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 attachments [ + | - ]disposition mime-type
102 unattachments [ + | - ]disposition mime-type
103 attachments ?
104 unattachments *
105 attachments specifies what kinds of attachments are used for
107 Mutt's attachment counting and searching support.
108 disposition is the attachment's Content-Disposition type -
110 either inline or attachment. You can abbreviate this to I or A.
111 The first part of a message or multipart group, if inline, is
113 counted separately than other inline parts. Specify root or R
114 for disposition to count these as attachments. If this first
115 part is of type multipart/alternative, note that its top-level
116 inline parts are also counted via root disposition (if
117 $count_alternatives is set).
118 disposition is prefixed by either a + symbol or a - symbol. If
120 it's a +, you're saying that you want to allow this disposition
121 and MIME type to qualify. If it's a -, you're saying that this
122 disposition and MIME type is an exception to previous + rules.
123 mime-type is the MIME type of the attachment you want the com‐
125 mand to affect. A MIME type is always of the format major/minor,
126 where major describes the broad category of document you're
127 looking at, and minor describes the specific type within that
128 category. The major part of mime-type must be literal text (or
129 the special token *), but the minor part may be a regular
130 expression. (Therefore, */.* matches any MIME type.)
131 The MIME types you give to the attachments directive are a kind
133 of pattern. When you use the attachments directive, the patterns
134 you specify are added to a list. When you use unattachments, the
135 pattern is removed from the list. The patterns are not expanded
136 and matched to specific MIME types at this time - they're just
137 text in a list. They're only matched when actually evaluating a
138 message.
139 auto_view type[/subtype] [ ... ]
141 unauto_view type[/subtype] [ ... ]
142 This commands permits you to specify that mutt should automati‐
144 cally convert the given MIME types to text/plain when displaying
145 messages. For this to work, there must be a mailcap(5) entry
146 for the given MIME type with the copiousoutput flag set. A sub‐
147 type of “*” matches any subtype, as does an empty subtype.
148 mime_lookup type[/subtype] [ ... ]
150 unmime_lookup type[/subtype] [ ... ]
151 This command permits you to define a list of "data" MIME content
153 types for which mutt will try to determine the actual file type
154 from the file name, and not use a mailcap(5) entry given for the
155 original MIME type. For instance, you may add the applica‐
156 tion/octet-stream MIME type to this list.
157 bind map1,map2,... key function
159 This command binds the given key for the given map or maps to
160 the given function. Multiple maps may be specified by separating
161 them with commas (no whitespace is allowed).
162 Valid maps are: generic, alias, attach, browser, editor, index,
164 compose, pager, pgp, postpone, mix.
165 For more information on keys and functions, please consult the
167 Mutt Manual. Note that the function name is to be specified
168 without angle brackets.
169 account-hook [!]regexp command
171 This hook is executed whenever you access a remote mailbox. Use‐
172 ful to adjust configuration settings to different IMAP or POP
173 servers.
174 charset-hook alias charset
176 This command defines an alias for a character set. This is use‐
177 ful to properly display messages which are tagged with a charac‐
178 ter set name not known to mutt.
179 iconv-hook charset local-charset
181 This command defines a system-specific name for a character set.
182 This is useful when your system's iconv(3) implementation does
183 not understand MIME character set names (such as iso-8859-1),
184 but instead insists on being fed with implementation-specific
185 character set names (such as 8859-1). In this specific case,
186 you'd put this into your configuration file:
187 iconv-hook iso-8859-1 8859-1
189 message-hook [!]pattern command
191 Before mutt displays (or formats for replying or forwarding) a
192 message which matches the given pattern (or, when it is preceded
193 by an exclamation mark, does not match the pattern), the given
194 command is executed. When multiple message-hooks match, they
195 are executed in the order in which they occur in the configu‐
196 ration file.
197 folder-hook [!]regexp command
199 When mutt enters a folder which matches regexp (or, when regexp
200 is preceded by an exclamation mark, does not match regexp), the
201 given command is executed.
202 When several folder-hooks match a given mail folder, they are
204 executed in the order given in the configuration file.
205 macro map key sequence [ description ]
207 This command binds the given sequence of keys to the given key
208 in the given map or maps. For valid maps, see bind. To specify
209 multiple maps, put only a comma between the maps.
210 color object [ attribute ... ] foreground background [ regexp ]
212 color index [ attribute ... ] foreground background [ pattern ]
213 color compose composeobject [ attribute ... ] foreground background
214 uncolor index pattern [ pattern ... ]
215 If your terminal supports color, these commands can be used to
217 assign foreground/background combinations to certain objects.
218 Valid objects are: attachment, body, bold, error, header, hdrde‐
219 fault, index, indicator, markers, message, normal, prompt,
220 quoted, quotedN, search, signature, status, tilde, tree, under‐
221 line. If the sidebar is enabled the following objects are also
222 valid: sidebar_divider, sidebar_flagged, sidebar_highlight,
223 sidebar_indicator, sidebar_new, sidebar_spoolfile. The body and
224 header objects allow you to restrict the colorization to a regu‐
225 lar expression. The index object permits you to select colored
226 messages by pattern.
227 Valid composeobjects include header, security_encrypt, secu‐
229 rity_sign, security_both, security_none.
230 Valid colors include: white, black, green, magenta, blue, cyan,
232 yellow, red, default, colorN.
233 Valid attributes include: none, bold, underline, reverse, and
235 standout.
236 mono object attribute [ regexp ]
238 mono index attribute [ pattern ]
239 For terminals which don't support color, you can still assign
241 attributes to objects.
242 [un]ignore pattern [ pattern ... ]
244 The ignore command permits you to specify header fields which
245 you usually don't wish to see. Any header field whose tag
246 begins with an “ignored” pattern will be ignored.
247 The unignore command permits you to define exceptions from the
249 above mentioned list of ignored headers.
250 lists [-group name] regexp [ regexp ... ]
252 unlists regexp [ regexp ... ]
253 subscribe [-group name] regexp [ regexp ... ]
254 unsubscribe regexp [ regexp ... ]
255 Mutt maintains two lists of mailing list address patterns, a
257 list of subscribed mailing lists, and a list of known mailing
258 lists. All subscribed mailing lists are known. Patterns use
259 regular expressions.
260 The lists command adds a mailing list address to the list of
262 known mailing lists. The unlists command removes a mailing list
263 from the lists of known and subscribed mailing lists. The sub‐
264 scribe command adds a mailing list to the lists of known and
265 subscribed mailing lists. The unsubscribe command removes it
266 from the list of subscribed mailing lists. The -group flag adds
267 all of the subsequent regular expressions to the named group.
268 mbox-hook [!]regexp mailbox
270 When mutt changes to a mail folder which matches regexp, mailbox
271 will be used as the “mbox” folder, i.e., read messages will be
272 moved to that folder when the mail folder is left.
273 The first matching mbox-hook applies.
275 mailboxes [[-poll | -nopoll] [[-label label] | -nolabel] filename] [ ... ]
277 unmailboxes [ * | filename ... ]
278 The mailboxes specifies folders which can receive mail and which
280 will be checked for new messages. When changing folders, press‐
281 ing space will cycle through folders with new mail. The unmail‐
282 boxes command is used to remove a file name from the list of
283 folders which can receive mail. If "*" is specified as the file
284 name, the list is emptied.
285 my_hdr string
287 unmy_hdr field
288 Using my_hdr, you can define headers which will be added to the
290 messages you compose. unmy_hdr will remove the given user-
291 defined headers.
292 hdr_order header1 header2 [ ... ]
294 With this command, you can specify an order in which mutt will
295 attempt to present headers to you when viewing messages.
296 save-hook [!]pattern filename
298 When a message matches pattern, the default file name when sav‐
299 ing it will be the given filename.
300 fcc-hook [!]pattern filename
302 When an outgoing message matches pattern, the default file name
303 for storing a copy (fcc) will be the given filename.
304 fcc-save-hook [!]pattern filename
306 This command is an abbreviation for identical fcc-hook and save-
307 hook commands.
308 send-hook [!]pattern command
310 When composing a message matching pattern, command is executed.
311 When multiple send-hooks match, they are executed in the order
312 in which they occur in the configuration file.
313 send2-hook [!]pattern command
315 Whenever a message matching pattern is changed (either by edit‐
316 ing it or by using the compose menu), command is executed. When
317 multiple send2-hooks match, they are executed in the order in
318 which they occur in the configuration file. Possible applica‐
319 tions include setting the $sendmail variable when a message's
320 from header is changed.
321 send2-hook execution is not triggered by use of enter-command
323 from the compose menu.
324 reply-hook [!]pattern command
326 When replying to a message matching pattern, command is exe‐
327 cuted. When multiple reply-hooks match, they are executed in
328 the order in which they occur in the configuration file, but all
329 reply-hooks are matched and executed before send-hooks, regard‐
330 less of their order in the configuration file.
331 crypt-hook regexp key-id
333 The crypt-hook command provides a method by which you can spec‐
334 ify the ID of the public key to be used when encrypting messages
335 to a certain recipient. The meaning of "key ID" is to be taken
336 broadly: This can be a different e-mail address, a numerical key
337 ID, or even just an arbitrary search string. You may use multi‐
338 ple crypt-hooks with the same regexp; multiple matching crypt-
339 hooks result in the use of multiple key-ids for a recipient.
340 index-format-hook name [!]pattern format-string
342 This command is used to inject format strings dynamically into
343 $index_format based on pattern matching against the current mes‐
344 sage.
345 The $index_format expando %@name@ specifies a placeholder for
347 the injection. Index-format-hooks with the same name are matched
348 using pattern against the current message. Matching is done in
349 the order specified in the .muttrc, with the first match being
350 used. The hook's format-string is then substituted and evalu‐
351 ated.
352 open-hook regexp "command"
354 close-hook regexp "command"
355 append-hook regexp "command"
356 These commands provide a way to handle compressed folders. The
358 given regexp specifies which folders are taken as compressed
359 (e.g. "\\.gz$"). The commands tell Mutt how to uncompress a
360 folder (open-hook), compress a folder (close-hook) or append a
361 compressed mail to a compressed folder (append-hook). The com‐
362 mand string is the printf(3) like format string, and it should
363 accept two parameters: %f, which is replaced with the (com‐
364 pressed) folder name, and %t which is replaced with the name of
365 the temporary folder to which to write.
366 push string
368 exec function [ ... ]
369 push adds the named string to the keyboard buffer. “exec func‐
371 tion” is equivalent to “push <function>”.
372 run MuttLisp
374 The run command evaluates the MuttLisp argument. The output of
376 the MuttLisp is then executed as a Mutt command, as if it were
377 typed in the muttrc instead.
378 score pattern value
380 unscore [ * | pattern ... ]
381 The score commands adds value to a message's score if pattern
383 matches it. The unscore command removes score entries from the
384 list.
385 set [no|inv|&|?]variable[=value] [ ... ]
387 toggle variable [ ... ]
388 unset variable [ ... ]
389 reset variable [ ... ]
390 These commands are used to set and manipulate configuration
392 variables.
393 Mutt knows four basic types of variables: boolean, number,
395 string and quadoption. Boolean variables can be set (true),
396 unset (false), or toggled. Number variables can be assigned a
397 positive integer value.
398 String variables consist of any number of printable characters.
400 Strings must be enclosed in quotes if they contain spaces or
401 tabs. You may also use the “C” escape sequences \n and \t for
402 newline and tab, respectively.
403 Quadoption variables are used to control whether or not to be
405 prompted for certain actions, or to specify a default action. A
406 value of yes will cause the action to be carried out automati‐
407 cally as if you had answered yes to the question. Similarly, a
408 value of no will cause the action to be carried out as if you
409 had answered “no.” A value of ask-yes will cause a prompt with a
410 default answer of “yes” and ask-no will provide a default answer
411 of “no.”
412 The reset command resets all given variables to the compile time
414 defaults. If you reset the special variable all, all variables
415 will reset to their compile time defaults.
416 setenv [?]variable [ value ]
418 unsetenv variable
419 These alter the environment that Mutt passes on to its child
421 processes. You can also query current environment values by
422 prefixing a “?” character.
423 sidebar_whitelist mailbox [ mailbox ...]
425 unsidebar_whitelist [ * | mailbox ... ]
426 sidebar_whitelist specifies mailboxes that will always be dis‐
428 played in the sidebar, even if $sidebar_new_mail_only is set and
429 the mailbox does not contain new mail.
430 unsidebar_whitelist is used to remove a mailbox from the list of
432 whitelisted mailboxes. Use unsidebar_whitelist * to remove all
433 mailboxes.
434 source filename
436 The given file will be evaluated as a configuration file.
437 spam pattern format
439 nospam pattern
440 These commands define spam-detection patterns from external spam
442 filters, so that mutt can sort, limit, and search on ``spam
443 tags'' or ``spam attributes'', or display them in the index. See
444 the Mutt manual for details.
445 subjectrx pattern replacement
447 unsubjectrx [ * | pattern ]
448 subjectrx specifies a regular expression pattern which, if
450 detected in a message subject, causes the subject to be replaced
451 with the replacement value. The replacement is subject to sub‐
452 stitutions in the same way as for the spam command: %L for the
453 text to the left of the match, %R for text to the right of the
454 match, and %1 for the first subgroup in the match (etc). If you
455 simply want to erase the match, set it to “%L%R”. Any number of
456 subjectrx commands may coexist.
457 Note this well: the replacement value replaces the entire sub‐
459 ject, not just the match!
460 unsubjectrx removes a given subjectrx from the substitution
462 list. If * is used as the pattern, all substitutions will be
463 removed.
464 unhook [ * | hook-type ]
466 This command will remove all hooks of a given type, or all hooks
467 when “*” is used as an argument. hook-type can be any of the
468 -hook commands documented above.
469 mailto_allow header-field [ ... ]
471 unmailto_allow [ * | header-field ... ]
472 These commands allow the user to modify the list of allowed
474 header fields in a mailto: URL that Mutt will include in the the
475 generated message. By default the list contains only subject
476 and body, as specified by RFC2368.
477 echo message
479 Prints message to the message window. After printing the mes‐
480 sage, echo will pause for the number of seconds specified by
481 $sleep_time.
482 cd directory
484 Changes the current working directory.
485
487 In various places with mutt, including some of the above mentioned hook
488 commands, you can specify patterns to match messages.
489 Constructing Patterns
491 A simple pattern consists of a modifier of the form “~character”, pos‐
492 sibly followed by a parameter against which mutt is supposed to match
493 the object specified by this modifier. For some characters, the ~ may
494 be replaced by another character to alter the behavior of the match.
495 These are described in the list of modifiers, below.
496 With some of these modifiers, the object to be matched consists of sev‐
498 eral e-mail addresses. In these cases, the object is matched if at
499 least one of these e-mail addresses matches. You can prepend a hat
500 (“^”) character to such a pattern to indicate that all addresses must
501 match in order to match the object.
502 You can construct complex patterns by combining simple patterns with
504 logical operators. Logical AND is specified by simply concatenating
505 two simple patterns, for instance “~C mutt-dev ~s bug”. Logical OR is
506 specified by inserting a vertical bar (“|”) between two patterns, for
507 instance “~C mutt-dev | ~s bug”. Additionally, you can negate a pat‐
508 tern by prepending a bang (“!”) character. For logical grouping, use
509 braces (“()”). Example: “!(~t mutt|~c mutt) ~f elkins”.
510 Simple Patterns
512 Mutt understands the following simple patterns:
513 ~A all messages
515 ~b EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the message body.
516 =b STRING If IMAP is enabled, like ~b but searches for STRING on the
517 server, rather than downloading each message and searching
518 it locally.
519 ~B EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the whole message.
520 =B STRING If IMAP is enabled, like ~B but searches for STRING on the
521 server, rather than downloading each message and searching
522 it locally.
523 ~c EXPR messages carbon-copied to EXPR
524 %c GROUP messages carbon-copied to any member of GROUP
525 ~C EXPR messages either to: or cc: EXPR
526 %C GROUP messages either to: or cc: to any member of GROUP
527 ~d MIN-MAX messages with “date-sent” in a Date range
528 ~D deleted messages
529 ~e EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the “Sender” field
530 %e GROUP messages which contain a member of GROUP in the “Sender”
531 field
532 ~E expired messages
533 ~f EXPR messages originating from EXPR
534 %f GROUP messages originating from any member of GROUP
535 ~F flagged messages
536 ~g PGP signed messages
537 ~G PGP encrypted messages
538 ~h EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the message header
539 =h STRING If IMAP is enabled, like ~h but searches for STRING on the
540 server, rather than downloading each message and searching
541 it locally. STRING must be of the form “header: substring”
542 ~H EXPR messages with spam tags matching EXPR
543 ~i EXPR messages which match EXPR in the “Message-ID” field
544 ~k messages containing PGP key material
545 ~l messages addressed to a known mailing list (defined by
546 either subscribe or list)
547 ~L EXPR messages either originated or received by EXPR
548 %L GROUP messages either originated or received by any member of
549 GROUP
550 ~m MIN-MAX message in the range MIN to MAX
551 ~M EXPR messages which contain a mime Content-Type matching EXPR
552 ~n MIN-MAX messages with a score in the range MIN to MAX
553 ~N new messages
554 ~O old messages
555 ~p messages addressed to you (consults $from, alternates, and
556 local account/hostname information)
557 ~P messages from you (consults $from, alternates, and local
558 account/hostname information)
559 ~Q messages which have been replied to
560 ~r MIN-MAX messages with “date-received” in a Date range
561 ~R read messages
562 ~s EXPR messages having EXPR in the “Subject” field.
563 ~S superseded messages
564 ~t EXPR messages addressed to EXPR
565 ~T tagged messages
566 ~u messages addressed to a subscribed mailing list (defined by
567 subscribe commands)
568 ~U unread messages
569 ~v message is part of a collapsed thread.
570 ~V cryptographically verified messages
571 ~x EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the “References” or “In-
572 Reply-To” field
573 ~X MIN-MAX messages with MIN - MAX attachments
574 ~y EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the “X-Label” field
575 ~z MIN-MAX messages with a size in the range MIN to MAX
576 ~= duplicated messages (see $duplicate_threads)
577 ~$ unreferenced message (requires threaded view)
578 ~(PATTERN) messages in threads containing messages matching a certain
579 pattern, e.g. all threads containing messages from you:
580 ~(~P)
581 ~<(PATTERN) messages whose immediate parent matches PATTERN, e.g.
582 replies to your messages: ~<(~P)
583 ~>(PATTERN) messages having an immediate child matching PATTERN, e.g.
584 messages you replied to: ~>(~P)
585 In the above, EXPR is a regular expression.
587 With the ~d, ~m, ~n, ~r, ~X, and ~z modifiers, you can also specify
589 ranges in the forms <MAX, >MIN, MIN-, and -MAX.
590 With the ~z modifier, the suffixes “K” and “M” are allowed to specify
592 kilobyte and megabyte respectively.
593 The ~b, ~B, ~h, ~M, and ~X modifiers require reading each message in,
595 which can be much slower.
596 You can force Mutt to treat EXPR as a simple string instead of a regu‐
598 lar expression by using = instead of ~ in the pattern name.
599 Matching dates
601 The ~d and ~r modifiers are used to match date ranges, which are inter‐
602 preted to be given in your local time zone.
603 A date is of the form DD[/MM[/[cc]YY]], that is, a two-digit date,
605 optionally followed by a two-digit month, optionally followed by a year
606 specifications. Omitted fields default to the current month and year.
607 Mutt understands either two or four digit year specifications. When
609 given a two-digit year, mutt will interpret values less than 70 as
610 lying in the 21st century (i.e., “38” means 2038 and not 1938, and “00”
611 is interpreted as 2000), and values greater than or equal to 70 as
612 lying in the 20th century.
613 Note that this behavior is Y2K compliant, but that mutt does have a
615 Y2.07K problem.
616 Alternatively, you may use YYYYMMDD to specify a date.
618 If a date range consists of a single date, the modifier in question
620 will match that precise date. If the date range consists of a dash
621 (“-”), followed by a date, this range will match any date before and up
622 to the date given. Similarly, a date followed by a dash matches the
623 date given and any later point of time. Two dates, separated by a
624 dash, match any date which lies in the given range of time.
625 You can also modify any absolute date by giving an error range. An
627 error range consists of one of the characters +, -, *, followed by a
628 positive number, followed by one of the unit characters y, m, w, or d,
629 specifying a unit of years, months, weeks, or days. + increases the
630 maximum date matched by the given interval of time, - decreases the
631 minimum date matched by the given interval of time, and * increases the
632 maximum date and decreases the minimum date matched by the given inter‐
633 val of time. It is possible to give multiple error margins, which
634 cumulate. Example: 1/1/2001-1w+2w*3d
635 You can also specify offsets relative to the current date. An offset
637 is specified as one of the characters <, >, =, followed by a positive
638 number, followed by one of the unit characters y, m, w, d, H, M, or S.
639 > matches dates which are older than the specified amount of time, an
640 offset which begins with the character < matches dates which are more
641 recent than the specified amount of time, and an offset which begins
642 with the character = matches points of time which are precisely the
643 given amount of time ago.
644
646 abort_noattach
647 Type: quadoption
648 Default: no
649 When the body of the message matches $abort_noattach_regexp and
651 there are no attachments, this quadoption controls whether to
652 abort sending the message.
653 abort_noattach_regexp
657 Type: regular expression
658 Default: “attach”
659 Specifies a regular expression to match against the body of the
661 message, to determine if an attachment was mentioned but mistak‐
662 enly forgotten. If it matches, $abort_noattach will be con‐
663 sulted to determine if message sending will be aborted.
664 Like other regular expressions in Mutt, the search is case sen‐
666 sitive if the pattern contains at least one upper case letter,
667 and case insensitive otherwise.
