7 version 1.5.19 (2009-01-05)
11 ?All mail clients suck. This one just sucks less.? -me, circa 1995
13 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
21 3. Software Distribution Sites
22 4. Mutt online resources
23 5. Contributing to Mutt
24 6. Typograhical conventions
30 2. Moving Around in Menus
31 3. Editing Input Fields
36 4. Reading Mail - The Index and Pager
38 4.1. The Message Index
41 4.4. Miscellaneous Functions
46 5.2. Editing the message header
47 5.3. Sending cryptographically signed/encrypted messages
48 5.4. Sending anonymous messages via mixmaster
49 5.5. Sending format=flowed messages
51 6. Forwarding and Bouncing Mail
56 1. Location of initialization files
57 2. Syntax of Initialization Files
59 4. Defining/Using aliases
60 5. Changing the default key bindings
61 6. Defining aliases for character sets
62 7. Setting variables based upon mailbox
64 9. Using color and mono video attributes
65 10. Message header display
66 11. Alternative addresses
68 13. Using Multiple spool mailboxes
69 14. Monitoring incoming mail
70 15. User defined headers
71 16. Specify default save mailbox
72 17. Specify default Fcc: mailbox when composing
73 18. Specify default save filename and default Fcc: mailbox at once
74 19. Change settings based upon message recipients
75 20. Change settings before formatting a message
76 21. Choosing the cryptographic key of the recipient
77 22. Adding key sequences to the keyboard buffer
78 23. Executing functions
81 26. Setting and Querying Variables
84 26.2. User-defined variables
86 27. Reading initialization commands from another file
95 1. Regular Expressions
96 2. Patterns: Searching, Limiting and Tagging
100 2.3. Complex Patterns
101 2.4. Searching by Date
106 4.1. Message Matching in Hooks
108 5. External Address Queries
111 8. Handling Mailing Lists
112 9. Handling multiple folders
115 10.1. Linking threads
116 10.2. Breaking threads
118 11. Delivery Status Notification (DSN) Support
119 12. Start a WWW Browser on URLs
121 5. Mutt's MIME Support
123 1. Using MIME in Mutt
125 1.1. Viewing MIME messages in the pager
126 1.2. The Attachment Menu
127 1.3. The Compose Menu
129 2. MIME Type configuration with mime.types
130 3. MIME Viewer configuration with mailcap
132 3.1. The Basics of the mailcap file
133 3.2. Secure use of mailcap
134 3.3. Advanced mailcap Usage
135 3.4. Example mailcap files
138 5. MIME Multipart/Alternative
139 6. Attachment Searching and Counting
146 1.1. Enabling/disabling features
153 4.1. The Folder Browser
157 6. Managing multiple accounts
164 8. Exact address generation
166 7. Performance tuning
168 1. Reading and writing mailboxes
169 2. Reading messages from remote folders
170 3. Searching and limiting
174 1. Command line options
175 2. Configuration Commands
176 3. Configuration variables
179 3.2. abort_unmodified
188 3.11. assumed_charset
199 3.22. bounce_delivered
200 3.23. braille_friendly
201 3.24. check_mbox_size
204 3.27. collapse_unread
205 3.28. uncollapse_jump
210 3.33. connect_timeout
213 3.36. crypt_use_gpgme
216 3.39. crypt_autosmime
221 3.44. digest_collapse
223 3.46. dotlock_program
226 3.49. duplicate_threads
230 3.53. envelope_from_address
251 3.74. hide_thread_subject
252 3.75. hide_top_limited
253 3.76. hide_top_missing
256 3.79. honor_followup_to
258 3.81. ignore_linear_white_space
259 3.82. ignore_list_reply_to
260 3.83. imap_authenticators
261 3.84. imap_check_subscribed
262 3.85. imap_delim_chars
266 3.89. imap_list_subscribed
271 3.94. imap_pipeline_depth
272 3.95. imap_servernoise
274 3.97. implicit_autoview
276 3.99. include_onlyfirst
284 3.107. mailcap_sanitize
286 3.109. maildir_header_cache_verify
287 3.110. header_cache_pagesize
288 3.111. header_cache_compress
301 3.124. mh_seq_flagged
302 3.125. mh_seq_replied
305 3.128. mime_forward_decode
306 3.129. mime_forward_rest
307 3.130. mix_entry_format
310 3.133. message_cachedir
311 3.134. message_cache_clean
312 3.135. message_format
318 3.141. pager_index_lines
320 3.143. crypt_autosign
321 3.144. crypt_autoencrypt
322 3.145. pgp_ignore_subkeys
323 3.146. crypt_replyencrypt
324 3.147. crypt_replysign
325 3.148. crypt_replysignencrypted
326 3.149. crypt_timestamp
327 3.150. pgp_use_gpg_agent
328 3.151. crypt_verify_sig
329 3.152. smime_is_default
330 3.153. smime_ask_cert_label
331 3.154. smime_decrypt_use_default_key
332 3.155. pgp_entry_format
334 3.157. pgp_check_exit
336 3.159. pgp_retainable_sigs
337 3.160. pgp_autoinline
338 3.161. pgp_replyinline
339 3.162. pgp_show_unusable
341 3.164. pgp_strict_enc
345 3.168. pgp_auto_decode
346 3.169. pgp_decode_command
347 3.170. pgp_getkeys_command
348 3.171. pgp_verify_command
349 3.172. pgp_decrypt_command
350 3.173. pgp_clearsign_command
351 3.174. pgp_sign_command
352 3.175. pgp_encrypt_sign_command
353 3.176. pgp_encrypt_only_command
354 3.177. pgp_import_command
355 3.178. pgp_export_command
356 3.179. pgp_verify_key_command
357 3.180. pgp_list_secring_command
358 3.181. pgp_list_pubring_command
359 3.182. forward_decrypt
361 3.184. smime_encrypt_with
363 3.186. smime_ca_location
364 3.187. smime_certificates
365 3.188. smime_decrypt_command
366 3.189. smime_verify_command
367 3.190. smime_verify_opaque_command
368 3.191. smime_sign_command
369 3.192. smime_sign_opaque_command
370 3.193. smime_encrypt_command
371 3.194. smime_pk7out_command
372 3.195. smime_get_cert_command
373 3.196. smime_get_signer_cert_command
374 3.197. smime_import_cert_command
375 3.198. smime_get_cert_email_command
376 3.199. smime_default_key
377 3.200. ssl_client_cert
380 3.203. certificate_file
381 3.204. ssl_usesystemcerts
386 3.209. ssl_min_dh_prime_bits
387 3.210. ssl_ca_certificates_file
391 3.214. pop_authenticators
392 3.215. pop_auth_try_all
393 3.216. pop_checkinterval
400 3.223. post_indent_string
424 3.247. reverse_realname
425 3.248. rfc2047_parameters
431 3.254. score_threshold_delete
432 3.255. score_threshold_flag
433 3.256. score_threshold_read
445 3.268. smtp_authenticators
453 3.276. spam_separator
458 3.281. strict_threads
461 3.284. thread_received
462 3.285. thorough_search
471 3.294. use_envelope_from
504 2. About this document
508 1.1. Typographical conventions for special terms
509 2.1. Most common navigation keys
510 2.2. Most common line editor keys
511 2.3. Most common message index keys
512 2.4. Message status flags
513 2.5. Message recipient flags
514 2.6. Most common pager keys
515 2.7. ANSI escape sequences
517 2.9. Most common thread mode keys
518 2.10. Most common mail sending keys
519 2.11. Most common compose menu keys
520 2.12. PGP key menu flags
521 3.1. Symbolic key names
522 4.1. POSIX regular expression character classes
523 4.2. Regular expression repetition operators
524 4.3. GNU regular expression extensions
525 4.4. Pattern modifiers
526 4.5. Simple search keywords
528 8.1. Command line options
529 8.2. Default generic function bindings
530 8.3. Default index function bindings
531 8.4. Default pager function bindings
532 8.5. Default alias function bindings
533 8.6. Default query function bindings
534 8.7. Default attach function bindings
535 8.8. Default compose function bindings
536 8.9. Default postpone function bindings
537 8.10. Default browser function bindings
538 8.11. Default pgp function bindings
539 8.12. Default smime function bindings
540 8.13. Default mix function bindings
541 8.14. Default editor function bindings
545 3.1. Multiple configuration commands per line
546 3.2. Commenting configuration files
547 3.3. Escaping quotes in congfiguration files
548 3.4. Using external command's output in configuration files
549 3.5. Using environment variables in configuration files
550 3.6. Configuring external alias files
551 3.7. Setting sort method based on mailbox name
553 3.9. Configuring header display order
554 3.10. Defining custom headers
555 3.11. Using %-expandos in save-hook
556 3.12. Embedding push in folder-hook
557 3.13. Configuring spam detection
558 3.14. Using user-defined variables for config file readability
559 3.15. Using user-defined variables for backing up other config option values
560 3.16. Deferring user-defined variable expansion to runtime
561 3.17. Using external filters in format strings
562 4.1. Using boolean operators in patterns
563 4.2. Combining send-hook and my_hdr
564 5.1. Attachment counting
566 Chapter 1. Introduction
572 3. Software Distribution Sites
573 4. Mutt online resources
574 5. Contributing to Mutt
575 6. Typograhical conventions
578 Mutt is a small but very powerful text-based MIME mail client. Mutt is highly
579 configurable, and is well suited to the mail power user with advanced features
580 like key bindings, keyboard macros, mail threading, regular expression searches
581 and a powerful pattern matching language for selecting groups of messages.
585 The official homepage can be found at http://www.mutt.org/.
589 To subscribe to one of the following mailing lists, send a message with the
590 word subscribe in the body to list-name-request@mutt.org.
592 * <mutt-announce-request@mutt.org> -- low traffic list for announcements
594 * <mutt-users-request@mutt.org> -- help, bug reports and feature requests
596 * <mutt-dev-request@mutt.org> -- development mailing list
600 All messages posted to mutt-announce are automatically forwarded to mutt-users,
601 so you do not need to be subscribed to both lists.
603 3. Software Distribution Sites
605 Mutt releases can be downloaded from ftp://ftp.mutt.org/mutt/. For a list of
606 mirror sites, please refer to http://www.mutt.org/download.html.
608 4. Mutt online resources
612 The official mutt bug tracking system can be found at http://dev.mutt.org/
616 An (unofficial) wiki can be found at http://wiki.mutt.org/.
620 For the IRC user community, visit channel #mutt on irc.freenode.net.
624 For USENET, see the newsgroup comp.mail.mutt.
626 5. Contributing to Mutt
628 There are various ways to contribute to the Mutt project.
630 Especially for new users it may be helpful to meet other new and experienced
631 users to chat about Mutt, talk about problems and share tricks.
633 Since translations of Mutt into other languages are highly appreciated, the
634 mutt developers always look for skilled translators that help improve and
635 continue to maintain stale translations.
637 For contributing code patches for new features and bug fixes, please refer to
638 the developer pages at http://dev.mutt.org/ for more details.
640 6. Typograhical conventions
642 This section lists typographical conventions followed throughout this manual.
643 See table Table 1.1, ?Typographical conventions for special terms? for
644 typographical conventions for special terms.
646 Table 1.1. Typographical conventions for special terms
648 +------------------------------------------------------+
649 | Item | Refers to... |
650 |--------------+---------------------------------------|
651 |printf(3) |UNIX manual pages, execute man 3 printf|
652 |--------------+---------------------------------------|
653 |<PageUp> |named keys |
654 |--------------+---------------------------------------|
655 |<create-alias>|named Mutt function |
656 |--------------+---------------------------------------|
657 |^G |Control+G key combination |
658 |--------------+---------------------------------------|
659 |$mail_check |Mutt configuration option |
660 +------------------------------------------------------+
663 Examples are presented as:
667 Within command synopsis, curly brackets (?{}?) denote a set of options of which
668 one is mandatory, square brackets (?[]?) denote optional arguments, three dots
669 denote that the argument may be repeated arbitrary times.
673 Mutt is Copyright (C) 1996-2009 Michael R. Elkins <me@mutt.org> and others.
675 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
676 the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
677 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
680 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
681 WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
682 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
684 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
685 this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin
686 Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
688 Chapter 2. Getting Started
693 2. Moving Around in Menus
694 3. Editing Input Fields
699 4. Reading Mail - The Index and Pager
701 4.1. The Message Index
704 4.4. Miscellaneous Functions
709 5.2. Editing the message header
710 5.3. Sending cryptographically signed/encrypted messages
711 5.4. Sending anonymous messages via mixmaster
712 5.5. Sending format=flowed messages
714 6. Forwarding and Bouncing Mail
717 This section is intended as a brief overview of how to use Mutt. There are many
718 other features which are described elsewhere in the manual. There is even more
719 information available in the Mutt FAQ and various web pages. See the Mutt
720 homepage for more details.
722 The keybindings described in this section are the defaults as distributed. Your
723 local system administrator may have altered the defaults for your site. You can
724 always type ??? in any menu to display the current bindings.
726 The first thing you need to do is invoke mutt, simply by typing mutt at the
727 command line. There are various command-line options, see either the mutt man
728 page or the reference.
732 Mutt is a text-based application which interacts with users through different
733 menus which are mostly line-/entry-based or page-based. A line-based menu is
734 the so-called ?index? menu (listing all messages of the currently opened
735 folder) or the ?alias? menu (allowing you to select recipients from a list).
736 Examples for page-based menus are the ?pager? (showing one message at a time)
737 or the ?help? menu listing all available key bindings.
739 The user interface consists of a context sensitive help line at the top, the
740 menu's contents followed by a context sensitive status line and finally the
741 command line. The command line is used to display informational and error
742 messages as well as for prompts and for entering interactive commands.
744 Because Mutt allows for customizing almost all key bindings, there are
745 so-called ?functions? which can be executed manually (using the command line)
746 or in macros. Macros allow the user to bind a sequence of commands to a single
747 key or a short key sequence instead of repeating a sequence of actions over and
750 Many commands (such as saving or copying a message to another folder) can be
751 applied to a single message or a set of messages (so-called ?tagged? messages).
752 To help selecting messages, Mutt provides a rich set of message patterns (such
753 as recipients, sender, body contents, date sent/received, etc.) which can be
754 combined into complex expressions using the boolean and and or operations as
755 well as negating. These patterns can also be used to (for example) search for
756 messages or to limit the index to show only matching messages.
758 Mutt supports a ?hook? concept which allows the user to execute arbitrary
759 configuration commands and functions in certain situations such as entering a
760 folder, starting a new message or replying to an existing one. These hooks can
761 be used to highly customize Mutt's behaviour including managing multiple
762 identities, customizing the display for a folder or even implementing
763 auto-archiving based on a per-folder basis and much more.
765 2. Moving Around in Menus
767 The most important navigation keys common to all menus are shown in Table 2.1,
768 ?Most common navigation keys?.
770 Table 2.1. Most common navigation keys
772 +------------------------------------------------------------------------+
773 | Key | Function | Description |
774 |-------------+----------------+-----------------------------------------|
775 |j or <Down> |<next-entry> |move to the next entry |
776 |-------------+----------------+-----------------------------------------|
777 |k or <Up> |<previous-entry>|move to the previous entry |
778 |-------------+----------------+-----------------------------------------|
779 |z or <PageDn>|<page-down> |go to the next page |
780 |-------------+----------------+-----------------------------------------|
781 |Z or <PageUp>|<page-up> |go to the previous page |
782 |-------------+----------------+-----------------------------------------|
783 |= or <Home> |<first-entry> |jump to the first entry |
784 |-------------+----------------+-----------------------------------------|
785 |* or <End> |<last-entry> |jump to the last entry |
786 |-------------+----------------+-----------------------------------------|
787 |q |<quit> |exit the current menu |
788 |-------------+----------------+-----------------------------------------|
789 |? |<help> |list all keybindings for the current menu|
790 +------------------------------------------------------------------------+
793 3. Editing Input Fields
797 Mutt has a built-in line editor for inputting text, e.g. email addresses or
798 filenames. The keys used to manipulate text input are very similar to those of
799 Emacs. See Table 2.2, ?Most common line editor keys? for a full reference of
800 available functions, their default key bindings, and short descriptions.
802 Table 2.2. Most common line editor keys
804 +---------------------------------------------------------------------+
805 | Key | Function | Description |
806 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
807 |^A or <Home> |<bol> |move to the start of the line |
808 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
809 |^B or <Left> |<backward-char> |move back one char |
810 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
811 |Esc B |<backward-word> |move back one word |
812 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
813 |^D or <Delete>|<delete-char> |delete the char under the cursor |
814 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
815 |^E or <End> |<eol> |move to the end of the line |
816 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
817 |^F or <Right> |<forward-char> |move forward one char |
818 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
819 |Esc F |<forward-word> |move forward one word |
820 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
821 |<Tab> |<complete> |complete filename or alias |
822 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
823 |^T |<complete-query> |complete address with query |
824 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
825 |^K |<kill-eol> |delete to the end of the line |
826 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
827 |Esc d |<kill-eow> |delete to the end of the word |
828 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
829 |^W |<kill-word> |kill the word in front of the cursor|
830 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
831 |^U |<kill-line> |delete entire line |
832 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
833 |^V |<quote-char> |quote the next typed key |
834 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
835 |<Up> |<history-up> |recall previous string from history |
836 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
837 |<Down> |<history-down> |recall next string from history |
838 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
839 |<BackSpace> |<backspace> |kill the char in front of the cursor|
840 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
841 |Esc u |<upcase-word> |convert word to upper case |
842 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
843 |Esc l |<downcase-word> |convert word to lower case |
844 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
845 |Esc c |<capitalize-word>|capitalize the word |
846 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
848 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
849 |<Return> |n/a |finish editing |
850 +---------------------------------------------------------------------+
853 You can remap the editor functions using the bind command. For example, to make
854 the <Delete> key delete the character in front of the cursor rather than under,
857 bind editor <delete> backspace
861 Mutt maintains a history for the built-in editor. The number of items is
862 controlled by the $history variable and can be made persistent using an
863 external file specified using $history_file. You may cycle through them at an
864 editor prompt by using the <history-up> and/or <history-down> commands.
866 Mutt maintains several distinct history lists, one for each of the following
871 * addresses and aliases
881 Mutt automatically filters out repeated items from the history. It also mimics
882 the behavior of some shells by ignoring items starting with a space. The latter
883 feature can be useful in macros to not clobber the history's valuable entries
884 with unwanted entries.
886 4. Reading Mail - The Index and Pager
888 Similar to many other mail clients, there are two modes in which mail is read
889 in Mutt. The first is the index of messages in the mailbox, which is called the
890 ?index? in Mutt. The second mode is the display of the message contents. This
891 is called the ?pager.?
893 The next few sections describe the functions provided in each of these modes.
895 4.1. The Message Index
897 Common keys used to navigate through and manage messages in the index are shown
898 in Table 2.3, ?Most common message index keys?. How messages are presented in
899 the index menu can be customized using the $index_format variable.
901 Table 2.3. Most common message index keys
903 +----------------------------------------------------+
904 | Key | Description |
905 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
906 |c |change to a different mailbox |
907 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
908 |Esc c |change to a folder in read-only mode |
909 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
910 |C |copy the current message to another mailbox|
911 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
912 |Esc C |decode a message and copy it to a folder |
913 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
914 |Esc s |decode a message and save it to a folder |
915 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
916 |D |delete messages matching a pattern |
917 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
918 |d |delete the current message |
919 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
920 |F |mark as important |
921 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
922 |l |show messages matching a pattern |
923 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
924 |N |mark message as new |
925 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
926 |o |change the current sort method |
927 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
928 |O |reverse sort the mailbox |
929 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
930 |q |save changes and exit |
931 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
933 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
934 |T |tag messages matching a pattern |
935 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
936 |t |toggle the tag on a message |
937 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
938 |Esc t |toggle tag on entire message thread |
939 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
940 |U |undelete messages matching a pattern |
941 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
942 |u |undelete-message |
943 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
944 |v |view-attachments |
945 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
946 |x |abort changes and exit |
947 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
948 |<Return>|display-message |
949 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
950 |<Tab> |jump to the next new or unread message |
951 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
952 |@ |show the author's full e-mail address |
953 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
954 |$ |save changes to mailbox |
955 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
957 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
958 |Esc / |search-reverse |
959 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
960 |^L |clear and redraw the screen |
961 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
962 |^T |untag messages matching a pattern |
963 +----------------------------------------------------+
966 In addition to who sent the message and the subject, a short summary of the
967 disposition of each message is printed beside the message number. Zero or more
968 of the ?flags? in Table 2.4, ?Message status flags? may appear, some of which
969 can be turned on or off using these functions: <set-flag> and <clear-flag>
970 bound by default to ?w? and ?W? respectively.
972 Furthermore, the flags in Table 2.5, ?Message recipient flags? reflect who the
973 message is addressed to. They can be customized with the $to_chars variable.
975 Table 2.4. Message status flags
977 +------------------------------------------------------------------+
979 |----+-------------------------------------------------------------|
980 |D |message is deleted (is marked for deletion) |
981 |----+-------------------------------------------------------------|
982 |d |message has attachments marked for deletion |
983 |----+-------------------------------------------------------------|
984 |K |contains a PGP public key |
985 |----+-------------------------------------------------------------|
987 |----+-------------------------------------------------------------|
989 |----+-------------------------------------------------------------|
990 |P |message is PGP encrypted |
991 |----+-------------------------------------------------------------|
992 |r |message has been replied to |
993 |----+-------------------------------------------------------------|
994 |S |message is signed, and the signature is successfully verified|
995 |----+-------------------------------------------------------------|
996 |s |message is signed |
997 |----+-------------------------------------------------------------|
998 |! |message is flagged |
999 |----+-------------------------------------------------------------|
1000 |* |message is tagged |
1001 +------------------------------------------------------------------+
1004 Table 2.5. Message recipient flags
1006 +------------------------------------------------------+
1007 |Flag| Description |
1008 |----+-------------------------------------------------|
1009 |+ |message is to you and you only |
1010 |----+-------------------------------------------------|
1011 |T |message is to you, but also to or cc'ed to others|
1012 |----+-------------------------------------------------|
1013 |C |message is cc'ed to you |
1014 |----+-------------------------------------------------|
1015 |F |message is from you |
1016 |----+-------------------------------------------------|
1017 |L |message is sent to a subscribed mailing list |
1018 +------------------------------------------------------+
1023 By default, Mutt uses its builtin pager to display the contents of messages.
1024 The pager is very similar to the Unix program less though not nearly as
1027 Table 2.6. Most common pager keys
1029 +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
1030 | Key | Description |
1031 |--------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
1032 |<Return>|go down one line |
1033 |--------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
1034 |<Space> |display the next page (or next message if at the end of a message)|
1035 |--------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
1036 |- |go back to the previous page |
1037 |--------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
1038 |n |search for next match |
1039 |--------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
1040 |S |skip beyond quoted text |
1041 |--------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
1042 |T |toggle display of quoted text |
1043 |--------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
1044 |? |show keybindings |
1045 |--------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
1046 |/ |regular expression search |
1047 |--------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
1048 |Esc / |backward regular expression search |
1049 |--------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
1050 |\ |toggle highlighting of search matches |
1051 |--------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
1052 |^ |jump to the top of the message |
1053 +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
1056 In addition to key bindings in Table 2.6, ?Most common pager keys?, many of the
1057 functions from the index menu are also available in the pager, such as
1058 <delete-message> or <copy-message> (this is one advantage over using an
1059 external pager to view messages).
1061 Also, the internal pager supports a couple other advanced features. For one, it
1062 will accept and translate the ?standard? nroff sequences for bold and
1063 underline. These sequences are a series of either the letter, backspace (^H),
1064 the letter again for bold or the letter, backspace, ?_? for denoting underline.
1065 Mutt will attempt to display these in bold and underline respectively if your
1066 terminal supports them. If not, you can use the bold and underline color
1067 objects to specify a color or mono attribute for them.
1069 Additionally, the internal pager supports the ANSI escape sequences for
1070 character attributes. Mutt translates them into the correct color and character
1071 settings. The sequences Mutt supports are:
1075 where Ps can be one of the codes shown in Table 2.7, ?ANSI escape sequences?.
1077 Table 2.7. ANSI escape sequences
1079 +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
1080 |Escape code| Description |
1081 |-----------+--------------------------------------------------------------|
1082 |0 |All attributes off |
1083 |-----------+--------------------------------------------------------------|
1085 |-----------+--------------------------------------------------------------|
1087 |-----------+--------------------------------------------------------------|
1089 |-----------+--------------------------------------------------------------|
1090 |7 |Reverse video on |
1091 |-----------+--------------------------------------------------------------|
1092 |3<color> |Foreground color is <color> (see Table 2.8, ?Color sequences?)|
1093 |-----------+--------------------------------------------------------------|
1094 |4<color> |Background color is <color> (see Table 2.8, ?Color sequences?)|
1095 +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
1098 Table 2.8. Color sequences
1100 +-------------------+
1101 |Color code | Color |
1102 |-----------+-------|
1104 |-----------+-------|
1106 |-----------+-------|
1108 |-----------+-------|
1110 |-----------+-------|
1112 |-----------+-------|
1114 |-----------+-------|
1116 |-----------+-------|
1118 +-------------------+
1121 Mutt uses these attributes for handling text/enriched messages, and they can
1122 also be used by an external autoview script for highlighting purposes.
1126 If you change the colors for your display, for example by changing the color
1127 associated with color2 for your xterm, then that color will be used instead of
1132 Note that the search commands in the pager take regular expressions, which are
1133 not quite the same as the more complex patterns used by the search command in
1134 the index. This is because the pager only performs simple text search, whereas
1135 the index provides boolean filtering on several aspects of messages.
1139 When the mailbox is sorted by threads, there are a few additional functions
1140 available in the index and pager modes as shown in Table 2.9, ?Most common
1143 Table 2.9. Most common thread mode keys
1145 +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
1146 | Key | Function | Description |
1147 |-----+--------------------+----------------------------------------------|
1148 |^D |<delete-thread> |delete all messages in the current thread |
1149 |-----+--------------------+----------------------------------------------|
1150 |^U |<undelete-thread> |undelete all messages in the current thread |
1151 |-----+--------------------+----------------------------------------------|
1152 |^N |<next-thread> |jump to the start of the next thread |
1153 |-----+--------------------+----------------------------------------------|
1154 |^P |<previous-thread> |jump to the start of the previous thread |
1155 |-----+--------------------+----------------------------------------------|
1156 |^R |<read-thread> |mark the current thread as read |
1157 |-----+--------------------+----------------------------------------------|
1158 |Esc d|<delete-subthread> |delete all messages in the current subthread |
1159 |-----+--------------------+----------------------------------------------|
1160 |Esc u|<undelete-subthread>|undelete all messages in the current subthread|
1161 |-----+--------------------+----------------------------------------------|
1162 |Esc n|<next-subthread> |jump to the start of the next subthread |
1163 |-----+--------------------+----------------------------------------------|
1164 |Esc p|<previous-subthread>|jump to the start of the previous subthread |
1165 |-----+--------------------+----------------------------------------------|
1166 |Esc r|<read-subthread> |mark the current subthread as read |
1167 |-----+--------------------+----------------------------------------------|
1168 |Esc t|<tag-thread> |toggle the tag on the current thread |
1169 |-----+--------------------+----------------------------------------------|
1170 |Esc v|<collapse-thread> |toggle collapse for the current thread |
1171 |-----+--------------------+----------------------------------------------|
1172 |Esc V|<collapse-all> |toggle collapse for all threads |
1173 |-----+--------------------+----------------------------------------------|
1174 |P |<parent-message> |jump to parent message in thread |
1175 +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
1180 Collapsing a thread displays only the first message in the thread and hides the
1181 others. This is useful when threads contain so many messages that you can only
1182 see a handful of threads on the screen. See %M in $index_format. For example,
1183 you could use "%?M?(#%03M)&(%4l)?" in $index_format to optionally display the
1184 number of hidden messages if the thread is collapsed.
1186 See also: $strict_threads.
1188 4.4. Miscellaneous Functions
1190 In addition, the index and pager menus have these interesting functions:
1192 <create-alias> (default: a)
1194 Creates a new alias based upon the current message (or prompts for a new
1195 one). Once editing is complete, an alias command is added to the file
1196 specified by the $alias_file variable for future use
1200 Mutt does not read the $alias_file upon startup so you must explicitly
1203 <check-traditional-pgp> (default: Esc P)
1205 This function will search the current message for content signed or
1206 encrypted with PGP the ?traditional? way, that is, without proper MIME
1207 tagging. Technically, this function will temporarily change the MIME
1208 content types of the body parts containing PGP data; this is similar to the
1209 <edit-type> function's effect.
1213 This command (available in the index and pager) allows you to edit the raw
1214 current message as it's present in the mail folder. After you have finished
1215 editing, the changed message will be appended to the current folder, and
1216 the original message will be marked for deletion; if the message is
1217 unchanged it won't be replaced.
1219 <edit-type> (default: ^E on the attachment menu, and in the pager and index
1220 menus; ^T on the compose menu)
1222 This command is used to temporarily edit an attachment's content type to
1223 fix, for instance, bogus character set parameters. When invoked from the
1224 index or from the pager, you'll have the opportunity to edit the top-level
1225 attachment's content type. On the attachment menu, you can change any
1226 attachment's content type. These changes are not persistent, and get lost
1227 upon changing folders.
1229 Note that this command is also available on the compose menu. There, it's
1230 used to fine-tune the properties of attachments you are going to send.
1232 <enter-command> (default: ?:?)
1234 This command is used to execute any command you would normally put in a
1235 configuration file. A common use is to check the settings of variables, or
1236 in conjunction with macros to change settings on the fly.
1238 <extract-keys> (default: ^K)
1240 This command extracts PGP public keys from the current or tagged message(s)
1241 and adds them to your PGP public key ring.
1243 <forget-passphrase> (default: ^F)
1245 This command wipes the passphrase(s) from memory. It is useful, if you
1246 misspelled the passphrase.
1248 <list-reply> (default: L)
1250 Reply to the current or tagged message(s) by extracting any addresses which
1251 match the regular expressions given by the lists or subscribe commands, but
1252 also honor any Mail-Followup-To header(s) if the $honor_followup_to
1253 configuration variable is set. Using this when replying to messages posted
1254 to mailing lists helps avoid duplicate copies being sent to the author of
1255 the message you are replying to.
1257 <pipe-message> (default: |)
1259 Asks for an external Unix command and pipes the current or tagged message
1260 (s) to it. The variables $pipe_decode, $pipe_split, $pipe_sep and $wait_key
1261 control the exact behavior of this function.
1263 <resend-message> (default: Esc e)
1265 Mutt takes the current message as a template for a new message. This
1266 function is best described as "recall from arbitrary folders". It can
1267 conveniently be used to forward MIME messages while preserving the original
1268 mail structure. Note that the amount of headers included here depends on
1269 the value of the $weed variable.
1271 This function is also available from the attachment menu. You can use this
1272 to easily resend a message which was included with a bounce message as a
1273 message/rfc822 body part.
1275 <shell-escape> (default: !)
1277 Asks for an external Unix command and executes it. The $wait_key can be
1278 used to control whether Mutt will wait for a key to be pressed when the
1279 command returns (presumably to let the user read the output of the
1280 command), based on the return status of the named command. If no command is
1281 given, an interactive shell is executed.
1283 <toggle-quoted> (default: T)
1285 The pager uses the $quote_regexp variable to detect quoted text when
1286 displaying the body of the message. This function toggles the display of
1287 the quoted material in the message. It is particularly useful when being
1288 interested in just the response and there is a large amount of quoted text
1291 <skip-quoted> (default: S)
1293 This function will go to the next line of non-quoted text which comes after
1294 a line of quoted text in the internal pager.
1300 The bindings shown in Table 2.10, ?Most common mail sending keys? are available
1301 in the index and pager to start a new message.
1303 Table 2.10. Most common mail sending keys
1305 +----------------------------------------------------+
1306 | Key | Function | Description |
1307 |-----+-------------+--------------------------------|
1308 |m |<compose> |compose a new message |
1309 |-----+-------------+--------------------------------|
1310 |r |<reply> |reply to sender |
1311 |-----+-------------+--------------------------------|
1312 |g |<group-reply>|reply to all recipients |
1313 |-----+-------------+--------------------------------|
1314 |L |<list-reply> |reply to mailing list address |
1315 |-----+-------------+--------------------------------|
1316 |f |<forward> |forward message |
1317 |-----+-------------+--------------------------------|
1318 |b |<bounce> |bounce (remail) message |
1319 |-----+-------------+--------------------------------|
1320 |Esc k|<mail-key> |mail a PGP public key to someone|
1321 +----------------------------------------------------+
1324 Bouncing a message sends the message as-is to the recipient you specify.
1325 Forwarding a message allows you to add comments or modify the message you are
1326 forwarding. These items are discussed in greater detail in the next chapter ?
1327 Forwarding and Bouncing Mail.?
1329 Mutt will then enter the compose menu and prompt you for the recipients to
1330 place on the ?To:? header field. Next, it will ask you for the ?Subject:? field
1331 for the message, providing a default if you are replying to or forwarding a
1332 message. See also $askcc, $askbcc, $autoedit, $bounce, $fast_reply, and
1333 $include for changing how Mutt asks these questions.
1335 Mutt will then automatically start your $editor on the message body. If the
1336 $edit_headers variable is set, the headers will be at the top of the message in
1337 your editor. Any messages you are replying to will be added in sort order to
1338 the message, with appropriate $attribution, $indent_string and
1339 $post_indent_string. When forwarding a message, if the $mime_forward variable
1340 is unset, a copy of the forwarded message will be included. If you have
1341 specified a $signature, it will be appended to the message.
1343 Once you have finished editing the body of your mail message, you are returned
1344 to the compose menu providing the functions shown in Table 2.11, ?Most common
1345 compose menu keys? to modify, send or postpone the message.
1347 Table 2.11. Most common compose menu keys
1349 +----------------------------------------------------------------------+
1350 | Key | Function | Description |
1351 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1352 |a |<attach-file> |attach a file |
1353 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1354 |A |<attach-message> |attach message(s) to the message |
1355 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1356 |Esc k|<attach-key> |attach a PGP public key |
1357 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1358 |d |<edit-description> |edit description on attachment |
1359 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1360 |D |<detach-file> |detach a file |
1361 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1362 |t |<edit-to> |edit the To field |
1363 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1364 |Esc f|<edit-from> |edit the From field |
1365 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1366 |r |<edit-reply-to> |edit the Reply-To field |
1367 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1368 |c |<edit-cc> |edit the Cc field |
1369 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1370 |b |<edit-bcc> |edit the Bcc field |
1371 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1372 |y |<send-message> |send the message |
1373 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1374 |s |<edit-subject> |edit the Subject |
1375 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1376 |S |<smime-menu> |select S/MIME options |
1377 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1378 |f |<edit-fcc> |specify an ?Fcc? mailbox |
1379 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1380 |p |<pgp-menu> |select PGP options |
1381 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1382 |P |<postpone-message> |postpone this message until later |
1383 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1384 |q |<quit> |quit (abort) sending the message |
1385 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1386 |w |<write-fcc> |write the message to a folder |
1387 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1388 |i |<ispell> |check spelling (if available on your system)|
1389 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1390 |^F |<forget-passphrase>|wipe passphrase(s) from memory |
1391 +----------------------------------------------------------------------+
1394 The compose menu is also used to edit the attachments for a message which can
1395 be either files or other messages. The <attach-message> function to will prompt
1396 you for a folder to attach messages from. You can now tag messages in that
1397 folder and they will be attached to the message you are sending.
