X-Git-Url: http://git.madism.org/?a=blobdiff_plain;f=doc%2Fmanual.txt;h=39aee79e85a69832db4309a7eac5804198bd7d41;hb=6ae7bf50506bd40e5469719299464bdf5bc867bd;hp=bef333fb4fb48c381a1f05821208f21195d4829c;hpb=9d2f1c9b6d2984bb6ee3e0a6c1709a678a801776;p=apps%2Fmadmutt.git diff --git a/doc/manual.txt b/doc/manual.txt index bef333f..39aee79 100644 --- a/doc/manual.txt +++ b/doc/manual.txt @@ -1,8568 +1,7021 @@ - TThhee MMuutttt--nngg EE--MMaaiill CClliieenntt +The Mutt Next Generation E-Mail Client + +by Andreas Krennmair and others originally based on mutt by Michael Elkins and others + + version devel-r473 + + Abstract + + Michael Elinks on mutt, circa 1995: ``All mail clients suck. This one just sucks less.'' - Sven Guckes on mutt, ca. 2003: ``But it still sucks!'' + _________________________________________________________________ + + Table of Contents + + 1. Introduction + + 1. Overview + 2. Mutt-ng Home Page + 3. Mailing Lists + 4. Software Distribution Sites + 5. IRC + 6. Weblog + 7. Copyright + + 2. Getting Started + + 1. Basic Concepts + + 1.1. Screens and Menus + 1.2. Configuration + 1.3. Functions + 1.4. Interaction + 1.5. Modularization + 1.6. Patterns + + 2. Screens and Menus + + 2.1. Index + 2.2. Pager + 2.3. File Browser + 2.4. Sidebar + 2.5. Help + 2.6. Compose Menu + 2.7. Alias Menu + 2.8. Attachment Menu + 2.9. Key Menu + + 3. Moving Around in Menus + 4. Editing Input Fields + 5. Reading Mail - The Index and Pager + + 5.1. The Message Index + 5.2. The Pager + 5.3. Threaded Mode + 5.4. Miscellaneous Functions + + 6. Sending Mail + + 6.1. Composing new messages + 6.2. Replying + 6.3. Editing the message header + 6.4. Using Mutt-ng with PGP + 6.5. Sending anonymous messages via mixmaster + + 7. Forwarding and Bouncing Mail + 8. Postponing Mail + + 3. Configuration + + 1. Locations of Configuration Files + 2. Basic Syntax of Initialization Files + 3. Expansion within variables + + 3.1. Commands' Output + 3.2. Environment Variables + 3.3. Configuration Variables + 3.4. Self-Defined Variables + 3.5. Pre-Defined Variables + 3.6. Type Conversions - by Michael Elkins and others. + 4. Defining/Using aliases + 5. Changing the default key bindings + 6. Defining aliases for character sets + 7. Setting variables based upon mailbox + 8. Keyboard macros + 9. Using color and mono video attributes + 10. Ignoring (weeding) unwanted message headers + 11. Alternative addresses + 12. Format = Flowed + + 12.1. Introduction + 12.2. Receiving: Display Setup + 12.3. Sending + 12.4. Additional Notes - version 1.5.9 + 13. Mailing lists + 14. Using Multiple spool mailboxes + 15. Defining mailboxes which receive mail + 16. User defined headers + 17. Defining the order of headers when viewing messages + 18. Specify default save filename + 19. Specify default Fcc: mailbox when composing + 20. Specify default save filename and default Fcc: mailbox at once + 21. Change settings based upon message recipients + 22. Change settings before formatting a message + 23. Choosing the cryptographic key of the recipient + 24. Adding key sequences to the keyboard buffer + 25. Executing functions + 26. Message Scoring + 27. Spam detection + 28. Setting variables + 29. Reading initialization commands from another file + 30. Removing hooks + 31. Sharing Setups + + 31.1. Character Sets + 31.2. Modularization + 31.3. Conditional parts + + 32. Obsolete Variables + + 4. Advanced Usage + + 1. Regular Expressions + 2. Patterns + + 2.1. Complex Patterns + 2.2. Patterns and Dates + + 3. Format Strings + + 3.1. Introduction + 3.2. Conditional Expansion + 3.3. Modifications and Padding + + 4. Using Tags + 5. Using Hooks + + 5.1. Message Matching in Hooks + + 6. Using the sidebar + 7. External Address Queries + 8. Mailbox Formats + 9. Mailbox Shortcuts + 10. Handling Mailing Lists + 11. Editing threads - AAbbssttrraacctt + 11.1. Linking threads + 11.2. Breaking threads - ``All mail clients suck. This one just sucks less.'' -me, circa 1995 + 12. Delivery Status Notification (DSN) Support + 13. POP3 Support (OPTIONAL) + 14. IMAP Support (OPTIONAL) - _1_. _I_n_t_r_o_d_u_c_t_i_o_n + 14.1. The Folder Browser + 14.2. Authentication - MMuutttt--nngg is a small but very powerful text-based MIME mail client. Mutt-ng is - highly configurable, and is well suited to the mail power user with advanced - features like key bindings, keyboard macros, mail threading, regular expression - searches and a powerful pattern matching language for selecting groups of mes- - sages. + 15. NNTP Support (OPTIONAL) - This documentation additionally contains documentation to MMuutttt--NNGG, a fork from - Mutt with the goal to fix all the little annoyances of Mutt, to integrate all - the Mutt patches that are floating around in the web, and to add other new fea- - tures. Features specific to Mutt-ng will be discussed in an extra section. - Don't be confused when most of the documentation talk about Mutt and not Mutt- - ng, Mutt-ng contains all Mutt features, plus many more. + 15.1. Again: Scoring - _1_._1 _M_u_t_t_-_n_g _H_o_m_e _P_a_g_e + 16. SMTP Support (OPTIONAL) + 17. Managing multiple IMAP/POP/NNTP accounts (OPTIONAL) + 18. Start a WWW Browser on URLs (EXTERNAL) + 19. Compressed folders Support (OPTIONAL) - http://www.muttng.org + 19.1. Open a compressed mailbox for reading + 19.2. Write a compressed mailbox + 19.3. Append a message to a compressed mailbox + 19.4. Encrypted folders - _1_._2 _M_a_i_l_i_n_g _L_i_s_t_s + 5. Mutt-ng's MIME Support - +o mutt-ng-users@lists.berlios.de -- This is where the mutt-ng user support - happens. + 1. Using MIME in Mutt - +o mutt-ng-devel@lists.berlios.de -- The development mailing list for mutt-ng + 1.1. Viewing MIME messages in the pager + 1.2. The Attachment Menu + 1.3. The Compose Menu - _1_._3 _S_o_f_t_w_a_r_e _D_i_s_t_r_i_b_u_t_i_o_n _S_i_t_e_s + 2. MIME Type configuration with mime.types + 3. MIME Viewer configuration with mailcap - So far, there are no official releases of Mutt-ng, but you can download daily - snapshots from http://mutt-ng.berlios.de/snapshots/ + 3.1. The Basics of the mailcap file + 3.2. Secure use of mailcap + 3.3. Advanced mailcap Usage + 3.4. Example mailcap files - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 1 + 4. MIME Autoview + 5. MIME Multipart/Alternative + 6. MIME Lookup - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 2 + 6. Security Considerations - _1_._4 _I_R_C + 1. Passwords + 2. Temporary Files + 3. Information Leaks - Visit channel _#_m_u_t_t_n_g on irc.freenode.net (www.freenode.net) to chat with other - people interested in Mutt-ng. + 3.1. Message-ID: headers + 3.2. mailto:-style links - _1_._5 _W_e_b_l_o_g + 4. External applications - If you want to read fresh news about the latest development in Mutt-ng, and get - informed about stuff like interesting, Mutt-ng-related articles and packages - for your favorite distribution, you can read and/or subscribe to our Mutt-ng - development weblog. + 4.1. mailcap + 4.2. Other - _1_._6 _C_o_p_y_r_i_g_h_t + 7. Reference - Mutt is Copyright (C) 1996-2000 Michael R. Elkins and others + 1. Command line options + 2. Patterns + 3. Configuration Commands + 4. Configuration variables + 5. Functions - This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under - the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software - Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later ver- - sion. + 5.1. generic + 5.2. index + 5.3. pager + 5.4. alias + 5.5. query + 5.6. attach + 5.7. compose + 5.8. postpone + 5.9. browser + 5.10. pgp + 5.11. editor - This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY - WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A - PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. + 8. Miscellany - You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with - this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple - Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111, USA. + 1. Acknowledgments - _2_. _G_e_t_t_i_n_g _S_t_a_r_t_e_d +Chapter 1. Introduction - This section is intended as a brief overview of how to use Mutt-ng. There are - many other features which are described elsewhere in the manual. <-- There is - even more information available in the Mutt FAQ and various web pages. See the - Mutt Page for more details. --> + Table of Contents - The key bindings described in this section are the defaults as distributed. - Your local system administrator may have altered the defaults for your site. - You can always type ``?'' in any menu to display the current bindings. - - The first thing you need to do is invoke mutt-ng simply by typing muttng at the - command line. There are various command-line options, see either the muttng - man page or the _r_e_f_e_r_e_n_c_e (section 6.1 , page 62). + 1. Overview + 2. Mutt-ng Home Page + 3. Mailing Lists + 4. Software Distribution Sites + 5. IRC + 6. Weblog + 7. Copyright - If you have used mutt in the past the easiest thing to have a proper configura- - tion file is to source /.muttrc in /.muttngrc. +1. Overview - _2_._1 _M_o_v_i_n_g _A_r_o_u_n_d _i_n _M_e_n_u_s + Mutt-ng is a small but very powerful text-based MIME mail client. Mutt-ng is highly configurable, and is well suited to the mail power user with advanced features like key bindings, keyboard macros, mail threading, regular expression searches and a powerful pattern matching language for selecting groups of messages. - Information is presented in menus, very similar to ELM. Here is a table show- - ing the common keys used to navigate menus in Mutt. + This documentation additionally contains documentation to Mutt-NG, a fork from Mutt with the goal to fix all the little annoyances of Mutt, to integrate all the Mutt patches that are floating around in the web, and to add other new features. Features specific to Mutt-ng will be discussed in an extra section. Don't be confused when most of the documentation talk about Mutt and not Mutt-ng, Mutt-ng contains all Mutt features, plus many more. - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 3 +2. Mutt-ng Home Page - j or Down next-entry move to the next entry - k or Up previous-entry move to the previous entry - z or PageDn page-down go to the next page - Z or PageUp page-up go to the previous page - = or Home first-entry jump to the first entry - * or End last-entry jump to the last entry - q quit exit the current menu - ? help list all key bindings for the current menu + http://www.muttng.org - _2_._2 _E_d_i_t_i_n_g _I_n_p_u_t _F_i_e_l_d_s +3. Mailing Lists - Mutt-ng has a builtin line editor which is used as the primary way to input - textual data such as email addresses or filenames. The keys used to move - around while editing are very similar to those of Emacs. - - ^A or bol move to the start of the line - ^B or backward-char move back one char - Esc B backward-word move back one word - ^D or delete-char delete the char under the cursor - ^E or eol move to the end of the line - ^F or forward-char move forward one char - Esc F forward-word move forward one word - complete complete filename or alias - ^T complete-query complete address with query - ^K kill-eol delete to the end of the line - ESC d kill-eow delete to the end ot the word - ^W kill-word kill the word in front of the cursor - ^U kill-line delete entire line - ^V quote-char quote the next typed key - history-up recall previous string from history - history-down recall next string from history - backspace kill the char in front of the cursor - Esc u upcase-word convert word to upper case - Esc l downcase-word convert word to lower case - Esc c capitalize-word capitalize the word - ^G n/a abort - n/a finish editing + * mutt-ng-users@lists.berlios.de -- This is where the mutt-ng user support happens. + * mutt-ng-devel@lists.berlios.de -- The development mailing list for mutt-ng - You can remap the _e_d_i_t_o_r functions using the _b_i_n_d (section 3.3 , page 17) com- - mand. For example, to make the _D_e_l_e_t_e key delete the character in front of the - cursor rather than under, you could use +4. Software Distribution Sites - bind editor backspace + So far, there are no official releases of Mutt-ng, but you can download daily snapshots from http://mutt-ng.berlios.de/snapshots/ - _2_._3 _R_e_a_d_i_n_g _M_a_i_l _- _T_h_e _I_n_d_e_x _a_n_d _P_a_g_e_r +5. IRC - Similar to many other mail clients, there are two modes in which mail is read - in Mutt-ng. The first is the index of messages in the mailbox, which is called - the ``index'' in Mutt. The second mode is the display of the message contents. - This is called the ``pager.'' + Visit channel #muttng on irc.freenode.net (www.freenode.net) to chat with other people interested in Mutt-ng. - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 4 +6. Weblog - The next few sections describe the functions provided in each of these modes. + If you want to read fresh news about the latest development in Mutt-ng, and get informed about stuff like interesting, Mutt-ng-related articles and packages for your favorite distribution, you can read and/or subscribe to our Mutt-ng development weblog. - _2_._3_._1 _T_h_e _M_e_s_s_a_g_e _I_n_d_e_x +7. Copyright - c change to a different mailbox - ESC c change to a folder in read-only mode - C copy the current message to another mailbox - ESC C decode a message and copy it to a folder - ESC s decode a message and save it to a folder - D delete messages matching a pattern - d delete the current message - F mark as important - l show messages matching a pattern - N mark message as new - o change the current sort method - O reverse sort the mailbox - q save changes and exit - s save-message - T tag messages matching a pattern - t toggle the tag on a message - ESC t toggle tag on entire message thread - U undelete messages matching a pattern - u undelete-message - v view-attachments - x abort changes and exit - display-message - jump to the next new message - @ show the author's full e-mail address - $ save changes to mailbox - / search - ESC / search-reverse - ^L clear and redraw the screen - ^T untag messages matching a pattern - - _2_._3_._1_._1 _S_t_a_t_u_s _F_l_a_g_s - - In addition to who sent the message and the subject, a short summary of the - disposition of each message is printed beside the message number. Zero or more - of the following ``flags'' may appear, which mean: - - D - message is deleted (is marked for deletion) - - d - message have attachments marked for deletion - - K - contains a PGP public key - - N - message is new - - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 5 - - O - message is old - - P - message is PGP encrypted - - r - message has been replied to - - S - message is signed, and the signature is succesfully verified - - s - message is signed - - ! - message is flagged - - * - message is tagged - - Some of the status flags can be turned on or off using - - +o sseett--ffllaagg (default: w) - - +o cclleeaarr--ffllaagg (default: W) - - Furthermore, the following flags reflect who the message is addressed to. They - can be customized with the _$_t_o___c_h_a_r_s (section 6.3.313 , page 141) variable. - - + - message is to you and you only - - T - message is to you, but also to or cc'ed to others - - C - message is cc'ed to you - - F - message is from you - - L - message is sent to a subscribed mailing list - - _2_._3_._2 _T_h_e _P_a_g_e_r - - By default, Mutt-ng uses its builtin pager to display the body of messages. - The pager is very similar to the Unix program _l_e_s_s though not nearly as fea- - tureful. - - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 6 - - go down one line - display the next page (or next message if at the end of a message) - - go back to the previous page - n search for next match - S skip beyond quoted text - T toggle display of quoted text - ? show key bindings - / search for a regular expression (pattern) - ESC / search backwards for a regular expression - \ toggle search pattern coloring - ^ jump to the top of the message - - In addition, many of the functions from the _i_n_d_e_x are available in the pager, - such as _d_e_l_e_t_e_-_m_e_s_s_a_g_e or _c_o_p_y_-_m_e_s_s_a_g_e (this is one advantage over using an - external pager to view messages). - - Also, the internal pager supports a couple other advanced features. For one, it - will accept and translate the ``standard'' nroff sequences for bold and under- - line. These sequences are a series of either the letter, backspace (^H), the - letter again for bold or the letter, backspace, ``_'' for denoting underline. - Mutt-ng will attempt to display these in bold and underline respectively if - your terminal supports them. If not, you can use the bold and underline _c_o_l_o_r - (section 3.7 , page 21) objects to specify a color or mono attribute for them. + Mutt is Copyright (C) 1996-2000 Michael R. Elkins and others - Additionally, the internal pager supports the ANSI escape sequences for charac- - ter attributes. Mutt-ng translates them into the correct color and character - settings. The sequences Mutt-ng supports are: + This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. - ESC [ Ps;Ps;Ps;...;Ps m - where Ps = - 0 All Attributes Off - 1 Bold on - 4 Underline on - 5 Blink on - 7 Reverse video on - 3x Foreground color is x - 4x Background color is x + This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. - Colors are - 0 black - 1 red - 2 green - 3 yellow - 4 blue - 5 magenta - 6 cyan - 7 white - - Mutt-ng uses these attributes for handling text/enriched messages, and they can - also be used by an external _a_u_t_o_v_i_e_w (section 5.4 , page 60) script for high- - lighting purposes. NNoottee:: If you change the colors for your display, for + You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111, USA. - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 7 - - example by changing the color associated with color2 for your xterm, then that - color will be used instead of green. - - _2_._3_._3 _T_h_r_e_a_d_e_d _M_o_d_e +Chapter 2. Getting Started - When the mailbox is _s_o_r_t_e_d (section 6.3.285 , page 133) by _t_h_r_e_a_d_s, there are - a few additional functions available in the _i_n_d_e_x and _p_a_g_e_r modes. + Table of Contents - ^D delete-thread delete all messages in the current thread - ^U undelete-thread undelete all messages in the current thread - ^N next-thread jump to the start of the next thread - ^P previous-thread jump to the start of the previous thread - ^R read-thread mark the current thread as read - ESC d delete-subthread delete all messages in the current subthread - ESC u undelete-subthread undelete all messages in the current subthread - ESC n next-subthread jump to the start of the next subthread - ESC p previous-subthread jump to the start of the previous subthread - ESC r read-subthread mark the current subthread as read - ESC t tag-thread toggle the tag on the current thread - ESC v collapse-thread toggle collapse for the current thread - ESC V collapse-all toggle collapse for all threads - P parent-message jump to parent message in thread - - NNoottee:: Collapsing a thread displays only the first message in the thread and - hides the others. This is useful when threads contain so many messages that you - can only see a handful of threads on the screen. See %M in _$_i_n_d_e_x___f_o_r_m_a_t (sec- - tion 6.3.112 , page 91). For example, you could use "%?M?(#%03M)&(%4l)?" in - _$_i_n_d_e_x___f_o_r_m_a_t (section 6.3.112 , page 91) to optionally display the number of - hidden messages if the thread is collapsed. - - See also: _$_s_t_r_i_c_t___t_h_r_e_a_d_s (section 6.3.302 , page 139). - - _2_._3_._4 _M_i_s_c_e_l_l_a_n_e_o_u_s _F_u_n_c_t_i_o_n_s - - ccrreeaattee--aalliiaass - (default: a) - - Creates a new alias based upon the current message (or prompts for a new one). - Once editing is complete, an _a_l_i_a_s (section 3.2 , page 16) command is added to - the file specified by the _$_a_l_i_a_s___f_i_l_e (section 6.3.3 , page 65) variable for - future use. NNoottee:: Specifying an _$_a_l_i_a_s___f_i_l_e (section 6.3.3 , page 65) does not - add the aliases specified there-in, you must also _s_o_u_r_c_e (section 3.26 , page - 32) the file. - - cchheecckk--ttrraaddiittiioonnaall--ppggpp - (default: ESC P) - - This function will search the current message for content signed or encrypted - with PGP the "traditional" way, that is, without proper MIME tagging. Techni- - cally, this function will temporarily change the MIME content types of the body - parts containing PGP data; this is similar to the _e_d_i_t_-_t_y_p_e (section 2.3.4 , - page 8) function's effect. - - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 8 - - ddiissppllaayy--ttooggggllee--wweeeedd - (default: h) - - Toggles the weeding of message header fields specified by _i_g_n_o_r_e (section - 3.8 , page 23) commands. - - eeddiitt - (default: e) - - This command (available in the ``index'' and ``pager'') allows you to edit the - raw current message as it's present in the mail folder. After you have fin- - ished editing, the changed message will be appended to the current folder, and - the original message will be marked for deletion. + 1. Basic Concepts - eeddiitt--ttyyppee - - (default: ^E on the attachment menu, and in the pager and index menus; ^T on - the compose menu) - - This command is used to temporarily edit an attachment's content type to fix, - for instance, bogus character set parameters. When invoked from the index or - from the pager, you'll have the opportunity to edit the top-level attachment's - content type. On the _a_t_t_a_c_h_m_e_n_t _m_e_n_u (section 5.1.2 , page 53), you can - change any attachment's content type. These changes are not persistent, and get - lost upon changing folders. + 1.1. Screens and Menus + 1.2. Configuration + 1.3. Functions + 1.4. Interaction + 1.5. Modularization + 1.6. Patterns - Note that this command is also available on the _c_o_m_p_o_s_e _m_e_n_u (section 5.1.3 , - page 53). There, it's used to fine-tune the properties of attachments you are - going to send. - - eenntteerr--ccoommmmaanndd - (default: ``:'') - - This command is used to execute any command you would normally put in a config- - uration file. A common use is to check the settings of variables, or in con- - junction with _m_a_c_r_o_s (section 3.6 , page 20) to change settings on the fly. + 2. Screens and Menus - eexxttrraacctt--kkeeyyss - (default: ^K) - - This command extracts PGP public keys from the current or tagged message(s) and - adds them to your PGP public key ring. - - ffoorrggeett--ppaasssspphhrraassee - (default: ^F) - - This command wipes the passphrase(s) from memory. It is useful, if you mis- - spelled the passphrase. - - lliisstt--rreeppllyy - (default: L) - - Reply to the current or tagged message(s) by extracting any addresses which - - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 9 - - match the regular expressions given by the _l_i_s_t_s _o_r _s_u_b_s_c_r_i_b_e (section 3.10 , - page 24) commands, but also honor any Mail-Followup-To header(s) if the - _$_h_o_n_o_r___f_o_l_l_o_w_u_p___t_o (section 6.3.91 , page 86) configuration variable is set. - Using this when replying to messages posted to mailing lists helps avoid dupli- - cate copies being sent to the author of the message you are replying to. - - ppiippee--mmeessssaaggee - (default: |) - - Asks for an external Unix command and pipes the current or tagged message(s) to - it. The variables _$_p_i_p_e___d_e_c_o_d_e (section 6.3.192 , page 112), _$_p_i_p_e___s_p_l_i_t - (section 6.3.194 , page 112), _$_p_i_p_e___s_e_p (section 6.3.193 , page 112) and - _$_w_a_i_t___k_e_y (section 6.3.325 , page 144) control the exact behavior of this - function. - - rreesseenndd--mmeessssaaggee - (default: ESC e) - - With resend-message, mutt takes the current message as a template for a new - message. This function is best described as "recall from arbitrary folders". - It can conveniently be used to forward MIME messages while preserving the orig- - inal mail structure. Note that the amount of headers included here depends on - the value of the _$_w_e_e_d (section 6.3.326 , page 144) variable. - - This function is also available from the attachment menu. You can use this to - easily resend a message which was included with a bounce message as a mes- - sage/rfc822 body part. - - sshheellll--eessccaappee - (default: !) - - Asks for an external Unix command and executes it. The _$_w_a_i_t___k_e_y (section - 6.3.325 , page 144) can be used to control whether Mutt-ng will wait for a key - to be pressed when the command returns (presumably to let the user read the - output of the command), based on the return status of the named command. - - ttooggggllee--qquuootteedd - (default: T) - - The _p_a_g_e_r uses the _$_q_u_o_t_e___r_e_g_e_x_p (section 6.3.218 , page 118) variable to - detect quoted text when displaying the body of the message. This function tog- - gles the display of the quoted material in the message. It is particularly - useful when are interested in just the response and there is a large amount of - quoted text in the way. - - sskkiipp--qquuootteedd - (default: S) - - This function will go to the next line of non-quoted text which come after a - line of quoted text in the internal pager. + 2.1. Index + 2.2. Pager + 2.3. File Browser + 2.4. Sidebar + 2.5. Help + 2.6. Compose Menu + 2.7. Alias Menu + 2.8. Attachment Menu + 2.9. Key Menu - _2_._4 _S_e_n_d_i_n_g _M_a_i_l + 3. Moving Around in Menus + 4. Editing Input Fields + 5. Reading Mail - The Index and Pager - The following bindings are available in the _i_n_d_e_x for sending messages. + 5.1. The Message Index + 5.2. The Pager + 5.3. Threaded Mode + 5.4. Miscellaneous Functions - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 10 + 6. Sending Mail - m compose compose a new message - r reply reply to sender - g group-reply reply to all recipients - L list-reply reply to mailing list address - f forward forward message - b bounce bounce (remail) message - ESC k mail-key mail a PGP public key to someone + 6.1. Composing new messages + 6.2. Replying + 6.3. Editing the message header + 6.4. Using Mutt-ng with PGP + 6.5. Sending anonymous messages via mixmaster - Bouncing a message sends the message as is to the recipient you specify. For- - warding a message allows you to add comments or modify the message you are for- - warding. These items are discussed in greater detail in the next chapter - _`_`_F_o_r_w_a_r_d_i_n_g _a_n_d _B_o_u_n_c_i_n_g _M_a_i_l_'_' (section 2.5 , page 13). + 7. Forwarding and Bouncing Mail + 8. Postponing Mail - Mutt-ng will then enter the _c_o_m_p_o_s_e menu and prompt you for the recipients to - place on the ``To:'' header field. Next, it will ask you for the ``Subject:'' - field for the message, providing a default if you are replying to or forwarding - a message. See also _$_a_s_k_c_c (section 6.3.12 , page 67), _$_a_s_k_b_c_c (section - 6.3.11 , page 67), _$_a_u_t_o_e_d_i_t (section 6.3.19 , page 69), _$_b_o_u_n_c_e (section - 6.3.22 , page 70), and _$_f_a_s_t___r_e_p_l_y (section 6.3.61 , page 78) for changing - how Mutt asks these questions. +1. Basic Concepts - Mutt will then automatically start your _$_e_d_i_t_o_r (section 6.3.57 , page 77) on - the message body. If the _$_e_d_i_t___h_e_a_d_e_r_s (section 6.3.56 , page 77) variable is - set, the headers will be at the top of the message in your editor. Any mes- - sages you are replying to will be added in sort order to the message, with - appropriate _$_a_t_t_r_i_b_u_t_i_o_n (section 6.3.17 , page 69), _$_i_n_d_e_n_t___s_t_r_i_n_g (section - 6.3.111 , page 90) and _$_p_o_s_t___i_n_d_e_n_t___s_t_r_i_n_g (section 6.3.204 , page 115). - When forwarding a message, if the _$_m_i_m_e___f_o_r_w_a_r_d (section 6.3.139 , page 98) - variable is unset, a copy of the forwarded message will be included. If you - have specified a _$_s_i_g_n_a_t_u_r_e (section 6.3.255 , page 126), it will be appended - to the message. - - Once you have finished editing the body of your mail message, you are returned - to the _c_o_m_p_o_s_e menu. The following options are available: - - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 11 - - a attach-file attach a file - A attach-message attach message(s) to the message - ESC k attach-key attach a PGP public key - d edit-description edit description on attachment - D detach-file detach a file - t edit-to edit the To field - ESC f edit-from edit the From field - r edit-reply-to edit the Reply-To field - c edit-cc edit the Cc field - b edit-bcc edit the Bcc field - y send-message send the message - s edit-subject edit the Subject - S smime-menu select S/MIME options - f edit-fcc specify an ``Fcc'' mailbox - p pgp-menu select PGP options - P postpone-message postpone this message until later - q quit quit (abort) sending the message - w write-fcc write the message to a folder - i ispell check spelling (if available on your system) - ^F forget-passphrase wipe passphrase(s) from memory - - NNoottee:: The attach-message function will prompt you for a folder to attach mes- - sages from. You can now tag messages in that folder and they will be attached - to the message you are sending. Note that certain operations like composing a - new mail, replying, forwarding, etc. are not permitted when you are in that - folder. The %r in _$_s_t_a_t_u_s___f_o_r_m_a_t (section 6.3.299 , page 137) will change to a - 'A' to indicate that you are in attach-message mode. - - _2_._4_._1 _E_d_i_t_i_n_g _t_h_e _m_e_s_s_a_g_e _h_e_a_d_e_r - - When editing the header of your outgoing message, there are a couple of special - features available. - - If you specify - - Fcc: _f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e - - Mutt will pick up _f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e just as if you had used the _e_d_i_t_-_f_c_c function in the - _c_o_m_p_o_s_e menu. - - You can also attach files to your message by specifying - - Attach: _f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e [ _d_e_s_c_r_i_p_t_i_o_n ] - - where _f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e is the file to attach and _d_e_s_c_r_i_p_t_i_o_n is an optional string to - use as the description of the attached file. - - When replying to messages, if you remove the _I_n_-_R_e_p_l_y_-_T_o_: field from the header - field, Mutt will not generate a _R_e_f_e_r_e_n_c_e_s_: field, which allows you to create a - new message thread. - - Also see _e_d_i_t___h_e_a_d_e_r_s (section 6.3.56 , page 77). - - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 12 - - _2_._4_._2 _U_s_i_n_g _M_u_t_t _w_i_t_h _P_G_P - - If you want to use PGP, you can specify - - Pgp: [ E | S | S_<_i_d_> ] - - ``E'' encrypts, ``S'' signs and ``S'' signs with the given key, setting - _$_p_g_p___s_i_g_n___a_s (section 6.3.184 , page 110) permanently. - - If you have told mutt to PGP encrypt a message, it will guide you through a key - selection process when you try to send the message. Mutt will not ask you any - questions about keys which have a certified user ID matching one of the message - recipients' mail addresses. However, there may be situations in which there - are several keys, weakly certified user ID fields, or where no matching keys - can be found. - - In these cases, you are dropped into a menu with a list of keys from which you - can select one. When you quit this menu, or mutt can't find any matching keys, - you are prompted for a user ID. You can, as usually, abort this prompt using - ^G. When you do so, mutt will return to the compose screen. - - Once you have successfully finished the key selection, the message will be - encrypted using the selected public keys, and sent out. - - Most fields of the entries in the key selection menu (see also _$_p_g_p___e_n_t_r_y___f_o_r_- - _m_a_t (section 6.3.171 , page 107)) have obvious meanings. But some explana- - tions on the capabilities, flags, and validity fields are in order. - - The flags sequence (%f) will expand to one of the following flags: - - R The key has been revoked and can't be used. - X The key is expired and can't be used. - d You have marked the key as disabled. - c There are unknown critical self-signature - packets. - - The capabilities field (%c) expands to a two-character sequence representing a - key's capabilities. The first character gives the key's encryption capabili- - ties: A minus sign (--) means that the key cannot be used for encryption. A dot - (..) means that it's marked as a signature key in one of the user IDs, but may - also be used for encryption. The letter ee indicates that this key can be used - for encryption. - - The second character indicates the key's signing capabilities. Once again, a - ``--'' implies ``not for signing'', ``..'' implies that the key is marked as an - encryption key in one of the user-ids, and ``ss'' denotes a key which can be - used for signing. - - Finally, the validity field (%t) indicates how well-certified