on a per-message basis.

Always encrypt to self

  If checked, any message that is encrypted to the recipients will additionally be encrypted to yourself.

  ### Warning

  If you uncheck this option, you may not be able to decrypt the messages written by yourself and encrypted to other people anymore.

Store sent messages encrypted[3]

  If checked, messages are stored in your sent-mail folder just as you sent them (i.e. if they were encrypted, they are also stored that way).

  If unchecked, messages will always be stored unencrypted in your sent-mail folder, even if they are sent encrypted.

Always show the encryption keys for approval

  If checked, everytime you encrypt a message, a dialog will appear that presents you with the encryption keys that will be used for each recipient. You can then review the choice of keys, change them, and approve or cancel the encryption operation. We recommend to keep this option checked, since it makes the encryption process more transparent.

Automatically encrypt messages whenever possible

  Also called “opportunistic encryption”. If checked, KMail will try to match recipients to (OpenPGP or S/MIME) keys even when you did not specifically request encryption. If usable keys are found for all recipients, KMail will ask whether or not you want to encrypt the message.

  It is highly recommended to turn this on, as it makes encrypting messages really easy to use.

Never sign/encrypt when saving as draft

  If checked, KMail will not attempt to sign and/or encrypt messages that are merely saved to the drafts folder. This is more convenient, and does not result in a gross loss of security, provided the drafts folder is safe. IMAP users might want this options turned off, if their drafts folder is on the server.

### Warnings

On this tab you can switch security-relavant warnings on and off.

Warn when trying to send unsigned messages

  If checked, KMail will show a warning if for whatever reason a message would be sent without being digitally signed.

Warn when trying to send unencrypted messages

  If checked, KMail will show a warning if for whatever reason a message would be sent without being encrypted.

  ### Note

  While it is common to sign all outgoing messages, encrypting them is not. So unless your company has a policy of never sending any unencrypted messages, it might be a good idea to keep this option switched off and rely on opportunistic encryption to alert you if you could send encrypted messages, but did not request it.

Warn if receiver's email address is not in certificate

  If checked, KMail will emit a warning if an S/MIME certifciate or OpenPGP key will be used for a recipient whose email address is not listed in the email addresses stored in the certificate.

  Situations in which this warning will trigger include when configuring your per-identity OpenPGP keys or S/MIME certificates, when encrypting, and when verifying signatures, if the signature was made with a certificate that does not include the email address of the sender.

Warn if certificates/keys expire soon

  If checked, KMail will warn when an S/MIME certificate or OpenPGP key is used which will expire soon.

  The period in which to warn before key/certificate expiration can then be configured separately for signing and encryption keys, as well as (in the case of S/MIME), for end-user certificates, intermediate CA certificates and root certificates.

Re-Enable All "Don't Ask Again" Warnings

  Apart from the main warnings described above, there are more warning and information messages, which contain an option to not show them again. If you would like to re-enable them after choosing not to show them again, you can achieve this by pressing this button.[4]

### S/MIME Validation

This tab contains selected entries from GpgSM's dynamic backend configuration dialog. Please refer to the GpgSM manual for a description of these options.

Validate certificates using CRLs

  If checked, S/MIME certificates are validated using Certificate Revocation Lists (CRLs).

Validate certificates online (OCSP)

  If this option is selected, S/MIME certificates are validated using the Online Certificates Status Protocol (OCSP).

  Fill in the URL of the OCSP responder in the field reserved at this effect.

OCSP responder URL

  Enter the address of the server for online validation of certificates. The URL is usually starting with http://.

OCSP responder signature

  Select or change and enter the S/MIME key to use.

Ignore service URL of certificates

  Check this option to skip online validation using the OCSP. This Option requires dirmngr >= 0.9.0.

Do not check certificate policies

  By default, GnuPG uses the file ~/.gnupg/policies.txt to check if a certificate policy is allowed. If this option is selected, policies are not checked.

Never consult a CRLs

  If this option is checked, Certificate Revocation Lists are never used to validate S/MIME certificates.

Fetch missing issuer certificates

  Check this option if you want the missing issuer certificates to be fetched when necessary. This applies to both validation methods, CRLs and OCSP.

Do not perform any HTTP requests

  Entirely disables the use of HTTP for S/MIME.

Ignore HTTP CRL Distribution Point of certificates

  When looking for the location of a CRL, “the "to-be-tested"”certificate usually contains what are known as CRL Distribution Point (DP) entries, which are URLs describing the way to access the URL. The first found DP entry is used. With this option all entries using the HTTP scheme are ignored when looking for a suitable DP.

Use system HTTP proxy

  If this option is selected, the value of the HTTP proxy shown on the right (which comes from the environment variable http_proxy) will be used for any HTTP request.

Use this proxy for HTTP requests

  Enter here the location of your HTTP Proxy, which will be used for all HTTP requests relating to S/MIME. The syntax is “"host:port"”, for instance myproxy.nowhere.com:3128.

Do not perform any LDAP requests

  Entirely disables the use of LDAP for S/MIME.

Ignore LDAP CRL Distribution Point of certificates

  When looking for the location of a CRL, the “"to-be-tested"” certificate usually contains what are known as CRL Distribution Point (DP) entries, which are URLs describing the way to access the URL. The first found DP entry is used. With this option all entries using the LDAP scheme are ignored when looking for a suitable DP.

Primary host for LDAP requests

  Entering a LDAP server here will make all LDAP requests go to that server first. More precisely, this setting overrides any specified host and port part in a LDAP URL and will also be used if host and port have been omitted from the URL. Other LDAP servers will be used only if the connection to the proxy failed. The syntax is HOST or HOST:PORT. If PORT is omitted, “port 389” (standard LDAP port) is used.

### Crypto Backends

On this tab you can configure which crypto backends are to be used for OpenPGP and S/MIME cryptographic operations (such as signing and encrypting).

On the right-hand side, you see a list of available backends. Below each backend entry, you can see what protocols (OpenPGP and/or S/MIME) the backend supports. If a protocol is not listed, the backend does not support it. If it is listed, but greyed out, the backend supports the protocol, but some required programs were not found, or other errors occurred during initialization. If you press Rescan, a dialog box will appear that lists reasons for the initialization failure.

To configure a backend, select it in the list of available backends and press Configure.... The per-backend configuration dialog is dynamically created from the information returned by the backend. It may therefore change if you update the backend applications, although KMail itself is unchanged. If the Configure... button is disabled, the backend does not support a backend configuration dialog.

Please refer to the manuals of the applications underlying each backend for a description of the options presented in the backend configuration dialogs.

In front of each backend's protocol entries, you can see a checkbox, with which you select which backend is to be used for a given protocol. These checkboxes are exclusive per protocol, meaning that if you select a backend to perform OpenPGP operations, any previously selected OpenPGP implementation will be unselected, but the S/MIME backend selection will be unchanged. If no backend is selected for a given protocol, that protocol is effectively disabled for use in KMail.

[3] This options enables a mode of using mail encryption that is sometimes (misleadingly) called “transport-only” encryption. In this mode of operation, the message encryption is stripped off as soon as the message has reached its destination. The encryption lasts only while the message is on its way.

KMail supports this mode half-heartedly, since such functionality should better placed at the mail server (MTA) than at the mail client (MUA) level. Thus, future versions of KMail may drop support for this option.

[4] This will re-enable all such warnings for KMail. It does not make much sense to allow more fine-grained selection of which warnings to show since you can just check the option to suppress them again when they next show up.

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Misc Page
Misc Page
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## Misc Page

### Folders

Ask for confirmation before moving all messages to trash

  Enable this option if you want to be asked for confirmation whenever you use Folder->Move All Messages to Trash.