1401 Note that certain operations like composing a new mail, replying, forwarding,
1402 etc. are not permitted when you are in that folder. The %r in $status_format
1403 will change to a ?A? to indicate that you are in attach-message mode.
1405 5.2. Editing the message header
1407 When editing the header because of $edit_headers being set, there are a several
1408 pseudo headers available which will not be included in sent messages.
1410 5.2.1. Fcc: pseudo header
1412 If you specify Fcc: filename as a header, Mutt will pick up filename just as if
1413 you had used the <edit-fcc> function in the compose menu.
1415 5.2.2. Attach: pseudo header
1417 You can also attach files to your message by specifying Attach: filename [
1418 description ] where filename is the file to attach and description is an
1419 optional string to use as the description of the attached file.
1421 5.2.3. Pgp: pseudo header
1423 If you want to use PGP, you can specify
1425 Pgp: [ E | S | S<id> ]
1427 ?E? selects encryption, ?S? selects signing and ?S<id>? selects signing with
1428 the given key, setting $pgp_sign_as permanently.
1430 5.2.4. In-Reply-To: header
1432 When replying to messages, the In-Reply-To: header contains the Message-Id of
1433 the message(s) you reply to. If you remove its value, Mutt will not generate a
1434 References: field, which allows you to create a new message thread, for example
1435 to create a new message to a mailing list without having to enter the mailing
1438 5.3. Sending cryptographically signed/encrypted messages
1440 If you have told mutt to PGP or S/MIME encrypt a message, it will guide you
1441 through a key selection process when you try to send the message. Mutt will not
1442 ask you any questions about keys which have a certified user ID matching one of
1443 the message recipients' mail addresses. However, there may be situations in
1444 which there are several keys, weakly certified user ID fields, or where no
1445 matching keys can be found.
1447 In these cases, you are dropped into a menu with a list of keys from which you
1448 can select one. When you quit this menu, or mutt can't find any matching keys,
1449 you are prompted for a user ID. You can, as usually, abort this prompt using ^
1450 G. When you do so, mutt will return to the compose screen.
1452 Once you have successfully finished the key selection, the message will be
1453 encrypted using the selected public keys when sent out.
1455 Most fields of the entries in the key selection menu (see also
1456 $pgp_entry_format) have obvious meanings. But some explanations on the
1457 capabilities, flags, and validity fields are in order.
1459 The flags sequence (%f) will expand to one of the flags in Table 2.12, ?PGP key
1462 Table 2.12. PGP key menu flags
1464 +-------------------------------------------------------+
1465 |Flag| Description |
1466 |----+--------------------------------------------------|
1467 |R |The key has been revoked and can't be used. |
1468 |----+--------------------------------------------------|
1469 |X |The key is expired and can't be used. |
1470 |----+--------------------------------------------------|
1471 |d |You have marked the key as disabled. |
1472 |----+--------------------------------------------------|
1473 |c |There are unknown critical self-signature packets.|
1474 +-------------------------------------------------------+
1477 The capabilities field (%c) expands to a two-character sequence representing a
1478 key's capabilities. The first character gives the key's encryption
1479 capabilities: A minus sign (?-?) means that the key cannot be used for
1480 encryption. A dot (?.?) means that it's marked as a signature key in one of the
1481 user IDs, but may also be used for encryption. The letter ?e? indicates that
1482 this key can be used for encryption.
1484 The second character indicates the key's signing capabilities. Once again, a
1485 ?-? implies ?not for signing?, ?.? implies that the key is marked as an
1486 encryption key in one of the user-ids, and ?s? denotes a key which can be used
1489 Finally, the validity field (%t) indicates how well-certified a user-id is. A
1490 question mark (???) indicates undefined validity, a minus character (?-?) marks
1491 an untrusted association, a space character means a partially trusted
1492 association, and a plus character (?+?) indicates complete validity.
1494 5.4. Sending anonymous messages via mixmaster
1496 You may also have compiled mutt to co-operate with Mixmaster, an anonymous
1497 remailer. Mixmaster permits you to send your messages anonymously using a chain
1498 of remailers. Mixmaster support in mutt is for mixmaster version 2.04 (beta 45
1499 appears to be the latest) and 2.03. It does not support earlier versions or the
1500 later so-called version 3 betas, of which the latest appears to be called
1503 To use it, you'll have to obey certain restrictions. Most important, you cannot
1504 use the Cc and Bcc headers. To tell Mutt to use mixmaster, you have to select a
1505 remailer chain, using the mix function on the compose menu.
1507 The chain selection screen is divided into two parts. In the (larger) upper
1508 part, you get a list of remailers you may use. In the lower part, you see the
1509 currently selected chain of remailers.
1511 You can navigate in the chain using the <chain-prev> and <chain-next>
1512 functions, which are by default bound to the left and right arrows and to the h
1513 and l keys (think vi keyboard bindings). To insert a remailer at the current
1514 chain position, use the <insert> function. To append a remailer behind the
1515 current chain position, use <select-entry> or <append>. You can also delete
1516 entries from the chain, using the corresponding function. Finally, to abandon
1517 your changes, leave the menu, or <accept> them pressing (by default) the Return
1520 Note that different remailers do have different capabilities, indicated in the
1521 %c entry of the remailer menu lines (see $mix_entry_format). Most important is
1522 the ?middleman? capability, indicated by a capital ?M?: This means that the
1523 remailer in question cannot be used as the final element of a chain, but will
1524 only forward messages to other mixmaster remailers. For details on the other
1525 capabilities, please have a look at the mixmaster documentation.
1527 5.5. Sending format=flowed messages
1531 format=flowed-style messages (or f=f for short) are text/plain messages that
1532 consist of paragraphs which a receiver's mail client may reformat to its own
1533 needs which mostly means to customize line lengths regardless of what the
1534 sender sent. Technically this is achieved by letting lines of a ?flowable?
1535 paragraph end in spaces except for the last line.
1537 While for text-mode clients like mutt it's the best way to assume only a
1538 standard 80x25 character cell terminal, it may be desired to let the receiver
1539 decide completely how to view a message.
1543 Mutt only supports setting the required format=flowed MIME parameter on
1544 outgoing messages if the $text_flowed variable is set, specifically it does not
1545 add the trailing spaces.
1547 After editing the initial message text and before entering the compose menu,
1548 mutt properly space-stuffes the message. Space-stuffing is required by RfC3676
1549 defining format=flowed and means to prepend a space to:
1551 * all lines starting with a space
1553 * lines starting with the word ?From? followed by space
1555 * all lines starting with ?>? which is not intended to be a quote character
1559 Mutt only supports space-stuffing for the first two types of lines but not for
1560 the third: It is impossible to safely detect whether a leading > character
1561 starts a quote or not. Furthermore, Mutt only applies space-stuffing once after
1562 the initial edit is finished.
1564 All leading spaces are to be removed by receiving clients to restore the
1565 original message prior to further processing.
1567 5.5.3. Editor considerations
1569 As mutt provides no additional features to compose f=f messages, it's
1570 completely up to the user and his editor to produce proper messages. Please
1571 consider your editor's documentation if you intend to send f=f messages.
1573 Please note that when editing messages from the compose menu several times
1574 before really sending a mail, it's up to the user to ensure that the message is
1575 properly space-stuffed.
1577 For example, vim provides the w flag for its formatoptions setting to assist in
1578 creating f=f messages, see :help fo-table for details.
1580 6. Forwarding and Bouncing Mail
1582 Bouncing and forwarding let you send an existing message to recipients that you
1583 specify. Bouncing a message sends a verbatim copy of a message to alternative
1584 addresses as if they were the message's original recipients specified in the
1585 Bcc header. Forwarding a message, on the other hand, allows you to modify the
1586 message before it is resent (for example, by adding your own comments).
1587 Bouncing is done using the <bounce> function and forwarding using the <forward>
1588 function bound to ?b? and ?f? respectively.
1590 Forwarding can be done by including the original message in the new message's
1591 body (surrounded by indicating lines) or including it as a MIME attachment,
1592 depending on the value of the $mime_forward variable. Decoding of attachments,
1593 like in the pager, can be controlled by the $forward_decode and
1594 $mime_forward_decode variables, respectively. The desired forwarding format may
1595 depend on the content, therefore $mime_forward is a quadoption which, for
1596 example, can be set to ?ask-no?.
1598 The inclusion of headers is controlled by the current setting of the $weed
1599 variable, unless $mime_forward is set.
1601 Editing the message to forward follows the same procedure as sending or
1602 replying to a message does.
1606 At times it is desirable to delay sending a message that you have already begun
1607 to compose. When the <postpone-message> function is used in the compose menu,
1608 the body of your message and attachments are stored in the mailbox specified by
1609 the $postponed variable. This means that you can recall the message even if you
1610 exit Mutt and then restart it at a later time.
1612 Once a message is postponed, there are several ways to resume it. From the
1613 command line you can use the ?-p? option, or if you compose a new message from
1614 the index or pager you will be prompted if postponed messages exist. If
1615 multiple messages are currently postponed, the postponed menu will pop up and
1616 you can select which message you would like to resume.
1620 If you postpone a reply to a message, the reply setting of the message is only
1621 updated when you actually finish the message and send it. Also, you must be in
1622 the same folder with the message you replied to for the status of the message
1625 See also the $postpone quad-option.
1627 Chapter 3. Configuration
1631 1. Location of initialization files
1632 2. Syntax of Initialization Files
1634 4. Defining/Using aliases
1635 5. Changing the default key bindings
1636 6. Defining aliases for character sets
1637 7. Setting variables based upon mailbox
1639 9. Using color and mono video attributes
1640 10. Message header display
1641 11. Alternative addresses
1643 13. Using Multiple spool mailboxes
1644 14. Monitoring incoming mail
1645 15. User defined headers
1646 16. Specify default save mailbox
1647 17. Specify default Fcc: mailbox when composing
1648 18. Specify default save filename and default Fcc: mailbox at once
1649 19. Change settings based upon message recipients
1650 20. Change settings before formatting a message
1651 21. Choosing the cryptographic key of the recipient
1652 22. Adding key sequences to the keyboard buffer
1653 23. Executing functions
1656 26. Setting and Querying Variables
1659 26.2. User-defined variables
1661 27. Reading initialization commands from another file
1668 1. Location of initialization files
1670 While the default configuration (or ?preferences?) make Mutt usable right out
1671 of the box, it is often desirable to tailor Mutt to suit your own tastes. When
1672 Mutt is first invoked, it will attempt to read the ?system? configuration file
1673 (defaults set by your local system administrator), unless the ?-n? command line
1674 option is specified. This file is typically /usr/local/share/mutt/Muttrc or /
1675 etc/Muttrc. Mutt will next look for a file named .muttrc in your home
1676 directory. If this file does not exist and your home directory has a
1677 subdirectory named .mutt, mutt try to load a file named .mutt/muttrc.
1679 .muttrc is the file where you will usually place your commands to configure
1682 In addition, mutt supports version specific configuration files that are parsed
1683 instead of the default files as explained above. For instance, if your system
1684 has a Muttrc-0.88 file in the system configuration directory, and you are
1685 running version 0.88 of mutt, this file will be sourced instead of the Muttrc
1686 file. The same is true of the user configuration file, if you have a file
1687 .muttrc-0.88.6 in your home directory, when you run mutt version 0.88.6, it
1688 will source this file instead of the default .muttrc file. The version number
1689 is the same which is visible using the ?-v? command line switch or using the
1690 show-version key (default: V) from the index menu.
1692 2. Syntax of Initialization Files
1694 An initialization file consists of a series of commands. Each line of the file
1695 may contain one or more commands. When multiple commands are used, they must be
1696 separated by a semicolon (;).
1698 Example 3.1. Multiple configuration commands per line
1700 set realname='Mutt user' ; ignore x-
1703 The hash mark, or pound sign (?#?), is used as a ?comment? character. You can
1704 use it to annotate your initialization file. All text after the comment
1705 character to the end of the line is ignored. For example,
1707 Example 3.2. Commenting configuration files
1709 my_hdr X-Disclaimer: Why are you listening to me? # This is a comment
1712 Single quotes (') and double quotes (") can be used to quote strings which
1713 contain spaces or other special characters. The difference between the two
1714 types of quotes is similar to that of many popular shell programs, namely that
1715 a single quote is used to specify a literal string (one that is not interpreted
1716 for shell variables or quoting with a backslash [see next paragraph]), while
1717 double quotes indicate a string for which should be evaluated. For example,
1718 backticks are evaluated inside of double quotes, but not for single quotes.
1720 \ quotes the next character, just as in shells such as bash and zsh. For
1721 example, if want to put quotes ?"? inside of a string, you can use ?\? to force
1722 the next character to be a literal instead of interpreted character.
1724 Example 3.3. Escaping quotes in congfiguration files
1726 set realname="Michael \"MuttDude\" Elkins"
1729 ?\\? means to insert a literal ?\? into the line. ?\n? and ?\r? have their
1730 usual C meanings of linefeed and carriage-return, respectively.
1732 A \ at the end of a line can be used to split commands over multiple lines,
1733 provided that the split points don't appear in the middle of command names.
1735 It is also possible to substitute the output of a Unix command in an
1736 initialization file. This is accomplished by enclosing the command in backticks
1739 Example 3.4. Using external command's output in configuration files
1741 my_hdr X-Operating-System: `uname -a`
1744 The output of the Unix command ?uname -a? will be substituted before the line
1749 Since initialization files are line oriented, only the first line of output
1750 from the Unix command will be substituted.
1752 Both environment variables and mutt variables can be accessed by prepending ?$?
1753 to the name of the variable. For example,
1755 Example 3.5. Using environment variables in configuration files
1757 set record=+sent_on_$HOSTNAME
1760 will cause mutt to save outgoing messages to a folder named ?sent_on_kremvax?
1761 if the environment variable HOSTNAME is set to ?kremvax.? (See $record for
1764 Mutt expands the variable when it is assigned, not when it is used. If the
1765 value of a variable on the right-hand side of an assignment changes after the
1766 assignment, the variable on the left-hand side will not be affected.
1768 The commands understood by mutt are explained in the next paragraphs. For a
1769 complete list, see the command reference.
1771 All configuration files are expected to be in the current locale as specified
1772 by the $charset variable which doesn't have a default value since it's
1773 determined by Mutt at startup. If a configuration file is not encoded in the
1774 same character set the $config_charset variable should be used: all lines
1775 starting with the next are recoded from $config_charset to $charset.
1777 This mechanism should be avoided if possible as it has the following
1780 * These variables should be set early in a configuration file with $charset
1781 preceding $config_charset so Mutt know what character set to convert to.
1783 * If $config_charset is set, it should be set in each configuration file
1784 because the value is global and not per configuration file.
1786 * Because Mutt first recodes a line before it attempts to parse it, a
1787 conversion introducing question marks or other characters as part of errors
1788 (unconvertable characters, transliteration) may introduce syntax errors or
1789 silently change the meaning of certain tokens (e.g. inserting question
1790 marks into regular expressions).
1796 group [ -group name ...] { -rx expr ... | -addr expr ... }
1798 ungroup [ -group name ...] { * | -rx expr ... | -addr expr ... }
1800 group is used to directly add either addresses or regular expressions to the
1801 specified group or groups. The different categories of arguments to the group
1802 command can be in any order. The flags -rx and -addr specify what the following
1803 strings (that cannot begin with a hyphen) should be interpreted as: either a
1804 regular expression or an email address, respectively.
1806 These address groups can also be created implicitly by the alias, lists,
1807 subscribe and alternates commands by specifying the optional -group option.
1809 Once defined, these address groups can be used in patterns to search for and
1810 limit the display to messages matching a group.
1812 ungroup is used to remove addresses or regular expressions from the specified
1813 group or groups. The syntax is similar to the group command, however the
1814 special character * can be used to empty a group of all of its contents.
1816 4. Defining/Using aliases
1820 alias [ -group name ...] key address [ address ...]
1822 It's usually very cumbersome to remember or type out the address of someone you
1823 are communicating with. Mutt allows you to create ?aliases? which map a short
1824 string to a full address.
1828 If you want to create an alias for more than one address, you must separate the
1829 addresses with a comma (?,?).
1831 The optional -group argument to alias causes the aliased address(es) to be
1832 added to the named group.
1834 To remove an alias or aliases (?*? means all aliases):
1836 unalias [ -group name ...] { * | key ... }
1838 alias muttdude me@cs.hmc.edu (Michael Elkins)
1839 alias theguys manny, moe, jack
1841 Unlike other mailers, Mutt doesn't require aliases to be defined in a special
1842 file. The alias command can appear anywhere in a configuration file, as long as
1843 this file is sourced. Consequently, you can have multiple alias files, or you
1844 can have all aliases defined in your muttrc.
1846 On the other hand, the <create-alias> function can use only one file, the one
1847 pointed to by the $alias_file variable (which is ?/.muttrc by default). This
1848 file is not special either, in the sense that Mutt will happily append aliases
1849 to any file, but in order for the new aliases to take effect you need to
1850 explicitly source this file too.
1854 Example 3.6. Configuring external alias files
1856 source /usr/local/share/Mutt.aliases
1857 source ~/.mail_aliases
1858 set alias_file=~/.mail_aliases
1861 To use aliases, you merely use the alias at any place in mutt where mutt
1862 prompts for addresses, such as the To: or Cc: prompt. You can also enter
1863 aliases in your editor at the appropriate headers if you have the $edit_headers
1866 In addition, at the various address prompts, you can use the tab character to
1867 expand a partial alias to the full alias. If there are multiple matches, mutt
1868 will bring up a menu with the matching aliases. In order to be presented with
1869 the full list of aliases, you must hit tab with out a partial alias, such as at
1870 the beginning of the prompt or after a comma denoting multiple addresses.
1872 In the alias menu, you can select as many aliases as you want with the
1873 select-entry key (default: <Return>), and use the exit key (default: q) to
1874 return to the address prompt.
1876 5. Changing the default key bindings
1880 bind map key function
1882 This command allows you to change the default key bindings (operation invoked
1883 when pressing a key).
1885 map specifies in which menu the binding belongs. Multiple maps may be specified
1886 by separating them with commas (no additional whitespace is allowed). The
1887 currently defined maps are:
1891 This is not a real menu, but is used as a fallback for all of the other
1892 menus except for the pager and editor modes. If a key is not defined in
1893 another menu, Mutt will look for a binding to use in this menu. This allows
1894 you to bind a key to a certain function in multiple menus instead of having
1895 multiple bind statements to accomplish the same task.
1899 The alias menu is the list of your personal aliases as defined in your
1900 muttrc. It is the mapping from a short alias name to the full email address
1901 (es) of the recipient(s).
1905 The attachment menu is used to access the attachments on received messages.
1909 The browser is used for both browsing the local directory structure, and
1910 for listing all of your incoming mailboxes.
1914 The editor is the line-based editor the user enters text data.
1918 The index is the list of messages contained in a mailbox.
1922 The compose menu is the screen used when sending a new message.
1926 The pager is the mode used to display message/attachment data, and help
1931 The pgp menu is used to select the OpenPGP keys used to encrypt outgoing
1936 The smime menu is used to select the OpenSSL certificates used to encrypt
1941 The postpone menu is similar to the index menu, except is used when
1942 recalling a message the user was composing, but saved until later.
1946 The query menu is the browser for results returned by $query_command.
1950 The mixmaster screen is used to select remailer options for outgoing
1951 messages (if Mutt is compiled with Mixmaster support).
1953 key is the key (or key sequence) you wish to bind. To specify a control
1954 character, use the sequence \Cx, where x is the letter of the control character
1955 (for example, to specify control-A use ?\Ca?). Note that the case of x as well
1956 as \C is ignored, so that \CA, \Ca, \cA and \ca are all equivalent. An
1957 alternative form is to specify the key as a three digit octal number prefixed
1958 with a ?\? (for example \177 is equivalent to \c?). In addition, key may be a
1959 symbolic name as shown in Table 3.1, ?Symbolic key names?.
1961 Table 3.1. Symbolic key names
1963 +---------------------------------+
1964 |Symbolic name| Meaning |
1965 |-------------+-------------------|
1967 |-------------+-------------------|
1969 |-------------+-------------------|
1970 |<backtab> |backtab / shift-tab|
1971 |-------------+-------------------|
1972 |\r |carriage return |
1973 |-------------+-------------------|
1975 |-------------+-------------------|
1977 |-------------+-------------------|
1979 |-------------+-------------------|
1981 |-------------+-------------------|
1982 |<down> |down arrow |
1983 |-------------+-------------------|
1984 |<left> |left arrow |
1985 |-------------+-------------------|
1986 |<right> |right arrow |
1987 |-------------+-------------------|
1988 |<pageup> |Page Up |
1989 |-------------+-------------------|
1990 |<pagedown> |Page Down |
1991 |-------------+-------------------|
1992 |<backspace> |Backspace |
1993 |-------------+-------------------|
1995 |-------------+-------------------|
1997 |-------------+-------------------|
1999 |-------------+-------------------|
2001 |-------------+-------------------|
2003 |-------------+-------------------|
2005 |-------------+-------------------|
2006 |<space> |Space bar |
2007 |-------------+-------------------|
2008 |<f1> |function key 1 |
2009 |-------------+-------------------|
2010 |<f10> |function key 10 |
2011 +---------------------------------+
2014 key does not need to be enclosed in quotes unless it contains a space (???) or
2017 function specifies which action to take when key is pressed. For a complete
2018 list of functions, see the reference. The special function <noop> unbinds the
2019 specified key sequence.
2021 6. Defining aliases for character sets
2025 charset-hook alias charset
2027 iconv-hook charset local-charset
2029 The charset-hook command defines an alias for a character set. This is useful
2030 to properly display messages which are tagged with a character set name not
2033 The iconv-hook command defines a system-specific name for a character set. This
2034 is helpful when your systems character conversion library insists on using
2035 strange, system-specific names for character sets.
2037 7. Setting variables based upon mailbox
2041 folder-hook [!]regexp command
2043 It is often desirable to change settings based on which mailbox you are
2044 reading. The folder-hook command provides a method by which you can execute any
2045 configuration command. regexp is a regular expression specifying in which
2046 mailboxes to execute command before loading. If a mailbox matches multiple
2047 folder-hook's, they are executed in the order given in the muttrc.
2051 If you use the ?!? shortcut for $spoolfile at the beginning of the pattern, you
2052 must place it inside of double or single quotes in order to distinguish it from
2053 the logical not operator for the expression.
2057 Settings are not restored when you leave the mailbox. For example, a command
2058 action to perform is to change the sorting method based upon the mailbox being
2061 folder-hook mutt set sort=threads
2063 However, the sorting method is not restored to its previous value when reading
2064 a different mailbox. To specify a default command, use the pattern ?.? before
2065 other folder-hooks adjusting a value on a per-folder basis because folder-hooks
2066 are evaluated in the order given in the configuration file. The following
2067 example will set the sort variable to date-sent for all folders but to threads
2068 for all folders containing ?mutt? in their name.
2070 Example 3.7. Setting sort method based on mailbox name
2072 folder-hook . set sort=date-sent
2073 folder-hook mutt set sort=threads
2080 macro menu key sequence [ description ]
2082 Macros are useful when you would like a single key to perform a series of
2083 actions. When you press key in menu menu, Mutt will behave as if you had typed
2084 sequence. So if you have a common sequence of commands you type, you can create
2085 a macro to execute those commands with a single key or fewer keys.
2087 menu is the map which the macro will be bound in. Multiple maps may be
2088 specified by separating multiple menu arguments by commas. Whitespace may not
2089 be used in between the menu arguments and the commas separating them.
2091 key and sequence are expanded by the same rules as the key bindings with some
2092 additions. The first is that control characters in sequence can also be
2093 specified as ^x. In order to get a caret (?^?) you need to use ^^. Secondly, to
2094 specify a certain key such as up or to invoke a function directly, you can use
2095 the format <key name> and <function name>. For a listing of key names see the
2096 section on key bindings. Functions are listed in the reference.
2098 The advantage with using function names directly is that the macros will work
2099 regardless of the current key bindings, so they are not dependent on the user
2100 having particular key definitions. This makes them more robust and portable,
2101 and also facilitates defining of macros in files used by more than one user
2102 (e.g., the system Muttrc).
2104 Optionally you can specify a descriptive text after sequence, which is shown in
2109 Macro definitions (if any) listed in the help screen(s), are silently truncated
2110 at the screen width, and are not wrapped.
2112 9. Using color and mono video attributes
2116 color object foreground background
2118 color { header | body } foreground background regexp
2120 color index foreground background pattern
2122 uncolor index { * | pattern ... }
2124 If your terminal supports color, you can spice up Mutt by creating your own
2125 color scheme. To define the color of an object (type of information), you must
2126 specify both a foreground color and a background color (it is not possible to
2127 only specify one or the other).
2129 header and body match regexp in the header/body of a message, index matches
2130 pattern (see Section 2, ?Patterns: Searching, Limiting and Tagging?) in the
2133 object can be one of:
2137 * bold (hiliting bold patterns in the body of messages)
2139 * error (error messages printed by Mutt)
2141 * hdrdefault (default color of the message header in the pager)
2143 * indicator (arrow or bar used to indicate the current item in a menu)
2145 * markers (the ?+? markers at the beginning of wrapped lines in the pager)
2147 * message (informational messages)
2151 * quoted (text matching $quote_regexp in the body of a message)
2153 * quoted1, quoted2, ..., quotedN (higher levels of quoting)
2155 * search (hiliting of words in the pager)
2159 * status (mode lines used to display info about the mailbox or message)
2161 * tilde (the ??? used to pad blank lines in the pager)
2163 * tree (thread tree drawn in the message index and attachment menu)
2165 * underline (hiliting underlined patterns in the body of messages)
2167 foreground and background can be one of the following:
2189 foreground can optionally be prefixed with the keyword bright to make the
2190 foreground color boldfaced (e.g., brightred).
2192 If your terminal supports it, the special keyword default can be used as a
2193 transparent color. The value brightdefault is also valid. If Mutt is linked
2194 against the S-Lang library, you also need to set the COLORFGBG environment
2195 variable to the default colors of your terminal for this to work; for example
2196 (for Bourne-like shells):
2198 set COLORFGBG="green;black"
2203 The S-Lang library requires you to use the lightgray and brown keywords instead
2204 of white and yellow when setting this variable.
2208 The uncolor command can be applied to the index object only. It removes entries
2209 from the list. You must specify the same pattern specified in the color command
2210 for it to be removed. The pattern ?*? is a special token which means to clear
2211 the color index list of all entries.
2213 Mutt also recognizes the keywords color0, color1, ?, colorN-1 (N being the
2214 number of colors supported by your terminal). This is useful when you remap the
2215 colors for your display (for example by changing the color associated with
2216 color2 for your xterm), since color names may then lose their normal meaning.
2218 If your terminal does not support color, it is still possible change the video
2219 attributes through the use of the ?mono? command:
2223 mono object attribute
2225 mono { header | body } attribute regexp
2227 mono index attribute pattern
2229 unmono index { * | pattern ... }
2231 For object, see the color command. attribute can be one of the following:
2243 10. Message header display
2247 ignore pattern [ pattern ...]
2249 unignore { * | pattern ... }
2251 Messages often have many header fields added by automatic processing systems,
2252 or which may not seem useful to display on the screen. This command allows you
2253 to specify header fields which you don't normally want to see in the pager.
2255 You do not need to specify the full header field name. For example, ?ignore
2256 content-? will ignore all header fields that begin with the pattern ?content-?.
2257 ?ignore *? will ignore all headers.
2259 To remove a previously added token from the list, use the ?unignore? command.
2260 The ?unignore? command will make Mutt display headers with the given pattern.
2261 For example, if you do ?ignore x-? it is possible to ?unignore x-mailer?.
2263 ?unignore *? will remove all tokens from the ignore list.
2267 Example 3.8. Header weeding
2269 # Sven's draconian header weeding
2271 unignore from date subject to cc
2272 unignore organization organisation x-mailer: x-newsreader: x-mailing-list:
2278 hdr_order header [ header ...]
2280 unhdr_order { * | header ... }
2282 With the hdr_order command you can specify an order in which mutt will attempt
2283 to present these headers to you when viewing messages.
2285 ?unhdr_order *? will clear all previous headers from the order list, thus
2286 removing the header order effects set by the system-wide startup file.
2288 Example 3.9. Configuring header display order
2290 hdr_order From Date: From: To: Cc: Subject:
2293 11. Alternative addresses
2297 alternates [ -group name ...] regexp [ regexp ...]
2299 unalternates [ -group name ...] { * | regexp ... }
2301 With various functions, mutt will treat messages differently, depending on
2302 whether you sent them or whether you received them from someone else. For
2303 instance, when replying to a message that you sent to a different party, mutt
2304 will automatically suggest to send the response to the original message's
2305 recipients -- responding to yourself won't make much sense in many cases. (See
2308 Many users receive e-mail under a number of different addresses. To fully use
2309 mutt's features here, the program must be able to recognize what e-mail
2310 addresses you receive mail under. That's the purpose of the alternates command:
2311 It takes a list of regular expressions, each of which can identify an address
2312 under which you receive e-mail.
2314 As addresses are matched using regular expressions and not exact strict
2315 comparisons, you should make sure you specify your addresses as precise as
2316 possible to avoid mismatches. For example, if you specify:
2318 alternates user@example
2320 mutt will consider ?some-user@example? as being your address, too which may not
2321 be desired. As a solution, in such cases addresses should be specified as:
2323 alternates '^user@example$'
2325 The -group flag causes all of the subsequent regular expressions to be added to
2328 The unalternates command can be used to write exceptions to alternates
2329 patterns. If an address matches something in an alternates command, but you
2330 nonetheless do not think it is from you, you can list a more precise pattern
2331 under an unalternates command.
2333 To remove a regular expression from the alternates list, use the unalternates
2334 command with exactly the same regexp. Likewise, if the regexp for an alternates
2335 command matches an entry on the unalternates list, that unalternates entry will
2336 be removed. If the regexp for unalternates is ?*?, all entries on alternates
2343 lists [ -group name ...] regexp [ regexp ...]
2345 unlists [ -group name ...] { * | regexp ... }
2347 subscribe [ -group name ...] regexp [ regexp ...]
2349 unsubscribe [ -group name ...] { * | regexp ... }
2351 Mutt has a few nice features for handling mailing lists. In order to take
2352 advantage of them, you must specify which addresses belong to mailing lists,
2353 and which mailing lists you are subscribed to. Once you have done this, the
2354 <list-reply> function will work for all known lists. Additionally, when you
2355 send a message to a subscribed list, mutt will add a Mail-Followup-To header to
2356 tell other users' mail user agents not to send copies of replies to your
2361 The Mail-Followup-To header is a non-standard extension which is not supported
2362 by all mail user agents. Adding it is not bullet-proof against receiving
2363 personal CCs of list messages. Also note that the generation of the
2364 Mail-Followup-To header is controlled by the $followup_to configuration
2367 More precisely, Mutt maintains lists of patterns for the addresses of known and
2368 subscribed mailing lists. Every subscribed mailing list is known. To mark a
2369 mailing list as known, use the ?lists? command. To mark it as subscribed, use
2372 You can use regular expressions with both commands. To mark all messages sent
2373 to a specific bug report's address on mutt's bug tracking system as list mail,
2374 for instance, you could say ?subscribe [0-9]*@bugs.guug.de?. Often, it's
2375 sufficient to just give a portion of the list's e-mail address.
2377 Specify as much of the address as you need to to remove ambiguity. For example,
2378 if you've subscribed to the Mutt mailing list, you will receive mail addressed
2379 to mutt-users@mutt.org. So, to tell Mutt that this is a mailing list, you could
2380 add ?lists mutt-users@? to your initialization file. To tell mutt that you are
2381 subscribed to it, add ?subscribe mutt-users? to your initialization file
2382 instead. If you also happen to get mail from someone whose address is
2383 mutt-users@example.com, you could use ?lists ^mutt-users@mutt\\.org$? or
2384 ?subscribe ^mutt-users@mutt\\.org$? to match only mail from the actual list.
2386 The -group flag adds all of the subsequent regular expressions to the named
2389 The ?unlists? command is used to remove a token from the list of known and
2390 subscribed mailing-lists. Use ?unlists *? to remove all tokens.
2392 To remove a mailing list from the list of subscribed mailing lists, but keep it
2393 on the list of known mailing lists, use ?unsubscribe?.
2395 13. Using Multiple spool mailboxes
2399 mbox-hook [!]pattern mailbox
2401 This command is used to move read messages from a specified mailbox to a
2402 different mailbox automatically when you quit or change folders. pattern is a
2403 regular expression specifying the mailbox to treat as a ?spool? mailbox and
2404 mailbox specifies where mail should be saved when read.
2406 Unlike some of the other hook commands, only the first matching pattern is used
2407 (it is not possible to save read mail in more than a single mailbox).
2409 14. Monitoring incoming mail
2413 mailboxes mailbox [ mailbox ...]
2415 unmailboxes { * | mailbox ... }
2417 This command specifies folders which can receive mail and which will be checked
2418 for new messages periodically.
2420 folder can either be a local file or directory (Mbox/Mmdf or Maildir/Mh). If
2421 Mutt was built with POP and/or IMAP support, folder can also be a POP/IMAP
2422 folder URL. The URL syntax is described in Section 1.2, ?URL syntax?, POP and
2423 IMAP are described in Section 3, ?POP3 Support? and Section 4, ?IMAP Support?
2426 Mutt provides a number of advanced features for handling (possibly many)
2427 folders and new mail within them, please refer to Section 9, ?Handling multiple
2428 folders? for details (including in what situations and how often Mutt checks
2431 The ?unmailboxes? command is used to remove a token from the list of folders
2432 which receive mail. Use ?unmailboxes *? to remove all tokens.
2436 The folders in the mailboxes command are resolved when the command is executed,
2437 so if these names contain shortcut characters (such as ?=? and ?!?), any
2438 variable definition that affects these characters (like $folder and $spoolfile)
2439 should be set before the mailboxes command. If none of these shorcuts are used,
2440 a local path should be absolute as otherwise mutt tries to find it relative to
2441 the directory from where mutt was started which may not always be desired.
