<abstract>
<para>
-<quote>All mail clients suck. This one just sucks less.</quote> — me, circa 1995
+<quote>All mail clients suck. This one just sucks less.</quote> —
+me, circa 1995
</para>
</abstract>
</bookinfo>
<title>Introduction</title>
<para>
-<emphasis role="bold">Mutt</emphasis> is a small but very powerful text-based MIME mail client. Mutt is
-highly configurable, and is well suited to the mail power user with advanced
-features like key bindings, keyboard macros, mail threading, regular
-expression searches and a powerful pattern matching language for selecting
-groups of messages.
+<emphasis role="bold">Mutt</emphasis> is a small but very powerful
+text-based MIME mail client. Mutt is highly configurable, and is well
+suited to the mail power user with advanced features like key bindings,
+keyboard macros, mail threading, regular expression searches and a
+powerful pattern matching language for selecting groups of messages.
</para>
<sect1 id="homepage">
<title>Mailing Lists</title>
<para>
-To subscribe to one of the following mailing lists, send a message with the
-word <emphasis>subscribe</emphasis> in the body to
-<literal>list-name</literal><emphasis>-request</emphasis><literal>@mutt.org</literal>.
+To subscribe to one of the following mailing lists, send a message with
+the word <emphasis>subscribe</emphasis> in the body to
+<emphasis>list-name</emphasis><literal>-request@mutt.org</literal>.
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
-<email>mutt-announce-request@mutt.org</email> -- low traffic list for announcements
+<email>mutt-announce-request@mutt.org</email> — low traffic list for
+announcements
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
-<email>mutt-users-request@mutt.org</email> -- help, bug reports and feature requests
+<email>mutt-users-request@mutt.org</email> — help, bug reports and
+feature requests
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
-<email>mutt-dev-request@mutt.org</email> -- development mailing list
+<email>mutt-dev-request@mutt.org</email> — development mailing list
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
-<note>
<para>
-All messages posted to
-<emphasis>mutt-announce</emphasis> are automatically forwarded to
-<emphasis>mutt-users</emphasis>, so you do not need to be subscribed to
-both lists.
+All messages posted to <emphasis>mutt-announce</emphasis> are
+automatically forwarded to <emphasis>mutt-users</emphasis>, so you do
+not need to be subscribed to both lists.
</para>
-</note>
</sect1>
<title>Getting Mutt</title>
<para>
-Mutt releases can be downloaded from
-<ulink url="ftp://ftp.mutt.org/mutt/">ftp://ftp.mutt.org/mutt/</ulink>.
-For a list of mirror sites, please refer to
-<ulink url="http://www.mutt.org/download.html">http://www.mutt.org/download.html</ulink>.
+Mutt releases can be downloaded from <ulink
+url="ftp://ftp.mutt.org/mutt/">ftp://ftp.mutt.org/mutt/</ulink>. For a
+list of mirror sites, please refer to <ulink
+url="http://www.mutt.org/download.html">http://www.mutt.org/download.html</ulink>.
</para>
<para>
<term>IRC</term>
<listitem>
<para>
-For the IRC user community, visit channel <emphasis>#mutt</emphasis> on
+For the IRC user community, visit channel <emphasis>#mutt</emphasis> on
<ulink url="http://www.freenode.net/">irc.freenode.net</ulink>.
</para>
</listitem>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="typo">
-<title>Typograhical Conventions</title>
+<title>Typographical Conventions</title>
<para>
This section lists typographical conventions followed throughout this
<row><entry><literal>printf(3)</literal></entry><entry>UNIX manual pages, execute <literal>man 3 printf</literal></entry></row>
<row><entry><literal><PageUp></literal></entry><entry>named keys</entry></row>
<row><entry><literal><create-alias></literal></entry><entry>named Mutt function</entry></row>
-<row><entry><literal>ˆG</literal></entry><entry>Control+G key combination</entry></row>
-<row><entry>$mail_check</entry><entry>Mutt configuration option</entry></row>
-<row><entry><literal>$HOME</literal></entry><entry>environment variable</entry></row>
+<row><entry><literal>^G</literal></entry><entry>Control+G key combination</entry></row>
+<row><entry>$mail_check</entry><entry>Mutt configuration option</entry></row>
+<row><entry><literal>$HOME</literal></entry><entry>environment variable</entry></row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
</screen>
<para>
-Within command synopsis, curly brackets (<quote>{}</quote>) denote a set
+Within command synopsis, curly brackets (<quote>{}</quote>) denote a set
of options of which one is mandatory, square brackets
-(<quote>[]</quote>) denote optional arguments, three dots
+(<quote>[]</quote>) denote optional arguments, three dots
denote that the argument may be repeated arbitrary times.
</para>
</para>
<para>
-This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
-it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
-the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
-(at your option) any later version.
+This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
+under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the
+Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your
+option) any later version.
</para>
<para>
-This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
-but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
-MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
-GNU General Public License for more details.
+This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
+WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
+General Public License for more details.
</para>
<para>
-You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
-along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
-Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
+You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
+with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc.,
+51 Franklin Street, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301, USA.
</para>
</sect1>
<title>Getting Started</title>
<para>
-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 <ulink url="http://www.mutt.org/">Mutt homepage</ulink> for more details.
+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 <ulink url="http://www.mutt.org/">Mutt homepage</ulink>
+for more details.
</para>
<para>
-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 <quote>?</quote> in any menu to display the current bindings.
+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 <quote>?</quote> in any
+menu to display the current bindings.
</para>
<para>
-The first thing you need to do is invoke Mutt, simply by typing <literal>mutt</literal>
-at the command line. There are various command-line options, see
-either the Mutt man page or the <link linkend="commandline">reference</link>.
+The first thing you need to do is invoke Mutt, simply by typing
+<literal>mutt</literal> at the command line. There are various
+command-line options, see either the Mutt man page or the <link
+linkend="commandline">reference</link>.
</para>
<sect1 id="core-concepts">
<para>
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 <quote>index</quote> menu (listing all messages of
-the currently opened folder) or the <quote>alias</quote> menu (allowing you to
-select recipients from a list). Examples for page-based menus are the
-<quote>pager</quote> (showing one message at a time) or the <quote>help</quote> menu listing
-all available key bindings.
+line-based menu is the so-called <quote>index</quote> menu (listing all
+messages of the currently opened folder) or the <quote>alias</quote>
+menu (allowing you to select recipients from a list). Examples for
+page-based menus are the <quote>pager</quote> (showing one message at a
+time) or the <quote>help</quote> menu listing all available key
+bindings.
</para>
<para>
<para>
Because Mutt allows for customizing almost all key bindings, there are
-so-called <quote>functions</quote> 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.
+so-called <quote>functions</quote> 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.
</para>
<para>
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
-<quote>tagged</quote> 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 <emphasis>and</emphasis> and <emphasis>or</emphasis>
-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.
+<quote>tagged</quote> 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 <emphasis>and</emphasis> and
+<emphasis>or</emphasis> 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.
</para>
<para>
-Mutt supports a <quote>hook</quote> 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
-behaviour including managing multiple identities, customizing the
+Mutt supports a <quote>hook</quote> 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.
</para>
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's person email in a
+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.
</para>
<para>
The most important navigation keys common to line- or entry-based menus
-are shown in <xref linkend="tab-keys-nav-line"/> and in
-<xref linkend="tab-keys-nav-page"/> for page-based menus.
+are shown in <xref linkend="tab-keys-nav-line"/> and in <xref
+linkend="tab-keys-nav-page"/> for page-based menus.
</para>
<table id="tab-keys-nav-line">
</thead>
<tbody>
<row><entry>J or <Return></entry><entry><literal><next-line></literal></entry><entry>scroll down one line</entry></row>
-<row><entry><Backspace></entry><entry><literal><previous-line></literal></entry><entry>sroll up one line</entry></row>
+<row><entry><Backspace></entry><entry><literal><previous-line></literal></entry><entry>scroll up one line</entry></row>
<row><entry>K, <Space> or <PageDn></entry><entry><literal><next-page></literal></entry><entry>move to the next page</entry></row>
<row><entry>- or <PageUp></entry><entry><literal><previous-page></literal></entry><entry>move the previous page</entry></row>
<row><entry><Home></entry><entry><literal><top></literal></entry><entry>move to the top</entry></row>
<title>Introduction</title>
<para>
-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 <xref linkend="tab-keys-editor"/> for a full
-reference of available functions, their default key bindings, and
-short descriptions.
+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 <xref linkend="tab-keys-editor"/> for a full
+reference of available functions, their default key bindings, and short
+descriptions.
</para>
<table id="tab-keys-editor">
<row><entry>Key</entry><entry>Function</entry><entry>Description</entry></row>
</thead>
<tbody>
-<row><entry>ˆA or <Home></entry><entry><literal><bol></literal></entry><entry>move to the start of the line</entry></row>
-<row><entry>ˆB or <Left></entry><entry><literal><backward-char></literal></entry><entry>move back one char</entry></row>
+<row><entry>^A or <Home></entry><entry><literal><bol></literal></entry><entry>move to the start of the line</entry></row>
+<row><entry>^B or <Left></entry><entry><literal><backward-char></literal></entry><entry>move back one char</entry></row>
<row><entry>Esc B</entry><entry><literal><backward-word></literal></entry><entry>move back one word</entry></row>
-<row><entry>ˆD or <Delete></entry><entry><literal><delete-char></literal></entry><entry>delete the char under the cursor</entry></row>
-<row><entry>ˆE or <End></entry><entry><literal><eol></literal></entry><entry>move to the end of the line</entry></row>
-<row><entry>ˆF or <Right></entry><entry><literal><forward-char></literal></entry><entry>move forward one char</entry></row>
+<row><entry>^D or <Delete></entry><entry><literal><delete-char></literal></entry><entry>delete the char under the cursor</entry></row>
+<row><entry>^E or <End></entry><entry><literal><eol></literal></entry><entry>move to the end of the line</entry></row>
+<row><entry>^F or <Right></entry><entry><literal><forward-char></literal></entry><entry>move forward one char</entry></row>
<row><entry>Esc F</entry><entry><literal><forward-word></literal></entry><entry>move forward one word</entry></row>
<row><entry><Tab></entry><entry><literal><complete></literal></entry><entry>complete filename or alias</entry></row>
-<row><entry>ˆT</entry><entry><literal><complete-query></literal></entry><entry>complete address with query</entry></row>
-<row><entry>ˆK</entry><entry><literal><kill-eol></literal></entry><entry>delete to the end of the line</entry></row>
+<row><entry>^T</entry><entry><literal><complete-query></literal></entry><entry>complete address with query</entry></row>
+<row><entry>^K</entry><entry><literal><kill-eol></literal></entry><entry>delete to the end of the line</entry></row>
<row><entry>Esc d</entry><entry><literal><kill-eow></literal></entry><entry>delete to the end of the word</entry></row>
-<row><entry>ˆW</entry><entry><literal><kill-word></literal></entry><entry>kill the word in front of the cursor</entry></row>
-<row><entry>ˆU</entry><entry><literal><kill-line></literal></entry><entry>delete entire line</entry></row>
-<row><entry>ˆV</entry><entry><literal><quote-char></literal></entry><entry>quote the next typed key</entry></row>
+<row><entry>^W</entry><entry><literal><kill-word></literal></entry><entry>kill the word in front of the cursor</entry></row>
+<row><entry>^U</entry><entry><literal><kill-line></literal></entry><entry>delete entire line</entry></row>
+<row><entry>^V</entry><entry><literal><quote-char></literal></entry><entry>quote the next typed key</entry></row>
<row><entry><Up></entry><entry><literal><history-up></literal></entry><entry>recall previous string from history</entry></row>
<row><entry><Down></entry><entry><literal><history-down></literal></entry><entry>recall next string from history</entry></row>
<row><entry><BackSpace></entry><entry><literal><backspace></literal></entry><entry>kill the char in front of the cursor</entry></row>
<row><entry>Esc u</entry><entry><literal><upcase-word></literal></entry><entry>convert word to upper case</entry></row>
<row><entry>Esc l</entry><entry><literal><downcase-word></literal></entry><entry>convert word to lower case</entry></row>
<row><entry>Esc c</entry><entry><literal><capitalize-word></literal></entry><entry>capitalize the word</entry></row>
-<row><entry>ˆG</entry><entry>n/a</entry><entry>abort</entry></row>
+<row><entry>^G</entry><entry>n/a</entry><entry>abort</entry></row>
<row><entry><Return></entry><entry>n/a</entry><entry>finish editing</entry></row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
<para>
-You can remap the <emphasis>editor</emphasis> functions using the
-<link linkend="bind"><command>bind</command></link> command. For example, to make
-the <Delete> key delete the character in front of
-the cursor rather than under, you could use:
+You can remap the <emphasis>editor</emphasis> functions using the <link
+linkend="bind"><command>bind</command></link> command. For example, to
+make the <Delete> key delete the character in front of the cursor
+rather than under, you could use:
</para>
<screen>
<para>
Mutt maintains a history for the built-in editor. The number of items
-is controlled by the <link linkend="history">$history</link>
-variable and can be made persistent using an external file specified
-using <link linkend="history-file">$history_file</link>.
-You may cycle through them at an editor prompt by using the
-<literal><history-up></literal> and/or
-<literal><history-down></literal> commands. But notice that Mutt
-does not remember the currently entered text, it only cycles through
-history and wraps around at the end or beginning.
+is controlled by the <link linkend="history">$history</link> variable
+and can be made persistent using an external file specified using <link
+linkend="history-file">$history_file</link>. You may cycle through them
+at an editor prompt by using the <literal><history-up></literal>
+and/or <literal><history-down></literal> commands. But notice that
+Mutt does not remember the currently entered text, it only cycles
+through history and wraps around at the end or beginning.
</para>
<para>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
-Mutt automatically filters out consecutively repeated items from the history. It
-also mimics the behavior of some shells by ignoring items starting
-with a space. The latter feature can be useful in macros to not clobber
-the history's valuable entries with unwanted entries.
+Mutt automatically filters out consecutively repeated items from the
+history. It also mimics the behavior of some shells by ignoring items
+starting with a space. The latter feature can be useful in macros to not
+clobber the history's valuable entries with unwanted entries.
</para>
</sect2>
<para>
Similar to many other mail clients, there are two modes in which mail is
read in Mutt. The first is a list of messages in the mailbox, which is
-called the <quote>index</quote> menu in Mutt. The second mode is the display of the
-message contents. This is called the <quote>pager.</quote>
+called the <quote>index</quote> menu in Mutt. The second mode is the
+display of the message contents. This is called the
+<quote>pager.</quote>
</para>
<para>
<para>
Common keys used to navigate through and manage messages in the index
are shown in <xref linkend="tab-key-index"/>. How messages are presented
-in the index menu can be customized using the
-<link linkend="index-format">$index_format</link> variable.
+in the index menu can be customized using the <link
+linkend="index-format">$index_format</link> variable.
</para>
<table id="tab-key-index">
<row><entry>$</entry><entry>save changes to mailbox</entry></row>
<row><entry>/</entry><entry>search</entry></row>
<row><entry>Esc /</entry><entry>search-reverse</entry></row>
-<row><entry>ˆL</entry><entry>clear and redraw the screen</entry></row>
-<row><entry>ˆT</entry><entry>untag messages matching a pattern</entry></row>
+<row><entry>^L</entry><entry>clear and redraw the screen</entry></row>
+<row><entry>^T</entry><entry>untag messages matching a pattern</entry></row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
<para>
In addition to who sent the message and the subject, a short summary of
the disposition of each message is printed beside the message number.
-Zero or more of the <quote>flags</quote> in <xref linkend="tab-msg-status-flags"/>
-may appear, some of which can be turned on or off using these functions:
-<literal><set-flag></literal> and
-<literal><clear-flag></literal>
-bound by default to <quote>w</quote> and <quote>W</quote> respectively.
+Zero or more of the <quote>flags</quote> in <xref
+linkend="tab-msg-status-flags"/> may appear, some of which can be turned
+on or off using these functions: <literal><set-flag></literal> and
+<literal><clear-flag></literal> bound by default to
+<quote>w</quote> and <quote>W</quote> respectively.
</para>
<para>
Furthermore, the flags in <xref linkend="tab-msg-recip-flags"/> reflect
-who the message is addressed to. They can be customized with the
-<link linkend="to-chars">$to_chars</link> variable.
+who the message is addressed to. They can be customized with the <link
+linkend="to-chars">$to_chars</link> variable.
</para>
<table id="tab-msg-status-flags">
<row><entry>s</entry><entry>message is signed</entry></row>
<row><entry>!</entry><entry>message is flagged</entry></row>
<row><entry>*</entry><entry>message is tagged</entry></row>
+<row><entry>n</entry><entry>thread contains new messages (only if collapsed)</entry></row>
+<row><entry>o</entry><entry>thread contains old messages (only if collapsed)</entry></row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
</thead>
<tbody>
<row><entry>+</entry><entry>message is to you and you only</entry></row>
-<row><entry>T</entry><entry>message is to you, but also to or cc'ed to others</entry></row>
-<row><entry>C</entry><entry>message is cc'ed to you</entry></row>
+<row><entry>T</entry><entry>message is to you, but also to or CC'ed to others</entry></row>
+<row><entry>C</entry><entry>message is CC'ed to you</entry></row>
<row><entry>F</entry><entry>message is from you</entry></row>
<row><entry>L</entry><entry>message is sent to a subscribed mailing list</entry></row>
</tbody>
<title>The Pager</title>
<para>
-By default, Mutt uses its builtin pager to display the contents of
+By default, Mutt uses its built-in pager to display the contents of
messages (an external pager such as <literal>less(1)</literal> can be
-configured, see <link linkend="pager">$pager</link> variable).
-The pager is very similar to the Unix program <literal>less(1)</literal>
+configured, see <link linkend="pager">$pager</link> variable). The
+pager is very similar to the Unix program <literal>less(1)</literal>
though not nearly as featureful.
</para>
<row><entry>?</entry><entry>show keybindings</entry></row>
<row><entry>/</entry><entry>regular expression search</entry></row>
<row><entry>Esc /</entry><entry>backward regular expression search</entry></row>
-<row><entry>\</entry><entry>toggle highlighting of search matches</entry></row>
-<row><entry>ˆ</entry><entry>jump to the top of the message</entry></row>
+<row><entry>\</entry><entry>toggle highlighting of search matches</entry></row>
+<row><entry>^</entry><entry>jump to the top of the message</entry></row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
<para>
-In addition to key bindings in <xref linkend="tab-key-pager"/>,
-many of the functions from the index menu are also available in
-the pager, such as <literal><delete-message></literal> or <literal><copy-message></literal>
-(this is one advantage over using an external pager to view messages).
+In addition to key bindings in <xref linkend="tab-key-pager"/>, many of
+the functions from the index menu are also available in the pager, such
+as <literal><delete-message></literal> or
+<literal><copy-message></literal> (this is one advantage over
+using an external pager to view messages).
</para>
<para>
Also, the internal pager supports a couple other advanced features. For
-one, it will accept and translate the <quote>standard</quote> nroff sequences for
-bold and underline. These sequences are a series of either the letter,
-backspace (<quote>ˆH</quote>), the letter again for bold or the letter, backspace,
-<quote>_</quote> for denoting underline. Mutt will attempt to display these
-in bold and underline respectively if your terminal supports them. If
-not, you can use the bold and underline <link linkend="color">color</link>
-objects to specify a <command>color</command> or mono attribute for them.
+one, it will accept and translate the <quote>standard</quote> nroff
+sequences for bold and underline. These sequences are a series of either
+the letter, backspace (<quote>^H</quote>), the letter again for bold or
+the letter, backspace, <quote>_</quote> for denoting underline. Mutt
+will attempt to display these in bold and underline respectively if your
+terminal supports them. If not, you can use the bold and underline <link
+linkend="color">color</link> objects to specify a
+<command>color</command> or mono attribute for them.
</para>
<para>
</para>
<screen>
-\e[<emphasis>Ps</emphasis>;<emphasis>Ps</emphasis>;..<emphasis>Ps</emphasis>;m
+\e[<emphasis>Ps</emphasis>;<emphasis>Ps</emphasis>;..<emphasis>Ps</emphasis>;m
</screen>
<para>
-where <emphasis>Ps</emphasis> can be one of the codes shown in
-<xref linkend="tab-ansi-esc"/>.
+where <emphasis>Ps</emphasis> can be one of the codes shown in <xref
+linkend="tab-ansi-esc"/>.
</para>
<table id="tab-ansi-esc">
<para>
Mutt uses these attributes for handling <literal>text/enriched</literal>
-messages, and they can also be used by an external
-<link linkend="auto-view">autoview</link> script for highlighting
-purposes.
+messages, and they can also be used by an external <link
+linkend="auto-view">autoview</link> script for highlighting purposes.
</para>
<note>
<para>
-If you change the colors for your
-display, for example by changing the color associated with color2 for
-your xterm, then that color will be used instead of green.
+If you change the colors for your display, for example by changing the
+color associated with color2 for your xterm, then that color will be
+used instead of green.
</para>
</note>
<note>
<para>
Note that the search commands in the pager take regular expressions,
-which are not quite the same as the more
-complex <link linkend="patterns">patterns</link> used by the search
-command in the index. This is because patterns are used to select messages by
-criteria whereas the pager already displays a selected message.
+which are not quite the same as the more complex <link
+linkend="patterns">patterns</link> used by the search command in the
+index. This is because patterns are used to select messages by criteria
+whereas the pager already displays a selected message.
</para>
</note>
<row><entry>Key</entry><entry>Function</entry><entry>Description</entry></row>
</thead>
<tbody>
-<row><entry>ˆD</entry><entry><literal><delete-thread></literal></entry><entry>delete all messages in the current thread</entry></row>
-<row><entry>ˆU</entry><entry><literal><undelete-thread></literal></entry><entry>undelete all messages in the current thread</entry></row>
-<row><entry>ˆN</entry><entry><literal><next-thread></literal></entry><entry>jump to the start of the next thread</entry></row>
-<row><entry>ˆP</entry><entry><literal><previous-thread></literal></entry><entry>jump to the start of the previous thread</entry></row>
-<row><entry>ˆR</entry><entry><literal><read-thread></literal></entry><entry>mark the current thread as read</entry></row>
+<row><entry>^D</entry><entry><literal><delete-thread></literal></entry><entry>delete all messages in the current thread</entry></row>
+<row><entry>^U</entry><entry><literal><undelete-thread></literal></entry><entry>undelete all messages in the current thread</entry></row>
+<row><entry>^N</entry><entry><literal><next-thread></literal></entry><entry>jump to the start of the next thread</entry></row>
+<row><entry>^P</entry><entry><literal><previous-thread></literal></entry><entry>jump to the start of the previous thread</entry></row>
+<row><entry>^R</entry><entry><literal><read-thread></literal></entry><entry>mark the current thread as read</entry></row>
<row><entry>Esc d</entry><entry><literal><delete-subthread></literal></entry><entry>delete all messages in the current subthread</entry></row>
<row><entry>Esc u</entry><entry><literal><undelete-subthread></literal></entry><entry>undelete all messages in the current subthread</entry></row>
<row><entry>Esc n</entry><entry><literal><next-subthread></literal></entry><entry>jump to the start of the next subthread</entry></row>
</table>
<para>
-Collapsing a thread displays only the first message
-in the thread and hides the others. This is useful when threads
-contain so many messages that you can only see a handful of threads on
-the screen. See %M in <link linkend="index-format">$index_format</link>.
-For example, you could use <quote>%?M?(#%03M)&(%4l)?</quote> in <link linkend="index-format">$index_format</link> to optionally
-display the number of hidden messages if the thread is
-collapsed. The <literal>%?<char>?<if-part>&<else-part>?</literal>
-syntax is explained in detail in
-<link linkend="formatstrings-conditionals">format string conditionals</link>.
+Collapsing a thread displays only the first message in the thread and
+hides the others. This is useful when threads contain so many messages
+that you can only see a handful of threads on the screen. See %M in
+<link linkend="index-format">$index_format</link>. For example, you
+could use <quote>%?M?(#%03M)&(%4l)?</quote> in <link
+linkend="index-format">$index_format</link> to optionally display the
+number of hidden messages if the thread is collapsed. The
+<literal>%?<char>?<if-part>&<else-part>?</literal>
+syntax is explained in detail in <link
+linkend="formatstrings-conditionals">format string conditionals</link>.
</para>
<para>
Technically, every reply should contain a list of its parent messages in
the thread tree, but not all do. In these cases, Mutt groups them by
-subject which can be controlled using the
-<link linkend="strict-threads">$strict_threads</link> variable.
+subject which can be controlled using the <link
+linkend="strict-threads">$strict_threads</link> variable.
</para>
</sect2>
<title>Miscellaneous Functions</title>
<para>
-In addition, the <emphasis>index</emphasis> and <emphasis>pager</emphasis>
-menus have these interesting functions:
+In addition, the <emphasis>index</emphasis> and
+<emphasis>pager</emphasis> menus have these interesting functions:
</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
<term>
-<literal><create-alias></literal><anchor id="create-alias"/> (default: a)
+<literal><create-alias></literal><anchor id="create-alias"/>
+(default: a)
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
-Creates a new alias based upon the current message (or prompts for a
-new one). Once editing is complete, an <link linkend="alias"><command>alias</command></link>
-command is added to the file specified by
-the <link linkend="alias-file">$alias_file</link> variable
-for future use
+Creates a new alias based upon the current message (or prompts for a new
+one). Once editing is complete, an <link
+linkend="alias"><command>alias</command></link> command is added to the
+file specified by the <link linkend="alias-file">$alias_file</link>
+variable for future use
</para>
<note>
<para>
-Mutt does not read the <link linkend="alias-file">$alias_file</link>
-upon startup so you must explicitly <link linkend="source"><command>source</command></link> the file.
+Mutt does not read the <link linkend="alias-file">$alias_file</link>
+upon startup so you must explicitly <link
+linkend="source"><command>source</command></link> the file.
</para>
</note>
</listitem>
<varlistentry>
<term>
-<literal><check-traditional-pgp></literal><anchor id="check-traditional-pgp"/> (default: Esc P)
+<literal><check-traditional-pgp></literal><anchor
+id="check-traditional-pgp"/> (default: Esc P)
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
This function will search the current message for content signed or
-encrypted with PGP the <quote>traditional</quote> way, that is, without proper
-MIME tagging. Technically, this function will temporarily change
-the MIME content types of the body parts containing PGP data; this
-is similar to the <link linkend="edit-type"><literal><edit-type></literal></link> function's
-effect.
+encrypted with PGP the <quote>traditional</quote> way, that is, without
+proper MIME tagging. Technically, this function will temporarily change
+the MIME content types of the body parts containing PGP data; this is
+similar to the <link
+linkend="edit-type"><literal><edit-type></literal></link>
+function's effect.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
-This command (available in the index and pager) allows you to
-edit the raw current message as it's present in the mail folder.
-After you have finished editing, the changed message will be
-appended to the current folder, and the original message will be
-marked for deletion; if the message is unchanged it won't be replaced.
+This command (available in the index and pager) allows you to edit the
+raw current message as it's present in the mail folder. After you have
+finished editing, the changed message will be appended to the current
+folder, and the original message will be marked for deletion; if the
+message is unchanged it won't be replaced.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
<literal><edit-type></literal><anchor id="edit-type"/> (default:
-ˆE on the attachment menu, and in the pager and index menus;
-ˆT on the compose menu)
+^E on the attachment menu, and in the pager and index menus; ^T on the
+compose menu)
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
-This command is used to temporarily edit an attachment's content
-type to fix, for instance, bogus character set parameters. When
-invoked from the index or from the pager, you'll have the
-opportunity to edit the top-level attachment's content type. On the
-<link linkend="attach-menu">attachment menu</link>, you can change any
+This command is used to temporarily edit an attachment's content type to
+fix, for instance, bogus character set parameters. When invoked from
+the index or from the pager, you'll have the opportunity to edit the
+top-level attachment's content type. On the <link
+linkend="attach-menu">attachment menu</link>, you can change any
attachment's content type. These changes are not persistent, and get
lost upon changing folders.
</para>
<para>
-Note that this command is also available on the <link linkend="compose-menu">compose
-menu</link>. There, it's used to fine-tune the properties of attachments you are going
-to send.
+Note that this command is also available on the <link
+linkend="compose-menu">compose menu</link>. There, it's used to
+fine-tune the properties of attachments you are going to send.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
-<literal><enter-command></literal><anchor id="enter-command"/> (default: <quote>:</quote>)
+<literal><enter-command></literal><anchor id="enter-command"/>
+(default: <quote>:</quote>)
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
This command is used to execute any command you would normally put in a
-configuration file. A common use is to check the settings of variables, or
-in conjunction with <link linkend="macro">macros</link> to change settings on the
-fly.
+configuration file. A common use is to check the settings of variables,
+or in conjunction with <link linkend="macro">macros</link> to change
+settings on the fly.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
-<literal><extract-keys></literal><anchor id="extract-keys"/> (default: ˆK)
+<literal><extract-keys></literal><anchor id="extract-keys"/>
+(default: ^K)
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
<varlistentry>
<term>
-<literal><forget-passphrase></literal><anchor id="forget-passphrase"/> (default:
-ˆF)
+<literal><forget-passphrase></literal><anchor
+id="forget-passphrase"/> (default: ^F)
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
-This command wipes the passphrase(s) from memory. It is useful, if
-you misspelled the passphrase.
+This command wipes the passphrase(s) from memory. It is useful, if you
+misspelled the passphrase.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
-<literal><list-reply></literal><anchor id="list-reply"/> (default: L)
+<literal><list-reply></literal><anchor id="list-reply"/> (default:
+L)
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
-Reply to the current or tagged message(s) by extracting any addresses which
-match the regular expressions given by the <link linkend="lists"><command>lists</command> or <command>subscribe</command></link>
-commands, but also honor any <literal>Mail-Followup-To</literal> header(s) if the
-<link linkend="honor-followup-to">$honor_followup_to</link>
-configuration variable is set. Using this when replying to messages posted
-to mailing lists helps avoid duplicate copies being sent to the author of
-the message you are replying to.
+Reply to the current or tagged message(s) by extracting any addresses
+which match the regular expressions given by the <link
+linkend="lists"><command>lists</command> or
+<command>subscribe</command></link> commands, but also honor any
+<literal>Mail-Followup-To</literal> header(s) if the <link
+linkend="honor-followup-to">$honor_followup_to</link> configuration
+variable is set. Using this when replying to messages posted to mailing
+lists helps avoid duplicate copies being sent to the author of the
+message you are replying to.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
-<literal><pipe-message></literal><anchor id="pipe-message"/> (default: |)
+<literal><pipe-message></literal><anchor id="pipe-message"/>
+(default: |)
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
-Asks for an external Unix command and pipes the current or
-tagged message(s) to it. The variables <link linkend="pipe-decode">$pipe_decode</link>, <link linkend="pipe-split">$pipe_split</link>,
-<link linkend="pipe-sep">$pipe_sep</link> and <link linkend="wait-key">$wait_key</link> control the exact behavior of this function.
+Asks for an external Unix command and pipes the current or tagged
+message(s) to it. The variables <link
+linkend="pipe-decode">$pipe_decode</link>, <link
+linkend="pipe-split">$pipe_split</link>, <link
+linkend="pipe-sep">$pipe_sep</link> and <link
+linkend="wait-key">$wait_key</link> control the exact behavior of this
+function.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
-<literal><resend-message></literal><anchor id="resend-message"/> (default: Esc e)
+<literal><resend-message></literal><anchor id="resend-message"/>
+(default: Esc e)
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
-Mutt takes the current message as a template for a
-new message. This function is best described as "recall from arbitrary
-folders". It can conveniently be used to forward MIME messages while
-preserving the original mail structure. Note that the amount of headers
-included here depends on the value of the <link linkend="weed">$weed</link>
-variable.
+Mutt takes the current message as a template for a new message. This
+function is best described as "recall from arbitrary folders". It can
+conveniently be used to forward MIME messages while preserving the
+original mail structure. Note that the amount of headers included here
+depends on the value of the <link linkend="weed">$weed</link> variable.
</para>
<para>
-This function is also available from the attachment menu. You can use this
-to easily resend a message which was included with a bounce message
+This function is also available from the attachment menu. You can use
+this to easily resend a message which was included with a bounce message
as a <literal>message/rfc822</literal> body part.
</para>
</listitem>
<varlistentry>
<term>
-<literal><shell-escape></literal><anchor id="shell-escape"/> (default: !)
+<literal><shell-escape></literal><anchor id="shell-escape"/>
+(default: !)
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
-Asks for an external Unix command and executes it. The <link linkend="wait-key">$wait_key</link> can be used to control
-whether Mutt will wait for a key to be pressed when the command returns
-(presumably to let the user read the output of the command), based on
-the return status of the named command. If no command is given, an
-interactive shell is executed.
+Asks for an external Unix command and executes it. The <link
+linkend="wait-key">$wait_key</link> can be used to control whether Mutt
+will wait for a key to be pressed when the command returns (presumably
+to let the user read the output of the command), based on the return
+status of the named command. If no command is given, an interactive
+shell is executed.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
-<literal><toggle-quoted></literal><anchor id="toggle-quoted"/> (default: T)
+<literal><toggle-quoted></literal><anchor id="toggle-quoted"/>
+(default: T)
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
-The pager uses the <link linkend="quote-regexp">$quote_regexp</link> variable to detect quoted text when
-displaying the body of the message. This function toggles the display
-of the quoted material in the message. It is particularly useful when
-being interested in just the response and there is a large amount of
-quoted text in the way.
+The pager uses the <link linkend="quote-regexp">$quote_regexp</link>
+variable to detect quoted text when displaying the body of the message.
+This function toggles the display of the quoted material in the message.
+It is particularly useful when being interested in just the response and
+there is a large amount of quoted text in the way.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
<term>
-<literal><skip-quoted></literal><anchor id="skip-quoted"/> (default: S)
+<literal><skip-quoted></literal><anchor id="skip-quoted"/>
+(default: S)
</term>
<listitem>
<para>
<title>Introduction</title>
<para>
-The bindings shown in <xref linkend="tab-key-send"/> are available in the
-<emphasis>index</emphasis> and <emphasis>pager</emphasis> to start a new message.
+The bindings shown in <xref linkend="tab-key-send"/> are available in
+the <emphasis>index</emphasis> and <emphasis>pager</emphasis> to start a
+new message.
</para>
<table id="tab-key-send">
</table>
<para>
-<emphasis>Bouncing</emphasis> a message sends the message as-is to the recipient you
-specify. <emphasis>Forwarding</emphasis> a message allows you to add comments or
-modify the message you are forwarding. These items are discussed
-in greater detail in the next section <quote><link linkend="forwarding-mail">Forwarding
-and Bouncing Mail</link>.</quote>
+<emphasis>Bouncing</emphasis> a message sends the message as-is to the
+recipient you specify. <emphasis>Forwarding</emphasis> a message allows
+you to add comments or modify the message you are forwarding. These
+items are discussed in greater detail in the next section <quote><link
+linkend="forwarding-mail">Forwarding and Bouncing Mail</link>.</quote>
</para>
<para>
-Mutt will then enter the <emphasis>compose</emphasis> menu and prompt you for the
-recipients to place on the <quote>To:</quote> header field when you hit <literal>m</literal> to start a new message. Next, it will ask
-you for the <quote>Subject:</quote> field for the message, providing a default if
-you are replying to or forwarding a message. You again
-have the chance to adjust recipients, subject, and security settings
-right before actually sending the message. See also
-<link linkend="askcc">$askcc</link>,
-<link linkend="askbcc">$askbcc</link>,
-<link linkend="autoedit">$autoedit</link>,
-<link linkend="bounce">$bounce</link>,
-<link linkend="fast-reply">$fast_reply</link>,
-and <link linkend="include">$include</link>
-for changing how and if Mutt asks these questions.
+Mutt will then enter the <emphasis>compose</emphasis> menu and prompt
+you for the recipients to place on the <quote>To:</quote> header field
+when you hit <literal>m</literal> to start a new message. Next, it will
+ask you for the <quote>Subject:</quote> field for the message, providing
+a default if you are replying to or forwarding a message. You again have
+the chance to adjust recipients, subject, and security settings right
+before actually sending the message. See also <link
+linkend="askcc">$askcc</link>, <link linkend="askbcc">$askbcc</link>,
+<link linkend="autoedit">$autoedit</link>, <link
+linkend="bounce">$bounce</link>, <link
+linkend="fast-reply">$fast_reply</link>, and <link
+linkend="include">$include</link> for changing how and if Mutt asks
+these questions.
</para>
<para>
<para>
After getting recipients for new messages, forwards or replies, Mutt
-will then automatically start your <link
-linkend="editor">$editor</link> on the message body. If the <link
-linkend="edit-headers">$edit_headers</link> variable is
-set, the headers will be at the top of the message in your editor. Any
-messages you are replying to will be added in sort order to the message,
-with appropriate <link linkend="attribution">$attribution</link>,
-<link linkend="indent-string">$indent_string</link> and
-<link
-linkend="post-indent-string">$post_indent_string</link>.
-When forwarding a message, if the <link
-linkend="mime-forward">$mime_forward</link> variable is
-unset, a copy of the forwarded message will be included. If you have
-specified a <link linkend="signature">$signature</link>, it will
-be appended to the message.
+will then automatically start your <link linkend="editor">$editor</link>
+on the message body. If the <link
+linkend="edit-headers">$edit_headers</link> variable is set, the headers
+will be at the top of the message in your editor. Any messages you are
+replying to will be added in sort order to the message, with appropriate
+<link linkend="attribution">$attribution</link>, <link
+linkend="indent-string">$indent_string</link> and <link
+linkend="post-indent-string">$post_indent_string</link>. When
+forwarding a message, if the <link
+linkend="mime-forward">$mime_forward</link> variable is unset, a copy of
+the forwarded message will be included. If you have specified a <link
+linkend="signature">$signature</link>, it will be appended to the
+message.
</para>
<para>
Once you have finished editing the body of your mail message, you are
-returned to the <emphasis>compose</emphasis> menu providing the functions
-shown in <xref linkend="tab-func-compose"/> to modify, send or postpone the
-message.
+returned to the <emphasis>compose</emphasis> menu providing the
+functions shown in <xref linkend="tab-func-compose"/> to modify, send or
+postpone the message.
</para>
<table id="tab-func-compose">
<row><entry>q</entry><entry><literal><quit></literal></entry><entry>quit (abort) sending the message</entry></row>
<row><entry>w</entry><entry><literal><write-fcc></literal></entry><entry>write the message to a folder</entry></row>
<row><entry>i</entry><entry><literal><ispell></literal></entry><entry>check spelling (if available on your system)</entry></row>
-<row><entry>ˆF</entry><entry><literal><forget-passphrase></literal></entry><entry>wipe passphrase(s) from memory</entry></row>
+<row><entry>^F</entry><entry><literal><forget-passphrase></literal></entry><entry>wipe passphrase(s) from memory</entry></row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
<para>
-The compose menu is also used to edit the attachments for a message which can be either files
-or other messages. The <literal><attach-message></literal> function to will prompt you for a folder to
-attach messages from. You can now tag messages in that folder and they
-will be attached to the message you are sending.
+The compose menu is also used to edit the attachments for a message
+which can be either files or other messages. The
+<literal><attach-message></literal> function to will prompt you
+for a folder to attach messages from. You can now tag messages in that
+folder and they will be attached to the message you are sending.
</para>
<note>
<para>
-Note that certain
-operations like composing a new mail, replying, forwarding, etc. are
-not permitted when you are in that folder. The %r in
-<link linkend="status-format">$status_format</link> will change to
-a <quote>A</quote> to indicate that you are in attach-message mode.
+Note that certain operations like composing a new mail, replying,
+forwarding, etc. are not permitted when you are in that folder. The %r
+in <link linkend="status-format">$status_format</link> will change to a
+<quote>A</quote> to indicate that you are in attach-message mode.
</para>
</note>
<title>Editing the Message Header</title>
<para>
-When editing the header because of <link linkend="edit-headers">$edit_headers</link>
-being set, there are a several pseudo headers available which
-will not be included in sent messages but trigger special Mutt behavior.
+When editing the header because of <link
+linkend="edit-headers">$edit_headers</link> being set, there are a
+several pseudo headers available which will not be included in sent
+messages but trigger special Mutt behavior.
