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NAME
neomuttrc - Configuration file for the NeoMutt Mail User Agent (MUA)

DESCRIPTION
A NeoMutt configuration file consists of a series of "commands". Each
line of the file may contain one or more commands. When multiple com-
mands are used, they must be separated by a semicolon (";").

The hash mark, or pound sign ("#"), is used as a "comment" character.
You can use it to annotate your initialization file. All text after the
comment character to the end of the line is ignored.

Single quotes ("'") and double quotes (""") can be used to quote
strings which contain spaces or other special characters. The differ-
ence between the two types of quotes is similar to that of many popular
shell programs, namely that a single quote is used to specify a literal
string (one that is not interpreted for shell variables or quoting with
a backslash [see next paragraph]), while double quotes indicate a
string which should be evaluated. For example, backticks are evaluated
inside of double quotes, but not single quotes.

"\" quotes the next character, just as in shells such as Bash and Zsh.
For example, if you want to put quotes (""") inside of a string, you
can use "\" to force the next character to be a literal instead of in-
terpreted character.

"\\" means to insert a literal "\" into the line. "\n" and "\r" have
their usual C meanings of line feed (LF) and carriage return (CR), re-
spectively.

A "\" at the end of a line can be used to split commands over multiple
lines, provided that the split points don't appear in the middle of
command names.

It is also possible to substitute the output of a Unix command in an
initialization file. This is accomplished by enclosing the command in
backticks (`command`).

Unix environment variables can be accessed like the way it is done in
shells like sh and Bash: Prepend the name of the variable by a dollar
("$") sign.

COMMANDS
Configuration Commands
The following are the commands understood by NeoMutt:

account-hook regex command

This hook is executed whenever you access a remote mailbox. Use-
ful to adjust configuration settings to different IMAP or POP
servers.

alias [ -group name ... ] key address [, address ... ]
unalias [ -group name ... ] { * | key ... }

alias defines a surrogate key for the given address(es). Each
address will be resolved into either an email address (user@ex-
ample.com) or a named email address (User Name <user@exam-
ple.com>). The address may be specified in either format, or in
the format "user@example.com (User Name)".

Note: If you want to create an alias for more than one address,
you must separate the addresses with a comma (",").

unalias removes the alias corresponding to the given key or all
aliases when "*" is used as an argument.

The optional -group flag causes the address(es) to be added to
or removed from the named group.

alternates [ -group name ... ] regex [ regex ... ]
unalternates [ -group name ... ] { * | regex ... }

alternates is used to inform NeoMutt about alternate addresses
where you receive mail; you can use regular expressions (regex)
to specify alternate addresses. This affects NeoMutt's idea
about messages from you, and messages addressed to you.

unalternates can be used to write exceptions to alternates regu-
lar expression. To remove a regular expression from the alter-
nates list, use the unalternates command with exactly the same
regex or use "*" to remove all entries.

The optional -group flag causes all of the subsequent regular
expressions to be added to or removed from the named group.

alternative_order mime-type[/mime-subtype] [ mime-type[/mime-subtype] ... ]
unalternative_order { * | mime-type[/mime-subtype] ... }

alternative_order command permits you to define an order of
preference that is used by NeoMutt to determine which part of a
multipart/alternative body to display. A mime-subtype of "*"
matches any multipart/alternative subtype, as does an empty
mime-subtype.

unalternative_order removes entries from the ordered list or
deletes the entire list when "*" is used as an argument.

attachments { + | - }disposition mime-type [ mime-type ... ]
unattachments { + | - }disposition mime-type [ mime-type ... ]
attachments ?
unattachments *

You can make your message index display the number of qualifying
attachments in each message, or search for messages by attach-
ment count. You also can configure what kinds of attachments
qualify for this feature with the attachments and unattachments
commands.

disposition is the attachment's Content-Disposition type -- ei-
ther inline or attachment. You can abbreviate this to I or A.

Disposition is prefixed by either a + symbol or a - symbol. If
it's a +, you're saying that you want to allow this disposition
and MIME type to qualify. If it's a -, you're saying that this
disposition and MIME type is an exception to previous + rules.

mime-type is the MIME type of the attachment you want the com-
mand to affect. A MIME type is always of the format major/minor.
The major part of mime-type must be literal text (or the special
token "*", but the minor part may be a regular expression.
Therefore, "*/.*" matches any MIME type.

