muttrc - Configuration file for the Mutt Mail User Agent
A mutt configuration 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 (“
;”).
The hash mark, or pound sign (“
#”), is used as a
“comment” character. You can use it to annotate your
initialization file. All text after the comment character to the end of the
line is ignored.
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 which should be evaluated. For example,
backticks are evaluated inside of double quotes, but not 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.
“
\\” 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
backticks (
`command`).
UNIX environment variables can be accessed like the way it is done in shells
like sh and bash: Prepend the name of the variable by a dollar (“
$”) sign.
alias [-group name [...]] key address [, address [ ... ]]
unalias [ * | key ]
-
alias defines an alias key for the given
addresses. Each address will be resolved into either an email
address ([email protected]) or a named email address (User Name
<[email protected]>). The address may be specified in either format,
or in the format “[email protected] (User Name)”.
unalias removes the alias corresponding to the given key or
all aliases when “ *” is used as an argument. The
optional -group argument to alias causes the aliased
address(es) to be added to the named group.
group [-group name] [-rx EXPR [ ... ]] [-addr address [ ... ]]
ungroup [-group name ] [ * | [[-rx EXPR [ ... ]] [-addr address [ ... ]]]
-
group is used to directly add either addresses or
regular expressions to the specified group or groups. The different
categories of arguments to the group command can be in any order.
The flags -rx and -addr specify what the following strings
(that cannot begin with a hyphen) should be interpreted as: either a
regular expression or an email address, respectively. ungroup is
used to remove addresses or regular expressions from the specified group
or groups. The syntax is similar to the group command, however the
special character * can be used to empty a group of all of its
contents.
- These address groups can also be created implicitly by the
alias, lists, subscribe and alternates
commands by specifying the optional -group option.
- Once defined, these address groups can be used in patterns
to search for and limit the display to messages matching a group.
alternates [-group name] regexp [ regexp [ ... ]]
unalternates [ * | regexp [ regexp [ ... ]] ]
-
alternates is used to inform mutt about alternate
addresses where you receive mail; you can use regular expressions to
specify alternate addresses. This affects mutt's idea about messages from
you, and messages addressed to you. unalternates removes a regular
expression from the list of known alternates. The -group flag
causes all of the subsequent regular expressions to be added to the named
group.
alternative_order type[/subtype] [ ... ]
unalternative_order [ * | type/subtype] [...]
-
alternative_order command permits you to define an
order of preference which is used by mutt to determine which part of a
multipart/alternative body to display. A subtype of “
*” matches any subtype, as does an empty subtype.
unalternative_order removes entries from the ordered list or
deletes the entire list when “ *” is used as an
argument.
attachments [ + | - ]disposition mime-type
unattachments [ + | - ]disposition mime-type
attachments ?
unattachments *
-
attachments specifies what kinds of attachments are
used for Mutt's attachment counting and searching support.
-
disposition is the attachment's Content-Disposition
type - either inline or attachment. You can abbreviate this to I or
A.
- The first part of a message or multipart group, if inline,
is counted separately than other inline parts. Specify root or R for
disposition to count these as attachments. If this first part is of type
multipart/alternative, note that its top-level inline parts are also
counted via root disposition (if $count_alternatives is set).
-
disposition is prefixed by either a + symbol
or a - symbol. If it's a +, you're saying that you want to
allow this disposition and MIME type to qualify. If it's a -,
you're saying that this disposition and MIME type is an exception to
previous + rules.
-
mime-type is the MIME type of the attachment you
want the command to affect. A MIME type is always of the format
major/minor, where major describes the broad category of document you're
looking at, and minor describes the specific type within that category.
The major part of mime-type must be literal text (or the special token
*), but the minor part may be a regular expression. (Therefore,
*/.* matches any MIME type.)
- The MIME types you give to the attachments directive are a
kind of pattern. When you use the attachments directive, the patterns you
specify are added to a list. When you use unattachments, the pattern is
removed from the list. The patterns are not expanded and matched to
specific MIME types at this time - they're just text in a list. They're
only matched when actually evaluating a message.
auto_view type[/subtype] [ ... ]
unauto_view type[/subtype] [ ... ]
- This commands permits you to specify that mutt should
automatically convert the given MIME types to text/plain when displaying
messages. For this to work, there must be a mailcap(5) entry for
the given MIME type with the copiousoutput flag set. A subtype of
“ *” matches any subtype, as does an empty
subtype.
mime_lookup type[/subtype] [ ... ]
unmime_lookup type[/subtype] [ ... ]
- This command permits you to define a list of
"data" MIME content types for which mutt will try to determine
the actual file type from the file name, and not use a mailcap(5)
entry given for the original MIME type. For instance, you may add the
application/octet-stream MIME type to this list.
-
bind map1,map2,... key
function
- This command binds the given key for the given
map or maps to the given function. Multiple maps may be
specified by separating them with commas (no whitespace is allowed).
- Valid maps are: generic, alias,
attach, browser, editor, index,
compose, pager, pgp, postpone,
mix.
- For more information on keys and functions, please consult
the Mutt Manual. Note that the function name is to be specified without
angle brackets.
-
account-hook [!]regexp
command
- This hook is executed whenever you access a remote mailbox.
Useful to adjust configuration settings to different IMAP or POP
servers.
-
charset-hook alias charset
- This 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.
-
iconv-hook charset local-charset
- This command defines a system-specific name for a character
set. This is useful when your system's iconv(3) implementation does
not understand MIME character set names (such as iso-8859-1), but
instead insists on being fed with implementation-specific character set
names (such as 8859-1). In this specific case, you'd put this into
your configuration file:
- iconv-hook iso-8859-1 8859-1
-
message-hook [!]pattern
command
- Before mutt displays (or formats for replying or
forwarding) a message which matches the given pattern (or, when it
is preceded by an exclamation mark, does not match the pattern),
the given command is executed. When multiple message-hooks
match, they are executed in the order in which they occur in the
configuration file.
-
folder-hook [!]regexp
command
- When mutt enters a folder which matches regexp (or,
when regexp is preceded by an exclamation mark, does not match
regexp), the given command is executed.
- When several folder-hooks match a given mail folder,
they are executed in the order given in the configuration file.
-
macro map key sequence [
description ]
- This command binds the given sequence of keys to the
given key in the given map or maps. For valid maps, see
bind. To specify multiple maps, put only a comma between the
maps.
color object [ attribute ... ] foreground background [ regexp ]
color index [ attribute ... ] foreground background [ pattern ]
color compose composeobject [ attribute ... ] foreground background
uncolor index pattern [ pattern ... ]
- If your terminal supports color, these commands can be used
to assign foreground/background combinations to certain
objects. Valid objects are: attachment, body, bold,
error, header, hdrdefault, index,
indicator, markers, message, normal,
prompt, quoted, quotedN, search,
signature, status, tilde, tree,
underline. If the sidebar is enabled the following objects are also
valid: sidebar_divider, sidebar_flagged,
sidebar_highlight, sidebar_indicator, sidebar_new,
sidebar_spoolfile. The body and header objects allow
you to restrict the colorization to a regular expression. The index
object permits you to select colored messages by pattern.
- Valid composeobjects include header,
security_encrypt, security_sign, security_both,
security_none.
- Valid colors include: white, black,
green, magenta, blue, cyan, yellow,
red, default, colorN.
- Valid attributes include: none, bold,
underline, reverse, and standout.
mono object attribute [ regexp ]
mono index attribute [ pattern ]
- For terminals which don't support color, you can still
assign attributes to objects.
- [un]ignore pattern [ pattern
... ]
- The ignore command permits you to specify header
fields which you usually don't wish to see. Any header field whose tag
begins with an “ignored” pattern will be
ignored.
- The unignore command permits you to define
exceptions from the above mentioned list of ignored headers.
lists [-group name] regexp [ regexp ... ]
unlists regexp [ regexp ... ]
subscribe [-group name] regexp [ regexp ... ]
unsubscribe regexp [ regexp ... ]
- Mutt maintains two lists of mailing list address patterns,
a list of subscribed mailing lists, and a list of known mailing lists. All
subscribed mailing lists are known. Patterns use regular expressions.
- The lists command adds a mailing list address to the
list of known mailing lists. The unlists command removes a mailing
list from the lists of known and subscribed mailing lists. The
subscribe command adds a mailing list to the lists of known and
subscribed mailing lists. The unsubscribe command removes it from
the list of subscribed mailing lists. The -group flag adds all of
the subsequent regular expressions to the named group.
-
mbox-hook [!]regexp
mailbox
- When mutt changes to a mail folder which matches
regexp, mailbox will be used as the “mbox”
folder, i.e., read messages will be moved to that folder when the mail
folder is left.
- The first matching mbox-hook applies.
mailboxes [[-notify | -nonotify]
[ -poll | -nopoll]
[[ -label label] | -nolabel]
filename] [ ... ]
unmailboxes [ * | filename ... ]
- The mailboxes specifies folders which can receive
mail and which will be checked for new messages. When changing folders,
pressing space will cycle through folders with new mail. The
unmailboxes command is used to remove a file name from the list of
folders which can receive mail. If " *" is specified as
the file name, the list is emptied.
my_hdr string
unmy_hdr field
- Using my_hdr, you can define headers which will be
added to the messages you compose. unmy_hdr will remove the given
user-defined headers.
-
hdr_order header1 header2 [ ... ]
- With this command, you can specify an order in which mutt
will attempt to present headers to you when viewing messages.
-
save-hook [!]pattern
filename
- When a message matches pattern, the default file
name when saving it will be the given filename.
-
fcc-hook [!]pattern
filename
- When an outgoing message matches pattern, the
default file name for storing a copy (fcc) will be the given
filename.
-
fcc-save-hook [!]pattern
filename
- This command is an abbreviation for identical
fcc-hook and save-hook commands.
-
send-hook [!]pattern
command
- When composing a message matching pattern,
command is executed. When multiple send-hooks match, they
are executed in the order in which they occur in the configuration
file.
-
send2-hook [!]pattern
command
- Whenever a message matching pattern is changed
(either by editing it or by using the compose menu), command is
executed. When multiple send2-hooks match, they are executed in the
order in which they occur in the configuration file. Possible applications
include setting the $sendmail variable when a message's from header is
changed.
-
send2-hook execution is not triggered by use of
enter-command from the compose menu.
-
reply-hook [!]pattern
command
- When replying to a message matching pattern,
command is executed. When multiple reply-hooks match, they
are executed in the order in which they occur in the configuration file,
but all reply-hooks are matched and executed before
send-hooks, regardless of their order in the configuration
file.
-
crypt-hook regexp key-id
- The crypt-hook command provides a method by which you can
specify the ID of the public key to be used when encrypting messages to a
certain recipient. The meaning of "key ID" is to be taken
broadly: This can be a different e-mail address, a numerical key ID, or
even just an arbitrary search string. You may use multiple
crypt-hooks with the same regexp; multiple matching
crypt-hooks result in the use of multiple key-ids for a
recipient.
-
index-format-hook name
[!]pattern format-string
- This command is used to inject format strings dynamically
into $index_format based on pattern matching against the current
message.
- The $index_format expando %@name@ specifies a
placeholder for the injection. Index-format-hooks with the same
name are matched using pattern against the current message.
Matching is done in the order specified in the .muttrc, with the first
match being used. The hook's format-string is then substituted and
evaluated.
open-hook regexp "command"
close-hook regexp "command"
append-hook regexp "command"
- These commands provide a way to handle compressed folders.
The given regexp specifies which folders are taken as compressed
(e.g. " \\.gz$"). The commands tell Mutt how to
uncompress a folder ( open-hook), compress a folder
(close-hook) or append a compressed mail to a compressed folder (
append-hook). The command string is the printf(3)
like format string, and it should accept two parameters: %f, which
is replaced with the (compressed) folder name, and %t which is
replaced with the name of the temporary folder to which to write.
push string
exec function [ ... ]
-
push adds the named string to the keyboard
buffer. “exec function” is equivalent to “push
<function>”.
-
run MuttLisp
- The run command evaluates the MuttLisp
argument. The output of the MuttLisp is then executed as a Mutt
command, as if it were typed in the muttrc instead.
score pattern value
unscore [ * | pattern ... ]
- The score commands adds value to a message's
score if pattern matches it. The unscore command removes
score entries from the list.
set [no|inv|&|?]variable[=value] [ ... ]
toggle variable [ ... ]
unset variable [ ... ]
reset variable [ ... ]
- These commands are used to set and manipulate configuration
variables.
- Mutt knows four basic types of variables: boolean, number,
string and quadoption. Boolean variables can be set (true),
unset (false), or toggled. 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 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.”
- The reset command resets all given variables to the
compile time defaults. If you reset the special variable all, all
variables will reset to their compile time defaults.
setenv [?]variable [ value ]
unsetenv variable
- These alter the environment that Mutt passes on to its
child processes. You can also query current environment values by
prefixing a “?” character.
sidebar_whitelist mailbox [ mailbox ...]
unsidebar_whitelist [ * | mailbox ... ]
-
sidebar_whitelist specifies mailboxes that will
always be displayed in the sidebar, even if $sidebar_new_mail_only is set
and the mailbox does not contain new mail.
-
unsidebar_whitelist is used to remove a mailbox from
the list of whitelisted mailboxes. Use unsidebar_whitelist * to
remove all mailboxes.
-
source filename
- The given file will be evaluated as a configuration
file.
spam pattern format
nospam pattern
- These commands define spam-detection patterns from external
spam filters, so that mutt can sort, limit, and search on ``spam tags'' or
``spam attributes'', or display them in the index. See the Mutt manual for
details.
subjectrx pattern replacement
unsubjectrx [ * | pattern ]
-
subjectrx specifies a regular expression
pattern which, if detected in a message subject, causes the subject
to be replaced with the replacement value. The replacement
is subject to substitutions in the same way as for the spam
command: %L for the text to the left of the match, %R for text to the
right of the match, and %1 for the first subgroup in the match (etc). If
you simply want to erase the match, set it to “%L%R”. Any
number of subjectrx commands may coexist.
- Note this well: the replacement value replaces the
entire subject, not just the match!
-
unsubjectrx removes a given subjectrx from
the substitution list. If * is used as the pattern, all
substitutions will be removed.
-
unhook [ * | hook-type ]
- This command will remove all hooks of a given type, or all
hooks when “ *” is used as an argument.
hook-type can be any of the -hook commands documented
above.
mailto_allow header-field [ ... ]
unmailto_allow [ * | header-field ... ]
- These commands allow the user to modify the list of allowed
header fields in a mailto: URL that Mutt will include in the the
generated message. By default the list contains only subject and
body, as specified by RFC2368.
-
echo message
- Prints message to the message window. After printing
the message, echo will pause for the number of seconds specified by
$sleep_time.
-
cd directory
- Changes the current working directory.
In various places with mutt, including some of the above mentioned
hook
commands, you can specify patterns to match messages.
A simple pattern consists of a modifier of the form “
~character”, possibly followed by a parameter against
which mutt is supposed to match the object specified by this modifier. For
some
characters, the
~ may be replaced by another character to
alter the behavior of the match. These are described in the list of modifiers,
below.
With some of these modifiers, the object to be matched consists of several
e-mail addresses. In these cases, the object is matched if at least one of
these e-mail addresses matches. You can prepend a hat (“
^”) character to such a pattern to indicate that
all
addresses must match in order to match the object.
You can construct complex patterns by combining simple patterns with logical
operators. Logical AND is specified by simply concatenating two simple
patterns, for instance “~C mutt-dev ~s bug”. Logical OR is
specified by inserting a vertical bar (“
|”) between two
patterns, for instance “~C mutt-dev | ~s bug”. Additionally, you
can negate a pattern by prepending a bang (“
!”)
character. For logical grouping, use braces (“()”). Example:
“!(~t mutt|~c mutt) ~f elkins”.
Mutt understands the following simple patterns:
- ~A
- all messages
- ~b EXPR
- messages which contain EXPR in the message
body.
- =b STRING
- If IMAP is enabled, like ~b but searches for STRING
on the server, rather than downloading each message and searching it
locally.
- ~B EXPR
- messages which contain EXPR in the whole
message.
- =B STRING
- If IMAP is enabled, like ~B but searches for STRING
on the server, rather than downloading each message and searching it
locally.
- ~c EXPR
- messages carbon-copied to EXPR
- %c GROUP
- messages carbon-copied to any member of GROUP
- ~C EXPR
- messages either to: or cc: EXPR
- %C GROUP
- messages either to: or cc: to any member of
GROUP
- ~d MIN-MAX
- messages with “date-sent” in a Date
range
- ~D
- deleted messages
- ~e EXPR
- messages which contain EXPR in the
“Sender” field
- %e GROUP
- messages which contain a member of GROUP in the
“Sender” field
- ~E
- expired messages
- ~f EXPR
- messages originating from EXPR
- %f GROUP
- messages originating from any member of GROUP
- ~F
- flagged messages
- ~g
- PGP signed messages
- ~G
- PGP encrypted messages
- ~h EXPR
- messages which contain EXPR in the message
header
- =h STRING
- If IMAP is enabled, like ~h but searches for STRING
on the server, rather than downloading each message and searching it
locally. STRING must be of the form “header:
substring”
- ~H EXPR
- messages with spam tags matching EXPR
- ~i EXPR
- messages which match EXPR in the
“Message-ID” field
- ~k
- messages containing PGP key material
- ~l
- messages addressed to a known mailing list (defined by
either subscribe or list)
- ~L EXPR
- messages either originated or received by EXPR
- %L GROUP
- messages either originated or received by any member of
GROUP
- ~m MIN-MAX
- message in the range MIN to MAX
- ~M EXPR
- messages which contain a mime Content-Type matching
EXPR
- ~n MIN-MAX
- messages with a score in the range MIN to
MAX
- ~N
- new messages
- ~O
- old messages
- ~p
- messages addressed to you (consults $from,
alternates, and local account/hostname information)
- ~P
- messages from you (consults $from, alternates, and
local account/hostname information)
- ~Q
- messages which have been replied to
- ~r MIN-MAX
- messages with “date-received” in a Date
range
- ~R
- read messages
- ~s EXPR
- messages having EXPR in the “Subject”
field.
- ~S
- superseded messages
- ~t EXPR
- messages addressed to EXPR
- ~T
- tagged messages
- ~u
- messages addressed to a subscribed mailing list (defined by
subscribe commands)
- ~U
- unread messages
- ~v
- message is part of a collapsed thread.
