Chapter 8. Reference

Controls whether 8-bit data is converted to 7-bit using either Quoted- Printable or Base64 encoding when sending mail.

3.6. allowansi

Controls whether ANSI color codes in messages (and color tags in rich text messages) are to be interpreted. Messages containing these codes are rare, but if this option is set, their text will be colored accordingly. Note that this may override your color choices, and even present a security problem, since a message could include a line like "-- PGP output follows ..." and give it the same color as your attachment color.

3.7. arrowcursor

When set, an arrow (``->'') will be used to indicate the current entry in menus instead of highlighting the whole line. On slow network or modem links this will make response faster because there is less that has to be redrawn on the screen when moving to the next or previous entries in the menu.

3.8. asciichars

If set, Mutt will use plain ASCII characters when displaying thread and attachment trees, instead of the default ACS characters.

3.9. askbcc

If set, Mutt will prompt you for blind-carbon-copy (Bcc) recipients before editing an outgoing message.

3.10. askcc

If set, Mutt will prompt you for carbon-copy (Cc) recipients before editing the body of an outgoing message.

3.11. assumedcharset

This variable is a colon-separated list of character encoding schemes for messages without character encoding indication. Header field values and message body content without character encoding indication would be assumed that they are written in one of this list. By default, all the header fields and message body without any charset indication are assumed to be in "us-ascii".

For example, Japanese users might prefer this:

set assumedcharset="iso-2022-jp:euc-jp:shiftjis:utf-8"

However, only the first content is valid for the message body.

3.12. attachcharset

Type: string
Default: "uDI t4n T.40d> .7m/.10M, .6e?C?, C?, s "

This variable is a colon-separated list of character encoding schemes for text file attachments. If unset, charset value will be used instead. For example, the following configuration would work for Japanese text handling:

set attachcharset="iso-2022-jp:euc-jp:shiftjis:utf-8"

Note: "iso-2022-*" must be put at the head of the value as shown above if included.

3.13. attachformat

This variable describes the format of the `attachment' menu. The following printf-style sequences are understood:

C: charset
c: requires charset conversion (n or c)
D: deleted flag
d: description
e: MIME content-transfer-encoding
f: filename
I: disposition (I=inline, A=attachment)
m: major MIME type
M: MIME subtype
n: attachment number
Q: "Q", if MIME part qualifies for attachment counting
s: size
t: tagged flag
T: graphic tree characters
u: unlink (=to delete) flag
X: number of qualifying MIME parts in this part and its children (please see the ``attachments'' section for possible speed effects)
>X: right justify the rest of the string and pad with character "X"
|X: pad to the end of the line with character "X"
*X: soft-fill with character "X" as pad

For an explanation of `soft-fill', see the indexformat documentation.

3.14. attachsep

Type: string
Default: "n"

The separator to add between attachments when operating (saving, printing, piping, etc) on a list of tagged attachments.

3.15. attachsplit

Type: string
Default: "On d, n wrote:"

If this variable is unset, when operating (saving, printing, piping, etc) on a list of tagged attachments, Mutt will concatenate the attachments and will operate on them as a single attachment. The attachsep separator is added after each attachment. When set, Mutt will operate on the attachments one by one.

3.16. attribution

This is the string that will precede a message which has been included in a reply. For a full listing of defined printf()-like sequences see the section on indexformat.

When set along with editheaders, Mutt will skip the initial send-menu and allow you to immediately begin editing the body of your message. The send-menu may still be accessed once you have finished editing the body of your message.

Also see fastreply.

3.18. autotag

When set, functions in the index menu which affect a message will be applied to all tagged messages (if there are any). When unset, you must first use the <tag-prefix> function (default: ";") to make the next function apply to all tagged messages.

3.19. beep

When this variable is set, mutt will beep when an error occurs.

3.20. beepnew

When this variable is set, mutt will beep whenever it prints a message notifying you of new mail. This is independent of the setting of the beep variable.

3.21. bounce

Controls whether you will be asked to confirm bouncing messages. If set to yes you don't get asked if you want to bounce a message. Setting this variable to no is not generally useful, and thus not recommended, because you are unable to bounce messages.

3.22. bouncedelivered

When this variable is set, mutt will include Delivered-To headers when bouncing messages. Postfix users may wish to unset this variable.

3.23. braillefriendly

When this variable is set, mutt will place the cursor at the beginning of the current line in menus, even when the arrowcursor variable is unset, making it easier for blind persons using Braille displays to follow these menus. The option is disabled by default because many visual terminals don't permit making the cursor invisible.

3.24. checkmboxsize

When this variable is set, mutt will use file size attribute instead of access time when checking for new mail in mbox and mmdf folders.

This variable is unset by default and should only be enabled when new mail detection for these folder types is unreliable or doesn't work.

Note that enabling this variable should happen before any ``mailboxes'' directives occur in configuration files regarding mbox or mmdf folders because mutt needs to determine the initial new mail status of such a mailbox by performing a fast mailbox scan when it is defined. Afterwards the new mail status is tracked by file size changes.

3.25. charset

Character set your terminal uses to display and enter textual data. It is also the fallback for sendcharset.

3.26. checknew

Note: this option only affects maildir and MH style mailboxes.

When set, Mutt will check for new mail delivered while the mailbox is open. Especially with MH mailboxes, this operation can take quite some time since it involves scanning the directory and checking each file to see if it has already been looked at. If checknew is unset, no check for new mail is performed while the mailbox is open.

3.27. collapseunread

When unset, Mutt will not collapse a thread if it contains any unread messages.

3.28. uncollapsejump

When set, Mutt will jump to the next unread message, if any, when the current thread is uncollapsed.

3.29. composeformat

Type: string
Default: "-- Mutt: Compose Approx. msg size: l Atts: a>-"

Controls the format of the status line displayed in the Compose menu. This string is similar to statusformat, but has its own set of printf()-like sequences:

a: total number of attachments
h: local hostname
l: approximate size (in bytes) of the current message
v: Mutt version string

See the text describing the statusformat option for more information on how to set composeformat.

3.30. configcharset

When defined, Mutt will recode commands in rc files from this encoding to the current character set as specified by charset and aliases written to aliasfile from the current character set.

Please note that if setting charset it must be done before setting configcharset.

Recoding should be avoided as it may render unconvertable characters as question marks which can lead to undesired side effects (for example in regular expressions).

3.31. confirmappend

When set, Mutt will prompt for confirmation when appending messages to an existing mailbox.

3.32. confirmcreate

When set, Mutt will prompt for confirmation when saving messages to a mailbox which does not yet exist before creating it.

3.33. connecttimeout

Type: number
Default: 30

Causes Mutt to timeout a network connection (for IMAP or POP) after this many seconds if the connection is not able to be established. A negative value causes Mutt to wait indefinitely for the connection to succeed.

3.34. contenttype

Type: string
Default: "text/plain"

Sets the default Content-Type for the body of newly composed messages.

3.35. copy

This variable controls whether or not copies of your outgoing messages will be saved for later references. Also see record, savename, forcename and ``fcc-hook''.

3.36. cryptusegpgme

This variable controls the use of the GPGME-enabled crypto backends. If it is set and Mutt was built with gpgme support, the gpgme code for S/MIME and PGP will be used instead of the classic code. Note that you need to set this option in .muttrc; it won't have any effect when used interactively.

3.37. cryptusepka

(http://www.g10code.de/docs/pka-intro.de.pdf) during signature verification (only supported by the GPGME backend).

3.38. cryptautopgp

This variable controls whether or not mutt may automatically enable PGP encryption/signing for messages. See also cryptautoencrypt, cryptreplyencrypt, cryptautosign, cryptreplysign'' and smimeisdefault.

3.39. cryptautosmime

This variable controls whether or not mutt may automatically enable S/MIME encryption/signing for messages. See also cryptautoencrypt, cryptreplyencrypt, cryptautosign, cryptreplysign and smimeisdefault.

3.40. dateformat

Type: string
Default: "!a, b d, Y at I:M:Sp Z"

This variable controls the format of the date printed by the ``d'' sequence in indexformat. This is passed to the strftime call to process the date. See the man page for strftime(3) for the proper syntax.

Unless the first character in the string is a bang (``!''), the month and week day names are expanded according to the locale specified in the variable locale. If the first character in the string is a bang, the bang is discarded, and the month and week day names in the rest of the string are expanded in the C locale (that is in US English).

3.41. defaulthook

Type: string
Default: "f s !P | (P C s)"

This variable controls how message-hooks, reply-hooks, send-hooks, send2-hooks, save-hooks, and fcc-hooks will be interpreted if they are specified with only a simple regexp, instead of a matching pattern. The hooks are expanded when they are declared, so a hook will be interpreted according to the value of this variable at the time the hook is declared. The default value matches if the message is either from a user matching the regular expression given, or if it is from you (if the from address matches ``alternates'') and is to or cc'ed to a user matching the given regular expression.

3.42. delete

Controls whether or not messages are really deleted when closing or synchronizing a mailbox. If set to yes, messages marked for deleting will automatically be purged without prompting. If set to no, messages marked for deletion will be kept in the mailbox.

