2 The Mutt Next Generation E-Mail Client
4 by Andreas Krennmair and others originally based on mutt by Michael Elkins and others
10 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!''
11 _________________________________________________________________
20 4. Software Distribution Sites
29 1.1. Screens and Menus
48 3. Moving Around in Menus
49 4. Editing Input Fields
50 5. Reading Mail - The Index and Pager
52 5.1. The Message Index
55 5.4. Miscellaneous Functions
59 6.1. Composing new messages
61 6.3. Editing the message header
62 6.4. Using Mutt-ng with PGP
63 6.5. Sending anonymous messages via mixmaster
65 7. Forwarding and Bouncing Mail
70 1. Locations of Configuration Files
71 2. Basic Syntax of Initialization Files
72 3. Expansion within variables
75 3.2. Environment Variables
76 3.3. Configuration Variables
77 3.4. Self-Defined Variables
78 3.5. Pre-Defined Variables
81 4. Defining/Using aliases
82 5. Changing the default key bindings
83 6. Defining aliases for character sets
84 7. Setting variables based upon mailbox
86 9. Using color and mono video attributes
87 10. Ignoring (weeding) unwanted message headers
88 11. Alternative addresses
92 12.2. Receiving: Display Setup
94 12.4. Additional Notes
97 14. Using Multiple spool mailboxes
98 15. Defining mailboxes which receive mail
99 16. User defined headers
100 17. Defining the order of headers when viewing messages
101 18. Specify default save filename
102 19. Specify default Fcc: mailbox when composing
103 20. Specify default save filename and default Fcc: mailbox at once
104 21. Change settings based upon message recipients
105 22. Change settings before formatting a message
106 23. Choosing the cryptographic key of the recipient
107 24. Adding key sequences to the keyboard buffer
108 25. Executing functions
111 28. Setting variables
112 29. Reading initialization commands from another file
118 31.3. Conditional parts
120 32. Obsolete Variables
124 1. Regular Expressions
127 2.1. Complex Patterns
128 2.2. Patterns and Dates
133 3.2. Conditional Expansion
134 3.3. Modifications and Padding
139 5.1. Message Matching in Hooks
142 7. External Address Queries
145 10. Handling Mailing Lists
148 11.1. Linking threads
149 11.2. Breaking threads
151 12. Delivery Status Notification (DSN) Support
152 13. POP3 Support (OPTIONAL)
153 14. IMAP Support (OPTIONAL)
155 14.1. The Folder Browser
158 15. NNTP Support (OPTIONAL)
162 16. SMTP Support (OPTIONAL)
163 17. Managing multiple IMAP/POP/NNTP accounts (OPTIONAL)
164 18. Start a WWW Browser on URLs (EXTERNAL)
165 19. Compressed folders Support (OPTIONAL)
167 19.1. Open a compressed mailbox for reading
168 19.2. Write a compressed mailbox
169 19.3. Append a message to a compressed mailbox
170 19.4. Encrypted folders
172 5. Mutt-ng's MIME Support
174 1. Using MIME in Mutt
176 1.1. Viewing MIME messages in the pager
177 1.2. The Attachment Menu
178 1.3. The Compose Menu
180 2. MIME Type configuration with mime.types
181 3. MIME Viewer configuration with mailcap
183 3.1. The Basics of the mailcap file
184 3.2. Secure use of mailcap
185 3.3. Advanced mailcap Usage
186 3.4. Example mailcap files
189 5. MIME Multipart/Alternative
192 6. Security Considerations
198 3.1. Message-ID: headers
199 3.2. mailto:-style links
201 4. External applications
208 1. Command line options
210 3. Configuration Commands
211 4. Configuration variables
230 Chapter 1. Introduction
237 4. Software Distribution Sites
244 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.
246 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.
250 http://www.muttng.org
254 * mutt-ng-users@lists.berlios.de -- This is where the mutt-ng user support happens.
255 * mutt-ng-devel@lists.berlios.de -- The development mailing list for mutt-ng
257 4. Software Distribution Sites
259 So far, there are no official releases of Mutt-ng, but you can download daily snapshots from http://mutt-ng.berlios.de/snapshots/
263 Visit channel #muttng on irc.freenode.net (www.freenode.net) to chat with other people interested in Mutt-ng.
267 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.
271 Mutt is Copyright (C) 1996-2000 Michael R. Elkins <me@cs.hmc.edu> and others
273 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.
275 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.
277 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.
279 Chapter 2. Getting Started
285 1.1. Screens and Menus
304 3. Moving Around in Menus
305 4. Editing Input Fields
306 5. Reading Mail - The Index and Pager
308 5.1. The Message Index
311 5.4. Miscellaneous Functions
315 6.1. Composing new messages
317 6.3. Editing the message header
318 6.4. Using Mutt-ng with PGP
319 6.5. Sending anonymous messages via mixmaster
321 7. Forwarding and Bouncing Mail
326 1.1. Screens and Menus
328 mutt-ng offers different screens of which every has its special purpose:
329 * The index displays the contents of the currently opened mailbox.
330 * The pager is responsible for displaying messages, that is, the header, the body and all attached parts.
331 * The file browser offers operations on and displays information of all folders mutt-ng should watch for mail.
332 * The sidebar offers a permanent view of which mailboxes contain how many total, new and/or flagged mails.
333 * The help screen lists for all currently available commands how to invoke them as well as a short description.
334 * The compose menu is a comfortable interface take last actions before sending mail: change subjects, attach files, remove attachements, etc.
335 * The attachement menu gives a summary and the tree structure of the attachements of the current message.
336 * The alias menu lists all or a fraction of the aliases a user has defined.
337 * The key menu used in connection with encryption lets users choose the right key to encrypt with.
339 When mutt-ng is started without any further options, it'll open the users default mailbox and display the index.
343 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.)
345 Mutt-ng is configured using configuration files which allow users to add comments or manage them via version control systems to ease maintenance.
347 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.
351 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.
355 Mutt-ng has two basic concepts of user interaction:
356 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.
357 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.
361 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.
365 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.
371 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.
375 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.
377 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.
379 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.
383 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.
387 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.
391 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).
395 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.
397 Also, it's used to attach messages, news articles or files to a message, to re-edit any attachment including the message itself.
401 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.
405 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.
411 3. Moving Around in Menus
413 Information is presented in menus, very similar to ELM. Here is a table showing the common keys used to navigate menus in Mutt-ng.
414 j or Down next-entry move to the next entry
415 k or Up previous-entry move to the previous entry
416 z or PageDn page-down go to the next page
417 Z or PageUp page-up go to the previous page
418 = or Home first-entry jump to the first entry
419 * or End last-entry jump to the last entry
420 q quit exit the current menu
421 ? help list all key bindings for the current menu
423 4. Editing Input Fields
425 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.
426 ^A or <Home> bol move to the start of the line
427 ^B or <Left> backward-char move back one char
428 Esc B backward-word move back one word
429 ^D or <Delete> delete-char delete the char under the cursor
430 ^E or <End> eol move to the end of the line
431 ^F or <Right> forward-char move forward one char
432 Esc F forward-word move forward one word
433 <Tab> complete complete filename or alias
434 ^T complete-query complete address with query
435 ^K kill-eol delete to the end of the line
436 ESC d kill-eow delete to the end of the word
437 ^W kill-word kill the word in front of the cursor
438 ^U kill-line delete entire line
439 ^V quote-char quote the next typed key
440 <Up> history-up recall previous string from history
441 <Down> history-down recall next string from history
442 <BackSpace> backspace kill the char in front of the cursor
443 Esc u upcase-word convert word to upper case
444 Esc l downcase-word convert word to lower case
445 Esc c capitalize-word capitalize the word
447 <Return> n/a finish editing
449 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
451 bind editor <delete> backspace
453 5. Reading Mail - The Index and Pager
455 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.''
457 The next few sections describe the functions provided in each of these modes.
459 5.1. The Message Index
461 c change to a different mailbox
462 ESC c change to a folder in read-only mode
463 C copy the current message to another mailbox
464 ESC C decode a message and copy it to a folder
465 ESC s decode a message and save it to a folder
466 D delete messages matching a pattern
467 d delete the current message
469 l show messages matching a pattern
470 N mark message as new
471 o change the current sort method
472 O reverse sort the mailbox
473 q save changes and exit
475 T tag messages matching a pattern
476 t toggle the tag on a message
477 ESC t toggle tag on entire message thread
478 U undelete messages matching a pattern
481 x abort changes and exit
482 <Return> display-message
483 <Tab> jump to the next new message
484 @ show the author's full e-mail address
485 $ save changes to mailbox
488 ^L clear and redraw the screen
489 ^T untag messages matching a pattern
493 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:
496 message is deleted (is marked for deletion)
499 message have attachments marked for deletion
502 contains a PGP public key
511 message is PGP encrypted
514 message has been replied to
517 message is signed, and the signature is succesfully verified
528 Some of the status flags can be turned on or off using
529 * set-flag (default: w)
530 * clear-flag (default: W)
532 Furthermore, the following flags reflect who the message is addressed to. They can be customized with the $to_chars variable.
535 message is to you and you only
538 message is to you, but also to or cc'ed to others
541 message is cc'ed to you
547 message is sent to a subscribed mailing list
551 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.
552 <Return> go down one line
553 <Space> display the next page (or next message if at the end of a message)
554 - go back to the previous page
555 n search for next match
556 S skip beyond quoted text
557 T toggle display of quoted text
559 / search for a regular expression (pattern)
560 ESC / search backwards for a regular expression
561 \ toggle search pattern coloring
562 ^ jump to the top of the message
564 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).
566 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.
568 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:
569 ESC [ Ps;Ps;Ps;...;Ps m
576 3x Foreground color is x
577 4x Background color is x
589 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.
593 When the mailbox is sorted by threads, there are a few additional functions available in the index and pager modes.
594 ^D delete-thread delete all messages in the current thread
595 ^U undelete-thread undelete all messages in the current thread
596 ^N next-thread jump to the start of the next thread
597 ^P previous-thread jump to the start of the previous thread
598 ^R read-thread mark the current thread as read
599 ESC d delete-subthread delete all messages in the current subthread
600 ESC u undelete-subthread undelete all messages in the current subthread
601 ESC n next-subthread jump to the start of the next subthread
602 ESC p previous-subthread jump to the start of the previous subthread
603 ESC r read-subthread mark the current subthread as read
604 ESC t tag-thread toggle the tag on the current thread
605 ESC v collapse-thread toggle collapse for the current thread
606 ESC V collapse-all toggle collapse for all threads
607 P parent-message jump to parent message in thread
609 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.
611 See also: strict-threads.
613 5.4. Miscellaneous Functions
615 create-alias (default: a)
617 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.
619 check-traditional-pgp (default: ESC P)
621 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.
623 display-toggle-weed (default: h)
625 Toggles the weeding of message header fields specified by ignore commands.
629 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.
631 edit-type (default: ^E on the attachment menu, and in the pager and index menus; ^T on the compose menu)
633 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.
635 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.
637 enter-command (default: ``:'')
639 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.
641 extract-keys (default: ^K)
643 This command extracts PGP public keys from the current or tagged message(s) and adds them to your PGP public key ring.
645 forget-passphrase (default: ^F)
647 This command wipes the passphrase(s) from memory. It is useful, if you misspelled the passphrase.
649 list-reply (default: L)
651 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.
653 pipe-message (default: |)
655 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.
657 resend-message (default: ESC e)
659 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.
661 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.
663 shell-escape (default: !)
665 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.
667 toggle-quoted (default: T)
669 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.
671 skip-quoted (default: S)
673 This function will go to the next line of non-quoted text which come after a line of quoted text in the internal pager.
677 The following bindings are available in the index for sending messages.
678 m compose compose a new message
679 r reply reply to sender
680 g group-reply reply to all recipients
681 L list-reply reply to mailing list address
682 f forward forward message
683 b bounce bounce (remail) message
684 ESC k mail-key mail a PGP public key to someone
686 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.
688 6.1. Composing new messages
690 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:
693 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.
695 The editor that is called is selected in the following way: you can e.g. set it in the mutt-ng configuration:
696 set editor = "vim +/^$/ -c ':set tw=72'"
700 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.
702 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.
704 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.
706 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 <esc>f, but this shall only be used with caution.
708 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:
711 Once you have finished editing the body of your mail message, you are returned to the compose menu. The following options are available:
712 a attach-file attach a file
713 A attach-message attach message(s) to the message
714 ESC k attach-key attach a PGP public key
715 d edit-description edit description on attachment
716 D detach-file detach a file
717 t edit-to edit the To field
718 ESC f edit-from edit the From field
719 r edit-reply-to edit the Reply-To field
720 c edit-cc edit the Cc field
721 b edit-bcc edit the Bcc field
722 y send-message send the message
723 s edit-subject edit the Subject
724 S smime-menu select S/MIME options
725 f edit-fcc specify an ``Fcc'' mailbox
726 p pgp-menu select PGP options
727 P postpone-message postpone this message until later
728 q quit quit (abort) sending the message
729 w write-fcc write the message to a folder
730 i ispell check spelling (if available on your system)
731 ^F forget-passphrase wipe passphrase(s) from memory
733 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.
737 6.2.1. Simple Replies
739 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.
740 On Mon, Mar 07, 2005 at 05:02:12PM +0100, Michael Svensson wrote:
741 > Bill, can you please send last month's progress report to Mr.
742 > Morgan? We also urgently need the cost estimation for the new
743 > production server that we want to set up before our customer's
744 > project will go live.
746 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.
748 The quote attribution is configurable, by default it is set to
749 set attribution = "On %d, %n wrote:"
751 It can also be set to something more compact, e.g.
752 set attribution = "attribution="* %n <%a> [%(%y-%m-%d %H:%M)]:"
754 The example above results in the following attribution:
755 * Michael Svensson <svensson@foobar.com> [05-03-06 17:02]:
756 > Bill, can you please send last month's progress report to Mr.
757 > Morgan? We also urgently need the cost estimation for the new
758 > production server that we want to set up before our customer's
759 > project will go live.
761 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.
763 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.
767 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.
771 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.
773 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.
774 lists linuxevent@luga\.at vuln-dev@ mutt-ng-users@
776 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.
778 6.3. Editing the message header
780 When editing the header of your outgoing message, there are a couple of special features available.
782 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.
784 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.
786 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.
788 Also see edit-headers.
790 6.4. Using Mutt-ng with PGP
792 If you want to use PGP, you can specify
794 Pgp: [ E | S | S<id> ]
796 ``E'' encrypts, ``S'' signs and ``S<id>'' signs with the given key, setting pgp-sign-as permanently.
798 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.
800 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.
802 Once you have successfully finished the key selection, the message will be encrypted using the selected public keys, and sent out.
804 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.
806 The flags sequence (%f) will expand to one of the following flags:
807 R The key has been revoked and can't be used.
808 X The key is expired and can't be used.
809 d You have marked the key as disabled.
810 c There are unknown critical self-signature
813 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.
815 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.
817 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.
819 6.5. Sending anonymous messages via mixmaster
821 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.
823 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.
825 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.
827 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.
829 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.
831 7. Forwarding and Bouncing Mail
833 Often, it is necessary to forward mails to other people. Therefore, mutt-ng supports forwarding messages in two different ways.
835 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:
836 ----- Forwarded message from Lucas User <luser@example.com> -----
838 From: Lucas User <luser@example.com>
839 Date: Thu, 02 Dec 2004 03:08:34 +0100
840 To: Michael Random <mrandom@example.com>
841 Subject: Re: blackmail
843 Pay me EUR 50,000.- cash or your favorite stuffed animal will die
847 ----- End forwarded message -----
849 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.
851 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.
853 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.
857 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.
859 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.
861 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.
863 See also the postpone quad-option.
865 Chapter 3. Configuration
869 1. Locations of Configuration Files
870 2. Basic Syntax of Initialization Files
871 3. Expansion within variables
873 3.1. Commands' Output
874 3.2. Environment Variables
875 3.3. Configuration Variables
876 3.4. Self-Defined Variables
877 3.5. Pre-Defined Variables
878 3.6. Type Conversions
880 4. Defining/Using aliases
881 5. Changing the default key bindings
882 6. Defining aliases for character sets
883 7. Setting variables based upon mailbox
885 9. Using color and mono video attributes
886 10. Ignoring (weeding) unwanted message headers
887 11. Alternative addresses
891 12.2. Receiving: Display Setup
893 12.4. Additional Notes
896 14. Using Multiple spool mailboxes
897 15. Defining mailboxes which receive mail
898 16. User defined headers
899 17. Defining the order of headers when viewing messages
900 18. Specify default save filename
901 19. Specify default Fcc: mailbox when composing
902 20. Specify default save filename and default Fcc: mailbox at once
903 21. Change settings based upon message recipients
904 22. Change settings before formatting a message
905 23. Choosing the cryptographic key of the recipient
906 24. Adding key sequences to the keyboard buffer
907 25. Executing functions
910 28. Setting variables
911 29. Reading initialization commands from another file
917 31.3. Conditional parts
919 32. Obsolete Variables
921 1. Locations of Configuration Files
923 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.
925 .muttrc (or .muttngrc for Mutt-ng) is the file where you will usually place your commands to configure Mutt-ng.
927 2. Basic Syntax of Initialization Files
929 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 (;).
930 set realname='Mutt-ng user' ; ignore x-
932 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,
933 my_hdr X-Disclaimer: Why are you listening to me? # This is a comment
935 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.
937 \ 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.
938 set realname="Michael \"MuttDude\" Elkins"
940 ``\\'' means to insert a literal ``\'' into the line. ``\n'' and ``\r'' have their usual C meanings of linefeed and carriage-return, respectively.
942 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.
944 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 ``#''.
946 set realname="Michael \"MuttDude\" Elkins"
948 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!
957 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.
959 The commands understood by mutt are explained in the next paragraphs. For a complete list, see the commands.
961 3. Expansion within variables
963 Besides just assign static content to variables, there's plenty of ways of adding external and more or less dynamic content.
965 3.1. Commands' Output
967 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:
968 my_hdr X-Operating-System: `uname -a`
970 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.
972 3.2. Environment Variables
974 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,
975 set record=+sent_on_$HOSTNAME
977 sets the record variable to the string +sent_on_ and appends the value of the evironment variable $HOSTNAME.
979 Note: There will be no warning if an environment variable is not defined. The result will of the expansion will then be empty.
981 3.3. Configuration Variables
983 As for environment variables, the values of all configuration variables as string can be used in the same way, too. For example,
984 set imap_home_namespace = $folder
986 would set the value of imap-home-namespace to the value to which folder is currently set to.
988 Note: There're no logical links established in such cases so that the the value for imap-home-namespace won't change even if folder gets changed.
990 Note: There will be no warning if a configuration variable is not defined or is empty. The result will of the expansion will then be empty.
992 3.4. Self-Defined Variables
994 Mutt-ng flexibly allows users to define their own variables. To avoid conflicts with the standard set and to prevent misleading error messages, there's a reserved namespace for them: all user-defined variables must be prefixed with user_ and can be used just like any ordinary configuration or environment variable.
996 For example, to view the manual, users can either define two macros like the following
997 macro generic <F1> "!less -r /path/to/manual" "Show manual"
998 macro pager <F1> "!less -r /path/to/manual" "Show manual"
1000 for generic, pager and index. The alternative is to define a custom variable like so:
1001 set user_manualcmd = "!less -r /path/to_manual"
1002 macro generic <F1> "$user_manualcmd<enter>" "Show manual"
1003 macro pager <F1> "$user_manualcmd<enter>" "Show manual"
1004 macro index <F1> "$user_manualcmd<enter>" "Show manual"
1006 to re-use the command sequence as in:
1007 macro index <F2> "$user_manualcmd | grep '\^[ ]\\+~. '" "Show Patterns"
1009 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.
1011 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.
1013 The complete removal is done via the unset keyword.
1015 After the following sequence:
1019 the variable $user_foo has a current value of 666 and an initial of 42. The query
1022 will show 666. After doing the reset via
1025 a following query will give 42 as the result. After unsetting it via
1028 any query or operation (except the noted expansion within other statements) will lead to an error message.
1030 3.5. Pre-Defined Variables
1032 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.
1034 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:
1035 muttng -Q muttng_docdir
1037 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:
1038 set user_manualcmd = '!less -r /path/to_manual'
1041 set user_manualcmd = "!less -r $muttng_docdir/manual.txt"
1043 which works everywhere if a manual is installed.
1045 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.
1047 For example, the statement
1048 folder-hook . "set user_current_folder = $muttng_folder_name"
1050 will be already be translated to the following when reading the startup files:
1051 folder-hook . "set user_current_folder = some_folder"
1053 with some_folder being the name of the first folder muttng opens. On the contrary,
1054 folder-hook . 'set user_current_folder = $muttng_folder_name'
1056 will be executed at runtime because of the single quotes so that user_current_folder will always have the value of the currently opened folder.
1058 A more practical example is:
1059 folder-hook . 'source ~/.mutt/score-$muttng_folder_name'
1061 which can be used to source files containing score commands depending on the folder the user enters.
1063 3.6. Type Conversions
1065 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):
1067 set folder = $read_inc
1068 set read_inc = $folder
1069 set user_magic_number = 42
1070 set folder = $user_magic_number
1072 4. Defining/Using aliases
1074 Usage: alias key address [ , address, ... ]
1076 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.
1078 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 (``,'').
1080 To remove an alias or aliases (``*'' means all aliases):
1082 unalias [ * | key ... ]
1083 alias muttdude me@cs.hmc.edu (Michael Elkins)
1084 alias theguys manny, moe, jack
1086 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.
1088 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.
1091 source /usr/local/share/Mutt-ng.aliases
1092 source ~/.mail_aliases
1093 set alias_file=~/.mail_aliases
1095 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.
1097 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.
1099 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.
1101 5. Changing the default key bindings
1103 Usage: bind map key function
1105 This command allows you to change the default key bindings (operation invoked when pressing a key).
1107 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:
1110 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.
1113 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).
1116 The attachment menu is used to access the attachments on received messages.
1119 The browser is used for both browsing the local directory structure, and for listing all of your incoming mailboxes.
1122 The editor is the line-based editor the user enters text data.
1125 The index is the list of messages contained in a mailbox.
1128 The compose menu is the screen used when sending a new message.
1131 The pager is the mode used to display message/attachment data, and help listings.
1134 The pgp menu is used to select the OpenPGP keys used for encrypting outgoing messages.
1137 The postpone menu is similar to the index menu, except is used when recalling a message the user was composing, but saved until later.
1139 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?).
1141 In addition, key may consist of:
1144 <backtab> backtab / shift-tab
1154 <pagedown> Page Down
1155 <backspace> Backspace
1164 <f10> function key 10
1166 key does not need to be enclosed in quotes unless it contains a space (`` '').
1168 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.
