muttrc
muttrc(5) User Manuals muttrc(5)
NAME
muttrc - Configuration file for the Mutt Mail User Agent
DESCRIPTION
A mutt configuration file consists of a series of “commands”. Each
line of the file may contain one or more commands. When multiple com-
mands are used, they must be separated by a semicolon (“;”).
The hash mark, or pound sign (“#”), is used as a “comment” character.
You can use it to annotate your initialization file. All text after
the comment character to the end of the line is ignored.
Single quotes (“’”) and double quotes (“"”) can be used to quote
strings which contain spaces or other special characters. The differ-
ence between the two types of quotes is similar to that of many popu-
lar shell programs, namely that a single quote is used to specify a
literal string (one that is not interpreted for shell variables or
quoting with a backslash [see next paragraph]), while double quotes
indicate a string for which should be evaluated. For example, back-
tics are evaluated inside of double quotes, but not for single quotes.
\ quotes the next character, just as in shells such as bash and zsh.
For example, if want to put quotes (“"”) inside of a string, you can
use “\” to force the next character to be a literal instead of inter-
preted character.
“\\” means to insert a literal “\” into the line. “\n” and “\r” have
their usual C meanings of linefeed and carriage-return, respectively.
A “\” at the end of a line can be used to split commands over multiple
lines, provided that the split points don’t appear in the middle of
command names.
It is also possible to substitute the output of a Unix command in an
initialization file. This is accomplished by enclosing the command in
backquotes (‘command‘).
UNIX environments can be accessed like the way it is done in shells
like sh and bash: Prepend the name of the environment by a dollar
(“⇑”) sign.
COMMANDS
alias key address [, address [ ... ]]
unalias [ * | key ]
alias defines an alias key for the given addresses. unalias
removes the alias corresponding to the given key or all aliases
when “*” is used as an argument.
alternative_order type[/subtype] [ ... ]
This command permits you to define an order of preference which
is used by mutt to determine which part of a multipart/alterna-
tive body to display. A subtype of “*” matches any subtype, as
does an empty subtype.
auto_view type[/subtype] [ ... ]
This commands permits you to specify that mutt should automati-
cally convert the given MIME types to text/plain when display-
ing messages. For this to work, there must be a mailcap(5)
entry for the given MIME type with the copiousoutput flag set.
A subtype of “*” matches any subtype, as does an empty subtype.
bind map key function
This command binds the given key for the given map to the given
function.
Valid maps are: generic, alias, attach, browser, editor, index,
compose, pager, pgp, postpone, mix.
For more information on keys and functions, please consult the
Mutt Manual.
account-hook [!]regexp command
This hook is executed whenever you access a remote mailbox.
Useful to adjust configuration settings to different IMAP or
POP servers.
charset-hook alias charset
This command defines an alias for a character set. This is
useful to properly display messages which are tagged with a
character set name not known to mutt.
iconv-hook charset local-charset
This command defines a system-specific name for a character
set. This is useful when your system’s iconv(3) implementation
does not understand MIME character set names (such as
iso-8859-1), but instead insists on being fed with implementa-
tion-specific character set names (such as 8859-1). In this
specific case, you’d put this into your configuration file:
iconv-hook iso-8859-1 8859-1
message-hook [!]pattern command
Before mutt displays (or formats for replying or forwarding) a
message which matches the given pattern (or, when it is pre-
ceded by an exclamation mark, does not match the pattern), the
given command is executed. When multiple message-hooks match,
they are executed in the order in which they occur in the
configuration file.
folder-hook [!]regexp command
When mutt enters a folder which matches regexp (or, when regexp
is preceded by an exclamation mark, does not match regexp), the
given command is executed.
When several folder-hooks match a given mail folder, they are
executed in the order given in the configuration file.
macro map key sequence [ description ]
This command binds the given sequence of keys to the given key
in the given map. For valid maps, see bind.
color object foreground background [ regexp ]
color index foreground background [ pattern ]
uncolor index pattern [ pattern ... ]
If your terminal supports color, these commands can be used to
assign foreground/backgound combinations to certain objects.
Valid objects are: attachment, body, bold, header, hdrdefault,
index, indicator, markers, message, normal, quoted, quotedN,
search, signature, status, tilde, tree, underline. The body
and header objects allow you to restrict the colorization to a
regular expression. The index object permits you to select
colored messages by pattern.
Valid colors include: white, black, green, magenta, blue, cyan,
yellow, red, default, colorN.
mono object attribute [ regexp ]
mono index attribute [ pattern ]
For terminals which don’t support color, you can still assign
attributes to objects. Valid attributes include: none, bold,
underline, reverse, and standout.
[un]ignore pattern [ pattern ... ]
The ignore command permits you to specify header fields which
you usually don’t wish to see. Any header field whose tag
begins with an “ignored” pattern will be ignored.
The unignore command permits you to define exceptions from the
above mentioned list of ignored headers.
lists address [ address ... ]
unlists address [ address ... ]
subscribe address [ address ... ]
unsubscribe address [ address ... ]
Mutt maintains two lists of mailing list addresses, a list of
subscribed mailing lists, and a list of known mailing lists.
All subscribed mailing lists are known. A mail address matches
a mailing list if it begins with the given address. For exam-
ple, the lists pattern “mutt-” will match mutt-dev@mutt.org and
mutt-users@mutt.org.
The lists command adds a mailing list address to the list of
known mailing lists. The unlists command removes a mailing
list from the lists of known and subscribed mailing lists. The
subscribe command adds a mailing list to the lists of known and
subscribed mailing lists. The unsubscribe command removes it
from the list of subscribed mailing lists.
mbox-hook [!]pattern mailbox
When mutt changes to a mail folder which matches pattern, mail-
box will be used as the “mbox” folder, i.e., read messages will
be moved to that folder when the mail folder is left.
The first matchig mbox-hook applies.
mailboxes filename [ filename ... ]
This command specifies folders which can receive mail and which
will be checked for new messages. When changing folders,
pressing space will cycle through folders with new mail.
my_hdr string
unmy_hdr field
Using my_hdr, you can define headers which will be added to the
messages you compose. unmy_hdr will remove the given user-
defined headers.
hdr_order header1 header2 [ ... ]
With this command, you can specify an order in which mutt will
attempt to present headers to you when viewing messages.
save-hook [!]pattern filename
When a message matches pattern, the default file name when sav-
ing it will be the given filename.
fcc-hook [!]pattern filename
When an outgoing message matches pattern, the default file name
for storing a copy (fcc) will be the given filename.
fcc-save-hook [!]pattern filename
This command is an abbreviation for identical fcc-hook and
save-hook commands.
send-hook [!]pattern command
When composing a message matching pattern, command is executed.
When multiple send-hooks match, they are executed in the order
in which they occur in the configuration file.
pgp-hook pattern key-id
The pgp-hook command provides a method by which you can specify
the ID of the public key to be used when encrypting messages to
a certain recipient.
push string
This command adds the named string to the keyboard buffer.
set [no|inv]variable[=value] [ ... ]
toggle variable [ ... ]
unset variable [ ... ]
reset variable [ ... ]
These commands are used to set and manipulate configuration
varibles.
Mutt knows four basic types of variables: boolean, number,
string and quadoption. Boolean variables can be set (true),
unset (false), or toggled. Number variables can be assigned a
positive integer value.
String variables consist of any number of printable characters.
Strings must be enclosed in quotes if they contain spaces or
tabs. You may also use the “C” escape sequences \n and \t for
newline and tab, respectively.
Quadoption variables are used to control whether or not to be
prompted for certain actions, or to specify a default action.
A value of yes will cause the action to be carried out automat-
ically as if you had answered yes to the question. Similarly,
a value of no will cause the the action to be carried out as if
you had answered “no.” A value of ask-yes will cause a prompt
with a default answer of “yes” and ask-no will provide a
default answer of “no.”
The reset command resets all given variables to the compile
time defaults. If you reset the special variabe all, all vari-
ables will reset to their system defaults.
source filename
The given file will be evaluated as a configuration file.
unhook [ * | hook-type ]
This command will remove all hooks of a given type, or all
hooks when “*” is used as an argument. hook-type can be any of
the -hook commands documented above.
PATTERNS
In various places with mutt, including some of the abovementioned hook
commands, you can specify patterns to match messages.
Constructing Patterns
A simple pattern consists of an operator of the form “~character”,
possibly followed by a parameter against which mutt is supposed to
match the object specified by this operator. (For a list of opera-
tors, see below.)
With some of these operators, the object to be matched consists of
several e-mail addresses. In these cases, the object is matched if at
least one of these e-mail addresses matches. You can prepend a hat
(“^”) character to such a pattern to indicate that all addresses must
match in order to match the object.
You can construct complex patterns by combining simple patterns with
logical operators. Logical AND is specified by simply concatenating
two simple patterns, for instance “~C mutt-dev ~s bug”. Logical OR is
specified by inserting a vertical bar (“|”) between two patterns, for
instance “~C mutt-dev | ~s bug”. Additionally, you can negate a pat-
tern by prepending a bang (“!”) character. For logical grouping, use
braces (“()”). Example: “!(~t mutt|~c mutt) ~f elkins”.