668 abort_nosubject
672 Type: quadoption
673 Default: ask-yes
674 If set to yes, when composing messages and no subject is given
676 at the subject prompt, composition will be aborted. If set to
677 no, composing messages with no subject given at the subject
678 prompt will never be aborted.
679 abort_unmodified
683 Type: quadoption
684 Default: yes
685 If set to yes, composition will automatically abort after edit‐
687 ing the message body if no changes are made to the file (this
688 check only happens after the first edit of the file). When set
689 to no, composition will never be aborted.
690 alias_file
694 Type: path
695 Default: “~/.muttrc”
696 The default file in which to save aliases created by the <cre‐
698 ate-alias> function. Entries added to this file are encoded in
699 the character set specified by $config_charset if it is set or
700 the current character set otherwise.
701 Note: Mutt will not automatically source this file; you must
703 explicitly use the “source” command for it to be executed in
704 case this option points to a dedicated alias file.
705 The default for this option is the currently used muttrc file,
707 or “~/.muttrc” if no user muttrc was found.
708 alias_format
712 Type: string
713 Default: “%4n %2f %t %-10a %r”
714 Specifies the format of the data displayed for the “alias” menu.
716 The following printf(3)-style sequences are available:
717 %a alias name
718 %f flags - currently, a “d” for an alias marked for deletion
719 %n index number
720 %r address which alias expands to
721 %t character which indicates if the alias is tagged for
722 inclusion
723 allow_8bit
726 Type: boolean
727 Default: yes
728 Controls whether 8-bit data is converted to 7-bit using either
730 Quoted- Printable or Base64 encoding when sending mail.
731 allow_ansi
735 Type: boolean
736 Default: no
737 Controls whether ANSI color codes in messages (and color tags in
739 rich text messages) are to be interpreted. Messages containing
740 these codes are rare, but if this option is set, their text will
741 be colored accordingly. Note that this may override your color
742 choices, and even present a security problem, since a message
743 could include a line like
744 [-- PGP output follows ...
747 and give it the same color as your attachment color (see also
750 $crypt_timestamp).
751 arrow_cursor
755 Type: boolean
756 Default: no
757 When set, an arrow (“->”) will be used to indicate the current
759 entry in menus instead of highlighting the whole line. On slow
760 network or modem links this will make response faster because
761 there is less that has to be redrawn on the screen when moving
762 to the next or previous entries in the menu.
763 ascii_chars
767 Type: boolean
768 Default: no
769 If set, Mutt will use plain ASCII characters when displaying
771 thread and attachment trees, instead of the default ACS charac‐
772 ters.
773 askbcc
777 Type: boolean
778 Default: no
779 If set, Mutt will prompt you for blind-carbon-copy (Bcc) recipi‐
781 ents before editing an outgoing message.
782 askcc
786 Type: boolean
787 Default: no
788 If set, Mutt will prompt you for carbon-copy (Cc) recipients
790 before editing the body of an outgoing message.
791 assumed_charset
795 Type: string
796 Default: “”
797 This variable is a colon-separated list of character encoding
799 schemes for messages without character encoding indication.
800 Header field values and message body content without character
801 encoding indication would be assumed that they are written in
802 one of this list. By default, all the header fields and message
803 body without any charset indication are assumed to be in
804 “us-ascii”.
805 For example, Japanese users might prefer this:
807 set assumed_charset=”iso-2022-jp:euc-jp:shift_jis:utf-8”
810 However, only the first content is valid for the message body.
813 attach_charset
817 Type: string
818 Default: “”
819 This variable is a colon-separated list of character encoding
821 schemes for text file attachments. Mutt uses this setting to
822 guess which encoding files being attached are encoded in to con‐
823 vert them to a proper character set given in $send_charset.
824 If unset, the value of $charset will be used instead. For exam‐
826 ple, the following configuration would work for Japanese text
827 handling:
828 set attach_charset=”iso-2022-jp:euc-jp:shift_jis:utf-8”
831 Note: for Japanese users, “iso-2022-*” must be put at the head
834 of the value as shown above if included.
835 attach_format
839 Type: string
840 Default: “%u%D%I %t%4n %T%.40d%> [%.7m/%.10M, %.6e%?C?, %C?, %s] ”
841 This variable describes the format of the “attachment” menu.
843 The following printf(3)-style sequences are understood:
844 %C charset
845 %c requires charset conversion (“n” or “c”)
846 %D deleted flag
847 %d description (if none, falls back to %F)
848 %e MIME content-transfer-encoding
849 %F filename in content-disposition header (if none, falls
850 back to %f)
851 %f filename
852 %I disposition (“I” for inline, “A” for attachment)
853 %m major MIME type
854 %M MIME subtype
855 %n attachment number
856 %Q “Q”, if MIME part qualifies for attachment counting
857 %s size (see formatstrings-size)
858 %t tagged flag
859 %T graphic tree characters
860 %u unlink (=to delete) flag
861 %X number of qualifying MIME parts in this part and its
862 children (please see the “attachments” section for possi‐
863 ble speed effects)
864 %>X right justify the rest of the string and pad with charac‐
865 ter “X”
866 %|X pad to the end of the line with character “X”
867 %*X soft-fill with character “X” as pad
868 For an explanation of “soft-fill”, see the $index_format docu‐
870 mentation.
871 attach_save_dir
875 Type: path
876 Default: “”
877 The default directory to save attachments from the “attachment”
879 menu. If it doesn't exist, Mutt will prompt to create the
880 directory before saving.
881 If the path is invalid (e.g. not a directory, or cannot be
883 chdir'ed to), Mutt will fall back to using the current direc‐
884 tory.
885 attach_sep
889 Type: string
890 Default: “\n”
891 The separator to add between attachments when operating (saving,
893 printing, piping, etc) on a list of tagged attachments.
894 attach_split
898 Type: boolean
899 Default: yes
900 If this variable is unset, when operating (saving, printing,
902 piping, etc) on a list of tagged attachments, Mutt will concate‐
903 nate the attachments and will operate on them as a single
904 attachment. The $attach_sep separator is added after each
905 attachment. When set, Mutt will operate on the attachments one
906 by one.
907 attribution
911 Type: string (localized)
912 Default: “On %d, %n wrote:”
913 This is the string that will precede a message which has been
915 included in a reply. For a full listing of defined
916 printf(3)-like sequences see the section on $index_format.
917 attribution_locale
921 Type: string
922 Default: “”
923 The locale used by strftime(3) to format dates in the attribu‐
925 tion string. Legal values are the strings your system accepts
926 for the locale environment variable $LC_TIME.
927 This variable is to allow the attribution date format to be cus‐
929 tomized by recipient or folder using hooks. By default, Mutt
930 will use your locale environment, so there is no need to set
931 this except to override that default.
932 auto_subscribe
936 Type: boolean
937 Default: no
938 When set, Mutt assumes the presence of a List-Post header means
940 the recipient is subscribed to the list. Unless the mailing
941 list is in the “unsubscribe” or “unlist” lists, it will be added
942 to the “subscribe” list. Parsing and checking these things
943 slows header reading down, so this option is disabled by
944 default.
945 auto_tag
949 Type: boolean
950 Default: no
951 When set, functions in the index menu which affect a message
953 will be applied to all tagged messages (if there are any). When
954 unset, you must first use the <tag-prefix> function (bound to
955 “;” by default) to make the next function apply to all tagged
956 messages.
957 autocrypt
961 Type: boolean
962 Default: no
963 When set, enables autocrypt, which provides passive encryption
965 protection with keys exchanged via headers. See “autocryptdoc”
966 for more details. (Autocrypt only)
967 autocrypt_acct_format
971 Type: string
972 Default: “%4n %-30a %20p %10s”
973 This variable describes the format of the “autocrypt account”
975 menu. The following printf(3)-style sequences are understood
976 %a email address
977 %k gpg keyid
978 %n current entry number
979 %p prefer-encrypt flag
980 %s status flag (active/inactive)
981 (Autocrypt only)
983 autocrypt_dir
987 Type: path
988 Default: “~/.mutt/autocrypt”
989 This variable sets where autocrypt files are stored, including
991 the GPG keyring and sqlite database. See “autocryptdoc” for
992 more details. (Autocrypt only)
993 autocrypt_reply
997 Type: boolean
998 Default: yes
999 When set, replying to an autocrypt email automatically enables
1001 autocrypt in the reply. You may want to unset this if you're
1002 using the same key for autocrypt as normal web-of-trust, so that
1003 autocrypt isn't forced on for all encrypted replies. (Autocrypt
1004 only)
1005 autoedit
1009 Type: boolean
1010 Default: no
1011 When set along with $edit_headers, Mutt will skip the initial
1013 send-menu (prompting for subject and recipients) and allow you
1014 to immediately begin editing the body of your message. The
1015 send-menu may still be accessed once you have finished editing
1016 the body of your message.
1017 Note: when this option is set, you cannot use send-hooks that
1019 depend on the recipients when composing a new (non-reply) mes‐
1020 sage, as the initial list of recipients is empty.
1021 Also see $fast_reply.
1023 background_edit
1027 Type: boolean
1028 Default: no
1029 When set, Mutt will run $editor in the background during message
1031 composition. A landing page will display, waiting for the $edi‐
1032 tor to exit. The landing page may be exited, allowing perusal
1033 of the mailbox, or even for other messages to be composed.
1034 Backgrounded sessions may be returned to via the <back‐
1035 ground-compose-menu> function.
1036 For background editing to work properly, $editor must be set to
1038 an editor that does not try to use the Mutt terminal: for exam‐
1039 ple a graphical editor, or a script launching (and waiting for)
1040 the editor in another Gnu Screen window.
1041 For more details, see “bgedit” (”Background Editing” in the man‐
1043 ual).
1044 background_confirm_quit
1048 Type: boolean
1049 Default: yes
1050 When set, if there are any background edit sessions, you will be
1052 prompted to confirm exiting Mutt, in addition to the $quit
1053 prompt.
1054 background_format
1058 Type: string
1059 Default: “%10S %7p %s”
1060 This variable describes the format of the “background compose”
1062 menu. The following printf(3)-style sequences are understood:
1063 %i parent message id (for replies and forwarded messages)
1064 %n the running number on the menu
1065 %p pid of the $editor process
1066 %r comma separated list of “To:” recipients
1067 %R comma separated list of “Cc:” recipients
1068 %s subject of the message
1069 %S status of the $editor process: running/finished
1070 beep
1073 Type: boolean
1074 Default: yes
1075 When this variable is set, mutt will beep when an error occurs.
1077 beep_new
1081 Type: boolean
1082 Default: no
1083 When this variable is set, mutt will beep whenever it prints a
1085 message notifying you of new mail. This is independent of the
1086 setting of the $beep variable.
1087 bounce
1091 Type: quadoption
1092 Default: ask-yes
1093 Controls whether you will be asked to confirm bouncing messages.
1095 If set to yes you don't get asked if you want to bounce a mes‐
1096 sage. Setting this variable to no is not generally useful, and
1097 thus not recommended, because you are unable to bounce messages.
1098 bounce_delivered
1102 Type: boolean
1103 Default: yes
1104 When this variable is set, mutt will include Delivered-To head‐
1106 ers when bouncing messages. Postfix users may wish to unset
1107 this variable.
1108 braille_friendly
1112 Type: boolean
1113 Default: no
1114 When this variable is set, mutt will place the cursor at the
1116 beginning of the current line in menus, even when the
1117 $arrow_cursor variable is unset, making it easier for blind per‐
1118 sons using Braille displays to follow these menus. The option
1119 is unset by default because many visual terminals don't permit
1120 making the cursor invisible.
1121 browser_abbreviate_mailboxes
1125 Type: boolean
1126 Default: yes
1127 When this variable is set, mutt will abbreviate mailbox names in
1129 the browser mailbox list, using '~' and '=' shortcuts.
1130 The default ”alpha” setting of $sort_browser uses locale-based
1132 sorting (using strcoll(3)), which ignores some punctuation.
1133 This can lead to some situations where the order doesn't make
1134 intuitive sense. In those cases, it may be desirable to unset
1135 this variable.
1136 browser_sticky_cursor
1140 Type: boolean
1141 Default: yes
1142 When this variable is set, the browser will attempt to keep the
1144 cursor on the same mailbox when performing various functions.
1145 These include moving up a directory, toggling between mailboxes
1146 and directory listing, creating/renaming a mailbox, toggling
1147 subscribed mailboxes, and entering a new mask.
1148 certificate_file
1152 Type: path
1153 Default: “~/.mutt_certificates”
1154 This variable specifies the file where the certificates you
1156 trust are saved. When an unknown certificate is encountered, you
1157 are asked if you accept it or not. If you accept it, the cer‐
1158 tificate can also be saved in this file and further connections
1159 are automatically accepted.
1160 You can also manually add CA certificates in this file. Any
1162 server certificate that is signed with one of these CA certifi‐
1163 cates is also automatically accepted.
1164 Example:
1166 set certificate_file=~/.mutt/certificates
1169 change_folder_next
1174 Type: boolean
1175 Default: no
1176 When this variable is set, the <change-folder> function mailbox
1178 suggestion will start at the next folder in your “mailboxes”
1179 list, instead of starting at the first folder in the list.
1180 charset
1184 Type: string
1185 Default: “”
1186 Character set your terminal uses to display and enter textual
1188 data. It is also the fallback for $send_charset.
1189 Upon startup Mutt tries to derive this value from environment
1191 variables such as $LC_CTYPE or $LANG.
1192 Note: It should only be set in case Mutt isn't able to determine
1194 the character set used correctly.
1195 check_mbox_size
1199 Type: boolean
1200 Default: no
1201 When this variable is set, mutt will use file size attribute
1203 instead of access time when checking for new mail in mbox and
1204 mmdf folders.
1205 This variable is unset by default and should only be enabled
1207 when new mail detection for these folder types is unreliable or
1208 doesn't work.
1209 Note that enabling this variable should happen before any “mail‐
1211 boxes” directives occur in configuration files regarding mbox or
1212 mmdf folders because mutt needs to determine the initial new
1213 mail status of such a mailbox by performing a fast mailbox scan
1214 when it is defined. Afterwards the new mail status is tracked
1215 by file size changes.
1216 check_new
1220 Type: boolean
1221 Default: yes
1222 Note: this option only affects maildir and MH style mailboxes.
1224 When set, Mutt will check for new mail delivered while the mail‐
1226 box is open. Especially with MH mailboxes, this operation can
1227 take quite some time since it involves scanning the directory
1228 and checking each file to see if it has already been looked at.
1229 If this variable is unset, no check for new mail is performed
1230 while the mailbox is open.
1231 collapse_unread
1235 Type: boolean
1236 Default: yes
1237 When unset, Mutt will not collapse a thread if it contains any
1239 unread messages.
1240 compose_format
1244 Type: string (localized)
1245 Default: “-- Mutt: Compose [Approx. msg size: %l Atts: %a]%>-”
1246 Controls the format of the status line displayed in the “com‐
1248 pose” menu. This string is similar to $status_format, but has
1249 its own set of printf(3)-like sequences:
1250 %a total number of attachments
1251 %h local hostname
1252 %l approximate size (in bytes) of the current message (see
1253 formatstrings-size)
1254 %v Mutt version string
1255 See the text describing the $status_format option for more
1257 information on how to set $compose_format.
1258 config_charset
1262 Type: string
1263 Default: “”
1264 When defined, Mutt will recode commands in rc files from this
1266 encoding to the current character set as specified by $charset
1267 and aliases written to $alias_file from the current character
1268 set.
1269 Please note that if setting $charset it must be done before set‐
1271 ting $config_charset.
1272 Recoding should be avoided as it may render unconvertable char‐
1274 acters as question marks which can lead to undesired side
1275 effects (for example in regular expressions).
1276 confirmappend
1280 Type: boolean
1281 Default: yes
1282 When set, Mutt will prompt for confirmation when appending mes‐
1284 sages to an existing mailbox.
1285 confirmcreate
1289 Type: boolean
1290 Default: yes
1291 When set, Mutt will prompt for confirmation when saving messages
1293 to a mailbox which does not yet exist before creating it.
1294 connect_timeout
1298 Type: number
1299 Default: 30
1300 Causes Mutt to timeout a network connection (for IMAP, POP or
1302 SMTP) after this many seconds if the connection is not able to
1303 be established. A negative value causes Mutt to wait indefi‐
1304 nitely for the connection attempt to succeed.
1305 content_type
1309 Type: string
1310 Default: “text/plain”
1311 Sets the default Content-Type for the body of newly composed
1313 messages.
1314 copy
1318 Type: quadoption
1319 Default: yes
1320 This variable controls whether or not copies of your outgoing
1322 messages will be saved for later references. Also see $record,
1323 $save_name, $force_name and “fcc-hook”.
1324 copy_decode_weed
1328 Type: boolean
1329 Default: no
1330 Controls whether Mutt will weed headers when invoking the
1332 <decode-copy> or <decode-save> functions.
1333 count_alternatives
1337 Type: boolean
1338 Default: no
1339 When set, Mutt will recurse inside multipart/alternatives while
1341 performing attachment searching and counting (see attachments).
1342 Traditionally, multipart/alternative parts have simply repre‐
1344 sented different encodings of the main content of the email.
1345 Unfortunately, some mail clients have started to place email
1346 attachments inside one of alternatives. Setting this will allow
1347 Mutt to find and count matching attachments hidden there, and
1348 include them in the index via %X or through ~X pattern matching.
1349 cursor_overlay
1353 Type: boolean
1354 Default: no
1355 When set, Mutt will overlay the indicator, tree, sidebar_high‐
1357 light, and sidebar_indicator colors onto the currently selected
1358 line. This will allow default colors in those to be overridden,
1359 and for attributes to be merged between the layers.
1360 crypt_autoencrypt
1364 Type: boolean
1365 Default: no
1366 Setting this variable will cause Mutt to always attempt to PGP
1368 encrypt outgoing messages. This is probably only useful in con‐
1369 nection to the “send-hook” command. It can be overridden by use
1370 of the pgp menu, when encryption is not required or signing is
1371 requested as well. If $smime_is_default is set, then OpenSSL is
1372 used instead to create S/MIME messages and settings can be over‐
1373 ridden by use of the smime menu instead. (Crypto only)
1374 crypt_autopgp
1378 Type: boolean
1379 Default: yes
1380 This variable controls whether or not mutt may automatically
1382 enable PGP encryption/signing for messages. See also
1383 $crypt_autoencrypt, $crypt_replyencrypt, $crypt_autosign,
1384 $crypt_replysign and $smime_is_default.
1385 crypt_autosign
1389 Type: boolean
1390 Default: no
1391 Setting this variable will cause Mutt to always attempt to cryp‐
1393 tographically sign outgoing messages. This can be overridden by
1394 use of the pgp menu, when signing is not required or encryption
1395 is requested as well. If $smime_is_default is set, then OpenSSL
1396 is used instead to create S/MIME messages and settings can be
1397 overridden by use of the smime menu instead of the pgp menu.
1398 (Crypto only)
1399 crypt_autosmime
1403 Type: boolean
1404 Default: yes
1405 This variable controls whether or not mutt may automatically
1407 enable S/MIME encryption/signing for messages. See also
1408 $crypt_autoencrypt, $crypt_replyencrypt, $crypt_autosign,
1409 $crypt_replysign and $smime_is_default.
1410 crypt_confirmhook
1414 Type: boolean
1415 Default: yes
1416 If set, then you will be prompted for confirmation of keys when
1418 using the crypt-hook command. If unset, no such confirmation
1419 prompt will be presented. This is generally considered unsafe,
1420 especially where typos are concerned.
1421 crypt_opportunistic_encrypt
1425 Type: boolean
1426 Default: no
1427 Setting this variable will cause Mutt to automatically enable
1429 and disable encryption, based on whether all message recipient
1430 keys can be located by Mutt.
1431 When this option is enabled, Mutt will enable/disable encryption
1433 each time the TO, CC, and BCC lists are edited. If $edit_head‐
1434 ers is set, Mutt will also do so each time the message is
1435 edited.
1436 While this is set, encryption can't be manually enabled/dis‐
1438 abled. The pgp or smime menus provide a selection to temporar‐
1439 ily disable this option for the current message.
1440 If $crypt_autoencrypt or $crypt_replyencrypt enable encryption
1442 for a message, this option will be disabled for that message.
1443 It can be manually re-enabled in the pgp or smime menus.
1444 (Crypto only)
1445 crypt_opportunistic_encrypt_strong_keys
1449 Type: boolean
1450 Default: no
1451 When set, this modifies the behavior of $crypt_opportunis‐
1453 tic_encrypt to only search for ”strong keys”, that is, keys with
1454 full validity according to the web-of-trust algorithm. A key
1455 with marginal or no validity will not enable opportunistic
1456 encryption.
1457 For S/MIME, the behavior depends on the backend. Classic S/MIME
1459 will filter for certificates with the 't' (trusted) flag in the
1460 .index file. The GPGME backend will use the same filters as
1461 with OpenPGP, and depends on GPGME's logic for assigning the
1462 GPGME_VALIDITY_FULL and GPGME_VALIDITY_ULTIMATE validity flag.
1463 crypt_protected_headers_read
1467 Type: boolean
1468 Default: yes
1469 When set, Mutt will display protected headers in the pager, and
1471 will update the index and header cache with revised headers.
1472 Protected headers are stored inside the encrypted or signed part
1473 of an an email, to prevent disclosure or tampering. For more
1474 information see https://github.com/autocrypt/protected-headers.