a user-id is. A - question mark (??) indicates undefined validity, a minus character (--) marks an - untrusted association, a space character means a partially trusted association, - and a plus character (++) indicates complete validity. - - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 13 +1.1. Screens and Menus - _2_._4_._3 _S_e_n_d_i_n_g _a_n_o_n_y_m_o_u_s _m_e_s_s_a_g_e_s _v_i_a _m_i_x_m_a_s_t_e_r_. + mutt-ng offers different screens of which every has its special purpose: + * The index displays the contents of the currently opened mailbox. + * The pager is responsible for displaying messages, that is, the header, the body and all attached parts. + * The file browser offers operations on and displays information of all folders mutt-ng should watch for mail. + * The sidebar offers a permanent view of which mailboxes contain how many total, new and/or flagged mails. + * The help screen lists for all currently available commands how to invoke them as well as a short description. + * The compose menu is a comfortable interface take last actions before sending mail: change subjects, attach files, remove attachements, etc. + * The attachement menu gives a summary and the tree structure of the attachements of the current message. + * The alias menu lists all or a fraction of the aliases a user has defined. + * The key menu used in connection with encryption lets users choose the right key to encrypt with. - You may also have configured mutt to co-operate with Mixmaster, an anonymous - remailer. Mixmaster permits you to send your messages anonymously using a - chain of remailers. Mixmaster support in mutt is for mixmaster version 2.04 - (beta 45 appears to be the latest) and 2.03. It does not support earlier ver- - sions or the later so-called version 3 betas, of which the latest appears to be - called 2.9b23. + When mutt-ng is started without any further options, it'll open the users default mailbox and display the index. - To use it, you'll have to obey certain restrictions. Most important, you can- - not use the Cc and Bcc headers. To tell Mutt to use mixmaster, you have to - select a remailer chain, using the mix function on the compose menu. +1.2. Configuration - The chain selection screen is divided into two parts. In the (larger) upper - part, you get a list of remailers you may use. In the lower part, you see the - currently selected chain of remailers. + Mutt-ng does not feature an internal configuration interface or menu due to the simple fact that this would be too complex to handle (currently there are several hundred variables which fine-tune the behaviour.) - You can navigate in the chain using the chain-prev and chain-next functions, - which are by default bound to the left and right arrows and to the h and l keys - (think vi keyboard bindings). To insert a remailer at the current chain posi- - tion, use the insert function. To append a remailer behind the current chain - position, use select-entry or append. You can also delete entries from the - chain, using the corresponding function. Finally, to abandon your changes, - leave the menu, or accept them pressing (by default) the Return key. + Mutt-ng is configured using configuration files which allow users to add comments or manage them via version control systems to ease maintenance. - Note that different remailers do have different capabilities, indicated in the - %c entry of the remailer menu lines (see _$_m_i_x___e_n_t_r_y___f_o_r_m_a_t (section 6.3.143 , - page 99)). Most important is the ``middleman'' capability, indicated by a cap- - ital ``M'': This means that the remailer in question cannot be used as the - final element of a chain, but will only forward messages to other mixmaster - remailers. For details on the other capabilities, please have a look at the - mixmaster documentation. - - _2_._5 _F_o_r_w_a_r_d_i_n_g _a_n_d _B_o_u_n_c_i_n_g _M_a_i_l - - Bouncing and forwarding let you send an existing message to recipients that you - specify. Bouncing a message uses the _s_e_n_d_m_a_i_l (section 6.3.241 , page 123) - command to send a copy to alternative addresses as if they were the message's - original recipients. Forwarding a message, on the other hand, allows you to - modify the message before it is resent (for example, by adding your own com- - ments). - - The following keys are bound by default: - - f forward forward message - b bounce bounce (remail) message - - Forwarding can be done by including the original message in the new message's - body (surrounded by indicating lines) or including it as a MIME attachment, - depending on the value of the _$_m_i_m_e___f_o_r_w_a_r_d (section 6.3.139 , page 98) vari- - able. Decoding of attachments, like in the pager, can be controlled by the - _$_f_o_r_w_a_r_d___d_e_c_o_d_e (section 6.3.71 , page 81) and _$_m_i_m_e___f_o_r_w_a_r_d___d_e_c_o_d_e (section - - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 14 - - 6.3.140 , page 99) variables, respectively. The desired forwarding format may - depend on the content, therefore _$_m_i_m_e___f_o_r_w_a_r_d is a quadoption which, for exam- - ple, can be set to ``ask-no''. - - The inclusion of headers is controlled by the current setting of the _$_w_e_e_d - (section 6.3.326 , page 144) variable, unless _m_i_m_e___f_o_r_w_a_r_d (section 6.3.139 , - page 98) is set. - - Editing the message to forward follows the same procedure as sending or reply- - ing to a message does. - - _2_._6 _P_o_s_t_p_o_n_i_n_g _M_a_i_l - - At times it is desirable to delay sending a message that you have already begun - to compose. When the _p_o_s_t_p_o_n_e_-_m_e_s_s_a_g_e function is used in the _c_o_m_p_o_s_e menu, - the body of your message and attachments are stored in the mailbox specified by - the _$_p_o_s_t_p_o_n_e_d (section 6.3.207 , page 115) variable. This means that you can - recall the message even if you exit Mutt and then restart it at a later time. - - Once a message is postponed, there are several ways to resume it. From the - command line you can use the ``-p'' option, or if you _c_o_m_p_o_s_e a new message - from the _i_n_d_e_x or _p_a_g_e_r you will be prompted if postponed messages exist. If - multiple messages are currently postponed, the _p_o_s_t_p_o_n_e_d menu will pop up and - you can select which message you would like to resume. - - NNoottee:: If you postpone a reply to a message, the reply setting of the message is - only updated when you actually finish the message and send it. Also, you must - be in the same folder with the message you replied to for the status of the - message to be updated. - - See also the _$_p_o_s_t_p_o_n_e (section 6.3.206 , page 115) quad-option. - - _2_._7 _R_e_a_d_i_n_g _n_e_w_s _v_i_a _N_N_T_P - - If compiled with ``--enable-nntp'' option, Mutt can read news from newsserver - via NNTP. You can open a newsgroup with function ``change-newsgroup'' - (default: i). Default newsserver can be obtained from _N_N_T_P_S_E_R_V_E_R environment - variable. Like other news readers, info about subscribed newsgroups is saved - in file by _$_n_e_w_s_r_c (section 6.3.150 , page 102) variable. Article headers are - cached and can be loaded from file when newsgroup entered instead loading from - newsserver. + Also, mutt-ng comes with a shell script named grml-muttng kindly contributed by users which really helps and eases the creation of a user's configuration file. When downloading the source code via a snapshot or via subversion, it can be found in the contrib directory. - _3_. _C_o_n_f_i_g_u_r_a_t_i_o_n +1.3. Functions - While the default configuration (or ``preferences'') make Mutt-ng usable right - out of the box, it is often desirable to tailor Mutt to suit your own tastes. - When Mutt-ng is first invoked, it will attempt to read the ``system'' configu- - ration file (defaults set by your local system administrator), unless the - ``-n'' _c_o_m_m_a_n_d _l_i_n_e (section 6.1 , page 62) option is specified. This file is - typically /usr/local/share/muttng/Muttngrc or /etc/Muttngrc, Mutt-ng users will - find this file in /usr/local/share/muttng/Muttrc or /etc/Muttngrc. Mutt will - next look for a file named .muttrc in your home directory, Mutt-ng will look - for .muttngrc. If this file does not exist and your home directory has a + Mutt-ng offers great flexibility due to the use of functions: internally, every action a user can make mutt-ng perform is named ``function.'' Those functions are assigned to keys (or even key sequences) and may be completely adjusted to user's needs. The basic idea is that the impatient users get a very intuitive interface to start off with and advanced users virtually get no limits to adjustments. - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 15 +1.4. Interaction - subdirectory named .mutt, mutt try to load a file named .muttng/muttngrc. + Mutt-ng has two basic concepts of user interaction: + 1. There is one dedicated line on the screen used to query the user for input, issue any command, query variables and display error and informational messages. As for every type of user input, this requires manual action leading to the need of input. + 2. The automatized interface for interaction are the so called hooks. Hooks specify actions the user wants to be performed at well-defined situations: what to do when entering which folder, what to do when displaying or replying to what kind of message, etc. These are optional, i.e. a user doesn't need to specify them but can do so. - .muttrc (or .muttngrc for Mutt-ng) is the file where you will usually place - your _c_o_m_m_a_n_d_s (section 6.2 , page 62) to configure Mutt. +1.5. Modularization - In addition, mutt supports version specific configuration files that are parsed - instead of the default files as explained above. For instance, if your system - has a Muttrc-0.88 file in the system configuration directory, and you are run- - ning version 0.88 of mutt, this file will be sourced instead of the Muttrc - file. The same is true of the user configuration file, if you have a file - .muttrc-0.88.6 in your home directory, when you run mutt version 0.88.6, it - will source this file instead of the default .muttrc file. The version number - is the same which is visible using the ``-v'' _c_o_m_m_a_n_d _l_i_n_e (section 6.1 , page - 62) switch or using the show-version key (default: V) from the index menu. + Although mutt-ng has many functionality built-in, many features can be delegated to external tools to increase flexibility: users can define programs to filter a message through before displaying, users can use any program they want for displaying a message, message types (such as PDF or PostScript) for which mutt-ng doesn't have a built-in filter can be rendered by arbitrary tools and so forth. Although mutt-ng has an alias mechanism built-in, it features using external tools to query for nearly every type of addresses from sources like LDAP, databases or just the list of locally known users. - _3_._1 _S_y_n_t_a_x _o_f _I_n_i_t_i_a_l_i_z_a_t_i_o_n _F_i_l_e_s +1.6. Patterns - An initialization file consists of a series of _c_o_m_m_a_n_d_s (section 6.2 , page - 62). Each line of the file may contain one or more commands. When multiple - commands are used, they must be separated by a semicolon (;). + Mutt-ng has a built-in pattern matching ``language'' which is as widely used as possible to present a consistent interface to users. The same ``pattern terms'' can be used for searching, scoring, message selection and much more. - set realname='Mutt user' ; ignore x- +2. Screens and Menus - The hash mark, or pound sign (``#''), is used as a ``comment'' character. You - can use it to annotate your initialization file. All text after the comment - character to the end of the line is ignored. For example, +2.1. Index - my_hdr X-Disclaimer: Why are you listening to me? # This is a comment + The index is the screen that you usually see first when you start mutt-ng. It gives an overview over your emails in the currently opened mailbox. By default, this is your system mailbox. The information you see in the index is a list of emails, each with its number on the left, its flags (new email, important email, email that has been forwarded or replied to, tagged email, ...), the date when email was sent, its sender, the email size, and the subject. Additionally, the index also shows thread hierarchies: when you reply to an email, and the other person replies back, you can see the other's person email in a "sub-tree" below. This is especially useful for personal email between a group of people or when you've subscribed to mailing lists. - Single quotes (') and double quotes (') can be used to quote strings which con- - tain spaces or other special characters. The difference between the two types - of quotes is similar to that of many popular shell programs, namely that a sin- - gle quote is used to specify a literal string (one that is not interpreted for - shell variables or quoting with a backslash [see next paragraph]), while double - quotes indicate a string for which should be evaluated. For example, backtics - are evaluated inside of double quotes, but nnoott for single quotes. +2.2. Pager - \ quotes the next character, just as in shells such as bash and zsh. For exam- - ple, if want to put quotes ``''' inside of a string, you can use ``\'' to force - the next character to be a literal instead of interpreted character. + The pager is responsible for showing the email content. On the top of the pager you have an overview over the most important email headers like the sender, the recipient, the subject, and much more information. How much information you actually see depends on your configuration, which we'll describe below. - set realname="Michael \"MuttDude\" Elkins" + Below the headers, you see the email body which usually contains the message. If the email contains any attachments, you will see more information about them below the email body, or, if the attachments are text files, you can view them directly in the pager. - ``\\'' means to insert a literal ``\'' into the line. ``\n'' and ``\r'' have - their usual C meanings of linefeed and carriage-return, respectively. + To give the user a good overview, it is possible to configure mutt-ng to show different things in the pager with different colors. Virtually everything that can be described with a regular expression can be colored, e.g. URLs, email addresses or smileys. - A \ at the end of a line can be used to split commands over multiple lines, - provided that the split points don't appear in the middle of command names. +2.3. File Browser - Please note that, unlike the various shells, mutt-ng interprets a ``\'' at the + The file browser is the interface to the local or remote file system. When selecting a mailbox to open, the browser allows custom sorting of items, limiting the items shown by a regular expression and a freely adjustable format of what to display in which way. It also allows for easy navigation through the file system when selecting file(s) to attach to a message, select multiple files to attach and many more. - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 16 +2.4. Sidebar - end of a line also in comments. This allows you to disable a command split over - multiple lines with only one ``#''. + The sidebar comes in handy to manage mails which are spread over different folders. All folders users setup mutt-ng to watch for new mail will be listed. The listing includes not only the name but also the number of total messages, the number of new and flagged messages. Items with new mail may be colored different from those with flagged mail, items may be shortened or compress if they're they to long to be printed in full form so that by abbreviated names, user still now what the name stands for. - # folder-hook . \ - set realname="Michael \"MuttDude\" Elkins" +2.5. Help - When testing your config files, beware the following caveat. The backslash at - the end of the commented line extends the current line with the next line - - then referred to as a ``continuation line''. As the first line is commented - with a hash (#) all following continuation lines are also part of a comment and - therefore are ignored, too. So take care of comments when continuation lines - are involved within your setup files! + The help screen is meant to offer a quick help to the user. It lists the current configuration of key bindings and their associated commands including a short description, and currently unbound functions that still need to be associated with a key binding (or alternatively, they can be called via the mutt-ng command prompt). - Abstract example: +2.6. Compose Menu - line1\ - line2a # line2b\ - line3\ - line4 - line5 + The compose menu features a split screen containing the information which really matter before actually sending a message by mail or posting an article to a newsgroup: who gets the message as what (recipient, newsgroup, who gets what kind of copy). Additionally, users may set security options like deciding whether to sign, encrypt or sign and encrypt a message with/for what keys. - line1 ``continues'' until line4. however, the part after the # is a comment - which includes line3 and line4. line5 is a new line of its own and thus is - interpreted again. + Also, it's used to attach messages, news articles or files to a message, to re-edit any attachment including the message itself. - It is also possible to substitute the output of a Unix command in an initial- - ization file. This is accomplished by enclosing the command in backquotes - (``). For example, +2.7. Alias Menu - my_hdr X-Operating-System: `uname -a` + The alias menu is used to help users finding the recipients of messages. For users who need to contact many people, there's no need to remember addresses or names completely because it allows for searching, too. The alias mechanism and thus the alias menu also features grouping several addresses by a shorter nickname, the actual alias, so that users don't have to select each single recipient manually. - The output of the Unix command ``uname -a'' will be substituted before the line - is parsed. Note that since initialization files are line oriented, only the - first line of output from the Unix command will be substituted. +2.8. Attachment Menu - UNIX environments can be accessed like the way it is done in shells like sh and - bash: Prepend the name of the environment by a ``$''. For example, + As will be later discussed in detail, mutt-ng features a good and stable MIME implementation, that is, is greatly supports sending and receiving messages of arbitrary type. The attachment menu displays a message's structure in detail: what content parts are attached to which parent part (which gives a true tree structure), which type is of what type and what size. Single parts may saved, deleted or modified to offer great and easy access to message's internals. - set record=+sent_on_$HOSTNAME +2.9. Key Menu - The commands understood by mutt are explained in the next paragraphs. For a - complete list, see the _c_o_m_m_a_n_d _r_e_f_e_r_e_n_c_e (section 6.2 , page 62). + FIXME - _3_._2 _D_e_f_i_n_i_n_g_/_U_s_i_n_g _a_l_i_a_s_e_s +3. Moving Around in Menus - Usage: alias _k_e_y _a_d_d_r_e_s_s [ , _a_d_d_r_e_s_s, ... ] + Information is presented in menus, very similar to ELM. Here is a table showing the common keys used to navigate menus in Mutt-ng. +j or Down next-entry move to the next entry +k or Up previous-entry move to the previous entry +z or PageDn page-down go to the next page +Z or PageUp page-up go to the previous page += or Home first-entry jump to the first entry +* or End last-entry jump to the last entry +q quit exit the current menu +? help list all key bindings for the current menu - It's usually very cumbersome to remember or type out the address of someone you +4. Editing Input Fields - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 17 + Mutt-ng has a builtin line editor which is used as the primary way to input textual data such as email addresses or filenames. The keys used to move around while editing are very similar to those of Emacs. +^A or bol move to the start of the line +^B or backward-char move back one char +Esc B backward-word move back one word +^D or delete-char delete the char under the cursor +^E or eol move to the end of the line +^F or forward-char move forward one char +Esc F forward-word move forward one word + complete complete filename or alias +^T complete-query complete address with query +^K kill-eol delete to the end of the line +ESC d kill-eow delete to the end of the word +^W kill-word kill the word in front of the cursor +^U kill-line delete entire line +^V quote-char quote the next typed key + history-up recall previous string from history + history-down recall next string from history + backspace kill the char in front of the cursor +Esc u upcase-word convert word to upper case +Esc l downcase-word convert word to lower case +Esc c capitalize-word capitalize the word +^G n/a abort + n/a finish editing - are communicating with. Mutt allows you to create ``aliases'' which map a - short string to a full address. + You can remap the editor functions using the bind command. For example, to make the Delete key delete the character in front of the cursor rather than under, you could use - NNoottee:: if you want to create an alias for a group (by specifying more than one - address), you mmuusstt separate the addresses with a comma (``,''). + bind editor backspace - To remove an alias or aliases (``*'' means all aliases): +5. Reading Mail - The Index and Pager - unalias [ * | _k_e_y _._._. ] + Similar to many other mail clients, there are two modes in which mail is read in Mutt-ng. The first is the index of messages in the mailbox, which is called the ``index'' in Mutt-ng. The second mode is the display of the message contents. This is called the ``pager.'' - alias muttdude me@cs.hmc.edu (Michael Elkins) - alias theguys manny, moe, jack + The next few sections describe the functions provided in each of these modes. - Unlike other mailers, Mutt doesn't require aliases to be defined in a special - file. The alias command can appear anywhere in a configuration file, as long - as this file is _s_o_u_r_c_e_d (section 3.26 , page 32). Consequently, you can have - multiple alias files, or you can have all aliases defined in your muttrc. +5.1. The Message Index - On the other hand, the _c_r_e_a_t_e_-_a_l_i_a_s (section 2.3.4 , page 7) function can use - only one file, the one pointed to by the _$_a_l_i_a_s___f_i_l_e (section 6.3.3 , page 65) - variable (which is ~/.muttrc by default). This file is not special either, in - the sense that Mutt will happily append aliases to any file, but in order for - the new aliases to take effect you need to explicitly _s_o_u_r_c_e (section 3.26 , - page 32) this file too. +c change to a different mailbox +ESC c change to a folder in read-only mode +C copy the current message to another mailbox +ESC C decode a message and copy it to a folder +ESC s decode a message and save it to a folder +D delete messages matching a pattern +d delete the current message +F mark as important +l show messages matching a pattern +N mark message as new +o change the current sort method +O reverse sort the mailbox +q save changes and exit +s save-message +T tag messages matching a pattern +t toggle the tag on a message +ESC t toggle tag on entire message thread +U undelete messages matching a pattern +u undelete-message +v view-attachments +x abort changes and exit + display-message + jump to the next new message +@ show the author's full e-mail address +$ save changes to mailbox +/ search +ESC / search-reverse +^L clear and redraw the screen +^T untag messages matching a pattern + +5.1.1. Status Flags + + In addition to who sent the message and the subject, a short summary of the disposition of each message is printed beside the message number. Zero or more of the following ``flags'' may appear, which mean: + + D + message is deleted (is marked for deletion) + + d + message have attachments marked for deletion + + K + contains a PGP public key + + N + message is new + + O + message is old + + P + message is PGP encrypted + + r + message has been replied to + + S + message is signed, and the signature is succesfully verified + + s + message is signed + + ! + message is flagged + + * + message is tagged + + Some of the status flags can be turned on or off using + * set-flag (default: w) + * clear-flag (default: W) + + Furthermore, the following flags reflect who the message is addressed to. They can be customized with the $to_chars variable. + + + + message is to you and you only - For example: + T + message is to you, but also to or cc'ed to others - source /usr/local/share/Mutt.aliases - source ~/.mail_aliases - set alias_file=~/.mail_aliases + C + message is cc'ed to you - To use aliases, you merely use the alias at any place in mutt where mutt - prompts for addresses, such as the _T_o_: or _C_c_: prompt. You can also enter - aliases in your editor at the appropriate headers if you have the _$_e_d_i_t___h_e_a_d_e_r_s - (section 6.3.56 , page 77) variable set. + F + message is from you - In addition, at the various address prompts, you can use the tab character to - expand a partial alias to the full alias. If there are multiple matches, mutt - will bring up a menu with the matching aliases. In order to be presented with - the full list of aliases, you must hit tab with out a partial alias, such as at - the beginning of the prompt or after a comma denoting multiple addresses. + L + message is sent to a subscribed mailing list - In the alias menu, you can select as many aliases as you want with the _s_e_l_e_c_t_- - _e_n_t_r_y key (default: RET), and use the _e_x_i_t key (default: q) to return to the - address prompt. +5.2. The Pager - _3_._3 _C_h_a_n_g_i_n_g _t_h_e _d_e_f_a_u_l_t _k_e_y _b_i_n_d_i_n_g_s + By default, Mutt-ng uses its builtin pager to display the body of messages. The pager is very similar to the Unix program less though not nearly as featureful. + go down one line + display the next page (or next message if at the end of a message) +- go back to the previous page +n search for next match +S skip beyond quoted text +T toggle display of quoted text +? show key bindings +/ search for a regular expression (pattern) +ESC / search backwards for a regular expression +\ toggle search pattern coloring +^ jump to the top of the message - Usage: bind _m_a_p _k_e_y _f_u_n_c_t_i_o_n + In addition, many of the functions from the index are available in the pager, such as delete-message or copy-message (this is one advantage over using an external pager to view messages). - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 18 + Also, the internal pager supports a couple other advanced features. For one, it will accept and translate the ``standard'' nroff sequences for bold and underline. These sequences are a series of either the letter, backspace (^H), the letter again for bold or the letter, backspace, ``_'' for denoting underline. Mutt-ng will attempt to display these in bold and underline respectively if your terminal supports them. If not, you can use the bold and underline color objects to specify a color or mono attribute for them. - This command allows you to change the default key bindings (operation invoked - when pressing a key). + Additionally, the internal pager supports the ANSI escape sequences for character attributes. Mutt-ng translates them into the correct color and character settings. The sequences Mutt-ng supports are: +ESC [ Ps;Ps;Ps;...;Ps m +where Ps = +0 All Attributes Off +1 Bold on +4 Underline on +5 Blink on +7 Reverse video on +3x Foreground color is x +4x Background color is x - _m_a_p specifies in which menu the binding belongs. Multiple maps may be speci- - fied by separating them with commas (no additional whitespace is allowed). The - currently defined maps are: +Colors are +0 black +1 red +2 green +3 yellow +4 blue +5 magenta +6 cyan +7 white - generic - This is not a real menu, but is used as a fallback for all of the - other menus except for the pager and editor modes. If a key is not - defined in another menu, Mutt will look for a binding to use in - this menu. This allows you to bind a key to a certain function in - multiple menus instead of having multiple bind statements to accom- - plish the same task. + Mutt-ng uses these attributes for handling text/enriched messages, and they can also be used by an external autoview script for highlighting purposes. Note: If you change the colors for your display, for example by changing the color associated with color2 for your xterm, then that color will be used instead of green. - alias - The alias menu is the list of your personal aliases as defined in - your muttrc. It is the mapping from a short alias name to the full - email address(es) of the recipient(s). +5.3. Threaded Mode - attach - The attachment menu is used to access the attachments on received - messages. + When the mailbox is sorted by threads, there are a few additional functions available in the index and pager modes. +^D delete-thread delete all messages in the current thread +^U undelete-thread undelete all messages in the current thread +^N next-thread jump to the start of the next thread +^P previous-thread jump to the start of the previous thread +^R read-thread mark the current thread as read +ESC d delete-subthread delete all messages in the current subthread +ESC u undelete-subthread undelete all messages in the current subthread +ESC n next-subthread jump to the start of the next subthread +ESC p previous-subthread jump to the start of the previous subthread +ESC r read-subthread mark the current subthread as read +ESC t tag-thread toggle the tag on the current thread +ESC v collapse-thread toggle collapse for the current thread +ESC V collapse-all toggle collapse for all threads +P parent-message jump to parent message in thread - browser - The browser is used for both browsing the local directory struc- - ture, and for listing all of your incoming mailboxes. + Note: Collapsing a thread displays only the first message in the thread and hides the others. This is useful when threads contain so many messages that you can only see a handful of threads on the screen. See %M in index-format. For example, you could use "%?M?(#%03M)&(%4l)?" in index-format to optionally display the number of hidden messages if the thread is collapsed. - editor - The editor is the line-based editor the user enters text data. + See also: strict-threads. - index - The index is the list of messages contained in a mailbox. +5.4. Miscellaneous Functions - compose - The compose menu is the screen used when sending a new message. + create-alias (default: a) - pager - The pager is the mode used to display message/attachment data, and - help listings. + Creates a new alias based upon the current message (or prompts for a new one). Once editing is complete, an alias command is added to the file specified by the alias-file variable for future use. Note: Specifying an alias-file does not add the aliases specified there-in, you must also source the file. - pgp - The pgp menu is used to select the OpenPGP keys used for encrypting - outgoing messages. + check-traditional-pgp (default: ESC P) - postpone - The postpone menu is similar to the index menu, except is used when - recalling a message the user was composing, but saved until later. + This function will search the current message for content signed or encrypted with PGP the "traditional" way, that is, without proper MIME tagging. Technically, this function will temporarily change the MIME content types of the body parts containing PGP data; this is similar to the edit-type function's effect. - _k_e_y is the key (or key sequence) you wish to bind. To specify a control char- - acter, use the sequence _\_C_x, where _x is the letter of the control character - (for example, to specify control-A use ``\Ca''). Note that the case of _x as + display-toggle-weed (default: h) - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 19 + Toggles the weeding of message header fields specified by ignore commands. - well as _\_C is ignored, so that _\_C_A, _\_C_a, _\_c_A and _\_c_a are all equivalent. An - alternative form is to specify the key as a three digit octal number prefixed - with a ``\'' (for example _\_1_7_7 is equivalent to _\_c_?). - - In addition, _k_e_y may consist of: + edit (default: e) - \t tab - tab - \r carriage return - \n newline - \e escape - escape - up arrow - down arrow - left arrow - right arrow - Page Up - Page Down - Backspace - Delete - Insert - Enter - Return - Home - End - Space bar - function key 1 - function key 10 + This command (available in the ``index'' and ``pager'') allows you to edit the raw current message as it's present in the mail folder. After you have finished editing, the changed message will be appended to the current folder, and the original message will be marked for deletion. - _k_e_y does not need to be enclosed in quotes unless it contains a space (`` ''). + edit-type (default: ^E on the attachment menu, and in the pager and index menus; ^T on the compose menu) - _f_u_n_c_t_i_o_n specifies which action to take when _k_e_y is pressed. For a complete - list of functions, see the _r_e_f_e_r_e_n_c_e (section 6.4 , page 146). The special - function noop unbinds the specified key sequence. + This command is used to temporarily edit an attachment's content type to fix, for instance, bogus character set parameters. When invoked from the index or from the pager, you'll have the opportunity to edit the top-level attachment's content type. On the attach-menu, you can change any attachment's content type. These changes are not persistent, and get lost upon changing folders. - _3_._4 _D_e_f_i_n_i_n_g _a_l_i_a_s_e_s _f_o_r _c_h_a_r_a_c_t_e_r _s_e_t_s + Note that this command is also available on the compose-menu. There, it's used to fine-tune the properties of attachments you are going to send. - Usage: charset-hook _a_l_i_a_s _c_h_a_r_s_e_t + enter-command (default: ``:'') - Usage: iconv-hook _c_h_a_r_s_e_t _l_o_c_a_l_-_c_h_a_r_s_e_t + This command is used to execute any command you would normally put in a configuration file. A common use is to check the settings of variables, or in conjunction with macro to change settings on the fly. - The charset-hook command defines an alias for a character set. This is useful - to properly display messages which are tagged with a character set name not - known to mutt. + extract-keys (default: ^K) - The iconv-hook command defines a system-specific name for a character set. - This is helpful when your systems character conversion library insists on using - strange, system-specific names for character sets. + This command extracts PGP public keys from the current or tagged message(s) and adds them to your PGP public key ring. - _3_._5 _S_e_t_t_i_n_g _v_a_r_i_a_b_l_e_s _b_a_s_e_d _u_p_o_n _m_a_i_l_b_o_x + forget-passphrase (default: ^F) - Usage: folder-hook [!]