1 <!doctype linuxdoc system>
5 <title>The Mutt E-Mail Client
6 <author>by Michael Elkins <htmlurl url="mailto:me@cs.hmc.edu" name="<me@cs.hmc.edu>">
7 <date>version @VERSION@
9 ``All mail clients suck. This one just sucks less.'' -me, circa 1995
16 <bf/Mutt/ is a small but very powerful text-based MIME mail client. Mutt is
17 highly configurable, and is well suited to the mail power user with advanced
18 features like key bindings, keyboard macros, mail threading, regular
19 expression searches and a powerful pattern matching language for selecting
24 <htmlurl url="http://www.mutt.org/"
25 name="http://www.mutt.org/">
29 To subscribe to one of the following mailing lists, send a message with the
30 word <em/subscribe/ in the body to
31 <tt/list-name/<em/-request/<tt/@mutt.org/.
34 <item><htmlurl url="mailto:mutt-announce-request@mutt.org"
35 name="mutt-announce@mutt.org"> -- low traffic list for announcements
36 <item><htmlurl url="mailto:mutt-users-request@mutt.org"
37 name="mutt-users@mutt.org"> -- help, bug reports and feature requests
38 <item><htmlurl url="mailto:mutt-dev-request@mutt.org" name="mutt-dev@mutt.org"> -- development mailing list
41 <bf/Note:/ all messages posted to <em/mutt-announce/ are automatically
42 forwarded to <em/mutt-users/, so you do not need to be subscribed to both
45 <sect1>Software Distribution Sites
48 <item><htmlurl url="ftp://ftp.mutt.org/mutt/"
49 name="ftp://ftp.mutt.org/mutt/">
52 For a list of mirror sites, please refer to <htmlurl
53 url="http://www.mutt.org/download.html"
54 name="http://www.mutt.org/download.html">.
58 Visit channel <em/#mutt/ on <htmlurl
59 url="http://www.openprojects.net" name="OpenProjects.Net
60 (www.openprojects.net)"> to chat with other people interested in Mutt.
64 See the newsgroup <htmlurl url="news:comp.mail.mutt" name="comp.mail.mutt">.
68 Mutt is Copyright (C) 1996-2000 Michael R. Elkins
69 <me@cs.hmc.edu> and others
71 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
72 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
73 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
74 (at your option) any later version.
76 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
77 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
78 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
79 GNU General Public License for more details.
81 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
82 along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
83 Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111, USA.
88 This section is intended as a brief overview of how to use Mutt. There are
89 many other features which are described elsewhere in the manual. There
90 is even more information available in the Mutt FAQ and various web
91 pages. See the <htmlurl url="http://www.mutt.org/mutt/"
92 name="Mutt Page"> for more details.
94 The keybindings described in this section are the defaults as distributed.
95 Your local system administrator may have altered the defaults for your site.
96 You can always type ``?'' in any menu to display the current bindings.
98 The first thing you need to do is invoke mutt, simply by typing mutt
99 at the command line. There are various command-line options, see
100 either the mutt man page or the <ref id="commandline" name="reference">.
102 <sect1>Moving Around in Menus
105 Information is presented in menus, very similar to ELM. Here is a table
106 showing the common keys used to navigate menus in Mutt.
109 j or Down next-entry move to the next entry
110 k or Up previous-entry move to the previous entry
111 z or PageDn page-down go to the next page
112 Z or PageUp page-up go to the previous page
113 = or Home first-entry jump to the first entry
114 * or End last-entry jump to the last entry
115 q quit exit the current menu
116 ? help list all keybindings for the current menu
119 <sect1>Editing Input Fields<label id="editing">
121 Mutt has a builtin line editor which is used as the primary way to input
122 textual data such as email addresses or filenames. The keys used to move
123 around while editing are very similar to those of Emacs.
126 ^A or <Home> bol move to the start of the line
127 ^B or <Left> backward-char move back one char
128 Esc B backward-word move back one word
129 ^D or <Delete> delete-char delete the char under the cursor
130 ^E or <End> eol move to the end of the line
131 ^F or <Right> forward-char move forward one char
132 Esc F forward-word move forward one word
133 <Tab> complete complete filename or alias
134 ^T complete-query complete address with query
135 ^K kill-eol delete to the end of the line
136 ESC d kill-eow delete to the end ot the word
137 ^W kill-word kill the word in front of the cursor
138 ^U kill-line delete entire line
139 ^V quote-char quote the next typed key
140 <Up> history-up recall previous string from history
141 <Down> history-down recall next string from history
142 <BackSpace> backspace kill the char in front of the cursor
143 Esc u upcase-word convert word to upper case
144 Esc l downcase-word convert word to lower case
145 Esc c capitalize-word capitalize the word
147 <Return> n/a finish editing
150 You can remap the <em/editor/ functions using the <ref id="bind" name="bind">
151 command. For example, to make the <em/Delete/ key delete the character in
152 front of the cursor rather than under, you could use
154 <tt/bind editor <delete> backspace/
156 <sect1>Reading Mail - The Index and Pager
159 Similar to many other mail clients, there are two modes in which mail is
160 read in Mutt. The first is the index of messages in the mailbox, which is
161 called the ``index'' in Mutt. The second mode is the display of the
162 message contents. This is called the ``pager.''
164 The next few sections describe the functions provided in each of these
167 <sect2>The Message Index
171 c change to a different mailbox
172 ESC c change to a folder in read-only mode
173 C copy the current message to another mailbox
174 ESC C decode a message and copy it to a folder
175 ESC s decode a message and save it to a folder
176 D delete messages matching a pattern
177 d delete the current message
179 l show messages matching a pattern
180 N mark message as new
181 o change the current sort method
182 O reverse sort the mailbox
183 q save changes and exit
185 T tag messages matching a pattern
186 t toggle the tag on a message
187 ESC t toggle tag on entire message thread
188 U undelete messages matching a pattern
191 x abort changes and exit
192 <Return> display-message
193 <Tab> jump to the next new message
194 @ show the author's full e-mail address
195 $ save changes to mailbox
198 ^L clear and redraw the screen
199 ^T untag messages matching a pattern
205 In addition to who sent the message and the subject, a short summary of
206 the disposition of each message is printed beside the message number.
207 Zero or more of the following ``flags'' may appear, which mean:
211 <tag/D/ message is deleted (is marked for deletion)
212 <tag/d/ message have attachments marked for deletion
213 <tag/K/ contains a PGP public key
214 <tag/N/ message is new
215 <tag/O/ message is old
216 <tag/P/ message is PGP encrypted
217 <tag/r/ message has been replied to
218 <tag/S/ message is signed, and the signature is succesfully verified
219 <tag/s/ message is signed
220 <tag/!/ message is flagged
221 <tag/*/ message is tagged
224 Some of the status flags can be turned on or off using
226 <item><bf/set-flag/ (default: w)
227 <item><bf/clear-flag/ (default: W)
231 Furthermore, the following flags reflect who the message is addressed
232 to. They can be customized with the
233 <ref id="to_chars" name="$to_chars"> variable.
237 <tag/+/ message is to you and you only
238 <tag/T/ message is to you, but also to or cc'ed to others
239 <tag/C/ message is cc'ed to you
240 <tag/F/ message is from you
241 <tag/L/ message is sent to a subscribed mailing list
247 By default, Mutt uses its builtin pager to display the body of messages.
248 The pager is very similar to the Unix program <em/less/ though not nearly as
252 <Return> go down one line
253 <Space> display the next page (or next message if at the end of a message)
254 - go back to the previous page
255 n search for next match
256 S skip beyond quoted text
257 T toggle display of quoted text
259 / search for a regular expression (pattern)
260 ESC / search backwards for a regular expression
261 \ toggle search pattern coloring
262 ^ jump to the top of the message
265 In addition, many of the functions from the <em/index/ are available in
266 the pager, such as <em/delete-message/ or <em/copy-message/ (this is one
267 advantage over using an external pager to view messages).
269 Also, the internal pager supports a couple other advanced features. For
270 one, it will accept and translate the ``standard'' nroff sequences for
271 bold and underline. These sequences are a series of either the letter,
272 backspace (^H), the letter again for bold or the letter, backspace,
273 ``_'' for denoting underline. Mutt will attempt to display these
274 in bold and underline respectively if your terminal supports them. If
275 not, you can use the bold and underline <ref id="color" name="color">
276 objects to specify a color or mono attribute for them.
278 Additionally, the internal pager supports the ANSI escape sequences for
279 character attributes. Mutt translates them into the correct color and
280 character settings. The sequences Mutt supports are:
284 ESC [ Ps;Ps;Ps;...;Ps m
291 3x Foreground color is x
292 4x Background color is x
305 Mutt uses these attributes for handling text/enriched messages, and they
306 can also be used by an external <ref id="auto_view" name="autoview">
307 script for highlighting purposes. <bf/Note:/ If you change the colors for your
308 display, for example by changing the color associated with color2 for
309 your xterm, then that color will be used instead of green.
311 <sect2>Threaded Mode<label id="threads">
313 When the mailbox is <ref id="sort" name="sorted"> by <em/threads/, there are
314 a few additional functions available in the <em/index/ and <em/pager/ modes.
317 ^D delete-thread delete all messages in the current thread
318 ^U undelete-thread undelete all messages in the current thread
319 ^N next-thread jump to the start of the next thread
320 ^P previous-thread jump to the start of the previous thread
321 ^R read-thread mark the current thread as read
322 ESC d delete-subthread delete all messages in the current subthread
323 ESC u undelete-subthread undelete all messages in the current subthread
324 ESC n next-subthread jump to the start of the next subthread
325 ESC p previous-subthread jump to the start of the previous subthread
326 ESC r read-subthread mark the current subthread as read
327 ESC t tag-thread toggle the tag on the current thread
328 ESC v collapse-thread toggle collapse for the current thread
329 ESC V collapse-all toggle collapse for all threads
330 P parent-message jump to parent message in thread
333 <bf/Note:/ Collapsing a thread displays only the first message
334 in the thread and hides the others. This is useful when threads
335 contain so many messages that you can only see a handful of threads on
336 the screen. See %M in <ref id="index_format"name="$index_format">.
337 For example, you could use "%?M?(#%03M)&(%4l)?" in <ref
338 id="index_format"name="$index_format"> to optionally
339 display the number of hidden messages if the thread is collapsed.
341 See also: <ref id="strict_threads" name="$strict_threads">.
343 <sect2>Miscellaneous Functions
344 <p><bf/create-alias/<label id="create-alias"> (default: a)<newline>
346 Creates a new alias based upon the current message (or prompts for a
347 new one). Once editing is complete, an <ref id="alias" name="alias">
348 command is added to the file specified by the <ref id="alias_file"
349 name="$alias_file"> variable for future use. <bf/Note:/
350 Specifying an <ref id="alias_file" name="$alias_file">
351 does not add the aliases specified there-in, you must also <ref
352 id="source" name="source"> the file.
354 <p><bf/check-traditional-pgp/<label id="check-traditional-pgp"> (default: ESC P)<newline>
356 This function will search the current message for content signed or
357 encrypted with PGP the "traditional" way, that is, without proper
358 MIME tagging. Technically, this function will temporarily change
359 the MIME content types of the body parts containing PGP data; this
360 is similar to the <ref id="edit-type" name="edit-type"> function's
364 <p><bf/display-toggle-weed/<label id="display-toggle-weed"> (default: h)<newline>
366 Toggles the weeding of message header fields specified by <ref id="ignore"
367 name="ignore"> commands.
369 <p><bf/edit/<label id="edit"> (default: e)<newline>
371 This command (available in the ``index'' and ``pager'') allows you to
372 edit the raw current message as it's present in the mail folder.
373 After you have finished editing, the changed message will be
374 appended to the current folder, and the original message will be
377 <p><bf/edit-type/<label id="edit-type"><newline>
378 (default: ^E on the attachment menu, and in the pager and index menus; ^T on the
381 This command is used to temporarily edit an attachment's content
382 type to fix, for instance, bogus character set parameters. When
383 invoked from the index or from the pager, you'll have the
384 opportunity to edit the top-level attachment's content type. On the
385 <ref id="attach_menu" name="attachment menu">, you can change any
386 attachment's content type. These changes are not persistent, and get
387 lost upon changing folders.
389 Note that this command is also available on the <ref
390 id="compose_menu" name="compose menu">. There, it's used to
391 fine-tune the properties of attachments you are going to send.
393 <p><bf/enter-command/<label id="enter-command"> (default: ``:'')<newline>
395 This command is used to execute any command you would normally put in a
396 configuration file. A common use is to check the settings of variables, or
397 in conjunction with <ref id="macro" name="macros"> to change settings on the
400 <p><bf/extract-keys/<label id="extract-keys"> (default: ^K)<newline>
402 This command extracts PGP public keys from the current or tagged
403 message(s) and adds them to your PGP public key ring.
405 <p><bf/forget-passphrase/<label id="forget-passphrase"> (default:
408 This command wipes the passphrase(s) from memory. It is useful, if
409 you misspelled the passphrase.
411 <p><bf/list-reply/<label id="list-reply"> (default: L)<newline>
413 Reply to the current or tagged message(s) by extracting any addresses which
414 match the addresses given by the <ref id="lists" name="lists or subscribe">
415 commands, but also honor any <tt/Mail-Followup-To/ header(s) if the
416 <ref id="honor_followup_to" name="$honor_followup_to">
417 configuration variable is set. Using this when replying to messages posted
418 to mailing lists helps avoid duplicate copies being sent to the author of
419 the message you are replying to.
421 <bf/pipe-message/<label id="pipe-message"> (default: |)<newline>
423 Asks for an external Unix command and pipes the current or
424 tagged message(s) to it. The variables <ref id="pipe_decode"
425 name="$pipe_decode">, <ref id="pipe_split"
426 name="$pipe_split">, <ref id="pipe_sep"
427 name="$pipe_sep"> and <ref id="wait_key"
428 name="$wait_key"> control the exact behaviour of this
431 <bf/resend-message/<label id="resend-message"> (default: ESC e)<newline>
433 With resend-message, mutt takes the current message as a template for a
434 new message. This function is best described as "recall from arbitrary
435 folders". It can conveniently be used to forward MIME messages while
436 preserving the original mail structure. Note that the amount of headers
437 included here depends on the value of the <ref id="weed" name="$weed">
440 This function is also available from the attachment menu. You can use this
441 to easily resend a message which was included with a bounce message
442 as a message/rfc822 body part.
444 <bf/shell-escape/<label id="shell-escape"> (default: !)<newline>
446 Asks for an external Unix command and executes it. The <ref
447 id="wait_key" name="$wait_key"> can be used to control
448 whether Mutt will wait for a key to be pressed when the command returns
449 (presumably to let the user read the output of the command), based on
450 the return status of the named command.
452 <bf/toggle-quoted/<label id="toggle-quoted"> (default: T)<newline>
454 The <em/pager/ uses the <ref id="quote_regexp"
455 name="$quote_regexp"> variable to detect quoted text when
456 displaying the body of the message. This function toggles the display
457 of the quoted material in the message. It is particularly useful when
458 are interested in just the response and there is a large amount of
459 quoted text in the way.
461 <bf/skip-quoted/<label id="skip-quoted"> (default: S)<newline>
463 This function will go to the next line of non-quoted text which come
464 after a line of quoted text in the internal pager.
469 The following bindings are available in the <em/index/ for sending
473 m compose compose a new message
474 r reply reply to sender
475 g group-reply reply to all recipients
476 L list-reply reply to mailing list address
477 f forward forward message
478 b bounce bounce (remail) message
479 ESC k mail-key mail a PGP public key to someone
482 Bouncing a message sends the message as is to the recipient you
483 specify. Forwarding a message allows you to add comments or
484 modify the message you are forwarding. These items are discussed
485 in greater detail in the next chapter <ref id="forwarding_mail"
486 name="``Forwarding and Bouncing Mail''">.
488 Mutt will then enter the <em/compose/ menu and prompt you for the
489 recipients to place on the ``To:'' header field. Next, it will ask
490 you for the ``Subject:'' field for the message, providing a default if
491 you are replying to or forwarding a message. See also <ref id="askcc"
492 name="$askcc">, <ref id="askbcc" name="$askbcc">, <ref
493 id="autoedit" name="$autoedit">, <ref id="bounce"
494 name="$bounce">, and <ref id="fast_reply"
495 name="$fast_reply"> for changing how Mutt asks these
498 Mutt will then automatically start your <ref id="editor"
499 name="$editor"> on the message body. If the <ref id="edit_headers"
500 name="$edit_headers"> variable is set, the headers will be at
501 the top of the message in your editor. Any messages you are replying
502 to will be added in sort order to the message, with appropriate <ref
503 id="attribution" name="$attribution">, <ref id="indent_string"
504 name="$indent_string"> and <ref id="post_indent_string"
505 name="$post_indent_string">. When forwarding a
506 message, if the <ref id="mime_forward" name="$mime_forward">
507 variable is unset, a copy of the forwarded message will be included. If
508 you have specified a <ref id="signature" name="$signature">, it
509 will be appended to the message.
