1neomuttrc(5) User Manuals neomuttrc(5)
2
6 neomuttrc - Configuration file for the NeoMutt Mail User Agent (MUA)
7
9 A NeoMutt 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 you want to put quotes (“"”) inside of a string, you
28 can use “\” to force the next character to be a literal instead of in‐
29 terpreted character.
30 “\\” means to insert a literal “\” into the line. “\n” and “\r” have
32 their usual C meanings of line feed (LF) and carriage return (CR), re‐
33 spectively.
34 A “\” at the end of a line can be used to split commands over multiple
36 lines, provided that the split points don't appear in the middle of
37 command names.
38 It is also possible to substitute the output of a Unix command in an
40 initialization file. This is accomplished by enclosing the command in
41 backticks (`command`).
42 Unix environment variables can be accessed like the way it is done in
44 shells like sh and Bash: Prepend the name of the variable by a dollar
45 (“$”) sign.
46
48 Configuration Commands
49 The following are the commands understood by NeoMutt:
50 account-hook regex command
52 This hook is executed whenever you access a remote mailbox. Use‐
54 ful to adjust configuration settings to different IMAP or POP
55 servers.
56 alias [ -group name ... ] key address [, address ... ]
58 unalias [ -group name ... ] { * | key ... }
59 alias defines a surrogate key for the given address(es). Each
61 address will be resolved into either an email address (user@ex‐
62 ample.com) or a named email address (User Name <user@exam‐
63 ple.com>). The address may be specified in either format, or in
64 the format “user@example.com (User Name)”.
65 Note: If you want to create an alias for more than one address,
67 you must separate the addresses with a comma (“,”).
68 unalias removes the alias corresponding to the given key or all
70 aliases when “*” is used as an argument.
71 The optional -group flag causes the address(es) to be added to
73 or removed from the named group.
74 alternates [ -group name ... ] regex [ regex ... ]
76 unalternates [ -group name ... ] { * | regex ... }
77 alternates is used to inform NeoMutt about alternate addresses
79 where you receive mail; you can use regular expressions (regex)
80 to specify alternate addresses. This affects NeoMutt's idea
81 about messages from you, and messages addressed to you.
82 unalternates can be used to write exceptions to alternates pat‐
84 terns. To remove a regular expression from the alternates list,
85 use the unalternates command with exactly the same regex or use
86 “*” to remove all entries.
87 The optional -group flag causes all of the subsequent regular
89 expressions to be added to or removed from the named group.
90 alternative_order mime-type[/mime-subtype] [ mime-type[/mime-subtype] ... ]
92 unalternative_order { * | mime-type[/mime-subtype] ... }
93 alternative_order command permits you to define an order of
95 preference that is used by NeoMutt to determine which part of a
96 multipart/alternative body to display. A mime-subtype of “*”
97 matches any multipart/alternative subtype, as does an empty
98 mime-subtype.
99 unalternative_order removes entries from the ordered list or
101 deletes the entire list when “*” is used as an argument.
102 attachments { + | - }disposition mime-type
104 unattachments { + | - }disposition mime-type
105 You can make your message index display the number of qualifying
107 attachments in each message, or search for messages by attach‐
108 ment count. You also can configure what kinds of attachments
109 qualify for this feature with the attachments and unattachments
110 commands.
111 disposition is the attachment's Content-Disposition type — ei‐
113 ther inline or attachment. You can abbreviate this to I or A.
114 mime-type is the MIME type of the attachment you want the com‐
116 mand to affect. A MIME type is always of the format major/minor.
117 The major part of mime-type must be literal text (or the special
118 token “*”, but the minor part may be a regular expression.
119 Therefore, “*/.*” matches any MIME type.
120 auto_view mime-type[/mime-subtype] [ mime-type[/mime-subtype] ... ]
122 unauto_view { * | mime-type[/mime-subtype] ... }
123 This commands permits you to specify that NeoMutt should auto‐
125 matically convert the given mime-types to text/plain when dis‐
126 playing messages. For this to work, there must be a mailcap(5)
127 entry for the given mime-type with the copiousoutput option set.
128 A mime-subtype of “*” matches any multipart/alternative subtype,
129 as does an empty mime-subtype.
130 bind map[,map ... ] key function
132 unbind { * | map | [,map...]} [ key ]
133 This command allows you to change the default or define addi‐
135 tional key bindings (operation invoked when pressing a key).
136 map specifies in which menu the binding belongs. Multiple maps
138 may be specified by separating them with commas (no additional
139 whitespace is allowed). The currently defined maps are: alias,
140 attach, browser, compose, editor, generic, index, mix, pager,
141 pgp, postpone, query and smime.
142 key is the key (or key sequence) you wish to bind, e.g. “\Ca”
144 for control-A. In addition, key may be specified as a three
145 digit octal number prefixed with a “\” or as a symbolic name.
146 The <what-key> function can be used to explore keycode and sym‐
147 bolic names for the keys on your keyboard.
148 function specifies which action to take when key is pressed.
150 Note that the function name is to be specified without angle
151 brackets.
152 Missing key sequence in unbind command means unbind all bindings
154 in menus given in map .
155 For more information on keys and functions, please consult the
157 NeoMutt manual.
158 charset-hook alias charset
160 iconv-hook charset local-charset
161 charset-hook defines an alias for a character set. This is use‐
163 ful to properly display messages which are tagged with a charac‐
164 ter set name not known to NeoMutt.
165 iconv-hook defines a system-specific name for a character set.
167 This is useful when your system's iconv(3) implementation does
168 not understand MIME character set names (such as iso-8859-1),
169 but instead insists on being fed with implementation-specific
170 character set names (such as 8859-1). In this specific case,
171 you'd put “iconv-hook iso-8859-1 8859-1” into your configuration
172 file.
173 color object [ attribute ... ] foreground background
175 color { header | body } [ attribute ... ] foreground background regex
176 color index-object [ attribute ... ] foreground background pattern
177 color compose composeobject foreground background
178 color compose composeobject [ attribute ... ] foreground background
179 uncolor { index-object | header | body } { * | pattern ... }
180 If your terminal supports color, these commands can be used to
182 assign foreground/background combinations to certain objects.
183 The currently defined objects are: attach_headers, attachment,
184 body, bold, error, hdrdefault, header, index, index_author, in‐
185 dex_collapsed, index_date, index_flags, index_label, index_num‐
186 ber, index_size, index_subject, index_tag, index_tags, indica‐
187 tor, markers, message, normal, progress, prompt, quoted, quot‐
188 edN, search, signature, status, tilde, tree, underline.
189 If the sidebar is enabled the following objects are also valid:
191 sidebar_divider, sidebar_flagged, sidebar_highlight, sidebar_in‐
192 dicator, sidebar_new, sidebar_ordinary, sidebar_spool_file.
193 The body and header objects allow you to restrict the coloriza‐
195 tion to a regular expression. The index-object permits you to
196 select colored messages by pattern.
197 The header and body match regex in the header/body of a message,
199 index-object can match pattern in the message index. Note that
200 IMAP server-side searches (=b, =B, =h) are not supported for
201 color index patterns.
202 Valid composeobjects include header, security_encrypt, secu‐
204 rity_sign, security_both, security_none.
205 Valid colors include: default, black, red, green, yellow, blue,
207 magenta, cyan, white, colorN.
208 Valid attributes include: none, bold, underline, reverse, and
210 standout. IP The uncolor command can be applied to the index,
211 header and body objects only. It removes entries from the list.
212 You must specify the same pattern specified in the color command
213 for it to be removed. The pattern “*” is a special token which
214 means to clear the color list of all entries.
215 For further information on colorization, please consult the Neo‐
217 Mutt manual.
218 crypt-hook regex keyid
220 The crypt-hook command provides a method by which you can spec‐
222 ify the ID of the public key to be used when encrypting messages
223 to a certain recipient. The meaning of keyid is to be taken
224 broadly: This can be a different email address, a numerical
225 keyid, or even just an arbitrary search string. You may use mul‐
226 tiple crypt-hooks with the same regex; multiple matching crypt-
227 hooks result in the use of multiple keyids for a recipient.
228 index-format-hook name [!]pattern format-string
230 This command is used to inject format strings dynamically into
231 $index_format based on pattern matching against the current mes‐
232 sage.
233 The $index_format expando %@name@ specifies a placeholder for
235 the injection. Index-format-hooks with the same name are matched
236 using pattern against the current message. Matching is done in
237 the order specified in the .neomuttrc, with the first match be‐
238 ing used. The hook's format-string is then substituted and eval‐
239 uated.
240 exec function [ function ... ]
242 This command can be used to execute any function. Functions are
244 listed in the function reference. “exec function” is equivalent
245 to “push <function>”.
246 fcc-save-hook pattern mailbox
248 fcc-hook pattern mailbox
249 save-hook pattern mailbox
250 fcc-save-hook is a shortcut, equivalent to doing both a fcc-hook
252 and a save-hook with its arguments, including %-expansion on
253 mailbox according to $index_format.
254 fcc-hook is used to save outgoing mail in a mailbox other than
256 $record. NeoMutt searches the initial list of message recipi‐
257 ents for the first matching pattern and uses mailbox as the de‐
258 fault “Fcc:” mailbox. If no match is found the message will be
259 saved to $record mailbox.
260 save-hook is used to override the default mailbox used when sav‐
262 ing messages. mailbox will be used as the default if the message
263 matches pattern.
264 To provide more flexibility and good defaults, NeoMutt applies
266 the expandos of $index_format to mailbox after it was expanded.
267 See PATTERNS section below or consult section “Message Matching
268 in Hooks” in NeoMutt manual for information on the exact format
269 of pattern.
270 folder-hook [-noregex] pattern command
272 When NeoMutt enters a folder which matches pattern (or, when
274 pattern is preceded by an exclamation mark, does not match pat‐
275 tern), the given command is executed. The -noregex switch con‐
276 trols whether pattern is matches as simple string equality or
277 full regex match.
278 When several folder-hooks match a given mail folder, they are
280 executed in the order given in the configuration file.
281 group [ -group name ... ] { -rx expr ... | -addr address ... }
283 ungroup [ -group name ... ] { * | -rx expr ... | -addr address ... }
284 group is used to directly add either addresses or regular ex‐
286 pressions to the specified group or groups. The different cate‐
287 gories of arguments to the group command can be in any order.
288 The flags -rx and -addr specify what the following strings (that
289 cannot begin with a hyphen) should be interpreted as: either a
290 regular expression or an email address, respectively.
291 ungroup is used to remove addresses or regular expressions from
293 the specified group or groups. The syntax is similar to the
294 group command, however the special character “*” can be used to
295 empty a group of all of its contents.
296 These address groups can also be created implicitly by the
298 alias, lists, subscribe and alternates commands by specifying
299 the optional -group option.
300 Once defined, these address groups can be used in patterns to
302 search for and limit the display to messages matching a group.
303 hdr_order header [ header ... ]
305 unhdr_order { * | header ... }
306 With the hdr_order command you can specify an order in which
308 NeoMutt will attempt to present these headers to you when view‐
309 ing messages.
310 “unhdr_order *” will clear all previous headers from the order
312 list, thus removing the header order effects set by the system-
313 wide startup file.
314 ifdef symbol "config-command [ args ... ]"
316 ifndef symbol "config-command [ args ... ]"
317 finish
318 The ifdef feature introduces three new commands to NeoMutt and
320 allow you to share one config file between versions of NeoMutt
321 that may have different features compiled in.
322 Here a symbol can be a $variable, <function>, command or com‐
324 pile-time symbol, such as “imap”. A list of compile-time symbols
325 can be seen in the output of the command “neomutt -v” (in the
326 “Compile options” section).
327 finish is particularly useful when combined with ifndef.
329 ignore pattern [ pattern ... ]
331 unignore { * | pattern ... }
332 The ignore command allows you to specify header fields which you
334 don't normally want to see in the pager. You do not need to
335 specify the full header field name. For example, “ignore con‐
336 tent-” will ignore all header fields that begin with the pattern
337 “content-”, “ignore *” will ignore all headers.
338 To remove a previously added token from the list, use the unig‐
340 nore command. For example, “unignore *” will remove all tokens
341 from the ignore list.
342 lists [ -group name ... ] regex [ regex ... ]
344 unlists [ -group name ... ] { * | regex ... }
345 subscribe [ -group name ... ] regex [ regex ... ]
346 unsubscribe [ -group name ... ] { * | regex ... }
347 NeoMutt maintains two lists of mailing list address patterns, a
349 list of subscribed mailing lists, and a list of known mailing
350 lists. All subscribed mailing lists are known. Patterns use reg‐
351 ular expressions.
352 The lists command adds a mailing list address to the list of
354 known mailing lists. The unlists command removes a mailing list
355 from the lists of known and subscribed mailing lists.
356 The subscribe command adds a mailing list to the lists of known
358 and subscribed mailing lists. The unsubscribe command removes it
359 from the list of subscribed mailing lists.
360 The -group flag adds all of the subsequent regular expressions
362 to the named group.
363 macro menu[,menu ... ] key sequence [ description ]
365 unmacro { * | menu | [,menu...]} [ key ]
366 This command binds the given sequence of keys to the given key
368 in the given menu or menus. For currently defined menus, see
369 bind command above. To specify multiple menus, put only a comma
370 between the menus.
371 Optionally you can specify a descriptive text after sequence,
373 which is shown in the help screens if they contain a descrip‐
374 tion.
375 Missing key sequence in unmacro command means unmacro all macros
377 in menus given in menu.
378 mailboxes mailbox [ mailbox ... ]
380 named-mailboxes description mailbox [description mailbox ... ]
381 unmailboxes { * | mailbox ... }
382 The mailboxes specifies folders which can receive mail and which
384 will be checked for new messages. When changing folders, press‐
385 ing space will cycle through folders with new mail.
386 The named-mailboxes is an alternative to mailboxes that allows
388 adding a description for a mailbox. NeoMutt can be configured to
389 display the description instead of the mailbox path.
390 The unmailboxes command is used to remove a file name from the
392 list of folders which can receive mail. If “*” is specified as
393 the file name, the list is emptied.
394 mailto_allow { * | header-field ... }
396 unmailto_allow { * | header-field ... }
397 As a security measure, NeoMutt will only add user-approved
399 header-fields from a mailto: URL. This is necessary since Neo‐
400 Mutt will handle certain header-fields, such as Attach, in a
401 special way. The mailto_allow and unmailto_allow commands allow
402 the user to modify the list of approved headers.
403 NeoMutt initializes the default list to contain only the Subject
405 and Body header-fields, which are the only requirement specified
406 by the mailto: specification in RFC2368, and the Cc, In-Reply-
407 To, References headers to aid with replies to mailing lists.
408 echo message
410 Prints message to the message window. After printing the mes‐
411 sage, echo will pause for the number of seconds specified by
412 $sleep_time.
413 cd directory
415 Changes the current working directory.
416 mbox-hook [-noregex] pattern mailbox
418 When NeoMutt changes to a mail folder which matches pattern,
420 mailbox will be used as the “mbox” folder, i.e. read messages
421 will be moved to that folder when the mail folder is left. The
422 -noregex switch controls whether pattern is matches as simple
423 string equality or full regex match.
424 Note that execution of mbox-hooks is dependent on the $move con‐
427 figuration variable. If set to “no” (the default), mbox-hooks
428 will not be executed.
429 The first matching mbox-hook applies.
431 message-hook pattern command
433 Before NeoMutt displays (or formats for replying or forwarding)
435 a message which matches the given pattern (or, when it is pre‐
436 ceded by an exclamation mark, does not match the pattern), the
437 given command is executed. When multiple message-hooks match,
438 they are executed in the order in which they occur in the con‐
439 figuration file.
440 mime_lookup mime-type[/mime-subtype] [ mime-type[/mime-subtype] ... ]
442 unmime_lookup { * | mime-type[/mime-subtype] ... }
443 This command permits you to define a list of “data” MIME content
445 types for which NeoMutt will try to determine the actual file
446 type from the file name, and not use a mailcap(5) entry given
447 for the original MIME type. For instance, you may add the appli‐
448 cation/octet-stream MIME type to this list.
449 In addition, the unmime_lookup command may be used to disable
451 this feature for any particular MIME type if it had been set,
452 for example in a global neomuttrc.
453 mono object attribute
455 mono { header | body } attribute regex
456 mono index-object attribute pattern
457 unmono { index-object | header | body } { * | pattern ... }
458 For terminals which don't support color, you can still assign
460 attributes to objects.
461 my_hdr string
463 unmy_hdr { * | field ... }
464 Using my_hdr, you can define headers which will be added to the
466 messages you compose. unmy_hdr will remove the given user-de‐
467 fined headers.
468 open-hook regex "shell-command"
470 close-hook regex "shell-command"
471 append-hook regex "shell-command"
472 These commands provide a way to handle compressed folders. The
474 given regex specifies which folders are taken as compressed
475 (e.g. "\.gz$"). The commands tell NeoMutt how to uncompress a
476 folder (open-hook), compress a folder (close-hook) or append a
477 compressed mail to a compressed folder (append-hook). The shell-
478 command is a printf(3) like format string and must contain two
479 placeholders for from (%f) and to (%t) filenames which should be
480 placed inside single-quotes to prevent unintended shell expan‐
481 sions. Examples:
482 append-hook '\.gz$' "gzip --stdout '%t' >> '%f'"
484 close-hook '\.gz$' "gzip --stdout '%t' > '%f'"
485 open-hook '\.gz$' "gzip --stdout --decompress '%f' > '%t'"
486 push string
488 This command adds the named string to the beginning of the key‐
490 board buffer. The string may contain control characters, key
491 names and function names like the sequence string in the macro
492 command. You may use it to automatically run a sequence of com‐
493 mands at startup, or when entering certain folders.
494 For using functions, it's important to use angle brackets (“<”
496 and “>”) to make NeoMutt recognize the input as a function name.
497 Otherwise it will simulate individual just keystrokes.
498 reply-hook pattern command
500 send-hook pattern command
501 send2-hook pattern command
502 These commands can be used to execute arbitrary configuration
504 commands based upon recipients of the message. pattern is used
505 to match the message, see section “Message Matching in Hooks” in
506 manual for details. command is executed when pattern matches.
507 reply-hook is matched against the message you are replying to,
509 instead of the message you are sending. send-hook is matched
510 against all messages, both new and replies. Note, reply-hooks
511 are matched before the send-hook, regardless of the order speci‐
512 fied in the user's configuration file.
513 send2-hook is matched every time a message is changed, either by
515 editing it, or by using the compose menu to change its recipi‐
516 ents or subject. send2-hook is executed after send-hook, and
517 can, e.g., be used to set parameters such as the $sendmail vari‐
518 able depending on the message's sender address. Note, send-hooks
519 are only executed once after getting the initial list of recipi‐
520 ents.
521 score pattern value
523 unscore { * | pattern ... }
524 The score command adds value to a message's score if pattern
526 matches it. pattern is a string in the format described in the
527 PATTERNS section below. value is a positive or negative integer.
528 A message's final score is the sum total of all matching score
529 entries.
530 The unscore command removes score entries from the list. You
532 must specify the same pattern specified in the score command for
533 it to be removed. The pattern “*” is a special token which means
534 to clear the list of all score entries.
535 set { [ no | inv | & | ? ]variable } [ ... ]
537 set { variable=value | variable+=increment | variable-=decrement } [ ... ]
538 unset variable [ variable ... ]
539 reset variable [ variable ... ]
540 toggle variable [ variable ... ]
541 These commands are used to set and manipulate configuration
543 variables.
544 NeoMutt knows four basic types of variables: boolean, number,
546 string, string list and quadoption. Boolean variables can be set
547 (true), unset (false), or toggled. Number variables can be as‐
548 signed a positive integer value. Value of number variables can
549 be incremented "+=" and decremented "-=". String list variables
550 use "+=" for appending increment to the string list and "-=" for
551 removal decrement from the string list.
552 String variables consist of any number of printable characters
554 and must be enclosed in quotes if they contain spaces or tabs.
555 You may also use the escape sequences “\n” and “\t” for newline
556 and tab, respectively. Content of a string variables can be ex‐
557 tended using "+="
558 Quadoption variables are used to control whether or not to be
560 prompted for certain actions, or to specify a default action. A
561 value of yes will cause the action to be carried out automati‐
562 cally as if you had answered “yes” to the question. Similarly, a
563 value of no will cause the action to be carried out as if you
564 had answered “no”. A value of ask-yes will cause a prompt with
565 a default answer of “yes” and ask-no will provide a default an‐
566 swer of “no”.
567 The toggle command automatically prepends the “inv” prefix to
569 all specified variables. The unset command automatically
570 prepends the “no” prefix to all specified variables. If you use
571 the command set and prefix the variable with “&” this has the
572 same behavior as the reset command.
573 The reset command resets all given variables to the compile time
575 defaults. With the reset command there exists the special vari‐
576 able all, which allows you to reset all variables to their sys‐
577 tem defaults.
578 Using the <enter-command> function, you can query the value of a
580 variable by prefixing the name of the variable with a question
581 mark: ":set ?allow_8bit".
582 setenv { ?variable | variable value }
584 unsetenv variable
585 You can alter the environment that NeoMutt passes on to its
587 child processes using the setenv and unsetenv operators.
588 You can also query current environment values by prefixing a “?”
590 character.
591 sidebar_whitelist mailbox [ mailbox ...]
593 unsidebar_whitelist { * | mailbox ... }
594 The sidebar_whitelist command specifies mailboxes that will al‐
596 ways be displayed in the sidebar, even if $sidebar_new_mail_only
597 is set and the mailbox does not contain new mail.
598 The unsidebar_whitelist command is used to remove a mailbox from
600 the list of whitelisted mailboxes. Use “unsidebar_whitelist *”
601 to remove all mailboxes.
602 source filename
604 This command allows the inclusion of initialization commands
606 from other files. If the filename begins with a tilde (“~”), it
607 will be expanded to the path of your home directory.
608 If the filename ends with a vertical bar (“|”), then filename is
610 considered to be an executable program from which to read input,
611 (e.g. “source ~/bin/myscript|”).
612 spam pattern format
614 nospam { * | pattern }
615 NeoMutt has generalized support for external spam-scoring fil‐
617 ters. By defining your spam patterns with the spam and nospam
618 commands, you can limit, search, and sort your mail based on its
619 spam attributes, as determined by the external filter. You also
620 can display the spam attributes in your index display using the
621 %H selector in the $index_format variable. (Tip: try
622 "%?H?[%H] ?" to display spam tags only when they are defined for
623 a given message).
624 For further information on spam-scoring filters, please consult
626 the section “Spam Detection” in the NeoMutt manual.
627 subjectrx pattern replacement
629 unsubjectrx { * | pattern }
630 The subjectrx command specifies a regular expression pattern
632 which, if detected in a message subject, causes the subject to
633 be replaced with the replacement value. The replacement is sub‐
634 ject to substitutions in the same way as for the spam command:
635 %L for the text to the left of the match, %R for text to the
636 right of the match, and %1 for the first subgroup in the match
637 (etc). If you simply want to erase the match, set it to “%L%R”.
638 Any number of subjectrx commands may coexist.
639 Note this well: the replacement value replaces the entire sub‐
641 ject, not just the match!
642 unsubjectrx removes a given subjectrx from the substitution
644 list. If “*” is used as the pattern, all substitutions will be
645 removed.
646 timeout-hook command
648 startup-hook command
649 shutdown-hook command
650 The Global Hooks feature introduces these hooks to NeoMutt. They
652 are called when global events take place in NeoMutt. startup-
653 hook and shutdown-hook are most likely to be useful to users of
654 notmuch(1).
655 timeout-hook runs a command periodically when NeoMutt checks for
657 new mail. This hook is called every $timeout seconds.
658 Before NeoMutt opens the first mailbox when first starting, Neo‐
660 Mutt will run the startup-hook for the given command.
661 Before NeoMutt is about to exit, and before the mailbox is
663 closed, NeoMutt will run the shutdown-hook for the given com‐
664 mand.
665 unhook { * | hook-type }
667 This command permits you to flush hooks you have previously de‐
669 fined. You can either remove all hooks by giving the “*” charac‐
670 ter as an argument, or you can remove all hooks of a specific
671 hook-type by saying something like “unhook send-hook”.
672
674 Pattern Modifier
675 Many of NeoMutt's commands allow you to specify a pattern to match mes‐
676 sages (limit, tag-pattern, delete-pattern, the above mentioned hook
677 commands etc.). The table “Pattern modifiers” shows several ways to se‐
678 lect messages.
