2 The Mutt Next Generation E-Mail Client
16 Michael Elinks on mutt, circa 1995: ``All mail clients suck. This one just sucks less.''
18 Sven Guckes on mutt, ca. 2003: ``But it still sucks!''
19 _________________________________________________________________
28 4. Software Distribution Sites
38 1.1. Screens and Menus
57 3. Moving Around in Menus
58 4. Editing Input Fields
59 5. Reading Mail - The Index and Pager
61 5.1. The Message Index
64 5.4. Miscellaneous Functions
68 6.1. Composing new messages
70 6.3. Editing the message header
71 6.4. Using Mutt-ng with PGP
72 6.5. Sending anonymous messages via mixmaster
74 7. Forwarding and Bouncing Mail
79 1. Locations of Configuration Files
80 2. Basic Syntax of Initialization Files
81 3. Expansion within variables
84 3.2. Environment Variables
85 3.3. Configuration Variables
86 3.4. Self-Defined Variables
87 3.5. Pre-Defined Variables
90 4. Defining/Using aliases
91 5. Changing the default key bindings
92 6. Defining aliases for character sets
93 7. Setting variables based upon mailbox
95 9. Using color and mono video attributes
96 10. Ignoring (weeding) unwanted message headers
97 11. Alternative addresses
101 12.2. Receiving: Display Setup
103 12.4. Additional Notes
106 14. Using Multiple spool mailboxes
107 15. Defining mailboxes which receive mail
108 16. User defined headers
109 17. Defining the order of headers when viewing messages
110 18. Specify default save filename
111 19. Specify default Fcc: mailbox when composing
112 20. Specify default save filename and default Fcc: mailbox at once
113 21. Change settings based upon message recipients
114 22. Change settings before formatting a message
115 23. Choosing the cryptographic key of the recipient
116 24. Adding key sequences to the keyboard buffer
117 25. Executing functions
120 28. Setting variables
121 29. Reading initialization commands from another file
127 31.3. Conditional parts
129 32. Obsolete Variables
133 1. Regular Expressions
136 2.1. Complex Patterns
137 2.2. Patterns and Dates
142 3.2. Conditional Expansion
143 3.3. Modifications and Padding
148 5.1. Message Matching in Hooks
151 7. External Address Queries
154 10. Handling Mailing Lists
157 11.1. Linking threads
158 11.2. Breaking threads
160 12. Delivery Status Notification (DSN) Support
161 13. POP3 Support (OPTIONAL)
162 14. IMAP Support (OPTIONAL)
164 14.1. The Folder Browser
167 15. NNTP Support (OPTIONAL)
171 16. SMTP Support (OPTIONAL)
172 17. Managing multiple IMAP/POP/NNTP accounts (OPTIONAL)
173 18. Start a WWW Browser on URLs (EXTERNAL)
174 19. Compressed folders Support (OPTIONAL)
176 19.1. Open a compressed mailbox for reading
177 19.2. Write a compressed mailbox
178 19.3. Append a message to a compressed mailbox
179 19.4. Encrypted folders
181 5. Mutt-ng's MIME Support
183 1. Using MIME in Mutt
185 1.1. Viewing MIME messages in the pager
186 1.2. The Attachment Menu
187 1.3. The Compose Menu
189 2. MIME Type configuration with mime.types
190 3. MIME Viewer configuration with mailcap
192 3.1. The Basics of the mailcap file
193 3.2. Secure use of mailcap
194 3.3. Advanced mailcap Usage
195 3.4. Example mailcap files
198 5. MIME Multipart/Alternative
201 6. Security Considerations
207 3.1. Message-ID: headers
208 3.2. mailto:-style links
210 4. External applications
217 1. Command line options
219 3. Configuration Commands
220 4. Configuration variables
237 9. Hacking Documentation
242 2.1. Default Menu Movement Keys
243 2.2. Built-In Editor Functions
244 2.3. Default Index Menu Bindings
245 2.4. Default Pager Menu Bindings
246 2.5. ANSI Escape Sequences
248 2.7. Default Thread Function Bindings
249 2.8. Default Mail Composition Bindings
250 2.9. Default Compose Menu Bindings
251 2.10. PGP Key Menu Flags
252 3.1. Alternative Key Names
253 4.1. Default Sidebar Function Bindings
254 7.1. Mutt-NG Command Line Options
256 7.3. Obsolete Variables
258 Chapter 1. Introduction
265 4. Software Distribution Sites
269 8. Manual Conventions
273 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.
275 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.
279 http://www.muttng.org
283 * <mutt-ng-users@lists.berlios.de>: This is where the mutt-ng user support happens.
284 * <mutt-ng-devel@lists.berlios.de>: The development mailing list for mutt-ng
286 4. Software Distribution Sites
288 So far, there are no official releases of Mutt-ng, but you can download daily snapshots from http://mutt-ng.berlios.de/snapshots/
292 Visit channel #muttng on irc.freenode.net (www.freenode.net) to chat with other people interested in Mutt-ng.
296 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.
300 Mutt is Copyright (C) 1996-2000 Michael R. Elkins <me@cs.hmc.edu> and others
302 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.
304 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.
306 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.
308 8. Manual Conventions
310 This manual contains several (hopefully consistent) conventions to specially layout different items in different fashions.
311 * Configuration and environment variables will be printed in a typewriter font and both prefixed with a dollar sign as it's common for UNIX-like environments. Configuration variables are lower-case only while environment variables are upper-case only.
312 * Muttng-specific commands are enclosed in <> and printed in a typewriter font, too.
313 * As common for UNIX-like environments, references to manual pages are printed with the section enclosed in braces, as in vi(1) or muttngrc(5). Execute man [section] [name] to view the manual page.
315 If, while reading this fine manual, you find any inconsistencies of whatever kind, please contact the developers via <mutt-ng-devel@lists.berlios.de> to report it.
317 Chapter 2. Getting Started
323 1.1. Screens and Menus
342 3. Moving Around in Menus
343 4. Editing Input Fields
344 5. Reading Mail - The Index and Pager
346 5.1. The Message Index
349 5.4. Miscellaneous Functions
353 6.1. Composing new messages
355 6.3. Editing the message header
356 6.4. Using Mutt-ng with PGP
357 6.5. Sending anonymous messages via mixmaster
359 7. Forwarding and Bouncing Mail
364 1.1. Screens and Menus
366 mutt-ng offers different screens of which every has its special purpose:
367 * The index displays the contents of the currently opened mailbox.
368 * The pager is responsible for displaying messages, that is, the header, the body and all attached parts.
369 * The file browser offers operations on and displays information of all folders mutt-ng should watch for mail.
370 * The sidebar offers a permanent view of which mailboxes contain how many total, new and/or flagged mails.
371 * The help screen lists for all currently available commands how to invoke them as well as a short description.
372 * The compose menu is a comfortable interface take last actions before sending mail: change subjects, attach files, remove attachements, etc.
373 * The attachement menu gives a summary and the tree structure of the attachements of the current message.
374 * The alias menu lists all or a fraction of the aliases a user has defined.
375 * The key menu used in connection with encryption lets users choose the right key to encrypt with.
377 When mutt-ng is started without any further options, it'll open the users default mailbox and display the index.
381 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.)
383 Mutt-ng is configured using configuration files which allow users to add comments or manage them via version control systems to ease maintenance.
385 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.
389 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.
393 Mutt-ng has two basic concepts of user interaction:
394 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.
395 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.
399 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.
403 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.
409 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.
413 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.
415 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.
417 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.
421 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.
425 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.
429 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).
433 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.
435 Also, it's used to attach messages, news articles or files to a message, to re-edit any attachment including the message itself.
439 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.
443 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.
449 3. Moving Around in Menus
451 Information is presented in menus, very similar to ELM. Here is a tableshowing the common keys used to navigate menus in Mutt-ng.
453 Table 2.1. Default Menu Movement Keys
454 Key Function Description
455 j or Down <next-entry> move to the next entry
456 k or Up <previous-entry> move to the previous entry
457 z or PageDn <page-down> go to the next page
458 Z or PageUp <page-up> go to the previous page
459 = or Home <first-entry> jump to the first entry
460 * or End <last-entry> jump to the last entry
461 q <quit> exit the current menu
462 ? <help> list all key bindings for the current menu
464 4. Editing Input Fields
466 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.
468 Table 2.2. Built-In Editor Functions
469 Key Function Description
470 ^A or <Home> <bol> move to the start of the line
471 ^B or <Left> <backward-char> move back one char
472 Esc B <backward-word> move back one word
473 ^D or <Delete> <delete-char> delete the char under the cursor
474 ^E or <End> <eol> move to the end of the line
475 ^F or <Right> <forward-char> move forward one char
476 Esc F <forward-word> move forward one word
477 <Tab> <complete> complete filename or alias
478 ^T <complete-query> complete address with query
479 ^K <kill-eol> delete to the end of the line
480 ESC d <kill-eow> delete to the end of the word
481 ^W <kill-word> kill the word in front of the cursor
482 ^U <kill-line> delete entire line
483 ^V <quote-char> quote the next typed key
484 <Up> <history-up> recall previous string from history
485 <Down> <history-down> recall next string from history
486 <BackSpace> <backspace> kill the char in front of the cursor
487 Esc u <upcase-word> convert word to upper case
488 Esc l <downcase-word> convert word to lower case
489 Esc c <capitalize-word> capitalize the word
491 <Return> n/a finish editing
493 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
495 bind editor <delete> backspace
497 5. Reading Mail - The Index and Pager
499 Similar to many other mail clients, there are two modes in which mail isread 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.''
501 The next few sections describe the functions provided in each of these modes.
503 5.1. The Message Index
505 Table 2.3. Default Index Menu Bindings
506 Key Function Description
507 c change to a different mailbox
508 ESC c change to a folder in read-only mode
509 C copy the current message to another mailbox
510 ESC C decode a message and copy it to a folder
511 ESC s decode a message and save it to a folder
512 D delete messages matching a pattern
513 d delete the current message
515 l show messages matching a pattern
516 N mark message as new
517 o change the current sort method
518 O reverse sort the mailbox
519 q save changes and exit
521 T tag messages matching a pattern
522 t toggle the tag on a message
523 ESC t toggle tag on entire message thread
524 U undelete messages matching a pattern
527 x abort changes and exit
528 <Return> display-message
529 <Tab> jump to the next new or unread message
530 @ show the author's full e-mail address
531 $ save changes to mailbox
534 ^L clear and redraw the screen
535 ^T untag messages matching a pattern
539 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:
542 message is deleted (is marked for deletion)
545 message have attachments marked for deletion
548 contains a PGP public key
557 message is PGP encrypted
560 message has been replied to
563 message is signed, and the signature is succesfully verified
574 Some of the status flags can be turned on or off using
575 * set-flag (default: w)
576 * clear-flag (default: W)
578 Furthermore, the following flags reflect who the message is addressed to. They can be customized with the $to_chars variable.
581 message is to you and you only
584 message is to you, but also to or cc'ed to others
587 message is cc'ed to you
593 message is sent to a subscribed mailing list
597 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.
599 Table 2.4. Default Pager Menu Bindings
600 Key Function Description
601 <Return> go down one line
602 <Space> display the next page (or next message if at the end of a message)
603 - go back to the previous page
604 n search for next match
605 S skip beyond quoted text
606 T toggle display of quoted text
608 / search for a regular expression (pattern)
609 ESC / search backwards for a regular expression
610 \ toggle search pattern coloring
611 ^ jump to the top of the message
613 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).
615 Also, the internal pager supports a couple other advanced features. For one, it will accept and translate the ``standard'' nroff sequences forbold 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.
617 Additionally, the internal pager supports the ANSI escape sequences for character attributes. Mutt-ng translates them into the correct color and character settings. The sequences Mutt-ng supports are: ESC [ Ps;Ps;Ps;...;Ps m (see table below for possible values for Ps).
619 Table 2.5. ANSI Escape Sequences
626 3x Foreground color is x (see table below)
627 4x Background color is x (see table below)
629 Table 2.6. ANSI Colors
640 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.
644 When the mailbox is sorted by threads ,there are a few additional functions available in the index and pager modes.
646 Table 2.7. Default Thread Function Bindings
647 Key Function Description
648 ^D <delete-thread> delete all messages in the current thread
649 ^U <undelete-thread> undelete all messages in the current thread
650 ^N <next-thread> jump to the start of the next thread
651 ^P <previous-thread> jump to the start of the previous thread
652 ^R <read-thread> mark the current thread as read
653 ESC d <delete-subthread> delete all messages in the current subthread
654 ESC u <undelete-subthread> undelete all messages in the current subthread
655 ESC n <next-subthread> jump to the start of the next subthread
656 ESC p <previous-subthread> jump to the start of the previous subthread
657 ESC r <read-subthread> mark the current subthread as read
658 ESC t <tag-thread> toggle the tag on the current thread
659 ESC v <collapse-thread> toggle collapse for the current thread
660 ESC V <collapse-all> toggle collapse for all threads
661 P <parent-message> jump to parent message in thread
663 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 onthe screen. See %M in $index_format.
665 For example, you could use %?M?(#%03M)&(%4l)? in $index_format to optionally display the number of hidden messages if the thread is collapsed.
667 See also the $strict_threads variable.
669 5.4. Miscellaneous Functions
671 <create-alias> (default: a)
673 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.
675 <check-traditional-pgp> (default: ESC P)
677 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.
679 <display-toggle-weed> (default: h)
681 Toggles the weeding of message header fields specified by ignore commands.
685 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.
687 <edit-type> (default: ) (default: ^E on the attachment menu, and in the pager and index menus; ^T on the compose menu)
689 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.
691 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.
693 <enter-command> (default: :)
695 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.
697 <extract-keys> (default: ^K)
699 This command extracts PGP public keys from the current or tagged message(s) and adds them to your PGP public key ring.
701 <forget-passphrase> (default: ^F)
703 This command wipes the passphrase(s) from memory. It is useful, if you misspelled the passphrase.
705 <list-reply> (default: L)
707 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.
709 <pipe-message> (default: )
711 Asks for an external Unix command and pipes the current or tagged message(s) to it. The variables $pipe_decode, $pipe_split, $pipe_decode and $wait_key control the exact behavior of this function.
713 <resend-message> (default: ESC e)
715 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.
717 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.
719 <shell-escape> (default: !)
721 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.
723 <toggle-quoted> (default: T)
725 The pager uses the $quote_regexp variable to detect quoted text when displaying the body of the message. This function toggles the displayof the quoted material in the message. It is particularly useful when are interested in just the response and there is a large amount of quoted text in the way.
727 <skip-quoted> (default: S)
729 This function will go to the next line of non-quoted text which come after a line of quoted text in the internal pager.
733 The following bindings are available in the index for sending messages.
735 Table 2.8. Default Mail Composition Bindings
736 Key Function Description
737 m <compose> compose a new message
738 r <reply> reply to sender
739 g <group-reply> reply to all recipients
740 L <list-reply> reply to mailing list address
741 f <forward> forward message
742 b <bounce> bounce (remail) message
743 ESC k <mail-key> mail a PGP public key to someone
745 Bouncing a message sends the message as is to the recipient you specify. Forwarding a message allows you to add comments or modify the message you are forwarding. These items are discussed in greater detail in the next chapter forwarding-mail .
747 6.1. Composing new messages
749 When you want to send an email using mutt-ng, simply press m on your keyboard. Then, mutt-ng asks for the recipient via a prompt in the last line:
752 After you've finished entering the recipient(s), press return. If you want to send an email to more than one recipient, separate the email addresses using the comma ",". Mutt-ng then asks you for the email subject. Again, press return after you've entered it. After that, mutt-ng got the most important information from you, and starts up an editor where you can then enter your email.