1170 6. Defining aliases for character sets
1172 Usage: charset-hook alias charset Usage: iconv-hook charset local-charset
1174 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.
1176 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.
1178 7. Setting variables based upon mailbox
1180 Usage: folder-hook [!]regexp command
1182 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.
1184 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.
1186 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:
1187 folder-hook mutt set sort=threads
1189 However, the sorting method is not restored to its previous value when reading a different mailbox. To specify a default command, use the pattern ``.'':
1190 folder-hook . set sort=date-sent
1194 Usage: macro menu key sequence [ description ]
1196 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.
1198 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.
1200 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 <key name> and <function name>. For a listing of key names see the section on bind. Functions are listed in the functions.
1202 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).
1204 Optionally you can specify a descriptive text after sequence, which is shown in the help screens.
1206 Note: Macro definitions (if any) listed in the help screen(s), are silently truncated at the screen width, and are not wrapped.
1208 9. Using color and mono video attributes
1210 Usage: color object foreground background [ regexp ] Usage: color index foreground background pattern Usage: uncolor index pattern [ pattern ... ]
1212 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).
1214 object can be one of:
1216 * body (match regexp in the body of messages)
1217 * bold (highlighting bold patterns in the body of messages)
1218 * error (error messages printed by Mutt-ng)
1219 * header (match regexp in the message header)
1220 * hdrdefault (default color of the message header in the pager)
1221 * index (match pattern in the message index)
1222 * indicator (arrow or bar used to indicate the current item in a menu)
1223 * markers (the ``+'' markers at the beginning of wrapped lines in the pager)
1224 * message (informational messages)
1226 * quoted (text matching quote-regexp in the body of a message)
1227 * quoted1, quoted2, ..., quotedN (higher levels of quoting)
1228 * search (highlighting of words in the pager)
1230 * status (mode lines used to display info about the mailbox or message)
1231 * tilde (the ``˜'' used to pad blank lines in the pager)
1232 * tree (thread tree drawn in the message index and attachment menu)
1233 * underline (highlighting underlined patterns in the body of messages)
1235 foreground and background can be one of the following:
1247 foreground can optionally be prefixed with the keyword bright to make the foreground color boldfaced (e.g., brightred).
1249 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):
1250 set COLORFGBG="green;black"
1253 Note: The S-Lang library requires you to use the lightgray and brown keywords instead of white and yellow when setting this variable.
1255 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.
1257 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.
1259 If your terminal does not support color, it is still possible change the video attributes through the use of the ``mono'' command:
1261 Usage: mono <object> <attribute> [ regexp ] Usage: mono index attribute pattern Usage: unmono index pattern [ pattern ... ]
1263 where attribute is one of the following:
1270 10. Ignoring (weeding) unwanted message headers
1272 Usage: [un]ignore pattern [ pattern ... ]
1274 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.
1276 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.
1278 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''.
1280 ``unignore *'' will remove all tokens from the ignore list.
1283 # Sven's draconian header weeding
1285 unignore from date subject to cc
1286 unignore organization organisation x-mailer: x-newsreader: x-mailing-list:
1289 11. Alternative addresses
1291 Usage: [un]alternates regexp [ regexp ... ]
1293 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.)
1295 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.
1297 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.
1299 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.
1305 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.
1307 For introductory information on format=flowed messages, see <http://www.joeclark.org/ffaq.html>.
1309 12.2. Receiving: Display Setup
1311 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:
1314 The code above makes the line break 10 columns before the right side of the terminal.
1316 If your terminal is so wide that the lines are embarrassingly long, you can also set a maximum line length:
1317 set max_line_length = 120
1319 The example above will give you lines not longer than 120 characters.
1321 When you view at format=flowed messages, you will often see the quoting hierarchy like in the following example:
1322 >Bill, can you please send last month's progress report to Mr.
1323 >Morgan? We also urgently need the cost estimation for the new
1324 >production server that we want to set up before our customer's
1325 >project will go live.
1327 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:
1330 This will lead to a nicer result that is easier to read:
1331 > Bill, can you please send last month's progress report to Mr.
1332 > Morgan? We also urgently need the cost estimation for the new
1333 > production server that we want to set up before our customer's
1334 > project will go live.
1338 If you want mutt-ng to send emails with format=flowed set, you need to explicitly set it:
1341 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.
1343 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:
1344 * > This is not the quote character but a right angle used for other reasons
1345 * From with a trailing space.
1346 * just a space for formatting reasons
1348 Please make sure that you manually prepend a space to each of them.
1350 12.4. Additional Notes
1352 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.
1356 Usage: [un]lists regexp [ regexp ... ] Usage: [un]subscribe regexp [ regexp ... ]
1358 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.
1360 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''.
1362 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.
1364 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.
1366 The ``unlists'' command is used to remove a token from the list of known and subscribed mailing-lists. Use ``unlists *'' to remove all tokens.
1368 To remove a mailing list from the list of subscribed mailing lists, but keep it on the list of known mailing lists, use ``unsubscribe''.
1370 14. Using Multiple spool mailboxes
1372 Usage: mbox-hook [!]pattern mailbox
1374 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.
1376 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).
1378 15. Defining mailboxes which receive mail
1380 Usage: [un]mailboxes [!]filename [ filename ... ]
1382 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.
1384 When changing folders, pressing space will cycle through folders with new mail.
1386 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.
1388 The ``unmailboxes'' command is used to remove a token from the list of folders which receive mail. Use ``unmailboxes *'' to remove all tokens.
1390 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.
1392 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.
1394 16. User defined headers
1396 Usage: my_hdr string unmy_hdr field [ field ... ]
1398 The ``my_hdr'' command allows you to create your own header fields which will be added to every message you send.
1400 For example, if you would like to add an ``Organization:'' header field to all of your outgoing messages, you can put the command
1401 my_hdr Organization: A Really Big Company, Anytown, USA
1405 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.
1407 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.
1409 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:
1412 17. Defining the order of headers when viewing messages
1414 Usage: hdr_order header1 header2 header3
1416 With this command, you can specify an order in which mutt will attempt to present headers to you when viewing messages.
1418 ``unhdr_order *'' will clear all previous headers from the order list, thus removing the header order effects set by the system-wide startup file.
1419 hdr_order From Date: From: To: Cc: Subject:
1421 18. Specify default save filename
1423 Usage: save-hook [!]pattern filename
1425 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.
1427 See pattern-hook for information on the exact format of pattern.
1430 save-hook me@(turing\\.)?cs\\.hmc\\.edu$ +elkins
1431 save-hook aol\\.com$ +spam
1433 Also see the fcc-save-hook command.
1435 19. Specify default Fcc: mailbox when composing
1437 Usage: fcc-hook [!]pattern mailbox
1439 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.
1441 See pattern-hook for information on the exact format of pattern.
1443 Example: fcc-hook [@.]aol\\.com$ +spammers
1445 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.
1447 20. Specify default save filename and default Fcc: mailbox at once
1449 Usage: fcc-save-hook [!]pattern mailbox
1451 This command is a shortcut, equivalent to doing both a fcc-hook and a save-hook with its arguments.
1453 21. Change settings based upon message recipients
1455 Usage: reply-hook [!]pattern command Usage: send-hook [!]pattern command Usage: send2-hook [!]pattern command
1457 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.
1459 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.
1461 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.
1463 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).
1465 See pattern-hook for information on the exact format of pattern.
1467 Example: send-hook mutt "set mime_forward signature=''"
1469 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.
1471 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.
1473 22. Change settings before formatting a message
1475 Usage: message-hook [!]pattern command
1477 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.
1479 See pattern-hook for information on the exact format of pattern.
1482 message-hook ~A 'set pager=builtin'
1483 message-hook '~f freshmeat-news' 'set pager="less \"+/^ subject: .*\""'
1485 23. Choosing the cryptographic key of the recipient
1487 Usage: crypt-hook pattern keyid
1489 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.
1491 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.
1493 24. Adding key sequences to the keyboard buffer
1497 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.
1499 25. Executing functions
1501 Usage: exec function [ function ... ]
1503 This command can be used to execute any function. Functions are listed in the functions. ``exec function'' is equivalent to ``push <function>''.
1507 Usage: score pattern value Usage: unscore pattern [ pattern ... ]
1509 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''.
1511 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.
1512 score "~f nion@muttng\.org" 50
1513 score "~f @sco\.com" -100
1515 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:
1516 score "~f santaclaus@northpole\.int" =666
1518 What is important to note is that negative score values will be rounded up to 0.
1520 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:
1521 * flag threshold: when a message has a score value equal or higher than the flag threshold, it will be flagged.
1522 * read threshold: when a message has a score value equal or lower than the read threshold, it will be marked as read.
1523 * delete threshold: when a message has a score value equal or lower than the delete threshold, it will be marked as deleted.
1525 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.
1527 Scoring gets especially interesting when combined with the color command and the ˜n pattern:
1528 color index black yellow "~n 10-"
1529 color index red yellow "~n 100-"
1531 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.
1535 Usage: spam pattern format Usage: nospam pattern
1537 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.)
1539 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.
1541 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.
1543 For example, suppose I use DCC, SpamAssassin, and PureMessage. I might define these spam settings:
1544 spam "X-DCC-.*-Metrics:.*(....)=many" "90+/DCC-%1"
1545 spam "X-Spam-Status: Yes" "90+/SA"
1546 spam "X-PerlMX-Spam: .*Probability=([0-9]+)%" "%1/PM"
1547 set spam_separator=", "
1549 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''.)
1551 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.
1553 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.
1555 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.
1557 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.
1559 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.
1561 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.
1563 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:
1564 spam "^From: .*MAILER-DAEMON" "999"
1566 28. Setting variables
1568 Usage: set [no|inv]variable[=value] [ variable ... ] Usage: toggle variable [variable ... ] Usage: unset variable [variable ... ] Usage: reset variable [variable ... ]
1570 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.
1572 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.
1574 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.''
1576 Prefixing a variable with ``no'' will unset it. Example: set noaskbcc.
1578 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.
1580 The toggle command automatically prepends the inv prefix to all specified variables.
1582 The unset command automatically prepends the no prefix to all specified variables.
1584 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:
1587 The question mark is actually only required for boolean and quadoption variables.
1589 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.
1591 With the reset command there exists the special variable ``all'', which allows you to reset all variables to their system defaults.
1593 29. Reading initialization commands from another file
1595 Usage: source filename [ filename ... ]
1597 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.
1599 If the filename begins with a tilde (``˜''), it will be expanded to the path of your home directory.
1601 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|).
1605 Usage: unhook [ * | hook-type ]
1607 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.
1611 31.1. Character Sets
1613 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.
1615 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:
1616 set config_charset = "..."
1618 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:
1619 # vim:fileencoding=...:
1621 while, again, replacing the dots with the appropriate name. This tells vim as which character set to read and save the file.
1623 31.2. Modularization
1625 ``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.
1627 When using separation, setups may be, as a whole or in fractions, shared over different systems.
1629 31.3. Conditional parts
1631 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.
1633 To solve this, mutt-ng contain a feature based on the ``ifdef'' patch written for mutt. Its basic syntax is:
1634 ifdef <item> <command>
1635 ifndef <item> <command>
1637 ...whereby <item> can be one of:
1643 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_:
1644 ncurses, slang, iconv, idn, dotlock, standalone, pop, nntp, imap, ssl,
1645 gnutls, sasl, sasl2, libesmtp, compressed, color, classic_pgp,
1646 classic_smime, gpgme, header_cache
1648 As an example, one can use the following in ˜/.muttngrc:
1649 ifdef feature_imap 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-imap'
1650 ifdef feature_pop 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-pop'
1651 ifdef feature_nntp 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-nntp'
1653 ...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.
1655 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:
1656 ifdef imap_mail_check 'set imap_mail_check = 300'
1658 Provided for completeness is the test for menu names. To set pager-index-lines only if the pager menu is available, use:
1659 ifdef pager 'set pager_index_lines = 10'
1661 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:
1662 ifdef feature_ncurses 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-ncurses'
1663 ifndef feature_ncurses 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-slang'
1666 ifdef feature_slang 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-slang'
1667 ifndef feature_slang 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-ncurses'
1669 32. Obsolete Variables
1671 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.
1673 Chapter 4. Advanced Usage
1677 1. Regular Expressions
1680 2.1. Complex Patterns
1681 2.2. Patterns and Dates
1686 3.2. Conditional Expansion
1687 3.3. Modifications and Padding
1692 5.1. Message Matching in Hooks
1694 6. Using the sidebar
1695 7. External Address Queries
1697 9. Mailbox Shortcuts
1698 10. Handling Mailing Lists
1701 11.1. Linking threads
1702 11.2. Breaking threads
1704 12. Delivery Status Notification (DSN) Support
1705 13. POP3 Support (OPTIONAL)
1706 14. IMAP Support (OPTIONAL)
1708 14.1. The Folder Browser
1709 14.2. Authentication
1711 15. NNTP Support (OPTIONAL)
1713 15.1. Again: Scoring
1715 16. SMTP Support (OPTIONAL)
1716 17. Managing multiple IMAP/POP/NNTP accounts (OPTIONAL)
1717 18. Start a WWW Browser on URLs (EXTERNAL)
1718 19. Compressed folders Support (OPTIONAL)
1720 19.1. Open a compressed mailbox for reading
1721 19.2. Write a compressed mailbox
1722 19.3. Append a message to a compressed mailbox
1723 19.4. Encrypted folders
1725 1. Regular Expressions
1727 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.
1729 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: ``\\''.
1731 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.
1733 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).
1735 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.
1737 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.
1739 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.
1741 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:
1744 Alphanumeric characters.
1747 Alphabetic characters.
1750 Space or tab characters.
1759 Characters that are both printable and visible. (A space is printable, but not visible, while an ``a'' is both.)
1762 Lower-case alphabetic characters.
1765 Printable characters (characters that are not control characters.)
1768 Punctuation characters (characters that are not letter, digits, control characters, or space characters).
1771 Space characters (such as space, tab and formfeed, to name a few).
1774 Upper-case alphabetic characters.
1777 Characters that are hexadecimal digits.
1779 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].
1781 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:
1784 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''.
1787 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''.
1789 A regular expression matching a single character may be followed by one of several repetition operators:
1792 The preceding item is optional and matched at most once.
1795 The preceding item will be matched zero or more times.
1798 The preceding item will be matched one or more times.
1801 The preceding item is matched exactly n times.
1804 The preceding item is matched n or more times.
1807 The preceding item is matched at most m times.
1810 The preceding item is matched at least n times, but no more than m times.
1812 Two regular expressions may be concatenated; the resulting regular expression matches any string formed by concatenating two substrings that respectively match the concatenated subexpressions.
1814 Two regular expressions may be joined by the infix operator ``|''; the resulting regular expression matches any string matching either subexpression.
1816 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.
1818 Note: If you compile Mutt-ng with the GNU rx package, the following operators may also be used in regular expressions:
1821 Matches the empty string at either the beginning or the end of a word.
1824 Matches the empty string within a word.
1827 Matches the empty string at the beginning of a word.
1830 Matches the empty string at the end of a word.
1833 Matches any word-constituent character (letter, digit, or underscore).
1836 Matches any character that is not word-constituent.
1839 Matches the empty string at the beginning of a buffer (string).
1842 Matches the empty string at the end of a buffer.
1844 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.
1848 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.
1850 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.
1852 2.1. Complex Patterns
1854 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:
1857 The pattern above matches all messages that contain ``SPAM'' in the subject and are unread.
1859 To logical OR patterns, simply use the | operator. This one especially useful when using local groups:
1860 ~f ("nion@muttng\.org"|"ak@muttng\.org"|"pdmef@muttng\.org")
1861 (~b mutt-ng|~s Mutt-ng)
1864 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.
1866 2.2. Patterns and Dates
1868 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.
1870 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.
1875 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).
1877 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:
1878 ~d >2w # messages older than two weeks
1879 ~d <3d # messages newer than 3 days
1880 ~d =1m # messages that are exactly one month old
1886 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.
1888 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.
1890 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:
1891 * the current hostname
1892 * the current mutt-ng version number
1894 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:
1895 set status_format = "%v on %h: ..."
1897 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:
1898 Mutt-ng 1.5.9i on mailhost: ...
1900 In the index, there're more useful information one could want to see:
1901 * which mailbox is open
1902 * how man new, flagged or postponed messages
1905 To include the mailbox' name is as easy as:
1906 set status_format = "%v on %h: %B: ...
1908 When the currently opened mailbox is Inbox, this will be expanded to:
1909 Mutt-ng 1.5.9i on mailhost: Inbox: ...
1911 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.
1913 3.2. Conditional Expansion
1915 To only print the number of messages if there are new messages in the current mailbox, further extend $status_format to:
1916 set status_format = "%v on %h: %B %?n?%n new? ...
1918 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:
1919 %?<item>?<string if nonzero>?
1921 which tells mutt-ng to only look at <string if nonzero> if the value of the %<item%gt; expando is different from zero. In our example, we used n as the expando to check for and %n new as the optional nonzero string.
1923 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:
1924 %?<item>?<string if nonzero>&<string if zero>?
1926 Using this we can make mutt-ng to do the following:
1927 * make it print ``n new messages'' whereby n is the count but only if there new ones
1928 * and make it print ``no new messages'' if there aren't any
1930 The corresponding configuration is:
1931 set status_format = "%v on %h: %B: %?n?%n new messages&no new messages? ...
1933 This doubles the use of the ``new messages'' string because it'll get always printed. Thus, it can be shortened to:
1934 set status_format = "%v on %h: %B: %?n?%n&no? new messages ...
1936 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.
1938 3.3. Modifications and Padding
1940 Besides the information given so far, there're even more features of format strings:
1941 * When specifying %_<item> instead of just %<item>, mutt-ng will convert all characters in the expansion of <item> to lowercase.
1942 * When specifying %:<item> instead of just %<item>, mutt-ng will convert all dots in the expansion of <item> to underscores (_).
1944 Also, there's a feature called Padding supplied by the following two expandos: %|X and %>X.
1947 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:
1949 set status_format = "%v on %h: %B: %?n?%n&no? new messages %|-"
1952 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 %>):
1954 set status_format = "%B: %?n?%n&no? new messages %> (%v on %h)"
1958 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.
1960 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''.
1962 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.
1966 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
1975 for specific details on each type of hook available.
1977 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:
1978 send-hook . 'unmy_hdr From:'
1979 send-hook ~C'^b@b\.b$' my_hdr from: c@c.c
1981 5.1. Message Matching in Hooks
1983 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.
1985 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.).
1987 For example, if you wanted to set your return address based upon sending mail to a specific address, you could do something like:
1988 send-hook '~t ^me@cs\.hmc\.edu$' 'my_hdr From: Mutt-ng User <user@host>'
1990 which would execute the given command when sending mail to me@cs.hmc.edu.
1992 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.
1994 6. Using the sidebar
1996 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:
1997 set sidebar_visible="yes"
1998 set sidebar_width=25
2000 If you want to specify the mailboxes you can do so with:
2007 You can also specify the colors for mailboxes with new mails by using:
2008 color sidebar_new red black
2009 color sidebar white black
2011 The available functions are:
2012 sidebar-scroll-up Scrolls the mailbox list up 1 page
2013 sidebar-scroll-down Scrolls the mailbox list down 1 page
2014 sidebar-next Highlights the next mailbox
2015 sidebar-next-new Highlights the next mailbox with new mail
2016 sidebar-previous Highlights the previous mailbox
2017 sidebar-open Opens the currently highlighted mailbox
2019 Reasonable key bindings look e.g. like this:
2020 bind index \Cp sidebar-prev
2021 bind index \Cn sidebar-next
2022 bind index \Cb sidebar-open
2023 bind pager \Cp sidebar-prev
2024 bind pager \Cn sidebar-next
2025 bind pager \Cb sidebar-open
2027 macro index B ':toggle sidebar_visible^M'
2028 macro pager B ':toggle sidebar_visible^M'
2030 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'.
2032 7. External Address Queries
2034 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:
2035 set query_command = "mutt_ldap_query.pl '%s'"
2037 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.
2039 An example multiple response output:
2040 Searching database ... 20 entries ... 3 matching:
2041 me@cs.hmc.edu Michael Elkins mutt dude
2042 blong@fiction.net Brandon Long mutt and more
2043 roessler@guug.de Thomas Roessler mutt pgp
2045 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.
2047 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.
2051 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.
2053 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:
2054 From me@cs.hmc.edu Fri, 11 Apr 1997 11:44:56 PST
2056 to denote the start of a new message (this is often referred to as the ``From_'' line).
2058 MMDF. This is a variant of the mbox format. Each message is surrounded by lines containing ``^A^A^A^A'' (four control-A's).
2060 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).
2062 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.
2064 9. Mailbox Shortcuts
2066 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.
2067 * ! -- refers to your spoolfile (incoming) mailbox
2068 * > -- refers to your mbox file
2069 * < -- refers to your record file
2070 * ^ -- refers to the current mailbox
2071 * - or !! -- refers to the file you've last visited
2072 * ˜ -- refers to your home directory
2073 * = or + -- refers to your folder directory
2074 * @alias -- refers to the save-hook as determined by the address of the alias
2076 10. Handling Mailing Lists
2078 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.
2080 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 <list>'' when ``list'' appears in the ``To'' field, and ``Cc <list>'' when it appears in the ``Cc'' field (otherwise it returns the name of the author).
2082 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).
2084 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.
2086 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.
2088 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.
2090 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.
2092 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.
2094 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.
2098 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.
2100 11.1. Linking threads
2102 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.
2104 You can also connect multiple children at once, tagging them and using the tag-prefix command (';') or the auto_tag option.
2106 11.2. Breaking threads
2108 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.
2110 12. Delivery Status Notification (DSN) Support
2112 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.''
2114 Users can make use of it in one of the following two ways:
2115 * 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.
2116 * The SMTP support via libESMTP supports it, too.
2118 To support this, there are two variables:
2119 * dsn-notify is used to request receipts for different results (such as failed message, message delivered, etc.).
2120 * dsn-return requests how much of your message should be returned with the receipt (headers or full message).
2122 Please see the reference chapter for possible values.
2124 13. POP3 Support (OPTIONAL)
2126 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.
2128 You can access the remote POP3 mailbox by selecting the folder pop://popserver/.
2130 You can select an alternative port by specifying it with the server, i.e.: pop://popserver:port/.
2132 You can also specify different username for each folder, i.e.: pop://username@popserver[:port]/.
2134 Polling for new mail is more expensive over POP3 than locally. For this reason the frequency at which Mutt-ng will check for mail remotely can be controlled by the pop-mail-check variable, which defaults to every 60 seconds.
2136 If Mutt-ng was compiled with SSL support (by running the configure script with the --with-ssl 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://[username@]popserver[:port]/.
2138 Another way to access your POP3 mail is the fetch-mail function (default: G). It allows to connect to pop-host, fetch all your new mail and place it in the local spoolfile. After this point, Mutt-ng runs exactly as if the mail had always been local.