Simple Patterns
Mutt understands the following simple patterns:
~A all messages
~b EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the message body
~B EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the whole message
~c EXPR messages carbon-copied to EXPR
~C EXPR message is either to: or cc: EXPR
~D deleted messages
~d MIN-MAX messages with “date-sent” in a Date range
~E expired messages
~e EXPR message which contains EXPR in the “Sender” field
~F flagged messages
~f EXPR messages originating from EXPR
~g PGP signed messages
~G PGP encrypted messages
~h EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the message header
~k message contains PGP key material
~i EXPR message which match EXPR in the “Message-ID” field
~L EXPR message is either originated or received by EXPR
~l message is addressed to a known mailing list
~m MIN-MAX message in the range MIN to MAX
~n MIN-MAX messages with a score in the range MIN to MAX
~N new messages
~O old messages
~p message is addressed to you (consults $alternates)
~P message is from you (consults $alternates)
~Q messages which have been replied to
~R read messages
~r MIN-MAX messages with “date-received” in a Date range
~S superseded messages
~s EXPR messages having EXPR in the “Subject” field.
~T tagged messages
~t EXPR messages addressed to EXPR
~U unread messages
~v message is part of a collapsed thread.
~x EXPR messages which contain EXPR in the “References” field
~z MIN-MAX messages with a size in the range MIN to MAX
~= duplicated messages (see $duplicate_threads)
In the above, EXPR is a regular expression.
With the ~m, ~n, and ~z operators, you can also specify ranges in the
forms <MAX, >MIN, MIN-, and -MAX.
Matching dates
The ~d and ~r operators are used to match date ranges, which are
interpreted to be given in your local time zone.
A date is of the form DD[/MM[/[cc]YY]], that is, a two-digit date,
optionally followed by a two-digit month, optionally followed by a
year specifications. Omitted fields default to the current month and
year.
Mutt understands either two or four digit year specifications. When
given a two-digit year, mutt will interpret values less than 70 as
lying in the 21st century (i.e., “38” means 2038 and not 1938, and
“00” is interpreted as 2000), and values greater than or equal to 70
as lying in the 20th century.
Note that this behaviour is Y2K compliant, but that mutt does have a
Y2.07K problem.
If a date range consists of a single date, the operator in question
will match that precise date. If the date range consists of a dash
(“-”), followed by a date, this range will match any date before and
up to the date given. Similarly, a date followed by a dash matches
the date given and any later point of time. Two dates, separated by a
dash, match any date which lies in the given range of time.
You can also modify any absolute date by giving an error range. An
error range consists of one of the characters +, -, *, followed by a
positive number, followed by one of the unit characters y, m, w, or d,
specifying a unit of years, months, weeks, or days. + increases the
maximum date matched by the given interval of time, - decreases the
minimum date matched by the given interval of time, and * increases
the maximum date and decreases the minimum date matched by the given
interval of time. It is possible to give multiple error margins,
which cumulate. Example: 1/1/2001-1w+2w*3d
You can also specify offsets relative to the current date. An offset
is specified as one of the characters <, >, =, followed by a positive
number, followed by one of the unit characters y, m, w, or d. >
matches dates which are older than the specified amount of time, an
offset which begins with the character < matches dates which are more
recent than the specified amount of time, and an offset which begins
with the character = matches points of time which are precisely the
given amount of time ago.
CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
abort_nosubject
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes
If set to yes, when composing messages and no subject is given
at the subject prompt, composition will be aborted. If set to
no, composing messages with no subject given at the subject
prompt will never be aborted.
abort_unmodified
Type: quadoption
Default: yes
If set to yes, composition will automatically abort after edit-
ing the message body if no changes are made to the file (this
check only happens after the first edit of the file). When set
to no, composition will never be aborted.
alias_file
Type: path
Default: “~/.muttrc”
The default file in which to save aliases created by the “cre-
ate-alias” function.
Note: Mutt will not automatically source this file; you must
explicitly use the “source” command for it to be executed.
alias_format
Type: string
Default: “%4n %2f %t %-10a %r”
Specifies the format of the data displayed for the ‘alias’
menu. The following printf(3)-style sequences are available:
%a alias name
%f flags - currently, a ”d” for an alias marked for dele-
tion
%n index number
%r address which alias expands to
%t character which indicates if the alias is tagged for
inclusion
allow_8bit
Type: boolean
Default: yes
Controls whether 8-bit data is converted to 7-bit using either
Quoted- Printable or Base64 encoding when sending mail.
allow_ansi
Type: boolean
Default: no
Controls whether ANSI color codes in messages (and color tags
in rich text messages) are to be interpreted. Messages con-
taining these codes are rare, but if this option is set, their
text will be colored accordingly. Note that this may override
your color choices, and even present a security problem, since
a message could include a line like ”[-- PGP output follows
...” and give it the same color as your attachment color.
alternates
Type: regular expression
Default: “”
A regexp that allows you to specify alternate addresses where
you receive mail. This affects Mutt’s idea about messages from
you and addressed to you.
arrow_cursor
Type: boolean
Default: no
When set, an arrow (“->”) will be used to indicate the current
entry in menus instead of hiliting the whole line. On slow
network or modem links this will make response faster because
there is less that has to be redrawn on the screen when moving
to the next or previous entries in the menu.
ascii_chars
Type: boolean
Default: no
If set, Mutt will use plain ASCII characters when displaying
thread and attachment trees, instead of the default ACS charac-
ters.
askbcc
Type: boolean
Default: no
If set, Mutt will prompt you for blind-carbon-copy (Bcc) recip-
ients before editing an outgoing message.
askcc
Type: boolean
Default: no
If set, Mutt will prompt you for carbon-copy (Cc) recipients
before editing the body of an outgoing message.
attach_format
Type: string
Default: “%u%D%I %t%4n %T%.40d%> [%.7m/%.10M, %.6e%?C?, %C?, %s] ”
This variable describes the format of the ‘attachment’ menu.
The following printf-style sequences are understood:
%D deleted flag
%d description
%e MIME content-transfer-encoding
%f filename
%I disposition (I=inline, A=attachment)
%m major MIME type
%M MIME subtype
%n attachment number
%s size
%t tagged flag
%u unlink (=to delete) flag
%>X right justify the rest of the string and pad with char-
acter ”X”
%|X pad to the end of the line with character ”X”
attach_sep
Type: string
Default: “\n”
The separator to add between attachments when operating (sav-
ing, printing, piping, etc) on a list of tagged attachments.
attach_split
Type: boolean
Default: yes
If this variable is unset, when operating (saving, printing,
piping, etc) on a list of tagged attachments, Mutt will con-
catenate the attachments and will operate on them as a single
attachment. The “$attach_sep” separator is added after each
attachment. When set, Mutt will operate on the attachments one
by one.
attribution
Type: string
Default: “On %d, %n wrote:”
This is the string that will precede a message which has been
included in a reply. For a full listing of defined
printf()-like sequences see the section on “$index_format”.
autoedit
Type: boolean
Default: no
When set along with “$edit_headers”, Mutt will skip the initial
send-menu and allow you to immediately begin editing the body
of your message. The send-menu may still be accessed once you
have finished editing the body of your message.
Also see “$fast_reply”.
auto_tag
Type: boolean
Default: no
When set, functions in the index menu which affect a message
will be applied to all tagged messages (if there are any).
When unset, you must first use the tag-prefix function
(default: ”;”) to make the next function apply to all tagged
messages.
beep
Type: boolean
Default: yes
When this variable is set, mutt will beep when an error occurs.
beep_new
Type: boolean
Default: no
When this variable is set, mutt will beep whenever it prints a
message notifying you of new mail. This is independent of the
setting of the “$beep” variable.
bounce_delivered
Type: boolean
Default: yes
When this variable is set, mutt will include Delivered-To head-
ers when bouncing messages. Postfix users may wish to unset
this variable.
charset
Type: string
Default: “”
Character set your terminal uses to display and enter textual
data.
check_new
Type: boolean
Default: yes
Note: this option only affects maildir and MH style mailboxes.
When set, Mutt will check for new mail delivered while the
mailbox is open. Especially with MH mailboxes, this operation
can take quite some time since it involves scanning the direc-
tory and checking each file to see if it has already been
looked at. If check_new is unset, no check for new mail is
performed while the mailbox is open.
collapse_unread
Type: boolean
Default: yes
When unset, Mutt will not collapse a thread if it contains any
unread messages.
uncollapse_jump
Type: boolean
Default: no
When set, Mutt will jump to the next unread message, if any,
when the current thread is uncollapsed.
compose_format
Type: string
Default: “-- Mutt: Compose [Approx. msg size: %l Atts: %a]%>-”
Controls the format of the status line displayed in the \fCom-
pose menu. This string is similar to “$status_format”, but has
its own set of printf()-like sequences:
%a total number of attachments
%h local hostname
%l approximate size (in bytes) of the current message
%v Mutt version string
See the text describing the “$status_format” option for more
information on how to set “$compose_format”.
confirmappend
Type: boolean
Default: yes
When set, Mutt will prompt for confirmation when appending mes-
sages to an existing mailbox.
confirmcreate
Type: boolean
Default: yes
When set, Mutt will prompt for confirmation when saving mes-
sages to a mailbox which does not yet exist before creating it.
connect_timeout
Type: number
Default: 30
Causes Mutt to timeout a network connection (for IMAP or POP)
after this many seconds if the connection is not able to be
established. A negative value causes Mutt to wait indefinitely
for the connection to succeed.
copy
Type: quadoption
Default: yes
This variable controls whether or not copies of your outgoing
messages will be saved for later references. Also see
“$record”, “$save_name”, “$force_name” and “fcc-hook”.
date_format
Type: string
Default: “!%a, %b %d, %Y at %I:%M:%S%p %Z”
This variable controls the format of the date printed by the
“%d” sequence in “$index_format”. This is passed to the strf-
time call to process the date. See the man page for strftime(3)
for the proper syntax.
