MU-EXTRACT(1) General Commands Manual MU-EXTRACT(1)NAME
mu_extract - display and save message parts (attachments), and open them with other tools.
SYNOPSIS
mu extract [options] <file> mu extract [options] <file> <pattern>
DESCRIPTION
mu extact is the mu sub-command for extracting MIME-parts (e.g., attachments) from mail messages. It works on message files, and does not
require the message to be indexed in the database.
For attachments, the file name used when saving it, is the name of the attachment in the message. If there is no such name, or when saving
non-attachment MIME-parts, a name is derived from the message-id of the message.
If you specify a pattern (a case-insensitive regular expression) as the second argument, all attachments with filenames matching that pat-
tern will be extracted. The regular expressions are Perl-compatible (as per the PCRE-library).
Without any options, mu extract simply outputs the list of leaf MIME-parts in the message. Only 'leaf' MIME-parts (including RFC822 attach-
ments) are considered, multipart/* etc. are ignored.
OPTIONS -a, --save-attachments
save all MIME-parts that look like attachments.
--save-all
save all non-multipart MIME-parts.
--parts=<parts>
only consider the following numbered parts (comma-separated list).The numbers for the parts can be seen from running mu extract
without any options but only the message file.
--target-dir=<dir>
save the parts in the target directory rather than the current working directory.
--overwrite
overwrite existing files with the same name; by default overwriting is not allowed.
--play Try to 'play' (open) the attachment with the default
application for the particular file type. On MacOS, this uses the open program, on other platforms is uses xdg-open. You can choose
a different program by setting the MU_PLAY_PROGRAM environment variable.
EXAMPLES
To display information about all the MIME-parts in a message file:
$ mu extract msgfile
To extract MIME-part 3 and 4 from this message, overwriting existing files with the same name:
$ mu extract --parts=3,4 --overwrite msgfile
To extract all files ending in '.jpg' (case-insensitive):
$ mu extract msgfile '.*.jpg'
To extract an mp3-file, and play it in the the default mp3-playing application.
$ mu extract --play msgfile 'whoopsididitagain.mp3'
BUGS
Please report bugs if you find them: http://code.google.com/p/mu0/issues/list
AUTHOR
Dirk-Jan C. Binnema <djcb@djcbsoftware.nl>
SEE ALSO mu(1)User Manuals February 2012 MU-EXTRACT(1)
Check Out this Related Man Page
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)