Exclude important messages from expiry

  Enable this option if important messages should never be deleted during message expiration, i.e. during automatic deletion of old messages.

When trying to find unread messages

  This option controls what happens if you press one of the shortcuts to go to the next or previous unread message (e.g. Space). If you ask KMail to go to the next unread message although there is no unread message below the currently selected message then the following happens:

  - If Do not Loop is selected then nothing will happen.

  - If Loop in Current Folder is selected then KMail will search from the beginning of the current folder for an unread message. If none is found then nothing happens.

  - If Loop in All Folders is selected then KMail will first search in the current folder for another unread message. If none is found then KMail will search the next folder containing unread messages.

  Correspondingly, if you ask KMail to go to the previous unread message.
Jump to first unread message when entering a folder

  If this option is enabled KMail will go to the first unread message when you enter a folder; if it is not enabled, KMail will go to first new message or, if there is no new message, to the message that was selected when you last left the folder.

Mark selected message as read after...

  When you select a new or unread message, KMail will change the message's status to read after the number of seconds entered here. If you disable this option, messages will keep their new or unread status.

Ask for action after dragging messages to another folder

  When you drag a message to a different folder, a small popup will ask you if you want to move or copy the message. If you disable this option, the message will be moved immediately, without a popup.

By default, message folders on disk are...

  Here you can set the default folder format that is used when you create a new folder.

Open this folder on startup

  Here you can set the folder that should be selected by default if you start KMail. If you use only IMAP folders then you might want to set this to your IMAP inbox folder. If you do that, you can collapse the local folders in the folder list, and then they will stay collapsed when KMail starts.

Empty trash on program exit

  The trash folder is cleared of messages when you quit KMail if this option is selected.

### Groupware

Enable IMAP resource functionality

  Makes it possible to store the entries from the Kontact applications (KOrganizer, KAddressBook and KNotes). This option has to be set whenever you are configuring Kontact as a KDE Kolab client. This option being enabled you will also need to add the appropriate resources from the KDE Control Center (kcontrol) in the KDE Resources Configuration section. Kolab resources have to be added in case the resource functionality applies to a KDE Kolab client set-up.

Format used for the groupware folders

  Choose the storage format for the groupware folders

  - Default format is Standard (Ical/Vcard) for calendar folders (Ical) and addressbook folders (Vcard). This makes all Kontact features available.

  - Kolab users should choose Kolab XML. This format uses a custom model that matches more closely to the one used in Microsoft Outlook(tm) and gives better compatibility.

Language of the groupware folders

  Choose between the available languages to set the folder names of the IMAP storage to your local language. Note that this option is only aimed for compatibility with Microsoft Outlook(tm). It is not recommended to change its default unless you have to, since it makes changing languages impossible.

Resource folders are in account

  Select the parent of the IMAP resource folders. You should select the name of your IMAP/DIMAP account. By default the Kolab server sets the IMAP inbox to be the parent.

Hide groupware folders

  You should not need to see the folders that hold the IMAP resources. However if you want to see them, you can set that by enabling this option.

Mangle From:/To: headers in replies to invitations

  Enable this option to make Microsoft Outlook(tm) understand your answers to invitations replies.

Send invitations in the mail body

  Invitations use to be send as attachments to a mail. By enabling this option, you let the invitation mails to be sent in the text of the mail, which is necessary to send invitations and replies to Microsoft Outlook(tm).

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Chapter 5. Menu Entries
Menu Entries
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## Chapter 5. Menu Entries

Daniel Naber `<daniel.naber@t-online.de>`

David Rugge `<davidrugge@mediaone.net>`

Michel Boyer de la Giroday `<michel@klaralvdalens-datakonsult.se>`

Revision 1.7 (2004-07-11)

Each menu item is discussed below. When there is a keyboard shortcut that performs a menu item function, the default shortcut is listed with the menu item.

## The Main Window

### File Menu

File->New Window

  Creates a new main window.

File->Open... (Ctrl+O)

  Allows you to open files which contain email messages.

File->Save As... (Ctrl+S)

  Saves the currently displayed message to a text file, including all the headers and attachments.

File->Print... (Ctrl+P)

  Display a dialog that lets you prints the currently displayed message.

File->Compact All Folders

  Will compact all folders, i.e. it will really move and delete the messages on disk according to how you have moved and deleted them in KMail.

File->Expire All Folders

  Delete old messages from all folders, according to the rules in each folder's Properties dialog (the default is not to delete old messages at all).

File->Refresh Local IMAP Cache

  This will remove all changes that you have done locally to your IMAP folders and redownload everything from the server. Use this if the local cache was corrupted.

File->Empty All Trash Folders

  Use this to empty all trash folders, i.e. the local trash folder and all trash folders that you might have on IMAP servers.

File->Check Mail (Ctrl+L)

  Checks for new messages in all your accounts, except those that have Exclude from "Check Mail" enabled.

File->Check Mail In

  Submenu that lets you check for new messages from a particular account.

File->Send Queued Messages

  Sends the messages that are in your outbox.

File->Quit (Ctrl+Q)

  Closes the current main window or exits KMail if there is only this one window.

### Edit Menu

Edit->Undo (Ctrl+Z)

  Revokes your last move or delete action. Note that you cannot undo a deletion in the trash.

Edit->Copy (Ctrl+C)

  Copies selected text to the clipboard.

Edit->Edit Message (T)

  Edits the selected message if it is editable. Only messages in the outbox and drafts folder can be edited.

Edit->Move to Trash (Delete)

  Moves the selected messages to the trash folder. If the selected messages are already in the trash folder, they will really be deleted.

Edit->Delete (Shift+Delete)

  Deletes the selected messages. There is no way to recover the messages once they are deleted with this command.

Edit->Find in Message... (Ctrl+F)

  Lets you search for a string in the currently displayed message.

Edit->Select All Messages (Ctrl+A)

  Selects all messages in the current folder.

Edit->Select Message Text (Ctrl+Shift+A)

  Selects the text of the currently displayed message.

### View Menu

View->Headers

  Changes the format of the message header in the Message pane.

View->Attachments

  Changes the way attachments appear in the Message pane (independent of the MIME Tree). With As Icons all attachments appear as icons at the bottom of the message. Smart will show attachments as icons, unless the message suggests that they should be displayed inline. You can suggest that certain attachments should be shown inline in your own messages when you select Suggest automatic display in the attachment's properties dialog. Inline shows the contents of the attachments at the bottom of the message. Attachments that cannot be displayed, e.g. compressed files, will still be shown as an icon. Hide will not show attachments.

View->Unread Column

  Allows you to specify whether the number of unread messages should be shown in parentheses next to the folder name (View After Folder Name) or in a separate column (View in Separate Column)

View->Total Column

  Display a column in the list of folders which shows the number of messages per folder.

View->Expand Thread (.)

  If Folder->Thread Messages is activated, this will display the thread of the current message, i.e. all messages that are replies to the current message.

View->Collapse Thread (,)

  If Folder->Thread Messages is activated, this will hide the thread of the current message, i.e. it will hide all messages that are replies to the current message.

View->Expand All Threads (Ctrl+.)

  Expands all threads in the current folder.

View->Collapse All Threads (Ctrl+,)

  Collapses all threads in the current folder.

View->View Source (V)

  Shows the message and its complete headers in plain text format in a new window. This can be useful to find out the origin of a mail. You should know that it is easy to fake the `From:` header of a mail, but one can still find out which mail servers have been used to send the message by looking at the `Received:` lines in the header.