754 The editor that is called is selected in the following way: you can e.g. set it in the mutt-ng configuration:
755 set editor = "vim +/^$/ -c ':set tw=72'"
759 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(1) 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.
761 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.
763 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.
765 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.
767 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:
770 Once you have finished editing the body of your mail message, you are returned to the compose menu. The following options are available:
772 Table 2.9. Default Compose Menu Bindings
773 Key Function Description
774 a <attach-file> attach a file
775 A <attach-message> attach message(s) to the message
776 ESC k <attach-key> attach a PGP public key
777 d <edit-description> edit description on attachment
778 D <detach-file> detach a file
779 t <edit-to> edit the To field
780 ESC f <edit-from> edit the From field
781 r <edit-reply-to> edit the Reply-To field
782 c <edit-cc> edit the Cc field
783 b <edit-bcc> edit the Bcc field
784 y <send-message> send the message
785 s <edit-subject> edit the Subject
786 S <smime-menu> select S/MIME options
787 f <edit-fcc> specify an ``Fcc'' mailbox
788 p <pgp-menu> select PGP options
789 P <postpone-message> postpone this message until later
790 q <quit> quit (abort) sending the message
791 w <write-fcc> write the message to a folder
792 i <ispell> check spelling (if available on your system)
793 ^F <forget-passphrase> wipe passphrase(s) from memory
795 Note: The attach-message function will prompt you for a folder to attach messages from. You can now tag messages in that folder and theywill be attached to the message you are sending. Note that certainoperations 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.
799 6.2.1. Simple Replies
801 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.
802 On Mon, Mar 07, 2005 at 05:02:12PM +0100, Michael Svensson wrote:
803 > Bill, can you please send last month's progress report to Mr.
804 > Morgan? We also urgently need the cost estimation for the new
805 > production server that we want to set up before our customer's
806 > project will go live.
808 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.
810 The quote attribution is configurable, by default it is set to
811 set attribution = "On %d, %n wrote:"
813 It can also be set to something more compact, e.g.
814 set attribution = "attribution="* %n <%a> [%(%y-%m-%d %H:%M)]:"
816 The example above results in the following attribution:
817 * Michael Svensson <svensson@foobar.com> [05-03-06 17:02]:
818 > Bill, can you please send last month's progress report to Mr.
819 > Morgan? We also urgently need the cost estimation for the new
820 > production server that we want to set up before our customer's
821 > project will go live.
823 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.
825 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.
829 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 functionalityensures 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.
833 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.
835 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.
836 lists linuxevent@luga\.at vuln-dev@ mutt-ng-users@
838 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.
840 6.3. Editing the message header
842 When editing the header of your outgoing message, there are a couple of special features available.
844 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.
846 You can also attach files to your message by specifying
847 Attach: filename [description]
849 where filename is the file to attach and description is an optional string to use as the description of the attached file.
851 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.
853 Also see the $edit_headers and $editor_headers variables
855 6.4. Using Mutt-ng with PGP
857 If you want to use PGP, you can specify
860 ``E'' encrypts, ``S'' signs and ``S<id>'' signs with the given key, setting $pgp_sign_as permanently.
862 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.
864 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.
866 Once you have successfully finished the key selection, the message will be encrypted using the selected public keys, and sent out.
868 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.
870 The flags sequence (%f) will expand to one of the following flags:
872 Table 2.10. PGP Key Menu Flags
874 R The key has been revoked and can't be used.
875 X The key is expired and can't be used.
876 d You have marked the key as disabled.
877 c There are unknown critical self-signature packets.
879 The capabilities field (%c) expands to a two-character sequencerepresenting 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.
881 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.
883 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.
885 6.5. Sending anonymous messages via mixmaster
887 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.
889 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.
891 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.
893 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.
895 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.
897 7. Forwarding and Bouncing Mail
899 Often, it is necessary to forward mails to other people. Therefore, mutt-ng supports forwarding messages in two different ways.
901 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:
902 ----- Forwarded message from Lucas User <luser@example.com> -----
904 From: Lucas User <luser@example.com>
905 Date: Thu, 02 Dec 2004 03:08:34 +0100
906 To: Michael Random <mrandom@example.com>
907 Subject: Re: blackmail
909 Pay me EUR 50,000.- cash or your favorite stuffed animal will die
912 ----- End forwarded message -----
914 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.
916 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.
918 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.
922 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.
924 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.
926 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.
928 See also the $postpone quad-option.
930 Chapter 3. Configuration
934 1. Locations of Configuration Files
935 2. Basic Syntax of Initialization Files
936 3. Expansion within variables
938 3.1. Commands' Output
939 3.2. Environment Variables
940 3.3. Configuration Variables
941 3.4. Self-Defined Variables
942 3.5. Pre-Defined Variables
943 3.6. Type Conversions
945 4. Defining/Using aliases
946 5. Changing the default key bindings
947 6. Defining aliases for character sets
948 7. Setting variables based upon mailbox
950 9. Using color and mono video attributes
951 10. Ignoring (weeding) unwanted message headers
952 11. Alternative addresses
956 12.2. Receiving: Display Setup
958 12.4. Additional Notes
961 14. Using Multiple spool mailboxes
962 15. Defining mailboxes which receive mail
963 16. User defined headers
964 17. Defining the order of headers when viewing messages
965 18. Specify default save filename
966 19. Specify default Fcc: mailbox when composing
967 20. Specify default save filename and default Fcc: mailbox at once
968 21. Change settings based upon message recipients
969 22. Change settings before formatting a message
970 23. Choosing the cryptographic key of the recipient
971 24. Adding key sequences to the keyboard buffer
972 25. Executing functions
975 28. Setting variables
976 29. Reading initialization commands from another file
982 31.3. Conditional parts
984 32. Obsolete Variables
986 1. Locations of Configuration Files
988 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.
990 .muttrc (or .muttngrc for Mutt-ng) is the file where you will usually place your commands to configure Mutt-ng.
992 2. Basic Syntax of Initialization Files
994 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 (;).
995 set realname='Mutt-ng user' ; ignore x-
997 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,
998 my_hdr X-Disclaimer: Why are you listening to me? # This is a comment
1000 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.
1002 \ 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.
1003 set realname="Michael \"MuttDude\" Elkins"
1005 ``\\'' means to insert a literal ``\'' into the line. ``\n'' and ``\r'' have their usual C meanings of linefeed and carriage-return, respectively.
1007 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.
1009 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 ``#''.
1011 set realname="Michael \"MuttDude\" Elkins"
1013 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!
1022 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.
1024 The commands understood by mutt are explained in the next paragraphs. For a complete list, see the commands.
1026 3. Expansion within variables
1028 Besides just assign static content to variables, there's plenty of ways of adding external and more or less dynamic content.
1030 3.1. Commands' Output
1032 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:
1033 my_hdr X-Operating-System: `uname -a`
1035 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.
1037 3.2. Environment Variables
1039 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,
1040 set record=+sent_on_$HOSTNAME
1042 sets the $record variable to the string +sent_on_ and appends the value of the evironment variable $HOSTNAME.
1044 Note: There will be no warning if an environment variable is not defined. The result will of the expansion will then be empty.
1046 3.3. Configuration Variables
1048 As for environment variables, the values of all configuration variables as string can be used in the same way, too. For example,
1049 set imap_home_namespace = $folder
1051 would set the value of $imap_home_namespace to the value to which $folder is currently set to.
1053 Note: There're no logical links established in such cases so that the the value for $imap_home_namespace won't change even if $folder gets changed.
1055 Note: There will be no warning if a configuration variable is not defined or is empty. The result will of the expansion will then be empty.
1057 3.4. Self-Defined Variables
1059 Mutt-ng flexibly allows users to define their own variables. To avoid conflicts with the standard set and to prevent misleading error messages, there's a reserved namespace for them: all user-defined variables must be prefixed with user_ and can be used just like any ordinary configuration or environment variable.
1061 For example, to view the manual, users can either define two macros like the following
1062 macro generic <F1> "!less -r /path/to/manual" "Show manual"
1063 macro pager <F1> "!less -r /path/to/manual" "Show manual"
1065 for generic, pager and index .The alternative is to define a custom variable like so:
1066 set user_manualcmd = "!less -r /path/to_manual"
1067 macro generic <F1> "$user_manualcmd<enter>" "Show manual"
1068 macro pager <F1> "$user_manualcmd<enter>" "Show manual"
1069 macro index <F1> "$user_manualcmd<enter>" "Show manual"
1071 to re-use the command sequence as in:
1072 macro index <F2> "$user_manualcmd | grep '\^[ ]\\+~. '" "Show Patterns"
1074 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.
1076 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.
1078 The complete removal is done via the unset keyword.
1080 After the following sequence:
1084 the variable $user_foo has a current value of 666 and an initial of 42. The query
1087 will show 666. After doing the reset via
1090 a following query will give 42 as the result. After unsetting it via
1093 any query or operation (except the noted expansion within other statements) will lead to an error message.
1095 3.5. Pre-Defined Variables
1097 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.
1099 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:
1100 muttng -Q muttng_docdir
1102 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:
1103 set user_manualcmd = '!less -r /path/to_manual'
1106 set user_manualcmd = "!less -r $muttng_docdir/manual.txt"
1108 which works everywhere if a manual is installed.
1110 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.
1112 For example, the statement
1113 folder-hook . "set user_current_folder = $muttng_folder_name"
1115 will be already be translated to the following when reading the startup files:
1116 folder-hook . "set user_current_folder = some_folder"
1118 with some_folder being the name of the first folder muttng opens. On the contrary,
1119 folder-hook . 'set user_current_folder = $muttng_folder_name'
1121 will be executed at runtime because of the single quotes so that user_current_folder will always have the value of the currently opened folder.
1123 A more practical example is:
1124 folder-hook . 'source ~/.mutt/score-$muttng_folder_name'
1126 which can be used to source files containing score commands depending on the folder the user enters.
1128 3.6. Type Conversions
1130 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):
1132 set folder = $read_inc
1133 set read_inc = $folder
1134 set user_magic_number = 42
1135 set folder = $user_magic_number
1137 4. Defining/Using aliases
1139 Usage: aliaskey address [, address,...]
1141 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.
1143 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 (``,'').
1145 To remove an alias or aliases (``*'' means all aliases):
1147 unalias [* | key...]
1148 alias muttdude me@cs.hmc.edu (Michael Elkins)
1149 alias theguys manny, moe, jack
1151 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.
1153 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.
1156 source /usr/local/share/Mutt-ng.aliases
1157 source ~/.mail_aliases
1158 set alias_file=~/.mail_aliases
1160 To use aliases, you merely use the alias at any place in mutt where muttprompts 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 $editor_headers variable set.
1162 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.
1164 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.
1166 5. Changing the default key bindings
1168 Usage: bindmapkeyfunction
1170 This command allows you to change the default key bindings (operation invoked when pressing a key).
1172 map specifies in which menu the binding belongs. Multiple maps may be specified by separating them with commas (no additional whitespace isallowed). The currently defined maps are:
1175 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.
1178 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).
1181 The attachment menu is used to access the attachments on received messages.
1184 The browser is used for both browsing the local directory structure, and for listing all of your incoming mailboxes.
1187 The editor is the line-based editor the user enters text data.
1190 The index is the list of messages contained in a mailbox.
1193 The compose menu is the screen used when sending a new message.
1196 The pager is the mode used to display message/attachment data, and help listings.
1199 The pgp menu is used to select the OpenPGP keys used for encrypting outgoing messages.
1202 The postpone menu is similar to the index menu, except is used when recalling a message the user was composing, but saved until later.
1204 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?).
1206 In addition, key may consist of:
1208 Table 3.1. Alternative Key Names
1209 Sequence Description
1212 <backtab> backtab / shift-tab
1222 <pagedown> Page Down
1223 <backspace> Backspace
1232 <f10> function key 10
1234 key does not need to be enclosed in quotes unless it contains a space (`` '').
1236 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.
1238 6. Defining aliases for character sets
1240 Usage: charset-hookalias charset
1241 Usage: iconv-hookcharset local-charset
1243 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.
1245 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.
1247 7. Setting variables based upon mailbox
1249 Usage: folder-hook [!]regexpcommand
1251 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.
1253 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.
1255 Note that the settings are not restored when you leave the mailbox. For example, a command action to perform is to change the sorting methodbased upon the mailbox being read:
1256 folder-hook mutt set sort=threads
1258 However, the sorting method is not restored to its previous value when reading a different mailbox. To specify a default command, use the pattern ``.'':
1259 folder-hook . set sort=date-sent
1263 Usage: macromenu keysequence [description]
1265 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 singlekey.
1267 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 thecommas separating them.
1269 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.
1271 The advantage with using function names directly is that the macros willwork regardless of the current key bindings, so they are not dependent on the user having particular key definitions. This makes them more robustand portable, and also facilitates defining of macros in files used by more than one user (eg. the system Muttngrc).
1273 Optionally you can specify a descriptive text after sequence, which is shown in the help screens.
1275 Note: Macro definitions (if any) listed in the help screen(s), are silently truncated at the screen width, and are not wrapped.
1277 9. Using color and mono video attributes
1279 Usage: colorobject foregroundbackground [regexp]
1280 Usage: color index foregroundbackgroundpattern
1281 Usage: uncolor index pattern[pattern...]
1283 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).
1285 object can be one of:
1287 * body (match regexp in the body of messages)
1288 * bold (highlighting bold patterns in the body of messages)
1289 * error (error messages printed by Mutt-ng)
1290 * header (match regexp in the message header)
1291 * hdrdefault (default color of the message header in the pager)
1292 * index (match pattern in the message index)
1293 * indicator (arrow or bar used to indicate the current item in a menu)
1294 * markers (the ``+'' markers at the beginning of wrapped lines in the pager)
1295 * message (informational messages)
1297 * quoted (text matching $quote_regexp in the body of a message)
1298 * quoted1, quoted2, ..., quotedN (higher levels of quoting)
1299 * search (highlighting of words in the pager)
1301 * status (mode lines used to display info about the mailbox or message)
1302 * tilde (the ``~'' used to pad blank lines in the pager)
1303 * tree (thread tree drawn in the message index and attachment menu)
1304 * underline (highlighting underlined patterns in the body of messages)
1306 foreground and background can be one of the following:
1318 foreground can optionally be prefixed with the keyword bright to make the foreground color boldfaced (e.g., brightred).
1320 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):
1321 set COLORFGBG="green;black"
1324 Note: The S-Lang library requires you to use the lightgray and brown keywords instead of white and yellow when setting this variable.
1326 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.
1328 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.
1330 If your terminal does not support color, it is still possible change the video attributes through the use of the ``mono'' command:
1332 Usage: mono<object> <attribute>[regexp]
1333 Usage: mono index attributepattern
1334 Usage: unmono index pattern [pattern...]
1336 where attribute is one of the following:
1343 10. Ignoring (weeding) unwanted message headers
1345 Usage: [un]ignorepattern [pattern...]
1347 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.
1349 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.
1351 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''.
1353 ``unignore *'' will remove all tokens from the ignore list.
1356 # Sven's draconian header weeding
1358 unignore from date subject to cc
1359 unignore organization organisation x-mailer: x-newsreader: x-mailing-list:
1362 11. Alternative addresses
1364 Usage: [un]alternatesregexp [regexp...]
1366 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.)
1368 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.
1370 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.
1372 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.
1378 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.
