1 <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
2 <!-- THIS FILE IST NOT VALID DOCBOOK ! DTD REMOVED -->
3 <!-- Please don't use html entities like [, ] ^ -->
4 <!-- etc. they don't work with xml! -->
5 <book xmlns:muttng-doc="http://mutt-ng.berlios.de/doc/#NS">
8 <title>The Mutt Next Generation E-Mail Client</title>
10 <firstname>Andreas</firstname><surname>Krennmair</surname>
11 <email>ak@synflood.at</email>
14 <firstname>Michael</firstname><surname>Elkins</surname>
15 <email>me@cs.hmc.edu</email>
17 <pubdate>version @VERSION@</pubdate>
20 Michael Elinks on mutt, circa 1995:
21 ``All mail clients suck. This one just sucks less.''
24 Sven Guckes on mutt, ca. 2003: ``But it still sucks!''
27 </bookinfo> <!--}}}-->
29 <chapter id="introduction"> <!--{{{-->
30 <title>Introduction</title>
33 <title>Overview</title>
36 <emphasis role="bold">Mutt-ng</emphasis> is a small but very
37 powerful text-based MIME mail client. Mutt-ng is highly
38 configurable, and is well suited to the mail power user with
39 advanced features like key bindings, keyboard macros, mail
40 threading, regular expression searches and a powerful pattern
41 matching language for selecting groups of messages.
45 This documentation additionally contains documentation to
46 <emphasis role="bold"> Mutt-NG </emphasis> ,a fork from Mutt
47 with the goal to fix all the little annoyances of Mutt, to
48 integrate all the Mutt patches that are floating around in the
49 web, and to add other new features. Features specific to Mutt-ng
50 will be discussed in an extra section. Don't be confused when
51 most of the documentation talk about Mutt and not Mutt-ng,
52 Mutt-ng contains all Mutt features, plus many more.
62 <title>Mutt-ng Home Page</title>
65 <muttng-doc:web url="http://www.muttng.org/"/>
74 <sect1 id="mailinglists">
75 <title>Mailing Lists</title>
83 <email>mutt-ng-users@lists.berlios.de</email>: This is
84 where the mutt-ng user support happens.
90 <email>mutt-ng-devel@lists.berlios.de</email>: The
91 development mailing list for mutt-ng
105 <sect1 id="distrib-sites">
106 <title>Software Distribution Sites</title>
109 So far, there are no official releases of Mutt-ng, but you can
110 download daily snapshots from <muttng-doc:web url="http://mutt-ng.berlios.de/snapshots/"/>
123 Visit channel <emphasis>#muttng</emphasis> on <ulink
124 url="http://www.freenode.net/">irc.freenode.net
125 (www.freenode.net) </ulink> to chat with other people
126 interested in Mutt-ng.
132 <title>Weblog</title>
135 If you want to read fresh news about the latest development in
136 Mutt-ng, and get informed about stuff like interesting,
137 Mutt-ng-related articles and packages for your favorite
138 distribution, you can read and/or subscribe to our <ulink
139 url="http://mutt-ng.supersized.org/">Mutt-ng development
145 <sect1 id="copyright">
146 <title>Copyright</title>
149 Mutt is Copyright (C) 1996-2000 Michael R. Elkins
150 <me@cs.hmc.edu> and others
154 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
155 it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
156 the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
157 (at your option) any later version.
161 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
162 but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
163 MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
164 GNU General Public License for more details.
168 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
169 along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
170 Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111, USA.
175 <sect1 id="conventions">
176 <title>Manual Conventions</title>
179 This manual contains several (hopefully consistent) conventions to
180 specially layout different items in different fashions.
186 <para>Configuration and environment variables will be printed
187 in a typewriter font and both prefixed with a dollar sign as
188 it's common for UNIX-like environments. Configuration
189 variables are lower-case only while environment variables
190 are upper-case only.</para>
193 <para>Muttng-specific commands are enclosed in
194 <literal><></literal> and printed in a typewriter font,
198 <para>As common for UNIX-like environments, references to
199 manual pages are printed with the section enclosed in
200 braces, as in <muttng-doc:man name="vi"/> or <muttng-doc:man
201 name="muttngrc" sect="5"/>. Execute <literal>man [section]
202 [name]</literal> to view the manual page.</para>
208 If, while reading this fine manual, you find any inconsistencies
209 of whatever kind, please contact the developers via
210 <email>mutt-ng-devel@lists.berlios.de</email> to report it.
218 <chapter id="getting-started"> <!--{{{-->
219 <title>Getting Started</title>
221 <sect1 id="basic-concepts"> <!--{{{-->
222 <title>Basic Concepts</title>
224 <sect2 id="concept-screens-and-menus"> <!--{{{-->
225 <title>Screens and Menus</title>
228 mutt-ng offers different screens of which every has its special
238 The <emphasis>index</emphasis> displays the contents of the
247 The <emphasis>pager</emphasis> is responsible for displaying
249 is, the header, the body and all attached parts.
256 The <emphasis>file browser</emphasis> offers operations on and
258 information of all folders mutt-ng should watch for mail.
265 The <emphasis>sidebar</emphasis> offers a permanent view of
267 contain how many total, new and/or flagged mails.
274 The <emphasis>help screen</emphasis> lists for all currently
276 commands how to invoke them as well as a short description.
283 The <emphasis>compose</emphasis> menu is a comfortable
285 actions before sending mail: change subjects, attach files,
294 The <emphasis>attachement</emphasis> menu gives a summary and
296 structure of the attachements of the current message.
303 The <emphasis>alias</emphasis> menu lists all or a fraction of
312 The <emphasis>key</emphasis> menu used in connection with
314 users choose the right key to encrypt with.
324 When mutt-ng is started without any further options, it'll open
325 the users default mailbox and display the index.
335 <sect2 id="concept-configuration"> <!--{{{-->
336 <title>Configuration</title>
339 Mutt-ng does <emphasis>not</emphasis> feature an internal
341 interface or menu due to the simple fact that this would be too
342 complex to handle (currently there are several <emphasis>hundred</emphasis>
343 variables which fine-tune the behaviour.)
347 Mutt-ng is configured using configuration files which allow
348 users to add comments or manage them via version control systems
353 Also, mutt-ng comes with a shell script named <literal>grml-muttng</literal>
354 kindly contributed by users which really helps and eases the
355 creation of a user's configuration file. When downloading the
356 source code via a snapshot or via subversion, it can be found in
357 the <literal>contrib</literal> directory.
367 <sect2 id="concept-functions"> <!--{{{-->
368 <title>Functions</title>
371 Mutt-ng offers great flexibility due to the use of functions:
372 internally, every action a user can make mutt-ng perform is named
373 ``function.'' Those functions are assigned to keys (or even key
374 sequences) and may be completely adjusted to user's needs. The
375 basic idea is that the impatient users get a very intuitive
376 interface to start off with and advanced users virtually get no
377 limits to adjustments.
387 <sect2 id="concept-interaction"> <!--{{{-->
388 <title>Interaction</title>
391 Mutt-ng has two basic concepts of user interaction:
400 There is one dedicated line on the screen used to query
401 the user for input, issue any command, query variables and
402 display error and informational messages. As for every type of
403 user input, this requires manual action leading to the need of
411 The automatized interface for interaction are the so
412 called <emphasis>hooks</emphasis>. Hooks specify actions the
414 performed at well-defined situations: what to do when entering
415 which folder, what to do when displaying or replying to what
416 kind of message, etc. These are optional, i.e. a user doesn't
417 need to specify them but can do so.
433 <sect2 id="concept-modularization"> <!--{{{-->
434 <title>Modularization</title>
437 Although mutt-ng has many functionality built-in, many
438 features can be delegated to external tools to increase
439 flexibility: users can define programs to filter a message through
440 before displaying, users can use any program they want for
441 displaying a message, message types (such as PDF or PostScript)
442 for which mutt-ng doesn't have a built-in filter can be rendered
443 by arbitrary tools and so forth. Although mutt-ng has an alias
444 mechanism built-in, it features using external tools to query for
445 nearly every type of addresses from sources like LDAP, databases
446 or just the list of locally known users.
456 <sect2 id="concept-patterns"> <!--{{{-->
457 <title>Patterns</title>
460 Mutt-ng has a built-in pattern matching ``language'' which is
461 as widely used as possible to present a consistent interface to
462 users. The same ``pattern terms'' can be used for searching,
463 scoring, message selection and much more.
481 <sect1 id="screens-and-menus"> <!--{{{-->
482 <title>Screens and Menus</title>
484 <sect2 id="intro-index">
488 The index is the screen that you usually see first when you
489 start mutt-ng. It gives an overview over your emails in the
490 currently opened mailbox. By default, this is your system mailbox.
491 The information you see in the index is a list of emails, each with
492 its number on the left, its flags (new email, important email,
493 email that has been forwarded or replied to, tagged email, ...),
494 the date when email was sent, its sender, the email size, and the
495 subject. Additionally, the index also shows thread hierarchies:
496 when you reply to an email, and the other person replies back, you
497 can see the other's person email in a "sub-tree" below. This is
498 especially useful for personal email between a group of people or
499 when you've subscribed to mailing lists.
508 <sect2 id="intro-pager">
512 The pager is responsible for showing the email content. On the
513 top of the pager you have an overview over the most important email
514 headers like the sender, the recipient, the subject, and much more
515 information. How much information you actually see depends on your
516 configuration, which we'll describe below.
520 Below the headers, you see the email body which usually contains
521 the message. If the email contains any attachments, you will see
522 more information about them below the email body, or, if the
523 attachments are text files, you can view them directly in the
528 To give the user a good overview, it is possible to configure
529 mutt-ng to show different things in the pager with different
530 colors. Virtually everything that can be described with a regular
531 expression can be colored, e.g. URLs, email addresses or smileys.
540 <sect2 id="intro-browser">
541 <title>File Browser</title>
544 The file browser is the interface to the local or remote
545 file system. When selecting a mailbox to open, the browser allows
546 custom sorting of items, limiting the items shown by a regular
547 expression and a freely adjustable format of what to display in
548 which way. It also allows for easy navigation through the
549 file system when selecting file(s) to attach to a message, select
550 multiple files to attach and many more.
559 <sect2 id="intro-sidebar">
560 <title>Sidebar</title>
563 The sidebar comes in handy to manage mails which are spread
564 over different folders. All folders users setup mutt-ng to watch
565 for new mail will be listed. The listing includes not only the
566 name but also the number of total messages, the number of new and
567 flagged messages. Items with new mail may be colored different
568 from those with flagged mail, items may be shortened or compress
569 if they're they to long to be printed in full form so that by
570 abbreviated names, user still now what the name stands for.
579 <sect2 id="intro-help">
583 The help screen is meant to offer a quick help to the user. It
584 lists the current configuration of key bindings and their
585 associated commands including a short description, and currently
586 unbound functions that still need to be associated with a key
587 binding (or alternatively, they can be called via the mutt-ng
597 <sect2 id="intro-compose">
598 <title>Compose Menu</title>
601 The compose menu features a split screen containing the
602 information which really matter before actually sending a
603 message by mail or posting an article to a newsgroup: who gets
604 the message as what (recipient, newsgroup, who gets what kind of
605 copy). Additionally, users may set security options like
606 deciding whether to sign, encrypt or sign and encrypt a message
611 Also, it's used to attach messages, news articles or files to
612 a message, to re-edit any attachment including the message
622 <sect2 id="intro-alias">
623 <title>Alias Menu</title>
626 The alias menu is used to help users finding the recipients
627 of messages. For users who need to contact many people, there's
628 no need to remember addresses or names completely because it
629 allows for searching, too. The alias mechanism and thus the
630 alias menu also features grouping several addresses by a shorter
631 nickname, the actual alias, so that users don't have to select
632 each single recipient manually.
641 <sect2 id="intro-attach">
642 <title>Attachment Menu</title>
645 As will be later discussed in detail, mutt-ng features a good
646 and stable MIME implementation, that is, is greatly supports
647 sending and receiving messages of arbitrary type. The
648 attachment menu displays a message's structure in detail: what
649 content parts are attached to which parent part (which gives a
650 true tree structure), which type is of what type and what size.
651 Single parts may saved, deleted or modified to offer great and
652 easy access to message's internals.
661 <sect2 id="intro-keysel">
662 <title>Key Menu</title>
665 <literal>FIXME</literal>
681 <sect1 id="moving"> <!--{{{-->
682 <title>Moving Around in Menus</title>
685 Information is presented in menus, very similar to ELM. Here is a
686 tableshowing the common keys used to navigate menus in Mutt-ng.
691 <table frame="none" rowsep="1">
692 <title>Most commonly used movement bindings</title>
693 <tgroup cols="3" align="left" colsep="1" rowsep="1">
697 <entry>Function</entry>
698 <entry>Description</entry>
703 <entry><literal>j</literal> or <literal>Down</literal></entry>
704 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="next-entry"/></entry>
705 <entry>move to the next entry</entry>
708 <entry><literal>k</literal> or <literal>Up</literal></entry>
709 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="previous-entry"/></entry>
710 <entry>move to the previous entry</entry>
713 <entry><literal>z</literal> or <literal>PageDn</literal></entry>
714 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="page-down"/></entry>
715 <entry>go to the next page</entry>
718 <entry><literal>Z</literal> or <literal>PageUp</literal></entry>
719 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="page-up"/></entry>
720 <entry>go to the previous page</entry>
723 <entry><literal>=</literal> or <literal>Home</literal></entry>
724 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="first-entry"/></entry>
725 <entry>jump to the first entry</entry>
728 <entry><literal>*</literal> or <literal>End</literal></entry>
729 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="last-entry"/></entry>
730 <entry>jump to the last entry</entry>
733 <entry><literal>q</literal></entry>
734 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="quit"/></entry>
735 <entry>exit the current menu</entry>
738 <entry><literal>?</literal></entry>
739 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="help"/></entry>
740 <entry>list all key bindings for the current menu</entry>
756 <sect1 id="editing"> <!--{{{-->
757 <title>Editing Input Fields</title>
760 Mutt-ng has a builtin line editor which is used as the primary way to
762 textual data such as email addresses or filenames. The keys used to
764 around while editing are very similar to those of Emacs.
769 <table frame="none" rowsep="1">
770 <title>Line Editor Functions</title>
771 <tgroup cols="3" align="left" colsep="1" rowsep="1">
775 <entry>Function</entry>
776 <entry>Description</entry>
781 <entry><literal>^A or <Home> </literal></entry>
782 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="bol"/></entry>
783 <entry>move to the start of the line</entry>
786 <entry><literal>^B or <Left> </literal></entry>
787 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="backward-char"/>
788 </entry><entry>move back one char</entry>
791 <entry><literal>Esc B </literal></entry>
792 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="backward-word"/></entry>
793 <entry>move back one word</entry>
796 <entry><literal>^D or <Delete> </literal></entry>
797 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="delete-char"/></entry>
798 <entry>delete the char under the cursor</entry>
801 <entry><literal>^E or <End> </literal></entry>
802 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="eol"/></entry>
803 <entry>move to the end of the line</entry>
806 <entry><literal>^F or <Right> </literal></entry>
807 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="forward-char"/></entry>
808 <entry>move forward one char</entry>
811 <entry><literal>Esc F </literal></entry>
812 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="forward-word"/></entry>
813 <entry>move forward one word</entry>
816 <entry><literal><Tab></literal></entry>
817 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="complete"/></entry>
818 <entry>complete filename or alias</entry>
821 <entry><literal>^T</literal></entry>
822 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="complete-query"/></entry>
823 <entry>complete address with query</entry>
826 <entry><literal>^K</literal></entry>
827 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="kill-eol"/></entry>
828 <entry>delete to the end of the line</entry>
831 <entry><literal>ESC d </literal></entry>
832 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="kill-eow"/></entry>
833 <entry>delete to the end of the word</entry>
836 <entry><literal>^W</literal></entry>
837 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="kill-word"/></entry>
838 <entry>kill the word in front of the cursor</entry>
841 <entry><literal>^U</literal></entry>
842 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="kill-line"/></entry>
843 <entry>delete entire line</entry>
846 <entry><literal>^V</literal></entry>
847 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="quote-char"/></entry>
848 <entry>quote the next typed key</entry>
851 <entry><literal><Up></literal></entry>
852 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="history-up"/></entry>
853 <entry>recall previous string from history</entry>
856 <entry><literal><Down></literal></entry>
857 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="history-down"/></entry>
858 <entry>recall next string from history</entry>
861 <entry><literal><BackSpace></literal></entry>
862 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="backspace"/></entry>
863 <entry>kill the char in front of the cursor</entry>
866 <entry><literal>Esc u </literal></entry>
867 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="upcase-word"/></entry>
868 <entry>convert word to upper case</entry>
871 <entry><literal>Esc l </literal></entry>
872 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="downcase-word"/></entry>
873 <entry>convert word to lower case</entry>
876 <entry><literal>Esc c </literal></entry>
877 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="capitalize-word"/></entry>
878 <entry>capitalize the word</entry>
881 <entry><literal>^G</literal></entry>
882 <entry><literal>n/a</literal></entry>
886 <entry><literal><Return></literal></entry>
887 <entry><literal>n/a</literal></entry>
888 <entry>finish editing</entry>
897 You can remap the <emphasis>editor</emphasis> functions using the
898 <muttng-doc:cmdref name="bind"/> command. For example, to make
899 the <emphasis>Delete</emphasis> key delete the character in front
900 of the cursor rather than under, you could use
904 <literal>bind editor <delete> backspace</literal>
910 <sect1 id="reading"> <!--{{{-->
911 <title>Reading Mail - The Index and Pager</title>
914 Similar to many other mail clients, there are two modes in which mail
915 isread in Mutt-ng. The first is the index of messages in the mailbox,
917 called the ``index'' in Mutt-ng. The second mode is the display of the
918 message contents. This is called the ``pager.''
922 The next few sections describe the functions provided in each of these
926 <sect2 id="reading-index">
927 <title>The Message Index</title>
931 <table frame="none" rowsep="1">
932 <title>Most commonly used Index Bindings</title>
933 <tgroup cols="3" align="left" colsep="1" rowsep="1">
937 <entry>Function</entry>
938 <entry>Description</entry>
943 <entry><literal>c</literal></entry>
944 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
945 <entry>change to a different mailbox</entry>
948 <entry><literal>ESC c </literal></entry>
949 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
950 <entry>change to a folder in read-only mode</entry>
953 <entry><literal>C</literal></entry>
954 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
955 <entry>copy the current message to another mailbox</entry>
958 <entry><literal>ESC C </literal></entry>
959 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
960 <entry>decode a message and copy it to a folder</entry>
963 <entry><literal>ESC s </literal></entry>
964 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
965 <entry>decode a message and save it to a folder</entry>
968 <entry><literal>D</literal></entry>
969 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
970 <entry>delete messages matching a pattern</entry>
973 <entry><literal>d</literal></entry>
974 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
975 <entry>delete the current message</entry>
978 <entry><literal>F</literal></entry>
979 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
980 <entry>mark as important</entry>
983 <entry><literal>l</literal></entry>
984 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
985 <entry>show messages matching a pattern</entry>
988 <entry><literal>N</literal></entry>
989 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
990 <entry>mark message as new</entry>
993 <entry><literal>o</literal></entry>
994 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
995 <entry>change the current sort method</entry>
998 <entry><literal>O</literal></entry>
999 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
1000 <entry>reverse sort the mailbox</entry>
1003 <entry><literal>q</literal></entry>
1004 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
1005 <entry>save changes and exit</entry>
1008 <entry><literal>s</literal></entry>
1009 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
1010 <entry>save-message</entry>
1013 <entry><literal>T</literal></entry>
1014 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
1015 <entry>tag messages matching a pattern</entry>
1018 <entry><literal>t</literal></entry>
1019 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
1020 <entry>toggle the tag on a message</entry>
1023 <entry><literal>ESC t </literal></entry>
1024 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
1025 <entry>toggle tag on entire message thread</entry>
1028 <entry><literal>U</literal></entry>
1029 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
1030 <entry>undelete messages matching a pattern</entry>
1033 <entry><literal>u</literal></entry>
1034 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
1035 <entry>undelete-message</entry>
1038 <entry><literal>v</literal></entry>
1039 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
1040 <entry>view-attachments</entry>
1043 <entry><literal>x</literal></entry>
1044 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
1045 <entry>abort changes and exit</entry>
1048 <entry><literal><Return></literal></entry>
1049 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
1050 <entry>display-message</entry>
1053 <entry><literal><Tab></literal></entry>
1054 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
1055 <entry>jump to the next new or unread message</entry>
1058 <entry><literal>@</literal></entry>
1059 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
1060 <entry>show the author's full e-mail address</entry>
1063 <entry><literal>$</literal></entry>
1064 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
1065 <entry>save changes to mailbox</entry>
1068 <entry><literal>/</literal></entry>
1069 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
1070 <entry>search</entry>
1073 <entry><literal>ESC / </literal></entry>
1074 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
1075 <entry>search-reverse</entry>
1078 <entry><literal>^L</literal></entry>
1079 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
1080 <entry>clear and redraw the screen</entry>
1083 <entry><literal>^T</literal></entry>
1084 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
1085 <entry>untag messages matching a pattern</entry>
1094 <title>Status Flags</title> <!--{{{-->
1097 In addition to who sent the message and the subject, a short
1099 the disposition of each message is printed beside the message
1101 Zero or more of the following ``flags'' may appear, which mean:
1112 message is deleted (is marked for deletion)
1120 message have attachments marked for deletion
1128 contains a PGP public key
1152 message is PGP encrypted
1160 message has been replied to
1168 message is signed, and the signature is succesfully
1201 Some of the status flags can be turned on or off using
1207 <emphasis role="bold">set-flag</emphasis> (default: w)
1213 <emphasis role="bold">clear-flag</emphasis> (default: W)
1222 Furthermore, the following flags reflect who the message is
1224 to. They can be customized with the
1225 <muttng-doc:varref name="to-chars"/> variable.
1235 message is to you and you only
1243 message is to you, but also to or cc'ed to others
1251 message is cc'ed to you
1267 message is sent to a subscribed mailing list
1278 <sect2 id="reading-pager">
1279 <title>The Pager</title>
1282 By default, Mutt-ng uses its builtin pager to display the body of
1284 The pager is very similar to the Unix program <emphasis>less</emphasis> though not nearly as
1290 <table frame="none" rowsep="1">
1291 <title>Most commonly used Pager Bindings</title>
1292 <tgroup cols="3" align="left" colsep="1" rowsep="1">
1296 <entry>Function</entry>
1297 <entry>Description</entry>
1302 <entry><literal><Return></literal></entry>
1303 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
1304 <entry>go down one line</entry>
1307 <entry><literal><Space></literal></entry>
1308 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
1309 <entry>display the next page (or next message if at the end of a message)</entry>
1312 <entry><literal>-</literal></entry>
1313 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
1314 <entry>go back to the previous page</entry>
1317 <entry><literal>n</literal></entry>
1318 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
1319 <entry>search for next match</entry>
1322 <entry><literal>S</literal></entry>
1323 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
1324 <entry>skip beyond quoted text</entry>
1327 <entry><literal>T</literal></entry>
1328 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
1329 <entry>toggle display of quoted text</entry>
1332 <entry><literal>?</literal></entry>
1333 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
1334 <entry>show key bindings</entry>
1337 <entry><literal>/</literal></entry>
1338 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
1339 <entry>search for a regular expression (pattern)</entry>
1342 <entry><literal>ESC / </literal></entry>
1343 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
1344 <entry>search backwards for a regular expression</entry>
1347 <entry><literal>\</literal></entry>
1348 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
1349 <entry>toggle search pattern coloring</entry>
1352 <entry><literal>^</literal></entry>
1353 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
1354 <entry>jump to the top of the message</entry>
1364 In addition, many of the functions from the <emphasis>index</emphasis> are available in
1365 the pager, such as <emphasis>delete-message</emphasis> or <emphasis>
1369 advantage over using an external pager to view messages).
1373 Also, the internal pager supports a couple other advanced features.
1375 one, it will accept and translate the ``standard'' nroff sequences
1376 forbold and underline. These sequences are a series of either the
1378 backspace (^H), the letter again for bold or the letter,
1380 ``_'' for denoting underline. Mutt-ng will attempt to display
1382 in bold and underline respectively if your terminal supports them. If
1383 not, you can use the bold and underline <muttng-doc:cmdref name="color"/>
1384 objects to specify a color or mono attribute for them.
1388 Additionally, the internal pager supports the ANSI escape
1389 sequences for character attributes. Mutt-ng translates them
1390 into the correct color and character settings. The sequences
1391 Mutt-ng supports are: <literal>ESC [ Ps;Ps;Ps;...;Ps
1392 m</literal> (see table below for possible values for
1393 <literal>Ps</literal>).
1398 <table frame="none" rowsep="1">
1399 <title>ANSI Escape Sequences</title>
1400 <tgroup cols="2" align="left" colsep="1" rowsep="1">
1403 <entry>Value</entry>
1404 <entry>Attribute</entry>
1409 <entry><literal>0</literal></entry>
1410 <entry>All Attributes Off</entry>
1413 <entry><literal>1</literal></entry>
1414 <entry>Bold on</entry>
1417 <entry><literal>4</literal></entry>
1418 <entry>Underline on</entry>
1421 <entry><literal>5</literal></entry>
1422 <entry>Blink on</entry>
1425 <entry><literal>7</literal></entry>
1426 <entry>Reverse video on</entry>
1429 <entry><literal>3x</literal></entry>
1430 <entry>Foreground color is x (see table below)</entry>
1433 <entry><literal>4x</literal></entry>
1434 <entry>Background color is x (see table below)</entry>
1441 <table frame="none" rowsep="1">
1442 <title>ANSI Colors</title>
1443 <tgroup cols="2" align="left" colsep="1" rowsep="1">
1446 <entry>Number</entry>
1447 <entry>Color</entry>
1452 <entry><literal>0</literal></entry>
1453 <entry>black</entry>
1456 <entry><literal>1</literal></entry>
1460 <entry><literal>2</literal></entry>
1461 <entry>green</entry>
1464 <entry><literal>3</literal></entry>
1465 <entry>yellow</entry>
1468 <entry><literal>4</literal></entry>
1472 <entry><literal>5</literal></entry>
1473 <entry>magenta</entry>
1476 <entry><literal>6</literal></entry>
1480 <entry><literal>7</literal></entry>
1481 <entry>white</entry>
1491 Mutt-ng uses these attributes for handling text/enriched messages,
1493 can also be used by an external <muttng-doc:cmdref name="auto_view"/>
1494 script for highlighting purposes. <emphasis role="bold">Note:</emphasis> If you change the colors for your
1495 display, for example by changing the color associated with color2 for
1496 your xterm, then that color will be used instead of green.
