7 version 1.5.21 (2010-09-15)
11 ?All mail clients suck. This one just sucks less.? ? me, circa 1995
13 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
22 4. Mutt Online Resources
23 5. Contributing to Mutt
24 6. Typographical Conventions
40 3. Moving Around in Menus
41 4. Editing Input Fields
48 5.1. The Message Index
51 5.4. Miscellaneous Functions
56 6.2. Editing the Message Header
57 6.3. Sending Cryptographically Signed/Encrypted Messages
58 6.4. Sending Format=Flowed Messages
60 7. Forwarding and Bouncing Mail
65 1. Location of Initialization Files
66 2. Syntax of Initialization Files
68 4. Defining/Using Aliases
69 5. Changing the Default Key Bindings
70 6. Defining Aliases for Character Sets
71 7. Setting Variables Based Upon Mailbox
73 9. Using Color and Mono Video Attributes
74 10. Message Header Display
77 10.2. Selecting Headers
78 10.3. Ordering Displayed Headers
80 11. Alternative Addresses
82 13. Using Multiple Spool Mailboxes
83 14. Monitoring Incoming Mail
84 15. User-Defined Headers
85 16. Specify Default Save Mailbox
86 17. Specify Default Fcc: Mailbox When Composing
87 18. Specify Default Save Filename and Default Fcc: Mailbox at Once
88 19. Change Settings Based Upon Message Recipients
89 20. Change Settings Before Formatting a Message
90 21. Choosing the Cryptographic Key of the Recipient
91 22. Adding Key Sequences to the Keyboard Buffer
92 23. Executing Functions
95 26. Setting and Querying Variables
99 26.3. User-Defined Variables
100 26.4. Type Conversions
102 27. Reading Initialization Commands From Another File
113 1. Character Set Handling
114 2. Regular Expressions
115 3. Patterns: Searching, Limiting and Tagging
117 3.1. Pattern Modifier
119 3.3. Nesting and Boolean Operators
120 3.4. Searching by Date
125 5.1. Message Matching in Hooks
127 6. External Address Queries
130 9. Handling Mailing Lists
131 10. New Mail Detection
133 10.1. How New Mail Detection Works
134 10.2. Polling For New Mail
138 11.1. Linking Threads
139 11.2. Breaking Threads
141 12. Delivery Status Notification (DSN) Support
142 13. Start a WWW Browser on URLs
145 5. Mutt's MIME Support
147 1. Using MIME in Mutt
150 1.2. Viewing MIME Messages in the Pager
151 1.3. The Attachment Menu
152 1.4. The Compose Menu
154 2. MIME Type Configuration with mime.types
155 3. MIME Viewer Configuration with Mailcap
157 3.1. The Basics of the Mailcap File
158 3.2. Secure Use of Mailcap
159 3.3. Advanced Mailcap Usage
160 3.4. Example Mailcap Files
163 5. MIME Multipart/Alternative
164 6. Attachment Searching and Counting
171 1.1. Enabling/Disabling Features
178 4.1. The IMAP Folder Browser
182 6. Managing Multiple Accounts
187 7.3. Cache Directories
190 8. Exact Address Generation
191 9. Sending Anonymous Messages via Mixmaster
193 7. Security Considerations
199 3.1. Message-Id: headers
200 3.2. mailto:-style Links
202 4. External Applications
204 8. Performance Tuning
206 1. Reading and Writing Mailboxes
207 2. Reading Messages from Remote Folders
208 3. Searching and Limiting
212 1. Command-Line Options
213 2. Configuration Commands
214 3. Configuration Variables
217 3.2. abort_unmodified
226 3.11. assumed_charset
237 3.22. bounce_delivered
238 3.23. braille_friendly
239 3.24. certificate_file
241 3.26. check_mbox_size
243 3.28. collapse_unread
248 3.33. connect_timeout
251 3.36. crypt_autoencrypt
254 3.39. crypt_autosmime
255 3.40. crypt_replyencrypt
256 3.41. crypt_replysign
257 3.42. crypt_replysignencrypted
258 3.43. crypt_timestamp
259 3.44. crypt_use_gpgme
261 3.46. crypt_verify_sig
266 3.51. digest_collapse
268 3.53. dotlock_program
271 3.56. duplicate_threads
276 3.61. envelope_from_address
286 3.71. forward_decrypt
295 3.80. header_cache_compress
296 3.81. header_cache_pagesize
301 3.86. hide_thread_subject
302 3.87. hide_top_limited
303 3.88. hide_top_missing
306 3.91. honor_disposition
307 3.92. honor_followup_to
309 3.94. ignore_linear_white_space
310 3.95. ignore_list_reply_to
311 3.96. imap_authenticators
312 3.97. imap_check_subscribed
313 3.98. imap_delim_chars
316 3.101. imap_keepalive
317 3.102. imap_list_subscribed
322 3.107. imap_pipeline_depth
323 3.108. imap_servernoise
325 3.110. implicit_autoview
327 3.112. include_onlyfirst
334 3.119. mail_check_recent
336 3.121. mailcap_sanitize
337 3.122. maildir_header_cache_verify
347 3.132. message_cache_clean
348 3.133. message_cachedir
349 3.134. message_format
353 3.138. mh_seq_flagged
354 3.139. mh_seq_replied
357 3.142. mime_forward_decode
358 3.143. mime_forward_rest
359 3.144. mix_entry_format
367 3.152. pager_index_lines
369 3.154. pgp_auto_decode
370 3.155. pgp_autoinline
371 3.156. pgp_check_exit
372 3.157. pgp_clearsign_command
373 3.158. pgp_decode_command
374 3.159. pgp_decrypt_command
375 3.160. pgp_encrypt_only_command
376 3.161. pgp_encrypt_sign_command
377 3.162. pgp_entry_format
378 3.163. pgp_export_command
379 3.164. pgp_getkeys_command
381 3.166. pgp_ignore_subkeys
382 3.167. pgp_import_command
383 3.168. pgp_list_pubring_command
384 3.169. pgp_list_secring_command
387 3.172. pgp_replyinline
388 3.173. pgp_retainable_sigs
389 3.174. pgp_show_unusable
391 3.176. pgp_sign_command
393 3.178. pgp_strict_enc
395 3.180. pgp_use_gpg_agent
396 3.181. pgp_verify_command
397 3.182. pgp_verify_key_command
401 3.186. pop_auth_try_all
402 3.187. pop_authenticators
403 3.188. pop_checkinterval
410 3.195. post_indent_string
434 3.219. reverse_realname
435 3.220. rfc2047_parameters
441 3.226. score_threshold_delete
442 3.227. score_threshold_flag
443 3.228. score_threshold_read
444 3.229. search_context
456 3.241. smime_ask_cert_label
457 3.242. smime_ca_location
458 3.243. smime_certificates
459 3.244. smime_decrypt_command
460 3.245. smime_decrypt_use_default_key
461 3.246. smime_default_key
462 3.247. smime_encrypt_command
463 3.248. smime_encrypt_with
464 3.249. smime_get_cert_command
465 3.250. smime_get_cert_email_command
466 3.251. smime_get_signer_cert_command
467 3.252. smime_import_cert_command
468 3.253. smime_is_default
470 3.255. smime_pk7out_command
471 3.256. smime_sign_command
472 3.257. smime_sign_opaque_command
474 3.259. smime_verify_command
475 3.260. smime_verify_opaque_command
476 3.261. smtp_authenticators
484 3.269. spam_separator
486 3.271. ssl_ca_certificates_file
487 3.272. ssl_client_cert
489 3.274. ssl_min_dh_prime_bits
494 3.279. ssl_usesystemcerts
495 3.280. ssl_verify_dates
496 3.281. ssl_verify_host
500 3.285. strict_threads
503 3.288. thorough_search
504 3.289. thread_received
511 3.296. uncollapse_jump
514 3.299. use_envelope_from
548 2. About This Document
552 1.1. Typographical conventions for special terms
553 2.1. Most common navigation keys in entry-based menus
554 2.2. Most common navigation keys in page-based menus
555 2.3. Most common line editor keys
556 2.4. Most common message index keys
557 2.5. Message status flags
558 2.6. Message recipient flags
559 2.7. Most common pager keys
560 2.8. ANSI escape sequences
562 2.10. Most common thread mode keys
563 2.11. Most common mail sending keys
564 2.12. Most common compose menu keys
565 2.13. PGP key menu flags
566 3.1. Symbolic key names
567 4.1. POSIX regular expression character classes
568 4.2. Regular expression repetition operators
569 4.3. GNU regular expression extensions
570 4.4. Pattern modifiers
571 4.5. Simple search keywords
573 4.7. Mailbox shortcuts
574 5.1. Supported MIME types
575 9.1. Command line options
576 9.2. Default Generic Menu Bindings
577 9.3. Default Index Menu Bindings
578 9.4. Default Pager Menu Bindings
579 9.5. Default Alias Menu Bindings
580 9.6. Default Query Menu Bindings
581 9.7. Default Attachment Menu Bindings
582 9.8. Default Compose Menu Bindings
583 9.9. Default Postpone Menu Bindings
584 9.10. Default Browser Menu Bindings
585 9.11. Default Pgp Menu Bindings
586 9.12. Default Smime Menu Bindings
587 9.13. Default Mixmaster Menu Bindings
588 9.14. Default Editor Menu Bindings
592 3.1. Multiple configuration commands per line
593 3.2. Commenting configuration files
594 3.3. Escaping quotes in configuration files
595 3.4. Splitting long configuration commands over several lines
596 3.5. Using external command's output in configuration files
597 3.6. Using environment variables in configuration files
598 3.7. Configuring external alias files
599 3.8. Setting sort method based on mailbox name
601 3.10. Configuring header display order
602 3.11. Defining custom headers
603 3.12. Using %-expandos in save-hook
604 3.13. Embedding push in folder-hook
605 3.14. Configuring spam detection
606 3.15. Using user-defined variables for config file readability
607 3.16. Using user-defined variables for backing up other config option values
608 3.17. Deferring user-defined variable expansion to runtime
609 3.18. Type conversions using variables
610 3.19. Using external filters in format strings
611 4.1. Matching all addresses in address lists
612 4.2. Using boolean operators in patterns
613 4.3. Specifying a ?default? hook
615 5.2. Attachment counting
617 6.2. Managing multiple accounts
619 Chapter 1. Introduction
626 4. Mutt Online Resources
627 5. Contributing to Mutt
628 6. Typographical Conventions
631 Mutt is a small but very powerful text-based MIME mail client. Mutt is highly
632 configurable, and is well suited to the mail power user with advanced features
633 like key bindings, keyboard macros, mail threading, regular expression searches
634 and a powerful pattern matching language for selecting groups of messages.
638 The official homepage can be found at http://www.mutt.org/.
642 To subscribe to one of the following mailing lists, send a message with the
643 word subscribe in the body to list-name-request@mutt.org.
645 * <mutt-announce-request@mutt.org> ? low traffic list for announcements
647 * <mutt-users-request@mutt.org> ? help, bug reports and feature requests
649 * <mutt-dev-request@mutt.org> ? development mailing list
651 All messages posted to mutt-announce are automatically forwarded to mutt-users,
652 so you do not need to be subscribed to both lists.
656 Mutt releases can be downloaded from ftp://ftp.mutt.org/mutt/. For a list of
657 mirror sites, please refer to http://www.mutt.org/download.html.
659 For nightly tarballs and version control access, please refer to the Mutt
662 4. Mutt Online Resources
666 The official Mutt bug tracking system can be found at http://bugs.mutt.org/
670 An (unofficial) wiki can be found at http://wiki.mutt.org/.
674 For the IRC user community, visit channel #mutt on irc.freenode.net.
678 For USENET, see the newsgroup comp.mail.mutt.
680 5. Contributing to Mutt
682 There are various ways to contribute to the Mutt project.
684 Especially for new users it may be helpful to meet other new and experienced
685 users to chat about Mutt, talk about problems and share tricks.
687 Since translations of Mutt into other languages are highly appreciated, the
688 Mutt developers always look for skilled translators that help improve and
689 continue to maintain stale translations.
691 For contributing code patches for new features and bug fixes, please refer to
692 the developer pages at http://dev.mutt.org/ for more details.
694 6. Typographical Conventions
696 This section lists typographical conventions followed throughout this manual.
697 See table Table 1.1, ?Typographical conventions for special terms? for
698 typographical conventions for special terms.
700 Table 1.1. Typographical conventions for special terms
702 +------------------------------------------------------+
703 | Item | Refers to... |
704 |--------------+---------------------------------------|
705 |printf(3) |UNIX manual pages, execute man 3 printf|
706 |--------------+---------------------------------------|
707 |<PageUp> |named keys |
708 |--------------+---------------------------------------|
709 |<create-alias>|named Mutt function |
710 |--------------+---------------------------------------|
711 |^G |Control+G key combination |
712 |--------------+---------------------------------------|
713 |$mail_check |Mutt configuration option |
714 |--------------+---------------------------------------|
715 |$HOME |environment variable |
716 +------------------------------------------------------+
719 Examples are presented as:
723 Within command synopsis, curly brackets (?{}?) denote a set of options of which
724 one is mandatory, square brackets (?[]?) denote optional arguments, three dots
725 denote that the argument may be repeated arbitrary times.
729 Mutt is Copyright ? 1996-2009 Michael R. Elkins <me@mutt.org> and others.
731 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under
732 the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software
733 Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later
736 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY
737 WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A
738 PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
740 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with
741 this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin
742 Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
744 Chapter 2. Getting Started
759 3. Moving Around in Menus
760 4. Editing Input Fields
767 5.1. The Message Index
770 5.4. Miscellaneous Functions
775 6.2. Editing the Message Header
776 6.3. Sending Cryptographically Signed/Encrypted Messages
777 6.4. Sending Format=Flowed Messages
779 7. Forwarding and Bouncing Mail
782 This section is intended as a brief overview of how to use Mutt. There are many
783 other features which are described elsewhere in the manual. There is even more
784 information available in the Mutt FAQ and various web pages. See the Mutt
785 homepage for more details.
787 The keybindings described in this section are the defaults as distributed. Your
788 local system administrator may have altered the defaults for your site. You can
789 always type ??? in any menu to display the current bindings.
791 The first thing you need to do is invoke Mutt, simply by typing mutt at the
792 command line. There are various command-line options, see either the Mutt man
793 page or the reference.
797 Mutt is a text-based application which interacts with users through different
798 menus which are mostly line-/entry-based or page-based. A line-based menu is
799 the so-called ?index? menu (listing all messages of the currently opened
800 folder) or the ?alias? menu (allowing you to select recipients from a list).
801 Examples for page-based menus are the ?pager? (showing one message at a time)
802 or the ?help? menu listing all available key bindings.
804 The user interface consists of a context sensitive help line at the top, the
805 menu's contents followed by a context sensitive status line and finally the
806 command line. The command line is used to display informational and error
807 messages as well as for prompts and for entering interactive commands.
809 Mutt is configured through variables which, if the user wants to permanently
810 use a non-default value, are written to configuration files. Mutt supports a
811 rich config file syntax to make even complex configuration files readable and
814 Because Mutt allows for customizing almost all key bindings, there are
815 so-called ?functions? which can be executed manually (using the command line)
816 or in macros. Macros allow the user to bind a sequence of commands to a single
817 key or a short key sequence instead of repeating a sequence of actions over and
820 Many commands (such as saving or copying a message to another folder) can be
821 applied to a single message or a set of messages (so-called ?tagged? messages).
822 To help selecting messages, Mutt provides a rich set of message patterns (such
823 as recipients, sender, body contents, date sent/received, etc.) which can be
824 combined into complex expressions using the boolean and and or operations as
825 well as negating. These patterns can also be used to (for example) search for
826 messages or to limit the index to show only matching messages.
828 Mutt supports a ?hook? concept which allows the user to execute arbitrary
829 configuration commands and functions in certain situations such as entering a
830 folder, starting a new message or replying to an existing one. These hooks can
831 be used to highly customize Mutt's behavior including managing multiple
832 identities, customizing the display for a folder or even implementing
833 auto-archiving based on a per-folder basis and much more.
835 Besides an interactive mode, Mutt can also be used as a command-line tool only
836 send messages. It also supports a mailx(1)-compatible interface, see Table 9.1,
837 ?Command line options? for a complete list of command-line options.
843 The index is the screen that you usually see first when you start Mutt. It
844 gives an overview over your emails in the currently opened mailbox. By default,
845 this is your system mailbox. The information you see in the index is a list of
846 emails, each with its number on the left, its flags (new email, important
847 email, email that has been forwarded or replied to, tagged email, ...), the
848 date when email was sent, its sender, the email size, and the subject.
849 Additionally, the index also shows thread hierarchies: when you reply to an
850 email, and the other person replies back, you can see the other person's email
851 in a "sub-tree" below. This is especially useful for personal email between a
852 group of people or when you've subscribed to mailing lists.
856 The pager is responsible for showing the email content. On the top of the pager
857 you have an overview over the most important email headers like the sender, the
858 recipient, the subject, and much more information. How much information you
859 actually see depends on your configuration, which we'll describe below.
861 Below the headers, you see the email body which usually contains the message.
862 If the email contains any attachments, you will see more information about them
863 below the email body, or, if the attachments are text files, you can view them
864 directly in the pager.
866 To give the user a good overview, it is possible to configure Mutt to show
867 different things in the pager with different colors. Virtually everything that
868 can be described with a regular expression can be colored, e.g. URLs, email
869 addresses or smileys.
873 The file browser is the interface to the local or remote file system. When
874 selecting a mailbox to open, the browser allows custom sorting of items,
875 limiting the items shown by a regular expression and a freely adjustable format
876 of what to display in which way. It also allows for easy navigation through the
877 file system when selecting file(s) to attach to a message, select multiple
878 files to attach and many more.
882 The help screen is meant to offer a quick help to the user. It lists the
883 current configuration of key bindings and their associated commands including a
884 short description, and currently unbound functions that still need to be
885 associated with a key binding (or alternatively, they can be called via the
886 Mutt command prompt).
890 The compose menu features a split screen containing the information which
891 really matter before actually sending a message by mail: who gets the message
892 as what (recipients and who gets what kind of copy). Additionally, users may
893 set security options like deciding whether to sign, encrypt or sign and encrypt
894 a message with/for what keys. Also, it's used to attach messages, to re-edit
895 any attachment including the message itself.
899 The alias menu is used to help users finding the recipients of messages. For
900 users who need to contact many people, there's no need to remember addresses or
901 names completely because it allows for searching, too. The alias mechanism and
902 thus the alias menu also features grouping several addresses by a shorter
903 nickname, the actual alias, so that users don't have to select each single
908 As will be later discussed in detail, Mutt features a good and stable MIME
909 implementation, that is, it supports sending and receiving messages of
910 arbitrary MIME types. The attachment menu displays a message's structure in
911 detail: what content parts are attached to which parent part (which gives a
912 true tree structure), which type is of what type and what size. Single parts
913 may saved, deleted or modified to offer great and easy access to message's
916 3. Moving Around in Menus
918 The most important navigation keys common to line- or entry-based menus are
919 shown in Table 2.1, ?Most common navigation keys in entry-based menus? and in
920 Table 2.2, ?Most common navigation keys in page-based menus? for page-based
923 Table 2.1. Most common navigation keys in entry-based menus
925 +------------------------------------------------------------------------+
926 | Key | Function | Description |
927 |-------------+----------------+-----------------------------------------|
928 |j or <Down> |<next-entry> |move to the next entry |
929 |-------------+----------------+-----------------------------------------|
930 |k or <Up> |<previous-entry>|move to the previous entry |
931 |-------------+----------------+-----------------------------------------|
932 |z or <PageDn>|<page-down> |go to the next page |
933 |-------------+----------------+-----------------------------------------|
934 |Z or <PageUp>|<page-up> |go to the previous page |
935 |-------------+----------------+-----------------------------------------|
936 |= or <Home> |<first-entry> |jump to the first entry |
937 |-------------+----------------+-----------------------------------------|
938 |* or <End> |<last-entry> |jump to the last entry |
939 |-------------+----------------+-----------------------------------------|
940 |q |<quit> |exit the current menu |
941 |-------------+----------------+-----------------------------------------|
942 |? |<help> |list all keybindings for the current menu|
943 +------------------------------------------------------------------------+
946 Table 2.2. Most common navigation keys in page-based menus
948 +-------------------------------------------------------------+
949 | Key | Function | Description |
950 |----------------------+---------------+----------------------|
951 |J or <Return> |<next-line> |scroll down one line |
952 |----------------------+---------------+----------------------|
953 |<Backspace> |<previous-line>|scroll up one line |
954 |----------------------+---------------+----------------------|
955 |K, <Space> or <PageDn>|<next-page> |move to the next page |
956 |----------------------+---------------+----------------------|
957 |- or <PageUp> |<previous-page>|move the previous page|
958 |----------------------+---------------+----------------------|
959 |<Home> |<top> |move to the top |
960 |----------------------+---------------+----------------------|
961 |<End> |<bottom> |move to the bottom |
962 +-------------------------------------------------------------+
965 4. Editing Input Fields
969 Mutt has a built-in line editor for inputting text, e.g. email addresses or
970 filenames. The keys used to manipulate text input are very similar to those of
971 Emacs. See Table 2.3, ?Most common line editor keys? for a full reference of
972 available functions, their default key bindings, and short descriptions.
974 Table 2.3. Most common line editor keys
976 +---------------------------------------------------------------------+
977 | Key | Function | Description |
978 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
979 |^A or <Home> |<bol> |move to the start of the line |
980 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
981 |^B or <Left> |<backward-char> |move back one char |
982 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
983 |Esc B |<backward-word> |move back one word |
984 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
985 |^D or <Delete>|<delete-char> |delete the char under the cursor |
986 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
987 |^E or <End> |<eol> |move to the end of the line |
988 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
989 |^F or <Right> |<forward-char> |move forward one char |
990 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
991 |Esc F |<forward-word> |move forward one word |
992 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
993 |<Tab> |<complete> |complete filename or alias |
994 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
995 |^T |<complete-query> |complete address with query |
996 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
997 |^K |<kill-eol> |delete to the end of the line |
998 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
999 |Esc d |<kill-eow> |delete to the end of the word |
1000 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
1001 |^W |<kill-word> |kill the word in front of the cursor|
1002 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
1003 |^U |<kill-line> |delete entire line |
1004 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
1005 |^V |<quote-char> |quote the next typed key |
1006 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
1007 |<Up> |<history-up> |recall previous string from history |
1008 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
1009 |<Down> |<history-down> |recall next string from history |
1010 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
1011 |<BackSpace> |<backspace> |kill the char in front of the cursor|
1012 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
1013 |Esc u |<upcase-word> |convert word to upper case |
1014 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
1015 |Esc l |<downcase-word> |convert word to lower case |
1016 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
1017 |Esc c |<capitalize-word>|capitalize the word |
1018 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
1020 |--------------+-----------------+------------------------------------|
1021 |<Return> |n/a |finish editing |
1022 +---------------------------------------------------------------------+
1025 You can remap the editor functions using the bind command. For example, to make
1026 the <Delete> key delete the character in front of the cursor rather than under,
1029 bind editor <delete> backspace
1033 Mutt maintains a history for the built-in editor. The number of items is
1034 controlled by the $history variable and can be made persistent using an
1035 external file specified using $history_file. You may cycle through them at an
1036 editor prompt by using the <history-up> and/or <history-down> commands. But
1037 notice that Mutt does not remember the currently entered text, it only cycles
1038 through history and wraps around at the end or beginning.
1040 Mutt maintains several distinct history lists, one for each of the following
1045 * addresses and aliases
1055 Mutt automatically filters out consecutively repeated items from the history.
1056 It also mimics the behavior of some shells by ignoring items starting with a
1057 space. The latter feature can be useful in macros to not clobber the history's
1058 valuable entries with unwanted entries.
1062 Similar to many other mail clients, there are two modes in which mail is read
1063 in Mutt. The first is a list of messages in the mailbox, which is called the
1064 ?index? menu in Mutt. The second mode is the display of the message contents.
1065 This is called the ?pager.?
1067 The next few sections describe the functions provided in each of these modes.
1069 5.1. The Message Index
1071 Common keys used to navigate through and manage messages in the index are shown
1072 in Table 2.4, ?Most common message index keys?. How messages are presented in
1073 the index menu can be customized using the $index_format variable.
1075 Table 2.4. Most common message index keys
1077 +----------------------------------------------------+
1078 | Key | Description |
1079 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
1080 |c |change to a different mailbox |
1081 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
1082 |Esc c |change to a folder in read-only mode |
1083 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
1084 |C |copy the current message to another mailbox|
1085 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
1086 |Esc C |decode a message and copy it to a folder |
1087 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
1088 |Esc s |decode a message and save it to a folder |
1089 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
1090 |D |delete messages matching a pattern |
1091 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
1092 |d |delete the current message |
1093 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
1094 |F |mark as important |
1095 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
1096 |l |show messages matching a pattern |
1097 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
1098 |N |mark message as new |
1099 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
1100 |o |change the current sort method |
1101 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
1102 |O |reverse sort the mailbox |
1103 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
1104 |q |save changes and exit |
1105 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
1107 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
1108 |T |tag messages matching a pattern |
1109 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
1110 |t |toggle the tag on a message |
1111 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
1112 |Esc t |toggle tag on entire message thread |
1113 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
1114 |U |undelete messages matching a pattern |
1115 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
1116 |u |undelete-message |
1117 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
1118 |v |view-attachments |
1119 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
1120 |x |abort changes and exit |
1121 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
1122 |<Return>|display-message |
1123 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
1124 |<Tab> |jump to the next new or unread message |
1125 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
1126 |@ |show the author's full e-mail address |
1127 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
1128 |$ |save changes to mailbox |
1129 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
1131 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
1132 |Esc / |search-reverse |
1133 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
1134 |^L |clear and redraw the screen |
1135 |--------+-------------------------------------------|
1136 |^T |untag messages matching a pattern |
1137 +----------------------------------------------------+
1140 In addition to who sent the message and the subject, a short summary of the
1141 disposition of each message is printed beside the message number. Zero or more
1142 of the ?flags? in Table 2.5, ?Message status flags? may appear, some of which
1143 can be turned on or off using these functions: <set-flag> and <clear-flag>
1144 bound by default to ?w? and ?W? respectively.
1146 Furthermore, the flags in Table 2.6, ?Message recipient flags? reflect who the
1147 message is addressed to. They can be customized with the $to_chars variable.
1149 Table 2.5. Message status flags
1151 +------------------------------------------------------------------+
1152 |Flag| Description |
1153 |----+-------------------------------------------------------------|
1154 |D |message is deleted (is marked for deletion) |
1155 |----+-------------------------------------------------------------|
1156 |d |message has attachments marked for deletion |
1157 |----+-------------------------------------------------------------|
1158 |K |contains a PGP public key |
1159 |----+-------------------------------------------------------------|
1160 |N |message is new |
1161 |----+-------------------------------------------------------------|
1162 |O |message is old |
1163 |----+-------------------------------------------------------------|
1164 |P |message is PGP encrypted |
1165 |----+-------------------------------------------------------------|
1166 |r |message has been replied to |
1167 |----+-------------------------------------------------------------|
1168 |S |message is signed, and the signature is successfully verified|
1169 |----+-------------------------------------------------------------|
1170 |s |message is signed |
1171 |----+-------------------------------------------------------------|
1172 |! |message is flagged |
1173 |----+-------------------------------------------------------------|
1174 |* |message is tagged |
1175 |----+-------------------------------------------------------------|
1176 |n |thread contains new messages (only if collapsed) |
1177 |----+-------------------------------------------------------------|
1178 |o |thread contains old messages (only if collapsed) |
1179 +------------------------------------------------------------------+
1182 Table 2.6. Message recipient flags
1184 +------------------------------------------------------+
1185 |Flag| Description |
1186 |----+-------------------------------------------------|
1187 |+ |message is to you and you only |
1188 |----+-------------------------------------------------|
1189 |T |message is to you, but also to or CC'ed to others|
1190 |----+-------------------------------------------------|
1191 |C |message is CC'ed to you |
1192 |----+-------------------------------------------------|
1193 |F |message is from you |
1194 |----+-------------------------------------------------|
1195 |L |message is sent to a subscribed mailing list |
1196 +------------------------------------------------------+
1201 By default, Mutt uses its built-in pager to display the contents of messages
1202 (an external pager such as less(1) can be configured, see $pager variable). The
1203 pager is very similar to the Unix program less(1) though not nearly as
1206 Table 2.7. Most common pager keys
1208 +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
1209 | Key | Description |
1210 |--------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
1211 |<Return>|go down one line |
1212 |--------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
1213 |<Space> |display the next page (or next message if at the end of a message)|
1214 |--------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
1215 |- |go back to the previous page |
1216 |--------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
1217 |n |search for next match |
1218 |--------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
1219 |S |skip beyond quoted text |
1220 |--------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
1221 |T |toggle display of quoted text |
1222 |--------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
1223 |? |show keybindings |
1224 |--------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
1225 |/ |regular expression search |
1226 |--------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
1227 |Esc / |backward regular expression search |
1228 |--------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
1229 |\ |toggle highlighting of search matches |
1230 |--------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
1231 |^ |jump to the top of the message |
1232 +---------------------------------------------------------------------------+
1235 In addition to key bindings in Table 2.7, ?Most common pager keys?, many of the
1236 functions from the index menu are also available in the pager, such as
1237 <delete-message> or <copy-message> (this is one advantage over using an
1238 external pager to view messages).
1240 Also, the internal pager supports a couple other advanced features. For one, it
1241 will accept and translate the ?standard? nroff sequences for bold and
1242 underline. These sequences are a series of either the letter, backspace (?^H?),
1243 the letter again for bold or the letter, backspace, ?_? for denoting underline.
1244 Mutt will attempt to display these in bold and underline respectively if your
1245 terminal supports them. If not, you can use the bold and underline color
1246 objects to specify a color or mono attribute for them.
1248 Additionally, the internal pager supports the ANSI escape sequences for
1249 character attributes. Mutt translates them into the correct color and character
1250 settings. The sequences Mutt supports are:
1254 where Ps can be one of the codes shown in Table 2.8, ?ANSI escape sequences?.
1256 Table 2.8. ANSI escape sequences
1258 +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
1259 |Escape code| Description |
1260 |-----------+--------------------------------------------------------------|
1261 |0 |All attributes off |
1262 |-----------+--------------------------------------------------------------|
1264 |-----------+--------------------------------------------------------------|
1266 |-----------+--------------------------------------------------------------|
1268 |-----------+--------------------------------------------------------------|
1269 |7 |Reverse video on |
1270 |-----------+--------------------------------------------------------------|
1271 |3<color> |Foreground color is <color> (see Table 2.9, ?Color sequences?)|
1272 |-----------+--------------------------------------------------------------|
1273 |4<color> |Background color is <color> (see Table 2.9, ?Color sequences?)|
1274 +--------------------------------------------------------------------------+
1277 Table 2.9. Color sequences
1279 +-------------------+
1280 |Color code | Color |
1281 |-----------+-------|
1283 |-----------+-------|
1285 |-----------+-------|
1287 |-----------+-------|
1289 |-----------+-------|
1291 |-----------+-------|
1293 |-----------+-------|
1295 |-----------+-------|
1297 +-------------------+
1300 Mutt uses these attributes for handling text/enriched messages, and they can
1301 also be used by an external autoview script for highlighting purposes.
1305 If you change the colors for your display, for example by changing the color
1306 associated with color2 for your xterm, then that color will be used instead of
1311 Note that the search commands in the pager take regular expressions, which are
1312 not quite the same as the more complex patterns used by the search command in
1313 the index. This is because patterns are used to select messages by criteria
1314 whereas the pager already displays a selected message.
1318 So-called ?threads? provide a hierarchy of messages where replies are linked to
1319 their parent message(s). This organizational form is extremely useful in
1320 mailing lists where different parts of the discussion diverge. Mutt displays
1321 threads as a tree structure.
1323 In Mutt, when a mailbox is sorted by threads, there are a few additional
1324 functions available in the index and pager modes as shown in Table 2.10, ?Most
1325 common thread mode keys?.
1327 Table 2.10. Most common thread mode keys
1329 +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
1330 | Key | Function | Description |
1331 |-----+--------------------+----------------------------------------------|
1332 |^D |<delete-thread> |delete all messages in the current thread |
1333 |-----+--------------------+----------------------------------------------|
1334 |^U |<undelete-thread> |undelete all messages in the current thread |
1335 |-----+--------------------+----------------------------------------------|
1336 |^N |<next-thread> |jump to the start of the next thread |
1337 |-----+--------------------+----------------------------------------------|
1338 |^P |<previous-thread> |jump to the start of the previous thread |
1339 |-----+--------------------+----------------------------------------------|
1340 |^R |<read-thread> |mark the current thread as read |
1341 |-----+--------------------+----------------------------------------------|
1342 |Esc d|<delete-subthread> |delete all messages in the current subthread |
1343 |-----+--------------------+----------------------------------------------|
1344 |Esc u|<undelete-subthread>|undelete all messages in the current subthread|
1345 |-----+--------------------+----------------------------------------------|
1346 |Esc n|<next-subthread> |jump to the start of the next subthread |
1347 |-----+--------------------+----------------------------------------------|
1348 |Esc p|<previous-subthread>|jump to the start of the previous subthread |
1349 |-----+--------------------+----------------------------------------------|
1350 |Esc r|<read-subthread> |mark the current subthread as read |
1351 |-----+--------------------+----------------------------------------------|
1352 |Esc t|<tag-thread> |toggle the tag on the current thread |
1353 |-----+--------------------+----------------------------------------------|
1354 |Esc v|<collapse-thread> |toggle collapse for the current thread |
1355 |-----+--------------------+----------------------------------------------|
1356 |Esc V|<collapse-all> |toggle collapse for all threads |
1357 |-----+--------------------+----------------------------------------------|
1358 |P |<parent-message> |jump to parent message in thread |
1359 +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
1362 Collapsing a thread displays only the first message in the thread and hides the
1363 others. This is useful when threads contain so many messages that you can only
1364 see a handful of threads on the screen. See %M in $index_format. For example,
1365 you could use ?%?M?(#%03M)&(%4l)?? in $index_format to optionally display the
1366 number of hidden messages if the thread is collapsed. The %?<char>?<if-part>&
1367 <else-part>? syntax is explained in detail in format string conditionals.
1369 Technically, every reply should contain a list of its parent messages in the
1370 thread tree, but not all do. In these cases, Mutt groups them by subject which
1371 can be controlled using the $strict_threads variable.
1373 5.4. Miscellaneous Functions
1375 In addition, the index and pager menus have these interesting functions:
1377 <create-alias> (default: a)
1379 Creates a new alias based upon the current message (or prompts for a new
1380 one). Once editing is complete, an alias command is added to the file
1381 specified by the $alias_file variable for future use
1385 Mutt does not read the $alias_file upon startup so you must explicitly
1388 <check-traditional-pgp> (default: Esc P)
1390 This function will search the current message for content signed or
1391 encrypted with PGP the ?traditional? way, that is, without proper MIME
1392 tagging. Technically, this function will temporarily change the MIME
1393 content types of the body parts containing PGP data; this is similar to the
1394 <edit-type> function's effect.
1398 This command (available in the index and pager) allows you to edit the raw
1399 current message as it's present in the mail folder. After you have finished
1400 editing, the changed message will be appended to the current folder, and
1401 the original message will be marked for deletion; if the message is
1402 unchanged it won't be replaced.
1404 <edit-type> (default: ^E on the attachment menu, and in the pager and index
1405 menus; ^T on the compose menu)
1407 This command is used to temporarily edit an attachment's content type to
1408 fix, for instance, bogus character set parameters. When invoked from the
1409 index or from the pager, you'll have the opportunity to edit the top-level
1410 attachment's content type. On the attachment menu, you can change any
1411 attachment's content type. These changes are not persistent, and get lost
1412 upon changing folders.
1414 Note that this command is also available on the compose menu. There, it's
1415 used to fine-tune the properties of attachments you are going to send.
1417 <enter-command> (default: ?:?)
1419 This command is used to execute any command you would normally put in a
1420 configuration file. A common use is to check the settings of variables, or
1421 in conjunction with macros to change settings on the fly.
1423 <extract-keys> (default: ^K)
1425 This command extracts PGP public keys from the current or tagged message(s)
1426 and adds them to your PGP public key ring.
1428 <forget-passphrase> (default: ^F)
1430 This command wipes the passphrase(s) from memory. It is useful, if you
1431 misspelled the passphrase.
1433 <list-reply> (default: L)
1435 Reply to the current or tagged message(s) by extracting any addresses which
1436 match the regular expressions given by the lists or subscribe commands, but
1437 also honor any Mail-Followup-To header(s) if the $honor_followup_to
1438 configuration variable is set. Using this when replying to messages posted
1439 to mailing lists helps avoid duplicate copies being sent to the author of
1440 the message you are replying to.
1442 <pipe-message> (default: |)
1444 Asks for an external Unix command and pipes the current or tagged message
1445 (s) to it. The variables $pipe_decode, $pipe_split, $pipe_sep and $wait_key
1446 control the exact behavior of this function.
1448 <resend-message> (default: Esc e)
1450 Mutt takes the current message as a template for a new message. This
1451 function is best described as "recall from arbitrary folders". It can
1452 conveniently be used to forward MIME messages while preserving the original
1453 mail structure. Note that the amount of headers included here depends on
1454 the value of the $weed variable.
1456 This function is also available from the attachment menu. You can use this
1457 to easily resend a message which was included with a bounce message as a
1458 message/rfc822 body part.
1460 <shell-escape> (default: !)
1462 Asks for an external Unix command and executes it. The $wait_key can be
1463 used to control whether Mutt will wait for a key to be pressed when the
1464 command returns (presumably to let the user read the output of the
1465 command), based on the return status of the named command. If no command is
1466 given, an interactive shell is executed.
1468 <toggle-quoted> (default: T)
1470 The pager uses the $quote_regexp variable to detect quoted text when
1471 displaying the body of the message. This function toggles the display of
1472 the quoted material in the message. It is particularly useful when being
1473 interested in just the response and there is a large amount of quoted text
1476 <skip-quoted> (default: S)
1478 This function will go to the next line of non-quoted text which comes after
1479 a line of quoted text in the internal pager.
1485 The bindings shown in Table 2.11, ?Most common mail sending keys? are available
1486 in the index and pager to start a new message.
1488 Table 2.11. Most common mail sending keys
1490 +----------------------------------------------------+
1491 | Key | Function | Description |
1492 |-----+-------------+--------------------------------|
1493 |m |<compose> |compose a new message |
1494 |-----+-------------+--------------------------------|
1495 |r |<reply> |reply to sender |
1496 |-----+-------------+--------------------------------|
1497 |g |<group-reply>|reply to all recipients |
1498 |-----+-------------+--------------------------------|
1499 |L |<list-reply> |reply to mailing list address |
1500 |-----+-------------+--------------------------------|
1501 |f |<forward> |forward message |
1502 |-----+-------------+--------------------------------|
1503 |b |<bounce> |bounce (remail) message |
1504 |-----+-------------+--------------------------------|
1505 |Esc k|<mail-key> |mail a PGP public key to someone|
1506 +----------------------------------------------------+
1509 Bouncing a message sends the message as-is to the recipient you specify.
1510 Forwarding a message allows you to add comments or modify the message you are
1511 forwarding. These items are discussed in greater detail in the next section ?
1512 Forwarding and Bouncing Mail.?
1514 Mutt will then enter the compose menu and prompt you for the recipients to
1515 place on the ?To:? header field when you hit m to start a new message. Next, it
1516 will ask you for the ?Subject:? field for the message, providing a default if
1517 you are replying to or forwarding a message. You again have the chance to
1518 adjust recipients, subject, and security settings right before actually sending
1519 the message. See also $askcc, $askbcc, $autoedit, $bounce, $fast_reply, and
1520 $include for changing how and if Mutt asks these questions.