3.43. deleteuntag

If this option is set, mutt will untag messages when marking them for deletion. This applies when you either explicitly delete a message, or when you save it to another folder.

3.44. digestcollapse

If this option is set, mutt's received-attachments menu will not show the subparts of individual messages in a multipart/digest. To see these subparts, press 'v' on that menu.

3.45. displayfilter

Type: path
Default: "/mit/sipb/arch/sun4x510/lib/mutt-1.5.12/bin/muttdotlock"

When set, specifies a command used to filter messages. When a message is viewed it is passed as standard input to displayfilter, and the filtered message is read from the standard output.

3.46. dotlockprogram

Contains the path of the muttdotlock (8) binary to be used by mutt.

3.47. dsnnotify

This variable sets the request for when notification is returned. The string consists of a comma separated list (no spaces!) of one or more of the following: never, to never request notification, failure, to request notification on transmission failure, delay, to be notified of message delays, success, to be notified of successful transmission.

Example: set dsnnotify="failure,delay"

Note: when using sendmail for delivery, you should not enable this unless you are either using Sendmail 8.8.x or greater or a MTA providing a sendmail(1)-compatible interface supporting the -N option for DSN. For SMTP delivery, it depends on the server whether DSN is supported or not.

3.48. dsnreturn

This variable controls how much of your message is returned in DSN messages. It may be set to either hdrs to return just the message header, or full to return the full message.

Example: set dsnreturn=hdrs

Note: when using sendmail for delivery, you should not enable this unless you are either using Sendmail 8.8.x or greater or a MTA providing a sendmail(1)-compatible interface supporting the -R option for DSN. For SMTP delivery, it depends on the server whether DSN is supported or not.

3.49. duplicatethreads

This variable controls whether mutt, when sorting by threads, threads messages with the same message-id together. If it is set, it will indicate that it thinks they are duplicates of each other with an equals sign in the thread diagram.

3.50. editheaders

This option allows you to edit the header of your outgoing messages along with the body of your message.

Note that changes made to the References: and Date: headers are ignored for interoperability reasons.

3.51. editor

This variable specifies which editor is used by mutt. It defaults to the value of the VISUAL, or EDITOR, environment variable, or to the string "vi" if neither of those are set.

3.52. encodefrom

When set, mutt will quoted-printable encode messages when they contain the string "From " in the beginning of a line. Useful to avoid the tampering certain mail delivery and transport agents tend to do with messages.

3.53. envelopefromaddress

Type: e-mail address
Default: ""

Manually sets the envelope sender for outgoing messages. This value is ignored if useenvelopefrom is unset.

3.54. escape

Escape character to use for functions in the builtin editor.

3.55. fastreply

When set, the initial prompt for recipients and subject are skipped when replying to messages, and the initial prompt for subject is skipped when forwarding messages.

Note: this variable has no effect when the autoedit variable is set.

3.56. fccattach

This variable controls whether or not attachments on outgoing messages are saved along with the main body of your message.

3.57. fccclear

When this variable is set, FCCs will be stored unencrypted and unsigned, even when the actual message is encrypted and/or signed. (PGP only)

3.58. folder

Type: path
Default: "/Mail"

Specifies the default location of your mailboxes. A `+' or `=' at the beginning of a pathname will be expanded to the value of this variable. Note that if you change this variable from the default value you need to make sure that the assignment occurs before you use `+' or `=' for any other variables since expansion takes place during the `set' command.

3.59. folderformat

Type: string
Default: "2C t N F 2l -8.8u -8.8g 8s d f"

This variable allows you to customize the file browser display to your personal taste. This string is similar to indexformat, but has its own set of printf()-like sequences:

C: current file number
d: date/time folder was last modified
f: filename
F: file permissions
g: group name (or numeric gid, if missing)
l: number of hard links
N: N if folder has new mail, blank otherwise
s: size in bytes
t: * if the file is tagged, blank otherwise
u: owner name (or numeric uid, if missing)
>X: right justify the rest of the string and pad with character "X"
|X: pad to the end of the line with character "X"
*X: soft-fill with character "X" as pad

For an explanation of `soft-fill', see the indexformat documentation.

3.60. followupto

Controls whether or not the Mail-Followup-To header field is generated when sending mail. When set, Mutt will generate this field when you are replying to a known mailing list, specified with the ``subscribe'' or ``lists'' commands.

This field has two purposes. First, preventing you from receiving duplicate copies of replies to messages which you send to mailing lists, and second, ensuring that you do get a reply separately for any messages sent to known lists to which you are not subscribed. The header will contain only the list's address for subscribed lists, and both the list address and your own email address for unsubscribed lists. Without this header, a group reply to your message sent to a subscribed list will be sent to both the list and your address, resulting in two copies of the same email for you.

3.61. forcename

This variable is similar to savename, except that Mutt will store a copy of your outgoing message by the username of the address you are sending to even if that mailbox does not exist.

Also see the record variable.

3.62. forwarddecode

Controls the decoding of complex MIME messages into text/plain when forwarding a message. The message header is also RFC2047 decoded. This variable is only used, if mimeforward is unset, otherwise mimeforwarddecode is used instead.

3.63. forwardedit

This quadoption controls whether or not the user is automatically placed in the editor when forwarding messages. For those who always want to forward with no modification, use a setting of ``no''.

3.64. forwardformat

Type: string
Default: "a: s"

This variable controls the default subject when forwarding a message. It uses the same format sequences as the indexformat variable.

3.65. forwardquote

Type: e-mail address
Default: ""

When set forwarded messages included in the main body of the message (when mimeforward is unset) will be quoted using indentstring.

3.66. from

When set, this variable contains a default from address. It can be overridden using myhdr (including from send-hooks) and reversename. This variable is ignored if usefrom is unset.

Defaults to the contents of the environment variable EMAIL.

3.67. gecosmask

Type: regular expression
Default: "^^,*"

A regular expression used by mutt to parse the GECOS field of a password entry when expanding the alias. By default the regular expression is set to "^^,*" which will return the string up to the first "," encountered. If the GECOS field contains a string like "lastname, firstname" then you should set the gecosmask=".*".

This can be useful if you see the following behavior: you address a e-mail to user ID stevef whose full name is Steve Franklin. If mutt expands stevef to "Franklin" stevef@foo.bar then you should set the gecosmask to a regular expression that will match the whole name so mutt will expand "Franklin" to "Franklin, Steve".

3.68. hdrs

When unset, the header fields normally added by the ``myhdr'' command are not created. This variable must be unset before composing a new message or replying in order to take effect. If set, the user defined header fields are added to every new message.

3.69. header

When set, this variable causes Mutt to include the header of the message you are replying to into the edit buffer. The weed setting applies.

3.70. help

When set, help lines describing the bindings for the major functions provided by each menu are displayed on the first line of the screen.

Note: The binding will not be displayed correctly if the function is bound to a sequence rather than a single keystroke. Also, the help line may not be updated if a binding is changed while Mutt is running. Since this variable is primarily aimed at new users, neither of these should present a major problem.

3.71. hiddenhost

When set, mutt will skip the host name part of hostname variable when adding the domain part to addresses. This variable does not affect the generation of Message-IDs, and it will not lead to the cut-off of first-level domains.

3.72. hidelimited

When set, mutt will not show the presence of messages that are hidden by limiting, in the thread tree.

3.73. hidemissing

When set, mutt will not show the presence of missing messages in the thread tree.

3.74. hidethreadsubject

When set, mutt will not show the subject of messages in the thread tree that have the same subject as their parent or closest previously displayed sibling.

3.75. hidetoplimited

When set, mutt will not show the presence of messages that are hidden by limiting, at the top of threads in the thread tree. Note that when hidelimited is set, this option will have no effect.

3.76. hidetopmissing

When set, mutt will not show the presence of missing messages at the top of threads in the thread tree. Note that when hidemissing is set, this option will have no effect.

3.77. history

This variable controls the size (in number of strings remembered) of the string history buffer. The buffer is cleared each time the variable is set.

3.78. historyfile

Type: path
Default: "/.mutthistory"

The file in which Mutt will save its history.

3.79. honorfollowupto

This variable controls whether or not a Mail-Followup-To header is honored when group-replying to a message.

3.80. hostname

Specifies the fully-qualified hostname of the system mutt is running on containing the host's name and the DNS domain it belongs to. It is used as the domain part (after ``@'') for local email addresses as well as Message-Id headers.

Its value is determined at startup as follows: If the node's name as returned by the uname(3) function contains the hostname and the domain, these are used to construct hostname. If there is no domain part returned, Mutt will look for a ``domain'' or ``search'' line in /etc/resolv.conf to determine the domain. Optionally, Mutt can be compiled with a fixed domain name in which case a detected one is not used.

Also see usedomain and hiddenhost.

3.81. ignorelinearwhitespace

This option replaces linear-white-space between encoded-word and *text to a single space to prevent the display of MIME-encoded ``Subject'' field from being divided into multiple lines.