1501 <sect2 id="threads">
1502 <title>Threaded Mode</title>
1505 When the mailbox is <link linkend="sort">sorted</link> by <emphasis>
1509 a few additional functions available in the <emphasis>index</emphasis> and <emphasis>
1517 <table frame="none" rowsep="1">
1518 <title>Most commonly used thread-related bindings</title>
1519 <tgroup cols="3" align="left" colsep="1" rowsep="1">
1523 <entry>Function</entry>
1524 <entry>Description</entry>
1529 <entry><literal>^D</literal></entry>
1530 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="delete-thread"/></entry>
1531 <entry>delete all messages in the current thread</entry>
1534 <entry><literal>^U</literal></entry>
1535 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="undelete-thread"/></entry>
1536 <entry>undelete all messages in the current thread</entry>
1539 <entry><literal>^N</literal></entry>
1540 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="next-thread"/></entry>
1541 <entry>jump to the start of the next thread</entry>
1544 <entry><literal>^P</literal></entry>
1545 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="previous-thread"/></entry>
1546 <entry>jump to the start of the previous thread</entry>
1549 <entry><literal>^R</literal></entry>
1550 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="read-thread"/></entry>
1551 <entry>mark the current thread as read</entry>
1554 <entry><literal>ESC d </literal></entry>
1555 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="delete-subthread"/></entry>
1556 <entry>delete all messages in the current subthread</entry>
1559 <entry><literal>ESC u </literal></entry>
1560 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="undelete-subthread"/></entry>
1561 <entry>undelete all messages in the current subthread</entry>
1564 <entry><literal>ESC n </literal></entry>
1565 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="next-subthread"/></entry>
1566 <entry>jump to the start of the next subthread</entry>
1569 <entry><literal>ESC p </literal></entry>
1570 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="previous-subthread"/></entry>
1571 <entry>jump to the start of the previous subthread</entry>
1574 <entry><literal>ESC r </literal></entry>
1575 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="read-subthread"/></entry>
1576 <entry>mark the current subthread as read </entry>
1579 <entry><literal>ESC t </literal></entry>
1580 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="tag-thread"/></entry>
1581 <entry>toggle the tag on the current thread</entry>
1584 <entry><literal>ESC v </literal></entry>
1585 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="collapse-thread"/></entry>
1586 <entry>toggle collapse for the current thread</entry>
1589 <entry><literal>ESC V </literal></entry>
1590 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="collapse-all"/></entry>
1591 <entry>toggle collapse for all threads</entry>
1594 <entry><literal>P</literal></entry>
1595 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="parent-message"/></entry>
1596 <entry>jump to parent message in thread</entry>
1606 <emphasis role="bold">Note:</emphasis> Collapsing a thread displays
1607 only the first message
1608 in the thread and hides the others. This is useful when threads
1609 contain so many messages that you can only see a handful of threads
1610 onthe screen. See <literal>%M</literal> in
1611 <muttng-doc:varref name="index-format"/>.
1615 For example, you could use
1616 <literal>%?M?(#%03M)&(%4l)?</literal> in <muttng-doc:varref name="index-format"/>
1618 display the number of hidden messages if the thread is collapsed.
1622 See also the <muttng-doc:varref name="strict-threads"/> variable.
1627 <sect2 id="pager-functions">
1628 <title>Miscellaneous Functions</title>
1631 <muttng-doc:funcdef name="create-alias" key="a"/>
1635 Creates a new alias based upon the current message (or prompts for a
1636 new one). Once editing is complete, an <muttng-doc:cmdref name="alias"/>
1637 command is added to the file specified by the <muttng-doc:varref name="alias-file"/>
1638 variable for future use. <emphasis role="bold">Note:</emphasis>
1639 Specifying an <muttng-doc:varref name="alias-file"/>
1640 does not add the aliases specified there-in, you must also <muttng-doc:cmdref name="source"/>
1645 <muttng-doc:funcdef name="check-traditional-pgp" key="ESC P"/>
1649 This function will search the current message for content signed or
1650 encrypted with PGP the "traditional" way, that is, without proper
1651 MIME tagging. Technically, this function will temporarily change
1652 the MIME content types of the body parts containing PGP data; this
1653 is similar to the <muttng-doc:funcref name="edit-type"/>
1659 <muttng-doc:funcdef name="display-toggle-weed" key="h"/>
1663 Toggles the weeding of message header fields specified by <muttng-doc:cmdref name="ignore"/>
1668 <muttng-doc:funcdef name="edit" key="e"/>
1672 This command (available in the ``index'' and ``pager'') allows you to
1673 edit the raw current message as it's present in the mail folder.
1674 After you have finished editing, the changed message will be
1675 appended to the current folder, and the original message will be
1676 marked for deletion.
1680 <muttng-doc:funcdef name="edit-type"/>
1681 (default: <literal>^E</literal> on the attachment menu, and in the pager and index
1682 menus; <literal>^T</literal> on the compose menu)
1686 This command is used to temporarily edit an attachment's content
1687 type to fix, for instance, bogus character set parameters. When
1688 invoked from the index or from the pager, you'll have the
1689 opportunity to edit the top-level attachment's content type. On the
1690 <link linkend="attach-menu">attach-menu</link>, you can change any
1691 attachment's content type. These changes are not persistent, and get
1692 lost upon changing folders.
1696 Note that this command is also available on the <link linkend="compose-menu">compose-menu</link>
1697 .There, it's used to
1698 fine-tune the properties of attachments you are going to send.
1702 <muttng-doc:funcdef name="enter-command" key=":"/>
1706 This command is used to execute any command you would normally put in
1708 configuration file. A common use is to check the settings of
1710 in conjunction with <muttng-doc:cmdref name="macro"/> to change
1716 <muttng-doc:funcdef name="extract-keys" key="^K"/>
1720 This command extracts PGP public keys from the current or tagged
1721 message(s) and adds them to your PGP public key ring.
1725 <muttng-doc:funcdef name="forget-passphrase" key="^F"/>
1729 This command wipes the passphrase(s) from memory. It is useful, if
1730 you misspelled the passphrase.
1734 <muttng-doc:funcdef name="list-reply" key="L"/>
1738 Reply to the current or tagged message(s) by extracting any addresses
1740 match the regular expressions given by the <muttng-doc:cmdref name="lists"/>
1741 commands, but also honor any <literal>Mail-Followup-To</literal>
1743 <muttng-doc:varref name="honor-followup-to"/>
1744 configuration variable is set. Using this when replying to messages
1746 to mailing lists helps avoid duplicate copies being sent to the
1748 the message you are replying to.
1752 <muttng-doc:funcdef name="pipe-message" default="|"/>
1756 Asks for an external Unix command and pipes the current or
1757 tagged message(s) to it. The variables
1758 <muttng-doc:varref name="pipe-decode"/>,
1759 <muttng-doc:varref name="pipe-split"/>,
1760 <muttng-doc:varref name="pipe-decode"/> and
1761 <muttng-doc:varref name="wait-key"/>
1762 control the exact behavior of this function.
1766 <muttng-doc:funcdef name="resend-message" key="ESC e"/>
1770 With resend-message, mutt takes the current message as a template for
1772 new message. This function is best described as "recall from
1774 folders". It can conveniently be used to forward MIME messages while
1775 preserving the original mail structure. Note that the amount of
1777 included here depends on the value of the <muttng-doc:varref name="weed"/>
1782 This function is also available from the attachment menu. You can use
1784 to easily resend a message which was included with a bounce message
1785 as a message/rfc822 body part.
1789 <muttng-doc:funcdef name="shell-escape" key="!"/>
1793 Asks for an external Unix command and executes it. The
1794 <muttng-doc:varref name="wait-key"/>
1795 can be used to control
1796 whether Mutt-ng will wait for a key to be pressed when the command
1798 (presumably to let the user read the output of the command), based on
1799 the return status of the named command.
1803 <muttng-doc:funcdef name="toggle-quoted" key="T"/>
1807 The <emphasis>pager</emphasis> uses the
1808 <muttng-doc:varref name="quote-regexp"/>
1809 variable to detect quoted text when
1810 displaying the body of the message. This function toggles the
1811 displayof the quoted material in the message. It is particularly
1813 are interested in just the response and there is a large amount of
1814 quoted text in the way.
1818 <muttng-doc:funcdef name="skip-quoted" key="S"/>
1822 This function will go to the next line of non-quoted text which come
1823 after a line of quoted text in the internal pager.
1835 <sect1 id="sending"> <!--{{{-->
1836 <title>Sending Mail</title>
1839 The following bindings are available in the <emphasis>index</emphasis>
1846 <table frame="none" rowsep="1">
1847 <title>Most commonly used Mail Composition Bindings</title>
1848 <tgroup cols="3" align="left" colsep="1" rowsep="1">
1852 <entry>Function</entry>
1853 <entry>Description</entry>
1858 <entry><literal>m</literal></entry>
1859 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="compose"/></entry>
1860 <entry>compose a new message</entry>
1863 <entry><literal>r</literal></entry>
1864 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="reply"/></entry>
1865 <entry>reply to sender</entry>
1868 <entry><literal>g</literal></entry>
1869 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="group-reply"/></entry>
1870 <entry>reply to all recipients</entry>
1873 <entry><literal>L</literal></entry>
1874 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="list-reply"/></entry>
1875 <entry>reply to mailing list address</entry>
1878 <entry><literal>f</literal></entry>
1879 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="forward"/></entry>
1880 <entry>forward message</entry>
1883 <entry><literal>b</literal></entry>
1884 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="bounce"/></entry>
1885 <entry>bounce (remail) message</entry>
1888 <entry><literal>ESC k </literal></entry>
1889 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="mail-key"/></entry>
1890 <entry>mail a PGP public key to someone</entry>
1899 Bouncing a message sends the message as is to the recipient you
1900 specify. Forwarding a message allows you to add comments or
1901 modify the message you are forwarding. These items are discussed
1902 in greater detail in the next chapter <link linkend="forwarding-mail">forwarding-mail</link>.
1905 <sect2 id="sending-compose">
1906 <title>Composing new messages</title>
1909 When you want to send an email using mutt-ng, simply press <literal>m</literal> on
1910 your keyboard. Then, mutt-ng asks for the recipient via a prompt in
1916 <muttng-doc:lstmail>
1917 To:</muttng-doc:lstmail>
1922 After you've finished entering the recipient(s), press return. If you
1923 want to send an email to more than one recipient, separate the email
1924 addresses using the comma "<literal>,</literal>". Mutt-ng then asks
1926 subject. Again, press return after you've entered it. After that,
1928 got the most important information from you, and starts up an editor
1929 where you can then enter your email.
1933 The editor that is called is selected in the following way: you
1934 can e.g. set it in the mutt-ng configuration:
1939 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
1940 set editor = "vim +/^$/ -c ':set tw=72'"
1942 set editor = "emacs"</muttng-doc:lstconf>
1947 If you don't set your preferred editor in your configuration, mutt-ng
1948 first looks whether the environment variable <muttng-doc:envvar name="VISUAL"/> is set, and if
1949 so, it takes its value as editor command. Otherwise, it has a look
1950 at <muttng-doc:envvar name="EDITOR"/> and takes its value if it is set. If no
1952 can be found, mutt-ng simply assumes <muttng-doc:man name="vi"/> to be the
1954 since it's the most widespread editor in the Unix world and it's
1956 safe to assume that it is installed and available.
1960 When you've finished entering your message, save it and quit your
1961 editor. Mutt-ng will then present you with a summary screen, the
1963 On the top, you see a summary of the most important available key
1965 Below that, you see the sender, the recipient(s), Cc and/or Bcc
1966 recipient(s), the subject, the reply-to address, and optionally
1967 information where the sent email will be stored and whether it should
1968 be digitally signed and/or encrypted.
1972 Below that, you see a list of "attachments". The mail you've just
1973 entered before is also an attachment, but due to its special type
1974 (it's plain text), it will be displayed as the normal message on
1975 the receiver's side.
1979 At this point, you can add more attachments, pressing <literal>a</literal>, you
1980 can edit the recipient addresses, pressing <literal>t</literal> for
1982 <literal>c</literal> for the "Cc:" field, and <literal>b</literal>
1983 for the "Bcc: field. You can
1984 also edit the subject the subject by simply pressing <literal>s</literal> or the
1985 email message that you've entered before by pressing <literal>e</literal>. You will
1986 then again return to the editor. You can even edit the sender, by
1988 <literal><esc>f</literal>, but this shall only be used with
1993 Alternatively, you can configure mutt-ng in a way that most of the
1994 above settings can be edited using the editor. Therefore, you only
1995 need to add the following to your configuration:
2000 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
2001 set edit_headers</muttng-doc:lstconf>
2006 Once you have finished editing the body of your mail message, you are
2007 returned to the <emphasis>compose</emphasis> menu. The following
2008 options are available:
2013 <table frame="none" rowsep="1">
2014 <title>Most commonly used Compose Menu Bindings</title>
2015 <tgroup cols="3" align="left" colsep="1" rowsep="1">
2019 <entry>Function</entry>
2020 <entry>Description</entry>
2025 <entry><literal>a</literal></entry>
2026 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="attach-file"/></entry>
2027 <entry>attach a file</entry>
2030 <entry><literal>A</literal></entry>
2031 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="attach-message"/></entry>
2032 <entry>attach message(s) to the message</entry>
2035 <entry><literal>ESC k </literal></entry>
2036 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="attach-key"/></entry>
2037 <entry>attach a PGP public key</entry>
2040 <entry><literal>d</literal></entry>
2041 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="edit-description"/></entry>
2042 <entry>edit description on attachment</entry>
2045 <entry><literal>D</literal></entry>
2046 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="detach-file"/></entry>
2047 <entry>detach a file</entry>
2050 <entry><literal>t</literal></entry>
2051 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="edit-to"/></entry>
2052 <entry>edit the To field</entry>
2055 <entry><literal>ESC f </literal></entry>
2056 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="edit-from"/></entry>
2057 <entry>edit the From field</entry>
2060 <entry><literal>r</literal></entry>
2061 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="edit-reply-to"/></entry>
2062 <entry>edit the Reply-To field</entry>
2065 <entry><literal>c</literal></entry>
2066 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="edit-cc"/></entry>
2067 <entry>edit the Cc field</entry>
2070 <entry><literal>b</literal></entry>
2071 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="edit-bcc"/></entry>
2072 <entry>edit the Bcc field</entry>
2075 <entry><literal>y</literal></entry>
2076 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="send-message"/></entry>
2077 <entry>send the message</entry>
2080 <entry><literal>s</literal></entry>
2081 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="edit-subject"/></entry>
2082 <entry>edit the Subject</entry>
2085 <entry><literal>S</literal></entry>
2086 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="smime-menu"/></entry>
2087 <entry>select S/MIME options</entry>
2090 <entry><literal>f</literal></entry>
2091 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="edit-fcc"/></entry>
2092 <entry>specify an ``Fcc'' mailbox</entry>
2095 <entry><literal>p</literal></entry>
2096 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="pgp-menu"/></entry>
2097 <entry>select PGP options</entry>
2100 <entry><literal>P</literal></entry>
2101 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="postpone-message"/></entry>
2102 <entry>postpone this message until later</entry>
2105 <entry><literal>q</literal></entry>
2106 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="quit"/></entry>
2107 <entry>quit (abort) sending the message</entry>
2110 <entry><literal>w</literal></entry>
2111 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="write-fcc"/></entry>
2112 <entry>write the message to a folder</entry>
2115 <entry><literal>i</literal></entry>
2116 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="ispell"/></entry>
2117 <entry>check spelling (if available on your system)</entry>
2120 <entry><literal>^F</literal></entry>
2121 <entry><muttng-doc:funcref name="forget-passphrase"/></entry>
2122 <entry>wipe passphrase(s) from memory</entry>
2131 <emphasis role="bold">Note:</emphasis> The attach-message function
2132 will prompt you for a folder to
2133 attach messages from. You can now tag messages in that folder and
2134 theywill be attached to the message you are sending. Note that
2135 certainoperations like composing a new mail, replying, forwarding,
2137 not permitted when you are in that folder. The <literal>%r</literal>
2138 in <muttng-doc:varref name="status-format"/>
2140 a 'A' to indicate that you are in attach-message mode.
2149 <sect2 id="sending-reply">
2150 <title>Replying</title>
2152 <sect3 id="sending-simple-reply">
2153 <title>Simple Replies</title>
2156 When you want to reply to an email message, select it in the index
2157 menu and then press <literal>r</literal>. Mutt-ng's behaviour is
2159 behaviour when you compose a message: first, you will be asked for
2160 the recipient, then for the subject, and then, mutt-ng will start
2161 the editor with the quote attribution and the quoted message. This
2162 can e.g. look like the example below.
2167 <muttng-doc:lstmail>
2168 On Mon, Mar 07, 2005 at 05:02:12PM +0100, Michael Svensson wrote:
2169 > Bill, can you please send last month's progress report to Mr.
2170 > Morgan? We also urgently need the cost estimation for the new
2171 > production server that we want to set up before our customer's
2172 > project will go live.</muttng-doc:lstmail>
2177 You can start editing the email message. It is strongly
2178 recommended to put your answer <emphasis>below</emphasis> the
2180 only quote what is really necessary and that you refer to. Putting
2181 your answer on top of the quoted message, is, although very
2182 widespread, very often not considered to be a polite way to answer
2187 The quote attribution is configurable, by default it is set to
2189 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
2190 set attribution = "On %d, %n wrote:"</muttng-doc:lstconf>
2195 It can also be set to something more compact, e.g.
2197 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
2198 set attribution = "attribution="* %n <%a> [%(%y-%m-%d %H:%M)]:"</muttng-doc:lstconf>
2203 The example above results in the following attribution:
2205 <muttng-doc:lstmail>
2206 * Michael Svensson <svensson@foobar.com> [05-03-06 17:02]:
2207 > Bill, can you please send last month's progress report to Mr.
2208 > Morgan? We also urgently need the cost estimation for the new
2209 > production server that we want to set up before our customer's
2210 > project will go live.</muttng-doc:lstmail>
2215 Generally, try to keep your attribution short yet
2216 information-rich. It is <emphasis>not</emphasis> the right place
2218 long "attribution" novels or anything like that: the right place
2219 for such things is - if at all - the email signature at the very
2220 bottom of the message.
2224 When you're done with writing your message, save and quit the
2225 editor. As before, you will return to the compose menu, which is
2226 used in the same way as before.
2235 <sect3 id="sending-group-reply">
2236 <title>Group Replies</title>
2239 In the situation where a group of people uses email as a
2240 discussion, most of the emails will have one or more recipients,
2241 and probably several "Cc:" recipients. The group reply
2242 functionalityensures that when you press <literal>g</literal>
2243 instead of <literal>r</literal> to do a reply,
2244 each and every recipient that is contained in the original message
2245 will receive a copy of the message, either as normal recipient or
2255 <sect3 id="sending-list-reply">
2256 <title>List Replies</title>
2259 When you use mailing lists, it's generally better to send your
2260 reply to a message only to the list instead of the list and the
2261 original author. To make this easy to use, mutt-ng features list
2266 To do a list reply, simply press <literal>L</literal>. If the email
2268 a <literal>Mail-Followup-To:</literal> header, its value will be
2270 address. Otherwise, mutt-ng searches through all mail addresses in
2271 the original message and tries to match them a list of regular
2272 expressions which can be specified using the <literal>lists</literal> command.
2273 If any of the regular expression matches, a mailing
2274 list address has been found, and it will be used as reply address.
2279 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
2280 lists linuxevent@luga\.at vuln-dev@ mutt-ng-users@</muttng-doc:lstconf>
2285 Nowadays, most mailing list software like GNU Mailman adds a
2286 <literal>Mail-Followup-To:</literal> header to their emails anyway,
2288 <literal>lists</literal> is hardly ever necessary in practice.
2303 <sect2 id="sending-edit-header">
2304 <title>Editing the message header</title>
2307 When editing the header of your outgoing message, there are a couple
2309 special features available.
2315 <literal>Fcc:</literal> <emphasis>filename</emphasis>
2317 Mutt-ng will pick up <emphasis>filename</emphasis>
2318 just as if you had used the <emphasis>edit-fcc</emphasis> function in
2319 the <emphasis>compose</emphasis> menu.
2323 You can also attach files to your message by specifying
2325 <muttng-doc:lstmail>
2326 Attach: filename [description]</muttng-doc:lstmail>
2328 where <emphasis>filename</emphasis> is the file to attach and <emphasis>
2332 optional string to use as the description of the attached file.
2336 When replying to messages, if you remove the <emphasis>In-Reply-To:</emphasis> field from
2337 the header field, Mutt-ng will not generate a <emphasis>References:</emphasis> field, which
2338 allows you to create a new message thread.
2342 Also see the <muttng-doc:varref name="edit-headers"/> and
2343 <muttng-doc:varref name="editor-headers"/> variables
2352 <sect2 id="sending-crypto">
2353 <title>Using Mutt-ng with PGP</title>
2356 If you want to use PGP, you can specify
2358 <muttng-doc:lstmail>
2359 Pgp: [E | S | S id]</muttng-doc:lstmail>
2361 ``E'' encrypts, ``S'' signs and
2362 ``S<id>'' signs with the given key, setting
2363 <muttng-doc:varref name="pgp-sign-as"/>
2368 If you have told mutt to PGP encrypt a message, it will guide you
2369 through a key selection process when you try to send the message.
2370 Mutt-ng will not ask you any questions about keys which have a
2371 certified user ID matching one of the message recipients' mail
2372 addresses. However, there may be situations in which there are
2373 several keys, weakly certified user ID fields, or where no matching
2378 In these cases, you are dropped into a menu with a list of keys from
2379 which you can select one. When you quit this menu, or mutt can't
2380 find any matching keys, you are prompted for a user ID. You can, as
2381 usually, abort this prompt using <literal>^G</literal>. When
2382 you do so, mutt will
2383 return to the compose screen.
2387 Once you have successfully finished the key selection, the message
2388 will be encrypted using the selected public keys, and sent out.
2392 Most fields of the entries in the key selection menu (see also
2393 <muttng-doc:varref name="pgp-entry-format"/>)
2394 have obvious meanings. But some explanations on the capabilities,
2396 and validity fields are in order.
2400 The flags sequence (%f) will expand to one of the following
2404 <table frame="none" rowsep="1">
2405 <title>PGP Key Menu Flags</title>
2406 <tgroup cols="2" align="left" colsep="1" rowsep="1">
2410 <entry>Description</entry>
2415 <entry><literal>R</literal></entry>
2416 <entry>The key has been revoked and can't be used.</entry>
2419 <entry><literal>X</literal></entry>
2420 <entry>The key is expired and can't be used.</entry>
2423 <entry><literal>d</literal></entry>
2424 <entry>You have marked the key as disabled.</entry>
2427 <entry><literal>c</literal></entry>
2428 <entry>There are unknown critical self-signature packets.</entry>
2437 The capabilities field (%c) expands to a two-character
2438 sequencerepresenting a key's capabilities. The first character gives
2439 the key's encryption capabilities: A minus sign (<emphasis role="bold">
2443 that the key cannot be used for encryption. A dot (<emphasis role="bold">
2447 it's marked as a signature key in one of the user IDs, but may
2448 also be used for encryption. The letter <emphasis role="bold">e</emphasis> indicates that
2449 this key can be used for encryption.
2453 The second character indicates the key's signing capabilities. Once
2454 again, a ``<emphasis role="bold">-</emphasis>'' implies ``not for
2455 signing'', ``<emphasis role="bold">.</emphasis>'' implies
2456 that the key is marked as an encryption key in one of the user-ids,
2458 ``<emphasis role="bold">s</emphasis>'' denotes a key which can be
2463 Finally, the validity field (%t) indicates how well-certified
2465 is. A question mark (<emphasis role="bold">?</emphasis>) indicates
2466 undefined validity, a minus
2467 character (<emphasis role="bold">-</emphasis>) marks an untrusted
2468 association, a space character
2469 means a partially trusted association, and a plus character (<emphasis role="bold">
2473 indicates complete validity.
2482 <sect2 id="sending-mixmaster">
2483 <title>Sending anonymous messages via mixmaster</title>
2486 You may also have configured mutt to co-operate with Mixmaster, an
2487 anonymous remailer. Mixmaster permits you to send your messages
2488 anonymously using a chain of remailers. Mixmaster support in mutt is
2490 mixmaster version 2.04 (beta 45 appears to be the latest) and 2.03.
2491 It does not support earlier versions or the later so-called version 3
2493 of which the latest appears to be called 2.9b23.
2497 To use it, you'll have to obey certain restrictions. Most
2498 important, you cannot use the <literal>Cc</literal> and <literal>Bcc</literal> headers. To tell
2499 Mutt-ng to use mixmaster, you have to select a remailer chain, using
2500 the mix function on the compose menu.
2504 The chain selection screen is divided into two parts. In the
2505 (larger) upper part, you get a list of remailers you may use. In
2506 the lower part, you see the currently selected chain of remailers.
2510 You can navigate in the chain using the <literal>chain-prev</literal>
2512 <literal>chain-next</literal> functions, which are by default bound
2514 and right arrows and to the <literal>h</literal> and <literal>l</literal> keys (think vi
2515 keyboard bindings). To insert a remailer at the current chain
2516 position, use the <literal>insert</literal> function. To append a
2518 the current chain position, use <literal>select-entry</literal> or <literal>
2522 You can also delete entries from the chain, using the corresponding
2523 function. Finally, to abandon your changes, leave the menu, or
2524 <literal>accept</literal> them pressing (by default) the <literal>
2531 Note that different remailers do have different capabilities,
2532 indicated in the <literal>%c</literal> entry of the remailer menu lines (see
2533 <muttng-doc:varref name="mix-entry-format"/>).
2535 the ``middleman'' capability, indicated by a capital ``M'': This
2536 means that the remailer in question cannot be used as the final
2537 element of a chain, but will only forward messages to other
2538 mixmaster remailers. For details on the other capabilities, please
2539 have a look at the mixmaster documentation.
2554 <sect1 id="forwarding-mail">
2555 <title>Forwarding and Bouncing Mail</title>
2558 Often, it is necessary to forward mails to other people.
2559 Therefore, mutt-ng supports forwarding messages in two different
2564 The first one is regular forwarding, as you probably know it from
2565 other mail clients. You simply press <literal>f</literal>, enter the
2567 email address, the subject of the forwarded email, and then you can
2568 edit the message to be forwarded in the editor. The forwarded
2569 message is separated from the rest of the message via the two
2575 <muttng-doc:lstmail>
2576 ----- Forwarded message from Lucas User <luser@example.com> -----
2578 From: Lucas User <luser@example.com>
2579 Date: Thu, 02 Dec 2004 03:08:34 +0100
2580 To: Michael Random <mrandom@example.com>
2581 Subject: Re: blackmail
2583 Pay me EUR 50,000.- cash or your favorite stuffed animal will die
2586 ----- End forwarded message -----</muttng-doc:lstmail>
2591 When you're done with editing the mail, save and quit the editor,
2592 and you will return to the compose menu, the same menu you also
2593 encounter when composing or replying to mails.
2597 The second mode of forwarding emails with mutt-ng is the
2598 so-called <emphasis>bouncing</emphasis>: when you bounce an email to
2600 address, it will be sent in practically the same format you send it
2601 (except for headers that are created during transporting the
2602 message). To bounce a message, press <literal>b</literal> and enter the
2604 email address. By default, you are then asked whether you really
2605 want to bounce the message to the specified recipient. If you answer
2606 with yes, the message will then be bounced.
2610 To the recipient, the bounced email will look as if he got it
2611 like a regular email where he was <literal>Bcc:</literal> recipient.
2613 possibility to find out whether it was a bounced email is to
2614 carefully study the email headers and to find out which host really
2624 <sect1 id="postponing-mail">
2625 <title>Postponing Mail</title>
2628 At times it is desirable to delay sending a message that you have
2629 already begun to compose. When the <emphasis>postpone-message</emphasis> function is
2630 used in the <emphasis>compose</emphasis> menu, the body of your message
2632 are stored in the mailbox specified by the
2633 <muttng-doc:varref name="postponed"/> variable. This means that you can recall the
2634 message even if you exit Mutt-ng and then restart it at a later time.
