+<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /><title>Chapter 2. Getting Started</title><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.75.2" /><link rel="home" href="index.html" title="The Mutt E-Mail Client" /><link rel="up" href="index.html" title="The Mutt E-Mail Client" /><link rel="prev" href="intro.html" title="Chapter 1. Introduction" /><link rel="next" href="configuration.html" title="Chapter 3. Configuration" /><style xmlns="" type="text/css">
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+.command strong { font-weight: normal; }
+tr { vertical-align: top; }
+.comment { color:#707070; }
+
+ </style></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">Chapter 2. Getting Started</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="intro.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center"> </th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="configuration.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr /></div><div class="chapter" title="Chapter 2. Getting Started"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title"><a id="gettingstarted"></a>Chapter 2. Getting Started</h2></div></div></div><div class="toc"><p><b>Table of Contents</b></p><dl><dt><span class="sect1"><a href="gettingstarted.html#core-concepts">1. Core Concepts</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect1"><a href="gettingstarted.html#concept-screens-and-menus">2. Screens and Menus</a></span></dt><dd><dl><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="gettingstarted.html#intro-index">2.1. Index</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="gettingstarted.html#intro-pager">2.2. Pager</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="gettingstarted.html#intro-browser">2.3. File Browser</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="gettingstarted.html#intro-help">2.4. Help</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="gettingstarted.html#intro-compose">2.5. Compose Menu</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="gettingstarted.html#intro-alias">2.6. Alias Menu</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="gettingstarted.html#intro-attach">2.7. Attachment Menu</a></span></dt></dl></dd><dt><span class="sect1"><a href="gettingstarted.html#menus">3. Moving Around in Menus</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect1"><a href="gettingstarted.html#editing">4. Editing Input Fields</a></span></dt><dd><dl><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="gettingstarted.html#editing-intro">4.1. Introduction</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="gettingstarted.html#editing-history">4.2. History</a></span></dt></dl></dd><dt><span class="sect1"><a href="gettingstarted.html#reading">5. Reading Mail</a></span></dt><dd><dl><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="gettingstarted.html#index-menu">5.1. The Message Index</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="gettingstarted.html#pager-menu">5.2. The Pager</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="gettingstarted.html#threads">5.3. Threaded Mode</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="gettingstarted.html#reading-misc">5.4. Miscellaneous Functions</a></span></dt></dl></dd><dt><span class="sect1"><a href="gettingstarted.html#sending">6. Sending Mail</a></span></dt><dd><dl><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="gettingstarted.html#sending-intro">6.1. Introduction</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="gettingstarted.html#edit-header">6.2. Editing the Message Header</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="gettingstarted.html#sending-crypto">6.3. Sending Cryptographically Signed/Encrypted Messages</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="gettingstarted.html#ff">6.4. Sending Format=Flowed Messages</a></span></dt></dl></dd><dt><span class="sect1"><a href="gettingstarted.html#forwarding-mail">7. Forwarding and Bouncing Mail</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect1"><a href="gettingstarted.html#postponing-mail">8. Postponing Mail</a></span></dt></dl></div><p>
+This section is intended as a brief overview of how to use Mutt. There
+are many other features which are described elsewhere in the manual.
+There is even more information available in the Mutt FAQ and various web
+pages. See the <a class="ulink" href="http://www.mutt.org/" target="_top">Mutt homepage</a>
+for more details.
+</p><p>
+The keybindings described in this section are the defaults as
+distributed. Your local system administrator may have altered the
+defaults for your site. You can always type <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">?</span>”</span> in any
+menu to display the current bindings.
+</p><p>
+The first thing you need to do is invoke Mutt, simply by typing
+<code class="literal">mutt</code> at the command line. There are various
+command-line options, see either the Mutt man page or the <a class="link" href="reference.html#commandline" title="1. Command-Line Options">reference</a>.
+</p><div class="sect1" title="1. Core Concepts"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a id="core-concepts"></a>1. Core Concepts</h2></div></div></div><p>
+Mutt is a text-based application which interacts with users through
+different menus which are mostly line-/entry-based or page-based. A
+line-based menu is the so-called <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">index</span>”</span> menu (listing all
+messages of the currently opened folder) or the <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">alias</span>”</span>
+menu (allowing you to select recipients from a list). Examples for
+page-based menus are the <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">pager</span>”</span> (showing one message at a
+time) or the <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">help</span>”</span> menu listing all available key
+bindings.