2140 Note: If you only need to fetch all messages to local mailbox you should consider using a specialized program, such as fetchmail
2142 14. IMAP Support (OPTIONAL)
2144 If Mutt-ng was compiled with IMAP support (by running the configure script with the --enable-imap flag), it has the ability to work with folders located on a remote IMAP server.
2146 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 imap://imapserver/path/to/folder where path/to/folder is the path of the folder you want to access.
2148 You can select an alternative port by specifying it with the server, i.e.: imap://imapserver:port/INBOX.
2150 You can also specify different username for each folder, i.e.: imap://username@imapserver[:port]/INBOX.
2152 If Mutt-ng was compiled with SSL support (by running the configure script with the --with-ssl 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://[username@]imapserver[:port]/path/to/folder as your folder path.
2154 Pine-compatible notation is also supported, i.e. {[username@]imapserver[:port][/ssl]}path/to/folder
2156 Note that not all servers use / as the hierarchy separator. Mutt-ng should correctly notice which separator is being used by the server and convert paths accordingly.
2158 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 toggle-subscribed command. See also the imap-list-subscribed variable.
2160 Polling for new mail on an IMAP server can cause noticeable delays. So, you'll want to carefully tune the imap-mail-check and timeout variables.
2162 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.
2164 14.1. The Folder Browser
2166 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:
2167 * Instead of file permissions, mutt displays the string "IMAP", possibly followed by the symbol "+", indicating that the entry contains both messages and subfolders. On Cyrus-like servers folders will often contain both messages and subfolders.
2168 * 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).
2169 * 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 (normally these are bound to s and u, respectively).
2171 14.2. Authentication
2173 Mutt-ng supports four authentication methods with IMAP servers: SASL, GSSAPI, CRAM-MD5, and LOGIN (there is a patch by Grant Edwards to add NTLM authentication for you poor exchange users out there, but it has yet to be integrated into the main tree). There is also support for the pseudo-protocol ANONYMOUS, which allows you to log in to a public IMAP server without having an account. To use ANONYMOUS, simply make your username blank or "anonymous".
2175 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 --with-sasl flag.
2177 Mutt-ng will try whichever methods are compiled in and available on the server, in the following order: SASL, ANONYMOUS, GSSAPI, CRAM-MD5, LOGIN.
2179 There are a few variables which control authentication:
2180 * imap-user - controls the username under which you request authentication on the IMAP server, for all authenticators. This is overridden by an explicit username in the mailbox path (i.e. by using a mailbox name of the form {user@host}).
2181 * imap-pass - a password which you may preset, used by all authentication methods where a password is needed.
2182 * imap-authenticators - 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).
2184 15. NNTP Support (OPTIONAL)
2186 If compiled with ``--enable-nntp'' option, Mutt-ng can read news from a newsserver via NNTP. You can open a newsgroup with the ``change-newsgroup'' function from the index/pager which is by default bound to i.
2188 The Default newsserver can be obtained from the $NNTPSERVER environment variable. Like other news readers, info about subscribed newsgroups is saved in a file as specified by the nntp-newsrc variable. Article headers are cached and can be loaded from a file when a newsgroup is entered instead loading from newsserver; currently, this caching mechanism still is different from the header caching for maildir/IMAP.
2190 15.1. Again: Scoring
2192 Especially for Usenet, people often ask for advanced filtering and scoring functionality. Of course, mutt-ng has scoring and allows a killfile, too. How to use a killfile has been discussed in score-command.
2194 What has not been discusses in detail is mutt-ng's built-in realname filter. For may newsreaders including those for ``advanced users'' like slrn or tin, there are frequent request for such functionality. The solutions offered often are complicated regular expressions.
2196 In mutt-ng this is as easy as
2199 This tells mutt-ng to apply a score of 42 to all messages whose sender specified a valid realname and a valid email address. Using
2202 on the contrary applies a score of 42 to all messages not matching those criteria which are very strict:
2203 * Email addresses must be valid according to RFC 2822, see <ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc2822.txt>
2204 * the name must consist of at least 2 fields whereby a field must not end in a dot. This means that ``Joe User'' and ``Joe A. User'' are valid while ``J. User'' and ``J. A. User'' aren't.
2205 * it's assumed that users are interested in reading their own mail and mail from people who they have defined an alias for so that those 2 groups of messages are excluded from the strict rules.
2207 16. SMTP Support (OPTIONAL)
2209 Mutt-ng can be built using a library called ``libESMTP'' which provides SMTP functionality. When configure was called with --with-libesmtp or the output muttng -v contains +USE_LIBESMTP, this will be or is the case already. The SMTP support includes support for Delivery Status Notification (see dsn section) as well as handling the 8BITMIME flag controlled via use-8bitmime.
2211 To enable sending mail directly via SMTP without an MTA such as Postfix or SSMTP and the like, simply set the smtp-host variable pointing to your SMTP server.
2213 Authentication mechanisms are available via the smtp-user and smtp-pass variables.
2215 Transport Encryption via the StartTLS command is also available. For this to work, first of all Mutt-ng must be built with SSL or GNUTLS. Secondly, the smtp-use-tls variable must be either set to ``enabled'' or ``required.'' In both cases, StartTLS will be used if the server supports it: for the second case, the connection will fail if it doesn't while switching back to unencrypted communication for the first one.
2217 Some mail providers require user's to set a particular envelope sender, i.e. they allow for only one value which may not be what the user wants to send as the From: header. In this case, the variable smtp-envelope may be used to set the envelope different from the From: header.
2219 17. Managing multiple IMAP/POP/NNTP accounts (OPTIONAL)
2221 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.
2224 account-hook . 'unset imap_user; unset imap_pass; unset tunnel'
2225 account-hook imap://host1/ 'set imap_user=me1 imap_pass=foo'
2226 account-hook imap://host2/ 'set tunnel="ssh host2 /usr/libexec/imapd"'
2228 18. Start a WWW Browser on URLs (EXTERNAL)
2230 If a message contains URLs (unified resource locator = address in the WWW space like http://www.mutt.org/), 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/contrib/ and the configuration commands:
2231 macro index \cb |urlview\n
2232 macro pager \cb |urlview\n
2234 19. Compressed folders Support (OPTIONAL)
2236 If Mutt-ng was compiled with compressed folders support (by running the configure script with the --enable-compressed 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.
2238 The most common use is to open compressed archived folders e.g. with gzip.
2240 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, appending to it and converting back to the user-defined format.
2242 There are three hooks defined (open-hook, close-hook and append-hook) which define commands to uncompress and compress a folder and to append messages to an existing compressed folder respectively.
2245 open-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -cd %f > %t"
2246 close-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -c %t > %f"
2247 append-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -c %t >> %f"
2249 You do not have to specify all of the commands. If you omit append-hook, the folder will be open and closed again each time you will add to it. If you omit close-hook (or give empty command) , the folder will be open in the mode. If you specify append-hook though you'll be able to append to the folder.
2251 Note that Mutt-ng 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 surprising if your compressing script produces empty files. In this situation, unset save-empty, so that the compressed file will be removed if you delete all of the messages.
2253 19.1. Open a compressed mailbox for reading
2255 Usage: open-hook regexp "command"
2257 The command is the command that can be used for opening the folders whose names match regexp.
2259 The command 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.
2261 %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.
2263 The command should not remove the original compressed file. The command should return non-zero exit status if it fails, so mutt knows something's wrong.
2266 open-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -cd %f > %t"
2268 If the command is empty, this operation is disabled for this file type.
2270 19.2. Write a compressed mailbox
2272 Usage: close-hook regexp "command"
2274 This is used to close the folder that was open with the open-hook command after some changes were made to it.
2276 The command string is the command that can be used for closing the folders whose names match regexp. It has the same format as in the open-hook command. Temporary folder in this case is the folder previously produced by the <open-hook command.
2278 The command should not remove the decompressed file. The command should return non-zero exit status if it fails, so mutt knows something's wrong.
2281 close-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -c %t > %f"
2283 If the command is empty, this operation is disabled for this file type, and the file can only be open in the readonly mode.
2285 close-hook is not called when you exit from the folder if the folder was not changed.
2287 19.3. Append a message to a compressed mailbox
2289 Usage: append-hook regexp "command"
2291 This command is used for saving to an existing compressed folder. The command is the command that can be used for appending to the folders whose names match regexp. It has the same format as in the open-hook command. The temporary folder in this case contains the messages that are being appended.
2293 The command should not remove the decompressed file. The command should return non-zero exit status if it fails, so mutt knows something's wrong.
2296 append-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -c %t >> %f"
2298 When append-hook 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 (mbox-type) type is always supposed (i.e. this is the format used for the temporary folder).
2300 If the file does not exist when you save to it, close-hook is called, and not append-hook. append-hook is only for appending to existing folders.
2302 If the command is empty, this operation is disabled for this file type. In this case, the folder will be open and closed again (using open-hook and close-hookrespectively) each time you will add to it.
2304 19.4. Encrypted folders
2306 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:
2307 open-hook \\.pgp$ "pgp -f < %f > %t"
2308 close-hook \\.pgp$ "pgp -fe YourPgpUserIdOrKeyId < %t > %f"
2310 Please note, that PGP does not support appending to an encrypted folder, so there is no append-hook defined.
2312 Note: 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.
2314 Chapter 5. Mutt-ng's MIME Support
2318 1. Using MIME in Mutt
2320 1.1. Viewing MIME messages in the pager
2321 1.2. The Attachment Menu
2322 1.3. The Compose Menu
2324 2. MIME Type configuration with mime.types
2325 3. MIME Viewer configuration with mailcap
2327 3.1. The Basics of the mailcap file
2328 3.2. Secure use of mailcap
2329 3.3. Advanced mailcap Usage
2330 3.4. Example mailcap files
2333 5. MIME Multipart/Alternative
2336 Quite a bit of effort has been made to make Mutt-ng the premier text-mode MIME MUA. Every effort has been made to provide the functionality that the discerning MIME user requires, and the conformance to the standards wherever possible. When configuring Mutt-ng for MIME, there are two extra types of configuration files which Mutt-ng 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 specifies the external commands to use for handling specific MIME types.
2338 1. Using MIME in Mutt
2340 There are three areas/menus in Mutt-ng which deal with MIME, they are the pager (while viewing a message), the attachment menu and the compose menu.
2342 1.1. Viewing MIME messages in the pager
2344 When you select a message from the index and view it in the pager, Mutt decodes the message to a text representation. Mutt-ng internally supports a number of MIME types, including text/plain, text/enriched, message/rfc822, and message/news. In addition, the export controlled version of Mutt-ng recognizes a variety of PGP MIME types, including PGP/MIME and application/pgp.
2346 Mutt-ng will denote attachments with a couple lines describing them. These lines are of the form:
2347 [-- Attachment #1: Description --]
2348 [-- Type: text/plain, Encoding: 7bit, Size: 10000 --]
2350 Where the Description is the description or filename given for the attachment, and the Encoding is one of 7bit/8bit/quoted-printable/base64/binary.
2352 If Mutt-ng cannot deal with a MIME type, it will display a message like:
2353 [-- image/gif is unsupported (use 'v' to view this part) --]
2355 1.2. The Attachment Menu
2357 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.
2359 Finally, you can apply the usual message-related functions (like resend-message, and the reply and forward functions) to attachments of type message/rfc822.
2361 See the help on the attachment menu for more information.
2363 1.3. The Compose Menu
2365 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 modifying the attachment information, notably the type, encoding and description.
2367 Attachments appear as follows:
2368 - 1 [text/plain, 7bit, 1K] /tmp/mutt-euler-8082-0 <no description>
2369 2 [applica/x-gunzip, base64, 422K] ~/src/mutt-0.85.tar.gz <no description>
2371 The '-' denotes that Mutt-ng 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).
2373 2. MIME Type configuration with mime.types
2375 When you add an attachment to your mail message, Mutt-ng 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
2377 The mime.types file consist of lines containing a MIME type and a space separated list of extensions. For example:
2378 application/postscript ps eps
2380 audio/x-aiff aif aifc aiff
2382 A sample mime.types file comes with the Mutt-ng distribution, and should contain most of the MIME types you are likely to use.
2384 If Mutt-ng 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-ng will assume that the file is plain text, and mark it as text/plain. If the file contains binary information, then Mutt-ng will mark it as application/octet-stream. You can change the MIME type that Mutt-ng 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-ng 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 various molecular viewers. Non-recognised mime types should only
2385 be used if the recipient of the message is likely to be expecting such attachments.
2387 3. MIME Viewer configuration with mailcap
2389 Mutt-ng supports RFC 1524 MIME Configuration, in particular the Unix specific format specified in Appendix A of RFC 1524. This file format is commonly referred to as the mailcap format. Many MIME compliant programs utilize the mailcap format, allowing you to specify handling for all MIME types in one place for all programs. Programs known to use this format include Netscape, XMosaic, lynx and metamail.
2391 In order to handle various MIME types that Mutt-ng can not handle internally, Mutt-ng 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
2392 ${HOME}/.mailcap:/usr/local/share/mutt/mailcap:/etc/mailcap:/etc/mailcap:/usr/etc/mailcap:/usr/local/etc/mailcap
2394 where $HOME is your home directory.
2396 In particular, the metamail distribution will install a mailcap file, usually as /usr/local/etc/mailcap, which contains some baseline entries.
2398 3.1. The Basics of the mailcap file
2400 A mailcap file consists of a series of lines which are comments, blank, or definitions.
2402 A comment line consists of a # character followed by anything you want.
2404 A blank line is blank.
2406 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.
2408 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 format includes two formats for wildcards, one using the special '*' subtype, the other is the implicit wild, where you only include the major type. For example, image/*, or video, will match all image types and video types, respectively.
2410 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-ng 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-ng 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.
2412 So, in the simplest form, you can send a text/plain message to the external pager more on stdin:
2415 Or, you could send the message as a file:
2418 Perhaps you would like to use lynx to interactively view a text/html message:
2421 In this case, lynx does not support viewing a file from stdin, so you must use the %s syntax. Note: Some older versions of lynx contain a bug where they will check the mailcap file for a viewer for text/html. They will find the line which calls lynx, and run it. This causes lynx to continuously spawn itself to view the object.
2423 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:
2424 text/html; lynx -dump %s | more
2426 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:
2430 This is the simplest form of a mailcap file.
2432 3.2. Secure use of mailcap
2434 The interpretation of shell meta-characters embedded in MIME parameters can lead to security problems in general. Mutt-ng tries to quote parameters in expansion of %s syntaxes properly, and avoids risky characters by substituting them, see the mailcap-sanitize variable.
2436 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:
2438 Keep the %-expandos away from shell quoting. Don't quote them with single or double quotes. Mutt-ng does this for you, the right way, as should any other program which interprets mailcap. Don't put them into backtick expansions. Be highly careful with eval statements, and avoid them if possible at all. Trying to fix broken behaviour with quotes introduces new leaks - there is no alternative to correct quoting in the first place.
2440 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):
2441 text/test-mailcap-bug; cat %s; copiousoutput; test=charset=%{charset} \
2442 && test "`echo $charset | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`" != iso-8859-1
2444 3.3. Advanced mailcap Usage
2446 3.3.1. Optional Fields
2448 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-ng recognizes the following optional fields:
2451 This flag tells Mutt-ng that the command passes possibly large amounts of text on stdout. This causes Mutt-ng 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-ng 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:
2453 text/html; lynx -dump %s ; copiousoutput
2455 This will cause lynx to format the text/html output as text/plain and Mutt-ng will use your standard pager to display the results.
2458 Mutt-ng uses this flag when viewing attachments with auto-view, in order to decide whether it should honor the setting of the wait-key variable or not. When an attachment is viewed using an interactive program, and the corresponding mailcap entry has a needsterminal flag, Mutt-ng will use wait-key and the exit status of the program to decide if it will ask you to press a key after the external program has exited. In all other situations it will not prompt you for a key.
2461 This flag specifies the command to use to create a new attachment of a specific MIME type. Mutt-ng supports this from the compose menu.
2463 composetyped=<command>
2464 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-ng supports this from the compose menu.
2467 This flag specifies the command to use to print a specific MIME type. Mutt-ng supports this from the attachment and compose menus.
2470 This flag specifies the command to use to edit a specific MIME type. Mutt-ng supports this from the compose menu, and also uses it to compose new attachments. Mutt-ng will default to the defined editor for text attachments.
2472 nametemplate=<template>
2473 This field specifies the format for the file denoted by %s in the command fields. Certain programs will require a certain file extension, for instance, to correctly view a file. For instance, lynx will only interpret a file as text/html if the file ends in .html. So, you would specify lynx as a text/html viewer with a line in the mailcap file like:
2475 text/html; lynx %s; nametemplate=%s.html
2478 This field specifies a command to run to test whether this mailcap entry should be used. The command is defined with the command expansion rules defined in the next section. If the command returns 0, then the test passed, and Mutt-ng uses this entry. If the command returns non-zero, then the test failed, and Mutt-ng continues searching for the right entry. Note: the content-type must match before Mutt-ng performs the test. For example:
2480 text/html; netscape -remote 'openURL(%s)' ; test=RunningX
2483 In this example, Mutt-ng will run the program RunningX which will return 0 if the X Window manager is running, and non-zero if it isn't. If RunningX returns 0, then Mutt-ng will call netscape to display the text/html object. If RunningX doesn't return 0, then Mutt-ng will go on to the next entry and use lynx to display the text/html object.
2487 When searching for an entry in the mailcap file, Mutt-ng will search for the most useful entry for its purpose. For instance, if you are attempting to print an image/gif, and you have the following entries in your mailcap file, Mutt-ng will search for an entry with the print command:
2489 image/gif; ; print= anytopnm %s | pnmtops | lpr; \
2492 Mutt-ng will skip the image/* entry and use the image/gif entry with the print command.
2494 In addition, you can use this with auto-view to denote two commands for viewing an attachment, one to be viewed automatically, the other to be viewed interactively from the attachment menu. In addition, you can then use the test feature to determine which viewer to use interactively depending on your environment.
2495 text/html; netscape -remote 'openURL(%s)' ; test=RunningX
2496 text/html; lynx %s; nametemplate=%s.html
2497 text/html; lynx -dump %s; nametemplate=%s.html; copiousoutput
2499 For auto-view, Mutt-ng will choose the third entry because of the copiousoutput tag. For interactive viewing, Mutt will run the program RunningX to determine if it should use the first entry. If the program returns non-zero, Mutt-ng will use the second entry for interactive viewing.
2501 3.3.3. Command Expansion
2503 The various commands defined in the mailcap files are passed to the /bin/sh shell using the system() function. Before the command is passed to /bin/sh -c, it is parsed to expand various special parameters with information from Mutt-ng. The keywords Mutt-ng expands are:
2506 As seen in the basic mailcap section, this variable is expanded to a filename specified by the calling program. This file contains the body of the message to view/print/edit or where the composing program should place the results of composition. In addition, the use of this keyword causes Mutt-ng to not pass the body of the message to the view/print/edit program on stdin.
2509 Mutt-ng will expand %t to the text representation of the content type of the message in the same form as the first parameter of the mailcap definition line, ie text/html or image/gif.
2512 Mutt-ng will expand this to the value of the specified parameter from the Content-Type: line of the mail message. For instance, if Your mail message contains:
2514 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
2516 then Mutt-ng will expand %{charset} to iso-8859-1. The default metamail mailcap file uses this feature to test the charset to spawn an xterm using the right charset to view the message.
2519 This will be replaced by a %
2521 Mutt-ng does not currently support the %F and %n keywords specified in RFC 1524. The main purpose of these parameters is for multipart messages, which is handled internally by Mutt-ng.
2523 3.4. Example mailcap files
2525 This mailcap file is fairly simple and standard:
2527 # I'm always running X :)
2528 video/*; xanim %s > /dev/null
2529 image/*; xv %s > /dev/null
2531 # I'm always running netscape (if my computer had more memory, maybe)
2532 text/html; netscape -remote 'openURL(%s)'
2534 This mailcap file shows quite a number of examples:
2535 # Use xanim to view all videos Xanim produces a header on startup,
2536 # send that to /dev/null so I don't see it
2537 video/*; xanim %s > /dev/null
2539 # Send html to a running netscape by remote
2540 text/html; netscape -remote 'openURL(%s)'; test=RunningNetscape
2542 # If I'm not running netscape but I am running X, start netscape on the
2544 text/html; netscape %s; test=RunningX
2546 # Else use lynx to view it as text
2549 # This version would convert the text/html to text/plain
2550 text/html; lynx -dump %s; copiousoutput
2552 # I use enscript to print text in two columns to a page
2553 text/*; more %s; print=enscript -2Gr %s
2555 # Netscape adds a flag to tell itself to view jpegs internally
2556 image/jpeg;xv %s; x-mozilla-flags=internal
2558 # Use xv to view images if I'm running X
2559 # In addition, this uses the \ to extend the line and set my editor
2561 image/*;xv %s; test=RunningX; \
2564 # Convert images to text using the netpbm tools
2565 image/*; (anytopnm %s | pnmscale -xysize 80 46 | ppmtopgm | pgmtopbm |
2566 pbmtoascii -1x2 ) 2>&1 ; copiousoutput
2568 # Send excel spreadsheets to my NT box
2569 application/ms-excel; open.pl %s
2573 In addition to explicitly telling Mutt-ng to view an attachment with the MIME viewer defined in the mailcap file, Mutt-ng has support for automatically viewing MIME attachments while in the pager.
2575 To work, you must define a viewer in the mailcap file which uses the copiousoutput option to denote that it is non-interactive. Usually, you also use the entry to convert the attachment to a text representation which you can view in the pager.
2577 You then use the auto_view muttrc command to list the content-types that you wish to view automatically.
2579 For instance, if you set auto_view to:
2580 auto_view text/html application/x-gunzip application/postscript image/gif application/x-tar-gz
2582 Mutt-ng could use the following mailcap entries to automatically view attachments of these types.
2583 text/html; lynx -dump %s; copiousoutput; nametemplate=%s.html
2584 image/*; anytopnm %s | pnmscale -xsize 80 -ysize 50 | ppmtopgm | pgmtopbm | pbmtoascii ; copiousoutput
2585 application/x-gunzip; gzcat; copiousoutput
2586 application/x-tar-gz; gunzip -c %s | tar -tf - ; copiousoutput
2587 application/postscript; ps2ascii %s; copiousoutput
2589 ``unauto_view'' can be used to remove previous entries from the autoview list. This can be used with message-hook to autoview messages based on size, etc. ``unauto_view *'' will remove all previous entries.
