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<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="no"?> <!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd"><html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"><head><meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=UTF-8" /><title>Chapter 4. Advanced Usage</title><meta name="generator" content="DocBook XSL Stylesheets V1.78.1" /><link rel="home" href="index.html" title="The Mutt E-Mail Client" /><link rel="up" href="index.html" title="The Mutt E-Mail Client" /><link rel="prev" href="configuration.html" title="Chapter 3. Configuration" /><link rel="next" href="mimesupport.html" title="Chapter 5. Mutt's MIME Support" /><style xmlns="" type="text/css"> body { margin-left:2%; margin-right:2%; font-family:serif; } .toc, .list-of-tables, .list-of-examples { font-family:sans-serif; } h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6 { font-family:sans-serif; } p { text-align:justify; } div.table p.title, div.example p.title { font-size:smaller; font-family:sans-serif; } .email, .email a { font-family:monospace; } div.table-contents table, div.informaltable table { border-collapse:collapse; border:1px solid #c0c0c0; } div.table-contents table td, div.informaltable td, div.table-contents table th, div.informaltable table th { padding:5px; text-align:left; } div.table-contents table th, div.informaltable table th { font-family:sans-serif; background:#d0d0d0; font-weight:normal; vertical-align:top; } div.cmdsynopsis { border-left:1px solid #707070; padding-left:5px; } li div.cmdsynopsis { border-left:none; padding-left:0px; } pre.screen, div.note { background:#f0f0f0; border:1px solid #c0c0c0; padding:5px; margin-left:2%; margin-right:2%; } div.example p.title { margin-left:2%; } div.note h3 { font-size:small; font-style:italic; font-variant: small-caps; } div.note h3:after { content: ":" } div.note { margin-bottom: 5px; } .command { font-family: monospace; font-weight: normal; } .command strong { font-weight: normal; } tr { vertical-align: top; } .comment { color:#707070; } </style></head><body><div class="navheader"><table width="100%" summary="Navigation header"><tr><th colspan="3" align="center">Chapter 4. Advanced Usage</th></tr><tr><td width="20%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="configuration.html">Prev</a> </td><th width="60%" align="center"> </th><td width="20%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="mimesupport.html">Next</a></td></tr></table><hr /></div><div class="chapter"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h1 class="title"><a id="advancedusage"></a>Chapter 4. Advanced Usage</h1></div></div></div><div class="toc"><p><strong>Table of Contents</strong></p><dl class="toc"><dt><span class="sect1"><a href="advancedusage.html#charset-handling">1. Character Set Handling</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect1"><a href="advancedusage.html#regexp">2. Regular Expressions</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect1"><a href="advancedusage.html#patterns">3. Patterns: Searching, Limiting and Tagging</a></span></dt><dd><dl><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="advancedusage.html#patterns-modifier">3.1. Pattern Modifier</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="advancedusage.html#simple-searches">3.2. Simple Searches</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="advancedusage.html#complex-patterns">3.3. Nesting and Boolean Operators</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="advancedusage.html#date-patterns">3.4. Searching by Date</a></span></dt></dl></dd><dt><span class="sect1"><a href="advancedusage.html#tags">4. Using Tags</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect1"><a href="advancedusage.html#hooks">5. Using Hooks</a></span></dt><dd><dl><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="advancedusage.html#pattern-hook">5.1. Message Matching in Hooks</a></span></dt></dl></dd><dt><span class="sect1"><a href="advancedusage.html#query">6. External Address Queries</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect1"><a href="advancedusage.html#mailbox-formats">7. Mailbox Formats</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect1"><a href="advancedusage.html#shortcuts">8. Mailbox Shortcuts</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect1"><a href="advancedusage.html#using-lists">9. Handling Mailing Lists</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect1"><a href="advancedusage.html#new-mail">10. New Mail Detection</a></span></dt><dd><dl><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="advancedusage.html#new-mail-formats">10.1. How New Mail Detection Works</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="advancedusage.html#new-mail-polling">10.2. Polling For New Mail</a></span></dt></dl></dd><dt><span class="sect1"><a href="advancedusage.html#editing-threads">11. Editing Threads</a></span></dt><dd><dl><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="advancedusage.html#link-threads">11.1. Linking Threads</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect2"><a href="advancedusage.html#break-threads">11.2. Breaking Threads</a></span></dt></dl></dd><dt><span class="sect1"><a href="advancedusage.html#dsn">12. Delivery Status Notification (DSN) Support</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect1"><a href="advancedusage.html#urlview">13. Start a WWW Browser on URLs</a></span></dt><dt><span class="sect1"><a href="advancedusage.html#misc-topics">14. Miscellany</a></span></dt></dl></div><div class="sect1"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a id="charset-handling"></a>1. Character Set Handling</h2></div></div></div><p> A <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">character set</span>”</span> is basically a mapping between bytes and glyphs and implies a certain character encoding scheme. For example, for the ISO 8859 family of character sets, an encoding of 8bit per character is used. For the Unicode character set, different character encodings may be used, UTF-8 being the most popular. In UTF-8, a character is represented using a variable number of bytes ranging from 1 to 4. </p><p> Since Mutt is a command-line tool run from a shell, and delegates certain tasks to external tools (such as an editor for composing/editing messages), all of these tools need to agree on a character set and encoding. There exists no way to reliably deduce the character set a plain text file has. Interoperability is gained by the use of well-defined environment variables. The full set can be printed by issuing <code class="literal">locale</code> on the command line. </p><p> Upon startup, Mutt determines the character set on its own using routines that inspect locale-specific environment variables. Therefore, it is generally not necessary to set the <code class="literal">$charset</code> variable in Mutt. It may even be counter-productive as Mutt uses system and library functions that derive the character set themselves and on which Mutt has no influence. It's safest to let Mutt work out the locale setup itself. </p><p> If you happen to work with several character sets on a regular basis, it's highly advisable to use Unicode and an UTF-8 locale. Unicode can represent nearly all characters in a message at the same time. When not using a Unicode locale, it may happen that you receive messages with characters not representable in your locale. When displaying such a message, or replying to or forwarding it, information may get lost possibly rendering the message unusable (not only for you but also for the recipient, this breakage is not reversible as lost information cannot be guessed). </p><p> A Unicode locale makes all conversions superfluous which eliminates the risk of conversion errors. It also eliminates potentially wrong expectations about the character set between Mutt and external programs. </p><p> The terminal emulator used also must be properly configured for the current locale. Terminal emulators usually do <span class="emphasis"><em>not</em></span> derive the locale from environment variables, they need to be configured separately. If the terminal is incorrectly configured, Mutt may display random and unexpected characters (question marks, octal codes, or just random glyphs), format strings may not work as expected, you may not be abled to enter non-ascii characters, and possible more. Data is always represented using bytes and so a correct setup is very important as to the machine, all character sets <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">look</span>”</span> the same. </p><p> Warning: A mismatch between what system and library functions think the locale is and what Mutt was told what the locale is may make it behave badly with non-ascii input: it will fail at seemingly random places. This warning is to be taken seriously since not only local mail handling may suffer: sent messages may carry wrong character set information the <span class="emphasis"><em>receiver</em></span> has too deal with. The need to set <code class="literal">$charset</code> directly in most cases points at terminal and environment variable setup problems, not Mutt problems. </p><p> A list of officially assigned and known character sets can be found at <a class="ulink" href="http://www.iana.org/assignments/character-sets" target="_top">IANA</a>, a list of locally supported locales can be obtained by running <code class="literal">locale -a</code>. </p></div><div class="sect1"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a id="regexp"></a>2. Regular Expressions</h2></div></div></div><p> All string patterns in Mutt including those in more complex <a class="link" href="advancedusage.html#patterns" title="3. Patterns: Searching, Limiting and Tagging">patterns</a> must be specified using regular