1475 Currently Mutt only supports the Subject header.
1476 Encrypted messages using protected headers often substitute the
1478 exposed Subject header with a dummy value (see $crypt_pro‐
1479 tected_headers_subject). Mutt will update its concept of the
1480 correct subject after the message is opened, i.e. via the <dis‐
1481 play-message> function. If you reply to a message before open‐
1482 ing it, Mutt will end up using the dummy Subject header, so be
1483 sure to open such a message first. (Crypto only)
1484 crypt_protected_headers_save
1488 Type: boolean
1489 Default: no
1490 When $crypt_protected_headers_read is set, and a message with a
1492 protected Subject is opened, Mutt will save the updated Subject
1493 into the header cache by default. This allows searching/limit‐
1494 ing based on the protected Subject header if the mailbox is
1495 re-opened, without having to re-open the message each time.
1496 However, for mbox/mh mailbox types, or if header caching is not
1497 set up, you would need to re-open the message each time the
1498 mailbox was reopened before you could see or search/limit on the
1499 protected subject again.
1500 When this variable is set, Mutt additionally saves the protected
1502 Subject back in the clear-text message headers. This provides
1503 better usability, but with the tradeoff of reduced security.
1504 The protected Subject header, which may have previously been
1505 encrypted, is now stored in clear-text in the message headers.
1506 Copying the message elsewhere, via Mutt or external tools, could
1507 expose this previously encrypted data. Please make sure you
1508 understand the consequences of this before you enable this vari‐
1509 able. (Crypto only)
1510 crypt_protected_headers_subject
1514 Type: string
1515 Default: “...”
1516 When $crypt_protected_headers_write is set, and the message is
1518 marked for encryption, this will be substituted into the Subject
1519 field in the message headers. To prevent a subject from being
1520 substituted, unset this variable, or set it to the empty string.
1521 (Crypto only)
1522 crypt_protected_headers_write
1526 Type: boolean
1527 Default: no
1528 When set, Mutt will generate protected headers for signed and
1530 encrypted emails. Protected headers are stored inside the
1531 encrypted or signed part of an an email, to prevent disclosure
1532 or tampering. For more information see
1533 https://github.com/autocrypt/protected-headers. Currently Mutt
1534 only supports the Subject header. (Crypto only)
1535 crypt_replyencrypt
1539 Type: boolean
1540 Default: yes
1541 If set, automatically PGP or OpenSSL encrypt replies to messages
1543 which are encrypted. (Crypto only)
1544 crypt_replysign
1548 Type: boolean
1549 Default: no
1550 If set, automatically PGP or OpenSSL sign replies to messages
1552 which are signed.
1553 Note: this does not work on messages that are encrypted and
1555 signed! (Crypto only)
1556 crypt_replysignencrypted
1560 Type: boolean
1561 Default: no
1562 If set, automatically PGP or OpenSSL sign replies to messages
1564 which are encrypted. This makes sense in combination with
1565 $crypt_replyencrypt, because it allows you to sign all messages
1566 which are automatically encrypted. This works around the prob‐
1567 lem noted in $crypt_replysign, that mutt is not able to find out
1568 whether an encrypted message is also signed. (Crypto only)
1569 crypt_timestamp
1573 Type: boolean
1574 Default: yes
1575 If set, mutt will include a time stamp in the lines surrounding
1577 PGP or S/MIME output, so spoofing such lines is more difficult.
1578 If you are using colors to mark these lines, and rely on these,
1579 you may unset this setting. (Crypto only)
1580 crypt_use_gpgme
1584 Type: boolean
1585 Default: no
1586 This variable controls the use of the GPGME-enabled crypto back‐
1588 ends. If it is set and Mutt was built with gpgme support, the
1589 gpgme code for S/MIME and PGP will be used instead of the clas‐
1590 sic code. Note that you need to set this option in .muttrc; it
1591 won't have any effect when used interactively.
1592 Note that the GPGME backend does not support creating old-style
1594 inline (traditional) PGP encrypted or signed messages (see
1595 $pgp_autoinline).
1596 crypt_use_pka
1600 Type: boolean
1601 Default: no
1602 Controls whether mutt uses PKA (see
1604 http://www.g10code.de/docs/pka-intro.de.pdf) during signature
1605 verification (only supported by the GPGME backend).
1606 crypt_verify_sig
1610 Type: quadoption
1611 Default: yes
1612 If “yes”, always attempt to verify PGP or S/MIME signatures. If
1614 “ask-*”, ask whether or not to verify the signature. If “no”,
1615 never attempt to verify cryptographic signatures. (Crypto only)
1616 date_format
1620 Type: string
1621 Default: “!%a, %b %d, %Y at %I:%M:%S%p %Z”
1622 This variable controls the format of the date printed by the
1624 “%d” sequence in $index_format. This is passed to the strf‐
1625 time(3) function to process the date, see the man page for the
1626 proper syntax.
1627 Unless the first character in the string is a bang (“!”), the
1629 month and week day names are expanded according to the locale.
1630 If the first character in the string is a bang, the bang is dis‐
1631 carded, and the month and week day names in the rest of the
1632 string are expanded in the C locale (that is in US English).
1633 default_hook
1637 Type: string
1638 Default: “~f %s !~P | (~P ~C %s)”
1639 This variable controls how “message-hook”, “reply-hook”, “send-
1641 hook”, “send2-hook”, “save-hook”, and “fcc-hook” will be inter‐
1642 preted if they are specified with only a simple regexp, instead
1643 of a matching pattern. The hooks are expanded when they are
1644 declared, so a hook will be interpreted according to the value
1645 of this variable at the time the hook is declared.
1646 The default value matches if the message is either from a user
1648 matching the regular expression given, or if it is from you (if
1649 the from address matches “alternates”) and is to or cc'ed to a
1650 user matching the given regular expression.
1651 delete
1655 Type: quadoption
1656 Default: ask-yes
1657 Controls whether or not messages are really deleted when closing
1659 or synchronizing a mailbox. If set to yes, messages marked for
1660 deleting will automatically be purged without prompting. If set
1661 to no, messages marked for deletion will be kept in the mailbox.
1662 delete_untag
1666 Type: boolean
1667 Default: yes
1668 If this option is set, mutt will untag messages when marking
1670 them for deletion. This applies when you either explicitly
1671 delete a message, or when you save it to another folder.
1672 digest_collapse
1676 Type: boolean
1677 Default: yes
1678 If this option is set, mutt's received-attachments menu will not
1680 show the subparts of individual messages in a multipart/digest.
1681 To see these subparts, press “v” on that menu.
1682 display_filter
1686 Type: path
1687 Default: “”
1688 When set, specifies a command used to filter messages. When a
1690 message is viewed it is passed as standard input to $dis‐
1691 play_filter, and the filtered message is read from the standard
1692 output.
1693 dotlock_program
1697 Type: path
1698 Default: “/usr/bin/mutt_dotlock”
1699 Contains the path of the mutt_dotlock(1) binary to be used by
1701 mutt.
1702 dsn_notify
1706 Type: string
1707 Default: “”
1708 This variable sets the request for when notification is
1710 returned. The string consists of a comma separated list (no
1711 spaces!) of one or more of the following: never, to never
1712 request notification, failure, to request notification on trans‐
1713 mission failure, delay, to be notified of message delays, suc‐
1714 cess, to be notified of successful transmission.
1715 Example:
1717 set dsn_notify=”failure,delay”
1720 Note: when using $sendmail for delivery, you should not enable
1723 this unless you are either using Sendmail 8.8.x or greater or a
1724 MTA providing a sendmail(1)-compatible interface supporting the
1725 -N option for DSN. For SMTP delivery, DSN support is
1726 auto-detected so that it depends on the server whether DSN will
1727 be used or not.
1728 dsn_return
1732 Type: string
1733 Default: “”
1734 This variable controls how much of your message is returned in
1736 DSN messages. It may be set to either hdrs to return just the
1737 message header, or full to return the full message.
1738 Example:
1740 set dsn_return=hdrs
1743 Note: when using $sendmail for delivery, you should not enable
1746 this unless you are either using Sendmail 8.8.x or greater or a
1747 MTA providing a sendmail(1)-compatible interface supporting the
1748 -R option for DSN. For SMTP delivery, DSN support is
1749 auto-detected so that it depends on the server whether DSN will
1750 be used or not.
1751 duplicate_threads
1755 Type: boolean
1756 Default: yes
1757 This variable controls whether mutt, when $sort is set to
1759 threads, threads messages with the same Message-Id together. If
1760 it is set, it will indicate that it thinks they are duplicates
1761 of each other with an equals sign in the thread tree.
1762 edit_headers
1766 Type: boolean
1767 Default: no
1768 This option allows you to edit the header of your outgoing mes‐
1770 sages along with the body of your message.
1771 Although the compose menu may have localized header labels, the
1773 labels passed to your editor will be standard RFC 2822 headers,
1774 (e.g. To:, Cc:, Subject:). Headers added in your editor must
1775 also be RFC 2822 headers, or one of the pseudo headers listed in
1776 “edit-header”. Mutt will not understand localized header
1777 labels, just as it would not when parsing an actual email.
1778 Note that changes made to the References: and Date: headers are
1780 ignored for interoperability reasons.
1781 editor
1785 Type: path
1786 Default: “”
1787 This variable specifies which editor is used by mutt. It
1789 defaults to the value of the $VISUAL, or $EDITOR, environment
1790 variable, or to the string “vi” if neither of those are set.
1791 The $editor string may contain a %s escape, which will be
1793 replaced by the name of the file to be edited. If the %s escape
1794 does not appear in $editor, a space and the name to be edited
1795 are appended.
1796 The resulting string is then executed by running
1798 sh -c 'string'
1801 where string is the expansion of $editor described above.
1804 encode_from
1808 Type: boolean
1809 Default: no
1810 When set, mutt will quoted-printable encode messages when they
1812 contain the string “From ” (note the trailing space) in the
1813 beginning of a line. This is useful to avoid the tampering cer‐
1814 tain mail delivery and transport agents tend to do with messages
1815 (in order to prevent tools from misinterpreting the line as a
1816 mbox message separator).
1817 entropy_file
1821 Type: path
1822 Default: “”
1823 The file which includes random data that is used to initialize
1825 SSL library functions.
1826 envelope_from_address
1830 Type: e-mail address
1831 Default: “”
1832 Manually sets the envelope sender for outgoing messages. This
1834 value is ignored if $use_envelope_from is unset.
1835 error_history
1839 Type: number
1840 Default: 30
1841 This variable controls the size (in number of strings remem‐
1843 bered) of the error messages displayed by mutt. These can be
1844 shown with the <error-history> function. The history is cleared
1845 each time this variable is set.
1846 escape
1850 Type: string
1851 Default: “~”
1852 Escape character to use for functions in the built-in editor.
1854 fast_reply
1858 Type: boolean
1859 Default: no
1860 When set, the initial prompt for recipients and subject are
1862 skipped when replying to messages, and the initial prompt for
1863 subject is skipped when forwarding messages.
1864 Note: this variable has no effect when the $autoedit variable is
1866 set.
1867 fcc_attach
1871 Type: quadoption
1872 Default: yes
1873 This variable controls whether or not attachments on outgoing
1875 messages are saved along with the main body of your message.
1876 fcc_before_send
1880 Type: boolean
1881 Default: no
1882 When this variable is set, FCCs will occur before sending the
1884 message. Before sending, the message cannot be manipulated, so
1885 it will be stored the exact same as sent: $fcc_attach and
1886 $fcc_clear will be ignored (using their default values).
1887 When unset, the default, FCCs will occur after sending. Vari‐
1889 ables $fcc_attach and $fcc_clear will be respected, allowing it
1890 to be stored without attachments or encryption/signing if
1891 desired.
1892 fcc_clear
1896 Type: boolean
1897 Default: no
1898 When this variable is set, FCCs will be stored unencrypted and
1900 unsigned, even when the actual message is encrypted and/or
1901 signed. (PGP only)
1902 fcc_delimiter
1906 Type: string
1907 Default: “”
1908 When specified, this allows the ability to Fcc to more than one
1910 mailbox. The fcc value will be split by this delimiter and Mutt
1911 will evaluate each part as a mailbox separately.
1912 See $record, “fcc-hook”, and “fcc-save-hook”.
1914 flag_safe
1918 Type: boolean
1919 Default: no
1920 If set, flagged messages cannot be deleted.
1922 folder
1926 Type: path
1927 Default: “~/Mail”
1928 Specifies the default location of your mailboxes. A “+” or “=”
1930 at the beginning of a pathname will be expanded to the value of
1931 this variable. Note that if you change this variable (from the
1932 default) value you need to make sure that the assignment occurs
1933 before you use “+” or “=” for any other variables since expan‐
1934 sion takes place when handling the “mailboxes” command.
1935 folder_format
1939 Type: string
1940 Default: “%2C %t %N %F %2l %-8.8u %-8.8g %8s %d %f”
1941 This variable allows you to customize the file browser display
1943 to your personal taste. This string is similar to $index_for‐
1944 mat, but has its own set of printf(3)-like sequences:
1945 %C current file number
1946 %d date/time folder was last modified
1947 %D date/time folder was last modified using $date_format.
1948 %f filename (“/” is appended to directory names, “@” to sym‐
1949 bolic links and “*” to executable files)
1950 %F file permissions
1951 %g group name (or numeric gid, if missing)
1952 %l number of hard links
1953 %m number of messages in the mailbox *
1954 %n number of unread messages in the mailbox *
1955 %N N if mailbox has new mail, blank otherwise
1956 %s size in bytes (see formatstrings-size)
1957 %t “*” if the file is tagged, blank otherwise
1958 %u owner name (or numeric uid, if missing)
1959 %>X right justify the rest of the string and pad with charac‐
1960 ter “X”
1961 %|X pad to the end of the line with character “X”
1962 %*X soft-fill with character “X” as pad
1963 For an explanation of “soft-fill”, see the $index_format docu‐
1965 mentation.
1966 * = can be optionally printed if nonzero
1968 %m, %n, and %N only work for monitored mailboxes. %m requires
1970 $mail_check_stats to be set. %n requires $mail_check_stats to
1971 be set (except for IMAP mailboxes).
1972 followup_to
1976 Type: boolean
1977 Default: yes
1978 Controls whether or not the “Mail-Followup-To:” header field is
1980 generated when sending mail. When set, Mutt will generate this
1981 field when you are replying to a known mailing list, specified
1982 with the “subscribe” or “lists” commands.
1983 This field has two purposes. First, preventing you from receiv‐
1985 ing duplicate copies of replies to messages which you send to
1986 mailing lists, and second, ensuring that you do get a reply sep‐
1987 arately for any messages sent to known lists to which you are
1988 not subscribed.
1989 The header will contain only the list's address for subscribed
1991 lists, and both the list address and your own email address for
1992 unsubscribed lists. Without this header, a group reply to your
1993 message sent to a subscribed list will be sent to both the list
1994 and your address, resulting in two copies of the same email for
1995 you.
1996 force_name
2000 Type: boolean
2001 Default: no
2002 This variable is similar to $save_name, except that Mutt will
2004 store a copy of your outgoing message by the username of the
2005 address you are sending to even if that mailbox does not exist.
2006 Also see the $record variable.
2008 forward_attachments
2012 Type: quadoption
2013 Default: ask-yes
2014 When forwarding inline (i.e. $mime_forward unset or answered
2016 with “no” and $forward_decode set), attachments which cannot be
2017 decoded in a reasonable manner will be attached to the newly
2018 composed message if this quadoption is set or answered with
2019 “yes”.
2020 forward_attribution_intro
2024 Type: string (localized)
2025 Default: “----- Forwarded message from %f -----”
2026 This is the string that will precede a message which has been
2028 forwarded in the main body of a message (when $mime_forward is
2029 unset). For a full listing of defined printf(3)-like sequences
2030 see the section on $index_format. See also $attribution_locale.
2031 forward_attribution_trailer
2035 Type: string (localized)
2036 Default: “----- End forwarded message -----”
2037 This is the string that will follow a message which has been
2039 forwarded in the main body of a message (when $mime_forward is
2040 unset). For a full listing of defined printf(3)-like sequences
2041 see the section on $index_format. See also $attribution_locale.
2042 forward_decode
2046 Type: boolean
2047 Default: yes
2048 Controls the decoding of complex MIME messages into text/plain
2050 when forwarding a message. The message header is also RFC2047
2051 decoded. This variable is only used, if $mime_forward is unset,
2052 otherwise $mime_forward_decode is used instead.
2053 forward_decrypt
2057 Type: boolean
2058 Default: yes
2059 Controls the handling of encrypted messages when forwarding a
2061 message. When set, the outer layer of encryption is stripped
2062 off. This variable is only used if $mime_forward is set and
2063 $mime_forward_decode is unset. (PGP only)
2064 forward_edit
2068 Type: quadoption
2069 Default: yes
2070 This quadoption controls whether or not the user is automati‐
2072 cally placed in the editor when forwarding messages. For those
2073 who always want to forward with no modification, use a setting
2074 of “no”.
2075 forward_format
2079 Type: string
2080 Default: “[%a: %s]”
2081 This variable controls the default subject when forwarding a
2083 message. It uses the same format sequences as the $index_format
2084 variable.
2085 forward_quote
2089 Type: boolean
2090 Default: no
2091 When set, forwarded messages included in the main body of the
2093 message (when $mime_forward is unset) will be quoted using
2094 $indent_string.
2095 from
2099 Type: e-mail address
2100 Default: “”
2101 When set, this variable contains a default from address. It can
2103 be overridden using “my_hdr” (including from a “send-hook”) and
2104 $reverse_name. This variable is ignored if $use_from is unset.
2105 This setting defaults to the contents of the environment vari‐
2107 able $EMAIL.
2108 gecos_mask
2112 Type: regular expression
2113 Default: “^[^,]*”
2114 A regular expression used by mutt to parse the GECOS field of a
2116 password entry when expanding the alias. The default value will
2117 return the string up to the first “,” encountered. If the GECOS
2118 field contains a string like “lastname, firstname” then you
2119 should set it to “.*”.
2120 This can be useful if you see the following behavior: you
2122 address an e-mail to user ID “stevef” whose full name is “Steve
2123 Franklin”. If mutt expands “stevef” to “”Franklin”
2124 stevef@foo.bar” then you should set the $gecos_mask to a regular
2125 expression that will match the whole name so mutt will expand
2126 “Franklin” to “Franklin, Steve”.
2127 hdrs
2131 Type: boolean
2132 Default: yes
2133 When unset, the header fields normally added by the “my_hdr”
2135 command are not created. This variable must be unset before
2136 composing a new message or replying in order to take effect. If
2137 set, the user defined header fields are added to every new mes‐
2138 sage.
2139 header
2143 Type: boolean
2144 Default: no
2145 When set, this variable causes Mutt to include the header of the
2147 message you are replying to into the edit buffer. The $weed
2148 setting applies.
2149 header_cache
2153 Type: path
2154 Default: “”
2155 This variable points to the header cache database. If pointing
2157 to a directory Mutt will contain a header cache database file
2158 per folder, if pointing to a file that file will be a single
2159 global header cache. By default it is unset so no header caching
2160 will be used.
2161 Header caching can greatly improve speed when opening POP, IMAP
2163 MH or Maildir folders, see “caching” for details.
2164 header_cache_compress
2168 Type: boolean
2169 Default: yes
2170 When mutt is compiled with qdbm, tokyocabinet, or kyotocabinet
2172 as header cache backend, this option determines whether the
2173 database will be compressed. Compression results in database
2174 files roughly being one fifth of the usual diskspace, but the
2175 decompression can result in a slower opening of cached folder(s)
2176 which in general is still much faster than opening non header
2177 cached folders.
2178 header_cache_pagesize
2182 Type: number (long)
2183 Default: 16384
2184 When mutt is compiled with either gdbm or bdb4 as the header
2186 cache backend, this option changes the database page size. Too
2187 large or too small values can waste space, memory, or CPU time.
2188 The default should be more or less optimal for most use cases.
2189 header_color_partial
2193 Type: boolean
2194 Default: no
2195 When set, color header regexps behave like color body regexps:
2197 color is applied to the exact text matched by the regexp. When
2198 unset, color is applied to the entire header.
2199 One use of this option might be to apply color to just the
2201 header labels.
2202 See “color” for more details.
2204 help
2208 Type: boolean
2209 Default: yes
2210 When set, help lines describing the bindings for the major func‐
2212 tions provided by each menu are displayed on the first line of
2213 the screen.
2214 Note: The binding will not be displayed correctly if the func‐
2216 tion is bound to a sequence rather than a single keystroke.
2217 Also, the help line may not be updated if a binding is changed
2218 while Mutt is running. Since this variable is primarily aimed
2219 at new users, neither of these should present a major problem.
2220 hidden_host
2224 Type: boolean
2225 Default: no
2226 When set, mutt will skip the host name part of $hostname vari‐
2228 able when adding the domain part to addresses. This variable
2229 does not affect the generation of Message-IDs, and it will not
2230 lead to the cut-off of first-level domains.
2231 hide_limited
2235 Type: boolean
2236 Default: no
2237 When set, mutt will not show the presence of messages that are
2239 hidden by limiting, in the thread tree.
2240 hide_missing
2244 Type: boolean
2245 Default: yes
2246 When set, mutt will not show the presence of missing messages in
2248 the thread tree.
2249 hide_thread_subject
2253 Type: boolean
2254 Default: yes
2255 When set, mutt will not show the subject of messages in the
2257 thread tree that have the same subject as their parent or clos‐
2258 est previously displayed sibling.
2259 hide_top_limited
2263 Type: boolean
2264 Default: no
2265 When set, mutt will not show the presence of messages that are
2267 hidden by limiting, at the top of threads in the thread tree.
2268 Note that when $hide_limited is set, this option will have no
2269 effect.
2270 hide_top_missing
2274 Type: boolean
2275 Default: yes
2276 When set, mutt will not show the presence of missing messages at
2278 the top of threads in the thread tree. Note that when
2279 $hide_missing is set, this option will have no effect.
