The Mutt E-Mail Client by Michael Elkins version 1.4 ``All mail clients suck. This one just sucks less.'' -me, circa 1995 ______________________________________________________________________ Table of Contents 1. Introduction 1.1 Mutt Home Page 1.2 Mailing Lists 1.3 Software Distribution Sites 1.4 IRC 1.5 USENET 1.6 Copyright 2. Getting Started 2.1 Moving Around in Menus 2.2 Editing Input Fields 2.3 Reading Mail - The Index and Pager 2.3.1 The Message Index 2.3.1.1 Status Flags 2.3.2 The Pager 2.3.3 Threaded Mode 2.3.4 Miscellaneous Functions 2.4 Sending Mail 2.4.1 Editing the message header 2.4.2 Using Mutt with PGP 2.4.3 Sending anonymous messages via mixmaster. 2.5 Forwarding and Bouncing Mail 2.6 Postponing Mail 3. Configuration 3.1 Syntax of Initialization Files 3.2 Defining/Using aliases 3.3 Changing the default key bindings 3.4 Defining aliases for character sets 3.5 Setting variables based upon mailbox 3.6 Keyboard macros 3.7 Using color and mono video attributes 3.8 Ignoring (weeding) unwanted message headers 3.9 Mailing lists 3.10 Using Multiple spool mailboxes 3.11 Defining mailboxes which receive mail 3.12 User defined headers 3.13 Defining the order of headers when viewing messages 3.14 Specify default save filename 3.15 Specify default Fcc: mailbox when composing 3.16 Specify default save filename and default Fcc: mailbox at once 3.17 Change settings based upon message recipients 3.18 Change settings before formatting a message 3.19 Choosing the PGP key of the recipient 3.20 Adding key sequences to the keyboard buffer 3.21 Executing functions 3.22 Message Scoring 3.23 Setting variables 3.24 Reading initialization commands from another file 3.25 Removing hooks 4. Advanced Usage 4.1 Regular Expressions 4.2 Patterns 4.2.1 Pattern Modifier 4.2.2 Complex Patterns 4.2.3 Searching by Date 4.3 Using Tags 4.4 Using Hooks 4.4.1 Message Matching in Hooks 4.5 External Address Queries 4.6 Mailbox Formats 4.7 Mailbox Shortcuts 4.8 Handling Mailing Lists 4.9 Delivery Status Notification (DSN) Support 4.10 POP3 Support (OPTIONAL) 4.11 IMAP Support (OPTIONAL) 4.11.1 The Folder Browser 4.11.2 Authentication 4.12 Managing multiple IMAP/POP accounts (OPTIONAL) 4.13 Start a WWW Browser on URLs (EXTERNAL) 5. Mutt's MIME Support 5.1 Using MIME in Mutt 5.1.1 Viewing MIME messages in the pager 5.1.2 The Attachment Menu 5.1.3 The Compose Menu 5.2 MIME Type configuration with mime.types 5.3 MIME Viewer configuration with mailcap 5.3.1 The Basics of the mailcap file 5.3.2 Secure use of mailcap 5.3.3 Advanced mailcap Usage 5.3.3.1 Optional Fields 5.3.3.2 Search Order 5.3.3.3 Command Expansion 5.3.4 Example mailcap files 5.4 MIME Autoview 5.5 MIME Multipart/Alternative 6. Reference 6.1 Command line options 6.2 Configuration Commands 6.3 Configuration variables 6.3.1 abort_nosubject 6.3.2 abort_unmodified 6.3.3 alias_file 6.3.4 alias_format 6.3.5 allow_8bit 6.3.6 allow_ansi 6.3.7 alternates 6.3.8 arrow_cursor 6.3.9 ascii_chars 6.3.10 askbcc 6.3.11 askcc 6.3.12 assumed_charset 6.3.13 attach_format 6.3.14 attach_sep 6.3.15 attach_split 6.3.16 attribution 6.3.17 autoedit 6.3.18 auto_tag 6.3.19 beep 6.3.20 beep_new 6.3.21 bounce_delivered 6.3.22 charset 6.3.23 check_new 6.3.24 collapse_unread 6.3.25 uncollapse_jump 6.3.26 compose_format 6.3.27 confirmappend 6.3.28 confirmcreate 6.3.29 connect_timeout 6.3.30 copy 6.3.31 create_rfc2047_parameters 6.3.32 date_format 6.3.33 default_hook 6.3.34 delete 6.3.35 delete_untag 6.3.36 digest_collapse 6.3.37 delete_prefix 6.3.38 delete_regexp 6.3.39 display_filter 6.3.40 dotlock_program 6.3.41 dsn_notify 6.3.42 dsn_return 6.3.43 duplicate_threads 6.3.44 edit_headers 6.3.45 editor 6.3.46 encode_from 6.3.47 envelope_from 6.3.48 escape 6.3.49 fast_reply 6.3.50 fcc_attach 6.3.51 fcc_clear 6.3.52 file_charset 6.3.53 folder 6.3.54 folder_format 6.3.55 followup_to 6.3.56 force_name 6.3.57 forward_decode 6.3.58 forward_format 6.3.59 forward_quote 6.3.60 from 6.3.61 gecos_mask 6.3.62 hdrs 6.3.63 header 6.3.64 help 6.3.65 hidden_host 6.3.66 hide_limited 6.3.67 hide_missing 6.3.68 hide_top_limited 6.3.69 hide_top_missing 6.3.70 history 6.3.71 honor_followup_to 6.3.72 hostname 6.3.73 ignore_list_reply_to 6.3.74 imap_authenticators 6.3.75 imap_delim_chars 6.3.76 imap_force_ssl 6.3.77 imap_home_namespace 6.3.78 imap_keepalive 6.3.79 imap_list_subscribed 6.3.80 imap_pass 6.3.81 imap_passive 6.3.82 imap_peek 6.3.83 imap_servernoise 6.3.84 imap_user 6.3.85 implicit_autoview 6.3.86 include 6.3.87 indent_string 6.3.88 index_format 6.3.89 ispell 6.3.90 keep_flagged 6.3.91 locale 6.3.92 mail_check 6.3.93 mailcap_path 6.3.94 mailcap_sanitize 6.3.95 maildir_trash 6.3.96 mark_old 6.3.97 markers 6.3.98 mask 6.3.99 mbox 6.3.100 mbox_type 6.3.101 metoo 6.3.102 menu_scroll 6.3.103 meta_key 6.3.104 mh_purge 6.3.105 mh_seq_flagged 6.3.106 mh_seq_replied 6.3.107 mh_seq_unseen 6.3.108 mh_path 6.3.109 mime_forward 6.3.110 mime_forward_decode 6.3.111 mime_forward_rest 6.3.112 mix_entry_format 6.3.113 mixmaster 6.3.114 move 6.3.115 message_format 6.3.116 msgid 6.3.117 msgid_use_from 6.3.118 pager 6.3.119 pager_context 6.3.120 pager_format 6.3.121 pager_index_lines 6.3.122 pager_stop 6.3.123 pager_hdrs_only 6.3.124 pager_spoil 6.3.125 pager_spoiler 6.3.126 pgp_autosign 6.3.127 pgp_autoencrypt 6.3.128 pgp_ignore_subkeys 6.3.129 pgp_entry_format 6.3.130 pgp_good_sign 6.3.131 pgp_long_ids 6.3.132 pgp_replyencrypt 6.3.133 pgp_replysign 6.3.134 pgp_replysignencrypted 6.3.135 pgp_retainable_sigs 6.3.136 pgp_show_unusable 6.3.137 pgp_sign_as 6.3.138 pgp_strict_enc 6.3.139 pgp_timeout 6.3.140 pgp_verify_sig 6.3.141 pgp_sort_keys 6.3.142 pgp_create_traditional 6.3.143 pgp_decode_command 6.3.144 pgp_getkeys_command 6.3.145 pgp_verify_command 6.3.146 pgp_decrypt_command 6.3.147 pgp_clearsign_command 6.3.148 pgp_sign_command 6.3.149 pgp_encrypt_sign_command 6.3.150 pgp_encrypt_only_command 6.3.151 pgp_import_command 6.3.152 pgp_export_command 6.3.153 pgp_verify_key_command 6.3.154 pgp_list_secring_command 6.3.155 pgp_list_pubring_command 6.3.156 forward_decrypt 6.3.157 ssl_starttls 6.3.158 certificate_file 6.3.159 ssl_usesystemcerts 6.3.160 entropy_file 6.3.161 ssl_use_sslv2 6.3.162 ssl_use_sslv3 6.3.163 ssl_use_tlsv1 6.3.164 pipe_split 6.3.165 pipe_decode 6.3.166 pipe_sep 6.3.167 pop_authenticators 6.3.168 pop_auth_try_all 6.3.169 pop_checkinterval 6.3.170 pop_delete 6.3.171 pop_host 6.3.172 pop_last 6.3.173 pop_reconnect 6.3.174 pop_user 6.3.175 pop_pass 6.3.176 post_indent_string 6.3.177 postpone 6.3.178 postponed 6.3.179 preconnect 6.3.180 print 6.3.181 print_command 6.3.182 print_decode 6.3.183 print_split 6.3.184 prompt_after 6.3.185 query_command 6.3.186 quit 6.3.187 quote_regexp 6.3.188 read_inc 6.3.189 read_only 6.3.190 realname 6.3.191 recall 6.3.192 record 6.3.193 reply_regexp 6.3.194 reply_self 6.3.195 reply_to 6.3.196 resolve 6.3.197 reverse_alias 6.3.198 reverse_name 6.3.199 reverse_realname 6.3.200 rfc2047_parameters 6.3.201 sanitize_ja_chars 6.3.202 save_address 6.3.203 save_empty 6.3.204 save_name 6.3.205 score 6.3.206 score_threshold_delete 6.3.207 score_threshold_flag 6.3.208 score_threshold_read 6.3.209 send_charset 6.3.210 sendmail 6.3.211 sendmail_wait 6.3.212 shell 6.3.213 sig_dashes 6.3.214 sig_on_top 6.3.215 signature 6.3.216 simple_search 6.3.217 smart_wrap 6.3.218 smileys 6.3.219 sleep_time 6.3.220 sort 6.3.221 sort_alias 6.3.222 sort_aux 6.3.223 sort_browser 6.3.224 sort_re 6.3.225 spoolfile 6.3.226 status_chars 6.3.227 status_format 6.3.228 status_on_top 6.3.229 strict_mime 6.3.230 strict_threads 6.3.231 suspend 6.3.232 text_flowed 6.3.233 thread_received 6.3.234 thorough_search 6.3.235 tilde 6.3.236 timeout 6.3.237 tmpdir 6.3.238 to_chars 6.3.239 tree_chars 6.3.240 tree_llcorner 6.3.241 tree_ulcorner 6.3.242 tree_ltee 6.3.243 tree_hline 6.3.244 tree_vline 6.3.245 tree_ttee 6.3.246 tree_btee 6.3.247 tree_space 6.3.248 tree_rarrow 6.3.249 tree_star 6.3.250 tree_hidden 6.3.251 tree_equals 6.3.252 tree_missing 6.3.253 tunnel 6.3.254 use_8bitmime 6.3.255 use_domain 6.3.256 use_from 6.3.257 use_jisx0208 6.3.258 use_ipv6 6.3.259 user_agent 6.3.260 visual 6.3.261 wait_key 6.3.262 weed 6.3.263 wrap_search 6.3.264 wrapmargin 6.3.265 write_inc 6.3.266 write_bcc 6.4 Functions 6.4.1 generic 6.4.2 index 6.4.3 pager 6.4.4 alias 6.4.5 query 6.4.6 attach 6.4.7 compose 6.4.8 postpone 6.4.9 browser 6.4.10 pgp 6.4.11 editor 7. Miscellany 7.1 Acknowledgements 7.2 About this document ______________________________________________________________________ 1. Introduction Mutt is a small but very powerful text-based MIME mail client. Mutt is highly configurable, and is well suited to the mail power user with advanced features like key bindings, keyboard macros, mail threading, regular expression searches and a powerful pattern matching language for selecting groups of messages. 1.1. Mutt Home Page http://www.mutt.org/ 1.2. Mailing Lists To subscribe to one of the following mailing lists, send a message with the word subscribe in the body to list-name-request@mutt.org. o mutt-announce@mutt.org -- low traffic list for announcements o mutt-users@mutt.org -- help, bug reports and feature requests o mutt-dev@mutt.org -- development mailing list Note: all messages posted to mutt-announce are automatically forwarded to mutt-users, so you do not need to be subscribed to both lists. 1.3. Software Distribution Sites o ftp://ftp.mutt.org/pub/mutt/ o ftp://ftp.guug.de/pub/mutt/ For a list of mirror sites, please refer to http://www.mutt.org/download.html. 1.4. IRC Visit channel #mutt on OpenProjects.Net (www.openprojects.net) to chat with other people interested in Mutt. 1.5. USENET See the newsgroup comp.mail.mutt. 1.6. Copyright Mutt is Copyright (C) 1996-2000 Michael R. Elkins and others This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place - Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111, USA. 2. Getting Started This section is intended as a brief overview of how to use Mutt. There are many other features which are described elsewhere in the manual. There is even more information available in the Mutt FAQ and various web pages. See the Mutt Page for more details. The keybindings described in this section are the defaults as distributed. Your local system administrator may have altered the defaults for your site. You can always type ``?'' in any menu to display the current bindings. The first thing you need to do is invoke mutt, simply by typing mutt at the command line. There are various command-line options, see either the mutt man page or the ``reference''. 2.1. Moving Around in Menus Information is presented in menus, very similar to ELM. Here is a table showing the common keys used to navigate menus in Mutt. j or Down next-entry move to the next entry k or Up previous-entry move to the previous entry z or PageDn page-down go to the next page Z or PageUp page-up go to the previous page = or Home first-entry jump to the first entry * or End last-entry jump to the last entry q quit exit the current menu ? help list all keybindings for the current menu 2.2. Editing Input Fields Mutt has a builtin line editor which is used as the primary way to input textual data such as email addresses or filenames. The keys used to move around while editing are very similar to those of Emacs. ^A or bol move to the start of the line ^B or backward-char move back one char Esc B backward-word move back one word ^D or delete-char delete the char under the cursor ^E or eol move to the end of the line ^F or forward-char move forward one char Esc F forward-word move forward one word complete complete filename or alias ^T complete-query complete address with query ^K kill-eol delete to the end of the line ESC d kill-eow delete to the end ot the word ^W kill-word kill the word in front of the cursor ^U kill-line delete entire line ^V quote-char quote the next typed key history-up recall previous string from history history-down recall next string from history backspace kill the char in front of the cursor Esc u upcase-word convert word to upper case Esc l downcase-word convert word to lower case Esc c capitalize-word capitalize the word ^G n/a abort n/a finish editing You can remap the editor functions using the ``bind'' command. For example, to make the Delete key delete the character in front of the cursor rather than under, you could use bind editor backspace 2.3. Reading Mail - The Index and Pager Similar to many other mail clients, there are two modes in which mail is read in Mutt. The first is the index of messages in the mailbox, which is called the ``index'' in Mutt. The second mode is the display of the message contents. This is called the ``pager.'' The next few sections describe the functions provided in each of these modes. 