679 ┌─────────────┬────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
681 │ Pattern │ Description │
682 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
683 │ ~A │ all messages │
684 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
685 │ =B STRING │ messages which contain STRING in the whole message. If │
686 │ │ IMAP is enabled, searches for STRING on the server, │
687 │ │ rather than downloading each message and searching it │
688 │ │ locally. │
689 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
690 │ =b STRING │ messages which contain STRING in the message body. If │
691 │ │ IMAP is enabled, searches for STRING on the server, │
692 │ │ rather than downloading each message and searching it │
693 │ │ locally. │
694 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
695 │ ~B EXPR │ messages which contain EXPR in the whole message │
696 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
697 │ ~b EXPR │ messages which contain EXPR in the message body │
698 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
699 │ %C GROUP │ messages either “To:” or “Cc:” to any member of GROUP │
700 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
701 │ %c GROUP │ messages carbon-copied to any member of GROUP │
702 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
703 │ ~C EXPR │ messages either “To:” or “Cc:” EXPR │
704 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
705 │ ~c EXPR │ messages carbon-copied to EXPR │
706 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
707 │ ~D │ deleted messages │
708 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
709 │ ~d MIN-MAX │ messages with “date-sent” in a date range │
710 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
711 │ %e GROUP │ messages which contain a member of GROUP in the │
712 │ │ “Sender:” field │
713 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
714 │ ~E │ expired messages │
715 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
716 │ ~e EXPR │ messages which contain EXPR in the “Sender:” field │
717 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
718 │ %f GROUP │ messages originating from any member of GROUP │
719 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
720 │ ~F │ flagged messages │
721 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
722 │ ~f EXPR │ messages originating from EXPR │
723 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
724 │ ~G │ cryptographically encrypted messages │
725 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
726 │ ~g │ cryptographically signed messages │
727 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
728 │ =h STRING │ messages which contain STRING in the message header. │
729 │ │ If IMAP is enabled, searches for STRING on the server, │
730 │ │ rather than downloading each message and searching it │
731 │ │ locally; STRING must be of the form “Header: sub‐ │
732 │ │ string” (see below). │
733 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
734 │ ~H EXPR │ messages with spam attribute matching EXPR │
735 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
736 │ ~h EXPR │ messages which contain EXPR in the message header │
737 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
738 │ ~i EXPR │ messages which match EXPR in the “Message-ID:” field │
739 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
740 │ ~I QUERY │ messages whose Message-ID field is included in the re‐ │
741 │ │ sults returned from an external search program, when │
742 │ │ the program is run with QUERY as its argument. See │
743 │ │ $external_search_command │
744 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
745 │ ~k │ messages containing PGP key material │
746 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
747 │ %L GROUP │ messages either originated or received by any member │
748 │ │ of GROUP │
749 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
750 │ ~L EXPR │ messages either originated or received by EXPR │
751 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
752 │ ~l │ messages addressed to a known mailing list │
753 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
754 │ ~m <MAX │ messages with numbers less than MAX *) │
755 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
756 │ ~m >MIN │ messages with numbers greater than MIN *) │
757 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
758 │ ~m MIN,MAX │ messages with offsets (from selected message) in the │
759 │ │ range MIN to MAX *) │
760 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
761 │ ~m MIN-MAX │ message in the range MIN to MAX *) │
762 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
763 │ ~m N │ just message number N *) │
764 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
765 │ ~N │ new messages │
766 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
767 │ ~n MIN-MAX │ messages with a score in the range MIN to MAX **) │
768 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
769 │ ~O │ old messages │
770 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
771 │ ~P │ messages from you (consults $from, alternates, and lo‐ │
772 │ │ cal account/hostname information) │
773 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
774 │ ~p │ messages addressed to you (consults $from, alternates, │
775 │ │ and local account/hostname information) │
776 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
777 │ ~Q │ messages which have been replied to │
778 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
779 │ ~R │ read messages │
780 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
781 │ ~r MIN-MAX │ messages with “date-received” in a date range │
782 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
783 │ ~S │ superseded messages │
784 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
785 │ ~s EXPR │ messages having EXPR in the “Subject:” field │
786 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
787 │ ~T │ tagged messages │
788 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
789 │ ~t EXPR │ messages addressed to EXPR │
790 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
791 │ ~U │ unread messages │
792 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
793 │ ~u │ messages addressed to a subscribed mailing list │
794 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
795 │ ~V │ cryptographically verified messages │
796 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
797 │ ~v │ message is part of a collapsed thread. │
798 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
799 │ ~X MIN-MAX │ messages with MIN to MAX attachments **) │
800 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
801 │ ~x EXPR │ messages which contain EXPR in the “References:” or │
802 │ │ “In-Reply-To:” field │
803 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
804 │ ~y EXPR │ messages which contain EXPR in their keywords │
805 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
806 │ ~Y EXPR │ messages whose tags match EXPR │
807 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
808 │ ~z MIN-MAX │ messages with a size in the range MIN to MAX **) ***) │
809 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
810 │ =/ STRING │ IMAP custom server-side search for STRING. Currently │
811 │ │ only defined for Gmail. See section “Gmail Patterns” │
812 │ │ in NeoMutt manual. │
813 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
814 │ ~= │ duplicated messages (see $duplicate_threads) │
815 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
816 │ ~# │ broken threads (see $strict_threads) │
817 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
818 │ ~$ │ unreferenced message (requires threaded view) │
819 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
820 │ ~(PATTERN) │ messages in threads containing messages matching PAT‐ │
821 │ │ TERN, e.g. all threads containing messages from you: │
822 │ │ ~(~P) │
823 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
824 │ ~<(PATTERN) │ messages whose immediate parent matches PATTERN, e.g. │
825 │ │ replies to your messages: ~<(~P) │
826 ├─────────────┼────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
827 │ ~>(PATTERN) │ messages having an immediate child matching PATTERN, │
828 │ │ e.g. messages you replied to: ~>(~P) │
829 ├─────────────┴────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
830 │ Where EXPR is a regular expression, and GROUP is an address group. │
831 │ │
832 │ *) The message number ranges (introduced by “~m”) are even │
833 │ more general and powerful than the other types of ranges. │
834 │ Read on and see section “Message Ranges” in manual. │
835 │ **) The forms “<MAX”, “>MIN”, “MIN-” and “-MAX” are allowed, │
836 │ too. │
837 │ ***) The suffixes “K” and “M” are allowed to specify kilobyte │
838 │ and megabyte respectively. │
839 └──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
840 Special attention has to be paid when using regular expressions inside
841 of patterns. Specifically, NeoMutt's parser for these patterns will
842 strip one level of backslash (“\”), which is normally used for quoting.
843 If it is your intention to use a backslash in the regular expression,
844 you will need to use two backslashes (“\\”) instead.
845 You can force NeoMutt to treat EXPR as a simple STRING instead of a
847 regular expression by using “=” instead of “~” in the pattern name. For
848 example, “=b *.*” will find all messages that contain the literal
849 STRING “*.*”. Simple substring matches are less powerful than regular
850 expressions but can be considerably faster. This is especially true for
851 IMAP folders, because substring matches can be performed on the server
852 instead of by fetching every message. IMAP treats “=h” specially: it
853 must be of the form “Header: substring” and will not partially match
854 header names. The substring part may be omitted if you simply wish to
855 find messages containing a particular header without regard to its
856 value.
857 Patterns matching lists of addresses (notably c, C, p, P and t) match
859 if there is at least one match in the whole list. If you want to make
860 sure that all elements of that list match, you need to prefix your pat‐
861 tern with “^”.
862 This example matches all mails which only has recipients from Germany.
864 Matching all addresses in address lists: ^~C \.de$
866 You can restrict address pattern matching to aliases that you have de‐
868 fined with the “@” modifier. This example matches messages whose recip‐
869 ients are all from Germany and who are known to your alias list.
870 Matching restricted to aliases: ^@~C \.de$
872 To match any defined alias, use a regular expression that matches any
874 string. This example matches messages whose senders are known aliases.
875 Matching any defined alias: @~f .
877 Nesting and Boolean Operators
879 Logical AND is performed by specifying more than one criterion.
880 For example: ~t work ~f elkins
882 would select messages which contain the word “work” in the list of re‐
884 cipients and that have the word “elkins” in the “From:” header field.
885 NeoMutt also recognizes the following operators to create more complex
887 search patterns:
888 • “!” — logical NOT operator
890 • “|” — logical OR operator
891 • “()” — logical grouping operator
892 Here is an example illustrating a complex search pattern. This pattern
894 will select all messages which do not contain “work” in the “To:” or
895 “Cc:” field and which are from “elkins”.
896 Using boolean operators in patterns: !(~t work|~c work)
898 ~f elkins
899 Here is an example using white space in the regular expression (note
901 the “'” and “"” delimiters). For this to match, the mail's subject must
902 match the “^Junk +From +Me$” and it must be from either “Jim +Somebody”
903 or “Ed +SomeoneElse”:
904 Quoting regex: '~s "^Junk +From +Me$" ~f ("Jim +Somebody"|"Ed
906 +SomeoneElse")'
907 Note: If a regular expression contains parenthesis, or a vertical bar
909 (“|”), you must enclose the expression in double or single quotes since
910 those characters are also used to separate different parts of NeoMutt's
911 pattern language.
912 For example: ~f "user@(home\.org|work\.com)"
914 Without the quotes, the parenthesis wouldn't end. This would be sepa‐
916 rated to two OR'd patterns: ~f user@(home\.org and work\.com). They are
917 never what you want.
918 Searching by Date
920 NeoMutt supports two types of dates, absolute and relative for the “~d”
921 and “~r” pattern.
922 Absolute Dates
924 Dates must be in dd[/mm[/[CC]YY]] format (day, month, century and year
925 — all parts, with the exception of day, are optional, defaulting to the
926 current month and year). An example of a valid range of dates is:
927 Limit to messages matching: ~d 20/1/95-31/10
929 Alternatively, you may use YYYYMMDD to specify a date.
931 When given a two-digit year, NeoMutt will interpret values less than
933 “70” as lying in the 21st century (i.e., “38” means 2038 and not 1938,
934 and “00” is interpreted as 2000), and values greater than or equal to
935 “70” as lying in the 20th century.
936 If you omit the MINimum (first) date, and just specify -dd/mm/YY, all
938 messages before the given date will be selected. If you omit the MAXi‐
939 mum (second) date, and specify dd/mm/YY-, all messages after the given
940 date will be selected. If you specify a single date with no dash (“-”),
941 only messages sent/received on the given date will be selected.
942 You can add error margins to absolute dates. An error margin is a sign
944 (“+” or “-”), followed by a digit, followed by one of the units in ta‐
945 ble “Date units” below. As a special case, you can replace the sign by
946 a “*” character, which is equivalent to giving identical plus and minus
947 error margins.
948 ┌─────────────┬──────┬───────┬────────┬───────┐
950 │ Date Unit │ d │ w │ m │ y │
951 ├─────────────┼──────┼───────┼────────┼───────┤
952 │ Description │ Days │ Weeks │ Months │ Years │
953 └─────────────┴──────┴───────┴────────┴───────┘
954 ┌─────────────┬─────────┬─────────┬───────┐
955 │ Date Unit │ S │ M │ H │
956 ├─────────────┼─────────┼─────────┼───────┤
957 │ Description │ Seconds │ Minutes │ Hours │
958 └─────────────┴─────────┴─────────┴───────┘
959 Example: To select any messages two weeks around January 15, 2001,
960 you'd use the following pattern:
961 Limit to messages matching: ~d 15/1/2001*2w
963 It is possible to give multiple error margins:
965 which cumulate: ~d 1/1/2001-1w+2w*3d
967 Relative Dates
969 This type of date is relative to the current date, and may be specified
970 as:
971 • “<offset” for messages newer than offset units
973 • “=offset” for messages exactly offset units old
974 • “>offset” for messages older than offset units
975 offset is specified as a positive number with one of the units from ta‐
977 ble “Date units”.
978 Example: To select messages less than 1 month old, you would use:
980 Limit to messages matching: ~d <1m
982 Note: All dates used when searching are relative to the local time
984 zone, so unless you change the setting of your $index_format to include
985 a “%[...]” format, these are not the dates shown in the main index.
986
988 abort_backspace
989 Type: boolean
990 Default: yes
991 If set, hitting backspace against an empty prompt aborts the
993 prompt.
994 abort_key
998 Type: string
999 Default: "007"
1000 Specifies the key that can be used to abort prompts. The format
1002 is the same as used in "bind" commands. The default is equiva‐
1003 lent to "Ctrl-G". Note that the specified key should not be
1004 used in other bindings, as the abort operation has higher prece‐
1005 dence and the binding will not have the desired effect.
1006 Example:
1008 set abort_key = "<Esc>"
1011 Please note that when using <Esc> as the abort key, you may also
1014 want to set the environment variable ESCDELAY to a low value or
1015 even 0 which will reduce the time that ncurses waits to distin‐
1016 guish singular <Esc> key presses from the start of a terminal
1017 escape sequence. The default time is 1000 milliseconds and thus
1018 quite noticeable.
1019 abort_noattach
1023 Type: quadoption
1024 Default: no
1025 If set to yes, when composing messages containing the regular
1027 expression specified by $abort_noattach_regex and no attachments
1028 are given, composition will be aborted. If set to no, composing
1029 messages as such will never be aborted.
1030 Example:
1032 set abort_noattach_regex = "\\<attach(|ed|ments?)\\>"
1035 abort_noattach_regex
1040 Type: regular expression
1041 Default: "\<(attach|attached|attachments?)\>"
1042 Specifies a regular expression to match against the body of the
1044 message, to determine if an attachment was mentioned but mistak‐
1045 enly forgotten. If it matches, $abort_noattach will be con‐
1046 sulted to determine if message sending will be aborted.
1047 Like other regular expressions in NeoMutt, the search is case
1049 sensitive if the pattern contains at least one upper case let‐
1050 ter, and case insensitive otherwise.
1051 abort_nosubject
1055 Type: quadoption
1056 Default: ask-yes
1057 If set to yes, when composing messages and no subject is given
1059 at the subject prompt, composition will be aborted. If set to
1060 no, composing messages with no subject given at the subject
1061 prompt will never be aborted.
1062 abort_unmodified
1066 Type: quadoption
1067 Default: yes
1068 If set to yes, composition will automatically abort after edit‐
1070 ing the message body if no changes are made to the file (this
1071 check only happens after the first edit of the file). When set
1072 to no, composition will never be aborted.
1073 account_command
1077 Type: command
1078 Default: ""
1079 If set, this command is used to retrieve account credentials.
1081 The command is invoked passing a number of --key value arguments
1082 with the specifics of the account to lookup. The command writes
1083 to standard output a number of key: value lines. Currently sup‐
1084 ported arguments are --hostname, --username, and --type, where
1085 type can be any of imap, imaps, pop, pops, smtp, smtps, nntp,
1086 and nntps. Currently supported output lines are login, username,
1087 and password.
1088 alias_file
1092 Type: path
1093 Default: "~/.neomuttrc"
1094 The default file in which to save aliases created by the <cre‐
1096 ate-alias> function. Entries added to this file are encoded in
1097 the character set specified by $config_charset if it is set or
1098 the current character set otherwise.
1099 Note: NeoMutt will not automatically source this file; you must
1101 explicitly use the "source" command for it to be executed in
1102 case this option points to a dedicated alias file.
1103 The default for this option is the currently used neomuttrc
1105 file, or "~/.neomuttrc" if no user neomuttrc was found.
1106 alias_format
1110 Type: string
1111 Default: "%3n %f%t %-15a %-56r | %c"
1112 Specifies the format of the data displayed for the "alias" menu.
1114 The following printf(3)-style sequences are available:
1115 %a Alias name
1116 %c Comment
1117 %f Flags - currently, a "d" for an alias marked for deletion
1118 %n Index number
1119 %r Address which alias expands to
1120 %t Character which indicates if the alias is tagged for in‐
1121 clusion
1122 %>X right justify the rest of the string and pad with charac‐
1123 ter "X"
1124 %|X pad to the end of the line with character "X"
1125 %*X soft-fill with character "X" as pad
1126 allow_8bit
1129 Type: boolean
1130 Default: yes
1131 Controls whether 8-bit data is converted to 7-bit using either
1133 Quoted- Printable or Base64 encoding when sending mail.
1134 allow_ansi
1138 Type: boolean
1139 Default: no
1140 Controls whether ANSI color codes in messages (and color tags in
1142 rich text messages) are to be interpreted. Messages containing
1143 these codes are rare, but if this option is set, their text will
1144 be colored accordingly. Note that this may override your color
1145 choices, and even present a security problem, since a message
1146 could include a line like
1147 [-- PGP output follows ...
1150 and give it the same color as your attachment color (see also
1153 $crypt_timestamp).
1154 arrow_cursor
1158 Type: boolean
1159 Default: no
1160 When set, an arrow ("->") will be used to indicate the current
1162 entry in menus instead of highlighting the whole line. On slow
1163 network or modem links this will make response faster because
1164 there is less that has to be redrawn on the screen when moving
1165 to the next or previous entries in the menu.
1166 arrow_string
1170 Type: string
1171 Default: "->"
1172 Specifies the string of arrow_cursor when arrow_cursor enabled.
1174 ascii_chars
1178 Type: boolean
1179 Default: no
1180 If set, NeoMutt will use plain ASCII characters when displaying
1182 thread and attachment trees, instead of the default ACS charac‐
1183 ters.
1184 ask_bcc
1188 Type: boolean
1189 Default: no
1190 If set, NeoMutt will prompt you for blind-carbon-copy (Bcc) re‐
1192 cipients before editing an outgoing message.
1193 ask_cc
1197 Type: boolean
1198 Default: no
1199 If set, NeoMutt will prompt you for carbon-copy (Cc) recipients
1201 before editing the body of an outgoing message.
1202 ask_follow_up
1206 Type: boolean
1207 Default: no
1208 If set, NeoMutt will prompt you for follow-up groups before
1210 editing the body of an outgoing message.
1211 ask_x_comment_to
1215 Type: boolean
1216 Default: no
1217 If set, NeoMutt will prompt you for x-comment-to field before
1219 editing the body of an outgoing message.
1220 assumed_charset
1224 Type: string list
1225 Default: ""
1226 This variable is a colon-separated list of character encoding
1228 schemes for messages without character encoding indication.
1229 Header field values and message body content without character
1230 encoding indication would be assumed that they are written in
1231 one of this list. By default, all the header fields and message
1232 body without any charset indication are assumed to be in
1233 "us-ascii".
1234 For example, Japanese users might prefer this:
1236 set assumed_charset="iso-2022-jp:euc-jp:shift_jis:utf-8"
1239 However, only the first content is valid for the message body.
1242 attach_charset
1246 Type: string list
1247 Default: ""
1248 This variable is a colon-separated list of character encoding
1250 schemes for text file attachments. NeoMutt uses this setting to
1251 guess which encoding files being attached are encoded in to con‐
1252 vert them to a proper character set given in $send_charset.
1253 If unset, the value of $charset will be used instead. For exam‐
1255 ple, the following configuration would work for Japanese text
1256 handling:
1257 set attach_charset="iso-2022-jp:euc-jp:shift_jis:utf-8"
1260 Note: for Japanese users, "iso-2022-*" must be put at the head
1263 of the value as shown above if included.
1264 attach_format
1268 Type: string
1269 Default: "%u%D%I %t%4n %T%.40d%> [%.7m/%.10M, %.6e%?C?, %C?, %s] "
1270 This variable describes the format of the "attachment" menu.
1272 The following printf(3)-style sequences are understood:
1273 %C Charset
1274 %c Requires charset conversion ("n" or "c")
1275 %D Deleted flag
1276 %d Description (if none, falls back to %F)
1277 %e MIME content-transfer-encoding
1278 %f Filename
1279 %F Filename in content-disposition header (if none, falls
1280 back to %f)
1281 %I Disposition ("I" for inline, "A" for attachment)
1282 %m Major MIME type
1283 %M MIME subtype
1284 %n Attachment number
1285 %Q "Q", if MIME part qualifies for attachment counting
1286 %s Size (see formatstrings-size)
1287 %T Graphic tree characters
1288 %t Tagged flag
1289 %u Unlink (=to delete) flag
1290 %X Number of qualifying MIME parts in this part and its
1291 children (please see the "attachments" section for possi‐
1292 ble speed effects)
1293 %>X Right justify the rest of the string and pad with charac‐
1294 ter "X"
1295 %|X Pad to the end of the line with character "X"
1296 %*X Soft-fill with character "X" as pad
1297 For an explanation of "soft-fill", see the $index_format docu‐
1299 mentation.
1300 attach_save_dir
1304 Type: path
1305 Default: "./"
1306 The directory where attachments are saved.
1308 attach_save_without_prompting
1312 Type: boolean
1313 Default: no
1314 This variable, when set to true, will cause attachments to be
1316 saved to the 'attach_save_dir' location without prompting the
1317 user for the filename.
1318 attach_sep
1320 Type: string
1321 Default: "\n"
1322 The separator to add between attachments when operating (saving,
1324 printing, piping, etc) on a list of tagged attachments.
1325 attach_split
1329 Type: boolean
1330 Default: yes
1331 If this variable is unset, when operating (saving, printing,
1333 piping, etc) on a list of tagged attachments, NeoMutt will con‐
1334 catenate the attachments and will operate on them as a single
1335 attachment. The $attach_sep separator is added after each at‐
1336 tachment. When set, NeoMutt will operate on the attachments one
1337 by one.
1338 attribution
1342 Type: string
1343 Default: "On %d, %n wrote:"
1344 This is the string that will precede a message which has been
1346 included in a reply. For a full listing of defined
1347 printf(3)-like sequences see the section on $index_format.
1348 attribution_locale
1352 Type: string
1353 Default: ""
1354 The locale used by strftime(3) to format dates in the attribu‐
1356 tion string. Legal values are the strings your system accepts
1357 for the locale environment variable $LC_TIME.
1358 This variable is to allow the attribution date format to be cus‐
1360 tomized by recipient or folder using hooks. By default, NeoMutt
1361 will use your locale environment, so there is no need to set
1362 this except to override that default.
1363 auto_edit
1367 Type: boolean
1368 Default: no
1369 When set along with $edit_headers, NeoMutt will skip the initial
1371 send-menu (prompting for subject and recipients) and allow you
1372 to immediately begin editing the body of your message. The
1373 send-menu may still be accessed once you have finished editing
1374 the body of your message.
1375 Note: when this option is set, you can't use send-hooks that de‐
1377 pend on the recipients when composing a new (non-reply) message,
1378 as the initial list of recipients is empty.
1379 Also see $fast_reply.
1381 auto_subscribe
1385 Type: boolean
1386 Default: no
1387 When set, NeoMutt assumes the presence of a List-Post header
1389 means the recipient is subscribed to the list. Unless the mail‐
1390 ing list is in the "unsubscribe" or "unlist" lists, it will be
1391 added to the "subscribe" list. Parsing and checking these
1392 things slows header reading down, so this option is disabled by
1393 default.
1394 auto_tag
1398 Type: boolean
1399 Default: no
1400 When set, functions in the index menu which affect a message
1402 will be applied to all tagged messages (if there are any). When
1403 unset, you must first use the <tag-prefix> function (bound to
1404 ";" by default) to make the next function apply to all tagged
1405 messages.
1406 autocrypt
1410 Type: boolean
1411 Default: no
1412 When set, enables autocrypt, which provides passive encryption
1414 protection with keys exchanged via headers. See "autocryptdoc"
1415 for more details. (Autocrypt only)
1416 autocrypt_acct_format
1420 Type: string
1421 Default: "%4n %-30a %20p %10s"
1422 This variable describes the format of the "autocrypt account"
1424 menu. The following printf(3)-style sequences are understood
1425 %a email address
1426 %k gpg keyid
1427 %n current entry number
1428 %p prefer-encrypt flag
1429 %s status flag (active/inactive)
1430 (Autocrypt only)
1432 autocrypt_dir
1436 Type: path
1437 Default: "~/.mutt/autocrypt"
1438 This variable sets where autocrypt files are stored, including
1440 the GPG keyring and SQLite database. See "autocryptdoc" for
1441 more details. (Autocrypt only)
1442 autocrypt_reply
1446 Type: boolean
1447 Default: yes
1448 When set, replying to an autocrypt email automatically enables
1450 autocrypt in the reply. You may want to unset this if you're
1451 using the same key for autocrypt as normal web-of-trust, so that
1452 autocrypt isn't forced on for all encrypted replies. (Autocrypt
1453 only)
1454 beep
1458 Type: boolean
1459 Default: yes
1460 When this variable is set, NeoMutt will beep when an error oc‐
1462 curs.
1463 beep_new
1467 Type: boolean
1468 Default: no
1469 When this variable is set, NeoMutt will beep whenever it prints
1471 a message notifying you of new mail. This is independent of the
1472 setting of the $beep variable.
1473 bounce
1477 Type: quadoption
1478 Default: ask-yes
1479 Controls whether you will be asked to confirm bouncing messages.
1481 If set to yes you don't get asked if you want to bounce a mes‐
1482 sage. Setting this variable to no is not generally useful, and
1483 thus not recommended, because you are unable to bounce messages.
1484 bounce_delivered
1488 Type: boolean
1489 Default: yes
1490 When this variable is set, NeoMutt will include Delivered-To
1492 headers when bouncing messages. Postfix users may wish to unset
1493 this variable.
1494 braille_friendly
1498 Type: boolean
1499 Default: no
1500 When this variable is set, NeoMutt will place the cursor at the
1502 beginning of the current line in menus, even when the $ar‐
1503 row_cursor variable is unset, making it easier for blind persons
1504 using Braille displays to follow these menus. The option is un‐
1505 set by default because many visual terminals don't permit making
1506 the cursor invisible.
1507 browser_abbreviate_mailboxes
1511 Type: boolean
1512 Default: yes
1513 When this variable is set, NeoMutt will abbreviate mailbox names
1515 in the browser mailbox list, using '~' and '=' shortcuts.
1516 The default "alpha" setting of $sort_browser uses locale-based
1518 sorting (using strcoll(3)), which ignores some punctuation.
1519 This can lead to some situations where the order doesn't make
1520 intuitive sense. In those cases, it may be desirable to unset
1521 this variable.
1522 catchup_newsgroup
1526 Type: quadoption
1527 Default: ask-yes
1528 If this variable is set, NeoMutt will mark all articles in news‐
1530 group as read when you quit the newsgroup (catchup newsgroup).
1531 certificate_file
1535 Type: path
1536 Default: "~/.mutt_certificates"
1537 This variable specifies the file where the certificates you
1539 trust are saved. When an unknown certificate is encountered, you
1540 are asked if you accept it or not. If you accept it, the cer‐
1541 tificate can also be saved in this file and further connections
1542 are automatically accepted.
1543 You can also manually add CA certificates in this file. Any
1545 server certificate that is signed with one of these CA certifi‐
1546 cates is also automatically accepted.
1547 Example:
1549 set certificate_file=~/.neomutt/certificates
1552 change_folder_next
1557 Type: boolean
1558 Default: no
1559 When this variable is set, the <change-folder> function mailbox
1561 suggestion will start at the next folder in your "mailboxes"
1562 list, instead of starting at the first folder in the list.
1563 charset
1567 Type: string
1568 Default: ""
1569 Character set your terminal uses to display and enter textual
1571 data. It is also the fallback for $send_charset.
1572 Upon startup NeoMutt tries to derive this value from environment
1574 variables such as $LC_CTYPE or $LANG.
1575 Note: It should only be set in case NeoMutt isn't able to deter‐
1577 mine the character set used correctly.
1578 check_mbox_size
1582 Type: boolean
1583 Default: no
1584 When this variable is set, NeoMutt will use file size attribute
1586 instead of access time when checking for new mail in mbox and
1587 mmdf folders.
1588 This variable is unset by default and should only be enabled
1590 when new mail detection for these folder types is unreliable or
1591 doesn't work.
1592 Note that enabling this variable should happen before any "mail‐
1594 boxes" directives occur in configuration files regarding mbox or
1595 mmdf folders because NeoMutt needs to determine the initial new
1596 mail status of such a mailbox by performing a fast mailbox scan
1597 when it is defined. Afterwards the new mail status is tracked
1598 by file size changes.
1599 check_new
1603 Type: boolean
1604 Default: yes
1605 Note: this option only affects maildir and MH style mailboxes.
1607 When set, NeoMutt will check for new mail delivered while the
1609 mailbox is open. Especially with MH mailboxes, this operation
1610 can take quite some time since it involves scanning the direc‐
1611 tory and checking each file to see if it has already been looked
1612 at. If this variable is unset, no check for new mail is per‐
1613 formed while the mailbox is open.
1614 collapse_all
1618 Type: boolean
1619 Default: no
1620 When set, NeoMutt will collapse all threads when entering a
1622 folder.
1623 collapse_flagged
1627 Type: boolean
1628 Default: yes
1629 When unset, NeoMutt will not collapse a thread if it contains
1631 any flagged messages.
1632 collapse_unread
1636 Type: boolean
1637 Default: yes
1638 When unset, NeoMutt will not collapse a thread if it contains
1640 any unread messages.
1641 compose_format
1645 Type: string
1646 Default: "-- NeoMutt: Compose [Approx. msg size: %l Atts: %a]%>-"
1647 Controls the format of the status line displayed in the "com‐
1649 pose" menu. This string is similar to $status_format, but has
1650 its own set of printf(3)-like sequences:
1651 %a Total number of attachments
1652 %h Local hostname
1653 %l Approximate size (in bytes) of the current message (see
1654 formatstrings-size)
1655 %v NeoMutt version string
1656 %>X right justify the rest of the string and pad with charac‐
1657 ter "X"
1658 %|X pad to the end of the line with character "X"
1659 %*X soft-fill with character "X" as pad
1660 See the text describing the $status_format option for more in‐
1662 formation on how to set $compose_format.