3.82. ignorelistreplyto

Affects the behaviour of the <reply> function when replying to messages from mailing lists (as defined by the ``subscribe'' or ``lists'' commands). When set, if the ``Reply-To:'' field is set to the same value as the ``To:'' field, Mutt assumes that the ``Reply-To:'' field was set by the mailing list to automate responses to the list, and will ignore this field. To direct a response to the mailing list when this option is set, use the <list-reply> function; <group-reply> will reply to both the sender and the list.

3.83. imapauthenticators

This is a colon-delimited list of authentication methods mutt may attempt to use to log in to an IMAP server, in the order mutt should try them. Authentication methods are either 'login' or the right side of an IMAP 'AUTH=xxx' capability string, eg 'digest-md5', 'gssapi' or 'cram-md5'. This parameter is case-insensitive. If this parameter is unset (the default) mutt will try all available methods, in order from most-secure to least-secure.

Example: set imapauthenticators="gssapi:cram-md5:login"

Note: Mutt will only fall back to other authentication methods if the previous methods are unavailable. If a method is available but authentication fails, mutt will not connect to the IMAP server.

3.84. imapchecksubscribed

When set, mutt will fetch the set of subscribed folders from your server on connection, and add them to the set of mailboxes it polls for new mail. See also the ``mailboxes'' command.

3.85. imapdelimchars

Type: string
Default: "/."

This contains the list of characters which you would like to treat as folder separators for displaying IMAP paths. In particular it helps in using the '=' shortcut for your folder variable.

3.86. imapheaders

Mutt requests these header fields in addition to the default headers ("DATE FROM SUBJECT TO CC MESSAGE-ID REFERENCES CONTENT-TYPE CONTENT-DESCRIPTION IN-REPLY-TO REPLY-TO LINES X-LABEL") from IMAP servers before displaying the index menu. You may want to add more headers for spam detection. Note: This is a space separated list.

3.87. imapidle

When set, mutt will attempt to use the IMAP IDLE extension to check for new mail in the current mailbox. Some servers (dovecot was the inspiration for this option) react badly to mutt's implementation. If your connection seems to freeze up periodically, try unsetting this.

3.88. imapkeepalive

Type: number
Default: 900

This variable specifies the maximum amount of time in seconds that mutt will wait before polling open IMAP connections, to prevent the server from closing them before mutt has finished with them. The default is well within the RFC-specified minimum amount of time (30 minutes) before a server is allowed to do this, but in practice the RFC does get violated every now and then. Reduce this number if you find yourself getting disconnected from your IMAP server due to inactivity.

3.89. imaplistsubscribed

This variable configures whether IMAP folder browsing will look for only subscribed folders or all folders. This can be toggled in the IMAP browser with the <toggle-subscribed> function.

3.90. imaplogin

Your login name on the IMAP server.

This variable defaults to the value of imapuser.

3.91. imappass

Specifies the password for your IMAP account. If unset, Mutt will prompt you for your password when you invoke the <fetch-mail> function. Warning: you should only use this option when you are on a fairly secure machine, because the superuser can read your muttrc even if you are the only one who can read the file.

3.92. imappassive

When set, mutt will not open new IMAP connections to check for new mail. Mutt will only check for new mail over existing IMAP connections. This is useful if you don't want to be prompted to user/password pairs on mutt invocation, or if opening the connection is slow.

3.93. imappeek

When set, mutt will avoid implicitly marking your mail as read whenever you fetch a message from the server. This is generally a good thing, but can make closing an IMAP folder somewhat slower. This option exists to appease speed freaks.

3.94. imappipelinedepth

Type: number
Default: 15

Controls the number of IMAP commands that may be queued up before they are sent to the server. A deeper pipeline reduces the amount of time mutt must wait for the server, and can make IMAP servers feel much more responsive. But not all servers correctly handle pipelined commands, so if you have problems you might want to try setting this variable to 0.

Note: Changes to this variable have no effect on open connections.

3.95. imapservernoise

When set, mutt will display warning messages from the IMAP server as error messages. Since these messages are often harmless, or generated due to configuration problems on the server which are out of the users' hands, you may wish to suppress them at some point.

3.96. imapuser

The name of the user whose mail you intend to access on the IMAP server.

This variable defaults to your user name on the local machine.

3.97. implicitautoview

If set to ``yes'', mutt will look for a mailcap entry with the copiousoutput flag set for every MIME attachment it doesn't have an internal viewer defined for. If such an entry is found, mutt will use the viewer defined in that entry to convert the body part to text form.

3.98. include

Controls whether or not a copy of the message(s) you are replying to is included in your reply.

3.99. includeonlyfirst

Controls whether or not Mutt includes only the first attachment of the message you are replying.

3.100. indentstring

Type: string
Default: "> "

Specifies the string to prepend to each line of text quoted in a message to which you are replying. You are strongly encouraged not to change this value, as it tends to agitate the more fanatical netizens.

This option is a format string, please see the description of indexformat for supported printf()-style sequences.

3.101. indexformat

Type: string
Default: "4C Z {b d} -15.15L (?l?4l&4c?) s"

This variable allows you to customize the message index display to your personal taste.

``Format strings'' are similar to the strings used in the ``C'' function printf to format output (see the man page for more detail). The following sequences are defined in Mutt:

a: address of the author
A: reply-to address (if present; otherwise: address of author)
b: filename of the original message folder (think mailBox)
B: the list to which the letter was sent, or else the folder name (b).
c: number of characters (bytes) in the message
C: current message number
d: date and time of the message in the format specified by ``dateformat'' converted to sender's time zone
D: date and time of the message in the format specified by ``dateformat'' converted to the local time zone
e: current message number in thread
E: number of messages in current thread
f: sender (address + real name), either From: or Return-Path:
F: author name, or recipient name if the message is from you
H: spam attribute(s) of this message
i: message-id of the current message
l: number of lines in the message (does not work with maildir, mh, and possibly IMAP folders)
L: If an address in the To or CC header field matches an address defined by the users ``subscribe'' command, this displays "To <list-name>", otherwise the same as F.
m: total number of message in the mailbox
M: number of hidden messages if the thread is collapsed.
N: message score
n: author's real name (or address if missing)
O: (Original save folder) Where mutt would formerly have stashed the message: list name or recipient name if no list
P: progress indicator for the builtin pager (how much of the file has been displayed)
s: subject of the message
S: status of the message (N/D/d/!/r/*)
t: `to:' field (recipients)
T: the appropriate character from the tochars string
u: user (login) name of the author
v: first name of the author, or the recipient if the message is from you
X: number of attachments (please see the ``attachments'' section for possible speed effects)
y: `x-label:' field, if present
Y: `x-label' field, if present, and (1) not at part of a thread tree, (2) at the top of a thread, or (3) `x-label' is different from preceding message's `x-label'.
Z: message status flags
{fmt}: the date and time of the message is converted to sender's time zone, and ``fmt'' is expanded by the library function ``strftime''; a leading bang disables locales
fmt: the date and time of the message is converted to the local time zone, and ``fmt'' is expanded by the library function ``strftime''; a leading bang disables locales
(fmt): the local date and time when the message was received. ``fmt'' is expanded by the library function ``strftime''; a leading bang disables locales
<fmt>: the current local time. ``fmt'' is expanded by the library function ``strftime''; a leading bang disables locales.
>X: right justify the rest of the string and pad with character "X"
|X: pad to the end of the line with character "X"
*X: soft-fill with character "X" as pad

`Soft-fill' deserves some explanation. Normal right-justification will print everything to the left of the >, displaying padding and the whatever lies to the right only if there's room. By contrast, soft-fill gives priority to the right-hand side, guaranteeing space to display it and showing padding only if there's still room. If necessary, soft-fill will eat text leftwards to make room for rightward text.

Note that these expandos are supported in ``save-hook'', ``fcc-hook'' and ``fcc-save-hook'', too.

3.102. ispell

Type: path
Default: "/usr/athena/bin/ispell"

How to invoke ispell (GNU's spell-checking software).

3.103. keepflagged

Type: string
Default: "C"

If set, read messages marked as flagged will not be moved from your spool mailbox to your mbox mailbox, or as a result of a ``mbox-hook'' command.

3.104. locale

The locale used by strftime(3) to format dates. Legal values are the strings your system accepts for the locale variable LCTIME.

3.105. mailcheck

Type: number
Default: 5

This variable configures how often (in seconds) mutt should look for new mail. Also see the timeout variable.

3.106. mailcappath

This variable specifies which files to consult when attempting to display MIME bodies not directly supported by Mutt.

3.107. mailcapsanitize

If set, mutt will restrict possible characters in mailcap expandos to a well-defined set of safe characters. This is the safe setting, but we are not sure it doesn't break some more advanced MIME stuff.

DON'T CHANGE THIS SETTING UNLESS YOU ARE REALLY SURE WHAT YOU ARE DOING!

3.108. headercache

The headercache variable points to the header cache database. If headercache points to a directory it will contain a header cache database per folder. If headercache points to a file that file will be a single global header cache. By default it is unset so no header caching will be used.

3.109. maildirheadercacheverify

Check for Maildir unaware programs other than mutt having modified maildir files when the header cache is in use. This incurs one stat(2) per message every time the folder is opened.

3.110. headercachepagesize

Type: string
Default: "16384"

When mutt is compiled with either gdbm or bdb4 as the header cache backend, this option changes the database page size. Too large or too small values can waste space, memory, or CPU time. The default should be more or less optimal for most use cases.