2280 history
2284 Type: number
2285 Default: 10
2286 This variable controls the size (in number of strings remem‐
2288 bered) of the string history buffer per category. The buffer is
2289 cleared each time the variable is set.
2290 history_file
2294 Type: path
2295 Default: “~/.mutthistory”
2296 The file in which Mutt will save its history.
2298 Also see $save_history.
2300 history_remove_dups
2304 Type: boolean
2305 Default: no
2306 When set, all of the string history will be scanned for dupli‐
2308 cates when a new entry is added. Duplicate entries in the $his‐
2309 tory_file will also be removed when it is periodically com‐
2310 pacted.
2311 honor_disposition
2315 Type: boolean
2316 Default: no
2317 When set, Mutt will not display attachments with a disposition
2319 of “attachment” inline even if it could render the part to plain
2320 text. These MIME parts can only be viewed from the attachment
2321 menu.
2322 If unset, Mutt will render all MIME parts it can properly trans‐
2324 form to plain text.
2325 honor_followup_to
2329 Type: quadoption
2330 Default: yes
2331 This variable controls whether or not a Mail-Followup-To header
2333 is honored when group-replying to a message.
2334 hostname
2338 Type: string
2339 Default: “”
2340 Specifies the fully-qualified hostname of the system mutt is
2342 running on containing the host's name and the DNS domain it
2343 belongs to. It is used as the domain part (after “@”) for local
2344 email addresses as well as Message-Id headers.
2345 Its value is determined at startup as follows: the node's host‐
2347 name is first determined by the uname(3) function. The domain
2348 is then looked up using the gethostname(2) and getaddrinfo(3)
2349 functions. If those calls are unable to determine the domain,
2350 the full value returned by uname is used. Optionally, Mutt can
2351 be compiled with a fixed domain name in which case a detected
2352 one is not used.
2353 Starting in Mutt 2.0, the operations described in the previous
2355 paragraph are performed after the muttrc is processed, instead
2356 of beforehand. This way, if the DNS operations are creating
2357 delays at startup, you can avoid those by manually setting the
2358 value in your muttrc.
2359 Also see $use_domain and $hidden_host.
2361 idn_decode
2365 Type: boolean
2366 Default: yes
2367 When set, Mutt will show you international domain names decoded.
2369 Note: You can use IDNs for addresses even if this is unset.
2370 This variable only affects decoding. (IDN only)
2371 idn_encode
2375 Type: boolean
2376 Default: yes
2377 When set, Mutt will encode international domain names using IDN.
2379 Unset this if your SMTP server can handle newer (RFC 6531) UTF-8
2380 encoded domains. (IDN only)
2381 ignore_linear_white_space
2385 Type: boolean
2386 Default: no
2387 This option replaces linear-white-space between encoded-word and
2389 text to a single space to prevent the display of MIME-encoded
2390 “Subject:” field from being divided into multiple lines.
2391 ignore_list_reply_to
2395 Type: boolean
2396 Default: no
2397 Affects the behavior of the <reply> function when replying to
2399 messages from mailing lists (as defined by the “subscribe” or
2400 “lists” commands). When set, if the “Reply-To:” field is set to
2401 the same value as the “To:” field, Mutt assumes that the
2402 “Reply-To:” field was set by the mailing list to automate
2403 responses to the list, and will ignore this field. To direct a
2404 response to the mailing list when this option is set, use the
2405 <list-reply> function; <group-reply> will reply to both the
2406 sender and the list.
2407 imap_authenticators
2411 Type: string
2412 Default: “”
2413 This is a colon-delimited list of authentication methods mutt
2415 may attempt to use to log in to an IMAP server, in the order
2416 mutt should try them. Authentication methods are either “login”
2417 or the right side of an IMAP “AUTH=xxx” capability string, e.g.
2418 “digest-md5”, “gssapi” or “cram-md5”. This option is case-insen‐
2419 sitive. If it's unset (the default) mutt will try all available
2420 methods, in order from most-secure to least-secure.
2421 Example:
2423 set imap_authenticators=”gssapi:cram-md5:login”
2426 Note: Mutt will only fall back to other authentication methods
2429 if the previous methods are unavailable. If a method is avail‐
2430 able but authentication fails, mutt will not connect to the IMAP
2431 server.
2432 imap_check_subscribed
2436 Type: boolean
2437 Default: no
2438 When set, mutt will fetch the set of subscribed folders from
2440 your server on connection, and add them to the set of mailboxes
2441 it polls for new mail just as if you had issued individual
2442 “mailboxes” commands.
2443 imap_condstore
2447 Type: boolean
2448 Default: no
2449 When set, mutt will use the CONDSTORE extension (RFC 7162) if
2451 advertised by the server. Mutt's current implementation is
2452 basic, used only for initial message fetching and flag updates.
2453 For some IMAP servers, enabling this will slightly speed up
2455 downloading initial messages. Unfortunately, Gmail is not one
2456 those, and displays worse performance when enabled. Your
2457 mileage may vary.
2458 imap_deflate
2462 Type: boolean
2463 Default: no
2464 When set, mutt will use the COMPRESS=DEFLATE extension (RFC
2466 4978) if advertised by the server.
2467 In general a good compression efficiency can be achieved, which
2469 speeds up reading large mailboxes also on fairly good connec‐
2470 tions.
2471 imap_delim_chars
2475 Type: string
2476 Default: “/.”
2477 This contains the list of characters which you would like to
2479 treat as folder separators for displaying IMAP paths. In partic‐
2480 ular it helps in using the “=” shortcut for your folder vari‐
2481 able.
2482 imap_fetch_chunk_size
2486 Type: number (long)
2487 Default: 0
2488 When set to a value greater than 0, new headers will be down‐
2490 loaded in groups of this many headers per request. If you have
2491 a very large mailbox, this might prevent a timeout and discon‐
2492 nect when opening the mailbox, by sending a FETCH per set of
2493 this many headers, instead of a single FETCH for all new head‐
2494 ers.
2495 imap_headers
2499 Type: string
2500 Default: “”
2501 Mutt requests these header fields in addition to the default
2503 headers (“Date:”, “From:”, “Sender:”, “Subject:”, “To:”, “Cc:”,
2504 “Message-Id:”, “References:”, “Content-Type:”, “Content-Descrip‐
2505 tion:”, “In-Reply-To:”, “Reply-To:”, “Lines:”, “List-Post:”,
2506 “X-Label:”) from IMAP servers before displaying the index menu.
2507 You may want to add more headers for spam detection.
2508 Note: This is a space separated list, items should be uppercase
2510 and not contain the colon, e.g. “X-BOGOSITY X-SPAM-STATUS” for
2511 the “X-Bogosity:” and “X-Spam-Status:” header fields.
2512 imap_idle
2516 Type: boolean
2517 Default: no
2518 When set, mutt will attempt to use the IMAP IDLE extension to
2520 check for new mail in the current mailbox. Some servers (dovecot
2521 was the inspiration for this option) react badly to mutt's
2522 implementation. If your connection seems to freeze up periodi‐
2523 cally, try unsetting this.
2524 imap_keepalive
2528 Type: number
2529 Default: 300
2530 This variable specifies the maximum amount of time in seconds
2532 that mutt will wait before polling open IMAP connections, to
2533 prevent the server from closing them before mutt has finished
2534 with them. The default is well within the RFC-specified minimum
2535 amount of time (30 minutes) before a server is allowed to do
2536 this, but in practice the RFC does get violated every now and
2537 then. Reduce this number if you find yourself getting discon‐
2538 nected from your IMAP server due to inactivity.
2539 imap_list_subscribed
2543 Type: boolean
2544 Default: no
2545 This variable configures whether IMAP folder browsing will look
2547 for only subscribed folders or all folders. This can be toggled
2548 in the IMAP browser with the <toggle-subscribed> function.
2549 imap_login
2553 Type: string
2554 Default: “”
2555 Your login name on the IMAP server.
2557 This variable defaults to the value of $imap_user.
2559 imap_oauth_refresh_command
2563 Type: string
2564 Default: “”
2565 The command to run to generate an OAUTH refresh token for autho‐
2567 rizing your connection to your IMAP server. This command will
2568 be run on every connection attempt that uses the OAUTHBEARER
2569 authentication mechanism. See “oauth” for details.
2570 imap_pass
2574 Type: string
2575 Default: “”
2576 Specifies the password for your IMAP account. If unset, Mutt
2578 will prompt you for your password when you invoke the
2579 <imap-fetch-mail> function or try to open an IMAP folder.
2580 Warning: you should only use this option when you are on a
2582 fairly secure machine, because the superuser can read your mut‐
2583 trc even if you are the only one who can read the file.
2584 imap_passive
2588 Type: boolean
2589 Default: yes
2590 When set, mutt will not open new IMAP connections to check for
2592 new mail. Mutt will only check for new mail over existing IMAP
2593 connections. This is useful if you don't want to be prompted
2594 for user/password pairs on mutt invocation, or if opening the
2595 connection is slow.
2596 imap_peek
2600 Type: boolean
2601 Default: yes
2602 When set, mutt will avoid implicitly marking your mail as read
2604 whenever you fetch a message from the server. This is generally
2605 a good thing, but can make closing an IMAP folder somewhat
2606 slower. This option exists to appease speed freaks.
2607 imap_pipeline_depth
2611 Type: number
2612 Default: 15
2613 Controls the number of IMAP commands that may be queued up
2615 before they are sent to the server. A deeper pipeline reduces
2616 the amount of time mutt must wait for the server, and can make
2617 IMAP servers feel much more responsive. But not all servers cor‐
2618 rectly handle pipelined commands, so if you have problems you
2619 might want to try setting this variable to 0.
2620 Note: Changes to this variable have no effect on open connec‐
2622 tions.
2623 imap_poll_timeout
2627 Type: number
2628 Default: 15
2629 This variable specifies the maximum amount of time in seconds
2631 that mutt will wait for a response when polling IMAP connections
2632 for new mail, before timing out and closing the connection. Set
2633 to 0 to disable timing out.
2634 imap_qresync
2638 Type: boolean
2639 Default: no
2640 When set, mutt will use the QRESYNC extension (RFC 7162) if
2642 advertised by the server. Mutt's current implementation is
2643 basic, used only for initial message fetching and flag updates.
2644 Note: this feature is currently experimental. If you experience
2646 strange behavior, such as duplicate or missing messages please
2647 file a bug report to let us know.
2648 imap_servernoise
2652 Type: boolean
2653 Default: yes
2654 When set, mutt will display warning messages from the IMAP
2656 server as error messages. Since these messages are often harm‐
2657 less, or generated due to configuration problems on the server
2658 which are out of the users' hands, you may wish to suppress them
2659 at some point.
2660 imap_user
2664 Type: string
2665 Default: “”
2666 The name of the user whose mail you intend to access on the IMAP
2668 server.
2669 This variable defaults to your user name on the local machine.
2671 implicit_autoview
2675 Type: boolean
2676 Default: no
2677 If set to “yes”, mutt will look for a mailcap entry with the
2679 “copiousoutput” flag set for every MIME attachment it doesn't
2680 have an internal viewer defined for. If such an entry is found,
2681 mutt will use the viewer defined in that entry to convert the
2682 body part to text form.
2683 include
2687 Type: quadoption
2688 Default: ask-yes
2689 Controls whether or not a copy of the message(s) you are reply‐
2691 ing to is included in your reply.
2692 include_encrypted
2696 Type: boolean
2697 Default: no
2698 Controls whether or not Mutt includes separately encrypted
2700 attachment contents when replying.
2701 This variable was added to prevent accidental exposure of
2703 encrypted contents when replying to an attacker. If a previ‐
2704 ously encrypted message were attached by the attacker, they
2705 could trick an unwary recipient into decrypting and including
2706 the message in their reply.
2707 include_onlyfirst
2711 Type: boolean
2712 Default: no
2713 Controls whether or not Mutt includes only the first attachment
2715 of the message you are replying.
2716 indent_string
2720 Type: string
2721 Default: “> ”
2722 Specifies the string to prepend to each line of text quoted in a
2724 message to which you are replying. You are strongly encouraged
2725 not to change this value, as it tends to agitate the more fanat‐
2726 ical netizens.
2727 The value of this option is ignored if $text_flowed is set,
2729 because the quoting mechanism is strictly defined for for‐
2730 mat=flowed.
2731 This option is a format string, please see the description of
2733 $index_format for supported printf(3)-style sequences.
2734 index_format
2738 Type: string
2739 Default: “%4C %Z %{%b %d} %-15.15L (%?l?%4l&%4c?) %s”
2740 This variable allows you to customize the message index display
2742 to your personal taste.
2743 “Format strings” are similar to the strings used in the C func‐
2745 tion printf(3) to format output (see the man page for more
2746 details). For an explanation of the %? construct, see the $sta‐
2747 tus_format description. The following sequences are defined in
2748 Mutt:
2749 %a address of the author
2750 %A reply-to address (if present; otherwise: address of
2751 author)
2752 %b filename of the original message folder (think mailbox)
2753 %B the list to which the letter was sent, or else the folder
2754 name (%b).
2755 %c number of characters (bytes) in the message (see format‐
2756 strings-size)
2757 %C current message number
2758 %d date and time of the message in the format specified by
2759 $date_format converted to sender's time zone
2760 %D date and time of the message in the format specified by
2761 $date_format converted to the local time zone
2762 %e current message number in thread
2763 %E number of messages in current thread
2764 %f sender (address + real name), either From: or
2765 Return-Path:
2766 %F author name, or recipient name if the message is from you
2767 %H spam attribute(s) of this message
2768 %i message-id of the current message
2769 %l number of lines in the unprocessed message (may not work
2770 with maildir, mh, and IMAP folders)
2771 %L If an address in the “To:” or “Cc:” header field matches
2772 an address defined by the users “subscribe” command, this
2773 displays ”To <list-name>”, otherwise the same as %F.
2774 %m total number of message in the mailbox
2775 %M number of hidden messages if the thread is collapsed.
2776 %N message score
2777 %n author's real name (or address if missing)
2778 %O original save folder where mutt would formerly have
2779 stashed the message: list name or recipient name if not
2780 sent to a list
2781 %P progress indicator for the built-in pager (how much of
2782 the file has been displayed)
2783 %r comma separated list of “To:” recipients
2784 %R comma separated list of “Cc:” recipients
2785 %s subject of the message
2786 %S single character status of the message
2787 (“N”/“O”/“D”/“d”/“!”/“r”/“*”)
2788 %t “To:” field (recipients)
2789 %T the appropriate character from the $to_chars string
2790 %u user (login) name of the author
2791 %v first name of the author, or the recipient if the message
2792 is from you
2793 %X number of attachments (please see the “attachments” sec‐
2794 tion for possible speed effects)
2795 %y “X-Label:” field, if present
2796 %Y “X-Label:” field, if present, and [4m(1) not at part of a
2797 thread tree, [4m(2) at the top of a thread, or [4m(3)
2798 “X-Label:” is different from preceding message's
2799 “X-Label:”.
2800 %Z a three character set of message status flags. the first
2801 character is new/read/replied flags
2802 (“n”/“o”/“r”/“O”/“N”). the second is deleted or encryp‐
2803 tion flags (“D”/“d”/“S”/“P”/“s”/“K”). the third is
2804 either tagged/flagged (“*”/“!”), or one of the characters
2805 listed in $to_chars.
2806 %@name@
2807 insert and evaluate format-string from the matching
2808 “index-format-hook” command
2809 %{fmt} the date and time of the message is converted to sender's
2810 time zone, and “fmt” is expanded by the library function
2811 strftime(3); a leading bang disables locales
2812 %[fmt] the date and time of the message is converted to the
2813 local time zone, and “fmt” is expanded by the library
2814 function strftime(3); a leading bang disables locales
2815 %(fmt) the local date and time when the message was received.
2816 “fmt” is expanded by the library function strftime(3); a
2817 leading bang disables locales
2818 %<fmt> the current local time. “fmt” is expanded by the library
2819 function strftime(3); a leading bang disables locales.
2820 %>X right justify the rest of the string and pad with charac‐
2821 ter “X”
2822 %|X pad to the end of the line with character “X”
2823 %*X soft-fill with character “X” as pad
2824 Note that for mbox/mmdf, “%l” applies to the unprocessed mes‐
2826 sage, and for maildir/mh, the value comes from the “Lines:”
2827 header field when present (the meaning is normally the same).
2828 Thus the value depends on the encodings used in the different
2829 parts of the message and has little meaning in practice.
2830 “Soft-fill” deserves some explanation: Normal right-justifica‐
2832 tion will print everything to the left of the “%>”, displaying
2833 padding and whatever lies to the right only if there's room. By
2834 contrast, soft-fill gives priority to the right-hand side, guar‐
2835 anteeing space to display it and showing padding only if there's
2836 still room. If necessary, soft-fill will eat text leftwards to
2837 make room for rightward text.
2838 Note that these expandos are supported in “save-hook”, “fcc-
2840 hook”, “fcc-save-hook”, and “index-format-hook”.
2841 They are also supported in the configuration variables $attribu‐
2843 tion, $forward_attribution_intro, $forward_attribution_trailer,
2844 $forward_format, $indent_string, $message_format, $pager_format,
2845 and $post_indent_string.
2846 ispell
2850 Type: path
2851 Default: “/usr/bin/hunspell”
2852 How to invoke ispell (GNU's spell-checking software).
2854 keep_flagged
2858 Type: boolean
2859 Default: no
2860 If set, read messages marked as flagged will not be moved from
2862 your spool mailbox to your $mbox mailbox, or as a result of a
2863 “mbox-hook” command.
2864 mail_check
2868 Type: number
2869 Default: 5
2870 This variable configures how often (in seconds) mutt should look
2872 for new mail. Also see the $timeout variable.
2873 mail_check_recent
2877 Type: boolean
2878 Default: yes
2879 When set, Mutt will only notify you about new mail that has been
2881 received since the last time you opened the mailbox. When
2882 unset, Mutt will notify you if any new mail exists in the mail‐
2883 box, regardless of whether you have visited it recently.
2884 When $mark_old is set, Mutt does not consider the mailbox to
2886 contain new mail if only old messages exist.
2887 mail_check_stats
2891 Type: boolean
2892 Default: no
2893 When set, mutt will periodically calculate message statistics of
2895 a mailbox while polling for new mail. It will check for unread,
2896 flagged, and total message counts. Because this operation is
2897 more performance intensive, it defaults to unset, and has a sep‐
2898 arate option, $mail_check_stats_interval, to control how often
2899 to update these counts.
2900 Message statistics can also be explicitly calculated by invoking
2902 the <check-stats> function.
2903 mail_check_stats_interval
2907 Type: number
2908 Default: 60
2909 When $mail_check_stats is set, this variable configures how
2911 often (in seconds) mutt will update message counts.
2912 mailcap_path
2916 Type: string
2917 Default: “”
2918 This variable specifies which files to consult when attempting
2920 to display MIME bodies not directly supported by Mutt. The
2921 default value is generated during startup: see the “mailcap”
2922 section of the manual.
2923 mailcap_sanitize
2927 Type: boolean
2928 Default: yes
2929 If set, mutt will restrict possible characters in mailcap %
2931 expandos to a well-defined set of safe characters. This is the
2932 safe setting, but we are not sure it doesn't break some more
2933 advanced MIME stuff.
2934 DON'T CHANGE THIS SETTING UNLESS YOU ARE REALLY SURE WHAT YOU
2936 ARE DOING!
2937 maildir_header_cache_verify
2941 Type: boolean
2942 Default: yes
2943 Check for Maildir unaware programs other than mutt having modi‐
2945 fied maildir files when the header cache is in use. This incurs
2946 one stat(2) per message every time the folder is opened (which
2947 can be very slow for NFS folders).
2948 maildir_trash
2952 Type: boolean
2953 Default: no
2954 If set, messages marked as deleted will be saved with the
2956 maildir trashed flag instead of unlinked. Note: this only
2957 applies to maildir-style mailboxes. Setting it will have no
2958 effect on other mailbox types.
2959 maildir_check_cur
2963 Type: boolean
2964 Default: no
2965 If set, mutt will poll both the new and cur directories of a
2967 maildir folder for new messages. This might be useful if other
2968 programs interacting with the folder (e.g. dovecot) are moving
2969 new messages to the cur directory. Note that setting this
2970 option may slow down polling for new messages in large folders,
2971 since mutt has to scan all cur messages.
2972 mark_macro_prefix
2976 Type: string
2977 Default: “'”
2978 Prefix for macros created using mark-message. A new macro auto‐
2980 matically generated with <mark-message>a will be composed from
2981 this prefix and the letter a.
2982 mark_old
2986 Type: boolean
2987 Default: yes
2988 Controls whether or not mutt marks new unread messages as old if
2990 you exit a mailbox without reading them. With this option set,
2991 the next time you start mutt, the messages will show up with an
2992 “O” next to them in the index menu, indicating that they are
2993 old.
2994 markers
2998 Type: boolean
2999 Default: yes
3000 Controls the display of wrapped lines in the internal pager. If
3002 set, a “+” marker is displayed at the beginning of wrapped
3003 lines.
3004 Also see the $smart_wrap variable.
3006 mask
3010 Type: regular expression
3011 Default: “!^\.[^.]”
3012 A regular expression used in the file browser, optionally pre‐
3014 ceded by the not operator “!”. Only files whose names match
3015 this mask will be shown. The match is always case-sensitive.
3016 mbox
3020 Type: path
3021 Default: “~/mbox”
3022 This specifies the folder into which read mail in your
3024 $spoolfile folder will be appended.
3025 Also see the $move variable.
3027 mbox_type
3031 Type: folder magic
3032 Default: mbox
3033 The default mailbox type used when creating new folders. May be
3035 any of “mbox”, “MMDF”, “MH” and “Maildir”. This is overridden by
3036 the -m command-line option.
