1 The Mutt Next Generation E-Mail Client
15 Michael Elinks on mutt, circa 1995: ``All mail clients suck. This one just
18 Sven Guckes on mutt, ca. 2003: ``But it still sucks!''
20 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
32 4. Software Distribution Sites
44 1.1. Screens and Menus
76 3. Moving Around in Menus
78 4. Editing Input Fields
80 5. Reading Mail - The Index and Pager
82 5.1. The Message Index
88 5.4. Miscellaneous Functions
92 6.1. Composing new messages
96 6.3. Editing the message header
98 6.4. Using Mutt-ng with PGP
100 6.5. Sending anonymous messages via mixmaster
102 7. Forwarding and Bouncing Mail
108 1. Locations of Configuration Files
110 2. Basic Syntax of Initialization Files
112 3. Expansion within variables
114 3.1. Commands' Output
116 3.2. Environment Variables
118 3.3. Configuration Variables
120 3.4. Self-Defined Variables
122 3.5. Pre-Defined Variables
124 3.6. Type Conversions
126 4. Defining/Using aliases
128 5. Changing the default key bindings
130 6. Defining aliases for character sets
132 7. Setting variables based upon mailbox
136 9. Using color and mono video attributes
138 10. Ignoring (weeding) unwanted message headers
140 11. Alternative addresses
146 12.2. Receiving: Display Setup
150 12.4. Additional Notes
154 14. Using Multiple spool mailboxes
156 15. Defining mailboxes which receive mail
158 16. User defined headers
160 17. Defining the order of headers when viewing messages
162 18. Specify default save filename
164 19. Specify default Fcc: mailbox when composing
166 20. Specify default save filename and default Fcc: mailbox at
169 21. Change settings based upon message recipients
171 22. Change settings before formatting a message
173 23. Choosing the cryptographic key of the recipient
175 24. Adding key sequences to the keyboard buffer
177 25. Executing functions
183 28. Setting variables
185 29. Reading initialization commands from another file
195 31.3. Conditional parts
197 32. Obsolete Variables
201 1. Regular Expressions
205 2.1. Complex Patterns
207 2.2. Patterns and Dates
213 3.2. Conditional Expansion
215 3.3. Modifications and Padding
221 5.1. Message Matching in Hooks
225 7. External Address Queries
231 10. Handling Mailing Lists
235 11.1. Linking threads
237 11.2. Breaking threads
239 12. Delivery Status Notification (DSN) Support
241 13. POP3 Support (OPTIONAL)
243 14. IMAP Support (OPTIONAL)
245 14.1. The Folder Browser
249 15. NNTP Support (OPTIONAL)
253 16. SMTP Support (OPTIONAL)
255 17. Managing multiple IMAP/POP/NNTP accounts (OPTIONAL)
257 18. Start a WWW Browser on URLs (EXTERNAL)
259 19. Compressed folders Support (OPTIONAL)
261 19.1. Open a compressed mailbox for reading
263 19.2. Write a compressed mailbox
265 19.3. Append a message to a compressed mailbox
267 19.4. Encrypted folders
269 5. Mutt-ng's MIME Support
271 1. Using MIME in Mutt
273 1.1. Viewing MIME messages in the pager
275 1.2. The Attachment Menu
277 1.3. The Compose Menu
279 2. MIME Type configuration with mime.types
281 3. MIME Viewer configuration with mailcap
283 3.1. The Basics of the mailcap file
285 3.2. Secure use of mailcap
287 3.3. Advanced mailcap Usage
289 3.4. Example mailcap files
293 5. MIME Multipart/Alternative
297 6. Security Considerations
305 3.1. Message-ID: headers
307 3.2. mailto:-style links
309 4. External applications
317 1. Command line options
321 3. Configuration Commands
323 4. Configuration variables
355 2.1. Default Menu Movement Keys
357 2.2. Built-In Editor Functions
359 2.3. Default Index Menu Bindings
361 2.4. Default Pager Menu Bindings
363 2.5. ANSI Escape Sequences
367 2.7. Default Thread Function Bindings
369 2.8. Default Mail Composition Bindings
371 2.9. Default Compose Menu Bindings
373 2.10. PGP Key Menu Flags
375 3.1. Alternative Key Names
377 4.1. Default Sidebar Function Bindings
379 7.1. Mutt-NG Command Line Options
383 7.3. Obsolete Variables
385 Chapter 1. Introduction
395 4. Software Distribution Sites
405 Mutt-ng is a small but very powerful text-based MIME mail client. Mutt-ng
406 is highly configurable, and is well suited to the mail power user with
407 advanced features like key bindings, keyboard macros, mail threading,
408 regular expression searches and a powerful pattern matching language for
409 selecting groups of messages.
411 This documentation additionally contains documentation to Mutt-NG ,a fork
412 from Mutt with the goal to fix all the little annoyances of Mutt, to
413 integrate all the Mutt patches that are floating around in the web, and to
414 add other new features. Features specific to Mutt-ng will be discussed in
415 an extra section. Don't be confused when most of the documentation talk
416 about Mutt and not Mutt-ng, Mutt-ng contains all Mutt features, plus many
421 http://www.muttng.org
425 o <mutt-ng-users@lists.berlios.de>: This is where the mutt-ng user
428 o <mutt-ng-devel@lists.berlios.de>: The development mailing list for
431 4. Software Distribution Sites
433 So far, there are no official releases of Mutt-ng, but you can download
434 daily snapshots from http://mutt-ng.berlios.de/snapshots/
438 Visit channel #muttng on irc.freenode.net (www.freenode.net) to chat with
439 other people interested in Mutt-ng.
443 If you want to read fresh news about the latest development in Mutt-ng,
444 and get informed about stuff like interesting, Mutt-ng-related articles
445 and packages for your favorite distribution, you can read and/or subscribe
446 to our Mutt-ng development weblog.
450 Mutt is Copyright (C) 1996-2000 Michael R. Elkins <me@cs.hmc.edu> and
453 This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it
454 under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free
455 Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option)
458 This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but
459 WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY
460 or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License
463 You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along
464 with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59
465 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111, USA.
467 Chapter 2. Getting Started
473 1.1. Screens and Menus
505 3. Moving Around in Menus
507 4. Editing Input Fields
509 5. Reading Mail - The Index and Pager
511 5.1. The Message Index
517 5.4. Miscellaneous Functions
521 6.1. Composing new messages
525 6.3. Editing the message header
527 6.4. Using Mutt-ng with PGP
529 6.5. Sending anonymous messages via mixmaster
531 7. Forwarding and Bouncing Mail
537 1.1. Screens and Menus
539 mutt-ng offers different screens of which every has its special purpose:
541 o The index displays the contents of the currently opened mailbox.
543 o The pager is responsible for displaying messages, that is, the header,
544 the body and all attached parts.
546 o The file browser offers operations on and displays information of all
547 folders mutt-ng should watch for mail.
549 o The sidebar offers a permanent view of which mailboxes contain how
550 many total, new and/or flagged mails.
552 o The help screen lists for all currently available commands how to
553 invoke them as well as a short description.
555 o The compose menu is a comfortable interface take last actions before
556 sending mail: change subjects, attach files, remove attachements, etc.
558 o The attachement menu gives a summary and the tree structure of the
559 attachements of the current message.
561 o The alias menu lists all or a fraction of the aliases a user has
564 o The key menu used in connection with encryption lets users choose the
565 right key to encrypt with.
567 When mutt-ng is started without any further options, it'll open the users
568 default mailbox and display the index.
572 Mutt-ng does not feature an internal configuration interface or menu due
573 to the simple fact that this would be too complex to handle (currently
574 there are several hundred variables which fine-tune the behaviour.)
576 Mutt-ng is configured using configuration files which allow users to add
577 comments or manage them via version control systems to ease maintenance.
579 Also, mutt-ng comes with a shell script named grml-muttng kindly
580 contributed by users which really helps and eases the creation of a user's
581 configuration file. When downloading the source code via a snapshot or via
582 subversion, it can be found in the contrib directory.
586 Mutt-ng offers great flexibility due to the use of functions: internally,
587 every action a user can make mutt-ng perform is named ``function.'' Those
588 functions are assigned to keys (or even key sequences) and may be
589 completely adjusted to user's needs. The basic idea is that the impatient
590 users get a very intuitive interface to start off with and advanced users
591 virtually get no limits to adjustments.
595 Mutt-ng has two basic concepts of user interaction:
597 1. There is one dedicated line on the screen used to query the user for
598 input, issue any command, query variables and display error and
599 informational messages. As for every type of user input, this requires
600 manual action leading to the need of input.
602 2. The automatized interface for interaction are the so called hooks.
603 Hooks specify actions the user wants to be performed at well-defined
604 situations: what to do when entering which folder, what to do when
605 displaying or replying to what kind of message, etc. These are
606 optional, i.e. a user doesn't need to specify them but can do so.
610 Although mutt-ng has many functionality built-in, many features can be
611 delegated to external tools to increase flexibility: users can define
612 programs to filter a message through before displaying, users can use any
613 program they want for displaying a message, message types (such as PDF or
614 PostScript) for which mutt-ng doesn't have a built-in filter can be
615 rendered by arbitrary tools and so forth. Although mutt-ng has an alias
616 mechanism built-in, it features using external tools to query for nearly
617 every type of addresses from sources like LDAP, databases or just the list
618 of locally known users.
622 Mutt-ng has a built-in pattern matching ``language'' which is as widely
623 used as possible to present a consistent interface to users. The same
624 ``pattern terms'' can be used for searching, scoring, message selection
631 The index is the screen that you usually see first when you start mutt-ng.
632 It gives an overview over your emails in the currently opened mailbox. By
633 default, this is your system mailbox. The information you see in the index
634 is a list of emails, each with its number on the left, its flags (new
635 email, important email, email that has been forwarded or replied to,
636 tagged email, ...), the date when email was sent, its sender, the email
637 size, and the subject. Additionally, the index also shows thread
638 hierarchies: when you reply to an email, and the other person replies
639 back, you can see the other's person email in a "sub-tree" below. This is
640 especially useful for personal email between a group of people or when
641 you've subscribed to mailing lists.
645 The pager is responsible for showing the email content. On the top of the
646 pager you have an overview over the most important email headers like the
647 sender, the recipient, the subject, and much more information. How much
648 information you actually see depends on your configuration, which we'll
651 Below the headers, you see the email body which usually contains the
652 message. If the email contains any attachments, you will see more
653 information about them below the email body, or, if the attachments are
654 text files, you can view them directly in the pager.
656 To give the user a good overview, it is possible to configure mutt-ng to
657 show different things in the pager with different colors. Virtually
658 everything that can be described with a regular expression can be colored,
659 e.g. URLs, email addresses or smileys.
663 The file browser is the interface to the local or remote file system. When
664 selecting a mailbox to open, the browser allows custom sorting of items,
665 limiting the items shown by a regular expression and a freely adjustable
666 format of what to display in which way. It also allows for easy navigation
667 through the file system when selecting file(s) to attach to a message,
668 select multiple files to attach and many more.
672 The sidebar comes in handy to manage mails which are spread over different
673 folders. All folders users setup mutt-ng to watch for new mail will be
674 listed. The listing includes not only the name but also the number of
675 total messages, the number of new and flagged messages. Items with new
676 mail may be colored different from those with flagged mail, items may be
677 shortened or compress if they're they to long to be printed in full form
678 so that by abbreviated names, user still now what the name stands for.
682 The help screen is meant to offer a quick help to the user. It lists the
683 current configuration of key bindings and their associated commands
684 including a short description, and currently unbound functions that still
685 need to be associated with a key binding (or alternatively, they can be
686 called via the mutt-ng command prompt).
690 The compose menu features a split screen containing the information which
691 really matter before actually sending a message by mail or posting an
692 article to a newsgroup: who gets the message as what (recipient,
693 newsgroup, who gets what kind of copy). Additionally, users may set
694 security options like deciding whether to sign, encrypt or sign and
695 encrypt a message with/for what keys.
697 Also, it's used to attach messages, news articles or files to a message,
698 to re-edit any attachment including the message itself.
702 The alias menu is used to help users finding the recipients of messages.
703 For users who need to contact many people, there's no need to remember
704 addresses or names completely because it allows for searching, too. The
705 alias mechanism and thus the alias menu also features grouping several
706 addresses by a shorter nickname, the actual alias, so that users don't
707 have to select each single recipient manually.
711 As will be later discussed in detail, mutt-ng features a good and stable
712 MIME implementation, that is, is greatly supports sending and receiving
713 messages of arbitrary type. The attachment menu displays a message's
714 structure in detail: what content parts are attached to which parent part
715 (which gives a true tree structure), which type is of what type and what
716 size. Single parts may saved, deleted or modified to offer great and easy
717 access to message's internals.
723 3. Moving Around in Menus
725 Information is presented in menus, very similar to ELM. Here is a
726 tableshowing the common keys used to navigate menus in Mutt-ng.
728 Table 2.1. Default Menu Movement Keys
730 +------------------------------------------------------------------------+
731 | Key | Function | Description |
732 |-------------+----------------+-----------------------------------------|
733 | j or Down | next-entry | move to the next entry |
734 |-------------+----------------+-----------------------------------------|
735 | k or Up | previous-entry | move to the previous entry |
736 |-------------+----------------+-----------------------------------------|
737 | z or PageDn | page-down | go to the next page |
738 |-------------+----------------+-----------------------------------------|
739 | Z or PageUp | page-up | go to the previous page |
740 |-------------+----------------+-----------------------------------------|
741 | = or Home | first-entry | jump to the first entry |
742 |-------------+----------------+-----------------------------------------|
743 | * or End | last-entry | jump to the last entry |
744 |-------------+----------------+-----------------------------------------|
745 | q | quit | exit the current menu |
746 |-------------+----------------+-----------------------------------------|
747 | ? | help | list all key bindings for the current |
749 +------------------------------------------------------------------------+
751 4. Editing Input Fields
753 Mutt-ng has a builtin line editor which is used as the primary way to
754 input textual data such as email addresses or filenames. The keys used to
755 move around while editing are very similar to those of Emacs.
757 Table 2.2. Built-In Editor Functions
759 +------------------------------------------------------------------------+
760 | Key | Function | Description |
761 |----------------+-----------------+-------------------------------------|
762 | ^A or <Home> | bol | move to the start of the line |
763 |----------------+-----------------+-------------------------------------|
764 | ^B or <Left> | backward-char | move back one char |
765 |----------------+-----------------+-------------------------------------|
766 | Esc B | backward-word | move back one word |
767 |----------------+-----------------+-------------------------------------|
768 | ^D or <Delete> | delete-char | delete the char under the cursor |
769 |----------------+-----------------+-------------------------------------|
770 | ^E or <End> | eol | move to the end of the line |
771 |----------------+-----------------+-------------------------------------|
772 | ^F or <Right> | forward-char | move forward one char |
773 |----------------+-----------------+-------------------------------------|
774 | Esc F | forward-word | move forward one word |
775 |----------------+-----------------+-------------------------------------|
776 | <Tab> | complete | complete filename or alias |
777 |----------------+-----------------+-------------------------------------|
778 | ^T | complete-query | complete address with query |
779 |----------------+-----------------+-------------------------------------|
780 | ^K | kill-eol | delete to the end of the line |
781 |----------------+-----------------+-------------------------------------|
782 | ESC d | kill-eow | delete to the end of the word |
783 |----------------+-----------------+-------------------------------------|
784 | ^W | kill-word | kill the word in front of the |
786 |----------------+-----------------+-------------------------------------|
787 | ^U | kill-line | delete entire line |
788 |----------------+-----------------+-------------------------------------|
789 | ^V | quote-char | quote the next typed key |
790 |----------------+-----------------+-------------------------------------|
791 | <Up> | history-up | recall previous string from history |
792 |----------------+-----------------+-------------------------------------|
793 | <Down> | history-down | recall next string from history |
794 |----------------+-----------------+-------------------------------------|
795 | <BackSpace> | backspace | kill the char in front of the |
797 |----------------+-----------------+-------------------------------------|
798 | Esc u | upcase-word | convert word to upper case |
799 |----------------+-----------------+-------------------------------------|
800 | Esc l | downcase-word | convert word to lower case |
801 |----------------+-----------------+-------------------------------------|
802 | Esc c | capitalize-word | capitalize the word |
803 |----------------+-----------------+-------------------------------------|
805 |----------------+-----------------+-------------------------------------|
806 | <Return> | n/a | finish editing |
807 +------------------------------------------------------------------------+
809 You can remap the editor functions using the bind command. For example, to
810 make the Delete key delete the character in front of the cursor rather
811 than under, you could use
813 bind editor <delete> backspace
815 5. Reading Mail - The Index and Pager
817 Similar to many other mail clients, there are two modes in which mail
818 isread in Mutt-ng. The first is the index of messages in the mailbox,
819 which is called the ``index'' in Mutt-ng. The second mode is the display
820 of the message contents. This is called the ``pager.''
822 The next few sections describe the functions provided in each of these
825 5.1. The Message Index
827 Table 2.3. Default Index Menu Bindings
829 +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
830 | Key | Function | Description |
831 |----------+----------+---------------------------------------------|
832 | c | | change to a different mailbox |
833 |----------+----------+---------------------------------------------|
834 | ESC c | | change to a folder in read-only mode |
835 |----------+----------+---------------------------------------------|
836 | C | | copy the current message to another mailbox |
837 |----------+----------+---------------------------------------------|
838 | ESC C | | decode a message and copy it to a folder |
839 |----------+----------+---------------------------------------------|
840 | ESC s | | decode a message and save it to a folder |
841 |----------+----------+---------------------------------------------|
842 | D | | delete messages matching a pattern |
843 |----------+----------+---------------------------------------------|
844 | d | | delete the current message |
845 |----------+----------+---------------------------------------------|
846 | F | | mark as important |
847 |----------+----------+---------------------------------------------|
848 | l | | show messages matching a pattern |
849 |----------+----------+---------------------------------------------|
850 | N | | mark message as new |
851 |----------+----------+---------------------------------------------|
852 | o | | change the current sort method |
853 |----------+----------+---------------------------------------------|
854 | O | | reverse sort the mailbox |
855 |----------+----------+---------------------------------------------|
856 | q | | save changes and exit |
857 |----------+----------+---------------------------------------------|
858 | s | | save-message |
859 |----------+----------+---------------------------------------------|
860 | T | | tag messages matching a pattern |
861 |----------+----------+---------------------------------------------|
862 | t | | toggle the tag on a message |
863 |----------+----------+---------------------------------------------|
864 | ESC t | | toggle tag on entire message thread |
865 |----------+----------+---------------------------------------------|
866 | U | | undelete messages matching a pattern |
867 |----------+----------+---------------------------------------------|
868 | u | | undelete-message |
869 |----------+----------+---------------------------------------------|
870 | v | | view-attachments |
871 |----------+----------+---------------------------------------------|
872 | x | | abort changes and exit |
873 |----------+----------+---------------------------------------------|
874 | <Return> | | display-message |
875 |----------+----------+---------------------------------------------|
876 | <Tab> | | jump to the next new or unread message |
877 |----------+----------+---------------------------------------------|
878 | @ | | show the author's full e-mail address |
879 |----------+----------+---------------------------------------------|
880 | $ | | save changes to mailbox |
881 |----------+----------+---------------------------------------------|
883 |----------+----------+---------------------------------------------|
884 | ESC / | | search-reverse |
885 |----------+----------+---------------------------------------------|
886 | ^L | | clear and redraw the screen |
887 |----------+----------+---------------------------------------------|
888 | ^T | | untag messages matching a pattern |
889 +-------------------------------------------------------------------+
893 In addition to who sent the message and the subject, a short summary of
894 the disposition of each message is printed beside the message number. Zero
895 or more of the following ``flags'' may appear, which mean:
899 message is deleted (is marked for deletion)
903 message have attachments marked for deletion
907 contains a PGP public key
919 message is PGP encrypted
923 message has been replied to
927 message is signed, and the signature is succesfully verified
941 Some of the status flags can be turned on or off using
943 o set-flag (default: w)
945 o clear-flag (default: W)
947 Furthermore, the following flags reflect who the message is addressed to.
948 They can be customized with the $to_chars variable.
952 message is to you and you only
956 message is to you, but also to or cc'ed to others
960 message is cc'ed to you
968 message is sent to a subscribed mailing list
972 By default, Mutt-ng uses its builtin pager to display the body of
973 messages. The pager is very similar to the Unix program less though not
974 nearly as featureful.
976 Table 2.4. Default Pager Menu Bindings
978 +------------------------------------------------------------------------+
979 | Key | Function | Description |
980 |----------+----------+--------------------------------------------------|
981 | <Return> | | go down one line |
982 |----------+----------+--------------------------------------------------|
983 | <Space> | | display the next page (or next message if at the |
984 | | | end of a message) |
985 |----------+----------+--------------------------------------------------|
986 | - | | go back to the previous page |
987 |----------+----------+--------------------------------------------------|
988 | n | | search for next match |
989 |----------+----------+--------------------------------------------------|
990 | S | | skip beyond quoted text |
991 |----------+----------+--------------------------------------------------|
992 | T | | toggle display of quoted text |
993 |----------+----------+--------------------------------------------------|
994 | ? | | show key bindings |
995 |----------+----------+--------------------------------------------------|
996 | / | | search for a regular expression (pattern) |
997 |----------+----------+--------------------------------------------------|
998 | ESC / | | search backwards for a regular expression |
999 |----------+----------+--------------------------------------------------|
1000 | \ | | toggle search pattern coloring |
1001 |----------+----------+--------------------------------------------------|
1002 | ^ | | jump to the top of the message |
1003 +------------------------------------------------------------------------+
1005 In addition, many of the functions from the index are available in the
1006 pager, such as delete-message or copy-message (this is one advantage over
1007 using an external pager to view messages).
1009 Also, the internal pager supports a couple other advanced features. For
1010 one, it will accept and translate the ``standard'' nroff sequences forbold
1011 and underline. These sequences are a series of either the letter,
1012 backspace (^H), the letter again for bold or the letter, backspace, ``_''
1013 for denoting underline. Mutt-ng will attempt to display these in bold and
1014 underline respectively if your terminal supports them. If not, you can use
1015 the bold and underline color objects to specify a color or mono attribute
1018 Additionally, the internal pager supports the ANSI escape sequences for
1019 character attributes. Mutt-ng translates them into the correct color and
1020 character settings. The sequences Mutt-ng supports are: ESC [
1021 Ps;Ps;Ps;...;Ps m (see table below for possible values for Ps).
1023 Table 2.5. ANSI Escape Sequences
1025 +-------------------------------------------------+
1026 | Value | Attribute |
1027 |-------+-----------------------------------------|
1028 | 0 | All Attributes Off |
1029 |-------+-----------------------------------------|
1031 |-------+-----------------------------------------|
1032 | 4 | Underline on |
1033 |-------+-----------------------------------------|
1035 |-------+-----------------------------------------|
1036 | 7 | Reverse video on |
1037 |-------+-----------------------------------------|
1038 | 3x | Foreground color is x (see table below) |
1039 |-------+-----------------------------------------|
1040 | 4x | Background color is x (see table below) |
1041 +-------------------------------------------------+
1043 Table 2.6. ANSI Colors
1045 +------------------+
1047 |--------+---------|
1049 |--------+---------|
1051 |--------+---------|
1053 |--------+---------|
1055 |--------+---------|
1057 |--------+---------|
1059 |--------+---------|
1061 |--------+---------|
1063 +------------------+
1065 Mutt-ng uses these attributes for handling text/enriched messages, and
1066 they can also be used by an external autoview script for highlighting
1067 purposes. Note: If you change the colors for your display, for example by
1068 changing the color associated with color2 for your xterm, then that color
1069 will be used instead of green.
1073 When the mailbox is sorted by threads ,there are a few additional
1074 functions available in the index and pager modes.
1076 Table 2.7. Default Thread Function Bindings
1078 +------------------------------------------------------------------------+
1079 | Key | Function | Description |
1080 |-------+--------------------+-------------------------------------------|
1081 | ^D | delete-thread | delete all messages in the current thread |
1082 |-------+--------------------+-------------------------------------------|
1083 | ^U | undelete-thread | undelete all messages in the current |
1085 |-------+--------------------+-------------------------------------------|
1086 | ^N | next-thread | jump to the start of the next thread |
1087 |-------+--------------------+-------------------------------------------|
1088 | ^P | previous-thread | jump to the start of the previous thread |
1089 |-------+--------------------+-------------------------------------------|
1090 | ^R | read-thread | mark the current thread as read |
1091 |-------+--------------------+-------------------------------------------|
1092 | ESC d | delete-subthread | delete all messages in the current |
1094 |-------+--------------------+-------------------------------------------|
1095 | ESC u | undelete-subthread | undelete all messages in the current |
1097 |-------+--------------------+-------------------------------------------|
1098 | ESC n | next-subthread | jump to the start of the next subthread |
1099 |-------+--------------------+-------------------------------------------|
1100 | ESC p | previous-subthread | jump to the start of the previous |
1102 |-------+--------------------+-------------------------------------------|
1103 | ESC r | read-subthread | mark the current subthread as read |
1104 |-------+--------------------+-------------------------------------------|
1105 | ESC t | tag-thread | toggle the tag on the current thread |
1106 |-------+--------------------+-------------------------------------------|
1107 | ESC v | collapse-thread | toggle collapse for the current thread |
1108 |-------+--------------------+-------------------------------------------|
1109 | ESC V | collapse-all | toggle collapse for all threads |
1110 |-------+--------------------+-------------------------------------------|
1111 | P | parent-message | jump to parent message in thread |
1112 +------------------------------------------------------------------------+
1114 Note: Collapsing a thread displays only the first message in the thread
1115 and hides the others. This is useful when threads contain so many messages
1116 that you can only see a handful of threads onthe screen. See %M in
1117 index-format . For example, you could use "%?M?(#%03M)&(%4l)?" in
1118 index-format to optionally display the number of hidden messages if the
1119 thread is collapsed.
1121 See also: strict-threads.
1123 5.4. Miscellaneous Functions
1125 create-alias (default: a)
1127 Creates a new alias based upon the current message (or prompts for a new
1128 one). Once editing is complete, an alias command is added to the file
1129 specified by the alias-file variable for future use. Note: Specifying an
1130 alias-file does not add the aliases specified there-in, you must also
1133 check-traditional-pgp (default: ESC P)
1135 This function will search the current message for content signed or
1136 encrypted with PGP the "traditional" way, that is, without proper MIME
1137 tagging. Technically, this function will temporarily change the MIME
1138 content types of the body parts containing PGP data; this is similar to
1139 the edit-type function's effect.
1141 display-toggle-weed (default: h)
1143 Toggles the weeding of message header fields specified by ignore commands.
1147 This command (available in the ``index'' and ``pager'') allows you to edit
1148 the raw current message as it's present in the mail folder. After you have
1149 finished editing, the changed message will be appended to the current
1150 folder, and the original message will be marked for deletion.
1152 edit-type (default: ^E on the attachment menu, and in the pager and index
1153 menus; ^T on the compose menu)
1155 This command is used to temporarily edit an attachment's content type to
1156 fix, for instance, bogus character set parameters. When invoked from the
1157 index or from the pager, you'll have the opportunity to edit the top-level
1158 attachment's content type. On the attach-menu, you can change any
1159 attachment's content type. These changes are not persistent, and get lost
1160 upon changing folders.
1162 Note that this command is also available on the compose-menu .There, it's
1163 used to fine-tune the properties of attachments you are going to send.
1165 enter-command (default: ``:'')
1167 This command is used to execute any command you would normally put in a
1168 configuration file. A common use is to check the settings of variables, or
1169 in conjunction with macro to change settings on the fly.
1171 extract-keys (default: ^K)
1173 This command extracts PGP public keys from the current or tagged
1174 message(s) and adds them to your PGP public key ring.
1176 forget-passphrase (default: ^F)
1178 This command wipes the passphrase(s) from memory. It is useful, if you
1179 misspelled the passphrase.
1181 list-reply (default: L)
1183 Reply to the current or tagged message(s) by extracting any addresses
1184 which match the regular expressions given by the lists commands, but also
1185 honor any Mail-Followup-To header(s) if the honor-followup-to
1186 configuration variable is set. Using this when replying to messages posted
1187 to mailing lists helps avoid duplicate copies being sent to the author of
1188 the message you are replying to.
1190 pipe-message (default: |)
1192 Asks for an external Unix command and pipes the current or tagged
1193 message(s) to it. The variables pipe-decode ,pipe-split, pipe-sep and
1194 wait-key control the exact behavior of this function.
1196 resend-message (default: ESC e)
1198 With resend-message, mutt takes the current message as a template for a
1199 new message. This function is best described as "recall from arbitrary
1200 folders". It can conveniently be used to forward MIME messages while
1201 preserving the original mail structure. Note that the amount of headers
1202 included here depends on the value of the weed variable.
1204 This function is also available from the attachment menu. You can use this
1205 to easily resend a message which was included with a bounce message as a
1206 message/rfc822 body part.
1208 shell-escape (default: !)
1210 Asks for an external Unix command and executes it. The wait-key can be
1211 used to control whether Mutt-ng will wait for a key to be pressed when the
1212 command returns (presumably to let the user read the output of the
1213 command), based on the return status of the named command.
1215 toggle-quoted (default: T)
1217 The pager uses the quote-regexp variable to detect quoted text when
1218 displaying the body of the message. This function toggles the displayof
1219 the quoted material in the message. It is particularly useful when are
1220 interested in just the response and there is a large amount of quoted text
1223 skip-quoted (default: S)
1225 This function will go to the next line of non-quoted text which come after
1226 a line of quoted text in the internal pager.
1230 The following bindings are available in the index for sending messages.
1232 Table 2.8. Default Mail Composition Bindings
1234 +--------------------------------------------------------+
1235 | Key | Function | Description |
1236 |-------+-------------+----------------------------------|
1237 | m | compose | compose a new message |
1238 |-------+-------------+----------------------------------|
1239 | r | reply | reply to sender |
1240 |-------+-------------+----------------------------------|
1241 | g | group-reply | reply to all recipients |
1242 |-------+-------------+----------------------------------|
1243 | L | list-reply | reply to mailing list address |
1244 |-------+-------------+----------------------------------|
1245 | f | forward | forward message |
1246 |-------+-------------+----------------------------------|
1247 | b | bounce | bounce (remail) message |
1248 |-------+-------------+----------------------------------|
1249 | ESC k | mail-key | mail a PGP public key to someone |
1250 +--------------------------------------------------------+
1252 Bouncing a message sends the message as is to the recipient you specify.
1253 Forwarding a message allows you to add comments or modify the message you
1254 are forwarding. These items are discussed in greater detail in the next
1255 chapter forwarding-mail .
1257 6.1. Composing new messages
1259 When you want to send an email using mutt-ng, simply press m on your
1260 keyboard. Then, mutt-ng asks for the recipient via a prompt in the last
1265 After you've finished entering the recipient(s), press return. If you want
1266 to send an email to more than one recipient, separate the email addresses
1267 using the comma ",". Mutt-ng then asks you for the email subject. Again,
1268 press return after you've entered it. After that, mutt-ng got the most
1269 important information from you, and starts up an editor where you can then
1272 The editor that is called is selected in the following way: you can e.g.
1273 set it in the mutt-ng configuration:
1275 set editor = "vim +/^$/ -c ':set tw=72'"
1277 set editor = "emacs"
1279 If you don't set your preferred editor in your configuration, mutt-ng
1280 first looks whether the environment variable $VISUAL is set, and if so, it
1281 takes its value as editor command. Otherwise, it has a look at $EDITOR and
1282 takes its value if it is set. If no editor command can be found, mutt-ng
1283 simply assumes vi to be the default editor, since it's the most widespread
1284 editor in the Unix world and it's pretty safe to assume that it is
1285 installed and available.
1287 When you've finished entering your message, save it and quit your editor.
1288 Mutt-ng will then present you with a summary screen, the compose menu. On
1289 the top, you see a summary of the most important available key commands.
1290 Below that, you see the sender, the recipient(s), Cc and/or Bcc
1291 recipient(s), the subject, the reply-to address, and optionally
1292 information where the sent email will be stored and whether it should be
1293 digitally signed and/or encrypted.
1295 Below that, you see a list of "attachments". The mail you've just entered
1296 before is also an attachment, but due to its special type (it's plain
1297 text), it will be displayed as the normal message on the receiver's side.
1299 At this point, you can add more attachments, pressing a, you can edit the
1300 recipient addresses, pressing t for the "To:" field, c for the "Cc:"
1301 field, and b for the "Bcc: field. You can also edit the subject the
1302 subject by simply pressing s or the email message that you've entered
1303 before by pressing e. You will then again return to the editor. You can
1304 even edit the sender, by pressing <esc>f, but this shall only be used with
1307 Alternatively, you can configure mutt-ng in a way that most of the above
1308 settings can be edited using the editor. Therefore, you only need to add
1309 the following to your configuration:
1313 Once you have finished editing the body of your mail message, you are
1314 returned to the compose menu. The following options are available:
1316 Table 2.9. Default Compose Menu Bindings
1318 +------------------------------------------------------------------------+
1319 | Key | Function | Description |
1320 |-------+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1321 | a | attach-file | attach a file |
1322 |-------+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1323 | A | attach-message | attach message(s) to the message |
1324 |-------+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1325 | ESC k | attach-key | attach a PGP public key |
1326 |-------+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1327 | d | edit-description | edit description on attachment |
1328 |-------+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1329 | D | detach-file | detach a file |
1330 |-------+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1331 | t | edit-to | edit the To field |
1332 |-------+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1333 | ESC f | edit-from | edit the From field |
1334 |-------+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1335 | r | edit-reply-to | edit the Reply-To field |
1336 |-------+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1337 | c | edit-cc | edit the Cc field |
1338 |-------+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1339 | b | edit-bcc | edit the Bcc field |
1340 |-------+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1341 | y | send-message | send the message |
1342 |-------+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1343 | s | edit-subject | edit the Subject |
1344 |-------+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1345 | S | smime-menu | select S/MIME options |
1346 |-------+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1347 | f | edit-fcc | specify an ``Fcc'' mailbox |
1348 |-------+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1349 | p | pgp-menu | select PGP options |
1350 |-------+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1351 | P | postpone-message | postpone this message until later |
1352 |-------+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1353 | q | quit | quit (abort) sending the message |
1354 |-------+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1355 | w | write-fcc | write the message to a folder |
1356 |-------+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1357 | i | ispell | check spelling (if available on your |
1359 |-------+-------------------+--------------------------------------------|
1360 | ^F | forget-passphrase | wipe passphrase(s) from memory |
1361 +------------------------------------------------------------------------+
1363 Note: The attach-message function will prompt you for a folder to attach
1364 messages from. You can now tag messages in that folder and theywill be
1365 attached to the message you are sending. Note that certainoperations like
1366 composing a new mail, replying, forwarding, etc. are not permitted when
1367 you are in that folder. The %r in status-format will change to a 'A' to
1368 indicate that you are in attach-message mode.