2.3.1. The Message Index c change to a different mailbox ESC c change to a folder in read-only mode C copy the current message to another mailbox ESC C decode a message and copy it to a folder ESC s decode a message and save it to a folder D delete messages matching a pattern d delete the current message F mark as important l show messages matching a pattern N mark message as new o change the current sort method O reverse sort the mailbox q save changes and exit s save-message T tag messages matching a pattern t toggle the tag on a message ESC t toggle tag on entire message thread U undelete messages matching a pattern u undelete-message v view-attachments x abort changes and exit display-message jump to the next new message @ show the author's full e-mail address $ save changes to mailbox / search ESC / search-reverse ^L clear and redraw the screen ^T untag messages matching a pattern 2.3.1.1. Status Flags In addition to who sent the message and the subject, a short summary of the disposition of each message is printed beside the message number. Zero or more of the following ``flags'' may appear, which mean: D message is deleted (is marked for deletion) d message have attachments marked for deletion K contains a PGP public key N message is new O message is old P message is PGP encrypted r message has been replied to S message is PGP signed, and the signature is succesfully verified s message is PGP signed ! message is flagged * message is tagged Some of the status flags can be turned on or off using o set-flag (default: w) o clear-flag (default: W) Furthermore, the following flags reflect who the message is addressed to. They can be customized with the ``$to_chars'' variable. + message is to you and you only T message is to you, but also to or cc'ed to others C message is cc'ed to you F message is from you L message is sent to a subscribed mailing list 2.3.2. The Pager By default, Mutt uses its builtin pager to display the body of messages. The pager is very similar to the Unix program less though not nearly as featureful. go down one line display the next page (or next message if at the end of a message) - go back to the previous page n search for next match S skip beyond quoted text T toggle display of quoted text ? show keybindings / search for a regular expression (pattern) ESC / search backwards for a regular expression \ toggle search pattern coloring ^ jump to the top of the message $ jump to the bottom of the message In addition, many of the functions from the index are available in the pager, such as delete-message or copy-message (this is one advantage over using an external pager to view messages). Also, the internal pager supports a couple other advanced features. For one, it will accept and translate the ``standard'' nroff sequences for bold and underline. These sequences are a series of either the letter, backspace (^H), the letter again for bold or the letter, backspace, ``_'' for denoting underline. Mutt will attempt to display these in bold and underline respectively if your terminal supports them. If not, you can use the bold and underline ``color'' objects to specify a color or mono attribute for them. Additionally, the internal pager supports the ANSI escape sequences for character attributes. Mutt translates them into the correct color and character settings. The sequences Mutt supports are: ESC [ Ps;Ps;Ps;...;Ps m where Ps = 0 All Attributes Off 1 Bold on 4 Underline on 5 Blink on 7 Reverse video on 3x Foreground color is x 4x Background color is x Colors are 0 black 1 red 2 green 3 yellow 4 blue 5 magenta 6 cyan 7 white Mutt uses these attributes for handling text/enriched messages, and they can also be used by an external ``autoview'' script for highlighting purposes. Note: If you change the colors for your display, for example by changing the color associated with color2 for your xterm, then that color will be used instead of green. 2.3.3. Threaded Mode When the mailbox is ``sorted'' by threads, there are a few additional functions available in the index and pager modes. ^D delete-thread delete all messages in the current thread ^U undelete-thread undelete all messages in the current thread ^N next-thread jump to the start of the next thread ^P previous-thread jump to the start of the previous thread ^R read-thread mark the current thread as read ESC d delete-subthread delete all messages in the current subthread ESC u undelete-subthread undelete all messages in the current subthread ESC n next-subthread jump to the start of the next subthread ESC p previous-subthread jump to the start of the previous subthread ESC r read-subthread mark the current subthread as read ESC t tag-thread toggle the tag on the current thread ESC v collapse-thread toggle collapse for the current thread ESC V collapse-all toggle collapse for all threads P parent-message jump to parent message in thread Note: Collapsing a thread displays only the first message in the thread and hides the others. This is useful when threads contain so many messages that you can only see a handful of threads on the screen. See %M in ``$index_format''. For example, you could use "%?M?(#%03M)&(%4l)?" in ``$index_format'' to optionally display the number of hidden messages if the thread is collapsed. See also: ``$strict_threads''. 2.3.4. Miscellaneous Functions create-alias (default: a) Creates a new alias based upon the current message (or prompts for a new one). Once editing is complete, an ``alias'' command is added to the file specified by the ``$alias_file'' variable for future use. Note: Specifying an ``$alias_file'' does not add the aliases specified there-in, you must also ``source'' the file. check-traditional-pgp (default: ESC P) This function will search the current message for content signed or encrypted with PGP the "traditional" way, that is, without proper MIME tagging. Technically, this function will temporarily change the MIME content types of the body parts containing PGP data; this is similar to the ``edit-type'' function's effect. display-toggle-weed (default: h) Toggles the weeding of message header fields specified by ``ignore'' commands. edit (default: e) This command (available in the ``index'' and ``pager'') allows you to edit the raw current message as it's present in the mail folder. After you have finished editing, the changed message will be appended to the current folder, and the original message will be marked for deletion. edit-type (default: ^E on the attachment menu, and in the pager and index menus; ^T on the compose menu) This command is used to temporarily edit an attachment's content type to fix, for instance, bogus character set parameters. When invoked from the index or from the pager, you'll have the opportunity to edit the top-level attachment's content type. On the ``attachment menu'', you can change any attachment's content type. These changes are not persistent, and get lost upon changing folders. Note that this command is also available on the ``compose menu''. There, it's used to fine-tune the properties of attachments you are going to send. enter-command (default: ``:'') This command is used to execute any command you would normally put in a configuration file. A common use is to check the settings of variables, or in conjunction with ``macros'' to change settings on the fly. extract-keys (default: ^K) This command extracts PGP public keys from the current or tagged message(s) and adds them to your PGP public key ring. forget-passphrase (default: ^F) This command wipes the PGP passphrase from memory. It is useful, if you misspelled the passphrase. list-reply (default: L) Reply to the current or tagged message(s) by extracting any addresses which match the addresses given by the ``lists or subscribe'' commands, but also honor any Mail-Followup-To header(s) if the ``$honor_followup_to'' configuration variable is set. Using this when replying to messages posted to mailing lists helps avoid duplicate copies being sent to the author of the message you are replying to. pipe-message (default: |) Asks for an external Unix command and pipes the current or tagged message(s) to it. The variables ``$pipe_decode'', ``$pipe_split'', ``$pipe_sep'' and ``$wait_key'' control the exact behaviour of this function. resend-message (default: ESC e) With resend-message, mutt takes the current message as a template for a new message. This function is best described as "recall from arbitrary folders". It can conveniently be used to forward MIME messages while preserving the original mail structure. Note that the amount of headers included here depends on the value of the ``$weed'' variable. This function is also available from the attachment menu. You can use this to easily resend a message which was included with a bounce message as a message/rfc822 body part. shell-escape (default: !) Asks for an external Unix command and executes it. The ``$wait_key'' can be used to control whether Mutt will wait for a key to be pressed when the command returns (presumably to let the user read the output of the command), based on the return status of the named command. toggle-quoted (default: T) The pager uses the ``$quote_regexp'' variable to detect quoted text when displaying the body of the message. This function toggles the display of the quoted material in the message. It is particularly useful when are interested in just the response and there is a large amount of quoted text in the way. skip-quoted (default: S) This function will go to the next line of non-quoted text which come after a line of quoted text in the internal pager. 2.4. Sending Mail The following bindings are available in the index for sending messages. m compose compose a new message r reply reply to sender g group-reply reply to all recipients L list-reply reply to mailing list address f forward forward message b bounce bounce (remail) message ESC k mail-key mail a PGP public key to someone Bouncing a message sends the message as is to the recipient you specify. Forwarding a message allows you to add comments or modify the message you are forwarding. These items are discussed in greater detail in the next chapter ````Forwarding and Bouncing Mail''''. Mutt will then enter the compose menu and prompt you for the recipients to place on the ``To:'' header field. Next, it will ask you for the ``Subject:'' field for the message, providing a default if you are replying to or forwarding a message. See also ``$askcc'', ``$askbcc'', ``$autoedit'', and ``$fast_reply'' for changing how Mutt asks these questions. Mutt will then automatically start your ``$editor'' on the message body. If the ``$edit_headers'' variable is set, the headers will be at the top of the message in your editor. Any messages you are replying to will be added in sort order to the message, with appropriate ``$attribution'', ``$indent_string'' and ``$post_indent_string''. When forwarding a message, if the ``$mime_forward'' variable is unset, a copy of the forwarded message will be included. If you have specified a ``$signature'', it will be appended to the message. Once you have finished editing the body of your mail message, you are returned to the compose menu. The following options are available: a attach-file attach a file A attach-message attach message(s) to the message ESC k attach-key attach a PGP public key d edit-description edit description on attachment D detach-file detach a file t edit-to edit the To field ESC f edit-from edit the From field r edit-reply-to edit the Reply-To field c edit-cc edit the Cc field b edit-bcc edit the Bcc field y send-message send the message s edit-subject edit the Subject f edit-fcc specify an ``Fcc'' mailbox p pgp-menu select PGP options (``i'' version only) P postpone-message postpone this message until later q quit quit (abort) sending the message w write-fcc write the message to a folder i ispell check spelling (if available on your system) ^F forget-passphrase whipe PGP passphrase from memory Note: The attach-message function will prompt you for a folder to attach messages from. You can now tag messages in that folder and they will be attached to the message you are sending. Note that certain operations like composing a new mail, replying, forwarding, etc. are not permitted when you are in that folder. The %r in ``$status_format'' will change to a 'A' to indicate that you are in attach-message mode. 2.4.1. Editing the message header When editing the header of your outgoing message, there are a couple of special features available. If you specify Fcc: filename Mutt will pick up filename just as if you had used the edit-fcc function in the compose menu. You can also attach files to your message by specifying Attach: filename [ description ] where filename is the file to attach and description is an optional string to use as the description of the attached file. When replying to messages, if you remove the In-Reply-To: field from the header field, Mutt will not generate a References: field, which allows you to create a new message thread. Also see ``edit_headers''. 