2638 Once a message is postponed, there are several ways to resume it. From
2640 command line you can use the ``-p'' option, or if you <emphasis>compose</emphasis> a new
2641 message from the <emphasis>index</emphasis> or <emphasis>pager</emphasis> you will be prompted if postponed
2642 messages exist. If multiple messages are currently postponed, the
2643 <emphasis>postponed</emphasis> menu will pop up and you can select
2644 which message you would
2649 <emphasis role="bold">Note:</emphasis> If you postpone a reply to a
2650 message, the reply setting of
2651 the message is only updated when you actually finish the message and
2652 send it. Also, you must be in the same folder with the message you
2653 replied to for the status of the message to be updated.
2657 See also the <muttng-doc:varref name="postpone"/> quad-option.
2675 <chapter id="configuration"> <!--{{{-->
2676 <title>Configuration</title>
2678 <sect1 id="configuration-files">
2679 <title>Locations of Configuration Files</title>
2682 While the default configuration (or ``preferences'') make Mutt-ng
2684 of the box, it is often desirable to tailor Mutt-ng to suit your own
2686 Mutt-ng is first invoked, it will attempt to read the ``system''
2688 file (defaults set by your local system administrator), unless the
2689 ``-n'' <link linkend="commandline">commandline</link> option is
2690 specified. This file is
2691 typically <literal>/usr/local/share/muttng/Muttngrc</literal> or <literal>
2695 Mutt-ng users will find this file in <literal>
2696 /usr/local/share/muttng/Muttrc
2699 <literal>/etc/Muttngrc</literal>. Mutt will next look for a file named <literal>
2702 in your home directory, Mutt-ng will look for <literal>.muttngrc</literal>. If this file
2703 does not exist and your home directory has a subdirectory named <literal>
2707 mutt try to load a file named <literal>.muttng/muttngrc</literal>.
2711 <literal>.muttrc</literal> (or <literal>.muttngrc</literal> for
2712 Mutt-ng) is the file where you will
2713 usually place your <link linkend="commands">commands</link> to
2723 <sect1 id="configuration-syntax">
2724 <title>Basic Syntax of Initialization Files</title>
2727 An initialization file consists of a series of <link linkend="commands">commands</link>. Each line of the file may contain one or more commands.
2728 When multiple commands are used, they must be separated by a semicolon
2731 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
2732 set realname='Mutt-ng user' ; ignore x-</muttng-doc:lstconf>
2734 The hash mark, or pound sign
2735 (``#''), is used as a ``comment'' character. You can use it to
2736 annotate your initialization file. All text after the comment character
2737 to the end of the line is ignored. For example,
2742 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
2743 my_hdr X-Disclaimer: Why are you listening to me? # This is a comment</muttng-doc:lstconf>
2748 Single quotes (') and double quotes (") can be used to quote
2750 which contain spaces or other special characters. The difference
2752 the two types of quotes is similar to that of many popular shell
2754 namely that a single quote is used to specify a literal string (one
2756 not interpreted for shell variables or quoting with a backslash
2758 next paragraph), while double quotes indicate a string for which
2759 should be evaluated. For example, backtics are evaluated inside of
2761 quotes, but <emphasis role="bold">not</emphasis> for single quotes.
2765 \ quotes the next character, just as in shells such as bash and
2767 For example, if want to put quotes ``"'' inside of a string, you
2769 ``\'' to force the next character to be a literal instead of
2773 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
2774 set realname="Michael \"MuttDude\" Elkins"</muttng-doc:lstconf>
2779 ``\\'' means to insert a literal ``\'' into the line.
2780 ``\n'' and ``\r'' have their usual C meanings of linefeed and
2781 carriage-return, respectively.
2785 A \ at the end of a line can be used to split commands over
2786 multiple lines, provided that the split points don't appear in the
2787 middle of command names.
2791 Please note that, unlike the various shells, mutt-ng interprets a
2793 at the end of a line also in comments. This allows you to disable a
2795 split over multiple lines with only one ``#''.
2800 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
2802 set realname="Michael \"MuttDude\" Elkins"</muttng-doc:lstconf>
2807 When testing your config files, beware the following caveat. The
2809 at the end of the commented line extends the current line with the next
2811 - then referred to as a ``continuation line''. As the first line is
2812 commented with a hash (#) all following continuation lines are also
2813 part of a comment and therefore are ignored, too. So take care of
2815 when continuation lines are involved within your setup files!
2824 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
2829 line5</muttng-doc:lstconf>
2834 line1 ``continues'' until line4. however, the part after the # is a
2835 comment which includes line3 and line4. line5 is a new line of its own
2837 thus is interpreted again.
2841 The commands understood by mutt are explained in the next paragraphs.
2842 For a complete list, see the <link linkend="commands">commands</link>.
2851 <sect1 id="configuration-expansion">
2852 <title>Expansion within variables</title>
2855 Besides just assign static content to variables, there's plenty of
2856 ways of adding external and more or less dynamic content.
2859 <sect2 id="configuration-expansion-commands">
2860 <title>Commands' Output</title>
2863 It is possible to substitute the output of a Unix command in an
2864 initialization file. This is accomplished by enclosing the command
2865 in backquotes (``) as in, for example:
2870 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
2871 my_hdr X-Operating-System: `uname -a`</muttng-doc:lstconf>
2876 The output of the Unix command ``uname -a'' will be substituted
2877 before the line is parsed. Note that since initialization files are
2878 line oriented, only the first line of output from the Unix command
2879 will be substituted.
2884 <sect2 id="configuration-expansion-environment">
2885 <title>Environment Variables</title>
2888 UNIX environments can be accessed like the way it is done in
2889 shells like sh and bash: Prepend the name of the environment by a
2890 ``$'' sign. For example,
2895 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
2896 set record=+sent_on_$HOSTNAME</muttng-doc:lstconf>
2901 sets the <muttng-doc:varref name="record"/> variable to the
2902 string <emphasis>+sent_on_</emphasis> and appends the
2903 value of the evironment
2904 variable <muttng-doc:envvar name="HOSTNAME"/>.
2908 <emphasis role="bold">Note:</emphasis> There will be no warning if an
2909 environment variable
2910 is not defined. The result will of the expansion will then be empty.
2915 <sect2 id="configuration-expansion-config">
2916 <title>Configuration Variables</title>
2919 As for environment variables, the values of all configuration
2920 variables as string can be used in the same way, too. For example,
2925 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
2926 set imap_home_namespace = $folder</muttng-doc:lstconf>
2931 would set the value of <muttng-doc:varref name="imap-home-namespace"/>
2932 to the value to which <muttng-doc:varref name="folder"/>
2933 is <emphasis>currently</emphasis> set to.
2937 <emphasis role="bold">Note:</emphasis> There're no logical links
2938 established in such cases so
2939 that the the value for <muttng-doc:varref name="imap-home-namespace"/>
2941 if <muttng-doc:varref name="folder"/> gets changed.
2945 <emphasis role="bold">Note:</emphasis> There will be no warning if a
2946 configuration variable
2947 is not defined or is empty. The result will of the expansion will
2953 <sect2 id="configuration-expansion-self">
2954 <title>Self-Defined Variables</title>
2957 Mutt-ng flexibly allows users to define their own variables. To
2958 avoid conflicts with the standard set and to prevent misleading
2959 error messages, there's a reserved namespace for them: all
2960 user-defined variables must be prefixed with <literal>user_</literal> and can be
2961 used just like any ordinary configuration or environment
2966 For example, to view the manual, users can either define two
2967 macros like the following
2972 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
2973 macro generic <F1> "!less -r /path/to/manual" "Show manual"
2974 macro pager <F1> "!less -r /path/to/manual" "Show manual"</muttng-doc:lstconf>
2979 for <literal>generic</literal>, <literal>pager</literal> and <literal>
2982 .The alternative is to
2983 define a custom variable like so:
2988 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
2989 set user_manualcmd = "!less -r /path/to_manual"
2990 macro generic <F1> "$user_manualcmd<enter>" "Show manual"
2991 macro pager <F1> "$user_manualcmd<enter>" "Show manual"
2992 macro index <F1> "$user_manualcmd<enter>" "Show manual"</muttng-doc:lstconf>
2997 to re-use the command sequence as in:
3002 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
3003 macro index <F2> "$user_manualcmd | grep '\^[ ]\\+~. '" "Show Patterns"</muttng-doc:lstconf>
3008 Using this feature, arbitrary sequences can be defined once and
3009 recalled and reused where necessary. More advanced scenarios could
3010 include to save a variable's value at the beginning of macro
3011 sequence and restore it at end.
3015 When the variable is first defined, the first value it gets
3016 assigned is also the initial value to which it can be reset using
3017 the <literal>reset</literal> command.
3021 The complete removal is done via the <literal>unset</literal>
3026 After the following sequence:
3031 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
3033 set user_foo = 666</muttng-doc:lstconf>
3038 the variable <literal>$user_foo</literal> has a current value
3040 initial of 42. The query
3045 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
3046 set ?user_foo</muttng-doc:lstconf>
3051 will show 666. After doing the reset via
3056 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
3057 reset user_foo</muttng-doc:lstconf>
3062 a following query will give 42 as the result. After unsetting it
3068 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
3069 unset user_foo</muttng-doc:lstconf>
3074 any query or operation (except the noted expansion within other
3075 statements) will lead to an error message.
3080 <sect2 id="configuration-expansion-predef">
3081 <title>Pre-Defined Variables</title>
3084 In order to allow users to share one setup over a number of
3085 different machines without having to change its contents, there's a
3086 number of pre-defined variables. These are prefixed with
3087 <literal>muttng_</literal> and are read-only, i.e. they cannot
3089 reset. The reference chapter lists all available variables.
3093 <emphasis> Please consult the local copy of your manual for their
3094 values as they may differ from different manual sources.
3097 the manual is installed in can be queried (already using such a
3098 variable) by running:
3103 <muttng-doc:lstshell>
3104 $ muttng -Q muttng_docdir</muttng-doc:lstshell>
3109 To extend the example for viewing the manual via self-defined
3110 variables, it can be made more readable and more portable by
3111 changing the real path in:
3116 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
3117 set user_manualcmd = '!less -r /path/to_manual'</muttng-doc:lstconf>
3127 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
3128 set user_manualcmd = "!less -r $muttng_docdir/manual.txt"</muttng-doc:lstconf>
3133 which works everywhere if a manual is installed.
3137 Please note that by the type of quoting, muttng determines when
3138 to expand these values: when it finds double quotes, the value will
3139 be expanded during reading the setup files but when it finds single
3140 quotes, it'll expand it at runtime as needed.
3144 For example, the statement
3149 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
3150 folder-hook . "set user_current_folder = $muttng_folder_name"</muttng-doc:lstconf>
3155 will be already be translated to the following when reading the
3161 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
3162 folder-hook . "set user_current_folder = some_folder"</muttng-doc:lstconf>
3167 with <literal>some_folder</literal> being the name of the
3169 opens. On the contrary,
3174 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
3175 folder-hook . 'set user_current_folder = $muttng_folder_name'</muttng-doc:lstconf>
3180 will be executed at runtime because of the single quotes so that
3181 <literal>user_current_folder</literal> will always have
3182 the value of the currently
3187 A more practical example is:
3192 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
3193 folder-hook . 'source ~/.mutt/score-$muttng_folder_name'</muttng-doc:lstconf>
3198 which can be used to source files containing score commands
3199 depending on the folder the user enters.
3204 <sect2 id="configuration-expansion-typeconv">
3205 <title>Type Conversions</title>
3208 A note about variable's types during conversion: internally
3209 values are stored in internal types but for any dump/query or set
3210 operation they're converted to and from string. That means that
3211 there's no need to worry about types when referencing any variable.
3212 As an example, the following can be used without harm (besides
3213 makeing muttng very likely behave strange):
3218 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
3220 set folder = $read_inc
3221 set read_inc = $folder
3222 set user_magic_number = 42
3223 set folder = $user_magic_number</muttng-doc:lstconf>
3232 <title>Defining/Using aliases</title>
3235 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="alias">
3236 key address [, address,...]
3237 </muttng-doc:cmddef>
3241 It's usually very cumbersome to remember or type out the address of
3243 you are communicating with. Mutt-ng allows you to create ``aliases''
3245 a short string to a full address.
3249 <emphasis role="bold">Note:</emphasis> if you want to create an alias
3250 for a group (by specifying more than
3251 one address), you <emphasis role="bold">must</emphasis> separate the
3252 addresses with a comma (``,'').
3256 To remove an alias or aliases (``*'' means all aliases):
3260 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="unalias">
3262 </muttng-doc:cmddef>
3267 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
3268 alias muttdude me@cs.hmc.edu (Michael Elkins)
3269 alias theguys manny, moe, jack</muttng-doc:lstconf>
3274 Unlike other mailers, Mutt-ng doesn't require aliases to be defined
3275 in a special file. The <literal>alias</literal> command can appear
3277 a configuration file, as long as this file is <muttng-doc:cmdref name="source"/>.
3278 Consequently, you can have multiple alias files, or
3279 you can have all aliases defined in your muttrc.
3283 On the other hand, the <muttng-doc:funcref name="create-alias"/>
3284 function can use only one file, the one pointed to by the
3285 <muttng-doc:varref name="alias-file"/>
3287 <literal>~/.muttrc</literal> by default). This file is not
3289 in the sense that Mutt-ng will happily append aliases to any file, but
3291 order for the new aliases to take effect you need to explicitly <muttng-doc:cmdref name="source"/>
3301 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
3302 source /usr/local/share/Mutt-ng.aliases
3303 source ~/.mail_aliases
3304 set alias_file=~/.mail_aliases</muttng-doc:lstconf>
3309 To use aliases, you merely use the alias at any place in mutt where
3310 muttprompts for addresses, such as the <emphasis>To:</emphasis> or <emphasis>
3314 also enter aliases in your editor at the appropriate headers if you
3316 <muttng-doc:varref name="editor-headers"/>
3321 In addition, at the various address prompts, you can use the tab
3323 to expand a partial alias to the full alias. If there are multiple
3325 mutt will bring up a menu with the matching aliases. In order to be
3326 presented with the full list of aliases, you must hit tab with out a
3328 alias, such as at the beginning of the prompt or after a comma denoting
3333 In the alias menu, you can select as many aliases as you want with the
3334 <emphasis>select-entry</emphasis> key (default: RET), and use the <emphasis>
3338 (default: q) to return to the address prompt.
3348 <title>Changing the default key bindings</title>
3351 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="bind">
3353 </muttng-doc:cmddef>
3357 This command allows you to change the default key bindings (operation
3358 invoked when pressing a key).
3362 <emphasis>map</emphasis> specifies in which menu the binding belongs.
3364 be specified by separating them with commas (no additional whitespace
3365 isallowed). The currently defined maps are:
3373 <term>generic</term>
3376 This is not a real menu, but is used as a fallback for all of
3378 menus except for the pager and editor modes. If a key is not
3380 another menu, Mutt-ng will look for a binding to use in this
3382 you to bind a key to a certain function in multiple menus
3384 multiple bind statements to accomplish the same task.
3392 The alias menu is the list of your personal aliases as defined
3394 muttrc. It is the mapping from a short alias name to the full
3396 address(es) of the recipient(s).
3404 The attachment menu is used to access the attachments on
3410 <term>browser</term>
3413 The browser is used for both browsing the local directory
3415 listing all of your incoming mailboxes.
3423 The editor is the line-based editor the user enters text data.
3431 The index is the list of messages contained in a mailbox.
3436 <term>compose</term>
3439 The compose menu is the screen used when sending a new message.
3447 The pager is the mode used to display message/attachment data,
3457 The pgp menu is used to select the OpenPGP keys used for
3464 <term>postpone</term>
3467 The postpone menu is similar to the index menu, except is used
3469 recalling a message the user was composing, but saved until
3478 <emphasis>key</emphasis> is the key (or key sequence) you wish to bind.
3480 control character, use the sequence <emphasis>\Cx</emphasis>,
3481 where <emphasis>x</emphasis> is the
3482 letter of the control character (for example, to specify control-A use
3483 ``\Ca''). Note that the case of <emphasis>x</emphasis> as well as
3484 <emphasis>\C</emphasis> is
3485 ignored, so that <emphasis>\CA</emphasis>, <emphasis>\Ca</emphasis>, <emphasis>
3488 and <emphasis>\ca</emphasis> are all
3489 equivalent. An alternative form is to specify the key as a three digit
3490 octal number prefixed with a ``\'' (for example <emphasis>
3494 equivalent to <emphasis>\c?</emphasis>).
3498 In addition, <emphasis>key</emphasis> may consist of:
3503 <table frame="none" rowsep="1">
3504 <title>Alternative Key Names</title>
3505 <tgroup cols="2" align="left" colsep="1" rowsep="1">
3508 <entry>Sequence</entry>
3509 <entry>Description</entry>
3514 <entry><literal>\t</literal></entry>
3518 <entry><literal><tab></literal></entry>
3522 <entry><literal><backtab></literal></entry>
3523 <entry>backtab / shift-tab</entry>
3526 <entry><literal>\r</literal></entry>
3527 <entry>carriage return</entry>
3530 <entry><literal>\n</literal></entry>
3531 <entry>newline</entry>
3534 <entry><literal>\e</literal></entry>
3535 <entry>escape</entry>
3538 <entry><literal><esc></literal></entry>
3539 <entry>escape</entry>
3542 <entry><literal><up></literal></entry>
3543 <entry>up arrow</entry>
3546 <entry><literal><down></literal></entry>
3547 <entry>down arrow</entry>
3550 <entry><literal><left></literal></entry>
3551 <entry>left arrow</entry>
3554 <entry><literal><right></literal></entry>
3555 <entry>right arrow</entry>
3558 <entry><literal><pageup></literal></entry>
3559 <entry>Page Up</entry>
3562 <entry><literal><pagedown></literal></entry>
3563 <entry>Page Down</entry>
3566 <entry><literal><backspace></literal></entry>
3567 <entry>Backspace</entry>
3570 <entry><literal><delete></literal></entry>
3571 <entry>Delete</entry>
3574 <entry><literal><insert></literal></entry>
3575 <entry>Insert</entry>
3578 <entry><literal><enter></literal></entry>
3579 <entry>Enter</entry>
3582 <entry><literal><return></literal></entry>
3583 <entry>Return</entry>
3586 <entry><literal><home></literal></entry>
3590 <entry><literal><end></literal></entry>
3594 <entry><literal><space></literal></entry>
3595 <entry>Space bar</entry>
3598 <entry><literal><f1></literal></entry>
3599 <entry>function key 1</entry>
3602 <entry><literal><f10></literal></entry>
3603 <entry>function key 10</entry>
3612 <emphasis>key</emphasis> does not need to be enclosed in quotes unless
3618 <emphasis>function</emphasis> specifies which action to take when <emphasis>
3622 For a complete list of functions, see the <link linkend="functions">functions</link>.
3623 The special function <literal>noop</literal> unbinds the specified key
3633 <sect1 id="charset-hook">
3634 <title>Defining aliases for character sets</title>
3636 <anchor id="iconv-hook"/>
3638 Usage: <muttng-doc:hook name="charset"/> <emphasis>alias</emphasis> <emphasis> charset</emphasis>
3641 Usage: <muttng-doc:hook name="iconv"/> <emphasis>charset</emphasis> <emphasis> local-charset </emphasis>
3645 The <muttng-doc:hook name="charset"/> command defines an alias for a
3647 This is useful to properly display messages which are tagged with a
3648 character set name not known to mutt.
3652 The <muttng-doc:hook name="iconv"/> command defines a system-specific
3654 character set. This is helpful when your systems character
3655 conversion library insists on using strange, system-specific names
3665 <sect1 id="folder-hook">
3666 <title>Setting variables based upon mailbox</title>
3669 Usage: <muttng-doc:hook name="folder"/> [!]<emphasis>regexp</emphasis> <emphasis>command</emphasis>
3673 It is often desirable to change settings based on which mailbox you are
3674 reading. The <muttng-doc:hook name="folder"/> command provides a method by which you can
3676 any configuration command. <emphasis>regexp</emphasis> is a regular
3677 expression specifying
3678 in which mailboxes to execute <emphasis>command</emphasis> before
3679 loading. If a mailbox
3680 matches multiple <muttng-doc:hook name="folder"/>'s, they are executed in the order given in
3686 <emphasis role="bold">Note:</emphasis> if you use the ``!'' shortcut
3687 for <muttng-doc:varref name="spoolfile"/> at the beginning of the
3688 pattern, you must place it
3689 inside of double or single quotes in order to distinguish it from the
3690 logical <emphasis>not</emphasis> operator for the expression.
3694 Note that the settings are <emphasis>not</emphasis> restored when you
3696 For example, a command action to perform is to change the sorting
3697 methodbased upon the mailbox being read:
3702 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
3703 folder-hook mutt set sort=threads</muttng-doc:lstconf>
3708 However, the sorting method is not restored to its previous value when
3709 reading a different mailbox. To specify a <emphasis>default</emphasis>
3716 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
3717 folder-hook . set sort=date-sent</muttng-doc:lstconf>
3728 <title>Keyboard macros</title>
3731 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="macro">
3732 menu key sequence [description]
3733 </muttng-doc:cmddef>
3737 Macros are useful when you would like a single key to perform a series
3739 actions. When you press <emphasis>key</emphasis> in menu <emphasis>
3742 ,Mutt-ng will behave as if
3743 you had typed <emphasis>sequence</emphasis>. So if you have a common
3744 sequence of commands
3745 you type, you can create a macro to execute those commands with a
3750 <emphasis>menu</emphasis> is the <link linkend="maps">maps</link> which
3751 the macro will be bound.
3752 Multiple maps may be specified by separating multiple menu arguments by
3753 commas. Whitespace may not be used in between the menu arguments and
3754 thecommas separating them.
3758 <emphasis>key</emphasis> and <emphasis>sequence</emphasis> are expanded
3759 by the same rules as the <muttng-doc:cmdref name="bind"/>. There are
3760 some additions however. The
3761 first is that control characters in <emphasis>sequence</emphasis> can
3763 as <emphasis>^x</emphasis>. In order to get a caret (`^'')
3765 <emphasis>^^</emphasis>. Secondly, to specify a certain key
3766 such as <emphasis>up</emphasis>
3767 or to invoke a function directly, you can use the format
3768 <emphasis><key name></emphasis> and <emphasis><function
3771 .For a listing of key
3772 names see the section on <muttng-doc:cmdref name="bind"/>. Functions
3773 are listed in the <link linkend="functions">functions</link>.
3777 The advantage with using function names directly is that the macros
3778 willwork regardless of the current key bindings, so they are not
3780 the user having particular key definitions. This makes them more
3781 robustand portable, and also facilitates defining of macros in files
3783 than one user (eg. the system Muttngrc).
3787 Optionally you can specify a descriptive text after <emphasis>sequence</emphasis>,
3788 which is shown in the help screens.
3792 <emphasis role="bold">Note:</emphasis> Macro definitions (if any)
3793 listed in the help screen(s), are
3794 silently truncated at the screen width, and are not wrapped.
3804 <title>Using color and mono video attributes</title>
3807 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="color">object foreground background [regexp]</muttng-doc:cmddef>
3810 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="color" noanchor="1">index foreground pattern</muttng-doc:cmddef>
3813 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="uncolor">index pattern [pattern ...]</muttng-doc:cmddef>
3817 If your terminal supports color, you can spice up Mutt-ng by creating
3819 color scheme. To define the color of an object (type of information),
3821 must specify both a foreground color <emphasis role="bold">and</emphasis> a background color (it is not
3822 possible to only specify one or the other).
3826 <emphasis>object</emphasis> can be one of:
3841 body (match <emphasis>regexp</emphasis> in the body of messages)
3847 bold (highlighting bold patterns in the body of messages)
3853 error (error messages printed by Mutt-ng)
3859 header (match <emphasis>regexp</emphasis> in the message header)
3865 hdrdefault (default color of the message header in the pager)
3871 index (match <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> in the message index)
3877 indicator (arrow or bar used to indicate the current item in a
3884 markers (the ``+'' markers at the beginning of wrapped lines in
3891 message (informational messages)
3903 quoted (text matching <muttng-doc:varref name="quote-regexp"/> in the body of a message)
3909 quoted1, quoted2, ..., quoted<emphasis role="bold">N</emphasis>
3910 (higher levels of quoting)
3916 search (highlighting of words in the pager)
3928 status (mode lines used to display info about the mailbox or
3935 tilde (the ``~'' used to pad blank lines in the pager)
3941 tree (thread tree drawn in the message index and attachment menu)
3947 underline (highlighting underlined patterns in the body of
3957 <emphasis>foreground</emphasis> and <emphasis>background</emphasis> can
3958 be one of the following:
4021 color<emphasis>x</emphasis>
4030 <emphasis>foreground</emphasis> can optionally be prefixed with the
4031 keyword <literal>bright</literal> to make
4032 the foreground color boldfaced (e.g., <literal>brightred</literal>).
4036 If your terminal supports it, the special keyword <emphasis>default</emphasis> can be
4037 used as a transparent color. The value <emphasis>brightdefault</emphasis> is also valid.
4038 If Mutt-ng is linked against the <emphasis>S-Lang</emphasis> library,
4039 you also need to set
4040 the <muttng-doc:envvar name="COLORFGBG"/> environment variable to the default
4042 terminal for this to work; for example (for Bourne-like shells):
4047 <muttng-doc:lstshell>
4048 set COLORFGBG="green;black"
4049 export COLORFGBG</muttng-doc:lstshell>
4054 <emphasis role="bold">Note:</emphasis> The <emphasis>S-Lang</emphasis>
4055 library requires you to use the <emphasis>lightgray</emphasis>
4056 and <emphasis>brown</emphasis> keywords instead of <emphasis>white</emphasis> and <emphasis>
4060 setting this variable.
4064 <emphasis role="bold">Note:</emphasis> The uncolor command can be
4065 applied to the index object only. It
4066 removes entries from the list. You <emphasis role="bold">must</emphasis> specify the same pattern
4067 specified in the color command for it to be removed. The pattern ``*''
4069 a special token which means to clear the color index list of all
4074 Mutt-ng also recognizes the keywords <emphasis>color0</emphasis>, <emphasis>
4078 <emphasis>color</emphasis><emphasis role="bold">N-1</emphasis> (<emphasis role="bold">
4081 being the number of colors supported
4082 by your terminal). This is useful when you remap the colors for your
4083 display (for example by changing the color associated with <emphasis>
4086 for your xterm), since color names may then lose their normal meaning.
4090 If your terminal does not support color, it is still possible change
4092 attributes through the use of the ``mono'' command:
4096 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="mono">object attribute [regexp]</muttng-doc:cmddef>
4099 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="mono" noanchor="1">index attribute pattern</muttng-doc:cmddef>
4102 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="unmono">index pattern [pattern ...]</muttng-doc:cmddef>
4106 where <emphasis>attribute</emphasis> is one of the following:
4154 <title>Ignoring (weeding) unwanted message headers</title>
4157 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="ignore">pattern [pattern ...]</muttng-doc:cmddef>
4161 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="unignore">pattern [pattern ...]</muttng-doc:cmddef>
4165 Messages often have many header fields added by automatic processing
4167 or which may not seem useful to display on the screen. This command
4169 you to specify header fields which you don't normally want to see.
4173 You do not need to specify the full header field name. For example,
4174 ``ignore content-'' will ignore all header fields that begin with the
4176 ``content-''. ``ignore *'' will ignore all headers.
4180 To remove a previously added token from the list, use the ``unignore''
4182 The ``unignore'' command will make Mutt-ng display headers with the
4184 For example, if you do ``ignore x-'' it is possible to ``unignore
4189 ``unignore *'' will remove all tokens from the ignore list.