View->Use Fixed Font (X)

  Uses a fixed width (monospaced) font to display the messages in the current folder. The font to be used can be configured in the Appearance section of KMail's configuration dialog.

View->Set Encoding

  Lets you choose the character encoding to be used in the Message Pane. The default, Auto, should work in almost all cases.

### Go Menu

Go->Next Message (N)

  Selects the next message in the message list. The keyboard shortcut Right Arrow also performs this action.

Go->Next Unread Message (+)

  Selects the next unread message in the message list. If there is no unread message below the currently selected message then the behavior depends on the value of the When trying to find unread messages option.

Go->Previous Message (P)

  Selects the previous message in the message list.

Go->Previous Unread Message (-)

  Selects the previous unread message in the message list. If there is no unread message above the currently selected message then the behavior depends on the value of the When trying to find unread messages option.

Go->Next Unread Folder (Ctrl++)

  Jumps to the the next folder with unread messages.

Go->Previous Unread Folder (Ctrl+-)

  Jumps to the the previous folder with unread messages.

Go->Next Unread Text (Space)

  Scrolls down if you are not yet at the bottom of a message, otherwise jumps to the next unread message.

### Folder Menu

Folder->New Folder...

  Opens the Folder Properties dialog that lets you create a new folder.

Folder->Mark All Messages as Read

  Sets the status of all new and unread messages in the current folder to read.

Folder->Compact

  Compacts the folder file to reduce its disk space usage. Usually KMail compacts all folders automatically, but under certain circumstances you might want to compact a folder manually.

Folder->Expire

  Deletes old messages from the current folder or moves them to another folder, according to the rules in the folder's Properties dialog (the default is not to delete or move old messages). Usually KMail does this automatically, but under certain circumstances you might want to expire a folder manually..

Folder->Remove Duplicate Messages (Ctrl+*)

  Searches the folder for duplicate messages and deletes the duplicates.

Folder->Check Mail in This Folder (F5)

  Checks whether new mail arrived in the currently selected folder. This is only available for IMAP folders.

Folder->Move All Messages to Trash

  Moves all of the messages in the selected folder into the trash folder. This is only available if the currently selected folder is not a trash folder.

Folder->Empty Trash

  Permanently deletes all messages. This is only available if the currently selected folder is a trash folder.

Folder->Delete Folder

  Removes the selected folder and all its contents, including subfolders.

  ### Warning

  Note that there is no way to access the contents of a folder after it has been removed.

Folder->Prefer HTML to Plain Text

  If enabled then HTML messages in this folders will be shown using HTML rendering. For security reasons, we recommend to only activate this for folders which only contain trusted messages.

Folder->Thread Messages

  If enabled then the messages in the message list are shown in a tree-like list, with replies showing up directly under the message they reply to.

Folder->Thread Messages also by Subject

  If enabled then the messages are not only grouped according to special information included in the messages but also according to their subject, i.e. messages with the same subject are considered as being related. If many messages are threaded below unrelated messages then you might want to disable this option.

Folder->Properties

  Opens up the Properties dialog which lets you change the settings for the selected folder.

### Message Menu

Message->New Message... (Ctrl+N)

  Opens the composer window so you can write a new message.

Message->New Message to Mailing-List...

  Opens the composer window so you can write a new mail. If the current folder holds a mailing list and has a posting address defined, this address will be the default To: address.

Message->Reply... (R)

  Opens up the composer window, inserts the quoted text of the currently selected message and presets the To: field either with the mailing-list address (if you reply to a mailing-list message) or with the preferred reply address of the sender. If you want to control which address the To: field is preset with then you should either use Message->Reply to Author... or Message->Reply to Mailing-List.... Your identity will automatically be set to the one which this message was sent to.

Message->Reply to All... (A)

  Opens up the composer window, inserts the quoted text of the currently selected message and presets the To: field either with the mailing-list address (if you reply to a mailing-list message) or with the preferred reply address of the sender. The Copy to (CC): field is preset with the addresses of all other recipients of the currently selected message excluding your own addresses. Your identity will automatically be set to the one which this message was sent to.

Message->Reply to Author... (Shift+A)

  Opens up the composer window, inserts the quoted text of the currently selected message and presets the To: field with the preferred reply address of the sender. Your identity will automatically be set to the one which this message was sent to.

Message->Reply to Mailing-List... (L)

  Opens up the composer window, inserts the quoted text of the currently selected message and presets the To: field with the mailing-list address. If you did not specify a mailing-list address for the currently selected folder and KMail cannot determine the posting address from the currently selected message then the To: field will be empty. Your identity will automatically be set to the one which this message was sent to.

Message->Reply Without Quote... (Shift+R)

  Works just like Reply... except that the text of the currently selected message is not quoted.

Message->Forward

  Forwards the message to a new recipient. Using Inline, the message's text and some important header fields will be copied to the body of the new message with a text marking the forwarded part. Attachments will be forwarded as attachments of the new message. Using As Attachment the message and its attachments will become an attachment of the new message. The original message headers will be included in the forwarded message, too. Redirect works like forward, except that the message stays the same (even the From: field). The user who redirected the message is added in special header fields (`Redirect-From`, `Redirect-Date`, `Redirect-To`, etc.).

Message->Send Again...

  Opens a composer window with the currently selected message so it can be sent again. This is only available for messages which you have sent or, more precisely, for messages which have the sent status.

Message->Copy To

  Copies the selected messages to a certain folder.

Message->Move To

  Moves the selected messages to a certain folder.

Message->Mark Message

  Allows you to change the status of the selected message to one of the following states:

  Status | Symbol | Meaning
  --- | --- | ---
  Read | Sheet of paper before an envelope | The message has been read.
  New | Closed envelope with a star | The message is new to KMail and you.
  Unread | Close envelope | The message is not new to KMail but has not been read yet.
  Important | Flag | This status will not automatically be set by KMail. You can use it freely to mark messages that are in some way important to you.
  Replied | Blue u-turn arrow | A reply to this message has been sent.
  Forwarded | Blue arrow | The message has been forwarded to someone else.
  Queued | Envelope | The message has been queued in the outbox to be sent later.
  Sent | Angled envelope | The message has been sent.
  Spam | Round recycle symbol | This status will not be set automatically by KMail. You can use it to mark spam messages.
  Ham | Green check mark | This status will not be set automatically by KMail. You can use it to mark messages which are not spam.

Message->Mark Thread

  Allows you to change the status of all messages in a thread. The possible states are the same as for Message->Mark Message.

Message->Watch Thread

  Use this to mark threads which you want to keep an eye on for further contributions to the discussion.

Message->Ignore Thread

  Use this to mark threads you are not interested in. New contributions to this thread will automatically be marked as read.

Message->Create Filter

  Opens up the Filter dialog with a new filter added. This new filter is based on fields of the current mail, depending on which sub menu item you select.

Message->Apply Filters (Ctrl+J)

  Applies your filters to the selected messages.

Message->Apply Filter

  Allows you to apply an individual filter to the selected messages. Only filters for which you enabled the Add this filter to the Apply Filter menu option will be available.

### Tools Menu

Tools->Find Messages... (S)

  Opens up a search window that lets you search for messages with certain characteristics, e.g. a certain subject. Start the search by entering some values and press Search. Click on one of the resulting messages and it will appear in the Message pane.

Tools->Address Book

  Starts up KAddressBook, the KDE address book.

Tools->Certificate Manager...

  Starts Kleopatra, the KDE certificate manager.

Tools->GnuPG Log Viewer

  Starts KWatchGnuPG, a tool to present the debug output of GnuPG application. If signing, encryption, or verification mysteriously stop working, you might find out why by looking at the log.

Tools->Import Messages...