2591 5. MIME Multipart/Alternative
2593 Mutt-ng has some heuristics for determining which attachment of a multipart/alternative type to display. First, mutt will check the alternative_order list to determine if one of the available types is preferred. The alternative_order list consists of a number of MIME types in order, including support for implicit and explicit wildcards, for example:
2594 alternative_order text/enriched text/plain text application/postscript image/*
2596 Next, mutt will check if any of the types have a defined auto-view, and use that. Failing that, Mutt-ng will look for any text type. As a last attempt, mutt will look for any type it knows how to handle.
2598 To remove a MIME type from the alternative_order list, use the unalternative_order command.
2602 Mutt-ng's mime_lookup list specifies a list of mime-types that should not be treated according to their mailcap entry. This option is designed to deal with binary types such as application/octet-stream. When an attachment's mime-type is listed in mime_lookup, then the extension of the filename will be compared to the list of extensions in the mime.types file. The mime-type associated with this extension will then be used to process the attachment according to the rules in the mailcap file and according to any other configuration options (such as auto_view) specified. Common usage would be:
2603 mime_lookup application/octet-stream application/X-Lotus-Manuscript
2605 In addition, the unmime_lookup command may be used to disable this feature for any particular mime-type if it had been set, for example, in a global muttrc.
2607 Chapter 6. Security Considerations
2613 3. Information Leaks
2615 3.1. Message-ID: headers
2616 3.2. mailto:-style links
2618 4. External applications
2623 First of all, mutt-ng contains no security holes included by intention but may contain unknown security holes. As a consequence, please run mutt-ng only with as few permissions as possible.
2625 Please do not run mutt-ng as the super user.
2627 When configuring mutt-ng, there're some points to note about secure setups.
2629 In practice, mutt-ng can be easily made as vulnerable as even the most insecure mail user agents (in their default configuration) just by changing mutt-ng's configuration files: it then can execute arbitrary programs and scripts attached to messages, send out private data on its own, etc. Although this is not believed to the common type of setup, please read this chapter carefully.
2633 Although mutt-ng can be told the various passwords for accounts, please never store passwords in configuration files. Besides the fact that the system's operator can always read them, you could forget to replace the actual password with asterisks when reporting a bug or asking for help via, for example, a mailing list so that your mail including your password could be archived by internet search engines, etc. Please never store passwords on disk.
2637 Mutt-ng uses many temporary files for viewing messages, verifying digital signatures, etc. The umask variable can be used to change the default permissions of these files. Please only change it if you really know what you are doing. Also, a different location for these files may be desired which can be changed via the tmpdir variable.
2639 3. Information Leaks
2641 3.1. Message-ID: headers
2643 In the default configuration, mutt-ng will leak some information to the outside world when sending messages: the generation of Message-ID: headers includes a step counter which is increased (and rotated) with every message sent. If you'd like to hide this information probably telling others how many mail you sent in which time, you at least need to remove the %P expando from the default setting of the msgid-format variable. Please make sure that you really know how local parts of these Message-ID: headers are composed.
2645 3.2. mailto:-style links
2647 As mutt-ng be can be set up to be the mail client to handle mailto: style links in websites, there're security considerations, too. To keep the old behavior by default, mutt-ng will be strict in interpreting them which means that arbitrary header fields can be embedded in these links which could override existing header fields or attach arbitrary files. This may be problematic if the edit-headers variable is unset, i.e. the user doesn't want to see header fields while editing the message.
2649 For example, following a link like
2650 mailto:joe@host?Attach=~/.gnupg/secring.gpg
2652 will send out the user's private gnupg keyring to joe@host if the user doesn't follow the information on screen carefully enough.
2654 When unsetting the strict-mailto variable, mutt-ng will
2655 * be less strict when interpreting these links by prepending a X-Mailto- string to all header fields embedded in such a link and
2656 * turn on the edit-headers variable by force to let the user see all the headers (because they still may leak information.)
2658 4. External applications
2660 Mutt-ng in many places has to rely on external applications or for convenience supports mechanisms involving external applications.
2664 One of these is the mailcap mechanism as defined by RfC 1524. Mutt-ng can be set up to automatically execute any given utility as listed in one of the mailcap files (see the mailcap-path variable for details.)
2666 These utilities may have a variety of security vulnerabilities, including overwriting of arbitrary files, information leaks or other exploitable bugs. These vulnerabilities may go unnoticed by the user, especially when they are called automatically (and without interactive prompting) from the mailcap file(s). When using mutt-ng's autoview mechanism in combination with mailcap files, please be sure to...
2667 * manually select trustworth applications with a reasonable calling sequence
2668 * periodically check the contents of mailcap files, especially after software installations or upgrades
2669 * keep the software packages referenced in the mailcap file up to date
2670 * leave the mailcap-sanitize variable in its default state to restrict mailcap expandos to a safe set of characters
2674 Besides the mailcap mechanism, mutt-ng uses a number of other external utilities for operation.
2676 The same security considerations apply for these as for tools involved via mailcap (for example, mutt-ng is vulnerable to Denial of Service Attacks with compressed folders support if the uncompressed mailbox is too large for the disk it is saved to.)
2678 As already noted, most of these problems are not built in but caused by wrong configuration, so please check your configuration.
2680 Chapter 7. Reference
2684 1. Command line options
2686 3. Configuration Commands
2687 4. Configuration variables
2702 1. Command line options
2704 Running mutt with no arguments will make Mutt-ng attempt to read your spool mailbox. However, it is possible to read other mailboxes and to send messages from the command line as well.
2706 -a attach a file to a message
2707 -b specify a blind carbon-copy (BCC) address
2708 -c specify a carbon-copy (Cc) address
2709 -e specify a config command to be run after initialization files are read
2710 -f specify a mailbox to load
2711 -F specify an alternate file to read initialization commands
2712 -h print help on command line options
2713 -H specify a draft file from which to read a header and body
2714 -i specify a file to include in a message composition
2715 -m specify a default mailbox type
2716 -n do not read the system Muttngrc
2717 -p recall a postponed message
2718 -Q query a configuration variable
2719 -R open mailbox in read-only mode
2720 -s specify a subject (enclose in quotes if it contains spaces)
2721 -t dump the value of all variables to stdout
2722 -T dump the value of all changed variables to stdout
2723 -v show version number and compile-time definitions
2724 -x simulate the mailx(1) compose mode
2725 -y show a menu containing the files specified by the mailboxes command
2726 -z exit immediately if there are no messages in the mailbox
2727 -Z open the first folder with new message,exit immediately if none
2729 To read messages in a mailbox
2731 mutt [ -nz ] [ -F muttrc ] [ -m type ] [ -f mailbox ]
2733 To compose a new message
2735 mutt [ -n ] [ -F muttrc ] [ -a file ] [ -c address ] [ -i filename ] [ -s subject ] address [ address ... ]
2737 Mutt-ng also supports a ``batch'' mode to send prepared messages. Simply redirect input from the file you wish to send. For example,
2739 mutt -s "data set for run #2" professor@bigschool.edu < ˜/run2.dat
2741 This command will send a message to ``professor@bigschool.edu'' with a subject of ``data set for run #2''. In the body of the message will be the contents of the file ``˜/run2.dat''.
2746 ~b EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the message body
2747 ~B EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the whole message
2748 ~c USER messages carbon-copied to USER
2749 ~C EXPR message is either to: or cc: EXPR
2751 ~d [MIN]-[MAX] messages with ``date-sent'' in a Date range
2753 ~e EXPR message which contains EXPR in the ``Sender'' field
2755 ~f USER messages originating from USER
2756 ~g cryptographically signed messages
2757 ~G cryptographically encrypted messages
2758 ~H EXPR messages with a spam attribute matching EXPR
2759 ~h EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the message header
2760 ~k message contains PGP key material
2761 ~i ID message which match ID in the ``Message-ID'' field
2762 ~L EXPR message is either originated or received by EXPR
2763 ~l message is addressed to a known mailing list
2764 ~m [MIN]-[MAX] message in the range MIN to MAX *)
2765 ~M multipart messages
2766 ~n [MIN]-[MAX] messages with a score in the range MIN to MAX *)
2769 ~p message is addressed to you (consults alternates)
2770 ~P message is from you (consults alternates)
2771 ~Q messages which have been replied to
2773 ~r [MIN]-[MAX] messages with ``date-received'' in a Date range
2774 ~S superseded messages
2775 ~s SUBJECT messages having SUBJECT in the ``Subject'' field.
2777 ~t USER messages addressed to USER
2779 ~v message is part of a collapsed thread.
2780 ~V cryptographically verified messages
2781 ~w EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the `Newsgroups' field
2782 (if compiled with NNTP support)
2783 ~x EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the `References' field
2784 ~y EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the `X-Label' field
2785 ~z [MIN]-[MAX] messages with a size in the range MIN to MAX *)
2786 ~= duplicated messages (see $duplicate_threads)
2787 ~$ unreferenced messages (requires threaded view)
2788 ~* ``From'' contains realname and (syntactically) valid
2789 address (excluded are addresses matching against
2790 alternates or any alias)
2792 Where EXPR, USER, ID, and SUBJECT are regexp. Special attention has to be made when using regular expressions inside of patterns. Specifically, Mutt-ng'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 backslashes instead (\\).
2794 *) The forms <[MAX], >[MIN], [MIN]- and -[MAX] are allowed, too.
2796 3. Configuration Commands
2798 The following are the commands understood by mutt.
2799 * account-hook pattern command
2800 * alias key address [ , address, ... ]
2801 * alias [ * | key ... ]
2802 * alternates regexp [ regexp ... ]
2803 * alternates [ * | regexp ... ]
2804 * alternative-order mimetype [ mimetype ... ]
2805 * alternative-order mimetype [ mimetype ... ]
2806 * append-hook regexp command
2807 * auto-view mimetype [ mimetype ... ]
2808 * auto-view mimetype [ mimetype ... ]
2809 * bind map key function
2810 * charset-hook alias charset
2811 * close-hook regexp command
2812 * color object foreground background [ regexp ]
2813 * color index pattern [ pattern ... ]
2814 * exec function [ function ... ]
2815 * fcc-hook pattern mailbox
2816 * fcc-save-hook pattern mailbox
2817 * folder-hook pattern command
2818 * hdr-order header [ header ... ]
2819 * hdr-order header [ header ... ]
2820 * charset-hook charset local-charset
2821 * ignore pattern [ pattern ... ]
2822 * ignore pattern [ pattern ... ]
2823 * lists regexp [ regexp ... ]
2824 * lists regexp [ regexp ... ]
2825 * macro menu key sequence [ description ]
2826 * mailboxes filename [ filename ... ]
2827 * mbox-hook pattern mailbox
2828 * message-hook pattern command
2829 * mime-lookup mimetype [ mimetype ... ]
2830 * mime-lookup mimetype [ mimetype ... ]
2831 * color object attribute [ regexp ]
2832 * color index pattern [ pattern ... ]
2834 * my-hdr field [ field ... ]
2835 * open-hook regexp command
2836 * crypt-hook pattern key-id
2838 * set variable [variable ... ]
2839 * save-hook regexp filename
2840 * score-command pattern value
2841 * score-command pattern [ pattern ... ]
2842 * send-hook regexp command
2843 * reply-hook regexp command
2844 * set [no|inv]variable[=value] [ variable ... ]
2845 * set variable [variable ... ]
2847 * spam pattern format
2849 * lists regexp [ regexp ... ]
2850 * lists regexp [ regexp ... ]
2851 * set variable [variable ... ]
2854 4. Configuration variables
2856 The following list contains all variables which, in the process of providing more consistency, have been renamed and are partially even removed already. The left column contains the old synonym variables, the right column the full/new name:
2858 edit_hdrs edit_headers
2859 forw_decode forward_decode
2860 forw_format forward_format
2861 forw_quote forward_quote
2862 hdr_format index_format
2863 indent_str indent_string
2864 mime_fwd mime_forward
2865 msg_format message_format
2866 pgp_autosign crypt_autosign
2867 pgp_autoencrypt crypt_autoencrypt
2868 pgp_replyencrypt crypt_replyencrypt
2869 pgp_replysign crypt_replysign
2870 pgp_replysignencrypted crypt_replysignencrypted
2871 pgp_verify_sig crypt_verify_sig
2872 pgp_create_traditional pgp_autoinline
2873 pgp_auto_traditional pgp_replyinline
2874 forw_decrypt forward_decrypt
2875 smime_sign_as smime_default_key
2876 post_indent_str post_indent_string
2877 print_cmd print_command
2878 shorten_hierarchy sidebar_shorten_hierarchy
2879 ask_followup_to nntp_ask_followup_to
2880 ask_x_comment_to nntp_ask_x_comment_to
2881 catchup_newsgroup nntp_catchup
2882 followup_to_poster nntp_followup_to_poster
2883 group_index_format nntp_group_index_format
2885 mime_subject nntp_mime_subject
2886 news_cache_dir nntp_cache_dir
2887 news_server nntp_host
2889 nntp_poll nntp_mail_check
2890 pop_checkinterval pop_mail_check
2891 post_moderated nntp_post_moderated
2892 save_unsubscribed nntp_save_unsubscribed
2893 show_new_news nntp_show_new_news
2894 show_only_unread nntp_show_only_unread
2895 x_comment_to nntp_x_comment_to
2896 smtp_auth_username smtp_user
2897 smtp_auth_password smtp_pass
2899 The contrib subdirectory contains a script named update-config.pl which eases migration.
2901 A complete list of current variables follows.
2909 This variable specifies whether to abort sending if no attachment was made but the content references them, i.e. the content matches the regular expression given in $attach_remind_regexp. If a match was found and this variable is set to yes, message sending will be aborted but the mail will be send nevertheless if set to no.
2911 This variable and $attach_remind_regexp are intended to remind the user to attach files if the message's text references them.
2913 See also the $attach_remind_regexp variable.
2921 If set to yes, when composing messages and no subject is given at the subject prompt, composition will be aborted. If set to no, composing messages with no subject given at the subject prompt will never be aborted.
2929 If set to yes, composition will automatically abort after editing the message body if no changes are made to the file (this check only happens after the first edit of the file). When set to no, composition will never be aborted.
2937 When set, Mutt-ng will add a ``User-Agent:'' header to outgoing messages, indicating which version of Mutt-ng was used for composing them.
2943 Default: "˜/.muttngrc"
2945 The default file in which to save aliases created by the ``create-alias'' function.
2947 Note: Mutt-ng will not automatically source this file; you must explicitly use the `` source'' command for it to be executed.
2953 Default: "%4n %2f %t %-10a %r"
2955 Specifies the format of the data displayed for the ``alias'' menu. The following printf(3)-style sequences are available:
2961 flags - currently, a "d" for an alias marked for deletion
2967 address which alias expands to
2970 character which indicates if the alias is tagged for inclusion
2978 Controls whether 8-bit data is converted to 7-bit using either quoted-printable or base64 encoding when sending mail.
2986 Controls whether ANSI color codes in messages (and color tags in rich text messages) are to be interpreted. Messages containing these codes are rare, but if this option is set, their text will be colored accordingly. Note that this may override your color choices, and even present a security problem, since a message could include a line like ``[-- PGP output follows ..." and give it the same color as your attachment color.
2994 When set, an arrow (``->'') will be used to indicate the current entry in menus instead of highlighting the whole line. On slow network or modem links this will make response faster because there is less that has to be redrawn on the screen when moving to the next or previous entries in the menu.
3002 If set, Mutt-ng will use plain ASCII characters when displaying thread and attachment trees, instead of the default ACS characters.
3010 If set, Mutt-ng will prompt you for blind-carbon-copy (Bcc) recipients before editing an outgoing message.
3018 If set, Mutt-ng will prompt you for carbon-copy (Cc) recipients before editing the body of an outgoing message.
3026 This variable is a colon-separated list of character encoding schemes for messages without character encoding indication. Header field values and message body content without character encoding indication would be assumed that they are written in one of this list. By default, all the header fields and message body without any charset indication are assumed to be in us-ascii.
3028 For example, Japanese users might prefer this:
3030 set assumed_charset="iso-2022-jp:euc-jp:shift_jis:utf-8"
3032 However, only the first content is valid for the message body. This variable is valid only if $strict_mime is unset.
3038 Default: "%u%D%I %t%4n %T%.40d%> [%.7m/%.10M, %.6e%?C?, %C?, %s] "
3040 This variable describes the format of the ``attachment'' menu. The following printf(3)-style sequences are understood:
3046 requires charset conversion (n or c)
3055 MIME Content-Transfer-Encoding: header field
3061 MIME Content-Disposition: header field (I=inline, A=attachment)
3079 graphic tree characters
3082 unlink (=to delete) flag
3085 right justify the rest of the string and pad with character "X"
3088 pad to the end of the line with character "X"
3090 15. attach_remind_regexp
3092 Type: regular expression
3096 If this variable is non-empty, muttng will scan a message's contents before sending for this regular expression. If it is found, it will ask for what to do depending on the setting of $abort_noattach.
3098 This variable and $abort_noattach are intended to remind the user to attach files if the message's text references them.
3106 The separator to add between attachments when operating (saving, printing, piping, etc) on a list of tagged attachments.
3114 If this variable is unset, when operating (saving, printing, piping, etc) on a list of tagged attachments, Mutt-ng will concatenate the attachments and will operate on them as a single attachment. The ``$attach_sep'' separator is added after each attachment. When set, Mutt-ng will operate on the attachments one by one.
3120 Default: "On %d, %n wrote:"
3122 This is the string that will precede a message which has been included in a reply. For a full listing of defined printf(3)-like sequences see the section on ``$index_format''.
3130 When set, functions in the index menu which affect a message will be applied to all tagged messages (if there are any). When unset, you must first use the ``tag-prefix'' function (default: ";") to make the next function apply to all tagged messages.
3138 When set along with ``$edit_headers'', Mutt-ng will skip the initial send-menu and allow you to immediately begin editing the body of your message. The send-menu may still be accessed once you have finished editing the body of your message.
3140 Also see ``$fast_reply''.
3148 When this variable is set, Mutt-ng will beep when an error occurs.
3156 When this variable is set, Mutt-ng will beep whenever it prints a message notifying you of new mail. This is independent of the setting of the ``$beep'' variable.
3164 Controls whether you will be asked to confirm bouncing messages. If set to yes you don't get asked if you want to bounce a message. Setting this variable to no is not generally useful, and thus not recommended, because you are unable to bounce messages.
3166 24. bounce_delivered
3172 When this variable is set, Mutt-ng will include Delivered-To: header fields when bouncing messages. Postfix users may wish to unset this variable.
3174 25. braille_friendly
3180 When this variable is set, mutt will place the cursor at the beginning of the current line in menus, even when the arrow_cursor variable is unset, making it easier for blind persons using Braille displays to follow these menus. The option is disabled by default because many visual terminals don't permit making the cursor invisible.
3182 26. certificate_file
3186 Default: "˜/.mutt_certificates"
3188 Availability: SSL or GNUTLS
3190 This variable specifies the file where the certificates you trust are saved. When an unknown certificate is encountered, you are asked if you accept it or not. If you accept it, the certificate can also be saved in this file and further connections are automatically accepted.
3192 You can also manually add CA certificates in this file. Any server certificate that is signed with one of these CA certificates are also automatically accepted.
3194 Example: set certificate_file=˜/.muttng/certificates
3202 Character set your terminal uses to display and enter textual data.
3210 Note: this option only affects maildir and MH style mailboxes.
3212 When set, Mutt-ng will check for new mail delivered while the mailbox is open. Especially with MH mailboxes, this operation can take quite some time since it involves scanning the directory and checking each file to see if it has already been looked at. If it's unset, no check for new mail is performed while the mailbox is open.
3220 When unset, Mutt-ng will not collapse a thread if it contains any unread messages.
3226 Default: "-- Mutt-ng: Compose [Approx. msg size: %l Atts: %a]%>-"
3228 Controls the format of the status line displayed in the ``compose'' menu. This string is similar to ``$status_format'', but has its own set of printf(3)-like sequences:
3231 total number of attachments
3237 approximate size (in bytes) of the current message
3240 Mutt-ng version string
3242 See the text describing the ``$status_format'' option for more information on how to set ``$compose_format''.
3250 When defined, Mutt-ng will recode commands in rc files from this encoding.
3258 When set, Mutt-ng will prompt for confirmation when appending messages to an existing mailbox.
3266 When set, Mutt-ng will prompt for confirmation when saving messages to a mailbox which does not yet exist before creating it.
3274 Causes Mutt-ng to timeout a network connection (for IMAP or POP) after this many seconds if the connection is not able to be established. A negative value causes Mutt-ng to wait indefinitely for the connection to succeed.
3280 Default: "text/plain"
3282 Sets the default Content-Type: header field for the body of newly composed messages.
3290 This variable controls whether or not copies of your outgoing messages will be saved for later references. Also see ``$record'', ``$save_name'', ``$force_name'' and ``fcc-hook''.
3292 37. crypt_autoencrypt
3298 Setting this variable will cause Mutt-ng to always attempt to PGP encrypt outgoing messages. This is probably only useful in connection to the send-hook command. It can be overridden by use of the pgp-menu, when encryption is not required or signing is requested as well. If ``$smime_is_default'' is set, then OpenSSL is used instead to create S/MIME messages and settings can be overridden by use of the smime-menu. (Crypto only)
3306 This variable controls whether or not Mutt-ng may automatically enable PGP encryption/signing for messages. See also ``$crypt_autoencrypt'', ``$crypt_replyencrypt'', ``$crypt_autosign'', ``$crypt_replysign'' and ``$smime_is_default''.
3314 Setting this variable will cause Mutt-ng to always attempt to cryptographically sign outgoing messages. This can be overridden by use of the pgp-menu, when signing is not required or encryption is requested as well. If ``$smime_is_default'' is set, then OpenSSL is used instead to create S/MIME messages and settings can be overridden by use of the smime-menu. (Crypto only)
3322 This variable controls whether or not Mutt-ng may automatically enable S/MIME encryption/signing for messages. See also ``$crypt_autoencrypt'', ``$crypt_replyencrypt'', ``$crypt_autosign'', ``$crypt_replysign'' and ``$smime_is_default''.
3324 41. crypt_replyencrypt
3330 If set, automatically PGP or OpenSSL encrypt replies to messages which are encrypted. (Crypto only)
3338 If set, automatically PGP or OpenSSL sign replies to messages which are signed.
3340 Note: this does not work on messages that are encrypted and signed! (Crypto only)
3342 43. crypt_replysignencrypted
3348 If set, automatically PGP or OpenSSL sign replies to messages which are encrypted. This makes sense in combination with ``$crypt_replyencrypt'', because it allows you to sign all messages which are automatically encrypted. This works around the problem noted in ``$crypt_replysign'', that Mutt-ng is not able to find out whether an encrypted message is also signed. (Crypto only)
3356 If set, Mutt-ng will include a time stamp in the lines surrounding PGP or S/MIME output, so spoofing such lines is more difficult. If you are using colors to mark these lines, and rely on these, you may unset this setting. (Crypto only)
3364 This variable controls the use the GPGME enabled crypto backends. If it is set and Mutt-ng was build with gpgme support, the gpgme code for S/MIME and PGP will be used instead of the classic code.