_r_e_g_e_x_p _c_o_m_m_a_n_d + This command wipes the passphrase(s) from memory. It is useful, if you misspelled the passphrase. - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 20 + list-reply (default: L) - It is often desirable to change settings based on which mailbox you are read- - ing. The folder-hook command provides a method by which you can execute any - configuration command. _r_e_g_e_x_p is a regular expression specifying in which - mailboxes to execute _c_o_m_m_a_n_d before loading. If a mailbox matches multiple - folder-hook's, they are executed in the order given in the muttrc. + Reply to the current or tagged message(s) by extracting any addresses which match the regular expressions given by the lists commands, but also honor any Mail-Followup-To header(s) if the honor-followup-to configuration variable is set. Using this when replying to messages posted to mailing lists helps avoid duplicate copies being sent to the author of the message you are replying to. - NNoottee:: if you use the ``!'' shortcut for _$_s_p_o_o_l_f_i_l_e (section 6.3.291 , page - 135) at the beginning of the pattern, you must place it inside of double or - single quotes in order to distinguish it from the logical _n_o_t operator for the - expression. + pipe-message (default: |) - Note that the settings are _n_o_t restored when you leave the mailbox. For exam- - ple, a command action to perform is to change the sorting method based upon the - mailbox being read: + Asks for an external Unix command and pipes the current or tagged message(s) to it. The variables pipe-decode, pipe-split, pipe-sep and wait-key control the exact behavior of this function. - folder-hook mutt set sort=threads + resend-message (default: ESC e) - However, the sorting method is not restored to its previous value when reading - a different mailbox. To specify a _d_e_f_a_u_l_t command, use the pattern ``.'': + With resend-message, mutt takes the current message as a template for a new message. This function is best described as "recall from arbitrary folders". It can conveniently be used to forward MIME messages while preserving the original mail structure. Note that the amount of headers included here depends on the value of the weed variable. - folder-hook . set sort=date-sent + This function is also available from the attachment menu. You can use this to easily resend a message which was included with a bounce message as a message/rfc822 body part. - _3_._6 _K_e_y_b_o_a_r_d _m_a_c_r_o_s + shell-escape (default: !) - Usage: macro _m_e_n_u _k_e_y _s_e_q_u_e_n_c_e [ _d_e_s_c_r_i_p_t_i_o_n ] + Asks for an external Unix command and executes it. The wait-key can be used to control whether Mutt-ng will wait for a key to be pressed when the command returns (presumably to let the user read the output of the command), based on the return status of the named command. - Macros are useful when you would like a single key to perform a series of - actions. When you press _k_e_y in menu _m_e_n_u, Mutt will behave as if you had typed - _s_e_q_u_e_n_c_e. So if you have a common sequence of commands you type, you can cre- - ate a macro to execute those commands with a single key. + toggle-quoted (default: T) - _m_e_n_u is the _m_a_p (section 3.3 , page 17) which the macro will be bound. Multi- - ple maps may be specified by separating multiple menu arguments by commas. - Whitespace may not be used in between the menu arguments and the commas sepa- - rating them. + The pager uses the quote-regexp variable to detect quoted text when displaying the body of the message. This function toggles the display of the quoted material in the message. It is particularly useful when are interested in just the response and there is a large amount of quoted text in the way. - _k_e_y and _s_e_q_u_e_n_c_e are expanded by the same rules as the _k_e_y _b_i_n_d_i_n_g_s (section - 3.3 , page 17). There are some additions however. The first is that control - characters in _s_e_q_u_e_n_c_e can also be specified as _^_x. In order to get a caret - (`^'') you need to use _^_^. Secondly, to specify a certain key such as _u_p or to - invoke a function directly, you can use the format _<_k_e_y _n_a_m_e_> and _<_f_u_n_c_t_i_o_n - _n_a_m_e_>. For a listing of key names see the section on _k_e_y _b_i_n_d_i_n_g_s (section - 3.3 , page 17). Functions are listed in the _f_u_n_c_t_i_o_n _r_e_f_e_r_e_n_c_e (section - 6.4 , page 146). + skip-quoted (default: S) - The advantage with using function names directly is that the macros will work - regardless of the current key bindings, so they are not dependent on the user - having particular key definitions. This makes them more robust and portable, - and also facilitates defining of macros in files used by more than one user - (eg. the system Muttrc). + This function will go to the next line of non-quoted text which come after a line of quoted text in the internal pager. - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 21 +6. Sending Mail - Optionally you can specify a descriptive text after _s_e_q_u_e_n_c_e, which is shown in - the help screens. + The following bindings are available in the index for sending messages. +m compose compose a new message +r reply reply to sender +g group-reply reply to all recipients +L list-reply reply to mailing list address +f forward forward message +b bounce bounce (remail) message +ESC k mail-key mail a PGP public key to someone - NNoottee:: Macro definitions (if any) listed in the help screen(s), are silently - truncated at the screen width, and are not wrapped. + Bouncing a message sends the message as is to the recipient you specify. Forwarding a message allows you to add comments or modify the message you are forwarding. These items are discussed in greater detail in the next chapter forwarding-mail. - _3_._7 _U_s_i_n_g _c_o_l_o_r _a_n_d _m_o_n_o _v_i_d_e_o _a_t_t_r_i_b_u_t_e_s +6.1. Composing new messages - Usage: color _o_b_j_e_c_t _f_o_r_e_g_r_o_u_n_d _b_a_c_k_g_r_o_u_n_d [ _r_e_g_e_x_p ] + When you want to send an email using mutt-ng, simply press m on your keyboard. Then, mutt-ng asks for the recipient via a prompt in the last line: +To: - Usage: color index _f_o_r_e_g_r_o_u_n_d _b_a_c_k_g_r_o_u_n_d _p_a_t_t_e_r_n + After you've finished entering the recipient(s), press return. If you want to send an email to more than one recipient, separate the email addresses using the comma ",". Mutt-ng then asks you for the email subject. Again, press return after you've entered it. After that, mutt-ng got the most important information from you, and starts up an editor where you can then enter your email. - Usage: uncolor index _p_a_t_t_e_r_n [ _p_a_t_t_e_r_n ... ] + The editor that is called is selected in the following way: you can e.g. set it in the mutt-ng configuration: +set editor = "vim +/^$/ -c ':set tw=72'" +set editor = "nano" +set editor = "emacs" - If your terminal supports color, you can spice up Mutt by creating your own - color scheme. To define the color of an object (type of information), you must - specify both a foreground color aanndd a background color (it is not possible to - only specify one or the other). + If you don't set your preferred editor in your configuration, mutt-ng first looks whether the environment variable $VISUAL is set, and if so, it takes its value as editor command. Otherwise, it has a look at $EDITOR and takes its value if it is set. If no editor command can be found, mutt-ng simply assumes vi to be the default editor, since it's the most widespread editor in the Unix world and it's pretty safe to assume that it is installed and available. - _o_b_j_e_c_t can be one of: + When you've finished entering your message, save it and quit your editor. Mutt-ng will then present you with a summary screen, the compose menu. On the top, you see a summary of the most important available key commands. Below that, you see the sender, the recipient(s), Cc and/or Bcc recipient(s), the subject, the reply-to address, and optionally information where the sent email will be stored and whether it should be digitally signed and/or encrypted. - +o attachment + Below that, you see a list of "attachments". The mail you've just entered before is also an attachment, but due to its special type (it's plain text), it will be displayed as the normal message on the receiver's side. - +o body (match _r_e_g_e_x_p in the body of messages) + At this point, you can add more attachments, pressing a, you can edit the recipient addresses, pressing t for the "To:" field, c for the "Cc:" field, and b for the "Bcc: field. You can also edit the subject the subject by simply pressing s or the email message that you've entered before by pressing e. You will then again return to the editor. You can even edit the sender, by pressing f, but this shall only be used with caution. - +o bold (highlighting bold patterns in the body of messages) + Alternatively, you can configure mutt-ng in a way that most of the above settings can be edited using the editor. Therefore, you only need to add the following to your configuration: +set edit_headers - +o error (error messages printed by Mutt) + Once you have finished editing the body of your mail message, you are returned to the compose menu. The following options are available: +a attach-file attach a file +A attach-message attach message(s) to the message +ESC k attach-key attach a PGP public key +d edit-description edit description on attachment +D detach-file detach a file +t edit-to edit the To field +ESC f edit-from edit the From field +r edit-reply-to edit the Reply-To field +c edit-cc edit the Cc field +b edit-bcc edit the Bcc field +y send-message send the message +s edit-subject edit the Subject +S smime-menu select S/MIME options +f edit-fcc specify an ``Fcc'' mailbox +p pgp-menu select PGP options +P postpone-message postpone this message until later +q quit quit (abort) sending the message +w write-fcc write the message to a folder +i ispell check spelling (if available on your system) +^F forget-passphrase wipe passphrase(s) from memory - +o header (match _r_e_g_e_x_p in the message header) + Note: The attach-message function will prompt you for a folder to attach messages from. You can now tag messages in that folder and they will be attached to the message you are sending. Note that certain operations like composing a new mail, replying, forwarding, etc. are not permitted when you are in that folder. The %r in status-format will change to a 'A' to indicate that you are in attach-message mode. - +o hdrdefault (default color of the message header in the pager) +6.2. Replying - +o index (match _p_a_t_t_e_r_n in the message index) +6.2.1. Simple Replies - +o indicator (arrow or bar used to indicate the current item in a menu) + When you want to reply to an email message, select it in the index menu and then press r. Mutt-ng's behaviour is then similar to the behaviour when you compose a message: first, you will be asked for the recipient, then for the subject, and then, mutt-ng will start the editor with the quote attribution and the quoted message. This can e.g. look like the example below. +On Mon, Mar 07, 2005 at 05:02:12PM +0100, Michael Svensson wrote: +> Bill, can you please send last month's progress report to Mr. +> Morgan? We also urgently need the cost estimation for the new +> production server that we want to set up before our customer's +> project will go live. - +o markers (the ``+'' markers at the beginning of wrapped lines in the pager) + You can start editing the email message. It is strongly recommended to put your answer below the quoted text and to only quote what is really necessary and that you refer to. Putting your answer on top of the quoted message, is, although very widespread, very often not considered to be a polite way to answer emails. - +o message (informational messages) + The quote attribution is configurable, by default it is set to +set attribution = "On %d, %n wrote:" - +o normal + It can also be set to something more compact, e.g. +set attribution = "attribution="* %n <%a> [%(%y-%m-%d %H:%M)]:" - +o quoted (text matching _$_q_u_o_t_e___r_e_g_e_x_p (section 6.3.218 , page 118) in the - body of a message) + The example above results in the following attribution: +* Michael Svensson [05-03-06 17:02]: +> Bill, can you please send last month's progress report to Mr. +> Morgan? We also urgently need the cost estimation for the new +> production server that we want to set up before our customer's +> project will go live. - +o quoted1, quoted2, ..., quotedNN (higher levels of quoting) + Generally, try to keep your attribution short yet information-rich. It is not the right place for witty quotes, long "attribution" novels or anything like that: the right place for such things is - if at all - the email signature at the very bottom of the message. - +o search (highlighting of words in the pager) + When you're done with writing your message, save and quit the editor. As before, you will return to the compose menu, which is used in the same way as before. - +o signature +6.2.2. Group Replies - +o status (mode lines used to display info about the mailbox or message) + In the situation where a group of people uses email as a discussion, most of the emails will have one or more recipients, and probably several "Cc:" recipients. The group reply functionality ensures that when you press g instead of r to do a reply, each and every recipient that is contained in the original message will receive a copy of the message, either as normal recipient or as "Cc:" recipient. - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 22 +6.2.3. List Replies - +o tilde (the ``~'' used to pad blank lines in the pager) + When you use mailing lists, it's generally better to send your reply to a message only to the list instead of the list and the original author. To make this easy to use, mutt-ng features list replies. - +o tree (thread tree drawn in the message index and attachment menu) + To do a list reply, simply press L. If the email contains a Mail-Followup-To: header, its value will be used as reply address. Otherwise, mutt-ng searches through all mail addresses in the original message and tries to match them a list of regular expressions which can be specified using the lists command. If any of the regular expression matches, a mailing list address has been found, and it will be used as reply address. +lists linuxevent@luga\.at vuln-dev@ mutt-ng-users@ - +o underline (highlighting underlined patterns in the body of messages) + Nowadays, most mailing list software like GNU Mailman adds a Mail-Followup-To: header to their emails anyway, so setting lists is hardly ever necessary in practice. - _f_o_r_e_g_r_o_u_n_d and _b_a_c_k_g_r_o_u_n_d can be one of the following: +6.3. Editing the message header - +o white + When editing the header of your outgoing message, there are a couple of special features available. - +o black + If you specify Fcc: filename Mutt-ng will pick up filename just as if you had used the edit-fcc function in the compose menu. - +o green + You can also attach files to your message by specifying Attach: filename [ description ] where filename is the file to attach and description is an optional string to use as the description of the attached file. - +o magenta + When replying to messages, if you remove the In-Reply-To: field from the header field, Mutt-ng will not generate a References: field, which allows you to create a new message thread. - +o blue + Also see edit-headers. - +o cyan +6.4. Using Mutt-ng with PGP - +o yellow + If you want to use PGP, you can specify - +o red + Pgp: [ E | S | S ] - +o default + ``E'' encrypts, ``S'' signs and ``S'' signs with the given key, setting pgp-sign-as permanently. - +o color_x + If you have told mutt to PGP encrypt a message, it will guide you through a key selection process when you try to send the message. Mutt-ng will not ask you any questions about keys which have a certified user ID matching one of the message recipients' mail addresses. However, there may be situations in which there are several keys, weakly certified user ID fields, or where no matching keys can be found. - _f_o_r_e_g_r_o_u_n_d can optionally be prefixed with the keyword bright to make the fore- - ground color boldfaced (e.g., brightred). + In these cases, you are dropped into a menu with a list of keys from which you can select one. When you quit this menu, or mutt can't find any matching keys, you are prompted for a user ID. You can, as usually, abort this prompt using ^G. When you do so, mutt will return to the compose screen. - If your terminal supports it, the special keyword _d_e_f_a_u_l_t can be used as a - transparent color. The value _b_r_i_g_h_t_d_e_f_a_u_l_t is also valid. If Mutt is linked - against the _S_-_L_a_n_g library, you also need to set the _C_O_L_O_R_F_G_B_G environment - variable to the default colors of your terminal for this to work; for example - (for Bourne-like shells): + Once you have successfully finished the key selection, the message will be encrypted using the selected public keys, and sent out. - set COLORFGBG="green;black" - export COLORFGBG + Most fields of the entries in the key selection menu (see also pgp-entry-format) have obvious meanings. But some explanations on the capabilities, flags, and validity fields are in order. - NNoottee:: The _S_-_L_a_n_g library requires you to use the _l_i_g_h_t_g_r_a_y and _b_r_o_w_n keywords - instead of _w_h_i_t_e and _y_e_l_l_o_w when setting this variable. + The flags sequence (%f) will expand to one of the following flags: +R The key has been revoked and can't be used. +X The key is expired and can't be used. +d You have marked the key as disabled. +c There are unknown critical self-signature + packets. - NNoottee:: The uncolor command can be applied to the index object only. It removes - entries from the list. You mmuusstt specify the same pattern specified in the color - command for it to be removed. The pattern ``*'' is a special token which means - to clear the color index list of all entries. + The capabilities field (%c) expands to a two-character sequence representing a key's capabilities. The first character gives the key's encryption capabilities: A minus sign (-) means that the key cannot be used for encryption. A dot (.) means that it's marked as a signature key in one of the user IDs, but may also be used for encryption. The letter e indicates that this key can be used for encryption. - Mutt also recognizes the keywords _c_o_l_o_r_0, _c_o_l_o_r_1, ..., _c_o_l_o_rNN--11 (NN being the - number of colors supported by your terminal). This is useful when you remap - the colors for your display (for example by changing the color associated with - _c_o_l_o_r_2 for your xterm), since color names may then lose their normal meaning. + The second character indicates the key's signing capabilities. Once again, a ``-'' implies ``not for signing'', ``.'' implies that the key is marked as an encryption key in one of the user-ids, and ``s'' denotes a key which can be used for signing. - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 23 + Finally, the validity field (%t) indicates how well-certified a user-id is. A question mark (?) indicates undefined validity, a minus character (-) marks an untrusted association, a space character means a partially trusted association, and a plus character (+) indicates complete validity. - If your terminal does not support color, it is still possible change the video - attributes through the use of the ``mono'' command: +6.5. Sending anonymous messages via mixmaster - Usage: mono _<_o_b_j_e_c_t_> _<_a_t_t_r_i_b_u_t_e_> [ _r_e_g_e_x_p ] + You may also have configured mutt to co-operate with Mixmaster, an anonymous remailer. Mixmaster permits you to send your messages anonymously using a chain of remailers. Mixmaster support in mutt is for mixmaster version 2.04 (beta 45 appears to be the latest) and 2.03. It does not support earlier versions or the later so-called version 3 betas, of which the latest appears to be called 2.9b23. - Usage: mono index _a_t_t_r_i_b_u_t_e _p_a_t_t_e_r_n + To use it, you'll have to obey certain restrictions. Most important, you cannot use the Cc and Bcc headers. To tell Mutt-ng to use mixmaster, you have to select a remailer chain, using the mix function on the compose menu. - Usage: unmono index _p_a_t_t_e_r_n [ _p_a_t_t_e_r_n ... ] + The chain selection screen is divided into two parts. In the (larger) upper part, you get a list of remailers you may use. In the lower part, you see the currently selected chain of remailers. - where _a_t_t_r_i_b_u_t_e is one of the following: + You can navigate in the chain using the chain-prev and chain-next functions, which are by default bound to the left and right arrows and to the h and l keys (think vi keyboard bindings). To insert a remailer at the current chain position, use the insert function. To append a remailer behind the current chain position, use select-entry or append. You can also delete entries from the chain, using the corresponding function. Finally, to abandon your changes, leave the menu, or accept them pressing (by default) the Return key. - +o none + Note that different remailers do have different capabilities, indicated in the %c entry of the remailer menu lines (see mix-entry-format). Most important is the ``middleman'' capability, indicated by a capital ``M'': This means that the remailer in question cannot be used as the final element of a chain, but will only forward messages to other mixmaster remailers. For details on the other capabilities, please have a look at the mixmaster documentation. - +o bold +7. Forwarding and Bouncing Mail - +o underline + Often, it is necessary to forward mails to other people. Therefore, mutt-ng supports forwarding messages in two different ways. - +o reverse + The first one is regular forwarding, as you probably know it from other mail clients. You simply press f, enter the recipient email address, the subject of the forwarded email, and then you can edit the message to be forwarded in the editor. The forwarded message is separated from the rest of the message via the two following markers: +----- Forwarded message from Lucas User ----- - +o standout +From: Lucas User +Date: Thu, 02 Dec 2004 03:08:34 +0100 +To: Michael Random +Subject: Re: blackmail - _3_._8 _I_g_n_o_r_i_n_g _(_w_e_e_d_i_n_g_) _u_n_w_a_n_t_e_d _m_e_s_s_a_g_e _h_e_a_d_e_r_s +Pay me EUR 50,000.- cash or your favorite stuffed animal will die +a horrible death. - Usage: [un]ignore _p_a_t_t_e_r_n [ _p_a_t_t_e_r_n ... ] - Messages often have many header fields added by automatic processing systems, - or which may not seem useful to display on the screen. This command allows you - to specify header fields which you don't normally want to see. +----- End forwarded message ----- - You do not need to specify the full header field name. For example, ``ignore - content-'' will ignore all header fields that begin with the pattern ``con- - tent-''. ``ignore *'' will ignore all headers. + When you're done with editing the mail, save and quit the editor, and you will return to the compose menu, the same menu you also encounter when composing or replying to mails. - To remove a previously added token from the list, use the ``unignore'' command. - The ``unignore'' command will make Mutt display headers with the given pattern. - For example, if you do ``ignore x-'' it is possible to ``unignore x-mailer''. + The second mode of forwarding emails with mutt-ng is the so-called bouncing: when you bounce an email to another address, it will be sent in practically the same format you send it (except for headers that are created during transporting the message). To bounce a message, press b and enter the recipient email address. By default, you are then asked whether you really want to bounce the message to the specified recipient. If you answer with yes, the message will then be bounced. - ``unignore *'' will remove all tokens from the ignore list. + To the recipient, the bounced email will look as if he got it like a regular email where he was Bcc: recipient. The only possibility to find out whether it was a bounced email is to carefully study the email headers and to find out which host really sent the email. - For example: +8. Postponing Mail - # Sven's draconian header weeding - ignore * - unignore from date subject to cc - unignore organization organisation x-mailer: x-newsreader: x-mailing-list: - unignore posted-to: + At times it is desirable to delay sending a message that you have already begun to compose. When the postpone-message function is used in the compose menu, the body of your message and attachments are stored in the mailbox specified by the postponed variable. This means that you can recall the message even if you exit Mutt-ng and then restart it at a later time. - _3_._9 _A_l_t_e_r_n_a_t_i_v_e _a_d_d_r_e_s_s_e_s + Once a message is postponed, there are several ways to resume it. From the command line you can use the ``-p'' option, or if you compose a new message from the index or pager you will be prompted if postponed messages exist. If multiple messages are currently postponed, the postponed menu will pop up and you can select which message you would like to resume. - Usage: [un]alternates _r_e_g_e_x_p [ _r_e_g_e_x_p ... ] + Note: If you postpone a reply to a message, the reply setting of the message is only updated when you actually finish the message and send it. Also, you must be in the same folder with the message you replied to for the status of the message to be updated. - With various functions, mutt will treat messages differently, depending on - whether you sent them or whether you received them from someone else. For + See also the postpone quad-option. - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 24 +Chapter 3. Configuration - instance, when replying to a message that you sent to a different party, mutt - will automatically suggest to send the response to the original message's - recipients -- responding to yourself won't make much sense in many cases. (See - _$_r_e_p_l_y___t_o (section 6.3.226 , page 119).) + Table of Contents - Many users receive e-mail under a number of different addresses. To fully use - mutt's features here, the program must be able to recognize what e-mail - addresses you receive mail under. That's the purpose of the alternates command: - It takes a list of regular expressions, each of which can identify an address - under which you receive e-mail. + 1. Locations of Configuration Files + 2. Basic Syntax of Initialization Files + 3. Expansion within variables - The unalternates command can be used to write exceptions to alternates pat- - terns. If an address matches something in an alternates command, but you none- - theless do not think it is from you, you can list a more precise pattern under - an unalternates command. + 3.1. Commands' Output + 3.2. Environment Variables + 3.3. Configuration Variables + 3.4. Self-Defined Variables + 3.5. Pre-Defined Variables + 3.6. Type Conversions - To remove a regular expression from the alternates list, use the unalternates - command with exactly the same _r_e_g_e_x_p. Likewise, if the _r_e_g_e_x_p for a alternates - command matches an entry on the unalternates list, that unalternates entry will - be removed. If the _r_e_g_e_x_p for unalternates is ``*'', _a_l_l _e_n_t_r_i_e_s on alternates - will be removed. + 4. Defining/Using aliases + 5. Changing the default key bindings + 6. Defining aliases for character sets + 7. Setting variables based upon mailbox + 8. Keyboard macros + 9. Using color and mono video attributes + 10. Ignoring (weeding) unwanted message headers + 11. Alternative addresses + 12. Format = Flowed - _3_._1_0 _M_a_i_l_i_n_g _l_i_s_t_s + 12.1. Introduction + 12.2. Receiving: Display Setup + 12.3. Sending + 12.4. Additional Notes - Usage: [un]lists _r_e_g_e_x_p [ _r_e_g_e_x_p ... ] + 13. Mailing lists + 14. Using Multiple spool mailboxes + 15. Defining mailboxes which receive mail + 16. User defined headers + 17. Defining the order of headers when viewing messages + 18. Specify default save filename + 19. Specify default Fcc: mailbox when composing + 20. Specify default save filename and default Fcc: mailbox at once + 21. Change settings based upon message recipients + 22. Change settings before formatting a message + 23. Choosing the cryptographic key of the recipient + 24. Adding key sequences to the keyboard buffer + 25. Executing functions + 26. Message Scoring + 27. Spam detection + 28. Setting variables + 29. Reading initialization commands from another file + 30. Removing hooks + 31. Sharing Setups - Usage: [un]subscribe _r_e_g_e_x_p [ _r_e_g_e_x_p ... ] + 31.1. Character Sets + 31.2. Modularization + 31.3. Conditional parts - Mutt has a few nice features for _h_a_n_d_l_i_n_g _m_a_i_l_i_n_g _l_i_s_t_s (section 4.9 , page - 44). In order to take advantage of them, you must specify which addresses - belong to mailing lists, and which mailing lists you are subscribed to. Once - you have done this, the _l_i_s_t_-_r_e_p_l_y (section 2.3.4 , page 8) function will work - for all known lists. Additionally, when you send a message to a subscribed - list, mutt will add a Mail-Followup-To header to tell other users' mail user - agents not to send copies of replies to your personal address. Note that the - Mail-Followup-To header is a non-standard extension which is not supported by - all mail user agents. Adding it is not bullet-proof against receiving personal - CCs of list messages. Also note that the generation of the Mail-Followup-To - header is controlled by the _$_f_o_l_l_o_w_u_p___t_o (section 6.3.67 , page 80) configura- - tion variable. + 32. Obsolete Variables - More precisely, Mutt maintains lists of patterns for the addresses of known and - subscribed mailing lists. Every subscribed mailing list is known. To mark a - mailing list as known, use the ``lists'' command. To mark it as subscribed, - use ``subscribe''. +1. Locations of Configuration Files - You can use regular expressions with both commands. To mark all messages sent - to a specific bug report's address on mutt's bug tracking system as list mail, - for instance, you could say ``subscribe [0-9]*@bugs.guug.de''. Often, it's - sufficient to just give a portion of the list's e-mail address. + While the default configuration (or ``preferences'') make Mutt-ng usable right out of the box, it is often desirable to tailor Mutt-ng to suit your own tastes. When Mutt-ng is first invoked, it will attempt to read the ``system'' configuration file (defaults set by your local system administrator), unless the ``-n'' commandline option is specified. This file is typically /usr/local/share/muttng/Muttngrc or /etc/Muttngrc, Mutt-ng users will find this file in /usr/local/share/muttng/Muttrc or /etc/Muttngrc. Mutt will next look for a file named .muttrc in your home directory, Mutt-ng will look for .muttngrc. If this file does not exist and your home directory has a subdirectory named .mutt, mutt try to load a file named .muttng/muttngrc. - Specify as much of the address as you need to to remove ambiguity. For exam- - ple, if you've subscribed to the Mutt mailing list, you will receive mail - addressed to _m_u_t_t_-_u_s_e_r_s_@_m_u_t_t_._o_r_g. So, to tell Mutt that this is a mailing + .muttrc (or .muttngrc for Mutt-ng) is the file where you will usually place your commands to configure Mutt-ng. - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 25 +2. Basic Syntax of Initialization Files - list, you could add ``lists mutt-users'' to your initialization file. To tell - mutt that you are subscribed to it, add ``subscribe mutt-users'' to your ini- - tialization file instead. If you also happen to get mail from someone whose - address is _m_u_t_t_-_u_s_e_r_s_@_e_x_a_m_p_l_e_._c_o_m, you could use ``lists mutt- - users@mutt\\.org'' or ``subscribe mutt-users@mutt\\.org'' to match only mail - from the actual list. + An initialization file consists of a series of commands. Each line of the file may contain one or more commands. When multiple commands are used, they must be separated by a semicolon (;). +set realname='Mutt-ng user' ; ignore x- - The ``unlists'' command is used to remove a token from the list of known and - subscribed mailing-lists. Use ``unlists *'' to remove all tokens. + The hash mark, or pound sign (``#''), is used as a ``comment'' character. You can use it to annotate your initialization file. All text after the comment character to the end of the line is ignored. For example, +my_hdr X-Disclaimer: Why are you listening to me? # This is a comment - To remove a mailing list from the list of subscribed mailing lists, but keep it - on the list of known mailing lists, use ``unsubscribe''. + Single quotes (') and double quotes (") can be used to quote strings which contain spaces or other special characters. The difference between the two types of quotes is similar to that of many popular shell programs, namely that a single quote is used to specify a literal string (one that is not interpreted for shell variables or quoting with a backslash [see next paragraph]), while double quotes indicate a string for which should be evaluated. For example, backtics are evaluated inside of double quotes, but not for single quotes. - _3_._1_1 _U_s_i_n_g _M_u_l_t_i_p_l_e _s_p_o_o_l _m_a_i_l_b_o_x_e_s + \ quotes the next character, just as in shells such as bash and zsh. For example, if want to put quotes ``"'' inside of a string, you can use ``\'' to force the next character to be a literal instead of interpreted character. +set realname="Michael \"MuttDude\" Elkins" - Usage: mbox-hook [!]