3037 menu_context
3041 Type: number
3042 Default: 0
3043 This variable controls the number of lines of context that are
3045 given when scrolling through menus. (Similar to $pager_context.)
3046 menu_move_off
3050 Type: boolean
3051 Default: yes
3052 When unset, the bottom entry of menus will never scroll up past
3054 the bottom of the screen, unless there are less entries than
3055 lines. When set, the bottom entry may move off the bottom.
3056 menu_scroll
3060 Type: boolean
3061 Default: no
3062 When set, menus will be scrolled up or down one line when you
3064 attempt to move across a screen boundary. If unset, the screen
3065 is cleared and the next or previous page of the menu is dis‐
3066 played (useful for slow links to avoid many redraws).
3067 message_cache_clean
3071 Type: boolean
3072 Default: no
3073 If set, mutt will clean out obsolete entries from the message
3075 cache when the mailbox is synchronized. You probably only want
3076 to set it every once in a while, since it can be a little slow
3077 (especially for large folders).
3078 message_cachedir
3082 Type: path
3083 Default: “”
3084 Set this to a directory and mutt will cache copies of messages
3086 from your IMAP and POP servers here. You are free to remove
3087 entries at any time.
3088 When setting this variable to a directory, mutt needs to fetch
3090 every remote message only once and can perform regular expres‐
3091 sion searches as fast as for local folders.
3092 Also see the $message_cache_clean variable.
3094 message_format
3098 Type: string
3099 Default: “%s”
3100 This is the string displayed in the “attachment” menu for
3102 attachments of type message/rfc822. For a full listing of
3103 defined printf(3)-like sequences see the section on $index_for‐
3104 mat.
3105 meta_key
3109 Type: boolean
3110 Default: no
3111 If set, forces Mutt to interpret keystrokes with the high bit
3113 (bit 8) set as if the user had pressed the Esc key and whatever
3114 key remains after having the high bit removed. For example, if
3115 the key pressed has an ASCII value of 0xf8, then this is treated
3116 as if the user had pressed Esc then “x”. This is because the
3117 result of removing the high bit from 0xf8 is 0x78, which is the
3118 ASCII character “x”.
3119 metoo
3123 Type: boolean
3124 Default: no
3125 If unset, Mutt will remove your address (see the “alternates”
3127 command) from the list of recipients when replying to a message.
3128 mh_purge
3132 Type: boolean
3133 Default: no
3134 When unset, mutt will mimic mh's behavior and rename deleted
3136 messages to ,<old file name> in mh folders instead of really
3137 deleting them. This leaves the message on disk but makes pro‐
3138 grams reading the folder ignore it. If the variable is set, the
3139 message files will simply be deleted.
3140 This option is similar to $maildir_trash for Maildir folders.
3142 mh_seq_flagged
3146 Type: string
3147 Default: “flagged”
3148 The name of the MH sequence used for flagged messages.
3150 mh_seq_replied
3154 Type: string
3155 Default: “replied”
3156 The name of the MH sequence used to tag replied messages.
3158 mh_seq_unseen
3162 Type: string
3163 Default: “unseen”
3164 The name of the MH sequence used for unseen messages.
3166 mime_forward
3170 Type: quadoption
3171 Default: no
3172 When set, the message you are forwarding will be attached as a
3174 separate message/rfc822 MIME part instead of included in the
3175 main body of the message. This is useful for forwarding MIME
3176 messages so the receiver can properly view the message as it was
3177 delivered to you. If you like to switch between MIME and not
3178 MIME from mail to mail, set this variable to “ask-no” or
3179 “ask-yes”.
3180 Also see $forward_decode and $mime_forward_decode.
3182 mime_forward_decode
3186 Type: boolean
3187 Default: no
3188 Controls the decoding of complex MIME messages into text/plain
3190 when forwarding a message while $mime_forward is set. Otherwise
3191 $forward_decode is used instead.
3192 mime_forward_rest
3196 Type: quadoption
3197 Default: yes
3198 When forwarding multiple attachments of a MIME message from the
3200 attachment menu, attachments which cannot be decoded in a rea‐
3201 sonable manner will be attached to the newly composed message if
3202 this option is set.
3203 mime_type_query_command
3207 Type: string
3208 Default: “”
3209 This specifies a command to run, to determine the mime type of a
3211 new attachment when composing a message. Unless
3212 $mime_type_query_first is set, this will only be run if the
3213 attachment's extension is not found in the mime.types file.
3214 The string may contain a “%s”, which will be substituted with
3216 the attachment filename. Mutt will add quotes around the string
3217 substituted for “%s” automatically according to shell quoting
3218 rules, so you should avoid adding your own. If no “%s” is found
3219 in the string, Mutt will append the attachment filename to the
3220 end of the string.
3221 The command should output a single line containing the attach‐
3223 ment's mime type.
3224 Suggested values are “xdg-mime query filetype” or “file -bi”.
3226 mime_type_query_first
3230 Type: boolean
3231 Default: no
3232 When set, the $mime_type_query_command will be run before the
3234 mime.types lookup.
3235 mix_entry_format
3239 Type: string
3240 Default: “%4n %c %-16s %a”
3241 This variable describes the format of a remailer line on the
3243 mixmaster chain selection screen. The following printf(3)-like
3244 sequences are supported:
3245 %n The running number on the menu.
3246 %c Remailer capabilities.
3247 %s The remailer's short name.
3248 %a The remailer's e-mail address.
3249 mixmaster
3252 Type: path
3253 Default: “mixmaster”
3254 This variable contains the path to the Mixmaster binary on your
3256 system. It is used with various sets of parameters to gather
3257 the list of known remailers, and to finally send a message
3258 through the mixmaster chain.
3259 move
3263 Type: quadoption
3264 Default: no
3265 Controls whether or not Mutt will move read messages from your
3267 spool mailbox to your $mbox mailbox, or as a result of a “mbox-
3268 hook” command.
3269 muttlisp_inline_eval
3273 Type: boolean
3274 Default: no
3275 If set, Mutt will evaluate bare parenthesis arguments to com‐
3277 mands as MuttLisp expressions.
3278 narrow_tree
3282 Type: boolean
3283 Default: no
3284 This variable, when set, makes the thread tree narrower, allow‐
3286 ing deeper threads to fit on the screen.
3287 net_inc
3291 Type: number
3292 Default: 10
3293 Operations that expect to transfer a large amount of data over
3295 the network will update their progress every $net_inc kilobytes.
3296 If set to 0, no progress messages will be displayed.
3297 See also $read_inc, $write_inc and $net_inc.
3299 new_mail_command
3303 Type: path
3304 Default: “”
3305 If set, Mutt will call this command after a new message is
3307 received. See the $status_format documentation for the values
3308 that can be formatted into this command.
3309 pager
3313 Type: path
3314 Default: “builtin”
3315 This variable specifies which pager you would like to use to
3317 view messages. The value “builtin” means to use the built-in
3318 pager, otherwise this variable should specify the pathname of
3319 the external pager you would like to use.
3320 Using an external pager may have some disadvantages: Additional
3322 keystrokes are necessary because you can't call mutt functions
3323 directly from the pager, and screen resizes cause lines longer
3324 than the screen width to be badly formatted in the help menu.
3325 When using an external pager, also see $prompt_after which
3327 defaults set.
3328 pager_context
3332 Type: number
3333 Default: 0
3334 This variable controls the number of lines of context that are
3336 given when displaying the next or previous page in the internal
3337 pager. By default, Mutt will display the line after the last
3338 one on the screen at the top of the next page (0 lines of con‐
3339 text).
3340 This variable also specifies the amount of context given for
3342 search results. If positive, this many lines will be given
3343 before a match, if 0, the match will be top-aligned.
3344 pager_format
3348 Type: string
3349 Default: “-%Z- %C/%m: %-20.20n %s%* -- (%P)”
3350 This variable controls the format of the one-line message “sta‐
3352 tus” displayed before each message in either the internal or an
3353 external pager. The valid sequences are listed in the
3354 $index_format section.
3355 pager_index_lines
3359 Type: number
3360 Default: 0
3361 Determines the number of lines of a mini-index which is shown
3363 when in the pager. The current message, unless near the top or
3364 bottom of the folder, will be roughly one third of the way down
3365 this mini-index, giving the reader the context of a few messages
3366 before and after the message. This is useful, for example, to
3367 determine how many messages remain to be read in the current
3368 thread. One of the lines is reserved for the status bar from
3369 the index, so a setting of 6 will only show 5 lines of the
3370 actual index. A value of 0 results in no index being shown. If
3371 the number of messages in the current folder is less than
3372 $pager_index_lines, then the index will only use as many lines
3373 as it needs.
3374 pager_stop
3378 Type: boolean
3379 Default: no
3380 When set, the internal-pager will not move to the next message
3382 when you are at the end of a message and invoke the <next-page>
3383 function.
3384 pattern_format
3388 Type: string
3389 Default: “%2n %-15e %d”
3390 This variable describes the format of the “pattern completion”
3392 menu. The following printf(3)-style sequences are understood:
3393 %d pattern description
3394 %e pattern expression
3395 %n index number
3396 pgp_auto_decode
3398 Type: boolean
3399 Default: no
3400 If set, mutt will automatically attempt to decrypt traditional
3402 PGP messages whenever the user performs an operation which ordi‐
3403 narily would result in the contents of the message being oper‐
3404 ated on. For example, if the user displays a pgp-traditional
3405 message which has not been manually checked with the <check-tra‐
3406 ditional-pgp> function, mutt will automatically check the mes‐
3407 sage for traditional pgp.
3408 pgp_autoinline
3412 Type: boolean
3413 Default: no
3414 This option controls whether Mutt generates old-style inline
3416 (traditional) PGP encrypted or signed messages under certain
3417 circumstances. This can be overridden by use of the pgp menu,
3418 when inline is not required. The GPGME backend does not support
3419 this option.
3420 Note that Mutt might automatically use PGP/MIME for messages
3422 which consist of more than a single MIME part. Mutt can be con‐
3423 figured to ask before sending PGP/MIME messages when inline
3424 (traditional) would not work.
3425 Also see the $pgp_mime_auto variable.
3427 Also note that using the old-style PGP message format is
3429 strongly deprecated. (PGP only)
3430 pgp_check_exit
3434 Type: boolean
3435 Default: yes
3436 If set, mutt will check the exit code of the PGP subprocess when
3438 signing or encrypting. A non-zero exit code means that the sub‐
3439 process failed. (PGP only)
3440 pgp_check_gpg_decrypt_status_fd
3444 Type: boolean
3445 Default: yes
3446 If set, mutt will check the status file descriptor output of
3448 $pgp_decrypt_command and $pgp_decode_command for GnuPG status
3449 codes indicating successful decryption. This will check for the
3450 presence of DECRYPTION_OKAY, absence of DECRYPTION_FAILED, and
3451 that all PLAINTEXT occurs between the BEGIN_DECRYPTION and
3452 END_DECRYPTION status codes.
3453 If unset, mutt will instead match the status fd output against
3455 $pgp_decryption_okay. (PGP only)
3456 pgp_clearsign_command
3460 Type: string
3461 Default: “”
3462 This format is used to create an old-style “clearsigned” PGP
3464 message. Note that the use of this format is strongly depre‐
3465 cated.
3466 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
3468 possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
3469 pgp_decode_command
3473 Type: string
3474 Default: “”
3475 This format strings specifies a command which is used to decode
3477 application/pgp attachments.
3478 The PGP command formats have their own set of printf(3)-like
3480 sequences:
3481 %p Expands to PGPPASSFD=0 when a pass phrase is needed, to
3482 an empty string otherwise. Note: This may be used with a
3483 %? construct.
3484 %f Expands to the name of a file containing a message.
3485 %s Expands to the name of a file containing the signature
3486 part
3487 of a multipart/signed attachment when verify‐
3488 ing it.
3489 %a The value of $pgp_sign_as if set, otherwise the value of
3490 $pgp_default_key.
3491 %r One or more key IDs (or fingerprints if available).
3492 For examples on how to configure these formats for the various
3494 versions of PGP which are floating around, see the pgp and gpg
3495 sample configuration files in the samples/ subdirectory which
3496 has been installed on your system alongside the documentation.
3497 (PGP only)
3498 pgp_decrypt_command
3502 Type: string
3503 Default: “”
3504 This command is used to decrypt a PGP encrypted message.
3506 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
3508 possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
3509 pgp_decryption_okay
3513 Type: regular expression
3514 Default: “”
3515 If you assign text to this variable, then an encrypted PGP mes‐
3517 sage is only considered successfully decrypted if the output
3518 from $pgp_decrypt_command contains the text. This is used to
3519 protect against a spoofed encrypted message, with multi‐
3520 part/encrypted headers but containing a block that is not actu‐
3521 ally encrypted. (e.g. simply signed and ascii armored text).
3522 Note that if $pgp_check_gpg_decrypt_status_fd is set, this vari‐
3524 able is ignored. (PGP only)
3525 pgp_default_key
3529 Type: string
3530 Default: “”
3531 This is the default key-pair to use for PGP operations. It will
3533 be used for encryption (see $postpone_encrypt and
3534 $pgp_self_encrypt).
3535 It will also be used for signing unless $pgp_sign_as is set.
3537 The (now deprecated) pgp_self_encrypt_as is an alias for this
3539 variable, and should no longer be used. (PGP only)
3540 pgp_encrypt_only_command
3544 Type: string
3545 Default: “”
3546 This command is used to encrypt a body part without signing it.
3548 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
3550 possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
3551 pgp_encrypt_sign_command
3555 Type: string
3556 Default: “”
3557 This command is used to both sign and encrypt a body part.
3559 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
3561 possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
3562 pgp_entry_format
3566 Type: string
3567 Default: “%4n %t%f %4l/0x%k %-4a %2c %u”
3568 This variable allows you to customize the PGP key selection menu
3570 to your personal taste. This string is similar to $index_format,
3571 but has its own set of printf(3)-like sequences:
3572 %n number
3573 %k key id
3574 %u user id
3575 %a algorithm
3576 %l key length
3577 %f flags
3578 %c capabilities
3579 %t trust/validity of the key-uid association
3580 %[<s>] date of the key where <s> is an strftime(3) expression
3581 (PGP only)
3583 pgp_export_command
3587 Type: string
3588 Default: “”
3589 This command is used to export a public key from the user's key
3591 ring.
3592 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
3594 possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
3595 pgp_getkeys_command
3599 Type: string
3600 Default: “”
3601 This command is invoked whenever Mutt needs to fetch the public
3603 key associated with an email address. Of the sequences sup‐
3604 ported by $pgp_decode_command, %r is the only printf(3)-like
3605 sequence used with this format. Note that in this case, %r
3606 expands to the email address, not the public key ID (the key ID
3607 is unknown, which is why Mutt is invoking this command). (PGP
3608 only)
3609 pgp_good_sign
3613 Type: regular expression
3614 Default: “”
3615 If you assign a text to this variable, then a PGP signature is
3617 only considered verified if the output from $pgp_verify_command
3618 contains the text. Use this variable if the exit code from the
3619 command is 0 even for bad signatures. (PGP only)
3620 pgp_ignore_subkeys
3624 Type: boolean
3625 Default: yes
3626 Setting this variable will cause Mutt to ignore OpenPGP subkeys.
3628 Instead, the principal key will inherit the subkeys' capabili‐
3629 ties. Unset this if you want to play interesting key selection
3630 games. (PGP only)
3631 pgp_import_command
3635 Type: string
3636 Default: “”
3637 This command is used to import a key from a message into the
3639 user's public key ring.
3640 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
3642 possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
3643 pgp_list_pubring_command
3647 Type: string
3648 Default: “”
3649 This command is used to list the public key ring's contents.
3651 The output format must be analogous to the one used by
3652 gpg --list-keys --with-colons --with-fingerprint
3655 This format is also generated by the mutt_pgpring utility which
3658 comes with mutt.
3659 Note: gpg's fixed-list-mode option should not be used. It pro‐
3661 duces a different date format which may result in mutt showing
3662 incorrect key generation dates.
3663 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
3665 possible printf(3)-like sequences. Note that in this case, %r
3666 expands to the search string, which is a list of one or more
3667 quoted values such as email address, name, or keyid. (PGP only)
3668 pgp_list_secring_command
3672 Type: string
3673 Default: “”
3674 This command is used to list the secret key ring's contents.
3676 The output format must be analogous to the one used by:
3677 gpg --list-keys --with-colons --with-fingerprint
3680 This format is also generated by the mutt_pgpring utility which
3683 comes with mutt.
3684 Note: gpg's fixed-list-mode option should not be used. It pro‐
3686 duces a different date format which may result in mutt showing
3687 incorrect key generation dates.
3688 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
3690 possible printf(3)-like sequences. Note that in this case, %r
3691 expands to the search string, which is a list of one or more
3692 quoted values such as email address, name, or keyid. (PGP only)
3693 pgp_long_ids
3697 Type: boolean
3698 Default: yes
3699 If set, use 64 bit PGP key IDs, if unset use the normal 32 bit
3701 key IDs. NOTE: Internally, Mutt has transitioned to using fin‐
3702 gerprints (or long key IDs as a fallback). This option now only
3703 controls the display of key IDs in the key selection menu and a
3704 few other places. (PGP only)
3705 pgp_mime_auto
3709 Type: quadoption
3710 Default: ask-yes
3711 This option controls whether Mutt will prompt you for automati‐
3713 cally sending a (signed/encrypted) message using PGP/MIME when
3714 inline (traditional) fails (for any reason).
3715 Also note that using the old-style PGP message format is
3717 strongly deprecated. (PGP only)
3718 pgp_replyinline
3722 Type: boolean
3723 Default: no
3724 Setting this variable will cause Mutt to always attempt to cre‐
3726 ate an inline (traditional) message when replying to a message
3727 which is PGP encrypted/signed inline. This can be overridden by
3728 use of the pgp menu, when inline is not required. This option
3729 does not automatically detect if the (replied-to) message is
3730 inline; instead it relies on Mutt internals for previously
3731 checked/flagged messages.
3732 Note that Mutt might automatically use PGP/MIME for messages
3734 which consist of more than a single MIME part. Mutt can be con‐
3735 figured to ask before sending PGP/MIME messages when inline
3736 (traditional) would not work.
3737 Also see the $pgp_mime_auto variable.
3739 Also note that using the old-style PGP message format is
3741 strongly deprecated. (PGP only)
3742 pgp_retainable_sigs
3746 Type: boolean
3747 Default: no
3748 If set, signed and encrypted messages will consist of nested
3750 multipart/signed and multipart/encrypted body parts.
3751 This is useful for applications like encrypted and signed mail‐
3753 ing lists, where the outer layer (multipart/encrypted) can be
3754 easily removed, while the inner multipart/signed part is
3755 retained. (PGP only)
3756 pgp_self_encrypt
3760 Type: boolean
3761 Default: yes
3762 When set, PGP encrypted messages will also be encrypted using
3764 the key in $pgp_default_key. (PGP only)
3765 pgp_show_unusable
3769 Type: boolean
3770 Default: yes
3771 If set, mutt will display non-usable keys on the PGP key selec‐
3773 tion menu. This includes keys which have been revoked, have
3774 expired, or have been marked as “disabled” by the user. (PGP
3775 only)
3776 pgp_sign_as
3780 Type: string
3781 Default: “”
3782 If you have a different key pair to use for signing, you should
3784 set this to the signing key. Most people will only need to set
3785 $pgp_default_key. It is recommended that you use the keyid form
3786 to specify your key (e.g. 0x00112233). (PGP only)
3787 pgp_sign_command
3791 Type: string
3792 Default: “”
3793 This command is used to create the detached PGP signature for a
3795 multipart/signed PGP/MIME body part.
3796 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
3798 possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
3799 pgp_sort_keys
3803 Type: sort order
3804 Default: address
3805 Specifies how the entries in the pgp menu are sorted. The fol‐
3807 lowing are legal values:
3808 address
3809 sort alphabetically by user id
3810 keyid sort alphabetically by key id
3811 date sort by key creation date
3812 trust sort by the trust of the key
3813 If you prefer reverse order of the above values, prefix it with
3815 “reverse-”. (PGP only)
3816 pgp_strict_enc
3820 Type: boolean
3821 Default: yes
3822 If set, Mutt will automatically encode PGP/MIME signed messages
3824 as quoted-printable. Please note that unsetting this variable
3825 may lead to problems with non-verifyable PGP signatures, so only
3826 change this if you know what you are doing. (PGP only)
3827 pgp_timeout
3831 Type: number (long)
3832 Default: 300
3833 The number of seconds after which a cached passphrase will
3835 expire if not used. (PGP only)
3836 pgp_use_gpg_agent
3840 Type: boolean
3841 Default: no
3842 If set, mutt expects a gpg-agent(1) process will handle private
3844 key passphrase prompts. If unset, mutt will prompt for the
3845 passphrase and pass it via stdin to the pgp command.
3846 Note that as of version 2.1, GnuPG automatically spawns an agent
3848 and requires the agent be used for passphrase management. Since
3849 that version is increasingly prevalent, this variable now
3850 defaults set.
3851 Mutt works with a GUI or curses pinentry program. A TTY pinen‐
3853 try should not be used.
3854 If you are using an older version of GnuPG without an agent run‐
3856 ning, or another encryption program without an agent, you will
3857 need to unset this variable. (PGP only)
3858 pgp_verify_command
3862 Type: string
3863 Default: “”
3864 This command is used to verify PGP signatures.
3866 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
3868 possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
3869 pgp_verify_key_command
3873 Type: string
3874 Default: “”
3875 This command is used to verify key information from the key
3877 selection menu.