3.111. headercachecompress

When mutt is compiled with qdbm as header cache backend, this option determines whether the database will be compressed. Compression results in database files roughly being one fifth of the usual diskspace, but the uncompression can result in a slower opening of cached folder(s).

3.112. maildirtrash

If set, messages marked as deleted will be saved with the maildir (T)rashed flag instead of unlinked. NOTE: this only applies to maildir-style mailboxes. Setting it will have no effect on other mailbox types.

3.113. markold

Controls whether or not mutt marks new unread messages as old if you exit a mailbox without reading them. With this option set, the next time you start mutt, the messages will show up with an "O" next to them in the index menu, indicating that they are old.

3.114. markers

Controls the display of wrapped lines in the internal pager. If set, a ``+'' marker is displayed at the beginning of wrapped lines. Also see the smartwrap variable.

3.115. mask

Type: regular expression
Default: "!^.^."

A regular expression used in the file browser, optionally preceded by the not operator ``!''. Only files whose names match this mask will be shown. The match is always case-sensitive.

3.116. mbox

Type: path
Default: "/mbox"

This specifies the folder into which read mail in your spoolfile folder will be appended.

3.117. mboxtype

Type: folder magic
Default: mbox

The default mailbox type used when creating new folders. May be any of mbox, MMDF, MH and Maildir.

3.118. metoo

If unset, Mutt will remove your address (see the ``alternates'' command) from the list of recipients when replying to a message.

3.119. menucontext

This variable controls the number of lines of context that are given when scrolling through menus. (Similar to pagercontext.)

3.120. menumoveoff

When unset, the bottom entry of menus will never scroll up past the bottom of the screen, unless there are less entries than lines. When set, the bottom entry may move off the bottom.

3.121. menuscroll

When set, menus will be scrolled up or down one line when you attempt to move across a screen boundary. If unset, the screen is cleared and the next or previous page of the menu is displayed (useful for slow links to avoid many redraws).

3.122. metakey

If set, forces Mutt to interpret keystrokes with the high bit (bit 8) set as if the user had pressed the ESC key and whatever key remains after having the high bit removed. For example, if the key pressed has an ASCII value of 0xf8, then this is treated as if the user had pressed ESC then ``x''. This is because the result of removing the high bit from ``0xf8'' is ``0x78'', which is the ASCII character ``x''.

3.123. mhpurge

When unset, mutt will mimic mh's behaviour and rename deleted messages to ,<old file name> in mh folders instead of really deleting them. If the variable is set, the message files will simply be deleted.

3.124. mhseqflagged

Type: string
Default: "flagged"

The name of the MH sequence used for flagged messages.

3.125. mhseqreplied

Type: string
Default: "replied"

The name of the MH sequence used to tag replied messages.

3.126. mhsequnseen

Type: string
Default: "unseen"

The name of the MH sequence used for unseen messages.

3.127. mimeforward

Type: quadoption
Default: no

When set, the message you are forwarding will be attached as a separate MIME part instead of included in the main body of the message. This is useful for forwarding MIME messages so the receiver can properly view the message as it was delivered to you. If you like to switch between MIME and not MIME from mail to mail, set this variable to ask-no or ask-yes.

Also see forwarddecode and mimeforwarddecode.

3.128. mimeforwarddecode

Controls the decoding of complex MIME messages into text/plain when forwarding a message while mimeforward is set. Otherwise forwarddecode is used instead.

3.129. mimeforwardrest

When forwarding multiple attachments of a MIME message from the recvattach menu, attachments which cannot be decoded in a reasonable manner will be attached to the newly composed message if this option is set.

3.130. mixentryformat

Type: string
Default: "4n c -16s a"

This variable describes the format of a remailer line on the mixmaster chain selection screen. The following printf-like sequences are supported:

n: The running number on the menu.
c: Remailer capabilities.
s: The remailer's short name.
a: The remailer's e-mail address.

3.131. mixmaster

Type: path
Default: "mixmaster"

This variable contains the path to the Mixmaster binary on your system. It is used with various sets of parameters to gather the list of known remailers, and to finally send a message through the mixmaster chain.

3.132. move

Type: quadoption
Default: no

Controls whether or not Mutt will move read messages from your spool mailbox to your mbox mailbox, or as a result of a ``mbox-hook'' command.

3.133. messagecachedir

Set this to a directory and mutt will cache copies of messages from your IMAP and POP servers here. You are free to remove entries at any time, for instance if stale entries accumulate because you have deleted messages with another mail client.

3.134. messagecacheclean

If set, mutt will clean out obsolete entries from the cache when the mailbox is synchronized. You probably only want to set it every once in a while, since it can be a little slow.

3.135. messageformat

Type: string
Default: "s"

This is the string displayed in the ``attachment'' menu for attachments of type message/rfc822. For a full listing of defined printf()-like sequences see the section on indexformat.

3.136. narrowtree

This variable, when set, makes the thread tree narrower, allowing deeper threads to fit on the screen.

3.137. netinc

Operations that expect to transfer a large amount of data over the network will update their progress every netinc kilobytes. If set to 0, no progress messages will be displayed.

3.138. pager

Type: path
Default: "builtin"

This variable specifies which pager you would like to use to view messages. builtin means to use the builtin pager, otherwise this variable should specify the pathname of the external pager you would like to use.

Using an external pager may have some disadvantages: Additional keystrokes are necessary because you can't call mutt functions directly from the pager, and screen resizes cause lines longer than the screen width to be badly formatted in the help menu.

3.139. pagercontext

This variable controls the number of lines of context that are given when displaying the next or previous page in the internal pager. By default, Mutt will display the line after the last one on the screen at the top of the next page (0 lines of context).

3.140. pagerformat

Type: string
Default: "-Z- C/m: -20.20n s* -- (P)"

This variable controls the format of the one-line message ``status'' displayed before each message in either the internal or an external pager. The valid sequences are listed in the indexformat section.

3.141. pagerindexlines

Determines the number of lines of a mini-index which is shown when in the pager. The current message, unless near the top or bottom of the folder, will be roughly one third of the way down this mini-index, giving the reader the context of a few messages before and after the message. This is useful, for example, to determine how many messages remain to be read in the current thread. One of the lines is reserved for the status bar from the index, so a pagerindexlines of 6 will only show 5 lines of the actual index. A value of 0 results in no index being shown. If the number of messages in the current folder is less than pagerindexlines, then the index will only use as many lines as it needs.

3.142. pagerstop

When set, the internal-pager will not move to the next message when you are at the end of a message and invoke the <next-page function.

3.143. cryptautosign

Setting this variable will cause Mutt to always attempt to cryptographically sign outgoing messages. This can be overridden by use of the pgp-menu, when signing is not required or encryption is requested as well. If smimeisdefault is set, then OpenSSL is used instead to create S/MIME messages and settings can be overridden by use of the smime-menu. (Crypto only)

3.144. cryptautoencrypt

Setting this variable will cause Mutt to always attempt to PGP encrypt outgoing messages. This is probably only useful in connection to the send-hook command. It can be overridden by use of the pgp-menu, when encryption is not required or signing is requested as well. IF smimeisdefault is set, then OpenSSL is used instead to create S/MIME messages and settings can be overridden by use of the smime-menu. (Crypto only)

3.145. pgpignoresubkeys

Setting this variable will cause Mutt to ignore OpenPGP subkeys. Instead, the principal key will inherit the subkeys' capabilities. Unset this if you want to play interesting key selection games. (PGP only)

3.146. cryptreplyencrypt

If set, automatically PGP or OpenSSL encrypt replies to messages which are encrypted. (Crypto only)

3.147. cryptreplysign

If set, automatically PGP or OpenSSL sign replies to messages which are signed.