4195 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
4196 # Sven's draconian header weeding
4198 unignore from date subject to cc
4199 unignore organization organisation x-mailer: x-newsreader: x-mailing-list:
4200 unignore posted-to:</muttng-doc:lstconf>
4211 <title>Alternative addresses</title>
4214 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="alternates">regexp [regexp ...]</muttng-doc:cmddef>
4218 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="unalternates">regexp [regexp ...]</muttng-doc:cmddef>
4222 With various functions, mutt will treat messages differently,
4223 depending on whether you sent them or whether you received them from
4224 someone else. For instance, when replying to a message that you
4225 sent to a different party, mutt will automatically suggest to send
4226 the response to the original message's recipients--responding to
4227 yourself won't make much sense in many cases.
4228 (See <muttng-doc:varref name="reply-to"/>.)
4232 Many users receive e-mail under a number of different addresses. To
4233 fully use mutt's features here, the program must be able to
4234 recognize what e-mail addresses you receive mail under. That's the
4235 purpose of the <literal>alternates</literal> command: It takes a list
4237 expressions, each of which can identify an address under which you
4242 The <literal>unalternates</literal> command can be used to write
4244 <literal>alternates</literal> patterns. If an address matches something
4246 <literal>alternates</literal> command, but you nonetheless do not think
4248 from you, you can list a more precise pattern under an <literal>
4255 To remove a regular expression from the <literal>alternates</literal>
4257 <literal>unalternates</literal> command with exactly the same <emphasis>
4261 Likewise, if the <emphasis>regexp</emphasis> for a <literal>alternates</literal> command matches
4262 an entry on the <literal>unalternates</literal> list, that <literal>
4265 entry will be removed. If the <emphasis>regexp</emphasis> for <literal>
4268 is ``*'', <emphasis>all entries</emphasis> on <literal>alternates</literal> will be removed.
4277 <sect1 id="format-flowed">
4278 <title>Format = Flowed</title>
4280 <sect2 id="format-flowed-intro">
4281 <title>Introduction</title>
4284 Mutt-ng contains support for so-called <literal>format=flowed</literal> messages.
4285 In the beginning of email, each message had a fixed line width, and
4286 it was enough for displaying them on fixed-size terminals. But times
4287 changed, and nowadays hardly anybody still uses fixed-size terminals:
4288 more people nowaydays use graphical user interfaces, with dynamically
4289 resizable windows. This led to the demand of a new email format that
4290 makes it possible for the email client to make the email look nice
4291 in a resizable window without breaking quoting levels and creating
4292 an incompatible email format that can also be displayed nicely on
4293 old fixed-size terminals.
4297 For introductory information on <literal>format=flowed</literal>
4299 <muttng-doc:web url="http://www.joeclark.org/ffaq.html"/>.
4304 <sect2 id="format-flowed-display">
4305 <title>Receiving: Display Setup</title>
4308 When you receive emails that are marked as <literal>format=flowed</literal>
4309 messages, and is formatted correctly, mutt-ng will try to reformat
4310 the message to optimally fit on your terminal. If you want a fixed
4311 margin on the right side of your terminal, you can set the
4317 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
4318 set wrapmargin = 10</muttng-doc:lstconf>
4323 The code above makes the line break 10 columns before the right
4324 side of the terminal.
4328 If your terminal is so wide that the lines are embarrassingly long,
4329 you can also set a maximum line length:
4334 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
4335 set max_line_length = 120</muttng-doc:lstconf>
4340 The example above will give you lines not longer than 120
4345 When you view at <literal>format=flowed</literal> messages, you will
4347 the quoting hierarchy like in the following example:
4352 <muttng-doc:lstmail>
4353 >Bill, can you please send last month's progress report to Mr.
4354 >Morgan? We also urgently need the cost estimation for the new
4355 >production server that we want to set up before our customer's
4356 >project will go live.</muttng-doc:lstmail>
4361 This obviously doesn't look very nice, and it makes it very
4362 hard to differentiate between text and quoting character. The
4363 solution is to configure mutt-ng to "stuff" the quoting:
4368 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
4369 set stuff_quoted</muttng-doc:lstconf>
4374 This will lead to a nicer result that is easier to read:
4379 <muttng-doc:lstmail>
4380 > Bill, can you please send last month's progress report to Mr.
4381 > Morgan? We also urgently need the cost estimation for the new
4382 > production server that we want to set up before our customer's
4383 > project will go live.</muttng-doc:lstmail>
4389 <sect2 id="format-flowed-send">
4390 <title>Sending</title>
4393 If you want mutt-ng to send emails with <literal>format=flowed</literal> set, you
4394 need to explicitly set it:
4399 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
4400 set text_flowed</muttng-doc:lstconf>
4405 Additionally, you have to use an editor which supports writing
4406 <literal>format=flowed</literal>-conforming emails. For <muttng-doc:man name="vim"/>, this is
4408 adding <literal>w</literal> to the formatoptions (see <literal>:h
4412 <literal>:h fo-table</literal>) when writing emails.
4416 Also note that <emphasis>format=flowed</emphasis> knows about
4418 that is, when sending messages, some kinds of lines have to be
4419 indented with a single space on the sending side. On the receiving
4420 side, the first space (if any) is removed. As a consequence and in
4421 addition to the above simple setting, please keep this in mind when
4422 making manual formattings within the editor. Also note that mutt-ng
4423 currently violates the standard (<muttng-doc:rfc num="3676"/>) as it does not
4424 space-stuff lines starting with:
4432 <literal>></literal> This is <emphasis>not</emphasis> the
4433 quote character but a right
4434 angle used for other reasons
4443 Please make sure that you manually prepend a space to each of them.
4448 <sect2 id="format-flowed-notes">
4449 <title>Additional Notes</title>
4452 For completeness, the <muttng-doc:varref name="delete-space"/> variable provides the mechanism
4453 to generate a <literal>DelSp=yes</literal> parameter on <emphasis>
4457 According to the standard, clients receiving a <literal>format=flowed</literal>
4458 messages should delete the last space of a flowed line but still
4459 interpret the line as flowed. Because flowed lines usually contain
4460 only one space at the end, this parameter would make the receiving
4461 client concatenate the last word of the previous with the first of
4462 the current line <emphasis>without</emphasis> a space. This makes
4464 unreadable and is intended for languages rarely using spaces. So
4465 please use this setting only if you're sure what you're doing.
4477 <title>Mailing lists</title>
4480 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="lists">regexp [regexp ...]</muttng-doc:cmddef>
4483 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="unlists">regexp [regexp ...]</muttng-doc:cmddef>
4486 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="subscribe">regexp [regexp ...]</muttng-doc:cmddef>
4489 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="unsubscribe">regexp [regexp ...]</muttng-doc:cmddef>
4493 Mutt-ng has a few nice features for <link linkend="using-lists">using-lists</link>.
4494 In order to take advantage of them, you must
4495 specify which addresses belong to mailing lists, and which mailing
4496 lists you are subscribed to. Once you have done this, the
4497 <link linkend="func-list-reply">list-reply</link>
4498 function will work for all known lists.
4499 Additionally, when you send a message to a subscribed list, mutt will
4500 add a Mail-Followup-To header to tell other users' mail user agents
4501 not to send copies of replies to your personal address. Note that
4502 the Mail-Followup-To header is a non-standard extension which is not
4503 supported by all mail user agents. Adding it is not bullet-proof
4505 receiving personal CCs of list messages. Also note that the generation
4506 of the Mail-Followup-To header is controlled by the
4507 <muttng-doc:varref name="followup-to"/>
4508 configuration variable.
4512 More precisely, Mutt-ng maintains lists of patterns for the addresses
4513 of known and subscribed mailing lists. Every subscribed mailing
4514 list is known. To mark a mailing list as known, use the ``lists''
4515 command. To mark it as subscribed, use ``subscribe''.
4519 You can use regular expressions with both commands. To mark all
4520 messages sent to a specific bug report's address on mutt's bug
4521 tracking system as list mail, for instance, you could say
4522 ``subscribe [0-9]*@bugs.guug.de''. Often, it's sufficient to just
4523 give a portion of the list's e-mail address.
4527 Specify as much of the address as you need to to remove ambiguity. For
4528 example, if you've subscribed to the Mutt-ng mailing list, you will
4530 addressed to <emphasis>mutt-users@mutt.org</emphasis>. So, to tell
4531 Mutt-ng that this is a
4532 mailing list, you could add ``lists mutt-users'' to your
4533 initialization file. To tell mutt that you are subscribed to it,
4534 add ``subscribe mutt-users'' to your initialization file instead.
4535 If you also happen to get mail from someone whose address is
4536 <emphasis>mutt-users@example.com</emphasis>, you could use ``lists
4537 mutt-users@mutt\\.org''
4538 or ``subscribe mutt-users@mutt\\.org'' to
4539 match only mail from the actual list.
4543 The ``unlists'' command is used to remove a token from the list of
4544 known and subscribed mailing-lists. Use ``unlists *'' to remove all
4549 To remove a mailing list from the list of subscribed mailing lists,
4550 but keep it on the list of known mailing lists, use ``unsubscribe''.
4559 <sect1 id="mbox-hook">
4560 <title>Using Multiple spool mailboxes</title>
4563 Usage: <muttng-doc:hook name="mbox"/> [!]<emphasis>pattern</emphasis> <emphasis>mailbox</emphasis>
4567 This command is used to move read messages from a specified mailbox to
4568 adifferent mailbox automatically when you quit or change folders.
4569 <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> is a regular expression specifying the
4570 mailbox to treat as a
4571 ``spool'' mailbox and <emphasis>mailbox</emphasis> specifies where mail
4572 should be saved when
4577 Unlike some of the other <emphasis>hook</emphasis> commands, only the <emphasis>
4581 pattern is used (it is not possible to save read mail in more than a
4593 <title>Defining mailboxes which receive mail</title>
4596 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="mailboxes"> [!]filename [filename ... ]</muttng-doc:cmddef>
4599 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="unmailboxes"> [!]filename [filename ... ]</muttng-doc:cmddef>
4603 This command specifies folders which can receive mail and
4604 which will be checked for new messages. By default, the
4605 main menu status bar displays how many of these folders have
4610 When changing folders, pressing <emphasis>space</emphasis> will cycle
4611 through folders with new mail.
4615 Pressing TAB in the directory browser will bring up a menu showing the
4617 specified by the <literal>mailboxes</literal> command, and indicate
4619 messages. Mutt-ng will automatically enter this mode when invoked from
4621 command line with the <literal>-y</literal> option.
4625 The ``unmailboxes'' command is used to remove a token from the list
4626 of folders which receive mail. Use ``unmailboxes *'' to remove all
4631 <emphasis role="bold">Note:</emphasis> new mail is detected by
4632 comparing the last modification time to
4633 the last access time. Utilities like <literal>biff</literal> or <literal>
4637 program which accesses the mailbox might cause Mutt-ng to never detect
4639 for that mailbox if they do not properly reset the access time. Backup
4640 tools are another common reason for updated access times.
4644 <emphasis role="bold">Note:</emphasis> the filenames in the <literal>
4647 command are resolved when
4648 the command is executed, so if these names contain <link linkend="shortcuts">shortcuts</link>
4649 (such as ``='' and ``!''), any variable
4650 definition that affect these characters (like <muttng-doc:varref name="folder"/>
4651 and <muttng-doc:varref name="spoolfile"/>)
4652 should be executed before the <literal>mailboxes</literal> command.
4662 <title>User defined headers</title>
4665 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="my_hdr">string</muttng-doc:cmddef>
4668 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="unmy_hdr">field [field ...]</muttng-doc:cmddef>
4672 The ``my_hdr'' command allows you to create your own header
4673 fields which will be added to every message you send.
4677 For example, if you would like to add an ``Organization:'' header field
4679 all of your outgoing messages, you can put the command
4683 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
4684 my_hdr Organization: A Really Big Company, Anytown, USA</muttng-doc:lstconf>
4688 in your <literal>.muttrc</literal>.
4692 <emphasis role="bold">Note:</emphasis> space characters are <emphasis>
4695 allowed between the keyword and
4696 the colon (``:''). The standard for electronic mail (<muttng-doc:rfc num="822"/>) says that
4697 space is illegal there, so Mutt-ng enforces the rule.
4701 If you would like to add a header field to a single message, you should
4702 either set the <muttng-doc:varref name="edit-headers"/>
4704 or use the <emphasis>edit-headers</emphasis> function (default: ``E'')
4706 that you can edit the header of your message along with the body.
4710 To remove user defined header fields, use the ``unmy_hdr''
4711 command. You may specify an asterisk (``*'') to remove all header
4712 fields, or the fields to remove. For example, to remove all ``To'' and
4713 ``Cc'' header fields, you could use:
4717 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
4718 unmy_hdr to cc</muttng-doc:lstconf>
4728 <title>Defining the order of headers when viewing messages</title>
4731 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="hdr_order">header header [header ...]</muttng-doc:cmddef>
4735 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="unhdr_order">[ * | header header ...]</muttng-doc:cmddef>
4739 With this command, you can specify an order in which mutt will attempt
4740 to present headers to you when viewing messages.
4744 ``unhdr_order *'' will clear all previous headers from the order
4746 thus removing the header order effects set by the system-wide startup
4752 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
4753 hdr_order From Date: From: To: Cc: Subject:</muttng-doc:lstconf>
4763 <sect1 id="save-hook">
4764 <title>Specify default save filename</title>
4767 Usage: <muttng-doc:hook name="save"/> [!]<emphasis>pattern</emphasis> <emphasis>filename</emphasis>
4771 This command is used to override the default filename used when saving
4772 messages. <emphasis>filename</emphasis> will be used as the default
4773 filename if the message is
4774 <emphasis>From:</emphasis> an address matching <emphasis>regexp</emphasis> or if you are the author and the
4775 message is addressed <emphasis>to:</emphasis> something matching <emphasis>
4782 See <muttng-doc:hook name="pattern"/> for information on
4783 the exact format of <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>.
4792 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
4793 save-hook me@(turing\\.)?cs\\.hmc\\.edu$ +elkins
4794 save-hook aol\\.com$ +spam</muttng-doc:lstconf>
4799 Also see the <muttng-doc:hook name="fcc-save"/>
4809 <sect1 id="fcc-hook">
4810 <title>Specify default Fcc: mailbox when composing</title>
4813 Usage: <muttng-doc:hook name="fcc"/> [!]<emphasis>pattern</emphasis> <emphasis>mailbox</emphasis>
4817 This command is used to save outgoing mail in a mailbox other than
4818 <muttng-doc:varref name="record"/>. Mutt-ng searches the initial
4820 message recipients for the first matching <emphasis>regexp</emphasis>
4821 and uses <emphasis>mailbox</emphasis>
4822 as the default Fcc: mailbox. If no match is found the message will be
4824 to <muttng-doc:varref name="record"/> mailbox.
4828 See <muttng-doc:hook name="pattern"/> for information on
4829 the exact format of <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>.
4833 Example: <literal><muttng-doc:hook name="fcc"/> [@.]aol\\.com$
4839 The above will save a copy of all messages going to the aol.com domain
4841 the `+spammers' mailbox by default. Also see the <muttng-doc:hook name="fcc-save"/>
4851 <sect1 id="fcc-save-hook">
4852 <title>Specify default save filename and default Fcc: mailbox at once</title>
4855 Usage: <literal><muttng-doc:hook name="fcc-save"/></literal> [!]<emphasis>pattern</emphasis> <emphasis>mailbox</emphasis>
4859 This command is a shortcut, equivalent to doing both a <muttng-doc:hook name="fcc"/>
4860 and a <muttng-doc:hook name="save"/> with its arguments.
4869 <sect1 id="send-hook">
4870 <title>Change settings based upon message recipients</title>
4872 <anchor id="reply-hook"/>
4873 <anchor id="send2-hook"/>
4875 Usage: <muttng-doc:hook name="reply"/> [!]<emphasis>pattern</emphasis> <emphasis>command</emphasis>
4878 Usage: <muttng-doc:hook name="send"/> [!]<emphasis>pattern</emphasis> <emphasis>command</emphasis>
4881 Usage: <muttng-doc:hook name="send2"/> [!]<emphasis>pattern</emphasis> <emphasis>command</emphasis>
4885 These commands can be used to execute arbitrary configuration commands
4887 upon recipients of the message. <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> is a
4889 matching the desired address. <emphasis>command</emphasis> is executed
4890 when <emphasis>regexp</emphasis>
4891 matches recipients of the message.
4895 <muttng-doc:hook name="reply"/> is matched against the message you are <emphasis>
4898 <emphasis role="bold">to</emphasis>, instead of the message you are <emphasis>
4901 .<muttng-doc:hook name="send"/> is
4902 matched against all messages, both <emphasis>new</emphasis> and <emphasis>
4905 .<emphasis role="bold">Note:</emphasis>
4906 <muttng-doc:hook name="reply"/>s are matched <emphasis role="bold">before</emphasis> the
4907 <muttng-doc:hook name="send"/>, <emphasis role="bold">regardless</emphasis>
4908 of the order specified in the users's configuration file.
4912 <muttng-doc:hook name="send2"/> is matched every time a message is
4914 by editing it, or by using the compose menu to change its recipients
4915 or subject. <muttng-doc:hook name="send2"/> is executed after <muttng-doc:hook name="send"/>
4917 can, e.g., be used to set parameters such as the <muttng-doc:varref name="sendmail"/>
4918 variable depending on the message's sender
4923 For each type of <muttng-doc:hook name="send"/> or <muttng-doc:hook name="reply"/>, when multiple matches
4924 occur, commands are executed in the order they are specified in the
4926 (for that type of hook).
4930 See <muttng-doc:hook name="pattern"/> for information on
4931 the exact format of <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>.
4935 Example: <literal>send-hook mutt "set mime_forward
4941 Another typical use for this command is to change the values of the
4942 <muttng-doc:varref name="attribution"/>,
4943 <muttng-doc:varref name="signature"/> and <muttng-doc:varref
4945 variables in order to change the language of the attributions and
4946 signatures based upon the recipients.
4950 <emphasis role="bold">Note:</emphasis> the <muttng-doc:hook name="send"/>'s are only
4951 executed ONCE after getting the initial
4952 list of recipients. Adding a recipient after replying or editing the
4953 message will NOT cause any <muttng-doc:hook name="send"/> to be executed. Also note that
4954 my_hdr commands which modify recipient headers, or the message's
4955 subject, don't have any effect on the current message when executed
4956 from a <muttng-doc:hook name="send"/>.
4965 <sect1 id="message-hook">
4966 <title>Change settings before formatting a message</title>
4969 Usage: <muttng-doc:hook name="message"/> [!]<emphasis>pattern</emphasis> <emphasis>command</emphasis>
4973 This command can be used to execute arbitrary configuration commands
4974 before viewing or formatting a message based upon information about the
4976 <emphasis>command</emphasis> is executed if the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> matches the message to be
4977 displayed. When multiple matches occur, commands are executed in the
4979 they are specified in the muttrc.
4983 See <muttng-doc:hook name="pattern"/> for
4984 information on the exact format of <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>.
4990 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
4991 message-hook <muttng-doc:pattern name="A"/> 'set pager=builtin'
4992 message-hook '<muttng-doc:pattern name="f"/> freshmeat-news' 'set pager="less \"+/^ subject:.*\""'</muttng-doc:lstconf>
5002 <sect1 id="crypt-hook">
5003 <title>Choosing the cryptographic key of the recipient</title>
5006 Usage: <muttng-doc:hook name="crypt"/> <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> <emphasis>keyid</emphasis>
5010 When encrypting messages with PGP or OpenSSL, you may want to associate
5012 key with a given e-mail address automatically, either because the
5013 recipient's public key can't be deduced from the destination address,
5014 or because, for some reasons, you need to override the key Mutt-ng
5015 wouldnormally use. The <muttng-doc:hook name="crypt"/> command provides a method by which
5017 specify the ID of the public key to be used when encrypting messages to
5018 a certain recipient.
5022 The meaning of "key id" is to be taken broadly in this context: You
5023 can either put a numerical key ID here, an e-mail address, or even
5034 <title>Adding key sequences to the keyboard buffer</title>
5037 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="push">string</muttng-doc:cmddef>
5042 This command adds the named string to the keyboard buffer. The
5043 string may contain control characters, key names and function
5044 names like the sequence string in the <muttng-doc:cmdref name="macro"/> command. You may use it to
5045 automatically run a sequence of commands at startup, or when
5046 entering certain folders. For example, the following command
5047 will automatically collapse all threads when entering a folder:
5049 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
5050 folder-hook . 'push <collapse-all>'
5051 </muttng-doc:lstconf>
5062 <title>Executing functions</title>
5065 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="exec">function [function ... ]</muttng-doc:cmddef>
5069 This command can be used to execute any function. Functions are
5070 listed in the <link linkend="functions">functions</link>.
5071 ``exec function'' is equivalent to ``push <function>''.
5081 <title>Message Scoring</title>
5084 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="score">pattern value</muttng-doc:cmddef>
5087 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="unscore">pattern [pattern ... ]</muttng-doc:cmddef>
5091 In situations where you have to cope with a lot of emails, e.g.
5092 when you read many different mailing lists, and take part in
5093 discussions, it is always useful to have the important messages
5094 marked and the annoying messages or the ones that you aren't
5095 interested in deleted. For this purpose, mutt-ng features a
5096 mechanism called ``scoring''.
5100 When you use scoring, every message has a base score of 0. You
5101 can then use the <literal>score</literal> command to define patterns
5103 positive or negative value associated with it. When a pattern
5104 matches a message, the message's score will be raised or lowered by
5105 the amount of the value associated with the pattern.
5110 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
5111 score "<muttng-doc:pattern name="f"/> nion@muttng\.org" 50
5112 score "<muttng-doc:pattern name="f"/> @sco\.com" -100</muttng-doc:lstconf>
5117 If the pattern matches, it is also possible to set the score
5118 value of the current message to a certain value and then stop
5124 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
5125 score "<muttng-doc:pattern name="f"/> santaclaus@northpole\.int" =666</muttng-doc:lstconf>
5130 What is important to note is that negative score values will be
5135 To make scoring actually useful, the score must be applied in
5136 some way. That's what the <emphasis>score thresholds</emphasis> are
5138 there are three score thresholds:
5147 flag threshold: when a message has a score value equal or higher
5148 than the flag threshold, it will be flagged.
5155 read threshold: when a message has a score value equal or lower
5156 than the read threshold, it will be marked as read.
5163 delete threshold: when a message has a score value equal or
5164 lower than the delete threshold, it will be marked as deleted.
5174 These three thresholds can be set via the variables
5175 <muttng-doc:varref name="score-threshold-read"/>,
5176 <muttng-doc:varref name="score-threshold-flag"/> and
5177 <muttng-doc:varref name="score-threshold-delete"/>.
5181 <muttng-doc:varref name="score-threshold-read"/> and
5182 <muttng-doc:varref name="score-threshold-delete"/>
5184 <literal>-1</literal>, which means that in the default threshold
5186 message will ever get marked as read or deleted.
5190 Scoring gets especially interesting when combined with the <literal>
5194 and the <muttng-doc:pattern name="n"/> pattern:
5199 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
5200 color index black yellow "<muttng-doc:pattern name="n"/> 10-"
5201 color index red yellow "<muttng-doc:pattern name="n"/> 100-"</muttng-doc:lstconf>
5206 The rules above mark all messages with a score between 10 and 99
5207 with black and yellow, and messages with a score greater or equal
5208 100 with red and yellow. This might be unusual to you if you're used
5209 to e.g. slrn's scoring mechanism, but it is more flexible, as it
5210 visually marks different scores.
5220 <title>Spam detection</title>
5223 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="spam">pattern format</muttng-doc:cmddef>
5226 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="nospam">pattern</muttng-doc:cmddef>
5230 Mutt-ng has generalized support for external spam-scoring filters.
5231 By defining your spam patterns with the <literal>spam</literal> and <literal>
5234 commands, you can <emphasis>limit</emphasis>, <emphasis>search</emphasis>, and <emphasis>
5238 mail based on its spam attributes, as determined by the external
5239 filter. You also can display the spam attributes in your index
5240 display using the <literal>%H</literal> selector in the
5241 <muttng-doc:varref name="index-format"/>
5242 variable. (Tip: try <literal>%?H?[%H] ?</literal>
5243 to display spam tags only when they are defined for a given message.)
5247 Your first step is to define your external filter's spam patterns using
5248 the <literal>spam</literal> command. <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>
5249 should be a regular expression
5250 that matches a header in a mail message. If any message in the mailbox
5251 matches this regular expression, it will receive a ``spam tag'' or
5252 ``spam attribute'' (unless it also matches a <literal>nospam</literal>
5254 below.) The appearance of this attribute is entirely up to you, and is
5255 governed by the <emphasis>format</emphasis> parameter. <emphasis>format</emphasis> can be any static
5256 text, but it also can include back-references from the <emphasis>
5259 expression. (A regular expression ``back-reference'' refers to a
5260 sub-expression contained within parentheses.) <literal>%1</literal> is replaced with
5261 the first back-reference in the regex, <literal>%2</literal>
5262 with the second, etc.
5266 If you're using multiple spam filters, a message can have more than
5267 one spam-related header. You can define <literal>spam</literal>
5269 filter you use. If a message matches two or more of these patterns, and
5270 the $spam_separator variable is set to a string, then the
5271 message's spam tag will consist of all the <emphasis>format</emphasis>
5273 together, with the value of $spam_separator separating
5278 For example, suppose I use DCC, SpamAssassin, and PureMessage. I might
5279 define these spam settings:
5281 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
5282 spam "X-DCC-.*-Metrics:.*(....)=many" "90+/DCC-%1"
5283 spam "X-Spam-Status: Yes" "90+/SA"
5284 spam "X-PerlMX-Spam: .*Probability=([0-9]+)%" "%1/PM"
5285 set spam_separator=", "</muttng-doc:lstconf>
5290 If I then received a message that DCC registered with ``many'' hits
5291 under the ``Fuz2'' checksum, and that PureMessage registered with a
5292 97% probability of being spam, that message's spam tag would
5293 read<literal>90+/DCC-Fuz2, 97/PM</literal>. (The four characters before
5295 DCC report indicate the checksum used -- in this case, ``Fuz2''.)
5299 If the $spam_separator variable is unset, then each
5300 spam pattern match supersedes the previous one. Instead of getting
5301 joined <emphasis>format</emphasis> strings, you'll get only the last
5306 The spam tag is what will be displayed in the index when you use
5307 <literal>%H</literal> in the <literal>
5310 variable. It's also the
5311 string that the <muttng-doc:pattern name="H"/> pattern-matching expression
5313 <emphasis>search</emphasis> and <emphasis>limit</emphasis> functions.
5314 And it's what sorting by spam
5315 attribute will use as a sort key.
5319 That's a pretty complicated example, and most people's actual
5320 environments will have only one spam filter. The simpler your
5321 configuration, the more effective mutt can be, especially when it comes
5326 Generally, when you sort by spam tag, mutt will sort <emphasis>
5330 that is, by ordering strings alphnumerically. However, if a spam tag
5331 begins with a number, mutt will sort numerically first, and lexically
5332 only when two numbers are equal in value. (This is like UNIX's
5333 <literal>sort -n</literal>.) A message with no spam attributes at all
5335 that didn't match <emphasis>any</emphasis> of your <literal>spam</literal> patterns -- is sorted at
5336 lowest priority. Numbers are sorted next, beginning with 0 and ranging
5337 upward. Finally, non-numeric strings are sorted, with ``a'' taking
5338 lowerpriority than ``z''. Clearly, in general, sorting by spam tags is
5340 effective when you can coerce your filter to give you a raw number. But
5341 in case you can't, mutt can still do something useful.
