* How Mail Works:: Brief introduction to mail concepts.
* Emacs Speaks SMTP:: How to use the SMTP library in Emacs.
* Authentication:: Authenticating yourself to the server.
+* Encryption:: Protecting your connection to the server.
* Queued delivery:: Sending mail without an internet connection.
* Server workarounds:: Mail servers with special requirements.
* Debugging:: Tracking down problems.
machine is often disconnected from the internet.
Sending mail via SMTP requires configuring your mail user agent
-(@pxref{Mail Methods,,,emacs}) to use the SMTP library. How to do
-this should be described for each mail user agent; for the default
-mail user agent the variable @code{send-mail-function} (@pxref{Mail
-Sending,,,emacs}) is used; for the Message and Gnus user agents the
-variable @code{message-send-mail-function} (@pxref{Mail
-Variables,,,message}) is used.
-
-@example
-;; If you use the default mail user agent.
+(@pxref{Mail Methods,,,emacs}) to use the SMTP library. If you
+have not configured anything, then in Emacs 24.1 and later the first
+time you try to send a mail Emacs will ask how you want to send
+mail. To use this library, answer @samp{smtp} when prompted. Emacs
+then asks for the name of the SMTP server.
+
+ If you prefer, or if you are using a non-standard mail user agent,
+you can configure this yourself. The normal way to do this is to set
+the variable @code{send-mail-function} (@pxref{Mail
+Sending,,,emacs}) to the value you want to use. To use this library:
+
+@smallexample
(setq send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it)
-;; If you use Message or Gnus.
-(setq message-send-mail-function 'smtpmail-send-it)
-@end example
+@end smallexample
+
+@noindent
+The default value for this variable is @code{sendmail-query-once},
+which interactively asks how you want to send mail.
+
+Your mail user agent might use a different variable for this purpose.
+It should inherit from @code{send-mail-function}, but if it does not,
+or if you prefer, you can set that variable directly. Consult your
+mail user agent's documentation for more details. For example,
+(@pxref{Mail Variables,,,message}).
Before using SMTP you must find out the hostname of the SMTP server
-to use. Your system administrator should provide you with this
-information, but often it is the same as the server you receive mail
-from.
+to use. Your system administrator or mail service provider should
+supply this information. Often it is some variant of the server you
+receive mail from. If your email address is
+@samp{yourname@@example.com}, then the name of the SMTP server is
+may be something like @samp{smtp.example.com}.
@table @code
@item smtpmail-smtp-server
@node Authentication
@chapter Authentication
+@cindex password
+@cindex user name
+Most SMTP servers require clients to authenticate themselves before
+they are allowed to send mail. Authentication usually involves
+supplying a user name and password.
+
+If you have not configured anything, then the first time you try to
+send mail via a server, Emacs (version 24.1 and later) prompts you
+for the user name and password to use, and then offers to save the
+information. By default, Emacs stores authentication information in
+a file @file{~/.authinfo}.
+
+@cindex authinfo
+The basic format of the @file{~/.authinfo} file is one line for each
+set of credentials. Each line consists of pairs of variables and
+values. A simple example would be:
+
+@smallexample
+machine mail.example.org port 25 login myuser password mypassword
+@end smallexample
+
+@noindent
+This specifies that when using the SMTP server called @samp{mail.example.org}
+on port 25, Emacs should send the user name @samp{myuser} and the
+password @samp{mypassword}. Either or both of the login and password
+fields may be absent, in which case Emacs prompts for the information
+when you try to send mail. (This replaces the old
+@code{smtpmail-auth-credentials} variable used prior to Emacs 24.1.)
+
+@vindex smtpmail-smtp-user
+ When the SMTP library connects to a host on a certain port, it
+searches the @file{~/.authinfo} file for a matching entry. If an
+entry is found, the authentication process is invoked and the
+credentials are used. If the variable @code{smtpmail-smtp-user} is
+set to a non-@code{nil} value, then only entries for that user are
+considered. For more information on the @file{~/.authinfo}
+file, @pxref{Top,,auth-source, auth, Emacs auth-source Library}.
+
@cindex SASL
@cindex CRAM-MD5
+@cindex PLAIN
@cindex LOGIN
+The process by which the SMTP library authenticates you to the server
+is known as ``Simple Authentication and Security Layer'' (SASL).
+There are various SASL mechanisms, and this library supports three of
+them: CRAM-MD5, PLAIN, and LOGIN. It tries each of them, in that order,
+until one succeeds. The first uses a form of encryption to obscure
+your password, while the other two do not.
+
+
+@node Encryption
+@chapter Encryption
+
@cindex STARTTLS
@cindex TLS
@cindex SSL
-Many environments require SMTP clients to authenticate themselves
-before they are allowed to route mail via a server. The two following
-variables contains the authentication information needed for this.
-
-The first variable, @code{smtpmail-auth-credentials}, instructs the
-SMTP library to use a SASL authentication step, currently only the
-CRAM-MD5 and LOGIN mechanisms are supported and will be selected in
-that order if the server support both.
-
-The second variable, @code{smtpmail-starttls-credentials}, instructs
-the SMTP library to connect to the server using STARTTLS. This means
-the protocol exchange may be integrity protected and confidential by
-using the Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocol, and optionally also
-authentication of the client and server.