Note that the first MIME part is treated slightly differently:
It is almost always the message text. Thus, it is not counted
as an attachment if its disposition is inline and it is not a
multipart/* or message/* MIME-type.

Entering the command "attachments ?" as a command will list your
current settings in neomuttrc format, so that it can be pasted
elsewhere.

Entering the command "unattachments *" as a command will Clear
all attachment settings.

auto_view mime-type[/mime-subtype] [ mime-type[/mime-subtype] ... ]
unauto_view { * | mime-type[/mime-subtype] ... }

This commands permits you to specify that NeoMutt should auto-
matically convert the given mime-types to text/plain when dis-
playing messages. For this to work, there must be a mailcap(5)
entry for the given mime-type with the copiousoutput option set.
A mime-subtype of "*" matches any multipart/alternative subtype,
as does an empty mime-subtype.

bind map[,map ... ] key function
unbind { * | map | [,map...]} [ key ]

This command allows you to change the default or define addi-
tional key bindings (operation invoked when pressing a key).

map specifies in which menu the binding belongs. Multiple maps
may be specified by separating them with commas (no additional
whitespace is allowed). The currently defined maps are: alias,
attach, browser, compose, editor, generic, index, mix, pager,
pgp, postpone, query and smime.

key is the key (or key sequence) you wish to bind, e.g. "\Ca"
for control-A. In addition, key may be specified as a three
digit octal number prefixed with a "\" or as a symbolic name.
The <what-key> function can be used to explore keycode and sym-
bolic names for the keys on your keyboard.

function specifies which action to take when key is pressed.
Note that the function name is to be specified without angle
brackets.

Missing key sequence in unbind command means unbind all bindings
in menus given in map .

For more information on keys and functions, please consult the
NeoMutt manual.

charset-hook alias charset
iconv-hook charset local-charset

charset-hook defines an alias for a character set. This is use-
ful to properly display messages which are tagged with a charac-
ter set name not known to NeoMutt.

iconv-hook defines a system-specific name for a character set.
This is useful when your system's iconv(3) implementation does
not understand MIME character set names (such as iso-8859-1),
but instead insists on being fed with implementation-specific
character set names (such as 8859-1). In this specific case,
you'd put "iconv-hook iso-8859-1 8859-1" into your configuration
file.

color object [ attribute ... ] foreground background
color { header | body } [ attribute ... ] foreground background regex
color status foreground background [regex [ num ]]
color index-object [ attribute ... ] foreground background pattern
color compose composeobject foreground background
color compose composeobject [ attribute ... ] foreground background
uncolor { index-object | header | body } { * | pattern ... }

If your terminal supports color, these commands can be used to
assign foreground/background combinations to certain objects.
The currently defined objects are: attach_headers, attachment,
body, bold, error, hdrdefault, header, index, index_author, in-
dex_collapsed, index_date, index_flags, index_label, index_num-
ber, index_size, index_subject, index_tag, index_tags, indica-
tor, markers, message, normal, progress, prompt, quoted, quot-
edN, search, signature, status, stripe_even, stripe_odd, tilde,
tree, underline.

If the sidebar is enabled the following objects are also valid:
sidebar_background, sidebar_divider, sidebar_flagged, sidebar_
highlight, sidebar_indicator, sidebar_new, sidebar_ordinary,
sidebar_spool_file.

The body and header objects allow you to restrict the coloriza-
tion to a regular expression. The index-object permits you to
select colored messages by pattern.

The header and body match regex in the header/body of a message,
index-object can match pattern in the message index. Note that
IMAP server-side searches (=b, =B, =h) are not supported for
color index patterns.

The status object optionally takes an regex and a match number.
If the regex is given, only the matching parts are colored. If
additionally the match number is given, only that sub-match of
the regex is colored.

Valid composeobjects include header, security_encrypt, secu-
rity_sign, security_both, security_none.

Valid colors include: default, black, red, green, yellow, blue,
magenta, cyan, white, #RRGGBB, colorN.

Valid attributes include: none, bold, underline, reverse, and
standout.

The uncolor command can be applied to the index, header and body
objects only. It removes entries from the list. You must specify
the same pattern specified in the color command for it to be re-
moved. The pattern "*" is a special token which means to clear
the color list of all entries.