1372 6.2.1. Simple Replies
1374 When you want to reply to an email message, select it in the index menu
1375 and then press r. Mutt-ng's behaviour is then similar to the behaviour
1376 when you compose a message: first, you will be asked for the recipient,
1377 then for the subject, and then, mutt-ng will start the editor with the
1378 quote attribution and the quoted message. This can e.g. look like the
1381 On Mon, Mar 07, 2005 at 05:02:12PM +0100, Michael Svensson wrote:
1382 > Bill, can you please send last month's progress report to Mr.
1383 > Morgan? We also urgently need the cost estimation for the new
1384 > production server that we want to set up before our customer's
1385 > project will go live.
1387 You can start editing the email message. It is strongly recommended to put
1388 your answer below the quoted text and to only quote what is really
1389 necessary and that you refer to. Putting your answer on top of the quoted
1390 message, is, although very widespread, very often not considered to be a
1391 polite way to answer emails.
1393 The quote attribution is configurable, by default it is set to
1395 set attribution = "On %d, %n wrote:"
1397 It can also be set to something more compact, e.g.
1399 set attribution = "attribution="* %n <%a> [%(%y-%m-%d %H:%M)]:"
1401 The example above results in the following attribution:
1403 * Michael Svensson <svensson@foobar.com> [05-03-06 17:02]:
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.
1409 Generally, try to keep your attribution short yet information-rich. It is
1410 not the right place for witty quotes, long "attribution" novels or
1411 anything like that: the right place for such things is - if at all - the
1412 email signature at the very bottom of the message.
1414 When you're done with writing your message, save and quit the editor. As
1415 before, you will return to the compose menu, which is used in the same way
1418 6.2.2. Group Replies
1420 In the situation where a group of people uses email as a discussion, most
1421 of the emails will have one or more recipients, and probably several "Cc:"
1422 recipients. The group reply functionalityensures that when you press g
1423 instead of r to do a reply, each and every recipient that is contained in
1424 the original message will receive a copy of the message, either as normal
1425 recipient or as "Cc:" recipient.
1429 When you use mailing lists, it's generally better to send your reply to a
1430 message only to the list instead of the list and the original author. To
1431 make this easy to use, mutt-ng features list replies.
1433 To do a list reply, simply press L. If the email contains a
1434 Mail-Followup-To: header, its value will be used as reply address.
1435 Otherwise, mutt-ng searches through all mail addresses in the original
1436 message and tries to match them a list of regular expressions which can be
1437 specified using the lists command. If any of the regular expression
1438 matches, a mailing list address has been found, and it will be used as
1441 lists linuxevent@luga\.at vuln-dev@ mutt-ng-users@
1443 Nowadays, most mailing list software like GNU Mailman adds a
1444 Mail-Followup-To: header to their emails anyway, so setting lists is
1445 hardly ever necessary in practice.
1447 6.3. Editing the message header
1449 When editing the header of your outgoing message, there are a couple of
1450 special features available.
1452 If you specify Fcc: filename Mutt-ng will pick up filename just as if you
1453 had used the edit-fcc function in the compose menu.
1455 You can also attach files to your message by specifying Attach: filename [
1456 description ] where filename is the file to attach and description is an
1457 optional string to use as the description of the attached file.
1459 When replying to messages, if you remove the In-Reply-To: field from the
1460 header field, Mutt-ng will not generate a References: field, which allows
1461 you to create a new message thread.
1463 Also see edit-headers.
1465 6.4. Using Mutt-ng with PGP
1467 If you want to use PGP, you can specify
1469 Pgp: [ E | S | S<id> ]
1471 ``E'' encrypts, ``S'' signs and ``S<id>'' signs with the given key,
1472 setting pgp-sign-as permanently.
1474 If you have told mutt to PGP encrypt a message, it will guide you through
1475 a key selection process when you try to send the message. Mutt-ng will not
1476 ask you any questions about keys which have a certified user ID matching
1477 one of the message recipients' mail addresses. However, there may be
1478 situations in which there are several keys, weakly certified user ID
1479 fields, or where no matching keys can be found.
1481 In these cases, you are dropped into a menu with a list of keys from which
1482 you can select one. When you quit this menu, or mutt can't find any
1483 matching keys, you are prompted for a user ID. You can, as usually, abort
1484 this prompt using ^G. When you do so, mutt will return to the compose
1487 Once you have successfully finished the key selection, the message will be
1488 encrypted using the selected public keys, and sent out.
1490 Most fields of the entries in the key selection menu (see also
1491 pgp-entry-format ) have obvious meanings. But some explanations on the
1492 capabilities, flags, and validity fields are in order.
1494 The flags sequence (%f) will expand to one of the following flags:
1496 Table 2.10. PGP Key Menu Flags
1498 +-----------------------------------------------------------+
1499 | Flag | Description |
1500 |------+----------------------------------------------------|
1501 | R | The key has been revoked and can't be used. |
1502 |------+----------------------------------------------------|
1503 | X | The key is expired and can't be used. |
1504 |------+----------------------------------------------------|
1505 | d | You have marked the key as disabled. |
1506 |------+----------------------------------------------------|
1507 | c | There are unknown critical self-signature packets. |
1508 +-----------------------------------------------------------+
1510 The capabilities field (%c) expands to a two-character
1511 sequencerepresenting a key's capabilities. The first character gives the
1512 key's encryption capabilities: A minus sign (- )means that the key cannot
1513 be used for encryption. A dot (. )means that it's marked as a signature
1514 key in one of the user IDs, but may also be used for encryption. The
1515 letter e indicates that this key can be used for encryption.
1517 The second character indicates the key's signing capabilities. Once again,
1518 a ``-'' implies ``not for signing'', ``.'' implies that the key is marked
1519 as an encryption key in one of the user-ids, and ``s'' denotes a key which
1520 can be used for signing.
1522 Finally, the validity field (%t) indicates how well-certified a user-id
1523 is. A question mark (?) indicates undefined validity, a minus character
1524 (-) marks an untrusted association, a space character means a partially
1525 trusted association, and a plus character (+ ) indicates complete
1528 6.5. Sending anonymous messages via mixmaster
1530 You may also have configured mutt to co-operate with Mixmaster, an
1531 anonymous remailer. Mixmaster permits you to send your messages
1532 anonymously using a chain of remailers. Mixmaster support in mutt is for
1533 mixmaster version 2.04 (beta 45 appears to be the latest) and 2.03. It
1534 does not support earlier versions or the later so-called version 3 betas,
1535 of which the latest appears to be called 2.9b23.
1537 To use it, you'll have to obey certain restrictions. Most important, you
1538 cannot use the Cc and Bcc headers. To tell Mutt-ng to use mixmaster, you
1539 have to select a remailer chain, using the mix function on the compose
1542 The chain selection screen is divided into two parts. In the (larger)
1543 upper part, you get a list of remailers you may use. In the lower part,
1544 you see the currently selected chain of remailers.
1546 You can navigate in the chain using the chain-prev and chain-next
1547 functions, which are by default bound to the left and right arrows and to
1548 the h and l keys (think vi keyboard bindings). To insert a remailer at the
1549 current chain position, use the insert function. To append a remailer
1550 behind the current chain position, use select-entry or append . You can
1551 also delete entries from the chain, using the corresponding function.
1552 Finally, to abandon your changes, leave the menu, or accept them pressing
1553 (by default) the Return key.
1555 Note that different remailers do have different capabilities, indicated in
1556 the %c entry of the remailer menu lines (see mix-entry-format). Most
1557 important is the ``middleman'' capability, indicated by a capital ``M'':
1558 This means that the remailer in question cannot be used as the final
1559 element of a chain, but will only forward messages to other mixmaster
1560 remailers. For details on the other capabilities, please have a look at
1561 the mixmaster documentation.
1563 7. Forwarding and Bouncing Mail
1565 Often, it is necessary to forward mails to other people. Therefore,
1566 mutt-ng supports forwarding messages in two different ways.
1568 The first one is regular forwarding, as you probably know it from other
1569 mail clients. You simply press f, enter the recipient email address, the
1570 subject of the forwarded email, and then you can edit the message to be
1571 forwarded in the editor. The forwarded message is separated from the rest
1572 of the message via the two following markers:
1574 ----- Forwarded message from Lucas User <luser@example.com> -----
1576 From: Lucas User <luser@example.com>
1577 Date: Thu, 02 Dec 2004 03:08:34 +0100
1578 To: Michael Random <mrandom@example.com>
1579 Subject: Re: blackmail
1581 Pay me EUR 50,000.- cash or your favorite stuffed animal will die
1584 ----- End forwarded message -----
1586 When you're done with editing the mail, save and quit the editor, and you
1587 will return to the compose menu, the same menu you also encounter when
1588 composing or replying to mails.
1590 The second mode of forwarding emails with mutt-ng is the so-called
1591 bouncing: when you bounce an email to another address, it will be sent in
1592 practically the same format you send it (except for headers that are
1593 created during transporting the message). To bounce a message, press b and
1594 enter the recipient email address. By default, you are then asked whether
1595 you really want to bounce the message to the specified recipient. If you
1596 answer with yes, the message will then be bounced.
1598 To the recipient, the bounced email will look as if he got it like a
1599 regular email where he was Bcc: recipient. The only possibility to find
1600 out whether it was a bounced email is to carefully study the email headers
1601 and to find out which host really sent the email.
1605 At times it is desirable to delay sending a message that you have already
1606 begun to compose. When the postpone-message function is used in the
1607 compose menu, the body of your message and attachments are stored in the
1608 mailbox specified by the postponed variable. This means that you can
1609 recall the message even if you exit Mutt-ng and then restart it at a later
1612 Once a message is postponed, there are several ways to resume it. From the
1613 command line you can use the ``-p'' option, or if you compose a new
1614 message from the index or pager you will be prompted if postponed messages
1615 exist. If multiple messages are currently postponed, the postponed menu
1616 will pop up and you can select which message you would like to resume.
1618 Note: If you postpone a reply to a message, the reply setting of the
1619 message is only updated when you actually finish the message and send it.
1620 Also, you must be in the same folder with the message you replied to for
1621 the status of the message to be updated.
1623 See also the postpone quad-option.
1625 Chapter 3. Configuration
1629 1. Locations of Configuration Files
1631 2. Basic Syntax of Initialization Files
1633 3. Expansion within variables
1635 3.1. Commands' Output
1637 3.2. Environment Variables
1639 3.3. Configuration Variables
1641 3.4. Self-Defined Variables
1643 3.5. Pre-Defined Variables
1645 3.6. Type Conversions
1647 4. Defining/Using aliases
1649 5. Changing the default key bindings
1651 6. Defining aliases for character sets
1653 7. Setting variables based upon mailbox
1657 9. Using color and mono video attributes
1659 10. Ignoring (weeding) unwanted message headers
1661 11. Alternative addresses
1667 12.2. Receiving: Display Setup
1671 12.4. Additional Notes
1675 14. Using Multiple spool mailboxes
1677 15. Defining mailboxes which receive mail
1679 16. User defined headers
1681 17. Defining the order of headers when viewing messages
1683 18. Specify default save filename
1685 19. Specify default Fcc: mailbox when composing
1687 20. Specify default save filename and default Fcc: mailbox at once
1689 21. Change settings based upon message recipients
1691 22. Change settings before formatting a message
1693 23. Choosing the cryptographic key of the recipient
1695 24. Adding key sequences to the keyboard buffer
1697 25. Executing functions
1703 28. Setting variables
1705 29. Reading initialization commands from another file
1711 31.1. Character Sets
1713 31.2. Modularization
1715 31.3. Conditional parts
1717 32. Obsolete Variables
1719 1. Locations of Configuration Files
1721 While the default configuration (or ``preferences'') make Mutt-ng usable
1722 right out of the box, it is often desirable to tailor Mutt-ng to suit your
1723 own tastes. When Mutt-ng is first invoked, it will attempt to read the
1724 ``system'' configuration file (defaults set by your local system
1725 administrator), unless the ``-n'' commandline option is specified. This
1726 file is typically /usr/local/share/muttng/Muttngrc or /etc/Muttngrc ,
1727 Mutt-ng users will find this file in /usr/local/share/muttng/Muttrc or
1728 /etc/Muttngrc. Mutt will next look for a file named .muttrc in your home
1729 directory, Mutt-ng will look for .muttngrc. If this file does not exist
1730 and your home directory has a subdirectory named .mutt , mutt try to load
1731 a file named .muttng/muttngrc.
1733 .muttrc (or .muttngrc for Mutt-ng) is the file where you will usually
1734 place your commands to configure Mutt-ng.
1736 2. Basic Syntax of Initialization Files
1738 An initialization file consists of a series of commands .Each line of the
1739 file may contain one or more commands. When multiple commands are used,
1740 they must be separated by a semicolon (;).
1742 set realname='Mutt-ng user' ; ignore x-
1744 The hash mark, or pound sign (``#''), is used as a ``comment'' character.
1745 You can use it to annotate your initialization file. All text after the
1746 comment character to the end of the line is ignored. For example,
1748 my_hdr X-Disclaimer: Why are you listening to me? # This is a comment
1750 Single quotes (') and double quotes (") can be used to quote strings which
1751 contain spaces or other special characters. The difference between the two
1752 types of quotes is similar to that of many popular shell programs, namely
1753 that a single quote is used to specify a literal string (one that is not
1754 interpreted for shell variables or quoting with a backslash [see next
1755 paragraph]), while double quotes indicate a string for which should be
1756 evaluated. For example, backtics are evaluated inside of double quotes,
1757 but not for single quotes.
1759 \ quotes the next character, just as in shells such as bash and zsh. For
1760 example, if want to put quotes ``"'' inside of a string, you can use ``\''
1761 to force the next character to be a literal instead of interpreted
1764 set realname="Michael \"MuttDude\" Elkins"
1766 ``\\'' means to insert a literal ``\'' into the line. ``\n'' and ``\r''
1767 have their usual C meanings of linefeed and carriage-return, respectively.
1769 A \ at the end of a line can be used to split commands over multiple
1770 lines, provided that the split points don't appear in the middle of
1773 Please note that, unlike the various shells, mutt-ng interprets a ``\'' at
1774 the end of a line also in comments. This allows you to disable a command
1775 split over multiple lines with only one ``#''.
1778 set realname="Michael \"MuttDude\" Elkins"
1780 When testing your config files, beware the following caveat. The backslash
1781 at the end of the commented line extends the current line with the next
1782 line - then referred to as a ``continuation line''. As the first line is
1783 commented with a hash (#) all following continuation lines are also part
1784 of a comment and therefore are ignored, too. So take care of comments when
1785 continuation lines are involved within your setup files!
1795 line1 ``continues'' until line4. however, the part after the # is a
1796 comment which includes line3 and line4. line5 is a new line of its own and
1797 thus is interpreted again.
1799 The commands understood by mutt are explained in the next paragraphs. For
1800 a complete list, see the commands.
1802 3. Expansion within variables
1804 Besides just assign static content to variables, there's plenty of ways of
1805 adding external and more or less dynamic content.
1807 3.1. Commands' Output
1809 It is possible to substitute the output of a Unix command in an
1810 initialization file. This is accomplished by enclosing the command in
1811 backquotes (``) as in, for example:
1813 my_hdr X-Operating-System: `uname -a`
1815 The output of the Unix command ``uname -a'' will be substituted before the
1816 line is parsed. Note that since initialization files are line oriented,
1817 only the first line of output from the Unix command will be substituted.
1819 3.2. Environment Variables
1821 UNIX environments can be accessed like the way it is done in shells like
1822 sh and bash: Prepend the name of the environment by a ``$'' sign. For
1825 set record=+sent_on_$HOSTNAME
1827 sets the record variable to the string +sent_on_ and appends the value of
1828 the evironment variable $HOSTNAME.
1830 Note: There will be no warning if an environment variable is not defined.
1831 The result will of the expansion will then be empty.
1833 3.3. Configuration Variables
1835 As for environment variables, the values of all configuration variables as
1836 string can be used in the same way, too. For example,
1838 set imap_home_namespace = $folder
1840 would set the value of imap-home-namespace to the value to which folder is
1843 Note: There're no logical links established in such cases so that the the
1844 value for imap-home-namespace won't change even if folder gets changed.
1846 Note: There will be no warning if a configuration variable is not defined
1847 or is empty. The result will of the expansion will then be empty.
1849 3.4. Self-Defined Variables
1851 Mutt-ng flexibly allows users to define their own variables. To avoid
1852 conflicts with the standard set and to prevent misleading error messages,
1853 there's a reserved namespace for them: all user-defined variables must be
1854 prefixed with user_ and can be used just like any ordinary configuration
1855 or environment variable.
1857 For example, to view the manual, users can either define two macros like
1860 macro generic <F1> "!less -r /path/to/manual" "Show manual"
1861 macro pager <F1> "!less -r /path/to/manual" "Show manual"
1863 for generic, pager and index .The alternative is to define a custom
1866 set user_manualcmd = "!less -r /path/to_manual"
1867 macro generic <F1> "$user_manualcmd<enter>" "Show manual"
1868 macro pager <F1> "$user_manualcmd<enter>" "Show manual"
1869 macro index <F1> "$user_manualcmd<enter>" "Show manual"
1871 to re-use the command sequence as in:
1873 macro index <F2> "$user_manualcmd | grep '\^[ ]\\+~. '" "Show Patterns"
1875 Using this feature, arbitrary sequences can be defined once and recalled
1876 and reused where necessary. More advanced scenarios could include to save
1877 a variable's value at the beginning of macro sequence and restore it at
1880 When the variable is first defined, the first value it gets assigned is
1881 also the initial value to which it can be reset using the reset command.
1883 The complete removal is done via the unset keyword.
1885 After the following sequence:
1890 the variable $user_foo has a current value of 666 and an initial of 42.
1895 will show 666. After doing the reset via
1899 a following query will give 42 as the result. After unsetting it via
1903 any query or operation (except the noted expansion within other
1904 statements) will lead to an error message.
1906 3.5. Pre-Defined Variables
1908 In order to allow users to share one setup over a number of different
1909 machines without having to change its contents, there's a number of
1910 pre-defined variables. These are prefixed with muttng_ and are read-only,
1911 i.e. they cannot be set, unset or reset. The reference chapter lists all
1912 available variables.
1914 Please consult the local copy of your manual for their values as they may
1915 differ from different manual sources. Where the manual is installed in can
1916 be queried (already using such a variable) by running:
1918 muttng -Q muttng_docdir
1920 To extend the example for viewing the manual via self-defined variables,
1921 it can be made more readable and more portable by changing the real path
1924 set user_manualcmd = '!less -r /path/to_manual'
1928 set user_manualcmd = "!less -r $muttng_docdir/manual.txt"
1930 which works everywhere if a manual is installed.
1932 Please note that by the type of quoting, muttng determines when to expand
1933 these values: when it finds double quotes, the value will be expanded
1934 during reading the setup files but when it finds single quotes, it'll
1935 expand it at runtime as needed.
1937 For example, the statement
1939 folder-hook . "set user_current_folder = $muttng_folder_name"
1941 will be already be translated to the following when reading the startup
1944 folder-hook . "set user_current_folder = some_folder"
1946 with some_folder being the name of the first folder muttng opens. On the
1949 folder-hook . 'set user_current_folder = $muttng_folder_name'
1951 will be executed at runtime because of the single quotes so that
1952 user_current_folder will always have the value of the currently opened
1955 A more practical example is:
1957 folder-hook . 'source ~/.mutt/score-$muttng_folder_name'
1959 which can be used to source files containing score commands depending on
1960 the folder the user enters.
1962 3.6. Type Conversions
1964 A note about variable's types during conversion: internally values are
1965 stored in internal types but for any dump/query or set operation they're
1966 converted to and from string. That means that there's no need to worry
1967 about types when referencing any variable. As an example, the following
1968 can be used without harm (besides makeing muttng very likely behave
1972 set folder = $read_inc
1973 set read_inc = $folder
1974 set user_magic_number = 42
1975 set folder = $user_magic_number
1977 4. Defining/Using aliases
1979 Usage: alias key address[ , address, ... ]
1982 It's usually very cumbersome to remember or type out the address of
1983 someone you are communicating with. Mutt-ng allows you to create
1984 ``aliases'' which map a short string to a full address.
1986 Note: if you want to create an alias for a group (by specifying more than
1987 one address), you must separate the addresses with a comma (``,'').
1989 To remove an alias or aliases (``*'' means all aliases):
1991 unalias [ * | key ... ]
1993 alias muttdude me@cs.hmc.edu (Michael Elkins)
1994 alias theguys manny, moe, jack
1996 Unlike other mailers, Mutt-ng doesn't require aliases to be defined in a
1997 special file. The alias command can appear anywhere in a configuration
1998 file, as long as this file is source .Consequently, you can have multiple
1999 alias files, or you can have all aliases defined in your muttrc.
2001 On the other hand, the create-alias function can use only one file, the
2002 one pointed to by the alias-file variable (which is ˜/.muttrc by
2003 default). This file is not special either, in the sense that Mutt-ng will
2004 happily append aliases to any file, but in order for the new aliases to
2005 take effect you need to explicitly source this file too.
2009 source /usr/local/share/Mutt-ng.aliases
2010 source ~/.mail_aliases
2011 set alias_file=~/.mail_aliases
2013 To use aliases, you merely use the alias at any place in mutt where
2014 muttprompts for addresses, such as the To: or Cc: prompt. You can also
2015 enter aliases in your editor at the appropriate headers if you have the
2016 edit-headers variable set.
2018 In addition, at the various address prompts, you can use the tab character
2019 to expand a partial alias to the full alias. If there are multiple
2020 matches, mutt will bring up a menu with the matching aliases. In order to
2021 be presented with the full list of aliases, you must hit tab with out a
2022 partial alias, such as at the beginning of the prompt or after a comma
2023 denoting multiple addresses.
2025 In the alias menu, you can select as many aliases as you want with the
2026 select-entry key (default: RET), and use the exit key (default: q) to
2027 return to the address prompt.
2029 5. Changing the default key bindings
2031 Usage: bind map key function
2034 This command allows you to change the default key bindings (operation
2035 invoked when pressing a key).
2037 map specifies in which menu the binding belongs. Multiple maps may be
2038 specified by separating them with commas (no additional whitespace
2039 isallowed). The currently defined maps are:
2043 This is not a real menu, but is used as a fallback for all of the
2044 other menus except for the pager and editor modes. If a key is not
2045 defined in another menu, Mutt-ng will look for a binding to use in
2046 this menu. This allows you to bind a key to a certain function in
2047 multiple menus instead of having multiple bind statements to
2048 accomplish the same task.
2052 The alias menu is the list of your personal aliases as defined in
2053 your muttrc. It is the mapping from a short alias name to the full
2054 email address(es) of the recipient(s).
2058 The attachment menu is used to access the attachments on received
2063 The browser is used for both browsing the local directory
2064 structure, and for listing all of your incoming mailboxes.
2068 The editor is the line-based editor the user enters text data.
2072 The index is the list of messages contained in a mailbox.
2076 The compose menu is the screen used when sending a new message.
2080 The pager is the mode used to display message/attachment data, and
2085 The pgp menu is used to select the OpenPGP keys used for
2086 encrypting outgoing messages.
2090 The postpone menu is similar to the index menu, except is used
2091 when recalling a message the user was composing, but saved until
2094 key is the key (or key sequence) you wish to bind. To specify a control
2095 character, use the sequence \Cx, where x is the letter of the control
2096 character (for example, to specify control-A use ``\Ca''). Note that the
2097 case of x as well as \C is ignored, so that \CA, \Ca, \cA and \ca are all
2098 equivalent. An alternative form is to specify the key as a three digit
2099 octal number prefixed with a ``\'' (for example \177 is equivalent to
2102 In addition, key may consist of:
2104 Table 3.1. Alternative Key Names
2106 +-----------------------------------+
2107 | Sequence | Description |
2108 |-------------+---------------------|
2110 |-------------+---------------------|
2112 |-------------+---------------------|
2113 | <backtab> | backtab / shift-tab |
2114 |-------------+---------------------|
2115 | \r | carriage return |
2116 |-------------+---------------------|
2118 |-------------+---------------------|
2120 |-------------+---------------------|
2122 |-------------+---------------------|
2124 |-------------+---------------------|
2125 | <down> | down arrow |
2126 |-------------+---------------------|
2127 | <left> | left arrow |
2128 |-------------+---------------------|
2129 | <right> | right arrow |
2130 |-------------+---------------------|
2131 | <pageup> | Page Up |
2132 |-------------+---------------------|
2133 | <pagedown> | Page Down |
2134 |-------------+---------------------|
2135 | <backspace> | Backspace |
2136 |-------------+---------------------|
2137 | <delete> | Delete |
2138 |-------------+---------------------|
2139 | <insert> | Insert |
2140 |-------------+---------------------|
2142 |-------------+---------------------|
2143 | <return> | Return |
2144 |-------------+---------------------|
2146 |-------------+---------------------|
2148 |-------------+---------------------|
2149 | <space> | Space bar |
2150 |-------------+---------------------|
2151 | <f1> | function key 1 |
2152 |-------------+---------------------|
2153 | <f10> | function key 10 |
2154 +-----------------------------------+
2156 key does not need to be enclosed in quotes unless it contains a space (``
2159 function specifies which action to take when key is pressed. For a
2160 complete list of functions, see the functions .The special function noop
2161 unbinds the specified key sequence.
2163 6. Defining aliases for character sets
2165 Usage: charset-hook alias charset
2166 Usage: iconv-hook charset local-charset
2169 The charset-hook command defines an alias for a character set. This is
2170 useful to properly display messages which are tagged with a character set
2171 name not known to mutt.
2173 The iconv-hook command defines a system-specific name for a character set.
2174 This is helpful when your systems character conversion library insists on
2175 using strange, system-specific names for character sets.
2177 7. Setting variables based upon mailbox
2179 Usage: folder-hook [!]regexp command
2182 It is often desirable to change settings based on which mailbox you are
2183 reading. The folder-hook command provides a method by which you can
2184 execute any configuration command. regexp is a regular expression
2185 specifying in which mailboxes to execute command before loading. If a
2186 mailbox matches multiple folder-hook's, they are executed in the order
2187 given in the muttrc.
2189 Note: if you use the ``!'' shortcut for spoolfile at the beginning of the
2190 pattern, you must place it inside of double or single quotes in order to
2191 distinguish it from the logical not operator for the expression.
2193 Note that the settings are not restored when you leave the mailbox. For
2194 example, a command action to perform is to change the sorting methodbased
2195 upon the mailbox being read:
2197 folder-hook mutt set sort=threads
2199 However, the sorting method is not restored to its previous value when
2200 reading a different mailbox. To specify a default command, use the pattern
2203 folder-hook . set sort=date-sent
2207 Usage: macro menu key sequence [ description ]
2210 Macros are useful when you would like a single key to perform a series of
2211 actions. When you press key in menu menu ,Mutt-ng will behave as if you
2212 had typed sequence. So if you have a common sequence of commands you type,
2213 you can create a macro to execute those commands with a singlekey.
2215 menu is the maps which the macro will be bound. Multiple maps may be
2216 specified by separating multiple menu arguments by commas. Whitespace may
2217 not be used in between the menu arguments and thecommas separating them.
2219 key and sequence are expanded by the same rules as the bind. There are
2220 some additions however. The first is that control characters in sequence
2221 can also be specified as ^x. In order to get a caret (`^'') you need to
2222 use ^^. Secondly, to specify a certain key such as up or to invoke a
2223 function directly, you can use the format <key name> and <function name>
2224 .For a listing of key names see the section on bind. Functions are listed
2227 The advantage with using function names directly is that the macros
2228 willwork regardless of the current key bindings, so they are not dependent
2229 on the user having particular key definitions. This makes them more
2230 robustand portable, and also facilitates defining of macros in files used
2231 by more than one user (eg. the system Muttngrc).
2233 Optionally you can specify a descriptive text after sequence, which is
2234 shown in the help screens.
2236 Note: Macro definitions (if any) listed in the help screen(s), are
2237 silently truncated at the screen width, and are not wrapped.
2239 9. Using color and mono video attributes
2241 Usage: color object foregroundbackground [ regexp]
2242 Usage: color index foreground backgroundpattern
2243 Usage: uncolor index pattern[ pattern ... ]
2246 If your terminal supports color, you can spice up Mutt-ng by creating your
2247 own color scheme. To define the color of an object (type of information),
2248 you must specify both a foreground color and a background color (it is not
2249 possible to only specify one or the other).
2251 object can be one of:
2255 o body (match regexp in the body of messages)
2257 o bold (highlighting bold patterns in the body of messages)
2259 o error (error messages printed by Mutt-ng)
2261 o header (match regexp in the message header)
2263 o hdrdefault (default color of the message header in the pager)
2265 o index (match pattern in the message index)
2267 o indicator (arrow or bar used to indicate the current item in a menu)
2269 o markers (the ``+'' markers at the beginning of wrapped lines in the
2272 o message (informational messages)
2276 o quoted (text matching quote-regexp in the body of a message)
2278 o quoted1, quoted2, ..., quotedN (higher levels of quoting)
2280 o search (highlighting of words in the pager)
2284 o status (mode lines used to display info about the mailbox or message)
2286 o tilde (the ``˜'' used to pad blank lines in the pager)
2288 o tree (thread tree drawn in the message index and attachment menu)
2290 o underline (highlighting underlined patterns in the body of messages)
2292 foreground and background can be one of the following:
2314 foreground can optionally be prefixed with the keyword bright to make the
2315 foreground color boldfaced (e.g., brightred).
2317 If your terminal supports it, the special keyword default can be used as a
2318 transparent color. The value brightdefault is also valid. If Mutt-ng is
2319 linked against the S-Lang library, you also need to set the COLORFGBG
2320 environment variable to the default colors of your terminal for this to
2321 work; for example (for Bourne-like shells):
2323 set COLORFGBG="green;black"
2326 Note: The S-Lang library requires you to use the lightgray and brown
2327 keywords instead of white and yellow when setting this variable.
2329 Note: The uncolor command can be applied to the index object only. It
2330 removes entries from the list. You must specify the same pattern specified
2331 in the color command for it to be removed. The pattern ``*'' is a special
2332 token which means to clear the color index list of all entries.
2334 Mutt-ng also recognizes the keywords color0, color1 ,…, colorN-1 (N
2335 being the number of colors supported by your terminal). This is useful
2336 when you remap the colors for your display (for example by changing the
2337 color associated with color2 for your xterm), since color names may then
2338 lose their normal meaning.
2340 If your terminal does not support color, it is still possible change the
2341 video attributes through the use of the ``mono'' command:
2343 Usage: mono <object> <attribute>[ regexp ]
2344 Usage: mono index attribute pattern
2345 Usage: unmono index pattern[ pattern ... ]
2347 where attribute is one of the following:
2359 10. Ignoring (weeding) unwanted message headers
2361 Usage: [un]ignore pattern [ pattern... ]
2364 Messages often have many header fields added by automatic processing
2365 systems, or which may not seem useful to display on the screen. This
2366 command allows you to specify header fields which you don't normally want
2369 You do not need to specify the full header field name. For example,
2370 ``ignore content-'' will ignore all header fields that begin with the
2371 pattern ``content-''. ``ignore *'' will ignore all headers.
2373 To remove a previously added token from the list, use the ``unignore''
2374 command. The ``unignore'' command will make Mutt-ng display headers with
2375 the given pattern. For example, if you do ``ignore x-'' it is possible to
2376 ``unignore x-mailer''.
2378 ``unignore *'' will remove all tokens from the ignore list.
2382 # Sven's draconian header weeding
2384 unignore from date subject to cc
2385 unignore organization organisation x-mailer: x-newsreader: x-mailing-list:
2388 11. Alternative addresses
2390 Usage: [un]alternates regexp [ regexp ... ]
2392 With various functions, mutt will treat messages differently, depending on
2393 whether you sent them or whether you received them from someone else. For
2394 instance, when replying to a message that you sent to a different party,
2395 mutt will automatically suggest to send the response to the original
2396 message's recipients -- responding to yourself won't make much sense in
2397 many cases. (See reply-to .)
2399 Many users receive e-mail under a number of different addresses. To fully
2400 use mutt's features here, the program must be able to recognize what
2401 e-mail addresses you receive mail under. That's the purpose of the
2402 alternates command: It takes a list of regular expressions, each of which
2403 can identify an address under which you receive e-mail.
2405 The unalternates command can be used to write exceptions to alternates
2406 patterns. If an address matches something in an alternates command, but
2407 you nonetheless do not think it is from you, you can list a more precise
2408 pattern under an unalternates command.
2410 To remove a regular expression from the alternates list, use the
2411 unalternates command with exactly the same regexp . Likewise, if the
2412 regexp for a alternates command matches an entry on the unalternates list,
2413 that unalternates entry will be removed. If the regexp for unalternates is
2414 ``*'', all entries on alternates will be removed.
2420 Mutt-ng contains support for so-called format=flowed messages. In the
2421 beginning of email, each message had a fixed line width, and it was enough
2422 for displaying them on fixed-size terminals. But times changed, and
2423 nowadays hardly anybody still uses fixed-size terminals: more people
2424 nowaydays use graphical user interfaces, with dynamically resizable
2425 windows. This led to the demand of a new email format that makes it
2426 possible for the email client to make the email look nice in a resizable
2427 window without breaking quoting levels and creating an incompatible email
2428 format that can also be displayed nicely on old fixed-size terminals.
2430 For introductory information on format=flowed messages, see
2431 <http://www.joeclark.org/ffaq.html>.
2433 12.2. Receiving: Display Setup
2435 When you receive emails that are marked as format=flowed messages, and is
2436 formatted correctly, mutt-ng will try to reformat the message to optimally
2437 fit on your terminal. If you want a fixed margin on the right side of your
2438 terminal, you can set the following:
2442 The code above makes the line break 10 columns before the right side of
2445 If your terminal is so wide that the lines are embarrassingly long, you
2446 can also set a maximum line length:
2448 set max_line_length = 120
2450 The example above will give you lines not longer than 120 characters.
2452 When you view at format=flowed messages, you will often see the quoting
2453 hierarchy like in the following example:
2455 >Bill, can you please send last month's progress report to Mr.
2456 >Morgan? We also urgently need the cost estimation for the new
2457 >production server that we want to set up before our customer's
2458 >project will go live.
2460 This obviously doesn't look very nice, and it makes it very hard to
2461 differentiate between text and quoting character. The solution is to
2462 configure mutt-ng to "stuff" the quoting:
2466 This will lead to a nicer result that is easier to read:
2468 > Bill, can you please send last month's progress report to Mr.
2469 > Morgan? We also urgently need the cost estimation for the new
2470 > production server that we want to set up before our customer's
2471 > project will go live.
2475 If you want mutt-ng to send emails with format=flowed set, you need to
2480 Additionally, you have to use an editor which supports writing
2481 format=flowed-conforming emails. For vim, this is done by adding w to the
2482 formatoptions (see :h formatoptions and :h fo-table) when writing emails.
2484 Also note that format=flowed knows about ``space-stuffing'', that is, when
2485 sending messages, some kinds of lines have to be indented with a single
2486 space on the sending side. On the receiving side, the first space (if any)
2487 is removed. As a consequence and in addition to the above simple setting,
2488 please keep this in mind when making manual formattings within the editor.