Unless the first character in the string is a bang (“!”), the
month and week day names are expanded according to the locale
specified in the variable “$locale”. If the first character in
the string is a bang, the bang is discarded, and the month and
week day names in the rest of the string are expanded in the C
locale (that is in US English).
default_hook
Type: string
Default: “~f %s !~P | (~P ~C %s)”
This variable controls how send-hooks, message-hooks, save-
hooks, and fcc-hooks will be interpreted if they are specified
with only a simple regexp, instead of a matching pattern. The
hooks are expanded when they are declared, so a hook will be
interpreted according to the value of this variable at the time
the hook is declared. The default value matches if the message
is either from a user matching the regular expression given, or
if it is from you (if the from address matches “$alternates”)
and is to or cc’ed to a user matching the given regular expres-
sion.
delete
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes
Controls whether or not messages are really deleted when clos-
ing or synchronizing a mailbox. If set to yes, messages marked
for deleting will automatically be purged without prompting.
If set to no, messages marked for deletion will be kept in the
mailbox.
delete_untag
Type: boolean
Default: yes
If this option is set, mutt will untag messages when marking
them for deletion. This applies when you either explicitly
delete a message, or when you save it to another folder.
digest_collapse
Type: boolean
Default: yes
If this option is set, mutt’s revattach menu will not show the
subparts of individual messages in a digest. To see these sub-
parts, press ’v’ on that menu.
display_filter
Type: path
Default: “”
When set, specifies a command used to filter messages. When a
message is viewed it is passed as standard input to $dis-
play_filter, and the filtered message is read from the standard
output.
dsn_notify
Type: string
Default: “”
Note: you should not enable this unless you are using Sendmail
8.8.x or greater.
This variable sets the request for when notification is
returned. The string consists of a comma separated list (no
spaces!) of one or more of the following: never, to never
request notification, failure, to request notification on
transmission failure, delay, to be notified of message delays,
success, to be notified of successful transmission.
Example: set dsn_notify=”failure,delay”
dsn_return
Type: string
Default: “”
Note: you should not enable this unless you are using Sendmail
8.8.x or greater.
This variable controls how much of your message is returned in
DSN messages. It may be set to either hdrs to return just the
message header, or full to return the full message.
Example: set dsn_return=hdrs
duplicate_threads
Type: boolean
Default: yes
This variable controls whether mutt, when sorting by threads,
threads messages with the same message-id together. If it is
set, it will indicate that it thinks they are duplicates of
each other with an equals sign in the thread diagram.
edit_headers
Type: boolean
Default: no
This option allows you to edit the header of your outgoing mes-
sages along with the body of your message.
editor
Type: path
Default: “”
This variable specifies which editor is used by mutt. It
defaults to the value of the VISUAL, or EDITOR, environment
variable, or to the string ”vi” if neither of those are set.
encode_from
Type: boolean
Default: no
When set, mutt will quoted-printable encode messages when they
contain the string ”From ” in the beginning of a line. Useful
to avoid the tampering certain mail delivery and transport
agents tend to do with messages.
envelope_from
Type: boolean
Default: no
When set, mutt will try to derive the message’s envelope sender
from the ”From:” header. Note that this information is passed
to sendmail command using the ”-f” command line switch, so
don’t set this option if you are using that switch in $sendmail
yourself, or if the sendmail on your machine doesn’t support
that command line switch.
escape
Type: string
Default: “~”
Escape character to use for functions in the builtin editor.
fast_reply
Type: boolean
Default: no
When set, the initial prompt for recipients and subject are
skipped when replying to messages, and the initial prompt for
subject is skipped when forwarding messages.
Note: this variable has no effect when the “$autoedit” variable
is set.
fcc_attach
Type: boolean
Default: yes
This variable controls whether or not attachments on outgoing
messages are saved along with the main body of your message.
fcc_clear
Type: boolean
Default: no
When this variable is set, FCCs will be stored unencrypted and
unsigned, even when the actual message is encrypted and/or
signed.
folder
Type: path
Default: “~/Mail”
Specifies the default location of your mailboxes. A ‘+’ or ‘=’
at the beginning of a pathname will be expanded to the value of
this variable. Note that if you change this variable from the
default value you need to make sure that the assignment occurs
before you use ‘+’ or ‘=’ for any other variables since expan-
sion takes place during the ‘set’ command.
folder_format
Type: string
Default: “%2C %t %N %F %2l %-8.8u %-8.8g %8s %d %f”
This variable allows you to customize the file browser display
to your personal taste. This string is similar to “$index_for-
mat”, but has its own set of printf()-like sequences:
%C current file number
%d date/time folder was last modified
%f filename
%F file permissions
%g group name (or numeric gid, if missing)
%l number of hard links
%N N if folder has new mail, blank otherwise
%s size in bytes
%t * if the file is tagged, blank otherwise
%u owner name (or numeric uid, if missing)
%>X right justify the rest of the string and pad with char-
acter ”X”
%|X pad to the end of the line with character ”X”
followup_to
Type: boolean
Default: yes
Controls whether or not the Mail-Followup-To header field is
generated when sending mail. When set, Mutt will generate this
field when you are replying to a known mailing list, specified
with the “subscribe” or “lists” commands.
This field has two purposes. First, preventing you from
receiving duplicate copies of replies to messages which you
send to mailing lists. Second, ensuring that you do get a
reply separately for any messages sent to known lists to which
you are not subscribed. The header will contain only the
list’s address for subscribed lists, and both the list address
and your own email address for unsubscribed lists. Without
this header, a group reply to your message sent to a subscribed
list will be sent to both the list and your address, resulting
in two copies of the same email for you.
force_name
Type: boolean
Default: no
This variable is similar to “$save_name”, except that Mutt will
store a copy of your outgoing message by the username of the
address you are sending to even if that mailbox does not exist.
Also see the “$record” variable.
forward_decode
Type: boolean
Default: yes
Controls the decoding of complex MIME messages into text/plain
when forwarding a message. The message header is also RFC2047
decoded. This variable is only used, if “$mime_forward” is
unset, otherwise “$mime_forward_decode” is used instead.
forward_format
Type: string
Default: “[%a: %s]”
This variable controls the default subject when forwarding a
message. It uses the same format sequences as the “$index_for-
mat” variable.
forward_quote
Type: boolean
Default: no
When set forwarded messages included in the main body of the
message (when “$mime_forward” is unset) will be quoted using
“$indent_string”.
from
Type: e-mail address
Default: “”
When set, this variable contains a default from address. It
can be overridden using my_hdr (including from send-hooks) and
“$reverse_name”.
Defaults to the EMAIL environment variable’s content.
gecos_mask
Type: regular expression
Default: “^[^,]*”
A regular expression used by mutt to parse the GECOS field of a
password entry when expanding the alias. By default the regu-
lar expression is set to ”^[^,]*” which will return the string
up to the first ”,” encountered. If the GECOS field contains a
string like ”lastname, firstname” then you should set the
gecos_mask=”.*”.
This can be useful if you see the following behavior: you
address a e-mail to user ID stevef whose full name is Steve
Franklin. If mutt expands stevef to ”Franklin” stevef@foo.bar
then you should set the gecos_mask to a regular expression that
will match the whole name so mutt will expand ”Franklin” to
”Franklin, Steve”.
hdrs
Type: boolean
Default: yes
When unset, the header fields normally added by the “my_hdr”
command are not created. This variable must be unset before
composing a new message or replying in order to take effect.
If set, the user defined header fields are added to every new
message.
header
Type: boolean
Default: no
When set, this variable causes Mutt to include the header of
the message you are replying to into the edit buffer. The
“$weed” setting applies.
help
Type: boolean
Default: yes
When set, help lines describing the bindings for the major
functions provided by each menu are displayed on the first line
of the screen.
Note: The binding will not be displayed correctly if the func-
tion is bound to a sequence rather than a single keystroke.