</para>
<sect3 id="fcc-header">
</para>
<para>
-as a header, Mutt will pick up <emphasis>filename</emphasis>
-just as if you had used the <literal><edit-fcc></literal> function in the <emphasis>compose</emphasis> menu.
-It can later be changed from the compose menu.
+as a header, Mutt will pick up <emphasis>filename</emphasis> just as if
+you had used the <literal><edit-fcc></literal> function in the
+<emphasis>compose</emphasis> menu. It can later be changed from the
+compose menu.
</para>
</sect3>
<para>
<literal>Attach:</literal> <emphasis>filename</emphasis>
-[ <emphasis>description</emphasis> ]
+[ <emphasis>description</emphasis> ]
</para>
<para>
-where <emphasis>filename</emphasis> is the file to attach and <emphasis>description</emphasis> is an
-optional string to use as the description of the attached file. Spaces
-in filenames have to be escaped using backslash (<quote>\</quote>).
-The file can be removed as well as more added from the compose menu.
+where <emphasis>filename</emphasis> is the file to attach and
+<emphasis>description</emphasis> is an optional string to use as the
+description of the attached file. Spaces in filenames have to be escaped
+using backslash (<quote>\</quote>). The file can be removed as well as
+more added from the compose menu.
</para>
</sect3>
</para>
<para>
-<literal>Pgp:</literal> [ <literal>E</literal> | <literal>S</literal> | <literal>S</literal><emphasis><id></emphasis> ]
+<literal>Pgp:</literal> [ <literal>E</literal> | <literal>S</literal> | <literal>S</literal><emphasis><id></emphasis> ]
</para>
<para>
-<quote>E</quote> selects encryption, <quote>S</quote> selects signing and
-<quote>S<id></quote> selects signing with the given key, setting
-<link linkend="pgp-sign-as">$pgp_sign_as</link>
-permanently. The selection can later be changed in the compose menu.
+<quote>E</quote> selects encryption, <quote>S</quote> selects signing
+and <quote>S<id></quote> selects signing with the given key,
+setting <link linkend="pgp-sign-as">$pgp_sign_as</link> permanently. The
+selection can later be changed in the compose menu.
</para>
</sect3>
<title>In-Reply-To: Header</title>
<para>
-When replying to messages, the <emphasis>In-Reply-To:</emphasis> header contains the
-Message-Id of the message(s) you reply to. If you remove or modify its value, Mutt will not generate a
-<emphasis>References:</emphasis> field, which allows you to create a new message thread, for example
-to create a new message to a mailing list without having to enter the mailing list's address.
+When replying to messages, the <emphasis>In-Reply-To:</emphasis> header
+contains the Message-Id of the message(s) you reply to. If you remove or
+modify its value, Mutt will not generate a
+<emphasis>References:</emphasis> field, which allows you to create a new
+message thread, for example to create a new message to a mailing list
+without having to enter the mailing list's address.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+If you intend to start a new thread by replying, please make really sure
+you remove the <emphasis>In-Reply-To:</emphasis> header in your
+editor. Otherwise, though you'll produce a technically valid reply, some
+netiquette guardians will be annoyed by this so-called <quote>thread
+hijacking</quote>.
</para>
</sect3>
<title>Sending Cryptographically Signed/Encrypted Messages</title>
<para>
-If you have told Mutt to PGP or S/MIME encrypt a message, it will guide you
-through a key selection process when you try to send the message.
-Mutt will not ask you any questions about keys which have a
-certified user ID matching one of the message recipients' mail
-addresses. However, there may be situations in which there are
-several keys, weakly certified user ID fields, or where no matching
-keys can be found.
+If you have told Mutt to PGP or S/MIME encrypt a message, it will guide
+you through a key selection process when you try to send the message.
+Mutt will not ask you any questions about keys which have a certified
+user ID matching one of the message recipients' mail addresses.
+However, there may be situations in which there are several keys, weakly
+certified user ID fields, or where no matching keys can be found.
</para>
<para>
In these cases, you are dropped into a menu with a list of keys from
-which you can select one. When you quit this menu, or Mutt can't
-find any matching keys, you are prompted for a user ID. You can, as
-usually, abort this prompt using <literal>ˆG</literal>. When you do so, Mutt will
-return to the compose screen.
+which you can select one. When you quit this menu, or Mutt can't find
+any matching keys, you are prompted for a user ID. You can, as usually,
+abort this prompt using <literal>^G</literal>. When you do so, Mutt
+will return to the compose screen.
</para>
<para>
-Once you have successfully finished the key selection, the message
-will be encrypted using the selected public keys when sent out.
+Once you have successfully finished the key selection, the message will
+be encrypted using the selected public keys when sent out.
</para>
<para>
-Most fields of the entries in the key selection menu (see also <link linkend="pgp-entry-format">$pgp_entry_format</link>)
-have obvious meanings. But some explanations on the capabilities, flags,
-and validity fields are in order.
+Most fields of the entries in the key selection menu (see also <link
+linkend="pgp-entry-format">$pgp_entry_format</link>) have obvious
+meanings. But some explanations on the capabilities, flags, and
+validity fields are in order.
</para>
<para>
-The flags sequence (<quote>%f</quote>) will expand to one of the flags in
-<xref linkend="tab-pgp-menuflags"/>.
+The flags sequence (<quote>%f</quote>) will expand to one of the flags
+in <xref linkend="tab-pgp-menuflags"/>.
</para>
<table id="tab-pgp-menuflags">
</table>
<para>
-The capabilities field (<quote>%c</quote>) expands to a two-character sequence
-representing a key's capabilities. The first character gives
+The capabilities field (<quote>%c</quote>) expands to a two-character
+sequence representing a key's capabilities. The first character gives
the key's encryption capabilities: A minus sign (<quote>-</quote>) means
-that the key cannot be used for encryption. A dot (<quote>.</quote>) means that
-it's marked as a signature key in one of the user IDs, but may
-also be used for encryption. The letter <quote>e</quote> indicates that
-this key can be used for encryption.
+that the key cannot be used for encryption. A dot (<quote>.</quote>)
+means that it's marked as a signature key in one of the user IDs, but
+may also be used for encryption. The letter <quote>e</quote> indicates
+that this key can be used for encryption.
</para>
<para>
The second character indicates the key's signing capabilities. Once
-again, a <quote>-</quote> implies <quote>not for signing</quote>, <quote>.</quote> implies
-that the key is marked as an encryption key in one of the user-ids, and
-<quote>s</quote> denotes a key which can be used for signing.
+again, a <quote>-</quote> implies <quote>not for signing</quote>,
+<quote>.</quote> implies that the key is marked as an encryption key in
+one of the user-ids, and <quote>s</quote> denotes a key which can be
+used for signing.
</para>
<para>
-Finally, the validity field (<quote>%t</quote>) indicates how well-certified a user-id
-is. A question mark (<quote>?</quote>) indicates undefined validity, a minus
-character (<quote>-</quote>) marks an untrusted association, a space character
-means a partially trusted association, and a plus character (<quote>+</quote>)
-indicates complete validity.
+Finally, the validity field (<quote>%t</quote>) indicates how
+well-certified a user-id is. A question mark (<quote>?</quote>)
+indicates undefined validity, a minus character (<quote>-</quote>) marks
+an untrusted association, a space character means a partially trusted
+association, and a plus character (<quote>+</quote>) indicates complete
+validity.
</para>
</sect2>
<title>Concept</title>
<para>
-<literal>format=flowed</literal>-style messages (or <literal>f=f</literal>
-for short) are <literal>text/plain</literal> messages that consist of paragraphs which a receiver's
-mail client may reformat to its own needs which mostly means to
-customize line lengths regardless of what the sender sent. Technically this is
-achieved by letting lines of a <quote>flowable</quote> paragraph end in spaces
+<literal>format=flowed</literal>-style messages (or
+<literal>f=f</literal> for short) are <literal>text/plain</literal>
+messages that consist of paragraphs which a receiver's mail client may
+reformat to its own needs which mostly means to customize line lengths
+regardless of what the sender sent. Technically this is achieved by
+letting lines of a <quote>flowable</quote> paragraph end in spaces
except for the last line.
</para>
<para>
Mutt only supports setting the required <literal>format=flowed</literal>
MIME parameter on outgoing messages if the <link
-linkend="text-flowed">$text_flowed</link>
-variable is set, specifically it does not add the
-trailing spaces.
+linkend="text-flowed">$text_flowed</link> variable is set, specifically
+it does not add the trailing spaces.
</para>
<para>
-After editing the initial message text and before entering
-the compose menu, Mutt properly space-stuffes the message.
+After editing the initial message text and before entering the compose
+menu, Mutt properly space-stuffs the message.
<emphasis>Space-stuffing</emphasis> is required by RfC3676 defining
<literal>format=flowed</literal> and means to prepend a space to:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>all lines starting with a space</para></listitem>
-<listitem><para>lines starting with the word <quote><literal>From</literal></quote>
-followed by space</para></listitem>
-<listitem><para>all lines starting with <quote><literal>></literal></quote> which
-is not intended to be a quote character</para></listitem>
+<listitem><para>lines starting with the word
+<quote><literal>From</literal></quote> followed by
+space</para></listitem>
+<listitem><para>all lines starting with
+<quote><literal>></literal></quote> which is not intended to be a
+quote character</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<note>
<para>
-Mutt only supports space-stuffing
-for the first two types of lines but not for the third: It is impossible to
-safely detect whether a leading <literal>></literal> character starts a
-quote or not. Furthermore, Mutt only applies space-stuffing
-<emphasis>once</emphasis> after the initial edit is finished.
+Mutt only supports space-stuffing for the first two types of lines but
+not for the third: It is impossible to safely detect whether a leading
+<literal>></literal> character starts a quote or not. Furthermore,
+Mutt only applies space-stuffing <emphasis>once</emphasis> after the
+initial edit is finished.
</para>
</note>
<para>
-All leading spaces are to be removed by receiving clients to restore
-the original message prior to further processing.
+All leading spaces are to be removed by receiving clients to restore the
+original message prior to further processing.
</para>
</sect3>
<title>Editor Considerations</title>
<para>
-As Mutt provides no additional features to compose <literal>f=f</literal>
-messages, it's completely up to the user and his editor to produce
-proper messages. Please consider your editor's documentation if you
-intend to send <literal>f=f</literal> messages.
+As Mutt provides no additional features to compose
+<literal>f=f</literal> messages, it's completely up to the user and his
+editor to produce proper messages. Please consider your editor's
+documentation if you intend to send <literal>f=f</literal> messages.
</para>
<para>
Bouncing and forwarding let you send an existing message to recipients
that you specify. Bouncing a message sends a verbatim copy of a message
to alternative addresses as if they were the message's original
-recipients specified in the Bcc header.
-Forwarding a message, on the other hand, allows you to modify the message
-before it is resent (for example, by adding your own comments). Bouncing
-is done using the <literal><bounce></literal> function and forwarding
-using the <literal><forward></literal> function bound to <quote>b</quote> and <quote>f</quote>
-respectively.
+recipients specified in the Bcc header. Forwarding a message, on the
+other hand, allows you to modify the message before it is resent (for
+example, by adding your own comments). Bouncing is done using the
+<literal><bounce></literal> function and forwarding using the
+<literal><forward></literal> function bound to <quote>b</quote>
+and <quote>f</quote> respectively.
</para>
<para>
Forwarding can be done by including the original message in the new
-message's body (surrounded by indicating lines) or including it as a MIME
-attachment, depending on the value of the <link linkend="mime-forward">$mime_forward</link> variable. Decoding of attachments,
-like in the pager, can be controlled by the <link linkend="forward-decode">$forward_decode</link> and <link linkend="mime-forward-decode">$mime_forward_decode</link> variables,
+message's body (surrounded by indicating lines) or including it as a
+MIME attachment, depending on the value of the <link
+linkend="mime-forward">$mime_forward</link> variable. Decoding of
+attachments, like in the pager, can be controlled by the <link
+linkend="forward-decode">$forward_decode</link> and <link
+linkend="mime-forward-decode">$mime_forward_decode</link> variables,
respectively. The desired forwarding format may depend on the content,
-therefore <link linkend="mime-forward">$mime_forward</link> is a quadoption which, for
-example, can be set to <quote>ask-no</quote>.
+therefore <link linkend="mime-forward">$mime_forward</link> is a
+quadoption which, for example, can be set to <quote>ask-no</quote>.
</para>
<para>
The inclusion of headers is controlled by the current setting of the
-<link linkend="weed">$weed</link> variable, unless <link linkend="mime-forward">$mime_forward</link> is set.
+<link linkend="weed">$weed</link> variable, unless <link
+linkend="mime-forward">$mime_forward</link> is set.
</para>
<para>
<para>
At times it is desirable to delay sending a message that you have
-already begun to compose. When the <literal><postpone-message></literal> function is
-used in the <emphasis>compose</emphasis> menu, the body of your message and attachments
-are stored in the mailbox specified by the <link linkend="postponed">$postponed</link> variable. This means that you can recall the
-message even if you exit Mutt and then restart it at a later time.
+already begun to compose. When the
+<literal><postpone-message></literal> function is used in the
+<emphasis>compose</emphasis> menu, the body of your message and
+attachments are stored in the mailbox specified by the <link
+linkend="postponed">$postponed</link> variable. This means that you can
+recall the message even if you exit Mutt and then restart it at a later
+time.
</para>
<para>
-Once a message is postponed, there are several ways to resume it. From the
-command line you can use the <quote>-p</quote> option, or if you compose a new
-message from the <emphasis>index</emphasis> or <emphasis>pager</emphasis> you will be prompted if postponed
-messages exist. If multiple messages are currently postponed, the
-<emphasis>postponed</emphasis> menu will pop up and you can select which message you would
-like to resume.
+Once a message is postponed, there are several ways to resume it. From
+the command line you can use the <quote>-p</quote> option, or if you
+compose a new message from the <emphasis>index</emphasis> or
+<emphasis>pager</emphasis> you will be prompted if postponed messages
+exist. If multiple messages are currently postponed, the
+<emphasis>postponed</emphasis> menu will pop up and you can select which
+message you would like to resume.
</para>
<note>
<para>
-If you postpone a reply to a message, the reply setting of
-the message is only updated when you actually finish the message and
-send it. Also, you must be in the same folder with the message you
-replied to for the status of the message to be updated.
+If you postpone a reply to a message, the reply setting of the message
+is only updated when you actually finish the message and send it. Also,
+you must be in the same folder with the message you replied to for the
+status of the message to be updated.
</para>
</note>
<para>
-See also the <link linkend="postpone">$postpone</link> quad-option.
+See also the <link linkend="postpone">$postpone</link> quad-option.
</para>
</sect1>
<title>Location of Initialization Files</title>
<para>
-While the default configuration (or <quote>preferences</quote>) make Mutt
-usable right out of the box, it is often desirable to tailor Mutt to
-suit your own tastes. When Mutt is first invoked, it will attempt to
-read the <quote>system</quote> configuration file (defaults set by your local
-system administrator), unless the <quote>-n</quote> <link linkend="commandline">command line</link> option is specified. This file is typically
-<literal>/usr/local/share/mutt/Muttrc</literal> or <literal>/etc/Muttrc</literal>. Mutt
-will next look for a file named <literal>.muttrc</literal> in your home
-directory. If this file does not exist and your home directory has
-a subdirectory named <literal>.mutt</literal>, Mutt tries to load a file named
+While the default configuration (or <quote>preferences</quote>) make
+Mutt usable right out of the box, it is often desirable to tailor Mutt
+to suit your own tastes. When Mutt is first invoked, it will attempt to
+read the <quote>system</quote> configuration file (defaults set by your
+local system administrator), unless the <quote>-n</quote> <link
+linkend="commandline">command line</link> option is specified. This
+file is typically <literal>/usr/local/share/mutt/Muttrc</literal> or
+<literal>/etc/Muttrc</literal>. Mutt will next look for a file named
+<literal>.muttrc</literal> in your home directory. If this file does
+not exist and your home directory has a subdirectory named
+<literal>.mutt</literal>, Mutt tries to load a file named
<literal>.mutt/muttrc</literal>.
</para>
<para>
-<literal>.muttrc</literal> is the file where you will usually place your <link linkend="commands">commands</link> to configure Mutt.
+<literal>.muttrc</literal> is the file where you will usually place your
+<link linkend="commands">commands</link> to configure Mutt.
</para>
<para>
In addition, Mutt supports version specific configuration files that are
-parsed instead of the default files as explained above. For instance, if
-your system has a <literal>Muttrc-0.88</literal> file in the system configuration
-directory, and you are running version 0.88 of Mutt, this file will be
-sourced instead of the <literal>Muttrc</literal> file. The same is true of the user
-configuration file, if you have a file <literal>.muttrc-0.88.6</literal> in your home
-directory, when you run Mutt version 0.88.6, it will source this file
-instead of the default <literal>.muttrc</literal> file. The version number is the
-same which is visible using the <quote>-v</quote> <link linkend="commandline">command line</link> switch or using the <literal>show-version</literal> key (default:
-V) from the index menu.
+parsed instead of the default files as explained above. For instance,
+if your system has a <literal>Muttrc-0.88</literal> file in the system
+configuration directory, and you are running version 0.88 of Mutt, this
+file will be sourced instead of the <literal>Muttrc</literal> file. The
+same is true of the user configuration file, if you have a file
+<literal>.muttrc-0.88.6</literal> in your home directory, when you run
+Mutt version 0.88.6, it will source this file instead of the default
+<literal>.muttrc</literal> file. The version number is the same which
+is visible using the <quote>-v</quote> <link
+linkend="commandline">command line</link> switch or using the
+<literal>show-version</literal> key (default: V) from the index menu.
</para>
</sect1>
<title>Syntax of Initialization Files</title>
<para>
-An initialization file consists of a series of <link linkend="commands">commands</link>. Each line of the file may contain one or more commands.
-When multiple commands are used, they must be separated by a semicolon
-(<quote>;</quote>).
+An initialization file consists of a series of <link
+linkend="commands">commands</link>. Each line of the file may contain
+one or more commands. When multiple commands are used, they must be
+separated by a semicolon (<quote>;</quote>).
</para>
<example id="ex-rc-multiple-cmds">
</example>
<para>
-The hash mark, or pound sign
-(<quote>#</quote>), is used as a <quote>comment</quote> character. You can use it to
-annotate your initialization file. All text after the comment character
-to the end of the line is ignored.
+The hash mark, or pound sign (<quote>#</quote>), is used as a
+<quote>comment</quote> character. You can use it to annotate your
+initialization file. All text after the comment character to the end of
+the line is ignored.
</para>
<example id="ex-ec-comment">
<title>Commenting configuration files</title>
<screen>
-my_hdr X-Disclaimer: Why are you listening to me? # This is a comment
+my_hdr X-Disclaimer: Why are you listening to me? <emphasis role="comment"># This is a comment</emphasis>
</screen>
</example>
<para>
-Single quotes (<quote>'</quote>) and double quotes (<quote>"</quote>) can be used to quote strings
-which contain spaces or other special characters. The difference between
-the two types of quotes is similar to that of many popular shell programs,
-namely that a single quote is used to specify a literal string (one that is
-not interpreted for shell variables or quoting with a backslash [see
-next paragraph]), while double quotes indicate a string for which
-should be evaluated. For example, backticks are evaluated inside of double
-quotes, but <emphasis>not</emphasis> for single quotes.
+Single quotes (<quote>'</quote>) and double quotes (<quote>"</quote>)
+can be used to quote strings which contain spaces or other special
+characters. The difference between the two types of quotes is similar
+to that of many popular shell programs, namely that a single quote is
+used to specify a literal string (one that is not interpreted for shell
+variables or quoting with a backslash [see next paragraph]), while
+double quotes indicate a string for which should be evaluated. For
+example, backticks are evaluated inside of double quotes, but
+<emphasis>not</emphasis> for single quotes.
</para>
<para>
-<quote>\</quote> quotes the next character, just as in shells such as bash and zsh.
-For example, if want to put quotes <quote>"</quote> inside of a string, you can use
-<quote>\</quote> to force the next character to be a literal instead of interpreted
-character.
+<quote>\</quote> quotes the next character, just as in shells such as
+bash and zsh. For example, if want to put quotes <quote>"</quote>
+inside of a string, you can use <quote>\</quote> to force the next
+character to be a literal instead of interpreted character.
</para>
<example id="ex-rc-quote">
-<title>Escaping quotes in congfiguration files</title>
+<title>Escaping quotes in configuration files</title>
<screen>
set realname="Michael \"MuttDude\" Elkins"
</screen>
</example>
<para>
-<quote>\\</quote> means to insert a literal <quote>\</quote> into the line.
-<quote>\n</quote> and <quote>\r</quote> have their usual C meanings of linefeed and
+<quote>\\</quote> means to insert a literal <quote>\</quote> into the line.
+<quote>\n</quote> and <quote>\r</quote> have their usual C meanings of linefeed and
carriage-return, respectively.
</para>
<para>
-A <quote>\</quote> at the end of a line can be used to split commands over
-multiple lines as it <quote>escapes</quote> the line end, provided that the split points don't appear in the
-middle of command names. Lines are first concatenated before
-interpretation so that a multi-line can be commented by commenting out
-the first line only.
+A <quote>\</quote> at the end of a line can be used to split commands
+over multiple lines as it <quote>escapes</quote> the line end, provided
+that the split points don't appear in the middle of command names. Lines
+are first concatenated before interpretation so that a multi-line can be
+commented by commenting out the first line only.
</para>
<example id="ex-rc-split">
It is also possible to substitute the output of a Unix command in an
initialization file. This is accomplished by enclosing the command in
backticks (``). In <xref linkend="ex-rc-backtick"/>, the output of the
-Unix command <quote>uname -a</quote> will be substituted before the
-line is parsed.
-Since initialization files are line oriented, only
-the first line of output from the Unix command will be substituted.
+Unix command <quote>uname -a</quote> will be substituted before the line
+is parsed. Since initialization files are line oriented, only the first
+line of output from the Unix command will be substituted.
</para>
<example id="ex-rc-backtick">
<para>
Both environment variables and Mutt variables can be accessed by
-prepending <quote>$</quote> to the name of the variable. For example,
+prepending <quote>$</quote> to the name of the variable. For example,
</para>
<example id="ex-rc-env">
<para>
will cause Mutt to save outgoing messages to a folder named
-<quote>sent_on_kremvax</quote> if the environment variable <literal>$HOSTNAME</literal> is set to
-<quote>kremvax.</quote> (See <link linkend="record">$record</link> for
-details.)
+<quote>sent_on_kremvax</quote> if the environment variable
+<literal>$HOSTNAME</literal> is set to <quote>kremvax.</quote> (See
+<link linkend="record">$record</link> for details.)
</para>
<para>
Mutt expands the variable when it is assigned, not when it is used. If
-the value of a variable on the right-hand side of an assignment
-changes after the assignment, the variable on the left-hand side will
-not be affected.
+the value of a variable on the right-hand side of an assignment changes
+after the assignment, the variable on the left-hand side will not be
+affected.
</para>
<para>
The commands understood by Mutt are explained in the next paragraphs.
-For a complete list, see the <link linkend="commands">command reference</link>.
+For a complete list, see the <link linkend="commands">command
+reference</link>.
</para>
<para>
All configuration files are expected to be in the current locale as
-specified by the <link linkend="charset">$charset</link> variable
-which doesn't have a default value since it's determined by Mutt at startup.
+specified by the <link linkend="charset">$charset</link> variable which
+doesn't have a default value since it's determined by Mutt at startup.
If a configuration file is not encoded in the same character set the
-<link linkend="config-charset">$config_charset</link>
-variable should be used: all lines starting with the next are recoded
-from <link linkend="config-charset">$config_charset</link>
-to <link linkend="charset">$charset</link>.
+<link linkend="config-charset">$config_charset</link> variable should be
+used: all lines starting with the next are recoded from <link
+linkend="config-charset">$config_charset</link> to <link
+linkend="charset">$charset</link>.
</para>
<para>
-This mechanism should be avoided if possible as it has the
-following implications:
+This mechanism should be avoided if possible as it has the following
+implications:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>These variables should be set early in a configuration
-file with <link linkend="charset">$charset</link> preceding
-<link linkend="config-charset">$config_charset</link> so Mutt
-knows what character set to convert to.</para></listitem>
-
-<listitem><para>If <link linkend="config-charset">$config_charset</link> is set, it should be set
-in each configuration file because the value is global and <emphasis>not</emphasis>
-per configuration file.</para></listitem>
-
-<listitem><para>Because Mutt first recodes a line before it attempts to parse it,
-a conversion introducing question marks or other characters as
-part of errors (unconvertable characters, transliteration) may introduce syntax
-errors or silently change the meaning of certain tokens (e.g. inserting
-question marks into regular expressions).</para></listitem>
+file with <link linkend="charset">$charset</link> preceding <link
+linkend="config-charset">$config_charset</link> so Mutt knows what
+character set to convert to.</para></listitem>
+
+<listitem><para>If <link linkend="config-charset">$config_charset</link>
+is set, it should be set in each configuration file because the value is
+global and <emphasis>not</emphasis> per configuration
+file.</para></listitem>
+
+<listitem><para>Because Mutt first recodes a line before it attempts to
+parse it, a conversion introducing question marks or other characters as
+part of errors (unconvertable characters, transliteration) may introduce
+syntax errors or silently change the meaning of certain tokens
+(e.g. inserting question marks into regular
+expressions).</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
</cmdsynopsis>
<para>
-<command>group</command> is used to directly add either addresses or
-regular expressions to the specified group or groups. The different
-categories of arguments to the <command>group</command> command can be
-in any order. The flags <literal>-rx</literal> and
+Mutt supports grouping addresses logically into named groups. An address
+or address pattern can appear in several groups at the same time. These
+groups can be used in <link linkend="patterns">patterns</link> (for searching, limiting and tagging) and
+in hooks by using group patterns. This can be useful to classify mail
+and take certain actions depending on in what groups the message is.
+For example, the mutt user's mailing list would fit into the categories
+<quote>mailing list</quote> and <quote>mutt-related</quote>. Using <link
+linkend="send-hook"><literal>send-hook</literal></link>, the sender can
+be set to a dedicated one for writing mailing list messages, and the
+signature could be set to a mutt-related one for writing to a mutt list
+— for other lists, the list sender setting still applies but a
+different signature can be selected. Or, given a group only containing
+recipients known to accept encrypted mail,
+<quote>auto-encryption</quote> can be achieved easily.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+The <command>group</command> command is used to directly add either
+addresses or regular expressions to the specified group or groups. The
+different categories of arguments to the <command>group</command>
+command can be in any order. The flags <literal>-rx</literal> and
<literal>-addr</literal> specify what the following strings (that cannot
begin with a hyphen) should be interpreted as: either a regular
expression or an email address, respectively.
</para>
<para>
-These address groups can also be created implicitly by the
-<link linkend="alias"><command>alias</command></link>, <link linkend="lists">lists</link>,
-<link linkend="lists">subscribe</link> and
-<link linkend="alternates"><command>alternates</command></link> commands by specifying the
-optional <literal>-group</literal> option.
+These address groups can also be created implicitly by the <link
+linkend="alias"><command>alias</command></link>, <link
+linkend="lists"><command>lists</command></link>, <link
+linkend="lists"><command>subscribe</command></link> and <link
+linkend="alternates"><command>alternates</command></link> commands by
+specifying the optional <literal>-group</literal> option. For example,
</para>
+<screen>
+alternates -group me address1 address2
+alternates -group me -group work address3
+</screen>
+
<para>
-Once defined, these address groups can be used in
-<link linkend="patterns">patterns</link> to search for and limit the
-display to messages matching a group.
+would create a group named <quote>me</quote> which contains all your
+addresses and a group named <quote>work</quote> which contains only your
+work address <emphasis>address3</emphasis>. Besides many other
+possibilities, this could be used to automatically mark your own
+messages in a mailing list folder as read or use a special signature for
+work-related messages.
</para>
<para>
-<command>ungroup</command> is used to remove addresses or regular
-expressions from the specified group or groups. The syntax is similar to
-the <command>group</command> command, however the special character
-<literal>*</literal> can be used to empty a group of all of its
-contents.
+The <command>ungroup</command> command is used to remove addresses or
+regular expressions from the specified group or groups. The syntax is
+similar to the <command>group</command> command, however the special
+character <literal>*</literal> can be used to empty a group of all of
+its contents. As soon as a group gets empty because all addresses and
+regular expressions have been removed, it'll internally be removed, too
+(i.e. there cannot be an empty group). When removing regular expressions
+from a group, the pattern must be specified exactly as given to the
+<command>group</command> command or <literal>-group</literal> argument.
</para>
</sect1>
</cmdsynopsis>
<para>
-It's usually very cumbersome to remember or type out the address of someone
-you are communicating with. Mutt allows you to create <quote>aliases</quote> which map
-a short string to a full address.
+It's usually very cumbersome to remember or type out the address of
+someone you are communicating with. Mutt allows you to create
+<quote>aliases</quote> which map a short string to a full address.
</para>
<note>
<para>
-If you want to create an alias for more than
-one address, you <emphasis>must</emphasis> separate the addresses with a comma (<quote>,</quote>).
+If you want to create an alias for more than one address, you
+<emphasis>must</emphasis> separate the addresses with a comma
+(<quote>,</quote>).
</para>
</note>
</screen>
<para>
-Unlike other mailers, Mutt doesn't require aliases to be defined
-in a special file. The <command>alias</command> command can appear anywhere in
-a configuration file, as long as this file is <link linkend="source"><command>source</command>d</link>. Consequently, you can have multiple alias files, or
-you can have all aliases defined in your <literal>.muttrc</literal>.
+Unlike other mailers, Mutt doesn't require aliases to be defined in a
+special file. The <command>alias</command> command can appear anywhere
+in a configuration file, as long as this file is <link
+linkend="source"><command>source</command>d</link>. Consequently, you
+can have multiple alias files, or you can have all aliases defined in
+your <literal>.muttrc</literal>.
</para>
<para>
-On the other hand, the <link linkend="create-alias"><literal><create-alias></literal></link>
-function can use only one file, the one pointed to by the <link linkend="alias-file">$alias_file</link> variable (which is
-<literal>˜/.muttrc</literal> by default). This file is not special either,
-in the sense that Mutt will happily append aliases to any file, but in
-order for the new aliases to take effect you need to explicitly <link linkend="source"><command>source</command></link> this file too.
+On the other hand, the <link
+linkend="create-alias"><literal><create-alias></literal></link>
+function can use only one file, the one pointed to by the <link
+linkend="alias-file">$alias_file</link> variable (which is
+<literal>~/.muttrc</literal> by default). This file is not special
+either, in the sense that Mutt will happily append aliases to any file,
+but in order for the new aliases to take effect you need to explicitly
+<link linkend="source"><command>source</command></link> this file too.
</para>
<example id="ex-alias-external">
<para>
To use aliases, you merely use the alias at any place in Mutt where Mutt
-prompts for addresses, such as the <emphasis>To:</emphasis> or <emphasis>Cc:</emphasis> prompt. You can
-also enter aliases in your editor at the appropriate headers if you have the
-<link linkend="edit-headers">$edit_headers</link> variable set.
+prompts for addresses, such as the <emphasis>To:</emphasis> or
+<emphasis>Cc:</emphasis> prompt. You can also enter aliases in your
+editor at the appropriate headers if you have the <link
+linkend="edit-headers">$edit_headers</link> variable set.
</para>
<para>
-In addition, at the various address prompts, you can use the tab character
-to expand a partial alias to the full alias. If there are multiple matches,
-Mutt will bring up a menu with the matching aliases. In order to be
-presented with the full list of aliases, you must hit tab without a partial
-alias, such as at the beginning of the prompt or after a comma denoting
-multiple addresses.
+In addition, at the various address prompts, you can use the tab
+character to expand a partial alias to the full alias. If there are
+multiple matches, Mutt will bring up a menu with the matching aliases.
+In order to be presented with the full list of aliases, you must hit tab
+without a partial alias, such as at the beginning of the prompt or after
+a comma denoting multiple addresses.
</para>
<para>
In the alias menu, you can select as many aliases as you want with the
-<literal>select-entry</literal> key (default: <Return>), and use the
-<emphasis>exit</emphasis> key (default: q) to return to the address prompt.
+<literal>select-entry</literal> key (default: <Return>), and use
+the <emphasis>exit</emphasis> key (default: q) to return to the address
+prompt.
</para>
</sect1>
</para>
<para>
-<emphasis>map</emphasis> specifies in which menu the binding belongs. Multiple maps may
-be specified by separating them with commas (no additional whitespace is
-allowed). The currently defined maps are:
+<emphasis>map</emphasis> specifies in which menu the binding belongs.
+Multiple maps may be specified by separating them with commas (no
+additional whitespace is allowed). The currently defined maps are:
</para>
<anchor id="maps"/>
<para>
This is not a real menu, but is used as a fallback for all of the other
menus except for the pager and editor modes. If a key is not defined in
-another menu, Mutt will look for a binding to use in this menu. This allows
-you to bind a key to a certain function in multiple menus instead of having
-multiple <command>bind</command> statements to accomplish the same task.
+another menu, Mutt will look for a binding to use in this menu. This
+allows you to bind a key to a certain function in multiple menus instead
+of having multiple <command>bind</command> statements to accomplish the
+same task.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<listitem>
<para>
The alias menu is the list of your personal aliases as defined in your
-<literal>.muttrc</literal>. It is the mapping from a short alias name to the full email
-address(es) of the recipient(s).
+<literal>.muttrc</literal>. It is the mapping from a short alias name
+to the full email address(es) of the recipient(s).
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>attach</term>
<listitem>
<para>
-The attachment menu is used to access the attachments on received messages.
+The attachment menu is used to access the attachments on received
+messages.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>browser</term>
<listitem>
<para>
-The browser is used for both browsing the local directory structure, and for
-listing all of your incoming mailboxes.
+The browser is used for both browsing the local directory structure, and
+for listing all of your incoming mailboxes.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>editor</term>
<listitem>
<para>
-The editor is the line-based editor the user enters text data.
+The editor is used to allow the user to enter a single line of text, such as
+the <emphasis>To</emphasis> or <emphasis>Subject</emphasis> prompts in the
+<literal>compose</literal> menu.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>smime</term>
<listitem>
<para>
-The smime menu is used to select the OpenSSL certificates used to encrypt outgoing
-messages.
+The smime menu is used to select the OpenSSL certificates used to
+encrypt outgoing messages.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>query</term>
<listitem>
<para>
-The query menu is the browser for results returned by
-<link linkend="query-command">$query_command</link>.
+The query menu is the browser for results returned by <link
+linkend="query-command">$query_command</link>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<para>
-<emphasis>key</emphasis> is the key (or key sequence) you wish to bind. To specify a
-control character, use the sequence <emphasis>\Cx</emphasis>, where <emphasis>x</emphasis> is the
-letter of the control character (for example, to specify control-A use
-<quote>\Ca</quote>). Note that the case of <emphasis>x</emphasis> as well as <emphasis>\C</emphasis> is
-ignored, so that <emphasis>\CA</emphasis>, <emphasis>\Ca</emphasis>, <emphasis>\cA</emphasis> and <emphasis>\ca</emphasis> are all
+<emphasis>key</emphasis> is the key (or key sequence) you wish to bind.
+To specify a control character, use the sequence
+<emphasis>\Cx</emphasis>, where <emphasis>x</emphasis> is the letter of
+the control character (for example, to specify control-A use
+<quote>\Ca</quote>). Note that the case of <emphasis>x</emphasis> as
+well as <emphasis>\C</emphasis> is ignored, so that
+<emphasis>\CA</emphasis>, <emphasis>\Ca</emphasis>,
+<emphasis>\cA</emphasis> and <emphasis>\ca</emphasis> are all
equivalent. An alternative form is to specify the key as a three digit
-octal number prefixed with a <quote>\</quote> (for example <emphasis>\177</emphasis> is
-equivalent to <emphasis>\c?</emphasis>). In addition, <emphasis>key</emphasis> may
-be a symbolic name as shown in <xref linkend="tab-key-names"/>.
+octal number prefixed with a <quote>\</quote> (for example
+<emphasis>\177</emphasis> is equivalent to <emphasis>\c?</emphasis>). In
+addition, <emphasis>key</emphasis> may be a symbolic name as shown in
+<xref linkend="tab-key-names"/>.
</para>
<table id="tab-key-names">
<row><entry>Symbolic name</entry><entry>Meaning</entry></row>
</thead>
<tbody>
-<row><entry>\t</entry><entry>tab</entry></row>
+<row><entry>\t</entry><entry>tab</entry></row>
<row><entry><tab></entry><entry>tab</entry></row>
<row><entry><backtab></entry><entry>backtab / shift-tab</entry></row>
-<row><entry>\r</entry><entry>carriage return</entry></row>
-<row><entry>\n</entry><entry>newline</entry></row>
-<row><entry>\e</entry><entry>escape</entry></row>
+<row><entry>\r</entry><entry>carriage return</entry></row>
+<row><entry>\n</entry><entry>newline</entry></row>
+<row><entry>\e</entry><entry>escape</entry></row>
<row><entry><esc></entry><entry>escape</entry></row>
<row><entry><up></entry><entry>up arrow</entry></row>
<row><entry><down></entry><entry>down arrow</entry></row>
</table>
<para>
-<emphasis>key</emphasis> does not need to be enclosed in quotes unless it contains a
-space (<quote> </quote>) or semi-colon (<quote>;</quote>).
+<emphasis>key</emphasis> does not need to be enclosed in quotes unless
+it contains a space (<quote> </quote>) or semi-colon
+(<quote>;</quote>).
+</para>
+
+<para>
+<emphasis>function</emphasis> specifies which action to take when
+<emphasis>key</emphasis> is pressed. For a complete list of functions,
+see the <link linkend="functions">reference</link>. Note that the
+<command>bind</command> expects <emphasis>function</emphasis> to be
+specified without angle brackets.
</para>
<para>
-<emphasis>function</emphasis> specifies which action to take when <emphasis>key</emphasis> is pressed.
-For a complete list of functions, see the <link linkend="functions">reference</link>. The special function <literal><noop></literal> unbinds the specified key
-sequence.
+The special function <literal><noop></literal> unbinds the
+specified key sequence.
</para>
</sect1>
</cmdsynopsis>
<para>
-The <command>charset-hook</command> command defines an alias for a character set.
-This is useful to properly display messages which are tagged with a
-character set name not known to Mutt.
+The <command>charset-hook</command> command defines an alias for a
+character set. This is useful to properly display messages which are
+tagged with a character set name not known to Mutt.
</para>
<para>
-The <command>iconv-hook</command> command defines a system-specific name for a
-character set. This is helpful when your systems character
-conversion library insists on using strange, system-specific names
-for character sets.
+The <command>iconv-hook</command> command defines a system-specific name
+for a character set. This is helpful when your systems character
+conversion library insists on using strange, system-specific names for
+character sets.
</para>
</sect1>
<cmdsynopsis>
<command>folder-hook</command>
<arg choice="plain">
-<replaceable class="parameter">[!]regexp</replaceable>
+<replaceable class="parameter">[!]regexp</replaceable>
</arg>
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable class="parameter">command</replaceable>
<para>
It is often desirable to change settings based on which mailbox you are
-reading. The <command>folder-hook</command> command provides a method by which you can execute
-any configuration command. <emphasis>regexp</emphasis> is a regular expression specifying
-in which mailboxes to execute <emphasis>command</emphasis> before loading. If a mailbox
-matches multiple <command>folder-hook</command>s, they are executed in the order given in the
-<literal>.muttrc</literal>.
+reading. The <command>folder-hook</command> command provides a method
+by which you can execute any configuration command.
+<emphasis>regexp</emphasis> is a regular expression specifying in which
+mailboxes to execute <emphasis>command</emphasis> before loading. If a
+mailbox matches multiple <command>folder-hook</command>s, they are
+executed in the order given in the <literal>.muttrc</literal>.
</para>
<note>
<para>
-If you use the <quote>!</quote> shortcut for <link linkend="spoolfile">$spoolfile</link> at the beginning of the pattern, you must place it
-inside of double or single quotes in order to distinguish it from the
-logical <emphasis>not</emphasis> operator for the expression.