2489 Also note that mutt-ng currently violates the standard (RfC 3676) as it
2490 does not space-stuff lines starting with:
2492 o > This is not the quote character but a right angle used for other
2495 o From with a trailing space.
2497 o just a space for formatting reasons
2499 Please make sure that you manually prepend a space to each of them.
2501 12.4. Additional Notes
2503 For completeness, the delete-space variable provides the mechanism to
2504 generate a DelSp=yes parameter on outgoing messages. According to the
2505 standard, clients receiving a format=flowed messages should delete the
2506 last space of a flowed line but still interpret the line as flowed.
2507 Because flowed lines usually contain only one space at the end, this
2508 parameter would make the receiving client concatenate the last word of the
2509 previous with the first of the current line without a space. This makes
2510 ordinary text unreadable and is intended for languages rarely using
2511 spaces. So please use this setting only if you're sure what you're doing.
2515 Usage: [un]lists regexp [ regexp... ]
2516 Usage: [un]subscribe regexp [ regexp... ]
2519 Mutt-ng has a few nice features for using-lists .In order to take
2520 advantage of them, you must specify which addresses belong to mailing
2521 lists, and which mailing lists you are subscribed to. Once you have done
2522 this, the list-reply function will work for all known lists. Additionally,
2523 when you send a message to a subscribed list, mutt will add a
2524 Mail-Followup-To header to tell other users' mail user agents not to send
2525 copies of replies to your personal address. Note that the Mail-Followup-To
2526 header is a non-standard extension which is not supported by all mail user
2527 agents. Adding it is not bullet-proof against receiving personal CCs of
2528 list messages. Also note that the generation of the Mail-Followup-To
2529 header is controlled by the followup-to configuration variable.
2531 More precisely, Mutt-ng maintains lists of patterns for the addresses of
2532 known and subscribed mailing lists. Every subscribed mailing list is
2533 known. To mark a mailing list as known, use the ``lists'' command. To mark
2534 it as subscribed, use ``subscribe''.
2536 You can use regular expressions with both commands. To mark all messages
2537 sent to a specific bug report's address on mutt's bug tracking system as
2538 list mail, for instance, you could say ``subscribe [0-9]*@bugs.guug.de''.
2539 Often, it's sufficient to just give a portion of the list's e-mail
2542 Specify as much of the address as you need to to remove ambiguity. For
2543 example, if you've subscribed to the Mutt-ng mailing list, you will
2544 receive mail addressed to mutt-users@mutt.org. So, to tell Mutt-ng that
2545 this is a mailing list, you could add ``lists mutt-users'' to your
2546 initialization file. To tell mutt that you are subscribed to it, add
2547 ``subscribe mutt-users'' to your initialization file instead. If you also
2548 happen to get mail from someone whose address is mutt-users@example.com,
2549 you could use ``lists mutt-users@mutt\\.org'' or ``subscribe
2550 mutt-users@mutt\\.org'' to match only mail from the actual list.
2552 The ``unlists'' command is used to remove a token from the list of known
2553 and subscribed mailing-lists. Use ``unlists *'' to remove all tokens.
2555 To remove a mailing list from the list of subscribed mailing lists, but
2556 keep it on the list of known mailing lists, use ``unsubscribe''.
2558 14. Using Multiple spool mailboxes
2560 Usage: mbox-hook [!]pattern mailbox
2563 This command is used to move read messages from a specified mailbox to
2564 adifferent mailbox automatically when you quit or change folders. pattern
2565 is a regular expression specifying the mailbox to treat as a ``spool''
2566 mailbox and mailbox specifies where mail should be saved when read.
2568 Unlike some of the other hook commands, only the first matching pattern is
2569 used (it is not possible to save read mail in more than a single mailbox).
2571 15. Defining mailboxes which receive mail
2573 Usage: [un]mailboxes [!]filename[ filename ... ]
2576 This command specifies folders which can receive mail and which will be
2577 checked for new messages. By default, the main menu status bar displays
2578 how many of these folders have new messages.
2580 When changing folders, pressing space will cycle through folders with new
2583 Pressing TAB in the directory browser will bring up a menu showing the
2584 files specified by the mailboxes command, and indicate which contain new
2585 messages. Mutt-ng will automatically enter this mode when invoked from the
2586 command line with the -y option.
2588 The ``unmailboxes'' command is used to remove a token from the list of
2589 folders which receive mail. Use ``unmailboxes *'' to remove all tokens.
2591 Note: new mail is detected by comparing the last modification time to the
2592 last access time. Utilities like biff or frm or any other program which
2593 accesses the mailbox might cause Mutt-ng to never detect new mail for that
2594 mailbox if they do not properly reset the access time. Backup tools are
2595 another common reason for updated access times.
2597 Note: the filenames in the mailboxes command are resolved when the command
2598 is executed, so if these names contain shortcuts (such as ``='' and
2599 ``!''), any variable definition that affect these characters (like folder
2600 and spoolfile) should be executed before the mailboxes command.
2602 16. User defined headers
2604 Usage: my_hdr string
2605 Usage: unmy_hdr field [ field... ]
2608 The ``my_hdr'' command allows you to create your own header fields which
2609 will be added to every message you send.
2611 For example, if you would like to add an ``Organization:'' header field to
2612 all of your outgoing messages, you can put the command
2614 my_hdr Organization: A Really Big Company, Anytown, USA
2618 Note: space characters are not allowed between the keyword and the colon
2619 (``:''). The standard for electronic mail (RFC822) says that space is
2620 illegal there, so Mutt-ng enforces the rule.
2622 If you would like to add a header field to a single message, you should
2623 either set the edit-headers variable, or use the edit-headers function
2624 (default: ``E'') in the send-menu so that you can edit the header of your
2625 message along with the body.
2627 To remove user defined header fields, use the ``unmy_hdr'' command. You
2628 may specify an asterisk (``*'') to remove all header fields, or the fields
2629 to remove. For example, to remove all ``To'' and ``Cc'' header fields, you
2634 17. Defining the order of headers when viewing messages
2636 Usage: hdr_order header1header2 header3
2639 With this command, you can specify an order in which mutt will attempt to
2640 present headers to you when viewing messages.
2642 ``unhdr_order *'' will clear all previous headers from the order list,
2643 thus removing the header order effects set by the system-wide startup
2646 hdr_order From Date: From: To: Cc: Subject:
2648 18. Specify default save filename
2650 Usage: save-hook [!]pattern filename
2653 This command is used to override the default filename used when saving
2654 messages. filename will be used as the default filename if the message is
2655 From: an address matching regexp or if you are the author and the message
2656 is addressed to: something matching regexp .
2658 See pattern-hook for information on the exact format of pattern.
2662 save-hook me@(turing\\.)?cs\\.hmc\\.edu$ +elkins
2663 save-hook aol\\.com$ +spam
2665 Also see the fcc-save-hook command.
2667 19. Specify default Fcc: mailbox when composing
2669 Usage: fcc-hook [!]pattern mailbox
2672 This command is used to save outgoing mail in a mailbox other than record.
2673 Mutt-ng searches the initial list of message recipients for the first
2674 matching regexp and uses mailbox as the default Fcc: mailbox. If no match
2675 is found the message will be saved to record mailbox.
2677 See pattern-hook for information on the exact format of pattern.
2679 Example: fcc-hook [@.]aol\\.com$ +spammers
2681 The above will save a copy of all messages going to the aol.com domain to
2682 the `+spammers' mailbox by default. Also see the fcc-save-hook command.
2684 20. Specify default save filename and default Fcc: mailbox at once
2686 Usage: fcc-save-hook [!]pattern mailbox
2689 This command is a shortcut, equivalent to doing both a fcc-hook and a
2690 save-hook with its arguments.
2692 21. Change settings based upon message recipients
2694 Usage: reply-hook [!]pattern command
2695 Usage: send-hook [!]pattern command
2696 Usage: send2-hook [!]pattern command
2701 These commands can be used to execute arbitrary configuration commands
2702 based upon recipients of the message. pattern is a regular expression
2703 matching the desired address. command is executed when regexp matches
2704 recipients of the message.
2706 reply-hook is matched against the message you are replying to, instead of
2707 the message you are sending .send-hook is matched against all messages,
2708 both new and replies .Note: reply-hooks are matched before the send-hook
2709 ,regardless of the order specified in the users's configuration file.
2711 send2-hook is matched every time a message is changed, either by editing
2712 it, or by using the compose menu to change its recipients or subject.
2713 send2-hook is executed after send-hook ,and can, e.g., be used to set
2714 parameters such as the sendmail variable depending on the message's sender
2717 For each type of send-hook or reply-hook, when multiple matches occur,
2718 commands are executed in the order they are specified in the muttrc (for
2721 See pattern-hook for information on the exact format of pattern.
2723 Example: send-hook mutt "set mime_forward signature=''"
2725 Another typical use for this command is to change the values of the
2726 attribution, signature and locale variables in order to change the
2727 language of the attributions and signatures based upon the recipients.
2729 Note: the send-hook's are only executed ONCE after getting the initial
2730 list of recipients. Adding a recipient after replying or editing the
2731 message will NOT cause any send-hook to be executed. Also note that my_hdr
2732 commands which modify recipient headers, or the message's subject, don't
2733 have any effect on the current message when executed from a send-hook.
2735 22. Change settings before formatting a message
2737 Usage: message-hook [!]pattern command
2740 This command can be used to execute arbitrary configuration commands
2741 before viewing or formatting a message based upon information about the
2742 message. command is executed if the pattern matches the message to be
2743 displayed. When multiple matches occur, commands are executed in the order
2744 they are specified in the muttrc.
2746 See pattern-hook for information on the exact format of pattern.
2750 message-hook ~A 'set pager=builtin'
2751 message-hook '~f freshmeat-news' 'set pager="less \"+/^ subject:.*\""'
2753 23. Choosing the cryptographic key of the recipient
2755 Usage: crypt-hook pattern keyid
2758 When encrypting messages with PGP or OpenSSL, you may want to associate a
2759 certain key with a given e-mail address automatically, either because the
2760 recipient's public key can't be deduced from the destination address, or
2761 because, for some reasons, you need to override the key Mutt-ng
2762 wouldnormally use. The crypt-hook command provides a method by which you
2763 can specify the ID of the public key to be used when encrypting messages
2764 to a certain recipient.
2766 The meaning of "key id" is to be taken broadly in this context: You can
2767 either put a numerical key ID here, an e-mail address, or even just a real
2770 24. Adding key sequences to the keyboard buffer
2775 This command adds the named string to the keyboard buffer. The string may
2776 contain control characters, key names and function names like the sequence
2777 string in the macro command. You may use it to automatically run a
2778 sequence of commands at startup, or when entering certain folders. For
2779 example, the following command will automatically collapse all threads
2780 when entering a folder:
2782 folder-hook . 'push <collapse-all>'
2785 25. Executing functions
2787 Usage: exec function [ function ... ]
2790 This command can be used to execute any function. Functions are listed in
2791 the functions. ``exec function'' is equivalent to ``push <function>''.
2795 Usage: score pattern value
2796 Usage: unscore pattern [ pattern... ]
2799 In situations where you have to cope with a lot of emails, e.g. when you
2800 read many different mailing lists, and take part in discussions, it is
2801 always useful to have the important messages marked and the annoying
2802 messages or the ones that you aren't interested in deleted. For this
2803 purpose, mutt-ng features a mechanism called ``scoring''.
2805 When you use scoring, every message has a base score of 0. You can then
2806 use the score command to define patterns and a positive or negative value
2807 associated with it. When a pattern matches a message, the message's score
2808 will be raised or lowered by the amount of the value associated with the
2811 score "~f nion@muttng\.org" 50
2812 score "~f @sco\.com" -100
2814 If the pattern matches, it is also possible to set the score value of the
2815 current message to a certain value and then stop evaluation:
2817 score "~f santaclaus@northpole\.int" =666
2819 What is important to note is that negative score values will be rounded up
2822 To make scoring actually useful, the score must be applied in some way.
2823 That's what the score thresholds are for. Currently, there are three score
2826 o flag threshold: when a message has a score value equal or higher than
2827 the flag threshold, it will be flagged.
2829 o read threshold: when a message has a score value equal or lower than
2830 the read threshold, it will be marked as read.
2832 o delete threshold: when a message has a score value equal or lower than
2833 the delete threshold, it will be marked as deleted.
2835 These three thresholds can be set via the variables score-threshold-flag
2836 ,score-threshold-read, score-threshold-delete and. By default,
2837 score-threshold-read and score-threshold-delete are set to -1, which means
2838 that in the default threshold configuration no message will ever get
2839 marked as read or deleted.
2841 Scoring gets especially interesting when combined with the color command
2844 color index black yellow "~n 10-"
2845 color index red yellow "~n 100-"
2847 The rules above mark all messages with a score between 10 and 99 with
2848 black and yellow, and messages with a score greater or equal 100 with red
2849 and yellow. This might be unusual to you if you're used to e.g. slrn's
2850 scoring mechanism, but it is more flexible, as it visually marks different
2855 Usage: spam pattern format
2856 Usage: nospam pattern
2859 Mutt-ng has generalized support for external spam-scoring filters. By
2860 defining your spam patterns with the spam and nospam commands, you can
2861 limit, search, and sort your mail based on its spam attributes, as
2862 determined by the external filter. You also can display the spam
2863 attributes in your index display using the %H selector in the index-format
2864 variable. (Tip: try %?H?[%H] ? to display spam tags only when they are
2865 defined for a given message.)
2867 Your first step is to define your external filter's spam patterns using
2868 the spam command. pattern should be a regular expression that matches a
2869 header in a mail message. If any message in the mailbox matches this
2870 regular expression, it will receive a ``spam tag'' or ``spam attribute''
2871 (unless it also matches a nospam pattern -- see below.) The appearance of
2872 this attribute is entirely up to you, and is governed by the format
2873 parameter. format can be any static text, but it also can include
2874 back-references from the pattern expression. (A regular expression
2875 ``back-reference'' refers to a sub-expression contained within
2876 parentheses.) %1 is replaced with the first back-reference in the regex,
2877 %2 with the second, etc.
2879 If you're using multiple spam filters, a message can have more than one
2880 spam-related header. You can define spam patterns for each filter you use.
2881 If a message matches two or more of these patterns, and the
2882 $spam_separator variable is set to a string, then the message's spam tag
2883 will consist of all the format strings joined together, with the value of
2884 $spam_separator separating them.
2886 For example, suppose I use DCC, SpamAssassin, and PureMessage. I might
2887 define these spam settings:
2889 spam "X-DCC-.*-Metrics:.*(....)=many" "90+/DCC-%1"
2890 spam "X-Spam-Status: Yes" "90+/SA"
2891 spam "X-PerlMX-Spam: .*Probability=([0-9]+)%" "%1/PM"
2892 set spam_separator=", "
2894 If I then received a message that DCC registered with ``many'' hits under
2895 the ``Fuz2'' checksum, and that PureMessage registered with a 97%
2896 probability of being spam, that message's spam tag would read90+/DCC-Fuz2,
2897 97/PM. (The four characters before ``=many'' in a DCC report indicate the
2898 checksum used -- in this case, ``Fuz2''.)
2900 If the $spam_separator variable is unset, then each spam pattern match
2901 supersedes the previous one. Instead of getting joined format strings,
2902 you'll get only the last one to match.
2904 The spam tag is what will be displayed in the index when you use %H in the
2905 $index_format variable. It's also the string that the ˜H pattern-matching
2906 expression matches against for search and limit functions. And it's what
2907 sorting by spam attribute will use as a sort key.
2909 That's a pretty complicated example, and most people's actual environments
2910 will have only one spam filter. The simpler your configuration, the more
2911 effective mutt can be, especially when it comes to sorting.
2913 Generally, when you sort by spam tag, mutt will sort lexically -- that is,
2914 by ordering strings alphnumerically. However, if a spam tag begins with a
2915 number, mutt will sort numerically first, and lexically only when two
2916 numbers are equal in value. (This is like UNIX's sort -n.) A message with
2917 no spam attributes at all -- that is, one that didn't match any of your
2918 spam patterns -- is sorted at lowest priority. Numbers are sorted next,
2919 beginning with 0 and ranging upward. Finally, non-numeric strings are
2920 sorted, with ``a'' taking lowerpriority than ``z''. Clearly, in general,
2921 sorting by spam tags is most effective when you can coerce your filter to
2922 give you a raw number. But in case you can't, mutt can still do something
2925 The nospam command can be used to write exceptions to spam patterns. If a
2926 header pattern matches something in a spam command, but you nonetheless do
2927 not want it to receive a spam tag, you can list amore precise pattern
2928 under a nospam command.
2930 If the pattern given to nospam is exactly the same as the pattern on an
2931 existing spam list entry, the effect will be to remove the entry from the
2932 spam list, instead of adding an exception. Likewise, if the pattern for a
2933 spam command matches an entry on the nospam list, that nospam entry will
2934 be removed. If the pattern for nospam is ``*'', all entries on both lists
2935 will be removed. This might be the default action if you use spam and
2936 nospam in conjunction with a folder-hook .
2938 You can have as many spam or nospam commands as you like. You can even do
2939 your own primitive spam detection within mutt -- for example, if you
2940 consider all mail from MAILER-DAEMON to be spam, you can use a spam
2943 spam "^From: .*MAILER-DAEMON" "999"
2945 28. Setting variables
2947 Usage: set [no|inv]variable[=value] [ variable ... ]
2948 Usage: toggle variable [variable... ]
2949 Usage: unset variable [variable... ]
2950 Usage: reset variable [variable... ]
2953 This command is used to set (and unset) variables .There are four basic
2954 types of variables: boolean, number, string and quadoption. boolean
2955 variables can be set (true) or unset (false). number variables can be
2956 assigned a positive integer value.
2958 string variables consist of any number of printable characters. strings
2959 must be enclosed in quotes if they contain spaces or tabs. You may also
2960 use the ``C'' escape sequences \n and \t for newline and tab,
2963 quadoption variables are used to control whether or not to be prompted for
2964 certain actions, or to specify a default action. A value of yes will cause
2965 the action to be carried out automatically as if you had answered yes to
2966 the question. Similarly, a value of no will cause the the action to be
2967 carried out as if you had answered ``no.'' A value of ask-yes will cause a
2968 prompt with a default answer of ``yes'' and ask-no will provide a default
2971 Prefixing a variable with ``no'' will unset it. Example: set noaskbcc .
2973 For boolean variables, you may optionally prefix the variable name with
2974 inv to toggle the value (on or off). This is useful when writing macros.
2975 Example: set invsmart_wrap.
2977 The toggle command automatically prepends the inv prefix to all specified
2980 The unset command automatically prepends the no prefix to all specified
2983 Using the enter-command function in the index menu, you can query the
2984 value of a variable by prefixing the name of the variable with a question
2989 The question mark is actually only required for boolean and quadoption
2992 The reset command resets all given variables to the compile time defaults
2993 (hopefully mentioned in this manual). If you use the command set and
2994 prefix the variable with ``&'' this has the same behavior as the reset
2997 With the reset command there exists the special variable ``all'', which
2998 allows you to reset all variables to their system defaults.
3000 29. Reading initialization commands from another file
3002 Usage: source filename [ filename... ]
3005 This command allows the inclusion of initialization commands from other
3006 files. For example, I place all of my aliases in ˜/.mail_aliases so that
3007 I can make my ˜/.muttrc readable and keep my aliases private.
3009 If the filename begins with a tilde (``˜''), it will be expanded to the
3010 path of your home directory.
3012 If the filename ends with a vertical bar (|), then filename is considered
3013 to be an executable program from which to read input (eg. source
3018 Usage: unhook [ * | hook-type ]
3021 This command permits you to flush hooks you have previously defined. You
3022 can either remove all hooks by giving the ``*'' character as an argument,
3023 or you can remove all hooks of a specific type by saying something like
3028 31.1. Character Sets
3030 As users may run mutt-ng on different systems, the configuration must be
3031 maintained because it's likely that people want to use the setup
3032 everywhere they use mutt-ng. And mutt-ng tries to help where it can.
3034 To not produce conflicts with different character sets, mutt-ng allows
3035 users to specify in which character set their configuration files are
3036 encoded. Please note that while reading the configuration files, this is
3037 only respected after the corresponding declaration appears. It's advised
3038 to put the following at the very beginning of a users muttngrc:
3040 set config_charset = "..."
3042 and replacing the dots with the actual character set. To avoid problems
3043 while maintaining the setup, vim user's may want to use modelines as show
3046 # vim:fileencoding=...:
3048 while, again, replacing the dots with the appropriate name. This tells vim
3049 as which character set to read and save the file.
3051 31.2. Modularization
3053 ``Modularization'' means to divide the setup into several files while
3054 sorting the options or commands by topic. Especially for longer setups
3055 (e.g. with many hooks), this helps maintaining it and solving trouble.
3057 When using separation, setups may be, as a whole or in fractions, shared
3058 over different systems.
3060 31.3. Conditional parts
3062 When using a configuration on different systems, the user may not always
3063 have influence on how mutt-ng is installed and which features it includes.
3065 To solve this, mutt-ng contain a feature based on the ``ifdef'' patch
3066 written for mutt. Its basic syntax is:
3068 ifdef <item> <command>
3069 ifndef <item> <command>
3071 ...whereby <item> can be one of:
3081 All available functions, variables and menus are documented elsewhere in
3082 this manual but ``features'' is specific to these two commands. To test
3083 for one, prefix one of the following keywords with feature_: ncurses,
3084 slang, iconv, idn, dotlock, standalone, pop, nntp, imap, ssl, gnutls,
3085 sasl, sasl2, libesmtp, compressed, color, classic_pgp, classic_smime,
3088 As an example, one can use the following in ˜/.muttngrc:
3090 ifdef feature_imap 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-imap'
3091 ifdef feature_pop 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-pop'
3092 ifdef feature_nntp 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-nntp'
3094 ...to only source ˜/.mutt-ng/setup-imap if IMAP support is built in, only
3095 source ˜/.mutt-ng/setup-pop if POP support is built in and only source
3096 ˜/.mutt-ng/setup-nntp if NNTP support is built in.
3098 An example for testing for variable names can be used if users use
3099 different revisions of mutt-ng whereby the older one may not have a
3100 certain variable. To test for the availability of imap-mail-check , use:
3102 ifdef imap_mail_check 'set imap_mail_check = 300'
3104 Provided for completeness is the test for menu names. To set
3105 pager-index-lines only if the pager menu is available, use:
3107 ifdef pager 'set pager_index_lines = 10'
3109 For completeness, too, the opposite of ifdef is provided: ifndef which
3110 only executes the command if the test fails. For example, the following
3111 two examples are equivalent:
3113 ifdef feature_ncurses 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-ncurses'
3114 ifndef feature_ncurses 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-slang'
3118 ifdef feature_slang 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-slang'
3119 ifndef feature_slang 'source ~/.mutt-ng/setup-ncurses'
3121 32. Obsolete Variables
3123 In the process of ensuring and creating more consistency, many variables
3124 have been renamed and some of the old names were already removed. Please
3125 see sect-obsolete for a complete list.
3127 Chapter 4. Advanced Usage
3131 1. Regular Expressions
3135 2.1. Complex Patterns
3137 2.2. Patterns and Dates
3143 3.2. Conditional Expansion
3145 3.3. Modifications and Padding
3151 5.1. Message Matching in Hooks
3153 6. Using the sidebar
3155 7. External Address Queries
3159 9. Mailbox Shortcuts
3161 10. Handling Mailing Lists
3165 11.1. Linking threads
3167 11.2. Breaking threads
3169 12. Delivery Status Notification (DSN) Support
3171 13. POP3 Support (OPTIONAL)
3173 14. IMAP Support (OPTIONAL)
3175 14.1. The Folder Browser
3177 14.2. Authentication
3179 15. NNTP Support (OPTIONAL)
3181 15.1. Again: Scoring
3183 16. SMTP Support (OPTIONAL)
3185 17. Managing multiple IMAP/POP/NNTP accounts (OPTIONAL)
3187 18. Start a WWW Browser on URLs (EXTERNAL)
3189 19. Compressed folders Support (OPTIONAL)
3191 19.1. Open a compressed mailbox for reading
3193 19.2. Write a compressed mailbox
3195 19.3. Append a message to a compressed mailbox
3197 19.4. Encrypted folders
3199 1. Regular Expressions
3201 All string patterns in Mutt-ng including those in more complex patterns
3202 must be specified using regular expressions (regexp) in the ``POSIX
3203 extended'' syntax (which is more or less the syntax used by egrep and GNU
3204 awk). For your convenience, we have included below a brief description of
3207 The search is case sensitive if the pattern contains at least one upper
3208 case letter, and case insensitive otherwise. Note that ``\'' must be
3209 quoted if used for a regular expression in an initialization command:
3212 A regular expression is a pattern that describes a set of strings. Regular
3213 expressions are constructed analogously to arithmetic expressions, by
3214 using various operators to combine smaller expressions.
3216 Note that the regular expression can be enclosed/delimited by either " or
3217 ' which is useful if the regular expression includes a white-space
3218 character. See muttrc-syntax for more information on " and ' delimiter
3219 processing. To match a literal " or ' you must preface it with \
3222 The fundamental building blocks are the regular expressions that match a
3223 single character. Most characters, including all letters and digits, are
3224 regular expressions that match themselves. Any metacharacter with special
3225 meaning may be quoted by preceding it with a backslash.
3227 The period ``.'' matches any single character. The caret ``^'' andthe
3228 dollar sign ``$'' are metacharacters that respectively match the empty
3229 string at the beginning and end of a line.
3231 A list of characters enclosed by ``['' and ``]'' matches any single
3232 character in that list; if the first character of the list is a caret
3233 ``^'' then it matches any character not in the list. For example, the
3234 regular expression [0123456789] matches any single digit. A range of ASCII
3235 characters may be specified by giving the first and last characters,
3236 separated by a hyphen ``-''. Most metacharacters lose their special
3237 meaning inside lists. To include a literal ``]'' place it first in the
3238 list. Similarly, to include a literal ``^'' place it anywhere but first.
3239 Finally, to include a literal hyphen ``-'' place it last.
3241 Certain named classes of characters are predefined. Character classes
3242 consist of ``[:'', a keyword denoting the class, and ``:]''. The following
3243 classes are defined by the POSIX standard:
3247 Alphanumeric characters.
3251 Alphabetic characters.
3255 Space or tab characters.
3267 Characters that are both printable and visible. (A space is
3268 printable, but not visible, while an ``a'' is both.)
3272 Lower-case alphabetic characters.
3276 Printable characters (characters that are not control characters.)
3280 Punctuation characters (characters that are not letter, digits,
3281 control characters, or space characters).
3285 Space characters (such as space, tab and formfeed, to name a few).
3289 Upper-case alphabetic characters.
3293 Characters that are hexadecimal digits.
3295 A character class is only valid in a regular expression inside the
3296 brackets of a character list. Note that the brackets in these class names
3297 are part of the symbolic names, and must be included in addition to the
3298 brackets delimiting the bracket list. For example, [[:digit:]] is
3299 equivalent to [0-9].
3301 Two additional special sequences can appear in character lists. These
3302 apply to non-ASCII character sets, which can have single symbols
3303 (calledcollating elements) that are represented with more than one
3304 character, as well as several characters that are equivalent for collating
3305 or sorting purposes:
3309 A collating symbol is a multi-character collating element enclosed
3310 in ``[.'' and ``.]''. For example, if ``ch'' is a collating
3311 element, then [[.ch.]] is a regexp that matches this collating
3312 element, while [ch] is a regexp that matches either ``c'' or
3317 An equivalence class is a locale-specific name for a list of
3318 characters that are equivalent. The name is enclosed in ``[='' and
3319 ``=]''. For example, the name ``e'' might be used to represent all
3320 of ``è'' ``é'' and ``e''. In this case, [[=e=]] is a regexp that
3321 matches any of ``è'', ``é'' and ``e''.
3323 A regular expression matching a single character may be followed by one of
3324 several repetition operators:
3328 The preceding item is optional and matched at most once.
3332 The preceding item will be matched zero or more times.
3336 The preceding item will be matched one or more times.
3340 The preceding item is matched exactly n times.
3344 The preceding item is matched n or more times.
3348 The preceding item is matched at most m times.
3352 The preceding item is matched at least n times, but no more than m
3355 Two regular expressions may be concatenated; the resulting regular
3356 expression matches any string formed by concatenating two substrings that
3357 respectively match the concatenated subexpressions.
3359 Two regular expressions may be joined by the infix operator ``|''; the
3360 resulting regular expression matches any string matching either
3363 Repetition takes precedence over concatenation, which in turn takes
3364 precedence over alternation. A whole subexpression may be enclosed in
3365 parentheses to override these precedence rules.
3367 Note: If you compile Mutt-ng with the GNU rx package, the following
3368 operators may also be used in regular expressions:
3372 Matches the empty string at either the beginning or the end of a
3377 Matches the empty string within a word.
3381 Matches the empty string at the beginning of a word.
3385 Matches the empty string at the end of a word.
3389 Matches any word-constituent character (letter, digit, or
3394 Matches any character that is not word-constituent.
3398 Matches the empty string at the beginning of a buffer (string).
3402 Matches the empty string at the end of a buffer.
3404 Please note however that these operators are not defined by POSIX, so they
3405 may or may not be available in stock libraries on various systems.
3409 Mutt-ng's pattern language provides a simple yet effective way to set up
3410 rules to match messages, e.g. for operations like tagging and scoring. A
3411 pattern consists of one or more sub-pattern, which can be logically
3412 grouped, ORed, and negated. For a complete listing of these patterns,
3413 please refer to table patterns in the Reference chapter.
3415 It must be noted that in this table, EXPR is a regular expression. For
3416 ranges, the forms <[MAX], >>[MIN], [MIN]- and -[MAX] are also possible.
3418 2.1. Complex Patterns
3420 It is possible to combine several sub-patterns to a more complex pattern.
3421 The most simple possibility is to logically AND several patterns by
3422 stringing them together:
3426 The pattern above matches all messages that contain ``SPAM'' in the
3427 subject and are unread.
3429 To logical OR patterns, simply use the | operator. This one especially
3430 useful when using local groups:
3432 ~f ("nion@muttng\.org"|"ak@muttng\.org"|"pdmef@muttng\.org")
3433 (~b mutt-ng|~s Mutt-ng)
3436 The first pattern matches all messages that were sent by one of the
3437 mutt-ng maintainers, while the seconds pattern matches all messages that
3438 contain ``mutt-ng'' in the message body or ``Mutt-ng'' in the subject. The
3439 third pattern matches all messages that do not contain ``@synflood\.at''
3440 in the References: header, i.e. messages that are not an (indirect) reply
3441 to one of my messages. A pattern can be logicall negated using the !
3444 2.2. Patterns and Dates
3446 When using dates in patterns, the dates must be specified in a special
3447 format, i.e. DD/MM/YYYY. If you don't specify month or year, they default
3448 to the current month or year. When using date ranges, and you specify only
3449 the minimum or the maximum, the specified date will be excluded, e.g.
3450 01/06/2005- matches against all messages after Juni 1st, 2005.
3452 It is also possible to use so-called ``error margins'' when specifying
3453 date ranges. You simply specify a date, and then the error margin. This
3454 margin needs to contain the information whether it goes ``forth'' or
3455 ``back'' in time, by using + and -. Then follows a number and a unit, i.e.
3456 y for years, m for months, w for weeks and d for days. If you use the
3457 special * sign, it means that the error margin goes to both``directions''
3464 The first pattern matches all dates between January 1st, 2005 and January
3465 1st 2006. The second pattern matches all dates between October 18th, 2004
3466 and October 4th 2004 (2 weeks before 18/10/2004), while the third pattern
3467 matches all dates 1 day around December 28th, 2004 (i.e. Dec 27th, 28th
3470 Relative dates are also very important, as they make it possible to
3471 specify date ranges between a fixed number of units and the current date.
3472 How this works can be seen in the following example:
3474 ~d >2w # messages older than two weeks
3475 ~d <3d # messages newer than 3 days
3476 ~d =1m # messages that are exactly one month old
3482 The so called Format Strings offer great flexibility when configuring
3483 mutt-ng. In short, they describe what items to print out how in menus and
3486 Basically, they work as this: for different menus and bars, there's a
3487 variable specifying the layout. For every item available, there is a so
3490 For example, when running mutt-ng on different machines or different
3491 versions for testing purposes, it may be interesting to have the following
3492 information always printed on screen when one is in the index:
3494 o the current hostname
3496 o the current mutt-ng version number
3498 The setting for the status bar of the index is controlled via the
3499 status-format variable. For the hostname and version string, there's an
3500 expando for $status_format: %h expands to the hostname and %v to the
3501 version string. When just configuring:
3503 set status_format = "%v on %h: ..."
3505 mutt-ng will replace the sequence %v with the version string and %h with
3506 the host's name. When you are, for example, running mutt-ng version 1.5.9i
3507 on host mailhost, you'll see the following when you're in the index:
3509 Mutt-ng 1.5.9i on mailhost: ...
3511 In the index, there're more useful information one could want to see:
3513 o which mailbox is open
3515 o how man new, flagged or postponed messages
3519 To include the mailbox' name is as easy as:
3521 set status_format = "%v on %h: %B: ...
3523 When the currently opened mailbox is Inbox, this will be expanded to:
3525 Mutt-ng 1.5.9i on mailhost: Inbox: ...
3527 For the number of certain types of messages, one more feature of the
3528 format strings is extremely useful. If there aren't messages of a certain
3529 type, it may not be desired to print just that there aren't any but
3530 instead only print something if there are any.
3532 3.2. Conditional Expansion
3534 To only print the number of messages if there are new messages in the
3535 current mailbox, further extend $status_format to:
3537 set status_format = "%v on %h: %B %?n?%n new? ...
3539 This feature is called nonzero-printing and works as this: some expandos
3540 may be optionally printed nonzero, i.e. a portion of the format string is
3541 only evaluated if the value of the expando is different from zero. The
3544 %?<item>?<string if nonzero>?
3546 which tells mutt-ng to only look at <string if nonzero> if the value of
3547 the %<item%gt; expando is different from zero. In our example, we used n
3548 as the expando to check for and %n new as the optional nonzero string.
3550 But this is not all: this feature only offers one alternative: ``print
3551 something if not zero.'' Mutt-ng does, as you might guess, also provide a
3552 logically complete version: ``if zero, print something and else print
3553 something else.'' This is achieved by the following syntax for those
3554 expandos which may be printed nonzero:
3556 %?<item>?<string if nonzero>&<string if zero>?
3558 Using this we can make mutt-ng to do the following:
3560 o make it print ``n new messages'' whereby n is the count but only if
3563 o and make it print ``no new messages'' if there aren't any
3565 The corresponding configuration is:
3567 set status_format = "%v on %h: %B: %?n?%n new messages&no new messages? ...
3569 This doubles the use of the ``new messages'' string because it'll get
3570 always printed. Thus, it can be shortened to:
3572 set status_format = "%v on %h: %B: %?n?%n&no? new messages ...
3574 As you might see from this rather simple example, one can create very
3575 complex but fancy status messages. Please see the reference chapter for
3576 expandos and those which may be printed nonzero.