_p_a_t_t_e_r_n _m_a_i_l_b_o_x + ``\\'' means to insert a literal ``\'' into the line. ``\n'' and ``\r'' have their usual C meanings of linefeed and carriage-return, respectively. - This command is used to move read messages from a specified mailbox to a dif- - ferent mailbox automatically when you quit or change folders. _p_a_t_t_e_r_n is a - regular expression specifying the mailbox to treat as a ``spool'' mailbox and - _m_a_i_l_b_o_x specifies where mail should be saved when read. + A \ at the end of a line can be used to split commands over multiple lines, provided that the split points don't appear in the middle of command names. - Unlike some of the other _h_o_o_k commands, only the _f_i_r_s_t matching pattern is used - (it is not possible to save read mail in more than a single mailbox). + Please note that, unlike the various shells, mutt-ng interprets a ``\'' at the end of a line also in comments. This allows you to disable a command split over multiple lines with only one ``#''. +# folder-hook . \ + set realname="Michael \"MuttDude\" Elkins" - _3_._1_2 _D_e_f_i_n_i_n_g _m_a_i_l_b_o_x_e_s _w_h_i_c_h _r_e_c_e_i_v_e _m_a_i_l + When testing your config files, beware the following caveat. The backslash at the end of the commented line extends the current line with the next line - then referred to as a ``continuation line''. As the first line is commented with a hash (#) all following continuation lines are also part of a comment and therefore are ignored, too. So take care of comments when continuation lines are involved within your setup files! - Usage: [un]mailboxes [!]_f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e [ _f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e ... ] + Abstract example: +line1\ +line2a # line2b\ +line3\ +line4 +line5 - This command specifies folders which can receive mail and which will be checked - for new messages. By default, the main menu status bar displays how many of - these folders have new messages. + line1 ``continues'' until line4. however, the part after the # is a comment which includes line3 and line4. line5 is a new line of its own and thus is interpreted again. - When changing folders, pressing _s_p_a_c_e will cycle through folders with new mail. + The commands understood by mutt are explained in the next paragraphs. For a complete list, see the commands. - Pressing TAB in the directory browser will bring up a menu showing the files - specified by the mailboxes command, and indicate which contain new messages. - Mutt will automatically enter this mode when invoked from the command line with - the -y option. +3. Expansion within variables - The ``unmailboxes'' command is used to remove a token from the list of folders - which receive mail. Use ``unmailboxes *'' to remove all tokens. + Besides just assign static content to variables, there's plenty of ways of adding external and more or less dynamic content. - NNoottee:: new mail is detected by comparing the last modification time to the last - access time. Utilities like biff or frm or any other program which accesses - the mailbox might cause Mutt to never detect new mail for that mailbox if they - do not properly reset the access time. Backup tools are another common reason - for updated access times. +3.1. Commands' Output - NNoottee:: the filenames in the mailboxes command are resolved when the command is - executed, so if these names contain _s_h_o_r_t_c_u_t _c_h_a_r_a_c_t_e_r_s (section 4.8 , page - 44) (such as ``='' and ``!''), any variable definition that affect these char- - acters (like _$_f_o_l_d_e_r (section 6.3.65 , page 79) and _$_s_p_o_o_l_f_i_l_e (section - 6.3.291 , page 135)) should be executed before the mailboxes command. + It is possible to substitute the output of a Unix command in an initialization file. This is accomplished by enclosing the command in backquotes (``) as in, for example: +my_hdr X-Operating-System: `uname -a` - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 26 + The output of the Unix command ``uname -a'' will be substituted before the line is parsed. Note that since initialization files are line oriented, only the first line of output from the Unix command will be substituted. - _3_._1_3 _U_s_e_r _d_e_f_i_n_e_d _h_e_a_d_e_r_s +3.2. Environment Variables - Usage: + UNIX environments can be accessed like the way it is done in shells like sh and bash: Prepend the name of the environment by a ``$'' sign. For example, +set record=+sent_on_$HOSTNAME - my_hdr _s_t_r_i_n_g + sets the record variable to the string +sent_on_ and appends the value of the evironment variable $HOSTNAME. - unmy_hdr _f_i_e_l_d [ _f_i_e_l_d ... ] + Note: There will be no warning if an environment variable is not defined. The result will of the expansion will then be empty. - The ``my_hdr'' command allows you to create your own header fields which will - be added to every message you send. +3.3. Configuration Variables - For example, if you would like to add an ``Organization:'' header field to all - of your outgoing messages, you can put the command + As for environment variables, the values of all configuration variables as string can be used in the same way, too. For example, +set imap_home_namespace = $folder - my_hdr Organization: A Really Big Company, Anytown, USA + would set the value of imap-home-namespace to the value to which folder is currently set to. - in your .muttrc. + Note: There're no logical links established in such cases so that the the value for imap-home-namespace won't change even if folder gets changed. - NNoottee:: space characters are _n_o_t allowed between the keyword and the colon - (``:''). The standard for electronic mail (RFC822) says that space is illegal - there, so Mutt enforces the rule. + Note: There will be no warning if a configuration variable is not defined or is empty. The result will of the expansion will then be empty. - If you would like to add a header field to a single message, you should either - set the _e_d_i_t___h_e_a_d_e_r_s (section 6.3.56 , page 77) variable, or use the _e_d_i_t_- - _h_e_a_d_e_r_s function (default: ``E'') in the send-menu so that you can edit the - header of your message along with the body. +3.4. Self-Defined Variables - To remove user defined header fields, use the ``unmy_hdr'' command. You may - specify an asterisk (``*'') to remove all header fields, or the fields to - remove. For example, to remove all ``To'' and ``Cc'' header fields, you could - use: + Mutt-ng flexibly allows users to define their own variables. To avoid conflicts with the standard set and to prevent misleading error messages, there's a reserved namespace for them: all user-defined variables must be prefixed with user_ and can be used just like any ordinary configuration or environment variable. - unmy_hdr to cc + For example, to view the manual, users can either define two macros like the following +macro generic "!less -r /path/to/manual" "Show manual" +macro pager "!less -r /path/to/manual" "Show manual" - _3_._1_4 _D_e_f_i_n_i_n_g _t_h_e _o_r_d_e_r _o_f _h_e_a_d_e_r_s _w_h_e_n _v_i_e_w_i_n_g _m_e_s_s_a_g_e_s + for generic, pager and index. The alternative is to define a custom variable like so: +set user_manualcmd = "!less -r /path/to_manual" +macro generic "$user_manualcmd" "Show manual" +macro pager "$user_manualcmd" "Show manual" +macro index "$user_manualcmd" "Show manual" - Usage: hdr_order _h_e_a_d_e_r_1 _h_e_a_d_e_r_2 _h_e_a_d_e_r_3 + to re-use the command sequence as in: +macro index "$user_manualcmd | grep '\^[ ]\\+~. '" "Show Patterns" - With this command, you can specify an order in which mutt will attempt to - present headers to you when viewing messages. + Using this feature, arbitrary sequences can be defined once and recalled and reused where necessary. More advanced scenarios could include to save a variable's value at the beginning of macro sequence and restore it at end. - ``unhdr_order *'' will clear all previous headers from the order list, thus - removing the header order effects set by the system-wide startup file. + When the variable is first defined, the first value it gets assigned is also the initial value to which it can be reset using the reset command. - hdr_order From Date: From: To: Cc: Subject: + The complete removal is done via the unset keyword. - _3_._1_5 _S_p_e_c_i_f_y _d_e_f_a_u_l_t _s_a_v_e _f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e + After the following sequence: +set user_foo = 42 +set user_foo = 666 - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 27 + the variable $user_foo has a current value of 666 and an initial of 42. The query +set ?user_foo - Usage: save-hook [!]_p_a_t_t_e_r_n _f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e + will show 666. After doing the reset via +reset user_foo - This command is used to override the default filename used when saving mes- - sages. _f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e will be used as the default filename if the message is _F_r_o_m_: - an address matching _r_e_g_e_x_p or if you are the author and the message is - addressed _t_o_: something matching _r_e_g_e_x_p. + a following query will give 42 as the result. After unsetting it via +unset user_foo - See _M_e_s_s_a_g_e _M_a_t_c_h_i_n_g _i_n _H_o_o_k_s (section 4.4.1 , page 41) for information on the - exact format of _p_a_t_t_e_r_n. + any query or operation (except the noted expansion within other statements) will lead to an error message. - Examples: +3.5. Pre-Defined Variables - save-hook me@(turing\\.)?cs\\.hmc\\.edu$ +elkins - save-hook aol\\.com$ +spam + In order to allow users to share one setup over a number of different machines without having to change its contents, there's a number of pre-defined variables. These are prefixed with muttng_ and are read-only, i.e. they cannot be set, unset or reset. The reference chapter lists all available variables. - Also see the _f_c_c_-_s_a_v_e_-_h_o_o_k (section 3.17 , page 27) command. + Please consult the local copy of your manual for their values as they may differ from different manual sources. Where the manual is installed in can be queried (already using such a variable) by running: +muttng -Q muttng_docdir - _3_._1_6 _S_p_e_c_i_f_y _d_e_f_a_u_l_t _F_c_c_: _m_a_i_l_b_o_x _w_h_e_n _c_o_m_p_o_s_i_n_g + To extend the example for viewing the manual via self-defined variables, it can be made more readable and more portable by changing the real path in: +set user_manualcmd = '!less -r /path/to_manual' - Usage: fcc-hook [!]_p_a_t_t_e_r_n _m_a_i_l_b_o_x + to: +set user_manualcmd = "!less -r $muttng_docdir/manual.txt" - This command is used to save outgoing mail in a mailbox other than _$_r_e_c_o_r_d - (section 6.3.223 , page 119). Mutt searches the initial list of message - recipients for the first matching _r_e_g_e_x_p and uses _m_a_i_l_b_o_x as the default Fcc: - mailbox. If no match is found the message will be saved to _$_r_e_c_o_r_d (section - 6.3.223 , page 119) mailbox. + which works everywhere if a manual is installed. - See _M_e_s_s_a_g_e _M_a_t_c_h_i_n_g _i_n _H_o_o_k_s (section 4.4.1 , page 41) for information on the - exact format of _p_a_t_t_e_r_n. + Please note that by the type of quoting, muttng determines when to expand these values: when it finds double quotes, the value will be expanded during reading the setup files but when it finds single quotes, it'll expand it at runtime as needed. - Example: fcc-hook [@.]aol\\.com$ +spammers + For example, the statement +folder-hook . "set user_current_folder = $muttng_folder_name" - The above will save a copy of all messages going to the aol.com domain to the - `+spammers' mailbox by default. Also see the _f_c_c_-_s_a_v_e_-_h_o_o_k (section 3.17 , - page 27) command. + will be already be translated to the following when reading the startup files: +folder-hook . "set user_current_folder = some_folder" - _3_._1_7 _S_p_e_c_i_f_y _d_e_f_a_u_l_t _s_a_v_e _f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e _a_n_d _d_e_f_a_u_l_t _F_c_c_: _m_a_i_l_b_o_x _a_t _o_n_c_e + with some_folder being the name of the first folder muttng opens. On the contrary, +folder-hook . 'set user_current_folder = $muttng_folder_name' - Usage: fcc-save-hook [!]_p_a_t_t_e_r_n _m_a_i_l_b_o_x + will be executed at runtime because of the single quotes so that user_current_folder will always have the value of the currently opened folder. - This command is a shortcut, equivalent to doing both a _f_c_c_-_h_o_o_k (section - 3.16 , page 27) and a _s_a_v_e_-_h_o_o_k (section 3.15 , page 26) with its arguments. + A more practical example is: +folder-hook . 'source ~/.mutt/score-$muttng_folder_name' - _3_._1_8 _C_h_a_n_g_e _s_e_t_t_i_n_g_s _b_a_s_e_d _u_p_o_n _m_e_s_s_a_g_e _r_e_c_i_p_i_e_n_t_s + which can be used to source files containing score commands depending on the folder the user enters. - Usage: reply-hook [!]_p_a_t_t_e_r_n _c_o_m_m_a_n_d +3.6. Type Conversions - Usage: send-hook [!]_p_a_t_t_e_r_n _c_o_m_m_a_n_d + A note about variable's types during conversion: internally values are stored in internal types but for any dump/query or set operation they're converted to and from string. That means that there's no need to worry about types when referencing any variable. As an example, the following can be used without harm (besides makeing muttng very likely behave strange): +set read_inc = 100 +set folder = $read_inc +set read_inc = $folder +set user_magic_number = 42 +set folder = $user_magic_number - Usage: send2-hook [!]_p_a_t_t_e_r_n _c_o_m_m_a_n_d +4. Defining/Using aliases - These commands can be used to execute arbitrary configuration commands based + Usage: alias key address [ , address, ... ] - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 28 + It's usually very cumbersome to remember or type out the address of someone you are communicating with. Mutt-ng allows you to create ``aliases'' which map a short string to a full address. - upon recipients of the message. _p_a_t_t_e_r_n is a regular expression matching the - desired address. _c_o_m_m_a_n_d is executed when _r_e_g_e_x_p matches recipients of the - message. + Note: if you want to create an alias for a group (by specifying more than one address), you must separate the addresses with a comma (``,''). - reply-hook is matched against the message you are _r_e_p_l_y_i_n_g ttoo, instead of the - message you are _s_e_n_d_i_n_g. send-hook is matched against all messages, both _n_e_w - and _r_e_p_l_i_e_s. NNoottee:: reply-hooks are matched bbeeffoorree the send-hook, rreeggaarrddlleessss of - the order specified in the users's configuration file. + To remove an alias or aliases (``*'' means all aliases): - send2-hook is matched every time a message is changed, either by editing it, or - by using the compose menu to change its recipients or subject. send2-hook is - executed after send-hook, and can, e.g., be used to set parameters such as the - _$_s_e_n_d_m_a_i_l (section 6.3.241 , page 123) variable depending on the message's - sender address. + unalias [ * | key ... ] +alias muttdude me@cs.hmc.edu (Michael Elkins) +alias theguys manny, moe, jack - For each type of send-hook or reply-hook, when multiple matches occur, commands - are executed in the order they are specified in the muttrc (for that type of - hook). + Unlike other mailers, Mutt-ng doesn't require aliases to be defined in a special file. The alias command can appear anywhere in a configuration file, as long as this file is source. Consequently, you can have multiple alias files, or you can have all aliases defined in your muttrc. - See _M_e_s_s_a_g_e _M_a_t_c_h_i_n_g _i_n _H_o_o_k_s (section 4.4.1 , page 41) for information on the - exact format of _p_a_t_t_e_r_n. + On the other hand, the create-alias function can use only one file, the one pointed to by the alias-file variable (which is ˜/.muttrc by default). This file is not special either, in the sense that Mutt-ng will happily append aliases to any file, but in order for the new aliases to take effect you need to explicitly source this file too. - Example: send-hook mutt 'set mime_forward signature=''' + For example: +source /usr/local/share/Mutt-ng.aliases +source ~/.mail_aliases +set alias_file=~/.mail_aliases - Another typical use for this command is to change the values of the _$_a_t_t_r_i_b_u_- - _t_i_o_n (section 6.3.17 , page 69), _$_s_i_g_n_a_t_u_r_e (section 6.3.255 , page 126) and - _$_l_o_c_a_l_e (section 6.3.117 , page 94) variables in order to change the language - of the attributions and signatures based upon the recipients. + To use aliases, you merely use the alias at any place in mutt where mutt prompts for addresses, such as the To: or Cc: prompt. You can also enter aliases in your editor at the appropriate headers if you have the edit-headers variable set. - NNoottee:: the send-hook's are only executed ONCE after getting the initial list of - recipients. Adding a recipient after replying or editing the message will NOT - cause any send-hook to be executed. Also note that my_hdr commands which mod- - ify recipient headers, or the message's subject, don't have any effect on the - current message when executed from a send-hook. + In addition, at the various address prompts, you can use the tab character to expand a partial alias to the full alias. If there are multiple matches, mutt will bring up a menu with the matching aliases. In order to be presented with the full list of aliases, you must hit tab with out a partial alias, such as at the beginning of the prompt or after a comma denoting multiple addresses. - _3_._1_9 _C_h_a_n_g_e _s_e_t_t_i_n_g_s _b_e_f_o_r_e _f_o_r_m_a_t_t_i_n_g _a _m_e_s_s_a_g_e + In the alias menu, you can select as many aliases as you want with the select-entry key (default: RET), and use the exit key (default: q) to return to the address prompt. - Usage: message-hook [!]_p_a_t_t_e_r_n _c_o_m_m_a_n_d +5. Changing the default key bindings - This command can be used to execute arbitrary configuration commands before - viewing or formatting a message based upon information about the message. _c_o_m_- - _m_a_n_d is executed if the _p_a_t_t_e_r_n matches the message to be displayed. When mul- - tiple matches occur, commands are executed in the order they are specified in - the muttrc. + Usage: bind map key function - See _M_e_s_s_a_g_e _M_a_t_c_h_i_n_g _i_n _H_o_o_k_s (section 4.4.1 , page 41) for information on the - exact format of _p_a_t_t_e_r_n. + This command allows you to change the default key bindings (operation invoked when pressing a key). - Example: + map specifies in which menu the binding belongs. Multiple maps may be specified by separating them with commas (no additional whitespace is allowed). The currently defined maps are: - message-hook ~A 'set pager=builtin' - message-hook '~f freshmeat-news' 'set pager="less \"+/^ subject: .*\""' + generic + This is not a real menu, but is used as a fallback for all of the other menus except for the pager and editor modes. If a key is not defined in another menu, Mutt-ng will look for a binding to use in this menu. This allows you to bind a key to a certain function in multiple menus instead of having multiple bind statements to accomplish the same task. - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 29 + alias + The alias menu is the list of your personal aliases as defined in your muttrc. It is the mapping from a short alias name to the full email address(es) of the recipient(s). - _3_._2_0 _C_h_o_o_s_i_n_g _t_h_e _c_r_y_p_t_o_g_r_a_p_h_i_c _k_e_y _o_f _t_h_e _r_e_c_i_p_i_e_n_t + attach + The attachment menu is used to access the attachments on received messages. - Usage: crypt-hook _p_a_t_t_e_r_n _k_e_y_i_d + browser + The browser is used for both browsing the local directory structure, and for listing all of your incoming mailboxes. - When encrypting messages with PGP or OpenSSL, you may want to associate a cer- - tain key with a given e-mail address automatically, either because the recipi- - ent's public key can't be deduced from the destination address, or because, for - some reasons, you need to override the key Mutt would normally use. The crypt- - hook command provides a method by which you can specify the ID of the public - key to be used when encrypting messages to a certain recipient. + editor + The editor is the line-based editor the user enters text data. - The meaning of "key id" is to be taken broadly in this context: You can either - put a numerical key ID here, an e-mail address, or even just a real name. + index + The index is the list of messages contained in a mailbox. - _3_._2_1 _A_d_d_i_n_g _k_e_y _s_e_q_u_e_n_c_e_s _t_o _t_h_e _k_e_y_b_o_a_r_d _b_u_f_f_e_r + compose + The compose menu is the screen used when sending a new message. - Usage: push _s_t_r_i_n_g + pager + The pager is the mode used to display message/attachment data, and help listings. - This command adds the named string to the keyboard buffer. The string may con- - tain control characters, key names and function names like the sequence string - in the _m_a_c_r_o (section 3.6 , page 20) command. You may use it to automatically - run a sequence of commands at startup, or when entering certain folders. + pgp + The pgp menu is used to select the OpenPGP keys used for encrypting outgoing messages. - _3_._2_2 _E_x_e_c_u_t_i_n_g _f_u_n_c_t_i_o_n_s + postpone + The postpone menu is similar to the index menu, except is used when recalling a message the user was composing, but saved until later. - Usage: exec _f_u_n_c_t_i_o_n [ _f_u_n_c_t_i_o_n ... ] + key is the key (or key sequence) you wish to bind. To specify a control character, use the sequence \Cx, where x is the letter of the control character (for example, to specify control-A use ``\Ca''). Note that the case of x as well as \C is ignored, so that \CA, \Ca, \cA and \ca are all equivalent. An alternative form is to specify the key as a three digit octal number prefixed with a ``\'' (for example \177 is equivalent to \c?). - This command can be used to execute any function. Functions are listed in the - _f_u_n_c_t_i_o_n _r_e_f_e_r_e_n_c_e (section 6.4 , page 146). ``exec function'' is equivalent - to ``push ''. + In addition, key may consist of: +\t tab + tab + backtab / shift-tab +\r carriage return +\n newline +\e escape + escape + up arrow + down arrow + left arrow + right arrow + Page Up + Page Down + Backspace + Delete + Insert + Enter + Return + Home + End + Space bar + function key 1 + function key 10 - _3_._2_3 _M_e_s_s_a_g_e _S_c_o_r_i_n_g + key does not need to be enclosed in quotes unless it contains a space (`` ''). - Usage: score _p_a_t_t_e_r_n _v_a_l_u_e + function specifies which action to take when key is pressed. For a complete list of functions, see the functions. The special function noop unbinds the specified key sequence. - Usage: unscore _p_a_t_t_e_r_n [ _p_a_t_t_e_r_n ... ] +6. Defining aliases for character sets - The score commands adds _v_a_l_u_e to a message's score if _p_a_t_t_e_r_n matches it. _p_a_t_- - _t_e_r_n is a string in the format described in the _p_a_t_t_e_r_n_s (section 4.2 , page - 36) section (note: For efficiency reasons, patterns which scan information not - available in the index, such as ~b, ~B or ~h, may not be used). _v_a_l_u_e is a - positive or negative integer. A message's final score is the sum total of all - matching score entries. However, you may optionally prefix _v_a_l_u_e with an equal - sign (=) to cause evaluation to stop at a particular entry if there is a match. - Negative final scores are rounded up to 0. + Usage: charset-hook alias charset Usage: iconv-hook charset local-charset - The unscore command removes score entries from the list. You mmuusstt specify the - same pattern specified in the score command for it to be removed. The pattern - ``*'' is a special token which means to clear the list of all score entries. + The charset-hook command defines an alias for a character set. This is useful to properly display messages which are tagged with a character set name not known to mutt. - _3_._2_4 _S_p_a_m _d_e_t_e_c_t_i_o_n + The iconv-hook command defines a system-specific name for a character set. This is helpful when your systems character conversion library insists on using strange, system-specific names for character sets. - Usage: spam _p_a_t_t_e_r_n _f_o_r_m_a_t +7. Setting variables based upon mailbox - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 30 + Usage: folder-hook [!]regexp command - Usage: nospam _p_a_t_t_e_r_n + It is often desirable to change settings based on which mailbox you are reading. The folder-hook command provides a method by which you can execute any configuration command. regexp is a regular expression specifying in which mailboxes to execute command before loading. If a mailbox matches multiple folder-hook's, they are executed in the order given in the muttrc. - Mutt has generalized support for external spam-scoring filters. By defining - your spam patterns with the spam and nospam commands, you can _l_i_m_i_t, _s_e_a_r_c_h, - and _s_o_r_t your mail based on its spam attributes, as determined by the external - filter. You also can display the spam attributes in your index display using - the %H selector in the _$_i_n_d_e_x___f_o_r_m_a_t (section 6.3.112 , page 91) variable. - (Tip: try %?H?[%H] ? to display spam tags only when they are defined for a - given message.) + Note: if you use the ``!'' shortcut for spoolfile at the beginning of the pattern, you must place it inside of double or single quotes in order to distinguish it from the logical not operator for the expression. - Your first step is to define your external filter's spam patterns using the - spam command. _p_a_t_t_e_r_n should be a regular expression that matches a header in a - mail message. If any message in the mailbox matches this regular expression, it - will receive a ``spam tag'' or ``spam attribute'' (unless it also matches a - nospam pattern -- see below.) The appearance of this attribute is entirely up - to you, and is governed by the _f_o_r_m_a_t parameter. _f_o_r_m_a_t can be any static text, - but it also can include back-references from the _p_a_t_t_e_r_n expression. (A regular - expression ``back-reference'' refers to a sub-expression contained within - parentheses.) %1 is replaced with the first back-reference in the regex, %2 - with the second, etc. + Note that the settings are not restored when you leave the mailbox. For example, a command action to perform is to change the sorting method based upon the mailbox being read: +folder-hook mutt set sort=threads - If you're using multiple spam filters, a message can have more than one spam- - related header. You can define spam patterns for each filter you use. If a mes- - sage matches two or more of these patterns, and the $spam_separator variable is - set to a string, then the message's spam tag will consist of all the _f_o_r_m_a_t - strings joined together, with the value of $spam_separator separating them. + However, the sorting method is not restored to its previous value when reading a different mailbox. To specify a default command, use the pattern ``.'': +folder-hook . set sort=date-sent - For example, suppose I use DCC, SpamAssassin, and PureMessage. I might define - these spam settings: +8. Keyboard macros - spam "X-DCC-.*-Metrics:.*(....)=many" "90+/DCC-%1" - spam "X-Spam-Status: Yes" "90+/SA" - spam "X-PerlMX-Spam: .*Probability=([0-9]+)%" "%1/PM" - set spam_separator=", " + Usage: macro menu key sequence [ description ] - If I then received a message that DCC registered with ``many'' hits under the - ``Fuz2'' checksum, and that PureMessage registered with a 97% probability of - being spam, that message's spam tag would read 90+/DCC-Fuz2, 97/PM. (The four - characters before ``=many'' in a DCC report indicate the checksum used -- in - this case, ``Fuz2''.) + Macros are useful when you would like a single key to perform a series of actions. When you press key in menu menu, Mutt-ng will behave as if you had typed sequence. So if you have a common sequence of commands you type, you can create a macro to execute those commands with a single key. - If the $spam_separator variable is unset, then each spam pattern match super- - sedes the previous one. Instead of getting joined _f_o_r_m_a_t strings, you'll get - only the last one to match. + menu is the maps which the macro will be bound. Multiple maps may be specified by separating multiple menu arguments by commas. Whitespace may not be used in between the menu arguments and the commas separating them. - The spam tag is what will be displayed in the index when you use %H in the - $index_format variable. It's also the string that the ~H pattern-matching - expression matches against for _s_e_a_r_c_h and _l_i_m_i_t functions. And it's what sort- - ing by spam attribute will use as a sort key. + key and sequence are expanded by the same rules as the bind. There are some additions however. The first is that control characters in sequence can also be specified as ^x. In order to get a caret (`^'') you need to use ^^. Secondly, to specify a certain key such as up or to invoke a function directly, you can use the format and . For a listing of key names see the section on bind. Functions are listed in the functions. - That's a pretty complicated example, and most people's actual environments will - have only one spam filter. The simpler your configuration, the more effective - mutt can be, especially when it comes to sorting. + The advantage with using function names directly is that the macros will work regardless of the current key bindings, so they are not dependent on the user having particular key definitions. This makes them more robust and portable, and also facilitates defining of macros in files used by more than one user (eg. the system Muttngrc). - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 31 + Optionally you can specify a descriptive text after sequence, which is shown in the help screens. - Generally, when you sort by spam tag, mutt will sort _l_e_x_i_c_a_l_l_y -- that is, by - ordering strings alphnumerically. However, if a spam tag begins with a number, - mutt will sort numerically first, and lexically only when two numbers are equal - in value. (This is like UNIX's sort -n.) A message with no spam attributes at - all -- that is, one that didn't match _a_n_y of your spam patterns -- is sorted at - lowest priority. Numbers are sorted next, beginning with 0 and ranging upward. - Finally, non-numeric strings are sorted, with ``a'' taking lower priority than - ``z''. Clearly, in general, sorting by spam tags is most effective when you can - coerce your filter to give you a raw number. But in case you can't, mutt can - still do something useful. + Note: Macro definitions (if any) listed in the help screen(s), are silently truncated at the screen width, and are not wrapped. - The nospam command can be used to write exceptions to spam patterns. If a - header pattern matches something in a spam command, but you nonetheless do not - want it to receive a spam tag, you can list a more precise pattern under a - nospam command. +9. Using color and mono video attributes - If the _p_a_t_t_e_r_n given to nospam is exactly the same as the _p_a_t_t_e_r_n on an exist- - ing spam list entry, the effect will be to remove the entry from the spam list, - instead of adding an exception. Likewise, if the _p_a_t_t_e_r_n for a spam command - matches an entry on the nospam list, that nospam entry will be removed. If the - _p_a_t_t_e_r_n for nospam is ``*'', _a_l_l _e_n_t_r_i_e_s _o_n _b_o_t_h _l_i_s_t_s will be removed. This - might be the default action if you use spam and nospam in conjunction with a - folder-hook. + Usage: color object foreground background [ regexp ] Usage: color index foreground background pattern Usage: uncolor index pattern [ pattern ... ] - You can have as many spam or nospam commands as you like. You can even do your - own primitive spam detection within mutt -- for example, if you consider all - mail from MAILER-DAEMON to be spam, you can use a spam command like this: + If your terminal supports color, you can spice up Mutt-ng by creating your own color scheme. To define the color of an object (type of information), you must specify both a foreground color and a background color (it is not possible to only specify one or the other). - spam "^From: .