2.4.2. Using Mutt with PGP If you want to use PGP, you can specify Pgp: [ E | S | S ] ``E'' encrypts, ``S'' signs and ``S'' signs with the given key, setting ``$pgp_sign_as'' permanently. If you have told mutt to PGP encrypt a message, it will guide you through a key selection process when you try to send the message. Mutt will not ask you any questions about keys which have a certified user ID matching one of the message recipients' mail addresses. However, there may be situations in which there are several keys, weakly certified user ID fields, or where no matching keys can be found. In these cases, you are dropped into a menu with a list of keys from which you can select one. When you quit this menu, or mutt can't find any matching keys, you are prompted for a user ID. You can, as usually, abort this prompt using ^G. When you do so, mutt will return to the compose screen. Once you have successfully finished the key selection, the message will be encrypted using the selected public keys, and sent out. Most fields of the entries in the key selection menu (see also ``$pgp_entry_format'') have obvious meanings. But some explanations on the capabilities, flags, and validity fields are in order. The flags sequence (%f) will expand to one of the following flags: R The key has been revoked and can't be used. X The key is expired and can't be used. d You have marked the key as disabled. c There are unknown critical self-signature packets. The capabilities field (%c) expands to a two-character sequence representing a key's capabilities. The first character gives the key's encryption capabilities: A minus sign (-) means that the key cannot be used for encryption. A dot (.) means that it's marked as a signature key in one of the user IDs, but may also be used for encryption. The letter e indicates that this key can be used for encryption. The second character indicates the key's signing capabilities. Once again, a ``-'' implies ``not for signing'', ``.'' implies that the key is marked as an encryption key in one of the user-ids, and ``s'' denotes a key which can be used for signing. Finally, the validity field (%t) indicates how well-certified a user- id is. A question mark (?) indicates undefined validity, a minus character (-) marks an untrusted association, a space character means a partially trusted association, and a plus character (+) indicates complete validity. 2.4.3. Sending anonymous messages via mixmaster. You may also have configured mutt to co-operate with Mixmaster, an anonymous remailer. Mixmaster permits you to send your messages anonymously using a chain of remailers. Mixmaster support in mutt is for mixmaster version 2.04 (beta 45 appears to be the latest) and 2.03. It does not support earlier versions or the later so-called version 3 betas, of which the latest appears to be called 2.9b23. To use it, you'll have to obey certain restrictions. Most important, you cannot use the Cc and Bcc headers. To tell Mutt to use mixmaster, you have to select a remailer chain, using the mix function on the compose menu. The chain selection screen is divided into two parts. In the (larger) upper part, you get a list of remailers you may use. In the lower part, you see the currently selected chain of remailers. You can navigate in the chain using the chain-prev and chain-next functions, which are by default bound to the left and right arrows and to the h and l keys (think vi keyboard bindings). To insert a remailer at the current chain position, use the insert function. To append a remailer behind the current chain position, use select-entry or append. You can also delete entries from the chain, using the corresponding function. Finally, to abandon your changes, leave the menu, or accept them pressing (by default) the Return key. Note that different remailers do have different capabilities, indicated in the %c entry of the remailer menu lines (see ``$mix_entry_format''). Most important is the ``middleman'' capability, indicated by a capital ``M'': This means that the remailer in question cannot be used as the final element of a chain, but will only forward messages to other mixmaster remailers. For details on the other capabilities, please have a look at the mixmaster documentation. 2.5. Forwarding and Bouncing Mail Bouncing and forwarding let you send an existing message to recipients that you specify. Bouncing a message uses the ``sendmail'' command to send a copy to alternative addresses as if they were the message's original recipients. Forwarding a message, on the other hand, allows you to modify the message before it is resent (for example, by adding your own comments). The following keys are bound by default: f forward forward message b bounce bounce (remail) message Forwarding can be done by including the original message in the new message's body (surrounded by indicating lines) or including it as a MIME attachment, depending on the value of the ``$mime_forward'' variable. Decoding of attachments, like in the pager, can be controlled by the ``$forward_decode'' and ``$mime_forward_decode'' variables, respectively. The desired forwarding format may depend on the content, therefore $mime_forward is a quadoption which, for example, can be set to ``ask-no''. The inclusion of headers is controlled by the current setting of the ``$weed'' variable, unless ``mime_forward'' is set. Editing the message to forward follows the same procedure as sending or replying to a message does. 2.6. Postponing Mail At times it is desirable to delay sending a message that you have already begun to compose. When the postpone-message function is used in the compose menu, the body of your message and attachments are stored in the mailbox specified by the ``$postponed'' variable. This means that you can recall the message even if you exit Mutt and then restart it at a later time. Once a message is postponed, there are several ways to resume it. From the command line you can use the ``-p'' option, or if you compose a new message from the index or pager you will be prompted if postponed messages exist. If multiple messages are currently postponed, the postponed menu will pop up and you can select which message you would like to resume. Note: If you postpone a reply to a message, the reply setting of the message is only updated when you actually finish the message and send it. Also, you must be in the same folder with the message you replied to for the status of the message to be updated. See also the ``$postpone'' quad-option. 3. Configuration While the default configuration (or ``preferences'') make Mutt usable right out of the box, it is often desirable to tailor Mutt to suit your own tastes. When Mutt is first invoked, it will attempt to read the ``system'' configuration file (defaults set by your local system administrator), unless the ``-n'' ``command line'' option is specified. This file is typically /usr/local/share/mutt/Muttrc or /etc/Muttrc. Mutt will next look for a file named .muttrc in your home directory. If this file does not exist and your home directory has a subdirectory named .mutt, mutt try to load a file named .mutt/muttrc. .muttrc is the file where you will usually place your ``commands'' to configure Mutt. In addition, mutt supports version specific configuration files that are parsed instead of the default files as explained above. For instance, if your system has a Muttrc-0.88 file in the system configuration directory, and you are running version 0.88 of mutt, this file will be sourced instead of the Muttrc file. The same is true of the user configuration file, if you have a file .muttrc-0.88.6 in your home directory, when you run mutt version 0.88.6, it will source this file instead of the default .muttrc file. The version number is the same which is visible using the ``-v'' ``command line'' switch or using the show-version key (default: V) from the index menu. 3.1. Syntax of Initialization Files An initialization file consists of a series of ``commands''. Each line of the file may contain one or more commands. When multiple commands are used, they must be separated by a semicolon (;). set realname='Mutt user' ; ignore x- The hash mark, or pound sign (``#''), is used as a ``comment'' charac- ter. You can use it to annotate your initialization file. All text after the comment character to the end of the line is ignored. For example, my_hdr X-Disclaimer: Why are you listening to me? # This is a comment Single quotes (') and double quotes (") can be used to quote strings which contain spaces or other special characters. The difference between the two types of quotes is similar to that of many popular shell programs, namely that a single quote is used to specify a literal string (one that is not interpreted for shell variables or quoting with a backslash [see next paragraph]), while double quotes indicate a string for which should be evaluated. For example, backtics are evaluated inside of double quotes, but not for single quotes. \ quotes the next character, just as in shells such as bash and zsh. For example, if want to put quotes ``"'' inside of a string, you can use ``\'' to force the next character to be a literal instead of interpreted character. set realname="Michael \"MuttDude\" Elkins" ``\\'' means to insert a literal ``\'' into the line. ``\n'' and ``\r'' have their usual C meanings of linefeed and carriage-return, respectively. A \ at the end of a line can be used to split commands over multiple lines, provided that the split points don't appear in the middle of command names. It is also possible to substitute the output of a Unix command in an initialization file. This is accomplished by enclosing the command in backquotes (``). For example, my_hdr X-Operating-System: `uname -a` The output of the Unix command ``uname -a'' will be substituted before the line is parsed. Note that since initialization files are line oriented, only the first line of output from the Unix command will be substituted. UNIX environments can be accessed like the way it is done in shells like sh and bash: Prepend the name of the environment by a ``$''. For example, set record=+sent_on_$HOSTNAME The commands understood by mutt are explained in the next paragraphs. For a complete list, see the ``command reference''. 3.2. Defining/Using aliases Usage: alias key address [ , address, ... ] It's usually very cumbersome to remember or type out the address of someone you are communicating with. Mutt allows you to create ``aliases'' which map a short string to a full address. Note: if you want to create an alias for a group (by specifying more than one address), you must separate the addresses with a comma (``,''). To remove an alias or aliases (``*'' means all aliases): unalias [ * | key ... ] alias muttdude me@cs.hmc.edu (Michael Elkins) alias theguys manny, moe, jack Unlike other mailers, Mutt doesn't require aliases to be defined in a special file. The alias command can appear anywhere in a configuration file, as long as this file is ``sourced''. Consequently, you can have multiple alias files, or you can have all aliases defined in your muttrc. On the other hand, the ``create-alias'' function can use only one file, the one pointed to by the ``$alias_file'' variable (which is ~/.muttrc by default). This file is not special either, in the sense that Mutt will happily append aliases to any file, but in order for the new aliases to take effect you need to explicitly ``source'' this file too. For example: source /usr/local/share/Mutt.aliases source ~/.mail_aliases set alias_file=~/.mail_aliases To use aliases, you merely use the alias at any place in mutt where mutt prompts for addresses, such as the To: or Cc: prompt. You can also enter aliases in your editor at the appropriate headers if you have the ``$edit_headers'' variable set. In addition, at the various address prompts, you can use the tab character to expand a partial alias to the full alias. If there are multiple matches, mutt will bring up a menu with the matching aliases. In order to be presented with the full list of aliases, you must hit tab with out a partial alias, such as at the beginning of the prompt or after a comma denoting multiple addresses. In the alias menu, you can select as many aliases as you want with the select-entry key (default: RET), and use the exit key (default: q) to return to the address prompt. 