1663 compose_show_user_headers
1667 Type: boolean
1668 Default: yes
1669 When set, Neomutt will display user-defined headers (set via
1671 my_hdr or from editing with edit-headers).
1672 config_charset
1676 Type: string
1677 Default: ""
1678 When defined, NeoMutt will recode commands in rc files from this
1680 encoding to the current character set as specified by $charset
1681 and aliases written to $alias_file from the current character
1682 set.
1683 Please note that if setting $charset it must be done before set‐
1685 ting $config_charset.
1686 Recoding should be avoided as it may render unconvertable char‐
1688 acters as question marks which can lead to undesired side ef‐
1689 fects (for example in regular expressions).
1690 confirm_append
1694 Type: boolean
1695 Default: yes
1696 When set, NeoMutt will prompt for confirmation when appending
1698 messages to an existing mailbox.
1699 confirm_create
1703 Type: boolean
1704 Default: yes
1705 When set, NeoMutt will prompt for confirmation when saving mes‐
1707 sages to a mailbox which does not yet exist before creating it.
1708 connect_timeout
1712 Type: number
1713 Default: 30
1714 Causes NeoMutt to timeout a network connection (for IMAP, POP or
1716 SMTP) after this many seconds if the connection is not able to
1717 be established. A negative value causes NeoMutt to wait indefi‐
1718 nitely for the connection attempt to succeed.
1719 content_type
1723 Type: string
1724 Default: "text/plain"
1725 Sets the default Content-Type for the body of newly composed
1727 messages.
1728 copy
1732 Type: quadoption
1733 Default: yes
1734 This variable controls whether or not copies of your outgoing
1736 messages will be saved for later references. Also see $record,
1737 $save_name, $force_name and "fcc-hook".
1738 copy_decode_weed
1742 Type: boolean
1743 Default: no
1744 Controls whether NeoMutt will weed headers when invoking the
1746 <decode-copy> or <decode-save> functions.
1747 count_alternatives
1751 Type: boolean
1752 Default: no
1753 When set, NeoMutt will recurse inside multipart/alternatives
1755 while performing attachment searching and counting(see attach‐
1756 ments).
1757 Traditionally, multipart/alternative parts have simply repre‐
1759 sented different encodings of the main content of the email.
1760 Unfortunately, some mail clients have started to place email at‐
1761 tachments inside one of alternatives. Setting this will allow
1762 NeoMutt to find and count matching attachments hidden there, and
1763 include them in the index via %X or through ~X pattern matching.
1764 crypt_auto_encrypt
1768 Type: boolean
1769 Default: no
1770 Setting this variable will cause NeoMutt to always attempt to
1772 PGP encrypt outgoing messages. This is probably only useful in
1773 connection to the "send-hook" command. It can be overridden by
1774 use of the pgp menu, when encryption is not required or signing
1775 is requested as well. If $smime_is_default is set, then OpenSSL
1776 is used instead to create S/MIME messages and settings can be
1777 overridden by use of the smime menu instead. (Crypto only)
1778 crypt_auto_pgp
1782 Type: boolean
1783 Default: yes
1784 This variable controls whether or not NeoMutt may automatically
1786 enable PGP encryption/signing for messages. See also
1787 $crypt_auto_encrypt, $crypt_reply_encrypt, $crypt_auto_sign,
1788 $crypt_reply_sign and $smime_is_default.
1789 crypt_auto_sign
1793 Type: boolean
1794 Default: no
1795 Setting this variable will cause NeoMutt to always attempt to
1797 cryptographically sign outgoing messages. This can be overrid‐
1798 den by use of the pgp menu, when signing is not required or en‐
1799 cryption is requested as well. If $smime_is_default is set, then
1800 OpenSSL is used instead to create S/MIME messages and settings
1801 can be overridden by use of the smime menu instead of the pgp
1802 menu. (Crypto only)
1803 crypt_auto_smime
1807 Type: boolean
1808 Default: yes
1809 This variable controls whether or not NeoMutt may automatically
1811 enable S/MIME encryption/signing for messages. See also
1812 $crypt_auto_encrypt, $crypt_reply_encrypt, $crypt_auto_sign,
1813 $crypt_reply_sign and $smime_is_default.
1814 crypt_chars
1818 Type: character string
1819 Default: "SPsK "
1820 Controls the characters used in cryptography flags.
1822 Character
1823 Default Description
1824 1 S The mail is signed, and the signature is successfully
1825 verified.
1826 2 P The mail is PGP encrypted.
1827 3 s The mail is signed.
1828 4 K The mail contains a PGP public key.
1829 5 <space> The mail has no crypto info.
1830 crypt_confirm_hook
1833 Type: boolean
1834 Default: yes
1835 If set, then you will be prompted for confirmation of keys when
1837 using the crypt-hook command. If unset, no such confirmation
1838 prompt will be presented. This is generally considered unsafe,
1839 especially where typos are concerned.
1840 crypt_opportunistic_encrypt
1844 Type: boolean
1845 Default: no
1846 Setting this variable will cause NeoMutt to automatically enable
1848 and disable encryption, based on whether all message recipient
1849 keys can be located by NeoMutt.
1850 When this option is enabled, NeoMutt will enable/disable encryp‐
1852 tion each time the TO, CC, and BCC lists are edited. If
1853 $edit_headers is set, NeoMutt will also do so each time the mes‐
1854 sage is edited.
1855 While this is set, encryption can't be manually enabled/dis‐
1857 abled. The pgp or smime menus provide a selection to temporar‐
1858 ily disable this option for the current message.
1859 If $crypt_auto_encrypt or $crypt_reply_encrypt enable encryption
1861 for a message, this option will be disabled for that message.
1862 It can be manually re-enabled in the pgp or smime menus.
1863 (Crypto only)
1864 crypt_opportunistic_encrypt_strong_keys
1868 Type: boolean
1869 Default: no
1870 When set, this modifies the behavior of $crypt_opportunistic_en‐
1872 crypt to only search for "strong keys", that is, keys with full
1873 validity according to the web-of-trust algorithm. A key with
1874 marginal or no validity will not enable opportunistic encryp‐
1875 tion.
1876 For S/MIME, the behavior depends on the backend. Classic S/MIME
1878 will filter for certificates with the 't'(trusted) flag in the
1879 .index file. The GPGME backend will use the same filters as
1880 with OpenPGP, and depends on GPGME's logic for assigning the
1881 GPGME_VALIDITY_FULL and GPGME_VALIDITY_ULTIMATE validity flag.
1882 crypt_protected_headers_read
1886 Type: boolean
1887 Default: yes
1888 When set, NeoMutt will display protected headers ("Memory Hole")
1890 in the pager, When set, NeoMutt will display protected headers
1891 in the pager, and will update the index and header cache with
1892 revised headers.
1893 Protected headers are stored inside the encrypted or signed part
1895 of an an email, to prevent disclosure or tampering. For more
1896 information see https://github.com/autocrypt/protected-headers
1897 Currently NeoMutt only supports the Subject header.
1898 Encrypted messages using protected headers often substitute the
1900 exposed Subject header with a dummy value (see $crypt_pro‐
1901 tected_headers_subject). NeoMutt will update its concept of the
1902 correct subject after the message is opened, i.e. via the <dis‐
1903 play-message> function. If you reply to a message before open‐
1904 ing it, NeoMutt will end up using the dummy Subject header, so
1905 be sure to open such a message first. (Crypto only)
1906 crypt_protected_headers_save
1910 Type: boolean
1911 Default: no
1912 When $crypt_protected_headers_read is set, and a message with a
1914 protected Subject is opened, NeoMutt will save the updated Sub‐
1915 ject into the header cache by default. This allows search‐
1916 ing/limiting based on the protected Subject header if the mail‐
1917 box is re-opened, without having to re-open the message each
1918 time. However, for mbox/mh mailbox types, or if header caching
1919 is not set up, you would need to re-open the message each time
1920 the mailbox was reopened before you could see or search/limit on
1921 the protected subject again.
1922 When this variable is set, NeoMutt additionally saves the pro‐
1924 tected Subject back in the clear-text message headers. This
1925 provides better usability, but with the tradeoff of reduced se‐
1926 curity. The protected Subject header, which may have previously
1927 been encrypted, is now stored in clear-text in the message head‐
1928 ers. Copying the message elsewhere, via NeoMutt or external
1929 tools, could expose this previously encrypted data. Please make
1930 sure you understand the consequences of this before you enable
1931 this variable. (Crypto only)
1932 crypt_protected_headers_subject
1936 Type: string
1937 Default: "..."
1938 When $crypt_protected_headers_write is set, and the message is
1940 marked for encryption, this will be substituted into the Subject
1941 field in the message headers.
1942 To prevent a subject from being substituted, unset this vari‐
1944 able, or set it to the empty string. (Crypto only)
1945 crypt_protected_headers_write
1949 Type: boolean
1950 Default: no
1951 When set, NeoMutt will generate protected headers for signed and
1953 encrypted emails.
1954 Protected headers are stored inside the encrypted or signed part
1956 of an an email, to prevent disclosure or tampering. For more
1957 information see https://github.com/autocrypt/protected-headers
1958 Currently NeoMutt only supports the Subject header. (Crypto
1960 only)
1961 crypt_reply_encrypt
1965 Type: boolean
1966 Default: yes
1967 If set, automatically PGP or OpenSSL encrypt replies to messages
1969 which are encrypted. (Crypto only)
1970 crypt_reply_sign
1974 Type: boolean
1975 Default: no
1976 If set, automatically PGP or OpenSSL sign replies to messages
1978 which are signed.
1979 Note: this does not work on messages that are encrypted and
1981 signed! (Crypto only)
1982 crypt_reply_sign_encrypted
1986 Type: boolean
1987 Default: no
1988 If set, automatically PGP or OpenSSL sign replies to messages
1990 which are encrypted. This makes sense in combination with
1991 $crypt_reply_encrypt, because it allows you to sign all messages
1992 which are automatically encrypted. This works around the prob‐
1993 lem noted in $crypt_reply_sign, that NeoMutt is not able to find
1994 out whether an encrypted message is also signed. (Crypto only)
1995 crypt_timestamp
1999 Type: boolean
2000 Default: yes
2001 If set, NeoMutt will include a time stamp in the lines surround‐
2003 ing PGP or S/MIME output, so spoofing such lines is more diffi‐
2004 cult. If you are using colors to mark these lines, and rely on
2005 these, you may unset this setting. (Crypto only)
2006 crypt_use_gpgme
2010 Type: boolean
2011 Default: yes
2012 This variable controls the use of the GPGME-enabled crypto back‐
2014 ends. If it is set and NeoMutt was built with GPGME support,
2015 the gpgme code for S/MIME and PGP will be used instead of the
2016 classic code. Note that you need to set this option in .neomut‐
2017 trc; it won't have any effect when used interactively.
2018 Note that the GPGME backend does not support creating old-style
2020 inline (traditional) PGP encrypted or signed messages (see
2021 $pgp_auto_inline).
2022 crypt_use_pka
2026 Type: boolean
2027 Default: no
2028 Controls whether NeoMutt uses PKA (see
2030 http://www.g10code.de/docs/pka-intro.de.pdf) during signature
2031 verification (only supported by the GPGME backend).
2032 crypt_verify_sig
2036 Type: quadoption
2037 Default: yes
2038 If "yes", always attempt to verify PGP or S/MIME signatures. If
2040 "ask-*", ask whether or not to verify the signature. If "no",
2041 never attempt to verify cryptographic signatures. (Crypto only)
2042 date_format
2046 Type: string
2047 Default: "!%a, %b %d, %Y at %I:%M:%S%p %Z"
2048 This variable controls the format of the date printed by the
2050 "%d" sequence in $index_format. This is passed to the strf‐
2051 time(3) function to process the date, see the man page for the
2052 proper syntax.
2053 Unless the first character in the string is a bang ("!"), the
2055 month and week day names are expanded according to the locale.
2056 If the first character in the string is a bang, the bang is dis‐
2057 carded, and the month and week day names in the rest of the
2058 string are expanded in the C locale (that is in US English).
2059 debug_file
2063 Type: path
2064 Default: "~/.neomuttdebug"
2065 Debug logging is controlled by the variables $debug_file and
2067 $debug_level. $debug_file specifies the root of the filename.
2068 NeoMutt will add "0" to the end. Each time NeoMutt is run with
2069 logging enabled, the log files are rotated. A maximum of five
2070 log files are kept, numbered 0 (most recent) to 4 (oldest).
2071 This option can be enabled on the command line, "neomutt -l my‐
2073 log"
2074 See also: $debug_level
2076 debug_level
2080 Type: number
2081 Default: 0
2082 Debug logging is controlled by the variables $debug_file and
2084 $debug_level.
2085 The debug level controls how much information is saved to the
2087 log file. If you have a problem with NeoMutt, then enabling
2088 logging may help find the cause. Levels 1-3 will usually pro‐
2089 vide enough information for writing a bug report. Levels 4,5
2090 will be extremely verbose.
2091 Warning: Logging at high levels may save private information to
2093 the file.
2094 This option can be enabled on the command line, "neomutt -d 2"
2096 See also: $debug_file
2098 default_hook
2102 Type: string
2103 Default: "~f %s !~P | (~P ~C %s)"
2104 This variable controls how "message-hook", "reply-hook", "send-
2106 hook", "send2-hook", "save-hook", and "fcc-hook" will be inter‐
2107 preted if they are specified with only a simple regex, instead
2108 of a matching pattern. The hooks are expanded when they are de‐
2109 clared, so a hook will be interpreted according to the value of
2110 this variable at the time the hook is declared.
2111 The default value matches if the message is either from a user
2113 matching the regular expression given, or if it is from you (if
2114 the from address matches "alternates") and is to or cc'ed to a
2115 user matching the given regular expression.
2116 delete
2120 Type: quadoption
2121 Default: ask-yes
2122 Controls whether or not messages are really deleted when closing
2124 or synchronizing a mailbox. If set to yes, messages marked for
2125 deleting will automatically be purged without prompting. If set
2126 to no, messages marked for deletion will be kept in the mailbox.
2127 delete_untag
2131 Type: boolean
2132 Default: yes
2133 If this option is set, NeoMutt will untag messages when marking
2135 them for deletion. This applies when you either explicitly
2136 delete a message, or when you save it to another folder.
2137 digest_collapse
2141 Type: boolean
2142 Default: yes
2143 If this option is set, NeoMutt's received-attachments menu will
2145 not show the subparts of individual messages in a multipart/di‐
2146 gest. To see these subparts, press "v" on that menu.
2147 display_filter
2151 Type: command
2152 Default: ""
2153 When set, specifies a command used to filter messages. When a
2155 message is viewed it is passed as standard input to $dis‐
2156 play_filter, and the filtered message is read from the standard
2157 output.
2158 When preparing the message, NeoMutt inserts some escape se‐
2160 quences into the text. They are of the form: <esc>]9;XXX<bel>
2161 where "XXX" is a random 64-bit number.
2162 If these escape sequences interfere with your filter, they can
2164 be removed using a tool like ansifilter or sed
2165 's/^\x1b]9;[0-9]\+\x7//'
2166 If they are removed, then PGP and MIME headers will no longer be
2168 coloured. This can be fixed by adding this to your config:
2169 color body magenta default '^\[-- .* --\]$'.
2170 dsn_notify
2174 Type: string
2175 Default: ""
2176 This variable sets the request for when notification is re‐
2178 turned. The string consists of a comma separated list (no spa‐
2179 ces!) of one or more of the following: never, to never request
2180 notification, failure, to request notification on transmission
2181 failure, delay, to be notified of message delays, success, to be
2182 notified of successful transmission.
2183 Example:
2185 set dsn_notify="failure,delay"
2188 Note: when using $sendmail for delivery, you should not enable
2191 this unless you are either using Sendmail 8.8.x or greater or a
2192 MTA providing a sendmail(1)-compatible interface supporting the
2193 -N option for DSN. For SMTP delivery, DSN support is auto-de‐
2194 tected so that it depends on the server whether DSN will be used
2195 or not.
2196 dsn_return
2200 Type: string
2201 Default: ""
2202 This variable controls how much of your message is returned in
2204 DSN messages. It may be set to either hdrs to return just the
2205 message header, or full to return the full message.
2206 Example:
2208 set dsn_return=hdrs
2211 Note: when using $sendmail for delivery, you should not enable
2214 this unless you are either using Sendmail 8.8.x or greater or a
2215 MTA providing a sendmail(1)-compatible interface supporting the
2216 -R option for DSN. For SMTP delivery, DSN support is auto-de‐
2217 tected so that it depends on the server whether DSN will be used
2218 or not.
2219 duplicate_threads
2223 Type: boolean
2224 Default: yes
2225 This variable controls whether NeoMutt, when $sort is set to
2227 threads, threads messages with the same Message-Id together. If
2228 it is set, it will indicate that it thinks they are duplicates
2229 of each other with an equals sign in the thread tree.
2230 edit_headers
2234 Type: boolean
2235 Default: no
2236 This option allows you to edit the header of your outgoing mes‐
2238 sages along with the body of your message.
2239 Although the compose menu may have localized header labels, the
2241 labels passed to your editor will be standard RFC2822 headers,
2242 (e.g. To:, Cc:, Subject:). Headers added in your editor must
2243 also be RFC2822 headers, or one of the pseudo headers listed in
2244 "edit-header". NeoMutt will not understand localized header la‐
2245 bels, just as it would not when parsing an actual email.
2246 Note that changes made to the References: and Date: headers are
2248 ignored for interoperability reasons.
2249 editor
2253 Type: command
2254 Default: ""
2255 This variable specifies which editor is used by NeoMutt. It de‐
2257 faults to the value of the $VISUAL, or $EDITOR, environment
2258 variable, or to the string "vi" if neither of those are set.
2259 The $editor string may contain a %s escape, which will be re‐
2261 placed by the name of the file to be edited. If the %s escape
2262 does not appear in $editor, a space and the name to be edited
2263 are appended.
2264 The resulting string is then executed by running
2266 sh -c 'string'
2269 where string is the expansion of $editor described above.
2272 empty_subject
2276 Type: string
2277 Default: "Re: your mail"
2278 This variable specifies the subject to be used when replying to
2280 an email with an empty subject. It defaults to "Re: your mail".
2281 encode_from
2285 Type: boolean
2286 Default: no
2287 When set, NeoMutt will quoted-printable encode messages when
2289 they contain the string "From " (note the trailing space) in the
2290 beginning of a line. This is useful to avoid the tampering cer‐
2291 tain mail delivery and transport agents tend to do with messages
2292 (in order to prevent tools from misinterpreting the line as a
2293 mbox message separator).
2294 entropy_file
2298 Type: path
2299 Default: ""
2300 The file which includes random data that is used to initialize
2302 SSL library functions.
2303 envelope_from_address
2307 Type: e-mail address
2308 Default: ""
2309 Manually sets the envelope sender for outgoing messages. This
2311 value is ignored if $use_envelope_from is unset.
2312 external_search_command
2316 Type: command
2317 Default: ""
2318 If set, contains the name of the external program used by "~I"
2320 patterns. This will usually be a wrapper script around mairix,
2321 mu, or similar indexers other than notmuch (for which there is
2322 optional special support).
2323 Here is an example how it works. Let's assume $exter‐
2325 nal_search_command is set to "mairix_filter", and mairix_filter
2326 is a script which runs the old but well loved mairix indexer
2327 with the arguments given to mairix_filter, in the "raw" mode of
2328 mairix, producing on the standard output a list of Message-IDs,
2329 one per line.
2330 If possible, it also filters down the results coming from mairix
2332 such that only messages in the current folder remain. It can do
2333 this because it gets a hidden first argument which is the path
2334 to the folder. (This can be the type of clean and simple script
2335 called a one-liner.)
2336 Now if NeoMutt gets a limit or tag command followed by the pat‐
2338 tern "~I '-t s:bleeping='", mairix_filter runs mairix with the
2339 arguments from inside the quotes (the quotes are needed because
2340 of the space after "-t"), mairix finds all messages with "bleep‐
2341 ing" in the Subject plus all messages sharing threads with these
2342 and outputs their file names, and mairix_filter translates the
2343 file names into Message-IDs. Finally, NeoMutt reads the Mes‐
2344 sage-IDs and targets the matching messages with the command
2345 given to it.
2346 You, the user, still have to rewrite the mairix_filter script to
2348 match the behavior of your indexer, but this should help users
2349 of indexers other than notmuch to integrate them cleanly with
2350 NeoMutt.
2351 fast_reply
2355 Type: boolean
2356 Default: no
2357 When set, the initial prompt for recipients (to, cc, bcc) and
2359 subject are skipped when the relevant information is already
2360 provided. These cases include replying to messages and passing
2361 the relevant command line arguments. The initial prompt for re‐
2362 cipients is also skipped when composing a new message to the
2363 current message sender, while the initial prompt for subject is
2364 also skipped when forwarding messages.
2365 Note: this variable has no effect when the $auto_edit variable
2367 is set.
2368 See also: $auto_edit, $edit_headers, $ask_cc, $ask_bcc
2370 fcc_attach
2374 Type: quadoption
2375 Default: yes
2376 This variable controls whether or not attachments on outgoing
2378 messages are saved along with the main body of your message.
2379 Note: $fcc_before_send forces the default (set) behavior of this
2381 option.
2382 fcc_before_send
2386 Type: boolean
2387 Default: no
2388 When this variable is set, FCCs will occur before sending the
2390 message. Before sending, the message cannot be manipulated, so
2391 it will be stored the exact same as sent: $fcc_attach and
2392 $fcc_clear will be ignored (using their default values).
2393 When unset, the default, FCCs will occur after sending. Vari‐
2395 ables $fcc_attach and $fcc_clear will be respected, allowing it
2396 to be stored without attachments or encryption/signing if de‐
2397 sired.
2398 fcc_clear
2402 Type: boolean
2403 Default: no
2404 When this variable is set, FCCs will be stored unencrypted and
2406 unsigned, even when the actual message is encrypted and/or
2407 signed.
2408 Note: $fcc_before_send forces the default (unset) behavior of
2410 this option. (PGP only)
2411 See also $pgp_self_encrypt, $smime_self_encrypt
2413 flag_chars
2417 Type: character string
2418 Default: "*!DdrONon- "
2419 Controls the characters used in several flags.
2421 Character
2422 Default Description
2423 1 * The mail is tagged.
2424 2 ! The mail is flagged as important.
2425 3 D The mail is marked for deletion.
2426 4 d The mail has attachments marked for deletion.
2427 5 r The mail has been replied to.
2428 6 O The mail is Old (Unread but seen).
2429 7 N The mail is New (Unread but not seen).
2430 8 o The mail thread is Old (Unread but seen).
2431 9 n The mail thread is New (Unread but not seen).
2432 10 - The mail is read - %S expando.
2433 11 <space> The mail is read - %Z expando.
2434 flag_safe
2437 Type: boolean
2438 Default: no
2439 If set, flagged messages can't be deleted.
2441 folder
2445 Type: mailbox
2446 Default: "~/Mail"
2447 Specifies the default location of your mailboxes. A "+" or "="
2449 at the beginning of a pathname will be expanded to the value of
2450 this variable. Note that if you change this variable (from the
2451 default) value you need to make sure that the assignment occurs
2452 before you use "+" or "=" for any other variables since expan‐
2453 sion takes place when handling the "mailboxes" command.
2454 folder_format
2458 Type: string
2459 Default: "%2C %t %N %F %2l %-8.8u %-8.8g %8s %d %i"
2460 This variable allows you to customize the file browser display
2462 to your personal taste. This string is similar to $index_for‐
2463 mat, but has its own set of printf(3)-like sequences:
2464 %C
2465 Current file number
2467 %d
2468 Date/time folder was last modified
2470 %D
2471 Date/time folder was last modified using $date_format.
2473 %f
2474 Filename ("/" is appended to directory names, "@" to sym‐
2476 bolic links and "*" to executable files)
2477 %F
2478 File permissions
2480 %g
2481 Group name (or numeric gid, if missing)
2483 %i
2484 Description of the folder
2486 %l
2487 Number of hard links
2489 %m * Number of messages in the mailbox
2490 %n * Number of unread messages in the mailbox
2491 %N
2492 "N" if mailbox has new mail, " " (space) otherwise
2494 %s
2495 Size in bytes (see formatstrings-size)
2497 %t
2498 "*" if the file is tagged, blank otherwise
2500 %u
2501 Owner name (or numeric uid, if missing)
2503 %>X
2504 Right justify the rest of the string and pad with charac‐
2506 ter "X"
2507 %|X
2508 Pad to the end of the line with character "X"
2510 %*X
2511 Soft-fill with character "X" as pad
2513 For an explanation of "soft-fill", see the $index_format docu‐
2515 mentation.
2516 * = can be optionally printed if nonzero
2518 %m, %n, and %N only work for monitored mailboxes. %m requires
2520 $mail_check_stats to be set. %n requires $mail_check_stats to
2521 be set (except for IMAP mailboxes).
2522 followup_to
2526 Type: boolean
2527 Default: yes
2528 Controls whether or not the "Mail-Followup-To:" header field is
2530 generated when sending mail. When set, NeoMutt will generate
2531 this field when you are replying to a known mailing list, speci‐
2532 fied with the "subscribe" or "lists" commands.
2533 This field has two purposes. First, preventing you from receiv‐
2535 ing duplicate copies of replies to messages which you send to
2536 mailing lists, and second, ensuring that you do get a reply sep‐
2537 arately for any messages sent to known lists to which you are
2538 not subscribed.
2539 The header will contain only the list's address for subscribed
2541 lists, and both the list address and your own email address for
2542 unsubscribed lists. Without this header, a group reply to your
2543 message sent to a subscribed list will be sent to both the list
2544 and your address, resulting in two copies of the same email for
2545 you.
2546 followup_to_poster
2550 Type: quadoption
2551 Default: ask-yes
2552 If this variable is set and the keyword "poster" is present in
2554 Followup-To header, follow-up to newsgroup function is not per‐
2555 mitted. The message will be mailed to the submitter of the mes‐
2556 sage via mail.
2557 force_name
2561 Type: boolean
2562 Default: no
2563 This variable is similar to $save_name, except that NeoMutt will
2565 store a copy of your outgoing message by the username of the ad‐
2566 dress you are sending to even if that mailbox does not exist.
2567 Also see the $record variable.
2569 forward_attachments
2573 Type: quadoption
2574 Default: ask-yes
2575 When forwarding inline (i.e. $mime_forward unset or answered
2577 with "no" and $forward_decode set), attachments which cannot be
2578 decoded in a reasonable manner will be attached to the newly
2579 composed message if this quadoption is set or answered with
2580 "yes".
2581 forward_attribution_intro
2585 Type: string
2586 Default: "----- Forwarded message from %f -----"
2587 This is the string that will precede a message which has been
2589 forwarded in the main body of a message (when $mime_forward is
2590 unset). For a full listing of defined printf(3)-like sequences
2591 see the section on $index_format. See also $attribution_locale.