3578 3.3. Modifications and Padding
3580 Besides the information given so far, there're even more features of
3583 o When specifying %_<item> instead of just %<item>, mutt-ng will convert
3584 all characters in the expansion of <item> to lowercase.
3586 o When specifying %:<item> instead of just %<item>, mutt-ng will convert
3587 all dots in the expansion of <item> to underscores (_).
3589 Also, there's a feature called Padding supplied by the following two
3590 expandos: %|X and %>X .
3594 When this occurs, mutt-ng will fill the rest of the line with the
3595 character X. In our example, filling the rest of the line with
3596 dashes is done by setting:
3598 set status_format = "%v on %h: %B: %?n?%n&no? new messages %|-"
3602 Since the previous expando stops at the end of line, there must be
3603 a way to fill the gap between two items via the %>X expando: it
3604 puts as many characters X in between two items so that the rest of
3605 the line will be right-justified. For example, to not put the
3606 version string and hostname of our example on the left but on the
3607 right and fill the gap with spaces, one might use (note the space
3610 set status_format = "%B: %?n?%n&no? new messages %> (%v on %h)"
3614 Sometimes it is desirable to perform an operation on a group of messages
3615 all at once rather than one at a time. An example might be to save
3616 messages to a mailing list to a separate folder, or to delete all messages
3617 with a given subject. To tag all messages matching a pattern, use the
3618 tag-pattern function, which is bound to ``shift-T'' by default. Or you can
3619 select individual messages by hand using the ``tag-message'' function,
3620 which is bound to ``t'' by default. See patterns for Mutt-ng's pattern
3623 Once you have tagged the desired messages, you can use the ``tag-prefix''
3624 operator, which is the ``;'' (semicolon) key by default. When the
3625 ``tag-prefix'' operator is used, the next operation will be applied to all
3626 tagged messages if that operation can be used in that manner. If the
3627 auto-tag variable is set, the next operation applies to the tagged
3628 messages automatically, without requiring the ``tag-prefix''.
3630 In macro or push commands, you can use the ``tag-prefix-cond'' operator.
3631 If there are no tagged messages, mutt will "eat" the rest of the macro to
3632 abort it's execution.Mutt-ng will stop "eating" the macro when it
3633 encounters the ``end-cond'' operator; after this operator the rest of the
3634 macro will be executed asnormal.
3638 A hook is a concept borrowed from the EMACS editor which allows you to
3639 execute arbitrary commands before performing some operation. For example,
3640 you may wish to tailor your configuration based upon which mailbox you are
3641 reading, or to whom you are sending mail. In the Mutt-ng world, a hook
3642 consists of a regexp or patterns along with a configuration
3659 for specific details on each type of hook available.
3661 Note: if a hook changes configuration settings, these changes remain
3662 effective until the end of the current mutt session. As this is generally
3663 not desired, a default hook needs to be added before all other hooks to
3664 restore configuration defaults. Here is an example with send-hook and the
3667 send-hook . 'unmy_hdr From:'
3668 send-hook ~C'^b@b\.b$' my_hdr from: c@c.c
3670 5.1. Message Matching in Hooks
3672 Hooks that act upon messages (send-hook, save-hook, fcc-hook,message-hook
3673 )are evaluated in a slightly different manner. For the other types of
3674 hooks, a regexp is sufficient. But in dealing with messages a finer grain
3675 of control is needed for matching since for different purposes you want to
3676 match different criteria.
3678 Mutt-ng allows the use of the patterns language for matching messages in
3679 hook commands. This works in exactly the same way as it would when
3680 limiting orsearching the mailbox, except that you are restricted to those
3681 operators which match information mutt extracts from the header of the
3682 message (i.e. from, to, cc, date, subject, etc.).
3684 For example, if you wanted to set your return address based upon sending
3685 mail to a specific address, you could do something like:
3687 send-hook '~t ^me@cs\.hmc\.edu$' 'my_hdr From: Mutt-ng User <user@host>'
3689 which would execute the given command when sending mail to me@cs.hmc.edu.
3691 However, it is not required that you write the pattern to match using the
3692 full searching language. You can still specify a simple regular expression
3693 like the other hooks, in which case Mutt-ng will translate your pattern
3694 into the full language, using the translation specified by the
3695 default-hook variable. The pattern is translated at the time the hook is
3696 declared, so the value of default-hook that is in effect at that time will
3699 6. Using the sidebar
3701 The sidebar, a feature specific to Mutt-ng, allows you to use a mailbox
3702 listing which looks very similar to the ones you probably know from GUI
3703 mail clients. The sidebar lists all specified mailboxes, shows the number
3704 in each and highlights the ones with new email Use the following
3705 configuration commands:
3707 set sidebar_visible="yes"
3708 set sidebar_width=25
3710 If you want to specify the mailboxes you can do so with:
3718 You can also specify the colors for mailboxes with new mails by using:
3720 color sidebar_new red black
3721 color sidebar white black
3723 The available functions are:
3725 Table 4.1. Default Sidebar Function Bindings
3727 +------------------------------------------------------------------------+
3728 | Key | Function | Description |
3729 |------+---------------------+-------------------------------------------|
3730 | none | sidebar-scroll-up | Scrolls the mailbox list up 1 page |
3731 |------+---------------------+-------------------------------------------|
3732 | none | sidebar-scroll-down | Scrolls the mailbox list down 1 page |
3733 |------+---------------------+-------------------------------------------|
3734 | none | sidebar-next | Highlights the next mailbox |
3735 |------+---------------------+-------------------------------------------|
3736 | none | sidebar-next-new | Highlights the next mailbox with new mail |
3737 |------+---------------------+-------------------------------------------|
3738 | none | sidebar-previous | Highlights the previous mailbox |
3739 |------+---------------------+-------------------------------------------|
3740 | none | sidebar-open | Opens the currently highlighted mailbox |
3741 +------------------------------------------------------------------------+
3743 Reasonable key bindings look e.g. like this:
3745 bind index \Cp sidebar-prev
3746 bind index \Cn sidebar-next
3747 bind index \Cb sidebar-open
3748 bind pager \Cp sidebar-prev
3749 bind pager \Cn sidebar-next
3750 bind pager \Cb sidebar-open
3752 macro index B ':toggle sidebar_visible^M'
3753 macro pager B ':toggle sidebar_visible^M'
3755 You can then go up and down by pressing Ctrl-P and Ctrl-N, and switch on
3756 and off the sidebar simply by pressing 'B'.
3758 7. External Address Queries
3760 Mutt-ng supports connecting to external directory databases such as LDAP,
3761 ph/qi, bbdb, or NIS through a wrapper script which connects to mutt using
3762 a simple interface. Using the query-command variable, you specify the
3763 wrapper command to use. For example:
3765 set query_command = "mutt_ldap_query.pl '%s'"
3767 The wrapper script should accept the query on the command-line. It should
3768 return a one line message, then each matching response on a single line,
3769 each line containing a tab separated address then name thensome other
3770 optional information. On error, or if there are no matching addresses,
3771 return a non-zero exit code and a one line error message.
3773 An example multiple response output:
3775 Searching database ... 20 entries ... 3 matching:
3776 me@cs.hmc.edu Michael Elkins mutt dude
3777 blong@fiction.net Brandon Long mutt and more
3778 roessler@guug.de Thomas Roessler mutt pgp
3780 There are two mechanisms for accessing the query function of mutt. One is
3781 to do a query from the index menu using the query function (default: Q).
3782 This will prompt for a query, then bring up the query menu which will list
3783 the matching responses. From the query menu, you can select addresses to
3784 create aliases, or to mail. You can tag multiple addressesto mail, start a
3785 new query, or have a new query appended to the current responses.
3787 The other mechanism for accessing the query function is for address
3788 completion, similar to the alias completion. In any prompt for address
3789 entry, you can use the complete-query function (default: ^T) to run a
3790 query based on the current address you have typed. Like aliases, mutt will
3791 look for what you have typed back to the last space or comma. If there is
3792 a single response for that query, mutt will expand the address in place.
3793 If there are multiple responses, mutt will activate the querymenu. At the
3794 query menu, you can select one or more addresses to be added to the
3799 Mutt-ng supports reading and writing of four different mailbox formats:
3800 mbox, MMDF, MH and Maildir. The mailbox type is autodetected, so there is
3801 no need to use a flag for different mailbox types. When creating
3802 newmailboxes, Mutt-ng uses the default specified with the mbox-type
3805 mbox. This is the most widely used mailbox format for UNIX. All messages
3806 are stored in a single file. Each message has a line of the form:
3808 From me@cs.hmc.edu Fri, 11 Apr 1997 11:44:56 PST
3810 to denote the start of a new message (this is often referred to as the
3813 MMDF. This is a variant of the mbox format. Each message is surrounded by
3814 lines containing ``^A^A^A^A'' (four control-A's).
3816 MH. A radical departure from mbox and MMDF, a mailbox consists of a
3817 directory and each message is stored in a separate file. The filename
3818 indicates the message number (however, this is may not correspond to the
3819 message number Mutt-ng displays). Deleted messages arerenamed with a comma
3820 (,) prepended to the filename. Note: Mutt detects this type of mailbox by
3821 looking for either .mh_sequences or .xmhcache (needed to distinguish
3822 normal directories from MH mailboxes).
3824 Maildir. The newest of the mailbox formats, used by the Qmail MTA (a
3825 replacement for sendmail). Similar to MH, except that it adds three
3826 subdirectories of the mailbox: tmp, new and cur .Filenames for the
3827 messages are chosen in such a way they are unique, even when twoprograms
3828 are writing the mailbox over NFS, which means that no file locking is
3831 9. Mailbox Shortcuts
3833 There are a number of built in shortcuts which refer to specific
3834 mailboxes. These shortcuts can be used anywhere you are prompted for a
3835 file or mailbox path.
3837 o ! -- refers to your spoolfile (incoming) mailbox
3839 o > -- refers to your mbox file
3841 o < -- refers to your record file
3843 o ^ -- refers to the current mailbox
3845 o - or !! -- refers to the file you've last visited
3847 o ˜ -- refers to your home directory
3849 o = or + -- refers to your folder directory
3851 o @alias -- refers to the save-hook as determined by the address of the
3854 10. Handling Mailing Lists
3856 Mutt-ng has a few configuration options that make dealing with large
3857 amounts of mail easier. The first thing you must do is to let Mutt know
3858 what addresses you consider to be mailing lists (technically this does not
3859 have to be a mailing list, but that is what it is most often used for),
3860 and what lists you are subscribed to. This is accomplished through the use
3861 of the lists commands in your muttrc.
3863 Now that Mutt-ng knows what your mailing lists are, it can do several
3864 things, the first of which is the ability to show the name of a list
3865 through which you received a message (i.e., of a subscribed list) in the
3866 index menu display. This is useful to distinguish between personal and
3867 list mail in the same mailbox. In the index-format variable, the escape
3868 ``%L'' will return the string ``To <list>'' when ``list'' appears in the
3869 ``To'' field, and ``Cc <list>'' when it appears in the ``Cc'' field
3870 (otherwise it returns the name of the author).
3872 Often times the ``To'' and ``Cc'' fields in mailing list messages tend to
3873 get quite large. Most people do not bother to remove the author of the
3874 message they are reply to from the list, resulting in two or more copies
3875 being sent to that person. The ``list-reply'' function, which by default
3876 is bound to ``L'' in the index menu and pager, helps reduce the clutter by
3877 only replying to the known mailing list addresses instead of all
3878 recipients (except as specified by Mail-Followup-To, see below).
3880 Mutt-ng also supports the Mail-Followup-To header. When you send a message
3881 to a list of recipients which includes one or several subscribed mailing
3882 lists, and if the followup-to option is set, mutt will generate a
3883 Mail-Followup-To header which contains all the recipients to whom you send
3884 this message, but not your address. This indicates that group-replies or
3885 list-replies (also known as ``followups'') to this message should only be
3886 sent to the original recipients of the message, and not separately to you
3887 - you'll receive your copy through one of the mailing lists you are
3890 Conversely, when group-replying or list-replying to a message which has a
3891 Mail-Followup-To header, mutt will respect this header if the
3892 honor-followup-to configuration variable is set. Using list-reply will in
3893 this case also make sure that the reply goes to the mailing list, even if
3894 it's not specified in the list of recipients in the Mail-Followup-To.
3896 Note that, when header editing is enabled, you can create a
3897 Mail-Followup-To header manually. Mutt-ng will only auto-generate this
3898 header if it doesn't exist when you send the message.
3900 The other method some mailing list admins use is to generate a
3901 ``Reply-To'' field which points back to the mailing list address rather
3902 than the author of the message. This can create problems when trying to
3903 reply directly to the author in private, since most mail clients will
3904 automatically reply to the address given in the ``Reply-To'' field.
3905 Mutt-ng uses the reply-to variable to help decide which address to use. If
3906 set to ask-yes or ask-no, you will be prompted as to whether or not you
3907 would like to use the address given inthe ``Reply-To'' field, or reply
3908 directly to the address given in the ``From'' field. When set to yes, the
3909 ``Reply-To'' field will be used when present.
3911 The ``X-Label:'' header field can be used to further identify mailing
3912 lists or list subject matter (or just to annotate messages individually).
3913 The index-format variable's ``%y'' and ``%Y'' escapes can be used to
3914 expand ``X-Label:'' fields in the index, and Mutt-ng's pattern-matcher can
3915 match regular expressions to ``X-Label:'' fields with the ``˜y''
3916 selector. ``X-Label:'' is not a standard message header field, but it can
3917 easily be inserted by procmailand other mail filtering agents.
3919 Lastly, Mutt-ng has the ability to sort the mailbox into threads. A thread
3920 is a group of messages which all relate to the same subject. This is
3921 usually organized into a tree-like structure where a message and all of
3922 its replies are represented graphically. If you've ever used a threaded
3923 news client, this is the same concept. It makes dealingwith large volume
3924 mailing lists easier because you can easily delete uninteresting threads
3925 and quickly find topics of value.
3929 Mutt-ng has the ability to dynamically restructure threads that are broken
3930 either by misconfigured software or bad behavior from some correspondents.
3931 This allows to clean your mailboxes formats) from these annoyances which
3932 make it hard to follow a discussion.
3934 11.1. Linking threads
3936 Some mailers tend to "forget" to correctly set the "In-Reply-To:" and
3937 "References:" headers when replying to a message. This results in broken
3938 discussions because Mutt-ng has not enough information to guess the
3939 correct threading. You can fix this by tagging the reply, then moving to
3940 the parent message and using the ``link-threads'' function (bound to & by
3941 default). The reply will then be connected to this "parent" message.
3943 You can also connect multiple children at once, tagging them and using the
3944 tag-prefix command (';') or the auto_tag option.
3946 11.2. Breaking threads
3948 On mailing lists, some people are in the bad habit of starting a new
3949 discussion by hitting "reply" to any message from the list and changing
3950 the subject to a totally unrelated one. You can fix such threads by using
3951 the ``break-thread'' function (boundby default to #), which will turn the
3952 subthread starting from the current message into a whole different thread.
3954 12. Delivery Status Notification (DSN) Support
3956 RFC1894 defines a set of MIME content types for relaying information about
3957 the status of electronic mail messages. These can be thought of as
3958 ``return receipts.''
3960 Users can make use of it in one of the following two ways:
3962 o Berkeley sendmail 8.8.x currently has some command line options in
3963 which the mail client can make requests as to what type of status
3964 messages should be returned.
3966 o The SMTP support via libESMTP supports it, too.
3968 To support this, there are two variables:
3970 o dsn-notify is used to request receipts for different results (such as
3971 failed message,message delivered, etc.).
3973 o dsn-return requests how much of your message should be returned with
3974 the receipt (headers or full message).
3976 Please see the reference chapter for possible values.
3978 13. POP3 Support (OPTIONAL)
3980 If Mutt-ng was compiled with POP3 support (by running the configure script
3981 with the --enable-pop flag), it has the ability to work with mailboxes
3982 located on a remote POP3 server and fetch mail for local browsing.
3984 You can access the remote POP3 mailbox by selecting the folder
3987 You can select an alternative port by specifying it with the server, i.e.:
3988 pop://popserver:port/.
3990 You can also specify different username for each folder, i.e.:
3991 pop://username@popserver[:port]/.
3993 Polling for new mail is more expensive over POP3 than locally. For this
3994 reason the frequency at which Mutt-ng will check for mail remotely can be
3995 controlled by the pop-mail-check variable, which defaults to every 60
3998 If Mutt-ng was compiled with SSL support (by running the configure script
3999 with the --with-ssl flag), connections to POP3 servers can be encrypted.
4000 This naturally requires that the server supports SSL encrypted
4001 connections. To access a folder with POP3/SSL, you should use pops:
4002 prefix, ie: pops://[username@]popserver[:port]/.
4004 Another way to access your POP3 mail is the fetch-mail function (default:
4005 G). It allows to connect to pop-host ,fetch all your new mail and place it
4006 in the local spoolfile. After this point, Mutt-ng runs exactly as if the
4007 mail had always been local.
4009 Note: If you only need to fetch all messages to local mailbox you should
4010 consider using a specialized program, such as fetchmail
4012 14. IMAP Support (OPTIONAL)
4014 If Mutt-ng was compiled with IMAP support (by running the configure script
4015 with the --enable-imap flag), it has the ability to work with folders
4016 located on a remote IMAP server.
4018 You can access the remote inbox by selecting the folder
4019 imap://imapserver/INBOX, where imapserver is the name of the IMAP server
4020 and INBOX is the special name for your spool mailbox on the IMAP server.
4021 If you want to access another mail folder at the IMAP server, you should
4022 use imap://imapserver/path/to/folder where path/to/folder is the path of
4023 the folder you want to access.
4025 You can select an alternative port by specifying it with the server, i.e.:
4026 imap://imapserver:port/INBOX.
4028 You can also specify different username for each folder, i.e.:
4029 imap://username@imapserver[:port]/INBOX.
4031 If Mutt-ng was compiled with SSL support (by running the configure script
4032 with the --with-ssl flag), connections to IMAP servers can be encrypted.
4033 This naturally requires that the server supports SSL encrypted
4034 connections. To access a folder with IMAP/SSL, you should use
4035 imaps://[username@]imapserver[:port]/path/to/folder as your folder path.
4037 Pine-compatible notation is also supported, i.e.
4038 {[username@]imapserver[:port][/ssl]}path/to/folder
4040 Note that not all servers use / as the hierarchy separator. Mutt-ng should
4041 correctly notice which separator is being used by the server and
4042 convertpaths accordingly.
4044 When browsing folders on an IMAP server, you can toggle whether to look at
4045 only the folders you are subscribed to, or all folders with the
4046 toggle-subscribed command. See also the imap-list-subscribed variable.
4048 Polling for new mail on an IMAP server can cause noticeable delays. So,
4049 you'll want to carefully tune the imap-mail-check and timeout variables.
4051 Note that if you are using mbox as the mail store on UW servers prior
4052 tov12.250, the server has been reported to disconnect a client if another
4053 client selects the same folder.
4055 14.1. The Folder Browser
4057 As of version 1.2, mutt supports browsing mailboxes on an IMAP server.
4058 This is mostly the same as the local file browser, with the following
4061 o Instead of file permissions, mutt displays the string "IMAP", possibly
4062 followed by the symbol "+", indicating that the entry contains both
4063 messages and subfolders. On Cyrus-like servers folders will often
4064 contain both messages and subfolders.
4066 o For the case where an entry can contain both messages and subfolders,
4067 the selection key (bound to enter by default) will choose to descend
4068 into the subfolder view. If you wish to view the messages in that
4069 folder, you must use view-file instead (bound to space by default).
4071 o You can create, delete and rename mailboxes with the create-mailbox,
4072 delete-mailbox, and rename-mailbox commands (default bindings: C , d
4073 and r, respectively). You may also subscribe and unsubscribe to
4074 mailboxes (normally these are bound to s and u, respectively).
4076 14.2. Authentication
4078 Mutt-ng supports four authentication methods with IMAP servers: SASL,
4079 GSSAPI, CRAM-MD5, and LOGIN (there is a patch by Grant Edwards to add NTLM
4080 authentication for you poor exchange users out there, but it has yet to be
4081 integrated into the main tree). There is also support for the
4082 pseudo-protocol ANONYMOUS, which allows you to log in to a public IMAP
4083 server without having an account. To use ANONYMOUS, simply make your
4084 username blank or "anonymous".
4086 SASL is a special super-authenticator, which selects among several
4087 protocols (including GSSAPI, CRAM-MD5, ANONYMOUS, and DIGEST-MD5) the most
4088 secure method available on your host and the server. Using some of these
4089 methods (including DIGEST-MD5 and possibly GSSAPI), your entire session
4090 will be encrypted and invisible to those teeming network snoops. It is the
4091 best option if you have it. To use it, you must have the Cyrus SASL
4092 libraryinstalled on your system and compile mutt with the --with-sasl
4095 Mutt-ng will try whichever methods are compiled in and available on the
4096 server, in the following order: SASL, ANONYMOUS, GSSAPI, CRAM-MD5, LOGIN.
4098 There are a few variables which control authentication:
4100 o imap-user - controls the username under which you request
4101 authentication on the IMAP server, for all authenticators. This is
4102 overridden by an explicit username in the mailbox path (i.e. by using
4103 a mailbox name of the form {user@host}).
4105 o imap-pass - a password which you may preset, used by all
4106 authentication methods where a password is needed.
4108 o imap-authenticators - a colon-delimited list of IMAP authentication
4109 methods to try, in the order you wish to try them. If specified, this
4110 overrides mutt's default (attempt everything, in the order listed
4113 15. NNTP Support (OPTIONAL)
4115 If compiled with ``--enable-nntp'' option, Mutt-ng can read news from a
4116 newsserver via NNTP. You can open a newsgroup with the
4117 ``change-newsgroup'' function from the index/pager which is by default
4120 The Default newsserver can be obtained from the $NNTPSERVER environment
4121 variable. Like other news readers, info about subscribed newsgroups is
4122 saved in a file as specified by the nntp-newsrc variable. Article headers
4123 are cached and can be loaded from a file when a newsgroup is entered
4124 instead loading from newsserver; currently, this caching mechanism still
4125 is different from the header caching for maildir/IMAP.
4127 15.1. Again: Scoring
4129 Especially for Usenet, people often ask for advanced filtering and scoring
4130 functionality. Of course, mutt-ng has scoring and allows a killfile, too.
4131 How to use a killfile has been discussed in score-command.
4133 What has not been discusses in detail is mutt-ng's built-in realname
4134 filter. For may newsreaders including those for ``advanced users'' like
4135 slrn or tin, there are frequent request for such functionality. The
4136 solutions offered often are complicated regular expressions.
4138 In mutt-ng this is as easy as
4142 This tells mutt-ng to apply a score of 42 to all messages whose sender
4143 specified a valid realname and a valid email address. Using
4147 on the contrary applies a score of 42 to all messages not matching those
4148 criteria which are very strict:
4150 o Email addresses must be valid according to RFC 2822, see
4151 <ftp://ftp.rfc-editor.org/in-notes/rfc2822.txt>
4153 o the name must consist of at least 2 fields whereby a field must not
4154 end in a dot. This means that ``Joe User'' and ``Joe A.User'' are
4155 valid while ``J. User'' and ``J. A. User'' aren't.
4157 o it's assumed that users are interested in reading their own mail and
4158 mail from people who they have defined an alias forso that those 2
4159 groups of messages are excluded from the strict rules.
4161 16. SMTP Support (OPTIONAL)
4163 Mutt-ng can be built using a library called ``libESMTP'' which provides
4164 SMTP functionality. When configure was called with --with-libesmtp or the
4165 output muttng -v contains +USE_LIBESMTP, this will be or is the case
4166 already. The SMTP support includes support for Delivery Status
4167 Notification (see dsn section) as well as handling the 8BITMIME flag
4168 controlled via use-8bitmime .
4170 To enable sending mail directly via SMTP without an MTA such as Postfix or
4171 SSMTP and the like, simply set the smtp-host variable pointing to your
4174 Authentication mechanisms are available via the smtp-user and smtp-pass
4177 Transport Encryption via the StartTLS command is also available. For this
4178 to work, first of all Mutt-ng must be built with SSL or GNUTLS. Secondly,
4179 the smtp-use-tls variable must be either set to ``enabled'' or
4180 ``required.'' In both cases, StartTLS will be used if the server supports
4181 it: for the second case, the connection will fail ifit doesn't while
4182 switching back to unencrypted communication for the first one.
4184 Some mail providers require user's to set a particular envelope sender,
4185 i.e. they allow for only one value which may not be what the user wants to
4186 send as the From: header. In this case, the variable smtp-envelope may be
4187 used to set the envelope different from the From: header.
4189 17. Managing multiple IMAP/POP/NNTP accounts (OPTIONAL)
4191 If you happen to have accounts on multiple IMAP and/or POP servers, you
4192 may find managing all the authentication settings inconvenient and
4193 error-prone. The account-hook command may help. This hook works like
4194 folder-hook but is invoked whenever you access a remote mailbox (including
4195 inside the folder browser), not just when you open the mailbox.
4199 account-hook . 'unset imap_user; unset imap_pass; unset tunnel'
4200 account-hook imap://host1/ 'set imap_user=me1 imap_pass=foo'
4201 account-hook imap://host2/ 'set tunnel="ssh host2 /usr/libexec/imapd"'
4203 18. Start a WWW Browser on URLs (EXTERNAL)
4205 If a message contains URLs (unified resource locator = address in the WWW
4206 space like http://www.mutt.org/), it is efficient to get a menu with all
4207 the URLs and start a WWW browser on one of them. This functionality is
4208 provided by the external urlview program which can be retrieved at
4209 ftp://ftp.mutt.org/mutt/contrib/ > and the configuration commands:
4211 macro index \cb |urlview\n
4212 macro pager \cb |urlview\n
4214 19. Compressed folders Support (OPTIONAL)
4216 If Mutt-ng was compiled with compressed folders support (by running the
4217 configure script with the --enable-compressed flag), Mutt can open folders
4218 stored in an arbitrary format, provided that the user has a script to
4219 convert from/to this format to one of the accepted.
4221 The most common use is to open compressed archived folders e.g. with gzip.
4223 In addition, the user can provide a script that gets a folder in an
4224 accepted format and appends its context to the folder in the user-defined
4225 format, which may be faster than converting the entire folder to the
4226 accepted format, appending to it and converting back to the user-defined
4229 There are three hooks defined (open-hook, close-hook and append-hook
4230 )which define commands to uncompress and compress a folder and to append
4231 messages to an existing compressed folder respectively.
4235 open-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -cd %f > %t"
4236 close-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -c %t > %f"
4237 append-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -c %t >> %f"
4239 You do not have to specify all of the commands. If you omit append-hook
4240 ,the folder will be open and closed again each time you will add to it. If
4241 you omit close-hook (or give empty command) , the folder will be open in
4242 the mode. If you specify append-hook though you'll be able to append to
4245 Note that Mutt-ng will only try to use hooks if the file is not in one of
4246 the accepted formats. In particular, if the file is empty, mutt supposes
4247 it is not compressed. This is important because it allows the use of
4248 programs that do not have well defined extensions. Just use "." as a
4249 regexp. But this may be surprising if your compressing script produces
4250 empty files. In this situation, unset save-empty ,so that the compressed
4251 file will be removed if you delete all of the messages.
4253 19.1. Open a compressed mailbox for reading
4255 Usage: open-hook regexp "command"
4257 The command is the command that can be used for opening the folders whose
4260 The command string is the printf-like format string, and it should accept
4261 two parameters: %f, which is replaced with the (compressed) folder name,
4262 and %t which is replaced with the name of the temporary folder to which to
4265 %f and %t can be repeated any number of times in the command string, and
4266 all of the entries are replaced with the appropriate folder name. In
4267 addition, %% is replaced by %, as in printf, and any other %anything is
4270 The command should not remove the original compressed file. The command
4271 should return non-zero exit status if it fails, so mutt knows something's
4276 open-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -cd %f > %t"
4278 If the command is empty, this operation is disabled for this file type.
4280 19.2. Write a compressed mailbox
4282 Usage: close-hook regexp"command"
4284 This is used to close the folder that was open with the open-hook command
4285 after some changes were made to it.
4287 The command string is the command that can be used for closing the folders
4288 whose names match regexp. It has the same format as in the open-hook
4289 command. Temporary folder in this case is the folder previously produced
4290 by the < open-hook command.
4292 The command should not remove the decompressed file. The command should
4293 return non-zero exit status if it fails, so mutt knows something's wrong.
4297 close-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -c %t > %f"
4299 If the command is empty, this operation is disabled for this file type,
4300 and the file can only be open in the readonly mode.
4302 close-hook is not called when you exit from the folder if the folder was
4305 19.3. Append a message to a compressed mailbox
4307 Usage: append-hook regexp"command"
4309 This command is used for saving to an existing compressed folder. The
4310 command is the command that can be used for appending to the folders whose
4311 names match regexp. It has the same format as in the open-hook command.
4312 The temporary folder in this case contains the messages that are
4315 The command should not remove the decompressed file. The command should
4316 return non-zero exit status if it fails, so mutt knows something's wrong.
4320 append-hook \\.gz$ "gzip -c %t >> %f"
4322 When append-hook is used, the folder is not opened, which saves time, but
4323 this means that we can not find out what the folder type is. Thus the
4324 default ( mbox-type )type is always supposed (i.e. this is the format used
4325 for the temporary folder).
4327 If the file does not exist when you save to it, close-hook is called, and
4328 not append-hook. append-hook is only for appending to existing folders.
4330 If the command is empty, this operation is disabled for this file type. In
4331 this case, the folder will be open and closed again (using open-hook and
4332 close-hook respectively) each time you will add to it.
4334 19.4. Encrypted folders
4336 The compressed folders support can also be used to handle encrypted
4337 folders. If you want to encrypt a folder with PGP, you may want to usethe
4340 open-hook \\.pgp$ "pgp -f < %f > %t"
4341 close-hook \\.pgp$ "pgp -fe YourPgpUserIdOrKeyId < %t > %f"
4343 Please note, that PGP does not support appending to an encrypted folder,
4344 so there is no append-hook defined.
4346 Note: the folder is temporary stored decrypted in the /tmp directory,
4347 where it can be read by your system administrator. So thinkabout the
4348 security aspects of this.
4350 Chapter 5. Mutt-ng's MIME Support
4354 1. Using MIME in Mutt
4356 1.1. Viewing MIME messages in the pager
4358 1.2. The Attachment Menu
4360 1.3. The Compose Menu
4362 2. MIME Type configuration with mime.types
4364 3. MIME Viewer configuration with mailcap
4366 3.1. The Basics of the mailcap file
4368 3.2. Secure use of mailcap
4370 3.3. Advanced mailcap Usage
4372 3.4. Example mailcap files
4376 5. MIME Multipart/Alternative
4380 Quite a bit of effort has been made to make Mutt-ng the premier text-mode
4381 MIME MUA. Every effort has been made to provide the functionality that the
4382 discerning MIME user requires, and the conformance to the standards
4383 wherever possible. When configuring Mutt-ng for MIME, there are two
4384 extratypes of configuration files which Mutt-ng uses. One is the
4385 mime.types file, which contains the mapping of file extensions to IANA
4386 MIME types. The other is the mailcap file, which specifies the external
4387 commands to use for handling specific MIME types.
4389 1. Using MIME in Mutt
4391 There are three areas/menus in Mutt-ng which deal with MIME, they are the
4392 pager (while viewing a message), the attachment menu and the compose menu.
4394 1.1. Viewing MIME messages in the pager
4396 When you select a message from the index and view it in the pager, Mutt
4397 decodes the message to a text representation. Mutt-ng internally supports
4398 a number of MIME types, including text/plain, text/enriched,
4399 message/rfc822, and message/news .In addition, the export controlled
4400 version of Mutt-ng recognizes a variety of PGP MIME types, including
4401 PGP/MIME and application/pgp.
4403 Mutt-ng will denote attachments with a couple lines describing them. These
4404 lines are of the form:
4406 [-- Attachment #1: Description --]
4407 [-- Type: text/plain, Encoding: 7bit, Size: 10000 --]
4409 Where the Description is the description or filename given for the
4410 attachment, and the Encoding is one of
4411 7bit/8bit/quoted-printable/base64/binary.
4413 If Mutt-ng cannot deal with a MIME type, it will display a message like:
4415 [-- image/gif is unsupported (use 'v' to view this part) --]
4417 1.2. The Attachment Menu
4419 The default binding for view-attachments is `v', which displays the
4420 attachment menu for a message. The attachment menu displays a list ofthe
4421 attachments in a message. From the attachment menu, you can save, print,
4422 pipe, delete, and view attachments. You can apply these operations to a
4423 group of attachments at once, by tagging the attachments and by using the
4424 ``tag-prefix'' operator. You can also reply to the current message from
4425 this menu, and only the current attachment (or the attachments tagged)
4426 will be quoted in your reply. You can view attachments as text, or view
4427 them using the mailcap viewer definition.
4429 Finally, you can apply the usual message-related functions (like
4430 resend-message, and the reply and forward functions) to attachments of
4431 type message/rfc822.
4433 See the help on the attachment menu for more information.
4435 1.3. The Compose Menu
4437 The compose menu is the menu you see before you send a message. It allows
4438 you to edit the recipient list, the subject, and other aspects of your
4439 message. It also contains a list of the attachments of your message,
4440 including the main body. From this menu, you can print, copy, filter,
4441 pipe, edit, compose, review, and rename an attachment or a list of tagged
4442 attachments. You can also modifying the attachment information, notably
4443 the type, encoding and description.
4445 Attachments appear as follows:
4447 1 [text/plain, 7bit, 1K] /tmp/mutt-euler-8082-0 <no description>
4448 2 [applica/x-gunzip, base64, 422K] ~/src/mutt-0.85.tar.gz <no description>
4450 The '-' denotes that Mutt-ng will delete the file after sending (or
4451 postponing, or canceling) the message. It can be toggled with the
4452 toggle-unlink command (default: u). The next field is the MIME
4453 content-type, and can be changed with the edit-type command (default: ^T).
4454 The next field is the encoding for the attachment, which allows a binary
4455 message to be encoded for transmission on 7bit links. It can be changed
4456 with the edit-encoding command (default: ^E). The next field is the size
4457 of the attachment, rounded to kilobytes or megabytes. The next field is
4458 the filename, which can be changed with the rename-file command (default:
4459 R). The final field is the description of the attachment, and can be
4460 changed with the edit-description command (default: d).
4462 2. MIME Type configuration with mime.types
4464 When you add an attachment to your mail message, Mutt-ng searches your
4465 personal mime.types file at ${HOME}/.mime.types ,and then the system
4466 mime.types file at /usr/local/share/mutt/mime.types or /etc/mime.types
4468 The mime.types file consist of lines containing a MIME type and a space
4469 separated list of extensions. For example:
4471 application/postscript ps eps
4473 audio/x-aiff aif aifc aiff
4475 A sample mime.types file comes with the Mutt-ng distribution, and should
4476 contain most of the MIME types you are likely to use.