expressions (regexp) in the <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">POSIX extended</span>”</span> syntax (which is more or less the syntax used by egrep and GNU awk). For your convenience, we have included below a brief description of this syntax. </p><p> The search is case sensitive if the pattern contains at least one upper case letter, and case insensitive otherwise. </p><div class="note"><h3 class="title">Note</h3><p> <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">\</span>”</span> must be quoted if used for a regular expression in an initialization command: <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">\\</span>”</span>. </p></div><p> A regular expression is a pattern that describes a set of strings. Regular expressions are constructed analogously to arithmetic expressions, by using various operators to combine smaller expressions. </p><div class="note"><h3 class="title">Note</h3><p> The regular expression can be enclosed/delimited by either " or ' which is useful if the regular expression includes a white-space character. See <a class="xref" href="configuration.html#muttrc-syntax" title="2. Syntax of Initialization Files">Syntax of Initialization Files</a> for more information on " and ' delimiter processing. To match a literal " or ' you must preface it with \ (backslash). </p></div><p> The fundamental building blocks are the regular expressions that match a single character. Most characters, including all letters and digits, are regular expressions that match themselves. Any metacharacter with special meaning may be quoted by preceding it with a backslash. </p><p> The period <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">.</span>”</span> matches any single character. The caret <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">^</span>”</span> and the dollar sign <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">$</span>”</span> are metacharacters that respectively match the empty string at the beginning and end of a line. </p><p> A list of characters enclosed by <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">[</span>”</span> and <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">]</span>”</span> matches any single character in that list; if the first character of the list is a caret <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">^</span>”</span> then it matches any character <span class="emphasis"><em>not</em></span> in the list. For example, the regular expression <span class="emphasis"><em>[0123456789]</em></span> matches any single digit. A range of ASCII characters may be specified by giving the first and last characters, separated by a hyphen <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">-</span>”</span>. Most metacharacters lose their special meaning inside lists. To include a literal <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">]</span>”</span> place it first in the list. Similarly, to include a literal <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">^</span>”</span> place it anywhere but first. Finally, to include a literal hyphen <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">-</span>”</span> place it last. </p><p> Certain named classes of characters are predefined. Character classes consist of <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">[:</span>”</span>, a keyword denoting the class, and <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">:]</span>”</span>. The following classes are defined by the POSIX standard in <a class="xref" href="advancedusage.html#posix-regex-char-classes" title="Table 4.1. POSIX regular expression character classes">Table 4.1, “POSIX regular expression character classes”</a> </p><div class="table"><a id="posix-regex-char-classes"></a><p class="title"><strong>Table 4.1. POSIX regular expression character classes</strong></p><div class="table-contents"><table summary="POSIX regular expression character classes" border="1"><colgroup><col /><col /></colgroup><thead><tr><th>Character class</th><th>Description</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>[:alnum:]</td><td>Alphanumeric characters</td></tr><tr><td>[:alpha:]</td><td>Alphabetic characters</td></tr><tr><td>[:blank:]</td><td>Space or tab characters</td></tr><tr><td>[:cntrl:]</td><td>Control characters</td></tr><tr><td>[:digit:]</td><td>Numeric characters</td></tr><tr><td>[:graph:]</td><td>Characters that are both printable and visible. (A space is printable, but not visible, while an <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">a</span>”</span> is both)</td></tr><tr><td>[:lower:]</td><td>Lower-case alphabetic characters</td></tr><tr><td>[:print:]</td><td>Printable characters (characters that are not control characters)</td></tr><tr><td>[:punct:]</td><td>Punctuation characters (characters that are not letter, digits, control characters, or space characters)</td></tr><tr><td>[:space:]</td><td>Space characters (such as space, tab and formfeed, to name a few)</td></tr><tr><td>[:upper:]</td><td>Upper-case alphabetic characters</td></tr><tr><td>[:xdigit:]</td><td>Characters that are hexadecimal digits</td></tr></tbody></table></div></div><br class="table-break" /><p> A character class is only valid in a regular expression inside the brackets of a character list. </p><div class="note"><h3 class="title">Note</h3><p> Note that the brackets in these class names are part of the symbolic names, and must be included in addition to the brackets delimiting the bracket list. For example, <span class="emphasis"><em>[[:digit:]]</em></span> is equivalent to <span class="emphasis"><em>[0-9]</em></span>. </p></div><p> Two additional special sequences can appear in character lists. These apply to non-ASCII character sets, which can have single symbols (called collating elements) that are represented with more than one character, as well as several characters that are equivalent for collating or sorting purposes: </p><div class="variablelist"><dl class="variablelist"><dt><span class="term">Collating Symbols</span></dt><dd><p> A collating symbol is a multi-character collating element enclosed in <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">[.</span>”</span> and <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">.]</span>”</span>. For example, if <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">ch</span>”</span> is a collating element, then <span class="emphasis"><em>[[.ch.]]</em></span> is a regexp that matches this collating element, while <span class="emphasis"><em>[ch]</em></span> is a regexp that matches either <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">c</span>”</span> or <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">h</span>”</span>. </p></dd><dt><span class="term">Equivalence Classes</span></dt><dd><p> An equivalence class is a locale-specific name for a list of characters that are equivalent. The name is enclosed in <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">[=</span>”</span> and <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">=]</span>”</span>. For example, the name <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">e</span>”</span> might be used to represent all of <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">e</span>”</span> with grave (<span class="quote">“<span class="quote">è</span>”</span>), <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">e</span>”</span> with acute (<span class="quote">“<span class="quote">é</span>”</span>) and <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">e</span>”</span>. In this case, <span class="emphasis"><em>[[=e=]]</em></span> is a regexp that matches any of: <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">e</span>”</span> with grave (<span class="quote">“<span class="quote">è</span>”</span>), <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">e</span>”</span> with acute (<span class="quote">“<span class="quote">é</span>”</span>) and <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">e</span>”</span>. </p></dd></dl></div><p> A regular expression matching a single character may be followed by one of several repetition operators described in <a class="xref" href="advancedusage.html#regex-repeat" title="Table 4.2. Regular expression repetition operators">Table 4.2, “Regular expression repetition operators”</a>. </p><div class="table"><a id="regex-repeat"></a><p class="title"><strong>Table 4.2. Regular expression repetition operators</strong></p><div class="table-contents"><table summary="Regular expression repetition operators" border="1"><colgroup><col /><col /></colgroup><thead><tr><th>Operator</th><th>Description</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>?