1muttrc(5) User Manuals muttrc(5)
2
6 muttrc - Configuration file for the Mutt Mail User Agent
7
9 A mutt configuration file consists of a series of “commands”. Each
10 line of the file may contain one or more commands. When multiple com‐
11 mands are used, they must be separated by a semicolon (“;”).
12 The hash mark, or pound sign (“#”), is used as a “comment” character.
14 You can use it to annotate your initialization file. All text after the
15 comment character to the end of the line is ignored.
16 Single quotes (“'”) and double quotes (“"”) can be used to quote
18 strings which contain spaces or other special characters. The differ‐
19 ence between the two types of quotes is similar to that of many popular
20 shell programs, namely that a single quote is used to specify a literal
21 string (one that is not interpreted for shell variables or quoting with
22 a backslash [see next paragraph]), while double quotes indicate a
23 string which should be evaluated. For example, backticks are evaluated
24 inside of double quotes, but not single quotes.
25 \ quotes the next character, just as in shells such as bash and zsh.
27 For example, if want to put quotes (“"”) inside of a string, you can
28 use “\” to force the next character to be a literal instead of inter‐
29 preted character.
30 “\\” means to insert a literal “\” into the line. “\n” and “\r” have
32 their usual C meanings of linefeed and carriage-return, respectively.
33 A “\” at the end of a line can be used to split commands over multiple
35 lines, provided that the split points don't appear in the middle of
36 command names.
37 It is also possible to substitute the output of a Unix command in an
39 initialization file. This is accomplished by enclosing the command in
40 backticks (`command`).
41 UNIX environment variables can be accessed like the way it is done in
43 shells like sh and bash: Prepend the name of the variable by a dollar
44 (“$”) sign.
45
47 alias [-group name [...]] key address [, address [ ... ]]
48 unalias [ * | key ]
49 alias defines an alias key for the given addresses. Each address
51 will be resolved into either an email address (user@example.com)
52 or a named email address (User Name <user@example.com>). The
53 address may be specified in either format, or in the format
54 “user@example.com (User Name)”. unalias removes the alias cor‐
55 responding to the given key or all aliases when “*” is used as
56 an argument. The optional -group argument to alias causes the
57 aliased address(es) to be added to the named group.
58 group [-group name] [-rx EXPR [ ... ]] [-addr address [ ... ]]
60 ungroup [-group name ] [ * | [[-rx EXPR [ ... ]] [-addr address [ ... ]]]
61 group is used to directly add either addresses or regular
63 expressions to the specified group or groups. The different cat‐
64 egories of arguments to the group command can be in any order.
65 The flags -rx and -addr specify what the following strings (that
66 cannot begin with a hyphen) should be interpreted as: either a
67 regular expression or an email address, respectively. ungroup
68 is used to remove addresses or regular expressions from the
69 specified group or groups. The syntax is similar to the group
70 command, however the special character * can be used to empty a
71 group of all of its contents.
72 These address groups can also be created implicitly by the
74 alias, lists, subscribe and alternates commands by specifying
75 the optional -group option.
76 Once defined, these address groups can be used in patterns to
78 search for and limit the display to messages matching a group.
79 alternates [-group name] regexp [ , regexp [ ... ]]
81 unalternates [ * | regexp [ , regexp [ ... ]] ]
82 alternates is used to inform mutt about alternate addresses
84 where you receive mail; you can use regular expressions to spec‐
85 ify alternate addresses. This affects mutt's idea about mes‐
86 sages from you, and messages addressed to you. unalternates
87 removes a regular expression from the list of known alternates.
88 The -group flag causes all of the subsequent regular expressions
89 to be added to the named group.
90 alternative_order type[/subtype] [ ... ]
92 unalternative_order [ * | type/subtype] [...]
93 alternative_order command permits you to define an order of
95 preference which is used by mutt to determine which part of a
96 multipart/alternative body to display. A subtype of “*” matches
97 any subtype, as does an empty subtype. unalternative_order
98 removes entries from the ordered list or deletes the entire list
99 when “*” is used as an argument.
100 auto_view type[/subtype] [ ... ]
102 unauto_view type[/subtype] [ ... ]
103 This commands permits you to specify that mutt should automati‐
105 cally convert the given MIME types to text/plain when displaying
106 messages. For this to work, there must be a mailcap(5) entry
107 for the given MIME type with the copiousoutput flag set. A sub‐
108 type of “*” matches any subtype, as does an empty subtype.
109 mime_lookup type[/subtype] [ ... ]
111 unmime_lookup type[/subtype] [ ... ]
112 This command permits you to define a list of "data" MIME content
114 types for which mutt will try to determine the actual file type
115 from the file name, and not use a mailcap(5) entry given for the
116 original MIME type. For instance, you may add the applica‐
117 tion/octet-stream MIME type to this list.
118 bind map1,map2,... key function
120 This command binds the given key for the given map or maps to
121 the given function. Multiple maps may be specified by separating
122 them with commas (no whitespace is allowed).
123 Valid maps are: generic, alias, attach, browser, editor, index,
125 compose, pager, pgp, postpone, mix.
126 For more information on keys and functions, please consult the
128 Mutt Manual. Note that the function name is to be specified
129 without angle brackets.
130 account-hook [!]regexp command
132 This hook is executed whenever you access a remote mailbox. Use‐
133 ful to adjust configuration settings to different IMAP or POP
134 servers.
135 charset-hook alias charset
137 This command defines an alias for a character set. This is use‐
138 ful to properly display messages which are tagged with a charac‐
139 ter set name not known to mutt.
140 iconv-hook charset local-charset
142 This command defines a system-specific name for a character set.
143 This is useful when your system's iconv(3) implementation does
144 not understand MIME character set names (such as iso-8859-1),
145 but instead insists on being fed with implementation-specific
146 character set names (such as 8859-1). In this specific case,
147 you'd put this into your configuration file:
148 iconv-hook iso-8859-1 8859-1
150 message-hook [!]pattern command
152 Before mutt displays (or formats for replying or forwarding) a
153 message which matches the given pattern (or, when it is preceded
154 by an exclamation mark, does not match the pattern), the given
155 command is executed. When multiple message-hooks match, they
156 are executed in the order in which they occur in the configu‐
157 ration file.
158 folder-hook [!]regexp command
160 When mutt enters a folder which matches regexp (or, when regexp
161 is preceded by an exclamation mark, does not match regexp), the
162 given command is executed.
163 When several folder-hooks match a given mail folder, they are
165 executed in the order given in the configuration file.
166 macro map key sequence [ description ]
168 This command binds the given sequence of keys to the given key
169 in the given map or maps. For valid maps, see bind. To specify
170 multiple maps, put only a comma between the maps.
171 color object foreground background [ regexp ]
173 color index foreground background [ pattern ]
174 uncolor index pattern [ pattern ... ]
175 If your terminal supports color, these commands can be used to
177 assign foreground/background combinations to certain objects.
178 Valid objects are: attachment, body, bold, header, hdrdefault,
179 index, indicator, markers, message, normal, quoted, quotedN,
180 search, signature, status, tilde, tree, underline. The body and
181 header objects allow you to restrict the colorization to a regu‐
182 lar expression. The index object permits you to select colored
183 messages by pattern.
184 Valid colors include: white, black, green, magenta, blue, cyan,
186 yellow, red, default, colorN.
187 mono object attribute [ regexp ]
189 mono index attribute [ pattern ]
190 For terminals which don't support color, you can still assign
192 attributes to objects. Valid attributes include: none, bold,
193 underline, reverse, and standout.
194 [un]ignore pattern [ pattern ... ]
196 The ignore command permits you to specify header fields which
197 you usually don't wish to see. Any header field whose tag
198 begins with an “ignored” pattern will be ignored.
199 The unignore command permits you to define exceptions from the
201 above mentioned list of ignored headers.
202 lists [-group name] regexp [ regexp ... ]
204 unlists regexp [ regexp ... ]
205 subscribe [-group name] regexp [ regexp ... ]
206 unsubscribe regexp [ regexp ... ]
207 Mutt maintains two lists of mailing list address patterns, a
209 list of subscribed mailing lists, and a list of known mailing
210 lists. All subscribed mailing lists are known. Patterns use
211 regular expressions.
212 The lists command adds a mailing list address to the list of
214 known mailing lists. The unlists command removes a mailing list
215 from the lists of known and subscribed mailing lists. The sub‐
216 scribe command adds a mailing list to the lists of known and
217 subscribed mailing lists. The unsubscribe command removes it
218 from the list of subscribed mailing lists. The -group flag adds
219 all of the subsequent regular expressions to the named group.
220 mbox-hook [!]pattern mailbox
222 When mutt changes to a mail folder which matches pattern, mail‐
223 box will be used as the “mbox” folder, i.e., read messages will
224 be moved to that folder when the mail folder is left.
225 The first matching mbox-hook applies.
227 mailboxes filename [ filename ... ]
229 unmailboxes [ * | filename ... ]
230 The mailboxes specifies folders which can receive mail and which
232 will be checked for new messages. When changing folders, press‐
233 ing space will cycle through folders with new mail. The unmail‐
234 boxes command is used to remove a file name from the list of
235 folders which can receive mail. If "*" is specified as the file
236 name, the list is emptied.
237 my_hdr string
239 unmy_hdr field
240 Using my_hdr, you can define headers which will be added to the
242 messages you compose. unmy_hdr will remove the given user-
243 defined headers.
244 hdr_order header1 header2 [ ... ]
246 With this command, you can specify an order in which mutt will
247 attempt to present headers to you when viewing messages.
248 save-hook [!]pattern filename
250 When a message matches pattern, the default file name when sav‐
251 ing it will be the given filename.
252 fcc-hook [!]pattern filename
254 When an outgoing message matches pattern, the default file name
255 for storing a copy (fcc) will be the given filename.
256 fcc-save-hook [!]pattern filename
258 This command is an abbreviation for identical fcc-hook and save-
259 hook commands.
260 send-hook [!]pattern command
262 When composing a message matching pattern, command is executed.
263 When multiple send-hooks match, they are executed in the order
264 in which they occur in the configuration file.
265 send2-hook [!]pattern command
267 Whenever a message matching pattern is changed (either by edit‐
268 ing it or by using the compose menu), command is executed. When
269 multiple send2-hooks match, they are executed in the order in
270 which they occur in the configuration file. Possible applica‐
271 tions include setting the $sendmail variable when a message's
272 from header is changed.
273 send2-hook execution is not triggered by use of enter-command
275 from the compose menu.
276 reply-hook [!]pattern command
278 When replying to a message matching pattern, command is exe‐
279 cuted. When multiple reply-hooks match, they are executed in
280 the order in which they occur in the configuration file, but all
281 reply-hooks are matched and executed before send-hooks, regard‐
282 less of their order in the configuration file.
283 crypt-hook pattern key-id
285 The crypt-hook command provides a method by which you can spec‐
286 ify the ID of the public key to be used when encrypting messages
287 to a certain recipient. The meaning of "key ID" is to be taken
288 broadly: This can be a different e-mail address, a numerical key
289 ID, or even just an arbitrary search string.
290 push string
292 This command adds the named string to the keyboard buffer.
293 set [no|inv|&|?]variable[=value] [ ... ]
295 toggle variable [ ... ]
296 unset variable [ ... ]
297 reset variable [ ... ]
298 These commands are used to set and manipulate configuration
300 variables.
301 Mutt knows four basic types of variables: boolean, number,
303 string and quadoption. Boolean variables can be set (true),
304 unset (false), or toggled. Number variables can be assigned a
305 positive integer value.
306 String variables consist of any number of printable characters.
308 Strings must be enclosed in quotes if they contain spaces or
309 tabs. You may also use the “C” escape sequences \n and \t for
310 newline and tab, respectively.
311 Quadoption variables are used to control whether or not to be
313 prompted for certain actions, or to specify a default action. A
314 value of yes will cause the action to be carried out automati‐
315 cally as if you had answered yes to the question. Similarly, a
316 value of no will cause the the action to be carried out as if
317 you had answered “no.” A value of ask-yes will cause a prompt
318 with a default answer of “yes” and ask-no will provide a default
319 answer of “no.”
320 The reset command resets all given variables to the compile time
322 defaults. If you reset the special variable all, all variables
323 will reset to their compile time defaults.
324 source filename
326 The given file will be evaluated as a configuration file.
327 spam pattern format
329 nospam pattern
330 These commands define spam-detection patterns from external spam
331 filters, so that mutt can sort, limit, and search on ``spam
332 tags'' or ``spam attributes'', or display them in the index. See
333 the Mutt manual for details.
334 unhook [ * | hook-type ]
336 This command will remove all hooks of a given type, or all hooks
337 when “*” is used as an argument. hook-type can be any of the
338 -hook commands documented above.
339
341 In various places with mutt, including some of the above mentioned hook
342 commands, you can specify patterns to match messages.
343 Constructing Patterns
345 A simple pattern consists of an operator of the form “~character”, pos‐
346 sibly followed by a parameter against which mutt is supposed to match
347 the object specified by this operator. For some characters, the ~ may
348 be replaced by another character to alter the behavior of the match.
349 These are described in the list of operators, below.
350 With some of these operators, the object to be matched consists of sev‐
352 eral e-mail addresses. In these cases, the object is matched if at
353 least one of these e-mail addresses matches. You can prepend a hat
354 (“^”) character to such a pattern to indicate that all addresses must
355 match in order to match the object.
356 You can construct complex patterns by combining simple patterns with
358 logical operators. Logical AND is specified by simply concatenating
359 two simple patterns, for instance “~C mutt-dev ~s bug”. Logical OR is
360 specified by inserting a vertical bar (“|”) between two patterns, for
361 instance “~C mutt-dev | ~s bug”. Additionally, you can negate a pat‐
362 tern by prepending a bang (“!”) character. For logical grouping, use
363 braces (“()”). Example: “!(~t mutt|~c mutt) ~f elkins”.
364 Simple Patterns
366 Mutt understands the following simple patterns:
367 ~A all messages
369 ~b EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the message body.
370 =b STRING messages which contain STRING in the message body. If IMAP
371 is enabled, searches for STRING on the server, rather than
372 downloading each message and searching it locally.
373 ~B EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the whole message.
374 ~c EXPR messages carbon-copied to EXPR
375 %c GROUP messages carbon-copied to any member of GROUP
376 ~C EXPR messages either to: or cc: EXPR
377 %C GROUP messages either to: or cc: to any member of GROUP
378 ~d MIN-MAX messages with “date-sent” in a Date range
379 ~D deleted messages
380 ~e EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the “Sender” field
381 %e GROUP messages which contain a member of GROUP in the “Sender”
382 field
383 ~E expired messages
384 ~f EXPR messages originating from EXPR
385 %f GROUP messages originating form any member of GROUP
386 ~F flagged messages
387 ~g PGP signed messages
388 ~G PGP encrypted messages
389 ~h EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the message header
390 ~H EXPR messages with spam tags matching EXPR
391 ~i EXPR messages which match EXPR in the “Message-ID” field
392 ~k messages containing PGP key material
393 ~l messages addressed to a known mailing list (defined by
394 either subscribe or list)
395 ~L EXPR messages either originated or received by EXPR
396 %L GROUP messages either originated or received by any member of
397 GROUP
398 ~m MIN-MAX message in the range MIN to MAX
399 ~n MIN-MAX messages with a score in the range MIN to MAX
400 ~N new messages
401 ~O old messages
402 ~p messages addressed to you (as defined by alternates)
403 ~P messages from you (as defined by alternates)
404 ~Q messages which have been replied to
405 ~r MIN-MAX messages with “date-received” in a Date range
406 ~R read messages
407 ~s EXPR messages having EXPR in the “Subject” field.
