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. 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 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 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 <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)