2592 forward_attribution_trailer
2596 Type: string
2597 Default: "----- End forwarded message -----"
2598 This is the string that will follow a message which has been
2600 forwarded in the main body of a message (when $mime_forward is
2601 unset). For a full listing of defined printf(3)-like sequences
2602 see the section on $index_format. See also $attribution_locale.
2603 forward_decode
2607 Type: boolean
2608 Default: yes
2609 Controls the decoding of complex MIME messages into text/plain
2611 when forwarding a message. The message header is also RFC2047
2612 decoded. This variable is only used, if $mime_forward is unset,
2613 otherwise $mime_forward_decode is used instead.
2614 forward_decrypt
2618 Type: boolean
2619 Default: yes
2620 Controls the handling of encrypted messages when forwarding a
2622 message. When set, the outer layer of encryption is stripped
2623 off. This variable is only used if $mime_forward is set and
2624 $mime_forward_decode is unset. (PGP only)
2625 forward_edit
2629 Type: quadoption
2630 Default: yes
2631 This quadoption controls whether or not the user is automati‐
2633 cally placed in the editor when forwarding messages. For those
2634 who always want to forward with no modification, use a setting
2635 of "no".
2636 forward_format
2640 Type: string
2641 Default: "[%a: %s]"
2642 This variable controls the default subject when forwarding a
2644 message. It uses the same format sequences as the $index_format
2645 variable.
2646 forward_quote
2650 Type: boolean
2651 Default: no
2652 When set, forwarded messages included in the main body of the
2654 message (when $mime_forward is unset) will be quoted using $in‐
2655 dent_string.
2656 forward_references
2660 Type: boolean
2661 Default: no
2662 When set, forwarded messages set the "In-Reply-To:" and "Refer‐
2664 ences:" headers in the same way as normal replies would. Hence
2665 the forwarded message becomes part of the original thread in‐
2666 stead of starting a new one.
2667 from
2671 Type: e-mail address
2672 Default: ""
2673 When set, this variable contains a default "from" address. It
2675 can be overridden using "my_hdr" (including from a "send-hook")
2676 and $reverse_name. This variable is ignored if $use_from is un‐
2677 set.
2678 If not specified, then it may be read from the environment vari‐
2680 able $EMAIL.
2681 from_chars
2685 Type: character string
2686 Default: ""
2687 Controls the character used to prefix the %F and %L fields in
2689 the index.
2690 Character
2691 Description
2692 1 Mail is written by you and has a To address, or has a
2693 known mailing list in the To address.
2694 2 Mail is written by you and has a Cc address, or has a
2695 known mailing list in the Cc address.
2696 3 Mail is written by you and has a Bcc address.
2697 4 All remaining cases.
2698 If this is empty or unset (default), the traditional long "To ",
2700 "Cc " and "Bcc " prefixes are used. If set but too short to in‐
2701 clude a character for a particular case, a single space will be
2702 prepended to the field. To prevent any prefix at all from being
2703 added in a particular case, use the special value CR (aka ^M)
2704 for the corresponding character.
2705 This slightly odd interface is necessitated by NeoMutt's han‐
2707 dling of string variables; one can't tell a variable that is un‐
2708 set from one that is set to the empty string.
2709 gecos_mask
2713 Type: regular expression
2714 Default: "^[^,]*"
2715 A regular expression used by NeoMutt to parse the GECOS field of
2717 a password entry when expanding the alias. The default value
2718 will return the string up to the first "," encountered. If the
2719 GECOS field contains a string like "lastname, firstname" then
2720 you should set it to ".*".
2721 This can be useful if you see the following behavior: you ad‐
2723 dress an e-mail to user ID "stevef" whose full name is "Steve
2724 Franklin". If NeoMutt expands "stevef" to '"Franklin"
2725 stevef@foo.bar' then you should set the $gecos_mask to a regular
2726 expression that will match the whole name so NeoMutt will expand
2727 "Franklin" to "Franklin, Steve".
2728 greeting
2732 Type: string
2733 Default: ""
2734 When set, this is the string that will precede every message as
2736 a greeting phrase to the recipients.
2737 "Format strings" are similar to the strings used in the "C"
2739 function printf to format output (see the man page for more de‐
2740 tail). The following sequences are defined in NeoMutt:
2741 %n Recipient's real name
2743 %u User (login) name of recipient
2744 %v First name of recipient
2745 group_index_format
2748 Type: string
2749 Default: "%4C %M%N %5s %-45.45f %d"
2750 This variable allows you to customize the newsgroup browser dis‐
2752 play to your personal taste. This string is similar to "in‐
2753 dex_format", but has its own set of printf()-like sequences:
2754 %C Current newsgroup number
2755 %d Description of newsgroup (becomes from server)
2756 %f Newsgroup name
2757 %M - if newsgroup not allowed for direct post (moderated for
2758 example)
2759 %N N if newsgroup is new, u if unsubscribed, blank otherwise
2760 %n Number of new articles in newsgroup
2761 %s Number of unread articles in newsgroup
2762 %>X Right justify the rest of the string and pad with charac‐
2763 ter "X"
2764 %|X Pad to the end of the line with character "X"
2765 hdrs
2768 Type: boolean
2769 Default: yes
2770 When unset, the header fields normally added by the "my_hdr"
2772 command are not created. This variable must be unset before
2773 composing a new message or replying in order to take effect. If
2774 set, the user defined header fields are added to every new mes‐
2775 sage.
2776 header
2780 Type: boolean
2781 Default: no
2782 When set, this variable causes NeoMutt to include the header of
2784 the message you are replying to into the edit buffer. The $weed
2785 setting applies.
2786 header_cache
2790 Type: path
2791 Default: ""
2792 This variable points to the header cache database. If the path
2794 points to an existing directory, NeoMutt will create a dedicated
2795 header cache database per folder. Otherwise, the path points to
2796 a regular file, which will be created as needed and used as a
2797 shared global header cache for all folders. By default it is
2798 unset so no header caching will be used.
2799 Header caching can greatly improve speed when opening POP, IMAP
2801 MH or Maildir folders, see "caching" for details.
2802 header_cache_backend
2806 Type: string
2807 Default: ""
2808 This variable specifies the header cache backend. If no backend
2810 is specified, the first available backend will be used in the
2811 following order: tokyocabinet, kyotocabinet, qdbm, rocksdb,
2812 gdbm, bdb, tdb, lmdb.
2813 header_cache_compress_level
2817 Type: number
2818 Default: 1
2819 When NeoMutt is compiled with lz4, zstd or zlib, this option can
2821 be used to setup the compression level.
2822 header_cache_compress_method
2826 Type: string
2827 Default: ""
2828 When NeoMutt is compiled with lz4, zstd or zlib, the header
2830 cache backend can use these compression methods for compressing
2831 the cache files. This results in much smaller cache file sizes
2832 and may even improve speed.
2833 header_color_partial
2837 Type: boolean
2838 Default: no
2839 When set, color header regexes behave like color body regexes:
2841 color is applied to the exact text matched by the regex. When
2842 unset, color is applied to the entire header.
2843 One use of this option might be to apply color to just the
2845 header labels.
2846 See "color" for more details.
2848 help
2852 Type: boolean
2853 Default: yes
2854 When set, help lines describing the bindings for the major func‐
2856 tions provided by each menu are displayed on the first line of
2857 the screen.
2858 Note: The binding will not be displayed correctly if the func‐
2860 tion is bound to a sequence rather than a single keystroke.
2861 Also, the help line may not be updated if a binding is changed
2862 while NeoMutt is running. Since this variable is primarily
2863 aimed at new users, neither of these should present a major
2864 problem.
2865 hidden_host
2869 Type: boolean
2870 Default: no
2871 When set, NeoMutt will skip the host name part of $hostname
2873 variable when adding the domain part to addresses. This vari‐
2874 able does not affect the generation of Message-IDs, and it will
2875 not lead to the cut-off of first-level domains.
2876 hidden_tags
2880 Type: string list
2881 Default: "unread,draft,flagged,passed,replied,attachment,signed,encrypted"
2882 This variable specifies a list of comma-separated private not‐
2884 much/imap tags which should not be printed on screen.
2885 hide_limited
2889 Type: boolean
2890 Default: no
2891 When set, NeoMutt will not show the presence of messages that
2893 are hidden by limiting, in the thread tree.
2894 hide_missing
2898 Type: boolean
2899 Default: yes
2900 When set, NeoMutt will not show the presence of missing messages
2902 in the thread tree.
2903 hide_thread_subject
2907 Type: boolean
2908 Default: yes
2909 When set, NeoMutt will not show the subject of messages in the
2911 thread tree that have the same subject as their parent or clos‐
2912 est previously displayed sibling.
2913 hide_top_limited
2917 Type: boolean
2918 Default: no
2919 When set, NeoMutt will not show the presence of messages that
2921 are hidden by limiting, at the top of threads in the thread
2922 tree. Note that when $hide_limited is set, this option will
2923 have no effect.
2924 hide_top_missing
2928 Type: boolean
2929 Default: yes
2930 When set, NeoMutt will not show the presence of missing messages
2932 at the top of threads in the thread tree. Note that when
2933 $hide_missing is set, this option will have no effect.
2934 history
2938 Type: number
2939 Default: 10
2940 This variable controls the size (in number of strings remem‐
2942 bered) of the string history buffer per category. The buffer is
2943 cleared each time the variable is set.
2944 history_file
2948 Type: path
2949 Default: "~/.mutthistory"
2950 The file in which NeoMutt will save its history.
2952 Also see $save_history.
2954 history_remove_dups
2958 Type: boolean
2959 Default: no
2960 When set, all of the string history will be scanned for dupli‐
2962 cates when a new entry is added. Duplicate entries in the $his‐
2963 tory_file will also be removed when it is periodically com‐
2964 pacted.
2965 honor_disposition
2969 Type: boolean
2970 Default: no
2971 When set, NeoMutt will not display attachments with a disposi‐
2973 tion of "attachment" inline even if it could render the part to
2974 plain text. These MIME parts can only be viewed from the attach‐
2975 ment menu.
2976 If unset, NeoMutt will render all MIME parts it can properly
2978 transform to plain text.
2979 honor_followup_to
2983 Type: quadoption
2984 Default: yes
2985 This variable controls whether or not a Mail-Followup-To header
2987 is honored when group-replying to a message.
2988 hostname
2992 Type: string
2993 Default: ""
2994 Specifies the fully-qualified hostname of the system NeoMutt is
2996 running on containing the host's name and the DNS domain it be‐
2997 longs to. It is used as the domain part (after "@") for local
2998 email addresses as well as Message-Id headers.
2999 If not specified in a config file, then NeoMutt will try to de‐
3001 termine the hostname itself.
3002 Optionally, NeoMutt can be compiled with a fixed domain name.
3004 Also see $use_domain and $hidden_host.
3006 idn_decode
3010 Type: boolean
3011 Default: yes
3012 When set, NeoMutt will show you international domain names de‐
3014 coded. Note: You can use IDNs for addresses even if this is un‐
3015 set. This variable only affects decoding. (IDN only)
3016 idn_encode
3020 Type: boolean
3021 Default: yes
3022 When set, NeoMutt will encode international domain names using
3024 IDN. Unset this if your SMTP server can handle newer (RFC6531)
3025 UTF-8 encoded domains. (IDN only)
3026 ignore_list_reply_to
3030 Type: boolean
3031 Default: no
3032 Affects the behavior of the <reply> function when replying to
3034 messages from mailing lists (as defined by the "subscribe" or
3035 "lists" commands). When set, if the "Reply-To:" field is set to
3036 the same value as the "To:" field, NeoMutt assumes that the "Re‐
3037 ply-To:" field was set by the mailing list to automate responses
3038 to the list, and will ignore this field. To direct a response
3039 to the mailing list when this option is set, use the <list-re‐
3040 ply> function; <group-reply> will reply to both the sender and
3041 the list.
3042 imap_authenticators
3046 Type: string list
3047 Default: ""
3048 This is a colon-separated list of authentication methods NeoMutt
3050 may attempt to use to log in to an IMAP server, in the order
3051 NeoMutt should try them. Authentication methods are either "lo‐
3052 gin" or the right side of an IMAP "AUTH=xxx" capability string,
3053 e.g. "digest-md5", "gssapi" or "cram-md5". This option is
3054 case-insensitive. If it's unset (the default) NeoMutt will try
3055 all available methods, in order from most-secure to least-se‐
3056 cure.
3057 Example:
3059 set imap_authenticators="gssapi:cram-md5:login"
3062 Note: NeoMutt will only fall back to other authentication meth‐
3065 ods if the previous methods are unavailable. If a method is
3066 available but authentication fails, NeoMutt will not connect to
3067 the IMAP server.
3068 imap_check_subscribed
3072 Type: boolean
3073 Default: no
3074 When set, NeoMutt will fetch the set of subscribed folders from
3076 your server whenever a mailbox is selected, and add them to the
3077 set of mailboxes it polls for new mail just as if you had issued
3078 individual "mailboxes" commands.
3079 imap_condstore
3083 Type: boolean
3084 Default: no
3085 When set, NeoMutt will use the CONDSTORE extension (RFC7162) if
3087 advertised by the server. NeoMutt's current implementation is
3088 basic, used only for initial message fetching and flag updates.
3089 For some IMAP servers, enabling this will slightly speed up
3091 downloading initial messages. Unfortunately, Gmail is not one
3092 those, and displays worse performance when enabled. Your
3093 mileage may vary.
3094 imap_deflate
3098 Type: boolean
3099 Default: yes
3100 When set, NeoMutt will use the COMPRESS=DEFLATE extension
3102 (RFC4978) if advertised by the server.
3103 In general a good compression efficiency can be achieved, which
3105 speeds up reading large mailboxes also on fairly good connec‐
3106 tions.
3107 imap_delim_chars
3111 Type: string
3112 Default: "/."
3113 This contains the list of characters that NeoMutt will use as
3115 folder separators for IMAP paths, when no separator is provided
3116 on the IMAP connection.
3117 imap_fetch_chunk_size
3121 Type: number (long)
3122 Default: 0
3123 When set to a value greater than 0, new headers will be down‐
3125 loaded in groups of this many headers per request. If you have
3126 a very large mailbox, this might prevent a timeout and discon‐
3127 nect when opening the mailbox, by sending a FETCH per set of
3128 this many headers, instead of a single FETCH for all new head‐
3129 ers.
3130 imap_headers
3134 Type: string
3135 Default: ""
3136 NeoMutt requests these header fields in addition to the default
3138 headers ("Date:", "From:", "Sender:", "Subject:", "To:", "Cc:",
3139 "Message-Id:", "References:", "Content-Type:", "Content-Descrip‐
3140 tion:", "In-Reply-To:", "Reply-To:", "Lines:", "List-Post:",
3141 "X-Label:") from IMAP servers before displaying the index menu.
3142 You may want to add more headers for spam detection.
3143 Note: This is a space separated list, items should be uppercase
3145 and not contain the colon, e.g. "X-BOGOSITY X-SPAM-STATUS" for
3146 the "X-Bogosity:" and "X-Spam-Status:" header fields.
3147 imap_idle
3151 Type: boolean
3152 Default: no
3153 When set, NeoMutt will attempt to use the IMAP IDLE extension to
3155 check for new mail in the current mailbox. Some servers (dovecot
3156 was the inspiration for this option) react badly to NeoMutt's
3157 implementation. If your connection seems to freeze up periodi‐
3158 cally, try unsetting this.
3159 imap_keepalive
3163 Type: number
3164 Default: 300
3165 This variable specifies the maximum amount of time in seconds
3167 that NeoMutt will wait before polling open IMAP connections, to
3168 prevent the server from closing them before NeoMutt has finished
3169 with them. The default is well within the RFC-specified minimum
3170 amount of time (30 minutes) before a server is allowed to do
3171 this, but in practice the RFC does get violated every now and
3172 then. Reduce this number if you find yourself getting discon‐
3173 nected from your IMAP server due to inactivity.
3174 imap_list_subscribed
3178 Type: boolean
3179 Default: no
3180 This variable configures whether IMAP folder browsing will look
3182 for only subscribed folders or all folders. This can be toggled
3183 in the IMAP browser with the <toggle-subscribed> function.
3184 imap_login
3188 Type: string
3189 Default: ""
3190 Your login name on the IMAP server.
3192 This variable defaults to the value of $imap_user.
3194 imap_oauth_refresh_command
3198 Type: command
3199 Default: ""
3200 The command to run to generate an OAUTH refresh token for autho‐
3202 rizing your connection to your IMAP server. This command will
3203 be run on every connection attempt that uses the OAUTHBEARER or
3204 XOAUTH2 authentication mechanisms. See "oauth" for details.
3205 imap_pass
3209 Type: string
3210 Default: ""
3211 Specifies the password for your IMAP account. If unset, NeoMutt
3213 will prompt you for your password when you invoke the
3214 <imap-fetch-mail> function or try to open an IMAP folder.
3215 Warning: you should only use this option when you are on a
3217 fairly secure machine, because the superuser can read your neo‐
3218 muttrc even if you are the only one who can read the file.
3219 imap_passive
3223 Type: boolean
3224 Default: yes
3225 When set, NeoMutt will not open new IMAP connections to check
3227 for new mail. NeoMutt will only check for new mail over exist‐
3228 ing IMAP connections. This is useful if you don't want to be
3229 prompted for user/password pairs on NeoMutt invocation, or if
3230 opening the connection is slow.
3231 imap_peek
3235 Type: boolean
3236 Default: yes
3237 When set, NeoMutt will avoid implicitly marking your mail as
3239 read whenever you fetch a message from the server. This is gen‐
3240 erally a good thing, but can make closing an IMAP folder some‐
3241 what slower. This option exists to appease speed freaks.
3242 imap_pipeline_depth
3246 Type: number
3247 Default: 15
3248 Controls the number of IMAP commands that may be queued up be‐
3250 fore they are sent to the server. A deeper pipeline reduces the
3251 amount of time NeoMutt must wait for the server, and can make
3252 IMAP servers feel much more responsive. But not all servers cor‐
3253 rectly handle pipelined commands, so if you have problems you
3254 might want to try setting this variable to 0.
3255 Note: Changes to this variable have no effect on open connec‐
3257 tions.
3258 imap_poll_timeout
3262 Type: number
3263 Default: 15
3264 This variable specifies the maximum amount of time in seconds
3266 that NeoMutt will wait for a response when polling IMAP connec‐
3267 tions for new mail, before timing out and closing the connec‐
3268 tion. Set to 0 to disable timing out.
3269 imap_qresync
3273 Type: boolean
3274 Default: no
3275 When set, NeoMutt will use the QRESYNC extension (RFC7162) if
3277 advertised by the server. NeoMutt's current implementation is
3278 basic, used only for initial message fetching and flag updates.
3279 Note: this feature is currently experimental. If you experience
3281 strange behavior, such as duplicate or missing messages please
3282 file a bug report to let us know.
3283 imap_rfc5161
3287 Type: boolean
3288 Default: yes
3289 When set, NeoMutt will use the IMAP ENABLE extension (RFC5161)
3291 to select CAPABILITIES. Some servers (notably Coremail System
3292 IMap Server) do not properly respond to ENABLE commands, which
3293 might cause NeoMutt to hang. If your connection seems to freeze
3294 at login, try unsetting this. See also https://github.com/neo‐
3295 mutt/neomutt/issues/1689
3296 imap_server_noise
3300 Type: boolean
3301 Default: yes
3302 When set, NeoMutt will display warning messages from the IMAP
3304 server as error messages. Since these messages are often harm‐
3305 less, or generated due to configuration problems on the server
3306 which are out of the users' hands, you may wish to suppress them
3307 at some point.
3308 imap_user
3312 Type: string
3313 Default: ""
3314 The name of the user whose mail you intend to access on the IMAP
3316 server.
3317 This variable defaults to your user name on the local machine.
3319 implicit_autoview
3323 Type: boolean
3324 Default: no
3325 If set to "yes", NeoMutt will look for a mailcap entry with the
3327 "copiousoutput" flag set for every MIME attachment it doesn't
3328 have an internal viewer defined for. If such an entry is found,
3329 NeoMutt will use the viewer defined in that entry to convert the
3330 body part to text form.
3331 include
3335 Type: quadoption
3336 Default: ask-yes
3337 Controls whether or not a copy of the message(s) you are reply‐
3339 ing to is included in your reply.
3340 include_encrypted
3344 Type: boolean
3345 Default: no
3346 Controls whether or not NeoMutt includes separately encrypted
3348 attachment contents when replying.
3349 This variable was added to prevent accidental exposure of en‐
3351 crypted contents when replying to an attacker. If a previously
3352 encrypted message were attached by the attacker, they could
3353 trick an unwary recipient into decrypting and including the mes‐
3354 sage in their reply.
3355 include_only_first
3359 Type: boolean
3360 Default: no
3361 Controls whether or not NeoMutt includes only the first attach‐
3363 ment of the message you are replying.
3364 indent_string
3368 Type: string
3369 Default: "> "
3370 Specifies the string to prepend to each line of text quoted in a
3372 message to which you are replying. You are strongly encouraged
3373 not to change this value, as it tends to agitate the more fanat‐
3374 ical netizens.
3375 The value of this option is ignored if $text_flowed is set, be‐
3377 cause the quoting mechanism is strictly defined for for‐
3378 mat=flowed.
3379 This option is a format string, please see the description of
3381 $index_format for supported printf(3)-style sequences.
3382 index_format
3386 Type: string
3387 Default: "%4C %Z %{%b %d} %-15.15L (%?l?%4l&%4c?) %s"
3388 This variable allows you to customize the message index display
3390 to your personal taste.
3391 "Format strings" are similar to the strings used in the C func‐
3393 tion printf(3) to format output (see the man page for more de‐
3394 tails). For an explanation of the %? construct, see the sta‐
3395 tus_format description. The following sequences are defined in
3396 NeoMutt:
3397 %a Address of the author
3398 %A Reply-to address (if present; otherwise: address of au‐
3399 thor)
3400 %b Filename of the original message folder (think mailbox)
3401 %B Same as %K
3402 %C Current message number
3403 %c Number of characters (bytes) in the body of the message
3404 (see formatstrings-size)
3405 %cr Number of characters (bytes) in the raw message, includ‐
3406 ing the header (see formatstrings-size)
3407 %D Date and time of message using date_format and local
3408 timezone
3409 %d Date and time of message using date_format and sender's
3410 timezone
3411 %e Current message number in thread
3412 %E Number of messages in current thread
3413 %F Author name, or recipient name if the message is from you
3414 %Fp Like %F, but plain. No contextual formatting is applied
3415 to recipient name
3416 %f Sender (address + real name), either From: or Re‐
3417 turn-Path:
3418 %g Newsgroup name (if compiled with NNTP support)
3419 %g Message tags (e.g. notmuch tags/imap flags)
3420 %Gx Individual message tag (e.g. notmuch tags/imap flags)
3421 %H Spam attribute(s) of this message
3422 %I Initials of author
3423 %i Message-id of the current message
3424 %J Message tags (if present, tree unfolded, and != parent's
3425 tags)
3426 %K The list to which the letter was sent (if any; otherwise:
3427 empty)
3428 %L If an address in the "To:" or "Cc:" header field matches
3429 an address Defined by the user's "subscribe" command,
3430 this displays "To <list-name>", otherwise the same as %F
3431 %l number of lines in the unprocessed message (may not work
3432 with maildir, mh, and IMAP folders)
3433 %M Number of hidden messages if the thread is collapsed
3434 %m Total number of message in the mailbox
3435 %N Message score
3436 %n Author's real name (or address if missing)
3437 %O Original save folder where NeoMutt would formerly have
3438 Stashed the message: list name or recipient name If not
3439 sent to a list
3440 %P Progress indicator for the built-in pager (how much of
3441 the file has been displayed)
3442 %q Newsgroup name (if compiled with NNTP support)
3443 %R Comma separated list of "Cc:" recipients
3444 %r Comma separated list of "To:" recipients
3445 %S Single character status of the message
3446 ("N"/"O"/"D"/"d"/"!"/"r"/"*")
3447 %s Subject of the message
3448 %T The appropriate character from the $to_chars string
3449 %t "To:" field (recipients)
3450 %u User (login) name of the author
3451 %v First name of the author, or the recipient if the message
3452 is from you
3453 %W Name of organization of author ("Organization:" field)
3454 %x "X-Comment-To:" field (if present and compiled with NNTP
3455 support)
3456 %X Number of MIME attachments (please see the "attachments"
3457 section for possible speed effects)
3458 %Y "X-Label:" field, if present, and [4m(1) not at part of a
3459 thread tree, [4m(2) at the top of a thread, or [4m(3) "X-La‐
3460 bel:" is different from Preceding message's "X-Label:"
3461 %y "X-Label:" field, if present
3462 %Z A three character set of message status flags. The first
3463 character is new/read/replied flags
3464 ("n"/"o"/"r"/"O"/"N"). The second is deleted or encryp‐
3465 tion flags ("D"/"d"/"S"/"P"/"s"/"K"). The third is ei‐
3466 ther tagged/flagged ("*"/"!"), or one of the characters
3467 Listed in $to_chars.
3468 %zc Message crypto flags
3469 %zs Message status flags
3470 %zt Message tag flags
3471 %@name@
3472 insert and evaluate format-string from the matching "in‐
3473 dex-format-hook" command
3474 %{fmt} the date and time of the message is converted to sender's
3475 time zone, and "fmt" is expanded by the library function
3476 strftime(3); if the first character inside the braces is
3477 a bang ("!"), the date is formatted ignoring any locale
3478 settings. Note that the sender's time zone might only be
3479 available as a numerical offset, so "%Z" behaves like
3480 "%z".
3481 %[fmt] the date and time of the message is converted to the lo‐
3482 cal time zone, and "fmt" is expanded by the library func‐
3483 tion strftime(3); if the first character inside the
3484 brackets is a bang ("!"), the date is formatted ignoring
3485 any locale settings.
3486 %(fmt) the local date and time when the message was received,
3487 and "fmt" is expanded by the library function strf‐
3488 time(3); if the first character inside the parentheses is
3489 a bang ("!"), the date is formatted ignoring any locale
3490 settings.
3491 %>X right justify the rest of the string and pad with charac‐
3492 ter "X"
3493 %|X pad to the end of the line with character "X"
3494 %*X soft-fill with character "X" as pad
3495 Date format expressions can be constructed based on relative
3497 dates. Using the date formatting operators along with nested
3498 conditionals, the date format can be modified based on how old a
3499 message is. See the section on "Conditional Dates" for an ex‐
3500 planation and examples
3501 Note that for mbox/mmdf, "%l" applies to the unprocessed mes‐
3503 sage, and for maildir/mh, the value comes from the "Lines:"
3504 header field when present (the meaning is normally the same).
3505 Thus the value depends on the encodings used in the different
3506 parts of the message and has little meaning in practice.