3366 Note: You need to use this option in your .muttngrc configuration file as it won't have any effect when used interactively.
3368 46. crypt_verify_sig
3374 If ``yes'', always attempt to verify PGP or S/MIME signatures. If ``ask'', ask whether or not to verify the signature. If ``no'', never attempt to verify cryptographic signatures. (Crypto only)
3380 Default: "!%a, %b %d, %Y at %I:%M:%S%p %Z"
3382 This variable controls the format of the date printed by the ``%d'' sequence in ``$index_format''. This is passed to strftime(3) to process the date.
3384 Unless the first character in the string is a bang (``!''), the month and week day names are expanded according to the locale specified in the variable ``$locale''. If the first character in the string is a bang, the bang is discarded, and the month and week day names in the rest of the string are expanded in the C locale (that is in US English).
3394 This variable specifies the current debug level and may be used to increase or decrease the verbosity level during runtime. It overrides the level given with the -d command line option.
3396 Currently, this number must be >= 0 and <= 5 and muttng must be started with -d to enable debugging at all; enabling at runtime is not possible.
3402 Default: "˜f %s !˜P | (˜P ˜C %s)"
3404 This variable controls how send-hooks, message-hooks, save-hooks, and fcc-hooks will be interpreted if they are specified with only a simple regexp, instead of a matching pattern. The hooks are expanded when they are declared, so a hook will be interpreted according to the value of this variable at the time the hook is declared. The default value matches if the message is either from a user matching the regular expression given, or if it is from you (if the from address matches ``alternates'') and is to or cc'ed to a user matching the given regular expression.
3412 Controls whether or not messages are really deleted when closing or synchronizing a mailbox. If set to yes, messages marked for deleting will automatically be purged without prompting. If set to no, messages marked for deletion will be kept in the mailbox.
3420 When sending messages with format=flowed by setting the $text_flowed variable, this variable specifies whether to also set the DelSp parameter to yes. If this is unset, no additional parameter will be send as a value of no already is the default behavior.
3422 Note: this variable only has an effect on outgoing messages (if $text_flowed is set) but not on incomming.
3430 If this option is set, Mutt-ng will untag messages when marking them for deletion. This applies when you either explicitly delete a message, or when you save it to another folder.
3438 If this option is set, Mutt-ng's received-attachments menu will not show the subparts of individual messages in a multipart/digest. To see these subparts, press 'v' on that menu.
3446 When set, specifies a command used to filter messages. When a message is viewed it is passed as standard input to $display_filter, and the filtered message is read from the standard output.
3452 Default: "$muttng_bindir/muttng_dotlock"
3454 Availability: Standalone and Dotlock
3456 Contains the path of the muttng_dotlock(1) binary to be used by Mutt-ng.
3464 Note: you should not enable this unless you are using Sendmail 8.8.x or greater or in connection with the SMTP support via libESMTP.
3466 This variable sets the request for when notification is returned. The string consists of a comma separated list (no spaces!) of one or more of the following: never, to never request notification, failure, to request notification on transmission failure, delay, to be notified of message delays, success, to be notified of successful transmission.
3468 Example: set dsn_notify="failure,delay"
3476 Note: you should not enable this unless you are using Sendmail 8.8.x or greater or in connection with the SMTP support via libESMTP.
3478 This variable controls how much of your message is returned in DSN messages. It may be set to either hdrs to return just the message header, or full to return the full message.
3480 Example: set dsn_return=hdrs
3482 58. duplicate_threads
3488 This variable controls whether Mutt-ng, when sorting by threads, threads messages with the same Message-Id: header field together. If it is set, it will indicate that it thinks they are duplicates of each other with an equals sign in the thread diagram.
3496 This option allows you to edit the header of your outgoing messages along with the body of your message.
3498 Which empty header fields to show is controlled by the $editor_headers option.
3506 This variable specifies which editor is used by Mutt-ng. It defaults to the value of the $VISUAL, or $EDITOR, environment variable, or to the string "vi" if neither of those are set.
3512 Default: "From: To: Cc: Bcc: Subject: Reply-To: Newsgroups: Followup-To: X-Comment-To:"
3514 If $edit_headers is set, this space-separated list specifies which non-empty header fields to edit in addition to user-defined headers.
3516 Note: if $edit_headers had to be turned on by force because $strict_mailto is unset, this option has no effect.
3524 When set, Mutt-ng will quoted-printable encode messages when they contain the string ``From '' (note the trailing space) in the beginning of a line. Useful to avoid the tampering certain mail delivery and transport agents tend to do with messages.
3526 Note: as mutt-ng currently violates RfC3676 defining format=flowed, it's <em/strongly/ advised to set this option although discouraged by the standard. Alternatively, you must take care of space-stuffing <tt/From / lines (with a trailing space) yourself.
3536 The file which includes random data that is used to initialize SSL library functions.
3544 When set, Mutt-ng will try to derive the message's envelope sender from the ``From:'' header field. Note that this information is passed to the sendmail command using the ``-f" command line switch, so don't set this option if you are using that switch in $sendmail yourself, or if the sendmail on your machine doesn't support that command line switch.
3552 Escape character to use for functions in the builtin editor.
3560 When set, the initial prompt for recipients and subject are skipped when replying to messages, and the initial prompt for subject is skipped when forwarding messages.
3562 Note: this variable has no effect when the ``$autoedit'' variable is set.
3570 This variable controls whether or not attachments on outgoing messages are saved along with the main body of your message.
3578 When this variable is set, FCCs will be stored unencrypted and unsigned, even when the actual message is encrypted and/or signed. (PGP only)
3586 This variable is a colon-separated list of character encoding schemes for text file attatchments. If unset, $charset value will be used instead. For example, the following configuration would work for Japanese text handling:
3588 set file_charset="iso-2022-jp:euc-jp:shift_jis:utf-8"
3590 Note: ``iso-2022-*'' must be put at the head of the value as shown above if included.
3598 Specifies the default location of your mailboxes. A ``+'' or ``='' at the beginning of a pathname will be expanded to the value of this variable. Note that if you change this variable from the default value you need to make sure that the assignment occurs before you use ``+'' or ``='' for any other variables since expansion takes place during the ``set'' command.
3604 Default: "%2C %t %N %F %2l %-8.8u %-8.8g %8s %d %f"
3606 This variable allows you to customize the file browser display to your personal taste. This string is similar to ``$index_format'', but has its own set of printf(3)-like sequences:
3612 date/time folder was last modified
3621 group name (or numeric gid, if missing)
3624 number of hard links
3627 N if folder has new mail, blank otherwise
3633 * if the file is tagged, blank otherwise
3636 owner name (or numeric uid, if missing)
3639 right justify the rest of the string and pad with character "X"
3642 pad to the end of the line with character "X"
3650 Controls whether or not the Mail-Followup-To: header field is generated when sending mail. When set, Mutt-ng will generate this field when you are replying to a known mailing list, specified with the ``subscribe'' or ``lists'' commands or detected by common mailing list headers.
3652 This field has two purposes. First, preventing you from receiving duplicate copies of replies to messages which you send to mailing lists. Second, ensuring that you do get a reply separately for any messages sent to known lists to which you are not subscribed. The header will contain only the list's address for subscribed lists, and both the list address and your own email address for unsubscribed lists. Without this header, a group reply to your message sent to a subscribed list will be sent to both the list and your address, resulting in two copies of the same email for you.
3654 73. force_buffy_check
3660 When set, it causes Mutt-ng to check for new mail when the buffy-list command is invoked. When unset, buffy_list will just list all mailboxes which are already known to have new mail.
3662 Also see the following variables: ``$timeout'', ``$mail_check'' and ``$imap_mail_check''.
3670 This variable is similar to ``$save_name'', except that Mutt-ng will store a copy of your outgoing message by the username of the address you are sending to even if that mailbox does not exist.
3672 Also see the ``$record'' variable.
3680 Controls the decoding of complex MIME messages into text/plain when forwarding a message. The message header is also RFC2047 decoded. This variable is only used, if ``$mime_forward'' is unset, otherwise ``$mime_forward_decode'' is used instead.
3688 Controls the handling of encrypted messages when forwarding a message. When set, the outer layer of encryption is stripped off. This variable is only used if ``$mime_forward'' is set and ``$mime_forward_decode'' is unset. (PGP only)
3696 This quadoption controls whether or not the user is automatically placed in the editor when forwarding messages. For those who always want to forward with no modification, use a setting of no.
3704 This variable controls the default subject when forwarding a message. It uses the same format sequences as the ``$index_format'' variable.
3712 When set forwarded messages included in the main body of the message (when ``$mime_forward'' is unset) will be quoted using ``$indent_string''.
3716 Type: e-mail address
3720 This variable contains a default from address. It can be overridden using my_hdr (including from send-hooks) and ``$reverse_name''. This variable is ignored if ``$use_from'' is unset.
3722 E.g. you can use send-hook Mutt-ng-devel@lists.berlios.de 'my_hdr From: Foo Bar <foo@bar.fb>' when replying to the mutt-ng developer's mailing list and Mutt-ng takes this email address.
3724 Defaults to the contents of the environment variable $EMAIL.
3728 Type: regular expression
3732 A regular expression used by Mutt-ng to parse the GECOS field of a password entry when expanding the alias. By default the regular expression is set to ``^[^,]*'' which will return the string up to the first ``,'' encountered. If the GECOS field contains a string like "lastname, firstname" then you should do: set gecos_mask=".*".
3734 This can be useful if you see the following behavior: you address a e-mail to user ID stevef whose full name is Steve Franklin. If Mutt-ng expands stevef to ``Franklin'' stevef@foo.bar then you should set the gecos_mask to a regular expression that will match the whole name so Mutt-ng will expand ``Franklin'' to ``Franklin, Steve''.
3742 When unset, the header fields normally added by the ``my_hdr'' command are not created. This variable must be unset before composing a new message or replying in order to take effect. If set, the user defined header fields are added to every new message.
3750 When set, this variable causes Mutt-ng to include the header of the message you are replying to into the edit buffer. The ``$weed'' setting applies.
3758 Availability: Header Cache
3760 The $header_cache variable points to the header cache database.
3762 If $header_cache points to a directory it will contain a header cache database per folder. If $header_cache points to a file that file will be a single global header cache. By default it is unset so no header caching will be used.
3764 85. header_cache_compress
3770 If enabled the header cache will be compressed. So only one fifth of the usual diskspace is used, but the uncompression can result in a slower open of the cached folder.
3778 When set, help lines describing the bindings for the major functions provided by each menu are displayed on the first line of the screen.
3780 Note: The binding will not be displayed correctly if the function is bound to a sequence rather than a single keystroke. Also, the help line may not be updated if a binding is changed while Mutt-ng is running. Since this variable is primarily aimed at new users, neither of these should present a major problem.
3788 When set, Mutt-ng will skip the host name part of ``$hostname'' variable when adding the domain part to addresses. This variable does not affect the generation of Message-ID: header fields, and it will not lead to the cut-off of first-level domains.
3796 When set, Mutt-ng will not show the presence of messages that are hidden by limiting, in the thread tree.
3804 When set, Mutt-ng will not show the presence of missing messages in the thread tree.
3806 90. hide_thread_subject
3812 When set, Mutt-ng will not show the subject of messages in the thread tree that have the same subject as their parent or closest previously displayed sibling.
3814 91. hide_top_limited
3820 When set, Mutt-ng will not show the presence of messages that are hidden by limiting, at the top of threads in the thread tree. Note that when $hide_missing is set, this option will have no effect.
3822 92. hide_top_missing
3828 When set, Mutt-ng will not show the presence of missing messages at the top of threads in the thread tree. Note that when $hide_limited is set, this option will have no effect.
3836 This variable controls the size (in number of strings remembered) of the string history buffer. The buffer is cleared each time the variable is changed.
3838 94. honor_followup_to
3844 This variable controls whether or not a Mail-Followup-To: header field is honored when group-replying to a message.
3852 Specifies the hostname to use after the ``@'' in local e-mail addresses and during generation of Message-Id: headers.
3854 Please be sure to really know what you are doing when changing this variable to configure a custom domain part of Message-IDs.
3856 96. ignore_list_reply_to
3862 Affects the behaviour of the reply function when replying to messages from mailing lists. When set, if the ``Reply-To:'' header field is set to the same value as the ``To:'' header field, Mutt-ng assumes that the ``Reply-To:'' header field was set by the mailing list to automate responses to the list, and will ignore this field. To direct a response to the mailing list when this option is set, use the list-reply function; group-reply will reply to both the sender and the list.
3864 97. imap_authenticators
3872 This is a colon-delimited list of authentication methods Mutt-ng may attempt to use to log in to an IMAP server, in the order Mutt-ng should try them. Authentication methods are either ``login'' or the right side of an IMAP ``AUTH='' capability string, e.g. ``digest-md5'', ``gssapi'' or ``cram-md5''. This parameter is case-insensitive.
3874 If this parameter is unset (the default) Mutt-ng will try all available methods, in order from most-secure to least-secure.
3876 Example: set imap_authenticators="gssapi:cram-md5:login"
3878 Note: Mutt-ng will only fall back to other authentication methods if the previous methods are unavailable. If a method is available but authentication fails, Mutt-ng will not connect to the IMAP server.
3880 98. imap_check_subscribed
3886 When set, mutt will fetch the set of subscribed folders from your server on connection, and add them to the set of mailboxes it polls for new mail. See also the ``mailboxes'' command.
3888 99. imap_delim_chars
3896 This contains the list of characters which you would like to treat as folder separators for displaying IMAP paths. In particular it helps in using the '=' shortcut for your $folder variable.
3906 Mutt-ng requests these header fields in addition to the default headers (``DATE FROM SUBJECT TO CC MESSAGE-ID REFERENCES CONTENT-TYPE CONTENT-DESCRIPTION IN-REPLY-TO REPLY-TO LINES X-LABEL'') from IMAP servers before displaying the ``index'' menu. You may want to add more headers for spam detection.
3908 Note: This is a space separated list.
3910 101. imap_home_namespace
3918 You normally want to see your personal folders alongside your INBOX in the IMAP browser. If you see something else, you may set this variable to the IMAP path to your folders.
3928 This variable specifies the maximum amount of time in seconds that Mutt-ng will wait before polling open IMAP connections, to prevent the server from closing them before Mutt-ng has finished with them.
3930 The default is well within the RFC-specified minimum amount of time (30 minutes) before a server is allowed to do this, but in practice the RFC does get violated every now and then.
3932 Reduce this number if you find yourself getting disconnected from your IMAP server due to inactivity.
3934 103. imap_list_subscribed
3942 This variable configures whether IMAP folder browsing will look for only subscribed folders or all folders. This can be toggled in the IMAP browser with the toggle-subscribed function.
3952 Your login name on the IMAP server.
3954 This variable defaults to the value of ``$imap_user.''
3956 105. imap_mail_check
3962 This variable configures how often (in seconds) Mutt-ng should look for new mail in IMAP folders. This is split from the ``mail_check'' variable to generate less traffic and get more accurate information for local folders.
3972 Specifies the password for your IMAP account. If unset, Mutt-ng will prompt you for your password when you invoke the fetch-mail function.
3974 Warning: you should only use this option when you are on a fairly secure machine, because the superuser can read your configuration even if you are the only one who can read the file.
3984 When set, Mutt-ng will not open new IMAP connections to check for new mail. Mutt-ng will only check for new mail over existing IMAP connections. This is useful if you don't want to be prompted to user/password pairs on Mutt-ng invocation, or if opening the connection is slow.
3994 If set, Mutt-ng will avoid implicitly marking your mail as read whenever you fetch a message from the server. This is generally a good thing, but can make closing an IMAP folder somewhat slower. This option exists to appease speed freaks.
4004 Controls whether or not Mutt-ng will try to reconnect to IMAP server when the connection is lost.
4006 110. imap_servernoise
4014 When set, Mutt-ng will display warning messages from the IMAP server as error messages. Since these messages are often harmless, or generated due to configuration problems on the server which are out of the users' hands, you may wish to suppress them at some point.
4024 The name of the user whose mail you intend to access on the IMAP server.
4026 This variable defaults to your user name on the local machine.
4028 112. implicit_autoview
4034 If set, Mutt-ng will look for a mailcap entry with the ``copiousoutput'' flag set for every MIME attachment it doesn't have an internal viewer defined for. If such an entry is found, Mutt-ng will use the viewer defined in that entry to convert the body part to text form.
4042 Controls whether or not a copy of the message(s) you are replying to is included in your reply.
4044 114. include_onlyfirst
4050 Controls whether or not Mutt-ng includes only the first attachment of the message you are replying.
4058 Specifies the string to prepend to each line of text quoted in a message to which you are replying. You are strongly encouraged not to change this value, as it tends to agitate the more fanatical netizens.
4064 Default: "%4C %Z %{%b %d} %-15.15L (%?l?%4l&%4c?) %s"
4066 This variable allows you to customize the message index display to your personal taste.
4068 ``Format strings'' are similar to the strings used in the ``C'' function printf(3) to format output (see the man page for more detail). The following sequences are defined in Mutt-ng:
4071 address of the author
4074 reply-to address (if present; otherwise: address of author)
4077 filename of the original message folder (think mailBox)
4080 the list to which the letter was sent, or else the folder name (%b).
4083 number of characters (bytes) in the message
4086 current message number
4089 date and time of the message in the format specified by ``date_format'' converted to sender's time zone
4092 date and time of the message in the format specified by ``date_format'' converted to the local time zone
4095 current message number in thread
4098 number of messages in current thread
4101 entire From: line (address + real name)
4104 author name, or recipient name if the message is from you
4107 spam attribute(s) of this message
4110 newsgroup name (if compiled with nntp support)
4113 message-id of the current message
4116 number of lines in the message (does not work with maildir, mh, and possibly IMAP folders)
4119 If an address in the To or CC header field matches an address defined by the users ``subscribe'' command, this displays "To <list-name>", otherwise the same as %F.
4122 total number of message in the mailbox
4125 number of hidden messages if the thread is collapsed.
4131 author's real name (or address if missing)
4134 (_O_riginal save folder) Where Mutt-ng would formerly have stashed the message: list name or recipient name if no list
4137 subject of the message
4140 status of the message (N/D/d/!/r/*)
4143 `to:' field (recipients)
4146 the appropriate character from the $to_chars string
4149 user (login) name of the author
4152 first name of the author, or the recipient if the message is from you
4155 name of organization of author (`organization:' field)
4158 `x-label:' field, if present
4161 `x-label' field, if present, and (1) not at part of a thread tree, (2) at the top of a thread, or (3) `x-label' is different from preceding message's `x-label'.
4164 message status flags
4167 the date and time of the message is converted to sender's time zone, and ``fmt'' is expanded by the library function ``strftime''; a leading bang disables locales
4170 the date and time of the message is converted to the local time zone, and ``fmt'' is expanded by the library function ``strftime''; a leading bang disables locales
4173 the local date and time when the message was received. ``fmt'' is expanded by the library function ``strftime''; a leading bang disables locales
4176 the current local time. ``fmt'' is expanded by the library function ``strftime''; a leading bang disables locales.
4179 right justify the rest of the string and pad with character "X"
4182 pad to the end of the line with character "X"
4184 See also: ``$to_chars''.
4192 How to invoke ispell (GNU's spell-checking software).
4200 If set, read messages marked as flagged will not be moved from your spool mailbox to your ``$mbox'' mailbox, or as a result of a ``mbox-hook'' command.
4208 When set, address replies to the mailing list the original message came from (instead to the author only). Setting this option to ``ask-yes'' or ``ask-no'' will ask if you really intended to reply to the author only.
4216 The locale used by strftime(3) to format dates. Legal values are the strings your system accepts for the locale variable LC_TIME.
4224 This variable configures how often (in seconds) Mutt-ng should look for new mail.
4226 Note: This does not apply to IMAP mailboxes, see $imap_mail_check.
4234 This variable specifies which files to consult when attempting to display MIME bodies not directly supported by Mutt-ng.
4236 123. mailcap_sanitize
4242 If set, Mutt-ng will restrict possible characters in mailcap % expandos to a well-defined set of safe characters. This is the safe setting, but we are not sure it doesn't break some more advanced MIME stuff.
4244 DON'T CHANGE THIS SETTING UNLESS YOU ARE REALLY SURE WHAT YOU ARE DOING!
4246 124. maildir_header_cache_verify
4252 Availability: Header Cache
4254 Check for Maildir unaware programs other than Mutt-ng having modified maildir files when the header cache is in use. This incurs one stat(2) per message every time the folder is opened.
4262 If set, messages marked as deleted will be saved with the maildir (T)rashed flag instead of physically deleted.
4264 NOTE: this only applies to maildir-style mailboxes. Setting it will have no effect on other mailbox types.
4266 It is similiar to the trash option.
4274 Controls whether or not Mutt-ng marks new unread messages as old if you exit a mailbox without reading them.
4276 With this option set, the next time you start Mutt-ng, the messages will show up with an "O" next to them in the ``index'' menu, indicating that they are old.
4284 Controls the display of wrapped lines in the internal pager. If set, a ``+'' marker is displayed at the beginning of wrapped lines. Also see the ``$smart_wrap'' variable.
4288 Type: regular expression
4292 A regular expression used in the file browser, optionally preceded by the not operator ``!''. Only files whose names match this mask will be shown. The match is always case-sensitive.
4294 129. max_display_recips
4300 When set non-zero, this specifies the maximum number of recipient header lines (To:, Cc: and Bcc:) to display in the pager if header weeding is turned on. In case the number of lines exeeds its value, the last line will have 3 dots appended.
4302 130. max_line_length
4308 When set, the maximum line length for displaying ``format = flowed'' messages is limited to this length. A value of 0 (which is also the default) means that the maximum line length is determined by the terminal width and $wrapmargin.
4316 This specifies the folder into which read mail in your ``$spoolfile'' folder will be appended.
4324 The default mailbox type used when creating new folders. May be any of mbox, MMDF, MH and Maildir.
4332 This variable controls the number of lines of context that are given when scrolling through menus. (Similar to ``$pager_context''.)
4340 When unset, the bottom entry of menus will never scroll up past the bottom of the screen, unless there are less entries than lines. When set, the bottom entry may move off the bottom.
4348 When set, menus will be scrolled up or down one line when you attempt to move across a screen boundary. If unset, the screen is cleared and the next or previous page of the menu is displayed (useful for slow links to avoid many redraws).
4356 This is the string displayed in the ``attachment'' menu for attachments of type message/rfc822. For a full listing of defined printf(3)-like sequences see the section on ``$index_format''.