511 Once you have finished editing the body of your mail message, you are
512 returned to the <em/compose/ menu. The following options are available:
515 a attach-file attach a file
516 A attach-message attach message(s) to the message
517 ESC k attach-key attach a PGP public key
518 d edit-description edit description on attachment
519 D detach-file detach a file
520 t edit-to edit the To field
521 ESC f edit-from edit the From field
522 r edit-reply-to edit the Reply-To field
523 c edit-cc edit the Cc field
524 b edit-bcc edit the Bcc field
525 y send-message send the message
526 s edit-subject edit the Subject
527 S smime-menu select S/MIME options
528 f edit-fcc specify an ``Fcc'' mailbox
529 p pgp-menu select PGP options
530 P postpone-message postpone this message until later
531 q quit quit (abort) sending the message
532 w write-fcc write the message to a folder
533 i ispell check spelling (if available on your system)
534 ^F forget-passphrase wipe passphrase(s) from memory
537 <bf/Note:/ The attach-message function will prompt you for a folder to
538 attach messages from. You can now tag messages in that folder and they
539 will be attached to the message you are sending. Note that certain
540 operations like composing a new mail, replying, forwarding, etc. are
541 not permitted when you are in that folder. The %r in <ref
542 id="status_format" name="$status_format"> will change to
543 a 'A' to indicate that you are in attach-message mode.
545 <sect2>Editing the message header
547 When editing the header of your outgoing message, there are a couple of
548 special features available.
550 If you specify<newline>
551 <tt/Fcc:/ <em/filename/<newline>
552 Mutt will pick up <em/filename/
553 just as if you had used the <em/edit-fcc/ function in the <em/compose/ menu.
555 You can also attach files to your message by specifying<newline>
556 <tt/Attach:/ <em/filename/ [ <em/description/ ]<newline>
557 where <em/filename/ is the file to attach and <em/description/ is an
558 optional string to use as the description of the attached file.
560 When replying to messages, if you remove the <em/In-Reply-To:/ field from
561 the header field, Mutt will not generate a <em/References:/ field, which
562 allows you to create a new message thread.
564 Also see <ref id="edit_headers" name="edit_headers">.
566 <sect2>Using Mutt with PGP
569 If you want to use PGP, you can specify
571 <tt/Pgp:/ [ <tt/E/ | <tt/S/ | <tt/S/<em/<id>/ ] <newline>
573 ``E'' encrypts, ``S'' signs and
574 ``S<id>'' signs with the given key, setting <ref
575 id="pgp_sign_as" name="$pgp_sign_as"> permanently.
577 If you have told mutt to PGP encrypt a message, it will guide you
578 through a key selection process when you try to send the message.
579 Mutt will not ask you any questions about keys which have a
580 certified user ID matching one of the message recipients' mail
581 addresses. However, there may be situations in which there are
582 several keys, weakly certified user ID fields, or where no matching
585 In these cases, you are dropped into a menu with a list of keys from
586 which you can select one. When you quit this menu, or mutt can't
587 find any matching keys, you are prompted for a user ID. You can, as
588 usually, abort this prompt using <tt/^G/. When you do so, mutt will
589 return to the compose screen.
591 Once you have successfully finished the key selection, the message
592 will be encrypted using the selected public keys, and sent out.
594 Most fields of the entries in the key selection menu (see also <ref
595 id="pgp_entry_format" name="$pgp_entry_format">)
596 have obvious meanings. But some explanations on the capabilities, flags,
597 and validity fields are in order.
599 The flags sequence (%f) will expand to one of the following flags:
601 R The key has been revoked and can't be used.
602 X The key is expired and can't be used.
603 d You have marked the key as disabled.
604 c There are unknown critical self-signature
608 The capabilities field (%c) expands to a two-character sequence
609 representing a key's capabilities. The first character gives
610 the key's encryption capabilities: A minus sign (<bf/-/) means
611 that the key cannot be used for encryption. A dot (<bf/./) means that
612 it's marked as a signature key in one of the user IDs, but may
613 also be used for encryption. The letter <bf/e/ indicates that
614 this key can be used for encryption.
616 The second character indicates the key's signing capabilities. Once
617 again, a ``<bf/-/'' implies ``not for signing'', ``<bf/./'' implies
618 that the key is marked as an encryption key in one of the user-ids, and
619 ``<bf/s/'' denotes a key which can be used for signing.
621 Finally, the validity field (%t) indicates how well-certified a user-id
622 is. A question mark (<bf/?/) indicates undefined validity, a minus
623 character (<bf/-/) marks an untrusted association, a space character
624 means a partially trusted association, and a plus character (<bf/+/)
625 indicates complete validity.
627 <sect2>Sending anonymous messages via mixmaster.
630 You may also have configured mutt to co-operate with Mixmaster, an
631 anonymous remailer. Mixmaster permits you to send your messages
632 anonymously using a chain of remailers. Mixmaster support in mutt is for
633 mixmaster version 2.04 (beta 45 appears to be the latest) and 2.03.
634 It does not support earlier versions or the later so-called version 3 betas,
635 of which the latest appears to be called 2.9b23.
637 To use it, you'll have to obey certain restrictions. Most
638 important, you cannot use the <tt/Cc/ and <tt/Bcc/ headers. To tell
639 Mutt to use mixmaster, you have to select a remailer chain, using
640 the mix function on the compose menu.
642 The chain selection screen is divided into two parts. In the
643 (larger) upper part, you get a list of remailers you may use. In
644 the lower part, you see the currently selected chain of remailers.
646 You can navigate in the chain using the <tt/chain-prev/ and
647 <tt/chain-next/ functions, which are by default bound to the left
648 and right arrows and to the <tt/h/ and <tt/l/ keys (think vi
649 keyboard bindings). To insert a remailer at the current chain
650 position, use the <tt/insert/ function. To append a remailer behind
651 the current chain position, use <tt/select-entry/ or <tt/append/.
652 You can also delete entries from the chain, using the corresponding
653 function. Finally, to abandon your changes, leave the menu, or
654 <tt/accept/ them pressing (by default) the <tt/Return/ key.
656 Note that different remailers do have different capabilities,
657 indicated in the %c entry of the remailer menu lines (see
658 <ref id="mix_entry_format"
659 name="$mix_entry_format">). Most important is
660 the ``middleman'' capability, indicated by a capital ``M'': This
661 means that the remailer in question cannot be used as the final
662 element of a chain, but will only forward messages to other
663 mixmaster remailers. For details on the other capabilities, please
664 have a look at the mixmaster documentation.
666 <sect1>Forwarding and Bouncing Mail<label id="forwarding_mail">
669 Bouncing and forwarding let you send an existing message to recipients
670 that you specify. Bouncing a message uses the <ref id="sendmail"
671 name="sendmail"> command to send a copy to alternative addresses as if
672 they were the message's original recipients. Forwarding a message, on
673 the other hand, allows you to modify the message before it is resent
674 (for example, by adding your own comments).
676 The following keys are bound by default:
679 f forward forward message
680 b bounce bounce (remail) message
683 Forwarding can be done by including the original message in the new
684 message's body (surrounded by indicating lines) or including it as a MIME
685 attachment, depending on the value of the <ref id="mime_forward"
686 name="$mime_forward"> variable. Decoding of attachments,
687 like in the pager, can be controlled by the <ref id="forward_decode"
688 name="$forward_decode"> and <ref id="mime_forward_decode"
689 name="$mime_forward_decode"> variables,
690 respectively. The desired forwarding format may depend on the content,
691 therefore <em/$mime_forward/ is a quadoption which, for
692 example, can be set to ``ask-no''.
694 The inclusion of headers is controlled by the current setting of the
695 <ref id="weed" name="$weed"> variable, unless <ref
696 id="mime_forward" name="mime_forward"> is set.
698 Editing the message to forward follows the same procedure as sending or
699 replying to a message does.
701 <sect1>Postponing Mail<label id="postponing_mail">
704 At times it is desirable to delay sending a message that you have
705 already begun to compose. When the <em/postpone-message/ function is
706 used in the <em/compose/ menu, the body of your message and attachments
707 are stored in the mailbox specified by the <ref id="postponed"
708 name="$postponed"> variable. This means that you can recall the
709 message even if you exit Mutt and then restart it at a later time.
711 Once a message is postponed, there are several ways to resume it. From the
712 command line you can use the ``-p'' option, or if you <em/compose/ a new
713 message from the <em/index/ or <em/pager/ you will be prompted if postponed
714 messages exist. If multiple messages are currently postponed, the
715 <em/postponed/ menu will pop up and you can select which message you would
718 <bf/Note:/ If you postpone a reply to a message, the reply setting of
719 the message is only updated when you actually finish the message and
720 send it. Also, you must be in the same folder with the message you
721 replied to for the status of the message to be updated.
723 See also the <ref id="postpone" name="$postpone"> quad-option.
725 <sect1>Reading news via NNTP<label id="reading_news">
728 If compiled with ``--enable-nntp'' option, Mutt can read news from newsserver
729 via NNTP. You can open a newsgroup with function ``change-newsgroup''
730 (default: i). Default newsserver can be obtained from <em/NNTPSERVER/
731 environment variable. Like other news readers, info about subscribed
732 newsgroups is saved in file by <ref id="newsrc" name="$newsrc">
733 variable. Article headers are cached and can be loaded from file when
734 newsgroup entered instead loading from newsserver.
739 While the default configuration (or ``preferences'') make Mutt
740 usable right out of the box, it is often desirable to tailor Mutt to
741 suit your own tastes. When Mutt is first invoked, it will attempt to
742 read the ``system'' configuration file (defaults set by your local
743 system administrator), unless the ``-n'' <ref id="commandline"
744 name="command line"> option is specified. This file is typically
745 <tt>/usr/local/share/mutt/Muttrc</tt> or <tt>/etc/Muttrc</tt>. Mutt
746 will next look for a file named <tt>.muttrc</tt> in your home
747 directory. If this file does not exist and your home directory has
748 a subdirectory named <tt/.mutt/, mutt try to load a file named
749 <tt>.mutt/muttrc</tt>.
751 <tt>.muttrc</tt> is the file where you will usually place your <ref
752 id="commands" name="commands"> to configure Mutt.
754 In addition, mutt supports version specific configuration files that are
755 parsed instead of the default files as explained above. For instance, if
756 your system has a <tt/Muttrc-0.88/ file in the system configuration
757 directory, and you are running version 0.88 of mutt, this file will be
758 sourced instead of the <tt/Muttrc/ file. The same is true of the user
759 configuration file, if you have a file <tt/.muttrc-0.88.6/ in your home
760 directory, when you run mutt version 0.88.6, it will source this file
761 instead of the default <tt/.muttrc/ file. The version number is the
762 same which is visible using the ``-v'' <ref id="commandline"
763 name="command line"> switch or using the <tt/show-version/ key (default:
764 V) from the index menu.
766 <sect1>Syntax of Initialization Files<label id="muttrc-syntax">
769 An initialization file consists of a series of <ref id="commands"
770 name="commands">. Each line of the file may contain one or more commands.
771 When multiple commands are used, they must be separated by a semicolon (;).
773 set realname='Mutt user' ; ignore x-
775 The hash mark, or pound sign
776 (``#''), is used as a ``comment'' character. You can use it to
777 annotate your initialization file. All text after the comment character
778 to the end of the line is ignored. For example,
781 my_hdr X-Disclaimer: Why are you listening to me? # This is a comment
784 Single quotes (') and double quotes (&dquot;) can be used to quote strings
785 which contain spaces or other special characters. The difference between
786 the two types of quotes is similar to that of many popular shell programs,
787 namely that a single quote is used to specify a literal string (one that is
788 not interpreted for shell variables or quoting with a backslash [see
789 next paragraph]), while double quotes indicate a string for which
790 should be evaluated. For example, backtics are evaluated inside of double
791 quotes, but <bf/not/ for single quotes.
793 \ quotes the next character, just as in shells such as bash and zsh.
794 For example, if want to put quotes ``&dquot;'' inside of a string, you can use
795 ``\'' to force the next character to be a literal instead of interpreted
798 set realname="Michael \"MuttDude\" Elkins"
801 ``\\'' means to insert a literal ``\'' into the line.
802 ``\n'' and ``\r'' have their usual C meanings of linefeed and
803 carriage-return, respectively.
805 A \ at the end of a line can be used to split commands over
806 multiple lines, provided that the split points don't appear in the
807 middle of command names.
809 It is also possible to substitute the output of a Unix command in an
810 initialization file. This is accomplished by enclosing the command in
811 backquotes (``). For example,
813 my_hdr X-Operating-System: `uname -a`
815 The output of the Unix command ``uname -a'' will be substituted before the
816 line is parsed. Note that since initialization files are line oriented, only
817 the first line of output from the Unix command will be substituted.
819 UNIX environments can be accessed like the way it is done in shells like
820 sh and bash: Prepend the name of the environment by a ``$''. For
823 set record=+sent_on_$HOSTNAME
826 The commands understood by mutt are explained in the next paragraphs.
827 For a complete list, see the <ref id="commands" name="command reference">.
829 <sect1>Defining/Using aliases<label id="alias">
832 Usage: <tt/alias/ <em/key/ <em/address/ [ , <em/address/, ... ]
834 It's usually very cumbersome to remember or type out the address of someone
835 you are communicating with. Mutt allows you to create ``aliases'' which map
836 a short string to a full address.
838 <bf/Note:/ if you want to create an alias for a group (by specifying more than
839 one address), you <bf/must/ separate the addresses with a comma (``,'').
841 To remove an alias or aliases (``*'' means all aliases):
843 <tt/unalias/ [ * | <em/key/ <em/.../ ]
846 alias muttdude me@cs.hmc.edu (Michael Elkins)
847 alias theguys manny, moe, jack
850 Unlike other mailers, Mutt doesn't require aliases to be defined
851 in a special file. The <tt/alias/ command can appear anywhere in
852 a configuration file, as long as this file is <ref id="source"
853 name="sourced">. Consequently, you can have multiple alias files, or
854 you can have all aliases defined in your muttrc.
856 On the other hand, the <ref id="create-alias" name="create-alias">
857 function can use only one file, the one pointed to by the <ref
858 id="alias_file" name="$alias_file"> variable (which is
859 <tt>˜/.muttrc</tt> by default). This file is not special either,
860 in the sense that Mutt will happily append aliases to any file, but in
861 order for the new aliases to take effect you need to explicitly <ref
862 id="source" name="source"> this file too.
867 source /usr/local/share/Mutt.aliases
868 source ~/.mail_aliases
869 set alias_file=~/.mail_aliases
872 To use aliases, you merely use the alias at any place in mutt where mutt
873 prompts for addresses, such as the <em/To:/ or <em/Cc:/ prompt. You can
874 also enter aliases in your editor at the appropriate headers if you have the
875 <ref id="edit_headers" name="$edit_headers"> variable set.
877 In addition, at the various address prompts, you can use the tab character
878 to expand a partial alias to the full alias. If there are multiple matches,
879 mutt will bring up a menu with the matching aliases. In order to be
880 presented with the full list of aliases, you must hit tab with out a partial
881 alias, such as at the beginning of the prompt or after a comma denoting
884 In the alias menu, you can select as many aliases as you want with the
885 <em/select-entry/ key (default: RET), and use the <em/exit/ key
886 (default: q) to return to the address prompt.
888 <sect1>Changing the default key bindings<label id="bind">
890 Usage: <tt/bind/ <em/map/ <em/key/ <em/function/
892 This command allows you to change the default key bindings (operation
893 invoked when pressing a key).
895 <em/map/ specifies in which menu the binding belongs. Multiple maps may
896 be specified by separating them with commas (no additional whitespace is
897 allowed). The currently defined maps are:
902 This is not a real menu, but is used as a fallback for all of the other
903 menus except for the pager and editor modes. If a key is not defined in
904 another menu, Mutt will look for a binding to use in this menu. This allows
905 you to bind a key to a certain function in multiple menus instead of having
906 multiple bind statements to accomplish the same task.
908 The alias menu is the list of your personal aliases as defined in your
909 muttrc. It is the mapping from a short alias name to the full email
910 address(es) of the recipient(s).
912 The attachment menu is used to access the attachments on received messages.
914 The browser is used for both browsing the local directory structure, and for
915 listing all of your incoming mailboxes.
917 The editor is the line-based editor the user enters text data.
919 The index is the list of messages contained in a mailbox.
921 The compose menu is the screen used when sending a new message.
923 The pager is the mode used to display message/attachment data, and help
926 The pgp menu is used to select the OpenPGP keys used for encrypting outgoing
929 The postpone menu is similar to the index menu, except is used when
930 recalling a message the user was composing, but saved until later.
933 <em/key/ is the key (or key sequence) you wish to bind. To specify a
934 control character, use the sequence <em/\Cx/, where <em/x/ is the
935 letter of the control character (for example, to specify control-A use
936 ``\Ca''). Note that the case of <em/x/ as well as <em/\C/ is
937 ignored, so that <em/\CA/, <em/\Ca/, <em/\cA/ and <em/\ca/ are all
938 equivalent. An alternative form is to specify the key as a three digit
939 octal number prefixed with a ``\'' (for example <em/\177/ is
940 equivalent to <em/\c?/).