2443 For Mbox and Mmdf folders, new mail is detected by comparing access and/or
2444 modification times of files: Mutt assumes a folder has new mail if it wasn't
2445 accessed after it was last modified. Utilities like biff or frm or any other
2446 program which accesses the mailbox might cause Mutt to never detect new mail
2447 for that mailbox if they do not properly reset the access time. Other possible
2448 causes of Mutt not detecting new mail in these folders are backup tools
2449 (updating access times) or filesystems mounted without access time update
2452 In cases where new mail detection for Mbox or Mmdf folders appears to be
2453 unreliable, the $check_mbox_size option can be used to make Mutt track and
2454 consult file sizes for new mail detection instead.
2456 15. User defined headers
2462 unmy_hdr { * | field ... }
2464 The my_hdr command allows you to create your own header fields which will be
2465 added to every message you send.
2467 For example, if you would like to add an ?Organization:? header field to all of
2468 your outgoing messages, you can put the command
2470 Example 3.10. Defining custom headers
2472 my_hdr Organization: A Really Big Company, Anytown, USA
2479 Space characters are not allowed between the keyword and the colon (?:?). The
2480 standard for electronic mail (RFC2822) says that space is illegal there, so
2481 Mutt enforces the rule.
2483 If you would like to add a header field to a single message, you should either
2484 set the $edit_headers variable, or use the <edit-headers> function (default:
2485 ?E?) in the compose menu so that you can edit the header of your message along
2488 To remove user defined header fields, use the unmy_hdr command. You may specify
2489 an asterisk (?*?) to remove all header fields, or the fields to remove. For
2490 example, to remove all ?To? and ?Cc? header fields, you could use:
2494 16. Specify default save mailbox
2498 save-hook [!]pattern mailbox
2500 This command is used to override the default mailbox used when saving messages.
2501 mailbox will be used as the default if the message matches pattern, see Message
2502 Matching in Hooks for information on the exact format.
2504 To provide more flexibility and good defaults, Mutt applies the expandos of
2505 $index_format to mailbox after it was expanded.
2509 Example 3.11. Using %-expandos in save-hook
2511 # default: save all to ~/Mail/<author name>
2512 save-hook . ~/Mail/%F
2514 # save from me@turing.cs.hmc.edu and me@cs.hmc.edu to $folder/elkins
2515 save-hook me@(turing\\.)?cs\\.hmc\\.edu$ +elkins
2517 # save from aol.com to $folder/spam
2518 save-hook aol\\.com$ +spam
2521 Also see the fcc-save-hook command.
2523 17. Specify default Fcc: mailbox when composing
2527 fcc-hook [!]pattern mailbox
2529 This command is used to save outgoing mail in a mailbox other than $record.
2530 Mutt searches the initial list of message recipients for the first matching
2531 regexp and uses mailbox as the default Fcc: mailbox. If no match is found the
2532 message will be saved to $record mailbox.
2534 To provide more flexibility and good defaults, Mutt applies the expandos of
2535 $index_format to mailbox after it was expanded.
2537 See Message Matching in Hooks for information on the exact format of pattern.
2539 Example: fcc-hook [@.]aol\\.com$ +spammers
2541 The above will save a copy of all messages going to the aol.com domain to the
2542 `+spammers' mailbox by default. Also see the fcc-save-hook command.
2544 18. Specify default save filename and default Fcc: mailbox at once
2548 fcc-save-hook [!]pattern mailbox
2550 This command is a shortcut, equivalent to doing both a fcc-hook and a save-hook
2551 with its arguments, including %-expansion on mailbox according to $index_format
2554 19. Change settings based upon message recipients
2558 reply-hook [!]pattern command
2560 send-hook [!]pattern command
2562 send2-hook [!]pattern command
2564 These commands can be used to execute arbitrary configuration commands based
2565 upon recipients of the message. pattern is used to match the message, see
2566 Message Matching in Hooks for details. command is executed when pattern
2569 reply-hook is matched against the message you are replying to, instead of the
2570 message you are sending. send-hook is matched against all messages, both new
2575 reply-hooks are matched before the send-hook, regardless of the order specified
2576 in the user's configuration file.
2578 send2-hook is matched every time a message is changed, either by editing it, or
2579 by using the compose menu to change its recipients or subject. send2-hook is
2580 executed after send-hook, and can, e.g., be used to set parameters such as the
2581 $sendmail variable depending on the message's sender address.
2583 For each type of send-hook or reply-hook, when multiple matches occur, commands
2584 are executed in the order they are specified in the muttrc (for that type of
2587 Example: send-hook mutt "set mime_forward signature=''"
2589 Another typical use for this command is to change the values of the
2590 $attribution, $signature and $locale variables in order to change the language
2591 of the attributions and signatures based upon the recipients.
2595 send-hook's are only executed once after getting the initial list of
2596 recipients. Adding a recipient after replying or editing the message will not
2597 cause any send-hook to be executed. Also note that my_hdr commands which modify
2598 recipient headers, or the message's subject, don't have any effect on the
2599 current message when executed from a send-hook.
2601 20. Change settings before formatting a message
2605 message-hook [!]pattern command
2607 This command can be used to execute arbitrary configuration commands before
2608 viewing or formatting a message based upon information about the message.
2609 command is executed if the pattern matches the message to be displayed. When
2610 multiple matches occur, commands are executed in the order they are specified
2613 See Message Matching in Hooks for information on the exact format of pattern.
2617 message-hook ~A 'set pager=builtin'
2618 message-hook '~f freshmeat-news' 'set pager="less \"+/^ subject: .*\""'
2620 21. Choosing the cryptographic key of the recipient
2624 crypt-hook pattern keyid
2626 When encrypting messages with PGP/GnuPG or OpenSSL, you may want to associate a
2627 certain key with a given e-mail address automatically, either because the
2628 recipient's public key can't be deduced from the destination address, or
2629 because, for some reasons, you need to override the key Mutt would normally
2630 use. The crypt-hook command provides a method by which you can specify the ID
2631 of the public key to be used when encrypting messages to a certain recipient.
2633 The meaning of keyid is to be taken broadly in this context: You can either put
2634 a numerical key ID here, an e-mail address, or even just a real name.
2636 22. Adding key sequences to the keyboard buffer
2642 This command adds the named string to the keyboard buffer. The string may
2643 contain control characters, key names and function names like the sequence
2644 string in the macro command. You may use it to automatically run a sequence of
2645 commands at startup, or when entering certain folders. For example, the
2646 following command will automatically collapse all threads when entering a
2649 Example 3.12. Embedding push in folder-hook
2651 folder-hook . 'push <collapse-all>'
2654 23. Executing functions
2658 exec function [ function ...]
2660 This command can be used to execute any function. Functions are listed in the
2661 function reference. ?exec function? is equivalent to ?push <function>?.
2669 unscore { * | pattern ... }
2671 The score commands adds value to a message's score if pattern matches it.
2672 pattern is a string in the format described in the patterns section (note: For
2673 efficiency reasons, patterns which scan information not available in the index,
2674 such as ?b, ?B or ?h, may not be used). value is a positive or negative
2675 integer. A message's final score is the sum total of all matching score
2676 entries. However, you may optionally prefix value with an equal sign (=) to
2677 cause evaluation to stop at a particular entry if there is a match. Negative
2678 final scores are rounded up to 0.
2680 The unscore command removes score entries from the list. You must specify the
2681 same pattern specified in the score command for it to be removed. The pattern
2682 ?*? is a special token which means to clear the list of all score entries.
2690 nospam { * | pattern }
2692 Mutt has generalized support for external spam-scoring filters. By defining
2693 your spam patterns with the spam and nospam commands, you can limit, search,
2694 and sort your mail based on its spam attributes, as determined by the external
2695 filter. You also can display the spam attributes in your index display using
2696 the %H selector in the $index_format variable. (Tip: try %?H?[%H] ? to display
2697 spam tags only when they are defined for a given message.)
2699 Your first step is to define your external filter's spam patterns using the
2700 spam command. pattern should be a regular expression that matches a header in a
2701 mail message. If any message in the mailbox matches this regular expression, it
2702 will receive a ?spam tag? or ?spam attribute? (unless it also matches a nospam
2703 pattern -- see below.) The appearance of this attribute is entirely up to you,
2704 and is governed by the format parameter. format can be any static text, but it
2705 also can include back-references from the pattern expression. (A regular
2706 expression ?back-reference? refers to a sub-expression contained within
2707 parentheses.) %1 is replaced with the first back-reference in the regex, %2
2708 with the second, etc.
2710 If you're using multiple spam filters, a message can have more than one
2711 spam-related header. You can define spam patterns for each filter you use. If a
2712 message matches two or more of these patterns, and the $spam_separator variable
2713 is set to a string, then the message's spam tag will consist of all the format
2714 strings joined together, with the value of $spam_separator separating them.
2716 For example, suppose I use DCC, SpamAssassin, and PureMessage. I might define
2717 these spam settings:
2719 Example 3.13. Configuring spam detection
2721 spam "X-DCC-.*-Metrics:.*(....)=many" "90+/DCC-%1"
2722 spam "X-Spam-Status: Yes" "90+/SA"
2723 spam "X-PerlMX-Spam: .*Probability=([0-9]+)%" "%1/PM"
2724 set spam_separator=", "
2727 If I then received a message that DCC registered with ?many? hits under the
2728 ?Fuz2? checksum, and that PureMessage registered with a 97% probability of
2729 being spam, that message's spam tag would read 90+/DCC-Fuz2, 97/PM. (The four
2730 characters before ?=many? in a DCC report indicate the checksum used -- in this
2733 If the $spam_separator variable is unset, then each spam pattern match
2734 supersedes the previous one. Instead of getting joined format strings, you'll
2735 get only the last one to match.
2737 The spam tag is what will be displayed in the index when you use %H in the
2738 $index_format variable. It's also the string that the ?H pattern-matching
2739 expression matches against for <search> and <limit> functions. And it's what
2740 sorting by spam attribute will use as a sort key.
2742 That's a pretty complicated example, and most people's actual environments will
2743 have only one spam filter. The simpler your configuration, the more effective
2744 mutt can be, especially when it comes to sorting.
2746 Generally, when you sort by spam tag, mutt will sort lexically -- that is, by
2747 ordering strings alphanumerically. However, if a spam tag begins with a number,
2748 mutt will sort numerically first, and lexically only when two numbers are equal
2749 in value. (This is like UNIX's sort -n.) A message with no spam attributes at
2750 all -- that is, one that didn't match any of your spam patterns -- is sorted at
2751 lowest priority. Numbers are sorted next, beginning with 0 and ranging upward.
2752 Finally, non-numeric strings are sorted, with ?a? taking lower priority than
2753 ?z?. Clearly, in general, sorting by spam tags is most effective when you can
2754 coerce your filter to give you a raw number. But in case you can't, mutt can
2755 still do something useful.
2757 The nospam command can be used to write exceptions to spam patterns. If a
2758 header pattern matches something in a spam command, but you nonetheless do not
2759 want it to receive a spam tag, you can list a more precise pattern under a
2762 If the pattern given to nospam is exactly the same as the pattern on an
2763 existing spam list entry, the effect will be to remove the entry from the spam
2764 list, instead of adding an exception. Likewise, if the pattern for a spam
2765 command matches an entry on the nospam list, that nospam entry will be removed.
2766 If the pattern for nospam is ?*?, all entries on both lists will be removed.
2767 This might be the default action if you use spam and nospam in conjunction with
2770 You can have as many spam or nospam commands as you like. You can even do your
2771 own primitive spam detection within mutt -- for example, if you consider all
2772 mail from MAILER-DAEMON to be spam, you can use a spam command like this:
2774 spam "^From: .*MAILER-DAEMON" "999"
2776 26. Setting and Querying Variables
2780 The following commands are available to manipulate and query variables:
2784 set { [ no | inv ] variable | variable=value } [...]
2786 toggle variable [ variable ...]
2788 unset variable [ variable ...]
2790 reset variable [ variable ...]
2792 This command is used to set (and unset) configuration variables. There are four
2793 basic types of variables: boolean, number, string and quadoption. boolean
2794 variables can be set (true) or unset (false). number variables can be assigned
2795 a positive integer value. string variables consist of any number of printable
2796 characters and must be enclosed in quotes if they contain spaces or tabs. You
2797 may also use the escape sequences ?\n? and ?\t? for newline and tab,
2798 respectively. quadoption variables are used to control whether or not to be
2799 prompted for certain actions, or to specify a default action. A value of yes
2800 will cause the action to be carried out automatically as if you had answered
2801 yes to the question. Similarly, a value of no will cause the action to be
2802 carried out as if you had answered ?no.? A value of ask-yes will cause a prompt
2803 with a default answer of ?yes? and ask-no will provide a default answer of
2806 Prefixing a variable with ?no? will unset it. Example: set noaskbcc.
2808 For boolean variables, you may optionally prefix the variable name with inv to
2809 toggle the value (on or off). This is useful when writing macros. Example: set
2812 The toggle command automatically prepends the inv prefix to all specified
2815 The unset command automatically prepends the no prefix to all specified
2818 Using the <enter-command> function in the index menu, you can query the value
2819 of a variable by prefixing the name of the variable with a question mark:
2823 The question mark is actually only required for boolean and quadoption
2826 The reset command resets all given variables to the compile time defaults
2827 (hopefully mentioned in this manual). If you use the command set and prefix the
2828 variable with ?&? this has the same behavior as the reset command.
2830 With the reset command there exists the special variable ?all?, which allows
2831 you to reset all variables to their system defaults.
2833 26.2. User-defined variables
2835 26.2.1. Introduction
2837 Along with the variables listed in the Configuration variables section, mutt
2838 supports user-defined variables with names starting with my_ as in, for
2841 The set command either creates a custom my_ variable or changes its value if it
2842 does exist already. The unset and reset commands remove the variable entirely.
2844 Since user-defined variables are expanded in the same way that environment
2845 variables are (except for the shell-escape command and backtick expansion),
2846 this feature can be used to make configuration files more readable.
2850 The following example defines and uses the variable my_cfgdir to abbreviate the
2851 calls of the source command:
2853 Example 3.14. Using user-defined variables for config file readability
2855 set my_cfgdir = $HOME/mutt/config
2857 source $my_cfgdir/hooks
2858 source $my_cfgdir/macros
2859 # more source commands...
2862 A custom variable can also be used in macros to backup the current value of
2863 another variable. In the following example, the value of the $delete is changed
2864 temporarily while its original value is saved as my_delete. After the macro has
2865 executed all commands, the original value of $delete is restored.
2867 Example 3.15. Using user-defined variables for backing up other config option
2871 <enter-command>set my_delete=$delete<enter>\
2872 <enter-command>set delete=yes<enter>\
2874 <enter-command>set delete=$my_delete<enter>'
2877 Since mutt expands such values already when parsing the configuration file(s),
2878 the value of $my_delete in the last example would be the value of $delete
2879 exactly as it was at that point during parsing the configuration file. If
2880 another statement would change the value for $delete later in the same or
2881 another file, it would have no effect on $my_delete. However, the expansion can
2882 be deferred to runtime, as shown in the next example, when escaping the dollar
2885 Example 3.16. Deferring user-defined variable expansion to runtime
2887 macro pager <PageDown> "\
2888 <enter-command> set my_old_pager_stop=\$pager_stop pager_stop<Enter>\
2890 <enter-command> set pager_stop=\$my_old_pager_stop<Enter>\
2891 <enter-command> unset my_old_pager_stop<Enter>"
2894 Note that there is a space between <enter-command> and the set configuration
2895 command, preventing mutt from recording the macro's commands into its history.
2897 27. Reading initialization commands from another file
2903 This command allows the inclusion of initialization commands from other files.
2904 For example, I place all of my aliases in ?/.mail_aliases so that I can make my
2905 ?/.muttrc readable and keep my aliases private.
2907 If the filename begins with a tilde (???), it will be expanded to the path of
2908 your home directory.
2910 If the filename ends with a vertical bar (|), then filename is considered to be
2911 an executable program from which to read input (eg. source ?/bin/myscript|).
2917 unhook { * | hook-type }
2919 This command permits you to flush hooks you have previously defined. You can
2920 either remove all hooks by giving the ?*? character as an argument, or you can
2921 remove all hooks of a specific type by saying something like unhook send-hook.
2927 Format strings are a general concept you'll find in several locations through
2928 the mutt configuration, especially in the $index_format, $pager_format,
2929 $status_format, and other ?*_format? variables. These can be very
2930 straightforward, and it's quite possible you already know how to use them.
2932 The most basic format string element is a percent symbol followed by another
2933 character. For example, %s represents a message's Subject: header in the
2934 $index_format variable. The ?expandos? available are documented with each
2935 format variable, but there are general modifiers available with all formatting
2936 expandos, too. Those are our concern here.
2938 Some of the modifiers are borrowed right out of C (though you might know them
2939 from Perl, Python, shell, or another language). These are the [-]m.n modifiers,
2940 as in %-12.12s. As with such programming languages, these modifiers allow you
2941 to specify the minimum and maximum size of the resulting string, as well as its
2942 justification. If the ?-? sign follows the percent, the string will be
2943 left-justified instead of right-justified. If there's a number immediately
2944 following that, it's the minimum amount of space the formatted string will
2945 occupy -- if it's naturally smaller than that, it will be padded out with
2946 spaces. If a decimal point and another number follow, that's the maximum space
2947 allowable -- the string will not be permitted to exceed that width, no matter
2948 its natural size. Each of these three elements is optional, so that all these
2949 are legal format strings: %-12s %4c %.15F %-12.15L
2951 Mutt adds some other modifiers to format strings. If you use an equals symbol
2952 (=) as a numeric prefix (like the minus above), it will force the string to be
2953 centered within its minimum space range. For example, %=14y will reserve 14
2954 characters for the %y expansion -- that's the X-Label: header, in
2955 $index_format. If the expansion results in a string less than 14 characters, it
2956 will be centered in a 14-character space. If the X-Label for a message were
2957 "test", that expansion would look like ? test ?.
2959 There are two very little-known modifiers that affect the way that an expando
2960 is replaced. If there is an underline (?_?) character between any format
2961 modifiers (as above) and the expando letter, it will expands in all lower case.
2962 And if you use a colon (?:?), it will replace all decimal points with
2967 Any format string ending in a vertical bar (?|?) will be expanded and piped
2968 through the first word in the string, using spaces as separator. The string
2969 returned will be used for display. If the returned string ends in %, it will be
2970 passed through the formatter a second time. This allows the filter to generate
2971 a replacement format string including % expandos.
2973 All % expandos in a format string are expanded before the script is called so
2976 Example 3.17. Using external filters in format strings
2978 set status_format="script.sh '%r %f (%L)'|"
2981 will make mutt expand %r, %f and %L before calling the script. The example also
2982 shows that arguments can be quoted: the script will receive the expanded string
2983 between the single quotes as the only argument.
2985 A practical example is the mutt_xtitle script installed in the samples
2986 subdirectory of the mutt documentation: it can be used as filter for
2987 $status_format to set the current terminal's title, if supported.
2989 Chapter 4. Advanced Usage
2993 1. Regular Expressions
2994 2. Patterns: Searching, Limiting and Tagging
2996 2.1. Pattern Modifier
2997 2.2. Simple Patterns
2998 2.3. Complex Patterns
2999 2.4. Searching by Date
3004 4.1. Message Matching in Hooks
3006 5. External Address Queries
3008 7. Mailbox Shortcuts
3009 8. Handling Mailing Lists
3010 9. Handling multiple folders
3013 10.1. Linking threads
3014 10.2. Breaking threads
3016 11. Delivery Status Notification (DSN) Support
3017 12. Start a WWW Browser on URLs
3019 1. Regular Expressions
3021 All string patterns in Mutt including those in more complex patterns must be
3022 specified using regular expressions (regexp) in the ?POSIX extended? syntax
3023 (which is more or less the syntax used by egrep and GNU awk). For your
3024 convenience, we have included below a brief description of this syntax.
3026 The search is case sensitive if the pattern contains at least one upper case
3027 letter, and case insensitive otherwise.
3031 Note that ?\? must be quoted if used for a regular expression in an
3032 initialization command: ?\\?.
3034 A regular expression is a pattern that describes a set of strings. Regular
3035 expressions are constructed analogously to arithmetic expressions, by using
3036 various operators to combine smaller expressions.
3040 Note that the regular expression can be enclosed/delimited by either " or '
3041 which is useful if the regular expression includes a white-space character. See
3042 Syntax of Initialization Files for more information on " and ' delimiter
3043 processing. To match a literal " or ' you must preface it with \ (backslash).
3045 The fundamental building blocks are the regular expressions that match a single
3046 character. Most characters, including all letters and digits, are regular
3047 expressions that match themselves. Any metacharacter with special meaning may
3048 be quoted by preceding it with a backslash.
3050 The period ?.? matches any single character. The caret ?^? and the dollar sign
3051 ?$? are metacharacters that respectively match the empty string at the
3052 beginning and end of a line.
3054 A list of characters enclosed by ?[? and ?]? matches any single character in
3055 that list; if the first character of the list is a caret ?^? then it matches
3056 any character not in the list. For example, the regular expression [0123456789]
3057 matches any single digit. A range of ASCII characters may be specified by
3058 giving the first and last characters, separated by a hyphen ?-?. Most
3059 metacharacters lose their special meaning inside lists. To include a literal ?]
3060 ? place it first in the list. Similarly, to include a literal ?^? place it
3061 anywhere but first. Finally, to include a literal hyphen ?-? place it last.
3063 Certain named classes of characters are predefined. Character classes consist
3064 of ?[:?, a keyword denoting the class, and ?:]?. The following classes are
3065 defined by the POSIX standard in Table 4.1, ?POSIX regular expression character
3068 Table 4.1. POSIX regular expression character classes
3070 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
3071 |Character | Description |
3073 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3074 |[:alnum:] |Alphanumeric characters |
3075 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3076 |[:alpha:] |Alphabetic characters |
3077 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3078 |[:blank:] |Space or tab characters |
3079 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3080 |[:cntrl:] |Control characters |
3081 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3082 |[:digit:] |Numeric characters |
3083 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3084 |[:graph:] |Characters that are both printable and visible. (A space is |
3085 | |printable, but not visible, while an ?a? is both) |
3086 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3087 |[:lower:] |Lower-case alphabetic characters |
3088 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3089 |[:print:] |Printable characters (characters that are not control characters) |
3090 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3091 |[:punct:] |Punctuation characters (characters that are not letter, digits, |
3092 | |control characters, or space characters) |
3093 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3094 |[:space:] |Space characters (such as space, tab and formfeed, to name a few) |
3095 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3096 |[:upper:] |Upper-case alphabetic characters |
3097 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3098 |[:xdigit:]|Characters that are hexadecimal digits |
3099 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
3102 A character class is only valid in a regular expression inside the brackets of
3107 Note that the brackets in these class names are part of the symbolic names, and
3108 must be included in addition to the brackets delimiting the bracket list. For
3109 example, [[:digit:]] is equivalent to [0-9].
3111 Two additional special sequences can appear in character lists. These apply to
3112 non-ASCII character sets, which can have single symbols (called collating
3113 elements) that are represented with more than one character, as well as several
3114 characters that are equivalent for collating or sorting purposes:
3118 A collating symbol is a multi-character collating element enclosed in ?[.?
3119 and ?.]?. For example, if ?ch? is a collating element, then [[.ch.]] is a
3120 regexp that matches this collating element, while [ch] is a regexp that
3121 matches either ?c? or ?h?.
3125 An equivalence class is a locale-specific name for a list of characters
3126 that are equivalent. The name is enclosed in ?[=? and ?=]?. For example,
3127 the name ?e? might be used to represent all of ??? ??? and ?e?. In this
3128 case, [[=e=]] is a regexp that matches any of ???, ??? and ?e?.
3130 A regular expression matching a single character may be followed by one of
3131 several repetition operators described in Table 4.2, ?Regular expression
3132 repetition operators?.
3134 Table 4.2. Regular expression repetition operators
3136 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
3137 |Operator| Description |
3138 |--------+--------------------------------------------------------------------|
3139 |? |The preceding item is optional and matched at most once |
3140 |--------+--------------------------------------------------------------------|
3141 |* |The preceding item will be matched zero or more times |
3142 |--------+--------------------------------------------------------------------|
3143 |+ |The preceding item will be matched one or more times |
3144 |--------+--------------------------------------------------------------------|
3145 |{n} |The preceding item is matched exactly n times |
3146 |--------+--------------------------------------------------------------------|
3147 |{n,} |The preceding item is matched n or more times |
3148 |--------+--------------------------------------------------------------------|
3149 |{,m} |The preceding item is matched at most m times |
3150 |--------+--------------------------------------------------------------------|
3151 |{n,m} |The preceding item is matched at least n times, but no more than m |
3153 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
3156 Two regular expressions may be concatenated; the resulting regular expression
3157 matches any string formed by concatenating two substrings that respectively
3158 match the concatenated subexpressions.
3160 Two regular expressions may be joined by the infix operator ?|?; the resulting
3161 regular expression matches any string matching either subexpression.
3163 Repetition takes precedence over concatenation, which in turn takes precedence
3164 over alternation. A whole subexpression may be enclosed in parentheses to
3165 override these precedence rules.
3169 If you compile Mutt with the GNU rx package, the following operators may also
3170 be used in regular expressions as described in Table 4.3, ?GNU regular
3171 expression extensions?.
3173 Table 4.3. GNU regular expression extensions
3175 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
3176 |Expression| Description |
3177 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3178 |\\y |Matches the empty string at either the beginning or the end of a |
3180 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3181 |\\B |Matches the empty string within a word |
3182 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3183 |\\< |Matches the empty string at the beginning of a word |
3184 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3185 |\\> |Matches the empty string at the end of a word |
3186 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3187 |\\w |Matches any word-constituent character (letter, digit, or |
3189 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3190 |\\W |Matches any character that is not word-constituent |
3191 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3192 |\\` |Matches the empty string at the beginning of a buffer (string) |
3193 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3194 |\\' |Matches the empty string at the end of a buffer |
3195 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
3198 Please note however that these operators are not defined by POSIX, so they may
3199 or may not be available in stock libraries on various systems.
3201 2. Patterns: Searching, Limiting and Tagging
3203 Many of Mutt's commands allow you to specify a pattern to match (limit,
3204 tag-pattern, delete-pattern, etc.). Table 4.4, ?Pattern modifiers? shows
3205 several ways to select messages.
3207 Table 4.4. Pattern modifiers
3209 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
3210 | Pattern | Description |
3212 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3214 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3215 |~b EXPR |messages which contain EXPR in the message body |
3216 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3217 | |messages which contain STRING in the message body. If IMAP is |
3218 |=b STRING|enabled, searches for STRING on the server, rather than downloading|
3219 | |each message and searching it locally. |
3220 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3221 |~B EXPR |messages which contain EXPR in the whole message |
3222 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3223 |~c EXPR |messages carbon-copied to EXPR |
3224 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3225 |%c GROUP |messages carbon-copied to any member of GROUP |
3226 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3227 |~C EXPR |messages either to: or cc: EXPR |
3228 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3229 |%C GROUP |messages either to: or cc: to any member of GROUP |
3230 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3231 |~d [MIN]-|messages with ?date-sent? in a Date range |
3233 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3234 |~D |deleted messages |
3235 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3236 |~e EXPR |messages which contains EXPR in the ?Sender? field |
3237 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3238 |%e GROUP |messages which contain a member of GROUP in the ?Sender? field |
3239 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3240 |~E |expired messages |
3241 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3242 |~F |flagged messages |
3243 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3244 |~f EXPR |messages originating from EXPR |
3245 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3246 |%f GROUP |messages originating from any member of GROUP |
3247 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3248 |~g |cryptographically signed messages |
3249 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3250 |~G |cryptographically encrypted messages |
3251 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3252 |~h EXPR |messages which contain EXPR in the message header |
3253 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3254 |~H EXPR |messages with a spam attribute matching EXPR |
3255 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3256 |~i EXPR |messages which match EXPR in the ?Message-ID? field |
3257 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3258 |~k |messages which contain PGP key material |
3259 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3260 |~L EXPR |messages either originated or received by EXPR |
3261 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3262 |%L GROUP |message either originated or received by any member of GROUP |
3263 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3264 |~l |messages addressed to a known mailing list |
3265 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3266 |~m [MIN]-|messages in the range MIN to MAX *) |
3268 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3269 |~n [MIN]-|messages with a score in the range MIN to MAX *) |
3271 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3273 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3275 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3276 |~p |messages addressed to you (consults alternates) |
3277 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3278 |~P |messages from you (consults alternates) |
3279 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3280 |~Q |messages which have been replied to |
3281 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3282 |~r [MIN]-|messages with ?date-received? in a Date range |
3284 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3285 |~R |read messages |
3286 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3287 |~s EXPR |messages having EXPR in the ?Subject? field. |
3288 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3289 |~S |superseded messages |
3290 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3291 |~t EXPR |messages addressed to EXPR |
3292 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3293 |~T |tagged messages |
3294 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3295 |~u |messages addressed to a subscribed mailing list |
3296 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3297 |~U |unread messages |
3298 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3299 |~v |messages part of a collapsed thread. |
3300 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3301 |~V |cryptographically verified messages |
3302 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3303 |~x EXPR |messages which contain EXPR in the ?References? field |
3304 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3305 |~X [MIN]-|messages with MIN to MAX attachments *) |
3307 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3308 |~y EXPR |messages which contain EXPR in the ?X-Label? field |
3309 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3310 |~z [MIN]-|messages with a size in the range MIN to MAX *) |
3312 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3313 |~= |duplicated messages (see $duplicate_threads) |
3314 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3315 |~$ |unreferenced messages (requires threaded view) |
3316 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3317 |~(PATTERN|messages in threads containing messages matching PATTERN, e.g. all |
3318 |) |threads containing messages from you: ~(~P) |
3319 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
3322 Where EXPR is a regular expression. Special attention has to be made when using
3323 regular expressions inside of patterns. Specifically, Mutt's parser for these
3324 patterns will strip one level of backslash (?\?), which is normally used for
3325 quoting. If it is your intention to use a backslash in the regular expression,
3326 you will need to use two backslashes instead (?\\?). You can force mutt to
3327 treat EXPR as a simple string instead of a regular expression by using =
3328 instead of ? in the pattern name. For example, =b *.* will find all messages
3329 that contain the literal string ?*.*?. Simple string matches are less powerful
3330 than regular expressions but can be considerably faster. This is especially
3331 true for IMAP folders, because string matches can be performed on the server
3332 instead of by fetching every message. IMAP treats =h specially: it must be of
3333 the form "header: substring" and will not partially match header names. The
3334 substring part may be omitted if you simply wish to find messages containing a
3335 particular header without regard to its value.
3337 *) The forms ?<[MAX]?, ?>[MIN]?, ?[MIN]-? and ?-[MAX]? are allowed, too.
3339 2.1. Pattern Modifier
3343 Note that patterns matching 'lists' of addresses (notably c, C, p, P and t)
3344 match if there is at least one match in the whole list. If you want to make
3345 sure that all elements of that list match, you need to prefix your pattern with
3346 ?^?. This example matches all mails which only has recipients from Germany.
3350 2.2. Simple Patterns
3352 Mutt supports two versions of so called ?simple searches? which are issued if
3353 the query entered for searching, limiting and similar operations does not seem
3354 to be a valid pattern (i.e. it does not contain one of these characters: ???, ?
3355 =? or ?%?). If the query is supposed to contain one of these special
3356 characters, they must be escaped by prepending a backslash (?\?).
3358 The first type is by checking whether the query string equals a keyword
3359 case-insensitively from Table 4.5, ?Simple search keywords?: If that is the
3360 case, Mutt will use the shown pattern modifier instead. If a keyword would
3361 conflict with your search keyword, you need to turn it into a regular
3362 expression to avoid matching the keyword table. For example, if you want to
3363 find all messages matching ?flag? (using $simple_search) but don't want to
3364 match flagged messages, simply search for ?[f]lag?.
3366 Table 4.5. Simple search keywords
3368 +-------------------------+
3369 |Keyword|Pattern modifier |
3370 |-------+-----------------|
3372 |-------+-----------------|
3374 |-------+-----------------|
3376 |-------+-----------------|
3378 |-------+-----------------|
3380 |-------+-----------------|
3382 |-------+-----------------|
3384 |-------+-----------------|
3386 |-------+-----------------|
3388 |-------+-----------------|
3390 |-------+-----------------|
3392 +-------------------------+
3395 The second type of simple search is to build a complex search pattern using
3396 $simple_search as a template. Mutt will insert your query properly quoted and
3397 search for the composed complex query.
3399 2.3. Complex Patterns
3401 Logical AND is performed by specifying more than one criterion. For example:
3405 would select messages which contain the word ?mutt? in the list of recipients
3406 and that have the word ?elkins? in the ?From? header field.
3408 Mutt also recognizes the following operators to create more complex search
3411 * ! -- logical NOT operator
3413 * | -- logical OR operator
3415 * () -- logical grouping operator
3417 Here is an example illustrating a complex search pattern. This pattern will
3418 select all messages which do not contain ?mutt? in the ?To? or ?Cc? field and
3419 which are from ?elkins?.
3421 Example 4.1. Using boolean operators in patterns
3423 !(~t mutt|~c mutt) ~f elkins
3426 Here is an example using white space in the regular expression (note the ' and
3427 " delimiters). For this to match, the mail's subject must match the ?^Junk
3428 +From +Me$? and it must be from either ?Jim +Somebody? or ?Ed +SomeoneElse?:
3430 '~s "^Junk +From +Me$" ~f ("Jim +Somebody"|"Ed +SomeoneElse")'
3434 If a regular expression contains parenthesis, or a vertical bar ("|"), you must
3435 enclose the expression in double or single quotes since those characters are
3436 also used to separate different parts of Mutt's pattern language. For example:
3437 ~f "me@(mutt\.org|cs\.hmc\.edu)"
3439 Without the quotes, the parenthesis wouldn't end. This would be separated to
3440 two OR'd patterns: ?f me@(mutt\.org and cs\.hmc\.edu). They are never what you
3443 2.4. Searching by Date
3445 Mutt supports two types of dates, absolute and relative.
3447 Absolute. Dates must be in DD/MM/YY format (month and year are optional,
3448 defaulting to the current month and year). An example of a valid range of dates
3451 Limit to messages matching: ~d 20/1/95-31/10
3453 If you omit the minimum (first) date, and just specify ?-DD/MM/YY?, all
3454 messages before the given date will be selected. If you omit the maximum
3455 (second) date, and specify ?DD/MM/YY-?, all messages after the given date will
3456 be selected. If you specify a single date with no dash (?-?), only messages
3457 sent on the given date will be selected.