1380 For introductory information on format=flowed messages, see <http://www.joeclark.org/ffaq.html>.
1382 12.2. Receiving: Display Setup
1384 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:
1387 The code above makes the line break 10 columns before the right side of the terminal.
1389 If your terminal is so wide that the lines are embarrassingly long, you can also set a maximum line length:
1390 set max_line_length = 120
1392 The example above will give you lines not longer than 120 characters.
1394 When you view at format=flowed messages, you will often see the quoting hierarchy like in the following example:
1395 >Bill, can you please send last month's progress report to Mr.
1396 >Morgan? We also urgently need the cost estimation for the new
1397 >production server that we want to set up before our customer's
1398 >project will go live.
1400 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:
1403 This will lead to a nicer result that is easier to read:
1404 > Bill, can you please send last month's progress report to Mr.
1405 > Morgan? We also urgently need the cost estimation for the new
1406 > production server that we want to set up before our customer's
1407 > project will go live.
1411 If you want mutt-ng to send emails with format=flowed set, you need to explicitly set it:
1414 Additionally, you have to use an editor which supports writing format=flowed-conforming emails. For vim(1), this is done by adding w to the formatoptions (see :h formatoptions and :h fo-table) when writing emails.
1416 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:
1417 * > This is not the quote character but a right angle used for other reasons
1418 * From with a trailing space.
1419 * just a space for formatting reasons
1421 Please make sure that you manually prepend a space to each of them.
1423 12.4. Additional Notes
1425 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.
1429 Usage: [un]listsregexp [regexp...]
1430 Usage: [un]subscriberegexp [regexp...]
1432 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.
1434 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''.
1436 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.
1438 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.
1440 The ``unlists'' command is used to remove a token from the list of known and subscribed mailing-lists. Use ``unlists *'' to remove all tokens.
1442 To remove a mailing list from the list of subscribed mailing lists, but keep it on the list of known mailing lists, use ``unsubscribe''.
1444 14. Using Multiple spool mailboxes
1446 Usage: mbox-hook [!]patternmailbox
1448 This command is used to move read messages from a specified mailbox to adifferent 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.
1450 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).
1452 15. Defining mailboxes which receive mail
1454 Usage: [un]mailboxes [!]filename [filename...]
1456 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.
1458 When changing folders, pressing space will cycle through folders with new mail.
1460 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.
1462 The ``unmailboxes'' command is used to remove a token from the list of folders which receive mail. Use ``unmailboxes *'' to remove all tokens.
1464 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.
1466 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.
1468 16. User defined headers
1471 Usage: unmy_hdrfield [field...]
1473 The ``my_hdr'' command allows you to create your own header fields which will be added to every message you send.
1475 For example, if you would like to add an ``Organization:'' header field to all of your outgoing messages, you can put the command
1476 my_hdr Organization: A Really Big Company, Anytown, USA
1480 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.
1482 If you would like to add a header field to a single message, you should either set the $edit_headers variable, or use the edit-headers function (default: ``E'') in the send-menu so that you can edit the header of your message along with the body.
1484 To remove user defined header fields, use the ``unmy_hdr'' command. You may specify an asterisk (``*'') to remove all header fields, or the fields to remove. For example, to remove all ``To'' and ``Cc'' header fields, you could use:
1487 17. Defining the order of headers when viewing messages
1489 Usage: hdr_orderheader1header2header3
1491 With this command, you can specify an order in which mutt will attempt to present headers to you when viewing messages.
1493 ``unhdr_order *'' will clear all previous headers from the order list, thus removing the header order effects set by the system-wide startup file.
1494 hdr_order From Date: From: To: Cc: Subject:
1496 18. Specify default save filename
1498 Usage: save-hook [!]patternfilename
1500 This command is used to override the default filename used when saving messages. filename will be used as the default filename if the message is From: an address matching regexp or if you are the author and the message is addressed to: something matching regexp .
1502 See pattern-hook for information on the exact format of pattern.
1505 save-hook me@(turing\\.)?cs\\.hmc\\.edu$ +elkins
1506 save-hook aol\\.com$ +spam
1508 Also see the fcc-save-hook command.
1510 19. Specify default Fcc: mailbox when composing
1512 Usage: fcc-hook [!]patternmailbox
1514 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 $record mailbox.
1516 See pattern-hook for information on the exact format of pattern.
1518 Example: fcc-hook ]@.[aol\\.com$ +spammers
1520 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.
1522 20. Specify default save filename and default Fcc: mailbox at once
1524 Usage: fcc-save-hook [!]patternmailbox
1526 This command is a shortcut, equivalent to doing both a fcc-hook and a save-hook with its arguments.
1528 21. Change settings based upon message recipients
1530 Usage: reply-hook [!]patterncommand
1531 Usage: send-hook [!]patterncommand
1532 Usage: send2-hook [!]patterncommand
1536 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.
1538 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.
1540 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.
1542 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).
1544 See pattern-hook for information on the exact format of pattern.
1546 Example: send-hook mutt "set mime_forward signature=''"
1548 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.
1550 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.
1552 22. Change settings before formatting a message
1554 Usage: message-hook [!]patterncommand
1556 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.
1558 See pattern-hook for information on the exact format of pattern.
1561 message-hook ~A/=A 'set pager=builtin'
1562 message-hook '~f/=f freshmeat-news' 'set pager="less \"+/^ subject:.*\""'
1564 23. Choosing the cryptographic key of the recipient
1566 Usage: crypt-hookpatternkeyid
1568 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 wouldnormally 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.
1570 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.
1572 24. Adding key sequences to the keyboard buffer
1576 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. For example, the following command will automatically collapse all threads when entering a folder:
1577 folder-hook . 'push <collapse-all>'
1579 25. Executing functions
1581 Usage: execfunction [function...]
1583 This command can be used to execute any function. Functions are listed in the functions. ``exec function'' is equivalent to ``push <function>''.
1587 Usage: scorepattern value
1588 Usage: unscorepattern [pattern...]
1590 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''.
1592 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.
1593 score "~f/=f nion@muttng\.org" 50
1594 score "~f/=f @sco\.com" -100
1596 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:
1597 score "~f/=f santaclaus@northpole\.int" =666
1599 What is important to note is that negative score values will be rounded up to 0.
1601 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:
1602 * flag threshold: when a message has a score value equal or higher than the flag threshold, it will be flagged.
1603 * read threshold: when a message has a score value equal or lower than the read threshold, it will be marked as read.
1604 * delete threshold: when a message has a score value equal or lower than the delete threshold, it will be marked as deleted.
1606 These three thresholds can be set via the variables $score_threshold_read, $score_threshold_flag and $score_threshold_delete.
1608 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.
1610 Scoring gets especially interesting when combined with the color command and the ~n/=n pattern:
1611 color index black yellow "~n/=n 10-"
1612 color index red yellow "~n/=n 100-"
1614 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.
1618 Usage: spampatternformat
1619 Usage: nospampattern
1621 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.)
1623 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.
1625 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.
1627 For example, suppose I use DCC, SpamAssassin, and PureMessage. I might define these spam settings:
1628 spam "X-DCC-.*-Metrics:.*(....)=many" "90+/DCC-%1"
1629 spam "X-Spam-Status: Yes" "90+/SA"
1630 spam "X-PerlMX-Spam: .*Probability=([0-9]+)%" "%1/PM"
1631 set spam_separator=", "
1633 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 read90+/DCC-Fuz2, 97/PM. (The four characters before ``=many'' in a DCC report indicate the checksum used -- in this case, ``Fuz2''.)
1635 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.
1637 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/=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.
1639 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.
1641 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 lowerpriority 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.
1643 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 amore precise pattern under a nospam command.
1645 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.
1647 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:
1648 spam "^From: .*MAILER-DAEMON" "999"
1650 28. Setting variables
1652 Usage: set [no|inv]variable[=value] [variable...]
1653 Usage: togglevariable [variable...]
1654 Usage: unsetvariable [ variable...]
1655 Usage: resetvariable [ variable...]
1657 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.
1659 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.
1661 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.''
1663 Prefixing a variable with ``no'' will unset it. Example: set noaskbcc .
1665 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.
1667 The toggle command automatically prepends the inv prefix to all specified variables.
1669 The unset command automatically prepends the no prefix to all specified variables.
1671 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:
1674 The question mark is actually only required for boolean and quadoption variables.
1676 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.
1678 With the reset command there exists the special variable ``all'', which allows you to reset all variables to their system defaults.
1680 29. Reading initialization commands from another file
1682 Usage: sourcefilename [filename...]
1684 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.
1686 If the filename begins with a tilde (``~''), it will be expanded to the path of your home directory.
1688 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|).
1692 Usage: unhook [* | hook-type]
1694 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.
1698 31.1. Character Sets
1700 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.
1702 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:
1703 set config_charset = "..."
1705 and replacing the dots with the actual character set. To avoid problems while maintaining the setup, vim(1) user's may want to use modelines as show in:
1706 # vim:fileencoding=...:
1708 while, again, replacing the dots with the appropriate name. This tells vim(1) as which character set to read and save the file.
1710 31.2. Modularization
1712 ``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.
1714 When using separation, setups may be, as a whole or in fractions, shared over different systems.
1716 31.3. Conditional parts
1718 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.
1720 To solve this, mutt-ng contain a feature based on the ``ifdef'' patch written for mutt. Its basic syntax is:
1721 ifdef <item> <command>
1722 ifndef <item> <command>
1724 ...whereby <item> can be one of:
1730 All available functions, variables and menus are documented elsewhere in this manual but ``features'' is specific to these two commands. To test for one, prefix one of the following keywords with feature_: ncurses, slang, iconv, idn, dotlock, standalone, pop, nntp, imap, ssl, gnutls, sasl, sasl2, libesmtp, compressed, color, classic_pgp, classic_smime, gpgme, header_cache
1732 As an example, one can use the following in ~/.muttngrc:
1733 ifdef feature_imap 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-imap'
1734 ifdef feature_pop 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-pop'
1735 ifdef feature_nntp 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-nntp'
1737 ...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.
1739 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:
1740 ifdef imap_mail_check 'set imap_mail_check = 300'
1742 Provided for completeness is the test for menu names. To set $pager_index_lines only if the pager menu is available, use:
1743 ifdef pager 'set pager_index_lines = 10'
1745 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:
1746 ifdef feature_ncurses 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-ncurses'
1747 ifndef feature_ncurses 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-slang'
1750 ifdef feature_slang 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-slang'
1751 ifndef feature_slang 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-ncurses'
1753 32. Obsolete Variables
1755 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.
1757 Chapter 4. Advanced Usage
1761 1. Regular Expressions
1764 2.1. Complex Patterns
1765 2.2. Patterns and Dates
1770 3.2. Conditional Expansion
1771 3.3. Modifications and Padding
1776 5.1. Message Matching in Hooks
1778 6. Using the sidebar
1779 7. External Address Queries
1781 9. Mailbox Shortcuts
1782 10. Handling Mailing Lists
1785 11.1. Linking threads
1786 11.2. Breaking threads
1788 12. Delivery Status Notification (DSN) Support
1789 13. POP3 Support (OPTIONAL)
1790 14. IMAP Support (OPTIONAL)
1792 14.1. The Folder Browser
1793 14.2. Authentication
1795 15. NNTP Support (OPTIONAL)
1797 15.1. Again: Scoring
1799 16. SMTP Support (OPTIONAL)
1800 17. Managing multiple IMAP/POP/NNTP accounts (OPTIONAL)
1801 18. Start a WWW Browser on URLs (EXTERNAL)
1802 19. Compressed folders Support (OPTIONAL)
1804 19.1. Open a compressed mailbox for reading
1805 19.2. Write a compressed mailbox
1806 19.3. Append a message to a compressed mailbox
1807 19.4. Encrypted folders
1809 1. Regular Expressions
1811 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.
1813 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: ``\\''.
1815 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.
1817 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).
1819 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.
1821 The period ``.'' matches any single character. The caret ``^'' andthe dollar sign ``$'' are metacharacters that respectively match the empty string at the beginning and end of a line.
1823 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.
1825 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:
1828 Alphanumeric characters.
1831 Alphabetic characters.
1834 Space or tab characters.
1843 Characters that are both printable and visible. (A space is printable, but not visible, while an ``a'' is both.)
1846 Lower-case alphabetic characters.
1849 Printable characters (characters that are not control characters.)
1852 Punctuation characters (characters that are not letter, digits, control characters, or space characters).
1855 Space characters (such as space, tab and formfeed, to name a few).
1858 Upper-case alphabetic characters.
1861 Characters that are hexadecimal digits.
1863 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[.
1865 Two additional special sequences can appear in character lists. These apply to non-ASCII character sets, which can have single symbols (calledcollating elements) that are represented with more than one character, as well as several characters that are equivalent for collating or sorting purposes:
1868 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''.
1871 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''.
1873 A regular expression matching a single character may be followed by one of several repetition operators:
1876 The preceding item is optional and matched at most once.
1879 The preceding item will be matched zero or more times.
1882 The preceding item will be matched one or more times.
1885 The preceding item is matched exactly n times.
1888 The preceding item is matched n or more times.
1891 The preceding item is matched at most m times.
1894 The preceding item is matched at least n times, but no more than m times.
1896 Two regular expressions may be concatenated; the resulting regular expression matches any string formed by concatenating two substrings that respectively match the concatenated subexpressions.
1898 Two regular expressions may be joined by the infix operator ``|''; the resulting regular expression matches any string matching either subexpression.
1900 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.
1902 Note: If you compile Mutt-ng with the GNU rx package, the following operators may also be used in regular expressions:
1905 Matches the empty string at either the beginning or the end of a word.
1908 Matches the empty string within a word.
1911 Matches the empty string at the beginning of a word.
1914 Matches the empty string at the end of a word.
1917 Matches any word-constituent character (letter, digit, or underscore).
1920 Matches any character that is not word-constituent.
1923 Matches the empty string at the beginning of a buffer (string).
1926 Matches the empty string at the end of a buffer.
1928 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.
1932 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.
1934 It must be noted that in this table, EXPR is a regular expression. For ranges, the forms <[MAX], >>[MIN], [MIN]- and -[MAX] are also possible.
1936 2.1. Complex Patterns
1938 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:
1941 The pattern above matches all messages that contain ``SPAM'' in the subject and are unread.
1943 To logical OR patterns, simply use the | operator. This one especially useful when using local groups:
1944 ~f/=f ("nion@muttng\.org"|"ak@muttng\.org"|"pdmef@muttng\.org")
1945 (~b/=b mutt-ng|~s/=s Mutt-ng)
1946 !~x/=x '@synflood\.at'
1948 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.
1950 2.2. Patterns and Dates
1952 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.
1954 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.
1959 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).
1961 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:
1962 ~d/=d >2w # messages older than two weeks
1963 ~d/=d <3d # messages newer than 3 days
1964 ~d/=d =1m # messages that are exactly one month old
1970 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.
1972 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.
1974 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:
1975 * the current hostname
1976 * the current mutt-ng version number
1978 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:
1979 set status_format = "%v on %h: ..."
1981 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:
1982 Mutt-ng 1.5.9i on mailhost: ...
1984 In the index, there're more useful information one could want to see:
1985 * which mailbox is open
1986 * how man new, flagged or postponed messages
1989 To include the mailbox' name is as easy as:
1990 set status_format = "%v on %h: %B: ...
1992 When the currently opened mailbox is Inbox, this will be expanded to:
1993 Mutt-ng 1.5.9i on mailhost: Inbox: ...
1995 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.
1997 3.2. Conditional Expansion
1999 To only print the number of messages if there are new messages in the current mailbox, further extend $status_format to:
2000 set status_format = "%v on %h: %B %?n?%n new? ...