942 In addition, <em/key/ may consist of:
957 <backspace> Backspace
966 <f10> function key 10
969 <em/key/ does not need to be enclosed in quotes unless it contains a
972 <em/function/ specifies which action to take when <em/key/ is pressed.
973 For a complete list of functions, see the <ref id="functions"
974 name="reference">. The special function <tt/noop/ unbinds the specified key
977 <sect1>Defining aliases for character sets <label id="charset-hook">
979 Usage: <tt/charset-hook/ <em/alias/ <em/charset/<newline>
980 Usage: <tt/iconv-hook/ <em/charset/ <em/local-charset/
982 The <tt/charset-hook/ command defines an alias for a character set.
983 This is useful to properly display messages which are tagged with a
984 character set name not known to mutt.
986 The <tt/iconv-hook/ command defines a system-specific name for a
987 character set. This is helpful when your systems character
988 conversion library insists on using strange, system-specific names
992 <sect1>Setting variables based upon mailbox<label id="folder-hook">
994 Usage: <tt/folder-hook/ [!]<em/regexp/ <em/command/
996 It is often desirable to change settings based on which mailbox you are
997 reading. The folder-hook command provides a method by which you can execute
998 any configuration command. <em/regexp/ is a regular expression specifying
999 in which mailboxes to execute <em/command/ before loading. If a mailbox
1000 matches multiple folder-hook's, they are executed in the order given in the
1003 <bf/Note:/ if you use the ``!'' shortcut for <ref id="spoolfile"
1004 name="$spoolfile"> at the beginning of the pattern, you must place it
1005 inside of double or single quotes in order to distinguish it from the
1006 logical <em/not/ operator for the expression.
1008 Note that the settings are <em/not/ restored when you leave the mailbox.
1009 For example, a command action to perform is to change the sorting method
1010 based upon the mailbox being read:
1013 folder-hook mutt set sort=threads
1016 However, the sorting method is not restored to its previous value when
1017 reading a different mailbox. To specify a <em/default/ command, use the
1022 folder-hook . set sort=date-sent
1025 <sect1>Keyboard macros<label id="macro">
1027 Usage: <tt/macro/ <em/menu/ <em/key/ <em/sequence/ [ <em/description/ ]
1029 Macros are useful when you would like a single key to perform a series of
1030 actions. When you press <em/key/ in menu <em/menu/, Mutt will behave as if
1031 you had typed <em/sequence/. So if you have a common sequence of commands
1032 you type, you can create a macro to execute those commands with a single
1035 <em/menu/ is the <ref id="maps" name="map"> which the macro will be bound.
1036 Multiple maps may be specified by separating multiple menu arguments by
1037 commas. Whitespace may not be used in between the menu arguments and the
1038 commas separating them.
1040 <em/key/ and <em/sequence/ are expanded by the same rules as the <ref
1041 id="bind" name="key bindings">. There are some additions however. The
1042 first is that control characters in <em/sequence/ can also be specified
1043 as <em/ˆx/. In order to get a caret (`ˆ'') you need to use
1044 <em/ˆˆ/. Secondly, to specify a certain key such as <em/up/
1045 or to invoke a function directly, you can use the format
1046 <em/<key name>/ and <em/<function name>/. For a listing of key
1047 names see the section on <ref id="bind" name="key bindings">. Functions
1048 are listed in the <ref id="functions" name="function reference">.
1050 The advantage with using function names directly is that the macros will
1051 work regardless of the current key bindings, so they are not dependent on
1052 the user having particular key definitions. This makes them more robust
1053 and portable, and also facilitates defining of macros in files used by more
1054 than one user (eg. the system Muttrc).
1056 Optionally you can specify a descriptive text after <em/sequence/,
1057 which is shown in the help screens.
1059 <bf/Note:/ Macro definitions (if any) listed in the help screen(s), are
1060 silently truncated at the screen width, and are not wrapped.
1062 <sect1>Using color and mono video attributes<label id="color">
1064 Usage: <tt/color/ <em/object/ <em/foreground/ <em/background/ [ <em/regexp/ ]<newline>
1065 Usage: <tt/color/ index <em/foreground/ <em/background/ <em/pattern/<newline>
1066 Usage: <tt/uncolor/ index <em/pattern/ [ <em/pattern/ ... ]<newline>
1068 If your terminal supports color, you can spice up Mutt by creating your own
1069 color scheme. To define the color of an object (type of information), you
1070 must specify both a foreground color <bf/and/ a background color (it is not
1071 possible to only specify one or the other).
1073 <em/object/ can be one of:
1077 <item>body (match <em/regexp/ in the body of messages)
1078 <item>bold (hiliting bold patterns in the body of messages)
1079 <item>error (error messages printed by Mutt)
1080 <item>header (match <em/regexp/ in the message header)
1081 <item>hdrdefault (default color of the message header in the pager)
1082 <item>index (match <em/pattern/ in the message index)
1083 <item>indicator (arrow or bar used to indicate the current item in a menu)
1084 <item>markers (the ``+'' markers at the beginning of wrapped lines in the pager)
1085 <item>message (informational messages)
1087 <item>quoted (text matching <ref id="quote_regexp"
1088 name="$quote_regexp"> in the body of a message)
1089 <item>quoted1, quoted2, ..., quoted<bf/N/ (higher levels of quoting)
1090 <item>search (hiliting of words in the pager)
1092 <item>status (mode lines used to display info about the mailbox or message)
1093 <item>tilde (the ``˜'' used to pad blank lines in the pager)
1094 <item>tree (thread tree drawn in the message index and attachment menu)
1095 <item>underline (hiliting underlined patterns in the body of messages)
1098 <em/foreground/ and <em/background/ can be one of the following:
1113 <em/foreground/ can optionally be prefixed with the keyword <tt/bright/ to make
1114 the foreground color boldfaced (e.g., <tt/brightred/).
1116 If your terminal supports it, the special keyword <em/default/ can be
1117 used as a transparent color. The value <em/brightdefault/ is also valid.
1118 If Mutt is linked against the <em/S-Lang/ library, you also need to set
1119 the <em/COLORFGBG/ environment variable to the default colors of your
1120 terminal for this to work; for example (for Bourne-like shells):
1123 set COLORFGBG="green;black"
1127 <bf/Note:/ The <em/S-Lang/ library requires you to use the <em/lightgray/
1128 and <em/brown/ keywords instead of <em/white/ and <em/yellow/ when
1129 setting this variable.
1131 <bf/Note:/ The uncolor command can be applied to the index object only. It
1132 removes entries from the list. You <bf/must/ specify the same pattern
1133 specified in the color command for it to be removed. The pattern ``*'' is
1134 a special token which means to clear the color index list of all entries.
1136 Mutt also recognizes the keywords <em/color0/, <em/color1/, …,
1137 <em/color/<bf/N-1/ (<bf/N/ being the number of colors supported
1138 by your terminal). This is useful when you remap the colors for your
1139 display (for example by changing the color associated with <em/color2/
1140 for your xterm), since color names may then lose their normal meaning.
1142 If your terminal does not support color, it is still possible change the video
1143 attributes through the use of the ``mono'' command:
1145 Usage: <tt/mono/ <em/<object> <attribute>/ [ <em/regexp/ ]<newline>
1146 Usage: <tt/mono/ index <em/attribute/ <em/pattern/<newline>
1147 Usage: <tt/unmono/ index <em/pattern/ [ <em/pattern/ ... ]<newline>
1149 where <em/attribute/ is one of the following:
1159 <sect1>Ignoring (weeding) unwanted message headers<label id="ignore">
1161 Usage: <tt/[un]ignore/ <em/pattern/ [ <em/pattern/ ... ]
1163 Messages often have many header fields added by automatic processing systems,
1164 or which may not seem useful to display on the screen. This command allows
1165 you to specify header fields which you don't normally want to see.
1167 You do not need to specify the full header field name. For example,
1168 ``ignore content-'' will ignore all header fields that begin with the pattern
1169 ``content-''. ``ignore *'' will ignore all headers.
1171 To remove a previously added token from the list, use the ``unignore'' command.
1172 The ``unignore'' command will make Mutt display headers with the given pattern.
1173 For example, if you do ``ignore x-'' it is possible to ``unignore x-mailer''.
1175 ``unignore *'' will remove all tokens from the ignore list.
1179 # Sven's draconian header weeding
1181 unignore from date subject to cc
1182 unignore organization organisation x-mailer: x-newsreader: x-mailing-list:
1186 <sect1>Alternative addresses<label id="alternates">
1188 Usage: <tt/[un]alternates/ <em/regexp/ [ <em/regexp/ ... ]<newline>
1190 With various functions, mutt will treat messages differently,
1191 depending on whether you sent them or whether you received them from
1192 someone else. For instance, when replying to a message that you
1193 sent to a different party, mutt will automatically suggest to send
1194 the response to the original message's recipients -- responding to
1195 yourself won't make much sense in many cases. (See <ref
1196 id="reply_to" name="$reply_to">.)
1198 Many users receive e-mail under a number of different addresses. To
1199 fully use mutt's features here, the program must be able to
1200 recognize what e-mail addresses you receive mail under. That's the
1201 purpose of the <tt/alternates/ command: It takes a list of regular
1202 expressions, each of which can identify an address under which you
1205 To remove a regular expression from this list, use the
1206 <tt/unalternates/ command.
1208 <sect1>Mailing lists<label id="lists">
1210 Usage: <tt/[un]lists/ <em/regexp/ [ <em/regexp/ ... ]<newline>
1211 Usage: <tt/[un]subscribe/ <em/regexp/ [ <em/regexp/ ... ]
1213 Mutt has a few nice features for <ref id="using_lists" name="handling
1214 mailing lists">. In order to take advantage of them, you must
1215 specify which addresses belong to mailing lists, and which mailing
1216 lists you are subscribed to. Once you have done this, the <ref
1217 id="list-reply" name="list-reply"> function will work for all known lists.
1218 Additionally, when you send a message to a subscribed list, mutt will
1219 add a Mail-Followup-To header to tell other users' mail user agents
1220 not to send copies of replies to your personal address. Note that
1221 the Mail-Followup-To header is a non-standard extension which is not
1222 supported by all mail user agents. Adding it is not bullet-proof against
1223 receiving personal CCs of list messages. Also note that the generation
1224 of the Mail-Followup-To header is controlled by the <ref id="followup_to"
1225 name="$followup_to"> configuration variable.
1227 More precisely, Mutt maintains lists of patterns for the addresses
1228 of known and subscribed mailing lists. Every subscribed mailing
1229 list is known. To mark a mailing list as known, use the ``lists''
1230 command. To mark it as subscribed, use ``subscribe''.
1232 You can use regular expressions with both commands. To mark all
1233 messages sent to a specific bug report's address on mutt's bug
1234 tracking system as list mail, for instance, you could say
1235 ``subscribe [0-9]*@bugs.guug.de''. Often, it's sufficient to just
1236 give a portion of the list's e-mail address.
1238 Specify as much of the address as you need to to remove ambiguity. For
1239 example, if you've subscribed to the Mutt mailing list, you will receive mail
1240 addresssed to <em/mutt-users@mutt.org/. So, to tell Mutt that this is a
1241 mailing list, you could add ``lists mutt-users'' to your
1242 initialization file. To tell mutt that you are subscribed to it,
1243 add ``subscribe mutt-users'' to your initialization file instead.
1244 If you also happen to get mail from someone whose address is
1245 <em/mutt-users@example.com/, you could use ``lists mutt-users@mutt.org''
1246 or ``subscribe mutt-users@mutt.org'' to
1247 match only mail from the actual list.
1249 The ``unlists'' command is used to remove a token from the list of
1250 known and subscribed mailing-lists. Use ``unlists *'' to remove all
1253 To remove a mailing list from the list of subscribed mailing lists,
1254 but keep it on the list of known mailing lists, use ``unsubscribe''.
1256 <sect1>Using Multiple spool mailboxes<label id="mbox-hook">
1258 Usage: <tt/mbox-hook/ [!]<em/pattern/ <em/mailbox/
1260 This command is used to move read messages from a specified mailbox to a
1261 different mailbox automatically when you quit or change folders.
1262 <em/pattern/ is a regular expression specifying the mailbox to treat as a
1263 ``spool'' mailbox and <em/mailbox/ specifies where mail should be saved when
1266 Unlike some of the other <em/hook/ commands, only the <em/first/ matching
1267 pattern is used (it is not possible to save read mail in more than a single
1270 <sect1>Defining mailboxes which receive mail<label id="mailboxes">
1272 Usage: <tt/[un]mailboxes/ [!]<em/filename/ [ <em/filename/ ... ]
1274 This command specifies folders which can receive mail and
1275 which will be checked for new messages. By default, the
1276 main menu status bar displays how many of these folders have
1279 When changing folders, pressing <em/space/ will cycle
1280 through folders with new mail.
1282 Pressing TAB in the directory browser will bring up a menu showing the files
1283 specified by the <tt/mailboxes/ command, and indicate which contain new
1284 messages. Mutt will automatically enter this mode when invoked from the
1285 command line with the <tt/-y/ option.
1287 The ``unmailboxes'' command is used to remove a token from the list
1288 of folders which receive mail. Use ``unmailboxes *'' to remove all
1292 <bf/Note:/ new mail is detected by comparing the last modification time to
1293 the last access time. Utilities like <tt/biff/ or <tt/frm/ or any other
1294 program which accesses the mailbox might cause Mutt to never detect new mail
1295 for that mailbox if they do not properly reset the access time. Backup
1296 tools are another common reason for updated access times.
1299 <bf/Note:/ the filenames in the <tt/mailboxes/ command are resolved when
1300 the command is executed, so if these names contain <ref id="shortcuts"
1301 name="shortcut characters"> (such as ``='' and ``!''), any variable
1302 definition that affect these characters (like <ref id="folder"
1303 name="$folder"> and <ref id="spoolfile" name="$spoolfile">)
1304 should be executed before the <tt/mailboxes/ command.
1306 <sect1>User defined headers<label id="my_hdr">
1309 <tt/my_hdr/ <em/string/<newline>
1310 <tt/unmy_hdr/ <em/field/ [ <em/field/ ... ]
1312 The ``my_hdr'' command allows you to create your own header
1313 fields which will be added to every message you send.
1315 For example, if you would like to add an ``Organization:'' header field to
1316 all of your outgoing messages, you can put the command
1319 my_hdr Organization: A Really Big Company, Anytown, USA
1322 in your <tt/.muttrc/.
1324 <bf/Note:/ space characters are <em/not/ allowed between the keyword and
1325 the colon (``:''). The standard for electronic mail (RFC822) says that
1326 space is illegal there, so Mutt enforces the rule.
1328 If you would like to add a header field to a single message, you should
1329 either set the <ref id="edit_headers" name="edit_headers"> variable,
1330 or use the <em/edit-headers/ function (default: ``E'') in the send-menu so
1331 that you can edit the header of your message along with the body.
1333 To remove user defined header fields, use the ``unmy_hdr''
1334 command. You may specify an asterisk (``*'') to remove all header
1335 fields, or the fields to remove. For example, to remove all ``To'' and
1336 ``Cc'' header fields, you could use:
1342 <sect1>Defining the order of headers when viewing messages<label id="hdr_order">
1344 Usage: <tt/hdr_order/ <em/header1/ <em/header2/ <em/header3/
1346 With this command, you can specify an order in which mutt will attempt
1347 to present headers to you when viewing messages.
1349 ``unhdr_order *'' will clear all previous headers from the order list,
1350 thus removing the header order effects set by the system-wide startup
1354 hdr_order From Date: From: To: Cc: Subject:
1357 <sect1>Specify default save filename<label id="save-hook">
1359 Usage: <tt/save-hook/ [!]<em/pattern/ <em/filename/
1361 This command is used to override the default filename used when saving
1362 messages. <em/filename/ will be used as the default filename if the message is
1363 <em/From:/ an address matching <em/regexp/ or if you are the author and the
1364 message is addressed <em/to:/ something matching <em/regexp/.
1366 See <ref id="pattern_hook" name="Message Matching in Hooks"> for information on the exact format of <em/pattern/.
1371 save-hook me@(turing\\.)?cs\\.hmc\\.edu$ +elkins
1372 save-hook aol\\.com$ +spam
1375 Also see the <ref id="fcc-save-hook" name="fcc-save-hook"> command.
1377 <sect1>Specify default Fcc: mailbox when composing<label id="fcc-hook">
1379 Usage: <tt/fcc-hook/ [!]<em/pattern/ <em/mailbox/
1381 This command is used to save outgoing mail in a mailbox other than
1382 <ref id="record" name="$record">. Mutt searches the initial list of
1383 message recipients for the first matching <em/regexp/ and uses <em/mailbox/
1384 as the default Fcc: mailbox. If no match is found the message will be saved
1385 to <ref id="record" name="$record"> mailbox.