4364 If set, forces Mutt-ng to interpret keystrokes with the high bit (bit 8) set as if the user had pressed the ESC key and whatever key remains after having the high bit removed. For example, if the key pressed has an ASCII value of 0xf4, then this is treated as if the user had pressed ESC then ``x''. This is because the result of removing the high bit from ``0xf4'' is ``0x74'', which is the ASCII character ``x''.
4372 If unset, Mutt-ng will remove your address (see the ``alternates'' command) from the list of recipients when replying to a message.
4380 When unset, Mutt-ng will mimic mh's behaviour and rename deleted messages to ,<old file name> in mh folders instead of really deleting them. If the variable is set, the message files will simply be deleted.
4388 The name of the MH sequence used for flagged messages.
4396 The name of the MH sequence used to tag replied messages.
4404 The name of the MH sequence used for unseen messages.
4412 When set, the message you are forwarding will be attached as a separate MIME part instead of included in the main body of the message.
4414 This is useful for forwarding MIME messages so the receiver can properly view the message as it was delivered to you. If you like to switch between MIME and not MIME from mail to mail, set this variable to ask-no or ask-yes.
4416 Also see ``$forward_decode'' and ``$mime_forward_decode''.
4418 144. mime_forward_decode
4424 Controls the decoding of complex MIME messages into text/plain when forwarding a message while ``$mime_forward'' is set. Otherwise ``$forward_decode'' is used instead.
4426 145. mime_forward_rest
4432 When forwarding multiple attachments of a MIME message from the recvattach menu, attachments which cannot be decoded in a reasonable manner will be attached to the newly composed message if this option is set.
4434 146. mix_entry_format
4438 Default: "%4n %c %-16s %a"
4440 Availability: Mixmaster
4442 This variable describes the format of a remailer line on the mixmaster chain selection screen. The following printf(3)-like sequences are supported:
4445 The running number on the menu.
4448 Remailer capabilities.
4451 The remailer's short name.
4454 The remailer's e-mail address.
4460 Default: "mixmaster"
4462 Availability: Mixmaster
4464 This variable contains the path to the Mixmaster binary on your system. It is used with various sets of parameters to gather the list of known remailers, and to finally send a message through the mixmaster chain.
4472 Controls whether or not Mutt-ng will move read messages from your spool mailbox to your ``$mbox'' mailbox, or as a result of a ``mbox-hook'' command.
4478 Default: "%Y%m%d%h%M%s.G%P%p"
4480 This is the format for the ``local part'' of the Message-Id: header field generated by Mutt-ng. If this variable is empty, no Message-Id: headers will be generated. The '%' character marks that certain data will be added to the string, similar to printf(3). The following characters are allowed:
4483 the current day of month
4495 the current UNIX timestamp (octal)
4501 the current Message-ID prefix (a character rotating with every Message-ID being generated)
4504 a random integer value (decimal)
4507 a random integer value (hexadecimal)
4513 the current UNIX timestamp (decimal)
4516 the current UNIX timestamp (hexadecimal)
4519 the current year (Y2K compliant)
4524 Note: Please only change this setting if you know what you are doing. Also make sure to consult RFC2822 to produce technically valid strings.
4528 Type: system property
4530 Value: /opt/freebsd4/mutt-ng/bin
4532 This is a read-only system property and specifies the directory containing the muttng binary.
4536 Type: system property
4538 Value: /opt/freebsd4/mutt-ng/doc/muttng
4540 This is a read-only system property and specifies the directory containing the muttng documentation.
4542 152. muttng_folder_name
4544 Type: system property
4548 This is a read-only system property and, at runtime, specifies the last part of the full path or URI of the folder currently open (if any), i.e. everything after the last ``/''.
4550 153. muttng_folder_path
4552 Type: system property
4556 This is a read-only system property and, at runtime, specifies the full path or URI of the folder currently open (if any).
4558 154. muttng_hcache_backend
4560 Type: system property
4564 This is a read-only system property and specifies the header chaching's database backend.
4568 Type: system property
4572 This is a read-only system property and, at runtime, specifies the current working directory of the muttng binary.
4574 156. muttng_revision
4576 Type: system property
4580 This is a read-only system property and specifies muttng's subversion revision string.
4582 157. muttng_sysconfdir
4584 Type: system property
4586 Value: /opt/freebsd4/mutt-ng/etc
4588 This is a read-only system property and specifies the directory containing the muttng system-wide configuration.
4592 Type: system property
4596 This is a read-only system property and specifies muttng's version string.
4604 This variable, when set, makes the thread tree narrower, allowing deeper threads to fit on the screen.
4606 160. nntp_ask_followup_to
4614 If set, Mutt-ng will prompt you for the Followup-To: header field before editing the body of an outgoing news article.
4616 161. nntp_ask_x_comment_to
4624 If set, Mutt-ng will prompt you for the X-Comment-To: header field before editing the body of an outgoing news article.
4630 Default: "˜/.muttng"
4634 This variable points to directory where Mutt-ng will cache news article headers. If unset, headers will not be saved at all and will be reloaded each time when you enter a newsgroup.
4636 As for the header caching in connection with IMAP and/or Maildir, this drastically increases speed and lowers traffic.
4646 If this variable is set, Mutt-ng will mark all articles in a newsgroup as read when you leaving it.
4656 This variable controls how many news articles to cache per newsgroup (if caching is enabled, see $nntp_cache_dir) and how many news articles to show in the ``index'' menu.
4658 If there're more articles than defined with $nntp_context, all older ones will be removed/not shown in the index.
4660 165. nntp_followup_to_poster
4668 If this variable is set and the keyword "poster" is present in the Followup-To: header field, a follow-up to the newsgroup is not permitted. The message will be mailed to the submitter of the message via mail.
4670 166. nntp_group_index_format
4674 Default: "%4C %M%N %5s %-45.45f %d"
4678 This variable allows you to customize the newsgroup browser display to your personal taste. This string is similar to ``index_format'', but has its own set of printf(3)-like sequences:
4679 %C current newsgroup number
4680 %d description of newsgroup (retrieved from server)
4682 %M ``-'' if newsgroup not allowed for direct post (moderated for example)
4683 %N ``N'' if newsgroup is new, ``u'' if unsubscribed, blank otherwise
4684 %n number of new articles in newsgroup
4685 %s number of unread articles in newsgroup
4686 %>X right justify the rest of the string and pad with character "X"
4687 %|X pad to the end of the line with character "X"
4697 This variable specifies the name (or address) of the NNTP server to be used.
4699 It defaults to the value specified via the environment variable $NNTPSERVER or contained in the file /etc/nntpserver.
4701 You can also specify a username and an alternative port for each newsserver, e.g.
4703 [nntp[s]://][username[:password]@]newsserver[:port]
4705 Note: Using a password as shown and stored in a configuration file presents a security risk since the superuser of your machine may read it regardless of the file's permissions.
4715 If set, specifies the program and arguments used to deliver news posted by Mutt-ng. Otherwise, Mutt-ng posts article using current connection. The following printf(3)-style sequence is understood:
4718 Example: set inews="/usr/local/bin/inews -hS"
4720 169. nntp_load_description
4728 This variable controls whether or not descriptions for newsgroups are to be loaded when subscribing to a newsgroup.
4730 170. nntp_mail_check
4738 The time in seconds until any operations on a newsgroup except posting a new article will cause a recheck for new news. If set to 0, Mutt-ng will recheck on each operation in index (stepping, read article, etc.).
4740 171. nntp_mime_subject
4748 If unset, an 8-bit ``Subject:'' header field in a news article will not be encoded according to RFC2047.
4750 Note: Only change this setting if you know what you are doing.
4756 Default: "˜/.newsrc"
4760 This file contains information about subscribed newsgroup and articles read so far.
4762 To ease the use of multiple news servers, the following printf(3)-style sequence is understood:
4773 Your password for NNTP account.
4775 Note: Storing passwords in a configuration file presents a security risk since the superuser of your machine may read it regardless of the file's permissions.
4777 174. nntp_post_moderated
4785 If set to yes, Mutt-ng will post articles to newsgroup that have not permissions to post (e.g. moderated).
4787 Note: if the newsserver does not support posting to that newsgroup or a group is totally read-only, that posting will not have any effect.
4797 Controls whether or not Mutt-ng will try to reconnect to a newsserver when the was connection lost.
4799 176. nntp_save_unsubscribed
4807 When set, info about unsubscribed newsgroups will be saved into the ``newsrc'' file and into the news cache.
4809 177. nntp_show_new_news
4817 If set, the newsserver will be asked for new newsgroups on entering the browser. Otherwise, it will be done only once for a newsserver. Also controls whether or not the number of new articles of subscribed newsgroups will be checked.
4819 178. nntp_show_only_unread
4827 If set, only subscribed newsgroups that contain unread articles will be displayed in the newsgroup browser.
4837 Your login name on the NNTP server. If unset and the server requires authentification, Mutt-ng will prompt you for your account name.
4839 180. nntp_x_comment_to
4847 If set, Mutt-ng will add a ``X-Comment-To:'' header field (that contains full name of the original article author) to articles that you followup to.
4849 181. operating_system
4855 This specifies the operating system name for the User-Agent: header field. If this is unset, it will be set to the operating system name that uname(2) returns. If uname(2) fails, ``UNIX'' will be used.
4857 It may, for example, look as: ``mutt-ng 1.5.9i (Linux)''.
4865 This variable specifies which pager you would like to use to view messages. ``builtin'' means to use the builtin pager, otherwise this variable should specify the pathname of the external pager you would like to use.
4867 Using an external pager may have some disadvantages: Additional keystrokes are necessary because you can't call Mutt-ng functions directly from the pager, and screen resizes cause lines longer than the screen width to be badly formatted in the help menu.
4875 This variable controls the number of lines of context that are given when displaying the next or previous page in the internal pager. By default, Mutt-ng will display the line after the last one on the screen at the top of the next page (0 lines of context).
4881 Default: "-%Z- %C/%m: %-20.20n %s"
4883 This variable controls the format of the one-line message ``status'' displayed before each message in either the internal or an external pager. The valid sequences are listed in the ``$index_format'' section.
4885 185. pager_index_lines
4891 Determines the number of lines of a mini-index which is shown when in the pager. The current message, unless near the top or bottom of the folder, will be roughly one third of the way down this mini-index, giving the reader the context of a few messages before and after the message. This is useful, for example, to determine how many messages remain to be read in the current thread. One of the lines is reserved for the status bar from the index, so a pager_index_lines of 6 will only show 5 lines of the actual index. A value of 0 results in no index being shown. If the number of messages in the current folder is less than pager_index_lines, then the index will only use as many lines as it needs.
4899 When set, the internal-pager will not move to the next message when you are at the end of a message and invoke the next-page function.
4901 187. pgp_auto_decode
4907 If set, Mutt-ng will automatically attempt to decrypt traditional PGP messages whenever the user performs an operation which ordinarily would result in the contents of the message being operated on. For example, if the user displays a pgp-traditional message which has not been manually checked with the check-traditional-pgp function, Mutt-ng will automatically check the message for traditional pgp.
4915 This option controls whether Mutt-ng generates old-style inline (traditional) PGP encrypted or signed messages under certain circumstances. This can be overridden by use of the pgp-menu, when inline is not required.
4917 Note that Mutt-ng might automatically use PGP/MIME for messages which consist of more than a single MIME part. Mutt-ng can be configured to ask before sending PGP/MIME messages when inline (traditional) would not work. See also: ``$pgp_mime_auto''.
4919 Also note that using the old-style PGP message format is strongly deprecated. (PGP only)
4927 If set, Mutt-ng will check the exit code of the PGP subprocess when signing or encrypting. A non-zero exit code means that the subprocess failed. (PGP only)
4929 190. pgp_clearsign_command
4935 This format is used to create a old-style ``clearsigned'' PGP message.
4937 Note that the use of this format is strongly deprecated. (PGP only)
4939 191. pgp_decode_command
4945 This format strings specifies a command which is used to decode application/pgp attachments.
4947 The PGP command formats have their own set of printf(3)-like sequences:
4950 Expands to PGPPASSFD=0 when a pass phrase is needed, to an empty string otherwise. Note: This may be used with a %? construct.
4953 Expands to the name of a file containing a message.
4956 Expands to the name of a file containing the signature part of a multipart/signed attachment when verifying it.
4959 The value of $pgp_sign_as.
4962 One or more key IDs.
4964 For examples on how to configure these formats for the various versions of PGP which are floating around, see the pgp*.rc and gpg.rc files in the samples/ subdirectory which has been installed on your system alongside the documentation. (PGP only)
4966 192. pgp_decrypt_command
4972 This command is used to decrypt a PGP encrypted message. (PGP only)
4974 193. pgp_encrypt_only_command
4980 This command is used to encrypt a body part without signing it. (PGP only)
4982 194. pgp_encrypt_sign_command
4988 This command is used to both sign and encrypt a body part. (PGP only)
4990 195. pgp_entry_format
4994 Default: "%4n %t%f %4l/0x%k %-4a %2c %u"
4996 This variable allows you to customize the PGP key selection menu to your personal taste. This string is similar to ``$index_format'', but has its own set of printf(3)-like sequences:
5020 trust/validity of the key-uid association
5023 date of the key where <s> is an strftime(3) expression
5027 196. pgp_export_command
5033 This command is used to export a public key from the user's key ring. (PGP only)
5035 197. pgp_getkeys_command
5041 This command is invoked whenever Mutt-ng will need public key information. %r is the only printf(3)-like sequence used with this format. (PGP only)
5045 Type: regular expression
5049 If you assign a text to this variable, then a PGP signature is only considered verified if the output from $pgp_verify_command contains the text. Use this variable if the exit code from the command is 0 even for bad signatures. (PGP only)
5051 199. pgp_ignore_subkeys
5057 Setting this variable will cause Mutt-ng to ignore OpenPGP subkeys. Instead, the principal key will inherit the subkeys' capabilities. Unset this if you want to play interesting key selection games. (PGP only)
5059 200. pgp_import_command
5065 This command is used to import a key from a message into the user's public key ring. (PGP only)
5067 201. pgp_list_pubring_command
5073 This command is used to list the public key ring's contents. The output format must be analogous to the one used by gpg --list-keys --with-colons.
5075 This format is also generated by the pgpring utility which comes with Mutt-ng. (PGP only)
5077 202. pgp_list_secring_command
5083 This command is used to list the secret key ring's contents. The output format must be analogous to the one used by gpg --list-keys --with-colons.
5085 This format is also generated by the pgpring utility which comes with Mutt-ng. (PGP only)
5093 If set, use 64 bit PGP key IDs. Unset uses the normal 32 bit Key IDs. (PGP only)
5101 This option controls whether Mutt-ng will prompt you for automatically sending a (signed/encrypted) message using PGP/MIME when inline (traditional) fails (for any reason).
5103 Also note that using the old-style PGP message format is strongly deprecated. (PGP only)
5105 205. pgp_replyinline
5111 Setting this variable will cause Mutt-ng to always attempt to create an inline (traditional) message when replying to a message which is PGP encrypted/signed inline. This can be overridden by use of the pgp-menu, when inline is not required. This option does not automatically detect if the (replied-to) message is inline; instead it relies on Mutt-ng internals for previously checked/flagged messages.
5113 Note that Mutt-ng might automatically use PGP/MIME for messages which consist of more than a single MIME part. Mutt-ng can be configured to ask before sending PGP/MIME messages when inline (traditional) would not work. See also: ``$pgp_mime_auto''.
5115 Also note that using the old-style PGP message format is strongly deprecated. (PGP only)
5117 206. pgp_retainable_sigs
5123 If set, signed and encrypted messages will consist of nested multipart/signed and multipart/encrypted body parts.
5125 This is useful for applications like encrypted and signed mailing lists, where the outer layer (multipart/encrypted) can be easily removed, while the inner multipart/signed part is retained. (PGP only)
5127 207. pgp_show_unusable
5133 If set, Mutt-ng will display non-usable keys on the PGP key selection menu. This includes keys which have been revoked, have expired, or have been marked as ``disabled'' by the user. (PGP only)
5141 If you have more than one key pair, this option allows you to specify which of your private keys to use. It is recommended that you use the keyid form to specify your key (e.g., ``0x00112233''). (PGP only)
5143 209. pgp_sign_command
5149 This command is used to create the detached PGP signature for a multipart/signed PGP/MIME body part. (PGP only)
5157 Specifies how the entries in the ``pgp keys'' menu are sorted. The following are legal values:
5160 sort alphabetically by user id
5163 sort alphabetically by key id
5166 sort by key creation date
5169 sort by the trust of the key
5171 If you prefer reverse order of the above values, prefix it with ``reverse-''. (PGP only)
5179 If set, Mutt-ng will automatically encode PGP/MIME signed messages as quoted-printable. Please note that unsetting this variable may lead to problems with non-verifyable PGP signatures, so only change this if you know what you are doing. (PGP only)
5187 The number of seconds after which a cached passphrase will expire if not used. Default: 300. (PGP only)
5189 213. pgp_use_gpg_agent
5195 If set, Mutt-ng will use a possibly-running gpg-agent process. (PGP only)
5197 214. pgp_verify_command
5203 This command is used to verify PGP signatures. (PGP only)
5205 215. pgp_verify_key_command
5211 This command is used to verify key information from the key selection menu. (PGP only)
5219 Used in connection with the pipe-message command. When unset, Mutt-ng will pipe the messages without any preprocessing. When set, Mutt-ng will weed headers and will attempt to PGP/MIME decode the messages first.
5227 The separator to add between messages when piping a list of tagged messages to an external Unix command.
5235 Used in connection with the pipe-message command and the ``tag- prefix'' or ``tag-prefix-cond'' operators. If this variable is unset, when piping a list of tagged messages Mutt-ng will concatenate the messages and will pipe them as a single folder. When set, Mutt-ng will pipe the messages one by one. In both cases the messages are piped in the current sorted order, and the ``$pipe_sep'' separator is added after each message.
5237 219. pop_auth_try_all
5245 If set, Mutt-ng will try all available methods. When unset, Mutt-ng will only fall back to other authentication methods if the previous methods are unavailable. If a method is available but authentication fails, Mutt-ng will not connect to the POP server.
5247 220. pop_authenticators
5255 This is a colon-delimited list of authentication methods Mutt-ng may attempt to use to log in to an POP server, in the order Mutt-ng should try them. Authentication methods are either ``user'', ``apop'' or any SASL mechanism, eg ``digest-md5'', ``gssapi'' or ``cram-md5''.
5257 This parameter is case-insensitive. If this parameter is unset (the default) Mutt-ng will try all available methods, in order from most-secure to least-secure.
5259 Example: set pop_authenticators="digest-md5:apop:user"
5269 If set, Mutt-ng will delete successfully downloaded messages from the POP server when using the ``fetch-mail'' function. When unset, Mutt-ng will download messages but also leave them on the POP server.
5279 The name of your POP server for the ``fetch-mail'' function. You can also specify an alternative port, username and password, i.e.:
5281 [pop[s]://][username[:password]@]popserver[:port]
5283 Note: Storing passwords in a configuration file presents a security risk since the superuser of your machine may read it regardless of the file's permissions.
5293 If this variable is set, Mutt-ng will try to use the ``LAST'' POP command for retrieving only unread messages from the POP server when using the ``fetch-mail'' function.
5303 This variable configures how often (in seconds) POP should look for new mail.
5313 Specifies the password for your POP account. If unset, Mutt-ng will prompt you for your password when you open POP mailbox.
5315 Note: Storing passwords in a configuration file presents a security risk since the superuser of your machine may read it regardless of the file's permissions.
5325 Controls whether or not Mutt-ng will try to reconnect to a POP server when the connection is lost.
5335 Your login name on the POP server.
5337 This variable defaults to your user name on the local machine.
5339 228. post_indent_string
5345 Similar to the ``$attribution'' variable, Mutt-ng will append this string after the inclusion of a message which is being replied to.
5353 Controls whether or not messages are saved in the ``$postponed'' mailbox when you elect not to send immediately.
5359 Default: "˜/postponed"
5361 Mutt-ng allows you to indefinitely ``postpone sending a message'' which you are editing. When you choose to postpone a message, Mutt-ng saves it in the mailbox specified by this variable. Also see the ``$postpone'' variable.
5369 If set, a shell command to be executed if Mutt-ng fails to establish a connection to the server. This is useful for setting up secure connections, e.g. with ssh(1). If the command returns a nonzero status, Mutt-ng gives up opening the server. Example:
5371 preconnect="ssh -f -q -L 1234:mailhost.net:143 mailhost.net sleep 20 < /dev/null > /dev/null"
5373 Mailbox ``foo'' on mailhost.net can now be reached as ``{localhost:1234}foo''.
5375 Note: For this example to work, you must be able to log in to the remote machine without having to enter a password.
5383 Controls whether or not Mutt-ng really prints messages. This is set to ask-no by default, because some people accidentally hit ``p'' often.
5391 This specifies the command pipe that should be used to print messages.
5399 Used in connection with the print-message command. If this option is set, the message is decoded before it is passed to the external command specified by $print_command. If this option is unset, no processing will be applied to the message when printing it. The latter setting may be useful if you are using some advanced printer filter which is able to properly format e-mail messages for printing.
5407 Used in connection with the print-message command. If this option is set, the command specified by $print_command is executed once for each message which is to be printed. If this option is unset, the command specified by $print_command is executed only once, and all the messages are concatenated, with a form feed as the message separator.
5409 Those who use the enscript(1) program's mail-printing mode will most likely want to set this option.
5417 If you use an external ``$pager'', setting this variable will cause Mutt-ng to prompt you for a command when the pager exits rather than returning to the index menu. If unset, Mutt-ng will return to the index menu when the external pager exits.
5425 This specifies the command that Mutt-ng will use to make external address queries. The string should contain a %s, which will be substituted with the query string the user types. See ``query'' for more information.
5433 This variable controls whether ``quit'' and ``exit'' actually quit from Mutt-ng. If it set to yes, they do quit, if it is set to no, they have no effect, and if it is set to ask-yes or ask-no, you are prompted for confirmation when you try to quit.
5441 Controls whether or not empty lines will be quoted using ``indent_string''.
5449 Controls how quoted lines will be quoted. If set, one quote character will be added to the end of existing prefix. Otherwise, quoted lines will be prepended by ``indent_string''.
5453 Type: regular expression
5455 Default: "^([ \t]*[|>:}#])+"
5457 A regular expression used in the internal-pager to determine quoted sections of text in the body of a message.
5459 Note: In order to use the quotedx patterns in the internal pager, you need to set this to a regular expression that matches exactly the quote characters at the beginning of quoted lines.
5467 If set to a value greater than 0, Mutt-ng will display which message it is currently on when reading a mailbox. The message is printed after read_inc messages have been read (e.g., if set to 25, Mutt-ng will print a message when it reads message 25, and then again when it gets to message 50). This variable is meant to indicate progress when reading large mailboxes which may take some time. When set to 0, only a single message will appear before the reading the mailbox.