3.3. Changing the default key bindings Usage: bind map key function This command allows you to change the default key bindings (operation invoked when pressing a key). map specifies in which menu the binding belongs. The currently defined maps are: o generic o alias o attach o browser o editor o index o compose o pager o pgp o postpone key is the key (or key sequence) you wish to bind. To specify a control character, use the sequence \Cx, where x is the letter of the control character (for example, to specify control-A use ``\Ca''). Note that the case of x as well as \C is ignored, so that \CA, \Ca, \cA and \ca are all equivalent. An alternative form is to specify the key as a three digit octal number prefixed with a ``\'' (for example \177 is equivalent to \c?). In addition, key may consist of: \t tab tab \r carriage return \n newline \e escape escape up arrow down arrow left arrow right arrow Page Up Page Down Backspace Delete Insert Enter Return Home End Space bar function key 1 function key 10 key does not need to be enclosed in quotes unless it contains a space (`` ''). function specifies which action to take when key is pressed. For a complete list of functions, see the ``reference''. The special function noop unbinds the specify key sequence. 3.4. Defining aliases for character sets Usage: charset-hook alias charset Usage: iconv-hook charset local-charset The charset-hook command defines an alias for a character set. This is useful to properly display messages which are tagged with a character set name not known to mutt. The iconv-hook command defines a system-specific name for a character set. This is helpful when your systems character conversion library insists on using strange, system-specific names for character sets. 3.5. Setting variables based upon mailbox Usage: folder-hook [!]regexp command It is often desirable to change settings based on which mailbox you are reading. The folder-hook command provides a method by which you can execute any configuration command. pattern is a regular expression specifying in which mailboxes to execute command before loading. If a mailbox matches multiple folder-hook's, they are executed in the order given in the muttrc. Note: if you use the ``!'' shortcut for ``$spoolfile'' at the beginning of the pattern, you must place it inside of double or single quotes in order to distinguish it from the logical not operator for the expression. Note that the settings are not restored when you leave the mailbox. For example, a command action to perform is to change the sorting method based upon the mailbox being read: folder-hook mutt set sort=threads However, the sorting method is not restored to its previous value when reading a different mailbox. To specify a default command, use the pattern ``.'': folder-hook . set sort=date-sent 3.6. Keyboard macros Usage: macro menu key sequence [ description ] Macros are useful when you would like a single key to perform a series of actions. When you press key in menu menu, Mutt will behave as if you had typed sequence. So if you have a common sequence of commands you type, you can create a macro to execute those commands with a single key. key and sequence are expanded by the same rules as the ``key bindings''. There are some additions however. The first is that control characters in sequence can also be specified as ^x. In order to get a caret (`^'') you need to use ^^. Secondly, to specify a certain key such as up or to invoke a function directly, you can use the format and . For a listing of key names see the section on ``key bindings''. Functions are listed in the ``function reference''. The advantage with using function names directly is that the macros will work regardless of the current key bindings, so they are not dependent on the user having particular key definitions. This makes them more robust and portable, and also facilitates defining of macros in files used by more than one user (eg. the system Muttrc). Optionally you can specify a descriptive text after sequence, which is shown in the help screens. Note: Macro definitions (if any) listed in the help screen(s), are silently truncated at the screen width, and are not wrapped. 3.7. Using color and mono video attributes Usage: color object foreground background [ regexp ] Usage: color index foreground background pattern Usage: uncolor index pattern [ pattern ... ] If your terminal supports color, you can spice up Mutt by creating your own color scheme. To define the color of an object (type of information), you must specify both a foreground color and a background color (it is not possible to only specify one or the other). object can be one of: o attachment o body (match regexp in the body of messages) o bold (hiliting bold patterns in the body of messages) o error (error messages printed by Mutt) o header (match regexp in the message header) o hdrdefault (default color of the message header in the pager) o index (match pattern in the message index) o indicator (arrow or bar used to indicate the current item in a menu) o markers (the ``+'' markers at the beginning of wrapped lines in the pager) o message (informational messages) o normal o quoted (text matching ``$quote_regexp'' in the body of a message) o quoted1, quoted2, ..., quotedN (higher levels of quoting) o search (hiliting of words in the pager) o signature o status (mode lines used to display info about the mailbox or message) o tilde (the ``~'' used to pad blank lines in the pager) o tree (thread tree drawn in the message index and attachment menu) o underline (hiliting underlined patterns in the body of messages) foreground and background can be one of the following: o white o black o green o magenta o blue o cyan o yellow o red o default o colorx foreground can optionally be prefixed with the keyword bright to make the foreground color boldfaced (e.g., brightred). If your terminal supports it, the special keyword default can be used as a transparent color. The value brightdefault is also valid. If Mutt is linked against the S-Lang library, you also need to set the COLORFGBG environment variable to the default colors of your terminal for this to work; for example (for Bourne-like shells): set COLORFGBG="green;black" export COLORFGBG Note: The S-Lang library requires you to use the lightgray and brown keywords instead of white and yellow when setting this variable. Note: The uncolor command can be applied to the index object only. It removes entries from the list. You must specify the same pattern specified in the color command for it to be removed. The pattern ``*'' is a special token which means to clear the color index list of all entries. Mutt also recognizes the keywords color0, color1, ..., colorN-1 (N being the number of colors supported by your terminal). This is useful when you remap the colors for your display (for example by changing the color associated with color2 for your xterm), since color names may then lose their normal meaning. If your terminal does not support color, it is still possible change the video attributes through the use of the ``mono'' command: Usage: mono [ regexp ] Usage: mono index attribute pattern Usage: unmono index pattern [ pattern ... ] where attribute is one of the following: o none o bold o underline o reverse o standout 3.8. Ignoring (weeding) unwanted message headers Usage: [un]ignore pattern [ pattern ... ] Messages often have many header fields added by automatic processing systems, or which may not seem useful to display on the screen. This command allows you to specify header fields which you don't normally want to see. You do not need to specify the full header field name. For example, ``ignore content-'' will ignore all header fields that begin with the pattern ``content-''. To remove a previously added token from the list, use the ``unignore'' command. Note that if you do ``ignore x-'' it is not possible to ``unignore x-mailer,'' for example. The ``unignore'' command does not make Mutt display headers with the given pattern. ``unignore *'' will remove all tokens from the ignore list. For example: # Sven's draconian header weeding ignore * unignore from date subject to cc unignore organization organisation x-mailer: x-newsreader: x-mailing-list: unignore posted-to: 3.9. Mailing lists Usage: [un]lists address [ address ... ] Usage: [un]subscribe address [ address ... ] Mutt has a few nice features for ``handling mailing lists''. In order to take advantage of them, you must specify which addresses belong to mailing lists, and which mailing lists you are subscribed to. Once you have done this, the ``list-reply'' function will work for all known lists. Additionally, when you send a message to a subscribed list, mutt will add a Mail-Followup-To header to tell other users' mail user agents not to send copies of replies to your personal address. Note that the Mail-Followup-To header is a non-standard extension which is not supported by all mail user agents. Adding it is not bullet-proof against receiving personal CCs of list messages. Also note that the generation of the Mail-Followup-To header is controlled by the ``followup_to'' configuration variable. More precisely, Mutt maintains lists of known and subscribed mailing lists. Every subscribed mailing list is known. To mark a mailing list as known, use the ``lists'' command. To mark it as subscribed, use ``subscribe''. Specify as much of the address as you need to to remove ambiguity. For example, if you've subscribed to the Mutt mailing list, you will receive mail addresssed to mutt-users@mutt.org. So, to tell Mutt that this is a mailing list, you could add ``lists mutt-users'' to your initialization file. To tell mutt that you are subscribed to it, add ``subscribe mutt-users'' to your initialization file instead. If you also happen to get mail from someone whose address is mutt- users@example.com, you could use ``lists mutt-users@mutt.org'' or ``subscribe mutt-users@mutt.org'' to match only mail from the actual list. The ``unlists'' command is used to remove a token from the list of known and subscribed mailing-lists. Use ``unlists *'' to remove all tokens. To remove a mailing list from the list of subscribed mailing lists, but keep it on the list of known mailing lists, use ``unsubscribe''. 3.10. Using Multiple spool mailboxes Usage: mbox-hook [!]pattern mailbox This command is used to move read messages from a specified mailbox to a different mailbox automatically when you quit or change folders. pattern is a regular expression specifying the mailbox to treat as a ``spool'' mailbox and mailbox specifies where mail should be saved when read. Unlike some of the other hook commands, only the first matching pattern is used (it is not possible to save read mail in more than a single mailbox). 3.11. Defining mailboxes which receive mail Usage: mailboxes [!]filename [ filename ... ] This command specifies folders which can receive mail and which will be checked for new messages. By default, the main menu status bar displays how many of these folders have new messages. When changing folders, pressing space will cycle through folders with new mail. Pressing TAB in the directory browser will bring up a menu showing the files specified by the mailboxes command, and indicate which contain new messages. Mutt will automatically enter this mode when invoked from the command line with the -y option. Note: new mail is detected by comparing the last modification time to the last access time. Utilities like biff or frm or any other program which accesses the mailbox might cause Mutt to never detect new mail for that mailbox if they do not properly reset the access time. Backup tools are another common reason for updated access times. Note: the filenames in the mailboxes command are resolved when the command is executed, so if these names contain ``shortcut characters'' (such as ``='' and ``!''), any variable definition that affect these characters (like ``$folder'' and ``$spoolfile'') should be executed before the mailboxes command. 