*MAILER-DAEMON" "999" + object can be one of: + * attachment + * body (match regexp in the body of messages) + * bold (highlighting bold patterns in the body of messages) + * error (error messages printed by Mutt-ng) + * header (match regexp in the message header) + * hdrdefault (default color of the message header in the pager) + * index (match pattern in the message index) + * indicator (arrow or bar used to indicate the current item in a menu) + * markers (the ``+'' markers at the beginning of wrapped lines in the pager) + * message (informational messages) + * normal + * quoted (text matching quote-regexp in the body of a message) + * quoted1, quoted2, ..., quotedN (higher levels of quoting) + * search (highlighting of words in the pager) + * signature + * status (mode lines used to display info about the mailbox or message) + * tilde (the ``˜'' used to pad blank lines in the pager) + * tree (thread tree drawn in the message index and attachment menu) + * underline (highlighting underlined patterns in the body of messages) - _3_._2_5 _S_e_t_t_i_n_g _v_a_r_i_a_b_l_e_s + foreground and background can be one of the following: + * white + * black + * green + * magenta + * blue + * cyan + * yellow + * red + * default + * colorx - Usage: set [no|inv]_v_a_r_i_a_b_l_e[=_v_a_l_u_e] [ _v_a_r_i_a_b_l_e ... ] + foreground can optionally be prefixed with the keyword bright to make the foreground color boldfaced (e.g., brightred). - Usage: toggle _v_a_r_i_a_b_l_e [_v_a_r_i_a_b_l_e ... ] + If your terminal supports it, the special keyword default can be used as a transparent color. The value brightdefault is also valid. If Mutt-ng is linked against the S-Lang library, you also need to set the COLORFGBG environment variable to the default colors of your terminal for this to work; for example (for Bourne-like shells): +set COLORFGBG="green;black" +export COLORFGBG - Usage: unset _v_a_r_i_a_b_l_e [_v_a_r_i_a_b_l_e ... ] + Note: The S-Lang library requires you to use the lightgray and brown keywords instead of white and yellow when setting this variable. - Usage: reset _v_a_r_i_a_b_l_e [_v_a_r_i_a_b_l_e ... ] + Note: The uncolor command can be applied to the index object only. It removes entries from the list. You must specify the same pattern specified in the color command for it to be removed. The pattern ``*'' is a special token which means to clear the color index list of all entries. - This command is used to set (and unset) _c_o_n_f_i_g_u_r_a_t_i_o_n _v_a_r_i_a_b_l_e_s (section 6.3 , - page 64). There are four basic types of variables: boolean, number, string and - quadoption. _b_o_o_l_e_a_n variables can be _s_e_t (true) or _u_n_s_e_t (false). _n_u_m_b_e_r - variables can be assigned a positive integer value. + Mutt-ng also recognizes the keywords color0, color1, …, colorN-1 (N being the number of colors supported by your terminal). This is useful when you remap the colors for your display (for example by changing the color associated with color2 for your xterm), since color names may then lose their normal meaning. - _s_t_r_i_n_g variables consist of any number of printable characters. _s_t_r_i_n_g_s must - be enclosed in quotes if they contain spaces or tabs. You may also use the - ``C'' escape sequences \\nn and \\tt for newline and tab, respectively. + If your terminal does not support color, it is still possible change the video attributes through the use of the ``mono'' command: - _q_u_a_d_o_p_t_i_o_n variables are used to control whether or not to be prompted for cer- - tain actions, or to specify a default action. A value of _y_e_s will cause the - action to be carried out automatically as if you had answered yes to the + Usage: mono [ regexp ] Usage: mono index attribute pattern Usage: unmono index pattern [ pattern ... ] - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 32 + where attribute is one of the following: + * none + * bold + * underline + * reverse + * standout - question. Similarly, a value of _n_o will cause the the action to be carried out - as if you had answered ``no.'' A value of _a_s_k_-_y_e_s will cause a prompt with a - default answer of ``yes'' and _a_s_k_-_n_o will provide a default answer of ``no.'' +10. Ignoring (weeding) unwanted message headers - Prefixing a variable with ``no'' will unset it. Example: set noaskbcc. + Usage: [un]ignore pattern [ pattern ... ] - For _b_o_o_l_e_a_n variables, you may optionally prefix the variable name with inv to - toggle the value (on or off). This is useful when writing macros. Example: - set invsmart_wrap. + Messages often have many header fields added by automatic processing systems, or which may not seem useful to display on the screen. This command allows you to specify header fields which you don't normally want to see. - The toggle command automatically prepends the inv prefix to all specified vari- - ables. + You do not need to specify the full header field name. For example, ``ignore content-'' will ignore all header fields that begin with the pattern ``content-''. ``ignore *'' will ignore all headers. - The unset command automatically prepends the no prefix to all specified vari- - ables. + To remove a previously added token from the list, use the ``unignore'' command. The ``unignore'' command will make Mutt-ng display headers with the given pattern. For example, if you do ``ignore x-'' it is possible to ``unignore x-mailer''. - Using the enter-command function in the _i_n_d_e_x menu, you can query the value of - a variable by prefixing the name of the variable with a question mark: + ``unignore *'' will remove all tokens from the ignore list. - set ?allow_8bit + For example: +# Sven's draconian header weeding +ignore * +unignore from date subject to cc +unignore organization organisation x-mailer: x-newsreader: x-mailing-list: +unignore posted-to: - The question mark is actually only required for boolean and quadoption vari- - ables. +11. Alternative addresses - The reset command resets all given variables to the compile time defaults - (hopefully mentioned in this manual). If you use the command set and prefix the - variable with ``&'' this has the same behavior as the reset command. + Usage: [un]alternates regexp [ regexp ... ] - With the reset command there exists the special variable ``all'', which allows - you to reset all variables to their system defaults. + With various functions, mutt will treat messages differently, depending on whether you sent them or whether you received them from someone else. For instance, when replying to a message that you sent to a different party, mutt will automatically suggest to send the response to the original message's recipients -- responding to yourself won't make much sense in many cases. (See reply-to.) - _3_._2_6 _R_e_a_d_i_n_g _i_n_i_t_i_a_l_i_z_a_t_i_o_n _c_o_m_m_a_n_d_s _f_r_o_m _a_n_o_t_h_e_r _f_i_l_e + Many users receive e-mail under a number of different addresses. To fully use mutt's features here, the program must be able to recognize what e-mail addresses you receive mail under. That's the purpose of the alternates command: It takes a list of regular expressions, each of which can identify an address under which you receive e-mail. - Usage: source _f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e [ _f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e ... ] + The unalternates command can be used to write exceptions to alternates patterns. If an address matches something in an alternates command, but you nonetheless do not think it is from you, you can list a more precise pattern under an unalternates command. - This command allows the inclusion of initialization commands from other files. - For example, I place all of my aliases in ~/.mail_aliases so that I can make my - ~/.muttrc readable and keep my aliases private. + To remove a regular expression from the alternates list, use the unalternates command with exactly the same regexp. Likewise, if the regexp for a alternates command matches an entry on the unalternates list, that unalternates entry will be removed. If the regexp for unalternates is ``*'', all entries on alternates will be removed. - If the filename begins with a tilde (``~''), it will be expanded to the path of - your home directory. +12. Format = Flowed - If the filename ends with a vertical bar (|), then _f_i_l_e_n_a_m_e is considered to be - an executable program from which to read input (eg. source ~/bin/myscript|). +12.1. Introduction - _3_._2_7 _C_o_n_f_i_g_u_r_i_n_g _f_e_a_t_u_r_e_s _c_o_n_d_i_t_i_o_n_a_l_l_y + Mutt-ng contains support for so-called format=flowed messages. In the beginning of email, each message had a fixed line width, and it was enough for displaying them on fixed-size terminals. But times changed, and nowadays hardly anybody still uses fixed-size terminals: more people nowaydays use graphical user interfaces, with dynamically resizable windows. This led to the demand of a new email format that makes it possible for the email client to make the email look nice in a resizable window without breaking quoting levels and creating an incompatible email format that can also be displayed nicely on old fixed-size terminals. - Usage: ifdef _i_t_e_m _c_o_m_m_a_n_d Usage: ifndef _i_t_e_m _c_o_m_m_a_n_d + For introductory information on format=flowed messages, see . - These command allows to test if a variable, function or certain feature is - available or not respectively, before actually executing the command. ifdef - (short for ``if defined) handles commands if upon availability while ifndef +12.2. Receiving: Display Setup - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 33 + When you receive emails that are marked as format=flowed messages, and is formatted correctly, mutt-ng will try to reformat the message to optimally fit on your terminal. If you want a fixed margin on the right side of your terminal, you can set the following: + set wrapmargin = 10 - (short for ``if not defined'') does if not. The _c_o_m_m_a_n_d may be any valid frac- - tion of a configuration file. + The code above makes the line break 10 columns before the right side of the terminal. - All names of variables and functions may be tested. Additionally, the following - compile-features may be tested when prefixed with 'feature_': ncurses, slang, - iconv, idn, dotlock, standalone, pop, nntp, imap, ssl, gnutls, sasl, sasl2, - libesmtp, compressed, color, classic_pgp, classic_smime, gpgme, header_cache. + If your terminal is so wide that the lines are embarrassingly long, you can also set a maximum line length: + set max_line_length = 120 - Examples follow. + The example above will give you lines not longer than 120 characters. - To only source a file with IMAP related settings only if IMAP support is com- - piled in, use: + When you view at format=flowed messages, you will often see the quoting hierarchy like in the following example: + >Bill, can you please send last month's progress report to Mr. + >Morgan? We also urgently need the cost estimation for the new + >production server that we want to set up before our customer's + >project will go live. - ifdef feature_imap 'source ~/.mutt-ng/imap_setup' - # or - # ifdef imap_user 'source ~/.mutt-ng/imap_setup' - # or - # ... + This obviously doesn't look very nice, and it makes it very hard to differentiate between text and quoting character. The solution is to configure mutt-ng to "stuff" the quoting: + set stuff_quoted - To exit mutt-ng directly if no NNTP support is compiled in: + This will lead to a nicer result that is easier to read: + > Bill, can you please send last month's progress report to Mr. + > Morgan? We also urgently need the cost estimation for the new + > production server that we want to set up before our customer's + > project will go live. - ifndef feature_nntp 'push q' - # or - # ifndef newsrc 'push q' - # or - # ... +12.3. Sending - To only set the _<_$_i_m_a_p___m_a_i_l___c_h_e_c_k (section 6.3.101 , page 88) when the sys- - tem's SVN is recent enough to have it: + If you want mutt-ng to send emails with format=flowed set, you need to explicitly set it: + set text_flowed - ifdef imap_mail_check 'set imap_mail_check=300' + Additionally, you have to use an editor which supports writing format=flowed-conforming emails. For vim, this is done by adding w to the formatoptions (see :h formatoptions and :h fo-table) when writing emails. - _3_._2_8 _R_e_m_o_v_i_n_g _h_o_o_k_s + Also note that format=flowed knows about ``space-stuffing'', that is, when sending messages, some kinds of lines have to be indented with a single space on the sending side. On the receiving side, the first space (if any) is removed. As a consequence and in addition to the above simple setting, please keep this in mind when making manual formattings within the editor. Also note that mutt-ng currently violates the standard (RfC 3676) as it does not space-stuff lines starting with: + * > This is not the quote character but a right angle used for other reasons + * From with a trailing space. + * just a space for formatting reasons - Usage: unhook [ * | _h_o_o_k_-_t_y_p_e ] + Please make sure that you manually prepend a space to each of them. - This command permits you to flush hooks you have previously defined. You can - either remove all hooks by giving the ``*'' character as an argument, or you - can remove all hooks of a specific type by saying something like unhook send- - hook. +12.4. Additional Notes - _4_. _A_d_v_a_n_c_e_d _U_s_a_g_e + For completeness, the delete-space variable provides the mechanism to generate a DelSp=yes parameter on outgoing messages. According to the standard, clients receiving a format=flowed messages should delete the last space of a flowed line but still interpret the line as flowed. Because flowed lines usually contain only one space at the end, this parameter would make the receiving client concatenate the last word of the previous with the first of the current line without a space. This makes ordinary text unreadable and is intended for languages rarely using spaces. So please use this setting only if you're sure what you're doing. - _4_._1 _R_e_g_u_l_a_r _E_x_p_r_e_s_s_i_o_n_s +13. Mailing lists - All string patterns in Mutt including those in more complex _p_a_t_t_e_r_n_s (section - 4.2 , page 36) must be specified using regular expressions (regexp) in the - ``POSIX extended'' syntax (which is more or less the syntax used by egrep and - GNU awk). For your convenience, we have included below a brief description of - this syntax. + Usage: [un]lists regexp [ regexp ... ] Usage: [un]subscribe regexp [ regexp ... ] - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 34 + Mutt-ng has a few nice features for using-lists. In order to take advantage of them, you must specify which addresses belong to mailing lists, and which mailing lists you are subscribed to. Once you have done this, the list-reply function will work for all known lists. Additionally, when you send a message to a subscribed list, mutt will add a Mail-Followup-To header to tell other users' mail user agents not to send copies of replies to your personal address. Note that the Mail-Followup-To header is a non-standard extension which is not supported by all mail user agents. Adding it is not bullet-proof against receiving personal CCs of list messages. Also note that the generation of the Mail-Followup-To header is controlled by the followup-to configuration variable. - The search is case sensitive if the pattern contains at least one upper case - letter, and case insensitive otherwise. Note that ``\'' must be quoted if used - for a regular expression in an initialization command: ``\\''. + More precisely, Mutt-ng maintains lists of patterns for the addresses of known and subscribed mailing lists. Every subscribed mailing list is known. To mark a mailing list as known, use the ``lists'' command. To mark it as subscribed, use ``subscribe''. - A regular expression is a pattern that describes a set of strings. Regular - expressions are constructed analogously to arithmetic expressions, by using - various operators to combine smaller expressions. + You can use regular expressions with both commands. To mark all messages sent to a specific bug report's address on mutt's bug tracking system as list mail, for instance, you could say ``subscribe [0-9]*@bugs.guug.de''. Often, it's sufficient to just give a portion of the list's e-mail address. - Note that the regular expression can be enclosed/delimited by either ' or ' - which is useful if the regular expression includes a white-space character. - See _S_y_n_t_a_x _o_f _I_n_i_t_i_a_l_i_z_a_t_i_o_n _F_i_l_e_s (section 3.1 , page 14) for more informa- - tion on ' and ' delimiter processing. To match a literal ' or ' you must pref- - ace it with \ (backslash). + Specify as much of the address as you need to to remove ambiguity. For example, if you've subscribed to the Mutt-ng mailing list, you will receive mail addressed to mutt-users@mutt.org. So, to tell Mutt-ng that this is a mailing list, you could add ``lists mutt-users'' to your initialization file. To tell mutt that you are subscribed to it, add ``subscribe mutt-users'' to your initialization file instead. If you also happen to get mail from someone whose address is mutt-users@example.com, you could use ``lists mutt-users@mutt\\.org'' or ``subscribe mutt-users@mutt\\.org'' to match only mail from the actual list. - The fundamental building blocks are the regular expressions that match a single - character. Most characters, including all letters and digits, are regular - expressions that match themselves. Any metacharacter with special meaning may - be quoted by preceding it with a backslash. + The ``unlists'' command is used to remove a token from the list of known and subscribed mailing-lists. Use ``unlists *'' to remove all tokens. - The period ``.'' matches any single character. The caret ``^'' and the dollar - sign ``$'' are metacharacters that respectively match the empty string at the - beginning and end of a line. + To remove a mailing list from the list of subscribed mailing lists, but keep it on the list of known mailing lists, use ``unsubscribe''. - A list of characters enclosed by ``['' and ``]'' matches any single character - in that list; if the first character of the list is a caret ``^'' then it - matches any character nnoott in the list. For example, the regular expression - [[00112233445566778899]] matches any single digit. A range of ASCII characters may be - specified by giving the first and last characters, separated by a hyphen ``-''. - Most metacharacters lose their special meaning inside lists. To include a lit- - eral ``]'' place it first in the list. Similarly, to include a literal ``^'' - place it anywhere but first. Finally, to include a literal hyphen ``-'' place - it last. +14. Using Multiple spool mailboxes - Certain named classes of characters are predefined. Character classes consist - of ``[:'', a keyword denoting the class, and ``:]''. The following classes are - defined by the POSIX standard: + Usage: mbox-hook [!]pattern mailbox - [:alnum:] - Alphanumeric characters. + This command is used to move read messages from a specified mailbox to a different mailbox automatically when you quit or change folders. pattern is a regular expression specifying the mailbox to treat as a ``spool'' mailbox and mailbox specifies where mail should be saved when read. - [:alpha:] - Alphabetic characters. + Unlike some of the other hook commands, only the first matching pattern is used (it is not possible to save read mail in more than a single mailbox). - [:blank:] - Space or tab characters. +15. Defining mailboxes which receive mail - [:cntrl:] - Control characters. + Usage: [un]mailboxes [!]filename [ filename ... ] - [:digit:] - Numeric characters. + This command specifies folders which can receive mail and which will be checked for new messages. By default, the main menu status bar displays how many of these folders have new messages. - [:graph:] - Characters that are both printable and visible. (A space is + When changing folders, pressing space will cycle through folders with new mail. - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 35 + Pressing TAB in the directory browser will bring up a menu showing the files specified by the mailboxes command, and indicate which contain new messages. Mutt-ng will automatically enter this mode when invoked from the command line with the -y option. - printable, but not visible, while an ``a'' is both.) + The ``unmailboxes'' command is used to remove a token from the list of folders which receive mail. Use ``unmailboxes *'' to remove all tokens. - [:lower:] - Lower-case alphabetic characters. + Note: new mail is detected by comparing the last modification time to the last access time. Utilities like biff or frm or any other program which accesses the mailbox might cause Mutt-ng to never detect new mail for that mailbox if they do not properly reset the access time. Backup tools are another common reason for updated access times. - [:print:] - Printable characters (characters that are not control characters.) + Note: the filenames in the mailboxes command are resolved when the command is executed, so if these names contain shortcuts (such as ``='' and ``!''), any variable definition that affect these characters (like folder and spoolfile) should be executed before the mailboxes command. - [:punct:] - Punctuation characters (characters that are not letter, digits, - control characters, or space characters). +16. User defined headers - [:space:] - Space characters (such as space, tab and formfeed, to name a few). + Usage: my_hdr string unmy_hdr field [ field ... ] - [:upper:] - Upper-case alphabetic characters. + The ``my_hdr'' command allows you to create your own header fields which will be added to every message you send. - [:xdigit:] - Characters that are hexadecimal digits. + For example, if you would like to add an ``Organization:'' header field to all of your outgoing messages, you can put the command +my_hdr Organization: A Really Big Company, Anytown, USA - A character class is only valid in a regular expression inside the brackets of - a character list. Note that the brackets in these class names are part of the - symbolic names, and must be included in addition to the brackets delimiting the - bracket list. For example, [[[[::ddiiggiitt::]]]] is equivalent to [[00--99]]. + in your .muttrc. - Two additional special sequences can appear in character lists. These apply to - non-ASCII character sets, which can have single symbols (called collating ele- - ments) that are represented with more than one character, as well as several - characters that are equivalent for collating or sorting purposes: + Note: space characters are not allowed between the keyword and the colon (``:''). The standard for electronic mail (RFC822) says that space is illegal there, so Mutt-ng enforces the rule. - Collating Symbols - A collating symbol is a multi-character collating element enclosed - in ``[.'' and ``.]''. For example, if ``ch'' is a collating ele- - ment, then [[[[..cchh..]]]] is a regexp that matches this collating ele- - ment, while [[cchh]] is a regexp that matches either ``c'' or ``h''. + If you would like to add a header field to a single message, you should either set the edit-headers variable, or use the edit-headers function (default: ``E'') in the send-menu so that you can edit the header of your message along with the body. - Equivalence Classes - An equivalence class is a locale-specific name for a list of char- - acters that are equivalent. The name is enclosed in ``[='' and - ``=]''. For example, the name ``e'' might be used to represent all - of ``'' ``'' and ``e''. In this case, [[[[==ee==]]]] is a regexp that - matches any of ``'', ``'' and ``e''. + To remove user defined header fields, use the ``unmy_hdr'' command. You may specify an asterisk (``*'') to remove all header fields, or the fields to remove. For example, to remove all ``To'' and ``Cc'' header fields, you could use: +unmy_hdr to cc - A regular expression matching a single character may be followed by one of sev- - eral repetition operators: +17. Defining the order of headers when viewing messages - ? - The preceding item is optional and matched at most once. - - * - The preceding item will be matched zero or more times. - - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 36 - - + - The preceding item will be matched one or more times. - - {n} - The preceding item is matched exactly _n times. - - {n,} - The preceding item is matched _n or more times. - - {,m} - The preceding item is matched at most _m times. - - {n,m} - The preceding item is matched at least _n times, but no more than _m - times. - - Two regular expressions may be concatenated; the resulting regular expression - matches any string formed by concatenating two substrings that respectively - match the concatenated subexpressions. - - Two regular expressions may be joined by the infix operator ``|''; the result- - ing regular expression matches any string matching either subexpression. - - Repetition takes precedence over concatenation, which in turn takes precedence - over alternation. A whole subexpression may be enclosed in parentheses to - override these precedence rules. - - NNoottee:: If you compile Mutt with the GNU _r_x package, the following operators may - also be used in regular expressions: - - \\y - Matches the empty string at either the beginning or the end of a - word. + Usage: hdr_order header1 header2 header3 - \\B - Matches the empty string within a word. + With this command, you can specify an order in which mutt will attempt to present headers to you when viewing messages. - \\< - Matches the empty string at the beginning of a word. + ``unhdr_order *'' will clear all previous headers from the order list, thus removing the header order effects set by the system-wide startup file. +hdr_order From Date: From: To: Cc: Subject: - \\> - Matches the empty string at the end of a word. +18. Specify default save filename - \\w - Matches any word-constituent character (letter, digit, or under- - score). + Usage: save-hook [!]pattern filename - \\W - Matches any character that is not word-constituent. + This command is used to override the default filename used when saving messages. filename will be used as the default filename if the message is From: an address matching regexp or if you are the author and the message is addressed to: something matching regexp. - \\` - Matches the empty string at the beginning of a buffer (string). + See pattern-hook for information on the exact format of pattern. - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 37 + Examples: +save-hook me@(turing\\.)?cs\\.hmc\\.edu$ +elkins +save-hook aol\\.com$ +spam - \\' - Matches the empty string at the end of a buffer. + Also see the fcc-save-hook command. - Please note however that these operators are not defined by POSIX, so they may - or may not be available in stock libraries on various systems. +19. Specify default Fcc: mailbox when composing - _4_._2 _P_a_t_t_e_r_n_s + Usage: fcc-hook [!]pattern mailbox - Many of Mutt's commands allow you to specify a pattern to match (limit, tag- - pattern, delete-pattern, etc.). There are several ways to select messages: + This command is used to save outgoing mail in a mailbox other than record. Mutt-ng searches the initial list of message recipients for the first matching regexp and uses mailbox as the default Fcc: mailbox. If no match is found the message will be saved to record mailbox. - ~A all messages - ~b EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the message body - ~B EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the whole message - ~c USER messages carbon-copied to USER - ~C EXPR message is either to: or cc: EXPR - ~D deleted messages - ~d [MIN]-[MAX] messages with ``date-sent'' in a Date range - ~E expired messages - ~e EXPR message which contains EXPR in the ``Sender'' field - ~F flagged messages - ~f USER messages originating from USER - ~g cryptographically signed messages - ~G cryptographically encrypted messages - ~H EXPR messages with a spam attribute matching EXPR - ~h EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the message header - ~k message contains PGP key material - ~i ID message which match ID in the ``Message-ID'' field - ~L EXPR message is either originated or received by EXPR - ~l message is addressed to a known mailing list - ~m [MIN]-[MAX] message in the range MIN to MAX *) - ~n [MIN]-[MAX] messages with a score in the range MIN to MAX *) - ~N new messages - ~O old messages - ~p message is addressed to you (consults alternates) - ~P message is from you (consults alternates) - ~Q messages which have been replied to - ~R read messages - ~r [MIN]-[MAX] messages with ``date-received'' in a Date range - ~S superseded messages - ~s SUBJECT messages having SUBJECT in the ``Subject'' field. - ~T tagged messages - ~t USER messages addressed to USER - ~U unread messages - ~v message is part of a collapsed thread. - ~V cryptographically verified messages - ~x EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the `References' field - ~y EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the `X-Label' field - ~z [MIN]-[MAX] messages with a size in the range MIN to MAX *) - ~= duplicated messages (see $duplicate_threads) - ~$ unreferenced messages (requires threaded view) - ~* ``From'' contains realname and (syntactically) valid - address (excluded are addresses matching against + See pattern-hook for information on the exact format of pattern. - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 38 + Example: fcc-hook [@.]aol\\.com$ +spammers - alternates or any alias) + The above will save a copy of all messages going to the aol.com domain to the `+spammers' mailbox by default. Also see the fcc-save-hook command. - Where EXPR, USER, ID, and SUBJECT are _r_e_g_u_l_a_r _e_x_p_r_e_s_s_i_o_n_s (section 4.1 , page - 33). Special attention has to be made when using regular expressions inside of - patterns. Specifically, Mutt's parser for these patterns will strip one level - of backslash (\), which is normally used for quoting. If it is your intention - to use a backslash in the regular expression, you will need to use two back- - slashes instead (\\). +20. Specify default save filename and default Fcc: mailbox at once - *) The forms <[MAX], >[MIN], [MIN]- and -[MAX] are allowed, too. + Usage: fcc-save-hook [!]pattern mailbox - _4_._2_._1 _P_a_t_t_e_r_n _M_o_d_i_f_i_e_r + This command is a shortcut, equivalent to doing both a fcc-hook and a save-hook with its arguments. - Note that patterns matching 'lists' of addresses (notably c,C,p,P and t) match - if there is at least one match in the whole list. If you want to make sure that - all elements of that list match, you need to prefix your pattern with ^. This - example matches all mails which only has recipients from Germany. +21. Change settings based upon message recipients - ^~C \.de$ + Usage: reply-hook [!]pattern command Usage: send-hook [!]pattern command Usage: send2-hook [!]pattern command - _4_._2_._2 _C_o_m_p_l_e_x _P_a_t_t_e_r_n_s + These commands can be used to execute arbitrary configuration commands based upon recipients of the message. pattern is a regular expression matching the desired address. command is executed when regexp matches recipients of the message. - Logical AND is performed by specifying more than one criterion. For example: + reply-hook is matched against the message you are replying to, instead of the message you are sending. send-hook is matched against all messages, both new and replies. Note: reply-hooks are matched before the send-hook, regardless of the order specified in the users's configuration file. - ~t mutt ~f elkins + send2-hook is matched every time a message is changed, either by editing it, or by using the compose menu to change its recipients or subject. send2-hook is executed after send-hook, and can, e.g., be used to set parameters such as the sendmail variable depending on the message's sender address. - would select messages which contain the word ``mutt'' in the list of recipients - aanndd that have the word ``elkins'' in the ``From'' header field. + For each type of send-hook or reply-hook, when multiple matches occur, commands are executed in the order they are specified in the muttrc (for that type of hook). - Mutt also recognizes the following operators to create more complex search pat- - terns: + See pattern-hook for information on the exact format of pattern. - +o ! -- logical NOT operator + Example: send-hook mutt "set mime_forward signature=''" - +o | -- logical OR operator + Another typical use for this command is to change the values of the attribution, signature and locale variables in order to change the language of the attributions and signatures based upon the recipients. - +o () -- logical grouping operator + Note: the send-hook's are only executed ONCE after getting the initial list of recipients. Adding a recipient after replying or editing the message will NOT cause any send-hook to be executed. Also note that my_hdr commands which modify recipient headers, or the message's subject, don't have any effect on the current message when executed from a send-hook. - Here is an example illustrating a complex search pattern. This pattern will - select all messages which do not contain ``mutt'' in the ``To'' or ``Cc'' field - and which are from ``elkins''. +22. Change settings before formatting a message - !