+If you use the <quote>!</quote> shortcut for <link
+linkend="spoolfile">$spoolfile</link> at the beginning of the pattern,
+you must place it inside of double or single quotes in order to
+distinguish it from the logical <emphasis>not</emphasis> operator for
+the expression.
</para>
</note>
<note>
<para>
-Settings are <emphasis>not</emphasis> restored when you leave the mailbox.
-For example, a command action to perform is to change the sorting method
-based upon the mailbox being read:
+Settings are <emphasis>not</emphasis> restored when you leave the
+mailbox. For example, a command action to perform is to change the
+sorting method based upon the mailbox being read:
+</para>
<screen>
folder-hook mutt "set sort=threads"</screen>
+<para>
However, the sorting method is not restored to its previous value when
-reading a different mailbox. To specify a <emphasis>default</emphasis> command, use the
-pattern <quote>.</quote> before other <command>folder-hook</command>s adjusting a value on a per-folder basis
-because <command>folder-hook</command>s are evaluated in the order given in the
-configuration file.
+reading a different mailbox. To specify a <emphasis>default</emphasis>
+command, use the pattern <quote>.</quote> before other
+<command>folder-hook</command>s adjusting a value on a per-folder basis
+because <command>folder-hook</command>s are evaluated in the order given
+in the configuration file.
</para>
</note>
<para>
-The following example will set the <link linkend="sort">sort</link> variable
-to <literal>date-sent</literal> for all folders but to <literal>threads</literal>
-for all folders containing <quote>mutt</quote> in their name.
+The following example will set the <link linkend="sort">sort</link>
+variable to <literal>date-sent</literal> for all folders but to
+<literal>threads</literal> for all folders containing
+<quote>mutt</quote> in their name.
</para>
<example id="ex-folder-sorting">
</cmdsynopsis>
<para>
-Macros are useful when you would like a single key to perform a series of
-actions. When you press <emphasis>key</emphasis> in menu <emphasis>menu</emphasis>, Mutt will behave as if
-you had typed <emphasis>sequence</emphasis>. So if you have a common sequence of commands
-you type, you can create a macro to execute those commands with a single
-key or fewer keys.
+Macros are useful when you would like a single key to perform a series
+of actions. When you press <emphasis>key</emphasis> in menu
+<emphasis>menu</emphasis>, Mutt will behave as if you had typed
+<emphasis>sequence</emphasis>. So if you have a common sequence of
+commands you type, you can create a macro to execute those commands with
+a single key or fewer keys.
</para>
<para>
-<emphasis>menu</emphasis> is the <link linkend="maps">map</link> which the macro will be bound in.
-Multiple maps may be specified by separating multiple menu arguments by
-commas. Whitespace may not be used in between the menu arguments and the
-commas separating them.
+<emphasis>menu</emphasis> is the <link linkend="maps">map</link> which
+the macro will be bound in. Multiple maps may be specified by
+separating multiple menu arguments by commas. Whitespace may not be used
+in between the menu arguments and the commas separating them.
</para>
<para>
-<emphasis>key</emphasis> and <emphasis>sequence</emphasis> are expanded by the same rules as the
-<link linkend="bind">key bindings</link> with some additions. The
-first is that control characters in <emphasis>sequence</emphasis> can also be specified
-as <emphasis>ˆx</emphasis>. In order to get a caret (<quote>ˆ</quote>) you need to use
-<emphasis>ˆˆ</emphasis>. Secondly, to specify a certain key such as <emphasis>up</emphasis>
-or to invoke a function directly, you can use the format
-<emphasis><key name></emphasis> and <emphasis><function name></emphasis>. For a listing of key
-names see the section on <link linkend="bind">key bindings</link>. Functions
+<emphasis>key</emphasis> and <emphasis>sequence</emphasis> are expanded
+by the same rules as the <link linkend="bind">key bindings</link> with
+some additions. The first is that control characters in
+<emphasis>sequence</emphasis> can also be specified as
+<emphasis>^x</emphasis>. In order to get a caret (<quote>^</quote>) you
+need to use <emphasis>^^</emphasis>. Secondly, to specify a certain key
+such as <emphasis>up</emphasis> or to invoke a function directly, you
+can use the format <emphasis><key name></emphasis> and
+<emphasis><function name></emphasis>. For a listing of key names
+see the section on <link linkend="bind">key bindings</link>. Functions
are listed in the <link linkend="functions">reference</link>.
</para>
<para>
The advantage with using function names directly is that the macros will
-work regardless of the current key bindings, so they are not dependent on
-the user having particular key definitions. This makes them more robust
-and portable, and also facilitates defining of macros in files used by more
-than one user (e.g., the system Muttrc).
+work regardless of the current key bindings, so they are not dependent
+on the user having particular key definitions. This makes them more
+robust and portable, and also facilitates defining of macros in files
+used by more than one user (e.g., the system Muttrc).
</para>
<para>
-Optionally you can specify a descriptive text after <emphasis>sequence</emphasis>,
-which is shown in the help screens if they contain a description.
+Optionally you can specify a descriptive text after
+<emphasis>sequence</emphasis>, which is shown in the help screens if
+they contain a description.
</para>
<note>
</cmdsynopsis>
<para>
-If your terminal supports color, you can spice up Mutt by creating your own
-color scheme. To define the color of an object (type of information), you
-must specify both a foreground color <emphasis>and</emphasis> a background color (it is not
-possible to only specify one or the other).
+If your terminal supports color, you can spice up Mutt by creating your
+own color scheme. To define the color of an object (type of
+information), you must specify both a foreground color
+<emphasis>and</emphasis> a background color (it is not possible to only
+specify one or the other).
</para>
<para>
-<emphasis>header</emphasis> and <emphasis>body</emphasis> match <emphasis>regexp</emphasis>
-in the header/body of a message, <emphasis>index</emphasis> matches <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>
-(see <xref linkend="patterns"/>) in the message index.
+<emphasis>header</emphasis> and <emphasis>body</emphasis> match
+<emphasis>regexp</emphasis> in the header/body of a message,
+<emphasis>index</emphasis> matches <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> (see
+<xref linkend="patterns"/>) in the message index.
</para>
<para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem><para>attachment</para></listitem>
-<listitem><para>bold (hiliting bold patterns in the body of messages)</para></listitem>
+<listitem><para>bold (highlighting bold patterns in the body of messages)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>error (error messages printed by Mutt)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>hdrdefault (default color of the message header in the pager)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>indicator (arrow or bar used to indicate the current item in a menu)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>markers (the <quote>+</quote> markers at the beginning of wrapped lines in the pager)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>message (informational messages)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>normal</para></listitem>
-<listitem><para>quoted (text matching <link linkend="quote-regexp">$quote_regexp</link> in the body of a message)</para></listitem>
+<listitem><para>quoted (text matching <link linkend="quote-regexp">$quote_regexp</link> in the body of a message)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>quoted1, quoted2, ..., quoted<emphasis>N</emphasis> (higher levels of quoting)</para></listitem>
-<listitem><para>search (hiliting of words in the pager)</para></listitem>
+<listitem><para>search (highlighting of words in the pager)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>signature</para></listitem><listitem><para>status (mode lines used to display info about the mailbox or message)</para></listitem>
-<listitem><para>tilde (the <quote>˜</quote> used to pad blank lines in the pager)</para></listitem>
+<listitem><para>tilde (the <quote>~</quote> used to pad blank lines in the pager)</para></listitem>
<listitem><para>tree (thread tree drawn in the message index and attachment menu)</para></listitem>
-<listitem><para>underline (hiliting underlined patterns in the body of messages)</para></listitem>
+<listitem><para>underline (highlighting underlined patterns in the body of messages)</para></listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
-<emphasis>foreground</emphasis> and <emphasis>background</emphasis> can be one of the following:
+<emphasis>foreground</emphasis> and <emphasis>background</emphasis> can
+be one of the following:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
-<emphasis>foreground</emphasis> can optionally be prefixed with the keyword <literal>bright</literal> to make
-the foreground color boldfaced (e.g., <literal>brightred</literal>).
+<emphasis>foreground</emphasis> can optionally be prefixed with the
+keyword <literal>bright</literal> to make the foreground color boldfaced
+(e.g., <literal>brightred</literal>).
</para>
<para>
-If your terminal supports it, the special keyword <emphasis>default</emphasis> can be
-used as a transparent color. The value <emphasis>brightdefault</emphasis> is also valid.
-If Mutt is linked against the <emphasis>S-Lang</emphasis> library, you also need to set
-the <literal>$COLORFGBG</literal> environment variable to the default colors of your
-terminal for this to work; for example (for Bourne-like shells):
+If your terminal supports it, the special keyword
+<emphasis>default</emphasis> can be used as a transparent color. The
+value <emphasis>brightdefault</emphasis> is also valid. If Mutt is
+linked against the <emphasis>S-Lang</emphasis> library, you also need to
+set the <literal>$COLORFGBG</literal> environment variable to the
+default colors of your terminal for this to work; for example (for
+Bourne-like shells):
</para>
<screen>
<note>
<para>
-The <emphasis>S-Lang</emphasis> library requires you to use the <emphasis>lightgray</emphasis>
-and <emphasis>brown</emphasis> keywords instead of <emphasis>white</emphasis> and <emphasis>yellow</emphasis> when
-setting this variable.
+The <emphasis>S-Lang</emphasis> library requires you to use the
+<emphasis>lightgray</emphasis> and <emphasis>brown</emphasis> keywords
+instead of <emphasis>white</emphasis> and <emphasis>yellow</emphasis>
+when setting this variable.
</para>
</note>
<note>
<para>
-The <command>uncolor</command> command can be applied to the index, header and body objects only. It
-removes entries from the list. You <emphasis>must</emphasis> specify the same pattern
-specified in the <command>color</command> command for it to be removed. The pattern <quote>*</quote> is
-a special token which means to clear the color list of all entries.
+The <command>uncolor</command> command can be applied to the index,
+header and body objects only. It removes entries from the list. You
+<emphasis>must</emphasis> specify the same pattern specified in the
+<command>color</command> command for it to be removed. The pattern
+<quote>*</quote> is a special token which means to clear the color list
+of all entries.
</para>
</note>
<para>
-Mutt also recognizes the keywords <emphasis>color0</emphasis>, <emphasis>color1</emphasis>, …,
-<emphasis>color</emphasis><emphasis>N-1</emphasis> (<emphasis>N</emphasis> being the number of colors supported
-by your terminal). This is useful when you remap the colors for your
-display (for example by changing the color associated with <emphasis>color2</emphasis>
-for your xterm), since color names may then lose their normal meaning.
+Mutt also recognizes the keywords <emphasis>color0</emphasis>,
+<emphasis>color1</emphasis>, ...,
+<emphasis>color</emphasis><emphasis>N-1</emphasis>
+(<emphasis>N</emphasis> being the number of colors supported by your
+terminal). This is useful when you remap the colors for your display
+(for example by changing the color associated with
+<emphasis>color2</emphasis> for your xterm), since color names may then
+lose their normal meaning.
</para>
<anchor id="mono"/>
<para>
-If your terminal does not support color, it is still possible change the video
-attributes through the use of the <quote>mono</quote> command. Usage:
+If your terminal does not support color, it is still possible change the
+video attributes through the use of the <quote>mono</quote>
+command. Usage:
</para>
<cmdsynopsis>
</cmdsynopsis>
<para>
-For <emphasis>object</emphasis>, see the <command>color</command> command. <emphasis>attribute</emphasis>
-can be one of the following:
+For <emphasis>object</emphasis>, see the <command>color</command>
+command. <emphasis>attribute</emphasis> can be one of the following:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<sect1 id="msg-hdr-display">
<title>Message Header Display</title>
+<sect2 id="hdr-folding">
+<title>Header Display</title>
+
+<para>
+When displaying a message in the pager, Mutt folds long header lines at
+<link linkend="wrap">$wrap</link> columns. Though there're precise rules
+about where to break and how, Mutt always folds headers using a tab for
+readability. (Note that the sending side is not affected by this, Mutt
+tries to implement standards compliant folding.)
+</para>
+
+</sect2>
+
<sect2 id="ignore">
<title>Selecting Headers</title>
</cmdsynopsis>
<para>
-Messages often have many header fields added by automatic processing systems,
-or which may not seem useful to display on the screen. This command allows
-you to specify header fields which you don't normally want to see in the pager.
+Messages often have many header fields added by automatic processing
+systems, or which may not seem useful to display on the screen. This
+command allows you to specify header fields which you don't normally
+want to see in the pager.
</para>
<para>
You do not need to specify the full header field name. For example,
-<quote>ignore content-</quote> will ignore all header fields that begin with the pattern
-<quote>content-</quote>. <quote>ignore *</quote> will ignore all headers.
+<quote>ignore content-</quote> will ignore all header fields that begin
+with the pattern <quote>content-</quote>. <quote>ignore *</quote> will
+ignore all headers.
</para>
<para>
-To remove a previously added token from the list, use the <quote>unignore</quote> command.
-The <quote>unignore</quote> command will make Mutt display headers with the given pattern.
-For example, if you do <quote>ignore x-</quote> it is possible to <quote>unignore x-mailer</quote>.
+To remove a previously added token from the list, use the
+<quote>unignore</quote> command. The <quote>unignore</quote> command
+will make Mutt display headers with the given pattern. For example, if
+you do <quote>ignore x-</quote> it is possible to <quote>unignore
+x-mailer</quote>.
</para>
<para>
<example id="ex-header-weeding">
<title>Header weeding</title>
<screen>
-# Sven's draconian header weeding
+<emphasis role="comment"># Sven's draconian header weeding</emphasis>
ignore *
unignore from date subject to cc
unignore organization organisation x-mailer: x-newsreader: x-mailing-list:
<para>Usage:</para>
<cmdsynopsis>
-<command>hdr_order</command>
+<command>hdr_order</command>
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable class="parameter">header</replaceable>
</arg>
<replaceable class="parameter">header</replaceable>
</arg>
-<command>unhdr_order</command>
+<command>unhdr_order</command>
<group choice="req">
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable>*</replaceable>
</cmdsynopsis>
<para>
-With the <command>hdr_order</command> command you can specify an order in
-which Mutt will attempt to present these headers to you when viewing messages.
+With the <command>hdr_order</command> command you can specify an order
+in which Mutt will attempt to present these headers to you when viewing
+messages.
</para>
<para>
-<quote><command>unhdr_order</command> *</quote> will clear all previous headers from the order list,
-thus removing the header order effects set by the system-wide startup file.
+<quote><command>unhdr_order</command> *</quote> will clear all previous
+headers from the order list, thus removing the header order effects set
+by the system-wide startup file.
</para>
<example id="ex-hdr-order">
<title>Configuring header display order</title>
<screen>
-hdr_order From Date: From: To: Cc: Subject:
+hdr_order From Date: From: To: Cc: Subject:
</screen>
</example>
</cmdsynopsis>
<para>
-With various functions, Mutt will treat messages differently,
-depending on whether you sent them or whether you received them from
-someone else. For instance, when replying to a message that you
-sent to a different party, Mutt will automatically suggest to send
-the response to the original message's recipients — responding to
-yourself won't make much sense in many cases. (See <link linkend="reply-to">$reply_to</link>.)
+With various functions, Mutt will treat messages differently, depending
+on whether you sent them or whether you received them from someone else.
+For instance, when replying to a message that you sent to a different
+party, Mutt will automatically suggest to send the response to the
+original message's recipients — responding to yourself won't make
+much sense in many cases. (See <link
+linkend="reply-to">$reply_to</link>.)
</para>
<para>
Many users receive e-mail under a number of different addresses. To
-fully use Mutt's features here, the program must be able to
-recognize what e-mail addresses you receive mail under. That's the
-purpose of the <command>alternates</command> command: It takes a list of regular
+fully use Mutt's features here, the program must be able to recognize
+what e-mail addresses you receive mail under. That's the purpose of the
+<command>alternates</command> command: It takes a list of regular
expressions, each of which can identify an address under which you
receive e-mail.
</para>
</screen>
<para>
-Mutt will consider <quote><literal>some-user@example</literal></quote> as
-being your address, too which may not be desired. As a solution, in such
-cases addresses should be specified as:
+Mutt will consider <quote><literal>some-user@example</literal></quote>
+as being your address, too which may not be desired. As a solution, in
+such cases addresses should be specified as:
</para>
<screen>
</screen>
<para>
-The <literal>-group</literal> flag causes all of the subsequent regular expressions
-to be added to the named group.
+The <literal>-group</literal> flag causes all of the subsequent regular
+expressions to be added to the named group.
</para>
<para>
-The <command>unalternates</command> command can be used to write exceptions to
-<command>alternates</command> patterns. If an address matches something in an
-<command>alternates</command> command, but you nonetheless do not think it is
-from you, you can list a more precise pattern under an <command>unalternates</command>
-command.
+The <command>unalternates</command> command can be used to write
+exceptions to <command>alternates</command> patterns. If an address
+matches something in an <command>alternates</command> command, but you
+nonetheless do not think it is from you, you can list a more precise
+pattern under an <command>unalternates</command> command.
</para>
<para>
-To remove a regular expression from the <command>alternates</command> list, use the
-<command>unalternates</command> command with exactly the same <emphasis>regexp</emphasis>.
-Likewise, if the <emphasis>regexp</emphasis> for an <command>alternates</command> command matches
-an entry on the <command>unalternates</command> list, that <command>unalternates</command>
-entry will be removed. If the <emphasis>regexp</emphasis> for <command>unalternates</command>
-is <quote>*</quote>, <emphasis>all entries</emphasis> on <command>alternates</command> will be removed.
+To remove a regular expression from the <command>alternates</command>
+list, use the <command>unalternates</command> command with exactly the
+same <emphasis>regexp</emphasis>. Likewise, if the
+<emphasis>regexp</emphasis> for an <command>alternates</command> command
+matches an entry on the <command>unalternates</command> list, that
+<command>unalternates</command> entry will be removed. If the
+<emphasis>regexp</emphasis> for <command>unalternates</command> is
+<quote>*</quote>, <emphasis>all entries</emphasis> on
+<command>alternates</command> will be removed.
</para>
</sect1>
</arg>
<command>unlists</command>
-<arg choice="opt" rep="repeat">
-<option>-group</option>
-<replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
-</arg>
<group choice="req">
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable class="parameter">*</replaceable>
</arg>
<command>unsubscribe</command>
-<arg choice="opt" rep="repeat">
-<option>-group</option>
-<replaceable class="parameter">name</replaceable>
-</arg>
<group choice="req">
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable class="parameter">*</replaceable>
</cmdsynopsis>
<para>
-Mutt has a few nice features for <link linkend="using-lists">handling mailing lists</link>. In order to take advantage of them, you must
-specify which addresses belong to mailing lists, and which mailing
-lists you are subscribed to. Mutt also has limited support for
-auto-detecting mailing lists: it supports parsing
-<literal>mailto:</literal> links in the common
-<literal>List-Post:</literal> header which has the same effect as
-specifying the list address via the <command>lists</command> command
-(except the group feature). Once you have done this, the
-<link linkend="list-reply"><literal><list-reply></literal></link>
-function will work for all known lists.
-Additionally, when you send a message to a subscribed list, Mutt will
-add a Mail-Followup-To header to tell other users' mail user agents
-not to send copies of replies to your personal address.
+Mutt has a few nice features for <link linkend="using-lists">handling
+mailing lists</link>. In order to take advantage of them, you must
+specify which addresses belong to mailing lists, and which mailing lists
+you are subscribed to. Mutt also has limited support for auto-detecting
+mailing lists: it supports parsing <literal>mailto:</literal> links in
+the common <literal>List-Post:</literal> header which has the same
+effect as specifying the list address via the <command>lists</command>
+command (except the group feature). Once you have done this, the <link
+linkend="list-reply"><literal><list-reply></literal></link>
+function will work for all known lists. Additionally, when you send a
+message to a subscribed list, Mutt will add a Mail-Followup-To header to
+tell other users' mail user agents not to send copies of replies to your
+personal address.
</para>
<note>
<para>
The Mail-Followup-To header is a non-standard extension which is not
-supported by all mail user agents. Adding it is not bullet-proof against
-receiving personal CCs of list messages. Also note that the generation
-of the Mail-Followup-To header is controlled by the
-<link linkend="followup-to">$followup_to</link>
-configuration variable since it's common practice on some mailing lists
-to send Cc upons replies (which is more a group- than a list-reply).
+supported by all mail user agents. Adding it is not bullet-proof
+against receiving personal CCs of list messages. Also note that the
+generation of the Mail-Followup-To header is controlled by the <link
+linkend="followup-to">$followup_to</link> configuration variable since
+it's common practice on some mailing lists to send Cc upon replies
+(which is more a group- than a list-reply).
</para>
</note>
<para>
-More precisely, Mutt maintains lists of patterns for the addresses
-of known and subscribed mailing lists. Every subscribed mailing
-list is known. To mark a mailing list as known, use the <command>list</command>
+More precisely, Mutt maintains lists of patterns for the addresses of
+known and subscribed mailing lists. Every subscribed mailing list is
+known. To mark a mailing list as known, use the <command>list</command>
command. To mark it as subscribed, use <command>subscribe</command>.
</para>
<para>
-You can use regular expressions with both commands. To mark all
-messages sent to a specific bug report's address on Debian's bug
-tracking system as list mail, for instance, you could say
+You can use regular expressions with both commands. To mark all messages
+sent to a specific bug report's address on Debian's bug tracking system
+as list mail, for instance, you could say
</para>
<screen>
-subscribe [0-9]*.*@bugs.debian.org</screen>
+subscribe [0-9]*.*@bugs.debian.org</screen>
<para>
-as it's often, it's sufficient to just give a portion of the list's e-mail address.
+as it's often sufficient to just give a portion of the list's e-mail
+address.
</para>
<para>
Specify as much of the address as you need to to remove ambiguity. For
-example, if you've subscribed to the Mutt mailing list, you will receive mail
-addressed to <literal>mutt-users@mutt.org</literal>. So, to tell Mutt
-that this is a mailing list, you could add <literal>lists mutt-users@</literal> to your
-initialization file. To tell Mutt that you are subscribed to it,
-add <literal><command>subscribe</command> mutt-users</literal> to your initialization file instead.
-If you also happen to get mail from someone whose address is
+example, if you've subscribed to the Mutt mailing list, you will receive
+mail addressed to <literal>mutt-users@mutt.org</literal>. So, to tell
+Mutt that this is a mailing list, you could add <literal>lists
+mutt-users@</literal> to your initialization file. To tell Mutt that
+you are subscribed to it, add <literal><command>subscribe</command>
+mutt-users</literal> to your initialization file instead. If you also
+happen to get mail from someone whose address is
<literal>mutt-users@example.com</literal>, you could use
-<literal><command>lists</command> ^mutt-users@mutt\\.org$</literal>
-or <literal><command>subscribe</command> ^mutt-users@mutt\\.org$</literal> to
-match only mail from the actual list.
+<literal><command>lists</command> ^mutt-users@mutt\\.org$</literal> or
+<literal><command>subscribe</command> ^mutt-users@mutt\\.org$</literal>
+to match only mail from the actual list.
</para>
<para>
-The <literal>-group</literal> flag adds all of the subsequent regular expressions
-to the named group.
+The <literal>-group</literal> flag adds all of the subsequent regular
+expressions to the named <link linkend="addrgroup">address group</link>
+in addition to adding to the specified address list.
</para>
<para>
-The <quote>unlists</quote> command is used to remove a token from the list of
-known and subscribed mailing-lists. Use <quote>unlists *</quote> to remove all
-tokens.
+The <quote>unlists</quote> command is used to remove a token from the
+list of known and subscribed mailing-lists. Use <quote>unlists *</quote>
+to remove all tokens.
</para>
<para>
-To remove a mailing list from the list of subscribed mailing lists,
-but keep it on the list of known mailing lists, use <command>unsubscribe</command>.
+To remove a mailing list from the list of subscribed mailing lists, but
+keep it on the list of known mailing lists, use
+<command>unsubscribe</command>.
</para>
</sect1>
<cmdsynopsis>
<command>mbox-hook</command>
<arg choice="plain">
-<replaceable class="parameter">[!]pattern</replaceable>
+<replaceable class="parameter">[!]pattern</replaceable>
</arg>
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable class="parameter">mailbox</replaceable>
<para>
This command is used to move read messages from a specified mailbox to a
different mailbox automatically when you quit or change folders.
-<emphasis>pattern</emphasis> is a regular expression specifying the mailbox to treat as a
-<quote>spool</quote> mailbox and <emphasis>mailbox</emphasis> specifies where mail should be saved when
+<emphasis>pattern</emphasis> is a regular expression specifying the
+mailbox to treat as a <quote>spool</quote> mailbox and
+<emphasis>mailbox</emphasis> specifies where mail should be saved when
read.
</para>
<para>
-Unlike some of the other <emphasis>hook</emphasis> commands, only the <emphasis>first</emphasis> matching
-pattern is used (it is not possible to save read mail in more than a single
-mailbox).
+Unlike some of the other <emphasis>hook</emphasis> commands, only the
+<emphasis>first</emphasis> matching pattern is used (it is not possible
+to save read mail in more than a single mailbox).
</para>
</sect1>
</cmdsynopsis>
<para>
-This command specifies folders which can receive mail and
-which will be checked for new messages periodically.
+This command specifies folders which can receive mail and which will be
+checked for new messages periodically.
</para>
<para>
<emphasis>folder</emphasis> can either be a local file or directory
(Mbox/Mmdf or Maildir/Mh). If Mutt was built with POP and/or IMAP
support, <emphasis>folder</emphasis> can also be a POP/IMAP folder
-URL. The URL syntax is described in <xref linkend="url-syntax"/>,
-POP and IMAP are described in <xref linkend="pop"/> and <xref linkend="imap"/>
-respectively.
+URL. The URL syntax is described in <xref linkend="url-syntax"/>, POP
+and IMAP are described in <xref linkend="pop"/> and <xref
+linkend="imap"/> respectively.
</para>
<para>
Mutt provides a number of advanced features for handling (possibly many)
-folders and new mail within them, please refer to
-<xref linkend="handling-folders"/> for details (including in what
-situations and how often Mutt checks for new mail).
+folders and new mail within them, please refer to <xref
+linkend="new-mail"/> for details (including in what situations and how
+often Mutt checks for new mail).
</para>
<para>
-The <quote>unmailboxes</quote> command is used to remove a token from the list
-of folders which receive mail. Use <quote>unmailboxes *</quote> to remove all
-tokens.
+The <quote>unmailboxes</quote> command is used to remove a token from
+the list of folders which receive mail. Use <quote>unmailboxes *</quote>
+to remove all tokens.
</para>
<note>
<para>
-The folders in the <command>mailboxes</command> command are resolved when
-the command is executed, so if these names contain <link linkend="shortcuts">shortcut characters</link> (such as <quote>=</quote> and <quote>!</quote>), any variable
-definition that affects these characters (like <link linkend="folder">$folder</link> and <link linkend="spoolfile">$spoolfile</link>)
-should be set before the <command>mailboxes</command> command. If
-none of these shorcuts are used, a local path should be absolute as
-otherwise Mutt tries to find it relative to the directory
-from where Mutt was started which may not always be desired.
+The folders in the <command>mailboxes</command> command are resolved
+when the command is executed, so if these names contain <link
+linkend="shortcuts">shortcut characters</link> (such as <quote>=</quote>
+and <quote>!</quote>), any variable definition that affects these
+characters (like <link linkend="folder">$folder</link> and <link
+linkend="spoolfile">$spoolfile</link>) should be set before the
+<command>mailboxes</command> command. If none of these shortcuts are
+used, a local path should be absolute as otherwise Mutt tries to find it
+relative to the directory from where Mutt was started which may not
+always be desired.
</para>
</note>
-<para>
-For Mbox and Mmdf folders, new mail is detected by comparing access and/or
-modification times of files: Mutt assumes a folder has new mail if it wasn't
-accessed after it was last modified. Utilities like <literal>biff</literal> or
-<literal>frm</literal> or any other program which accesses the mailbox might cause
-Mutt to never detect new mail for that mailbox if they do not properly reset the
-access time. Other possible causes of Mutt not detecting new mail in these folders
-are backup tools (updating access times) or filesystems mounted without
-access time update support.
-</para>
-
-<para>
-In cases where new mail detection for Mbox or Mmdf folders appears to be
-unreliable, the
-<link linkend="check-mbox-size">$check_mbox_size</link>
-option can be used to make Mutt track and consult file sizes for new
-mail detection instead which won't work for size-neutral changes.
-</para>
-
</sect1>
<sect1 id="my-hdr">
<para>Usage:</para>
<cmdsynopsis>
-<command>my_hdr</command>
+<command>my_hdr</command>
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable class="parameter">string</replaceable>
</arg>
-<command>unmy_hdr</command>
+<command>unmy_hdr</command>
<group choice="req">
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable class="parameter">*</replaceable>
</cmdsynopsis>
<para>
-The <command>my_hdr</command> command allows you to create your own header
-fields which will be added to every message you send and appear in the
-editor if <link linkend="edit-headers">$edit_headers</link> is set.
+The <command>my_hdr</command> command allows you to create your own
+header fields which will be added to every message you send and appear
+in the editor if <link linkend="edit-headers">$edit_headers</link> is
+set.
</para>
<para>
-For example, if you would like to add an <quote>Organization:</quote> header field to
-all of your outgoing messages, you can put the command something like
-shown in <xref linkend="ex-my-hdr"/> in your <literal>.muttrc</literal>.
+For example, if you would like to add an <quote>Organization:</quote>
+header field to all of your outgoing messages, you can put the command
+something like shown in <xref linkend="ex-my-hdr"/> in your
+<literal>.muttrc</literal>.
</para>
<example id="ex-my-hdr">
<title>Defining custom headers</title>
<screen>
-my_hdr Organization: A Really Big Company, Anytown, USA
+my_hdr Organization: A Really Big Company, Anytown, USA
</screen>
</example>
<note>
<para>
-Space characters are <emphasis>not</emphasis> allowed between the keyword and
-the colon (<quote>:</quote>). The standard for electronic mail (RFC2822) says that
-space is illegal there, so Mutt enforces the rule.
+Space characters are <emphasis>not</emphasis> allowed between the
+keyword and the colon (<quote>:</quote>). The standard for electronic
+mail (RFC2822) says that space is illegal there, so Mutt enforces the
+rule.
</para>
</note>
<para>
If you would like to add a header field to a single message, you should
-either set the <link linkend="edit-headers">$edit_headers</link> variable,
-or use the <literal><edit-headers></literal> function (default: <quote>E</quote>) in the compose menu so
-that you can edit the header of your message along with the body.
+either set the <link linkend="edit-headers">$edit_headers</link>
+variable, or use the <literal><edit-headers></literal> function
+(default: <quote>E</quote>) in the compose menu so that you can edit the
+header of your message along with the body.
</para>
<para>
-To remove user defined header fields, use the <command>unmy_hdr</command>
-command. You may specify an asterisk (<quote>*</quote>) to remove all header
-fields, or the fields to remove. For example, to remove all <quote>To</quote> and
+To remove user defined header fields, use the
+<command>unmy_hdr</command> command. You may specify an asterisk
+(<quote>*</quote>) to remove all header fields, or the fields to
+remove. For example, to remove all <quote>To</quote> and
<quote>Cc</quote> header fields, you could use:
</para>
<screen>
-unmy_hdr to cc
+unmy_hdr to cc
</screen>
</sect1>
<cmdsynopsis>
<command>save-hook</command>
<arg choice="plain">
-<replaceable class="parameter">[!]pattern</replaceable>
+<replaceable class="parameter">[!]pattern</replaceable>
</arg>
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable class="parameter">mailbox</replaceable>
<para>
This command is used to override the default mailbox used when saving
-messages. <emphasis>mailbox</emphasis> will be used as the default if the message
-matches <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>, see <xref linkend="pattern-hook"/> for information
-on the exact format.
+messages. <emphasis>mailbox</emphasis> will be used as the default if
+the message matches <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>, see <xref
+linkend="pattern-hook"/> for information on the exact format.
</para>
<para>
-To provide more flexibility and good defaults, Mutt applies the
-expandos of <link linkend="index-format">$index_format</link> to
+To provide more flexibility and good defaults, Mutt applies the expandos
+of <link linkend="index-format">$index_format</link> to
<emphasis>mailbox</emphasis> after it was expanded.
</para>
<example id="ex-save-hook-exando">
<title>Using %-expandos in <command>save-hook</command></title>
<screen>
-# default: save all to ~/Mail/<author name>
+<emphasis role="comment"># default: save all to ~/Mail/<author name></emphasis>
save-hook . ~/Mail/%F
-# save from me@turing.cs.hmc.edu and me@cs.hmc.edu to $folder/elkins
+<emphasis role="comment"># save from me@turing.cs.hmc.edu and me@cs.hmc.edu to $folder/elkins</emphasis>
save-hook me@(turing\\.)?cs\\.hmc\\.edu$ +elkins
-# save from aol.com to $folder/spam
+<emphasis role="comment"># save from aol.com to $folder/spam</emphasis>
save-hook aol\\.com$ +spam
</screen>
</example>
<para>
-Also see the <link linkend="fcc-save-hook"><command>fcc-save-hook</command></link> command.
+Also see the <link
+linkend="fcc-save-hook"><command>fcc-save-hook</command></link> command.
</para>
</sect1>
<cmdsynopsis>
<command>fcc-hook</command>
<arg choice="plain">
-<replaceable class="parameter">[!]pattern</replaceable>
+<replaceable class="parameter">[!]pattern</replaceable>
</arg>
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable class="parameter">mailbox</replaceable>
</cmdsynopsis>
<para>
-This command is used to save outgoing mail in a mailbox other than
-<link linkend="record">$record</link>. Mutt searches the initial list of
-message recipients for the first matching <emphasis>regexp</emphasis> and uses <emphasis>mailbox</emphasis>
-as the default Fcc: mailbox. If no match is found the message will be saved
-to <link linkend="record">$record</link> mailbox.
+This command is used to save outgoing mail in a mailbox other than <link
+linkend="record">$record</link>. Mutt searches the initial list of
+message recipients for the first matching <emphasis>regexp</emphasis>
+and uses <emphasis>mailbox</emphasis> as the default Fcc: mailbox. If
+no match is found the message will be saved to <link
+linkend="record">$record</link> mailbox.
</para>
<para>
To provide more flexibility and good defaults, Mutt applies the
-expandos of <link linkend="index-format">$index_format</link> to
+expandos of <link linkend="index-format">$index_format</link> to
<emphasis>mailbox</emphasis> after it was expanded.
</para>
<para>
-See <xref linkend="pattern-hook"/> for information on the exact format of <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>.
+See <xref linkend="pattern-hook"/> for information on the exact format
+of <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>.
</para>
-<screen>fcc-hook [@.]aol\\.com$ +spammers</screen>
+<screen>fcc-hook [@.]aol\\.com$ +spammers</screen>
<para>
-...will save a copy of all messages going to the aol.com domain to
-the `+spammers' mailbox by default. Also see the <link linkend="fcc-save-hook"><command>fcc-save-hook</command></link> command.
+...will save a copy of all messages going to the aol.com domain to the
+`+spammers' mailbox by default. Also see the <link
+linkend="fcc-save-hook"><command>fcc-save-hook</command></link> command.
</para>
</sect1>
<cmdsynopsis>
<command>fcc-save-hook</command>
<arg choice="plain">
-<replaceable class="parameter">[!]pattern</replaceable>
+<replaceable class="parameter">[!]pattern</replaceable>
</arg>
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable class="parameter">mailbox</replaceable>
</cmdsynopsis>
<para>
-This command is a shortcut, equivalent to doing both a <link linkend="fcc-hook"><command>fcc-hook</command></link>
-and a <link linkend="save-hook"><command>save-hook</command></link> with its arguments,
-including %-expansion on <emphasis>mailbox</emphasis> according
-to <link linkend="index-format">$index_format</link>.
+This command is a shortcut, equivalent to doing both a <link
+linkend="fcc-hook"><command>fcc-hook</command></link> and a <link
+linkend="save-hook"><command>save-hook</command></link> with its
+arguments, including %-expansion on <emphasis>mailbox</emphasis>
+according to <link linkend="index-format">$index_format</link>.
</para>
</sect1>
<cmdsynopsis>
<command>reply-hook</command>
<arg choice="plain">
-<replaceable class="parameter">[!]pattern</replaceable>
+<replaceable class="parameter">[!]pattern</replaceable>
</arg>
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable class="parameter">command</replaceable>
<command>send-hook</command>
<arg choice="plain">
-<replaceable class="parameter">[!]pattern</replaceable>
+<replaceable class="parameter">[!]pattern</replaceable>
</arg>
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable class="parameter">command</replaceable>
<command>send2-hook</command>
<arg choice="plain">
-<replaceable class="parameter">[!]pattern</replaceable>
+<replaceable class="parameter">[!]pattern</replaceable>
</arg>
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable class="parameter">command</replaceable>
</cmdsynopsis>
<para>
-These commands can be used to execute arbitrary configuration commands based
-upon recipients of the message. <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> is used to match
-the message, see <xref linkend="pattern-hook"/> for details. <emphasis>command</emphasis>
-is executed when <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> matches.
+These commands can be used to execute arbitrary configuration commands
+based upon recipients of the message. <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> is
+used to match the message, see <xref linkend="pattern-hook"/> for
+details. <emphasis>command</emphasis> is executed when
+<emphasis>pattern</emphasis> matches.
</para>
<para>
-<command>reply-hook</command> is matched against the message you are <emphasis>replying to</emphasis>,
-instead of the message you are <emphasis>sending</emphasis>. <command>send-hook</command> is
-matched against all messages, both <emphasis>new</emphasis>
-and <emphasis>replies</emphasis>.
+<command>reply-hook</command> is matched against the message you are
+<emphasis>replying to</emphasis>, instead of the message you are
+<emphasis>sending</emphasis>. <command>send-hook</command> is matched
+against all messages, both <emphasis>new</emphasis> and
+<emphasis>replies</emphasis>.
</para>
<note>
<para>
-<command>reply-hook</command>s are matched <emphasis>before</emphasis> the <command>send-hook</command>, <emphasis>regardless</emphasis>
-of the order specified in the user's configuration file.
+<command>reply-hook</command>s are matched <emphasis>before</emphasis>
+the <command>send-hook</command>, <emphasis>regardless</emphasis> of the
+order specified in the user's configuration file.
</para>
</note>
<para>
-<command>send2-hook</command> is matched every time a message is changed, either
-by editing it, or by using the compose menu to change its recipients
-or subject. <command>send2-hook</command> is executed after <command>send-hook</command>, and
-can, e.g., be used to set parameters such as the <link linkend="sendmail">$sendmail</link> variable depending on the message's sender
-address.
+<command>send2-hook</command> is matched every time a message is
+changed, either by editing it, or by using the compose menu to change
+its recipients or subject. <command>send2-hook</command> is executed
+after <command>send-hook</command>, and can, e.g., be used to set
+parameters such as the <link linkend="sendmail">$sendmail</link>
+variable depending on the message's sender address.
</para>
<para>
-For each type of <command>send-hook</command> or <command>reply-hook</command>, when multiple matches
-occur, commands are executed in the order they are specified in the <literal>.muttrc</literal>
-(for that type of hook).
+For each type of <command>send-hook</command> or
+<command>reply-hook</command>, when multiple matches occur, commands are
+executed in the order they are specified in the
+<literal>.muttrc</literal> (for that type of hook).
</para>
<para>
-Example: <literal><command>send-hook</command> mutt "<command>set</command> mime_forward signature=''"</literal>
+Example: <literal><command>send-hook</command> mutt
+"<command>set</command> mime_forward signature=''"</literal>
</para>
<para>
Another typical use for this command is to change the values of the
-<link linkend="attribution">$attribution</link>, <link linkend="signature">$signature</link> and <link linkend="locale">$locale</link>
-variables in order to change the language of the attributions and
-signatures based upon the recipients.
+<link linkend="attribution">$attribution</link>, <link
+linkend="signature">$signature</link> and <link
+linkend="locale">$locale</link> variables in order to change the
+language of the attributions and signatures based upon the recipients.