2002 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:
2003 %?<item>?<string if nonzero>?
2005 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.
2007 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:
2008 %?<item>?<string if nonzero>&<string if zero>?
2010 Using this we can make mutt-ng to do the following:
2011 * make it print ``n new messages'' whereby n is the count but only if there new ones
2012 * and make it print ``no new messages'' if there aren't any
2014 The corresponding configuration is:
2015 set status_format = "%v on %h: %B: %?n?%n new messages&no new messages? ...
2017 This doubles the use of the ``new messages'' string because it'll get always printed. Thus, it can be shortened to:
2018 set status_format = "%v on %h: %B: %?n?%n&no? new messages ...
2020 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.
2022 3.3. Modifications and Padding
2024 Besides the information given so far, there're even more features of format strings:
2025 * When specifying %_<item> instead of just %<item>, mutt-ng will convert all characters in the expansion of <item> to lowercase.
2026 * When specifying %:<item> instead of just %<item>, mutt-ng will convert all dots in the expansion of <item> to underscores (_).
2028 Also, there's a feature called Padding supplied by the following two expandos: %|X and %>X .
2031 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:
2033 set status_format = "%v on %h: %B: %?n?%n&no? new messages %|-"
2036 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 %>):
2038 set status_format = "%B: %?n?%n&no? new messages %> (%v on %h)"
2042 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.
2044 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 $auto_tag variable is set, the next operation applies to the tagged messages automatically, without requiring the ``tag-prefix''.
2046 In macro or push commands, you can use the ``tag-prefix-cond'' operator. If there are no tagged messages, mutt will "eat" the rest of the macro to abort it's execution.Mutt-ng will stop "eating" the macro when it encounters the ``end-cond'' operator; after this operator the rest of the macro will be executed asnormal.
2050 A hook is a concept borrowed from the EMACS editor which allows you to execute arbitrary commands before performing some operation. For example, you may wish to tailor your configuration based upon which mailbox you are reading, or to whom you are sending mail. In the Mutt-ng world, a hook consists of a regexp or patterns along with a configuration option/command. See
2059 for specific details on each type of hook available.
2061 Note: if a hook changes configuration settings, these changes remain effective until the end of the current mutt session. As this is generally not desired, a default hook needs to be added before all other hooks to restore configuration defaults. Here is an example with send-hook and the my_hdr directive:
2062 send-hook . 'unmy_hdr From:'
2063 send-hook ~C/=C'^b@b\.b$' my_hdr from: c@c.c
2065 5.1. Message Matching in Hooks
2067 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.
2069 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 orsearching 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.).
2071 For example, if you wanted to set your return address based upon sending mail to a specific address, you could do something like:
2072 send-hook '~t/=t ^me@cs\.hmc\.edu$' 'my_hdr From: Mutt-ng User <user@host>'
2074 which would execute the given command when sending mail to me@cs.hmc.edu.
2076 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.
2078 6. Using the sidebar
2080 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:
2081 set sidebar_visible="yes"
2082 set sidebar_width=25
2084 If you want to specify the mailboxes you can do so with:
2091 You can also specify the colors for mailboxes with new mails by using:
2092 color sidebar_new red black
2093 color sidebar white black
2095 The available functions are:
2097 Table 4.1. Default Sidebar Function Bindings
2098 Key Function Description
2099 none <sidebar-scroll-up> Scrolls the mailbox list up 1 page
2100 none <sidebar-scroll-down> Scrolls the mailbox list down 1 page
2101 none <sidebar-next> Highlights the next mailbox
2102 none <sidebar-next-new> Highlights the next mailbox with new mail
2103 none <sidebar-previous> Highlights the previous mailbox
2104 none <sidebar-open> Opens the currently highlighted mailbox
2106 Reasonable key bindings look e.g. like this:
2107 bind index \Cp sidebar-prev
2108 bind index \Cn sidebar-next
2109 bind index \Cb sidebar-open
2110 bind pager \Cp sidebar-prev
2111 bind pager \Cn sidebar-next
2112 bind pager \Cb sidebar-open
2114 macro index B ':toggle sidebar_visible^M'
2115 macro pager B ':toggle sidebar_visible^M'
2117 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'.
2119 7. External Address Queries
2121 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:
2122 set query_command = "mutt_ldap_query.pl '%s'"
2124 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 thensome other optional information. On error, or if there are no matching addresses, return a non-zero exit code and a one line error message.
2126 An example multiple response output:
2127 Searching database ... 20 entries ... 3 matching:
2128 me@cs.hmc.edu Michael Elkins mutt dude
2129 blong@fiction.net Brandon Long mutt and more
2130 roessler@guug.de Thomas Roessler mutt pgp
2132 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 addressesto mail, start a new query, or have a new query appended to the current responses.
2134 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 querymenu. At the query menu, you can select one or more addresses to be added to the prompt.
2138 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 newmailboxes, Mutt-ng uses the default specified with the $mbox_type variable.
2140 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:
2141 From me@cs.hmc.edu Fri, 11 Apr 1997 11:44:56 PST
2143 to denote the start of a new message (this is often referred to as the ``From_'' line).
2145 MMDF. This is a variant of the mbox format. Each message is surrounded by lines containing ``^A^A^A^A'' (four control-A's).
2147 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 arerenamed 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).
2149 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 twoprograms are writing the mailbox over NFS, which means that no file locking is needed.
2151 9. Mailbox Shortcuts
2153 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.
2154 * ! -- refers to your $spoolfile (incoming) mailbox
2155 * > -- refers to your $mbox file
2156 * < -- refers to your $record file
2157 * ^ -- refers to the current mailbox
2158 * - or !! -- refers to the file you've last visited
2159 * ~ -- refers to your home directory
2160 * = or + -- refers to your $folder directory
2161 * @alias -- refers to the save-hook as determined by the address of the alias
2163 10. Handling Mailing Lists
2165 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.
2167 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).
2169 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).
2171 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.
2173 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.
2175 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.
2177 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 inthe ``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.
2179 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/=y'' selector. ``X-Label:'' is not a standard message header field, but it can easily be inserted by procmailand other mail filtering agents.
2181 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 dealingwith large volume mailing lists easier because you can easily delete uninteresting threads and quickly find topics of value.
2185 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.
2187 11.1. Linking threads
2189 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.
2191 You can also connect multiple children at once, tagging them and using the tag-prefix command (';') or the auto_tag option.
2193 11.2. Breaking threads
2195 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 (boundby default to #), which will turn the subthread starting from the current message into a whole different thread.
2197 12. Delivery Status Notification (DSN) Support
2199 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.''
2201 Users can make use of it in one of the following two ways:
2202 * 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.
2203 * The SMTP support via libESMTP supports it, too.
2205 To support this, there are two variables:
2206 * $dsn_notify is used to request receipts for different results (such as failed message,message delivered, etc.).
2207 * $dsn_return requests how much of your message should be returned with the receipt (headers or full message).
2209 Please see the reference chapter for possible values.
2211 13. POP3 Support (OPTIONAL)
2213 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.
2215 You can access the remote POP3 mailbox by selecting the folder pop://popserver/.
2217 You can select an alternative port by specifying it with the server, i.e.: pop://popserver:port/.
2219 You can also specify different username for each folder, i.e.: pop://username@popserver[:port]/.
2221 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.
2223 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]/.
2225 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.
2227 Note: If you only need to fetch all messages to local mailbox you should consider using a specialized program, such as fetchmail(1).
2229 14. IMAP Support (OPTIONAL)
2231 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.
2233 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.
2235 You can select an alternative port by specifying it with the server, i.e.: imap://imapserver:port/INBOX.
2237 You can also specify different username for each folder, i.e.: imap://username@imapserver[:port]/INBOX.
2239 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.
2241 Pine-compatible notation is also supported, i.e. {[username@]imapserver[:port][/ssl]}path/to/folder
2243 Note that not all servers use / as the hierarchy separator. Mutt-ng should correctly notice which separator is being used by the server and convertpaths accordingly.
2245 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.
2247 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.
2249 Note that if you are using mbox as the mail store on UW servers prior tov12.250, the server has been reported to disconnect a client if another client selects the same folder.
2251 14.1. The Folder Browser
2253 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:
2254 * 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.
2255 * 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).
2256 * 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).
2258 14.2. Authentication
2260 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".
2262 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 libraryinstalled on your system and compile mutt with the --with-sasl flag.
2264 Mutt-ng will try whichever methods are compiled in and available on the server, in the following order: SASL, ANONYMOUS, GSSAPI, CRAM-MD5, LOGIN.
2266 There are a few variables which control authentication:
2267 * $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}).
2268 * $imap_pass - a password which you may preset, used by all authentication methods where a password is needed.
2269 * $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).
2271 15. NNTP Support (OPTIONAL)
2273 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.
2275 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.
2277 15.1. Again: Scoring
2279 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 Message Scoring.
2281 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.
2283 In mutt-ng this is as easy as
2286 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
2289 on the contrary applies a score of 42 to all messages not matching those criteria which are very strict:
2290 * Email addresses must be valid according to RFC 2822, see <ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc2822.txt>
2291 * 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.
2292 * it's assumed that users are interested in reading their own mail and mail from people who they have defined an alias forso that those 2 groups of messages are excluded from the strict rules.
2294 16. SMTP Support (OPTIONAL)
2296 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 .
2298 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.
2300 Authentication mechanisms are available via the smtp-user and $smtp_pass variables.
2302 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 ifit doesn't while switching back to unencrypted communication for the first one.
2304 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.
2306 17. Managing multiple IMAP/POP/NNTP accounts (OPTIONAL)
2308 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.
2311 account-hook . 'unset imap_user; unset imap_pass; unset tunnel'
2312 account-hook imap://host1/ 'set imap_user=me1 imap_pass=foo'
2313 account-hook imap://host2/ 'set tunnel="ssh host2 /usr/libexec/imapd"'
2315 18. Start a WWW Browser on URLs (EXTERNAL)
2317 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:
2318 macro index \cb |urlview\n
2319 macro pager \cb |urlview\n
2321 19. Compressed folders Support (OPTIONAL)
2323 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.
2325 The most common use is to open compressed archived folders e.g. with gzip.
2327 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.
2329 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.
2332 open-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -cd %f > %t"
2333 close-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -c %t > %f"
2334 append-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -c %t >> %f"
2336 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.
2338 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.
2340 19.1. Open a compressed mailbox for reading
2342 Usage: open-hookregexp "command"
2344 The command is the command that can be used for opening the folders whose names match regexp.
2346 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.
2348 %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.
2350 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.
2353 open-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -cd %f > %t"
2355 If the command is empty, this operation is disabled for this file type.
2357 19.2. Write a compressed mailbox
2359 Usage: close-hookregexp"command"
2361 This is used to close the folder that was open with the open-hook command after some changes were made to it.
2363 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.
2365 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.
2368 close-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -c %t > %f"
2370 If the command is empty, this operation is disabled for this file type, and the file can only be open in the readonly mode.
2372 close-hook is not called when you exit from the folder if the folder was not changed.
2374 19.3. Append a message to a compressed mailbox
2376 Usage: append-hookregexp"command"
2378 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 beingappended.
2380 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.
2383 append-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -c %t >> %f"
2385 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).
2387 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.
2389 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-hook respectively) each time you will add to it.
2391 19.4. Encrypted folders
2393 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 usethe following hooks:
2394 open-hook \\.pgp$ "pgp -f < %f > %t"
2395 close-hook \\.pgp$ "pgp -fe YourPgpUserIdOrKeyId < %t > %f"
2397 Please note, that PGP does not support appending to an encrypted folder, so there is no append-hook defined.
2399 Note: the folder is temporary stored decrypted in the /tmp directory, where it can be read by your system administrator. So thinkabout the security aspects of this.
2401 Chapter 5. Mutt-ng's MIME Support
2405 1. Using MIME in Mutt
2407 1.1. Viewing MIME messages in the pager
2408 1.2. The Attachment Menu
2409 1.3. The Compose Menu
2411 2. MIME Type configuration with mime.types
2412 3. MIME Viewer configuration with mailcap
2414 3.1. The Basics of the mailcap file
2415 3.2. Secure use of mailcap
2416 3.3. Advanced mailcap Usage
2417 3.4. Example mailcap files
2420 5. MIME Multipart/Alternative
2423 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 extratypes 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.
2425 1. Using MIME in Mutt
2427 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.
2429 1.1. Viewing MIME messages in the pager
2431 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.
2433 Mutt-ng will denote attachments with a couple lines describing them. These lines are of the form:
2434 [-- Attachment #1: Description --]
2435 [-- Type: text/plain, Encoding: 7bit, Size: 10000 --]
2437 Where the Description is the description or filename given for the attachment, and the Encoding is one of 7bit/8bit/quoted-printable/base64/binary.
2439 If Mutt-ng cannot deal with a MIME type, it will display a message like:
2440 [-- image/gif is unsupported (use 'v' to view this part) --]
2442 1.2. The Attachment Menu
2444 The default binding for view-attachments is `v', which displays the attachment menu for a message. The attachment menu displays a list ofthe 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.
2446 Finally, you can apply the usual message-related functions (like <resend-message>, and the reply and forward functions) to attachments of type message/rfc822.
2448 See the help on the attachment menu for more information.
2450 1.3. The Compose Menu
2452 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.
2454 Attachments appear as follows:
2455 1 [text/plain, 7bit, 1K] /tmp/mutt-euler-8082-0 <no description>
2456 2 [applica/x-gunzip, base64, 422K] ~/src/mutt-0.85.tar.gz <no description>
2458 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).
2460 2. MIME Type configuration with mime.types
2462 When you add an attachment to your mail message, Mutt-ng searches your personal mime.types file within $HOME and then the system mime.types file at /usr/local/share/mutt/mime.types or /etc/mime.types
2464 The mime.types file consist of lines containing a MIME type and a space separated list of extensions. For example:
2465 application/postscript ps eps
2467 audio/x-aiff aif aifc aiff
2469 A sample mime.types file comes with the Mutt-ng distribution, and should contain most of the MIME types you are likely to use.
2471 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
2472 be used if the recipient of the message is likely to be expecting such attachments.
2474 3. MIME Viewer configuration with mailcap
2476 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.
2478 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
2479 ${HOME}/.mailcap:/usr/local/share/mutt/mailcap:/etc/mailcap:/etc/mailcap:/usr/etc/mailcap:/usr/local/etc/mailcap
2481 where $HOME is your home directory.
2483 In particular, the metamail distribution will install a mailcap file, usually as /usr/local/etc/mailcap, which contains some baseline entries.
2485 3.1. The Basics of the mailcap file
2487 A mailcap file consists of a series of lines which are comments, blank, or definitions.
2489 A comment line consists of a # character followed by anything you want.
2491 A blank line is blank.
2493 A definition line consists of a content type, a view command, and any number of optional fields. Each field of a definition line is dividedby a semicolon ';' character.
2495 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.
2497 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.
2499 So, in the simplest form, you can send a text/plain message to the external pager more on stdin:
2502 Or, you could send the message as a file:
2505 Perhaps you would like to use lynx to interactively view a text/html message:
2508 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.
2510 On the other hand, maybe you don't want to use lynx interactively, youjust want to have it convert the text/html to text/plain, then you can use:
2511 text/html; lynx -dump %s | more
2513 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:
2517 This is the simplest form of a mailcap file.
2519 3.2. Secure use of mailcap
2521 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.
2523 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:
2525 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.