3.12. User defined headers Usage: my_hdr string unmy_hdr field [ field ... ] The ``my_hdr'' command allows you to create your own header fields which will be added to every message you send. For example, if you would like to add an ``Organization:'' header field to all of your outgoing messages, you can put the command my_hdr Organization: A Really Big Company, Anytown, USA in your .muttrc. Note: space characters are not allowed between the keyword and the colon (``:''). The standard for electronic mail (RFC822) says that space is illegal there, so Mutt enforces the rule. If you would like to add a header field to a single message, you should either set the ``edit_headers'' variable, or use the edit- headers function (default: ``E'') in the send-menu so that you can edit the header of your message along with the body. To remove user defined header fields, use the ``unmy_hdr'' command. You may specify an asterisk (``*'') to remove all header fields, or the fields to remove. For example, to remove all ``To'' and ``Cc'' header fields, you could use: unmy_hdr to cc 3.13. Defining the order of headers when viewing messages Usage: hdr_order header1 header2 header3 With this command, you can specify an order in which mutt will attempt to present headers to you when viewing messages. ``unhdr_order *'' will clear all previous headers from the order list, thus removing the header order effects set by the system-wide startup file. hdr_order From Date: From: To: Cc: Subject: 3.14. Specify default save filename Usage: save-hook [!]pattern filename This command is used to override the default filename used when saving messages. filename will be used as the default filename if the message is From: an address matching regexp or if you are the author and the message is addressed to: something matching regexp. See ``Message Matching in Hooks'' for information on the exact format of pattern. Examples: save-hook me@(turing\\.)?cs\\.hmc\\.edu$ +elkins save-hook aol\\.com$ +spam Also see the ``fcc-save-hook'' command. 3.15. Specify default Fcc: mailbox when composing Usage: fcc-hook [!]pattern mailbox This command is used to save outgoing mail in a mailbox other than ``$record''. Mutt searches the initial list of message recipients for the first matching regexp and uses mailbox as the default Fcc: mailbox. If no match is found the message will be saved to ``$record'' mailbox. See ``Message Matching in Hooks'' for information on the exact format of pattern. Example: fcc-hook aol.com$ +spammers The above will save a copy of all messages going to the aol.com domain to the `+spammers' mailbox by default. Also see the ``fcc-save-hook'' command. 3.16. Specify default save filename and default Fcc: mailbox at once Usage: fcc-save-hook [!]pattern mailbox This command is a shortcut, equivalent to doing both a ``fcc-hook'' and a ``save-hook'' with its arguments. 3.17. Change settings based upon message recipients Usage: send-hook [!]pattern command This command can be used to execute arbitrary configuration commands based upon recipients of the message. pattern is a regular expression matching the desired address. command is executed when regexp matches recipients of the message. When multiple matches occur, commands are executed in the order they are specified in the muttrc. See ``Message Matching in Hooks'' for information on the exact format of pattern. Example: send-hook mutt "set mime_forward signature=''" Another typical use for this command is to change the values of the ``$attribution'', ``$signature'' and ``$locale'' variables in order to change the language of the attributions and signatures based upon the recipients. Note: the send-hook's are only executed ONCE after getting the initial list of recipients. Adding a recipient after replying or editing the message will NOT cause any send-hook to be executed. Also note that my_hdr commands which modify recipient headers, or the message's subject, don't have any effect on the current message when executed from a send-hook. 3.18. Change settings before formatting a message Usage: message-hook [!]pattern command This command can be used to execute arbitrary configuration commands before viewing or formatting a message based upon information about the message. command is executed if the pattern matches the message to be displayed. When multiple matches occur, commands are executed in the order they are specified in the muttrc. See ``Message Matching in Hooks'' for information on the exact format of pattern. Example: message-hook ~A 'set pager=builtin' message-hook '~f freshmeat-news' 'set pager="less \"+/^ subject: .*\""' 3.19. Choosing the PGP key of the recipient Usage: pgp-hook pattern keyid When encrypting messages with PGP, you may want to associate a certain PGP key with a given e-mail address automatically, either because the recipient's public key can't be deduced from the destination address, or because, for some reasons, you need to override the key Mutt would normally use. The pgp-hook command provides a method by which you can specify the ID of the public key to be used when encrypting messages to a certain recipient. 3.20. Adding key sequences to the keyboard buffer Usage: push string This command adds the named string to the keyboard buffer. The string may contain control characters, key names and function names like the sequence string in the ``macro'' command. You may use it to automatically run a sequence of commands at startup, or when entering certain folders. 3.21. Executing functions Usage: exec function [ function ... ] This command can be used to execute any function. Functions are listed in the ``function reference''. ``exec function'' is equivalent to ``push ''. 3.22. Message Scoring Usage: score pattern value Usage: unscore pattern [ pattern ... ] The score commands adds value to a message's score if pattern matches it. pattern is a string in the format described in the ``patterns'' section (note: For efficiency reasons, patterns which scan information not available in the index, such as ~b, ~B or ~h, may not be used). value is a positive or negative integer. A message's final score is the sum total of all matching score entries. However, you may optionally prefix value with an equal sign (=) to cause evaluation to stop at a particular entry if there is a match. Negative final scores are rounded up to 0. The unscore command removes score entries from the list. You must specify the same pattern specified in the score command for it to be removed. The pattern ``*'' is a special token which means to clear the list of all score entries. 3.23. Setting variables Usage: set [no|inv]variable[=value] [ variable ... ] Usage: toggle variable [variable ... ] Usage: unset variable [variable ... ] Usage: reset variable [variable ... ] This command is used to set (and unset) ``configuration variables''. There are four basic types of variables: boolean, number, string and quadoption. boolean variables can be set (true) or unset (false). number variables can be assigned a positive integer value. string variables consist of any number of printable characters. strings must be enclosed in quotes if they contain spaces or tabs. You may also use the ``C'' escape sequences \n and \t for newline and tab, respectively. quadoption variables are used to control whether or not to be prompted for certain actions, or to specify a default action. A value of yes will cause the action to be carried out automatically as if you had answered yes to the question. Similarly, a value of no will cause the the action to be carried out as if you had answered ``no.'' A value of ask-yes will cause a prompt with a default answer of ``yes'' and ask-no will provide a default answer of ``no.'' Prefixing a variable with ``no'' will unset it. Example: set noaskbcc. For boolean variables, you may optionally prefix the variable name with inv to toggle the value (on or off). This is useful when writing macros. Example: set invsmart_wrap. The toggle command automatically prepends the inv prefix to all specified variables. The unset command automatically prepends the no prefix to all specified variables. Using the enter-command function in the index menu, you can query the value of a variable by prefixing the name of the variable with a question mark: set ?allow_8bit The question mark is actually only required for boolean and quadoption variables. The reset command resets all given variables to the compile time defaults (hopefully mentioned in this manual). If you use the command set and prefix the variable with ``&'' this has the same behavior as the reset command. With the reset command there exists the special variable ``all'', which allows you to reset all variables to their system defaults. 3.24. Reading initialization commands from another file Usage: source filename This command allows the inclusion of initialization commands from other files. For example, I place all of my aliases in ~/.mail_aliases so that I can make my ~/.muttrc readable and keep my aliases private. If the filename begins with a tilde (``~''), it will be expanded to the path of your home directory. If the filename ends with a vertical bar (|), then filename is considered to be an executable program from which to read input (eg. source ~bin/myscript|/). 3.25. Removing hooks Usage: unhook [ * | hook-type ] This command permits you to flush hooks you have previously defined. You can either remove all hooks by giving the ``*'' character as an argument, or you can remove all hooks of a specific type by saying something like unhook send-hook. 4. Advanced Usage 4.1. Regular Expressions All string patterns in Mutt including those in more complex ``patterns'' must be specified using regular expressions (regexp) in the ``POSIX extended'' syntax (which is more or less the syntax used by egrep and GNU awk). For your convenience, we have included below a brief description of this syntax. The search is case sensitive if the pattern contains at least one upper case letter, and case insensitive otherwise. Note that ``\'' must be quoted if used for a regular expression in an initialization command: ``\\''. A regular expression is a pattern that describes a set of strings. Regular expressions are constructed analogously to arithmetic expressions, by using various operators to combine smaller expressions. Note that the regular expression can be enclosed/delimited by either " or ' which is useful if the regular expression includes a white-space character. See ``Syntax of Initialization Files'' for more information on " and ' delimiter processing. To match a literal " or ' you must preface it with \ (backslash). The fundamental building blocks are the regular expressions that match a single character. Most characters, including all letters and digits, are regular expressions that match themselves. Any metacharacter with special meaning may be quoted by preceding it with a backslash. The period ``.'' matches any single character. The caret ``^'' and the dollar sign ``$'' are metacharacters that respectively match the empty string at the beginning and end of a line. A list of characters enclosed by ``['' and ``]'' matches any single character in that list; if the first character of the list is a caret ``^'' then it matches any character not in the list. For example, the regular expression [0123456789] matches any single digit. A range of ASCII characters may be specified by giving the first and last characters, separated by a hyphen ``-''. Most metacharacters lose their special meaning inside lists. To include a literal ``]'' place it first in the list. Similarly, to include a literal ``^'' place it anywhere but first. Finally, to include a literal hyphen ``-'' place it last. Certain named classes of characters are predefined. Character classes consist of ``[:'', a keyword denoting the class, and ``:]''. The following classes are defined by the POSIX standard: [:alnum:] Alphanumeric characters. [:alpha:] Alphabetic characters. [:blank:] Space or tab characters. [:cntrl:] Control characters. [:digit:] Numeric characters. [:graph:] Characters that are both printable and visible. (A space is printable, but not visible, while an ``a'' is both.) [:lower:] Lower-case alphabetic characters. [:print:] Printable characters (characters that are not control characters.) [:punct:] Punctuation characters (characters that are not letter, digits, control characters, or space characters). [:space:] Space characters (such as space, tab and formfeed, to name a few). [:upper:] Upper-case alphabetic characters. [:xdigit:] Characters that are hexadecimal digits. A character class is only valid in a regular expression inside the brackets of a character list. Note that the brackets in these class names are part of the symbolic names, and must be included in addition to the brackets delimiting the bracket list. For example, [[:digit:]] is equivalent to [0-9]. Two additional special sequences can appear in character lists. These apply to non-ASCII character sets, which can have single symbols (called collating elements) that are represented with more than one character, as well as several characters that are equivalent for collating or sorting purposes: Collating Symbols A collating symbols is a multi-character collating element enclosed in ``[.'' and ``.]''