408 ~S superseded messages
409 ~t EXPR messages addressed to EXPR
410 ~T tagged messages
411 ~u messages addressed to a subscribed mailing list (defined by
412 subscribe commands)
413 ~U unread messages
414 ~v message is part of a collapsed thread.
415 ~V cryptographically verified messages
416 ~x EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the “References” or “In-
417 Reply-To” field
418 ~X MIN-MAX messages with MIN - MAX attachments
419 ~y EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the “X-Label” field
420 ~z MIN-MAX messages with a size in the range MIN to MAX
421 ~= duplicated messages (see $duplicate_threads)
422 ~$ unreferenced message (requires threaded view)
423 ~(PATTERN) messages in threads containing messages matching a certain
424 pattern, e.g. all threads containing messages from you:
425 ~(~P)
426 In the above, EXPR is a regular expression.
428 With the ~d, ~m, ~n, ~r, ~X, and ~z operators, you can also specify
430 ranges in the forms <MAX, >MIN, MIN-, and -MAX.
431 With the ~z operator, the suffixes “K” and “M” are allowed to specify
433 kilobyte and megabyte respectively.
434 Matching dates
436 The ~d and ~r operators are used to match date ranges, which are inter‐
437 preted to be given in your local time zone.
438 A date is of the form DD[/MM[/[cc]YY]], that is, a two-digit date,
440 optionally followed by a two-digit month, optionally followed by a year
441 specifications. Omitted fields default to the current month and year.
442 Mutt understands either two or four digit year specifications. When
444 given a two-digit year, mutt will interpret values less than 70 as
445 lying in the 21st century (i.e., “38” means 2038 and not 1938, and “00”
446 is interpreted as 2000), and values greater than or equal to 70 as
447 lying in the 20th century.
448 Note that this behavior is Y2K compliant, but that mutt does have a
450 Y2.07K problem.
451 If a date range consists of a single date, the operator in question
453 will match that precise date. If the date range consists of a dash
454 (“-”), followed by a date, this range will match any date before and up
455 to the date given. Similarly, a date followed by a dash matches the
456 date given and any later point of time. Two dates, separated by a
457 dash, match any date which lies in the given range of time.
458 You can also modify any absolute date by giving an error range. An
460 error range consists of one of the characters +, -, *, followed by a
461 positive number, followed by one of the unit characters y, m, w, or d,
462 specifying a unit of years, months, weeks, or days. + increases the
463 maximum date matched by the given interval of time, - decreases the
464 minimum date matched by the given interval of time, and * increases the
465 maximum date and decreases the minimum date matched by the given inter‐
466 val of time. It is possible to give multiple error margins, which
467 cumulate. Example: 1/1/2001-1w+2w*3d
468 You can also specify offsets relative to the current date. An offset
470 is specified as one of the characters <, >, =, followed by a positive
471 number, followed by one of the unit characters y, m, w, or d. >
472 matches dates which are older than the specified amount of time, an
473 offset which begins with the character < matches dates which are more
474 recent than the specified amount of time, and an offset which begins
475 with the character = matches points of time which are precisely the
476 given amount of time ago.
477
479 abort_nosubject
480 Type: quadoption
481 Default: ask-yes
482 If set to yes, when composing messages and no subject is given
484 at the subject prompt, composition will be aborted. If set to
485 no, composing messages with no subject given at the subject
486 prompt will never be aborted.
487 abort_unmodified
491 Type: quadoption
492 Default: yes
493 If set to yes, composition will automatically abort after edit‐
495 ing the message body if no changes are made to the file (this
496 check only happens after the first edit of the file). When set
497 to no, composition will never be aborted.
498 alias_file
502 Type: path
503 Default: “~/.muttrc”
504 The default file in which to save aliases created by the <cre‐
506 ate-alias> function. Entries added to this file are encoded in
507 the character set specified by $config_charset if it is set or
508 the current character set otherwise.
509 Note: Mutt will not automatically source this file; you must
511 explicitly use the “source” command for it to be executed in
512 case this option points to a dedicated alias file.
513 The default for this option is the currently used muttrc file,
515 or “~/.muttrc” if no user muttrc was found.
516 alias_format
520 Type: string
521 Default: “%4n %2f %t %-10a %r”
522 Specifies the format of the data displayed for the “alias” menu.
524 The following printf(3)-style sequences are available:
525 %a alias name
526 %f flags - currently, a “d” for an alias marked for deletion
527 %n index number
528 %r address which alias expands to
529 %t character which indicates if the alias is tagged for
530 inclusion
531 allow_8bit
534 Type: boolean
535 Default: yes
536 Controls whether 8-bit data is converted to 7-bit using either
538 Quoted- Printable or Base64 encoding when sending mail.
539 allow_ansi
543 Type: boolean
544 Default: no
545 Controls whether ANSI color codes in messages (and color tags in
547 rich text messages) are to be interpreted. Messages containing
548 these codes are rare, but if this option is set, their text will
549 be colored accordingly. Note that this may override your color
550 choices, and even present a security problem, since a message
551 could include a line like
552 [-- PGP output follows ...
555 and give it the same color as your attachment color (see also
559 $crypt_timestamp).
560 arrow_cursor
564 Type: boolean
565 Default: no
566 When set, an arrow (“->”) will be used to indicate the current
568 entry in menus instead of highlighting the whole line. On slow
569 network or modem links this will make response faster because
570 there is less that has to be redrawn on the screen when moving
571 to the next or previous entries in the menu.
572 ascii_chars
576 Type: boolean
577 Default: no
578 If set, Mutt will use plain ASCII characters when displaying
580 thread and attachment trees, instead of the default ACS charac‐
581 ters.
582 askbcc
586 Type: boolean
587 Default: no
588 If set, Mutt will prompt you for blind-carbon-copy (Bcc) recipi‐
590 ents before editing an outgoing message.
591 askcc
595 Type: boolean
596 Default: no
597 If set, Mutt will prompt you for carbon-copy (Cc) recipients
599 before editing the body of an outgoing message.
600 assumed_charset
604 Type: string
605 Default: “”
606 This variable is a colon-separated list of character encoding
608 schemes for messages without character encoding indication.
609 Header field values and message body content without character
610 encoding indication would be assumed that they are written in
611 one of this list. By default, all the header fields and message
612 body without any charset indication are assumed to be in
613 “us-ascii”.
614 For example, Japanese users might prefer this:
616 set assumed_charset=”iso-2022-jp:euc-jp:shift_jis:utf-8”
619 However, only the first content is valid for the message body.
623 attach_charset
627 Type: string
628 Default: “”
629 This variable is a colon-separated list of character encoding
631 schemes for text file attachments. Mutt uses this setting to
632 guess which encoding files being attached are encoded in to con‐
633 vert them to a proper character set given in $send_charset.
634 If unset, the value of $charset will be used instead. For exam‐
636 ple, the following configuration would work for Japanese text
637 handling:
638 set attach_charset=”iso-2022-jp:euc-jp:shift_jis:utf-8”
641 Note: for Japanese users, “iso-2022-*” must be put at the head
645 of the value as shown above if included.
646 attach_format
650 Type: string
651 Default: “%u%D%I %t%4n %T%.40d%> [%.7m/%.10M, %.6e%?C?, %C?, %s] ”
652 This variable describes the format of the “attachment” menu.
654 The following printf(3)-style sequences are understood:
655 %C charset
656 %c requires charset conversion (“n” or “c”)
657 %D deleted flag
658 %d description
659 %e MIME content-transfer-encoding
660 %f filename
661 %I disposition (“I” for inline, “A” for attachment)
662 %m major MIME type
663 %M MIME subtype
664 %n attachment number
665 %Q “Q”, if MIME part qualifies for attachment counting
666 %s size
667 %t tagged flag
668 %T graphic tree characters
669 %u unlink (=to delete) flag
670 %X number of qualifying MIME parts in this part and its
671 children (please see the “attachments” section for possi‐
672 ble speed effects)
673 %>X right justify the rest of the string and pad with charac‐
674 ter “X”
675 %|X pad to the end of the line with character “X”
676 %*X soft-fill with character “X” as pad
677 For an explanation of “soft-fill”, see the $index_format docu‐
679 mentation.
680 attach_sep
684 Type: string
685 Default: “\n”
686 The separator to add between attachments when operating (saving,
688 printing, piping, etc) on a list of tagged attachments.
689 attach_split
693 Type: boolean
694 Default: yes
695 If this variable is unset, when operating (saving, printing,
697 piping, etc) on a list of tagged attachments, Mutt will concate‐
698 nate the attachments and will operate on them as a single
699 attachment. The $attach_sep separator is added after each
700 attachment. When set, Mutt will operate on the attachments one
701 by one.
702 attribution
706 Type: string
707 Default: “On %d, %n wrote:”
708 This is the string that will precede a message which has been
710 included in a reply. For a full listing of defined
711 printf(3)-like sequences see the section on $index_format.
712 auto_tag
716 Type: boolean
717 Default: no
718 When set, functions in the index menu which affect a message
720 will be applied to all tagged messages (if there are any). When
721 unset, you must first use the <tag-prefix> function (bound to
722 “;” by default) to make the next function apply to all tagged
723 messages.
724 autoedit
728 Type: boolean
729 Default: no
730 When set along with $edit_headers, Mutt will skip the initial
732 send-menu (prompting for subject and recipients) and allow you
733 to immediately begin editing the body of your message. The
734 send-menu may still be accessed once you have finished editing
735 the body of your message.
736 Note: when this option is set, you cannot use send-hooks that
738 depend on the recipients when composing a new (non-reply) mes‐
739 sage, as the initial list of recipients is empty.
740 Also see $fast_reply.
742 beep
746 Type: boolean
747 Default: yes
748 When this variable is set, mutt will beep when an error occurs.
750 beep_new
754 Type: boolean
755 Default: no
756 When this variable is set, mutt will beep whenever it prints a
758 message notifying you of new mail. This is independent of the
759 setting of the $beep variable.
760 bounce
764 Type: quadoption
765 Default: ask-yes
766 Controls whether you will be asked to confirm bouncing messages.
768 If set to yes you don't get asked if you want to bounce a mes‐
769 sage. Setting this variable to no is not generally useful, and
770 thus not recommended, because you are unable to bounce messages.
771 bounce_delivered
775 Type: boolean
776 Default: yes
777 When this variable is set, mutt will include Delivered-To head‐
779 ers when bouncing messages. Postfix users may wish to unset
780 this variable.
781 braille_friendly
785 Type: boolean
786 Default: no
787 When this variable is set, mutt will place the cursor at the
789 beginning of the current line in menus, even when the
790 $arrow_cursor variable is unset, making it easier for blind per‐
791 sons using Braille displays to follow these menus. The option
792 is unset by default because many visual terminals don't permit
793 making the cursor invisible.
794 certificate_file
798 Type: path
799 Default: “~/.mutt_certificates”
800 This variable specifies the file where the certificates you
802 trust are saved. When an unknown certificate is encountered, you
803 are asked if you accept it or not. If you accept it, the cer‐
804 tificate can also be saved in this file and further connections
805 are automatically accepted.
806 You can also manually add CA certificates in this file. Any
808 server certificate that is signed with one of these CA certifi‐
809 cates is also automatically accepted.
810 Example:
812 set certificate_file=~/.mutt/certificates
815 charset
821 Type: string
822 Default: “”
823 Character set your terminal uses to display and enter textual
825 data. It is also the fallback for $send_charset.
826 Upon startup Mutt tries to derive this value from environment
828 variables such as $LC_CTYPE or $LANG.
829 Note: It should only be set in case Mutt isn't abled to deter‐
831 mine the character set used correctly.
832 check_mbox_size
836 Type: boolean
837 Default: no
838 When this variable is set, mutt will use file size attribute
840 instead of access time when checking for new mail in mbox and
841 mmdf folders.
842 This variable is unset by default and should only be enabled
844 when new mail detection for these folder types is unreliable or
845 doesn't work.
846 Note that enabling this variable should happen before any “mail‐
848 boxes” directives occur in configuration files regarding mbox or
849 mmdf folders because mutt needs to determine the initial new
850 mail status of such a mailbox by performing a fast mailbox scan
851 when it is defined. Afterwards the new mail status is tracked
852 by file size changes.
853 check_new
857 Type: boolean
858 Default: yes
859 Note: this option only affects maildir and MH style mailboxes.
861 When set, Mutt will check for new mail delivered while the mail‐
863 box is open. Especially with MH mailboxes, this operation can
864 take quite some time since it involves scanning the directory
865 and checking each file to see if it has already been looked at.
866 If this variable is unset, no check for new mail is performed
867 while the mailbox is open.
868 collapse_unread
872 Type: boolean
873 Default: yes
874 When unset, Mutt will not collapse a thread if it contains any
876 unread messages.
877 compose_format
881 Type: string
882 Default: “-- Mutt: Compose [Approx. msg size: %l Atts: %a]%>-”
883 Controls the format of the status line displayed in the “com‐
885 pose” menu. This string is similar to $status_format, but has
886 its own set of printf(3)-like sequences:
887 %a total number of attachments
888 %h local hostname
889 %l approximate size (in bytes) of the current message
890 %v Mutt version string
891 See the text describing the $status_format option for more
893 information on how to set $compose_format.
894 config_charset
898 Type: string
899 Default: “”
900 When defined, Mutt will recode commands in rc files from this
902 encoding to the current character set as specified by $charset
903 and aliases written to $alias_file from the current character
904 set.
905 Please note that if setting $charset it must be done before set‐
907 ting $config_charset.
908 Recoding should be avoided as it may render unconvertable char‐
910 acters as question marks which can lead to undesired side
911 effects (for example in regular expressions).
912 confirmappend
916 Type: boolean
917 Default: yes
918 When set, Mutt will prompt for confirmation when appending mes‐
920 sages to an existing mailbox.
921 confirmcreate
925 Type: boolean
926 Default: yes
927 When set, Mutt will prompt for confirmation when saving messages
929 to a mailbox which does not yet exist before creating it.
930 connect_timeout
934 Type: number
935 Default: 30
936 Causes Mutt to timeout a network connection (for IMAP, POP or
938 SMTP) after this many seconds if the connection is not able to
939 be established. A negative value causes Mutt to wait indefi‐
940 nitely for the connection attempt to succeed.
941 content_type
945 Type: string
946 Default: “text/plain”
947 Sets the default Content-Type for the body of newly composed
949 messages.
950 copy
954 Type: quadoption
955 Default: yes
956 This variable controls whether or not copies of your outgoing
958 messages will be saved for later references. Also see $record,
959 $save_name, $force_name and “fcc-hook”.
960 crypt_autoencrypt
964 Type: boolean
965 Default: no
966 Setting this variable will cause Mutt to always attempt to PGP
968 encrypt outgoing messages. This is probably only useful in con‐
969 nection to the “send-hook” command. It can be overridden by use
970 of the pgp menu, when encryption is not required or signing is
971 requested as well. If $smime_is_default is set, then OpenSSL is
972 used instead to create S/MIME messages and settings can be over‐
973 ridden by use of the smime menu instead. (Crypto only)
974 crypt_autopgp
978 Type: boolean
979 Default: yes
980 This variable controls whether or not mutt may automatically
982 enable PGP encryption/signing for messages. See also
983 $crypt_autoencrypt, $crypt_replyencrypt, $crypt_autosign,
984 $crypt_replysign and $smime_is_default.