-
-TLS is a security protocol that is also known as SSL, although
-strictly speaking, SSL is an older variant of TLS. TLS is backwards
-compatible with SSL. In most mundane situations, the two terms are
-equivalent.
-
-The TLS feature uses the elisp package @file{starttls.el} (see it for
-more information on customization), which in turn require that at
-least one of the following external tools are installed:
+For greater security, you can encrypt your connection to the SMTP
+server. If this is to work, both Emacs and the server must support it.
+
+The SMTP library supports the ``Transport Layer Security'' (TLS), and
+the older ``Secure Sockets Layer'' (SSL) encryption mechanisms.
+It also supports STARTTLS, which is a variant of TLS in which the
+initial connection to the server is made in plain text, requesting a
+switch to an encrypted channel for the rest of the process.
+
+@vindex smtpmail-stream-type
+The variable @code{smtpmail-stream-type} controls what form of
+connection the SMTP library uses. The default value is @code{nil},
+which means to use a plain connection, but try to switch to a STARTTLS
+encrypted connection if the server supports it. Other possible values
+are: @code{starttls} - insist on STARTTLS; @code{ssl} - use TLS/SSL;
+and @code{plain} - no encryption.
+
+Use of any form of TLS/SSL requires support in Emacs. You can either
+use the built-in support (in Emacs 24.1 and later), or the
+@file{starttls.el} Lisp library. The built-in support uses the GnuTLS
+@footnote{@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/}} library.
+If your Emacs has GnuTLS support built-in, the function
+@code{gnutls-available-p} is defined and returns non-@code{nil}.
+Otherwise, you must use the @file{starttls.el} library (see that file for
+more information on customization options, etc.). The Lisp library
+requires one of the following external tools to be installed:
@enumerate
@item
-The GnuTLS command line tool @samp{gnutls-cli}, you can get it from
+The GnuTLS command line tool @samp{gnutls-cli}, which you can get from
@url{http://www.gnu.org/software/gnutls/}. This is the recommended
-tool, mainly because it can verify the server certificates.
+tool, mainly because it can verify server certificates.
@item
-The @samp{starttls} external program, you can get it from
+The @samp{starttls} external program, which you can get from
@file{starttls-*.tar.gz} from @uref{ftp://ftp.opaopa.org/pub/elisp/}.
@end enumerate
-It is not uncommon to use both these mechanisms, e.g., to use STARTTLS
-to achieve integrity and confidentiality and then use SASL for client
-authentication.
+@cindex certificates
+@cindex keys
+The SMTP server may also request that you verify your identity by
+sending a certificate and the associated encryption key to the server.
+If you need to do this, you can use an @file{~/.authinfo} entry like this:
-@table @code
-@item smtpmail-auth-credentials
-@vindex smtpmail-auth-credentials
- The variable @code{smtpmail-auth-credentials} contains a list of
-hostname, port, username and password tuples. When the SMTP library
-connects to a host on a certain port, this variable is searched to
-find a matching entry for that hostname and port. If an entry is
-found, the authentication process is invoked and the credentials are
-used.
-
-The hostname field follows the same format as
-@code{smtpmail-smtp-server} (i.e., a string) and the port field the
-same format as @code{smtpmail-smtp-service} (i.e., a string or an
-integer). The username and password fields, which either can be
-@code{nil} to indicate that the user is prompted for the value
-interactively, should be strings with the username and password,
-respectively, information that is normally provided by system
-administrators.
-
-@item smtpmail-starttls-credentials
-@vindex smtpmail-starttls-credentials
- The variable @code{smtpmail-starttls-credentials} contains a list of
-tuples with hostname, port, name of file containing client key, and
-name of file containing client certificate. The processing is similar
-to the previous variable. The client key and certificate may be
-@code{nil} if you do not wish to use client authentication.
-@end table
+@smallexample
+machine mail.example.org port 25 key "~/.my_smtp_tls.key" cert "~/.my_smtp_tls.cert"
+@end smallexample
-The following example illustrates what you could put in
-@file{~/.emacs} to enable both SASL authentication and STARTTLS. The
-server name (@code{smtpmail-smtp-server}) is @var{hostname}, the
-server port (@code{smtpmail-smtp-service}) is @var{port}, and the
-username and password are @var{username} and @var{password}
-respectively.
+@noindent
+(This replaces the old @code{smtpmail-starttls-credentials} variable used
+prior to Emacs 24.1.)
-@example
-;; Authenticate using this username and password against my server.
-(setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
- '(("@var{hostname}" "@var{port}" "@var{username}" "@var{password}")))
-
-;; Note that if @var{port} is an integer, you must not quote it as a
-;; string. Normally @var{port} should be the integer 25, and the example
-;; become:
-(setq smtpmail-auth-credentials
- '(("@var{hostname}" 25 "@var{username}" "@var{password}")))
-
-;; Use STARTTLS without authentication against the server.
-(setq smtpmail-starttls-credentials
- '(("@var{hostname}" "@var{port}" nil nil)))
-@end example
@node Queued delivery
@chapter Queued delivery
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