5469 Also see the ``$write_inc'' variable.
5477 If set, all folders are opened in read-only mode.
5485 This variable specifies what ``real'' or ``personal'' name should be used when sending messages.
5487 By default, this is the GECOS field from /etc/passwd.
5489 Note: This variable will not be used when the user has set a real name in the $from variable.
5497 Controls whether or not Mutt-ng recalls postponed messages when composing a new message. Also see ``$postponed''.
5499 Setting this variable to yes is not generally useful, and thus not recommended.
5507 This specifies the file into which your outgoing messages should be appended. (This is meant as the primary method for saving a copy of your messages, but another way to do this is using the ``my_hdr'' command to create a Bcc: header field with your email address in it.)
5509 The value of $record is overridden by the ``$force_name'' and ``$save_name'' variables, and the ``fcc-hook'' command.
5513 Type: regular expression
5515 Default: "^(re([\[0-9\]+])*|aw):[ \t]*"
5517 A regular expression used to recognize reply messages when threading and replying. The default value corresponds to the English ``Re:'' and the German ``Aw:''.
5525 If unset and you are replying to a message sent by you, Mutt-ng will assume that you want to reply to the recipients of that message rather than to yourself.
5533 If set, when replying to a message, Mutt-ng will use the address listed in the ``Reply-To:'' header field as the recipient of the reply. If unset, it will use the address in the ``From:'' header field instead.
5535 This option is useful for reading a mailing list that sets the ``Reply-To:'' header field to the list address and you want to send a private message to the author of a message.
5543 When set, the cursor will be automatically advanced to the next (possibly undeleted) message whenever a command that modifies the current message is executed.
5551 This variable controls whether or not Mutt-ng will display the ``personal'' name from your aliases in the index menu if it finds an alias that matches the message's sender. For example, if you have the following alias:
5553 alias juser abd30425@somewhere.net (Joe User)
5555 and then you receive mail which contains the following header:
5557 From: abd30425@somewhere.net
5559 It would be displayed in the index menu as ``Joe User'' instead of ``abd30425@somewhere.net.'' This is useful when the person's e-mail address is not human friendly (like CompuServe addresses).
5567 It may sometimes arrive that you receive mail to a certain machine, move the messages to another machine, and reply to some the messages from there. If this variable is set, the default From: line of the reply messages is built using the address where you received the messages you are replying to if that address matches your alternates. If the variable is unset, or the address that would be used doesn't match your alternates, the From: line will use your address on the current machine.
5569 253. reverse_realname
5575 This variable fine-tunes the behaviour of the reverse_name feature. When it is set, Mutt-ng will use the address from incoming messages as-is, possibly including eventual real names. When it is unset, Mutt-ng will override any such real names with the setting of the realname variable.
5577 254. rfc2047_parameters
5583 When this variable is set, Mutt-ng will decode RFC-2047-encoded MIME parameters. You want to set this variable when Mutt-ng suggests you to save attachments to files named like this:
5585 =?iso-8859-1?Q?file=5F=E4=5F991116=2Ezip?=
5587 When this variable is set interactively, the change doesn't have the desired effect before you have changed folders.
5589 Note that this use of RFC 2047's encoding is explicitly, prohibited by the standard, but nevertheless encountered in the wild.
5591 Also note that setting this parameter will not have the effect that Mutt-ng generates this kind of encoding. Instead, Mutt-ng will unconditionally use the encoding specified in RFC 2231.
5599 If set, Mutt-ng will take the sender's full address when choosing a default folder for saving a mail. If ``$save_name'' or ``$force_name'' is set too, the selection of the fcc folder will be changed as well.
5607 When unset, mailboxes which contain no saved messages will be removed when closed (the exception is ``$spoolfile'' which is never removed). If set, mailboxes are never removed.
5609 Note: This only applies to mbox and MMDF folders, Mutt-ng does not delete MH and Maildir directories.
5617 This variable controls how copies of outgoing messages are saved. When set, a check is made to see if a mailbox specified by the recipient address exists (this is done by searching for a mailbox in the ``$folder'' directory with the username part of the recipient address). If the mailbox exists, the outgoing message will be saved to that mailbox, otherwise the message is saved to the ``$record'' mailbox.
5619 Also see the ``$force_name'' variable.
5627 When this variable is unset, scoring is turned off. This can be useful to selectively disable scoring for certain folders when the ``$score_threshold_delete'' variable and friends are used.
5629 259. score_threshold_delete
5635 Messages which have been assigned a score equal to or lower than the value of this variable are automatically marked for deletion by Mutt-ng. Since Mutt-ng scores are always greater than or equal to zero, the default setting of this variable will never mark a message for deletion.
5637 260. score_threshold_flag
5643 Messages which have been assigned a score greater than or equal to this variable's value are automatically marked ``flagged''.
5645 261. score_threshold_read
5651 Messages which have been assigned a score equal to or lower than the value of this variable are automatically marked as read by Mutt-ng. Since Mutt-ng scores are always greater than or equal to zero, the default setting of this variable will never mark a message read.
5657 Default: "us-ascii:iso-8859-1:utf-8"
5659 A list of character sets for outgoing messages. Mutt-ng will use the first character set into which the text can be converted exactly. If your ``$charset'' is not iso-8859-1 and recipients may not understand UTF-8, it is advisable to include in the list an appropriate widely used standard character set (such as iso-8859-2, koi8-r or iso-2022-jp) either instead of or after iso-8859-1.
5665 Default: "/usr/sbin/sendmail -oem -oi"
5667 Specifies the program and arguments used to deliver mail sent by Mutt-ng. Mutt-ng expects that the specified program interprets additional arguments as recipient addresses.
5675 Specifies the number of seconds to wait for the ``$sendmail'' process to finish before giving up and putting delivery in the background.
5677 Mutt-ng interprets the value of this variable as follows:
5680 number of seconds to wait for sendmail to finish before continuing
5683 wait forever for sendmail to finish
5686 always put sendmail in the background without waiting
5688 Note that if you specify a value other than 0, the output of the child process will be put in a temporary file. If there is some error, you will be informed as to where to find the output.
5696 Command to use when spawning a subshell. By default, the user's login shell from /etc/passwd is used.
5698 266. sidebar_boundary
5704 When the sidebar is displayed and $sidebar_shorten_hierarchy is set, this variable specifies the characters at which to split a folder name into ``hierarchy items.''
5712 This specifies the delimiter between the sidebar (if visible) and other screens.
5714 268. sidebar_newmail_only
5720 If set, only folders with new mail will be shown in the sidebar.
5722 269. sidebar_number_format
5726 Default: "%m%?n?(%n)?%?f?[%f]?"
5728 This variable controls how message counts are printed when the sidebar is enabled. If this variable is empty (and only if), no numbers will be printed and mutt-ng won't frequently count mail (which may be a great speedup esp. with mbox-style mailboxes.)
5730 The following printf(3)-like sequences are supported all of which may be printed non-zero:
5733 Number of deleted messages. 1)
5736 Number of flagged messages.
5739 Total number of messages.
5742 Total number of messages shown, i.e. not hidden by a limit. 1)
5745 Number of new messages.
5748 Number of tagged messages. 1)
5750 1) These expandos only have a non-zero value for the current mailbox and will always be zero otherwise.
5752 270. sidebar_shorten_hierarchy
5758 When set, the ``hierarchy'' of the sidebar entries will be shortened only if they cannot be printed in full length (because ``$sidebar_width'' is set to a too low value). For example, if the newsgroup name ``de.alt.sysadmin.recovery'' doesn't fit on the screen, it'll get shortened ``d.a.s.recovery'' while ``de.alt.d0'' still would and thus will not get shortened.
5760 At which characters this compression is done is controled via the $sidebar_boundary variable.
5762 271. sidebar_visible
5768 This specifies whether or not to show the sidebar (a list of folders specified with the ``mailboxes'' command).
5776 The width of the sidebar.
5784 If set, a line containing ``-- '' (dash, dash, space) will be inserted before your ``$signature''. It is strongly recommended that you not unset this variable unless your ``signature'' contains just your name. The reason for this is because many software packages use ``-- \n'' to detect your signature.
5786 For example, Mutt-ng has the ability to highlight the signature in a different color in the builtin pager.
5794 If set, the signature will be included before any quoted or forwarded text. It is strongly recommended that you do not set this variable unless you really know what you are doing, and are prepared to take some heat from netiquette guardians.
5800 Default: "˜/.signature"
5802 Specifies the filename of your signature, which is appended to all outgoing messages. If the filename ends with a pipe (``|''), it is assumed that filename is a shell command and input should be read from its stdout.
5810 If set, this string will be inserted before the signature. This is useful for people that want to sign off every message they send with their name.
5812 If you want to insert your website's URL, additional contact information or witty quotes into your mails, better use a signature file instead of the signoff string.
5818 Default: "˜f %s | ˜s %s"
5820 Specifies how Mutt-ng should expand a simple search into a real search pattern. A simple search is one that does not contain any of the ˜ operators. See ``patterns'' for more information on search patterns.
5822 For example, if you simply type ``joe'' at a search or limit prompt, Mutt-ng will automatically expand it to the value specified by this variable. For the default value it would be:
5832 Specifies time, in seconds, to pause while displaying certain informational messages, while moving from folder to folder and after expunging messages from the current folder. The default is to pause one second, so a value of zero for this option suppresses the pause.
5840 Controls the display of lines longer than the screen width in the internal pager. If set, long lines are wrapped at a word boundary. If unset, lines are simply wrapped at the screen edge. Also see the ``$markers'' variable.
5844 Type: regular expression
5846 Default: "(>From )|(:[-^]?[][)(><}{|/DP])"
5848 The pager uses this variable to catch some common false positives of ``$quote_regexp'', most notably smileys in the beginning of a line
5850 281. smime_ask_cert_label
5856 This flag controls whether you want to be asked to enter a label for a certificate about to be added to the database or not. It is set by default. (S/MIME only)
5858 282. smime_ca_location
5864 This variable contains the name of either a directory, or a file which contains trusted certificates for use with OpenSSL. (S/MIME only)
5866 283. smime_certificates
5872 Since there is no pubring/secring as with PGP, Mutt-ng has to handle storage and retrieval of keys by itself. This is very basic right now, and keys and certificates are stored in two different directories, both named as the hash-value retrieved from OpenSSL. There is an index file which contains mailbox-address keyid pairs, and which can be manually edited. This one points to the location of the certificates. (S/MIME only)
5874 284. smime_decrypt_command
5880 This format string specifies a command which is used to decrypt application/x-pkcs7-mime attachments.
5882 The OpenSSL command formats have their own set of printf(3)-like sequences similar to PGP's:
5885 Expands to the name of a file containing a message.
5888 Expands to the name of a file containing the signature part of a multipart/signed attachment when verifying it.
5891 The key-pair specified with $smime_default_key
5894 One or more certificate IDs.
5897 The algorithm used for encryption.
5900 CA location: Depending on whether $smime_ca_location points to a directory or file, this expands to "-CApath $smime_ca_location" or "-CAfile $smime_ca_location".
5902 For examples on how to configure these formats, see the smime.rc in the samples/ subdirectory which has been installed on your system alongside the documentation. (S/MIME only)
5904 285. smime_decrypt_use_default_key
5910 If set (default) this tells Mutt-ng to use the default key for decryption. Otherwise, if manage multiple certificate-key-pairs, Mutt-ng will try to use the mailbox-address to determine the key to use. It will ask you to supply a key, if it can't find one. (S/MIME only)
5912 286. smime_default_key
5918 This is the default key-pair to use for signing. This must be set to the keyid (the hash-value that OpenSSL generates) to work properly (S/MIME only)
5920 287. smime_encrypt_command
5926 This command is used to create encrypted S/MIME messages. (S/MIME only)
5928 288. smime_encrypt_with
5934 This sets the algorithm that should be used for encryption. Valid choices are ``des'', ``des3'', ``rc2-40'', ``rc2-64'', ``\frc2-128''.
5936 If unset ``3des'' (TripleDES) is used. (S/MIME only)
5938 289. smime_get_cert_command
5944 This command is used to extract X509 certificates from a PKCS7 structure. (S/MIME only)
5946 290. smime_get_cert_email_command
5952 This command is used to extract the mail address(es) used for storing X509 certificates, and for verification purposes (to check whether the certificate was issued for the sender's mailbox). (S/MIME only)
5954 291. smime_get_signer_cert_command
5960 This command is used to extract only the signers X509 certificate from a S/MIME signature, so that the certificate's owner may get compared to the email's ``From:'' header field. (S/MIME only)
5962 292. smime_import_cert_command
5968 This command is used to import a certificate via smime_keysng. (S/MIME only)
5970 293. smime_is_default
5976 The default behaviour of Mutt-ng is to use PGP on all auto-sign/encryption operations. To override and to use OpenSSL instead this must be set.
5978 However, this has no effect while replying, since Mutt-ng will automatically select the same application that was used to sign/encrypt the original message.
5980 (Note that this variable can be overridden by unsetting $crypt_autosmime.) (S/MIME only)
5988 Since there is no pubring/secring as with PGP, Mutt-ng has to handle storage ad retrieval of keys/certs by itself. This is very basic right now, and stores keys and certificates in two different directories, both named as the hash-value retrieved from OpenSSL. There is an index file which contains mailbox-address keyid pair, and which can be manually edited. This one points to the location of the private keys. (S/MIME only)
5990 295. smime_pk7out_command
5996 This command is used to extract PKCS7 structures of S/MIME signatures, in order to extract the public X509 certificate(s). (S/MIME only)
5998 296. smime_sign_command
6004 This command is used to created S/MIME signatures of type multipart/signed, which can be read by all mail clients. (S/MIME only)
6006 297. smime_sign_opaque_command
6012 This command is used to created S/MIME signatures of type application/x-pkcs7-signature, which can only be handled by mail clients supporting the S/MIME extension. (S/MIME only)
6020 The number of seconds after which a cached passphrase will expire if not used. (S/MIME only)
6022 299. smime_verify_command
6028 This command is used to verify S/MIME signatures of type multipart/signed. (S/MIME only)
6030 300. smime_verify_opaque_command
6036 This command is used to verify S/MIME signatures of type application/x-pkcs7-mime. (S/MIME only)
6046 If this variable is non-empty, it'll be used as the envelope sender. If it's empty (the default), the value of the regular From: header will be used.
6048 This may be necessary as some providers don't allow for arbitrary values as the envelope sender but only a particular one which may not be the same as the user's desired From: header.
6058 Defines the SMTP host which will be used to deliver mail, as opposed to invoking the sendmail binary. Setting this variable overrides the value of ``$sendmail'', and any associated variables.
6068 Defines the password to use with SMTP AUTH. If ``$smtp_user'' is set, but this variable is not, you will be prompted for a password when sending.
6070 Note: Storing passwords in a configuration file presents a security risk since the superuser of your machine may read it regardless of the file's permissions.
6080 Defines the port that the SMTP host is listening on for mail delivery. Must be specified as a number.
6082 Defaults to 25, the standard SMTP port, but RFC 2476-compliant SMTP servers will probably desire 587, the mail submission port.
6090 Availability: SMTP (and SSL)
6092 Defines wether to use STARTTLS. If this option is set to ``required'' and the server does not support STARTTLS or there is an error in the TLS Handshake, the connection will fail. Setting this to ``enabled'' will try to start TLS and continue without TLS in case of an error. Muttng still needs to have SSL support enabled in order to use it.
6102 Defines the username to use with SMTP AUTH. Setting this variable will cause Mutt-ng to attempt to use SMTP AUTH when sending.
6110 Specifies how to sort messages in the index menu. Valid values are:
6114 mailbox-order (unsorted)
6122 You may optionally use the ``reverse-'' prefix to specify reverse sorting order (example: set sort=reverse-date-sent).
6130 Specifies how the entries in the ``alias'' menu are sorted. The following are legal values:
6131 address (sort alphabetically by email address)
6132 alias (sort alphabetically by alias name)
6133 unsorted (leave in order specified in .muttrc)
6141 When sorting by threads, this variable controls how threads are sorted in relation to other threads, and how the branches of the thread trees are sorted. This can be set to any value that ``$sort'' can, except threads (in that case, Mutt-ng will just use date-sent). You can also specify the ``last-'' prefix in addition to ``reverse-'' prefix, but last- must come after reverse-. The last- prefix causes messages to be sorted against its siblings by which has the last descendant, using the rest of sort_aux as an ordering.
6143 For instance, set sort_aux=last-date-received would mean that if a new message is received in a thread, that thread becomes the last one displayed (or the first, if you have set sort=reverse-threads.)
6145 Note: For reversed ``$sort'' order $sort_aux is reversed again (which is not the right thing to do, but kept to not break any existing configuration setting).
6153 Specifies how to sort entries in the file browser. By default, the entries are sorted alphabetically. Valid values:
6154 alpha (alphabetically)
6159 You may optionally use the ``reverse-'' prefix to specify reverse sorting order (example: set sort_browser=reverse-date).
6167 This variable is only useful when sorting by threads with ``$strict_threads'' unset. In that case, it changes the heuristic Mutt-ng uses to thread messages by subject. With $sort_re set, Mutt-ng will only attach a message as the child of another message by subject if the subject of the child message starts with a substring matching the setting of ``$reply_regexp''. With $sort_re unset, Mutt-ng will attach the message whether or not this is the case, as long as the non-``$reply_regexp'' parts of both messages are identical.
6175 ``spam_separator'' controls what happens when multiple spam headers are matched: if unset, each successive header will overwrite any previous matches value for the spam label. If set, each successive match will append to the previous, using ``spam_separator'' as a separator.
6183 If your spool mailbox is in a non-default place where Mutt-ng cannot find it, you can specify its location with this variable. Mutt-ng will automatically set this variable to the value of the environment variable $MAIL if it is not set.
6185 314. ssl_ca_certificates_file
6191 This variable specifies a file containing trusted CA certificates. Any server certificate that is signed with one of these CA certificates are also automatically accepted.
6193 Example: set ssl_ca_certificates_file=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
6195 315. ssl_client_cert
6203 The file containing a client certificate and its associated private key.
6211 If this variable is set, mutt-ng will require that all connections to remote servers be encrypted. Furthermore it will attempt to negotiate TLS even if the server does not advertise the capability, since it would otherwise have to abort the connection anyway. This option supersedes ``$ssl_starttls''.
6213 317. ssl_min_dh_prime_bits
6219 Availability: GNUTLS
6221 This variable specifies the minimum acceptable prime size (in bits) for use in any Diffie-Hellman key exchange. A value of 0 will use the default from the GNUTLS library.
6229 Availability: SSL or GNUTLS
6231 If set (the default), Mutt-ng will attempt to use STARTTLS on servers advertising the capability. When unset, Mutt-ng will not attempt to use STARTTLS regardless of the server's capabilities.
6241 This variables specifies whether to attempt to use SSLv2 in the SSL authentication process.
6249 Availability: SSL or GNUTLS
6251 This variables specifies whether to attempt to use SSLv3 in the SSL authentication process.
6259 Availability: SSL or GNUTLS
6261 This variables specifies whether to attempt to use TLSv1 in the SSL authentication process.
6263 322. ssl_usesystemcerts
6271 If set to yes, Mutt-ng will use CA certificates in the system-wide certificate store when checking if server certificate is signed by a trusted CA.
6279 Controls the characters used by the ``%r'' indicator in ``$status_format''. The first character is used when the mailbox is unchanged. The second is used when the mailbox has been changed, and it needs to be resynchronized. The third is used if the mailbox is in read-only mode, or if the mailbox will not be written when exiting that mailbox (You can toggle whether to write changes to a mailbox with the toggle-write operation, bound by default to ``%''). The fourth is used to indicate that the current folder has been opened in attach-message mode (Certain operations like composing a new mail, replying, forwarding, etc. are not permitted in this mode).
6285 Default: "-%r-Mutt-ng: %f [Msgs:%?M?%M/?%m%?n? New:%n?%?o? Old:%o?%?d? Del:%d?%?F? Flag:%F?%?t? Tag:%t?%?p? Post:%p?%?b? Inc:%b?%?l? %l?]---(%s/%S)-%>-(%P)---"
6287 Controls the format of the status line displayed in the index menu. This string is similar to ``$index_format'', but has its own set of printf(3)-like sequences:
6290 number of mailboxes with new mail *
6293 the short pathname of the current mailbox
6296 number of deleted messages *
6299 the full pathname of the current mailbox
6302 number of flagged messages *
6308 size (in bytes) of the current mailbox *
6311 size (in bytes) of the messages shown (i.e., which match the current limit) *
6314 the number of messages in the mailbox *
6317 the number of messages shown (i.e., which match the current limit) *
6320 number of new messages in the mailbox *
6323 number of old unread messages *
6326 number of postponed messages *
6329 percentage of the way through the index
6332 modified/read-only/won't-write/attach-message indicator, according to $status_chars
6335 current sorting mode ($sort)
6338 current aux sorting method ($sort_aux)
6341 number of tagged messages *
6344 number of unread messages *
6347 Mutt-ng version string
6350 currently active limit pattern, if any *
6353 right justify the rest of the string and pad with "X"
6356 pad to the end of the line with "X"
6358 * = can be optionally printed if nonzero
6360 Some of the above sequences can be used to optionally print a string if their value is nonzero. For example, you may only want to see the number of flagged messages if such messages exist, since zero is not particularly meaningful. To optionally print a string based upon one of the above sequences, the following construct is used
6362 %?<sequence_char>?<optional_string>?
6364 where sequence_char is a character from the table above, and optional_string is the string you would like printed if sequence_char is nonzero. optional_string may contain other sequences as well as normal text, but you may not nest optional strings.
6366 Here is an example illustrating how to optionally print the number of new messages in a mailbox:
6368 %?n?%n new messages.?
6370 Additionally you can switch between two strings, the first one, if a value is zero, the second one, if the value is nonzero, by using the following construct:
6372 %?<sequence_char>?<if_string>&<else_string>?
6374 You can additionally force the result of any printf(3)-like sequence to be lowercase by prefixing the sequence character with an underscore (_) sign. For example, if you want to display the local hostname in lowercase, you would use:
6378 If you prefix the sequence character with a colon (:) character, Mutt-ng will replace any dots in the expansion by underscores. This might be helpful with IMAP folders that don't like dots in folder names.
6386 Setting this variable causes the ``status bar'' to be displayed on the first line of the screen rather than near the bottom.
6394 With mailto: style links, a body as well as arbitrary header information may be embedded. This may lead to (user) headers being overwriten without note if ``$edit_headers'' is unset.
6396 If this variable is set, mutt-ng is strict and allows anything to be changed. If it's unset, all headers given will be prefixed with ``X-Mailto-'' and the message including headers will be shown in the editor regardless of what ``$edit_headers'' is set to.
6404 When unset, non MIME-compliant messages that doesn't have any charset indication in the ``Content-Type:'' header field can be displayed (non MIME-compliant messages are often generated by old mailers or buggy mailers like MS Outlook Express). See also $assumed_charset.