1387 See <ref id="pattern_hook" name="Message Matching in Hooks"> for information on the exact format of <em/pattern/.
1389 Example: <tt/fcc-hook aol.com$ +spammers/
1391 The above will save a copy of all messages going to the aol.com domain to
1392 the `+spammers' mailbox by default. Also see the <ref id="fcc-save-hook"
1393 name="fcc-save-hook"> command.
1395 <sect1>Specify default save filename and default Fcc: mailbox at once<label
1398 Usage: <tt/fcc-save-hook/ [!]<em/pattern/ <em/mailbox/
1400 This command is a shortcut, equivalent to doing both a <ref id="fcc-hook" name="fcc-hook">
1401 and a <ref id="save-hook" name="save-hook"> with its arguments.
1403 <sect1>Change settings based upon message recipients<label id="send-hook"><label id="reply-hook"><label id="send2-hook">
1405 Usage: <tt/reply-hook/ [!]<em/pattern/ <em/command/<newline>
1406 Usage: <tt/send-hook/ [!]<em/pattern/ <em/command/<newline>
1407 Usage: <tt/send2-hook/ [!]<em/pattern/ <em/command/
1409 These commands can be used to execute arbitrary configuration commands based
1410 upon recipients of the message. <em/pattern/ is a regular expression
1411 matching the desired address. <em/command/ is executed when <em/regexp/
1412 matches recipients of the message.
1414 <tt/reply-hook/ is matched against the message you are <em/replying/
1415 <bf/to/, instead of the message you are <em/sending/. <tt/send-hook/ is
1416 matched against all messages, both <em/new/ and <em/replies/. <bf/Note:/
1417 <tt/reply-hook/s are matched <bf/before/ the <tt/send-hook/, <bf/regardless/
1418 of the order specified in the users's configuration file.
1420 <tt/send2-hook/ is matched every time a message is changed, either
1421 by editing it, or by using the compose menu to change its recipients
1422 or subject. <tt/send2-hook/ is executed after <tt/send-hook/, and
1423 can, e.g., be used to set parameters such as the <ref id="sendmail"
1424 name="$sendmail"> variable depending on the message's sender
1427 For each type of <tt/send-hook/ or <tt/reply-hook/, when multiple matches
1428 occur, commands are executed in the order they are specified in the muttrc
1429 (for that type of hook).
1431 See <ref id="pattern_hook" name="Message Matching in Hooks"> for information on the exact format of <em/pattern/.
1433 Example: <tt/send-hook mutt &dquot;set mime_forward signature=''&dquot;/
1435 Another typical use for this command is to change the values of the
1436 <ref id="attribution" name="$attribution">, <ref id="signature"
1437 name="$signature"> and <ref id="locale" name="$locale">
1438 variables in order to change the language of the attributions and
1439 signatures based upon the recipients.
1441 <bf/Note:/ the send-hook's are only executed ONCE after getting the initial
1442 list of recipients. Adding a recipient after replying or editing the
1443 message will NOT cause any send-hook to be executed. Also note that
1444 my_hdr commands which modify recipient headers, or the message's
1445 subject, don't have any effect on the current message when executed
1448 <sect1>Change settings before formatting a message<label id="message-hook">
1450 Usage: <tt/message-hook/ [!]<em/pattern/ <em/command/
1452 This command can be used to execute arbitrary configuration commands
1453 before viewing or formatting a message based upon information about the message.
1454 <em/command/ is executed if the <em/pattern/ matches the message to be
1455 displayed. When multiple matches occur, commands are executed in the order
1456 they are specified in the muttrc.
1458 See <ref id="pattern_hook" name="Message Matching in Hooks"> for
1459 information on the exact format of <em/pattern/.
1463 message-hook ~A 'set pager=builtin'
1464 message-hook '~f freshmeat-news' 'set pager="less \"+/^ subject: .*\""'
1467 <sect1>Choosing the cryptographic key of the recipient<label id="crypt-hook">
1469 Usage: <tt/crypt-hook/ <em/pattern/ <em/keyid/
1471 When encrypting messages with PGP or OpenSSL, you may want to associate a certain
1472 key with a given e-mail address automatically, either because the
1473 recipient's public key can't be deduced from the destination address,
1474 or because, for some reasons, you need to override the key Mutt would
1475 normally use. The crypt-hook command provides a method by which you can
1476 specify the ID of the public key to be used when encrypting messages to
1477 a certain recipient.
1479 The meaning of "key id" is to be taken broadly in this context: You
1480 can either put a numerical key ID here, an e-mail address, or even
1483 <sect1>Adding key sequences to the keyboard buffer<label id="push">
1485 Usage: <tt/push/ <em/string/
1487 This command adds the named string to the keyboard buffer. The string may
1488 contain control characters, key names and function names like the sequence
1489 string in the <ref id="macro" name="macro"> command. You may use it to
1490 automatically run a sequence of commands at startup, or when entering
1493 <sect1>Executing functions<label id="exec">
1495 Usage: <tt/exec/ <em/function/ [ <em/function/ ... ]
1497 This command can be used to execute any function. Functions are
1498 listed in the <ref id="functions" name="function reference">.
1499 ``exec function'' is equivalent to ``push <function>''.
1501 <sect1>Message Scoring<label id="score-command">
1503 Usage: <tt/score/ <em/pattern/ <em/value/<newline>
1504 Usage: <tt/unscore/ <em/pattern/ [ <em/pattern/ ... ]
1506 The <tt/score/ commands adds <em/value/ to a message's score if <em/pattern/
1507 matches it. <em/pattern/ is a string in the format described in the <ref
1508 id="patterns" name="patterns"> section (note: For efficiency reasons, patterns
1509 which scan information not available in the index, such as <tt>˜b</tt>,
1510 <tt>˜B</tt> or <tt>˜h</tt>, may not be used). <em/value/ is a
1511 positive or negative integer. A message's final score is the sum total of all
1512 matching <tt/score/ entries. However, you may optionally prefix <em/value/ with
1513 an equal sign (=) to cause evaluation to stop at a particular entry if there is
1514 a match. Negative final scores are rounded up to 0.
1516 The <tt/unscore/ command removes score entries from the list. You <bf/must/
1517 specify the same pattern specified in the <tt/score/ command for it to be
1518 removed. The pattern ``*'' is a special token which means to clear the list
1519 of all score entries.
1521 <sect1>Spam detection<label id="spam">
1523 Usage: <tt/spam/ <em/pattern/ <em/format/<newline>
1524 Usage: <tt/nospam/ <em/pattern/
1526 Mutt has generalized support for external spam-scoring filters.
1527 By defining your spam patterns with the <tt/spam/ and <tt/nospam/
1528 commands, you can <em/limit/, <em/search/, and <em/sort/ your
1529 mail based on its spam attributes, as determined by the external
1530 filter. You also can display the spam attributes in your index
1531 display using the <tt/%H/ selector in the <ref id="index_format"
1532 name="$index_format"> variable. (Tip: try <tt/%?H?[%H] ?/
1533 to display spam tags only when they are defined for a given message.)
1535 Your first step is to define your external filter's spam patterns using
1536 the <tt/spam/ command. <em/pattern/ should be a regular expression
1537 that matches a header in a mail message. If any message in the mailbox
1538 matches this regular expression, it will receive a ``spam tag'' or
1539 ``spam attribute'' (unless it also matches a <tt/nospam/ pattern -- see
1540 below.) The appearance of this attribute is entirely up to you, and is
1541 governed by the <em/format/ parameter. <em/format/ can be any static
1542 text, but it also can include back-references from the <em/pattern/
1543 expression. (A regular expression ``back-reference'' refers to a
1544 sub-expression contained within parentheses.) <tt/%1/ is replaced with
1545 the first back-reference in the regex, <tt/%2/ with the second, etc.
1547 If you're using multiple spam filters, a message can have more than
1548 one spam-related header. You can define <tt/spam/ patterns for each
1549 filter you use. If a message matches two or more of these patterns, and
1550 the $spam_separator variable is set to a string, then the
1551 message's spam tag will consist of all the <em/format/ strings joined
1552 together, with the value of $spam_separator separating
1555 For example, suppose I use DCC, SpamAssassin, and PureMessage. I might
1556 define these spam settings:
1558 spam "X-DCC-.*-Metrics:.*(....)=many" "90+/DCC-%1"
1559 spam "X-Spam-Status: Yes" "90+/SA"
1560 spam "X-PerlMX-Spam: .*Probability=([0-9]+)%" "%1/PM"
1561 set spam_separator=", "
1564 If I then received a message that DCC registered with ``many'' hits
1565 under the ``Fuz2'' checksum, and that PureMessage registered with a
1566 97% probability of being spam, that message's spam tag would read
1567 <tt>90+/DCC-Fuz2, 97/PM</tt>. (The four characters before ``=many'' in a
1568 DCC report indicate the checksum used -- in this case, ``Fuz2''.)
1570 If the $spam_separator variable is unset, then each
1571 spam pattern match supercedes the previous one. Instead of getting
1572 joined <em/format/ strings, you'll get only the last one to match.
1574 The spam tag is what will be displayed in the index when you use
1575 <tt/%H/ in the <tt/$index_format/ variable. It's also the
1576 string that the <tt/~H/ pattern-matching expression matches against for
1577 <em/search/ and <em/limit/ functions. And it's what sorting by spam
1578 attribute will use as a sort key.
1580 That's a pretty complicated example, and most people's actual
1581 environments will have only one spam filter. The simpler your
1582 configuration, the more effective mutt can be, especially when it comes
1585 Generally, when you sort by spam tag, mutt will sort <em/lexically/ --
1586 that is, by ordering strings alphnumerically. However, if a spam tag
1587 begins with a number, mutt will sort numerically first, and lexically
1588 only when two numbers are equal in value. (This is like UNIX's
1589 <tt/sort -n/.) A message with no spam attributes at all -- that is, one
1590 that didn't match <em/any/ of your <tt/spam/ patterns -- is sorted at
1591 lowest priority. Numbers are sorted next, beginning with 0 and ranging
1592 upward. Finally, non-numeric strings are sorted, with ``a'' taking lower
1593 priority than ``z''. Clearly, in general, sorting by spam tags is most
1594 effective when you can coerce your filter to give you a raw number. But
1595 in case you can't, mutt can still do something useful.
1597 The <tt/nospam/ command can be used to write exceptions to <tt/spam/
1598 patterns. If a header pattern matches something in a <tt/spam/ command,
1599 but you nonetheless do not want it to receive a spam tag, you can list a
1600 more precise pattern under a <tt/nospam/ command.
1602 If the <em/pattern/ given to <tt/nospam/ is exactly the same as the
1603 <em/pattern/ on an existing <tt/spam/ list entry, the effect will be to
1604 remove the entry from the spam list, instead of adding an exception.
1605 Likewise, if the <em/pattern/ for a <tt/spam/ command matches an entry
1606 on the <tt/nospam/ list, that <tt/nospam/ entry will be removed. If the
1607 <em/pattern/ for <tt/nospam/ is ``*'', <em/all entries on both lists/
1608 will be removed. This might be the default action if you use <tt/spam/
1609 and <tt/nospam/ in conjunction with a <tt/folder-hook/.
1611 You can have as many <tt/spam/ or <tt/nospam/ commands as you like.
1612 You can even do your own primitive spam detection within mutt -- for
1613 example, if you consider all mail from <tt/MAILER-DAEMON/ to be spam,
1614 you can use a <tt/spam/ command like this:
1617 spam "^From: .*MAILER-DAEMON" "999"
1621 <sect1>Setting variables<label id="set">
1623 Usage: <tt/set/ [no|inv]<em/variable/[=<em/value/] [ <em/variable/ ... ]<newline>
1624 Usage: <tt/toggle/ <em/variable/ [<em/variable/ ... ]<newline>
1625 Usage: <tt/unset/ <em/variable/ [<em/variable/ ... ]<newline>
1626 Usage: <tt/reset/ <em/variable/ [<em/variable/ ... ]
1628 This command is used to set (and unset) <ref id="variables"
1629 name="configuration variables">. There are four basic types of variables:
1630 boolean, number, string and quadoption. <em/boolean/ variables can be
1631 <em/set/ (true) or <em/unset/ (false). <em/number/ variables can be
1632 assigned a positive integer value.
1634 <em/string/ variables consist of any number of printable characters.
1635 <em/strings/ must be enclosed in quotes if they contain spaces or tabs. You
1636 may also use the ``C'' escape sequences <bf/\n/ and <bf/\t/ for
1637 newline and tab, respectively.
1639 <em/quadoption/ variables are used to control whether or not to be prompted
1640 for certain actions, or to specify a default action. A value of <em/yes/
1641 will cause the action to be carried out automatically as if you had answered
1642 yes to the question. Similarly, a value of <em/no/ will cause the the
1643 action to be carried out as if you had answered ``no.'' A value of
1644 <em/ask-yes/ will cause a prompt with a default answer of ``yes'' and
1645 <em/ask-no/ will provide a default answer of ``no.''
1647 Prefixing a variable with ``no'' will unset it. Example: <tt/set noaskbcc/.
1649 For <em/boolean/ variables, you may optionally prefix the variable name with
1650 <tt/inv/ to toggle the value (on or off). This is useful when writing
1651 macros. Example: <tt/set invsmart_wrap/.
1653 The <tt/toggle/ command automatically prepends the <tt/inv/ prefix to all
1654 specified variables.
1656 The <tt/unset/ command automatically prepends the <tt/no/ prefix to all
1657 specified variables.
1659 Using the enter-command function in the <em/index/ menu, you can query the
1660 value of a variable by prefixing the name of the variable with a question
1667 The question mark is actually only required for boolean and quadoption
1670 The <tt/reset/ command resets all given variables to the compile time
1671 defaults (hopefully mentioned in this manual). If you use the command
1672 <tt/set/ and prefix the variable with ``&'' this has the same
1673 behavior as the reset command.
1675 With the <tt/reset/ command there exists the special variable ``all'',
1676 which allows you to reset all variables to their system defaults.
1678 <sect1>Reading initialization commands from another file<label id="source">
1680 Usage: <tt/source/ <em/filename/ [ <em/filename/ ... ]
1682 This command allows the inclusion of initialization commands
1683 from other files. For example, I place all of my aliases in
1684 <tt>˜/.mail_aliases</tt> so that I can make my
1685 <tt>˜/.muttrc</tt> readable and keep my aliases private.
1687 If the filename begins with a tilde (``˜''), it will be expanded to the
1688 path of your home directory.
1690 If the filename ends with a vertical bar (|), then <em/filename/ is
1691 considered to be an executable program from which to read input (eg.
1692 <tt>source ~/bin/myscript|</tt>).
1694 <sect1>Removing hooks<label id="unhook">
1696 Usage: <tt/unhook/ [ * | <em/hook-type/ ]
1698 This command permits you to flush hooks you have previously defined.
1699 You can either remove all hooks by giving the ``*'' character as an
1700 argument, or you can remove all hooks of a specific type by saying
1701 something like <tt/unhook send-hook/.
1703 <sect>Advanced Usage
1705 <sect1>Regular Expressions<label id="regexp">
1707 All string patterns in Mutt including those in more complex
1708 <ref id="patterns" name="patterns"> must be specified
1709 using regular expressions (regexp) in the ``POSIX extended'' syntax (which
1710 is more or less the syntax used by egrep and GNU awk). For your
1711 convenience, we have included below a brief description of this syntax.
1713 The search is case sensitive if the pattern contains at least one upper
1714 case letter, and case insensitive otherwise. Note that ``\''
1715 must be quoted if used for a regular expression in an initialization
1716 command: ``\\''.
1718 A regular expression is a pattern that describes a set of strings.
1719 Regular expressions are constructed analogously to arithmetic
1720 expressions, by using various operators to combine smaller expressions.
1722 Note that the regular expression can be enclosed/delimited by either &dquot;
1723 or ' which is useful if the regular expression includes a white-space
1724 character. See <ref id="muttrc-syntax" name="Syntax of Initialization Files">
1725 for more information on &dquot; and ' delimiter processing. To match a
1726 literal &dquot; or ' you must preface it with \ (backslash).
1728 The fundamental building blocks are the regular expressions that match
1729 a single character. Most characters, including all letters and digits,
1730 are regular expressions that match themselves. Any metacharacter with
1731 special meaning may be quoted by preceding it with a backslash.
1733 The period ``.'' matches any single character. The caret ``ˆ'' and
1734 the dollar sign ``&dollar'' are metacharacters that respectively match
1735 the empty string at the beginning and end of a line.
1737 A list of characters enclosed by ``['' and ``]'' matches any
1738 single character in that list; if the first character of the list
1739 is a caret ``ˆ'' then it matches any character <bf/not/ in the
1740 list. For example, the regular expression <bf/[0123456789]/
1741 matches any single digit. A range of ASCII characters may be specified
1742 by giving the first and last characters, separated by a hyphen
1743 ``‐''. Most metacharacters lose their special meaning inside
1744 lists. To include a literal ``]'' place it first in the list.
