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| Viewing file: Select action/file-type: Table of Contents This section is intended as a brief overview of how to use Mutt. There are many other features which are described elsewhere in the manual. There is even more information available in the Mutt FAQ and various web pages. See the Mutt homepage for more details. The keybindings described in this section are the defaults as distributed. Your local system administrator may have altered the defaults for your site. You can always type “?” in any menu to display the current bindings.
The first thing you need to do is invoke Mutt, simply by typing Mutt is a text-based application which interacts with users through different menus which are mostly line-/entry-based or page-based. A line-based menu is the so-called “index” menu (listing all messages of the currently opened folder) or the “alias” menu (allowing you to select recipients from a list). Examples for page-based menus are the “pager” (showing one message at a time) or the “help” menu listing all available key bindings. The user interface consists of a context sensitive help line at the top, the menu's contents followed by a context sensitive status line and finally the command line. The command line is used to display informational and error messages as well as for prompts and for entering interactive commands. Mutt is configured through variables which, if the user wants to permanently use a non-default value, are written to configuration files. Mutt supports a rich config file syntax to make even complex configuration files readable and commentable. Because Mutt allows for customizing almost all key bindings, there are so-called “functions” which can be executed manually (using the command line) or in macros. Macros allow the user to bind a sequence of commands to a single key or a short key sequence instead of repeating a sequence of actions over and over. Many commands (such as saving or copying a message to another folder) can be applied to a single message or a set of messages (so-called “tagged” messages). To help selecting messages, Mutt provides a rich set of message patterns (such as recipients, sender, body contents, date sent/received, etc.) which can be combined into complex expressions using the boolean and and or operations as well as negating. These patterns can also be used to (for example) search for messages or to limit the index to show only matching messages. Mutt supports a “hook” concept which allows the user to execute arbitrary configuration commands and functions in certain situations such as entering a folder, starting a new message or replying to an existing one. These hooks can be used to highly customize Mutt's behaviour including managing multiple identities, customizing the display for a folder or even implementing auto-archiving based on a per-folder basis and much more.
Besides an interactive mode, Mutt can also be used as a command-line
tool only send messages. It also supports a
The index is the screen that you usually see first when you start Mutt. It gives an overview over your emails in the currently opened mailbox. By default, this is your system mailbox. The information you see in the index is a list of emails, each with its number on the left, its flags (new email, important email, email that has been forwarded or replied to, tagged email, ...), the date when email was sent, its sender, the email size, and the subject. Additionally, the index also shows thread hierarchies: when you reply to an email, and the other person replies back, you can see the other's person email in a "sub-tree" below. This is especially useful for personal email between a group of people or when you've subscribed to mailing lists. The pager is responsible for showing the email content. On the top of the pager you have an overview over the most important email headers like the sender, the recipient, the subject, and much more information. How much information you actually see depends on your configuration, which we'll describe below. Below the headers, you see the email body which usually contains the message. If the email contains any attachments, you will see more information about them below the email body, or, if the attachments are text files, you can view them directly in the pager. To give the user a good overview, it is possible to configure Mutt to show different things in the pager with different colors. Virtually everything that can be described with a regular expression can be colored, e.g. URLs, email addresses or smileys. The file browser is the interface to the local or remote file system. When selecting a mailbox to open, the browser allows custom sorting of items, limiting the items shown by a regular expression and a freely adjustable format of what to display in which way. It also allows for easy navigation through the file system when selecting file(s) to attach to a message, select multiple files to attach and many more. The help screen is meant to offer a quick help to the user. It lists the current configuration of key bindings and their associated commands including a short description, and currently unbound functions that still need to be associated with a key binding (or alternatively, they can be called via the Mutt command prompt). The compose menu features a split screen containing the information which really matter before actually sending a message by mail: who gets the message as what (recipients and who gets what kind of copy). Additionally, users may set security options like deciding whether to sign, encrypt or sign and encrypt a message with/for what keys. Also, it's used to attach messages, to re-edit any attachment including the message itself. The alias menu is used to help users finding the recipients of messages. For users who need to contact many people, there's no need to remember addresses or names completely because it allows for searching, too. The alias mechanism and thus the alias menu also features grouping several addresses by a shorter nickname, the actual alias, so that users don't have to select each single recipient manually. As will be later discussed in detail, Mutt features a good and stable MIME implementation, that is, it supports sending and receiving messages of arbitrary MIME types. The attachment menu displays a message's structure in detail: what content parts are attached to which parent part (which gives a true tree structure), which type is of what type and what size. Single parts may saved, deleted or modified to offer great and easy access to message's internals. The most important navigation keys common to line- or entry-based menus are shown in Table 2.1, “Most common navigation keys in entry-based menus” and in Table 2.2, “Most common navigation keys in page-based menus” for page-based menus. Table 2.1. Most common navigation keys in entry-based menus
Table 2.2. Most common navigation keys in page-based menus
Mutt has a built-in line editor for inputting text, e.g. email addresses or filenames. The keys used to manipulate text input are very similar to those of Emacs. See Table 2.3, “Most common line editor keys” for a full reference of available functions, their default key bindings, and short descriptions. Table 2.3. Most common line editor keys
You can remap the editor functions using the bind command. For example, to make the <Delete> key delete the character in front of the cursor rather than under, you could use: bind editor <delete> backspace
Mutt maintains a history for the built-in editor. The number of items
is controlled by the $history
variable and can be made persistent using an external file specified
using $history_file.