3459 Error Margins. You can add error margins to absolute dates. An error margin is
3460 a sign (+ or -), followed by a digit, followed by one of the units in
3461 Table 4.6, ?Date units?. As a special case, you can replace the sign by a ?*?
3462 character, which is equivalent to giving identical plus and minus error
3465 Table 4.6. Date units
3480 Example: To select any messages two weeks around January 15, 2001, you'd use
3481 the following pattern:
3483 Limit to messages matching: ~d 15/1/2001*2w
3485 Relative. This type of date is relative to the current date, and may be
3488 * >offset (messages older than offset units)
3490 * <offset (messages newer than offset units)
3492 * =offset (messages exactly offset units old)
3494 offset is specified as a positive number with one of the units from Table 4.6,
3497 Example: to select messages less than 1 month old, you would use
3499 Limit to messages matching: ~d <1m
3503 All dates used when searching are relative to the local time zone, so unless
3504 you change the setting of your $index_format to include a %[...] format, these
3505 are not the dates shown in the main index.
3509 Sometimes it is desirable to perform an operation on a group of messages all at
3510 once rather than one at a time. An example might be to save messages to a
3511 mailing list to a separate folder, or to delete all messages with a given
3512 subject. To tag all messages matching a pattern, use the <tag-pattern>
3513 function, which is bound to ?shift-T? by default. Or you can select individual
3514 messages by hand using the <tag-message> function, which is bound to ?t? by
3515 default. See patterns for Mutt's pattern matching syntax.
3517 Once you have tagged the desired messages, you can use the ?tag-prefix?
3518 operator, which is the ?;? (semicolon) key by default. When the ?tag-prefix?
3519 operator is used, the next operation will be applied to all tagged messages if
3520 that operation can be used in that manner. If the $auto_tag variable is set,
3521 the next operation applies to the tagged messages automatically, without
3522 requiring the ?tag-prefix?.
3524 In macros or push commands, you can use the ?tag-prefix-cond? operator. If
3525 there are no tagged messages, mutt will "eat" the rest of the macro to abort
3526 it's execution. Mutt will stop "eating" the macro when it encounters the
3527 ?end-cond? operator; after this operator the rest of the macro will be executed
3532 A hook is a concept found in many other programs which allows you to execute
3533 arbitrary commands before performing some operation. For example, you may wish
3534 to tailor your configuration based upon which mailbox you are reading, or to
3535 whom you are sending mail. In the Mutt world, a hook consists of a regular
3536 expression or pattern along with a configuration option/command. See
3552 for specific details on each type of hook available.
3556 If a hook changes configuration settings, these changes remain effective until
3557 the end of the current mutt session. As this is generally not desired, a
3558 default hook needs to be added before all other hooks to restore configuration
3559 defaults. Here is an example with send-hook and the my_hdr directive:
3561 Example 4.2. Combining send-hook and my_hdr
3563 send-hook . 'unmy_hdr From:'
3564 send-hook ~C'^b@b\.b$' my_hdr from: c@c.c
3567 4.1. Message Matching in Hooks
3569 Hooks that act upon messages (message-hook, reply-hook, send-hook, send2-hook,
3570 save-hook, fcc-hook) are evaluated in a slightly different manner. For the
3571 other types of hooks, a regular expression is sufficient. But in dealing with
3572 messages a finer grain of control is needed for matching since for different
3573 purposes you want to match different criteria.
3575 Mutt allows the use of the search pattern language for matching messages in
3576 hook commands. This works in exactly the same way as it would when limiting or
3577 searching the mailbox, except that you are restricted to those operators which
3578 match information mutt extracts from the header of the message (i.e., from, to,
3579 cc, date, subject, etc.).
3581 For example, if you wanted to set your return address based upon sending mail
3582 to a specific address, you could do something like:
3584 send-hook '~t ^me@cs\.hmc\.edu$' 'my_hdr From: Mutt User <user@host>'
3586 which would execute the given command when sending mail to me@cs.hmc.edu.
3588 However, it is not required that you write the pattern to match using the full
3589 searching language. You can still specify a simple regular expression like the
3590 other hooks, in which case Mutt will translate your pattern into the full
3591 language, using the translation specified by the $default_hook variable. The
3592 pattern is translated at the time the hook is declared, so the value of
3593 $default_hook that is in effect at that time will be used.
3595 5. External Address Queries
3597 Mutt supports connecting to external directory databases such as LDAP, ph/qi,
3598 bbdb, or NIS through a wrapper script which connects to mutt using a simple
3599 interface. Using the $query_command variable, you specify the wrapper command
3600 to use. For example:
3602 set query_command = "mutt_ldap_query.pl '%s'"
3604 The wrapper script should accept the query on the command-line. It should
3605 return a one line message, then each matching response on a single line, each
3606 line containing a tab separated address then name then some other optional
3607 information. On error, or if there are no matching addresses, return a non-zero
3608 exit code and a one line error message.
3610 An example multiple response output:
3612 Searching database ... 20 entries ... 3 matching:
3613 me@cs.hmc.edu Michael Elkins mutt dude
3614 blong@fiction.net Brandon Long mutt and more
3615 roessler@does-not-exist.org Thomas Roessler mutt pgp
3617 There are two mechanisms for accessing the query function of mutt. One is to do
3618 a query from the index menu using the <query> function (default: Q). This will
3619 prompt for a query, then bring up the query menu which will list the matching
3620 responses. From the query menu, you can select addresses to create aliases, or
3621 to mail. You can tag multiple addresses to mail, start a new query, or have a
3622 new query appended to the current responses.
3624 The other mechanism for accessing the query function is for address completion,
3625 similar to the alias completion. In any prompt for address entry, you can use
3626 the <complete-query> function (default: ^T) to run a query based on the current
3627 address you have typed. Like aliases, mutt will look for what you have typed
3628 back to the last space or comma. If there is a single response for that query,
3629 mutt will expand the address in place. If there are multiple responses, mutt
3630 will activate the query menu. At the query menu, you can select one or more
3631 addresses to be added to the prompt.
3635 Mutt supports reading and writing of four different mailbox formats: mbox,
3636 MMDF, MH and Maildir. The mailbox type is autodetected, so there is no need to
3637 use a flag for different mailbox types. When creating new mailboxes, Mutt uses
3638 the default specified with the $mbox_type variable.
3640 mbox. This is the most widely used mailbox format for UNIX. All messages are
3641 stored in a single file. Each message has a line of the form:
3643 From me@cs.hmc.edu Fri, 11 Apr 1997 11:44:56 PST
3645 to denote the start of a new message (this is often referred to as the ?From_?
3648 MMDF. This is a variant of the mbox format. Each message is surrounded by lines
3649 containing ?^A^A^A^A? (four control-A's).
3651 MH. A radical departure from mbox and MMDF, a mailbox consists of a directory
3652 and each message is stored in a separate file. The filename indicates the
3653 message number (however, this is may not correspond to the message number Mutt
3654 displays). Deleted messages are renamed with a comma (,) prepended to the
3655 filename. Mutt detects this type of mailbox by looking for either .mh_sequences
3656 or .xmhcache (needed to distinguish normal directories from MH mailboxes).
3658 Maildir. The newest of the mailbox formats, used by the Qmail MTA (a
3659 replacement for sendmail). Similar to MH, except that it adds three
3660 subdirectories of the mailbox: tmp, new and cur. Filenames for the messages are
3661 chosen in such a way they are unique, even when two programs are writing the
3662 mailbox over NFS, which means that no file locking is needed.
3664 7. Mailbox Shortcuts
3666 There are a number of built in shortcuts which refer to specific mailboxes.
3667 These shortcuts can be used anywhere you are prompted for a file or mailbox
3670 * ! -- refers to your $spoolfile (incoming) mailbox
3672 * > -- refers to your $mbox file
3674 * < -- refers to your $record file
3676 * ^ -- refers to the current mailbox
3678 * - or !! -- refers to the file you've last visited
3680 * ? -- refers to your home directory
3682 * = or + -- refers to your $folder directory
3684 * @alias -- refers to the default save folder as determined by the address of
3687 8. Handling Mailing Lists
3689 Mutt has a few configuration options that make dealing with large amounts of
3690 mail easier. The first thing you must do is to let Mutt know what addresses you
3691 consider to be mailing lists (technically this does not have to be a mailing
3692 list, but that is what it is most often used for), and what lists you are
3693 subscribed to. This is accomplished through the use of the lists and subscribe
3694 commands in your muttrc.
3696 Now that Mutt knows what your mailing lists are, it can do several things, the
3697 first of which is the ability to show the name of a list through which you
3698 received a message (i.e., of a subscribed list) in the index menu display. This
3699 is useful to distinguish between personal and list mail in the same mailbox. In
3700 the $index_format variable, the escape ?%L? will return the string ?To <list>?
3701 when ?list? appears in the ?To? field, and ?Cc <list>? when it appears in the
3702 ?Cc? field (otherwise it returns the name of the author).
3704 Often times the ?To? and ?Cc? fields in mailing list messages tend to get quite
3705 large. Most people do not bother to remove the author of the message they reply
3706 to from the list, resulting in two or more copies being sent to that person.
3707 The <list-reply> function, which by default is bound to ?L? in the index menu
3708 and pager, helps reduce the clutter by only replying to the known mailing list
3709 addresses instead of all recipients (except as specified by Mail-Followup-To,
3712 Mutt also supports the Mail-Followup-To header. When you send a message to a
3713 list of recipients which includes one or several subscribed mailing lists, and
3714 if the $followup_to option is set, mutt will generate a Mail-Followup-To header
3715 which contains all the recipients to whom you send this message, but not your
3716 address. This indicates that group-replies or list-replies (also known as
3717 ?followups?) to this message should only be sent to the original recipients of
3718 the message, and not separately to you - you'll receive your copy through one
3719 of the mailing lists you are subscribed to.
3721 Conversely, when group-replying or list-replying to a message which has a
3722 Mail-Followup-To header, mutt will respect this header if the
3723 $honor_followup_to configuration variable is set. Using list-reply will in this
3724 case also make sure that the reply goes to the mailing list, even if it's not
3725 specified in the list of recipients in the Mail-Followup-To.
3729 When header editing is enabled, you can create a Mail-Followup-To header
3730 manually. Mutt will only auto-generate this header if it doesn't exist when you
3733 The other method some mailing list admins use is to generate a ?Reply-To? field
3734 which points back to the mailing list address rather than the author of the
3735 message. This can create problems when trying to reply directly to the author
3736 in private, since most mail clients will automatically reply to the address
3737 given in the ?Reply-To? field. Mutt uses the $reply_to variable to help decide
3738 which address to use. If set to ask-yes or ask-no, you will be prompted as to
3739 whether or not you would like to use the address given in the ?Reply-To? field,
3740 or reply directly to the address given in the ?From? field. When set to yes,
3741 the ?Reply-To? field will be used when present.
3743 The ?X-Label:? header field can be used to further identify mailing lists or
3744 list subject matter (or just to annotate messages individually). The
3745 $index_format variable's ?%y? and ?%Y? escapes can be used to expand ?X-Label:?
3746 fields in the index, and Mutt's pattern-matcher can match regular expressions
3747 to ?X-Label:? fields with the ??y? selector. ?X-Label:? is not a standard
3748 message header field, but it can easily be inserted by procmail and other mail
3751 Lastly, Mutt has the ability to sort the mailbox into threads. A thread is a
3752 group of messages which all relate to the same subject. This is usually
3753 organized into a tree-like structure where a message and all of its replies are
3754 represented graphically. If you've ever used a threaded news client, this is
3755 the same concept. It makes dealing with large volume mailing lists easier
3756 because you can easily delete uninteresting threads and quickly find topics of
3759 9. Handling multiple folders
3761 Mutt supports setups with multiple folders, allowing all of them to be
3762 monitored for new mail (see Section 14, ?Monitoring incoming mail? for
3765 When in the index menu and being idle (also see $timeout), Mutt periodically
3766 checks for new mail in all folders which have been configured via the mailboxes
3767 command. The interval depends on the folder type: for local/IMAP folders it
3768 consults $mail_check and $pop_checkinterval for POP folders.
3770 Outside the index menu the directory browser supports checking for new mail
3771 using the <check-new> function which is unbound by default. Pressing TAB will
3772 bring up a menu showing the files specified by the mailboxes command, and
3773 indicate which contain new messages. Mutt will automatically enter this mode
3774 when invoked from the command line with the -y option.
3776 For the pager, index and directory browser menus, Mutt contains the
3777 <buffy-list> function (bound to ?.? by default) which will print a list of
3778 folders with new mail in the command line at the bottom of the screen.
3780 For the index, by default Mutt displays the number of mailboxes with new mail
3781 in the status bar, please refer to the $index_format variable for details.
3783 When changing folders, Mutt fills the prompt with the first folder from the
3784 mailboxes list containing new mail (if any), pressing space will cycle through
3785 folders with new mail.
3789 Mutt has the ability to dynamically restructure threads that are broken either
3790 by misconfigured software or bad behavior from some correspondents. This allows
3791 to clean your mailboxes formats) from these annoyances which make it hard to
3792 follow a discussion.
3794 10.1. Linking threads
3796 Some mailers tend to "forget" to correctly set the "In-Reply-To:" and
3797 "References:" headers when replying to a message. This results in broken
3798 discussions because Mutt has not enough information to guess the correct
3799 threading. You can fix this by tagging the reply, then moving to the parent
3800 message and using the <link-threads> function (bound to & by default). The
3801 reply will then be connected to this "parent" message.
3803 You can also connect multiple children at once, tagging them and using the
3804 tag-prefix command (';') or the auto_tag option.
3806 10.2. Breaking threads
3808 On mailing lists, some people are in the bad habit of starting a new discussion
3809 by hitting "reply" to any message from the list and changing the subject to a
3810 totally unrelated one. You can fix such threads by using the <break-thread>
3811 function (bound by default to #), which will turn the subthread starting from
3812 the current message into a whole different thread.
3814 11. Delivery Status Notification (DSN) Support
3816 RFC1894 defines a set of MIME content types for relaying information about the
3817 status of electronic mail messages. These can be thought of as ?return
3820 To support DSN, there are two variables. $dsn_notify is used to request
3821 receipts for different results (such as failed message, message delivered,
3822 etc.). $dsn_return requests how much of your message should be returned with
3823 the receipt (headers or full message).
3825 When using $sendmail for mail delivery, you need to use either Berkeley
3826 sendmail 8.8.x (or greater) a MTA supporting DSN command line options
3827 compatible to Sendmail: The -N and -R options can be used by the mail client to
3828 make requests as to what type of status messages should be returned. Please
3829 consider your MTA documentation whether DSN is supported.
3831 For SMTP delivery using $smtp_url, it depends on the capabilities announced by
3832 the server whether mutt will attempt to request DSN or not.
3834 12. Start a WWW Browser on URLs
3836 If a message contains URLs, it is efficient to get a menu with all the URLs and
3837 start a WWW browser on one of them. This functionality is provided by the
3838 external urlview program which can be retrieved at ftp://ftp.mutt.org/mutt/
3839 contrib/ and the configuration commands:
3841 macro index \cb |urlview\n
3842 macro pager \cb |urlview\n
3844 Chapter 5. Mutt's MIME Support
3848 1. Using MIME in Mutt
3850 1.1. Viewing MIME messages in the pager
3851 1.2. The Attachment Menu
3852 1.3. The Compose Menu
3854 2. MIME Type configuration with mime.types
3855 3. MIME Viewer configuration with mailcap
3857 3.1. The Basics of the mailcap file
3858 3.2. Secure use of mailcap
3859 3.3. Advanced mailcap Usage
3860 3.4. Example mailcap files
3863 5. MIME Multipart/Alternative
3864 6. Attachment Searching and Counting
3867 Quite a bit of effort has been made to make Mutt the premier text-mode MIME
3868 MUA. Every effort has been made to provide the functionality that the
3869 discerning MIME user requires, and the conformance to the standards wherever
3870 possible. When configuring Mutt for MIME, there are two extra types of
3871 configuration files which Mutt uses. One is the mime.types file, which contains
3872 the mapping of file extensions to IANA MIME types. The other is the mailcap
3873 file, which specifies the external commands to use for handling specific MIME
3876 1. Using MIME in Mutt
3878 There are three areas/menus in Mutt which deal with MIME, they are the pager
3879 (while viewing a message), the attachment menu and the compose menu.
3881 1.1. Viewing MIME messages in the pager
3883 When you select a message from the index and view it in the pager, Mutt decodes
3884 the message to a text representation. Mutt internally supports a number of MIME
3885 types, including text/plain, text/enriched, message/rfc822, and message/news.
3886 In addition, the export controlled version of Mutt recognizes a variety of PGP
3887 MIME types, including PGP/MIME and application/pgp.
3889 Mutt will denote attachments with a couple lines describing them. These lines
3892 [-- Attachment #1: Description --]
3893 [-- Type: text/plain, Encoding: 7bit, Size: 10000 --]
3895 Where the Description is the description or filename given for the attachment,
3896 and the Encoding is one of 7bit/8bit/quoted-printable/base64/binary.
3898 If Mutt cannot deal with a MIME type, it will display a message like:
3900 [-- image/gif is unsupported (use 'v' to view this part) --]
3902 1.2. The Attachment Menu
3904 The default binding for view-attachments is `v', which displays the attachment
3905 menu for a message. The attachment menu displays a list of the attachments in a
3906 message. From the attachment menu, you can save, print, pipe, delete, and view
3907 attachments. You can apply these operations to a group of attachments at once,
3908 by tagging the attachments and by using the ?tag-prefix? operator. You can also
3909 reply to the current message from this menu, and only the current attachment
3910 (or the attachments tagged) will be quoted in your reply. You can view
3911 attachments as text, or view them using the mailcap viewer definition.
3913 Finally, you can apply the usual message-related functions (like
3914 <resend-message>, and the <reply> and <forward> functions) to attachments of
3915 type message/rfc822.
3917 See the help on the attachment menu for more information.
3919 1.3. The Compose Menu
3921 The compose menu is the menu you see before you send a message. It allows you
3922 to edit the recipient list, the subject, and other aspects of your message. It
3923 also contains a list of the attachments of your message, including the main
3924 body. From this menu, you can print, copy, filter, pipe, edit, compose, review,
3925 and rename an attachment or a list of tagged attachments. You can also
3926 modifying the attachment information, notably the type, encoding and
3929 Attachments appear as follows:
3931 - 1 [text/plain, 7bit, 1K] /tmp/mutt-euler-8082-0 <no description>
3932 2 [applica/x-gunzip, base64, 422K] ~/src/mutt-0.85.tar.gz <no description>
3934 The '-' denotes that Mutt will delete the file after sending (or postponing, or
3935 canceling) the message. It can be toggled with the toggle-unlink command
3936 (default: u). The next field is the MIME content-type, and can be changed with
3937 the edit-type command (default: ^T). The next field is the encoding for the
3938 attachment, which allows a binary message to be encoded for transmission on
3939 7bit links. It can be changed with the edit-encoding command (default: ^E). The
3940 next field is the size of the attachment, rounded to kilobytes or megabytes.
3941 The next field is the filename, which can be changed with the rename-file
3942 command (default: R). The final field is the description of the attachment, and
3943 can be changed with the edit-description command (default: d).
3945 2. MIME Type configuration with mime.types
3947 When you add an attachment to your mail message, Mutt searches your personal
3948 mime.types file at ${HOME}/.mime.types, and then the system mime.types file at
3949 /usr/local/share/mutt/mime.types or /etc/mime.types
3951 The mime.types file consist of lines containing a MIME type and a space
3952 separated list of extensions. For example:
3954 application/postscript ps eps
3956 audio/x-aiff aif aifc aiff
3958 A sample mime.types file comes with the Mutt distribution, and should contain
3959 most of the MIME types you are likely to use.
3961 If Mutt can not determine the mime type by the extension of the file you
3962 attach, it will look at the file. If the file is free of binary information,
3963 Mutt will assume that the file is plain text, and mark it as text/plain. If the
3964 file contains binary information, then Mutt will mark it as application/
3965 octet-stream. You can change the MIME type that Mutt assigns to an attachment
3966 by using the edit-type command from the compose menu (default: ^T). The MIME
3967 type is actually a major mime type followed by the sub-type, separated by a '/
3968 '. 6 major types: application, text, image, video, audio, and model have been
3969 approved after various internet discussions. Mutt recognizes all of these if
3970 the appropriate entry is found in the mime.types file. It also recognizes other
3971 major mime types, such as the chemical type that is widely used in the
3972 molecular modeling community to pass molecular data in various forms to various
3973 molecular viewers. Non-recognized mime types should only be used if the
3974 recipient of the message is likely to be expecting such attachments.
3976 3. MIME Viewer configuration with mailcap
3978 Mutt supports RFC 1524 MIME Configuration, in particular the Unix specific
3979 format specified in Appendix A of RFC 1524. This file format is commonly
3980 referred to as the mailcap format. Many MIME compliant programs utilize the
3981 mailcap format, allowing you to specify handling for all MIME types in one
3982 place for all programs. Programs known to use this format include Netscape,
3983 XMosaic, lynx and metamail.
3985 In order to handle various MIME types that Mutt can not handle internally, Mutt
3986 parses a series of external configuration files to find an external handler.
3987 The default search string for these files is a colon delimited list containing
3988 the following files:
3992 2. $PKGDATADIR/mailcap
3994 3. $SYSCONFDIR/mailcap
4000 6. /usr/local/etc/mailcap
4002 where $HOME is your home directory. The $PKGDATADIR and the $SYSCONFDIR
4003 directories depend on where mutt is installed: the former is the default for
4004 shared data, the latter for system configuration files.
4006 The default search path can be obtained by running the following command:
4008 mutt -nF /dev/null -Q mailcap_path
4010 In particular, the metamail distribution will install a mailcap file, usually
4011 as /usr/local/etc/mailcap, which contains some baseline entries.
4013 3.1. The Basics of the mailcap file
4015 A mailcap file consists of a series of lines which are comments, blank, or
4018 A comment line consists of a # character followed by anything you want.
4020 A blank line is blank.
4022 A definition line consists of a content type, a view command, and any number of
4023 optional fields. Each field of a definition line is divided by a semicolon ';'
4026 The content type is specified in the MIME standard type/subtype method. For
4027 example, text/plain, text/html, image/gif, etc. In addition, the mailcap format
4028 includes two formats for wildcards, one using the special '*' subtype, the
4029 other is the implicit wild, where you only include the major type. For example,
4030 image/*, or video, will match all image types and video types, respectively.
4032 The view command is a Unix command for viewing the type specified. There are
4033 two different types of commands supported. The default is to send the body of
4034 the MIME message to the command on stdin. You can change this behavior by using
4035 %s as a parameter to your view command. This will cause Mutt to save the body
4036 of the MIME message to a temporary file, and then call the view command with
4037 the %s replaced by the name of the temporary file. In both cases, Mutt will
4038 turn over the terminal to the view program until the program quits, at which
4039 time Mutt will remove the temporary file if it exists.
4041 So, in the simplest form, you can send a text/plain message to the external
4042 pager more on stdin:
4046 Or, you could send the message as a file:
4050 Perhaps you would like to use lynx to interactively view a text/html message:
4054 In this case, lynx does not support viewing a file from stdin, so you must use
4059 Some older versions of lynx contain a bug where they will check the mailcap
4060 file for a viewer for text/html. They will find the line which calls lynx, and
4061 run it. This causes lynx to continuously spawn itself to view the object.
4063 On the other hand, maybe you don't want to use lynx interactively, you just
4064 want to have it convert the text/html to text/plain, then you can use:
4066 text/html; lynx -dump %s | more
4068 Perhaps you wish to use lynx to view text/html files, and a pager on all other
4069 text formats, then you would use the following:
4074 This is the simplest form of a mailcap file.
4076 3.2. Secure use of mailcap
4078 The interpretation of shell meta-characters embedded in MIME parameters can
4079 lead to security problems in general. Mutt tries to quote parameters in
4080 expansion of %s syntaxes properly, and avoids risky characters by substituting
4081 them, see the $mailcap_sanitize variable.
4083 Although mutt's procedures to invoke programs with mailcap seem to be safe,
4084 there are other applications parsing mailcap, maybe taking less care of it.
4085 Therefore you should pay attention to the following rules:
4087 Keep the %-expandos away from shell quoting. Don't quote them with single or
4088 double quotes. Mutt does this for you, the right way, as should any other
4089 program which interprets mailcap. Don't put them into backtick expansions. Be
4090 highly careful with eval statements, and avoid them if possible at all. Trying
4091 to fix broken behavior with quotes introduces new leaks - there is no
4092 alternative to correct quoting in the first place.
4094 If you have to use the %-expandos' values in context where you need quoting or
4095 backtick expansions, put that value into a shell variable and reference the
4096 shell variable where necessary, as in the following example (using $charset
4097 inside the backtick expansion is safe, since it is not itself subject to any
4100 text/test-mailcap-bug; cat %s; copiousoutput; test=charset=%{charset} \
4101 && test "`echo $charset | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`" != iso-8859-1
4103 3.3. Advanced mailcap Usage
4105 3.3.1. Optional Fields
4107 In addition to the required content-type and view command fields, you can add
4108 semi-colon ';' separated fields to set flags and other options. Mutt recognizes
4109 the following optional fields:
4113 This flag tells Mutt that the command passes possibly large amounts of text
4114 on stdout. This causes Mutt to invoke a pager (either the internal pager or
4115 the external pager defined by the pager variable) on the output of the view
4116 command. Without this flag, Mutt assumes that the command is interactive.
4117 One could use this to replace the pipe to more in the lynx -dump example in
4120 text/html; lynx -dump %s ; copiousoutput
4122 This will cause lynx to format the text/html output as text/plain and Mutt
4123 will use your standard pager to display the results.
4127 Mutt uses this flag when viewing attachments with auto_view, in order to
4128 decide whether it should honor the setting of the $wait_key variable or
4129 not. When an attachment is viewed using an interactive program, and the
4130 corresponding mailcap entry has a needsterminal flag, Mutt will use
4131 $wait_key and the exit status of the program to decide if it will ask you
4132 to press a key after the external program has exited. In all other
4133 situations it will not prompt you for a key.
4137 This flag specifies the command to use to create a new attachment of a
4138 specific MIME type. Mutt supports this from the compose menu.
4140 composetyped=<command>
4142 This flag specifies the command to use to create a new attachment of a
4143 specific MIME type. This command differs from the compose command in that
4144 mutt will expect standard MIME headers on the data. This can be used to
4145 specify parameters, filename, description, etc. for a new attachment. Mutt
4146 supports this from the compose menu.
4150 This flag specifies the command to use to print a specific MIME type. Mutt
4151 supports this from the attachment and compose menus.
4155 This flag specifies the command to use to edit a specific MIME type. Mutt
4156 supports this from the compose menu, and also uses it to compose new
4157 attachments. Mutt will default to the defined editor for text attachments.
4159 nametemplate=<template>
4161 This field specifies the format for the file denoted by %s in the command
4162 fields. Certain programs will require a certain file extension, for
4163 instance, to correctly view a file. For instance, lynx will only interpret
4164 a file as text/html if the file ends in .html. So, you would specify lynx
4165 as a text/html viewer with a line in the mailcap file like:
4167 text/html; lynx %s; nametemplate=%s.html
4171 This field specifies a command to run to test whether this mailcap entry
4172 should be used. The command is defined with the command expansion rules
4173 defined in the next section. If the command returns 0, then the test
4174 passed, and Mutt uses this entry. If the command returns non-zero, then the
4175 test failed, and Mutt continues searching for the right entry. Note that
4176 the content-type must match before Mutt performs the test. For example:
4178 text/html; netscape -remote 'openURL(%s)' ; test=RunningX
4181 In this example, Mutt will run the program RunningX which will return 0 if
4182 the X Window manager is running, and non-zero if it isn't. If RunningX
4183 returns 0, then Mutt will call netscape to display the text/html object. If
4184 RunningX doesn't return 0, then Mutt will go on to the next entry and use
4185 lynx to display the text/html object.
4189 When searching for an entry in the mailcap file, Mutt will search for the most
4190 useful entry for its purpose. For instance, if you are attempting to print an
4191 image/gif, and you have the following entries in your mailcap file, Mutt will
4192 search for an entry with the print command:
4195 image/gif; ; print= anytopnm %s | pnmtops | lpr; \
4198 Mutt will skip the image/* entry and use the image/gif entry with the print
4201 In addition, you can use this with auto_view to denote two commands for viewing
4202 an attachment, one to be viewed automatically, the other to be viewed
4203 interactively from the attachment menu. In addition, you can then use the test
4204 feature to determine which viewer to use interactively depending on your
4207 text/html; netscape -remote 'openURL(%s)' ; test=RunningX
4208 text/html; lynx %s; nametemplate=%s.html
4209 text/html; lynx -dump %s; nametemplate=%s.html; copiousoutput
4211 For auto_view, Mutt will choose the third entry because of the copiousoutput
4212 tag. For interactive viewing, Mutt will run the program RunningX to determine
4213 if it should use the first entry. If the program returns non-zero, Mutt will
4214 use the second entry for interactive viewing.
4216 3.3.3. Command Expansion
4218 The various commands defined in the mailcap files are passed to the /bin/sh
4219 shell using the system() function. Before the command is passed to /bin/sh -c,
4220 it is parsed to expand various special parameters with information from Mutt.
4221 The keywords Mutt expands are:
4225 As seen in the basic mailcap section, this variable is expanded to a
4226 filename specified by the calling program. This file contains the body of
4227 the message to view/print/edit or where the composing program should place
4228 the results of composition. In addition, the use of this keyword causes
4229 Mutt to not pass the body of the message to the view/print/edit program on
4234 Mutt will expand %t to the text representation of the content type of the
4235 message in the same form as the first parameter of the mailcap definition
4236 line, ie text/html or image/gif.
4240 Mutt will expand this to the value of the specified parameter from the
4241 Content-Type: line of the mail message. For instance, if Your mail message
4244 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
4246 then Mutt will expand %{charset} to iso-8859-1. The default metamail
4247 mailcap file uses this feature to test the charset to spawn an xterm using
4248 the right charset to view the message.
4252 This will be replaced by a %
4254 Mutt does not currently support the %F and %n keywords specified in RFC 1524.
4255 The main purpose of these parameters is for multipart messages, which is
4256 handled internally by Mutt.
4258 3.4. Example mailcap files
4260 This mailcap file is fairly simple and standard:
4262 # I'm always running X :)
4263 video/*; xanim %s > /dev/null
4264 image/*; xv %s > /dev/null
4266 # I'm always running netscape (if my computer had more memory, maybe)
4267 text/html; netscape -remote 'openURL(%s)'
4269 This mailcap file shows quite a number of examples:
4271 # Use xanim to view all videos Xanim produces a header on startup,
4272 # send that to /dev/null so I don't see it
4273 video/*; xanim %s > /dev/null
4275 # Send html to a running netscape by remote
4276 text/html; netscape -remote 'openURL(%s)'; test=RunningNetscape
4278 # If I'm not running netscape but I am running X, start netscape on the
4280 text/html; netscape %s; test=RunningX
4282 # Else use lynx to view it as text
4285 # This version would convert the text/html to text/plain
4286 text/html; lynx -dump %s; copiousoutput
4288 # I use enscript to print text in two columns to a page
4289 text/*; more %s; print=enscript -2Gr %s
4291 # Netscape adds a flag to tell itself to view jpegs internally
4292 image/jpeg;xv %s; x-mozilla-flags=internal
4294 # Use xv to view images if I'm running X
4295 # In addition, this uses the \ to extend the line and set my editor
4297 image/*;xv %s; test=RunningX; \
4300 # Convert images to text using the netpbm tools
4301 image/*; (anytopnm %s | pnmscale -xysize 80 46 | ppmtopgm | pgmtopbm |
4302 pbmtoascii -1x2 ) 2>&1 ; copiousoutput
4304 # Send excel spreadsheets to my NT box
4305 application/ms-excel; open.pl %s
4309 In addition to explicitly telling Mutt to view an attachment with the MIME
4310 viewer defined in the mailcap file, Mutt has support for automatically viewing
4311 MIME attachments while in the pager.
4313 To work, you must define a viewer in the mailcap file which uses the
4314 copiousoutput option to denote that it is non-interactive. Usually, you also
4315 use the entry to convert the attachment to a text representation which you can
4318 You then use the auto_view muttrc command to list the content-types that you
4319 wish to view automatically.
4321 For instance, if you set auto_view to:
4323 auto_view text/html application/x-gunzip \
4324 application/postscript image/gif application/x-tar-gz
4326 Mutt could use the following mailcap entries to automatically view attachments
4329 text/html; lynx -dump %s; copiousoutput; nametemplate=%s.html
4330 image/*; anytopnm %s | pnmscale -xsize 80 -ysize 50 | ppmtopgm | \
4331 pgmtopbm | pbmtoascii ; copiousoutput
4332 application/x-gunzip; gzcat; copiousoutput
4333 application/x-tar-gz; gunzip -c %s | tar -tf - ; copiousoutput
4334 application/postscript; ps2ascii %s; copiousoutput
4336 ?unauto_view? can be used to remove previous entries from the autoview list.
4337 This can be used with message-hook to autoview messages based on size, etc.
4338 ?unauto_view *? will remove all previous entries.
4340 5. MIME Multipart/Alternative
4342 Mutt has some heuristics for determining which attachment of a multipart/
4343 alternative type to display. First, mutt will check the alternative_order list
4344 to determine if one of the available types is preferred. The alternative_order
4345 list consists of a number of mimetypes in order, including support for implicit
4346 and explicit wildcards, for example:
4348 alternative_order text/enriched text/plain text application/postscript image/*
4350 Next, mutt will check if any of the types have a defined auto_view, and use
4351 that. Failing that, Mutt will look for any text type. As a last attempt, mutt
4352 will look for any type it knows how to handle.
4354 To remove a MIME type from the alternative_order list, use the
4355 unalternative_order command.
4357 6. Attachment Searching and Counting
4359 If you ever lose track of attachments in your mailboxes, Mutt's
4360 attachment-counting and -searching support might be for you. You can make your
4361 message index display the number of qualifying attachments in each message, or
4362 search for messages by attachment count. You also can configure what kinds of
4363 attachments qualify for this feature with the attachments and unattachments
4366 In order to provide this information, mutt needs to fully MIME-parse all
4367 messages affected first. This can slow down operation especially for remote
4368 mail folders such as IMAP because all messages have to be downloaded first
4369 regardless whether the user really wants to view them or not.
4373 attachments {+|-}disposition mime-type
4374 unattachments {+|-}disposition mime-type
4377 Disposition is the attachment's Content-disposition type -- either inline or
4378 attachment. You can abbreviate this to I or A.
4380 Disposition is prefixed by either a + symbol or a - symbol. If it's a +, you're
4381 saying that you want to allow this disposition and MIME type to qualify. If
4382 it's a -, you're saying that this disposition and MIME type is an exception to
4383 previous + rules. There are examples below of how this is useful.
4385 Mime-type is, unsurprisingly, the MIME type of the attachment you want to
4386 affect. A MIME type is always of the format major/minor, where major describes
4387 the broad category of document you're looking at, and minor describes the
4388 specific type within that category. The major part of mime-type must be literal
4389 text (or the special token ?*?), but the minor part may be a regular
4390 expression. (Therefore, ?*/.*? matches any MIME type.)