- ~V
- cryptographically verified messages
- ~x EXPR
- messages which contain EXPR in the
“References” or “In-Reply-To” field
- ~X MIN-MAX
- messages with MIN - MAX attachments
- ~y EXPR
- messages which contain EXPR in the
“X-Label” field
- ~z MIN-MAX
- messages with a size in the range MIN to
MAX
- ~=
- duplicated messages (see $duplicate_threads)
- ~$
- unreferenced message (requires threaded view)
- ~(PATTERN)
- messages in threads containing messages matching a certain
pattern, e.g. all threads containing messages from you: ~(~P)
- ~<(PATTERN)
- messages whose immediate parent matches PATTERN, e.g.
replies to your messages: ~<(~P)
- ~>(PATTERN)
- messages having an immediate child matching PATTERN, e.g.
messages you replied to: ~>(~P)
In the above,
EXPR is a regular expression.
With the
~d,
~m,
~n,
~r,
~X, and
~z
modifiers, you can also specify ranges in the forms
<MAX,
> MIN,
MIN-, and
-MAX.
With the
~z modifier, the suffixes “K” and
“M” are allowed to specify kilobyte and megabyte respectively.
The
~b,
~B,
~h,
~M, and
~X modifiers require
reading each message in, which can be much slower.
You can force Mutt to treat
EXPR as a simple string instead of a regular
expression by using = instead of ~ in the pattern name.
The
~d and
~r modifiers are used to match date ranges, which are
interpreted to be given in your local time zone.
A date is of the form
DD[
/MM[
/[
cc]
YY]], that is, a
two-digit date, optionally followed by a two-digit month, optionally followed
by a year specifications. Omitted fields default to the current month and
year.
Mutt understands either two or four digit year specifications. When given a
two-digit year, mutt will interpret values less than 70 as lying in the 21st
century (i.e., “38” means 2038 and not 1938, and
“00” is interpreted as 2000), and values greater than or equal
to 70 as lying in the 20th century.
Note that this behavior
is Y2K compliant, but that mutt
does have
a Y2.07K problem.
Alternatively, you may use
YYYYMMDD to specify a date.
If a date range consists of a single date, the modifier in question will match
that precise date. If the date range consists of a dash (“
-”), followed by a date, this range will match any date before
and up to the date given. Similarly, a date followed by a dash matches the
date given and any later point of time. Two dates, separated by a dash, match
any date which lies in the given range of time.
You can also modify any absolute date by giving an error range. An error range
consists of one of the characters
+,
-,
*, followed by a
positive number, followed by one of the unit characters
y,
m,
w, or
d, specifying a unit of years, months, weeks, or days.
+ increases the maximum date matched by the given interval of time,
- decreases the minimum date matched by the given interval of time, and
* increases the maximum date and decreases the minimum date matched by
the given interval of time. It is possible to give multiple error margins,
which cumulate. Example:
1/1/2001-1w+2w*3d
You can also specify offsets relative to the current date. An offset is
specified as one of the characters
<,
>,
=,
followed by a positive number, followed by one of the unit characters
y,
m,
w,
d,
H,
M, or
S.
> matches dates which are older than the specified amount of time,
an offset which begins with the character
< matches dates which are
more recent than the specified amount of time, and an offset which begins with
the character
= matches points of time which are precisely the given
amount of time ago.
- abort_noattach
-
Type: quadoption
Default: no
- When the body of the message matches $abort_noattach_regexp
and there are no attachments, this quadoption controls whether to abort
sending the message.
- abort_noattach_regexp
-
Type: regular expression
Default: “attach”
- Specifies a regular expression to match against the body of
the message, to determine if an attachment was mentioned but mistakenly
forgotten. If it matches, $abort_noattach will be consulted to determine
if message sending will be aborted.
- Like other regular expressions in Mutt, the search is case
sensitive if the pattern contains at least one upper case letter, and case
insensitive otherwise.
- abort_nosubject
-
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes
- If set to yes, when composing messages and no
subject is given at the subject prompt, composition will be aborted. If
set to no, composing messages with no subject given at the subject
prompt will never be aborted.
- abort_unmodified
-
Type: quadoption
Default: yes
- If set to yes, composition will automatically abort
after editing the message body if no changes are made to the file (this
check only happens after the first edit of the file). When set to
no, composition will never be aborted.
- alias_file
-
Type: path
Default: “~/.muttrc”
- The default file in which to save aliases created by the
<create-alias> function. Entries added to this file are
encoded in the character set specified by $config_charset if it is
set or the current character set otherwise.
-
Note: Mutt will not automatically source this file;
you must explicitly use the “source” command for it to be
executed in case this option points to a dedicated alias file.
- The default for this option is the currently used muttrc
file, or “~/.muttrc” if no user muttrc was found.
- alias_format
-
Type: string
Default: “%4n %2f %t %-10a %r”
- Specifies the format of the data displayed for the
“alias” menu. The following printf(3)-style sequences
are available:
- %a
- alias name
- %f
- flags - currently, a “d” for an alias marked
for deletion
- %n
- index number
- %r
- address which alias expands to
- %t
- character which indicates if the alias is tagged for
inclusion
- allow_8bit
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- Controls whether 8-bit data is converted to 7-bit using
either Quoted- Printable or Base64 encoding when sending mail.
- allow_ansi
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- Controls whether ANSI color codes in messages (and color
tags in rich text messages) are to be interpreted. Messages containing
these codes are rare, but if this option is set, their text will be
colored accordingly. Note that this may override your color choices, and
even present a security problem, since a message could include a line like
-
[-- PGP output follows ...
- and give it the same color as your attachment color (see
also $crypt_timestamp).
- arrow_cursor
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, an arrow (“->”) will be
used to indicate the current entry in menus instead of highlighting the
whole line. On slow network or modem links this will make response faster
because there is less that has to be redrawn on the screen when moving to
the next or previous entries in the menu.
- ascii_chars
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- If set, Mutt will use plain ASCII characters when
displaying thread and attachment trees, instead of the default ACS
characters.
- askbcc
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- If set, Mutt will prompt you for blind-carbon-copy
(Bcc) recipients before editing an outgoing message.
- askcc
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- If set, Mutt will prompt you for carbon-copy (Cc)
recipients before editing the body of an outgoing message.
- assumed_charset
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This variable is a colon-separated list of character
encoding schemes for messages without character encoding indication.
Header field values and message body content without character encoding
indication would be assumed that they are written in one of this list. By
default, all the header fields and message body without any charset
indication are assumed to be in “us-ascii”.
- For example, Japanese users might prefer this:
-
set assumed_charset=”iso-2022-jp:euc-jp:shift_jis:utf-8”
- However, only the first content is valid for the message
body.
- attach_charset
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This variable is a colon-separated list of character
encoding schemes for text file attachments. Mutt uses this setting to
guess which encoding files being attached are encoded in to convert them
to a proper character set given in $send_charset.
- If unset, the value of $charset will be used
instead. For example, the following configuration would work for Japanese
text handling:
-
set attach_charset=”iso-2022-jp:euc-jp:shift_jis:utf-8”
- Note: for Japanese users, “iso-2022-*” must
be put at the head of the value as shown above if included.
- attach_format
-
Type: string
Default: “%u%D%I %t%4n %T%.40d%> [%.7m/%.10M, %.6e%?C?, %C?, %s] ”
- This variable describes the format of the
“attachment” menu. The following printf(3)-style
sequences are understood:
- %C
- charset
- %c
- requires charset conversion (“n” or
“c”)
- %D
- deleted flag
- %d
- description (if none, falls back to %F)
- %e
- MIME content-transfer-encoding
- %F
- filename in content-disposition header (if none, falls back
to %f)
- %f
- filename
- %I
- disposition (“I” for inline,
“A” for attachment)
- %m
- major MIME type
- %M
- MIME subtype
- %n
- attachment number
- %Q
- “Q”, if MIME part qualifies for attachment
counting
- %s
- size (see formatstrings-size)
- %t
- tagged flag
- %T
- graphic tree characters
- %u
- unlink (=to delete) flag
- %X
- number of qualifying MIME parts in this part and its
children (please see the “attachments” section for possible
speed effects)
- %>X
- right justify the rest of the string and pad with character
“X”
- %|X
- pad to the end of the line with character
“X”
- %*X
- soft-fill with character “X” as pad
- For an explanation of “soft-fill”, see the
$index_format documentation.
- attach_save_charset_convert
-
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes
- When saving received text-type attachments, this quadoption
prompts to convert the character set if the encoding of the attachment (or
$assumed_charset if none is specified) differs from charset.
- attach_save_dir
-
Type: path
Default: “”
- The default directory to save attachments from the
“attachment” menu. If it doesn't exist, Mutt will prompt to
create the directory before saving.
- If the path is invalid (e.g. not a directory, or cannot be
chdir'ed to), Mutt will fall back to using the current directory.
- attach_sep
-
Type: string
Default: “\n”
- The separator to add between attachments when operating
(saving, printing, piping, etc) on a list of tagged attachments.
- attach_split
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- If this variable is unset, when operating (saving,
printing, piping, etc) on a list of tagged attachments, Mutt will
concatenate the attachments and will operate on them as a single
attachment. The $attach_sep separator is added after each attachment. When
set, Mutt will operate on the attachments one by one.
- attribution
-
Type: string (localized)
Default: “On %d, %n wrote:”
- This is the string that will precede a message which has
been included in a reply. For a full listing of defined
printf(3)-like sequences see the section on $index_format.
- attribution_locale
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- The locale used by strftime(3) to format dates in
the attribution string. Legal values are the strings your system accepts
for the locale environment variable $LC_TIME.
- This variable is to allow the attribution date format to be
customized by recipient or folder using hooks. By default, Mutt will use
your locale environment, so there is no need to set this except to
override that default.
- auto_subscribe
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, Mutt assumes the presence of a List-Post
header means the recipient is subscribed to the list. Unless the mailing
list is in the “unsubscribe” or “unlist”
lists, it will be added to the “subscribe” list. Parsing and
checking these things slows header reading down, so this option is
disabled by default.
- auto_tag
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, functions in the index menu which
affect a message will be applied to all tagged messages (if there are
any). When unset, you must first use the <tag-prefix>
function (bound to “;” by default) to make the next function
apply to all tagged messages.
- autocrypt
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, enables autocrypt, which provides passive
encryption protection with keys exchanged via headers. See
“autocryptdoc” for more details. (Autocrypt only)
- autocrypt_acct_format
-
Type: string
Default: “%4n %-30a %20p %10s”
- This variable describes the format of the “autocrypt
account” menu. The following printf(3)-style sequences are
understood
- %a
- email address
- %k
- gpg keyid
- %n
- current entry number
- %p
- prefer-encrypt flag
- %s
- status flag (active/inactive)
- (Autocrypt only)
- autocrypt_dir
-
Type: path
Default: “~/.mutt/autocrypt”
- This variable sets where autocrypt files are stored,
including the GPG keyring and sqlite database. See
“autocryptdoc” for more details. (Autocrypt only)
- autocrypt_reply
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When set, replying to an autocrypt email
automatically enables autocrypt in the reply. You may want to unset this
if you're using the same key for autocrypt as normal web-of-trust, so that
autocrypt isn't forced on for all encrypted replies. (Autocrypt only)
- autoedit
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set along with $edit_headers, Mutt will skip
the initial send-menu (prompting for subject and recipients) and allow you
to immediately begin editing the body of your message. The send-menu may
still be accessed once you have finished editing the body of your
message.
-
Note: when this option is set, you cannot use
send-hooks that depend on the recipients when composing a new (non-reply)
message, as the initial list of recipients is empty.
- Also see $fast_reply.
- background_edit
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, Mutt will run $editor in the background
during message composition. A landing page will display, waiting for the
$editor to exit. The landing page may be exited, allowing perusal of the
mailbox, or even for other messages to be composed. Backgrounded sessions
may be returned to via the <background-compose-menu>
function.
- For background editing to work properly, $editor must be
set to an editor that does not try to use the Mutt terminal: for example a
graphical editor, or a script launching (and waiting for) the editor in
another Gnu Screen window.
- For more details, see “bgedit”
(”Background Editing” in the manual).
- background_confirm_quit
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When set, if there are any background edit sessions,
you will be prompted to confirm exiting Mutt, in addition to the $quit
prompt.
- background_format
-
Type: string
Default: “%10S %7p %s”
- This variable describes the format of the
“background compose” menu. The following
printf(3)-style sequences are understood:
- %i
- parent message id (for replies and forwarded messages)
- %n
- the running number on the menu
- %p
- pid of the $editor process
- %r
- comma separated list of “To:” recipients
- %R
- comma separated list of “Cc:” recipients
- %s
- subject of the message
- %S
- status of the $editor process: running/finished
- beep
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When this variable is set, mutt will beep when an
error occurs.
- beep_new
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When this variable is set, mutt will beep whenever
it prints a message notifying you of new mail. This is independent of the
setting of the $beep variable.
- bounce
-
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes
- Controls whether you will be asked to confirm bouncing
messages. If set to yes you don't get asked if you want to bounce a
message. Setting this variable to no is not generally useful, and
thus not recommended, because you are unable to bounce messages.
- bounce_delivered
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When this variable is set, mutt will include
Delivered-To headers when bouncing messages. Postfix users may wish to
unset this variable.
- braille_friendly
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When this variable is set, mutt will place the
cursor at the beginning of the current line in menus, even when the
$arrow_cursor variable is unset, making it easier for blind persons
using Braille displays to follow these menus. The option is unset
by default because many visual terminals don't permit making the cursor
invisible.
- browser_abbreviate_mailboxes
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When this variable is set, mutt will abbreviate
mailbox names in the browser mailbox list, using '~' and '='
shortcuts.
- The default ”alpha” setting of
$sort_browser uses locale-based sorting (using strcoll(3)), which
ignores some punctuation. This can lead to some situations where the order
doesn't make intuitive sense. In those cases, it may be desirable to
unset this variable.
- browser_sticky_cursor
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When this variable is set, the browser will attempt
to keep the cursor on the same mailbox when performing various functions.
These include moving up a directory, toggling between mailboxes and
directory listing, creating/renaming a mailbox, toggling subscribed
mailboxes, and entering a new mask.
- certificate_file
-
Type: path
Default: “~/.mutt_certificates”
- This variable specifies the file where the certificates you
trust are saved. When an unknown certificate is encountered, you are asked
if you accept it or not. If you accept it, the certificate can also be
saved in this file and further connections are automatically
accepted.
- You can also manually add CA certificates in this file. Any
server certificate that is signed with one of these CA certificates is
also automatically accepted.
- Example:
-
set certificate_file=~/.mutt/certificates
- (OpenSSL and GnuTLS only)
- change_folder_next
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When this variable is set, the
<change-folder> function mailbox suggestion will start at the
next folder in your “mailboxes” list, instead of starting at
the first folder in the list.
- charset
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- Character set your terminal uses to display and enter
textual data. It is also the fallback for $send_charset.
- Upon startup Mutt tries to derive this value from
environment variables such as $LC_CTYPE or $LANG.
-
Note: It should only be set in case Mutt isn't able
to determine the character set used correctly.
- check_mbox_size
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When this variable is set, mutt will use file size
attribute instead of access time when checking for new mail in mbox and
mmdf folders.
- This variable is unset by default and should only be
enabled when new mail detection for these folder types is unreliable or
doesn't work.
- Note that enabling this variable should happen before any
“mailboxes” directives occur in configuration files
regarding mbox or mmdf folders because mutt needs to determine the initial
new mail status of such a mailbox by performing a fast mailbox scan when
it is defined. Afterwards the new mail status is tracked by file size
changes.
- check_new
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
-
Note: this option only affects maildir and
MH style mailboxes.
- When set, Mutt will check for new mail delivered
while the mailbox is open. Especially with MH mailboxes, this operation
can take quite some time since it involves scanning the directory and
checking each file to see if it has already been looked at. If this
variable is unset, no check for new mail is performed while the
mailbox is open.
- collapse_unread
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When unset, Mutt will not collapse a thread if it
contains any unread messages.
- compose_confirm_detach_first
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When set, Mutt will prompt for confirmation when
trying to use <detach-file> on the first entry in the compose
menu. This is to help prevent irreversible loss of the typed message by
accidentally hitting 'D' in the menu.
- Note: Mutt only prompts for the first entry. It doesn't
keep track of which message is the typed message if the entries are
reordered, or if the first entry was already deleted.
- compose_format
-
Type: string (localized)
Default: “-- Mutt: Compose [Approx. msg size: %l Atts: %a]%>-”
- Controls the format of the status line displayed in the
“compose” menu. This string is similar to $status_format,
but has its own set of printf(3)-like sequences:
- %a
- total number of attachments
- %h
- local hostname
- %l
- approximate size (in bytes) of the current message (see
formatstrings-size)
- %v
- Mutt version string
- See the text describing the $status_format option for more
information on how to set $compose_format.
- config_charset
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- When defined, Mutt will recode commands in rc files from
this encoding to the current character set as specified by $charset and
aliases written to $alias_file from the current character set.
- Please note that if setting $charset it must be done before
setting $config_charset.
- Recoding should be avoided as it may render unconvertable
characters as question marks which can lead to undesired side effects (for
example in regular expressions).
- confirmappend
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When set, Mutt will prompt for confirmation when
appending messages to an existing mailbox.
- confirmcreate
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When set, Mutt will prompt for confirmation when
saving messages to a mailbox which does not yet exist before creating it.
- connect_timeout
-
Type: number
Default: 30
- Causes Mutt to timeout a network connection (for IMAP, POP
or SMTP) after this many seconds if the connection is not able to be
established. A negative value causes Mutt to wait indefinitely for the
connection attempt to succeed.
- content_type
-
Type: string
Default: “text/plain”
- Sets the default Content-Type for the body of newly
composed messages.
- copy
-
Type: quadoption
Default: yes
- This variable controls whether or not copies of your
outgoing messages will be saved for later references. Also see $record,
$save_name, $force_name and “fcc-hook”.
- copy_decode_weed
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- Controls whether Mutt will weed headers when invoking the
<decode-copy> or <decode-save> functions.
- count_alternatives
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, Mutt will recurse inside
multipart/alternatives while performing attachment searching and counting
(see attachments).
- Traditionally, multipart/alternative parts have simply
represented different encodings of the main content of the email.
Unfortunately, some mail clients have started to place email attachments
inside one of alternatives. Setting this will allow Mutt to find and count
matching attachments hidden there, and include them in the index via %X or
through ~X pattern matching.
- cursor_overlay
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, Mutt will overlay the indicator, tree,
sidebar_highlight, and sidebar_indicator colors onto the currently
selected line. This will allow default colors in those to be
overridden, and for attributes to be merged between the layers.
- crypt_autoencrypt
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- Setting this variable will cause Mutt to always attempt to
PGP encrypt outgoing messages. This is probably only useful in connection
to the “send-hook” command. It can be overridden by use of
the pgp menu, when encryption is not required or signing is requested as
well. If $smime_is_default is set, then OpenSSL is used instead to
create S/MIME messages and settings can be overridden by use of the smime
menu instead. (Crypto only)
- crypt_autopgp
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- This variable controls whether or not mutt may
automatically enable PGP encryption/signing for messages. See also
$crypt_autoencrypt, $crypt_replyencrypt, $crypt_autosign, $crypt_replysign
and $smime_is_default.