1745 Similarly, to include a literal ``ˆ'' place it anywhere but first.
1746 Finally, to include a literal hyphen ``‐'' place it last.
1748 Certain named classes of characters are predefined. Character classes
1749 consist of ``[:'', a keyword denoting the class, and ``:]''.
1750 The following classes are defined by the POSIX standard:
1753 <tag/[:alnum:]/
1754 Alphanumeric characters.
1755 <tag/[:alpha:]/
1756 Alphabetic characters.
1757 <tag/[:blank:]/
1758 Space or tab characters.
1759 <tag/[:cntrl:]/
1761 <tag/[:digit:]/
1763 <tag/[:graph:]/
1764 Characters that are both printable and visible. (A space is printable,
1765 but not visible, while an ``a'' is both.)
1766 <tag/[:lower:]/
1767 Lower-case alphabetic characters.
1768 <tag/[:print:]/
1769 Printable characters (characters that are not control characters.)
1770 <tag/[:punct:]/
1771 Punctuation characters (characters that are not letter, digits, control
1772 characters, or space characters).
1773 <tag/[:space:]/
1774 Space characters (such as space, tab and formfeed, to name a few).
1775 <tag/[:upper:]/
1776 Upper-case alphabetic characters.
1777 <tag/[:xdigit:]/
1778 Characters that are hexadecimal digits.
1781 A character class is only valid in a regular expression inside the
1782 brackets of a character list. Note that the brackets in these
1783 class names are part of the symbolic names, and must be included
1784 in addition to the brackets delimiting the bracket list. For
1785 example, <bf/[[:digit:]]/ is equivalent to
1786 <bf/[0-9]/.
1788 Two additional special sequences can appear in character lists. These
1789 apply to non-ASCII character sets, which can have single symbols (called
1790 collating elements) that are represented with more than one character,
1791 as well as several characters that are equivalent for collating or
1795 <tag/Collating Symbols/
1796 A collating symbol is a multi-character collating element enclosed in
1797 ``[.'' and ``.]''. For example, if ``ch'' is a collating
1798 element, then <bf/[[.ch.]]/ is a regexp that matches
1799 this collating element, while <bf/[ch]/ is a regexp that
1800 matches either ``c'' or ``h''.
1801 <tag/Equivalence Classes/
1802 An equivalence class is a locale-specific name for a list of
1803 characters that are equivalent. The name is enclosed in ``[=''
1804 and ``=]''. For example, the name ``e'' might be used to
1805 represent all of ``è'' ``é'' and ``e''. In this case,
1806 <bf/[[=e=]]/ is a regexp that matches any of
1807 ``è'', ``é'' and ``e''.
1810 A regular expression matching a single character may be followed by one
1811 of several repetition operators:
1815 The preceding item is optional and matched at most once.
1817 The preceding item will be matched zero or more times.
1819 The preceding item will be matched one or more times.
1821 The preceding item is matched exactly <em/n/ times.
1822 <tag/{n,}/
1823 The preceding item is matched <em/n/ or more times.
1824 <tag/{,m}/
1825 The preceding item is matched at most <em/m/ times.
1826 <tag/{n,m}/
1827 The preceding item is matched at least <em/n/ times, but no more than
1831 Two regular expressions may be concatenated; the resulting regular
1832 expression matches any string formed by concatenating two substrings
1833 that respectively match the concatenated subexpressions.
1835 Two regular expressions may be joined by the infix operator ``|'';
1836 the resulting regular expression matches any string matching either
1839 Repetition takes precedence over concatenation, which in turn takes
1840 precedence over alternation. A whole subexpression may be enclosed in
1841 parentheses to override these precedence rules.
1843 <bf/Note:/ If you compile Mutt with the GNU <em/rx/ package, the
1844 following operators may also be used in regular expressions:
1848 Matches the empty string at either the beginning or the end of a word.
1850 Matches the empty string within a word.
1851 <tag/\\</
1852 Matches the empty string at the beginning of a word.
1853 <tag/\\>/
1854 Matches the empty string at the end of a word.
1856 Matches any word-constituent character (letter, digit, or underscore).
1858 Matches any character that is not word-constituent.
1860 Matches the empty string at the beginning of a buffer (string).
1862 Matches the empty string at the end of a buffer.
1865 Please note however that these operators are not defined by POSIX, so
1866 they may or may not be available in stock libraries on various systems.
1868 <sect1>Patterns<label id="patterns">
1870 Many of Mutt's commands allow you to specify a pattern to match
1871 (limit, tag-pattern, delete-pattern, etc.). There are several ways to select
1876 ~b EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the message body
1877 ~B EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the whole message
1878 ~c USER messages carbon-copied to USER
1879 ~C EXPR message is either to: or cc: EXPR
1881 ~d [MIN]-[MAX] messages with ``date-sent'' in a Date range
1883 ~e EXPR message which contains EXPR in the ``Sender'' field
1885 ~f USER messages originating from USER
1886 ~g cryptographically signed messages
1887 ~G cryptographically encrypted messages
1888 ~H EXPR messages with a spam attribute matching EXPR
1889 ~h EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the message header
1890 ~k message contains PGP key material
1891 ~i ID message which match ID in the ``Message-ID'' field
1892 ~L EXPR message is either originated or received by EXPR
1893 ~l message is addressed to a known mailing list
1894 ~m [MIN]-[MAX] message in the range MIN to MAX *)
1895 ~n [MIN]-[MAX] messages with a score in the range MIN to MAX *)
1898 ~p message is addressed to you (consults alternates)
1899 ~P message is from you (consults alternates)
1900 ~Q messages which have been replied to
1902 ~r [MIN]-[MAX] messages with ``date-received'' in a Date range
1903 ~S superseded messages
1904 ~s SUBJECT messages having SUBJECT in the ``Subject'' field.
1906 ~t USER messages addressed to USER
1908 ~v message is part of a collapsed thread.
1909 ~V cryptographically verified messages
1910 ~x EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the `References' field
1911 ~y EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the `X-Label' field
1912 ~z [MIN]-[MAX] messages with a size in the range MIN to MAX *)
1913 ~= duplicated messages (see $duplicate_threads)
1914 ~$ unreferenced messages (requires threaded view)
1917 Where EXPR, USER, ID, and SUBJECT are
1918 <ref id="regexp" name="regular expressions">. Special attention has to be
1919 made when using regular expressions inside of patterns. Specifically,
1920 Mutt's parser for these patterns will strip one level of backslash (\),
1921 which is normally used for quoting. If it is your intention to use a
1922 backslash in the regular expression, you will need to use two backslashes
1925 *) The forms <tt/<[MAX]/, <tt/>[MIN]/,
1926 <tt/[MIN]-/ and <tt/-[MAX]/
1929 <sect2>Pattern Modifier
1932 Note that patterns matching 'lists' of addresses (notably c,C,p,P and t)
1933 match if there is at least one match in the whole list. If you want to
1934 make sure that all elements of that list match, you need to prefix your
1936 This example matches all mails which only has recipients from Germany.
1942 <sect2>Complex Patterns
1945 Logical AND is performed by specifying more than one criterion. For
1952 would select messages which contain the word ``mutt'' in the list of
1953 recipients <bf/and/ that have the word ``elkins'' in the ``From'' header
1956 Mutt also recognizes the following operators to create more complex search
1960 <item>! -- logical NOT operator
1961 <item>| -- logical OR operator
1962 <item>() -- logical grouping operator
1965 Here is an example illustrating a complex search pattern. This pattern will
1966 select all messages which do not contain ``mutt'' in the ``To'' or ``Cc''
1967 field and which are from ``elkins''.
1970 !(~t mutt|~c mutt) ~f elkins
1973 Here is an example using white space in the regular expression (note
1974 the ' and &dquot; delimiters). For this to match, the mail's subject must
1975 match the ``^Junk +From +Me$'' and it must be from either ``Jim +Somebody''
1976 or ``Ed +SomeoneElse'':
1979 '~s "^Junk +From +Me$" ~f ("Jim +Somebody"|"Ed +SomeoneElse")'
1982 Note that if a regular expression contains parenthesis, or a veritical bar
1983 ("|"), you <bf/must/ enclose the expression in double or single quotes since
1984 those characters are also used to separate different parts of Mutt's
1985 pattern language. For example,
1988 ~f "me@(mutt\.org|cs\.hmc\.edu)"
1991 Without the quotes, the parenthesis wouldn't end.
1992 This would be seperated to two OR'd patterns: <em/˜f me@(mutt\.org/
1993 and <em/cs\.hmc\.edu)/. They are never what you want.
1995 <sect2>Searching by Date
1997 Mutt supports two types of dates, <em/absolute/ and <em/relative/.
1999 <bf/Absolute/. Dates <bf/must/ be in DD/MM/YY format (month and year are
2000 optional, defaulting to the current month and year). An example of a valid
2004 Limit to messages matching: ~d 20/1/95-31/10
2007 If you omit the minimum (first) date, and just specify ``-DD/MM/YY'', all
2008 messages <em/before/ the given date will be selected. If you omit the maximum
2009 (second) date, and specify ``DD/MM/YY-'', all messages <em/after/ the given
2010 date will be selected. If you specify a single date with no dash (``-''),
2011 only messages sent on the given date will be selected.
2013 <bf/Error Margins/. You can add error margins to absolute dates.
2014 An error margin is a sign (+ or -), followed by a digit, followed by
2015 one of the following units:
2022 As a special case, you can replace the sign by a ``*'' character,
2023 which is equivalent to giving identical plus and minus error margins.
2025 Example: To select any messages two weeks around January 15, 2001,
2026 you'd use the following pattern:
2028 Limit to messages matching: ~d 15/1/2001*2w
2032 <bf/Relative/. This type of date is relative to the current date, and may
2035 <item>><em/offset/ (messages older than <em/offset/ units)
2036 <item><<em/offset/ (messages newer than <em/offset/ units)
2037 <item>=<em/offset/ (messages exactly <em/offset/ units old)
2040 <em/offset/ is specified as a positive number with one of the following
2049 Example: to select messages less than 1 month old, you would use
2051 Limit to messages matching: ~d <1m
2056 <bf/Note:/ all dates used when searching are relative to the
2057 <bf/local/ time zone, so unless you change the setting of your <ref
2058 id="index_format" name="$index_format"> to include a
2059 <tt/%[...]/ format, these are <bf/not/ the dates shown
2065 Sometimes it is desirable to perform an operation on a group of
2066 messages all at once rather than one at a time. An example might be
2067 to save messages to a mailing list to a separate folder, or to
2068 delete all messages with a given subject. To tag all messages
2069 matching a pattern, use the tag-pattern function, which is bound to
2070 ``shift-T'' by default. Or you can select individual messages by
2071 hand using the ``tag-message'' function, which is bound to ``t'' by
2072 default. See <ref id="patterns" name="patterns"> for Mutt's pattern
2075 Once you have tagged the desired messages, you can use the
2076 ``tag-prefix'' operator, which is the ``;'' (semicolon) key by default.
2077 When the ``tag-prefix'' operator is used, the <bf/next/ operation will
2078 be applied to all tagged messages if that operation can be used in that
2079 manner. If the <ref id="auto_tag" name="$auto_tag">
2080 variable is set, the next operation applies to the tagged messages
2081 automatically, without requiring the ``tag-prefix''.
2083 In <ref id="macro" name="macros"> or <ref id="push" name="push"> commands,
2084 you can use the ``tag-prefix-cond'' operator. If there are no tagged
2085 messages, mutt will "eat" the rest of the macro to abort it's execution.
2086 Mutt will stop "eating" the macro when it encounters the ``end-cond''
2087 operator; after this operator the rest of the macro will be executed as
2090 <sect1>Using Hooks<label id="hooks">
2092 A <em/hook/ is a concept borrowed from the EMACS editor which allows you to
2093 execute arbitrary commands before performing some operation. For example,
2094 you may wish to tailor your configuration based upon which mailbox you are
2095 reading, or to whom you are sending mail. In the Mutt world, a <em/hook/
2096 consists of a <ref id="regexp" name="regular expression"> or
2097 <ref id="patterns" name="pattern"> along with a
2098 configuration option/command. See
2100 <item><ref id="folder-hook" name="folder-hook">
2101 <item><ref id="send-hook" name="send-hook">
2102 <item><ref id="message-hook" name="message-hook">
2103 <item><ref id="save-hook" name="save-hook">
2104 <item><ref id="mbox-hook" name="mbox-hook">
2105 <item><ref id="fcc-hook" name="fcc-hook">
2106 <item><ref id="fcc-save-hook" name="fcc-save-hook">
2108 for specific details on each type of <em/hook/ available.
2110 <bf/Note:/ if a hook changes configuration settings, these changes remain
2111 effective until the end of the current mutt session. As this is generally
2112 not desired, a default hook needs to be added before all other hooks to
2113 restore configuration defaults. Here is an example with send-hook and the
2117 send-hook . 'unmy_hdr From:'
2118 send-hook ~Cb@b.b my_hdr from: c@c.c
2121 <sect2>Message Matching in Hooks<label id="pattern_hook">
2123 Hooks that act upon messages (<tt/send-hook, save-hook, fcc-hook,
2124 message-hook/) are evaluated in a slightly different manner. For the other
2125 types of hooks, a <ref id="regexp" name="regular expression"> is
2126 sufficient. But in dealing with messages a finer grain of control is
2127 needed for matching since for different purposes you want to match
2130 Mutt allows the use of the <ref id="patterns" name="search pattern">
2131 language for matching messages in hook commands. This works in
2132 exactly the same way as it would when <em/limiting/ or
2133 <em/searching/ the mailbox, except that you are restricted to those
2134 operators which match information mutt extracts from the header of
2135 the message (i.e. from, to, cc, date, subject, etc.).
2137 For example, if you wanted to set your return address based upon sending
2138 mail to a specific address, you could do something like:
2140 send-hook '~t ^me@cs\.hmc\.edu$' 'my_hdr From: Mutt User <user@host>'
2142 which would execute the given command when sending mail to
2145 However, it is not required that you write the pattern to match using the
2146 full searching language. You can still specify a simple <em/regular
2147 expression/ like the other hooks, in which case Mutt will translate your
2148 pattern into the full language, using the translation specified by the
2149 <ref id="default_hook" name="$default_hook"> variable. The
2150 pattern is translated at the time the hook is declared, so the value of
2151 <ref id="default_hook" name="$default_hook"> that is in effect
2152 at that time will be used.
2154 <sect1>External Address Queries<label id="query">
2156 Mutt supports connecting to external directory databases such as LDAP,
2157 ph/qi, bbdb, or NIS through a wrapper script which connects to mutt
2158 using a simple interface. Using the <ref id="query_command"
2159 name="$query_command"> variable, you specify the wrapper
2160 command to use. For example:
2163 set query_command = "mutt_ldap_query.pl '%s'"
2166 The wrapper script should accept the query on the command-line. It
2167 should return a one line message, then each matching response on a
2168 single line, each line containing a tab separated address then name then
2169 some other optional information. On error, or if there are no matching
2170 addresses, return a non-zero exit code and a one line error message.
2172 An example multiple response output:
2174 Searching database ... 20 entries ... 3 matching:
2175 me@cs.hmc.edu Michael Elkins mutt dude
2176 blong@fiction.net Brandon Long mutt and more
2177 roessler@guug.de Thomas Roessler mutt pgp
2180 There are two mechanisms for accessing the query function of mutt. One
2181 is to do a query from the index menu using the query function (default: Q).
2182 This will prompt for a query, then bring up the query menu which will
2183 list the matching responses. From the query menu, you can select
2184 addresses to create aliases, or to mail. You can tag multiple addresses
2185 to mail, start a new query, or have a new query appended to the current
2188 The other mechanism for accessing the query function is for address
2189 completion, similar to the alias completion. In any prompt for address
2190 entry, you can use the complete-query function (default: ^T) to run a
2191 query based on the current address you have typed. Like aliases, mutt
2192 will look for what you have typed back to the last space or comma. If
2193 there is a single response for that query, mutt will expand the address
2194 in place. If there are multiple responses, mutt will activate the query
2195 menu. At the query menu, you can select one or more addresses to be
2196 added to the prompt.
2198 <sect1>Mailbox Formats
2200 Mutt supports reading and writing of four different mailbox formats:
2201 mbox, MMDF, MH and Maildir. The mailbox type is autodetected, so there
2202 is no need to use a flag for different mailbox types. When creating new
2203 mailboxes, Mutt uses the default specified with the <ref id="mbox_type"
2204 name="$mbox_type"> variable.
2206 <bf/mbox/. This is the most widely used mailbox format for UNIX. All
2207 messages are stored in a single file. Each message has a line of the form:
2210 From me@cs.hmc.edu Fri, 11 Apr 1997 11:44:56 PST
2213 to denote the start of a new message (this is often referred to as the
2214 ``From_'' line).
2216 <bf/MMDF/. This is a variant of the <em/mbox/ format. Each message is
2217 surrounded by lines containing ``^A^A^A^A'' (four control-A's).