</td><td>The preceding item is optional and matched at most once</td></tr><tr><td>*</td><td>The preceding item will be matched zero or more times</td></tr><tr><td>+</td><td>The preceding item will be matched one or more times</td></tr><tr><td>{n}</td><td>The preceding item is matched exactly <span class="emphasis"><em>n</em></span> times</td></tr><tr><td>{n,}</td><td>The preceding item is matched <span class="emphasis"><em>n</em></span> or more times</td></tr><tr><td>{,m}</td><td>The preceding item is matched at most <span class="emphasis"><em>m</em></span> times</td></tr><tr><td>{n,m}</td><td>The preceding item is matched at least <span class="emphasis"><em>n</em></span> times, but no more than <span class="emphasis"><em>m</em></span> times</td></tr></tbody></table></div></div><br class="table-break" /><p> Two regular expressions may be concatenated; the resulting regular expression matches any string formed by concatenating two substrings that respectively match the concatenated subexpressions. </p><p> Two regular expressions may be joined by the infix operator <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">|</span>”</span>; the resulting regular expression matches any string matching either subexpression. </p><p> Repetition takes precedence over concatenation, which in turn takes precedence over alternation. A whole subexpression may be enclosed in parentheses to override these precedence rules. </p><div class="note"><h3 class="title">Note</h3><p> If you compile Mutt with the included regular expression engine, the following operators may also be used in regular expressions as described in <a class="xref" href="advancedusage.html#regex-gnu-ext" title="Table 4.3. GNU regular expression extensions">Table 4.3, “GNU regular expression extensions”</a>. </p></div><div class="table"><a id="regex-gnu-ext"></a><p class="title"><strong>Table 4.3. GNU regular expression extensions</strong></p><div class="table-contents"><table summary="GNU regular expression extensions" border="1"><colgroup><col /><col /></colgroup><thead><tr><th>Expression</th><th>Description</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>\\y</td><td>Matches the empty string at either the beginning or the end of a word</td></tr><tr><td>\\B</td><td>Matches the empty string within a word</td></tr><tr><td>\\<</td><td>Matches the empty string at the beginning of a word</td></tr><tr><td>\\></td><td>Matches the empty string at the end of a word</td></tr><tr><td>\\w</td><td>Matches any word-constituent character (letter, digit, or underscore)</td></tr><tr><td>\\W</td><td>Matches any character that is not word-constituent</td></tr><tr><td>\\`</td><td>Matches the empty string at the beginning of a buffer (string)</td></tr><tr><td>\\'</td><td>Matches the empty string at the end of a buffer</td></tr></tbody></table></div></div><br class="table-break" /><p> Please note however that these operators are not defined by POSIX, so they may or may not be available in stock libraries on various systems. </p></div><div class="sect1"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a id="patterns"></a>3. Patterns: Searching, Limiting and Tagging</h2></div></div></div><div class="sect2"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a id="patterns-modifier"></a>3.1. Pattern Modifier</h3></div></div></div><p> Many of Mutt's commands allow you to specify a pattern to match (<code class="literal">limit</code>, <code class="literal">tag-pattern</code>, <code class="literal">delete-pattern</code>, etc.). <a class="xref" href="advancedusage.html#tab-patterns" title="Table 4.4. Pattern modifiers">Table 4.4, “Pattern modifiers”</a> shows several ways to select messages. </p><div class="table"><a id="tab-patterns"></a><p class="title"><strong>Table 4.4. Pattern modifiers</strong></p><div class="table-contents"><table summary="Pattern modifiers" border="1"><colgroup><col /><col /></colgroup><thead><tr><th>Pattern modifier</th><th>Description</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>~A</td><td>all messages</td></tr><tr><td>~b <span class="emphasis"><em>EXPR</em></span></td><td>messages which contain <span class="emphasis"><em>EXPR</em></span> in the message body</td></tr><tr><td>=b <span class="emphasis"><em>STRING</em></span></td><td>messages which contain <span class="emphasis"><em>STRING</em></span> in the message body. If IMAP is enabled, searches for <span class="emphasis"><em>STRING</em></span> on the server, rather than downloading each message and searching it locally.</td></tr><tr><td>~B <span class="emphasis"><em>EXPR</em></span></td><td>messages which contain <span class="emphasis"><em>EXPR</em></span> in the whole message</td></tr><tr><td>~c <span class="emphasis"><em>EXPR</em></span></td><td>messages carbon-copied to <span class="emphasis"><em>EXPR</em></span></td></tr><tr><td>%c <span class="emphasis"><em>GROUP</em></span></td><td>messages carbon-copied to any member of <span class="emphasis"><em>GROUP</em></span></td></tr><tr><td>~C <span class="emphasis"><em>EXPR</em></span></td><td>messages either to: or cc: <span class="emphasis"><em>EXPR</em></span></td></tr><tr><td>%C <span class="emphasis"><em>GROUP</em></span></td><td>messages either to: or cc: to any member of <span class="emphasis"><em>GROUP</em></span></td></tr><tr><td>~d [<span class="emphasis"><em>MIN</em></span>]-[<span class="emphasis"><em>MAX</em></span>]</td><td>messages with <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">date-sent</span>”</span> in a Date range</td></tr><tr><td>~D</td><td>deleted messages</td></tr><tr><td>~e <span class="emphasis"><em>EXPR</em></span></td><td>messages which contains <span class="emphasis"><em>EXPR</em></span> in the <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">Sender</span>”</span> field</td></tr><tr><td>%e <span class="emphasis"><em>GROUP</em></span></td><td>messages which contain a member of <span class="emphasis"><em>GROUP</em></span> in the <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">Sender</span>”</span> field</td></tr><tr><td>~E</td><td>expired messages</td></tr><tr><td>~F</td><td>flagged messages</td></tr><tr><td>~f <span class="emphasis"><em>EXPR</em></span></td><td>messages originating from <span class="emphasis"><em>EXPR</em></span></td></tr><tr><td>%f <span class="emphasis"><em>GROUP</em></span></td><td>messages originating from any member of <span class="emphasis"><em>GROUP</em></span></td></tr><tr><td>~g</td><td>cryptographically signed messages</td></tr><tr><td>~G</td><td>cryptographically encrypted messages</td></tr><tr><td>~h <span class="emphasis"><em>EXPR</em></span></td><td>messages which contain <span class="emphasis"><em>EXPR</em></span> in the message header</td></tr><tr><td>~H <span class="emphasis"><em>EXPR</em></span></td><td>messages with a spam attribute matching <span class="emphasis"><em>EXPR</em></span></td></tr><tr><td>~i <span class="emphasis"><em>EXPR</em></span></td><td>messages which match <span class="emphasis"><em>EXPR</em></span> in the <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">Message-ID</span>”</span> field</td></tr><tr><td>~k</td><td>messages which contain PGP key material</td></tr><tr><td>~L <span class="emphasis"><em>EXPR</em></span></td><td>messages either originated or received by <span class="emphasis"><em>EXPR</em></span></td></tr><tr><td>%L <span class="emphasis"><em>GROUP</em></span></td><td>message either originated or received by any member of <span class="emphasis"><em>GROUP</em></span></td></tr><tr><td>~l</td><td>messages addressed to a known mailing list</td></tr><tr><td>~m [<span class="emphasis"><em>MIN</em></span>]-[<span class="emphasis"><em>MAX</em></span>]</td><td>messages in the range <span class="emphasis"><em>MIN</em></span> to <span class="emphasis"><em>MAX</em></span> *)</td></tr><tr><td>~n [<span class="emphasis"><em>MIN</em></span>]-[<span class="emphasis"><em>MAX</em></span>]</td><td>messages with a score in the range <span class="emphasis"><em>MIN</em></span> to <span class="emphasis"><em>MAX</em></span> *)</td></tr><tr><td>~N</td><td>new messages</td></tr><tr><td>~O</td><td>old messages</td></tr><tr><td>~p</td><td>messages addressed to you (consults <span class="command"><strong>alternates</strong></span>)</td></tr><tr><td>~P</td><td>messages from you (consults <span class="command"><strong>alternates</strong></span>)</td></tr><tr><td>~Q</td><td>messages which have been replied to</td></tr><tr><td>~r [<span class="emphasis"><em>MIN</em></span>]-[<span class="emphasis"><em>MAX</em></span>]</td><td>messages with <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">date-received</span>”</span> in a Date range</td></tr><tr><td>~R</td><td>read messages</td></tr><tr><td>~s <span class="emphasis"><em>EXPR</em></span></td><td>messages having <span class="emphasis"><em>EXPR</em></span> in the <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">Subject</span>”</span> field.</td></tr><tr><td>~S</td><td>superseded messages</td></tr><tr><td>~t <span class="emphasis"><em>EXPR</em></span></td><td>messages addressed to <span class="emphasis"><em>EXPR</em></span></td></tr><tr><td>~T</td><td>tagged messages</td></tr><tr><td>~u</td><td>messages addressed to a subscribed mailing list</td></tr><tr><td>~U</td><td>unread messages</td></tr><tr><td>~v</td><td>messages part of a collapsed thread.</td></tr><tr><td>~V</td><td>cryptographically verified messages</td></tr><tr><td>~x <span class="emphasis"><em>EXPR</em></span></td><td>messages which contain <span class="emphasis"><em>EXPR</em></span> in the <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">References</span>”</span> or <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">In-Reply-To</span>”</span> field</td></tr><tr><td>~X [<span class="emphasis"><em>MIN</em></span>]-[<span class="emphasis"><em>MAX</em></span>]</td><td>messages with <span class="emphasis"><em>MIN</em></span> to <span class="emphasis"><em>MAX</em></span> attachments *)</td></tr><tr><td>~y <span class="emphasis"><em>EXPR</em></span></td><td>messages which contain <span class="emphasis"><em>EXPR</em></span> in the <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">X-Label</span>”</span> field</td></tr><tr><td>~z [<span class="emphasis"><em>MIN</em></span>]-[<span class="emphasis"><em>MAX</em></span>]</td><td>messages with a size in the range <span class="emphasis"><em>MIN</em></span> to <span class="emphasis"><em>MAX</em></span> *) **)</td></tr><tr><td>~=</td><td>duplicated messages (see <a class="link" href="reference.html#duplicate-threads" title="3.55. duplicate_threads">$duplicate_threads</a>)</td></tr><tr><td>~$</td><td>unreferenced messages (requires threaded view)</td></tr><tr><td>~(<span class="emphasis"><em>PATTERN</em></span>)</td><td>messages in threads containing messages matching <span class="emphasis"><em>PATTERN</em></span>, e.g. all threads containing messages from you: ~(~P)</td></tr></tbody></table></div></div><br class="table-break" /><p> Where <span class="emphasis"><em>EXPR</em></span> is