1522 When replying, Mutt fills these fields with proper values depending on the
1523 reply type. The types of replying supported are:
1527 Reply to the author directly.
1531 Reply to the author as well to all recipients except you; this consults
1536 Reply to all mailing list addresses found, either specified via
1537 configuration or auto-detected. See Section 12, ?Mailing Lists? for
1540 After getting recipients for new messages, forwards or replies, Mutt will then
1541 automatically start your $editor on the message body. If the $edit_headers
1542 variable is set, the headers will be at the top of the message in your editor.
1543 Any messages you are replying to will be added in sort order to the message,
1544 with appropriate $attribution, $indent_string and $post_indent_string. When
1545 forwarding a message, if the $mime_forward variable is unset, a copy of the
1546 forwarded message will be included. If you have specified a $signature, it will
1547 be appended to the message.
1549 Once you have finished editing the body of your mail message, you are returned
1550 to the compose menu providing the functions shown in Table 2.12, ?Most common
1551 compose menu keys? to modify, send or postpone the message.
1553 Table 2.12. Most common compose menu keys
1555 +----------------------------------------------------------------------+
1556 | Key | Function | Description |
1557 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1558 |a |<attach-file> |attach a file |
1559 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1560 |A |<attach-message> |attach message(s) to the message |
1561 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1562 |Esc k|<attach-key> |attach a PGP public key |
1563 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1564 |d |<edit-description> |edit description on attachment |
1565 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1566 |D |<detach-file> |detach a file |
1567 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1568 |t |<edit-to> |edit the To field |
1569 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1570 |Esc f|<edit-from> |edit the From field |
1571 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1572 |r |<edit-reply-to> |edit the Reply-To field |
1573 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1574 |c |<edit-cc> |edit the Cc field |
1575 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1576 |b |<edit-bcc> |edit the Bcc field |
1577 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1578 |y |<send-message> |send the message |
1579 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1580 |s |<edit-subject> |edit the Subject |
1581 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1582 |S |<smime-menu> |select S/MIME options |
1583 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1584 |f |<edit-fcc> |specify an ?Fcc? mailbox |
1585 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1586 |p |<pgp-menu> |select PGP options |
1587 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1588 |P |<postpone-message> |postpone this message until later |
1589 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1590 |q |<quit> |quit (abort) sending the message |
1591 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1592 |w |<write-fcc> |write the message to a folder |
1593 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1594 |i |<ispell> |check spelling (if available on your system)|
1595 |-----+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1596 |^F |<forget-passphrase>|wipe passphrase(s) from memory |
1597 +----------------------------------------------------------------------+
1600 The compose menu is also used to edit the attachments for a message which can
1601 be either files or other messages. The <attach-message> function to will prompt
1602 you for a folder to attach messages from. You can now tag messages in that
1603 folder and they will be attached to the message you are sending.
1607 Note that certain operations like composing a new mail, replying, forwarding,
1608 etc. are not permitted when you are in that folder. The %r in $status_format
1609 will change to a ?A? to indicate that you are in attach-message mode.
1611 6.2. Editing the Message Header
1613 When editing the header because of $edit_headers being set, there are a several
1614 pseudo headers available which will not be included in sent messages but
1615 trigger special Mutt behavior.
1617 6.2.1. Fcc: Pseudo Header
1623 as a header, Mutt will pick up filename just as if you had used the <edit-fcc>
1624 function in the compose menu. It can later be changed from the compose menu.
1626 6.2.2. Attach: Pseudo Header
1628 You can also attach files to your message by specifying
1630 Attach: filename [ description ]
1632 where filename is the file to attach and description is an optional string to
1633 use as the description of the attached file. Spaces in filenames have to be
1634 escaped using backslash (?\?). The file can be removed as well as more added
1635 from the compose menu.
1637 6.2.3. Pgp: Pseudo Header
1639 If you want to use PGP, you can specify
1641 Pgp: [ E | S | S<id> ]
1643 ?E? selects encryption, ?S? selects signing and ?S<id>? selects signing with
1644 the given key, setting $pgp_sign_as permanently. The selection can later be
1645 changed in the compose menu.
1647 6.2.4. In-Reply-To: Header
1649 When replying to messages, the In-Reply-To: header contains the Message-Id of
1650 the message(s) you reply to. If you remove or modify its value, Mutt will not
1651 generate a References: field, which allows you to create a new message thread,
1652 for example to create a new message to a mailing list without having to enter
1653 the mailing list's address.
1655 If you intend to start a new thread by replying, please make really sure you
1656 remove the In-Reply-To: header in your editor. Otherwise, though you'll produce
1657 a technically valid reply, some netiquette guardians will be annoyed by this
1658 so-called ?thread hijacking?.
1660 6.3. Sending Cryptographically Signed/Encrypted Messages
1662 If you have told Mutt to PGP or S/MIME encrypt a message, it will guide you
1663 through a key selection process when you try to send the message. Mutt will not
1664 ask you any questions about keys which have a certified user ID matching one of
1665 the message recipients' mail addresses. However, there may be situations in
1666 which there are several keys, weakly certified user ID fields, or where no
1667 matching keys can be found.
1669 In these cases, you are dropped into a menu with a list of keys from which you
1670 can select one. When you quit this menu, or Mutt can't find any matching keys,
1671 you are prompted for a user ID. You can, as usually, abort this prompt using ^
1672 G. When you do so, Mutt will return to the compose screen.
1674 Once you have successfully finished the key selection, the message will be
1675 encrypted using the selected public keys when sent out.
1677 Most fields of the entries in the key selection menu (see also
1678 $pgp_entry_format) have obvious meanings. But some explanations on the
1679 capabilities, flags, and validity fields are in order.
1681 The flags sequence (?%f?) will expand to one of the flags in Table 2.13, ?PGP
1684 Table 2.13. PGP key menu flags
1686 +-------------------------------------------------------+
1687 |Flag| Description |
1688 |----+--------------------------------------------------|
1689 |R |The key has been revoked and can't be used. |
1690 |----+--------------------------------------------------|
1691 |X |The key is expired and can't be used. |
1692 |----+--------------------------------------------------|
1693 |d |You have marked the key as disabled. |
1694 |----+--------------------------------------------------|
1695 |c |There are unknown critical self-signature packets.|
1696 +-------------------------------------------------------+
1699 The capabilities field (?%c?) expands to a two-character sequence representing
1700 a key's capabilities. The first character gives the key's encryption
1701 capabilities: A minus sign (?-?) means that the key cannot be used for
1702 encryption. A dot (?.?) means that it's marked as a signature key in one of the
1703 user IDs, but may also be used for encryption. The letter ?e? indicates that
1704 this key can be used for encryption.
1706 The second character indicates the key's signing capabilities. Once again, a
1707 ?-? implies ?not for signing?, ?.? implies that the key is marked as an
1708 encryption key in one of the user-ids, and ?s? denotes a key which can be used
1711 Finally, the validity field (?%t?) indicates how well-certified a user-id is. A
1712 question mark (???) indicates undefined validity, a minus character (?-?) marks
1713 an untrusted association, a space character means a partially trusted
1714 association, and a plus character (?+?) indicates complete validity.
1716 6.4. Sending Format=Flowed Messages
1720 format=flowed-style messages (or f=f for short) are text/plain messages that
1721 consist of paragraphs which a receiver's mail client may reformat to its own
1722 needs which mostly means to customize line lengths regardless of what the
1723 sender sent. Technically this is achieved by letting lines of a ?flowable?
1724 paragraph end in spaces except for the last line.
1726 While for text-mode clients like Mutt it's the best way to assume only a
1727 standard 80x25 character cell terminal, it may be desired to let the receiver
1728 decide completely how to view a message.
1732 Mutt only supports setting the required format=flowed MIME parameter on
1733 outgoing messages if the $text_flowed variable is set, specifically it does not
1734 add the trailing spaces.
1736 After editing the initial message text and before entering the compose menu,
1737 Mutt properly space-stuffs the message. Space-stuffing is required by RfC3676
1738 defining format=flowed and means to prepend a space to:
1740 * all lines starting with a space
1742 * lines starting with the word ?From? followed by space
1744 * all lines starting with ?>? which is not intended to be a quote character
1748 Mutt only supports space-stuffing for the first two types of lines but not for
1749 the third: It is impossible to safely detect whether a leading > character
1750 starts a quote or not. Furthermore, Mutt only applies space-stuffing once after
1751 the initial edit is finished.
1753 All leading spaces are to be removed by receiving clients to restore the
1754 original message prior to further processing.
1756 6.4.3. Editor Considerations
1758 As Mutt provides no additional features to compose f=f messages, it's
1759 completely up to the user and his editor to produce proper messages. Please
1760 consider your editor's documentation if you intend to send f=f messages.
1762 Please note that when editing messages from the compose menu several times
1763 before really sending a mail, it's up to the user to ensure that the message is
1764 properly space-stuffed.
1766 For example, vim provides the w flag for its formatoptions setting to assist in
1767 creating f=f messages, see :help fo-table for details.
1769 7. Forwarding and Bouncing Mail
1771 Bouncing and forwarding let you send an existing message to recipients that you
1772 specify. Bouncing a message sends a verbatim copy of a message to alternative
1773 addresses as if they were the message's original recipients specified in the
1774 Bcc header. Forwarding a message, on the other hand, allows you to modify the
1775 message before it is resent (for example, by adding your own comments).
1776 Bouncing is done using the <bounce> function and forwarding using the <forward>
1777 function bound to ?b? and ?f? respectively.
1779 Forwarding can be done by including the original message in the new message's
1780 body (surrounded by indicating lines) or including it as a MIME attachment,
1781 depending on the value of the $mime_forward variable. Decoding of attachments,
1782 like in the pager, can be controlled by the $forward_decode and
1783 $mime_forward_decode variables, respectively. The desired forwarding format may
1784 depend on the content, therefore $mime_forward is a quadoption which, for
1785 example, can be set to ?ask-no?.
1787 The inclusion of headers is controlled by the current setting of the $weed
1788 variable, unless $mime_forward is set.
1790 Editing the message to forward follows the same procedure as sending or
1791 replying to a message does.
1795 At times it is desirable to delay sending a message that you have already begun
1796 to compose. When the <postpone-message> function is used in the compose menu,
1797 the body of your message and attachments are stored in the mailbox specified by
1798 the $postponed variable. This means that you can recall the message even if you
1799 exit Mutt and then restart it at a later time.
1801 Once a message is postponed, there are several ways to resume it. From the
1802 command line you can use the ?-p? option, or if you compose a new message from
1803 the index or pager you will be prompted if postponed messages exist. If
1804 multiple messages are currently postponed, the postponed menu will pop up and
1805 you can select which message you would like to resume.
1809 If you postpone a reply to a message, the reply setting of the message is only
1810 updated when you actually finish the message and send it. Also, you must be in
1811 the same folder with the message you replied to for the status of the message
1814 See also the $postpone quad-option.
1816 Chapter 3. Configuration
1820 1. Location of Initialization Files
1821 2. Syntax of Initialization Files
1823 4. Defining/Using Aliases
1824 5. Changing the Default Key Bindings
1825 6. Defining Aliases for Character Sets
1826 7. Setting Variables Based Upon Mailbox
1828 9. Using Color and Mono Video Attributes
1829 10. Message Header Display
1831 10.1. Header Display
1832 10.2. Selecting Headers
1833 10.3. Ordering Displayed Headers
1835 11. Alternative Addresses
1837 13. Using Multiple Spool Mailboxes
1838 14. Monitoring Incoming Mail
1839 15. User-Defined Headers
1840 16. Specify Default Save Mailbox
1841 17. Specify Default Fcc: Mailbox When Composing
1842 18. Specify Default Save Filename and Default Fcc: Mailbox at Once
1843 19. Change Settings Based Upon Message Recipients
1844 20. Change Settings Before Formatting a Message
1845 21. Choosing the Cryptographic Key of the Recipient
1846 22. Adding Key Sequences to the Keyboard Buffer
1847 23. Executing Functions
1850 26. Setting and Querying Variables
1852 26.1. Variable Types
1854 26.3. User-Defined Variables
1855 26.4. Type Conversions
1857 27. Reading Initialization Commands From Another File
1866 1. Location of Initialization Files
1868 While the default configuration (or ?preferences?) make Mutt usable right out
1869 of the box, it is often desirable to tailor Mutt to suit your own tastes. When
1870 Mutt is first invoked, it will attempt to read the ?system? configuration file
1871 (defaults set by your local system administrator), unless the ?-n? command line
1872 option is specified. This file is typically /usr/local/share/mutt/Muttrc or /
1873 etc/Muttrc. Mutt will next look for a file named .muttrc in your home
1874 directory. If this file does not exist and your home directory has a
1875 subdirectory named .mutt, Mutt tries to load a file named .mutt/muttrc.
1877 .muttrc is the file where you will usually place your commands to configure
1880 In addition, Mutt supports version specific configuration files that are parsed
1881 instead of the default files as explained above. For instance, if your system
1882 has a Muttrc-0.88 file in the system configuration directory, and you are
1883 running version 0.88 of Mutt, this file will be sourced instead of the Muttrc
1884 file. The same is true of the user configuration file, if you have a file
1885 .muttrc-0.88.6 in your home directory, when you run Mutt version 0.88.6, it
1886 will source this file instead of the default .muttrc file. The version number
1887 is the same which is visible using the ?-v? command line switch or using the
1888 show-version key (default: V) from the index menu.
1890 2. Syntax of Initialization Files
1892 An initialization file consists of a series of commands. Each line of the file
1893 may contain one or more commands. When multiple commands are used, they must be
1894 separated by a semicolon (?;?).
1896 Example 3.1. Multiple configuration commands per line
1898 set realname='Mutt user' ; ignore x-
1901 The hash mark, or pound sign (?#?), is used as a ?comment? character. You can
1902 use it to annotate your initialization file. All text after the comment
1903 character to the end of the line is ignored.
1905 Example 3.2. Commenting configuration files
1907 my_hdr X-Disclaimer: Why are you listening to me? # This is a comment
1910 Single quotes (?'?) and double quotes (?"?) can be used to quote strings which
1911 contain spaces or other special characters. The difference between the two
1912 types of quotes is similar to that of many popular shell programs, namely that
1913 a single quote is used to specify a literal string (one that is not interpreted
1914 for shell variables or quoting with a backslash [see next paragraph]), while
1915 double quotes indicate a string for which should be evaluated. For example,
1916 backticks are evaluated inside of double quotes, but not for single quotes.
1918 ?\? quotes the next character, just as in shells such as bash and zsh. For
1919 example, if want to put quotes ?"? inside of a string, you can use ?\? to force
1920 the next character to be a literal instead of interpreted character.
1922 Example 3.3. Escaping quotes in configuration files
1924 set realname="Michael \"MuttDude\" Elkins"
1927 ?\\? means to insert a literal ?\? into the line. ?\n? and ?\r? have their
1928 usual C meanings of linefeed and carriage-return, respectively.
1930 A ?\? at the end of a line can be used to split commands over multiple lines as
1931 it ?escapes? the line end, provided that the split points don't appear in the
1932 middle of command names. Lines are first concatenated before interpretation so
1933 that a multi-line can be commented by commenting out the first line only.
1935 Example 3.4. Splitting long configuration commands over several lines
1937 set status_format="some very \
1942 It is also possible to substitute the output of a Unix command in an
1943 initialization file. This is accomplished by enclosing the command in backticks
1944 (``). In Example 3.5, ?Using external command's output in configuration files?,
1945 the output of the Unix command ?uname -a? will be substituted before the line
1946 is parsed. Since initialization files are line oriented, only the first line of
1947 output from the Unix command will be substituted.
1949 Example 3.5. Using external command's output in configuration files
1951 my_hdr X-Operating-System: `uname -a`
1954 Both environment variables and Mutt variables can be accessed by prepending ?$?
1955 to the name of the variable. For example,
1957 Example 3.6. Using environment variables in configuration files
1959 set record=+sent_on_$HOSTNAME
1962 will cause Mutt to save outgoing messages to a folder named ?sent_on_kremvax?
1963 if the environment variable $HOSTNAME is set to ?kremvax.? (See $record for
1966 Mutt expands the variable when it is assigned, not when it is used. If the
1967 value of a variable on the right-hand side of an assignment changes after the
1968 assignment, the variable on the left-hand side will not be affected.
1970 The commands understood by Mutt are explained in the next paragraphs. For a
1971 complete list, see the command reference.
1973 All configuration files are expected to be in the current locale as specified
1974 by the $charset variable which doesn't have a default value since it's
1975 determined by Mutt at startup. If a configuration file is not encoded in the
1976 same character set the $config_charset variable should be used: all lines
1977 starting with the next are recoded from $config_charset to $charset.
1979 This mechanism should be avoided if possible as it has the following
1982 * These variables should be set early in a configuration file with $charset
1983 preceding $config_charset so Mutt knows what character set to convert to.
1985 * If $config_charset is set, it should be set in each configuration file
1986 because the value is global and not per configuration file.
1988 * Because Mutt first recodes a line before it attempts to parse it, a
1989 conversion introducing question marks or other characters as part of errors
1990 (unconvertable characters, transliteration) may introduce syntax errors or
1991 silently change the meaning of certain tokens (e.g. inserting question
1992 marks into regular expressions).
1998 group [ -group name ...] { -rx expr ... | -addr expr ... }
1999 ungroup [ -group name ...] { * | -rx expr ... | -addr expr ... }
2001 Mutt supports grouping addresses logically into named groups. An address or
2002 address pattern can appear in several groups at the same time. These groups can
2003 be used in patterns (for searching, limiting and tagging) and in hooks by using
2004 group patterns. This can be useful to classify mail and take certain actions
2005 depending on in what groups the message is. For example, the mutt user's
2006 mailing list would fit into the categories ?mailing list? and ?mutt-related?.
2007 Using send-hook, the sender can be set to a dedicated one for writing mailing
2008 list messages, and the signature could be set to a mutt-related one for writing
2009 to a mutt list ? for other lists, the list sender setting still applies but a
2010 different signature can be selected. Or, given a group only containing
2011 recipients known to accept encrypted mail, ?auto-encryption? can be achieved
2014 The group command is used to directly add either addresses or regular
2015 expressions to the specified group or groups. The different categories of
2016 arguments to the group command can be in any order. The flags -rx and -addr
2017 specify what the following strings (that cannot begin with a hyphen) should be
2018 interpreted as: either a regular expression or an email address, respectively.
2020 These address groups can also be created implicitly by the alias, lists,
2021 subscribe and alternates commands by specifying the optional -group option. For
2024 alternates -group me address1 address2
2025 alternates -group me -group work address3
2027 would create a group named ?me? which contains all your addresses and a group
2028 named ?work? which contains only your work address address3. Besides many other
2029 possibilities, this could be used to automatically mark your own messages in a
2030 mailing list folder as read or use a special signature for work-related
2033 The ungroup command is used to remove addresses or regular expressions from the
2034 specified group or groups. The syntax is similar to the group command, however
2035 the special character * can be used to empty a group of all of its contents. As
2036 soon as a group gets empty because all addresses and regular expressions have
2037 been removed, it'll internally be removed, too (i.e. there cannot be an empty
2038 group). When removing regular expressions from a group, the pattern must be
2039 specified exactly as given to the group command or -group argument.
2041 4. Defining/Using Aliases
2045 alias [ -group name ...] key address [ address ...]
2046 unalias [ -group name ...] { * | key ... }
2048 It's usually very cumbersome to remember or type out the address of someone you
2049 are communicating with. Mutt allows you to create ?aliases? which map a short
2050 string to a full address.
2054 If you want to create an alias for more than one address, you must separate the
2055 addresses with a comma (?,?).
2057 The optional -group argument to alias causes the aliased address(es) to be
2058 added to the named group.
2060 To remove an alias or aliases (?*? means all aliases):
2062 alias muttdude me@cs.hmc.edu (Michael Elkins)
2063 alias theguys manny, moe, jack
2065 Unlike other mailers, Mutt doesn't require aliases to be defined in a special
2066 file. The alias command can appear anywhere in a configuration file, as long as
2067 this file is sourced. Consequently, you can have multiple alias files, or you
2068 can have all aliases defined in your .muttrc.
2070 On the other hand, the <create-alias> function can use only one file, the one
2071 pointed to by the $alias_file variable (which is ~/.muttrc by default). This
2072 file is not special either, in the sense that Mutt will happily append aliases
2073 to any file, but in order for the new aliases to take effect you need to
2074 explicitly source this file too.
2076 Example 3.7. Configuring external alias files
2078 source /usr/local/share/Mutt.aliases
2079 source ~/.mail_aliases
2080 set alias_file=~/.mail_aliases
2083 To use aliases, you merely use the alias at any place in Mutt where Mutt
2084 prompts for addresses, such as the To: or Cc: prompt. You can also enter
2085 aliases in your editor at the appropriate headers if you have the $edit_headers
2088 In addition, at the various address prompts, you can use the tab character to
2089 expand a partial alias to the full alias. If there are multiple matches, Mutt
2090 will bring up a menu with the matching aliases. In order to be presented with
2091 the full list of aliases, you must hit tab without a partial alias, such as at
2092 the beginning of the prompt or after a comma denoting multiple addresses.
2094 In the alias menu, you can select as many aliases as you want with the
2095 select-entry key (default: <Return>), and use the exit key (default: q) to
2096 return to the address prompt.
2098 5. Changing the Default Key Bindings
2102 bind map key function
2104 This command allows you to change the default key bindings (operation invoked
2105 when pressing a key).
2107 map specifies in which menu the binding belongs. Multiple maps may be specified
2108 by separating them with commas (no additional whitespace is allowed). The
2109 currently defined maps are:
2113 This is not a real menu, but is used as a fallback for all of the other
2114 menus except for the pager and editor modes. If a key is not defined in
2115 another menu, Mutt will look for a binding to use in this menu. This allows
2116 you to bind a key to a certain function in multiple menus instead of having
2117 multiple bind statements to accomplish the same task.
2121 The alias menu is the list of your personal aliases as defined in your
2122 .muttrc. It is the mapping from a short alias name to the full email
2123 address(es) of the recipient(s).
2127 The attachment menu is used to access the attachments on received messages.
2131 The browser is used for both browsing the local directory structure, and
2132 for listing all of your incoming mailboxes.
2136 The editor is used to allow the user to enter a single line of text, such
2137 as the To or Subject prompts in the compose menu.
2141 The index is the list of messages contained in a mailbox.
2145 The compose menu is the screen used when sending a new message.
2149 The pager is the mode used to display message/attachment data, and help
2154 The pgp menu is used to select the OpenPGP keys used to encrypt outgoing
2159 The smime menu is used to select the OpenSSL certificates used to encrypt
2164 The postpone menu is similar to the index menu, except is used when
2165 recalling a message the user was composing, but saved until later.
2169 The query menu is the browser for results returned by $query_command.
2173 The mixmaster screen is used to select remailer options for outgoing
2174 messages (if Mutt is compiled with Mixmaster support).
2176 key is the key (or key sequence) you wish to bind. To specify a control
2177 character, use the sequence \Cx, where x is the letter of the control character
2178 (for example, to specify control-A use ?\Ca?). Note that the case of x as well
2179 as \C is ignored, so that \CA, \Ca, \cA and \ca are all equivalent. An
2180 alternative form is to specify the key as a three digit octal number prefixed
2181 with a ?\? (for example \177 is equivalent to \c?). In addition, key may be a
2182 symbolic name as shown in Table 3.1, ?Symbolic key names?.
2184 Table 3.1. Symbolic key names
2186 +---------------------------------+
2187 |Symbolic name| Meaning |
2188 |-------------+-------------------|
2190 |-------------+-------------------|
2192 |-------------+-------------------|
2193 |<backtab> |backtab / shift-tab|
2194 |-------------+-------------------|
2195 |\r |carriage return |
2196 |-------------+-------------------|
2198 |-------------+-------------------|
2200 |-------------+-------------------|
2202 |-------------+-------------------|
2204 |-------------+-------------------|
2205 |<down> |down arrow |
2206 |-------------+-------------------|
2207 |<left> |left arrow |
2208 |-------------+-------------------|
2209 |<right> |right arrow |
2210 |-------------+-------------------|
2211 |<pageup> |Page Up |
2212 |-------------+-------------------|
2213 |<pagedown> |Page Down |
2214 |-------------+-------------------|
2215 |<backspace> |Backspace |
2216 |-------------+-------------------|
2218 |-------------+-------------------|
2220 |-------------+-------------------|
2222 |-------------+-------------------|
2224 |-------------+-------------------|
2226 |-------------+-------------------|
2228 |-------------+-------------------|
2229 |<space> |Space bar |
2230 |-------------+-------------------|
2231 |<f1> |function key 1 |
2232 |-------------+-------------------|
2233 |<f10> |function key 10 |
2234 +---------------------------------+
2237 key does not need to be enclosed in quotes unless it contains a space (? ?) or
2240 function specifies which action to take when key is pressed. For a complete
2241 list of functions, see the reference. Note that the bind expects function to be
2242 specified without angle brackets.
2244 The special function <noop> unbinds the specified key sequence.
2246 6. Defining Aliases for Character Sets
2250 charset-hook alias charset
2251 iconv-hook charset local-charset
2253 The charset-hook command defines an alias for a character set. This is useful
2254 to properly display messages which are tagged with a character set name not
2257 The iconv-hook command defines a system-specific name for a character set. This
2258 is helpful when your systems character conversion library insists on using
2259 strange, system-specific names for character sets.
2261 7. Setting Variables Based Upon Mailbox
2265 folder-hook [!]regexp command
2267 It is often desirable to change settings based on which mailbox you are
2268 reading. The folder-hook command provides a method by which you can execute any
2269 configuration command. regexp is a regular expression specifying in which
2270 mailboxes to execute command before loading. If a mailbox matches multiple
2271 folder-hooks, they are executed in the order given in the .muttrc.
2275 If you use the ?!? shortcut for $spoolfile at the beginning of the pattern, you
2276 must place it inside of double or single quotes in order to distinguish it from
2277 the logical not operator for the expression.
2281 Settings are not restored when you leave the mailbox. For example, a command
2282 action to perform is to change the sorting method based upon the mailbox being
2285 folder-hook mutt "set sort=threads"
2287 However, the sorting method is not restored to its previous value when reading
2288 a different mailbox. To specify a default command, use the pattern ?.? before
2289 other folder-hooks adjusting a value on a per-folder basis because folder-hooks
2290 are evaluated in the order given in the configuration file.
2292 The following example will set the sort variable to date-sent for all folders
2293 but to threads for all folders containing ?mutt? in their name.
2295 Example 3.8. Setting sort method based on mailbox name
2297 folder-hook . "set sort=date-sent"
2298 folder-hook mutt "set sort=threads"
2305 macro menu key sequence [ description ]
2307 Macros are useful when you would like a single key to perform a series of
2308 actions. When you press key in menu menu, Mutt will behave as if you had typed
2309 sequence. So if you have a common sequence of commands you type, you can create
2310 a macro to execute those commands with a single key or fewer keys.
2312 menu is the map which the macro will be bound in. Multiple maps may be
2313 specified by separating multiple menu arguments by commas. Whitespace may not
2314 be used in between the menu arguments and the commas separating them.
2316 key and sequence are expanded by the same rules as the key bindings with some
2317 additions. The first is that control characters in sequence can also be
2318 specified as ^x. In order to get a caret (?^?) you need to use ^^. Secondly, to
2319 specify a certain key such as up or to invoke a function directly, you can use
2320 the format <key name> and <function name>. For a listing of key names see the
2321 section on key bindings. Functions are listed in the reference.
2323 The advantage with using function names directly is that the macros will work
2324 regardless of the current key bindings, so they are not dependent on the user
2325 having particular key definitions. This makes them more robust and portable,
2326 and also facilitates defining of macros in files used by more than one user
2327 (e.g., the system Muttrc).
2329 Optionally you can specify a descriptive text after sequence, which is shown in
2330 the help screens if they contain a description.
2334 Macro definitions (if any) listed in the help screen(s), are silently truncated
2335 at the screen width, and are not wrapped.
2337 9. Using Color and Mono Video Attributes
2341 color object foreground background
2342 color { header | body } foreground background regexp
2343 color index foreground background pattern
2344 uncolor { index | header | body } { * | pattern ... }
2346 If your terminal supports color, you can spice up Mutt by creating your own
2347 color scheme. To define the color of an object (type of information), you must
2348 specify both a foreground color and a background color (it is not possible to
2349 only specify one or the other).
2351 header and body match regexp in the header/body of a message, index matches
2352 pattern (see Section 3, ?Patterns: Searching, Limiting and Tagging?) in the
2355 object can be one of:
2359 * bold (highlighting bold patterns in the body of messages)
2361 * error (error messages printed by Mutt)
2363 * hdrdefault (default color of the message header in the pager)
2365 * indicator (arrow or bar used to indicate the current item in a menu)
2367 * markers (the ?+? markers at the beginning of wrapped lines in the pager)
2369 * message (informational messages)
2373 * quoted (text matching $quote_regexp in the body of a message)
2375 * quoted1, quoted2, ..., quotedN (higher levels of quoting)
2377 * search (highlighting of words in the pager)
2381 * status (mode lines used to display info about the mailbox or message)
2383 * tilde (the ?~? used to pad blank lines in the pager)
2385 * tree (thread tree drawn in the message index and attachment menu)
2387 * underline (highlighting underlined patterns in the body of messages)
2389 foreground and background can be one of the following:
2411 foreground can optionally be prefixed with the keyword bright to make the
2412 foreground color boldfaced (e.g., brightred).
2414 If your terminal supports it, the special keyword default can be used as a
2415 transparent color. The value brightdefault is also valid. If Mutt is linked
2416 against the S-Lang library, you also need to set the $COLORFGBG environment
2417 variable to the default colors of your terminal for this to work; for example
2418 (for Bourne-like shells):
2420 set COLORFGBG="green;black"
2425 The S-Lang library requires you to use the lightgray and brown keywords instead
2426 of white and yellow when setting this variable.
2430 The uncolor command can be applied to the index, header and body objects only.
2431 It removes entries from the list. You must specify the same pattern specified
2432 in the color command for it to be removed. The pattern ?*? is a special token
2433 which means to clear the color list of all entries.
2435 Mutt also recognizes the keywords color0, color1, ..., colorN-1 (N being the
2436 number of colors supported by your terminal). This is useful when you remap the
2437 colors for your display (for example by changing the color associated with
2438 color2 for your xterm), since color names may then lose their normal meaning.
2440 If your terminal does not support color, it is still possible change the video
2441 attributes through the use of the ?mono? command. Usage:
2443 mono object attribute
2444 mono { header | body } attribute regexp
2445 mono index attribute pattern
2446 unmono { index | header | body } { * | pattern ... }
2448 For object, see the color command. attribute can be one of the following:
2460 10. Message Header Display
2462 10.1. Header Display
2464 When displaying a message in the pager, Mutt folds long header lines at $wrap
2465 columns. Though there're precise rules about where to break and how, Mutt
2466 always folds headers using a tab for readability. (Note that the sending side
2467 is not affected by this, Mutt tries to implement standards compliant folding.)
2469 10.2. Selecting Headers
2473 ignore pattern [ pattern ...]
2474 unignore { * | pattern ... }
2476 Messages often have many header fields added by automatic processing systems,
2477 or which may not seem useful to display on the screen. This command allows you
2478 to specify header fields which you don't normally want to see in the pager.
2480 You do not need to specify the full header field name. For example, ?ignore
2481 content-? will ignore all header fields that begin with the pattern ?content-?.
2482 ?ignore *? will ignore all headers.
2484 To remove a previously added token from the list, use the ?unignore? command.
2485 The ?unignore? command will make Mutt display headers with the given pattern.
2486 For example, if you do ?ignore x-? it is possible to ?unignore x-mailer?.
2488 ?unignore *? will remove all tokens from the ignore list.
2490 Example 3.9. Header weeding
2492 # Sven's draconian header weeding
2494 unignore from date subject to cc
2495 unignore organization organisation x-mailer: x-newsreader: x-mailing-list:
2499 10.3. Ordering Displayed Headers
2503 hdr_order header [ header ...]
2504 unhdr_order { * | header ... }
2506 With the hdr_order command you can specify an order in which Mutt will attempt
2507 to present these headers to you when viewing messages.
2509 ?unhdr_order *? will clear all previous headers from the order list, thus
2510 removing the header order effects set by the system-wide startup file.
2512 Example 3.10. Configuring header display order
2514 hdr_order From Date: From: To: Cc: Subject:
2517 11. Alternative Addresses
2521 alternates [ -group name ...] regexp [ regexp ...]
2522 unalternates [ -group name ...] { * | regexp ... }
2524 With various functions, Mutt will treat messages differently, depending on
2525 whether you sent them or whether you received them from someone else. For
2526 instance, when replying to a message that you sent to a different party, Mutt
2527 will automatically suggest to send the response to the original message's
2528 recipients ? responding to yourself won't make much sense in many cases. (See
2531 Many users receive e-mail under a number of different addresses. To fully use
2532 Mutt's features here, the program must be able to recognize what e-mail
2533 addresses you receive mail under. That's the purpose of the alternates command:
2534 It takes a list of regular expressions, each of which can identify an address
2535 under which you receive e-mail.
2537 As addresses are matched using regular expressions and not exact strict
2538 comparisons, you should make sure you specify your addresses as precise as
2539 possible to avoid mismatches. For example, if you specify:
2541 alternates user@example
2543 Mutt will consider ?some-user@example? as being your address, too which may not
2544 be desired. As a solution, in such cases addresses should be specified as:
2546 alternates '^user@example$'
2548 The -group flag causes all of the subsequent regular expressions to be added to
2551 The unalternates command can be used to write exceptions to alternates
2552 patterns. If an address matches something in an alternates command, but you
2553 nonetheless do not think it is from you, you can list a more precise pattern
2554 under an unalternates command.
2556 To remove a regular expression from the alternates list, use the unalternates
2557 command with exactly the same regexp. Likewise, if the regexp for an alternates
2558 command matches an entry on the unalternates list, that unalternates entry will
2559 be removed. If the regexp for unalternates is ?*?, all entries on alternates
2566 lists [ -group name ...] regexp [ regexp ...]
2567 unlists { * | regexp ... }
2568 subscribe [ -group name ...] regexp [ regexp ...]
2569 unsubscribe { * | regexp ... }
2571 Mutt has a few nice features for handling mailing lists. In order to take
2572 advantage of them, you must specify which addresses belong to mailing lists,
2573 and which mailing lists you are subscribed to. Mutt also has limited support
2574 for auto-detecting mailing lists: it supports parsing mailto: links in the
2575 common List-Post: header which has the same effect as specifying the list
2576 address via the lists command (except the group feature). Once you have done
2577 this, the <list-reply> function will work for all known lists. Additionally,
2578 when you send a message to a subscribed list, Mutt will add a Mail-Followup-To
2579 header to tell other users' mail user agents not to send copies of replies to
2580 your personal address.
2584 The Mail-Followup-To header is a non-standard extension which is not supported
2585 by all mail user agents. Adding it is not bullet-proof against receiving
2586 personal CCs of list messages. Also note that the generation of the
2587 Mail-Followup-To header is controlled by the $followup_to configuration
2588 variable since it's common practice on some mailing lists to send Cc upon
2589 replies (which is more a group- than a list-reply).
2591 More precisely, Mutt maintains lists of patterns for the addresses of known and
2592 subscribed mailing lists. Every subscribed mailing list is known. To mark a
2593 mailing list as known, use the list command. To mark it as subscribed, use
2596 You can use regular expressions with both commands. To mark all messages sent
2597 to a specific bug report's address on Debian's bug tracking system as list
2598 mail, for instance, you could say
2600 subscribe [0-9]*.*@bugs.debian.org
2602 as it's often sufficient to just give a portion of the list's e-mail address.
2604 Specify as much of the address as you need to to remove ambiguity. For example,
2605 if you've subscribed to the Mutt mailing list, you will receive mail addressed
2606 to mutt-users@mutt.org. So, to tell Mutt that this is a mailing list, you could
2607 add lists mutt-users@ to your initialization file. To tell Mutt that you are
2608 subscribed to it, add subscribe mutt-users to your initialization file instead.
2609 If you also happen to get mail from someone whose address is
2610 mutt-users@example.com, you could use lists ^mutt-users@mutt\\.org$ or
2611 subscribe ^mutt-users@mutt\\.org$ to match only mail from the actual list.
2613 The -group flag adds all of the subsequent regular expressions to the named
2614 address group in addition to adding to the specified address list.
2616 The ?unlists? command is used to remove a token from the list of known and
2617 subscribed mailing-lists. Use ?unlists *? to remove all tokens.
2619 To remove a mailing list from the list of subscribed mailing lists, but keep it
2620 on the list of known mailing lists, use unsubscribe.
2622 13. Using Multiple Spool Mailboxes
2626 mbox-hook [!]pattern mailbox
2628 This command is used to move read messages from a specified mailbox to a
2629 different mailbox automatically when you quit or change folders. pattern is a
2630 regular expression specifying the mailbox to treat as a ?spool? mailbox and
2631 mailbox specifies where mail should be saved when read.
2633 Unlike some of the other hook commands, only the first matching pattern is used
2634 (it is not possible to save read mail in more than a single mailbox).
2636 14. Monitoring Incoming Mail
2640 mailboxes mailbox [ mailbox ...]
2641 unmailboxes { * | mailbox ... }
2643 This command specifies folders which can receive mail and which will be checked
2644 for new messages periodically.
2646 folder can either be a local file or directory (Mbox/Mmdf or Maildir/Mh). If
2647 Mutt was built with POP and/or IMAP support, folder can also be a POP/IMAP
2648 folder URL. The URL syntax is described in Section 1.2, ?URL Syntax?, POP and
2649 IMAP are described in Section 3, ?POP3 Support? and Section 4, ?IMAP Support?
2652 Mutt provides a number of advanced features for handling (possibly many)
2653 folders and new mail within them, please refer to Section 10, ?New Mail
2654 Detection? for details (including in what situations and how often Mutt checks
2657 The ?unmailboxes? command is used to remove a token from the list of folders
2658 which receive mail. Use ?unmailboxes *? to remove all tokens.
2662 The folders in the mailboxes command are resolved when the command is executed,
2663 so if these names contain shortcut characters (such as ?=? and ?!?), any
2664 variable definition that affects these characters (like $folder and $spoolfile)
2665 should be set before the mailboxes command. If none of these shortcuts are
2666 used, a local path should be absolute as otherwise Mutt tries to find it
2667 relative to the directory from where Mutt was started which may not always be
2670 15. User-Defined Headers
2675 unmy_hdr { * | field ... }
2677 The my_hdr command allows you to create your own header fields which will be
2678 added to every message you send and appear in the editor if $edit_headers is
2681 For example, if you would like to add an ?Organization:? header field to all of
2682 your outgoing messages, you can put the command something like shown in
2683 Example 3.11, ?Defining custom headers? in your .muttrc.
2685 Example 3.11. Defining custom headers
2687 my_hdr Organization: A Really Big Company, Anytown, USA
2692 Space characters are not allowed between the keyword and the colon (?:?). The
2693 standard for electronic mail (RFC2822) says that space is illegal there, so
2694 Mutt enforces the rule.
2696 If you would like to add a header field to a single message, you should either
2697 set the $edit_headers variable, or use the <edit-headers> function (default:
2698 ?E?) in the compose menu so that you can edit the header of your message along
2701 To remove user defined header fields, use the unmy_hdr command. You may specify
2702 an asterisk (?*?) to remove all header fields, or the fields to remove. For
2703 example, to remove all ?To? and ?Cc? header fields, you could use:
2707 16. Specify Default Save Mailbox
2711 save-hook [!]pattern mailbox
2713 This command is used to override the default mailbox used when saving messages.
2714 mailbox will be used as the default if the message matches pattern, see Message
2715 Matching in Hooks for information on the exact format.
2717 To provide more flexibility and good defaults, Mutt applies the expandos of
2718 $index_format to mailbox after it was expanded.