</para>
<note>
<para>
<command>send-hook</command>'s are only executed once after getting the
initial list of recipients. Adding a recipient after replying or
-editing the message will not cause any <command>send-hook</command> to be executed,
-similarily if <link linkend="autoedit">$autoedit</link> is set
-(as then the initial list of recipients is empty). Also note that <link
-linkend="my-hdr"><command>my_hdr</command></link> commands which
+editing the message will not cause any <command>send-hook</command> to
+be executed, similarly if <link linkend="autoedit">$autoedit</link> is
+set (as then the initial list of recipients is empty). Also note that
+<link linkend="my-hdr"><command>my_hdr</command></link> commands which
modify recipient headers, or the message's subject, don't have any
effect on the current message when executed from a
<command>send-hook</command>.
<cmdsynopsis>
<command>message-hook</command>
<arg choice="plain">
-<replaceable class="parameter">[!]pattern</replaceable>
+<replaceable class="parameter">[!]pattern</replaceable>
</arg>
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable class="parameter">command</replaceable>
<para>
This command can be used to execute arbitrary configuration commands
-before viewing or formatting a message based upon information about the message.
-<emphasis>command</emphasis> is executed if the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> matches the message to be
-displayed. When multiple matches occur, commands are executed in the order
-they are specified in the <literal>.muttrc</literal>.
+before viewing or formatting a message based upon information about the
+message. <emphasis>command</emphasis> is executed if the
+<emphasis>pattern</emphasis> matches the message to be displayed. When
+multiple matches occur, commands are executed in the order they are
+specified in the <literal>.muttrc</literal>.
</para>
<para>
-See <xref linkend="pattern-hook"/> for
-information on the exact format of <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>.
+See <xref linkend="pattern-hook"/> for information on the exact format
+of <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>.
</para>
<para>
</cmdsynopsis>
<para>
-When encrypting messages with PGP/GnuPG or OpenSSL, you may want to associate a certain
-key with a given e-mail address automatically, either because the
-recipient's public key can't be deduced from the destination address,
-or because, for some reasons, you need to override the key Mutt would
-normally use. The <command>crypt-hook</command> command provides a
-method by which you can specify the ID of the public key to be used
-when encrypting messages to a certain recipient.
+When encrypting messages with PGP/GnuPG or OpenSSL, you may want to
+associate a certain key with a given e-mail address automatically,
+either because the recipient's public key can't be deduced from the
+destination address, or because, for some reasons, you need to override
+the key Mutt would normally use. The <command>crypt-hook</command>
+command provides a method by which you can specify the ID of the public
+key to be used when encrypting messages to a certain recipient.
</para>
<para>
-The meaning of <emphasis>keyid</emphasis> is to be taken broadly in this context: You
-can either put a numerical key ID here, an e-mail address, or even
-just a real name.
+The meaning of <emphasis>keyid</emphasis> is to be taken broadly in this
+context: You can either put a numerical key ID here, an e-mail address,
+or even just a real name.
</para>
</sect1>
</cmdsynopsis>
<para>
-This command adds the named string to the keyboard buffer. The string may
-contain control characters, key names and function names like the sequence
-string in the <link linkend="macro">macro</link> command. You may use it to
-automatically run a sequence of commands at startup, or when entering
-certain folders. For example, <xref linkend="ex-folder-hook-push"/>
-shows how to automatically collapse all threads when entering a folder.
+This command adds the named string to the keyboard buffer. The string
+may contain control characters, key names and function names like the
+sequence string in the <link linkend="macro">macro</link> command. You
+may use it to automatically run a sequence of commands at startup, or
+when entering certain folders. For example, <xref
+linkend="ex-folder-hook-push"/> shows how to automatically collapse all
+threads when entering a folder.
</para>
<example id="ex-folder-hook-push">
</screen>
</example>
+<para>
+For using functions like shown in the example, it's important to use
+angle brackets (<quote><</quote> and <quote>></quote>) to make
+Mutt recognize the input as a function name. Otherwise it will simulate
+individual just keystrokes, i.e. <quote><literal>push
+collapse-all</literal></quote> would be interpreted as if you had typed
+<quote>c</quote>, followed by <quote>o</quote>, followed by
+<quote>l</quote>, ..., which is not desired and may lead to very
+unexpected behavior.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+Keystrokes can be used, too, but are less portable because of
+potentially changed key bindings. With default bindings, this is
+equivalent to the above example:
+</para>
+
+<screen>
+folder-hook . 'push \eV'
+</screen>
+
+<para>
+because it simulates that Esc+V was pressed (which is the default
+binding of <literal><collapse-all></literal>).
+</para>
+
</sect1>
<sect1 id="exec">
</cmdsynopsis>
<para>
-This command can be used to execute any function. Functions are
-listed in the <link linkend="functions">function reference</link>.
-<quote><command>exec</command><literal>function</literal></quote> is equivalent to
-<quote><literal>push <function></literal></quote>.
+This command can be used to execute any function. Functions are listed
+in the <link linkend="functions">function reference</link>.
+<quote><command>exec</command> <literal>function</literal></quote> is
+equivalent to <quote><literal>push <function></literal></quote>.
</para>
</sect1>
</cmdsynopsis>
<para>
-The <command>score</command> commands adds <emphasis>value</emphasis> to a message's score if <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>
-matches it. <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> is a string in the format described in the <link linkend="patterns">patterns</link> section (note: For efficiency reasons, patterns
-which scan information not available in the index, such as <literal>˜b</literal>,
-<literal>˜B</literal> or <literal>˜h</literal>, may not be used). <emphasis>value</emphasis> is a
-positive or negative integer. A message's final score is the sum total of all
-matching <command>score</command> entries. However, you may optionally prefix <emphasis>value</emphasis> with
-an equal sign (<quote>=</quote>) to cause evaluation to stop at a particular entry if there is
-a match. Negative final scores are rounded up to 0.
+The <command>score</command> commands adds <emphasis>value</emphasis> to
+a message's score if <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> matches it.
+<emphasis>pattern</emphasis> is a string in the format described in the
+<link linkend="patterns">patterns</link> section (note: For efficiency
+reasons, patterns which scan information not available in the index,
+such as <literal>~b</literal>, <literal>~B</literal> or
+<literal>~h</literal>, may not be used). <emphasis>value</emphasis> is
+a positive or negative integer. A message's final score is the sum
+total of all matching <command>score</command> entries. However, you
+may optionally prefix <emphasis>value</emphasis> with an equal sign
+(<quote>=</quote>) to cause evaluation to stop at a particular entry if
+there is a match. Negative final scores are rounded up to 0.
</para>
<para>
-The <command>unscore</command> command removes score entries from the list. You <emphasis>must</emphasis>
-specify the same pattern specified in the <command>score</command> command for it to be
-removed. The pattern <quote>*</quote> is a special token which means to clear the list
-of all score entries.
+The <command>unscore</command> command removes score entries from the
+list. You <emphasis>must</emphasis> specify the same pattern specified
+in the <command>score</command> command for it to be removed. The
+pattern <quote>*</quote> is a special token which means to clear the
+list of all score entries.
</para>
</sect1>
</cmdsynopsis>
<para>
-Mutt has generalized support for external spam-scoring filters.
-By defining your spam patterns with the <command>spam</command> and <literal>nospam</literal>
-commands, you can <emphasis>limit</emphasis>, <emphasis>search</emphasis>, and <emphasis>sort</emphasis> your
-mail based on its spam attributes, as determined by the external
-filter. You also can display the spam attributes in your index
-display using the <literal>%H</literal> selector in the <link linkend="index-format">$index_format</link> variable. (Tip: try <literal>%?H?[%H] ?</literal>
-to display spam tags only when they are defined for a given message.)
+Mutt has generalized support for external spam-scoring filters. By
+defining your spam patterns with the <command>spam</command> and
+<literal>nospam</literal> commands, you can <emphasis>limit</emphasis>,
+<emphasis>search</emphasis>, and <emphasis>sort</emphasis> your mail
+based on its spam attributes, as determined by the external filter. You
+also can display the spam attributes in your index display using the
+<literal>%H</literal> selector in the <link
+linkend="index-format">$index_format</link> variable. (Tip: try
+<literal>%?H?[%H] ?</literal> to display spam tags only when they are
+defined for a given message.)
</para>
<para>
Your first step is to define your external filter's spam patterns using
-the <command>spam</command> command. <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> should be a regular expression
-that matches a header in a mail message. If any message in the mailbox
-matches this regular expression, it will receive a <quote>spam tag</quote> or
-<quote>spam attribute</quote> (unless it also matches a <command>nospam</command> pattern — see
-below.) The appearance of this attribute is entirely up to you, and is
-governed by the <emphasis>format</emphasis> parameter. <emphasis>format</emphasis> can be any static
-text, but it also can include back-references from the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>
-expression. (A regular expression <quote>back-reference</quote> refers to a
-sub-expression contained within parentheses.) <literal>%1</literal> is replaced with
-the first back-reference in the regex, <literal>%2</literal> with the second, etc.
+the <command>spam</command> command. <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> should
+be a regular expression that matches a header in a mail message. If any
+message in the mailbox matches this regular expression, it will receive
+a <quote>spam tag</quote> or <quote>spam attribute</quote> (unless it
+also matches a <command>nospam</command> pattern — see below.) The
+appearance of this attribute is entirely up to you, and is governed by
+the <emphasis>format</emphasis> parameter. <emphasis>format</emphasis>
+can be any static text, but it also can include back-references from the
+<emphasis>pattern</emphasis> expression. (A regular expression
+<quote>back-reference</quote> refers to a sub-expression contained
+within parentheses.) <literal>%1</literal> is replaced with the first
+back-reference in the regex, <literal>%2</literal> with the second, etc.
</para>
<para>
To match spam tags, mutt needs the corresponding header information
which is always the case for local and POP folders but not for IMAP in
the default configuration. Depending on the spam header to be analyzed,
-<link linkend="imap-headers">$imap_headers</link> may need
-to be adjusted.
+<link linkend="imap-headers">$imap_headers</link> may need to be
+adjusted.
</para>
<para>
-If you're using multiple spam filters, a message can have more than
-one spam-related header. You can define <command>spam</command> patterns for each
-filter you use. If a message matches two or more of these patterns, and
-the <link linkend="spam-separator">$spam_separator</link> variable is set to a string, then the
-message's spam tag will consist of all the <emphasis>format</emphasis> strings joined
-together, with the value of <link linkend="spam-separator">$spam_separator</link> separating
-them.
+If you're using multiple spam filters, a message can have more than one
+spam-related header. You can define <command>spam</command> patterns for
+each filter you use. If a message matches two or more of these patterns,
+and the <link linkend="spam-separator">$spam_separator</link> variable
+is set to a string, then the message's spam tag will consist of all the
+<emphasis>format</emphasis> strings joined together, with the value of
+<link linkend="spam-separator">$spam_separator</link> separating them.
</para>
<para>
</example>
<para>
-If then a message is received that DCC registered with <quote>many</quote> hits
-under the <quote>Fuz2</quote> checksum, and that PureMessage registered with a
-97% probability of being spam, that message's spam tag would read
-<literal>90+/DCC-Fuz2, 97/PM</literal>. (The four characters before <quote>=many</quote> in a
-DCC report indicate the checksum used — in this case, <quote>Fuz2</quote>.)
+If then a message is received that DCC registered with
+<quote>many</quote> hits under the <quote>Fuz2</quote> checksum, and
+that PureMessage registered with a 97% probability of being spam, that
+message's spam tag would read <literal>90+/DCC-Fuz2,
+97/PM</literal>. (The four characters before <quote>=many</quote> in a
+DCC report indicate the checksum used — in this case,
+<quote>Fuz2</quote>.)
</para>
<para>
-If the <link linkend="spam-separator">$spam_separator</link> variable is unset, then each
-spam pattern match supersedes the previous one. Instead of getting
-joined <emphasis>format</emphasis> strings, you'll get only the last one to match.
+If the <link linkend="spam-separator">$spam_separator</link> variable is
+unset, then each spam pattern match supersedes the previous one. Instead
+of getting joined <emphasis>format</emphasis> strings, you'll get only
+the last one to match.
</para>
<para>
The spam tag is what will be displayed in the index when you use
-<literal>%H</literal> in the <link linkend="index-format">$index_format</link> variable. It's also the
-string that the <literal>˜H</literal> pattern-matching expression matches against for
-<literal><search></literal> and <literal><limit></literal> functions. And it's what sorting by spam
-attribute will use as a sort key.
+<literal>%H</literal> in the <link
+linkend="index-format">$index_format</link> variable. It's also the
+string that the <literal>~H</literal> pattern-matching expression
+matches against for <literal><search></literal> and
+<literal><limit></literal> functions. And it's what sorting by
+spam attribute will use as a sort key.
</para>
<para>
</para>
<para>
-Generally, when you sort by spam tag, Mutt will sort <emphasis>lexically</emphasis> —
-that is, by ordering strings alphanumerically. However, if a spam tag
-begins with a number, Mutt will sort numerically first, and lexically
-only when two numbers are equal in value. (This is like UNIX's
-<literal>sort -n</literal>.) A message with no spam attributes at all — that is, one
-that didn't match <emphasis>any</emphasis> of your <command>spam</command> patterns — is sorted at
-lowest priority. Numbers are sorted next, beginning with 0 and ranging
-upward. Finally, non-numeric strings are sorted, with <quote>a</quote> taking lower
-priority than <quote>z</quote>. Clearly, in general, sorting by spam tags is most
-effective when you can coerce your filter to give you a raw number. But
-in case you can't, Mutt can still do something useful.
+Generally, when you sort by spam tag, Mutt will sort
+<emphasis>lexically</emphasis> — that is, by ordering strings
+alphanumerically. However, if a spam tag begins with a number, Mutt will
+sort numerically first, and lexically only when two numbers are equal in
+value. (This is like UNIX's <literal>sort -n</literal>.) A message with
+no spam attributes at all — that is, one that didn't match
+<emphasis>any</emphasis> of your <command>spam</command> patterns
+— is sorted at lowest priority. Numbers are sorted next, beginning
+with 0 and ranging upward. Finally, non-numeric strings are sorted, with
+<quote>a</quote> taking lower priority than <quote>z</quote>. Clearly,
+in general, sorting by spam tags is most effective when you can coerce
+your filter to give you a raw number. But in case you can't, Mutt can
+still do something useful.
</para>
<para>
-The <command>nospam</command> command can be used to write exceptions to <command>spam</command>
-patterns. If a header pattern matches something in a <command>spam</command> command,
-but you nonetheless do not want it to receive a spam tag, you can list a
-more precise pattern under a <command>nospam</command> command.
+The <command>nospam</command> command can be used to write exceptions to
+<command>spam</command> patterns. If a header pattern matches something
+in a <command>spam</command> command, but you nonetheless do not want it
+to receive a spam tag, you can list a more precise pattern under a
+<command>nospam</command> command.
</para>
<para>
-If the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> given to <command>nospam</command> is exactly the same as the
-<emphasis>pattern</emphasis> on an existing <command>spam</command> list entry, the effect will be to
-remove the entry from the spam list, instead of adding an exception.
-Likewise, if the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> for a <command>spam</command> command matches an entry
-on the <command>nospam</command> list, that nospam entry will be removed. If the
-<emphasis>pattern</emphasis> for <command>nospam</command> is <quote>*</quote>, <emphasis>all entries on both lists</emphasis>
-will be removed. This might be the default action if you use <command>spam</command>
-and <command>nospam</command> in conjunction with a <command>folder-hook</command>.
+If the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> given to <command>nospam</command>
+is exactly the same as the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> on an existing
+<command>spam</command> list entry, the effect will be to remove the
+entry from the spam list, instead of adding an exception. Likewise, if
+the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> for a <command>spam</command> command
+matches an entry on the <command>nospam</command> list, that nospam
+entry will be removed. If the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> for
+<command>nospam</command> is <quote>*</quote>, <emphasis>all entries on
+both lists</emphasis> will be removed. This might be the default action
+if you use <command>spam</command> and <command>nospam</command> in
+conjunction with a <command>folder-hook</command>.
</para>
<para>
-You can have as many <command>spam</command> or <command>nospam</command> commands as you like.
-You can even do your own primitive <command>spam</command> detection within Mutt — for
-example, if you consider all mail from <literal>MAILER-DAEMON</literal> to be spam,
-you can use a <command>spam</command> command like this:
+You can have as many <command>spam</command> or
+<command>nospam</command> commands as you like. You can even do your
+own primitive <command>spam</command> detection within Mutt — for
+example, if you consider all mail from <literal>MAILER-DAEMON</literal>
+to be spam, you can use a <command>spam</command> command like this:
</para>
<screen>
<para>
A specialized string for representing paths including support for
mailbox shortcuts (see <xref linkend="shortcuts"/>) as well as tilde
-(<quote>˜</quote>) for a user's home directory and more.
+(<quote>~</quote>) for a user's home directory and more.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<listitem>
<para>
Specifies the type of folder to use: <emphasis>mbox</emphasis>,
-<emphasis>mmdf</emphasis>, <emphasis>mh</emphasis>
-or <emphasis>maildir</emphasis>.
-Currently only used to determine the type for newly created folders.
+<emphasis>mmdf</emphasis>, <emphasis>mh</emphasis> or
+<emphasis>maildir</emphasis>. Currently only used to determine the type
+for newly created folders.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>e-mail address</term>
<listitem>
<para>
-An e-mail address either with or without
-realname. The older <quote><literal>user@example.org (Joe User)</literal></quote>
-form is supported but strongly deprecated.
+An e-mail address either with or without realname. The older
+<quote><literal>user@example.org (Joe User)</literal></quote> form is
+supported but strongly deprecated.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</cmdsynopsis>
<para>
-This command is used to set (and unset) <link linkend="variables">configuration variables</link>. There are four basic types of variables:
-boolean, number, string and quadoption. <emphasis>boolean</emphasis> variables can be
-<emphasis>set</emphasis> (true) or <emphasis>unset</emphasis> (false). <emphasis>number</emphasis> variables can be
-assigned a positive integer value.
-<emphasis>string</emphasis> variables consist of any number of printable characters and
-must be enclosed in quotes if they contain spaces or tabs. You
-may also use the escape sequences <quote>\n</quote> and <quote>\t</quote> for newline and tab, respectively.
-<emphasis>quadoption</emphasis> variables are used to control whether or not to be prompted
-for certain actions, or to specify a default action. A value of <emphasis>yes</emphasis>
-will cause the action to be carried out automatically as if you had answered
-yes to the question. Similarly, a value of <emphasis>no</emphasis> will cause the
-action to be carried out as if you had answered <quote>no.</quote> A value of
-<emphasis>ask-yes</emphasis> will cause a prompt with a default answer of <quote>yes</quote> and
-<emphasis>ask-no</emphasis> will provide a default answer of <quote>no.</quote>
+This command is used to set (and unset) <link
+linkend="variables">configuration variables</link>. There are four
+basic types of variables: boolean, number, string and quadoption.
+<emphasis>boolean</emphasis> variables can be <emphasis>set</emphasis>
+(true) or <emphasis>unset</emphasis> (false).
+<emphasis>number</emphasis> variables can be assigned a positive integer
+value. <emphasis>string</emphasis> variables consist of any number of
+printable characters and must be enclosed in quotes if they contain
+spaces or tabs. You may also use the escape sequences <quote>\n</quote>
+and <quote>\t</quote> for newline and tab, respectively.
+<emphasis>quadoption</emphasis> variables are used to control whether or
+not to be prompted for certain actions, or to specify a default action.
+A value of <emphasis>yes</emphasis> will cause the action to be carried
+out automatically as if you had answered yes to the question.
+Similarly, a value of <emphasis>no</emphasis> will cause the action to
+be carried out as if you had answered <quote>no.</quote> A value of
+<emphasis>ask-yes</emphasis> will cause a prompt with a default answer
+of <quote>yes</quote> and <emphasis>ask-no</emphasis> will provide a
+default answer of <quote>no.</quote>
</para>
<para>
-Prefixing a variable with <quote>no</quote> will unset it. Example: <literal><command>set</command> noaskbcc</literal>.
+Prefixing a variable with <quote>no</quote> will unset it. Example:
+<literal><command>set</command> noaskbcc</literal>.
</para>
<para>
-For <emphasis>boolean</emphasis> variables, you may optionally prefix the variable name with
-<literal>inv</literal> to toggle the value (on or off). This is useful when writing
-macros. Example: <literal><command>set</command> invsmart_wrap</literal>.
+For <emphasis>boolean</emphasis> variables, you may optionally prefix
+the variable name with <literal>inv</literal> to toggle the value (on or
+off). This is useful when writing macros. Example:
+<literal><command>set</command> invsmart_wrap</literal>.
</para>
<para>
-The <command>toggle</command> command automatically prepends the <literal>inv</literal> prefix to all
-specified variables.
+The <command>toggle</command> command automatically prepends the
+<literal>inv</literal> prefix to all specified variables.
</para>
<para>
-The <command>unset</command> command automatically prepends the <literal>no</literal> prefix to all
-specified variables.
+The <command>unset</command> command automatically prepends the
+<literal>no</literal> prefix to all specified variables.
</para>
<para>
-Using the <literal><enter-command></literal> function in the <emphasis>index</emphasis> menu, you can query the
-value of a variable by prefixing the name of the variable with a question
-mark:
+Using the <literal><enter-command></literal> function in the
+<emphasis>index</emphasis> menu, you can query the value of a variable
+by prefixing the name of the variable with a question mark:
</para>
<screen>
</para>
<para>
-The <command>reset</command> command resets all given variables to the compile time
-defaults (hopefully mentioned in this manual). If you use the command
-<command>set</command> and prefix the variable with <quote>&</quote> this has the same
-behavior as the <command>reset</command> command.
+The <command>reset</command> command resets all given variables to the
+compile time defaults (hopefully mentioned in this manual). If you use
+the command <command>set</command> and prefix the variable with
+<quote>&</quote> this has the same behavior as the
+<command>reset</command> command.
</para>
<para>
-With the <command>reset</command> command there exists the special variable <quote>all</quote>,
-which allows you to reset all variables to their system defaults.
+With the <command>reset</command> command there exists the special
+variable <quote>all</quote>, which allows you to reset all variables to
+their system defaults.
</para>
</sect2>
<title>Introduction</title>
<para>
-Along with the variables listed in the
-<link linkend="variables">Configuration variables</link> section, Mutt
-supports user-defined variables with names starting
-with <literal>my_</literal> as in, for
-example, <literal>my_cfgdir</literal>.
+Along with the variables listed in the <link
+linkend="variables">Configuration variables</link> section, Mutt
+supports user-defined variables with names starting with
+<literal>my_</literal> as in, for example, <literal>my_cfgdir</literal>.
</para>
<para>
-The <command>set</command> command either creates a
-custom <literal>my_</literal> variable or changes its
-value if it does exist already. The <command>unset</command> and <command>reset</command>
+The <command>set</command> command either creates a custom
+<literal>my_</literal> variable or changes its value if it does exist
+already. The <command>unset</command> and <command>reset</command>
commands remove the variable entirely.
</para>
<para>
Since user-defined variables are expanded in the same way that
-environment variables are (except for
-the <link linkend="shell-escape">shell-escape</link> command and
-backtick expansion), this feature can be used to make configuration
-files more readable.
+environment variables are (except for the <link
+linkend="shell-escape">shell-escape</link> command and backtick
+expansion), this feature can be used to make configuration files more
+readable.
</para>
</sect3>
<title>Examples</title>
<para>
-The following example defines and uses the variable <literal>my_cfgdir</literal>
-to abbreviate the calls of the <link linkend="source"><command>source</command></link> command:
+The following example defines and uses the variable
+<literal>my_cfgdir</literal> to abbreviate the calls of the <link
+linkend="source"><command>source</command></link> command:
</para>
<example id="ex-myvar1">
source $my_cfgdir/hooks
source $my_cfgdir/macros
-# more source commands...
+<emphasis role="comment"># more source commands...</emphasis>
</screen>
</example>
<para>
A custom variable can also be used in macros to backup the current value
-of another variable. In the following example, the value of the
-<link linkend="delete">$delete</link> is changed temporarily
-while its original value is saved as <literal>my_delete</literal>.
-After the macro has executed all commands, the original value of <link
-linkend="delete">$delete</link> is restored.
+of another variable. In the following example, the value of the <link
+linkend="delete">$delete</link> is changed temporarily while its
+original value is saved as <literal>my_delete</literal>. After the
+macro has executed all commands, the original value of <link
+linkend="delete">$delete</link> is restored.
</para>
<example id="ex-myvar2">
<title>Using user-defined variables for backing up other config option values</title>
<screen>
-macro pager ,x '\
-<enter-command>set my_delete=$delete<enter>\
-<enter-command>set delete=yes<enter>\
-...\
+macro pager ,x '\
+<enter-command>set my_delete=$delete<enter>\
+<enter-command>set delete=yes<enter>\
+...\
<enter-command>set delete=$my_delete<enter>'
</screen>
</example>
<para>
Since Mutt expands such values already when parsing the configuration
-file(s), the value of <literal>$my_delete</literal> in the
-last example would be the value of <link linkend="delete">$delete</link> exactly
+file(s), the value of <literal>$my_delete</literal> in the
+last example would be the value of <link linkend="delete">$delete</link> exactly
as it was at that point during parsing the configuration file. If
-another statement would change the value for <link linkend="delete">$delete</link>
+another statement would change the value for <link linkend="delete">$delete</link>
later in the same or another file, it would have no effect on
-<literal>$my_delete</literal>. However, the expansion can
+<literal>$my_delete</literal>. However, the expansion can
be deferred to runtime, as shown in the next example, when escaping the
dollar sign.
</para>
<example id="ex-myvar3">
<title>Deferring user-defined variable expansion to runtime</title>
<screen>
-macro pager <PageDown> "\
-<enter-command> set my_old_pager_stop=\$pager_stop pager_stop<Enter>\
-<next-page>\
-<enter-command> set pager_stop=\$my_old_pager_stop<Enter>\
-<enter-command> unset my_old_pager_stop<Enter>"
+macro pager <PageDown> "\
+<enter-command> set my_old_pager_stop=\$pager_stop pager_stop<Enter>\
+<next-page>\
+<enter-command> set pager_stop=\$my_old_pager_stop<Enter>\
+<enter-command> unset my_old_pager_stop<Enter>"
</screen>
</example>
<para>
-Note that there is a space
-between <literal><enter-command></literal> and
-the <command>set</command> configuration command, preventing Mutt from
-recording the <command>macro</command>'s commands into its history.
+Note that there is a space between
+<literal><enter-command></literal> and the <command>set</command>
+configuration command, preventing Mutt from recording the
+<command>macro</command>'s commands into its history.
</para>
</sect3>
</sect2>
+<sect2 id="set-conversions">
+<title>Type Conversions</title>
+
+<para>
+Variables are always assigned string values which Mutt parses into its
+internal representation according to the type of the variable, for
+example an integer number for numeric types. For all queries (including
+$-expansion) the value is converted from its internal type back into
+string. As a result, any variable can be assigned any value given that
+its content is valid for the target. This also counts for custom
+variables which are of type string. In case of parsing errors, Mutt will
+print error messages. <xref linkend="ex-myvar4"/> demonstrates type
+conversions.
+</para>
+
+<example id="ex-myvar4">
+<title>Type conversions using variables</title>
+<screen>
+set my_lines = "5" <emphasis role="comment"># value is string "5"</emphasis>
+set pager_index_lines = $my_lines <emphasis role="comment"># value is integer 5</emphasis>
+
+set my_sort = "date-received" <emphasis role="comment"># value is string "date-received"</emphasis>
+set sort = "last-$my_sort" <emphasis role="comment"># value is sort last-date-received</emphasis>
+
+set my_inc = $read_inc <emphasis role="comment"># value is string "10" (default of $read_inc)</emphasis>
+set my_foo = $my_inc <emphasis role="comment"># value is string "10"</emphasis>
+</screen>
+</example>
+
+<para>
+These assignments are all valid. If, however, the value of
+<literal>$my_lines</literal> would have been
+<quote>five</quote> (or something else that cannot be parsed into a
+number), the assignment to
+<literal>$pager_index_lines</literal> would have
+produced an error message.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+Type conversion applies to all configuration commands which take
+arguments. But please note that every expanded value of a variable is
+considered just a single token. A working example is:
+</para>
+
+<screen>
+set my_pattern = "~A"
+set my_number = "10"
+
+<emphasis role="comment"># same as: score ~A +10</emphasis>
+score $my_pattern +$my_number</screen>
+
+<para>
+What does <emphasis>not</emphasis> work is:
+</para>
+
+<screen>
+set my_mx = "+mailbox1 +mailbox2"
+mailboxes $my_mx +mailbox3</screen>
+
+<para>
+because the value of <literal>$my_mx</literal> is interpreted as a
+single mailbox named <quote>+mailbox1 +mailbox2</quote> and not two
+distinct mailboxes.
+</para>
+
+</sect2>
+
</sect1>
<sect1 id="source">
</cmdsynopsis>
<para>
-This command allows the inclusion of initialization commands
-from other files. For example, I place all of my aliases in
-<literal>˜/.mail_aliases</literal> so that I can make my
-<literal>˜/.muttrc</literal> readable and keep my aliases private.
+This command allows the inclusion of initialization commands from other
+files. For example, I place all of my aliases in
+<literal>~/.mail_aliases</literal> so that I can make my
+<literal>~/.muttrc</literal> readable and keep my aliases private.
</para>
<para>
-If the filename begins with a tilde (<quote>˜</quote>), it will be expanded to the
-path of your home directory.
+If the filename begins with a tilde (<quote>~</quote>), it will be
+expanded to the path of your home directory.
</para>
<para>
-If the filename ends with a vertical bar (<quote>|</quote>), then <emphasis>filename</emphasis> is
-considered to be an executable program from which to read input (eg.
-<literal><command>source</command> ˜/bin/myscript|</literal>).
+If the filename ends with a vertical bar (<quote>|</quote>), then
+<emphasis>filename</emphasis> is considered to be an executable program
+from which to read input (e.g. <literal><command>source</command>
+~/bin/myscript|</literal>).
</para>
</sect1>
<para>
This command permits you to flush hooks you have previously defined.
-You can either remove all hooks by giving the <quote>*</quote> character as an
-argument, or you can remove all hooks of a specific type by saying
+You can either remove all hooks by giving the <quote>*</quote> character
+as an argument, or you can remove all hooks of a specific type by saying
something like <literal><command>unhook</command> send-hook</literal>.
</para>
<para>
Format strings are a general concept you'll find in several locations
-through the Mutt configuration, especially in the
-<link linkend="index-format">$index_format</link>,
-<link linkend="pager-format">$pager_format</link>,
-<link linkend="status-format">$status_format</link>,
-and other related variables. These can be very straightforward,
-and it's quite possible you already know how to use them.
+through the Mutt configuration, especially in the <link
+linkend="index-format">$index_format</link>, <link
+linkend="pager-format">$pager_format</link>, <link
+linkend="status-format">$status_format</link>, and other related
+variables. These can be very straightforward, and it's quite possible
+you already know how to use them.
</para>
<para>
-The most basic format string element is a percent symbol followed
-by another character. For example, <literal>%s</literal>
-represents a message's Subject: header in the <link
-linkend="index-format">$index_format</link> variable. The
-<quote>expandos</quote> available are documented with each format variable, but
-there are general modifiers available with all formatting expandos,
-too. Those are our concern here.
+The most basic format string element is a percent symbol followed by
+another character. For example, <literal>%s</literal> represents a
+message's Subject: header in the <link
+linkend="index-format">$index_format</link> variable. The
+<quote>expandos</quote> available are documented with each format
+variable, but there are general modifiers available with all formatting
+expandos, too. Those are our concern here.
</para>
<para>
-Some of the modifiers are borrowed right out of C (though you might
-know them from Perl, Python, shell, or another language). These are
-the <literal>[-]m.n</literal> modifiers, as in <literal>%-12.12s</literal>. As with
-such programming languages, these modifiers allow you to specify the
-minimum and maximum size of the resulting string, as well as its
-justification. If the <quote>-</quote> sign follows the percent, the string will
-be left-justified instead of right-justified. If there's a number
-immediately following that, it's the minimum amount of space the
-formatted string will occupy — if it's naturally smaller than that, it
-will be padded out with spaces. If a decimal point and another number
-follow, that's the maximum space allowable — the string will not be
-permitted to exceed that width, no matter its natural size. Each of
-these three elements is optional, so that all these are legal format
-strings: <literal>%-12s</literal>, <literal>%4c</literal>,
-<literal>%.15F</literal> and <literal>%-12.15L</literal>.
+Some of the modifiers are borrowed right out of C (though you might know
+them from Perl, Python, shell, or another language). These are the
+<literal>[-]m.n</literal> modifiers, as in
+<literal>%-12.12s</literal>. As with such programming languages, these
+modifiers allow you to specify the minimum and maximum size of the
+resulting string, as well as its justification. If the <quote>-</quote>
+sign follows the percent, the string will be left-justified instead of
+right-justified. If there's a number immediately following that, it's
+the minimum amount of space the formatted string will occupy — if
+it's naturally smaller than that, it will be padded out with spaces. If
+a decimal point and another number follow, that's the maximum space
+allowable — the string will not be permitted to exceed that width,
+no matter its natural size. Each of these three elements is optional, so
+that all these are legal format strings: <literal>%-12s</literal>,
+<literal>%4c</literal>, <literal>%.15F</literal> and
+<literal>%-12.15L</literal>.
</para>
<para>
Mutt adds some other modifiers to format strings. If you use an equals
symbol (<literal>=</literal>) as a numeric prefix (like the minus
-above), it will force the string to be centered within its minimum
-space range. For example, <literal>%=14y</literal> will reserve 14
-characters for the %y expansion — that's the X-Label: header, in
-<link linkend="index-format">$index_format</link>. If the expansion
-results in a string less than 14 characters, it will be centered in a
-14-character space. If the X-Label for a message were <quote>test</quote>, that
-expansion would look like <quote> test </quote>.
+above), it will force the string to be centered within its minimum space
+range. For example, <literal>%=14y</literal> will reserve 14 characters
+for the %y expansion — that's the X-Label: header, in <link
+linkend="index-format">$index_format</link>. If the expansion results in
+a string less than 14 characters, it will be centered in a 14-character
+space. If the X-Label for a message were <quote>test</quote>, that
+expansion would look like
+<quote> test </quote>.
</para>
<para>
There are two very little-known modifiers that affect the way that an
-expando is replaced. If there is an underline (<quote>_</quote>) character
-between any format modifiers (as above) and the expando letter, it will
-expands in all lower case. And if you use a colon (<quote>:</quote>), it will
-replace all decimal points with underlines.
+expando is replaced. If there is an underline (<quote>_</quote>)
+character between any format modifiers (as above) and the expando
+letter, it will expands in all lower case. And if you use a colon
+(<quote>:</quote>), it will replace all decimal points with underlines.
</para>
</sect2>
</para>
<screen>
-%?<sequence_char>?<optional_string>?</screen>
+%?<sequence_char>?<optional_string>?</screen>
<para>
where <emphasis>sequence_char</emphasis> is an expando, and
-<emphasis>optional_string</emphasis> is the string you would like printed if
-<emphasis>sequence_char</emphasis> is nonzero.
-<emphasis>optional_string</emphasis> may contain other
-sequences as well as normal text, but you may not nest optional
-strings.
+<emphasis>optional_string</emphasis> is the string you would like
+printed if <emphasis>sequence_char</emphasis> is nonzero.
+<emphasis>optional_string</emphasis> may contain other sequences as well
+as normal text, but you may not nest optional strings.
</para>
<para>
Here is an example illustrating how to optionally print the number of
-new messages in a mailbox in
-<link linkend="status-format">$status_format</link>:
+new messages in a mailbox in <link
+linkend="status-format">$status_format</link>:
</para>
<screen>
-%?n?%n new messages.?</screen>
+%?n?%n new messages.?</screen>
<para>
You can also switch between two strings using the following construct:
</para>
<screen>
-%?<sequence_char>?<if_string>&<else_string>?</screen>
+%?<sequence_char>?<if_string>&<else_string>?</screen>
<para>
-If the value of <emphasis>sequence_char</emphasis> is
-non-zero, <emphasis>if_string</emphasis> will be expanded,
-otherwise <emphasis>else_string</emphasis> will be expanded.
+If the value of <emphasis>sequence_char</emphasis> is non-zero,
+<emphasis>if_string</emphasis> will be expanded, otherwise
+<emphasis>else_string</emphasis> will be expanded.
</para>
</sect2>
<title>Filters</title>
<para>
-Any format string ending in a vertical bar (<quote>|</quote>) will be
-expanded and piped through the first word in the string, using spaces
-as separator. The string returned will be used for display.
-If the returned string ends in %, it will be passed through
-the formatter a second time. This allows the filter to generate a
-replacement format string including % expandos.
+Any format string ending in a vertical bar (<quote>|</quote>) will be
+expanded and piped through the first word in the string, using spaces as
+separator. The string returned will be used for display. If the
+returned string ends in %, it will be passed through the formatter a
+second time. This allows the filter to generate a replacement format
+string including % expandos.
</para>
<para>
-All % expandos in a format string are expanded before the script
-is called so that:
+All % expandos in a format string are expanded before the script is
+called so that:
</para>
<example id="ex-fmtpipe">
</example>
<para>
-will make Mutt expand <literal>%r</literal>,
-<literal>%f</literal> and <literal>%L</literal>
-before calling the script. The example also shows that arguments can be
-quoted: the script will receive the expanded string between the single quotes
-as the only argument.
+will make Mutt expand <literal>%r</literal>, <literal>%f</literal> and
+<literal>%L</literal> before calling the script. The example also shows
+that arguments can be quoted: the script will receive the expanded
+string between the single quotes as the only argument.
</para>
<para>
-A practical example is the <literal>mutt_xtitle</literal>
-script installed in the <literal>samples</literal>
-subdirectory of the Mutt documentation: it can be used as filter for
-<link linkend="status-format">$status_format</link> to set the current
+A practical example is the <literal>mutt_xtitle</literal> script
+installed in the <literal>samples</literal> subdirectory of the Mutt
+documentation: it can be used as filter for <link
+linkend="status-format">$status_format</link> to set the current
terminal's title, if supported.
</para>
<para>
In most format strings, Mutt supports different types of padding using
-special %-expandos:
+special %-expandos:
</para>
<variablelist>
<term><literal>%|X</literal></term>
<listitem>
<para>
-When this occurs, Mutt will fill the rest of the
-line with the character <literal>X</literal>. For
-example, filling the rest of the line with dashes is
-done by setting:
+When this occurs, Mutt will fill the rest of the line with the character
+<literal>X</literal>. For example, filling the rest of the line with
+dashes is done by setting:
</para>
<screen>
set status_format = "%v on %h: %B: %?n?%n&no? new messages %|-"</screen>
<listitem>
<para>
Since the previous expando stops at the end of line, there must be a way
-to fill the gap between two items via the <literal>%>X</literal>
+to fill the gap between two items via the <literal>%>X</literal>
expando: it puts as many characters <literal>X</literal> in between two
items so that the rest of the line will be right-justified. For example,
to not put the version string and hostname the above example on the left
but on the right and fill the gap with spaces, one might use (note the
-space after <literal>%></literal>):
+space after <literal>%></literal>):
</para>
<screen>
set status_format = "%B: %?n?%n&no? new messages %> (%v on %h)"</screen>
showing padding only if there's still room. If necessary, soft-fill will
eat text leftwards to make room for rightward text. For example, to
right-justify the subject making sure as much as possible of it fits on
-screen, one might use (note two spaces after <literal>%*
-</literal>: the second ensures there's a space between the truncated
-right-hand side and the subject):
+screen, one might use (note two spaces after <literal>%* </literal>: the
+second ensures there's a space between the truncated right-hand side and
+the subject):
</para>
<screen>
set index_format="%4C %Z %{%b %d} %-15.15L (%?l?%4l&%4c?)%* %s"</screen>
<chapter id="advancedusage">
<title>Advanced Usage</title>
+<sect1 id="charset-handling">
+<title>Character Set Handling</title>
+
+<para>
+A <quote>character set</quote> is basically a mapping between bytes and
+glyphs and implies a certain character encoding scheme. For example, for
+the ISO 8859 family of character sets, an encoding of 8bit per character
+is used. For the Unicode character set, different character encodings
+may be used, UTF-8 being the most popular. In UTF-8, a character is
+represented using a variable number of bytes ranging from 1 to 4.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+Since Mutt is a command-line tool run from a shell, and delegates
+certain tasks to external tools (such as an editor for composing/editing
+messages), all of these tools need to agree on a character set and
+encoding. There exists no way to reliably deduce the character set a
+plain text file has. Interoperability is gained by the use of
+well-defined environment variables. The full set can be printed by
+issuing <literal>locale</literal> on the command line.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+Upon startup, Mutt determines the character set on its own using
+routines that inspect locale-specific environment variables. Therefore,
+it is generally not necessary to set the <literal>$charset</literal>
+variable in Mutt. It may even be counter-productive as Mutt uses system
+and library functions that derive the character set themselves and on
+which Mutt has no influence. It's safest to let Mutt work out the locale
+setup itself.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+If you happen to work with several character sets on a regular basis,
+it's highly advisable to use Unicode and an UTF-8 locale. Unicode can
+represent nearly all characters in a message at the same time. When not
+using a Unicode locale, it may happen that you receive messages with
+characters not representable in your locale. When displaying such a
+message, or replying to or forwarding it, information may get lost
+possibly rendering the message unusable (not only for you but also for
+the recipient, this breakage is not reversible as lost information
+cannot be guessed).