. For example, if ``ch'' is a collating element, then [[.ch.]] is a regexp that matches this collating element, while [ch] is a regexp that matches either ``c'' or ``h''. Equivalence Classes An equivalence class is a locale-specific name for a list of characters that are equivalent. The name is enclosed in ``[='' and ``=]''. For example, the name ``e'' might be used to represent all of ``e'' ``e'' and ``e''. In this case, [[=e=]] is a regexp that matches any of ``e'', ``e'' and ``e''. A regular expression matching a single character may be followed by one of several repetition operators: ? The preceding item is optional and matched at most once. * The preceding item will be matched zero or more times. + The preceding item will be matched one or more times. {n} The preceding item is matched exactly n times. {n,} The preceding item is matched n or more times. {,m} The preceding item is matched at most m times. {n,m} The preceding item is matched at least n times, but no more than m times. Two regular expressions may be concatenated; the resulting regular expression matches any string formed by concatenating two substrings that respectively match the concatenated subexpressions. Two regular expressions may be joined by the infix operator ``|''; the resulting regular expression matches any string matching either subexpression. Repetition takes precedence over concatenation, which in turn takes precedence over alternation. A whole subexpression may be enclosed in parentheses to override these precedence rules. Note: If you compile Mutt with the GNU rx package, the following operators may also be used in regular expressions: \\y Matches the empty string at either the beginning or the end of a word. \\B Matches the empty string within a word. \\< Matches the empty string at the beginning of a word. \\> Matches the empty string at the end of a word. \\w Matches any word-constituent character (letter, digit, or underscore). \\W Matches any character that is not word-constituent. \\` Matches the empty string at the beginning of a buffer (string). \\' Matches the empty string at the end of a buffer. Please note however that these operators are not defined by POSIX, so they may or may not be available in stock libraries on various systems. 4.2. Patterns Many of Mutt's commands allow you to specify a pattern to match (limit, tag-pattern, delete-pattern, etc.). There are several ways to select messages: ~A all messages ~b EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the message body ~B EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the whole message ~c USER messages carbon-copied to USER ~C EXPR message is either to: or cc: EXPR ~D deleted messages ~d [MIN]-[MAX] messages with ``date-sent'' in a Date range ~E expired messages ~e EXPR message which contains EXPR in the ``Sender'' field ~F flagged messages ~f USER messages originating from USER ~g PGP signed messages ~G PGP encrypted messages ~h EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the message header ~k message contains PGP key material ~i ID message which match ID in the ``Message-ID'' field ~L EXPR message is either originated or received by EXPR ~l message is addressed to a known mailing list ~m [MIN]-[MAX] message in the range MIN to MAX *) ~n [MIN]-[MAX] messages with a score in the range MIN to MAX *) ~N new messages ~O old messages ~p message is addressed to you (consults $alternates) ~P message is from you (consults $alternates) ~Q messages which have been replied to ~R read messages ~r [MIN]-[MAX] messages with ``date-received'' in a Date range ~S superseded messages ~s SUBJECT messages having SUBJECT in the ``Subject'' field. ~T tagged messages ~t USER messages addressed to USER ~U unread messages ~v message is part of a collapsed thread. ~x EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the `References' field ~y EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the `X-Label' field ~z [MIN]-[MAX] messages with a size in the range MIN to MAX *) ~= duplicated messages (see $duplicate_threads) Where EXPR, USER, ID, and SUBJECT are ``regular expressions''. *) The forms <[MAX], >[MIN], [MIN]- and -[MAX] are allowed, too. 4.2.1. Pattern Modifier Note that patterns matching 'lists' of addresses (notably c,C,p,P and t) match if there is at least one match in the whole list. If you want to make sure that all elements of that list match, you need to prefix your pattern with ^. This example matches all mails which only has recipients from Germany. ^~C \.de$ 4.2.2. Complex Patterns Logical AND is performed by specifying more than one criterion. For example: ~t mutt ~f elkins would select messages which contain the word ``mutt'' in the list of recipients and that have the word ``elkins'' in the ``From'' header field. Mutt also recognizes the following operators to create more complex search patterns: o ! -- logical NOT operator o | -- logical OR operator o () -- logical grouping operator Here is an example illustrating a complex search pattern. This pattern will select all messages which do not contain ``mutt'' in the ``To'' or ``Cc'' field and which are from ``elkins''. !(~t mutt|~c mutt) ~f elkins Here is an example using white space in the regular expression (note the ' and " delimiters). For this to match, the mail's subject must match the ``^Junk +From +Me$'' and it must be from either ``Jim +Somebody'' or ``Ed +SomeoneElse'': '~s "^Junk +From +Me$" ~f ("Jim +Somebody"|"Ed +SomeoneElse")' 4.2.3. Searching by Date Mutt supports two types of dates, absolute and relative. Absolute. Dates must be in DD/MM/YY format (month and year are optional, defaulting to the current month and year). An example of a valid range of dates is: Limit to messages matching: ~d 20/1/95-31/10 If you omit the minimum (first) date, and just specify ``-DD/MM/YY'', all messages before the given date will be selected. If you omit the maximum (second) date, and specify ``DD/MM/YY-'', all messages after the given date will be selected. If you specify a single date with no dash (``-''), only messages sent on the given date will be selected. Error Margins. You can add error margins to absolute dates. An error margin is a sign (+ or -), followed by a digit, followed by one of the following units: y years m months w weeks d days As a special case, you can replace the sign by a ``*'' character, which is equivalent to giving identical plus and minus error margins. Example: To select any messages two weeks around January 15, 2001, you'd use the following pattern: Limit to messages matching: ~d 15/1/2001*2w Relative. This type of date is relative to the current date, and may be specified as: o >offset (messages older than offset units) o ' which would execute the given command when sending mail to me@cs.hmc.edu. However, it is not required that you write the pattern to match using the full searching language. You can still specify a simple regular expression like the other hooks, in which case Mutt will translate your pattern into the full language, using the translation specified by the ``$default_hook'' variable. The pattern is translated at the time the hook is declared, so the value of ``$default_hook'' that is in effect at that time will be used. 4.5. External Address Queries Mutt supports connecting to external directory databases such as LDAP, ph/qi, bbdb, or NIS through a wrapper script which connects to mutt using a simple interface. Using the ``$query_command'' variable, you specify the wrapper command to use. For example: set query_command = "mutt_ldap_query.pl '%s'" The wrapper script should accept the query on the command-line. It should return a one line message, then each matching response on a single line, each line containing a tab separated address then name then some other optional information. On error, or if there are no matching addresses, return a non-zero exit code and a one line error message. An example multiple response output: Searching database ... 20 entries ... 3 matching: me@cs.hmc.edu Michael Elkins mutt dude blong@fiction.net Brandon Long mutt and more roessler@guug.de Thomas Roessler mutt pgp There are two mechanisms for accessing the query function of mutt. One is to do a query from the index menu using the query function (default: Q). This will prompt for a query, then bring up the query menu which will list the matching responses. From the query menu, you can select addresses to create aliases, or to mail. You can tag multiple messages to mail, start a new query, or have a new query appended to the current responses. The other mechanism for accessing the query function is for address completion, similar to the alias completion. In any prompt for address entry, you can use the complete-query function (default: ^T) to run a query based on the current address you have typed. Like aliases, mutt will look for what you have typed back to the last space or comma. If there is a single response for that query, mutt will expand the address in place. If there are multiple responses, mutt will activate the query menu. At the query menu, you can select one or more addresses to be added to the prompt. 4.6. Mailbox Formats Mutt supports reading and writing of four different mailbox formats: mbox, MMDF, MH and Maildir. The mailbox type is autodetected, so there is no need to use a flag for different mailbox types. When creating new mailboxes, Mutt uses the default specified with the ``$mbox_type'' variable. mbox. This is the most widely used mailbox format for UNIX. All messages are stored in a single file. Each message has a line of the form: From me@cs.hmc.edu Fri, 11 Apr 1997 11:44:56 PST to denote the start of a new message (this is often referred to as the ``From_'' line). MMDF. This is a variant of the mbox format. Each message is surrounded by lines containing ``^A^A^A^A'' (four control-A's). MH. A radical departure from mbox and MMDF, a mailbox consists of a directory and each message is stored in a separate file. The filename indicates the message number (however, this is may not correspond to the message number Mutt displays). Deleted messages are renamed with a comma (,) prepended to the filename. Note: Mutt detects this type of mailbox by looking for either .mh_sequences or .xmhcache (needed to distinguish normal directories from MH mailboxes). Maildir. The newest of the mailbox formats, used by the Qmail MTA (a replacement for sendmail). Similar to MH, except that it adds three subdirectories of the mailbox: tmp, new and cur. Filenames for the messages are chosen in such a way they are unique, even when two programs are writing the mailbox over NFS, which means that no file locking is needed. 