4478 If Mutt-ng can not determine the mime type by the extension of the file
4479 you attach, it will look at the file. If the file is free of binary
4480 information, Mutt-ng will assume that the file is plain text, and mark it
4481 as text/plain. If the file contains binary information, then Mutt-ng will
4482 mark it as application/octet-stream. You can change the MIME type that
4483 Mutt-ng assigns to an attachment by using the edit-type command from the
4484 compose menu (default: ^T). The MIME type is actually a major mime type
4485 followed by the sub-type, separated by a '/'. 6 major types: application,
4486 text, image, video, audio, and model have been approved after various
4487 internet discussions. Mutt-ng recognises all of these if the appropriate
4488 entry is found in the mime.types file. It also recognises other major mime
4489 types, such as the chemical type that is widely used in the molecular
4490 modelling community to pass molecular data in various forms to various
4491 molecular viewers. Non-recognised mime types should only be used if the
4492 recipient of the message is likely to be expecting such attachments.
4494 3. MIME Viewer configuration with mailcap
4496 Mutt-ng supports RFC 1524 MIME Configuration, in particular the Unix
4497 specific format specified in Appendix A of RFC 1524. This file format is
4498 commonly referred to as the mailcap format. Many MIME compliant programs
4499 utilize the mailcap format, allowing you to specify handling for all MIME
4500 types in one place for all programs. Programs known to use this format
4501 include Netscape, XMosaic, lynx and metamail.
4503 In order to handle various MIME types that Mutt-ng can not handle
4504 internally, Mutt-ng parses a series of external configuration files to
4505 find an external handler. The default search string for these files is a
4506 colon delimited list set to
4508 ${HOME}/.mailcap:/usr/local/share/mutt/mailcap:/etc/mailcap:/etc/mailcap:/usr/etc/mailcap:/usr/local/etc/mailcap
4510 where $HOME is your home directory.
4512 In particular, the metamail distribution will install a mailcap file,
4513 usually as /usr/local/etc/mailcap, which contains some baseline entries.
4515 3.1. The Basics of the mailcap file
4517 A mailcap file consists of a series of lines which are comments, blank, or
4520 A comment line consists of a # character followed by anything you want.
4522 A blank line is blank.
4524 A definition line consists of a content type, a view command, and any
4525 number of optional fields. Each field of a definition line is dividedby a
4526 semicolon ';' character.
4528 The content type is specified in the MIME standard type/subtype method.
4529 For example, text/plain, text/html, image/gif, etc. In addition, the
4530 mailcap format includes two formats for wildcards, one using the special
4531 '*' subtype, the other is the implicit wild, where you only include the
4532 major type. For example, image/* ,or video, will match all image types and
4533 video types, respectively.
4535 The view command is a Unix command for viewing the type specified. There
4536 are two different types of commands supported. The default is to send the
4537 body of the MIME message to the command on stdin. You can change this
4538 behavior by using %s as a parameter to your view command. This will cause
4539 Mutt-ng to save the body of the MIME message to a temporary file, and then
4540 call the view command with the %s replaced by the name of the temporary
4541 file. In both cases, Mutt-ng will turn over the terminal to the view
4542 program until the program quits, at which time Mutt will remove the
4543 temporary file if it exists.
4545 So, in the simplest form, you can send a text/plain message to the
4546 external pager more on stdin:
4550 Or, you could send the message as a file:
4554 Perhaps you would like to use lynx to interactively view a text/html
4559 In this case, lynx does not support viewing a file from stdin, so you must
4560 use the %s syntax. Note: Some older versions of lynx contain a bug where
4561 they will check the mailcap file for a viewer for text/html. They will
4562 find the line which calls lynx, and run it. This causes lynx to
4563 continuously spawn itself to view the object.
4565 On the other hand, maybe you don't want to use lynx interactively, youjust
4566 want to have it convert the text/html to text/plain, then you can use:
4568 text/html; lynx -dump %s | more
4570 Perhaps you wish to use lynx to view text/html files, and a pager on all
4571 other text formats, then you would use the following:
4576 This is the simplest form of a mailcap file.
4578 3.2. Secure use of mailcap
4580 The interpretation of shell meta-characters embedded in MIME parameters
4581 can lead to security problems in general. Mutt-ng tries to quote
4582 parameters in expansion of %s syntaxes properly, and avoids risky
4583 characters by substituting them, see the mailcap-sanitize variable.
4585 Although mutt's procedures to invoke programs with mailcap seem to be
4586 safe, there are other applications parsing mailcap, maybe taking less care
4587 of it. Therefore you should pay attention to the following rules:
4589 Keep the %-expandos away from shell quoting. Don't quote them with single
4590 or double quotes. Mutt-ng does this for you, the right way, as should any
4591 other program which interprets mailcap. Don't put them into backtick
4592 expansions. Be highly careful with eval statements, and avoid them if
4593 possible at all. Trying to fix broken behaviour with quotes introduces new
4594 leaks - there is no alternative to correct quoting in the first place.
4596 If you have to use the %-expandos' values in context where you need
4597 quoting or backtick expansions, put that value into a shell variable and
4598 reference the shell variable where necessary, as in the following example
4599 (using $charset inside the backtick expansion is safe, since it is not
4600 itself subject to any further expansion):
4602 text/test-mailcap-bug; cat %s; copiousoutput; test=charset=%{charset} \
4603 && test "`echo $charset | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`" != iso-8859-1
4605 3.3. Advanced mailcap Usage
4607 3.3.1. Optional Fields
4609 In addition to the required content-type and view command fields, you can
4610 add semi-colon ';' separated fields to set flags and other options.
4611 Mutt-ng recognizes the following optional fields:
4615 This flag tells Mutt-ng that the command passes possibly large
4616 amounts of text on stdout. This causes Mutt-ng to invoke a pager
4617 (either the internal pager or the external pager defined by the
4618 pager variable) on the output of the view command. Without this
4619 flag, Mutt-ng assumes that the command is interactive. One could
4620 use this to replace the pipe to more in the lynx -dump example in
4623 text/html; lynx -dump %s ; copiousoutput
4625 This will cause lynx to format the text/html output as text/plain
4626 and Mutt-ng will use your standard pager to display the results.
4630 Mutt-ng uses this flag when viewing attachments with auto-view ,in
4631 order to decide whether it should honor the setting of the
4632 wait-key variable or not. When an attachment is viewed using an
4633 interactive program, and the corresponding mailcap entry has a
4634 needsterminal flag, Mutt-ng will use wait-key and the exit
4635 statusof the program to decide if it will ask you to press a key
4636 after the external program has exited. In all other situations it
4637 will not prompt you for a key.
4641 This flag specifies the command to use to create a new attachment
4642 of a specific MIME type. Mutt-ng supports this from the compose
4645 composetyped=<command>
4647 This flag specifies the command to use to create a new attachment
4648 of a specific MIME type. This command differs from the compose
4649 command in that mutt will expect standard MIME headers on the
4650 data. This can be used to specify parameters, filename,
4651 description, etc. for a new attachment. Mutt-ng supports this from
4656 This flag specifies the command to use to print a specific MIME
4657 type. Mutt-ng supports this from the attachment and compose menus.
4661 This flag specifies the command to use to edit a specific MIME
4662 type. Mutt-ng supports this from the compose menu, and also uses
4663 it to compose new attachments. Mutt-ng will default to the defined
4664 editor for text attachments.
4666 nametemplate=<template>
4668 This field specifies the format for the file denoted by %s in the
4669 command fields. Certain programs will require a certain file
4670 extension, for instance, to correctly view a file. For instance,
4671 lynx will only interpret a file as text/html if the file ends in
4672 .html. So, you would specify lynx as a text/html viewer with a
4673 line in the mailcap file like:
4675 text/html; lynx %s; nametemplate=%s.html
4679 This field specifies a command to run to test whether this mailcap
4680 entry should be used. The command is defined with the command
4681 expansion rules defined in the next section. If the command
4682 returns 0, then the test passed, and Mutt-ng uses this entry. If
4683 the command returns non-zero, then the test failed, and Mutt-ng
4684 continues searching for the right entry. Note: the content-type
4685 must match before Mutt-ng performs the test. For example:
4687 text/html; netscape -remote 'openURL(%s)' ; test=RunningX
4690 In this example, Mutt-ng will run the program RunningX which will
4691 return 0 if the X Window manager is running, and non-zero if it
4692 isn't. If RunningX returns 0, then Mutt-ng will call netscape to
4693 display the text/html object. If RunningX doesn't return 0, then
4694 Mutt-ng will go on to the next entry and use lynx to display the
4699 When searching for an entry in the mailcap file, Mutt-ng will search for
4700 the most useful entry for its purpose. For instance, if you are attempting
4701 to print an image/gif, and you have the following entries in your mailcap
4702 file, Mutt-ng will search for an entry with the print command:
4705 image/gif; ; print= anytopnm %s | pnmtops | lpr; \
4708 Mutt-ng will skip the image/* entry and use the image/gif entry with the
4711 In addition, you can use this with auto-view to denote two commands for
4712 viewing an attachment, one to be viewed automatically, the other to be
4713 viewed interactively from the attachment menu. In addition, you can then
4714 use the test feature to determine which viewer to use interactively
4715 depending on your environment.
4717 text/html; netscape -remote 'openURL(%s)' ; test=RunningX
4718 text/html; lynx %s; nametemplate=%s.html
4719 text/html; lynx -dump %s; nametemplate=%s.html; copiousoutput
4721 For auto-view, Mutt-ng will choose the third entry because of the
4722 copiousoutput tag. For interactive viewing, Mutt will run the program
4723 RunningX to determine if it should use the first entry. If the program
4724 returns non-zero, Mutt-ng will use the second entry for interactive
4727 3.3.3. Command Expansion
4729 The various commands defined in the mailcap files are passed to the
4730 /bin/sh shell using the system() function. Before the command is passed to
4731 /bin/sh -c, it is parsed to expand various special parameters with
4732 information from Mutt-ng. The keywords Mutt-ng expands are:
4736 As seen in the basic mailcap section, this variable is expanded to
4737 a filename specified by the calling program. This file contains
4738 the body of the message to view/print/edit or where the composing
4739 program should place the results of composition. In addition, the
4740 use of this keyword causes Mutt-ng to not pass the body of the
4741 message to the view/print/edit program on stdin.
4745 Mutt-ng will expand %t to the text representation of the content
4746 type of the message in the same form as the first parameter of the
4747 mailcap definition line, ie text/html or image/gif.
4751 Mutt-ng will expand this to the value of the specified parameter
4752 from the Content-Type: line of the mail message. For instance, if
4753 Your mail message contains:
4755 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1
4757 then Mutt-ng will expand %{charset} to iso-8859-1. The default
4758 metamail mailcap file uses this feature to test the charset to
4759 spawn an xterm using the right charset to view the message.
4763 This will be replaced by a %
4765 Mutt-ng does not currently support the %F and %n keywords specified in RFC
4766 1524. The main purpose of these parameters is for multipart messages,
4767 which is handled internally by Mutt-ng.
4769 3.4. Example mailcap files
4771 This mailcap file is fairly simple and standard:
4774 # I'm always running X :)
4775 video/*; xanim %s > /dev/null
4776 image/*; xv %s > /dev/null
4778 # I'm always running netscape (if my computer had more memory, maybe)
4779 text/html; netscape -remote 'openURL(%s)'
4781 This mailcap file shows quite a number of examples:
4783 # Use xanim to view all videos Xanim produces a header on startup,
4784 # send that to /dev/null so I don't see it
4785 video/*; xanim %s > /dev/null
4787 # Send html to a running netscape by remote
4788 text/html; netscape -remote 'openURL(%s)'; test=RunningNetscape
4789 # If I'm not running netscape but I am running X, start netscape on the
4791 text/html; netscape %s; test=RunningX
4793 # Else use lynx to view it as text
4796 # This version would convert the text/html to text/plain
4797 text/html; lynx -dump %s; copiousoutput
4799 # I use enscript to print text in two columns to a page
4800 text/*; more %s; print=enscript -2Gr %s
4802 # Netscape adds a flag to tell itself to view jpegs internally
4803 image/jpeg;xv %s; x-mozilla-flags=internal
4805 # Use xv to view images if I'm running X
4806 # In addition, this uses the \ to extend the line and set my editor
4808 image/*;xv %s; test=RunningX; edit=xpaint %s
4810 # Convert images to text using the netpbm tools
4811 image/*; (anytopnm %s | pnmscale -xysize 80 46 | ppmtopgm | pgmtopbm |
4812 pbmtoascii -1x2 ) 2>&1 ; copiousoutput
4814 # Send excel spreadsheets to my NT box
4815 application/ms-excel; open.pl %s
4819 In addition to explicitly telling Mutt-ng to view an attachment with
4820 theMIME viewer defined in the mailcap file, Mutt-ng has support for
4821 automatically viewing MIME attachments while in the pager.
4823 To work, you must define a viewer in the mailcap file which uses the
4824 copiousoutput option to denote that it is non-interactive. Usually, you
4825 also use the entry to convert the attachment to a text representation
4826 which you can view in the pager.
4828 You then use the auto_view muttrc command to list the content-types that
4829 you wish to view automatically.
4831 For instance, if you set auto_view to:
4833 auto_view text/html application/x-gunzip application/postscript
4834 image/gif application/x-tar-gz
4836 Mutt-ng could use the following mailcap entries to automatically view
4837 attachments of these types.
4839 text/html; lynx -dump %s; copiousoutput; nametemplate=%s.html
4840 image/*; anytopnm %s | pnmscale -xsize 80 -ysize 50 | ppmtopgm | pgmtopbm | pbmtoascii ; copiousoutput
4841 application/x-gunzip; gzcat; copiousoutput
4842 application/x-tar-gz; gunzip -c %s | tar -tf - ; copiousoutput
4843 application/postscript; ps2ascii %s; copiousoutput
4845 ``unauto_view'' can be used to remove previous entries from the autoview
4846 list. This can be used with message-hook to autoview messages based on
4847 size, etc. ``unauto_view *'' will remove all previous entries.
4849 5. MIME Multipart/Alternative
4851 Mutt-ng has some heuristics for determining which attachment of a
4852 multipart/alternative type to display. First, mutt will check the
4853 alternative_order list to determine if one of the available typesis
4854 preferred. The alternative_order list consists of a number of MIME types
4855 in order, including support for implicit and explicit wildcards, for
4858 alternative_order text/enriched text/plain text
4859 application/postscript image/*
4861 Next, mutt will check if any of the types have a defined auto-view, and
4862 use that. Failing that, Mutt-ng will look for any text type. As a last
4863 attempt, mutt willlook for any type it knows how to handle.
4865 To remove a MIME type from the alternative_order list, use the
4866 unalternative_order command.
4870 Mutt-ng's mime_lookup list specifies a list of mime-types that should not
4871 be treated according to their mailcap entry. This option is designed
4872 todeal with binary types such as application/octet-stream. When an
4873 attachment's mime-type is listed in mime_lookup, then the extension of the
4874 filename will be compared to the list of extensions in the mime.types
4875 file. The mime-type associated with this extension will then be used to
4876 process the attachment according to the rules in the mailcap file and
4877 according to any other configuration options (such as auto_view)
4878 specified. Common usage would be:
4880 mime_lookup application/octet-stream application/X-Lotus-Manuscript
4882 In addition, the unmime_lookup command may be used to disable this feature
4883 for any particular mime-type if it had been set, for example, in a global
4886 Chapter 6. Security Considerations
4894 3. Information Leaks
4896 3.1. Message-ID: headers
4898 3.2. mailto:-style links
4900 4. External applications
4906 First of all, mutt-ng contains no security holes included by intention but
4907 may contain unknown security holes. As a consequence, please run mutt-ng
4908 only with as few permissions as possible.
4910 Please do not run mutt-ng as the super user.
4912 When configuring mutt-ng, there're some points to note about secure
4915 In practice, mutt-ng can be easily made as vulnerable as even the most
4916 insecure mail user agents (in their default configuration) just by
4917 changing mutt-ng's configuration files: it then can execute arbitrary
4918 programs and scripts attached to messages, send out private data on its
4919 own, etc. Although this is not believed to the common type of setup,
4920 please read this chapter carefully.
4924 Although mutt-ng can be told the various passwords for accounts, please
4925 never store passwords in configuration files. Besides the fact that the
4926 system's operator can always read them, you could forget to replace the
4927 actual password with asterisks when reporting a bug or asking for help
4928 via, for example, a mailing list so that your mail including your password
4929 could be archived by internet search engines, etc. Please never store
4934 Mutt-ng uses many temporary files for viewing messages, verifying digital
4935 signatures, etc. The umask variable can be used to change the default
4936 permissions of these files. Please only change it if you really know what
4937 you are doing. Also, a different location for these files may be desired
4938 which can be changed via the tmpdir variable.
4940 3. Information Leaks
4942 3.1. Message-ID: headers
4944 In the default configuration, mutt-ng will leak some information to the
4945 outside world when sending messages: the generation of Message-ID: headers
4946 includes a step counter which is increased (and rotated) with every
4947 message sent. If you'd like to hide this information probably telling
4948 others how many mail you sent in which time, you at least need to remove
4949 the %P expando from the default setting of the msgid-format variable.
4950 Please make sure that you really know how local parts of these Message-ID:
4951 headers are composed.
4953 3.2. mailto:-style links
4955 As mutt-ng be can be set up to be the mail client to handle mailto: style
4956 links in websites, there're security considerations, too. To keep the old
4957 behavior by default, mutt-ng will be strict in interpreting them which
4958 means that arbitrary header fields can be embedded in these links which
4959 could override existing header fields or attach arbitrary files. This may
4960 be problematic if the edit-headers variable is unset, i.e. the user
4961 doesn't want to see header fields while editing the message.
4963 For example, following a link like
4965 mailto:joe@host?Attach=~/.gnupg/secring.gpg
4967 will send out the user's private gnupg keyring to joe@host if the user
4968 doesn't follow the information on screen carefully enough.
4970 When unsetting the strict-mailto variable, mutt-ng will
4972 o be less strict when interpreting these links by prepending a X-Mailto-
4973 string to all header fields embedded in such a link and
4975 o turn on the edit-headers variable by force to let the user see all the
4976 headers (because they still may leak information.)
4978 4. External applications
4980 Mutt-ng in many places has to rely on external applications or for
4981 convenience supports mechanisms involving external applications.
4985 One of these is the mailcap mechanism as defined by RfC 1524. Mutt-ng can
4986 be set up to automatically execute any given utility as listed in one of
4987 the mailcap files (see the mailcap-path variable for details.)
4989 These utilities may have a variety of security vulnerabilities, including
4990 overwriting of arbitrary files, information leaks or other exploitable
4991 bugs. These vulnerabilities may go unnoticed by the user, especially when
4992 they are called automatically (and without interactive prompting) from the
4993 mailcap file(s). When using mutt-ng's autoview mechanism in combination
4994 with mailcap files, please be sure to...
4996 o manually select trustworth applications with a reasonable calling
4999 o periodically check the contents of mailcap files, especially after
5000 software installations or upgrades
5002 o keep the software packages referenced in the mailcap file up to date
5004 o leave the mailcap-sanitize variable in its default state to restrict
5005 mailcap expandos to a safe set of characters
5009 Besides the mailcap mechanism, mutt-ng uses a number of other external
5010 utilities for operation.
5012 The same security considerations apply for these as for tools involved via
5013 mailcap (for example, mutt-ng is vulnerable to Denial of Service Attacks
5014 with compressed folders support if the uncompressed mailbox is too large
5015 for the disk it is saved to.)
5017 As already noted, most of these problems are not built in but caused by
5018 wrong configuration, so please check your configuration.
5020 Chapter 7. Reference
5024 1. Command line options
5028 3. Configuration Commands
5030 4. Configuration variables
5056 1. Command line options
5058 Running mutt with no arguments will make Mutt-ng attempt to read your
5059 spool mailbox. However, it is possible to read other mailboxes and to send
5060 messages from the command line as well.
5062 Table 7.1. Mutt-NG Command Line Options
5064 +------------------------------------------------------------------------+
5065 | Option | Description |
5066 |--------+---------------------------------------------------------------|
5067 | -A | expand an alias |
5068 |--------+---------------------------------------------------------------|
5069 | -a | attach a file to a message |
5070 |--------+---------------------------------------------------------------|
5071 | -b | specify a blind carbon-copy (BCC) address |
5072 |--------+---------------------------------------------------------------|
5073 | -c | specify a carbon-copy (Cc) address |
5074 |--------+---------------------------------------------------------------|
5075 | -e | specify a config command to be run after initialization files |
5077 |--------+---------------------------------------------------------------|
5078 | -f | specify a mailbox to load |
5079 |--------+---------------------------------------------------------------|
5080 | -F | specify an alternate file to read initialization commands |
5081 |--------+---------------------------------------------------------------|
5082 | -h | print help on command line options |
5083 |--------+---------------------------------------------------------------|
5084 | -H | specify a draft file from which to read a header and body |
5085 |--------+---------------------------------------------------------------|
5086 | -i | specify a file to include in a message composition |
5087 |--------+---------------------------------------------------------------|
5088 | -m | specify a default mailbox type |
5089 |--------+---------------------------------------------------------------|
5090 | -n | do not read the system Muttngrc |
5091 |--------+---------------------------------------------------------------|
5092 | -p | recall a postponed message |
5093 |--------+---------------------------------------------------------------|
5094 | -Q | query a configuration variable |
5095 |--------+---------------------------------------------------------------|
5096 | -R | open mailbox in read-only mode |
5097 |--------+---------------------------------------------------------------|
5098 | -s | specify a subject (enclose in quotes if it contains spaces) |
5099 |--------+---------------------------------------------------------------|
5100 | -t | dump the value of all variables to stdout |
5101 |--------+---------------------------------------------------------------|
5102 | -T | dump the value of all changed variables to stdout |
5103 |--------+---------------------------------------------------------------|
5104 | -v | show version number and compile-time definitions |
5105 |--------+---------------------------------------------------------------|
5106 | -x | simulate the mailx(1) compose mode |
5107 |--------+---------------------------------------------------------------|
5108 | -y | show a menu containing the files specified by the mailboxes |
5110 |--------+---------------------------------------------------------------|
5111 | -z | exit immediately if there are no messages in the mailbox |
5112 |--------+---------------------------------------------------------------|
5113 | -Z | open the first folder with new message,exit immediately if |
5115 +------------------------------------------------------------------------+
5117 To read messages in a mailbox
5119 mutt [ -nz ] [ -F muttrc ] [ -m type ] [ -f mailbox ]
5121 To compose a new message
5123 mutt [ -n ] [ -F muttrc ] [ -a file ] [ -c address ] [ -i filename ] [ -s
5124 subject ] address [ address ... ]
5126 Mutt-ng also supports a ``batch'' mode to send prepared messages. Simply
5127 redirect input from the file you wish to send. For example,
5129 mutt -s "data set for run #2" professor@bigschool.edu < ˜/run2.dat
5131 This command will send a message to ``professor@bigschool.edu'' with a
5132 subject of ``data set for run #2''. In the body of the message will be the
5133 contents of the file ``˜/run2.dat''.
5139 +------------------------------------------------------------------------+
5140 | Pattern Modifier | Argument | Description |
5141 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5142 | ~A | | all messages |
5143 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5144 | ~b | EXPR | messages which contain EXPR in the |
5145 | | | message body |
5146 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5147 | ~B | EXPR | messages which contain EXPR in the |
5148 | | | whole message |
5149 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5150 | ~c | EXPR | messages carbon-copied to EXPR |
5151 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5152 | ~C | EXPR | message is either to: or cc: EXPR |
5153 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5154 | ~D | | deleted messages |
5155 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5156 | ~d | [MIN]-[MAX] | messages with ``date-sent'' in a Date |
5158 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5159 | ~E | | expired messages |
5160 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5161 | ~e | EXPR | message which contains EXPR in the |
5162 | | | ``Sender'' field |
5163 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5164 | ~F | | flagged messages |
5165 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5166 | ~f | EXPR | messages originating from EXPR |
5167 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5168 | ~g | | cryptographically signed messages |
5169 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5170 | ~G | | cryptographically encrypted messages |
5171 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5172 | ~H | EXPR | messages with a spam attribute |
5173 | | | matching EXPR |
5174 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5175 | ~h | EXPR | messages which contain EXPR in the |
5176 | | | message header |
5177 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5178 | ~k | | message contains PGP key material |
5179 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5180 | ~i | EXPR | message which match ID in the |
5181 | | | ``Message-ID'' field |
5182 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5183 | ~L | EXPR | message is either originated or |
5184 | | | received by EXPR |
5185 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5186 | ~l | | message is addressed to a known |
5187 | | | mailing list |
5188 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5189 | ~m | [MIN]-[MAX] | message in the range MIN to MAX *) |
5190 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5191 | ~M | | multipart messages |
5192 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5193 | ~n | [MIN]-[MAX] | messages with a score in the range |
5194 | | | MIN to MAX *) |
5195 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5196 | ~N | | new messages |
5197 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5198 | ~O | | old messages |
5199 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5200 | ~p | | message is addressed to you (consults |
5202 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5203 | ~P | | message is from you (consults |
5205 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5206 | ~Q | | messages which have been replied to |
5207 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5208 | ~R | | read messages |
5209 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5210 | ~r | [MIN]-[MAX] | messages with ``date-received'' in a |
5212 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5213 | ~S | | superseded messages |
5214 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5215 | ~s | EXPR | messages having EXPR in the |
5216 | | | ``Subject'' field. |
5217 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5218 | ~T | | tagged messages |
5219 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5220 | ~t | EXPR | messages addressed to EXPR |
5221 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5222 | ~U | | unread messages |
5223 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5224 | ~u | | message is addressed to a subscribed |
5225 | | | mailing list |
5226 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5227 | ~v | | message is part of a collapsed |
5229 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5230 | ~V | | cryptographically verified messages |
5231 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5232 | | | messages which contain EXPR in the |
5233 | ~w | EXPR | `Newsgroups' field (if compiled with |
5234 | | | NNTP support) |
5235 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5236 | ~x | EXPR | messages which contain EXPR in the |
5237 | | | `References' field |
5238 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5239 | ~y | EXPR | messages which contain EXPR in the |
5240 | | | `X-Label' field |
5241 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5242 | ~z | [MIN]-[MAX] | messages with a size in the range MIN |
5244 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5245 | ~= | | duplicated messages (see |
5246 | | | $duplicate_threads) |
5247 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5248 | ~$ | | unreferenced messages (requires |
5249 | | | threaded view) |
5250 |------------------+-------------+---------------------------------------|
5251 | | | ``From'' contains realname and |
5252 | ~* | | (syntactically) valid address |
5253 | | | (excluded are addresses matching |
5254 | | | against alternates or any alias) |
5255 +------------------------------------------------------------------------+
5257 Where EXPR are regexp. Special attention has to be made when using regular
5258 expressions inside of patterns. Specifically, Mutt-ng's parser for these
5259 patterns will strip one level of backslash (\), which is normally used for
5260 quoting. If it is your intention to use a backslash in the regular
5261 expression, you will need to use two backslashes instead (\\).
5263 *) The forms <[MAX], >[MIN] , [MIN]- and -[MAX] are allowed, too.
5265 3. Configuration Commands
5267 The following are the commands understood by mutt.
5269 o account-hook pattern command
5271 o alias key address [ , address ,... ]
5273 o alias [ * | key ... ]
5275 o alternates regexp [ regexp ... ]
5277 o alternates [ * | regexp ... ]
5279 o alternative-order mimetype [ mimetype ... ]
5281 o alternative-order mimetype [ mimetype ... ]
5283 o append-hook regexp command
5285 o auto-view mimetype [ mimetype ... ]
5287 o auto-view mimetype [ mimetype ... ]
5289 o bind map key function
5291 o charset-hook alias charset
5293 o close-hook regexp command
5295 o color object foreground background [ regexp ]
5297 o color index pattern [ pattern ... ]
5299 o exec function [ function ... ]
5301 o fcc-hook pattern mailbox
5303 o fcc-save-hook pattern mailbox
5305 o folder-hook pattern command
5307 o hdr-order header [ header ... ]
5309 o hdr-order header [ header ... ]
5311 o charset-hook charset local-charset
5313 o ignore pattern [ pattern ... ]
5315 o ignore pattern [ pattern ... ]
5317 o lists regexp [ regexp ... ]
5319 o lists regexp [ regexp ... ]
5321 o macro menu key sequence [ description ]
5323 o mailboxes filename [ filename ... ]
5325 o mbox-hook pattern mailbox
5327 o message-hook pattern command
5329 o mime-lookup mimetype [ mimetype ... ]
5331 o mime-lookup mimetype [ mimetype ... ]
5333 o color object attribute [ regexp ]
5335 o color index pattern [ pattern ... ]
5339 o my-hdr field [ field ... ]
5341 o open-hook regexp command
5343 o crypt-hook pattern key-id
5347 o set variable [variable ... ]
5349 o save-hook regexp filename
5351 o score-command pattern value
5353 o score-command pattern [ pattern ... ]
5355 o send-hook regexp command
5357 o reply-hook regexp command
5359 o set [no|inv]variable[=value ] [ variable ... ]
5361 o set variable [variable ... ]
5365 o spam pattern format
5369 o lists regexp [ regexp ... ]
5371 o lists regexp [ regexp ... ]
5373 o set variable [variable ... ]
5377 4. Configuration variables
5379 The following list contains all variables which, in the process of
5380 providing more consistency, have been renamed and are partially even
5381 removed already. The left column contains the old synonym variables, the
5382 right column the full/new name:
5384 Table 7.3. Obsolete Variables
5386 +----------------------------------------------------+
5387 | Old Name | New Name |
5388 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5389 | edit_hdrs | edit_headers |
5390 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5391 | forw_decode | forward_decode |
5392 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5393 | forw_format | forward_format |
5394 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5395 | forw_quote | forward_quote |
5396 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5397 | hdr_format | index_format |
5398 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5399 | indent_str | indent_string |
5400 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5401 | mime_fwd | mime_forward |
5402 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5403 | msg_format | message_format |
5404 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5405 | pgp_autosign | crypt_autosign |
5406 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5407 | pgp_autoencrypt | crypt_autoencrypt |
5408 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5409 | pgp_replyencrypt | crypt_replyencrypt |
5410 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5411 | pgp_replysign | crypt_replysign |
5412 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5413 | pgp_replysignencrypted | crypt_replysignencrypted |
5414 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5415 | pgp_verify_sig | crypt_verify_sig |
5416 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5417 | pgp_create_traditional | pgp_autoinline |
5418 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5419 | pgp_auto_traditional | pgp_replyinline |
5420 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5421 | forw_decrypt | forward_decrypt |
5422 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5423 | smime_sign_as | smime_default_key |
5424 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5425 | post_indent_str | post_indent_string |
5426 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5427 | print_cmd | print_command |
5428 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5429 | shorten_hierarchy | sidebar_shorten_hierarchy |
5430 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5431 | ask_followup_to | nntp_ask_followup_to |
5432 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5433 | ask_x_comment_to | nntp_ask_x_comment_to |
5434 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5435 | catchup_newsgroup | nntp_catchup |
5436 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5437 | followup_to_poster | nntp_followup_to_poster |
5438 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5439 | group_index_format | nntp_group_index_format |
5440 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5441 | inews | nntp_inews |
5442 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5443 | mime_subject | nntp_mime_subject |
5444 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5445 | news_cache_dir | nntp_cache_dir |
5446 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5447 | news_server | nntp_host |
5448 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5449 | newsrc | nntp_newsrc |
5450 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5451 | nntp_poll | nntp_mail_check |
5452 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5453 | pop_checkinterval | pop_mail_check |
5454 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5455 | post_moderated | nntp_post_moderated |
5456 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5457 | save_unsubscribed | nntp_save_unsubscribed |
5458 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5459 | show_new_news | nntp_show_new_news |
5460 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5461 | show_only_unread | nntp_show_only_unread |
5462 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5463 | x_comment_to | nntp_x_comment_to |
5464 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5465 | smtp_auth_username | smtp_user |
5466 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5467 | smtp_auth_password | smtp_pass |
5468 |------------------------+---------------------------|
5469 | user_agent | agent_string |
5470 +----------------------------------------------------+
5472 The contrib subdirectory contains a script named update-config.pl which
5475 A complete list of current variables follows.
5483 This variable specifies whether to abort sending if no attachment was made
5484 but the content references them, i.e. the content matches the regular
5485 expression given in $attach_remind_regexp. If a match was found and this
5486 variable is set to yes, message sending will be aborted but the mail will
5487 be send nevertheless if set to no.
5489 This variable and $attach_remind_regexp are intended to remind the user to
5490 attach files if the message's text references them.
5492 See also the $attach_remind_regexp variable.
5500 If set to yes, when composing messages and no subject is given at the
5501 subject prompt, composition will be aborted. If set to no, composing
5502 messages with no subject given at the subject prompt will never be
5511 If set to yes, composition will automatically abort after editing the
5512 message body if no changes are made to the file (this check only happens
5513 after the first edit of the file). When set to no, composition will never
5522 When set, Mutt-ng will add a ``User-Agent:'' header to outgoing messages,
5523 indicating which version of Mutt-ng was used for composing them.
5529 Default: "˜/.muttngrc"
5531 The default file in which to save aliases created by the ``create-alias''
5534 Note: Mutt-ng will not automatically source this file; you must explicitly
5535 use the `` source'' command for it to be executed.
5541 Default: "%4n %2f %t %-10a %r"
5543 Specifies the format of the data displayed for the ``alias'' menu. The
5544 following printf(3)-style sequences are available:
5552 flags - currently, a "d" for an alias marked for deletion
5560 address which alias expands to
5564 character which indicates if the alias is tagged for inclusion
5572 Controls whether 8-bit data is converted to 7-bit using either
5573 quoted-printable or base64 encoding when sending mail.
5581 Controls whether ANSI color codes in messages (and color tags in rich text
5582 messages) are to be interpreted. Messages containing these codes are rare,
5583 but if this option is set, their text will be colored accordingly. Note
5584 that this may override your color choices, and even present a security
5585 problem, since a message could include a line like ``[-- PGP output
5586 follows ..." and give it the same color as your attachment color.
5594 When set, an arrow (``->'') will be used to indicate the current entry in
5595 menus instead of highlighting the whole line. On slow network or modem
5596 links this will make response faster because there is less that has to be
5597 redrawn on the screen when moving to the next or previous entries in the
5606 If set, Mutt-ng will use plain ASCII characters when displaying thread and
5607 attachment trees, instead of the default ACS characters.
5615 If set, Mutt-ng will prompt you for blind-carbon-copy (Bcc) recipients
5616 before editing an outgoing message.
5624 If set, Mutt-ng will prompt you for carbon-copy (Cc) recipients before
5625 editing the body of an outgoing message.
5633 This variable is a colon-separated list of character encoding schemes for
5634 messages without character encoding indication. Header field values and
5635 message body content without character encoding indication would be
5636 assumed that they are written in one of this list. By default, all the
5637 header fields and message body without any charset indication are assumed
5640 For example, Japanese users might prefer this:
5642 set assumed_charset="iso-2022-jp:euc-jp:shift_jis:utf-8"
5644 However, only the first content is valid for the message body. This
5645 variable is valid only if $strict_mime is unset.