985 crypt_autosign
989 Type: boolean
990 Default: no
991 Setting this variable will cause Mutt to always attempt to cryp‐
993 tographically sign outgoing messages. This can be overridden by
994 use of the pgp menu, when signing is not required or encryption
995 is requested as well. If $smime_is_default is set, then OpenSSL
996 is used instead to create S/MIME messages and settings can be
997 overridden by use of the smime menu instead of the pgp menu.
998 (Crypto only)
999 crypt_autosmime
1003 Type: boolean
1004 Default: yes
1005 This variable controls whether or not mutt may automatically
1007 enable S/MIME encryption/signing for messages. See also
1008 $crypt_autoencrypt, $crypt_replyencrypt, $crypt_autosign,
1009 $crypt_replysign and $smime_is_default.
1010 crypt_replyencrypt
1014 Type: boolean
1015 Default: yes
1016 If set, automatically PGP or OpenSSL encrypt replies to messages
1018 which are encrypted. (Crypto only)
1019 crypt_replysign
1023 Type: boolean
1024 Default: no
1025 If set, automatically PGP or OpenSSL sign replies to messages
1027 which are signed.
1028 Note: this does not work on messages that are encrypted and
1030 signed! (Crypto only)
1031 crypt_replysignencrypted
1035 Type: boolean
1036 Default: no
1037 If set, automatically PGP or OpenSSL sign replies to messages
1039 which are encrypted. This makes sense in combination with
1040 $crypt_replyencrypt, because it allows you to sign all messages
1041 which are automatically encrypted. This works around the prob‐
1042 lem noted in $crypt_replysign, that mutt is not able to find out
1043 whether an encrypted message is also signed. (Crypto only)
1044 crypt_timestamp
1048 Type: boolean
1049 Default: yes
1050 If set, mutt will include a time stamp in the lines surrounding
1052 PGP or S/MIME output, so spoofing such lines is more difficult.
1053 If you are using colors to mark these lines, and rely on these,
1054 you may unset this setting. (Crypto only)
1055 crypt_use_gpgme
1059 Type: boolean
1060 Default: no
1061 This variable controls the use of the GPGME-enabled crypto back‐
1063 ends. If it is set and Mutt was built with gpgme support, the
1064 gpgme code for S/MIME and PGP will be used instead of the clas‐
1065 sic code. Note that you need to set this option in .muttrc; it
1066 won't have any effect when used interactively.
1067 crypt_use_pka
1071 Type: boolean
1072 Default: no
1073 Controls whether mutt uses PKA (see
1075 http://www.g10code.de/docs/pka-intro.de.pdf) during signature
1076 verification (only supported by the GPGME backend).
1077 crypt_verify_sig
1081 Type: quadoption
1082 Default: yes
1083 If “yes”, always attempt to verify PGP or S/MIME signatures. If
1085 “ask-*”, ask whether or not to verify the signature. If
1086 \Fi“no”, never attempt to verify cryptographic signatures.
1087 (Crypto only)
1088 date_format
1092 Type: string
1093 Default: “!%a, %b %d, %Y at %I:%M:%S%p %Z”
1094 This variable controls the format of the date printed by the
1096 “%d” sequence in $index_format. This is passed to the strf‐
1097 time(3) function to process the date, see the man page for the
1098 proper syntax.
1099 Unless the first character in the string is a bang (“!”), the
1101 month and week day names are expanded according to the locale
1102 specified in the variable $locale. If the first character in the
1103 string is a bang, the bang is discarded, and the month and week
1104 day names in the rest of the string are expanded in the C locale
1105 (that is in US English).
1106 default_hook
1110 Type: string
1111 Default: “~f %s !~P | (~P ~C %s)”
1112 This variable controls how “message-hook”, “reply-hook”, “send-
1114 hook”, “send2-hook”, “save-hook”, and “fcc-hook” will be inter‐
1115 preted if they are specified with only a simple regexp, instead
1116 of a matching pattern. The hooks are expanded when they are
1117 declared, so a hook will be interpreted according to the value
1118 of this variable at the time the hook is declared.
1119 The default value matches if the message is either from a user
1121 matching the regular expression given, or if it is from you (if
1122 the from address matches “alternates”) and is to or cc'ed to a
1123 user matching the given regular expression.
1124 delete
1128 Type: quadoption
1129 Default: ask-yes
1130 Controls whether or not messages are really deleted when closing
1132 or synchronizing a mailbox. If set to yes, messages marked for
1133 deleting will automatically be purged without prompting. If set
1134 to no, messages marked for deletion will be kept in the mailbox.
1135 delete_untag
1139 Type: boolean
1140 Default: yes
1141 If this option is set, mutt will untag messages when marking
1143 them for deletion. This applies when you either explicitly
1144 delete a message, or when you save it to another folder.
1145 digest_collapse
1149 Type: boolean
1150 Default: yes
1151 If this option is set, mutt's received-attachments menu will not
1153 show the subparts of individual messages in a multipart/digest.
1154 To see these subparts, press “v” on that menu.
1155 display_filter
1159 Type: path
1160 Default: “”
1161 When set, specifies a command used to filter messages. When a
1163 message is viewed it is passed as standard input to $dis‐
1164 play_filter, and the filtered message is read from the standard
1165 output.
1166 dsn_notify
1170 Type: string
1171 Default: “”
1172 This variable sets the request for when notification is
1174 returned. The string consists of a comma separated list (no
1175 spaces!) of one or more of the following: never, to never
1176 request notification, failure, to request notification on trans‐
1177 mission failure, delay, to be notified of message delays, suc‐
1178 cess, to be notified of successful transmission.
1179 Example:
1181 set dsn_notify=”failure,delay”
1184 Note: when using $sendmail for delivery, you should not enable
1188 this unless you are either using Sendmail 8.8.x or greater or a
1189 MTA providing a sendmail(1)-compatible interface supporting the
1190 -N option for DSN. For SMTP delivery, DSN support is
1191 auto-detected so that it depends on the server whether DSN will
1192 be used or not.
1193 dsn_return
1197 Type: string
1198 Default: “”
1199 This variable controls how much of your message is returned in
1201 DSN messages. It may be set to either hdrs to return just the
1202 message header, or full to return the full message.
1203 Example:
1205 set dsn_return=hdrs
1208 Note: when using $sendmail for delivery, you should not enable
1212 this unless you are either using Sendmail 8.8.x or greater or a
1213 MTA providing a sendmail(1)-compatible interface supporting the
1214 -R option for DSN. For SMTP delivery, DSN support is
1215 auto-detected so that it depends on the server whether DSN will
1216 be used or not.
1217 duplicate_threads
1221 Type: boolean
1222 Default: yes
1223 This variable controls whether mutt, when $sort is set to
1225 threads, threads messages with the same Message-Id together. If
1226 it is set, it will indicate that it thinks they are duplicates
1227 of each other with an equals sign in the thread tree.
1228 edit_headers
1232 Type: boolean
1233 Default: no
1234 This option allows you to edit the header of your outgoing mes‐
1236 sages along with the body of your message.
1237 Note that changes made to the References: and Date: headers are
1239 ignored for interoperability reasons.
1240 editor
1244 Type: path
1245 Default: “”
1246 This variable specifies which editor is used by mutt. It
1248 defaults to the value of the $VISUAL, or $EDITOR, environment
1249 variable, or to the string “vi” if neither of those are set.
1250 encode_from
1254 Type: boolean
1255 Default: no
1256 When set, mutt will quoted-printable encode messages when they
1258 contain the string “From ” (note the trailing space) in the
1259 beginning of a line. This is useful to avoid the tampering cer‐
1260 tain mail delivery and transport agents tend to do with messages
1261 (in order to prevent tools from misinterpreting the line as a
1262 mbox message separator).
1263 envelope_from_address
1267 Type: e-mail address
1268 Default: “”
1269 Manually sets the envelope sender for outgoing messages. This
1271 value is ignored if $use_envelope_from is unset.
1272 escape
1276 Type: string
1277 Default: “~”
1278 Escape character to use for functions in the built-in editor.
1280 fast_reply
1284 Type: boolean
1285 Default: no
1286 When set, the initial prompt for recipients and subject are
1288 skipped when replying to messages, and the initial prompt for
1289 subject is skipped when forwarding messages.
1290 Note: this variable has no effect when the $autoedit variable is
1292 set.
1293 fcc_attach
1297 Type: quadoption
1298 Default: yes
1299 This variable controls whether or not attachments on outgoing
1301 messages are saved along with the main body of your message.
1302 fcc_clear
1306 Type: boolean
1307 Default: no
1308 When this variable is set, FCCs will be stored unencrypted and
1310 unsigned, even when the actual message is encrypted and/or
1311 signed. (PGP only)
1312 folder
1316 Type: path
1317 Default: “~/Mail”
1318 Specifies the default location of your mailboxes. A “+” or “=”
1320 at the beginning of a pathname will be expanded to the value of
1321 this variable. Note that if you change this variable (from the
1322 default) value you need to make sure that the assignment occurs
1323 before you use “+” or “=” for any other variables since expan‐
1324 sion takes place when handling the “mailboxes” command.
1325 folder_format
1329 Type: string
1330 Default: “%2C %t %N %F %2l %-8.8u %-8.8g %8s %d %f”
1331 This variable allows you to customize the file browser display
1333 to your personal taste. This string is similar to $index_for‐
1334 mat, but has its own set of printf(3)-like sequences:
1335 %C current file number
1336 %d date/time folder was last modified
1337 %f filename (“/” is appended to directory names, “@” to sym‐
1338 bolic links and “*” to executable files)
1339 %F file permissions
1340 %g group name (or numeric gid, if missing)
1341 %l number of hard links
1342 %N N if folder has new mail, blank otherwise
1343 %s size in bytes
1344 %t “*” if the file is tagged, blank otherwise
1345 %u owner name (or numeric uid, if missing)
1346 %>X right justify the rest of the string and pad with charac‐
1347 ter “X”
1348 %|X pad to the end of the line with character “X”
1349 %*X soft-fill with character “X” as pad
1350 For an explanation of “soft-fill”, see the $index_format docu‐
1352 mentation.
1353 followup_to
1357 Type: boolean
1358 Default: yes
1359 Controls whether or not the “Mail-Followup-To:” header field is
1361 generated when sending mail. When set, Mutt will generate this
1362 field when you are replying to a known mailing list, specified
1363 with the “subscribe” or “lists” commands.
1364 This field has two purposes. First, preventing you from receiv‐
1366 ing duplicate copies of replies to messages which you send to
1367 mailing lists, and second, ensuring that you do get a reply sep‐
1368 arately for any messages sent to known lists to which you are
1369 not subscribed.
1370 The header will contain only the list's address for subscribed
1372 lists, and both the list address and your own email address for
1373 unsubscribed lists. Without this header, a group reply to your
1374 message sent to a subscribed list will be sent to both the list
1375 and your address, resulting in two copies of the same email for
1376 you.
1377 force_name
1381 Type: boolean
1382 Default: no
1383 This variable is similar to $save_name, except that Mutt will
1385 store a copy of your outgoing message by the username of the
1386 address you are sending to even if that mailbox does not exist.
1387 Also see the $record variable.
1389 forward_decode
1393 Type: boolean
1394 Default: yes
1395 Controls the decoding of complex MIME messages into text/plain
1397 when forwarding a message. The message header is also RFC2047
1398 decoded. This variable is only used, if $mime_forward is unset,
1399 otherwise $mime_forward_decode is used instead.
1400 forward_decrypt
1404 Type: boolean
1405 Default: yes
1406 Controls the handling of encrypted messages when forwarding a
1408 message. When set, the outer layer of encryption is stripped
1409 off. This variable is only used if $mime_forward is set and
1410 $mime_forward_decode is unset. (PGP only)
1411 forward_edit
1415 Type: quadoption
1416 Default: yes
1417 This quadoption controls whether or not the user is automati‐
1419 cally placed in the editor when forwarding messages. For those
1420 who always want to forward with no modification, use a setting
1421 of “no”.
1422 forward_format
1426 Type: string
1427 Default: “[%a: %s]”
1428 This variable controls the default subject when forwarding a
1430 message. It uses the same format sequences as the $index_format
1431 variable.
1432 forward_quote
1436 Type: boolean
1437 Default: no
1438 When set, forwarded messages included in the main body of the
1440 message (when $mime_forward is unset) will be quoted using
1441 $indent_string.
1442 from
1446 Type: e-mail address
1447 Default: “”
1448 When set, this variable contains a default from address. It can
1450 be overridden using “my_hdr” (including from a “send-hook”) and
1451 $reverse_name. This variable is ignored if $use_from is unset.
1452 This setting defaults to the contents of the environment vari‐
1454 able $EMAIL.
1455 gecos_mask
1459 Type: regular expression
1460 Default: “^[^,]*”
1461 A regular expression used by mutt to parse the GECOS field of a
1463 password entry when expanding the alias. The default value will
1464 return the string up to the first “,” encountered. If the GECOS
1465 field contains a string like “lastname, firstname” then you
1466 should set it to “.*”.
1467 This can be useful if you see the following behavior: you
1469 address an e-mail to user ID “stevef” whose full name is “Steve
1470 Franklin”. If mutt expands “stevef” to “”Franklin”
1471 stevef@foo.bar” then you should set the $gecos_mask to a regular
1472 expression that will match the whole name so mutt will expand
1473 “Franklin” to “Franklin, Steve”.
1474 hdrs
1478 Type: boolean
1479 Default: yes
1480 When unset, the header fields normally added by the “my_hdr”
1482 command are not created. This variable must be unset before
1483 composing a new message or replying in order to take effect. If
1484 set, the user defined header fields are added to every new mes‐
1485 sage.
1486 header
1490 Type: boolean
1491 Default: no
1492 When set, this variable causes Mutt to include the header of the
1494 message you are replying to into the edit buffer. The $weed
1495 setting applies.
1496 header_cache
1500 Type: path
1501 Default: “”
1502 This variable points to the header cache database. If pointing
1504 to a directory Mutt will contain a header cache database file
1505 per folder, if pointing to a file that file will be a single
1506 global header cache. By default it is unset so no header caching
1507 will be used.
1508 Header caching can greatly improve speed when opening POP, IMAP
1510 MH or Maildir folders, see “caching” for details.
1511 header_cache_compress
1515 Type: boolean
1516 Default: yes
1517 When mutt is compiled with qdbm or tokyocabinet as header cache
1519 backend, this option determines whether the database will be
1520 compressed. Compression results in database files roughly being
1521 one fifth of the usual diskspace, but the decompression can
1522 result in a slower opening of cached folder(s) which in general
1523 is still much faster than opening non header cached folders.
1524 help
1528 Type: boolean
1529 Default: yes
1530 When set, help lines describing the bindings for the major func‐
1532 tions provided by each menu are displayed on the first line of
1533 the screen.
1534 Note: The binding will not be displayed correctly if the func‐
1536 tion is bound to a sequence rather than a single keystroke.
1537 Also, the help line may not be updated if a binding is changed
1538 while Mutt is running. Since this variable is primarily aimed
1539 at new users, neither of these should present a major problem.
1540 hidden_host
1544 Type: boolean
1545 Default: no
1546 When set, mutt will skip the host name part of $hostname vari‐
1548 able when adding the domain part to addresses. This variable
1549 does not affect the generation of Message-IDs, and it will not
1550 lead to the cut-off of first-level domains.
1551 hide_limited
1555 Type: boolean
1556 Default: no
1557 When set, mutt will not show the presence of messages that are
1559 hidden by limiting, in the thread tree.
1560 hide_missing
1564 Type: boolean
1565 Default: yes
1566 When set, mutt will not show the presence of missing messages in
1568 the thread tree.