2720 Example 3.12. Using %-expandos in save-hook
2722 # default: save all to ~/Mail/<author name>
2723 save-hook . ~/Mail/%F
2725 # save from me@turing.cs.hmc.edu and me@cs.hmc.edu to $folder/elkins
2726 save-hook me@(turing\\.)?cs\\.hmc\\.edu$ +elkins
2728 # save from aol.com to $folder/spam
2729 save-hook aol\\.com$ +spam
2732 Also see the fcc-save-hook command.
2734 17. Specify Default Fcc: Mailbox When Composing
2738 fcc-hook [!]pattern mailbox
2740 This command is used to save outgoing mail in a mailbox other than $record.
2741 Mutt searches the initial list of message recipients for the first matching
2742 regexp and uses mailbox as the default Fcc: mailbox. If no match is found the
2743 message will be saved to $record mailbox.
2745 To provide more flexibility and good defaults, Mutt applies the expandos of
2746 $index_format to mailbox after it was expanded.
2748 See Message Matching in Hooks for information on the exact format of pattern.
2750 fcc-hook [@.]aol\\.com$ +spammers
2752 ...will save a copy of all messages going to the aol.com domain to the
2753 `+spammers' mailbox by default. Also see the fcc-save-hook command.
2755 18. Specify Default Save Filename and Default Fcc: Mailbox at Once
2759 fcc-save-hook [!]pattern mailbox
2761 This command is a shortcut, equivalent to doing both a fcc-hook and a save-hook
2762 with its arguments, including %-expansion on mailbox according to $index_format
2765 19. Change Settings Based Upon Message Recipients
2769 reply-hook [!]pattern command
2770 send-hook [!]pattern command
2771 send2-hook [!]pattern command
2773 These commands can be used to execute arbitrary configuration commands based
2774 upon recipients of the message. pattern is used to match the message, see
2775 Message Matching in Hooks for details. command is executed when pattern
2778 reply-hook is matched against the message you are replying to, instead of the
2779 message you are sending. send-hook is matched against all messages, both new
2784 reply-hooks are matched before the send-hook, regardless of the order specified
2785 in the user's configuration file.
2787 send2-hook is matched every time a message is changed, either by editing it, or
2788 by using the compose menu to change its recipients or subject. send2-hook is
2789 executed after send-hook, and can, e.g., be used to set parameters such as the
2790 $sendmail variable depending on the message's sender address.
2792 For each type of send-hook or reply-hook, when multiple matches occur, commands
2793 are executed in the order they are specified in the .muttrc (for that type of
2796 Example: send-hook mutt "set mime_forward signature=''"
2798 Another typical use for this command is to change the values of the
2799 $attribution, $signature and $locale variables in order to change the language
2800 of the attributions and signatures based upon the recipients.
2804 send-hook's are only executed once after getting the initial list of
2805 recipients. Adding a recipient after replying or editing the message will not
2806 cause any send-hook to be executed, similarly if $autoedit is set (as then the
2807 initial list of recipients is empty). Also note that my_hdr commands which
2808 modify recipient headers, or the message's subject, don't have any effect on
2809 the current message when executed from a send-hook.
2811 20. Change Settings Before Formatting a Message
2815 message-hook [!]pattern command
2817 This command can be used to execute arbitrary configuration commands before
2818 viewing or formatting a message based upon information about the message.
2819 command is executed if the pattern matches the message to be displayed. When
2820 multiple matches occur, commands are executed in the order they are specified
2823 See Message Matching in Hooks for information on the exact format of pattern.
2827 message-hook ~A 'set pager=builtin'
2828 message-hook '~f freshmeat-news' 'set pager="less \"+/^ subject: .*\""'
2830 21. Choosing the Cryptographic Key of the Recipient
2834 crypt-hook pattern keyid
2836 When encrypting messages with PGP/GnuPG or OpenSSL, you may want to associate a
2837 certain key with a given e-mail address automatically, either because the
2838 recipient's public key can't be deduced from the destination address, or
2839 because, for some reasons, you need to override the key Mutt would normally
2840 use. The crypt-hook command provides a method by which you can specify the ID
2841 of the public key to be used when encrypting messages to a certain recipient.
2843 The meaning of keyid is to be taken broadly in this context: You can either put
2844 a numerical key ID here, an e-mail address, or even just a real name.
2846 22. Adding Key Sequences to the Keyboard Buffer
2852 This command adds the named string to the keyboard buffer. The string may
2853 contain control characters, key names and function names like the sequence
2854 string in the macro command. You may use it to automatically run a sequence of
2855 commands at startup, or when entering certain folders. For example,
2856 Example 3.13, ?Embedding push in folder-hook? shows how to automatically
2857 collapse all threads when entering a folder.
2859 Example 3.13. Embedding push in folder-hook
2861 folder-hook . 'push <collapse-all>'
2864 For using functions like shown in the example, it's important to use angle
2865 brackets (?<? and ?>?) to make Mutt recognize the input as a function name.
2866 Otherwise it will simulate individual just keystrokes, i.e. ?push collapse-all?
2867 would be interpreted as if you had typed ?c?, followed by ?o?, followed by ?l?,
2868 ..., which is not desired and may lead to very unexpected behavior.
2870 Keystrokes can be used, too, but are less portable because of potentially
2871 changed key bindings. With default bindings, this is equivalent to the above
2874 folder-hook . 'push \eV'
2876 because it simulates that Esc+V was pressed (which is the default binding of
2879 23. Executing Functions
2883 exec function [ function ...]
2885 This command can be used to execute any function. Functions are listed in the
2886 function reference. ?exec function? is equivalent to ?push <function>?.
2893 unscore { * | pattern ... }
2895 The score commands adds value to a message's score if pattern matches it.
2896 pattern is a string in the format described in the patterns section (note: For
2897 efficiency reasons, patterns which scan information not available in the index,
2898 such as ~b, ~B or ~h, may not be used). value is a positive or negative
2899 integer. A message's final score is the sum total of all matching score
2900 entries. However, you may optionally prefix value with an equal sign (?=?) to
2901 cause evaluation to stop at a particular entry if there is a match. Negative
2902 final scores are rounded up to 0.
2904 The unscore command removes score entries from the list. You must specify the
2905 same pattern specified in the score command for it to be removed. The pattern
2906 ?*? is a special token which means to clear the list of all score entries.
2913 nospam { * | pattern }
2915 Mutt has generalized support for external spam-scoring filters. By defining
2916 your spam patterns with the spam and nospam commands, you can limit, search,
2917 and sort your mail based on its spam attributes, as determined by the external
2918 filter. You also can display the spam attributes in your index display using
2919 the %H selector in the $index_format variable. (Tip: try %?H?[%H] ? to display
2920 spam tags only when they are defined for a given message.)
2922 Your first step is to define your external filter's spam patterns using the
2923 spam command. pattern should be a regular expression that matches a header in a
2924 mail message. If any message in the mailbox matches this regular expression, it
2925 will receive a ?spam tag? or ?spam attribute? (unless it also matches a nospam
2926 pattern ? see below.) The appearance of this attribute is entirely up to you,
2927 and is governed by the format parameter. format can be any static text, but it
2928 also can include back-references from the pattern expression. (A regular
2929 expression ?back-reference? refers to a sub-expression contained within
2930 parentheses.) %1 is replaced with the first back-reference in the regex, %2
2931 with the second, etc.
2933 To match spam tags, mutt needs the corresponding header information which is
2934 always the case for local and POP folders but not for IMAP in the default
2935 configuration. Depending on the spam header to be analyzed, $imap_headers may
2936 need to be adjusted.
2938 If you're using multiple spam filters, a message can have more than one
2939 spam-related header. You can define spam patterns for each filter you use. If a
2940 message matches two or more of these patterns, and the $spam_separator variable
2941 is set to a string, then the message's spam tag will consist of all the format
2942 strings joined together, with the value of $spam_separator separating them.
2944 For example, suppose one uses DCC, SpamAssassin, and PureMessage, then the
2945 configuration might look like in Example 3.14, ?Configuring spam detection?.
2947 Example 3.14. Configuring spam detection
2949 spam "X-DCC-.*-Metrics:.*(....)=many" "90+/DCC-%1"
2950 spam "X-Spam-Status: Yes" "90+/SA"
2951 spam "X-PerlMX-Spam: .*Probability=([0-9]+)%" "%1/PM"
2952 set spam_separator=", "
2955 If then a message is received that DCC registered with ?many? hits under the
2956 ?Fuz2? checksum, and that PureMessage registered with a 97% probability of
2957 being spam, that message's spam tag would read 90+/DCC-Fuz2, 97/PM. (The four
2958 characters before ?=many? in a DCC report indicate the checksum used ? in this
2961 If the $spam_separator variable is unset, then each spam pattern match
2962 supersedes the previous one. Instead of getting joined format strings, you'll
2963 get only the last one to match.
2965 The spam tag is what will be displayed in the index when you use %H in the
2966 $index_format variable. It's also the string that the ~H pattern-matching
2967 expression matches against for <search> and <limit> functions. And it's what
2968 sorting by spam attribute will use as a sort key.
2970 That's a pretty complicated example, and most people's actual environments will
2971 have only one spam filter. The simpler your configuration, the more effective
2972 Mutt can be, especially when it comes to sorting.
2974 Generally, when you sort by spam tag, Mutt will sort lexically ? that is, by
2975 ordering strings alphanumerically. However, if a spam tag begins with a number,
2976 Mutt will sort numerically first, and lexically only when two numbers are equal
2977 in value. (This is like UNIX's sort -n.) A message with no spam attributes at
2978 all ? that is, one that didn't match any of your spam patterns ? is sorted at
2979 lowest priority. Numbers are sorted next, beginning with 0 and ranging upward.
2980 Finally, non-numeric strings are sorted, with ?a? taking lower priority than
2981 ?z?. Clearly, in general, sorting by spam tags is most effective when you can
2982 coerce your filter to give you a raw number. But in case you can't, Mutt can
2983 still do something useful.
2985 The nospam command can be used to write exceptions to spam patterns. If a
2986 header pattern matches something in a spam command, but you nonetheless do not
2987 want it to receive a spam tag, you can list a more precise pattern under a
2990 If the pattern given to nospam is exactly the same as the pattern on an
2991 existing spam list entry, the effect will be to remove the entry from the spam
2992 list, instead of adding an exception. Likewise, if the pattern for a spam
2993 command matches an entry on the nospam list, that nospam entry will be removed.
2994 If the pattern for nospam is ?*?, all entries on both lists will be removed.
2995 This might be the default action if you use spam and nospam in conjunction with
2998 You can have as many spam or nospam commands as you like. You can even do your
2999 own primitive spam detection within Mutt ? for example, if you consider all
3000 mail from MAILER-DAEMON to be spam, you can use a spam command like this:
3002 spam "^From: .*MAILER-DAEMON" "999"
3004 26. Setting and Querying Variables
3006 26.1. Variable Types
3008 Mutt supports these types of configuration variables:
3012 A boolean expression, either ?yes? or ?no?.
3016 A signed integer number in the range -32768 to 32767.
3024 A specialized string for representing paths including support for mailbox
3025 shortcuts (see Section 8, ?Mailbox Shortcuts?) as well as tilde (?~?) for a
3026 user's home directory and more.
3030 Like a boolean but triggers a prompt when set to ?ask-yes? or ?ask-no? with
3031 ?yes? and ?no? preselected respectively.
3035 A specialized string allowing only particular words as values depending on
3040 A regular expression, see Section 2, ?Regular Expressions? for an
3045 Specifies the type of folder to use: mbox, mmdf, mh or maildir. Currently
3046 only used to determine the type for newly created folders.
3050 An e-mail address either with or without realname. The older
3051 ?user@example.org (Joe User)? form is supported but strongly deprecated.
3055 Arbitrary text, see Section 26.3, ?User-Defined Variables? for details.
3059 The following commands are available to manipulate and query variables:
3063 set { [ no | inv ] variable | variable=value } [...]
3064 toggle variable [ variable ...]
3065 unset variable [ variable ...]
3066 reset variable [ variable ...]
3068 This command is used to set (and unset) configuration variables. There are four
3069 basic types of variables: boolean, number, string and quadoption. boolean
3070 variables can be set (true) or unset (false). number variables can be assigned
3071 a positive integer value. string variables consist of any number of printable
3072 characters and must be enclosed in quotes if they contain spaces or tabs. You
3073 may also use the escape sequences ?\n? and ?\t? for newline and tab,
3074 respectively. quadoption variables are used to control whether or not to be
3075 prompted for certain actions, or to specify a default action. A value of yes
3076 will cause the action to be carried out automatically as if you had answered
3077 yes to the question. Similarly, a value of no will cause the action to be
3078 carried out as if you had answered ?no.? A value of ask-yes will cause a prompt
3079 with a default answer of ?yes? and ask-no will provide a default answer of
3082 Prefixing a variable with ?no? will unset it. Example: set noaskbcc.
3084 For boolean variables, you may optionally prefix the variable name with inv to
3085 toggle the value (on or off). This is useful when writing macros. Example: set
3088 The toggle command automatically prepends the inv prefix to all specified
3091 The unset command automatically prepends the no prefix to all specified
3094 Using the <enter-command> function in the index menu, you can query the value
3095 of a variable by prefixing the name of the variable with a question mark:
3099 The question mark is actually only required for boolean and quadoption
3102 The reset command resets all given variables to the compile time defaults
3103 (hopefully mentioned in this manual). If you use the command set and prefix the
3104 variable with ?&? this has the same behavior as the reset command.
3106 With the reset command there exists the special variable ?all?, which allows
3107 you to reset all variables to their system defaults.
3109 26.3. User-Defined Variables
3111 26.3.1. Introduction
3113 Along with the variables listed in the Configuration variables section, Mutt
3114 supports user-defined variables with names starting with my_ as in, for
3117 The set command either creates a custom my_ variable or changes its value if it
3118 does exist already. The unset and reset commands remove the variable entirely.
3120 Since user-defined variables are expanded in the same way that environment
3121 variables are (except for the shell-escape command and backtick expansion),
3122 this feature can be used to make configuration files more readable.
3126 The following example defines and uses the variable my_cfgdir to abbreviate the
3127 calls of the source command:
3129 Example 3.15. Using user-defined variables for config file readability
3131 set my_cfgdir = $HOME/mutt/config
3133 source $my_cfgdir/hooks
3134 source $my_cfgdir/macros
3135 # more source commands...
3138 A custom variable can also be used in macros to backup the current value of
3139 another variable. In the following example, the value of the $delete is changed
3140 temporarily while its original value is saved as my_delete. After the macro has
3141 executed all commands, the original value of $delete is restored.
3143 Example 3.16. Using user-defined variables for backing up other config option
3147 <enter-command>set my_delete=$delete<enter>\
3148 <enter-command>set delete=yes<enter>\
3150 <enter-command>set delete=$my_delete<enter>'
3153 Since Mutt expands such values already when parsing the configuration file(s),
3154 the value of $my_delete in the last example would be the value of $delete
3155 exactly as it was at that point during parsing the configuration file. If
3156 another statement would change the value for $delete later in the same or
3157 another file, it would have no effect on $my_delete. However, the expansion can
3158 be deferred to runtime, as shown in the next example, when escaping the dollar
3161 Example 3.17. Deferring user-defined variable expansion to runtime
3163 macro pager <PageDown> "\
3164 <enter-command> set my_old_pager_stop=\$pager_stop pager_stop<Enter>\
3166 <enter-command> set pager_stop=\$my_old_pager_stop<Enter>\
3167 <enter-command> unset my_old_pager_stop<Enter>"
3170 Note that there is a space between <enter-command> and the set configuration
3171 command, preventing Mutt from recording the macro's commands into its history.
3173 26.4. Type Conversions
3175 Variables are always assigned string values which Mutt parses into its internal
3176 representation according to the type of the variable, for example an integer
3177 number for numeric types. For all queries (including $-expansion) the value is
3178 converted from its internal type back into string. As a result, any variable
3179 can be assigned any value given that its content is valid for the target. This
3180 also counts for custom variables which are of type string. In case of parsing
3181 errors, Mutt will print error messages. Example 3.18, ?Type conversions using
3182 variables? demonstrates type conversions.
3184 Example 3.18. Type conversions using variables
3186 set my_lines = "5" # value is string "5"
3187 set pager_index_lines = $my_lines # value is integer 5
3189 set my_sort = "date-received" # value is string "date-received"
3190 set sort = "last-$my_sort" # value is sort last-date-received
3192 set my_inc = $read_inc # value is string "10" (default of $read_inc)
3193 set my_foo = $my_inc # value is string "10"
3196 These assignments are all valid. If, however, the value of $my_lines would have
3197 been ?five? (or something else that cannot be parsed into a number), the
3198 assignment to $pager_index_lines would have produced an error message.
3200 Type conversion applies to all configuration commands which take arguments. But
3201 please note that every expanded value of a variable is considered just a single
3202 token. A working example is:
3204 set my_pattern = "~A"
3205 set my_number = "10"
3207 # same as: score ~A +10
3208 score $my_pattern +$my_number
3210 What does not work is:
3212 set my_mx = "+mailbox1 +mailbox2"
3213 mailboxes $my_mx +mailbox3
3215 because the value of $my_mx is interpreted as a single mailbox named ?+mailbox1
3216 +mailbox2? and not two distinct mailboxes.
3218 27. Reading Initialization Commands From Another File
3224 This command allows the inclusion of initialization commands from other files.
3225 For example, I place all of my aliases in ~/.mail_aliases so that I can make my
3226 ~/.muttrc readable and keep my aliases private.
3228 If the filename begins with a tilde (?~?), it will be expanded to the path of
3229 your home directory.
3231 If the filename ends with a vertical bar (?|?), then filename is considered to
3232 be an executable program from which to read input (e.g. source ~/bin/myscript
3239 unhook { * | hook-type }
3241 This command permits you to flush hooks you have previously defined. You can
3242 either remove all hooks by giving the ?*? character as an argument, or you can
3243 remove all hooks of a specific type by saying something like unhook send-hook.
3249 Format strings are a general concept you'll find in several locations through
3250 the Mutt configuration, especially in the $index_format, $pager_format,
3251 $status_format, and other related variables. These can be very straightforward,
3252 and it's quite possible you already know how to use them.
3254 The most basic format string element is a percent symbol followed by another
3255 character. For example, %s represents a message's Subject: header in the
3256 $index_format variable. The ?expandos? available are documented with each
3257 format variable, but there are general modifiers available with all formatting
3258 expandos, too. Those are our concern here.
3260 Some of the modifiers are borrowed right out of C (though you might know them
3261 from Perl, Python, shell, or another language). These are the [-]m.n modifiers,
3262 as in %-12.12s. As with such programming languages, these modifiers allow you
3263 to specify the minimum and maximum size of the resulting string, as well as its
3264 justification. If the ?-? sign follows the percent, the string will be
3265 left-justified instead of right-justified. If there's a number immediately
3266 following that, it's the minimum amount of space the formatted string will
3267 occupy ? if it's naturally smaller than that, it will be padded out with
3268 spaces. If a decimal point and another number follow, that's the maximum space
3269 allowable ? the string will not be permitted to exceed that width, no matter
3270 its natural size. Each of these three elements is optional, so that all these
3271 are legal format strings: %-12s, %4c, %.15F and %-12.15L.
3273 Mutt adds some other modifiers to format strings. If you use an equals symbol
3274 (=) as a numeric prefix (like the minus above), it will force the string to be
3275 centered within its minimum space range. For example, %=14y will reserve 14
3276 characters for the %y expansion ? that's the X-Label: header, in $index_format.
3277 If the expansion results in a string less than 14 characters, it will be
3278 centered in a 14-character space. If the X-Label for a message were ?test?,
3279 that expansion would look like ? test ?.
3281 There are two very little-known modifiers that affect the way that an expando
3282 is replaced. If there is an underline (?_?) character between any format
3283 modifiers (as above) and the expando letter, it will expands in all lower case.
3284 And if you use a colon (?:?), it will replace all decimal points with
3289 Depending on the format string variable, some of its sequences can be used to
3290 optionally print a string if their value is nonzero. For example, you may only
3291 want to see the number of flagged messages if such messages exist, since zero
3292 is not particularly meaningful. To optionally print a string based upon one of
3293 the above sequences, the following construct is used:
3295 %?<sequence_char>?<optional_string>?
3297 where sequence_char is an expando, and optional_string is the string you would
3298 like printed if sequence_char is nonzero. optional_string may contain other
3299 sequences as well as normal text, but you may not nest optional strings.
3301 Here is an example illustrating how to optionally print the number of new
3302 messages in a mailbox in $status_format:
3304 %?n?%n new messages.?
3306 You can also switch between two strings using the following construct:
3308 %?<sequence_char>?<if_string>&<else_string>?
3310 If the value of sequence_char is non-zero, if_string will be expanded,
3311 otherwise else_string will be expanded.
3315 Any format string ending in a vertical bar (?|?) will be expanded and piped
3316 through the first word in the string, using spaces as separator. The string
3317 returned will be used for display. If the returned string ends in %, it will be
3318 passed through the formatter a second time. This allows the filter to generate
3319 a replacement format string including % expandos.
3321 All % expandos in a format string are expanded before the script is called so
3324 Example 3.19. Using external filters in format strings
3326 set status_format="script.sh '%r %f (%L)'|"
3329 will make Mutt expand %r, %f and %L before calling the script. The example also
3330 shows that arguments can be quoted: the script will receive the expanded string
3331 between the single quotes as the only argument.
3333 A practical example is the mutt_xtitle script installed in the samples
3334 subdirectory of the Mutt documentation: it can be used as filter for
3335 $status_format to set the current terminal's title, if supported.
3339 In most format strings, Mutt supports different types of padding using special
3344 When this occurs, Mutt will fill the rest of the line with the character X.
3345 For example, filling the rest of the line with dashes is done by setting:
3347 set status_format = "%v on %h: %B: %?n?%n&no? new messages %|-"
3351 Since the previous expando stops at the end of line, there must be a way to
3352 fill the gap between two items via the %>X expando: it puts as many
3353 characters X in between two items so that the rest of the line will be
3354 right-justified. For example, to not put the version string and hostname
3355 the above example on the left but on the right and fill the gap with
3356 spaces, one might use (note the space after %>):
3358 set status_format = "%B: %?n?%n&no? new messages %> (%v on %h)"
3362 Normal right-justification will print everything to the left of the %>,
3363 displaying padding and whatever lies to the right only if there's room. By
3364 contrast, ?soft-fill? gives priority to the right-hand side, guaranteeing
3365 space to display it and showing padding only if there's still room. If
3366 necessary, soft-fill will eat text leftwards to make room for rightward
3367 text. For example, to right-justify the subject making sure as much as
3368 possible of it fits on screen, one might use (note two spaces after %* :
3369 the second ensures there's a space between the truncated right-hand side
3372 set index_format="%4C %Z %{%b %d} %-15.15L (%?l?%4l&%4c?)%* %s"
3374 Chapter 4. Advanced Usage
3378 1. Character Set Handling
3379 2. Regular Expressions
3380 3. Patterns: Searching, Limiting and Tagging
3382 3.1. Pattern Modifier
3383 3.2. Simple Searches
3384 3.3. Nesting and Boolean Operators
3385 3.4. Searching by Date
3390 5.1. Message Matching in Hooks
3392 6. External Address Queries
3394 8. Mailbox Shortcuts
3395 9. Handling Mailing Lists
3396 10. New Mail Detection
3398 10.1. How New Mail Detection Works
3399 10.2. Polling For New Mail
3403 11.1. Linking Threads
3404 11.2. Breaking Threads
3406 12. Delivery Status Notification (DSN) Support
3407 13. Start a WWW Browser on URLs
3410 1. Character Set Handling
3412 A ?character set? is basically a mapping between bytes and glyphs and implies a
3413 certain character encoding scheme. For example, for the ISO 8859 family of
3414 character sets, an encoding of 8bit per character is used. For the Unicode
3415 character set, different character encodings may be used, UTF-8 being the most
3416 popular. In UTF-8, a character is represented using a variable number of bytes
3417 ranging from 1 to 4.
3419 Since Mutt is a command-line tool run from a shell, and delegates certain tasks
3420 to external tools (such as an editor for composing/editing messages), all of
3421 these tools need to agree on a character set and encoding. There exists no way
3422 to reliably deduce the character set a plain text file has. Interoperability is
3423 gained by the use of well-defined environment variables. The full set can be
3424 printed by issuing locale on the command line.
3426 Upon startup, Mutt determines the character set on its own using routines that
3427 inspect locale-specific environment variables. Therefore, it is generally not
3428 necessary to set the $charset variable in Mutt. It may even be
3429 counter-productive as Mutt uses system and library functions that derive the
3430 character set themselves and on which Mutt has no influence. It's safest to let
3431 Mutt work out the locale setup itself.
3433 If you happen to work with several character sets on a regular basis, it's
3434 highly advisable to use Unicode and an UTF-8 locale. Unicode can represent
3435 nearly all characters in a message at the same time. When not using a Unicode
3436 locale, it may happen that you receive messages with characters not
3437 representable in your locale. When displaying such a message, or replying to or
3438 forwarding it, information may get lost possibly rendering the message unusable
3439 (not only for you but also for the recipient, this breakage is not reversible
3440 as lost information cannot be guessed).
3442 A Unicode locale makes all conversions superfluous which eliminates the risk of
3443 conversion errors. It also eliminates potentially wrong expectations about the
3444 character set between Mutt and external programs.
3446 The terminal emulator used also must be properly configured for the current
3447 locale. Terminal emulators usually do not derive the locale from environment
3448 variables, they need to be configured separately. If the terminal is
3449 incorrectly configured, Mutt may display random and unexpected characters
3450 (question marks, octal codes, or just random glyphs), format strings may not
3451 work as expected, you may not be abled to enter non-ascii characters, and
3452 possible more. Data is always represented using bytes and so a correct setup is
3453 very important as to the machine, all character sets ?look? the same.
3455 Warning: A mismatch between what system and library functions think the locale
3456 is and what Mutt was told what the locale is may make it behave badly with
3457 non-ascii input: it will fail at seemingly random places. This warning is to be
3458 taken seriously since not only local mail handling may suffer: sent messages
3459 may carry wrong character set information the receiver has too deal with. The
3460 need to set $charset directly in most cases points at terminal and environment
3461 variable setup problems, not Mutt problems.
3463 A list of officially assigned and known character sets can be found at IANA, a
3464 list of locally supported locales can be obtained by running locale -a.
3466 2. Regular Expressions
3468 All string patterns in Mutt including those in more complex patterns must be
3469 specified using regular expressions (regexp) in the ?POSIX extended? syntax
3470 (which is more or less the syntax used by egrep and GNU awk). For your
3471 convenience, we have included below a brief description of this syntax.
3473 The search is case sensitive if the pattern contains at least one upper case
3474 letter, and case insensitive otherwise.
3478 ?\? must be quoted if used for a regular expression in an initialization
3481 A regular expression is a pattern that describes a set of strings. Regular
3482 expressions are constructed analogously to arithmetic expressions, by using
3483 various operators to combine smaller expressions.
3487 The regular expression can be enclosed/delimited by either " or ' which is
3488 useful if the regular expression includes a white-space character. See Syntax
3489 of Initialization Files for more information on " and ' delimiter processing.
3490 To match a literal " or ' you must preface it with \ (backslash).
3492 The fundamental building blocks are the regular expressions that match a single
3493 character. Most characters, including all letters and digits, are regular
3494 expressions that match themselves. Any metacharacter with special meaning may
3495 be quoted by preceding it with a backslash.
3497 The period ?.? matches any single character. The caret ?^? and the dollar sign
3498 ?$? are metacharacters that respectively match the empty string at the
3499 beginning and end of a line.
3501 A list of characters enclosed by ?[? and ?]? matches any single character in
3502 that list; if the first character of the list is a caret ?^? then it matches
3503 any character not in the list. For example, the regular expression [0123456789]
3504 matches any single digit. A range of ASCII characters may be specified by
3505 giving the first and last characters, separated by a hyphen ?-?. Most
3506 metacharacters lose their special meaning inside lists. To include a literal ?]
3507 ? place it first in the list. Similarly, to include a literal ?^? place it
3508 anywhere but first. Finally, to include a literal hyphen ?-? place it last.
3510 Certain named classes of characters are predefined. Character classes consist
3511 of ?[:?, a keyword denoting the class, and ?:]?. The following classes are
3512 defined by the POSIX standard in Table 4.1, ?POSIX regular expression character
3515 Table 4.1. POSIX regular expression character classes
3517 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
3518 |Character | Description |
3520 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3521 |[:alnum:] |Alphanumeric characters |
3522 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3523 |[:alpha:] |Alphabetic characters |
3524 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3525 |[:blank:] |Space or tab characters |
3526 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3527 |[:cntrl:] |Control characters |
3528 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3529 |[:digit:] |Numeric characters |
3530 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3531 |[:graph:] |Characters that are both printable and visible. (A space is |
3532 | |printable, but not visible, while an ?a? is both) |
3533 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3534 |[:lower:] |Lower-case alphabetic characters |
3535 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3536 |[:print:] |Printable characters (characters that are not control characters) |
3537 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3538 |[:punct:] |Punctuation characters (characters that are not letter, digits, |
3539 | |control characters, or space characters) |
3540 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3541 |[:space:] |Space characters (such as space, tab and formfeed, to name a few) |
3542 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3543 |[:upper:] |Upper-case alphabetic characters |
3544 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3545 |[:xdigit:]|Characters that are hexadecimal digits |
3546 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
3549 A character class is only valid in a regular expression inside the brackets of
3554 Note that the brackets in these class names are part of the symbolic names, and
3555 must be included in addition to the brackets delimiting the bracket list. For
3556 example, [[:digit:]] is equivalent to [0-9].
3558 Two additional special sequences can appear in character lists. These apply to
3559 non-ASCII character sets, which can have single symbols (called collating
3560 elements) that are represented with more than one character, as well as several
3561 characters that are equivalent for collating or sorting purposes:
3565 A collating symbol is a multi-character collating element enclosed in ?[.?
3566 and ?.]?. For example, if ?ch? is a collating element, then [[.ch.]] is a
3567 regexp that matches this collating element, while [ch] is a regexp that
3568 matches either ?c? or ?h?.
3572 An equivalence class is a locale-specific name for a list of characters
3573 that are equivalent. The name is enclosed in ?[=? and ?=]?. For example,
3574 the name ?e? might be used to represent all of ?e? with grave (???), ?e?
3575 with acute (???) and ?e?. In this case, [[=e=]] is a regexp that matches
3576 any of: ?e? with grave (???), ?e? with acute (???) and ?e?.
3578 A regular expression matching a single character may be followed by one of
3579 several repetition operators described in Table 4.2, ?Regular expression
3580 repetition operators?.
3582 Table 4.2. Regular expression repetition operators
3584 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
3585 |Operator| Description |
3586 |--------+--------------------------------------------------------------------|
3587 |? |The preceding item is optional and matched at most once |
3588 |--------+--------------------------------------------------------------------|
3589 |* |The preceding item will be matched zero or more times |
3590 |--------+--------------------------------------------------------------------|
3591 |+ |The preceding item will be matched one or more times |
3592 |--------+--------------------------------------------------------------------|
3593 |{n} |The preceding item is matched exactly n times |
3594 |--------+--------------------------------------------------------------------|
3595 |{n,} |The preceding item is matched n or more times |
3596 |--------+--------------------------------------------------------------------|
3597 |{,m} |The preceding item is matched at most m times |
3598 |--------+--------------------------------------------------------------------|
3599 |{n,m} |The preceding item is matched at least n times, but no more than m |
3601 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
3604 Two regular expressions may be concatenated; the resulting regular expression
3605 matches any string formed by concatenating two substrings that respectively
3606 match the concatenated subexpressions.
3608 Two regular expressions may be joined by the infix operator ?|?; the resulting
3609 regular expression matches any string matching either subexpression.
3611 Repetition takes precedence over concatenation, which in turn takes precedence
3612 over alternation. A whole subexpression may be enclosed in parentheses to
3613 override these precedence rules.
3617 If you compile Mutt with the included regular expression engine, the following
3618 operators may also be used in regular expressions as described in Table 4.3,
3619 ?GNU regular expression extensions?.
3621 Table 4.3. GNU regular expression extensions
3623 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
3624 |Expression| Description |
3625 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3626 |\\y |Matches the empty string at either the beginning or the end of a |
3628 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3629 |\\B |Matches the empty string within a word |
3630 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3631 |\\< |Matches the empty string at the beginning of a word |
3632 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3633 |\\> |Matches the empty string at the end of a word |
3634 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3635 |\\w |Matches any word-constituent character (letter, digit, or |
3637 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3638 |\\W |Matches any character that is not word-constituent |
3639 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3640 |\\` |Matches the empty string at the beginning of a buffer (string) |
3641 |----------+------------------------------------------------------------------|
3642 |\\' |Matches the empty string at the end of a buffer |
3643 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
3646 Please note however that these operators are not defined by POSIX, so they may
3647 or may not be available in stock libraries on various systems.
3649 3. Patterns: Searching, Limiting and Tagging
3651 3.1. Pattern Modifier
3653 Many of Mutt's commands allow you to specify a pattern to match (limit,
3654 tag-pattern, delete-pattern, etc.). Table 4.4, ?Pattern modifiers? shows
3655 several ways to select messages.
3657 Table 4.4. Pattern modifiers
3659 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
3660 | Pattern | Description |
3662 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3664 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3665 |~b EXPR |messages which contain EXPR in the message body |
3666 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3667 | |messages which contain STRING in the message body. If IMAP is |
3668 |=b STRING|enabled, searches for STRING on the server, rather than downloading|
3669 | |each message and searching it locally. |
3670 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3671 |~B EXPR |messages which contain EXPR in the whole message |
3672 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3673 |~c EXPR |messages carbon-copied to EXPR |
3674 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3675 |%c GROUP |messages carbon-copied to any member of GROUP |
3676 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3677 |~C EXPR |messages either to: or cc: EXPR |
3678 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3679 |%C GROUP |messages either to: or cc: to any member of GROUP |
3680 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3681 |~d [MIN]-|messages with ?date-sent? in a Date range |
3683 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3684 |~D |deleted messages |
3685 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3686 |~e EXPR |messages which contains EXPR in the ?Sender? field |
3687 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3688 |%e GROUP |messages which contain a member of GROUP in the ?Sender? field |
3689 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3690 |~E |expired messages |
3691 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3692 |~F |flagged messages |
3693 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3694 |~f EXPR |messages originating from EXPR |
3695 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3696 |%f GROUP |messages originating from any member of GROUP |
3697 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3698 |~g |cryptographically signed messages |
3699 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3700 |~G |cryptographically encrypted messages |
3701 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3702 |~h EXPR |messages which contain EXPR in the message header |
3703 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3704 |~H EXPR |messages with a spam attribute matching EXPR |
3705 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3706 |~i EXPR |messages which match EXPR in the ?Message-ID? field |
3707 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3708 |~k |messages which contain PGP key material |
3709 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3710 |~L EXPR |messages either originated or received by EXPR |
3711 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3712 |%L GROUP |message either originated or received by any member of GROUP |
3713 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3714 |~l |messages addressed to a known mailing list |
3715 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3716 |~m [MIN]-|messages in the range MIN to MAX *) |
3718 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3719 |~n [MIN]-|messages with a score in the range MIN to MAX *) |
3721 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3723 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3725 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3726 |~p |messages addressed to you (consults alternates) |
3727 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3728 |~P |messages from you (consults alternates) |
3729 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3730 |~Q |messages which have been replied to |
3731 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3732 |~r [MIN]-|messages with ?date-received? in a Date range |
3734 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3735 |~R |read messages |
3736 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3737 |~s EXPR |messages having EXPR in the ?Subject? field. |
3738 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3739 |~S |superseded messages |
3740 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3741 |~t EXPR |messages addressed to EXPR |
3742 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3743 |~T |tagged messages |
3744 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3745 |~u |messages addressed to a subscribed mailing list |
3746 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3747 |~U |unread messages |
3748 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3749 |~v |messages part of a collapsed thread. |
3750 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3751 |~V |cryptographically verified messages |
3752 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3753 |~x EXPR |messages which contain EXPR in the ?References? or ?In-Reply-To? |
3755 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3756 |~X [MIN]-|messages with MIN to MAX attachments *) |
3758 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3759 |~y EXPR |messages which contain EXPR in the ?X-Label? field |
3760 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3761 |~z [MIN]-|messages with a size in the range MIN to MAX *) **) |
3763 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3764 |~= |duplicated messages (see $duplicate_threads) |
3765 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3766 |~$ |unreferenced messages (requires threaded view) |
3767 |---------+-------------------------------------------------------------------|
3768 |~(PATTERN|messages in threads containing messages matching PATTERN, e.g. all |
3769 |) |threads containing messages from you: ~(~P) |
3770 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
3773 Where EXPR is a regular expression, and GROUP is an address group.
3775 *) The forms ?<[MAX]?, ?>[MIN]?, ?[MIN]-? and ?-[MAX]? are allowed, too.
3777 **) The suffixes ?K? and ?M? are allowed to specify kilobyte and megabyte
3780 Special attention has to be payed when using regular expressions inside of
3781 patterns. Specifically, Mutt's parser for these patterns will strip one level
3782 of backslash (?\?), which is normally used for quoting. If it is your intention
3783 to use a backslash in the regular expression, you will need to use two
3784 backslashes instead (?\\?). You can force Mutt to treat EXPR as a simple string
3785 instead of a regular expression by using = instead of ~ in the pattern name.
3786 For example, =b *.* will find all messages that contain the literal string
3787 ?*.*?. Simple string matches are less powerful than regular expressions but can
3788 be considerably faster. This is especially true for IMAP folders, because
3789 string matches can be performed on the server instead of by fetching every
3790 message. IMAP treats =h specially: it must be of the form ?header: substring?
3791 and will not partially match header names. The substring part may be omitted if
3792 you simply wish to find messages containing a particular header without regard
3795 Patterns matching lists of addresses (notably c, C, p, P and t) match if there
3796 is at least one match in the whole list. If you want to make sure that all
3797 elements of that list match, you need to prefix your pattern with ?^?. This
3798 example matches all mails which only has recipients from Germany.
3800 Example 4.1. Matching all addresses in address lists
3805 3.2. Simple Searches
3807 Mutt supports two versions of so called ?simple searches?. These are issued if
3808 the query entered for searching, limiting and similar operations does not seem
3809 to contain a valid pattern modifier (i.e. it does not contain one of these
3810 characters: ?~?, ?=? or ?%?). If the query is supposed to contain one of these
3811 special characters, they must be escaped by prepending a backslash (?\?).
3813 The first type is by checking whether the query string equals a keyword
3814 case-insensitively from Table 4.5, ?Simple search keywords?: If that is the
3815 case, Mutt will use the shown pattern modifier instead. If a keyword would
3816 conflict with your search keyword, you need to turn it into a regular
3817 expression to avoid matching the keyword table. For example, if you want to
3818 find all messages matching ?flag? (using $simple_search) but don't want to
3819 match flagged messages, simply search for ?[f]lag?.
3821 Table 4.5. Simple search keywords
3823 +-------------------------+
3824 |Keyword|Pattern modifier |
3825 |-------+-----------------|
3827 |-------+-----------------|
3829 |-------+-----------------|
3831 |-------+-----------------|
3833 |-------+-----------------|
3835 |-------+-----------------|
3837 |-------+-----------------|
3839 |-------+-----------------|
3841 |-------+-----------------|
3843 |-------+-----------------|
3845 |-------+-----------------|
3847 +-------------------------+
3850 The second type of simple search is to build a complex search pattern using
3851 $simple_search as a template. Mutt will insert your query properly quoted and
3852 search for the composed complex query.
3854 3.3. Nesting and Boolean Operators
3856 Logical AND is performed by specifying more than one criterion. For example:
3860 would select messages which contain the word ?mutt? in the list of recipients
3861 and that have the word ?elkins? in the ?From? header field.
3863 Mutt also recognizes the following operators to create more complex search
3866 * ! ? logical NOT operator
3868 * | ? logical OR operator
3870 * () ? logical grouping operator
3872 Here is an example illustrating a complex search pattern. This pattern will
3873 select all messages which do not contain ?mutt? in the ?To? or ?Cc? field and
3874 which are from ?elkins?.