(~t mutt|~c mutt) ~f elkins + Usage: message-hook [!]pattern command - Here is an example using white space in the regular expression (note the ' and - ' delimiters). For this to match, the mail's subject must match the ``^Junk - +From +Me$'' and it must be from either ``Jim +Somebody'' or ``Ed + This command can be used to execute arbitrary configuration commands before viewing or formatting a message based upon information about the message. command is executed if the pattern matches the message to be displayed. When multiple matches occur, commands are executed in the order they are specified in the muttrc. - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 39 + See pattern-hook for information on the exact format of pattern. - +SomeoneElse'': + Example: +message-hook ~A 'set pager=builtin' +message-hook '~f freshmeat-news' 'set pager="less \"+/^ subject: .*\""' - '~s "^Junk +From +Me$" ~f ("Jim +Somebody"|"Ed +SomeoneElse")' +23. Choosing the cryptographic key of the recipient - Note that if a regular expression contains parenthesis, or a veritical bar - ("|"), you mmuusstt enclose the expression in double or single quotes since those - characters are also used to separate different parts of Mutt's pattern lan- - guage. For example, + Usage: crypt-hook pattern keyid - ~f "me@(mutt\.org|cs\.hmc\.edu)" + When encrypting messages with PGP or OpenSSL, you may want to associate a certain key with a given e-mail address automatically, either because the recipient's public key can't be deduced from the destination address, or because, for some reasons, you need to override the key Mutt-ng would normally use. The crypt-hook command provides a method by which you can specify the ID of the public key to be used when encrypting messages to a certain recipient. - Without the quotes, the parenthesis wouldn't end. This would be separated to - two OR'd patterns: _~_f _m_e_@_(_m_u_t_t_\_._o_r_g and _c_s_\_._h_m_c_\_._e_d_u_). They are never what you - want. + The meaning of "key id" is to be taken broadly in this context: You can either put a numerical key ID here, an e-mail address, or even just a real name. - _4_._2_._3 _S_e_a_r_c_h_i_n_g _b_y _D_a_t_e +24. Adding key sequences to the keyboard buffer - Mutt supports two types of dates, _a_b_s_o_l_u_t_e and _r_e_l_a_t_i_v_e. + Usage: push string - AAbbssoolluuttee. Dates mmuusstt be in DD/MM/YY format (month and year are optional, - defaulting to the current month and year). An example of a valid range of - dates is: + This command adds the named string to the keyboard buffer. The string may contain control characters, key names and function names like the sequence string in the macro command. You may use it to automatically run a sequence of commands at startup, or when entering certain folders. - Limit to messages matching: ~d 20/1/95-31/10 +25. Executing functions - If you omit the minimum (first) date, and just specify ``-DD/MM/YY'', all mes- - sages _b_e_f_o_r_e the given date will be selected. If you omit the maximum (second) - date, and specify ``DD/MM/YY-'', all messages _a_f_t_e_r the given date will be - selected. If you specify a single date with no dash (``-''), only messages - sent on the given date will be selected. + Usage: exec function [ function ... ] - EErrrroorr MMaarrggiinnss. You can add error margins to absolute dates. An error margin - is a sign (+ or -), followed by a digit, followed by one of the following - units: + This command can be used to execute any function. Functions are listed in the functions. ``exec function'' is equivalent to ``push ''. - y years - m months - w weeks - d days +26. Message Scoring - As a special case, you can replace the sign by a ``*'' character, which is - equivalent to giving identical plus and minus error margins. + Usage: score pattern value Usage: unscore pattern [ pattern ... ] - Example: To select any messages two weeks around January 15, 2001, you'd use - the following pattern: + In situations where you have to cope with a lot of emails, e.g. when you read many different mailing lists, and take part in discussions, it is always useful to have the important messages marked and the annoying messages or the ones that you aren't interested in deleted. For this purpose, mutt-ng features a mechanism called ``scoring''. - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 40 + When you use scoring, every message has a base score of 0. You can then use the score command to define patterns and a positive or negative value associated with it. When a pattern matches a message, the message's score will be raised or lowered by the amount of the value associated with the pattern. +score "~f nion@muttng\.org" 50 +score "~f @sco\.com" -100 - Limit to messages matching: ~d 15/1/2001*2w + If the pattern matches, it is also possible to set the score value of the current message to a certain value and then stop evaluation: +score "~f santaclaus@northpole\.int" =666 - RReellaattiivvee. This type of date is relative to the current date, and may be speci- - fied as: + What is important to note is that negative score values will be rounded up to 0. - +o >_o_f_f_s_e_t (messages older than _o_f_f_s_e_t units) + To make scoring actually useful, the score must be applied in some way. That's what the score thresholds are for. Currently, there are three score thresholds: + * flag threshold: when a message has a score value equal or higher than the flag threshold, it will be flagged. + * read threshold: when a message has a score value equal or lower than the read threshold, it will be marked as read. + * delete threshold: when a message has a score value equal or lower than the delete threshold, it will be marked as deleted. - +o <_o_f_f_s_e_t (messages newer than _o_f_f_s_e_t units) + These three thresholds can be set via the variables score-threshold-flag, score-threshold-read, score-threshold-delete and. By default, score-threshold-read and score-threshold-delete are set to -1, which means that in the default threshold configuration no message will ever get marked as read or deleted. - +o =_o_f_f_s_e_t (messages exactly _o_f_f_s_e_t units old) + Scoring gets especially interesting when combined with the color command and the ˜n pattern: +color index black yellow "~n 10-" +color index red yellow "~n 100-" - _o_f_f_s_e_t is specified as a positive number with one of the following units: + The rules above mark all messages with a score between 10 and 99 with black and yellow, and messages with a score greater or equal 100 with red and yellow. This might be unusual to you if you're used to e.g. slrn's scoring mechanism, but it is more flexible, as it visually marks different scores. - y years - m months - w weeks - d days +27. Spam detection - Example: to select messages less than 1 month old, you would use + Usage: spam pattern format Usage: nospam pattern - Limit to messages matching: ~d <1m + Mutt-ng has generalized support for external spam-scoring filters. By defining your spam patterns with the spam and nospam commands, you can limit, search, and sort your mail based on its spam attributes, as determined by the external filter. You also can display the spam attributes in your index display using the %H selector in the index-format variable. (Tip: try %?H?[%H] ? to display spam tags only when they are defined for a given message.) - NNoottee:: all dates used when searching are relative to the llooccaall time zone, so - unless you change the setting of your _$_i_n_d_e_x___f_o_r_m_a_t (section 6.3.112 , page - 91) to include a %[...] format, these are nnoott the dates shown in the main - index. + Your first step is to define your external filter's spam patterns using the spam command. pattern should be a regular expression that matches a header in a mail message. If any message in the mailbox matches this regular expression, it will receive a ``spam tag'' or ``spam attribute'' (unless it also matches a nospam pattern -- see below.) The appearance of this attribute is entirely up to you, and is governed by the format parameter. format can be any static text, but it also can include back-references from the pattern expression. (A regular expression ``back-reference'' refers to a sub-expression contained within parentheses.) %1 is replaced with the first back-reference in the regex, %2 with the second, etc. - _4_._3 _U_s_i_n_g _T_a_g_s + If you're using multiple spam filters, a message can have more than one spam-related header. You can define spam patterns for each filter you use. If a message matches two or more of these patterns, and the $spam_separator variable is set to a string, then the message's spam tag will consist of all the format strings joined together, with the value of $spam_separator separating them. - Sometimes it is desirable to perform an operation on a group of messages all at - once rather than one at a time. An example might be to save messages to a - mailing list to a separate folder, or to delete all messages with a given sub- - ject. To tag all messages matching a pattern, use the tag-pattern function, - which is bound to ``shift-T'' by default. Or you can select individual mes- - sages by hand using the ``tag-message'' function, which is bound to ``t'' by - default. See _p_a_t_t_e_r_n_s (section 4.2 , page 36) for Mutt's pattern matching - syntax. + For example, suppose I use DCC, SpamAssassin, and PureMessage. I might define these spam settings: +spam "X-DCC-.*-Metrics:.*(....)=many" "90+/DCC-%1" +spam "X-Spam-Status: Yes" "90+/SA" +spam "X-PerlMX-Spam: .*Probability=([0-9]+)%" "%1/PM" +set spam_separator=", " - Once you have tagged the desired messages, you can use the ``tag-prefix'' oper- - ator, which is the ``;'' (semicolon) key by default. When the ``tag-prefix'' - operator is used, the nneexxtt operation will be applied to all tagged messages if - that operation can be used in that manner. If the _$_a_u_t_o___t_a_g (section 6.3.18 , - page 69) variable is set, the next operation applies to the tagged messages - automatically, without requiring the ``tag-prefix''. + If I then received a message that DCC registered with ``many'' hits under the ``Fuz2'' checksum, and that PureMessage registered with a 97% probability of being spam, that message's spam tag would read 90+/DCC-Fuz2, 97/PM. (The four characters before ``=many'' in a DCC report indicate the checksum used -- in this case, ``Fuz2''.) - In _m_a_c_r_o_s (section 3.6 , page 20) or _p_u_s_h (section 3.21 , page 29) commands, - you can use the ``tag-prefix-cond'' operator. If there are no tagged messages, - mutt will "eat" the rest of the macro to abort it's execution. Mutt will stop - "eating" the macro when it encounters the ``end-cond'' operator; after this - operator the rest of the macro will be executed as normal. + If the $spam_separator variable is unset, then each spam pattern match supersedes the previous one. Instead of getting joined format strings, you'll get only the last one to match. - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 41 + The spam tag is what will be displayed in the index when you use %H in the $index_format variable. It's also the string that the ˜H pattern-matching expression matches against for search and limit functions. And it's what sorting by spam attribute will use as a sort key. - _4_._4 _U_s_i_n_g _H_o_o_k_s + That's a pretty complicated example, and most people's actual environments will have only one spam filter. The simpler your configuration, the more effective mutt can be, especially when it comes to sorting. - A _h_o_o_k is a concept borrowed from the EMACS editor which allows you to execute - arbitrary commands before performing some operation. For example, you may wish - to tailor your configuration based upon which mailbox you are reading, or to - whom you are sending mail. In the Mutt world, a _h_o_o_k consists of a _r_e_g_u_l_a_r - _e_x_p_r_e_s_s_i_o_n (section 4.1 , page 33) or _p_a_t_t_e_r_n (section 4.2 , page 36) along - with a configuration option/command. See + Generally, when you sort by spam tag, mutt will sort lexically -- that is, by ordering strings alphnumerically. However, if a spam tag begins with a number, mutt will sort numerically first, and lexically only when two numbers are equal in value. (This is like UNIX's sort -n.) A message with no spam attributes at all -- that is, one that didn't match any of your spam patterns -- is sorted at lowest priority. Numbers are sorted next, beginning with 0 and ranging upward. Finally, non-numeric strings are sorted, with ``a'' taking lower priority than ``z''. Clearly, in general, sorting by spam tags is most effective when you can coerce your filter to give you a raw number. But in case you can't, mutt can still do something useful. - +o _f_o_l_d_e_r_-_h_o_o_k (section 3.5 , page 19) + The nospam command can be used to write exceptions to spam patterns. If a header pattern matches something in a spam command, but you nonetheless do not want it to receive a spam tag, you can list a more precise pattern under a nospam command. - +o _s_e_n_d_-_h_o_o_k (section 3.18 , page 27) + If the pattern given to nospam is exactly the same as the pattern on an existing spam list entry, the effect will be to remove the entry from the spam list, instead of adding an exception. Likewise, if the pattern for a spam command matches an entry on the nospam list, that nospam entry will be removed. If the pattern for nospam is ``*'', all entries on both lists will be removed. This might be the default action if you use spam and nospam in conjunction with a folder-hook. - +o _m_e_s_s_a_g_e_-_h_o_o_k (section 3.19 , page 28) + You can have as many spam or nospam commands as you like. You can even do your own primitive spam detection within mutt -- for example, if you consider all mail from MAILER-DAEMON to be spam, you can use a spam command like this: +spam "^From: .*MAILER-DAEMON" "999" - +o _s_a_v_e_-_h_o_o_k (section 3.15 , page 26) +28. Setting variables - +o _m_b_o_x_-_h_o_o_k (section 3.11 , page 25) + Usage: set [no|inv]variable[=value] [ variable ... ] Usage: toggle variable [variable ... ] Usage: unset variable [variable ... ] Usage: reset variable [variable ... ] - +o _f_c_c_-_h_o_o_k (section 3.16 , page 27) + This command is used to set (and unset) variables. There are four basic types of variables: boolean, number, string and quadoption. boolean variables can be set (true) or unset (false). number variables can be assigned a positive integer value. - +o _f_c_c_-_s_a_v_e_-_h_o_o_k (section 3.17 , page 27) + string variables consist of any number of printable characters. strings must be enclosed in quotes if they contain spaces or tabs. You may also use the ``C'' escape sequences \n and \t for newline and tab, respectively. - for specific details on each type of _h_o_o_k available. + quadoption variables are used to control whether or not to be prompted for certain actions, or to specify a default action. A value of yes will cause the action to be carried out automatically as if you had answered yes to the question. Similarly, a value of no will cause the the action to be carried out as if you had answered ``no.'' A value of ask-yes will cause a prompt with a default answer of ``yes'' and ask-no will provide a default answer of ``no.'' - NNoottee:: if a hook changes configuration settings, these changes remain effective - until the end of the current mutt session. As this is generally not desired, a - default hook needs to be added before all other hooks to restore configuration - defaults. Here is an example with send-hook and the my_hdr directive: + Prefixing a variable with ``no'' will unset it. Example: set noaskbcc. - send-hook . 'unmy_hdr From:' - send-hook ~C'^b@b\.b$' my_hdr from: c@c.c + For boolean variables, you may optionally prefix the variable name with inv to toggle the value (on or off). This is useful when writing macros. Example: set invsmart_wrap. - _4_._4_._1 _M_e_s_s_a_g_e _M_a_t_c_h_i_n_g _i_n _H_o_o_k_s + The toggle command automatically prepends the inv prefix to all specified variables. - Hooks that act upon messages (send-hook, save-hook, fcc-hook, message-hook) are - evaluated in a slightly different manner. For the other types of hooks, a _r_e_g_- - _u_l_a_r _e_x_p_r_e_s_s_i_o_n (section 4.1 , page 33) is sufficient. But in dealing with - messages a finer grain of control is needed for matching since for different - purposes you want to match different criteria. + The unset command automatically prepends the no prefix to all specified variables. - Mutt allows the use of the _s_e_a_r_c_h _p_a_t_t_e_r_n (section 4.2 , page 36) language for - matching messages in hook commands. This works in exactly the same way as it - would when _l_i_m_i_t_i_n_g or _s_e_a_r_c_h_i_n_g the mailbox, except that you are restricted to - those operators which match information mutt extracts from the header of the - message (i.e. from, to, cc, date, subject, etc.). + Using the enter-command function in the index menu, you can query the value of a variable by prefixing the name of the variable with a question mark: +set ?allow_8bit - For example, if you wanted to set your return address based upon sending mail - to a specific address, you could do something like: + The question mark is actually only required for boolean and quadoption variables. - send-hook '~t ^me@cs\.hmc\.edu$' 'my_hdr From: Mutt User ' + The reset command resets all given variables to the compile time defaults (hopefully mentioned in this manual). If you use the command set and prefix the variable with ``&'' this has the same behavior as the reset command. - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 42 + With the reset command there exists the special variable ``all'', which allows you to reset all variables to their system defaults. - which would execute the given command when sending mail to _m_e_@_c_s_._h_m_c_._e_d_u. +29. Reading initialization commands from another file - However, it is not required that you write the pattern to match using the full - searching language. You can still specify a simple _r_e_g_u_l_a_r _e_x_p_r_e_s_s_i_o_n like the - other hooks, in which case Mutt will translate your pattern into the full lan- - guage, using the translation specified by the _$_d_e_f_a_u_l_t___h_o_o_k (section 6.3.47 , - page 75) variable. The pattern is translated at the time the hook is declared, - so the value of _$_d_e_f_a_u_l_t___h_o_o_k (section 6.3.47 , page 75) that is in effect at - that time will be used. + Usage: source filename [ filename ... ] - _4_._5 _U_s_i_n_g _t_h_e _s_i_d_e_b_a_r + This command allows the inclusion of initialization commands from other files. For example, I place all of my aliases in ˜/.mail_aliases so that I can make my ˜/.muttrc readable and keep my aliases private. - The sidebar, a feature specific to Mutt-ng, allows you to use a mailbox listing - which looks very similar to the ones you probably know from GUI mail clients. - The sidebar lists all specified mailboxes, shows the number in each and high- - lights the ones with new email Use the following configuration commands: + If the filename begins with a tilde (``˜''), it will be expanded to the path of your home directory. - set sidebar_visible="yes" - set sidebar_width=25 + If the filename ends with a vertical bar (|), then filename is considered to be an executable program from which to read input (eg. source ˜/bin/myscript|). - If you want to specify the mailboxes you can do so with: +30. Removing hooks - set mbox='=INBOX' - mailboxes INBOX \ - MBOX1 \ - MBOX2 \ - ... + Usage: unhook [ * | hook-type ] - You can also specify the colors for mailboxes with new mails by using: + This command permits you to flush hooks you have previously defined. You can either remove all hooks by giving the ``*'' character as an argument, or you can remove all hooks of a specific type by saying something like unhook send-hook. - color sidebar_new red black - color sidebar white black +31. Sharing Setups - The available functions are: +31.1. Character Sets - sidebar-scroll-up Scrolls the mailbox list up 1 page - sidebar-scroll-down Scrolls the mailbox list down 1 page - sidebar-next Highlights the next mailbox - sidebar-next-new Highlights the next mailbox with new mail - sidebar-previous Highlights the previous mailbox - sidebar-open Opens the currently highlighted mailbox + As users may run mutt-ng on different systems, the configuration must be maintained because it's likely that people want to use the setup everywhere they use mutt-ng. And mutt-ng tries to help where it can. - Reasonable key bindings look e.g. like this: + To not produce conflicts with different character sets, mutt-ng allows users to specify in which character set their configuration files are encoded. Please note that while reading the configuration files, this is only respected after the corresponding declaration appears. It's advised to put the following at the very beginning of a users muttngrc: +set config_charset = "..." - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 43 + and replacing the dots with the actual character set. To avoid problems while maintaining the setup, vim user's may want to use modelines as show in: +# vim:fileencoding=...: - bind index \Cp sidebar-prev - bind index \Cn sidebar-next - bind index \Cb sidebar-open - bind pager \Cp sidebar-prev - bind pager \Cn sidebar-next - bind pager \Cb sidebar-open + while, again, replacing the dots with the appropriate name. This tells vim as which character set to read and save the file. - macro index B ':toggle sidebar_visible^M' - macro pager B ':toggle sidebar_visible^M' +31.2. Modularization - You can then go up and down by pressing Ctrl-P and Ctrl-N, and switch on and - off the sidebar simply by pressing 'B'. + ``Modularization'' means to divide the setup into several files while sorting the options or commands by topic. Especially for longer setups (e.g. with many hooks), this helps maintaining it and solving trouble. - _4_._6 _E_x_t_e_r_n_a_l _A_d_d_r_e_s_s _Q_u_e_r_i_e_s + When using separation, setups may be, as a whole or in fractions, shared over different systems. - Mutt supports connecting to external directory databases such as LDAP, ph/qi, - bbdb, or NIS through a wrapper script which connects to mutt using a simple - interface. Using the _$_q_u_e_r_y___c_o_m_m_a_n_d (section 6.3.214 , page 117) variable, - you specify the wrapper command to use. For example: +31.3. Conditional parts - set query_command = "mutt_ldap_query.pl '%s'" + When using a configuration on different systems, the user may not always have influence on how mutt-ng is installed and which features it includes. - The wrapper script should accept the query on the command-line. It should - return a one line message, then each matching response on a single line, each - line containing a tab separated address then name then some other optional - information. On error, or if there are no matching addresses, return a non- - zero exit code and a one line error message. + To solve this, mutt-ng contain a feature based on the ``ifdef'' patch written for mutt. Its basic syntax is: +ifdef +ifndef - An example multiple response output: + ...whereby can be one of: + * a function name + * a variable name + * a menu name + * a feature name - Searching database ... 20 entries ... 3 matching: - me@cs.hmc.edu Michael Elkins mutt dude - blong@fiction.net Brandon Long mutt and more - roessler@guug.de Thomas Roessler mutt pgp + All available functions, variables and menus are documented elsewhere in this manual but ``features'' is specific to these two commands. To test for one, prefix one of the following keywords with feature_: +ncurses, slang, iconv, idn, dotlock, standalone, pop, nntp, imap, ssl, +gnutls, sasl, sasl2, libesmtp, compressed, color, classic_pgp, +classic_smime, gpgme, header_cache - There are two mechanisms for accessing the query function of mutt. One is to - do a query from the index menu using the query function (default: Q). This - will prompt for a query, then bring up the query menu which will list the - matching responses. From the query menu, you can select addresses to create - aliases, or to mail. You can tag multiple addresses to mail, start a new - query, or have a new query appended to the current responses. + As an example, one can use the following in ˜/.muttngrc: +ifdef feature_imap 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-imap' +ifdef feature_pop 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-pop' +ifdef feature_nntp 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-nntp' - The other mechanism for accessing the query function is for address completion, - similar to the alias completion. In any prompt for address entry, you can use - the complete-query function (default: ^T) to run a query based on the current - address you have typed. Like aliases, mutt will look for what you have typed - back to the last space or comma. If there is a single response for that query, - mutt will expand the address in place. If there are multiple responses, mutt - will activate the query menu. At the query menu, you can select one or more - addresses to be added to the prompt. + ...to only source ˜/.mutt-ng/setup-imap if IMAP support is built in, only source ˜/.mutt-ng/setup-pop if POP support is built in and only source ˜/.mutt-ng/setup-nntp if NNTP support is built in. - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 44 + An example for testing for variable names can be used if users use different revisions of mutt-ng whereby the older one may not have a certain variable. To test for the availability of imap-mail-check, use: +ifdef imap_mail_check 'set imap_mail_check = 300' - _4_._7 _M_a_i_l_b_o_x _F_o_r_m_a_t_s + Provided for completeness is the test for menu names. To set pager-index-lines only if the pager menu is available, use: +ifdef pager 'set pager_index_lines = 10' - Mutt supports reading and writing of four different mailbox formats: mbox, - MMDF, MH and Maildir. The mailbox type is autodetected, so there is no need to - use a flag for different mailbox types. When creating new mailboxes, Mutt uses - the default specified with the _$_m_b_o_x___t_y_p_e (section 6.3.128 , page 96) vari- - able. + For completeness, too, the opposite of ifdef is provided: ifndef which only executes the command if the test fails. For example, the following two examples are equivalent: +ifdef feature_ncurses 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-ncurses' +ifndef feature_ncurses 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-slang' - mmbbooxx. This is the most widely used mailbox format for UNIX. All messages are - stored in a single file. Each message has a line of the form: + ...and... +ifdef feature_slang 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-slang' +ifndef feature_slang 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-ncurses' - From me@cs.hmc.edu Fri, 11 Apr 1997 11:44:56 PST +32. Obsolete Variables - to denote the start of a new message (this is often referred to as the - ``From_'' line). + In the process of ensuring and creating more consistency, many variables have been renamed and some of the old names were already removed. Please see sect-obsolete for a complete list. - MMMMDDFF. This is a variant of the _m_b_o_x format. Each message is surrounded by - lines containing ``^A^A^A^A'' (four control-A's). +Chapter 4. Advanced Usage - MMHH. A radical departure from _m_b_o_x and _M_M_D_F, a mailbox consists of a directory - and each message is stored in a separate file. The filename indicates the mes- - sage number (however, this is may not correspond to the message number Mutt - displays). Deleted messages are renamed with a comma (,) prepended to the file- - name. NNoottee:: Mutt detects this type of mailbox by looking for either - .mh_sequences or .xmhcache (needed to distinguish normal directories from MH - mailboxes). - - MMaaiillddiirr. The newest of the mailbox formats, used by the Qmail MTA (a replace- - ment for sendmail). Similar to _M_H, except that it adds three subdirectories of - the mailbox: _t_m_p, _n_e_w and _c_u_r. Filenames for the messages are chosen in such a - way they are unique, even when two programs are writing the mailbox over NFS, - which means that no file locking is needed. - - _4_._8 _M_a_i_l_b_o_x _S_h_o_r_t_c_u_t_s - - There are a number of built in shortcuts which refer to specific mailboxes. - These shortcuts can be used anywhere you are prompted for a file or mailbox - path. - - +o ! -- refers to your _$_s_p_o_o_l_f_i_l_e (section 6.3.291 , page 135) (incoming) - mailbox - - +o > -- refers to your _$_m_b_o_x (section 6.3.127 , page 96) file - - +o < -- refers to your _$_r_e_c_o_r_d (section 6.3.223 , page 119) file - - +o ^ -- refers to the current mailbox - - +o - or !! -- refers to the file you've last visited - - +o ~ -- refers to your home directory - - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 45 - - +o = or + -- refers to your _$_f_o_l_d_e_r (section 6.3.65 , page 79) directory - - +o @_a_l_i_a_s -- refers to the _d_e_f_a_u_l_t _s_a_v_e _f_o_l_d_e_r (section 3.15 , page 26) as - determined by the address of the alias - - _4_._9 _H_a_n_d_l_i_n_g _M_a_i_l_i_n_g _L_i_s_t_s - - Mutt has a few configuration options that make dealing with large amounts of - mail easier. The first thing you must do is to let Mutt know what addresses - you consider to be mailing lists (technically this does not have to be a mail- - ing list, but that is what it is most often used for), and what lists you are - subscribed to. This is accomplished through the use of the _l_i_s_t_s _a_n_d _s_u_b_s_c_r_i_b_e - (section 3.10 , page 24) commands in your muttrc. - - Now that Mutt knows what your mailing lists are, it can do several things, the - first of which is the ability to show the name of a list through which you - received a message (i.e., of a subscribed list) in the _i_n_d_e_x menu display. - This is useful to distinguish between personal and list mail in the same mail- - box. In the _$_i_n_d_e_x___f_o_r_m_a_t (section 6.3.112 , page 91) variable, the escape - ``%L'' will return the string ``To '' when ``list'' appears in the ``To'' - field, and ``Cc '' when it appears in the ``Cc'' field (otherwise it - returns the name of the author). - - Often times the ``To'' and ``Cc'' fields in mailing list messages tend to get - quite large. Most people do not bother to remove the author of the message they - are reply to from the list, resulting in two or more copies being sent to that - person. The ``list-reply'' function, which by default is bound to ``L'' in the - _i_n_d_e_x menu and _p_a_g_e_r, helps reduce the clutter by only replying to the known - mailing list addresses instead of all recipients (except as specified by Mail- - Followup-To, see below). - - Mutt also supports the Mail-Followup-To header. When you send a message to a - list of recipients which includes one or several subscribed mailing lists, and - if the _$_f_o_l_l_o_w_u_p___t_o (section 6.3.67 , page 80) option is set, mutt will gener- - ate a Mail-Followup-To header which contains all the recipients to whom you - send this message, but not your address. This indicates that group-replies or - list-replies (also known as ``followups'') to this message should only be sent - to the original recipients of the message, and not separately to you - you'll - receive your copy through one of the mailing lists you are subscribed to. + Table of Contents - Conversely, when group-replying or list-replying to a message which has a Mail- - Followup-To header, mutt will respect this header if the _$_h_o_n_o_r___f_o_l_l_o_w_u_p___t_o - (section 6.3.91 , page 86) configuration variable is set. Using list-reply - will in this case also make sure that the reply goes to the mailing list, even - if it's not specified in the list of recipients in the Mail-Followup-To. + 1. Regular Expressions + 2. Patterns - Note that, when header editing is enabled, you can create a Mail-Followup-To - header manually. Mutt will only auto-generate this header if it doesn't exist - when you send the message. - - The other method some mailing list admins use is to generate a ``Reply-To'' - field which points back to the mailing list address rather than the author of - the message. This can create problems when trying to reply directly to the - author in private, since most mail clients will automatically reply to the - - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 46 - - address given in the ``Reply-To'' field. Mutt uses the _$_r_e_p_l_y___t_o (section - 6.3.226 , page 119) variable to help decide which address to use. If set to - _a_s_k_-_y_e_s or _a_s_k_-_n_o, you will be prompted as to whether or not you would like to - use the address given in the ``Reply-To'' field, or reply directly to the - address given in the ``From'' field. When set to _y_e_s, the ``Reply-To'' field - will be used when present. - - The ``X-Label:'' header field can be used to further identify mailing lists or - list subject matter (or just to annotate messages individually). The - _$_i_n_d_e_x___f_o_r_m_a_t (section 6.3.112 , page 91) variable's ``%y'' and ``%Y'' escapes - can be used to expand ``X-Label:'' fields in the index, and Mutt's pattern- - matcher can match regular expressions to ``X-Label:'' fields with the `` y'' - selector. ``X-Label:'' is not a standard message header field, but it can eas- - ily be inserted by procmail and other mail filtering agents. + 2.1. Complex Patterns + 2.2. Patterns and Dates - Lastly, Mutt has the ability to _s_o_r_t (section 6.3.285 , page 133) the mailbox - into _t_h_r_e_a_d_s (section 2.3.3 , page 7). A thread is a group of messages which - all relate to the same subject. This is usually organized into a tree-like - structure where a message and all of its replies are represented graphically. - If you've ever used a threaded news client, this is the same concept. It makes - dealing with large volume mailing lists easier because you can easily delete - uninteresting threads and quickly find topics of value. + 3. Format Strings - _4_._1_0 _E_d_i_t_i_n_g _t_h_r_e_a_d_s + 3.1. Introduction + 3.2. Conditional Expansion + 3.3. Modifications and Padding - Mutt has the ability to dynamically restructure threads that are broken either - by misconfigured software or bad behavior from some correspondents. This allows - to clean your mailboxes formats) from these annoyances which make it hard to - follow a discussion. + 4. Using Tags + 5. Using Hooks - _4_._1_0_._1 _L_i_n_k_i_n_g _t_h_r_e_a_d_s + 5.1. Message Matching in Hooks - Some mailers tend to "forget" to correctly set the "In-Reply-To:" and "Refer- - ences:" headers when replying to a message. This results in broken discussions - because Mutt has not enough information to guess the correct threading. You - can fix this by tagging the reply, then moving to the parent message and using - the ``link-threads'' function (bound to & by default). The reply will then be - connected to this "parent" message. - - You can also connect multiple children at once, tagging them and using the tag- - prefix command (';') or the auto_tag option. - - _4_._1_0_._2 _B_r_e_a_k_i_n_g _t_h_r_e_a_d_s - - On mailing lists, some people are in the bad habit of starting a new discussion - by hitting "reply" to any message from the list and changing the subject to a - totally unrelated one. You can fix such threads by using the ``break-thread'' - function (bound by default to #), which will turn the subthread starting from - the current message into a whole different thread. - - _4_._1_1 _D_e_l_i_v_e_r_y _S_t_a_t_u_s _N_o_t_i_f_i_c_a_t_i_o_n _(_D_S_N_) _S_u_p_p_o_r_t - - RFC1894 defines a set of MIME content types for relaying information about the - status of electronic mail messages. These can be thought of as ``return - - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 47 - - receipts.'' Berkeley sendmail 8.8.x currently has some command line options in - which the mail client can make requests as to what type of status messages - should be returned. - - To support this, there are two variables. _$_d_s_n___n_o_t_i_f_y (section 6.3.53 , page - 76) is used to request receipts for different results (such as failed message, - message delivered, etc.). _$_d_s_n___r_e_t_u_r_n (section 6.3.54 , page 77) requests how - much of your message should be returned with the receipt (headers or full mes- - sage). Refer to the man page on sendmail for more details on DSN. - - _4_._1_2 _P_O_P_3 _S_u_p_p_o_r_t _(_O_P_T_I_O_N_A_L_) - - If Mutt was compiled with POP3 support (by running the _c_o_n_f_i_g_u_r_e script with - the _-_-_e_n_a_b_l_e_-_p_o_p flag), it has the ability to work with mailboxes located on a - remote POP3 server and fetch mail for local browsing. + 6. Using the sidebar + 7. External Address Queries + 8. Mailbox Formats + 9. Mailbox Shortcuts + 10. Handling Mailing Lists + 11. Editing threads - You can access the remote POP3 mailbox by selecting the folder - pop://popserver/. - - You can select an alternative port by specifying it with the server, i.e.: - pop://popserver:port/. - - You can also specify different username for each folder, i.e.: pop://user- - name@popserver[:port]/. + 11.1. Linking threads + 11.2. Breaking threads - Polling for new mail is more expensive over POP3 than locally. For this reason - the frequency at which Mutt will check for mail remotely can be controlled by - the _$_p_o_p___c_h_e_c_k_i_n_t_e_r_v_a_l (section 6.3.197 , page 113) variable, which defaults - to every 60 seconds. - - If Mutt was compiled with SSL support (by running the _c_o_n_f_i_g_u_r_e script with the - _-_-_w_i_t_h_-_s_s_l flag), connections to POP3 servers can be encrypted. This naturally - requires that the server supports SSL encrypted connections. To access a folder - with POP3/SSL, you should use pops: prefix, ie: pops://[user- - name@]popserver[:port]/. + 12. Delivery Status Notification (DSN) Support + 13. POP3 Support (OPTIONAL) + 14. IMAP Support (OPTIONAL) - Another way to access your POP3 mail is the _f_e_t_c_h_-_m_a_i_l function (default: G). - It allows to connect to _p_o_p___h_o_s_t (section 6.3.199 , page 113), fetch all your - new mail and place it in the local _s_p_o_o_l_f_i_l_e (section 6.3.291 , page 135). - After this point, Mutt runs exactly as if the mail had always been local. + 14.1. The Folder Browser + 14.2. Authentication - NNoottee:: If you only need to fetch all messages to local mailbox you should con- - sider using a specialized program, such as fetchmail + 15. NNTP Support (OPTIONAL) - _4_._1_3 _I_M_A_P _S_u_p_p_o_r_t _(_O_P_T_I_O_N_A_L_) + 15.1. Again: Scoring - If Mutt was compiled with IMAP support (by running the _c_o_n_f_i_g_u_r_e script with - the _-_-_e_n_a_b_l_e_-_i_m_a_p flag), it has the ability to work with folders located on a - remote IMAP server. + 16. SMTP Support (OPTIONAL) + 17. Managing multiple IMAP/POP/NNTP accounts (OPTIONAL) + 18. Start a WWW Browser on URLs (EXTERNAL) + 19. Compressed folders Support (OPTIONAL) - You can access the remote inbox by selecting the folder - imap://imapserver/INBOX, where imapserver is the name of the IMAP server and - INBOX is the special name for your spool mailbox on the IMAP server. If you - want to access another mail folder at the IMAP server, you should use + 19.1. Open a compressed mailbox for reading + 19.2. Write a compressed mailbox + 19.3. Append a message to a compressed mailbox + 19.4. Encrypted folders - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 48 +1. Regular Expressions - imap://imapserver/path/to/folder where path/to/folder is the path of the folder - you want to access. + All string patterns in Mutt-ng including those in more complex patterns must be specified using regular expressions (regexp) in the ``POSIX extended'' syntax (which is more or less the syntax used by egrep and GNU awk). For your convenience, we have included below a brief description of this syntax. - You can select an alternative port by specifying it with the server, i.e.: - imap://imapserver:port/INBOX. + The search is case sensitive if the pattern contains at least one upper case letter, and case insensitive otherwise. Note that ``\'' must be quoted if used for a regular expression in an initialization command: ``\\''. - You can also specify different username for each folder, i.e.: imap://user- - name@imapserver[:port]/INBOX. + A regular expression is a pattern that describes a set of strings. Regular expressions are constructed analogously to arithmetic expressions, by using various operators to combine smaller expressions. - If Mutt was compiled with SSL support (by running the _c_o_n_f_i_g_u_r_e script with the - _-_-_w_i_t_h_-_s_s_l flag), connections to IMAP servers can be encrypted. This naturally - requires that the server supports SSL encrypted connections. To access a folder - with IMAP/SSL, you should use imaps://[user- - name@]imapserver[:port]/path/to/folder as your folder path. + Note that the regular expression can be enclosed/delimited by either " or ' which is useful if the regular expression includes a white-space character. See muttrc-syntax for more information on " and ' delimiter processing. To match a literal " or ' you must preface it with \ (backslash). - Pine-compatible notation is also supported, i.e. {[user- - name@]imapserver[:port][/ssl]}path/to/folder + The fundamental building blocks are the regular expressions that match a single character. Most characters, including all letters and digits, are regular expressions that match themselves. Any metacharacter with special meaning may be quoted by preceding it with a backslash. - Note that not all servers use / as the hierarchy separator. Mutt should cor- - rectly notice which separator is being used by the server and convert paths - accordingly. + The period ``.'' matches any single character. The caret ``^'' and the dollar sign ``$'' are metacharacters that respectively match the empty string at the beginning and end of a line. - When browsing folders on an IMAP server, you can toggle whether to look at only - the folders you are subscribed to, or all folders with the _t_o_g_g_l_e_-_s_u_b_s_c_r_i_b_e_d - command. See also the _$_i_m_a_p___l_i_s_t___s_u_b_s_c_r_i_b_e_d (section 6.3.100 , page 88) vari- - able. + A list of characters enclosed by ``['' and ``]'' matches any single character in that list; if the first character of the list is a caret ``^'' then it matches any character not in the list. For example, the regular expression [0123456789] matches any single digit. A range of ASCII characters may be specified by giving the first and last characters, separated by a hyphen ``-''. Most metacharacters lose their special meaning inside lists. To include a literal ``]'' place it first in the list. Similarly, to include a literal ``^'' place it anywhere but first. Finally, to include a literal hyphen ``-'' place it last. - Polling for new mail on an IMAP server can cause noticeable delays. So, you'll - want to carefully tune the _$_i_m_a_p___m_a_i_l___c_h_e_c_k (section 6.3.101 , page 88) and - _$_t_i_m_e_o_u_t (section 6.3.311 , page 141) variables. + Certain named classes of characters are predefined. Character classes consist of ``[:'', a keyword denoting the class, and ``:]''. The following classes are defined by the POSIX standard: - Note that if you are using mbox as the mail store on UW servers prior to - v12.250, the server has been reported to disconnect a client if another client - selects the same folder. + [:alnum:] + Alphanumeric characters. - _4_._1_3_._1 _T_h_e _F_o_l_d_e_r _B_r_o_w_s_e_r + [:alpha:] + Alphabetic characters. - As of version 1.2, mutt supports browsing mailboxes on an IMAP server. This is - mostly the same as the local file browser, with the following differences: + [:blank:] + Space or tab characters. - +o Instead of file permissions, mutt displays the string "IMAP", possibly - followed by the symbol "+", indicating that the entry contains both mes- - sages and subfolders. On Cyrus-like servers folders will often contain - both messages and subfolders. + [:cntrl:] + Control characters. - +o For the case where an entry can contain both messages and subfolders, the - selection key (bound to enter by default) will choose to descend into the - subfolder view. If you wish to view the messages in that folder, you must - use view-file instead (bound to space by default). + [:digit:] + Numeric characters. - +o You can create, delete and rename mailboxes with the create-mailbox, - delete-mailbox, and rename-mailbox commands (default bindings: C, d and r, - respectively). You may also subscribe and unsubscribe to mailboxes (nor- - mally these are bound to s and u, respectively). + [:graph:] + Characters that are both printable and visible. (A space is printable, but not visible, while an ``a'' is both.) - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 49 + [:lower:] + Lower-case alphabetic characters. - _4_._1_3_._2 _A_u_t_h_e_n_t_i_c_a_t_i_o_n + [:print:] + Printable characters (characters that are not control characters.) - Mutt supports four authentication methods with IMAP servers: SASL, GSSAPI, - CRAM-MD5, and LOGIN (there is a patch by Grant Edwards to add NTLM authentica- - tion for you poor exchange users out there, but it has yet to be integrated - into the main tree). There is also support for the pseudo-protocol ANONYMOUS, - which allows you to log in to a public IMAP server without having an account. - To use ANONYMOUS, simply make your username blank or "anonymous". + [:punct:] + Punctuation characters (characters that are not letter, digits, control characters, or space characters). - SASL is a special super-authenticator, which selects among several protocols - (including GSSAPI, CRAM-MD5, ANONYMOUS, and DIGEST-MD5) the most secure method - available on your host and the server. Using some of these methods (including - DIGEST-MD5 and possibly GSSAPI), your entire session will be encrypted and - invisible to those teeming network snoops. It is the best option if you have - it. To use it, you must have the Cyrus SASL library installed on your system - and compile mutt with the _-_-_w_i_t_h_-_s_a_s_l flag. + [:space:] + Space characters (such as space, tab and formfeed, to name a few). - Mutt will try whichever methods are compiled in and available on the server, in - the following order: SASL, ANONYMOUS, GSSAPI, CRAM-MD5, LOGIN. + [:upper:] + Upper-case alphabetic characters. - There are a few variables which control authentication: + [:xdigit:] + Characters that are hexadecimal digits. - +o _$_i_m_a_p___u_s_e_r (section 6.3.107 , page 90) - controls the username under - which you request authentication on the IMAP server, for all authentica- - tors. This is overridden by an explicit username in the mailbox path (i.e. - by using a mailbox name of the form {user@host}). + A character class is only valid in a regular expression inside the brackets of a character list. Note that the brackets in these class names are part of the symbolic names, and must be included in addition to the brackets delimiting the bracket list. For example, [[:digit:]] is equivalent to [0-9]. - +o _$_i_m_a_p___p_a_s_s (section 6.3.102 , page 88) - a password which you may preset, - used by all authentication methods where a password is needed. + Two additional special sequences can appear in character lists. These apply to non-ASCII character sets, which can have single symbols (called collating elements) that are represented with more than one character, as well as several characters that are equivalent for collating or sorting purposes: - +o _$_i_m_a_p___a_u_t_h_e_n_t_i_c_a_t_o_r_s (section 6.3.94 , page 86) - a colon-delimited list - of IMAP authentication methods to try, in the order you wish to try them. - If specified, this overrides mutt's default (attempt everything, in the - order listed above). + Collating Symbols + A collating symbol is a multi-character collating element enclosed in ``[.'' and ``.]''. For example, if ``ch'' is a collating element, then [[.ch.]] is a regexp that matches this collating element, while [ch] is a regexp that matches either ``c'' or ``h''. - _4_._1_4 _M_a_n_a_g_i_n_g _m_u_l_t_i_p_l_e _I_M_A_P_/_P_O_P _a_c_c_o_u_n_t_s _(_O_P_T_I_O_N_A_L_) + Equivalence Classes + An equivalence class is a locale-specific name for a list of characters that are equivalent. The name is enclosed in ``[='' and ``=]''. For example, the name ``e'' might be used to represent all of ``è'' ``é'' and ``e''. In this case, [[=e=]] is a regexp that matches any of ``è'', ``é'' and ``e''. - If you happen to have accounts on multiple IMAP and/or POP servers, you may - find managing all the authentication settings inconvenient and error-prone. - The account-hook command may help. This hook works like folder-hook but is - invoked whenever you access a remote mailbox (including inside the folder - browser), not just when you open the mailbox. + A regular expression matching a single character may be followed by one of several repetition operators: - Some examples: + ? + The preceding item is optional and matched at most once. - account-hook . 'unset imap_user; unset imap_pass; unset tunnel' - account-hook imap://host1/ 'set imap_user=me1 imap_pass=foo' - account-hook imap://host2/ 'set tunnel="ssh host2 /usr/libexec/imapd"' + * + The preceding item will be matched zero or more times. - _4_._1_5 _S_t_a_r_t _a _W_W_W _B_r_o_w_s_e_r _o_n _U_R_L_s _(_E_X_T_E_R_N_A_L_) + + + The preceding item will be matched one or more times. - If a message contains URLs (_u_n_i_f_i_e_d _r_e_s_o_u_r_c_e _l_o_c_a_t_o_r = address in the WWW space + {n} + The preceding item is matched exactly n times. - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 50 + {n,} + The preceding item is matched n or more times. - like _h_t_t_p_:_/_/_w_w_w_._m_u_t_t_._o_r_g_/), it is efficient to get a menu with all the URLs and - start a WWW browser on one of them. This functionality is provided by the - external urlview program which can be retrieved at ftp://ftp.mutt.org/mutt/con- - trib/ and the configuration commands: + {,m} + The preceding item is matched at most m times. - macro index \cb |urlview\n - macro pager \cb |urlview\n + {n,m} + The preceding item is matched at least n times, but no more than m times. - _4_._1_6 _C_o_m_p_r_e_s_s_e_d _f_o_l_d_e_r_s _S_u_p_p_o_r_t _(_O_P_T_I_O_N_A_L_) + Two regular expressions may be concatenated; the resulting regular expression matches any string formed by concatenating two substrings that respectively match the concatenated subexpressions. - If Mutt was compiled with compressed folders support (by running the _c_o_n_f_i_g_u_r_e - script with the _-_-_e_n_a_b_l_e_-_c_o_m_p_r_e_s_s_e_d flag), Mutt can open folders stored in an - arbitrary format, provided that the user has a script to convert from/to this - format to one of the accepted. + Two regular expressions may be joined by the infix operator ``|''; the resulting regular expression matches any string matching either subexpression. - The most common use is to open compressed archived folders e.g. with gzip. + Repetition takes precedence over concatenation, which in turn takes precedence over alternation. A whole subexpression may be enclosed in parentheses to override these precedence rules. - In addition, the user can provide a script that gets a folder in an accepted - format and appends its context to the folder in the user-defined format, which - may be faster than converting the entire folder to the accepted format, append- - ing to it and converting back to the user-defined format. + Note: If you compile Mutt-ng with the GNU rx package, the following operators may also be used in regular expressions: - There are three hooks defined (_o_p_e_n_-_h_o_o_k (section 4.16.1 , page 50), _c_l_o_s_e_- - _h_o_o_k (section 4.16.2 , page 51) and _a_p_p_e_n_d_-_h_o_o_k (section 4.16.3 , page 51)) - which define commands to uncompress and compress a folder and to append mes- - sages to an existing compressed folder respectively. + \\y + Matches the empty string at either the beginning or the end of a word. - For example: + \\B + Matches the empty string within a word. - open-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -cd %f > %t" - close-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -c %t > %f" - append-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -c %t >> %f" + \\< + Matches the empty string at the beginning of a word. - You do not have to specify all of the commands. If you omit _a_p_p_e_n_d_-_h_o_o_k (sec- - tion 4.16.3 , page 51), the folder will be open and closed again each time you - will add to it. If you omit _c_l_o_s_e_-_h_o_o_k (section 4.16.2 , page 51) (or give - empty command) , the folder will be open in the mode. If you specify _a_p_p_e_n_d_- - _h_o_o_k (section 4.16.3 , page 51) though you'll be able to append to the folder. + \\> + Matches the empty string at the end of a word. - Note that Mutt will only try to use hooks if the file is not in one of the - accepted formats. In particular, if the file is empty, mutt supposes it is not - compressed. This is important because it allows the use of programs that do not - have well defined extensions. Just use '.' as a regexp. But this may be sur- - prising if your compressing script produces empty files. In this situation, - unset _$_s_a_v_e___e_m_p_t_y (section 6.3.233 , page 121), so that the compressed file - will be removed if you delete all of the messages. + \\w + Matches any word-constituent character (letter, digit, or underscore). - _4_._1_6_._1 _O_p_e_n _a _c_o_m_p_r_e_s_s_e_d _m_a_i_l_b_o_x _f_o_r _r_e_a_d_i_n_g + \\W + Matches any character that is not word-constituent. - Usage: open-hook _r_e_g_e_x_p '_c_o_m_m_a_n_d' + \\` + Matches the empty string at the beginning of a buffer (string). - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 51 + \\' + Matches the empty string at the end of a buffer. - The _c_o_m_m_a_n_d is the command that can be used for opening the folders whose names - match _r_e_g_e_x_p. + Please note however that these operators are not defined by POSIX, so they may or may not be available in stock libraries on various systems. - The _c_o_m_m_a_n_d string is the printf-like format string, and it should accept two - parameters: %f, which is replaced with the (compressed) folder name, and %t - which is replaced with the name of the temporary folder to which to write. +2. Patterns - %f and %t can be repeated any number of times in the command string, and all of - the entries are replaced with the appropriate folder name. In addition, %% is - replaced by %, as in printf, and any other %anything is left as is. + Mutt-ng's pattern language provides a simple yet effective way to set up rules to match messages, e.g. for operations like tagging and scoring. A pattern consists of one or more sub-pattern, which can be logically grouped, ORed, and negated. For a complete listing of these patterns, please refer to table patterns in the Reference chapter. - The _c_o_m_m_a_n_d should nnoott remove the original compressed file. The _c_o_m_m_a_n_d should - return non-zero exit status if it fails, so mutt knows something's wrong. + It must be noted that in this table, EXPR, USER, ID and SUBJECT are regular expressions. For ranges, the forms <[MAX], >>[MIN], [MIN]- and -[MAX] are also possible. - Example: +2.1. Complex Patterns - open-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -cd %f > %t" + It is possible to combine several sub-patterns to a more complex pattern. The most simple possibility is to logically AND several patterns by stringing them together: +~s 'SPAM' ~U - If the _c_o_m_m_a_n_d is empty, this operation is disabled for this file type. + The pattern above matches all messages that contain ``SPAM'' in the subject and are unread. - _4_._1_6_._2 _W_r_i_t_e _a _c_o_m_p_r_e_s_s_e_d _m_a_i_l_b_o_x + To logical OR patterns, simply use the | operator. This one especially useful when using local groups: +~f ("nion@muttng\.org"|"ak@muttng\.org"|"pdmef@muttng\.org") +(~b mutt-ng|~s Mutt-ng) +!~x '@synflood\.at' - Usage: close-hook _r_e_g_e_x_p '_c_o_m_m_a_n_d' + The first pattern matches all messages that were sent by one of the mutt-ng maintainers, while the seconds pattern matches all messages that contain ``mutt-ng'' in the message body or ``Mutt-ng'' in the subject. The third pattern matches all messages that do not contain ``@synflood\.at'' in the References: header, i.e. messages that are not an (indirect) reply to one of my messages. A pattern can be logicall negated using the ! operator. - This is used to close the folder that was open with the _o_p_e_n_-_h_o_o_k (section - 4.16.1 , page 50) command after some changes were made to it. +2.2. Patterns and Dates - The _c_o_m_m_a_n_d string is the command that can be used for closing the folders - whose names match _r_e_g_e_x_p. It has the same format as in the _o_p_e_n_-_h_o_o_k (section - 4.16.1 , page 50) command. Temporary folder in this case is the folder previ- - ously produced by the <_o_p_e_n_-_h_o_o_k (section 4.16.1 , page 50) command. + When using dates in patterns, the dates must be specified in a special format, i.e. DD/MM/YYYY. If you don't specify month or year, they default to the current month or year. When using date ranges, and you specify only the minimum or the maximum, the specified date will be excluded, e.g. 01/06/2005- matches against all messages after Juni 1st, 2005. - The _c_o_m_m_a_n_d should nnoott remove the decompressed file. The _c_o_m_m_a_n_d should return - non-zero exit status if it fails, so mutt knows something's wrong. + It is also possible to use so-called ``error margins'' when specifying date ranges. You simply specify a date, and then the error margin. This margin needs to contain the information whether it goes ``forth'' or ``back'' in time, by using + and -. Then follows a number and a unit, i.e. y for years, m for months, w for weeks and d for days. If you use the special * sign, it means that the error margin goes to both ``directions'' in time. +~d 01/01/2005+1y +~d 18/10/2004-2w +~d 28/12/2004*1d - Example: + The first pattern matches all dates between January 1st, 2005 and January 1st 2006. The second pattern matches all dates between October 18th, 2004 and October 4th 2004 (2 weeks before 18/10/2004), while the third pattern matches all dates 1 day around December 28th, 2004 (i.e. Dec 27th, 28th and 29th). - close-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -c %t > %f" + Relative dates are also very important, as they make it possible to specify date ranges between a fixed number of units and the current date. How this works can be seen in the following example: +~d >2w # messages older than two weeks +~d <3d # messages newer than 3 days +~d =1m # messages that are exactly one month old - If the _c_o_m_m_a_n_d is empty, this operation is disabled for this file type, and the - file can only be open in the readonly mode. +3. Format Strings - _c_l_o_s_e_-_h_o_o_k (section 4.16.2 , page 51) is not called when you exit from the - folder if the folder was not changed. +3.1. Introduction - _4_._1_6_._3 _A_p_p_e_n_d _a _m_e_s_s_a_g_e _t_o _a _c_o_m_p_r_e_s_s_e_d _m_a_i_l_b_o_x + The so called Format Strings offer great flexibility when configuring mutt-ng. In short, they describe what items to print out how in menus and status messages. - Usage: append-hook _r_e_g_e_x_p '_c_o_m_m_a_n_d' + Basically, they work as this: for different menus and bars, there's a variable specifying the layout. For every item available, there is a so called expando. - This command is used for saving to an existing compressed folder. The _c_o_m_m_a_n_d + For example, when running mutt-ng on different machines or different versions for testing purposes, it may be interesting to have the following information always printed on screen when one is in the index: + * the current hostname + * the current mutt-ng version number - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 52 + The setting for the status bar of the index is controlled via the status-format variable. For the hostname and version string, there's an expando for $status_format: %h expands to the hostname and %v to the version string. When just configuring: +set status_format = "%v on %h: ..." - is the command that can be used for appending to the folders whose names match - _r_e_g_e_x_p. It has the same format as in the _o_p_e_n_-_h_o_o_k (section 4.16.1 , page 50) - command. The temporary folder in this case contains the messages that are - being appended. + mutt-ng will replace the sequence %v with the version string and %h with the host's name. When you are, for example, running mutt-ng version 1.5.9i on host mailhost, you'll see the following when you're in the index: +Mutt-ng 1.5.9i on mailhost: ... - The _c_o_m_m_a_n_d should nnoott remove the decompressed file. The _c_o_m_m_a_n_d should return - non-zero exit status if it fails, so mutt knows something's wrong. + In the index, there're more useful information one could want to see: + * which mailbox is open + * how man new, flagged or postponed messages + * ... - Example: + To include the mailbox' name is as easy as: +set status_format = "%v on %h: %B: ... - append-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -c %t >> %f" + When the currently opened mailbox is Inbox, this will be expanded to: +Mutt-ng 1.5.9i on mailhost: Inbox: ... - When _a_p_p_e_n_d_-_h_o_o_k (section 4.16.3 , page 51) is used, the folder is not opened, - which saves time, but this means that we can not find out what the folder type - is. Thus the default (_$_m_b_o_x___t_y_p_e (section 6.3.128 , page 96)) type is always - supposed (i.e. this is the format used for the temporary folder). + For the number of certain types of messages, one more feature of the format strings is extremely useful. If there aren't messages of a certain type, it may not be desired to print just that there aren't any but instead only print something if there are any. - If the file does not exist when you save to it, _c_l_o_s_e_-_h_o_o_k (section 4.16.2 , - page 51) is called, and not _a_p_p_e_n_d_-_h_o_o_k (section 4.16.3 , page 51). _a_p_p_e_n_d_- - _h_o_o_k (section 4.16.3 , page 51) is only for appending to existing folders. +3.2. Conditional Expansion - If the _c_o_m_m_a_n_d is empty, this operation is disabled for this file type. In this - case, the folder will be open and closed again (using _o_p_e_n_-_h_o_o_k (section - 4.16.1 , page 50) and _c_l_o_s_e_-_h_o_o_k (section 4.16.2 , page 51)respectively) each - time you will add to it. + To only print the number of messages if there are new messages in the current mailbox, further extend $status_format to: +set status_format = "%v on %h: %B %?n?