1569 hide_thread_subject
1573 Type: boolean
1574 Default: yes
1575 When set, mutt will not show the subject of messages in the
1577 thread tree that have the same subject as their parent or clos‐
1578 est previously displayed sibling.
1579 hide_top_limited
1583 Type: boolean
1584 Default: no
1585 When set, mutt will not show the presence of messages that are
1587 hidden by limiting, at the top of threads in the thread tree.
1588 Note that when $hide_limited is set, this option will have no
1589 effect.
1590 hide_top_missing
1594 Type: boolean
1595 Default: yes
1596 When set, mutt will not show the presence of missing messages at
1598 the top of threads in the thread tree. Note that when
1599 $hide_missing is set, this option will have no effect.
1600 history
1604 Type: number
1605 Default: 10
1606 This variable controls the size (in number of strings remem‐
1608 bered) of the string history buffer per category. The buffer is
1609 cleared each time the variable is set.
1610 history_file
1614 Type: path
1615 Default: “~/.mutthistory”
1616 The file in which Mutt will save its history.
1618 honor_disposition
1622 Type: boolean
1623 Default: no
1624 When set, Mutt will not display attachments with a disposition
1626 of “attachment” inline even if it could render the part to plain
1627 text. These MIME parts can only be viewed from the attachment
1628 menu.
1629 If unset, Mutt will render all MIME parts it can properly trans‐
1631 form to plain text.
1632 honor_followup_to
1636 Type: quadoption
1637 Default: yes
1638 This variable controls whether or not a Mail-Followup-To header
1640 is honored when group-replying to a message.
1641 hostname
1645 Type: string
1646 Default: “”
1647 Specifies the fully-qualified hostname of the system mutt is
1649 running on containing the host's name and the DNS domain it
1650 belongs to. It is used as the domain part (after “@”) for local
1651 email addresses as well as Message-Id headers.
1652 Its value is determined at startup as follows: If the node's
1654 name as returned by the uname(3) function contains the hostname
1655 and the domain, these are used to construct $hostname. If there
1656 is no domain part returned, Mutt will look for a “domain” or
1657 “search” line in /etc/resolv.conf to determine the domain.
1658 Optionally, Mutt can be compiled with a fixed domain name in
1659 which case a detected one is not used.
1660 Also see $use_domain and $hidden_host.
1662 ignore_linear_white_space
1666 Type: boolean
1667 Default: no
1668 This option replaces linear-white-space between encoded-word and
1670 text to a single space to prevent the display of MIME-encoded
1671 “Subject:” field from being divided into multiple lines.
1672 ignore_list_reply_to
1676 Type: boolean
1677 Default: no
1678 Affects the behavior of the <reply> function when replying to
1680 messages from mailing lists (as defined by the “subscribe” or
1681 “lists” commands). When set, if the “Reply-To:” field is set to
1682 the same value as the “To:” field, Mutt assumes that the
1683 “Reply-To:” field was set by the mailing list to automate
1684 responses to the list, and will ignore this field. To direct a
1685 response to the mailing list when this option is set, use the
1686 <list-reply> function; <group-reply> will reply to both the
1687 sender and the list.
1688 imap_authenticators
1692 Type: string
1693 Default: “”
1694 This is a colon-delimited list of authentication methods mutt
1696 may attempt to use to log in to an IMAP server, in the order
1697 mutt should try them. Authentication methods are either “login”
1698 or the right side of an IMAP “AUTH=xxx” capability string, e.g.
1699 “digest-md5”, “gssapi” or “cram-md5”. This option is case-insen‐
1700 sitive. If it's unset (the default) mutt will try all available
1701 methods, in order from most-secure to least-secure.
1702 Example:
1704 set imap_authenticators=”gssapi:cram-md5:login”
1707 Note: Mutt will only fall back to other authentication methods
1711 if the previous methods are unavailable. If a method is avail‐
1712 able but authentication fails, mutt will not connect to the IMAP
1713 server.
1714 imap_check_subscribed
1718 Type: boolean
1719 Default: no
1720 When set, mutt will fetch the set of subscribed folders from
1722 your server on connection, and add them to the set of mailboxes
1723 it polls for new mail just as if you had issued individual
1724 “mailboxes” commands.
1725 imap_delim_chars
1729 Type: string
1730 Default: “/.”
1731 This contains the list of characters which you would like to
1733 treat as folder separators for displaying IMAP paths. In partic‐
1734 ular it helps in using the “=” shortcut for your folder vari‐
1735 able.
1736 imap_headers
1740 Type: string
1741 Default: “”
1742 Mutt requests these header fields in addition to the default
1744 headers (“Date:”, “From:”, “Subject:”, “To:”, “Cc:”, “Mes‐
1745 sage-Id:”, “References:”, “Content-Type:”, “Content-Descrip‐
1746 tion:”, “In-Reply-To:”, “Reply-To:”, “Lines:”, “List-Post:”,
1747 “X-Label:”) from IMAP servers before displaying the index menu.
1748 You may want to add more headers for spam detection.
1749 Note: This is a space separated list, items should be uppercase
1751 and not contain the colon, e.g. “X-BOGOSITY X-SPAM-STATUS” for
1752 the “X-Bogosity:” and “X-Spam-Status:” header fields.
1753 imap_idle
1757 Type: boolean
1758 Default: no
1759 When set, mutt will attempt to use the IMAP IDLE extension to
1761 check for new mail in the current mailbox. Some servers (dovecot
1762 was the inspiration for this option) react badly to mutt's
1763 implementation. If your connection seems to freeze up periodi‐
1764 cally, try unsetting this.
1765 imap_keepalive
1769 Type: number
1770 Default: 900
1771 This variable specifies the maximum amount of time in seconds
1773 that mutt will wait before polling open IMAP connections, to
1774 prevent the server from closing them before mutt has finished
1775 with them. The default is well within the RFC-specified minimum
1776 amount of time (30 minutes) before a server is allowed to do
1777 this, but in practice the RFC does get violated every now and
1778 then. Reduce this number if you find yourself getting discon‐
1779 nected from your IMAP server due to inactivity.
1780 imap_list_subscribed
1784 Type: boolean
1785 Default: no
1786 This variable configures whether IMAP folder browsing will look
1788 for only subscribed folders or all folders. This can be toggled
1789 in the IMAP browser with the <toggle-subscribed> function.
1790 imap_login
1794 Type: string
1795 Default: “”
1796 Your login name on the IMAP server.
1798 This variable defaults to the value of $imap_user.
1800 imap_pass
1804 Type: string
1805 Default: “”
1806 Specifies the password for your IMAP account. If unset, Mutt
1808 will prompt you for your password when you invoke the
1809 <imap-fetch-mail> function or try to open an IMAP folder.
1810 Warning: you should only use this option when you are on a
1812 fairly secure machine, because the superuser can read your mut‐
1813 trc even if you are the only one who can read the file.
1814 imap_passive
1818 Type: boolean
1819 Default: yes
1820 When set, mutt will not open new IMAP connections to check for
1822 new mail. Mutt will only check for new mail over existing IMAP
1823 connections. This is useful if you don't want to be prompted to
1824 user/password pairs on mutt invocation, or if opening the con‐
1825 nection is slow.
1826 imap_peek
1830 Type: boolean
1831 Default: yes
1832 When set, mutt will avoid implicitly marking your mail as read
1834 whenever you fetch a message from the server. This is generally
1835 a good thing, but can make closing an IMAP folder somewhat
1836 slower. This option exists to appease speed freaks.
1837 imap_pipeline_depth
1841 Type: number
1842 Default: 15
1843 Controls the number of IMAP commands that may be queued up
1845 before they are sent to the server. A deeper pipeline reduces
1846 the amount of time mutt must wait for the server, and can make
1847 IMAP servers feel much more responsive. But not all servers cor‐
1848 rectly handle pipelined commands, so if you have problems you
1849 might want to try setting this variable to 0.
1850 Note: Changes to this variable have no effect on open connec‐
1852 tions.
1853 imap_servernoise
1857 Type: boolean
1858 Default: yes
1859 When set, mutt will display warning messages from the IMAP
1861 server as error messages. Since these messages are often harm‐
1862 less, or generated due to configuration problems on the server
1863 which are out of the users' hands, you may wish to suppress them
1864 at some point.
1865 imap_user
1869 Type: string
1870 Default: “”
1871 The name of the user whose mail you intend to access on the IMAP
1873 server.
1874 This variable defaults to your user name on the local machine.
1876 implicit_autoview
1880 Type: boolean
1881 Default: no
1882 If set to “yes”, mutt will look for a mailcap entry with the
1884 “copiousoutput” flag set for every MIME attachment it doesn't
1885 have an internal viewer defined for. If such an entry is found,
1886 mutt will use the viewer defined in that entry to convert the
1887 body part to text form.
1888 include
1892 Type: quadoption
1893 Default: ask-yes
1894 Controls whether or not a copy of the message(s) you are reply‐
1896 ing to is included in your reply.
1897 include_onlyfirst
1901 Type: boolean
1902 Default: no
1903 Controls whether or not Mutt includes only the first attachment
1905 of the message you are replying.
1906 indent_string
1910 Type: string
1911 Default: “> ”
1912 Specifies the string to prepend to each line of text quoted in a
1914 message to which you are replying. You are strongly encouraged
1915 not to change this value, as it tends to agitate the more fanat‐
1916 ical netizens.
1917 The value of this option is ignored if $text_flowed is set, too
1919 because the quoting mechanism is strictly defined for for‐
1920 mat=flowed.
1921 This option is a format string, please see the description of
1923 $index_format for supported printf(3)-style sequences.
1924 index_format
1928 Type: string
1929 Default: “%4C %Z %{%b %d} %-15.15L (%?l?%4l&%4c?) %s”
1930 This variable allows you to customize the message index display
1932 to your personal taste.
1933 “Format strings” are similar to the strings used in the C func‐
1935 tion printf(3) to format output (see the man page for more
1936 details). The following sequences are defined in Mutt:
1937 %a address of the author
1938 %A reply-to address (if present; otherwise: address of
1939 author)
1940 %b filename of the original message folder (think mailbox)
1941 %B the list to which the letter was sent, or else the folder
1942 name (%b).
1943 %c number of characters (bytes) in the message
1944 %C current message number
1945 %d date and time of the message in the format specified by
1946 $date_format converted to sender's time zone
1947 %D date and time of the message in the format specified by
1948 $date_format converted to the local time zone
1949 %e current message number in thread
1950 %E number of messages in current thread
1951 %f sender (address + real name), either From: or
1952 Return-Path:
1953 %F author name, or recipient name if the message is from you
1954 %H spam attribute(s) of this message
1955 %i message-id of the current message
1956 %l number of lines in the message (does not work with
1957 maildir, mh, and possibly IMAP folders)
1958 %L If an address in the “To:” or “Cc:” header field matches
1959 an address defined by the users “subscribe” command, this
1960 displays ”To <list-name>”, otherwise the same as %F.
1961 %m total number of message in the mailbox
1962 %M number of hidden messages if the thread is collapsed.
1963 %N message score
1964 %n author's real name (or address if missing)
1965 %O original save folder where mutt would formerly have
1966 stashed the message: list name or recipient name if not
1967 sent to a list
1968 %P progress indicator for the built-in pager (how much of
1969 the file has been displayed)
1970 %s subject of the message
1971 %S status of the message (“N”/“D”/“d”/“!”/“r”/*)
1972 %t “To:” field (recipients)
1973 %T the appropriate character from the $to_chars string
1974 %u user (login) name of the author
1975 %v first name of the author, or the recipient if the message
1976 is from you
1977 %X number of attachments (please see the “attachments” sec‐
1978 tion for possible speed effects)
1979 %y “X-Label:” field, if present
1980 %Y “X-Label:” field, if present, and [4m(1) not at part of a
1981 thread tree, [4m(2) at the top of a thread, or [4m(3)
1982 “X-Label:” is different from preceding message's
1983 “X-Label:”.
1984 %Z message status flags
1985 %{fmt} the date and time of the message is converted to sender's
1986 time zone, and “fmt” is expanded by the library function
1987 strftime(3); a leading bang disables locales
1988 %[fmt] the date and time of the message is converted to the
1989 local time zone, and “fmt” is expanded by the library
1990 function strftime(3); a leading bang disables locales
1991 %(fmt) the local date and time when the message was received.
1992 “fmt” is expanded by the library function strftime(3); a
1993 leading bang disables locales
1994 %<fmt> the current local time. “fmt” is expanded by the library
1995 function strftime(3); a leading bang disables locales.
1996 %>X right justify the rest of the string and pad with charac‐
1997 ter “X”
1998 %|X pad to the end of the line with character “X”
1999 %*X soft-fill with character “X” as pad
2000 “Soft-fill” deserves some explanation: Normal right-justifica‐
2002 tion will print everything to the left of the “%>”, displaying
2003 padding and whatever lies to the right only if there's room. By
2004 contrast, soft-fill gives priority to the right-hand side, guar‐
2005 anteeing space to display it and showing padding only if there's
2006 still room. If necessary, soft-fill will eat text leftwards to
2007 make room for rightward text.
2008 Note that these expandos are supported in “save-hook”, “fcc-
2010 hook” and “fcc-save-hook”, too.
2011 ispell
2015 Type: path
2016 Default: “/usr/bin/hunspell”
2017 How to invoke ispell (GNU's spell-checking software).
2019 keep_flagged
2023 Type: boolean
2024 Default: no
2025 If set, read messages marked as flagged will not be moved from
2027 your spool mailbox to your $mbox mailbox, or as a result of a
2028 “mbox-hook” command.
2029 locale
2033 Type: string
2034 Default: “C”
2035 The locale used by strftime(3) to format dates. Legal values are
2037 the strings your system accepts for the locale environment vari‐
2038 able $LC_TIME.
2039 mail_check
2043 Type: number
2044 Default: 5
2045 This variable configures how often (in seconds) mutt should look
2047 for new mail. Also see the $timeout variable.
2048 mailcap_path
2052 Type: string
2053 Default: “”
2054 This variable specifies which files to consult when attempting
2056 to display MIME bodies not directly supported by Mutt.
2057 mailcap_sanitize
2061 Type: boolean
2062 Default: yes
2063 If set, mutt will restrict possible characters in mailcap %
2065 expandos to a well-defined set of safe characters. This is the
2066 safe setting, but we are not sure it doesn't break some more
2067 advanced MIME stuff.
2068 DON'T CHANGE THIS SETTING UNLESS YOU ARE REALLY SURE WHAT YOU
2070 ARE DOING!
2071 maildir_header_cache_verify
2075 Type: boolean
2076 Default: yes
2077 Check for Maildir unaware programs other than mutt having modi‐
2079 fied maildir files when the header cache is in use. This incurs
2080 one stat(2) per message every time the folder is opened (which
2081 can be very slow for NFS folders).
2082 maildir_trash
2086 Type: boolean
2087 Default: no
2088 If set, messages marked as deleted will be saved with the
2090 maildir trashed flag instead of unlinked. Note: this only
2091 applies to maildir-style mailboxes. Setting it will have no
2092 effect on other mailbox types.
2093 mark_old
2097 Type: boolean
2098 Default: yes
2099 Controls whether or not mutt marks new unread messages as old if
2101 you exit a mailbox without reading them. With this option set,
2102 the next time you start mutt, the messages will show up with an
2103 “O” next to them in the index menu, indicating that they are
2104 old.
2105 markers
2109 Type: boolean
2110 Default: yes
2111 Controls the display of wrapped lines in the internal pager. If
2113 set, a “+” marker is displayed at the beginning of wrapped
2114 lines.