- crypt_autosign
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- Setting this variable will cause Mutt to always attempt to
cryptographically sign outgoing messages. This can be overridden by use of
the pgp menu, when signing is not required or encryption is requested as
well. If $smime_is_default is set, then OpenSSL is used instead to
create S/MIME messages and settings can be overridden by use of the smime
menu instead of the pgp menu. (Crypto only)
- crypt_autosmime
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- This variable controls whether or not mutt may
automatically enable S/MIME encryption/signing for messages. See also
$crypt_autoencrypt, $crypt_replyencrypt, $crypt_autosign, $crypt_replysign
and $smime_is_default.
- crypt_confirmhook
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- If set, then you will be prompted for confirmation of keys
when using the crypt-hook command. If unset, no such confirmation
prompt will be presented. This is generally considered unsafe, especially
where typos are concerned.
- crypt_opportunistic_encrypt
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- Setting this variable will cause Mutt to automatically
enable and disable encryption, based on whether all message recipient keys
can be located by Mutt.
- When this option is enabled, Mutt will enable/disable
encryption each time the TO, CC, and BCC lists are edited. If
$edit_headers is set, Mutt will also do so each time the message is
edited.
- While this is set, encryption can't be manually
enabled/disabled. The pgp or smime menus provide a selection to
temporarily disable this option for the current message.
- If $crypt_autoencrypt or $crypt_replyencrypt enable
encryption for a message, this option will be disabled for that message.
It can be manually re-enabled in the pgp or smime menus. (Crypto only)
- crypt_opportunistic_encrypt_strong_keys
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, this modifies the behavior of
$crypt_opportunistic_encrypt to only search for ”strong
keys”, that is, keys with full validity according to the
web-of-trust algorithm. A key with marginal or no validity will not enable
opportunistic encryption.
- For S/MIME, the behavior depends on the backend. Classic
S/MIME will filter for certificates with the 't' (trusted) flag in the
.index file. The GPGME backend will use the same filters as with OpenPGP,
and depends on GPGME's logic for assigning the GPGME_VALIDITY_FULL and
GPGME_VALIDITY_ULTIMATE validity flag.
- crypt_protected_headers_read
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When set, Mutt will display protected headers in the pager,
and will update the index and header cache with revised headers. Protected
headers are stored inside the encrypted or signed part of an an email, to
prevent disclosure or tampering. For more information see
https://github.com/autocrypt/protected-headers. Currently Mutt only
supports the Subject header.
- Encrypted messages using protected headers often substitute
the exposed Subject header with a dummy value (see
$crypt_protected_headers_subject). Mutt will update its concept of the
correct subject after the message is opened, i.e. via the
<display-message> function. If you reply to a message before
opening it, Mutt will end up using the dummy Subject header, so be sure to
open such a message first. (Crypto only)
- crypt_protected_headers_save
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When $crypt_protected_headers_read is set, and a message
with a protected Subject is opened, Mutt will save the updated Subject
into the header cache by default. This allows searching/limiting based on
the protected Subject header if the mailbox is re-opened, without having
to re-open the message each time. However, for mbox/mh mailbox types, or
if header caching is not set up, you would need to re-open the message
each time the mailbox was reopened before you could see or search/limit on
the protected subject again.
- When this variable is set, Mutt additionally saves the
protected Subject back in the clear-text message headers. This
provides better usability, but with the tradeoff of reduced security. The
protected Subject header, which may have previously been encrypted, is now
stored in clear-text in the message headers. Copying the message
elsewhere, via Mutt or external tools, could expose this previously
encrypted data. Please make sure you understand the consequences of this
before you enable this variable. (Crypto only)
- crypt_protected_headers_subject
-
Type: string
Default: “...”
- When $crypt_protected_headers_write is set, and the message
is marked for encryption, this will be substituted into the Subject field
in the message headers. To prevent a subject from being substituted, unset
this variable, or set it to the empty string. (Crypto only)
- crypt_protected_headers_write
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, Mutt will generate protected headers for signed
and encrypted emails. Protected headers are stored inside the encrypted or
signed part of an an email, to prevent disclosure or tampering. For more
information see https://github.com/autocrypt/protected-headers. Currently
Mutt only supports the Subject header. (Crypto only)
- crypt_replyencrypt
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- If set, automatically PGP or OpenSSL encrypt replies
to messages which are encrypted. (Crypto only)
- crypt_replysign
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- If set, automatically PGP or OpenSSL sign replies to
messages which are signed.
-
Note: this does not work on messages that are
encrypted and signed! (Crypto only)
- crypt_replysignencrypted
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- If set, automatically PGP or OpenSSL sign replies to
messages which are encrypted. This makes sense in combination with
$crypt_replyencrypt, because it allows you to sign all messages which are
automatically encrypted. This works around the problem noted in
$crypt_replysign, that mutt is not able to find out whether an encrypted
message is also signed. (Crypto only)
- crypt_timestamp
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- If set, mutt will include a time stamp in the lines
surrounding PGP or S/MIME output, so spoofing such lines is more
difficult. If you are using colors to mark these lines, and rely on these,
you may unset this setting. (Crypto only)
- crypt_use_gpgme
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- This variable controls the use of the GPGME-enabled crypto
backends. If it is set and Mutt was built with gpgme support, the
gpgme code for S/MIME and PGP will be used instead of the classic code.
Note that you need to set this option in .muttrc; it won't have any effect
when used interactively.
- Note that the GPGME backend does not support creating
old-style inline (traditional) PGP encrypted or signed messages (see
$pgp_autoinline).
- crypt_use_pka
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- Controls whether mutt uses PKA (see
http://www.g10code.de/docs/pka-intro.de.pdf) during signature verification
(only supported by the GPGME backend).
- crypt_verify_sig
-
Type: quadoption
Default: yes
- If “yes”, always attempt to verify PGP
or S/MIME signatures. If “ask-*”, ask whether or not
to verify the signature. If “no”, never attempt to
verify cryptographic signatures. (Crypto only)
- date_format
-
Type: string
Default: “!%a, %b %d, %Y at %I:%M:%S%p %Z”
- This variable controls the format of the date printed by
the “%d” sequence in $index_format. This is passed to the
strftime(3) function to process the date, see the man page for the
proper syntax.
- Unless the first character in the string is a bang
(“!”), the month and week day names are expanded according
to the locale. If the first character in the string is a bang, the bang is
discarded, and the month and week day names in the rest of the string are
expanded in the C locale (that is in US English).
- default_hook
-
Type: string
Default: “~f %s !~P | (~P ~C %s)”
- This variable controls how “message-hook”,
“reply-hook”, “send-hook”,
“send2-hook”, “save-hook”, and
“fcc-hook” will be interpreted if they are specified with
only a simple regexp, instead of a matching pattern. The hooks are
expanded when they are declared, so a hook will be interpreted according
to the value of this variable at the time the hook is declared.
- The default value matches if the message is either from a
user matching the regular expression given, or if it is from you (if the
from address matches “alternates”) and is to or cc'ed to a
user matching the given regular expression.
- delete
-
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes
- Controls whether or not messages are really deleted when
closing or synchronizing a mailbox. If set to yes, messages marked
for deleting will automatically be purged without prompting. If set to
no, messages marked for deletion will be kept in the mailbox.
- This option is ignored for maildir-style mailboxes when
$maildir_trash is set.
- delete_untag
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- If this option is set, mutt will untag messages when
marking them for deletion. This applies when you either explicitly delete
a message, or when you save it to another folder.
- digest_collapse
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- If this option is set, mutt's received-attachments
menu will not show the subparts of individual messages in a
multipart/digest. To see these subparts, press “v” on that
menu.
- display_filter
-
Type: path
Default: “”
- When set, specifies a command used to filter messages. When
a message is viewed it is passed as standard input to $display_filter, and
the filtered message is read from the standard output.
- dotlock_program
-
Type: path
Default: “/usr/bin/mutt_dotlock”
- Contains the path of the mutt_dotlock(1) binary to
be used by mutt.
- dsn_notify
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This variable sets the request for when notification is
returned. The string consists of a comma separated list (no spaces!) of
one or more of the following: never, to never request notification,
failure, to request notification on transmission failure,
delay, to be notified of message delays, success, to be
notified of successful transmission.
- Example:
-
set dsn_notify=”failure,delay”
-
Note: when using $sendmail for delivery, you should
not enable this unless you are either using Sendmail 8.8.x or greater or a
MTA providing a sendmail(1)-compatible interface supporting the
-N option for DSN. For SMTP delivery, DSN support is auto-detected
so that it depends on the server whether DSN will be used or not.
- dsn_return
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This variable controls how much of your message is returned
in DSN messages. It may be set to either hdrs to return just the
message header, or full to return the full message.
- Example:
-
set dsn_return=hdrs
-
Note: when using $sendmail for delivery, you should
not enable this unless you are either using Sendmail 8.8.x or greater or a
MTA providing a sendmail(1)-compatible interface supporting the
-R option for DSN. For SMTP delivery, DSN support is auto-detected
so that it depends on the server whether DSN will be used or not.
- duplicate_threads
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- This variable controls whether mutt, when $sort is set to
threads, threads messages with the same Message-Id together. If it
is set, it will indicate that it thinks they are duplicates of each
other with an equals sign in the thread tree.
- edit_headers
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- This option allows you to edit the header of your outgoing
messages along with the body of your message.
- Although the compose menu may have localized header labels,
the labels passed to your editor will be standard RFC 2822 headers, (e.g.
To:, Cc:, Subject:). Headers added in your editor must also be RFC 2822
headers, or one of the pseudo headers listed in
“edit-header”. Mutt will not understand localized header
labels, just as it would not when parsing an actual email.
-
Note that changes made to the References: and Date:
headers are ignored for interoperability reasons.
- editor
-
Type: path
Default: “”
- This variable specifies which editor is used by mutt. It
defaults to the value of the $VISUAL, or $EDITOR,
environment variable, or to the string “vi” if neither of
those are set.
- The $editor string may contain a %s escape,
which will be replaced by the name of the file to be edited. If the
%s escape does not appear in $editor, a space and the name
to be edited are appended.
- The resulting string is then executed by running
-
sh -c 'string'
- where string is the expansion of $editor
described above.
- encode_from
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, mutt will quoted-printable encode messages
when they contain the string “From ” (note the trailing
space) in the beginning of a line. This is useful to avoid the tampering
certain mail delivery and transport agents tend to do with messages (in
order to prevent tools from misinterpreting the line as a mbox message
separator).
- entropy_file
-
Type: path
Default: “”
- The file which includes random data that is used to
initialize SSL library functions. (OpenSSL only)
- envelope_from_address
-
Type: e-mail address
Default: “”
- Manually sets the envelope sender for outgoing
messages. This value is ignored if $use_envelope_from is unset.
- error_history
-
Type: number
Default: 30
- This variable controls the size (in number of strings
remembered) of the error messages displayed by mutt. These can be shown
with the <error-history> function. The history is cleared
each time this variable is set.
- escape
-
Type: string
Default: “~”
- Escape character to use for functions in the built-in
editor.
- fast_reply
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, the initial prompt for recipients and
subject are skipped when replying to messages, and the initial prompt for
subject is skipped when forwarding messages.
-
Note: this variable has no effect when the $autoedit
variable is set.
- fcc_attach
-
Type: quadoption
Default: yes
- This variable controls whether or not attachments on
outgoing messages are saved along with the main body of your message.
- Note: $fcc_before_send forces the default (set) behavior of
this option.
- fcc_before_send
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When this variable is set, FCCs will occur before
sending the message. Before sending, the message cannot be manipulated, so
it will be stored the exact same as sent: $fcc_attach and $fcc_clear will
be ignored (using their default values).
- When unset, the default, FCCs will occur after
sending. Variables $fcc_attach and $fcc_clear will be respected, allowing
it to be stored without attachments or encryption/signing if desired.
- fcc_clear
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When this variable is set, FCCs will be stored
unencrypted and unsigned, even when the actual message is encrypted and/or
signed.
- Note: $fcc_before_send forces the default (unset) behavior
of this option. (PGP only)
- See also $pgp_self_encrypt, $smime_self_encrypt.
- fcc_delimiter
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- When specified, this allows the ability to Fcc to more than
one mailbox. The fcc value will be split by this delimiter and Mutt will
evaluate each part as a mailbox separately.
- See $record, “fcc-hook”, and
“fcc-save-hook”.
- flag_safe
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- If set, flagged messages cannot be deleted.
- folder
-
Type: path
Default: “~/Mail”
- Specifies the default location of your mailboxes. A
“+” or “=” at the beginning of a pathname will
be expanded to the value of this variable. Note that if you change this
variable (from the default) value you need to make sure that the
assignment occurs before you use “+” or
“=” for any other variables since expansion takes place when
handling the “mailboxes” command.
- folder_format
-
Type: string
Default: “%2C %t %N %F %2l %-8.8u %-8.8g %8s %d %f”
- This variable allows you to customize the file browser
display to your personal taste. This string is similar to $index_format,
but has its own set of printf(3)-like sequences:
- %C
- current file number
- %d
- date/time folder was last modified
- %D
- date/time folder was last modified using $date_format.
- %f
- filename (“/” is appended to directory names,
“@” to symbolic links and “*” to executable
files)
- %F
- file permissions
- %g
- group name (or numeric gid, if missing)
- %l
- number of hard links
- %m
- number of messages in the mailbox *
- %n
- number of unread messages in the mailbox *
- %N
- N if mailbox has new mail, blank otherwise
- %s
- size in bytes (see formatstrings-size)
- %t
- “*” if the file is tagged, blank
otherwise
- %u
- owner name (or numeric uid, if missing)
- %>X
- right justify the rest of the string and pad with character
“X”
- %|X
- pad to the end of the line with character
“X”
- %*X
- soft-fill with character “X” as pad
- For an explanation of “soft-fill”, see the
$index_format documentation.
- * = can be optionally printed if nonzero
- %m, %n, and %N only work for monitored mailboxes. %m
requires $mail_check_stats to be set. %n requires $mail_check_stats to be
set (except for IMAP mailboxes).
- followup_to
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- Controls whether or not the
“Mail-Followup-To:” header field is generated when sending
mail. When set, Mutt will generate this field when you are replying
to a known mailing list, specified with the “subscribe” or
“lists” commands.
- This field has two purposes. First, preventing you from
receiving duplicate copies of replies to messages which you send to
mailing lists, and second, ensuring that you do get a reply separately for
any messages sent to known lists to which you are not subscribed.
- The header will contain only the list's address for
subscribed lists, and both the list address and your own email address for
unsubscribed lists. Without this header, a group reply to your message
sent to a subscribed list will be sent to both the list and your address,
resulting in two copies of the same email for you.
- force_name
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- This variable is similar to $save_name, except that Mutt
will store a copy of your outgoing message by the username of the address
you are sending to even if that mailbox does not exist.
- Also see the $record variable.
- forward_attachments
-
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes
- When forwarding inline (i.e. $mime_forward unset or
answered with “no” and $forward_decode set),
attachments which cannot be decoded in a reasonable manner will be
attached to the newly composed message if this quadoption is set or
answered with “yes”.
- forward_attribution_intro
-
Type: string (localized)
Default: “----- Forwarded message from %f -----”
- This is the string that will precede a message which has
been forwarded in the main body of a message (when $mime_forward is
unset). For a full listing of defined printf(3)-like sequences see
the section on $index_format. See also $attribution_locale.
- forward_attribution_trailer
-
Type: string (localized)
Default: “----- End forwarded message -----”
- This is the string that will follow a message which has
been forwarded in the main body of a message (when $mime_forward is
unset). For a full listing of defined printf(3)-like sequences see
the section on $index_format. See also $attribution_locale.
- forward_decode
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- Controls the decoding of complex MIME messages into
text/plain when forwarding a message. The message header is also
RFC2047 decoded. This variable is only used, if $mime_forward is
unset, otherwise $mime_forward_decode is used instead.
- forward_decrypt
-
Type: quadoption
Default: yes
- This quadoption controls the handling of encrypted messages
when forwarding or attaching a message. When set to or answered
“yes”, the outer layer of encryption is stripped off.
- This variable is used if $mime_forward is set and
$mime_forward_decode is unset. It is also used when attaching a
message via <attach-message> in the compose menu. (PGP only)
- forward_edit
-
Type: quadoption
Default: yes
- This quadoption controls whether or not the user is
automatically placed in the editor when forwarding messages. For those who
always want to forward with no modification, use a setting of
“no”.
- forward_format
-
Type: string
Default: “[%a: %s]”
- This variable controls the default subject when forwarding
a message. It uses the same format sequences as the $index_format
variable.
- forward_quote
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, forwarded messages included in the main
body of the message (when $mime_forward is unset) will be quoted
using $indent_string.
- from
-
Type: e-mail address
Default: “”
- When set, this variable contains a default from
address. It can be overridden using “my_hdr” (including from
a “send-hook”) and $reverse_name. This variable is ignored
if $use_from is unset.
- This setting defaults to the contents of the environment
variable $EMAIL.
- gecos_mask
-
Type: regular expression
Default: “^[^,]*”
- A regular expression used by mutt to parse the GECOS field
of a password entry when expanding the alias. The default value will
return the string up to the first “,” encountered. If the
GECOS field contains a string like “lastname, firstname”
then you should set it to “ .*”.
- This can be useful if you see the following behavior: you
address an e-mail to user ID “stevef” whose full name is
“Steve Franklin”. If mutt expands “stevef” to
“”Franklin” [email protected]” then you should
set the $gecos_mask to a regular expression that will match the whole name
so mutt will expand “Franklin” to “Franklin,
Steve”.
- hdrs
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When unset, the header fields normally added by the
“my_hdr” command are not created. This variable must
be unset before composing a new message or replying in order to take
effect. If set, the user defined header fields are added to every
new message.
- header
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, this variable causes Mutt to include the
header of the message you are replying to into the edit buffer. The $weed
setting applies.
- header_cache
-
Type: path
Default: “”
- This variable points to the header cache database. If
pointing to a directory Mutt will contain a header cache database file per
folder, if pointing to a file that file will be a single global header
cache. By default it is unset so no header caching will be used. If
pointing to a directory, it must be created in advance.
- Header caching can greatly improve speed when opening POP,
IMAP MH or Maildir folders, see “caching” for details.
- header_cache_compress
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When mutt is compiled with qdbm, tokyocabinet, or
kyotocabinet as header cache backend, this option determines whether the
database will be compressed. Compression results in database files roughly
being one fifth of the usual diskspace, but the decompression can result
in a slower opening of cached folder(s) which in general is still much
faster than opening non header cached folders.