3876 Example 4.2. Using boolean operators in patterns
3878 !(~t mutt|~c mutt) ~f elkins
3881 Here is an example using white space in the regular expression (note the ?'?
3882 and ?"? delimiters). For this to match, the mail's subject must match the ?^
3883 Junk +From +Me$? and it must be from either ?Jim +Somebody? or ?Ed
3886 '~s "^Junk +From +Me$" ~f ("Jim +Somebody"|"Ed +SomeoneElse")'
3890 If a regular expression contains parenthesis, or a vertical bar ("|"), you must
3891 enclose the expression in double or single quotes since those characters are
3892 also used to separate different parts of Mutt's pattern language. For example:
3893 ~f "me@(mutt\.org|cs\.hmc\.edu)" Without the quotes, the parenthesis wouldn't
3894 end. This would be separated to two OR'd patterns: ~f me@(mutt\.org and cs\.hmc
3895 \.edu). They are never what you want.
3897 3.4. Searching by Date
3899 Mutt supports two types of dates, absolute and relative.
3901 3.4.1. Absolute Dates
3903 Dates must be in DD/MM/YY format (month and year are optional, defaulting to
3904 the current month and year). An example of a valid range of dates is:
3906 Limit to messages matching: ~d 20/1/95-31/10
3908 If you omit the minimum (first) date, and just specify ?-DD/MM/YY?, all
3909 messages before the given date will be selected. If you omit the maximum
3910 (second) date, and specify ?DD/MM/YY-?, all messages after the given date will
3911 be selected. If you specify a single date with no dash (?-?), only messages
3912 sent on the given date will be selected.
3914 You can add error margins to absolute dates. An error margin is a sign (+ or
3915 -), followed by a digit, followed by one of the units in Table 4.6, ?Date
3916 units?. As a special case, you can replace the sign by a ?*? character, which
3917 is equivalent to giving identical plus and minus error margins.
3919 Table 4.6. Date units
3934 Example: To select any messages two weeks around January 15, 2001, you'd use
3935 the following pattern:
3937 Limit to messages matching: ~d 15/1/2001*2w
3939 3.4.2. Relative Dates
3941 This type of date is relative to the current date, and may be specified as:
3943 * >offset for messages older than offset units
3945 * <offset for messages newer than offset units
3947 * =offset for messages exactly offset units old
3949 offset is specified as a positive number with one of the units from Table 4.6,
3952 Example: to select messages less than 1 month old, you would use
3954 Limit to messages matching: ~d <1m
3958 All dates used when searching are relative to the local time zone, so unless
3959 you change the setting of your $index_format to include a %[...] format, these
3960 are not the dates shown in the main index.
3964 Sometimes it is desirable to perform an operation on a group of messages all at
3965 once rather than one at a time. An example might be to save messages to a
3966 mailing list to a separate folder, or to delete all messages with a given
3967 subject. To tag all messages matching a pattern, use the <tag-pattern>
3968 function, which is bound to ?shift-T? by default. Or you can select individual
3969 messages by hand using the <tag-message> function, which is bound to ?t? by
3970 default. See patterns for Mutt's pattern matching syntax.
3972 Once you have tagged the desired messages, you can use the ?tag-prefix?
3973 operator, which is the ?;? (semicolon) key by default. When the ?tag-prefix?
3974 operator is used, the next operation will be applied to all tagged messages if
3975 that operation can be used in that manner. If the $auto_tag variable is set,
3976 the next operation applies to the tagged messages automatically, without
3977 requiring the ?tag-prefix?.
3979 In macros or push commands, you can use the <tag-prefix-cond> operator. If
3980 there are no tagged messages, Mutt will ?eat? the rest of the macro to abort
3981 it's execution. Mutt will stop ?eating? the macro when it encounters the
3982 <end-cond> operator; after this operator the rest of the macro will be executed
3987 A hook is a concept found in many other programs which allows you to execute
3988 arbitrary commands before performing some operation. For example, you may wish
3989 to tailor your configuration based upon which mailbox you are reading, or to
3990 whom you are sending mail. In the Mutt world, a hook consists of a regular
3991 expression or pattern along with a configuration option/command. See:
4019 for specific details on each type of hook available.
4023 If a hook changes configuration settings, these changes remain effective until
4024 the end of the current Mutt session. As this is generally not desired, a
4025 ?default? hook needs to be added before all other hooks of that type to restore
4026 configuration defaults.
4028 Example 4.3. Specifying a ?default? hook
4030 send-hook . 'unmy_hdr From:'
4031 send-hook ~C'^b@b\.b$' my_hdr from: c@c.c
4034 In Example 4.3, ?Specifying a ?default? hook?, by default the value of $from
4035 and $realname is not overridden. When sending messages either To: or Cc: to
4036 <b@b.b>, the From: header is changed to <c@c.c>.
4038 5.1. Message Matching in Hooks
4040 Hooks that act upon messages (message-hook, reply-hook, send-hook, send2-hook,
4041 save-hook, fcc-hook) are evaluated in a slightly different manner. For the
4042 other types of hooks, a regular expression is sufficient. But in dealing with
4043 messages a finer grain of control is needed for matching since for different
4044 purposes you want to match different criteria.
4046 Mutt allows the use of the search pattern language for matching messages in
4047 hook commands. This works in exactly the same way as it would when limiting or
4048 searching the mailbox, except that you are restricted to those operators which
4049 match information Mutt extracts from the header of the message (i.e., from, to,
4050 cc, date, subject, etc.).
4052 For example, if you wanted to set your return address based upon sending mail
4053 to a specific address, you could do something like:
4055 send-hook '~t ^me@cs\.hmc\.edu$' 'my_hdr From: Mutt User <user@host>'
4057 which would execute the given command when sending mail to me@cs.hmc.edu.
4059 However, it is not required that you write the pattern to match using the full
4060 searching language. You can still specify a simple regular expression like the
4061 other hooks, in which case Mutt will translate your pattern into the full
4062 language, using the translation specified by the $default_hook variable. The
4063 pattern is translated at the time the hook is declared, so the value of
4064 $default_hook that is in effect at that time will be used.
4066 6. External Address Queries
4068 Mutt supports connecting to external directory databases such as LDAP, ph/qi,
4069 bbdb, or NIS through a wrapper script which connects to Mutt using a simple
4070 interface. Using the $query_command variable, you specify the wrapper command
4071 to use. For example:
4073 set query_command = "mutt_ldap_query.pl %s"
4075 The wrapper script should accept the query on the command-line. It should
4076 return a one line message, then each matching response on a single line, each
4077 line containing a tab separated address then name then some other optional
4078 information. On error, or if there are no matching addresses, return a non-zero
4079 exit code and a one line error message.
4081 An example multiple response output:
4083 Searching database ... 20 entries ... 3 matching:
4084 me@cs.hmc.edu Michael Elkins mutt dude
4085 blong@fiction.net Brandon Long mutt and more
4086 roessler@does-not-exist.org Thomas Roessler mutt pgp
4088 There are two mechanisms for accessing the query function of Mutt. One is to do
4089 a query from the index menu using the <query> function (default: Q). This will
4090 prompt for a query, then bring up the query menu which will list the matching
4091 responses. From the query menu, you can select addresses to create aliases, or
4092 to mail. You can tag multiple addresses to mail, start a new query, or have a
4093 new query appended to the current responses.
4095 The other mechanism for accessing the query function is for address completion,
4096 similar to the alias completion. In any prompt for address entry, you can use
4097 the <complete-query> function (default: ^T) to run a query based on the current
4098 address you have typed. Like aliases, Mutt will look for what you have typed
4099 back to the last space or comma. If there is a single response for that query,
4100 Mutt will expand the address in place. If there are multiple responses, Mutt
4101 will activate the query menu. At the query menu, you can select one or more
4102 addresses to be added to the prompt.
4106 Mutt supports reading and writing of four different local mailbox formats:
4107 mbox, MMDF, MH and Maildir. The mailbox type is auto detected, so there is no
4108 need to use a flag for different mailbox types. When creating new mailboxes,
4109 Mutt uses the default specified with the $mbox_type variable. A short
4110 description of the formats follows.
4112 mbox. This is a widely used mailbox format for UNIX. All messages are stored in
4113 a single file. Each message has a line of the form:
4115 From me@cs.hmc.edu Fri, 11 Apr 1997 11:44:56 PST
4117 to denote the start of a new message (this is often referred to as the ?From_?
4118 line). The mbox format requires mailbox locking, is prone to mailbox corruption
4119 with concurrently writing clients or misinterpreted From_ lines. Depending on
4120 the environment, new mail detection can be unreliable. Mbox folders are fast to
4121 open and easy to archive.
4123 MMDF. This is a variant of the mbox format. Each message is surrounded by lines
4124 containing ?^A^A^A^A? (four times control-A's). The same problems as for mbox
4125 apply (also with finding the right message separator as four control-A's may
4126 appear in message bodies).
4128 MH. A radical departure from mbox and MMDF, a mailbox consists of a directory
4129 and each message is stored in a separate file. The filename indicates the
4130 message number (however, this is may not correspond to the message number Mutt
4131 displays). Deleted messages are renamed with a comma (?,?) prepended to the
4132 filename. Mutt detects this type of mailbox by looking for either .mh_sequences
4133 or .xmhcache files (needed to distinguish normal directories from MH
4134 mailboxes). MH is more robust with concurrent clients writing the mailbox, but
4135 still may suffer from lost flags; message corruption is less likely to occur
4136 than with mbox/mmdf. It's usually slower to open compared to mbox/mmdf since
4137 many small files have to be read (Mutt provides Section 7.1, ?Header Caching?
4138 to greatly speed this process up). Depending on the environment, MH is not very
4139 disk-space efficient.
4141 Maildir. The newest of the mailbox formats, used by the Qmail MTA (a
4142 replacement for sendmail). Similar to MH, except that it adds three
4143 subdirectories of the mailbox: tmp, new and cur. Filenames for the messages are
4144 chosen in such a way they are unique, even when two programs are writing the
4145 mailbox over NFS, which means that no file locking is needed and corruption is
4146 very unlikely. Maildir maybe slower to open without caching in Mutt, it too is
4147 not very disk-space efficient depending on the environment. Since no additional
4148 files are used for metadata (which is embedded in the message filenames) and
4149 Maildir is locking-free, it's easy to sync across different machines using
4150 file-level synchronization tools.
4152 8. Mailbox Shortcuts
4154 There are a number of built in shortcuts which refer to specific mailboxes.
4155 These shortcuts can be used anywhere you are prompted for a file or mailbox
4156 path or in path-related configuration variables. Note that these only work at
4157 the beginning of a string.
4159 Table 4.7. Mailbox shortcuts
4161 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
4162 |Shortcut| Refers to... |
4163 |--------+--------------------------------------------------------------------|
4164 |! |your $spoolfile (incoming) mailbox |
4165 |--------+--------------------------------------------------------------------|
4166 |> |your $mbox file |
4167 |--------+--------------------------------------------------------------------|
4168 |< |your $record file |
4169 |--------+--------------------------------------------------------------------|
4170 |^ |the current mailbox |
4171 |--------+--------------------------------------------------------------------|
4172 |- or !! |the file you've last visited |
4173 |--------+--------------------------------------------------------------------|
4174 |~ |your home directory |
4175 |--------+--------------------------------------------------------------------|
4176 |= or + |your $folder directory |
4177 |--------+--------------------------------------------------------------------|
4178 |@alias |to the default save folder as determined by the address of the alias|
4179 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
4182 For example, to store a copy of outgoing messages in the folder they were
4183 composed in, a folder-hook can be used to set $record:
4185 folder-hook . 'set record=^'
4187 9. Handling Mailing Lists
4189 Mutt has a few configuration options that make dealing with large amounts of
4190 mail easier. The first thing you must do is to let Mutt know what addresses you
4191 consider to be mailing lists (technically this does not have to be a mailing
4192 list, but that is what it is most often used for), and what lists you are
4193 subscribed to. This is accomplished through the use of the lists and subscribe
4194 commands in your .muttrc.
4196 Now that Mutt knows what your mailing lists are, it can do several things, the
4197 first of which is the ability to show the name of a list through which you
4198 received a message (i.e., of a subscribed list) in the index menu display. This
4199 is useful to distinguish between personal and list mail in the same mailbox. In
4200 the $index_format variable, the expando ?%L? will print the string ?To <list>?
4201 when ?list? appears in the ?To? field, and ?Cc <list>? when it appears in the
4202 ?Cc? field (otherwise it prints the name of the author).
4204 Often times the ?To? and ?Cc? fields in mailing list messages tend to get quite
4205 large. Most people do not bother to remove the author of the message they reply
4206 to from the list, resulting in two or more copies being sent to that person.
4207 The <list-reply> function, which by default is bound to ?L? in the index menu
4208 and pager, helps reduce the clutter by only replying to the known mailing list
4209 addresses instead of all recipients (except as specified by Mail-Followup-To,
4212 Mutt also supports the Mail-Followup-To header. When you send a message to a
4213 list of recipients which includes one or several subscribed mailing lists, and
4214 if the $followup_to option is set, Mutt will generate a Mail-Followup-To header
4215 which contains all the recipients to whom you send this message, but not your
4216 address. This indicates that group-replies or list-replies (also known as
4217 ?followups?) to this message should only be sent to the original recipients of
4218 the message, and not separately to you - you'll receive your copy through one
4219 of the mailing lists you are subscribed to.
4221 Conversely, when group-replying or list-replying to a message which has a
4222 Mail-Followup-To header, Mutt will respect this header if the
4223 $honor_followup_to configuration variable is set. Using list-reply will in this
4224 case also make sure that the reply goes to the mailing list, even if it's not
4225 specified in the list of recipients in the Mail-Followup-To.
4229 When header editing is enabled, you can create a Mail-Followup-To header
4230 manually. Mutt will only auto-generate this header if it doesn't exist when you
4233 The other method some mailing list admins use is to generate a ?Reply-To? field
4234 which points back to the mailing list address rather than the author of the
4235 message. This can create problems when trying to reply directly to the author
4236 in private, since most mail clients will automatically reply to the address
4237 given in the ?Reply-To? field. Mutt uses the $reply_to variable to help decide
4238 which address to use. If set to ask-yes or ask-no, you will be prompted as to
4239 whether or not you would like to use the address given in the ?Reply-To? field,
4240 or reply directly to the address given in the ?From? field. When set to yes,
4241 the ?Reply-To? field will be used when present.
4243 The ?X-Label:? header field can be used to further identify mailing lists or
4244 list subject matter (or just to annotate messages individually). The
4245 $index_format variable's ?%y? and ?%Y? expandos can be used to expand
4246 ?X-Label:? fields in the index, and Mutt's pattern-matcher can match regular
4247 expressions to ?X-Label:? fields with the ?~y? selector. ?X-Label:? is not a
4248 standard message header field, but it can easily be inserted by procmail and
4249 other mail filtering agents.
4251 Lastly, Mutt has the ability to sort the mailbox into threads. A thread is a
4252 group of messages which all relate to the same subject. This is usually
4253 organized into a tree-like structure where a message and all of its replies are
4254 represented graphically. If you've ever used a threaded news client, this is
4255 the same concept. It makes dealing with large volume mailing lists easier
4256 because you can easily delete uninteresting threads and quickly find topics of
4259 10. New Mail Detection
4261 Mutt supports setups with multiple folders, allowing all of them to be
4262 monitored for new mail (see Section 14, ?Monitoring Incoming Mail? for
4265 10.1. How New Mail Detection Works
4267 For Mbox and Mmdf folders, new mail is detected by comparing access and/or
4268 modification times of files: Mutt assumes a folder has new mail if it wasn't
4269 accessed after it was last modified. Utilities like biff or frm or any other
4270 program which accesses the mailbox might cause Mutt to never detect new mail
4271 for that mailbox if they do not properly reset the access time. Other possible
4272 causes of Mutt not detecting new mail in these folders are backup tools
4273 (updating access times) or filesystems mounted without access time update
4274 support (for Linux systems, see the relatime option).
4278 Contrary to older Mutt releases, it now maintains the new mail status of a
4279 folder by properly resetting the access time if the folder contains at least
4280 one message which is neither read, nor deleted, nor marked as old.
4282 In cases where new mail detection for Mbox or Mmdf folders appears to be
4283 unreliable, the $check_mbox_size option can be used to make Mutt track and
4284 consult file sizes for new mail detection instead which won't work for
4285 size-neutral changes.
4287 New mail for Maildir is assumed if there is one message in the new/
4288 subdirectory which is not marked deleted (see $maildir_trash). For MH folders,
4289 a mailbox is considered having new mail if there's at least one message in the
4290 ?unseen? sequence as specified by $mh_seq_unseen.
4292 Mutt does not poll POP3 folders for new mail, it only periodically checks the
4293 currently opened folder (if it's a POP3 folder).
4295 For IMAP, by default Mutt uses recent message counts provided by the server to
4296 detect new mail. If the $imap_idle option is set, it'll use the IMAP IDLE
4297 extension if advertised by the server.
4299 10.2. Polling For New Mail
4301 When in the index menu and being idle (also see $timeout), Mutt periodically
4302 checks for new mail in all folders which have been configured via the mailboxes
4303 command. The interval depends on the folder type: for local/IMAP folders it
4304 consults $mail_check and $pop_checkinterval for POP folders.
4306 Outside the index menu the directory browser supports checking for new mail
4307 using the <check-new> function which is unbound by default. Pressing TAB will
4308 bring up a menu showing the files specified by the mailboxes command, and
4309 indicate which contain new messages. Mutt will automatically enter this mode
4310 when invoked from the command line with the -y option.
4312 For the pager, index and directory browser menus, Mutt contains the
4313 <buffy-list> function (bound to ?.? by default) which will print a list of
4314 folders with new mail in the command line at the bottom of the screen.
4316 For the index, by default Mutt displays the number of mailboxes with new mail
4317 in the status bar, please refer to the $status_format variable for details.
4319 When changing folders, Mutt fills the prompt with the first folder from the
4320 mailboxes list containing new mail (if any), pressing <Space> will cycle
4321 through folders with new mail. The (by default unbound) function
4322 <next-unread-mailbox> in the index can be used to immediately open the next
4323 folder with unread mail (if any).
4327 Mutt has the ability to dynamically restructure threads that are broken either
4328 by misconfigured software or bad behavior from some correspondents. This allows
4329 to clean your mailboxes from these annoyances which make it hard to follow a
4332 11.1. Linking Threads
4334 Some mailers tend to ?forget? to correctly set the ?In-Reply-To:? and
4335 ?References:? headers when replying to a message. This results in broken
4336 discussions because Mutt has not enough information to guess the correct
4337 threading. You can fix this by tagging the reply, then moving to the parent
4338 message and using the <link-threads> function (bound to & by default). The
4339 reply will then be connected to this parent message.
4341 You can also connect multiple children at once, tagging them and using the
4342 <tag-prefix> command (?;?) or the $auto_tag option.
4344 11.2. Breaking Threads
4346 On mailing lists, some people are in the bad habit of starting a new discussion
4347 by hitting ?reply? to any message from the list and changing the subject to a
4348 totally unrelated one. You can fix such threads by using the <break-thread>
4349 function (bound by default to #), which will turn the subthread starting from
4350 the current message into a whole different thread.
4352 12. Delivery Status Notification (DSN) Support
4354 RFC1894 defines a set of MIME content types for relaying information about the
4355 status of electronic mail messages. These can be thought of as ?return
4358 To support DSN, there are two variables. $dsn_notify is used to request
4359 receipts for different results (such as failed message, message delivered,
4360 etc.). $dsn_return requests how much of your message should be returned with
4361 the receipt (headers or full message).
4363 When using $sendmail for mail delivery, you need to use either Berkeley
4364 sendmail 8.8.x (or greater) a MTA supporting DSN command line options
4365 compatible to Sendmail: The -N and -R options can be used by the mail client to
4366 make requests as to what type of status messages should be returned. Please
4367 consider your MTA documentation whether DSN is supported.
4369 For SMTP delivery using $smtp_url, it depends on the capabilities announced by
4370 the server whether Mutt will attempt to request DSN or not.
4372 13. Start a WWW Browser on URLs
4374 If a message contains URLs, it is efficient to get a menu with all the URLs and
4375 start a WWW browser on one of them. This functionality is provided by the
4376 external urlview program which can be retrieved at ftp://ftp.mutt.org/mutt/
4377 contrib/ and the configuration commands:
4379 macro index \cb |urlview\n
4380 macro pager \cb |urlview\n
4384 This section documents various features that fit nowhere else.
4386 Address normalization
4388 Mutt normalizes all e-mail addresses to the simplest form possible. If an
4389 address contains a realname, the form Joe User <joe@example.com> is used
4390 and the pure e-mail address without angle brackets otherwise, i.e. just
4393 This normalization affects all headers Mutt generates including aliases.
4395 Initial folder selection
4397 The folder Mutt opens at startup is determined as follows: the folder
4398 specified in the $MAIL environment variable if present. Otherwise, the
4399 value of $MAILDIR is taken into account. If that isn't present either, Mutt
4400 takes the user's mailbox in the mailspool as determined at compile-time
4401 (which may also reside in the home directory). The $spoolfile setting
4402 overrides this selection. Highest priority has the mailbox given with the
4403 -f command line option.
4405 Chapter 5. Mutt's MIME Support
4409 1. Using MIME in Mutt
4412 1.2. Viewing MIME Messages in the Pager
4413 1.3. The Attachment Menu
4414 1.4. The Compose Menu
4416 2. MIME Type Configuration with mime.types
4417 3. MIME Viewer Configuration with Mailcap
4419 3.1. The Basics of the Mailcap File
4420 3.2. Secure Use of Mailcap
4421 3.3. Advanced Mailcap Usage
4422 3.4. Example Mailcap Files
4425 5. MIME Multipart/Alternative
4426 6. Attachment Searching and Counting
4429 Quite a bit of effort has been made to make Mutt the premier text-mode MIME
4430 MUA. Every effort has been made to provide the functionality that the
4431 discerning MIME user requires, and the conformance to the standards wherever
4432 possible. When configuring Mutt for MIME, there are two extra types of
4433 configuration files which Mutt uses. One is the mime.types file, which contains
4434 the mapping of file extensions to IANA MIME types. The other is the mailcap
4435 file, which specifies the external commands to use for handling specific MIME
4438 1. Using MIME in Mutt
4442 MIME is short for ?Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension? and describes
4443 mechanisms to internationalize and structure mail messages. Before the
4444 introduction of MIME, messages had a single text part and were limited to
4445 us-ascii header and content. With MIME, messages can have attachments (and even
4446 attachments which itself have attachments and thus form a tree structure),
4447 nearly arbitrary characters can be used for sender names, recipients and
4450 Besides the handling of non-ascii characters in message headers, to Mutt the
4451 most important aspect of MIME are so-called MIME types. These are constructed
4452 using a major and minor type separated by a forward slash. These specify
4453 details about the content that follows. Based upon these, Mutt decides how to
4454 handle this part. The most popular major type is ?text? with minor types for
4455 plain text, HTML and various other formats. Major types also exist for images,
4456 audio, video and of course general application data (e.g. to separate
4457 cryptographically signed data with a signature, send office documents, and in
4458 general arbitrary binary data). There's also the multipart major type which
4459 represents the root of a subtree of MIME parts. A list of supported MIME types
4460 can be found in Table 5.1, ?Supported MIME types?.
4462 MIME also defines a set of encoding schemes for transporting MIME content over
4463 the network: 7bit, 8bit, quoted-printable, base64 and binary. There're some
4464 rules when to choose what for encoding headers and/or body (if needed), and
4465 Mutt will in general make a good choice.
4467 Mutt does most of MIME encoding/decoding behind the scenes to form messages
4468 conforming to MIME on the sending side. On reception, it can be flexibly
4469 configured as to how what MIME structure is displayed (and if it's displayed):
4470 these decisions are based on the content's MIME type. There are three areas/
4471 menus in dealing with MIME: the pager (while viewing a message), the attachment
4472 menu and the compose menu.
4474 1.2. Viewing MIME Messages in the Pager
4476 When you select a message from the index and view it in the pager, Mutt decodes
4477 as much of a message as possible to a text representation. Mutt internally
4478 supports a number of MIME types, including the text major type (with all minor
4479 types), the message/rfc822 (mail messages) type and some multipart types. In
4480 addition, it recognizes a variety of PGP MIME types, including PGP/MIME and
4483 Mutt will denote attachments with a couple lines describing them. These lines
4486 [-- Attachment #1: Description --]
4487 [-- Type: text/plain, Encoding: 7bit, Size: 10000 --]
4489 Where the Description is the description or filename given for the attachment,
4490 and the Encoding is one of the already mentioned content encodings.
4492 If Mutt cannot deal with a MIME type, it will display a message like:
4494 [-- image/gif is unsupported (use 'v' to view this part) --]
4496 1.3. The Attachment Menu
4498 The default binding for <view-attachments> is ?v?, which displays the
4499 attachment menu for a message. The attachment menu displays a list of the
4500 attachments in a message. From the attachment menu, you can save, print, pipe,
4501 delete, and view attachments. You can apply these operations to a group of
4502 attachments at once, by tagging the attachments and by using the <tag-prefix>
4503 operator. You can also reply to the current message from this menu, and only
4504 the current attachment (or the attachments tagged) will be quoted in your
4505 reply. You can view attachments as text, or view them using the mailcap viewer
4506 definition (the mailcap mechanism is explained later in detail).
4508 Finally, you can apply the usual message-related functions (like
4509 <resend-message>, and the <reply> and <forward> functions) to attachments of
4510 type message/rfc822.
4512 See table Table 9.7, ?Default Attachment Menu Bindings? for all available
4515 1.4. The Compose Menu
4517 The compose menu is the menu you see before you send a message. It allows you
4518 to edit the recipient list, the subject, and other aspects of your message. It
4519 also contains a list of the attachments of your message, including the main
4520 body. From this menu, you can print, copy, filter, pipe, edit, compose, review,
4521 and rename an attachment or a list of tagged attachments. You can also
4522 modifying the attachment information, notably the type, encoding and
4525 Attachments appear as follows by default:
4527 - 1 [text/plain, 7bit, 1K] /tmp/mutt-euler-8082-0 <no description>
4528 2 [applica/x-gunzip, base64, 422K] ~/src/mutt-0.85.tar.gz <no description>
4530 The ?-? denotes that Mutt will delete the file after sending (or postponing, or
4531 canceling) the message. It can be toggled with the <toggle-unlink> command
4532 (default: u). The next field is the MIME content-type, and can be changed with
4533 the <edit-type> command (default: ^T). The next field is the encoding for the
4534 attachment, which allows a binary message to be encoded for transmission on
4535 7bit links. It can be changed with the <edit-encoding> command (default: ^E).
4536 The next field is the size of the attachment, rounded to kilobytes or
4537 megabytes. The next field is the filename, which can be changed with the
4538 <rename-file> command (default: R). The final field is the description of the
4539 attachment, and can be changed with the <edit-description> command (default:
4540 d). See $attach_format for a full list of available expandos to format this
4541 display to your needs.
4543 2. MIME Type Configuration with mime.types
4545 To get most out of MIME, it's important that a MIME part's content type matches
4546 the content as closely as possible so that the recipient's client can
4547 automatically select the right viewer for the content. However, there's no
4548 reliable for Mutt to know how to detect every possible file type. Instead, it
4549 uses a simple plain text mapping file that specifies what file extension
4550 corresponds to what MIME type. This file is called mime.types.
4552 When you add an attachment to your mail message, Mutt searches your personal
4553 mime.types file at $HOME/.mime.types, and then the system mime.types file at /
4554 usr/local/share/mutt/mime.types or /etc/mime.types
4556 Each line starts with the full MIME type, followed by a space and
4557 space-separated list of file extensions. For example you could use:
4559 Example 5.1. mime.types
4561 application/postscript ps eps
4563 audio/x-aiff aif aifc aiff
4566 A sample mime.types file comes with the Mutt distribution, and should contain
4567 most of the MIME types you are likely to use.
4569 If Mutt can not determine the MIME type by the extension of the file you
4570 attach, it will look at the file. If the file is free of binary information,
4571 Mutt will assume that the file is plain text, and mark it as text/plain. If the
4572 file contains binary information, then Mutt will mark it as application/
4573 octet-stream. You can change the MIME type that Mutt assigns to an attachment
4574 by using the <edit-type> command from the compose menu (default: ^T), see
4575 Table 5.1, ?Supported MIME types? for supported major types. Mutt recognizes
4576 all of these if the appropriate entry is found in the mime.types file.
4577 Non-recognized mime types should only be used if the recipient of the message
4578 is likely to be expecting such attachments.
4580 Table 5.1. Supported MIME types
4582 +------------------------------------------------------------------+
4583 |MIME major type|Standard| Description |
4584 |---------------+--------+-----------------------------------------|
4585 |application |yes |General application data |
4586 |---------------+--------+-----------------------------------------|
4587 |audio |yes |Audio data |
4588 |---------------+--------+-----------------------------------------|
4589 |image |yes |Image data |
4590 |---------------+--------+-----------------------------------------|
4591 |message |yes |Mail messages, message status information|
4592 |---------------+--------+-----------------------------------------|
4593 |model |yes |VRML and other modeling data |
4594 |---------------+--------+-----------------------------------------|
4595 |multipart |yes |Container for other MIME parts |
4596 |---------------+--------+-----------------------------------------|
4597 |text |yes |Text data |
4598 |---------------+--------+-----------------------------------------|
4599 |video |yes |Video data |
4600 |---------------+--------+-----------------------------------------|
4601 |chemical |no |Mostly molecular data |
4602 +------------------------------------------------------------------+
4605 MIME types are not arbitrary, they need to be assigned by IANA.
4607 3. MIME Viewer Configuration with Mailcap
4609 Mutt supports RFC 1524 MIME Configuration, in particular the Unix specific
4610 format specified in Appendix A of RFC 1524. This file format is commonly
4611 referred to as the ?mailcap? format. Many MIME compliant programs utilize the
4612 mailcap format, allowing you to specify handling for all MIME types in one
4613 place for all programs. Programs known to use this format include Firefox, lynx
4616 In order to handle various MIME types that Mutt doesn't have built-in support
4617 for, it parses a series of external configuration files to find an external
4618 handler. The default search string for these files is a colon delimited list
4619 containing the following files:
4623 2. $PKGDATADIR/mailcap
4625 3. $SYSCONFDIR/mailcap
4631 6. /usr/local/etc/mailcap
4633 where $HOME is your home directory. The $PKGDATADIR and the $SYSCONFDIR
4634 directories depend on where Mutt is installed: the former is the default for
4635 shared data, the latter for system configuration files.
4637 The default search path can be obtained by running the following command:
4639 mutt -nF /dev/null -Q mailcap_path
4641 In particular, the metamail distribution will install a mailcap file, usually
4642 as /usr/local/etc/mailcap, which contains some baseline entries.
4644 3.1. The Basics of the Mailcap File
4646 A mailcap file consists of a series of lines which are comments, blank, or
4649 A comment line consists of a # character followed by anything you want.
4651 A blank line is blank.
4653 A definition line consists of a content type, a view command, and any number of
4654 optional fields. Each field of a definition line is divided by a semicolon ?;?
4657 The content type is specified in the MIME standard ?type/subtype? notation. For
4658 example, text/plain, text/html, image/gif, etc. In addition, the mailcap format
4659 includes two formats for wildcards, one using the special ?*? subtype, the
4660 other is the implicit wild, where you only include the major type. For example,
4661 image/*, or video will match all image types and video types, respectively.
4663 The view command is a Unix command for viewing the type specified. There are
4664 two different types of commands supported. The default is to send the body of
4665 the MIME message to the command on stdin. You can change this behavior by using
4666 %s as a parameter to your view command. This will cause Mutt to save the body
4667 of the MIME message to a temporary file, and then call the view command with
4668 the %s replaced by the name of the temporary file. In both cases, Mutt will
4669 turn over the terminal to the view program until the program quits, at which
4670 time Mutt will remove the temporary file if it exists. This means that mailcap
4671 does not work out of the box with programs which detach themselves from the
4672 terminal right after starting, like open on Mac OS X. In order to nevertheless
4673 use these programs with mailcap, you probably need custom shell scripts.
4675 So, in the simplest form, you can send a text/plain message to the external
4676 pager more on standard input:
4680 Or, you could send the message as a file:
4684 Perhaps you would like to use lynx to interactively view a text/html message:
4688 In this case, lynx does not support viewing a file from standard input, so you
4689 must use the %s syntax.
4693 Some older versions of lynx contain a bug where they will check the mailcap
4694 file for a viewer for text/html. They will find the line which calls lynx, and
4695 run it. This causes lynx to continuously spawn itself to view the object.
4697 On the other hand, maybe you don't want to use lynx interactively, you just
4698 want to have it convert the text/html to text/plain, then you can use:
4700 text/html; lynx -dump %s | more
4702 Perhaps you wish to use lynx to view text/html files, and a pager on all other
4703 text formats, then you would use the following:
4708 3.2. Secure Use of Mailcap
4710 The interpretation of shell meta-characters embedded in MIME parameters can
4711 lead to security problems in general. Mutt tries to quote parameters in
4712 expansion of %s syntaxes properly, and avoids risky characters by substituting
4713 them, see the $mailcap_sanitize variable.
4715 Although Mutt's procedures to invoke programs with mailcap seem to be safe,
4716 there are other applications parsing mailcap, maybe taking less care of it.
4717 Therefore you should pay attention to the following rules:
4719 Keep the %-expandos away from shell quoting. Don't quote them with single or
4720 double quotes. Mutt does this for you, the right way, as should any other
4721 program which interprets mailcap. Don't put them into backtick expansions. Be
4722 highly careful with evil statements, and avoid them if possible at all. Trying
4723 to fix broken behavior with quotes introduces new leaks ? there is no
4724 alternative to correct quoting in the first place.
4726 If you have to use the %-expandos' values in context where you need quoting or
4727 backtick expansions, put that value into a shell variable and reference the
4728 shell variable where necessary, as in the following example (using $charset
4729 inside the backtick expansion is safe, since it is not itself subject to any
4732 text/test-mailcap-bug; cat %s; copiousoutput; test=charset=%{charset} \
4733 && test "`echo $charset | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`" != iso-8859-1
4735 3.3. Advanced Mailcap Usage
4737 3.3.1. Optional Fields
4739 In addition to the required content-type and view command fields, you can add
4740 semi-colon ?;? separated fields to set flags and other options. Mutt recognizes
4741 the following optional fields:
4745 This flag tells Mutt that the command passes possibly large amounts of text
4746 on standard output. This causes Mutt to invoke a pager (either the internal
4747 pager or the external pager defined by the pager variable) on the output of
4748 the view command. Without this flag, Mutt assumes that the command is
4749 interactive. One could use this to replace the pipe to more in the lynx
4750 -dump example in the Basic section:
4752 text/html; lynx -dump %s ; copiousoutput
4754 This will cause lynx to format the text/html output as text/plain and Mutt
4755 will use your standard pager to display the results.
4757 Note that when using the built-in pager, only entries with this flag will
4758 be considered a handler for a MIME type ? all other entries will be
4763 Mutt uses this flag when viewing attachments with auto_view, in order to
4764 decide whether it should honor the setting of the $wait_key variable or
4765 not. When an attachment is viewed using an interactive program, and the
4766 corresponding mailcap entry has a needsterminal flag, Mutt will use
4767 $wait_key and the exit status of the program to decide if it will ask you
4768 to press a key after the external program has exited. In all other
4769 situations it will not prompt you for a key.
4773 This flag specifies the command to use to create a new attachment of a
4774 specific MIME type. Mutt supports this from the compose menu.
4776 composetyped=<command>
4778 This flag specifies the command to use to create a new attachment of a
4779 specific MIME type. This command differs from the compose command in that
4780 Mutt will expect standard MIME headers on the data. This can be used to
4781 specify parameters, filename, description, etc. for a new attachment. Mutt
4782 supports this from the compose menu.
4786 This flag specifies the command to use to print a specific MIME type. Mutt
4787 supports this from the attachment and compose menus.
4791 This flag specifies the command to use to edit a specific MIME type. Mutt
4792 supports this from the compose menu, and also uses it to compose new
4793 attachments. Mutt will default to the defined $editor for text attachments.
4795 nametemplate=<template>
4797 This field specifies the format for the file denoted by %s in the command
4798 fields. Certain programs will require a certain file extension, for
4799 instance, to correctly view a file. For instance, lynx will only interpret
4800 a file as text/html if the file ends in .html. So, you would specify lynx
4801 as a text/html viewer with a line in the mailcap file like:
4803 text/html; lynx %s; nametemplate=%s.html
4807 This field specifies a command to run to test whether this mailcap entry
4808 should be used. The command is defined with the command expansion rules
4809 defined in the next section. If the command returns 0, then the test
4810 passed, and Mutt uses this entry. If the command returns non-zero, then the
4811 test failed, and Mutt continues searching for the right entry. Note that
4812 the content-type must match before Mutt performs the test. For example:
4814 text/html; firefox -remote 'openURL(%s)' ; test=RunningX
4817 In this example, Mutt will run the program RunningX which will return 0 if
4818 the X Window manager is running, and non-zero if it isn't. If RunningX
4819 returns 0, then Mutt will run firefox to display the text/html object. If
4820 RunningX doesn't return 0, then Mutt will go on to the next entry and use
4821 lynx to display the text/html object.
4825 When searching for an entry in the mailcap file, Mutt will search for the most
4826 useful entry for its purpose. For instance, if you are attempting to print an
4827 image/gif, and you have the following entries in your mailcap file, Mutt will
4828 search for an entry with the print command:
4831 image/gif; ; print= anytopnm %s | pnmtops | lpr; \
4834 Mutt will skip the image/* entry and use the image/gif entry with the print
4837 In addition, you can use this with auto_view to denote two commands for viewing
4838 an attachment, one to be viewed automatically, the other to be viewed
4839 interactively from the attachment menu using the <view-mailcap> function (bound
4840 to ?m? by default). In addition, you can then use the test feature to determine
4841 which viewer to use interactively depending on your environment.
4843 text/html; firefox -remote 'openURL(%s)' ; test=RunningX
4844 text/html; lynx %s; nametemplate=%s.html
4845 text/html; lynx -dump %s; nametemplate=%s.html; copiousoutput
4847 For auto_view, Mutt will choose the third entry because of the copiousoutput
4848 tag. For interactive viewing, Mutt will run the program RunningX to determine
4849 if it should use the first entry. If the program returns non-zero, Mutt will
4850 use the second entry for interactive viewing. The last entry is for inline
4851 display in the pager and the <view-attach> function in the attachment menu.
4853 Entries with the copiousoutput tag should always be specified as the last one
4854 per type. For non-interactive use, the last entry will then actually be the
4855 first matching one with the tag set. For non-interactive use, only
4856 copiousoutput-tagged entries are considered. For interactive use, Mutt ignores
4857 this tag and treats all entries equally. Therefore, if not specified last, all
4858 following entries without this tag would never be considered for <view-attach>
4859 because the copiousoutput before them matched already.
4861 3.3.3. Command Expansion
4863 The various commands defined in the mailcap files are passed to the /bin/sh
4864 shell using the system(3) function. Before the command is passed to /bin/sh -c,
4865 it is parsed to expand various special parameters with information from Mutt.
4866 The keywords Mutt expands are:
4870 As seen in the basic mailcap section, this variable is expanded to a
4871 filename specified by the calling program. This file contains the body of
4872 the message to view/print/edit or where the composing program should place
4873 the results of composition. In addition, the use of this keyword causes
4874 Mutt to not pass the body of the message to the view/print/edit program on
4879 Mutt will expand %t to the text representation of the content type of the
4880 message in the same form as the first parameter of the mailcap definition
4881 line, i.e. text/html or image/gif.
4885 Mutt will expand this to the value of the specified parameter from the
4886 Content-Type: line of the mail message. For instance, if your mail message
4889 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
4891 then Mutt will expand %{charset} to ?iso-8859-1?. The default metamail
4892 mailcap file uses this feature to test the charset to spawn an xterm using
4893 the right charset to view the message.