2219 <bf/MH/. A radical departure from <em/mbox/ and <em/MMDF/, a mailbox
2220 consists of a directory and each message is stored in a separate file.
2221 The filename indicates the message number (however, this is may not
2222 correspond to the message number Mutt displays). Deleted messages are
2223 renamed with a comma (,) prepended to the filename. <bf/Note:/ Mutt
2224 detects this type of mailbox by looking for either <tt/.mh_sequences/
2225 or <tt/.xmhcache/ (needed to distinguish normal directories from MH
2228 <bf/Maildir/. The newest of the mailbox formats, used by the Qmail MTA (a
2229 replacement for sendmail). Similar to <em/MH/, except that it adds three
2230 subdirectories of the mailbox: <em/tmp/, <em/new/ and <em/cur/. Filenames
2231 for the messages are chosen in such a way they are unique, even when two
2232 programs are writing the mailbox over NFS, which means that no file locking
2235 <sect1>Mailbox Shortcuts<label id="shortcuts">
2237 There are a number of built in shortcuts which refer to specific mailboxes.
2238 These shortcuts can be used anywhere you are prompted for a file or mailbox
2242 <item>! -- refers to your <ref id="spoolfile" name="$spoolfile"> (incoming) mailbox
2243 <item>> -- refers to your <ref id="mbox" name="$mbox"> file
2244 <item>< -- refers to your <ref id="record" name="$record"> file
2245 <item>- or !! -- refers to the file you've last visited
2246 <item>˜ -- refers to your home directory
2247 <item>= or + -- refers to your <ref id="folder" name="$folder"> directory
2248 <item>@<em/alias/ -- refers to the <ref id="save-hook"
2249 name="default save folder"> as determined by the address of the alias
2252 <sect1>Handling Mailing Lists<label id="using_lists">
2255 Mutt has a few configuration options that make dealing with large
2256 amounts of mail easier. The first thing you must do is to let Mutt
2257 know what addresses you consider to be mailing lists (technically
2258 this does not have to be a mailing list, but that is what it is most
2259 often used for), and what lists you are subscribed to. This is
2260 accomplished through the use of the <ref id="lists"
2261 name="lists and subscribe"> commands in your muttrc.
2263 Now that Mutt knows what your mailing lists are, it can do several
2264 things, the first of which is the ability to show the name of a list
2265 through which you received a message (i.e., of a subscribed list) in
2266 the <em/index/ menu display. This is useful to distinguish between
2267 personal and list mail in the same mailbox. In the <ref id="index_format"
2268 name="$index_format"> variable, the escape ``%L''
2269 will return the string ``To <list>'' when ``list'' appears in the
2270 ``To'' field, and ``Cc <list>'' when it appears in the ``Cc''
2271 field (otherwise it returns the name of the author).
2273 Often times the ``To'' and ``Cc'' fields in mailing list messages
2274 tend to get quite large. Most people do not bother to remove the
2275 author of the message they are reply to from the list, resulting in
2276 two or more copies being sent to that person. The ``list-reply''
2277 function, which by default is bound to ``L'' in the <em/index/ menu
2278 and <em/pager/, helps reduce the clutter by only replying to the
2279 known mailing list addresses instead of all recipients (except as
2280 specified by <tt/Mail-Followup-To/, see below).
2282 Mutt also supports the <tt/Mail-Followup-To/ header. When you send
2283 a message to a list of recipients which includes one or several
2284 subscribed mailing lists, and if the <ref id="followup_to"
2285 name="$followup_to"> option is set, mutt will generate
2286 a Mail-Followup-To header which contains all the recipients to whom
2287 you send this message, but not your address. This indicates that
2288 group-replies or list-replies (also known as ``followups'') to this
2289 message should only be sent to the original recipients of the
2290 message, and not separately to you - you'll receive your copy through
2291 one of the mailing lists you are subscribed to.
2293 Conversely, when group-replying or list-replying to a message which
2294 has a <tt/Mail-Followup-To/ header, mutt will respect this header if
2295 the <ref id="honor_followup_to"
2296 name="$honor_followup_to"> configuration
2297 variable is set. Using list-reply will in this case also make sure
2298 that the reply goes to the mailing list, even if it's not specified
2299 in the list of recipients in the <tt/Mail-Followup-To/.
2301 Note that, when header editing is enabled, you can create a
2302 <tt/Mail-Followup-To/ header manually. Mutt will only auto-generate
2303 this header if it doesn't exist when you send the message.
2306 The other method some mailing list admins use is to generate a
2307 ``Reply-To'' field which points back to the mailing list address rather
2308 than the author of the message. This can create problems when trying
2309 to reply directly to the author in private, since most mail clients
2310 will automatically reply to the address given in the ``Reply-To''
2311 field. Mutt uses the <ref id="reply_to" name="$reply_to">
2312 variable to help decide which address to use. If set, you will be
2313 prompted as to whether or not you would like to use the address given in
2314 the ``Reply-To'' field, or reply directly to the address given in the
2315 ``From'' field. When unset, the ``Reply-To'' field will be used when
2318 The ``X-Label:'' header field can be used to further identify mailing
2319 lists or list subject matter (or just to annotate messages
2320 individually). The <ref id="index_format"
2321 name="$index_format"> variable's ``%y'' and
2322 ``%Y'' escapes can be used to expand ``X-Label:'' fields in the
2323 index, and Mutt's pattern-matcher can match regular expressions to
2324 ``X-Label:'' fields with the ``~y'' selector. ``X-Label:'' is not a
2325 standard message header field, but it can easily be inserted by procmail
2326 and other mail filtering agents.
2328 Lastly, Mutt has the ability to <ref id="sort" name="sort"> the mailbox into
2329 <ref id="threads" name="threads">. A thread is a group of messages which all relate to the same
2330 subject. This is usually organized into a tree-like structure where a
2331 message and all of its replies are represented graphically. If you've ever
2332 used a threaded news client, this is the same concept. It makes dealing
2333 with large volume mailing lists easier because you can easily delete
2334 uninteresting threads and quickly find topics of value.
2336 <sect1>Editing threads
2338 Mutt has the ability to dynamically restructure threads that are broken
2339 either by misconfigured software or bad behaviour from some
2340 correspondents. This allows to clean your mailboxes formats) from these
2341 annoyances which make it hard to follow a discussion.
2343 If you want to use these functions with IMAP, you need to compile Mutt
2344 with the <em/--enable-imap-edit-threads/ configure flag.
2346 <sect2>Linking threads
2349 Some mailers tend to "forget" to correctly set the "In-Reply-To:" and
2350 "References:" headers when replying to a message. This results in broken
2351 discussions because Mutt has not enough information to guess the correct
2353 You can fix this by tagging the reply, then moving to the parent message
2354 and using the ``link-threads'' function (bound to & by default). The
2355 reply will then be connected to this "parent" message.
2357 You can also connect multiple childs at once, tagging them and using the
2358 tag-prefix command (';') or the auto_tag option.
2360 <sect2>Breaking threads
2363 On mailing lists, some people are in the bad habit of starting a new
2364 discussion by hitting "reply" to any message from the list and changing
2365 the subject to a totally unrelated one.
2366 You can fix such threads by using the ``break-thread'' function (bound
2367 by default to #), which will turn the subthread starting from the
2368 current message into a whole different thread.
2370 <sect1>Delivery Status Notification (DSN) Support
2373 RFC1894 defines a set of MIME content types for relaying information
2374 about the status of electronic mail messages. These can be thought of as
2375 ``return receipts.'' Berkeley sendmail 8.8.x currently has some command
2376 line options in which the mail client can make requests as to what type
2377 of status messages should be returned.
2379 To support this, there are two variables. <ref id="dsn_notify"
2380 name="$dsn_notify"> is used to request receipts for
2381 different results (such as failed message, message delivered, etc.).
2382 <ref id="dsn_return" name="$dsn_return"> requests how much
2383 of your message should be returned with the receipt (headers or full
2384 message). Refer to the man page on sendmail for more details on DSN.
2386 <sect1>POP3 Support (OPTIONAL)
2389 If Mutt was compiled with POP3 support (by running the <em/configure/
2390 script with the <em/--enable-pop/ flag), it has the ability to work
2391 with mailboxes located on a remote POP3 server and fetch mail for local
2394 You can access the remote POP3 mailbox by selecting the folder
2395 <tt>pop://popserver/</tt>.
2397 You can select an alternative port by specifying it with the server, ie:
2398 <tt>pop://popserver:port/</tt>.
2400 You can also specify different username for each folder, ie:
2401 <tt>pop://username@popserver[:port]/</tt>.
2403 Polling for new mail is more expensive over POP3 than locally. For this
2404 reason the frequency at which Mutt will check for mail remotely can be
2406 <ref id="pop_checkinterval" name="$pop_checkinterval">
2407 variable, which defaults to every 60 seconds.
2409 If Mutt was compiled with SSL support (by running the <em/configure/
2410 script with the <em/--with-ssl/ flag), connections to POP3 servers
2411 can be encrypted. This naturally requires that the server supports
2412 SSL encrypted connections. To access a folder with POP3/SSL, you should
2413 use pops: prefix, ie:
2414 <tt>pops://[username@]popserver[:port]/</tt>.
2416 Another way to access your POP3 mail is the <em/fetch-mail/ function
2417 (default: G). It allows to connect to <ref id="pop_host"
2418 name="pop_host">, fetch all your new mail and place it in the
2419 local <ref id="spoolfile" name="spoolfile">. After this
2420 point, Mutt runs exactly as if the mail had always been local.
2422 <bf/Note:/ If you only need to fetch all messages to local mailbox
2423 you should consider using a specialized program, such as <htmlurl
2424 url="http://www.ccil.org/~esr/fetchmail" name="fetchmail">
2426 <sect1>IMAP Support (OPTIONAL)
2429 If Mutt was compiled with IMAP support (by running the <em/configure/
2430 script with the <em/--enable-imap/ flag), it has the ability to work
2431 with folders located on a remote IMAP server.
2433 You can access the remote inbox by selecting the folder
2434 <tt>imap://imapserver/INBOX</tt>, where <tt/imapserver/ is the name of the
2435 IMAP server and <tt/INBOX/ is the special name for your spool mailbox on
2436 the IMAP server. If you want to access another mail folder at the IMAP
2437 server, you should use <tt>imap://imapserver/path/to/folder</tt> where
2438 <tt>path/to/folder</tt> is the path of the folder you want to access.
2440 You can select an alternative port by specifying it with the server, ie:
2441 <tt>imap://imapserver:port/INBOX</tt>.
2443 You can also specify different username for each folder, ie:
2444 <tt>imap://username@imapserver[:port]/INBOX</tt>.
2446 If Mutt was compiled with SSL support (by running the <em/configure/
2447 script with the <em/--with-ssl/ flag), connections to IMAP servers
2448 can be encrypted. This naturally requires that the server supports
2449 SSL encrypted connections. To access a folder with IMAP/SSL, you should
2450 use <tt>imaps://[username@]imapserver[:port]/path/to/folder</tt> as your
2453 Pine-compatible notation is also supported, ie
2454 <tt>{[username@]imapserver[:port][/ssl]}path/to/folder</tt>
2456 Note that not all servers use / as the hierarchy separator. Mutt should
2457 correctly notice which separator is being used by the server and convert
2460 When browsing folders on an IMAP server, you can toggle whether to look
2461 at only the folders you are subscribed to, or all folders with the
2462 <em/toggle-subscribed/ command. See also the
2463 <ref id="imap_list_subscribed"
2464 name="$imap_list_subscribed"> variable.
2466 Polling for new mail on an IMAP server can cause noticeable delays. So, you'll
2467 want to carefully tune the
2468 <ref id="mail_check" name="$mail_check">
2470 <ref id="timeout" name="$timeout">
2471 variables. Personally I use
2476 with relatively good results over my slow modem line.
2478 Note that if you are using mbox as the mail store on UW servers prior to
2479 v12.250, the server has been reported to disconnect a client if another client
2480 selects the same folder.
2482 <sect2>The Folder Browser
2485 As of version 1.2, mutt supports browsing mailboxes on an IMAP
2486 server. This is mostly the same as the local file browser, with the
2487 following differences:
2489 <item>In lieu of file permissions, mutt displays the string "IMAP",
2490 possibly followed by the symbol "+", indicating
2491 that the entry contains both messages and subfolders. On
2492 Cyrus-like servers folders will often contain both messages and
2494 <item>For the case where an entry can contain both messages and
2495 subfolders, the selection key (bound to <tt>enter</tt> by default)
2496 will choose to descend into the subfolder view. If you wish to view
2497 the messages in that folder, you must use <tt>view-file</tt> instead
2498 (bound to <tt>space</tt> by default).
2499 <item>You can delete mailboxes with the <tt>delete-mailbox</tt>
2500 command (bound to <tt>d</tt> by default. You may also
2501 <tt>subscribe</tt> and <tt>unsubscribe</tt> to mailboxes (normally
2502 these are bound to <tt>s</tt> and <tt>u</tt>, respectively).
2505 <sect2>Authentication
2508 Mutt supports four authentication methods with IMAP servers: SASL,
2509 GSSAPI, CRAM-MD5, and LOGIN (there is a patch by Grant Edwards to add
2510 NTLM authentication for you poor exchange users out there, but it has
2511 yet to be integrated into the main tree). There is also support for
2512 the pseudo-protocol ANONYMOUS, which allows you to log in to a public
2513 IMAP server without having an account. To use ANONYMOUS, simply make
2514 your username blank or "anonymous".
2516 SASL is a special super-authenticator, which selects among several protocols
2517 (including GSSAPI, CRAM-MD5, ANONYMOUS, and DIGEST-MD5) the most secure
2518 method available on your host and the server. Using some of these methods
2519 (including DIGEST-MD5 and possibly GSSAPI), your entire session will be
2520 encrypted and invisible to those teeming network snoops. It is the best
2521 option if you have it. To use it, you must have the Cyrus SASL library
2522 installed on your system and compile mutt with the <em/--with-sasl/ flag.
2524 Mutt will try whichever methods are compiled in and available on the server,
2525 in the following order: SASL, ANONYMOUS, GSSAPI, CRAM-MD5, LOGIN.
2527 There are a few variables which control authentication:
2529 <item><ref id="imap_user" name="$imap_user"> - controls
2530 the username under which you request authentication on the IMAP server,
2531 for all authenticators. This is overridden by an explicit username in
2532 the mailbox path (ie by using a mailbox name of the form
2534 <item><ref id="imap_pass" name="$imap_pass"> - a
2535 password which you may preset, used by all authentication methods where
2536 a password is needed.
2537 <item><ref id="imap_authenticators"
2538 name="$imap_authenticators"> - a colon-delimited list of IMAP
2539 authentication methods to try, in the order you wish to try them. If
2540 specified, this overrides mutt's default (attempt everything, in the order
2544 <sect1>Managing multiple IMAP/POP accounts (OPTIONAL)<label id="account-hook">
2547 If you happen to have accounts on multiple IMAP and/or POP servers,
2548 you may find managing all the authentication settings inconvenient and
2549 error-prone. The account-hook command may help. This hook works like
2550 folder-hook but is invoked whenever you access a remote mailbox
2551 (including inside the folder browser), not just when you open the
2557 account-hook . 'unset imap_user; unset imap_pass; unset tunnel'
2558 account-hook imap://host1/ 'set imap_user=me1 imap_pass=foo'
2559 account-hook imap://host2/ 'set tunnel="ssh host2 /usr/libexec/imapd"'
2562 <sect1>Start a WWW Browser on URLs (EXTERNAL)<label id="urlview">
2564 If a message contains URLs (<em/unified resource locator/ = address in the
2565 WWW space like <em>http://www.mutt.org/</em>), it is efficient to get
2566 a menu with all the URLs and start a WWW browser on one of them. This
2567 functionality is provided by the external urlview program which can be
2568 retrieved at <htmlurl url="ftp://ftp.mutt.org/mutt/contrib/"
2569 name="ftp://ftp.mutt.org/mutt/contrib/"> and the configuration commands:
2571 macro index \cb |urlview\n
2572 macro pager \cb |urlview\n
2575 <sect1>Compressed folders Support (OPTIONAL)
2578 If Mutt was compiled with compressed folders support (by running the
2579 <em/configure/ script with the <em/--enable-compressed/ flag), Mutt
2580 can open folders stored in an arbitrary format, provided that the user
2581 has a script to convert from/to this format to one of the accepted.
2583 The most common use is to open compressed archived folders e.g. with
2586 In addition, the user can provide a script that gets a folder in an
2587 accepted format and appends its context to the folder in the
2588 user-defined format, which may be faster than converting the entire
2589 folder to the accepted format, appending to it and converting back to
2590 the user-defined format.