Also, the help line may not be updated if a binding is changed
while Mutt is running. Since this variable is primarily aimed
at new users, neither of these should present a major problem.
hidden_host
Type: boolean
Default: no
When set, mutt will skip the host name part of “$hostname”
variable when adding the domain part to addresses. This vari-
able does not affect the generation of Message-IDs, and it will
not lead to the cut-off of first-level domains.
hide_limited
Type: boolean
Default: no
When set, mutt will not show the presence of missing messages
in the thread tree.
hide_missing
Type: boolean
Default: yes
When set, mutt will not show the presence of messages that are
hidden by limiting, in the thread tree.
hide_top_limited
Type: boolean
Default: no
When set, mutt will not show the presence of missing messages
at the top of threads in the thread tree. Note that when
$hide_limited is set, this option will have no effect.
hide_top_missing
Type: boolean
Default: yes
When set, mutt will not show the presence of messages that are
hidden by limiting, at the top of threads in the thread
tree.Note that when $hide_missing is set, this option will have
no effect.
history
Type: number
Default: 10
This variable controls the size (in number of strings remem-
bered) of the string history buffer. The buffer is cleared each
time the variable is set.
honor_followup_to
Type: quadoption
Default: yes
This variable controls whether or not a Mail-Followup-To header
is honored when group-replying to a message.
hostname
Type: string
Default: “”
Specifies the hostname to use after the “@” in local e-mail
addresses. This overrides the compile time definition obtained
from /etc/resolv.conf.
ignore_list_reply_to
Type: boolean
Default: no
Affects the behaviour of the reply function when replying to
messages from mailing lists. When set, if the “Reply-To:”
field is set to the same value as the “To:” field, Mutt assumes
that the “Reply-To:” field was set by the mailing list to auto-
mate responses to the list, and will ignore this field. To
direct a response to the mailing list when this option is set,
use the list-reply function; group-reply will reply to both the
sender and the list.
imap_authenticators
Type: string
Default: “”
This is a colon-delimited list of authentication methods mutt
may attempt to use to log in to an IMAP server, in the order
mutt should try them. Authentication methods are either
’login’ or the right side of an IMAP ’AUTH=xxx’ capability
string, eg ’digest-md5’, parameter is unset (the default) mutt
will try all available methods, in order from most-secure to
least-secure.
Example: set imap_authenticators=”gssapi:cram-md5:login”
Note: Mutt will only fall back to other authentication methods
if the previous methods are unavailable. If a method is avail-
able but authentication fails, mutt will not connect to the
IMAP server.
imap_delim_chars
Type: string
Default: “/.”
This contains the list of characters which you would like to
treat as folder separators for displaying IMAP paths. In par-
ticular it helps in using the ’=’ shortcut for your folder
variable.
imap_force_ssl
Type: boolean
Default: no
If this variable is set, Mutt will always use SSL when connect-
ing to IMAP servers.
imap_home_namespace
Type: string
Default: “”
You normally want to see your personal folders alongside your
INBOX in the IMAP browser. If you see something else, you may
set this variable to the IMAP path to your folders.
imap_keepalive
Type: number
Default: 900
This variable specifies the maximum amount of time in seconds
that mutt will wait before polling open IMAP connections, to
prevent the server from closing them before mutt has finished
with them. The default is well within the RFC-specified minimum
amount of time (30 minutes) before a server is allowed to do
this, but in practice the RFC does get violated every now and
then. Reduce this number if you find yourself getting discon-
nected from your IMAP server due to inactivity.
imap_list_subscribed
Type: boolean
Default: no
This variable configures whether IMAP folder browsing will look
for only subscribed folders or all folders. This can be tog-
gled in the IMAP browser with the toggle-subscribed function.
imap_pass
Type: string
Default: “”
Specifies the password for your IMAP account. If unset, Mutt
will prompt you for your password when you invoke the fetch-
mail function. Warning: you should only use this option when
you are on a fairly secure machine, because the superuser can
read your muttrc even if you are the only one who can read the
file.
imap_passive
Type: boolean
Default: yes
When set, mutt will not open new IMAP connections to check for
new mail. Mutt will only check for new mail over existing IMAP
connections. This is useful if you don’t want to be prompted
to user/password pairs on mutt invocation, or if opening the
connection is slow.
imap_peek
Type: boolean
Default: yes
If set, mutt will avoid implicitly marking your mail as read
whenever you fetch a message from the server. This is generally
a good thing, but can make closing an IMAP folder somewhat
slower. This option exists to appease speed freaks.
imap_servernoise
Type: boolean
Default: yes
When set, mutt will display warning messages from the IMAP
server as error messages. Since these messages are often harm-
less, or generated due to configuration problems on the server
which are out of the users’ hands, you may wish to suppress
them at some point.
imap_user
Type: string
Default: “”
Your login name on the IMAP server.
This variable defaults to your user name on the local machine.
implicit_autoview
Type: boolean
Default: no
If set to “yes”, mutt will look for a mailcap entry with the
copiousoutput flag set for every MIME attachment it doesn’t
have an internal viewer defined for. If such an entry is
found, mutt will use the viewer defined in that entry to con-
vert the body part to text form.
include
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes
Controls whether or not a copy of the message(s) you are reply-
ing to is included in your reply.
indent_string
Type: string
Default: “> ”
Specifies the string to prepend to each line of text quoted in
a message to which you are replying. You are strongly encour-
aged not to change this value, as it tends to agitate the more
fanatical netizens.
index_format
Type: string
Default: “%4C %Z %{%b %d} %-15.15L (%4l) %s”
This variable allows you to customize the message index display
to your personal taste.
“Format strings” are similar to the strings used in the “C”
function printf to format output (see the man page for more
detail). The following sequences are defined in Mutt:
%a address of the author
%b filename of the original message folder (think mailBox)
%B the list to which the letter was sent, or else the
folder name (%b).
%c number of characters (bytes) in the message
%C current message number
%d date and time of the message in the format specified by
“date_format” converted to sender’s time zone
%D date and time of the message in the format specified by
“date_format” converted to the local time zone
%e current message number in thread
%E number of messages in current thread
%f entire From: line (address + real name)
%F author name, or recipient name if the message is from
you
%i message-id of the current message
%l number of lines in the message
%L If an address in the To or CC header field matches an
address defined by the users “lists” command, this dis-
plays ”To <list-name>”, otherwise the same as %F.
%m total number of message in the mailbox
%M number of hidden messages if the thread is collapsed.
%N message score
%n author’s real name (or address if missing)
%O (_O_riginal save folder) Where mutt would formerly have
stashed the message: list name or recipient name if no
list
%s subject of the message
%S status of the message (N/D/d/!/r/*)
%t ‘to:’ field (recipients)
%T the appropriate character from the $to_chars string
%u user (login) name of the author
%v first name of the author, or the recipient if the mes-
sage is from you
%y ‘x-label:’ field, if present
%Y ‘x-label’ field, if present, and (1) not at part of a
thread tree, (2) at the top of a thread, or (3) ‘x-
label’ is different from preceding message’s ‘x-label’.
%Z message status flags
%{fmt} the date and time of the message is converted to
sender’s time zone, and “fmt” is expanded by the library
function “strftime”; a leading bang disables locales
%[fmt] the date and time of the message is converted to the
local time zone, and “fmt” is expanded by the library
function “strftime”; a leading bang disables locales
%(fmt) the local date and time when the message was received.
“fmt” is expanded by the library function “strftime”; a
leading bang disables locales
%<fmt> the current local time. “fmt” is expanded by the library
function “strftime”; a leading bang disables locales.
%>X right justify the rest of the string and pad with char-
acter ”X”
%|X pad to the end of the line with character ”X”
See also: “$to_chars”.
ispell
Type: path
Default: “/usr/bin/ispell”
How to invoke ispell (GNU’s spell-checking software).
keep_flagged
Type: boolean
Default: no
If set, read messages marked as flagged will not be moved from
your spool mailbox to your “$mbox” mailbox, or as a result of a
“mbox-hook” command.
locale
Type: string
Default: “C”
The locale used by strftime(3) to format dates. Legal values
are the strings your system accepts for the locale variable
LC_TIME.
mail_check
Type: number
Default: 5
This variable configures how often (in seconds) mutt should
look for new mail.
mailcap_path
Type: string
Default: “”
This variable specifies which files to consult when attempting
to display MIME bodies not directly supported by Mutt.
mailcap_sanitize
Type: boolean
Default: yes
If set, mutt will restrict possible characters in mailcap %
expandos to a well-defined set of safe characters. This is the
safe setting, but we are not sure it doesn’t break some more
advanced MIME stuff.
DON’T CHANGE THIS SETTING UNLESS YOU ARE REALLY SURE WHAT YOU
ARE DOING!
maildir_trash
Type: boolean
Default: no
If set, messages marked as deleted will be saved with the
maildir (T)rashed flag instead of unlinked. NOTE: this only
applies to maildir-style mailboxes. Setting it will have no
effect on other mailbox types.
mark_old
Type: boolean
Default: yes
Controls whether or not Mutt makes the distinction between new
messages and old unread messages. By default, Mutt will mark
new messages as old if you exit a mailbox without reading them.
The next time you start Mutt, the messages will show up with an
”O” next to them in the index menu, indicating that they are
old. In order to make Mutt treat all unread messages as new
only, you can unset this variable.
markers
Type: boolean
Default: yes
Controls the display of wrapped lines in the internal pager. If
set, a “+” marker is displayed at the beginning of wrapped
lines. Also see the “$smart_wrap” variable.
mask
Type: regular expression
Default: “!^\.[^.]”