5651 Default: "%u%D%I %t%4n %T%.40d%> [%.7m/%.10M, %.6e%?C?, %C?, %s] "
5653 This variable describes the format of the ``attachment'' menu. The
5654 following printf(3)-style sequences are understood:
5662 requires charset conversion (n or c)
5674 MIME Content-Transfer-Encoding: header field
5682 MIME Content-Disposition: header field (I=inline, A=attachment)
5706 graphic tree characters
5710 unlink (=to delete) flag
5714 right justify the rest of the string and pad with character "X"
5718 pad to the end of the line with character "X"
5720 15. attach_remind_regexp
5722 Type: regular expression
5726 If this variable is non-empty, muttng will scan a message's contents
5727 before sending for this regular expression. If it is found, it will ask
5728 for what to do depending on the setting of $abort_noattach.
5730 This variable and $abort_noattach are intended to remind the user to
5731 attach files if the message's text references them.
5739 The separator to add between attachments when operating (saving, printing,
5740 piping, etc) on a list of tagged attachments.
5748 If this variable is unset, when operating (saving, printing, piping, etc)
5749 on a list of tagged attachments, Mutt-ng will concatenate the attachments
5750 and will operate on them as a single attachment. The ``$attach_sep''
5751 separator is added after each attachment. When set, Mutt-ng will operate
5752 on the attachments one by one.
5758 Default: "On %d, %n wrote:"
5760 This is the string that will precede a message which has been included in
5761 a reply. For a full listing of defined printf(3)-like sequences see the
5762 section on ``$index_format''.
5770 When set, functions in the index menu which affect a message will be
5771 applied to all tagged messages (if there are any). When unset, you must
5772 first use the ``tag-prefix'' function (default: ";") to make the next
5773 function apply to all tagged messages.
5781 When set along with ``$edit_headers'', Mutt-ng will skip the initial
5782 send-menu and allow you to immediately begin editing the body of your
5783 message. The send-menu may still be accessed once you have finished
5784 editing the body of your message.
5786 Also see ``$fast_reply''.
5794 When this variable is set, Mutt-ng will beep when an error occurs.
5802 When this variable is set, Mutt-ng will beep whenever it prints a message
5803 notifying you of new mail. This is independent of the setting of the
5812 Controls whether you will be asked to confirm bouncing messages. If set to
5813 yes you don't get asked if you want to bounce a message. Setting this
5814 variable to no is not generally useful, and thus not recommended, because
5815 you are unable to bounce messages.
5817 24. bounce_delivered
5823 When this variable is set, Mutt-ng will include Delivered-To: header
5824 fields when bouncing messages. Postfix users may wish to unset this
5827 25. braille_friendly
5833 When this variable is set, mutt will place the cursor at the beginning of
5834 the current line in menus, even when the arrow_cursor variable is unset,
5835 making it easier for blind persons using Braille displays to follow these
5836 menus. The option is disabled by default because many visual terminals
5837 don't permit making the cursor invisible.
5839 26. certificate_file
5843 Default: "˜/.mutt_certificates"
5845 Availability: SSL or GNUTLS
5847 This variable specifies the file where the certificates you trust are
5848 saved. When an unknown certificate is encountered, you are asked if you
5849 accept it or not. If you accept it, the certificate can also be saved in
5850 this file and further connections are automatically accepted.
5852 You can also manually add CA certificates in this file. Any server
5853 certificate that is signed with one of these CA certificates are also
5854 automatically accepted.
5856 Example: set certificate_file=˜/.muttng/certificates
5864 Character set your terminal uses to display and enter textual data.
5872 Note: this option only affects maildir and MH style mailboxes.
5874 When set, Mutt-ng will check for new mail delivered while the mailbox is
5875 open. Especially with MH mailboxes, this operation can take quite some
5876 time since it involves scanning the directory and checking each file to
5877 see if it has already been looked at. If it's unset, no check for new mail
5878 is performed while the mailbox is open.
5886 When unset, Mutt-ng will not collapse a thread if it contains any unread
5893 Default: "-- Mutt-ng: Compose [Approx. msg size: %l Atts: %a]%>-"
5895 Controls the format of the status line displayed in the ``compose'' menu.
5896 This string is similar to ``$status_format'', but has its own set of
5897 printf(3)-like sequences:
5901 total number of attachments
5909 approximate size (in bytes) of the current message
5913 Mutt-ng version string
5915 See the text describing the ``$status_format'' option for more information
5916 on how to set ``$compose_format''.
5924 When defined, Mutt-ng will recode commands in rc files from this encoding.
5932 When set, Mutt-ng will prompt for confirmation when appending messages to
5933 an existing mailbox.
5941 When set, Mutt-ng will prompt for confirmation when saving messages to a
5942 mailbox which does not yet exist before creating it.
5950 Causes Mutt-ng to timeout a network connection (for IMAP or POP) after
5951 this many seconds if the connection is not able to be established. A
5952 negative value causes Mutt-ng to wait indefinitely for the connection to
5959 Default: "text/plain"
5961 Sets the default Content-Type: header field for the body of newly composed
5970 This variable controls whether or not copies of your outgoing messages
5971 will be saved for later references. Also see ``$record'', ``$save_name'',
5972 ``$force_name'' and ``fcc-hook''.
5974 37. crypt_autoencrypt
5980 Setting this variable will cause Mutt-ng to always attempt to PGP encrypt
5981 outgoing messages. This is probably only useful in connection to the
5982 send-hook command. It can be overridden by use of the pgp-menu, when
5983 encryption is not required or signing is requested as well. If
5984 ``$smime_is_default'' is set, then OpenSSL is used instead to create
5985 S/MIME messages and settings can be overridden by use of the smime-menu.
5994 This variable controls whether or not Mutt-ng may automatically enable PGP
5995 encryption/signing for messages. See also ``$crypt_autoencrypt'',
5996 ``$crypt_replyencrypt'', ``$crypt_autosign'', ``$crypt_replysign'' and
5997 ``$smime_is_default''.
6005 Setting this variable will cause Mutt-ng to always attempt to
6006 cryptographically sign outgoing messages. This can be overridden by use of
6007 the pgp-menu, when signing is not required or encryption is requested as
6008 well. If ``$smime_is_default'' is set, then OpenSSL is used instead to
6009 create S/MIME messages and settings can be overridden by use of the
6010 smime-menu. (Crypto only)
6018 This variable controls whether or not Mutt-ng may automatically enable
6019 S/MIME encryption/signing for messages. See also ``$crypt_autoencrypt'',
6020 ``$crypt_replyencrypt'', ``$crypt_autosign'', ``$crypt_replysign'' and
6021 ``$smime_is_default''.
6023 41. crypt_replyencrypt
6029 If set, automatically PGP or OpenSSL encrypt replies to messages which are
6030 encrypted. (Crypto only)
6038 If set, automatically PGP or OpenSSL sign replies to messages which are
6041 Note: this does not work on messages that are encrypted and signed!
6044 43. crypt_replysignencrypted
6050 If set, automatically PGP or OpenSSL sign replies to messages which are
6051 encrypted. This makes sense in combination with ``$crypt_replyencrypt'',
6052 because it allows you to sign all messages which are automatically
6053 encrypted. This works around the problem noted in ``$crypt_replysign'',
6054 that Mutt-ng is not able to find out whether an encrypted message is also
6055 signed. (Crypto only)
6063 If set, Mutt-ng will include a time stamp in the lines surrounding PGP or
6064 S/MIME output, so spoofing such lines is more difficult. If you are using
6065 colors to mark these lines, and rely on these, you may unset this setting.
6074 This variable controls the use the GPGME enabled crypto backends. If it is
6075 set and Mutt-ng was build with gpgme support, the gpgme code for S/MIME
6076 and PGP will be used instead of the classic code.
6078 Note: You need to use this option in your .muttngrc configuration file as
6079 it won't have any effect when used interactively.
6081 46. crypt_verify_sig
6087 If ``yes'', always attempt to verify PGP or S/MIME signatures. If ``ask'',
6088 ask whether or not to verify the signature. If ``no'', never attempt to
6089 verify cryptographic signatures. (Crypto only)
6095 Default: "!%a, %b %d, %Y at %I:%M:%S%p %Z"
6097 This variable controls the format of the date printed by the ``%d''
6098 sequence in ``$index_format''. This is passed to strftime(3) to process
6101 Unless the first character in the string is a bang (``!''), the month and
6102 week day names are expanded according to the locale specified in the
6103 variable ``$locale''. If the first character in the string is a bang, the
6104 bang is discarded, and the month and week day names in the rest of the
6105 string are expanded in the C locale (that is in US English).
6115 This variable specifies the current debug level and may be used to
6116 increase or decrease the verbosity level during runtime. It overrides the
6117 level given with the -d command line option.
6119 Currently, this number must be >= 0 and <= 5 and muttng must be started
6120 with -d to enable debugging at all; enabling at runtime is not possible.
6126 Default: "˜f %s !˜P | (˜P ˜C %s)"
6128 This variable controls how send-hooks, message-hooks, save-hooks, and
6129 fcc-hooks will be interpreted if they are specified with only a simple
6130 regexp, instead of a matching pattern. The hooks are expanded when they
6131 are declared, so a hook will be interpreted according to the value of this
6132 variable at the time the hook is declared. The default value matches if
6133 the message is either from a user matching the regular expression given,
6134 or if it is from you (if the from address matches ``alternates'') and is
6135 to or cc'ed to a user matching the given regular expression.
6143 Controls whether or not messages are really deleted when closing or
6144 synchronizing a mailbox. If set to yes, messages marked for deleting will
6145 automatically be purged without prompting. If set to no, messages marked
6146 for deletion will be kept in the mailbox.
6154 When sending messages with format=flowed by setting the $text_flowed
6155 variable, this variable specifies whether to also set the DelSp parameter
6156 to yes. If this is unset, no additional parameter will be send as a value
6157 of no already is the default behavior.
6159 Note: this variable only has an effect on outgoing messages (if
6160 $text_flowed is set) but not on incomming.
6168 If this option is set, Mutt-ng will untag messages when marking them for
6169 deletion. This applies when you either explicitly delete a message, or
6170 when you save it to another folder.
6178 If this option is set, Mutt-ng's received-attachments menu will not show
6179 the subparts of individual messages in a multipart/digest. To see these
6180 subparts, press 'v' on that menu.
6188 When set, specifies a command used to filter messages. When a message is
6189 viewed it is passed as standard input to $display_filter, and the filtered
6190 message is read from the standard output.
6196 Default: "$muttng_bindir/muttng_dotlock"
6198 Availability: Standalone and Dotlock
6200 Contains the path of the muttng_dotlock(1) binary to be used by Mutt-ng.
6208 Note: you should not enable this unless you are using Sendmail 8.8.x or
6209 greater or in connection with the SMTP support via libESMTP.
6211 This variable sets the request for when notification is returned. The
6212 string consists of a comma separated list (no spaces!) of one or more of
6213 the following: never, to never request notification, failure, to request
6214 notification on transmission failure, delay, to be notified of message
6215 delays, success, to be notified of successful transmission.
6217 Example: set dsn_notify="failure,delay"
6225 Note: you should not enable this unless you are using Sendmail 8.8.x or
6226 greater or in connection with the SMTP support via libESMTP.
6228 This variable controls how much of your message is returned in DSN
6229 messages. It may be set to either hdrs to return just the message header,
6230 or full to return the full message.
6232 Example: set dsn_return=hdrs
6234 58. duplicate_threads
6240 This variable controls whether Mutt-ng, when sorting by threads, threads
6241 messages with the same Message-Id: header field together. If it is set, it
6242 will indicate that it thinks they are duplicates of each other with an
6243 equals sign in the thread diagram.
6251 This option allows you to edit the header of your outgoing messages along
6252 with the body of your message.
6254 Which empty header fields to show is controlled by the $editor_headers
6263 This variable specifies which editor is used by Mutt-ng. It defaults to
6264 the value of the $VISUAL, or $EDITOR, environment variable, or to the
6265 string "vi" if neither of those are set.
6271 Default: "From: To: Cc: Bcc: Subject: Reply-To: Newsgroups: Followup-To:
6274 If $edit_headers is set, this space-separated list specifies which
6275 non-empty header fields to edit in addition to user-defined headers.
6277 Note: if $edit_headers had to be turned on by force because $strict_mailto
6278 is unset, this option has no effect.
6286 When set, Mutt-ng will quoted-printable encode messages when they contain
6287 the string ``From '' (note the trailing space) in the beginning of a line.
6288 Useful to avoid the tampering certain mail delivery and transport agents
6289 tend to do with messages.
6291 Note: as mutt-ng currently violates RfC3676 defining format=flowed, it's
6292 <em/strongly/ advised to set this option although discouraged by the
6293 standard. Alternatively, you must take care of space-stuffing <tt/From /
6294 lines (with a trailing space) yourself.
6304 The file which includes random data that is used to initialize SSL library
6313 When set, Mutt-ng will try to derive the message's envelope sender from
6314 the ``From:'' header field. Note that this information is passed to the
6315 sendmail command using the ``-f" command line switch, so don't set this
6316 option if you are using that switch in $sendmail yourself, or if the
6317 sendmail on your machine doesn't support that command line switch.
6325 Escape character to use for functions in the builtin editor.
6333 When set, the initial prompt for recipients and subject are skipped when
6334 replying to messages, and the initial prompt for subject is skipped when
6335 forwarding messages.
6337 Note: this variable has no effect when the ``$autoedit'' variable is set.
6345 This variable controls whether or not attachments on outgoing messages are
6346 saved along with the main body of your message.
6354 When this variable is set, FCCs will be stored unencrypted and unsigned,
6355 even when the actual message is encrypted and/or signed. (PGP only)
6363 This variable is a colon-separated list of character encoding schemes for
6364 text file attatchments. If unset, $charset value will be used instead. For
6365 example, the following configuration would work for Japanese text
6368 set file_charset="iso-2022-jp:euc-jp:shift_jis:utf-8"
6370 Note: ``iso-2022-*'' must be put at the head of the value as shown above
6379 Specifies the default location of your mailboxes. A ``+'' or ``='' at the
6380 beginning of a pathname will be expanded to the value of this variable.
6381 Note that if you change this variable from the default value you need to
6382 make sure that the assignment occurs before you use ``+'' or ``='' for any
6383 other variables since expansion takes place during the ``set'' command.
6389 Default: "%2C %t %N %F %2l %-8.8u %-8.8g %8s %d %f"
6391 This variable allows you to customize the file browser display to your
6392 personal taste. This string is similar to ``$index_format'', but has its
6393 own set of printf(3)-like sequences:
6401 date/time folder was last modified
6413 group name (or numeric gid, if missing)
6417 number of hard links
6421 N if folder has new mail, blank otherwise
6429 * if the file is tagged, blank otherwise
6433 owner name (or numeric uid, if missing)
6437 right justify the rest of the string and pad with character "X"
6441 pad to the end of the line with character "X"
6449 Controls whether or not the Mail-Followup-To: header field is generated
6450 when sending mail. When set, Mutt-ng will generate this field when you are
6451 replying to a known mailing list, specified with the ``subscribe'' or
6452 ``lists'' commands or detected by common mailing list headers.
6454 This field has two purposes. First, preventing you from receiving
6455 duplicate copies of replies to messages which you send to mailing lists.
6456 Second, ensuring that you do get a reply separately for any messages sent
6457 to known lists to which you are not subscribed. The header will contain
6458 only the list's address for subscribed lists, and both the list address
6459 and your own email address for unsubscribed lists. Without this header, a
6460 group reply to your message sent to a subscribed list will be sent to both
6461 the list and your address, resulting in two copies of the same email for
6464 73. force_buffy_check
6470 When set, it causes Mutt-ng to check for new mail when the buffy-list
6471 command is invoked. When unset, buffy_list will just list all mailboxes
6472 which are already known to have new mail.
6474 Also see the following variables: ``$timeout'', ``$mail_check'' and
6475 ``$imap_mail_check''.
6483 This variable is similar to ``$save_name'', except that Mutt-ng will store
6484 a copy of your outgoing message by the username of the address you are
6485 sending to even if that mailbox does not exist.
6487 Also see the ``$record'' variable.
6495 Controls the decoding of complex MIME messages into text/plain when
6496 forwarding a message. The message header is also RFC2047 decoded. This
6497 variable is only used, if ``$mime_forward'' is unset, otherwise
6498 ``$mime_forward_decode'' is used instead.
6506 Controls the handling of encrypted messages when forwarding a message.
6507 When set, the outer layer of encryption is stripped off. This variable is
6508 only used if ``$mime_forward'' is set and ``$mime_forward_decode'' is
6517 This quadoption controls whether or not the user is automatically placed
6518 in the editor when forwarding messages. For those who always want to
6519 forward with no modification, use a setting of no.
6527 This variable controls the default subject when forwarding a message. It
6528 uses the same format sequences as the ``$index_format'' variable.
6536 When set forwarded messages included in the main body of the message (when
6537 ``$mime_forward'' is unset) will be quoted using ``$indent_string''.
6541 Type: e-mail address
6545 This variable contains a default from address. It can be overridden using
6546 my_hdr (including from send-hooks) and ``$reverse_name''. This variable is
6547 ignored if ``$use_from'' is unset.
6549 E.g. you can use send-hook Mutt-ng-devel@lists.berlios.de 'my_hdr From:
6550 Foo Bar <foo@bar.fb>' when replying to the mutt-ng developer's mailing
6551 list and Mutt-ng takes this email address.
6553 Defaults to the contents of the environment variable $EMAIL.
6557 Type: regular expression
6561 A regular expression used by Mutt-ng to parse the GECOS field of a
6562 password entry when expanding the alias. By default the regular expression
6563 is set to ``^[^,]*'' which will return the string up to the first ``,''
6564 encountered. If the GECOS field contains a string like "lastname,
6565 firstname" then you should do: set gecos_mask=".*".
6567 This can be useful if you see the following behavior: you address a e-mail
6568 to user ID stevef whose full name is Steve Franklin. If Mutt-ng expands
6569 stevef to ``Franklin'' stevef@foo.bar then you should set the gecos_mask
6570 to a regular expression that will match the whole name so Mutt-ng will
6571 expand ``Franklin'' to ``Franklin, Steve''.
6579 When unset, the header fields normally added by the ``my_hdr'' command are
6580 not created. This variable must be unset before composing a new message or
6581 replying in order to take effect. If set, the user defined header fields
6582 are added to every new message.
6590 When set, this variable causes Mutt-ng to include the header of the
6591 message you are replying to into the edit buffer. The ``$weed'' setting
6600 Availability: Header Cache
6602 The $header_cache variable points to the header cache database.
6604 If $header_cache points to a directory it will contain a header cache
6605 database per folder. If $header_cache points to a file that file will be a
6606 single global header cache. By default it is unset so no header caching
6609 85. header_cache_compress
6615 If enabled the header cache will be compressed. So only one fifth of the
6616 usual diskspace is used, but the uncompression can result in a slower open
6617 of the cached folder.
6625 When set, help lines describing the bindings for the major functions
6626 provided by each menu are displayed on the first line of the screen.
6628 Note: The binding will not be displayed correctly if the function is bound
6629 to a sequence rather than a single keystroke. Also, the help line may not
6630 be updated if a binding is changed while Mutt-ng is running. Since this
6631 variable is primarily aimed at new users, neither of these should present
6640 When set, Mutt-ng will skip the host name part of ``$hostname'' variable
6641 when adding the domain part to addresses. This variable does not affect
6642 the generation of Message-ID: header fields, and it will not lead to the
6643 cut-off of first-level domains.
6651 When set, Mutt-ng will not show the presence of messages that are hidden
6652 by limiting, in the thread tree.
6660 When set, Mutt-ng will not show the presence of missing messages in the
6663 90. hide_thread_subject
6669 When set, Mutt-ng will not show the subject of messages in the thread tree
6670 that have the same subject as their parent or closest previously displayed
6673 91. hide_top_limited
6679 When set, Mutt-ng will not show the presence of messages that are hidden
6680 by limiting, at the top of threads in the thread tree. Note that when
6681 $hide_missing is set, this option will have no effect.
6683 92. hide_top_missing
6689 When set, Mutt-ng will not show the presence of missing messages at the
6690 top of threads in the thread tree. Note that when $hide_limited is set,
6691 this option will have no effect.
6699 This variable controls the size (in number of strings remembered) of the
6700 string history buffer. The buffer is cleared each time the variable is
6703 94. honor_followup_to
6709 This variable controls whether or not a Mail-Followup-To: header field is
6710 honored when group-replying to a message.
6718 Specifies the hostname to use after the ``@'' in local e-mail addresses
6719 and during generation of Message-Id: headers.
6721 Please be sure to really know what you are doing when changing this
6722 variable to configure a custom domain part of Message-IDs.
6724 96. ignore_list_reply_to
6730 Affects the behaviour of the reply function when replying to messages from
6731 mailing lists. When set, if the ``Reply-To:'' header field is set to the
6732 same value as the ``To:'' header field, Mutt-ng assumes that the
6733 ``Reply-To:'' header field was set by the mailing list to automate
6734 responses to the list, and will ignore this field. To direct a response to
6735 the mailing list when this option is set, use the list-reply function;
6736 group-reply will reply to both the sender and the list.
6738 97. imap_authenticators
6746 This is a colon-delimited list of authentication methods Mutt-ng may
6747 attempt to use to log in to an IMAP server, in the order Mutt-ng should
6748 try them. Authentication methods are either ``login'' or the right side of
6749 an IMAP ``AUTH='' capability string, e.g. ``digest-md5'', ``gssapi'' or
6750 ``cram-md5''. This parameter is case-insensitive.
6752 If this parameter is unset (the default) Mutt-ng will try all available
6753 methods, in order from most-secure to least-secure.
6755 Example: set imap_authenticators="gssapi:cram-md5:login"
6757 Note: Mutt-ng will only fall back to other authentication methods if the
6758 previous methods are unavailable. If a method is available but
6759 authentication fails, Mutt-ng will not connect to the IMAP server.
6761 98. imap_check_subscribed
6767 When set, mutt will fetch the set of subscribed folders from your server
6768 on connection, and add them to the set of mailboxes it polls for new mail.
6769 See also the ``mailboxes'' command.
6771 99. imap_delim_chars
6779 This contains the list of characters which you would like to treat as
6780 folder separators for displaying IMAP paths. In particular it helps in
6781 using the '=' shortcut for your $folder variable.
6791 Mutt-ng requests these header fields in addition to the default headers
6792 (``DATE FROM SUBJECT TO CC MESSAGE-ID REFERENCES CONTENT-TYPE
6793 CONTENT-DESCRIPTION IN-REPLY-TO REPLY-TO LINES X-LABEL'') from IMAP
6794 servers before displaying the ``index'' menu. You may want to add more
6795 headers for spam detection.
6797 Note: This is a space separated list.
6799 101. imap_home_namespace
6807 You normally want to see your personal folders alongside your INBOX in the
6808 IMAP browser. If you see something else, you may set this variable to the
6809 IMAP path to your folders.
6819 This variable specifies the maximum amount of time in seconds that Mutt-ng
6820 will wait before polling open IMAP connections, to prevent the server from
6821 closing them before Mutt-ng has finished with them.
6823 The default is well within the RFC-specified minimum amount of time (30
6824 minutes) before a server is allowed to do this, but in practice the RFC
6825 does get violated every now and then.
6827 Reduce this number if you find yourself getting disconnected from your
6828 IMAP server due to inactivity.
6830 103. imap_list_subscribed
6838 This variable configures whether IMAP folder browsing will look for only
6839 subscribed folders or all folders. This can be toggled in the IMAP browser
6840 with the toggle-subscribed function.
6850 Your login name on the IMAP server.
6852 This variable defaults to the value of ``$imap_user.''
6854 105. imap_mail_check
6860 This variable configures how often (in seconds) Mutt-ng should look for
6861 new mail in IMAP folders. This is split from the ``mail_check'' variable
6862 to generate less traffic and get more accurate information for local
6873 Specifies the password for your IMAP account. If unset, Mutt-ng will
6874 prompt you for your password when you invoke the fetch-mail function.
6876 Warning: you should only use this option when you are on a fairly secure
6877 machine, because the superuser can read your configuration even if you are
6878 the only one who can read the file.
6888 When set, Mutt-ng will not open new IMAP connections to check for new
6889 mail. Mutt-ng will only check for new mail over existing IMAP connections.
6890 This is useful if you don't want to be prompted to user/password pairs on
6891 Mutt-ng invocation, or if opening the connection is slow.
6901 If set, Mutt-ng will avoid implicitly marking your mail as read whenever
6902 you fetch a message from the server. This is generally a good thing, but
6903 can make closing an IMAP folder somewhat slower. This option exists to
6904 appease speed freaks.
6914 Controls whether or not Mutt-ng will try to reconnect to IMAP server when
6915 the connection is lost.
6917 110. imap_servernoise
6925 When set, Mutt-ng will display warning messages from the IMAP server as
6926 error messages. Since these messages are often harmless, or generated due
6927 to configuration problems on the server which are out of the users' hands,
6928 you may wish to suppress them at some point.
6938 The name of the user whose mail you intend to access on the IMAP server.
6940 This variable defaults to your user name on the local machine.
6942 112. implicit_autoview
6948 If set, Mutt-ng will look for a mailcap entry with the ``copiousoutput''
6949 flag set for every MIME attachment it doesn't have an internal viewer
6950 defined for. If such an entry is found, Mutt-ng will use the viewer
6951 defined in that entry to convert the body part to text form.
6959 Controls whether or not a copy of the message(s) you are replying to is
6960 included in your reply.
6962 114. include_onlyfirst
6968 Controls whether or not Mutt-ng includes only the first attachment of the
6969 message you are replying.
6977 Specifies the string to prepend to each line of text quoted in a message
6978 to which you are replying. You are strongly encouraged not to change this
6979 value, as it tends to agitate the more fanatical netizens.
6985 Default: "%4C %Z %{%b %d} %-15.15L (%?l?%4l&%4c?) %s"
6987 This variable allows you to customize the message index display to your
6990 ``Format strings'' are similar to the strings used in the ``C'' function
6991 printf(3) to format output (see the man page for more detail). The
6992 following sequences are defined in Mutt-ng:
6996 address of the author
7000 reply-to address (if present; otherwise: address of author)
7004 filename of the original message folder (think mailBox)
7008 the list to which the letter was sent, or else the folder name
7013 number of characters (bytes) in the message
7017 current message number
7021 date and time of the message in the format specified by
7022 ``date_format'' converted to sender's time zone
7026 date and time of the message in the format specified by
7027 ``date_format'' converted to the local time zone
7031 current message number in thread
7035 number of messages in current thread
7039 entire From: line (address + real name)
7043 author name, or recipient name if the message is from you
7047 spam attribute(s) of this message
7051 newsgroup name (if compiled with nntp support)
7055 message-id of the current message
7059 number of lines in the message (does not work with maildir, mh,
7060 and possibly IMAP folders)
7064 If an address in the To or CC header field matches an address
7065 defined by the users ``subscribe'' command, this displays "To
7066 <list-name>", otherwise the same as %F.
7070 total number of message in the mailbox
7074 number of hidden messages if the thread is collapsed.
7082 author's real name (or address if missing)
7086 (_O_riginal save folder) Where Mutt-ng would formerly have stashed
7087 the message: list name or recipient name if no list
7091 subject of the message
7095 status of the message (N/D/d/!/r/*)
7099 `to:' field (recipients)
7103 the appropriate character from the $to_chars string
7107 user (login) name of the author
7111 first name of the author, or the recipient if the message is from
7116 name of organization of author (`organization:' field)
7120 `x-label:' field, if present
7124 `x-label' field, if present, and (1) not at part of a thread tree,
7125 (2) at the top of a thread, or (3) `x-label' is different from
7126 preceding message's `x-label'.
7130 message status flags
7134 the date and time of the message is converted to sender's time
7135 zone, and ``fmt'' is expanded by the library function
7136 ``strftime''; a leading bang disables locales
7140 the date and time of the message is converted to the local time
7141 zone, and ``fmt'' is expanded by the library function
7142 ``strftime''; a leading bang disables locales
7146 the local date and time when the message was received. ``fmt'' is
7147 expanded by the library function ``strftime''; a leading bang
7152 the current local time. ``fmt'' is expanded by the library
7153 function ``strftime''; a leading bang disables locales.
7157 right justify the rest of the string and pad with character "X"
7161 pad to the end of the line with character "X"
7163 See also: ``$to_chars''.
7171 How to invoke ispell (GNU's spell-checking software).
7179 If set, read messages marked as flagged will not be moved from your spool
7180 mailbox to your ``$mbox'' mailbox, or as a result of a ``mbox-hook''
7189 When set, address replies to the mailing list the original message came
7190 from (instead to the author only). Setting this option to ``ask-yes'' or
7191 ``ask-no'' will ask if you really intended to reply to the author only.
7199 The locale used by strftime(3) to format dates. Legal values are the
7200 strings your system accepts for the locale variable LC_TIME.
7208 This variable configures how often (in seconds) Mutt-ng should look for
7211 Note: This does not apply to IMAP mailboxes, see $imap_mail_check.
7219 This variable specifies which files to consult when attempting to display
7220 MIME bodies not directly supported by Mutt-ng.
7222 123. mailcap_sanitize
7228 If set, Mutt-ng will restrict possible characters in mailcap % expandos to
7229 a well-defined set of safe characters. This is the safe setting, but we
7230 are not sure it doesn't break some more advanced MIME stuff.
7232 DON'T CHANGE THIS SETTING UNLESS YOU ARE REALLY SURE WHAT YOU ARE DOING!
7234 124. maildir_header_cache_verify
7240 Availability: Header Cache
7242 Check for Maildir unaware programs other than Mutt-ng having modified
7243 maildir files when the header cache is in use. This incurs one stat(2) per
7244 message every time the folder is opened.
7252 If set, messages marked as deleted will be saved with the maildir
7253 (T)rashed flag instead of physically deleted.
7255 NOTE: this only applies to maildir-style mailboxes. Setting it will have
7256 no effect on other mailbox types.
7258 It is similiar to the trash option.
7266 Controls whether or not Mutt-ng marks new unread messages as old if you
7267 exit a mailbox without reading them.
7269 With this option set, the next time you start Mutt-ng, the messages will
7270 show up with an "O" next to them in the ``index'' menu, indicating that
7279 Controls the display of wrapped lines in the internal pager. If set, a
7280 ``+'' marker is displayed at the beginning of wrapped lines. Also see the
7281 ``$smart_wrap'' variable.
7285 Type: regular expression
7289 A regular expression used in the file browser, optionally preceded by the
7290 not operator ``!''. Only files whose names match this mask will be shown.
7291 The match is always case-sensitive.
7293 129. max_display_recips
7299 When set non-zero, this specifies the maximum number of recipient header
7300 lines (To:, Cc: and Bcc:) to display in the pager if header weeding is
7301 turned on. In case the number of lines exeeds its value, the last line
7302 will have 3 dots appended.
7304 130. max_line_length
7310 When set, the maximum line length for displaying ``format = flowed''
7311 messages is limited to this length. A value of 0 (which is also the
7312 default) means that the maximum line length is determined by the terminal
7313 width and $wrapmargin.
7321 This specifies the folder into which read mail in your ``$spoolfile''
7322 folder will be appended.
7330 The default mailbox type used when creating new folders. May be any of
7331 mbox, MMDF, MH and Maildir.
7339 This variable controls the number of lines of context that are given when
7340 scrolling through menus. (Similar to ``$pager_context''.)
7348 When unset, the bottom entry of menus will never scroll up past the bottom
7349 of the screen, unless there are less entries than lines. When set, the
7350 bottom entry may move off the bottom.
7358 When set, menus will be scrolled up or down one line when you attempt to
7359 move across a screen boundary. If unset, the screen is cleared and the
7360 next or previous page of the menu is displayed (useful for slow links to
7361 avoid many redraws).
7369 This is the string displayed in the ``attachment'' menu for attachments of
7370 type message/rfc822. For a full listing of defined printf(3)-like
7371 sequences see the section on ``$index_format''.
7379 If set, forces Mutt-ng to interpret keystrokes with the high bit (bit 8)
7380 set as if the user had pressed the ESC key and whatever key remains after
7381 having the high bit removed. For example, if the key pressed has an ASCII
7382 value of 0xf4, then this is treated as if the user had pressed ESC then
7383 ``x''. This is because the result of removing the high bit from ``0xf4''
7384 is ``0x74'', which is the ASCII character ``x''.
7392 If unset, Mutt-ng will remove your address (see the ``alternates''
7393 command) from the list of recipients when replying to a message.
7401 When unset, Mutt-ng will mimic mh's behaviour and rename deleted messages
7402 to ,<old file name> in mh folders instead of really deleting them. If the
7403 variable is set, the message files will simply be deleted.
7411 The name of the MH sequence used for flagged messages.
7419 The name of the MH sequence used to tag replied messages.
7427 The name of the MH sequence used for unseen messages.
7435 When set, the message you are forwarding will be attached as a separate
7436 MIME part instead of included in the main body of the message.
7438 This is useful for forwarding MIME messages so the receiver can properly
7439 view the message as it was delivered to you. If you like to switch between
7440 MIME and not MIME from mail to mail, set this variable to ask-no or
7443 Also see ``$forward_decode'' and ``$mime_forward_decode''.
7445 144. mime_forward_decode
7451 Controls the decoding of complex MIME messages into text/plain when
7452 forwarding a message while ``$mime_forward'' is set. Otherwise
7453 ``$forward_decode'' is used instead.
7455 145. mime_forward_rest
7461 When forwarding multiple attachments of a MIME message from the recvattach
7462 menu, attachments which cannot be decoded in a reasonable manner will be
7463 attached to the newly composed message if this option is set.
7465 146. mix_entry_format
7469 Default: "%4n %c %-16s %a"
7471 Availability: Mixmaster
7473 This variable describes the format of a remailer line on the mixmaster
7474 chain selection screen. The following printf(3)-like sequences are
7479 The running number on the menu.
7483 Remailer capabilities.
7487 The remailer's short name.
7491 The remailer's e-mail address.
7497 Default: "mixmaster"
7499 Availability: Mixmaster
7501 This variable contains the path to the Mixmaster binary on your system. It
7502 is used with various sets of parameters to gather the list of known
7503 remailers, and to finally send a message through the mixmaster chain.
7511 Controls whether or not Mutt-ng will move read messages from your spool
7512 mailbox to your ``$mbox'' mailbox, or as a result of a ``mbox-hook''
7519 Default: "%Y%m%d%h%M%s.G%P%p"
7521 This is the format for the ``local part'' of the Message-Id: header field
7522 generated by Mutt-ng. If this variable is empty, no Message-Id: headers
7523 will be generated. The '%' character marks that certain data will be added
7524 to the string, similar to printf(3). The following characters are allowed:
7528 the current day of month
7544 the current UNIX timestamp (octal)
7552 the current Message-ID prefix (a character rotating with every
7553 Message-ID being generated)
7557 a random integer value (decimal)
7561 a random integer value (hexadecimal)
7569 the current UNIX timestamp (decimal)
7573 the current UNIX timestamp (hexadecimal)
7577 the current year (Y2K compliant)
7583 Note: Please only change this setting if you know what you are doing. Also
7584 make sure to consult RFC2822 to produce technically valid strings.