You may cycle through them at an editor prompt by using the
Mutt maintains several distinct history lists, one for each of the following categories:
Mutt automatically filters out consecutively repeated items from the history. It also mimics the behavior of some shells by ignoring items starting with a space. The latter feature can be useful in macros to not clobber the history's valuable entries with unwanted entries. Similar to many other mail clients, there are two modes in which mail is read in Mutt. The first is a list of messages in the mailbox, which is called the “index” menu in Mutt. The second mode is the display of the message contents. This is called the “pager.” The next few sections describe the functions provided in each of these modes. Common keys used to navigate through and manage messages in the index are shown in Table 2.4, “Most common message index keys”. How messages are presented in the index menu can be customized using the $index_format variable. Table 2.4. Most common message index keys
In addition to who sent the message and the subject, a short summary of
the disposition of each message is printed beside the message number.
Zero or more of the “flags” in Table 2.5, “Message status flags”
may appear, some of which can be turned on or off using these functions:
Furthermore, the flags in Table 2.6, “Message recipient flags” reflect who the message is addressed to. They can be customized with the $to_chars variable. Table 2.5. Message status flags
Table 2.6. Message recipient flags
By default, Mutt uses its builtin pager to display the contents of
messages (an external pager such as Table 2.7. Most common pager keys
In addition to key bindings in Table 2.7, “Most common pager keys”,
many of the functions from the index menu are also available in
the pager, such as Also, the internal pager supports a couple other advanced features. For one, it will accept and translate the “standard” nroff sequences for bold and underline. These sequences are a series of either the letter, backspace (“^H”), the letter again for bold or the letter, backspace, “_” for denoting underline. Mutt will attempt to display these in bold and underline respectively if your terminal supports them. If not, you can use the bold and underline color objects to specify a color or mono attribute for them. Additionally, the internal pager supports the ANSI escape sequences for character attributes. Mutt translates them into the correct color and character settings. The sequences Mutt supports are: \e[Ps;Ps;..Ps;m where Ps can be one of the codes shown in Table 2.8, “ANSI escape sequences”. Table 2.8. ANSI escape sequences
Mutt uses these attributes for handling NoteIf you change the colors for your display, for example by changing the color associated with color2 for your xterm, then that color will be used instead of green. NoteNote that the search commands in the pager take regular expressions, which are not quite the same as the more complex patterns used by the search command in the index. This is because patterns are used to select messages by criteria whereas the pager already displays a selected message. So-called “threads” provide a hierarchy of messages where replies are linked to their parent message(s). This organizational form is extremely useful in mailing lists where different parts of the discussion diverge. Mutt displays threads as a tree structure. In Mutt, when a mailbox is sorted by threads, there are a few additional functions available in the index and pager modes as shown in Table 2.10, “Most common thread mode keys”. Table 2.10. Most common thread mode keys
Collapsing a thread displays only the first message
in the thread and hides the others. This is useful when threads
contain so many messages that you can only see a handful of threads on
the screen. See %M in $index_format.
For example, you could use “%?M?(#%03M)&(%4l)?” in $index_format to optionally
display the number of hidden messages if the thread is
collapsed. The Technically, every reply should contain a list of its parent messages in the thread tree, but not all do. In these cases, Mutt groups them by subject which can be controlled using the $strict_threads variable. In addition, the index and pager menus have these interesting functions:
The bindings shown in Table 2.11, “Most common mail sending keys” are available in the index and pager to start a new message. Table 2.11. Most common mail sending keys
Bouncing a message sends the message as-is to the recipient you specify. Forwarding a message allows you to add comments or modify the message you are forwarding. These items are discussed in greater detail in the next section “Forwarding and Bouncing Mail.”