4392 The MIME types you give to the attachments directive are a kind of pattern.
4393 When you use the attachments directive, the patterns you specify are added to a
4394 list. When you use unattachments, the pattern is removed from the list. The
4395 patterns are not expanded and matched to specific MIME types at this time --
4396 they're just text in a list. They're only matched when actually evaluating a
4399 Some examples might help to illustrate. The examples that are not commented out
4400 define the default configuration of the lists.
4402 Example 5.1. Attachment counting
4404 ## Removing a pattern from a list removes that pattern literally. It
4405 ## does not remove any type matching the pattern.
4407 ## attachments +A */.*
4408 ## attachments +A image/jpeg
4409 ## unattachments +A */.*
4411 ## This leaves "attached" image/jpeg files on the allowed attachments
4412 ## list. It does not remove all items, as you might expect, because the
4413 ## second */.* is not a matching expression at this time.
4415 ## Remember: "unattachments" only undoes what "attachments" has done!
4416 ## It does not trigger any matching on actual messages.
4419 ## Qualify any MIME part with an "attachment" disposition, EXCEPT for
4420 ## text/x-vcard and application/pgp parts. (PGP parts are already known
4421 ## to mutt, and can be searched for with ~g, ~G, and ~k.)
4423 ## I've added x-pkcs7 to this, since it functions (for S/MIME)
4424 ## analogously to PGP signature attachments. S/MIME isn't supported
4425 ## in a stock mutt build, but we can still treat it specially here.
4428 attachments -A text/x-vcard application/pgp.*
4429 attachments -A application/x-pkcs7-.*
4431 ## Discount all MIME parts with an "inline" disposition, unless they're
4432 ## text/plain. (Why inline a text/plain part unless it's external to the
4435 attachments +I text/plain
4437 ## These two lines make Mutt qualify MIME containers. (So, for example,
4438 ## a message/rfc822 forward will count as an attachment.) The first
4439 ## line is unnecessary if you already have "attach-allow */.*", of
4440 ## course. These are off by default! The MIME elements contained
4441 ## within a message/* or multipart/* are still examined, even if the
4442 ## containers themseves don't qualify.
4444 #attachments +A message/.* multipart/.*
4445 #attachments +I message/.* multipart/.*
4447 ## You probably don't really care to know about deleted attachments.
4448 attachments -A message/external-body
4449 attachments -I message/external-body
4452 Entering the command ?attachments ?? as a command will list your current
4453 settings in Muttrc format, so that it can be pasted elsewhere.
4457 Mutt's mime_lookup list specifies a list of mime-types that should not be
4458 treated according to their mailcap entry. This option is designed to deal with
4459 binary types such as application/octet-stream. When an attachment's mime-type
4460 is listed in mime_lookup, then the extension of the filename will be compared
4461 to the list of extensions in the mime.types file. The mime-type associated with
4462 this extension will then be used to process the attachment according to the
4463 rules in the mailcap file and according to any other configuration options
4464 (such as auto_view) specified. Common usage would be:
4466 mime_lookup application/octet-stream application/X-Lotus-Manuscript
4468 In addition, the unmime_lookup command may be used to disable this feature for
4469 any particular mime-type if it had been set, for example, in a global muttrc.
4471 Chapter 6. Optional features
4477 1.1. Enabling/disabling features
4484 4.1. The Folder Browser
4488 6. Managing multiple accounts
4495 8. Exact address generation
4499 1.1. Enabling/disabling features
4501 Mutt supports several of optional features which can be enabled or disabled at
4502 compile-time by giving the configure script certain arguments. These are listed
4503 in the ?Optional features? section of the configure --help output.
4505 Which features are enabled or disabled can later be determined from the output
4506 of mutt -v. If a compile option starts with ?+? it is enabled and disabled if
4507 prefixed with ?-?. For example, if mutt was compiled using GnuTLS for encrypted
4508 communication instead of OpenSSL, mutt -v would contain:
4510 -USE_SSL_OPENSSL +USE_SSL_GNUTLS
4514 Mutt optionally supports the IMAP, POP3 and SMTP protocols which require to
4515 access servers using URLs. The canonical syntax for specifying URLs in mutt is
4516 (an item enclosed in [] means it is optional and may be omitted):
4518 proto[s]://[username[:password]@]server[:port]/[path]
4520 proto is the communication protocol: imap for IMAP, pop for POP3 and smtp for
4521 SMTP. If ?s? for ?secure communication? is appended, mutt will attempt to
4522 establish an encrypted communication using SSL or TLS. If no explicit port is
4523 given, mutt will use the system's default for the given protocol.
4525 Since all protocols by mutt support authentication, the username may be given
4526 directly in the URL instead of using the pop_user or imap_user variables. It
4527 may contain the ?@? symbol being used by many mail systems as part of the login
4528 name. A password can be given, too but is not recommended if the URL is
4529 specified in a configuration file on disk.
4531 The optional path is only relevant for IMAP.
4533 For IMAP for example, you can select an alternative port by specifying it with
4534 the server: imap://imapserver:port/INBOX. You can also specify different
4535 username for each folder: imap://username@imapserver[:port]/INBOX or imap://
4536 username2@imapserver[:port]/path/to/folder. Replacing imap:// by imaps:// would
4537 make mutt attempt to connect using SSL or TLS on a different port to encrypt
4542 If mutt is compiled with IMAP, POP3 and/or SMTP support, it can also be
4543 compiled with support for SSL or TLS using either OpenSSL or GnuTLS ( by
4544 running the configure script with the --enable-ssl=... option for OpenSSL or
4545 --enable-gnutls=... for GnuTLS). Mutt can then attempt to encrypt communication
4546 with remote servers if these protocols are suffixed with ?s? for ?secure
4551 If Mutt was compiled with POP3 support (by running the configure script with
4552 the --enable-pop flag), it has the ability to work with mailboxes located on a
4553 remote POP3 server and fetch mail for local browsing.
4555 Remote POP3 servers can be accessed using URLs with the pop protocol for
4556 unencrypted and pops for encrypted communication, see Section 1.2, ?URL syntax?
4559 Polling for new mail is more expensive over POP3 than locally. For this reason
4560 the frequency at which Mutt will check for mail remotely can be controlled by
4561 the $pop_checkinterval variable, which defaults to every 60 seconds.
4563 Another way to access your POP3 mail is the <fetch-mail$ function (default: G).
4564 It allows to connect to $pop_host, fetch all your new mail and place it in the
4565 local $spoolfile. After this point, Mutt runs exactly as if the mail had always
4570 If you only need to fetch all messages to a local mailbox you should consider
4571 using a specialized program, such as fetchmail, getmail or similar.
4575 If Mutt was compiled with IMAP support (by running the configure script with
4576 the --enable-imap flag), it has the ability to work with folders located on a
4579 You can access the remote inbox by selecting the folder by its URL (see
4580 Section 1.2, ?URL syntax? for details) using the imap or imaps protocol.
4581 Alternatively, a pine-compatible notation is also supported, ie {[username@]
4582 imapserver[:port][/ssl]}path/to/folder
4584 Note that not all servers use ?/? as the hierarchy separator. Mutt should
4585 correctly notice which separator is being used by the server and convert paths
4588 When browsing folders on an IMAP server, you can toggle whether to look at only
4589 the folders you are subscribed to, or all folders with the toggle-subscribed
4590 command. See also the $imap_list_subscribed variable.
4592 Polling for new mail on an IMAP server can cause noticeable delays. So, you'll
4593 want to carefully tune the $mail_check and $timeout variables. Personally I use
4598 with relatively good results over my slow modem line.
4602 Note that if you are using mbox as the mail store on UW servers prior to
4603 v12.250, the server has been reported to disconnect a client if another client
4604 selects the same folder.
4606 4.1. The Folder Browser
4608 As of version 1.2, mutt supports browsing mailboxes on an IMAP server. This is
4609 mostly the same as the local file browser, with the following differences:
4611 * In lieu of file permissions, mutt displays the string "IMAP", possibly
4612 followed by the symbol "+", indicating that the entry contains both
4613 messages and subfolders. On Cyrus-like servers folders will often contain
4614 both messages and subfolders.
4616 * For the case where an entry can contain both messages and subfolders, the
4617 selection key (bound to enter by default) will choose to descend into the
4618 subfolder view. If you wish to view the messages in that folder, you must
4619 use view-file instead (bound to space by default).
4621 * You can create, delete and rename mailboxes with the create-mailbox,
4622 delete-mailbox, and rename-mailbox commands (default bindings: C, d and r,
4623 respectively). You may also subscribe and unsubscribe to mailboxes
4624 (normally these are bound to s and u, respectively).
4628 Mutt supports four authentication methods with IMAP servers: SASL, GSSAPI,
4629 CRAM-MD5, and LOGIN (there is a patch by Grant Edwards to add NTLM
4630 authentication for you poor exchange users out there, but it has yet to be
4631 integrated into the main tree). There is also support for the pseudo-protocol
4632 ANONYMOUS, which allows you to log in to a public IMAP server without having an
4633 account. To use ANONYMOUS, simply make your username blank or "anonymous".
4635 SASL is a special super-authenticator, which selects among several protocols
4636 (including GSSAPI, CRAM-MD5, ANONYMOUS, and DIGEST-MD5) the most secure method
4637 available on your host and the server. Using some of these methods (including
4638 DIGEST-MD5 and possibly GSSAPI), your entire session will be encrypted and
4639 invisible to those teeming network snoops. It is the best option if you have
4640 it. To use it, you must have the Cyrus SASL library installed on your system
4641 and compile mutt with the --with-sasl flag.
4643 Mutt will try whichever methods are compiled in and available on the server, in
4644 the following order: SASL, ANONYMOUS, GSSAPI, CRAM-MD5, LOGIN.
4646 There are a few variables which control authentication:
4648 * $imap_user - controls the username under which you request authentication
4649 on the IMAP server, for all authenticators. This is overridden by an
4650 explicit username in the mailbox path (ie by using a mailbox name of the
4653 * $imap_pass - a password which you may preset, used by all authentication
4654 methods where a password is needed.
4656 * $imap_authenticators - a colon-delimited list of IMAP authentication
4657 methods to try, in the order you wish to try them. If specified, this
4658 overrides mutt's default (attempt everything, in the order listed above).
4662 Besides supporting traditional mail delivery through a sendmail-compatible
4663 program, mutt supports delivery through SMTP if it was configured and built
4666 If the configuration variable $smtp_url is set, mutt will contact the given
4667 SMTP server to deliver messages; if it is unset, mutt will use the program
4668 specified by $sendmail.
4670 For details on the URL syntax, please see Section 1.2, ?URL syntax?.
4672 The built-in SMTP support supports encryption (the smtps protocol using SSL or
4673 TLS) as well as SMTP authentication using SASL. The authentication mechanisms
4674 for SASL are specified in $smtp_authenticators defaulting to an empty list
4675 which makes mutt try all available methods from most-secure to least-secure.
4677 6. Managing multiple accounts
4679 If you happen to have accounts on multiple IMAP, POP and/or SMTP servers, you
4680 may find managing all the authentication settings inconvenient and error-prone.
4681 The account-hook command may help. This hook works like folder-hook but is
4682 invoked whenever you access a remote mailbox (including inside the folder
4683 browser), not just when you open the mailbox which includes (for example)
4684 polling for new mail, storing Fcc messages and saving messages to a folder. As
4685 a consequence, account-hook should only be used to set connection-related
4686 settings such as passwords or tunnel commands but not settings such as sender
4687 address or name (because in general it should be considered unpredictable which
4688 account-hook was last used).
4692 account-hook . 'unset imap_user; unset imap_pass; unset tunnel'
4693 account-hook imap://host1/ 'set imap_user=me1 imap_pass=foo'
4694 account-hook imap://host2/ 'set tunnel="ssh host2 /usr/libexec/imapd"'
4695 account-hook smtp://user@host3/ 'set tunnel="ssh host3 /usr/libexec/smtpd"'
4699 Mutt contains two types of local caching: (1) the so-called ?header caching?
4700 and (2) the so-called ?body caching? which are both described in this section.
4702 Header caching is optional as it depends on external libraries, body caching is
4703 always enabled if mutt is compiled with POP and/or IMAP support as these use it
4704 (body caching requires no external library).
4708 Mutt provides optional support for caching message headers for the following
4709 types of folders: IMAP, POP, Maildir and MH. Header caching greatly improves
4710 speed because for remote folders, headers usually only need to be downloaded
4711 once. For Maildir and MH, reading the headers from a single file is much faster
4712 than looking at possibly thousands of single files (since Maildir and MH use
4713 one file per message.)
4715 Header caching can be enabled via the configure script and the --enable-hcache
4716 option. It's not turned on by default because external database libraries are
4717 required: one of tokyocabinet, qdbm, gdbm or bdb must be present.
4719 If enabled, $header_cache can be used to either point to a file or a directory.
4720 If set to point to a file, one database file for all folders will be used
4721 (which may result in lower performance), but one file per folder if it points
4724 For the one-file-per-folder case, database files for remote folders will be
4725 named according to their URL while database files for local folders will be
4726 named by the MD5 checksums of their path. These database files may be safely
4727 removed if a system is short on space. You can compute the name of the header
4728 cache file for a particular local folder through a command like the following:
4730 $ printf '%s' '/path/to/folder' | md5sum
4732 The md5sum command may also be named md5, depending on your operating system.
4736 Both cache methods can be combined using the same directory for storage (and
4737 for IMAP/POP even provide meaningful file names) which simplifies manual
4740 In addition to caching message headers only, mutt can also cache whole message
4741 bodies. This results in faster display of messages for POP and IMAP folders
4742 because messages usually have to be downloaded only once.
4744 For configuration, the variable $message_cachedir must point to a directory.
4745 There, mutt will create a hierarchy of subdirectories named like:
4746 proto:user@hostname where proto is either ?pop? or ?imap.? Within there for
4747 each folder, mutt stores messages in single files (just like Maildir) so that
4748 with manual symlink creation these cache directories can be examined with mutt
4749 as read-only Maildir folders.
4751 All files can be removed as needed if the consumed disk space becomes an issue
4752 as mutt will silently fetch missing items again.
4756 Mutt does not (yet) support maintenance features for header cache database
4757 files so that files have to be removed in case they grow too big. It depends on
4758 the database library used for header caching whether disk space freed by
4759 removing messages is re-used.
4761 For body caches, mutt can keep the local cache in sync with the remote mailbox
4762 if the $message_cache_clean variable is set. Cleaning means to remove messages
4763 from the cache which are no longer present in the mailbox which only happens
4764 when other mail clients or instances of mutt using a different body cache
4765 location delete messages (Mutt itself removes deleted messages from the cache
4766 when syncing a mailbox). As cleaning can take a noticeable amount of time, it
4767 should not be set in general but only occasionally.
4769 8. Exact address generation
4771 Mutt supports the ?Name <user@host>? address syntax for reading and writing
4772 messages, the older ?user@host (Name)? syntax is only supported when reading
4773 messages. The --enable-exact-address switch can be given to configure to build
4774 it with write-support for the latter syntax. EXACT_ADDRESS in the output of
4775 mutt -v indicates whether it's supported.
4777 Chapter 7. Performance tuning
4781 1. Reading and writing mailboxes
4782 2. Reading messages from remote folders
4783 3. Searching and limiting
4785 1. Reading and writing mailboxes
4787 Mutt's performance when reading mailboxes can be improved in two ways:
4789 1. For remote folders (IMAP and POP) as well as folders using one-file-per
4790 message storage (Maildir and MH), mutt's performance can be greatly
4791 improved using header caching. Using a single database per folder may
4792 further increase performance.
4794 2. Mutt provides the $read_inc and $write_inc variables to specify at which
4795 rate to update progress counters. If these values are too low, mutt may
4796 spend more time on updating the progress counter than it spends on actually
4797 reading/writing folders.
4799 For example, when opening a maildir folder with a few thousand messages,
4800 the default value for $read_inc may be too low. It can be tuned on on a
4801 folder-basis using folder-hooks:
4803 # use very high $read_inc to speed up reading hcache'd maildirs
4804 folder-hook . 'set read_inc=1000'
4805 # use lower value for reading slower remote IMAP folders
4806 folder-hook ^imap 'set read_inc=100'
4807 # use even lower value for reading even slower remote POP folders
4808 folder-hook ^pop 'set read_inc=1'
4810 These settings work on a per-message basis. However, as messages may greatly
4811 differ in size and certain operations are much faster than others, even
4812 per-folder settings of the increment variables may not be desirable as they
4813 produce either too few or too much progress updates. Thus, Mutt allows to limit
4814 the number of progress updates per second it'll actually send to the terminal
4815 using the $time_inc variable.
4817 2. Reading messages from remote folders
4819 Reading messages from remote folders such as IMAP an POP can be slow especially
4820 for large mailboxes since mutt only caches a very limited number of recently
4821 viewed messages (usually 10) per session (so that it will be gone for the next
4824 To improve performance and permanently cache whole messages, please refer to
4825 mutt's so-called body caching for details.
4827 3. Searching and limiting
4829 When searching mailboxes either via a search or a limit action, for some
4830 patterns mutt distinguishes between regular expression and string searches. For
4831 regular expressions, patterns are prefixed with ??? and with ?=? for string
4834 Even though a regular expression search is fast, it's several times slower than
4835 a pure string search which is noticeable especially on large folders. As a
4836 consequence, a string search should be used instead of a regular expression
4837 search if the user already knows enough about the search pattern.
4839 For example, when limiting a large folder to all messages sent to or by an
4840 author, it's much faster to search for the initial part of an e-mail address
4841 via =Luser@ instead of ?Luser@. This is especially true for searching message
4842 bodies since a larger amount of input has to be searched.
4844 Please note that string search is an exact case-sensitive search while a
4845 regular expression search with only lower-case letters performs a
4846 case-insensitive search.
4848 Chapter 8. Reference
4852 1. Command line options
4853 2. Configuration Commands
4854 3. Configuration variables
4856 3.1. abort_nosubject
4857 3.2. abort_unmodified
4866 3.11. assumed_charset
4867 3.12. attach_charset
4877 3.22. bounce_delivered
4878 3.23. braille_friendly
4879 3.24. check_mbox_size
4882 3.27. collapse_unread
4883 3.28. uncollapse_jump
4884 3.29. compose_format
4885 3.30. config_charset
4888 3.33. connect_timeout
4891 3.36. crypt_use_gpgme
4894 3.39. crypt_autosmime
4899 3.44. digest_collapse
4900 3.45. display_filter
4901 3.46. dotlock_program
4904 3.49. duplicate_threads
4908 3.53. envelope_from_address
4917 3.62. forward_decode
4919 3.64. forward_format
4929 3.74. hide_thread_subject
4930 3.75. hide_top_limited
4931 3.76. hide_top_missing
4934 3.79. honor_followup_to
4936 3.81. ignore_linear_white_space
4937 3.82. ignore_list_reply_to
4938 3.83. imap_authenticators
4939 3.84. imap_check_subscribed
4940 3.85. imap_delim_chars
4943 3.88. imap_keepalive
4944 3.89. imap_list_subscribed
4949 3.94. imap_pipeline_depth
4950 3.95. imap_servernoise
4952 3.97. implicit_autoview
4954 3.99. include_onlyfirst
4955 3.100. indent_string
4962 3.107. mailcap_sanitize
4964 3.109. maildir_header_cache_verify
4965 3.110. header_cache_pagesize
4966 3.111. header_cache_compress
4967 3.112. maildir_trash
4975 3.120. menu_move_off
4979 3.124. mh_seq_flagged
4980 3.125. mh_seq_replied
4981 3.126. mh_seq_unseen
4983 3.128. mime_forward_decode
4984 3.129. mime_forward_rest
4985 3.130. mix_entry_format
4988 3.133. message_cachedir
4989 3.134. message_cache_clean
4990 3.135. message_format
4994 3.139. pager_context
4996 3.141. pager_index_lines
4998 3.143. crypt_autosign
4999 3.144. crypt_autoencrypt
5000 3.145. pgp_ignore_subkeys
5001 3.146. crypt_replyencrypt
5002 3.147. crypt_replysign
5003 3.148. crypt_replysignencrypted
5004 3.149. crypt_timestamp
5005 3.150. pgp_use_gpg_agent
5006 3.151. crypt_verify_sig
5007 3.152. smime_is_default
5008 3.153. smime_ask_cert_label
5009 3.154. smime_decrypt_use_default_key
5010 3.155. pgp_entry_format
5011 3.156. pgp_good_sign
5012 3.157. pgp_check_exit
5014 3.159. pgp_retainable_sigs
5015 3.160. pgp_autoinline
5016 3.161. pgp_replyinline
5017 3.162. pgp_show_unusable
5019 3.164. pgp_strict_enc
5021 3.166. pgp_sort_keys
5022 3.167. pgp_mime_auto
5023 3.168. pgp_auto_decode
5024 3.169. pgp_decode_command
5025 3.170. pgp_getkeys_command
5026 3.171. pgp_verify_command
5027 3.172. pgp_decrypt_command
5028 3.173. pgp_clearsign_command
5029 3.174. pgp_sign_command
5030 3.175. pgp_encrypt_sign_command
5031 3.176. pgp_encrypt_only_command
5032 3.177. pgp_import_command
5033 3.178. pgp_export_command
5034 3.179. pgp_verify_key_command
5035 3.180. pgp_list_secring_command
5036 3.181. pgp_list_pubring_command
5037 3.182. forward_decrypt
5038 3.183. smime_timeout
5039 3.184. smime_encrypt_with
5041 3.186. smime_ca_location
5042 3.187. smime_certificates
5043 3.188. smime_decrypt_command
5044 3.189. smime_verify_command
5045 3.190. smime_verify_opaque_command
5046 3.191. smime_sign_command
5047 3.192. smime_sign_opaque_command
5048 3.193. smime_encrypt_command
5049 3.194. smime_pk7out_command
5050 3.195. smime_get_cert_command
5051 3.196. smime_get_signer_cert_command
5052 3.197. smime_import_cert_command
5053 3.198. smime_get_cert_email_command
5054 3.199. smime_default_key
5055 3.200. ssl_client_cert
5056 3.201. ssl_force_tls
5058 3.203. certificate_file
5059 3.204. ssl_usesystemcerts
5061 3.206. ssl_use_sslv2
5062 3.207. ssl_use_sslv3
5063 3.208. ssl_use_tlsv1
5064 3.209. ssl_min_dh_prime_bits
5065 3.210. ssl_ca_certificates_file
5069 3.214. pop_authenticators
5070 3.215. pop_auth_try_all
5071 3.216. pop_checkinterval
5075 3.220. pop_reconnect
5078 3.223. post_indent_string
5083 3.228. print_command
5087 3.232. query_command
5100 3.245. reverse_alias
5102 3.247. reverse_realname
5103 3.248. rfc2047_parameters
5109 3.254. score_threshold_delete
5110 3.255. score_threshold_flag
5111 3.256. score_threshold_read
5114 3.259. sendmail_wait
5119 3.264. simple_search
5123 3.268. smtp_authenticators
5131 3.276. spam_separator
5134 3.279. status_format
5135 3.280. status_on_top
5136 3.281. strict_threads
5139 3.284. thread_received
5140 3.285. thorough_search
5149 3.294. use_envelope_from
5179 1. Command line options
5181 Running mutt with no arguments will make Mutt attempt to read your spool
5182 mailbox. However, it is possible to read other mailboxes and to send messages
5183 from the command line as well.
5185 Table 8.1. Command line options
5187 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
5188 |Option| Description |
5189 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
5190 |-A |expand an alias |
5191 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
5192 |-a |attach a file to a message |
5193 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
5194 |-b |specify a blind carbon-copy (BCC) address |
5195 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
5196 |-c |specify a carbon-copy (Cc) address |
5197 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
5198 |-D |print the value of all mutt variables to stdout |
5199 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
5200 |-e |specify a config command to be run after initialization files are read|
5201 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
5202 |-f |specify a mailbox to load |
5203 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
5204 |-F |specify an alternate file to read initialization commands |
5205 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
5206 |-h |print help on command line options |
5207 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
5208 |-H |specify a draft file from which to read a header and body |
5209 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
5210 |-i |specify a file to include in a message composition |
5211 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
5212 |-m |specify a default mailbox type |
5213 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
5214 |-n |do not read the system Muttrc |
5215 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
5216 |-p |recall a postponed message |
5217 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
5218 |-Q |query a configuration variable |
5219 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
5220 |-R |open mailbox in read-only mode |
5221 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
5222 |-s |specify a subject (enclose in quotes if it contains spaces) |
5223 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
5224 |-v |show version number and compile-time definitions |
5225 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
5226 |-x |simulate the mailx(1) compose mode |
5227 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
5228 |-y |show a menu containing the files specified by the mailboxes command |
5229 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
5230 |-z |exit immediately if there are no messages in the mailbox |
5231 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
5232 |-Z |open the first folder with new message,exit immediately if none |
5233 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
5236 To read messages in a mailbox
5238 mutt [-nz] [-F muttrc ] [-m type ] [-f mailbox ]
5240 To compose a new message
5242 mutt [-n] [-F muttrc ] [-a file ] [-c address ] [-i filename ] [-s subject ] [
5243 [ file ...] -- ] address [ address ...]
5245 Mutt also supports a ?batch? mode to send prepared messages. Simply redirect
5246 input from the file you wish to send. For example,
5248 mutt -s "data set for run #2" professor@bigschool.edu < ?/run2.dat
5250 This command will send a message to ?professor@bigschool.edu? with a subject of
5251 ?data set for run #2?. In the body of the message will be the contents of the
5254 All files passed with -a file will be attached as a MIME part to the message.
5255 To attach several files, use ?--? to separate files and recipient addresses:
5256 mutt -a *.png -- some@one.org
5258 2. Configuration Commands
5260 The following are the commands understood by mutt.
5262 * account-hook pattern command
5264 * alias [ -group name ...] key address [ address ...]
5266 * unalias [ -group name ...] { * | key ... }
5268 * alternates [ -group name ...] regexp [ regexp ...]
5270 * unalternates [ -group name ...] { * | regexp ... }
5272 * alternative-order mimetype [ mimetype ...]
5274 * unalternative-order { * | mimetype ... }
5276 * auto-view mimetype [ mimetype ...]
5278 * unauto-view { * | mimetype ... }
5280 * bind map key function
5282 * charset-hook alias charset
5284 * iconv-hook charset local-charset
5286 * color object foreground background
5288 color { header | body } foreground background regexp
5290 color index foreground background pattern
5292 * uncolor index pattern ...
5294 * exec function [ function ...]
5296 * fcc-hook [!]pattern mailbox
5298 * fcc-save-hook [!]pattern mailbox
5300 * folder-hook [!]regexp command
5302 * group [ -group name ...] { -rx expr ... | -addr expr ... }
5304 * ungroup [ -group name ...] { * | -rx expr ... | -addr expr ... }
5306 * hdr_order header [ header ...]
5308 * unhdr_order { * | header ... }
5310 * ignore pattern [ pattern ...]
5312 * unignore { * | pattern ... }
5314 * lists [ -group name ] regexp [ regexp ...]
5316 * unlists [ -group name ...] { * | regexp ... }
5318 * macro menu key sequence [ description ]
5320 * mailboxes mailbox [ mailbox ...]
5322 * unmailboxes { * | mailbox ... }
5324 * mbox-hook [!]pattern mailbox
5326 * message-hook [!]pattern command
5328 * mime-lookup mimetype [ mimetype ...]
5330 * unmime-lookup { * | mimetype ... }
5332 * mono object attribute
5334 mono { header | body } attribute regexp
5336 mono index attribute pattern
5338 * unmono index { * | pattern ... }
5342 * unmy_hdr { * | field ... }
5344 * crypt-hook pattern keyid
5348 * reset variable [ variable ...]
5350 * save-hook [!]pattern mailbox
5352 * score pattern value
5354 * unscore { * | pattern ... }
5356 * reply-hook [!]pattern command
5358 * send-hook [!]pattern command
5360 * send2-hook [!]pattern command
5362 * set { [ no | inv ] variable | variable=value } [...]
5364 * unset variable [ variable ...]
5368 * spam pattern format
5370 * nospam { * | pattern }
5372 * subscribe [ -group name ...] regexp [ regexp ...]
5374 * unsubscribe [ -group name ...] { * | regexp ... }
5376 * toggle variable [ variable ...]
5378 * unhook { * | hook-type }
5380 3. Configuration variables
5382 3.1. abort_nosubject
5387 If set to yes, when composing messages and no subject is given at the subject
5388 prompt, composition will be aborted. If set to no, composing messages with no
5389 subject given at the subject prompt will never be aborted.
5391 3.2. abort_unmodified
5396 If set to yes, composition will automatically abort after editing the message
5397 body if no changes are made to the file (this check only happens after the
5398 first edit of the file). When set to no, composition will never be aborted.
5403 Default: ??/.muttrc?
5405 The default file in which to save aliases created by the <create-alias>
5406 function. Entries added to this file are encoded in the character set specified
5407 by $config_charset if it is set or the current character set otherwise.
5409 Note: Mutt will not automatically source this file; you must explicitly use the
5410 ?source? command for it to be executed in case this option points to a
5411 dedicated alias file.
5413 The default for this option is the currently used muttrc file, or ??/.muttrc?
5414 if no user muttrc was found.
5419 Default: ?%4n %2f %t %-10a %r?
5421 Specifies the format of the data displayed for the ?alias? menu. The following
5422 printf(3)-style sequences are available:
5430 flags - currently, a ?d? for an alias marked for deletion
5438 address which alias expands to
5442 character which indicates if the alias is tagged for inclusion
5449 Controls whether 8-bit data is converted to 7-bit using either Quoted-
5450 Printable or Base64 encoding when sending mail.
5457 Controls whether ANSI color codes in messages (and color tags in rich text
5458 messages) are to be interpreted. Messages containing these codes are rare, but
5459 if this option is set, their text will be colored accordingly. Note that this
5460 may override your color choices, and even present a security problem, since a
5461 message could include a line like
5463 [-- PGP output follows ...
5466 and give it the same color as your attachment color (see also $crypt_timestamp
5474 When set, an arrow (?->?) will be used to indicate the current entry in menus
5475 instead of highlighting the whole line. On slow network or modem links this
5476 will make response faster because there is less that has to be redrawn on the
5477 screen when moving to the next or previous entries in the menu.
5484 If set, Mutt will use plain ASCII characters when displaying thread and
5485 attachment trees, instead of the default ACS characters.
5492 If set, Mutt will prompt you for blind-carbon-copy (Bcc) recipients before
5493 editing an outgoing message.
5500 If set, Mutt will prompt you for carbon-copy (Cc) recipients before editing the
5501 body of an outgoing message.
5503 3.11. assumed_charset
5508 This variable is a colon-separated list of character encoding schemes for
5509 messages without character encoding indication. Header field values and message
5510 body content without character encoding indication would be assumed that they
5511 are written in one of this list. By default, all the header fields and message
5512 body without any charset indication are assumed to be in ?us-ascii?.
5514 For example, Japanese users might prefer this:
5516 set assumed_charset="iso-2022-jp:euc-jp:shift_jis:utf-8"
5519 However, only the first content is valid for the message body.
5521 3.12. attach_charset
5526 This variable is a colon-separated list of character encoding schemes for text
5527 file attachments. If unset, the value of $charset will be used instead. For
5528 example, the following configuration would work for Japanese text handling:
5530 set attach_charset="iso-2022-jp:euc-jp:shift_jis:utf-8"
5533 Note: for Japanese users, ?iso-2022-*? must be put at the head of the value as
5534 shown above if included.
5539 Default: ?%u%D%I %t%4n %T%.40d%> [%.7m/%.10M, %.6e%?C?, %C?, %s] ?
5541 This variable describes the format of the ?attachment? menu. The following
5542 printf(3)-style sequences are understood:
5550 requires charset conversion (?n? or ?c?)
5562 MIME content-transfer-encoding
5570 disposition (?I? for inline, ?A? for attachment)
5586 ?Q?, if MIME part qualifies for attachment counting
5598 graphic tree characters
5602 unlink (=to delete) flag
5606 number of qualifying MIME parts in this part and its children (please see
5607 the ?attachments? section for possible speed effects)
5611 right justify the rest of the string and pad with character ?X?
5615 pad to the end of the line with character ?X?
5619 soft-fill with character ?X? as pad
5621 For an explanation of ?soft-fill?, see the $index_format documentation.
5628 The separator to add between attachments when operating (saving, printing,
5629 piping, etc) on a list of tagged attachments.
5636 If this variable is unset, when operating (saving, printing, piping, etc) on a
5637 list of tagged attachments, Mutt will concatenate the attachments and will
5638 operate on them as a single attachment. The $attach_sep separator is added
5639 after each attachment. When set, Mutt will operate on the attachments one by
5645 Default: ?On %d, %n wrote:?
5647 This is the string that will precede a message which has been included in a
5648 reply. For a full listing of defined printf(3)-like sequences see the section
5656 When set along with $edit_headers, Mutt will skip the initial send-menu
5657 (prompting for subject and recipients) and allow you to immediately begin
5658 editing the body of your message. The send-menu may still be accessed once you
5659 have finished editing the body of your message.
5661 Also see $fast_reply.
5668 When set, functions in the index menu which affect a message will be applied to
5669 all tagged messages (if there are any). When unset, you must first use the
5670 <tag-prefix> function (bound to ?;? by default) to make the next function apply
5671 to all tagged messages.
5678 When this variable is set, mutt will beep when an error occurs.
5685 When this variable is set, mutt will beep whenever it prints a message
5686 notifying you of new mail. This is independent of the setting of the $beep
5694 Controls whether you will be asked to confirm bouncing messages. If set to yes
5695 you don't get asked if you want to bounce a message. Setting this variable to
5696 no is not generally useful, and thus not recommended, because you are unable to
5699 3.22. bounce_delivered
5704 When this variable is set, mutt will include Delivered-To headers when bouncing
5705 messages. Postfix users may wish to unset this variable.
5707 3.23. braille_friendly
5712 When this variable is set, mutt will place the cursor at the beginning of the
5713 current line in menus, even when the $arrow_cursor variable is unset, making it
5714 easier for blind persons using Braille displays to follow these menus. The
5715 option is unset by default because many visual terminals don't permit making
5716 the cursor invisible.
5718 3.24. check_mbox_size
5723 When this variable is set, mutt will use file size attribute instead of access
5724 time when checking for new mail in mbox and mmdf folders.
5726 This variable is unset by default and should only be enabled when new mail
5727 detection for these folder types is unreliable or doesn't work.
5729 Note that enabling this variable should happen before any ?mailboxes?
5730 directives occur in configuration files regarding mbox or mmdf folders because
5731 mutt needs to determine the initial new mail status of such a mailbox by
5732 performing a fast mailbox scan when it is defined. Afterwards the new mail
5733 status is tracked by file size changes.