+</p><p>
+The user interface consists of a context sensitive help line at the top,
+the menu's contents followed by a context sensitive status line and
+finally the command line. The command line is used to display
+informational and error messages as well as for prompts and for entering
+interactive commands.
+</p><p>
+Mutt is configured through variables which, if the user wants to
+permanently use a non-default value, are written to configuration
+files. Mutt supports a rich config file syntax to make even complex
+configuration files readable and commentable.
+</p><p>
+Because Mutt allows for customizing almost all key bindings, there are
+so-called <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">functions</span>”</span> which can be executed manually (using
+the command line) or in macros. Macros allow the user to bind a sequence
+of commands to a single key or a short key sequence instead of repeating
+a sequence of actions over and over.
+</p><p>
+Many commands (such as saving or copying a message to another folder)
+can be applied to a single message or a set of messages (so-called
+<span class="quote">“<span class="quote">tagged</span>”</span> messages). To help selecting messages, Mutt
+provides a rich set of message patterns (such as recipients, sender,
+body contents, date sent/received, etc.) which can be combined into
+complex expressions using the boolean <span class="emphasis"><em>and</em></span> and
+<span class="emphasis"><em>or</em></span> operations as well as negating. These patterns
+can also be used to (for example) search for messages or to limit the
+index to show only matching messages.
+</p><p>
+Mutt supports a <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">hook</span>”</span> concept which allows the user to
+execute arbitrary configuration commands and functions in certain
+situations such as entering a folder, starting a new message or replying
+to an existing one. These hooks can be used to highly customize Mutt's
+behavior including managing multiple identities, customizing the
+display for a folder or even implementing auto-archiving based on a
+per-folder basis and much more.
+</p><p>
+Besides an interactive mode, Mutt can also be used as a command-line
+tool only send messages. It also supports a
+<code class="literal">mailx(1)</code>-compatible interface, see <a class="xref" href="reference.html#tab-commandline-options" title="Table 9.1. Command line options">Table 9.1, “Command line options”</a> for a complete list of command-line
+options.
+</p></div><div class="sect1" title="2. Screens and Menus"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a id="concept-screens-and-menus"></a>2. Screens and Menus</h2></div></div></div><div class="sect2" title="2.1. Index"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a id="intro-index"></a>2.1. Index</h3></div></div></div><p>
+The index is the screen that you usually see first when you start
+Mutt. It gives an overview over your emails in the currently opened
+mailbox. By default, this is your system mailbox. The information you
+see in the index is a list of emails, each with its number on the left,
+its flags (new email, important email, email that has been forwarded or
+replied to, tagged email, ...), the date when email was sent, its
+sender, the email size, and the subject. Additionally, the index also
+shows thread hierarchies: when you reply to an email, and the other
+person replies back, you can see the other person's email in a
+"sub-tree" below. This is especially useful for personal email between
+a group of people or when you've subscribed to mailing lists.
+</p></div><div class="sect2" title="2.2. Pager"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a id="intro-pager"></a>2.2. Pager</h3></div></div></div><p>
+The pager is responsible for showing the email content. On the top of
+the pager you have an overview over the most important email headers
+like the sender, the recipient, the subject, and much more
+information. How much information you actually see depends on your
+configuration, which we'll describe below.
+</p><p>
+Below the headers, you see the email body which usually contains the
+message. If the email contains any attachments, you will see more
+information about them below the email body, or, if the attachments are
+text files, you can view them directly in the pager.
+</p><p>
+To give the user a good overview, it is possible to configure Mutt to
+show different things in the pager with different colors. Virtually
+everything that can be described with a regular expression can be
+colored, e.g. URLs, email addresses or smileys.
+</p></div><div class="sect2" title="2.3. File Browser"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a id="intro-browser"></a>2.3. File Browser</h3></div></div></div><p>
+The file browser is the interface to the local or remote file
+system. When selecting a mailbox to open, the browser allows custom
+sorting of items, limiting the items shown by a regular expression and a
+freely adjustable format of what to display in which way. It also allows
+for easy navigation through the file system when selecting file(s) to
+attach to a message, select multiple files to attach and many more.
