TNEF(1)                                                       General Commands Manual                                                      TNEF(1)

NAME

       tnef - decode Microsoft's Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format

SYNOPSIS

       tnef [options] [FILE]

       tnef {--help | --version}

DESCRIPTION

       This  manual page documents the tnef filter.  tnef decodes e-mail attachments encoded in Microsoft's Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format
       (hereafter, TNEF), which "wraps" Microsoft e-mail attachments.

       Unfortunately, these "wrapped" attachments are inaccessible to any e-mail client that does not understand TNEF.  Fortunately, the tnef fil-
       ter can be used by any MIME-aware client to unpack these attachments.

OPTIONS

       -f FILE,  --file=FILE
              use FILE as input ('-' denotes stdin).  When this option is omitted, tnef reads data from stdin.

       -C DIR,  --directory=DIR
              unpack file attachments into DIR.

       -x SIZE, --maxsize=SIZE
              limit maximum size of extracted archive (bytes)

       -t,  --list
              list attached files, do not extract.

       -w,  --interactive,  --confirmation
              ask for confirmation for every action.

       --overwrite
              when extracting attachments, overwrite existing files.

       --number-backups
              when extracting attachments, if file FOO will be overwritten, create FOO.n instead.

       --use-paths
              honor file pathnames specified in the TNEF attachment.  For security reasons, paths to attached files are ignored by default.

       --save-body FILE
              Save  message  body data found in the TNEF data.  There can be up to three message bodies in the file, plain text, HTML encoded, and
              RTF encoded.  Which are saved is specified by the --body-pref option.  By default the message bodies are written  to  a  file  named
              message with an extension based upon the type (txt, html, rtf).

       --body-pref PREF
              Specifies  which of the possibly three message body formats will be saved.  PREF can be up to three characters long and each charac-
              ter must be one of 'r', 'h', or 't' specifying RTF, HTML or text.  The order is the order that the data will be checked,  the  first
              type  found  will  be  saved.   If  PREF  is the special value of 'all' then any and all message body data found will be saved.  The
              default is 'rht'.

       --save-rtf FILE
              DEPRECATED.  Equivalent to --save-body=FILE --body-pref=r

       -h,  --help
              show usage message.

       -V,  --version
              display version and copyright.

       -v,  --verbose
              produce verbose output.

       --debug
              enable debug output.

EXAMPLE

       The following example demonstrates typical tnef usage with a popular Unix mail client called "mutt".

   Step 1 -- Configure ~/.mailcap
       Mutt can't use tnef for its intended purpose until an appropriate content type definition exists in ~/.mailcap .  Here's a  sample  defini-
       tion:

              application/ms-tnef; tnef -w %s

       This mailcap entry says that whenever the MIME content type:

              application/ms-tnef

       is encountered, use this command to decode it:

              tnef -w %s

       The  latter  command  string  invokes  tnef, specifying both the -w option and the attachment (created as a temporary file) as command line
       arguments.

   Step 2 -- Add The Filter To $PATH
       Mutt can't invoke tnef if the filter isn't accessible via $PATH.

   Step 3 -- Test Mutt
       Use mutt to read a message that includes a TNEF attachment.  Mutt will note that an  attachment  of  type  "application/ms-tnef  is  unsup-
       ported".

       Press the "v" key to open mutt's "view attachment" menu.

       Move  the  cursor over the TNEF attachment and press the enter key to "view" the attachment.  Mutt will launch tnef and invoke it using the
       command line syntax specified in ~/.mailcap (step 1).  tnef then decodes all file(s) included in the TNEF attachment, prompting for confir-
       mation  prior  to creating an individual file (refer to -w option above).  -w is useful here because it gives the end user a chance to view
       the filename(s) included in the mail message.

       Note that Mutt's attachment menu also supports a pipe option, which permits the user to pipe attachments to an external filter (how  conve-
       nient).  So, to list the contents of a TNEF attachment prior to decoding it, press the "|" key and enter this command:

              tnef -t

SEE ALSO

       metamail(1), mailcap(4), mutt(1), other email clients.

AUTHOR

       Mark Simpson.

REPORTING BUGS

       Report bugs to Mark Simpson <verdammelt@users.sourceforge.net>

OTHER REFERENCES

       This web page:

       http://support.microsoft.com/support/kb/articles/Q136/2/04.asp

       describes  how  to  configure  Microsoft  email  clients  so  that the TNEF format is disabled when sending messages to non-TNEF-compatible
       clients.

Filter                                                           TNEF MIME Decoder                                                         TNEF(1)