5740 Character set your terminal uses to display and enter textual data. It is also
5741 the fallback for $send_charset.
5743 Upon startup Mutt tries to derive this value from environment variables such as
5746 Note: It should only be set in case Mutt isn't abled to determine the character
5754 Note: this option only affects maildir and MH style mailboxes.
5756 When set, Mutt will check for new mail delivered while the mailbox is open.
5757 Especially with MH mailboxes, this operation can take quite some time since it
5758 involves scanning the directory and checking each file to see if it has already
5759 been looked at. If this variable is unset, no check for new mail is performed
5760 while the mailbox is open.
5762 3.27. collapse_unread
5767 When unset, Mutt will not collapse a thread if it contains any unread messages.
5769 3.28. uncollapse_jump
5774 When set, Mutt will jump to the next unread message, if any, when the current
5775 thread is uncollapsed.
5777 3.29. compose_format
5780 Default: ?-- Mutt: Compose [Approx. msg size: %l Atts: %a]%>-?
5782 Controls the format of the status line displayed in the ?compose? menu. This
5783 string is similar to $status_format, but has its own set of printf(3)-like
5788 total number of attachments
5796 approximate size (in bytes) of the current message
5802 See the text describing the $status_format option for more information on how
5803 to set $compose_format.
5805 3.30. config_charset
5810 When defined, Mutt will recode commands in rc files from this encoding to the
5811 current character set as specified by $charset and aliases written to
5812 $alias_file from the current character set.
5814 Please note that if setting $charset it must be done before setting
5817 Recoding should be avoided as it may render unconvertable characters as
5818 question marks which can lead to undesired side effects (for example in regular
5826 When set, Mutt will prompt for confirmation when appending messages to an
5834 When set, Mutt will prompt for confirmation when saving messages to a mailbox
5835 which does not yet exist before creating it.
5837 3.33. connect_timeout
5842 Causes Mutt to timeout a network connection (for IMAP, POP or SMTP) after this
5843 many seconds if the connection is not able to be established. A negative value
5844 causes Mutt to wait indefinitely for the connection attempt to succeed.
5849 Default: ?text/plain?
5851 Sets the default Content-Type for the body of newly composed messages.
5858 This variable controls whether or not copies of your outgoing messages will be
5859 saved for later references. Also see $record, $save_name, $force_name and ?
5862 3.36. crypt_use_gpgme
5867 This variable controls the use of the GPGME-enabled crypto backends. If it is
5868 set and Mutt was built with gpgme support, the gpgme code for S/MIME and PGP
5869 will be used instead of the classic code. Note that you need to set this option
5870 in .muttrc; it won't have any effect when used interactively.
5877 Controls whether mutt uses PKA (see http://www.g10code.de/docs/
5878 pka-intro.de.pdf) during signature verification (only supported by the GPGME
5886 This variable controls whether or not mutt may automatically enable PGP
5887 encryption/signing for messages. See also $crypt_autoencrypt,
5888 $crypt_replyencrypt, $crypt_autosign, $crypt_replysign and $smime_is_default.
5890 3.39. crypt_autosmime
5895 This variable controls whether or not mutt may automatically enable S/MIME
5896 encryption/signing for messages. See also $crypt_autoencrypt,
5897 $crypt_replyencrypt, $crypt_autosign, $crypt_replysign and $smime_is_default.
5902 Default: ?!%a, %b %d, %Y at %I:%M:%S%p %Z?
5904 This variable controls the format of the date printed by the ?%d? sequence in
5905 $index_format. This is passed to the strftime(3) function to process the date,
5906 see the man page for the proper syntax.
5908 Unless the first character in the string is a bang (?!?), the month and week
5909 day names are expanded according to the locale specified in the variable
5910 $locale. If the first character in the string is a bang, the bang is discarded,
5911 and the month and week day names in the rest of the string are expanded in the
5912 C locale (that is in US English).
5917 Default: ??f %s !?P | (?P ?C %s)?
5919 This variable controls how ?message-hook?, ?reply-hook?, ?send-hook?, ?
5920 send2-hook?, ?save-hook?, and ?fcc-hook? will be interpreted if they are
5921 specified with only a simple regexp, instead of a matching pattern. The hooks
5922 are expanded when they are declared, so a hook will be interpreted according to
5923 the value of this variable at the time the hook is declared.
5925 The default value matches if the message is either from a user matching the
5926 regular expression given, or if it is from you (if the from address matches ?
5927 alternates?) and is to or cc'ed to a user matching the given regular
5935 Controls whether or not messages are really deleted when closing or
5936 synchronizing a mailbox. If set to yes, messages marked for deleting will
5937 automatically be purged without prompting. If set to no, messages marked for
5938 deletion will be kept in the mailbox.
5945 If this option is set, mutt will untag messages when marking them for deletion.
5946 This applies when you either explicitly delete a message, or when you save it
5949 3.44. digest_collapse
5954 If this option is set, mutt's received-attachments menu will not show the
5955 subparts of individual messages in a multipart/digest. To see these subparts,
5956 press ?v? on that menu.
5958 3.45. display_filter
5963 When set, specifies a command used to filter messages. When a message is viewed
5964 it is passed as standard input to $display_filter, and the filtered message is
5965 read from the standard output.
5967 3.46. dotlock_program
5970 Default: ?/usr/local/bin/mutt_dotlock?
5972 Contains the path of the mutt_dotlock(8) binary to be used by mutt.
5979 This variable sets the request for when notification is returned. The string
5980 consists of a comma separated list (no spaces!) of one or more of the
5981 following: never, to never request notification, failure, to request
5982 notification on transmission failure, delay, to be notified of message delays,
5983 success, to be notified of successful transmission.
5987 set dsn_notify="failure,delay"
5990 Note: when using $sendmail for delivery, you should not enable this unless you
5991 are either using Sendmail 8.8.x or greater or a MTA providing a sendmail(1)
5992 -compatible interface supporting the -N option for DSN. For SMTP delivery, DSN
5993 support is autodetected so that it depends on the server whether DSN will be
6001 This variable controls how much of your message is returned in DSN messages. It
6002 may be set to either hdrs to return just the message header, or full to return
6010 Note: when using $sendmail for delivery, you should not enable this unless you
6011 are either using Sendmail 8.8.x or greater or a MTA providing a sendmail(1)
6012 -compatible interface supporting the -R option for DSN. For SMTP delivery, DSN
6013 support is autodetected so that it depends on the server whether DSN will be
6016 3.49. duplicate_threads
6021 This variable controls whether mutt, when $sort is set to threads, threads
6022 messages with the same Message-Id together. If it is set, it will indicate that
6023 it thinks they are duplicates of each other with an equals sign in the thread
6031 This option allows you to edit the header of your outgoing messages along with
6032 the body of your message.
6034 Note that changes made to the References: and Date: headers are ignored for
6035 interoperability reasons.
6042 This variable specifies which editor is used by mutt. It defaults to the value
6043 of the $VISUAL, or $EDITOR, environment variable, or to the string ?vi? if
6044 neither of those are set.
6051 When set, mutt will quoted-printable encode messages when they contain the
6052 string ?From ? (note the trailing space) in the beginning of a line. This is
6053 useful to avoid the tampering certain mail delivery and transport agents tend
6054 to do with messages (in order to prevent tools from misinterpreting the line as
6055 a mbox message separator).
6057 3.53. envelope_from_address
6059 Type: e-mail address
6062 Manually sets the envelope sender for outgoing messages. This value is ignored
6063 if $use_envelope_from is unset.
6070 Escape character to use for functions in the builtin editor.
6077 When set, the initial prompt for recipients and subject are skipped when
6078 replying to messages, and the initial prompt for subject is skipped when
6079 forwarding messages.
6081 Note: this variable has no effect when the $autoedit variable is set.
6088 This variable controls whether or not attachments on outgoing messages are
6089 saved along with the main body of your message.
6096 When this variable is set, FCCs will be stored unencrypted and unsigned, even
6097 when the actual message is encrypted and/or signed. (PGP only)
6104 Specifies the default location of your mailboxes. A ?+? or ?=? at the beginning
6105 of a pathname will be expanded to the value of this variable. Note that if you
6106 change this variable (from the default) value you need to make sure that the
6107 assignment occurs before you use ?+? or ?=? for any other variables since
6108 expansion takes place when handling the ?mailboxes? command.
6113 Default: ?%2C %t %N %F %2l %-8.8u %-8.8g %8s %d %f?
6115 This variable allows you to customize the file browser display to your personal
6116 taste. This string is similar to $index_format, but has its own set of printf
6125 date/time folder was last modified
6137 group name (or numeric gid, if missing)
6141 number of hard links
6145 N if folder has new mail, blank otherwise
6153 ?*? if the file is tagged, blank otherwise
6157 owner name (or numeric uid, if missing)
6161 right justify the rest of the string and pad with character ?X?
6165 pad to the end of the line with character ?X?
6169 soft-fill with character ?X? as pad
6171 For an explanation of ?soft-fill?, see the $index_format documentation.
6178 Controls whether or not the ?Mail-Followup-To:? header field is generated when
6179 sending mail. When set, Mutt will generate this field when you are replying to
6180 a known mailing list, specified with the ?subscribe? or ?lists? commands.
6182 This field has two purposes. First, preventing you from receiving duplicate
6183 copies of replies to messages which you send to mailing lists, and second,
6184 ensuring that you do get a reply separately for any messages sent to known
6185 lists to which you are not subscribed.
6187 The header will contain only the list's address for subscribed lists, and both
6188 the list address and your own email address for unsubscribed lists. Without
6189 this header, a group reply to your message sent to a subscribed list will be
6190 sent to both the list and your address, resulting in two copies of the same
6198 This variable is similar to $save_name, except that Mutt will store a copy of
6199 your outgoing message by the username of the address you are sending to even if
6200 that mailbox does not exist.
6202 Also see the $record variable.
6204 3.62. forward_decode
6209 Controls the decoding of complex MIME messages into text/plain when forwarding
6210 a message. The message header is also RFC2047 decoded. This variable is only
6211 used, if $mime_forward is unset, otherwise $mime_forward_decode is used
6219 This quadoption controls whether or not the user is automatically placed in the
6220 editor when forwarding messages. For those who always want to forward with no
6221 modification, use a setting of ?no?.
6223 3.64. forward_format
6228 This variable controls the default subject when forwarding a message. It uses
6229 the same format sequences as the $index_format variable.
6236 When set, forwarded messages included in the main body of the message (when
6237 $mime_forward is unset) will be quoted using $indent_string.
6241 Type: e-mail address
6244 When set, this variable contains a default from address. It can be overridden
6245 using ?my_hdr? (including from a ?send-hook?) and $reverse_name. This variable
6246 is ignored if $use_from is unset.
6248 This setting defaults to the contents of the environment variable $EMAIL.
6252 Type: regular expression
6255 A regular expression used by mutt to parse the GECOS field of a password entry
6256 when expanding the alias. The default value will return the string up to the
6257 first ?,? encountered. If the GECOS field contains a string like ?lastname,
6258 firstname? then you should set it to ?.*?.
6260 This can be useful if you see the following behavior: you address a e-mail to
6261 user ID ?stevef? whose full name is ?Steve Franklin?. If mutt expands ?stevef?
6262 to ?"Franklin" stevef@foo.bar? then you should set the $gecos_mask to a regular
6263 expression that will match the whole name so mutt will expand ?Franklin? to
6271 When unset, the header fields normally added by the ?my_hdr? command are not
6272 created. This variable must be unset before composing a new message or replying
6273 in order to take effect. If set, the user defined header fields are added to
6281 When set, this variable causes Mutt to include the header of the message you
6282 are replying to into the edit buffer. The $weed setting applies.
6289 When set, help lines describing the bindings for the major functions provided
6290 by each menu are displayed on the first line of the screen.
6292 Note: The binding will not be displayed correctly if the function is bound to a
6293 sequence rather than a single keystroke. Also, the help line may not be updated
6294 if a binding is changed while Mutt is running. Since this variable is primarily
6295 aimed at new users, neither of these should present a major problem.
6302 When set, mutt will skip the host name part of $hostname variable when adding
6303 the domain part to addresses. This variable does not affect the generation of
6304 Message-IDs, and it will not lead to the cut-off of first-level domains.
6311 When set, mutt will not show the presence of messages that are hidden by
6312 limiting, in the thread tree.
6319 When set, mutt will not show the presence of missing messages in the thread
6322 3.74. hide_thread_subject
6327 When set, mutt will not show the subject of messages in the thread tree that
6328 have the same subject as their parent or closest previously displayed sibling.
6330 3.75. hide_top_limited
6335 When set, mutt will not show the presence of messages that are hidden by
6336 limiting, at the top of threads in the thread tree. Note that when
6337 $hide_limited is set, this option will have no effect.
6339 3.76. hide_top_missing
6344 When set, mutt will not show the presence of missing messages at the top of
6345 threads in the thread tree. Note that when $hide_missing is set, this option
6346 will have no effect.
6353 This variable controls the size (in number of strings remembered) of the string
6354 history buffer per category. The buffer is cleared each time the variable is
6360 Default: ??/.mutthistory?
6362 The file in which Mutt will save its history.
6364 3.79. honor_followup_to
6369 This variable controls whether or not a Mail-Followup-To header is honored when
6370 group-replying to a message.
6377 Specifies the fully-qualified hostname of the system mutt is running on
6378 containing the host's name and the DNS domain it belongs to. It is used as the
6379 domain part (after ?@?) for local email addresses as well as Message-Id
6382 Its value is determined at startup as follows: If the node's name as returned
6383 by the uname(3) function contains the hostname and the domain, these are used
6384 to construct $hostname. If there is no domain part returned, Mutt will look for
6385 a ?domain? or ?search? line in /etc/resolv.conf to determine the domain.
6386 Optionally, Mutt can be compiled with a fixed domain name in which case a
6387 detected one is not used.
6389 Also see $use_domain and $hidden_host.
6391 3.81. ignore_linear_white_space
6396 This option replaces linear-white-space between encoded-word and text to a
6397 single space to prevent the display of MIME-encoded ?Subject:? field from being
6398 divided into multiple lines.
6400 3.82. ignore_list_reply_to
6405 Affects the behaviour of the <reply> function when replying to messages from
6406 mailing lists (as defined by the ?subscribe? or ?lists? commands). When set, if
6407 the ?Reply-To:? field is set to the same value as the ?To:? field, Mutt assumes
6408 that the ?Reply-To:? field was set by the mailing list to automate responses to
6409 the list, and will ignore this field. To direct a response to the mailing list
6410 when this option is set, use the <list-reply> function; <group-reply> will
6411 reply to both the sender and the list.
6413 3.83. imap_authenticators
6418 This is a colon-delimited list of authentication methods mutt may attempt to
6419 use to log in to an IMAP server, in the order mutt should try them.
6420 Authentication methods are either ?login? or the right side of an IMAP ?AUTH=
6421 xxx? capability string, eg ?digest-md5?, ?gssapi? or ?cram-md5?. This option is
6422 case-insensitive. If it's unset (the default) mutt will try all available
6423 methods, in order from most-secure to least-secure.
6427 set imap_authenticators="gssapi:cram-md5:login"
6430 Note: Mutt will only fall back to other authentication methods if the previous
6431 methods are unavailable. If a method is available but authentication fails,
6432 mutt will not connect to the IMAP server.
6434 3.84. imap_check_subscribed
6439 When set, mutt will fetch the set of subscribed folders from your server on
6440 connection, and add them to the set of mailboxes it polls for new mail just as
6441 if you had issued individual ?mailboxes? commands.
6443 3.85. imap_delim_chars
6448 This contains the list of characters which you would like to treat as folder
6449 separators for displaying IMAP paths. In particular it helps in using the ?=?
6450 shortcut for your folder variable.
6457 Mutt requests these header fields in addition to the default headers (?Date:?,
6458 ?From:?, ?Subject:?, ?To:?, ?Cc:?, ?Message-Id:?, ?References:?,
6459 ?Content-Type:?, ?Content-Description:?, ?In-Reply-To:?, ?Reply-To:?, ?Lines:?,
6460 ?List-Post:?, ?X-Label:?) from IMAP servers before displaying the index menu.
6461 You may want to add more headers for spam detection.
6463 Note: This is a space separated list, items should be uppercase and not contain
6464 the colon, e.g. ?X-BOGOSITY X-SPAM-STATUS? for the ?X-Bogosity:? and
6465 ?X-Spam-Status:? header fields.
6472 When set, mutt will attempt to use the IMAP IDLE extension to check for new
6473 mail in the current mailbox. Some servers (dovecot was the inspiration for this
6474 option) react badly to mutt's implementation. If your connection seems to
6475 freeze up periodically, try unsetting this.
6477 3.88. imap_keepalive
6482 This variable specifies the maximum amount of time in seconds that mutt will
6483 wait before polling open IMAP connections, to prevent the server from closing
6484 them before mutt has finished with them. The default is well within the
6485 RFC-specified minimum amount of time (30 minutes) before a server is allowed to
6486 do this, but in practice the RFC does get violated every now and then. Reduce
6487 this number if you find yourself getting disconnected from your IMAP server due
6490 3.89. imap_list_subscribed
6495 This variable configures whether IMAP folder browsing will look for only
6496 subscribed folders or all folders. This can be toggled in the IMAP browser with
6497 the <toggle-subscribed> function.
6504 Your login name on the IMAP server.
6506 This variable defaults to the value of $imap_user.
6513 Specifies the password for your IMAP account. If unset, Mutt will prompt you
6514 for your password when you invoke the <fetch-mail> function or try to open an
6517 Warning: you should only use this option when you are on a fairly secure
6518 machine, because the superuser can read your muttrc even if you are the only
6519 one who can read the file.
6526 When set, mutt will not open new IMAP connections to check for new mail. Mutt
6527 will only check for new mail over existing IMAP connections. This is useful if
6528 you don't want to be prompted to user/password pairs on mutt invocation, or if
6529 opening the connection is slow.
6536 When set, mutt will avoid implicitly marking your mail as read whenever you
6537 fetch a message from the server. This is generally a good thing, but can make
6538 closing an IMAP folder somewhat slower. This option exists to appease speed
6541 3.94. imap_pipeline_depth
6546 Controls the number of IMAP commands that may be queued up before they are sent
6547 to the server. A deeper pipeline reduces the amount of time mutt must wait for
6548 the server, and can make IMAP servers feel much more responsive. But not all
6549 servers correctly handle pipelined commands, so if you have problems you might
6550 want to try setting this variable to 0.
6552 Note: Changes to this variable have no effect on open connections.
6554 3.95. imap_servernoise
6559 When set, mutt will display warning messages from the IMAP server as error
6560 messages. Since these messages are often harmless, or generated due to
6561 configuration problems on the server which are out of the users' hands, you may
6562 wish to suppress them at some point.
6569 The name of the user whose mail you intend to access on the IMAP server.
6571 This variable defaults to your user name on the local machine.
6573 3.97. implicit_autoview
6578 If set to ?yes?, mutt will look for a mailcap entry with the ?copiousoutput?
6579 flag set for every MIME attachment it doesn't have an internal viewer defined
6580 for. If such an entry is found, mutt will use the viewer defined in that entry
6581 to convert the body part to text form.
6588 Controls whether or not a copy of the message(s) you are replying to is
6589 included in your reply.
6591 3.99. include_onlyfirst
6596 Controls whether or not Mutt includes only the first attachment of the message
6599 3.100. indent_string
6604 Specifies the string to prepend to each line of text quoted in a message to
6605 which you are replying. You are strongly encouraged not to change this value,
6606 as it tends to agitate the more fanatical netizens.
6608 This option is a format string, please see the description of $index_format for
6609 supported printf(3)-style sequences.
6611 Because for format=lowed style messages the quoting mechanism is strictly
6612 defined, this setting is ignored if $text_flowed is set.
6617 Default: ?%4C %Z %{%b %d} %-15.15L (%?l?%4l&%4c?) %s?
6619 This variable allows you to customize the message index display to your
6622 ?Format strings? are similar to the strings used in the C function printf(3) to
6623 format output (see the man page for more details). The following sequences are
6628 address of the author
6632 reply-to address (if present; otherwise: address of author)
6636 filename of the original message folder (think mailbox)
6640 the list to which the letter was sent, or else the folder name (%b).
6644 number of characters (bytes) in the message
6648 current message number
6652 date and time of the message in the format specified by $date_format
6653 converted to sender's time zone
6657 date and time of the message in the format specified by $date_format
6658 converted to the local time zone
6662 current message number in thread
6666 number of messages in current thread
6670 sender (address + real name), either From: or Return-Path:
6674 author name, or recipient name if the message is from you
6678 spam attribute(s) of this message
6682 message-id of the current message
6686 number of lines in the message (does not work with maildir, mh, and
6687 possibly IMAP folders)
6691 If an address in the ?To:? or ?Cc:? header field matches an address defined
6692 by the users ?subscribe? command, this displays "To <list-name>", otherwise
6697 total number of message in the mailbox
6701 number of hidden messages if the thread is collapsed.
6709 author's real name (or address if missing)
6713 original save folder where mutt would formerly have stashed the message:
6714 list name or recipient name if not sent to a list
6718 progress indicator for the builtin pager (how much of the file has been
6723 subject of the message
6727 status of the message (?N?/?D?/?d?/?!?/?r?/*)
6731 ?To:? field (recipients)
6735 the appropriate character from the $to_chars string
6739 user (login) name of the author
6743 first name of the author, or the recipient if the message is from you
6747 number of attachments (please see the ?attachments? section for possible
6752 ?X-Label:? field, if present
6756 ?X-Label:? field, if present, and (1) not at part of a thread tree, (2) at
6757 the top of a thread, or (3) ?X-Label:? is different from preceding
6758 message's ?X-Label:?.
6762 message status flags
6766 the date and time of the message is converted to sender's time zone, and
6767 ?fmt? is expanded by the library function strftime(3); a leading bang
6772 the date and time of the message is converted to the local time zone, and
6773 ?fmt? is expanded by the library function strftime(3); a leading bang
6778 the local date and time when the message was received. ?fmt? is expanded by
6779 the library function strftime(3); a leading bang disables locales
6783 the current local time. ?fmt? is expanded by the library function strftime
6784 (3); a leading bang disables locales.
6788 right justify the rest of the string and pad with character ?X?
6792 pad to the end of the line with character ?X?
6796 soft-fill with character ?X? as pad
6798 ?Soft-fill? deserves some explanation: Normal right-justification will print
6799 everything to the left of the ?%>?, displaying padding and whatever lies to the
6800 right only if there's room. By contrast, soft-fill gives priority to the
6801 right-hand side, guaranteeing space to display it and showing padding only if
6802 there's still room. If necessary, soft-fill will eat text leftwards to make
6803 room for rightward text.
6805 Note that these expandos are supported in ?save-hook?, ?fcc-hook? and ?
6806 fcc-save-hook?, too.
6813 How to invoke ispell (GNU's spell-checking software).
6820 If set, read messages marked as flagged will not be moved from your spool
6821 mailbox to your $mbox mailbox, or as a result of a ?mbox-hook? command.
6828 The locale used by strftime(3) to format dates. Legal values are the strings
6829 your system accepts for the locale environment variable $LC_TIME.
6836 This variable configures how often (in seconds) mutt should look for new mail.
6837 Also see the $timeout variable.
6844 This variable specifies which files to consult when attempting to display MIME
6845 bodies not directly supported by Mutt.
6847 3.107. mailcap_sanitize
6852 If set, mutt will restrict possible characters in mailcap % expandos to a
6853 well-defined set of safe characters. This is the safe setting, but we are not
6854 sure it doesn't break some more advanced MIME stuff.
6856 DON'T CHANGE THIS SETTING UNLESS YOU ARE REALLY SURE WHAT YOU ARE DOING!
6863 This variable points to the header cache database. If pointing to a directory
6864 Mutt will contain a header cache database file per folder, if pointing to a
6865 file that file will be a single global header cache. By default it is unset so
6866 no header caching will be used.
6868 Header caching can greatly improve speed when opening POP, IMAP MH or Maildir
6869 folders, see ?caching? for details.
6871 3.109. maildir_header_cache_verify
6876 Check for Maildir unaware programs other than mutt having modified maildir
6877 files when the header cache is in use. This incurs one stat(2) per message
6878 every time the folder is opened (which can be very slow for NFS folders).
6880 3.110. header_cache_pagesize
6885 When mutt is compiled with either gdbm or bdb4 as the header cache backend,
6886 this option changes the database page size. Too large or too small values can
6887 waste space, memory, or CPU time. The default should be more or less optimal
6890 3.111. header_cache_compress
6895 When mutt is compiled with qdbm or tokyocabinet as header cache backend, this
6896 option determines whether the database will be compressed. Compression results
6897 in database files roughly being one fifth of the usual diskspace, but the
6898 uncompression can result in a slower opening of cached folder(s) which in
6899 general is still much faster than opening non header cached folders.
6901 3.112. maildir_trash
6906 If set, messages marked as deleted will be saved with the maildir trashed flag
6907 instead of unlinked. Note: this only applies to maildir-style mailboxes.
6908 Setting it will have no effect on other mailbox types.
6915 Controls whether or not mutt marks new unread messages as old if you exit a
6916 mailbox without reading them. With this option set, the next time you start
6917 mutt, the messages will show up with an ?O? next to them in the index menu,
6918 indicating that they are old.
6925 Controls the display of wrapped lines in the internal pager. If set, a ?+?
6926 marker is displayed at the beginning of wrapped lines.
6928 Also see the $smart_wrap variable.
6932 Type: regular expression
6935 A regular expression used in the file browser, optionally preceded by the not
6936 operator ?!?. Only files whose names match this mask will be shown. The match
6937 is always case-sensitive.
6944 This specifies the folder into which read mail in your $spoolfile folder will
6947 Also see the $move variable.
6954 The default mailbox type used when creating new folders. May be any of ?mbox?,
6955 ?MMDF?, ?MH? and ?Maildir?.
6962 If unset, Mutt will remove your address (see the ?alternates? command) from the
6963 list of recipients when replying to a message.
6970 This variable controls the number of lines of context that are given when
6971 scrolling through menus. (Similar to $pager_context.)
6973 3.120. menu_move_off
6978 When unset, the bottom entry of menus will never scroll up past the bottom of
6979 the screen, unless there are less entries than lines. When set, the bottom
6980 entry may move off the bottom.
6987 When set, menus will be scrolled up or down one line when you attempt to move
6988 across a screen boundary. If unset, the screen is cleared and the next or
6989 previous page of the menu is displayed (useful for slow links to avoid many
6997 If set, forces Mutt to interpret keystrokes with the high bit (bit 8) set as if
6998 the user had pressed the Esc key and whatever key remains after having the high
6999 bit removed. For example, if the key pressed has an ASCII value of 0xf8, then
7000 this is treated as if the user had pressed Esc then ?x?. This is because the
7001 result of removing the high bit from 0xf8 is 0x78, which is the ASCII character
7009 When unset, mutt will mimic mh's behaviour and rename deleted messages to ,<old
7010 file name> in mh folders instead of really deleting them. This leaves the
7011 message on disk but makes programs reading the folder ignore it. If the
7012 variable is set, the message files will simply be deleted.
7014 This option is similar to $maildir_trash for Maildir folders.
7016 3.124. mh_seq_flagged
7021 The name of the MH sequence used for flagged messages.
7023 3.125. mh_seq_replied
7028 The name of the MH sequence used to tag replied messages.
7030 3.126. mh_seq_unseen
7035 The name of the MH sequence used for unseen messages.
7042 When set, the message you are forwarding will be attached as a separate message
7043 /rfc822 MIME part instead of included in the main body of the message. This is
7044 useful for forwarding MIME messages so the receiver can properly view the
7045 message as it was delivered to you. If you like to switch between MIME and not
7046 MIME from mail to mail, set this variable to ?ask-no? or ?ask-yes?.
7048 Also see $forward_decode and $mime_forward_decode.
7050 3.128. mime_forward_decode
7055 Controls the decoding of complex MIME messages into text/plain when forwarding
7056 a message while $mime_forward is set. Otherwise $forward_decode is used
7059 3.129. mime_forward_rest
7064 When forwarding multiple attachments of a MIME message from the attachment
7065 menu, attachments which cannot be decoded in a reasonable manner will be
7066 attached to the newly composed message if this option is set.
7068 3.130. mix_entry_format
7071 Default: ?%4n %c %-16s %a?
7073 This variable describes the format of a remailer line on the mixmaster chain
7074 selection screen. The following printf(3)-like sequences are supported:
7078 The running number on the menu.
7082 Remailer capabilities.
7086 The remailer's short name.
7090 The remailer's e-mail address.
7095 Default: ?mixmaster?
7097 This variable contains the path to the Mixmaster binary on your system. It is
7098 used with various sets of parameters to gather the list of known remailers, and
7099 to finally send a message through the mixmaster chain.
7106 Controls whether or not Mutt will move read messages from your spool mailbox to
7107 your $mbox mailbox, or as a result of a ?mbox-hook? command.
7109 3.133. message_cachedir
7114 Set this to a directory and mutt will cache copies of messages from your IMAP
7115 and POP servers here. You are free to remove entries at any time.
7117 When setting this variable to a directory, mutt needs to fetch every remote
7118 message only once and can perform regular expression searches as fast as for
7121 Also see the $message_cache_clean variable.
7123 3.134. message_cache_clean
7128 If set, mutt will clean out obsolete entries from the message cache when the
7129 mailbox is synchronized. You probably only want to set it every once in a
7130 while, since it can be a little slow (especially for large folders).
7132 3.135. message_format
7137 This is the string displayed in the ?attachment? menu for attachments of type
7138 message/rfc822. For a full listing of defined printf(3)-like sequences see the
7139 section on $index_format.
7146 This variable, when set, makes the thread tree narrower, allowing deeper
7147 threads to fit on the screen.
7154 Operations that expect to transfer a large amount of data over the network will
7155 update their progress every $net_inc kilobytes. If set to 0, no progress
7156 messages will be displayed.
7158 See also $read_inc, $write_inc and $net_inc.
7165 This variable specifies which pager you would like to use to view messages. The
7166 value ?builtin? means to use the builtin pager, otherwise this variable should
7167 specify the pathname of the external pager you would like to use.
7169 Using an external pager may have some disadvantages: Additional keystrokes are
7170 necessary because you can't call mutt functions directly from the pager, and
7171 screen resizes cause lines longer than the screen width to be badly formatted
7174 3.139. pager_context
7179 This variable controls the number of lines of context that are given when
7180 displaying the next or previous page in the internal pager. By default, Mutt
7181 will display the line after the last one on the screen at the top of the next
7182 page (0 lines of context).
7187 Default: ?-%Z- %C/%m: %-20.20n %s%* -- (%P)?
7189 This variable controls the format of the one-line message ?status? displayed
7190 before each message in either the internal or an external pager. The valid
7191 sequences are listed in the $index_format section.
7193 3.141. pager_index_lines
7198 Determines the number of lines of a mini-index which is shown when in the
7199 pager. The current message, unless near the top or bottom of the folder, will
7200 be roughly one third of the way down this mini-index, giving the reader the
7201 context of a few messages before and after the message. This is useful, for
7202 example, to determine how many messages remain to be read in the current
7203 thread. One of the lines is reserved for the status bar from the index, so a
7204 setting of 6 will only show 5 lines of the actual index. A value of 0 results
7205 in no index being shown. If the number of messages in the current folder is
7206 less than $pager_index_lines, then the index will only use as many lines as it
7214 When set, the internal-pager will not move to the next message when you are at
7215 the end of a message and invoke the <next-page> function.
7217 3.143. crypt_autosign
7222 Setting this variable will cause Mutt to always attempt to cryptographically
7223 sign outgoing messages. This can be overridden by use of the pgp menu, when
7224 signing is not required or encryption is requested as well. If
7225 $smime_is_default is set, then OpenSSL is used instead to create S/MIME
7226 messages and settings can be overridden by use of the smime menu instead of the
7227 pgp menu. (Crypto only)
7229 3.144. crypt_autoencrypt
7234 Setting this variable will cause Mutt to always attempt to PGP encrypt outgoing
7235 messages. This is probably only useful in connection to the ?send-hook?
7236 command. It can be overridden by use of the pgp menu, when encryption is not
7237 required or signing is requested as well. If $smime_is_default is set, then
7238 OpenSSL is used instead to create S/MIME messages and settings can be
7239 overridden by use of the smime menu instead. (Crypto only)
7241 3.145. pgp_ignore_subkeys
7246 Setting this variable will cause Mutt to ignore OpenPGP subkeys. Instead, the
7247 principal key will inherit the subkeys' capabilities. Unset this if you want to
7248 play interesting key selection games. (PGP only)
7250 3.146. crypt_replyencrypt
7255 If set, automatically PGP or OpenSSL encrypt replies to messages which are
7256 encrypted. (Crypto only)
7258 3.147. crypt_replysign
7263 If set, automatically PGP or OpenSSL sign replies to messages which are signed.
7265 Note: this does not work on messages that are encrypted and signed! (Crypto
7268 3.148. crypt_replysignencrypted
7273 If set, automatically PGP or OpenSSL sign replies to messages which are
7274 encrypted. This makes sense in combination with $crypt_replyencrypt, because it
7275 allows you to sign all messages which are automatically encrypted. This works
7276 around the problem noted in $crypt_replysign, that mutt is not able to find out
7277 whether an encrypted message is also signed. (Crypto only)
7279 3.149. crypt_timestamp
7284 If set, mutt will include a time stamp in the lines surrounding PGP or S/MIME
7285 output, so spoofing such lines is more difficult. If you are using colors to
7286 mark these lines, and rely on these, you may unset this setting. (Crypto only)
7288 3.150. pgp_use_gpg_agent
7293 If set, mutt will use a possibly-running gpg-agent(1) process. (PGP only)
7295 3.151. crypt_verify_sig
7300 If ?yes?, always attempt to verify PGP or S/MIME signatures. If ?ask-*?, ask
7301 whether or not to verify the signature. If \Fi?no?, never attempt to verify
7302 cryptographic signatures. (Crypto only)
7304 3.152. smime_is_default
7309 The default behaviour of mutt is to use PGP on all auto-sign/encryption
7310 operations. To override and to use OpenSSL instead this must be set. However,
7311 this has no effect while replying, since mutt will automatically select the
7312 same application that was used to sign/encrypt the original message. (Note that
7313 this variable can be overridden by unsetting $crypt_autosmime.) (S/MIME only)
7315 3.153. smime_ask_cert_label
7320 This flag controls whether you want to be asked to enter a label for a
7321 certificate about to be added to the database or not. It is set by default. (S/
7324 3.154. smime_decrypt_use_default_key
7329 If set (default) this tells mutt to use the default key for decryption.
7330 Otherwise, if managing multiple certificate-key-pairs, mutt will try to use the
7331 mailbox-address to determine the key to use. It will ask you to supply a key,
7332 if it can't find one. (S/MIME only)
7334 3.155. pgp_entry_format
7337 Default: ?%4n %t%f %4l/0x%k %-4a %2c %u?
7339 This variable allows you to customize the PGP key selection menu to your
7340 personal taste. This string is similar to $index_format, but has its own set of
7341 printf(3)-like sequences:
7373 trust/validity of the key-uid association
7377 date of the key where <s> is an strftime(3) expression
7381 3.156. pgp_good_sign
7383 Type: regular expression
7386 If you assign a text to this variable, then a PGP signature is only considered
7387 verified if the output from $pgp_verify_command contains the text. Use this
7388 variable if the exit code from the command is 0 even for bad signatures. (PGP
7391 3.157. pgp_check_exit
7396 If set, mutt will check the exit code of the PGP subprocess when signing or
7397 encrypting. A non-zero exit code means that the subprocess failed. (PGP only)
7404 If set, use 64 bit PGP key IDs, if unset use the normal 32 bit key IDs. (PGP
7407 3.159. pgp_retainable_sigs
7412 If set, signed and encrypted messages will consist of nested multipart/signed
7413 and multipart/encrypted body parts.