4.7. Mailbox Shortcuts There are a number of built in shortcuts which refer to specific mailboxes. These shortcuts can be used anywhere you are prompted for a file or mailbox path. o ! -- refers to your ``$spoolfile'' (incoming) mailbox o > -- refers to your ``$mbox'' file o < -- refers to your ``$record'' file o - or !! -- refers to the file you've last visited o ~ -- refers to your home directory o = or + -- refers to your ``$folder'' directory o @alias -- refers to the ``default save folder'' as determined by the address of the alias 4.8. Handling Mailing Lists Mutt has a few configuration options that make dealing with large amounts of mail easier. The first thing you must do is to let Mutt know what addresses you consider to be mailing lists (technically this does not have to be a mailing list, but that is what it is most often used for), and what lists you are subscribed to. This is accomplished through the use of the ``lists and subscribe'' commands in your muttrc. Now that Mutt knows what your mailing lists are, it can do several things, the first of which is the ability to show the name of a list through which you received a message (i.e., of a subscribed list) in the index menu display. This is useful to distinguish between personal and list mail in the same mailbox. In the ``$index_format'' variable, the escape ``%L'' will return the string ``To '' when ``list'' appears in the ``To'' field, and ``Cc '' when it appears in the ``Cc'' field (otherwise it returns the name of the author). Often times the ``To'' and ``Cc'' fields in mailing list messages tend to get quite large. Most people do not bother to remove the author of the message they are reply to from the list, resulting in two or more copies being sent to that person. The ``list-reply'' function, which by default is bound to ``L'' in the index menu and pager, helps reduce the clutter by only replying to the known mailing list addresses instead of all recipients (except as specified by Mail-Followup-To, see below). Mutt also supports the Mail-Followup-To header. When you send a message to a list of recipients which includes one or several subscribed mailing lists, and if the ``$followup_to'' option is set, mutt will generate a Mail-Followup-To header which contains all the recipients to whom you send this message, but not your address. This indicates that group-replies or list-replies (also known as ``followups'') to this message should only be sent to the original recipients of the message, and not separately to you - you'll receive your copy through one of the mailing lists you are subscribed to. Conversely, when group-replying or list-replying to a message which has a Mail-Followup-To header, mutt will respect this header if the ``$honor_followup_to'' configuration variable is set. Using list- reply will in this case also make sure that the reply goes to the mailing list, even if it's not specified in the list of recipients in the Mail-Followup-To. Note that, when header editing is enabled, you can create a Mail- Followup-To header manually. Mutt will only auto-generate this header if it doesn't exist when you send the message. The other method some mailing list admins use is to generate a ``Reply-To'' field which points back to the mailing list address rather than the author of the message. This can create problems when trying to reply directly to the author in private, since most mail clients will automatically reply to the address given in the ``Reply- To'' field. Mutt uses the ``$reply_to'' variable to help decide which address to use. If set, you will be prompted as to whether or not you would like to use the address given in the ``Reply-To'' field, or reply directly to the address given in the ``From'' field. When unset, the ``Reply-To'' field will be used when present. The ``X-Label:'' header field can be used to further identify mailing lists or list subject matter (or just to annotate messages individually). The ``$index_format'' variable's ``%y'' and ``%Y'' escapes can be used to expand ``X-Label:'' fields in the index, and Mutt's pattern-matcher can match regular expressions to ``X-Label:'' fields with the `` y'' selector. ``X-Label:'' is not a standard message header field, but it can easily be inserted by procmail and other mail filtering agents. Lastly, Mutt has the ability to ``sort'' the mailbox into ``threads''. A thread is a group of messages which all relate to the same subject. This is usually organized into a tree-like structure where a message and all of its replies are represented graphically. If you've ever used a threaded news client, this is the same concept. It makes dealing with large volume mailing lists easier because you can easily delete uninteresting threads and quickly find topics of value. 4.9. Delivery Status Notification (DSN) Support RFC1894 defines a set of MIME content types for relaying information about the status of electronic mail messages. These can be thought of as ``return receipts.'' Berkeley sendmail 8.8.x currently has some command line options in which the mail client can make requests as to what type of status messages should be returned. To support this, there are two variables. ``$dsn_notify'' is used to request receipts for different results (such as failed message, message delivered, etc.). ``$dsn_return'' requests how much of your message should be returned with the receipt (headers or full message). Refer to the man page on sendmail for more details on DSN. 4.10. POP3 Support (OPTIONAL) If Mutt was compiled with POP3 support (by running the configure script with the --enable-pop flag), it has the ability to work with mailboxes located on a remote POP3 server and fetch mail for local browsing. You can access the remote POP3 mailbox by selecting the folder pop://popserver/. You can select an alternative port by specifying it with the server, ie: pop://popserver:port/. You can also specify different username for each folder, ie: pop://username@popserver[:port]/. Polling for new mail is more expensive over POP3 than locally. For this reason the frequency at which Mutt will check for mail remotely can be controlled by the ``$pop_checkinterval'' variable, which defaults to every 60 seconds. If Mutt was compiled with SSL support (by running the configure script with the --with-ssl flag), connections to POP3 servers can be encrypted. This naturally requires that the server supports SSL encrypted connections. To access a folder with POP3/SSL, you should use pops: prefix, ie: pops://[username@]popserver[:port]/. Another way to access your POP3 mail is the fetch-mail function (default: G). It allows to connect to ``pop_host'', fetch all your new mail and place it in the local ``spoolfile''. After this point, Mutt runs exactly as if the mail had always been local. Note: If you only need to fetch all messages to local mailbox you should consider using a specialized program, such as fetchmail 4.11. IMAP Support (OPTIONAL) If Mutt was compiled with IMAP support (by running the configure script with the --enable-imap flag), it has the ability to work with folders located on a remote IMAP server. You can access the remote inbox by selecting the folder imap://imapserver/INBOX, where imapserver is the name of the IMAP server and INBOX is the special name for your spool mailbox on the IMAP server. If you want to access another mail folder at the IMAP server, you should use imap://imapserver/path/to/folder where path/to/folder is the path of the folder you want to access. You can select an alternative port by specifying it with the server, ie: imap://imapserver:port/INBOX. You can also specify different username for each folder, ie: imap://username@imapserver[:port]/INBOX. If Mutt was compiled with SSL support (by running the configure script with the --with-ssl flag), connections to IMAP servers can be encrypted. This naturally requires that the server supports SSL encrypted connections. To access a folder with IMAP/SSL, you should use imaps://[username@]imapserver[:port]/path/to/folder as your folder path. Pine-compatible notation is also supported, ie {[username@]imapserver[:port][/ssl]}path/to/folder Note that not all servers use / as the hierarchy separator. Mutt should correctly notice which separator is being used by the server and convert paths accordingly. When browsing folders on an IMAP server, you can toggle whether to look at only the folders you are subscribed to, or all folders with the toggle-subscribed command. See also the ``$imap_list_subscribed'' variable. Polling for new mail on an IMAP server can cause noticeable delays. So, you'll want to carefully tune the ``$mail_check'' and ``$timeout'' variables. Personally I use set mail_check=90 set timeout=15 with relatively good results over my slow modem line. Note that if you are using mbox as the mail store on UW servers prior to v12.250, the server has been reported to disconnect a client if another client selects the same folder. 4.11.1. The Folder Browser As of version 1.2, mutt supports browsing mailboxes on an IMAP server. This is mostly the same as the local file browser, with the following differences: o In lieu of file permissions, mutt displays the string "IMAP", possibly followed by the symbol "+", indicating that the entry contains both messages and subfolders. On Cyrus-like servers folders will often contain both messages and subfolders. o For the case where an entry can contain both messages and subfolders, the selection key (bound to enter by default) will choose to descend into the subfolder view. If you wish to view the messages in that folder, you must use view-file instead (bound to space by default). o You can delete mailboxes with the delete-mailbox command (bound to d by default. You may also subscribe and unsubscribe to mailboxes (normally these are bound to s and u, respectively). 4.11.2. Authentication Mutt supports four authentication methods with IMAP servers: SASL, GSSAPI, CRAM-MD5, and LOGIN (there is a patch by Grant Edwards to add NTLM authentication for you poor exchange users out there, but it has yet to be integrated into the main tree). There is also support for the pseudo-protocol ANONYMOUS, which allows you to log in to a public IMAP server without having an account. To use ANONYMOUS, simply make your username blank or "anonymous". SASL is a special super-authenticator, which selects among several protocols (including GSSAPI, CRAM-MD5, ANONYMOUS, and DIGEST-MD5) the most secure method available on your host and the server. Using some of these methods (including DIGEST-MD5 and possibly GSSAPI), your entire session will be encrypted and invisible to those teeming network snoops. It is the best option if you have it. To use it, you must have the Cyrus SASL library installed on your system and compile mutt with the --with-sasl flag. Mutt will try whichever methods are compiled in and available on the server, in the following order: SASL, ANONYMOUS, GSSAPI, CRAM-MD5, LOGIN. There are a few variables which control authentication: o ``$imap_user'' - controls the username under which you request authentication on the IMAP server, for all authenticators. This is overridden by an explicit username in the mailbox path (ie by using a mailbox name of the form {user@host}). o ``$imap_pass'' - a password which you may preset, used by all authentication methods where a password is needed. o ``$imap_authenticators'' - a colon-delimited list of IMAP authentication methods to try, in the order you wish to try them. If specified, this overrides mutt's default (attempt everything, in the order listed above). 4.12. Managing multiple IMAP/POP accounts (OPTIONAL) If you happen to have accounts on multiple IMAP and/or POP servers, you may find managing all the authentication settings inconvenient and error-prone. The account-hook command may help. This hook works like folder-hook but is invoked whenever you access a remote mailbox (including inside the folder browser), not just when you open the mailbox. Some examples: account-hook . 'unset imap_user; unset imap_pass; unset tunnel' account-hook imap://host1/ 'set imap_user=me1 imap_pass=foo' account-hook imap://host2/ 'set tunnel="ssh host2 /usr/libexec/imapd"' 4.13. Start a WWW Browser on URLs (EXTERNAL) If a message contains URLs (unified ressource locator = address in the WWW space like http://www.mutt.org/), it is efficient to get a menu with all the URLs and start a WWW browser on one of them. This functionality is provided by the external urlview program which can be retrieved at ftp://ftp.guug.de/pub/mutt/contrib/ and the configuration commands: macro index \cb |urlview\n macro pager \cb |urlview\n 5. Mutt's MIME Support Quite a bit of effort has been made to make Mutt the premier text-mode MIME MUA. Every effort has been made to provide the functionality that the discerning MIME user requires, and the conformance to the standards wherever possible. When configuring Mutt for MIME, there are two extra types of configuration files which Mutt uses. One is the mime.types file, which contains the mapping of file extensions to IANA MIME types. The other is the mailcap file, which specifies the external commands to use for handling specific MIME types. 