7588 Type: system property
7590 Value: /opt/freebsd4/mutt-ng/bin
7592 This is a read-only system property and specifies the directory containing
7597 Type: system property
7599 Value: /opt/freebsd4/mutt-ng/doc/muttng
7601 This is a read-only system property and specifies the directory containing
7602 the muttng documentation.
7604 152. muttng_folder_name
7606 Type: system property
7610 This is a read-only system property and, at runtime, specifies the last
7611 part of the full path or URI of the folder currently open (if any), i.e.
7612 everything after the last ``/''.
7614 153. muttng_folder_path
7616 Type: system property
7620 This is a read-only system property and, at runtime, specifies the full
7621 path or URI of the folder currently open (if any).
7623 154. muttng_hcache_backend
7625 Type: system property
7629 This is a read-only system property and specifies the header chaching's
7634 Type: system property
7638 This is a read-only system property and, at runtime, specifies the current
7639 working directory of the muttng binary.
7641 156. muttng_revision
7643 Type: system property
7647 This is a read-only system property and specifies muttng's subversion
7650 157. muttng_sysconfdir
7652 Type: system property
7654 Value: /opt/freebsd4/mutt-ng/etc
7656 This is a read-only system property and specifies the directory containing
7657 the muttng system-wide configuration.
7661 Type: system property
7665 This is a read-only system property and specifies muttng's version string.
7673 This variable, when set, makes the thread tree narrower, allowing deeper
7674 threads to fit on the screen.
7682 Operations that expect to transfer a large amount of data over the network
7683 will update their progress every net_inc kilobytes. If set to 0, no
7684 progress messages will be displayed.
7686 See also ``$read_inc'' and ``$write_inc''.
7688 161. nntp_ask_followup_to
7696 If set, Mutt-ng will prompt you for the Followup-To: header field before
7697 editing the body of an outgoing news article.
7699 162. nntp_ask_x_comment_to
7707 If set, Mutt-ng will prompt you for the X-Comment-To: header field before
7708 editing the body of an outgoing news article.
7714 Default: "˜/.muttng"
7718 This variable points to directory where Mutt-ng will cache news article
7719 headers. If unset, headers will not be saved at all and will be reloaded
7720 each time when you enter a newsgroup.
7722 As for the header caching in connection with IMAP and/or Maildir, this
7723 drastically increases speed and lowers traffic.
7733 If this variable is set, Mutt-ng will mark all articles in a newsgroup as
7734 read when you leaving it.
7744 This variable controls how many news articles to cache per newsgroup (if
7745 caching is enabled, see $nntp_cache_dir) and how many news articles to
7746 show in the ``index'' menu.
7748 If there're more articles than defined with $nntp_context, all older ones
7749 will be removed/not shown in the index.
7751 166. nntp_followup_to_poster
7759 If this variable is set and the keyword "poster" is present in the
7760 Followup-To: header field, a follow-up to the newsgroup is not permitted.
7761 The message will be mailed to the submitter of the message via mail.
7763 167. nntp_group_index_format
7767 Default: "%4C %M%N %5s %-45.45f %d"
7771 This variable allows you to customize the newsgroup browser display to
7772 your personal taste. This string is similar to ``index_format'', but has
7773 its own set of printf(3)-like sequences:
7775 %C current newsgroup number
7776 %d description of newsgroup (retrieved from server)
7778 %M ``-'' if newsgroup not allowed for direct post (moderated for example)
7779 %N ``N'' if newsgroup is new, ``u'' if unsubscribed, blank otherwise
7780 %n number of new articles in newsgroup
7781 %s number of unread articles in newsgroup
7782 %>X right justify the rest of the string and pad with character "X"
7783 %|X pad to the end of the line with character "X"
7794 This variable specifies the name (or address) of the NNTP server to be
7797 It defaults to the value specified via the environment variable
7798 $NNTPSERVER or contained in the file /etc/nntpserver.
7800 You can also specify a username and an alternative port for each
7803 [nntp[s]://][username[:password]@]newsserver[:port]
7805 Note: Using a password as shown and stored in a configuration file
7806 presents a security risk since the superuser of your machine may read it
7807 regardless of the file's permissions.
7817 If set, specifies the program and arguments used to deliver news posted by
7818 Mutt-ng. Otherwise, Mutt-ng posts article using current connection. The
7819 following printf(3)-style sequence is understood:
7824 Example: set inews="/usr/local/bin/inews -hS"
7826 170. nntp_load_description
7834 This variable controls whether or not descriptions for newsgroups are to
7835 be loaded when subscribing to a newsgroup.
7837 171. nntp_mail_check
7845 The time in seconds until any operations on a newsgroup except posting a
7846 new article will cause a recheck for new news. If set to 0, Mutt-ng will
7847 recheck on each operation in index (stepping, read article, etc.).
7849 172. nntp_mime_subject
7857 If unset, an 8-bit ``Subject:'' header field in a news article will not be
7858 encoded according to RFC2047.
7860 Note: Only change this setting if you know what you are doing.
7866 Default: "˜/.newsrc"
7870 This file contains information about subscribed newsgroup and articles
7873 To ease the use of multiple news servers, the following printf(3)-style
7874 sequence is understood:
7887 Your password for NNTP account.
7889 Note: Storing passwords in a configuration file presents a security risk
7890 since the superuser of your machine may read it regardless of the file's
7893 175. nntp_post_moderated
7901 If set to yes, Mutt-ng will post articles to newsgroup that have not
7902 permissions to post (e.g. moderated).
7904 Note: if the newsserver does not support posting to that newsgroup or a
7905 group is totally read-only, that posting will not have any effect.
7915 Controls whether or not Mutt-ng will try to reconnect to a newsserver when
7916 the was connection lost.
7918 177. nntp_save_unsubscribed
7926 When set, info about unsubscribed newsgroups will be saved into the
7927 ``newsrc'' file and into the news cache.
7929 178. nntp_show_new_news
7937 If set, the newsserver will be asked for new newsgroups on entering the
7938 browser. Otherwise, it will be done only once for a newsserver. Also
7939 controls whether or not the number of new articles of subscribed
7940 newsgroups will be checked.
7942 179. nntp_show_only_unread
7950 If set, only subscribed newsgroups that contain unread articles will be
7951 displayed in the newsgroup browser.
7961 Your login name on the NNTP server. If unset and the server requires
7962 authentification, Mutt-ng will prompt you for your account name.
7964 181. nntp_x_comment_to
7972 If set, Mutt-ng will add a ``X-Comment-To:'' header field (that contains
7973 full name of the original article author) to articles that you followup
7976 182. operating_system
7982 This specifies the operating system name for the User-Agent: header field.
7983 If this is unset, it will be set to the operating system name that
7984 uname(2) returns. If uname(2) fails, ``UNIX'' will be used.
7986 It may, for example, look as: ``mutt-ng 1.5.9i (Linux)''.
7994 This variable specifies which pager you would like to use to view
7995 messages. ``builtin'' means to use the builtin pager, otherwise this
7996 variable should specify the pathname of the external pager you would like
7999 Using an external pager may have some disadvantages: Additional keystrokes
8000 are necessary because you can't call Mutt-ng functions directly from the
8001 pager, and screen resizes cause lines longer than the screen width to be
8002 badly formatted in the help menu.
8010 This variable controls the number of lines of context that are given when
8011 displaying the next or previous page in the internal pager. By default,
8012 Mutt-ng will display the line after the last one on the screen at the top
8013 of the next page (0 lines of context).
8019 Default: "-%Z- %C/%m: %-20.20n %s"
8021 This variable controls the format of the one-line message ``status''
8022 displayed before each message in either the internal or an external pager.
8023 The valid sequences are listed in the ``$index_format'' section.
8025 186. pager_index_lines
8031 Determines the number of lines of a mini-index which is shown when in the
8032 pager. The current message, unless near the top or bottom of the folder,
8033 will be roughly one third of the way down this mini-index, giving the
8034 reader the context of a few messages before and after the message. This is
8035 useful, for example, to determine how many messages remain to be read in
8036 the current thread. One of the lines is reserved for the status bar from
8037 the index, so a pager_index_lines of 6 will only show 5 lines of the
8038 actual index. A value of 0 results in no index being shown. If the number
8039 of messages in the current folder is less than pager_index_lines, then the
8040 index will only use as many lines as it needs.
8048 When set, the internal-pager will not move to the next message when you
8049 are at the end of a message and invoke the next-page function.
8051 188. pgp_auto_decode
8057 If set, Mutt-ng will automatically attempt to decrypt traditional PGP
8058 messages whenever the user performs an operation which ordinarily would
8059 result in the contents of the message being operated on. For example, if
8060 the user displays a pgp-traditional message which has not been manually
8061 checked with the check-traditional-pgp function, Mutt-ng will
8062 automatically check the message for traditional pgp.
8070 This option controls whether Mutt-ng generates old-style inline
8071 (traditional) PGP encrypted or signed messages under certain
8072 circumstances. This can be overridden by use of the pgp-menu, when inline
8075 Note that Mutt-ng might automatically use PGP/MIME for messages which
8076 consist of more than a single MIME part. Mutt-ng can be configured to ask
8077 before sending PGP/MIME messages when inline (traditional) would not work.
8078 See also: ``$pgp_mime_auto''.
8080 Also note that using the old-style PGP message format is strongly
8081 deprecated. (PGP only)
8089 If set, Mutt-ng will check the exit code of the PGP subprocess when
8090 signing or encrypting. A non-zero exit code means that the subprocess
8093 191. pgp_clearsign_command
8099 This format is used to create a old-style ``clearsigned'' PGP message.
8101 Note that the use of this format is strongly deprecated. (PGP only)
8103 192. pgp_decode_command
8109 This format strings specifies a command which is used to decode
8110 application/pgp attachments.
8112 The PGP command formats have their own set of printf(3)-like sequences:
8116 Expands to PGPPASSFD=0 when a pass phrase is needed, to an empty
8117 string otherwise. Note: This may be used with a %? construct.
8121 Expands to the name of a file containing a message.
8125 Expands to the name of a file containing the signature part of a
8126 multipart/signed attachment when verifying it.
8130 The value of $pgp_sign_as.
8134 One or more key IDs.
8136 For examples on how to configure these formats for the various versions of
8137 PGP which are floating around, see the pgp*.rc and gpg.rc files in the
8138 samples/ subdirectory which has been installed on your system alongside
8139 the documentation. (PGP only)
8141 193. pgp_decrypt_command
8147 This command is used to decrypt a PGP encrypted message. (PGP only)
8149 194. pgp_encrypt_only_command
8155 This command is used to encrypt a body part without signing it. (PGP only)
8157 195. pgp_encrypt_sign_command
8163 This command is used to both sign and encrypt a body part. (PGP only)
8165 196. pgp_entry_format
8169 Default: "%4n %t%f %4l/0x%k %-4a %2c %u"
8171 This variable allows you to customize the PGP key selection menu to your
8172 personal taste. This string is similar to ``$index_format'', but has its
8173 own set of printf(3)-like sequences:
8205 trust/validity of the key-uid association
8209 date of the key where <s> is an strftime(3) expression
8213 197. pgp_export_command
8219 This command is used to export a public key from the user's key ring. (PGP
8222 198. pgp_getkeys_command
8228 This command is invoked whenever Mutt-ng will need public key information.
8229 %r is the only printf(3)-like sequence used with this format. (PGP only)
8233 Type: regular expression
8237 If you assign a text to this variable, then a PGP signature is only
8238 considered verified if the output from $pgp_verify_command contains the
8239 text. Use this variable if the exit code from the command is 0 even for
8240 bad signatures. (PGP only)
8242 200. pgp_ignore_subkeys
8248 Setting this variable will cause Mutt-ng to ignore OpenPGP subkeys.
8249 Instead, the principal key will inherit the subkeys' capabilities. Unset
8250 this if you want to play interesting key selection games. (PGP only)
8252 201. pgp_import_command
8258 This command is used to import a key from a message into the user's public
8259 key ring. (PGP only)
8261 202. pgp_list_pubring_command
8267 This command is used to list the public key ring's contents. The output
8268 format must be analogous to the one used by gpg --list-keys --with-colons.
8270 This format is also generated by the pgpring utility which comes with
8273 203. pgp_list_secring_command
8279 This command is used to list the secret key ring's contents. The output
8280 format must be analogous to the one used by gpg --list-keys --with-colons.
8282 This format is also generated by the pgpring utility which comes with
8291 If set, use 64 bit PGP key IDs. Unset uses the normal 32 bit Key IDs. (PGP
8300 This option controls whether Mutt-ng will prompt you for automatically
8301 sending a (signed/encrypted) message using PGP/MIME when inline
8302 (traditional) fails (for any reason).
8304 Also note that using the old-style PGP message format is strongly
8305 deprecated. (PGP only)
8307 206. pgp_replyinline
8313 Setting this variable will cause Mutt-ng to always attempt to create an
8314 inline (traditional) message when replying to a message which is PGP
8315 encrypted/signed inline. This can be overridden by use of the pgp-menu,
8316 when inline is not required. This option does not automatically detect if
8317 the (replied-to) message is inline; instead it relies on Mutt-ng internals
8318 for previously checked/flagged messages.
8320 Note that Mutt-ng might automatically use PGP/MIME for messages which
8321 consist of more than a single MIME part. Mutt-ng can be configured to ask
8322 before sending PGP/MIME messages when inline (traditional) would not work.
8323 See also: ``$pgp_mime_auto''.
8325 Also note that using the old-style PGP message format is strongly
8326 deprecated. (PGP only)
8328 207. pgp_retainable_sigs
8334 If set, signed and encrypted messages will consist of nested
8335 multipart/signed and multipart/encrypted body parts.
8337 This is useful for applications like encrypted and signed mailing lists,
8338 where the outer layer (multipart/encrypted) can be easily removed, while
8339 the inner multipart/signed part is retained. (PGP only)
8341 208. pgp_show_unusable
8347 If set, Mutt-ng will display non-usable keys on the PGP key selection
8348 menu. This includes keys which have been revoked, have expired, or have
8349 been marked as ``disabled'' by the user. (PGP only)
8357 If you have more than one key pair, this option allows you to specify
8358 which of your private keys to use. It is recommended that you use the
8359 keyid form to specify your key (e.g., ``0x00112233''). (PGP only)
8361 210. pgp_sign_command
8367 This command is used to create the detached PGP signature for a
8368 multipart/signed PGP/MIME body part. (PGP only)
8376 Specifies how the entries in the ``pgp keys'' menu are sorted. The
8377 following are legal values:
8381 sort alphabetically by user id
8385 sort alphabetically by key id
8389 sort by key creation date
8393 sort by the trust of the key
8395 If you prefer reverse order of the above values, prefix it with
8396 ``reverse-''. (PGP only)
8404 If set, Mutt-ng will automatically encode PGP/MIME signed messages as
8405 quoted-printable. Please note that unsetting this variable may lead to
8406 problems with non-verifyable PGP signatures, so only change this if you
8407 know what you are doing. (PGP only)
8415 The number of seconds after which a cached passphrase will expire if not
8416 used. Default: 300. (PGP only)
8418 214. pgp_use_gpg_agent
8424 If set, Mutt-ng will use a possibly-running gpg-agent process. (PGP only)
8426 215. pgp_verify_command
8432 This command is used to verify PGP signatures. (PGP only)
8434 216. pgp_verify_key_command
8440 This command is used to verify key information from the key selection
8449 Used in connection with the pipe-message command. When unset, Mutt-ng will
8450 pipe the messages without any preprocessing. When set, Mutt-ng will weed
8451 headers and will attempt to PGP/MIME decode the messages first.
8459 The separator to add between messages when piping a list of tagged
8460 messages to an external Unix command.
8468 Used in connection with the pipe-message command and the ``tag- prefix''
8469 or ``tag-prefix-cond'' operators. If this variable is unset, when piping a
8470 list of tagged messages Mutt-ng will concatenate the messages and will
8471 pipe them as a single folder. When set, Mutt-ng will pipe the messages one
8472 by one. In both cases the messages are piped in the current sorted order,
8473 and the ``$pipe_sep'' separator is added after each message.
8475 220. pop_auth_try_all
8483 If set, Mutt-ng will try all available methods. When unset, Mutt-ng will
8484 only fall back to other authentication methods if the previous methods are
8485 unavailable. If a method is available but authentication fails, Mutt-ng
8486 will not connect to the POP server.
8488 221. pop_authenticators
8496 This is a colon-delimited list of authentication methods Mutt-ng may
8497 attempt to use to log in to an POP server, in the order Mutt-ng should try
8498 them. Authentication methods are either ``user'', ``apop'' or any SASL
8499 mechanism, eg ``digest-md5'', ``gssapi'' or ``cram-md5''.
8501 This parameter is case-insensitive. If this parameter is unset (the
8502 default) Mutt-ng will try all available methods, in order from most-secure
8505 Example: set pop_authenticators="digest-md5:apop:user"
8515 If set, Mutt-ng will delete successfully downloaded messages from the POP
8516 server when using the ``fetch-mail'' function. When unset, Mutt-ng will
8517 download messages but also leave them on the POP server.
8527 The name of your POP server for the ``fetch-mail'' function. You can also
8528 specify an alternative port, username and password, i.e.:
8530 [pop[s]://][username[:password]@]popserver[:port]
8532 Note: Storing passwords in a configuration file presents a security risk
8533 since the superuser of your machine may read it regardless of the file's
8544 If this variable is set, Mutt-ng will try to use the ``LAST'' POP command
8545 for retrieving only unread messages from the POP server when using the
8546 ``fetch-mail'' function.
8556 This variable configures how often (in seconds) POP should look for new
8567 Specifies the password for your POP account. If unset, Mutt-ng will prompt
8568 you for your password when you open POP mailbox.
8570 Note: Storing passwords in a configuration file presents a security risk
8571 since the superuser of your machine may read it regardless of the file's
8582 Controls whether or not Mutt-ng will try to reconnect to a POP server when
8583 the connection is lost.
8593 Your login name on the POP server.
8595 This variable defaults to your user name on the local machine.
8597 229. post_indent_string
8603 Similar to the ``$attribution'' variable, Mutt-ng will append this string
8604 after the inclusion of a message which is being replied to.
8612 Controls whether or not messages are saved in the ``$postponed'' mailbox
8613 when you elect not to send immediately.
8619 Default: "˜/postponed"
8621 Mutt-ng allows you to indefinitely ``postpone sending a message'' which
8622 you are editing. When you choose to postpone a message, Mutt-ng saves it
8623 in the mailbox specified by this variable. Also see the ``$postpone''
8632 If set, a shell command to be executed if Mutt-ng fails to establish a
8633 connection to the server. This is useful for setting up secure
8634 connections, e.g. with ssh(1). If the command returns a nonzero status,
8635 Mutt-ng gives up opening the server. Example:
8637 preconnect="ssh -f -q -L 1234:mailhost.net:143 mailhost.net sleep 20 <
8638 /dev/null > /dev/null"
8640 Mailbox ``foo'' on mailhost.net can now be reached as
8641 ``{localhost:1234}foo''.
8643 Note: For this example to work, you must be able to log in to the remote
8644 machine without having to enter a password.
8652 Controls whether or not Mutt-ng really prints messages. This is set to
8653 ask-no by default, because some people accidentally hit ``p'' often.
8661 This specifies the command pipe that should be used to print messages.
8669 Used in connection with the print-message command. If this option is set,
8670 the message is decoded before it is passed to the external command
8671 specified by $print_command. If this option is unset, no processing will
8672 be applied to the message when printing it. The latter setting may be
8673 useful if you are using some advanced printer filter which is able to
8674 properly format e-mail messages for printing.
8682 Used in connection with the print-message command. If this option is set,
8683 the command specified by $print_command is executed once for each message
8684 which is to be printed. If this option is unset, the command specified by
8685 $print_command is executed only once, and all the messages are
8686 concatenated, with a form feed as the message separator.
8688 Those who use the enscript(1) program's mail-printing mode will most
8689 likely want to set this option.
8697 If you use an external ``$pager'', setting this variable will cause
8698 Mutt-ng to prompt you for a command when the pager exits rather than
8699 returning to the index menu. If unset, Mutt-ng will return to the index
8700 menu when the external pager exits.
8708 This specifies the command that Mutt-ng will use to make external address
8709 queries. The string should contain a %s, which will be substituted with
8710 the query string the user types. See ``query'' for more information.
8718 This variable controls whether ``quit'' and ``exit'' actually quit from
8719 Mutt-ng. If it set to yes, they do quit, if it is set to no, they have no
8720 effect, and if it is set to ask-yes or ask-no, you are prompted for
8721 confirmation when you try to quit.
8729 Controls whether or not empty lines will be quoted using
8738 Controls how quoted lines will be quoted. If set, one quote character will
8739 be added to the end of existing prefix. Otherwise, quoted lines will be
8740 prepended by ``indent_string''.
8744 Type: regular expression
8746 Default: "^([ \t]*[|>:}#])+"
8748 A regular expression used in the internal-pager to determine quoted
8749 sections of text in the body of a message.
8751 Note: In order to use the quotedx patterns in the internal pager, you need
8752 to set this to a regular expression that matches exactly the quote
8753 characters at the beginning of quoted lines.
8761 If set to a value greater than 0, Mutt-ng will display which message it is
8762 currently on when reading a mailbox. The message is printed after read_inc
8763 messages have been read (e.g., if set to 25, Mutt-ng will print a message
8764 when it reads message 25, and then again when it gets to message 50). This
8765 variable is meant to indicate progress when reading large mailboxes which
8766 may take some time. When set to 0, only a single message will appear
8767 before the reading the mailbox.
8769 Also see the ``$write_inc'' variable.
8777 If set, all folders are opened in read-only mode.
8785 This variable specifies what ``real'' or ``personal'' name should be used
8786 when sending messages.
8788 By default, this is the GECOS field from /etc/passwd.
8790 Note: This variable will not be used when the user has set a real name in
8799 Controls whether or not Mutt-ng recalls postponed messages when composing
8800 a new message. Also see ``$postponed''.
8802 Setting this variable to yes is not generally useful, and thus not
8811 This specifies the file into which your outgoing messages should be
8812 appended. (This is meant as the primary method for saving a copy of your
8813 messages, but another way to do this is using the ``my_hdr'' command to
8814 create a Bcc: header field with your email address in it.)
8816 The value of $record is overridden by the ``$force_name'' and
8817 ``$save_name'' variables, and the ``fcc-hook'' command.
8821 Type: regular expression
8823 Default: "^(re([\[0-9\]+])*|aw):[ \t]*"
8825 A regular expression used to recognize reply messages when threading and
8826 replying. The default value corresponds to the English ``Re:'' and the
8835 If unset and you are replying to a message sent by you, Mutt-ng will
8836 assume that you want to reply to the recipients of that message rather
8845 If set, when replying to a message, Mutt-ng will use the address listed in
8846 the ``Reply-To:'' header field as the recipient of the reply. If unset, it
8847 will use the address in the ``From:'' header field instead.
8849 This option is useful for reading a mailing list that sets the
8850 ``Reply-To:'' header field to the list address and you want to send a
8851 private message to the author of a message.
8859 When set, the cursor will be automatically advanced to the next (possibly
8860 undeleted) message whenever a command that modifies the current message is
8869 This variable controls whether or not Mutt-ng will display the
8870 ``personal'' name from your aliases in the index menu if it finds an alias
8871 that matches the message's sender. For example, if you have the following
8874 alias juser abd30425@somewhere.net (Joe User)
8876 and then you receive mail which contains the following header:
8878 From: abd30425@somewhere.net
8880 It would be displayed in the index menu as ``Joe User'' instead of
8881 ``abd30425@somewhere.net.'' This is useful when the person's e-mail
8882 address is not human friendly (like CompuServe addresses).
8890 It may sometimes arrive that you receive mail to a certain machine, move
8891 the messages to another machine, and reply to some the messages from
8892 there. If this variable is set, the default From: line of the reply
8893 messages is built using the address where you received the messages you
8894 are replying to if that address matches your alternates. If the variable
8895 is unset, or the address that would be used doesn't match your alternates,
8896 the From: line will use your address on the current machine.
8898 254. reverse_realname
8904 This variable fine-tunes the behaviour of the reverse_name feature. When
8905 it is set, Mutt-ng will use the address from incoming messages as-is,
8906 possibly including eventual real names. When it is unset, Mutt-ng will
8907 override any such real names with the setting of the realname variable.
8909 255. rfc2047_parameters
8915 When this variable is set, Mutt-ng will decode RFC-2047-encoded MIME
8916 parameters. You want to set this variable when Mutt-ng suggests you to
8917 save attachments to files named like this:
8919 =?iso-8859-1?Q?file=5F=E4=5F991116=2Ezip?=
8921 When this variable is set interactively, the change doesn't have the
8922 desired effect before you have changed folders.
8924 Note that this use of RFC 2047's encoding is explicitly, prohibited by the
8925 standard, but nevertheless encountered in the wild.
8927 Also note that setting this parameter will not have the effect that
8928 Mutt-ng generates this kind of encoding. Instead, Mutt-ng will
8929 unconditionally use the encoding specified in RFC 2231.
8937 If set, Mutt-ng will take the sender's full address when choosing a
8938 default folder for saving a mail. If ``$save_name'' or ``$force_name'' is
8939 set too, the selection of the fcc folder will be changed as well.
8947 When unset, mailboxes which contain no saved messages will be removed when
8948 closed (the exception is ``$spoolfile'' which is never removed). If set,
8949 mailboxes are never removed.
8951 Note: This only applies to mbox and MMDF folders, Mutt-ng does not delete
8952 MH and Maildir directories.
8960 This variable controls how copies of outgoing messages are saved. When
8961 set, a check is made to see if a mailbox specified by the recipient
8962 address exists (this is done by searching for a mailbox in the ``$folder''
8963 directory with the username part of the recipient address). If the mailbox
8964 exists, the outgoing message will be saved to that mailbox, otherwise the
8965 message is saved to the ``$record'' mailbox.
8967 Also see the ``$force_name'' variable.
8975 When this variable is unset, scoring is turned off. This can be useful to
8976 selectively disable scoring for certain folders when the
8977 ``$score_threshold_delete'' variable and friends are used.
8979 260. score_threshold_delete
8985 Messages which have been assigned a score equal to or lower than the value
8986 of this variable are automatically marked for deletion by Mutt-ng. Since
8987 Mutt-ng scores are always greater than or equal to zero, the default
8988 setting of this variable will never mark a message for deletion.
8990 261. score_threshold_flag
8996 Messages which have been assigned a score greater than or equal to this
8997 variable's value are automatically marked ``flagged''.
8999 262. score_threshold_read
9005 Messages which have been assigned a score equal to or lower than the value
9006 of this variable are automatically marked as read by Mutt-ng. Since
9007 Mutt-ng scores are always greater than or equal to zero, the default
9008 setting of this variable will never mark a message read.
9014 Default: "us-ascii:iso-8859-1:utf-8"
9016 A list of character sets for outgoing messages. Mutt-ng will use the first
9017 character set into which the text can be converted exactly. If your
9018 ``$charset'' is not iso-8859-1 and recipients may not understand UTF-8, it
9019 is advisable to include in the list an appropriate widely used standard
9020 character set (such as iso-8859-2, koi8-r or iso-2022-jp) either instead
9021 of or after iso-8859-1.
9027 Default: "/usr/sbin/sendmail -oem -oi"
9029 Specifies the program and arguments used to deliver mail sent by Mutt-ng.
9030 Mutt-ng expects that the specified program interprets additional arguments
9031 as recipient addresses.
9039 Specifies the number of seconds to wait for the ``$sendmail'' process to
9040 finish before giving up and putting delivery in the background.
9042 Mutt-ng interprets the value of this variable as follows:
9046 number of seconds to wait for sendmail to finish before continuing
9050 wait forever for sendmail to finish
9054 always put sendmail in the background without waiting
9056 Note that if you specify a value other than 0, the output of the child
9057 process will be put in a temporary file. If there is some error, you will
9058 be informed as to where to find the output.
9066 Command to use when spawning a subshell. By default, the user's login
9067 shell from /etc/passwd is used.
9069 267. sidebar_boundary
9075 When the sidebar is displayed and $sidebar_shorten_hierarchy is set, this
9076 variable specifies the characters at which to split a folder name into
9077 ``hierarchy items.''
9085 This specifies the delimiter between the sidebar (if visible) and other
9088 269. sidebar_newmail_only
9094 If set, only folders with new mail will be shown in the sidebar.
9096 270. sidebar_number_format
9100 Default: "%m%?n?(%n)?%?f?[%f]?"
9102 This variable controls how message counts are printed when the sidebar is
9103 enabled. If this variable is empty (and only if), no numbers will be
9104 printed and mutt-ng won't frequently count mail (which may be a great
9105 speedup esp. with mbox-style mailboxes.)
9107 The following printf(3)-like sequences are supported all of which may be
9112 Number of deleted messages. 1)
9116 Number of flagged messages.
9120 Total number of messages.
9124 Total number of messages shown, i.e. not hidden by a limit. 1)
9128 Number of new messages.
9132 Number of tagged messages. 1)
9134 1) These expandos only have a non-zero value for the current mailbox and
9135 will always be zero otherwise.
9137 271. sidebar_shorten_hierarchy
9143 When set, the ``hierarchy'' of the sidebar entries will be shortened only
9144 if they cannot be printed in full length (because ``$sidebar_width'' is
9145 set to a too low value). For example, if the newsgroup name
9146 ``de.alt.sysadmin.recovery'' doesn't fit on the screen, it'll get
9147 shortened ``d.a.s.recovery'' while ``de.alt.d0'' still would and thus will
9150 At which characters this compression is done is controled via the
9151 $sidebar_boundary variable.
9153 272. sidebar_visible
9159 This specifies whether or not to show the sidebar (a list of folders
9160 specified with the ``mailboxes'' command).
9168 The width of the sidebar.
9176 If set, a line containing ``-- '' (dash, dash, space) will be inserted
9177 before your ``$signature''. It is strongly recommended that you not unset
9178 this variable unless your ``signature'' contains just your name. The
9179 reason for this is because many software packages use ``-- \n'' to detect
9182 For example, Mutt-ng has the ability to highlight the signature in a
9183 different color in the builtin pager.
9191 If set, the signature will be included before any quoted or forwarded
9192 text. It is strongly recommended that you do not set this variable unless
9193 you really know what you are doing, and are prepared to take some heat
9194 from netiquette guardians.
9200 Default: "˜/.signature"
9202 Specifies the filename of your signature, which is appended to all
9203 outgoing messages. If the filename ends with a pipe (``|''), it is assumed
9204 that filename is a shell command and input should be read from its stdout.
9212 If set, this string will be inserted before the signature. This is useful
9213 for people that want to sign off every message they send with their name.
9215 If you want to insert your website's URL, additional contact information
9216 or witty quotes into your mails, better use a signature file instead of
9223 Default: "˜f %s | ˜s %s"
9225 Specifies how Mutt-ng should expand a simple search into a real search
9226 pattern. A simple search is one that does not contain any of the ˜
9227 operators. See ``patterns'' for more information on search patterns.
9229 For example, if you simply type ``joe'' at a search or limit prompt,
9230 Mutt-ng will automatically expand it to the value specified by this
9231 variable. For the default value it would be:
9241 Specifies time, in seconds, to pause while displaying certain
9242 informational messages, while moving from folder to folder and after
9243 expunging messages from the current folder. The default is to pause one
9244 second, so a value of zero for this option suppresses the pause.
9252 Controls the display of lines longer than the screen width in the internal
9253 pager. If set, long lines are wrapped at a word boundary. If unset, lines
9254 are simply wrapped at the screen edge. Also see the ``$markers'' variable.
9258 Type: regular expression
9260 Default: "(>From )|(:[-^]?[][)(><}{|/DP])"
9262 The pager uses this variable to catch some common false positives of
9263 ``$quote_regexp'', most notably smileys in the beginning of a line
9265 282. smime_ask_cert_label
9271 This flag controls whether you want to be asked to enter a label for a
9272 certificate about to be added to the database or not. It is set by
9273 default. (S/MIME only)
9275 283. smime_ca_location
9281 This variable contains the name of either a directory, or a file which
9282 contains trusted certificates for use with OpenSSL. (S/MIME only)
9284 284. smime_certificates
9290 Since there is no pubring/secring as with PGP, Mutt-ng has to handle
9291 storage and retrieval of keys by itself. This is very basic right now, and
9292 keys and certificates are stored in two different directories, both named
9293 as the hash-value retrieved from OpenSSL. There is an index file which
9294 contains mailbox-address keyid pairs, and which can be manually edited.
9295 This one points to the location of the certificates. (S/MIME only)
9297 285. smime_decrypt_command
9303 This format string specifies a command which is used to decrypt
9304 application/x-pkcs7-mime attachments.
9306 The OpenSSL command formats have their own set of printf(3)-like sequences
9311 Expands to the name of a file containing a message.
9315 Expands to the name of a file containing the signature part of a
9316 multipart/signed attachment when verifying it.
9320 The key-pair specified with $smime_default_key
9324 One or more certificate IDs.
9328 The algorithm used for encryption.
9332 CA location: Depending on whether $smime_ca_location points to a
9333 directory or file, this expands to "-CApath $smime_ca_location" or
9334 "-CAfile $smime_ca_location".
9336 For examples on how to configure these formats, see the smime.rc in the
9337 samples/ subdirectory which has been installed on your system alongside
9338 the documentation. (S/MIME only)
9340 286. smime_decrypt_use_default_key
9346 If set (default) this tells Mutt-ng to use the default key for decryption.
9347 Otherwise, if manage multiple certificate-key-pairs, Mutt-ng will try to
9348 use the mailbox-address to determine the key to use. It will ask you to
9349 supply a key, if it can't find one. (S/MIME only)
9351 287. smime_default_key
9357 This is the default key-pair to use for signing. This must be set to the
9358 keyid (the hash-value that OpenSSL generates) to work properly (S/MIME
9361 288. smime_encrypt_command
9367 This command is used to create encrypted S/MIME messages. (S/MIME only)
9369 289. smime_encrypt_with
9375 This sets the algorithm that should be used for encryption. Valid choices
9376 are ``des'', ``des3'', ``rc2-40'', ``rc2-64'', ``\frc2-128''.
9378 If unset ``3des'' (TripleDES) is used. (S/MIME only)
9380 290. smime_get_cert_command
9386 This command is used to extract X509 certificates from a PKCS7 structure.
9389 291. smime_get_cert_email_command
9395 This command is used to extract the mail address(es) used for storing X509
9396 certificates, and for verification purposes (to check whether the
9397 certificate was issued for the sender's mailbox). (S/MIME only)
9399 292. smime_get_signer_cert_command
9405 This command is used to extract only the signers X509 certificate from a
9406 S/MIME signature, so that the certificate's owner may get compared to the
9407 email's ``From:'' header field. (S/MIME only)
9409 293. smime_import_cert_command
9415 This command is used to import a certificate via smime_keysng. (S/MIME
9418 294. smime_is_default
9424 The default behaviour of Mutt-ng is to use PGP on all auto-sign/encryption
9425 operations. To override and to use OpenSSL instead this must be set.