a <a class="link" href="advancedusage.html#regexp" title="2. Regular Expressions">regular expression</a>, and <span class="emphasis"><em>GROUP</em></span> is an <a class="link" href="configuration.html#addrgroup" title="3. Address Groups">address group</a>. </p><p> *) The forms <span class="quote">“<span class="quote"><[<span class="emphasis"><em>MAX</em></span>]</span>”</span>, <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">>[<span class="emphasis"><em>MIN</em></span>]</span>”</span>, <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">[<span class="emphasis"><em>MIN</em></span>]-</span>”</span> and <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">-[<span class="emphasis"><em>MAX</em></span>]</span>”</span> are allowed, too. </p><p> **) The suffixes <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">K</span>”</span> and <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">M</span>”</span> are allowed to specify kilobyte and megabyte respectively. </p><p> Special attention has to be payed when using regular expressions inside of patterns. Specifically, Mutt's parser for these patterns will strip one level of backslash (<span class="quote">“<span class="quote">\</span>”</span>), which is normally used for quoting. If it is your intention to use a backslash in the regular expression, you will need to use two backslashes instead (<span class="quote">“<span class="quote">\\</span>”</span>). You can force Mutt to treat <span class="emphasis"><em>EXPR</em></span> as a simple string instead of a regular expression by using = instead of ~ in the pattern name. For example, <code class="literal">=b *.*</code> will find all messages that contain the literal string <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">*.*</span>”</span>. Simple string matches are less powerful than regular expressions but can be considerably faster. This is especially true for IMAP folders, because string matches can be performed on the server instead of by fetching every message. IMAP treats <code class="literal">=h</code> specially: it must be of the form <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">header: substring</span>”</span> and will not partially match header names. The substring part may be omitted if you simply wish to find messages containing a particular header without regard to its value. </p><p> Patterns matching lists of addresses (notably c, C, p, P and t) match if there is at least one match in the whole list. If you want to make sure that all elements of that list match, you need to prefix your pattern with <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">^</span>”</span>. This example matches all mails which only has recipients from Germany. </p><div class="example"><a id="ex-recips"></a><p class="title"><strong>Example 4.1. Matching all addresses in address lists</strong></p><div class="example-contents"><pre class="screen"> ^~C \.de$ </pre></div></div><br class="example-break" /></div><div class="sect2"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a id="simple-searches"></a>3.2. Simple Searches</h3></div></div></div><p> Mutt supports two versions of so called <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">simple searches</span>”</span>. These are issued if the query entered for searching, limiting and similar operations does not seem to contain a valid pattern modifier (i.e. it does not contain one of these characters: <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">~</span>”</span>, <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">=</span>”</span> or <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">%</span>”</span>). If the query is supposed to contain one of these special characters, they must be escaped by prepending a backslash (<span class="quote">“<span class="quote">\</span>”</span>). </p><p> The first type is by checking whether the query string equals a keyword case-insensitively from <a class="xref" href="advancedusage.html#tab-simplesearch-keywords" title="Table 4.5. Simple search keywords">Table 4.5, “Simple search keywords”</a>: If that is the case, Mutt will use the shown pattern modifier instead. If a keyword would conflict with your search keyword, you need to turn it into a regular expression to avoid matching the keyword table. For example, if you want to find all messages matching <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">flag</span>”</span> (using <a class="link" href="reference.html#simple-search" title="3.232. simple_search">$simple_search</a>) but don't want to match flagged messages, simply search for <span class="quote">“<span class="quote"><code class="literal">[f]lag</code></span>”</span>. </p><div class="table"><a id="tab-simplesearch-keywords"></a><p class="title"><strong>Table 4.5. Simple search keywords</strong></p><div class="table-contents"><table summary="Simple search keywords" border="1"><colgroup><col /><col /></colgroup><thead><tr><th>Keyword</th><th>Pattern modifier</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>all</td><td>~A</td></tr><tr><td>.</td><td>~A</td></tr><tr><td>^</td><td>~A</td></tr><tr><td>del</td><td>~D</td></tr><tr><td>flag</td><td>~F</td></tr><tr><td>new</td><td>~N</td></tr><tr><td>old</td><td>~O</td></tr><tr><td>repl</td><td>~Q</td></tr><tr><td>read</td><td>~R</td></tr><tr><td>tag</td><td>~T</td></tr><tr><td>unread</td><td>~U</td></tr></tbody></table></div></div><br class="table-break" /><p> The second type of simple search is to build a complex search pattern using <a class="link" href="reference.html#simple-search" title="3.232. simple_search">$simple_search</a> as a template. Mutt will insert your query properly quoted and search for the composed complex query. </p></div><div class="sect2"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a id="complex-patterns"></a>3.3. Nesting and Boolean Operators</h3></div></div></div><p> Logical AND is performed by specifying more than one criterion. For example: </p><pre class="screen"> ~t mutt ~f elkins </pre><p> would select messages which contain the word <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">mutt</span>”</span> in the list of recipients <span class="emphasis"><em>and</em></span> that have the word <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">elkins</span>”</span> in the <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">From</span>”</span> header field. </p><p> Mutt also recognizes the following operators to create more complex search patterns: </p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; "><li class="listitem"><p> ! — logical NOT operator </p></li><li class="listitem"><p> | — logical OR operator </p></li><li class="listitem"><p> () — logical grouping operator </p></li></ul></div><p> Here is an example illustrating a complex search pattern. This pattern will select all messages which do not contain <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">mutt</span>”</span> in the <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">To</span>”</span> or <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">Cc</span>”</span> field and which are from <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">elkins</span>”</span>. </p><div class="example"><a id="ex-pattern-bool"></a><p class="title"><strong>Example 4.2. Using boolean operators in patterns</strong></p><div class="example-contents"><pre class="screen"> !(~t mutt|~c mutt) ~f elkins </pre></div></div><br class="example-break" /><p> Here is an example using white space in the regular expression (note the <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">'</span>”</span> and <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">"</span>”</span> delimiters). For this to match, the mail's subject must match the <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">^Junk +From +Me$</span>”</span> and it must be from either <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">Jim +Somebody</span>”</span> or <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">Ed +SomeoneElse</span>”</span>: </p><pre class="screen"> '~s "^Junk +From +Me$" ~f ("Jim +Somebody"|"Ed +SomeoneElse")' </pre><div class="note"><h3 class="title">Note</h3><p> If a regular expression contains parenthesis, or a vertical bar ("|"), you <span class="emphasis"><em>must</em></span> enclose the expression in double or single quotes since those characters are also used to separate different parts of Mutt's pattern language. For example: <code class="literal">~f "me@(mutt\.org|cs\.hmc\.edu)"</code> Without the quotes, the parenthesis wouldn't end. This would be separated to two OR'd patterns: <span class="emphasis"><em>~f me@(mutt\.org</em></span> and <span class="emphasis"><em>cs\.hmc\.edu)</em></span>. They are never what you want. </p></div></div><div class="sect2"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a id="date-patterns"></a>3.4. Searching by Date</h3></div></div></div><p> Mutt supports two types of dates, <span class="emphasis"><em>absolute</em></span> and <span class="emphasis"><em>relative</em></span>. </p><div class="sect3"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title"><a id="date-absolute"></a>3.4.1. Absolute Dates</h4></div></div></div><p> Dates <span class="emphasis"><em>must</em></span> be in DD/MM/YY format (month and year are optional, defaulting to the current month and year). An example of a valid range of dates is: </p><pre class="screen"> Limit to messages matching: ~d 20/1/95-31/10 </pre><p> If you omit the minimum (first) date, and just specify <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">-DD/MM/YY</span>”</span>, all messages <span class="emphasis"><em>before</em></span> the given date will be selected. If you omit the maximum (second) date, and specify <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">DD/MM/YY-</span>”</span>, all messages <span class="emphasis"><em>after</em></span> the given date will be selected. If you specify a single date with no dash (<span class="quote">“<span class="quote">-</span>”</span>), only messages sent on the given date will be selected. </p><p> You can add error margins to absolute dates. An error margin is a sign (+ or -), followed by a digit, followed by one of the units in <a class="xref" href="advancedusage.html#tab-date-units" title="Table 4.6. Date units">Table 4.6, “Date units”</a>. As a special case, you can replace the sign by a <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">*</span>”</span> character, which is equivalent to giving identical plus and minus error margins. </p><div class="table"><a id="tab-date-units"></a><p class="title"><strong>Table 4.6. Date units</strong></p><div class="table-contents"><table summary="Date units" border="1"><colgroup><col /><col /></colgroup><thead><tr><th>Unit</th><th>Description</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td>y</td><td>Years</td></tr><tr><td>m</td><td>Months</td></tr><tr><td>w</td><td>Weeks</td></tr><tr><td>d</td><td>Days</td></tr></tbody></table></div></div><br class="table-break" /><p> Example: To select any messages two weeks around January 15, 2001, you'd use the following pattern: </p><pre class="screen"> Limit to messages matching: ~d 15/1/2001*2w </pre></div><div class="sect3"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h4 class="title"><a id="dates-relative"></a>3.4.2. Relative Dates</h4></div></div></div><p> This type of date is relative to the current date, and may be specified as: </p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; "><li class="listitem"><p> ><span class="emphasis"><em>offset</em></span> for messages older than <span class="emphasis"><em>offset</em></span> units </p></li><li class="listitem"><p> <<span class="emphasis"><em>offset</em></span> for messages newer than <span class="emphasis"><em>offset</em></span> units </p></li><li class="listitem"><p> =<span class="emphasis"><em>offset</em></span> for messages exactly <span class="emphasis"><em>offset</em></span> units old </p></li></ul></div><p> <span class="emphasis"><em>offset</em></span> is specified as a positive number with one of the units from <a class="xref" href="advancedusage.html#tab-date-units" title="Table 4.6. Date units">Table 4.6, “Date units”</a>. </p><p> Example: to select messages less than 1 month old, you would use </p><pre class="screen"> Limit to messages matching: ~d <1m </pre><div class="note"><h3 class="title">Note</h3><p> All dates used when searching are relative to the <span class="emphasis"><em>local</em></span> time zone, so unless you change the setting of your <a class="link" href="reference.html#index-format" title="3.111. index_format">$index_format</a> to include a <code class="literal">%[...]</code> format, these are <span class="emphasis"><em>not</em></span> the dates shown in the main index. </p></div></div></div></div><div class="sect1"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a id="tags"></a>4. Using Tags</h2></div></div></div><p> Sometimes it is desirable to perform an operation on a group of messages all at once rather than one at a time. An example might be to save messages to a mailing list to a separate folder, or to delete all messages with a given subject. To tag all messages matching a pattern, use the <code class="literal"><tag-pattern></code> function, which is bound to <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">shift-T</span>”</span> by default. Or you can select individual messages by hand using the <code class="literal"><tag-message></code> function, which is bound to <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">t</span>”</span> by default. See <a class="link" href="advancedusage.html#patterns" title="3. Patterns: Searching, Limiting and Tagging">patterns</a> for Mutt's pattern matching syntax. </p><p> Once you have tagged the desired messages, you can use the <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">tag-prefix</span>”</span> operator, which is the <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">;</span>”</span> (semicolon) key by default. When the <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">tag-prefix</span>”</span> operator is used, the <span class="emphasis"><em>next</em></span> operation will be applied to all tagged messages if that operation can be used in that manner. If the <a class="link" href="reference.html#auto-tag" title="3.17. auto_tag">$auto_tag</a> variable is set, the next operation applies to the tagged messages automatically, without requiring the <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">tag-prefix</span>”</span>. </p><p> In <a class="link" href="configuration.html#macro" title="8. Keyboard Macros"><span class="command"><strong>macro</strong></span>s</a> or <a class="link" href="configuration.html#push" title="22. Adding Key Sequences to the Keyboard Buffer"><span class="command"><strong>push</strong></span></a> commands, you can use the <code class="literal"><tag-prefix-cond></code> operator. If there are no tagged messages, Mutt will <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">eat</span>”</span> the rest of the macro to abort it's execution. Mutt will stop <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">eating</span>”</span> the macro when it encounters the <code class="literal"><end-cond></code> operator; after this operator the rest of the macro will be executed as normal. </p></div><div class="sect1"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a id="hooks"></a>5. Using Hooks</h2></div></div></div><p> A <span class="emphasis"><em>hook</em></span> is a concept found in many other programs which allows you to execute arbitrary commands before performing some operation. For example, you may wish to tailor your configuration based upon which mailbox you are reading, or to whom you are sending mail. In the Mutt world, a <span class="emphasis"><em>hook</em></span> consists of a <a class="link" href="advancedusage.html#regexp" title="2. Regular Expressions">regular expression</a> or <a class="link" href="advancedusage.html#patterns" title="3. Patterns: Searching, Limiting and Tagging">pattern</a> along with a configuration option/command. See: </p><div class="itemizedlist"><ul class="itemizedlist" style="list-style-type: disc; "><li class="listitem"><p> <a class="link" href="optionalfeatures.html#account-hook" title="6. Managing Multiple Accounts"><span class="command"><strong>account-hook</strong></span></a> </p></li><li class="listitem"><p> <a class="link" href="configuration.html#charset-hook" title="6. Defining Aliases for Character Sets"><span class="command"><strong>charset-hook</strong></span></a> </p></li><li class="listitem"><p> <a class="link" href="configuration.html#crypt-hook" title="21. Choosing the Cryptographic Key of the Recipient"><span class="command"><strong>crypt-hook</strong></span></a> </p></li><li class="listitem"><p> <a class="link" href="configuration.html#fcc-hook" title="17. Specify Default Fcc: Mailbox When Composing"><span class="command"><strong>fcc-hook</strong></span></a> </p></li><li class="listitem"><p> <a class="link" href="configuration.html#fcc-save-hook" title="18. Specify Default Save Filename and Default Fcc: Mailbox at Once"><span class="command"><strong>fcc-save-hook</strong></span></a> </p></li><li class="listitem"><p> <a class="link" href="configuration.html#folder-hook" title="7. Setting Variables Based Upon Mailbox"><span class="command"><strong>folder-hook</strong></span></a> </p></li><li class="listitem"><p> <a class="link" href="configuration.html#iconv-hook"><span class="command"><strong>iconv-hook</strong></span></a> </p></li><li class="listitem"><p> <a class="link" href="configuration.html#mbox-hook" title="13. Using Multiple Spool Mailboxes"><span class="command"><strong>mbox-hook</strong></span></a> </p></li><li class="listitem"><p> <a class="link" href="configuration.html#message-hook" title="20. Change Settings Before Formatting a Message"><span class="command"><strong>message-hook</strong></span></a> </p></li><li class="listitem"><p> <a class="link" href="configuration.html#reply-hook"><span class="command"><strong>reply-hook</strong></span></a> </p></li><li class="listitem"><p> <a class="link" href="configuration.html#save-hook" title="16. Specify Default Save Mailbox"><span class="command"><strong>save-hook</strong></span></a> </p></li><li class="listitem"><p> <a class="link" href="configuration.html#send-hook" title="19. Change Settings Based Upon Message Recipients"><span class="command"><strong>send-hook</strong></span></a> </p></li><li class="listitem"><p> <a class="link" href="configuration.html#send2-hook"><span class="command"><strong>send2-hook</strong></span></a> </p></li></ul></div><p> for specific details on each type of <span class="emphasis"><em>hook</em></span> available. </p><div class="note"><h3 class="title">Note</h3><p> If a hook changes configuration settings, these changes remain effective until the end of the current Mutt session. As this is generally not desired, a <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">default</span>”</span> hook needs to be added before all other hooks of that type to restore configuration defaults. </p></div><div class="example"><a id="ex-default-hook"></a><p class="title"><strong>Example 4.3. Specifying a <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">default</span>”</span> hook</strong></p><div class="example-contents"><pre class="screen"> send-hook . 