5345 The <literal>nospam</literal> command can be used to write exceptions
5346 to <literal>spam</literal>
5347 patterns. If a header pattern matches something in a <literal>spam</literal> command,
5348 but you nonetheless do not want it to receive a spam tag, you can list
5349 amore precise pattern under a <literal>nospam</literal> command.
5353 If the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> given to <literal>nospam</literal>
5354 is exactly the same as the
5355 <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> on an existing <literal>spam</literal>
5356 list entry, the effect will be to
5357 remove the entry from the spam list, instead of adding an exception.
5358 Likewise, if the <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> for a <literal>spam</literal> command matches an entry
5359 on the <literal>nospam</literal> list, that <literal>nospam</literal>
5360 entry will be removed. If the
5361 <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> for <literal>nospam</literal> is ``*'', <emphasis>
5362 all entries on both lists
5364 will be removed. This might be the default action if you use <literal>
5367 and <literal>nospam</literal> in conjunction with a <muttng-doc:hook name="folder"/>.
5371 You can have as many <literal>spam</literal> or <literal>nospam</literal> commands as you like.
5372 You can even do your own primitive spam detection within mutt -- for
5373 example, if you consider all mail from <literal>MAILER-DAEMON</literal>
5375 you can use a <literal>spam</literal> command like this:
5380 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
5381 spam "^From: .*MAILER-DAEMON" "999"</muttng-doc:lstconf>
5392 <title>Setting variables</title>
5395 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="set">[no|inv]variable [=value] [variable...]</muttng-doc:cmddef>
5398 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="toggle">variable [variable ...]</muttng-doc:cmddef>
5401 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="unset">variable [variable ...]</muttng-doc:cmddef>
5404 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="reset">variable [variable ...]</muttng-doc:cmddef>
5408 This command is used to set (and unset) <link linkend="variables">variables</link>.
5409 There are four basic types of variables:
5410 boolean, number, string and quadoption. <emphasis>boolean</emphasis>
5412 <emphasis>set</emphasis> (true) or <emphasis>unset</emphasis> (false).
5413 <emphasis>number</emphasis> variables can be
5414 assigned a positive integer value.
5418 <emphasis>string</emphasis> variables consist of any number of
5419 printable characters.
5420 <emphasis>strings</emphasis> must be enclosed in quotes if they contain
5422 may also use the ``C'' escape sequences <emphasis role="bold">\n</emphasis> and <emphasis role="bold">
5426 newline and tab, respectively.
5430 <emphasis>quadoption</emphasis> variables are used to control whether
5431 or not to be prompted
5432 for certain actions, or to specify a default action. A value of <emphasis>
5435 will cause the action to be carried out automatically as if you had
5437 yes to the question. Similarly, a value of <emphasis>no</emphasis>
5439 action to be carried out as if you had answered ``no.'' A value of
5440 <emphasis>ask-yes</emphasis> will cause a prompt with a default answer
5442 <emphasis>ask-no</emphasis> will provide a default answer of ``no.''
5446 Prefixing a variable with ``no'' will unset it. Example: <literal>set
5453 For <emphasis>boolean</emphasis> variables, you may optionally prefix
5454 the variable name with
5455 <literal>inv</literal> to toggle the value (on or off). This is useful
5457 macros. Example: <literal>set invsmart_wrap</literal>.
5461 The <literal>toggle</literal> command automatically prepends the <literal>
5465 specified variables.
5469 The <literal>unset</literal> command automatically prepends the <literal>
5473 specified variables.
5477 Using the enter-command function in the <emphasis>index</emphasis>
5478 menu, you can query the
5479 value of a variable by prefixing the name of the variable with a
5486 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
5487 set ?allow_8bit</muttng-doc:lstconf>
5492 The question mark is actually only required for boolean and quadoption
5497 The <literal>reset</literal> command resets all given variables to the
5499 defaults (hopefully mentioned in this manual). If you use the command
5500 <literal>set</literal> and prefix the variable with ``&'' this has
5502 behavior as the reset command.
5506 With the <literal>reset</literal> command there exists the special
5508 which allows you to reset all variables to their system defaults.
5518 <title>Reading initialization commands from another file</title>
5521 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="source">filename [filename ...]</muttng-doc:cmddef>
5525 This command allows the inclusion of initialization commands
5526 from other files. For example, I place all of my aliases in
5527 <literal>~/.mail_aliases</literal> so that I can make my
5528 <literal>~/.muttrc</literal> readable and keep my aliases
5533 If the filename begins with a tilde (``~''), it will be expanded
5535 path of your home directory.
5539 If the filename ends with a vertical bar (|), then <emphasis>
5543 considered to be an executable program from which to read input (eg.
5544 <literal>source ~/bin/myscript|</literal>).
5554 <title>Removing hooks</title>
5557 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="unhook">[* | hook-type]</muttng-doc:cmddef>
5561 This command permits you to flush hooks you have previously defined.
5562 You can either remove all hooks by giving the ``*'' character as an
5563 argument, or you can remove all hooks of a specific type by saying
5564 something like <literal>unhook send</literal>.
5574 <title>Sharing Setups</title>
5576 <sect2 id="share-charset">
5577 <title>Character Sets</title>
5580 As users may run mutt-ng on different systems, the configuration
5581 must be maintained because it's likely that people want to use the
5582 setup everywhere they use mutt-ng. And mutt-ng tries to help where it
5587 To not produce conflicts with different character sets, mutt-ng
5588 allows users to specify in which character set their configuration
5589 files are encoded. Please note that while reading the configuration
5590 files, this is only respected after the corresponding declaration
5591 appears. It's advised to put the following at the very beginning of a
5597 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
5598 set config_charset = "..."</muttng-doc:lstconf>
5603 and replacing the dots with the actual character set. To avoid
5604 problems while maintaining the setup, <muttng-doc:man name="vim"/> user's may want to use
5605 modelines as show in:
5611 # vim:fileencoding=...:</screen>
5616 while, again, replacing the dots with the appropriate name. This
5617 tells <muttng-doc:man name="vim"/> as which character set to read and save the file.
5626 <sect2 id="share-modularization">
5627 <title>Modularization</title>
5630 ``Modularization'' means to divide the setup into several files
5631 while sorting the options or commands by topic. Especially for
5632 longer setups (e.g. with many hooks), this helps maintaining it
5633 and solving trouble.
5637 When using separation, setups may be, as a whole or in
5638 fractions, shared over different systems.
5647 <sect2 id="share-conditional">
5648 <title>Conditional parts</title>
5651 When using a configuration on different systems, the user may not
5652 always have influence on how mutt-ng is installed and which features
5657 To solve this, mutt-ng contain a feature based on the ``ifdef''
5658 patch written for mutt. Its basic syntax is:
5663 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
5664 ifdef <item> <command>
5665 ifndef <item> <command></muttng-doc:lstconf>
5670 ...whereby <literal><item></literal> can be one of:
5710 All available functions, variables and menus are documented
5711 elsewhere in this manual but ``features'' is specific to these
5712 two commands. To test for one, prefix one of the following
5713 keywords with <literal>feature_</literal>: ncurses,
5714 slang, iconv, idn, dotlock, standalone, pop, nntp, imap, ssl,
5715 gnutls, sasl, sasl2, libesmtp, compressed, color, classic_pgp,
5716 classic_smime, gpgme, header_cache
5720 As an example, one can use the following in
5721 <literal>~/.muttngrc</literal>:
5726 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
5727 ifdef feature_imap 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-imap'
5728 ifdef feature_pop 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-pop'
5729 ifdef feature_nntp 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-nntp'</muttng-doc:lstconf>
5734 ...to only source <literal>~/.mutt-ng/setup-imap</literal> if
5736 support is built in, only source <literal>~/.mutt-ng/setup-pop</literal>
5737 if POP support is built in and only source
5738 <literal>~/.mutt-ng/setup-nntp</literal> if NNTP support is
5743 An example for testing for variable names can be used if users
5744 use different revisions of mutt-ng whereby the older one may not
5745 have a certain variable. To test for the availability of
5746 <muttng-doc:varref name="imap-mail-check"/>
5752 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
5753 ifdef imap_mail_check 'set imap_mail_check = 300'</muttng-doc:lstconf>
5758 Provided for completeness is the test for menu names. To set
5759 <muttng-doc:varref name="pager-index-lines"
5762 menu is available, use:
5767 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
5768 ifdef pager 'set pager_index_lines = 10'</muttng-doc:lstconf>
5773 For completeness, too, the opposite of <literal>ifdef</literal> is
5775 <literal>ifndef</literal> which only executes the command if the test
5777 example, the following two examples are equivalent:
5782 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
5783 ifdef feature_ncurses 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-ncurses'
5784 ifndef feature_ncurses 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-slang'</muttng-doc:lstconf>
5794 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
5795 ifdef feature_slang 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-slang'
5796 ifndef feature_slang 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-ncurses'</muttng-doc:lstconf>
5812 <sect1 id="vars-obsolete">
5813 <title>Obsolete Variables</title>
5816 In the process of ensuring and creating more consistency, many
5817 variables have been renamed and some of the old names were already
5818 removed. Please see <link linkend="sect-obsolete">sect-obsolete</link>
5819 for a complete list.
5835 <chapter id="advanced-usage"> <!--{{{-->
5836 <title>Advanced Usage</title>
5838 <sect1 id="advanced-regexp">
5839 <title>Regular Expressions</title>
5842 All string patterns in Mutt-ng including those in more complex
5843 <link linkend="tab-patterns">patterns</link> must be specified
5844 using regular expressions (regexp) in the ``POSIX extended'' syntax
5846 is more or less the syntax used by egrep and GNU awk). For your
5847 convenience, we have included below a brief description of this syntax.
5851 The search is case sensitive if the pattern contains at least one upper
5852 case letter, and case insensitive otherwise. Note that ``\''
5853 must be quoted if used for a regular expression in an initialization
5858 A regular expression is a pattern that describes a set of strings.
5859 Regular expressions are constructed analogously to arithmetic
5860 expressions, by using various operators to combine smaller expressions.
5864 Note that the regular expression can be enclosed/delimited by either
5866 or ' which is useful if the regular expression includes a white-space
5867 character. See <link linkend="configuration-syntax">muttrc-syntax</link>
5868 for more information on " and ' delimiter processing. To match a
5869 literal " or ' you must preface it with \ (backslash).
5873 The fundamental building blocks are the regular expressions that match
5874 a single character. Most characters, including all letters and digits,
5875 are regular expressions that match themselves. Any metacharacter with
5876 special meaning may be quoted by preceding it with a backslash.
5880 The period ``.'' matches any single character. The caret ``^''
5881 andthe dollar sign ``$'' are metacharacters that respectively
5883 the empty string at the beginning and end of a line.
5887 A list of characters enclosed by ``]'' and ``]'' matches any
5888 single character in that list; if the first character of the list
5889 is a caret ``^'' then it matches any character <emphasis role="bold">
5893 list. For example, the regular expression <emphasis role="bold">
5896 matches any single digit. A range of ASCII characters may be specified
5897 by giving the first and last characters, separated by a hyphen
5898 ``-''. Most metacharacters lose their special meaning inside
5899 lists. To include a literal ``]'' place it first in the list.
5900 Similarly, to include a literal ``^'' place it anywhere but first.
5901 Finally, to include a literal hyphen ``-'' place it last.
5905 Certain named classes of characters are predefined. Character classes
5906 consist of ``[:'', a keyword denoting the class, and ``:]''.
5907 The following classes are defined by the POSIX standard:
5914 <term>[:alnum:]</term>
5917 Alphanumeric characters.
5922 <term>[:alpha:]</term>
5925 Alphabetic characters.
5930 <term>[:blank:]</term>
5933 Space or tab characters.
5938 <term>[:cntrl:]</term>
5946 <term>[:digit:]</term>
5954 <term>[:graph:]</term>
5957 Characters that are both printable and visible. (A space is
5959 but not visible, while an ``a'' is both.)
5964 <term>[:lower:]</term>
5967 Lower-case alphabetic characters.
5972 <term>[:print:]</term>
5975 Printable characters (characters that are not control
5981 <term>[:punct:]</term>
5984 Punctuation characters (characters that are not letter, digits,
5986 characters, or space characters).
5991 <term>[:space:]</term>
5994 Space characters (such as space, tab and formfeed, to name a
6000 <term>[:upper:]</term>
6003 Upper-case alphabetic characters.
6008 <term>[:xdigit:]</term>
6011 Characters that are hexadecimal digits.
6019 A character class is only valid in a regular expression inside the
6020 brackets of a character list. Note that the brackets in these
6021 class names are part of the symbolic names, and must be included
6022 in addition to the brackets delimiting the bracket list. For
6023 example, <emphasis role="bold">[[:digit:]]</emphasis> is equivalent to
6024 <emphasis role="bold">[0-9]</emphasis>.
6028 Two additional special sequences can appear in character lists. These
6029 apply to non-ASCII character sets, which can have single symbols
6030 (calledcollating elements) that are represented with more than one
6032 as well as several characters that are equivalent for collating or
6040 <term>Collating Symbols</term>
6043 A collating symbol is a multi-character collating element
6045 ``[.'' and ``.]''. For example, if ``ch'' is a
6047 element, then <emphasis role="bold">
6050 is a regexp that matches
6051 this collating element, while <emphasis role="bold">
6055 matches either ``c'' or ``h''.
6060 <term>Equivalence Classes</term>
6063 An equivalence class is a locale-specific name for a list of
6064 characters that are equivalent. The name is enclosed in
6066 and ``=]''. For example, the name ``e'' might be used to
6067 represent all of ``è'' ``é'' and ``e''. In this
6069 <emphasis role="bold">[[=e=]]</emphasis> is
6070 a regexp that matches any of
6071 ``è'', ``é'' and ``e''.
6079 A regular expression matching a single character may be followed by one
6080 of several repetition operators:
6090 The preceding item is optional and matched at most once.
6098 The preceding item will be matched zero or more times.
6106 The preceding item will be matched one or more times.
6114 The preceding item is matched exactly <emphasis>n</emphasis>
6123 The preceding item is matched <emphasis>n</emphasis> or more
6132 The preceding item is matched at most <emphasis>m</emphasis>
6141 The preceding item is matched at least <emphasis>n</emphasis>
6142 times, but no more than
6143 <emphasis>m</emphasis> times.
6151 Two regular expressions may be concatenated; the resulting regular
6152 expression matches any string formed by concatenating two substrings
6153 that respectively match the concatenated subexpressions.
6157 Two regular expressions may be joined by the infix operator
6159 the resulting regular expression matches any string matching either
6164 Repetition takes precedence over concatenation, which in turn takes
6165 precedence over alternation. A whole subexpression may be enclosed in
6166 parentheses to override these precedence rules.
6170 <emphasis role="bold">Note:</emphasis> If you compile Mutt-ng with the
6171 GNU <emphasis>rx</emphasis> package, the
6172 following operators may also be used in regular expressions:
6182 Matches the empty string at either the beginning or the end of
6191 Matches the empty string within a word.
6199 Matches the empty string at the beginning of a word.
6207 Matches the empty string at the end of a word.
6215 Matches any word-constituent character (letter, digit, or
6224 Matches any character that is not word-constituent.
6232 Matches the empty string at the beginning of a buffer (string).
6240 Matches the empty string at the end of a buffer.
6248 Please note however that these operators are not defined by POSIX, so
6249 they may or may not be available in stock libraries on various systems.
6258 <sect1 id="advanced-patterns">
6259 <title>Patterns</title>
6262 Mutt-ng's pattern language provides a simple yet effective way to
6263 set up rules to match messages, e.g. for operations like tagging and
6264 scoring. A pattern consists of one or more sub-pattern, which can be
6265 logically grouped, ORed, and negated. For a complete listing of
6266 these patterns, please refer to table <link linkend="tab-patterns">patterns</link> in the Reference chapter.
6270 It must be noted that in this table, <literal>EXPR</literal> is
6271 a regular expression. For ranges, the forms
6272 <literal><[MAX]</literal>, <literal>>>[MIN]</literal>,
6273 <literal> [MIN]-</literal> and <literal>-[MAX]</literal> are
6277 <sect2 id="patterns-complex">
6278 <title>Complex Patterns</title>
6281 It is possible to combine several sub-patterns to a more complex
6282 pattern. The most simple possibility is to logically AND several
6283 patterns by stringing them together:
6289 <muttng-doc:pattern name="s"/> 'SPAM' <muttng-doc:pattern name="U"/></screen>
6294 The pattern above matches all messages that contain ``SPAM'' in
6295 the subject and are unread.
6299 To logical OR patterns, simply use the <literal>|</literal>
6301 especially useful when using local groups:
6307 <muttng-doc:pattern name="f"/> ("nion@muttng\.org"|"ak@muttng\.org"|"pdmef@muttng\.org")
6308 (<muttng-doc:pattern name="b"/> mutt-ng|<muttng-doc:pattern name="s"/> Mutt-ng)
6309 !<muttng-doc:pattern name="x"/> '@synflood\.at'</screen>
6314 The first pattern matches all messages that were sent by one of
6315 the mutt-ng maintainers, while the seconds pattern matches all
6316 messages that contain ``mutt-ng'' in the message body or ``Mutt-ng''
6317 in the subject. The third pattern matches all messages that do not
6318 contain ``@synflood\.at'' in the <literal>References:</literal>
6320 messages that are not an (indirect) reply to one of my messages. A
6321 pattern can be logicall negated using the <literal>!</literal>
6327 <sect2 sect="patterns-dates">
6328 <title>Patterns and Dates</title>
6331 When using dates in patterns, the dates must be specified in a
6332 special format, i.e. <literal>DD/MM/YYYY</literal>. If you don't
6334 month or year, they default to the current month or year. When using
6335 date ranges, and you specify only the minimum or the maximum, the
6336 specified date will be excluded, e.g. <literal>01/06/2005-</literal>
6338 against all messages <emphasis>after</emphasis> Juni 1st, 2005.
6342 It is also possible to use so-called ``error margins'' when
6343 specifying date ranges. You simply specify a date, and then the
6344 error margin. This margin needs to contain the information whether
6345 it goes ``forth'' or ``back'' in time, by using <literal>+</literal>
6346 and <literal>-</literal>.
6347 Then follows a number and a unit, i.e. <literal>y</literal> for
6348 years, <literal>m</literal> for
6349 months, <literal>w</literal> for weeks and <literal>d</literal> for
6350 days. If you use the special
6351 <literal>*</literal> sign, it means that the error margin goes to
6352 both``directions'' in time.
6358 <muttng-doc:pattern name="d"/> 01/01/2005+1y
6359 <muttng-doc:pattern name="d"/> 18/10/2004-2w
6360 <muttng-doc:pattern name="d"/> 28/12/2004*1d</screen>
6365 The first pattern matches all dates between January 1st, 2005 and
6366 January 1st 2006. The second pattern matches all dates between
6367 October 18th, 2004 and October 4th 2004 (2 weeks before 18/10/2004),
6368 while the third pattern matches all dates 1 day around December
6369 28th, 2004 (i.e. Dec 27th, 28th and 29th).
6373 Relative dates are also very important, as they make it possible
6374 to specify date ranges between a fixed number of units and the
6375 current date. How this works can be seen in the following example:
6381 <muttng-doc:pattern name="d"/> >2w # messages older than two weeks
6382 <muttng-doc:pattern name="d"/> <3d # messages newer than 3 days
6383 <muttng-doc:pattern name="d"/> =1m # messages that are exactly one month old</screen>
6395 <sect1 id="formatstrings">
6396 <title>Format Strings</title>
6398 <sect2 id="formatstrings-intro">
6399 <title>Introduction</title>
6402 The so called <emphasis>Format Strings</emphasis> offer great
6404 configuring mutt-ng. In short, they describe what items to print
6405 out how in menus and status messages.
6409 Basically, they work as this: for different menus and bars,
6410 there's a variable specifying the layout. For every item
6411 available, there is a so called <emphasis>expando</emphasis>.
6415 For example, when running mutt-ng on different machines or
6416 different versions for testing purposes, it may be interesting to
6417 have the following information always printed on screen when one
6427 the current hostname
6434 the current mutt-ng version number
6444 The setting for the status bar of the index is controlled via the
6445 <muttng-doc:varref name="status-format"/>
6446 variable. For the hostname and version string, there's an expando
6447 for <literal>$status_format</literal>: <literal>
6451 hostname and <literal>%v</literal> to the version string. When
6457 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
6458 set status_format = "%v on %h: ..."</muttng-doc:lstconf>
6463 mutt-ng will replace the sequence <literal>%v</literal> with
6465 and <literal>%h</literal> with the host's name. When you are,
6466 for example, running
6467 mutt-ng version <literal>1.5.9i</literal> on host <literal>mailhost</literal>, you'll see the
6468 following when you're in the index:
6474 Mutt-ng 1.5.9i on mailhost: ...</screen>
6479 In the index, there're more useful information one could want to
6489 which mailbox is open
6496 how man new, flagged or postponed messages
6513 To include the mailbox' name is as easy as:
6518 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
6519 set status_format = "%v on %h: %B: ...</muttng-doc:lstconf>
6524 When the currently opened mailbox is <literal>Inbox</literal>, this
6532 Mutt-ng 1.5.9i on mailhost: Inbox: ...</screen>
6537 For the number of certain types of messages, one more feature of the
6539 strings is extremely useful. If there aren't messages of a certain
6541 may not be desired to print just that there aren't any but instead
6543 print something if there are any.
6552 <sect2 id="formatstrings-conditional">
6553 <title>Conditional Expansion</title>
6556 To only print the number of messages if there are new messages in
6557 the current mailbox, further extend
6558 <literal>$status_format</literal> to:
6563 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
6564 set status_format = "%v on %h: %B %?n?%n new? ...</muttng-doc:lstconf>
6569 This feature is called <emphasis>nonzero-printing</emphasis> and
6571 some expandos may be optionally printed nonzero, i.e. a portion
6572 of the format string is only evaluated if the value of the expando
6573 is different from zero. The basic syntax is:
6579 %?<item>?<string if nonzero>?</screen>
6584 which tells mutt-ng to only look at <literal><string if
6587 if the value of the <literal>%<item%gt;</literal>
6588 expando is different from zero. In our example, we used <literal>n</literal> as
6589 the expando to check for and <literal>%n new</literal> as the
6595 But this is not all: this feature only offers one alternative:
6596 ``print something if not zero.'' Mutt-ng does, as you might guess,
6597 also provide a logically complete version: ``if zero, print
6598 something and else print something else.'' This is achieved by the
6599 following syntax for those expandos which may be printed nonzero:
6605 %?<item>?<string if nonzero>&<string if zero>?</screen>
6610 Using this we can make mutt-ng to do the following:
6619 make it print ``<emphasis>n</emphasis> new messages'' whereby <emphasis>
6623 count but only if there new ones
6630 and make it print ``no new messages'' if there aren't any
6640 The corresponding configuration is:
6645 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
6646 set status_format = "%v on %h: %B: %?n?%n new messages&no new messages? ...</muttng-doc:lstconf>
6651 This doubles the use of the ``new messages'' string because it'll get
6652 always printed. Thus, it can be shortened to:
6657 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
6658 set status_format = "%v on %h: %B: %?n?%n&no? new messages ...</muttng-doc:lstconf>
6663 As you might see from this rather simple example, one can create
6664 very complex but fancy status messages. Please see the reference
6665 chapter for expandos and those which may be printed nonzero.
6674 <sect2 id="formatstrings-padding">
6675 <title>Modifications and Padding</title>
6678 Besides the information given so far, there're even more features of
6688 When specifying <literal>%_<item></literal>
6690 just <literal>%<item></literal>, mutt-ng will
6692 characters in the expansion of <literal><item></literal>
6701 When specifying <literal>%:<item></literal>
6703 <literal>%<item></literal>, mutt-ng will convert
6705 expansion of <literal><item></literal> to underscores
6706 (<literal>_</literal>).
6716 Also, there's a feature called <emphasis>Padding</emphasis> supplied
6718 following two expandos: <literal>%|X</literal> and <literal>
6729 <literal>%|X</literal>
6733 When this occurs, mutt-ng will fill the
6734 rest of the line with the character <literal>X</literal>. In
6736 filling the rest of the line with dashes is done by setting:
6741 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
6742 set status_format = "%v on %h: %B: %?n?%n&no? new messages %|-"</muttng-doc:lstconf>
6749 <literal>%>X</literal>
6753 Since the previous expando stops at
6754 the end of line, there must be a way to fill the gap between
6755 two items via the <literal>%>X</literal> expando:
6757 characters <literal>X</literal> in between two items so that
6759 the line will be right-justified. For example, to not put the
6760 version string and hostname of our example on the left but on
6761 the right and fill the gap with spaces, one might use (note
6762 the space after <literal>%></literal>):
6767 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
6768 set status_format = "%B: %?n?%n&no? new messages %> (%v on %h)"</muttng-doc:lstconf>
6788 <sect1 id="using-tags">
6789 <title>Using Tags</title>
6792 Sometimes it is desirable to perform an operation on a group of
6793 messages all at once rather than one at a time. An example might be
6794 to save messages to a mailing list to a separate folder, or to
6795 delete all messages with a given subject. To tag all messages
6796 matching a pattern, use the tag-pattern function, which is bound to
6797 ``shift-T'' by default. Or you can select individual messages by
6798 hand using the ``tag-message'' function, which is bound to ``t'' by
6799 default. See <link linkend="tab-patterns">patterns</link> for Mutt-ng's
6805 Once you have tagged the desired messages, you can use the
6806 ``tag-prefix'' operator, which is the ``;'' (semicolon) key by default.
6807 When the ``tag-prefix'' operator is used, the <emphasis role="bold">
6811 be applied to all tagged messages if that operation can be used in that
6812 manner. If the <muttng-doc:varref name="auto-tag"/>
6813 variable is set, the next operation applies to the tagged messages
6814 automatically, without requiring the ``tag-prefix''.
6818 In <muttng-doc:cmdref name="macro"/> or <muttng-doc:cmdref name="push"/> commands,
6819 you can use the ``tag-prefix-cond'' operator. If there are no tagged
6820 messages, mutt will "eat" the rest of the macro to abort it's
6821 execution.Mutt-ng will stop "eating" the macro when it encounters the
6823 operator; after this operator the rest of the macro will be executed
6834 <title>Using Hooks</title>
6837 A <emphasis>hook</emphasis> is a concept borrowed from the EMACS editor
6839 execute arbitrary commands before performing some operation. For
6841 you may wish to tailor your configuration based upon which mailbox you
6843 reading, or to whom you are sending mail. In the Mutt-ng world, a <emphasis>
6846 consists of a <link linkend="advanced-regexp">regexp</link> or
6847 <link linkend="tab-patterns">patterns</link> along with a
6848 configuration option/command. See
6854 <muttng-doc:hook name="folder"/>
6860 <muttng-doc:hook name="send"/>
6866 <muttng-doc:hook name="message"/>
6872 <muttng-doc:hook name="save"/>
6878 <muttng-doc:hook name="mbox"/>
6884 <muttng-doc:hook name="fcc"/>
6890 <muttng-doc:hook name="fcc-save"/>
6896 for specific details on each type of <emphasis>hook</emphasis>
6901 <emphasis role="bold">Note:</emphasis> if a hook changes configuration
6902 settings, these changes remain
6903 effective until the end of the current mutt session. As this is
6905 not desired, a default hook needs to be added before all other hooks to
6906 restore configuration defaults. Here is an example with <muttng-doc:hook name="send"/> and
6913 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
6914 send-hook . 'unmy_hdr From:'
6915 send-hook <muttng-doc:pattern name="C"/>'^b@b\.b$' my-hdr from: c@c.c</muttng-doc:lstconf>
6919 <sect2 id="pattern-hook">
6920 <title>Message Matching in Hooks</title>
6923 Hooks that act upon messages (<literal><muttng-doc:hook name="send"/>, <muttng-doc:hook name="save"/>,
6924 <muttng-doc:hook name="fcc"/>,<muttng-doc:hook name="message"/>
6926 )are evaluated in a slightly different manner. For the other
6927 types of hooks, a <link linkend="advanced-regexp">regexp</link> is
6928 sufficient. But in dealing with messages a finer grain of control is
6929 needed for matching since for different purposes you want to match
6934 Mutt-ng allows the use of the <link linkend="tab-patterns">patterns</link>
6935 language for matching messages in hook commands. This works in
6936 exactly the same way as it would when <emphasis>limiting</emphasis>
6937 or<emphasis>searching</emphasis> the mailbox, except that you are
6939 operators which match information mutt extracts from the header of
6940 the message (i.e. from, to, cc, date, subject, etc.).