3507 "Soft-fill" deserves some explanation: Normal right-justifica‐
3509 tion will print everything to the left of the "%>", displaying
3510 padding and whatever lies to the right only if there's room. By
3511 contrast, soft-fill gives priority to the right-hand side, guar‐
3512 anteeing space to display it and showing padding only if there's
3513 still room. If necessary, soft-fill will eat text leftwards to
3514 make room for rightward text.
3515 Note that these expandos are supported in "save-hook", "fcc-
3517 hook" and "fcc-save-hook", too.
3518 inews
3522 Type: command
3523 Default: ""
3524 If set, specifies the program and arguments used to deliver news
3526 posted by NeoMutt. Otherwise, NeoMutt posts article using cur‐
3527 rent connection to news server. The following printf-style se‐
3528 quence is understood:
3529 %a account url
3530 %p port
3531 %P port if specified
3532 %s news server name
3533 %S url schema
3534 %u username
3535 Example:
3537 set inews="/usr/local/bin/inews -hS"
3540 ispell
3545 Type: command
3546 Default: "ispell"
3547 How to invoke ispell (GNU's spell-checking software).
3549 keep_flagged
3553 Type: boolean
3554 Default: no
3555 If set, read messages marked as flagged will not be moved from
3557 your spool mailbox to your $mbox mailbox, or as a result of a
3558 "mbox-hook" command.
3559 local_date_header
3563 Type: boolean
3564 Default: yes
3565 If set, the date in the Date header of emails that you send will
3567 be in your local timezone. If unset a UTC date will be used in‐
3568 stead to avoid leaking information about your current location.
3569 mail_check
3573 Type: number
3574 Default: 5
3575 This variable configures how often (in seconds) NeoMutt should
3577 look for new mail. Also see the $timeout variable.
3578 mail_check_recent
3582 Type: boolean
3583 Default: yes
3584 When set, NeoMutt will only notify you about new mail that has
3586 been received since the last time you opened the mailbox. When
3587 unset, NeoMutt will notify you if any new mail exists in the
3588 mailbox, regardless of whether you have visited it recently.
3589 When $mark_old is set, NeoMutt does not consider the mailbox to
3591 contain new mail if only old messages exist.
3592 mail_check_stats
3596 Type: boolean
3597 Default: no
3598 When set, NeoMutt will periodically calculate message statistics
3600 of a mailbox while polling for new mail. It will check for un‐
3601 read, flagged, and total message counts. Because this operation
3602 is more performance intensive, it defaults to unset, and has a
3603 separate option, $mail_check_stats_interval, to control how of‐
3604 ten to update these counts.
3605 Message statistics can also be explicitly calculated by invoking
3607 the <check-stats> function.
3608 mail_check_stats_interval
3612 Type: number
3613 Default: 60
3614 When $mail_check_stats is set, this variable configures how of‐
3616 ten (in seconds) NeoMutt will update message counts.
3617 mailbox_folder_format
3621 Type: string
3622 Default: "%2C %?n?%6n&%6 ? %6m %i"
3623 This variable allows you to customize the file browser display
3625 to your personal taste. It's only used to customize network
3626 mailboxes (e.g. imap). This string is similar to $index_format,
3627 but has its own set of printf(3)-like sequences:
3628 %C
3629 Current file number
3631 %d
3632 Date/time folder was last modified
3634 %D
3635 Date/time folder was last modified using $date_format.
3637 %f
3638 Filename ("/" is appended to directory names, "@" to sym‐
3640 bolic links and "*" to executable files)
3641 %F
3642 File permissions
3644 %g
3645 Group name (or numeric gid, if missing)
3647 %i
3648 Description of the folder
3650 %l
3651 Number of hard links
3653 %m * Number of messages in the mailbox
3654 %n * Number of unread messages in the mailbox
3655 %N
3656 "N" if mailbox has new mail, " " (space) otherwise
3658 %s
3659 Size in bytes (see formatstrings-size)
3661 %u
3662 Owner name (or numeric uid, if missing)
3664 %>X
3665 Right justify the rest of the string and pad with charac‐
3667 ter "X"
3668 %|X
3669 Pad to the end of the line with character "X"
3671 %*X
3672 Soft-fill with character "X" as pad
3674 For an explanation of "soft-fill", see the $index_format docu‐
3676 mentation.
3677 * = can be optionally printed if nonzero
3679 %m, %n, and %N only work for monitored mailboxes. %m requires
3681 $mail_check_stats to be set. %n requires $mail_check_stats to
3682 be set (except for IMAP mailboxes).
3683 mailcap_path
3687 Type: string list
3688 Default: "~/.mailcap:/usr/share/neomutt/mailcap:/etc/mailcap:/etc/mailcap:/usr/etc/mailcap:/usr/local/etc/mailcap"
3689 This variable specifies a list of colon-separated files to con‐
3691 sult when attempting to display MIME bodies not directly sup‐
3692 ported by NeoMutt. The default value is generated during
3693 startup: see the "mailcap" section of the manual.
3694 $mailcap_path is overridden by the environment variable $MAIL‐
3696 CAPS.
3697 The default search path is from RFC1524.
3699 mailcap_sanitize
3703 Type: boolean
3704 Default: yes
3705 If set, NeoMutt will restrict possible characters in mailcap %
3707 expandos to a well-defined set of safe characters. This is the
3708 safe setting, but we are not sure it doesn't break some more ad‐
3709 vanced MIME stuff.
3710 DON'T CHANGE THIS SETTING UNLESS YOU ARE REALLY SURE WHAT YOU
3712 ARE DOING!
3713 maildir_check_cur
3717 Type: boolean
3718 Default: no
3719 If set, NeoMutt will poll both the new and cur directories of a
3721 maildir folder for new messages. This might be useful if other
3722 programs interacting with the folder (e.g. dovecot) are moving
3723 new messages to the cur directory. Note that setting this op‐
3724 tion may slow down polling for new messages in large folders,
3725 since NeoMutt has to scan all cur messages.
3726 maildir_header_cache_verify
3730 Type: boolean
3731 Default: yes
3732 Check for Maildir unaware programs other than NeoMutt having
3734 modified maildir files when the header cache is in use. This
3735 incurs one stat(2) per message every time the folder is opened
3736 (which can be very slow for NFS folders).
3737 maildir_trash
3741 Type: boolean
3742 Default: no
3743 If set, messages marked as deleted will be saved with the
3745 maildir trashed flag instead of unlinked. Note: this only ap‐
3746 plies to maildir-style mailboxes. Setting it will have no ef‐
3747 fect on other mailbox types.
3748 mark_macro_prefix
3752 Type: string
3753 Default: "'"
3754 Prefix for macros created using mark-message. A new macro auto‐
3756 matically generated with <mark-message>a will be composed from
3757 this prefix and the letter a.
3758 mark_old
3762 Type: boolean
3763 Default: yes
3764 Controls whether or not NeoMutt marks new unread messages as old
3766 if you exit a mailbox without reading them. With this option
3767 set, the next time you start NeoMutt, the messages will show up
3768 with an "O" next to them in the index menu, indicating that they
3769 are old.
3770 markers
3774 Type: boolean
3775 Default: yes
3776 Controls the display of wrapped lines in the internal pager. If
3778 set, a "+" marker is displayed at the beginning of wrapped
3779 lines.
3780 Also see the $smart_wrap variable.
3782 mask
3786 Type: regular expression
3787 Default: "!^\.[^.]"
3788 A regular expression used in the file browser, optionally pre‐
3790 ceded by the not operator "!". Only files whose names match
3791 this mask will be shown. The match is always case-sensitive.
3792 mbox
3796 Type: mailbox
3797 Default: "~/mbox"
3798 This specifies the folder into which read mail in your
3800 $spool_file folder will be appended.
3801 Also see the $move variable.
3803 mbox_type
3807 Type: enumeration
3808 Default: mbox
3809 The default mailbox type used when creating new folders. May be
3811 any of "mbox", "MMDF", "MH" or "Maildir".
3812 This can also be set using the -m command-line option.
3814 me_too
3818 Type: boolean
3819 Default: no
3820 If unset, NeoMutt will remove your address (see the "alternates"
3822 command) from the list of recipients when replying to a message.
3823 menu_context
3827 Type: number
3828 Default: 0
3829 This variable controls the number of lines of context that are
3831 given when scrolling through menus. (Similar to $pager_context.)
3832 menu_move_off
3836 Type: boolean
3837 Default: yes
3838 When unset, the bottom entry of menus will never scroll up past
3840 the bottom of the screen, unless there are less entries than
3841 lines. When set, the bottom entry may move off the bottom.
3842 menu_scroll
3846 Type: boolean
3847 Default: no
3848 When set, menus will be scrolled up or down one line when you
3850 attempt to move across a screen boundary. If unset, the screen
3851 is cleared and the next or previous page of the menu is dis‐
3852 played (useful for slow links to avoid many redraws).
3853 message_cache_clean
3857 Type: boolean
3858 Default: no
3859 If set, NeoMutt will clean out obsolete entries from the message
3861 cache when the mailbox is synchronized. You probably only want
3862 to set it every once in a while, since it can be a little slow
3863 (especially for large folders).
3864 message_cachedir
3868 Type: path
3869 Default: ""
3870 Set this to a directory and NeoMutt will cache copies of mes‐
3872 sages from your IMAP and POP servers here. You are free to re‐
3873 move entries at any time.
3874 When setting this variable to a directory, NeoMutt needs to
3876 fetch every remote message only once and can perform regular ex‐
3877 pression searches as fast as for local folders.
3878 Also see the $message_cache_clean variable.
3880 message_format
3884 Type: string
3885 Default: "%s"
3886 This is the string displayed in the "attachment" menu for at‐
3888 tachments of type message/rfc822. For a full listing of defined
3889 printf(3)-like sequences see the section on $index_format.
3890 meta_key
3894 Type: boolean
3895 Default: no
3896 If set, forces NeoMutt to interpret keystrokes with the high bit
3898 (bit 8) set as if the user had pressed the Esc key and whatever
3899 key remains after having the high bit removed. For example, if
3900 the key pressed has an ASCII value of 0xf8, then this is treated
3901 as if the user had pressed Esc then "x". This is because the
3902 result of removing the high bit from 0xf8 is 0x78, which is the
3903 ASCII character "x".
3904 mh_purge
3908 Type: boolean
3909 Default: no
3910 When unset, NeoMutt will mimic mh's behavior and rename deleted
3912 messages to ,<old file name> in mh folders instead of really
3913 deleting them. This leaves the message on disk but makes pro‐
3914 grams reading the folder ignore it. If the variable is set, the
3915 message files will simply be deleted.
3916 This option is similar to $maildir_trash for Maildir folders.
3918 mh_seq_flagged
3922 Type: string
3923 Default: "flagged"
3924 The name of the MH sequence used for flagged messages.
3926 mh_seq_replied
3930 Type: string
3931 Default: "replied"
3932 The name of the MH sequence used to tag replied messages.
3934 mh_seq_unseen
3938 Type: string
3939 Default: "unseen"
3940 The name of the MH sequence used for unseen messages.
3942 mime_forward
3946 Type: quadoption
3947 Default: no
3948 When set, the message you are forwarding will be attached as a
3950 separate message/rfc822 MIME part instead of included in the
3951 main body of the message. This is useful for forwarding MIME
3952 messages so the receiver can properly view the message as it was
3953 delivered to you. If you like to switch between MIME and not
3954 MIME from mail to mail, set this variable to "ask-no" or
3955 "ask-yes".
3956 Also see $forward_decode and $mime_forward_decode.
3958 mime_forward_decode
3962 Type: boolean
3963 Default: no
3964 Controls the decoding of complex MIME messages into text/plain
3966 when forwarding a message while $mime_forward is set. Otherwise
3967 $forward_decode is used instead.
3968 mime_forward_rest
3972 Type: quadoption
3973 Default: yes
3974 When forwarding multiple attachments of a MIME message from the
3976 attachment menu, attachments which can't be decoded in a reason‐
3977 able manner will be attached to the newly composed message if
3978 this option is set.
3979 mime_type_query_command
3983 Type: command
3984 Default: ""
3985 This specifies a command to run, to determine the mime type of a
3987 new attachment when composing a message. Unless
3988 $mime_type_query_first is set, this will only be run if the at‐
3989 tachment's extension is not found in the mime.types file.
3990 The string may contain a "%s", which will be substituted with
3992 the attachment filename. NeoMutt will add quotes around the
3993 string substituted for "%s" automatically according to shell
3994 quoting rules, so you should avoid adding your own. If no "%s"
3995 is found in the string, NeoMutt will append the attachment file‐
3996 name to the end of the string.
3997 The command should output a single line containing the attach‐
3999 ment's mime type.
4000 Suggested values are "xdg-mime query filetype" or "file -bi".
4002 mime_type_query_first
4006 Type: boolean
4007 Default: no
4008 When set, the $mime_type_query_command will be run before the
4010 mime.types lookup.
4011 mix_entry_format
4015 Type: string
4016 Default: "%4n %c %-16s %a"
4017 This variable describes the format of a remailer line on the
4019 mixmaster chain selection screen. The following printf(3)-like
4020 sequences are supported:
4021 %a The remailer's e-mail address
4022 %c Remailer capabilities
4023 %n The running number on the menu
4024 %s The remailer's short name
4025 %>X right justify the rest of the string and pad with charac‐
4026 ter "X"
4027 %|X pad to the end of the line with character "X"
4028 %*X soft-fill with character "X" as pad
4029 mixmaster
4032 Type: command
4033 Default: "mixmaster"
4034 This variable contains the path to the Mixmaster binary on your
4036 system. It is used with various sets of parameters to gather
4037 the list of known remailers, and to finally send a message
4038 through the mixmaster chain.
4039 move
4043 Type: quadoption
4044 Default: no
4045 Controls whether or not NeoMutt will move read messages from
4047 your spool mailbox to your $mbox mailbox, or as a result of a
4048 "mbox-hook" command.
4049 narrow_tree
4053 Type: boolean
4054 Default: no
4055 This variable, when set, makes the thread tree narrower, allow‐
4057 ing deeper threads to fit on the screen.
4058 net_inc
4062 Type: number
4063 Default: 10
4064 Operations that expect to transfer a large amount of data over
4066 the network will update their progress every $net_inc kilobytes.
4067 If set to 0, no progress messages will be displayed.
4068 See also $read_inc, $write_inc and $net_inc.
4070 new_mail_command
4074 Type: command
4075 Default: ""
4076 If set, NeoMutt will call this command after a new message is
4078 received. See the $status_format documentation for the values
4079 that can be formatted into this command.
4080 news_cache_dir
4084 Type: path
4085 Default: "~/.neomutt"
4086 This variable pointing to directory where NeoMutt will save
4088 cached news articles and headers in. If unset, articles and
4089 headers will not be saved at all and will be reloaded from the
4090 server each time.
4091 news_server
4095 Type: string
4096 Default: ""
4097 This variable specifies domain name or address of NNTP server.
4099 You can also specify username and an alternative port for each
4101 news server, e.g. [[s]news://][username[:pass‐
4102 word]@]server[:port]
4103 This option can also be set using the command line option "-g",
4105 the environment variable $NNTPSERVER, or putting the server name
4106 in the file "/etc/nntpserver".
4107 newsgroups_charset
4111 Type: string
4112 Default: "utf-8"
4113 Character set of newsgroups descriptions.
4115 newsrc
4119 Type: path
4120 Default: "~/.newsrc"
4121 The file, containing info about subscribed newsgroups - names
4123 and indexes of read articles. The following printf-style se‐
4124 quence is understood:
4125 Expando
4126 Description Example
4127 %a Account url news:news.gmane.org
4128 %p Port 119
4129 %P Port if specified 10119
4130 %s News server name news.gmane.org
4131 %S Url schema news
4132 %u Username username
4133 nm_db_limit
4136 Type: number
4137 Default: 0
4138 This variable specifies the default limit used in notmuch
4140 queries.
4141 nm_default_url
4145 Type: string
4146 Default: ""
4147 This variable specifies the default Notmuch database in format
4149 notmuch://<absolute path>.
4150 nm_exclude_tags
4154 Type: string
4155 Default: ""
4156 The messages tagged with these tags are excluded and not loaded
4158 from notmuch DB to NeoMutt unless specified explicitly.
4159 nm_flagged_tag
4163 Type: string
4164 Default: "flagged"
4165 This variable specifies notmuch tag which is used for flagged
4167 messages. The variable is used to count flagged messages in DB
4168 and set the flagged flag when modifying tags. All other NeoMutt
4169 commands use standard (e.g. maildir) flags.
4170 nm_open_timeout
4174 Type: number
4175 Default: 5
4176 This variable specifies the timeout for database open in sec‐
4178 onds.
4179 nm_query_type
4183 Type: string
4184 Default: "messages"
4185 This variable specifies the default query type (threads or mes‐
4187 sages) used in notmuch queries.
4188 nm_query_window_current_position
4192 Type: number
4193 Default: 0
4194 This variable contains the position of the current search for
4196 window based vfolder.
4197 nm_query_window_current_search
4201 Type: string
4202 Default: ""
4203 This variable contains the currently setup notmuch search for
4205 window based vfolder.
4206 nm_query_window_duration
4210 Type: number
4211 Default: 0
4212 This variable sets the time duration of a windowed notmuch
4214 query. Accepted values all non negative integers. A value of 0
4215 disables the feature.
4216 nm_query_window_enable
4220 Type: boolean
4221 Default: no
4222 This variable enables windowed notmuch queries even if window
4224 duration is 0.
4225 nm_query_window_or_terms
4229 Type: string
4230 Default: ""
4231 This variable contains additional notmuch search terms for mes‐
4233 sages to be shown regardless of date.
4234 Example:
4236 Using "notmuch://?query=tag:inbox" as the mailbox and
4238 "tag:flagged and tag:unread" as the or terms, NeoMutt will pro‐
4239 duce a query window such as:
4240 notmuch://?query=tag:inbox and (date:... or (tag:flagged and
4242 tag:unread))
4243 nm_query_window_timebase
4247 Type: string
4248 Default: "week"
4249 This variable sets the time base of a windowed notmuch query.
4251 Accepted values are 'minute', 'hour', 'day', 'week', 'month',
4252 'year'
4253 nm_record
4257 Type: boolean
4258 Default: no
4259 This variable specifies whether, when writing a just-sent mes‐
4261 sage to the $record, the message should also be added to the
4262 notmuch DB. Replies inherit the notmuch tags from the original
4263 message. See $nm_record_tags for how to modify the set of not‐
4264 much tags assigned to sent messages written to the record.
4265 nm_record_tags
4269 Type: string
4270 Default: ""
4271 This variable specifies the notmuch tag modifications (addition,
4273 removal, toggling) applied to messages added to the Neomutt
4274 record when $nm_record is true. See the description of the <mod‐
4275 ify-labels> function for the syntax.
4276 nm_replied_tag
4280 Type: string
4281 Default: "replied"
4282 This variable specifies notmuch tag which is used for replied
4284 messages. The variable is used to set the replied flag when mod‐
4285 ifying tags. All other NeoMutt commands use standard (e.g.
4286 maildir) flags.
4287 nm_unread_tag
4291 Type: string
4292 Default: "unread"
4293 This variable specifies notmuch tag which is used for unread
4295 messages. The variable is used to count unread messages in DB
4296 and set the unread flag when modifiying tags. All other NeoMutt
4297 commands use standard (e.g. maildir) flags.
4298 nntp_authenticators
4302 Type: string
4303 Default: ""
4304 This is a colon-delimited list of authentication methods NeoMutt
4306 may attempt to use to log in to a news server, in the order Neo‐
4307 Mutt should try them. Authentication methods are either "user"
4308 or any SASL mechanism, e.g. "digest-md5", "gssapi" or
4309 "cram-md5". This option is case-insensitive. If it's unset
4310 (the default) NeoMutt will try all available methods, in order
4311 from most-secure to least-secure.
4312 Example:
4314 set nntp_authenticators="digest-md5:user"
4317 Note: NeoMutt will only fall back to other authentication meth‐
4320 ods if the previous methods are unavailable. If a method is
4321 available but authentication fails, NeoMutt will not connect to
4322 the IMAP server.
4323 nntp_context
4327 Type: number
4328 Default: 1000
4329 This variable defines number of articles which will be in index
4331 when newsgroup entered. If active newsgroup have more articles
4332 than this number, oldest articles will be ignored. Also con‐
4333 trols how many articles headers will be saved in cache when you
4334 quit newsgroup.
4335 nntp_listgroup
4339 Type: boolean
4340 Default: yes
4341 This variable controls whether or not existence of each article
4343 is checked when newsgroup is entered.
4344 nntp_load_description
4348 Type: boolean
4349 Default: yes
4350 This variable controls whether or not descriptions for each
4352 newsgroup must be loaded when newsgroup is added to list (first
4353 time list loading or new newsgroup adding).
4354 nntp_pass
4358 Type: string
4359 Default: ""
4360 Your password for NNTP account.
4362 nntp_poll
4366 Type: number
4367 Default: 60
4368 The time in seconds until any operations on newsgroup except
4370 post new article will cause recheck for new news. If set to 0,
4371 NeoMutt will recheck newsgroup on each operation in index (step‐
4372 ping, read article, etc.).
4373 nntp_user
4377 Type: string
4378 Default: ""
4379 Your login name on the NNTP server. If unset and NNTP server
4381 requires authentication, NeoMutt will prompt you for your ac‐
4382 count name when you connect to news server.
4383 pager
4387 Type: command
4388 Default: "builtin"
4389 This variable specifies which pager you would like to use to
4391 view messages. The value "builtin" means to use the built-in
4392 pager, otherwise this variable should specify the pathname of
4393 the external pager you would like to use.
4394 Using an external pager may have some disadvantages: Additional
4396 keystrokes are necessary because you can't call NeoMutt func‐
4397 tions directly from the pager, and screen resizes cause lines
4398 longer than the screen width to be badly formatted in the help
4399 menu.
4400 pager_context
4404 Type: number
4405 Default: 0
4406 This variable controls the number of lines of context that are
4408 given when displaying the next or previous page in the internal
4409 pager. By default, NeoMutt will display the line after the last
4410 one on the screen at the top of the next page (0 lines of con‐
4411 text).
4412 This variable also specifies the amount of context given for
4414 search results. If positive, this many lines will be given be‐
4415 fore a match, if 0, the match will be top-aligned.
4416 pager_format
4420 Type: string
4421 Default: "-%Z- %C/%m: %-20.20n %s%* -- (%P)"
4422 This variable controls the format of the one-line message "sta‐
4424 tus" displayed before each message in either the internal or an
4425 external pager. The valid sequences are listed in the $in‐
4426 dex_format section.
4427 pager_index_lines
4431 Type: number
4432 Default: 0
4433 Determines the number of lines of a mini-index which is shown
4435 when in the pager. The current message, unless near the top or
4436 bottom of the folder, will be roughly one third of the way down
4437 this mini-index, giving the reader the context of a few messages
4438 before and after the message. This is useful, for example, to
4439 determine how many messages remain to be read in the current
4440 thread. A value of 0 results in no index being shown. If the
4441 number of messages in the current folder is less than $pager_in‐
4442 dex_lines, then the index will only use as many lines as it
4443 needs.
4444 pager_read_delay
4448 Type: number
4449 Default: 0
4450 Determines the number of seconds that must elapse after first
4452 opening a new message in the pager before that message will be
4453 marked as read. A value of 0 results in the message being
4454 marked read unconditionally; for other values, navigating to an‐
4455 other message or exiting the pager before the timeout will leave
4456 the message marked unread. This setting is ignored if $pager is
4457 not builtin.
4458 pager_skip_quoted_context
4462 Type: number
4463 Default: 0
4464 Determines the number of lines of context to show before the un‐
4466 quoted text when using the <skip-quoted> function. When set to a
4467 positive number at most that many lines of the previous quote
4468 are displayed. If the previous quote is shorter the whole quote
4469 is displayed.
4470 The (now deprecated) skip_quoted_offset is an alias for this
4472 variable, and should no longer be used.
4473 pager_stop
4477 Type: boolean
4478 Default: no
4479 When set, the internal-pager will not move to the next message
4481 when you are at the end of a message and invoke the <next-page>
4482 function.
4483 pattern_format
4487 Type: string
4488 Default: "%2n %-15e %d"
4489 This variable describes the format of the "pattern completion"
4491 menu. The following printf(3)-style sequences are understood:
4492 %d pattern description
4493 %e pattern expression
4494 %n index number
4495 pgp_auto_decode
4497 Type: boolean
4498 Default: no
4499 If set, NeoMutt will automatically attempt to decrypt tradi‐
4501 tional PGP messages whenever the user performs an operation
4502 which ordinarily would result in the contents of the message be‐
4503 ing operated on. For example, if the user displays a pgp-tradi‐
4504 tional message which has not been manually checked with the
4505 <check-traditional-pgp> function, NeoMutt will automatically
4506 check the message for traditional pgp.
4507 pgp_auto_inline
4511 Type: boolean
4512 Default: no
4513 This option controls whether NeoMutt generates old-style inline
4515 (traditional) PGP encrypted or signed messages under certain
4516 circumstances. This can be overridden by use of the pgp menu,
4517 when inline is not required. The GPGME backend does not support
4518 this option.
4519 Note that NeoMutt might automatically use PGP/MIME for messages
4521 which consist of more than a single MIME part. NeoMutt can be
4522 configured to ask before sending PGP/MIME messages when inline
4523 (traditional) would not work.
4524 Also see the $pgp_mime_auto variable.
4526 Also note that using the old-style PGP message format is
4528 strongly deprecated. (PGP only)
4529 pgp_check_exit
4533 Type: boolean
4534 Default: yes
4535 If set, NeoMutt will check the exit code of the PGP subprocess
4537 when signing or encrypting. A non-zero exit code means that the
4538 subprocess failed. (PGP only)
4539 pgp_check_gpg_decrypt_status_fd
4543 Type: boolean
4544 Default: yes
4545 If set, NeoMutt will check the status file descriptor output of
4547 $pgp_decrypt_command and $pgp_decode_command for GnuPG status
4548 codes indicating successful decryption. This will check for the
4549 presence of DECRYPTION_OKAY, absence of DECRYPTION_FAILED, and
4550 that all PLAINTEXT occurs between the BEGIN_DECRYPTION and
4551 END_DECRYPTION status codes.
4552 If unset, NeoMutt will instead match the status fd output
4554 against $pgp_decryption_okay. (PGP only)
4555 pgp_clear_sign_command
4559 Type: command
4560 Default: ""
4561 This format is used to create an old-style "clearsigned" PGP
4563 message. Note that the use of this format is strongly depre‐
4564 cated.
4565 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
4567 possible printf(3)-like sequences. Note that in this case, %r
4568 expands to the search string, which is a list of one or more
4569 quoted values such as email address, name, or keyid. (PGP only)
4570 pgp_decode_command
4574 Type: command
4575 Default: ""
4576 This format strings specifies a command which is used to decode
4578 application/pgp attachments.
4579 The PGP command formats have their own set of printf(3)-like se‐
4581 quences:
4582 %a The value of $pgp_sign_as if set, otherwise the value of
4583 $pgp_default_key.
