GNUMail.app User's Guide

by Martin Brecher <martin@mb-itconsulting.com>


Contents

Setting up GNUMail.app

Advanced Settings
Introduction: GNUstep's defaults database
Setting the user's language
Changing defaults of Mailboxes
1. Location of the Mailboxes folder
2. Default mailboxes names

Advanced Settings [top of page]

The user has the possibility to set some other settings which cannot be set using GNUMail.app's graphical preferences panel. Those settings are changed using GNUstep's defaults command line tool.

Before we talk about those advanced settings that affect GNUMail.app's behaviour, we will first discuss GNUstep's defaults database and the mentioned defaults utility.

NOTE: If you are scared to dive into those GNUstep internals: you don't have to! The stuff described below is absolutely not essential! So novices should skip this chapter. Do not blame me for errors you invoke by misunderstanding...


Introduction: GNUstep's defaults database [top of page]

As all GNUstep applications GNUMail.app does not have its own configuration file, but stores its preferences in GNUstep's defaults database which is stored in the hidden .GNUstepDefaults file in your $HOME/GNUstep directory. So please make a backup of this file before changing anything directly.

An easy way to browse through the database is using Philippe C.D. Robert's GSDefaults.app.

However, since GNUstep does not have a fully functional graphical Preferences Utility yet, the preferred way to modify the defaults database in general is the defaults command line tool which's usage will be described in this section.

This tool will be especially helpful if something screwed up which you cannot fix using the Preferences Dialogs. defaults --help will always give you a quick overview of what this tool is capable of.

defaults readdomains
This will list all domains in the database. Every application has its own domain usually titled with the app's name. Apart from that there is a NSGlobalDomain where general GNUstep settings like timezone and graphics options are stored.
defaults read GNUMail
This will show you all settings that GNUMail.app has saved to the database.
Example: defaults write GNUMail SENDMAILPATH "/usr/local/sbin/sendmail -t"
This will change the path of the send mail command from "/usr/sbin/sendmail -t" to "/usr/local/sbin/sendmail -t". (Be sure to turn it back using defaults write GNUMail SENDMAILPATH "/usr/sbin/sendmail -t")

NOTE: As also sensitive information (like passphrases) are stored in the .GNUstepDefaults file, you should ensure that nobody than you has read/write permissions for that file as well as eventual backups of it!



Setting the user's language [top of page]

As of version 0.8.0, GNUMail.app 'speaks' English (default), French, German and Swedish. You can set the language using GNUstep's defaults database, e.g.:

defaults write NSGlobalDomain NSLanguages "(French)"

That will change the localization settings of GNUstep to French, including translated strings (for Apps that support it), metric values etc.



Changing defaults of Mailboxes [top of page]

1. Location of the Mailboxes folder

Usually GNUMail.app stores all it's local mail in the 'gnumail' folder which is located in your home directory, e.g.: /home/martin/gnumail. Since version 0.8.0 GNUMail.app reads the location of this directory from the GNUstep defaults database about which we learned before.

You can easily change the location of the directory by setting the LOCALMAILDIR setting, e.g.:

defaults write GNUMail LOCALMAILDIR "/home/martin/GNUstep/Library/GNUMail/Mailboxes" (one line)
. Don't forget to copy your existing mailbox files to that location! :-)

2. Default mailboxes names [top of page]

Additionally you can now change the names of GNUMail.app's default Inbox (where new mail gets in), Outbox (where copies of sent messages are saved) and Trash (where deleted mail goes) mailboxes, e.g.:

Changing Inbox: defaults write GNUMail INBOXFOLDERNAME "New-Mail"
Changing Outbox: defaults write GNUMail OUTBOXFOLDERNAME "Sent-Mail"
Changing Trash: defaults write GNUMail TRASHFOLDERNAME "Deleted-Mail"