Polarwave's OpenBSD
Tips and Tricks for Newbies
| Mutt |
Mutt Mail User Agent
10 helpful tips for Mutt e-mail client power users
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If you're a Mutt user, you already know that you're using the fastest, coolest and
most customizable e-mail client available. What you might not know, however, is that
under Mutt's hood are a bunch of powerful features that can help you interact with
your e-mail more efficiently. The best part? They're not particularly difficult to use.
In this brief tutorial, we'll be looking under the hood to introduce you to some of
Mutt's less well-known capabilities. The tips discussed below apply to Mutt v1.2.4,
which freely available from Mutt.org.
Note: All the directives below can be entered "live" during a Mutt session, or placed
in the Mutt configuration file.
1. Use the threaded view
If you subscribe to mailing lists, you'll be pleased to know about Mutt's threading
features. Mutt automatically sorts messages by topic, so that messages with the
same topic end up organized sequentially. You can then use the cursor keys to
navigate between messages in the same thread, allowing you to quickly view all
the replies to a particular message. To use this feature, issue this command to sort
by thread.
set sort=threads
Note: In threaded mode, a number of additional functions become available: you can
delete all messages in a thread, collapse or expand a thread, mark a thread as read
or unread, and jump to the start or end of a thread. See the Mutt manual for information
on the keystrokes to access these functions.
2. Use nicknames and group aliases
Mutt lets you create an address book of frequently-used addresses with the alias
command. This command lets you define a short "alias" which is automatically
expanded to one or more e-mail addresses by Mutt before the message is sent.
Here's an example:
aliasjoe joe.gobby@example.com
You can also create group aliases, by using multiple e-mail addresses separated
with commas. Here's an example:
aliasfridayclubjoe.gobby@example.com,layla@domain.net,ex@ample.info
3. Receive automatic notification of new mail
Mutt lets you define certain mailboxes as "active" that is, mailboxes which are
likely to receive new mail on an ongoing basis. When any of these active mailboxes
receives a new message, Mutt will alert you with a status bar notification. To use
this feature, list the mailboxes to be monitored with the mailboxes command, as
follows:
mailboxes "=inbox"
mailboxes "=lists/php"
4. Tag messages
Mutt lets you "tag" multiple messages for action so that you can copy or delete
them all at once with a single command. To use this feature, select each message
with the t key command. Mutt will place an asterisk next to the message, indicating
that it has been tagged. Once tagging is complete, use the ;c or ;d key shortcuts
to copy or delete all the tagged messages simultaneously.
5. Customize message headers
Mutt lets you add your own custom headers to a message. This is useful if, for
example, you want to publish your company name or your PGP key in the messages
you send out. To do this, use the my_hdr command followed by the custom header
to be added, as in the examples below:
my_hdr Company: CNET TechRepublic
my_hdr X-URL: http://www.techrepublic.com/
6. Read mail on a remote POP3 server
Assuming your version of Mutt supports the POP3 protocol, you can access mail on
a remote POP3 server directly through Mutt. To do this, type c to open a new mailbox
and issue the mailbox name pop://user@mailhost/. Mutt will attempt to connect to
the remote POP3 server, ask for your POP3 password, and, once successfully connected,
display the contents of your mailbox. You can then read and delete messages in the
normal way, as though you were manipulating your local mail spool.
7. Search and filter messages
Mutt lets you efficiently search inside messages using regular expressions and patterns.
You can search both message headers and bodies for fragments matching a particular
query string, and even automatically tag all matching messages for action. To do this,
use the T command, followed by an appropriate selector. For example, the command
T ~B tech finds and tags all messages containing the string "tech".
You can also search messages by size or date. The command T ~r 25/3/2005 tags all
messages received on 25 Mar 2005.
Within a message or message index, you can use the / command to find the next message
matching a pattern. The command / mon finds the next message (line) containing the
word fragment mon in its headers (body).
8. Add color to your mail
Mutt lets you colorize almost any aspect of a message, making it easier to visually
distinguish between, for example, a reply and text quoted from an earlier message.
It's also possible to find and highlight regular expressions in either the body or
headers of an e-mail message, and display them in different colors for example,
e-mail addresses in yellow and URLs in green. To do this, issue the color command
with appropriate parameters, as in the examples below:
color hdrdefault white black # headers white on black
color header brightgreen black ^From: # sender's name in green
color quoted cyan black # quoted text in blue
color signature red black # signature in red
9. Browse embedded URLs
You can have Mutt automatically activate Lynx (or any other Web browser) when it
encounters hyperlinks embedded in an e-mail message. To do this, download and install
the add-on urlview program from the Mutt Web site, and then create a macro to launch
it from the message viewer, like this:
macro pager \cu |urlview\n
In OpenBSD, you can find urlview in /usr/ports/textproc/urlview or in packages online.
Now, whenever you're reading a message containing URLs, you can simply type Ctrl-u
to launch the URL viewer and select a link to browse.
10. Get help
At any point in your Mutt session, you can use the ? command to obtain a detailed list
of available commands, and the key strokes to activate them. This can come in handy
in case you forget which key does what.
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