A regular expression used in the file browser, optionally pre-
ceded by the not operator “!”. Only files whose names match
this mask will be shown. The match is always case-sensitive.
mbox
Type: path
Default: “~/mbox”
This specifies the folder into which read mail in your
“$spoolfile” folder will be appended.
mbox_type
Type: folder magic
Default: mbox
The default mailbox type used when creating new folders. May be
any of mbox, MMDF, MH and Maildir.
metoo
Type: boolean
Default: no
If unset, Mutt will remove your address (see the “$alternates”
variable) from the list of recipients when replying to a mes-
sage.
menu_scroll
Type: boolean
Default: no
When set, menus will be scrolled up or down one line when you
attempt to move across a screen boundary. If unset, the screen
is cleared and the next or previous page of the menu is dis-
played (useful for slow links to avoid many redraws).
meta_key
Type: boolean
Default: no
If set, forces Mutt to interpret keystrokes with the high bit
(bit 8) set as if the user had pressed the ESC key and whatever
key remains after having the high bit removed. For example, if
the key pressed has an ASCII value of 0xf4, then this is
treated as if the user had pressed ESC then “x”. This is
because the result of removing the high bit from “0xf4” is
“0x74”, which is the ASCII character “x”.
mh_purge
Type: boolean
Default: no
When unset, mutt will mimic mh’s behaviour and rename deleted
messages to ,<old file name> in mh folders instead of really
deleting them. If the variable is set, the message files will
simply be deleted.
mh_seq_flagged
Type: string
Default: “flagged”
The name of the MH sequence used for flagged messages.
mh_seq_replied
Type: string
Default: “replied”
The name of the MH sequence used to tag replied messages.
mh_seq_unseen
Type: string
Default: “unseen”
The name of the MH sequence used for unseen messages.
mime_forward
Type: quadoption
Default: no
When set, the message you are forwarding will be attached as a
separate MIME part instead of included in the main body of the
message. This is useful for forwarding MIME messages so the
receiver can properly view the message as it was delivered to
you. If you like to switch between MIME and not MIME from mail
to mail, set this variable to ask-no or ask-yes.
Also see “$forward_decode” and “$mime_forward_decode”.
mime_forward_decode
Type: boolean
Default: no
Controls the decoding of complex MIME messages into text/plain
when forwarding a message while “$mime_forward” is set. Other-
wise “$forward_decode” is used instead.
mime_forward_rest
Type: quadoption
Default: yes
When forwarding multiple attachments of a MIME message from the
recvattach menu, attachments which cannot be decoded in a rea-
sonable manner will be attached to the newly composed message
if this option is set.
mix_entry_format
Type: string
Default: “%4n %c %-16s %a”
This variable describes the format of a remailer line on the
mixmaster chain selection screen. The following printf-like
sequences are supported:
%n The running number on the menu.
%c Remailer capabilities.
%s The remailer’s short name.
%a The remailer’s e-mail address.
mixmaster
Type: path
Default: “mixmaster”
This variable contains the path to the Mixmaster binary on your
system. It is used with various sets of parameters to gather
the list of known remailers, and to finally send a message
through the mixmaster chain.
move
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-no
Controls whether you will be asked to confirm moving read mes-
sages from your spool mailbox to your “$mbox” mailbox, or as a
result of a “mbox-hook” command.
message_format
Type: string
Default: “%s”
This is the string displayed in the “attachment” menu for
attachments of type message/rfc822. For a full listing of
defined printf()-like sequences see the section on “$index_for-
mat”.
pager
Type: path
Default: “builtin”
This variable specifies which pager you would like to use to
view messages. builtin means to use the builtin pager, other-
wise this variable should specify the pathname of the external
pager you would like to use.
Using an external pager may have some disadvantages: Additional
keystrokes are necessary because you can’t call mutt functions
directly from the pager, and screen resizes cause lines longer
than the screen width to be badly formatted in the help menu.
pager_context
Type: number
Default: 0
This variable controls the number of lines of context that are
given when displaying the next or previous page in the internal
pager. By default, Mutt will display the line after the last
one on the screen at the top of the next page (0 lines of con-
text).
pager_format
Type: string
Default: “-%Z- %C/%m: %-20.20n %s”
This variable controls the format of the one-line message “sta-
tus” displayed before each message in either the internal or an
external pager. The valid sequences are listed in the
“$index_format” section.
pager_index_lines
Type: number
Default: 0
Determines the number of lines of a mini-index which is shown
when in the pager. The current message, unless near the top or
bottom of the folder, will be roughly one third of the way down
this mini-index, giving the reader the context of a few mes-
sages before and after the message. This is useful, for exam-
ple, to determine how many messages remain to be read in the
current thread. One of the lines is reserved for the status
bar from the index, so a pager_index_lines of 6 will only show
5 lines of the actual index. A value of 0 results in no index
being shown. If the number of messages in the current folder
is less than pager_index_lines, then the index will only use as
many lines as it needs.
pager_stop
Type: boolean
Default: no
When set, the internal-pager will not move to the next message
when you are at the end of a message and invoke the next-page
function.
pgp_autosign
Type: boolean
Default: no
Setting this variable will cause Mutt to always attempt to
PGP/MIME sign outgoing messages. This can be overridden by use
of the pgp- menu, when signing is not required or encryption is
requested as well.
pgp_autoencrypt
Type: boolean
Default: no
Setting this variable will cause Mutt to always attempt to
PGP/MIME encrypt outgoing messages. This is probably only use-
ful in connection to the send-hook command. It can be overrid-
den by use of the pgp-menu, when encryption is not required or
signing is requested as well.
pgp_ignore_subkeys
Type: boolean
Default: yes
Setting this variable will cause Mutt to ignore OpenPGP sub-
keys. Instead, the principal key will inherit the subkeys’
capabilities. Unset this if you want to play interesting key
selection games.
pgp_entry_format
Type: string
Default: “%4n %t%f %4l/0x%k %-4a %2c %u”
This variable allows you to customize the PGP key selection
menu to your personal taste. This string is similar to
“$index_format”, but has its own set of printf()-like
sequences:
%n number
%k key id
%u user id
%a algorithm
%l key length
%f flags
%c capabilities
%t trust/validity of the key-uid association
%[<s>] date of the key where <s> is an strftime(3) expression
pgp_good_sign
Type: regular expression
Default: “”
If you assign a text to this variable, then a PGP signature is
only considered verified if the output from $pgp_verify_command
contains the text. Use this variable if the exit code from the
command is 0 even for bad signatures.
pgp_long_ids
Type: boolean
Default: no
If set, use 64 bit PGP key IDs. Unset uses the normal 32 bit
Key IDs.
pgp_replyencrypt
Type: boolean
Default: yes
If set, automatically PGP encrypt replies to messages which are
encrypted.
pgp_replysign
Type: boolean
Default: no
If set, automatically PGP sign replies to messages which are
signed.
Note: this does not work on messages that are encrypted and
signed!
pgp_replysignencrypted
Type: boolean
Default: no
If set, automatically PGP sign replies to messages which are
encrypted. This makes sense in combination with “$pgp_replyen-
crypt”, because it allows you to sign all messages which are
automatically encrypted. This works around the problem noted
in “$pgp_replysign”, that mutt is not able to find out whether
an encrypted message is also signed.
pgp_retainable_sigs
Type: boolean
Default: no
If set, signed and encrypted messages will consist of nested
multipart/signed and multipart/encrypted body parts.
This is useful for applications like encrypted and signed mail-
ing lists, where the outer layer (multipart/encrypted) can be
easily removed, while the inner multipart/signed part is
retained.
pgp_show_unusable
Type: boolean
Default: yes
If set, mutt will display non-usable keys on the PGP key selec-
tion menu. This includes keys which have been revoked, have
expired, or have been marked as “disabled” by the user.
pgp_sign_as
Type: string
Default: “”
If you have more than one key pair, this option allows you to
specify which of your private keys to use. It is recommended
that you use the keyid form to specify your key (e.g.,
“0x00112233”).
pgp_strict_enc
Type: boolean
Default: yes
If set, Mutt will automatically encode PGP/MIME signed messages
as quoted-printable. Please note that unsetting this variable
may lead to problems with non-verifyable PGP signatures, so
only change this if you know what you are doing.
pgp_timeout
Type: number
Default: 300
The number of seconds after which a cached passphrase will
expire if not used.
pgp_verify_sig
Type: quadoption
Default: yes
If “yes”, always attempt to verify PGP/MIME signatures. If
“ask-yes” or “ask-no”, ask whether or not to verify the signa-
ture. If “no”, never attempt to verify PGP/MIME signatures.
pgp_sort_keys
Type: sort order
Default: address
Specifies how the entries in the ‘pgp keys’ menu are sorted.
The following are legal values:
address
sort alphabetically by user id
keyid sort alphabetically by key id
date sort by key creation date
trust sort by the trust of the key
If you prefer reverse order of the above values, prefix it with
‘reverse-’.
pgp_create_traditional
Type: quadoption
Default: no
This option controls whether Mutt generates old-style PGP
encrypted or signed messages under certain circumstances.
Note that PGP/MIME will be used automatically for messages
which have a character set different from us-ascii, or which
consist of more than a single MIME part.
Also note that using the old-style PGP message format is
strongly deprecated.
pgp_decode_command
Type: string
Default: “”
This format strings specifies a command which is used to decode
application/pgp attachments.
The PGP command formats have their own set of printf-like
sequences:
%p Expands to PGPPASSFD=0 when a pass phrase is needed, to
an empty string otherwise. Note: This may be used with a
%? construct.
%f Expands to the name of a file containing a message.
%s Expands to the name of a file containing the signature
part
of a multipart/signed attachment when verify-
ing it.
%a The value of $pgp_sign_as.
%r One or more key IDs.