- header_cache_pagesize
-
Type: number (long)
Default: 16384
- When mutt is compiled with either gdbm or bdb4 as the
header cache backend, this option changes the database page size. Too
large or too small values can waste space, memory, or CPU time. The
default should be more or less optimal for most use cases.
- header_color_partial
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, color header regexps behave like color
body regexps: color is applied to the exact text matched by the regexp.
When unset, color is applied to the entire header.
- One use of this option might be to apply color to just the
header labels.
- See “color” for more details.
- help
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When set, help lines describing the bindings for the
major functions provided by each menu are displayed on the first line of
the screen.
-
Note: The binding will not be displayed correctly if
the function is bound to a sequence rather than a single keystroke. Also,
the help line may not be updated if a binding is changed while Mutt is
running. Since this variable is primarily aimed at new users, neither of
these should present a major problem.
- hidden_host
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, mutt will skip the host name part of
$hostname variable when adding the domain part to addresses. This variable
does not affect the generation of Message-IDs, and it will not lead to the
cut-off of first-level domains.
- hide_limited
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, mutt will not show the presence of
messages that are hidden by limiting, in the thread tree.
- hide_missing
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When set, mutt will not show the presence of missing
messages in the thread tree.
- hide_thread_subject
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When set, mutt will not show the subject of messages
in the thread tree that have the same subject as their parent or closest
previously displayed sibling.
- hide_top_limited
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, mutt will not show the presence of
messages that are hidden by limiting, at the top of threads in the thread
tree. Note that when $hide_limited is set, this option will have no
effect.
- hide_top_missing
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When set, mutt will not show the presence of missing
messages at the top of threads in the thread tree. Note that when
$hide_missing is set, this option will have no effect.
- history
-
Type: number
Default: 10
- This variable controls the size (in number of strings
remembered) of the string history buffer per category. The buffer is
cleared each time the variable is set.
- history_file
-
Type: path
Default: “~/.mutthistory”
- The file in which Mutt will save its history.
- Also see $save_history.
- history_remove_dups
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, all of the string history will be scanned
for duplicates when a new entry is added. Duplicate entries in the
$history_file will also be removed when it is periodically compacted.
- honor_disposition
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, Mutt will not display attachments with a
disposition of “attachment” inline even if it could render
the part to plain text. These MIME parts can only be viewed from the
attachment menu.
- If unset, Mutt will render all MIME parts it can
properly transform to plain text.
- honor_followup_to
-
Type: quadoption
Default: yes
- This variable controls whether or not a Mail-Followup-To
header is honored when group-replying to a message.
- hostname
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- Specifies the fully-qualified hostname of the system mutt
is running on containing the host's name and the DNS domain it belongs to.
It is used as the domain part (after “@”) for local email
addresses as well as Message-Id headers.
- Its value is determined at startup as follows: the node's
hostname is first determined by the uname(3) function. The domain
is then looked up using the gethostname(2) and
getaddrinfo(3) functions. If those calls are unable to determine
the domain, the full value returned by uname is used. Optionally, Mutt can
be compiled with a fixed domain name in which case a detected one is not
used.
- Starting in Mutt 2.0, the operations described in the
previous paragraph are performed after the muttrc is processed, instead of
beforehand. This way, if the DNS operations are creating delays at
startup, you can avoid those by manually setting the value in your
muttrc.
- Also see $use_domain and $hidden_host.
- idn_decode
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When set, Mutt will show you international domain
names decoded. Note: You can use IDNs for addresses even if this is
unset. This variable only affects decoding. (IDN only)
- idn_encode
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When set, Mutt will encode international domain
names using IDN. Unset this if your SMTP server can handle newer (RFC
6531) UTF-8 encoded domains. (IDN only)
- ignore_linear_white_space
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- This option replaces linear-white-space between
encoded-word and text to a single space to prevent the display of
MIME-encoded “Subject:” field from being divided into
multiple lines.
- ignore_list_reply_to
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- Affects the behavior of the <reply> function
when replying to messages from mailing lists (as defined by the
“subscribe” or “lists” commands). When
set, if the “Reply-To:” field is set to the same
value as the “To:” field, Mutt assumes that the
“Reply-To:” field was set by the mailing list to automate
responses to the list, and will ignore this field. To direct a response to
the mailing list when this option is set, use the
<list-reply> function; <group-reply> will reply
to both the sender and the list.
- imap_authenticators
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This is a colon-delimited list of authentication methods
mutt may attempt to use to log in to an IMAP server, in the order mutt
should try them. Authentication methods are either “login”
or the right side of an IMAP “AUTH=xxx” capability string,
e.g. “digest-md5”, “gssapi” or
“cram-md5”. This option is case-insensitive. If it's
unset (the default) mutt will try all available methods, in order
from most-secure to least-secure.
- Example:
-
set imap_authenticators=”gssapi:cram-md5:login”
-
Note: Mutt will only fall back to other
authentication methods if the previous methods are unavailable. If a
method is available but authentication fails, mutt will not connect to the
IMAP server.
- imap_check_subscribed
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, mutt will fetch the set of subscribed
folders from your server on connection, and add them to the set of
mailboxes it polls for new mail just as if you had issued individual
“mailboxes” commands.
- imap_condstore
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, mutt will use the CONDSTORE extension (RFC
7162) if advertised by the server. Mutt's current implementation is basic,
used only for initial message fetching and flag updates.
- For some IMAP servers, enabling this will slightly speed up
downloading initial messages. Unfortunately, Gmail is not one those, and
displays worse performance when enabled. Your mileage may vary.
- imap_deflate
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, mutt will use the COMPRESS=DEFLATE
extension (RFC 4978) if advertised by the server.
- In general a good compression efficiency can be achieved,
which speeds up reading large mailboxes also on fairly good connections.
- imap_delim_chars
-
Type: string
Default: “/.”
- This contains the list of characters which you would like
to treat as folder separators for displaying IMAP paths. In particular it
helps in using the “=” shortcut for your folder
variable.
- imap_fetch_chunk_size
-
Type: number (long)
Default: 0
- When set to a value greater than 0, new headers will be
downloaded in groups of this many headers per request. If you have a very
large mailbox, this might prevent a timeout and disconnect when opening
the mailbox, by sending a FETCH per set of this many headers, instead of a
single FETCH for all new headers.
- imap_headers
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- Mutt requests these header fields in addition to the
default headers (“Date:”, “From:”,
“Sender:”, “Subject:”, “To:”,
“Cc:”, “Message-Id:”,
“References:”, “Content-Type:”,
“Content-Description:”, “In-Reply-To:”,
“Reply-To:”, “Lines:”,
“List-Post:”, “X-Label:”) from IMAP servers
before displaying the index menu. You may want to add more headers for
spam detection.
-
Note: This is a space separated list, items should
be uppercase and not contain the colon, e.g. “X-BOGOSITY
X-SPAM-STATUS” for the “X-Bogosity:” and
“X-Spam-Status:” header fields.
- imap_idle
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, mutt will attempt to use the IMAP IDLE
extension to check for new mail in the current mailbox. Some servers
(dovecot was the inspiration for this option) react badly to mutt's
implementation. If your connection seems to freeze up periodically, try
unsetting this.
- imap_keepalive
-
Type: number
Default: 300
- This variable specifies the maximum amount of time in
seconds that mutt will wait before polling open IMAP connections, to
prevent the server from closing them before mutt has finished with them.
The default is well within the RFC-specified minimum amount of time (30
minutes) before a server is allowed to do this, but in practice the RFC
does get violated every now and then. Reduce this number if you find
yourself getting disconnected from your IMAP server due to inactivity.
- imap_list_subscribed
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- This variable configures whether IMAP folder browsing will
look for only subscribed folders or all folders. This can be toggled in
the IMAP browser with the <toggle-subscribed> function.
- imap_login
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- Your login name on the IMAP server.
- This variable defaults to the value of $imap_user.
- imap_oauth_refresh_command
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- The command to run to generate an OAUTH refresh token for
authorizing your connection to your IMAP server. This command will be run
on every connection attempt that uses the OAUTHBEARER authentication
mechanism. See “oauth” for details.
- imap_pass
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- Specifies the password for your IMAP account. If
unset, Mutt will prompt you for your password when you invoke the
<imap-fetch-mail> function or try to open an IMAP
folder.
-
Warning: you should only use this option when you
are on a fairly secure machine, because the superuser can read your muttrc
even if you are the only one who can read the file.
- imap_passive
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When set, mutt will not open new IMAP connections to
check for new mail. Mutt will only check for new mail over existing IMAP
connections. This is useful if you don't want to be prompted for
user/password pairs on mutt invocation, or if opening the connection is
slow.
- imap_peek
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When set, mutt will avoid implicitly marking your
mail as read whenever you fetch a message from the server. This is
generally a good thing, but can make closing an IMAP folder somewhat
slower. This option exists to appease speed freaks.
- imap_pipeline_depth
-
Type: number
Default: 15
- Controls the number of IMAP commands that may be queued up
before they are sent to the server. A deeper pipeline reduces the amount
of time mutt must wait for the server, and can make IMAP servers feel much
more responsive. But not all servers correctly handle pipelined commands,
so if you have problems you might want to try setting this variable to
0.
-
Note: Changes to this variable have no effect on
open connections.
- imap_poll_timeout
-
Type: number
Default: 15
- This variable specifies the maximum amount of time in
seconds that mutt will wait for a response when polling IMAP connections
for new mail, before timing out and closing the connection. Set to 0 to
disable timing out.
- imap_qresync
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, mutt will use the QRESYNC extension (RFC
7162) if advertised by the server. Mutt's current implementation is basic,
used only for initial message fetching and flag updates.
- Note: this feature is currently experimental. If you
experience strange behavior, such as duplicate or missing messages please
file a bug report to let us know.
- imap_servernoise
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When set, mutt will display warning messages from
the IMAP server as error messages. Since these messages are often
harmless, or generated due to configuration problems on the server which
are out of the users' hands, you may wish to suppress them at some point.
- imap_user
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- The name of the user whose mail you intend to access on the
IMAP server.
- This variable defaults to your user name on the local
machine.
- implicit_autoview
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- If set to “yes”, mutt will look for a mailcap
entry with the “ copiousoutput” flag set for
every MIME attachment it doesn't have an internal viewer defined
for. If such an entry is found, mutt will use the viewer defined in that
entry to convert the body part to text form.
- include
-
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes
- Controls whether or not a copy of the message(s) you are
replying to is included in your reply.
- include_encrypted
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- Controls whether or not Mutt includes separately encrypted
attachment contents when replying.
- This variable was added to prevent accidental exposure of
encrypted contents when replying to an attacker. If a previously encrypted
message were attached by the attacker, they could trick an unwary
recipient into decrypting and including the message in their reply.
- include_onlyfirst
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- Controls whether or not Mutt includes only the first
attachment of the message you are replying.
- indent_string
-
Type: string
Default: “> ”
- Specifies the string to prepend to each line of text quoted
in a message to which you are replying. You are strongly encouraged not to
change this value, as it tends to agitate the more fanatical
netizens.
- The value of this option is ignored if $text_flowed is set,
because the quoting mechanism is strictly defined for format=flowed.
- This option is a format string, please see the description
of $index_format for supported printf(3)-style sequences.
- index_format
-
Type: string
Default: “%4C %Z %{%b %d} %-15.15L (%?l?%4l&%4c?) %s”
- This variable allows you to customize the message index
display to your personal taste.
- “Format strings” are similar to the strings
used in the C function printf(3) to format output (see the man page
for more details). For an explanation of the %? construct, see the
$status_format description. The following sequences are defined in
Mutt:
- %a
- address of the author
- %A
- reply-to address (if present; otherwise: address of
author)
- %b
- filename of the original message folder (think
mailbox)
- %B
- the list to which the letter was sent, or else the folder
name (%b).
- %c
- number of characters (bytes) in the message (see
formatstrings-size)
- %C
- current message number
- %d
- date and time of the message in the format specified by
$date_format converted to sender's time zone
- %D
- date and time of the message in the format specified by
$date_format converted to the local time zone
- %e
- current message number in thread
- %E
- number of messages in current thread
- %f
- sender (address + real name), either From: or
Return-Path:
- %F
- author name, or recipient name if the message is from
you
- %H
- spam attribute(s) of this message
- %i
- message-id of the current message
- %l
- number of lines in the unprocessed message (may not work
with maildir, mh, and IMAP folders)
- %L
- If an address in the “To:” or
“Cc:” header field matches an address defined by the users
“subscribe” command, this displays ”To
<list-name>”, otherwise the same as %F.
- %m
- total number of message in the mailbox
- %M
- number of hidden messages if the thread is collapsed.
- %N
- message score
- %n
- author's real name (or address if missing)
- %O
- original save folder where mutt would formerly have stashed
the message: list name or recipient name if not sent to a list
- %P
- progress indicator for the built-in pager (how much of the
file has been displayed)
- %r
- comma separated list of “To:” recipients
- %R
- comma separated list of “Cc:” recipients
- %s
- subject of the message
- %S
- single character status of the message
(“N”/“O”/“D”/“d”/“!”/“r”/“*”)
- %t
- “To:” field (recipients)
- %T
- the appropriate character from the $to_chars string
- %u
- user (login) name of the author
- %v
- first name of the author, or the recipient if the message
is from you
- %X
- number of attachments (please see the
“attachments” section for possible speed effects)
- %y
- “X-Label:” field, if present
- %Y
- “X-Label:” field, if present, and (1)
not at part of a thread tree, (2) at the top of a thread, or
(3) “X-Label:” is different from preceding message's
“X-Label:”.
- %Z
- a three character set of message status flags. the first
character is new/read/replied flags
(“n”/“o”/“r”/“O”/“N”).
the second is deleted or encryption flags
(“D”/“d”/“S”/“P”/“s”/“K”).
the third is either tagged/flagged (“*”/“!”),
or one of the characters listed in $to_chars.
- %@name@
- insert and evaluate format-string from the matching
“index-format-hook” command
- %{fmt}
- the date and time of the message is converted to sender's
time zone, and “fmt” is expanded by the library function
strftime(3); a leading bang disables locales
- %[fmt]
- the date and time of the message is converted to the local
time zone, and “fmt” is expanded by the library function
strftime(3); a leading bang disables locales
- %(fmt)
- the local date and time when the message was received.
“fmt” is expanded by the library function
strftime(3); a leading bang disables locales
- %<fmt>
- the current local time. “fmt” is expanded by
the library function strftime(3); a leading bang disables
locales.
- %>X
- right justify the rest of the string and pad with character
“X”
- %|X
- pad to the end of the line with character
“X”
- %*X
- soft-fill with character “X” as pad
- Note that for mbox/mmdf, “%l” applies to the
unprocessed message, and for maildir/mh, the value comes from the
“Lines:” header field when present (the meaning is normally
the same). Thus the value depends on the encodings used in the different
parts of the message and has little meaning in practice.
- “Soft-fill” deserves some explanation: Normal
right-justification will print everything to the left of the
“%>”, displaying padding and whatever lies to the right
only if there's room. By contrast, soft-fill gives priority to the
right-hand side, guaranteeing space to display it and showing padding only
if there's still room. If necessary, soft-fill will eat text leftwards to
make room for rightward text.
- Note that these expandos are supported in
“save-hook”, “fcc-hook”,
“fcc-save-hook”, and “index-format-hook”.
- They are also supported in the configuration variables
$attribution, $forward_attribution_intro, $forward_attribution_trailer,
$forward_format, $indent_string, $message_format, $pager_format, and
$post_indent_string.
- ispell
-
Type: path
Default: “/usr/bin/ispell”
- How to invoke ispell (GNU's spell-checking software).
- keep_flagged
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- If set, read messages marked as flagged will not be
moved from your spool mailbox to your $mbox mailbox, or as a result of a
“mbox-hook” command.
- local_date_header
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- If set, the date in the Date header of emails that
you send will be in your local timezone. If unset a UTC date will be used
instead to avoid leaking information about your current location.
- mail_check
-
Type: number
Default: 5
- This variable configures how often (in seconds) mutt should
look for new mail. Also see the $timeout variable.
- mail_check_recent
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When set, Mutt will only notify you about new mail
that has been received since the last time you opened the mailbox. When
unset, Mutt will notify you if any new mail exists in the mailbox,
regardless of whether you have visited it recently.
- mail_check_stats
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, mutt will periodically calculate message
statistics of a mailbox while polling for new mail. It will check for
unread, flagged, and total message counts. (Note: IMAP mailboxes only
support unread and total counts).
- Because this operation is more performance intensive, it
defaults to unset, and has a separate option,
$mail_check_stats_interval, to control how often to update these
counts.
- Message statistics can also be explicitly calculated by
invoking the <check-stats> function.
- mail_check_stats_interval
-
Type: number
Default: 60
- When $mail_check_stats is set, this variable
configures how often (in seconds) mutt will update message counts.
- mailcap_path
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This variable specifies which files to consult when
attempting to display MIME bodies not directly supported by Mutt. The
default value is generated during startup: see the “mailcap”
section of the manual.
- mailcap_sanitize
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- If set, mutt will restrict possible characters in
mailcap % expandos to a well-defined set of safe characters. This is the
safe setting, but we are not sure it doesn't break some more advanced MIME
stuff.
-
DON'T CHANGE THIS SETTING UNLESS YOU ARE REALLY SURE
WHAT YOU ARE DOING!
- maildir_header_cache_verify
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- Check for Maildir unaware programs other than mutt having
modified maildir files when the header cache is in use. This incurs one
stat(2) per message every time the folder is opened (which can be
very slow for NFS folders).
- maildir_trash
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- If set, messages marked as deleted will be saved
with the maildir trashed flag instead of unlinked. Note: this only
applies to maildir-style mailboxes. Setting it will have no effect on
other mailbox types.
- maildir_check_cur
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- If set, mutt will poll both the new and cur
directories of a maildir folder for new messages. This might be useful if
other programs interacting with the folder (e.g. dovecot) are moving new
messages to the cur directory. Note that setting this option may slow down
polling for new messages in large folders, since mutt has to scan all cur
messages.
- mark_macro_prefix
-
Type: string
Default: “'”
- Prefix for macros created using mark-message. A new macro
automatically generated with <mark-message>a will be composed
from this prefix and the letter a.
- mark_old
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- Controls whether or not mutt marks new unread
messages as old if you exit a mailbox without reading them. With
this option set, the next time you start mutt, the messages will
show up with an “O” next to them in the index menu,
indicating that they are old.
- markers
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- Controls the display of wrapped lines in the internal
pager. If set, a “+” marker is displayed at the beginning of
wrapped lines.
- Also see the $smart_wrap variable.