4584 %f Expands to the name of a file containing a message.
4585 %p Expands to PGPPASSFD=0 when a pass phrase is needed, to
4586 an empty string otherwise. Note: This may be used with a
4587 %? construct.
4588 %r One or more key IDs (or fingerprints if available).
4589 %s Expands to the name of a file containing the signature
4590 part of a multipart/signed attachment when verifying it.
4591 (PGP only)
4593 pgp_decrypt_command
4597 Type: command
4598 Default: ""
4599 This command is used to decrypt a PGP encrypted message.
4601 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
4603 possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
4604 Note: When decrypting messages using gpg, a pinentry program
4606 needs to be invoked unless the password is cached within
4607 gpg-agent. Currently, the pinentry-tty program (usually dis‐
4608 tributed with gpg) isn't suitable for being invoked by NeoMutt.
4609 You are encouraged to use a different pinentry-program when run‐
4610 ning NeoMutt in order to avoid problems.
4611 See also: https://github.com/neomutt/neomutt/issues/1014
4613 pgp_decryption_okay
4617 Type: regular expression
4618 Default: ""
4619 If you assign text to this variable, then an encrypted PGP mes‐
4621 sage is only considered successfully decrypted if the output
4622 from $pgp_decrypt_command contains the text. This is used to
4623 protect against a spoofed encrypted message, with multipart/en‐
4624 crypted headers but containing a block that is not actually en‐
4625 crypted. (e.g. simply signed and ascii armored text).
4626 Note that if $pgp_check_gpg_decrypt_status_fd is set, this vari‐
4628 able is ignored. (PGP only)
4629 pgp_default_key
4633 Type: string
4634 Default: ""
4635 This is the default key-pair to use for PGP operations. It will
4637 be used for encryption (see $postpone_encrypt and $pgp_self_en‐
4638 crypt).
4639 It will also be used for signing unless $pgp_sign_as is set.
4641 The (now deprecated) pgp_self_encrypt_as is an alias for this
4643 variable, and should no longer be used. (PGP only)
4644 pgp_encrypt_only_command
4648 Type: command
4649 Default: ""
4650 This command is used to encrypt a body part without signing it.
4652 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
4654 possible printf(3)-like sequences. Note that in this case, %r
4655 expands to the search string, which is a list of one or more
4656 quoted values such as email address, name, or keyid. (PGP only)
4657 pgp_encrypt_sign_command
4661 Type: command
4662 Default: ""
4663 This command is used to both sign and encrypt a body part.
4665 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
4667 possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
4668 pgp_entry_format
4672 Type: string
4673 Default: "%4n %t%f %4l/0x%k %-4a %2c %u"
4674 This variable allows you to customize the PGP key selection menu
4676 to your personal taste. If $crypt_use_gpgme is set, then it ap‐
4677 plies to S/MIME key selection menu also. This string is similar
4678 to $index_format, but has its own set of printf(3)-like se‐
4679 quences:
4680 %a Algorithm
4681 %c Capabilities
4682 %f Flags
4683 %k Key id
4684 %l Key length
4685 %n Number
4686 %p Protocol
4687 %t Trust/validity of the key-uid association
4688 %u User id
4689 %[<s>] Date of the key where <s> is an strftime(3) expression
4690 (Crypto only) or (PGP only when GPGME disabled)
4692 pgp_export_command
4696 Type: command
4697 Default: ""
4698 This command is used to export a public key from the user's key
4700 ring.
4701 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
4703 possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
4704 pgp_get_keys_command
4708 Type: command
4709 Default: ""
4710 This command is invoked whenever NeoMutt needs to fetch the pub‐
4712 lic key associated with an email address. Of the sequences sup‐
4713 ported by $pgp_decode_command, %r is the only printf(3)-like se‐
4714 quence used with this format. Note that in this case, %r ex‐
4715 pands to the email address, not the public key ID (the key ID is
4716 unknown, which is why NeoMutt is invoking this command). (PGP
4717 only)
4718 pgp_good_sign
4722 Type: regular expression
4723 Default: ""
4724 If you assign a text to this variable, then a PGP signature is
4726 only considered verified if the output from $pgp_verify_command
4727 contains the text. Use this variable if the exit code from the
4728 command is 0 even for bad signatures. (PGP only)
4729 pgp_ignore_subkeys
4733 Type: boolean
4734 Default: yes
4735 Setting this variable will cause NeoMutt to ignore OpenPGP sub‐
4737 keys. Instead, the principal key will inherit the subkeys' capa‐
4738 bilities. Unset this if you want to play interesting key selec‐
4739 tion games. (PGP only)
4740 pgp_import_command
4744 Type: command
4745 Default: ""
4746 This command is used to import a key from a message into the
4748 user's public key ring.
4749 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
4751 possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
4752 pgp_list_pubring_command
4756 Type: command
4757 Default: ""
4758 This command is used to list the public key ring's contents.
4760 The output format must be analogous to the one used by
4761 gpg --list-keys --with-colons --with-fingerprint
4764 Note: gpg's fixed-list-mode option should not be used. It pro‐
4767 duces a different date format which may result in NeoMutt show‐
4768 ing incorrect key generation dates.
4769 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
4771 possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
4772 pgp_list_secring_command
4776 Type: command
4777 Default: ""
4778 This command is used to list the secret key ring's contents.
4780 The output format must be analogous to the one used by:
4781 gpg --list-keys --with-colons --with-fingerprint
4784 Note: gpg's fixed-list-mode option should not be used. It pro‐
4787 duces a different date format which may result in NeoMutt show‐
4788 ing incorrect key generation dates.
4789 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
4791 possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
4792 pgp_long_ids
4796 Type: boolean
4797 Default: yes
4798 If set, use 64 bit PGP key IDs, if unset use the normal 32 bit
4800 key IDs. NOTE: Internally, NeoMutt has transitioned to using
4801 fingerprints (or long key IDs as a fallback). This option now
4802 only controls the display of key IDs in the key selection menu
4803 and a few other places. (PGP only)
4804 pgp_mime_auto
4808 Type: quadoption
4809 Default: ask-yes
4810 This option controls whether NeoMutt will prompt you for auto‐
4812 matically sending a (signed/encrypted) message using PGP/MIME
4813 when inline (traditional) fails (for any reason).
4814 Also note that using the old-style PGP message format is
4816 strongly deprecated. (PGP only)
4817 pgp_reply_inline
4821 Type: boolean
4822 Default: no
4823 Setting this variable will cause NeoMutt to always attempt to
4825 create an inline (traditional) message when replying to a mes‐
4826 sage which is PGP encrypted/signed inline. This can be overrid‐
4827 den by use of the pgp menu, when inline is not required. This
4828 option does not automatically detect if the (replied-to) message
4829 is inline; instead it relies on NeoMutt internals for previously
4830 checked/flagged messages.
4831 Note that NeoMutt might automatically use PGP/MIME for messages
4833 which consist of more than a single MIME part. NeoMutt can be
4834 configured to ask before sending PGP/MIME messages when inline
4835 (traditional) would not work.
4836 Also see the $pgp_mime_auto variable.
4838 Also note that using the old-style PGP message format is
4840 strongly deprecated. (PGP only)
4841 pgp_retainable_sigs
4845 Type: boolean
4846 Default: no
4847 If set, signed and encrypted messages will consist of nested
4849 multipart/signed and multipart/encrypted body parts.
4850 This is useful for applications like encrypted and signed mail‐
4852 ing lists, where the outer layer (multipart/encrypted) can be
4853 easily removed, while the inner multipart/signed part is re‐
4854 tained. (PGP only)
4855 pgp_self_encrypt
4859 Type: boolean
4860 Default: yes
4861 When set, PGP encrypted messages will also be encrypted using
4863 the key in $pgp_default_key. (PGP only)
4864 pgp_show_unusable
4868 Type: boolean
4869 Default: yes
4870 If set, NeoMutt will display non-usable keys on the PGP key se‐
4872 lection menu. This includes keys which have been revoked, have
4873 expired, or have been marked as "disabled" by the user. (PGP
4874 only)
4875 pgp_sign_as
4879 Type: string
4880 Default: ""
4881 If you have a different key pair to use for signing, you should
4883 set this to the signing key. Most people will only need to set
4884 $pgp_default_key. It is recommended that you use the keyid form
4885 to specify your key (e.g. 0x00112233). (PGP only)
4886 pgp_sign_command
4890 Type: command
4891 Default: ""
4892 This command is used to create the detached PGP signature for a
4894 multipart/signed PGP/MIME body part.
4895 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
4897 possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
4898 pgp_sort_keys
4902 Type: sort order
4903 Default: address
4904 Specifies how the entries in the pgp menu are sorted. The fol‐
4906 lowing are legal values:
4907 address
4908 sort alphabetically by user id
4909 keyid sort alphabetically by key id
4910 date sort by key creation date
4911 trust sort by the trust of the key
4912 If you prefer reverse order of the above values, prefix it with
4914 "reverse-". (PGP only)
4915 pgp_strict_enc
4919 Type: boolean
4920 Default: yes
4921 If set, NeoMutt will automatically encode PGP/MIME signed mes‐
4923 sages as quoted-printable. Please note that unsetting this
4924 variable may lead to problems with non-verifyable PGP signa‐
4925 tures, so only change this if you know what you are doing. (PGP
4926 only)
4927 pgp_timeout
4931 Type: number (long)
4932 Default: 300
4933 The number of seconds after which a cached passphrase will ex‐
4935 pire if not used. (PGP only)
4936 pgp_use_gpg_agent
4940 Type: boolean
4941 Default: yes
4942 If set, NeoMutt expects a gpg-agent(1) process will handle pri‐
4944 vate key passphrase prompts. If unset, NeoMutt will prompt for
4945 the passphrase and pass it via stdin to the pgp command.
4946 Note that as of version 2.1, GnuPG automatically spawns an agent
4948 and requires the agent be used for passphrase management. Since
4949 that version is increasingly prevalent, this variable now de‐
4950 faults set.
4951 NeoMutt works with a GUI or curses pinentry program. A TTY
4953 pinentry should not be used.
4954 If you are using an older version of GnuPG without an agent run‐
4956 ning, or another encryption program without an agent, you will
4957 need to unset this variable. (PGP only)
4958 pgp_verify_command
4962 Type: command
4963 Default: ""
4964 This command is used to verify PGP signatures.
4966 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
4968 possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
4969 pgp_verify_key_command
4973 Type: command
4974 Default: ""
4975 This command is used to verify key information from the key se‐
4977 lection menu.
4978 This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
4980 possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)
4981 pipe_decode
4985 Type: boolean
4986 Default: no
4987 Used in connection with the <pipe-message> function. When un‐
4989 set, NeoMutt will pipe the messages without any preprocessing.
4990 When set, NeoMutt will attempt to decode the messages first.
4991 Also see $pipe_decode_weed, which controls whether headers will
4993 be weeded when this is set.
4994 pipe_decode_weed
4998 Type: boolean
4999 Default: yes
5000 For <pipe-message>, when $pipe_decode is set, this further con‐
5002 trols whether NeoMutt will weed headers.
5003 pipe_sep
5007 Type: string
5008 Default: "\n"
5009 The separator to add between messages when piping a list of
5011 tagged messages to an external Unix command.
5012 pipe_split
5016 Type: boolean
5017 Default: no
5018 Used in connection with the <pipe-message> function following
5020 <tag-prefix>. If this variable is unset, when piping a list of
5021 tagged messages NeoMutt will concatenate the messages and will
5022 pipe them all concatenated. When set, NeoMutt will pipe the
5023 messages one by one. In both cases the messages are piped in
5024 the current sorted order, and the $pipe_sep separator is added
5025 after each message.
5026 pop_auth_try_all
5030 Type: boolean
5031 Default: yes
5032 If set, NeoMutt will try all available authentication methods.
5034 When unset, NeoMutt will only fall back to other authentication
5035 methods if the previous methods are unavailable. If a method is
5036 available but authentication fails, NeoMutt will not connect to
5037 the POP server.
5038 pop_authenticators
5042 Type: string list
5043 Default: ""
5044 This is a colon-separated list of authentication methods NeoMutt
5046 may attempt to use to log in to an POP server, in the order Neo‐
5047 Mutt should try them. Authentication methods are either "user",
5048 "apop" or any SASL mechanism, e.g. "digest-md5", "gssapi" or
5049 "cram-md5". This option is case-insensitive. If this option is
5050 unset (the default) NeoMutt will try all available methods, in
5051 order from most-secure to least-secure.
5052 Example:
5054 set pop_authenticators="digest-md5:apop:user"
5057 pop_check_interval
5062 Type: number
5063 Default: 60
5064 This variable configures how often (in seconds) NeoMutt should
5066 look for new mail in the currently selected mailbox if it is a
5067 POP mailbox.
5068 pop_delete
5072 Type: quadoption
5073 Default: ask-no
5074 If set, NeoMutt will delete successfully downloaded messages
5076 from the POP server when using the <fetch-mail> function. When
5077 unset, NeoMutt will download messages but also leave them on the
5078 POP server.
5079 pop_host
5083 Type: string
5084 Default: ""
5085 The name of your POP server for the <fetch-mail> function. You
5087 can also specify an alternative port, username and password,
5088 i.e.:
5089 [pop[s]://][username[:password]@]popserver[:port]
5092 where "[...]" denotes an optional part.
5095 pop_last
5099 Type: boolean
5100 Default: no
5101 If this variable is set, NeoMutt will try to use the "LAST" POP
5103 command for retrieving only unread messages from the POP server
5104 when using the <fetch-mail> function.
5105 pop_oauth_refresh_command
5109 Type: command
5110 Default: ""
5111 The command to run to generate an OAUTH refresh token for autho‐
5113 rizing your connection to your POP server. This command will be
5114 run on every connection attempt that uses the OAUTHBEARER au‐
5115 thentication mechanism. See "oauth" for details.
5116 pop_pass
5120 Type: string
5121 Default: ""
5122 Specifies the password for your POP account. If unset, NeoMutt
5124 will prompt you for your password when you open a POP mailbox.
5125 Warning: you should only use this option when you are on a
5127 fairly secure machine, because the superuser can read your neo‐
5128 muttrc even if you are the only one who can read the file.
5129 pop_reconnect
5133 Type: quadoption
5134 Default: ask-yes
5135 Controls whether or not NeoMutt will try to reconnect to the POP
5137 server if the connection is lost.
5138 pop_user
5142 Type: string
5143 Default: ""
5144 Your login name on the POP server.
5146 This variable defaults to your user name on the local machine.
5148 post_indent_string
5152 Type: string
5153 Default: ""
5154 Similar to the $attribution variable, NeoMutt will append this
5156 string after the inclusion of a message which is being replied
5157 to.
5158 post_moderated
5162 Type: quadoption
5163 Default: ask-yes
5164 If set to yes, NeoMutt will post article to newsgroup that have
5166 not permissions to posting (e.g. moderated). Note: if news
5167 server does not support posting to that newsgroup or totally
5168 read-only, that posting will not have an effect.
5169 postpone
5173 Type: quadoption
5174 Default: ask-yes
5175 Controls whether or not messages are saved in the $postponed
5177 mailbox when you elect not to send immediately. If set to
5178 ask-yes or ask-no, you will be prompted with "Save (postpone)
5179 draft message?" when quitting from the "compose" screen.
5180 Also see the $recall variable.
5182 postpone_encrypt
5186 Type: boolean
5187 Default: no
5188 When set, postponed messages that are marked for encryption will
5190 be self-encrypted. NeoMutt will first try to encrypt using the
5191 value specified in $pgp_default_key or $smime_default_key. If
5192 those are not set, it will try the deprecated $postpone_en‐
5193 crypt_as. (Crypto only)
5194 postpone_encrypt_as
5198 Type: string
5199 Default: ""
5200 This is a deprecated fall-back variable for $postpone_encrypt.
5202 Please use $pgp_default_key or $smime_default_key. (Crypto
5203 only)
5204 postponed
5208 Type: mailbox
5209 Default: "~/postponed"
5210 NeoMutt allows you to indefinitely "postpone sending a message"
5212 which you are editing. When you choose to postpone a message,
5213 NeoMutt saves it in the mailbox specified by this variable.
5214 Also see the $postpone variable.
5216 preconnect
5220 Type: string
5221 Default: ""
5222 If set, a shell command to be executed if NeoMutt fails to es‐
5224 tablish a connection to the server. This is useful for setting
5225 up secure connections, e.g. with ssh(1). If the command returns
5226 a nonzero status, NeoMutt gives up opening the server. Example:
5227 set preconnect="ssh -f -q -L 1234:mailhost.net:143 mailhost.net \
5230 sleep 20 < /dev/null > /dev/null"
5231 Mailbox "foo" on "mailhost.net" can now be reached as "{local‐
5234 host:1234}foo".
5235 Note: For this example to work, you must be able to log in to
5237 the remote machine without having to enter a password.
5238 preferred_languages
5242 Type: string list
5243 Default: ""
5244 This variable specifies a list of comma-separated languages.
5246 RFC8255 : user preferred languages to be searched in parts and
5247 display. Example:
5248 set preferred_languages="en,fr,de"
5251 print
5256 Type: quadoption
5257 Default: ask-no
5258 Controls whether or not NeoMutt really prints messages. This is
5260 set to "ask-no" by default, because some people accidentally hit
5261 "p" often.
5262 print_command
5266 Type: command
5267 Default: "lpr"
5268 This specifies the command pipe that should be used to print
5270 messages.
5271 print_decode
5275 Type: boolean
5276 Default: yes
5277 Used in connection with the <print-message> function. If this
5279 option is set, the message is decoded before it is passed to the
5280 external command specified by $print_command. If this option is
5281 unset, no processing will be applied to the message when print‐
5282 ing it. The latter setting may be useful if you are using some
5283 advanced printer filter which is able to properly format e-mail
5284 messages for printing.
5285 Also see $print_decode_weed, which controls whether headers will
5287 be weeded when this is set.
5288 print_decode_weed
5292 Type: boolean
5293 Default: yes
5294 For <print-message>, when $print_decode is set, this further
5296 controls whether NeoMutt will weed headers.
5297 print_split
5301 Type: boolean
5302 Default: no
5303 Used in connection with the <print-message> function. If this
5305 option is set, the command specified by $print_command is exe‐
5306 cuted once for each message which is to be printed. If this op‐
5307 tion is unset, the command specified by $print_command is exe‐
5308 cuted only once, and all the messages are concatenated, with a
5309 form feed as the message separator.
5310 Those who use the enscript(1) program's mail-printing mode will
5312 most likely want to set this option.
5313 prompt_after
5317 Type: boolean
5318 Default: yes
5319 If you use an external $pager, setting this variable will cause
5321 NeoMutt to prompt you for a command when the pager exits rather
5322 than returning to the index menu. If unset, NeoMutt will return
5323 to the index menu when the external pager exits.
5324 query_command
5328 Type: command
5329 Default: ""
5330 This specifies the command NeoMutt will use to make external ad‐
5332 dress queries. The string may contain a "%s", which will be
5333 substituted with the query string the user types. NeoMutt will
5334 add quotes around the string substituted for "%s" automatically
5335 according to shell quoting rules, so you should avoid adding
5336 your own. If no "%s" is found in the string, NeoMutt will ap‐
5337 pend the user's query to the end of the string. See "query"
5338 (https://neomutt.org/guide/advancedusage.html#query) for more
5339 information.
5340 query_format
5344 Type: string
5345 Default: "%3c %t %-25.25n %-25.25a | %e"
5346 This variable describes the format of the "query" menu. The fol‐
5348 lowing printf(3)-style sequences are understood:
5349 %a
5350 Destination address
5352 %c
5353 Current entry number
5355 %e * Extra information
5356 %n
5357 Destination name
5359 %t
5360 "*" if current entry is tagged, a space otherwise
5362 %>X
5363 Right justify the rest of the string and pad with "X"
5365 %|X
5366 Pad to the end of the line with "X"
5368 %*X
5369 Soft-fill with character "X" as pad
5371 For an explanation of "soft-fill", see the $index_format docu‐
5373 mentation.
5374 * = can be optionally printed if nonzero, see the $status_format
5376 documentation.
5377 quit
5381 Type: quadoption
5382 Default: yes
5383 This variable controls whether "quit" and "exit" actually quit
5385 from NeoMutt. If this option is set, they do quit, if it is un‐
5386 set, they have no effect, and if it is set to ask-yes or ask-no,
5387 you are prompted for confirmation when you try to quit.
5388 quote_regex
5392 Type: regular expression
5393 Default: "^([ \t]*[|>:}#])+"
5394 A regular expression used in the internal pager to determine
5396 quoted sections of text in the body of a message. Quoted text
5397 may be filtered out using the <toggle-quoted> command, or col‐
5398 ored according to the "color quoted" family of directives.
5399 Higher levels of quoting may be colored differently ("color
5401 quoted1", "color quoted2", etc.). The quoting level is deter‐
5402 mined by removing the last character from the matched text and
5403 recursively reapplying the regular expression until it fails to
5404 produce a match.
5405 Match detection may be overridden by the $smileys regular ex‐
5407 pression.
5408 read_inc
5412 Type: number
5413 Default: 10
5414 If set to a value greater than 0, NeoMutt will display which
5416 message it is currently on when reading a mailbox or when per‐
5417 forming search actions such as search and limit. The message is
5418 printed after this many messages have been read or searched
5419 (e.g., if set to 25, NeoMutt will print a message when it is at
5420 message 25, and then again when it gets to message 50). This
5421 variable is meant to indicate progress when reading or searching
5422 large mailboxes which may take some time. When set to 0, only a
5423 single message will appear before the reading the mailbox.
5424 Also see the $write_inc, $net_inc and $time_inc variables and
5426 the "tuning" section of the manual for performance considera‐
5427 tions.
5428 read_only
5432 Type: boolean
5433 Default: no
5434 If set, all folders are opened in read-only mode.
5436 real_name
5440 Type: string
5441 Default: ""
5442 This variable specifies what "real" or "personal" name should be
5444 used when sending messages.
5445 If not specified, then the user's "real name" will be read from
5447 /etc/passwd. This option will not be used, if "$from" is set.
5448 recall
5452 Type: quadoption
5453 Default: ask-yes
5454 Controls whether or not NeoMutt recalls postponed messages when
5456 composing a new message.
5457 Setting this variable to yes is not generally useful, and thus
5459 not recommended. Note that the <recall-message> function can be
5460 used to manually recall postponed messages.
5461 Also see $postponed variable.
5463 record
5467 Type: mailbox
5468 Default: "~/sent"
5469 This specifies the file into which your outgoing messages should
5471 be appended. (This is meant as the primary method for saving a
5472 copy of your messages, but another way to do this is using the
5473 "my_hdr" command to create a "Bcc:" field with your email ad‐
5474 dress in it.)
5475 The value of $record is overridden by the $force_name and
5477 $save_name variables, and the "fcc-hook" command. Also see
5478 $copy and $write_bcc.
5479 reflow_space_quotes
5483 Type: boolean
5484 Default: yes
5485 This option controls how quotes from format=flowed messages are
5487 displayed in the pager and when replying (with $text_flowed un‐
5488 set). When set, this option adds spaces after each level of
5489 quote marks, turning ">>>foo" into "> > > foo".
5490 Note: If $reflow_text is unset, this option has no effect.
5492 Also, this option does not affect replies when $text_flowed is
5493 set.
5494 reflow_text
5498 Type: boolean
5499 Default: yes
5500 When set, NeoMutt will reformat paragraphs in text/plain parts
5502 marked format=flowed. If unset, NeoMutt will display paragraphs
5503 unaltered from how they appear in the message body. See RFC3676
5504 for details on the format=flowed format.
5505 Also see $reflow_wrap, and $wrap.
5507 reflow_wrap
5511 Type: number
5512 Default: 78
5513 This variable controls the maximum paragraph width when refor‐
5515 matting text/plain parts when $reflow_text is set. When the
5516 value is 0, paragraphs will be wrapped at the terminal's right
5517 margin. A positive value sets the paragraph width relative to
5518 the left margin. A negative value set the paragraph width rela‐
5519 tive to the right margin.
5520 Also see $wrap.
5522 reply_regex
5526 Type: regular expression
5527 Default: "^((re|aw|sv)(\[[0-9]+\])*:[ \t]*)*"
5528 A regular expression used to recognize reply messages when
5530 threading and replying. The default value corresponds to the
5531 English "Re:", the German "Aw:" and the Swedish "Sv:".
5532 reply_self
5536 Type: boolean
5537 Default: no
5538 If unset and you are replying to a message sent by you, NeoMutt
5540 will assume that you want to reply to the recipients of that
5541 message rather than to yourself.
5542 Also see the "alternates" command.
5544 reply_to
5548 Type: quadoption
5549 Default: ask-yes
5550 If set, when replying to a message, NeoMutt will use the address
5552 listed in the Reply-to: header as the recipient of the reply.
5553 If unset, it will use the address in the From: header field in‐
5554 stead. This option is useful for reading a mailing list that
5555 sets the Reply-To: header field to the list address and you want
5556 to send a private message to the author of a message.
5557 reply_with_xorig
5561 Type: boolean
5562 Default: no
5563 This variable provides a toggle. When active, the From: header
5565 will be extracted from the current mail's 'X-Original-To:'
5566 header. This setting does not have precedence over "re‐
5567 verse_real_name".
5568 Assuming 'fast_reply' is disabled, this option will prompt the
5570 user with a prefilled From: header.
5571 resolve
5575 Type: boolean
5576 Default: yes
5577 When set, the cursor will be automatically advanced to the next
5579 (possibly undeleted) message whenever a command that modifies
5580 the current message is executed.
5581 resume_draft_files
5585 Type: boolean
5586 Default: no
5587 If set, draft files (specified by -H on the command line) are
5589 processed similarly to when resuming a postponed message. Re‐
5590 cipients are not prompted for; send-hooks are not evaluated; no
5591 alias expansion takes place; user-defined headers and signatures
5592 are not added to the message.
5593 resume_edited_draft_files
5597 Type: boolean
5598 Default: yes
5599 If set, draft files previously edited (via -E -H on the command
5601 line) will have $resume_draft_files automatically set when they
5602 are used as a draft file again.
5603 The first time a draft file is saved, NeoMutt will add a header,
5605 X-Mutt-Resume-Draft to the saved file. The next time the draft
5606 file is read in, if NeoMutt sees the header, it will set $re‐
5607 sume_draft_files.
5608 This option is designed to prevent multiple signatures, user-de‐
5610 fined headers, and other processing effects from being made mul‐
5611 tiple times to the draft file.
5612 reverse_alias
5616 Type: boolean
5617 Default: no
5618 This variable controls whether or not NeoMutt will display the
5620 "personal" name from your aliases in the index menu if it finds
5621 an alias that matches the message's sender. For example, if you
5622 have the following alias:
5623 alias juser abd30425@somewhere.net (Joe User)
5626 and then you receive mail which contains the following header:
5629 From: abd30425@somewhere.net
5632 It would be displayed in the index menu as "Joe User" instead of
5635 "abd30425@somewhere.net." This is useful when the person's
5636 e-mail address is not human friendly.