For examples on how to configure these formats for the various
versions of PGP which are floating around, see the pgp*.rc and
gpg.rc files in the samples/ subdirectory which has been
installed on your system alongside the documentation.
pgp_getkeys_command
Type: string
Default: “”
This command is invoked whenever mutt will need public key
information. %r is the only printf-like sequence used with
this format.
pgp_verify_command
Type: string
Default: “”
This command is used to verify PGP/MIME signatures.
pgp_decrypt_command
Type: string
Default: “”
This command is used to decrypt a PGP/MIME encrypted message.
pgp_clearsign_command
Type: string
Default: “”
This format is used to create a ”clearsigned” old-style PGP
attachment. Note that the use of this format is strongly dep-
recated.
pgp_sign_command
Type: string
Default: “”
This command is used to create the detached PGP signature for a
multipart/signed PGP/MIME body part.
pgp_encrypt_sign_command
Type: string
Default: “”
This command is used to combinedly sign/encrypt a body part.
pgp_encrypt_only_command
Type: string
Default: “”
This command is used to encrypt a body part without signing it.
pgp_import_command
Type: string
Default: “”
This command is used to import a key from a message into the
user’s public key ring.
pgp_export_command
Type: string
Default: “”
This command is used to export a public key from the user’s key
ring.
pgp_verify_key_command
Type: string
Default: “”
This command is used to verify key information from the key
selection menu.
pgp_list_secring_command
Type: string
Default: “”
This command is used to list the secret key ring’s contents.
The output format must be analogous to the one used by gpg
--list-keys --with-colons.
This format is also generated by the pgpring utility which
comes with mutt.
pgp_list_pubring_command
Type: string
Default: “”
This command is used to list the public key ring’s contents.
The output format must be analogous to the one used by gpg
--list-keys --with-colons.
This format is also generated by the pgpring utility which
comes with mutt.
forward_decrypt
Type: boolean
Default: yes
Controls the handling of encrypted messages when forwarding a
message. When set, the outer layer of encryption is stripped
off. This variable is only used if “$mime_forward” is set and
“$mime_forward_decode” is unset.
ssl_starttls
Type: quadoption
Default: yes
If set (the default), mutt will attempt to use STARTTLS on
servers advertising the capability. When unset, mutt will not
attempt to use STARTTLS regardless of the server’s capabili-
ties.
certificate_file
Type: path
Default: “”
This variable specifies the file where the certificates you
trust are saved. When an unknown certificate is encountered,
you are asked if you accept it or not. If you accept it, the
certificate can also be saved in this file and further connec-
tions are automatically accepted.
You can also manually add CA certificates in this file. Any
server certificate that is signed with one of these CA certifi-
cates are also automatically accepted.
Example: set certificate_file=~/.mutt/certificates
ssl_usesystemcerts
Type: boolean
Default: yes
If set to yes, mutt will use CA certificates in the system-wide
certificate store when checking if server certificate is signed
by a trusted CA.
entropy_file
Type: path
Default: “”
The file which includes random data that is used to initalize
SSL library functions.
ssl_use_sslv2
Type: boolean
Default: yes
This variables specifies whether to attempt to use SSLv2 in the
SSL authentication process.
ssl_use_sslv3
Type: boolean
Default: yes
This variables specifies whether to attempt to use SSLv3 in the
SSL authentication process.
ssl_use_tlsv1
Type: boolean
Default: yes
This variables specifies whether to attempt to use TLSv1 in the
SSL authentication process.
pipe_split
Type: boolean
Default: no
Used in connection with the pipe-message command and the “tag-
prefix” operator. If this variable is unset, when piping a
list of tagged messages Mutt will concatenate the messages and
will pipe them as a single folder. When set, Mutt will pipe
the messages one by one. In both cases the messages are piped
in the current sorted order, and the “$pipe_sep” separator is
added after each message.
pipe_decode
Type: boolean
Default: no
Used in connection with the pipe-message command. When unset,
Mutt will pipe the messages without any preprocessing. When
set, Mutt will weed headers and will attempt to PGP/MIME decode
the messages first.
pipe_sep
Type: string
Default: “\n”
The separator to add between messages when piping a list of
tagged messages to an external Unix command.
pop_authenticators
Type: string
Default: “”
This is a colon-delimited list of authentication methods mutt
may attempt to use to log in to an POP server, in the order
mutt should try them. Authentication methods are either
’user’, ’apop’ or any SASL mechanism, eg ’digest-md5’, ’gssapi’
or ’cram-md5’. This parameter is case-insensitive. If this
parameter is unset (the default) mutt will try all available
methods, in order from most-secure to least-secure.
Example: set pop_authenticators=”digest-md5:apop:user”
pop_auth_try_all
Type: boolean
Default: yes
If set, Mutt will try all available methods. When unset, Mutt
will only fall back to other authentication methods if the pre-
vious methods are unavailable. If a method is available but
authentication fails, Mutt will not connect to the POP server.
pop_checkinterval
Type: number
Default: 60
This variable configures how often (in seconds) POP should look
for new mail.
pop_delete
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-no
If set, Mutt will delete successfully downloaded messages from
the POP server when using the fetch-mail function. When unset,
Mutt will download messages but also leave them on the POP
server.
pop_host
Type: string
Default: “”
The name of your POP server for the fetch-mail function. You
can also specify an alternative port, username and password,
ie:
[pop[s]://][username[:password]@]popserver[:port]
pop_last
Type: boolean
Default: no
If this variable is set, mutt will try to use the ”LAST” POP
command for retrieving only unread messages from the POP server
when using the fetch-mail function.
pop_reconnect
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes
Controls whether or not Mutt will try to reconnect to POP
server when connection lost.
pop_user
Type: string
Default: “”
Your login name on the POP server.
This variable defaults to your user name on the local machine.
pop_pass
Type: string
Default: “”
Specifies the password for your POP account. If unset, Mutt
will prompt you for your password when you open POP mailbox.
Warning: you should only use this option when you are on a
fairly secure machine, because the superuser can read your mut-
trc even if you are the only one who can read the file.
post_indent_string
Type: string
Default: “”
Similar to the “$attribution” variable, Mutt will append this
string after the inclusion of a message which is being replied
to.
postpone
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes
Controls whether or not messages are saved in the “$postponed”
mailbox when you elect not to send immediately.
postponed
Type: path
Default: “~/postponed”
Mutt allows you to indefinitely “postpone sending a message”
which you are editing. When you choose to postpone a message,
Mutt saves it in the mailbox specified by this variable. Also
see the “$postpone” variable.
preconnect
Type: string
Default: “”
If set, a shell command to be executed if mutt fails to estab-
lish a connection to the server. This is useful for setting up
secure connections, e.g. with ssh(1). If the command returns a
nonzero status, mutt gives up opening the server. Example:
preconnect=”ssh -f -q -L 1234:mailhost.net:143 mailhost.net
sleep 20 < /dev/null > /dev/null”
Mailbox ’foo’ on mailhost.net can now be reached as ’{local-
host:1234}foo’.
NOTE: For this example to work, you must be able to log in to
the remote machine without having to enter a password.
print
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-no
Controls whether or not Mutt asks for confirmation before
printing. This is useful for people (like me) who accidentally
hit “p” often.
print_command
Type: path
Default: “lpr”
This specifies the command pipe that should be used to print
messages.
print_decode
Type: boolean
Default: yes
Used in connection with the print-message command. If this
option is set, the message is decoded before it is passed to
the external command specified by $print_command. If this
option is unset, no processing will be applied to the message
when printing it. The latter setting may be useful if you are
using some advanced printer filter which is able to properly
format e-mail messages for printing.
print_split
Type: boolean
Default: no
Used in connection with the print-message command. If this
option is set, the command sepcified by $print_command is exe-
cuted once for each message which is to be printed. If this
option is unset, the command specified by $print_command is
executed only once, and all the messages are concatenated, with
a form feed as the message separator.
Those who use the enscript(1) program’s mail-printing mode will
most likely want to set this option.
prompt_after
Type: boolean
Default: yes
If you use an external “$pager”, setting this variable will
cause Mutt to prompt you for a command when the pager exits
rather than returning to the index menu. If unset, Mutt will
return to the index menu when the external pager exits.
query_command
Type: path
Default: “”
This specifies the command that mutt will use to make external
address queries. The string should contain a %s, which will be
substituted with the query string the user types. See “query”
for more information.
quit
Type: quadoption
Default: yes
This variable controls whether “quit” and “exit” actually quit
from mutt. If it set to yes, they do quit, if it is set to no,
they have no effect, and if it is set to ask-yes or ask-no, you
are prompted for confirmation when you try to quit.
quote_regexp
Type: regular expression
Default: “^([ \t]*[|>:}#])+”
A regular expression used in the internal-pager to determine
quoted sections of text in the body of a message.
Note: In order to use the quotedx patterns in the internal
pager, you need to set this to a regular expression that
matches exactly the quote characters at the beginning of quoted
lines.
read_inc
Type: number
Default: 10
If set to a value greater than 0, Mutt will display which mes-
sage it is currently on when reading a mailbox. The message is
printed after read_inc messages have been read (e.g., if set to
25, Mutt will print a message when it reads message 25, and
then again when it gets to message 50). This variable is meant
to indicate progress when reading large mailboxes which may
take some time. When set to 0, only a single message will
appear before the reading the mailbox.
Also see the “$write_inc” variable.
read_only
Type: boolean
Default: no
If set, all folders are opened in read-only mode.
realname
Type: string
Default: “”
This variable specifies what ”real” or ”personal” name should
be used when sending messages.