2527 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):
2528 text/test-mailcap-bug; cat %s; copiousoutput; test=charset=%{charset} \
2529 && test "`echo $charset | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`" != iso-8859-1
2531 3.3. Advanced mailcap Usage
2533 3.3.1. Optional Fields
2535 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:
2538 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:
2540 text/html; lynx -dump %s ; copiousoutput
2542 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.
2545 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 statusof 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.
2548 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.
2550 composetyped=<command>
2551 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.
2554 This flag specifies the command to use to print a specific MIME type. Mutt-ng supports this from the attachment and compose menus.
2557 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.
2559 nametemplate=<template>
2560 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:
2562 text/html; lynx %s; nametemplate=%s.html
2565 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:
2567 text/html; netscape -remote 'openURL(%s)' ; test=RunningX
2570 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.
2574 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:
2576 image/gif; ; print= anytopnm %s | pnmtops | lpr; \
2579 Mutt-ng will skip the image/* entry and use the image/gif entry with the print command.
2581 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.
2582 text/html; netscape -remote 'openURL(%s)' ; test=RunningX
2583 text/html; lynx %s; nametemplate=%s.html
2584 text/html; lynx -dump %s; nametemplate=%s.html; copiousoutput
2586 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.
2588 3.3.3. Command Expansion
2590 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:
2593 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.
2596 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.
2599 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:
2601 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
2603 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.
2606 This will be replaced by a %
2608 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.
2610 3.4. Example mailcap files
2612 This mailcap file is fairly simple and standard:
2614 # I'm always running X :)
2615 video/*; xanim %s > /dev/null
2616 image/*; xv %s > /dev/null
2618 # I'm always running netscape (if my computer had more memory, maybe)
2619 text/html; netscape -remote 'openURL(%s)'
2621 This mailcap file shows quite a number of examples:
2622 # Use xanim to view all videos Xanim produces a header on startup,
2623 # send that to /dev/null so I don't see it
2624 video/*; xanim %s > /dev/null
2626 # Send html to a running netscape by remote
2627 text/html; netscape -remote 'openURL(%s)'; test=RunningNetscape
2628 # If I'm not running netscape but I am running X, start netscape on the
2630 text/html; netscape %s; test=RunningX
2632 # Else use lynx to view it as text
2635 # This version would convert the text/html to text/plain
2636 text/html; lynx -dump %s; copiousoutput
2638 # I use enscript to print text in two columns to a page
2639 text/*; more %s; print=enscript -2Gr %s
2641 # Netscape adds a flag to tell itself to view jpegs internally
2642 image/jpeg;xv %s; x-mozilla-flags=internal
2644 # Use xv to view images if I'm running X
2645 # In addition, this uses the \ to extend the line and set my editor
2647 image/*;xv %s; test=RunningX; edit=xpaint %s
2649 # Convert images to text using the netpbm tools
2650 image/*; (anytopnm %s | pnmscale -xysize 80 46 | ppmtopgm | pgmtopbm |
2651 pbmtoascii -1x2 ) 2>&1 ; copiousoutput
2653 # Send excel spreadsheets to my NT box
2654 application/ms-excel; open.pl %s
2658 In addition to explicitly telling Mutt-ng to view an attachment with theMIME viewer defined in the mailcap file, Mutt-ng has support for automatically viewing MIME attachments while in the pager.
2660 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.
2662 You then use the auto_view muttrc command to list the content-types that you wish to view automatically.
2664 For instance, if you set auto_view to:
2665 auto_view text/html application/x-gunzip application/postscript
2666 image/gif application/x-tar-gz
2668 Mutt-ng could use the following mailcap entries to automatically view attachments of these types.
2669 text/html; lynx -dump %s; copiousoutput; nametemplate=%s.html
2670 image/*; anytopnm %s | pnmscale -xsize 80 -ysize 50 | ppmtopgm | pgmtopbm | pbmtoascii ; copiousoutput
2671 application/x-gunzip; gzcat; copiousoutput
2672 application/x-tar-gz; gunzip -c %s | tar -tf - ; copiousoutput
2673 application/postscript; ps2ascii %s; copiousoutput
2675 ``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.
2677 5. MIME Multipart/Alternative
2679 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 typesis preferred. The alternative_order list consists of a number of MIME types in order, including support for implicit and explicit wildcards, for example:
2680 alternative_order text/enriched text/plain text
2681 application/postscript image/*
2683 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 willlook for any type it knows how to handle.
2685 To remove a MIME type from the alternative_order list, use the unalternative_order command.
2689 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 todeal 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:
2690 mime_lookup application/octet-stream application/X-Lotus-Manuscript
2692 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.
2694 Chapter 6. Security Considerations
2700 3. Information Leaks
2702 3.1. Message-ID: headers
2703 3.2. mailto:-style links
2705 4. External applications
2710 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.
2712 Please do not run mutt-ng as the super user.
2714 When configuring mutt-ng, there're some points to note about secure setups.
2716 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.
2720 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.
2724 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.
2726 3. Information Leaks
2728 3.1. Message-ID: headers
2730 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.
2732 3.2. mailto:-style links
2734 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.
2736 For example, following a link like
2737 mailto:joe@host?Attach=~/.gnupg/secring.gpg
2739 will send out the user's private gnupg keyring to joe@host if the user doesn't follow the information on screen carefully enough.
2741 When unsetting the strict-mailto variable, mutt-ng will
2742 * be less strict when interpreting these links by prepending a X-Mailto- string to all header fields embedded in such a link and
2743 * turn on the $edit_headers variable by force to let the user see all the headers (because they still may leak information.)
2745 4. External applications
2747 Mutt-ng in many places has to rely on external applications or for convenience supports mechanisms involving external applications.
2751 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.)
2753 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...
2754 * manually select trustworth applications with a reasonable calling sequence
2755 * periodically check the contents of mailcap files, especially after software installations or upgrades
2756 * keep the software packages referenced in the mailcap file up to date
2757 * leave the $mailcap_sanitize variable in its default state to restrict mailcap expandos to a safe set of characters
2761 Besides the mailcap mechanism, mutt-ng uses a number of other external utilities for operation.
2763 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.)
2765 As already noted, most of these problems are not built in but caused by wrong configuration, so please check your configuration.
2767 Chapter 7. Reference
2771 1. Command line options
2773 3. Configuration Commands
2774 4. Configuration variables
2789 1. Command line options
2791 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.
2793 Table 7.1. Mutt-NG Command Line Options
2796 -a attach a file to a message
2797 -b specify a blind carbon-copy (BCC) address
2798 -c specify a carbon-copy (Cc) address
2799 -e specify a config command to be run after initialization files are read
2800 -f specify a mailbox to load
2801 -F specify an alternate file to read initialization commands
2802 -h print help on command line options
2803 -H specify a draft file from which to read a header and body
2804 -i specify a file to include in a message composition
2805 -m specify a default mailbox type
2806 -n do not read the system Muttngrc
2807 -p recall a postponed message
2808 -Q query a configuration variable
2809 -R open mailbox in read-only mode
2810 -s specify a subject (enclose in quotes if it contains spaces)
2811 -t dump the value of all variables to stdout
2812 -T dump the value of all changed variables to stdout
2813 -v show version number and compile-time definitions
2814 -x simulate the mailx(1) compose mode
2815 -y show a menu containing the files specified by the mailboxes command
2816 -z exit immediately if there are no messages in the mailbox
2817 -Z open the first folder with new message,exit immediately if none
2819 To read messages in a mailbox
2821 mutt ] -nz [ ] -F muttrc [ ] -m type [ ] -f mailbox [
2823 To compose a new message
2825 mutt ] -n [ ] -F muttrc [ ] -a file [ ] -c address [ ] -i filename [ ] -s subject [ address ] address ... [
2827 Mutt-ng also supports a ``batch'' mode to send prepared messages. Simply redirect input from the file you wish to send. For example,
2829 mutt -s "data set for run #2" professor@bigschool.edu < ~/run2.dat
2831 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''.
2836 Pattern Modifier Argument Description
2838 ~b/=b EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the message body
2839 ~B/=B EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the whole message
2840 ~c/=c EXPR messages carbon-copied to EXPR
2841 ~C/=C EXPR message is either to: or cc: EXPR
2842 ~D/=D deleted messages
2843 ~d/=d [MIN]-[MAX] messages with ``date-sent'' in a Date range
2844 ~E/=E expired messages
2845 ~e/=e EXPR message which contains EXPR in the ``Sender'' field
2846 ~F/=F flagged messages
2847 ~f/=f EXPR messages originating from EXPR
2848 ~g/=g cryptographically signed messages
2849 ~G/=G cryptographically encrypted messages
2850 ~H/=H EXPR messages with a spam attribute matching EXPR
2851 ~h/=h EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the message header
2852 ~k/=k message contains PGP key material
2853 ~i/=i EXPR message which match ID in the ``Message-ID'' field
2854 ~L/=L EXPR message is either originated or received by EXPR
2855 ~l/=l message is addressed to a known mailing list
2856 ~m/=m [MIN]-[MAX] message in the range MIN to MAX *)
2857 ~M/=M multipart messages
2858 ~n/=n [MIN]-[MAX] messages with a score in the range MIN to MAX *)
2861 ~p/=p message is addressed to you (consults alternates)
2862 ~P/=P message is from you (consults alternates)
2863 ~Q/=Q messages which have been replied to
2865 ~r/=r [MIN]-[MAX] messages with ``date-received'' in a Date range
2866 ~S/=S superseded messages
2867 ~s/=s EXPR messages having EXPR in the ``Subject'' field.
2868 ~T/=T tagged messages
2869 ~t/=t EXPR messages addressed to EXPR
2870 ~U/=U unread messages
2871 ~u/=u message is addressed to a subscribed mailing list
2872 ~v/=v message is part of a collapsed thread.
2873 ~V/=V cryptographically verified messages
2874 ~w/=w EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the `Newsgroups' field (if compiled with NNTP support)
2875 ~x/=x EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the `References' field
2876 ~y/=y EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the `X-Label' field
2877 ~z/=z [MIN]-[MAX] messages with a size in the range MIN to MAX *)
2878 ~=/== duplicated messages (see $duplicate_threads)
2879 ~$/=$ unreferenced messages (requires threaded view)
2880 ~*/=* ``From'' contains realname and (syntactically) valid address (excluded are addresses matching against alternates or any alias)
2882 Where EXPR 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 (\\).
2884 *) The forms <]MAX[, >]MIN[ , ]MIN[- and -]MAX[ are allowed, too.
2886 3. Configuration Commands
2888 The following are the commands understood by mutt.
2889 * account-hook pattern command
2890 * alias keyaddress ] , address ,... [
2891 * alias ] * | key ... [
2892 * alternates regexp ] regexp ... [
2893 * alternates ] * | regexp ... [
2894 * alternative-order mimetype ] mimetype ... [
2895 * alternative-order mimetype ] mimetype ... [
2896 * append-hook regexp command
2897 * auto-view mimetype ] mimetype ... [
2898 * auto-view mimetype ] mimetype ... [
2899 * bind map key function
2900 * charset-hook alias charset
2901 * close-hook regexp command
2902 * color objectforegroundbackground ] regexp [
2903 * color indexpattern ] pattern ... [
2904 * exec function ] function ... [
2905 * fcc-hook pattern mailbox
2906 * fcc-save-hook pattern mailbox
2907 * folder-hook pattern command
2908 * hdr-orderheader ] header ... [
2909 * hdr-orderheader ] header ... [
2910 * charset-hook charset local-charset
2911 * ignorepattern ] pattern ... [
2912 * ignorepattern ] pattern ... [
2913 * listsregexp ] regexp ... [
2914 * listsregexp ] regexp ... [
2915 * macro menukeysequence ] description [
2916 * mailboxes filename ] filename ... [
2917 * mbox-hook pattern mailbox
2918 * message-hook pattern command
2919 * mime-lookup mimetype ] mimetype ... [
2920 * mime-lookup mimetype ] mimetype ... [
2921 * color object attribute ] regexp [
2922 * color indexpattern ] pattern ... [
2924 * my-hdr field ] field ... [
2925 * open-hook regexp command
2926 * crypt-hook pattern key-id
2928 * set variable ]variable ... [
2929 * save-hook regexp filename
2930 * score-command pattern value
2931 * score-command pattern ] pattern ... [
2932 * send-hook regexp command
2933 * reply-hook regexp command
2934 * set ]no|inv[variable]=value [ ] variable ... [
2935 * set variable ]variable ... [
2937 * spam pattern format
2939 * listsregexp ] regexp ... [
2940 * listsregexp ] regexp ... [
2941 * set variable ]variable ... [
2944 4. Configuration variables
2946 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:
2948 Table 7.3. Obsolete Variables
2950 edit_hdrs $edit_headers
2951 forw_decode $forward_decode
2952 forw_format $forward_format
2953 forw_quote $forward_quote
2954 hdr_format $index_format
2955 indent_str $indent_string
2956 mime_fwd $mime_forward
2957 msg_format $message_format
2958 pgp_autosign $crypt_autosign
2959 pgp_autoencrypt $crypt_autoencrypt
2960 pgp_replyencrypt $crypt_replyencrypt
2961 pgp_replysign $crypt_replysign
2962 pgp_replysignencrypted $crypt-replysignencrypted
2963 pgp_verify_sig $crypt_verify_sig
2964 pgp_create_traditional $pgp_autoinline
2965 pgp_auto_traditional $pgp_replyinline
2966 forw_decrypt $forward_decrypt
2967 smime_sign_as $smime_default_key
2968 post_indent_str $post_indent_string
2969 print_cmd $print_command
2970 shorten_hierarchy $sidebar-shorten-hierarchy
2971 ask_followup_to $nntp_ask_followup_to
2972 ask_x_comment_to $nntp_ask_x_comment_to
2973 catchup_newsgroup $nntp_catchup
2974 followup_to_poster $nntp_followup_to_poster
2975 group_index_format $nntp_group_index_format
2977 mime_subject $nntp_mime_subject
2978 news_cache_dir $nntp_cache_dir
2979 news_server $nntp_host
2981 nntp_poll $nntp_mail_check
2982 pop_checkinterval $pop_mail_check
2983 post_moderated $nntp_post_moderated
2984 save_unsubscribed $nntp_save_unsubscribed
2985 show_new_news $nntp_show_new_news
2986 show_only_unread $nntp_show_only_unread
2987 x_comment_to $nntp_x_comment_to
2988 smtp_auth_username $smtp_user
2989 smtp_auth_password $smtp_pass
2990 user_agent $agent_string
2992 The contrib subdirectory contains a script named update-config.pl which eases migration.
2994 A complete list of current variables follows.
3000 3. $abort_unmodified
3020 13. $assumed_charset
3024 15. $attach_remind_regexp
3042 24. $bounce_delivered
3044 25. $braille_friendly
3046 26. $certificate_file
3052 29. $collapse_unread
3062 34. $connect_timeout
3068 37. $crypt_autoencrypt
3074 40. $crypt_autosmime
3076 41. $crypt_replyencrypt
3078 42. $crypt_replysign
3080 43. $crypt_replysignencrypted
3082 44. $crypt_timestamp
3084 45. $crypt_use_gpgme
3086 46. $crypt_verify_sig
3100 53. $digest_collapse
3104 55. $dotlock_program
3110 58. $duplicate_threads
3140 73. $force_buffy_check
3146 76. $forward_decrypt
3164 85. $header_cache_compress
3174 90. $hide_thread_subject
3176 91. $hide_top_limited
3178 92. $hide_top_missing
3182 94. $honor_followup_to
3186 96. $ignore_list_reply_to
3188 97. $imap_authenticators
3190 98. $imap_check_subscribed
3192 99. $imap_delim_chars
3196 101. $imap_home_namespace
3198 102. $imap_keepalive
3200 103. $imap_list_subscribed
3204 105. $imap_mail_check
3212 109. $imap_reconnect
3214 110. $imap_servernoise
3218 112. $implicit_autoview
3222 114. $include_onlyfirst
3240 123. $mailcap_sanitize
3242 124. $maildir_header_cache_verify
3252 129. $max_display_recips
3254 130. $max_line_length
3266 136. $message_format
3274 140. $mh_seq_flagged
3276 141. $mh_seq_replied
3282 144. $mime_forward_decode
3284 145. $mime_forward_rest
3286 146. $mix_entry_format
3298 152. $muttng_folder_name
3300 153. $muttng_folder_path
3302 154. $muttng_hcache_backend
3306 156. $muttng_revision
3308 157. $muttng_sysconfdir
3310 158. $muttng_version
3316 161. $nntp_ask_followup_to
3318 162. $nntp_ask_x_comment_to
3320 163. $nntp_cache_dir
3326 166. $nntp_followup_to_poster
3328 167. $nntp_group_index_format
3334 170. $nntp_load_description
3336 171. $nntp_mail_check
3338 172. $nntp_mime_subject
3344 175. $nntp_post_moderated
3346 176. $nntp_reconnect
3348 177. $nntp_save_unsubscribed
3350 178. $nntp_show_new_news
3352 179. $nntp_show_only_unread
3356 181. $nntp_x_comment_to
3358 182. $operating_system
3366 186. $pager_index_lines
3370 188. $pgp_auto_decode
3372 189. $pgp_autoinline
3374 190. $pgp_check_exit
3376 191. $pgp_clearsign_command
3378 192. $pgp_decode_command
3380 193. $pgp_decrypt_command
3382 194. $pgp_encrypt_only_command
3384 195. $pgp_encrypt_sign_command
3386 196. $pgp_entry_format
3388 197. $pgp_export_command
3390 198. $pgp_getkeys_command
3394 200. $pgp_ignore_subkeys
3396 201. $pgp_import_command
3398 202. $pgp_list_pubring_command
3400 203. $pgp_list_secring_command
3406 206. $pgp_replyinline
3408 207. $pgp_retainable_sigs
3410 208. $pgp_show_unusable
3414 210. $pgp_sign_command
3418 212. $pgp_strict_enc
3422 214. $pgp_use_gpg_agent
3424 215. $pgp_verify_command
3426 216. $pgp_verify_key_command
3434 220. $pop_auth_try_all
3436 221. $pop_authenticators
3444 225. $pop_mail_check
3452 229. $post_indent_string
3502 254. $reverse_realname
3504 255. $rfc2047_parameters
3514 260. $score_threshold_delete
3516 261. $score_threshold_flag
3518 262. $score_threshold_read
3528 267. $sidebar_boundary
3532 269. $sidebar_newmail_only
3534 270. $sidebar_number_format
3536 271. $sidebar_shorten_hierarchy
3538 272. $sidebar_visible
3548 277. $signoff_string
3558 282. $smime_ask_cert_label
3560 283. $smime_ca_location
3562 284. $smime_certificates
3564 285. $smime_decrypt_command
3566 286. $smime_decrypt_use_default_key
3568 287. $smime_default_key
3570 288. $smime_encrypt_command
3572 289. $smime_encrypt_with
3574 290. $smime_get_cert_command
3576 291. $smime_get_cert_email_command
3578 292. $smime_get_signer_cert_command
3580 293. $smime_import_cert_command
3582 294. $smime_is_default
3586 296. $smime_pk7out_command
3588 297. $smime_sign_command
3590 298. $smime_sign_opaque_command
3594 300. $smime_verify_command
3596 301. $smime_verify_opaque_command
3620 313. $spam_separator
3624 315. $ssl_ca_certificates_file
3626 316. $ssl_client_cert
3630 318. $ssl_min_dh_prime_bits
3640 323. $ssl_usesystemcerts
3652 329. $strict_threads
3656 331. $strip_was_regex
3664 335. $thorough_search
3666 336. $thread_received
3682 344. $uncollapse_jump
3712 359. $xterm_set_titles
3718 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.
3722 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).