2115 Also see the $smart_wrap variable.
2117 mask
2121 Type: regular expression
2122 Default: “!^\.[^.]”
2123 A regular expression used in the file browser, optionally pre‐
2125 ceded by the not operator “!”. Only files whose names match
2126 this mask will be shown. The match is always case-sensitive.
2127 mbox
2131 Type: path
2132 Default: “~/mbox”
2133 This specifies the folder into which read mail in your
2135 $spoolfile folder will be appended.
2136 Also see the $move variable.
2138 mbox_type
2142 Type: folder magic
2143 Default: mbox
2144 The default mailbox type used when creating new folders. May be
2146 any of “mbox”, “MMDF”, “MH” and “Maildir”. This is overridden by
2147 the -m command-line option.
2148 menu_context
2152 Type: number
2153 Default: 0
2154 This variable controls the number of lines of context that are
2156 given when scrolling through menus. (Similar to $pager_context.)
2157 menu_move_off
2161 Type: boolean
2162 Default: yes
2163 When unset, the bottom entry of menus will never scroll up past
2165 the bottom of the screen, unless there are less entries than
2166 lines. When set, the bottom entry may move off the bottom.
2167 menu_scroll
2171 Type: boolean
2172 Default: no
2173 When set, menus will be scrolled up or down one line when you
2175 attempt to move across a screen boundary. If unset, the screen
2176 is cleared and the next or previous page of the menu is dis‐
2177 played (useful for slow links to avoid many redraws).
2178 message_cache_clean
2182 Type: boolean
2183 Default: no
2184 If set, mutt will clean out obsolete entries from the message
2186 cache when the mailbox is synchronized. You probably only want
2187 to set it every once in a while, since it can be a little slow
2188 (especially for large folders).
2189 message_cachedir
2193 Type: path
2194 Default: “”
2195 Set this to a directory and mutt will cache copies of messages
2197 from your IMAP and POP servers here. You are free to remove
2198 entries at any time.
2199 When setting this variable to a directory, mutt needs to fetch
2201 every remote message only once and can perform regular expres‐
2202 sion searches as fast as for local folders.
2203 Also see the $message_cache_clean variable.
2205 message_format
2209 Type: string
2210 Default: “%s”
2211 This is the string displayed in the “attachment” menu for
2213 attachments of type message/rfc822. For a full listing of
2214 defined printf(3)-like sequences see the section on $index_for‐
2215 mat.
2216 meta_key
2220 Type: boolean
2221 Default: no
2222 If set, forces Mutt to interpret keystrokes with the high bit
2224 (bit 8) set as if the user had pressed the Esc key and whatever
2225 key remains after having the high bit removed. For example, if
2226 the key pressed has an ASCII value of 0xf8, then this is treated
2227 as if the user had pressed Esc then “x”. This is because the
2228 result of removing the high bit from 0xf8 is 0x78, which is the
2229 ASCII character “x”.
2230 metoo
2234 Type: boolean
2235 Default: no
2236 If unset, Mutt will remove your address (see the “alternates”
2238 command) from the list of recipients when replying to a message.
2239 mh_purge
2243 Type: boolean
2244 Default: no
2245 When unset, mutt will mimic mh's behavior and rename deleted
2247 messages to ,<old file name> in mh folders instead of really
2248 deleting them. This leaves the message on disk but makes pro‐
2249 grams reading the folder ignore it. If the variable is set, the
2250 message files will simply be deleted.
2251 This option is similar to $maildir_trash for Maildir folders.
2253 mh_seq_flagged
2257 Type: string
2258 Default: “flagged”
2259 The name of the MH sequence used for flagged messages.
2261 mh_seq_replied
2265 Type: string
2266 Default: “replied”
2267 The name of the MH sequence used to tag replied messages.
2269 mh_seq_unseen
2273 Type: string
2274 Default: “unseen”
2275 The name of the MH sequence used for unseen messages.
2277 mime_forward
2281 Type: quadoption
2282 Default: no
2283 When set, the message you are forwarding will be attached as a
2285 separate message/rfc822 MIME part instead of included in the
2286 main body of the message. This is useful for forwarding MIME
2287 messages so the receiver can properly view the message as it was
2288 delivered to you. If you like to switch between MIME and not
2289 MIME from mail to mail, set this variable to “ask-no” or
2290 “ask-yes”.
2291 Also see $forward_decode and $mime_forward_decode.
2293 mime_forward_decode
2297 Type: boolean
2298 Default: no
2299 Controls the decoding of complex MIME messages into text/plain
2301 when forwarding a message while $mime_forward is set. Otherwise
2302 $forward_decode is used instead.
2303 mime_forward_rest
2307 Type: quadoption
2308 Default: yes
2309 When forwarding multiple attachments of a MIME message from the
2311 attachment menu, attachments which cannot be decoded in a rea‐
2312 sonable manner will be attached to the newly composed message if
2313 this option is set.
2314 move
2318 Type: quadoption
2319 Default: no
2320 Controls whether or not Mutt will move read messages from your
2322 spool mailbox to your $mbox mailbox, or as a result of a “mbox-
2323 hook” command.
2324 narrow_tree
2328 Type: boolean
2329 Default: no
2330 This variable, when set, makes the thread tree narrower, allow‐
2332 ing deeper threads to fit on the screen.
2333 net_inc
2337 Type: number
2338 Default: 10
2339 Operations that expect to transfer a large amount of data over
2341 the network will update their progress every $net_inc kilobytes.
2342 If set to 0, no progress messages will be displayed.
2343 See also $read_inc, $write_inc and $net_inc.
2345 pager
2349 Type: path
2350 Default: “builtin”
2351 This variable specifies which pager you would like to use to
2353 view messages. The value “builtin” means to use the built-in
2354 pager, otherwise this variable should specify the pathname of
2355 the external pager you would like to use.
2356 Using an external pager may have some disadvantages: Additional
2358 keystrokes are necessary because you can't call mutt functions
2359 directly from the pager, and screen resizes cause lines longer
2360 than the screen width to be badly formatted in the help menu.
2361 pager_context
2365 Type: number
2366 Default: 0
2367 This variable controls the number of lines of context that are
2369 given when displaying the next or previous page in the internal
2370 pager. By default, Mutt will display the line after the last
2371 one on the screen at the top of the next page (0 lines of con‐
2372 text).
2373 This variable also specifies the amount of context given for
2375 search results. If positive, this many lines will be given
2376 before a match, if 0, the match will be top-aligned.
2377 pager_format
2381 Type: string
2382 Default: “-%Z- %C/%m: %-20.20n %s%* -- (%P)”
2383 This variable controls the format of the one-line message “sta‐
2385 tus” displayed before each message in either the internal or an
2386 external pager. The valid sequences are listed in the
2387 $index_format section.
2388 pager_index_lines
2392 Type: number
2393 Default: 0
2394 Determines the number of lines of a mini-index which is shown
2396 when in the pager. The current message, unless near the top or
2397 bottom of the folder, will be roughly one third of the way down
2398 this mini-index, giving the reader the context of a few messages
2399 before and after the message. This is useful, for example, to
2400 determine how many messages remain to be read in the current
2401 thread. One of the lines is reserved for the status bar from
2402 the index, so a setting of 6 will only show 5 lines of the
2403 actual index. A value of 0 results in no index being shown. If
2404 the number of messages in the current folder is less than
2405 $pager_index_lines, then the index will only use as many lines
2406 as it needs.
2407 pager_stop
2411 Type: boolean
2412 Default: no
2413 When set, the internal-pager will not move to the next message
2415 when you are at the end of a message and invoke the <next-page>
2416 function.
2417 pgp_auto_decode
2421 Type: boolean
2422 Default: no
2423 If set, mutt will automatically attempt to decrypt traditional
2425 PGP messages whenever the user performs an operation which ordi‐
2426 narily would result in the contents of the message being oper‐
2427 ated on. For example, if the user displays a pgp-traditional
2428 message which has not been manually checked with the <check-tra‐
2429 ditional-pgp> function, mutt will automatically check the mes‐
2430 sage for traditional pgp.
2431 pgp_autoinline
2435 Type: boolean
2436 Default: no
2437 This option controls whether Mutt generates old-style inline
2439 (traditional) PGP encrypted or signed messages under certain
2440 circumstances. This can be overridden by use of the pgp menu,
2441 when inline is not required.
2442 Note that Mutt might automatically use PGP/MIME for messages
2444 which consist of more than a single MIME part. Mutt can be con‐
2445 figured to ask before sending PGP/MIME messages when inline
2446 (traditional) would not work.
2447 Also see the $pgp_mime_auto variable.
2449 Also note that using the old-style PGP message format is
2451 strongly deprecated. (PGP only)
2452 pgp_check_exit
2456 Type: boolean
2457 Default: yes
2458 If set, mutt will check the exit code of the PGP subprocess when
2460 signing or encrypting. A non-zero exit code means that the sub‐
2461 process failed. (PGP only)
2462 pgp_clearsign_command
2466 Type: string
2467 Default: “”
2468 This format is used to create an old-style “clearsigned” PGP
2470 message. Note that the use of this format is strongly depre‐
2471 cated.
2472 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
2474 possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
2475 pgp_decode_command
2479 Type: string
2480 Default: “”
2481 This format strings specifies a command which is used to decode
2483 application/pgp attachments.
2484 The PGP command formats have their own set of printf(3)-like
2486 sequences:
2487 %p Expands to PGPPASSFD=0 when a pass phrase is needed, to
2488 an empty string otherwise. Note: This may be used with a
2489 %? construct.
2490 %f Expands to the name of a file containing a message.
2491 %s Expands to the name of a file containing the signature
2492 part
2493 of a multipart/signed attachment when verify‐
2494 ing it.
2495 %a The value of $pgp_sign_as.
2496 %r One or more key IDs.
2497 For examples on how to configure these formats for the various
2499 versions of PGP which are floating around, see the pgp and gpg
2500 sample configuration files in the samples/ subdirectory which
2501 has been installed on your system alongside the documentation.
2502 (PGP only)
2503 pgp_decrypt_command
2507 Type: string
2508 Default: “”
2509 This command is used to decrypt a PGP encrypted message.
2511 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
2513 possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
2514 pgp_encrypt_only_command
2518 Type: string
2519 Default: “”
2520 This command is used to encrypt a body part without signing it.
2522 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
2524 possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
2525 pgp_encrypt_sign_command
2529 Type: string
2530 Default: “”
2531 This command is used to both sign and encrypt a body part.
2533 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
2535 possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
2536 pgp_entry_format
2540 Type: string
2541 Default: “%4n %t%f %4l/0x%k %-4a %2c %u”
2542 This variable allows you to customize the PGP key selection menu
2544 to your personal taste. This string is similar to $index_format,
2545 but has its own set of printf(3)-like sequences:
2546 %n number
2547 %k key id
2548 %u user id
2549 %a algorithm
2550 %l key length
2551 %f flags
2552 %c capabilities
2553 %t trust/validity of the key-uid association
2554 %[<s>] date of the key where <s> is an strftime(3) expression
2555 (PGP only)
2557 pgp_export_command
2561 Type: string
2562 Default: “”
2563 This command is used to export a public key from the user's key
2565 ring.
2566 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
2568 possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
2569 pgp_getkeys_command
2573 Type: string
2574 Default: “”
2575 This command is invoked whenever mutt will need public key
2577 information. Of the sequences supported by $pgp_decode_command,
2578 %r is the only printf(3)-like sequence used with this format.
2579 (PGP only)
2580 pgp_good_sign
2584 Type: regular expression
2585 Default: “”
2586 If you assign a text to this variable, then a PGP signature is
2588 only considered verified if the output from $pgp_verify_command
2589 contains the text. Use this variable if the exit code from the
2590 command is 0 even for bad signatures. (PGP only)
2591 pgp_ignore_subkeys
2595 Type: boolean
2596 Default: yes
2597 Setting this variable will cause Mutt to ignore OpenPGP subkeys.
2599 Instead, the principal key will inherit the subkeys' capabili‐
2600 ties. Unset this if you want to play interesting key selection
2601 games. (PGP only)
2602 pgp_import_command
2606 Type: string
2607 Default: “”
2608 This command is used to import a key from a message into the
2610 user's public key ring.
2611 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
2613 possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
2614 pgp_list_pubring_command
2618 Type: string
2619 Default: “”
2620 This command is used to list the public key ring's contents.
2622 The output format must be analogous to the one used by
2623 gpg --list-keys --with-colons.
2626 This format is also generated by the pgpring utility which comes
2630 with mutt.
2631 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
2633 possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
2634 pgp_list_secring_command
2638 Type: string
2639 Default: “”
2640 This command is used to list the secret key ring's contents.
2642 The output format must be analogous to the one used by:
2643 gpg --list-keys --with-colons.
2646 This format is also generated by the pgpring utility which comes
2650 with mutt.
2651 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
2653 possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
2654 pgp_long_ids
2658 Type: boolean
2659 Default: no
2660 If set, use 64 bit PGP key IDs, if unset use the normal 32 bit
2662 key IDs. (PGP only)
2663 pgp_mime_auto
2667 Type: quadoption
2668 Default: ask-yes
2669 This option controls whether Mutt will prompt you for automati‐
2671 cally sending a (signed/encrypted) message using PGP/MIME when
2672 inline (traditional) fails (for any reason).
2673 Also note that using the old-style PGP message format is
2675 strongly deprecated. (PGP only)
2676 pgp_replyinline
2680 Type: boolean
2681 Default: no
2682 Setting this variable will cause Mutt to always attempt to cre‐
2684 ate an inline (traditional) message when replying to a message
2685 which is PGP encrypted/signed inline. This can be overridden by
2686 use of the pgp menu, when inline is not required. This option
2687 does not automatically detect if the (replied-to) message is
2688 inline; instead it relies on Mutt internals for previously
2689 checked/flagged messages.
2690 Note that Mutt might automatically use PGP/MIME for messages
2692 which consist of more than a single MIME part. Mutt can be con‐
2693 figured to ask before sending PGP/MIME messages when inline
2694 (traditional) would not work.
2695 Also see the $pgp_mime_auto variable.
2697 Also note that using the old-style PGP message format is
2699 strongly deprecated. (PGP only)
2700 pgp_retainable_sigs
2704 Type: boolean
2705 Default: no
2706 If set, signed and encrypted messages will consist of nested
2708 multipart/signed and multipart/encrypted body parts.
2709 This is useful for applications like encrypted and signed mail‐
2711 ing lists, where the outer layer (multipart/encrypted) can be
2712 easily removed, while the inner multipart/signed part is
2713 retained. (PGP only)
2714 pgp_show_unusable
2718 Type: boolean
2719 Default: yes
2720 If set, mutt will display non-usable keys on the PGP key selec‐
2722 tion menu. This includes keys which have been revoked, have
2723 expired, or have been marked as “disabled” by the user. (PGP
2724 only)
2725 pgp_sign_as
2729 Type: string
2730 Default: “”
2731 If you have more than one key pair, this option allows you to
2733 specify which of your private keys to use. It is recommended
2734 that you use the keyid form to specify your key (e.g.
2735 0x00112233). (PGP only)
2736 pgp_sign_command
2740 Type: string
2741 Default: “”
2742 This command is used to create the detached PGP signature for a
2744 multipart/signed PGP/MIME body part.