  Starts up kmailcvt (which is part of kdepim). This application lets you import messages from several email clients KMail.

Tools->Edit "Out of Office" Replies...

  Launch the Configure "Out of Office" Replies dialog, which allow you to set-up vacation notifications.

  ### Note

  Out of Office reply functionality relies on server-side filtering. To be able to use it you need to configure the Filtering tab (see option relevant to kolab server) of your IMAP account set-up.

Tools->Filter Log Viewer...

  Opens up the viewer window for the filter log; there you find some options to control the logging of the filtering process. In the log you will find valuable information about what filter rules were used, what was the result of the evaluation of those rules, and which filter actions were applied to a message.

Tools->Anti-Spam Wizard...

  It starts a wizard which can help you to set up spam filtering.

### Settings Menu

Settings->Show Toolbar

  If enabled, the Toolbar is visible (the Toolbar is the one with the icon to compose a new message etc.).

Settings->Show Quick Search

  If enabled, the Quick Search bar which allows you to quickly search for messages matching a search text is visible.

Settings->Configure Filters...

  Opens the Message Filters window.

Settings->Configure POP Filters...

  Opens the Configure Pop Filters window.

Settings->Configure Shortcuts...

  Opens a window that lets you configure the keyboard shortcuts for many menu commands.

Settings->Configure Notifications...

  Opens a window that lets you configure what happens when new mail arrives, like playing a sound.

Settings->Configure Toolbars...

  Opens a window that lets you choose which icons are visible in the toolbar.

Settings->Configure KMail...

  Opens the Configure window.

### Help Menu

These are the KDE standard items for the Help menu:

Help->KMail Handbook (F1)

  Invokes the KDE Help system starting at the KMail help pages. (this document).

Help->What's This? (Shift+F1)

  Changes the mouse cursor to a combination arrow and question mark. Clicking on items within KMail will open a help window (if one exists for the particular item) explaining the item's function.

Help->Report Bug...

  Opens the Bug report dialog where you can report a bug or request a “wishlist” feature.

Help->About KMail

  This will display version and author information.

Help->About KDE

  This displays the KDE version and other basic information.

Additionally KMail offers these items:

Help->KMail Introduction

  This displays the welcome screen, which lists the most important differences between your version of KMail and the previous one.

Help->Tip of the Day

  This displays a dialog with useful hints for using KMail.

The Composer Window
The Composer Window
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## The Composer Window

### Message Menu

Message->New Composer (Ctrl+N)

  Opens up a new composer window.

Message->New Main Window

  Creates a new main window.

Message->Send Now (Ctrl+Return)

  Sends the message immediately. If you use SMTP to send your messages and the SMTP server is not reachable, the message will be put into the outbox and you will get an error message. You can then later send the messages in the outbox using File->Send Queued Messages.

Message->Send Later

  Queues the message in the outbox for sending it later using File->Send Queued Messages.

Message->Save in Drafts Folder

  Save the message in the drafts folder so you can later edit and send it.

Messages->Insert File...

  Inserts a text file into the message text, starting at the cursor position.

Message->Print... (Ctrl+P)

  Prints the current text.

Message->Close (Ctrl+W)

  Closes this composer window.

### Edit Menu

Edit->Undo (Ctrl+Z)

  Undo your steps in editing the current message.

Edit->Redo (Ctrl+Shift+Z)

  Redo your steps in editing the current message.

Edit->Cut (Ctrl+X)

  Cutting text works as with most editors: the selected text is removed and put into the clipboard. Note that you can also select text and drag it to a new position.

Edit->Copy (Ctrl+C)

  Copying text works as with most editors: the selected text is copied to the clipboard. Note that you can also select text while holding the Ctrl key, and drag it to a new position to copy it.

Edit->Paste (Ctrl+V)

  Pasting works the same as with most editors: the text from the clipboard is pasted at the current cursor position.

Edit->Select All (Ctrl+A)

  Selects all of the text in your message.

Edit->Find... (Ctrl+F)

  Opens a dialog to search for strings in the current message.

Edit->Find Next (Ctrl+F)

  Goes to the next occurrence of the previously searched string.

Edit->Replace... (Ctrl+R)

  Opens a dialog that lets you replace strings in your message with other strings.

Edit->Clean Spaces

  This replaces multiple line breaks or spaces with single line breaks or spaces. It works on the current selection or on the complete message if there is no selection.

Edit->Paste as Quotation

  Pastes the text from the clipboard marked as quotation.

Edit->Add Quote Characters

  Prepends the selected text with quotation marks.

Edit->Remove Quote Characters

  Removes the left-most quotation marks from the selected text.

### View Menu

This menu lets you toggle the display of the header fields and other options in this composer window.

Options available are:

- All Fields

- Identity

- Dictionary

- Sent-Mail folder

- Mail Transport

- From

- Reply To

- To

- CC

- BCC

- Subject

Currently visible items have a checkmark shown next to their name in the menu.

View->Use Fixed Font

  Uses a fixed width (monospaced) font to display the currently edited message. The font to be used can be configured in the Appearance section of KMail's configuration dialog.

### Options Menu

Options->Urgent

  Sets the priority of the message to Urgent. The receiver's email client has to support this or it will have no effect. KMail itself does not support priorities for incoming messages.

Options->Request Disposition Notification

  If you choose this option, you request a confirmation email once your message is downloaded and read by its recipient. This has to be supported and enabled by the receiver's email client in order to work.

  See Message Disposition Notifications for background information and ways to customize the read receipts that KMail itself sends.

Options->Sign Message

  Digitally sign the message using OpenPGP. You can learn more about this in the chapter on OpenPGP.

Options->Encrypt Message

  Encrypt the message using OpenPGP. You can learn more about this in the chapter on OpenPGP.

Options->Select Cryptographic Message Format

  Choose the cryptographic message format to use to digitally sign and/or encrypt the message in. See the previous description of each option for more information.

Options->Formatting (HTML)

  Enables HTML editing.

Options->Set Encoding

  Set the charset encoding of this message. The chosen encoding will appear in the header of the outgoing mail. You can use Auto for almost all cases, KMail will tell you if you need to select a different encoding manually.

Options->Wordwrap

  Toggles the automatic wordwrap. It may be useful to turn it off if you want to paste long lines that should not wrap.

Options->Automatic Spellchecking

  Toggles automatic spellchecking. Note that in HTML-editing mode automatic spellchecking is not available.

### Attach Menu

This menu lets you select attachment options.

Attach->Append Signature

  Appends your signature (“footer”) to the end of the message.

Attach->Attach Public Key...

  Attaches the corresponding PGP/GnuPG key to your message.

Attach->Attach My Public Key

  Attaches your PGP/GnuPG public key to your message.

Attach->Attach File...

  Attaches one or more files to the current message.

Attach->Remove Attachment

  Removes the attachment that is selected in the attachment part of the composer.

Attach->Save Attachment As...

  Saves the attachment that is selected in the attachment window to a file.

Attach->Attachment Properties

  Displays the properties of the attachment that is selected in the attachment window.

### Tools Menu

Tools->Spelling...

  Uses KSpell to check the spelling in the body of your message. Note that you have to configure KSpell with Settings->Spellchecker... if you use it for the first time.

Tools->Addressbook...

  Opens up KAddressBook.

### Settings Menu

Settings->Show Main Toolbar

  If enabled, the Main Toolbar is visible, i.e. the one with the icon to send the message etc..

Settings->Show HTML Toolbar

  If enabled, the HTML Toolbar is visible, i.e. the one which with the tools to change certain properties of the composed text.

Settings->Spellchecker...

  Allows you to configure KSpell, KDE's spellchecker.