Note: this does not work on messages that are encrypted and signed! (Crypto only)

3.148. cryptreplysignencrypted

If set, automatically PGP or OpenSSL sign replies to messages which are encrypted. This makes sense in combination with cryptreplyencrypt, because it allows you to sign all messages which are automatically encrypted. This works around the problem noted in cryptreplysign, that mutt is not able to find out whether an encrypted message is also signed. (Crypto only)

3.149. crypttimestamp

If set, mutt will include a time stamp in the lines surrounding PGP or S/MIME output, so spoofing such lines is more difficult. If you are using colors to mark these lines, and rely on these, you may unset this setting. (Crypto only)

3.150. pgpusegpgagent

If set, mutt will use a possibly-running gpg-agent process. (PGP only)

3.151. cryptverifysig

If ``yes'', always attempt to verify PGP or S/MIME signatures. If ``ask'', ask whether or not to verify the signature. If ``no'', never attempt to verify cryptographic signatures. (Crypto only)

3.152. smimeisdefault

The default behaviour of mutt is to use PGP on all auto-sign/encryption operations. To override and to use OpenSSL instead this must be set. However, this has no effect while replying, since mutt will automatically select the same application that was used to sign/encrypt the original message. (Note that this variable can be overridden by unsetting cryptautosmime.) (S/MIME only)

3.153. smimeaskcertlabel

This flag controls whether you want to be asked to enter a label for a certificate about to be added to the database or not. It is set by default. (S/MIME only)

3.154. smimedecryptusedefaultkey

If set (default) this tells mutt to use the default key for decryption. Otherwise, if manage multiple certificate-key-pairs, mutt will try to use the mailbox-address to determine the key to use. It will ask you to supply a key, if it can't find one. (S/MIME only)

3.155. pgpentryformat

Type: string
Default: "4n tf 4l/0xk -4a 2c u"

This variable allows you to customize the PGP key selection menu to your personal taste. This string is similar to indexformat, but has its own set of printf()-like sequences:

n: number
k: key id
u: user id
a: algorithm
l: key length
f: flags
c: capabilities
t: trust/validity of the key-uid association
<s>: date of the key where <s> is an strftime(3) expression

(PGP only)

3.156. pgpgoodsign

Type: regular expression
Default: ""

If you assign a text to this variable, then a PGP signature is only considered verified if the output from pgpverifycommand contains the text. Use this variable if the exit code from the command is 0 even for bad signatures. (PGP only)

3.157. pgpcheckexit

If set, mutt will check the exit code of the PGP subprocess when signing or encrypting. A non-zero exit code means that the subprocess failed. (PGP only)

3.158. pgplongids

If set, use 64 bit PGP key IDs. Unset uses the normal 32 bit Key IDs. (PGP only)

3.159. pgpretainablesigs

If set, signed and encrypted messages will consist of nested multipart/signed and multipart/encrypted body parts.

This is useful for applications like encrypted and signed mailing lists, where the outer layer (multipart/encrypted) can be easily removed, while the inner multipart/signed part is retained. (PGP only)

3.160. pgpautoinline

This option controls whether Mutt generates old-style inline (traditional) PGP encrypted or signed messages under certain circumstances. This can be overridden by use of the pgp-menu, when inline is not required.

Note that Mutt might automatically use PGP/MIME for messages which consist of more than a single MIME part. Mutt can be configured to ask before sending PGP/MIME messages when inline (traditional) would not work. See also: pgpmimeauto.

Also note that using the old-style PGP message format is strongly deprecated. (PGP only)

3.161. pgpreplyinline

Setting this variable will cause Mutt to always attempt to create an inline (traditional) message when replying to a message which is PGP encrypted/signed inline. This can be overridden by use of the pgp-menu, when inline is not required. This option does not automatically detect if the (replied-to) message is inline; instead it relies on Mutt internals for previously checked/flagged messages.

Also note that using the old-style PGP message format is strongly deprecated. (PGP only)

3.162. pgpshowunusable

If set, mutt will display non-usable keys on the PGP key selection menu. This includes keys which have been revoked, have expired, or have been marked as ``disabled'' by the user. (PGP only)

3.163. pgpsignas

If you have more than one key pair, this option allows you to specify which of your private keys to use. It is recommended that you use the keyid form to specify your key (e.g., ``0x00112233''). (PGP only)

3.164. pgpstrictenc

If set, Mutt will automatically encode PGP/MIME signed messages as quoted-printable. Please note that unsetting this variable may lead to problems with non-verifyable PGP signatures, so only change this if you know what you are doing. (PGP only)

3.165. pgptimeout

Type: number
Default: 300

The number of seconds after which a cached passphrase will expire if not used. (PGP only)

3.166. pgpsortkeys

Type: sort order
Default: address

Specifies how the entries in the `pgp keys' menu are sorted. The following are legal values:

address: sort alphabetically by user id
keyid: sort alphabetically by key id
date: sort by key creation date
trust: sort by the trust of the key

If you prefer reverse order of the above values, prefix it with `reverse-'. (PGP only)

3.167. pgpmimeauto

This option controls whether Mutt will prompt you for automatically sending a (signed/encrypted) message using PGP/MIME when inline (traditional) fails (for any reason).

Also note that using the old-style PGP message format is strongly deprecated. (PGP only)

3.168. pgpautodecode

If set, mutt will automatically attempt to decrypt traditional PGP messages whenever the user performs an operation which ordinarily would result in the contents of the message being operated on. For example, if the user displays a pgp-traditional message which has not been manually checked with the <check-traditional-pgp> function, mutt will automatically check the message for traditional pgp.

3.169. pgpdecodecommand

This format strings specifies a command which is used to decode application/pgp attachments.

The PGP command formats have their own set of printf-like sequences:

p: Expands to PGPPASSFD=0 when a pass phrase is needed, to an empty string otherwise. Note: This may be used with a ? construct.
f: Expands to the name of a file containing a message.
s: Expands to the name of a file containing the signature part of a multipart/signed attachment when verifying it.
a: The value of pgpsignas.
r: One or more key IDs.

For examples on how to configure these formats for the various versions of PGP which are floating around, see the pgp*.rc and gpg.rc files in the samples/ subdirectory which has been installed on your system alongside the documentation. (PGP only)

3.170. pgpgetkeyscommand

This command is invoked whenever mutt will need public key information. r is the only printf-like sequence used with this format. (PGP only)

3.171. pgpverifycommand

This command is used to verify PGP signatures. (PGP only)

3.172. pgpdecryptcommand

This command is used to decrypt a PGP encrypted message. (PGP only)

3.173. pgpclearsigncommand

This format is used to create a old-style "clearsigned" PGP message. Note that the use of this format is strongly deprecated. (PGP only)

3.174. pgpsigncommand

This command is used to create the detached PGP signature for a multipart/signed PGP/MIME body part. (PGP only)

3.175. pgpencryptsigncommand

This command is used to both sign and encrypt a body part. (PGP only)

3.176. pgpencryptonlycommand

This command is used to encrypt a body part without signing it. (PGP only)

3.177. pgpimportcommand

This command is used to import a key from a message into the user's public key ring. (PGP only)

3.178. pgpexportcommand

This command is used to export a public key from the user's key ring. (PGP only)

3.179. pgpverifykeycommand

This command is used to verify key information from the key selection menu. (PGP only)

3.180. pgplistsecringcommand

This command is used to list the secret key ring's contents. The output format must be analogous to the one used by gpg --list-keys --with-colons.

This format is also generated by the pgpring utility which comes with mutt. (PGP only)

3.181. pgplistpubringcommand

This command is used to list the public key ring's contents. The output format must be analogous to the one used by gpg --list-keys --with-colons.

This format is also generated by the pgpring utility which comes with mutt. (PGP only)

3.182. forwarddecrypt

Type: number
Default: 300

Controls the handling of encrypted messages when forwarding a message. When set, the outer layer of encryption is stripped off. This variable is only used if mimeforward is set and mimeforwarddecode is unset. (PGP only)

3.183. smimetimeout

The number of seconds after which a cached passphrase will expire if not used. (S/MIME only)

3.184. smimeencryptwith

This sets the algorithm that should be used for encryption. Valid choices are "des", "des3", "rc2-40", "rc2-64", "rc2-128". If unset "3des" (TripleDES) is used. (S/MIME only)

3.185. smimekeys

Since there is no pubring/secring as with PGP, mutt has to handle storage ad retrieval of keys/certs by itself. This is very basic right now, and stores keys and certificates in two different directories, both named as the hash-value retrieved from OpenSSL. There is an index file which contains mailbox-address keyid pair, and which can be manually edited. This one points to the location of the private keys. (S/MIME only)

3.186. smimecalocation

This variable contains the name of either a directory, or a file which contains trusted certificates for use with OpenSSL. (S/MIME only)

3.187. smimecertificates

Since there is no pubring/secring as with PGP, mutt has to handle storage and retrieval of keys by itself. This is very basic right now, and keys and certificates are stored in two different directories, both named as the hash-value retrieved from OpenSSL. There is an index file which contains mailbox-address keyid pairs, and which can be manually edited. This one points to the location of the certificates. (S/MIME only)

3.188. smimedecryptcommand

This format string specifies a command which is used to decrypt application/x-pkcs7-mime attachments.

The OpenSSL command formats have their own set of printf-like sequences similar to PGP's:

f: Expands to the name of a file containing a message.
s: Expands to the name of a file containing the signature part of a multipart/signed attachment when verifying it.
k: The key-pair specified with smimedefaultkey
c: One or more certificate IDs.
a: The algorithm used for encryption.
C: CA location: Depending on whether smimecalocation points to a directory or file, this expands to "-CApath smimecalocation" or "-CAfile smimecalocation".