3878 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
3880 possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
3881 pipe_decode
3885 Type: boolean
3886 Default: no
3887 Used in connection with the <pipe-message> function. When
3889 unset, Mutt will pipe the messages without any preprocessing.
3890 When set, Mutt will attempt to decode the messages first.
3891 Also see $pipe_decode_weed, which controls whether headers will
3893 be weeded when this is set.
3894 pipe_decode_weed
3898 Type: boolean
3899 Default: yes
3900 For <pipe-message>, when $pipe_decode is set, this further con‐
3902 trols whether Mutt will weed headers.
3903 pipe_sep
3907 Type: string
3908 Default: “\n”
3909 The separator to add between messages when piping a list of
3911 tagged messages to an external Unix command.
3912 pipe_split
3916 Type: boolean
3917 Default: no
3918 Used in connection with the <pipe-message> function following
3920 <tag-prefix>. If this variable is unset, when piping a list of
3921 tagged messages Mutt will concatenate the messages and will pipe
3922 them all concatenated. When set, Mutt will pipe the messages
3923 one by one. In both cases the messages are piped in the current
3924 sorted order, and the $pipe_sep separator is added after each
3925 message.
3926 pop_auth_try_all
3930 Type: boolean
3931 Default: yes
3932 If set, Mutt will try all available authentication methods.
3934 When unset, Mutt will only fall back to other authentication
3935 methods if the previous methods are unavailable. If a method is
3936 available but authentication fails, Mutt will not connect to the
3937 POP server.
3938 pop_authenticators
3942 Type: string
3943 Default: “”
3944 This is a colon-delimited list of authentication methods mutt
3946 may attempt to use to log in to an POP server, in the order mutt
3947 should try them. Authentication methods are either “user”,
3948 “apop” or any SASL mechanism, e.g. “digest-md5”, “gssapi” or
3949 “cram-md5”. This option is case-insensitive. If this option is
3950 unset (the default) mutt will try all available methods, in
3951 order from most-secure to least-secure.
3952 Example:
3954 set pop_authenticators=”digest-md5:apop:user”
3957 pop_checkinterval
3962 Type: number
3963 Default: 60
3964 This variable configures how often (in seconds) mutt should look
3966 for new mail in the currently selected mailbox if it is a POP
3967 mailbox.
3968 pop_delete
3972 Type: quadoption
3973 Default: ask-no
3974 If set, Mutt will delete successfully downloaded messages from
3976 the POP server when using the <fetch-mail> function. When
3977 unset, Mutt will download messages but also leave them on the
3978 POP server.
3979 pop_host
3983 Type: string
3984 Default: “”
3985 The name of your POP server for the <fetch-mail> function. You
3987 can also specify an alternative port, username and password,
3988 i.e.:
3989 [pop[s]://][username[:password]@]popserver[:port]
3992 where “[...]” denotes an optional part.
3995 pop_last
3999 Type: boolean
4000 Default: no
4001 If this variable is set, mutt will try to use the “LAST” POP
4003 command for retrieving only unread messages from the POP server
4004 when using the <fetch-mail> function.
4005 pop_oauth_refresh_command
4009 Type: string
4010 Default: “”
4011 The command to run to generate an OAUTH refresh token for autho‐
4013 rizing your connection to your POP server. This command will be
4014 run on every connection attempt that uses the OAUTHBEARER
4015 authentication mechanism. See “oauth” for details.
4016 pop_pass
4020 Type: string
4021 Default: “”
4022 Specifies the password for your POP account. If unset, Mutt
4024 will prompt you for your password when you open a POP mailbox.
4025 Warning: you should only use this option when you are on a
4027 fairly secure machine, because the superuser can read your mut‐
4028 trc even if you are the only one who can read the file.
4029 pop_reconnect
4033 Type: quadoption
4034 Default: ask-yes
4035 Controls whether or not Mutt will try to reconnect to the POP
4037 server if the connection is lost.
4038 pop_user
4042 Type: string
4043 Default: “”
4044 Your login name on the POP server.
4046 This variable defaults to your user name on the local machine.
4048 post_indent_string
4052 Type: string
4053 Default: “”
4054 Similar to the $attribution variable, Mutt will append this
4056 string after the inclusion of a message which is being replied
4057 to. For a full listing of defined printf(3)-like sequences see
4058 the section on $index_format.
4059 postpone
4063 Type: quadoption
4064 Default: ask-yes
4065 Controls whether or not messages are saved in the $postponed
4067 mailbox when you elect not to send immediately.
4068 Also see the $recall variable.
4070 postponed
4074 Type: path
4075 Default: “~/postponed”
4076 Mutt allows you to indefinitely “postpone sending a message”
4078 which you are editing. When you choose to postpone a message,
4079 Mutt saves it in the mailbox specified by this variable.
4080 Also see the $postpone variable.
4082 postpone_encrypt
4086 Type: boolean
4087 Default: no
4088 When set, postponed messages that are marked for encryption will
4090 be self-encrypted. Mutt will first try to encrypt using the
4091 value specified in $pgp_default_key or $smime_default_key. If
4092 those are not set, it will try the deprecated $post‐
4093 pone_encrypt_as. (Crypto only)
4094 postpone_encrypt_as
4098 Type: string
4099 Default: “”
4100 This is a deprecated fall-back variable for $postpone_encrypt.
4102 Please use $pgp_default_key or $smime_default_key. (Crypto
4103 only)
4104 preconnect
4108 Type: string
4109 Default: “”
4110 If set, a shell command to be executed if mutt fails to estab‐
4112 lish a connection to the server. This is useful for setting up
4113 secure connections, e.g. with ssh(1). If the command returns a
4114 nonzero status, mutt gives up opening the server. Example:
4115 set preconnect=”ssh -f -q -L 1234:mailhost.net:143 mailhost.net \
4118 sleep 20 < /dev/null > /dev/null”
4119 Mailbox “foo” on “mailhost.net” can now be reached as “{local‐
4122 host:1234}foo”.
4123 Note: For this example to work, you must be able to log in to
4125 the remote machine without having to enter a password.
4126 print
4130 Type: quadoption
4131 Default: ask-no
4132 Controls whether or not Mutt really prints messages. This is
4134 set to “ask-no” by default, because some people accidentally hit
4135 “p” often.
4136 print_command
4140 Type: path
4141 Default: “lpr”
4142 This specifies the command pipe that should be used to print
4144 messages.
4145 print_decode
4149 Type: boolean
4150 Default: yes
4151 Used in connection with the <print-message> function. If this
4153 option is set, the message is decoded before it is passed to the
4154 external command specified by $print_command. If this option is
4155 unset, no processing will be applied to the message when print‐
4156 ing it. The latter setting may be useful if you are using some
4157 advanced printer filter which is able to properly format e-mail
4158 messages for printing.
4159 Also see $print_decode_weed, which controls whether headers will
4161 be weeded when this is set.
4162 print_decode_weed
4166 Type: boolean
4167 Default: yes
4168 For <print-message>, when $print_decode is set, this further
4170 controls whether Mutt will weed headers.
4171 print_split
4175 Type: boolean
4176 Default: no
4177 Used in connection with the <print-message> function. If this
4179 option is set, the command specified by $print_command is exe‐
4180 cuted once for each message which is to be printed. If this
4181 option is unset, the command specified by $print_command is exe‐
4182 cuted only once, and all the messages are concatenated, with a
4183 form feed as the message separator.
4184 Those who use the enscript(1) program's mail-printing mode will
4186 most likely want to set this option.
4187 prompt_after
4191 Type: boolean
4192 Default: yes
4193 If you use an external $pager, setting this variable will cause
4195 Mutt to prompt you for a command when the pager exits rather
4196 than returning to the index menu. If unset, Mutt will return to
4197 the index menu when the external pager exits.
4198 query_command
4202 Type: path
4203 Default: “”
4204 This specifies the command Mutt will use to make external
4206 address queries. The string may contain a “%s”, which will be
4207 substituted with the query string the user types. Mutt will add
4208 quotes around the string substituted for “%s” automatically
4209 according to shell quoting rules, so you should avoid adding
4210 your own. If no “%s” is found in the string, Mutt will append
4211 the user's query to the end of the string. See “query” for more
4212 information.
4213 query_format
4217 Type: string
4218 Default: “%4c %t %-25.25a %-25.25n %?e?(%e)?”
4219 This variable describes the format of the “query” menu. The fol‐
4221 lowing printf(3)-style sequences are understood:
4222 %a destination address
4223 %c current entry number
4224 %e extra information *
4225 %n destination name
4226 %t “*” if current entry is tagged, a space otherwise
4227 %>X right justify the rest of the string and pad with “X”
4228 %|X pad to the end of the line with “X”
4229 %*X soft-fill with character “X” as pad
4230 For an explanation of “soft-fill”, see the $index_format docu‐
4232 mentation.
4233 * = can be optionally printed if nonzero, see the $status_format
4235 documentation.
4236 quit
4240 Type: quadoption
4241 Default: yes
4242 This variable controls whether “quit” and “exit” actually quit
4244 from mutt. If this option is set, they do quit, if it is unset,
4245 they have no effect, and if it is set to ask-yes or ask-no, you
4246 are prompted for confirmation when you try to quit.
4247 quote_regexp
4251 Type: regular expression
4252 Default: “^([ \t]*[|>:}#])+”
4253 A regular expression used in the internal pager to determine
4255 quoted sections of text in the body of a message. Quoted text
4256 may be filtered out using the <toggle-quoted> command, or col‐
4257 ored according to the “color quoted” family of directives.
4258 Higher levels of quoting may be colored differently (“color
4260 quoted1”, “color quoted2”, etc.). The quoting level is deter‐
4261 mined by removing the last character from the matched text and
4262 recursively reapplying the regular expression until it fails to
4263 produce a match.
4264 Match detection may be overridden by the $smileys regular
4266 expression.
4267 read_inc
4271 Type: number
4272 Default: 10
4273 If set to a value greater than 0, Mutt will display which mes‐
4275 sage it is currently on when reading a mailbox or when perform‐
4276 ing search actions such as search and limit. The message is
4277 printed after this many messages have been read or searched
4278 (e.g., if set to 25, Mutt will print a message when it is at
4279 message 25, and then again when it gets to message 50). This
4280 variable is meant to indicate progress when reading or searching
4281 large mailboxes which may take some time. When set to 0, only a
4282 single message will appear before the reading the mailbox.
4283 Also see the $write_inc, $net_inc and $time_inc variables and
4285 the “tuning” section of the manual for performance considera‐
4286 tions.
4287 read_only
4291 Type: boolean
4292 Default: no
4293 If set, all folders are opened in read-only mode.
4295 realname
4299 Type: string
4300 Default: “”
4301 This variable specifies what “real” or “personal” name should be
4303 used when sending messages.
4304 By default, this is the GECOS field from /etc/passwd. Note that
4306 this variable will not be used when the user has set a real name
4307 in the $from variable.
4308 recall
4312 Type: quadoption
4313 Default: ask-yes
4314 Controls whether or not Mutt recalls postponed messages when
4316 composing a new message.
4317 Setting this variable to yes is not generally useful, and thus
4319 not recommended. Note that the <recall-message> function can be
4320 used to manually recall postponed messages.
4321 Also see $postponed variable.
4323 record
4327 Type: path
4328 Default: “~/sent”
4329 This specifies the file into which your outgoing messages should
4331 be appended. (This is meant as the primary method for saving a
4332 copy of your messages, but another way to do this is using the
4333 “my_hdr” command to create a “Bcc:” field with your email
4334 address in it.)
4335 The value of $record is overridden by the $force_name and
4337 $save_name variables, and the “fcc-hook” command. Also see
4338 $copy and $write_bcc.
4339 Multiple mailboxes may be specified if $fcc_delimiter is set to
4341 a string delimiter.
4342 reflow_space_quotes
4346 Type: boolean
4347 Default: yes
4348 This option controls how quotes from format=flowed messages are
4350 displayed in the pager and when replying (with $text_flowed
4351 unset). When set, this option adds spaces after each level of
4352 quote marks, turning ”>>>foo” into ”> > > foo”.
4353 Note: If $reflow_text is unset, this option has no effect.
4355 Also, this option does not affect replies when $text_flowed is
4356 set.
4357 reflow_text
4361 Type: boolean
4362 Default: yes
4363 When set, Mutt will reformat paragraphs in text/plain parts
4365 marked format=flowed. If unset, Mutt will display paragraphs
4366 unaltered from how they appear in the message body. See RFC3676
4367 for details on the format=flowed format.
4368 Also see $reflow_wrap, and $wrap.
4370 reflow_wrap
4374 Type: number
4375 Default: 78
4376 This variable controls the maximum paragraph width when refor‐
4378 matting text/plain parts when $reflow_text is set. When the
4379 value is 0, paragraphs will be wrapped at the terminal's right
4380 margin. A positive value sets the paragraph width relative to
4381 the left margin. A negative value set the paragraph width rela‐
4382 tive to the right margin.
4383 Also see $wrap.
4385 reply_regexp
4389 Type: regular expression
4390 Default: “^(re([\[0-9\]+])*|aw):[ \t]*”
4391 A regular expression used to recognize reply messages when
4393 threading and replying. The default value corresponds to the
4394 English ”Re:” and the German ”Aw:”.
4395 reply_self
4399 Type: boolean
4400 Default: no
4401 If unset and you are replying to a message sent by you, Mutt
4403 will assume that you want to reply to the recipients of that
4404 message rather than to yourself.
4405 Also see the “alternates” command.
4407 reply_to
4411 Type: quadoption
4412 Default: ask-yes
4413 If set, when replying to a message, Mutt will use the address
4415 listed in the Reply-to: header as the recipient of the reply.
4416 If unset, it will use the address in the From: header field
4417 instead. This option is useful for reading a mailing list that
4418 sets the Reply-To: header field to the list address and you want
4419 to send a private message to the author of a message.
4420 resolve
4424 Type: boolean
4425 Default: yes
4426 When set, the cursor will be automatically advanced to the next
4428 (possibly undeleted) message whenever a command that modifies
4429 the current message is executed.
4430 resume_draft_files
4434 Type: boolean
4435 Default: no
4436 If set, draft files (specified by -H on the command line) are
4438 processed similarly to when resuming a postponed message.
4439 Recipients are not prompted for; send-hooks are not evaluated;
4440 no alias expansion takes place; user-defined headers and signa‐
4441 tures are not added to the message.
4442 resume_edited_draft_files
4446 Type: boolean
4447 Default: yes
4448 If set, draft files previously edited (via -E -H on the command
4450 line) will have $resume_draft_files automatically set when they
4451 are used as a draft file again.
4452 The first time a draft file is saved, mutt will add a header,
4454 X-Mutt-Resume-Draft to the saved file. The next time the draft
4455 file is read in, if mutt sees the header, it will set
4456 $resume_draft_files.
4457 This option is designed to prevent multiple signatures,
4459 user-defined headers, and other processing effects from being
4460 made multiple times to the draft file.
4461 reverse_alias
4465 Type: boolean
4466 Default: no
4467 This variable controls whether or not Mutt will display the
4469 “personal” name from your aliases in the index menu if it finds
4470 an alias that matches the message's sender. For example, if you
4471 have the following alias:
4472 alias juser abd30425@somewhere.net (Joe User)
4475 and then you receive mail which contains the following header:
4478 From: abd30425@somewhere.net
4481 It would be displayed in the index menu as “Joe User” instead of
4484 “abd30425@somewhere.net.” This is useful when the person's
4485 e-mail address is not human friendly.
4486 reverse_name
4490 Type: boolean
4491 Default: no
4492 It may sometimes arrive that you receive mail to a certain
4494 machine, move the messages to another machine, and reply to some
4495 the messages from there. If this variable is set, the default
4496 From: line of the reply messages is built using the address
4497 where you received the messages you are replying to if that
4498 address matches your “alternates”. If the variable is unset, or
4499 the address that would be used doesn't match your “alternates”,
4500 the From: line will use your address on the current machine.
4501 Also see the “alternates” command and $reverse_realname.
4503 reverse_realname
4507 Type: boolean
4508 Default: yes
4509 This variable fine-tunes the behavior of the $reverse_name fea‐
4511 ture.
4512 When it is unset, Mutt will remove the real name part of a
4514 matching address. This allows the use of the email address
4515 without having to also use what the sender put in the real name
4516 field.
4517 When it is set, Mutt will use the matching address as-is.
4519 In either case, a missing real name will be filled in afterwards
4521 using the value of $realname.
4522 rfc2047_parameters
4526 Type: boolean
4527 Default: no
4528 When this variable is set, Mutt will decode RFC2047-encoded MIME
4530 parameters. You want to set this variable when mutt suggests you
4531 to save attachments to files named like:
4532 =?iso-8859-1?Q?file=5F=E4=5F991116=2Ezip?=
4535 When this variable is set interactively, the change won't be
4538 active until you change folders.
4539 Note that this use of RFC2047's encoding is explicitly prohib‐
4541 ited by the standard, but nevertheless encountered in the wild.
4542 Also note that setting this parameter will not have the effect
4544 that mutt generates this kind of encoding. Instead, mutt will
4545 unconditionally use the encoding specified in RFC2231.
4546 save_address
4550 Type: boolean
4551 Default: no
4552 If set, mutt will take the sender's full address when choosing a
4554 default folder for saving a mail. If $save_name or $force_name
4555 is set too, the selection of the Fcc folder will be changed as
4556 well.
4557 save_empty
4561 Type: boolean
4562 Default: yes
4563 When unset, mailboxes which contain no saved messages will be
4565 removed when closed (the exception is $spoolfile which is never
4566 removed). If set, mailboxes are never removed.
4567 Note: This only applies to mbox and MMDF folders, Mutt does not
4569 delete MH and Maildir directories.
4570 save_history
4574 Type: number
4575 Default: 0
4576 This variable controls the size of the history (per category)
4578 saved in the $history_file file.
4579 save_name
4583 Type: boolean
4584 Default: no
4585 This variable controls how copies of outgoing messages are
4587 saved. When set, a check is made to see if a mailbox specified
4588 by the recipient address exists (this is done by searching for a
4589 mailbox in the $folder directory with the username part of the
4590 recipient address). If the mailbox exists, the outgoing message
4591 will be saved to that mailbox, otherwise the message is saved to
4592 the $record mailbox.
4593 Also see the $force_name variable.
4595 score
4599 Type: boolean
4600 Default: yes
4601 When this variable is unset, scoring is turned off. This can be
4603 useful to selectively disable scoring for certain folders when
4604 the $score_threshold_delete variable and related are used.
4605 score_threshold_delete
4609 Type: number
4610 Default: -1
4611 Messages which have been assigned a score equal to or lower than
4613 the value of this variable are automatically marked for deletion
4614 by mutt. Since mutt scores are always greater than or equal to
4615 zero, the default setting of this variable will never mark a
4616 message for deletion.
4617 score_threshold_flag
4621 Type: number
4622 Default: 9999
4623 Messages which have been assigned a score greater than or equal
4625 to this variable's value are automatically marked ”flagged”.
4626 score_threshold_read
4630 Type: number
4631 Default: -1
4632 Messages which have been assigned a score equal to or lower than
4634 the value of this variable are automatically marked as read by
4635 mutt. Since mutt scores are always greater than or equal to
4636 zero, the default setting of this variable will never mark a
4637 message read.
4638 search_context
4642 Type: number
4643 Default: 0
4644 For the pager, this variable specifies the number of lines shown
4646 before search results. By default, search results will be
4647 top-aligned.
4648 send_charset
4652 Type: string
4653 Default: “us-ascii:iso-8859-1:utf-8”
4654 A colon-delimited list of character sets for outgoing messages.
4656 Mutt will use the first character set into which the text can be
4657 converted exactly. If your $charset is not “iso-8859-1” and
4658 recipients may not understand “UTF-8”, it is advisable to
4659 include in the list an appropriate widely used standard charac‐
4660 ter set (such as “iso-8859-2”, “koi8-r” or “iso-2022-jp”) either
4661 instead of or after “iso-8859-1”.
4662 In case the text cannot be converted into one of these exactly,
4664 mutt uses $charset as a fallback.
4665 send_multipart_alternative
4669 Type: quadoption
4670 Default: no
4671 If set, Mutt will generate a multipart/alternative container and
4673 an alternative part using the filter script specified in
4674 $send_multipart_alternative_filter. See the section “MIME Mul‐
4675 tipart/Alternative” (alternative-order).
4676 Note that enabling multipart/alternative is not compatible with
4678 inline PGP encryption. Mutt will prompt to use PGP/MIME in that
4679 case.
4680 send_multipart_alternative_filter
4684 Type: path
4685 Default: “”
4686 This specifies a filter script, which will convert the main
4688 (composed) message of the email to an alternative format. The
4689 message will be piped to the filter's stdin. The expected out‐
4690 put of the filter is the generated mime type, e.g. text/html,
4691 followed by a blank line, and then the converted content. See
4692 the section “MIME Multipart/Alternative” (alternative-order).
4693 sendmail
4697 Type: path
4698 Default: “/usr/sbin/sendmail -oem -oi”
4699 Specifies the program and arguments used to deliver mail sent by
4701 Mutt. Mutt expects that the specified program interprets addi‐
4702 tional arguments as recipient addresses. Mutt appends all
4703 recipients after adding a -- delimiter (if not already present).
4704 Additional flags, such as for $use_8bitmime, $use_envelope_from,
4705 $dsn_notify, or $dsn_return will be added before the delimiter.
4706 See also: $write_bcc.
4708 sendmail_wait
4712 Type: number
4713 Default: 0
4714 Specifies the number of seconds to wait for the $sendmail
4716 process to finish before giving up and putting delivery in the
4717 background.