6944 For example, if you wanted to set your return address based upon
6946 mail to a specific address, you could do something like:
6948 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
6949 send-hook '<muttng-doc:pattern name="t"/> ^me@cs\.hmc\.edu$' 'my-hdr From: Mutt-ng User <user@host>'</muttng-doc:lstconf>
6951 which would execute the given command when sending mail to
6952 <emphasis>me@cs.hmc.edu</emphasis>.
6956 However, it is not required that you write the pattern to match using
6958 full searching language. You can still specify a simple <emphasis>
6962 like the other hooks, in which case Mutt-ng will translate your
6963 pattern into the full language, using the translation specified by
6965 <muttng-doc:hook name="default"/> variable. The
6966 pattern is translated at the time the hook is declared, so the value
6968 <muttng-doc:hook name="default"/> that is in effect
6969 at that time will be used.
6980 <sect1 id="sidebar">
6981 <title>Using the sidebar</title>
6984 The sidebar, a feature specific to Mutt-ng, allows you to use a mailbox
6986 which looks very similar to the ones you probably know from GUI mail
6988 The sidebar lists all specified mailboxes, shows the number in each
6989 and highlights the ones with new email
6990 Use the following configuration commands:
6992 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
6993 set sidebar_visible="yes"
6994 set sidebar_width=25</muttng-doc:lstconf>
6999 If you want to specify the mailboxes you can do so with:
7001 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
7006 ...</muttng-doc:lstconf>
7011 You can also specify the colors for mailboxes with new mails by using:
7013 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
7014 color sidebar_new red black
7015 color sidebar white black</muttng-doc:lstconf>
7020 Reasonable key bindings look e.g. like this:
7022 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
7023 bind index \Cp sidebar-prev
7024 bind index \Cn sidebar-next
7025 bind index \Cb sidebar-open
7026 bind pager \Cp sidebar-prev
7027 bind pager \Cn sidebar-next
7028 bind pager \Cb sidebar-open
7030 macro index B ':toggle sidebar_visible^M'
7031 macro pager B ':toggle sidebar_visible^M'</muttng-doc:lstconf>
7036 You can then go up and down by pressing Ctrl-P and Ctrl-N, and
7037 switch on and off the sidebar simply by pressing 'B'.
7047 <title>External Address Queries</title>
7050 Mutt-ng supports connecting to external directory databases such as
7052 ph/qi, bbdb, or NIS through a wrapper script which connects to mutt
7053 using a simple interface. Using the
7054 <muttng-doc:varref name="query-command"/>
7055 variable, you specify the wrapper
7056 command to use. For example:
7061 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
7062 set query_command = "mutt_ldap_query.pl '%s'"</muttng-doc:lstconf>
7067 The wrapper script should accept the query on the command-line. It
7068 should return a one line message, then each matching response on a
7069 single line, each line containing a tab separated address then name
7070 thensome other optional information. On error, or if there are no
7072 addresses, return a non-zero exit code and a one line error message.
7076 An example multiple response output:
7079 Searching database ... 20 entries ... 3 matching:
7080 me@cs.hmc.edu Michael Elkins mutt dude
7081 blong@fiction.net Brandon Long mutt and more
7082 roessler@guug.de Thomas Roessler mutt pgp</screen>
7087 There are two mechanisms for accessing the query function of mutt. One
7088 is to do a query from the index menu using the query function (default:
7090 This will prompt for a query, then bring up the query menu which will
7091 list the matching responses. From the query menu, you can select
7092 addresses to create aliases, or to mail. You can tag multiple
7093 addressesto mail, start a new query, or have a new query appended to
7099 The other mechanism for accessing the query function is for address
7100 completion, similar to the alias completion. In any prompt for address
7101 entry, you can use the complete-query function (default: ^T) to
7103 query based on the current address you have typed. Like aliases, mutt
7104 will look for what you have typed back to the last space or comma. If
7105 there is a single response for that query, mutt will expand the address
7106 in place. If there are multiple responses, mutt will activate the
7107 querymenu. At the query menu, you can select one or more addresses to
7109 added to the prompt.
7118 <sect1 id="mailbox-formats">
7119 <title>Mailbox Formats</title>
7122 Mutt-ng supports reading and writing of four different mailbox formats:
7123 mbox, MMDF, MH and Maildir. The mailbox type is autodetected, so there
7124 is no need to use a flag for different mailbox types. When creating
7125 newmailboxes, Mutt-ng uses the default specified with the
7126 <muttng-doc:varref name="mbox-type"/>
7131 <emphasis role="bold">mbox</emphasis>. This is the most widely used
7132 mailbox format for UNIX. All
7133 messages are stored in a single file. Each message has a line of the
7139 <muttng-doc:lstmail>
7140 From me@cs.hmc.edu Fri, 11 Apr 1997 11:44:56 PST</muttng-doc:lstmail>
7145 to denote the start of a new message (this is often referred to as the
7150 <emphasis role="bold">MMDF</emphasis>. This is a variant of the <emphasis>
7153 format. Each message is
7154 surrounded by lines containing ``^A^A^A^A'' (four
7159 <emphasis role="bold">MH</emphasis>. A radical departure from <emphasis>
7162 and <emphasis>MMDF</emphasis>, a mailbox
7163 consists of a directory and each message is stored in a separate file.
7164 The filename indicates the message number (however, this is may not
7165 correspond to the message number Mutt-ng displays). Deleted messages
7166 arerenamed with a comma (,) prepended to the filename. <emphasis role="bold">
7170 detects this type of mailbox by looking for either <literal>
7173 or <literal>.xmhcache</literal> (needed to distinguish normal
7179 <emphasis role="bold">Maildir</emphasis>. The newest of the mailbox
7180 formats, used by the Qmail MTA (a
7181 replacement for sendmail). Similar to <emphasis>MH</emphasis>, except
7183 subdirectories of the mailbox: <emphasis>tmp</emphasis>, <emphasis>new</emphasis> and <emphasis>
7187 for the messages are chosen in such a way they are unique, even when
7188 twoprograms are writing the mailbox over NFS, which means that no file
7199 <sect1 id="shortcuts">
7200 <title>Mailbox Shortcuts</title>
7203 There are a number of built in shortcuts which refer to specific
7205 These shortcuts can be used anywhere you are prompted for a file or
7216 ! -- refers to your <muttng-doc:varref name="spoolfile"/>
7223 > -- refers to your <muttng-doc:varref name="mbox"/> file
7229 < -- refers to your <muttng-doc:varref name="record"/> file
7235 ^ -- refers to the current mailbox
7241 - or !! -- refers to the file you've last visited
7247 ~ -- refers to your home directory
7253 = or + -- refers to your <muttng-doc:varref name="folder"/>
7260 @<emphasis>alias</emphasis> -- refers to the <muttng-doc:hook name="save"/>
7261 as determined by the address of the alias
7275 <sect1 id="using-lists">
7276 <title>Handling Mailing Lists</title>
7279 Mutt-ng has a few configuration options that make dealing with large
7280 amounts of mail easier. The first thing you must do is to let Mutt
7281 know what addresses you consider to be mailing lists (technically
7282 this does not have to be a mailing list, but that is what it is most
7283 often used for), and what lists you are subscribed to. This is
7284 accomplished through the use of the <muttng-doc:cmdref name="lists"/>
7285 commands in your muttrc.
7289 Now that Mutt-ng knows what your mailing lists are, it can do several
7290 things, the first of which is the ability to show the name of a list
7291 through which you received a message (i.e., of a subscribed list) in
7292 the <emphasis>index</emphasis> menu display. This is useful to
7294 personal and list mail in the same mailbox. In the
7295 <muttng-doc:varref name="index-format"/>
7296 variable, the escape ``%L''
7297 will return the string ``To <list>'' when ``list'' appears in the
7298 ``To'' field, and ``Cc <list>'' when it appears in the ``Cc''
7299 field (otherwise it returns the name of the author).
7303 Often times the ``To'' and ``Cc'' fields in mailing list messages
7304 tend to get quite large. Most people do not bother to remove the
7305 author of the message they are reply to from the list, resulting in
7306 two or more copies being sent to that person. The ``list-reply''
7307 function, which by default is bound to ``L'' in the <emphasis>index</emphasis> menu
7308 and <emphasis>pager</emphasis>, helps reduce the clutter by only
7310 known mailing list addresses instead of all recipients (except as
7311 specified by <literal>Mail-Followup-To</literal>, see below).
7315 Mutt-ng also supports the <literal>Mail-Followup-To</literal> header.
7317 a message to a list of recipients which includes one or several
7318 subscribed mailing lists, and if the <muttng-doc:varref name="followup-to"/>
7319 option is set, mutt will generate
7320 a Mail-Followup-To header which contains all the recipients to whom
7321 you send this message, but not your address. This indicates that
7322 group-replies or list-replies (also known as ``followups'') to this
7323 message should only be sent to the original recipients of the
7324 message, and not separately to you - you'll receive your copy through
7325 one of the mailing lists you are subscribed to.
7329 Conversely, when group-replying or list-replying to a message which
7330 has a <literal>Mail-Followup-To</literal> header, mutt will respect
7332 the <muttng-doc:varref name="honor-followup-to"/>
7334 variable is set. Using list-reply will in this case also make sure
7335 that the reply goes to the mailing list, even if it's not specified
7336 in the list of recipients in the <literal>Mail-Followup-To</literal>.
7340 Note that, when header editing is enabled, you can create a
7341 <literal>Mail-Followup-To</literal> header manually. Mutt-ng will only
7343 this header if it doesn't exist when you send the message.
7347 The other method some mailing list admins use is to generate a
7348 ``Reply-To'' field which points back to the mailing list address rather
7349 than the author of the message. This can create problems when trying
7350 to reply directly to the author in private, since most mail clients
7351 will automatically reply to the address given in the ``Reply-To''
7352 field. Mutt-ng uses the <muttng-doc:varref name="reply-to"/>
7353 variable to help decide which address to use. If set to <emphasis>
7357 <emphasis>ask-no</emphasis>, you will be
7358 prompted as to whether or not you would like to use the address given
7359 inthe ``Reply-To'' field, or reply directly to the address given in the
7360 ``From'' field. When set to <emphasis>yes</emphasis>, the ``Reply-To''
7361 field will be used when
7366 The ``X-Label:'' header field can be used to further identify mailing
7367 lists or list subject matter (or just to annotate messages
7368 individually). The <muttng-doc:varref name="index-format"/>
7369 variable's ``%y'' and
7370 ``%Y'' escapes can be used to expand ``X-Label:'' fields in the
7371 index, and Mutt-ng's pattern-matcher can match regular expressions to
7372 ``X-Label:'' fields with the ``<muttng-doc:pattern name="y"/>'' selector. ``X-Label:'' is
7374 standard message header field, but it can easily be inserted by
7375 procmailand other mail filtering agents.
7379 Lastly, Mutt-ng has the ability to <link linkend="sort">sort</link> the
7381 <link linkend="threads">threads</link>. A thread is a group of
7382 messages which all relate to the same
7383 subject. This is usually organized into a tree-like structure where a
7384 message and all of its replies are represented graphically. If you've
7386 used a threaded news client, this is the same concept. It makes
7387 dealingwith large volume mailing lists easier because you can easily
7389 uninteresting threads and quickly find topics of value.
7398 <sect1 id="editing-threads">
7399 <title>Editing threads</title>
7402 Mutt-ng has the ability to dynamically restructure threads that are
7404 either by misconfigured software or bad behavior from some
7405 correspondents. This allows to clean your mailboxes formats) from these
7406 annoyances which make it hard to follow a discussion.
7409 <sect2 id="editing-threads-link">
7410 <title>Linking threads</title>
7413 Some mailers tend to "forget" to correctly set the "In-Reply-To:" and
7414 "References:" headers when replying to a message. This results in
7416 discussions because Mutt-ng has not enough information to guess the
7419 You can fix this by tagging the reply, then moving to the parent
7421 and using the ``link-threads'' function (bound to & by default).
7423 reply will then be connected to this "parent" message.
7427 You can also connect multiple children at once, tagging them and
7429 tag-prefix command (';') or the auto_tag option.
7434 <sect2 id="editing-threads-break">
7435 <title>Breaking threads</title>
7438 On mailing lists, some people are in the bad habit of starting a new
7439 discussion by hitting "reply" to any message from the list and
7441 the subject to a totally unrelated one.
7442 You can fix such threads by using the ``break-thread'' function
7443 (boundby default to #), which will turn the subthread starting
7445 current message into a whole different thread.
7457 <title>Delivery Status Notification (DSN) Support</title>
7460 <muttng-doc:rfc num="1894"/> defines a set of MIME content types for relaying information
7461 about the status of electronic mail messages. These can be thought of
7463 ``return receipts.''
7467 Users can make use of it in one of the following two ways:
7476 Berkeley sendmail 8.8.x currently has some command line options
7477 in which the mail client can make requests as to what type of
7479 messages should be returned.
7485 The SMTP support via libESMTP supports it, too.
7494 To support this, there are two variables:
7503 <muttng-doc:varref name="dsn-notify"/> is used
7504 to request receipts for different results (such as failed
7505 message,message delivered, etc.).
7512 <muttng-doc:varref name="dsn-return"/> requests
7513 how much of your message should be returned with the receipt
7514 (headers or full message).
7524 Please see the reference chapter for possible values.
7534 <title>POP3 Support (OPTIONAL)</title>
7537 If Mutt-ng was compiled with POP3 support (by running the <emphasis>
7540 script with the <emphasis>--enable-pop</emphasis> flag), it has the
7542 with mailboxes located on a remote POP3 server and fetch mail for local
7547 You can access the remote POP3 mailbox by selecting the folder
7548 <literal>pop://popserver/</literal>.
7552 You can select an alternative port by specifying it with the server,
7554 <literal>pop://popserver:port/</literal>.
7558 You can also specify different username for each folder, i.e.:
7559 <literal>pop://username@popserver[:port]/</literal>.
7563 Polling for new mail is more expensive over POP3 than locally. For this
7564 reason the frequency at which Mutt-ng will check for mail remotely can
7567 <muttng-doc:varref name="pop-mail-check"/>
7568 variable, which defaults to every 60 seconds.
7572 If Mutt-ng was compiled with SSL support (by running the <emphasis>
7575 script with the <emphasis>--with-ssl</emphasis> flag), connections to
7577 can be encrypted. This naturally requires that the server supports
7578 SSL encrypted connections. To access a folder with POP3/SSL, you should
7579 use pops: prefix, ie:
7580 <literal>pops://[username@]popserver[:port]/</literal>.
7584 Another way to access your POP3 mail is the <emphasis>fetch-mail</emphasis> function
7585 (default: G). It allows to connect to <link
7586 linkend="pop-host">pop-host</link>
7587 ,fetch all your new mail and place it in the
7588 local <muttng-doc:varref name="spoolfile"/>. After this
7589 point, Mutt-ng runs exactly as if the mail had always been local.
7593 <emphasis role="bold">Note:</emphasis> If you only need to fetch all
7594 messages to local mailbox
7595 you should consider using a specialized program, such as
7596 <muttng-doc:man name="fetchmail"/>.
7606 <title>IMAP Support (OPTIONAL)</title>
7609 If Mutt-ng was compiled with IMAP support (by running the
7610 <emphasis>configure</emphasis> script with the
7611 <emphasis>--enable-imap</emphasis> flag), it has the
7612 ability to work with folders located on a remote IMAP server.
7616 You can access the remote inbox by selecting the folder via its
7622 imap://imapserver/INBOX</screen>
7626 where <literal>imapserver</literal> is the name of the IMAP
7627 server and <literal>INBOX</literal> is the special name for your
7628 spool mailbox on the IMAP server. If you want to access another
7629 mail folder at the IMAP server, you should use
7634 imap://imapserver/path/to/folder</screen>
7638 where <literal>path/to/folder</literal> is the path
7639 of the folder you want to access. You can select an alternative
7640 port by specifying it with the server, i.e.:
7645 imap://imapserver:port/INBOX</screen>
7649 You can also specify different username for each folder by
7650 prenpending your username and an @ symbol to the server's name.
7654 If Mutt-ng was compiled with SSL support (by running the <emphasis>
7657 script with the <emphasis>--with-ssl</emphasis> flag), connections to
7659 can be encrypted. This naturally requires that the server supports
7660 SSL encrypted connections. To access a folder with IMAP/SSL, you only
7661 need to substitute the initial <literal>imap://</literal> by
7662 <literal>imaps://</literal> in the above examples.
7666 Note that not all servers use / as the hierarchy separator. Mutt-ng
7668 correctly notice which separator is being used by the server and
7669 convertpaths accordingly.
7673 When browsing folders on an IMAP server, you can toggle whether to look
7674 at only the folders you are subscribed to, or all folders with the
7675 <emphasis>toggle-subscribed</emphasis> command. See also the
7676 <muttng-doc:varref name="imap-list-subscribed"/>
7681 Polling for new mail on an IMAP server can cause noticeable delays. So,
7683 want to carefully tune the
7684 <muttng-doc:varref name="imap-mail-check"/>
7686 <muttng-doc:varref name="timeout"/>
7691 Note that if you are using mbox as the mail store on UW servers prior
7692 tov12.250, the server has been reported to disconnect a client if
7694 selects the same folder.
7697 <sect2 id="imap-browser">
7698 <title>The Folder Browser</title>
7701 As of version 1.2, mutt supports browsing mailboxes on an IMAP
7702 server. This is mostly the same as the local file browser, with the
7703 following differences:
7709 Instead of file permissions, mutt displays the string "IMAP",
7710 possibly followed by the symbol "+", indicating
7711 that the entry contains both messages and subfolders. On
7712 Cyrus-like servers folders will often contain both messages and
7719 For the case where an entry can contain both messages and
7720 subfolders, the selection key (bound to <literal>enter</literal> by default)
7721 will choose to descend into the subfolder view. If you wish to
7723 the messages in that folder, you must use <literal>view-file</literal> instead
7724 (bound to <literal>space</literal> by default).
7730 You can create, delete and rename mailboxes with the
7731 <literal>create-mailbox</literal>, <literal>delete-mailbox</literal>, and
7732 <literal>rename-mailbox</literal> commands (default bindings: <literal>
7736 <literal>d</literal> and <literal>r</literal>, respectively).
7738 <literal>subscribe</literal> and <literal>unsubscribe</literal>
7739 to mailboxes (normally
7740 these are bound to <literal>s</literal> and <literal>u</literal>, respectively).
7750 <sect2 id="imap-auth">
7751 <title>Authentication</title>
7754 Mutt-ng supports four authentication methods with IMAP servers: SASL,
7755 GSSAPI, CRAM-MD5, and LOGIN (there is a patch by Grant Edwards to add
7756 NTLM authentication for you poor exchange users out there, but it has
7757 yet to be integrated into the main tree). There is also support for
7758 the pseudo-protocol ANONYMOUS, which allows you to log in to a public
7759 IMAP server without having an account. To use ANONYMOUS, simply make
7760 your username blank or "anonymous".
7764 SASL is a special super-authenticator, which selects among several
7766 (including GSSAPI, CRAM-MD5, ANONYMOUS, and DIGEST-MD5) the most
7768 method available on your host and the server. Using some of these
7770 (including DIGEST-MD5 and possibly GSSAPI), your entire session will
7772 encrypted and invisible to those teeming network snoops. It is the
7774 option if you have it. To use it, you must have the Cyrus SASL
7775 libraryinstalled on your system and compile mutt with the <emphasis>
7782 Mutt-ng will try whichever methods are compiled in and available on
7784 in the following order: SASL, ANONYMOUS, GSSAPI, CRAM-MD5, LOGIN.
7788 There are a few variables which control authentication:
7794 <muttng-doc:varref name="imap-user"/> - controls
7795 the username under which you request authentication on the IMAP
7797 for all authenticators. This is overridden by an explicit
7799 the mailbox path (i.e. by using a mailbox name of the form
7800 <literal>{user@host}</literal>).
7806 <muttng-doc:varref name="imap-pass"/> - a
7807 password which you may preset, used by all authentication
7809 a password is needed.
7815 <muttng-doc:varref name="imap-authenticators"/>
7816 - a colon-delimited list of IMAP
7817 authentication methods to try, in the order you wish to try
7819 specified, this overrides mutt's default (attempt everything,
7838 <title>NNTP Support (OPTIONAL)</title>
7841 If compiled with ``--enable-nntp'' option, Mutt-ng can read news from
7842 a newsserver via NNTP. You can open a newsgroup with the
7843 ``change-newsgroup'' function from the index/pager which is by default
7844 bound to <literal>i</literal>.
7848 The Default newsserver can be obtained from the <muttng-doc:envvar name="NNTPSERVER"/>
7849 environment variable. Like other
7851 info about subscribed newsgroups is saved in a file as specified by the
7852 <muttng-doc:varref name="nntp-newsrc"/> variable.
7853 Article headers are cached and can be loaded from a file when a
7854 newsgroup is entered instead loading from newsserver; currently, this
7855 caching mechanism still is different from the header caching for
7859 <sect2 id="nntp-scoring">
7860 <title>Again: Scoring</title>
7863 Especially for Usenet, people often ask for advanced filtering
7864 and scoring functionality. Of course, mutt-ng has scoring and
7865 allows a killfile, too. How to use a killfile has been discussed
7866 in <link linkend="command-score">Message Scoring</link>.
7870 What has not been discusses in detail is mutt-ng's built-in
7871 realname filter. For may newsreaders including those for
7872 ``advanced users'' like <emphasis>slrn</emphasis> or <emphasis>tin</emphasis>, there are frequent
7873 request for such functionality. The solutions offered often are
7874 complicated regular expressions.
7878 In mutt-ng this is as easy as
7883 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
7884 score <muttng-doc:pattern name="*"/> =42</muttng-doc:lstconf>
7889 This tells mutt-ng to apply a score of 42 to all messages whose
7890 sender specified a valid realname and a valid email address. Using
7895 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
7896 score !<muttng-doc:pattern name="*"/> =42</muttng-doc:lstconf>
7901 on the contrary applies a score of 42 to all messages <emphasis>not</emphasis>
7902 matching those criteria which are very strict:
7911 Email addresses must be valid according to <muttng-doc:rfc num="2822"/>
7917 the name must consist of at least 2 fields whereby a field
7918 must not end in a dot. This means that ``Joe User'' and ``Joe
7919 A.User'' are valid while ``J. User'' and ``J. A. User'' aren't.
7926 it's assumed that users are interested in reading their
7927 own mail and mail from people who they have defined an alias
7928 forso that those 2 groups of messages are excluded from the
7952 <title>SMTP Support (OPTIONAL)</title>
7955 Mutt-ng can be built using a library called ``libESMTP'' which
7956 provides SMTP functionality. When <literal>configure</literal> was
7958 <literal>--with-libesmtp</literal> or the output <literal>muttng -v</literal> contains
7959 <literal>+USE_LIBESMTP</literal>, this will be or is the case
7961 support includes support for Delivery Status Notification
7962 (see <link linkend="dsn">dsn</link> section) as well as
7963 handling the <literal>8BITMIME</literal> flag controlled via
7964 <muttng-doc:varref name="use-8bitmime"/>.
7968 To enable sending mail directly via SMTP without an MTA such as
7969 Postfix or SSMTP and the like, simply set the <muttng-doc:varref name="smtp-host"/>
7970 variable pointing to your SMTP server.
7974 Authentication mechanisms are available via the <muttng-doc:varref name="smtp-user"/>
7975 and <muttng-doc:varref name="smtp-pass"/> variables.
7979 Transport Encryption via the StartTLS command is also available. For
7980 this to work, first of all Mutt-ng must be built with SSL or GNUTLS.
7981 Secondly, the <muttng-doc:varref name="smtp-use-tls"/> variable
7983 to ``enabled'' or ``required.'' In both cases, StartTLS will be used if
7984 the server supports it: for the second case, the connection will fail
7985 ifit doesn't while switching back to unencrypted communication for the
7990 Some mail providers require user's to set a particular envelope
7991 sender, i.e. they allow for only one value which may not be what the
7992 user wants to send as the <literal>From:</literal> header. In this
7994 <muttng-doc:varref name="smtp-envelope"/> may be used
7995 to set the envelope different from the <literal>From:</literal> header.
8000 <sect1 id="account-hook">
8001 <title>Managing multiple IMAP/POP/NNTP accounts (OPTIONAL)</title>
8004 If you happen to have accounts on multiple IMAP and/or POP servers,
8005 you may find managing all the authentication settings inconvenient and
8006 error-prone. The <muttng-doc:hook name="account"/> command may help. This hook works like
8007 <muttng-doc:hook name="folder"/> but is invoked whenever you access a remote mailbox
8008 (including inside the folder browser), not just when you open the
8018 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
8019 account-hook . 'unset imap_user; unset imap_pass; unset tunnel'
8020 account-hook imap://host1/ 'set imap_user=me1 imap_pass=foo'
8021 account-hook imap://host2/ 'set tunnel="ssh host2 /usr/libexec/imapd"'</muttng-doc:lstconf>
8031 <sect1 id="urlview">
8032 <title>Start a WWW Browser on URLs (EXTERNAL)</title>
8035 If a message contains URLs (<emphasis>unified resource locator</emphasis> = address in the
8036 WWW space like <emphasis>http://www.mutt.org/</emphasis>), it is
8038 a menu with all the URLs and start a WWW browser on one of them. This
8039 functionality is provided by the external urlview program which can be
8040 retrieved at <muttng-doc:web url="ftp://ftp.mutt.org/mutt/contrib/"/>
8041 and the configuration commands:
8043 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
8044 macro index \cb |urlview\n
8045 macro pager \cb |urlview\n</muttng-doc:lstconf>
8055 <sect1 id="compressed-folders">
8056 <title>Compressed folders Support (OPTIONAL)</title>
8059 If Mutt-ng was compiled with compressed folders support (by running the
8060 <emphasis>configure</emphasis> script with the <emphasis>
8064 can open folders stored in an arbitrary format, provided that the user
8065 has a script to convert from/to this format to one of the accepted.
8069 The most common use is to open compressed archived folders e.g. with
8074 In addition, the user can provide a script that gets a folder in an
8075 accepted format and appends its context to the folder in the
8076 user-defined format, which may be faster than converting the entire
8077 folder to the accepted format, appending to it and converting back to
8078 the user-defined format.