For examples on how to configure these formats, see the smime.rc in the samples/ subdirectory which has been installed on your system alongside the documentation. (S/MIME only)

3.189. smimeverifycommand

This command is used to verify S/MIME signatures of type multipart/signed. (S/MIME only)

3.190. smimeverifyopaquecommand

This command is used to verify S/MIME signatures of type application/x-pkcs7-mime. (S/MIME only)

3.191. smimesigncommand

This command is used to created S/MIME signatures of type multipart/signed, which can be read by all mail clients. (S/MIME only)

3.192. smimesignopaquecommand

This command is used to created S/MIME signatures of type application/x-pkcs7-signature, which can only be handled by mail clients supporting the S/MIME extension. (S/MIME only)

3.193. smimeencryptcommand

This command is used to create encrypted S/MIME messages. (S/MIME only)

3.194. smimepk7outcommand

This command is used to extract PKCS7 structures of S/MIME signatures, in order to extract the public X509 certificate(s). (S/MIME only)

3.195. smimegetcertcommand

This command is used to extract X509 certificates from a PKCS7 structure. (S/MIME only)

3.196. smimegetsignercertcommand

This command is used to extract only the signers X509 certificate from a S/MIME signature, so that the certificate's owner may get compared to the email's 'From'-field. (S/MIME only)

3.197. smimeimportcertcommand

This command is used to import a certificate via smimekeys. (S/MIME only)

3.198. smimegetcertemailcommand

This command is used to extract the mail address(es) used for storing X509 certificates, and for verification purposes (to check whether the certificate was issued for the sender's mailbox). (S/MIME only)

3.199. smimedefaultkey

This is the default key-pair to use for signing. This must be set to the keyid (the hash-value that OpenSSL generates) to work properly (S/MIME only)

3.200. sslclientcert

The file containing a client certificate and its associated private key.

3.201. sslforcetls

If this variable is set, Mutt will require that all connections to remote servers be encrypted. Furthermore it will attempt to negotiate TLS even if the server does not advertise the capability, since it would otherwise have to abort the connection anyway. This option supersedes sslstarttls.

3.202. sslstarttls

If set (the default), mutt will attempt to use STARTTLS on servers advertising the capability. When unset, mutt will not attempt to use STARTTLS regardless of the server's capabilities.

3.203. certificatefile

Type: path
Default: "/.muttcertificates"

This variable specifies the file where the certificates you trust are saved. When an unknown certificate is encountered, you are asked if you accept it or not. If you accept it, the certificate can also be saved in this file and further connections are automatically accepted.

You can also manually add CA certificates in this file. Any server certificate that is signed with one of these CA certificates are also automatically accepted.

Example: set certificatefile=/.mutt/certificates

3.204. sslusesystemcerts

If set to yes, mutt will use CA certificates in the system-wide certificate store when checking if server certificate is signed by a trusted CA.

3.205. entropyfile

The file which includes random data that is used to initialize SSL library functions.

3.206. sslusesslv2

This variables specifies whether to attempt to use SSLv2 in the SSL authentication process.

3.207. sslusesslv3

This variables specifies whether to attempt to use SSLv3 in the SSL authentication process.

3.208. sslusetlsv1

This variables specifies whether to attempt to use TLSv1 in the SSL authentication process.

3.209. sslmindhprimebits

This variable specifies the minimum acceptable prime size (in bits) for use in any Diffie-Hellman key exchange. A value of 0 will use the default from the GNUTLS library.

3.210. sslcacertificatesfile

This variable specifies a file containing trusted CA certificates. Any server certificate that is signed with one of these CA certificates are also automatically accepted.

Example: set sslcacertificatesfile=/etc/ssl/certs/ca-certificates.crt

3.211. pipesplit

Used in connection with the <pipe-message> function following <tag-prefix. If this variable is unset, when piping a list of tagged messages Mutt will concatenate the messages and will pipe them as a single folder. When set, Mutt will pipe the messages one by one. In both cases the messages are piped in the current sorted order, and the pipesep separator is added after each message.

3.212. pipedecode

Used in connection with the pipe-message command. When unset, Mutt will pipe the messages without any preprocessing. When set, Mutt will weed headers and will attempt to PGP/MIME decode the messages first.

3.213. pipesep

Type: string
Default: "n"

The separator to add between messages when piping a list of tagged messages to an external Unix command.

3.214. popauthenticators

This is a colon-delimited list of authentication methods mutt may attempt to use to log in to an POP server, in the order mutt should try them. Authentication methods are either 'user', 'apop' or any SASL mechanism, eg 'digest-md5', 'gssapi' or 'cram-md5'. This parameter is case-insensitive. If this parameter is unset (the default) mutt will try all available methods, in order from most-secure to least-secure.

Example: set popauthenticators="digest-md5:apop:user"

3.215. popauthtryall

If set, Mutt will try all available methods. When unset, Mutt will only fall back to other authentication methods if the previous methods are unavailable. If a method is available but authentication fails, Mutt will not connect to the POP server.

3.216. popcheckinterval

Type: number
Default: 60

This variable configures how often (in seconds) mutt should look for new mail in the currently selected mailbox if it is a POP mailbox.

3.217. popdelete

Type: quadoption
Default: ask-no

If set, Mutt will delete successfully downloaded messages from the POP server when using the <fetch-mail> function. When unset, Mutt will download messages but also leave them on the POP server.

3.218. pophost

The name of your POP server for the <fetch-mail> function. You can also specify an alternative port, username and password, ie:

pops://username:password@popserver:port

3.219. poplast

If this variable is set, mutt will try to use the "LAST" POP command for retrieving only unread messages from the POP server when using the <fetch-mail> function.

3.220. popreconnect

Controls whether or not Mutt will try to reconnect to POP server if the connection is lost.

3.221. popuser

Your login name on the POP server.

This variable defaults to your user name on the local machine.

3.222. poppass

Specifies the password for your POP account. If unset, Mutt will prompt you for your password when you open POP mailbox. Warning: you should only use this option when you are on a fairly secure machine, because the superuser can read your muttrc even if you are the only one who can read the file.

3.223. postindentstring

Similar to the attribution variable, Mutt will append this string after the inclusion of a message which is being replied to.

3.224. postpone

Type: path
Default: "/postponed"

Controls whether or not messages are saved in the postponed mailbox when you elect not to send immediately. Also see the recall variable.

3.225. postponed

Mutt allows you to indefinitely ``postpone sending a message'' which you are editing. When you choose to postpone a message, Mutt saves it in the mailbox specified by this variable. Also see the postpone variable.

3.226. preconnect

If set, a shell command to be executed if mutt fails to establish a connection to the server. This is useful for setting up secure connections, e.g. with ssh(1). If the command returns a nonzero status, mutt gives up opening the server. Example:

preconnect="ssh -f -q -L 1234:mailhost.net:143 mailhost.net sleep 20 < /dev/null > /dev/null"

Mailbox 'foo' on mailhost.net can now be reached as '{localhost:1234}foo'.

NOTE: For this example to work, you must be able to log in to the remote machine without having to enter a password.

3.227. print

Type: quadoption
Default: ask-no

Controls whether or not Mutt really prints messages. This is set to ask-no by default, because some people accidentally hit ``p'' often (like me).

3.228. printcommand

Type: path
Default: "lpr"

This specifies the command pipe that should be used to print messages.

3.229. printdecode

Used in connection with the print-message command. If this option is set, the message is decoded before it is passed to the external command specified by printcommand. If this option is unset, no processing will be applied to the message when printing it. The latter setting may be useful if you are using some advanced printer filter which is able to properly format e-mail messages for printing.

3.230. printsplit

Used in connection with the print-message command. If this option is set, the command specified by printcommand is executed once for each message which is to be printed. If this option is unset, the command specified by printcommand is executed only once, and all the messages are concatenated, with a form feed as the message separator.

Those who use the enscript(1) program's mail-printing mode will most likely want to set this option.

3.231. promptafter

If you use an external pager, setting this variable will cause Mutt to prompt you for a command when the pager exits rather than returning to the index menu. If unset, Mutt will return to the index menu when the external pager exits.

3.232. querycommand

This specifies the command that mutt will use to make external address queries. The string should contain a s, which will be substituted with the query string the user types. See ``query'' for more information.

3.234. quit

This variable controls whether ``quit'' and ``exit'' actually quit from mutt. If it set to yes, they do quit, if it is set to no, they have no effect, and if it is set to ask-yes or ask-no, you are prompted for confirmation when you try to quit.

3.235. quoteregexp

Type: regular expression
Default: "^( t*|>:}#)+"

A regular expression used in the internal pager to determine quoted sections of text in the body of a message. Quoted text may be filtered out using the ``toggle-quoted'' command, or colored according to the ``color quoted'' family of directives.

Higher levels of quoting may be colored differently (``color quoted1'', ``color quoted2'', etc.). The quoting level is determined by removing the last character from the matched text and recursively reapplying the regular expression until it fails to produce a match.

Match detection may be overridden by the smileys regular expression.

3.236. readinc

If set to a value greater than 0, Mutt will display which message it is currently on when reading a mailbox or when performing search actions such as search and limit. The message is printed after readinc messages have been read or searched (e.g., if set to 25, Mutt will print a message when it is at message 25, and then again when it gets to message 50). This variable is meant to indicate progress when reading or searching large mailboxes which may take some time. When set to 0, only a single message will appear before the reading the mailbox.

Also see the writeinc variable and the ``Tuning'' section of the manual for performance considerations.

3.237. readonly

If set, all folders are opened in read-only mode.

3.238. realname

This variable specifies what "real" or "personal" name should be used when sending messages.

By default, this is the GECOS field from /etc/passwd. Note that this variable will not be used when the user has set a real name in the from variable.

3.239. recall

Controls whether or not Mutt recalls postponed messages when composing a new message. Also see postponed.

Setting this variable to ``yes'' is not generally useful, and thus not recommended.