4897 This will be replaced by a literal %.
4899 Mutt does not currently support the %F and %n keywords specified in RFC 1524.
4900 The main purpose of these parameters is for multipart messages, which is
4901 handled internally by Mutt.
4903 3.4. Example Mailcap Files
4905 This mailcap file is fairly simple and standard:
4907 # I'm always running X :)
4908 video/*; xanim %s > /dev/null
4909 image/*; xv %s > /dev/null
4911 # I'm always running firefox (if my computer had more memory, maybe)
4912 text/html; firefox -remote 'openURL(%s)'
4914 This mailcap file shows quite a number of examples:
4916 # Use xanim to view all videos Xanim produces a header on startup,
4917 # send that to /dev/null so I don't see it
4918 video/*; xanim %s > /dev/null
4920 # Send html to a running firefox by remote
4921 text/html; firefox -remote 'openURL(%s)'; test=RunningFirefox
4923 # If I'm not running firefox but I am running X, start firefox on the
4925 text/html; firefox %s; test=RunningX
4927 # Else use lynx to view it as text
4930 # This version would convert the text/html to text/plain
4931 text/html; lynx -dump %s; copiousoutput
4933 # I use enscript to print text in two columns to a page
4934 text/*; more %s; print=enscript -2Gr %s
4936 # Firefox adds a flag to tell itself to view jpegs internally
4937 image/jpeg;xv %s; x-mozilla-flags=internal
4939 # Use xv to view images if I'm running X
4940 # In addition, this uses the \ to extend the line and set my editor
4942 image/*;xv %s; test=RunningX; \
4945 # Convert images to text using the netpbm tools
4946 image/*; (anytopnm %s | pnmscale -xysize 80 46 | ppmtopgm | pgmtopbm |
4947 pbmtoascii -1x2 ) 2>&1 ; copiousoutput
4949 # Send excel spreadsheets to my NT box
4950 application/ms-excel; open.pl %s
4956 auto_view mimetype [ mimetype ...]
4957 unauto_view { * | mimetype ... }
4959 In addition to explicitly telling Mutt to view an attachment with the MIME
4960 viewer defined in the mailcap file from the attachments menu, Mutt has support
4961 for automatically viewing MIME attachments while in the pager.
4963 For this to work, you must define a viewer in the mailcap file which uses the
4964 copiousoutput option to denote that it is non-interactive. Usually, you also
4965 use the entry to convert the attachment to a text representation which you can
4968 You then use the auto_view configuration command to list the content-types that
4969 you wish to view automatically. For instance, if you set it to:
4971 auto_view text/html application/x-gunzip \
4972 application/postscript image/gif application/x-tar-gz
4974 ...Mutt would try to find corresponding entries for rendering attachments of
4975 these types as text. A corresponding mailcap could look like:
4977 text/html; lynx -dump %s; copiousoutput; nametemplate=%s.html
4978 image/*; anytopnm %s | pnmscale -xsize 80 -ysize 50 | ppmtopgm | \
4979 pgmtopbm | pbmtoascii ; copiousoutput
4980 application/x-gunzip; gzcat; copiousoutput
4981 application/x-tar-gz; gunzip -c %s | tar -tf - ; copiousoutput
4982 application/postscript; ps2ascii %s; copiousoutput
4984 unauto_view can be used to remove previous entries from the auto_view list.
4985 This can be used with message-hook to autoview messages based on size, etc. ?
4986 unauto_view *? will remove all previous entries.
4988 5. MIME Multipart/Alternative
4990 The multipart/alternative container type only has child MIME parts which
4991 represent the same content in an alternative way. This is often used to send
4992 HTML messages which contain an alternative plain text representation.
4994 Mutt has some heuristics for determining which attachment of a multipart/
4995 alternative type to display:
4997 1. First, Mutt will check the alternative_order list to determine if one of
4998 the available types is preferred. It consists of a number of MIME types in
4999 order, including support for implicit and explicit wildcards. For example:
5001 alternative_order text/enriched text/plain text \
5002 application/postscript image/*
5004 2. Next, Mutt will check if any of the types have a defined auto_view, and use
5007 3. Failing that, Mutt will look for any text type.
5009 4. As a last attempt, Mutt will look for any type it knows how to handle.
5011 To remove a MIME type from the alternative_order list, use the
5012 unalternative_order command.
5014 6. Attachment Searching and Counting
5016 If you ever lose track of attachments in your mailboxes, Mutt's
5017 attachment-counting and -searching support might be for you. You can make your
5018 message index display the number of qualifying attachments in each message, or
5019 search for messages by attachment count. You also can configure what kinds of
5020 attachments qualify for this feature with the attachments and unattachments
5023 In order to provide this information, Mutt needs to fully MIME-parse all
5024 messages affected first. This can slow down operation especially for remote
5025 mail folders such as IMAP because all messages have to be downloaded first
5026 regardless whether the user really wants to view them or not though using
5027 Section 7.2, ?Body Caching? usually means to download the message just once.
5031 attachments { + | - }disposition mime-type
5032 unattachments { + | - }disposition mime-type
5035 disposition is the attachment's Content-Disposition type ? either inline or
5036 attachment. You can abbreviate this to I or A.
5038 Disposition is prefixed by either a ?+? symbol or a ?-? symbol. If it's a ?+?,
5039 you're saying that you want to allow this disposition and MIME type to qualify.
5040 If it's a ?-?, you're saying that this disposition and MIME type is an
5041 exception to previous ?+? rules. There are examples below of how this is
5044 mime-type is the MIME type of the attachment you want the command to affect. A
5045 MIME type is always of the format major/minor, where major describes the broad
5046 category of document you're looking at, and minor describes the specific type
5047 within that category. The major part of mime-type must be literal text (or the
5048 special token ?*?), but the minor part may be a regular expression. (Therefore,
5049 ?*/.*? matches any MIME type.)
5051 The MIME types you give to the attachments directive are a kind of pattern.
5052 When you use the attachments directive, the patterns you specify are added to a
5053 list. When you use unattachments, the pattern is removed from the list. The
5054 patterns are not expanded and matched to specific MIME types at this time ?
5055 they're just text in a list. They're only matched when actually evaluating a
5058 Some examples might help to illustrate. The examples that are not commented out
5059 define the default configuration of the lists.
5061 Example 5.2. Attachment counting
5064 # Removing a pattern from a list removes that pattern literally. It
5065 # does not remove any type matching the pattern.
5067 # attachments +A */.*
5068 # attachments +A image/jpeg
5069 # unattachments +A */.*
5071 # This leaves "attached" image/jpeg files on the allowed attachments
5072 # list. It does not remove all items, as you might expect, because the
5073 # second */.* is not a matching expression at this time.
5075 # Remember: "unattachments" only undoes what "attachments" has done!
5076 # It does not trigger any matching on actual messages.
5078 # Qualify any MIME part with an "attachment" disposition, EXCEPT for
5079 # text/x-vcard and application/pgp parts. (PGP parts are already known
5080 # to mutt, and can be searched for with ~g, ~G, and ~k.)
5082 # I've added x-pkcs7 to this, since it functions (for S/MIME)
5083 # analogously to PGP signature attachments. S/MIME isn't supported
5084 # in a stock mutt build, but we can still treat it specially here.
5088 attachments -A text/x-vcard application/pgp.*
5089 attachments -A application/x-pkcs7-.*
5092 # Discount all MIME parts with an "inline" disposition, unless they're
5093 # text/plain. (Why inline a text/plain part unless it's external to the
5096 attachments +I text/plain
5099 # These two lines make Mutt qualify MIME containers. (So, for example,
5100 # a message/rfc822 forward will count as an attachment.) The first
5101 # line is unnecessary if you already have "attach-allow */.*", of
5102 # course. These are off by default! The MIME elements contained
5103 # within a message/* or multipart/* are still examined, even if the
5104 # containers themselves don't qualify.
5106 #attachments +A message/.* multipart/.*
5107 #attachments +I message/.* multipart/.*
5110 ## You probably don't really care to know about deleted attachments.
5111 attachments -A message/external-body
5112 attachments -I message/external-body
5115 Entering the command ?attachments ?? as a command will list your current
5116 settings in Muttrc format, so that it can be pasted elsewhere.
5122 mime-lookup mimetype [ mimetype ...]
5123 unmime-lookup { * | mimetype ... }
5125 Mutt's mime_lookup list specifies a list of MIME types that should not be
5126 treated according to their mailcap entry. This option is designed to deal with
5127 binary types such as application/octet-stream. When an attachment's MIME type
5128 is listed in mime_lookup, then the extension of the filename will be compared
5129 to the list of extensions in the mime.types file. The MIME type associated with
5130 this extension will then be used to process the attachment according to the
5131 rules in the mailcap file and according to any other configuration options
5132 (such as auto_view) specified. Common usage would be:
5134 mime_lookup application/octet-stream application/X-Lotus-Manuscript
5136 In addition, the unmime_lookup command may be used to disable this feature for
5137 any particular MIME type if it had been set, for example, in a global .muttrc.
5139 Chapter 6. Optional Features
5145 1.1. Enabling/Disabling Features
5152 4.1. The IMAP Folder Browser
5156 6. Managing Multiple Accounts
5161 7.3. Cache Directories
5164 8. Exact Address Generation
5165 9. Sending Anonymous Messages via Mixmaster
5169 1.1. Enabling/Disabling Features
5171 Mutt supports several of optional features which can be enabled or disabled at
5172 compile-time by giving the configure script certain arguments. These are listed
5173 in the ?Optional features? section of the configure --help output.
5175 Which features are enabled or disabled can later be determined from the output
5176 of mutt -v. If a compile option starts with ?+? it is enabled and disabled if
5177 prefixed with ?-?. For example, if Mutt was compiled using GnuTLS for encrypted
5178 communication instead of OpenSSL, mutt -v would contain:
5180 -USE_SSL_OPENSSL +USE_SSL_GNUTLS
5184 Mutt optionally supports the IMAP, POP3 and SMTP protocols which require to
5185 access servers using URLs. The canonical syntax for specifying URLs in Mutt is
5186 (an item enclosed in [] means it is optional and may be omitted):
5188 proto[s]://[username[:password]@]server[:port][/path]
5190 proto is the communication protocol: imap for IMAP, pop for POP3 and smtp for
5191 SMTP. If ?s? for ?secure communication? is appended, Mutt will attempt to
5192 establish an encrypted communication using SSL or TLS.
5194 Since all protocols supported by Mutt support/require authentication, login
5195 credentials may be specified in the URL. This has the advantage that multiple
5196 IMAP, POP3 or SMTP servers may be specified (which isn't possible using, for
5197 example, $imap_user). The username may contain the ?@? symbol being used by
5198 many mail systems as part of the login name. The special characters ?/? (%2F),
5199 ?:? (%3A) and ?%? (%25) have to be URL-encoded in usernames using the
5202 A password can be given, too but is not recommended if the URL is specified in
5203 a configuration file on disk.
5205 If no port number is given, Mutt will use the system's default for the given
5206 protocol (usually consulting /etc/services).
5208 The optional path is only relevant for IMAP and ignored elsewhere.
5213 imaps://user@host/INBOX/Sent
5214 smtp://user@host:587/
5219 If Mutt is compiled with IMAP, POP3 and/or SMTP support, it can also be
5220 compiled with support for SSL or TLS using either OpenSSL or GnuTLS ( by
5221 running the configure script with the --enable-ssl=... option for OpenSSL or
5222 --enable-gnutls=... for GnuTLS). Mutt can then attempt to encrypt communication
5223 with remote servers if these protocols are suffixed with ?s? for ?secure
5228 If Mutt is compiled with POP3 support (by running the configure script with the
5229 --enable-pop flag), it has the ability to work with mailboxes located on a
5230 remote POP3 server and fetch mail for local browsing.
5232 Remote POP3 servers can be accessed using URLs with the pop protocol for
5233 unencrypted and pops for encrypted communication, see Section 1.2, ?URL Syntax?
5236 Polling for new mail is more expensive over POP3 than locally. For this reason
5237 the frequency at which Mutt will check for mail remotely can be controlled by
5238 the $pop_checkinterval variable, which defaults to every 60 seconds.
5240 POP is read-only which doesn't allow for some features like editing messages or
5241 changing flags. However, using Section 7.1, ?Header Caching? and Section 7.2,
5242 ?Body Caching? Mutt simulates the new/old/read flags as well as flagged and
5243 replied. Mutt applies some logic on top of remote messages but cannot change
5244 them so that modifications of flags are lost when messages are downloaded from
5245 the POP server (either by Mutt or other tools).
5247 Another way to access your POP3 mail is the <fetch-mail> function (default: G).
5248 It allows to connect to $pop_host, fetch all your new mail and place it in the
5249 local $spoolfile. After this point, Mutt runs exactly as if the mail had always
5254 If you only need to fetch all messages to a local mailbox you should consider
5255 using a specialized program, such as fetchmail(1), getmail(1) or similar.
5259 If Mutt was compiled with IMAP support (by running the configure script with
5260 the --enable-imap flag), it has the ability to work with folders located on a
5263 You can access the remote inbox by selecting the folder by its URL (see
5264 Section 1.2, ?URL Syntax? for details) using the imap or imaps protocol.
5265 Alternatively, a pine-compatible notation is also supported, i.e. {[username@]
5266 imapserver[:port][/ssl]}path/to/folder
5268 Note that not all servers use ?/? as the hierarchy separator. Mutt should
5269 correctly notice which separator is being used by the server and convert paths
5272 When browsing folders on an IMAP server, you can toggle whether to look at only
5273 the folders you are subscribed to, or all folders with the toggle-subscribed
5274 command. See also the $imap_list_subscribed variable.
5276 Polling for new mail on an IMAP server can cause noticeable delays. So, you'll
5277 want to carefully tune the $mail_check and $timeout variables. Reasonable
5283 with relatively good results even over slow modem lines.
5287 Note that if you are using mbox as the mail store on UW servers prior to
5288 v12.250, the server has been reported to disconnect a client if another client
5289 selects the same folder.
5291 4.1. The IMAP Folder Browser
5293 As of version 1.2, Mutt supports browsing mailboxes on an IMAP server. This is
5294 mostly the same as the local file browser, with the following differences:
5296 * In lieu of file permissions, Mutt displays the string ?IMAP?, possibly
5297 followed by the symbol ?+?, indicating that the entry contains both
5298 messages and subfolders. On Cyrus-like servers folders will often contain
5299 both messages and subfolders.
5301 * For the case where an entry can contain both messages and subfolders, the
5302 selection key (bound to enter by default) will choose to descend into the
5303 subfolder view. If you wish to view the messages in that folder, you must
5304 use view-file instead (bound to space by default).
5306 * You can create, delete and rename mailboxes with the <create-mailbox>,
5307 <delete-mailbox>, and <rename-mailbox> commands (default bindings: C, d and
5308 r, respectively). You may also <subscribe> and <unsubscribe> to mailboxes
5309 (normally these are bound to s and u, respectively).
5313 Mutt supports four authentication methods with IMAP servers: SASL, GSSAPI,
5314 CRAM-MD5, and LOGIN (there is a patch by Grant Edwards to add NTLM
5315 authentication for you poor exchange users out there, but it has yet to be
5316 integrated into the main tree). There is also support for the pseudo-protocol
5317 ANONYMOUS, which allows you to log in to a public IMAP server without having an
5318 account. To use ANONYMOUS, simply make your username blank or ?anonymous?.
5320 SASL is a special super-authenticator, which selects among several protocols
5321 (including GSSAPI, CRAM-MD5, ANONYMOUS, and DIGEST-MD5) the most secure method
5322 available on your host and the server. Using some of these methods (including
5323 DIGEST-MD5 and possibly GSSAPI), your entire session will be encrypted and
5324 invisible to those teeming network snoops. It is the best option if you have
5325 it. To use it, you must have the Cyrus SASL library installed on your system
5326 and compile Mutt with the --with-sasl flag.
5328 Mutt will try whichever methods are compiled in and available on the server, in
5329 the following order: SASL, ANONYMOUS, GSSAPI, CRAM-MD5, LOGIN.
5331 There are a few variables which control authentication:
5333 * $imap_user - controls the username under which you request authentication
5334 on the IMAP server, for all authenticators. This is overridden by an
5335 explicit username in the mailbox path (i.e. by using a mailbox name of the
5338 * $imap_pass - a password which you may preset, used by all authentication
5339 methods where a password is needed.
5341 * $imap_authenticators - a colon-delimited list of IMAP authentication
5342 methods to try, in the order you wish to try them. If specified, this
5343 overrides Mutt's default (attempt everything, in the order listed above).
5347 Besides supporting traditional mail delivery through a sendmail-compatible
5348 program, Mutt supports delivery through SMTP if it was configured and built
5351 If the configuration variable $smtp_url is set, Mutt will contact the given
5352 SMTP server to deliver messages; if it is unset, Mutt will use the program
5353 specified by $sendmail.
5355 For details on the URL syntax, please see Section 1.2, ?URL Syntax?.
5357 The built-in SMTP support supports encryption (the smtps protocol using SSL or
5358 TLS) as well as SMTP authentication using SASL. The authentication mechanisms
5359 for SASL are specified in $smtp_authenticators defaulting to an empty list
5360 which makes Mutt try all available methods from most-secure to least-secure.
5362 6. Managing Multiple Accounts
5366 account-hook pattern command
5368 If you happen to have accounts on multiple IMAP, POP and/or SMTP servers, you
5369 may find managing all the authentication settings inconvenient and error-prone.
5370 The account-hook command may help. This hook works like folder-hook but is
5371 invoked whenever Mutt needs to access a remote mailbox (including inside the
5372 folder browser), not just when you open the mailbox. This includes (for
5373 example) polling for new mail, storing Fcc messages and saving messages to a
5374 folder. As a consequence, account-hook should only be used to set
5375 connection-related settings such as passwords or tunnel commands but not
5376 settings such as sender address or name (because in general it should be
5377 considered unpredictable which account-hook was last used).
5381 account-hook . 'unset imap_user; unset imap_pass; unset tunnel'
5382 account-hook imap://host1/ 'set imap_user=me1 imap_pass=foo'
5383 account-hook imap://host2/ 'set tunnel="ssh host2 /usr/libexec/imapd"'
5384 account-hook smtp://user@host3/ 'set tunnel="ssh host3 /usr/libexec/smtpd"'
5386 To manage multiple accounts with, for example, different values of $record or
5387 sender addresses, folder-hook has to be be used together with the mailboxes
5390 Example 6.2. Managing multiple accounts
5392 mailboxes imap://user@host1/INBOX
5393 folder-hook imap://user@host1/ 'set folder=imap://host1/ ; set record=+INBOX/Sent'
5395 mailboxes imap://user@host2/INBOX
5396 folder-hook imap://user@host2/ 'set folder=imap://host2/ ; set record=+INBOX/Sent'
5399 In example Example 6.2, ?Managing multiple accounts? the folders are defined
5400 using mailboxes so Mutt polls them for new mail. Each folder-hook triggers when
5401 one mailbox below each IMAP account is opened and sets $folder to the account's
5402 root folder. Next, it sets $record to the INBOX/Sent folder below the newly set
5403 $folder. Please notice that the value the ?+? mailbox shortcut refers to
5404 depends on the current value of $folder and therefore has to be set separately
5405 per account. Setting other values like $from or $signature is analogous to
5410 Mutt contains two types of local caching: (1) the so-called ?header caching?
5411 and (2) the so-called ?body caching? which are both described in this section.
5413 Header caching is optional as it depends on external libraries, body caching is
5414 always enabled if Mutt is compiled with POP and/or IMAP support as these use it
5415 (body caching requires no external library).
5419 Mutt provides optional support for caching message headers for the following
5420 types of folders: IMAP, POP, Maildir and MH. Header caching greatly speeds up
5421 opening large folders because for remote folders, headers usually only need to
5422 be downloaded once. For Maildir and MH, reading the headers from a single file
5423 is much faster than looking at possibly thousands of single files (since
5424 Maildir and MH use one file per message.)
5426 Header caching can be enabled via the configure script and the --enable-hcache
5427 option. It's not turned on by default because external database libraries are
5428 required: one of tokyocabinet, qdbm, gdbm or bdb must be present.
5430 If enabled, $header_cache can be used to either point to a file or a directory.
5431 If set to point to a file, one database file for all folders will be used
5432 (which may result in lower performance), but one file per folder if it points
5437 Both cache methods can be combined using the same directory for storage (and
5438 for IMAP/POP even provide meaningful file names) which simplifies manual
5441 In addition to caching message headers only, Mutt can also cache whole message
5442 bodies. This results in faster display of messages for POP and IMAP folders
5443 because messages usually have to be downloaded only once.
5445 For configuration, the variable $message_cachedir must point to a directory.
5446 There, Mutt will create a hierarchy of subdirectories named like the account
5447 and mailbox path the cache is for.
5449 7.3. Cache Directories
5451 For using both, header and body caching, $header_cache and $message_cachedir
5452 can be safely set to the same value.
5454 In a header or body cache directory, Mutt creates a directory hierarchy named
5455 like: proto:user@hostname where proto is either ?pop? or ?imap.? Within there,
5456 for each folder, Mutt stores messages in single files and header caches in
5457 files with the ?.hcache? extension. All files can be removed as needed if the
5458 consumed disk space becomes an issue as Mutt will silently fetch missing items
5459 again. Pathnames are always stored in UTF-8 encoding.
5461 For Maildir and MH, the header cache files are named after the MD5 checksum of
5466 Mutt does not (yet) support maintenance features for header cache database
5467 files so that files have to be removed in case they grow too big. It depends on
5468 the database library used for header caching whether disk space freed by
5469 removing messages is re-used.
5471 For body caches, Mutt can keep the local cache in sync with the remote mailbox
5472 if the $message_cache_clean variable is set. Cleaning means to remove messages
5473 from the cache which are no longer present in the mailbox which only happens
5474 when other mail clients or instances of Mutt using a different body cache
5475 location delete messages (Mutt itself removes deleted messages from the cache
5476 when syncing a mailbox). As cleaning can take a noticeable amount of time, it
5477 should not be set in general but only occasionally.
5479 8. Exact Address Generation
5481 Mutt supports the ?Name <user@host>? address syntax for reading and writing
5482 messages, the older ?user@host (Name)? syntax is only supported when reading
5483 messages. The --enable-exact-address switch can be given to configure to build
5484 it with write-support for the latter syntax. EXACT_ADDRESS in the output of
5485 mutt -v indicates whether it's supported.
5487 9. Sending Anonymous Messages via Mixmaster
5489 You may also have compiled Mutt to co-operate with Mixmaster, an anonymous
5490 remailer. Mixmaster permits you to send your messages anonymously using a chain
5491 of remailers. Mixmaster support in Mutt is for mixmaster version 2.04 or later.
5493 To use it, you'll have to obey certain restrictions. Most important, you cannot
5494 use the Cc and Bcc headers. To tell Mutt to use mixmaster, you have to select a
5495 remailer chain, using the mix function on the compose menu.
5497 The chain selection screen is divided into two parts. In the (larger) upper
5498 part, you get a list of remailers you may use. In the lower part, you see the
5499 currently selected chain of remailers.
5501 You can navigate in the chain using the <chain-prev> and <chain-next>
5502 functions, which are by default bound to the left and right arrows and to the h
5503 and l keys (think vi keyboard bindings). To insert a remailer at the current
5504 chain position, use the <insert> function. To append a remailer behind the
5505 current chain position, use <select-entry> or <append>. You can also delete
5506 entries from the chain, using the corresponding function. Finally, to abandon
5507 your changes, leave the menu, or <accept> them pressing (by default) the Return
5510 Note that different remailers do have different capabilities, indicated in the
5511 %c entry of the remailer menu lines (see $mix_entry_format). Most important is
5512 the ?middleman? capability, indicated by a capital ?M?: This means that the
5513 remailer in question cannot be used as the final element of a chain, but will
5514 only forward messages to other mixmaster remailers. For details on the other
5515 capabilities, please have a look at the mixmaster documentation.
5517 Chapter 7. Security Considerations
5523 3. Information Leaks
5525 3.1. Message-Id: headers
5526 3.2. mailto:-style Links
5528 4. External Applications
5530 First of all, Mutt contains no security holes included by intention but may
5531 contain unknown security holes. As a consequence, please run Mutt only with as
5532 few permissions as possible. Especially, do not run Mutt as the super user.
5534 When configuring Mutt, there're some points to note about secure setups so
5535 please read this chapter carefully.
5539 Although Mutt can be told the various passwords for accounts, please never
5540 store passwords in configuration files. Besides the fact that the system's
5541 operator can always read them, you could forget to mask it out when reporting a
5542 bug or asking for help via a mailing list. Even worse, your mail including your
5543 password could be archived by internet search engines, mail-to-news gateways
5544 etc. It may already be too late before you notice your mistake.
5548 Mutt uses many temporary files for viewing messages, verifying digital
5549 signatures, etc. As long as being used, these files are visible by other users
5550 and maybe even readable in case of misconfiguration. Also, a different location
5551 for these files may be desired which can be changed via the $tmpdir variable.
5553 3. Information Leaks
5555 3.1. Message-Id: headers
5557 Message-Id: headers contain a local part that is to be created in a unique
5558 fashion. In order to do so, Mutt will ?leak? some information to the outside
5559 world when sending messages: the generation of this header includes a step
5560 counter which is increased (and rotated) with every message sent. In a longer
5561 running mutt session, others can make assumptions about your mailing habits
5562 depending on the number of messages sent. If this is not desired, the header
5563 can be manually provided using $edit_headers (though not recommended).
5565 3.2. mailto:-style Links
5567 As Mutt be can be set up to be the mail client to handle mailto: style links in
5568 websites, there're security considerations, too. Arbitrary header fields can be
5569 embedded in these links which could override existing header fields or attach
5570 arbitrary files using the Attach: pseudoheader. This may be problematic if the
5571 $edit-headers variable is unset, i.e. the user doesn't want to see header
5572 fields while editing the message and doesn't pay enough attention to the
5573 compose menu's listing of attachments.
5575 For example, following a link like
5577 mailto:joe@host?Attach=~/.gnupg/secring.gpg
5579 will send out the user's private gnupg keyring to joe@host if the user doesn't
5580 follow the information on screen carefully enough.
5582 4. External Applications
5584 Mutt in many places has to rely on external applications or for convenience
5585 supports mechanisms involving external applications.
5587 One of these is the mailcap mechanism as defined by RfC1524. Details about a
5588 secure use of the mailcap mechanisms is given in Section 3.2, ?Secure Use of
5591 Besides the mailcap mechanism, Mutt uses a number of other external utilities
5592 for operation, for example to provide crypto support, in backtick expansion in
5593 configuration files or format string filters. The same security considerations
5594 apply for these as for tools involved via mailcap.
5596 Chapter 8. Performance Tuning
5600 1. Reading and Writing Mailboxes
5601 2. Reading Messages from Remote Folders
5602 3. Searching and Limiting
5604 1. Reading and Writing Mailboxes
5606 Mutt's performance when reading mailboxes can be improved in two ways:
5608 1. For remote folders (IMAP and POP) as well as folders using one-file-per
5609 message storage (Maildir and MH), Mutt's performance can be greatly
5610 improved using header caching. using a single database per folder.
5612 2. Mutt provides the $read_inc and $write_inc variables to specify at which
5613 rate to update progress counters. If these values are too low, Mutt may
5614 spend more time on updating the progress counter than it spends on actually
5615 reading/writing folders.
5617 For example, when opening a maildir folder with a few thousand messages,
5618 the default value for $read_inc may be too low. It can be tuned on on a
5619 folder-basis using folder-hooks:
5621 # use very high $read_inc to speed up reading hcache'd maildirs
5622 folder-hook . 'set read_inc=1000'
5623 # use lower value for reading slower remote IMAP folders
5624 folder-hook ^imap 'set read_inc=100'
5625 # use even lower value for reading even slower remote POP folders
5626 folder-hook ^pop 'set read_inc=1'
5628 These settings work on a per-message basis. However, as messages may greatly
5629 differ in size and certain operations are much faster than others, even
5630 per-folder settings of the increment variables may not be desirable as they
5631 produce either too few or too much progress updates. Thus, Mutt allows to limit
5632 the number of progress updates per second it'll actually send to the terminal
5633 using the $time_inc variable.
5635 2. Reading Messages from Remote Folders
5637 Reading messages from remote folders such as IMAP an POP can be slow especially
5638 for large mailboxes since Mutt only caches a very limited number of recently
5639 viewed messages (usually 10) per session (so that it will be gone for the next
5642 To improve performance and permanently cache whole messages, please refer to
5643 Mutt's so-called body caching for details.
5645 3. Searching and Limiting
5647 When searching mailboxes either via a search or a limit action, for some
5648 patterns Mutt distinguishes between regular expression and string searches. For
5649 regular expressions, patterns are prefixed with ?~? and with ?=? for string
5652 Even though a regular expression search is fast, it's several times slower than
5653 a pure string search which is noticeable especially on large folders. As a
5654 consequence, a string search should be used instead of a regular expression
5655 search if the user already knows enough about the search pattern.
5657 For example, when limiting a large folder to all messages sent to or by an
5658 author, it's much faster to search for the initial part of an e-mail address
5659 via =Luser@ instead of ~Luser@. This is especially true for searching message
5660 bodies since a larger amount of input has to be searched.
5662 As for regular expressions, a lower case string search pattern makes Mutt
5663 perform a case-insensitive search except for IMAP (because for IMAP Mutt
5664 performs server-side searches which don't support case-insensitivity).
5666 Chapter 9. Reference
5670 1. Command-Line Options
5671 2. Configuration Commands
5672 3. Configuration Variables
5674 3.1. abort_nosubject
5675 3.2. abort_unmodified
5684 3.11. assumed_charset
5685 3.12. attach_charset
5695 3.22. bounce_delivered
5696 3.23. braille_friendly
5697 3.24. certificate_file
5699 3.26. check_mbox_size
5701 3.28. collapse_unread
5702 3.29. compose_format
5703 3.30. config_charset
5706 3.33. connect_timeout
5709 3.36. crypt_autoencrypt
5711 3.38. crypt_autosign
5712 3.39. crypt_autosmime
5713 3.40. crypt_replyencrypt
5714 3.41. crypt_replysign
5715 3.42. crypt_replysignencrypted
5716 3.43. crypt_timestamp
5717 3.44. crypt_use_gpgme
5719 3.46. crypt_verify_sig
5724 3.51. digest_collapse
5725 3.52. display_filter
5726 3.53. dotlock_program
5729 3.56. duplicate_threads
5734 3.61. envelope_from_address
5743 3.70. forward_decode
5744 3.71. forward_decrypt
5746 3.73. forward_format
5753 3.80. header_cache_compress
5754 3.81. header_cache_pagesize
5759 3.86. hide_thread_subject
5760 3.87. hide_top_limited
5761 3.88. hide_top_missing
5764 3.91. honor_disposition
5765 3.92. honor_followup_to
5767 3.94. ignore_linear_white_space
5768 3.95. ignore_list_reply_to
5769 3.96. imap_authenticators
5770 3.97. imap_check_subscribed
5771 3.98. imap_delim_chars
5774 3.101. imap_keepalive
5775 3.102. imap_list_subscribed
5780 3.107. imap_pipeline_depth
5781 3.108. imap_servernoise
5783 3.110. implicit_autoview
5785 3.112. include_onlyfirst
5786 3.113. indent_string
5792 3.119. mail_check_recent
5794 3.121. mailcap_sanitize
5795 3.122. maildir_header_cache_verify
5796 3.123. maildir_trash
5803 3.130. menu_move_off
5805 3.132. message_cache_clean
5806 3.133. message_cachedir
5807 3.134. message_format
5811 3.138. mh_seq_flagged
5812 3.139. mh_seq_replied
5813 3.140. mh_seq_unseen
5815 3.142. mime_forward_decode
5816 3.143. mime_forward_rest
5817 3.144. mix_entry_format
5823 3.150. pager_context
5825 3.152. pager_index_lines
5827 3.154. pgp_auto_decode
5828 3.155. pgp_autoinline
5829 3.156. pgp_check_exit
5830 3.157. pgp_clearsign_command
5831 3.158. pgp_decode_command
5832 3.159. pgp_decrypt_command
5833 3.160. pgp_encrypt_only_command
5834 3.161. pgp_encrypt_sign_command
5835 3.162. pgp_entry_format
5836 3.163. pgp_export_command
5837 3.164. pgp_getkeys_command
5838 3.165. pgp_good_sign
5839 3.166. pgp_ignore_subkeys
5840 3.167. pgp_import_command
5841 3.168. pgp_list_pubring_command
5842 3.169. pgp_list_secring_command
5844 3.171. pgp_mime_auto
5845 3.172. pgp_replyinline
5846 3.173. pgp_retainable_sigs
5847 3.174. pgp_show_unusable
5849 3.176. pgp_sign_command
5850 3.177. pgp_sort_keys
5851 3.178. pgp_strict_enc
5853 3.180. pgp_use_gpg_agent
5854 3.181. pgp_verify_command
5855 3.182. pgp_verify_key_command
5859 3.186. pop_auth_try_all
5860 3.187. pop_authenticators
5861 3.188. pop_checkinterval
5866 3.193. pop_reconnect
5868 3.195. post_indent_string
5873 3.200. print_command
5877 3.204. query_command
5890 3.217. reverse_alias
5892 3.219. reverse_realname
5893 3.220. rfc2047_parameters
5899 3.226. score_threshold_delete
5900 3.227. score_threshold_flag
5901 3.228. score_threshold_read
5902 3.229. search_context
5905 3.232. sendmail_wait
5910 3.237. simple_search
5914 3.241. smime_ask_cert_label
5915 3.242. smime_ca_location
5916 3.243. smime_certificates
5917 3.244. smime_decrypt_command
5918 3.245. smime_decrypt_use_default_key
5919 3.246. smime_default_key
5920 3.247. smime_encrypt_command
5921 3.248. smime_encrypt_with
5922 3.249. smime_get_cert_command
5923 3.250. smime_get_cert_email_command
5924 3.251. smime_get_signer_cert_command
5925 3.252. smime_import_cert_command
5926 3.253. smime_is_default
5928 3.255. smime_pk7out_command
5929 3.256. smime_sign_command
5930 3.257. smime_sign_opaque_command
5931 3.258. smime_timeout
5932 3.259. smime_verify_command
5933 3.260. smime_verify_opaque_command
5934 3.261. smtp_authenticators
5942 3.269. spam_separator
5944 3.271. ssl_ca_certificates_file
5945 3.272. ssl_client_cert
5946 3.273. ssl_force_tls
5947 3.274. ssl_min_dh_prime_bits
5949 3.276. ssl_use_sslv2
5950 3.277. ssl_use_sslv3
5951 3.278. ssl_use_tlsv1
5952 3.279. ssl_usesystemcerts
5953 3.280. ssl_verify_dates
5954 3.281. ssl_verify_host
5956 3.283. status_format
5957 3.284. status_on_top
5958 3.285. strict_threads
5961 3.288. thorough_search
5962 3.289. thread_received
5969 3.296. uncollapse_jump
5972 3.299. use_envelope_from
5994 4.6. Attachment Menu
6000 4.12. Mixmaster Menu
6003 1. Command-Line Options
6005 Running mutt with no arguments will make Mutt attempt to read your spool
6006 mailbox. However, it is possible to read other mailboxes and to send messages
6007 from the command line as well.
6009 Table 9.1. Command line options
6011 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
6012 |Option| Description |
6013 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
6014 |-A |expand an alias |
6015 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
6016 |-a |attach a file to a message |
6017 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
6018 |-b |specify a blind carbon-copy (BCC) address |
6019 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
6020 |-c |specify a carbon-copy (Cc) address |
6021 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
6022 |-D |print the value of all Mutt variables to stdout |
6023 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
6024 |-e |specify a config command to be run after initialization files are read|
6025 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
6026 |-f |specify a mailbox to load |
6027 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
6028 |-F |specify an alternate file to read initialization commands |
6029 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
6030 |-h |print help on command line options |
6031 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
6032 |-H |specify a draft file from which to read a header and body |
6033 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
6034 |-i |specify a file to include in a message composition |
6035 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
6036 |-m |specify a default mailbox type |
6037 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
6038 |-n |do not read the system Muttrc |
6039 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
6040 |-p |recall a postponed message |
6041 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
6042 |-Q |query a configuration variable |
6043 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
6044 |-R |open mailbox in read-only mode |
6045 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
6046 |-s |specify a subject (enclose in quotes if it contains spaces) |
6047 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
6048 |-v |show version number and compile-time definitions |
6049 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
6050 |-x |simulate the mailx(1) compose mode |
6051 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
6052 |-y |show a menu containing the files specified by the mailboxes command |
6053 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
6054 |-z |exit immediately if there are no messages in the mailbox |
6055 |------+----------------------------------------------------------------------|
6056 |-Z |open the first folder with new message, exit immediately if none |
6057 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
6060 To read messages in a mailbox
6062 mutt [-nz] [-F muttrc ] [-m type ] [-f mailbox ]
6064 To compose a new message
6066 mutt [-n] [-F muttrc ] [-c address ] [-i filename ] [-s subject ] [ -a file
6067 [...] -- ] address | mailto_url ...
6069 Mutt also supports a ?batch? mode to send prepared messages. Simply redirect
6070 input from the file you wish to send. For example,
6072 mutt -s "data set for run #2" professor@bigschool.edu < ~/run2.dat
6074 will send a message to <professor@bigschool.edu> with a subject of ?data set
6075 for run #2?. In the body of the message will be the contents of the file ?~/
6078 All files passed with -a file will be attached as a MIME part to the message.
6079 To attach a single or several files, use ?--? to separate files and recipient
6082 mutt -a image.png -- some@one.org
6086 mutt -a *.png -- some@one.org
6090 The -a option must be last in the option list.
6092 In addition to accepting a list of email addresses, Mutt also accepts a URL
6093 with the mailto: schema as specified in RFC2368. This is useful when
6094 configuring a web browser to launch Mutt when clicking on mailto links.
6096 mutt mailto:some@one.org?subject=test&cc=other@one.org
6098 2. Configuration Commands
6100 The following are the commands understood by Mutt:
6102 * account-hook pattern command
6104 * alias [ -group name ...] key address [ address ...]
6105 unalias [ -group name ...] { * | key ... }
6107 * alternates [ -group name ...] regexp [ regexp ...]
6108 unalternates [ -group name ...] { * | regexp ... }
6110 * alternative-order mimetype [ mimetype ...]
6111 unalternative-order { * | mimetype ... }
6113 * attachments { + | - }disposition mime-type
6114 unattachments { + | - }disposition mime-type
6116 * auto_view mimetype [ mimetype ...]
6117 unauto_view { * | mimetype ... }
6119 * bind map key function
6121 * charset-hook alias charset
6123 * iconv-hook charset local-charset
6125 * color object foreground background
6126 color { header | body } foreground background regexp
6127 color index foreground background pattern
6128 uncolor { index | header | body } { * | pattern ... }
6130 * crypt-hook pattern keyid
6132 * exec function [ function ...]
6134 * fcc-hook [!]pattern mailbox
6136 * fcc-save-hook [!]pattern mailbox
6138 * folder-hook [!]regexp command
6140 * group [ -group name ...] { -rx expr ... | -addr expr ... }
6141 ungroup [ -group name ...] { * | -rx expr ... | -addr expr ... }
6143 * hdr_order header [ header ...]
6144 unhdr_order { * | header ... }
6146 * ignore pattern [ pattern ...]
6147 unignore { * | pattern ... }
6149 * lists [ -group name ] regexp [ regexp ...]
6150 unlists [ -group name ...] { * | regexp ... }
6152 * macro menu key sequence [ description ]
6154 * mailboxes mailbox [ mailbox ...]
6155 unmailboxes { * | mailbox ... }
6157 * mbox-hook [!]pattern mailbox
6159 * message-hook [!]pattern command
6161 * mime-lookup mimetype [ mimetype ...]
6162 unmime-lookup { * | mimetype ... }
6164 * mono object attribute
6165 mono { header | body } attribute regexp
6166 mono index attribute pattern
6167 unmono { index | header | body } { * | pattern ... }
6170 unmy_hdr { * | field ... }
6174 * save-hook [!]pattern mailbox
6176 * score pattern value
6177 unscore { * | pattern ... }
6179 * reply-hook [!]pattern command
6181 * send-hook [!]pattern command
6183 * send2-hook [!]pattern command
6185 * set { [ no | inv ] variable | variable=value } [...]