2592 There are three hooks defined (<ref id="open-hook" name="open-hook">,
2593 <ref id="close-hook" name="close-hook"> and <ref id="append-hook"
2594 name="append-hook">) which define commands to uncompress and compress
2595 a folder and to append messages to an existing compressed folder
2601 open-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -cd %f > %t"
2602 close-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -c %t > %f"
2603 append-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -c %t >> %f"
2606 You do not have to specify all of the commands. If you omit <ref
2607 id="append-hook" name="append-hook">, the folder will be open and
2608 closed again each time you will add to it. If you omit <ref
2609 id="close-hook" name="close-hook"> (or give empty command) , the
2610 folder will be open in the mode. If you specify <ref
2611 id="append-hook" name="append-hook"> though you'll be able to append
2614 Note that Mutt will only try to use hooks if the file is not in one of
2615 the accepted formats. In particular, if the file is empty, mutt
2616 supposes it is not compressed. This is important because it allows the
2617 use of programs that do not have well defined extensions. Just use
2618 &dquot;.&dquot; as a regexp. But this may be surprising if your
2619 compressing script produces empty files. In this situation, unset <ref
2620 id="save_empty" name="$save_empty">, so that the compressed file
2621 will be removed if you delete all of the messages.
2623 <sect2>Open a compressed mailbox for reading<label id="open-hook">
2625 Usage: <tt/open-hook/ <em/regexp/ &dquot;<em/command/&dquot;
2627 The <em/command/ is the command that can be used for opening the
2628 folders whose names match <em/regexp/.
2630 The <em/command/ string is the printf-like format string, and it
2631 should accept two parameters: %f, which is replaced with the
2632 (compressed) folder name, and %t which is replaced with the
2633 name of the temporary folder to which to write.
2635 %f and %t can be repeated any number of times in the
2636 command string, and all of the entries are replaced with the
2637 appropriate folder name. In addition, %% is replaced by
2638 %, as in printf, and any other %anything is left as is.
2640 The <em/command/ should <bf/not/ remove the original compressed file.
2641 The <em/command/ should return non-zero exit status if it fails, so
2642 mutt knows something's wrong.
2647 open-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -cd %f > %t"
2650 If the <em/command/ is empty, this operation is disabled for this file
2653 <sect2>Write a compressed mailbox<label id="close-hook">
2655 Usage: <tt/close-hook/ <em/regexp/ &dquot;<em/command/&dquot;
2657 This is used to close the folder that was open with the <ref id="open-hook"
2658 name="open-hook"> command after some changes were made to it.
2660 The <em/command/ string is the command that can be used for closing the
2661 folders whose names match <em/regexp/. It has the same format as in
2662 the <ref id="open-hook" name="open-hook"> command. Temporary folder
2663 in this case is the folder previously produced by the <<ref id="open-hook"
2664 name="open-hook"> command.
2666 The <em/command/ should <bf/not/ remove the decompressed file. The
2667 <em/command/ should return non-zero exit status if it fails, so mutt
2668 knows something's wrong.
2673 close-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -c %t > %f"
2676 If the <em/command/ is empty, this operation is disabled for this file
2677 type, and the file can only be open in the readonly mode.
2679 <ref id="close-hook" name ="close-hook"> is not called when you exit
2680 from the folder if the folder was not changed.
2682 <sect2>Append a message to a compressed mailbox<label id="append-hook">
2684 Usage: <tt/append-hook/ <em/regexp/ &dquot;<em/command/&dquot;
2686 This command is used for saving to an existing compressed folder.
2687 The <em/command/ is the command that can be used for appending to the
2688 folders whose names match <em/regexp/. It has the same format as in
2689 the <ref id="open-hook" name="open-hook"> command.
2690 The temporary folder in this case contains the messages that are being
2693 The <em/command/ should <bf/not/ remove the decompressed file. The
2694 <em/command/ should return non-zero exit status if it fails, so mutt
2695 knows something's wrong.
2700 append-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -c %t >> %f"
2703 When <ref id="append-hook" name="append-hook"> is used, the folder is
2704 not opened, which saves time, but this means that we can not find out
2705 what the folder type is. Thus the default (<ref id="mbox_type"
2706 name="$mbox_type">) type is always supposed (i.e.
2707 this is the format used for the temporary folder).
2709 If the file does not exist when you save to it, <ref id="close-hook"
2710 name="close-hook"> is called, and not <ref id="append-hook"
2711 name="append-hook">. <ref id="append-hook" name="append-hook"> is only
2712 for appending to existing folders.
2714 If the <em/command/ is empty, this operation is disabled for this file
2715 type. In this case, the folder will be open and closed again (using
2716 <ref id="open-hook" name="open-hook"> and <ref id="close-hook"
2717 name="close-hook">respectively) each time you will add to it.
2719 <sect2>Encrypted folders
2721 The compressed folders support can also be used to handle encrypted
2722 folders. If you want to encrypt a folder with PGP, you may want to use
2723 the following hooks:
2726 open-hook \\.pgp$ "pgp -f < %f > %t"
2727 close-hook \\.pgp$ "pgp -fe YourPgpUserIdOrKeyId < %t > %f"
2730 Please note, that PGP does not support appending to an encrypted
2731 folder, so there is no append-hook defined.
2733 <bf/Note:/ the folder is temporary stored decrypted in the /tmp
2734 directory, where it can be read by your system administrator. So think
2735 about the security aspects of this.
2737 <sect>Mutt's MIME Support
2739 Quite a bit of effort has been made to make Mutt the premier text-mode
2740 MIME MUA. Every effort has been made to provide the functionality that
2741 the discerning MIME user requires, and the conformance to the standards
2742 wherever possible. When configuring Mutt for MIME, there are two extra
2743 types of configuration files which Mutt uses. One is the
2744 <tt/mime.types/ file, which contains the mapping of file extensions to
2745 IANA MIME types. The other is the <tt/mailcap/ file, which specifies
2746 the external commands to use for handling specific MIME types.
2748 <sect1>Using MIME in Mutt
2750 There are three areas/menus in Mutt which deal with MIME, they are the
2751 pager (while viewing a message), the attachment menu and the compose
2754 <sect2>Viewing MIME messages in the pager
2756 When you select a message from the index and view it in the pager, Mutt
2757 decodes the message to a text representation. Mutt internally supports
2758 a number of MIME types, including <tt>text/plain, text/enriched,
2759 message/rfc822, and message/news</tt>. In addition, the export
2760 controlled version of Mutt recognizes a variety of PGP MIME types,
2761 including PGP/MIME and application/pgp.
2763 Mutt will denote attachments with a couple lines describing them.
2764 These lines are of the form:
2766 [-- Attachment #1: Description --]
2767 [-- Type: text/plain, Encoding: 7bit, Size: 10000 --]
2769 Where the <tt/Description/ is the description or filename given for the
2770 attachment, and the <tt/Encoding/ is one of
2771 <tt>7bit/8bit/quoted-printable/base64/binary</tt>.
2773 If Mutt cannot deal with a MIME type, it will display a message like:
2775 [-- image/gif is unsupported (use 'v' to view this part) --]
2778 <sect2>The Attachment Menu<label id="attach_menu">
2780 The default binding for <tt/view-attachments/ is `v', which displays the
2781 attachment menu for a message. The attachment menu displays a list of
2782 the attachments in a message. From the attachment menu, you can save,
2783 print, pipe, delete, and view attachments. You can apply these
2784 operations to a group of attachments at once, by tagging the attachments
2785 and by using the ``tag-prefix'' operator. You can also reply to the
2786 current message from this menu, and only the current attachment (or the
2787 attachments tagged) will be quoted in your reply. You can view
2788 attachments as text, or view them using the mailcap viewer definition.
2790 Finally, you can apply the usual message-related functions (like
2791 <ref id="resend-message" name="resend-message">, and the reply
2792 and forward functions) to attachments of type <tt>message/rfc822</tt>.
2794 See the help on the attachment menu for more information.
2796 <sect2>The Compose Menu<label id="compose_menu">
2798 The compose menu is the menu you see before you send a message. It
2799 allows you to edit the recipient list, the subject, and other aspects
2800 of your message. It also contains a list of the attachments of your
2801 message, including the main body. From this menu, you can print, copy,
2802 filter, pipe, edit, compose, review, and rename an attachment or a
2803 list of tagged attachments. You can also modifying the attachment
2804 information, notably the type, encoding and description.
2806 Attachments appear as follows:
2808 - 1 [text/plain, 7bit, 1K] /tmp/mutt-euler-8082-0 <no description>
2809 2 [applica/x-gunzip, base64, 422K] ~/src/mutt-0.85.tar.gz <no description>
2812 The '-' denotes that Mutt will delete the file after sending (or
2813 postponing, or cancelling) the message. It can be toggled with the
2814 <tt/toggle-unlink/ command (default: u). The next field is the MIME
2815 content-type, and can be changed with the <tt/edit-type/ command
2816 (default: ^T). The next field is the encoding for the attachment,
2817 which allows a binary message to be encoded for transmission on 7bit
2818 links. It can be changed with the <tt/edit-encoding/ command
2819 (default: ^E). The next field is the size of the attachment,
2820 rounded to kilobytes or megabytes. The next field is the filename,
2821 which can be changed with the <tt/rename-file/ command (default: R).
2822 The final field is the description of the attachment, and can be
2823 changed with the <tt/edit-description/ command (default: d).
2825 <sect1>MIME Type configuration with <tt/mime.types/
2827 When you add an attachment to your mail message, Mutt searches your
2828 personal mime.types file at <tt>${HOME}/.mime.types</tt>, and then
2829 the system mime.types file at <tt>/usr/local/share/mutt/mime.types</tt> or
2830 <tt>/etc/mime.types</tt>
2832 The mime.types file consist of lines containing a MIME type and a space
2833 separated list of extensions. For example:
2835 application/postscript ps eps
2837 audio/x-aiff aif aifc aiff
2839 A sample <tt/mime.types/ file comes with the Mutt distribution, and
2840 should contain most of the MIME types you are likely to use.
2842 If Mutt can not determine the mime type by the extension of the file you
2843 attach, it will look at the file. If the file is free of binary
2844 information, Mutt will assume that the file is plain text, and mark it
2845 as <tt>text/plain</tt>. If the file contains binary information, then Mutt will
2846 mark it as <tt>application/octet-stream</tt>. You can change the MIME
2847 type that Mutt assigns to an attachment by using the <tt/edit-type/
2848 command from the compose menu (default: ^T). The MIME type is actually a
2849 major mime type followed by the sub-type, separated by a '/'. 6 major
2850 types: application, text, image, video, audio, and model have been approved
2851 after various internet discussions. Mutt recognises all of these if the
2852 appropriate entry is found in the mime.types file. It also recognises other
2853 major mime types, such as the chemical type that is widely used in the
2854 molecular modelling community to pass molecular data in various forms to
2855 various molecular viewers. Non-recognised mime types should only be used
2856 if the recipient of the message is likely to be expecting such attachments.
2858 <sect1>MIME Viewer configuration with <tt/mailcap/
2860 Mutt supports RFC 1524 MIME Configuration, in particular the Unix
2861 specific format specified in Appendix A of RFC 1524. This file format
2862 is commonly referred to as the mailcap format. Many MIME compliant
2863 programs utilize the mailcap format, allowing you to specify handling
2864 for all MIME types in one place for all programs. Programs known to
2865 use this format include Netscape, XMosaic, lynx and metamail.
2867 In order to handle various MIME types that Mutt can not handle
2868 internally, Mutt parses a series of external configuration files to
2869 find an external handler. The default search string for these files
2870 is a colon delimited list set to
2872 ${HOME}/.mailcap:/usr/local/share/mutt/mailcap:/etc/mailcap:/etc/mailcap:/usr/etc/mailcap:/usr/local/etc/mailcap
2874 where <tt/$HOME/ is your home directory.
2876 In particular, the metamail distribution will install a mailcap file,
2877 usually as <tt>/usr/local/etc/mailcap</tt>, which contains some baseline
2880 <sect2>The Basics of the mailcap file
2882 A mailcap file consists of a series of lines which are comments, blank,
2885 A comment line consists of a # character followed by anything you want.
2887 A blank line is blank.
2889 A definition line consists of a content type, a view command, and any
2890 number of optional fields. Each field of a definition line is divided
2891 by a semicolon ';' character.
2893 The content type is specified in the MIME standard type/subtype method.
2895 <tt>text/plain, text/html, image/gif, </tt>
2896 etc. In addition, the mailcap format includes two formats for
2897 wildcards, one using the special '*' subtype, the other is the implicit
2898 wild, where you only include the major type. For example, <tt>image/*</tt>, or
2899 <tt>video,</tt> will match all image types and video types,
2902 The view command is a Unix command for viewing the type specified. There
2903 are two different types of commands supported. The default is to send
2904 the body of the MIME message to the command on stdin. You can change
2905 this behaviour by using %s as a parameter to your view command.
2906 This will cause Mutt to save the body of the MIME message to a temporary
2907 file, and then call the view command with the %s replaced by
2908 the name of the temporary file. In both cases, Mutt will turn over the
2909 terminal to the view program until the program quits, at which time Mutt
2910 will remove the temporary file if it exists.
2912 So, in the simplest form, you can send a text/plain message to the
2913 external pager more on stdin:
2917 Or, you could send the message as a file:
2921 Perhaps you would like to use lynx to interactively view a text/html
2926 In this case, lynx does not support viewing a file from stdin, so you
2927 must use the %s syntax.
2928 <bf/Note:/ <em>Some older versions of lynx contain a bug where they
2929 will check the mailcap file for a viewer for text/html. They will find
2930 the line which calls lynx, and run it. This causes lynx to continuously
2931 spawn itself to view the object.</em>
2933 On the other hand, maybe you don't want to use lynx interactively, you
2934 just want to have it convert the text/html to text/plain, then you can
2937 text/html; lynx -dump %s | more
2940 Perhaps you wish to use lynx to view text/html files, and a pager on
2941 all other text formats, then you would use the following:
2946 This is the simplest form of a mailcap file.
2948 <sect2>Secure use of mailcap
2950 The interpretion of shell meta-characters embedded in MIME parameters
2951 can lead to security problems in general. Mutt tries to quote parameters
2952 in expansion of %s syntaxes properly, and avoids risky characters by
2953 substituting them, see the <ref id="mailcap_sanitize"
2954 name="mailcap_sanitize"> variable.
2956 Although mutt's procedures to invoke programs with mailcap seem to be
2957 safe, there are other applications parsing mailcap, maybe taking less care
2958 of it. Therefore you should pay attention to the following rules:
2960 <em/Keep the %-expandos away from shell quoting./
2961 Don't quote them with single or double quotes. Mutt does this for
2962 you, the right way, as should any other program which interprets
2963 mailcap. Don't put them into backtick expansions. Be highly careful
2964 with eval statements, and avoid them if possible at all. Trying to fix
2965 broken behaviour with quotes introduces new leaks - there is no
2966 alternative to correct quoting in the first place.
2968 If you have to use the %-expandos' values in context where you need
2969 quoting or backtick expansions, put that value into a shell variable
2970 and reference the shell variable where necessary, as in the following
2971 example (using <tt/$charset/ inside the backtick expansion is safe,
2972 since it is not itself subject to any further expansion):
2975 text/test-mailcap-bug; cat %s; copiousoutput; test=charset=%{charset} \
2976 && test "`echo $charset | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`" != iso-8859-1
2979 <sect2>Advanced mailcap Usage
2982 <sect3>Optional Fields
2984 In addition to the required content-type and view command fields, you
2985 can add semi-colon ';' separated fields to set flags and other options.
2986 Mutt recognizes the following optional fields:
2989 This flag tells Mutt that the command passes possibly large amounts of
2990 text on stdout. This causes Mutt to invoke a pager (either the internal
2991 pager or the external pager defined by the pager variable) on the output
2992 of the view command. Without this flag, Mutt assumes that the command
2993 is interactive. One could use this to replace the pipe to <tt>more</tt>
2994 in the <tt>lynx -dump</tt> example in the Basic section:
2996 text/html; lynx -dump %s ; copiousoutput
2998 This will cause lynx to format the text/html output as text/plain
2999 and Mutt will use your standard pager to display the results.
3001 Mutt uses this flag when viewing attachments with <ref id="auto_view"
3002 name="autoview">, in order to decide whether it should honor the setting
3003 of the <ref id="wait_key" name="$wait_key"> variable or
3004 not. When an attachment is viewed using an interactive program, and the
3005 corresponding mailcap entry has a <em/needsterminal/ flag, Mutt will use
3006 <ref id="wait_key" name="$wait_key"> and the exit status
3007 of the program to decide if it will ask you to press a key after the
3008 external program has exited. In all other situations it will not prompt
3010 <tag>compose=<command></tag>
3011 This flag specifies the command to use to create a new attachment of a
3012 specific MIME type. Mutt supports this from the compose menu.
3013 <tag>composetyped=<command></tag>
3014 This flag specifies the command to use to create a new attachment of a
3015 specific MIME type. This command differs from the compose command in
3016 that mutt will expect standard MIME headers on the data. This can be
3017 used to specify parameters, filename, description, etc. for a new
3018 attachment. Mutt supports this from the compose menu.