For further information on colorization, please consult the Neo-
Mutt manual.

crypt-hook regex keyid

The crypt-hook command provides a method by which you can spec-
ify the ID of the public key to be used when encrypting messages
to a certain recipient. The meaning of keyid is to be taken
broadly: This can be a different email address, a numerical
keyid, or even just an arbitrary search string. You may use mul-
tiple crypt-hooks with the same regex; multiple matching crypt-
hooks result in the use of multiple keyids for a recipient.

index-format-hook name [!]pattern format-string
This command is used to inject format strings dynamically into
$index_format based on pattern matching against the current mes-
sage.

The $index_format expando %@name@ specifies a placeholder for
the injection. Index-format-hooks with the same name are matched
using pattern against the current message. Matching is done in
the order specified in the .neomuttrc, with the first match be-
ing used. The hook's format-string is then substituted and eval-
uated.

exec function [ function ... ]

This command can be used to execute any function. Functions are
listed in the function reference. "exec function" is equivalent
to "push <function>".

fcc-save-hook pattern mailbox
fcc-hook pattern mailbox
save-hook pattern mailbox

fcc-save-hook is a shortcut, equivalent to doing both a fcc-hook
and a save-hook with its arguments, including %-expansion on
mailbox according to $index_format.

fcc-hook is used to save outgoing mail in a mailbox other than
$record. NeoMutt searches the initial list of message recipi-
ents for the first matching pattern and uses mailbox as the de-
fault "Fcc:" mailbox. If no match is found the message will be
saved to $record mailbox.

save-hook is used to override the default mailbox used when sav-
ing messages. mailbox will be used as the default if the message
matches pattern.

To provide more flexibility and good defaults, NeoMutt applies
the expandos of $index_format to mailbox after it was expanded.
See PATTERNS section below or consult section "Message Matching
in Hooks" in NeoMutt manual for information on the exact format
of pattern.

folder-hook [-noregex] regex command

When NeoMutt enters a folder which matches regex (or, when regex
is preceded by an exclamation mark, does not match regex), the
given command is executed. The -noregex switch controls whether
regex is matches as simple string equality or full regex match.

When several folder-hooks match a given mail folder, they are
executed in the order given in the configuration file.

group [ -group name ... ] { -rx regex ... | -addr address ... }
ungroup [ -group name ... ] { * | -rx regex ... | -addr address ... }

group is used to directly add either addresses or regular ex-
pressions to the specified group or groups. The different cate-
gories of arguments to the group command can be in any order.
The flags -rx and -addr specify what the following strings (that
cannot begin with a hyphen) should be interpreted as: either a
regular expression or an email address, respectively.

ungroup is used to remove addresses or regular expressions from
the specified group or groups. The syntax is similar to the
group command, however the special character "*" can be used to
empty a group of all of its contents.

These address groups can also be created implicitly by the
alias, lists, subscribe and alternates commands by specifying
the optional -group option.

Once defined, these address groups can be used in patterns to
search for and limit the display to messages matching a group.

hdr_order header [ header ... ]
unhdr_order { * | header ... }

With the hdr_order command you can specify an order in which
NeoMutt will attempt to present these headers to you when view-
ing messages.

"unhdr_order *" will clear all previous headers from the order
list, thus removing the header order effects set by the system-
wide startup file.

ifdef symbol "config-command [ args ... ]"
ifndef symbol "config-command [ args ... ]"
finish

The ifdef feature introduces three new commands to NeoMutt and
allow you to share one config file between versions of NeoMutt
that may have different features compiled in.

A list of compile-time symbols can be seen in the output of the
command "neomutt -v" (in the "Compile options" section).

finish is particularly useful when combined with ifndef.

ignore string [ string ... ]
unignore { * | string ... }

The ignore command allows you to specify header fields which you
don't normally want to see in the pager. You do not need to
specify the full header field name. For example, "ignore con-
tent-" will ignore all header fields that begin with the string
"content-", "ignore *" will ignore all headers.

To remove a previously added token from the list, use the unig-
nore command. For example, "unignore *" will remove all tokens
from the ignore list.

lists [ -group name ... ] regex [ regex ... ]
unlists [ -group name ... ] { * | regex ... }
subscribe [ -group name ... ] regex [ regex ... ]
unsubscribe [ -group name ... ] { * | regex ... }

NeoMutt maintains two lists of mailing list address regular ex-
pressions, a list of subscribed mailing lists, and a list of
known mailing lists. All subscribed mailing lists are known.

The lists command adds a mailing list address to the list of
known mailing lists. The unlists command removes a mailing list
from the lists of known and subscribed mailing lists.

The subscribe command adds a mailing list to the lists of known
and subscribed mailing lists. The unsubscribe command removes it
from the list of subscribed mailing lists.

