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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 attach-
     ments encoded in Microsoft's Transport Neutral Encapsulation Format  (here-
     after, 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. 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 security
	    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 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. (This will produce a very large amount of out-
	    put.)

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  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) in-
     cluded 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 <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)

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