Settings->Configure Shortcuts...

  Opens a window that lets you configure the keyboard shortcuts for many menu commands.

Settings->Configure Toolbars...

  Opens a window that allows you to decide which icons appear in the toolbar.

Settings->Configure KMail...

  Opens KMail's configuration dialog.

### Help Menu

The entries in this menu have the same meaning as the entries in the main window's help menu.

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Chapter 6. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
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## Chapter 6. Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

Daniel Naber `<daniel.naber@t-online.de>`

David Rugge `<davidrugge@mediaone.net>`

Revision 1.7 (2004-07-14)

6.1. Why are my filters not applied to incoming messages of IMAP accounts?
6.2. Using PGP or GnuPG is very slow or it blocks KMail.
6.3. What should I know if I want to use PGP/GnuPG with KMail?
6.4. Where does KMail save my settings and my mail?
6.5. Why did KMail regenerate the index of a folder?
6.6. I cannot add addresses to my address book after upgrading to KDE 3.x.
6.7. Can I use KMail together with a different email client, e.g. mutt?
6.8. How can I convert my mailboxes from mbox to maildir?
6.9. How can I use a browser other than Konqueror to open links in messages?
6.10. How can I remove attachments from messages without removing the message itself?
6.11. How can I make KMail check for new messages at startup?
6.12. Why does KMail get slow / stop working when I try to send big attachments?
6.13. Where can I get a list of changes between the versions of KMail?
6.14. Can I configure the location of my mail folder?
6.15. How can I use mail folders that are not in the normal KMail message folder location?
6.16. I'm one of those people whose mails consist of 100 quoted lines and one line written by myself. For some reason this annoys other people. Can KMail help me and make everyone's life better?
6.17. For some messages the value in the Date field is unknown or it is not correct.
6.18. My signature has two dashes above it. What's up?
6.19. KMail fetches the same messages over and over again.
6.20. Are there any known bugs in KMail?
6.21. KMail does not display HTML mail properly.
6.22. Can I use two different versions of KMail at the same time? Can I go back from a current version of KMail to an older one?
6.23. Does KMail support uuencoded files?
6.24. KMail crashed while I was writing a mail; is that mail is lost now?
6.25. When I try to set a folder to be mailing list-aware, it does not do anything when receiving an email from the list.
6.26. My SMTP server requires authentication; Does KMail support this?
6.27. Can I use KMail and procmail?
6.28. Spellchecking does not recognize non-English characters.
6.29. How do I use my Eudora/Netscape/Outlook/... mail folders in KMail?
6.30. Can I use encryption with my normal (non-SSL) POP3 account?
6.31. Does KMail lock the folders it uses?
6.32. How do I leave messages on the server?
6.33. How do I automatically insert a text footer within my messages?
6.34. How do I set up sendmail to work with KMail if I have a dial-up connection?
6.35. I've seen demonstrations of remote control behavior with KMail. Is there any documentation on the available interfaces?
6.36. When I reply to a message, only a part of the message is quoted. How come?
6.37. I am only using IMAP, can I get rid of those Local Folders in the folder list or at least keep them collapsed all the time?

6.1. | Why are my filters not applied to incoming messages of IMAP accounts?

Normal IMAP mode does not support filtering, but the new disconnected IMAP account type does. You could try to use server-side filtering (ask your admin for how to install filters on the server and in which format), since IMAP is all about managing your email on the server. Unfortunately, although there exists a mail filter language (Sieve, defined in RFC3028), there is no standardized access protocol for installing or editing server-side Sieve scripts. If such a protocol becomes available in the future, KMail will most probably include support for it.

6.2. | Using PGP or GnuPG is very slow or it blocks KMail.

KMail accesses PGP/GnuPG synchronously, i.e. it blocks while PGP/GnuPG works. This means that you might want to disable automatic retrieval of unknown keys from a keyserver to make KMail look more responsive. If you are using GnuPG 1.0.7 (or better) or upgraded from an earlier version, then make sure to run gpg `--rebuild-keydb-caches` once and gpg `--check-trustdb` after every import or refresh. Both will speed up GnuPG immensely.

6.3. | What should I know if I want to use PGP/GnuPG with KMail?

KMail provides a simple and easy-to-use interface for the basic functions of these programs; still you should understand how these programs work and what might make their use insecure. Some important issues:

- You really should test if encryption works before you use it. KMail partly relies on PGP/GnuPG's error strings, which often change between different versions.

- KMail will not encrypt messages with an untrusted (unsigned) public key: if you want to encrypt to such a key you should check the identity of the key owner and only then sign the key with your secret key; if you do not want to or cannot check the identity of the key owner but nevertheless want to encrypt the message then please sign the key locally with `gpg `--lsign` `keyID``.

- Trusting a foreign public key without checking it is not a good idea.

- KMail cannot encrypt and sign attachments if you are using the built-in OpenPGP support. For encrypted and signed attachments you need to have crypto plugins installed and configured.

- Starting with GnuPG 1.0.7 you have to set your own key to ultimate ownertrust: it is no longer implicitly done for you.

6.4. | Where does KMail save my settings and my mail?

Most KMail settings are stored in `$`KDEHOME`/share/config/kmailrc`, where $`KDEHOME` is typically `~/.kde`; the identities are stored in `$`KDEHOME`/share/config/emailidentities` and your mail is saved in `$`KDEHOME`/share/apps/kmail` (or `~/Mail` if you upgraded from a previous KMail version that used this location.) Note that some of the files are hidden: remember to also copy those if you want to backup or archive your mails.

6.5. | Why did KMail regenerate the index of a folder?

KMail regenerates the index of a folder whenever the index appears to be out of date, i.e. whenever the contents of a folder are newer than the index. KMail regenerates the index in this case in order to prevent the loss or corruption of messages. Unfortunately, currently-deleted messages might reappear and message flags (like important, etc.) might be lost when the index is regenerated.

An outdated index can have several causes; the two most important causes are:

- Some other program modified the contents of the folder: if you want to use KMail together with procmail then please read this FAQ. If you want to use KMail together with another email client then please read this FAQ.

- If your mail folder (usually `$`KDEHOME`/share/apps/kmail/` or `~/Mail`) is on a volume which is mounted via NFS and if the clock of the NFS server is ahead of the clock of your computer then the NFS server sometimes reports a wrong file date for the index file. In this case KMail assumes that the index is outdated although in reality it is not. To fix this problem you (or your system administrator) have to make sure that the clock of the NFS server and the clock of your computer are always in sync. One way to achieve this is the use of the ntp daemon.

6.6. | I cannot add addresses to my address book after upgrading to KDE 3.x.

You probably copied your old `kmailrc` file manually. That is not necessary, there is a script that will do such things when you run KDE 3.x for the first time. To fix the problem, remove the complete “[AddressBook]” group and the addressbook option in group “[General]” in your `kmailrc` file; however, chances are you will also encounter other problems that the config update script would have solved.

6.7. | Can I use KMail together with a different email client, e.g. mutt?
| If you're using the mbox format for your folders it is not possible to use a different email client while KMail is running. With mutt there may also be problems even if both programs are not running at the same time. We recommend to use the maildir format in this case, this should solve all problems.
6.8. | How can I convert my mailboxes from mbox to maildir?
| There is no automatic way to do that. You will have to create a new folder in maildir format and copy the messages from the mbox folder into this new folder. Remember to adapt any filter rules connected with the old folder before you delete it.
6.9. | How can I use a browser other than Konqueror to open links in messages?
| Change the File Associations for HTML files using KControl.
6.10. | How can I remove attachments from messages without removing the message itself?
| This is currently not supported. As a workaround, move the message to the drafts folder, double click on it in order to open it in the composer, remove the attachments, save the message again to the drafts folder, move it back to its folder. The disadvantage of this workaround is that the date will be changed to the current date. Some other headers might also be changed.
6.11. | How can I make KMail check for new messages at startup?
| If KMail should always check for new messages at startup then enable Check mail on startup on the Accounts configuration page. Otherwise start KMail with kmail `--check`.
6.12. | Why does KMail get slow / stop working when I try to send big attachments?