4718 Mutt interprets the value of this variable as follows:
4720 >0 number of seconds to wait for sendmail to finish before
4721 continuing
4722 0 wait forever for sendmail to finish
4723 <0 always put sendmail in the background without waiting
4724 Note that if you specify a value other than 0, the output of the
4726 child process will be put in a temporary file. If there is some
4727 error, you will be informed as to where to find the output.
4728 shell
4732 Type: path
4733 Default: “”
4734 Command to use when spawning a subshell. By default, the user's
4736 login shell from /etc/passwd is used.
4737 sidebar_delim_chars
4741 Type: string
4742 Default: “/.”
4743 This contains the list of characters which you would like to
4745 treat as folder separators for displaying paths in the sidebar.
4746 Local mail is often arranged in directories: `dir1/dir2/mail‐
4748 box'.
4749 set sidebar_delim_chars='/'
4752 IMAP mailboxes are often named: `folder1.folder2.mailbox'.
4755 set sidebar_delim_chars='.'
4758 See also: $sidebar_short_path, $sidebar_folder_indent, $side‐
4761 bar_indent_string.
4762 sidebar_divider_char
4766 Type: string
4767 Default: “|”
4768 This specifies the characters to be drawn between the sidebar
4770 (when visible) and the other Mutt panels. ASCII and Unicode
4771 line-drawing characters are supported.
4772 sidebar_folder_indent
4776 Type: boolean
4777 Default: no
4778 Set this to indent mailboxes in the sidebar.
4780 See also: $sidebar_short_path, $sidebar_indent_string, $side‐
4782 bar_delim_chars.
4783 sidebar_format
4787 Type: string
4788 Default: “%B%* %n”
4789 This variable allows you to customize the sidebar display. This
4791 string is similar to $index_format, but has its own set of
4792 printf(3)-like sequences:
4793 %B Name of the mailbox
4794 %S * Size of mailbox (total number of messages)
4795 %N * Number of unread messages in the mailbox
4796 %n N if mailbox has new mail, blank otherwise
4797 %F * Number of Flagged messages in the mailbox
4798 %! “!” : one flagged message; “!!” : two flagged messages;
4799 “n!” : n flagged messages (for n > 2). Otherwise prints
4800 nothing.
4801 %d * @ Number of deleted messages
4802 %L * @ Number of messages after limiting
4803 %t * @ Number of tagged messages
4804 %>X right justify the rest of the string and pad with “X”
4805 %|X pad to the end of the line with “X”
4806 %*X soft-fill with character “X” as pad
4807 * = Can be optionally printed if nonzero @ = Only applicable to
4809 the current folder
4810 In order to use %S, %N, %F, and %!, $mail_check_stats must be
4812 set. When thus set, a suggested value for this option is
4813 ”%B%?F? [%F]?%* %?N?%N/?%S”.
4814 sidebar_indent_string
4818 Type: string
4819 Default: “ ”
4820 This specifies the string that is used to indent mailboxes in
4822 the sidebar. It defaults to two spaces.
4823 See also: $sidebar_short_path, $sidebar_folder_indent, $side‐
4825 bar_delim_chars.
4826 sidebar_new_mail_only
4830 Type: boolean
4831 Default: no
4832 When set, the sidebar will only display mailboxes containing
4834 new, or flagged, mail.
4835 See also: sidebar_whitelist.
4837 sidebar_next_new_wrap
4841 Type: boolean
4842 Default: no
4843 When set, the <sidebar-next-new> command will not stop and the
4845 end of the list of mailboxes, but wrap around to the beginning.
4846 The <sidebar-prev-new> command is similarly affected, wrapping
4847 around to the end of the list.
4848 sidebar_relative_shortpath_indent
4852 Type: boolean
4853 Default: no
4854 When set, this option changes how $sidebar_short_path and $side‐
4856 bar_folder_indent perform shortening and indentation: both will
4857 look at the previous sidebar entries and shorten/indent relative
4858 to the most recent parent.
4859 An example of this option set/unset for mailboxes listed in this
4861 order, with $sidebar_short_path=yes, $sidebar_folder_indent=yes,
4862 and $sidebar_indent_string=”→”:
4863 mailbox
4864 set unset
4865 =a.b =a.b →b
4866 =a.b.c.d
4867 →c.d →→→d
4868 =a.b.e →e →→e
4869 The second line illustrates most clearly. With this option set,
4871 =a.b.c.d is shortened relative to =a.b, becoming c.d; it is also
4872 indented one place relative to =a.b. With this option unset
4873 =a.b.c.d is always shortened to the last part of the mailbox, d
4874 and is indented three places, with respect to $folder (repre‐
4875 sented by '=').
4876 When set, the third line will also be indented and shortened
4878 relative to the first line.
4879 sidebar_short_path
4883 Type: boolean
4884 Default: no
4885 By default the sidebar will show the mailbox's path, relative to
4887 the $folder variable. Setting sidebar_shortpath=yes will shorten
4888 the names relative to the previous name. Here's an example:
4889 shortpath=no
4890 shortpath=yes shortpath=yes, folderindent=yes,
4891 indentstr=”..”
4892 fruit fruit fruit
4893 fruit.apple
4894 apple ..apple
4895 fruit.banana
4896 banana ..banana
4897 fruit.cherry
4898 cherry ..cherry
4899 See also: $sidebar_delim_chars, $sidebar_folder_indent, $side‐
4901 bar_indent_string.
4902 sidebar_sort_method
4906 Type: sort order
4907 Default: order
4908 Specifies how to sort mailbox entries in the sidebar. By
4910 default, the entries are sorted alphabetically. Valid values:
4911 ‐ alpha (alphabetically)
4912 ‐ count (all message count)
4913 ‐ flagged (flagged message count)
4914 ‐ name (alphabetically)
4915 ‐ new (unread message count)
4916 ‐ path (alphabetically)
4917 ‐ unread (unread message count)
4918 ‐ unsorted
4919 You may optionally use the “reverse-” prefix to specify reverse
4921 sorting order (example: “set side‐
4922 bar_sort_method=reverse-alpha”).
4923 sidebar_use_mailbox_shortcuts
4927 Type: boolean
4928 Default: no
4929 When set, sidebar mailboxes will be displayed with mailbox
4931 shortcut prefixes ”=” or ”~”.
4932 When unset, the sidebar will trim off a matching $folder prefix
4934 but otherwise not use mailbox shortcuts.
4935 sidebar_visible
4939 Type: boolean
4940 Default: no
4941 This specifies whether or not to show sidebar. The sidebar shows
4943 a list of all your mailboxes.
4944 See also: $sidebar_format, $sidebar_width
4946 sidebar_width
4950 Type: number
4951 Default: 30
4952 This controls the width of the sidebar. It is measured in
4954 screen columns. For example: sidebar_width=20 could display 20
4955 ASCII characters, or 10 Chinese characters.
4956 sig_dashes
4960 Type: boolean
4961 Default: yes
4962 If set, a line containing “-- ” (note the trailing space) will
4964 be inserted before your $signature. It is strongly recommended
4965 that you not unset this variable unless your signature contains
4966 just your name. The reason for this is because many software
4967 packages use “-- \n” to detect your signature. For example,
4968 Mutt has the ability to highlight the signature in a different
4969 color in the built-in pager.
4970 sig_on_top
4974 Type: boolean
4975 Default: no
4976 If set, the signature will be included before any quoted or for‐
4978 warded text. It is strongly recommended that you do not set
4979 this variable unless you really know what you are doing, and are
4980 prepared to take some heat from netiquette guardians.
4981 signature
4985 Type: path
4986 Default: “~/.signature”
4987 Specifies the filename of your signature, which is appended to
4989 all outgoing messages. If the filename ends with a pipe (“|”),
4990 it is assumed that filename is a shell command and input should
4991 be read from its standard output.
4992 simple_search
4996 Type: string
4997 Default: “~f %s | ~s %s”
4998 Specifies how Mutt should expand a simple search into a real
5000 search pattern. A simple search is one that does not contain
5001 any of the “~” pattern modifiers. See “patterns” for more
5002 information on search patterns.
5003 For example, if you simply type “joe” at a search or limit
5005 prompt, Mutt will automatically expand it to the value specified
5006 by this variable by replacing “%s” with the supplied string.
5007 For the default value, “joe” would be expanded to: “~f joe | ~s
5008 joe”.
5009 size_show_bytes
5013 Type: boolean
5014 Default: no
5015 If set, message sizes will display bytes for values less than 1
5017 kilobyte. See formatstrings-size.
5018 size_show_fractions
5022 Type: boolean
5023 Default: yes
5024 If set, message sizes will be displayed with a single decimal
5026 value for sizes from 0 to 10 kilobytes and 1 to 10 megabytes.
5027 See formatstrings-size.
5028 size_show_mb
5032 Type: boolean
5033 Default: yes
5034 If set, message sizes will display megabytes for values greater
5036 than or equal to 1 megabyte. See formatstrings-size.
5037 size_units_on_left
5041 Type: boolean
5042 Default: no
5043 If set, message sizes units will be displayed to the left of the
5045 number. See formatstrings-size.
5046 sleep_time
5050 Type: number
5051 Default: 1
5052 Specifies time, in seconds, to pause while displaying certain
5054 informational messages, while moving from folder to folder and
5055 after expunging messages from the current folder. The default
5056 is to pause one second, so a value of zero for this option sup‐
5057 presses the pause.
5058 smart_wrap
5062 Type: boolean
5063 Default: yes
5064 Controls the display of lines longer than the screen width in
5066 the internal pager. If set, long lines are wrapped at a word
5067 boundary. If unset, lines are simply wrapped at the screen
5068 edge. Also see the $markers variable.
5069 smileys
5073 Type: regular expression
5074 Default: “(>From )|(:[-^]?[][)(><}{|/DP])”
5075 The pager uses this variable to catch some common false posi‐
5077 tives of $quote_regexp, most notably smileys and not consider a
5078 line quoted text if it also matches $smileys. This mostly hap‐
5079 pens at the beginning of a line.
5080 smime_ask_cert_label
5084 Type: boolean
5085 Default: yes
5086 This flag controls whether you want to be asked to enter a label
5088 for a certificate about to be added to the database or not. It
5089 is set by default. (S/MIME only)
5090 smime_ca_location
5094 Type: path
5095 Default: “”
5096 This variable contains the name of either a directory, or a file
5098 which contains trusted certificates for use with OpenSSL.
5099 (S/MIME only)
5100 smime_certificates
5104 Type: path
5105 Default: “”
5106 Since for S/MIME there is no pubring/secring as with PGP, mutt
5108 has to handle storage and retrieval of keys by itself. This is
5109 very basic right now, and keys and certificates are stored in
5110 two different directories, both named as the hash-value
5111 retrieved from OpenSSL. There is an index file which contains
5112 mailbox-address keyid pairs, and which can be manually edited.
5113 This option points to the location of the certificates. (S/MIME
5114 only)
5115 smime_decrypt_command
5119 Type: string
5120 Default: “”
5121 This format string specifies a command which is used to decrypt
5123 application/x-pkcs7-mime attachments.
5124 The OpenSSL command formats have their own set of printf(3)-like
5126 sequences similar to PGP's:
5127 %f Expands to the name of a file containing a message.
5128 %s Expands to the name of a file containing the signature
5129 part
5130 of a multipart/signed attachment when verify‐
5131 ing it.
5132 %k The key-pair specified with $smime_default_key
5133 %c One or more certificate IDs.
5134 %a The algorithm used for encryption.
5135 %d The message digest algorithm specified with
5136 $smime_sign_digest_alg.
5137 %C CA location: Depending on whether $smime_ca_location
5138 points to a directory or file, this expands to
5139 “-CApath $smime_ca_location” or “-CAfile
5140 $smime_ca_location”.
5141 For examples on how to configure these formats, see the smime.rc
5143 in the samples/ subdirectory which has been installed on your
5144 system alongside the documentation. (S/MIME only)
5145 smime_decrypt_use_default_key
5149 Type: boolean
5150 Default: yes
5151 If set (default) this tells mutt to use the default key for
5153 decryption. Otherwise, if managing multiple certifi‐
5154 cate-key-pairs, mutt will try to use the mailbox-address to
5155 determine the key to use. It will ask you to supply a key, if it
5156 can't find one. (S/MIME only)
5157 smime_default_key
5161 Type: string
5162 Default: “”
5163 This is the default key-pair to use for S/MIME operations, and
5165 must be set to the keyid (the hash-value that OpenSSL generates)
5166 to work properly.
5167 It will be used for encryption (see $postpone_encrypt and
5169 $smime_self_encrypt). If GPGME is enabled, this is the key id
5170 displayed by gpgsm.
5171 It will be used for decryption unless
5173 $smime_decrypt_use_default_key is unset.
5174 It will also be used for signing unless $smime_sign_as is set.
5176 The (now deprecated) smime_self_encrypt_as is an alias for this
5178 variable, and should no longer be used. (S/MIME only)
5179 smime_encrypt_command
5183 Type: string
5184 Default: “”
5185 This command is used to create encrypted S/MIME messages.
5187 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command
5189 for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
5190 smime_encrypt_with
5194 Type: string
5195 Default: “aes256”
5196 This sets the algorithm that should be used for encryption.
5198 Valid choices are “aes128”, “aes192”, “aes256”, “des”, “des3”,
5199 “rc2-40”, “rc2-64”, “rc2-128”. (S/MIME only)
5200 smime_get_cert_command
5204 Type: string
5205 Default: “”
5206 This command is used to extract X509 certificates from a PKCS7
5208 structure.
5209 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command
5211 for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
5212 smime_get_cert_email_command
5216 Type: string
5217 Default: “”
5218 This command is used to extract the mail address(es) used for
5220 storing X509 certificates, and for verification purposes (to
5221 check whether the certificate was issued for the sender's mail‐
5222 box).
5223 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command
5225 for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
5226 smime_get_signer_cert_command
5230 Type: string
5231 Default: “”
5232 This command is used to extract only the signers X509 certifi‐
5234 cate from a S/MIME signature, so that the certificate's owner
5235 may get compared to the email's “From:” field.
5236 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command
5238 for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
5239 smime_import_cert_command
5243 Type: string
5244 Default: “”
5245 This command is used to import a certificate via smime_keys.
5247 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command
5249 for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
5250 smime_is_default
5254 Type: boolean
5255 Default: no
5256 The default behavior of mutt is to use PGP on all
5258 auto-sign/encryption operations. To override and to use OpenSSL
5259 instead this must be set. However, this has no effect while
5260 replying, since mutt will automatically select the same applica‐
5261 tion that was used to sign/encrypt the original message. (Note
5262 that this variable can be overridden by unsetting
5263 $crypt_autosmime.) (S/MIME only)
5264 smime_keys
5268 Type: path
5269 Default: “”
5270 Since for S/MIME there is no pubring/secring as with PGP, mutt
5272 has to handle storage and retrieval of keys/certs by itself.
5273 This is very basic right now, and stores keys and certificates
5274 in two different directories, both named as the hash-value
5275 retrieved from OpenSSL. There is an index file which contains
5276 mailbox-address keyid pair, and which can be manually edited.
5277 This option points to the location of the private keys. (S/MIME
5278 only)
5279 smime_pk7out_command
5283 Type: string
5284 Default: “”
5285 This command is used to extract PKCS7 structures of S/MIME sig‐
5287 natures, in order to extract the public X509 certificate(s).
5288 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command
5290 for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
5291 smime_self_encrypt
5295 Type: boolean
5296 Default: yes
5297 When set, S/MIME encrypted messages will also be encrypted using
5299 the certificate in $smime_default_key. (S/MIME only)
5300 smime_sign_as
5304 Type: string
5305 Default: “”
5306 If you have a separate key to use for signing, you should set
5308 this to the signing key. Most people will only need to set
5309 $smime_default_key. (S/MIME only)
5310 smime_sign_command
5314 Type: string
5315 Default: “”
5316 This command is used to created S/MIME signatures of type multi‐
5318 part/signed, which can be read by all mail clients.
5319 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command
5321 for possible printf(3)-like sequences. NOTE: %c and %k will
5322 default to $smime_sign_as if set, otherwise $smime_default_key.
5323 (S/MIME only)
5324 smime_sign_digest_alg
5328 Type: string
5329 Default: “sha256”
5330 This sets the algorithm that should be used for the signature
5332 message digest. Valid choices are “md5”, “sha1”, “sha224”,
5333 “sha256”, “sha384”, “sha512”. (S/MIME only)
5334 smime_sign_opaque_command
5338 Type: string
5339 Default: “”
5340 This command is used to created S/MIME signatures of type appli‐
5342 cation/x-pkcs7-signature, which can only be handled by mail
5343 clients supporting the S/MIME extension.
5344 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command
5346 for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
5347 smime_timeout
5351 Type: number (long)
5352 Default: 300
5353 The number of seconds after which a cached passphrase will
5355 expire if not used. (S/MIME only)
5356 smime_verify_command
5360 Type: string
5361 Default: “”
5362 This command is used to verify S/MIME signatures of type multi‐
5364 part/signed.
5365 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command
5367 for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
5368 smime_verify_opaque_command
5372 Type: string
5373 Default: “”
5374 This command is used to verify S/MIME signatures of type appli‐
5376 cation/x-pkcs7-mime.
5377 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command
5379 for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
5380 smtp_authenticators
5384 Type: string
5385 Default: “”
5386 This is a colon-delimited list of authentication methods mutt
5388 may attempt to use to log in to an SMTP server, in the order
5389 mutt should try them. Authentication methods are any SASL mech‐
5390 anism, e.g. “digest-md5”, “gssapi” or “cram-md5”. This option
5391 is case-insensitive. If it is “unset” (the default) mutt will
5392 try all available methods, in order from most-secure to
5393 least-secure.
5394 Example:
5396 set smtp_authenticators=”digest-md5:cram-md5”
5399 smtp_oauth_refresh_command
5404 Type: string
5405 Default: “”
5406 The command to run to generate an OAUTH refresh token for autho‐
5408 rizing your connection to your SMTP server. This command will
5409 be run on every connection attempt that uses the OAUTHBEARER
5410 authentication mechanism. See “oauth” for details.
5411 smtp_pass
5415 Type: string
5416 Default: “”
5417 Specifies the password for your SMTP account. If unset, Mutt
5419 will prompt you for your password when you first send mail via
5420 SMTP. See $smtp_url to configure mutt to send mail via SMTP.
5421 Warning: you should only use this option when you are on a
5423 fairly secure machine, because the superuser can read your mut‐
5424 trc even if you are the only one who can read the file.
5425 smtp_url
5429 Type: string
5430 Default: “”
5431 Defines the SMTP smarthost where sent messages should relayed
5433 for delivery. This should take the form of an SMTP URL, e.g.:
5434 smtp[s]://[user[:pass]@]host[:port]
5437 where “[...]” denotes an optional part. Setting this variable
5440 overrides the value of the $sendmail variable.
5441 Also see $write_bcc.
5443 sort
5447 Type: sort order
5448 Default: date
5449 Specifies how to sort messages in the “index” menu. Valid val‐
5451 ues are:
5452 ‐ date or date-sent
5453 ‐ date-received
5454 ‐ from
5455 ‐ mailbox-order (unsorted)
5456 ‐ score
5457 ‐ size
5458 ‐ spam
5459 ‐ subject
5460 ‐ threads
5461 ‐ to
5462 You may optionally use the “reverse-” prefix to specify reverse
5464 sorting order (example: “set sort=reverse-date-sent”).
5465 sort_alias
5469 Type: sort order
5470 Default: alias
5471 Specifies how the entries in the “alias” menu are sorted. The
5473 following are legal values:
5474 ‐ address (sort alphabetically by email address)
5475 ‐ alias (sort alphabetically by alias name)
5476 ‐ unsorted (leave in order specified in .muttrc)
5477 sort_aux
5480 Type: sort order
5481 Default: date
5482 This provides a secondary sort for messages in the “index” menu,
5484 used when the $sort value is equal for two messages.
5485 When sorting by threads, this variable controls how threads are
5487 sorted in relation to other threads, and how the branches of the
5488 thread trees are sorted. This can be set to any value that
5489 $sort can, except “threads” (in that case, mutt will just use
5490 “date-sent”). You can also specify the “last-” prefix in addi‐
5491 tion to the “reverse-” prefix, but “last-” must come after
5492 “reverse-”. The “last-” prefix causes messages to be sorted
5493 against its siblings by which has the last descendant, using the
5494 rest of $sort_aux as an ordering. For instance,
5495 set sort_aux=last-date-received
5498 would mean that if a new message is received in a thread, that
5501 thread becomes the last one displayed (or the first, if you have
5502 “set sort=reverse-threads”.)
5503 Note: For reversed-threads $sort order, $sort_aux is reversed
5505 again (which is not the right thing to do, but kept to not break
5506 any existing configuration setting).
5507 sort_browser
5511 Type: sort order
5512 Default: alpha
5513 Specifies how to sort entries in the file browser. By default,
5515 the entries are sorted alphabetically. Valid values:
5516 ‐ alpha (alphabetically)
5517 ‐ count
5518 ‐ date
5519 ‐ size
5520 ‐ unread
5521 ‐ unsorted
5522 You may optionally use the “reverse-” prefix to specify reverse
5524 sorting order (example: “set sort_browser=reverse-date”).
5525 sort_re
5529 Type: boolean
5530 Default: yes
5531 This variable is only useful when sorting by threads with
5533 $strict_threads unset. In that case, it changes the heuristic
5534 mutt uses to thread messages by subject. With $sort_re set,
5535 mutt will only attach a message as the child of another message
5536 by subject if the subject of the child message starts with a
5537 substring matching the setting of $reply_regexp. With $sort_re
5538 unset, mutt will attach the message whether or not this is the
5539 case, as long as the non-$reply_regexp parts of both messages
5540 are identical.