8082 There are three hooks defined (<muttng-doc:hook name="open"/>,
8083 <muttng-doc:hook name="close"/> and <muttng-doc:hook name="append"/>
8084 )which define commands to uncompress and compress
8085 a folder and to append messages to an existing compressed folder
8095 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
8096 open-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -cd %f > %t"
8097 close-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -c %t > %f"
8098 append-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -c %t >> %f" </muttng-doc:lstconf>
8103 You do not have to specify all of the commands. If you omit <muttng-doc:hook name="append"/>
8104 ,the folder will be open and
8105 closed again each time you will add to it. If you omit <muttng-doc:hook name="close"/>
8106 (or give empty command) , the
8107 folder will be open in the mode. If you specify <muttng-doc:hook name="append"/>
8108 though you'll be able to append
8113 Note that Mutt-ng will only try to use hooks if the file is not in one
8115 the accepted formats. In particular, if the file is empty, mutt
8116 supposes it is not compressed. This is important because it allows the
8117 use of programs that do not have well defined extensions. Just use
8118 "." as a regexp. But this may be surprising if your
8119 compressing script produces empty files. In this situation, unset
8120 <muttng-doc:varref name="save-empty"/>
8121 ,so that the compressed file
8122 will be removed if you delete all of the messages.
8125 <sect2 id="open-hook">
8126 <title>Open a compressed mailbox for reading</title>
8129 Usage: <muttng-doc:hook name="open"/> <emphasis>regexp</emphasis> "<emphasis>command</emphasis>"
8133 The <emphasis>command</emphasis> is the command that can be used for
8135 folders whose names match <emphasis>regexp</emphasis>.
8139 The <emphasis>command</emphasis> string is the printf-like format
8141 should accept two parameters: %f, which is replaced with the
8142 (compressed) folder name, and %t which is replaced with the
8143 name of the temporary folder to which to write.
8147 %f and %t can be repeated any number of times in the
8148 command string, and all of the entries are replaced with the
8149 appropriate folder name. In addition, %% is replaced by
8150 %, as in printf, and any other %anything is left as is.
8154 The <emphasis>command</emphasis> should <emphasis role="bold">not</emphasis> remove the original compressed file.
8155 The <emphasis>command</emphasis> should return non-zero exit status
8157 mutt knows something's wrong.
8166 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
8167 open-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -cd %f > %t"
8168 </muttng-doc:lstconf>
8173 If the <emphasis>command</emphasis> is empty, this operation is
8174 disabled for this file
8180 <sect2 id="close-hook">
8181 <title>Write a compressed mailbox</title>
8184 Usage: <muttng-doc:hook name="close"/> <emphasis>regexp</emphasis>"<emphasis>command</emphasis>"
8188 This is used to close the folder that was open with the <muttng-doc:hook name="open"/>
8189 command after some changes were made to it.
8193 The <emphasis>command</emphasis> string is the command that can be
8194 used for closing the
8195 folders whose names match <emphasis>regexp</emphasis>. It has the
8197 the <muttng-doc:hook name="open"/> command. Temporary
8199 in this case is the folder previously produced by the <muttng-doc:hook name="open"/>
8204 The <emphasis>command</emphasis> should <emphasis role="bold">not</emphasis> remove the decompressed file. The
8205 <emphasis>command</emphasis> should return non-zero exit status if it
8207 knows something's wrong.
8216 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
8217 close-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -c %t > %f"</muttng-doc:lstconf>
8222 If the <emphasis>command</emphasis> is empty, this operation is
8223 disabled for this file
8224 type, and the file can only be open in the readonly mode.
8228 <muttng-doc:hook name="close"/> is not called when you
8230 from the folder if the folder was not changed.
8235 <sect2 id="append-hook">
8236 <title>Append a message to a compressed mailbox</title>
8239 Usage: <muttng-doc:hook name="append"/> <emphasis>regexp</emphasis>"<emphasis>command</emphasis>"
8243 This command is used for saving to an existing compressed folder.
8244 The <emphasis>command</emphasis> is the command that can be used for
8246 folders whose names match <emphasis>regexp</emphasis>. It has the
8248 the <muttng-doc:hook name="open"/> command.
8249 The temporary folder in this case contains the messages that are
8254 The <emphasis>command</emphasis> should <emphasis role="bold">not</emphasis> remove the decompressed file. The
8255 <emphasis>command</emphasis> should return non-zero exit status if it
8257 knows something's wrong.
8266 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
8267 append-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -c %t >> %f" </muttng-doc:lstconf>
8272 When <muttng-doc:hook name="append"/> is used, the
8274 not opened, which saves time, but this means that we can not find out
8275 what the folder type is. Thus the default (<muttng-doc:varref name="mbox-type"/>
8276 )type is always supposed (i.e.
8277 this is the format used for the temporary folder).
8281 If the file does not exist when you save to it, <muttng-doc:hook name="close"/>
8282 is called, and not <muttng-doc:hook name="append"/>. <muttng-doc:hook name="append"/>
8284 for appending to existing folders.
8288 If the <emphasis>command</emphasis> is empty, this operation is
8289 disabled for this file
8290 type. In this case, the folder will be open and closed again (using
8291 <muttng-doc:hook name="open"/> and <muttng-doc:hook name="close"/>
8292 respectively) each time you will add to it.
8297 <sect2 id="encrypted-folders">
8298 <title>Encrypted folders</title>
8301 The compressed folders support can also be used to handle encrypted
8302 folders. If you want to encrypt a folder with PGP, you may want to
8303 usethe following hooks:
8308 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
8309 open-hook \\.pgp$ "pgp -f < %f > %t"
8310 close-hook \\.pgp$ "pgp -fe YourPgpUserIdOrKeyId < %t > %f"
8311 </muttng-doc:lstconf>
8316 Please note, that PGP does not support appending to an encrypted
8317 folder, so there is no <muttng-doc:hook name="append"/> defined.
8321 <emphasis role="bold">Note:</emphasis> the folder is temporary stored
8322 decrypted in the /tmp
8323 directory, where it can be read by your system administrator. So
8324 thinkabout the security aspects of this.
8342 <chapter id="mime-support"> <!--{{{-->
8343 <title>Mutt-ng's MIME Support</title>
8346 Quite a bit of effort has been made to make Mutt-ng the premier text-mode
8347 MIME MUA. Every effort has been made to provide the functionality that
8348 the discerning MIME user requires, and the conformance to the standards
8349 wherever possible. When configuring Mutt-ng for MIME, there are two
8350 extratypes of configuration files which Mutt-ng uses. One is the
8351 <literal>mime.types</literal> file, which contains the mapping of file
8353 IANA MIME types. The other is the <literal>mailcap</literal> file, which
8355 the external commands to use for handling specific MIME types.
8359 <title>Using MIME in Mutt</title>
8362 There are three areas/menus in Mutt-ng which deal with MIME, they are
8364 pager (while viewing a message), the attachment menu and the compose
8368 <sect2 id="mime-view">
8369 <title>Viewing MIME messages in the pager</title>
8372 When you select a message from the index and view it in the pager,
8374 decodes the message to a text representation. Mutt-ng internally
8376 a number of MIME types, including <literal>text/plain, text/enriched,
8377 message/rfc822, and message/news
8379 .In addition, the export
8380 controlled version of Mutt-ng recognizes a variety of PGP MIME types,
8381 including PGP/MIME and application/pgp.
8385 Mutt-ng will denote attachments with a couple lines describing them.
8386 These lines are of the form:
8389 [-- Attachment #1: Description --]
8390 [-- Type: text/plain, Encoding: 7bit, Size: 10000 --]</screen>
8392 Where the <literal>Description</literal> is the description or
8393 filename given for the
8394 attachment, and the <literal>Encoding</literal> is one of
8395 <literal>7bit/8bit/quoted-printable/base64/binary</literal>.
8399 If Mutt-ng cannot deal with a MIME type, it will display a message
8403 [-- image/gif is unsupported (use 'v' to view this part) --]</screen>
8409 <sect2 id="attach-menu">
8410 <title>The Attachment Menu</title>
8413 The default binding for <literal>view-attachments</literal> is `v',
8415 attachment menu for a message. The attachment menu displays a list
8416 ofthe attachments in a message. From the attachment menu, you can
8418 print, pipe, delete, and view attachments. You can apply these
8419 operations to a group of attachments at once, by tagging the
8421 and by using the ``tag-prefix'' operator. You can also reply to the
8422 current message from this menu, and only the current attachment (or
8424 attachments tagged) will be quoted in your reply. You can view
8425 attachments as text, or view them using the mailcap viewer
8430 Finally, you can apply the usual message-related functions (like
8431 <muttng-doc:funcref name="resend-message"/>, and the reply
8432 and forward functions) to attachments of type <literal>message/rfc822</literal>.
8436 See the help on the attachment menu for more information.
8441 <sect2 id="compose-menu">
8442 <title>The Compose Menu</title>
8445 The compose menu is the menu you see before you send a message. It
8446 allows you to edit the recipient list, the subject, and other aspects
8447 of your message. It also contains a list of the attachments of your
8448 message, including the main body. From this menu, you can print,
8450 filter, pipe, edit, compose, review, and rename an attachment or a
8451 list of tagged attachments. You can also modifying the attachment
8452 information, notably the type, encoding and description.
8456 Attachments appear as follows:
8459 1 [text/plain, 7bit, 1K] /tmp/mutt-euler-8082-0 <no description>
8460 2 [applica/x-gunzip, base64, 422K] ~/src/mutt-0.85.tar.gz <no description></screen>
8465 The '-' denotes that Mutt-ng will delete the file after sending (or
8466 postponing, or canceling) the message. It can be toggled with the
8467 <literal>toggle-unlink</literal> command (default: u). The next
8469 content-type, and can be changed with the <literal>edit-type</literal> command
8470 (default: ^T). The next field is the encoding for the
8472 which allows a binary message to be encoded for transmission on 7bit
8473 links. It can be changed with the <literal>edit-encoding</literal>
8475 (default: ^E). The next field is the size of the attachment,
8476 rounded to kilobytes or megabytes. The next field is the filename,
8477 which can be changed with the <literal>rename-file</literal> command
8479 The final field is the description of the attachment, and can be
8480 changed with the <literal>edit-description</literal> command
8492 <sect1 id="mime-types">
8494 MIME Type configuration with <literal>mime.types</literal>
8498 When you add an attachment to your mail message, Mutt-ng searches your
8499 personal mime.types file within <muttng-doc:envvar name="HOME"/> and then
8500 the system mime.types file at <literal>/usr/local/share/mutt/mime.types</literal> or
8501 <literal>/etc/mime.types</literal>
8505 The mime.types file consist of lines containing a MIME type and a space
8506 separated list of extensions. For example:
8509 application/postscript ps eps
8511 audio/x-aiff aif aifc aiff</screen>
8513 A sample <literal>mime.types</literal> file comes with the Mutt-ng
8515 should contain most of the MIME types you are likely to use.
8519 If Mutt-ng can not determine the mime type by the extension of the file
8521 attach, it will look at the file. If the file is free of binary
8522 information, Mutt-ng will assume that the file is plain text, and mark
8524 as <literal>text/plain</literal>. If the file contains binary
8525 information, then Mutt-ng will
8526 mark it as <literal>application/octet-stream</literal>. You can change
8528 type that Mutt-ng assigns to an attachment by using the <literal>
8531 command from the compose menu (default: ^T). The MIME type is
8533 major mime type followed by the sub-type, separated by a '/'. 6 major
8534 types: application, text, image, video, audio, and model have been
8536 after various internet discussions. Mutt-ng recognises all of these if
8538 appropriate entry is found in the mime.types file. It also recognises
8540 major mime types, such as the chemical type that is widely used in the
8541 molecular modelling community to pass molecular data in various forms
8543 various molecular viewers. Non-recognised mime types should only be
8545 if the recipient of the message is likely to be expecting such
8555 <sect1 id="mime-mailcap">
8557 MIME Viewer configuration with <literal>mailcap</literal>
8561 Mutt-ng supports <muttng-doc:rfc num="1524"/> MIME Configuration, in particular the Unix
8562 specific format specified in Appendix A of the RfC. This file format
8563 is commonly referred to as the mailcap format. Many MIME compliant
8564 programs utilize the mailcap format, allowing you to specify handling
8565 for all MIME types in one place for all programs. Programs known to
8566 use this format include Netscape, XMosaic, lynx and metamail.
8570 In order to handle various MIME types that Mutt-ng can not handle
8571 internally, Mutt-ng parses a series of external configuration files to
8572 find an external handler. The default search string for these files
8573 is a colon delimited list set to
8576 ${HOME}/.mailcap:/usr/local/share/mutt/mailcap:/etc/mailcap:/etc/mailcap:/usr/etc/mailcap:/usr/local/etc/mailcap</screen>
8578 where <muttng-doc:envvar name="HOME"/> is your home directory.
8582 In particular, the metamail distribution will install a mailcap file,
8583 usually as <literal>/usr/local/etc/mailcap</literal>, which contains
8588 <sect2 id="mime-mailcap-basics">
8589 <title>The Basics of the mailcap file</title>
8592 A mailcap file consists of a series of lines which are comments,
8598 A comment line consists of a # character followed by anything you
8603 A blank line is blank.
8607 A definition line consists of a content type, a view command, and any
8608 number of optional fields. Each field of a definition line is
8609 dividedby a semicolon ';' character.
8613 The content type is specified in the MIME standard type/subtype
8616 <literal>text/plain, text/html, image/gif,</literal>
8617 etc. In addition, the mailcap format includes two formats for
8618 wildcards, one using the special '*' subtype, the other is the
8620 wild, where you only include the major type. For example, <literal>
8624 <literal>video,</literal> will match all image types and video types,
8629 The view command is a Unix command for viewing the type specified.
8631 are two different types of commands supported. The default is to send
8632 the body of the MIME message to the command on stdin. You can change
8633 this behavior by using %s as a parameter to your view command.
8634 This will cause Mutt-ng to save the body of the MIME message to a
8636 file, and then call the view command with the %s replaced by
8637 the name of the temporary file. In both cases, Mutt-ng will turn over
8639 terminal to the view program until the program quits, at which time
8641 will remove the temporary file if it exists.
8645 So, in the simplest form, you can send a text/plain message to the
8646 external pager more on stdin:
8649 text/plain; more</screen>
8651 Or, you could send the message as a file:
8654 text/plain; more %s</screen>
8656 Perhaps you would like to use lynx to interactively view a text/html
8660 text/html; lynx %s</screen>
8662 In this case, lynx does not support viewing a file from stdin, so you
8663 must use the %s syntax.
8664 <emphasis role="bold">Note:</emphasis> <emphasis>Some older versions
8665 of lynx contain a bug where they
8666 will check the mailcap file for a viewer for text/html. They will
8668 the line which calls lynx, and run it. This causes lynx to
8670 spawn itself to view the object.
8675 On the other hand, maybe you don't want to use lynx interactively,
8676 youjust want to have it convert the text/html to text/plain, then you
8681 text/html; lynx -dump %s | more</screen>
8686 Perhaps you wish to use lynx to view text/html files, and a pager on
8687 all other text formats, then you would use the following:
8691 text/*; more</screen>
8693 This is the simplest form of a mailcap file.
8698 <sect2 id="mime-mailcap-security">
8699 <title>Secure use of mailcap</title>
8702 The interpretation of shell meta-characters embedded in MIME
8704 can lead to security problems in general. Mutt-ng tries to quote
8706 in expansion of %s syntaxes properly, and avoids risky
8708 substituting them, see the <muttng-doc:varref name="mailcap-sanitize"/>
8713 Although mutt's procedures to invoke programs with mailcap seem to be
8714 safe, there are other applications parsing mailcap, maybe taking less
8716 of it. Therefore you should pay attention to the following rules:
8720 <emphasis>Keep the %-expandos away from shell quoting.</emphasis>
8721 Don't quote them with single or double quotes. Mutt-ng does this for
8722 you, the right way, as should any other program which interprets
8723 mailcap. Don't put them into backtick expansions. Be highly careful
8724 with eval statements, and avoid them if possible at all. Trying to
8726 broken behaviour with quotes introduces new leaks - there is no
8727 alternative to correct quoting in the first place.
8731 If you have to use the %-expandos' values in context where you
8733 quoting or backtick expansions, put that value into a shell variable
8734 and reference the shell variable where necessary, as in the following
8735 example (using <literal>$charset</literal> inside the backtick
8737 since it is not itself subject to any further expansion):
8743 text/test-mailcap-bug; cat %s; copiousoutput; test=charset=%{charset} \
8744 && test "`echo $charset | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`" != iso-8859-1</screen>
8750 <sect2 id="mime-mailcap-advanced">
8751 <title>Advanced mailcap Usage</title>
8753 <sect3 id="mime-mailcap-advanced-fields">
8754 <title>Optional Fields</title>
8757 In addition to the required content-type and view command fields,
8759 can add semi-colon ';' separated fields to set flags and other
8761 Mutt-ng recognizes the following optional fields:
8765 <term>copiousoutput</term>
8768 This flag tells Mutt-ng that the command passes possibly
8770 text on stdout. This causes Mutt-ng to invoke a pager
8771 (either the internal
8772 pager or the external pager defined by the pager variable)
8774 of the view command. Without this flag, Mutt-ng assumes
8776 is interactive. One could use this to replace the pipe to <literal>
8779 in the <literal>lynx -dump</literal> example in the Basic
8783 text/html; lynx -dump %s ; copiousoutput</screen>
8785 This will cause lynx to format the text/html output as
8787 and Mutt-ng will use your standard pager to display the
8793 <term>needsterminal</term>
8796 Mutt-ng uses this flag when viewing attachments with <muttng-doc:cmdref name="auto_view"/>,
8797 in order to decide whether it should honor the setting
8798 of the <muttng-doc:varref name="wait-key"/> variable or
8799 not. When an attachment is viewed using an interactive
8801 corresponding mailcap entry has a <emphasis>needsterminal</emphasis> flag, Mutt-ng will use
8802 <muttng-doc:varref name="wait-key"/> and the exit
8803 statusof the program to decide if it will ask you to press
8805 external program has exited. In all other situations it
8812 <term>compose=<command></term>
8815 This flag specifies the command to use to create a new
8817 specific MIME type. Mutt-ng supports this from the compose
8823 <term>composetyped=<command></term>
8826 This flag specifies the command to use to create a new
8828 specific MIME type. This command differs from the compose
8830 that mutt will expect standard MIME headers on the data.
8832 used to specify parameters, filename, description, etc. for
8834 attachment. Mutt-ng supports this from the compose menu.
8839 <term>print=<command></term>
8842 This flag specifies the command to use to print a specific
8844 Mutt-ng supports this from the attachment and compose
8850 <term>edit=<command></term>
8853 This flag specifies the command to use to edit a specific
8855 Mutt-ng supports this from the compose menu, and also uses
8857 new attachments. Mutt-ng will default to the defined
8864 <term>nametemplate=<template></term>
8867 This field specifies the format for the file denoted by
8869 command fields. Certain programs will require a certain
8871 for instance, to correctly view a file. For instance, lynx
8873 interpret a file as <literal>text/html</literal> if the
8874 file ends in <literal>.html</literal>.
8875 So, you would specify lynx as a <literal>text/html</literal> viewer with a line in
8876 the mailcap file like:
8879 text/html; lynx %s; nametemplate=%s.html</screen>
8885 <term>test=<command></term>
8888 This field specifies a command to run to test whether this
8890 entry should be used. The command is defined with the
8892 rules defined in the next section. If the command returns
8894 test passed, and Mutt-ng uses this entry. If the command
8896 then the test failed, and Mutt-ng continues searching for
8898 <emphasis role="bold">Note:</emphasis> <emphasis>the
8899 content-type must match before Mutt-ng performs the test.
8904 text/html; netscape -remote 'openURL(%s)' ; test=RunningX
8905 text/html; lynx %s</screen>
8907 In this example, Mutt-ng will run the program RunningX
8909 if the X Window manager is running, and non-zero if it
8911 RunningX returns 0, then Mutt-ng will call netscape to
8913 text/html object. If RunningX doesn't return 0, then
8915 to the next entry and use lynx to display the text/html
8925 <sect3 id="mime-mailcap-advanced-searchorder">
8926 <title>Search Order</title>
8929 When searching for an entry in the mailcap file, Mutt-ng will
8931 the most useful entry for its purpose. For instance, if you are
8932 attempting to print an <literal>image/gif</literal>, and you have
8934 entries in your mailcap file, Mutt-ng will search for an entry with
8940 image/gif; ; print= anytopnm %s | pnmtops | lpr; \
8941 nametemplate=%s.gif</screen>
8943 Mutt-ng will skip the <literal>image/*</literal> entry and use the <literal>
8946 entry with the print command.
8950 In addition, you can use this with <muttng-doc:cmdref name="auto_view"/>
8951 to denote two commands for viewing an attachment, one to be viewed
8952 automatically, the other to be viewed interactively from the
8954 menu. In addition, you can then use the test feature to determine
8956 viewer to use interactively depending on your environment.
8959 text/html; netscape -remote 'openURL(%s)' ; test=RunningX
8960 text/html; lynx %s; nametemplate=%s.html
8961 text/html; lynx -dump %s; nametemplate=%s.html; copiousoutput</screen>
8963 For <muttng-doc:cmdref name="auto_view"/>, Mutt-ng will choose
8965 entry because of the copiousoutput tag. For interactive viewing,
8967 will run the program RunningX to determine if it should use the
8969 entry. If the program returns non-zero, Mutt-ng will use the
8971 for interactive viewing.
8976 <sect3 id="mime-mailcap-advanced-expansion">
8977 <title>Command Expansion</title>
8980 The various commands defined in the mailcap files are passed to the
8981 <literal>/bin/sh</literal> shell using the system() function.
8983 command is passed to <literal>/bin/sh -c</literal>, it is parsed to
8985 various special parameters with information from Mutt-ng. The
8987 Mutt-ng expands are:
8994 As seen in the basic mailcap section, this variable is
8996 to a filename specified by the calling program. This file
8998 the body of the message to view/print/edit or where the
9000 program should place the results of composition. In
9002 use of this keyword causes Mutt-ng to not pass the body of
9004 to the view/print/edit program on stdin.
9012 Mutt-ng will expand %t to the text representation of
9014 type of the message in the same form as the first parameter
9016 mailcap definition line, ie <literal>text/html</literal> or
9017 <literal>image/gif</literal>.
9022 <term>%{<parameter>}</term>
9025 Mutt-ng will expand this to the value of the specified
9027 from the Content-Type: line of the mail message. For
9029 Your mail message contains:
9031 <muttng-doc:lstmail>
9032 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1</muttng-doc:lstmail>
9034 then Mutt-ng will expand %{charset} to
9035 iso-8859-1. The default metamail
9036 mailcap file uses this feature to test the charset to spawn
9038 using the right charset to view the message.
9046 This will be replaced by a %
9051 Mutt-ng does not currently support the %F and %n
9053 specified in <muttng-doc:rfc num="1524"/>. The main purpose of these parameters is for
9054 multipart messages, which is handled internally by Mutt-ng.
9061 <sect2 id="mime-mailcap-examples">
9062 <title>Example mailcap files</title>
9065 This mailcap file is fairly simple and standard:
9068 # I'm always running X :)
9069 video/*; xanim %s > /dev/null
9070 image/*; xv %s > /dev/null
9072 # I'm always running netscape (if my computer had more memory, maybe)
9073 text/html; netscape -remote 'openURL(%s)'</screen>
9078 This mailcap file shows quite a number of examples:
9084 # Use xanim to view all videos Xanim produces a header on startup,
9085 # send that to /dev/null so I don't see it
9086 video/*; xanim %s > /dev/null
9088 # Send html to a running netscape by remote
9089 text/html; netscape -remote 'openURL(%s)'; test=RunningNetscape
9090 # If I'm not running netscape but I am running X, start netscape on the
9092 text/html; netscape %s; test=RunningX
9094 # Else use lynx to view it as text
9097 # This version would convert the text/html to text/plain
9098 text/html; lynx -dump %s; copiousoutput
9100 # I use enscript to print text in two columns to a page
9101 text/*; more %s; print=enscript -2Gr %s
9103 # Netscape adds a flag to tell itself to view jpegs internally
9104 image/jpeg;xv %s; x-mozilla-flags=internal
9106 # Use xv to view images if I'm running X
9107 # In addition, this uses the \ to extend the line and set my editor
9109 image/*;xv %s; test=RunningX; edit=xpaint %s
9111 # Convert images to text using the netpbm tools
9112 image/*; (anytopnm %s | pnmscale -xysize 80 46 | ppmtopgm | pgmtopbm |
9113 pbmtoascii -1x2 ) 2>&1 ; copiousoutput
9115 # Send excel spreadsheets to my NT box
9116 application/ms-excel; open.pl %s</screen>
9129 <title>MIME Autoview</title>
9132 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="auto_view">mime-type [mime-type ...]</muttng-doc:cmddef>
9136 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="unauto_view">mime-type [mime-type ...]</muttng-doc:cmddef>
9140 In addition to explicitly telling Mutt-ng to view an attachment with
9141 theMIME viewer defined in the mailcap file, Mutt-ng has support for
9142 automatically viewing MIME attachments while in the pager.
9146 To work, you must define a viewer in the mailcap file which uses the
9147 <literal>copiousoutput</literal> option to denote that it is
9149 Usually, you also use the entry to convert the attachment to a text
9150 representation which you can view in the pager.
9154 You then use the <literal>auto_view</literal> muttrc command to
9156 content-types that you wish to view automatically.
9160 For instance, if you set auto_view to:
9162 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
9163 auto_view text/html application/x-gunzip application/postscript
9164 image/gif application/x-tar-gz</muttng-doc:lstconf>
9169 Mutt-ng could use the following mailcap entries to automatically view
9170 attachments of these types.
9173 text/html; lynx -dump %s; copiousoutput; nametemplate=%s.html
9174 image/*; anytopnm %s | pnmscale -xsize 80 -ysize 50 | ppmtopgm | pgmtopbm | pbmtoascii ; copiousoutput
9175 application/x-gunzip; gzcat; copiousoutput
9176 application/x-tar-gz; gunzip -c %s | tar -tf - ; copiousoutput
9177 application/postscript; ps2ascii %s; copiousoutput</screen>
9182 ``unauto_view'' can be used to remove previous entries from the
9184 This can be used with <muttng-doc:hook name="message"/> to autoview messages based on size,
9186 ``unauto_view *'' will remove all previous entries.
9196 <title>MIME Multipart/Alternative</title>
9199 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="alternative_order">mime-type [mime-type ...]</muttng-doc:cmddef>
9203 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="unalternative_order">mime-type [mime-type ...]</muttng-doc:cmddef>
9207 Mutt-ng has some heuristics for determining which attachment of a
9208 multipart/alternative type to display. First, mutt will check the
9209 alternative_order list to determine if one of the available
9210 typesis preferred. The alternative_order list consists of a
9212 MIME types in order, including support for implicit and explicit
9213 wildcards, for example:
9215 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
9216 alternative_order text/enriched text/plain text
9217 application/postscript image/*</muttng-doc:lstconf>
9222 Next, mutt will check if any of the types have a defined
9223 <muttng-doc:cmdref name="auto_view"/>, and use that. Failing
9224 that, Mutt-ng will look for any text type. As a last attempt, mutt
9225 willlook for any type it knows how to handle.
9229 To remove a MIME type from the <literal>alternative_order</literal> list, use the
9230 <literal>unalternative_order</literal> command.