KMail is known to have problems with large attachments. We are working on a solution for this problem for KDE 3.2 but currently it temporarily consumes virtual memory of about 10-15 times the size of the attachment. That means that if you attach a 2MB file KMail might temporarily need about 20-30 MB of virtual memory (= RAM + swap space). If you do not have enough virtual memory this will lead to problems.

6.13. | Where can I get a list of changes between the versions of KMail?
| The welcome screen lists all important changes for your version. It is displayed when you select Help->KMail Introduction.
6.14. | Can I configure the location of my mail folder?

Exit KMail, make a backup of `~/.kde/share/config/kmailrc`, then open it with an editor and add e.g. `folders=/home/username/.mail` to the “[General]” section. Then move all your existing folders (including the hidden index files) to the new location. The next time you start KMail will use `/home/username/.mail` instead of `/home/username/.kde/share/apps/kmail`. Note that KMail will lose its filters if you change the mail folder's location but forget to move your existing folders.

6.15. | How can I use mail folders that are not in the normal KMail message folder location?
| To add a whole mbox mail folder use `ln `-s` `/somewhere/Mail/.remotedir.directory` `/home/username/share/apps/kmail/.mymailboxfile.directory``. Note that it is not possible to use links to files, only links that point to folders will work.
6.16. | I'm one of those people whose mails consist of 100 quoted lines and one line written by myself. For some reason this annoys other people. Can KMail help me and make everyone's life better?
| Sure. Just select a short relevant part of the original mail with the mouse before you reply. Only this part will then be quoted in your reply.
6.17. | For some messages the value in the Date field is unknown or it is not correct.
| Probably the “Date:” header of these messages is broken and KMail cannot interpret it. That is not a bug in KMail but in the software that sent the mail.
6.18. | My signature has two dashes above it. What's up?
| Separating the signature from the message body with two dashes and a space on a single line is common usage. These symbols permit mail clients who recognize them to trim the signatures from a reply. If your signature does not already have this separator, KMail will automatically add it.
6.19. | KMail fetches the same messages over and over again.
| This happens if you have enabled Leave fetched messages on the server and your POP3 server does not support the UIDL command. There is currently no workaround besides disabling Leave fetched messages on the server. A more detailed explanation can be found in this mailing list post.
6.20. | Are there any known bugs in KMail?

A list of submitted bugs is linked at the KMail homepage. Note that not all these bugs are valid. All in all we think that KMail is a very robust piece of software.

### Warning

However, you should not run KMail while another email client is already accessing the files in `~/Mail`; if you try to do so, you might lose messages. Note that you should make backups of your messages anyway.

6.21. | KMail does not display HTML mail properly.
| References to external content like images, are disabled by default, as they can be used to track whether and when you read a message. Loading external references can be activated in the Security tab in KMail's configuration dialog; also Plugins (like Macromedia® Flash), Java™ and JavaScript will not be displayed in KMail for security reasons and there is no way to activate them.
6.22. | Can I use two different versions of KMail at the same time? Can I go back from a current version of KMail to an older one?
| You can only run one instance of KMail at once. We also recommend to stick to a certain version and not switch back and forth between different versions. Downgrading to an older version will probably cause problems, e.g. because the index file formats might have changed. Upgrading should never be a problem.
6.23. | Does KMail support uuencoded files?
| Uuencoded attachments are supported, but inline uuencoded files are not.
6.24. | KMail crashed while I was writing a mail; is that mail is lost now?
| KMail tries to save your mail to `~/dead.letter` in case of a crash. The next time you start KMail the mail composer should appear with your mail again; If it does not, try to open `~/dead.letter` with an editor. If it does not exist then the crash was so bad that KMail could not save your mail.
6.25. | When I try to set a folder to be mailing list-aware, it does not do anything when receiving an email from the list.
| Associating a folder with a mailing list has nothing to do with filtering the mailing list messages — you have to add a new filter rule manually; however, once you associated a folder with a mailing list you can use Message->Reply to Mailing-List... or Message->New Message to Mailing-List... and the mailing list address will be set in the To: field.
6.26. | My SMTP server requires authentication; Does KMail support this?

There are two common techniques used for SMTP authentication: “SMTP after POP3” and “SMTP Auth”. “SMTP Auth” can be set in the General tab of the SMTP configuration dialog. To use “SMTP after POP3” you have to collect all your messages in the outbox and send them just after you have fetched new mail. You can make KMail send the queued messages automatically with the Send messages in outbox folder option on the Accounts configuration page.

6.27. | Can I use KMail and procmail?

Yes, but it is important to do it the right way or you might lose mail. In order to use procmail and KMail you need to set up KMail so that it will fetch new mail from the spoolfiles in which procmail drops your mail. Do not set up procmail to deliver mail in a KMail folder, this cannot work.

For each procmail spoolfile you then need to create an account from which KMail will fetch new mail; you also need to make sure you specify the right lockfile name for this account. When setting up an account, KMail will do some minimal parsing on your `.procmail` file, and will try to list every spoolfile it has found, and also the lockfiles next to the procmail lockfile item. procmail lets the user specify lockfiles in three different ways, so there is no way to establish a correspondence between the spoolfiles and lockfiles; so it's really up to you to make sure you specify the right lockfile for each spoolfile.

6.28. | Spellchecking does not recognize non-English characters.
| Before you can use spellchecking the first time, you have to configure it. You can do so in the composer window's menu under Settings->Spellchecker.... You can set the dictionary and the encoding there.
6.29. | How do I use my Eudora/Netscape®/Outlook/... mail folders in KMail?
| See the section Using other Mailbox files With KMail.
6.30. | Can I use encryption with my normal (non-SSL) POP3 account?

If your POP3 server runs an ssh daemon, you can use ssh to tunnel your POP3 connection using the following command:

`ssh `-L 11000:127.0.0.1:110 user@host``

Modify your KMail configuration to fetch the mail via POP3 from `localhost` and ssh will tunnel the connection for you.

### Note

If non-encrypted messages have already been sent via Internet, the only advantage of using ssh is that your password will be sent encrypted to the POP3 server.

6.31. | Does KMail lock the folders it uses?

KMail does not lock the files in `~/Mail`.

To avoid the risk of losing mail if using a local account it is necessary to ensure that KMail uses the same type of locking as your mail delivery agent.

There are five different locking options you can use:

- Procmail lockfile

- Mutt dotlock

- Mutt dotlock privileged

- FCNTL (default)

- none (use with care)

Procmail lockfile will use a small utility that comes with procmail called lockfile. You can use this if your mail folder is in a folder where you have write permission. This will not work on your `/var/spool/mail/user` file in most cases. It will create `.lock` files on your account when KMail is checking for new mail. Please note that this will only work if procmail is installed on your system.

Mutt dotlock and Mutt dotlock privileged will both use a small utility that comes with mutt called mutt_dotlock. Mutt dotlock can be used in the same way as the Procmail lockfile option, with the same limitation with regards to the `/var/spool/mail/` folders. However, the Mutt dotlock privileged option can create lock files in the `/var/spool/mail` folder. mutt_dotlock is a setgid program and this option will run it in setgid mode. Please note that these options will only work if mutt is installed on your system.