5541 spam_separator
5545 Type: string
5546 Default: “,”
5547 This variable controls what happens when multiple spam headers
5549 are matched: if unset, each successive header will overwrite any
5550 previous matches value for the spam label. If set, each succes‐
5551 sive match will append to the previous, using this variable's
5552 value as a separator.
5553 spoolfile
5557 Type: path
5558 Default: “”
5559 If your spool mailbox is in a non-default place where Mutt can‐
5561 not find it, you can specify its location with this variable.
5562 Mutt will initially set this variable to the value of the envi‐
5563 ronment variable $MAIL or $MAILDIR if either is defined.
5564 ssl_ca_certificates_file
5568 Type: path
5569 Default: “/etc/ssl/certs/ca-bundle.crt”
5570 This variable specifies a file containing trusted CA certifi‐
5572 cates. Any server certificate that is signed with one of these
5573 CA certificates is also automatically accepted. (GnuTLS only)
5574 Example:
5576 set ssl_ca_certificates_file=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
5579 ssl_client_cert
5584 Type: path
5585 Default: “”
5586 The file containing a client certificate and its associated pri‐
5588 vate key.
5589 ssl_force_tls
5593 Type: boolean
5594 Default: no
5595 If this variable is set, Mutt will require that all connections
5597 to remote servers be encrypted. Furthermore it will attempt to
5598 negotiate TLS even if the server does not advertise the capabil‐
5599 ity, since it would otherwise have to abort the connection any‐
5600 way. This option supersedes $ssl_starttls.
5601 ssl_min_dh_prime_bits
5605 Type: number
5606 Default: 0
5607 This variable specifies the minimum acceptable prime size (in
5609 bits) for use in any Diffie-Hellman key exchange. A value of 0
5610 will use the default from the GNUTLS library. (GnuTLS only)
5611 ssl_starttls
5615 Type: quadoption
5616 Default: yes
5617 If set (the default), mutt will attempt to use STARTTLS on
5619 servers advertising the capability. When unset, mutt will not
5620 attempt to use STARTTLS regardless of the server's capabilities.
5621 Note that STARTTLS is subject to many kinds of attacks, includ‐
5623 ing the ability of a machine-in-the-middle to suppress the
5624 advertising of support. Setting $ssl_force_tls is recommended
5625 if you rely on STARTTLS.
5626 ssl_use_sslv2
5630 Type: boolean
5631 Default: no
5632 If set , Mutt will use SSLv2 when communicating with servers
5634 that request it. N.B. As of 2011, SSLv2 is considered insecure,
5635 and using is inadvisable. See
5636 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6176 . (OpenSSL only)
5637 ssl_use_sslv3
5641 Type: boolean
5642 Default: no
5643 If set , Mutt will use SSLv3 when communicating with servers
5645 that request it. N.B. As of 2015, SSLv3 is considered insecure,
5646 and using it is inadvisable. See
5647 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7525 .
5648 ssl_use_tlsv1
5652 Type: boolean
5653 Default: no
5654 If set , Mutt will use TLSv1.0 when communicating with servers
5656 that request it. N.B. As of 2015, TLSv1.0 is considered inse‐
5657 cure, and using it is inadvisable. See
5658 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7525 .
5659 ssl_use_tlsv1_1
5663 Type: boolean
5664 Default: no
5665 If set , Mutt will use TLSv1.1 when communicating with servers
5667 that request it. N.B. As of 2015, TLSv1.1 is considered inse‐
5668 cure, and using it is inadvisable. See
5669 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7525 .
5670 ssl_use_tlsv1_2
5674 Type: boolean
5675 Default: yes
5676 If set , Mutt will use TLSv1.2 when communicating with servers
5678 that request it.
5679 ssl_use_tlsv1_3
5683 Type: boolean
5684 Default: yes
5685 If set , Mutt will use TLSv1.3 when communicating with servers
5687 that request it.
5688 ssl_usesystemcerts
5692 Type: boolean
5693 Default: yes
5694 If set to yes, mutt will use CA certificates in the system-wide
5696 certificate store when checking if a server certificate is
5697 signed by a trusted CA. (OpenSSL only)
5698 ssl_verify_dates
5702 Type: boolean
5703 Default: yes
5704 If set (the default), mutt will not automatically accept a
5706 server certificate that is either not yet valid or already
5707 expired. You should only unset this for particular known hosts,
5708 using the <account-hook> function.
5709 ssl_verify_host
5713 Type: boolean
5714 Default: yes
5715 If set (the default), mutt will not automatically accept a
5717 server certificate whose host name does not match the host used
5718 in your folder URL. You should only unset this for particular
5719 known hosts, using the <account-hook> function.
5720 ssl_verify_partial_chains
5724 Type: boolean
5725 Default: no
5726 This option should not be changed from the default unless you
5728 understand what you are doing.
5729 Setting this variable to yes will permit verifying partial cer‐
5731 tification chains, i. e. a certificate chain where not the root,
5732 but an intermediate certificate CA, or the host certificate, are
5733 marked trusted (in $certificate_file), without marking the root
5734 signing CA as trusted.
5735 (OpenSSL 1.0.2b and newer only).
5737 ssl_ciphers
5741 Type: string
5742 Default: “@SYSTEM”
5743 Contains a colon-separated list of ciphers to use when using
5745 SSL. For OpenSSL, see ciphers(1) for the syntax of the string.
5746 For GnuTLS, this option will be used in place of ”NORMAL” at the
5748 start of the priority string. See gnutls_priority_init(3) for
5749 the syntax and more details. (Note: GnuTLS version 2.1.7 or
5750 higher is required.)
5751 status_chars
5755 Type: string
5756 Default: “-*%A”
5757 Controls the characters used by the “%r” indicator in $sta‐
5759 tus_format. The first character is used when the mailbox is
5760 unchanged. The second is used when the mailbox has been changed,
5761 and it needs to be resynchronized. The third is used if the
5762 mailbox is in read-only mode, or if the mailbox will not be
5763 written when exiting that mailbox (You can toggle whether to
5764 write changes to a mailbox with the <toggle-write> operation,
5765 bound by default to “%”). The fourth is used to indicate that
5766 the current folder has been opened in attach- message mode (Cer‐
5767 tain operations like composing a new mail, replying, forwarding,
5768 etc. are not permitted in this mode).
5769 status_format
5773 Type: string (localized)
5774 Default: “-%r-Mutt: %f [Msgs:%?M?%M/?%m%?n? New:%n?%?o? Old:%o?%?d? Del:%d?%?F? Flag:%F?%?t? Tag:%t?%?p? Post:%p?%?b? Inc:%b?%?B? Back:%B?%?l? %l?]---(%s/%S)-%>-(%P)---”
5775 Controls the format of the status line displayed in the “index”
5777 menu. This string is similar to $index_format, but has its own
5778 set of printf(3)-like sequences:
5779 %b number of mailboxes with new mail *
5780 %B number of backgrounded editing sessions *
5781 %d number of deleted messages *
5782 %f the full pathname of the current mailbox
5783 %F number of flagged messages *
5784 %h local hostname
5785 %l size (in bytes) of the current mailbox (see format‐
5786 strings-size) *
5787 %L size (in bytes) of the messages shown (i.e., which match
5788 the current limit) (see formatstrings-size) *
5789 %m the number of messages in the mailbox *
5790 %M the number of messages shown (i.e., which match the cur‐
5791 rent limit) *
5792 %n number of new messages in the mailbox *
5793 %o number of old unread messages *
5794 %p number of postponed messages *
5795 %P percentage of the way through the index
5796 %r modified/read-only/won't-write/attach-message indicator,
5797 according to $status_chars
5798 %R number of read messages *
5799 %s current sorting mode ($sort)
5800 %S current aux sorting method ($sort_aux)
5801 %t number of tagged messages *
5802 %u number of unread messages *
5803 %v Mutt version string
5804 %V currently active limit pattern, if any *
5805 %>X right justify the rest of the string and pad with “X”
5806 %|X pad to the end of the line with “X”
5807 %*X soft-fill with character “X” as pad
5808 For an explanation of “soft-fill”, see the $index_format docu‐
5810 mentation.
5811 * = can be optionally printed if nonzero
5813 Some of the above sequences can be used to optionally print a
5815 string if their value is nonzero. For example, you may only
5816 want to see the number of flagged messages if such messages
5817 exist, since zero is not particularly meaningful. To optionally
5818 print a string based upon one of the above sequences, the fol‐
5819 lowing construct is used:
5820 %?<sequence_char>?<optional_string>?
5822 where sequence_char is a character from the table above, and
5824 optional_string is the string you would like printed if
5825 sequence_char is nonzero. optional_string may contain other
5826 sequences as well as normal text, but you may not nest optional
5827 strings.
5828 Here is an example illustrating how to optionally print the num‐
5830 ber of new messages in a mailbox:
5831 %?n?%n new messages.?
5833 You can also switch between two strings using the following con‐
5835 struct:
5836 %?<sequence_char>?<if_string>&<else_string>?
5838 If the value of sequence_char is non-zero, if_string will be
5840 expanded, otherwise else_string will be expanded.
5841 You can force the result of any printf(3)-like sequence to be
5843 lowercase by prefixing the sequence character with an underscore
5844 (“_”) sign. For example, if you want to display the local host‐
5845 name in lowercase, you would use: “%_h”.
5846 If you prefix the sequence character with a colon (“:”) charac‐
5848 ter, mutt will replace any dots in the expansion by underscores.
5849 This might be helpful with IMAP folders that don't like dots in
5850 folder names.
5851 status_on_top
5855 Type: boolean
5856 Default: no
5857 Setting this variable causes the “status bar” to be displayed on
5859 the first line of the screen rather than near the bottom. If
5860 $help is set, too it'll be placed at the bottom.
5861 strict_threads
5865 Type: boolean
5866 Default: no
5867 If set, threading will only make use of the “In-Reply-To” and
5869 “References:” fields when you $sort by message threads. By
5870 default, messages with the same subject are grouped together in
5871 “pseudo threads.”. This may not always be desirable, such as in
5872 a personal mailbox where you might have several unrelated mes‐
5873 sages with the subjects like “hi” which will get grouped
5874 together. See also $sort_re for a less drastic way of control‐
5875 ling this behavior.
5876 suspend
5880 Type: boolean
5881 Default: yes
5882 When unset, mutt won't stop when the user presses the terminal's
5884 susp key, usually “^Z”. This is useful if you run mutt inside an
5885 xterm using a command like “xterm -e mutt”.
5886 text_flowed
5890 Type: boolean
5891 Default: no
5892 When set, mutt will generate “format=flowed” bodies with a con‐
5894 tent type of “text/plain; format=flowed”. This format is easier
5895 to handle for some mailing software, and generally just looks
5896 like ordinary text. To actually make use of this format's fea‐
5897 tures, you'll need support in your editor.
5898 The option only controls newly composed messages. Postponed
5900 messages, resent messages, and draft messages (via -H on the
5901 command line) will use the content-type of the source message.
5902 Note that $indent_string is ignored when this option is set.
5904 thorough_search
5908 Type: boolean
5909 Default: yes
5910 Affects the ~b and ~h search operations described in section
5912 “patterns”. If set, the headers and body/attachments of mes‐
5913 sages to be searched are decoded before searching. If unset,
5914 messages are searched as they appear in the folder.
5915 Users searching attachments or for non-ASCII characters should
5917 set this value because decoding also includes MIME pars‐
5918 ing/decoding and possible character set conversions. Otherwise
5919 mutt will attempt to match against the raw message received (for
5920 example quoted-printable encoded or with encoded headers) which
5921 may lead to incorrect search results.
5922 thread_received
5926 Type: boolean
5927 Default: no
5928 When set, mutt uses the date received rather than the date sent
5930 to thread messages by subject.
5931 tilde
5935 Type: boolean
5936 Default: no
5937 When set, the internal-pager will pad blank lines to the bottom
5939 of the screen with a tilde (“~”).
5940 time_inc
5944 Type: number
5945 Default: 0
5946 Along with $read_inc, $write_inc, and $net_inc, this variable
5948 controls the frequency with which progress updates are dis‐
5949 played. It suppresses updates less than $time_inc milliseconds
5950 apart. This can improve throughput on systems with slow termi‐
5951 nals, or when running mutt on a remote system.
5952 Also see the “tuning” section of the manual for performance con‐
5954 siderations.
5955 timeout
5959 Type: number
5960 Default: 600
5961 When Mutt is waiting for user input either idling in menus or in
5963 an interactive prompt, Mutt would block until input is present.
5964 Depending on the context, this would prevent certain operations
5965 from working, like checking for new mail or keeping an IMAP con‐
5966 nection alive.
5967 This variable controls how many seconds Mutt will at most wait
5969 until it aborts waiting for input, performs these operations and
5970 continues to wait for input.
5971 A value of zero or less will cause Mutt to never time out.
5973 tmpdir
5977 Type: path
5978 Default: “”
5979 This variable allows you to specify where Mutt will place its
5981 temporary files needed for displaying and composing messages.
5982 If this variable is not set, the environment variable $TMPDIR is
5983 used. If $TMPDIR is not set then “/tmp” is used.
5984 to_chars
5988 Type: string
5989 Default: “ +TCFL”
5990 Controls the character used to indicate mail addressed to you.
5992 The first character is the one used when the mail is not
5993 addressed to your address. The second is used when you are the
5994 only recipient of the message. The third is when your address
5995 appears in the “To:” header field, but you are not the only
5996 recipient of the message. The fourth character is used when
5997 your address is specified in the “Cc:” header field, but you are
5998 not the only recipient. The fifth character is used to indicate
5999 mail that was sent by you. The sixth character is used to indi‐
6000 cate when a mail was sent to a mailing-list you subscribe to.
6001 trash
6005 Type: path
6006 Default: “”
6007 If set, this variable specifies the path of the trash folder
6009 where the mails marked for deletion will be moved, instead of
6010 being irremediably purged.
6011 NOTE: When you delete a message in the trash folder, it is
6013 really deleted, so that you have a way to clean the trash.
6014 ts_icon_format
6018 Type: string (localized)
6019 Default: “M%?n?AIL&ail?”
6020 Controls the format of the icon title, as long as “$ts_enabled”
6022 is set. This string is identical in formatting to the one used
6023 by “$status_format”.
6024 ts_enabled
6028 Type: boolean
6029 Default: no
6030 Controls whether mutt tries to set the terminal status line and
6032 icon name. Most terminal emulators emulate the status line in
6033 the window title.
6034 ts_status_format
6038 Type: string (localized)
6039 Default: “Mutt with %?m?%m messages&no messages?%?n? [%n NEW]?”
6040 Controls the format of the terminal status line (or window
6042 title), provided that “$ts_enabled” has been set. This string is
6043 identical in formatting to the one used by “$status_format”.
6044 tunnel
6048 Type: string
6049 Default: “”
6050 Setting this variable will cause mutt to open a pipe to a com‐
6052 mand instead of a raw socket. You may be able to use this to set
6053 up preauthenticated connections to your IMAP/POP3/SMTP server.
6054 Example:
6055 set tunnel=”ssh -q mailhost.net /usr/local/libexec/imapd”
6058 Note: For this example to work you must be able to log in to the
6061 remote machine without having to enter a password.
6062 When set, Mutt uses the tunnel for all remote connections.
6064 Please see “account-hook” in the manual for how to use different
6065 tunnel commands per connection.
6066 tunnel_is_secure
6070 Type: boolean
6071 Default: yes
6072 When set, Mutt will assume the $tunnel connection does not need
6074 STARTTLS to be enabled. It will also allow IMAP PREAUTH server
6075 responses inside a tunnel to proceed. This is appropriate if
6076 $tunnel uses ssh or directly invokes the server locally.
6077 When unset, Mutt will negotiate STARTTLS according to the
6079 ssl_starttls and ssl_force_tls variables. If ssl_force_tls is
6080 set, Mutt will abort connecting if an IMAP server responds with
6081 PREAUTH. This setting is appropriate if $tunnel does not pro‐
6082 vide security and could be tampered with by attackers.
6083 uncollapse_jump
6087 Type: boolean
6088 Default: no
6089 When set, Mutt will jump to the next unread message, if any,
6091 when the current thread is uncollapsed.
6092 uncollapse_new
6096 Type: boolean
6097 Default: yes
6098 When set, Mutt will automatically uncollapse any collapsed
6100 thread that receives a new message. When unset, collapsed
6101 threads will remain collapsed. the presence of the new message
6102 will still affect index sorting, though.
6103 use_8bitmime
6107 Type: boolean
6108 Default: no
6109 Warning: do not set this variable unless you are using a version
6111 of sendmail which supports the -B8BITMIME flag (such as sendmail
6112 8.8.x) or you may not be able to send mail.
6113 When set, Mutt will invoke $sendmail with the -B8BITMIME flag
6115 when sending 8-bit messages to enable ESMTP negotiation.
6116 use_domain
6120 Type: boolean
6121 Default: yes
6122 When set, Mutt will qualify all local addresses (ones without
6124 the “@host” portion) with the value of $hostname. If unset, no
6125 addresses will be qualified.
6126 use_envelope_from
6130 Type: boolean
6131 Default: no
6132 When set, mutt will set the envelope sender of the message. If
6134 $envelope_from_address is set, it will be used as the sender
6135 address. If unset, mutt will attempt to derive the sender from
6136 the “From:” header.
6137 Note that this information is passed to sendmail command using
6139 the -f command line switch. Therefore setting this option is not
6140 useful if the $sendmail variable already contains -f or if the
6141 executable pointed to by $sendmail doesn't support the -f
6142 switch.
6143 use_from
6147 Type: boolean
6148 Default: yes
6149 When set, Mutt will generate the “From:” header field when send‐
6151 ing messages. If unset, no “From:” header field will be gener‐
6152 ated unless the user explicitly sets one using the “my_hdr” com‐
6153 mand.
6154 use_ipv6
6158 Type: boolean
6159 Default: yes
6160 When set, Mutt will look for IPv6 addresses of hosts it tries to
6162 contact. If this option is unset, Mutt will restrict itself to
6163 IPv4 addresses. Normally, the default should work.
6164 user_agent
6168 Type: boolean
6169 Default: no
6170 When set, mutt will add a “User-Agent:” header to outgoing mes‐
6172 sages, indicating which version of mutt was used for composing
6173 them.
6174 visual
6178 Type: path
6179 Default: “”
6180 Specifies the visual editor to invoke when the “~v” command is
6182 given in the built-in editor.
6183 wait_key
6187 Type: boolean
6188 Default: yes
6189 Controls whether Mutt will ask you to press a key after an
6191 external command has been invoked by these functions:
6192 <shell-escape>, <pipe-message>, <pipe-entry>, <print-message>,
6193 and <print-entry> commands.
6194 It is also used when viewing attachments with “auto_view”, pro‐
6196 vided that the corresponding mailcap entry has a needsterminal
6197 flag, and the external program is interactive.
6198 When set, Mutt will always ask for a key. When unset, Mutt will
6200 wait for a key only if the external command returned a non-zero
6201 status.
6202 weed
6206 Type: boolean
6207 Default: yes
6208 When set, mutt will weed headers when displaying, forwarding, or
6210 replying to messages.
6211 Also see $copy_decode_weed, $pipe_decode_weed,
6213 $print_decode_weed.
6214 wrap
6218 Type: number
6219 Default: 0
6220 When set to a positive value, mutt will wrap text at $wrap char‐
6222 acters. When set to a negative value, mutt will wrap text so
6223 that there are $wrap characters of empty space on the right side
6224 of the terminal. Setting it to zero makes mutt wrap at the ter‐
6225 minal width.
6226 Also see $reflow_wrap.
6228 wrap_headers
6232 Type: number
6233 Default: 78
6234 This option specifies the number of characters to use for wrap‐
6236 ping an outgoing message's headers. Allowed values are between
6237 78 and 998 inclusive.
6238 Note: This option usually shouldn't be changed. RFC5233 recom‐
6240 mends a line length of 78 (the default), so please only change
6241 this setting when you know what you're doing.
6242 wrap_search
6246 Type: boolean
6247 Default: yes
6248 Controls whether searches wrap around the end.
6250 When set, searches will wrap around the first (or last) item.
6252 When unset, incremental searches will not wrap.
6253 wrapmargin
6257 Type: number
6258 Default: 0
6259 (DEPRECATED) Equivalent to setting $wrap with a negative value.
6261 write_bcc
6265 Type: boolean
6266 Default: no
6267 Controls whether mutt writes out the “Bcc:” header when prepar‐
6269 ing messages to be sent. Some MTAs, such as Exim and Courier,
6270 do not strip the “Bcc:” header; so it is advisable to leave this
6271 unset unless you have a particular need for the header to be in
6272 the sent message.
6273 If mutt is set to deliver directly via SMTP (see $smtp_url),
6275 this option does nothing: mutt will never write out the “Bcc:”
6276 header in this case.
6277 Note this option only affects the sending of messages. Fcc'ed
6279 copies of a message will always contain the “Bcc:” header if one
6280 exists.
6281 write_inc
6285 Type: number
6286 Default: 10
6287 When writing a mailbox, a message will be printed every
6289 $write_inc messages to indicate progress. If set to 0, only a
6290 single message will be displayed before writing a mailbox.
6291 Also see the $read_inc, $net_inc and $time_inc variables and the
6293 “tuning” section of the manual for performance considerations.
6294
6298 iconv(1), iconv(3), mailcap(5), maildir(5), mbox(5), mutt(1),
6299 printf(3), regex(7), strftime(3)
6300 The Mutt Manual
6302 The Mutt home page: http://www.mutt.org/
6304
6306 Michael Elkins, and others. Use <mutt-dev@mutt.org> to contact the
6307 developers.
6308Unix January 2019 muttrc(5)