The -group flag adds all of the subsequent regular expressions
to the named group.

macro menu[,menu ... ] key sequence [ description ]
unmacro { * | menu | [,menu...]} [ key ]

This command binds the given sequence of keys to the given key
in the given menu or menus. For currently defined menus, see
bind command above. To specify multiple menus, put only a comma
between the menus.

Optionally you can specify a descriptive text after sequence,
which is shown in the help screens if they contain a descrip-
tion.

Missing key sequence in unmacro command means unmacro all macros
in menus given in menu.

mailboxes [[-label label] | -nolabel]
[[-notify | -nonotify]
[-poll | -nopoll]
mailbox] [ ... ]
named-mailboxes label mailbox [label mailbox ... ]
unmailboxes { * | mailbox ... }

The mailboxes specifies folders which can receive mail and which
will be checked for new messages. When changing folders, press-
ing space will cycle through folders with new mail.

The named-mailboxes is an alternative to mailboxes -label label.
NeoMutt can be configured to display the label instead of the
mailbox path.

The unmailboxes command is used to remove a file name from the
list of folders which can receive mail. If "*" is specified as
the file name, the list is emptied.

mailto_allow { * | header-field ... }
unmailto_allow { * | header-field ... }

As a security measure, NeoMutt will only add user-approved
header-fields from a mailto: URL. This is necessary since Neo-
Mutt will handle certain header-fields, such as Attach, in a
special way. The mailto_allow and unmailto_allow commands allow
the user to modify the list of approved headers.

NeoMutt initializes the default list to contain only the Subject
and Body header-fields, which are the only requirement specified
by the mailto: specification in RFC2368, and the Cc, In-Reply-
To, References headers to aid with replies to mailing lists.

echo message
Prints message to the message window. After printing the mes-
sage, echo will pause for the number of seconds specified by
$sleep_time.

cd directory
Changes the current working directory.

mbox-hook [-noregex] regex mailbox

When NeoMutt changes to a mail folder which matches regex, mail-
box will be used as the "mbox" folder, i.e. read messages will
be moved to that folder when the mail folder is left. The
-noregex switch controls whether regex is matches as simple
string equality or full regex match.

Note that execution of mbox-hooks is dependent on the $move con-
figuration variable. If set to "no" (the default), mbox-hooks
will not be executed.

The first matching mbox-hook applies.

message-hook pattern command

Before NeoMutt displays (or formats for replying or forwarding)
a message which matches the given pattern (or, when it is pre-
ceded by an exclamation mark, does not match the pattern), the
given command is executed. When multiple message-hooks match,
they are executed in the order in which they occur in the con-
figuration file.

mime_lookup mime-type[/mime-subtype] [ mime-type[/mime-subtype] ... ]
unmime_lookup { * | mime-type[/mime-subtype] ... }

This command permits you to define a list of "data" MIME content
types for which NeoMutt will try to determine the actual file
type from the file name, and not use a mailcap(5) entry given
for the original MIME type. For instance, you may add the appli-
cation/octet-stream MIME type to this list.

In addition, the unmime_lookup command may be used to disable
this feature for any particular MIME type if it had been set,
for example in a global neomuttrc.

mono object attribute
mono { header | body } attribute regex
mono index-object attribute pattern
unmono { index-object | header | body } { * | pattern ... }

For terminals which don't support color, you can still assign
attributes to objects.

my_hdr string
unmy_hdr { * | field ... }

Using my_hdr, you can define headers which will be added to the
messages you compose. unmy_hdr will remove the given user-de-
fined headers.

open-hook regex "shell-command"
close-hook regex "shell-command"
append-hook regex "shell-command"

These commands provide a way to handle compressed folders. The
given regex specifies which folders are taken as compressed
(e.g. "\.gz$"). The commands tell NeoMutt how to uncompress a
folder (open-hook), compress a folder (close-hook) or append a
compressed mail to a compressed folder (append-hook). The shell-
command is a printf(3) like format string and must contain two
placeholders for from (%f) and to (%t) filenames which should be
placed inside single-quotes to prevent unintended shell expan-
sions. Examples:

append-hook '\.gz$' "gzip --stdout '%t' >> '%f'"
close-hook '\.gz$' "gzip --stdout '%t' > '%f'"
open-hook '\.gz$' "gzip --stdout --decompress '%f' > '%t'"

push string

This command adds the named string to the beginning of the key-
board buffer. The string may contain control characters, key
names and function names like the sequence string in the macro
command. You may use it to automatically run a sequence of com-
mands at startup, or when entering certain folders.