+</p></div><div class="sect2" title="2.4. Help"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a id="intro-help"></a>2.4. Help</h3></div></div></div><p>
+The help screen is meant to offer a quick help to the user. It lists the
+current configuration of key bindings and their associated commands
+including a short description, and currently unbound functions that
+still need to be associated with a key binding (or alternatively, they
+can be called via the Mutt command prompt).
+</p></div><div class="sect2" title="2.5. Compose Menu"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a id="intro-compose"></a>2.5. Compose Menu</h3></div></div></div><p>
+The compose menu features a split screen containing the information
+which really matter before actually sending a message by mail: who gets
+the message as what (recipients and who gets what kind of
+copy). Additionally, users may set security options like deciding
+whether to sign, encrypt or sign and encrypt a message with/for what
+keys. Also, it's used to attach messages, to re-edit any attachment
+including the message itself.
+</p></div><div class="sect2" title="2.6. Alias Menu"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a id="intro-alias"></a>2.6. Alias Menu</h3></div></div></div><p>
+The alias menu is used to help users finding the recipients of
+messages. For users who need to contact many people, there's no need to
+remember addresses or names completely because it allows for searching,
+too. The alias mechanism and thus the alias menu also features grouping
+several addresses by a shorter nickname, the actual alias, so that users
+don't have to select each single recipient manually.
+</p></div><div class="sect2" title="2.7. Attachment Menu"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a id="intro-attach"></a>2.7. Attachment Menu</h3></div></div></div><p>
+As will be later discussed in detail, Mutt features a good and stable
+MIME implementation, that is, it supports sending and receiving messages
+of arbitrary MIME types. The attachment menu displays a message's
+structure in detail: what content parts are attached to which parent
+part (which gives a true tree structure), which type is of what type and
+what size. Single parts may saved, deleted or modified to offer great
+and easy access to message's internals.
+</p></div></div><div class="sect1" title="3. Moving Around in Menus"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a id="menus"></a>3. Moving Around in Menus</h2></div></div></div><p>
+The most important navigation keys common to line- or entry-based menus
+are shown in <a class="xref" href="gettingstarted.html#tab-keys-nav-line" title="Table 2.1. Most common navigation keys in entry-based menus">Table 2.1, “Most common navigation keys in entry-based menus”</a> and in <a class="xref" href="gettingstarted.html#tab-keys-nav-page" title="Table 2.2. Most common navigation keys in page-based menus">Table 2.2, “Most common navigation keys in page-based menus”</a> for page-based menus.
+</p><div class="table"><a id="tab-keys-nav-line"></a><p class="title"><b>Table 2.1. Most common navigation keys in entry-based menus</b></p><div class="table-contents"><table summary="Most common navigation keys in entry-based menus" border="1"><colgroup><col /><col /><col /></colgroup><thead><tr><th>Key</th><th>Function</th><th>Description</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>j or <Down></td><td><code class="literal"><next-entry></code></td><td>move to the next entry</td></tr><tr><td>k or <Up></td><td><code class="literal"><previous-entry></code></td><td>move to the previous entry</td></tr><tr><td>z or <PageDn></td><td><code class="literal"><page-down></code></td><td>go to the next page</td></tr><tr><td>Z or <PageUp></td><td><code class="literal"><page-up></code></td><td>go to the previous page</td></tr><tr><td>= or <Home></td><td><code class="literal"><first-entry></code></td><td>jump to the first entry</td></tr><tr><td>* or <End></td><td><code class="literal"><last-entry></code></td><td>jump to the last entry</td></tr><tr><td>q</td><td><code class="literal"><quit></code></td><td>exit the current menu</td></tr><tr><td>?</td><td><code class="literal"><help></code></td><td>list all keybindings for the current menu</td></tr></tbody></table></div></div><br class="table-break" /><div class="table"><a id="tab-keys-nav-page"></a><p class="title"><b>Table 2.2. Most common navigation keys in page-based menus</b></p><div class="table-contents"><table summary="Most common navigation keys in page-based menus" border="1"><colgroup><col /><col /><col /></colgroup><thead><tr><th>Key</th><th>Function</th><th>Description</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>J or <Return></td><td><code class="literal"><next-line></code></td><td>scroll down one line</td></tr><tr><td><Backspace></td><td><code class="literal"><previous-line></code></td><td>scroll up one line</td></tr><tr><td>K, <Space> or <PageDn></td><td><code class="literal"><next-page></code></td><td>move to the next page</td></tr><tr><td>- or <PageUp></td><td><code class="literal"><previous-page></code></td><td>move the previous page</td></tr><tr><td><Home></td><td><code class="literal"><top></code></td><td>move to the top</td></tr><tr><td><End></td><td><code class="literal"><bottom></code></td><td>move to the bottom</td></tr></tbody></table></div></div><br class="table-break" /></div><div class="sect1" title="4. Editing Input Fields"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a id="editing"></a>4. Editing Input Fields</h2></div></div></div><div class="sect2" title="4.1. Introduction"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a id="editing-intro"></a>4.1. Introduction</h3></div></div></div><p>
+Mutt has a built-in line editor for inputting text, e.g. email addresses
+or filenames. The keys used to manipulate text input are very similar to
+those of Emacs. See <a class="xref" href="gettingstarted.html#tab-keys-editor" title="Table 2.3. Most common line editor keys">Table 2.3, “Most common line editor keys”</a> for a full
+reference of available functions, their default key bindings, and short
+descriptions.