9240 <title>MIME Lookup</title>
9243 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="mime_lookup">mime-type [mime-type ...]</muttng-doc:cmddef>
9247 <muttng-doc:cmddef name="unmime_lookup">mime-type [mime-type ...]</muttng-doc:cmddef>
9251 Mutt-ng's mime_lookup list specifies a list of mime-types that
9253 be treated according to their mailcap entry. This option is designed
9254 todeal with binary types such as application/octet-stream. When an
9256 mime-type is listed in mime_lookup, then the extension of the
9258 be compared to the list of extensions in the mime.types file. The
9260 associated with this extension will then be used to process the
9262 according to the rules in the mailcap file and according to any other
9264 options (such as auto_view) specified. Common usage would be:
9266 <muttng-doc:lstconf>
9267 mime_lookup application/octet-stream application/X-Lotus-Manuscript</muttng-doc:lstconf>
9272 In addition, the unmime_lookup command may be used to disable
9274 for any particular mime-type if it had been set, for example, in a
9292 <chapter id="security"> <!--{{{-->
9293 <title>Security Considerations</title>
9296 First of all, mutt-ng contains no security holes included by
9297 intention but may contain unknown security holes. As a consequence,
9298 please run mutt-ng only with as few permissions as possible.
9302 Please do not run mutt-ng as the super user.
9306 When configuring mutt-ng, there're some points to note about secure
9311 In practice, mutt-ng can be easily made as vulnerable as even the
9312 most insecure mail user agents (in their default configuration) just
9313 by changing mutt-ng's configuration files: it then can execute
9314 arbitrary programs and scripts attached to messages, send out private
9315 data on its own, etc. Although this is not believed to the common type
9316 of setup, please read this chapter carefully.
9319 <sect1 id="security-passwords">
9320 <title>Passwords</title>
9323 Although mutt-ng can be told the various passwords for accounts,
9324 please never store passwords in configuration files. Besides the
9325 fact that the system's operator can always read them, you could
9326 forget to replace the actual password with asterisks when reporting
9327 a bug or asking for help via, for example, a mailing list so that
9328 your mail including your password could be archived by internet
9329 search engines, etc. Please never store passwords on disk.
9334 <sect1 id="security-tempfiles">
9335 <title>Temporary Files</title>
9338 Mutt-ng uses many temporary files for viewing messages, verifying
9339 digital signatures, etc. The <muttng-doc:varref name="umask"/>
9340 variable can be used to change the default permissions of these
9341 files. Please only change it if you really know what you are doing.
9342 Also, a different location for these files may be desired which can
9343 be changed via the <muttng-doc:varref name="tmpdir"/> variable.
9348 <sect1 id="security-leaks">
9349 <title>Information Leaks</title>
9351 <sect2 id="security-leaks-mid">
9352 <title>Message-ID: headers</title>
9355 In the default configuration, mutt-ng will leak some information
9356 to the outside world when sending messages: the generation of
9357 <literal>Message-ID:</literal> headers includes a step counter which
9359 (and rotated) with every message sent. If you'd like to hide this
9360 information probably telling others how many mail you sent in which
9361 time, you at least need to remove the <literal>%P</literal>
9363 default setting of the <muttng-doc:varref name="msgid-format"/> variable. Please make sure that
9364 you really know how local parts of these <literal>Message-ID:</literal> headers
9370 <sect2 id="security-leaks-mailto">
9371 <title>mailto:-style links</title>
9374 As mutt-ng be can be set up to be the mail client to handle
9375 <literal>mailto:</literal> style links in websites, there're security
9376 considerations, too. To keep the old behavior by default, mutt-ng
9377 will be strict in interpreting them which means that arbitrary
9378 header fields can be embedded in these links which could override
9379 existing header fields or attach arbitrary files. This may be
9380 problematic if the <muttng-doc:varref name="edit-headers"/>
9381 variable is <emphasis>unset</emphasis>, i.e. the
9382 user doesn't want to see header fields while editing the message.
9386 For example, following a link like
9392 mailto:joe@host?Attach=~/.gnupg/secring.gpg</screen>
9397 will send out the user's private gnupg keyring to <literal>joe@host</literal> if
9398 the user doesn't follow the information on screen carefully
9403 When <emphasis>unsetting</emphasis> the <muttng-doc:varref name="strict-mailto"/>
9404 variable, mutt-ng will
9413 be less strict when interpreting these links by
9414 prepending a <literal>X-Mailto-</literal> string to all header
9416 embedded in such a link <emphasis>and</emphasis>
9423 turn on the <muttng-doc:varref name="edit-headers"/>
9425 force to let the user see all the headers
9426 (because they still may leak information.)
9439 <sect1 id="security-external">
9440 <title>External applications</title>
9443 Mutt-ng in many places has to rely on external applications or
9444 for convenience supports mechanisms involving external
9448 <sect2 id="security-external-mailcap">
9449 <title>mailcap</title>
9452 One of these is the <literal>mailcap</literal> mechanism as defined
9453 by <muttng-doc:rfc num="1524"/>. Mutt-ng can be set up to <emphasis>automatically</emphasis>
9455 given utility as listed in one of the mailcap files (see the
9456 <muttng-doc:varref name="mailcap-path"/>
9457 variable for details.)
9461 These utilities may have a variety of security vulnerabilities,
9462 including overwriting of arbitrary files, information leaks or
9463 other exploitable bugs. These vulnerabilities may go unnoticed by
9464 the user, especially when they are called automatically (and
9465 without interactive prompting) from the mailcap file(s). When
9466 using mutt-ng's autoview mechanism in combination with mailcap
9467 files, please be sure to...
9476 manually select trustworth applications with a reasonable
9484 periodically check the contents of mailcap files,
9485 especially after software installations or upgrades
9492 keep the software packages referenced in the mailcap file up to
9500 leave the <muttng-doc:varref name="mailcap-sanitize"/> variable in its default
9501 state to restrict mailcap expandos to a safe set of characters
9512 <sect2 id="security-external-other">
9513 <title>Other</title>
9516 Besides the mailcap mechanism, mutt-ng uses a number of other
9517 external utilities for operation.
9521 The same security considerations apply for these as for tools
9522 involved via mailcap (for example, mutt-ng is vulnerable to Denial
9523 of Service Attacks with compressed folders support if the
9524 uncompressed mailbox is too large for the disk it is saved to.)
9528 As already noted, most of these problems are not built in but
9529 caused by wrong configuration, so please check your configuration.
9539 <chapter id="reference"> <!--{{{-->
9540 <title>Reference</title>
9542 <sect1 id="commandline">
9543 <title>Command line options</title>
9546 Running <literal>mutt</literal> with no arguments will make Mutt-ng
9547 attempt to read your spool
9548 mailbox. However, it is possible to read other mailboxes and
9549 to send messages from the command line as well.
9554 <table frame="none" rowsep="1">
9555 <title>Reference: Command Line Options</title>
9556 <tgroup cols="2" align="left" colsep="1" rowsep="1">
9559 <entry>Option</entry>
9560 <entry>Description</entry>
9565 <entry><literal>-A</literal></entry>
9566 <entry>expand an alias</entry>
9569 <entry><literal>-a</literal></entry>
9570 <entry>attach a file to a message</entry>
9573 <entry><literal>-b</literal></entry>
9574 <entry>specify a blind carbon-copy (BCC) address</entry>
9577 <entry><literal>-c</literal></entry>
9578 <entry>specify a carbon-copy (Cc) address</entry>
9581 <entry><literal>-e</literal></entry>
9582 <entry>specify a config command to be run after initialization files are read</entry>
9585 <entry><literal>-f</literal></entry>
9586 <entry>specify a mailbox to load</entry>
9589 <entry><literal>-F</literal></entry>
9590 <entry>specify an alternate file to read initialization commands</entry>
9593 <entry><literal>-h</literal></entry>
9594 <entry>print help on command line options</entry>
9597 <entry><literal>-H</literal></entry>
9598 <entry>specify a draft file from which to read a header and body</entry>
9601 <entry><literal>-i</literal></entry>
9602 <entry>specify a file to include in a message composition</entry>
9605 <entry><literal>-m</literal></entry>
9606 <entry>specify a default mailbox type</entry>
9609 <entry><literal>-n</literal></entry>
9610 <entry>do not read the system Muttngrc</entry>
9613 <entry><literal>-p</literal></entry>
9614 <entry>recall a postponed message</entry>
9617 <entry><literal>-Q</literal></entry>
9618 <entry>query a configuration variable</entry>
9621 <entry><literal>-R</literal></entry>
9622 <entry>open mailbox in read-only mode</entry>
9625 <entry><literal>-s</literal></entry>
9626 <entry>specify a subject (enclose in quotes if it contains spaces)</entry>
9629 <entry><literal>-t</literal></entry>
9630 <entry>dump the value of all variables to stdout</entry>
9633 <entry><literal>-T</literal></entry>
9634 <entry>dump the value of all changed variables to stdout</entry>
9637 <entry><literal>-v</literal></entry>
9638 <entry>show version number and compile-time definitions</entry>
9641 <entry><literal>-x</literal></entry>
9642 <entry>simulate the mailx(1) compose mode</entry>
9645 <entry><literal>-y</literal></entry>
9646 <entry>show a menu containing the files specified by the mailboxes command</entry>
9649 <entry><literal>-z</literal></entry>
9650 <entry>exit immediately if there are no messages in the mailbox</entry>
9653 <entry><literal>-Z</literal></entry>
9654 <entry>open the first folder with new message,exit immediately if none</entry>
9663 To read messages in a mailbox
9667 <literal>mutt</literal> ] -nz ] ] -F <emphasis>muttrc</emphasis> ] ] -m <emphasis>
9670 ] ] -f <emphasis>mailbox</emphasis> ]
9674 To compose a new message
9678 <literal>mutt</literal> ] -n ] ] -F <emphasis>muttrc</emphasis> ] ] -a <emphasis>
9681 ] ] -c <emphasis>address</emphasis> ] ] -i <emphasis>
9684 ] ] -s <emphasis>subject</emphasis> ] <emphasis>address</emphasis> ] <emphasis>
9691 Mutt-ng also supports a ``batch'' mode to send prepared messages.
9693 input from the file you wish to send. For example,
9697 <literal>mutt -s "data set for run #2"
9698 professor@bigschool.edu
9704 This command will send a message to ``professor@bigschool.edu'' with a
9706 of ``data set for run #2''. In the body of the message will be the
9708 of the file ``~/run2.dat''.
9717 <sect1 id="patterns">
9718 <title>Patterns</title>
9722 <table frame="none" rowsep="1" id="tab-patterns">
9723 <title>Reference: Patterns</title>
9724 <tgroup cols="2" align="left" colsep="1" rowsep="1">
9727 <entry>Pattern Modifier</entry>
9728 <entry>Argument</entry>
9729 <entry>Description</entry>
9734 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="A"/></entry>
9735 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
9736 <entry>all messages</entry>
9739 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="b"/></entry>
9740 <entry><literal>EXPR</literal></entry>
9741 <entry>messages which contain EXPR in the message body</entry>
9744 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="B"/></entry>
9745 <entry><literal>EXPR</literal></entry>
9746 <entry>messages which contain EXPR in the whole message</entry>
9749 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="c"/></entry>
9750 <entry><literal>EXPR</literal></entry>
9751 <entry>messages carbon-copied to EXPR</entry>
9754 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="C"/></entry>
9755 <entry><literal>EXPR</literal></entry>
9756 <entry>message is either to: or cc: EXPR</entry>
9759 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="D"/></entry>
9760 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
9761 <entry>deleted messages</entry>
9764 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="d"/></entry>
9765 <entry><literal>[MIN]-[MAX]</literal></entry>
9766 <entry>messages with ``date-sent'' in a Date range</entry>
9769 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="E"/></entry>
9770 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
9771 <entry>expired messages</entry>
9774 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="e"/></entry>
9775 <entry><literal>EXPR</literal></entry>
9776 <entry>message which contains EXPR in the ``Sender'' field</entry>
9779 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="F"/></entry>
9780 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
9781 <entry>flagged messages</entry>
9784 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="f"/></entry>
9785 <entry><literal>EXPR</literal></entry>
9786 <entry>messages originating from EXPR</entry>
9789 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="g"/></entry>
9790 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
9791 <entry>cryptographically signed messages</entry>
9794 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="G"/></entry>
9795 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
9796 <entry>cryptographically encrypted messages</entry>
9799 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="H"/></entry>
9800 <entry><literal>EXPR</literal></entry>
9801 <entry>messages with a spam attribute matching EXPR</entry>
9804 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="h"/></entry>
9805 <entry><literal>EXPR</literal></entry>
9806 <entry>messages which contain EXPR in the message header</entry>
9809 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="k"/></entry>
9810 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
9811 <entry>message contains PGP key material</entry>
9814 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="i"/></entry>
9815 <entry><literal>EXPR</literal></entry>
9816 <entry>message which match ID in the ``Message-ID'' field</entry>
9819 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="L"/></entry>
9820 <entry><literal>EXPR</literal></entry>
9821 <entry>message is either originated or received by EXPR</entry>
9824 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="l"/></entry>
9825 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
9826 <entry>message is addressed to a known mailing list</entry>
9829 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="m"/></entry>
9830 <entry><literal>[MIN]-[MAX]</literal></entry>
9831 <entry>message in the range MIN to MAX *)</entry>
9834 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="M"/></entry>
9835 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
9836 <entry>multipart messages</entry>
9839 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="n"/></entry>
9840 <entry><literal>[MIN]-[MAX]</literal></entry>
9841 <entry>messages with a score in the range MIN to MAX *)</entry>
9844 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="N"/></entry>
9845 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
9846 <entry>new messages</entry>
9849 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="O"/></entry>
9850 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
9851 <entry>old messages</entry>
9854 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="p"/></entry>
9855 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
9856 <entry>message is addressed to you (consults alternates)</entry>
9859 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="P"/></entry>
9860 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
9861 <entry>message is from you (consults alternates)</entry>
9864 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="Q"/></entry>
9865 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
9866 <entry>messages which have been replied to</entry>
9869 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="R"/></entry>
9870 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
9871 <entry>read messages</entry>
9874 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="r"/></entry>
9875 <entry><literal>[MIN]-[MAX]</literal></entry>
9876 <entry>messages with ``date-received'' in a Date range</entry>
9879 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="S"/></entry>
9880 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
9881 <entry>superseded messages</entry>
9884 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="s"/></entry>
9885 <entry><literal>EXPR</literal></entry>
9886 <entry>messages having EXPR in the ``Subject'' field.</entry>
9889 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="T"/></entry>
9890 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
9891 <entry>tagged messages</entry>
9894 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="t"/></entry>
9895 <entry><literal>EXPR</literal></entry>
9896 <entry>messages addressed to EXPR</entry>
9899 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="U"/></entry>
9900 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
9901 <entry>unread messages</entry>
9904 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="u"/></entry>
9905 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
9906 <entry>message is addressed to a subscribed mailing list</entry>
9909 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="v"/></entry>
9910 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
9911 <entry>message is part of a collapsed thread.</entry>
9914 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="V"/></entry>
9915 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
9916 <entry>cryptographically verified messages</entry>
9919 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="w"/></entry>
9920 <entry><literal>EXPR</literal></entry>
9921 <entry>messages which contain EXPR in the `Newsgroups' field (if compiled with NNTP support)</entry>
9924 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="x"/></entry>
9925 <entry><literal>EXPR</literal></entry>
9926 <entry>messages which contain EXPR in the `References' field</entry>
9929 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="y"/></entry>
9930 <entry><literal>EXPR</literal></entry>
9931 <entry>messages which contain EXPR in the `X-Label' field</entry>
9934 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="z"/></entry>
9935 <entry><literal>[MIN]-[MAX]</literal></entry>
9936 <entry>messages with a size in the range MIN to MAX *)</entry>
9939 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="="/></entry>
9940 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
9941 <entry>duplicated messages (see $duplicate_threads)</entry>
9944 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="$"/></entry>
9945 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
9946 <entry>unreferenced messages (requires threaded view)</entry>
9949 <entry><muttng-doc:pattern full="1" name="*"/></entry>
9950 <entry><literal></literal></entry>
9951 <entry>``From'' contains realname and (syntactically) valid address
9952 (excluded are addresses matching against alternates or any alias)</entry>
9961 <link linkend="advanced-regexp">regexp</link>. Special attention has to be
9962 made when using regular expressions inside of patterns. Specifically,
9963 Mutt-ng's parser for these patterns will strip one level of backslash
9965 which is normally used for quoting. If it is your intention to use a
9966 backslash in the regular expression, you will need to use two
9972 *) The forms <literal><[MAX]</literal>, <literal>>[MIN]</literal>,
9973 <literal>[MIN]-</literal> and <literal>-[MAX]</literal>
9979 <sect1 id="commands">
9980 <title>Configuration Commands</title>
9983 The following are the commands understood by mutt.
9992 <literal><muttng-doc:hook name="account"/></literal> <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> <emphasis>command</emphasis>
9998 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="alias"/></literal> <emphasis>key</emphasis> <emphasis>address</emphasis> [, <emphasis>address</emphasis>, ... ]
10004 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="unalias"/></literal> [ * | <emphasis>key</emphasis> ... ]
10010 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="alternates"/></literal> <emphasis>regexp</emphasis> [ <emphasis>regexp</emphasis> ... ]
10016 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="unalternates"/></literal> [ * | <emphasis>regexp</emphasis> ... ]
10022 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="alternative_order"/></literal> <emphasis>mimetype</emphasis> [ <emphasis>mimetype</emphasis> ... ]
10028 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="unalternative_order"/></literal> <emphasis>mimetype</emphasis> [ <emphasis>mimetype</emphasis> ... ]
10034 <literal><muttng-doc:hook name="append"/></literal> <emphasis>regexp</emphasis> <emphasis>command</emphasis>
10040 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="auto_view"/></literal> <emphasis>mimetype</emphasis> [ <emphasis>mimetype</emphasis> ... ]
10046 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="unauto_view"/></literal><emphasis>mimetype</emphasis> [ <emphasis>mimetype</emphasis> ... ]
10052 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="bind"/></literal> <emphasis>map</emphasis> <emphasis>key</emphasis> <emphasis>function</emphasis>
10058 <literal><muttng-doc:hook name="charset"/></literal> <emphasis>alias</emphasis> <emphasis>charset</emphasis>
10064 <literal><muttng-doc:hook name="close"/></literal> <emphasis>regexp</emphasis> <emphasis>command</emphasis>
10070 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="color"/></literal> <emphasis>object</emphasis> <emphasis>foreground</emphasis> <emphasis>background</emphasis> [ <emphasis>regexp</emphasis> ]
10076 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="uncolor"/></literal> <emphasis>index</emphasis> <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> [ <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> ... ]
10082 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="exec"/></literal> <emphasis>function</emphasis> [ <emphasis>function</emphasis> ... ]
10088 <literal><muttng-doc:hook name="fcc"/></literal> <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> <emphasis>mailbox</emphasis>
10094 <literal><muttng-doc:hook name="fcc-save"/></literal> <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> <emphasis>mailbox</emphasis>
10100 <literal><muttng-doc:hook name="folder"/></literal> <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> <emphasis>command</emphasis>
10106 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="hdr_order"/></literal> <emphasis>header</emphasis> [ <emphasis>header</emphasis> ... ]
10112 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="unhdr_order"/></literal> <emphasis>header</emphasis> [ <emphasis>header</emphasis> ... ]
10118 <literal><muttng-doc:hook name="charset"/></literal> <emphasis>charset</emphasis> <emphasis>local-charset</emphasis>
10124 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="ignore"/></literal> <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> [ <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> ... ]
10130 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="unignore"/></literal> <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> [ <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> ... ]
10136 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="lists"/></literal> <emphasis>regexp</emphasis> [ <emphasis>regexp</emphasis> ... ]
10142 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="unlists"/></literal> <emphasis>regexp</emphasis> [ <emphasis>regexp</emphasis> ... ]
10148 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="macro"/></literal> <emphasis>menu</emphasis> <emphasis>key</emphasis> <emphasis>sequence</emphasis> [ <emphasis>description</emphasis> ]
10154 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="mailboxes"/></literal> <emphasis>filename</emphasis> [ <emphasis>filename</emphasis> ... ]
10160 <literal><muttng-doc:hook name="mbox"/></literal> <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> <emphasis>mailbox</emphasis>
10166 <literal><muttng-doc:hook name="message"/></literal> <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> <emphasis>command</emphasis>
10172 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="mime_lookup"/></literal> <emphasis>mimetype</emphasis> [ <emphasis>mimetype</emphasis> ... ]
10179 <muttng-doc:cmdref name="unmime_lookup"/></literal> <emphasis>mimetype</emphasis> [ <emphasis>mimetype</emphasis> ... ]
10185 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="mono"/></literal> <emphasis>object attribute</emphasis> [ <emphasis>regexp</emphasis> ]
10191 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="unmono"/></literal> <emphasis>index</emphasis> <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> [ <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> ... ]
10197 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="my_hdr"/></literal> <emphasis>string</emphasis>
10203 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="unmy_hdr"/></literal> <emphasis>field</emphasis> [ <emphasis>field</emphasis> ... ]
10209 <literal><muttng-doc:hook name="open"/></literal> <emphasis>regexp</emphasis> <emphasis>command</emphasis>
10215 <literal><muttng-doc:hook name="crypt"/></literal> <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> <emphasis>key-id</emphasis>
10221 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="push"/></literal> <emphasis>string</emphasis>
10227 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="reset"/> </literal><emphasis>variable</emphasis> [ <emphasis>variable</emphasis> ... ]
10233 <literal><muttng-doc:hook name="save"/></literal> <emphasis>regexp</emphasis> <emphasis>filename</emphasis>
10239 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="score"/> </literal> <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> <emphasis>value</emphasis>
10245 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="unscore"/></literal> <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> [ <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> ... ]
10251 <literal><muttng-doc:hook name="send"/></literal> <emphasis>regexp</emphasis> <emphasis>command</emphasis>
10257 <literal><muttng-doc:hook name="reply"/></literal> <emphasis>regexp</emphasis> <emphasis>command</emphasis>
10263 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="set"/></literal> [no|inv]<emphasis>variable</emphasis>[ =<emphasis>value</emphasis> ] [ <emphasis>variable</emphasis> ... ]
10269 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="unset"/></literal> <emphasis>variable</emphasis> [ <emphasis>variable</emphasis> ... ]
10275 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="source"/></literal> <emphasis>filename</emphasis>
10281 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="spam"/></literal> <emphasis>pattern</emphasis> <emphasis>format</emphasis>
10287 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="nospam"/></literal> <emphasis>pattern</emphasis>
10293 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="subscribe"/></literal> <emphasis>regexp</emphasis> [ <emphasis>regexp</emphasis> ... ]
10299 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="unsubscribe"/></literal> <emphasis>regexp</emphasis> [ <emphasis>regexp</emphasis> ... ]
10305 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="toggle"/></literal> <emphasis>variable</emphasis> [ <emphasis>variable</emphasis> ... ]
10311 <literal><muttng-doc:cmdref name="unhook"/></literal> <emphasis>hook-type</emphasis>
10321 <sect1 id="variables">
10322 <title>Configuration variables</title>
10325 The following list contains all variables which, in the process of
10326 providing more consistency, have been renamed and are partially even
10327 removed already. The left column contains the old synonym variables,
10328 the right column the full/new name:
10332 <anchor id="sect-obsolete"/>
10334 <table frame="none" rowsep="1">
10335 <title>Reference: Obsolete Variables</title>
10336 <tgroup cols="2" align="left" colsep="1" rowsep="1">
10339 <entry>Old Name</entry>
10340 <entry>New Name</entry>
10345 <entry><literal>edit_hdrs</literal></entry>
10346 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="edit-headers"/></entry>
10349 <entry><literal>forw_decode</literal></entry>
10350 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="forward-decode"/></entry>
10353 <entry><literal>forw_format</literal></entry>
10354 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="forward-format"/></entry>
10357 <entry><literal>forw_quote</literal></entry>
10358 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="forward-quote"/></entry>
10361 <entry><literal>hdr_format</literal></entry>
10362 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="index-format"/></entry>
10365 <entry><literal>indent_str</literal></entry>
10366 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="indent-string"/></entry>
10369 <entry><literal>mime_fwd</literal></entry>
10370 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="mime-forward"/></entry>
10373 <entry><literal>msg_format</literal></entry>
10374 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="message-format"/></entry>
10377 <entry><literal>pgp_autosign</literal></entry>
10378 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="crypt-autosign"/></entry>
10381 <entry><literal>pgp_autoencrypt</literal></entry>
10382 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="crypt-autoencrypt"/></entry>
10385 <entry><literal>pgp_replyencrypt</literal></entry>
10386 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="crypt-replyencrypt"/></entry>
10389 <entry><literal>pgp_replysign</literal></entry>
10390 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="crypt-replysign"/></entry>
10393 <entry><literal>pgp_replysignencrypted</literal></entry>
10394 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="crypt-replysignencrypted"/></entry>
10397 <entry><literal>pgp_verify_sig</literal></entry>
10398 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="crypt-verify-sig"/></entry>
10401 <entry><literal>pgp_create_traditional</literal></entry>
10402 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="pgp-autoinline"/></entry>
10405 <entry><literal>pgp_auto_traditional</literal></entry>
10406 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="pgp-replyinline"/></entry>
10409 <entry><literal>forw_decrypt</literal></entry>
10410 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="forward-decrypt"/></entry>
10413 <entry><literal>smime_sign_as</literal></entry>
10414 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="smime-default-key"/></entry>
10417 <entry><literal>post_indent_str</literal></entry>
10418 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="post-indent-string"/></entry>
10421 <entry><literal>print_cmd</literal></entry>
10422 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="print-command"/></entry>
10425 <entry><literal>shorten_hierarchy</literal></entry>
10426 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="sidebar-shorten-hierarchy"/></entry>
10429 <entry><literal>ask_followup_to</literal></entry>
10430 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="nntp-ask-followup-to"/></entry>
10433 <entry><literal>ask_x_comment_to</literal></entry>
10434 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="nntp-ask-x-comment-to"/></entry>
10437 <entry><literal>catchup_newsgroup</literal></entry>
10438 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="nntp-catchup"/></entry>
10441 <entry><literal>followup_to_poster</literal></entry>
10442 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="nntp-followup-to-poster"/></entry>
10445 <entry><literal>group_index_format</literal></entry>
10446 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="nntp-group-index-format"/></entry>
10449 <entry><literal>inews</literal></entry>
10450 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="nntp-inews"/></entry>
10453 <entry><literal>mime_subject</literal></entry>
10454 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="nntp-mime-subject"/></entry>
10457 <entry><literal>news_cache_dir</literal></entry>
10458 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="nntp-cache-dir"/></entry>
10461 <entry><literal>news_server</literal></entry>
10462 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="nntp-host"/></entry>
10465 <entry><literal>newsrc</literal></entry>
10466 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="nntp-newsrc"/></entry>
10469 <entry><literal>nntp_poll</literal></entry>
10470 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="nntp-mail-check"/></entry>
10473 <entry><literal>pop_checkinterval</literal></entry>
10474 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="pop-mail-check"/></entry>
10477 <entry><literal>post_moderated</literal></entry>
10478 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="nntp-post-moderated"/></entry>
10481 <entry><literal>save_unsubscribed</literal></entry>
10482 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="nntp-save-unsubscribed"/></entry>
10485 <entry><literal>show_new_news</literal></entry>
10486 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="nntp-show-new-news"/></entry>
10489 <entry><literal>show_only_unread</literal></entry>
10490 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="nntp-show-only-unread"/></entry>
10493 <entry><literal>x_comment_to</literal></entry>
10494 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="nntp-x-comment-to"/></entry>
10497 <entry><literal>smtp_auth_username</literal></entry>
10498 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="smtp-user"/></entry>
10501 <entry><literal>smtp_auth_password</literal></entry>
10502 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="smtp-pass"/></entry>
10505 <entry><literal>user_agent</literal></entry>
10506 <entry><muttng-doc:varref name="agent-string"/></entry>
10515 The <literal>contrib</literal> subdirectory contains a script named
10516 <literal>update-config.pl</literal> which eases migration.
10520 A complete list of current variables follows.