'unmy_hdr From:' send-hook ~C'^b@b\.b$' my_hdr from: c@c.c </pre></div></div><br class="example-break" /><p> In <a class="xref" href="advancedusage.html#ex-default-hook" title="Example 4.3. Specifying a “default” hook">Example 4.3, “Specifying a <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">default</span>”</span> hook”</a>, by default the value of <a class="link" href="reference.html#from" title="3.73. from">$from</a> and <a class="link" href="reference.html#realname" title="3.205. realname">$realname</a> is not overridden. When sending messages either To: or Cc: to <code class="literal"><b@b.b></code>, the From: header is changed to <code class="literal"><c@c.c></code>. </p><div class="sect2"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a id="pattern-hook"></a>5.1. Message Matching in Hooks</h3></div></div></div><p> Hooks that act upon messages (<span class="command"><strong>message-hook</strong></span>, <span class="command"><strong>reply-hook</strong></span>, <span class="command"><strong>send-hook</strong></span>, <span class="command"><strong>send2-hook</strong></span>, <span class="command"><strong>save-hook</strong></span>, <span class="command"><strong>fcc-hook</strong></span>) are evaluated in a slightly different manner. For the other types of hooks, a <a class="link" href="advancedusage.html#regexp" title="2. Regular Expressions">regular expression</a> is sufficient. But in dealing with messages a finer grain of control is needed for matching since for different purposes you want to match different criteria. </p><p> Mutt allows the use of the <a class="link" href="advancedusage.html#patterns" title="3. Patterns: Searching, Limiting and Tagging">search pattern</a> language for matching messages in hook commands. This works in exactly the same way as it would when <span class="emphasis"><em>limiting</em></span> or <span class="emphasis"><em>searching</em></span> the mailbox, except that you are restricted to those operators which match information Mutt extracts from the header of the message (i.e., from, to, cc, date, subject, etc.). </p><p> For example, if you wanted to set your return address based upon sending mail to a specific address, you could do something like: </p><pre class="screen"> send-hook '~t ^me@cs\.hmc\.edu$' 'my_hdr From: Mutt User <user@host>' </pre><p> which would execute the given command when sending mail to <span class="emphasis"><em>me@cs.hmc.edu</em></span>. </p><p> However, it is not required that you write the pattern to match using the full searching language. You can still specify a simple <span class="emphasis"><em>regular expression</em></span> like the other hooks, in which case Mutt will translate your pattern into the full language, using the translation specified by the <a class="link" href="reference.html#default-hook" title="3.48. default_hook">$default_hook</a> variable. The pattern is translated at the time the hook is declared, so the value of <a class="link" href="reference.html#default-hook" title="3.48. default_hook">$default_hook</a> that is in effect at that time will be used. </p></div></div><div class="sect1"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a id="query"></a>6. External Address Queries</h2></div></div></div><p> Mutt supports connecting to external directory databases such as LDAP, ph/qi, bbdb, or NIS through a wrapper script which connects to Mutt using a simple interface. Using the <a class="link" href="reference.html#query-command" title="3.199. query_command">$query_command</a> variable, you specify the wrapper command to use. For example: </p><pre class="screen"> set query_command = "mutt_ldap_query.pl %s" </pre><p> The wrapper script should accept the query on the command-line. It should return a one line message, then each matching response on a single line, each line containing a tab separated address then name then some other optional information. On error, or if there are no matching addresses, return a non-zero exit code and a one line error message. </p><p> An example multiple response output: </p><pre class="screen"> Searching database ... 20 entries ... 3 matching: me@cs.hmc.edu Michael Elkins mutt dude blong@fiction.net Brandon Long mutt and more roessler@does-not-exist.org Thomas Roessler mutt pgp </pre><p> There are two mechanisms for accessing the query function of Mutt. One is to do a query from the index menu using the <code class="literal"><query></code> function (default: Q). This will prompt for a query, then bring up the query menu which will list the matching responses. From the query menu, you can select addresses to create aliases, or to mail. You can tag multiple addresses to mail, start a new query, or have a new query appended to the current responses. </p><p> The other mechanism for accessing the query function is for address completion, similar to the alias completion. In any prompt for address entry, you can use the <code class="literal"><complete-query></code> function (default: ^T) to run a query based on the current address you have typed. Like aliases, Mutt will look for what you have typed back to the last space or comma. If there is a single response for that query, Mutt will expand the address in place. If there are multiple responses, Mutt will activate the query menu. At the query menu, you can select one or more addresses to be added to the prompt. </p></div><div class="sect1"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a id="mailbox-formats"></a>7. Mailbox Formats</h2></div></div></div><p> Mutt supports reading and writing of four different local mailbox formats: mbox, MMDF, MH and Maildir. The mailbox type is auto detected, so there is no need to use a flag for different mailbox types. When creating new mailboxes, Mutt uses the default specified with the <a class="link" href="reference.html#mbox-type" title="3.125. mbox_type">$mbox_type</a> variable. A short description of the formats follows. </p><p> <span class="emphasis"><em>mbox</em></span>. This is a widely used mailbox format for UNIX. All messages are stored in a single file. Each message has a line of the form: </p><pre class="screen"> From me@cs.hmc.edu Fri, 11 Apr 1997 11:44:56 PST </pre><p> to denote the start of a new message (this is often referred to as the <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">From_</span>”</span> line). The mbox format requires mailbox locking, is prone to mailbox corruption with concurrently writing clients or misinterpreted From_ lines. Depending on the environment, new mail detection can be unreliable. Mbox folders are fast to open and easy to archive. </p><p> <span class="emphasis"><em>MMDF</em></span>. This is a variant of the <span class="emphasis"><em>mbox</em></span> format. Each message is surrounded by lines containing <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">^A^A^A^A</span>”</span> (four times control-A's). The same problems as for mbox apply (also with finding the right message separator as four control-A's may appear in message bodies). </p><p> <span class="emphasis"><em>MH</em></span>. A radical departure from <span class="emphasis"><em>mbox</em></span> and <span class="emphasis"><em>MMDF</em></span>, a mailbox consists of a directory and each message is stored in a separate file. The filename indicates the message number (however, this is may not correspond to the message number Mutt displays). Deleted messages are renamed with a comma (<span class="quote">“<span class="quote">,</span>”</span>) prepended to the filename. Mutt detects this type of mailbox by looking for either <code class="literal">.mh_sequences</code> or <code class="literal">.xmhcache</code> files (needed to distinguish normal directories from MH mailboxes). MH is more robust with concurrent clients writing the mailbox, but still may suffer from lost flags; message corruption is less likely to occur than with mbox/mmdf. It's usually slower to open compared to mbox/mmdf since many small files have to be read (Mutt provides <a class="xref" href="optionalfeatures.html#header-caching" title="7.1. Header Caching">Section 7.1, “Header Caching”</a> to greatly speed this process up). Depending on the environment, MH is not very disk-space efficient. </p><p> <span class="emphasis"><em>Maildir</em></span>. The newest of the mailbox formats, used by the Qmail MTA (a replacement for sendmail). Similar to <span class="emphasis"><em>MH</em></span>, except that it adds three subdirectories of the mailbox: <span class="emphasis"><em>tmp</em></span>, <span class="emphasis"><em>new</em></span> and <span class="emphasis"><em>cur</em></span>. Filenames for the messages are chosen in such a way they are unique, even when two programs are writing the mailbox over NFS, which means that no file locking is needed and corruption is very unlikely. Maildir maybe slower to open without caching in Mutt, it too is not very disk-space efficient depending on the environment. Since no additional files are used for metadata (which is embedded in the message filenames) and Maildir is locking-free, it's easy to sync across different machines using file-level synchronization tools. </p></div><div class="sect1"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a id="shortcuts"></a>8. Mailbox Shortcuts</h2></div></div></div><p> There are a number of built in shortcuts which refer to specific mailboxes. These shortcuts can be used anywhere you are prompted for a file or mailbox path or in path-related configuration variables. Note that these only work at the beginning of a string. </p><div class="table"><a id="tab-mailbox-shortcuts"></a><p class="title"><strong>Table 4.7. Mailbox shortcuts</strong></p><div class="table-contents"><table summary="Mailbox shortcuts" border="1"><colgroup><col /><col /></colgroup><thead><tr><th>Shortcut</th><th>Refers to...</th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><code class="literal">!