5637 reverse_name
5641 Type: boolean
5642 Default: no
5643 It may sometimes arrive that you receive mail to a certain ma‐
5645 chine, move the messages to another machine, and reply to some
5646 the messages from there. If this variable is set, the default
5647 From: line of the reply messages is built using the address
5648 where you received the messages you are replying to if that ad‐
5649 dress matches your "alternates". If the variable is unset, or
5650 the address that would be used doesn't match your "alternates",
5651 the From: line will use your address on the current machine.
5652 Also see the "alternates" command and $reverse_real_name.
5654 reverse_real_name
5658 Type: boolean
5659 Default: yes
5660 This variable fine-tunes the behavior of the $reverse_name fea‐
5662 ture.
5663 When it is unset, NeoMutt will remove the real name part of a
5665 matching address. This allows the use of the email address
5666 without having to also use what the sender put in the real name
5667 field.
5668 When it is set, NeoMutt will use the matching address as-is.
5670 In either case, a missing real name will be filled in afterwards
5672 using the value of $real_name.
5673 rfc2047_parameters
5677 Type: boolean
5678 Default: no
5679 When this variable is set, NeoMutt will decode RFC2047-encoded
5681 MIME parameters. You want to set this variable when NeoMutt sug‐
5682 gests you to save attachments to files named like:
5683 =?iso-8859-1?Q?file=5F=E4=5F991116=2Ezip?=
5686 =?utf-8?Q?z=C4=99ta.png?=
5687 When this variable is set interactively, the change won't be ac‐
5690 tive until you change folders.
5691 Note that this use of RFC2047's encoding is explicitly prohib‐
5693 ited by the standard, but nevertheless encountered in the wild
5694 and produced by, e.g., Outlook.
5695 Also note that setting this parameter will not have the effect
5697 that NeoMutt generates this kind of encoding. Instead, NeoMutt
5698 will unconditionally use the encoding specified in RFC2231.
5699 save_address
5703 Type: boolean
5704 Default: no
5705 If set, NeoMutt will take the sender's full address when choos‐
5707 ing a default folder for saving a mail. If $save_name or
5708 $force_name is set too, the selection of the Fcc folder will be
5709 changed as well.
5710 save_empty
5714 Type: boolean
5715 Default: yes
5716 When unset, mailboxes which contain no saved messages will be
5718 removed when closed (the exception is $spool_file which is never
5719 removed). If set, mailboxes are never removed.
5720 Note: This only applies to mbox and MMDF folders, NeoMutt does
5722 not delete MH and Maildir directories.
5723 save_history
5727 Type: number
5728 Default: 0
5729 This variable controls the size of the history (per category)
5731 saved in the $history_file file.
5732 save_name
5736 Type: boolean
5737 Default: no
5738 This variable controls how copies of outgoing messages are
5740 saved. When set, a check is made to see if a mailbox specified
5741 by the recipient address exists (this is done by searching for a
5742 mailbox in the $folder directory with the username part of the
5743 recipient address). If the mailbox exists, the outgoing message
5744 will be saved to that mailbox, otherwise the message is saved to
5745 the $record mailbox.
5746 Also see the $force_name variable.
5748 save_unsubscribed
5752 Type: boolean
5753 Default: no
5754 When set, info about unsubscribed newsgroups will be saved into
5756 "newsrc" file and into cache.
5757 score
5761 Type: boolean
5762 Default: yes
5763 When this variable is unset, scoring is turned off. This can be
5765 useful to selectively disable scoring for certain folders when
5766 the $score_threshold_delete variable and related are used.
5767 score_threshold_delete
5771 Type: number
5772 Default: -1
5773 Messages which have been assigned a score equal to or lower than
5775 the value of this variable are automatically marked for deletion
5776 by NeoMutt. Since NeoMutt scores are always greater than or
5777 equal to zero, the default setting of this variable will never
5778 mark a message for deletion.
5779 score_threshold_flag
5783 Type: number
5784 Default: 9999
5785 Messages which have been assigned a score greater than or equal
5787 to this variable's value are automatically marked "flagged".
5788 score_threshold_read
5792 Type: number
5793 Default: -1
5794 Messages which have been assigned a score equal to or lower than
5796 the value of this variable are automatically marked as read by
5797 NeoMutt. Since NeoMutt scores are always greater than or equal
5798 to zero, the default setting of this variable will never mark a
5799 message read.
5800 search_context
5804 Type: number
5805 Default: 0
5806 For the pager, this variable specifies the number of lines shown
5808 before search results. By default, search results will be
5809 top-aligned.
5810 send_charset
5814 Type: string list
5815 Default: "us-ascii:iso-8859-1:utf-8"
5816 A colon-delimited list of character sets for outgoing messages.
5818 NeoMutt will use the first character set into which the text can
5819 be converted exactly. If your $charset is not "iso-8859-1" and
5820 recipients may not understand "UTF-8", it is advisable to in‐
5821 clude in the list an appropriate widely used standard character
5822 set (such as "iso-8859-2", "koi8-r" or "iso-2022-jp") either in‐
5823 stead of or after "iso-8859-1".
5824 In case the text can't be converted into one of these exactly,
5826 NeoMutt uses $charset as a fallback.
5827 sendmail
5831 Type: command
5832 Default: "/usr/sbin/sendmail -oem -oi"
5833 Specifies the program and arguments used to deliver mail sent by
5835 NeoMutt. NeoMutt expects that the specified program interprets
5836 additional arguments as recipient addresses. NeoMutt appends
5837 all recipients after adding a -- delimiter (if not already
5838 present). Additional flags, such as for $use_8bit_mime,
5839 $use_envelope_from, $dsn_notify, or $dsn_return will be added
5840 before the delimiter.
5841 See also: $write_bcc.
5843 sendmail_wait
5847 Type: number
5848 Default: 0
5849 Specifies the number of seconds to wait for the $sendmail
5851 process to finish before giving up and putting delivery in the
5852 background.
5853 NeoMutt interprets the value of this variable as follows:
5855 >0 number of seconds to wait for sendmail to finish before
5856 continuing
5857 0 wait forever for sendmail to finish
5858 <0 always put sendmail in the background without waiting
5859 Note that if you specify a value other than 0, the output of the
5861 child process will be put in a temporary file. If there is some
5862 error, you will be informed as to where to find the output.
5863 shell
5867 Type: command
5868 Default: "/bin/sh"
5869 Command to use when spawning a subshell. If not specified, then
5871 the user's login shell from /etc/passwd is used.
5872 show_multipart_alternative
5876 Type: string
5877 Default: ""
5878 When set to info, the multipart/alternative information is
5880 shown. When set to inline, all of the alternatives are dis‐
5881 played. When not set, the default behavior is to show only the
5882 chosen alternative.
5883 show_new_news
5887 Type: boolean
5888 Default: yes
5889 If set, news server will be asked for new newsgroups on entering
5891 the browser. Otherwise, it will be done only once for a news
5892 server. Also controls whether or not number of new articles of
5893 subscribed newsgroups will be then checked.
5894 show_only_unread
5898 Type: boolean
5899 Default: no
5900 If set, only subscribed newsgroups that contain unread articles
5902 will be displayed in browser.
5903 sidebar_component_depth
5907 Type: number
5908 Default: 0
5909 By default the sidebar will show the mailbox's path, relative to
5911 the $folder variable. This specifies the number of parent direc‐
5912 tories to hide from display in the sidebar. For example: If a
5913 maildir is normally displayed in the sidebar as
5914 dir1/dir2/dir3/maildir, setting sidebar_component_depth=2 will
5915 display it as dir3/maildir, having truncated the 2 highest di‐
5916 rectories.
5917 See also: $sidebar_short_path
5919 sidebar_delim_chars
5923 Type: string
5924 Default: "/."
5925 This contains the list of characters which you would like to
5927 treat as folder separators for displaying paths in the sidebar.
5928 Local mail is often arranged in directories: 'dir1/dir2/mail‐
5930 box'.
5931 set sidebar_delim_chars='/'
5934 IMAP mailboxes are often named: 'folder1.folder2.mailbox'.
5937 set sidebar_delim_chars='.'
5940 See also: $sidebar_short_path, $sidebar_folder_indent, $side‐
5943 bar_indent_string.
5944 sidebar_divider_char
5948 Type: string
5949 Default: ""
5950 This specifies the characters to be drawn between the sidebar
5952 (when visible) and the other NeoMutt panels. ASCII and Unicode
5953 line-drawing characters are supported.
5954 sidebar_folder_indent
5958 Type: boolean
5959 Default: no
5960 Set this to indent mailboxes in the sidebar.
5962 See also: $sidebar_short_path, $sidebar_indent_string, $side‐
5964 bar_delim_chars.
5965 sidebar_format
5969 Type: string
5970 Default: "%D%* %n"
5971 This variable allows you to customize the sidebar display. This
5973 string is similar to $index_format, but has its own set of
5974 printf(3)-like sequences:
5975 %B
5976 Name of the mailbox
5978 %d * @ Number of deleted messages in the mailbox
5979 %D
5980 Descriptive name of the mailbox
5982 %F * Number of flagged messages in the mailbox
5983 %L * @ Number of messages after limiting
5984 %n
5985 "N" if mailbox has new mail, " " (space) otherwise
5987 %N * Number of unread messages in the mailbox (seen or un‐
5988 seen)
5989 %o * Number of old messages in the mailbox (unread, seen)
5990 %r * Number of read messages in the mailbox (read, seen)
5991 %S * Size of mailbox (total number of messages)
5992 %t * @ Number of tagged messages in the mailbox
5993 %Z * Number of new messages in the mailbox (unread, unseen)
5994 %!
5995 "!" : one flagged message; "!!" : two flagged messages;
5997 "n!" : n flagged messages (for n > 2). Otherwise prints
5998 nothing.
5999 %>X
6000 Right justify the rest of the string and pad with "X"
6002 %|X
6003 Pad to the end of the line with "X"
6005 %*X
6006 Soft-fill with character "X" as pad
6008 * = Can be optionally printed if nonzero
6010 @ = Only applicable to the current folder
6012 In order to use %S, %N, %F, and %!, $mail_check_stats must be
6014 set. When thus set, a suggested value for this option is
6015 "%B%?F? [%F]?%* %?N?%N/?%S".
6016 sidebar_indent_string
6020 Type: string
6021 Default: " "
6022 This specifies the string that is used to indent mailboxes in
6024 the sidebar. It defaults to two spaces.
6025 See also: $sidebar_short_path, $sidebar_folder_indent, $side‐
6027 bar_delim_chars.
6028 sidebar_new_mail_only
6032 Type: boolean
6033 Default: no
6034 When set, the sidebar will only display mailboxes containing
6036 new, or flagged, mail.
6037 See also: $sidebar_whitelist, $sidebar_non_empty_mailbox_only.
6039 sidebar_next_new_wrap
6043 Type: boolean
6044 Default: no
6045 When set, the <sidebar-next-new> command will not stop and the
6047 end of the list of mailboxes, but wrap around to the beginning.
6048 The <sidebar-prev-new> command is similarly affected, wrapping
6049 around to the end of the list.
6050 sidebar_non_empty_mailbox_only
6054 Type: boolean
6055 Default: no
6056 When set, the sidebar will only display mailboxes that contain
6058 one or more mails.
6059 See also: $sidebar_new_mail_only, $sidebar_whitelist.
6061 sidebar_on_right
6065 Type: boolean
6066 Default: no
6067 When set, the sidebar will appear on the right-hand side of the
6069 screen.
6070 sidebar_short_path
6074 Type: boolean
6075 Default: no
6076 By default the sidebar will show the mailbox's path, relative to
6078 the $folder variable. Setting sidebar_shortpath=yes will shorten
6079 the names relative to the previous name. Here's an example:
6080 shortpath=no
6081 shortpath=yes shortpath=yes, folderindent=yes, in‐
6082 dentstr=".."
6083 fruit fruit fruit
6084 fruit.apple
6085 apple ..apple
6086 fruit.banana
6087 banana ..banana
6088 fruit.cherry
6089 cherry ..cherry
6090 See also: $sidebar_delim_chars, $sidebar_folder_indent, $side‐
6092 bar_indent_string, $sidebar_component_depth.
6093 sidebar_sort_method
6097 Type: sort order
6098 Default: order
6099 Specifies how to sort mailbox entries in the sidebar. By de‐
6101 fault, the entries are sorted alphabetically. Valid values:
6102 ‐ path (alphabetically)
6103 ‐ count (all message count)
6104 ‐ flagged (flagged message count)
6105 ‐ new (unread message count)
6106 ‐ unread (unread message count)
6107 ‐ unsorted
6108 You may optionally use the "reverse-" prefix to specify reverse
6110 sorting order (example: "set sidebar_sort_method=reverse-al‐
6111 pha").
6112 The "alpha" and "name" values are synonyms for "path".
6114 sidebar_visible
6118 Type: boolean
6119 Default: no
6120 This specifies whether or not to show sidebar. The sidebar shows
6122 a list of all your mailboxes.
6123 See also: $sidebar_format, $sidebar_width
6125 sidebar_width
6129 Type: number
6130 Default: 30
6131 This controls the width of the sidebar. It is measured in
6133 screen columns. For example: sidebar_width=20 could display 20
6134 ASCII characters, or 10 Chinese characters.
6135 sig_dashes
6139 Type: boolean
6140 Default: yes
6141 If set, a line containing "-- " (note the trailing space) will
6143 be inserted before your $signature. It is strongly recommended
6144 that you not unset this variable unless your signature contains
6145 just your name. The reason for this is because many software
6146 packages use "-- \n" to detect your signature. For example,
6147 NeoMutt has the ability to highlight the signature in a differ‐
6148 ent color in the built-in pager.
6149 sig_on_top
6153 Type: boolean
6154 Default: no
6155 If set, the signature will be included before any quoted or for‐
6157 warded text. It is strongly recommended that you do not set
6158 this variable unless you really know what you are doing, and are
6159 prepared to take some heat from netiquette guardians.
6160 signature
6164 Type: path
6165 Default: "~/.signature"
6166 Specifies the filename of your signature, which is appended to
6168 all outgoing messages. If the filename ends with a pipe ("|"),
6169 it is assumed that filename is a shell command and input should
6170 be read from its standard output.
6171 simple_search
6175 Type: string
6176 Default: "~f %s | ~s %s"
6177 Specifies how NeoMutt should expand a simple search into a real
6179 search pattern. A simple search is one that does not contain
6180 any of the "~" pattern operators. See "patterns" for more in‐
6181 formation on search patterns.
6182 For example, if you simply type "joe" at a search or limit
6184 prompt, NeoMutt will automatically expand it to the value speci‐
6185 fied by this variable by replacing "%s" with the supplied
6186 string. For the default value, "joe" would be expanded to: "~f
6187 joe | ~s joe".
6188 size_show_bytes
6192 Type: boolean
6193 Default: no
6194 If set, message sizes will display bytes for values less than 1
6196 kilobyte. See formatstrings-size.
6197 size_show_fractions
6201 Type: boolean
6202 Default: yes
6203 If set, message sizes will be displayed with a single decimal
6205 value for sizes from 0 to 10 kilobytes and 1 to 10 megabytes.
6206 See formatstrings-size.
6207 size_show_mb
6211 Type: boolean
6212 Default: yes
6213 If set, message sizes will display megabytes for values greater
6215 than or equal to 1 megabyte. See formatstrings-size.
6216 size_units_on_left
6220 Type: boolean
6221 Default: no
6222 If set, message sizes units will be displayed to the left of the
6224 number. See formatstrings-size.
6225 sleep_time
6229 Type: number
6230 Default: 1
6231 Specifies time, in seconds, to pause while displaying certain
6233 informational messages, while moving from folder to folder and
6234 after expunging messages from the current folder. The default
6235 is to pause one second, so a value of zero for this option sup‐
6236 presses the pause.
6237 smart_wrap
6241 Type: boolean
6242 Default: yes
6243 Controls the display of lines longer than the screen width in
6245 the internal pager. If set, long lines are wrapped at a word
6246 boundary. If unset, lines are simply wrapped at the screen
6247 edge. Also see the $markers variable.
6248 smileys
6252 Type: regular expression
6253 Default: "(>From )|(:[-^]?[][)(><}{|/DP])"
6254 The pager uses this variable to catch some common false posi‐
6256 tives of $quote_regex, most notably smileys and not consider a
6257 line quoted text if it also matches $smileys. This mostly hap‐
6258 pens at the beginning of a line.
6259 smime_ask_cert_label
6263 Type: boolean
6264 Default: yes
6265 This flag controls whether you want to be asked to enter a label
6267 for a certificate about to be added to the database or not. It
6268 is set by default. (S/MIME only)
6269 smime_ca_location
6273 Type: path
6274 Default: ""
6275 This variable contains the name of either a directory, or a file
6277 which contains trusted certificates for use with OpenSSL.
6278 (S/MIME only)
6279 smime_certificates
6283 Type: path
6284 Default: ""
6285 Since for S/MIME there is no pubring/secring as with PGP, Neo‐
6287 Mutt has to handle storage and retrieval of keys by itself. This
6288 is very basic right now, and keys and certificates are stored in
6289 two different directories, both named as the hash-value re‐
6290 trieved from OpenSSL. There is an index file which contains
6291 mailbox-address keyid pairs, and which can be manually edited.
6292 This option points to the location of the certificates. (S/MIME
6293 only)
6294 smime_decrypt_command
6298 Type: command
6299 Default: ""
6300 This format string specifies a command which is used to decrypt
6302 application/x-pkcs7-mime attachments.
6303 The OpenSSL command formats have their own set of printf(3)-like
6305 sequences similar to PGP's:
6306 %f Expands to the name of a file containing a message.
6307 %s Expands to the name of a file containing the signature
6308 part of a multipart/signed attachment when verifying it.
6309 %k The key-pair specified with $smime_default_key
6310 %i Intermediate certificates
6311 %c One or more certificate IDs.
6312 %a The algorithm used for encryption.
6313 %d The message digest algorithm specified with
6314 $smime_sign_digest_alg.
6315 %C CA location: Depending on whether $smime_ca_location
6316 points to a directory or file, this expands to "-CApath
6317 $smime_ca_location" or "-CAfile $smime_ca_location".
6318 For examples on how to configure these formats, see the smime.rc
6320 in the samples/ subdirectory which has been installed on your
6321 system alongside the documentation. (S/MIME only)
6322 smime_decrypt_use_default_key
6326 Type: boolean
6327 Default: yes
6328 If set (default) this tells NeoMutt to use the default key for
6330 decryption. Otherwise, if managing multiple certifi‐
6331 cate-key-pairs, NeoMutt will try to use the mailbox-address to
6332 determine the key to use. It will ask you to supply a key, if it
6333 can't find one. (S/MIME only)
6334 smime_default_key
6338 Type: string
6339 Default: ""
6340 This is the default key-pair to use for S/MIME operations, and
6342 must be set to the keyid (the hash-value that OpenSSL generates)
6343 to work properly.
6344 It will be used for encryption (see $postpone_encrypt and
6346 $smime_self_encrypt).
6347 It will be used for decryption unless $smime_decrypt_use_de‐
6349 fault_key is unset.
6350 It will also be used for signing unless $smime_sign_as is set.
6352 The (now deprecated) smime_self_encrypt_as is an alias for this
6354 variable, and should no longer be used. (S/MIME only)
6355 smime_encrypt_command
6359 Type: command
6360 Default: ""
6361 This command is used to create encrypted S/MIME messages.
6363 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command
6365 for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
6366 Encrypt the message to $smime_default_key too. (S/MIME only)
6368 smime_encrypt_with
6372 Type: string
6373 Default: "aes256"
6374 This sets the algorithm that should be used for encryption.
6376 Valid choices are "aes128", "aes192", "aes256", "des", "des3",
6377 "rc2-40", "rc2-64", "rc2-128". (S/MIME only)
6378 smime_get_cert_command
6382 Type: command
6383 Default: ""
6384 This command is used to extract X509 certificates from a PKCS7
6386 structure.
6387 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command
6389 for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
6390 smime_get_cert_email_command
6394 Type: command
6395 Default: ""
6396 This command is used to extract the mail address(es) used for
6398 storing X509 certificates, and for verification purposes (to
6399 check whether the certificate was issued for the sender's mail‐
6400 box).
6401 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command
6403 for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
6404 smime_get_signer_cert_command
6408 Type: command
6409 Default: ""
6410 This command is used to extract only the signers X509 certifi‐
6412 cate from a S/MIME signature, so that the certificate's owner
6413 may get compared to the email's "From:" field.
6414 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command
6416 for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
6417 smime_import_cert_command
6421 Type: command
6422 Default: ""
6423 This command is used to import a certificate via smime_keys.
6425 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command
6427 for possible printf(3)-like sequences. NOTE: %c and %k will de‐
6428 fault to $smime_sign_as if set, otherwise $smime_default_key.
6429 (S/MIME only)
6430 smime_is_default
6434 Type: boolean
6435 Default: no
6436 The default behavior of NeoMutt is to use PGP on all
6438 auto-sign/encryption operations. To override and to use OpenSSL
6439 instead this must be set. However, this has no effect while re‐
6440 plying, since NeoMutt will automatically select the same appli‐
6441 cation that was used to sign/encrypt the original message.
6442 (Note that this variable can be overridden by unsetting
6443 $crypt_auto_smime.) (S/MIME only)
6444 smime_keys
6448 Type: path
6449 Default: ""
6450 Since for S/MIME there is no pubring/secring as with PGP, Neo‐
6452 Mutt has to handle storage and retrieval of keys/certs by it‐
6453 self. This is very basic right now, and stores keys and certifi‐
6454 cates in two different directories, both named as the hash-value
6455 retrieved from OpenSSL. There is an index file which contains
6456 mailbox-address keyid pair, and which can be manually edited.
6457 This option points to the location of the private keys. (S/MIME
6458 only)
6459 smime_pk7out_command
6463 Type: command
6464 Default: ""
6465 This command is used to extract PKCS7 structures of S/MIME sig‐
6467 natures, in order to extract the public X509 certificate(s).
6468 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command
6470 for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
6471 smime_self_encrypt
6475 Type: boolean
6476 Default: yes
6477 When set, S/MIME encrypted messages will also be encrypted using
6479 the certificate in $smime_default_key. (S/MIME only)
6480 smime_sign_as
6484 Type: string
6485 Default: ""
6486 If you have a separate key to use for signing, you should set
6488 this to the signing key. Most people will only need to set
6489 $smime_default_key. (S/MIME only)
6490 smime_sign_command
6494 Type: command
6495 Default: ""
6496 This command is used to created S/MIME signatures of type multi‐
6498 part/signed, which can be read by all mail clients.
6499 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command
6501 for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
6502 smime_sign_digest_alg
6506 Type: string
6507 Default: "sha256"
6508 This sets the algorithm that should be used for the signature
6510 message digest. Valid choices are "md5", "sha1", "sha224",
6511 "sha256", "sha384", "sha512". (S/MIME only)
6512 smime_timeout
6516 Type: number
6517 Default: 300
6518 The number of seconds after which a cached passphrase will ex‐
6520 pire if not used. (S/MIME only)
6521 smime_verify_command
6525 Type: command
6526 Default: ""
6527 This command is used to verify S/MIME signatures of type multi‐
6529 part/signed.
6530 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command
6532 for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
6533 smime_verify_opaque_command
6537 Type: command
6538 Default: ""
6539 This command is used to verify S/MIME signatures of type appli‐
6541 cation/x-pkcs7-mime.
6542 This is a format string, see the $smime_decrypt_command command
6544 for possible printf(3)-like sequences. (S/MIME only)
6545 smtp_authenticators
6549 Type: string list
6550 Default: ""
6551 This is a colon-separated list of authentication methods NeoMutt
6553 may attempt to use to log in to an SMTP server, in the order
6554 NeoMutt should try them. Authentication methods are any SASL
6555 mechanism, e.g. "plain", "digest-md5", "gssapi" or "cram-md5".
6556 This option is case-insensitive. If it is "unset" (the default)
6557 NeoMutt will try all available methods, in order from most-se‐
6558 cure to least-secure. Support for the "plain" mechanism is bun‐
6559 dled; other mechanisms are provided by an external SASL library
6560 (look for '+sasl' in the output of neomutt -v).
6561 Example:
6563 set smtp_authenticators="digest-md5:cram-md5"
6566 smtp_oauth_refresh_command
6571 Type: command
6572 Default: ""
6573 The command to run to generate an OAUTH refresh token for autho‐
6575 rizing your connection to your SMTP server. This command will
6576 be run on every connection attempt that uses the OAUTHBEARER or
6577 XOAUTH2 authentication mechanisms. See "oauth" for details.
6578 smtp_pass
6582 Type: string
6583 Default: ""
6584 Specifies the password for your SMTP account. If unset, NeoMutt
6586 will prompt you for your password when you first send mail via
6587 SMTP. See $smtp_url to configure NeoMutt to send mail via SMTP.
6588 Warning: you should only use this option when you are on a
6590 fairly secure machine, because the superuser can read your neo‐
6591 muttrc even if you are the only one who can read the file.
6592 smtp_url
6596 Type: string
6597 Default: ""
6598 Defines the SMTP smarthost where sent messages should relayed
6600 for delivery. This should take the form of an SMTP URL, e.g.:
6601 smtp[s]://[user[:pass]@]host[:port]
6604 where "[...]" denotes an optional part. Setting this variable
6607 overrides the value of the $sendmail variable.
6608 Also see $write_bcc.
6610 smtp_user
6614 Type: string
6615 Default: ""
6616 The username for the SMTP server.
6618 This variable defaults to your user name on the local machine.
6620 sort
6624 Type: sort order
6625 Default: date
6626 Specifies how to sort messages in the "index" menu. Valid val‐
6628 ues are:
6629 ‐ date
6630 ‐ date-received
6631 ‐ from
6632 ‐ score
6633 ‐ size
6634 ‐ spam
6635 ‐ subject
6636 ‐ threads
6637 ‐ to
6638 ‐ unsorted
6639 You may optionally use the "reverse-" prefix to specify reverse
6641 sorting order, or the "last-" prefix to sort threads based on
6642 the corresponding attribute of the last descendant rather than
6643 the thread root. If both prefixes are in use, "reverse-" must
6644 come before "last-". The "last-" prefix has no effect on a flat
6645 view.
6646 Any ties in the primary sort are broken by $sort_aux. When
6648 $use_threads is "threads" or "reverse", $sort controls the sort‐
6649 ing between threads, and $sort_aux controls the sorting within a
6650 thread.
6651 The "date-sent" value is a synonym for "date". The "mailbox-or‐
6653 der" value is a synonym for "unsorted".
6654 The values of "threads" and "reverse-threads" are legacy op‐
6656 tions, which cause the value of $sort_aux to also contol sorting
6657 between threads, and they may not be used with the "last-" pre‐
6658 fix. The preferred way to enable a threaded view is via
6659 $use_threads. This variable can also be set via the <sort-mail‐
6660 box> and <sort-reverse> functions.