By default, this is the GCOS field from /etc/passwd. Note that
this variable will not be used when the user has set a real
name in the $from variable.
recall
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes
Controls whether or not you are prompted to recall postponed
messages when composing a new message. Also see “$postponed”.
Setting this variable to “yes” is not generally useful, and
thus not recommended.
record
Type: path
Default: “”
This specifies the file into which your outgoing messages
should be appended. (This is meant as the primary method for
saving a copy of your messages, but another way to do this is
using the “my_hdr” command to create a Bcc: field with your
email address in it.)
The value of $record is overridden by the “$force_name” and
“$save_name” variables, and the “fcc-hook” command.
reply_regexp
Type: regular expression
Default: “^(re([\[0-9\]+])*|aw):[ \t]*”
A regular expression used to recognize reply messages when
threading and replying. The default value corresponds to the
English ”Re:” and the German ”Aw:”.
reply_self
Type: boolean
Default: no
If unset and you are replying to a message sent by you, Mutt
will assume that you want to reply to the recipients of that
message rather than to yourself.
reply_to
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes
If set, Mutt will ask you if you want to use the address listed
in the Reply-To: header field when replying to a message. If
you answer no, it will use the address in the From: header
field instead. This option is useful for reading a mailing
list that sets the Reply-To: header field to the list address
and you want to send a private message to the author of a mes-
sage.
resolve
Type: boolean
Default: yes
When set, the cursor will be automatically advanced to the next
(possibly undeleted) message whenever a command that modifies
the current message is executed.
reverse_alias
Type: boolean
Default: no
This variable controls whether or not Mutt will display the
”personal” name from your aliases in the index menu if it finds
an alias that matches the message’s sender. For example, if
you have the following alias:
alias juser abd30425@somewhere.net (Joe User)
and then you receive mail which contains the following header:
From: abd30425@somewhere.net
It would be displayed in the index menu as “Joe User” instead
of “abd30425@somewhere.net.” This is useful when the person’s
e-mail address is not human friendly (like CompuServe
addresses).
reverse_name
Type: boolean
Default: no
It may sometimes arrive that you receive mail to a certain
machine, move the messages to another machine, and reply to
some the messages from there. If this variable is set, the
default From: line of the reply messages is built using the
address where you received the messages you are replying to.
If the variable is unset, the From: line will use your address
on the current machine.
reverse_realname
Type: boolean
Default: yes
This variable fine-tunes the behaviour of the reverse_name fea-
ture. When it is set, mutt will use the address from incoming
messages as-is, possibly including eventual real names. When
it is unset, mutt will override any such realnames with the
setting of the realname variable.
rfc2047_parameters
Type: boolean
Default: no
When this variable is set, Mutt will decode RFC-2047-encoded
MIME parameters. You want to set this variable when mutt sug-
gests you to save attachments to files named like this:
=?iso-8859-1?Q?file=5F=E4=5F991116=2Ezip?=
When this variable is set interactively, the change doesn’t
have the desired effect before you have changed folders.
Note that this use of RFC 2047’s encoding is explicitly, pro-
hibited by the standard, but nevertheless encountered in the
wild. Also note that setting this parameter will not have the
effect that mutt generates this kind of encoding. Instead,
mutt will unconditionally use the encoding specified in RFC
2231.
save_address
Type: boolean
Default: no
If set, mutt will take the sender’s full address when choosing
a default folder for saving a mail. If “$save_name” or
“$force_name” is set too, the selection of the fcc folder will
be changed as well.
save_empty
Type: boolean
Default: yes
When unset, mailboxes which contain no saved messages will be
removed when closed (the exception is “$spoolfile” which is
never removed). If set, mailboxes are never removed.
Note: This only applies to mbox and MMDF folders, Mutt does not
delete MH and Maildir directories.
save_name
Type: boolean
Default: no
This variable controls how copies of outgoing messages are
saved. When set, a check is made to see if a mailbox specified
by the recipient address exists (this is done by searching for
a mailbox in the “$folder” directory with the username part of
the recipient address). If the mailbox exists, the outgoing
message will be saved to that mailbox, otherwise the message is
saved to the “$record” mailbox.
Also see the “$force_name” variable.
score
Type: boolean
Default: yes
When this variable is unset, scoring is turned off. This can
be useful to selectively disable scoring for certain folders
when the “$score_threshold_delete” variable and friends are
used.
score_threshold_delete
Type: number
Default: -1
Messages which have been assigned a score equal to or lower
than the value of this variable are automatically marked for
deletion by mutt. Since mutt scores are always greater than or
equal to zero, the default setting of this variable will never
mark a message for deletion.
score_threshold_flag
Type: number
Default: 9999
Messages wich have been assigned a score greater than or equal
to this variable’s value are automatically marked ”flagged”.
score_threshold_read
Type: number
Default: -1
Messages which have been assigned a score equal to or lower
than the value of this variable are automatically marked as
read by mutt. Since mutt scores are always greater than or
equal to zero, the default setting of this variable will never
mark a message read.
send_charset
Type: string
Default: “us-ascii:iso-8859-1:utf-8”
A list of character sets for outgoing messages. Mutt will use
the first character set into which the text can be converted
exactly. If your “$charset” is not iso-8859-1 and recipients
may not understand UTF-8, it is advisable to include in the
list an appropriate widely used standard character set (such as
iso-8859-2, koi8-r or iso-2022-jp) either instead of or after
”iso-8859-1”.
sendmail
Type: path
Default: “/usr/sbin/sendmail -oem -oi”
Specifies the program and arguments used to deliver mail sent
by Mutt. Mutt expects that the specified program interprets
additional arguments as recipient addresses.
sendmail_wait
Type: number
Default: 0
Specifies the number of seconds to wait for the “$sendmail”
process to finish before giving up and putting delivery in the
background.
Mutt interprets the value of this variable as follows:
>0 number of seconds to wait for sendmail to finish before
continuing
0 wait forever for sendmail to finish
<0 always put sendmail in the background without waiting
Note that if you specify a value other than 0, the output of
the child process will be put in a temporary file. If there is
some error, you will be informed as to where to find the out-
put.
shell
Type: path
Default: “”
Command to use when spawning a subshell. By default, the
user’s login shell from /etc/passwd is used.
sig_dashes
Type: boolean
Default: yes
If set, a line containing “-- ” will be inserted before your
“$signature”. It is strongly recommended that you not unset
this variable unless your “signature” contains just your name.
The reason for this is because many software packages use “--
\n” to detect your signature. For example, Mutt has the abil-
ity to highlight the signature in a different color in the
builtin pager.
sig_on_top
Type: boolean
Default: no
If set, the signature will be included before any quoted or
forwarded text. It is strongly recommended that you do not set
this variable unless you really know what you are doing, and
are prepared to take some heat from netiquette guardians.
signature
Type: path
Default: “~/.signature”
Specifies the filename of your signature, which is appended to
all outgoing messages. If the filename ends with a pipe
(“|”), it is assumed that filename is a shell command and input
should be read from its stdout.
simple_search
Type: string
Default: “~f %s | ~s %s”
Specifies how Mutt should expand a simple search into a real
search pattern. A simple search is one that does not contain
any of the ~ operators. See “patterns” for more information on
search patterns.
For example, if you simply type joe at a search or limit
prompt, Mutt will automatically expand it to the value speci-
fied by this variable. For the default value it would be:
~f joe | ~s joe
smart_wrap
Type: boolean
Default: yes
Controls the display of lines longer then the screen width in
the internal pager. If set, long lines are wrapped at a word
boundary. If unset, lines are simply wrapped at the screen
edge. Also see the “$markers” variable.
smileys
Type: regular expression
Default: “(>From )|(:[-^]?[][)(><}{|/DP])”
The pager uses this variable to catch some common false posi-
tives of “$quote_regexp”, most notably smileys in the beginning
of a line
sleep_time
Type: number
Default: 1
Specifies time, in seconds, to pause while displaying certain
informational messages, while moving from folder to folder and
after expunging messages from the current folder. The default
is to pause one second, so a value of zero for this option sup-
presses the pause.
sort
Type: sort order
Default: date
Specifies how to sort messages in the index menu. Valid values
are:
date or date-sent
date-received
from
mailbox-order (unsorted)
score
size
subject
threads
to
You may optionally use the reverse- prefix to specify reverse
sorting order (example: set sort=reverse-date-sent).
sort_alias
Type: sort order
Default: alias
Specifies how the entries in the ‘alias’ menu are sorted. The
following are legal values:
address (sort alphabetically by email address)
alias (sort alphabetically by alias name)
unsorted (leave in order specified in .muttrc)
sort_aux
Type: sort order
Default: date
When sorting by threads, this variable controls how threads are
sorted in relation to other threads, and how the branches of
the thread trees are sorted. This can be set to any value that
“$sort” can, except threads (in that case, mutt will just use
date-sent). You can also specify the last- prefix in addition
to the reverse- prefix, but last- must come after reverse-.