6186 toggle variable [ variable ...]
6187 unset variable [ variable ...]
6188 reset variable [ variable ...]
6192 * spam pattern format
6193 nospam { * | pattern }
6195 * subscribe [ -group name ...] regexp [ regexp ...]
6196 unsubscribe [ -group name ...] { * | regexp ... }
6198 * unhook { * | hook-type }
6200 3. Configuration Variables
6202 3.1. abort_nosubject
6207 If set to yes, when composing messages and no subject is given at the subject
6208 prompt, composition will be aborted. If set to no, composing messages with no
6209 subject given at the subject prompt will never be aborted.
6211 3.2. abort_unmodified
6216 If set to yes, composition will automatically abort after editing the message
6217 body if no changes are made to the file (this check only happens after the
6218 first edit of the file). When set to no, composition will never be aborted.
6223 Default: ?~/.muttrc?
6225 The default file in which to save aliases created by the <create-alias>
6226 function. Entries added to this file are encoded in the character set specified
6227 by $config_charset if it is set or the current character set otherwise.
6229 Note: Mutt will not automatically source this file; you must explicitly use the
6230 ?source? command for it to be executed in case this option points to a
6231 dedicated alias file.
6233 The default for this option is the currently used muttrc file, or ?~/.muttrc?
6234 if no user muttrc was found.
6239 Default: ?%4n %2f %t %-10a %r?
6241 Specifies the format of the data displayed for the ?alias? menu. The following
6242 printf(3)-style sequences are available:
6244 +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
6246 |--+--------------------------------------------------------------|
6247 |%f|flags - currently, a ?d? for an alias marked for deletion |
6248 |--+--------------------------------------------------------------|
6250 |--+--------------------------------------------------------------|
6251 |%r|address which alias expands to |
6252 |--+--------------------------------------------------------------|
6253 |%t|character which indicates if the alias is tagged for inclusion|
6254 +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
6261 Controls whether 8-bit data is converted to 7-bit using either Quoted-
6262 Printable or Base64 encoding when sending mail.
6269 Controls whether ANSI color codes in messages (and color tags in rich text
6270 messages) are to be interpreted. Messages containing these codes are rare, but
6271 if this option is set, their text will be colored accordingly. Note that this
6272 may override your color choices, and even present a security problem, since a
6273 message could include a line like
6275 [-- PGP output follows ...
6277 and give it the same color as your attachment color (see also $crypt_timestamp
6285 When set, an arrow (?->?) will be used to indicate the current entry in menus
6286 instead of highlighting the whole line. On slow network or modem links this
6287 will make response faster because there is less that has to be redrawn on the
6288 screen when moving to the next or previous entries in the menu.
6295 If set, Mutt will use plain ASCII characters when displaying thread and
6296 attachment trees, instead of the default ACS characters.
6303 If set, Mutt will prompt you for blind-carbon-copy (Bcc) recipients before
6304 editing an outgoing message.
6311 If set, Mutt will prompt you for carbon-copy (Cc) recipients before editing the
6312 body of an outgoing message.
6314 3.11. assumed_charset
6319 This variable is a colon-separated list of character encoding schemes for
6320 messages without character encoding indication. Header field values and message
6321 body content without character encoding indication would be assumed that they
6322 are written in one of this list. By default, all the header fields and message
6323 body without any charset indication are assumed to be in ?us-ascii?.
6325 For example, Japanese users might prefer this:
6327 set assumed_charset="iso-2022-jp:euc-jp:shift_jis:utf-8"
6329 However, only the first content is valid for the message body.
6331 3.12. attach_charset
6336 This variable is a colon-separated list of character encoding schemes for text
6337 file attachments. Mutt uses this setting to guess which encoding files being
6338 attached are encoded in to convert them to a proper character set given in
6341 If unset, the value of $charset will be used instead. For example, the
6342 following configuration would work for Japanese text handling:
6344 set attach_charset="iso-2022-jp:euc-jp:shift_jis:utf-8"
6346 Note: for Japanese users, ?iso-2022-*? must be put at the head of the value as
6347 shown above if included.
6352 Default: ?%u%D%I %t%4n %T%.40d%> [%.7m/%.10M, %.6e%?C?, %C?, %s] ?
6354 This variable describes the format of the ?attachment? menu. The following
6355 printf(3)-style sequences are understood:
6357 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
6359 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
6360 |%c |requires charset conversion (?n? or ?c?) |
6361 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
6363 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
6365 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
6366 |%e |MIME content-transfer-encoding |
6367 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
6369 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
6370 |%I |disposition (?I? for inline, ?A? for attachment) |
6371 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
6372 |%m |major MIME type |
6373 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
6375 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
6376 |%n |attachment number |
6377 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
6378 |%Q |?Q?, if MIME part qualifies for attachment counting |
6379 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
6381 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
6383 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
6384 |%T |graphic tree characters |
6385 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
6386 |%u |unlink (=to delete) flag |
6387 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
6388 |%X |number of qualifying MIME parts in this part and its children (please see|
6389 | |the ?attachments? section for possible speed effects) |
6390 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
6391 |%>X|right justify the rest of the string and pad with character ?X? |
6392 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
6393 |%|X|pad to the end of the line with character ?X? |
6394 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
6395 |%*X|soft-fill with character ?X? as pad |
6396 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
6398 For an explanation of ?soft-fill?, see the $index_format documentation.
6405 The separator to add between attachments when operating (saving, printing,
6406 piping, etc) on a list of tagged attachments.
6413 If this variable is unset, when operating (saving, printing, piping, etc) on a
6414 list of tagged attachments, Mutt will concatenate the attachments and will
6415 operate on them as a single attachment. The $attach_sep separator is added
6416 after each attachment. When set, Mutt will operate on the attachments one by
6422 Default: ?On %d, %n wrote:?
6424 This is the string that will precede a message which has been included in a
6425 reply. For a full listing of defined printf(3)-like sequences see the section
6433 When set, functions in the index menu which affect a message will be applied to
6434 all tagged messages (if there are any). When unset, you must first use the
6435 <tag-prefix> function (bound to ?;? by default) to make the next function apply
6436 to all tagged messages.
6443 When set along with $edit_headers, Mutt will skip the initial send-menu
6444 (prompting for subject and recipients) and allow you to immediately begin
6445 editing the body of your message. The send-menu may still be accessed once you
6446 have finished editing the body of your message.
6448 Note: when this option is set, you cannot use send-hooks that depend on the
6449 recipients when composing a new (non-reply) message, as the initial list of
6450 recipients is empty.
6452 Also see $fast_reply.
6459 When this variable is set, mutt will beep when an error occurs.
6466 When this variable is set, mutt will beep whenever it prints a message
6467 notifying you of new mail. This is independent of the setting of the $beep
6475 Controls whether you will be asked to confirm bouncing messages. If set to yes
6476 you don't get asked if you want to bounce a message. Setting this variable to
6477 no is not generally useful, and thus not recommended, because you are unable to
6480 3.22. bounce_delivered
6485 When this variable is set, mutt will include Delivered-To headers when bouncing
6486 messages. Postfix users may wish to unset this variable.
6488 3.23. braille_friendly
6493 When this variable is set, mutt will place the cursor at the beginning of the
6494 current line in menus, even when the $arrow_cursor variable is unset, making it
6495 easier for blind persons using Braille displays to follow these menus. The
6496 option is unset by default because many visual terminals don't permit making
6497 the cursor invisible.
6499 3.24. certificate_file
6502 Default: ?~/.mutt_certificates?
6504 This variable specifies the file where the certificates you trust are saved.
6505 When an unknown certificate is encountered, you are asked if you accept it or
6506 not. If you accept it, the certificate can also be saved in this file and
6507 further connections are automatically accepted.
6509 You can also manually add CA certificates in this file. Any server certificate
6510 that is signed with one of these CA certificates is also automatically
6515 set certificate_file=~/.mutt/certificates
6522 Character set your terminal uses to display and enter textual data. It is also
6523 the fallback for $send_charset.
6525 Upon startup Mutt tries to derive this value from environment variables such as
6528 Note: It should only be set in case Mutt isn't able to determine the character
6531 3.26. check_mbox_size
6536 When this variable is set, mutt will use file size attribute instead of access
6537 time when checking for new mail in mbox and mmdf folders.
6539 This variable is unset by default and should only be enabled when new mail
6540 detection for these folder types is unreliable or doesn't work.
6542 Note that enabling this variable should happen before any ?mailboxes?
6543 directives occur in configuration files regarding mbox or mmdf folders because
6544 mutt needs to determine the initial new mail status of such a mailbox by
6545 performing a fast mailbox scan when it is defined. Afterwards the new mail
6546 status is tracked by file size changes.
6553 Note: this option only affects maildir and MH style mailboxes.
6555 When set, Mutt will check for new mail delivered while the mailbox is open.
6556 Especially with MH mailboxes, this operation can take quite some time since it
6557 involves scanning the directory and checking each file to see if it has already
6558 been looked at. If this variable is unset, no check for new mail is performed
6559 while the mailbox is open.
6561 3.28. collapse_unread
6566 When unset, Mutt will not collapse a thread if it contains any unread messages.
6568 3.29. compose_format
6571 Default: ?-- Mutt: Compose [Approx. msg size: %l Atts: %a]%>-?
6573 Controls the format of the status line displayed in the ?compose? menu. This
6574 string is similar to $status_format, but has its own set of printf(3)-like
6577 +-----------------------------------------------------+
6578 |%a|total number of attachments |
6579 |--+--------------------------------------------------|
6580 |%h|local hostname |
6581 |--+--------------------------------------------------|
6582 |%l|approximate size (in bytes) of the current message|
6583 |--+--------------------------------------------------|
6584 |%v|Mutt version string |
6585 +-----------------------------------------------------+
6587 See the text describing the $status_format option for more information on how
6588 to set $compose_format.
6590 3.30. config_charset
6595 When defined, Mutt will recode commands in rc files from this encoding to the
6596 current character set as specified by $charset and aliases written to
6597 $alias_file from the current character set.
6599 Please note that if setting $charset it must be done before setting
6602 Recoding should be avoided as it may render unconvertable characters as
6603 question marks which can lead to undesired side effects (for example in regular
6611 When set, Mutt will prompt for confirmation when appending messages to an
6619 When set, Mutt will prompt for confirmation when saving messages to a mailbox
6620 which does not yet exist before creating it.
6622 3.33. connect_timeout
6627 Causes Mutt to timeout a network connection (for IMAP, POP or SMTP) after this
6628 many seconds if the connection is not able to be established. A negative value
6629 causes Mutt to wait indefinitely for the connection attempt to succeed.
6634 Default: ?text/plain?
6636 Sets the default Content-Type for the body of newly composed messages.
6643 This variable controls whether or not copies of your outgoing messages will be
6644 saved for later references. Also see $record, $save_name, $force_name and ?
6647 3.36. crypt_autoencrypt
6652 Setting this variable will cause Mutt to always attempt to PGP encrypt outgoing
6653 messages. This is probably only useful in connection to the ?send-hook?
6654 command. It can be overridden by use of the pgp menu, when encryption is not
6655 required or signing is requested as well. If $smime_is_default is set, then
6656 OpenSSL is used instead to create S/MIME messages and settings can be
6657 overridden by use of the smime menu instead. (Crypto only)
6664 This variable controls whether or not mutt may automatically enable PGP
6665 encryption/signing for messages. See also $crypt_autoencrypt,
6666 $crypt_replyencrypt, $crypt_autosign, $crypt_replysign and $smime_is_default.
6668 3.38. crypt_autosign
6673 Setting this variable will cause Mutt to always attempt to cryptographically
6674 sign outgoing messages. This can be overridden by use of the pgp menu, when
6675 signing is not required or encryption is requested as well. If
6676 $smime_is_default is set, then OpenSSL is used instead to create S/MIME
6677 messages and settings can be overridden by use of the smime menu instead of the
6678 pgp menu. (Crypto only)
6680 3.39. crypt_autosmime
6685 This variable controls whether or not mutt may automatically enable S/MIME
6686 encryption/signing for messages. See also $crypt_autoencrypt,
6687 $crypt_replyencrypt, $crypt_autosign, $crypt_replysign and $smime_is_default.
6689 3.40. crypt_replyencrypt
6694 If set, automatically PGP or OpenSSL encrypt replies to messages which are
6695 encrypted. (Crypto only)
6697 3.41. crypt_replysign
6702 If set, automatically PGP or OpenSSL sign replies to messages which are signed.
6704 Note: this does not work on messages that are encrypted and signed! (Crypto
6707 3.42. crypt_replysignencrypted
6712 If set, automatically PGP or OpenSSL sign replies to messages which are
6713 encrypted. This makes sense in combination with $crypt_replyencrypt, because it
6714 allows you to sign all messages which are automatically encrypted. This works
6715 around the problem noted in $crypt_replysign, that mutt is not able to find out
6716 whether an encrypted message is also signed. (Crypto only)
6718 3.43. crypt_timestamp
6723 If set, mutt will include a time stamp in the lines surrounding PGP or S/MIME
6724 output, so spoofing such lines is more difficult. If you are using colors to
6725 mark these lines, and rely on these, you may unset this setting. (Crypto only)
6727 3.44. crypt_use_gpgme
6732 This variable controls the use of the GPGME-enabled crypto backends. If it is
6733 set and Mutt was built with gpgme support, the gpgme code for S/MIME and PGP
6734 will be used instead of the classic code. Note that you need to set this option
6735 in .muttrc; it won't have any effect when used interactively.
6742 Controls whether mutt uses PKA (see http://www.g10code.de/docs/
6743 pka-intro.de.pdf) during signature verification (only supported by the GPGME
6746 3.46. crypt_verify_sig
6751 If ?yes?, always attempt to verify PGP or S/MIME signatures. If ?ask-*?, ask
6752 whether or not to verify the signature. If ?no?, never attempt to verify
6753 cryptographic signatures. (Crypto only)
6758 Default: ?!%a, %b %d, %Y at %I:%M:%S%p %Z?
6760 This variable controls the format of the date printed by the ?%d? sequence in
6761 $index_format. This is passed to the strftime(3) function to process the date,
6762 see the man page for the proper syntax.
6764 Unless the first character in the string is a bang (?!?), the month and week
6765 day names are expanded according to the locale specified in the variable
6766 $locale. If the first character in the string is a bang, the bang is discarded,
6767 and the month and week day names in the rest of the string are expanded in the
6768 C locale (that is in US English).
6773 Default: ?~f %s !~P | (~P ~C %s)?
6775 This variable controls how ?message-hook?, ?reply-hook?, ?send-hook?, ?
6776 send2-hook?, ?save-hook?, and ?fcc-hook? will be interpreted if they are
6777 specified with only a simple regexp, instead of a matching pattern. The hooks
6778 are expanded when they are declared, so a hook will be interpreted according to
6779 the value of this variable at the time the hook is declared.
6781 The default value matches if the message is either from a user matching the
6782 regular expression given, or if it is from you (if the from address matches ?
6783 alternates?) and is to or cc'ed to a user matching the given regular
6791 Controls whether or not messages are really deleted when closing or
6792 synchronizing a mailbox. If set to yes, messages marked for deleting will
6793 automatically be purged without prompting. If set to no, messages marked for
6794 deletion will be kept in the mailbox.
6801 If this option is set, mutt will untag messages when marking them for deletion.
6802 This applies when you either explicitly delete a message, or when you save it
6805 3.51. digest_collapse
6810 If this option is set, mutt's received-attachments menu will not show the
6811 subparts of individual messages in a multipart/digest. To see these subparts,
6812 press ?v? on that menu.
6814 3.52. display_filter
6819 When set, specifies a command used to filter messages. When a message is viewed
6820 it is passed as standard input to $display_filter, and the filtered message is
6821 read from the standard output.
6823 3.53. dotlock_program
6826 Default: ?/usr/local/bin/mutt_dotlock?
6828 Contains the path of the mutt_dotlock(8) binary to be used by mutt.
6835 This variable sets the request for when notification is returned. The string
6836 consists of a comma separated list (no spaces!) of one or more of the
6837 following: never, to never request notification, failure, to request
6838 notification on transmission failure, delay, to be notified of message delays,
6839 success, to be notified of successful transmission.
6843 set dsn_notify="failure,delay"
6845 Note: when using $sendmail for delivery, you should not enable this unless you
6846 are either using Sendmail 8.8.x or greater or a MTA providing a sendmail(1)
6847 -compatible interface supporting the -N option for DSN. For SMTP delivery, DSN
6848 support is auto-detected so that it depends on the server whether DSN will be
6856 This variable controls how much of your message is returned in DSN messages. It
6857 may be set to either hdrs to return just the message header, or full to return
6864 Note: when using $sendmail for delivery, you should not enable this unless you
6865 are either using Sendmail 8.8.x or greater or a MTA providing a sendmail(1)
6866 -compatible interface supporting the -R option for DSN. For SMTP delivery, DSN
6867 support is auto-detected so that it depends on the server whether DSN will be
6870 3.56. duplicate_threads
6875 This variable controls whether mutt, when $sort is set to threads, threads
6876 messages with the same Message-Id together. If it is set, it will indicate that
6877 it thinks they are duplicates of each other with an equals sign in the thread
6885 This option allows you to edit the header of your outgoing messages along with
6886 the body of your message.
6888 Note that changes made to the References: and Date: headers are ignored for
6889 interoperability reasons.
6896 This variable specifies which editor is used by mutt. It defaults to the value
6897 of the $VISUAL, or $EDITOR, environment variable, or to the string ?vi? if
6898 neither of those are set.
6905 When set, mutt will quoted-printable encode messages when they contain the
6906 string ?From ? (note the trailing space) in the beginning of a line. This is
6907 useful to avoid the tampering certain mail delivery and transport agents tend
6908 to do with messages (in order to prevent tools from misinterpreting the line as
6909 a mbox message separator).
6916 The file which includes random data that is used to initialize SSL library
6919 3.61. envelope_from_address
6921 Type: e-mail address
6924 Manually sets the envelope sender for outgoing messages. This value is ignored
6925 if $use_envelope_from is unset.
6932 Escape character to use for functions in the built-in editor.
6939 When set, the initial prompt for recipients and subject are skipped when
6940 replying to messages, and the initial prompt for subject is skipped when
6941 forwarding messages.
6943 Note: this variable has no effect when the $autoedit variable is set.
6950 This variable controls whether or not attachments on outgoing messages are
6951 saved along with the main body of your message.
6958 When this variable is set, FCCs will be stored unencrypted and unsigned, even
6959 when the actual message is encrypted and/or signed. (PGP only)
6966 Specifies the default location of your mailboxes. A ?+? or ?=? at the beginning
6967 of a pathname will be expanded to the value of this variable. Note that if you
6968 change this variable (from the default) value you need to make sure that the
6969 assignment occurs before you use ?+? or ?=? for any other variables since
6970 expansion takes place when handling the ?mailboxes? command.
6975 Default: ?%2C %t %N %F %2l %-8.8u %-8.8g %8s %d %f?
6977 This variable allows you to customize the file browser display to your personal
6978 taste. This string is similar to $index_format, but has its own set of printf
6981 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
6982 |%C |current file number |
6983 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
6984 |%d |date/time folder was last modified |
6985 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
6986 |%D |date/time folder was last modified using $date_format. |
6987 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
6988 |%f |filename (?/? is appended to directory names, ?@? to symbolic links and |
6989 | |?*? to executable files) |
6990 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
6991 |%F |file permissions |
6992 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
6993 |%g |group name (or numeric gid, if missing) |
6994 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
6995 |%l |number of hard links |
6996 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
6997 |%N |N if folder has new mail, blank otherwise |
6998 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
6999 |%s |size in bytes |
7000 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
7001 |%t |?*? if the file is tagged, blank otherwise |
7002 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
7003 |%u |owner name (or numeric uid, if missing) |
7004 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
7005 |%>X|right justify the rest of the string and pad with character ?X? |
7006 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
7007 |%|X|pad to the end of the line with character ?X? |
7008 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
7009 |%*X|soft-fill with character ?X? as pad |
7010 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
7012 For an explanation of ?soft-fill?, see the $index_format documentation.
7019 Controls whether or not the ?Mail-Followup-To:? header field is generated when
7020 sending mail. When set, Mutt will generate this field when you are replying to
7021 a known mailing list, specified with the ?subscribe? or ?lists? commands.
7023 This field has two purposes. First, preventing you from receiving duplicate
7024 copies of replies to messages which you send to mailing lists, and second,
7025 ensuring that you do get a reply separately for any messages sent to known
7026 lists to which you are not subscribed.
7028 The header will contain only the list's address for subscribed lists, and both
7029 the list address and your own email address for unsubscribed lists. Without
7030 this header, a group reply to your message sent to a subscribed list will be
7031 sent to both the list and your address, resulting in two copies of the same
7039 This variable is similar to $save_name, except that Mutt will store a copy of
7040 your outgoing message by the username of the address you are sending to even if
7041 that mailbox does not exist.
7043 Also see the $record variable.
7045 3.70. forward_decode
7050 Controls the decoding of complex MIME messages into text/plain when forwarding
7051 a message. The message header is also RFC2047 decoded. This variable is only
7052 used, if $mime_forward is unset, otherwise $mime_forward_decode is used
7055 3.71. forward_decrypt
7060 Controls the handling of encrypted messages when forwarding a message. When set
7061 , the outer layer of encryption is stripped off. This variable is only used if
7062 $mime_forward is set and $mime_forward_decode is unset. (PGP only)
7069 This quadoption controls whether or not the user is automatically placed in the
7070 editor when forwarding messages. For those who always want to forward with no
7071 modification, use a setting of ?no?.
7073 3.73. forward_format
7078 This variable controls the default subject when forwarding a message. It uses
7079 the same format sequences as the $index_format variable.
7086 When set, forwarded messages included in the main body of the message (when
7087 $mime_forward is unset) will be quoted using $indent_string.
7091 Type: e-mail address
7094 When set, this variable contains a default from address. It can be overridden
7095 using ?my_hdr? (including from a ?send-hook?) and $reverse_name. This variable
7096 is ignored if $use_from is unset.
7098 This setting defaults to the contents of the environment variable $EMAIL.
7102 Type: regular expression
7105 A regular expression used by mutt to parse the GECOS field of a password entry
7106 when expanding the alias. The default value will return the string up to the
7107 first ?,? encountered. If the GECOS field contains a string like ?lastname,
7108 firstname? then you should set it to ?.*?.
7110 This can be useful if you see the following behavior: you address an e-mail to
7111 user ID ?stevef? whose full name is ?Steve Franklin?. If mutt expands ?stevef?
7112 to ?"Franklin" stevef@foo.bar? then you should set the $gecos_mask to a regular
7113 expression that will match the whole name so mutt will expand ?Franklin? to
7121 When unset, the header fields normally added by the ?my_hdr? command are not
7122 created. This variable must be unset before composing a new message or replying
7123 in order to take effect. If set, the user defined header fields are added to
7131 When set, this variable causes Mutt to include the header of the message you
7132 are replying to into the edit buffer. The $weed setting applies.
7139 This variable points to the header cache database. If pointing to a directory
7140 Mutt will contain a header cache database file per folder, if pointing to a
7141 file that file will be a single global header cache. By default it is unset so
7142 no header caching will be used.
7144 Header caching can greatly improve speed when opening POP, IMAP MH or Maildir
7145 folders, see ?caching? for details.
7147 3.80. header_cache_compress
7152 When mutt is compiled with qdbm or tokyocabinet as header cache backend, this
7153 option determines whether the database will be compressed. Compression results
7154 in database files roughly being one fifth of the usual diskspace, but the
7155 decompression can result in a slower opening of cached folder(s) which in
7156 general is still much faster than opening non header cached folders.
7158 3.81. header_cache_pagesize
7163 When mutt is compiled with either gdbm or bdb4 as the header cache backend,
7164 this option changes the database page size. Too large or too small values can
7165 waste space, memory, or CPU time. The default should be more or less optimal
7173 When set, help lines describing the bindings for the major functions provided
7174 by each menu are displayed on the first line of the screen.
7176 Note: The binding will not be displayed correctly if the function is bound to a
7177 sequence rather than a single keystroke. Also, the help line may not be updated
7178 if a binding is changed while Mutt is running. Since this variable is primarily
7179 aimed at new users, neither of these should present a major problem.
7186 When set, mutt will skip the host name part of $hostname variable when adding
7187 the domain part to addresses. This variable does not affect the generation of
7188 Message-IDs, and it will not lead to the cut-off of first-level domains.
7195 When set, mutt will not show the presence of messages that are hidden by
7196 limiting, in the thread tree.
7203 When set, mutt will not show the presence of missing messages in the thread
7206 3.86. hide_thread_subject
7211 When set, mutt will not show the subject of messages in the thread tree that
7212 have the same subject as their parent or closest previously displayed sibling.
7214 3.87. hide_top_limited
7219 When set, mutt will not show the presence of messages that are hidden by
7220 limiting, at the top of threads in the thread tree. Note that when
7221 $hide_limited is set, this option will have no effect.
7223 3.88. hide_top_missing
7228 When set, mutt will not show the presence of missing messages at the top of
7229 threads in the thread tree. Note that when $hide_missing is set, this option
7230 will have no effect.
7237 This variable controls the size (in number of strings remembered) of the string
7238 history buffer per category. The buffer is cleared each time the variable is
7244 Default: ?~/.mutthistory?
7246 The file in which Mutt will save its history.
7248 3.91. honor_disposition
7253 When set, Mutt will not display attachments with a disposition of ?attachment?
7254 inline even if it could render the part to plain text. These MIME parts can
7255 only be viewed from the attachment menu.
7257 If unset, Mutt will render all MIME parts it can properly transform to plain
7260 3.92. honor_followup_to
7265 This variable controls whether or not a Mail-Followup-To header is honored when
7266 group-replying to a message.
7273 Specifies the fully-qualified hostname of the system mutt is running on
7274 containing the host's name and the DNS domain it belongs to. It is used as the
7275 domain part (after ?@?) for local email addresses as well as Message-Id
7278 Its value is determined at startup as follows: If the node's name as returned
7279 by the uname(3) function contains the hostname and the domain, these are used
7280 to construct $hostname. If there is no domain part returned, Mutt will look for
7281 a ?domain? or ?search? line in /etc/resolv.conf to determine the domain.
7282 Optionally, Mutt can be compiled with a fixed domain name in which case a
7283 detected one is not used.
7285 Also see $use_domain and $hidden_host.
7287 3.94. ignore_linear_white_space
7292 This option replaces linear-white-space between encoded-word and text to a
7293 single space to prevent the display of MIME-encoded ?Subject:? field from being
7294 divided into multiple lines.
7296 3.95. ignore_list_reply_to
7301 Affects the behavior of the <reply> function when replying to messages from
7302 mailing lists (as defined by the ?subscribe? or ?lists? commands). When set, if
7303 the ?Reply-To:? field is set to the same value as the ?To:? field, Mutt assumes
7304 that the ?Reply-To:? field was set by the mailing list to automate responses to
7305 the list, and will ignore this field. To direct a response to the mailing list
7306 when this option is set, use the <list-reply> function; <group-reply> will
7307 reply to both the sender and the list.
7309 3.96. imap_authenticators
7314 This is a colon-delimited list of authentication methods mutt may attempt to
7315 use to log in to an IMAP server, in the order mutt should try them.
7316 Authentication methods are either ?login? or the right side of an IMAP ?AUTH=
7317 xxx? capability string, e.g. ?digest-md5?, ?gssapi? or ?cram-md5?. This option
7318 is case-insensitive. If it's unset (the default) mutt will try all available
7319 methods, in order from most-secure to least-secure.
7323 set imap_authenticators="gssapi:cram-md5:login"
7325 Note: Mutt will only fall back to other authentication methods if the previous
7326 methods are unavailable. If a method is available but authentication fails,
7327 mutt will not connect to the IMAP server.
7329 3.97. imap_check_subscribed
7334 When set, mutt will fetch the set of subscribed folders from your server on
7335 connection, and add them to the set of mailboxes it polls for new mail just as
7336 if you had issued individual ?mailboxes? commands.
7338 3.98. imap_delim_chars
7343 This contains the list of characters which you would like to treat as folder
7344 separators for displaying IMAP paths. In particular it helps in using the ?=?
7345 shortcut for your folder variable.
7352 Mutt requests these header fields in addition to the default headers (?Date:?,
7353 ?From:?, ?Subject:?, ?To:?, ?Cc:?, ?Message-Id:?, ?References:?,
7354 ?Content-Type:?, ?Content-Description:?, ?In-Reply-To:?, ?Reply-To:?, ?Lines:?,
7355 ?List-Post:?, ?X-Label:?) from IMAP servers before displaying the index menu.
7356 You may want to add more headers for spam detection.
7358 Note: This is a space separated list, items should be uppercase and not contain
7359 the colon, e.g. ?X-BOGOSITY X-SPAM-STATUS? for the ?X-Bogosity:? and
7360 ?X-Spam-Status:? header fields.
7367 When set, mutt will attempt to use the IMAP IDLE extension to check for new
7368 mail in the current mailbox. Some servers (dovecot was the inspiration for this
7369 option) react badly to mutt's implementation. If your connection seems to
7370 freeze up periodically, try unsetting this.
7372 3.101. imap_keepalive
7377 This variable specifies the maximum amount of time in seconds that mutt will
7378 wait before polling open IMAP connections, to prevent the server from closing
7379 them before mutt has finished with them. The default is well within the
7380 RFC-specified minimum amount of time (30 minutes) before a server is allowed to
7381 do this, but in practice the RFC does get violated every now and then. Reduce
7382 this number if you find yourself getting disconnected from your IMAP server due
7385 3.102. imap_list_subscribed
7390 This variable configures whether IMAP folder browsing will look for only
7391 subscribed folders or all folders. This can be toggled in the IMAP browser with
7392 the <toggle-subscribed> function.
7399 Your login name on the IMAP server.
7401 This variable defaults to the value of $imap_user.
7408 Specifies the password for your IMAP account. If unset, Mutt will prompt you
7409 for your password when you invoke the <imap-fetch-mail> function or try to open
7412 Warning: you should only use this option when you are on a fairly secure
7413 machine, because the superuser can read your muttrc even if you are the only
7414 one who can read the file.
7421 When set, mutt will not open new IMAP connections to check for new mail. Mutt
7422 will only check for new mail over existing IMAP connections. This is useful if
7423 you don't want to be prompted to user/password pairs on mutt invocation, or if
7424 opening the connection is slow.
7431 When set, mutt will avoid implicitly marking your mail as read whenever you
7432 fetch a message from the server. This is generally a good thing, but can make
7433 closing an IMAP folder somewhat slower. This option exists to appease speed
7436 3.107. imap_pipeline_depth
7441 Controls the number of IMAP commands that may be queued up before they are sent
7442 to the server. A deeper pipeline reduces the amount of time mutt must wait for
7443 the server, and can make IMAP servers feel much more responsive. But not all
7444 servers correctly handle pipelined commands, so if you have problems you might
7445 want to try setting this variable to 0.
7447 Note: Changes to this variable have no effect on open connections.
7449 3.108. imap_servernoise
7454 When set, mutt will display warning messages from the IMAP server as error
7455 messages. Since these messages are often harmless, or generated due to
7456 configuration problems on the server which are out of the users' hands, you may
7457 wish to suppress them at some point.
7464 The name of the user whose mail you intend to access on the IMAP server.
7466 This variable defaults to your user name on the local machine.
7468 3.110. implicit_autoview
7473 If set to ?yes?, mutt will look for a mailcap entry with the ?copiousoutput?
7474 flag set for every MIME attachment it doesn't have an internal viewer defined
7475 for. If such an entry is found, mutt will use the viewer defined in that entry
7476 to convert the body part to text form.
7483 Controls whether or not a copy of the message(s) you are replying to is
7484 included in your reply.
7486 3.112. include_onlyfirst
7491 Controls whether or not Mutt includes only the first attachment of the message
7494 3.113. indent_string
7499 Specifies the string to prepend to each line of text quoted in a message to
7500 which you are replying. You are strongly encouraged not to change this value,
7501 as it tends to agitate the more fanatical netizens.
7503 The value of this option is ignored if $text_flowed is set, too because the
7504 quoting mechanism is strictly defined for format=flowed.
7506 This option is a format string, please see the description of $index_format for
7507 supported printf(3)-style sequences.
7512 Default: ?%4C %Z %{%b %d} %-15.15L (%?l?%4l&%4c?) %s?
7514 This variable allows you to customize the message index display to your
7517 ?Format strings? are similar to the strings used in the C function printf(3) to
7518 format output (see the man page for more details). The following sequences are
7521 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
7522 |%a |address of the author |
7523 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7524 |%A |reply-to address (if present; otherwise: address of author) |
7525 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7526 |%b |filename of the original message folder (think mailbox) |
7527 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7528 |%B |the list to which the letter was sent, or else the folder name (%b). |
7529 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7530 |%c |number of characters (bytes) in the message |
7531 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7532 |%C |current message number |
7533 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7534 |%d |date and time of the message in the format specified by $date_format |
7535 | |converted to sender's time zone |
7536 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7537 |%D |date and time of the message in the format specified by $date_format |
7538 | |converted to the local time zone |
7539 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7540 |%e |current message number in thread |
7541 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7542 |%E |number of messages in current thread |
7543 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7544 |%f |sender (address + real name), either From: or Return-Path: |
7545 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7546 |%F |author name, or recipient name if the message is from you |
7547 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7548 |%H |spam attribute(s) of this message |
7549 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7550 |%i |message-id of the current message |
7551 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7552 |%l |number of lines in the message (does not work with maildir, mh, and |
7553 | |possibly IMAP folders) |
7554 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7555 | |If an address in the ?To:? or ?Cc:? header field matches an address |
7556 |%L |defined by the users ?subscribe? command, this displays "To <list-name>|
7557 | |", otherwise the same as %F. |
7558 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7559 |%m |total number of message in the mailbox |
7560 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7561 |%M |number of hidden messages if the thread is collapsed. |
7562 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7563 |%N |message score |
7564 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7565 |%n |author's real name (or address if missing) |
7566 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7567 |%O |original save folder where mutt would formerly have stashed the |
7568 | |message: list name or recipient name if not sent to a list |
7569 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7570 |%P |progress indicator for the built-in pager (how much of the file has |
7571 | |been displayed) |
7572 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7573 |%s |subject of the message |
7574 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7575 |%S |status of the message (?N?/?D?/?d?/?!?/?r?/*) |
7576 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7577 |%t |?To:? field (recipients) |
7578 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7579 |%T |the appropriate character from the $to_chars string |
7580 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7581 |%u |user (login) name of the author |
7582 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7583 |%v |first name of the author, or the recipient if the message is from you |
7584 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7585 |%X |number of attachments (please see the ?attachments? section for |
7586 | |possible speed effects) |
7587 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7588 |%y |?X-Label:? field, if present |
7589 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7590 | |?X-Label:? field, if present, and (1) not at part of a thread tree, (2)|
7591 |%Y |at the top of a thread, or (3) ?X-Label:? is different from preceding |
7592 | |message's ?X-Label:?. |
7593 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7594 |%Z |message status flags |
7595 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7596 |% |the date and time of the message is converted to sender's time zone, |
7597 |{fmt}|and ?fmt? is expanded by the library function strftime(3); a leading |
7598 | |bang disables locales |
7599 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7600 |% |the date and time of the message is converted to the local time zone, |
7601 |[fmt]|and ?fmt? is expanded by the library function strftime(3); a leading |
7602 | |bang disables locales |
7603 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7604 |% |the local date and time when the message was received. ?fmt? is |
7605 |(fmt)|expanded by the library function strftime(3); a leading bang disables |
7607 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7608 |% |the current local time. ?fmt? is expanded by the library function |
7609 |<fmt>|strftime(3); a leading bang disables locales. |
7610 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7611 |%>X |right justify the rest of the string and pad with character ?X? |
7612 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7613 |%|X |pad to the end of the line with character ?X? |
7614 |-----+-----------------------------------------------------------------------|
7615 |%*X |soft-fill with character ?X? as pad |
7616 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
7618 ?Soft-fill? deserves some explanation: Normal right-justification will print
7619 everything to the left of the ?%>?, displaying padding and whatever lies to the
7620 right only if there's room. By contrast, soft-fill gives priority to the
7621 right-hand side, guaranteeing space to display it and showing padding only if
7622 there's still room. If necessary, soft-fill will eat text leftwards to make
7623 room for rightward text.
7625 Note that these expandos are supported in ?save-hook?, ?fcc-hook? and ?
7626 fcc-save-hook?, too.
7633 How to invoke ispell (GNU's spell-checking software).
7640 If set, read messages marked as flagged will not be moved from your spool
7641 mailbox to your $mbox mailbox, or as a result of a ?mbox-hook? command.
7648 The locale used by strftime(3) to format dates. Legal values are the strings
7649 your system accepts for the locale environment variable $LC_TIME.
7656 This variable configures how often (in seconds) mutt should look for new mail.
7657 Also see the $timeout variable.
7659 3.119. mail_check_recent
7664 When set, Mutt will only notify you about new mail that has been received since
7665 the last time you opened the mailbox. When unset, Mutt will notify you if any
7666 new mail exists in the mailbox, regardless of whether you have visited it
7669 When $mark_old is set, Mutt does not consider the mailbox to contain new mail
7670 if only old messages exist.
7677 This variable specifies which files to consult when attempting to display MIME
7678 bodies not directly supported by Mutt.
7680 3.121. mailcap_sanitize
7685 If set, mutt will restrict possible characters in mailcap % expandos to a
7686 well-defined set of safe characters. This is the safe setting, but we are not
7687 sure it doesn't break some more advanced MIME stuff.
7689 DON'T CHANGE THIS SETTING UNLESS YOU ARE REALLY SURE WHAT YOU ARE DOING!
7691 3.122. maildir_header_cache_verify
7696 Check for Maildir unaware programs other than mutt having modified maildir
7697 files when the header cache is in use. This incurs one stat(2) per message
7698 every time the folder is opened (which can be very slow for NFS folders).
7700 3.123. maildir_trash
7705 If set, messages marked as deleted will be saved with the maildir trashed flag
7706 instead of unlinked. Note: this only applies to maildir-style mailboxes.
7707 Setting it will have no effect on other mailbox types.
7714 Controls whether or not mutt marks new unread messages as old if you exit a
7715 mailbox without reading them. With this option set, the next time you start
7716 mutt, the messages will show up with an ?O? next to them in the index menu,
7717 indicating that they are old.
7724 Controls the display of wrapped lines in the internal pager. If set, a ?+?
7725 marker is displayed at the beginning of wrapped lines.
7727 Also see the $smart_wrap variable.
7731 Type: regular expression
7734 A regular expression used in the file browser, optionally preceded by the not
7735 operator ?!?. Only files whose names match this mask will be shown. The match
7736 is always case-sensitive.
7743 This specifies the folder into which read mail in your $spoolfile folder will
7746 Also see the $move variable.
7753 The default mailbox type used when creating new folders. May be any of ?mbox?,
7754 ?MMDF?, ?MH? and ?Maildir?. This is overridden by the -m command-line option.
7761 This variable controls the number of lines of context that are given when
7762 scrolling through menus. (Similar to $pager_context.)
7764 3.130. menu_move_off
7769 When unset, the bottom entry of menus will never scroll up past the bottom of
7770 the screen, unless there are less entries than lines. When set, the bottom
7771 entry may move off the bottom.
7778 When set, menus will be scrolled up or down one line when you attempt to move
7779 across a screen boundary. If unset, the screen is cleared and the next or
7780 previous page of the menu is displayed (useful for slow links to avoid many
7783 3.132. message_cache_clean
7788 If set, mutt will clean out obsolete entries from the message cache when the
7789 mailbox is synchronized. You probably only want to set it every once in a
7790 while, since it can be a little slow (especially for large folders).