</code></td><td>your <a class="link" href="reference.html#spoolfile" title="3.265. spoolfile">$spoolfile</a> (incoming) mailbox</td></tr><tr><td><code class="literal">></code></td><td>your <a class="link" href="reference.html#mbox" title="3.124. mbox">$mbox</a> file</td></tr><tr><td><code class="literal"><</code></td><td>your <a class="link" href="reference.html#record" title="3.207. record">$record</a> file</td></tr><tr><td><code class="literal">^</code></td><td>the current mailbox</td></tr><tr><td><code class="literal">-</code> or <code class="literal">!!</code></td><td>the file you've last visited</td></tr><tr><td><code class="literal">~</code></td><td>your home directory</td></tr><tr><td><code class="literal">=</code> or <code class="literal">+</code></td><td>your <a class="link" href="reference.html#folder" title="3.64. folder">$folder</a> directory</td></tr><tr><td><span class="emphasis"><em>@alias</em></span></td><td>to the <a class="link" href="configuration.html#save-hook" title="16. Specify Default Save Mailbox">default save folder</a> as determined by the address of the alias</td></tr></tbody></table></div></div><br class="table-break" /><p> For example, to store a copy of outgoing messages in the folder they were composed in, a <a class="link" href="configuration.html#folder-hook" title="7. Setting Variables Based Upon Mailbox"><span class="command"><strong>folder-hook</strong></span></a> can be used to set <a class="link" href="reference.html#record" title="3.207. record">$record</a>: </p><pre class="screen"> folder-hook . 'set record=^'</pre></div><div class="sect1"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a id="using-lists"></a>9. Handling Mailing Lists</h2></div></div></div><p> Mutt has a few configuration options that make dealing with large amounts of mail easier. The first thing you must do is to let Mutt know what addresses you consider to be mailing lists (technically this does not have to be a mailing list, but that is what it is most often used for), and what lists you are subscribed to. This is accomplished through the use of the <a class="link" href="configuration.html#lists" title="12. Mailing Lists"><span class="command"><strong>lists</strong></span> and <span class="command"><strong>subscribe</strong></span></a> commands in your <code class="literal">.muttrc</code>. </p><p> Now that Mutt knows what your mailing lists are, it can do several things, the first of which is the ability to show the name of a list through which you received a message (i.e., of a subscribed list) in the <span class="emphasis"><em>index</em></span> menu display. This is useful to distinguish between personal and list mail in the same mailbox. In the <a class="link" href="reference.html#index-format" title="3.111. index_format">$index_format</a> variable, the expando <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">%L</span>”</span> will print the string <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">To <list></span>”</span> when <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">list</span>”</span> appears in the <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">To</span>”</span> field, and <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">Cc <list></span>”</span> when it appears in the <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">Cc</span>”</span> field (otherwise it prints the name of the author). </p><p> Often times the <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">To</span>”</span> and <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">Cc</span>”</span> fields in mailing list messages tend to get quite large. Most people do not bother to remove the author of the message they reply to from the list, resulting in two or more copies being sent to that person. The <code class="literal"><list-reply></code> function, which by default is bound to <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">L</span>”</span> in the <span class="emphasis"><em>index</em></span> menu and <span class="emphasis"><em>pager</em></span>, helps reduce the clutter by only replying to the known mailing list addresses instead of all recipients (except as specified by <code class="literal">Mail-Followup-To</code>, see below). </p><p> Mutt also supports the <code class="literal">Mail-Followup-To</code> header. When you send a message to a list of recipients which includes one or several subscribed mailing lists, and if the <a class="link" href="reference.html#followup-to" title="3.66. followup_to">$followup_to</a> option is set, Mutt will generate a Mail-Followup-To header which contains all the recipients to whom you send this message, but not your address. This indicates that group-replies or list-replies (also known as <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">followups</span>”</span>) to this message should only be sent to the original recipients of the message, and not separately to you - you'll receive your copy through one of the mailing lists you are subscribed to. </p><p> Conversely, when group-replying or list-replying to a message which has a <code class="literal">Mail-Followup-To</code> header, Mutt will respect this header if the <a class="link" href="reference.html#honor-followup-to" title="3.89. honor_followup_to">$honor_followup_to</a> configuration variable is set. Using <a class="link" href="gettingstarted.html#list-reply">list-reply</a> will in this case also make sure that the reply goes to the mailing list, even if it's not specified in the list of recipients in the <code class="literal">Mail-Followup-To</code>. </p><div class="note"><h3 class="title">Note</h3><p> When header editing is enabled, you can create a <code class="literal">Mail-Followup-To</code> header manually. Mutt will only auto-generate this header if it doesn't exist when you send the message. </p></div><p> The other method some mailing list admins use is to generate a <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">Reply-To</span>”</span> field which points back to the mailing list address rather than the author of the message. This can create problems when trying to reply directly to the author in private, since most mail clients will automatically reply to the address given in the <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">Reply-To</span>”</span> field. Mutt uses the <a class="link" href="reference.html#reply-to" title="3.210. reply_to">$reply_to</a> variable to help decide which address to use. If set to <span class="emphasis"><em>ask-yes</em></span> or <span class="emphasis"><em>ask-no</em></span>, you will be prompted as to whether or not you would like to use the address given in the <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">Reply-To</span>”</span> field, or reply directly to the address given in the <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">From</span>”</span> field. When set to <span class="emphasis"><em>yes</em></span>, the <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">Reply-To</span>”</span> field will be used when present. </p><p> The <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">X-Label:</span>”</span> header field can be used to further identify mailing lists or list subject matter (or just to annotate messages individually). The <a class="link" href="reference.html#index-format" title="3.111. index_format">$index_format</a> variable's <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">%y</span>”</span> and <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">%Y</span>”</span> expandos can be used to expand <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">X-Label:</span>”</span> fields in the index, and Mutt's pattern-matcher can match regular expressions to <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">X-Label:</span>”</span> fields with the <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">~y</span>”</span> selector. <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">X-Label:</span>”</span> is not a standard message header field, but it can easily be inserted by procmail and other mail filtering agents. </p><p> Lastly, Mutt has the ability to <a class="link" href="reference.html#sort" title="3.259. sort">sort</a> the mailbox into <a class="link" href="gettingstarted.html#threads" title="5.3. Threaded Mode">threads</a>. A thread is a group of messages which all relate to the same subject. This is usually organized into a tree-like structure where a message and all of its replies are represented graphically. If you've ever used a threaded news client, this is the same concept. It makes dealing with large volume mailing lists easier because you can easily delete uninteresting threads and quickly find topics of value. </p></div><div class="sect1"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a id="new-mail"></a>10. New Mail Detection</h2></div></div></div><p> Mutt supports setups with multiple folders, allowing all of them to be monitored for new mail (see <a class="xref" href="configuration.html#mailboxes" title="14. Monitoring Incoming Mail">Section 14, “Monitoring Incoming Mail”</a> for details). </p><div class="sect2"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a id="new-mail-formats"></a>10.1. How New Mail Detection Works</h3></div></div></div><p> For Mbox and Mmdf folders, new mail is detected by comparing access and/or modification times of files: Mutt assumes a folder has new mail if it wasn't accessed after it was last modified. Utilities like <code class="literal">biff</code> or <code class="literal">frm</code> or any other program which accesses the mailbox might cause Mutt to never detect new mail for that mailbox if they do not properly reset the access time. Other possible causes of Mutt not detecting new mail in these folders are backup tools (updating access times) or filesystems mounted without access time update support (for Linux systems, see the <code class="literal">relatime</code> option). </p><div class="note"><h3 class="title">Note</h3><p> Contrary to older Mutt releases, it now maintains the new