TNEF
Section: User Commands (1)
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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
filter 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 character
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 definition:
-
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 unsupported".
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 confirmation 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 convenient).
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@gmail.com>
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.
Index
- NAME
-
- SYNOPSIS
-
- DESCRIPTION
-
- OPTIONS
-
- EXAMPLE
-
- Step 1 --- Configure ~/.mailcap
-
- Step 2 --- Add The Filter To $PATH
-
- Step 3 --- Test Mutt
-
- SEE ALSO
-
- AUTHOR
-
- REPORTING BUGS
-
- OTHER REFERENCES
-
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