+</p><div class="table"><a id="tab-keys-editor"></a><p class="title"><b>Table 2.3. Most common line editor keys</b></p><div class="table-contents"><table summary="Most common line editor keys" border="1"><colgroup><col /><col /><col /></colgroup><thead><tr><th>Key</th><th>Function</th><th>Description</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>^A or <Home></td><td><code class="literal"><bol></code></td><td>move to the start of the line</td></tr><tr><td>^B or <Left></td><td><code class="literal"><backward-char></code></td><td>move back one char</td></tr><tr><td>Esc B</td><td><code class="literal"><backward-word></code></td><td>move back one word</td></tr><tr><td>^D or <Delete></td><td><code class="literal"><delete-char></code></td><td>delete the char under the cursor</td></tr><tr><td>^E or <End></td><td><code class="literal"><eol></code></td><td>move to the end of the line</td></tr><tr><td>^F or <Right></td><td><code class="literal"><forward-char></code></td><td>move forward one char</td></tr><tr><td>Esc F</td><td><code class="literal"><forward-word></code></td><td>move forward one word</td></tr><tr><td><Tab></td><td><code class="literal"><complete></code></td><td>complete filename or alias</td></tr><tr><td>^T</td><td><code class="literal"><complete-query></code></td><td>complete address with query</td></tr><tr><td>^K</td><td><code class="literal"><kill-eol></code></td><td>delete to the end of the line</td></tr><tr><td>Esc d</td><td><code class="literal"><kill-eow></code></td><td>delete to the end of the word</td></tr><tr><td>^W</td><td><code class="literal"><kill-word></code></td><td>kill the word in front of the cursor</td></tr><tr><td>^U</td><td><code class="literal"><kill-line></code></td><td>delete entire line</td></tr><tr><td>^V</td><td><code class="literal"><quote-char></code></td><td>quote the next typed key</td></tr><tr><td><Up></td><td><code class="literal"><history-up></code></td><td>recall previous string from history</td></tr><tr><td><Down></td><td><code class="literal"><history-down></code></td><td>recall next string from history</td></tr><tr><td><BackSpace></td><td><code class="literal"><backspace></code></td><td>kill the char in front of the cursor</td></tr><tr><td>Esc u</td><td><code class="literal"><upcase-word></code></td><td>convert word to upper case</td></tr><tr><td>Esc l</td><td><code class="literal"><downcase-word></code></td><td>convert word to lower case</td></tr><tr><td>Esc c</td><td><code class="literal"><capitalize-word></code></td><td>capitalize the word</td></tr><tr><td>^G</td><td>n/a</td><td>abort</td></tr><tr><td><Return></td><td>n/a</td><td>finish editing</td></tr></tbody></table></div></div><br class="table-break" /><p>
+You can remap the <span class="emphasis"><em>editor</em></span> functions using the <a class="link" href="configuration.html#bind" title="5. Changing the Default Key Bindings"><span class="command"><strong>bind</strong></span></a> command. For example, to
+make the <Delete> key delete the character in front of the cursor
+rather than under, you could use:
projects / software / mutt-debian.git / blobdiff