7415 This is useful for applications like encrypted and signed mailing lists, where
7416 the outer layer (multipart/encrypted) can be easily removed, while the inner
7417 multipart/signed part is retained. (PGP only)
7419 3.160. pgp_autoinline
7424 This option controls whether Mutt generates old-style inline (traditional) PGP
7425 encrypted or signed messages under certain circumstances. This can be
7426 overridden by use of the pgp menu, when inline is not required.
7428 Note that Mutt might automatically use PGP/MIME for messages which consist of
7429 more than a single MIME part. Mutt can be configured to ask before sending PGP/
7430 MIME messages when inline (traditional) would not work.
7432 Also see the $pgp_mime_auto variable.
7434 Also note that using the old-style PGP message format is strongly deprecated.
7437 3.161. pgp_replyinline
7442 Setting this variable will cause Mutt to always attempt to create an inline
7443 (traditional) message when replying to a message which is PGP encrypted/signed
7444 inline. This can be overridden by use of the pgp menu, when inline is not
7445 required. This option does not automatically detect if the (replied-to) message
7446 is inline; instead it relies on Mutt internals for previously checked/flagged
7449 Note that Mutt might automatically use PGP/MIME for messages which consist of
7450 more than a single MIME part. Mutt can be configured to ask before sending PGP/
7451 MIME messages when inline (traditional) would not work.
7453 Also see the $pgp_mime_auto variable.
7455 Also note that using the old-style PGP message format is strongly deprecated.
7458 3.162. pgp_show_unusable
7463 If set, mutt will display non-usable keys on the PGP key selection menu. This
7464 includes keys which have been revoked, have expired, or have been marked as
7465 ?disabled? by the user. (PGP only)
7472 If you have more than one key pair, this option allows you to specify which of
7473 your private keys to use. It is recommended that you use the keyid form to
7474 specify your key (e.g. 0x00112233). (PGP only)
7476 3.164. pgp_strict_enc
7481 If set, Mutt will automatically encode PGP/MIME signed messages as
7482 quoted-printable. Please note that unsetting this variable may lead to problems
7483 with non-verifyable PGP signatures, so only change this if you know what you
7484 are doing. (PGP only)
7491 The number of seconds after which a cached passphrase will expire if not used.
7494 3.166. pgp_sort_keys
7499 Specifies how the entries in the pgp menu are sorted. The following are legal
7504 sort alphabetically by user id
7508 sort alphabetically by key id
7512 sort by key creation date
7516 sort by the trust of the key
7518 If you prefer reverse order of the above values, prefix it with ?reverse-?.
7521 3.167. pgp_mime_auto
7526 This option controls whether Mutt will prompt you for automatically sending a
7527 (signed/encrypted) message using PGP/MIME when inline (traditional) fails (for
7530 Also note that using the old-style PGP message format is strongly deprecated.
7533 3.168. pgp_auto_decode
7538 If set, mutt will automatically attempt to decrypt traditional PGP messages
7539 whenever the user performs an operation which ordinarily would result in the
7540 contents of the message being operated on. For example, if the user displays a
7541 pgp-traditional message which has not been manually checked with the
7542 <check-traditional-pgp> function, mutt will automatically check the message for
7545 3.169. pgp_decode_command
7550 This format strings specifies a command which is used to decode application/pgp
7553 The PGP command formats have their own set of printf(3)-like sequences:
7557 Expands to PGPPASSFD=0 when a pass phrase is needed, to an empty string
7558 otherwise. Note: This may be used with a %? construct.
7562 Expands to the name of a file containing a message.
7566 Expands to the name of a file containing the signature part of a multipart/
7567 signed attachment when verifying it.
7571 The value of $pgp_sign_as.
7575 One or more key IDs.
7577 For examples on how to configure these formats for the various versions of PGP
7578 which are floating around, see the pgp and gpg sample configuration files in
7579 the samples/ subdirectory which has been installed on your system alongside the
7580 documentation. (PGP only)
7582 3.170. pgp_getkeys_command
7587 This command is invoked whenever mutt will need public key information. Of the
7588 sequences supported by $pgp_decode_command, %r is the only printf(3)-like
7589 sequence used with this format. (PGP only)
7591 3.171. pgp_verify_command
7596 This command is used to verify PGP signatures.
7598 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for possible
7599 printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
7601 3.172. pgp_decrypt_command
7606 This command is used to decrypt a PGP encrypted message.
7608 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for possible
7609 printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
7611 3.173. pgp_clearsign_command
7616 This format is used to create a old-style ?clearsigned? PGP message. Note that
7617 the use of this format is strongly deprecated.
7619 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for possible
7620 printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
7622 3.174. pgp_sign_command
7627 This command is used to create the detached PGP signature for a multipart/
7628 signed PGP/MIME body part.
7630 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for possible
7631 printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
7633 3.175. pgp_encrypt_sign_command
7638 This command is used to both sign and encrypt a body part.
7640 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for possible
7641 printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
7643 3.176. pgp_encrypt_only_command
7648 This command is used to encrypt a body part without signing it.
7650 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for possible
7651 printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
7653 3.177. pgp_import_command
7658 This command is used to import a key from a message into the user's public key
7661 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for possible
7662 printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
7664 3.178. pgp_export_command
7669 This command is used to export a public key from the user's key ring.
7671 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for possible
7672 printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
7674 3.179. pgp_verify_key_command
7679 This command is used to verify key information from the key selection menu.
7681 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for possible
7682 printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
7684 3.180. pgp_list_secring_command
7689 This command is used to list the secret key ring's contents. The output format
7690 must be analogous to the one used by:
7692 gpg --list-keys --with-colons.
7695 This format is also generated by the pgpring utility which comes with mutt.
7697 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for possible
7698 printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
7700 3.181. pgp_list_pubring_command
7705 This command is used to list the public key ring's contents. The output format
7706 must be analogous to the one used by
7708 gpg --list-keys --with-colons.
7711 This format is also generated by the pgpring utility which comes with mutt.
7713 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for possible
7714 printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
7716 3.182. forward_decrypt
7721 Controls the handling of encrypted messages when forwarding a message. When set
7722 , the outer layer of encryption is stripped off. This variable is only used if
7723 $mime_forward is set and $mime_forward_decode is unset. (PGP only)
7725 3.183. smime_timeout
7730 The number of seconds after which a cached passphrase will expire if not used.
7733 3.184. smime_encrypt_with
7738 This sets the algorithm that should be used for encryption. Valid choices are
7739 ?des?, ?des3?, ?rc2-40?, ?rc2-64?, ?rc2-128?. If unset, ?3des? (TripleDES) is
7747 Since for S/MIME there is no pubring/secring as with PGP, mutt has to handle
7748 storage and retrieval of keys/certs by itself. This is very basic right now,
7749 and stores keys and certificates in two different directories, both named as
7750 the hash-value retrieved from OpenSSL. There is an index file which contains
7751 mailbox-address keyid pair, and which can be manually edited. This option
7752 points to the location of the private keys. (S/MIME only)
7754 3.186. smime_ca_location
7759 This variable contains the name of either a directory, or a file which contains
7760 trusted certificates for use with OpenSSL. (S/MIME only)
7762 3.187. smime_certificates
7767 Since for S/MIME there is no pubring/secring as with PGP, mutt has to handle
7768 storage and retrieval of keys by itself. This is very basic right now, and keys
7769 and certificates are stored in two different directories, both named as the
7770 hash-value retrieved from OpenSSL. There is an index file which contains
7771 mailbox-address keyid pairs, and which can be manually edited. This option
7772 points to the location of the certificates. (S/MIME only)
7774 3.188. smime_decrypt_command
7779 This format string specifies a command which is used to decrypt application/
7780 x-pkcs7-mime attachments.
7782 The OpenSSL command formats have their own set of printf(3)-like sequences
7787 Expands to the name of a file containing a message.
7791 Expands to the name of a file containing the signature part of a multipart/
7792 signed attachment when verifying it.
7796 The key-pair specified with $smime_default_key
7800 One or more certificate IDs.
7804 The algorithm used for encryption.
7808 CA location: Depending on whether $smime_ca_location points to a directory
7809 or file, this expands to ?-CApath $smime_ca_location? or ?-CAfile
7810 $smime_ca_location?.
7812 For examples on how to configure these formats, see the smime.rc in the samples
7813 / subdirectory which has been installed on your system alongside the
7814 documentation. (S/MIME only)
7816 3.189. smime_verify_command
7821 This command is used to verify S/MIME signatures of type multipart/signed.
7823 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command for possible
7824 printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
7826 3.190. smime_verify_opaque_command
7831 This command is used to verify S/MIME signatures of type application/
7834 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command for possible
7835 printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
7837 3.191. smime_sign_command
7842 This command is used to created S/MIME signatures of type multipart/signed,
7843 which can be read by all mail clients.
7845 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command for possible
7846 printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
7848 3.192. smime_sign_opaque_command
7853 This command is used to created S/MIME signatures of type application/
7854 x-pkcs7-signature, which can only be handled by mail clients supporting the S/
7857 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command for possible
7858 printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
7860 3.193. smime_encrypt_command
7865 This command is used to create encrypted S/MIME messages.
7867 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command for possible
7868 printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
7870 3.194. smime_pk7out_command
7875 This command is used to extract PKCS7 structures of S/MIME signatures, in order
7876 to extract the public X509 certificate(s).
7878 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command for possible
7879 printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
7881 3.195. smime_get_cert_command
7886 This command is used to extract X509 certificates from a PKCS7 structure.
7888 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command for possible
7889 printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
7891 3.196. smime_get_signer_cert_command
7896 This command is used to extract only the signers X509 certificate from a S/MIME
7897 signature, so that the certificate's owner may get compared to the email's
7900 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command for possible
7901 printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
7903 3.197. smime_import_cert_command
7908 This command is used to import a certificate via smime_keys.
7910 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command for possible
7911 printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
7913 3.198. smime_get_cert_email_command
7918 This command is used to extract the mail address(es) used for storing X509
7919 certificates, and for verification purposes (to check whether the certificate
7920 was issued for the sender's mailbox).
7922 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command for possible
7923 printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
7925 3.199. smime_default_key
7930 This is the default key-pair to use for signing. This must be set to the keyid
7931 (the hash-value that OpenSSL generates) to work properly (S/MIME only)
7933 3.200. ssl_client_cert
7938 The file containing a client certificate and its associated private key.
7940 3.201. ssl_force_tls
7945 If this variable is set, Mutt will require that all connections to remote
7946 servers be encrypted. Furthermore it will attempt to negotiate TLS even if the
7947 server does not advertise the capability, since it would otherwise have to
7948 abort the connection anyway. This option supersedes $ssl_starttls.
7955 If set (the default), mutt will attempt to use STARTTLS on servers advertising
7956 the capability. When unset, mutt will not attempt to use STARTTLS regardless of
7957 the server's capabilities.
7959 3.203. certificate_file
7962 Default: ??/.mutt_certificates?
7964 This variable specifies the file where the certificates you trust are saved.
7965 When an unknown certificate is encountered, you are asked if you accept it or
7966 not. If you accept it, the certificate can also be saved in this file and
7967 further connections are automatically accepted.
7969 You can also manually add CA certificates in this file. Any server certificate
7970 that is signed with one of these CA certificates is also automatically
7975 set certificate_file=~/.mutt/certificates
7978 3.204. ssl_usesystemcerts
7983 If set to yes, mutt will use CA certificates in the system-wide certificate
7984 store when checking if a server certificate is signed by a trusted CA.
7991 The file which includes random data that is used to initialize SSL library
7994 3.206. ssl_use_sslv2
7999 This variables specifies whether to attempt to use SSLv2 in the SSL
8000 authentication process.
8002 3.207. ssl_use_sslv3
8007 This variables specifies whether to attempt to use SSLv3 in the SSL
8008 authentication process.
8010 3.208. ssl_use_tlsv1
8015 This variables specifies whether to attempt to use TLSv1 in the SSL
8016 authentication process.
8018 3.209. ssl_min_dh_prime_bits
8023 This variable specifies the minimum acceptable prime size (in bits) for use in
8024 any Diffie-Hellman key exchange. A value of 0 will use the default from the
8027 3.210. ssl_ca_certificates_file
8032 This variable specifies a file containing trusted CA certificates. Any server
8033 certificate that is signed with one of these CA certificates is also
8034 automatically accepted.
8038 set ssl_ca_certificates_file=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
8046 Used in connection with the <pipe-message> function following <tag-prefix>. If
8047 this variable is unset, when piping a list of tagged messages Mutt will
8048 concatenate the messages and will pipe them all concatenated. When set, Mutt
8049 will pipe the messages one by one. In both cases the messages are piped in the
8050 current sorted order, and the $pipe_sep separator is added after each message.
8057 Used in connection with the <pipe-message> command. When unset, Mutt will pipe
8058 the messages without any preprocessing. When set, Mutt will weed headers and
8059 will attempt to decode the messages first.
8066 The separator to add between messages when piping a list of tagged messages to
8067 an external Unix command.
8069 3.214. pop_authenticators
8074 This is a colon-delimited list of authentication methods mutt may attempt to
8075 use to log in to an POP server, in the order mutt should try them.
8076 Authentication methods are either ?user?, ?apop? or any SASL mechanism, eg
8077 ?digest-md5?, ?gssapi? or ?cram-md5?. This option is case-insensitive. If this
8078 option is unset (the default) mutt will try all available methods, in order
8079 from most-secure to least-secure.
8083 set pop_authenticators="digest-md5:apop:user"
8086 3.215. pop_auth_try_all
8091 If set, Mutt will try all available authentication methods. When unset, Mutt
8092 will only fall back to other authentication methods if the previous methods are
8093 unavailable. If a method is available but authentication fails, Mutt will not
8094 connect to the POP server.
8096 3.216. pop_checkinterval
8101 This variable configures how often (in seconds) mutt should look for new mail
8102 in the currently selected mailbox if it is a POP mailbox.
8109 If set, Mutt will delete successfully downloaded messages from the POP server
8110 when using the <fetch-mail> function. When unset, Mutt will download messages
8111 but also leave them on the POP server.
8118 The name of your POP server for the <fetch-mail> function. You can also specify
8119 an alternative port, username and password, ie:
8121 [pop[s]://][username[:password]@]popserver[:port]
8124 where ?[...]? denotes an optional part.
8131 If this variable is set, mutt will try to use the ?LAST? POP command for
8132 retrieving only unread messages from the POP server when using the <fetch-mail>
8135 3.220. pop_reconnect
8140 Controls whether or not Mutt will try to reconnect to the POP server if the
8148 Your login name on the POP server.
8150 This variable defaults to your user name on the local machine.
8157 Specifies the password for your POP account. If unset, Mutt will prompt you for
8158 your password when you open a POP mailbox.
8160 Warning: you should only use this option when you are on a fairly secure
8161 machine, because the superuser can read your muttrc even if you are the only
8162 one who can read the file.
8164 3.223. post_indent_string
8169 Similar to the $attribution variable, Mutt will append this string after the
8170 inclusion of a message which is being replied to.
8177 Controls whether or not messages are saved in the $postponed mailbox when you
8178 elect not to send immediately.
8180 Also see the $recall variable.
8185 Default: ??/postponed?
8187 Mutt allows you to indefinitely ?postpone sending a message? which you are
8188 editing. When you choose to postpone a message, Mutt saves it in the mailbox
8189 specified by this variable.
8191 Also see the $postpone variable.
8198 If set, a shell command to be executed if mutt fails to establish a connection
8199 to the server. This is useful for setting up secure connections, e.g. with ssh
8200 (1). If the command returns a nonzero status, mutt gives up opening the server.
8203 set preconnect="ssh -f -q -L 1234:mailhost.net:143 mailhost.net \
8204 sleep 20 < /dev/null > /dev/null"
8207 Mailbox ?foo? on ?mailhost.net? can now be reached as ?{localhost:1234}foo?.
8209 Note: For this example to work, you must be able to log in to the remote
8210 machine without having to enter a password.
8217 Controls whether or not Mutt really prints messages. This is set to ?ask-no? by
8218 default, because some people accidentally hit ?p? often.
8220 3.228. print_command
8225 This specifies the command pipe that should be used to print messages.
8232 Used in connection with the <print-message> command. If this option is set, the
8233 message is decoded before it is passed to the external command specified by
8234 $print_command. If this option is unset, no processing will be applied to the
8235 message when printing it. The latter setting may be useful if you are using
8236 some advanced printer filter which is able to properly format e-mail messages
8244 Used in connection with the <print-message> command. If this option is set, the
8245 command specified by $print_command is executed once for each message which is
8246 to be printed. If this option is unset, the command specified by $print_command
8247 is executed only once, and all the messages are concatenated, with a form feed
8248 as the message separator.
8250 Those who use the enscript(1) program's mail-printing mode will most likely
8251 want to set this option.
8258 If you use an external $pager, setting this variable will cause Mutt to prompt
8259 you for a command when the pager exits rather than returning to the index menu.
8260 If unset, Mutt will return to the index menu when the external pager exits.
8262 3.232. query_command
8267 This specifies the command that mutt will use to make external address queries.
8268 The string should contain a ?%s?, which will be substituted with the query
8269 string the user types. See ?query? for more information.
8274 Default: ?%4c %t %-25.25a %-25.25n %?e?(%e)??
8276 This variable describes the format of the ?query? menu. The following printf(3)
8277 -style sequences are understood:
8285 current entry number
8297 ?*? if current entry is tagged, a space otherwise
8301 right justify the rest of the string and pad with ?X?
8305 pad to the end of the line with ?X?
8309 soft-fill with character ?X? as pad
8311 For an explanation of ?soft-fill?, see the $index_format documentation.
8313 * = can be optionally printed if nonzero, see the $status_format documentation.
8320 This variable controls whether ?quit? and ?exit? actually quit from mutt. If
8321 this option is set, they do quit, if it is unset, they have no effect, and if
8322 it is set to ask-yes or ask-no, you are prompted for confirmation when you try
8327 Type: regular expression
8328 Default: ?^([ \t]*[|>:}#])+?
8330 A regular expression used in the internal pager to determine quoted sections of
8331 text in the body of a message. Quoted text may be filtered out using the
8332 <toggle-quoted> command, or colored according to the ?color quoted? family of
8335 Higher levels of quoting may be colored differently (?color quoted1?, ?color
8336 quoted2?, etc.). The quoting level is determined by removing the last character
8337 from the matched text and recursively reapplying the regular expression until
8338 it fails to produce a match.
8340 Match detection may be overridden by the $smileys regular expression.
8347 If set to a value greater than 0, Mutt will display which message it is
8348 currently on when reading a mailbox or when performing search actions such as
8349 search and limit. The message is printed after this many messages have been
8350 read or searched (e.g., if set to 25, Mutt will print a message when it is at
8351 message 25, and then again when it gets to message 50). This variable is meant
8352 to indicate progress when reading or searching large mailboxes which may take
8353 some time. When set to 0, only a single message will appear before the reading
8356 Also see the $write_inc, $net_inc and $time_inc variables and the ?tuning?
8357 section of the manual for performance considerations.
8364 If set, all folders are opened in read-only mode.
8371 This variable specifies what ?real? or ?personal? name should be used when
8374 By default, this is the GECOS field from /etc/passwd. Note that this variable
8375 will not be used when the user has set a real name in the $from variable.
8382 Controls whether or not Mutt recalls postponed messages when composing a new
8385 Setting this variable to is not generally useful, and thus not recommended.
8387 Also see $postponed variable.
8394 This specifies the file into which your outgoing messages should be appended.
8395 (This is meant as the primary method for saving a copy of your messages, but
8396 another way to do this is using the ?my_hdr? command to create a ?Bcc:? field
8397 with your email address in it.)
8399 The value of $record is overridden by the $force_name and $save_name variables,
8400 and the ?fcc-hook? command.
8404 Type: regular expression
8405 Default: ?^(re([\[0-9\]+])*|aw):[ \t]*?
8407 A regular expression used to recognize reply messages when threading and
8408 replying. The default value corresponds to the English "Re:" and the German
8416 If unset and you are replying to a message sent by you, Mutt will assume that
8417 you want to reply to the recipients of that message rather than to yourself.
8419 Also see the ?alternates? command.
8426 If set, when replying to a message, Mutt will use the address listed in the
8427 Reply-to: header as the recipient of the reply. If unset, it will use the
8428 address in the From: header field instead. This option is useful for reading a
8429 mailing list that sets the Reply-To: header field to the list address and you
8430 want to send a private message to the author of a message.
8437 When set, the cursor will be automatically advanced to the next (possibly
8438 undeleted) message whenever a command that modifies the current message is
8441 3.245. reverse_alias
8446 This variable controls whether or not Mutt will display the ?personal? name
8447 from your aliases in the index menu if it finds an alias that matches the
8448 message's sender. For example, if you have the following alias:
8450 alias juser abd30425@somewhere.net (Joe User)
8453 and then you receive mail which contains the following header:
8455 From: abd30425@somewhere.net
8458 It would be displayed in the index menu as ?Joe User? instead of
8459 ?abd30425@somewhere.net.? This is useful when the person's e-mail address is
8467 It may sometimes arrive that you receive mail to a certain machine, move the
8468 messages to another machine, and reply to some the messages from there. If this
8469 variable is set, the default From: line of the reply messages is built using
8470 the address where you received the messages you are replying to if that address
8471 matches your ?alternates?. If the variable is unset, or the address that would
8472 be used doesn't match your ?alternates?, the From: line will use your address
8473 on the current machine.
8475 Also see the ?alternates? command.
8477 3.247. reverse_realname
8482 This variable fine-tunes the behaviour of the $reverse_name feature. When it is
8483 set, mutt will use the address from incoming messages as-is, possibly including
8484 eventual real names. When it is unset, mutt will override any such real names
8485 with the setting of the $realname variable.
8487 3.248. rfc2047_parameters
8492 When this variable is set, Mutt will decode RFC2047-encoded MIME parameters.
8493 You want to set this variable when mutt suggests you to save attachments to
8496 =?iso-8859-1?Q?file=5F=E4=5F991116=2Ezip?=
8499 When this variable is set interactively, the change won't be active until you
8502 Note that this use of RFC2047's encoding is explicitly prohibited by the
8503 standard, but nevertheless encountered in the wild.
8505 Also note that setting this parameter will not have the effect that mutt
8506 generates this kind of encoding. Instead, mutt will unconditionally use the
8507 encoding specified in RFC2231.
8514 If set, mutt will take the sender's full address when choosing a default folder
8515 for saving a mail. If $save_name or $force_name is set too, the selection of
8516 the Fcc folder will be changed as well.
8523 When unset, mailboxes which contain no saved messages will be removed when
8524 closed (the exception is $spoolfile which is never removed). If set, mailboxes
8527 Note: This only applies to mbox and MMDF folders, Mutt does not delete MH and
8528 Maildir directories.
8535 This variable controls the size of the history (per category) saved in the
8543 This variable controls how copies of outgoing messages are saved. When set, a
8544 check is made to see if a mailbox specified by the recipient address exists
8545 (this is done by searching for a mailbox in the $folder directory with the
8546 username part of the recipient address). If the mailbox exists, the outgoing
8547 message will be saved to that mailbox, otherwise the message is saved to the
8550 Also see the $force_name variable.
8557 When this variable is unset, scoring is turned off. This can be useful to
8558 selectively disable scoring for certain folders when the
8559 $score_threshold_delete variable and related are used.
8561 3.254. score_threshold_delete
8566 Messages which have been assigned a score equal to or lower than the value of
8567 this variable are automatically marked for deletion by mutt. Since mutt scores
8568 are always greater than or equal to zero, the default setting of this variable
8569 will never mark a message for deletion.
8571 3.255. score_threshold_flag
8576 Messages which have been assigned a score greater than or equal to this
8577 variable's value are automatically marked "flagged".
8579 3.256. score_threshold_read
8584 Messages which have been assigned a score equal to or lower than the value of
8585 this variable are automatically marked as read by mutt. Since mutt scores are
8586 always greater than or equal to zero, the default setting of this variable will
8587 never mark a message read.
8592 Default: ?us-ascii:iso-8859-1:utf-8?
8594 A colon-delimited list of character sets for outgoing messages. Mutt will use
8595 the first character set into which the text can be converted exactly. If your
8596 $charset is not ?iso-8859-1? and recipients may not understand ?UTF-8?, it is
8597 advisable to include in the list an appropriate widely used standard character
8598 set (such as ?iso-8859-2?, ?koi8-r? or ?iso-2022-jp?) either instead of or
8601 In case the text cannot be converted into one of these exactly, mutt uses
8602 $charset as a fallback.
8607 Default: ?/usr/sbin/sendmail -oem -oi?
8609 Specifies the program and arguments used to deliver mail sent by Mutt. Mutt
8610 expects that the specified program interprets additional arguments as recipient
8613 3.259. sendmail_wait
8618 Specifies the number of seconds to wait for the $sendmail process to finish
8619 before giving up and putting delivery in the background.
8621 Mutt interprets the value of this variable as follows:
8625 number of seconds to wait for sendmail to finish before continuing
8629 wait forever for sendmail to finish
8633 always put sendmail in the background without waiting
8635 Note that if you specify a value other than 0, the output of the child process
8636 will be put in a temporary file. If there is some error, you will be informed
8637 as to where to find the output.
8644 Command to use when spawning a subshell. By default, the user's login shell
8645 from /etc/passwd is used.
8652 If set, a line containing ?-- ? (note the trailing space) will be inserted
8653 before your $signature. It is strongly recommended that you not unset this
8654 variable unless your signature contains just your name. The reason for this is
8655 because many software packages use ?-- \n? to detect your signature. For
8656 example, Mutt has the ability to highlight the signature in a different color
8657 in the builtin pager.
8664 If set, the signature will be included before any quoted or forwarded text. It
8665 is strongly recommended that you do not set this variable unless you really
8666 know what you are doing, and are prepared to take some heat from netiquette
8672 Default: ??/.signature?
8674 Specifies the filename of your signature, which is appended to all outgoing
8675 messages. If the filename ends with a pipe (?|?), it is assumed that filename
8676 is a shell command and input should be read from its standard output.
8678 3.264. simple_search
8681 Default: ??f %s | ?s %s?
8683 Specifies how Mutt should expand a simple search into a real search pattern. A
8684 simple search is one that does not contain any of the ??? pattern operators.
8685 See ?patterns? for more information on search patterns.
8687 For example, if you simply type ?joe? at a search or limit prompt, Mutt will
8688 automatically expand it to the value specified by this variable by replacing
8689 ?%s? with the supplied string. For the default value, ?joe? would be expanded
8690 to: ??f joe | ?s joe?.
8697 Controls the display of lines longer than the screen width in the internal
8698 pager. If set, long lines are wrapped at a word boundary. If unset, lines are
8699 simply wrapped at the screen edge. Also see the $markers variable.
8703 Type: regular expression
8704 Default: ?(>From )|(:[-^]?[][)(><}{|/DP])?
8706 The pager uses this variable to catch some common false positives of
8707 $quote_regexp, most notably smileys and not consider a line quoted text if it
8708 also matches $smileys. This mostly happens at the beginning of a line.
8715 Specifies time, in seconds, to pause while displaying certain informational
8716 messages, while moving from folder to folder and after expunging messages from
8717 the current folder. The default is to pause one second, so a value of zero for
8718 this option suppresses the pause.
8720 3.268. smtp_authenticators
8725 This is a colon-delimited list of authentication methods mutt may attempt to
8726 use to log in to an SMTP server, in the order mutt should try them.
8727 Authentication methods are any SASL mechanism, eg ?digest-md5?, ?gssapi? or
8728 ?cram-md5?. This option is case-insensitive. If it is ?unset? (the default)
8729 mutt will try all available methods, in order from most-secure to least-secure.
8733 set smtp_authenticators="digest-md5:cram-md5"
8741 Specifies the password for your SMTP account. If unset, Mutt will prompt you
8742 for your password when you first send mail via SMTP. See $smtp_url to configure
8743 mutt to send mail via SMTP.
8745 Warning: you should only use this option when you are on a fairly secure
8746 machine, because the superuser can read your muttrc even if you are the only
8747 one who can read the file.
8754 Defines the SMTP smarthost where sent messages should relayed for delivery.
8755 This should take the form of an SMTP URL, eg:
8757 smtp[s]://[user[:pass]@]host[:port]/
8760 ... where ?[...]? denotes an optional part. Setting this variable overrides the
8761 value of the $sendmail variable.
8768 Specifies how to sort messages in the ?index? menu. Valid values are:
8776 * mailbox-order (unsorted)
8790 You may optionally use the ?reverse-? prefix to specify reverse sorting order
8791 (example: ?set sort=reverse-date-sent?).
8798 Specifies how the entries in the ?alias? menu are sorted. The following are
8801 * address (sort alphabetically by email address)
8803 * alias (sort alphabetically by alias name)
8805 * unsorted (leave in order specified in .muttrc)
8812 When sorting by threads, this variable controls how threads are sorted in
8813 relation to other threads, and how the branches of the thread trees are sorted.
8814 This can be set to any value that $sort can, except ?threads? (in that case,
8815 mutt will just use ?date-sent?). You can also specify the ?last-? prefix in
8816 addition to the ?reverse-? prefix, but ?last-? must come after ?reverse-?. The
8817 ?last-? prefix causes messages to be sorted against its siblings by which has
8818 the last descendant, using the rest of $sort_aux as an ordering. For instance,
8820 set sort_aux=last-date-received
8823 would mean that if a new message is received in a thread, that thread becomes
8824 the last one displayed (or the first, if you have ?set sort=reverse-threads?.)
8826 Note: For reversed $sort order $sort_aux is reversed again (which is not the
8827 right thing to do, but kept to not break any existing configuration setting).
8834 Specifies how to sort entries in the file browser. By default, the entries are
8835 sorted alphabetically. Valid values:
8837 * alpha (alphabetically)
8845 You may optionally use the ?reverse-? prefix to specify reverse sorting order
8846 (example: ?set sort_browser=reverse-date?).
8853 This variable is only useful when sorting by threads with $strict_threads unset
8854 . In that case, it changes the heuristic mutt uses to thread messages by
8855 subject. With $sort_re set, mutt will only attach a message as the child of
8856 another message by subject if the subject of the child message starts with a
8857 substring matching the setting of $reply_regexp. With $sort_re unset, mutt will
8858 attach the message whether or not this is the case, as long as the non-
8859 $reply_regexp parts of both messages are identical.
8861 3.276. spam_separator
8866 This variable controls what happens when multiple spam headers are matched: if
8867 unset, each successive header will overwrite any previous matches value for the
8868 spam label. If set, each successive match will append to the previous, using
8869 this variable's value as a separator.
8876 If your spool mailbox is in a non-default place where Mutt cannot find it, you
8877 can specify its location with this variable. Mutt will automatically set this
8878 variable to the value of the environment variable $MAIL if it is not set.
8885 Controls the characters used by the ?%r? indicator in $status_format. The first
8886 character is used when the mailbox is unchanged. The second is used when the
8887 mailbox has been changed, and it needs to be resynchronized. The third is used
8888 if the mailbox is in read-only mode, or if the mailbox will not be written when
8889 exiting that mailbox (You can toggle whether to write changes to a mailbox with
8890 the <toggle-write> operation, bound by default to ?%?). The fourth is used to
8891 indicate that the current folder has been opened in attach- message mode
8892 (Certain operations like composing a new mail, replying, forwarding, etc. are
8893 not permitted in this mode).
8895 3.279. status_format
8898 Default: ?-%r-Mutt: %f [Msgs:%?M?%M/?%m%?n? New:%n?%?o? Old:%o?%?d? Del:%d?%?F?
8899 Flag:%F?%?t? Tag:%t?%?p? Post:%p?%?b? Inc:%b?%?l? %l?]---(%s/%S)-%>-(%P)---?
8901 Controls the format of the status line displayed in the ?index? menu. This
8902 string is similar to $index_format, but has its own set of printf(3)-like
8907 number of mailboxes with new mail *
8911 number of deleted messages *
8915 the full pathname of the current mailbox
8919 number of flagged messages *
8927 size (in bytes) of the current mailbox *
8931 size (in bytes) of the messages shown (i.e., which match the current limit)
8936 the number of messages in the mailbox *
8940 the number of messages shown (i.e., which match the current limit) *
8944 number of new messages in the mailbox *
8948 number of old unread messages *
8952 number of postponed messages *
8956 percentage of the way through the index
8960 modified/read-only/won't-write/attach-message indicator, according to
8965 current sorting mode ($sort)
8969 current aux sorting method ($sort_aux)
8973 number of tagged messages *
8977 number of unread messages *
8985 currently active limit pattern, if any *
8989 right justify the rest of the string and pad with ?X?
8993 pad to the end of the line with ?X?
8997 soft-fill with character ?X? as pad
8999 For an explanation of ?soft-fill?, see the $index_format documentation.
9001 * = can be optionally printed if nonzero
9003 Some of the above sequences can be used to optionally print a string if their
9004 value is nonzero. For example, you may only want to see the number of flagged
9005 messages if such messages exist, since zero is not particularly meaningful. To
9006 optionally print a string based upon one of the above sequences, the following
9009 %?<sequence_char>?<optional_string>?
9011 where sequence_char is a character from the table above, and optional_string is
9012 the string you would like printed if sequence_char is nonzero. optional_string
9013 may contain other sequences as well as normal text, but you may not nest
9016 Here is an example illustrating how to optionally print the number of new
9017 messages in a mailbox:
9019 %?n?%n new messages.?
9021 You can also switch between two strings using the following construct:
9023 %?<sequence_char>?<if_string>&<else_string>?
9025 If the value of sequence_char is non-zero, if_string will be expanded,
9026 otherwise else_string will be expanded.