The last- prefix causes messages to be sorted against its sib-
lings by which has the last descendant, using the rest of
sort_aux as an ordering. For instance, set sort_aux=last-
date-received would mean that if a new message is received in a
thread, that thread becomes the last one displayed (or the
first, if you have set sort=reverse-threads.) Note: For
reversed “$sort” order $sort_aux is reversed again (which is
not the right thing to do, but kept to not break any existing
configuration setting).
sort_browser
Type: sort order
Default: subject
Specifies how to sort entries in the file browser. By default,
the entries are sorted alphabetically. Valid values:
alpha (alphabetically)
date
size
unsorted
You may optionally use the reverse- prefix to specify reverse
sorting order (example: set sort_browser=reverse-date).
sort_re
Type: boolean
Default: yes
This variable is only useful when sorting by threads with
“$strict_threads” unset. In that case, it changes the heuris-
tic mutt uses to thread messages by subject. With sort_re set,
mutt will only attach a message as the child of another message
by subject if the subject of the child message starts with a
substring matching the setting of “$reply_regexp”. With
sort_re unset, mutt will attach the message whether or not this
is the case, as long as the non-“$reply_regexp” parts of both
messages are identical.
spoolfile
Type: path
Default: “”
If your spool mailbox is in a non-default place where Mutt can-
not find it, you can specify its location with this variable.
Mutt will automatically set this variable to the value of the
environment variable $MAIL if it is not set.
status_chars
Type: string
Default: “-*%A”
Controls the characters used by the ”%r” indicator in “$sta-
tus_format”. The first character is used when the mailbox is
unchanged. The second is used when the mailbox has been
changed, and it needs to be resynchronized. The third is used
if the mailbox is in read-only mode, or if the mailbox will not
be written when exiting that mailbox (You can toggle whether to
write changes to a mailbox with the toggle-write operation,
bound by default to ”%”). The fourth is used to indicate that
the current folder has been opened in attach- message mode
(Certain operations like composing a new mail, replying, for-
warding, etc. are not permitted in this mode).
status_format
Type: string
Default: “-%r-Mutt: %f [Msgs:%?M?%M/?%m%?n? New:%n?%?o? Old:%o?%?d? Del:%d?%?F? Flag:%F?%?t? Tag:%t?%?p? Post:%p?%?b? Inc:%b?%?l? %l?]---(%s/%S)-%>-(%P)---”
Controls the format of the status line displayed in the index
menu. This string is similar to “$index_format”, but has its
own set of printf()-like sequences:
%b number of mailboxes with new mail *
%d number of deleted messages *
%h local hostname
%f the full pathname of the current mailbox
%F number of flagged messages *
%l size (in bytes) of the current mailbox *
%L size (in bytes) of the messages shown (i.e., which match
the current limit) *
%m the number of messages in the mailbox *
%M the number of messages shown (i.e., which match the cur-
rent limit) *
%n number of new messages in the mailbox *
%o number of old unread messages
%p number of postponed messages *
%P percentage of the way through the index
%r modified/read-only/won’t-write/attach-message indicator,
according to $status_chars
%s current sorting mode ($sort)
%S current aux sorting method ($sort_aux)
%t number of tagged messages *
%u number of unread messages *
%v Mutt version string
%V currently active limit pattern, if any *
%>X right justify the rest of the string and pad with ”X”
%|X pad to the end of the line with ”X”
* = can be optionally printed if nonzero
Some of the above sequences can be used to optionally print a
string if their value is nonzero. For example, you may only
want to see the number of flagged messages if such messages
exist, since zero is not particularly meaningful. To option-
ally print a string based upon one of the above sequences, the
following construct is used
%?<sequence_char>?<optional_string>?
where sequence_char is a character from the table above, and
optional_string is the string you would like printed if sta-
tus_char is nonzero. optional_string may contain other
sequence as well as normal text, but you may not nest optional
strings.
Here is an example illustrating how to optionally print the
number of new messages in a mailbox: %?n?%n new messages.?
Additionally you can switch between two strings, the first one,
if a value is zero, the second one, if the value is nonzero, by
using the following construct:
%?<sequence_char>?<if_string>&<else_string>?
You can additionally force the result of any printf-like
sequence to be lowercase by prefixing the sequence character
with an underscore (_) sign. For example, if you want to dis-
play the local hostname in lowercase, you would use: %_h
status_on_top
Type: boolean
Default: no
Setting this variable causes the “status bar” to be displayed
on the first line of the screen rather than near the bottom.
strict_threads
Type: boolean
Default: no
If set, threading will only make use of the “In-Reply-To” and
“References” fields when you “$sort” by message threads. By
default, messages with the same subject are grouped together in
“pseudo threads.” This may not always be desirable, such as in
a personal mailbox where you might have several unrelated mes-
sages with the subject “hi” which will get grouped together.
suspend
Type: boolean
Default: yes
When unset, mutt won’t stop when the user presses the termi-
nal’s susp key, usually “control-Z”. This is useful if you run
mutt inside an xterm using a command like xterm -e mutt.
text_flowed
Type: boolean
Default: no
When set, mutt will generate text/plain; format=flowed attach-
ments. This format is easier to handle for some mailing soft-
ware, and generally just looks like ordinary text. To actually
make use of this format’s features, you’ll need support in your
editor.
Note that $indent_string is ignored when this option is set.
thread_received
Type: boolean
Default: no
When set, mutt uses the date received rather than the date sent
to thread messages by subject.
thorough_search
Type: boolean
Default: no
Affects the ~b and ~h search operations described in section
“patterns” above. If set, the headers and attachments of mes-
sages to be searched are decoded before searching. If unset,
messages are searched as they appear in the folder.
tilde
Type: boolean
Default: no
When set, the internal-pager will pad blank lines to the bottom
of the screen with a tilde (~).
timeout
Type: number
Default: 600
This variable controls the number of seconds Mutt will wait for
a key to be pressed in the main menu before timing out and
checking for new mail. A value of zero or less will cause Mutt
not to ever time out.
tmpdir
Type: path
Default: “”
This variable allows you to specify where Mutt will place its
temporary files needed for displaying and composing messages.
to_chars
Type: string
Default: “ +TCFL”
Controls the character used to indicate mail addressed to you.
The first character is the one used when the mail is NOT
addressed to your address (default: space). The second is used
when you are the only recipient of the message (default: +).
The third is when your address appears in the TO header field,
but you are not the only recipient of the message (default: T).
The fourth character is used when your address is specified in
the CC header field, but you are not the only recipient. The
fifth character is used to indicate mail that was sent by you.
The sixth character is used to indicate when a mail was sent to
a mailing-list you subscribe to (default: L).
tunnel
Type: string
Default: “”
Setting this variable will cause mutt to open a pipe to a com-
mand instead of a raw socket. You may be able to use this to
set up preauthenticated connections to your IMAP/POP3 server.
Example:
tunnel=”ssh -q mailhost.net /usr/local/libexec/imapd”
NOTE: For this example to work you must be able to log in to
the remote machine without having to enter a password.
use_8bitmime
Type: boolean
Default: no
Warning: do not set this variable unless you are using a ver-
sion of sendmail which supports the -B8BITMIME flag (such as
sendmail 8.8.x) or you may not be able to send mail.
When set, Mutt will invoke “$sendmail” with the -B8BITMIME flag
when sending 8-bit messages to enable ESMTP negotiation.
use_domain
Type: boolean
Default: yes
When set, Mutt will qualify all local addresses (ones without
the @host portion) with the value of “$hostname”. If unset, no
addresses will be qualified.
use_from
Type: boolean
Default: yes
When set, Mutt will generate the ‘From:’ header field when
sending messages. If unset, no ‘From:’ header field will be
generated unless the user explicitly sets one using the
“my_hdr” command.
use_ipv6
Type: boolean
Default: yes
When set, Mutt will look for IPv6 addresses of hosts it tries
to contact. If this option is unset, Mutt will restrict itself
to IPv4 addresses. Normally, the default should work.
user_agent
Type: boolean
Default: yes
When set, mutt will add a ”User-Agent” header to outgoing mes-
sages, indicating which version of mutt was used for composing
them.
visual
Type: path
Default: “”
Specifies the visual editor to invoke when the ~v command is
given in the builtin editor.
wait_key
Type: boolean
Default: yes
Controls whether Mutt will ask you to press a key after shell-
escape, pipe-message, pipe-entry, print-message, and print-
entry commands.
It is also used when viewing attachments with “auto_view”, pro-
vided that the corresponding mailcap entry has a needsterminal
flag, and the external program is interactive.
When set, Mutt will always ask for a key. When unset, Mutt will
wait for a key only if the external command returned a non-zero
status.
weed
Type: boolean
Default: yes
When set, mutt will weed headers when when displaying, forward-
ing, printing, or replying to messages.
wrap_search
Type: boolean
Default: yes
Controls whether searches wrap around the end of the mailbox.
When set, searches will wrap around the first (or last) mes-
sage. When unset, searches will not wrap.
wrapmargin
Type: number
Default: 0
Controls the margin left at the right side of the terminal when
mutt’s pager does smart wrapping.
write_inc
Type: number
Default: 10
When writing a mailbox, a message will be printed every
write_inc messages to indicate progress. If set to 0, only a
single message will be displayed before writing a mailbox.
Also see the “$read_inc” variable.
write_bcc
Type: boolean
Default: yes
Controls whether mutt writes out the Bcc header when preparing
messages to be sent. Exim users may wish to use this.
SEE ALSO
iconv(1), iconv(3), mailcap(5), maildir(5), mbox(5), mutt(1),
printf(3), regex(7), strftime(3)
The Mutt Manual
The Mutt home page: http://www.mutt.org/
AUTHOR
Michael Elkins, and others. Use <mutt-dev@mutt.org> to contact the
developers.
Unix February 2001 muttrc(5)