mail status of a folder by properly resetting the access time if the folder contains at least one message which is neither read, nor deleted, nor marked as old. </p></div><p> In cases where new mail detection for Mbox or Mmdf folders appears to be unreliable, the <a class="link" href="reference.html#check-mbox-size" title="3.26. check_mbox_size">$check_mbox_size</a> option can be used to make Mutt track and consult file sizes for new mail detection instead which won't work for size-neutral changes. </p><p> New mail for Maildir is assumed if there is one message in the <code class="literal">new/</code> subdirectory which is not marked deleted (see <a class="link" href="reference.html#maildir-trash" title="3.120. maildir_trash">$maildir_trash</a>). For MH folders, a mailbox is considered having new mail if there's at least one message in the <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">unseen</span>”</span> sequence as specified by <a class="link" href="reference.html#mh-seq-unseen" title="3.137. mh_seq_unseen">$mh_seq_unseen</a>. </p><p> Mutt does not poll POP3 folders for new mail, it only periodically checks the currently opened folder (if it's a POP3 folder). </p><p> For IMAP, by default Mutt uses recent message counts provided by the server to detect new mail. If the <a class="link" href="reference.html#imap-idle" title="3.97. imap_idle">$imap_idle</a> option is set, it'll use the IMAP IDLE extension if advertised by the server. </p></div><div class="sect2"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a id="new-mail-polling"></a>10.2. Polling For New Mail</h3></div></div></div><p> When in the index menu and being idle (also see <a class="link" href="reference.html#timeout" title="3.287. timeout">$timeout</a>), Mutt periodically checks for new mail in all folders which have been configured via the <span class="command"><strong>mailboxes</strong></span> command. The interval depends on the folder type: for local/IMAP folders it consults <a class="link" href="reference.html#mail-check" title="3.115. mail_check">$mail_check</a> and <a class="link" href="reference.html#pop-checkinterval" title="3.183. pop_checkinterval">$pop_checkinterval</a> for POP folders. </p><p> Outside the index menu the directory browser supports checking for new mail using the <code class="literal"><check-new></code> function which is unbound by default. Pressing TAB will bring up a menu showing the files specified by the <span class="command"><strong>mailboxes</strong></span> command, and indicate which contain new messages. Mutt will automatically enter this mode when invoked from the command line with the <code class="literal">-y</code> option. </p><p> For the pager, index and directory browser menus, Mutt contains the <code class="literal"><buffy-list></code> function (bound to <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">.</span>”</span> by default) which will print a list of folders with new mail in the command line at the bottom of the screen. </p><p> For the index, by default Mutt displays the number of mailboxes with new mail in the status bar, please refer to the <a class="link" href="reference.html#status-format" title="3.278. status_format">$status_format</a> variable for details. </p><p> When changing folders, Mutt fills the prompt with the first folder from the mailboxes list containing new mail (if any), pressing <code class="literal"><Space></code> will cycle through folders with new mail. The (by default unbound) function <code class="literal"><next-unread-mailbox></code> in the index can be used to immediately open the next folder with unread mail (if any). </p></div></div><div class="sect1"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a id="editing-threads"></a>11. Editing Threads</h2></div></div></div><p> Mutt has the ability to dynamically restructure threads that are broken either by misconfigured software or bad behavior from some correspondents. This allows to clean your mailboxes from these annoyances which make it hard to follow a discussion. </p><div class="sect2"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a id="link-threads"></a>11.1. Linking Threads</h3></div></div></div><p> Some mailers tend to <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">forget</span>”</span> to correctly set the <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">In-Reply-To:</span>”</span> and <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">References:</span>”</span> headers when replying to a message. This results in broken discussions because Mutt has not enough information to guess the correct threading. You can fix this by tagging the reply, then moving to the parent message and using the <code class="literal"><link-threads></code> function (bound to & by default). The reply will then be connected to this parent message. </p><p> You can also connect multiple children at once, tagging them and using the <code class="literal"><tag-prefix></code> command (<span class="quote">“<span class="quote">;</span>”</span>) or the <a class="link" href="reference.html#auto-tag" title="3.17. auto_tag">$auto_tag</a> option. </p></div><div class="sect2"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h3 class="title"><a id="break-threads"></a>11.2. Breaking Threads</h3></div></div></div><p> On mailing lists, some people are in the bad habit of starting a new discussion by hitting <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">reply</span>”</span> to any message from the list and changing the subject to a totally unrelated one. You can fix such threads by using the <code class="literal"><break-thread></code> function (bound by default to #), which will turn the subthread starting from the current message into a whole different thread. </p></div></div><div class="sect1"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a id="dsn"></a>12. Delivery Status Notification (DSN) Support</h2></div></div></div><p> RFC1894 defines a set of MIME content types for relaying information about the status of electronic mail messages. These can be thought of as <span class="quote">“<span class="quote">return receipts.</span>”</span> </p><p> To support DSN, there are two variables. <a class="link" href="reference.html#dsn-notify" title="3.53. dsn_notify">$dsn_notify</a> is used to request receipts for different results (such as failed message, message delivered, etc.). <a class="link" href="reference.html#dsn-return" title="3.54. dsn_return">$dsn_return</a> requests how much of your message should be returned with the receipt (headers or full message). </p><p> When using <a class="link" href="reference.html#sendmail" title="3.226. sendmail">$sendmail</a> for mail delivery, you need to use either Berkeley sendmail 8.8.x (or greater) a MTA supporting DSN command line options compatible to Sendmail: The -N and -R options can be used by the mail client to make requests as to what type of status messages should be returned. Please consider your MTA documentation whether DSN is supported. </p><p> For SMTP delivery using <a class="link" href="reference.html#smtp-url" title="3.258. smtp_url">$smtp_url</a>, it depends on the capabilities announced by the server whether Mutt will attempt to request DSN or not. </p></div><div class="sect1"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a id="urlview"></a>13. Start a WWW Browser on URLs</h2></div></div></div><p> If a message contains URLs, it is efficient to get a menu with all the URLs and start a WWW browser on one of them. This functionality is provided by the external urlview program which can be retrieved at <a class="ulink" href="ftp://ftp.mutt.org/mutt/contrib/" target="_top">ftp://ftp.mutt.org/mutt/contrib/</a> and the configuration commands: </p><pre class="screen"> macro index \cb |urlview\n macro pager \cb |urlview\n </pre></div><div class="sect1"><div class="titlepage"><div><div><h2 class="title" style="clear: both"><a id="misc-topics"></a>14. Miscellany</h2></div></div></div><p> This section documents various features that fit nowhere else. </p><div class="variablelist"><dl class="variablelist"><dt><span class="term"> Address normalization </span></dt><dd><p> Mutt normalizes all e-mail addresses to the simplest form possible. If an address contains a realname, the form <span class="emphasis"><em>Joe User <joe@example.com></em></span> is used and the pure e-mail address without angle brackets otherwise, i.e. just <span class="emphasis"><em>joe@example.com</em></span>. </p><p> This normalization affects all headers Mutt generates including aliases. </p></dd><dt><span class="term"> Initial folder selection </span></dt><dd><p> The folder Mutt opens at startup is determined as follows: the folder specified in the <code class="literal">$MAIL</code> environment variable if present. Otherwise, the value of <code class="literal">$MAILDIR</code> is taken into account. If that isn't present either, Mutt takes the user's mailbox in the mailspool as determined at compile-time (which may also reside in the home directory). The <a class="link" href="reference.html#spoolfile" title="3.265. spoolfile">$spoolfile</a> setting overrides this selection. Highest priority has the mailbox given with the <code class="literal">-f</code> command line option. </p></dd></dl></div></div></div><div class="navfooter"><hr /><table width="100%" summary="Navigation footer"><tr><td width="40%" align="left"><a accesskey="p" href="configuration.html">Prev</a> </td><td width="20%" align="center"> </td><td width="40%" align="right"> <a accesskey="n" href="mimesupport.html">Next</a></td></tr><tr><td width="40%" align="left" valign="top">Chapter 3. Configuration </td><td width="20%" align="center"><a accesskey="h" href="index.html">Home</a></td><td width="40%" align="right" valign="top"> Chapter 5. Mutt's MIME Support</td></tr></table></div></body></html>