%n new? ... - _4_._1_6_._4 _E_n_c_r_y_p_t_e_d _f_o_l_d_e_r_s + This feature is called nonzero-printing and works as this: some expandos may be optionally printed nonzero, i.e. a portion of the format string is only evaluated if the value of the expando is different from zero. The basic syntax is: +%??? - The compressed folders support can also be used to handle encrypted folders. If - you want to encrypt a folder with PGP, you may want to use the following hooks: + which tells mutt-ng to only look at if the value of the % %t" - close-hook \\.pgp$ "pgp -fe YourPgpUserIdOrKeyId < %t > %f" + But this is not all: this feature only offers one alternative: ``print something if not zero.'' Mutt-ng does, as you might guess, also provide a logically complete version: ``if zero, print something and else print something else.'' This is achieved by the following syntax for those expandos which may be printed nonzero: +%??&? - Please note, that PGP does not support appending to an encrypted folder, so - there is no append-hook defined. + Using this we can make mutt-ng to do the following: + * make it print ``n new messages'' whereby n is the count but only if there new ones + * and make it print ``no new messages'' if there aren't any - NNoottee:: the folder is temporary stored decrypted in the /tmp directory, where it - can be read by your system administrator. So think about the security aspects - of this. + The corresponding configuration is: +set status_format = "%v on %h: %B: %?n?%n new messages&no new messages? ... - _5_. _M_u_t_t_'_s _M_I_M_E _S_u_p_p_o_r_t + This doubles the use of the ``new messages'' string because it'll get always printed. Thus, it can be shortened to: +set status_format = "%v on %h: %B: %?n?%n&no? new messages ... - Quite a bit of effort has been made to make Mutt the premier text-mode MIME - MUA. Every effort has been made to provide the functionality that the discern- - ing MIME user requires, and the conformance to the standards wherever possible. - When configuring Mutt for MIME, there are two extra types of configuration - files which Mutt uses. One is the mime.types file, which contains the mapping - of file extensions to IANA MIME types. The other is the mailcap file, which + As you might see from this rather simple example, one can create very complex but fancy status messages. Please see the reference chapter for expandos and those which may be printed nonzero. - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 53 +3.3. Modifications and Padding - specifies the external commands to use for handling specific MIME types. + Besides the information given so far, there're even more features of format strings: + * When specifying %_ instead of just %, mutt-ng will convert all characters in the expansion of to lowercase. + * When specifying %: instead of just %, mutt-ng will convert all dots in the expansion of to underscores (_). - _5_._1 _U_s_i_n_g _M_I_M_E _i_n _M_u_t_t + Also, there's a feature called Padding supplied by the following two expandos: %|X and %>X. - There are three areas/menus in Mutt which deal with MIME, they are the pager - (while viewing a message), the attachment menu and the compose menu. + %|X + When this occurs, mutt-ng will fill the rest of the line with the character X. In our example, filling the rest of the line with dashes is done by setting: - _5_._1_._1 _V_i_e_w_i_n_g _M_I_M_E _m_e_s_s_a_g_e_s _i_n _t_h_e _p_a_g_e_r +set status_format = "%v on %h: %B: %?n?%n&no? new messages %|-" - When you select a message from the index and view it in the pager, Mutt decodes - the message to a text representation. Mutt internally supports a number of - MIME types, including text/plain, text/enriched, message/rfc822, and mes- - sage/news. In addition, the export controlled version of Mutt recognizes a - variety of PGP MIME types, including PGP/MIME and application/pgp. + %>X + Since the previous expando stops at the end of line, there must be a way to fill the gap between two items via the %>X expando: it puts as many characters X in between two items so that the rest of the line will be right-justified. For example, to not put the version string and hostname of our example on the left but on the right and fill the gap with spaces, one might use (note the space after %>): - Mutt will denote attachments with a couple lines describing them. These lines - are of the form: +set status_format = "%B: %?n?%n&no? new messages %> (%v on %h)" - [-- Attachment #1: Description --] - [-- Type: text/plain, Encoding: 7bit, Size: 10000 --] +4. Using Tags - Where the Description is the description or filename given for the attachment, - and the Encoding is one of 7bit/8bit/quoted-printable/base64/binary. + Sometimes it is desirable to perform an operation on a group of messages all at once rather than one at a time. An example might be to save messages to a mailing list to a separate folder, or to delete all messages with a given subject. To tag all messages matching a pattern, use the tag-pattern function, which is bound to ``shift-T'' by default. Or you can select individual messages by hand using the ``tag-message'' function, which is bound to ``t'' by default. See patterns for Mutt-ng's pattern matching syntax. - If Mutt cannot deal with a MIME type, it will display a message like: + Once you have tagged the desired messages, you can use the ``tag-prefix'' operator, which is the ``;'' (semicolon) key by default. When the ``tag-prefix'' operator is used, the next operation will be applied to all tagged messages if that operation can be used in that manner. If the auto-tag variable is set, the next operation applies to the tagged messages automatically, without requiring the ``tag-prefix''. - [-- image/gif is unsupported (use 'v' to view this part) --] + In macro or push commands, you can use the ``tag-prefix-cond'' operator. If there are no tagged messages, mutt will "eat" the rest of the macro to abort it's execution. Mutt-ng will stop "eating" the macro when it encounters the ``end-cond'' operator; after this operator the rest of the macro will be executed as normal. - _5_._1_._2 _T_h_e _A_t_t_a_c_h_m_e_n_t _M_e_n_u +5. Using Hooks - The default binding for view-attachments is `v', which displays the attachment - menu for a message. The attachment menu displays a list of the attachments in - a message. From the attachment menu, you can save, print, pipe, delete, and - view attachments. You can apply these operations to a group of attachments at - once, by tagging the attachments and by using the ``tag-prefix'' operator. You - can also reply to the current message from this menu, and only the current - attachment (or the attachments tagged) will be quoted in your reply. You can - view attachments as text, or view them using the mailcap viewer definition. + A hook is a concept borrowed from the EMACS editor which allows you to execute arbitrary commands before performing some operation. For example, you may wish to tailor your configuration based upon which mailbox you are reading, or to whom you are sending mail. In the Mutt-ng world, a hook consists of a regexp or patterns along with a configuration option/command. See + * folder-hook + * send-hook + * message-hook + * save-hook + * mbox-hook + * fcc-hook + * fcc-save-hook - Finally, you can apply the usual message-related functions (like _r_e_s_e_n_d_-_m_e_s_s_a_g_e - (section 2.3.4 , page 9), and the reply and forward functions) to attachments - of type message/rfc822. + for specific details on each type of hook available. - See the help on the attachment menu for more information. + Note: if a hook changes configuration settings, these changes remain effective until the end of the current mutt session. As this is generally not desired, a default hook needs to be added before all other hooks to restore configuration defaults. Here is an example with send-hook and the my_hdr directive: +send-hook . 'unmy_hdr From:' +send-hook ~C'^b@b\.b$' my_hdr from: c@c.c - _5_._1_._3 _T_h_e _C_o_m_p_o_s_e _M_e_n_u +5.1. Message Matching in Hooks - The compose menu is the menu you see before you send a message. It allows you - to edit the recipient list, the subject, and other aspects of your message. It - also contains a list of the attachments of your message, including the main - body. From this menu, you can print, copy, filter, pipe, edit, compose, - review, and rename an attachment or a list of tagged attachments. You can also + Hooks that act upon messages (send-hook, save-hook, fcc-hook, message-hook) are evaluated in a slightly different manner. For the other types of hooks, a regexp is sufficient. But in dealing with messages a finer grain of control is needed for matching since for different purposes you want to match different criteria. - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 54 + Mutt-ng allows the use of the patterns language for matching messages in hook commands. This works in exactly the same way as it would when limiting or searching the mailbox, except that you are restricted to those operators which match information mutt extracts from the header of the message (i.e. from, to, cc, date, subject, etc.). - modifying the attachment information, notably the type, encoding and descrip- - tion. + For example, if you wanted to set your return address based upon sending mail to a specific address, you could do something like: +send-hook '~t ^me@cs\.hmc\.edu$' 'my_hdr From: Mutt-ng User ' - Attachments appear as follows: + which would execute the given command when sending mail to me@cs.hmc.edu. - - 1 [text/plain, 7bit, 1K] /tmp/mutt-euler-8082-0 - 2 [applica/x-gunzip, base64, 422K] ~/src/mutt-0.85.tar.gz + However, it is not required that you write the pattern to match using the full searching language. You can still specify a simple regular expression like the other hooks, in which case Mutt-ng will translate your pattern into the full language, using the translation specified by the default-hook variable. The pattern is translated at the time the hook is declared, so the value of default-hook that is in effect at that time will be used. - The '-' denotes that Mutt will delete the file after sending (or postponing, or - canceling) the message. It can be toggled with the toggle-unlink command - (default: u). The next field is the MIME content-type, and can be changed with - the edit-type command (default: ^T). The next field is the encoding for the - attachment, which allows a binary message to be encoded for transmission on - 7bit links. It can be changed with the edit-encoding command (default: ^E). - The next field is the size of the attachment, rounded to kilobytes or - megabytes. The next field is the filename, which can be changed with the - rename-file command (default: R). The final field is the description of the - attachment, and can be changed with the edit-description command (default: d). +6. Using the sidebar - _5_._2 _M_I_M_E _T_y_p_e _c_o_n_f_i_g_u_r_a_t_i_o_n _w_i_t_h _m_i_m_e_._t_y_p_e_s + The sidebar, a feature specific to Mutt-ng, allows you to use a mailbox listing which looks very similar to the ones you probably know from GUI mail clients. The sidebar lists all specified mailboxes, shows the number in each and highlights the ones with new email Use the following configuration commands: +set sidebar_visible="yes" +set sidebar_width=25 - When you add an attachment to your mail message, Mutt searches your personal - mime.types file at ${HOME}/.mime.types, and then the system mime.types file at - /usr/local/share/mutt/mime.types or /etc/mime.types + If you want to specify the mailboxes you can do so with: +set mbox='=INBOX' +mailboxes INBOX \ + MBOX1 \ + MBOX2 \ + ... - The mime.types file consist of lines containing a MIME type and a space sepa- - rated list of extensions. For example: + You can also specify the colors for mailboxes with new mails by using: +color sidebar_new red black +color sidebar white black - application/postscript ps eps - application/pgp pgp - audio/x-aiff aif aifc aiff + The available functions are: +sidebar-scroll-up Scrolls the mailbox list up 1 page +sidebar-scroll-down Scrolls the mailbox list down 1 page +sidebar-next Highlights the next mailbox +sidebar-next-new Highlights the next mailbox with new mail +sidebar-previous Highlights the previous mailbox +sidebar-open Opens the currently highlighted mailbox - A sample mime.types file comes with the Mutt distribution, and should contain - most of the MIME types you are likely to use. + Reasonable key bindings look e.g. like this: +bind index \Cp sidebar-prev +bind index \Cn sidebar-next +bind index \Cb sidebar-open +bind pager \Cp sidebar-prev +bind pager \Cn sidebar-next +bind pager \Cb sidebar-open - If Mutt can not determine the mime type by the extension of the file you - attach, it will look at the file. If the file is free of binary information, - Mutt will assume that the file is plain text, and mark it as text/plain. If - the file contains binary information, then Mutt will mark it as applica- - tion/octet-stream. You can change the MIME type that Mutt assigns to an - attachment by using the edit-type command from the compose menu (default: ^T). - The MIME type is actually a major mime type followed by the sub-type, separated - by a '/'. 6 major types: application, text, image, video, audio, and model have - been approved after various internet discussions. Mutt recognises all of these - if the appropriate entry is found in the mime.types file. It also recognises - other major mime types, such as the chemical type that is widely used in the - molecular modelling community to pass molecular data in various forms to vari- - ous molecular viewers. Non-recognised mime types should only be used if the - recipient of the message is likely to be expecting such attachments. +macro index B ':toggle sidebar_visible^M' +macro pager B ':toggle sidebar_visible^M' - _5_._3 _M_I_M_E _V_i_e_w_e_r _c_o_n_f_i_g_u_r_a_t_i_o_n _w_i_t_h _m_a_i_l_c_a_p + You can then go up and down by pressing Ctrl-P and Ctrl-N, and switch on and off the sidebar simply by pressing 'B'. - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 55 +7. External Address Queries - Mutt supports RFC 1524 MIME Configuration, in particular the Unix specific for- - mat specified in Appendix A of RFC 1524. This file format is commonly referred - to as the mailcap format. Many MIME compliant programs utilize the mailcap - format, allowing you to specify handling for all MIME types in one place for - all programs. Programs known to use this format include Netscape, XMosaic, - lynx and metamail. + Mutt-ng supports connecting to external directory databases such as LDAP, ph/qi, bbdb, or NIS through a wrapper script which connects to mutt using a simple interface. Using the query-command variable, you specify the wrapper command to use. For example: +set query_command = "mutt_ldap_query.pl '%s'" - In order to handle various MIME types that Mutt can not handle internally, Mutt - parses a series of external configuration files to find an external handler. - The default search string for these files is a colon delimited list set to + The wrapper script should accept the query on the command-line. It should return a one line message, then each matching response on a single line, each line containing a tab separated address then name then some other optional information. On error, or if there are no matching addresses, return a non-zero exit code and a one line error message. - ${HOME}/.mailcap:/usr/local/share/mutt/mailcap:/etc/mailcap:/etc/mailcap:/usr/etc/mailcap:/usr/local/etc/mailcap + An example multiple response output: +Searching database ... 20 entries ... 3 matching: +me@cs.hmc.edu Michael Elkins mutt dude +blong@fiction.net Brandon Long mutt and more +roessler@guug.de Thomas Roessler mutt pgp - where $HOME is your home directory. + There are two mechanisms for accessing the query function of mutt. One is to do a query from the index menu using the query function (default: Q). This will prompt for a query, then bring up the query menu which will list the matching responses. From the query menu, you can select addresses to create aliases, or to mail. You can tag multiple addresses to mail, start a new query, or have a new query appended to the current responses. - In particular, the metamail distribution will install a mailcap file, usually - as /usr/local/etc/mailcap, which contains some baseline entries. + The other mechanism for accessing the query function is for address completion, similar to the alias completion. In any prompt for address entry, you can use the complete-query function (default: ^T) to run a query based on the current address you have typed. Like aliases, mutt will look for what you have typed back to the last space or comma. If there is a single response for that query, mutt will expand the address in place. If there are multiple responses, mutt will activate the query menu. At the query menu, you can select one or more addresses to be added to the prompt. - _5_._3_._1 _T_h_e _B_a_s_i_c_s _o_f _t_h_e _m_a_i_l_c_a_p _f_i_l_e +8. Mailbox Formats - A mailcap file consists of a series of lines which are comments, blank, or def- - initions. + Mutt-ng supports reading and writing of four different mailbox formats: mbox, MMDF, MH and Maildir. The mailbox type is autodetected, so there is no need to use a flag for different mailbox types. When creating new mailboxes, Mutt-ng uses the default specified with the mbox-type variable. - A comment line consists of a # character followed by anything you want. + mbox. This is the most widely used mailbox format for UNIX. All messages are stored in a single file. Each message has a line of the form: +From me@cs.hmc.edu Fri, 11 Apr 1997 11:44:56 PST - A blank line is blank. + to denote the start of a new message (this is often referred to as the ``From_'' line). - A definition line consists of a content type, a view command, and any number of - optional fields. Each field of a definition line is divided by a semicolon ';' - character. + MMDF. This is a variant of the mbox format. Each message is surrounded by lines containing ``^A^A^A^A'' (four control-A's). - The content type is specified in the MIME standard type/subtype method. For - example, text/plain, text/html, image/gif, etc. In addition, the mailcap for- - mat includes two formats for wildcards, one using the special '*' subtype, the - other is the implicit wild, where you only include the major type. For exam- - ple, image/*, or video, will match all image types and video types, respec- - tively. + MH. A radical departure from mbox and MMDF, a mailbox consists of a directory and each message is stored in a separate file. The filename indicates the message number (however, this is may not correspond to the message number Mutt-ng displays). Deleted messages are renamed with a comma (,) prepended to the filename. Note: Mutt detects this type of mailbox by looking for either .mh_sequences or .xmhcache (needed to distinguish normal directories from MH mailboxes). - The view command is a Unix command for viewing the type specified. There are - two different types of commands supported. The default is to send the body of - the MIME message to the command on stdin. You can change this behavior by using - %s as a parameter to your view command. This will cause Mutt to save the body - of the MIME message to a temporary file, and then call the view command with - the %s replaced by the name of the temporary file. In both cases, Mutt will - turn over the terminal to the view program until the program quits, at which - time Mutt will remove the temporary file if it exists. + Maildir. The newest of the mailbox formats, used by the Qmail MTA (a replacement for sendmail). Similar to MH, except that it adds three subdirectories of the mailbox: tmp, new and cur. Filenames for the messages are chosen in such a way they are unique, even when two programs are writing the mailbox over NFS, which means that no file locking is needed. - So, in the simplest form, you can send a text/plain message to the external - pager more on stdin: +9. Mailbox Shortcuts - text/plain; more + There are a number of built in shortcuts which refer to specific mailboxes. These shortcuts can be used anywhere you are prompted for a file or mailbox path. + * ! -- refers to your spoolfile (incoming) mailbox + * > -- refers to your mbox file + * < -- refers to your record file + * ^ -- refers to the current mailbox + * - or !! -- refers to the file you've last visited + * ˜ -- refers to your home directory + * = or + -- refers to your folder directory + * @alias -- refers to the save-hook as determined by the address of the alias - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 56 +10. Handling Mailing Lists - Or, you could send the message as a file: + Mutt-ng has a few configuration options that make dealing with large amounts of mail easier. The first thing you must do is to let Mutt know what addresses you consider to be mailing lists (technically this does not have to be a mailing list, but that is what it is most often used for), and what lists you are subscribed to. This is accomplished through the use of the lists commands in your muttrc. - text/plain; more %s + Now that Mutt-ng knows what your mailing lists are, it can do several things, the first of which is the ability to show the name of a list through which you received a message (i.e., of a subscribed list) in the index menu display. This is useful to distinguish between personal and list mail in the same mailbox. In the index-format variable, the escape ``%L'' will return the string ``To '' when ``list'' appears in the ``To'' field, and ``Cc '' when it appears in the ``Cc'' field (otherwise it returns the name of the author). - Perhaps you would like to use lynx to interactively view a text/html message: + Often times the ``To'' and ``Cc'' fields in mailing list messages tend to get quite large. Most people do not bother to remove the author of the message they are reply to from the list, resulting in two or more copies being sent to that person. The ``list-reply'' function, which by default is bound to ``L'' in the index menu and pager, helps reduce the clutter by only replying to the known mailing list addresses instead of all recipients (except as specified by Mail-Followup-To, see below). - text/html; lynx %s + Mutt-ng also supports the Mail-Followup-To header. When you send a message to a list of recipients which includes one or several subscribed mailing lists, and if the followup-to option is set, mutt will generate a Mail-Followup-To header which contains all the recipients to whom you send this message, but not your address. This indicates that group-replies or list-replies (also known as ``followups'') to this message should only be sent to the original recipients of the message, and not separately to you - you'll receive your copy through one of the mailing lists you are subscribed to. - In this case, lynx does not support viewing a file from stdin, so you must use - the %s syntax. NNoottee:: _S_o_m_e _o_l_d_e_r _v_e_r_s_i_o_n_s _o_f _l_y_n_x _c_o_n_t_a_i_n _a _b_u_g _w_h_e_r_e _t_h_e_y _w_i_l_l - _c_h_e_c_k _t_h_e _m_a_i_l_c_a_p _f_i_l_e _f_o_r _a _v_i_e_w_e_r _f_o_r _t_e_x_t_/_h_t_m_l_. _T_h_e_y _w_i_l_l _f_i_n_d _t_h_e _l_i_n_e - _w_h_i_c_h _c_a_l_l_s _l_y_n_x_, _a_n_d _r_u_n _i_t_. _T_h_i_s _c_a_u_s_e_s _l_y_n_x _t_o _c_o_n_t_i_n_u_o_u_s_l_y _s_p_a_w_n _i_t_s_e_l_f _t_o - _v_i_e_w _t_h_e _o_b_j_e_c_t_. + Conversely, when group-replying or list-replying to a message which has a Mail-Followup-To header, mutt will respect this header if the honor-followup-to configuration variable is set. Using list-reply will in this case also make sure that the reply goes to the mailing list, even if it's not specified in the list of recipients in the Mail-Followup-To. - On the other hand, maybe you don't want to use lynx interactively, you just - want to have it convert the text/html to text/plain, then you can use: + Note that, when header editing is enabled, you can create a Mail-Followup-To header manually. Mutt-ng will only auto-generate this header if it doesn't exist when you send the message. - text/html; lynx -dump %s | more + The other method some mailing list admins use is to generate a ``Reply-To'' field which points back to the mailing list address rather than the author of the message. This can create problems when trying to reply directly to the author in private, since most mail clients will automatically reply to the address given in the ``Reply-To'' field. Mutt-ng uses the reply-to variable to help decide which address to use. If set to ask-yes or ask-no, you will be prompted as to whether or not you would like to use the address given in the ``Reply-To'' field, or reply directly to the address given in the ``From'' field. When set to yes, the ``Reply-To'' field will be used when present. - Perhaps you wish to use lynx to view text/html files, and a pager on all other - text formats, then you would use the following: + The ``X-Label:'' header field can be used to further identify mailing lists or list subject matter (or just to annotate messages individually). The index-format variable's ``%y'' and ``%Y'' escapes can be used to expand ``X-Label:'' fields in the index, and Mutt-ng's pattern-matcher can match regular expressions to ``X-Label:'' fields with the ``˜y'' selector. ``X-Label:'' is not a standard message header field, but it can easily be inserted by procmail and other mail filtering agents. - text/html; lynx %s - text/*; more + Lastly, Mutt-ng has the ability to sort the mailbox into threads. A thread is a group of messages which all relate to the same subject. This is usually organized into a tree-like structure where a message and all of its replies are represented graphically. If you've ever used a threaded news client, this is the same concept. It makes dealing with large volume mailing lists easier because you can easily delete uninteresting threads and quickly find topics of value. - This is the simplest form of a mailcap file. +11. Editing threads - _5_._3_._2 _S_e_c_u_r_e _u_s_e _o_f _m_a_i_l_c_a_p + Mutt-ng has the ability to dynamically restructure threads that are broken either by misconfigured software or bad behavior from some correspondents. This allows to clean your mailboxes formats) from these annoyances which make it hard to follow a discussion. - The interpretation of shell meta-characters embedded in MIME parameters can - lead to security problems in general. Mutt tries to quote parameters in expan- - sion of %s syntaxes properly, and avoids risky characters by substituting them, - see the _m_a_i_l_c_a_p___s_a_n_i_t_i_z_e (section 6.3.120 , page 95) variable. +11.1. Linking threads - Although mutt's procedures to invoke programs with mailcap seem to be safe, - there are other applications parsing mailcap, maybe taking less care of it. - Therefore you should pay attention to the following rules: + Some mailers tend to "forget" to correctly set the "In-Reply-To:" and "References:" headers when replying to a message. This results in broken discussions because Mutt-ng has not enough information to guess the correct threading. You can fix this by tagging the reply, then moving to the parent message and using the ``link-threads'' function (bound to & by default). The reply will then be connected to this "parent" message. - _K_e_e_p _t_h_e _%_-_e_x_p_a_n_d_o_s _a_w_a_y _f_r_o_m _s_h_e_l_l _q_u_o_t_i_n_g_. Don't quote them with single or - double quotes. Mutt does this for you, the right way, as should any other pro- - gram which interprets mailcap. Don't put them into backtick expansions. Be - highly careful with eval statements, and avoid them if possible at all. Trying - to fix broken behaviour with quotes introduces new leaks - there is no alterna- - tive to correct quoting in the first place. + You can also connect multiple children at once, tagging them and using the tag-prefix command (';') or the auto_tag option. - If you have to use the %-expandos' values in context where you need quoting or - backtick expansions, put that value into a shell variable and reference the - shell variable where necessary, as in the following example (using $charset - inside the backtick expansion is safe, since it is not itself subject to any - further expansion): +11.2. Breaking threads - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 57 + On mailing lists, some people are in the bad habit of starting a new discussion by hitting "reply" to any message from the list and changing the subject to a totally unrelated one. You can fix such threads by using the ``break-thread'' function (bound by default to #), which will turn the subthread starting from the current message into a whole different thread. - text/test-mailcap-bug; cat %s; copiousoutput; test=charset=%{charset} \ - && test "`echo $charset | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`" != iso-8859-1 +12. Delivery Status Notification (DSN) Support - _5_._3_._3 _A_d_v_a_n_c_e_d _m_a_i_l_c_a_p _U_s_a_g_e + RFC1894 defines a set of MIME content types for relaying information about the status of electronic mail messages. These can be thought of as ``return receipts.'' - _5_._3_._3_._1 _O_p_t_i_o_n_a_l _F_i_e_l_d_s + Users can make use of it in one of the following two ways: + * Berkeley sendmail 8.8.x currently has some command line options in which the mail client can make requests as to what type of status messages should be returned. + * The SMTP support via libESMTP supports it, too. - In addition to the required content-type and view command fields, you can add - semi-colon ';' separated fields to set flags and other options. Mutt recog- - nizes the following optional fields: + To support this, there are two variables: + * dsn-notify is used to request receipts for different results (such as failed message, message delivered, etc.). + * dsn-return requests how much of your message should be returned with the receipt (headers or full message). - copiousoutput - This flag tells Mutt that the command passes possibly large amounts - of text on stdout. This causes Mutt to invoke a pager (either the - internal pager or the external pager defined by the pager variable) - on the output of the view command. Without this flag, Mutt assumes - that the command is interactive. One could use this to replace the - pipe to more in the lynx -dump example in the Basic section: + Please see the reference chapter for possible values. - text/html; lynx -dump %s ; copiousoutput +13. POP3 Support (OPTIONAL) - This will cause lynx to format the text/html output as text/plain - and Mutt will use your standard pager to display the results. + If Mutt-ng was compiled with POP3 support (by running the configure script with the --enable-pop flag), it has the ability to work with mailboxes located on a remote POP3 server and fetch mail for local browsing. - needsterminal - Mutt uses this flag when viewing attachments with _a_u_t_o_v_i_e_w (section - 5.4 , page 60), in order to decide whether it should honor the - setting of the _$_w_a_i_t___k_e_y (section 6.3.325 , page 144) variable or - not. When an attachment is viewed using an interactive program, - and the corresponding mailcap entry has a _n_e_e_d_s_t_e_r_m_i_n_a_l flag, Mutt - will use _$_w_a_i_t___k_e_y (section 6.3.325 , page 144) and the exit sta- - tus of the program to decide if it will ask you to press a key - after the external program has exited. In all other situations it - will not prompt you for a key. + You can access the remote POP3 mailbox by selecting the folder pop://popserver/. - compose= - This flag specifies the command to use to create a new attachment - of a specific MIME type. Mutt supports this from the compose menu. + You can select an alternative port by specifying it with the server, i.e.: pop://popserver:port/. - composetyped= - This flag specifies the command to use to create a new attachment - of a specific MIME type. This command differs from the compose - command in that mutt will expect standard MIME headers on the data. - This can be used to specify parameters, filename, description, etc. - for a new attachment. Mutt supports this from the compose menu. + You can also specify different username for each folder, i.e.: pop://username@popserver[:port]/. - print= - This flag specifies the command to use to print a specific MIME - type. Mutt supports this from the attachment and compose menus. - - edit= - This flag specifies the command to use to edit a specific MIME - - The Mutt-ng E-Mail Client 58 - - type. Mutt supports this from the compose menu, and also uses it - to compose new attachments. Mutt will default to the defined edi- - tor for text attachments. - - nametemplate=