FCNTL will use the `fcntl()` system call.

### Warning

Usage of FCNTL locking might cause system lockups when the mail spool file is on an NFS mounted device.

If you do not want to use any locking, the none option is what you want. However, there are risks of losing mail when no locking is used.

6.32. | How do I leave messages on the server?
| See the Download filters chapter. If you want to leave all messages on the server: open up the Settings->Configure KMail... window. Click on the Network page. Select your account from the account list and click the Modify... button. This dialog contains the Leave fetched messages on the server setting which you must enable.
6.33. | How do I automatically insert a text footer within my messages?
| The text footer is also called a signature (not to be confused with a cryptographic signature). Select Settings->Configure KMail... Look in the Identity page for the Signature tab and add your signature there. Then go to the General tab on the Composer page and enable Automatically append signature
6.34. | How do I set up sendmail® to work with KMail if I have a dial-up connection?
| First you should check if your distribution can do this for you. It probably has already been set up during installation. If that is not the case, you may want to have a look at the Mail Queue HOWTO.
6.35. | I've seen demonstrations of remote control behavior with KMail. Is there any documentation on the available interfaces?
| You can get a list of functions by using this command in a shell: `dcop `kmail KMailIface``. Some documentation is also available in `kdenetwork/kmail/kmailIface.h` and `kdenetwork/kmail/mailcomposerIface.h`.
6.36. | When I reply to a message, only a part of the message is quoted. How come?
| This can happen when the message contains two dashes and a space on a single line. This is seen as the start of the signature. The remaining part of the message will not be quoted, because when you reply to a message KMail strips the signature.
6.37. | I am only using IMAP, can I get rid of those Local Folders in the folder list or at least keep them collapsed all the time?

No you can not get rid of them. The local folders function as a fallback when the IMAP server is unreachable. Although you only use IMAP, KMail uses the outbox for sending the messages. If we hide all local folders you won't be able to fix messages in the outbox which can not be send for some reason. But it is possible to keep the local folders collapsed. What you have to do is go to Settings-> Configure KMail... and go to the section Misc, there you can setup the folder on startup. If you change that to a folder on the IMAP account, the Local Folders will stay collapsed when KMail starts.

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Chapter 7. Using other Mailbox Files with KMail
Using other Mailbox Files with KMail
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## Chapter 7. Using other Mailbox Files with KMail

Daniel Naber `<daniel.naber@t-online.de>`

David Rugge `<davidrugge@mediaone.net>`

Revision 1.5 (2002-10-03)

KMail offers an import tool for the messages and address books of some other email clients. You can access it using Tools->Import.... Please make sure that you compact your folders in the other email client, no matter if you are going to use the import utility or if you are going to copy files manually. You only need to read this chapter if this tool does not work for you.

This section is for all of the users who need to move email messages from their previous email client over to KMail. KMail can store its messages using “mbox” or “maildir” formats, which are the most widely-used mailbox formats on UNIX® systems. Mbox mailboxes store messages in one file, identifying where messages start and end with a `From` line (do not mix this up with the `From:` header that contains the message's sender); Maildir uses one file per message. For many UNIX® email clients, all you must do is move your mailboxes to `~/Mail` (or make `Mail` a symbolic link to the folder containing your mailboxes), make sure they are writable by your user, and launch KMail. The mailboxes should now show up correctly in KMail.

Please have a look at the Tools section of KMail's homepage first, to see if there is a tool that imports your mailbox and maybe even address book.

### Warning

Do not use a second email client that accesses the files in `~/Mail` while KMail is running or you might lose messages. This section only explains how to import mailboxes to KMail once; it is not useful to you if you're planning to use several email clients for your mailboxes in the future.

Eudora Lite/Eudora Pro

  Eudora uses the mbox format in its mail files. To use them with KMail, make sure that your Eudora mailboxes have been compacted, then copy the `.mbx` files (Windows® Eudora) or Eudora mailbox files (Mac® Eudora) to your `~/Mail` folder. You do not need to copy the `index` files. Once you start KMail, the mailboxes should appear in the Folders pane and the messages should be accessible in the Headers pane.

  If messages do not appear in the Headers pane, your mailbox files may still contain Windows® or Mac® line-feed characters. Use your favorite text editor, the recode command or a scripting language to change the Windows® or Mac® line feeds to UNIX® line feeds.

Mailsmith

  Mailsmith runs on Mac® and uses its own database format; however it is possible to export mail into mbox format using File->Export Mail on a selected mailbox or on selected messages. Once the messages have been exported, translate the Mac® line breaks to UNIX® line breaks using your favorite editor, or using the following command under Linux®:

  `cat `mail-mac.txt` | perl -e 'while (<STDIN>) { s/\r/\n/gi; print $_ ;}' > mail-unix.txt`

  KMail will only recognize mboxes placed directly in the `~/Mail/` folder. This means that a folder hierarchy cannot be preserved by simply moving files into the `~/Mail/` folder, but will need to be reconstructed within KMail manually.

MMDF

  This format is close enough to the mailbox format that KMail should be able to use these mailboxes if you just copy them to your `~/Mail` folder; however, MMDF mailboxes have not been tested with KMail, so your results may vary. If you can get this format to work with KMail, please let us know so we can include more specific directions in the next documentation release.

MH mailboxes

  MH mailboxes are directories containing files that correspond to each message in that mailbox. A shell script to convert MH mailboxes to mbox mailboxes, mh2kmail, is included at least in the source releases of KMail, but maybe not in the packaged releases. Running this script on a MH folder will convert it to an mbox file. We strongly suggest that you back up your MH mail folders before you use this script.

Forte Agent

  In Agent:

  1. Select the messages to export

  2. Select FILE->SAVE MESSAGES AS

  3. Mark the UNIX FORMAT and SAVE RAW boxes

  4. Give File a `.txt` extension and save.

  In KDE:

  1. Move the previously-saved file to the correct `~/Mail` folder

  2. Rename file without `.txt` extension

  When you open KMail the new folder with appropriate messages will be there.

Netscape® Mail

  If you are using Netscape® 4.x, the mail files should be found in `~/nsmail`; if you are using Netscape® 6.x, they're buried in a folder deep in the `~/.mozilla` subfolder, something like: `/home/user_name/.mozilla/user_name/2ts1ixha.slt/Mail/Mail/server_name` (the `2ts1ixha.slt` string will probably vary, so check it on your own system.) The `[...]/Mail/Mail` folder contains one subfolder for each account from which you receive mail through Netscape (e.g. `[...]/Mail/Mail/math.university.edu`); you will need to copy files from each of them if you want everything to be accessible under KMail.

  If you have no subfolders, just copy all of the Netscape® files to `~/Mail`, make sure that they are writable (only by your user, of course), and restart KMail: all of the messages will now appear in KMail folders. (Note that if you use a command like cp `*` `~/Mail`, you should follow it with rm `-f` `~/Mail/*.msf`; every Netscape® 6 folder has a corresponding `.msf` file, and if you do not get rid of them you will have a bunch of spurious empty folders.)

  If you were using subfolders under Netscape® (e.g. a main folder called `Work` with subfolders called `Jim` and `Nancy`), there are additional steps required. First, create the main folder (`Work`) in KMail and create a temporary child folder under it (by right-clicking on the folder name and selecting Create child folder); it does not matter what you call this folder -- `dummy` or the default `unnamed`, for example. Once a child folder has been requested, KMail creates a hidden folder in `~/Mail` called (in this example) `.Work.directory`. You can then copy your Netscape® subfolder files (`Jim` and `Nancy`) into `~/Mail/.Work.directory`, and restart KMail; the child folders will appear under the main folder `Work`. Of course, this procedure may be extended for sub-subfolders, to any depth. (You can remove the temporary child folders afterwards, unless it amuses you to have a `Work` subfolder called `dummy`.)