3.240. record

Type: path
Default: "/sent"

This specifies the file into which your outgoing messages should be appended. (This is meant as the primary method for saving a copy of your messages, but another way to do this is using the ``myhdr'' command to create a Bcc: field with your email address in it.)

The value of record is overridden by the forcename and savename variables, and the ``fcc-hook'' command.

3.241. replyregexp

Type: regular expression
Default: "^(re(0-9+)*|aw): t*"

A regular expression used to recognize reply messages when threading and replying. The default value corresponds to the English "Re:" and the German "Aw:".

3.242. replyself

If unset and you are replying to a message sent by you, Mutt will assume that you want to reply to the recipients of that message rather than to yourself.

3.243. replyto

If set, when replying to a message, Mutt will use the address listed in the Reply-to: header as the recipient of the reply. If unset, it will use the address in the From: header field instead. This option is useful for reading a mailing list that sets the Reply-To: header field to the list address and you want to send a private message to the author of a message.

3.244. resolve

When set, the cursor will be automatically advanced to the next (possibly undeleted) message whenever a command that modifies the current message is executed.

3.245. reversealias

This variable controls whether or not Mutt will display the "personal" name from your aliases in the index menu if it finds an alias that matches the message's sender. For example, if you have the following alias:

alias juser abd30425@somewhere.net (Joe User)

and then you receive mail which contains the following header:

From: abd30425@somewhere.net

It would be displayed in the index menu as ``Joe User'' instead of ``abd30425@somewhere.net.'' This is useful when the person's e-mail address is not human friendly (like CompuServe addresses).

3.246. reversename

It may sometimes arrive that you receive mail to a certain machine, move the messages to another machine, and reply to some the messages from there. If this variable is set, the default From: line of the reply messages is built using the address where you received the messages you are replying to if that address matches your alternates. If the variable is unset, or the address that would be used doesn't match your alternates, the From: line will use your address on the current machine.

3.247. reverserealname

This variable fine-tunes the behaviour of the reversename feature. When it is set, mutt will use the address from incoming messages as-is, possibly including eventual real names. When it is unset, mutt will override any such real names with the setting of the realname variable.

3.248. rfc2047parameters

When this variable is set, Mutt will decode RFC-2047-encoded MIME parameters. You want to set this variable when mutt suggests you to save attachments to files named like this: =?iso-8859-1?Q?file=5F=E4=5F991116=2Ezip?=

When this variable is set interactively, the change doesn't have the desired effect before you have changed folders.

Note that this use of RFC 2047's encoding is explicitly, prohibited by the standard, but nevertheless encountered in the wild. Also note that setting this parameter will not have the effect that mutt generates this kind of encoding. Instead, mutt will unconditionally use the encoding specified in RFC 2231.

3.249. saveaddress

If set, mutt will take the sender's full address when choosing a default folder for saving a mail. If savename or forcename is set too, the selection of the fcc folder will be changed as well.

3.250. saveempty

When unset, mailboxes which contain no saved messages will be removed when closed (the exception is spoolfile which is never removed). If set, mailboxes are never removed.

Note: This only applies to mbox and MMDF folders, Mutt does not delete MH and Maildir directories.

3.251. savehistory

This variable controls the size of the history saved in the historyfile file.

3.252. savename

This variable controls how copies of outgoing messages are saved. When set, a check is made to see if a mailbox specified by the recipient address exists (this is done by searching for a mailbox in the folder directory with the username part of the recipient address). If the mailbox exists, the outgoing message will be saved to that mailbox, otherwise the message is saved to the record mailbox.

Also see the forcename variable.

3.253. score

Messages which have been assigned a score equal to or lower than the value of this variable are automatically marked for deletion by mutt. Since mutt scores are always greater than or equal to zero, the default setting of this variable will never mark a message for deletion.

When this variable is unset, scoring is turned off. This can be useful to selectively disable scoring for certain folders when the scorethresholddelete variable and friends are used.

3.254. scorethresholddelete

Type: number
Default: -1

3.255. scorethresholdflag

Type: number
Default: 9999

Messages which have been assigned a score greater than or equal to this variable's value are automatically marked "flagged".

3.256. scorethresholdread

Type: number
Default: -1

Messages which have been assigned a score equal to or lower than the value of this variable are automatically marked as read by mutt. Since mutt scores are always greater than or equal to zero, the default setting of this variable will never mark a message read.

3.257. sendcharset

Type: string
Default: "us-ascii:iso-8859-1:utf-8"

A colon-delimited list of character sets for outgoing messages. Mutt will use the first character set into which the text can be converted exactly. If your charset is not iso-8859-1 and recipients may not understand UTF-8, it is advisable to include in the list an appropriate widely used standard character set (such as iso-8859-2, koi8-r or iso-2022-jp) either instead of or after "iso-8859-1".

In case the text cannot be converted into one of these exactly, mutt uses charset as a fallback.

3.258. sendmail

Type: path
Default: "/usr/lib/sendmail -oem -oi"

Specifies the program and arguments used to deliver mail sent by Mutt. Mutt expects that the specified program interprets additional arguments as recipient addresses.

3.259. sendmailwait

Specifies the number of seconds to wait for the sendmail process to finish before giving up and putting delivery in the background.

Mutt interprets the value of this variable as follows:

>0: number of seconds to wait for sendmail to finish before continuing
0: wait forever for sendmail to finish
<0: always put sendmail in the background without waiting

Note that if you specify a value other than 0, the output of the child process will be put in a temporary file. If there is some error, you will be informed as to where to find the output.

3.260. shell

Command to use when spawning a subshell. By default, the user's login shell from /etc/passwd is used.

3.261. sigdashes

If set, a line containing ``-- '' will be inserted before your signature. It is strongly recommended that you not unset this variable unless your ``signature'' contains just your name. The reason for this is because many software packages use ``-- n'' to detect your signature. For example, Mutt has the ability to highlight the signature in a different color in the builtin pager.

3.262. sigontop

If set, the signature will be included before any quoted or forwarded text. It is strongly recommended that you do not set this variable unless you really know what you are doing, and are prepared to take some heat from netiquette guardians.

3.263. signature

Type: path
Default: "/.signature"

Specifies the filename of your signature, which is appended to all outgoing messages. If the filename ends with a pipe (``|''), it is assumed that filename is a shell command and input should be read from its stdout.

3.264. simplesearch

Type: string
Default: "f s | s s"

Specifies how Mutt should expand a simple search into a real search pattern. A simple search is one that does not contain any of the operators. See ``patterns'' for more information on search patterns.

For example, if you simply type joe at a search or limit prompt, Mutt will automatically expand it to the value specified by this variable. For the default value it would be:

f joe | s joe

3.265. smartwrap

Controls the display of lines longer than the screen width in the internal pager. If set, long lines are wrapped at a word boundary. If unset, lines are simply wrapped at the screen edge. Also see the markers variable.

3.266. smileys

Type: regular expression
Default: "(>From )|(:-^?)(><}{|/DP)"

The pager uses this variable to catch some common false positives of quoteregexp, most notably smileys in the beginning of a line

3.267. sleeptime

Type: number
Default: 1

Specifies time, in seconds, to pause while displaying certain informational messages, while moving from folder to folder and after expunging messages from the current folder. The default is to pause one second, so a value of zero for this option suppresses the pause.

3.268. smtpauthenticators

This is a colon-delimited list of authentication methods mutt may attempt to use to log in to an SMTP server, in the order mutt should try them. Authentication methods are any SASL mechanism, eg ``digest-md5'', ``gssapi'' or ``cram-md5''. This parameter is case-insensitive. If this parameter is unset (the default) mutt will try all available methods, in order from most-secure to least-secure.

Example: set smtpauthenticators="digest-md5:cram-md5"

3.269. smtppass

Specifies the password for your SMTP account. If unset, Mutt will prompt you for your password when you first send mail via SMTP. See smtpurl to configure mutt to send mail via SMTP. Warning: you should only use this option when you are on a fairly secure machine, because the superuser can read your muttrc even if you are the only one who can read the file.

3.270. smtpurl

Defines the SMTP ``smart'' host where sent messages should relayed for delivery. This should take the form of an SMTP URL, eg:

smtps://user:pass@host:port/

Setting this variable overrides the value of the sendmail variable.

3.271. sort

Type: sort order
Default: date

Specifies how to sort messages in the index menu. Valid values are:

date or date-sent
date-received
from
mailbox-order (unsorted)
score
size
spam
subject
threads
to

You may optionally use the reverse- prefix to specify reverse sorting order (example: set sort=reverse-date-sent).

3.272. sortalias

Type: sort order
Default: alias

Specifies how the entries in the `alias' menu are sorted. The following are legal values:

address (sort alphabetically by email address)
alias (sort alphabetically by alias name)
unsorted (leave in order specified in .muttrc)

3.273. sortaux

Type: sort order
Default: date

When sorting by threads, this variable controls how threads are sorted in relation to other threads, and how the branches of the thread trees are sorted. This can be set to any value that sort can, except threads (in that case, mutt will just use date-sent). You can also specify the last- prefix in addition to the reverse- prefix, but last- must come after reverse-. The last- prefix causes messages to be sorted against its siblings by which has the last descendant, using the rest of sortaux as an ordering. For instance, set sortaux=last- date-received would mean that if a new message is received in a thread, that thread becomes the last one displayed (or the first, if you have set sort=reverse-threads.) Note: For reversed sort order sortaux is reversed again (which is not the right thing to do, but kept to not break any existing configuration setting).