7792 3.133. message_cachedir
7797 Set this to a directory and mutt will cache copies of messages from your IMAP
7798 and POP servers here. You are free to remove entries at any time.
7800 When setting this variable to a directory, mutt needs to fetch every remote
7801 message only once and can perform regular expression searches as fast as for
7804 Also see the $message_cache_clean variable.
7806 3.134. message_format
7811 This is the string displayed in the ?attachment? menu for attachments of type
7812 message/rfc822. For a full listing of defined printf(3)-like sequences see the
7813 section on $index_format.
7820 If set, forces Mutt to interpret keystrokes with the high bit (bit 8) set as if
7821 the user had pressed the Esc key and whatever key remains after having the high
7822 bit removed. For example, if the key pressed has an ASCII value of 0xf8, then
7823 this is treated as if the user had pressed Esc then ?x?. This is because the
7824 result of removing the high bit from 0xf8 is 0x78, which is the ASCII character
7832 If unset, Mutt will remove your address (see the ?alternates? command) from the
7833 list of recipients when replying to a message.
7840 When unset, mutt will mimic mh's behavior and rename deleted messages to ,<old
7841 file name> in mh folders instead of really deleting them. This leaves the
7842 message on disk but makes programs reading the folder ignore it. If the
7843 variable is set, the message files will simply be deleted.
7845 This option is similar to $maildir_trash for Maildir folders.
7847 3.138. mh_seq_flagged
7852 The name of the MH sequence used for flagged messages.
7854 3.139. mh_seq_replied
7859 The name of the MH sequence used to tag replied messages.
7861 3.140. mh_seq_unseen
7866 The name of the MH sequence used for unseen messages.
7873 When set, the message you are forwarding will be attached as a separate message
7874 /rfc822 MIME part instead of included in the main body of the message. This is
7875 useful for forwarding MIME messages so the receiver can properly view the
7876 message as it was delivered to you. If you like to switch between MIME and not
7877 MIME from mail to mail, set this variable to ?ask-no? or ?ask-yes?.
7879 Also see $forward_decode and $mime_forward_decode.
7881 3.142. mime_forward_decode
7886 Controls the decoding of complex MIME messages into text/plain when forwarding
7887 a message while $mime_forward is set. Otherwise $forward_decode is used
7890 3.143. mime_forward_rest
7895 When forwarding multiple attachments of a MIME message from the attachment
7896 menu, attachments which cannot be decoded in a reasonable manner will be
7897 attached to the newly composed message if this option is set.
7899 3.144. mix_entry_format
7902 Default: ?%4n %c %-16s %a?
7904 This variable describes the format of a remailer line on the mixmaster chain
7905 selection screen. The following printf(3)-like sequences are supported:
7907 +----------------------------------+
7908 |%n|The running number on the menu.|
7909 |--+-------------------------------|
7910 |%c|Remailer capabilities. |
7911 |--+-------------------------------|
7912 |%s|The remailer's short name. |
7913 |--+-------------------------------|
7914 |%a|The remailer's e-mail address. |
7915 +----------------------------------+
7920 Default: ?mixmaster?
7922 This variable contains the path to the Mixmaster binary on your system. It is
7923 used with various sets of parameters to gather the list of known remailers, and
7924 to finally send a message through the mixmaster chain.
7931 Controls whether or not Mutt will move read messages from your spool mailbox to
7932 your $mbox mailbox, or as a result of a ?mbox-hook? command.
7939 This variable, when set, makes the thread tree narrower, allowing deeper
7940 threads to fit on the screen.
7947 Operations that expect to transfer a large amount of data over the network will
7948 update their progress every $net_inc kilobytes. If set to 0, no progress
7949 messages will be displayed.
7951 See also $read_inc, $write_inc and $net_inc.
7958 This variable specifies which pager you would like to use to view messages. The
7959 value ?builtin? means to use the built-in pager, otherwise this variable should
7960 specify the pathname of the external pager you would like to use.
7962 Using an external pager may have some disadvantages: Additional keystrokes are
7963 necessary because you can't call mutt functions directly from the pager, and
7964 screen resizes cause lines longer than the screen width to be badly formatted
7967 3.150. pager_context
7972 This variable controls the number of lines of context that are given when
7973 displaying the next or previous page in the internal pager. By default, Mutt
7974 will display the line after the last one on the screen at the top of the next
7975 page (0 lines of context).
7977 This variable also specifies the amount of context given for search results. If
7978 positive, this many lines will be given before a match, if 0, the match will be
7984 Default: ?-%Z- %C/%m: %-20.20n %s%* -- (%P)?
7986 This variable controls the format of the one-line message ?status? displayed
7987 before each message in either the internal or an external pager. The valid
7988 sequences are listed in the $index_format section.
7990 3.152. pager_index_lines
7995 Determines the number of lines of a mini-index which is shown when in the
7996 pager. The current message, unless near the top or bottom of the folder, will
7997 be roughly one third of the way down this mini-index, giving the reader the
7998 context of a few messages before and after the message. This is useful, for
7999 example, to determine how many messages remain to be read in the current
8000 thread. One of the lines is reserved for the status bar from the index, so a
8001 setting of 6 will only show 5 lines of the actual index. A value of 0 results
8002 in no index being shown. If the number of messages in the current folder is
8003 less than $pager_index_lines, then the index will only use as many lines as it
8011 When set, the internal-pager will not move to the next message when you are at
8012 the end of a message and invoke the <next-page> function.
8014 3.154. pgp_auto_decode
8019 If set, mutt will automatically attempt to decrypt traditional PGP messages
8020 whenever the user performs an operation which ordinarily would result in the
8021 contents of the message being operated on. For example, if the user displays a
8022 pgp-traditional message which has not been manually checked with the
8023 <check-traditional-pgp> function, mutt will automatically check the message for
8026 3.155. pgp_autoinline
8031 This option controls whether Mutt generates old-style inline (traditional) PGP
8032 encrypted or signed messages under certain circumstances. This can be
8033 overridden by use of the pgp menu, when inline is not required.
8035 Note that Mutt might automatically use PGP/MIME for messages which consist of
8036 more than a single MIME part. Mutt can be configured to ask before sending PGP/
8037 MIME messages when inline (traditional) would not work.
8039 Also see the $pgp_mime_auto variable.
8041 Also note that using the old-style PGP message format is strongly deprecated.
8044 3.156. pgp_check_exit
8049 If set, mutt will check the exit code of the PGP subprocess when signing or
8050 encrypting. A non-zero exit code means that the subprocess failed. (PGP only)
8052 3.157. pgp_clearsign_command
8057 This format is used to create an old-style ?clearsigned? PGP message. Note that
8058 the use of this format is strongly deprecated.
8060 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for possible
8061 printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
8063 3.158. pgp_decode_command
8068 This format strings specifies a command which is used to decode application/pgp
8071 The PGP command formats have their own set of printf(3)-like sequences:
8073 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
8074 |%p|Expands to PGPPASSFD=0 when a pass phrase is needed, to an empty string |
8075 | |otherwise. Note: This may be used with a %? construct. |
8076 |--+--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
8077 |%f|Expands to the name of a file containing a message. |
8078 |--+--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
8079 |%s|Expands to the name of a file containing the signature part of a multipart|
8080 | |/signed attachment when verifying it. |
8081 |--+--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
8082 |%a|The value of $pgp_sign_as. |
8083 |--+--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
8084 |%r|One or more key IDs. |
8085 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
8087 For examples on how to configure these formats for the various versions of PGP
8088 which are floating around, see the pgp and gpg sample configuration files in
8089 the samples/ subdirectory which has been installed on your system alongside the
8090 documentation. (PGP only)
8092 3.159. pgp_decrypt_command
8097 This command is used to decrypt a PGP encrypted message.
8099 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for possible
8100 printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
8102 3.160. pgp_encrypt_only_command
8107 This command is used to encrypt a body part without signing it.
8109 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for possible
8110 printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
8112 3.161. pgp_encrypt_sign_command
8117 This command is used to both sign and encrypt a body part.
8119 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for possible
8120 printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
8122 3.162. pgp_entry_format
8125 Default: ?%4n %t%f %4l/0x%k %-4a %2c %u?
8127 This variable allows you to customize the PGP key selection menu to your
8128 personal taste. This string is similar to $index_format, but has its own set of
8129 printf(3)-like sequences:
8131 +-------------------------------------------------------------+
8133 |------+------------------------------------------------------|
8135 |------+------------------------------------------------------|
8137 |------+------------------------------------------------------|
8139 |------+------------------------------------------------------|
8141 |------+------------------------------------------------------|
8143 |------+------------------------------------------------------|
8145 |------+------------------------------------------------------|
8146 |%t |trust/validity of the key-uid association |
8147 |------+------------------------------------------------------|
8148 |%[<s>]|date of the key where <s> is an strftime(3) expression|
8149 +-------------------------------------------------------------+
8153 3.163. pgp_export_command
8158 This command is used to export a public key from the user's key ring.
8160 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for possible
8161 printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
8163 3.164. pgp_getkeys_command
8168 This command is invoked whenever mutt will need public key information. Of the
8169 sequences supported by $pgp_decode_command, %r is the only printf(3)-like
8170 sequence used with this format. (PGP only)
8172 3.165. pgp_good_sign
8174 Type: regular expression
8177 If you assign a text to this variable, then a PGP signature is only considered
8178 verified if the output from $pgp_verify_command contains the text. Use this
8179 variable if the exit code from the command is 0 even for bad signatures. (PGP
8182 3.166. pgp_ignore_subkeys
8187 Setting this variable will cause Mutt to ignore OpenPGP subkeys. Instead, the
8188 principal key will inherit the subkeys' capabilities. Unset this if you want to
8189 play interesting key selection games. (PGP only)
8191 3.167. pgp_import_command
8196 This command is used to import a key from a message into the user's public key
8199 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for possible
8200 printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
8202 3.168. pgp_list_pubring_command
8207 This command is used to list the public key ring's contents. The output format
8208 must be analogous to the one used by
8210 gpg --list-keys --with-colons.
8212 This format is also generated by the pgpring utility which comes with mutt.
8214 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for possible
8215 printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
8217 3.169. pgp_list_secring_command
8222 This command is used to list the secret key ring's contents. The output format
8223 must be analogous to the one used by:
8225 gpg --list-keys --with-colons.
8227 This format is also generated by the pgpring utility which comes with mutt.
8229 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for possible
8230 printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
8237 If set, use 64 bit PGP key IDs, if unset use the normal 32 bit key IDs. (PGP
8240 3.171. pgp_mime_auto
8245 This option controls whether Mutt will prompt you for automatically sending a
8246 (signed/encrypted) message using PGP/MIME when inline (traditional) fails (for
8249 Also note that using the old-style PGP message format is strongly deprecated.
8252 3.172. pgp_replyinline
8257 Setting this variable will cause Mutt to always attempt to create an inline
8258 (traditional) message when replying to a message which is PGP encrypted/signed
8259 inline. This can be overridden by use of the pgp menu, when inline is not
8260 required. This option does not automatically detect if the (replied-to) message
8261 is inline; instead it relies on Mutt internals for previously checked/flagged
8264 Note that Mutt might automatically use PGP/MIME for messages which consist of
8265 more than a single MIME part. Mutt can be configured to ask before sending PGP/
8266 MIME messages when inline (traditional) would not work.
8268 Also see the $pgp_mime_auto variable.
8270 Also note that using the old-style PGP message format is strongly deprecated.
8273 3.173. pgp_retainable_sigs
8278 If set, signed and encrypted messages will consist of nested multipart/signed
8279 and multipart/encrypted body parts.
8281 This is useful for applications like encrypted and signed mailing lists, where
8282 the outer layer (multipart/encrypted) can be easily removed, while the inner
8283 multipart/signed part is retained. (PGP only)
8285 3.174. pgp_show_unusable
8290 If set, mutt will display non-usable keys on the PGP key selection menu. This
8291 includes keys which have been revoked, have expired, or have been marked as
8292 ?disabled? by the user. (PGP only)
8299 If you have more than one key pair, this option allows you to specify which of
8300 your private keys to use. It is recommended that you use the keyid form to
8301 specify your key (e.g. 0x00112233). (PGP only)
8303 3.176. pgp_sign_command
8308 This command is used to create the detached PGP signature for a multipart/
8309 signed PGP/MIME body part.
8311 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for possible
8312 printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
8314 3.177. pgp_sort_keys
8319 Specifies how the entries in the pgp menu are sorted. The following are legal
8322 +--------------------------------------+
8323 |address|sort alphabetically by user id|
8324 |-------+------------------------------|
8325 |keyid |sort alphabetically by key id |
8326 |-------+------------------------------|
8327 |date |sort by key creation date |
8328 |-------+------------------------------|
8329 |trust |sort by the trust of the key |
8330 +--------------------------------------+
8332 If you prefer reverse order of the above values, prefix it with ?reverse-?.
8335 3.178. pgp_strict_enc
8340 If set, Mutt will automatically encode PGP/MIME signed messages as
8341 quoted-printable. Please note that unsetting this variable may lead to problems
8342 with non-verifyable PGP signatures, so only change this if you know what you
8343 are doing. (PGP only)
8350 The number of seconds after which a cached passphrase will expire if not used.
8353 3.180. pgp_use_gpg_agent
8358 If set, mutt will use a possibly-running gpg-agent(1) process. (PGP only)
8360 3.181. pgp_verify_command
8365 This command is used to verify PGP signatures.
8367 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for possible
8368 printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
8370 3.182. pgp_verify_key_command
8375 This command is used to verify key information from the key selection menu.
8377 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for possible
8378 printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
8385 Used in connection with the <pipe-message> command. When unset, Mutt will pipe
8386 the messages without any preprocessing. When set, Mutt will weed headers and
8387 will attempt to decode the messages first.
8394 The separator to add between messages when piping a list of tagged messages to
8395 an external Unix command.
8402 Used in connection with the <pipe-message> function following <tag-prefix>. If
8403 this variable is unset, when piping a list of tagged messages Mutt will
8404 concatenate the messages and will pipe them all concatenated. When set, Mutt
8405 will pipe the messages one by one. In both cases the messages are piped in the
8406 current sorted order, and the $pipe_sep separator is added after each message.
8408 3.186. pop_auth_try_all
8413 If set, Mutt will try all available authentication methods. When unset, Mutt
8414 will only fall back to other authentication methods if the previous methods are
8415 unavailable. If a method is available but authentication fails, Mutt will not
8416 connect to the POP server.
8418 3.187. pop_authenticators
8423 This is a colon-delimited list of authentication methods mutt may attempt to
8424 use to log in to an POP server, in the order mutt should try them.
8425 Authentication methods are either ?user?, ?apop? or any SASL mechanism, e.g.
8426 ?digest-md5?, ?gssapi? or ?cram-md5?. This option is case-insensitive. If this
8427 option is unset (the default) mutt will try all available methods, in order
8428 from most-secure to least-secure.
8432 set pop_authenticators="digest-md5:apop:user"
8434 3.188. pop_checkinterval
8439 This variable configures how often (in seconds) mutt should look for new mail
8440 in the currently selected mailbox if it is a POP mailbox.
8447 If set, Mutt will delete successfully downloaded messages from the POP server
8448 when using the <fetch-mail> function. When unset, Mutt will download messages
8449 but also leave them on the POP server.
8456 The name of your POP server for the <fetch-mail> function. You can also specify
8457 an alternative port, username and password, i.e.:
8459 [pop[s]://][username[:password]@]popserver[:port]
8461 where ?[...]? denotes an optional part.
8468 If this variable is set, mutt will try to use the ?LAST? POP command for
8469 retrieving only unread messages from the POP server when using the <fetch-mail>
8477 Specifies the password for your POP account. If unset, Mutt will prompt you for
8478 your password when you open a POP mailbox.
8480 Warning: you should only use this option when you are on a fairly secure
8481 machine, because the superuser can read your muttrc even if you are the only
8482 one who can read the file.
8484 3.193. pop_reconnect
8489 Controls whether or not Mutt will try to reconnect to the POP server if the
8497 Your login name on the POP server.
8499 This variable defaults to your user name on the local machine.
8501 3.195. post_indent_string
8506 Similar to the $attribution variable, Mutt will append this string after the
8507 inclusion of a message which is being replied to.
8514 Controls whether or not messages are saved in the $postponed mailbox when you
8515 elect not to send immediately.
8517 Also see the $recall variable.
8522 Default: ?~/postponed?
8524 Mutt allows you to indefinitely ?postpone sending a message? which you are
8525 editing. When you choose to postpone a message, Mutt saves it in the mailbox
8526 specified by this variable.
8528 Also see the $postpone variable.
8535 If set, a shell command to be executed if mutt fails to establish a connection
8536 to the server. This is useful for setting up secure connections, e.g. with ssh
8537 (1). If the command returns a nonzero status, mutt gives up opening the server.
8540 set preconnect="ssh -f -q -L 1234:mailhost.net:143 mailhost.net \
8541 sleep 20 < /dev/null > /dev/null"
8543 Mailbox ?foo? on ?mailhost.net? can now be reached as ?{localhost:1234}foo?.
8545 Note: For this example to work, you must be able to log in to the remote
8546 machine without having to enter a password.
8553 Controls whether or not Mutt really prints messages. This is set to ?ask-no? by
8554 default, because some people accidentally hit ?p? often.
8556 3.200. print_command
8561 This specifies the command pipe that should be used to print messages.
8568 Used in connection with the <print-message> command. If this option is set, the
8569 message is decoded before it is passed to the external command specified by
8570 $print_command. If this option is unset, no processing will be applied to the
8571 message when printing it. The latter setting may be useful if you are using
8572 some advanced printer filter which is able to properly format e-mail messages
8580 Used in connection with the <print-message> command. If this option is set, the
8581 command specified by $print_command is executed once for each message which is
8582 to be printed. If this option is unset, the command specified by $print_command
8583 is executed only once, and all the messages are concatenated, with a form feed
8584 as the message separator.
8586 Those who use the enscript(1) program's mail-printing mode will most likely
8587 want to set this option.
8594 If you use an external $pager, setting this variable will cause Mutt to prompt
8595 you for a command when the pager exits rather than returning to the index menu.
8596 If unset, Mutt will return to the index menu when the external pager exits.
8598 3.204. query_command
8603 This specifies the command Mutt will use to make external address queries. The
8604 string may contain a ?%s?, which will be substituted with the query string the
8605 user types. Mutt will add quotes around the string substituted for ?%s?
8606 automatically according to shell quoting rules, so you should avoid adding your
8607 own. If no ?%s? is found in the string, Mutt will append the user's query to
8608 the end of the string. See ?query? for more information.
8613 Default: ?%4c %t %-25.25a %-25.25n %?e?(%e)??
8615 This variable describes the format of the ?query? menu. The following printf(3)
8616 -style sequences are understood:
8618 +---------------------------------------------------------+
8619 |%a |destination address |
8620 |---+-----------------------------------------------------|
8621 |%c |current entry number |
8622 |---+-----------------------------------------------------|
8623 |%e |extra information * |
8624 |---+-----------------------------------------------------|
8625 |%n |destination name |
8626 |---+-----------------------------------------------------|
8627 |%t |?*? if current entry is tagged, a space otherwise |
8628 |---+-----------------------------------------------------|
8629 |%>X|right justify the rest of the string and pad with ?X?|
8630 |---+-----------------------------------------------------|
8631 |%|X|pad to the end of the line with ?X? |
8632 |---+-----------------------------------------------------|
8633 |%*X|soft-fill with character ?X? as pad |
8634 +---------------------------------------------------------+
8636 For an explanation of ?soft-fill?, see the $index_format documentation.
8638 * = can be optionally printed if nonzero, see the $status_format documentation.
8645 This variable controls whether ?quit? and ?exit? actually quit from mutt. If
8646 this option is set, they do quit, if it is unset, they have no effect, and if
8647 it is set to ask-yes or ask-no, you are prompted for confirmation when you try
8652 Type: regular expression
8653 Default: ?^([ \t]*[|>:}#])+?
8655 A regular expression used in the internal pager to determine quoted sections of
8656 text in the body of a message. Quoted text may be filtered out using the
8657 <toggle-quoted> command, or colored according to the ?color quoted? family of
8660 Higher levels of quoting may be colored differently (?color quoted1?, ?color
8661 quoted2?, etc.). The quoting level is determined by removing the last character
8662 from the matched text and recursively reapplying the regular expression until
8663 it fails to produce a match.
8665 Match detection may be overridden by the $smileys regular expression.
8672 If set to a value greater than 0, Mutt will display which message it is
8673 currently on when reading a mailbox or when performing search actions such as
8674 search and limit. The message is printed after this many messages have been
8675 read or searched (e.g., if set to 25, Mutt will print a message when it is at
8676 message 25, and then again when it gets to message 50). This variable is meant
8677 to indicate progress when reading or searching large mailboxes which may take
8678 some time. When set to 0, only a single message will appear before the reading
8681 Also see the $write_inc, $net_inc and $time_inc variables and the ?tuning?
8682 section of the manual for performance considerations.
8689 If set, all folders are opened in read-only mode.
8696 This variable specifies what ?real? or ?personal? name should be used when
8699 By default, this is the GECOS field from /etc/passwd. Note that this variable
8700 will not be used when the user has set a real name in the $from variable.
8707 Controls whether or not Mutt recalls postponed messages when composing a new
8710 Setting this variable to is not generally useful, and thus not recommended.
8712 Also see $postponed variable.
8719 This specifies the file into which your outgoing messages should be appended.
8720 (This is meant as the primary method for saving a copy of your messages, but
8721 another way to do this is using the ?my_hdr? command to create a ?Bcc:? field
8722 with your email address in it.)
8724 The value of $record is overridden by the $force_name and $save_name variables,
8725 and the ?fcc-hook? command.
8729 Type: regular expression
8730 Default: ?^(re([\[0-9\]+])*|aw):[ \t]*?
8732 A regular expression used to recognize reply messages when threading and
8733 replying. The default value corresponds to the English "Re:" and the German
8741 If unset and you are replying to a message sent by you, Mutt will assume that
8742 you want to reply to the recipients of that message rather than to yourself.
8744 Also see the ?alternates? command.
8751 If set, when replying to a message, Mutt will use the address listed in the
8752 Reply-to: header as the recipient of the reply. If unset, it will use the
8753 address in the From: header field instead. This option is useful for reading a
8754 mailing list that sets the Reply-To: header field to the list address and you
8755 want to send a private message to the author of a message.
8762 When set, the cursor will be automatically advanced to the next (possibly
8763 undeleted) message whenever a command that modifies the current message is
8766 3.217. reverse_alias
8771 This variable controls whether or not Mutt will display the ?personal? name
8772 from your aliases in the index menu if it finds an alias that matches the
8773 message's sender. For example, if you have the following alias:
8775 alias juser abd30425@somewhere.net (Joe User)
8777 and then you receive mail which contains the following header:
8779 From: abd30425@somewhere.net
8781 It would be displayed in the index menu as ?Joe User? instead of
8782 ?abd30425@somewhere.net.? This is useful when the person's e-mail address is
8790 It may sometimes arrive that you receive mail to a certain machine, move the
8791 messages to another machine, and reply to some the messages from there. If this
8792 variable is set, the default From: line of the reply messages is built using
8793 the address where you received the messages you are replying to if that address
8794 matches your ?alternates?. If the variable is unset, or the address that would
8795 be used doesn't match your ?alternates?, the From: line will use your address
8796 on the current machine.
8798 Also see the ?alternates? command.
8800 3.219. reverse_realname
8805 This variable fine-tunes the behavior of the $reverse_name feature. When it is
8806 set, mutt will use the address from incoming messages as-is, possibly including
8807 eventual real names. When it is unset, mutt will override any such real names
8808 with the setting of the $realname variable.
8810 3.220. rfc2047_parameters
8815 When this variable is set, Mutt will decode RFC2047-encoded MIME parameters.
8816 You want to set this variable when mutt suggests you to save attachments to
8819 =?iso-8859-1?Q?file=5F=E4=5F991116=2Ezip?=
8821 When this variable is set interactively, the change won't be active until you
8824 Note that this use of RFC2047's encoding is explicitly prohibited by the
8825 standard, but nevertheless encountered in the wild.
8827 Also note that setting this parameter will not have the effect that mutt
8828 generates this kind of encoding. Instead, mutt will unconditionally use the
8829 encoding specified in RFC2231.
8836 If set, mutt will take the sender's full address when choosing a default folder
8837 for saving a mail. If $save_name or $force_name is set too, the selection of
8838 the Fcc folder will be changed as well.
8845 When unset, mailboxes which contain no saved messages will be removed when
8846 closed (the exception is $spoolfile which is never removed). If set, mailboxes
8849 Note: This only applies to mbox and MMDF folders, Mutt does not delete MH and
8850 Maildir directories.
8857 This variable controls the size of the history (per category) saved in the
8865 This variable controls how copies of outgoing messages are saved. When set, a
8866 check is made to see if a mailbox specified by the recipient address exists
8867 (this is done by searching for a mailbox in the $folder directory with the
8868 username part of the recipient address). If the mailbox exists, the outgoing
8869 message will be saved to that mailbox, otherwise the message is saved to the
8872 Also see the $force_name variable.
8879 When this variable is unset, scoring is turned off. This can be useful to
8880 selectively disable scoring for certain folders when the
8881 $score_threshold_delete variable and related are used.
8883 3.226. score_threshold_delete
8888 Messages which have been assigned a score equal to or lower than the value of
8889 this variable are automatically marked for deletion by mutt. Since mutt scores
8890 are always greater than or equal to zero, the default setting of this variable
8891 will never mark a message for deletion.
8893 3.227. score_threshold_flag
8898 Messages which have been assigned a score greater than or equal to this
8899 variable's value are automatically marked "flagged".
8901 3.228. score_threshold_read
8906 Messages which have been assigned a score equal to or lower than the value of
8907 this variable are automatically marked as read by mutt. Since mutt scores are
8908 always greater than or equal to zero, the default setting of this variable will
8909 never mark a message read.
8911 3.229. search_context
8916 For the pager, this variable specifies the number of lines shown before search
8917 results. By default, search results will be top-aligned.
8922 Default: ?us-ascii:iso-8859-1:utf-8?
8924 A colon-delimited list of character sets for outgoing messages. Mutt will use
8925 the first character set into which the text can be converted exactly. If your
8926 $charset is not ?iso-8859-1? and recipients may not understand ?UTF-8?, it is
8927 advisable to include in the list an appropriate widely used standard character
8928 set (such as ?iso-8859-2?, ?koi8-r? or ?iso-2022-jp?) either instead of or
8931 In case the text cannot be converted into one of these exactly, mutt uses
8932 $charset as a fallback.
8937 Default: ?/usr/sbin/sendmail -oem -oi?
8939 Specifies the program and arguments used to deliver mail sent by Mutt. Mutt
8940 expects that the specified program interprets additional arguments as recipient
8943 3.232. sendmail_wait
8948 Specifies the number of seconds to wait for the $sendmail process to finish
8949 before giving up and putting delivery in the background.
8951 Mutt interprets the value of this variable as follows:
8953 +---------------------------------------------------------------------+
8954 |>0|number of seconds to wait for sendmail to finish before continuing|
8955 |--+------------------------------------------------------------------|
8956 |0 |wait forever for sendmail to finish |
8957 |--+------------------------------------------------------------------|
8958 |<0|always put sendmail in the background without waiting |
8959 +---------------------------------------------------------------------+
8961 Note that if you specify a value other than 0, the output of the child process
8962 will be put in a temporary file. If there is some error, you will be informed
8963 as to where to find the output.
8970 Command to use when spawning a subshell. By default, the user's login shell
8971 from /etc/passwd is used.
8978 If set, a line containing ?-- ? (note the trailing space) will be inserted
8979 before your $signature. It is strongly recommended that you not unset this
8980 variable unless your signature contains just your name. The reason for this is
8981 because many software packages use ?-- \n? to detect your signature. For
8982 example, Mutt has the ability to highlight the signature in a different color
8983 in the built-in pager.
8990 If set, the signature will be included before any quoted or forwarded text. It
8991 is strongly recommended that you do not set this variable unless you really
8992 know what you are doing, and are prepared to take some heat from netiquette
8998 Default: ?~/.signature?
9000 Specifies the filename of your signature, which is appended to all outgoing
9001 messages. If the filename ends with a pipe (?|?), it is assumed that filename
9002 is a shell command and input should be read from its standard output.
9004 3.237. simple_search
9007 Default: ?~f %s | ~s %s?
9009 Specifies how Mutt should expand a simple search into a real search pattern. A
9010 simple search is one that does not contain any of the ?~? pattern operators.
9011 See ?patterns? for more information on search patterns.
9013 For example, if you simply type ?joe? at a search or limit prompt, Mutt will
9014 automatically expand it to the value specified by this variable by replacing
9015 ?%s? with the supplied string. For the default value, ?joe? would be expanded
9016 to: ?~f joe | ~s joe?.
9023 Specifies time, in seconds, to pause while displaying certain informational
9024 messages, while moving from folder to folder and after expunging messages from
9025 the current folder. The default is to pause one second, so a value of zero for
9026 this option suppresses the pause.
9033 Controls the display of lines longer than the screen width in the internal
9034 pager. If set, long lines are wrapped at a word boundary. If unset, lines are
9035 simply wrapped at the screen edge. Also see the $markers variable.
9039 Type: regular expression
9040 Default: ?(>From )|(:[-^]?[][)(><}{|/DP])?
9042 The pager uses this variable to catch some common false positives of
9043 $quote_regexp, most notably smileys and not consider a line quoted text if it
9044 also matches $smileys. This mostly happens at the beginning of a line.
9046 3.241. smime_ask_cert_label
9051 This flag controls whether you want to be asked to enter a label for a
9052 certificate about to be added to the database or not. It is set by default. (S/
9055 3.242. smime_ca_location
9060 This variable contains the name of either a directory, or a file which contains
9061 trusted certificates for use with OpenSSL. (S/MIME only)
9063 3.243. smime_certificates
9068 Since for S/MIME there is no pubring/secring as with PGP, mutt has to handle
9069 storage and retrieval of keys by itself. This is very basic right now, and keys
9070 and certificates are stored in two different directories, both named as the
9071 hash-value retrieved from OpenSSL. There is an index file which contains
9072 mailbox-address keyid pairs, and which can be manually edited. This option
9073 points to the location of the certificates. (S/MIME only)
9075 3.244. smime_decrypt_command
9080 This format string specifies a command which is used to decrypt application/
9081 x-pkcs7-mime attachments.
9083 The OpenSSL command formats have their own set of printf(3)-like sequences
9086 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
9087 |%f|Expands to the name of a file containing a message. |
9088 |--+--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
9089 |%s|Expands to the name of a file containing the signature part of a multipart|
9090 | |/signed attachment when verifying it. |
9091 |--+--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
9092 |%k|The key-pair specified with $smime_default_key |
9093 |--+--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
9094 |%c|One or more certificate IDs. |
9095 |--+--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
9096 |%a|The algorithm used for encryption. |
9097 |--+--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
9098 | |CA location: Depending on whether $smime_ca_location points to a directory|
9099 |%C|or file, this expands to ?-CApath $smime_ca_location? or ?-CAfile |
9100 | |$smime_ca_location?. |
9101 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
9103 For examples on how to configure these formats, see the smime.rc in the samples
9104 / subdirectory which has been installed on your system alongside the
9105 documentation. (S/MIME only)
9107 3.245. smime_decrypt_use_default_key
9112 If set (default) this tells mutt to use the default key for decryption.
9113 Otherwise, if managing multiple certificate-key-pairs, mutt will try to use the
9114 mailbox-address to determine the key to use. It will ask you to supply a key,
9115 if it can't find one. (S/MIME only)
9117 3.246. smime_default_key
9122 This is the default key-pair to use for signing. This must be set to the keyid
9123 (the hash-value that OpenSSL generates) to work properly (S/MIME only)
9125 3.247. smime_encrypt_command
9130 This command is used to create encrypted S/MIME messages.
9132 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command for possible
9133 printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
9135 3.248. smime_encrypt_with
9140 This sets the algorithm that should be used for encryption. Valid choices are
9141 ?des?, ?des3?, ?rc2-40?, ?rc2-64?, ?rc2-128?. If unset, ?3des? (TripleDES) is
9144 3.249. smime_get_cert_command
9149 This command is used to extract X509 certificates from a PKCS7 structure.
9151 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command for possible
9152 printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
9154 3.250. smime_get_cert_email_command
9159 This command is used to extract the mail address(es) used for storing X509
9160 certificates, and for verification purposes (to check whether the certificate
9161 was issued for the sender's mailbox).
9163 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command for possible
9164 printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
9166 3.251. smime_get_signer_cert_command
9171 This command is used to extract only the signers X509 certificate from a S/MIME
9172 signature, so that the certificate's owner may get compared to the email's
9175 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command for possible
9176 printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
9178 3.252. smime_import_cert_command
9183 This command is used to import a certificate via smime_keys.
9185 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command for possible
9186 printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
9188 3.253. smime_is_default
9193 The default behavior of mutt is to use PGP on all auto-sign/encryption
9194 operations. To override and to use OpenSSL instead this must be set. However,
9195 this has no effect while replying, since mutt will automatically select the
9196 same application that was used to sign/encrypt the original message. (Note that
9197 this variable can be overridden by unsetting $crypt_autosmime.) (S/MIME only)
9204 Since for S/MIME there is no pubring/secring as with PGP, mutt has to handle
9205 storage and retrieval of keys/certs by itself. This is very basic right now,
9206 and stores keys and certificates in two different directories, both named as
9207 the hash-value retrieved from OpenSSL. There is an index file which contains
9208 mailbox-address keyid pair, and which can be manually edited. This option
9209 points to the location of the private keys. (S/MIME only)
9211 3.255. smime_pk7out_command
9216 This command is used to extract PKCS7 structures of S/MIME signatures, in order
9217 to extract the public X509 certificate(s).
9219 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command for possible
9220 printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
9222 3.256. smime_sign_command
9227 This command is used to created S/MIME signatures of type multipart/signed,
9228 which can be read by all mail clients.
9230 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command for possible
9231 printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
9233 3.257. smime_sign_opaque_command
9238 This command is used to created S/MIME signatures of type application/
9239 x-pkcs7-signature, which can only be handled by mail clients supporting the S/
9242 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command for possible
9243 printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
9245 3.258. smime_timeout
9250 The number of seconds after which a cached passphrase will expire if not used.
9253 3.259. smime_verify_command
9258 This command is used to verify S/MIME signatures of type multipart/signed.
9260 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command for possible
9261 printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
9263 3.260. smime_verify_opaque_command
9268 This command is used to verify S/MIME signatures of type application/
9271 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command for possible
9272 printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
9274 3.261. smtp_authenticators
9279 This is a colon-delimited list of authentication methods mutt may attempt to
9280 use to log in to an SMTP server, in the order mutt should try them.
9281 Authentication methods are any SASL mechanism, e.g. ?digest-md5?, ?gssapi? or
9282 ?cram-md5?. This option is case-insensitive. If it is ?unset? (the default)
9283 mutt will try all available methods, in order from most-secure to least-secure.
9287 set smtp_authenticators="digest-md5:cram-md5"
9294 Specifies the password for your SMTP account. If unset, Mutt will prompt you
9295 for your password when you first send mail via SMTP. See $smtp_url to configure
9296 mutt to send mail via SMTP.
9298 Warning: you should only use this option when you are on a fairly secure
9299 machine, because the superuser can read your muttrc even if you are the only
9300 one who can read the file.
9307 Defines the SMTP smarthost where sent messages should relayed for delivery.
9308 This should take the form of an SMTP URL, e.g.:
9310 smtp[s]://[user[:pass]@]host[:port]
9312 where ?[...]? denotes an optional part. Setting this variable overrides the
9313 value of the $sendmail variable.
9320 Specifies how to sort messages in the ?index? menu. Valid values are:
9328 * mailbox-order (unsorted)
9342 You may optionally use the ?reverse-? prefix to specify reverse sorting order
9343 (example: ?set sort=reverse-date-sent?).
9350 Specifies how the entries in the ?alias? menu are sorted. The following are
9353 * address (sort alphabetically by email address)
9355 * alias (sort alphabetically by alias name)
9357 * unsorted (leave in order specified in .muttrc)
9364 When sorting by threads, this variable controls how threads are sorted in
9365 relation to other threads, and how the branches of the thread trees are sorted.
9366 This can be set to any value that $sort can, except ?threads? (in that case,
9367 mutt will just use ?date-sent?). You can also specify the ?last-? prefix in
9368 addition to the ?reverse-? prefix, but ?last-? must come after ?reverse-?. The
9369 ?last-? prefix causes messages to be sorted against its siblings by which has
9370 the last descendant, using the rest of $sort_aux as an ordering. For instance,
9372 set sort_aux=last-date-received
9374 would mean that if a new message is received in a thread, that thread becomes
9375 the last one displayed (or the first, if you have ?set sort=reverse-threads?.)
9377 Note: For reversed $sort order $sort_aux is reversed again (which is not the
9378 right thing to do, but kept to not break any existing configuration setting).
9385 Specifies how to sort entries in the file browser. By default, the entries are
9386 sorted alphabetically. Valid values:
9388 * alpha (alphabetically)
9396 You may optionally use the ?reverse-? prefix to specify reverse sorting order
9397 (example: ?set sort_browser=reverse-date?).
9404 This variable is only useful when sorting by threads with $strict_threads unset
9405 . In that case, it changes the heuristic mutt uses to thread messages by
9406 subject. With $sort_re set, mutt will only attach a message as the child of
9407 another message by subject if the subject of the child message starts with a
9408 substring matching the setting of $reply_regexp. With $sort_re unset, mutt will
9409 attach the message whether or not this is the case, as long as the non-
9410 $reply_regexp parts of both messages are identical.
9412 3.269. spam_separator
9417 This variable controls what happens when multiple spam headers are matched: if
9418 unset, each successive header will overwrite any previous matches value for the
9419 spam label. If set, each successive match will append to the previous, using
9420 this variable's value as a separator.
9427 If your spool mailbox is in a non-default place where Mutt cannot find it, you
9428 can specify its location with this variable. Mutt will initially set this
9429 variable to the value of the environment variable $MAIL or $MAILDIR if either
9432 3.271. ssl_ca_certificates_file
9437 This variable specifies a file containing trusted CA certificates. Any server
9438 certificate that is signed with one of these CA certificates is also
9439 automatically accepted.
9443 set ssl_ca_certificates_file=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
9445 3.272. ssl_client_cert
9450 The file containing a client certificate and its associated private key.
9452 3.273. ssl_force_tls
9457 If this variable is set, Mutt will require that all connections to remote
9458 servers be encrypted. Furthermore it will attempt to negotiate TLS even if the
9459 server does not advertise the capability, since it would otherwise have to
9460 abort the connection anyway. This option supersedes $ssl_starttls.
9462 3.274. ssl_min_dh_prime_bits
9467 This variable specifies the minimum acceptable prime size (in bits) for use in
9468 any Diffie-Hellman key exchange. A value of 0 will use the default from the
9476 If set (the default), mutt will attempt to use STARTTLS on servers advertising
9477 the capability. When unset, mutt will not attempt to use STARTTLS regardless of
9478 the server's capabilities.
9480 3.276. ssl_use_sslv2
9485 This variable specifies whether to attempt to use SSLv2 in the SSL
9486 authentication process.
9488 3.277. ssl_use_sslv3
9493 This variable specifies whether to attempt to use SSLv3 in the SSL
9494 authentication process.
9496 3.278. ssl_use_tlsv1
9501 This variable specifies whether to attempt to use TLSv1 in the SSL
9502 authentication process.
9504 3.279. ssl_usesystemcerts
9509 If set to yes, mutt will use CA certificates in the system-wide certificate
9510 store when checking if a server certificate is signed by a trusted CA.
9512 3.280. ssl_verify_dates
9517 If set (the default), mutt will not automatically accept a server certificate
9518 that is either not yet valid or already expired. You should only unset this for
9519 particular known hosts, using the <account-hook> function.
9521 3.281. ssl_verify_host
9526 If set (the default), mutt will not automatically accept a server certificate
9527 whose host name does not match the host used in your folder URL. You should
9528 only unset this for particular known hosts, using the <account-hook> function.