2745 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
2747 possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
2748 pgp_sort_keys
2752 Type: sort order
2753 Default: address
2754 Specifies how the entries in the pgp menu are sorted. The fol‐
2756 lowing are legal values:
2757 address
2758 sort alphabetically by user id
2759 keyid sort alphabetically by key id
2760 date sort by key creation date
2761 trust sort by the trust of the key
2762 If you prefer reverse order of the above values, prefix it with
2764 “reverse-”. (PGP only)
2765 pgp_strict_enc
2769 Type: boolean
2770 Default: yes
2771 If set, Mutt will automatically encode PGP/MIME signed messages
2773 as quoted-printable. Please note that unsetting this variable
2774 may lead to problems with non-verifyable PGP signatures, so only
2775 change this if you know what you are doing. (PGP only)
2776 pgp_timeout
2780 Type: number
2781 Default: 300
2782 The number of seconds after which a cached passphrase will
2784 expire if not used. (PGP only)
2785 pgp_use_gpg_agent
2789 Type: boolean
2790 Default: no
2791 If set, mutt will use a possibly-running gpg-agent(1) process.
2793 (PGP only)
2794 pgp_verify_command
2798 Type: string
2799 Default: “”
2800 This command is used to verify PGP signatures.
2802 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
2804 possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
2805 pgp_verify_key_command
2809 Type: string
2810 Default: “”
2811 This command is used to verify key information from the key
2813 selection menu.
2814 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
2816 possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
2817 pipe_decode
2821 Type: boolean
2822 Default: no
2823 Used in connection with the <pipe-message> command. When unset,
2825 Mutt will pipe the messages without any preprocessing. When set,
2826 Mutt will weed headers and will attempt to decode the messages
2827 first.
2828 pipe_sep
2832 Type: string
2833 Default: “\n”
2834 The separator to add between messages when piping a list of
2836 tagged messages to an external Unix command.
2837 pipe_split
2841 Type: boolean
2842 Default: no
2843 Used in connection with the <pipe-message> function following
2845 <tag-prefix>. If this variable is unset, when piping a list of
2846 tagged messages Mutt will concatenate the messages and will pipe
2847 them all concatenated. When set, Mutt will pipe the messages
2848 one by one. In both cases the messages are piped in the current
2849 sorted order, and the $pipe_sep separator is added after each
2850 message.
2851 pop_auth_try_all
2855 Type: boolean
2856 Default: yes
2857 If set, Mutt will try all available authentication methods.
2859 When unset, Mutt will only fall back to other authentication
2860 methods if the previous methods are unavailable. If a method is
2861 available but authentication fails, Mutt will not connect to the
2862 POP server.
2863 pop_authenticators
2867 Type: string
2868 Default: “”
2869 This is a colon-delimited list of authentication methods mutt
2871 may attempt to use to log in to an POP server, in the order mutt
2872 should try them. Authentication methods are either “user”,
2873 “apop” or any SASL mechanism, e.g. “digest-md5”, “gssapi” or
2874 “cram-md5”. This option is case-insensitive. If this option is
2875 unset (the default) mutt will try all available methods, in
2876 order from most-secure to least-secure.
2877 Example:
2879 set pop_authenticators=”digest-md5:apop:user”
2882 pop_checkinterval
2888 Type: number
2889 Default: 60
2890 This variable configures how often (in seconds) mutt should look
2892 for new mail in the currently selected mailbox if it is a POP
2893 mailbox.
2894 pop_delete
2898 Type: quadoption
2899 Default: ask-no
2900 If set, Mutt will delete successfully downloaded messages from
2902 the POP server when using the <fetch-mail> function. When
2903 unset, Mutt will download messages but also leave them on the
2904 POP server.
2905 pop_host
2909 Type: string
2910 Default: “”
2911 The name of your POP server for the <fetch-mail> function. You
2913 can also specify an alternative port, username and password,
2914 i.e.:
2915 [pop[s]://][username[:password]@]popserver[:port]
2918 where “[...]” denotes an optional part.
2922 pop_last
2926 Type: boolean
2927 Default: no
2928 If this variable is set, mutt will try to use the “LAST” POP
2930 command for retrieving only unread messages from the POP server
2931 when using the <fetch-mail> function.
2932 pop_pass
2936 Type: string
2937 Default: “”
2938 Specifies the password for your POP account. If unset, Mutt
2940 will prompt you for your password when you open a POP mailbox.
2941 Warning: you should only use this option when you are on a
2943 fairly secure machine, because the superuser can read your mut‐
2944 trc even if you are the only one who can read the file.
2945 pop_reconnect
2949 Type: quadoption
2950 Default: ask-yes
2951 Controls whether or not Mutt will try to reconnect to the POP
2953 server if the connection is lost.
2954 pop_user
2958 Type: string
2959 Default: “”
2960 Your login name on the POP server.
2962 This variable defaults to your user name on the local machine.
2964 post_indent_string
2968 Type: string
2969 Default: “”
2970 Similar to the $attribution variable, Mutt will append this
2972 string after the inclusion of a message which is being replied
2973 to.
2974 postpone
2978 Type: quadoption
2979 Default: ask-yes
2980 Controls whether or not messages are saved in the $postponed
2982 mailbox when you elect not to send immediately.
2983 Also see the $recall variable.
2985 postponed
2989 Type: path
2990 Default: “~/postponed”
2991 Mutt allows you to indefinitely “postpone sending a message”
2993 which you are editing. When you choose to postpone a message,
2994 Mutt saves it in the mailbox specified by this variable.
2995 Also see the $postpone variable.
2997 preconnect
3001 Type: string
3002 Default: “”
3003 If set, a shell command to be executed if mutt fails to estab‐
3005 lish a connection to the server. This is useful for setting up
3006 secure connections, e.g. with ssh(1). If the command returns a
3007 nonzero status, mutt gives up opening the server. Example:
3008 set preconnect=”ssh -f -q -L 1234:mailhost.net:143 mailhost.net \
3011 sleep 20 < /dev/null > /dev/null”
3012 Mailbox “foo” on “mailhost.net” can now be reached as “{local‐
3016 host:1234}foo”.
3017 Note: For this example to work, you must be able to log in to
3019 the remote machine without having to enter a password.
3020 print
3024 Type: quadoption
3025 Default: ask-no
3026 Controls whether or not Mutt really prints messages. This is
3028 set to “ask-no” by default, because some people accidentally hit
3029 “p” often.
3030 print_command
3034 Type: path
3035 Default: “lpr”
3036 This specifies the command pipe that should be used to print
3038 messages.
3039 print_decode
3043 Type: boolean
3044 Default: yes
3045 Used in connection with the <print-message> command. If this
3047 option is set, the message is decoded before it is passed to the
3048 external command specified by $print_command. If this option is
3049 unset, no processing will be applied to the message when print‐
3050 ing it. The latter setting may be useful if you are using some
3051 advanced printer filter which is able to properly format e-mail
3052 messages for printing.
3053 print_split
3057 Type: boolean
3058 Default: no
3059 Used in connection with the <print-message> command. If this
3061 option is set, the command specified by $print_command is exe‐
3062 cuted once for each message which is to be printed. If this
3063 option is unset, the command specified by $print_command is exe‐
3064 cuted only once, and all the messages are concatenated, with a
3065 form feed as the message separator.
3066 Those who use the enscript(1) program's mail-printing mode will
3068 most likely want to set this option.
3069 prompt_after
3073 Type: boolean
3074 Default: yes
3075 If you use an external $pager, setting this variable will cause
3077 Mutt to prompt you for a command when the pager exits rather
3078 than returning to the index menu. If unset, Mutt will return to
3079 the index menu when the external pager exits.
3080 query_command
3084 Type: path
3085 Default: “”
3086 This specifies the command that mutt will use to make external
3088 address queries. The string should contain a “%s”, which will
3089 be substituted with the query string the user types. See
3090 “query” for more information.
3091 query_format
3095 Type: string
3096 Default: “%4c %t %-25.25a %-25.25n %?e?(%e)?”
3097 This variable describes the format of the “query” menu. The fol‐
3099 lowing printf(3)-style sequences are understood:
3100 %a destination address
3101 %c current entry number
3102 %e extra information *
3103 %n destination name
3104 %t “*” if current entry is tagged, a space otherwise
3105 %>X right justify the rest of the string and pad with “X”
3106 %|X pad to the end of the line with “X”
3107 %*X soft-fill with character “X” as pad
3108 For an explanation of “soft-fill”, see the $index_format docu‐
3110 mentation.
3111 * = can be optionally printed if nonzero, see the $status_format
3113 documentation.
3114 quit
3118 Type: quadoption
3119 Default: yes
3120 This variable controls whether “quit” and “exit” actually quit
3122 from mutt. If this option is set, they do quit, if it is unset,
3123 they have no effect, and if it is set to ask-yes or ask-no, you
3124 are prompted for confirmation when you try to quit.
3125 quote_regexp
3129 Type: regular expression
3130 Default: “^([ \t]*[|>:}#])+”
3131 A regular expression used in the internal pager to determine
3133 quoted sections of text in the body of a message. Quoted text
3134 may be filtered out using the <toggle-quoted> command, or col‐
3135 ored according to the “color quoted” family of directives.
3136 Higher levels of quoting may be colored differently (“color
3138 quoted1”, “color quoted2”, etc.). The quoting level is deter‐
3139 mined by removing the last character from the matched text and
3140 recursively reapplying the regular expression until it fails to
3141 produce a match.
3142 Match detection may be overridden by the $smileys regular
3144 expression.
3145 read_inc
3149 Type: number
3150 Default: 10
3151 If set to a value greater than 0, Mutt will display which mes‐
3153 sage it is currently on when reading a mailbox or when perform‐
3154 ing search actions such as search and limit. The message is
3155 printed after this many messages have been read or searched
3156 (e.g., if set to 25, Mutt will print a message when it is at
3157 message 25, and then again when it gets to message 50). This
3158 variable is meant to indicate progress when reading or searching
3159 large mailboxes which may take some time. When set to 0, only a
3160 single message will appear before the reading the mailbox.
3161 Also see the $write_inc, $net_inc and $time_inc variables and
3163 the “tuning” section of the manual for performance considera‐
3164 tions.
3165 read_only
3169 Type: boolean
3170 Default: no
3171 If set, all folders are opened in read-only mode.
3173 realname
3177 Type: string
3178 Default: “”
3179 This variable specifies what “real” or “personal” name should be
3181 used when sending messages.
3182 By default, this is the GECOS field from /etc/passwd. Note that
3184 this variable will not be used when the user has set a real name
3185 in the $from variable.
3186 recall
3190 Type: quadoption
3191 Default: ask-yes
3192 Controls whether or not Mutt recalls postponed messages when
3194 composing a new message.
3195 Setting this variable to is not generally useful, and thus not
3197 recommended.
3198 Also see $postponed variable.
3200 record
3204 Type: path
3205 Default: “~/sent”
3206 This specifies the file into which your outgoing messages should
3208 be appended. (This is meant as the primary method for saving a
3209 copy of your messages, but another way to do this is using the
3210 “my_hdr” command to create a “Bcc:” field with your email
3211 address in it.)
3212 The value of $record is overridden by the $force_name and
3214 $save_name variables, and the “fcc-hook” command.
3215 reply_regexp
3219 Type: regular expression
3220 Default: “^(re([\[0-9\]+])*|aw):[ \t]*”
3221 A regular expression used to recognize reply messages when
3223 threading and replying. The default value corresponds to the
3224 English ”Re:” and the German ”Aw:”.
3225 reply_self
3229 Type: boolean
3230 Default: no
3231 If unset and you are replying to a message sent by you, Mutt
3233 will assume that you want to reply to the recipients of that
3234 message rather than to yourself.
3235 Also see the “alternates” command.
3237 reply_to
3241 Type: quadoption
3242 Default: ask-yes
3243 If set, when replying to a message, Mutt will use the address
3245 listed in the Reply-to: header as the recipient of the reply.
3246 If unset, it will use the address in the From: header field
3247 instead. This option is useful for reading a mailing list that
3248 sets the Reply-To: header field to the list address and you want
3249 to send a private message to the author of a message.
3250 resolve
3254 Type: boolean
3255 Default: yes
3256 When set, the cursor will be automatically advanced to the next
3258 (possibly undeleted) message whenever a command that modifies
3259 the current message is executed.
3260 reverse_alias
3264 Type: boolean
3265 Default: no
3266 This variable controls whether or not Mutt will display the
3268 “personal” name from your aliases in the index menu if it finds
3269 an alias that matches the message's sender. For example, if you
3270 have the following alias:
3271 alias juser abd30425@somewhere.net (Joe User)
3274 and then you receive mail which contains the following header:
3278 From: abd30425@somewhere.net
3281 It would be displayed in the index menu as “Joe User” instead of
3285 “abd30425@somewhere.net.” This is useful when the person's
3286 e-mail address is not human friendly.
3287 reverse_name
3291 Type: boolean
3292 Default: no
3293 It may sometimes arrive that you receive mail to a certain
3295 machine, move the messages to another machine, and reply to some
3296 the messages from there. If this variable is set, the default
3297 From: line of the reply messages is built using the address
3298 where you received the messages you are replying to if that
3299 address matches your “alternates”. If the variable is unset, or
3300 the address that would be used doesn't match your “alternates”,
3301 the From: line will use your address on the current machine.
3302 Also see the “alternates” command.
3304 reverse_realname
3308 Type: boolean
3309 Default: yes
3310 This variable fine-tunes the behavior of the $reverse_name fea‐
3312 ture. When it is set, mutt will use the address from incoming
3313 messages as-is, possibly including eventual real names. When it
3314 is unset, mutt will override any such real names with the set‐
3315 ting of the $realname variable.
3316 rfc2047_parameters
3320 Type: boolean
3321 Default: no
3322 When this variable is set, Mutt will decode RFC2047-encoded MIME
3324 parameters. You want to set this variable when mutt suggests you
3325 to save attachments to files named like:
3326 =?iso-8859-1?Q?file=5F=E4=5F991116=2Ezip?=
3329 When this variable is set interactively, the change won't be
3333 active until you change folders.
3334 Note that this use of RFC2047's encoding is explicitly prohib‐
3336 ited by the standard, but nevertheless encountered in the wild.
3337 Also note that setting this parameter will not have the effect
3339 that mutt generates this kind of encoding. Instead, mutt will
3340 unconditionally use the encoding specified in RFC2231.
3341 save_address
3345 Type: boolean
3346 Default: no
3347 If set, mutt will take the sender's full address when choosing a
3349 default folder for saving a mail. If $save_name or $force_name
3350 is set too, the selection of the Fcc folder will be changed as
3351 well.
3352 save_empty
3356 Type: boolean
3357 Default: yes
3358 When unset, mailboxes which contain no saved messages will be
3360 removed when closed (the exception is $spoolfile which is never
3361 removed). If set, mailboxes are never removed.
3362 Note: This only applies to mbox and MMDF folders, Mutt does not
3364 delete MH and Maildir directories.
3365 save_history
3369 Type: number
3370 Default: 0
3371 This variable controls the size of the history (per category)
3373 saved in the $history_file file.
3374 save_name
3378 Type: boolean
3379 Default: no
3380 This variable controls how copies of outgoing messages are
3382 saved. When set, a check is made to see if a mailbox specified
3383 by the recipient address exists (this is done by searching for a
3384 mailbox in the $folder directory with the username part of the
3385 recipient address). If the mailbox exists, the outgoing message
3386 will be saved to that mailbox, otherwise the message is saved to
3387 the $record mailbox.
3388 Also see the $force_name variable.
3390 score
3394 Type: boolean
3395 Default: yes
3396 When this variable is unset, scoring is turned off. This can be
3398 useful to selectively disable scoring for certain folders when
3399 the $score_threshold_delete variable and related are used.
3400 score_threshold_delete
3404 Type: number
3405 Default: -1
3406 Messages which have been assigned a score equal to or lower than
3408 the value of this variable are automatically marked for deletion
3409 by mutt. Since mutt scores are always greater than or equal to
3410 zero, the default setting of this variable will never mark a
3411 message for deletion.