9028 You can force the result of any printf(3)-like sequence to be lowercase by
9029 prefixing the sequence character with an underscore (?_?) sign. For example, if
9030 you want to display the local hostname in lowercase, you would use: ?%_h?.
9032 If you prefix the sequence character with a colon (?:?) character, mutt will
9033 replace any dots in the expansion by underscores. This might be helpful with
9034 IMAP folders that don't like dots in folder names.
9036 3.280. status_on_top
9041 Setting this variable causes the ?status bar? to be displayed on the first line
9042 of the screen rather than near the bottom. If $help is set, too it'll be placed
9045 3.281. strict_threads
9050 If set, threading will only make use of the ?In-Reply-To? and ?References:?
9051 fields when you $sort by message threads. By default, messages with the same
9052 subject are grouped together in ?pseudo threads.?. This may not always be
9053 desirable, such as in a personal mailbox where you might have several unrelated
9054 messages with the subjects like ?hi? which will get grouped together. See also
9055 $sort_re for a less drastic way of controlling this behaviour.
9062 When unset, mutt won't stop when the user presses the terminal's susp key,
9063 usually ?^Z?. This is useful if you run mutt inside an xterm using a command
9064 like ?xterm -e mutt?.
9071 When set, mutt will generate ?format=flowed? bodies with a content type of
9072 ?text/plain; format=flowed?. This format is easier to handle for some mailing
9073 software, and generally just looks like ordinary text. To actually make use of
9074 this format's features, you'll need support in your editor.
9076 Note that $indent_string is ignored when this option is set.
9078 3.284. thread_received
9083 When set, mutt uses the date received rather than the date sent to thread
9084 messages by subject.
9086 3.285. thorough_search
9091 Affects the ?b and ?h search operations described in section ?patterns?. If set
9092 , the headers and body/attachments of messages to be searched are decoded
9093 before searching. If unset, messages are searched as they appear in the folder.
9095 Users searching attachments or for non-ASCII characters should set this value
9096 because decoding also includes MIME parsing/decoding and possible character set
9097 conversions. Otherwise mutt will attempt to match against the raw message
9098 received (for example quoted-printable encoded or with encoded headers) which
9099 may lead to incorrect search results.
9106 When set, the internal-pager will pad blank lines to the bottom of the screen
9114 Along with $read_inc, $write_inc, and $net_inc, this variable controls the
9115 frequency with which progress updates are displayed. It suppresses updates less
9116 than $time_inc milliseconds apart. This can improve throughput on systems with
9117 slow terminals, or when running mutt on a remote system.
9119 Also see the ?tuning? section of the manual for performance considerations.
9126 When Mutt is waiting for user input either idleing in menus or in an
9127 interactive prompt, Mutt would block until input is present. Depending on the
9128 context, this would prevent certain operations from working, like checking for
9129 new mail or keeping an IMAP connection alive.
9131 This variable controls how many seconds Mutt will at most wait until it aborts
9132 waiting for input, performs these operations and continues to wait for input.
9134 A value of zero or less will cause Mutt to never time out.
9141 This variable allows you to specify where Mutt will place its temporary files
9142 needed for displaying and composing messages. If this variable is not set, the
9143 environment variable $TMPDIR is used. If $TMPDIR is not set then ?/tmp? is
9151 Controls the character used to indicate mail addressed to you. The first
9152 character is the one used when the mail is not addressed to your address. The
9153 second is used when you are the only recipient of the message. The third is
9154 when your address appears in the ?To:? header field, but you are not the only
9155 recipient of the message. The fourth character is used when your address is
9156 specified in the ?Cc:? header field, but you are not the only recipient. The
9157 fifth character is used to indicate mail that was sent by you. The sixth
9158 character is used to indicate when a mail was sent to a mailing-list you
9166 Setting this variable will cause mutt to open a pipe to a command instead of a
9167 raw socket. You may be able to use this to set up preauthenticated connections
9168 to your IMAP/POP3/SMTP server. Example:
9170 set tunnel="ssh -q mailhost.net /usr/local/libexec/imapd"
9173 Note: For this example to work you must be able to log in to the remote machine
9174 without having to enter a password.
9181 Warning: do not set this variable unless you are using a version of sendmail
9182 which supports the -B8BITMIME flag (such as sendmail 8.8.x) or you may not be
9185 When set, Mutt will invoke $sendmail with the -B8BITMIME flag when sending
9186 8-bit messages to enable ESMTP negotiation.
9193 When set, Mutt will qualify all local addresses (ones without the ?@host?
9194 portion) with the value of $hostname. If unset, no addresses will be qualified.
9196 3.294. use_envelope_from
9201 When set, mutt will set the envelope sender of the message. If
9202 $envelope_from_address is set, it will be used as the sender address. If unset,
9203 mutt will attempt to derive the sender from the ?From:? header.
9205 Note that this information is passed to sendmail command using the -f command
9206 line switch. Therefore setting this option is not useful if the $sendmail
9207 variable already contains -f or if the executable pointed to by $sendmail
9208 doesn't support the -f switch.
9215 When set, Mutt will generate the ?From:? header field when sending messages. If
9216 unset, no ?From:? header field will be generated unless the user explicitly
9217 sets one using the ?my_hdr? command.
9224 When set, Mutt will show you international domain names decoded. Note: You can
9225 use IDNs for addresses even if this is unset. This variable only affects
9233 When set, Mutt will look for IPv6 addresses of hosts it tries to contact. If
9234 this option is unset, Mutt will restrict itself to IPv4 addresses. Normally,
9235 the default should work.
9242 When set, mutt will add a ?User-Agent:? header to outgoing messages, indicating
9243 which version of mutt was used for composing them.
9250 Specifies the visual editor to invoke when the ??v? command is given in the
9258 Controls whether Mutt will ask you to press a key after an external command has
9259 been invoked by these functions: <shell-escape>, <pipe-message>, <pipe-entry>,
9260 <print-message>, and <print-entry> commands.
9262 It is also used when viewing attachments with ?auto_view?, provided that the
9263 corresponding mailcap entry has a needsterminal flag, and the external program
9266 When set, Mutt will always ask for a key. When unset, Mutt will wait for a key
9267 only if the external command returned a non-zero status.
9274 When set, mutt will weed headers when displaying, forwarding, printing, or
9275 replying to messages.
9282 When set to a positive value, mutt will wrap text at $wrap characters. When set
9283 to a negative value, mutt will wrap text so that there are $wrap characters of
9284 empty space on the right side of the terminal.
9291 Controls whether searches wrap around the end.
9293 When set, searches will wrap around the first (or last) item. When unset,
9294 incremental searches will not wrap.
9301 (DEPRECATED) Equivalent to setting $wrap with a negative value.
9308 When writing a mailbox, a message will be printed every $write_inc messages to
9309 indicate progress. If set to 0, only a single message will be displayed before
9312 Also see the $read_inc, $net_inc and $time_inc variables and the ?tuning?
9313 section of the manual for performance considerations.
9320 Controls whether mutt writes out the ?Bcc:? header when preparing messages to
9321 be sent. Exim users may wish to unset this. If mutt is set to deliver directly
9322 via SMTP (see $smtp_url), this option does nothing: mutt will never write out
9323 the ?Bcc:? header in this case.
9327 The following is the list of available functions listed by the mapping in which
9328 they are available. The default key setting is given, and an explanation of
9329 what the function does. The key bindings of these functions can be changed with
9334 The generic menu is not a real menu, but specifies common functions (such as
9335 movement) available in all menus except for pager and editor. Changing settings
9336 for this menu will affect the default bindings for all menus (except as noted).
9338 Table 8.2. Default generic function bindings
9340 +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
9341 | Function |Default key| Description |
9342 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9343 |<top-page> |H |move to the top of the page |
9344 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9345 |<next-entry> |j |move to the next entry |
9346 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9347 |<previous-entry> |k |move to the previous entry |
9348 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9349 |<bottom-page> |L |move to the bottom of the page |
9350 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9351 |<refresh> |^L |clear and redraw the screen |
9352 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9353 |<middle-page> |M |move to the middle of the page |
9354 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9355 |<search-next> |n |search for next match |
9356 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9357 |<exit> |q |exit this menu |
9358 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9359 |<tag-entry> |t |tag the current entry |
9360 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9361 |<next-page> |z |move to the next page |
9362 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9363 |<previous-page> |Z |move to the previous page |
9364 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9365 |<last-entry> |* |move to the last entry |
9366 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9367 |<first-entry> |= |move to the first entry |
9368 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9369 |<enter-command> |: |enter a muttrc command |
9370 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9371 |<next-line> |> |scroll down one line |
9372 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9373 |<previous-line> |< |scroll up one line |
9374 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9375 |<half-up> |[ |scroll up 1/2 page |
9376 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9377 |<half-down> |] |scroll down 1/2 page |
9378 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9379 |<help> |? |this screen |
9380 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9381 |<tag-prefix> |; |apply next function to tagged messages |
9382 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9383 |<tag-prefix-cond>| |apply next function ONLY to tagged messages|
9384 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9385 |<end-cond> | |end of conditional execution (noop) |
9386 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9387 |<shell-escape> |! |invoke a command in a subshell |
9388 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9389 |<select-entry> |<Return> |select the current entry |
9390 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9391 |<search> |/ |search for a regular expression |
9392 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9393 |<search-reverse> |Esc / |search backwards for a regular expression |
9394 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9395 |<search-opposite>| |search for next match in opposite direction|
9396 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9397 |<jump> | |jump to an index number |
9398 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9399 |<current-top> | |move entry to top of screen |
9400 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9401 |<current-middle> | |move entry to middle of screen |
9402 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9403 |<current-bottom> | |move entry to bottom of screen |
9404 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9405 |<what-key> | |display the keycode for a key press |
9406 +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
9411 Table 8.3. Default index function bindings
9413 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
9414 | Function | Default | Description |
9416 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9417 |<create-alias> |a |create an alias from a message sender |
9418 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9419 |<bounce-message> |b |remail a message to another user |
9420 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9421 |<break-thread> |# |break the thread in two |
9422 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9423 |<change-folder> |c |open a different folder |
9424 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9425 |<change-folder-readonly> |Esc c |open a different folder in read only |
9427 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9428 |<next-unread-mailbox> | |open next mailbox with new mail |
9429 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9430 |<collapse-thread> |Esc v |collapse/uncollapse current thread |
9431 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9432 |<collapse-all> |Esc V |collapse/uncollapse all threads |
9433 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9434 |<copy-message> |C |copy a message to a file/mailbox |
9435 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9436 |<decode-copy> |Esc C |make decoded (text/plain) copy |
9437 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9438 |<decode-save> |Esc s |make decoded copy (text/plain) and |
9440 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9441 |<delete-message> |d |delete the current entry |
9442 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9443 |<delete-pattern> |D |delete messages matching a pattern |
9444 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9445 |<delete-thread> |^D |delete all messages in thread |
9446 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9447 |<delete-subthread> |Esc d |delete all messages in subthread |
9448 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9449 |<edit> |e |edit the raw message |
9450 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9451 |<edit-type> |^E |edit attachment content type |
9452 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9453 |<forward-message> |f |forward a message with comments |
9454 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9455 |<flag-message> |F |toggle a message's 'important' flag |
9456 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9457 |<group-reply> |g |reply to all recipients |
9458 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9459 |<fetch-mail> |G |retrieve mail from POP server |
9460 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9461 |<imap-fetch-mail> | |force retrieval of mail from IMAP server|
9462 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9463 |<display-toggle-weed> |h |display message and toggle header |
9465 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9466 |<next-undeleted> |j |move to the next undeleted message |
9467 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9468 |<previous-undeleted> |k |move to the previous undeleted message |
9469 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9470 |<limit> |l |show only messages matching a pattern |
9471 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9472 |<link-threads> |& |link tagged message to the current one |
9473 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9474 |<list-reply> |L |reply to specified mailing list |
9475 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9476 |<mail> |m |compose a new mail message |
9477 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9478 |<toggle-new> |N |toggle a message's 'new' flag |
9479 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9480 |<toggle-write> |% |toggle whether the mailbox will be |
9482 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9483 |<next-thread> |^N |jump to the next thread |
9484 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9485 |<next-subthread> |Esc n |jump to the next subthread |
9486 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9487 |<query> |Q |query external program for addresses |
9488 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9489 |<quit> |q |save changes to mailbox and quit |
9490 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9491 |<reply> |r |reply to a message |
9492 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9493 |<show-limit> |Esc l |show currently active limit pattern |
9494 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9495 |<sort-mailbox> |o |sort messages |
9496 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9497 |<sort-reverse> |O |sort messages in reverse order |
9498 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9499 |<print-message> |p |print the current entry |
9500 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9501 |<previous-thread> |^P |jump to previous thread |
9502 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9503 |<previous-subthread> |Esc p |jump to previous subthread |
9504 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9505 |<recall-message> |R |recall a postponed message |
9506 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9507 |<read-thread> |^R |mark the current thread as read |
9508 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9509 |<read-subthread> |Esc r |mark the current subthread as read |
9510 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9511 |<resend-message> |Esc e |use the current message as a template |
9512 | | |for a new one |
9513 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9514 |<save-message> |s |save message/attachment to a file |
9515 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9516 |<tag-pattern> |T |tag messages matching a pattern |
9517 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9518 |<tag-subthread> | |tag the current subthread |
9519 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9520 |<tag-thread> |Esc t |tag the current thread |
9521 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9522 |<untag-pattern> |^T |untag messages matching a pattern |
9523 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9524 |<undelete-message> |u |undelete the current entry |
9525 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9526 |<undelete-pattern> |U |undelete messages matching a pattern |
9527 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9528 |<undelete-subthread> |Esc u |undelete all messages in subthread |
9529 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9530 |<undelete-thread> |^U |undelete all messages in thread |
9531 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9532 |<view-attachments> |v |show MIME attachments |
9533 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9534 |<show-version> |V |show the Mutt version number and date |
9535 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9536 |<set-flag> |w |set a status flag on a message |
9537 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9538 |<clear-flag> |W |clear a status flag from a message |
9539 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9540 |<display-message> |<Return> |display a message |
9541 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9542 |<buffy-list> |. |list mailboxes with new mail |
9543 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9544 |<sync-mailbox> |$ |save changes to mailbox |
9545 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9546 |<display-address> |@ |display full address of sender |
9547 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9548 |<pipe-message> || |pipe message/attachment to a shell |
9550 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9551 |<next-new> | |jump to the next new message |
9552 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9553 |<next-new-then-unread> |<Tab> |jump to the next new or unread message |
9554 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9555 |<previous-new> | |jump to the previous new message |
9556 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9557 |<previous-new-then-unread>|Esc <Tab>|jump to the previous new or unread |
9559 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9560 |<next-unread> | |jump to the next unread message |
9561 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9562 |<previous-unread> | |jump to the previous unread message |
9563 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9564 |<parent-message> |P |jump to parent message in thread |
9565 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9566 |<extract-keys> |^K |extract supported public keys |
9567 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9568 |<forget-passphrase> |^F |wipe passphrase(s) from memory |
9569 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9570 |<check-traditional-pgp> |Esc P |check for classic PGP |
9571 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9572 |<mail-key> |Esc k |mail a PGP public key |
9573 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9574 |<decrypt-copy> | |make decrypted copy |
9575 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
9576 |<decrypt-save> | |make decrypted copy and delete |
9577 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
9582 Table 8.4. Default pager function bindings
9584 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
9585 | Function | Default | Description |
9587 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9588 |<break-thread> |# |break the thread in two |
9589 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9590 |<create-alias> |a |create an alias from a message sender |
9591 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9592 |<bounce-message> |b |remail a message to another user |
9593 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9594 |<change-folder> |c |open a different folder |
9595 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9596 |<change-folder-readonly>|Esc c |open a different folder in read only mode |
9597 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9598 |<next-unread-mailbox> | |open next mailbox with new mail |
9599 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9600 |<copy-message> |C |copy a message to a file/mailbox |
9601 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9602 |<decode-copy> |Esc C |make decoded (text/plain) copy |
9603 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9604 |<delete-message> |d |delete the current entry |
9605 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9606 |<delete-thread> |^D |delete all messages in thread |
9607 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9608 |<delete-subthread> |Esc d |delete all messages in subthread |
9609 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9610 |<edit> |e |edit the raw message |
9611 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9612 |<edit-type> |^E |edit attachment content type |
9613 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9614 |<forward-message> |f |forward a message with comments |
9615 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9616 |<flag-message> |F |toggle a message's 'important' flag |
9617 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9618 |<group-reply> |g |reply to all recipients |
9619 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9620 |<imap-fetch-mail> | |force retrieval of mail from IMAP server |
9621 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9622 |<display-toggle-weed> |h |display message and toggle header weeding |
9623 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9624 |<next-undeleted> |j |move to the next undeleted message |
9625 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9626 |<next-entry> |J |move to the next entry |
9627 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9628 |<previous-undeleted> |k |move to the previous undeleted message |
9629 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9630 |<previous-entry> |K |move to the previous entry |
9631 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9632 |<link-threads> |& |link tagged message to the current one |
9633 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9634 |<list-reply> |L |reply to specified mailing list |
9635 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9636 |<redraw-screen> |^L |clear and redraw the screen |
9637 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9638 |<mail> |m |compose a new mail message |
9639 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9640 |<mark-as-new> |N |toggle a message's 'new' flag |
9641 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9642 |<search-next> |n |search for next match |
9643 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9644 |<next-thread> |^N |jump to the next thread |
9645 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9646 |<next-subthread> |Esc n |jump to the next subthread |
9647 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9648 |<print-message> |p |print the current entry |
9649 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9650 |<previous-thread> |^P |jump to previous thread |
9651 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9652 |<previous-subthread> |Esc p |jump to previous subthread |
9653 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9654 |<quit> |Q |save changes to mailbox and quit |
9655 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9656 |<exit> |q |exit this menu |
9657 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9658 |<reply> |r |reply to a message |
9659 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9660 |<recall-message> |R |recall a postponed message |
9661 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9662 |<read-thread> |^R |mark the current thread as read |
9663 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9664 |<read-subthread> |Esc r |mark the current subthread as read |
9665 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9666 |<resend-message> |Esc e |use the current message as a template for |
9668 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9669 |<save-message> |s |save message/attachment to a file |
9670 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9671 |<skip-quoted> |S |skip beyond quoted text |
9672 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9673 |<decode-save> |Esc s |make decoded copy (text/plain) and delete |
9674 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9675 |<tag-message> |t |tag the current entry |
9676 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9677 |<toggle-quoted> |T |toggle display of quoted text |
9678 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9679 |<undelete-message> |u |undelete the current entry |
9680 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9681 |<undelete-subthread> |Esc u |undelete all messages in subthread |
9682 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9683 |<undelete-thread> |^U |undelete all messages in thread |
9684 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9685 |<view-attachments> |v |show MIME attachments |
9686 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9687 |<show-version> |V |show the Mutt version number and date |
9688 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9689 |<search-toggle> |\\ |toggle search pattern coloring |
9690 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9691 |<display-address> |@ |display full address of sender |
9692 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9693 |<next-new> | |jump to the next new message |
9694 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9695 |<pipe-message> || |pipe message/attachment to a shell command|
9696 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9697 |<help> |? |this screen |
9698 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9699 |<next-page> |<Space> |move to the next page |
9700 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9701 |<previous-page> |- |move to the previous page |
9702 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9703 |<top> |^ |jump to the top of the message |
9704 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9705 |<sync-mailbox> |$ |save changes to mailbox |
9706 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9707 |<shell-escape> |! |invoke a command in a subshell |
9708 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9709 |<enter-command> |: |enter a muttrc command |
9710 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9711 |<buffy-list> |. |list mailboxes with new mail |
9712 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9713 |<search> |/ |search for a regular expression |
9714 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9715 |<search-reverse> |Esc / |search backwards for a regular expression |
9716 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9717 |<search-opposite> | |search for next match in opposite |
9719 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9720 |<next-line> |<Return> |scroll down one line |
9721 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9722 |<jump> | |jump to an index number |
9723 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9724 |<next-unread> | |jump to the next unread message |
9725 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9726 |<previous-new> | |jump to the previous new message |
9727 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9728 |<previous-unread> | |jump to the previous unread message |
9729 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9730 |<half-up> | |scroll up 1/2 page |
9731 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9732 |<half-down> | |scroll down 1/2 page |
9733 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9734 |<previous-line> | |scroll up one line |
9735 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9736 |<bottom> | |jump to the bottom of the message |
9737 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9738 |<parent-message> |P |jump to parent message in thread |
9739 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9740 |<check-traditional-pgp> |Esc P |check for classic PGP |
9741 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9742 |<mail-key> |Esc k |mail a PGP public key |
9743 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9744 |<extract-keys> |^K |extract supported public keys |
9745 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9746 |<forget-passphrase> |^F |wipe passphrase(s) from memory |
9747 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9748 |<decrypt-copy> | |make decrypted copy |
9749 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9750 |<decrypt-save> | |make decrypted copy and delete |
9751 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
9752 |<what-key> | |display the keycode for a key press |
9753 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
9758 Table 8.5. Default alias function bindings
9760 +-------------------------------------------------------+
9761 | Function |Default key| Description |
9762 |----------------+-----------+--------------------------|
9763 |<delete-entry> |d |delete the current entry |
9764 |----------------+-----------+--------------------------|
9765 |<undelete-entry>|u |undelete the current entry|
9766 +-------------------------------------------------------+
9771 Table 8.6. Default query function bindings
9773 +----------------------------------------------------------------------+
9774 | Function |Default key| Description |
9775 |--------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9776 |<create-alias>|a |create an alias from a message sender |
9777 |--------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9778 |<mail> |m |compose a new mail message |
9779 |--------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9780 |<query> |Q |query external program for addresses |
9781 |--------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9782 |<query-append>|A |append new query results to current results|
9783 +----------------------------------------------------------------------+
9788 Table 8.7. Default attach function bindings
9790 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
9791 | Function | Default | Description |
9793 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
9794 |<bounce-message> |b |remail a message to another user |
9795 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
9796 |<display-toggle-weed> |h |display message and toggle header weeding |
9797 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
9798 |<edit-type> |^E |edit attachment content type |
9799 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
9800 |<print-entry> |p |print the current entry |
9801 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
9802 |<save-entry> |s |save message/attachment to a file |
9803 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
9804 |<pipe-entry> || |pipe message/attachment to a shell command |
9805 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
9806 |<view-mailcap> |m |force viewing of attachment using mailcap |
9807 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
9808 |<reply> |r |reply to a message |
9809 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
9810 |<resend-message> |Esc e |use the current message as a template for a|
9812 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
9813 |<group-reply> |g |reply to all recipients |
9814 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
9815 |<list-reply> |L |reply to specified mailing list |
9816 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
9817 |<forward-message> |f |forward a message with comments |
9818 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
9819 |<view-text> |T |view attachment as text |
9820 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
9821 |<view-attach> |<Return> |view attachment using mailcap entry if |
9823 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
9824 |<delete-entry> |d |delete the current entry |
9825 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
9826 |<undelete-entry> |u |undelete the current entry |
9827 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
9828 |<collapse-parts> |v |Toggle display of subparts |
9829 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
9830 |<check-traditional-pgp>|Esc P |check for classic PGP |
9831 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
9832 |<extract-keys> |^K |extract supported public keys |
9833 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
9834 |<forget-passphrase> |^F |wipe passphrase(s) from memory |
9835 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
9840 Table 8.8. Default compose function bindings
9842 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
9843 | Function | Default | Description |
9845 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9846 |<attach-file> |a |attach file(s) to this message |
9847 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9848 |<attach-message> |A |attach message(s) to this message |
9849 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9850 |<edit-bcc> |b |edit the BCC list |
9851 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9852 |<edit-cc> |c |edit the CC list |
9853 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9854 |<copy-file> |C |save message/attachment to a file |
9855 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9856 |<detach-file> |D |delete the current entry |
9857 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9858 |<toggle-disposition> |^D |toggle disposition between inline/attachment|
9859 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9860 |<edit-description> |d |edit attachment description |
9861 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9862 |<edit-message> |e |edit the message |
9863 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9864 |<edit-headers> |E |edit the message with headers |
9865 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9866 |<edit-file> |^X e |edit the file to be attached |
9867 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9868 |<edit-encoding> |^E |edit attachment transfer-encoding |
9869 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9870 |<edit-from> |Esc f |edit the from field |
9871 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9872 |<edit-fcc> |f |enter a file to save a copy of this message |
9874 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9875 |<filter-entry> |F |filter attachment through a shell command |
9876 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9877 |<get-attachment> |G |get a temporary copy of an attachment |
9878 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9879 |<display-toggle-weed>|h |display message and toggle header weeding |
9880 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9881 |<ispell> |i |run ispell on the message |
9882 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9883 |<print-entry> |l |print the current entry |
9884 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9885 |<edit-mime> |m |edit attachment using mailcap entry |
9886 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9887 |<new-mime> |n |compose new attachment using mailcap entry |
9888 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9889 |<postpone-message> |P |save this message to send later |
9890 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9891 |<edit-reply-to> |r |edit the Reply-To field |
9892 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9893 |<rename-file> |R |rename/move an attached file |
9894 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9895 |<edit-subject> |s |edit the subject of this message |
9896 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9897 |<edit-to> |t |edit the TO list |
9898 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9899 |<edit-type> |^T |edit attachment content type |
9900 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9901 |<write-fcc> |w |write the message to a folder |
9902 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9903 |<toggle-unlink> |u |toggle whether to delete file after sending |
9905 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9906 |<toggle-recode> | |toggle recoding of this attachment |
9907 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9908 |<update-encoding> |U |update an attachment's encoding info |
9909 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9910 |<view-attach> |<Return> |view attachment using mailcap entry if |
9912 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9913 |<send-message> |y |send the message |
9914 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9915 |<pipe-entry> || |pipe message/attachment to a shell command |
9916 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9917 |<attach-key> |Esc k |attach a PGP public key |
9918 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9919 |<pgp-menu> |p |show PGP options |
9920 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9921 |<forget-passphrase> |^F |wipe passphrase(s) from memory |
9922 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9923 |<smime-menu> |S |show S/MIME options |
9924 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
9925 |<mix> |M |send the message through a mixmaster |
9926 | | |remailer chain |
9927 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
9932 Table 8.9. Default postpone function bindings
9934 +-------------------------------------------------------+
9935 | Function |Default key| Description |
9936 |----------------+-----------+--------------------------|
9937 |<delete-entry> |d |delete the current entry |
9938 |----------------+-----------+--------------------------|
9939 |<undelete-entry>|u |undelete the current entry|
9940 +-------------------------------------------------------+
9945 Table 8.10. Default browser function bindings
9947 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
9948 | Function | Default | Description |
9950 |-------------------+----------+----------------------------------------------|
9951 |<change-dir> |c |change directories |
9952 |-------------------+----------+----------------------------------------------|
9953 |<display-filename> |@ |display the currently selected file's name |
9954 |-------------------+----------+----------------------------------------------|
9955 |<enter-mask> |m |enter a file mask |
9956 |-------------------+----------+----------------------------------------------|
9957 |<sort> |o |sort messages |
9958 |-------------------+----------+----------------------------------------------|
9959 |<sort-reverse> |O |sort messages in reverse order |
9960 |-------------------+----------+----------------------------------------------|
9961 |<select-new> |N |select a new file in this directory |
9962 |-------------------+----------+----------------------------------------------|
9963 |<check-new> | |check mailboxes for new mail |
9964 |-------------------+----------+----------------------------------------------|
9965 |<toggle-mailboxes> |<Tab> |toggle whether to browse mailboxes or all |
9967 |-------------------+----------+----------------------------------------------|
9968 |<view-file> |<Space> |view file |
9969 |-------------------+----------+----------------------------------------------|
9970 |<buffy-list> |. |list mailboxes with new mail |
9971 |-------------------+----------+----------------------------------------------|
9972 |<create-mailbox> |C |create a new mailbox (IMAP only) |
9973 |-------------------+----------+----------------------------------------------|
9974 |<delete-mailbox> |d |delete the current mailbox (IMAP only) |
9975 |-------------------+----------+----------------------------------------------|
9976 |<rename-mailbox> |r |rename the current mailbox (IMAP only) |
9977 |-------------------+----------+----------------------------------------------|
9978 |<subscribe> |s |subscribe to current mailbox (IMAP only) |
9979 |-------------------+----------+----------------------------------------------|
9980 |<unsubscribe> |u |unsubscribe from current mailbox (IMAP only) |
9981 |-------------------+----------+----------------------------------------------|
9982 |<toggle-subscribed>|T |toggle view all/subscribed mailboxes (IMAP |
9984 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
9989 Table 8.11. Default pgp function bindings
9991 +------------------------------------------------+
9992 | Function |Default key| Description |
9993 |------------+-----------+-----------------------|
9994 |<verify-key>|c |verify a PGP public key|
9995 |------------+-----------+-----------------------|
9996 |<view-name> |% |view the key's user id |
9997 +------------------------------------------------+
10002 Table 8.12. Default smime function bindings
10004 +------------------------------------------------+
10005 | Function |Default key| Description |
10006 |------------+-----------+-----------------------|
10007 |<verify-key>|c |verify a PGP public key|
10008 |------------+-----------+-----------------------|
10009 |<view-name> |% |view the key's user id |
10010 +------------------------------------------------+
10015 Table 8.13. Default mix function bindings
10017 +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
10018 | Function |Default key| Description |
10019 |------------+-----------+----------------------------------------|
10020 |<accept> |<Return> |Accept the chain constructed |
10021 |------------+-----------+----------------------------------------|
10022 |<append> |a |Append a remailer to the chain |
10023 |------------+-----------+----------------------------------------|
10024 |<insert> |i |Insert a remailer into the chain |
10025 |------------+-----------+----------------------------------------|
10026 |<delete> |d |Delete a remailer from the chain |
10027 |------------+-----------+----------------------------------------|
10028 |<chain-prev>|<Left> |Select the previous element of the chain|
10029 |------------+-----------+----------------------------------------|
10030 |<chain-next>|<Right> |Select the next element of the chain |
10031 +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
10036 Table 8.14. Default editor function bindings
10038 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
10039 | Function |Default key| Description |
10040 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10041 |<bol> |^A |jump to the beginning of the line |
10042 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10043 |<backward-char> |^B |move the cursor one character to the left |
10044 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10045 |<backward-word> |Esc b |move the cursor to the beginning of the word |
10046 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10047 |<capitalize-word>|Esc c |capitalize the word |
10048 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10049 |<downcase-word> |Esc l |convert the word to lower case |
10050 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10051 |<upcase-word> |Esc u |convert the word to upper case |
10052 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10053 |<delete-char> |^D |delete the char under the cursor |
10054 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10055 |<eol> |^E |jump to the end of the line |
10056 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10057 |<forward-char> |^F |move the cursor one character to the right |
10058 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10059 |<forward-word> |Esc f |move the cursor to the end of the word |
10060 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10061 |<backspace> |<Backspace>|delete the char in front of the cursor |
10062 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10063 |<kill-eol> |^K |delete chars from cursor to end of line |
10064 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10065 |<kill-eow> |Esc d |delete chars from the cursor to the end of the |
10067 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10068 |<kill-line> |^U |delete all chars on the line |
10069 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10070 |<quote-char> |^V |quote the next typed key |
10071 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10072 |<kill-word> |^W |delete the word in front of the cursor |
10073 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10074 |<complete> |<Tab> |complete filename or alias |
10075 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10076 |<complete-query> |^T |complete address with query |
10077 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10078 |<buffy-cycle> |<Space> |cycle among incoming mailboxes |
10079 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10080 |<history-up> | |scroll up through the history list |
10081 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10082 |<history-down> | |scroll down through the history list |
10083 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10084 |<transpose-chars>| |transpose character under cursor with previous |
10085 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
10088 Chapter 9. Miscellany
10092 1. Acknowledgements
10093 2. About this document
10095 1. Acknowledgements
10097 Kari Hurtta <kari.hurtta@fmi.fi> co-developed the original MIME parsing code
10098 back in the ELM-ME days.
10100 The following people have been very helpful to the development of Mutt:
10102 * Vikas Agnihotri <vikasa@writeme.com>
10104 * Francois Berjon <Francois.Berjon@aar.alcatel-alsthom.fr>
10106 * Aric Blumer <aric@fore.com>
10108 * John Capo <jc@irbs.com>
10110 * David Champion <dgc@uchicago.edu>
10112 * Brendan Cully <brendan@kublai.com>
10114 * Liviu Daia <daia@stoilow.imar.ro>
10116 * Thomas E. Dickey <dickey@herndon4.his.com>
10118 * David DeSimone <fox@convex.hp.com>
10120 * Nickolay N. Dudorov <nnd@wint.itfs.nsk.su>
10122 * Ruslan Ermilov <ru@freebsd.org>
10124 * Edmund Grimley Evans <edmundo@rano.org>
10126 * Michael Finken <finken@conware.de>
10128 * Sven Guckes <guckes@math.fu-berlin.de>
10130 * Lars Hecking <lhecking@nmrc.ie>
10132 * Mark Holloman <holloman@nando.net>
10134 * Andreas Holzmann <holzmann@fmi.uni-passau.de>
10136 * Marco d'Itri <md@linux.it>
10138 * Bj?rn Jacke <bjacke@suse.com>
10140 * Byrial Jensen <byrial@image.dk>
10142 * David Jeske <jeske@igcom.net>
10144 * Christophe Kalt <kalt@hugo.int-evry.fr>
10146 * Tommi Komulainen <Tommi.Komulainen@iki.fi>
10148 * Felix von Leitner (a.k.a ?Fefe?) <leitner@math.fu-berlin.de>
10150 * Brandon Long <blong@fiction.net>
10152 * Jimmy M?kel? <jmy@flashback.net>
10154 * Lars Marowsky-Bree <lmb@pointer.in-minden.de>
10156 * Thomas ?Mike? Michlmayr <mike@cosy.sbg.ac.at>
10158 * Andrew W. Nosenko <awn@bcs.zp.ua>
10160 * David O'Brien <obrien@Nuxi.cs.ucdavis.edu>
10162 * Clint Olsen <olsenc@ichips.intel.com>
10164 * Park Myeong Seok <pms@romance.kaist.ac.kr>
10166 * Thomas Parmelan <tom@ankh.fr.eu.org>
10168 * Ollivier Robert <roberto@keltia.freenix.fr>
10170 * Thomas Roessler <roessler@does-not-exist.org>
10172 * Roland Rosenfeld <roland@spinnaker.de>
10174 * Rocco Rutte <pdmef@gmx.net>
10176 * TAKIZAWA Takashi <taki@luna.email.ne.jp>
10178 * Allain Thivillon <Allain.Thivillon@alma.fr>
10180 * Gero Treuner <gero@70t.de>
10182 * Vsevolod Volkov <vvv@lucky.net>
10184 * Ken Weinert <kenw@ihs.com>
10186 2. About this document
10188 This document was written in DocBook, and then rendered using the Gnome XSLT
projects / software / mutt-debian.git / blob