9535 Controls the characters used by the ?%r? indicator in $status_format. The first
9536 character is used when the mailbox is unchanged. The second is used when the
9537 mailbox has been changed, and it needs to be resynchronized. The third is used
9538 if the mailbox is in read-only mode, or if the mailbox will not be written when
9539 exiting that mailbox (You can toggle whether to write changes to a mailbox with
9540 the <toggle-write> operation, bound by default to ?%?). The fourth is used to
9541 indicate that the current folder has been opened in attach- message mode
9542 (Certain operations like composing a new mail, replying, forwarding, etc. are
9543 not permitted in this mode).
9545 3.283. status_format
9548 Default: ?-%r-Mutt: %f [Msgs:%?M?%M/?%m%?n? New:%n?%?o? Old:%o?%?d? Del:%d?%?F?
9549 Flag:%F?%?t? Tag:%t?%?p? Post:%p?%?b? Inc:%b?%?l? %l?]---(%s/%S)-%>-(%P)---?
9551 Controls the format of the status line displayed in the ?index? menu. This
9552 string is similar to $index_format, but has its own set of printf(3)-like
9555 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
9556 |%b |number of mailboxes with new mail * |
9557 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
9558 |%d |number of deleted messages * |
9559 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
9560 |%f |the full pathname of the current mailbox |
9561 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
9562 |%F |number of flagged messages * |
9563 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
9564 |%h |local hostname |
9565 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
9566 |%l |size (in bytes) of the current mailbox * |
9567 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
9568 |%L |size (in bytes) of the messages shown (i.e., which match the current |
9570 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
9571 |%m |the number of messages in the mailbox * |
9572 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
9573 |%M |the number of messages shown (i.e., which match the current limit) * |
9574 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
9575 |%n |number of new messages in the mailbox * |
9576 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
9577 |%o |number of old unread messages * |
9578 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
9579 |%p |number of postponed messages * |
9580 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
9581 |%P |percentage of the way through the index |
9582 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
9583 |%r |modified/read-only/won't-write/attach-message indicator, according to |
9585 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
9586 |%s |current sorting mode ($sort) |
9587 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
9588 |%S |current aux sorting method ($sort_aux) |
9589 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
9590 |%t |number of tagged messages * |
9591 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
9592 |%u |number of unread messages * |
9593 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
9594 |%v |Mutt version string |
9595 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
9596 |%V |currently active limit pattern, if any * |
9597 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
9598 |%>X|right justify the rest of the string and pad with ?X? |
9599 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
9600 |%|X|pad to the end of the line with ?X? |
9601 |---+-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
9602 |%*X|soft-fill with character ?X? as pad |
9603 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
9605 For an explanation of ?soft-fill?, see the $index_format documentation.
9607 * = can be optionally printed if nonzero
9609 Some of the above sequences can be used to optionally print a string if their
9610 value is nonzero. For example, you may only want to see the number of flagged
9611 messages if such messages exist, since zero is not particularly meaningful. To
9612 optionally print a string based upon one of the above sequences, the following
9615 %?<sequence_char>?<optional_string>?
9617 where sequence_char is a character from the table above, and optional_string is
9618 the string you would like printed if sequence_char is nonzero. optional_string
9619 may contain other sequences as well as normal text, but you may not nest
9622 Here is an example illustrating how to optionally print the number of new
9623 messages in a mailbox:
9625 %?n?%n new messages.?
9627 You can also switch between two strings using the following construct:
9629 %?<sequence_char>?<if_string>&<else_string>?
9631 If the value of sequence_char is non-zero, if_string will be expanded,
9632 otherwise else_string will be expanded.
9634 You can force the result of any printf(3)-like sequence to be lowercase by
9635 prefixing the sequence character with an underscore (?_?) sign. For example, if
9636 you want to display the local hostname in lowercase, you would use: ?%_h?.
9638 If you prefix the sequence character with a colon (?:?) character, mutt will
9639 replace any dots in the expansion by underscores. This might be helpful with
9640 IMAP folders that don't like dots in folder names.
9642 3.284. status_on_top
9647 Setting this variable causes the ?status bar? to be displayed on the first line
9648 of the screen rather than near the bottom. If $help is set, too it'll be placed
9651 3.285. strict_threads
9656 If set, threading will only make use of the ?In-Reply-To? and ?References:?
9657 fields when you $sort by message threads. By default, messages with the same
9658 subject are grouped together in ?pseudo threads.?. This may not always be
9659 desirable, such as in a personal mailbox where you might have several unrelated
9660 messages with the subjects like ?hi? which will get grouped together. See also
9661 $sort_re for a less drastic way of controlling this behavior.
9668 When unset, mutt won't stop when the user presses the terminal's susp key,
9669 usually ?^Z?. This is useful if you run mutt inside an xterm using a command
9670 like ?xterm -e mutt?.
9677 When set, mutt will generate ?format=flowed? bodies with a content type of
9678 ?text/plain; format=flowed?. This format is easier to handle for some mailing
9679 software, and generally just looks like ordinary text. To actually make use of
9680 this format's features, you'll need support in your editor.
9682 Note that $indent_string is ignored when this option is set.
9684 3.288. thorough_search
9689 Affects the ~b and ~h search operations described in section ?patterns?. If set
9690 , the headers and body/attachments of messages to be searched are decoded
9691 before searching. If unset, messages are searched as they appear in the folder.
9693 Users searching attachments or for non-ASCII characters should set this value
9694 because decoding also includes MIME parsing/decoding and possible character set
9695 conversions. Otherwise mutt will attempt to match against the raw message
9696 received (for example quoted-printable encoded or with encoded headers) which
9697 may lead to incorrect search results.
9699 3.289. thread_received
9704 When set, mutt uses the date received rather than the date sent to thread
9705 messages by subject.
9712 When set, the internal-pager will pad blank lines to the bottom of the screen
9720 Along with $read_inc, $write_inc, and $net_inc, this variable controls the
9721 frequency with which progress updates are displayed. It suppresses updates less
9722 than $time_inc milliseconds apart. This can improve throughput on systems with
9723 slow terminals, or when running mutt on a remote system.
9725 Also see the ?tuning? section of the manual for performance considerations.
9732 When Mutt is waiting for user input either idling in menus or in an interactive
9733 prompt, Mutt would block until input is present. Depending on the context, this
9734 would prevent certain operations from working, like checking for new mail or
9735 keeping an IMAP connection alive.
9737 This variable controls how many seconds Mutt will at most wait until it aborts
9738 waiting for input, performs these operations and continues to wait for input.
9740 A value of zero or less will cause Mutt to never time out.
9747 This variable allows you to specify where Mutt will place its temporary files
9748 needed for displaying and composing messages. If this variable is not set, the
9749 environment variable $TMPDIR is used. If $TMPDIR is not set then ?/tmp? is
9757 Controls the character used to indicate mail addressed to you. The first
9758 character is the one used when the mail is not addressed to your address. The
9759 second is used when you are the only recipient of the message. The third is
9760 when your address appears in the ?To:? header field, but you are not the only
9761 recipient of the message. The fourth character is used when your address is
9762 specified in the ?Cc:? header field, but you are not the only recipient. The
9763 fifth character is used to indicate mail that was sent by you. The sixth
9764 character is used to indicate when a mail was sent to a mailing-list you
9772 Setting this variable will cause mutt to open a pipe to a command instead of a
9773 raw socket. You may be able to use this to set up preauthenticated connections
9774 to your IMAP/POP3/SMTP server. Example:
9776 set tunnel="ssh -q mailhost.net /usr/local/libexec/imapd"
9778 Note: For this example to work you must be able to log in to the remote machine
9779 without having to enter a password.
9781 When set, Mutt uses the tunnel for all remote connections. Please see ?
9782 account-hook? in the manual for how to use different tunnel commands per
9785 3.296. uncollapse_jump
9790 When set, Mutt will jump to the next unread message, if any, when the current
9791 thread is uncollapsed.
9798 Warning: do not set this variable unless you are using a version of sendmail
9799 which supports the -B8BITMIME flag (such as sendmail 8.8.x) or you may not be
9802 When set, Mutt will invoke $sendmail with the -B8BITMIME flag when sending
9803 8-bit messages to enable ESMTP negotiation.
9810 When set, Mutt will qualify all local addresses (ones without the ?@host?
9811 portion) with the value of $hostname. If unset, no addresses will be qualified.
9813 3.299. use_envelope_from
9818 When set, mutt will set the envelope sender of the message. If
9819 $envelope_from_address is set, it will be used as the sender address. If unset,
9820 mutt will attempt to derive the sender from the ?From:? header.
9822 Note that this information is passed to sendmail command using the -f command
9823 line switch. Therefore setting this option is not useful if the $sendmail
9824 variable already contains -f or if the executable pointed to by $sendmail
9825 doesn't support the -f switch.
9832 When set, Mutt will generate the ?From:? header field when sending messages. If
9833 unset, no ?From:? header field will be generated unless the user explicitly
9834 sets one using the ?my_hdr? command.
9841 When set, Mutt will show you international domain names decoded. Note: You can
9842 use IDNs for addresses even if this is unset. This variable only affects
9850 When set, Mutt will look for IPv6 addresses of hosts it tries to contact. If
9851 this option is unset, Mutt will restrict itself to IPv4 addresses. Normally,
9852 the default should work.
9859 When set, mutt will add a ?User-Agent:? header to outgoing messages, indicating
9860 which version of mutt was used for composing them.
9867 Specifies the visual editor to invoke when the ?~v? command is given in the
9875 Controls whether Mutt will ask you to press a key after an external command has
9876 been invoked by these functions: <shell-escape>, <pipe-message>, <pipe-entry>,
9877 <print-message>, and <print-entry> commands.
9879 It is also used when viewing attachments with ?auto_view?, provided that the
9880 corresponding mailcap entry has a needsterminal flag, and the external program
9883 When set, Mutt will always ask for a key. When unset, Mutt will wait for a key
9884 only if the external command returned a non-zero status.
9891 When set, mutt will weed headers when displaying, forwarding, printing, or
9892 replying to messages.
9899 When set to a positive value, mutt will wrap text at $wrap characters. When set
9900 to a negative value, mutt will wrap text so that there are $wrap characters of
9901 empty space on the right side of the terminal. Setting it to zero makes mutt
9902 wrap at the terminal width.
9909 This option specifies the number of characters to use for wrapping an outgoing
9910 message's headers. Allowed values are between 78 and 998 inclusive.
9912 Note: This option usually shouldn't be changed. RFC5233 recommends a line
9913 length of 78 (the default), so please only change this setting when you know
9921 Controls whether searches wrap around the end.
9923 When set, searches will wrap around the first (or last) item. When unset,
9924 incremental searches will not wrap.
9931 (DEPRECATED) Equivalent to setting $wrap with a negative value.
9938 Controls whether mutt writes out the ?Bcc:? header when preparing messages to
9939 be sent. Exim users may wish to unset this. If mutt is set to deliver directly
9940 via SMTP (see $smtp_url), this option does nothing: mutt will never write out
9941 the ?Bcc:? header in this case.
9948 When writing a mailbox, a message will be printed every $write_inc messages to
9949 indicate progress. If set to 0, only a single message will be displayed before
9952 Also see the $read_inc, $net_inc and $time_inc variables and the ?tuning?
9953 section of the manual for performance considerations.
9957 The following is the list of available functions listed by the mapping in which
9958 they are available. The default key setting is given, and an explanation of
9959 what the function does. The key bindings of these functions can be changed with
9964 The generic menu is not a real menu, but specifies common functions (such as
9965 movement) available in all menus except for pager and editor. Changing settings
9966 for this menu will affect the default bindings for all menus (except as noted).
9968 Table 9.2. Default Generic Menu Bindings
9970 +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
9971 | Function |Default key| Description |
9972 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9973 |<top-page> |H |move to the top of the page |
9974 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9975 |<next-entry> |j |move to the next entry |
9976 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9977 |<previous-entry> |k |move to the previous entry |
9978 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9979 |<bottom-page> |L |move to the bottom of the page |
9980 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9981 |<refresh> |^L |clear and redraw the screen |
9982 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9983 |<middle-page> |M |move to the middle of the page |
9984 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9985 |<search-next> |n |search for next match |
9986 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9987 |<exit> |q |exit this menu |
9988 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9989 |<tag-entry> |t |tag the current entry |
9990 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9991 |<next-page> |z |move to the next page |
9992 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9993 |<previous-page> |Z |move to the previous page |
9994 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9995 |<last-entry> |* |move to the last entry |
9996 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9997 |<first-entry> |= |move to the first entry |
9998 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
9999 |<enter-command> |: |enter a muttrc command |
10000 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
10001 |<next-line> |> |scroll down one line |
10002 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
10003 |<previous-line> |< |scroll up one line |
10004 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
10005 |<half-up> |[ |scroll up 1/2 page |
10006 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
10007 |<half-down> |] |scroll down 1/2 page |
10008 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
10009 |<help> |? |this screen |
10010 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
10011 |<tag-prefix> |; |apply next function to tagged messages |
10012 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
10013 |<tag-prefix-cond>| |apply next function ONLY to tagged messages|
10014 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
10015 |<end-cond> | |end of conditional execution (noop) |
10016 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
10017 |<shell-escape> |! |invoke a command in a subshell |
10018 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
10019 |<select-entry> |<Return> |select the current entry |
10020 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
10021 |<search> |/ |search for a regular expression |
10022 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
10023 |<search-reverse> |Esc / |search backwards for a regular expression |
10024 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
10025 |<search-opposite>| |search for next match in opposite direction|
10026 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
10027 |<jump> | |jump to an index number |
10028 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
10029 |<current-top> | |move entry to top of screen |
10030 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
10031 |<current-middle> | |move entry to middle of screen |
10032 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
10033 |<current-bottom> | |move entry to bottom of screen |
10034 |-----------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
10035 |<what-key> | |display the keycode for a key press |
10036 +-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
10041 Table 9.3. Default Index Menu Bindings
10043 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
10044 | Function | Default | Description |
10046 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10047 |<create-alias> |a |create an alias from a message sender |
10048 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10049 |<bounce-message> |b |remail a message to another user |
10050 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10051 |<break-thread> |# |break the thread in two |
10052 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10053 |<change-folder> |c |open a different folder |
10054 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10055 |<change-folder-readonly> |Esc c |open a different folder in read only |
10057 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10058 |<next-unread-mailbox> | |open next mailbox with new mail |
10059 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10060 |<collapse-thread> |Esc v |collapse/uncollapse current thread |
10061 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10062 |<collapse-all> |Esc V |collapse/uncollapse all threads |
10063 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10064 |<copy-message> |C |copy a message to a file/mailbox |
10065 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10066 |<decode-copy> |Esc C |make decoded (text/plain) copy |
10067 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10068 |<decode-save> |Esc s |make decoded copy (text/plain) and |
10070 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10071 |<delete-message> |d |delete the current entry |
10072 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10073 |<delete-pattern> |D |delete messages matching a pattern |
10074 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10075 |<delete-thread> |^D |delete all messages in thread |
10076 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10077 |<delete-subthread> |Esc d |delete all messages in subthread |
10078 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10079 |<edit> |e |edit the raw message |
10080 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10081 |<edit-type> |^E |edit attachment content type |
10082 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10083 |<forward-message> |f |forward a message with comments |
10084 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10085 |<flag-message> |F |toggle a message's 'important' flag |
10086 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10087 |<group-reply> |g |reply to all recipients |
10088 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10089 |<fetch-mail> |G |retrieve mail from POP server |
10090 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10091 |<imap-fetch-mail> | |force retrieval of mail from IMAP server|
10092 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10093 |<imap-logout-all> | |logout from all IMAP servers |
10094 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10095 |<display-toggle-weed> |h |display message and toggle header |
10097 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10098 |<next-undeleted> |j |move to the next undeleted message |
10099 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10100 |<previous-undeleted> |k |move to the previous undeleted message |
10101 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10102 |<limit> |l |show only messages matching a pattern |
10103 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10104 |<link-threads> |& |link tagged message to the current one |
10105 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10106 |<list-reply> |L |reply to specified mailing list |
10107 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10108 |<mail> |m |compose a new mail message |
10109 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10110 |<toggle-new> |N |toggle a message's 'new' flag |
10111 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10112 |<toggle-write> |% |toggle whether the mailbox will be |
10114 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10115 |<next-thread> |^N |jump to the next thread |
10116 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10117 |<next-subthread> |Esc n |jump to the next subthread |
10118 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10119 |<query> |Q |query external program for addresses |
10120 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10121 |<quit> |q |save changes to mailbox and quit |
10122 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10123 |<reply> |r |reply to a message |
10124 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10125 |<show-limit> |Esc l |show currently active limit pattern |
10126 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10127 |<sort-mailbox> |o |sort messages |
10128 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10129 |<sort-reverse> |O |sort messages in reverse order |
10130 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10131 |<print-message> |p |print the current entry |
10132 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10133 |<previous-thread> |^P |jump to previous thread |
10134 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10135 |<previous-subthread> |Esc p |jump to previous subthread |
10136 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10137 |<recall-message> |R |recall a postponed message |
10138 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10139 |<read-thread> |^R |mark the current thread as read |
10140 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10141 |<read-subthread> |Esc r |mark the current subthread as read |
10142 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10143 |<resend-message> |Esc e |use the current message as a template |
10144 | | |for a new one |
10145 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10146 |<save-message> |s |save message/attachment to a mailbox/ |
10148 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10149 |<tag-pattern> |T |tag messages matching a pattern |
10150 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10151 |<tag-subthread> | |tag the current subthread |
10152 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10153 |<tag-thread> |Esc t |tag the current thread |
10154 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10155 |<untag-pattern> |^T |untag messages matching a pattern |
10156 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10157 |<undelete-message> |u |undelete the current entry |
10158 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10159 |<undelete-pattern> |U |undelete messages matching a pattern |
10160 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10161 |<undelete-subthread> |Esc u |undelete all messages in subthread |
10162 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10163 |<undelete-thread> |^U |undelete all messages in thread |
10164 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10165 |<view-attachments> |v |show MIME attachments |
10166 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10167 |<show-version> |V |show the Mutt version number and date |
10168 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10169 |<set-flag> |w |set a status flag on a message |
10170 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10171 |<clear-flag> |W |clear a status flag from a message |
10172 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10173 |<display-message> |<Return> |display a message |
10174 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10175 |<buffy-list> |. |list mailboxes with new mail |
10176 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10177 |<sync-mailbox> |$ |save changes to mailbox |
10178 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10179 |<display-address> |@ |display full address of sender |
10180 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10181 |<pipe-message> || |pipe message/attachment to a shell |
10183 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10184 |<next-new> | |jump to the next new message |
10185 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10186 |<next-new-then-unread> |<Tab> |jump to the next new or unread message |
10187 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10188 |<previous-new> | |jump to the previous new message |
10189 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10190 |<previous-new-then-unread>|Esc <Tab>|jump to the previous new or unread |
10192 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10193 |<next-unread> | |jump to the next unread message |
10194 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10195 |<previous-unread> | |jump to the previous unread message |
10196 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10197 |<parent-message> |P |jump to parent message in thread |
10198 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10199 |<extract-keys> |^K |extract supported public keys |
10200 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10201 |<forget-passphrase> |^F |wipe passphrase(s) from memory |
10202 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10203 |<check-traditional-pgp> |Esc P |check for classic PGP |
10204 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10205 |<mail-key> |Esc k |mail a PGP public key |
10206 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10207 |<decrypt-copy> | |make decrypted copy |
10208 |--------------------------+---------+----------------------------------------|
10209 |<decrypt-save> | |make decrypted copy and delete |
10210 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
10215 Table 9.4. Default Pager Menu Bindings
10217 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
10218 | Function | Default | Description |
10220 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10221 |<break-thread> |# |break the thread in two |
10222 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10223 |<create-alias> |a |create an alias from a message sender |
10224 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10225 |<bounce-message> |b |remail a message to another user |
10226 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10227 |<change-folder> |c |open a different folder |
10228 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10229 |<change-folder-readonly>|Esc c |open a different folder in read only mode |
10230 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10231 |<next-unread-mailbox> | |open next mailbox with new mail |
10232 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10233 |<copy-message> |C |copy a message to a file/mailbox |
10234 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10235 |<decode-copy> |Esc C |make decoded (text/plain) copy |
10236 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10237 |<delete-message> |d |delete the current entry |
10238 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10239 |<delete-thread> |^D |delete all messages in thread |
10240 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10241 |<delete-subthread> |Esc d |delete all messages in subthread |
10242 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10243 |<set-flag> |w |set a status flag on a message |
10244 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10245 |<clear-flag> |W |clear a status flag from a message |
10246 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10247 |<edit> |e |edit the raw message |
10248 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10249 |<edit-type> |^E |edit attachment content type |
10250 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10251 |<forward-message> |f |forward a message with comments |
10252 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10253 |<flag-message> |F |toggle a message's 'important' flag |
10254 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10255 |<group-reply> |g |reply to all recipients |
10256 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10257 |<imap-fetch-mail> | |force retrieval of mail from IMAP server |
10258 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10259 |<imap-logout-all> | |logout from all IMAP servers |
10260 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10261 |<display-toggle-weed> |h |display message and toggle header weeding |
10262 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10263 |<next-undeleted> |j |move to the next undeleted message |
10264 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10265 |<next-entry> |J |move to the next entry |
10266 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10267 |<previous-undeleted> |k |move to the previous undeleted message |
10268 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10269 |<previous-entry> |K |move to the previous entry |
10270 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10271 |<link-threads> |& |link tagged message to the current one |
10272 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10273 |<list-reply> |L |reply to specified mailing list |
10274 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10275 |<redraw-screen> |^L |clear and redraw the screen |
10276 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10277 |<mail> |m |compose a new mail message |
10278 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10279 |<mark-as-new> |N |toggle a message's 'new' flag |
10280 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10281 |<search-next> |n |search for next match |
10282 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10283 |<next-thread> |^N |jump to the next thread |
10284 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10285 |<next-subthread> |Esc n |jump to the next subthread |
10286 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10287 |<sort-mailbox> |o |sort messages |
10288 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10289 |<sort-reverse> |O |sort messages in reverse order |
10290 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10291 |<print-message> |p |print the current entry |
10292 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10293 |<previous-thread> |^P |jump to previous thread |
10294 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10295 |<previous-subthread> |Esc p |jump to previous subthread |
10296 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10297 |<quit> |Q |save changes to mailbox and quit |
10298 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10299 |<exit> |q |exit this menu |
10300 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10301 |<reply> |r |reply to a message |
10302 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10303 |<recall-message> |R |recall a postponed message |
10304 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10305 |<read-thread> |^R |mark the current thread as read |
10306 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10307 |<read-subthread> |Esc r |mark the current subthread as read |
10308 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10309 |<resend-message> |Esc e |use the current message as a template for |
10311 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10312 |<save-message> |s |save message/attachment to a mailbox/file |
10313 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10314 |<skip-quoted> |S |skip beyond quoted text |
10315 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10316 |<decode-save> |Esc s |make decoded copy (text/plain) and delete |
10317 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10318 |<tag-message> |t |tag the current entry |
10319 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10320 |<toggle-quoted> |T |toggle display of quoted text |
10321 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10322 |<undelete-message> |u |undelete the current entry |
10323 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10324 |<undelete-subthread> |Esc u |undelete all messages in subthread |
10325 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10326 |<undelete-thread> |^U |undelete all messages in thread |
10327 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10328 |<view-attachments> |v |show MIME attachments |
10329 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10330 |<show-version> |V |show the Mutt version number and date |
10331 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10332 |<search-toggle> |\\ |toggle search pattern coloring |
10333 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10334 |<display-address> |@ |display full address of sender |
10335 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10336 |<next-new> | |jump to the next new message |
10337 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10338 |<pipe-message> || |pipe message/attachment to a shell command|
10339 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10340 |<help> |? |this screen |
10341 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10342 |<next-page> |<Space> |move to the next page |
10343 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10344 |<previous-page> |- |move to the previous page |
10345 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10346 |<top> |^ |jump to the top of the message |
10347 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10348 |<sync-mailbox> |$ |save changes to mailbox |
10349 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10350 |<shell-escape> |! |invoke a command in a subshell |
10351 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10352 |<enter-command> |: |enter a muttrc command |
10353 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10354 |<buffy-list> |. |list mailboxes with new mail |
10355 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10356 |<search> |/ |search for a regular expression |
10357 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10358 |<search-reverse> |Esc / |search backwards for a regular expression |
10359 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10360 |<search-opposite> | |search for next match in opposite |
10362 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10363 |<next-line> |<Return> |scroll down one line |
10364 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10365 |<jump> | |jump to an index number |
10366 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10367 |<next-unread> | |jump to the next unread message |
10368 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10369 |<previous-new> | |jump to the previous new message |
10370 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10371 |<previous-unread> | |jump to the previous unread message |
10372 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10373 |<half-up> | |scroll up 1/2 page |
10374 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10375 |<half-down> | |scroll down 1/2 page |
10376 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10377 |<previous-line> | |scroll up one line |
10378 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10379 |<bottom> | |jump to the bottom of the message |
10380 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10381 |<parent-message> |P |jump to parent message in thread |
10382 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10383 |<check-traditional-pgp> |Esc P |check for classic PGP |
10384 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10385 |<mail-key> |Esc k |mail a PGP public key |
10386 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10387 |<extract-keys> |^K |extract supported public keys |
10388 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10389 |<forget-passphrase> |^F |wipe passphrase(s) from memory |
10390 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10391 |<decrypt-copy> | |make decrypted copy |
10392 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10393 |<decrypt-save> | |make decrypted copy and delete |
10394 |------------------------+---------+------------------------------------------|
10395 |<what-key> | |display the keycode for a key press |
10396 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
10401 Table 9.5. Default Alias Menu Bindings
10403 +-------------------------------------------------------+
10404 | Function |Default key| Description |
10405 |----------------+-----------+--------------------------|
10406 |<delete-entry> |d |delete the current entry |
10407 |----------------+-----------+--------------------------|
10408 |<undelete-entry>|u |undelete the current entry|
10409 +-------------------------------------------------------+
10414 Table 9.6. Default Query Menu Bindings
10416 +----------------------------------------------------------------------+
10417 | Function |Default key| Description |
10418 |--------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
10419 |<create-alias>|a |create an alias from a message sender |
10420 |--------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
10421 |<mail> |m |compose a new mail message |
10422 |--------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
10423 |<query> |Q |query external program for addresses |
10424 |--------------+-----------+-------------------------------------------|
10425 |<query-append>|A |append new query results to current results|
10426 +----------------------------------------------------------------------+
10429 4.6. Attachment Menu
10431 Table 9.7. Default Attachment Menu Bindings
10433 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
10434 | Function | Default | Description |
10436 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
10437 |<bounce-message> |b |remail a message to another user |
10438 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
10439 |<display-toggle-weed> |h |display message and toggle header weeding |
10440 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
10441 |<edit-type> |^E |edit attachment content type |
10442 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
10443 |<print-entry> |p |print the current entry |
10444 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
10445 |<save-entry> |s |save message/attachment to a mailbox/file |
10446 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
10447 |<pipe-entry> || |pipe message/attachment to a shell command |
10448 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
10449 |<view-mailcap> |m |force viewing of attachment using mailcap |
10450 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
10451 |<reply> |r |reply to a message |
10452 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
10453 |<resend-message> |Esc e |use the current message as a template for a|
10455 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
10456 |<group-reply> |g |reply to all recipients |
10457 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
10458 |<list-reply> |L |reply to specified mailing list |
10459 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
10460 |<forward-message> |f |forward a message with comments |
10461 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
10462 |<view-text> |T |view attachment as text |
10463 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
10464 |<view-attach> |<Return> |view attachment using mailcap entry if |
10466 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
10467 |<delete-entry> |d |delete the current entry |
10468 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
10469 |<undelete-entry> |u |undelete the current entry |
10470 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
10471 |<collapse-parts> |v |Toggle display of subparts |
10472 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
10473 |<check-traditional-pgp>|Esc P |check for classic PGP |
10474 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
10475 |<extract-keys> |^K |extract supported public keys |
10476 |-----------------------+---------+-------------------------------------------|
10477 |<forget-passphrase> |^F |wipe passphrase(s) from memory |
10478 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
10483 Table 9.8. Default Compose Menu Bindings
10485 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
10486 | Function | Default | Description |
10488 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10489 |<attach-file> |a |attach file(s) to this message |
10490 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10491 |<attach-message> |A |attach message(s) to this message |
10492 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10493 |<edit-bcc> |b |edit the BCC list |
10494 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10495 |<edit-cc> |c |edit the CC list |
10496 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10497 |<copy-file> |C |save message/attachment to a mailbox/file |
10498 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10499 |<detach-file> |D |delete the current entry |
10500 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10501 |<toggle-disposition> |^D |toggle disposition between inline/attachment|
10502 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10503 |<edit-description> |d |edit attachment description |
10504 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10505 |<edit-message> |e |edit the message |
10506 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10507 |<edit-headers> |E |edit the message with headers |
10508 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10509 |<edit-file> |^X e |edit the file to be attached |
10510 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10511 |<edit-encoding> |^E |edit attachment transfer-encoding |
10512 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10513 |<edit-from> |Esc f |edit the from field |
10514 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10515 |<edit-fcc> |f |enter a file to save a copy of this message |
10517 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10518 |<filter-entry> |F |filter attachment through a shell command |
10519 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10520 |<get-attachment> |G |get a temporary copy of an attachment |
10521 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10522 |<display-toggle-weed>|h |display message and toggle header weeding |
10523 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10524 |<ispell> |i |run ispell on the message |
10525 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10526 |<print-entry> |l |print the current entry |
10527 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10528 |<edit-mime> |m |edit attachment using mailcap entry |
10529 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10530 |<new-mime> |n |compose new attachment using mailcap entry |
10531 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10532 |<postpone-message> |P |save this message to send later |
10533 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10534 |<edit-reply-to> |r |edit the Reply-To field |
10535 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10536 |<rename-file> |R |rename/move an attached file |
10537 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10538 |<edit-subject> |s |edit the subject of this message |
10539 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10540 |<edit-to> |t |edit the TO list |
10541 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10542 |<edit-type> |^T |edit attachment content type |
10543 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10544 |<write-fcc> |w |write the message to a folder |
10545 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10546 |<toggle-unlink> |u |toggle whether to delete file after sending |
10548 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10549 |<toggle-recode> | |toggle recoding of this attachment |
10550 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10551 |<update-encoding> |U |update an attachment's encoding info |
10552 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10553 |<view-attach> |<Return> |view attachment using mailcap entry if |
10555 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10556 |<send-message> |y |send the message |
10557 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10558 |<pipe-entry> || |pipe message/attachment to a shell command |
10559 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10560 |<attach-key> |Esc k |attach a PGP public key |
10561 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10562 |<pgp-menu> |p |show PGP options |
10563 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10564 |<forget-passphrase> |^F |wipe passphrase(s) from memory |
10565 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10566 |<smime-menu> |S |show S/MIME options |
10567 |---------------------+----------+--------------------------------------------|
10568 |<mix> |M |send the message through a mixmaster |
10569 | | |remailer chain |
10570 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
10575 Table 9.9. Default Postpone Menu Bindings
10577 +-------------------------------------------------------+
10578 | Function |Default key| Description |
10579 |----------------+-----------+--------------------------|
10580 |<delete-entry> |d |delete the current entry |
10581 |----------------+-----------+--------------------------|
10582 |<undelete-entry>|u |undelete the current entry|
10583 +-------------------------------------------------------+
10588 Table 9.10. Default Browser Menu Bindings
10590 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
10591 | Function | Default | Description |
10593 |-------------------+----------+----------------------------------------------|
10594 |<change-dir> |c |change directories |
10595 |-------------------+----------+----------------------------------------------|
10596 |<display-filename> |@ |display the currently selected file's name |
10597 |-------------------+----------+----------------------------------------------|
10598 |<enter-mask> |m |enter a file mask |
10599 |-------------------+----------+----------------------------------------------|
10600 |<sort> |o |sort messages |
10601 |-------------------+----------+----------------------------------------------|
10602 |<sort-reverse> |O |sort messages in reverse order |
10603 |-------------------+----------+----------------------------------------------|
10604 |<select-new> |N |select a new file in this directory |
10605 |-------------------+----------+----------------------------------------------|
10606 |<check-new> | |check mailboxes for new mail |
10607 |-------------------+----------+----------------------------------------------|
10608 |<toggle-mailboxes> |<Tab> |toggle whether to browse mailboxes or all |
10610 |-------------------+----------+----------------------------------------------|
10611 |<view-file> |<Space> |view file |
10612 |-------------------+----------+----------------------------------------------|
10613 |<buffy-list> |. |list mailboxes with new mail |
10614 |-------------------+----------+----------------------------------------------|
10615 |<create-mailbox> |C |create a new mailbox (IMAP only) |
10616 |-------------------+----------+----------------------------------------------|
10617 |<delete-mailbox> |d |delete the current mailbox (IMAP only) |
10618 |-------------------+----------+----------------------------------------------|
10619 |<rename-mailbox> |r |rename the current mailbox (IMAP only) |
10620 |-------------------+----------+----------------------------------------------|
10621 |<subscribe> |s |subscribe to current mailbox (IMAP only) |
10622 |-------------------+----------+----------------------------------------------|
10623 |<unsubscribe> |u |unsubscribe from current mailbox (IMAP only) |
10624 |-------------------+----------+----------------------------------------------|
10625 |<toggle-subscribed>|T |toggle view all/subscribed mailboxes (IMAP |
10627 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
10632 Table 9.11. Default Pgp Menu Bindings
10634 +------------------------------------------------+
10635 | Function |Default key| Description |
10636 |------------+-----------+-----------------------|
10637 |<verify-key>|c |verify a PGP public key|
10638 |------------+-----------+-----------------------|
10639 |<view-name> |% |view the key's user id |
10640 +------------------------------------------------+
10645 Table 9.12. Default Smime Menu Bindings
10647 +------------------------------------------------+
10648 | Function |Default key| Description |
10649 |------------+-----------+-----------------------|
10650 |<verify-key>|c |verify a PGP public key|
10651 |------------+-----------+-----------------------|
10652 |<view-name> |% |view the key's user id |
10653 +------------------------------------------------+
10656 4.12. Mixmaster Menu
10658 Table 9.13. Default Mixmaster Menu Bindings
10660 +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
10661 | Function |Default key| Description |
10662 |------------+-----------+----------------------------------------|
10663 |<accept> |<Return> |Accept the chain constructed |
10664 |------------+-----------+----------------------------------------|
10665 |<append> |a |Append a remailer to the chain |
10666 |------------+-----------+----------------------------------------|
10667 |<insert> |i |Insert a remailer into the chain |
10668 |------------+-----------+----------------------------------------|
10669 |<delete> |d |Delete a remailer from the chain |
10670 |------------+-----------+----------------------------------------|
10671 |<chain-prev>|<Left> |Select the previous element of the chain|
10672 |------------+-----------+----------------------------------------|
10673 |<chain-next>|<Right> |Select the next element of the chain |
10674 +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
10679 Table 9.14. Default Editor Menu Bindings
10681 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
10682 | Function |Default key| Description |
10683 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10684 |<bol> |^A |jump to the beginning of the line |
10685 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10686 |<backward-char> |^B |move the cursor one character to the left |
10687 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10688 |<backward-word> |Esc b |move the cursor to the beginning of the word |
10689 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10690 |<capitalize-word>|Esc c |capitalize the word |
10691 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10692 |<downcase-word> |Esc l |convert the word to lower case |
10693 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10694 |<upcase-word> |Esc u |convert the word to upper case |
10695 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10696 |<delete-char> |^D |delete the char under the cursor |
10697 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10698 |<eol> |^E |jump to the end of the line |
10699 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10700 |<forward-char> |^F |move the cursor one character to the right |
10701 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10702 |<forward-word> |Esc f |move the cursor to the end of the word |
10703 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10704 |<backspace> |<Backspace>|delete the char in front of the cursor |
10705 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10706 |<kill-eol> |^K |delete chars from cursor to end of line |
10707 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10708 |<kill-eow> |Esc d |delete chars from the cursor to the end of the |
10710 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10711 |<kill-line> |^U |delete all chars on the line |
10712 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10713 |<quote-char> |^V |quote the next typed key |
10714 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10715 |<kill-word> |^W |delete the word in front of the cursor |
10716 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10717 |<complete> |<Tab> |complete filename or alias |
10718 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10719 |<complete-query> |^T |complete address with query |
10720 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10721 |<buffy-cycle> |<Space> |cycle among incoming mailboxes |
10722 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10723 |<history-up> | |scroll up through the history list |
10724 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10725 |<history-down> | |scroll down through the history list |
10726 |-----------------+-----------+-----------------------------------------------|
10727 |<transpose-chars>| |transpose character under cursor with previous |
10728 +-----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
10731 Chapter 10. Miscellany
10735 1. Acknowledgements
10736 2. About This Document
10738 1. Acknowledgements
10740 Kari Hurtta <kari.hurtta@fmi.fi> co-developed the original MIME parsing code
10741 back in the ELM-ME days.
10743 The following people have been very helpful to the development of Mutt:
10745 * Vikas Agnihotri <vikasa@writeme.com>
10747 * Francois Berjon <Francois.Berjon@aar.alcatel-alsthom.fr>
10749 * Aric Blumer <aric@fore.com>
10751 * John Capo <jc@irbs.com>
10753 * David Champion <dgc@uchicago.edu>
10755 * Brendan Cully <brendan@kublai.com>
10757 * Liviu Daia <daia@stoilow.imar.ro>
10759 * Thomas E. Dickey <dickey@herndon4.his.com>
10761 * David DeSimone <fox@convex.hp.com>
10763 * Nickolay N. Dudorov <nnd@wint.itfs.nsk.su>
10765 * Ruslan Ermilov <ru@freebsd.org>
10767 * Edmund Grimley Evans <edmundo@rano.org>
10769 * Michael Finken <finken@conware.de>
10771 * Sven Guckes <guckes@math.fu-berlin.de>
10773 * Lars Hecking <lhecking@nmrc.ie>
10775 * Mark Holloman <holloman@nando.net>
10777 * Andreas Holzmann <holzmann@fmi.uni-passau.de>
10779 * Marco d'Itri <md@linux.it>
10781 * Bj?rn Jacke <bjacke@suse.com>
10783 * Byrial Jensen <byrial@image.dk>
10785 * David Jeske <jeske@igcom.net>
10787 * Christophe Kalt <kalt@hugo.int-evry.fr>
10789 * Tommi Komulainen <Tommi.Komulainen@iki.fi>
10791 * Felix von Leitner (a.k.a ?Fefe?) <leitner@math.fu-berlin.de>
10793 * Brandon Long <blong@fiction.net>
10795 * Jimmy M?kel? <jmy@flashback.net>
10797 * Lars Marowsky-Bree <lmb@pointer.in-minden.de>
10799 * Thomas ?Mike? Michlmayr <mike@cosy.sbg.ac.at>
10801 * Andrew W. Nosenko <awn@bcs.zp.ua>
10803 * David O'Brien <obrien@Nuxi.cs.ucdavis.edu>
10805 * Clint Olsen <olsenc@ichips.intel.com>
10807 * Park Myeong Seok <pms@romance.kaist.ac.kr>
10809 * Thomas Parmelan <tom@ankh.fr.eu.org>
10811 * Ollivier Robert <roberto@keltia.freenix.fr>
10813 * Thomas Roessler <roessler@does-not-exist.org>
10815 * Roland Rosenfeld <roland@spinnaker.de>
10817 * Rocco Rutte <pdmef@gmx.net>
10819 * TAKIZAWA Takashi <taki@luna.email.ne.jp>
10821 * Allain Thivillon <Allain.Thivillon@alma.fr>
10823 * Gero Treuner <gero@70t.de>
10825 * Vsevolod Volkov <vvv@lucky.net>
10827 * Ken Weinert <kenw@ihs.com>
10829 2. About This Document
10831 This document was written in DocBook, and then rendered using the Gnome XSLT
projects / software / mutt-debian.git / blob