3412 score_threshold_flag
3416 Type: number
3417 Default: 9999
3418 Messages which have been assigned a score greater than or equal
3420 to this variable's value are automatically marked ”flagged”.
3421 score_threshold_read
3425 Type: number
3426 Default: -1
3427 Messages which have been assigned a score equal to or lower than
3429 the value of this variable are automatically marked as read by
3430 mutt. Since mutt scores are always greater than or equal to
3431 zero, the default setting of this variable will never mark a
3432 message read.
3433 search_context
3437 Type: number
3438 Default: 0
3439 For the pager, this variable specifies the number of lines shown
3441 before search results. By default, search results will be
3442 top-aligned.
3443 send_charset
3447 Type: string
3448 Default: “us-ascii:iso-8859-1:utf-8”
3449 A colon-delimited list of character sets for outgoing messages.
3451 Mutt will use the first character set into which the text can be
3452 converted exactly. If your $charset is not “iso-8859-1” and
3453 recipients may not understand “UTF-8”, it is advisable to
3454 include in the list an appropriate widely used standard charac‐
3455 ter set (such as “iso-8859-2”, “koi8-r” or “iso-2022-jp”) either
3456 instead of or after “iso-8859-1”.
3457 In case the text cannot be converted into one of these exactly,
3459 mutt uses $charset as a fallback.
3460 sendmail
3464 Type: path
3465 Default: “/usr/sbin/sendmail -oem -oi”
3466 Specifies the program and arguments used to deliver mail sent by
3468 Mutt. Mutt expects that the specified program interprets addi‐
3469 tional arguments as recipient addresses.
3470 sendmail_wait
3474 Type: number
3475 Default: 0
3476 Specifies the number of seconds to wait for the $sendmail
3478 process to finish before giving up and putting delivery in the
3479 background.
3480 Mutt interprets the value of this variable as follows:
3482 >0 number of seconds to wait for sendmail to finish before
3483 continuing
3484 0 wait forever for sendmail to finish
3485 <0 always put sendmail in the background without waiting
3486 Note that if you specify a value other than 0, the output of the
3488 child process will be put in a temporary file. If there is some
3489 error, you will be informed as to where to find the output.
3490 shell
3494 Type: path
3495 Default: “”
3496 Command to use when spawning a subshell. By default, the user's
3498 login shell from /etc/passwd is used.
3499 sig_dashes
3503 Type: boolean
3504 Default: yes
3505 If set, a line containing “-- ” (note the trailing space) will
3507 be inserted before your $signature. It is strongly recommended
3508 that you not unset this variable unless your signature contains
3509 just your name. The reason for this is because many software
3510 packages use “-- \n” to detect your signature. For example,
3511 Mutt has the ability to highlight the signature in a different
3512 color in the built-in pager.
3513 sig_on_top
3517 Type: boolean
3518 Default: no
3519 If set, the signature will be included before any quoted or for‐
3521 warded text. It is strongly recommended that you do not set
3522 this variable unless you really know what you are doing, and are
3523 prepared to take some heat from netiquette guardians.
3524 signature
3528 Type: path
3529 Default: “~/.signature”
3530 Specifies the filename of your signature, which is appended to
3532 all outgoing messages. If the filename ends with a pipe (“|”),
3533 it is assumed that filename is a shell command and input should
3534 be read from its standard output.
3535 simple_search
3539 Type: string
3540 Default: “~f %s | ~s %s”
3541 Specifies how Mutt should expand a simple search into a real
3543 search pattern. A simple search is one that does not contain
3544 any of the “~” pattern operators. See “patterns” for more
3545 information on search patterns.
3546 For example, if you simply type “joe” at a search or limit
3548 prompt, Mutt will automatically expand it to the value specified
3549 by this variable by replacing “%s” with the supplied string.
3550 For the default value, “joe” would be expanded to: “~f joe | ~s
3551 joe”.
3552 sleep_time
3556 Type: number
3557 Default: 1
3558 Specifies time, in seconds, to pause while displaying certain
3560 informational messages, while moving from folder to folder and
3561 after expunging messages from the current folder. The default
3562 is to pause one second, so a value of zero for this option sup‐
3563 presses the pause.
3564 smart_wrap
3568 Type: boolean
3569 Default: yes
3570 Controls the display of lines longer than the screen width in
3572 the internal pager. If set, long lines are wrapped at a word
3573 boundary. If unset, lines are simply wrapped at the screen
3574 edge. Also see the $markers variable.
3575 smileys
3579 Type: regular expression
3580 Default: “(>From )|(:[-^]?[][)(><}{|/DP])”
3581 The pager uses this variable to catch some common false posi‐
3583 tives of $quote_regexp, most notably smileys and not consider a
3584 line quoted text if it also matches $smileys. This mostly hap‐
3585 pens at the beginning of a line.
3586 smime_ask_cert_label
3590 Type: boolean
3591 Default: yes
3592 This flag controls whether you want to be asked to enter a label
3594 for a certificate about to be added to the database or not. It
3595 is set by default. (S/MIME only)
3596 smime_ca_location
3600 Type: path
3601 Default: “”
3602 This variable contains the name of either a directory, or a file
3604 which contains trusted certificates for use with OpenSSL.
3605 (S/MIME only)
3606 smime_certificates
3610 Type: path
3611 Default: “”
3612 Since for S/MIME there is no pubring/secring as with PGP, mutt
3614 has to handle storage and retrieval of keys by itself. This is
3615 very basic right now, and keys and certificates are stored in
3616 two different directories, both named as the hash-value
3617 retrieved from OpenSSL. There is an index file which contains
3618 mailbox-address keyid pairs, and which can be manually edited.
3619 This option points to the location of the certificates. (S/MIME
3620 only)
3621 smime_decrypt_command
3625 Type: string
3626 Default: “”
3627 This format string specifies a command which is used to decrypt
3629 application/x-pkcs7-mime attachments.
3630 The OpenSSL command formats have their own set of printf(3)-like
3632 sequences similar to PGP's:
3633 %f Expands to the name of a file containing a message.
3634 %s Expands to the name of a file containing the signature
3635 part
3636 of a multipart/signed attachment when verify‐
3637 ing it.
3638 %k The key-pair specified with $smime_default_key
3639 %c One or more certificate IDs.
3640 %a The algorithm used for encryption.
3641 %C CA location: Depending on whether $smime_ca_location
3642 points to a directory or file, this expands to
3643 “-CApath $smime_ca_location” or “-CAfile
3644 $smime_ca_location”.
3645 For examples on how to configure these formats, see the smime.rc
3647 in the samples/ subdirectory which has been installed on your
3648 system alongside the documentation. (S/MIME only)
3649 smime_decrypt_use_default_key
3653 Type: boolean
3654 Default: yes
3655 If set (default) this tells mutt to use the default key for
3657 decryption. Otherwise, if managing multiple certifi‐
3658 cate-key-pairs, mutt will try to use the mailbox-address to
3659 determine the key to use. It will ask you to supply a key, if it
3660 can't find one. (S/MIME only)
3661 smime_default_key
3665 Type: string
3666 Default: “”
3667 This is the default key-pair to use for signing. This must be
3669 set to the keyid (the hash-value that OpenSSL generates) to work
3670 properly (S/MIME only)
3671 smime_encrypt_command
3675 Type: string
3676 Default: “”
3677 This command is used to create encrypted S/MIME messages.
3679 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command
3681 for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
3682 smime_encrypt_with
3686 Type: string
3687 Default: “”
3688 This sets the algorithm that should be used for encryption.
3690 Valid choices are “des”, “des3”, “rc2-40”, “rc2-64”, “rc2-128”.
3691 If unset, “3des” (TripleDES) is used. (S/MIME only)
3692 smime_get_cert_command
3696 Type: string
3697 Default: “”
3698 This command is used to extract X509 certificates from a PKCS7
3700 structure.
3701 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command
3703 for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
3704 smime_get_cert_email_command
3708 Type: string
3709 Default: “”
3710 This command is used to extract the mail address(es) used for
3712 storing X509 certificates, and for verification purposes (to
3713 check whether the certificate was issued for the sender's mail‐
3714 box).
3715 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command
3717 for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
3718 smime_get_signer_cert_command
3722 Type: string
3723 Default: “”
3724 This command is used to extract only the signers X509 certifi‐
3726 cate from a S/MIME signature, so that the certificate's owner
3727 may get compared to the email's “From:” field.
3728 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command
3730 for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
3731 smime_import_cert_command
3735 Type: string
3736 Default: “”
3737 This command is used to import a certificate via smime_keys.
3739 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command
3741 for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
3742 smime_is_default
3746 Type: boolean
3747 Default: no
3748 The default behavior of mutt is to use PGP on all
3750 auto-sign/encryption operations. To override and to use OpenSSL
3751 instead this must be set. However, this has no effect while
3752 replying, since mutt will automatically select the same applica‐
3753 tion that was used to sign/encrypt the original message. (Note
3754 that this variable can be overridden by unsetting
3755 $crypt_autosmime.) (S/MIME only)
3756 smime_keys
3760 Type: path
3761 Default: “”
3762 Since for S/MIME there is no pubring/secring as with PGP, mutt
3764 has to handle storage and retrieval of keys/certs by itself.
3765 This is very basic right now, and stores keys and certificates
3766 in two different directories, both named as the hash-value
3767 retrieved from OpenSSL. There is an index file which contains
3768 mailbox-address keyid pair, and which can be manually edited.
3769 This option points to the location of the private keys. (S/MIME
3770 only)
3771 smime_pk7out_command
3775 Type: string
3776 Default: “”
3777 This command is used to extract PKCS7 structures of S/MIME sig‐
3779 natures, in order to extract the public X509 certificate(s).
3780 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command
3782 for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
3783 smime_sign_command
3787 Type: string
3788 Default: “”
3789 This command is used to created S/MIME signatures of type multi‐
3791 part/signed, which can be read by all mail clients.
3792 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command
3794 for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
3795 smime_sign_opaque_command
3799 Type: string
3800 Default: “”
3801 This command is used to created S/MIME signatures of type appli‐
3803 cation/x-pkcs7-signature, which can only be handled by mail
3804 clients supporting the S/MIME extension.
3805 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command
3807 for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
3808 smime_timeout
3812 Type: number
3813 Default: 300
3814 The number of seconds after which a cached passphrase will
3816 expire if not used. (S/MIME only)
3817 smime_verify_command
3821 Type: string
3822 Default: “”
3823 This command is used to verify S/MIME signatures of type multi‐
3825 part/signed.
3826 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command
3828 for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
3829 smime_verify_opaque_command
3833 Type: string
3834 Default: “”
3835 This command is used to verify S/MIME signatures of type appli‐
3837 cation/x-pkcs7-mime.
3838 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command
3840 for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
3841 smtp_authenticators
3845 Type: string
3846 Default: “”
3847 This is a colon-delimited list of authentication methods mutt
3849 may attempt to use to log in to an SMTP server, in the order
3850 mutt should try them. Authentication methods are any SASL mech‐
3851 anism, e.g. “digest-md5”, “gssapi” or “cram-md5”. This option
3852 is case-insensitive. If it is “unset” (the default) mutt will
3853 try all available methods, in order from most-secure to
3854 least-secure.
3855 Example:
3857 set smtp_authenticators=”digest-md5:cram-md5”
3860 smtp_pass
3866 Type: string
3867 Default: “”
3868 Specifies the password for your SMTP account. If unset, Mutt
3870 will prompt you for your password when you first send mail via
3871 SMTP. See $smtp_url to configure mutt to send mail via SMTP.
3872 Warning: you should only use this option when you are on a
3874 fairly secure machine, because the superuser can read your mut‐
3875 trc even if you are the only one who can read the file.
3876 smtp_url
3880 Type: string
3881 Default: “”
3882 Defines the SMTP smarthost where sent messages should relayed
3884 for delivery. This should take the form of an SMTP URL, e.g.:
3885 smtp[s]://[user[:pass]@]host[:port]
3888 where “[...]” denotes an optional part. Setting this variable
3892 overrides the value of the $sendmail variable.
3893 sort
3897 Type: sort order
3898 Default: date
3899 Specifies how to sort messages in the “index” menu. Valid val‐
3901 ues are:
3902 ‐ date or date-sent
3903 ‐ date-received
3904 ‐ from
3905 ‐ mailbox-order (unsorted)
3906 ‐ score
3907 ‐ size
3908 ‐ spam
3909 ‐ subject
3910 ‐ threads
3911 ‐ to
3912 You may optionally use the “reverse-” prefix to specify reverse
3914 sorting order (example: “set sort=reverse-date-sent”).
3915 sort_alias
3919 Type: sort order
3920 Default: alias
3921 Specifies how the entries in the “alias” menu are sorted. The
3923 following are legal values:
3924 ‐ address (sort alphabetically by email address)
3925 ‐ alias (sort alphabetically by alias name)
3926 ‐ unsorted (leave in order specified in .muttrc)
3927 sort_aux
3930 Type: sort order
3931 Default: date
3932 When sorting by threads, this variable controls how threads are
3934 sorted in relation to other threads, and how the branches of the
3935 thread trees are sorted. This can be set to any value that
3936 $sort can, except “threads” (in that case, mutt will just use
3937 “date-sent”). You can also specify the “last-” prefix in addi‐
3938 tion to the “reverse-” prefix, but “last-” must come after
3939 “reverse-”. The “last-” prefix causes messages to be sorted
3940 against its siblings by which has the last descendant, using the
3941 rest of $sort_aux as an ordering. For instance,
3942 set sort_aux=last-date-received
3945 would mean that if a new message is received in a thread, that
3949 thread becomes the last one displayed (or the first, if you have
3950 “set sort=reverse-threads”.)
3951 Note: For reversed $sort order $sort_aux is reversed again
3953 (which is not the right thing to do, but kept to not break any
3954 existing configuration setting).
3955 sort_browser
3959 Type: sort order
3960 Default: alpha
3961 Specifies how to sort entries in the file browser. By default,
3963 the entries are sorted alphabetically. Valid values:
3964 ‐ alpha (alphabetically)
3965 ‐ date
3966 ‐ size
3967 ‐ unsorted
3968 You may optionally use the “reverse-” prefix to specify reverse
3970 sorting order (example: “set sort_browser=reverse-date”).
3971 sort_re
3975 Type: boolean
3976 Default: yes
3977 This variable is only useful when sorting by threads with
3979 $strict_threads unset. In that case, it changes the heuristic
3980 mutt uses to thread messages by subject. With $sort_re set,
3981 mutt will only attach a message as the child of another message
3982 by subject if the subject of the child message starts with a
3983 substring matching the setting of $reply_regexp. With $sort_re
3984 unset, mutt will attach the message whether or not this is the
3985 case, as long as the non-$reply_regexp parts of both messages
3986 are identical.
3987 spam_separator
3991 Type: string
3992 Default: “,”
3993 This variable controls what happens when multiple spam headers
3995 are matched: if unset, each successive header will overwrite any
3996 previous matches value for the spam label. If set, each succes‐
3997 sive match will append to the previous, using this variable's
3998 value as a separator.
3999 spoolfile
4003 Type: path
4004 Default: “”
4005 If your spool mailbox is in a non-default place where Mutt can‐
4007 not find it, you can specify its location with this variable.
4008 Mutt will initially set this variable to the value of the envi‐
4009 ronment variable $MAIL or $MAILDIR if either is defined.
