thunderbird

Open thunderbird

$ thunderbird

Use a specific user profile

$ thunderbird -P [profile_name]

Use a specific user profile directory

$ thunderbird --profile [path/to/profile/directory]

/usr/lib/thunderbird/thunderbird [OPTIONS] [URL]

/usr/lib/thunderbird/thunderbird-bin [OPTIONS] [URL]

Thunderbird provides IMAP/POP support, a built-in RSS reader, support for HTML mail, powerful quick search, saved search folders, advanced message filtering, junk mail controls, message grouping, labels, return receipts, smart address book, LDAP address completion, import tools and the ability to manage multiple identities in email and newsgroup accounts.

Thunderbird provides enterprise and government grade security such as S/MIME, digital signing, message encryption, and support for certificates and security devices.

thunderbird is a executable file that will set up the environment for the starting executable, thunderbird-bin. If there is an Thunderbird mail client already running, thunderbird will arrange for it to create a new mail client window; otherwise it will start the Thunderbird application.

A summary of the options supported by thunderbird is included below.

X11 options

--display=DISPLAY

X display to use

--sync

Make X calls synchronous

--g-fatal-warnings

Make all warnings fatal

Mozilla options

-h, -help

Show summary of options.

-v, -version

Print the Thunderbird version.

-P [profile]

Start with profile. When no profile is given, displays the Profile Manager. May require -no-remote, see below.

--profile [path]

Start with with [profile] from the given [path].

--migration

Start with migration wizard. May require -no-remote, see below.

--ProfileManager

Start with profile manager. May require -no-remote, see below.

--no-remote

Don't connect to a running Thunderbird instance. Don't accept or send remote commands. This option can be necessary in conjunction to several of the options above, that won't have any effect when an Thunderbird instance is running unless -no-remote is used at the same time.

--new-instance

Open a new instance instead of a new windows in the running instance.

--UILocale locale

Start with locale resources as User Interface locale. By default, it is guessed from environment and available locales for Thunderbird.

--safe-mode

Starts Thunderbird in safe mode, i.e. disabling all extensions and showing a bit more debugging messages.

--jsconsole

Start with Javascript Console

-addressbook

Open the address book at startup.

-compose

Compose a mail or news message.

-mail

Open the mail folder view.

-mail URL

Open the message specified by this URL.

-news

Open the news client.

-setDefaultMail

Set Thunderbird as the default mail client.

-options

Open the options dialog.

-file

Open the specified email file.

-g

Starts Thunderbird through a debugger (gdb by default).

MOZILLA_DISABLE_PLUGINS - when set, totally disables loading plugins.

/usr/bin/thunderbird - shell script wrapping thunderbird-bin

/usr/lib/thunderbird/thunderbird-bin - thunderbird executable

Some typical use case for starting Thunderbird from a console

Starting Thunderbird without any extra options, useful to any messages from thunderbird in case something went not o.k.:

thunderbird

Starting Thunderbird without any extensions or themes, useful if extensions may make some trouble:

thunderbird --safe-mode

Starting Thunderbird with a composing window:

thunderbird -compose

Starting Thunderbird with the default debugger:

/usr/lib/thunderbird/run-mozilla.sh -debug /usr/lib/thunderbird/thunderbird-bin

Starting Thunderbird with the specific debugger:

/usr/lib/thunderbird/run-mozilla.sh --debugger /foo/bar/debugger /usr/lib/thunderbird/thunderbird-bin

To report a bug, please visit http://bugzilla.mozilla.org/ and/or report bugs to the Debian Bug Tracking System, as usual.

The Mozilla Organization

http://www.mozilla.org/about.html