Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)

FreeBSD Manual Pages

  
 
  

home | help
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 at-
       tachments 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.	 For  each file	in the
	      datafile the file	name and full path will	be printed.

	      If the verbose option is also provided then this option acts  as
	      the  --list-with-mime-types  option  and	also  prints  the file
	      length (in bytes)	and the	date of	 the  file  before  the	 other
	      data.

       --list-with-mime-types
	      same  as list option but also prints MIME	type and content ID of
	      each file	after filename and file	path.

       -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 se-
	      curity reasons, paths to attached	files are ignored by default.

       --save-body FILE
	      Save message body	data found in the TNEF data. By	 default  tnef
	      only extracts the	attached files and not the message body.

	      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	 writ-
	      ten  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. (This will produce a	very large  amount  of
	      output.)

KNOWN LIMITATIONS
       tnef  ignores the OEMCodePage data in the data file. It assumes Unicode
       data.

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 con-
       tent 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 argu-
       ments.

   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 de-
       codes all file(s) included in the TNEF attachment, prompting  for  con-
       firmation  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	decod-
       ing it, press the "|" key and enter this	command:

	      tnef -t

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

AUTHOR
       Mark Simpson <verdammelt@gmail.com>

REPORTING BUGS
       Please report issues  via  this	project's  issue  tracker  on  GitHub:
       https://github.com/verdammelt/tnef/issues

OTHER REFERENCES
       This web	page:

       https://www.dwheeler.com/essays/microsoft-outlook-tnef.html

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

								       TNEF(1)

Want to link to this manual page? Use this URL:
<https://man.freebsd.org/cgi/man.cgi?query=tnef&sektion=1&manpath=FreeBSD+Ports+14.3.quarterly>

home | help