9427 However, this has no effect while replying, since Mutt-ng will
9428 automatically select the same application that was used to sign/encrypt
9429 the original message.
9431 (Note that this variable can be overridden by unsetting $crypt_autosmime.)
9440 Since there is no pubring/secring as with PGP, Mutt-ng has to handle
9441 storage ad retrieval of keys/certs by itself. This is very basic right
9442 now, and stores keys and certificates in two different directories, both
9443 named as the hash-value retrieved from OpenSSL. There is an index file
9444 which contains mailbox-address keyid pair, and which can be manually
9445 edited. This one points to the location of the private keys. (S/MIME only)
9447 296. smime_pk7out_command
9453 This command is used to extract PKCS7 structures of S/MIME signatures, in
9454 order to extract the public X509 certificate(s). (S/MIME only)
9456 297. smime_sign_command
9462 This command is used to created S/MIME signatures of type
9463 multipart/signed, which can be read by all mail clients. (S/MIME only)
9465 298. smime_sign_opaque_command
9471 This command is used to created S/MIME signatures of type
9472 application/x-pkcs7-signature, which can only be handled by mail clients
9473 supporting the S/MIME extension. (S/MIME only)
9481 The number of seconds after which a cached passphrase will expire if not
9484 300. smime_verify_command
9490 This command is used to verify S/MIME signatures of type multipart/signed.
9493 301. smime_verify_opaque_command
9499 This command is used to verify S/MIME signatures of type
9500 application/x-pkcs7-mime. (S/MIME only)
9510 If this variable is non-empty, it'll be used as the envelope sender. If
9511 it's empty (the default), the value of the regular From: header will be
9514 This may be necessary as some providers don't allow for arbitrary values
9515 as the envelope sender but only a particular one which may not be the same
9516 as the user's desired From: header.
9526 Defines the SMTP host which will be used to deliver mail, as opposed to
9527 invoking the sendmail binary. Setting this variable overrides the value of
9528 ``$sendmail'', and any associated variables.
9538 Defines the password to use with SMTP AUTH. If ``$smtp_user'' is set, but
9539 this variable is not, you will be prompted for a password when sending.
9541 Note: Storing passwords in a configuration file presents a security risk
9542 since the superuser of your machine may read it regardless of the file's
9553 Defines the port that the SMTP host is listening on for mail delivery.
9554 Must be specified as a number.
9556 Defaults to 25, the standard SMTP port, but RFC 2476-compliant SMTP
9557 servers will probably desire 587, the mail submission port.
9565 Availability: SMTP (and SSL)
9567 Defines wether to use STARTTLS. If this option is set to ``required'' and
9568 the server does not support STARTTLS or there is an error in the TLS
9569 Handshake, the connection will fail. Setting this to ``enabled'' will try
9570 to start TLS and continue without TLS in case of an error. Muttng still
9571 needs to have SSL support enabled in order to use it.
9581 Defines the username to use with SMTP AUTH. Setting this variable will
9582 cause Mutt-ng to attempt to use SMTP AUTH when sending.
9590 Specifies how to sort messages in the index menu. Valid values are:
9595 mailbox-order (unsorted)
9604 You may optionally use the ``reverse-'' prefix to specify reverse sorting
9605 order (example: set sort=reverse-date-sent).
9613 Specifies how the entries in the ``alias'' menu are sorted. The following
9616 address (sort alphabetically by email address)
9617 alias (sort alphabetically by alias name)
9618 unsorted (leave in order specified in .muttrc)
9627 When sorting by threads, this variable controls how threads are sorted in
9628 relation to other threads, and how the branches of the thread trees are
9629 sorted. This can be set to any value that ``$sort'' can, except threads
9630 (in that case, Mutt-ng will just use date-sent). You can also specify the
9631 ``last-'' prefix in addition to ``reverse-'' prefix, but last- must come
9632 after reverse-. The last- prefix causes messages to be sorted against its
9633 siblings by which has the last descendant, using the rest of sort_aux as
9636 For instance, set sort_aux=last-date-received would mean that if a new
9637 message is received in a thread, that thread becomes the last one
9638 displayed (or the first, if you have set sort=reverse-threads.)
9640 Note: For reversed ``$sort'' order $sort_aux is reversed again (which is
9641 not the right thing to do, but kept to not break any existing
9642 configuration setting).
9650 Specifies how to sort entries in the file browser. By default, the entries
9651 are sorted alphabetically. Valid values:
9653 alpha (alphabetically)
9659 You may optionally use the ``reverse-'' prefix to specify reverse sorting
9660 order (example: set sort_browser=reverse-date).
9668 This variable is only useful when sorting by threads with
9669 ``$strict_threads'' unset. In that case, it changes the heuristic Mutt-ng
9670 uses to thread messages by subject. With $sort_re set, Mutt-ng will only
9671 attach a message as the child of another message by subject if the subject
9672 of the child message starts with a substring matching the setting of
9673 ``$reply_regexp''. With $sort_re unset, Mutt-ng will attach the message
9674 whether or not this is the case, as long as the non-``$reply_regexp''
9675 parts of both messages are identical.
9683 ``spam_separator'' controls what happens when multiple spam headers are
9684 matched: if unset, each successive header will overwrite any previous
9685 matches value for the spam label. If set, each successive match will
9686 append to the previous, using ``spam_separator'' as a separator.
9694 If your spool mailbox is in a non-default place where Mutt-ng cannot find
9695 it, you can specify its location with this variable. Mutt-ng will
9696 automatically set this variable to the value of the environment variable
9697 $MAIL if it is not set.
9699 315. ssl_ca_certificates_file
9705 This variable specifies a file containing trusted CA certificates. Any
9706 server certificate that is signed with one of these CA certificates are
9707 also automatically accepted.
9709 Example: set ssl_ca_certificates_file=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
9711 316. ssl_client_cert
9719 The file containing a client certificate and its associated private key.
9727 If this variable is set, mutt-ng will require that all connections to
9728 remote servers be encrypted. Furthermore it will attempt to negotiate TLS
9729 even if the server does not advertise the capability, since it would
9730 otherwise have to abort the connection anyway. This option supersedes
9733 318. ssl_min_dh_prime_bits
9739 Availability: GNUTLS
9741 This variable specifies the minimum acceptable prime size (in bits) for
9742 use in any Diffie-Hellman key exchange. A value of 0 will use the default
9743 from the GNUTLS library.
9751 Availability: SSL or GNUTLS
9753 If set (the default), Mutt-ng will attempt to use STARTTLS on servers
9754 advertising the capability. When unset, Mutt-ng will not attempt to use
9755 STARTTLS regardless of the server's capabilities.
9765 This variables specifies whether to attempt to use SSLv2 in the SSL
9766 authentication process.
9774 Availability: SSL or GNUTLS
9776 This variables specifies whether to attempt to use SSLv3 in the SSL
9777 authentication process.
9785 Availability: SSL or GNUTLS
9787 This variables specifies whether to attempt to use TLSv1 in the SSL
9788 authentication process.
9790 323. ssl_usesystemcerts
9798 If set to yes, Mutt-ng will use CA certificates in the system-wide
9799 certificate store when checking if server certificate is signed by a
9808 Controls the characters used by the ``%r'' indicator in
9809 ``$status_format''. The first character is used when the mailbox is
9810 unchanged. The second is used when the mailbox has been changed, and it
9811 needs to be resynchronized. The third is used if the mailbox is in
9812 read-only mode, or if the mailbox will not be written when exiting that
9813 mailbox (You can toggle whether to write changes to a mailbox with the
9814 toggle-write operation, bound by default to ``%''). The fourth is used to
9815 indicate that the current folder has been opened in attach-message mode
9816 (Certain operations like composing a new mail, replying, forwarding, etc.
9817 are not permitted in this mode).
9823 Default: "-%r-Mutt-ng: %f [Msgs:%?M?%M/?%m%?n? New:%n?%?o? Old:%o?%?d?
9824 Del:%d?%?F? Flag:%F?%?t? Tag:%t?%?p? Post:%p?%?b? Inc:%b?%?l?
9825 %l?]---(%s/%S)-%>-(%P)---"
9827 Controls the format of the status line displayed in the index menu. This
9828 string is similar to ``$index_format'', but has its own set of
9829 printf(3)-like sequences:
9833 number of mailboxes with new mail *
9837 the short pathname of the current mailbox
9841 number of deleted messages *
9845 the full pathname of the current mailbox
9849 number of flagged messages *
9857 size (in bytes) of the current mailbox *
9861 size (in bytes) of the messages shown (i.e., which match the
9866 the number of messages in the mailbox *
9870 the number of messages shown (i.e., which match the current limit)
9875 number of new messages in the mailbox *
9879 number of old unread messages *
9883 number of postponed messages *
9887 percentage of the way through the index
9891 modified/read-only/won't-write/attach-message indicator, according
9896 current sorting mode ($sort)
9900 current aux sorting method ($sort_aux)
9904 number of tagged messages *
9908 number of unread messages *
9912 Mutt-ng version string
9916 currently active limit pattern, if any *
9920 right justify the rest of the string and pad with "X"
9924 pad to the end of the line with "X"
9926 * = can be optionally printed if nonzero
9928 Some of the above sequences can be used to optionally print a string if
9929 their value is nonzero. For example, you may only want to see the number
9930 of flagged messages if such messages exist, since zero is not particularly
9931 meaningful. To optionally print a string based upon one of the above
9932 sequences, the following construct is used
9934 %?<sequence_char>?<optional_string>?
9936 where sequence_char is a character from the table above, and
9937 optional_string is the string you would like printed if sequence_char is
9938 nonzero. optional_string may contain other sequences as well as normal
9939 text, but you may not nest optional strings.
9941 Here is an example illustrating how to optionally print the number of new
9942 messages in a mailbox:
9944 %?n?%n new messages.?
9946 Additionally you can switch between two strings, the first one, if a value
9947 is zero, the second one, if the value is nonzero, by using the following
9950 %?<sequence_char>?<if_string>&<else_string>?
9952 You can additionally force the result of any printf(3)-like sequence to be
9953 lowercase by prefixing the sequence character with an underscore (_) sign.
9954 For example, if you want to display the local hostname in lowercase, you
9959 If you prefix the sequence character with a colon (:) character, Mutt-ng
9960 will replace any dots in the expansion by underscores. This might be
9961 helpful with IMAP folders that don't like dots in folder names.
9969 Setting this variable causes the ``status bar'' to be displayed on the
9970 first line of the screen rather than near the bottom.
9978 With mailto: style links, a body as well as arbitrary header information
9979 may be embedded. This may lead to (user) headers being overwriten without
9980 note if ``$edit_headers'' is unset.
9982 If this variable is set, mutt-ng is strict and allows anything to be
9983 changed. If it's unset, all headers given will be prefixed with
9984 ``X-Mailto-'' and the message including headers will be shown in the
9985 editor regardless of what ``$edit_headers'' is set to.
9993 When unset, non MIME-compliant messages that doesn't have any charset
9994 indication in the ``Content-Type:'' header field can be displayed (non
9995 MIME-compliant messages are often generated by old mailers or buggy
9996 mailers like MS Outlook Express). See also $assumed_charset.
9998 This option also replaces linear-white-space between encoded-word and
9999 *text to a single space to prevent the display of MIME-encoded
10000 ``Subject:'' header field from being devided into multiple lines.
10002 329. strict_threads
10008 If set, threading will only make use of the ``In-Reply-To:'' and
10009 ``References:'' header fields when you ``$sort'' by message threads. By
10010 default, messages with the same subject are grouped together in ``pseudo
10011 threads.'' This may not always be desirable, such as in a personal mailbox
10012 where you might have several unrelated messages with the subject ``hi''
10013 which will get grouped together. See also ``$sort_re'' for a less drastic
10014 way of controlling this behaviour.
10022 When set, mutt-ng will remove the trailing part of the ``Subject:'' line
10023 which matches $strip_was_regex when replying. This is useful to properly
10024 react on subject changes and reduce ``subject noise.'' (esp. in Usenet)
10026 331. strip_was_regex
10028 Type: regular expression
10030 Default: "\([Ww][Aa][RrSs]: .*\)[ ]*$"
10032 When non-empty and $strip_was is set, mutt-ng will remove this trailing
10033 part of the ``Subject'' line when replying if it won't be empty
10042 If set, attachments with flowed format will have their quoting
10043 ``stuffed'', i.e. a space will be inserted between the quote characters
10044 and the actual text.
10052 When unset, Mutt-ng won't stop when the user presses the terminal's susp
10053 key, usually CTRL+Z. This is useful if you run Mutt-ng inside an xterm
10054 using a command like ``xterm -e muttng.''
10062 When set, Mutt-ng will generate text/plain; format=flowed attachments.
10063 This format is easier to handle for some mailing software, and generally
10064 just looks like ordinary text. To actually make use of this format's
10065 features, you'll need support in your editor.
10067 Note that $indent_string is ignored when this option is set.
10069 335. thorough_search
10075 Affects the ˜b and ˜h search operations described in section
10076 ``patterns'' above. If set, the headers and attachments of messages to be
10077 searched are decoded before searching. If unset, messages are searched as
10078 they appear in the folder.
10080 336. thread_received
10086 When set, Mutt-ng uses the date received rather than the date sent to
10087 thread messages by subject.
10095 When set, the internal-pager will pad blank lines to the bottom of the
10096 screen with a tilde (˜).
10104 This variable controls the number of seconds Mutt-ng will wait for a key
10105 to be pressed in the main menu before timing out and checking for new
10106 mail. A value of zero or less will cause Mutt-ng to never time out.
10114 This variable allows you to specify where Mutt-ng will place its temporary
10115 files needed for displaying and composing messages. If this variable is
10116 not set, the environment variable $TMPDIR is used. If $TMPDIR is not set
10117 then "/tmp" is used.
10125 Controls the character used to indicate mail addressed to you. The first
10126 character is the one used when the mail is NOT addressed to your address
10127 (default: space). The second is used when you are the only recipient of
10128 the message (default: +). The third is when your address appears in the
10129 ``To:'' header field, but you are not the only recipient of the message
10130 (default: T). The fourth character is used when your address is specified
10131 in the ``Cc:'' header field, but you are not the only recipient. The fifth
10132 character is used to indicate mail that was sent by you. The sixth
10133 character is used to indicate when a mail was sent to a mailing-list
10134 you're subscribe to (default: L).
10142 If set, this variable specifies the path of the trash folder where the
10143 mails marked for deletion will be moved, instead of being irremediably
10146 Note: When you delete a message in the trash folder, it is really deleted,
10147 so that there is no way to recover mail.
10155 Setting this variable will cause Mutt-ng to open a pipe to a command
10156 instead of a raw socket. You may be able to use this to set up
10157 preauthenticated connections to your IMAP/POP3 server. Example:
10159 tunnel="ssh -q mailhost.net /usr/local/libexec/imapd"
10161 Note: For this example to work you must be able to log in to the remote
10162 machine without having to enter a password.
10170 This sets the umask that will be used by Mutt-ng when creating all kinds
10171 of files. If unset, the default value is 077.
10173 344. uncollapse_jump
10179 When set, Mutt-ng will jump to the next unread message, if any, when the
10180 current thread is uncollapsed.
10188 Warning: do not set this variable unless you are using a version of
10189 sendmail which supports the -B8BITMIME flag (such as sendmail 8.8.x) or in
10190 connection with the SMTP support via libESMTP. Otherwise you may not be
10193 When set, Mutt-ng will either invoke ``$sendmail'' with the -B8BITMIME
10194 flag when sending 8-bit messages to enable ESMTP negotiation or tell
10203 When set, Mutt-ng will qualify all local addresses (ones without the @host
10204 portion) with the value of ``$hostname''. If unset, no addresses will be
10213 When set, Mutt-ng will generate the ``From:'' header field when sending
10214 messages. If unset, no ``From:'' header field will be generated unless the
10215 user explicitly sets one using the ``my_hdr'' command.
10225 When set, Mutt-ng will show you international domain names decoded.
10227 Note: You can use IDNs for addresses even if this is unset. This variable
10228 only affects decoding.
10236 When set, Mutt-ng will look for IPv6 addresses of hosts it tries to
10237 contact. If this option is unset, Mutt-ng will restrict itself to IPv4
10238 addresses. Normally, the default should work.
10246 Specifies the visual editor to invoke when the ˜v command is given in the
10255 Controls whether Mutt-ng will ask you to press a key after shell- escape,
10256 pipe-message, pipe-entry, print-message, and print-entry commands.
10258 It is also used when viewing attachments with ``auto_view'', provided that
10259 the corresponding mailcap entry has a needsterminal flag, and the external
10260 program is interactive.
10262 When set, Mutt-ng will always ask for a key. When unset, Mutt-ng will wait
10263 for a key only if the external command returned a non-zero status.
10271 When set, Mutt-ng will weed headers when displaying, forwarding, printing,
10272 or replying to messages.
10280 Controls whether searches wrap around the end of the mailbox.
10282 When set, searches will wrap around the first (or last) message. When
10283 unset, searches will not wrap.
10291 Controls the size of the margin remaining at the right side of the
10292 terminal when Mutt-ng's pager does smart wrapping.
10300 Controls whether Mutt-ng writes out the Bcc header when preparing messages
10301 to be sent. Exim users may wish to unset this.
10309 When writing a mailbox, a message will be printed every write_inc messages
10310 to indicate progress. If set to 0, only a single message will be displayed
10311 before writing a mailbox.
10313 Also see the ``$read_inc'' variable.
10319 Default: "M%?n?AIL&ail?"
10321 Controls the format of the X11 icon title, as long as $xterm_set_titles is
10322 set. This string is identical in formatting to the one used by
10323 ``$status_format''.
10331 If $xterm_set_titles is set, this string will be used to set the title
10332 when leaving mutt-ng. For terminal-based programs, there's no easy and
10333 portable way to read the current title so mutt-ng cannot read it upon
10334 startup and restore it when exiting.
10336 Based on the xterm FAQ, the following might work:
10338 set xterm_leave = "`test x$DISPLAY != x && xprop -id $WINDOWID | grep
10339 WM_NAME | cut -d '"' -f 2`"
10341 359. xterm_set_titles
10347 Controls whether Mutt-ng sets the xterm title bar and icon name (as long
10348 as you're in an appropriate terminal). The default must be unset to force
10349 in the validity checking.
10355 Default: "Mutt-ng with %?m?%m messages&no messages?%?n? [%n New]?"
10357 Controls the format of the title bar of the xterm provided that
10358 $xterm_set_titles has been set. This string is identical in formatting to
10359 the one used by ``$status_format''.
10363 The following is the list of available functions listed by the mapping in
10364 which they are available. The default key setting is given, and an
10365 explanation of what the function does. The key bindings of these functions
10366 can be changed with the bind command.
10370 The generic menu is not a real menu, but specifies common functions (such
10371 as movement) available in all menus except for pager and editor. Changing
10372 settings for this menu will affect the default bindings for all menus
10375 bottom-page L move to the bottom of the page
10376 current-bottom not bound move current entry to bottom of page
10377 current-middle not bound move current entry to middle of page
10378 current-top not bound move current entry to top of page
10379 enter-command : enter a muttngrc command
10380 exit q exit this menu
10381 first-entry = move to the first entry
10382 half-down ] scroll down 1/2 page
10383 half-up [ scroll up 1/2 page
10385 jump number jump to an index number
10386 last-entry * move to the last entry
10387 middle-page M move to the middle of the page
10388 next-entry j move to the next entry
10389 next-line > scroll down one line
10390 next-page z move to the next page
10391 previous-entry k move to the previous entry
10392 previous-line < scroll up one line
10393 previous-page Z move to the previous page
10394 refresh ^L clear and redraw the screen
10395 search / search for a regular expression
10396 search-next n search for next match
10397 search-opposite not bound search for next match in opposite
10399 search-reverse ESC / search backwards for a regular
10401 select-entry RET select the current entry
10402 shell-escape ! run a program in a subshell
10403 tag-entry t toggle the tag on the current entry
10404 tag-prefix ; apply next command to tagged entries
10405 tag-prefix-cond not bound apply next function ONLY to tagged
10407 top-page H move to the top of the page
10408 what-key not bound display the keycode for a key press
10413 bounce-message b remail a message to another user
10414 change-folder c open a different folder
10415 change-folder-readonly ESC c open a different folder in read only
10417 check-traditional-pgp ESC P check for classic pgp
10418 clear-flag W clear a status flag from a message
10419 copy-message C copy a message to a file/mailbox
10420 create-alias a create an alias from a message
10421 senderdecode-copy ESC C decode a message and copy it
10423 decode-save ESC s decode a message and save it to a
10425 delete-message d delete the current entry
10426 delete-pattern D delete messages matching a pattern
10427 delete-subthread ESC d delete all messages in subthread
10428 delete-thread ^D delete all messages in thread
10429 display-address @ display full address of sender
10430 display-toggle-weed h display message and toggle header
10432 display-message RET display a message
10433 edit e edit the current message
10434 edit-type ^E edit the current message's
10436 exit x exit without saving changes
10437 extract-keys ^K extract PGP public keys
10438 fetch-mail G retrieve mail from POP server
10439 flag-message F toggle a message's 'important' flag
10440 forget-passphrase ^F wipe PGP passphrase from memory
10441 forward-message f forward a message with comments
10442 group-reply g reply to all recipients
10443 limit l show only messages matching a
10444 patternlist-reply L reply to specified mailing
10446 mail m compose a new mail message
10447 mail-key ESC k mail a PGP public key
10448 next-new not bound jump to the next new message
10449 next-new-then-unread TAB jump to the next new or unread message
10450 next-subthread ESC n jump to the next subthread
10451 next-thread ^N jump to the next thread
10452 next-undeleted j move to the next undeleted message
10453 next-unread not bound jump to the next unread message
10454 parent-message P jump to parent message in thread
10455 pipe-message | pipe message/attachment to a shell
10457 previous-new not bound jump to the previous new message
10458 previous-new-then-unread
10459 ESC TAB jump to the previous new or unread message
10461 previous-page Z move to the previous page
10462 previous-subthread ESC p jump to previous subthread
10463 previous-thread ^P jump to previous thread
10464 previous-undeleted k move to the last undelete message
10465 previous-unread not bound jump to the previous unread message
10466 print-message p print the current entry
10467 query Q query external program for addresses
10468 quit q save changes to mailbox and quit
10469 read-subthread ESC r mark the current subthread as read
10470 read-thread ^R mark the current thread as read
10471 recall-message R recall a postponed message
10472 reply r reply to a message
10473 resend-message ESC e resend message and preserve MIME
10475 save-message s save message/attachment to a file
10476 set-flag w set a status flag on a message
10477 show-version V show the Mutt-ng version number and
10479 show-limit ESC l show currently active limit pattern,
10481 sort-mailbox o sort messages
10482 sort-reverse O sort messages in reverse order
10483 sync-mailbox $ save changes to mailbox
10484 tag-pattern T tag messages matching a pattern
10485 tag-thread ESC t tag/untag all messages in the
10487 toggle-new N toggle a message's 'new' flag
10488 toggle-write % toggle whether the mailbox will be
10490 undelete-message u undelete the current entry
10491 undelete-pattern U undelete messages matching a pattern
10492 undelete-subthread ESC u undelete all messages in subthread
10493 undelete-thread ^U undelete all messages in thread
10494 untag-pattern ^T untag messages matching a pattern
10495 view-attachments v show MIME attachments
10500 bottom not bound jump to the bottom of the message
10501 bounce-message b remail a message to another user
10502 change-folder c open a different folder
10503 change-folder-readonly ESC c open a different folder in read only
10505 check-traditional-pgp ESC P check for classic pgp
10506 copy-message C copy a message to a file/mailbox
10507 create-alias a create an alias from a message
10508 senderdecode-copy ESC C decode a message and copy it
10510 decode-save ESC s decode a message and save it to a
10512 delete-message d delete the current entry
10513 delete-subthread ESC d delete all messages in subthread
10514 delete-thread ^D delete all messages in thread
10515 display-address @ display full address of sender
10516 display-toggle-weed h display message and toggle header
10518 edit e edit the current message
10519 edit-type ^E edit the current message's
10521 enter-command : enter a muttngrc command
10522 exit i return to the main-menu
10523 extract-keys ^K extract PGP public keys
10524 flag-message F toggle a message's 'important' flag
10525 forget-passphrase ^F wipe PGP passphrase from memory
10526 forward-message f forward a message with comments
10527 group-reply g reply to all recipients
10528 half-up not bound move up one-half page
10529 half-down not bound move down one-half page
10531 list-reply L reply to specified mailing list
10532 mail m compose a new mail message
10533 mail-key ESC k mail a PGP public key
10534 mark-as-new N toggle a message's 'new' flag
10535 next-line RET scroll down one line
10536 next-entry J move to the next entry
10537 next-new not bound jump to the next new message
10538 next-new-then-unread TAB jump to the next new or unread message
10539 next-page move to the next page
10540 next-subthread ESC n jump to the next subthread
10541 next-thread ^N jump to the next thread
10542 next-undeleted j move to the next undeleted message
10543 next-unread not bound jump to the next unread message
10544 parent-message P jump to parent message in thread
10545 pipe-message | pipe message/attachment to a shell
10547 previous-line BackSpace scroll up one line
10548 previous-entry K move to the previous entry
10549 previous-new not bound jump to the previous new message
10550 previous-new-then-unread
10551 not bound jump to the previous new or unread message
10552 previous-page - move to the previous page
10553 previous-subthread ESC p jump to previous subthread
10554 previous-thread ^P jump to previous thread
10555 previous-undeleted k move to the last undelete message
10556 previous-unread not bound jump to the previous unread message
10557 print-message p print the current entry
10558 quit Q save changes to mailbox and quit
10559 read-subthread ESC r mark the current subthread as read
10560 read-thread ^R mark the current thread as read
10561 recall-message R recall a postponed message
10562 redraw-screen ^L clear and redraw the screen
10563 reply r reply to a message
10564 save-message s save message/attachment to a file
10565 search / search for a regular expression
10566 search-next n search for next match
10567 search-opposite not bound search for next match in opposite
10569 search-reverse ESC / search backwards for a regular
10571 search-toggle \ toggle search pattern coloring
10572 shell-escape ! invoke a command in a subshell
10573 show-version V show the Mutt-ng version number and
10575 skip-quoted S skip beyond quoted text
10576 sync-mailbox $ save changes to mailbox
10577 tag-message t tag a message
10578 toggle-quoted T toggle display of quoted text
10579 top ^ jump to the top of the message
10580 undelete-message u undelete the current entry
10581 undelete-subthread ESC u undelete all messages in subthread
10582 undelete-thread ^U undelete all messages in thread
10583 view-attachments v show MIME attachments
10588 search / search for a regular expression
10589 search-next n search for next match
10590 search-reverse ESC / search backwards for a regular
10596 create-alias a create an alias from a message
10597 sendermail m compose a new mail message
10598 query Q query external program for addresses
10599 query-append A append new query results to current
10601 search / search for a regular expression
10602 search-next n search for next match
10603 search-opposite not bound search for next match in opposite
10605 search-reverse ESC / search backwards for a regular
10611 bounce-message b remail a message to another user
10612 collapse-parts v toggle display of subparts
10613 delete-entry d delete the current entry
10614 display-toggle-weed h display message and toggle header
10616 edit-type ^E edit the current entry's
10617 Content-Typeextract-keys ^K extract PGP public keys
10618 forward-message f forward a message with comments
10619 group-reply g reply to all recipients
10620 list-reply L reply to specified mailing list
10621 pipe-entry | pipe message/attachment to a shell
10623 print-entry p print the current entry
10624 reply r reply to a message
10625 resend-message ESC e resend message and preserve MIME
10627 save-entry s save message/attachment to a file
10628 undelete-entry u undelete the current entry
10629 view-attach RET view attachment using mailcap entry
10631 view-mailcap m force viewing of attachment using
10633 view-text T view attachment as text
10638 attach-file a attach a file(s) to this message
10639 attach-message A attach message(s) to this message
10640 attach-key ESC k attach a PGP public key
10641 copy-file C save message/attachment to a file
10642 detach-file D delete the current entry
10643 display-toggle-weed h display message and toggle header
10645 edit-bcc b edit the BCC list
10646 edit-cc c edit the CC list
10647 edit-description d edit attachment description
10648 edit-encoding ^E edit attachment transfer-encoding
10649 edit-fcc f enter a file to save a copy of this
10651 edit-from ESC f edit the from: field
10652 edit-file ^X e edit the file to be attached
10653 edit-headers E edit the message with headers
10654 edit e edit the message
10655 edit-mime m edit attachment using mailcap entry
10656 edit-reply-to r edit the Reply-To field
10657 edit-subject s edit the subject of this message
10658 edit-to t edit the TO list
10659 edit-type ^T edit attachment type
10660 filter-entry F filter attachment through a shell
10662 forget-passphrase ^F wipe PGP passphrase from memory
10663 ispell i run ispell on the message
10664 new-mime n compose new attachment using mailcap
10666 pgp-menu p show PGP options
10667 pipe-entry | pipe message/attachment to a shell
10669 postpone-message P save this message to send later
10670 print-entry l print the current entry
10671 rename-file R rename/move an attached file
10672 send-message y send the message
10673 toggle-unlink u toggle whether to delete file after
10675 view-attach RET view attachment using mailcap entry
10677 write-fcc w write the message to a folder
10682 delete-entry d delete the current entry
10683 undelete-entry u undelete the current entry
10688 change-dir c change directories
10689 check-new TAB check mailboxes for new mail
10690 enter-mask m enter a file mask
10691 search / search for a regular expression
10692 search-next n search for next match
10693 search-reverse ESC / search backwards for a regular
10695 select-new N select a new file in this directory
10696 sort o sort messages
10697 sort-reverse O sort messages in reverse order
10698 toggle-mailboxes TAB toggle whether to browse mailboxes
10700 view-file SPACE view file
10701 subscribe s subscribe to current mailbox (IMAP
10703 unsubscribe u unsubscribe to current mailbox (IMAP
10705 toggle-subscribed T toggle view all/subscribed mailboxes
10711 view-name % view the key's user id
10712 verify-key c verify a PGP public key
10717 backspace BackSpace delete the char in front of the
10719 backward-char ^B move the cursor one character to the
10721 backward-word ESC b move the cursor to the previous word
10722 bol ^A jump to the beginning of the line
10723 buffy-cycle Space cycle among incoming mailboxes
10724 capitalize-word ESC c uppercase the first character in the
10726 complete TAB complete filename or alias
10727 complete-query ^T complete address with query
10728 delete-char ^D delete the char under the cursor
10729 downcase-word ESC l lowercase all characters in current
10731 eol ^E jump to the end of the line
10732 forward-char ^F move the cursor one character to the
10734 forward-word ESC f move the cursor to the next word
10735 history-down not bound scroll down through the history list
10736 history-up not bound scroll up through the history list
10737 kill-eol ^K delete chars from cursor to end of
10739 kill-eow ESC d delete chars from cursor to end of
10741 kill-line ^U delete all chars on the line
10742 kill-word ^W delete the word in front of the
10744 quote-char ^V quote the next typed key
10745 transpose-chars not bound transpose character under cursor
10747 upcase-word ESC u uppercase all characters in current
10751 Chapter 8. Miscellany
10759 Kari Hurtta <kari.hurtta@fmi.fi> co-developed the original MIME >parsing
10760 code back in the ELM-ME days.
10762 The following people have been very helpful to the development of Mutt
10763 (sorted by surnames):
10765 o Vikas Agnihotri <vikasa@writeme.com>
10766 o Francois Berjon < Francois.Berjon@aar.alcatel-alsthom.fr>
10767 o Aric Blumer <aric@fore.com>, John Capo < jc@irbs.com >
10768 o David Champion <dgc@uchicago.edu>
10769 o Brendan Cully <brendan@kublai.com>
10770 o Liviu Daia <daia@stoilow.imar.ro>
10771 o Thomas E. Dickey <dickey@herndon4.his.com>
10772 o David DeSimone <fox@convex.hp.com>
10773 o Nickolay N. Dudorov <nnd@wint.itfs.nsk.su>
10774 o Ruslan Ermilov <ru@freebsd.org>
10775 o Edmund Grimley Evans <edmundo@rano.org>
10776 o Michael Finken <finken@conware.de>
10777 o Sven Guckes <guckes@math.fu-berlin.de>
10778 o Lars Hecking <lhecking@nmrc.ie>
10779 o Mark Holloman <holloman@nando.net>
10780 o Andreas Holzmann <holzmann@fmi.uni-passau.de>
10781 o Marco d'Itri <md@linux.it>
10782 o Björn Jacke <bjacke@suse.com>
10783 o Byrial Jensen <byrial@image.dk>
10784 o David Jeske <jeske@igcom.net>
10785 o Christophe Kalt <kalt@hugo.int-evry.fr>
10786 o Tommi Komulainen <Tommi.Komulainen@iki.fi>
10787 o Felix von Leitner (a.k.a ``Fefe'') < leitner@math.fu-berlin.de >
10788 o Brandon Long <blong@fiction.net>
10789 o Jimmy Mäkeä <jmy@flashback.net>
10790 o Lars Marowsky-Bree <lmb@pointer.in-minden.de>
10791 o Thomas ``Mike'' Michlmayr <mike@cosy.sbg.ac.at>
10792 o Andrew W. Nosenko <awn@bcs.zp.ua>
10793 o David O'Brien <obrien@Nuxi.cs.ucdavis.edu>
10794 o Clint Olsen <olsenc@ichips.intel.com>
10795 o Park Myeong Seok <pms@romance.kaist.ac.kr>
10796 o Thomas Parmelan <tom@ankh.fr.eu.org>
10797 o Ollivier Robert <roberto@keltia.freenix.fr>
10798 o Thomas Roessler <roessler@does-not-exist.org>
10799 o Roland Rosenfeld <roland@spinnaker.de>
10800 o TAKIZAWA Takashi <taki@luna.email.ne.jp>
10801 o Allain Thivillon <Allain.Thivillon@alma.fr>
10802 o Gero Treuner <gero@faveve.uni-stuttgart.de>
10803 o Vsevolod Volkov <vvv@lucky.net>
10804 o Ken Weinert <kenw@ihs.com>
10806 Mutt-ng is developed by the following people:
10808 o Andreas Krennmair <ak@synflood.at>
10809 o Nico Golde <nico@ngolde.de>
10810 o Rocco Rutte <pdmef@cs.tu-berlin.de>
10812 The following people have been very helpful to the development of Mutt-ng
10813 (sorted by surnames):
10815 o Christian Gall <cg@cgall.de>
10816 o Iain Lea <iain@bricbrac.de>
10817 o Andreas Kneib <akneib@gmx.net>
10818 o Carsten Schoelzki <cjs@weisshuhn.de>
10819 o Elimar Riesebieter <riesebie@lxtec.de>
projects / apps / madmutt.git / blob