5.1. Using MIME in Mutt There are three areas/menus in Mutt which deal with MIME, they are the pager (while viewing a message), the attachment menu and the compose menu. 5.1.1. Viewing MIME messages in the pager When you select a message from the index and view it in the pager, Mutt decodes the message to a text representation. Mutt internally supports a number of MIME types, including text/plain, text/enriched, message/rfc822, and message/news. In addition, the export controlled version of Mutt recognizes a variety of PGP MIME types, including PGP/MIME and application/pgp. Mutt will denote attachments with a couple lines describing them. These lines are of the form: [-- Attachment #1: Description --] [-- Type: text/plain, Encoding: 7bit, Size: 10000 --] Where the Description is the description or filename given for the attachment, and the Encoding is one of 7bit/8bit/quoted-print- able/base64/binary. If Mutt cannot deal with a MIME type, it will display a message like: [-- image/gif is unsupported (use 'v' to view this part) --] 5.1.2. The Attachment Menu The default binding for view-attachments is `v', which displays the attachment menu for a message. The attachment menu displays a list of the attachments in a message. From the attachment menu, you can save, print, pipe, delete, and view attachments. You can apply these operations to a group of attachments at once, by tagging the attachments and by using the ``tag-prefix'' operator. You can also reply to the current message from this menu, and only the current attachment (or the attachments tagged) will be quoted in your reply. You can view attachments as text, or view them using the mailcap viewer definition. Finally, you can apply the usual message-related functions (like ``resend-message'', and the reply and forward functions) to attachments of type message/rfc822. See the help on the attachment menu for more information. 5.1.3. The Compose Menu The compose menu is the menu you see before you send a message. It allows you to edit the recipient list, the subject, and other aspects of your message. It also contains a list of the attachments of your message, including the main body. From this menu, you can print, copy, filter, pipe, edit, compose, review, and rename an attachment or a list of tagged attachments. You can also modifying the attachment information, notably the type, encoding and description. Attachments appear as follows: - 1 [text/plain, 7bit, 1K] /tmp/mutt-euler-8082-0 2 [applica/x-gunzip, base64, 422K] ~/src/mutt-0.85.tar.gz The '-' denotes that Mutt will delete the file after sending (or postponing, or cancelling) the message. It can be toggled with the toggle-unlink command (default: u). The next field is the MIME content-type, and can be changed with the edit-type command (default: ^T). The next field is the encoding for the attachment, which allows a binary message to be encoded for transmission on 7bit links. It can be changed with the edit-encoding command (default: ^E). The next field is the size of the attachment, rounded to kilobytes or megabytes. The next field is the filename, which can be changed with the rename-file command (default: R). The final field is the description of the attachment, and can be changed with the edit- description command (default: d). 5.2. MIME Type configuration with mime.types When you add an attachment to your mail message, Mutt searches your personal mime.types file at ${HOME}/.mime.types, and then the system mime.types file at /usr/local/share/mutt/mime.types or /etc/mime.types The mime.types file consist of lines containing a MIME type and a space separated list of extensions. For example: application/postscript ps eps application/pgp pgp audio/x-aiff aif aifc aiff A sample mime.types file comes with the Mutt distribution, and should contain most of the MIME types you are likely to use. If Mutt can not determine the mime type by the extension of the file you attach, it will look at the file. If the file is free of binary information, Mutt will assume that the file is plain text, and mark it as text/plain. If the file contains binary information, then Mutt will mark it as application/octet-stream. You can change the MIME type that Mutt assigns to an attachment by using the edit-type command from the compose menu (default: ^T). The MIME type is actually a major mime type followed by the sub-type, separated by a '/'. 6 major types: application, text, image, video, audio, and model have been approved after various internet discussions. Mutt recognises all of these if the appropriate entry is found in the mime.types file. It also recognises other major mime types, such as the chemical type that is widely used in the molecular modelling community to pass molecular data in various forms to various molecular viewers. Non-recognised mime types should only be used if the recipient of the message is likely to be expecting such attachments. 5.3. MIME Viewer configuration with mailcap Mutt supports RFC 1524 MIME Configuration, in particular the Unix specific format specified in Appendix A of RFC 1524. This file format is commonly referred to as the mailcap format. Many MIME compliant programs utilize the mailcap format, allowing you to specify handling for all MIME types in one place for all programs. Programs known to use this format include Netscape, XMosaic, lynx and metamail. In order to handle various MIME types that Mutt can not handle internally, Mutt parses a series of external configuration files to find an external handler. The default search string for these files is a colon delimited list set to ${HOME}/.mailcap:/usr/local/share/mutt/mailcap:/etc/mailcap:/etc/mailcap:/usr/etc/mailcap:/usr/local/etc/mailcap where $HOME is your home directory. In particular, the metamail distribution will install a mailcap file, usually as /usr/local/etc/mailcap, which contains some baseline entries. 5.3.1. The Basics of the mailcap file A mailcap file consists of a series of lines which are comments, blank, or definitions. A comment line consists of a # character followed by anything you want. A blank line is blank. A definition line consists of a content type, a view command, and any number of optional fields. Each field of a definition line is divided by a semicolon ';' character. The content type is specified in the MIME standard type/subtype method. For example, text/plain, text/html, image/gif, etc. In addition, the mailcap format includes two formats for wildcards, one using the special '*' subtype, the other is the implicit wild, where you only include the major type. For example, image/*, or video, will match all image types and video types, respectively. The view command is a Unix command for viewing the type specified. There are two different types of commands supported. The default is to send the body of the MIME message to the command on stdin. You can change this behaviour by using %s as a parameter to your view command. This will cause Mutt to save the body of the MIME message to a temporary file, and then call the view command with the %s replaced by the name of the temporary file. In both cases, Mutt will turn over the terminal to the view program until the program quits, at which time Mutt will remove the temporary file if it exists. So, in the simplest form, you can send a text/plain message to the external pager more on stdin: text/plain; more Or, you could send the message as a file: text/plain; more %s Perhaps you would like to use lynx to interactively view a text/html message: text/html; lynx %s In this case, lynx does not support viewing a file from stdin, so you must use the %s syntax. Note: Some older versions of lynx contain a bug where they will check the mailcap file for a viewer for text/html. They will find the line which calls lynx, and run it. This causes lynx to continuously spawn itself to view the object. On the other hand, maybe you don't want to use lynx interactively, you just want to have it convert the text/html to text/plain, then you can use: text/html; lynx -dump %s | more Perhaps you wish to use lynx to view text/html files, and a pager on all other text formats, then you would use the following: text/html; lynx %s text/*; more This is the simplest form of a mailcap file. 5.3.2. Secure use of mailcap The interpretion of shell meta-characters embedded in MIME parameters can lead to security problems in general. Mutt tries to quote parameters in expansion of %s syntaxes properly, and avoids risky characters by substituting them, see the ``mailcap_sanitize'' variable. Although mutt's procedures to invoke programs with mailcap seem to be safe, there are other applications parsing mailcap, maybe taking less care of it. Therefore you should pay attention to the following rules: Keep the %-expandos away from shell quoting. Don't quote them with single or double quotes. Mutt does this for you, the right way, as should any other program which interprets mailcap. Don't put them into backtick expansions. Be highly careful with eval statements, and avoid them if possible at all. Trying to fix broken behaviour with quotes introduces new leaks - there is no alternative to correct quoting in the first place. If you have to use the %-expandos' values in context where you need quoting or backtick expansions, put that value into a shell variable and reference the shell variable where necessary, as in the following example (using $charset inside the backtick expansion is safe, since it is not itself subject to any further expansion): text/test-mailcap-bug; cat %s; copiousoutput; test=charset=%{charset} \ && test "`echo $charset | tr '[A-Z]' '[a-z]'`" != iso-8859-1 5.3.3. Advanced mailcap Usage 5.3.3.1. Optional Fields In addition to the required content-type and view command fields, you can add semi-colon ';' separated fields to set flags and other options. Mutt recognizes the following optional fields: copiousoutput This flag tells Mutt that the command passes possibly large amounts of text on stdout. This causes Mutt to invoke a pager (either the internal pager or the external pager defined by the pager variable) on the output of the view command. Without this flag, Mutt assumes that the command is interactive. One could use this to replace the pipe to more in the lynx -dump example in the Basic section: text/html; lynx -dump %s ; copiousoutput This will cause lynx to format the text/html output as text/plain and Mutt will use your standard pager to display the results. needsterminal Mutt uses this flag when viewing attachments with ``autoview'', in order to decide whether it should honor the setting of the ``$wait_key'' variable or not. When an attachment is viewed using an interactive program, and the corresponding mailcap entry has a needsterminal flag, Mutt will use ``$wait_key'' and the exit status of the program to decide if it will ask you to press a key after the external program has exited. In all other situations it will not prompt you for a key. compose= This flag specifies the command to use to create a new attachment of a specific MIME type. Mutt supports this from the compose menu. composetyped= This flag specifies the command to use to create a new attachment of a specific MIME type. This command differs from the compose command in that mutt will expect standard MIME headers on the data. This can be used to specify parameters, filename, description, etc. for a new attachment. Mutt supports this from the compose menu. print= This flag specifies the command to use to print a specific MIME type. Mutt supports this from the attachment and compose menus. edit= This flag specifies the command to use to edit a specific MIME type. Mutt supports this from the compose menu, and also uses it to compose new attachments. Mutt will default to the defined editor for text attachments. nametemplate=