+</para>
+
+<para>
+A Unicode locale makes all conversions superfluous which eliminates the
+risk of conversion errors. It also eliminates potentially wrong
+expectations about the character set between Mutt and external programs.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+The terminal emulator used also must be properly configured for the
+current locale. Terminal emulators usually do <emphasis>not</emphasis>
+derive the locale from environment variables, they need to be configured
+separately. If the terminal is incorrectly configured, Mutt may display
+random and unexpected characters (question marks, octal codes, or just
+random glyphs), format strings may not work as expected, you may not be
+abled to enter non-ascii characters, and possible more. Data is always
+represented using bytes and so a correct setup is very important as to
+the machine, all character sets <quote>look</quote> the same.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+Warning: A mismatch between what system and library functions think the
+locale is and what Mutt was told what the locale is may make it behave
+badly with non-ascii input: it will fail at seemingly random places.
+This warning is to be taken seriously since not only local mail handling
+may suffer: sent messages may carry wrong character set information the
+<emphasis>receiver</emphasis> has too deal with. The need to set
+<literal>$charset</literal> directly in most cases points at terminal
+and environment variable setup problems, not Mutt problems.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+A list of officially assigned and known character sets can be found at
+<ulink url="http://www.iana.org/assignments/character-sets">IANA</ulink>,
+a list of locally supported locales can be obtained by running
+<literal>locale -a</literal>.
+</para>
+
+</sect1>
+
<sect1 id="regexp">
<title>Regular Expressions</title>
<para>
-All string patterns in Mutt including those in more complex
-<link linkend="patterns">patterns</link> must be specified
-using regular expressions (regexp) in the <quote>POSIX extended</quote> syntax (which
+All string patterns in Mutt including those in more complex <link
+linkend="patterns">patterns</link> must be specified using regular
+expressions (regexp) in the <quote>POSIX extended</quote> syntax (which
is more or less the syntax used by egrep and GNU awk). For your
convenience, we have included below a brief description of this syntax.
</para>
<note>
<para>
-<quote>\</quote>
-must be quoted if used for a regular expression in an initialization
-command: <quote>\\</quote>.
+<quote>\</quote> must be quoted if used for a regular expression in an
+initialization command: <quote>\\</quote>.
</para>
</note>
<note>
<para>
-The regular expression can be enclosed/delimited by either "
-or ' which is useful if the regular expression includes a white-space
-character. See <xref linkend="muttrc-syntax"/>
-for more information on " and ' delimiter processing. To match a
-literal " or ' you must preface it with \ (backslash).
+The regular expression can be enclosed/delimited by either " or ' which
+is useful if the regular expression includes a white-space character.
+See <xref linkend="muttrc-syntax"/> for more information on " and '
+delimiter processing. To match a literal " or ' you must preface it
+with \ (backslash).
</para>
</note>
<para>
-The fundamental building blocks are the regular expressions that match
-a single character. Most characters, including all letters and digits,
+The fundamental building blocks are the regular expressions that match a
+single character. Most characters, including all letters and digits,
are regular expressions that match themselves. Any metacharacter with
special meaning may be quoted by preceding it with a backslash.
</para>
<para>
-The period <quote>.</quote> matches any single character. The caret <quote>ˆ</quote> and
-the dollar sign <quote>$</quote> are metacharacters that respectively match
-the empty string at the beginning and end of a line.
+The period <quote>.</quote> matches any single character. The caret
+<quote>^</quote> and the dollar sign <quote>$</quote> are metacharacters
+that respectively match the empty string at the beginning and end of a
+line.
</para>
<para>
-A list of characters enclosed by <quote>[</quote> and <quote>]</quote> matches any
-single character in that list; if the first character of the list
-is a caret <quote>ˆ</quote> then it matches any character <emphasis>not</emphasis> in the
-list. For example, the regular expression <emphasis>[0123456789]</emphasis>
-matches any single digit. A range of ASCII characters may be specified
-by giving the first and last characters, separated by a hyphen
-<quote>-</quote>. Most metacharacters lose their special meaning inside
-lists. To include a literal <quote>]</quote> place it first in the list.
-Similarly, to include a literal <quote>ˆ</quote> place it anywhere but first.
+A list of characters enclosed by <quote>[</quote> and <quote>]</quote>
+matches any single character in that list; if the first character of the
+list is a caret <quote>^</quote> then it matches any character
+<emphasis>not</emphasis> in the list. For example, the regular
+expression <emphasis>[0123456789]</emphasis> matches any single digit.
+A range of ASCII characters may be specified by giving the first and
+last characters, separated by a hyphen <quote>-</quote>. Most
+metacharacters lose their special meaning inside lists. To include a
+literal <quote>]</quote> place it first in the list. Similarly, to
+include a literal <quote>^</quote> place it anywhere but first.
Finally, to include a literal hyphen <quote>-</quote> place it last.
</para>
<para>
Certain named classes of characters are predefined. Character classes
-consist of <quote>[:</quote>, a keyword denoting the class, and <quote>:]</quote>.
-The following classes are defined by the POSIX standard in
+consist of <quote>[:</quote>, a keyword denoting the class, and
+<quote>:]</quote>. The following classes are defined by the POSIX
+standard in
<xref linkend="posix-regex-char-classes"/>
</para>
<row><entry>Character class</entry><entry>Description</entry></row>
</thead>
<tbody>
-<row><entry>[:alnum:]</entry><entry>Alphanumeric characters</entry></row>
-<row><entry>[:alpha:]</entry><entry>Alphabetic characters</entry></row>
-<row><entry>[:blank:]</entry><entry>Space or tab characters</entry></row>
-<row><entry>[:cntrl:]</entry><entry>Control characters</entry></row>
-<row><entry>[:digit:]</entry><entry>Numeric characters</entry></row>
-<row><entry>[:graph:]</entry><entry>Characters that are both printable and visible. (A space is printable, but not visible, while an <quote>a</quote> is both)</entry></row>
-<row><entry>[:lower:]</entry><entry>Lower-case alphabetic characters</entry></row>
-<row><entry>[:print:]</entry><entry>Printable characters (characters that are not control characters)</entry></row>
-<row><entry>[:punct:]</entry><entry>Punctuation characters (characters that are not letter, digits, control characters, or space characters)</entry></row>
-<row><entry>[:space:]</entry><entry>Space characters (such as space, tab and formfeed, to name a few)</entry></row>
-<row><entry>[:upper:]</entry><entry>Upper-case alphabetic characters</entry></row>
-<row><entry>[:xdigit:]</entry><entry>Characters that are hexadecimal digits</entry></row>
+<row><entry>[:alnum:]</entry><entry>Alphanumeric characters</entry></row>
+<row><entry>[:alpha:]</entry><entry>Alphabetic characters</entry></row>
+<row><entry>[:blank:]</entry><entry>Space or tab characters</entry></row>
+<row><entry>[:cntrl:]</entry><entry>Control characters</entry></row>
+<row><entry>[:digit:]</entry><entry>Numeric characters</entry></row>
+<row><entry>[:graph:]</entry><entry>Characters that are both printable and visible. (A space is printable, but not visible, while an <quote>a</quote> is both)</entry></row>
+<row><entry>[:lower:]</entry><entry>Lower-case alphabetic characters</entry></row>
+<row><entry>[:print:]</entry><entry>Printable characters (characters that are not control characters)</entry></row>
+<row><entry>[:punct:]</entry><entry>Punctuation characters (characters that are not letter, digits, control characters, or space characters)</entry></row>
+<row><entry>[:space:]</entry><entry>Space characters (such as space, tab and formfeed, to name a few)</entry></row>
+<row><entry>[:upper:]</entry><entry>Upper-case alphabetic characters</entry></row>
+<row><entry>[:xdigit:]</entry><entry>Characters that are hexadecimal digits</entry></row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
<note>
<para>
-Note that the brackets in these
-class names are part of the symbolic names, and must be included
-in addition to the brackets delimiting the bracket list. For
-example, <emphasis>[[:digit:]]</emphasis> is equivalent to
-<emphasis>[0-9]</emphasis>.
+Note that the brackets in these class names are part of the symbolic
+names, and must be included in addition to the brackets delimiting the
+bracket list. For example, <emphasis>[[:digit:]]</emphasis> is
+equivalent to <emphasis>[0-9]</emphasis>.
</para>
</note>
<listitem>
<para>
A collating symbol is a multi-character collating element enclosed in
-<quote>[.</quote> and <quote>.]</quote>. For example, if <quote>ch</quote> is a collating
-element, then <emphasis>[[.ch.]]</emphasis> is a regexp that matches
-this collating element, while <emphasis>[ch]</emphasis> is a regexp that
-matches either <quote>c</quote> or <quote>h</quote>.
+<quote>[.</quote> and <quote>.]</quote>. For example, if
+<quote>ch</quote> is a collating element, then
+<emphasis>[[.ch.]]</emphasis> is a regexp that matches this collating
+element, while <emphasis>[ch]</emphasis> is a regexp that matches either
+<quote>c</quote> or <quote>h</quote>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>Equivalence Classes</term>
<listitem>
<para>
-An equivalence class is a locale-specific name for a list of
-characters that are equivalent. The name is enclosed in <quote>[=</quote>
-and <quote>=]</quote>. For example, the name <quote>e</quote> might be used to
-represent all of <quote>è</quote> <quote>é</quote> and <quote>e</quote>. In this case,
-<emphasis>[[=e=]]</emphasis> is a regexp that matches any of
-<quote>è</quote>, <quote>é</quote> and <quote>e</quote>.
+An equivalence class is a locale-specific name for a list of characters
+that are equivalent. The name is enclosed in <quote>[=</quote> and
+<quote>=]</quote>. For example, the name <quote>e</quote> might be used
+to represent all of <quote>e</quote> with grave
+(<quote>è</quote>), <quote>e</quote> with acute
+(<quote>é</quote>) and <quote>e</quote>. In this case,
+<emphasis>[[=e=]]</emphasis> is a regexp that matches any of:
+<quote>e</quote> with grave (<quote>è</quote>), <quote>e</quote>
+with acute (<quote>é</quote>) and <quote>e</quote>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<para>
A regular expression matching a single character may be followed by one
-of several repetition operators described in <xref linkend="regex-repeat"/>.
+of several repetition operators described in <xref
+linkend="regex-repeat"/>.
</para>
<table id="regex-repeat">
<row><entry>?</entry><entry>The preceding item is optional and matched at most once</entry></row>
<row><entry>*</entry><entry>The preceding item will be matched zero or more times</entry></row>
<row><entry>+</entry><entry>The preceding item will be matched one or more times</entry></row>
-<row><entry>{n}</entry><entry>The preceding item is matched exactly <emphasis>n</emphasis> times</entry></row>
-<row><entry>{n,}</entry><entry>The preceding item is matched <emphasis>n</emphasis> or more times</entry></row>
-<row><entry>{,m}</entry><entry>The preceding item is matched at most <emphasis>m</emphasis> times</entry></row>
-<row><entry>{n,m}</entry><entry>The preceding item is matched at least <emphasis>n</emphasis> times, but no more than <emphasis>m</emphasis> times</entry></row>
+<row><entry>{n}</entry><entry>The preceding item is matched exactly <emphasis>n</emphasis> times</entry></row>
+<row><entry>{n,}</entry><entry>The preceding item is matched <emphasis>n</emphasis> or more times</entry></row>
+<row><entry>{,m}</entry><entry>The preceding item is matched at most <emphasis>m</emphasis> times</entry></row>
+<row><entry>{n,m}</entry><entry>The preceding item is matched at least <emphasis>n</emphasis> times, but no more than <emphasis>m</emphasis> times</entry></row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
</para>
<para>
-Two regular expressions may be joined by the infix operator <quote>|</quote>;
-the resulting regular expression matches any string matching either
-subexpression.
+Two regular expressions may be joined by the infix operator
+<quote>|</quote>; the resulting regular expression matches any string
+matching either subexpression.
</para>
<para>
<note>
<para>
If you compile Mutt with the included regular expression engine, the
-following operators may also be used in regular expressions as described in <xref linkend="regex-gnu-ext"/>.
+following operators may also be used in regular expressions as described
+in <xref linkend="regex-gnu-ext"/>.
</para>
</note>
<row><entry>Expression</entry><entry>Description</entry></row>
</thead>
<tbody>
-<row><entry>\\y</entry><entry>Matches the empty string at either the beginning or the end of a word</entry></row>
-<row><entry>\\B</entry><entry>Matches the empty string within a word</entry></row>
-<row><entry>\\<</entry><entry>Matches the empty string at the beginning of a word</entry></row>
-<row><entry>\\></entry><entry>Matches the empty string at the end of a word</entry></row>
-<row><entry>\\w</entry><entry>Matches any word-constituent character (letter, digit, or underscore)</entry></row>
-<row><entry>\\W</entry><entry>Matches any character that is not word-constituent</entry></row>
-<row><entry>\\`</entry><entry>Matches the empty string at the beginning of a buffer (string)</entry></row>
-<row><entry>\\'</entry><entry>Matches the empty string at the end of a buffer</entry></row>
+<row><entry>\\y</entry><entry>Matches the empty string at either the beginning or the end of a word</entry></row>
+<row><entry>\\B</entry><entry>Matches the empty string within a word</entry></row>
+<row><entry>\\<</entry><entry>Matches the empty string at the beginning of a word</entry></row>
+<row><entry>\\></entry><entry>Matches the empty string at the end of a word</entry></row>
+<row><entry>\\w</entry><entry>Matches any word-constituent character (letter, digit, or underscore)</entry></row>
+<row><entry>\\W</entry><entry>Matches any character that is not word-constituent</entry></row>
+<row><entry>\\`</entry><entry>Matches the empty string at the beginning of a buffer (string)</entry></row>
+<row><entry>\\'</entry><entry>Matches the empty string at the end of a buffer</entry></row>
</tbody>
</tgroup>
</table>
<row><entry>%c <emphasis>GROUP</emphasis></entry><entry>messages carbon-copied to any member of <emphasis>GROUP</emphasis></entry></row>
<row><entry>~C <emphasis>EXPR</emphasis></entry><entry>messages either to: or cc: <emphasis>EXPR</emphasis></entry></row>
<row><entry>%C <emphasis>GROUP</emphasis></entry><entry>messages either to: or cc: to any member of <emphasis>GROUP</emphasis></entry></row>
-<row><entry>~d [<emphasis>MIN</emphasis>]-[<emphasis>MAX</emphasis>]</entry><entry>messages with <quote>date-sent</quote> in a Date range</entry></row>
+<row><entry>~d [<emphasis>MIN</emphasis>]-[<emphasis>MAX</emphasis>]</entry><entry>messages with <quote>date-sent</quote> in a Date range</entry></row>
<row><entry>~D</entry><entry>deleted messages</entry></row>
<row><entry>~e <emphasis>EXPR</emphasis></entry><entry>messages which contains <emphasis>EXPR</emphasis> in the <quote>Sender</quote> field</entry></row>
<row><entry>%e <emphasis>GROUP</emphasis></entry><entry>messages which contain a member of <emphasis>GROUP</emphasis> in the <quote>Sender</quote> field</entry></row>
<row><entry>~L <emphasis>EXPR</emphasis></entry><entry>messages either originated or received by <emphasis>EXPR</emphasis></entry></row>
<row><entry>%L <emphasis>GROUP</emphasis></entry><entry>message either originated or received by any member of <emphasis>GROUP</emphasis></entry></row>
<row><entry>~l</entry><entry>messages addressed to a known mailing list</entry></row>
-<row><entry>~m [<emphasis>MIN</emphasis>]-[<emphasis>MAX</emphasis>]</entry><entry>messages in the range <emphasis>MIN</emphasis> to <emphasis>MAX</emphasis> *)</entry></row>
-<row><entry>~n [<emphasis>MIN</emphasis>]-[<emphasis>MAX</emphasis>]</entry><entry>messages with a score in the range <emphasis>MIN</emphasis> to <emphasis>MAX</emphasis> *)</entry></row>
+<row><entry>~m [<emphasis>MIN</emphasis>]-[<emphasis>MAX</emphasis>]</entry><entry>messages in the range <emphasis>MIN</emphasis> to <emphasis>MAX</emphasis> *)</entry></row>
+<row><entry>~n [<emphasis>MIN</emphasis>]-[<emphasis>MAX</emphasis>]</entry><entry>messages with a score in the range <emphasis>MIN</emphasis> to <emphasis>MAX</emphasis> *)</entry></row>
<row><entry>~N</entry><entry>new messages</entry></row>
<row><entry>~O</entry><entry>old messages</entry></row>
<row><entry>~p</entry><entry>messages addressed to you (consults <command>alternates</command>)</entry></row>
<row><entry>~P</entry><entry>messages from you (consults <command>alternates</command>)</entry></row>
<row><entry>~Q</entry><entry>messages which have been replied to</entry></row>
-<row><entry>~r [<emphasis>MIN</emphasis>]-[<emphasis>MAX</emphasis>]</entry><entry>messages with <quote>date-received</quote> in a Date range</entry></row>
+<row><entry>~r [<emphasis>MIN</emphasis>]-[<emphasis>MAX</emphasis>]</entry><entry>messages with <quote>date-received</quote> in a Date range</entry></row>
<row><entry>~R</entry><entry>read messages</entry></row>
<row><entry>~s <emphasis>EXPR</emphasis></entry><entry>messages having <emphasis>EXPR</emphasis> in the <quote>Subject</quote> field.</entry></row>
<row><entry>~S</entry><entry>superseded messages</entry></row>
<row><entry>~v</entry><entry>messages part of a collapsed thread.</entry></row>
<row><entry>~V</entry><entry>cryptographically verified messages</entry></row>
<row><entry>~x <emphasis>EXPR</emphasis></entry><entry>messages which contain <emphasis>EXPR</emphasis> in the <quote>References</quote> or <quote>In-Reply-To</quote> field</entry></row>
-<row><entry>~X [<emphasis>MIN</emphasis>]-[<emphasis>MAX</emphasis>]</entry><entry>messages with <emphasis>MIN</emphasis> to <emphasis>MAX</emphasis> attachments *)</entry></row>
+<row><entry>~X [<emphasis>MIN</emphasis>]-[<emphasis>MAX</emphasis>]</entry><entry>messages with <emphasis>MIN</emphasis> to <emphasis>MAX</emphasis> attachments *)</entry></row>
<row><entry>~y <emphasis>EXPR</emphasis></entry><entry>messages which contain <emphasis>EXPR</emphasis> in the <quote>X-Label</quote> field</entry></row>
-<row><entry>~z [<emphasis>MIN</emphasis>]-[<emphasis>MAX</emphasis>]</entry><entry>messages with a size in the range <emphasis>MIN</emphasis> to <emphasis>MAX</emphasis> *) **)</entry></row>
-<row><entry>~=</entry><entry>duplicated messages (see <link linkend="duplicate-threads">$duplicate_threads</link>)</entry></row>
+<row><entry>~z [<emphasis>MIN</emphasis>]-[<emphasis>MAX</emphasis>]</entry><entry>messages with a size in the range <emphasis>MIN</emphasis> to <emphasis>MAX</emphasis> *) **)</entry></row>
+<row><entry>~=</entry><entry>duplicated messages (see <link linkend="duplicate-threads">$duplicate_threads</link>)</entry></row>
<row><entry>~$</entry><entry>unreferenced messages (requires threaded view)</entry></row>
<row><entry>~(<emphasis>PATTERN</emphasis>)</entry><entry>messages in threads
containing messages matching <emphasis>PATTERN</emphasis>, e.g. all
</table>
<para>
-Where <emphasis>EXPR</emphasis> is a
-<link linkend="regexp">regular expression</link>.
+Where <emphasis>EXPR</emphasis> is a <link linkend="regexp">regular expression</link>, and <emphasis>GROUP</emphasis> is an
+<link linkend="addrgroup">address group</link>.
</para>
<para>
-*) The forms <quote><[<emphasis>MAX</emphasis>]</quote>, <quote>>[<emphasis>MIN</emphasis>]</quote>,
-<quote>[<emphasis>MIN</emphasis>]-</quote> and <quote>-[<emphasis>MAX</emphasis>]</quote>
-are allowed, too.
+*) The forms <quote><[<emphasis>MAX</emphasis>]</quote>,
+<quote>>[<emphasis>MIN</emphasis>]</quote>,
+<quote>[<emphasis>MIN</emphasis>]-</quote> and
+<quote>-[<emphasis>MAX</emphasis>]</quote> are allowed, too.
</para>
<para>
-**) The suffixes <quote>K</quote> and <quote>M</quote> are allowed to specify kilobyte and megabyte respectively.
+**) The suffixes <quote>K</quote> and <quote>M</quote> are allowed to
+specify kilobyte and megabyte respectively.
</para>
<para>
-Special attention has to be
-payed when using regular expressions inside of patterns. Specifically,
-Mutt's parser for these patterns will strip one level of backslash (<quote>\</quote>),
-which is normally used for quoting. If it is your intention to use a
-backslash in the regular expression, you will need to use two backslashes
-instead (<quote>\\</quote>). You can force Mutt to treat <emphasis>EXPR</emphasis> as a simple string
-instead of a regular expression by using = instead of ˜ in the
-pattern name. For example, <literal>=b *.*</literal> will find all messages that contain
-the literal string <quote>*.*</quote>. Simple string matches are less powerful than
-regular expressions but can be considerably faster. This is especially
-true for IMAP folders, because string matches can be performed on the
-server instead of by fetching every message. IMAP treats <literal>=h</literal> specially:
-it must be of the form <quote>header: substring</quote> and will not partially
-match header names. The substring part may be omitted if you simply
-wish to find messages containing a particular header without regard to
-its value.
+Special attention has to be payed when using regular expressions inside
+of patterns. Specifically, Mutt's parser for these patterns will strip
+one level of backslash (<quote>\</quote>), which is normally used for
+quoting. If it is your intention to use a backslash in the regular
+expression, you will need to use two backslashes instead
+(<quote>\\</quote>). You can force Mutt to treat
+<emphasis>EXPR</emphasis> as a simple string instead of a regular
+expression by using = instead of ~ in the pattern name. For example,
+<literal>=b *.*</literal> will find all messages that contain the
+literal string <quote>*.*</quote>. Simple string matches are less
+powerful than regular expressions but can be considerably faster. This
+is especially true for IMAP folders, because string matches can be
+performed on the server instead of by fetching every message. IMAP
+treats <literal>=h</literal> specially: it must be of the form
+<quote>header: substring</quote> and will not partially match header
+names. The substring part may be omitted if you simply wish to find
+messages containing a particular header without regard to its value.
</para>
<para>
-Patterns matching lists of addresses (notably c, C, p, P and t)
-match if there is at least one match in the whole list. If you want to
-make sure that all elements of that list match, you need to prefix your
-pattern with <quote>ˆ</quote>.
-This example matches all mails which only has recipients from Germany.
+Patterns matching lists of addresses (notably c, C, p, P and t) match if
+there is at least one match in the whole list. If you want to make sure
+that all elements of that list match, you need to prefix your pattern
+with <quote>^</quote>. This example matches all mails which only has
+recipients from Germany.
</para>
<example id="ex-recips">
<title>Simple Searches</title>
<para>
-Mutt supports two versions of so called <quote>simple searches</quote>. These are
-issued if the query entered for searching, limiting and similar
-operations does not seem to contain a valid pattern modifier (i.e. it does not contain
-one of these characters: <quote>˜</quote>, <quote>=</quote> or <quote>%</quote>). If the query is
-supposed to contain one of these special characters, they must be escaped
-by prepending a backslash (<quote>\</quote>).
+Mutt supports two versions of so called <quote>simple
+searches</quote>. These are issued if the query entered for searching,
+limiting and similar operations does not seem to contain a valid pattern
+modifier (i.e. it does not contain one of these characters:
+<quote>~</quote>, <quote>=</quote> or <quote>%</quote>). If the query is
+supposed to contain one of these special characters, they must be
+escaped by prepending a backslash (<quote>\</quote>).
</para>
<para>
If a keyword would conflict with your search keyword, you need to turn
it into a regular expression to avoid matching the keyword table. For
example, if you want to find all messages matching <quote>flag</quote>
-(using <link linkend="simple-search">$simple_search</link>)
+(using <link linkend="simple-search">$simple_search</link>)
but don't want to match flagged messages, simply search for
-<quote><literal>[f]lag</literal></quote>.
+<quote><literal>[f]lag</literal></quote>.
</para>
<table id="tab-simplesearch-keywords">
<tbody>
<row><entry>all</entry><entry>~A</entry></row>
<row><entry>.</entry><entry>~A</entry></row>
-<row><entry>ˆ</entry><entry>~A</entry></row>
+<row><entry>^</entry><entry>~A</entry></row>
<row><entry>del</entry><entry>~D</entry></row>
<row><entry>flag</entry><entry>~F</entry></row>
<row><entry>new</entry><entry>~N</entry></row>
</table>
<para>
-The second type of simple search is to build a complex search
-pattern using <link linkend="simple-search">$simple_search</link>
-as a template. Mutt will insert your query properly quoted and search
-for the composed complex query.
+The second type of simple search is to build a complex search pattern
+using <link linkend="simple-search">$simple_search</link> as a
+template. Mutt will insert your query properly quoted and search for the
+composed complex query.
</para>
</sect2>
</screen>
<para>
-would select messages which contain the word <quote>mutt</quote> in the list of
-recipients <emphasis>and</emphasis> that have the word <quote>elkins</quote> in the <quote>From</quote> header
-field.
+would select messages which contain the word <quote>mutt</quote> in the
+list of recipients <emphasis>and</emphasis> that have the word
+<quote>elkins</quote> in the <quote>From</quote> header field.
</para>
<para>
-Mutt also recognizes the following operators to create more complex search
-patterns:
+Mutt also recognizes the following operators to create more complex
+search patterns:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
-| — logical OR operator
+| — logical OR operator
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
-Here is an example illustrating a complex search pattern. This pattern will
-select all messages which do not contain <quote>mutt</quote> in the <quote>To</quote> or <quote>Cc</quote>
-field and which are from <quote>elkins</quote>.
+Here is an example illustrating a complex search pattern. This pattern
+will select all messages which do not contain <quote>mutt</quote> in the
+<quote>To</quote> or <quote>Cc</quote> field and which are from
+<quote>elkins</quote>.
</para>
<example id="ex-pattern-bool">
</example>
<para>
-Here is an example using white space in the regular expression (note
-the ' and " delimiters). For this to match, the mail's subject must
-match the <quote>ˆJunk +From +Me$</quote> and it must be from either <quote>Jim +Somebody</quote>
-or <quote>Ed +SomeoneElse</quote>:
+Here is an example using white space in the regular expression (note the
+<quote>'</quote> and <quote>"</quote> delimiters). For this to match,
+the mail's subject must match the <quote>^Junk +From +Me$</quote> and it
+must be from either <quote>Jim +Somebody</quote> or <quote>Ed
++SomeoneElse</quote>:
</para>
<screen>
- '~s "^Junk +From +Me$" ~f ("Jim +Somebody"|"Ed +SomeoneElse")'
+'~s "^Junk +From +Me$" ~f ("Jim +Somebody"|"Ed +SomeoneElse")'
</screen>
<note>
<para>
-If a regular expression contains parenthesis, or a vertical bar
-("|"), you <emphasis>must</emphasis> enclose the expression in double or single quotes since
-those characters are also used to separate different parts of Mutt's
-pattern language. For example: <literal>~f "me@(mutt\.org|cs\.hmc\.edu)"</literal>
-Without the quotes, the parenthesis wouldn't end.
-This would be separated to two OR'd patterns: <emphasis>˜f me@(mutt\.org</emphasis>
-and <emphasis>cs\.hmc\.edu)</emphasis>. They are never what you want.
+If a regular expression contains parenthesis, or a vertical bar ("|"),
+you <emphasis>must</emphasis> enclose the expression in double or single
+quotes since those characters are also used to separate different parts
+of Mutt's pattern language. For example: <literal>~f
+"me@(mutt\.org|cs\.hmc\.edu)"</literal> Without the quotes, the
+parenthesis wouldn't end. This would be separated to two OR'd patterns:
+<emphasis>~f me@(mutt\.org</emphasis> and
+<emphasis>cs\.hmc\.edu)</emphasis>. They are never what you want.
</para>
</note>
<title>Searching by Date</title>
<para>
-Mutt supports two types of dates, <emphasis>absolute</emphasis> and <emphasis>relative</emphasis>.
+Mutt supports two types of dates, <emphasis>absolute</emphasis> and
+<emphasis>relative</emphasis>.
</para>
<sect3 id="date-absolute">
<title>Absolute Dates</title>
<para>
-Dates <emphasis>must</emphasis> be in DD/MM/YY format (month and year are
-optional, defaulting to the current month and year). An example of a valid
-range of dates is:
+Dates <emphasis>must</emphasis> be in DD/MM/YY format (month and year
+are optional, defaulting to the current month and year). An example of
+a valid range of dates is:
</para>
<screen>
</screen>
<para>
-If you omit the minimum (first) date, and just specify <quote>-DD/MM/YY</quote>, all
-messages <emphasis>before</emphasis> the given date will be selected. If you omit the maximum
-(second) date, and specify <quote>DD/MM/YY-</quote>, all messages <emphasis>after</emphasis> the given
-date will be selected. If you specify a single date with no dash (<quote>-</quote>),
-only messages sent on the given date will be selected.
+If you omit the minimum (first) date, and just specify
+<quote>-DD/MM/YY</quote>, all messages <emphasis>before</emphasis> the
+given date will be selected. If you omit the maximum (second) date, and
+specify <quote>DD/MM/YY-</quote>, all messages
+<emphasis>after</emphasis> the given date will be selected. If you
+specify a single date with no dash (<quote>-</quote>), only messages
+sent on the given date will be selected.
</para>
<para>
-You can add error margins to absolute dates.
-An error margin is a sign (+ or -), followed by a digit, followed by
-one of the units in <xref linkend="tab-date-units"/>. As a special case, you can replace the
-sign by a <quote>*</quote> character, which is equivalent to giving identical plus and minus error margins.
+You can add error margins to absolute dates. An error margin is a sign
+(+ or -), followed by a digit, followed by one of the units in <xref
+linkend="tab-date-units"/>. As a special case, you can replace the sign
+by a <quote>*</quote> character, which is equivalent to giving identical
+plus and minus error margins.
</para>
<table id="tab-date-units">
</table>
<para>
-Example: To select any messages two weeks around January 15, 2001,
-you'd use the following pattern:
+Example: To select any messages two weeks around January 15, 2001, you'd
+use the following pattern:
</para>
<screen>
<title>Relative Dates</title>
<para>
-This type of date is relative to the current date, and may
-be specified as:
+This type of date is relative to the current date, and may be specified
+as:
</para>
<itemizedlist>
<listitem>
<para>
-><emphasis>offset</emphasis> for messages older than <emphasis>offset</emphasis> units
+><emphasis>offset</emphasis> for messages older than
+<emphasis>offset</emphasis> units
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
-<<emphasis>offset</emphasis> for messages newer than <emphasis>offset</emphasis> units
+<<emphasis>offset</emphasis> for messages newer than
+<emphasis>offset</emphasis> units
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
-=<emphasis>offset</emphasis> for messages exactly <emphasis>offset</emphasis> units old
+=<emphasis>offset</emphasis> for messages exactly
+<emphasis>offset</emphasis> units old
</para>
</listitem>
</itemizedlist>
<para>
-<emphasis>offset</emphasis> is specified as a positive number with one of the units from <xref linkend="tab-date-units"/>.
+<emphasis>offset</emphasis> is specified as a positive number with one
+of the units from <xref linkend="tab-date-units"/>.
</para>
<para>
<note>
<para>
All dates used when searching are relative to the
-<emphasis>local</emphasis> time zone, so unless you change the setting of your <link linkend="index-format">$index_format</link> to include a
-<literal>%[...]</literal> format, these are <emphasis>not</emphasis> the dates shown
-in the main index.
+<emphasis>local</emphasis> time zone, so unless you change the setting
+of your <link linkend="index-format">$index_format</link> to include a
+<literal>%[...]</literal> format, these are <emphasis>not</emphasis> the
+dates shown in the main index.
</para>
</note>
<title>Using Tags</title>
<para>
-Sometimes it is desirable to perform an operation on a group of
-messages all at once rather than one at a time. An example might be
-to save messages to a mailing list to a separate folder, or to
-delete all messages with a given subject. To tag all messages
-matching a pattern, use the <literal><tag-pattern></literal> function, which is bound to
-<quote>shift-T</quote> by default. Or you can select individual messages by
-hand using the <literal><tag-message></literal> function, which is bound to <quote>t</quote> by
-default. See <link linkend="patterns">patterns</link> for Mutt's pattern
-matching syntax.
+Sometimes it is desirable to perform an operation on a group of messages
+all at once rather than one at a time. An example might be to save
+messages to a mailing list to a separate folder, or to delete all
+messages with a given subject. To tag all messages matching a pattern,
+use the <literal><tag-pattern></literal> function, which is bound
+to <quote>shift-T</quote> by default. Or you can select individual
+messages by hand using the <literal><tag-message></literal>
+function, which is bound to <quote>t</quote> by default. See <link
+linkend="patterns">patterns</link> for Mutt's pattern matching syntax.
</para>
<para>
Once you have tagged the desired messages, you can use the
-<quote>tag-prefix</quote> operator, which is the <quote>;</quote> (semicolon) key by default.
-When the <quote>tag-prefix</quote> operator is used, the <emphasis>next</emphasis> operation will
-be applied to all tagged messages if that operation can be used in that
-manner. If the <link linkend="auto-tag">$auto_tag</link>
-variable is set, the next operation applies to the tagged messages
-automatically, without requiring the <quote>tag-prefix</quote>.
+<quote>tag-prefix</quote> operator, which is the <quote>;</quote>
+(semicolon) key by default. When the <quote>tag-prefix</quote> operator
+is used, the <emphasis>next</emphasis> operation will be applied to all
+tagged messages if that operation can be used in that manner. If the
+<link linkend="auto-tag">$auto_tag</link> variable is set, the next
+operation applies to the tagged messages automatically, without
+requiring the <quote>tag-prefix</quote>.
</para>
<para>
-In <link linkend="macro"><command>macro</command>s</link> or <link linkend="push"><command>push</command></link> commands,
-you can use the <literal><tag-prefix-cond></literal> operator. If there are no tagged
-messages, Mutt will <quote>eat</quote> the rest of the macro to abort it's execution.
-Mutt will stop <quote>eating</quote> the macro when it encounters the <literal><end-cond></literal>
-operator; after this operator the rest of the macro will be executed as
-normal.
+In <link linkend="macro"><command>macro</command>s</link> or <link
+linkend="push"><command>push</command></link> commands, you can use the
+<literal><tag-prefix-cond></literal> operator. If there are no
+tagged messages, Mutt will <quote>eat</quote> the rest of the macro to
+abort it's execution. Mutt will stop <quote>eating</quote> the macro
+when it encounters the <literal><end-cond></literal> operator;
+after this operator the rest of the macro will be executed as normal.
</para>
</sect1>
<title>Using Hooks</title>
<para>
-A <emphasis>hook</emphasis> is a concept found in many other programs which allows you to
-execute arbitrary commands before performing some operation. For example,
-you may wish to tailor your configuration based upon which mailbox you are
-reading, or to whom you are sending mail. In the Mutt world, a <emphasis>hook</emphasis>
-consists of a <link linkend="regexp">regular expression</link> or
-<link linkend="patterns">pattern</link> along with a
-configuration option/command. See:
+A <emphasis>hook</emphasis> is a concept found in many other programs
+which allows you to execute arbitrary commands before performing some
+operation. For example, you may wish to tailor your configuration based
+upon which mailbox you are reading, or to whom you are sending mail. In
+the Mutt world, a <emphasis>hook</emphasis> consists of a <link
+linkend="regexp">regular expression</link> or <link
+linkend="patterns">pattern</link> along with a configuration
+option/command. See:
<itemizedlist>
<note>
<para>
-If a hook changes configuration settings, these changes remain
-effective until the end of the current Mutt session. As this is generally
-not desired, a <quote>default</quote> hook needs to be added before all
-other hooks of that type to restore configuration defaults.
+If a hook changes configuration settings, these changes remain effective
+until the end of the current Mutt session. As this is generally not
+desired, a <quote>default</quote> hook needs to be added before all
+other hooks of that type to restore configuration defaults.
</para>
</note>
</example>
<para>
-In <xref linkend="ex-default-hook"/>, by default the value of
-<link linkend="from">$from</link>
-and <link linkend="realname">$realname</link>
-is not overridden. When sending messages either To: or Cc:
-to <literal><b@b.b></literal>, the From: header is changed to
-<literal><c@c.c></literal>.
+In <xref linkend="ex-default-hook"/>, by default the value of <link
+linkend="from">$from</link> and <link
+linkend="realname">$realname</link> is not overridden. When sending
+messages either To: or Cc: to <literal><b@b.b></literal>, the
+From: header is changed to <literal><c@c.c></literal>.
</para>
<sect2 id="pattern-hook" xreflabel="Message Matching in Hooks">
<title>Message Matching in Hooks</title>
<para>
-Hooks that act upon messages (<command>message-hook</command>, <command>reply-hook</command>,
-<command>send-hook</command>, <command>send2-hook</command>, <command>save-hook</command>, <command>fcc-hook</command>) are evaluated in a
-slightly different manner. For the other
-types of hooks, a <link linkend="regexp">regular expression</link> is
-sufficient. But in dealing with messages a finer grain of control is
-needed for matching since for different purposes you want to match
-different criteria.
+Hooks that act upon messages (<command>message-hook</command>,
+<command>reply-hook</command>, <command>send-hook</command>,
+<command>send2-hook</command>, <command>save-hook</command>,
+<command>fcc-hook</command>) are evaluated in a slightly different
+manner. For the other types of hooks, a <link linkend="regexp">regular
+expression</link> is sufficient. But in dealing with messages a finer
+grain of control is needed for matching since for different purposes you
+want to match different criteria.
</para>
<para>
-Mutt allows the use of the <link linkend="patterns">search pattern</link>
-language for matching messages in hook commands. This works in
-exactly the same way as it would when <emphasis>limiting</emphasis> or
-<emphasis>searching</emphasis> the mailbox, except that you are restricted to those
-operators which match information Mutt extracts from the header of
-the message (i.e., from, to, cc, date, subject, etc.).
+Mutt allows the use of the <link linkend="patterns">search
+pattern</link> language for matching messages in hook commands. This
+works in exactly the same way as it would when
+<emphasis>limiting</emphasis> or <emphasis>searching</emphasis> the
+mailbox, except that you are restricted to those operators which match
+information Mutt extracts from the header of the message (i.e., from,
+to, cc, date, subject, etc.).
</para>
<para>
</para>
<para>
-However, it is not required that you write the pattern to match using the
-full searching language. You can still specify a simple <emphasis>regular
-expression</emphasis> like the other hooks, in which case Mutt will translate your
-pattern into the full language, using the translation specified by the
-<link linkend="default-hook">$default_hook</link> variable. The
-pattern is translated at the time the hook is declared, so the value of
-<link linkend="default-hook">$default_hook</link> that is in effect
-at that time will be used.