3723 bottom-page L move to the bottom of the page
3724 current-bottom not bound move current entry to bottom of page
3725 current-middle not bound move current entry to middle of page
3726 current-top not bound move current entry to top of page
3727 enter-command : enter a muttngrc command
3728 exit q exit this menu
3729 first-entry = move to the first entry
3730 half-down ] scroll down 1/2 page
3731 half-up [ scroll up 1/2 page
3733 jump number jump to an index number
3734 last-entry * move to the last entry
3735 middle-page M move to the middle of the page
3736 next-entry j move to the next entry
3737 next-line > scroll down one line
3738 next-page z move to the next page
3739 previous-entry k move to the previous entry
3740 previous-line < scroll up one line
3741 previous-page Z move to the previous page
3742 refresh ^L clear and redraw the screen
3743 search / search for a regular expression
3744 search-next n search for next match
3745 search-opposite not bound search for next match in opposite
3747 search-reverse ESC / search backwards for a regular
3749 select-entry RET select the current entry
3750 shell-escape ! run a program in a subshell
3751 tag-entry t toggle the tag on the current entry
3752 tag-prefix ; apply next command to tagged entries
3753 tag-prefix-cond not bound apply next function ONLY to tagged
3755 top-page H move to the top of the page
3756 what-key not bound display the keycode for a key press
3760 bounce-message b remail a message to another user
3761 change-folder c open a different folder
3762 change-folder-readonly ESC c open a different folder in read only
3764 check-traditional-pgp ESC P check for classic pgp
3765 clear-flag W clear a status flag from a message
3766 copy-message C copy a message to a file/mailbox
3767 create-alias a create an alias from a message
3768 senderdecode-copy ESC C decode a message and copy it
3770 decode-save ESC s decode a message and save it to a
3772 delete-message d delete the current entry
3773 delete-pattern D delete messages matching a pattern
3774 delete-subthread ESC d delete all messages in subthread
3775 delete-thread ^D delete all messages in thread
3776 display-address @ display full address of sender
3777 display-toggle-weed h display message and toggle header
3779 display-message RET display a message
3780 edit e edit the current message
3781 edit-type ^E edit the current message's
3783 exit x exit without saving changes
3784 extract-keys ^K extract PGP public keys
3785 fetch-mail G retrieve mail from POP server
3786 flag-message F toggle a message's 'important' flag
3787 forget-passphrase ^F wipe PGP passphrase from memory
3788 forward-message f forward a message with comments
3789 group-reply g reply to all recipients
3790 limit l show only messages matching a
3791 patternlist-reply L reply to specified mailing
3793 mail m compose a new mail message
3794 mail-key ESC k mail a PGP public key
3795 next-new not bound jump to the next new message
3796 next-new-then-unread TAB jump to the next new or unread message
3797 next-subthread ESC n jump to the next subthread
3798 next-thread ^N jump to the next thread
3799 next-undeleted j move to the next undeleted message
3800 next-unread not bound jump to the next unread message
3801 parent-message P jump to parent message in thread
3802 pipe-message | pipe message/attachment to a shell
3804 previous-new not bound jump to the previous new message
3805 previous-new-then-unread
3806 ESC TAB jump to the previous new or unread message
3808 previous-page Z move to the previous page
3809 previous-subthread ESC p jump to previous subthread
3810 previous-thread ^P jump to previous thread
3811 previous-undeleted k move to the last undelete message
3812 previous-unread not bound jump to the previous unread message
3813 print-message p print the current entry
3814 query Q query external program for addresses
3815 quit q save changes to mailbox and quit
3816 read-subthread ESC r mark the current subthread as read
3817 read-thread ^R mark the current thread as read
3818 recall-message R recall a postponed message
3819 reply r reply to a message
3820 resend-message ESC e resend message and preserve MIME
3822 save-message s save message/attachment to a file
3823 set-flag w set a status flag on a message
3824 show-version V show the Mutt-ng version number and
3826 show-limit ESC l show currently active limit pattern,
3828 sort-mailbox o sort messages
3829 sort-reverse O sort messages in reverse order
3830 sync-mailbox $ save changes to mailbox
3831 tag-pattern T tag messages matching a pattern
3832 tag-thread ESC t tag/untag all messages in the
3834 toggle-new N toggle a message's 'new' flag
3835 toggle-write % toggle whether the mailbox will be
3837 undelete-message u undelete the current entry
3838 undelete-pattern U undelete messages matching a pattern
3839 undelete-subthread ESC u undelete all messages in subthread
3840 undelete-thread ^U undelete all messages in thread
3841 untag-pattern ^T untag messages matching a pattern
3842 view-attachments v show MIME attachments
3846 bottom not bound jump to the bottom of the message
3847 bounce-message b remail a message to another user
3848 change-folder c open a different folder
3849 change-folder-readonly ESC c open a different folder in read only
3851 check-traditional-pgp ESC P check for classic pgp
3852 copy-message C copy a message to a file/mailbox
3853 create-alias a create an alias from a message
3854 senderdecode-copy ESC C decode a message and copy it
3856 decode-save ESC s decode a message and save it to a
3858 delete-message d delete the current entry
3859 delete-subthread ESC d delete all messages in subthread
3860 delete-thread ^D delete all messages in thread
3861 display-address @ display full address of sender
3862 display-toggle-weed h display message and toggle header
3864 edit e edit the current message
3865 edit-type ^E edit the current message's
3867 enter-command : enter a muttngrc command
3868 exit i return to the main-menu
3869 extract-keys ^K extract PGP public keys
3870 flag-message F toggle a message's 'important' flag
3871 forget-passphrase ^F wipe PGP passphrase from memory
3872 forward-message f forward a message with comments
3873 group-reply g reply to all recipients
3874 half-up not bound move up one-half page
3875 half-down not bound move down one-half page
3877 list-reply L reply to specified mailing list
3878 mail m compose a new mail message
3879 mail-key ESC k mail a PGP public key
3880 mark-as-new N toggle a message's 'new' flag
3881 next-line RET scroll down one line
3882 next-entry J move to the next entry
3883 next-new not bound jump to the next new message
3884 next-new-then-unread TAB jump to the next new or unread message
3885 next-page move to the next page
3886 next-subthread ESC n jump to the next subthread
3887 next-thread ^N jump to the next thread
3888 next-undeleted j move to the next undeleted message
3889 next-unread not bound jump to the next unread message
3890 parent-message P jump to parent message in thread
3891 pipe-message | pipe message/attachment to a shell
3893 previous-line BackSpace scroll up one line
3894 previous-entry K move to the previous entry
3895 previous-new not bound jump to the previous new message
3896 previous-new-then-unread
3897 not bound jump to the previous new or unread message
3898 previous-page - move to the previous page
3899 previous-subthread ESC p jump to previous subthread
3900 previous-thread ^P jump to previous thread
3901 previous-undeleted k move to the last undelete message
3902 previous-unread not bound jump to the previous unread message
3903 print-message p print the current entry
3904 quit Q save changes to mailbox and quit
3905 read-subthread ESC r mark the current subthread as read
3906 read-thread ^R mark the current thread as read
3907 recall-message R recall a postponed message
3908 redraw-screen ^L clear and redraw the screen
3909 reply r reply to a message
3910 save-message s save message/attachment to a file
3911 search / search for a regular expression
3912 search-next n search for next match
3913 search-opposite not bound search for next match in opposite
3915 search-reverse ESC / search backwards for a regular
3917 search-toggle \ toggle search pattern coloring
3918 shell-escape ! invoke a command in a subshell
3919 show-version V show the Mutt-ng version number and
3921 skip-quoted S skip beyond quoted text
3922 sync-mailbox $ save changes to mailbox
3923 tag-message t tag a message
3924 toggle-quoted T toggle display of quoted text
3925 top ^ jump to the top of the message
3926 undelete-message u undelete the current entry
3927 undelete-subthread ESC u undelete all messages in subthread
3928 undelete-thread ^U undelete all messages in thread
3929 view-attachments v show MIME attachments
3933 search / search for a regular expression
3934 search-next n search for next match
3935 search-reverse ESC / search backwards for a regular
3940 create-alias a create an alias from a message
3941 sendermail m compose a new mail message
3942 query Q query external program for addresses
3943 query-append A append new query results to current
3945 search / search for a regular expression
3946 search-next n search for next match
3947 search-opposite not bound search for next match in opposite
3949 search-reverse ESC / search backwards for a regular
3954 bounce-message b remail a message to another user
3955 collapse-parts v toggle display of subparts
3956 delete-entry d delete the current entry
3957 display-toggle-weed h display message and toggle header
3959 edit-type ^E edit the current entry's
3960 Content-Typeextract-keys ^K extract PGP public keys
3961 forward-message f forward a message with comments
3962 group-reply g reply to all recipients
3963 list-reply L reply to specified mailing list
3964 pipe-entry | pipe message/attachment to a shell
3966 print-entry p print the current entry
3967 reply r reply to a message
3968 resend-message ESC e resend message and preserve MIME
3970 save-entry s save message/attachment to a file
3971 undelete-entry u undelete the current entry
3972 view-attach RET view attachment using mailcap entry
3974 view-mailcap m force viewing of attachment using
3976 view-text T view attachment as text
3980 attach-file a attach a file(s) to this message
3981 attach-message A attach message(s) to this message
3982 attach-key ESC k attach a PGP public key
3983 copy-file C save message/attachment to a file
3984 detach-file D delete the current entry
3985 display-toggle-weed h display message and toggle header
3987 edit-bcc b edit the BCC list
3988 edit-cc c edit the CC list
3989 edit-description d edit attachment description
3990 edit-encoding ^E edit attachment transfer-encoding
3991 edit-fcc f enter a file to save a copy of this
3993 edit-from ESC f edit the from: field
3994 edit-file ^X e edit the file to be attached
3995 edit-headers E edit the message with headers
3996 edit e edit the message
3997 edit-mime m edit attachment using mailcap entry
3998 edit-reply-to r edit the Reply-To field
3999 edit-subject s edit the subject of this message
4000 edit-to t edit the TO list
4001 edit-type ^T edit attachment type
4002 filter-entry F filter attachment through a shell
4004 forget-passphrase ^F wipe PGP passphrase from memory
4005 ispell i run ispell on the message
4006 new-mime n compose new attachment using mailcap
4008 pgp-menu p show PGP options
4009 pipe-entry | pipe message/attachment to a shell
4011 postpone-message P save this message to send later
4012 print-entry l print the current entry
4013 rename-file R rename/move an attached file
4014 send-message y send the message
4015 toggle-unlink u toggle whether to delete file after
4017 view-attach RET view attachment using mailcap entry
4019 write-fcc w write the message to a folder
4023 delete-entry d delete the current entry
4024 undelete-entry u undelete the current entry
4028 change-dir c change directories
4029 check-new TAB check mailboxes for new mail
4030 enter-mask m enter a file mask
4031 search / search for a regular expression
4032 search-next n search for next match
4033 search-reverse ESC / search backwards for a regular
4035 select-new N select a new file in this directory
4036 sort o sort messages
4037 sort-reverse O sort messages in reverse order
4038 toggle-mailboxes TAB toggle whether to browse mailboxes
4040 view-file SPACE view file
4041 subscribe s subscribe to current mailbox (IMAP
4043 unsubscribe u unsubscribe to current mailbox (IMAP
4045 toggle-subscribed T toggle view all/subscribed mailboxes
4050 view-name % view the key's user id
4051 verify-key c verify a PGP public key
4055 backspace BackSpace delete the char in front of the
4057 backward-char ^B move the cursor one character to the
4059 backward-word ESC b move the cursor to the previous word
4060 bol ^A jump to the beginning of the line
4061 buffy-cycle Space cycle among incoming mailboxes
4062 capitalize-word ESC c uppercase the first character in the
4064 complete TAB complete filename or alias
4065 complete-query ^T complete address with query
4066 delete-char ^D delete the char under the cursor
4067 downcase-word ESC l lowercase all characters in current
4069 eol ^E jump to the end of the line
4070 forward-char ^F move the cursor one character to the
4072 forward-word ESC f move the cursor to the next word
4073 history-down not bound scroll down through the history list
4074 history-up not bound scroll up through the history list
4075 kill-eol ^K delete chars from cursor to end of
4077 kill-eow ESC d delete chars from cursor to end of
4079 kill-line ^U delete all chars on the line
4080 kill-word ^W delete the word in front of the
4082 quote-char ^V quote the next typed key
4083 transpose-chars not bound transpose character under cursor
4085 upcase-word ESC u uppercase all characters in current
4088 Chapter 8. Acknowledgments
4090 Kari Hurtta <kari.hurtta@fmi.fi> co-developed the original MIME >parsing code back in the ELM-ME days.
4092 The following people have been very helpful to the development of Mutt (sorted by surnames):
4093 * Vikas Agnihotri <vikasa@writeme.com>
4094 * Francois Berjon < Francois.Berjon@aar.alcatel-alsthom.fr>
4095 * Aric Blumer <aric@fore.com>, John Capo < jc@irbs.com >
4096 * David Champion <dgc@uchicago.edu>
4097 * Brendan Cully <brendan@kublai.com>
4098 * Liviu Daia <daia@stoilow.imar.ro>
4099 * Thomas E. Dickey <dickey@herndon4.his.com>
4100 * David DeSimone <fox@convex.hp.com>
4101 * Nickolay N. Dudorov <nnd@wint.itfs.nsk.su>
4102 * Ruslan Ermilov <ru@freebsd.org>
4103 * Edmund Grimley Evans <edmundo@rano.org>
4104 * Michael Finken <finken@conware.de>
4105 * Sven Guckes <guckes@math.fu-berlin.de>
4106 * Lars Hecking <lhecking@nmrc.ie>
4107 * Mark Holloman <holloman@nando.net>
4108 * Andreas Holzmann <holzmann@fmi.uni-passau.de>
4109 * Marco d'Itri <md@linux.it>
4110 * Björn Jacke <bjacke@suse.com>
4111 * Byrial Jensen <byrial@image.dk>
4112 * David Jeske <jeske@igcom.net>
4113 * Christophe Kalt <kalt@hugo.int-evry.fr>
4114 * Tommi Komulainen <Tommi.Komulainen@iki.fi>
4115 * Felix von Leitner (a.k.a ``Fefe'') < leitner@math.fu-berlin.de >
4116 * Brandon Long <blong@fiction.net>
4117 * Jimmy Mäkeä <jmy@flashback.net>
4118 * Lars Marowsky-Bree <lmb@pointer.in-minden.de>
4119 * Thomas ``Mike'' Michlmayr <mike@cosy.sbg.ac.at>
4120 * Andrew W. Nosenko <awn@bcs.zp.ua>
4121 * David O'Brien <obrien@Nuxi.cs.ucdavis.edu>
4122 * Clint Olsen <olsenc@ichips.intel.com>
4123 * Park Myeong Seok <pms@romance.kaist.ac.kr>
4124 * Thomas Parmelan <tom@ankh.fr.eu.org>
4125 * Ollivier Robert <roberto@keltia.freenix.fr>
4126 * Thomas Roessler <roessler@does-not-exist.org>
4127 * Roland Rosenfeld <roland@spinnaker.de>
4128 * TAKIZAWA Takashi <taki@luna.email.ne.jp>
4129 * Allain Thivillon <Allain.Thivillon@alma.fr>
4130 * Gero Treuner <gero@faveve.uni-stuttgart.de>
4131 * Vsevolod Volkov <vvv@lucky.net>
4132 * Ken Weinert <kenw@ihs.com>
4134 Mutt-ng is developed by the following people:
4135 * Andreas Krennmair <ak@synflood.at>
4136 * Nico Golde <nico@ngolde.de>
4137 * Rocco Rutte <pdmef@cs.tu-berlin.de>
4139 The following people have been very helpful to the development of Mutt-ng (sorted by surnames):
4140 * Christian Gall <cg@cgall.de>
4141 * Iain Lea <iain@bricbrac.de>
4142 * Andreas Kneib <akneib@gmx.net>
4143 * Felix Meinhold <felix.meinhold@gmx.net>
4144 * Carsten Schoelzki <cjs@weisshuhn.de>
4145 * Elimar Riesebieter <riesebie@lxtec.de>
4147 Chapter 9. Hacking Documentation
4149 This manual is written in XML and transformed via a XSLT stylesheet into valid DocBook/XML to be again transformed via a XSLT stylesheet into the final formats.
4151 This two pass processing is required to keep the file size low and to sanitize use, i.e. drastically lower the typing overhead.
4153 To achieve the latter, the sources come with a file called muttng-manual.xsl introducing the muttng-doc namespace which offers the following tags to be used (note: this is far from being complete, any help towards consistency is highly appreciated).
4155 <muttng-doc:man name="" [sect=""]/>
4156 References to manual pages. If the sect parameter is omitted, it'll be 1 for the commands section. There's no auto-indexing yet.
4158 <muttng-doc:envvar name=""/>
4159 References to environment variables. The name parameter must contain upper-case letters only without the dollar sign as it'll be added automatically. Auto-indexing under Environment Variables is done.
4161 <muttng-doc:hook name=""/>
4162 References to hooks. The string -hook will be added automatically to the value given in the name parameter. All entries will be auto-indexed under Hooks.
4164 <muttng-doc:command name=""/>
4165 References to configuration commands. The name is given via the name parameter and will be auto-indexed under Configuration Commands.
4167 <muttng-doc:pattern name=""/>
4168 References to patterns. The name parameter must only contain the letter/symbol for the pattern as the tilde symbol/equal sign will be added automatically. Auto-indexing is done under Patterns.
4170 <muttng-doc:funcdef name="" key=""/>
4171 Defining a command.. It's used to define a command with the name given in the name parameter and a default key binding given via key. The string will be automatically enclosed in <>. Auto-indexing is done under Functions. Also an anchor with id func-[name] will be added with [name] being the value of the name parameter.
4173 <muttng-doc:funcref name=""/>
4174 References to functions.. This is practically the same as the above except that there's no anchor defined.
4176 <muttng-doc:vardef name="" id=""/>
4177 Defining a variable. This is to be used by makedoc only to define a command with a given name and XML-normalized link given via id. Auto-indexing is done under Configuration Variables. The name parameter's value will be prefixed with a dollar sign as for environment variables.
4179 <muttng-doc:varref name="" link=""/>
4180 References to variables. This practically is the same as above except that the text inbetween won't be wrapped within a <sect1> tag. Auto-indexing is the same as for the above. This one is intended for manual use.
4186 Configuration Commands
4188 alias, Miscellaneous Functions
4189 bind, Editing Input Fields
4192 Configuration Variables
4194 abort_noattach, $abort_noattach
4195 abort_nosubject, $abort_nosubject
4196 abort_unmodified, $abort_unmodified
4197 agent_string, Configuration variables, $agent_string
4198 alias_file, Miscellaneous Functions, Defining/Using aliases, $alias_file
4199 alias_format, $alias_format
4200 allow_8bit, $allow_8bit
4201 allow_ansi, $allow_ansi
4202 arrow_cursor, $arrow_cursor
4203 ascii_chars, $ascii_chars
4206 assumed_charset, $assumed_charset
4207 attach_format, $attach_format
4208 attach_remind_regexp, $attach_remind_regexp
4209 attach_sep, $attach_sep
4210 attach_split, $attach_split
4211 attribution, Change settings based upon message recipients, $attribution
4213 auto_tag, Using Tags, $auto_tag
4217 bounce_delivered, $bounce_delivered
4218 braille_friendly, $braille_friendly
4219 certificate_file, $certificate_file