6661 Note: When $use_threads is "threads", the last thread sorts to
6663 the bottom; when it is "reversed", the last thread sorts to the
6664 top. The use of "reverse-" in $sort swaps which end the last
6665 thread will sort to.
6666 See the "Use Threads Feature" section for further explanation
6668 and examples, https://neomutt.org/feature/use-threads.
6669 sort_alias
6673 Type: sort order
6674 Default: alias
6675 Specifies how the entries in the "alias" menu are sorted. The
6677 following are legal values:
6678 ‐ address (sort alphabetically by email address)
6679 ‐ alias (sort alphabetically by alias name)
6680 ‐ unsorted (leave in order specified in .neomuttrc)
6681 Note: This also affects the entries of the address query menu,
6683 thus potentially overruling the order of entries as generated by
6684 $query_command.
6685 sort_aux
6689 Type: sort order
6690 Default: date
6691 This provides a secondary sort for messages in the "index" menu,
6693 used when the $sort value is equal for two messages.
6694 When sorting by threads, this variable controls how subthreads
6696 are sorted within a single thread (for the order between
6697 threads, see $sort). This can be set to any value that $sort
6698 can, including with the use of "reverse-" and "last-" prefixes,
6699 except for variations using "threads" (in that case, NeoMutt
6700 will just use "date"). For instance,
6701 set sort_aux=last-date-received
6704 would mean that if a new message is received in a thread, that
6707 subthread becomes the last one displayed (or the first, if you
6708 have "set use_threads=reverse".) When using $use_threads, it is
6709 more common to use "last-" with $sort and not with $sort_aux.
6710 See the "Use Threads Feature" section for further explanation
6712 and examples, https://neomutt.org/feature/use-threads.
6713 sort_browser
6717 Type: sort order
6718 Default: alpha
6719 Specifies how to sort entries in the file browser. By default,
6721 the entries are sorted alphabetically. Valid values:
6722 ‐ alpha (alphabetically)
6723 ‐ count (all message count)
6724 ‐ date
6725 ‐ desc (description)
6726 ‐ new (new message count)
6727 ‐ size
6728 ‐ unsorted
6729 You may optionally use the "reverse-" prefix to specify reverse
6731 sorting order (example: "set sort_browser=reverse-date").
6732 The "unread" value is a synonym for "new".
6734 sort_re
6738 Type: boolean
6739 Default: yes
6740 This variable is only useful when sorting by threads with
6742 $strict_threads unset. In that case, it changes the heuristic
6743 mutt uses to thread messages by subject. With $sort_re set,
6744 mutt will only attach a message as the child of another message
6745 by subject if the subject of the child message starts with a
6746 substring matching the setting of $reply_regex. With $sort_re
6747 unset, mutt will attach the message whether or not this is the
6748 case, as long as the non-$reply_regex parts of both messages are
6749 identical.
6750 spam_separator
6754 Type: string
6755 Default: ","
6756 This variable controls what happens when multiple spam headers
6758 are matched: if unset, each successive header will overwrite any
6759 previous matches value for the spam label. If set, each succes‐
6760 sive match will append to the previous, using this variable's
6761 value as a separator.
6762 spool_file
6766 Type: mailbox
6767 Default: ""
6768 If your spool mailbox is in a non-default place where NeoMutt
6770 can't find it, you can specify its location with this variable.
6771 The description from "named-mailboxes" or "virtual-mailboxes"
6772 may be used for the spool_file.
6773 If not specified, then the environment variables $MAIL and
6775 $MAILDIR will be checked.
6776 ssl_ca_certificates_file
6780 Type: path
6781 Default: ""
6782 This variable specifies a file containing trusted CA certifi‐
6784 cates. Any server certificate that is signed with one of these
6785 CA certificates is also automatically accepted. (GnuTLS only)
6786 Example:
6788 set ssl_ca_certificates_file=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt
6791 ssl_ciphers
6796 Type: string
6797 Default: ""
6798 Contains a colon-separated list of ciphers to use when using
6800 SSL. For OpenSSL, see ciphers(1) for the syntax of the string.
6801 For GnuTLS, this option will be used in place of "NORMAL" at the
6803 start of the priority string. See gnutls_priority_init(3) for
6804 the syntax and more details. (Note: GnuTLS version 2.1.7 or
6805 higher is required.)
6806 ssl_client_cert
6810 Type: path
6811 Default: ""
6812 The file containing a client certificate and its associated pri‐
6814 vate key.
6815 ssl_force_tls
6819 Type: boolean
6820 Default: yes
6821 If this variable is set, NeoMutt will require that all connec‐
6823 tions to remote servers be encrypted. Furthermore it will at‐
6824 tempt to negotiate TLS even if the server does not advertise the
6825 capability, since it would otherwise have to abort the connec‐
6826 tion anyway. This option supersedes $ssl_starttls.
6827 ssl_min_dh_prime_bits
6831 Type: number
6832 Default: 0
6833 This variable specifies the minimum acceptable prime size (in
6835 bits) for use in any Diffie-Hellman key exchange. A value of 0
6836 will use the default from the GNUTLS library. (GnuTLS only)
6837 ssl_starttls
6841 Type: quadoption
6842 Default: yes
6843 If set (the default), NeoMutt will attempt to use STARTTLS on
6845 servers advertising the capability. When unset, NeoMutt will not
6846 attempt to use STARTTLS regardless of the server's capabilities.
6847 Note that STARTTLS is subject to many kinds of attacks, includ‐
6849 ing the ability of a machine-in-the-middle to suppress the ad‐
6850 vertising of support. Setting $ssl_force_tls is recommended if
6851 you rely on STARTTLS.
6852 ssl_use_sslv2
6856 Type: boolean
6857 Default: no
6858 If set , NeoMutt will use SSLv2 when communicating with servers
6860 that request it. N.B. As of 2011, SSLv2 is considered insecure,
6861 and using is inadvisable. See
6862 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc6176 . (OpenSSL only)
6863 ssl_use_sslv3
6867 Type: boolean
6868 Default: no
6869 If set , NeoMutt will use SSLv3 when communicating with servers
6871 that request it. N.B. As of 2015, SSLv3 is considered insecure,
6872 and using it is inadvisable. See
6873 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7525 .
6874 ssl_use_system_certs
6878 Type: boolean
6879 Default: yes
6880 If set to yes, NeoMutt will use CA certificates in the sys‐
6882 tem-wide certificate store when checking if a server certificate
6883 is signed by a trusted CA. (OpenSSL only)
6884 ssl_use_tlsv1
6888 Type: boolean
6889 Default: no
6890 If set , NeoMutt will use TLSv1.0 when communicating with
6892 servers that request it. N.B. As of 2015, TLSv1.0 is considered
6893 insecure, and using it is inadvisable. See
6894 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7525 .
6895 ssl_use_tlsv1_1
6899 Type: boolean
6900 Default: no
6901 If set , NeoMutt will use TLSv1.1 when communicating with
6903 servers that request it. N.B. As of 2015, TLSv1.1 is considered
6904 insecure, and using it is inadvisable. See
6905 https://tools.ietf.org/html/rfc7525 .
6906 ssl_use_tlsv1_2
6910 Type: boolean
6911 Default: yes
6912 If set , NeoMutt will use TLSv1.2 when communicating with
6914 servers that request it.
6915 ssl_use_tlsv1_3
6919 Type: boolean
6920 Default: yes
6921 If set , NeoMutt will use TLSv1.3 when communicating with
6923 servers that request it.
6924 ssl_verify_dates
6928 Type: boolean
6929 Default: yes
6930 If set (the default), NeoMutt will not automatically accept a
6932 server certificate that is either not yet valid or already ex‐
6933 pired. You should only unset this for particular known hosts,
6934 using the <account-hook> function.
6935 ssl_verify_host
6939 Type: boolean
6940 Default: yes
6941 If set (the default), NeoMutt will not automatically accept a
6943 server certificate whose host name does not match the host used
6944 in your folder URL. You should only unset this for particular
6945 known hosts, using the <account-hook> function.
6946 ssl_verify_partial_chains
6950 Type: boolean
6951 Default: no
6952 This option should not be changed from the default unless you
6954 understand what you are doing.
6955 Setting this variable to yes will permit verifying partial cer‐
6957 tification chains, i. e. a certificate chain where not the root,
6958 but an intermediate certificate CA, or the host certificate, are
6959 marked trusted (in $certificate_file), without marking the root
6960 signing CA as trusted.
6961 (OpenSSL 1.0.2b and newer only).
6963 status_chars
6967 Type: character string
6968 Default: "-*%A"
6969 Controls the characters used by the "%r" indicator in $sta‐
6971 tus_format.
6972 Character
6973 Default Description
6974 1 - Mailbox is unchanged
6975 2 * Mailbox has been changed and needs to be resynchronized
6976 3 % Mailbox is read-only, or will not be written when exit‐
6977 ing. (You can toggle whether to write changes to a mail‐
6978 box with the <toggle-write> operation, bound by default
6979 to "%")
6980 4 A Folder opened in attach-message mode. (Certain opera‐
6981 tions like composing a new mail, replying, forwarding,
6982 etc. are not permitted in this mode)
6983 status_format
6986 Type: string
6987 Default: "-%r-NeoMutt: %D [Msgs:%?M?%M/?%m%?n? New:%n?%?o? Old:%o?%?d? Del:%d?%?F? Flag:%F?%?t? Tag:%t?%?p? Post:%p?%?b? Inc:%b?%?l? %l?]---(%?T?%T/?%s/%S)-%>-(%P)---"
6988 Controls the format of the status line displayed in the "index"
6990 menu. This string is similar to $index_format, but has its own
6991 set of printf(3)-like sequences:
6992 %b * Number of mailboxes with new mail
6993 %d * Number of deleted messages
6994 %D
6995 Description of the mailbox
6997 %f
6998 The full pathname of the current mailbox
7000 %F * Number of flagged messages
7001 %h
7002 Local hostname
7004 %l * Size (in bytes) of the current mailbox (see format‐
7005 strings-size)
7006 %L * Size (in bytes) of the messages shown (i.e., which
7007 match the current limit) (see formatstrings-size)
7008 %m * The number of messages in the mailbox
7009 %M * The number of messages shown (i.e., which match the
7010 current limit)
7011 %n * Number of new messages in the mailbox (unread, unseen)
7012 %o * Number of old messages in the mailbox (unread, seen)
7013 %p * Number of postponed messages
7014 %P
7015 Percentage of the way through the index
7017 %r
7018 Modified/read-only/won't-write/attach-message indicator,
7020 According to $status_chars
7021 %R * Number of read messages in the mailbox (read, seen)
7022 %s
7023 Current sorting mode ($sort)
7025 %S
7026 Current aux sorting method ($sort_aux)
7028 %t * Number of tagged messages in the mailbox
7029 %T * Current threading mode ($use_threads)
7030 %u * Number of unread messages in the mailbox (seen or un‐
7031 seen)
7032 %v
7033 NeoMutt version string
7035 %V * Currently active limit pattern, if any
7036 %>X
7037 Right justify the rest of the string and pad with "X"
7039 %|X
7040 Pad to the end of the line with "X"
7042 %*X
7043 Soft-fill with character "X" as pad
7045 For an explanation of "soft-fill", see the $index_format docu‐
7047 mentation.
7048 * = can be optionally printed if nonzero
7050 Some of the above sequences can be used to optionally print a
7052 string if their value is nonzero. For example, you may only
7053 want to see the number of flagged messages if such messages ex‐
7054 ist, since zero is not particularly meaningful. To optionally
7055 print a string based upon one of the above sequences, the fol‐
7056 lowing construct is used:
7057 %?<sequence_char>?<optional_string>?
7059 where sequence_char is a character from the table above, and op‐
7061 tional_string is the string you would like printed if se‐
7062 quence_char is nonzero. optional_string may contain other se‐
7063 quences as well as normal text, but you may not nest optional
7064 strings.
7065 Here is an example illustrating how to optionally print the num‐
7067 ber of new messages in a mailbox:
7068 %?n?%n new messages.?
7070 You can also switch between two strings using the following con‐
7072 struct:
7073 %?<sequence_char>?<if_string>&<else_string>?
7075 If the value of sequence_char is non-zero, if_string will be ex‐
7077 panded, otherwise else_string will be expanded.
7078 As another example, here is how to show either $sort and
7080 $sort_aux or $use_threads and $sort, based on whether threads
7081 are enabled with $use_threads:
7082 %?T?%s/%S&%T/%s?
7084 You can force the result of any printf(3)-like sequence to be
7086 lowercase by prefixing the sequence character with an underscore
7087 ("_") sign. For example, if you want to display the local host‐
7088 name in lowercase, you would use: "%_h".
7089 If you prefix the sequence character with a colon (":") charac‐
7091 ter, NeoMutt will replace any dots in the expansion by under‐
7092 scores. This might be helpful with IMAP folders that don't like
7093 dots in folder names.
7094 status_on_top
7098 Type: boolean
7099 Default: no
7100 Setting this variable causes the "status bar" to be displayed on
7102 the first line of the screen rather than near the bottom. If
7103 $help is set too, it'll be placed at the bottom.
7104 strict_threads
7108 Type: boolean
7109 Default: no
7110 If set, threading will only make use of the "In-Reply-To" and
7112 "References:" fields when you $sort by message threads. By de‐
7113 fault, messages with the same subject are grouped together in
7114 "pseudo threads.". This may not always be desirable, such as in
7115 a personal mailbox where you might have several unrelated mes‐
7116 sages with the subjects like "hi" which will get grouped to‐
7117 gether. See also $sort_re for a less drastic way of controlling
7118 this behavior.
7119 suspend
7123 Type: boolean
7124 Default: yes
7125 When unset, NeoMutt won't stop when the user presses the termi‐
7127 nal's susp key, usually "^Z". This is useful if you run NeoMutt
7128 inside an xterm using a command like "xterm -e neomutt".
7129 text_flowed
7133 Type: boolean
7134 Default: no
7135 When set, NeoMutt will generate "format=flowed" bodies with a
7137 content type of "text/plain; format=flowed". This format is
7138 easier to handle for some mailing software, and generally just
7139 looks like ordinary text. To actually make use of this format's
7140 features, you'll need support in your editor.
7141 The option only controls newly composed messages. Postponed
7143 messages, resent messages, and draft messages (via -H on the
7144 command line) will use the content-type of the source message.
7145 Note that $indent_string is ignored when this option is set.
7147 thorough_search
7151 Type: boolean
7152 Default: yes
7153 Affects the ~b, ~B, and ~h search operations described in sec‐
7155 tion "patterns". If set, the headers and body/attachments of
7156 messages to be searched are decoded before searching. If unset,
7157 messages are searched as they appear in the folder.
7158 Users searching attachments or for non-ASCII characters should
7160 set this value because decoding also includes MIME parsing/de‐
7161 coding and possible character set conversions. Otherwise NeoMutt
7162 will attempt to match against the raw message received (for ex‐
7163 ample quoted-printable encoded or with encoded headers) which
7164 may lead to incorrect search results.
7165 thread_received
7169 Type: boolean
7170 Default: no
7171 When set, NeoMutt uses the date received rather than the date
7173 sent to thread messages by subject.
7174 tilde
7178 Type: boolean
7179 Default: no
7180 When set, the internal-pager will pad blank lines to the bottom
7182 of the screen with a tilde ("~").
7183 time_inc
7187 Type: number
7188 Default: 0
7189 Along with $read_inc, $write_inc, and $net_inc, this variable
7191 controls the frequency with which progress updates are dis‐
7192 played. It suppresses updates less than $time_inc milliseconds
7193 apart. This can improve throughput on systems with slow termi‐
7194 nals, or when running NeoMutt on a remote system.
7195 Also see the "tuning" section of the manual for performance con‐
7197 siderations.
7198 timeout
7202 Type: number
7203 Default: 600
7204 When NeoMutt is waiting for user input either idling in menus or
7206 in an interactive prompt, NeoMutt would block until input is
7207 present. Depending on the context, this would prevent certain
7208 operations from working, like checking for new mail or keeping
7209 an IMAP connection alive.
7210 This variable controls how many seconds NeoMutt will at most
7212 wait until it aborts waiting for input, performs these opera‐
7213 tions and continues to wait for input.
7214 A value of zero or less will cause NeoMutt to never time out.
7216 tmpdir
7220 Type: path
7221 Default: "/tmp"
7222 This variable allows you to specify where NeoMutt will place its
7224 temporary files needed for displaying and composing messages.
7225 If this variable is not set, the environment variable $TMPDIR is
7227 used. Failing that, then "/tmp" is used.
7228 to_chars
7232 Type: character string
7233 Default: " +TCFLR"
7234 Controls the character used to indicate mail addressed to you.
7236 Character
7237 Default Description
7238 1 <space> The mail is not addressed to your address.
7239 2 + You are the only recipient of the message.
7240 3 T Your address appears in the "To:" header field, but you
7241 are not the only recipient of the message.
7242 4 C Your address is specified in the "Cc:" header field,
7243 but you are not the only recipient.
7244 5 F Indicates the mail that was sent by you.
7245 6 L Indicates the mail was sent to a mailing-list you sub‐
7246 scribe to.
7247 7 R Your address appears in the "Reply-To:" header field
7248 but none of the above applies.
7249 toggle_quoted_show_levels
7252 Type: number
7253 Default: 0
7254 Quoted text may be filtered out using the <toggle-quoted> com‐
7256 mand. If set to a number greater than 0, then the <tog‐
7257 gle-quoted> command will only filter out quote levels above this
7258 number.
7259 trash
7263 Type: mailbox
7264 Default: ""
7265 If set, this variable specifies the path of the trash folder
7267 where the mails marked for deletion will be moved, instead of
7268 being irremediably purged.
7269 NOTE: When you delete a message in the trash folder, it is re‐
7271 ally deleted, so that you have a way to clean the trash.
7272 ts_enabled
7276 Type: boolean
7277 Default: no
7278 Controls whether NeoMutt tries to set the terminal status line
7280 and icon name. Most terminal emulators emulate the status line
7281 in the window title.
7282 ts_icon_format
7286 Type: string
7287 Default: "M%?n?AIL&ail?"
7288 Controls the format of the icon title, as long as "$ts_enabled"
7290 is set. This string is identical in formatting to the one used
7291 by "$status_format".
7292 ts_status_format
7296 Type: string
7297 Default: "NeoMutt with %?m?%m messages&no messages?%?n? [%n NEW]?"
7298 Controls the format of the terminal status line (or window ti‐
7300 tle), provided that "$ts_enabled" has been set. This string is
7301 identical in formatting to the one used by "$status_format".
7302 tunnel
7306 Type: command
7307 Default: ""
7308 Setting this variable will cause NeoMutt to open a pipe to a
7310 command instead of a raw socket. You may be able to use this to
7311 set up preauthenticated connections to your IMAP/POP3/SMTP
7312 server. Example:
7313 set tunnel="ssh -q mailhost.net /usr/local/libexec/imapd"
7316 Note: For this example to work you must be able to log in to the
7319 remote machine without having to enter a password.
7320 When set, NeoMutt uses the tunnel for all remote connections.
7322 Please see "account-hook" in the manual for how to use different
7323 tunnel commands per connection.
7324 tunnel_is_secure
7328 Type: boolean
7329 Default: yes
7330 When set, NeoMutt will assume the $tunnel connection does not
7332 need STARTTLS to be enabled. It will also allow IMAP PREAUTH
7333 server responses inside a tunnel to proceed. This is appropri‐
7334 ate if $tunnel uses ssh or directly invokes the server locally.
7335 When unset, NeoMutt will negotiate STARTTLS according to the
7337 ssl_starttls and ssl_force_tls variables. If ssl_force_tls is
7338 set, NeoMutt will abort connecting if an IMAP server responds
7339 with PREAUTH. This setting is appropriate if $tunnel does not
7340 provide security and could be tampered with by attackers.
7341 uncollapse_jump
7345 Type: boolean
7346 Default: no
7347 When set, NeoMutt will jump to the next unread message, if any,
7349 when the current thread is uncollapsed.
7350 uncollapse_new
7354 Type: boolean
7355 Default: yes
7356 When set, NeoMutt will automatically uncollapse any collapsed
7358 thread that receives a new message. When unset, collapsed
7359 threads will remain collapsed. the presence of the new message
7360 will still affect index sorting, though.
7361 use_8bit_mime
7365 Type: boolean
7366 Default: no
7367 Warning: do not set this variable unless you are using a version
7369 of sendmail which supports the -B8BITMIME flag (such as sendmail
7370 8.8.x) or you may not be able to send mail.
7371 When set, NeoMutt will invoke $sendmail with the -B8BITMIME flag
7373 when sending 8-bit messages to enable ESMTP negotiation.
7374 use_domain
7378 Type: boolean
7379 Default: yes
7380 When set, NeoMutt will qualify all local addresses (ones without
7382 the "@host" portion) with the value of $hostname. If unset, no
7383 addresses will be qualified.
7384 use_envelope_from
7388 Type: boolean
7389 Default: no
7390 When set, NeoMutt will set the envelope sender of the message.
7392 If $envelope_from_address is set, it will be used as the sender
7393 address. If unset, NeoMutt will attempt to derive the sender
7394 from the "From:" header.
7395 Note that this information is passed to sendmail command using
7397 the -f command line switch. Therefore setting this option is not
7398 useful if the $sendmail variable already contains -f or if the
7399 executable pointed to by $sendmail doesn't support the -f
7400 switch.
7401 use_from
7405 Type: boolean
7406 Default: yes
7407 When set, NeoMutt will generate the "From:" header field when
7409 sending messages. If unset, no "From:" header field will be
7410 generated unless the user explicitly sets one using the "my_hdr"
7411 command.
7412 use_ipv6
7416 Type: boolean
7417 Default: yes
7418 When set, NeoMutt will look for IPv6 addresses of hosts it tries
7420 to contact. If this option is unset, NeoMutt will restrict it‐
7421 self to IPv4 addresses. Normally, the default should work.
7422 use_threads
7426 Type: enumeration
7427 Default: unset
7428 The style of threading used in the index. May be one of "flat"
7430 (no threading), "threads" (threaded, with subthreads below root
7431 message) or "reverse" (threaded, with subthreads above root mes‐
7432 sage). For convenience, the value "yes" is a synonym for
7433 "threads", and "no" is a synonym for "flat".
7434 If this variable is never set, then $sort controls whether
7436 threading is used, $sort_aux controls both the sorting of
7437 threads and subthreads, and using <sort-mailbox> to select
7438 threads affects only $sort. Once this variable is set, attempt‐
7439 ing to set $sort to a value using "threads" will warn, the value
7440 of $sort controls the sorting between threads while $sort_aux
7441 controls sorting within a thread, and <sort-mailbox> toggles
7442 $use_threads.
7443 Example:
7445 set use_threads=yes
7448 See the "Use Threads Feature" section for further explanation
7451 and examples.
7452 user_agent
7456 Type: boolean
7457 Default: no
7458 When set, NeoMutt will add a "User-Agent:" header to outgoing
7460 messages, indicating which version of NeoMutt was used for com‐
7461 posing them.
7462 vfolder_format
7466 Type: string
7467 Default: "%2C %?n?%4n/& ?%4m %f"
7468 This variable allows you to customize the file browser display
7470 for virtual folders to your personal taste. This string uses
7471 many of the same expandos as $folder_format.
7472 virtual_spool_file
7476 Type: boolean
7477 Default: no
7478 When set, NeoMutt will use the first defined virtual mailbox
7480 (see virtual-mailboxes) as a spool file.
7481 This command is now unnecessary. $spool_file has been extended
7483 to support mailbox descriptions as a value.
7484 wait_key
7488 Type: boolean
7489 Default: yes
7490 Controls whether NeoMutt will ask you to press a key after an
7492 external command has been invoked by these functions: <shell-es‐
7493 cape>, <pipe-message>, <pipe-entry>, <print-message>, and
7494 <print-entry> commands.
7495 It is also used when viewing attachments with "auto_view", pro‐
7497 vided that the corresponding mailcap entry has a needsterminal
7498 flag, and the external program is interactive.
7499 When set, NeoMutt will always ask for a key. When unset, NeoMutt
7501 will wait for a key only if the external command returned a
7502 non-zero status.
7503 weed
7507 Type: boolean
7508 Default: yes
7509 When set, NeoMutt will weed headers when displaying, forwarding,
7511 or replying to messages.
7512 Also see $copy_decode_weed, $pipe_decode_weed, $print_de‐
7514 code_weed.
7515 wrap
7519 Type: number
7520 Default: 0
7521 When set to a positive value, NeoMutt will wrap text at $wrap
7523 characters. When set to a negative value, NeoMutt will wrap
7524 text so that there are $wrap characters of empty space on the
7525 right side of the terminal. Setting it to zero makes NeoMutt
7526 wrap at the terminal width.
7527 Also see $reflow_wrap.
7529 wrap_headers
7533 Type: number
7534 Default: 78
7535 This option specifies the number of characters to use for wrap‐
7537 ping an outgoing message's headers. Allowed values are between
7538 78 and 998 inclusive.
7539 Note: This option usually shouldn't be changed. RFC5233 recom‐
7541 mends a line length of 78 (the default), so please only change
7542 this setting when you know what you're doing.
7543 wrap_search
7547 Type: boolean
7548 Default: yes
7549 Controls whether searches wrap around the end.
7551 When set, searches will wrap around the first (or last) item.
7553 When unset, incremental searches will not wrap.
7554 write_bcc
7558 Type: boolean
7559 Default: no
7560 Controls whether NeoMutt writes out the "Bcc:" header when pre‐
7562 paring messages to be sent. Some MTAs, such as Exim and
7563 Courier, do not strip the "Bcc:" header; so it is advisable to
7564 leave this unset unless you have a particular need for the
7565 header to be in the sent message.
7566 If NeoMutt is set to deliver directly via SMTP(see $smtp_url),
7568 this option does nothing: NeoMutt will never write out the
7569 "Bcc:" header in this case.
7570 Note this option only affects the sending of messages. Fcc'ed
7572 copies of a message will always contain the "Bcc:" header if one
7573 exists.
7574 write_inc
7578 Type: number
7579 Default: 10
7580 When writing a mailbox, a message will be printed every
7582 $write_inc messages to indicate progress. If set to 0, only a
7583 single message will be displayed before writing a mailbox.
7584 Also see the $read_inc, $net_inc and $time_inc variables and the
7586 "tuning" section of the manual for performance considerations.
7587 x_comment_to
7591 Type: boolean
7592 Default: no
7593 If set, NeoMutt will add "X-Comment-To:" field (that contains
7595 full name of original article author) to article that followuped
7596 to newsgroup.
7597
7601 iconv(1), neomutt(1), notmuch(1), iconv(3), printf(3), strftime(3),
7602 mailcap(5), maildir(5), mbox(5), regex(7).
7603 For further NeoMutt information:
7605 • the full manual, /usr/share/doc/neomutt/manual.{html,pdf,txt}
7607 • the home page, <https://neomutt.org>
7608
7610 Michael Elkins, and others. Use <neomutt-devel@neomutt.org> to contact
7611 the developers.
7612Unix 2022-04-29 neomuttrc(5)