+However, it is not required that you write the pattern to match using
+the full searching language. You can still specify a simple
+<emphasis>regular expression</emphasis> like the other hooks, in which
+case Mutt will translate your pattern into the full language, using the
+translation specified by the <link
+linkend="default-hook">$default_hook</link> variable. The pattern is
+translated at the time the hook is declared, so the value of <link
+linkend="default-hook">$default_hook</link> that is in effect at that
+time will be used.
</para>
</sect2>
<para>
Mutt supports connecting to external directory databases such as LDAP,
ph/qi, bbdb, or NIS through a wrapper script which connects to Mutt
-using a simple interface. Using the <link linkend="query-command">$query_command</link> variable, you specify the wrapper
-command to use. For example:
+using a simple interface. Using the <link
+linkend="query-command">$query_command</link> variable, you specify the
+wrapper command to use. For example:
</para>
<screen>
-set query_command = "mutt_ldap_query.pl '%s'"
+set query_command = "mutt_ldap_query.pl %s"
</screen>
<para>
<para>
There are two mechanisms for accessing the query function of Mutt. One
-is to do a query from the index menu using the <literal><query></literal> function (default: Q).
-This will prompt for a query, then bring up the query menu which will
-list the matching responses. From the query menu, you can select
-addresses to create aliases, or to mail. You can tag multiple addresses
-to mail, start a new query, or have a new query appended to the current
+is to do a query from the index menu using the
+<literal><query></literal> function (default: Q). This will
+prompt for a query, then bring up the query menu which will list the
+matching responses. From the query menu, you can select addresses to
+create aliases, or to mail. You can tag multiple addresses to mail,
+start a new query, or have a new query appended to the current
responses.
</para>
<para>
The other mechanism for accessing the query function is for address
completion, similar to the alias completion. In any prompt for address
-entry, you can use the <literal><complete-query></literal> function (default: ˆT) to run a
-query based on the current address you have typed. Like aliases, Mutt
-will look for what you have typed back to the last space or comma. If
-there is a single response for that query, Mutt will expand the address
-in place. If there are multiple responses, Mutt will activate the query
-menu. At the query menu, you can select one or more addresses to be
-added to the prompt.
+entry, you can use the <literal><complete-query></literal>
+function (default: ^T) to run a query based on the current address you
+have typed. Like aliases, Mutt will look for what you have typed back
+to the last space or comma. If there is a single response for that
+query, Mutt will expand the address in place. If there are multiple
+responses, Mutt will activate the query menu. At the query menu, you
+can select one or more addresses to be added to the prompt.
</para>
</sect1>
<title>Mailbox Formats</title>
<para>
-Mutt supports reading and writing of four different local mailbox formats:
-mbox, MMDF, MH and Maildir. The mailbox type is autodetected, so there
-is no need to use a flag for different mailbox types. When creating new
-mailboxes, Mutt uses the default specified with the
-<link linkend="mbox-type">$mbox_type</link> variable. A
-short description of the formats follows.
+Mutt supports reading and writing of four different local mailbox
+formats: mbox, MMDF, MH and Maildir. The mailbox type is auto detected,
+so there is no need to use a flag for different mailbox types. When
+creating new mailboxes, Mutt uses the default specified with the <link
+linkend="mbox-type">$mbox_type</link> variable. A short description of
+the formats follows.
</para>
<para>
-<emphasis>mbox</emphasis>. This is a widely used mailbox format for UNIX. All
-messages are stored in a single file. Each message has a line of the form:
+<emphasis>mbox</emphasis>. This is a widely used mailbox format for
+UNIX. All messages are stored in a single file. Each message has a
+line of the form:
</para>
<screen>
<para>
to denote the start of a new message (this is often referred to as the
-<quote>From_</quote> line). The mbox format requires mailbox
-locking, is prone to mailbox corruption with concurrently writing
-clients or misinterpreted From_ lines. Depending on the
-environment, new mail detection can be unreliable. Mbox folders are fast
-to open and easy to archive.
+<quote>From_</quote> line). The mbox format requires mailbox locking, is
+prone to mailbox corruption with concurrently writing clients or
+misinterpreted From_ lines. Depending on the environment, new mail
+detection can be unreliable. Mbox folders are fast to open and easy to
+archive.
</para>
<para>
-<emphasis>MMDF</emphasis>. This is a variant of
-the <emphasis>mbox</emphasis> format. Each message is surrounded by
-lines containing <quote>ˆAˆAˆAˆA</quote> (four
-control-A's). The same problems as for mbox apply (also with finding the
-right message separator as four control-A's may appear in message
-bodies).
+<emphasis>MMDF</emphasis>. This is a variant of the
+<emphasis>mbox</emphasis> format. Each message is surrounded by lines
+containing <quote>^A^A^A^A</quote> (four times control-A's). The same
+problems as for mbox apply (also with finding the right message
+separator as four control-A's may appear in message bodies).
</para>
<para>
-<emphasis>MH</emphasis>. A radical departure from <emphasis>mbox</emphasis> and <emphasis>MMDF</emphasis>, a mailbox
+<emphasis>MH</emphasis>. A radical departure from
+<emphasis>mbox</emphasis> and <emphasis>MMDF</emphasis>, a mailbox
consists of a directory and each message is stored in a separate file.
The filename indicates the message number (however, this is may not
correspond to the message number Mutt displays). Deleted messages are
renamed with a comma (<quote>,</quote>) prepended to the filename. Mutt
-detects this type of mailbox by looking for either <literal>.mh_sequences</literal>
-or <literal>.xmhcache</literal> files (needed to distinguish normal directories from MH
-mailboxes). MH is more robust with concurrent clients writing the mailbox,
-but still may suffer from lost flags; message corruption is less likely
-to occur than with mbox/mmdf. It's usually slower to open compared to
-mbox/mmdf since many small files have to be read (Mutt provides
-<xref linkend="header-caching"/> to greatly speed this process up).
-Depending on the environment, MH is not very disk-space efficient.
-</para>
-
-<para>
-<emphasis>Maildir</emphasis>. The newest of the mailbox formats, used by the Qmail MTA (a
-replacement for sendmail). Similar to <emphasis>MH</emphasis>, except that it adds three
-subdirectories of the mailbox: <emphasis>tmp</emphasis>, <emphasis>new</emphasis> and <emphasis>cur</emphasis>. Filenames
-for the messages are chosen in such a way they are unique, even when two
-programs are writing the mailbox over NFS, which means that no file locking
-is needed and corruption is very unlikely. Maildir maybe
-slower to open without caching in Mutt, it too is not very
-disk-space efficient depending on the environment. Since no additional
-files are used for metadata (which is embedded in the message filenames)
-and Maildir is locking-free, it's easy to sync across different machines
-using file-level synchronization tools.
+detects this type of mailbox by looking for either
+<literal>.mh_sequences</literal> or <literal>.xmhcache</literal> files
+(needed to distinguish normal directories from MH mailboxes). MH is more
+robust with concurrent clients writing the mailbox, but still may suffer
+from lost flags; message corruption is less likely to occur than with
+mbox/mmdf. It's usually slower to open compared to mbox/mmdf since many
+small files have to be read (Mutt provides <xref
+linkend="header-caching"/> to greatly speed this process up). Depending
+on the environment, MH is not very disk-space efficient.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+<emphasis>Maildir</emphasis>. The newest of the mailbox formats, used
+by the Qmail MTA (a replacement for sendmail). Similar to
+<emphasis>MH</emphasis>, except that it adds three subdirectories of the
+mailbox: <emphasis>tmp</emphasis>, <emphasis>new</emphasis> and
+<emphasis>cur</emphasis>. Filenames for the messages are chosen in such
+a way they are unique, even when two programs are writing the mailbox
+over NFS, which means that no file locking is needed and corruption is
+very unlikely. Maildir maybe slower to open without caching in Mutt, it
+too is not very disk-space efficient depending on the environment. Since
+no additional files are used for metadata (which is embedded in the
+message filenames) and Maildir is locking-free, it's easy to sync across
+different machines using file-level synchronization tools.
</para>
</sect1>
<title>Mailbox Shortcuts</title>
<para>
-There are a number of built in shortcuts which refer to specific mailboxes.
-These shortcuts can be used anywhere you are prompted for a file or mailbox
-path or in path-related configuration variables. Note that these only
-work at the beginning of a string.
-</para>
-
-<itemizedlist>
-<listitem>
-
-<para>
-! — refers to your <link linkend="spoolfile">$spoolfile</link> (incoming) mailbox
-</para>
-</listitem>
-<listitem>
-
-<para>
-> — refers to your <link linkend="mbox">$mbox</link> file
-</para>
-</listitem>
-<listitem>
-
-<para>
-< — refers to your <link linkend="record">$record</link> file
+There are a number of built in shortcuts which refer to specific
+mailboxes. These shortcuts can be used anywhere you are prompted for a
+file or mailbox path or in path-related configuration variables. Note
+that these only work at the beginning of a string.
</para>
-</listitem>
-<listitem>
-<para>
-ˆ — refers to the current mailbox
-</para>
-</listitem>
-<listitem>
-
-<para>
-- or !! — refers to the file you've last visited
-</para>
-</listitem>
-<listitem>
-
-<para>
-˜ — refers to your home directory
-</para>
-</listitem>
-<listitem>
-
-<para>
-= or + — refers to your <link linkend="folder">$folder</link> directory
-</para>
-</listitem>
-<listitem>
-
-<para>
-@<emphasis>alias</emphasis> — refers to the <link linkend="save-hook">default save folder</link> as determined by the address of the alias
-</para>
-</listitem>
-
-</itemizedlist>
+<table id="tab-mailbox-shortcuts">
+<title>Mailbox shortcuts</title>
+<tgroup cols="2">
+<thead>
+<row><entry>Shortcut</entry><entry>Refers to...</entry></row>
+</thead>
+<tbody>
+<row><entry><literal>!</literal></entry><entry>your <link linkend="spoolfile">$spoolfile</link> (incoming) mailbox</entry></row>
+<row><entry><literal>></literal></entry><entry>your <link linkend="mbox">$mbox</link> file</entry></row>
+<row><entry><literal><</literal></entry><entry>your <link linkend="record">$record</link> file</entry></row>
+<row><entry><literal>^</literal></entry><entry>the current mailbox</entry></row>
+<row><entry><literal>-</literal> or <literal>!!</literal></entry><entry>the file you've last visited</entry></row>
+<row><entry><literal>~</literal></entry><entry>your home directory</entry></row>
+<row><entry><literal>=</literal> or <literal>+</literal></entry><entry>your <link linkend="folder">$folder</link> directory</entry></row>
+<row><entry><emphasis>@alias</emphasis></entry><entry>to the <link linkend="save-hook">default save folder</link> as determined by the address of the alias</entry></row>
+</tbody>
+</tgroup>
+</table>
<para>
For example, to store a copy of outgoing messages in the folder they
-were composed in,
-a <link linkend="folder-hook"><command>folder-hook</command></link> can
-be used to set <link linkend="record">$record</link>:
+were composed in, a <link
+linkend="folder-hook"><command>folder-hook</command></link> can be used
+to set <link linkend="record">$record</link>:
</para>
<screen>
-folder-hook . 'set record=ˆ'</screen>
+folder-hook . 'set record=^'</screen>
</sect1>
<para>
Mutt has a few configuration options that make dealing with large
-amounts of mail easier. The first thing you must do is to let Mutt
-know what addresses you consider to be mailing lists (technically
-this does not have to be a mailing list, but that is what it is most
-often used for), and what lists you are subscribed to. This is
-accomplished through the use of the <link linkend="lists"><command>lists</command> and <command>subscribe</command></link> commands in your <literal>.muttrc</literal>.
+amounts of mail easier. The first thing you must do is to let Mutt know
+what addresses you consider to be mailing lists (technically this does
+not have to be a mailing list, but that is what it is most often used
+for), and what lists you are subscribed to. This is accomplished
+through the use of the <link linkend="lists"><command>lists</command>
+and <command>subscribe</command></link> commands in your
+<literal>.muttrc</literal>.
</para>
<para>
Now that Mutt knows what your mailing lists are, it can do several
things, the first of which is the ability to show the name of a list
-through which you received a message (i.e., of a subscribed list) in
-the <emphasis>index</emphasis> menu display. This is useful to distinguish between
-personal and list mail in the same mailbox. In the <link linkend="index-format">$index_format</link> variable, the expando <quote>%L</quote>
-will print the string <quote>To <list></quote> when <quote>list</quote> appears in the
-<quote>To</quote> field, and <quote>Cc <list></quote> when it appears in the <quote>Cc</quote>
+through which you received a message (i.e., of a subscribed list) in the
+<emphasis>index</emphasis> menu display. This is useful to distinguish
+between personal and list mail in the same mailbox. In the <link
+linkend="index-format">$index_format</link> variable, the expando
+<quote>%L</quote> will print the string <quote>To <list></quote>
+when <quote>list</quote> appears in the <quote>To</quote> field, and
+<quote>Cc <list></quote> when it appears in the <quote>Cc</quote>
field (otherwise it prints the name of the author).
</para>
<para>
-Often times the <quote>To</quote> and <quote>Cc</quote> fields in mailing list messages
-tend to get quite large. Most people do not bother to remove the
-author of the message they reply to from the list, resulting in
-two or more copies being sent to that person. The <literal><list-reply></literal>
-function, which by default is bound to <quote>L</quote> in the <emphasis>index</emphasis> menu
-and <emphasis>pager</emphasis>, helps reduce the clutter by only replying to the
-known mailing list addresses instead of all recipients (except as
+Often times the <quote>To</quote> and <quote>Cc</quote> fields in
+mailing list messages tend to get quite large. Most people do not bother
+to remove the author of the message they reply to from the list,
+resulting in two or more copies being sent to that person. The
+<literal><list-reply></literal> function, which by default is
+bound to <quote>L</quote> in the <emphasis>index</emphasis> menu and
+<emphasis>pager</emphasis>, helps reduce the clutter by only replying to
+the known mailing list addresses instead of all recipients (except as
specified by <literal>Mail-Followup-To</literal>, see below).
</para>
<para>
-Mutt also supports the <literal>Mail-Followup-To</literal> header. When you send
-a message to a list of recipients which includes one or several
-subscribed mailing lists, and if the <link linkend="followup-to">$followup_to</link> option is set, Mutt will generate
-a Mail-Followup-To header which contains all the recipients to whom
-you send this message, but not your address. This indicates that
-group-replies or list-replies (also known as <quote>followups</quote>) to this
-message should only be sent to the original recipients of the
+Mutt also supports the <literal>Mail-Followup-To</literal> header. When
+you send a message to a list of recipients which includes one or several
+subscribed mailing lists, and if the <link
+linkend="followup-to">$followup_to</link> option is set, Mutt will
+generate a Mail-Followup-To header which contains all the recipients to
+whom you send this message, but not your address. This indicates that
+group-replies or list-replies (also known as <quote>followups</quote>)
+to this message should only be sent to the original recipients of the
message, and not separately to you - you'll receive your copy through
one of the mailing lists you are subscribed to.
</para>
<para>
-Conversely, when group-replying or list-replying to a message which
-has a <literal>Mail-Followup-To</literal> header, Mutt will respect this header if
-the <link linkend="honor-followup-to">$honor_followup_to</link> configuration
-variable is set. Using <link linkend="list-reply">list-reply</link> will in this case also make sure
-that the reply goes to the mailing list, even if it's not specified
-in the list of recipients in the <literal>Mail-Followup-To</literal>.
+Conversely, when group-replying or list-replying to a message which has
+a <literal>Mail-Followup-To</literal> header, Mutt will respect this
+header if the <link
+linkend="honor-followup-to">$honor_followup_to</link> configuration
+variable is set. Using <link linkend="list-reply">list-reply</link>
+will in this case also make sure that the reply goes to the mailing
+list, even if it's not specified in the list of recipients in the
+<literal>Mail-Followup-To</literal>.
</para>
<note>
<para>
When header editing is enabled, you can create a
-<literal>Mail-Followup-To</literal> header manually. Mutt will only auto-generate
-this header if it doesn't exist when you send the message.
+<literal>Mail-Followup-To</literal> header manually. Mutt will only
+auto-generate this header if it doesn't exist when you send the message.
</para>
</note>
<para>
The other method some mailing list admins use is to generate a
-<quote>Reply-To</quote> field which points back to the mailing list address rather
-than the author of the message. This can create problems when trying
-to reply directly to the author in private, since most mail clients
-will automatically reply to the address given in the <quote>Reply-To</quote>
-field. Mutt uses the <link linkend="reply-to">$reply_to</link>
-variable to help decide which address to use. If set to <emphasis>ask-yes</emphasis> or
-<emphasis>ask-no</emphasis>, you will be
-prompted as to whether or not you would like to use the address given in
-the <quote>Reply-To</quote> field, or reply directly to the address given in the
-<quote>From</quote> field. When set to <emphasis>yes</emphasis>, the <quote>Reply-To</quote> field will be used when
-present.
+<quote>Reply-To</quote> field which points back to the mailing list
+address rather than the author of the message. This can create problems
+when trying to reply directly to the author in private, since most mail
+clients will automatically reply to the address given in the
+<quote>Reply-To</quote> field. Mutt uses the <link
+linkend="reply-to">$reply_to</link> variable to help decide which
+address to use. If set to <emphasis>ask-yes</emphasis> or
+<emphasis>ask-no</emphasis>, you will be prompted as to whether or not
+you would like to use the address given in the <quote>Reply-To</quote>
+field, or reply directly to the address given in the <quote>From</quote>
+field. When set to <emphasis>yes</emphasis>, the
+<quote>Reply-To</quote> field will be used when present.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+The <quote>X-Label:</quote> header field can be used to further identify
+mailing lists or list subject matter (or just to annotate messages
+individually). The <link linkend="index-format">$index_format</link>
+variable's <quote>%y</quote> and <quote>%Y</quote> expandos can be used
+to expand <quote>X-Label:</quote> fields in the index, and Mutt's
+pattern-matcher can match regular expressions to <quote>X-Label:</quote>
+fields with the <quote>~y</quote> selector. <quote>X-Label:</quote> is
+not a standard message header field, but it can easily be inserted by
+procmail and other mail filtering agents.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+Lastly, Mutt has the ability to <link linkend="sort">sort</link> the
+mailbox into <link linkend="threads">threads</link>. A thread is a
+group of messages which all relate to the same subject. This is usually
+organized into a tree-like structure where a message and all of its
+replies are represented graphically. If you've ever used a threaded
+news client, this is the same concept. It makes dealing with large
+volume mailing lists easier because you can easily delete uninteresting
+threads and quickly find topics of value.
</para>
+</sect1>
+
+<sect1 id="new-mail">
+<title>New Mail Detection</title>
+
<para>
-The <quote>X-Label:</quote> header field can be used to further identify mailing
-lists or list subject matter (or just to annotate messages
-individually). The <link linkend="index-format">$index_format</link> variable's <quote>%y</quote> and
-<quote>%Y</quote> expandos can be used to expand <quote>X-Label:</quote> fields in the
-index, and Mutt's pattern-matcher can match regular expressions to
-<quote>X-Label:</quote> fields with the <quote>˜y</quote> selector. <quote>X-Label:</quote> is not a
-standard message header field, but it can easily be inserted by procmail
-and other mail filtering agents.
+Mutt supports setups with multiple folders, allowing all of them to be
+monitored for new mail (see <xref linkend="mailboxes"/> for details).
</para>
+<sect2 id="new-mail-formats">
+<title>How New Mail Detection Works</title>
+
<para>
-Lastly, Mutt has the ability to <link linkend="sort">sort</link> the mailbox into
-<link linkend="threads">threads</link>. A thread is a group of messages which all relate to the same
-subject. This is usually organized into a tree-like structure where a
-message and all of its replies are represented graphically. If you've ever
-used a threaded news client, this is the same concept. It makes dealing
-with large volume mailing lists easier because you can easily delete
-uninteresting threads and quickly find topics of value.
+For Mbox and Mmdf folders, new mail is detected by comparing access
+and/or modification times of files: Mutt assumes a folder has new mail
+if it wasn't accessed after it was last modified. Utilities like
+<literal>biff</literal> or <literal>frm</literal> or any other program
+which accesses the mailbox might cause Mutt to never detect new mail for
+that mailbox if they do not properly reset the access time. Other
+possible causes of Mutt not detecting new mail in these folders are
+backup tools (updating access times) or filesystems mounted without
+access time update support (for Linux systems, see the
+<literal>relatime</literal> option).
</para>
-</sect1>
+<note>
+<para>
+Contrary to older Mutt releases, it now maintains the new mail status of
+a folder by properly resetting the access time if the folder contains at
+least one message which is neither read, nor deleted, nor marked as old.
+</para>
+</note>
+
+<para>
+In cases where new mail detection for Mbox or Mmdf folders appears to be
+unreliable, the <link linkend="check-mbox-size">$check_mbox_size</link>
+option can be used to make Mutt track and consult file sizes for new
+mail detection instead which won't work for size-neutral changes.
+</para>
-<sect1 id="handling-folders">
-<title>Handling multiple folders</title>
+<para>
+New mail for Maildir is assumed if there is one message in the
+<literal>new/</literal> subdirectory which is not marked deleted (see
+<link linkend="maildir-trash">$maildir_trash</link>). For MH folders, a
+mailbox is considered having new mail if there's at least one message in
+the <quote>unseen</quote> sequence as specified by <link
+linkend="mh-seq-unseen">$mh_seq_unseen</link>.
+</para>
<para>
-Mutt supports setups with multiple folders, allowing all of them to
-be monitored for new mail (see <xref linkend="mailboxes"/> for details).
+Mutt does not poll POP3 folders for new mail, it only periodically
+checks the currently opened folder (if it's a POP3 folder).
</para>
<para>
-When in the index menu and being idle (also see
-<link linkend="timeout">$timeout</link>), Mutt periodically checks
-for new mail in all folders which have been configured via the
+For IMAP, by default Mutt uses recent message counts provided by the
+server to detect new mail. If the <link
+linkend="imap-idle">$imap_idle</link> option is set, it'll use the IMAP
+IDLE extension if advertised by the server.
+</para>
+
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 id="new-mail-polling">
+<title>Polling For New Mail</title>
+
+<para>
+When in the index menu and being idle (also see <link
+linkend="timeout">$timeout</link>), Mutt periodically checks for new
+mail in all folders which have been configured via the
<command>mailboxes</command> command. The interval depends on the folder
-type: for local/IMAP folders it consults
-<link linkend="mail-check">$mail_check</link> and
-<link linkend="pop-checkinterval">$pop_checkinterval</link>
-for POP folders.
+type: for local/IMAP folders it consults <link
+linkend="mail-check">$mail_check</link> and <link
+linkend="pop-checkinterval">$pop_checkinterval</link> for POP folders.
</para>
<para>
-Outside the index menu the directory browser supports checking
-for new mail using the <literal><check-new></literal> function which is
-unbound by default. Pressing TAB will bring up a
-menu showing the files specified by the <command>mailboxes</command> command,
-and indicate which contain new messages. Mutt will automatically enter this
-mode when invoked from the command line with the <literal>-y</literal> option.
+Outside the index menu the directory browser supports checking for new
+mail using the <literal><check-new></literal> function which is
+unbound by default. Pressing TAB will bring up a menu showing the files
+specified by the <command>mailboxes</command> command, and indicate
+which contain new messages. Mutt will automatically enter this mode when
+invoked from the command line with the <literal>-y</literal> option.
</para>
<para>
For the pager, index and directory browser menus, Mutt contains the
-<literal><buffy-list></literal> function (bound to <quote>.</quote> by default)
-which will print a list of folders with new mail in the command line at
-the bottom of the screen.
+<literal><buffy-list></literal> function (bound to
+<quote>.</quote> by default) which will print a list of folders with new
+mail in the command line at the bottom of the screen.
</para>
<para>
For the index, by default Mutt displays the number of mailboxes with new
-mail in the status bar, please refer to the
-<link linkend="status-format">$status_format</link>
-variable for details.
+mail in the status bar, please refer to the <link
+linkend="status-format">$status_format</link> variable for details.
</para>
<para>
When changing folders, Mutt fills the prompt with the first folder from
the mailboxes list containing new mail (if any), pressing
-<emphasis>space</emphasis> will cycle through folders with new mail.
+<literal><Space></literal> will cycle through folders with new
+mail. The (by default unbound) function
+<literal><next-unread-mailbox></literal> in the index can be used
+to immediately open the next folder with unread mail (if any).
</para>
+</sect2>
+
</sect1>
<sect1 id="editing-threads">
<title>Linking Threads</title>
<para>
-Some mailers tend to <quote>forget</quote> to correctly set the <quote>In-Reply-To:</quote> and
-<quote>References:</quote> headers when replying to a message. This results in broken
-discussions because Mutt has not enough information to guess the correct
-threading.
-You can fix this by tagging the reply, then moving to the parent message
-and using the <literal><link-threads></literal> function (bound to & by default). The
-reply will then be connected to this parent message.
+Some mailers tend to <quote>forget</quote> to correctly set the
+<quote>In-Reply-To:</quote> and <quote>References:</quote> headers when
+replying to a message. This results in broken discussions because Mutt
+has not enough information to guess the correct threading. You can fix
+this by tagging the reply, then moving to the parent message and using
+the <literal><link-threads></literal> function (bound to & by
+default). The reply will then be connected to this parent message.
</para>
<para>
-You can also connect multiple children at once, tagging them and using the
-<literal><tag-prefix></literal> command (';') or the <link linkend="auto-tag">$auto_tag</link> option.
+You can also connect multiple children at once, tagging them and using
+the <literal><tag-prefix></literal> command (<quote>;</quote>) or
+the <link linkend="auto-tag">$auto_tag</link> option.
</para>
</sect2>
<para>
On mailing lists, some people are in the bad habit of starting a new
-discussion by hitting <quote>reply</quote> to any message from the list and changing
-the subject to a totally unrelated one.
-You can fix such threads by using the <literal><break-thread></literal> function (bound
-by default to #), which will turn the subthread starting from the
+discussion by hitting <quote>reply</quote> to any message from the list
+and changing the subject to a totally unrelated one. You can fix such
+threads by using the <literal><break-thread></literal> function
+(bound by default to #), which will turn the subthread starting from the
current message into a whole different thread.
</para>
<para>
RFC1894 defines a set of MIME content types for relaying information
-about the status of electronic mail messages. These can be thought of as
-<quote>return receipts.</quote>
+about the status of electronic mail messages. These can be thought of
+as <quote>return receipts.</quote>
</para>
<para>
-To support DSN, there are two variables. <link linkend="dsn-notify">$dsn_notify</link> is used to request receipts for
+To support DSN, there are two variables. <link
+linkend="dsn-notify">$dsn_notify</link> is used to request receipts for
different results (such as failed message, message delivered, etc.).
-<link linkend="dsn-return">$dsn_return</link> requests how much
-of your message should be returned with the receipt (headers or full
-message).
+<link linkend="dsn-return">$dsn_return</link> requests how much of your
+message should be returned with the receipt (headers or full message).
</para>
<para>
-When using <link linkend="sendmail">$sendmail</link> for mail
-delivery, you need to use either Berkeley sendmail 8.8.x (or greater) a MTA
-supporting DSN command line options compatible to Sendmail: The -N and -R
-options can be used by the mail client to make requests as to what type of
-status messages should be returned. Please consider your MTA documentation
-whether DSN is supported.
+When using <link linkend="sendmail">$sendmail</link> for mail delivery,
+you need to use either Berkeley sendmail 8.8.x (or greater) a MTA
+supporting DSN command line options compatible to Sendmail: The -N and
+-R options can be used by the mail client to make requests as to what
+type of status messages should be returned. Please consider your MTA
+documentation whether DSN is supported.
</para>
<para>
-For SMTP delivery using <link
- linkend="smtp-url">$smtp_url</link>, it depends on the
-capabilities announced by the server whether Mutt will attempt to
-request DSN or not.
+For SMTP delivery using <link linkend="smtp-url">$smtp_url</link>, it
+depends on the capabilities announced by the server whether Mutt will
+attempt to request DSN or not.
</para>
</sect1>
<title>Start a WWW Browser on URLs</title>
<para>
-If a message contains URLs, it is efficient to get
-a menu with all the URLs and start a WWW browser on one of them. This
-functionality is provided by the external urlview program which can be
-retrieved at
-<ulink url="ftp://ftp.mutt.org/mutt/contrib/">ftp://ftp.mutt.org/mutt/contrib/</ulink>
+If a message contains URLs, it is efficient to get a menu with all the
+URLs and start a WWW browser on one of them. This functionality is
+provided by the external urlview program which can be retrieved at
+<ulink
+url="ftp://ftp.mutt.org/mutt/contrib/">ftp://ftp.mutt.org/mutt/contrib/</ulink>
and the configuration commands:
</para>
<listitem>
<para>
Mutt normalizes all e-mail addresses to the simplest form possible. If
-an address contains a realname, the form
-<emphasis>Joe User <joe@example.com></emphasis> is used and the
-pure e-mail address without angle brackets otherwise, i.e. just
+an address contains a realname, the form <emphasis>Joe User
+<joe@example.com></emphasis> is used and the pure e-mail address
+without angle brackets otherwise, i.e. just
<emphasis>joe@example.com</emphasis>.
</para>
<para>
<listitem>
<para>
The folder Mutt opens at startup is determined as follows: the folder
-specified in the <literal>$MAIL</literal> environment variable if
-present. Otherwise, the value of <literal>$MAILDIR</literal> is taken
+specified in the <literal>$MAIL</literal> environment variable if
+present. Otherwise, the value of <literal>$MAILDIR</literal> is taken
into account. If that isn't present either, Mutt takes the user's
mailbox in the mailspool as determined at compile-time (which may also
-reside in the home directory). The
-<link linkend="spoolfile">$spoolfile</link> setting overrides
-this selection. Highest priority has the mailbox given with the
+reside in the home directory). The <link
+linkend="spoolfile">$spoolfile</link> setting overrides this
+selection. Highest priority has the mailbox given with the
<literal>-f</literal> command line option.
</para>
</listitem>
the discerning MIME user requires, and the conformance to the standards
wherever possible. When configuring Mutt for MIME, there are two extra
types of configuration files which Mutt uses. One is the
-<literal>mime.types</literal> file, which contains the mapping of file extensions to
-IANA MIME types. The other is the <literal>mailcap</literal> file, which specifies
-the external commands to use for handling specific MIME types.
+<literal>mime.types</literal> file, which contains the mapping of file
+extensions to IANA MIME types. The other is the
+<literal>mailcap</literal> file, which specifies the external commands
+to use for handling specific MIME types.
</para>
<sect1 id="using-mime">
<title>Using MIME in Mutt</title>
+<sect2 id="mime-overview">
+<title>MIME Overview</title>
+
+<para>
+MIME is short for <quote>Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension</quote>
+and describes mechanisms to internationalize and structure mail
+messages. Before the introduction of MIME, messages had a single text
+part and were limited to us-ascii header and content. With MIME,
+messages can have attachments (and even attachments which itself have
+attachments and thus form a tree structure), nearly arbitrary characters
+can be used for sender names, recipients and subjects.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+Besides the handling of non-ascii characters in message headers, to Mutt
+the most important aspect of MIME are so-called MIME types. These are
+constructed using a <emphasis>major</emphasis> and
+<emphasis>minor</emphasis> type separated by a forward slash. These
+specify details about the content that follows. Based upon these, Mutt
+decides how to handle this part. The most popular major type is
+<quote><literal>text</literal></quote> with minor types for plain text,
+HTML and various other formats. Major types also exist for images,
+audio, video and of course general application data (e.g. to separate
+cryptographically signed data with a signature, send office documents,
+and in general arbitrary binary data). There's also the
+<literal>multipart</literal> major type which represents the root of a
+subtree of MIME parts. A list of supported MIME types can be found in
+<xref linkend="supported-mime-types"/>.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+MIME also defines a set of encoding schemes for transporting MIME
+content over the network: <literal>7bit</literal>,
+<literal>8bit</literal>, <literal>quoted-printable</literal>,
+<literal>base64</literal> and <literal>binary</literal>. There're some
+rules when to choose what for encoding headers and/or body (if needed),
+and Mutt will in general make a good choice.
+</para>
+
<para>
-There are three areas/menus in Mutt which deal with MIME, they are the
-pager (while viewing a message), the attachment menu and the compose
-menu.
+Mutt does most of MIME encoding/decoding behind the scenes to form
+messages conforming to MIME on the sending side. On reception, it can be
+flexibly configured as to how what MIME structure is displayed (and if
+it's displayed): these decisions are based on the content's MIME type.
+There are three areas/menus in dealing with MIME: the pager (while
+viewing a message), the attachment menu and the compose menu.
</para>
+</sect2>
+
<sect2 id="mime-pager">
<title>Viewing MIME Messages in the Pager</title>
<para>
When you select a message from the index and view it in the pager, Mutt
-decodes the message to a text representation. Mutt internally supports
-a number of MIME types, including <literal>text/plain, text/enriched,
-message/rfc822, and message/news</literal>. In addition, the export
-controlled version of Mutt recognizes a variety of PGP MIME types,
-including PGP/MIME and application/pgp.
+decodes as much of a message as possible to a text representation. Mutt
+internally supports a number of MIME types, including the
+<literal>text</literal> major type (with all minor types), the
+<literal>message/rfc822</literal> (mail messages) type and some
+<literal>multipart</literal> types. In addition, it recognizes a variety
+of PGP MIME types, including PGP/MIME and
+<literal>application/pgp</literal>.
</para>
<para>
</screen>
<para>
-Where the <literal>Description</literal> is the description or filename given for the
-attachment, and the <literal>Encoding</literal> is one of
-<literal>7bit/8bit/quoted-printable/base64/binary</literal>.
+Where the <emphasis>Description</emphasis> is the description or
+filename given for the attachment, and the <emphasis>Encoding</emphasis>
+is one of the already mentioned content encodings.
</para>
<para>
<title>The Attachment Menu</title>
<para>
-The default binding for <literal><view-attachments></literal> is <quote>v</quote>, which displays the
-attachment menu for a message. The attachment menu displays a list of
-the attachments in a message. From the attachment menu, you can save,
-print, pipe, delete, and view attachments. You can apply these
-operations to a group of attachments at once, by tagging the attachments
-and by using the <literal><tag-prefix></literal> operator. You can also reply to the
-current message from this menu, and only the current attachment (or the
-attachments tagged) will be quoted in your reply. You can view
-attachments as text, or view them using the mailcap viewer definition.
+The default binding for <literal><view-attachments></literal> is
+<quote>v</quote>, which displays the attachment menu for a message. The
+attachment menu displays a list of the attachments in a message. From
+the attachment menu, you can save, print, pipe, delete, and view
+attachments. You can apply these operations to a group of attachments
+at once, by tagging the attachments and by using the
+<literal><tag-prefix></literal> operator. You can also reply to
+the current message from this menu, and only the current attachment (or
+the attachments tagged) will be quoted in your reply. You can view
+attachments as text, or view them using the mailcap viewer definition
+(the mailcap mechanism is explained later in detail).
</para>
<para>
-Finally, you can apply the usual message-related functions (like
-<link linkend="resend-message"><literal><resend-message></literal></link>, and the
-<literal><reply></literal> and <literal><forward></literal>
-functions) to attachments of type <literal>message/rfc822</literal>.
+Finally, you can apply the usual message-related functions (like <link
+linkend="resend-message"><literal><resend-message></literal></link>,
+and the <literal><reply></literal> and
+<literal><forward></literal> functions) to attachments of type
+<literal>message/rfc822</literal>.
</para>
<para>
-See the help on the attachment menu for more information.
+See table <xref linkend="tab-attachment-bindings"/> for all available
+functions.
</para>
</sect2>
<para>
The compose menu is the menu you see before you send a message. It
-allows you to edit the recipient list, the subject, and other aspects
-of your message. It also contains a list of the attachments of your
+allows you to edit the recipient list, the subject, and other aspects of
+your message. It also contains a list of the attachments of your
message, including the main body. From this menu, you can print, copy,
-filter, pipe, edit, compose, review, and rename an attachment or a
-list of tagged attachments. You can also modifying the attachment
+filter, pipe, edit, compose, review, and rename an attachment or a list
+of tagged attachments. You can also modifying the attachment
information, notably the type, encoding and description.
</para>
<para>
-Attachments appear as follows:
+Attachments appear as follows by default:
</para>
<screen>
</screen>
<para>
-The '-' denotes that Mutt will delete the file after sending (or
-postponing, or canceling) the message. It can be toggled with the
-<literal><toggle-unlink></literal> command (default: u). The next field is the MIME
-content-type, and can be changed with the <literal><edit-type></literal> command
-(default: ˆT). The next field is the encoding for the attachment,
-which allows a binary message to be encoded for transmission on 7bit
-links. It can be changed with the <literal><edit-encoding></literal> command
-(default: ˆE). The next field is the size of the attachment,
-rounded to kilobytes or megabytes. The next field is the filename,
-which can be changed with the <literal><rename-file></literal> command (default: R).
-The final field is the description of the attachment, and can be
-changed with the <literal><edit-description></literal> command (default: d).
+The <quote>-</quote> denotes that Mutt will delete the file after
+sending (or postponing, or canceling) the message. It can be toggled
+with the <literal><toggle-unlink></literal> command (default: u).
+The next field is the MIME content-type, and can be changed with the
+<literal><edit-type></literal> command (default: ^T). The next
+field is the encoding for the attachment, which allows a binary message
+to be encoded for transmission on 7bit links. It can be changed with
+the <literal><edit-encoding></literal> command (default: ^E). The
+next field is the size of the attachment, rounded to kilobytes or
+megabytes. The next field is the filename, which can be changed with
+the <literal><rename-file></literal> command (default: R). The
+final field is the description of the attachment, and can be changed
+with the <literal><edit-description></literal> command (default:
+d). See <link linkend="attach-format">$attach_format</link> for a full
+list of available expandos to format this display to your needs.
</para>
</sect2>
<sect1 id="mime-types">
<title>MIME Type Configuration with <literal>mime.types</literal></title>
+<para>
+To get most out of MIME, it's important that a MIME part's content type
+matches the content as closely as possible so that the recipient's
+client can automatically select the right viewer for the
+content. However, there's no reliable for Mutt to know how to detect
+every possible file type. Instead, it uses a simple plain text mapping
+file that specifies what file extension corresponds to what MIME
+type. This file is called <literal>mime.types</literal>.
+</para>
+
<para>
When you add an attachment to your mail message, Mutt searches your
-personal <literal>mime.types</literal> file at <literal>${HOME}/.mime.types</literal>, and then
-the system <literal>mime.types</literal> file at <literal>/usr/local/share/mutt/mime.types</literal> or
+personal <literal>mime.types</literal> file at
+<literal>$HOME/.mime.types</literal>, and then the system
+<literal>mime.types</literal> file at
+<literal>/usr/local/share/mutt/mime.types</literal> or
<literal>/etc/mime.types</literal>
</para>
<para>
-The <literal>mime.types</literal> file consist of lines containing a MIME type and a space
-separated list of extensions. For example:
+Each line starts with the full MIME type, followed by a space and
+space-separated list of file extensions. For example you could use:
</para>
+<example id="ex-mime-types">
+<title><literal>mime.types</literal></title>
<screen>
application/postscript ps eps
application/pgp pgp
audio/x-aiff aif aifc aiff
</screen>
+</example>
<para>
-A sample <literal>mime.types</literal> file comes with the Mutt distribution, and
-should contain most of the MIME types you are likely to use.
+A sample <literal>mime.types</literal> file comes with the Mutt
+distribution, and should contain most of the MIME types you are likely
+to use.