4221 check_new, $check_new
4222 collapse_unread, $collapse_unread
4223 compose_format, $compose_format
4224 config_charset, $config_charset
4225 confirmappend, $confirmappend
4226 confirmcreate, $confirmcreate
4227 connect_timeout, $connect_timeout
4228 content_type, $content_type
4230 crypt-replysignencrypted, Configuration variables
4231 crypt_autoencrypt, Configuration variables, $crypt_autoencrypt
4232 crypt_autopgp, $crypt_autopgp
4233 crypt_autosign, Configuration variables, $crypt_autosign
4234 crypt_autosmime, $crypt_autosmime
4235 crypt_replyencrypt, Configuration variables, $crypt_replyencrypt
4236 crypt_replysign, Configuration variables, $crypt_replysign
4237 crypt_replysignencrypted, $crypt_replysignencrypted
4238 crypt_timestamp, $crypt_timestamp
4239 crypt_use_gpgme, $crypt_use_gpgme
4240 crypt_verify_sig, Configuration variables, $crypt_verify_sig
4241 date_format, $date_format
4242 debug_level, $debug_level
4243 default_hook, $default_hook
4245 delete_space, Additional Notes, $delete_space
4246 delete_untag, $delete_untag
4247 digest_collapse, $digest_collapse
4248 display_filter, $display_filter
4249 dotlock_program, $dotlock_program
4250 dsn_notify, Delivery Status Notification (DSN) Support, $dsn_notify
4251 dsn_return, Delivery Status Notification (DSN) Support, $dsn_return
4252 duplicate_threads, $duplicate_threads
4254 editor_headers, Editing the message header, Defining/Using aliases, $editor_headers
4255 edit_headers, Editing the message header, User defined headers, mailto:-style links, Configuration variables, $edit_headers
4256 encode_from, $encode_from
4257 entropy_file, $entropy_file
4258 envelope_from, $envelope_from
4260 fast_reply, $fast_reply
4261 fcc_attach, $fcc_attach
4262 fcc_clear, $fcc_clear
4263 file_charset, $file_charset
4264 folder, Configuration Variables, Defining mailboxes which receive mail, Mailbox Shortcuts, $folder
4265 folder_format, $folder_format
4266 followup_to, Mailing lists, $followup_to
4267 force_buffy_check, $force_buffy_check
4268 force_name, $force_name
4269 forward_decode, Configuration variables, $forward_decode
4270 forward_decrypt, Configuration variables, $forward_decrypt
4271 forward_edit, $forward_edit
4272 forward_format, Configuration variables, $forward_format
4273 forward_quote, Configuration variables, $forward_quote
4275 gecos_mask, $gecos_mask
4278 header_cache, $header_cache
4279 header_cache_compress, $header_cache_compress
4281 hidden_host, $hidden_host
4282 hide_limited, $hide_limited
4283 hide_missing, $hide_missing
4284 hide_thread_subject, $hide_thread_subject
4285 hide_top_limited, $hide_top_limited
4286 hide_top_missing, $hide_top_missing
4288 honor_followup_to, Miscellaneous Functions, Handling Mailing Lists, $honor_followup_to
4290 ignore_list_reply_to, $ignore_list_reply_to
4291 imap_authenticators, Authentication, $imap_authenticators
4292 imap_check_subscribed, $imap_check_subscribed
4293 imap_delim_chars, $imap_delim_chars
4294 imap_headers, $imap_headers
4295 imap_home_namespace, Configuration Variables, $imap_home_namespace
4296 imap_keepalive, $imap_keepalive
4297 imap_list_subscribed, IMAP Support (OPTIONAL), $imap_list_subscribed
4298 imap_login, $imap_login
4299 imap_mail_check, Conditional parts, IMAP Support (OPTIONAL), $imap_mail_check
4300 imap_pass, Authentication, $imap_pass
4301 imap_passive, $imap_passive
4302 imap_peek, $imap_peek
4303 imap_reconnect, $imap_reconnect
4304 imap_servernoise, $imap_servernoise
4305 imap_user, Authentication, $imap_user
4306 implicit_autoview, $implicit_autoview
4308 include_onlyfirst, $include_onlyfirst
4309 indent_string, Configuration variables, $indent_string
4310 index_format, Threaded Mode, Spam detection, Handling Mailing Lists, Configuration variables, $index_format
4312 keep_flagged, $keep_flagged
4313 list_reply, $list_reply
4314 locale, Change settings based upon message recipients, $locale
4315 mailcap_path, mailcap, $mailcap_path
4316 mailcap_sanitize, mailcap, $mailcap_sanitize
4317 maildir_header_cache_verify, $maildir_header_cache_verify
4318 maildir_trash, $maildir_trash
4319 mail_check, $mail_check
4323 max_display_recips, $max_display_recips
4324 max_line_length, $max_line_length
4325 mbox, Mailbox Shortcuts, $mbox
4326 mbox_type, Mailbox Formats, $mbox_type
4327 menu_context, $menu_context
4328 menu_move_off, $menu_move_off
4329 menu_scroll, $menu_scroll
4330 message_format, Configuration variables, $message_format
4334 mh_seq_flagged, $mh_seq_flagged
4335 mh_seq_replied, $mh_seq_replied
4336 mh_seq_unseen, $mh_seq_unseen
4337 mime_forward, Configuration variables, $mime_forward
4338 mime_forward_decode, $mime_forward_decode
4339 mime_forward_rest, $mime_forward_rest
4340 mixmaster, $mixmaster
4341 mix_entry_format, Sending anonymous messages via mixmaster, $mix_entry_format
4343 msgid_format, Message-ID: headers, $msgid_format
4344 muttng_bindir, $muttng_bindir
4345 muttng_docdir, $muttng_docdir
4346 muttng_folder_name, $muttng_folder_name
4347 muttng_folder_path, $muttng_folder_path
4348 muttng_hcache_backend, $muttng_hcache_backend
4349 muttng_pwd, $muttng_pwd
4350 muttng_revision, $muttng_revision
4351 muttng_sysconfdir, $muttng_sysconfdir
4352 muttng_version, $muttng_version
4353 narrow_tree, $narrow_tree
4355 nntp_ask_followup_to, Configuration variables, $nntp_ask_followup_to
4356 nntp_ask_x_comment_to, Configuration variables, $nntp_ask_x_comment_to
4357 nntp_cache_dir, Configuration variables, $nntp_cache_dir
4358 nntp_catchup, Configuration variables, $nntp_catchup
4359 nntp_context, $nntp_context
4360 nntp_followup_to_poster, Configuration variables, $nntp_followup_to_poster
4361 nntp_group_index_format, Configuration variables, $nntp_group_index_format
4362 nntp_host, Configuration variables, $nntp_host
4363 nntp_inews, Configuration variables, $nntp_inews
4364 nntp_load_description, $nntp_load_description
4365 nntp_mail_check, Configuration variables, $nntp_mail_check
4366 nntp_mime_subject, Configuration variables, $nntp_mime_subject
4367 nntp_newsrc, NNTP Support (OPTIONAL), Configuration variables, $nntp_newsrc
4368 nntp_pass, $nntp_pass
4369 nntp_post_moderated, Configuration variables, $nntp_post_moderated
4370 nntp_reconnect, $nntp_reconnect
4371 nntp_save_unsubscribed, Configuration variables, $nntp_save_unsubscribed
4372 nntp_show_new_news, Configuration variables, $nntp_show_new_news
4373 nntp_show_only_unread, Configuration variables, $nntp_show_only_unread
4374 nntp_user, $nntp_user
4375 nntp_x_comment_to, Configuration variables, $nntp_x_comment_to
4376 operating_system, $operating_system
4378 pager_context, $pager_context
4379 pager_format, $pager_format
4380 pager_index_lines, Conditional parts, $pager_index_lines
4381 pager_stop, $pager_stop
4382 pgp_autoinline, Configuration variables, $pgp_autoinline
4383 pgp_auto_decode, $pgp_auto_decode
4384 pgp_check_exit, $pgp_check_exit
4385 pgp_clearsign_command, $pgp_clearsign_command
4386 pgp_decode_command, $pgp_decode_command
4387 pgp_decrypt_command, $pgp_decrypt_command
4388 pgp_encrypt_only_command, $pgp_encrypt_only_command
4389 pgp_encrypt_sign_command, $pgp_encrypt_sign_command
4390 pgp_entry_format, Using Mutt-ng with PGP, $pgp_entry_format
4391 pgp_export_command, $pgp_export_command
4392 pgp_getkeys_command, $pgp_getkeys_command
4393 pgp_good_sign, $pgp_good_sign
4394 pgp_ignore_subkeys, $pgp_ignore_subkeys
4395 pgp_import_command, $pgp_import_command
4396 pgp_list_pubring_command, $pgp_list_pubring_command
4397 pgp_list_secring_command, $pgp_list_secring_command
4398 pgp_long_ids, $pgp_long_ids
4399 pgp_mime_auto, $pgp_mime_auto
4400 pgp_replyinline, Configuration variables, $pgp_replyinline
4401 pgp_retainable_sigs, $pgp_retainable_sigs
4402 pgp_show_unusable, $pgp_show_unusable
4403 pgp_sign_as, Using Mutt-ng with PGP, $pgp_sign_as
4404 pgp_sign_command, $pgp_sign_command
4405 pgp_sort_keys, $pgp_sort_keys
4406 pgp_strict_enc, $pgp_strict_enc
4407 pgp_timeout, $pgp_timeout
4408 pgp_use_gpg_agent, $pgp_use_gpg_agent
4409 pgp_verify_command, $pgp_verify_command
4410 pgp_verify_key_command, $pgp_verify_key_command
4411 pipe_decode, Miscellaneous Functions, $pipe_decode
4413 pipe_split, Miscellaneous Functions, $pipe_split
4414 pop_authenticators, $pop_authenticators
4415 pop_auth_try_all, $pop_auth_try_all
4416 pop_delete, $pop_delete
4419 pop_mail_check, POP3 Support (OPTIONAL), Configuration variables, $pop_mail_check
4421 pop_reconnect, $pop_reconnect
4423 postpone, Postponing Mail, $postpone
4424 postponed, Postponing Mail, $postponed
4425 post_indent_string, Configuration variables, $post_indent_string
4426 preconnect, $preconnect
4428 print_command, Configuration variables, $print_command
4429 print_decode, $print_decode
4430 print_split, $print_split
4431 prompt_after, $prompt_after
4432 query_command, External Address Queries, $query_command
4434 quote_empty, $quote_empty
4435 quote_quoted, $quote_quoted
4436 quote_regexp, Miscellaneous Functions, Using color and mono video attributes, $quote_regexp
4438 read_only, $read_only
4441 record, Environment Variables, Specify default Fcc: mailbox when composing, Mailbox Shortcuts, $record
4442 reply_regexp, $reply_regexp
4443 reply_self, $reply_self
4444 reply_to, Alternative addresses, Handling Mailing Lists, $reply_to
4446 reverse_alias, $reverse_alias
4447 reverse_name, $reverse_name
4448 reverse_realname, $reverse_realname
4449 rfc2047_parameters, $rfc2047_parameters
4450 save_address, $save_address
4451 save_empty, $save_empty
4452 save_name, $save_name
4454 score_threshold_delete, Message Scoring, $score_threshold_delete
4455 score_threshold_flag, Message Scoring, $score_threshold_flag
4456 score_threshold_read, Message Scoring, $score_threshold_read
4457 sendmail, Change settings based upon message recipients, $sendmail
4458 sendmail_wait, $sendmail_wait
4459 send_charset, $send_charset
4461 sidebar-shorten-hierarchy, Configuration variables
4462 sidebar_boundary, $sidebar_boundary
4463 sidebar_delim, $sidebar_delim
4464 sidebar_newmail_only, $sidebar_newmail_only
4465 sidebar_number_format, $sidebar_number_format
4466 sidebar_shorten_hierarchy, $sidebar_shorten_hierarchy
4467 sidebar_visible, $sidebar_visible
4468 sidebar_width, $sidebar_width
4469 signature, Change settings based upon message recipients, $signature
4470 signoff_string, $signoff_string
4471 sig_dashes, $sig_dashes
4472 sig_on_top, $sig_on_top
4473 simple_search, $simple_search
4474 sleep_time, $sleep_time
4475 smart_wrap, $smart_wrap
4477 smime_ask_cert_label, $smime_ask_cert_label
4478 smime_ca_location, $smime_ca_location
4479 smime_certificates, $smime_certificates
4480 smime_decrypt_command, $smime_decrypt_command
4481 smime_decrypt_use_default_key, $smime_decrypt_use_default_key
4482 smime_default_key, Configuration variables, $smime_default_key
4483 smime_encrypt_command, $smime_encrypt_command
4484 smime_encrypt_with, $smime_encrypt_with
4485 smime_get_cert_command, $smime_get_cert_command
4486 smime_get_cert_email_command, $smime_get_cert_email_command
4487 smime_get_signer_cert_command, $smime_get_signer_cert_command
4488 smime_import_cert_command, $smime_import_cert_command
4489 smime_is_default, $smime_is_default
4490 smime_keys, $smime_keys
4491 smime_pk7out_command, $smime_pk7out_command
4492 smime_sign_command, $smime_sign_command
4493 smime_sign_opaque_command, $smime_sign_opaque_command
4494 smime_timeout, $smime_timeout
4495 smime_verify_command, $smime_verify_command
4496 smime_verify_opaque_command, $smime_verify_opaque_command
4497 smtp_envelope, SMTP Support (OPTIONAL), $smtp_envelope
4498 smtp_host, $smtp_host
4499 smtp_pass, SMTP Support (OPTIONAL), Configuration variables, $smtp_pass
4500 smtp_port, $smtp_port
4501 smtp_user, Configuration variables, $smtp_user
4502 smtp_use_tls, SMTP Support (OPTIONAL), $smtp_use_tls
4504 sort_alias, $sort_alias
4506 sort_browser, $sort_browser
4508 spam_separator, $spam_separator
4509 spoolfile, Setting variables based upon mailbox, Defining mailboxes which receive mail, Mailbox Shortcuts, POP3 Support (OPTIONAL), $spoolfile
4510 ssl_ca_certificates_file, $ssl_ca_certificates_file
4511 ssl_client_cert, $ssl_client_cert
4512 ssl_force_tls, $ssl_force_tls
4513 ssl_min_dh_prime_bits, $ssl_min_dh_prime_bits
4514 ssl_starttls, $ssl_starttls
4515 ssl_usesystemcerts, $ssl_usesystemcerts
4516 ssl_use_sslv2, $ssl_use_sslv2
4517 ssl_use_sslv3, $ssl_use_sslv3
4518 ssl_use_tlsv1, $ssl_use_tlsv1
4519 status_chars, $status_chars
4520 status_format, Composing new messages, Introduction, $status_format
4521 status_on_top, $status_on_top
4522 strict_mailto, $strict_mailto
4523 strict_mime, $strict_mime
4524 strict_threads, Threaded Mode, $strict_threads
4525 strip_was, $strip_was
4526 strip_was_regex, $strip_was_regex
4527 stuff_quoted, $stuff_quoted
4529 text_flowed, $text_flowed
4530 thorough_search, $thorough_search
4531 thread_received, $thread_received
4533 timeout, IMAP Support (OPTIONAL), $timeout
4534 tmpdir, Temporary Files, $tmpdir
4535 to_chars, Status Flags, $to_chars
4538 umask, Temporary Files, $umask
4539 uncollapse_jump, $uncollapse_jump
4540 use_8bitmime, $use_8bitmime
4541 use_domain, $use_domain
4546 wait_key, Miscellaneous Functions, Optional Fields, $wait_key
4547 weed, Miscellaneous Functions, $weed
4548 wrapmargin, $wrapmargin
4549 wrap_search, $wrap_search
4550 write_bcc, $write_bcc
4551 write_inc, $write_inc
4552 xterm_icon, $xterm_icon
4553 xterm_leave, $xterm_leave
4554 xterm_set_titles, $xterm_set_titles
4555 xterm_title, $xterm_title
4559 Environment Variables
4561 $COLORFGBG, Using color and mono video attributes
4562 $EDITOR, Composing new messages
4563 $HOME, MIME Type configuration with mime.types, MIME Viewer configuration with mailcap
4564 $HOSTNAME, Environment Variables
4565 $NNTPSERVER, NNTP Support (OPTIONAL)
4566 $VISUAL, Composing new messages
4572 attach-file, Composing new messages
4573 attach-key, Composing new messages
4574 attach-message, Composing new messages
4575 backspace, Editing Input Fields
4576 backward-char, Editing Input Fields
4577 backward-word, Editing Input Fields
4578 bol, Editing Input Fields
4579 bounce, Sending Mail
4580 capitalize-word, Editing Input Fields
4581 check-traditional-pgp, Miscellaneous Functions
4582 collapse-all, Threaded Mode
4583 collapse-thread, Threaded Mode
4584 complete, Editing Input Fields
4585 complete-query, Editing Input Fields
4586 compose, Sending Mail
4587 create-alias, Miscellaneous Functions, Defining/Using aliases
4588 delete-char, Editing Input Fields
4589 delete-subthread, Threaded Mode
4590 delete-thread, Threaded Mode
4591 detach-file, Composing new messages
4592 display-toggle-weed, Miscellaneous Functions
4593 downcase-word, Editing Input Fields
4594 edit, Miscellaneous Functions
4595 edit-bcc, Composing new messages
4596 edit-cc, Composing new messages
4597 edit-description, Composing new messages
4598 edit-fcc, Composing new messages
4599 edit-from, Composing new messages
4600 edit-reply-to, Composing new messages
4601 edit-subject, Composing new messages
4602 edit-to, Composing new messages
4603 edit-type, Miscellaneous Functions
4604 enter-command, Miscellaneous Functions
4605 eol, Editing Input Fields
4606 extract-keys, Miscellaneous Functions
4607 first-entry, Moving Around in Menus
4608 forget-passphrase, Miscellaneous Functions, Composing new messages
4609 forward, Sending Mail
4610 forward-char, Editing Input Fields
4611 forward-word, Editing Input Fields
4612 group-reply, Sending Mail
4613 help, Moving Around in Menus
4614 history-down, Editing Input Fields
4615 history-up, Editing Input Fields
4616 ispell, Composing new messages
4617 kill-eol, Editing Input Fields
4618 kill-eow, Editing Input Fields
4619 kill-line, Editing Input Fields
4620 kill-word, Editing Input Fields
4621 last-entry, Moving Around in Menus
4622 list-reply, Miscellaneous Functions, Sending Mail
4623 mail-key, Sending Mail
4624 next-entry, Moving Around in Menus
4625 next-subthread, Threaded Mode
4626 next-thread, Threaded Mode
4627 page-down, Moving Around in Menus
4628 page-up, Moving Around in Menus
4629 parent-message, Threaded Mode
4630 pgp-menu, Composing new messages
4631 pipe-message, Miscellaneous Functions
4632 postpone-message, Composing new messages
4633 previous-entry, Moving Around in Menus
4634 previous-subthread, Threaded Mode
4635 previous-thread, Threaded Mode
4636 quit, Moving Around in Menus, Composing new messages
4637 quote-char, Editing Input Fields
4638 read-subthread, Threaded Mode
4639 read-thread, Threaded Mode
4641 resend-message, Miscellaneous Functions, The Attachment Menu
4642 send-message, Composing new messages
4643 shell-escape, Miscellaneous Functions
4644 sidebar-next, Using the sidebar
4645 sidebar-next-new, Using the sidebar
4646 sidebar-open, Using the sidebar
4647 sidebar-previous, Using the sidebar
4648 sidebar-scroll-down, Using the sidebar
4649 sidebar-scroll-up, Using the sidebar
4650 skip-quoted, Miscellaneous Functions
4651 smime-menu, Composing new messages
4652 tag-thread, Threaded Mode
4653 toggle-quoted, Miscellaneous Functions
4654 undelete-subthread, Threaded Mode
4655 undelete-thread, Threaded Mode
4656 upcase-word, Editing Input Fields
4657 write-fcc, Composing new messages
4663 account-hook, Managing multiple IMAP/POP/NNTP accounts (OPTIONAL), Configuration Commands
4664 append-hook, Compressed folders Support (OPTIONAL), Append a message to a compressed mailbox, Encrypted folders, Configuration Commands
4665 charset-hook, Defining aliases for character sets, Configuration Commands
4666 close-hook, Compressed folders Support (OPTIONAL), Write a compressed mailbox, Append a message to a compressed mailbox, Configuration Commands
4667 crypt-hook, Choosing the cryptographic key of the recipient, Configuration Commands
4668 default-hook, Message Matching in Hooks
4669 fcc-hook, Specify default Fcc: mailbox when composing, Specify default save filename and default Fcc: mailbox at once, Using Hooks, Message Matching in Hooks, Configuration Commands
4670 fcc-save-hook, Specify default save filename, Specify default Fcc: mailbox when composing, Specify default save filename and default Fcc: mailbox at once, Using Hooks, Configuration Commands
4671 folder-hook, Setting variables based upon mailbox, Spam detection, Using Hooks, Managing multiple IMAP/POP/NNTP accounts (OPTIONAL), Configuration Commands
4672 iconv-hook, Defining aliases for character sets
4673 mbox-hook, Using Multiple spool mailboxes, Using Hooks, Configuration Commands
4674 message-hook, Change settings before formatting a message, Using Hooks, Message Matching in Hooks, MIME Autoview, Configuration Commands
4675 open-hook, Compressed folders Support (OPTIONAL), Open a compressed mailbox for reading, Write a compressed mailbox, Append a message to a compressed mailbox, Configuration Commands
4676 pattern-hook, Specify default save filename, Specify default Fcc: mailbox when composing, Change settings based upon message recipients, Change settings before formatting a message
4677 reply-hook, Change settings based upon message recipients, Configuration Commands
4678 save-hook, Specify default save filename, Specify default save filename and default Fcc: mailbox at once, Using Hooks, Message Matching in Hooks, Mailbox Shortcuts, Configuration Commands
4679 send-hook, Change settings based upon message recipients, Using Hooks, Message Matching in Hooks, Configuration Commands
4680 send2-hook, Change settings based upon message recipients
4687 ~*/=*, Again: Scoring, Patterns
4689 ~A/=A, Change settings before formatting a message, Patterns
4690 ~b/=b, Complex Patterns, Patterns
4692 ~C/=C, Using Hooks, Patterns
4694 ~d/=d, Patterns and Dates, Patterns
4698 ~f/=f, Change settings before formatting a message, Message Scoring, Complex Patterns, Patterns
4702 ~H/=H, Spam detection, Patterns
4710 ~n/=n, Message Scoring, Patterns
4718 ~s/=s, Complex Patterns, Patterns
4720 ~t/=t, Message Matching in Hooks, Patterns
4722 ~U/=U, Complex Patterns, Patterns
4727 ~x/=x, Complex Patterns, Patterns
4728 ~y/=y, Handling Mailing Lists, Patterns
projects / apps / madmutt.git / blob