- mask
-
Type: regular expression
Default: “!^\.[^.]”
- A regular expression used in the file browser, optionally
preceded by the not operator “!”. Only files whose
names match this mask will be shown. The match is always case-sensitive.
- mbox
-
Type: path
Default: “~/mbox”
- This specifies the folder into which read mail in your
$spoolfile folder will be appended.
- Also see the $move variable.
- mbox_type
-
Type: folder magic
Default: mbox
- The default mailbox type used when creating new folders.
May be any of “mbox”, “MMDF”,
“MH” and “Maildir”. This is overridden by the
-m command-line option.
- menu_context
-
Type: number
Default: 0
- This variable controls the number of lines of context that
are given when scrolling through menus. (Similar to $pager_context.)
- menu_move_off
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When unset, the bottom entry of menus will never
scroll up past the bottom of the screen, unless there are less entries
than lines. When set, the bottom entry may move off the bottom.
- menu_scroll
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, menus will be scrolled up or down one line
when you attempt to move across a screen boundary. If unset, the
screen is cleared and the next or previous page of the menu is displayed
(useful for slow links to avoid many redraws).
- message_cache_clean
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- If set, mutt will clean out obsolete entries from
the message cache when the mailbox is synchronized. You probably only want
to set it every once in a while, since it can be a little slow (especially
for large folders).
- message_cachedir
-
Type: path
Default: “”
- Set this to a directory and mutt will cache copies of
messages from your IMAP and POP servers here. You are free to remove
entries at any time.
- When setting this variable to a directory, mutt needs to
fetch every remote message only once and can perform regular expression
searches as fast as for local folders.
- Also see the $message_cache_clean variable.
- message_format
-
Type: string
Default: “%s”
- This is the string displayed in the
“attachment” menu for attachments of type
message/rfc822. For a full listing of defined printf(3)-like
sequences see the section on $index_format.
- message_id_format
-
Type: string
Default: “<%z@%f>”
- This variable describes the format of the Message-ID
generated when sending messages. Mutt 2.0 introduced a more compact
format, but this variable allows the ability to choose your own format.
The value may end in “|” to invoke an external filter. See
formatstrings-filters.
- Please note that the Message-ID value follows a strict
syntax, and you are responsible for ensuring correctness if you change
this from the default. In particular, the value must follow the syntax in
RFC 5322: “ ”<” id-left ”@”
id-right ”>””. No spaces are allowed, and
id-left should follow the dot-atom-text syntax in the RFC. The
id-right should generally be left at %f.
- The old Message-ID format can be used by setting this to:
“ <%Y%02m%02d%02H%02M%02S.G%c%p@%f>”
- The following printf(3)-style sequences are
understood:
- %c
- step counter looping from “A” to
“Z”
- %d
- current day of the month (GMT)
- %f
- $hostname
- %H
- current hour using a 24-hour clock (GMT)
- %m
- current month number (GMT)
- %M
- current minute of the hour (GMT)
- %p
- pid of the running mutt process
- %r
- 3 bytes of pseudorandom data encoded in Base64
- %S
- current second of the minute (GMT)
- %x
- 1 byte of pseudorandom data hex encoded (example:
'1b')
- %Y
- current year using 4 digits (GMT)
- %z
- 4 byte timestamp + 8 bytes of pseudorandom data encoded in
Base64
- meta_key
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- If set, forces Mutt to interpret keystrokes with the
high bit (bit 8) set as if the user had pressed the Esc key and whatever
key remains after having the high bit removed. For example, if the key
pressed has an ASCII value of 0xf8, then this is treated as if the
user had pressed Esc then “x”. This is because the result of
removing the high bit from 0xf8 is 0x78, which is the ASCII
character “x”.
- metoo
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- If unset, Mutt will remove your address (see the
“alternates” command) from the list of recipients when
replying to a message.
- mh_purge
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When unset, mutt will mimic mh's behavior and rename
deleted messages to ,<old file name> in mh folders instead of
really deleting them. This leaves the message on disk but makes programs
reading the folder ignore it. If the variable is set, the message
files will simply be deleted.
- This option is similar to $maildir_trash for Maildir
folders.
- mh_seq_flagged
-
Type: string
Default: “flagged”
- The name of the MH sequence used for flagged messages.
- mh_seq_replied
-
Type: string
Default: “replied”
- The name of the MH sequence used to tag replied messages.
- mh_seq_unseen
-
Type: string
Default: “unseen”
- The name of the MH sequence used for unseen messages.
- mime_forward
-
Type: quadoption
Default: no
- When set, the message you are forwarding will be
attached as a separate message/rfc822 MIME part instead of included
in the main body of the message. This is useful for forwarding MIME
messages so the receiver can properly view the message as it was delivered
to you. If you like to switch between MIME and not MIME from mail to mail,
set this variable to “ask-no” or
“ask-yes”.
- Also see $forward_decode and $mime_forward_decode.
- mime_forward_decode
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- Controls the decoding of complex MIME messages into
text/plain when forwarding a message while $mime_forward is
set. Otherwise $forward_decode is used instead.
- mime_forward_rest
-
Type: quadoption
Default: yes
- When forwarding multiple attachments of a MIME message from
the attachment menu, attachments which cannot be decoded in a reasonable
manner will be attached to the newly composed message if this option is
set.
- mime_type_query_command
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This specifies a command to run, to determine the mime type
of a new attachment when composing a message. Unless
$mime_type_query_first is set, this will only be run if the attachment's
extension is not found in the mime.types file.
- The string may contain a “%s”, which will be
substituted with the attachment filename. Mutt will add quotes around the
string substituted for “%s” automatically according to shell
quoting rules, so you should avoid adding your own. If no
“%s” is found in the string, Mutt will append the attachment
filename to the end of the string.
- The command should output a single line containing the
attachment's mime type.
- Suggested values are “xdg-mime query
filetype” or “file -bi”.
- mime_type_query_first
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, the $mime_type_query_command will be run
before the mime.types lookup.
- mix_entry_format
-
Type: string
Default: “%4n %c %-16s %a”
- This variable describes the format of a remailer line on
the mixmaster chain selection screen. The following printf(3)-like
sequences are supported:
- %n
- The running number on the menu.
- %c
- Remailer capabilities.
- %s
- The remailer's short name.
- %a
- The remailer's e-mail address.
- (Mixmaster only)
- mixmaster
-
Type: path
Default: “mixmaster”
- This variable contains the path to the Mixmaster binary on
your system. It is used with various sets of parameters to gather the list
of known remailers, and to finally send a message through the mixmaster
chain. (Mixmaster only)
- move
-
Type: quadoption
Default: no
- Controls whether or not Mutt will move read messages from
your spool mailbox to your $mbox mailbox, or as a result of a
“mbox-hook” command.
- muttlisp_inline_eval
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- If set, Mutt will evaluate bare parenthesis
arguments to commands as MuttLisp expressions.
- narrow_tree
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- This variable, when set, makes the thread tree
narrower, allowing deeper threads to fit on the screen.
- net_inc
-
Type: number
Default: 10
- Operations that expect to transfer a large amount of data
over the network will update their progress every $net_inc kilobytes. If
set to 0, no progress messages will be displayed.
- See also $read_inc, $write_inc and $net_inc.
- new_mail_command
-
Type: path
Default: “”
- If set, Mutt will call this command after a new
message is received. See the $status_format documentation for the values
that can be formatted into this command.
- pager
-
Type: path
Default: “builtin”
- This variable specifies which pager you would like to use
to view messages. The value “builtin” means to use the
built-in pager, otherwise this variable should specify the pathname of the
external pager you would like to use.
- The string may contain a “%s”, which will be
substituted with the generated message filename. Mutt will add quotes
around the string substituted for “%s” automatically
according to shell quoting rules, so you should avoid adding your own. If
no “%s” is found in the string, Mutt will append the message
filename to the end of the string.
- Using an external pager may have some disadvantages:
Additional keystrokes are necessary because you can't call mutt functions
directly from the pager, and screen resizes cause lines longer than the
screen width to be badly formatted in the help menu.
- When using an external pager, also see $prompt_after which
defaults set.
- pager_context
-
Type: number
Default: 0
- This variable controls the number of lines of context that
are given when displaying the next or previous page in the internal pager.
By default, Mutt will display the line after the last one on the screen at
the top of the next page (0 lines of context).
- This variable also specifies the amount of context given
for search results. If positive, this many lines will be given before a
match, if 0, the match will be top-aligned.
- pager_format
-
Type: string
Default: “-%Z- %C/%m: %-20.20n %s%* -- (%P)”
- This variable controls the format of the one-line message
“status” displayed before each message in either the
internal or an external pager. The valid sequences are listed in the
$index_format section.
- pager_index_lines
-
Type: number
Default: 0
- Determines the number of lines of a mini-index which is
shown when in the pager. The current message, unless near the top or
bottom of the folder, will be roughly one third of the way down this
mini-index, giving the reader the context of a few messages before and
after the message. This is useful, for example, to determine how many
messages remain to be read in the current thread. One of the lines is
reserved for the status bar from the index, so a setting of 6 will only
show 5 lines of the actual index. A value of 0 results in no index being
shown. If the number of messages in the current folder is less than
$pager_index_lines, then the index will only use as many lines as it
needs.
- pager_skip_quoted_context
-
Type: number
Default: 0
- Determines the number of lines of context to show before
the unquoted text when using <skip-quoted>. When set to a
positive number at most that many lines of the previous quote are
displayed. If the previous quote is shorter the whole quote is displayed.
- pager_stop
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, the internal-pager will not move to
the next message when you are at the end of a message and invoke the
<next-page> function.
- pattern_format
-
Type: string
Default: “%2n %-15e %d”
- This variable describes the format of the “pattern
completion” menu. The following printf(3)-style sequences
are understood:
- %d
- pattern description
- %e
- pattern expression
- %n
- index number
-
- pgp_auto_decode
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- If set, mutt will automatically attempt to decrypt
traditional PGP messages whenever the user performs an operation which
ordinarily would result in the contents of the message being operated on.
For example, if the user displays a pgp-traditional message which has not
been manually checked with the <check-traditional-pgp>
function, mutt will automatically check the message for traditional pgp.
- pgp_autoinline
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- This option controls whether Mutt generates old-style
inline (traditional) PGP encrypted or signed messages under certain
circumstances. This can be overridden by use of the pgp menu, when inline
is not required. The GPGME backend does not support this option.
- Note that Mutt might automatically use PGP/MIME for
messages which consist of more than a single MIME part. Mutt can be
configured to ask before sending PGP/MIME messages when inline
(traditional) would not work.
- Also see the $pgp_mime_auto variable.
- Also note that using the old-style PGP message format is
strongly deprecated. (PGP only)
- pgp_check_exit
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- If set, mutt will check the exit code of the PGP
subprocess when signing or encrypting. A non-zero exit code means that the
subprocess failed. (PGP only)
- pgp_check_gpg_decrypt_status_fd
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- If set, mutt will check the status file descriptor
output of $pgp_decrypt_command and $pgp_decode_command for GnuPG status
codes indicating successful decryption. This will check for the presence
of DECRYPTION_OKAY, absence of DECRYPTION_FAILED, and that all PLAINTEXT
occurs between the BEGIN_DECRYPTION and END_DECRYPTION status codes.
- If unset, mutt will instead match the status fd
output against $pgp_decryption_okay. (PGP only)
- pgp_clearsign_command
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This format is used to create an old-style
“clearsigned” PGP message. Note that the use of this format
is strongly deprecated.
- This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command
command for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
- pgp_decode_command
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This format strings specifies a command which is used to
decode application/pgp attachments.
- The PGP command formats have their own set of
printf(3)-like sequences:
- %p
- Expands to PGPPASSFD=0 when a pass phrase is needed, to an
empty string otherwise. Note: This may be used with a %? construct.
- %f
- Expands to the name of a file containing a message.
- %s
- Expands to the name of a file containing the signature part
of a multipart/signed attachment when verifying it.
- %a
- The value of $pgp_sign_as if set, otherwise the value of
$pgp_default_key.
- %r
- One or more key IDs (or fingerprints if available).
- For examples on how to configure these formats for the
various versions of PGP which are floating around, see the pgp and gpg
sample configuration files in the samples/ subdirectory which has
been installed on your system alongside the documentation. (PGP only)
- pgp_decrypt_command
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This command is used to decrypt a PGP encrypted
message.
- This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command
command for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
- pgp_decryption_okay
-
Type: regular expression
Default: “”
- If you assign text to this variable, then an encrypted PGP
message is only considered successfully decrypted if the output from
$pgp_decrypt_command contains the text. This is used to protect against a
spoofed encrypted message, with multipart/encrypted headers but containing
a block that is not actually encrypted. (e.g. simply signed and ascii
armored text).
- Note that if $pgp_check_gpg_decrypt_status_fd is set, this
variable is ignored. (PGP only)
- pgp_default_key
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This is the default key-pair to use for PGP operations. It
will be used for encryption (see $postpone_encrypt and
$pgp_self_encrypt).
- It will also be used for signing unless $pgp_sign_as is
set.
- The (now deprecated) pgp_self_encrypt_as is an alias
for this variable, and should no longer be used. (PGP only)
- pgp_encrypt_only_command
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This command is used to encrypt a body part without signing
it.
- This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command
command for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
- pgp_encrypt_sign_command
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This command is used to both sign and encrypt a body
part.
- This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command
command for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
- pgp_entry_format
-
Type: string
Default: “%4n %t%f %4l/0x%k %-4a %2c %u”
- This variable allows you to customize the PGP key selection
menu to your personal taste. This string is similar to $index_format, but
has its own set of printf(3)-like sequences:
- %n
- number
- %k
- key id
- %u
- user id
- %a
- algorithm
- %l
- key length
- %f
- flags
- %c
- capabilities
- %t
- trust/validity of the key-uid association
- %[<s>]
- date of the key where <s> is an strftime(3)
expression
- (PGP only)
- pgp_export_command
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This command is used to export a public key from the user's
key ring.
- This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command
command for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
- pgp_getkeys_command
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This command is invoked whenever Mutt needs to fetch the
public key associated with an email address. Of the sequences supported by
$pgp_decode_command, %r is the only printf(3)-like sequence used
with this format. Note that in this case, %r expands to the email address,
not the public key ID (the key ID is unknown, which is why Mutt is
invoking this command). (PGP only)
- pgp_good_sign
-
Type: regular expression
Default: “”
- If you assign a text to this variable, then a PGP signature
is only considered verified if the output from $pgp_verify_command
contains the text. Use this variable if the exit code from the command is
0 even for bad signatures. (PGP only)
- pgp_ignore_subkeys
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- Setting this variable will cause Mutt to ignore OpenPGP
subkeys. Instead, the principal key will inherit the subkeys'
capabilities. Unset this if you want to play interesting key
selection games. (PGP only)
- pgp_import_command
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This command is used to import a key from a message into
the user's public key ring.
- This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command
command for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
- pgp_list_pubring_command
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This command is used to list the public key ring's
contents. The output format must be analogous to the one used by
-
gpg --list-keys --with-colons --with-fingerprint
- This format is also generated by the mutt_pgpring
utility which comes with mutt.
- Note: gpg's fixed-list-mode option should not be
used. It produces a different date format which may result in mutt showing
incorrect key generation dates.
- This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command
command for possible printf(3)-like sequences. Note that in this
case, %r expands to the search string, which is a list of one or more
quoted values such as email address, name, or keyid. (PGP only)
- pgp_list_secring_command
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This command is used to list the secret key ring's
contents. The output format must be analogous to the one used by:
-
gpg --list-keys --with-colons --with-fingerprint
- This format is also generated by the mutt_pgpring
utility which comes with mutt.
- Note: gpg's fixed-list-mode option should not be
used. It produces a different date format which may result in mutt showing
incorrect key generation dates.
- This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command
command for possible printf(3)-like sequences. Note that in this
case, %r expands to the search string, which is a list of one or more
quoted values such as email address, name, or keyid. (PGP only)
- pgp_long_ids
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- If set, use 64 bit PGP key IDs, if unset use
the normal 32 bit key IDs. NOTE: Internally, Mutt has transitioned to
using fingerprints (or long key IDs as a fallback). This option now only
controls the display of key IDs in the key selection menu and a few other
places. (PGP only)
- pgp_mime_auto
-
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes
- This option controls whether Mutt will prompt you for
automatically sending a (signed/encrypted) message using PGP/MIME when
inline (traditional) fails (for any reason).
- Also note that using the old-style PGP message format is
strongly deprecated. (PGP only)
- pgp_replyinline
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- Setting this variable will cause Mutt to always attempt to
create an inline (traditional) message when replying to a message which is
PGP encrypted/signed inline. This can be overridden by use of the pgp
menu, when inline is not required. This option does not automatically
detect if the (replied-to) message is inline; instead it relies on Mutt
internals for previously checked/flagged messages.
- Note that Mutt might automatically use PGP/MIME for
messages which consist of more than a single MIME part. Mutt can be
configured to ask before sending PGP/MIME messages when inline
(traditional) would not work.
- Also see the $pgp_mime_auto variable.
- Also note that using the old-style PGP message format is
strongly deprecated. (PGP only)
- pgp_retainable_sigs
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- If set, signed and encrypted messages will consist
of nested multipart/signed and multipart/encrypted body
parts.
- This is useful for applications like encrypted and signed
mailing lists, where the outer layer ( multipart/encrypted) can be
easily removed, while the inner multipart/signed part is retained.
(PGP only)
- pgp_self_encrypt
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When set, PGP encrypted messages will also be
encrypted using the key in $pgp_default_key. (PGP only)
- pgp_show_unusable
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- If set, mutt will display non-usable keys on the PGP
key selection menu. This includes keys which have been revoked, have
expired, or have been marked as “disabled” by the user. (PGP
only)
- pgp_sign_as
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- If you have a different key pair to use for signing, you
should set this to the signing key. Most people will only need to set
$pgp_default_key. It is recommended that you use the keyid form to specify
your key (e.g. 0x00112233). (PGP only)
- pgp_sign_command
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This command is used to create the detached PGP signature
for a multipart/signed PGP/MIME body part.
- This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command
command for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
- pgp_sort_keys
-
Type: sort order
Default: address
- Specifies how the entries in the pgp menu are sorted. The
following are legal values:
- address
- sort alphabetically by user id
- keyid
- sort alphabetically by key id
- date
- sort by key creation date
- trust
- sort by the trust of the key
- If you prefer reverse order of the above values, prefix it
with “reverse-”. (PGP only)
- pgp_strict_enc
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- If set, Mutt will automatically encode PGP/MIME
signed messages as quoted-printable. Please note that unsetting this
variable may lead to problems with non-verifyable PGP signatures, so only
change this if you know what you are doing. (PGP only)
- pgp_timeout
-
Type: number (long)
Default: 300
- The number of seconds after which a cached passphrase will
expire if not used. (PGP only)
- pgp_use_gpg_agent
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- If set, mutt expects a gpg-agent(1) process
will handle private key passphrase prompts. If unset, mutt will
prompt for the passphrase and pass it via stdin to the pgp command.