</para>
<para>
-If Mutt can not determine the mime type by the extension of the file you
+If Mutt can not determine the MIME type by the extension of the file you
attach, it will look at the file. If the file is free of binary
information, Mutt will assume that the file is plain text, and mark it
-as <literal>text/plain</literal>. If the file contains binary information, then Mutt will
-mark it as <literal>application/octet-stream</literal>. You can change the MIME
-type that Mutt assigns to an attachment by using the <literal><edit-type></literal>
-command from the compose menu (default: ˆT). The MIME type is actually a
-major mime type followed by the sub-type, separated by a '/'. 6 major
-types: application, text, image, video, audio, and model have been approved
-after various internet discussions. Mutt recognizes all of these if the
-appropriate entry is found in the <literal>mime.types</literal> file. It also recognizes other
-major mime types, such as the chemical type that is widely used in the
-molecular modeling community to pass molecular data in various forms to
-various molecular viewers. Non-recognized mime types should only be used
-if the recipient of the message is likely to be expecting such attachments.
+as <literal>text/plain</literal>. If the file contains binary
+information, then Mutt will mark it as
+<literal>application/octet-stream</literal>. You can change the MIME
+type that Mutt assigns to an attachment by using the
+<literal><edit-type></literal> command from the compose menu
+(default: ^T), see <xref linkend="supported-mime-types"/> for supported
+major types. Mutt recognizes all of these if the appropriate entry is
+found in the <literal>mime.types</literal> file. Non-recognized mime
+types should only be used if the recipient of the message is likely to
+be expecting such attachments.
+</para>
+
+<table id="supported-mime-types">
+<title>Supported MIME types</title>
+<tgroup cols="3">
+<thead>
+<row><entry>MIME major type</entry><entry>Standard</entry><entry>Description</entry></row>
+</thead>
+<tbody>
+<row><entry><literal>application</literal></entry><entry>yes</entry><entry>General application data</entry></row>
+<row><entry><literal>audio</literal></entry><entry>yes</entry><entry>Audio data</entry></row>
+<row><entry><literal>image</literal></entry><entry>yes</entry><entry>Image data</entry></row>
+<row><entry><literal>message</literal></entry><entry>yes</entry><entry>Mail messages, message status information</entry></row>
+<row><entry><literal>model</literal></entry><entry>yes</entry><entry>VRML and other modeling data</entry></row>
+<row><entry><literal>multipart</literal></entry><entry>yes</entry><entry>Container for other MIME parts</entry></row>
+<row><entry><literal>text</literal></entry><entry>yes</entry><entry>Text data</entry></row>
+<row><entry><literal>video</literal></entry><entry>yes</entry><entry>Video data</entry></row>
+<row><entry><literal>chemical</literal></entry><entry>no</entry><entry>Mostly molecular data</entry></row>
+</tbody>
+</tgroup>
+</table>
+
+<para>
+MIME types are not arbitrary, they need to be assigned by <ulink
+url="http://www.iana.org/assignments/media-types/">IANA</ulink>.
</para>
</sect1>
<para>
Mutt supports RFC 1524 MIME Configuration, in particular the Unix
specific format specified in Appendix A of RFC 1524. This file format
-is commonly referred to as the mailcap format. Many MIME compliant
-programs utilize the mailcap format, allowing you to specify handling
-for all MIME types in one place for all programs. Programs known to
-use this format include Firefox, lynx and metamail.
+is commonly referred to as the <quote>mailcap</quote> format. Many MIME
+compliant programs utilize the mailcap format, allowing you to specify
+handling for all MIME types in one place for all programs. Programs
+known to use this format include Firefox, lynx and metamail.
</para>
<para>
-In order to handle various MIME types that Mutt can not handle
-internally, Mutt parses a series of external configuration files to
-find an external handler. The default search string for these files
-is a colon delimited list containing the following files:
+In order to handle various MIME types that Mutt doesn't have built-in
+support for, it parses a series of external configuration files to find
+an external handler. The default search string for these files is a
+colon delimited list containing the following files:
</para>
<orderedlist>
-<listitem><para><literal>$HOME/.mailcap</literal></para></listitem>
-<listitem><para><literal>$PKGDATADIR/mailcap</literal></para></listitem>
-<listitem><para><literal>$SYSCONFDIR/mailcap</literal></para></listitem>
+<listitem><para><literal>$HOME/.mailcap</literal></para></listitem>
+<listitem><para><literal>$PKGDATADIR/mailcap</literal></para></listitem>
+<listitem><para><literal>$SYSCONFDIR/mailcap</literal></para></listitem>
<listitem><para><literal>/etc/mailcap</literal></para></listitem>
<listitem><para><literal>/usr/etc/mailcap</literal></para></listitem>
<listitem><para><literal>/usr/local/etc/mailcap</literal></para></listitem>
</orderedlist>
<para>
-where <literal>$HOME</literal> is your home directory. The
-<literal>$PKGDATADIR</literal> and the
-<literal>$SYSCONFDIR</literal> directories depend on where Mutt
-is installed: the former is the default for shared data, the
-latter for system configuration files.
+where <literal>$HOME</literal> is your home directory. The
+<literal>$PKGDATADIR</literal> and the <literal>$SYSCONFDIR</literal>
+directories depend on where Mutt is installed: the former is the default
+for shared data, the latter for system configuration files.
</para>
<para>
<para>
In particular, the metamail distribution will install a mailcap file,
-usually as <literal>/usr/local/etc/mailcap</literal>, which contains some baseline
-entries.
+usually as <literal>/usr/local/etc/mailcap</literal>, which contains
+some baseline entries.
</para>
<sect2 id="mailcap-basics">
</para>
<para>
-A comment line consists of a # character followed by anything you want.
+A comment line consists of a # character followed by anything you want.
</para>
<para>
<para>
A definition line consists of a content type, a view command, and any
number of optional fields. Each field of a definition line is divided
-by a semicolon ';' character.
+by a semicolon <quote>;</quote> character.
</para>
<para>
-The content type is specified in the MIME standard type/subtype method.
-For example,
-<literal>text/plain, text/html, image/gif, </literal>
-etc. In addition, the mailcap format includes two formats for
-wildcards, one using the special '*' subtype, the other is the implicit
-wild, where you only include the major type. For example, <literal>image/*</literal>, or
-<literal>video,</literal> will match all image types and video types,
+The content type is specified in the MIME standard
+<quote>type/subtype</quote> notation. For example,
+<literal>text/plain</literal>, <literal>text/html</literal>,
+<literal>image/gif</literal>, etc. In addition, the mailcap format
+includes two formats for wildcards, one using the special
+<quote>*</quote> subtype, the other is the implicit wild, where you only
+include the major type. For example, <literal>image/*</literal>, or
+<literal>video</literal> will match all image types and video types,
respectively.
</para>
The view command is a Unix command for viewing the type specified. There
are two different types of commands supported. The default is to send
the body of the MIME message to the command on stdin. You can change
-this behavior by using %s as a parameter to your view command.
-This will cause Mutt to save the body of the MIME message to a temporary
-file, and then call the view command with the %s replaced by
-the name of the temporary file. In both cases, Mutt will turn over the
-terminal to the view program until the program quits, at which time Mutt
-will remove the temporary file if it exists.
+this behavior by using <literal>%s</literal> as a parameter to your view
+command. This will cause Mutt to save the body of the MIME message to a
+temporary file, and then call the view command with the
+<literal>%s</literal> replaced by the name of the temporary file. In
+both cases, Mutt will turn over the terminal to the view program until
+the program quits, at which time Mutt will remove the temporary file if
+it exists. This means that mailcap does <emphasis>not</emphasis> work
+out of the box with programs which detach themselves from the terminal
+right after starting, like <literal>open</literal> on Mac OS X. In order
+to nevertheless use these programs with mailcap, you probably need
+custom shell scripts.
</para>
<para>
-So, in the simplest form, you can send a text/plain message to the
-external pager more on stdin:
+So, in the simplest form, you can send a <literal>text/plain</literal>
+message to the external pager more on standard input:
</para>
<screen>
</screen>
<para>
-Perhaps you would like to use lynx to interactively view a text/html
-message:
+Perhaps you would like to use lynx to interactively view a
+<literal>text/html</literal> message:
</para>
<screen>
</screen>
<para>
-In this case, lynx does not support viewing a file from stdin, so you
-must use the %s syntax.
+In this case, lynx does not support viewing a file from standard input,
+so you must use the <literal>%s</literal> syntax.
</para>
<note>
<para>
-<emphasis>Some older versions of lynx contain a bug where they
-will check the mailcap file for a viewer for text/html. They will find
-the line which calls lynx, and run it. This causes lynx to continuously
-spawn itself to view the object.</emphasis>
+<emphasis>Some older versions of lynx contain a bug where they will
+check the mailcap file for a viewer for <literal>text/html</literal>.
+They will find the line which calls lynx, and run it. This causes lynx
+to continuously spawn itself to view the object.</emphasis>
</para>
</note>
<para>
On the other hand, maybe you don't want to use lynx interactively, you
-just want to have it convert the text/html to text/plain, then you can
-use:
+just want to have it convert the <literal>text/html</literal> to
+<literal>text/plain</literal>, then you can use:
</para>
<screen>
</screen>
<para>
-Perhaps you wish to use lynx to view text/html files, and a pager on
-all other text formats, then you would use the following:
+Perhaps you wish to use lynx to view <literal>text/html</literal> files,
+and a pager on all other text formats, then you would use the following:
</para>
<screen>
text/*; more
</screen>
-<para>
-This is the simplest form of a mailcap file.
-</para>
-
</sect2>
<sect2 id="secure-mailcap">
<para>
The interpretation of shell meta-characters embedded in MIME parameters
-can lead to security problems in general. Mutt tries to quote parameters
-in expansion of %s syntaxes properly, and avoids risky characters by
-substituting them, see the <link linkend="mailcap-sanitize">$mailcap_sanitize</link> variable.
+can lead to security problems in general. Mutt tries to quote
+parameters in expansion of <literal>%s</literal> syntaxes properly, and
+avoids risky characters by substituting them, see the <link
+linkend="mailcap-sanitize">$mailcap_sanitize</link> variable.
</para>
<para>
Although Mutt's procedures to invoke programs with mailcap seem to be
-safe, there are other applications parsing mailcap, maybe taking less care
-of it. Therefore you should pay attention to the following rules:
+safe, there are other applications parsing mailcap, maybe taking less
+care of it. Therefore you should pay attention to the following rules:
</para>
<para>
-<emphasis>Keep the %-expandos away from shell quoting.</emphasis>
-Don't quote them with single or double quotes. Mutt does this for
-you, the right way, as should any other program which interprets
-mailcap. Don't put them into backtick expansions. Be highly careful
-with eval statements, and avoid them if possible at all. Trying to fix
-broken behavior with quotes introduces new leaks - there is no
+<emphasis>Keep the %-expandos away from shell quoting.</emphasis> Don't
+quote them with single or double quotes. Mutt does this for you, the
+right way, as should any other program which interprets mailcap. Don't
+put them into backtick expansions. Be highly careful with evil
+statements, and avoid them if possible at all. Trying to fix broken
+behavior with quotes introduces new leaks — there is no
alternative to correct quoting in the first place.
</para>
<para>
-If you have to use the %-expandos' values in context where you need
-quoting or backtick expansions, put that value into a shell variable
-and reference the shell variable where necessary, as in the following
-example (using <literal>$charset</literal> inside the backtick expansion is safe,
-since it is not itself subject to any further expansion):
+If you have to use the %-expandos' values in context where you need
+quoting or backtick expansions, put that value into a shell variable and
+reference the shell variable where necessary, as in the following
+example (using <literal>$charset</literal> inside the backtick expansion
+is safe, since it is not itself subject to any further expansion):
</para>
<screen>
-text/test-mailcap-bug; cat %s; copiousoutput; test=charset=%{charset} \
+text/test-mailcap-bug; cat %s; copiousoutput; test=charset=%{charset} \
&& test "`echo $charset | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`" != iso-8859-1
</screen>
<para>
In addition to the required content-type and view command fields, you
-can add semi-colon ';' separated fields to set flags and other options.
-Mutt recognizes the following optional fields:
+can add semi-colon <quote>;</quote> separated fields to set flags and
+other options. Mutt recognizes the following optional fields:
</para>
<variablelist>
<listitem>
<para>
This flag tells Mutt that the command passes possibly large amounts of
-text on stdout. This causes Mutt to invoke a pager (either the internal
-pager or the external pager defined by the pager variable) on the output
-of the view command. Without this flag, Mutt assumes that the command
-is interactive. One could use this to replace the pipe to <literal>more</literal>
-in the <literal>lynx -dump</literal> example in the Basic section:
+text on standard output. This causes Mutt to invoke a pager (either
+the internal pager or the external pager defined by the pager variable)
+on the output of the view command. Without this flag, Mutt assumes that
+the command is interactive. One could use this to replace the pipe to
+<literal>more</literal> in the <literal>lynx -dump</literal> example in
+the Basic section:
</para>
<screen>
</screen>
<para>
-This will cause lynx to format the text/html output as text/plain
-and Mutt will use your standard pager to display the results.
+This will cause lynx to format the <literal>text/html</literal> output
+as <literal>text/plain</literal> and Mutt will use your standard pager
+to display the results.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+Note that when using the built-in pager, <emphasis>only</emphasis>
+entries with this flag will be considered a handler for a MIME type
+— all other entries will be ignored.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>needsterminal</term>
<listitem>
<para>
-Mutt uses this flag when viewing attachments with <link linkend="auto-view"><command>auto_view</command></link>, in order to decide whether it should honor the setting
-of the <link linkend="wait-key">$wait_key</link> variable or
-not. When an attachment is viewed using an interactive program, and the
-corresponding mailcap entry has a <emphasis>needsterminal</emphasis> flag, Mutt will use
-<link linkend="wait-key">$wait_key</link> and the exit status
-of the program to decide if it will ask you to press a key after the
-external program has exited. In all other situations it will not prompt
-you for a key.
+Mutt uses this flag when viewing attachments with <link
+linkend="auto-view"><command>auto_view</command></link>, in order to
+decide whether it should honor the setting of the <link
+linkend="wait-key">$wait_key</link> variable or not. When an attachment
+is viewed using an interactive program, and the corresponding mailcap
+entry has a <emphasis>needsterminal</emphasis> flag, Mutt will use <link
+linkend="wait-key">$wait_key</link> and the exit status of the program
+to decide if it will ask you to press a key after the external program
+has exited. In all other situations it will not prompt you for a key.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
specific MIME type. This command differs from the compose command in
that Mutt will expect standard MIME headers on the data. This can be
used to specify parameters, filename, description, etc. for a new
-attachment. Mutt supports this from the compose menu.
+attachment. Mutt supports this from the compose menu.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<para>
This flag specifies the command to use to edit a specific MIME type.
Mutt supports this from the compose menu, and also uses it to compose
-new attachments. Mutt will default to the defined editor for text
-attachments.
+new attachments. Mutt will default to the defined <link
+linkend="editor">$editor</link> for text attachments.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<term>nametemplate=<template></term>
<listitem>
<para>
-This field specifies the format for the file denoted by %s in the
-command fields. Certain programs will require a certain file extension,
-for instance, to correctly view a file. For instance, lynx will only
-interpret a file as <literal>text/html</literal> if the file ends in <literal>.html</literal>.
-So, you would specify lynx as a <literal>text/html</literal> viewer with a line in
-the mailcap file like:
+This field specifies the format for the file denoted by
+<literal>%s</literal> in the command fields. Certain programs will
+require a certain file extension, for instance, to correctly view a
+file. For instance, lynx will only interpret a file as
+<literal>text/html</literal> if the file ends in
+<literal>.html</literal>. So, you would specify lynx as a
+<literal>text/html</literal> viewer with a line in the mailcap file
+like:
</para>
<screen>
<term>test=<command></term>
<listitem>
<para>
-This field specifies a command to run to test whether this mailcap
-entry should be used. The command is defined with the command expansion
-rules defined in the next section. If the command returns 0, then the
-test passed, and Mutt uses this entry. If the command returns non-zero,
-then the test failed, and Mutt continues searching for the right entry.
-Note that the content-type must match before Mutt performs the test.
-For example:
+This field specifies a command to run to test whether this mailcap entry
+should be used. The command is defined with the command expansion rules
+defined in the next section. If the command returns 0, then the test
+passed, and Mutt uses this entry. If the command returns non-zero, then
+the test failed, and Mutt continues searching for the right entry. Note
+that the content-type must match before Mutt performs the test. For
+example:
</para>
<screen>
</screen>
<para>
-In this example, Mutt will run the program RunningX which will return 0
-if the X Window manager is running, and non-zero if it isn't. If
-RunningX returns 0, then Mutt will call firefox to display the
-<literal>text/html</literal> object. If RunningX doesn't return 0, then Mutt will go on
-to the next entry and use lynx to display the <literal>text/html</literal> object.
+In this example, Mutt will run the program <literal>RunningX</literal>
+which will return 0 if the X Window manager is running, and non-zero if
+it isn't. If <literal>RunningX</literal> returns 0, then Mutt will run
+firefox to display the <literal>text/html</literal> object. If RunningX
+doesn't return 0, then Mutt will go on to the next entry and use lynx to
+display the <literal>text/html</literal> object.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<para>
When searching for an entry in the mailcap file, Mutt will search for
the most useful entry for its purpose. For instance, if you are
-attempting to print an <literal>image/gif</literal>, and you have the following
-entries in your mailcap file, Mutt will search for an entry with the
-print command:
+attempting to print an <literal>image/gif</literal>, and you have the
+following entries in your mailcap file, Mutt will search for an entry
+with the print command:
</para>
<screen>
image/*; xv %s
-image/gif; ; print= anytopnm %s | pnmtops | lpr; \
+image/gif; ; print= anytopnm %s | pnmtops | lpr; \
nametemplate=%s.gif
</screen>
<para>
-Mutt will skip the <literal>image/*</literal> entry and use the <literal>image/gif</literal>
-entry with the print command.
+Mutt will skip the <literal>image/*</literal> entry and use the
+<literal>image/gif</literal> entry with the print command.
</para>
<para>
-In addition, you can use this with <link linkend="auto-view"><command>auto_view</command></link>
-to denote two commands for viewing an attachment, one to be viewed
-automatically, the other to be viewed interactively from the attachment
-menu. In addition, you can then use the test feature to determine which
-viewer to use interactively depending on your environment.
+In addition, you can use this with <link
+linkend="auto-view"><command>auto_view</command></link> to denote two
+commands for viewing an attachment, one to be viewed automatically, the
+other to be viewed interactively from the attachment menu using the
+<literal><view-mailcap></literal> function (bound to
+<quote>m</quote> by default). In addition, you can then use the test
+feature to determine which viewer to use interactively depending on your
+environment.
</para>
<screen>
</screen>
<para>
-For <link linkend="auto-view"><command>auto_view</command></link>, Mutt will choose the third
-entry because of the copiousoutput tag. For interactive viewing, Mutt
-will run the program RunningX to determine if it should use the first
-entry. If the program returns non-zero, Mutt will use the second entry
-for interactive viewing.
+For <link linkend="auto-view"><command>auto_view</command></link>, Mutt
+will choose the third entry because of the
+<literal>copiousoutput</literal> tag. For interactive viewing, Mutt
+will run the program <literal>RunningX</literal> to determine if it
+should use the first entry. If the program returns non-zero, Mutt will
+use the second entry for interactive viewing. The last entry is for
+inline display in the pager and the
+<literal><view-attach></literal> function in the attachment menu.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+Entries with the <literal>copiousoutput</literal> tag should always be
+specified as the last one per type. For non-interactive use, the last
+entry will then actually be the first matching one with the tag set.
+For non-interactive use, only <literal>copiousoutput</literal>-tagged
+entries are considered. For interactive use, Mutt ignores this tag and
+treats all entries equally. Therefore, if not specified last, all
+following entries without this tag would never be considered for
+<literal><view-attach></literal> because the
+<literal>copiousoutput</literal> before them matched already.
</para>
</sect3>
<para>
The various commands defined in the mailcap files are passed to the
-<literal>/bin/sh</literal> shell using the <literal>system(3)</literal> function. Before the
-command is passed to <literal>/bin/sh -c</literal>, it is parsed to expand
-various special parameters with information from Mutt. The keywords
-Mutt expands are:
+<literal>/bin/sh</literal> shell using the <literal>system(3)</literal>
+function. Before the command is passed to <literal>/bin/sh
+-c</literal>, it is parsed to expand various special parameters with
+information from Mutt. The keywords Mutt expands are:
</para>
<variablelist>
<varlistentry>
-<term>%s</term>
+<term>%s</term>
<listitem>
<para>
-As seen in the basic mailcap section, this variable is expanded
-to a filename specified by the calling program. This file contains
-the body of the message to view/print/edit or where the composing
-program should place the results of composition. In addition, the
-use of this keyword causes Mutt to not pass the body of the message
-to the view/print/edit program on stdin.
+As seen in the basic mailcap section, this variable is expanded to a
+filename specified by the calling program. This file contains the body
+of the message to view/print/edit or where the composing program should
+place the results of composition. In addition, the use of this keyword
+causes Mutt to not pass the body of the message to the view/print/edit
+program on stdin.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
-<term>%t</term>
+<term>%t</term>
<listitem>
<para>
-Mutt will expand %t to the text representation of the content
-type of the message in the same form as the first parameter of the
-mailcap definition line, ie <literal>text/html</literal> or
+Mutt will expand <literal>%t</literal> to the text representation of the
+content type of the message in the same form as the first parameter of
+the mailcap definition line, i.e. <literal>text/html</literal> or
<literal>image/gif</literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
-<term>%{<parameter>}</term>
+<term>%{<parameter>}</term>
<listitem>
<para>
-Mutt will expand this to the value of the specified parameter
-from the Content-Type: line of the mail message. For instance, if
-Your mail message contains:
+Mutt will expand this to the value of the specified parameter from the
+Content-Type: line of the mail message. For instance, if your mail
+message contains:
</para>
<screen>
</screen>
<para>
-then Mutt will expand %{charset} to iso-8859-1. The default metamail
-mailcap file uses this feature to test the charset to spawn an xterm
-using the right charset to view the message.
+then Mutt will expand <literal>%{charset}</literal> to
+<quote>iso-8859-1</quote>. The default metamail mailcap file uses this
+feature to test the charset to spawn an xterm using the right charset to
+view the message.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
<varlistentry>
-<term>\%</term>
+<term>\%</term>
<listitem>
<para>
-This will be replaced by a %
+This will be replaced by a literal <literal>%</literal>.
</para>
</listitem>
</varlistentry>
</variablelist>
<para>
-Mutt does not currently support the %F and %n keywords
-specified in RFC 1524. The main purpose of these parameters is for
-multipart messages, which is handled internally by Mutt.
+Mutt does not currently support the <literal>%F</literal> and
+<literal>%n</literal> keywords specified in RFC 1524. The main purpose
+of these parameters is for multipart messages, which is handled
+internally by Mutt.
</para>
</sect3>
</para>
<screen>
-# I'm always running X :)
+<emphasis role="comment"># I'm always running X :)</emphasis>
video/*; xanim %s > /dev/null
image/*; xv %s > /dev/null
-# I'm always running firefox (if my computer had more memory, maybe)
+<emphasis role="comment"># I'm always running firefox (if my computer had more memory, maybe)</emphasis>
text/html; firefox -remote 'openURL(%s)'
</screen>
</para>
<screen>
-# Use xanim to view all videos Xanim produces a header on startup,
-# send that to /dev/null so I don't see it
+<emphasis role="comment"># Use xanim to view all videos Xanim produces a header on startup,
+# send that to /dev/null so I don't see it</emphasis>
video/*; xanim %s > /dev/null
-# Send html to a running firefox by remote
+<emphasis role="comment"># Send html to a running firefox by remote</emphasis>
text/html; firefox -remote 'openURL(%s)'; test=RunningFirefox
-# If I'm not running firefox but I am running X, start firefox on the
-# object
+<emphasis role="comment"># If I'm not running firefox but I am running X, start firefox on the
+# object</emphasis>
text/html; firefox %s; test=RunningX
-# Else use lynx to view it as text
+<emphasis role="comment"># Else use lynx to view it as text</emphasis>
text/html; lynx %s
-# This version would convert the text/html to text/plain
+<emphasis role="comment"># This version would convert the text/html to text/plain</emphasis>
text/html; lynx -dump %s; copiousoutput
-# I use enscript to print text in two columns to a page
+<emphasis role="comment"># I use enscript to print text in two columns to a page</emphasis>
text/*; more %s; print=enscript -2Gr %s
-# Firefox adds a flag to tell itself to view jpegs internally
+<emphasis role="comment"># Firefox adds a flag to tell itself to view jpegs internally</emphasis>
image/jpeg;xv %s; x-mozilla-flags=internal
-# Use xv to view images if I'm running X
-# In addition, this uses the \ to extend the line and set my editor
-# for images
-image/*;xv %s; test=RunningX; \
+<emphasis role="comment"># Use xv to view images if I'm running X</emphasis>
+<emphasis role="comment"># In addition, this uses the \ to extend the line and set my editor</emphasis>
+<emphasis role="comment"># for images</emphasis>
+image/*;xv %s; test=RunningX; \
edit=xpaint %s
-# Convert images to text using the netpbm tools
+<emphasis role="comment"># Convert images to text using the netpbm tools</emphasis>
image/*; (anytopnm %s | pnmscale -xysize 80 46 | ppmtopgm | pgmtopbm |
pbmtoascii -1x2 ) 2>&1 ; copiousoutput
-# Send excel spreadsheets to my NT box
+<emphasis role="comment"># Send excel spreadsheets to my NT box</emphasis>
application/ms-excel; open.pl %s
</screen>
</para>
<cmdsynopsis>
-<command>auto-view</command>
+<command>auto_view</command>
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable>mimetype</replaceable>
</arg>
<replaceable>mimetype</replaceable>
</arg>
-<command>unauto-view</command>
+<command>unauto_view</command>
<group choice="req">
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable>*</replaceable>
<para>
In addition to explicitly telling Mutt to view an attachment with the
-MIME viewer defined in the mailcap file, Mutt has support for
-automatically viewing MIME attachments while in the pager.
+MIME viewer defined in the mailcap file from the attachments menu, Mutt
+has support for automatically viewing MIME attachments while in the
+pager.
</para>
<para>
-To work, you must define a viewer in the mailcap file which uses the
-<literal>copiousoutput</literal> option to denote that it is non-interactive.
-Usually, you also use the entry to convert the attachment to a text
-representation which you can view in the pager.
+For this to work, you must define a viewer in the mailcap file which
+uses the <literal>copiousoutput</literal> option to denote that it is
+non-interactive. Usually, you also use the entry to convert the
+attachment to a text representation which you can view in the pager.
</para>
<para>
-You then use the <command>auto_view</command> <literal>.muttrc</literal> command to list the
-content-types that you wish to view automatically. For instance, if you
-set it to:
+You then use the <command>auto_view</command> configuration command to
+list the content-types that you wish to view automatically. For
+instance, if you set it to:
</para>
<screen>
-auto_view text/html application/x-gunzip \
+auto_view text/html application/x-gunzip \
application/postscript image/gif application/x-tar-gz
</screen>
<para>
-Mutt could use the following mailcap entries to automatically view
-attachments of these types.
+...Mutt would try to find corresponding entries for rendering
+attachments of these types as text. A corresponding mailcap could look
+like:
</para>
<screen>
text/html; lynx -dump %s; copiousoutput; nametemplate=%s.html
-image/*; anytopnm %s | pnmscale -xsize 80 -ysize 50 | ppmtopgm | \
+image/*; anytopnm %s | pnmscale -xsize 80 -ysize 50 | ppmtopgm | \
pgmtopbm | pbmtoascii ; copiousoutput
application/x-gunzip; gzcat; copiousoutput
application/x-tar-gz; gunzip -c %s | tar -tf - ; copiousoutput
</screen>
<para>
-<command>unauto_view</command> can be used to remove previous entries from the autoview list.
-This can be used with <link linkend="message-hook"><command>message-hook</command></link> to autoview messages based on size, etc.
-<quote><command>unauto_view</command> *</quote> will remove all previous entries.
+<command>unauto_view</command> can be used to remove previous entries
+from the <command>auto_view</command> list. This can be used with <link
+linkend="message-hook"><command>message-hook</command></link> to
+autoview messages based on size, etc.
+<quote><command>unauto_view</command> *</quote> will remove all previous
+entries.
</para>
</sect1>
<sect1 id="alternative-order">
<title>MIME Multipart/Alternative</title>
+<para>
+The <literal>multipart/alternative</literal> container type only has
+child MIME parts which represent the same content in an alternative
+way. This is often used to send HTML messages which contain an
+alternative plain text representation.
+</para>
+
<para>
Mutt has some heuristics for determining which attachment of a
-<literal>multipart/alternative</literal> type to display. First, Mutt will check the
-<command>alternative_order</command> list
-to determine if one of the available types is preferred. It consists of
-a number of mimetypes in order, including support for implicit and
-explicit wildcards, for example:
+<literal>multipart/alternative</literal> type to display:
+</para>
+
+<orderedlist>
+<listitem>
+<para>
+First, Mutt will check the <command>alternative_order</command> list to
+determine if one of the available types is preferred. It consists of a
+number of MIME types in order, including support for implicit and
+explicit wildcards. For example:
</para>
<screen>
-alternative_order text/enriched text/plain text application/postscript image/*
+alternative_order text/enriched text/plain text \
+ application/postscript image/*
</screen>
-
+</listitem>
+<listitem>
+<para>
+Next, Mutt will check if any of the types have a defined <link
+linkend="auto-view"><command>auto_view</command></link>, and use that.
+</para>
+</listitem>
+<listitem>
+<para>
+Failing that, Mutt will look for any text type.
+</para>
+</listitem>
+<listitem>
<para>
-Next, Mutt will check if any of the types have a defined
-<link linkend="auto-view"><command>auto_view</command></link>, and use that. Failing
-that, Mutt will look for any text type. As a last attempt, Mutt will
-look for any type it knows how to handle.
+As a last attempt, Mutt will look for any type it knows how to handle.
</para>
+</listitem>
+</orderedlist>
<para>
-To remove a MIME type from the <command>alternative_order</command> list, use the
-<command>unalternative_order</command> command.
+To remove a MIME type from the <command>alternative_order</command>
+list, use the <command>unalternative_order</command> command.
</para>
</sect1>
make your message index display the number of qualifying attachments in
each message, or search for messages by attachment count. You also can
configure what kinds of attachments qualify for this feature with the
-<command>attachments</command> and <command>unattachments</command> commands.
+<command>attachments</command> and <command>unattachments</command>
+commands.
</para>
<para>
-In order to provide this information, Mutt needs to fully MIME-parse
-all messages affected first. This can slow down operation especially for
+In order to provide this information, Mutt needs to fully MIME-parse all
+messages affected first. This can slow down operation especially for
remote mail folders such as IMAP because all messages have to be
downloaded first regardless whether the user really wants to view them
-or not.
+or not though using <xref linkend="body-caching"/> usually means to
+download the message just once.
</para>
<para>
<cmdsynopsis>
<command>attachments</command>
<arg choice="plain">
-<replaceable>{ + | - }disposition</replaceable>
+<replaceable>{ + | - }disposition</replaceable>
</arg>
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable>mime-type</replaceable>
<command>unattachments</command>
<arg choice="plain">
-<replaceable>{ + | - }disposition</replaceable>
+<replaceable>{ + | - }disposition</replaceable>
</arg>
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable>mime-type</replaceable>
</cmdsynopsis>
<para>
-<emphasis>disposition</emphasis> is the attachment's Content-Disposition type — either
-<literal>inline</literal> or <literal>attachment</literal>.
-You can abbreviate this to <literal>I</literal> or <literal>A</literal>.
+<emphasis>disposition</emphasis> is the attachment's Content-Disposition
+type — either <literal>inline</literal> or
+<literal>attachment</literal>. You can abbreviate this to
+<literal>I</literal> or <literal>A</literal>.
</para>
<para>
-Disposition is prefixed by either a + symbol or a - symbol. If it's
-a +, you're saying that you want to allow this disposition and MIME
-type to qualify. If it's a -, you're saying that this disposition
-and MIME type is an exception to previous + rules. There are examples
+Disposition is prefixed by either a <quote>+</quote> symbol or a
+<quote>-</quote> symbol. If it's a <quote>+</quote>, you're saying that
+you want to allow this disposition and MIME type to qualify. If it's a
+<quote>-</quote>, you're saying that this disposition and MIME type is
+an exception to previous <quote>+</quote> rules. There are examples
below of how this is useful.
</para>
<para>
-<emphasis>mime-type</emphasis> is, unsurprisingly, the MIME type of the attachment you want
-to affect. A MIME type is always of the format <literal>major/minor</literal>, where
-<literal>major</literal> describes the broad category of document you're looking at, and
-<literal>minor</literal> describes the specific type within that category. The major
-part of mime-type must be literal text (or the special token <quote><literal>*</literal></quote>), but
-the minor part may be a regular expression. (Therefore, <quote><literal>*/.*</literal></quote> matches
-any MIME type.)
+<emphasis>mime-type</emphasis> is the MIME type of the attachment you
+want the command to affect. A MIME type is always of the format
+<literal>major/minor</literal>, where <literal>major</literal> describes
+the broad category of document you're looking at, and
+<literal>minor</literal> describes the specific type within that
+category. The major part of mime-type must be literal text (or the
+special token <quote><literal>*</literal></quote>), but the minor part
+may be a regular expression. (Therefore,
+<quote><literal>*/.*</literal></quote> matches any MIME type.)
</para>
<para>
-The MIME types you give to the <command>attachments</command> directive are a kind of
-pattern. When you use the <command>attachments</command> directive, the patterns you
-specify are added to a list. When you use <command>unattachments</command>, the pattern
-is removed from the list. The patterns are not expanded and matched
-to specific MIME types at this time — they're just text in a list.
-They're only matched when actually evaluating a message.
+The MIME types you give to the <command>attachments</command> directive
+are a kind of pattern. When you use the <command>attachments</command>
+directive, the patterns you specify are added to a list. When you use
+<command>unattachments</command>, the pattern is removed from the list.
+The patterns are not expanded and matched to specific MIME types at this
+time — they're just text in a list. They're only matched when
+actually evaluating a message.
</para>
<para>
<example id="ex-attach-count">
<title>Attachment counting</title>
<screen>
-## Removing a pattern from a list removes that pattern literally. It
-## does not remove any type matching the pattern.
-##
-## attachments +A */.*
-## attachments +A image/jpeg
-## unattachments +A */.*
-##
-## This leaves "attached" image/jpeg files on the allowed attachments
-## list. It does not remove all items, as you might expect, because the
-## second */.* is not a matching expression at this time.
-##
-## Remember: "unattachments" only undoes what "attachments" has done!
-## It does not trigger any matching on actual messages.
-
-
-## Qualify any MIME part with an "attachment" disposition, EXCEPT for
-## text/x-vcard and application/pgp parts. (PGP parts are already known
-## to mutt, and can be searched for with ~g, ~G, and ~k.)
-##
-## I've added x-pkcs7 to this, since it functions (for S/MIME)
-## analogously to PGP signature attachments. S/MIME isn't supported
-## in a stock mutt build, but we can still treat it specially here.
-##
+<emphasis role="comment">
+# Removing a pattern from a list removes that pattern literally. It
+# does not remove any type matching the pattern.
+#
+# attachments +A */.*
+# attachments +A image/jpeg
+# unattachments +A */.*
+#
+# This leaves "attached" image/jpeg files on the allowed attachments
+# list. It does not remove all items, as you might expect, because the
+# second */.* is not a matching expression at this time.
+#
+# Remember: "unattachments" only undoes what "attachments" has done!
+# It does not trigger any matching on actual messages.
+
+# Qualify any MIME part with an "attachment" disposition, EXCEPT for
+# text/x-vcard and application/pgp parts. (PGP parts are already known
+# to mutt, and can be searched for with ~g, ~G, and ~k.)
+#
+# I've added x-pkcs7 to this, since it functions (for S/MIME)
+# analogously to PGP signature attachments. S/MIME isn't supported
+# in a stock mutt build, but we can still treat it specially here.
+#
+</emphasis>
attachments +A */.*
attachments -A text/x-vcard application/pgp.*
attachments -A application/x-pkcs7-.*
-## Discount all MIME parts with an "inline" disposition, unless they're
-## text/plain. (Why inline a text/plain part unless it's external to the
-## message flow?)
-##
+<emphasis role="comment">
+# Discount all MIME parts with an "inline" disposition, unless they're
+# text/plain. (Why inline a text/plain part unless it's external to the
+# message flow?)
+</emphasis>
attachments +I text/plain
-## These two lines make Mutt qualify MIME containers. (So, for example,
-## a message/rfc822 forward will count as an attachment.) The first
-## line is unnecessary if you already have "attach-allow */.*", of
-## course. These are off by default! The MIME elements contained
-## within a message/* or multipart/* are still examined, even if the
-## containers themseves don't qualify.
-##
+<emphasis role="comment">
+# These two lines make Mutt qualify MIME containers. (So, for example,
+# a message/rfc822 forward will count as an attachment.) The first
+# line is unnecessary if you already have "attach-allow */.*", of
+# course. These are off by default! The MIME elements contained
+# within a message/* or multipart/* are still examined, even if the
+# containers themselves don't qualify.
+
#attachments +A message/.* multipart/.*
#attachments +I message/.* multipart/.*
+</emphasis>
-## You probably don't really care to know about deleted attachments.
+<emphasis role="comment">## You probably don't really care to know about deleted attachments.</emphasis>
attachments -A message/external-body
attachments -I message/external-body
</screen>
</example>
<para>
-Entering the command <quote><command>attachments</command> ?</quote>
-as a command will list your current settings in Muttrc format, so that
-it can be pasted elsewhere.
+Entering the command <quote><command>attachments</command> ?</quote> as
+a command will list your current settings in Muttrc format, so that it
+can be pasted elsewhere.
</para>
</sect1>
</cmdsynopsis>
<para>
-Mutt's mime_lookup list specifies a list of mime-types that should not
-be treated according to their mailcap entry. This option is designed to
-deal with binary types such as <literal>application/octet-stream</literal>. When an attachment's
-mime-type is listed in mime_lookup, then the extension of the filename will
-be compared to the list of extensions in the <literal>mime.types</literal> file. The mime-type
-associated with this extension will then be used to process the attachment
-according to the rules in the mailcap file and according to any other configuration
-options (such as <command>auto_view</command>) specified. Common usage would be:
+Mutt's <command>mime_lookup</command> list specifies a list of MIME
+types that should <emphasis>not</emphasis> be treated according to their
+mailcap entry. This option is designed to deal with binary types such
+as <literal>application/octet-stream</literal>. When an attachment's
+MIME type is listed in <command>mime_lookup</command>, then the
+extension of the filename will be compared to the list of extensions in
+the <literal>mime.types</literal> file. The MIME type associated with
+this extension will then be used to process the attachment according to
+the rules in the mailcap file and according to any other configuration
+options (such as <command>auto_view</command>) specified. Common usage
+would be:
</para>
<screen>
</screen>
<para>
-In addition, the <literal>unmime_lookup</literal> command may be
-used to disable this feature for any particular mime-type if it had been
-set, for example, in a global <literal>.muttrc</literal>.
+In addition, the <literal>unmime_lookup</literal> command may be used to
+disable this feature for any particular MIME type if it had been set,
+for example, in a global <literal>.muttrc</literal>.
</para>
</sect1>
<para>
Mutt supports several of optional features which can be enabled or
-disabled at compile-time by giving the <emphasis>configure</emphasis> script
-certain arguments. These are listed in the <quote>Optional features</quote> section of
-the <emphasis>configure --help</emphasis> output.
+disabled at compile-time by giving the <emphasis>configure</emphasis>
+script certain arguments. These are listed in the <quote>Optional
+features</quote> section of the <emphasis>configure --help</emphasis>
+output.