3.274. sortbrowser

Type: sort order
Default: alpha

Specifies how to sort entries in the file browser. By default, the entries are sorted alphabetically. Valid values:

alpha (alphabetically)
date
size
unsorted

You may optionally use the reverse- prefix to specify reverse sorting order (example: set sortbrowser=reverse-date).

3.275. sortre

Type: string
Default: ","

This variable is only useful when sorting by threads with strictthreads unset. In that case, it changes the heuristic mutt uses to thread messages by subject. With sortre set, mutt will only attach a message as the child of another message by subject if the subject of the child message starts with a substring matching the setting of replyregexp. With sortre unset, mutt will attach the message whether or not this is the case, as long as the non-replyregexp parts of both messages are identical.

3.276. spamseparator

This variable controls what happens when multiple spam headers are matched: if unset, each successive header will overwrite any previous matches value for the spam label. If set, each successive match will append to the previous, using this variable's value as a separator.

3.277. spoolfile

If your spool mailbox is in a non-default place where Mutt cannot find it, you can specify its location with this variable. Mutt will automatically set this variable to the value of the environment variable MAIL if it is not set.

3.278. statuschars

Type: string
Default: "-*A"

Controls the characters used by the "r" indicator in statusformat. The first character is used when the mailbox is unchanged. The second is used when the mailbox has been changed, and it needs to be resynchronized. The third is used if the mailbox is in read-only mode, or if the mailbox will not be written when exiting that mailbox (You can toggle whether to write changes to a mailbox with the toggle-write operation, bound by default to ""). The fourth is used to indicate that the current folder has been opened in attach- message mode (Certain operations like composing a new mail, replying, forwarding, etc. are not permitted in this mode).

3.279. statusformat

Type: string
Default: "-r-Mutt: f Msgs:?M?M/?m?n? New:n??o? Old:o??d? Del:d??F? Flag:F??t? Tag:t??p? Post:p??b? Inc:b??l? l?---(s/S)->-(P)---"

Controls the format of the status line displayed in the index menu. This string is similar to indexformat, but has its own set of printf()-like sequences:

b: number of mailboxes with new mail *
d: number of deleted messages *
f: the full pathname of the current mailbox
F: number of flagged messages *
h: local hostname
l: size (in bytes) of the current mailbox *
L: size (in bytes) of the messages shown (i.e., which match the current limit) *
m: the number of messages in the mailbox *
M: the number of messages shown (i.e., which match the current limit) *
n: number of new messages in the mailbox *
o: number of old unread messages *
p: number of postponed messages *
P: percentage of the way through the index
r: modified/read-only/won't-write/attach-message indicator, according to statuschars
s: current sorting mode (sort)
S: current aux sorting method (sortaux)
t: number of tagged messages *
u: number of unread messages *
v: Mutt version string
V: currently active limit pattern, if any *
>X: right justify the rest of the string and pad with "X"
|X: pad to the end of the line with "X"
*X: soft-fill with character "X" as pad

For an explanation of `soft-fill', see the indexformat documentation.

* = can be optionally printed if nonzero

Some of the above sequences can be used to optionally print a string if their value is nonzero. For example, you may only want to see the number of flagged messages if such messages exist, since zero is not particularly meaningful. To optionally print a string based upon one of the above sequences, the following construct is used:

?<sequencechar>?<optionalstring>?

where sequencechar is a character from the table above, and optionalstring is the string you would like printed if sequencechar is nonzero. optionalstring may contain other sequences as well as normal text, but you may not nest optional strings.

Here is an example illustrating how to optionally print the number of new messages in a mailbox: ?n?n new messages.?

You can also switch between two strings using the following construct:

?<sequencechar>?<ifstring>&<elsestring>?

If the value of sequencechar is non-zero, ifstring will be expanded, otherwise elsestring will be expanded.

You can force the result of any printf-like sequence to be lowercase by prefixing the sequence character with an underscore () sign. For example, if you want to display the local hostname in lowercase, you would use: h

If you prefix the sequence character with a colon (:) character, mutt will replace any dots in the expansion by underscores. This might be helpful with IMAP folders that don't like dots in folder names.

3.280. statusontop

Setting this variable causes the ``status bar'' to be displayed on the first line of the screen rather than near the bottom.

3.281. strictthreads

If set, threading will only make use of the ``In-Reply-To'' and ``References'' fields when you sort by message threads. By default, messages with the same subject are grouped together in ``pseudo threads.''. This may not always be desirable, such as in a personal mailbox where you might have several unrelated messages with the subject ``hi'' which will get grouped together. See also sortre for a less drastic way of controlling this behaviour.

3.282. suspend

When unset, mutt won't stop when the user presses the terminal's susp key, usually ``control-Z''. This is useful if you run mutt inside an xterm using a command like xterm -e mutt.

3.283. textflowed

When set, mutt will generate text/plain; format=flowed attachments. This format is easier to handle for some mailing software, and generally just looks like ordinary text. To actually make use of this format's features, you'll need support in your editor.

Note that indentstring is ignored when this option is set.

3.284. threadreceived

When set, mutt uses the date received rather than the date sent to thread messages by subject.

3.285. thoroughsearch

Affects the b and h search operations described in section ``patterns''. If set, the headers and body/attachments of messages to be searched are decoded before searching. If unset, messages are searched as they appear in the folder.

Users searching attachments or for non-ASCII characters should set this value because decoding also includes MIME parsing/decoding and possible character set conversions. Otherwise mutt will attempt to match against the raw message received (for example quoted-printable encoded or with encoded headers) which may lead to incorrect search results.

3.286. tilde

When set, the internal-pager will pad blank lines to the bottom of the screen with a tilde ().

3.287. timeinc

Type: number
Default: 600

Along with readinc, writeinc, and netinc, this variable controls the frequency with which progress updates are displayed. It suppresses updates less than timeinc milliseconds apart. This can improve throughput on systems with slow terminals, or when running mutt on a remote system.

3.288. timeout

When Mutt is waiting for user input either idleing in menus or in an interactive prompt, Mutt would block until input is present. Depending on the context, this would prevent certain operations from working, like checking for new mail or keeping an IMAP connection alive.

This variable controls how many seconds Mutt will at most wait until it aborts waiting for input, performs these operations and continues to wait for input.

A value of zero or less will cause Mutt to never time out.

3.289. tmpdir

This variable allows you to specify where Mutt will place its temporary files needed for displaying and composing messages. If this variable is not set, the environment variable TMPDIR is used. If TMPDIR is not set then "/tmp" is used.

3.290. tochars

Type: string
Default: " +TCFL"

Controls the character used to indicate mail addressed to you. The first character is the one used when the mail is NOT addressed to your address (default: space). The second is used when you are the only recipient of the message (default: +). The third is when your address appears in the TO header field, but you are not the only recipient of the message (default: T). The fourth character is used when your address is specified in the CC header field, but you are not the only recipient. The fifth character is used to indicate mail that was sent by you. The sixth character is used to indicate when a mail was sent to a mailing-list you subscribe to (default: L).

3.291. tunnel

Setting this variable will cause mutt to open a pipe to a command instead of a raw socket. You may be able to use this to set up preauthenticated connections to your IMAP/POP3 server. Example:

tunnel="ssh -q mailhost.net /usr/local/libexec/imapd"

NOTE: For this example to work you must be able to log in to the remote machine without having to enter a password.

3.292. use8bitmime

Warning: do not set this variable unless you are using a version of sendmail which supports the -B8BITMIME flag (such as sendmail 8.8.x) or you may not be able to send mail.

When set, Mutt will invoke sendmail with the -B8BITMIME flag when sending 8-bit messages to enable ESMTP negotiation.

3.293. usedomain

When set, Mutt will qualify all local addresses (ones without the @host portion) with the value of hostname. If unset, no addresses will be qualified.

3.294. useenvelopefrom

When set, searches will wrap around the first (or last) message. When unset, searches will not wrap.

When set, mutt will set the envelope sender of the message. If envelopefromaddress is set, it will be used as the sender address. If not, mutt will attempt to derive the sender from the "From:" header.

Note that this information is passed to sendmail command using the "-f" command line switch. Therefore setting this option is not useful if the sendmail variable already contains "-f" or if the executable pointed to by sendmail doesn't support the "-f" switch.

It is also used when viewing attachments with ``autoview'', provided that the corresponding mailcap entry has a needsterminal flag, and the external program is interactive.

When set, Mutt will always ask for a key. When unset, Mutt will wait for a key only if the external command returned a non-zero status.

3.304. wrapmargin

(DEPRECATED) Equivalent to setting wrap with a negative value.

3.305. writeinc

When writing a mailbox, a message will be printed every writeinc messages to indicate progress. If set to 0, only a single message will be displayed before writing a mailbox.

Also see the readinc variable.

3.306. writebcc