DragonFly On-Line Manual Pages

TNEF(1)                DragonFly 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
       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.

                                                                       TNEF(1)