Pegasus Mail

  Pegasus for win32 uses single files for Mail folders similar to KMail. Pegasus mail folder files have the extension `.pmm` but they are the same format as mbox except the messages do not start with the `From` header, but with a control character. To work around this, replace each instance of the control character with `From aaa@aaa Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 1997`. This `From` line should be the first line of every message, before the `Received:` and other headers. Make sure to use a text editor that lets you save the files in UNIX® format or create new folders in Pegasus that are in UNIX® format and copy your messages there.

Maildir / Outlook Express / xfmail

  Tools to convert these formats are available at the Tools section of KMail's homepage.

Lotus Notes, BeOS Mail files, cc: Mail, etc....

  First you should have a look at Tools section of KMail's homepage if there are tools to convert your messages.

  Mail programs not listed here or on the homepage probably do not work with KMail as they use proprietary mail formats that KMail cannot understand. However, there is no harm in trying! If the mailbox file looks similar to the mbox format, try copying the mailbox file (remember, the index file is not needed) to your `~/Mail` folder and see what happens if you start KMail. If you get mailboxes from your favorite email client to work in KMail, please tell us how you did it so that we can include directions in a future revision of this documentation.

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Chapter 8. Credits and Licenses
Credits and Licenses
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## Chapter 8. Credits and Licenses

Daniel Naber `<daniel.naber@t-online.de>`

David Rugge `<davidrugge@mediaone.net>`

Revision 1.7 (2004-07-13)

KMail: Copyright the KMail developers, 1997-2004

This program is licensed under the terms of the GNU General Public License.

This documentation is licensed under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License.

## Development Team

- Ingo Klöcker (kloecker at kde org): Maintainer

- Don Sanders (sanders at kde org): Adopter and co-maintainer

- Stefan Taferner (taferner at kde org): Original author

- Michael Häckel (haeckel at kde org): Former maintainer

- Till Adam (till at adam-lilienthal de): Core developer

- Carsten Burghardt (burghardt at kde org): Core developer

- Marc Mutz (mutz at kde org): Core developer

- Daniel Naber (daniel naber at t-online de): Documentation

- Zack Rusin (zack at kde org): Core developer

- Toyohiro Asukai (toyohiro at ksmplus com)

- Waldo Bastian (bastian at kde org)

- Ryan Breen (ryan at ryanbreen com): system tray notification

- Steven Brown (swbrown at ucsd edu)

- Matthias Kalle Dalheimer (kalle at kde org)

- Cristi Dumitrescu (cristid at chip ro)

- David Faure (faure at kde org)

- Philippe Fremy (pfremy at chez com)

- Kurt Granroth (granroth at kde org)

- Andreas Gungl (a gungl at gmx de): PGP 6 support and further enhancements of the encryption support

- Steffen Hansen (hansen at kde org)

- Igor Janssen (rm at linux ru net)

- Matt Johnston (matt at caifex org)

- Christer Kaivo-oja (whizkid at telia com)

- Lars Knoll (knoll at kde org): Original encryption support, PGP 2 and PGP 5 support

- J. Nick Koston (bdraco at darkorb net): GnuPG support

- Stephan Kulow (coolo at kde org)

- Guillaume Laurent (glaurent at telegraph-road org)

- Sam Magnuson (sam at trolltech com)

- Laurent Montel (lmontel at mandrakesoft com)

- Matt Newell (newellm at proaxis com)

- Denis Perchine (dyp at perchine com)

- Samuel Penn (sam at bifrost demon co uk)

- Carsten Pfeiffer (pfeiffer at kde org)

- Sven Radej (radej at kde org)

- Mark Roberts (mark at taurine demon co uk)

- Wolfgang Rohdewald (wrohdewald at dplanet ch)

- Espen Sand (espen at kde org)

- Aaron J. Seigo (aseigo at olympusproject org)

- George Staikos (staikos at kde org)

- Jason Stephenson (panda at mis net)

- Jacek Stolarczyk (jacek at mer chemia polsl gliwice pl)

- Roberto S. Teixeira (maragato at kde org)

- Bo Thorsen (bo at sonofthor dk)

- Ronen Tzur (rtzur at shani net)

- Mario Weilguni (mweilguni at sime com)

- Wynn Wilkes (wynnw at calderasystems com)

- Robert D. Williams (rwilliams at kde org)

- Markus Wübben (markus wuebben at kde org)

- Karl-Heinz Zimmer (khz at kde org)

Credits
Credits
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## Credits

- Heiko Hund (heiko at ist eigentlich net): POP filters

- Bernhard Reiter (bernhard at intevation de): Ägypten and Kroupware project management

- Jan Simonson (jan at simonson pp se): beta testing of PGP 6 support

- Patrick S. Vogt (patrick vogt at unibas ch): timestamp for 'Transmission completed' status messages

- Jan-Oliver Wagner (jan at intevation de): Ägypten and Kroupware project management

- Wolfgang Westphal (wolfgang westphal at gmx de): multiple encryption keys per address

- Thorsten Zachmann (t zachmann at zagge de): POP filters

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Documentation
Documentation
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## Documentation

Update for KMail 1.7 by Ingo Klöcker `(kloecker AT kde.de)` and Marc Mutz `(mutz AT kde.org)`, Anti-Spam Wizard chapter by Andreas Gungl `(a.gungl AT gmx.de)`, section about filter log by Andreas Gungl `(a.gungl AT gmx.de)` and Brad Hards `(bradh AT frogmouth.net)`, additional changes by Daniel Naber `(daniel.naber AT t-online.de)`.

Update for KMail 1.2 to 1.5 by Daniel Naber `(daniel.naber AT t-online.de)`, OpenPGP chapter by Andreas Gungl `(a.gungl AT gmx.de)` and Ingo Klöcker `(kloecker AT kde.de)`, message filter chapter by Marc Mutz `(mutz AT kde.org)`, download filter chapter by Thorsten Zachmann `(T.Zachmann AT zagge.de)`. Other parts have been contributed by various KMail developers.

KMail 1.0 documentation by David Rugge `(davidrugge AT mediaone.net)`. Original documentation by Markus Wuebben `(markus.wuebben AT kde.org)`, Robert Williams `(rwilliams AT kde.org)` (Editor).

Thanks to Michael Elkins `(me AT cs.hmc.edu)` for his excellent description of the different UNIX® mail formats in the Mutt documentation.

Thanks to the following people for providing directions on using other email client mailboxes with KMail:

- Nik Gaffney `(nik AT f0.am)` (Mailsmith)

- David McMillen `(mcmillen AT math.bu.edu)` and Mendel Mobach `(mendel AT mobach.nl)` (Netscape® mail)

- Ed Shapard `(shapard AT bigfoot.com)` (Pegasus Mail)

- Ray Muir `(rjmuir AT ibm.net)` (Forte Agent)

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Appendix A. Installation
Installation
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## Appendix A. Installation

## How to obtain KMail

KMail is part of the KDE project http://www.kde.org/.

KMail can be found in the kdepim package on ftp://ftp.kde.org/pub/kde/, the main FTP site of the KDE project.

Compilation and Installation
Compilation and Installation
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## Compilation and Installation

In order to compile and install KMail on your system, type the following in the base directory of the KMail distribution:

    % ./configure
    % make
    % make install

Since KMail uses autoconf and automake you should have no trouble compiling it. Should you run into problems please report them to the KDE mailing lists.

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