3019 <tag>print=<command></tag>
3020 This flag specifies the command to use to print a specific MIME type.
3021 Mutt supports this from the attachment and compose menus.
3022 <tag>edit=<command></tag>
3023 This flag specifies the command to use to edit a specific MIME type.
3024 Mutt supports this from the compose menu, and also uses it to compose
3025 new attachments. Mutt will default to the defined editor for text
3027 <tag>nametemplate=<template></tag>
3028 This field specifies the format for the file denoted by %s in the
3029 command fields. Certain programs will require a certain file extension,
3030 for instance, to correctly view a file. For instance, lynx will only
3031 interpret a file as <tt>text/html</tt> if the file ends in <tt/.html/.
3032 So, you would specify lynx as a <tt>text/html</tt> viewer with a line in
3033 the mailcap file like:
3035 text/html; lynx %s; nametemplate=%s.html
3037 <tag>test=<command></tag>
3038 This field specifies a command to run to test whether this mailcap
3039 entry should be used. The command is defined with the command expansion
3040 rules defined in the next section. If the command returns 0, then the
3041 test passed, and Mutt uses this entry. If the command returns non-zero,
3042 then the test failed, and Mutt continues searching for the right entry.
3043 <bf/Note:/ <em>the content-type must match before Mutt performs the test.</em>
3046 text/html; netscape -remote 'openURL(%s)' ; test=RunningX
3049 In this example, Mutt will run the program RunningX which will return 0
3050 if the X Window manager is running, and non-zero if it isn't. If
3051 RunningX returns 0, then Mutt will call netscape to display the
3052 text/html object. If RunningX doesn't return 0, then Mutt will go on
3053 to the next entry and use lynx to display the text/html object.
3058 When searching for an entry in the mailcap file, Mutt will search for
3059 the most useful entry for its purpose. For instance, if you are
3060 attempting to print an <tt>image/gif</tt>, and you have the following
3061 entries in your mailcap file, Mutt will search for an entry with the
3065 image/gif; ; print= anytopnm %s | pnmtops | lpr; \
3068 Mutt will skip the <tt>image/*</tt> entry and use the <tt>image/gif</tt>
3069 entry with the print command.
3071 In addition, you can use this with <ref id="auto_view" name="Autoview">
3072 to denote two commands for viewing an attachment, one to be viewed
3073 automatically, the other to be viewed interactively from the attachment
3074 menu. In addition, you can then use the test feature to determine which
3075 viewer to use interactively depending on your environment.
3077 text/html; netscape -remote 'openURL(%s)' ; test=RunningX
3078 text/html; lynx %s; nametemplate=%s.html
3079 text/html; lynx -dump %s; nametemplate=%s.html; copiousoutput
3081 For <ref id="auto_view" name="Autoview">, Mutt will choose the third
3082 entry because of the copiousoutput tag. For interactive viewing, Mutt
3083 will run the program RunningX to determine if it should use the first
3084 entry. If the program returns non-zero, Mutt will use the second entry
3085 for interactive viewing.
3087 <sect3>Command Expansion
3089 The various commands defined in the mailcap files are passed to the
3090 <tt>/bin/sh</tt> shell using the system() function. Before the
3091 command is passed to <tt>/bin/sh -c</tt>, it is parsed to expand
3092 various special parameters with information from Mutt. The keywords
3096 As seen in the basic mailcap section, this variable is expanded
3097 to a filename specified by the calling program. This file contains
3098 the body of the message to view/print/edit or where the composing
3099 program should place the results of composition. In addition, the
3100 use of this keyword causes Mutt to not pass the body of the message
3101 to the view/print/edit program on stdin.
3103 Mutt will expand %t to the text representation of the content
3104 type of the message in the same form as the first parameter of the
3105 mailcap definition line, ie <tt>text/html</tt> or
3107 <tag>%{<parameter>}</tag>
3108 Mutt will expand this to the value of the specified parameter
3109 from the Content-Type: line of the mail message. For instance, if
3110 Your mail message contains:
3112 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
3114 then Mutt will expand %{charset} to iso-8859-1. The default metamail
3115 mailcap file uses this feature to test the charset to spawn an xterm
3116 using the right charset to view the message.
3117 <tag>\%</tag>
3118 This will be replaced by a %
3120 Mutt does not currently support the %F and %n keywords
3121 specified in RFC 1524. The main purpose of these parameters is for
3122 multipart messages, which is handled internally by Mutt.
3124 <sect2>Example mailcap files
3126 This mailcap file is fairly simple and standard:
3128 # I'm always running X :)
3129 video/*; xanim %s > /dev/null
3130 image/*; xv %s > /dev/null
3132 # I'm always running netscape (if my computer had more memory, maybe)
3133 text/html; netscape -remote 'openURL(%s)'
3136 This mailcap file shows quite a number of examples:
3139 # Use xanim to view all videos Xanim produces a header on startup,
3140 # send that to /dev/null so I don't see it
3141 video/*; xanim %s > /dev/null
3143 # Send html to a running netscape by remote
3144 text/html; netscape -remote 'openURL(%s)'; test=RunningNetscape
3146 # If I'm not running netscape but I am running X, start netscape on the
3148 text/html; netscape %s; test=RunningX
3150 # Else use lynx to view it as text
3153 # This version would convert the text/html to text/plain
3154 text/html; lynx -dump %s; copiousoutput
3156 # I use enscript to print text in two columns to a page
3157 text/*; more %s; print=enscript -2Gr %s
3159 # Netscape adds a flag to tell itself to view jpegs internally
3160 image/jpeg;xv %s; x-mozilla-flags=internal
3162 # Use xv to view images if I'm running X
3163 # In addition, this uses the \ to extend the line and set my editor
3165 image/*;xv %s; test=RunningX; \
3168 # Convert images to text using the netpbm tools
3169 image/*; (anytopnm %s | pnmscale -xysize 80 46 | ppmtopgm | pgmtopbm |
3170 pbmtoascii -1x2 ) 2>&1 ; copiousoutput
3172 # Send excel spreadsheets to my NT box
3173 application/ms-excel; open.pl %s
3176 <sect1>MIME Autoview<label id="auto_view">
3178 In addition to explicitly telling Mutt to view an attachment with the
3179 MIME viewer defined in the mailcap file, Mutt has support for
3180 automatically viewing MIME attachments while in the pager.
3182 To work, you must define a viewer in the mailcap file which uses the
3183 <tt/copiousoutput/ option to denote that it is non-interactive.
3184 Usually, you also use the entry to convert the attachment to a text
3185 representation which you can view in the pager.
3187 You then use the <tt/auto_view/ muttrc command to list the
3188 content-types that you wish to view automatically.
3190 For instance, if you set auto_view to:
3192 auto_view text/html application/x-gunzip application/postscript image/gif application/x-tar-gz
3195 Mutt could use the following mailcap entries to automatically view
3196 attachments of these types.
3198 text/html; lynx -dump %s; copiousoutput; nametemplate=%s.html
3199 image/*; anytopnm %s | pnmscale -xsize 80 -ysize 50 | ppmtopgm | pgmtopbm | pbmtoascii ; copiousoutput
3200 application/x-gunzip; gzcat; copiousoutput
3201 application/x-tar-gz; gunzip -c %s | tar -tf - ; copiousoutput
3202 application/postscript; ps2ascii %s; copiousoutput
3205 ``unauto_view'' can be used to remove previous entries from the autoview list.
3206 This can be used with message-hook to autoview messages based on size, etc.
3207 ``unauto_view *'' will remove all previous entries.
3209 <sect1>MIME Multipart/Alternative<label id="alternative_order">
3211 Mutt has some heuristics for determining which attachment of a
3212 multipart/alternative type to display. First, mutt will check the
3213 alternative_order list to determine if one of the available types
3214 is preferred. The alternative_order list consists of a number of
3215 mimetypes in order, including support for implicit and explicit
3216 wildcards, for example:
3218 alternative_order text/enriched text/plain text application/postscript image/*
3221 Next, mutt will check if any of the types have a defined
3222 <ref id="auto_view" name="auto_view">, and use that. Failing
3223 that, Mutt will look for any text type. As a last attempt, mutt will
3224 look for any type it knows how to handle.
3226 To remove a MIME type from the <tt/alternative_order/ list, use the
3227 <tt/unalternative_order/ command.
3229 <sect1>MIME Lookup<label id="mime_lookup">
3231 Mutt's mime_lookup list specifies a list of mime-types that should not
3232 be treated according to their mailcap entry. This option is designed to
3233 deal with binary types such as application/octet-stream. When an attachment's
3234 mime-type is listed in mime_lookup, then the extension of the filename will
3235 be compared to the list of extensions in the mime.types file. The mime-type
3236 associated with this extension will then be used to process the attachment
3237 according to the rules in the mailcap file and according to any other configuration
3238 options (such as auto_view) specified. Common usage would be:
3240 mime_lookup application/octet-stream application/X-Lotus-Manuscript
3243 In addition, the unmime_lookup command may be used to disable this feature
3244 for any particular mime-type if it had been set, for example, in a global
3248 <sect1>Command line options<label id="commandline">
3250 Running <tt/mutt/ with no arguments will make Mutt attempt to read your spool
3251 mailbox. However, it is possible to read other mailboxes and
3252 to send messages from the command line as well.
3256 -a attach a file to a message
3257 -b specify a blind carbon-copy (BCC) address
3258 -c specify a carbon-copy (Cc) address
3259 -e specify a config command to be run after initilization files are read
3260 -f specify a mailbox to load
3261 -F specify an alternate file to read initialization commands
3262 -h print help on command line options
3263 -H specify a draft file from which to read a header and body
3264 -i specify a file to include in a message composition
3265 -m specify a default mailbox type
3266 -n do not read the system Muttrc
3267 -p recall a postponed message
3268 -Q query a configuration variable
3269 -R open mailbox in read-only mode
3270 -s specify a subject (enclose in quotes if it contains spaces)
3271 -v show version number and compile-time definitions
3272 -x simulate the mailx(1) compose mode
3273 -y show a menu containing the files specified by the mailboxes command
3274 -z exit immediately if there are no messages in the mailbox
3275 -Z open the first folder with new message,exit immediately if none
3278 To read messages in a mailbox
3280 <tt/mutt/ [ -nz ] [ -F <em/muttrc/ ] [ -m <em/type/ ] [ -f <em/mailbox/ ]
3282 To compose a new message
3284 <tt/mutt/ [ -n ] [ -F <em/muttrc/ ] [ -a <em/file/ ] [ -c <em/address/ ] [ -i <em/filename/ ] [ -s <em/subject/ ] <em/address/ [ <em/address/ ... ]
3286 Mutt also supports a ``batch'' mode to send prepared messages. Simply redirect
3287 input from the file you wish to send. For example,
3289 <tt>mutt -s &dquot;data set for run #2&dquot; professor@bigschool.edu
3290 < ˜/run2.dat</tt>
3292 This command will send a message to ``professor@bigschool.edu'' with a subject
3293 of ``data set for run #2''. In the body of the message will be the contents
3294 of the file ``˜/run2.dat''.
3296 <sect1>Configuration Commands<label id="commands">
3298 The following are the commands understood by mutt.
3302 <tt><ref id="account-hook" name="account-hook"></tt> <em/pattern/ <em/command/
3304 <tt><ref id="alias" name="alias"></tt> <em/key/ <em/address/ [ , <em/address/, ... ]
3306 <tt><ref id="alias" name="unalias"></tt> [ * | <em/key/ ... ]
3308 <tt><ref id="alternates" name="alternates"></tt> <em/regexp/ [ <em/regexp/ ... ]
3310 <tt><ref id="alternates" name="unalternates"></tt> [ * | <em/regexp/ ... ]
3312 <tt><ref id="alternative_order" name="alternative_order"></tt> <em/mimetype/ [ <em/mimetype/ ... ]
3314 <tt><ref id="alternative_order" name="unalternative_order"></tt> <em/mimetype/ [ <em/mimetype/ ... ]
3316 <tt><ref id="append-hook" name="append-hook"></tt> <em/regexp/ <em/command/
3318 <tt><ref id="auto_view" name="auto_view"></tt> <em/mimetype/ [ <em/mimetype/ ... ]
3320 <tt><ref id="auto_view" name="unauto_view"></tt> <em/mimetype/ [ <em/mimetype/ ... ]
3322 <tt><ref id="bind" name="bind"></tt> <em/map/ <em/key/ <em/function/
3324 <tt><ref id="charset-hook" name="charset-hook"></tt> <em/alias/ <em/charset/
3326 <tt><ref id="close-hook" name="close-hook"></tt> <em/regexp/ <em/command/
3328 <tt><ref id="color" name="color"></tt> <em/object/ <em/foreground/ <em/background/ [ <em/regexp/ ]
3330 <tt><ref id="color" name="uncolor"></tt> <em/index/ <em/pattern/ [ <em/pattern/ ... ]
3332 <tt><ref id="exec" name="exec"></tt> <em/function/ [ <em/function/ ... ]
3334 <tt><ref id="fcc-hook" name="fcc-hook"></tt> <em/pattern/ <em/mailbox/
3336 <tt><ref id="fcc-save-hook" name="fcc-save-hook"></tt> <em/pattern/ <em/mailbox/
3338 <tt><ref id="folder-hook" name="folder-hook"></tt> <em/pattern/ <em/command/
3340 <tt><ref id="hdr_order" name="hdr_order"></tt> <em/header/ [ <em/header/ ... ]
3342 <tt><ref id="hdr_order" name="unhdr_order"></tt> <em/header/ [ <em/header/ ... ]
3344 <tt><ref id="charset-hook" name="iconv-hook"></tt> <em/charset/ <em/local-charset/
3346 <tt><ref id="ignore" name="ignore"></tt> <em/pattern/ [ <em/pattern/ ... ]
3348 <tt><ref id="ignore" name="unignore"></tt> <em/pattern/ [ <em/pattern/ ... ]
3350 <tt><ref id="lists" name="lists"></tt> <em/regexp/ [ <em/regexp/ ... ]
3352 <tt><ref id="lists" name="unlists"></tt> <em/regexp/ [ <em/regexp/ ... ]
3354 <tt><ref id="macro" name="macro"></tt> <em/menu/ <em/key/ <em/sequence/ [ <em/description/ ]
3356 <tt><ref id="mailboxes" name="mailboxes"></tt> <em/filename/ [ <em/filename/ ... ]
3358 <tt><ref id="mbox-hook" name="mbox-hook"></tt> <em/pattern/ <em/mailbox/
3360 <tt><ref id="message-hook" name="message-hook"></tt> <em/pattern/ <em/command/
3362 <tt><ref id="mime_lookup" name="mime_lookup"></tt> <em/mimetype/ [ <em/mimetype/ ... ]
3364 <tt><ref id="mime_lookup" name="unmime_lookup"></tt> <em/mimetype/ [ <em/mimetype/ ... ]
3366 <tt><ref id="color" name="mono"></tt> <em/object attribute/ [ <em/regexp/ ]
3368 <tt><ref id="color" name="unmono"></tt> <em/index/ <em/pattern/ [ <em/pattern/ ... ]
3370 <tt><ref id="my_hdr" name="my_hdr"></tt> <em/string/
3372 <tt><ref id="my_hdr" name="unmy_hdr"></tt> <em/field/ [ <em/field/ ... ]
3374 <tt><ref id="open-hook" name="open-hook"></tt> <em/regexp/ <em/command/
3376 <tt><ref id="crypt-hook" name="crypt-hook"></tt> <em/pattern/ <em/key-id/
3378 <tt><ref id="push" name="push"></tt> <em/string/
3380 <tt><ref id="set" name="reset"></tt> <em/variable/ [<em/variable/ ... ]
3382 <tt><ref id="save-hook" name="save-hook"></tt> <em/regexp/ <em/filename/
3384 <tt><ref id="score-command" name="score"></tt> <em/pattern/ <em/value/
3386 <tt><ref id="score-command" name="unscore"></tt> <em/pattern/ [ <em/pattern/ ... ]
3388 <tt><ref id="send-hook" name="send-hook"></tt> <em/regexp/ <em/command/
3390 <tt><ref id="reply-hook" name="reply-hook"></tt> <em/regexp/ <em/command/
3392 <tt><ref id="set" name="set"></tt> [no|inv]<em/variable/[=<em/value/] [ <em/variable/ ... ]
3394 <tt><ref id="set" name="unset"></tt> <em/variable/ [<em/variable/ ... ]
3396 <tt><ref id="source" name="source"></tt> <em/filename/
3398 <tt><ref id="spam" name="spam"></tt> <em/pattern/ <em/format/
3400 <tt><ref id="spam" name="nospam"></tt> <em/pattern/
3402 <tt><ref id="lists" name="subscribe"></tt> <em/regexp/ [ <em/regexp/ ... ]
3404 <tt><ref id="lists" name="unsubscribe"></tt> <em/regexp/ [ <em/regexp/ ... ]
3406 <tt><ref id="set" name="toggle"></tt> <em/variable/ [<em/variable/ ... ]
3408 <tt><ref id="unhook" name="unhook"></tt> <em/hook-type/
3411 <sect1>Configuration variables<label id="variables">