- Note that as of version 2.1, GnuPG automatically spawns an
agent and requires the agent be used for passphrase management. Since that
version is increasingly prevalent, this variable now defaults
set.
- Mutt works with a GUI or curses pinentry program. A TTY
pinentry should not be used.
- If you are using an older version of GnuPG without an agent
running, or another encryption program without an agent, you will need to
unset this variable. (PGP only)
- pgp_verify_command
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This command is used to verify PGP signatures.
- This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command
command for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
- pgp_verify_key_command
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This command is used to verify key information from the key
selection menu.
- This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command
command for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
- pipe_decode
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- Used in connection with the <pipe-message>
function. When unset, Mutt will pipe the messages without any
preprocessing. When set, Mutt will attempt to decode the messages
first.
- Also see $pipe_decode_weed, which controls whether headers
will be weeded when this is set.
- pipe_decode_weed
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- For <pipe-message>, when $pipe_decode is set,
this further controls whether Mutt will weed headers.
- pipe_sep
-
Type: string
Default: “\n”
- The separator to add between messages when piping a list of
tagged messages to an external Unix command.
- pipe_split
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- Used in connection with the <pipe-message>
function following <tag-prefix>. If this variable is
unset, when piping a list of tagged messages Mutt will concatenate
the messages and will pipe them all concatenated. When set, Mutt
will pipe the messages one by one. In both cases the messages are piped in
the current sorted order, and the $pipe_sep separator is added after each
message.
- pop_auth_try_all
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- If set, Mutt will try all available authentication
methods. When unset, Mutt will only fall back to other
authentication methods if the previous methods are unavailable. If a
method is available but authentication fails, Mutt will not connect to the
POP server.
- pop_authenticators
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This is a colon-delimited list of authentication methods
mutt may attempt to use to log in to an POP server, in the order mutt
should try them. Authentication methods are either “user”,
“apop” or any SASL mechanism, e.g.
“digest-md5”, “gssapi” or
“cram-md5”. This option is case-insensitive. If this option
is unset (the default) mutt will try all available methods, in
order from most-secure to least-secure.
- Example:
-
set pop_authenticators=”digest-md5:apop:user”
- pop_checkinterval
-
Type: number
Default: 60
- This variable configures how often (in seconds) mutt should
look for new mail in the currently selected mailbox if it is a POP
mailbox.
- pop_delete
-
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-no
- If set, Mutt will delete successfully downloaded
messages from the POP server when using the <fetch-mail>
function. When unset, Mutt will download messages but also leave
them on the POP server.
- pop_host
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- The name of your POP server for the
<fetch-mail> function. You can also specify an alternative
port, username and password, i.e.:
-
[pop[s]://][username[:password]@]popserver[:port]
- where “[...]” denotes an optional part.
- pop_last
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- If this variable is set, mutt will try to use the
“ LAST” POP command for retrieving only unread
messages from the POP server when using the <fetch-mail>
function.
- pop_oauth_refresh_command
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- The command to run to generate an OAUTH refresh token for
authorizing your connection to your POP server. This command will be run
on every connection attempt that uses the OAUTHBEARER authentication
mechanism. See “oauth” for details.
- pop_pass
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- Specifies the password for your POP account. If
unset, Mutt will prompt you for your password when you open a POP
mailbox.
-
Warning: you should only use this option when you
are on a fairly secure machine, because the superuser can read your muttrc
even if you are the only one who can read the file.
- pop_reconnect
-
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes
- Controls whether or not Mutt will try to reconnect to the
POP server if the connection is lost.
- pop_user
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- Your login name on the POP server.
- This variable defaults to your user name on the local
machine.
- post_indent_string
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- Similar to the $attribution variable, Mutt will append this
string after the inclusion of a message which is being replied to. For a
full listing of defined printf(3)-like sequences see the section on
$index_format.
- postpone
-
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes
- Controls whether or not messages are saved in the
$postponed mailbox when you elect not to send immediately.
- Also see the $recall variable.
- postponed
-
Type: path
Default: “~/postponed”
- Mutt allows you to indefinitely “postpone sending a
message” which you are editing. When you choose to postpone a
message, Mutt saves it in the mailbox specified by this variable.
- Also see the $postpone variable.
- postpone_encrypt
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, postponed messages that are marked for
encryption will be self-encrypted. Mutt will first try to encrypt using
the value specified in $pgp_default_key or $smime_default_key. If those
are not set, it will try the deprecated $postpone_encrypt_as. (Crypto
only)
- postpone_encrypt_as
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This is a deprecated fall-back variable for
$postpone_encrypt. Please use $pgp_default_key or $smime_default_key.
(Crypto only)
- preconnect
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- If set, a shell command to be executed if mutt fails
to establish a connection to the server. This is useful for setting up
secure connections, e.g. with ssh(1). If the command returns a
nonzero status, mutt gives up opening the server. Example:
-
set preconnect=”ssh -f -q -L 1234:mailhost.net:143 mailhost.net \
sleep 20 < /dev/null > /dev/null”
- Mailbox “foo” on “mailhost.net”
can now be reached as “{localhost:1234}foo”.
- Note: For this example to work, you must be able to log in
to the remote machine without having to enter a password.
- print
-
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-no
- Controls whether or not Mutt really prints messages. This
is set to “ask-no” by default, because some people
accidentally hit “p” often.
- print_command
-
Type: path
Default: “lpr”
- This specifies the command pipe that should be used to
print messages.
- print_decode
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- Used in connection with the <print-message>
function. If this option is set, the message is decoded before it
is passed to the external command specified by $print_command. If this
option is unset, no processing will be applied to the message when
printing it. The latter setting may be useful if you are using some
advanced printer filter which is able to properly format e-mail messages
for printing.
- Also see $print_decode_weed, which controls whether headers
will be weeded when this is set.
- print_decode_weed
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- For <print-message>, when $print_decode is
set, this further controls whether Mutt will weed headers.
- print_split
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- Used in connection with the <print-message>
function. If this option is set, the command specified by
$print_command is executed once for each message which is to be printed.
If this option is unset, the command specified by $print_command is
executed only once, and all the messages are concatenated, with a form
feed as the message separator.
- Those who use the enscript(1) program's
mail-printing mode will most likely want to set this option.
- prompt_after
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- If you use an external $pager, setting this variable
will cause Mutt to prompt you for a command when the pager exits rather
than returning to the index menu. If unset, Mutt will return to the
index menu when the external pager exits.
- query_command
-
Type: path
Default: “”
- This specifies the command Mutt will use to make external
address queries. The string may contain a “%s”, which will
be substituted with the query string the user types. Mutt will add quotes
around the string substituted for “%s” automatically
according to shell quoting rules, so you should avoid adding your own. If
no “%s” is found in the string, Mutt will append the user's
query to the end of the string. See “query” for more
information.
- query_format
-
Type: string
Default: “%4c %t %-25.25a %-25.25n %?e?(%e)?”
- This variable describes the format of the
“query” menu. The following printf(3)-style sequences
are understood:
- %a
- destination address
- %c
- current entry number
- %e
- extra information *
- %n
- destination name
- %t
- “*” if current entry is tagged, a space
otherwise
- %>X
- right justify the rest of the string and pad with
“X”
- %|X
- pad to the end of the line with “X”
- %*X
- soft-fill with character “X” as pad
- For an explanation of “soft-fill”, see the
$index_format documentation.
- * = can be optionally printed if nonzero, see the
$status_format documentation.
- quit
-
Type: quadoption
Default: yes
- This variable controls whether “quit” and
“exit” actually quit from mutt. If this option is
set, they do quit, if it is unset, they have no effect, and
if it is set to ask-yes or ask-no, you are prompted for
confirmation when you try to quit.
- quote_regexp
-
Type: regular expression
Default: “^([ \t]*[|>:}#])+”
- A regular expression used in the internal pager to
determine quoted sections of text in the body of a message. Quoted text
may be filtered out using the <toggle-quoted> command, or
colored according to the “color quoted” family of
directives.
- Higher levels of quoting may be colored differently
(“color quoted1”, “color quoted2”, etc.). The
quoting level is determined by removing the last character from the
matched text and recursively reapplying the regular expression until it
fails to produce a match.
- Match detection may be overridden by the $smileys regular
expression.
- read_inc
-
Type: number
Default: 10
- If set to a value greater than 0, Mutt will display which
message it is currently on when reading a mailbox or when performing
search actions such as search and limit. The message is printed after this
many messages have been read or searched (e.g., if set to 25, Mutt will
print a message when it is at message 25, and then again when it gets to
message 50). This variable is meant to indicate progress when reading or
searching large mailboxes which may take some time. When set to 0, only a
single message will appear before the reading the mailbox.
- Also see the $write_inc, $net_inc and $time_inc variables
and the “tuning” section of the manual for performance
considerations.
- read_only
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- If set, all folders are opened in read-only mode.
- realname
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This variable specifies what “real” or
“personal” name should be used when sending messages.
- By default, this is the GECOS field from
/etc/passwd. Note that this variable will not be used when
the user has set a real name in the $from variable.
- recall
-
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes
- Controls whether or not Mutt recalls postponed messages
when composing a new message.
- Setting this variable to yes is not generally
useful, and thus not recommended. Note that the
<recall-message> function can be used to manually recall
postponed messages.
- Also see $postponed variable.
- record
-
Type: path
Default: “~/sent”
- This specifies the file into which your outgoing messages
should be appended. (This is meant as the primary method for saving a copy
of your messages, but another way to do this is using the
“my_hdr” command to create a “Bcc:” field with
your email address in it.)
- The value of $record is overridden by the
$force_name and $save_name variables, and the “fcc-hook”
command. Also see $copy and $write_bcc.
- Multiple mailboxes may be specified if $fcc_delimiter is
set to a string delimiter.
- reflow_space_quotes
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- This option controls how quotes from format=flowed messages
are displayed in the pager and when replying (with $text_flowed
unset). When set, this option adds spaces after each level of quote
marks, turning ”>>>foo” into ”> > >
foo”.
-
Note: If $reflow_text is unset, this option
has no effect. Also, this option does not affect replies when $text_flowed
is set.
- reflow_text
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When set, Mutt will reformat paragraphs in
text/plain parts marked format=flowed. If unset, Mutt will display
paragraphs unaltered from how they appear in the message body. See RFC3676
for details on the format=flowed format.
- Also see $reflow_wrap, and $wrap.
- reflow_wrap
-
Type: number
Default: 78
- This variable controls the maximum paragraph width when
reformatting text/plain parts when $reflow_text is set. When the
value is 0, paragraphs will be wrapped at the terminal's right margin. A
positive value sets the paragraph width relative to the left margin. A
negative value set the paragraph width relative to the right margin.
- Also see $wrap.
- reply_regexp
-
Type: regular expression (localized)
Default: “^(re)(\[[0-9]+\])*:[ \t]*”
- A regular expression used to recognize reply messages when
threading and replying. The default value corresponds to the standard
Latin ”Re:” prefix.
- This value may have been localized by the translator for
your locale, adding other prefixes that are common in the locale. You can
add your own prefixes by appending inside ”^(re)”.
For example: ”^(re|se)” or
”^(re|aw|se)”.
- The second parenthesized expression matches zero or more
bracketed numbers following the prefix, such as ”Re[1]:
”. The initial ”\\[” means a literal
left-bracket character. Note the backslash must be doubled when used
inside a double quoted string in the muttrc. ”[0-9]+”
means one or more numbers. ”\\]” means a literal
right-bracket. Finally the whole parenthesized expression has a
”*” suffix, meaning it can occur zero or more
times.
- The last part matches a colon followed by an optional space
or tab. Note ”\t” is converted to a literal tab
inside a double quoted string. If you use a single quoted string, you
would have to type an actual tab character, and would need to convert the
double-backslashes to single backslashes.
- Note: the result of this regexp match against the subject
is stored in the header cache. Mutt isn't smart enough to invalidate a
header cache entry based on changing $reply_regexp, so if you aren't
seeing correct values in the index, try temporarily turning off the header
cache. If that fixes the problem, then once the variable is set to your
liking, remove your stale header cache files and turn the header cache
back on.
- reply_self
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- If unset and you are replying to a message sent by
you, Mutt will assume that you want to reply to the recipients of that
message rather than to yourself.
- Also see the “alternates” command.
- reply_to
-
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes
- If set, when replying to a message, Mutt will use
the address listed in the Reply-to: header as the recipient of the reply.
If unset, it will use the address in the From: header field
instead. This option is useful for reading a mailing list that sets the
Reply-To: header field to the list address and you want to send a private
message to the author of a message.
- resolve
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When set, the cursor will be automatically advanced
to the next (possibly undeleted) message whenever a command that modifies
the current message is executed.
- resume_draft_files
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- If set, draft files (specified by -H on the
command line) are processed similarly to when resuming a postponed
message. Recipients are not prompted for; send-hooks are not evaluated; no
alias expansion takes place; user-defined headers and signatures are not
added to the message.
- resume_edited_draft_files
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- If set, draft files previously edited (via -E
-H on the command line) will have $resume_draft_files automatically
set when they are used as a draft file again.
- The first time a draft file is saved, mutt will add a
header, X-Mutt-Resume-Draft to the saved file. The next time the draft
file is read in, if mutt sees the header, it will set
$resume_draft_files.
- This option is designed to prevent multiple signatures,
user-defined headers, and other processing effects from being made
multiple times to the draft file.
- reverse_alias
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- This variable controls whether or not Mutt will display the
“personal” name from your aliases in the index menu if it
finds an alias that matches the message's sender. For example, if you have
the following alias:
-
alias juser [email protected] (Joe User)
- and then you receive mail which contains the following
header:
-
From: [email protected]
- It would be displayed in the index menu as “Joe
User” instead of “[email protected].” This is
useful when the person's e-mail address is not human friendly.
- reverse_name
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- It may sometimes arrive that you receive mail to a certain
machine, move the messages to another machine, and reply to some the
messages from there. If this variable is set, the default
From: line of the reply messages is built using the address where
you received the messages you are replying to if that address
matches your “alternates”. If the variable is unset,
or the address that would be used doesn't match your
“alternates”, the From: line will use your address on
the current machine.
- Also see the “alternates” command and
$reverse_realname.
- reverse_realname
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- This variable fine-tunes the behavior of the $reverse_name
feature.
- When it is unset, Mutt will remove the real name
part of a matching address. This allows the use of the email address
without having to also use what the sender put in the real name
field.
- When it is set, Mutt will use the matching address
as-is.
- In either case, a missing real name will be filled in
afterwards using the value of $realname.
- rfc2047_parameters
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When this variable is set, Mutt will decode
RFC2047-encoded MIME parameters. You want to set this variable when mutt
suggests you to save attachments to files named like:
-
=?iso-8859-1?Q?file=5F=E4=5F991116=2Ezip?=
- When this variable is set interactively, the change
won't be active until you change folders.
- Note that this use of RFC2047's encoding is explicitly
prohibited by the standard, but nevertheless encountered in the wild.
- Also note that setting this parameter will not have
the effect that mutt generates this kind of encoding. Instead, mutt
will unconditionally use the encoding specified in RFC2231.
- save_address
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- If set, mutt will take the sender's full address
when choosing a default folder for saving a mail. If $save_name or
$force_name is set too, the selection of the Fcc folder will be
changed as well.
- save_empty
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When unset, mailboxes which contain no saved
messages will be removed when closed (the exception is $spoolfile which is
never removed). If set, mailboxes are never removed.
-
Note: This only applies to mbox and MMDF folders,
Mutt does not delete MH and Maildir directories.
- save_history
-
Type: number
Default: 0
- This variable controls the size of the history (per
category) saved in the $history_file file.
- save_name
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- This variable controls how copies of outgoing messages are
saved. When set, a check is made to see if a mailbox specified by
the recipient address exists (this is done by searching for a mailbox in
the $folder directory with the username part of the recipient
address). If the mailbox exists, the outgoing message will be saved to
that mailbox, otherwise the message is saved to the $record mailbox.
- Also see the $force_name variable.
- score
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When this variable is unset, scoring is turned off.
This can be useful to selectively disable scoring for certain folders when
the $score_threshold_delete variable and related are used.
- score_threshold_delete
-
Type: number
Default: -1
- Messages which have been assigned a score equal to or lower
than the value of this variable are automatically marked for deletion by
mutt. Since mutt scores are always greater than or equal to zero, the
default setting of this variable will never mark a message for deletion.
- score_threshold_flag
-
Type: number
Default: 9999
- Messages which have been assigned a score greater than or
equal to this variable's value are automatically marked
”flagged”.
- score_threshold_read
-
Type: number
Default: -1
- Messages which have been assigned a score equal to or lower
than the value of this variable are automatically marked as read by mutt.
Since mutt scores are always greater than or equal to zero, the default
setting of this variable will never mark a message read.
- search_context
-
Type: number
Default: 0
- For the pager, this variable specifies the number of lines
shown before search results. By default, search results will be
top-aligned.
- send_charset
-
Type: string
Default: “us-ascii:iso-8859-1:utf-8”
- A colon-delimited list of character sets for outgoing
messages. Mutt will use the first character set into which the text can be
converted exactly. If your $charset is not “iso-8859-1” and
recipients may not understand “UTF-8”, it is advisable to
include in the list an appropriate widely used standard character set
(such as “iso-8859-2”, “koi8-r” or
“iso-2022-jp”) either instead of or after
“iso-8859-1”.
- In case the text cannot be converted into one of these
exactly, mutt uses $charset as a fallback.
- send_multipart_alternative
-
Type: quadoption
Default: no
- If set, Mutt will generate a multipart/alternative
container and an alternative part using the filter script specified in
$send_multipart_alternative_filter. See the section “MIME
Multipart/Alternative” (alternative-order).
- Note that enabling multipart/alternative is not compatible
with inline PGP encryption. Mutt will prompt to use PGP/MIME in that case.
- send_multipart_alternative_filter
-
Type: path
Default: “”
- This specifies a filter script, which will convert the main
(composed) message of the email to an alternative format. The message will
be piped to the filter's stdin. The expected output of the filter is the
generated mime type, e.g. text/html, followed by a blank line, and then
the converted content. See the section “MIME
Multipart/Alternative” (alternative-order).
- sendmail
-
Type: path
Default: “/usr/sbin/sendmail -oem -oi”
- Specifies the program and arguments used to deliver mail
sent by Mutt. Mutt expects that the specified program interprets
additional arguments as recipient addresses. Mutt appends all recipients
after adding a -- delimiter (if not already present). Additional
flags, such as for $use_8bitmime, $use_envelope_from, $dsn_notify, or
$dsn_return will be added before the delimiter.