</para>
<para>
Which features are enabled or disabled can later be determined from the
output of <literal>mutt -v</literal>. If a compile option starts with
-<quote>+</quote> it is enabled and disabled if prefixed with <quote>-</quote>. For example, if
-Mutt was compiled using GnuTLS for encrypted communication instead of
-OpenSSL, <literal>mutt -v</literal> would contain:
+<quote>+</quote> it is enabled and disabled if prefixed with
+<quote>-</quote>. For example, if Mutt was compiled using GnuTLS for
+encrypted communication instead of OpenSSL, <literal>mutt -v</literal>
+would contain:
</para>
<screen>
<para>
Mutt optionally supports the IMAP, POP3 and SMTP protocols which require
to access servers using URLs. The canonical syntax for specifying URLs
-in Mutt is (an item enclosed in <literal>[]</literal> means it is optional and
-may be omitted):
+in Mutt is (an item enclosed in <literal>[]</literal> means it is
+optional and may be omitted):
</para>
<screen>
-proto[s]://[username[:password]@]server[:port]/[path]
+proto[s]://[username[:password]@]server[:port][/path]
</screen>
<para>
Since all protocols supported by Mutt support/require authentication,
login credentials may be specified in the URL. This has the advantage
that multiple IMAP, POP3 or SMTP servers may be specified (which isn't
-possible using, for example,
-<link linkend="imap-user">$imap_user</link>). The username
-may contain the <quote>@</quote> symbol being used by many mail systems
-as part of the login name. A password can be given, too but is not
-recommended if the URL is specified in a configuration file on disk.
+possible using, for example, <link
+linkend="imap-user">$imap_user</link>). The username may contain the
+<quote>@</quote> symbol being used by many mail systems as part of the
+login name. The special characters <quote>/</quote>
+(<literal>%2F</literal>), <quote>:</quote> (<literal>%3A</literal>) and
+<quote>%</quote> (<literal>%25</literal>) have to be URL-encoded in
+usernames using the <literal>%</literal>-notation.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+A password can be given, too but is not recommended if the URL is
+specified in a configuration file on disk.
</para>
<para>
</para>
<para>
-The optional path is only relevant for IMAP.
+The optional path is only relevant for IMAP and ignored elsewhere.
</para>
<example id="ex-url">
<para>
If Mutt is compiled with IMAP, POP3 and/or SMTP support, it can also be
-compiled with support for SSL or TLS using either OpenSSL or GnuTLS (
-by running the <emphasis>configure</emphasis> script with the
+compiled with support for SSL or TLS using either OpenSSL or GnuTLS ( by
+running the <emphasis>configure</emphasis> script with the
<emphasis>--enable-ssl=...</emphasis> option for OpenSSL or
<emphasis>--enable-gnutls=...</emphasis> for GnuTLS). Mutt can then
attempt to encrypt communication with remote servers if these protocols
-are suffixed with <quote>s</quote> for <quote>secure communication</quote>.
+are suffixed with <quote>s</quote> for <quote>secure
+communication</quote>.
</para>
</sect1>
<title>POP3 Support</title>
<para>
-If Mutt is compiled with POP3 support (by running the <emphasis>configure</emphasis>
-script with the <emphasis>--enable-pop</emphasis> flag), it has the ability to work
-with mailboxes located on a remote POP3 server and fetch mail for local
+If Mutt is compiled with POP3 support (by running the
+<emphasis>configure</emphasis> script with the
+<emphasis>--enable-pop</emphasis> flag), it has the ability to work with
+mailboxes located on a remote POP3 server and fetch mail for local
browsing.
</para>
<para>
-Remote POP3 servers can be accessed using URLs with the <literal>pop</literal> protocol
-for unencrypted and <literal>pops</literal> for encrypted
-communication, see <xref linkend="url-syntax"/> for details.
+Remote POP3 servers can be accessed using URLs with the
+<literal>pop</literal> protocol for unencrypted and
+<literal>pops</literal> for encrypted communication, see <xref
+linkend="url-syntax"/> for details.
</para>
<para>
Polling for new mail is more expensive over POP3 than locally. For this
reason the frequency at which Mutt will check for mail remotely can be
-controlled by the
-<link linkend="pop-checkinterval">$pop_checkinterval</link>
-variable, which defaults to every 60 seconds.
+controlled by the <link
+linkend="pop-checkinterval">$pop_checkinterval</link> variable, which
+defaults to every 60 seconds.
</para>
<para>
POP is read-only which doesn't allow for some features like editing
-messages or changing flags. However, using
-<xref linkend="header-caching"/> and <xref linkend="body-caching"/>
-Mutt simulates the new/old/read flags as well as flagged and replied.
-Mutt applies some logic on top of remote messages but cannot change
-them so that modifications of flags are lost when
-messages are downloaded from the POP server (either by Mutt or other
-tools).
+messages or changing flags. However, using <xref
+linkend="header-caching"/> and <xref linkend="body-caching"/> Mutt
+simulates the new/old/read flags as well as flagged and replied. Mutt
+applies some logic on top of remote messages but cannot change them so
+that modifications of flags are lost when messages are downloaded from
+the POP server (either by Mutt or other tools).
</para>
<anchor id="fetch-mail"/>
<para>
-Another way to access your POP3 mail is the <literal><fetch-mail></literal> function
-(default: G). It allows to connect to <link linkend="pop-host">$pop_host</link>, fetch all your new mail and place it in the
-local <link linkend="spoolfile">$spoolfile</link>. After this
-point, Mutt runs exactly as if the mail had always been local.
+Another way to access your POP3 mail is the
+<literal><fetch-mail></literal> function (default: G). It allows
+to connect to <link linkend="pop-host">$pop_host</link>, fetch all your
+new mail and place it in the local <link
+linkend="spoolfile">$spoolfile</link>. After this point, Mutt runs
+exactly as if the mail had always been local.
</para>
<note>
<para>
-If you only need to fetch all messages to a
-local mailbox you should consider using a specialized program, such as
-<literal>fetchmail(1)</literal>, <literal>getmail(1)</literal> or similar.
+If you only need to fetch all messages to a local mailbox you should
+consider using a specialized program, such as
+<literal>fetchmail(1)</literal>, <literal>getmail(1)</literal> or
+similar.
</para>
</note>
<title>IMAP Support</title>
<para>
-If Mutt was compiled with IMAP support (by running the <emphasis>configure</emphasis>
-script with the <emphasis>--enable-imap</emphasis> flag), it has the ability to work
+If Mutt was compiled with IMAP support (by running the
+<emphasis>configure</emphasis> script with the
+<emphasis>--enable-imap</emphasis> flag), it has the ability to work
with folders located on a remote IMAP server.
</para>
<para>
-You can access the remote inbox by selecting the folder by its URL
-(see <xref linkend="url-syntax"/> for details) using the
+You can access the remote inbox by selecting the folder by its URL (see
+<xref linkend="url-syntax"/> for details) using the
<literal>imap</literal> or <literal>imaps</literal> protocol.
-Alternatively, a pine-compatible notation is also supported, ie
-<literal>{[username@]imapserver[:port][/ssl]}path/to/folder</literal>
+Alternatively, a pine-compatible notation is also supported, i.e.
+<literal>{[username@]imapserver[:port][/ssl]}path/to/folder</literal>
</para>
<para>
-Note that not all servers use <quote>/</quote> as the hierarchy separator. Mutt should
-correctly notice which separator is being used by the server and convert
-paths accordingly.
+Note that not all servers use <quote>/</quote> as the hierarchy
+separator. Mutt should correctly notice which separator is being used
+by the server and convert paths accordingly.
</para>
<para>
When browsing folders on an IMAP server, you can toggle whether to look
at only the folders you are subscribed to, or all folders with the
-<emphasis>toggle-subscribed</emphasis> command. See also the
-<link linkend="imap-list-subscribed">$imap_list_subscribed</link> variable.
+<emphasis>toggle-subscribed</emphasis> command. See also the <link
+linkend="imap-list-subscribed">$imap_list_subscribed</link> variable.
</para>
<para>
-Polling for new mail on an IMAP server can cause noticeable delays. So, you'll
-want to carefully tune the
-<link linkend="mail-check">$mail_check</link>
-and
-<link linkend="timeout">$timeout</link>
-variables. Reasonable values are:
+Polling for new mail on an IMAP server can cause noticeable delays. So,
+you'll want to carefully tune the <link
+linkend="mail-check">$mail_check</link> and <link
+linkend="timeout">$timeout</link> variables. Reasonable values are:
</para>
<screen>
<note>
<para>
Note that if you are using mbox as the mail store on UW servers prior to
-v12.250, the server has been reported to disconnect a client if another client
-selects the same folder.
+v12.250, the server has been reported to disconnect a client if another
+client selects the same folder.
</para>
</note>
<listitem>
<para>
-In lieu of file permissions, Mutt displays the string <quote>IMAP</quote>,
-possibly followed by the symbol <quote>+</quote>, indicating
-that the entry contains both messages and subfolders. On
+In lieu of file permissions, Mutt displays the string
+<quote>IMAP</quote>, possibly followed by the symbol <quote>+</quote>,
+indicating that the entry contains both messages and subfolders. On
Cyrus-like servers folders will often contain both messages and
subfolders.
</para>
<listitem>
<para>
-For the case where an entry can contain both messages and
-subfolders, the selection key (bound to <literal>enter</literal> by default)
-will choose to descend into the subfolder view. If you wish to view
-the messages in that folder, you must use <literal>view-file</literal> instead
-(bound to <literal>space</literal> by default).
+For the case where an entry can contain both messages and subfolders,
+the selection key (bound to <literal>enter</literal> by default) will
+choose to descend into the subfolder view. If you wish to view the
+messages in that folder, you must use <literal>view-file</literal>
+instead (bound to <literal>space</literal> by default).
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
You can create, delete and rename mailboxes with the
-<literal><create-mailbox></literal>, <literal><delete-mailbox></literal>, and
-<literal><rename-mailbox></literal> commands (default bindings: <literal>C</literal>,
-<literal>d</literal> and <literal>r</literal>, respectively). You may also
-<literal><subscribe></literal> and <literal><unsubscribe></literal> to mailboxes (normally
-these are bound to <literal>s</literal> and <literal>u</literal>, respectively).
+<literal><create-mailbox></literal>,
+<literal><delete-mailbox></literal>, and
+<literal><rename-mailbox></literal> commands (default bindings:
+<literal>C</literal>, <literal>d</literal> and <literal>r</literal>,
+respectively). You may also <literal><subscribe></literal> and
+<literal><unsubscribe></literal> to mailboxes (normally these are
+bound to <literal>s</literal> and <literal>u</literal>, respectively).
</para>
</listitem>
Mutt supports four authentication methods with IMAP servers: SASL,
GSSAPI, CRAM-MD5, and LOGIN (there is a patch by Grant Edwards to add
NTLM authentication for you poor exchange users out there, but it has
-yet to be integrated into the main tree). There is also support for
-the pseudo-protocol ANONYMOUS, which allows you to log in to a public
-IMAP server without having an account. To use ANONYMOUS, simply make
-your username blank or <quote>anonymous</quote>.
+yet to be integrated into the main tree). There is also support for the
+pseudo-protocol ANONYMOUS, which allows you to log in to a public IMAP
+server without having an account. To use ANONYMOUS, simply make your
+username blank or <quote>anonymous</quote>.
</para>
<para>
-SASL is a special super-authenticator, which selects among several protocols
-(including GSSAPI, CRAM-MD5, ANONYMOUS, and DIGEST-MD5) the most secure
-method available on your host and the server. Using some of these methods
-(including DIGEST-MD5 and possibly GSSAPI), your entire session will be
-encrypted and invisible to those teeming network snoops. It is the best
-option if you have it. To use it, you must have the Cyrus SASL library
-installed on your system and compile Mutt with the <emphasis>--with-sasl</emphasis> flag.
+SASL is a special super-authenticator, which selects among several
+protocols (including GSSAPI, CRAM-MD5, ANONYMOUS, and DIGEST-MD5) the
+most secure method available on your host and the server. Using some of
+these methods (including DIGEST-MD5 and possibly GSSAPI), your entire
+session will be encrypted and invisible to those teeming network
+snoops. It is the best option if you have it. To use it, you must have
+the Cyrus SASL library installed on your system and compile Mutt with
+the <emphasis>--with-sasl</emphasis> flag.
</para>
<para>
-Mutt will try whichever methods are compiled in and available on the server,
-in the following order: SASL, ANONYMOUS, GSSAPI, CRAM-MD5, LOGIN.
+Mutt will try whichever methods are compiled in and available on the
+server, in the following order: SASL, ANONYMOUS, GSSAPI, CRAM-MD5,
+LOGIN.
</para>
<para>
<listitem>
<para>
-<link linkend="imap-user">$imap_user</link> - controls
-the username under which you request authentication on the IMAP server,
-for all authenticators. This is overridden by an explicit username in
-the mailbox path (ie by using a mailbox name of the form
-<literal>{user@host}</literal>).
+<link linkend="imap-user">$imap_user</link> - controls the username
+under which you request authentication on the IMAP server, for all
+authenticators. This is overridden by an explicit username in the
+mailbox path (i.e. by using a mailbox name of the form
+<literal>{user@host}</literal>).
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
-<link linkend="imap-pass">$imap_pass</link> - a
-password which you may preset, used by all authentication methods where
-a password is needed.
+<link linkend="imap-pass">$imap_pass</link> - a password which you may
+preset, used by all authentication methods where a password is needed.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
-<link linkend="imap-authenticators">$imap_authenticators</link> - a colon-delimited list of IMAP
-authentication methods to try, in the order you wish to try them. If
-specified, this overrides Mutt's default (attempt everything, in the order
-listed above).
+<link linkend="imap-authenticators">$imap_authenticators</link> - a
+colon-delimited list of IMAP authentication methods to try, in the order
+you wish to try them. If specified, this overrides Mutt's default
+(attempt everything, in the order listed above).
</para>
</listitem>
</para>
<para>
-If the configuration variable
-<link linkend="smtp-url">$smtp_url</link> is set, Mutt
-will contact the given SMTP server to deliver messages; if it is unset,
-Mutt will use the program specified by <link linkend="sendmail">$sendmail</link>.
+If the configuration variable <link linkend="smtp-url">$smtp_url</link>
+is set, Mutt will contact the given SMTP server to deliver messages; if
+it is unset, Mutt will use the program specified by <link
+linkend="sendmail">$sendmail</link>.
</para>
<para>
</para>
<para>
-The built-in SMTP support supports encryption (the <literal>smtps</literal> protocol
-using SSL or TLS) as well as SMTP authentication using SASL. The authentication mechanisms
-for SASL are specified in <link linkend="smtp-authenticators">$smtp_authenticators</link>
-defaulting to an empty list which makes Mutt try all available methods
-from most-secure to least-secure.
+The built-in SMTP support supports encryption (the
+<literal>smtps</literal> protocol using SSL or TLS) as well as SMTP
+authentication using SASL. The authentication mechanisms for SASL are
+specified in <link
+linkend="smtp-authenticators">$smtp_authenticators</link> defaulting to
+an empty list which makes Mutt try all available methods from
+most-secure to least-secure.
</para>
</sect1>
</cmdsynopsis>
<para>
-If you happen to have accounts on multiple IMAP, POP and/or SMTP servers,
-you may find managing all the authentication settings inconvenient and
-error-prone. The <link linkend="account-hook"><command>account-hook</command></link> command may help. This hook works like
-<link linkend="folder-hook"><command>folder-hook</command></link> but is invoked whenever Mutt needs to access a remote mailbox
-(including inside the folder browser), not just when you open the
-mailbox. This includes (for example) polling for new mail, storing Fcc
-messages and saving messages to a folder. As a consequence,
-<link linkend="account-hook"><command>account-hook</command></link> should only be used to set connection-related settings such
-as passwords or tunnel commands but not settings such as sender
-address or name (because in general it should be considered unpredictable
-which <link linkend="account-hook"><command>account-hook</command></link> was last used).
+If you happen to have accounts on multiple IMAP, POP and/or SMTP
+servers, you may find managing all the authentication settings
+inconvenient and error-prone. The <link
+linkend="account-hook"><command>account-hook</command></link> command
+may help. This hook works like <link
+linkend="folder-hook"><command>folder-hook</command></link> but is
+invoked whenever Mutt needs to access a remote mailbox (including inside
+the folder browser), not just when you open the mailbox. This includes
+(for example) polling for new mail, storing Fcc messages and saving
+messages to a folder. As a consequence, <link
+linkend="account-hook"><command>account-hook</command></link> should
+only be used to set connection-related settings such as passwords or
+tunnel commands but not settings such as sender address or name (because
+in general it should be considered unpredictable which <link
+linkend="account-hook"><command>account-hook</command></link> was last
+used).
</para>
<para>
</screen>
<para>
-To manage multiple accounts with, for example, different values of
-<link linkend="record">$record</link> or sender addresses,
-<link linkend="folder-hook"><command>folder-hook</command></link>
-has to be be used together with
-the <link linkend="mailboxes"><command>mailboxes</command></link> command.
+To manage multiple accounts with, for example, different values of <link
+linkend="record">$record</link> or sender addresses, <link
+linkend="folder-hook"><command>folder-hook</command></link> has to be be
+used together with the <link
+linkend="mailboxes"><command>mailboxes</command></link> command.
</para>
<example id="ex-multiaccount">
</example>
<para>
-In example
-<xref linkend="ex-multiaccount"/> the folders are defined using
-<link linkend="mailboxes"><command>mailboxes</command></link> so Mutt polls them for new
-mail. Each <link linkend="folder-hook"><command>folder-hook</command></link> triggers when
-one mailbox below each IMAP account is opened and sets
-<link linkend="folder">$folder</link> to the account's root
-folder. Next, it sets <link linkend="record">$record</link> to
-the <emphasis>INBOX/Sent</emphasis> folder below the newly
-set <link linkend="folder">$folder</link>. Please notice that the
-value the <quote>+</quote>
-<link linkend="shortcuts">mailbox shortcut</link> refers to depends on
-the <emphasis>current</emphasis> value
-of <link linkend="folder">$folder</link> and therefore has to be set
-separatedly per account. Setting other values
-like <link linkend="from">$from</link>
-or <link linkend="signature">$signature</link> is analogous to setting
-<link linkend="record">$record</link>.
+In example <xref linkend="ex-multiaccount"/> the folders are defined
+using <link linkend="mailboxes"><command>mailboxes</command></link> so
+Mutt polls them for new mail. Each <link
+linkend="folder-hook"><command>folder-hook</command></link> triggers
+when one mailbox below each IMAP account is opened and sets <link
+linkend="folder">$folder</link> to the account's root folder. Next, it
+sets <link linkend="record">$record</link> to the
+<emphasis>INBOX/Sent</emphasis> folder below the newly set <link
+linkend="folder">$folder</link>. Please notice that the value the
+<quote>+</quote> <link linkend="shortcuts">mailbox shortcut</link>
+refers to depends on the <emphasis>current</emphasis> value of <link
+linkend="folder">$folder</link> and therefore has to be set separately
+per account. Setting other values like <link linkend="from">$from</link>
+or <link linkend="signature">$signature</link> is analogous to setting
+<link linkend="record">$record</link>.
</para>
</sect1>
<title>Local Caching</title>
<para>
-Mutt contains two types of local caching: <emphasis>(1)</emphasis>
-the so-called <quote>header caching</quote> and <emphasis>(2)</emphasis> the
-so-called <quote>body caching</quote> which are both described in this section.
+Mutt contains two types of local caching: <emphasis>(1)</emphasis> the
+so-called <quote>header caching</quote> and <emphasis>(2)</emphasis> the
+so-called <quote>body caching</quote> which are both described in this
+section.
</para>
<para>
<para>
Mutt provides optional support for caching message headers for the
following types of folders: IMAP, POP, Maildir and MH. Header caching
-greatly improves speed because for remote folders, headers
-usually only need to be downloaded once. For Maildir and MH, reading the
-headers from a single file is much faster than looking at possibly
-thousands of single files (since Maildir and MH use one file per message.)
+greatly speeds up opening large folders because for remote folders,
+headers usually only need to be downloaded once. For Maildir and MH,
+reading the headers from a single file is much faster than looking at
+possibly thousands of single files (since Maildir and MH use one file
+per message.)
</para>
<para>
Header caching can be enabled via the configure script and the
-<emphasis>--enable-hcache</emphasis> option. It's not turned on
-by default because external database libraries are required: one
-of tokyocabinet, qdbm, gdbm or bdb must be present.
+<emphasis>--enable-hcache</emphasis> option. It's not turned on by
+default because external database libraries are required: one of
+tokyocabinet, qdbm, gdbm or bdb must be present.
</para>
<para>
-If enabled, <link
-linkend="header-cache">$header_cache</link> can be
-used to either point to a file or a directory. If set to point to
-a file, one database file for all folders will be used (which may
-result in lower performance), but one file per folder if it points
-to a directory.
+If enabled, <link linkend="header-cache">$header_cache</link> can be
+used to either point to a file or a directory. If set to point to a
+file, one database file for all folders will be used (which may result
+in lower performance), but one file per folder if it points to a
+directory.
</para>
</sect2>
manual maintenance tasks.
</para>
-
<para>
-In addition to caching message headers only, Mutt can also cache
-whole message bodies. This results in faster display of messages
-for POP and IMAP folders because messages usually have to be
-downloaded only once.
+In addition to caching message headers only, Mutt can also cache whole
+message bodies. This results in faster display of messages for POP and
+IMAP folders because messages usually have to be downloaded only once.
</para>
<para>
For configuration, the variable <link linkend="message-cachedir"
->$message_cachedir</link> must point to a
-directory. There, Mutt will create a hierarchy of subdirectories
+>$message_cachedir</link> must point to a directory. There, Mutt will
+create a hierarchy of subdirectories named like the account and mailbox
+path the cache is for.
+</para>
+
+</sect2>
+
+<sect2 id="cache-dirs">
+<title>Cache Directories</title>
+
+<para>
+For using both, header and body caching, <link
+linkend="header-cache">$header_cache</link> and <link
+linkend="message-cachedir" >$message_cachedir</link> can be safely set
+to the same value.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+In a header or body cache directory, Mutt creates a directory hierarchy
named like: <literal>proto:user@hostname</literal> where
-<literal>proto</literal> is either <quote>pop</quote> or <quote>imap.</quote> Within
-there for each folder, Mutt stores messages in single files.
-All files can be removed as needed if the consumed disk space
-becomes an issue as Mutt will silently fetch missing items again.
+<literal>proto</literal> is either <quote>pop</quote> or
+<quote>imap.</quote> Within there, for each folder, Mutt stores messages
+in single files and header caches in files with the
+<quote>.hcache</quote> extension. All files can be removed as needed if
+the consumed disk space becomes an issue as Mutt will silently fetch
+missing items again. Pathnames are always stored in UTF-8 encoding.
+</para>
+
+<para>
+For Maildir and MH, the header cache files are named after the MD5
+checksum of the path.
</para>
</sect2>
</para>
<para>
-For body caches, Mutt can keep the local cache in sync with the
-remote mailbox if the
-<link linkend="message-cache-clean">$message_cache_clean</link>
-variable is set. Cleaning means to remove messages from the cache which
-are no longer present in the mailbox which only happens when other mail
-clients or instances of Mutt using a different body cache location
-delete messages (Mutt itself removes deleted messages from the cache
-when syncing a mailbox). As cleaning can take a noticeable amount of time,
-it should not be set in general but only occasionally.
+For body caches, Mutt can keep the local cache in sync with the remote
+mailbox if the <link
+linkend="message-cache-clean">$message_cache_clean</link> variable is
+set. Cleaning means to remove messages from the cache which are no
+longer present in the mailbox which only happens when other mail clients
+or instances of Mutt using a different body cache location delete
+messages (Mutt itself removes deleted messages from the cache when
+syncing a mailbox). As cleaning can take a noticeable amount of time, it
+should not be set in general but only occasionally.
</para>
</sect2>
<title>Exact Address Generation</title>
<para>
-Mutt supports the <quote>Name <user@host></quote> address syntax for reading and
-writing messages, the older <quote>user@host (Name)</quote> syntax is only supported when
-reading messages. The <emphasis>--enable-exact-address</emphasis>
-switch can be given to configure to build it with write-support
-for the latter syntax. <literal>EXACT_ADDRESS</literal> in the output of
-<literal>mutt -v</literal> indicates whether it's supported.
+Mutt supports the <quote>Name <user@host></quote> address syntax
+for reading and writing messages, the older <quote>user@host
+(Name)</quote> syntax is only supported when reading messages. The
+<emphasis>--enable-exact-address</emphasis> switch can be given to
+configure to build it with write-support for the latter
+syntax. <literal>EXACT_ADDRESS</literal> in the output of <literal>mutt
+-v</literal> indicates whether it's supported.
</para>
</sect1>
You may also have compiled Mutt to co-operate with Mixmaster, an
anonymous remailer. Mixmaster permits you to send your messages
anonymously using a chain of remailers. Mixmaster support in Mutt is for
-mixmaster version 2.04 (beta 45 appears to be the latest) and 2.03.
-It does not support earlier versions or the later so-called version 3 betas,
-of which the latest appears to be called 2.9b23.
+mixmaster version 2.04 or later.
</para>
<para>
-To use it, you'll have to obey certain restrictions. Most
-important, you cannot use the <literal>Cc</literal> and <literal>Bcc</literal> headers. To tell
-Mutt to use mixmaster, you have to select a remailer chain, using
-the mix function on the compose menu.
+To use it, you'll have to obey certain restrictions. Most important,
+you cannot use the <literal>Cc</literal> and <literal>Bcc</literal>
+headers. To tell Mutt to use mixmaster, you have to select a remailer
+chain, using the mix function on the compose menu.
</para>
<para>
-The chain selection screen is divided into two parts. In the
-(larger) upper part, you get a list of remailers you may use. In
-the lower part, you see the currently selected chain of remailers.
+The chain selection screen is divided into two parts. In the (larger)
+upper part, you get a list of remailers you may use. In the lower part,
+you see the currently selected chain of remailers.
</para>
<para>
-You can navigate in the chain using the <literal><chain-prev></literal> and
-<literal><chain-next></literal> functions, which are by default bound to the left
-and right arrows and to the <literal>h</literal> and <literal>l</literal> keys (think vi
-keyboard bindings). To insert a remailer at the current chain
-position, use the <literal><insert></literal> function. To append a remailer behind
-the current chain position, use <literal><select-entry></literal> or <literal><append></literal>.
-You can also delete entries from the chain, using the corresponding
-function. Finally, to abandon your changes, leave the menu, or
-<literal><accept></literal> them pressing (by default) the <literal>Return</literal> key.
+You can navigate in the chain using the
+<literal><chain-prev></literal> and
+<literal><chain-next></literal> functions, which are by default
+bound to the left and right arrows and to the <literal>h</literal> and
+<literal>l</literal> keys (think vi keyboard bindings). To insert a
+remailer at the current chain position, use the
+<literal><insert></literal> function. To append a remailer behind
+the current chain position, use <literal><select-entry></literal>
+or <literal><append></literal>. You can also delete entries from
+the chain, using the corresponding function. Finally, to abandon your
+changes, leave the menu, or <literal><accept></literal> them
+pressing (by default) the <literal>Return</literal> key.
</para>
<para>
-Note that different remailers do have different capabilities,
-indicated in the %c entry of the remailer menu lines (see
-<link linkend="mix-entry-format">$mix_entry_format</link>). Most important is
-the <quote>middleman</quote> capability, indicated by a capital <quote>M</quote>: This
-means that the remailer in question cannot be used as the final
-element of a chain, but will only forward messages to other
-mixmaster remailers. For details on the other capabilities, please
-have a look at the mixmaster documentation.
+Note that different remailers do have different capabilities, indicated
+in the %c entry of the remailer menu lines (see <link
+linkend="mix-entry-format">$mix_entry_format</link>). Most important is
+the <quote>middleman</quote> capability, indicated by a capital
+<quote>M</quote>: This means that the remailer in question cannot be
+used as the final element of a chain, but will only forward messages to
+other mixmaster remailers. For details on the other capabilities,
+please have a look at the mixmaster documentation.
</para>
</sect1>
signatures, etc. As long as being used, these files are visible by other
users and maybe even readable in case of misconfiguration. Also, a
different location for these files may be desired which can be changed
-via the <link linkend="tmpdir">$tmpdir</link> variable.
+via the <link linkend="tmpdir">$tmpdir</link> variable.
</para>
</sect1>
information to the outside world when sending messages: the generation
of this header includes a step counter which is increased (and rotated)
with every message sent. In a longer running mutt session, others can
-make assumptions about your mailing habbits depending on the number of
+make assumptions about your mailing habits depending on the number of
messages sent. If this is not desired, the header can be manually
-provided using <link
-linkend="edit-headers">$edit_headers</link> (though not
-recommended).
+provided using <link linkend="edit-headers">$edit_headers</link> (though
+not recommended).
</para>
</sect2>
considerations, too. Arbitrary header fields can be embedded in these
links which could override existing header fields or attach arbitrary
files using <link linkend="attach-header">the Attach:
-psuedoheader</link>. This may be problematic if the <link
-linkend="edit-headers">$edit-headers</link> variable is
+pseudoheader</link>. This may be problematic if the <link
+linkend="edit-headers">$edit-headers</link> variable is
<emphasis>unset</emphasis>, i.e. the user doesn't want to see header
fields while editing the message and doesn't pay enough attention to the
compose menu's listing of attachments.
<listitem>
<para>
-For remote folders (IMAP and POP) as well as folders using
-one-file-per message storage (Maildir and MH), Mutt's
-performance can be greatly improved using
-<link linkend="header-caching">header caching</link>.
+For remote folders (IMAP and POP) as well as folders using one-file-per
+message storage (Maildir and MH), Mutt's performance can be greatly
+improved using <link linkend="header-caching">header caching</link>.
using a single database per folder.
</para>
</listitem>
<listitem>
<para>
-Mutt provides the <link linkend="read-inc">$read_inc</link>
-and <link linkend="write-inc">$write_inc</link>
-variables to specify at which rate to update progress
-counters. If these values are too low, Mutt may spend more
-time on updating the progress counter than it spends on
-actually reading/writing folders.
+Mutt provides the <link linkend="read-inc">$read_inc</link> and <link
+linkend="write-inc">$write_inc</link> variables to specify at which rate
+to update progress counters. If these values are too low, Mutt may spend
+more time on updating the progress counter than it spends on actually
+reading/writing folders.
</para>
+
<para>
-For example, when opening a maildir folder with a few
-thousand messages, the default value for
-<link linkend="read-inc">$read_inc</link>
-may be too low. It can be tuned on on a folder-basis using
-<link linkend="folder-hook"><command>folder-hook</command>s</link>:
+For example, when opening a maildir folder with a few thousand messages,
+the default value for <link linkend="read-inc">$read_inc</link> may be
+too low. It can be tuned on on a folder-basis using <link
+linkend="folder-hook"><command>folder-hook</command>s</link>:
</para>
<screen>
-# use very high $read_inc to speed up reading hcache'd maildirs
+<emphasis role="comment"># use very high $read_inc to speed up reading hcache'd maildirs</emphasis>
folder-hook . 'set read_inc=1000'
-# use lower value for reading slower remote IMAP folders
+<emphasis role="comment"># use lower value for reading slower remote IMAP folders</emphasis>
folder-hook ^imap 'set read_inc=100'
-# use even lower value for reading even slower remote POP folders
+<emphasis role="comment"># use even lower value for reading even slower remote POP folders</emphasis>
folder-hook ^pop 'set read_inc=1'</screen>
</listitem>
</orderedlist>
-<para>These settings work on a per-message basis. However, as messages may
-greatly differ in size and certain operations are much faster than others,
-even per-folder settings of the increment variables may not be
+<para>
+These settings work on a per-message basis. However, as messages may
+greatly differ in size and certain operations are much faster than
+others, even per-folder settings of the increment variables may not be
desirable as they produce either too few or too much progress updates.
-Thus, Mutt allows to limit the number of progress updates per second it'll
-actually send to the terminal using the
-<link linkend="time-inc">$time_inc</link> variable.</para>
+Thus, Mutt allows to limit the number of progress updates per second
+it'll actually send to the terminal using the <link
+linkend="time-inc">$time_inc</link> variable.
+</para>
</sect1>
<title>Reading Messages from Remote Folders</title>
<para>
-Reading messages from remote folders such as IMAP an POP can be
-slow especially for large mailboxes since Mutt only caches a very
-limited number of recently viewed messages (usually 10) per
-session (so that it will be gone for the next session.)
+Reading messages from remote folders such as IMAP an POP can be slow
+especially for large mailboxes since Mutt only caches a very limited
+number of recently viewed messages (usually 10) per session (so that it
+will be gone for the next session.)
</para>
<para>
-To improve performance and permanently cache whole messages,
-please refer to Mutt's so-called
-<link linkend="body-caching">body caching</link> for details.
+To improve performance and permanently cache whole messages, please
+refer to Mutt's so-called <link linkend="body-caching">body
+caching</link> for details.
</para>
</sect1>
<title>Searching and Limiting</title>
<para>
-When searching mailboxes either via a search or a limit action, for
-some patterns Mutt distinguishes between regular expression and string
+When searching mailboxes either via a search or a limit action, for some
+patterns Mutt distinguishes between regular expression and string
searches. For regular expressions, patterns are prefixed with
-<quote>˜</quote> and with <quote>=</quote> for string searches.
+<quote>~</quote> and with <quote>=</quote> for string searches.
</para>
<para>
For example, when limiting a large folder to all messages sent to or by
an author, it's much faster to search for the initial part of an e-mail
address via <literal>=Luser@</literal> instead of
-<literal>˜Luser@</literal>. This is especially true for searching
+<literal>~Luser@</literal>. This is especially true for searching
message bodies since a larger amount of input has to be searched.
</para>
<para>
As for regular expressions, a lower case string search pattern makes
Mutt perform a case-insensitive search except for IMAP (because for IMAP
-Mutt performs server-side searches which don't support case-insensivity).
+Mutt performs server-side searches which don't support
+case-insensitivity).
</para>
</sect1>
<title>Command-Line Options</title>
<para>
-Running <literal>mutt</literal> with no arguments will make Mutt attempt to read your spool
-mailbox. However, it is possible to read other mailboxes and
-to send messages from the command line as well.
+Running <literal>mutt</literal> with no arguments will make Mutt attempt
+to read your spool mailbox. However, it is possible to read other
+mailboxes and to send messages from the command line as well.
</para>
<table id="tab-commandline-options">
<arg choice="opt" rep="repeat"/>
--
</arg>
-<arg choice="plain" rep="repeat">
+<group choice="plain" rep="repeat">
+<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable>address</replaceable>
</arg>
+<arg choice="plain">
+<replaceable>mailto_url</replaceable>
+</arg>
+</group>
</cmdsynopsis>
<para>
-Mutt also supports a <quote>batch</quote> mode to send prepared messages. Simply redirect
-input from the file you wish to send. For example,
+Mutt also supports a <quote>batch</quote> mode to send prepared
+messages. Simply redirect input from the file you wish to send. For
+example,
</para>
<screen>
-mutt -s "data set for run #2" professor@bigschool.edu < ˜/run2.dat</screen>
+mutt -s "data set for run #2" professor@bigschool.edu < ~/run2.dat</screen>
<para>
-will send a message to <literal><professor@bigschool.edu></literal> with a subject
-of <quote>data set for run #2</quote>. In the body of the message will be the contents
-of the file <quote>˜/run2.dat</quote>.
+will send a message to
+<literal><professor@bigschool.edu></literal> with a subject of
+<quote>data set for run #2</quote>. In the body of the message will be
+the contents of the file <quote>~/run2.dat</quote>.
</para>
<para>
-All files passed with <literal>-a</literal> <emphasis>file</emphasis> will be attached as a MIME
-part to the message. To attach a single or several files, use <quote>--</quote> to separate files and
-recipient addresses:
+All files passed with <literal>-a</literal> <emphasis>file</emphasis>
+will be attached as a MIME part to the message. To attach a single or
+several files, use <quote>--</quote> to separate files and recipient
+addresses:
</para>
<screen>
</para>
</note>
+<para>
+In addition to accepting a list of email addresses, Mutt also accepts a URL with
+the <literal>mailto:</literal> schema as specified in RFC2368. This is useful
+when configuring a web browser to launch Mutt when clicking on mailto links.
+</para>
+
+<screen>
+mutt mailto:some@one.org?subject=test&cc=other@one.org</screen>
+
</sect1>
<sect1 id="commands">
<cmdsynopsis>
<command><link linkend="attachments">attachments</link></command>
<arg choice="plain">
-<replaceable>{ + | - }disposition</replaceable>
+<replaceable>{ + | - }disposition</replaceable>
</arg>
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable>mime-type</replaceable>
<command><link linkend="attachments">unattachments</link></command>
<arg choice="plain">
-<replaceable>{ + | - }disposition</replaceable>
+<replaceable>{ + | - }disposition</replaceable>
</arg>
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable>mime-type</replaceable>
<listitem>
<cmdsynopsis>
-<command><link linkend="auto-view">auto-view</link></command>
+<command><link linkend="auto-view">auto_view</link></command>
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable>mimetype</replaceable>
</arg>
<replaceable>mimetype</replaceable>
</arg>
-<command><link linkend="auto-view">unauto-view</link></command>
+<command><link linkend="auto-view">unauto_view</link></command>
<group choice="req">
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable>*</replaceable>
<cmdsynopsis>
<command><link linkend="fcc-hook">fcc-hook</link></command>
<arg choice="plain">
-<replaceable class="parameter">[!]pattern</replaceable>
+<replaceable class="parameter">[!]pattern</replaceable>
</arg>
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable class="parameter">mailbox</replaceable>
<cmdsynopsis>
<command><link linkend="fcc-save-hook">fcc-save-hook</link></command>
<arg choice="plain">
-<replaceable class="parameter">[!]pattern</replaceable>
+<replaceable class="parameter">[!]pattern</replaceable>
</arg>
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable class="parameter">mailbox</replaceable>
<cmdsynopsis>
<command><link linkend="folder-hook">folder-hook</link></command>
<arg choice="plain">
-<replaceable class="parameter">[!]regexp</replaceable>
+<replaceable class="parameter">[!]regexp</replaceable>
</arg>
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable class="parameter">command</replaceable>
<listitem>
<cmdsynopsis>
-<command><link linkend="hdr-order">hdr_order</link></command>
+<command><link linkend="hdr-order">hdr_order</link></command>
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable class="parameter">header</replaceable>
</arg>
<replaceable class="parameter">header</replaceable>
</arg>
-<command><link linkend="hdr-order">unhdr_order</link></command>
+<command><link linkend="hdr-order">unhdr_order</link></command>
<group choice="req">
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable>*</replaceable>
<cmdsynopsis>
<command><link linkend="mbox-hook">mbox-hook</link></command>
<arg choice="plain">
-<replaceable class="parameter">[!]pattern</replaceable>
+<replaceable class="parameter">[!]pattern</replaceable>
</arg>
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable class="parameter">mailbox</replaceable>
<cmdsynopsis>
<command><link linkend="message-hook">message-hook</link></command>
<arg choice="plain">
-<replaceable class="parameter">[!]pattern</replaceable>
+<replaceable class="parameter">[!]pattern</replaceable>
</arg>
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable class="parameter">command</replaceable>
<listitem>
<cmdsynopsis>
-<command><link linkend="my-hdr">my_hdr</link></command>
+<command><link linkend="my-hdr">my_hdr</link></command>
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable class="parameter">string</replaceable>
</arg>
-<command><link linkend="my-hdr">unmy_hdr</link></command>
+<command><link linkend="my-hdr">unmy_hdr</link></command>
<group choice="req">
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable class="parameter">*</replaceable>
<cmdsynopsis>
<command><link linkend="save-hook">save-hook</link></command>
<arg choice="plain">
-<replaceable class="parameter">[!]pattern</replaceable>
+<replaceable class="parameter">[!]pattern</replaceable>
</arg>
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable class="parameter">mailbox</replaceable>
<cmdsynopsis>
<command><link linkend="reply-hook">reply-hook</link></command>
<arg choice="plain">
-<replaceable class="parameter">[!]pattern</replaceable>
+<replaceable class="parameter">[!]pattern</replaceable>
</arg>
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable class="parameter">command</replaceable>
<cmdsynopsis>
<command><link linkend="send-hook">send-hook</link></command>
<arg choice="plain">
-<replaceable class="parameter">[!]pattern</replaceable>
+<replaceable class="parameter">[!]pattern</replaceable>
</arg>
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable class="parameter">command</replaceable>
<cmdsynopsis>
<command><link linkend="send2-hook">send2-hook</link></command>
<arg choice="plain">
-<replaceable class="parameter">[!]pattern</replaceable>
+<replaceable class="parameter">[!]pattern</replaceable>
</arg>
<arg choice="plain">
<replaceable class="parameter">command</replaceable>
projects / software / mutt-debian.git / blobdiff