## 4 Commands

IMAIL provides a rich set of commands for manipulating messages. Like Rmail, most of these commands are bound to letter keys.

The most important command is `M-x imail`, which is used to start IMAIL. With no arguments, `M-x imail` reads the primary folder, selects the first unseen message in the folder, then selects the folder’s buffer. If the primary folder is an IMAP folder, `M-x imail` will connect to the server and check for new mail. If `M-x imail` is given a prefix argument, it will prompt for the URL of a folder rather than reading the primary folder.

The IMAIL message buffer is put in `IMAIL` mode, a special mode in which most letter commands are defined to have special meanings. Where possible, the letters chosen for these commands are the same as those for the corresponding Rmail commands. The command keys specified in this chapter are for `IMAIL` mode, unless otherwise specified.