-
Note: This command is invoked differently from most
other commands in Mutt. It is tokenized by space, and invoked directly via
execvp(3) with an array of arguments - so commands or arguments
with spaces in them are not supported. The shell is not used to run the
command, so shell quoting is also not supported.
-
See also: $write_bcc.
- sendmail_wait
-
Type: number
Default: 0
- Specifies the number of seconds to wait for the $sendmail
process to finish before giving up and putting delivery in the
background.
- Mutt interprets the value of this variable as follows:
- >0
- number of seconds to wait for sendmail to finish before
continuing
- 0
- wait forever for sendmail to finish
- <0
- always put sendmail in the background without waiting
- Note that if you specify a value other than 0, the output
of the child process will be put in a temporary file. If there is some
error, you will be informed as to where to find the output.
- shell
-
Type: path
Default: “”
- Command to use when spawning a subshell. By default, the
user's login shell from /etc/passwd is used.
- sidebar_delim_chars
-
Type: string
Default: “/.”
- This contains the list of characters which you would like
to treat as folder separators for displaying paths in the sidebar.
- Local mail is often arranged in directories:
`dir1/dir2/mailbox'.
-
set sidebar_delim_chars='/'
- IMAP mailboxes are often named: `folder1.folder2.mailbox'.
-
set sidebar_delim_chars='.'
-
See also: $sidebar_short_path,
$sidebar_folder_indent, $sidebar_indent_string.
- sidebar_divider_char
-
Type: string
Default: “|”
- This specifies the characters to be drawn between the
sidebar (when visible) and the other Mutt panels. ASCII and Unicode
line-drawing characters are supported.
- sidebar_folder_indent
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- Set this to indent mailboxes in the sidebar.
-
See also: $sidebar_short_path,
$sidebar_indent_string, $sidebar_delim_chars.
- sidebar_format
-
Type: string
Default: “%B%* %n”
- This variable allows you to customize the sidebar display.
This string is similar to $index_format, but has its own set of
printf(3)-like sequences:
- %B
- Name of the mailbox
- %S
- * Size of mailbox (total number of messages)
- %N
- * Number of unread messages in the mailbox
- %n
- N if mailbox has new mail, blank otherwise
- %F
- * Number of Flagged messages in the mailbox
- %!
- “!” : one flagged message; “!!”
: two flagged messages; “n!” : n flagged messages (for n
> 2). Otherwise prints nothing.
- %d
- * @ Number of deleted messages
- %L
- * @ Number of messages after limiting
- %t
- * @ Number of tagged messages
- %>X
- right justify the rest of the string and pad with
“X”
- %|X
- pad to the end of the line with “X”
- %*X
- soft-fill with character “X” as pad
- * = Can be optionally printed if nonzero @ = Only
applicable to the current folder
- In order to use %S, %N, %F, and %!, $mail_check_stats must
be set. When thus set, a suggested value for this option is
”%B%?F? [%F]?%* %?N?%N/?%S”.
- sidebar_indent_string
-
Type: string
Default: “ ”
- This specifies the string that is used to indent mailboxes
in the sidebar. It defaults to two spaces.
-
See also: $sidebar_short_path,
$sidebar_folder_indent, $sidebar_delim_chars.
- sidebar_new_mail_only
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, the sidebar will only display mailboxes
containing new, or flagged, mail.
-
See also: sidebar_whitelist.
- sidebar_next_new_wrap
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, the <sidebar-next-new> command will
not stop and the end of the list of mailboxes, but wrap around to the
beginning. The <sidebar-prev-new> command is similarly
affected, wrapping around to the end of the list.
- sidebar_relative_shortpath_indent
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, this option changes how $sidebar_short_path and
$sidebar_folder_indent perform shortening and indentation: both will look
at the previous sidebar entries and shorten/indent relative to the most
recent parent.
- An example of this option set/unset for mailboxes listed in
this order, with $sidebar_short_path=yes, $sidebar_folder_indent=yes, and
$sidebar_indent_string=”→”:
- mailbox
-
set unset
- =a.b
-
=a.b →b
- =a.b.c.d
-
→c.d →→→d
- =a.b.e
-
→e →→e
- The second line illustrates most clearly. With this option
set, =a.b.c.d is shortened relative to =a.b, becoming
c.d; it is also indented one place relative to =a.b. With
this option unset =a.b.c.d is always shortened to the last part of
the mailbox, d and is indented three places, with respect to
$folder (represented by '=').
- When set, the third line will also be indented and
shortened relative to the first line.
- sidebar_short_path
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- By default the sidebar will show the mailbox's path,
relative to the $folder variable. Setting sidebar_shortpath=yes
will shorten the names relative to the previous name. Here's an
example:
- shortpath=no
-
shortpath=yes shortpath=yes, folderindent=yes,
indentstr=”..”
- fruit
-
fruit fruit
- fruit.apple
-
apple ..apple
- fruit.banana
-
banana ..banana
- fruit.cherry
-
cherry ..cherry
-
See also: $sidebar_delim_chars,
$sidebar_folder_indent, $sidebar_indent_string.
- sidebar_sort_method
-
Type: sort order
Default: unsorted
- Specifies how to sort mailbox entries in the sidebar. By
default, the entries are sorted alphabetically. Valid values:
- ‐ alpha (alphabetically)
- ‐ count (all message count)
- ‐ flagged (flagged message count)
- ‐ name (alphabetically)
- ‐ new (unread message count)
- ‐ path (alphabetically)
- ‐ unread (unread message count)
- ‐ unsorted
- You may optionally use the “reverse-” prefix
to specify reverse sorting order (example: “ set
sidebar_sort_method=reverse-alpha”).
- sidebar_use_mailbox_shortcuts
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, sidebar mailboxes will be displayed with mailbox
shortcut prefixes ”=” or ”~”.
- When unset, the sidebar will trim off a matching $folder
prefix but otherwise not use mailbox shortcuts.
- sidebar_visible
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- This specifies whether or not to show sidebar. The sidebar
shows a list of all your mailboxes.
-
See also: $sidebar_format, $sidebar_width
- sidebar_width
-
Type: number
Default: 30
- This controls the width of the sidebar. It is measured in
screen columns. For example: sidebar_width=20 could display 20 ASCII
characters, or 10 Chinese characters.
- sig_dashes
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- If set, a line containing “-- ” (note
the trailing space) will be inserted before your $signature. It is
strongly recommended that you not unset this variable unless
your signature contains just your name. The reason for this is because
many software packages use “-- \n” to detect your signature.
For example, Mutt has the ability to highlight the signature in a
different color in the built-in pager.
- sig_on_top
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- If set, the signature will be included before any
quoted or forwarded text. It is strongly recommended that you do
not set this variable unless you really know what you are doing, and are
prepared to take some heat from netiquette guardians.
- signature
-
Type: path
Default: “~/.signature”
- Specifies the filename of your signature, which is appended
to all outgoing messages. If the filename ends with a pipe
(“|”), it is assumed that filename is a shell command and
input should be read from its standard output.
- simple_search
-
Type: string
Default: “~f %s | ~s %s”
- Specifies how Mutt should expand a simple search into a
real search pattern. A simple search is one that does not contain any of
the “~” pattern modifiers. See “patterns” for
more information on search patterns.
- For example, if you simply type “joe” at a
search or limit prompt, Mutt will automatically expand it to the value
specified by this variable by replacing “%s” with the
supplied string. For the default value, “joe” would be
expanded to: “~f joe | ~s joe”.
- size_show_bytes
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- If set, message sizes will display bytes for values
less than 1 kilobyte. See formatstrings-size.
- size_show_fractions
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- If set, message sizes will be displayed with a
single decimal value for sizes from 0 to 10 kilobytes and 1 to 10
megabytes. See formatstrings-size.
- size_show_mb
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- If set, message sizes will display megabytes for
values greater than or equal to 1 megabyte. See formatstrings-size.
- size_units_on_left
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- If set, message sizes units will be displayed to the
left of the number. See formatstrings-size.
- sleep_time
-
Type: number
Default: 1
- Specifies time, in seconds, to pause while displaying
certain informational messages, while moving from folder to folder and
after expunging messages from the current folder. The default is to pause
one second, so a value of zero for this option suppresses the pause.
- smart_wrap
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- Controls the display of lines longer than the screen width
in the internal pager. If set, long lines are wrapped at a word
boundary. If unset, lines are simply wrapped at the screen edge.
Also see the $markers variable.
- smileys
-
Type: regular expression
Default: “(>From )|(:[-^]?[][)(><}{|/DP])”
- The pager uses this variable to catch some common
false positives of $quote_regexp, most notably smileys and not consider a
line quoted text if it also matches $smileys. This mostly happens at the
beginning of a line.
- smime_ask_cert_label
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- This flag controls whether you want to be asked to enter a
label for a certificate about to be added to the database or not. It is
set by default. (S/MIME only)
- smime_ca_location
-
Type: path
Default: “”
- This variable contains the name of either a directory, or a
file which contains trusted certificates for use with OpenSSL. (S/MIME
only)
- smime_certificates
-
Type: path
Default: “”
- Since for S/MIME there is no pubring/secring as with PGP,
mutt has to handle storage and retrieval of keys by itself. This is very
basic right now, and keys and certificates are stored in two different
directories, both named as the hash-value retrieved from OpenSSL. There is
an index file which contains mailbox-address keyid pairs, and which can be
manually edited. This option points to the location of the certificates.
(S/MIME only)
- smime_decrypt_command
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This format string specifies a command which is used to
decrypt application/x-pkcs7-mime attachments.
- The OpenSSL command formats have their own set of
printf(3)-like sequences similar to PGP's:
- %f
- Expands to the name of a file containing a message.
- %s
- Expands to the name of a file containing the signature part
of a multipart/signed attachment when verifying it.
- %k
- The key-pair specified with $smime_default_key
- %c
- One or more certificate IDs.
- %a
- The algorithm used for encryption.
- %d
- The message digest algorithm specified with
$smime_sign_digest_alg.
- %C
- CA location: Depending on whether $smime_ca_location
points to a directory or file, this expands to
“-CApath $smime_ca_location” or “-CAfile
$smime_ca_location”.
- For examples on how to configure these formats, see the
smime.rc in the samples/ subdirectory which has been
installed on your system alongside the documentation. (S/MIME only)
- smime_decrypt_use_default_key
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- If set (default) this tells mutt to use the default
key for decryption. Otherwise, if managing multiple certificate-key-pairs,
mutt will try to use the mailbox-address to determine the key to use. It
will ask you to supply a key, if it can't find one. (S/MIME only)
- smime_default_key
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This is the default key-pair to use for S/MIME operations,
and must be set to the keyid (the hash-value that OpenSSL generates) to
work properly.
- It will be used for encryption (see $postpone_encrypt and
$smime_self_encrypt). If GPGME is enabled, this is the key id displayed by
gpgsm.
- It will be used for decryption unless
$smime_decrypt_use_default_key is unset.
- It will also be used for signing unless $smime_sign_as is
set.
- The (now deprecated) smime_self_encrypt_as is an
alias for this variable, and should no longer be used. (S/MIME only)
- smime_encrypt_command
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This command is used to create encrypted S/MIME
messages.
- This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command
command for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
- smime_encrypt_with
-
Type: string
Default: “aes256”
- This sets the algorithm that should be used for encryption.
Valid choices are “aes128”, “aes192”,
“aes256”, “des”, “des3”,
“rc2-40”, “rc2-64”, “rc2-128”.
(S/MIME only)
- smime_get_cert_command
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This command is used to extract X509 certificates from a
PKCS7 structure.
- This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command
command for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
- smime_get_cert_email_command
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This command is used to extract the mail address(es) used
for storing X509 certificates, and for verification purposes (to check
whether the certificate was issued for the sender's mailbox).
- This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command
command for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
- smime_get_signer_cert_command
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This command is used to extract only the signers X509
certificate from a S/MIME signature, so that the certificate's owner may
get compared to the email's “From:” field.
- This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command
command for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
- smime_import_cert_command
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This command is used to import a certificate via
smime_keys.
- This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command
command for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
- smime_is_default
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- The default behavior of mutt is to use PGP on all
auto-sign/encryption operations. To override and to use OpenSSL instead
this must be set. However, this has no effect while replying, since
mutt will automatically select the same application that was used to
sign/encrypt the original message. (Note that this variable can be
overridden by unsetting $crypt_autosmime.) (S/MIME only)
- smime_keys
-
Type: path
Default: “”
- Since for S/MIME there is no pubring/secring as with PGP,
mutt has to handle storage and retrieval of keys/certs by itself. This is
very basic right now, and stores keys and certificates in two different
directories, both named as the hash-value retrieved from OpenSSL. There is
an index file which contains mailbox-address keyid pair, and which can be
manually edited. This option points to the location of the private keys.
(S/MIME only)
- smime_pk7out_command
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This command is used to extract PKCS7 structures of S/MIME
signatures, in order to extract the public X509 certificate(s).
- This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command
command for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
- smime_self_encrypt
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When set, S/MIME encrypted messages will also be
encrypted using the certificate in $smime_default_key. (S/MIME only)
- smime_sign_as
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- If you have a separate key to use for signing, you should
set this to the signing key. Most people will only need to set
$smime_default_key. (S/MIME only)
- smime_sign_command
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This command is used to created S/MIME signatures of type
multipart/signed, which can be read by all mail clients.
- This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command
command for possible printf(3)-like sequences. NOTE: %c and %k will
default to $smime_sign_as if set, otherwise $smime_default_key. (S/MIME
only)
- smime_sign_digest_alg
-
Type: string
Default: “sha256”
- This sets the algorithm that should be used for the
signature message digest. Valid choices are “md5”,
“sha1”, “sha224”, “sha256”,
“sha384”, “sha512”. (S/MIME only)
- smime_sign_opaque_command
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This command is used to created S/MIME signatures of type
application/x-pkcs7-signature, which can only be handled by mail
clients supporting the S/MIME extension.
- This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command
command for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
- smime_timeout
-
Type: number (long)
Default: 300
- The number of seconds after which a cached passphrase will
expire if not used. (S/MIME only)
- smime_verify_command
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This command is used to verify S/MIME signatures of type
multipart/signed.
- This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command
command for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
- smime_verify_opaque_command
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This command is used to verify S/MIME signatures of type
application/x-pkcs7-mime.
- This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command
command for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
- smtp_authenticators
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- This is a colon-delimited list of authentication methods
mutt may attempt to use to log in to an SMTP server, in the order mutt
should try them. Authentication methods are any SASL mechanism, e.g.
“digest-md5”, “gssapi” or
“cram-md5”. This option is case-insensitive. If it is
“unset” (the default) mutt will try all available methods,
in order from most-secure to least-secure.
- Example:
-
set smtp_authenticators=”digest-md5:cram-md5”
- smtp_oauth_refresh_command
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- The command to run to generate an OAUTH refresh token for
authorizing your connection to your SMTP server. This command will be run
on every connection attempt that uses the OAUTHBEARER authentication
mechanism. See “oauth” for details.
- smtp_pass
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- Specifies the password for your SMTP account. If
unset, Mutt will prompt you for your password when you first send
mail via SMTP. See $smtp_url to configure mutt to send mail via SMTP.
-
Warning: you should only use this option when you
are on a fairly secure machine, because the superuser can read your muttrc
even if you are the only one who can read the file.
- smtp_url
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- Defines the SMTP smarthost where sent messages should
relayed for delivery. This should take the form of an SMTP URL, e.g.:
-
smtp[s]://[user[:pass]@]host[:port]
- where “[...]” denotes an optional part.
Setting this variable overrides the value of the $sendmail variable.
- Also see $write_bcc.
- sort
-
Type: sort order
Default: date
- Specifies how to sort messages in the “index”
menu. Valid values are:
- ‐ date or date-sent
- ‐ date-received
- ‐ from
- ‐ mailbox-order (unsorted)
- ‐ score
- ‐ size
- ‐ spam
- ‐ subject
- ‐ threads
- ‐ to
- You may optionally use the “reverse-” prefix
to specify reverse sorting order (example: “ set
sort=reverse-date-sent”).
- For values except “threads”, this provides
the primary sort method. When two message sort values are equal, $sort_aux
will be used for a secondary sort.
- When set to “threads”, Mutt threads messages
in the index. It uses the variable $sort_thread_groups to sort between
threads (at the top/root level), and $sort_aux to sort sub-threads and
children.
- sort_alias
-
Type: sort order
Default: alias
- Specifies how the entries in the “alias” menu
are sorted. The following are legal values:
- ‐ address (sort alphabetically by email
address)
- ‐ alias (sort alphabetically by alias name)
- ‐ unsorted (leave in order specified in
.muttrc)
- sort_aux
-
Type: sort order
Default: date
- For non-threaded mode, this provides a secondary sort for
messages in the “index” menu, used when the $sort value is
equal for two messages.
- When sorting by threads, this variable controls how the
branches of the thread trees are sorted. This can be set to any value that
$sort can, except “threads” (in that case, mutt will just
use “date-sent”). You can also specify the
“last-” prefix in addition to the “reverse-”
prefix, but “last-” must come after
“reverse-”. The “last-” prefix causes messages
to be sorted against its siblings by which has the last descendant, using
the rest of $sort_aux as an ordering. For instance,
-
set sort_aux=last-date-received
- would mean that if a new message is received in a
sub-thread, that sub-thread becomes the last one displayed.
- Note: For reversed-threads $sort order, $sort_aux is
reversed again (which is not the right thing to do, but kept to not break
any existing configuration setting).
- sort_browser
-
Type: sort order
Default: alpha
- Specifies how to sort entries in the file browser. By
default, the entries are sorted alphabetically. Valid values:
- ‐ alpha (alphabetically)
- ‐ count
- ‐ date
- ‐ size
- ‐ unread
- ‐ unsorted
- You may optionally use the “reverse-” prefix
to specify reverse sorting order (example: “ set
sort_browser=reverse-date”).
- sort_browser_mailboxes
-
Type: sort order
Default: unsorted
- Specifies how to sort entries in the mailbox browser. By
default, the entries are unsorted, displayed in the same order as listed
in the “mailboxes” command. Valid values:
- ‐ alpha (alphabetically)
- ‐ count
- ‐ date
- ‐ size
- ‐ unread
- ‐ unsorted
- You may optionally use the “reverse-” prefix
to specify reverse sorting order (example: “ set
sort_browser_mailboxes=reverse-alpha”).
- sort_re
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- This variable is only useful when sorting by threads with
$strict_threads unset. In that case, it changes the heuristic mutt
uses to thread messages by subject. With $sort_re set, mutt will
only attach a message as the child of another message by subject if the
subject of the child message starts with a substring matching the setting
of $reply_regexp. With $sort_re unset, mutt will attach the message
whether or not this is the case, as long as the non-$reply_regexp parts of
both messages are identical.