Mutt will then enter the compose menu and prompt you for the
recipients to place on the “To:” header field when you hit When replying, Mutt fills these fields with proper values depending on the reply type. The types of replying supported are:
After getting recipients for new messages, forwards or replies, Mutt will then automatically start your $editor on the message body. If the $edit_headers variable is set, the headers will be at the top of the message in your editor. Any messages you are replying to will be added in sort order to the message, with appropriate $attribution, $indent_string and $post_indent_string. When forwarding a message, if the $mime_forward variable is unset, a copy of the forwarded message will be included. If you have specified a $signature, it will be appended to the message. Once you have finished editing the body of your mail message, you are returned to the compose menu providing the functions shown in Table 2.12, “Most common compose menu keys” to modify, send or postpone the message. Table 2.12. Most common compose menu keys
The compose menu is also used to edit the attachments for a message which can be either files
or other messages. The NoteNote that certain operations like composing a new mail, replying, forwarding, etc. are not permitted when you are in that folder. The %r in $status_format will change to a “A” to indicate that you are in attach-message mode. When editing the header because of $edit_headers being set, there are a several pseudo headers available which will not be included in sent messages but trigger special Mutt behavior. If you specify
as a header, Mutt will pick up filename
just as if you had used the You can also attach files to your message by specifying
where filename is the file to attach and description is an optional string to use as the description of the attached file. Spaces in filenames have to be escaped using backslash (“\”). The file can be removed as well as more added from the compose menu. If you want to use PGP, you can specify
“E” selects encryption, “S” selects signing and “S<id>” selects signing with the given key, setting $pgp_sign_as permanently. The selection can later be changed in the compose menu. When replying to messages, the In-Reply-To: header contains the Message-Id of the message(s) you reply to. If you remove or modify its value, Mutt will not generate a References: field, which allows you to create a new message thread, for example to create a new message to a mailing list without having to enter the mailing list's address. If you have told Mutt to PGP or S/MIME encrypt a message, it will guide you through a key selection process when you try to send the message. Mutt will not ask you any questions about keys which have a certified user ID matching one of the message recipients' mail addresses. However, there may be situations in which there are several keys, weakly certified user ID fields, or where no matching keys can be found.
In these cases, you are dropped into a menu with a list of keys from
which you can select one. When you quit this menu, or Mutt can't
find any matching keys, you are prompted for a user ID. You can, as
usually, abort this prompt using Once you have successfully finished the key selection, the message will be encrypted using the selected public keys when sent out. Most fields of the entries in the key selection menu (see also $pgp_entry_format) have obvious meanings. But some explanations on the capabilities, flags, and validity fields are in order. The flags sequence (“%f”) will expand to one of the flags in Table 2.13, “PGP key menu flags”. Table 2.13. PGP key menu flags
The capabilities field (“%c”) expands to a two-character sequence representing a key's capabilities. The first character gives the key's encryption capabilities: A minus sign (“-”) means that the key cannot be used for encryption. A dot (“.”) means that it's marked as a signature key in one of the user IDs, but may also be used for encryption. The letter “e” indicates that this key can be used for encryption. The second character indicates the key's signing capabilities. Once again, a “-” implies “not for signing”, “.” implies that the key is marked as an encryption key in one of the user-ids, and “s” denotes a key which can be used for signing. Finally, the validity field (“%t”) indicates how well-certified a user-id is. A question mark (“?”) indicates undefined validity, a minus character (“-”) marks an untrusted association, a space character means a partially trusted association, and a plus character (“+”) indicates complete validity.
While for text-mode clients like Mutt it's the best way to assume only a standard 80x25 character cell terminal, it may be desired to let the receiver decide completely how to view a message.
Mutt only supports setting the required
After editing the initial message text and before entering
the compose menu, Mutt properly space-stuffs the message.
Space-stuffing is required by RfC3676 defining
Note
Mutt only supports space-stuffing
for the first two types of lines but not for the third: It is impossible to
safely detect whether a leading All leading spaces are to be removed by receiving clients to restore the original message prior to further processing.
As Mutt provides no additional features to compose Please note that when editing messages from the compose menu several times before really sending a mail, it's up to the user to ensure that the message is properly space-stuffed.
For example, vim provides the
Bouncing and forwarding let you send an existing message to recipients
that you specify. Bouncing a message sends a verbatim copy of a message
to alternative addresses as if they were the message's original
recipients specified in the Bcc header.
Forwarding a message, on the other hand, allows you to modify the message
before it is resent (for example, by adding your own comments). Bouncing
is done using the Forwarding can be done by including the original message in the new message's body (surrounded by indicating lines) or including it as a MIME attachment, depending on the value of the $mime_forward variable. Decoding of attachments, like in the pager, can be controlled by the $forward_decode and $mime_forward_decode variables, respectively. The desired forwarding format may depend on the content, therefore $mime_forward is a quadoption which, for example, can be set to “ask-no”. The inclusion of headers is controlled by the current setting of the $weed variable, unless $mime_forward is set. Editing the message to forward follows the same procedure as sending or replying to a message does.
At times it is desirable to delay sending a message that you have
already begun to compose. When the Once a message is postponed, there are several ways to resume it. From the command line you can use the “-p” option, or if you compose a new message from the index or pager you will be prompted if postponed messages exist. If multiple messages are currently postponed, the postponed menu will pop up and you can select which message you would like to resume. NoteIf you postpone a reply to a message, the reply setting of the message is only updated when you actually finish the message and send it. Also, you must be in the same folder with the message you replied to for the status of the message to be updated. See also the $postpone quad-option. |
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