4010 ssl_ca_certificates_file
4014 Type: path
4015 Default: “/etc/pki/tls/certs/ca-bundle.crt”
4016 This variable specifies a file containing trusted CA certifi‐
4018 cates. Any server certificate that is signed with one of these
4019 CA certificates is also automatically accepted.
4020 Example:
4022 set ssl_ca_certificates_file=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
4025 ssl_client_cert
4031 Type: path
4032 Default: “”
4033 The file containing a client certificate and its associated pri‐
4035 vate key.
4036 ssl_force_tls
4040 Type: boolean
4041 Default: no
4042 If this variable is set, Mutt will require that all connections
4044 to remote servers be encrypted. Furthermore it will attempt to
4045 negotiate TLS even if the server does not advertise the capabil‐
4046 ity, since it would otherwise have to abort the connection any‐
4047 way. This option supersedes $ssl_starttls.
4048 ssl_min_dh_prime_bits
4052 Type: number
4053 Default: 0
4054 This variable specifies the minimum acceptable prime size (in
4056 bits) for use in any Diffie-Hellman key exchange. A value of 0
4057 will use the default from the GNUTLS library.
4058 ssl_starttls
4062 Type: quadoption
4063 Default: yes
4064 If set (the default), mutt will attempt to use STARTTLS on
4066 servers advertising the capability. When unset, mutt will not
4067 attempt to use STARTTLS regardless of the server's capabilities.
4068 ssl_use_sslv3
4072 Type: boolean
4073 Default: yes
4074 This variable specifies whether to attempt to use SSLv3 in the
4076 SSL authentication process.
4077 ssl_use_tlsv1
4081 Type: boolean
4082 Default: yes
4083 This variable specifies whether to attempt to use TLSv1 in the
4085 SSL authentication process.
4086 ssl_verify_dates
4090 Type: boolean
4091 Default: yes
4092 If set (the default), mutt will not automatically accept a
4094 server certificate that is either not yet valid or already
4095 expired. You should only unset this for particular known hosts,
4096 using the <account-hook> function.
4097 ssl_verify_host
4101 Type: boolean
4102 Default: yes
4103 If set (the default), mutt will not automatically accept a
4105 server certificate whose host name does not match the host used
4106 in your folder URL. You should only unset this for particular
4107 known hosts, using the <account-hook> function.
4108 status_chars
4112 Type: string
4113 Default: “-*%A”
4114 Controls the characters used by the “%r” indicator in $sta‐
4116 tus_format. The first character is used when the mailbox is
4117 unchanged. The second is used when the mailbox has been changed,
4118 and it needs to be resynchronized. The third is used if the
4119 mailbox is in read-only mode, or if the mailbox will not be
4120 written when exiting that mailbox (You can toggle whether to
4121 write changes to a mailbox with the <toggle-write> operation,
4122 bound by default to “%”). The fourth is used to indicate that
4123 the current folder has been opened in attach- message mode (Cer‐
4124 tain operations like composing a new mail, replying, forwarding,
4125 etc. are not permitted in this mode).
4126 status_format
4130 Type: string
4131 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?%?l? %l?]---(%s/%S)-%>-(%P)---”
4132 Controls the format of the status line displayed in the “index”
4134 menu. This string is similar to $index_format, but has its own
4135 set of printf(3)-like sequences:
4136 %b number of mailboxes with new mail *
4137 %d number of deleted messages *
4138 %f the full pathname of the current mailbox
4139 %F number of flagged messages *
4140 %h local hostname
4141 %l size (in bytes) of the current mailbox *
4142 %L size (in bytes) of the messages shown (i.e., which match
4143 the current limit) *
4144 %m the number of messages in the mailbox *
4145 %M the number of messages shown (i.e., which match the cur‐
4146 rent limit) *
4147 %n number of new messages in the mailbox *
4148 %o number of old unread messages *
4149 %p number of postponed messages *
4150 %P percentage of the way through the index
4151 %r modified/read-only/won't-write/attach-message indicator,
4152 according to $status_chars
4153 %s current sorting mode ($sort)
4154 %S current aux sorting method ($sort_aux)
4155 %t number of tagged messages *
4156 %u number of unread messages *
4157 %v Mutt version string
4158 %V currently active limit pattern, if any *
4159 %>X right justify the rest of the string and pad with “X”
4160 %|X pad to the end of the line with “X”
4161 %*X soft-fill with character “X” as pad
4162 For an explanation of “soft-fill”, see the $index_format docu‐
4164 mentation.
4165 * = can be optionally printed if nonzero
4167 Some of the above sequences can be used to optionally print a
4169 string if their value is nonzero. For example, you may only
4170 want to see the number of flagged messages if such messages
4171 exist, since zero is not particularly meaningful. To optionally
4172 print a string based upon one of the above sequences, the fol‐
4173 lowing construct is used:
4174 %?<sequence_char>?<optional_string>?
4176 where sequence_char is a character from the table above, and
4178 optional_string is the string you would like printed if
4179 sequence_char is nonzero. optional_string may contain other
4180 sequences as well as normal text, but you may not nest optional
4181 strings.
4182 Here is an example illustrating how to optionally print the num‐
4184 ber of new messages in a mailbox:
4185 %?n?%n new messages.?
4187 You can also switch between two strings using the following con‐
4189 struct:
4190 %?<sequence_char>?<if_string>&<else_string>?
4192 If the value of sequence_char is non-zero, if_string will be
4194 expanded, otherwise else_string will be expanded.
4195 You can force the result of any printf(3)-like sequence to be
4197 lowercase by prefixing the sequence character with an underscore
4198 (“_”) sign. For example, if you want to display the local host‐
4199 name in lowercase, you would use: “%_h”.
4200 If you prefix the sequence character with a colon (“:”) charac‐
4202 ter, mutt will replace any dots in the expansion by underscores.
4203 This might be helpful with IMAP folders that don't like dots in
4204 folder names.
4205 status_on_top
4209 Type: boolean
4210 Default: no
4211 Setting this variable causes the “status bar” to be displayed on
4213 the first line of the screen rather than near the bottom. If
4214 $help is set, too it'll be placed at the bottom.
4215 strict_threads
4219 Type: boolean
4220 Default: no
4221 If set, threading will only make use of the “In-Reply-To” and
4223 “References:” fields when you $sort by message threads. By
4224 default, messages with the same subject are grouped together in
4225 “pseudo threads.”. This may not always be desirable, such as in
4226 a personal mailbox where you might have several unrelated mes‐
4227 sages with the subjects like “hi” which will get grouped
4228 together. See also $sort_re for a less drastic way of control‐
4229 ling this behavior.
4230 suspend
4234 Type: boolean
4235 Default: yes
4236 When unset, mutt won't stop when the user presses the terminal's
4238 susp key, usually “^Z”. This is useful if you run mutt inside an
4239 xterm using a command like “xterm -e mutt”.
4240 text_flowed
4244 Type: boolean
4245 Default: no
4246 When set, mutt will generate “format=flowed” bodies with a con‐
4248 tent type of “text/plain; format=flowed”. This format is easier
4249 to handle for some mailing software, and generally just looks
4250 like ordinary text. To actually make use of this format's fea‐
4251 tures, you'll need support in your editor.
4252 Note that $indent_string is ignored when this option is set.
4254 thorough_search
4258 Type: boolean
4259 Default: no
4260 Affects the ~b and ~h search operations described in section
4262 “patterns”. If set, the headers and body/attachments of mes‐
4263 sages to be searched are decoded before searching. If unset,
4264 messages are searched as they appear in the folder.
4265 Users searching attachments or for non-ASCII characters should
4267 set this value because decoding also includes MIME pars‐
4268 ing/decoding and possible character set conversions. Otherwise
4269 mutt will attempt to match against the raw message received (for
4270 example quoted-printable encoded or with encoded headers) which
4271 may lead to incorrect search results.
4272 thread_received
4276 Type: boolean
4277 Default: no
4278 When set, mutt uses the date received rather than the date sent
4280 to thread messages by subject.
4281 tilde
4285 Type: boolean
4286 Default: no
4287 When set, the internal-pager will pad blank lines to the bottom
4289 of the screen with a tilde (“~”).
4290 time_inc
4294 Type: number
4295 Default: 0
4296 Along with $read_inc, $write_inc, and $net_inc, this variable
4298 controls the frequency with which progress updates are dis‐
4299 played. It suppresses updates less than $time_inc milliseconds
4300 apart. This can improve throughput on systems with slow termi‐
4301 nals, or when running mutt on a remote system.
4302 Also see the “tuning” section of the manual for performance con‐
4304 siderations.
4305 timeout
4309 Type: number
4310 Default: 600
4311 When Mutt is waiting for user input either idling in menus or in
4313 an interactive prompt, Mutt would block until input is present.
4314 Depending on the context, this would prevent certain operations
4315 from working, like checking for new mail or keeping an IMAP con‐
4316 nection alive.
4317 This variable controls how many seconds Mutt will at most wait
4319 until it aborts waiting for input, performs these operations and
4320 continues to wait for input.
4321 A value of zero or less will cause Mutt to never time out.
4323 tmpdir
4327 Type: path
4328 Default: “”
4329 This variable allows you to specify where Mutt will place its
4331 temporary files needed for displaying and composing messages.
4332 If this variable is not set, the environment variable $TMPDIR is
4333 used. If $TMPDIR is not set then “/tmp” is used.
4334 to_chars
4338 Type: string
4339 Default: “ +TCFL”
4340 Controls the character used to indicate mail addressed to you.
4342 The first character is the one used when the mail is not
4343 addressed to your address. The second is used when you are the
4344 only recipient of the message. The third is when your address
4345 appears in the “To:” header field, but you are not the only
4346 recipient of the message. The fourth character is used when
4347 your address is specified in the “Cc:” header field, but you are
4348 not the only recipient. The fifth character is used to indicate
4349 mail that was sent by you. The sixth character is used to indi‐
4350 cate when a mail was sent to a mailing-list you subscribe to.
4351 tunnel
4355 Type: string
4356 Default: “”
4357 Setting this variable will cause mutt to open a pipe to a com‐
4359 mand instead of a raw socket. You may be able to use this to set
4360 up preauthenticated connections to your IMAP/POP3/SMTP server.
4361 Example:
4362 set tunnel=”ssh -q mailhost.net /usr/local/libexec/imapd”
4365 Note: For this example to work you must be able to log in to the
4369 remote machine without having to enter a password.
4370 When set, Mutt uses the tunnel for all remote connections.
4372 Please see “account-hook” in the manual for how to use different
4373 tunnel commands per connection.
4374 uncollapse_jump
4378 Type: boolean
4379 Default: no
4380 When set, Mutt will jump to the next unread message, if any,
4382 when the current thread is uncollapsed.
4383 use_8bitmime
4387 Type: boolean
4388 Default: no
4389 Warning: do not set this variable unless you are using a version
4391 of sendmail which supports the -B8BITMIME flag (such as sendmail
4392 8.8.x) or you may not be able to send mail.
4393 When set, Mutt will invoke $sendmail with the -B8BITMIME flag
4395 when sending 8-bit messages to enable ESMTP negotiation.
4396 use_domain
4400 Type: boolean
4401 Default: yes
4402 When set, Mutt will qualify all local addresses (ones without
4404 the “@host” portion) with the value of $hostname. If unset, no
4405 addresses will be qualified.
4406 use_envelope_from
4410 Type: boolean
4411 Default: no
4412 When set, mutt will set the envelope sender of the message. If
4414 $envelope_from_address is set, it will be used as the sender
4415 address. If unset, mutt will attempt to derive the sender from
4416 the “From:” header.
4417 Note that this information is passed to sendmail command using
4419 the -f command line switch. Therefore setting this option is not
4420 useful if the $sendmail variable already contains -f or if the
4421 executable pointed to by $sendmail doesn't support the -f
4422 switch.
4423 use_from
4427 Type: boolean
4428 Default: yes
4429 When set, Mutt will generate the “From:” header field when send‐
4431 ing messages. If unset, no “From:” header field will be gener‐
4432 ated unless the user explicitly sets one using the “my_hdr” com‐
4433 mand.
4434 use_idn
4438 Type: boolean
4439 Default: yes
4440 When set, Mutt will show you international domain names decoded.
4442 Note: You can use IDNs for addresses even if this is unset.
4443 This variable only affects decoding.
4444 use_ipv6
4448 Type: boolean
4449 Default: yes
4450 When set, Mutt will look for IPv6 addresses of hosts it tries to
4452 contact. If this option is unset, Mutt will restrict itself to
4453 IPv4 addresses. Normally, the default should work.
4454 user_agent
4458 Type: boolean
4459 Default: yes
4460 When set, mutt will add a “User-Agent:” header to outgoing mes‐
4462 sages, indicating which version of mutt was used for composing
4463 them.
4464 visual
4468 Type: path
4469 Default: “”
4470 Specifies the visual editor to invoke when the “~v” command is
4472 given in the built-in editor.
4473 wait_key
4477 Type: boolean
4478 Default: yes
4479 Controls whether Mutt will ask you to press a key after an
4481 external command has been invoked by these functions:
4482 <shell-escape>, <pipe-message>, <pipe-entry>, <print-message>,
4483 and <print-entry> commands.
4484 It is also used when viewing attachments with “auto_view”, pro‐
4486 vided that the corresponding mailcap entry has a needsterminal
4487 flag, and the external program is interactive.
4488 When set, Mutt will always ask for a key. When unset, Mutt will
4490 wait for a key only if the external command returned a non-zero
4491 status.
4492 weed
4496 Type: boolean
4497 Default: yes
4498 When set, mutt will weed headers when displaying, forwarding,
4500 printing, or replying to messages.
4501 wrap
4505 Type: number
4506 Default: 0
4507 When set to a positive value, mutt will wrap text at $wrap char‐
4509 acters. When set to a negative value, mutt will wrap text so
4510 that there are $wrap characters of empty space on the right side
4511 of the terminal. Setting it to zero makes mutt wrap at the ter‐
4512 minal width.
4513 wrap_headers
4517 Type: number
4518 Default: 78
4519 This option specifies the number of characters to use for wrap‐
4521 ping an outgoing message's headers. Allowed values are between
4522 78 and 998 inclusive.
4523 Note: This option usually shouldn't be changed. RFC5233 recom‐
4525 mends a line length of 78 (the default), so please only change
4526 this setting when you know what you're doing.
4527 wrap_search
4531 Type: boolean
4532 Default: yes
4533 Controls whether searches wrap around the end.
4535 When set, searches will wrap around the first (or last) item.
4537 When unset, incremental searches will not wrap.
4538 wrapmargin
4542 Type: number
4543 Default: 0
4544 (DEPRECATED) Equivalent to setting $wrap with a negative value.
4546 write_bcc
4550 Type: boolean
4551 Default: yes
4552 Controls whether mutt writes out the “Bcc:” header when prepar‐
4554 ing messages to be sent. Exim users may wish to unset this. If
4555 mutt is set to deliver directly via SMTP (see $smtp_url), this
4556 option does nothing: mutt will never write out the “Bcc:” header
4557 in this case.
4558 write_inc
4562 Type: number
4563 Default: 10
4564 When writing a mailbox, a message will be printed every
4566 $write_inc messages to indicate progress. If set to 0, only a
4567 single message will be displayed before writing a mailbox.
4568 Also see the $read_inc, $net_inc and $time_inc variables and the
4570 “tuning” section of the manual for performance considerations.
4571
4575 iconv(1), iconv(3), mailcap(5), maildir(5), mbox(5), mutt(1),
4576 printf(3), regex(7), strftime(3)
4577 The Mutt Manual
4579 The Mutt home page: http://www.mutt.org/
4581
4583 Michael Elkins, and others. Use <mutt-dev@mutt.org> to contact the
4584 developers.
4585Unix September 2002 muttrc(5)