- sort_thread_groups
-
Type: sort order
Default: aux
- When sorting by threads, this variable controls how threads
are sorted in relation to other threads (at the top/root level). This can
be set to any value that $sort can, except “threads”. You
can also specify the “last-” prefix in addition to the
“reverse-” prefix, but “last-” must come after
“reverse-”. The “last-” prefix causes messages
to be sorted against its siblings by which has the last descendant, using
the rest of $sort_thread_groups as an ordering.
- For backward compatibility, the default value is
“aux”, which means to use $sort_aux for top-level thread
sorting too. The value “aux” does not respect
“last-” or “reverse-” prefixes, it simply
delegates sorting directly to $sort_aux.
- Note: For reversed-threads $sort order, $sort_thread_groups
is reversed again (which is not the right thing to do, but kept to not
break any existing configuration setting).
- spam_separator
-
Type: string
Default: “,”
- This variable controls what happens when multiple spam
headers are matched: if unset, each successive header will
overwrite any previous matches value for the spam label. If set,
each successive match will append to the previous, using this variable's
value as a separator.
- spoolfile
-
Type: path
Default: “”
- If your spool mailbox is in a non-default place where Mutt
cannot find it, you can specify its location with this variable. Mutt will
initially set this variable to the value of the environment variable
$MAIL or $MAILDIR if either is defined.
- ssl_ca_certificates_file
-
Type: path
Default: “”
- This variable specifies a file containing trusted CA
certificates. Any server certificate that is signed with one of these CA
certificates is also automatically accepted. (GnuTLS only)
- Example:
-
set ssl_ca_certificates_file=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
- ssl_client_cert
-
Type: path
Default: “”
- The file containing a client certificate and its associated
private key.
- ssl_force_tls
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- If this variable is set, Mutt will require that all
connections to remote servers be encrypted. Furthermore it will attempt to
negotiate TLS even if the server does not advertise the capability, since
it would otherwise have to abort the connection anyway. This option
supersedes $ssl_starttls.
- ssl_min_dh_prime_bits
-
Type: number
Default: 0
- This variable specifies the minimum acceptable prime size
(in bits) for use in any Diffie-Hellman key exchange. A value of 0 will
use the default from the GNUTLS library. (GnuTLS only)
- ssl_starttls
-
Type: quadoption
Default: yes
- If set (the default), mutt will attempt to use
STARTTLS on servers advertising the capability. When unset,
mutt will not attempt to use STARTTLS regardless of the server's
capabilities.
-
Note that STARTTLS is subject to many kinds
of attacks, including the ability of a machine-in-the-middle to suppress
the advertising of support. Setting $ssl_force_tls is recommended if you
rely on STARTTLS.
- ssl_use_sslv2
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- If set , Mutt will use SSLv2 when communicating with
servers that request it. N.B. As of 2011, SSLv2 is considered insecure,
and using is inadvisable. See https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6176
. (OpenSSL only)
- ssl_use_sslv3
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- If set , Mutt will use SSLv3 when communicating with
servers that request it. N.B. As of 2015, SSLv3 is considered insecure,
and using it is inadvisable. See
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7525 .
- ssl_use_tlsv1
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- If set , Mutt will use TLSv1.0 when communicating
with servers that request it. N.B. As of 2015, TLSv1.0 is considered
insecure, and using it is inadvisable. See
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7525 .
- ssl_use_tlsv1_1
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- If set , Mutt will use TLSv1.1 when communicating
with servers that request it. N.B. As of 2015, TLSv1.1 is considered
insecure, and using it is inadvisable. See
https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7525 .
- ssl_use_tlsv1_2
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- If set , Mutt will use TLSv1.2 when communicating
with servers that request it.
- ssl_use_tlsv1_3
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- If set , Mutt will use TLSv1.3 when communicating
with servers that request it.
- ssl_usesystemcerts
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- If set to yes, mutt will use CA certificates in the
system-wide certificate store when checking if a server certificate is
signed by a trusted CA. (OpenSSL only)
- ssl_verify_dates
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- If set (the default), mutt will not automatically
accept a server certificate that is either not yet valid or already
expired. You should only unset this for particular known hosts, using the
<account-hook> function.
- ssl_verify_host
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- If set (the default), mutt will not automatically
accept a server certificate whose host name does not match the host used
in your folder URL. You should only unset this for particular known hosts,
using the <account-hook> function.
- ssl_verify_host_override
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- Defines an alternate host name to verify the server
certificate against. This should not be set unless you are sure what you
are doing, but it might be useful for connection to a .onion host without
a properly configured host name in the certificate. See $ssl_verify_host.
- ssl_verify_partial_chains
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- This option should not be changed from the default unless
you understand what you are doing.
- Setting this variable to yes will permit verifying
partial certification chains, i. e. a certificate chain where not the
root, but an intermediate certificate CA, or the host certificate, are
marked trusted (in $certificate_file), without marking the root signing CA
as trusted.
- (OpenSSL 1.0.2b and newer only).
- ssl_ciphers
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- Contains a colon-separated list of ciphers to use when
using SSL. For OpenSSL, see ciphers(1) for the syntax of the string.
- For GnuTLS, this option will be used in place of
”NORMAL” at the start of the priority string. See
gnutls_priority_init(3) for the syntax and more details. (Note: GnuTLS
version 2.1.7 or higher is required.)
- status_chars
-
Type: string
Default: “-*%A”
- Controls the characters used by the “%r”
indicator in $status_format. The first character is used when the mailbox
is unchanged. The second is used when the mailbox has been changed, and it
needs to be resynchronized. The third is used if the mailbox is in
read-only mode, or if the mailbox will not be written when exiting that
mailbox (You can toggle whether to write changes to a mailbox with the
<toggle-write> operation, bound by default to
“%”). The fourth is used to indicate that the current folder
has been opened in attach- message mode (Certain operations like composing
a new mail, replying, forwarding, etc. are not permitted in this mode).
- status_format
-
Type: string (localized)
Default: “-%r-Mutt: %f [Msgs:%?M?%M/?%m%?n? New:%n?%?o? Old:%o?%?d? Del:%d?%?F? Flag:%F?%?t? Tag:%t?%?p? Post:%p?%?b? Inc:%b?%?B? Back:%B?%?l? %l?]---(%s/%?T?%T/?%S)-%>-(%P)---”
- Controls the format of the status line displayed in the
“index” menu. This string is similar to $index_format, but
has its own set of printf(3)-like sequences:
- %b
- number of mailboxes with new mail *
- %B
- number of backgrounded editing sessions *
- %d
- number of deleted messages *
- %f
- the full pathname of the current mailbox
- %F
- number of flagged messages *
- %h
- local hostname
- %l
- size (in bytes) of the current mailbox (see
formatstrings-size) *
- %L
- size (in bytes) of the messages shown (i.e., which match
the current limit) (see formatstrings-size) *
- %m
- the number of messages in the mailbox *
- %M
- the number of messages shown (i.e., which match the current
limit) *
- %n
- number of new messages in the mailbox *
- %o
- number of old unread messages *
- %p
- number of postponed messages *
- %P
- percentage of the way through the index
- %r
- modified/read-only/won't-write/attach-message indicator,
according to $status_chars
- %R
- number of read messages *
- %s
- current sorting mode ($sort)
- %S
- current aux sorting method ($sort_aux)
- %t
- number of tagged messages *
- %T
- current thread group sorting method ($sort_thread_groups)
*
- %u
- number of unread messages *
- %v
- Mutt version string
- %V
- currently active limit pattern, if any *
- %>X
- right justify the rest of the string and pad with
“X”
- %|X
- pad to the end of the line with “X”
- %*X
- soft-fill with character “X” as pad
- For an explanation of “soft-fill”, see the
$index_format documentation.
- * = can be optionally printed if nonzero
- Some of the above sequences can be used to optionally print
a string if their value is nonzero. For example, you may only want to see
the number of flagged messages if such messages exist, since zero is not
particularly meaningful. To optionally print a string based upon one of
the above sequences, the following construct is used:
- %?<sequence_char>?<optional_string>?
- where sequence_char is a character from the table
above, and optional_string is the string you would like printed if
sequence_char is nonzero. optional_string may contain
other sequences as well as normal text, but you may not nest
optional strings.
- Here is an example illustrating how to optionally print the
number of new messages in a mailbox:
- %?n?%n new messages.?
- You can also switch between two strings using the following
construct:
- %?<sequence_char>?<if_string>&<else_string>?
- If the value of sequence_char is non-zero,
if_string will be expanded, otherwise else_string will be
expanded.
- You can force the result of any printf(3)-like
sequence to be lowercase by prefixing the sequence character with an
underscore (“_”) sign. For example, if you want to display
the local hostname in lowercase, you would use: “
%_h”.
- If you prefix the sequence character with a colon
(“:”) character, mutt will replace any dots in the expansion
by underscores. This might be helpful with IMAP folders that don't like
dots in folder names.
- status_on_top
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- Setting this variable causes the “status bar”
to be displayed on the first line of the screen rather than near the
bottom. If $help is set, too it'll be placed at the bottom.
- strict_threads
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- If set, threading will only make use of the
“In-Reply-To” and “References:” fields when
you $sort by message threads. By default, messages with the same subject
are grouped together in “pseudo threads.”. This may not
always be desirable, such as in a personal mailbox where you might have
several unrelated messages with the subjects like “hi” which
will get grouped together. See also $sort_re for a less drastic way of
controlling this behavior.
- suspend
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When unset, mutt won't stop when the user presses
the terminal's susp key, usually “^Z”. This is useful
if you run mutt inside an xterm using a command like “ xterm -e
mutt”.
- text_flowed
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, mutt will generate
“format=flowed” bodies with a content type of “
text/plain; format=flowed”. This format is easier to handle
for some mailing software, and generally just looks like ordinary text. To
actually make use of this format's features, you'll need support in your
editor.
- The option only controls newly composed messages. Postponed
messages, resent messages, and draft messages (via -H on the command line)
will use the content-type of the source message.
- Note that $indent_string is ignored when this option is
set.
- thorough_search
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- Affects the ~b, ~B, and ~h search
operations described in section “patterns”. If set,
the headers and body/attachments of messages to be searched are decoded
before searching. If unset, messages are searched as they appear in
the folder.
- Users searching attachments or for non-ASCII characters
should set this value because decoding also includes MIME
parsing/decoding and possible character set conversions. Otherwise mutt
will attempt to match against the raw message received (for example
quoted-printable encoded or with encoded headers) which may lead to
incorrect search results.
- thread_received
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, mutt uses the date received rather than
the date sent to thread messages by subject.
- tilde
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, the internal-pager will pad blank lines to
the bottom of the screen with a tilde (“~”).
- time_inc
-
Type: number
Default: 0
- Along with $read_inc, $write_inc, and $net_inc, this
variable controls the frequency with which progress updates are displayed.
It suppresses updates less than $time_inc milliseconds apart. This can
improve throughput on systems with slow terminals, or when running mutt on
a remote system.
- Also see the “tuning” section of the manual
for performance considerations.
- timeout
-
Type: number
Default: 600
- When Mutt is waiting for user input either idling in menus
or in an interactive prompt, Mutt would block until input is present.
Depending on the context, this would prevent certain operations from
working, like checking for new mail or keeping an IMAP connection
alive.
- This variable controls how many seconds Mutt will at most
wait until it aborts waiting for input, performs these operations and
continues to wait for input.
- A value of zero or less will cause Mutt to never time out.
- tmpdir
-
Type: path
Default: “”
- This variable allows you to specify where Mutt will place
its temporary files needed for displaying and composing messages. If this
variable is not set, the environment variable $TMPDIR is used. If
$TMPDIR is not set then “/var/tmp” is used.
- to_chars
-
Type: string
Default: “ +TCFL”
- Controls the character used to indicate mail addressed to
you. The first character is the one used when the mail is not
addressed to your address. The second is used when you are the only
recipient of the message. The third is when your address appears in the
“To:” header field, but you are not the only recipient of
the message. The fourth character is used when your address is specified
in the “Cc:” header field, but you are not the only
recipient. The fifth character is used to indicate mail that was sent by
you. The sixth character is used to indicate when a mail was sent
to a mailing-list you subscribe to.
- trash
-
Type: path
Default: “”
- If set, this variable specifies the path of the trash
folder where the mails marked for deletion will be moved, instead of being
irremediably purged.
- NOTE: When you delete a message in the trash folder, it is
really deleted, so that you have a way to clean the trash.
- ts_icon_format
-
Type: string (localized)
Default: “M%?n?AIL&ail?”
- Controls the format of the icon title, as long as
“$ts_enabled” is set. This string is identical in formatting
to the one used by “$status_format”.
- ts_enabled
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- Controls whether mutt tries to set the terminal status line
and icon name. Most terminal emulators emulate the status line in the
window title.
- ts_status_format
-
Type: string (localized)
Default: “Mutt with %?m?%m messages&no messages?%?n? [%n NEW]?”
- Controls the format of the terminal status line (or window
title), provided that “$ts_enabled” has been set. This
string is identical in formatting to the one used by
“$status_format”.
- tunnel
-
Type: string
Default: “”
- Setting this variable will cause mutt to open a pipe to a
command instead of a raw socket. You may be able to use this to set up
preauthenticated connections to your IMAP/POP3/SMTP server. Example:
-
set tunnel=”ssh -q mailhost.net /usr/local/libexec/imapd”
- Note: For this example to work you must be able to log in
to the remote machine without having to enter a password.
- When set, Mutt uses the tunnel for all remote connections.
Please see “account-hook” in the manual for how to use
different tunnel commands per connection.
- tunnel_is_secure
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When set, Mutt will assume the $tunnel connection
does not need STARTTLS to be enabled. It will also allow IMAP PREAUTH
server responses inside a tunnel to proceed. This is appropriate if
$tunnel uses ssh or directly invokes the server locally.
- When unset, Mutt will negotiate STARTTLS according
to the ssl_starttls and ssl_force_tls variables. If ssl_force_tls is set,
Mutt will abort connecting if an IMAP server responds with PREAUTH. This
setting is appropriate if $tunnel does not provide security and could be
tampered with by attackers.
- uncollapse_jump
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, Mutt will jump to the next unread message,
if any, when the current thread is uncollapsed.
- uncollapse_new
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When set, Mutt will automatically uncollapse any
collapsed thread that receives a newly delivered message. When
unset, collapsed threads will remain collapsed. The presence of the
newly delivered message will still affect index sorting, though.
- use_8bitmime
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
-
Warning: do not set this variable unless you are
using a version of sendmail which supports the -B8BITMIME flag
(such as sendmail 8.8.x) or you may not be able to send mail.
- When set, Mutt will invoke $sendmail with the
-B8BITMIME flag when sending 8-bit messages to enable ESMTP
negotiation.
- use_domain
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When set, Mutt will qualify all local addresses
(ones without the “@host” portion) with the value of
$hostname. If unset, no addresses will be qualified.
- use_envelope_from
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, mutt will set the envelope sender
of the message. If $envelope_from_address is set, it will be used
as the sender address. If unset, mutt will attempt to derive the
sender from the “From:” header.
- Note that this information is passed to sendmail command
using the -f command line switch. Therefore setting this option is
not useful if the $sendmail variable already contains -f or if the
executable pointed to by $sendmail doesn't support the -f switch.
- use_from
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When set, Mutt will generate the
“From:” header field when sending messages. If unset,
no “From:” header field will be generated unless the user
explicitly sets one using the “my_hdr” command.
- use_ipv6
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When set, Mutt will look for IPv6 addresses of hosts
it tries to contact. If this option is unset, Mutt will restrict
itself to IPv4 addresses. Normally, the default should work.
- user_agent
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- When set, mutt will add a
“User-Agent:” header to outgoing messages, indicating which
version of mutt was used for composing them.
- visual
-
Type: path
Default: “”
- Specifies the visual editor to invoke when the
“~v” command is given in the built-in editor.
- wait_key
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- Controls whether Mutt will ask you to press a key after an
external command has been invoked by these functions:
<shell-escape>, <pipe-message>,
<pipe-entry>, <print-message>, and
<print-entry> commands.
- It is also used when viewing attachments with
“auto_view”, provided that the corresponding mailcap entry
has a needsterminal flag, and the external program is
interactive.
- When set, Mutt will always ask for a key. When
unset, Mutt will wait for a key only if the external command
returned a non-zero status.
- weed
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- When set, mutt will weed headers when displaying,
forwarding, or replying to messages.
- Also see $copy_decode_weed, $pipe_decode_weed,
$print_decode_weed.
- wrap
-
Type: number
Default: 0
- When set to a positive value, mutt will wrap text at $wrap
characters. When set to a negative value, mutt will wrap text so that
there are $wrap characters of empty space on the right side of the
terminal. Setting it to zero makes mutt wrap at the terminal width.
- Also see $reflow_wrap.
- wrap_headers
-
Type: number
Default: 78
- This option specifies the number of characters to use for
wrapping an outgoing message's headers. Allowed values are between 78 and
998 inclusive.
-
Note: This option usually shouldn't be changed.
RFC5233 recommends a line length of 78 (the default), so please only
change this setting when you know what you're doing.
- wrap_search
-
Type: boolean
Default: yes
- Controls whether searches wrap around the end.
- When set, searches will wrap around the first (or
last) item. When unset, incremental searches will not wrap.
- wrapmargin
-
Type: number
Default: 0
- (DEPRECATED) Equivalent to setting $wrap with a negative
value.
- write_bcc
-
Type: boolean
Default: no
- Controls whether mutt writes out the “Bcc:”
header when preparing messages to be sent. Some MTAs, such as Exim and
Courier, do not strip the “Bcc:” header; so it is advisable
to leave this unset unless you have a particular need for the header to be
in the sent message.
- If mutt is set to deliver directly via SMTP (see
$smtp_url), this option does nothing: mutt will never write out the
“Bcc:” header in this case.
- Note this option only affects the sending of messages.
Fcc'ed copies of a message will always contain the “Bcc:”
header if one exists.
- write_inc
-
Type: number
Default: 10
- When writing a mailbox, a message will be printed every
$write_inc messages to indicate progress. If set to 0, only a single
message will be displayed before writing a mailbox.
- Also see the $read_inc, $net_inc and $time_inc variables
and the “tuning” section of the manual for performance
considerations.
iconv(1),
iconv(3),
mailcap(5),
maildir(5),
mbox(5),
mutt(1),
printf(3),
regex(7),
strftime(3)
The Mutt Manual
The Mutt home page:
http://www.mutt.org/
Michael Elkins, and others. Use <
[email protected]> to contact the
developers.