6406 This option also replaces linear-white-space between encoded-word and *text to a single space to prevent the display of MIME-encoded ``Subject:'' header field from being devided into multiple lines.
6414 If set, threading will only make use of the ``In-Reply-To:'' and ``References:'' header fields when you ``$sort'' by message threads. By default, messages with the same subject are grouped together in ``pseudo threads.'' This may not always be desirable, such as in a personal mailbox where you might have several unrelated messages with the subject ``hi'' which will get grouped together.
6422 When set, mutt-ng will remove the trailing part of the ``Subject:'' line which matches $strip_was_regex when replying. This is useful to properly react on subject changes and reduce ``subject noise.'' (esp. in Usenet)
6424 330. strip_was_regex
6426 Type: regular expression
6428 Default: "\([Ww][Aa][RrSs]: .*\)[ ]*$"
6430 When non-empty and $strip_was is set, mutt-ng will remove this trailing part of the ``Subject'' line when replying if it won't be empty afterwards.
6438 If set, attachments with flowed format will have their quoting ``stuffed'', i.e. a space will be inserted between the quote characters and the actual text.
6446 When unset, Mutt-ng won't stop when the user presses the terminal's susp key, usually CTRL+Z. This is useful if you run Mutt-ng inside an xterm using a command like ``xterm -e muttng.''
6454 When set, Mutt-ng will generate text/plain; format=flowed attachments. This format is easier to handle for some mailing software, and generally just looks like ordinary text. To actually make use of this format's features, you'll need support in your editor.
6456 Note that $indent_string is ignored when this option is set.
6458 334. thorough_search
6464 Affects the ˜b and ˜h search operations described in section ``patterns'' above. If set, the headers and attachments of messages to be searched are decoded before searching. If unset, messages are searched as they appear in the folder.
6466 335. thread_received
6472 When set, Mutt-ng uses the date received rather than the date sent to thread messages by subject.
6480 When set, the internal-pager will pad blank lines to the bottom of the screen with a tilde (˜).
6488 This variable controls the number of seconds Mutt-ng will wait for a key to be pressed in the main menu before timing out and checking for new mail. A value of zero or less will cause Mutt-ng to never time out.
6496 This variable allows you to specify where Mutt-ng will place its temporary files needed for displaying and composing messages. If this variable is not set, the environment variable $TMPDIR is used. If $TMPDIR is not set then "/tmp" is used.
6504 Controls the character used to indicate mail addressed to you. The first character is the one used when the mail is NOT addressed to your address (default: space). The second is used when you are the only recipient of the message (default: +). The third is when your address appears in the ``To:'' header field, but you are not the only recipient of the message (default: T). The fourth character is used when your address is specified in the ``Cc:'' header field, but you are not the only recipient. The fifth character is used to indicate mail that was sent by you. The sixth character is used to indicate when a mail was sent to a mailing-list you're subscribe to (default: L).
6512 If set, this variable specifies the path of the trash folder where the mails marked for deletion will be moved, instead of being irremediably purged.
6514 Note: When you delete a message in the trash folder, it is really deleted, so that there is no way to recover mail.
6522 Setting this variable will cause Mutt-ng to open a pipe to a command instead of a raw socket. You may be able to use this to set up preauthenticated connections to your IMAP/POP3 server. Example:
6524 tunnel="ssh -q mailhost.net /usr/local/libexec/imapd"
6526 Note: For this example to work you must be able to log in to the remote machine without having to enter a password.
6534 This sets the umask that will be used by Mutt-ng when creating all kinds of files. If unset, the default value is 077.
6536 343. uncollapse_jump
6542 When set, Mutt-ng will jump to the next unread message, if any, when the current thread is uncollapsed.
6550 Warning: do not set this variable unless you are using a version of sendmail which supports the -B8BITMIME flag (such as sendmail 8.8.x) or in connection with the SMTP support via libESMTP. Otherwise you may not be able to send mail.
6552 When set, Mutt-ng will either invoke ``$sendmail'' with the -B8BITMIME flag when sending 8-bit messages to enable ESMTP negotiation or tell libESMTP to do so.
6560 When set, Mutt-ng will qualify all local addresses (ones without the @host portion) with the value of ``$hostname''. If unset, no addresses will be qualified.
6568 When set, Mutt-ng will generate the ``From:'' header field when sending messages. If unset, no ``From:'' header field will be generated unless the user explicitly sets one using the ``my_hdr'' command.
6578 When set, Mutt-ng will show you international domain names decoded.
6580 Note: You can use IDNs for addresses even if this is unset. This variable only affects decoding.
6588 When set, Mutt-ng will look for IPv6 addresses of hosts it tries to contact. If this option is unset, Mutt-ng will restrict itself to IPv4 addresses. Normally, the default should work.
6596 Specifies the visual editor to invoke when the ˜v command is given in the builtin editor.
6604 Controls whether Mutt-ng will ask you to press a key after shell- escape, pipe-message, pipe-entry, print-message, and print-entry commands.
6606 It is also used when viewing attachments with ``auto_view'', provided that the corresponding mailcap entry has a needsterminal flag, and the external program is interactive.
6608 When set, Mutt-ng will always ask for a key. When unset, Mutt-ng will wait for a key only if the external command returned a non-zero status.
6616 When set, Mutt-ng will weed headers when displaying, forwarding, printing, or replying to messages.
6624 Controls whether searches wrap around the end of the mailbox.
6626 When set, searches will wrap around the first (or last) message. When unset, searches will not wrap.
6634 Controls the size of the margin remaining at the right side of the terminal when Mutt-ng's pager does smart wrapping.
6642 Controls whether Mutt-ng writes out the Bcc header when preparing messages to be sent. Exim users may wish to unset this.
6650 When writing a mailbox, a message will be printed every write_inc messages to indicate progress. If set to 0, only a single message will be displayed before writing a mailbox.
6652 Also see the ``$read_inc'' variable.
6658 Default: "M%?n?AIL&ail?"
6660 Controls the format of the X11 icon title, as long as $xterm_set_titles is set. This string is identical in formatting to the one used by ``$status_format''.
6668 If $xterm_set_titles is set, this string will be used to set the title when leaving mutt-ng. For terminal-based programs, there's no easy and portable way to read the current title so mutt-ng cannot read it upon startup and restore it when exiting.
6670 Based on the xterm FAQ, the following might work:
6672 set xterm_leave = "`test x$DISPLAY != x && xprop -id $WINDOWID | grep WM_NAME | cut -d '"' -f 2`"
6674 358. xterm_set_titles
6680 Controls whether Mutt-ng sets the xterm title bar and icon name (as long as you're in an appropriate terminal). The default must be unset to force in the validity checking.
6686 Default: "Mutt-ng with %?m?%m messages&no messages?%?n? [%n New]?"
6688 Controls the format of the title bar of the xterm provided that $xterm_set_titles has been set. This string is identical in formatting to the one used by ``$status_format''.
6692 The following is the list of available functions listed by the mapping in which they are available. The default key setting is given, and an explanation of what the function does. The key bindings of these functions can be changed with the bind command.
6696 The generic menu is not a real menu, but specifies common functions (such as movement) available in all menus except for pager and editor. Changing settings for this menu will affect the default bindings for all menus (except as noted).
6697 bottom-page L move to the bottom of the page
6698 current-bottom not bound move current entry to bottom of page
6699 current-middle not bound move current entry to middle of page
6700 current-top not bound move current entry to top of page
6701 enter-command : enter a muttngrc command
6702 exit q exit this menu
6703 first-entry = move to the first entry
6704 half-down ] scroll down 1/2 page
6705 half-up [ scroll up 1/2 page
6707 jump number jump to an index number
6708 last-entry * move to the last entry
6709 middle-page M move to the middle of the page
6710 next-entry j move to the next entry
6711 next-line > scroll down one line
6712 next-page z move to the next page
6713 previous-entry k move to the previous entry
6714 previous-line < scroll up one line
6715 previous-page Z move to the previous page
6716 refresh ^L clear and redraw the screen
6717 search / search for a regular expression
6718 search-next n search for next match
6719 search-opposite not bound search for next match in opposite direction
6720 search-reverse ESC / search backwards for a regular expression
6721 select-entry RET select the current entry
6722 shell-escape ! run a program in a subshell
6723 tag-entry t toggle the tag on the current entry
6724 tag-prefix ; apply next command to tagged entries
6725 tag-prefix-cond not bound apply next function ONLY to tagged messages
6726 top-page H move to the top of the page
6727 what-key not bound display the keycode for a key press
6731 bounce-message b remail a message to another user
6732 change-folder c open a different folder
6733 change-folder-readonly ESC c open a different folder in read only mode
6734 check-traditional-pgp ESC P check for classic pgp
6735 clear-flag W clear a status flag from a message
6736 copy-message C copy a message to a file/mailbox
6737 create-alias a create an alias from a message sender
6738 decode-copy ESC C decode a message and copy it to a file/mailbox
6739 decode-save ESC s decode a message and save it to a file/mailbox
6740 delete-message d delete the current entry
6741 delete-pattern D delete messages matching a pattern
6742 delete-subthread ESC d delete all messages in subthread
6743 delete-thread ^D delete all messages in thread
6744 display-address @ display full address of sender
6745 display-toggle-weed h display message and toggle header weeding
6746 display-message RET display a message
6747 edit e edit the current message
6748 edit-type ^E edit the current message's Content-Type
6749 exit x exit without saving changes
6750 extract-keys ^K extract PGP public keys
6751 fetch-mail G retrieve mail from POP server
6752 flag-message F toggle a message's 'important' flag
6753 forget-passphrase ^F wipe PGP passphrase from memory
6754 forward-message f forward a message with comments
6755 group-reply g reply to all recipients
6756 limit l show only messages matching a pattern
6757 list-reply L reply to specified mailing list
6758 mail m compose a new mail message
6759 mail-key ESC k mail a PGP public key
6760 next-new TAB jump to the next new message
6761 next-subthread ESC n jump to the next subthread
6762 next-thread ^N jump to the next thread
6763 next-undeleted j move to the next undeleted message
6764 next-unread not bound jump to the next unread message
6765 parent-message P jump to parent message in thread
6766 pipe-message | pipe message/attachment to a shell command
6767 previous-new ESC TAB jump to the previous new message
6768 previous-page Z move to the previous page
6769 previous-subthread ESC p jump to previous subthread
6770 previous-thread ^P jump to previous thread
6771 previous-undeleted k move to the last undelete message
6772 previous-unread not bound jump to the previous unread message
6773 print-message p print the current entry
6774 query Q query external program for addresses
6775 quit q save changes to mailbox and quit
6776 read-subthread ESC r mark the current subthread as read
6777 read-thread ^R mark the current thread as read
6778 recall-message R recall a postponed message
6779 reply r reply to a message
6780 resend-message ESC e resend message and preserve MIME structure
6781 save-message s save message/attachment to a file
6782 set-flag w set a status flag on a message
6783 show-version V show the Mutt-ng version number and date
6784 show-limit ESC l show currently active limit pattern, if any
6785 sort-mailbox o sort messages
6786 sort-reverse O sort messages in reverse order
6787 sync-mailbox $ save changes to mailbox
6788 tag-pattern T tag messages matching a pattern
6789 tag-thread ESC t tag/untag all messages in the current thread
6790 toggle-new N toggle a message's 'new' flag
6791 toggle-write % toggle whether the mailbox will be rewritten
6792 undelete-message u undelete the current entry
6793 undelete-pattern U undelete messages matching a pattern
6794 undelete-subthread ESC u undelete all messages in subthread
6795 undelete-thread ^U undelete all messages in thread
6796 untag-pattern ^T untag messages matching a pattern
6797 view-attachments v show MIME attachments
6801 bottom not bound jump to the bottom of the message
6802 bounce-message b remail a message to another user
6803 change-folder c open a different folder
6804 change-folder-readonly ESC c open a different folder in read only mode
6805 check-traditional-pgp ESC P check for classic pgp
6806 copy-message C copy a message to a file/mailbox
6807 create-alias a create an alias from a message sender
6808 decode-copy ESC C decode a message and copy it to a file/mailbox
6809 decode-save ESC s decode a message and save it to a file/mailbox
6810 delete-message d delete the current entry
6811 delete-subthread ESC d delete all messages in subthread
6812 delete-thread ^D delete all messages in thread
6813 display-address @ display full address of sender
6814 display-toggle-weed h display message and toggle header weeding
6815 edit e edit the current message
6816 edit-type ^E edit the current message's Content-Type
6817 enter-command : enter a muttngrc command
6818 exit i return to the main-menu
6819 extract-keys ^K extract PGP public keys
6820 flag-message F toggle a message's 'important' flag
6821 forget-passphrase ^F wipe PGP passphrase from memory
6822 forward-message f forward a message with comments
6823 group-reply g reply to all recipients
6824 half-up not bound move up one-half page
6825 half-down not bound move down one-half page
6827 list-reply L reply to specified mailing list
6828 mail m compose a new mail message
6829 mail-key ESC k mail a PGP public key
6830 mark-as-new N toggle a message's 'new' flag
6831 next-line RET scroll down one line
6832 next-entry J move to the next entry
6833 next-new TAB jump to the next new message
6834 next-page move to the next page
6835 next-subthread ESC n jump to the next subthread
6836 next-thread ^N jump to the next thread
6837 next-undeleted j move to the next undeleted message
6838 next-unread not bound jump to the next unread message
6839 parent-message P jump to parent message in thread
6840 pipe-message | pipe message/attachment to a shell command
6841 previous-line BackSpace scroll up one line
6842 previous-entry K move to the previous entry
6843 previous-new not bound jump to the previous new message
6844 previous-page - move to the previous page
6845 previous-subthread ESC p jump to previous subthread
6846 previous-thread ^P jump to previous thread
6847 previous-undeleted k move to the last undelete message
6848 previous-unread not bound jump to the previous unread message
6849 print-message p print the current entry
6850 quit Q save changes to mailbox and quit
6851 read-subthread ESC r mark the current subthread as read
6852 read-thread ^R mark the current thread as read
6853 recall-message R recall a postponed message
6854 redraw-screen ^L clear and redraw the screen
6855 reply r reply to a message
6856 save-message s save message/attachment to a file
6857 search / search for a regular expression
6858 search-next n search for next match
6859 search-opposite not bound search for next match in opposite direction
6860 search-reverse ESC / search backwards for a regular expression
6861 search-toggle \ toggle search pattern coloring
6862 shell-escape ! invoke a command in a subshell
6863 show-version V show the Mutt-ng version number and date
6864 skip-quoted S skip beyond quoted text
6865 sync-mailbox $ save changes to mailbox
6866 tag-message t tag a message
6867 toggle-quoted T toggle display of quoted text
6868 top ^ jump to the top of the message
6869 undelete-message u undelete the current entry
6870 undelete-subthread ESC u undelete all messages in subthread
6871 undelete-thread ^U undelete all messages in thread
6872 view-attachments v show MIME attachments
6876 search / search for a regular expression
6877 search-next n search for next match
6878 search-reverse ESC / search backwards for a regular expression
6882 create-alias a create an alias from a message sender
6883 mail m compose a new mail message
6884 query Q query external program for addresses
6885 query-append A append new query results to current results
6886 search / search for a regular expression
6887 search-next n search for next match
6888 search-opposite not bound search for next match in opposite direction
6889 search-reverse ESC / search backwards for a regular expression
6893 bounce-message b remail a message to another user
6894 collapse-parts v toggle display of subparts
6895 delete-entry d delete the current entry
6896 display-toggle-weed h display message and toggle header weeding
6897 edit-type ^E edit the current entry's Content-Type
6898 extract-keys ^K extract PGP public keys
6899 forward-message f forward a message with comments
6900 group-reply g reply to all recipients
6901 list-reply L reply to specified mailing list
6902 pipe-entry | pipe message/attachment to a shell command
6903 print-entry p print the current entry
6904 reply r reply to a message
6905 resend-message ESC e resend message and preserve MIME structure
6906 save-entry s save message/attachment to a file
6907 undelete-entry u undelete the current entry
6908 view-attach RET view attachment using mailcap entry if necessary
6909 view-mailcap m force viewing of attachment using mailcap
6910 view-text T view attachment as text
6914 attach-file a attach a file(s) to this message
6915 attach-message A attach message(s) to this message
6916 attach-key ESC k attach a PGP public key
6917 copy-file C save message/attachment to a file
6918 detach-file D delete the current entry
6919 display-toggle-weed h display message and toggle header weeding
6920 edit-bcc b edit the BCC list
6921 edit-cc c edit the CC list
6922 edit-description d edit attachment description
6923 edit-encoding ^E edit attachment transfer-encoding
6924 edit-fcc f enter a file to save a copy of this message in
6925 edit-from ESC f edit the from: field
6926 edit-file ^X e edit the file to be attached
6927 edit-headers E edit the message with headers
6928 edit e edit the message
6929 edit-mime m edit attachment using mailcap entry
6930 edit-reply-to r edit the Reply-To field
6931 edit-subject s edit the subject of this message
6932 edit-to t edit the TO list
6933 edit-type ^T edit attachment type
6934 filter-entry F filter attachment through a shell command
6935 forget-passphrase ^F wipe PGP passphrase from memory
6936 ispell i run ispell on the message
6937 new-mime n compose new attachment using mailcap entry
6938 pgp-menu p show PGP options
6939 pipe-entry | pipe message/attachment to a shell command
6940 postpone-message P save this message to send later
6941 print-entry l print the current entry
6942 rename-file R rename/move an attached file
6943 send-message y send the message
6944 toggle-unlink u toggle whether to delete file after sending it
6945 view-attach RET view attachment using mailcap entry if necessary
6946 write-fcc w write the message to a folder
6950 delete-entry d delete the current entry
6951 undelete-entry u undelete the current entry
6955 change-dir c change directories
6956 check-new TAB check mailboxes for new mail
6957 enter-mask m enter a file mask
6958 search / search for a regular expression
6959 search-next n search for next match
6960 search-reverse ESC / search backwards for a regular expression
6961 select-new N select a new file in this directory
6962 sort o sort messages
6963 sort-reverse O sort messages in reverse order
6964 toggle-mailboxes TAB toggle whether to browse mailboxes or all files
6965 view-file SPACE view file
6966 subscribe s subscribe to current mailbox (IMAP Only)
6967 unsubscribe u unsubscribe to current mailbox (IMAP Only)
6968 toggle-subscribed T toggle view all/subscribed mailboxes (IMAP Only)
6972 view-name % view the key's user id
6973 verify-key c verify a PGP public key
6977 backspace BackSpace delete the char in front of the cursor
6978 backward-char ^B move the cursor one character to the left
6979 backward-word ESC b move the cursor to the previous word
6980 bol ^A jump to the beginning of the line
6981 buffy-cycle Space cycle among incoming mailboxes
6982 capitalize-word ESC c uppercase the first character in the word
6983 complete TAB complete filename or alias
6984 complete-query ^T complete address with query
6985 delete-char ^D delete the char under the cursor
6986 downcase-word ESC l lowercase all characters in current word
6987 eol ^E jump to the end of the line
6988 forward-char ^F move the cursor one character to the right
6989 forward-word ESC f move the cursor to the next word
6990 history-down not bound scroll down through the history list
6991 history-up not bound scroll up through the history list
6992 kill-eol ^K delete chars from cursor to end of line
6993 kill-eow ESC d delete chars from cursor to end of word
6994 kill-line ^U delete all chars on the line
6995 kill-word ^W delete the word in front of the cursor
6996 quote-char ^V quote the next typed key
6997 transpose-chars not bound transpose character under cursor with previous
6998 upcase-word ESC u uppercase all characters in current word
7000 Chapter 8. Miscellany
7008 Kari Hurtta <kari.hurtta@fmi.fi> co-developed the original MIME >parsing code back in the ELM-ME days.
7010 The following people have been very helpful to the development of Mutt:
7012 Vikas Agnihotri <vikasa@writeme.com>, Francois Berjon <Francois.Berjon@aar.alcatel-alsthom.fr>, Aric Blumer <aric@fore.com>, John Capo <jc@irbs.com>, David Champion <dgc@uchicago.edu, Brendan Cully <brendan@kublai.com>, Liviu Daia <daia@stoilow.imar.ro>, Thomas E. Dickey <dickey@herndon4.his.com>, David DeSimone <fox@convex.hp.com>, Nickolay N. Dudorov <nnd@wint.itfs.nsk.su>, Ruslan Ermilov <ru@freebsd.org>, Edmund Grimley Evans <edmundo@rano.org, Michael Finken <finken@conware.de>, Sven Guckes <guckes@math.fu-berlin.de>, Lars Hecking <lhecking@nmrc.ie>, Mark Holloman <holloman@nando.net>, Andreas Holzmann <holzmann@fmi.uni-passau.de>, Marco d'Itri <md@linux.it>, Björn Jacke <bjacke@suse.com>, Byrial Jensen <byrial@image.dk>, David Jeske <jeske@igcom.net>, Christophe Kalt <kalt@hugo.int-evry.fr>, Tommi Komulainen <Tommi.Komulainen@iki.fi>, Felix von Leitner (a.k.a ``Fefe'') <leitner@math.fu-berlin.de>, Brandon Long <blong@fiction.net>, Jimmy Mäkelä <jmy@f
7013 lashback.net>, Lars Marowsky-Bree <lmb@pointer.in-minden.de>, Thomas ``Mike'' Michlmayr <mike@cosy.sbg.ac.at>, Andrew W. Nosenko <awn@bcs.zp.ua>, David O'Brien <obrien@Nuxi.cs.ucdavis.edu>, Clint Olsen <olsenc@ichips.intel.com>, Park Myeong Seok <pms@romance.kaist.ac.kr>, Thomas Parmelan <tom@ankh.fr.eu.org>, Ollivier Robert <roberto@keltia.freenix.fr>, Thomas Roessler <roessler@does-not-exist.org>, Roland Rosenfeld <roland@spinnaker.de>, TAKIZAWA Takashi <taki@luna.email.ne.jp>, Allain Thivillon <Allain.Thivillon@alma.fr> Gero Treuner <gero@faveve.uni-stuttgart.de>, Vsevolod Volkov <vvv@lucky.net>, Ken Weinert <kenw@ihs.com>
7015 Mutt-ng is developed by the following people:
7017 Andreas Krennmair <ak@synflood.at>, Nico Golde <nico@ngolde.de>, Rocco Rutte <pdmef@cs.tu-berlin.de>
7019 The following people have been very helpful to the development of Mutt-ng:
7021 Christian Gall <cg@cgall.de>, Iain Lea <iain@bricbrac.de>, Andreas Kneib <akneib@gmx.net>, Carsten Schoelzki <cjs@weisshuhn.de>, Elimar Riesebieter <riesebie@lxtec.de>
projects / apps / madmutt.git / blob