For using functions, it's important to use angle brackets ("<"
and ">") to make NeoMutt recognize the input as a function name.
Otherwise it will simulate individual just keystrokes.

reply-hook pattern command
send-hook pattern command
send2-hook pattern command

These commands can be used to execute arbitrary configuration
commands based upon recipients of the message. pattern is used
to match the message, see section "Message Matching in Hooks" in
manual for details. command is executed when pattern matches.

reply-hook is matched against the message you are replying to,
instead of the message you are sending. send-hook is matched
against all messages, both new and replies. Note, reply-hooks
are matched before the send-hook, regardless of the order speci-
fied in the user's configuration file.

send2-hook is matched every time a message is changed, either by
editing it, or by using the compose menu to change its recipi-
ents or subject. send2-hook is executed after send-hook, and
can, e.g., be used to set parameters such as the $sendmail vari-
able depending on the message's sender address. Note, send-hooks
are only executed once after getting the initial list of recipi-
ents.

score pattern value
unscore { * | pattern ... }

The score command adds value to a message's score if pattern
matches it. pattern is a string in the format described in the
PATTERNS section below. value is a positive or negative integer.
A message's final score is the sum total of all matching score
entries.

The unscore command removes score entries from the list. You
must specify the same pattern specified in the score command for
it to be removed. The pattern "*" is a special token which means
to clear the list of all score entries.

set { [ no | inv | & | ? ]variable } [ ... ]
set { variable=value | variable+=increment | variable-=decrement } [ ... ]
unset variable [ variable ... ]
reset variable [ variable ... ]
toggle variable [ variable ... ]
set variable ?

These commands are used to set and manipulate configuration
variables.

NeoMutt knows four basic types of variables: boolean, number,
string, string list and quadoption. Boolean variables can be set
(true), unset (false), or toggled. Number variables can be as-
signed a positive integer value. Value of number variables can
be incremented "+=" and decremented "-=". String list variables
use "+=" for appending increment to the string list and "-=" for
removal decrement from the string list.

String variables consist of any number of printable characters
and must be enclosed in quotes if they contain spaces or tabs.
You may also use the escape sequences "\n" and "\t" for newline
and tab, respectively. Content of a string variables can be ex-
tended using "+="

Quadoption variables are used to control whether or not to be
prompted for certain actions, or to specify a default action. A
value of yes will cause the action to be carried out automati-
cally as if you had answered "yes" to the question. Similarly, a
value of no will cause the action to be carried out as if you
had answered "no". A value of ask-yes will cause a prompt with
a default answer of "yes" and ask-no will provide a default an-
swer of "no".

The toggle command automatically prepends the "inv" prefix to
all specified variables. The unset command automatically
prepends the "no" prefix to all specified variables. If you use
the command set and prefix the variable with "&" this has the
same behavior as the reset command.

The reset command resets all given variables to the compile time
defaults. With the reset command there exists the special vari-
able all, which allows you to reset all variables to their sys-
tem defaults.

Using the <enter-command> function, you can query the value of a
variable by suffixing the name of the variable with a question
mark: ":set allow_8bit?". The old prefix query syntax
(":set ?allow_8bit") is also still supported.

setenv { ?variable | variable value }
unsetenv variable

You can alter the environment that NeoMutt passes on to its
child processes using the setenv and unsetenv operators.

You can also query current environment values by prefixing a "?"
character.

sidebar_pin mailbox [ mailbox ...]
sidebar_unpin { * | mailbox ... }

The sidebar_pin command specifies mailboxes that will always be
displayed in the sidebar, even if $sidebar_new_mail_only is set
and the mailbox does not contain new mail.

The sidebar_unpin command is used to remove a mailbox from the
list of always displayed mailboxes. Use "sidebar_unpin *" to re-
move all mailboxes.

source filename

This command allows the inclusion of initialization commands
from other files. If the filename begins with a tilde ("~"), it
will be expanded to the path of your home directory.

If the filename ends with a vertical bar ("|"), then filename is
considered to be an executable program from which to read input,
(e.g. "source ~/bin/myscript|").

If the filename is relative and the command source is executed
from the context of a configuration file, then the filename is
interpreted relative to the directory of that configuration
file. If the command is executed outside of a configuration
file, e.g. from the prompt, then the filename is interpreted
relative to the current working directory (see cd on how to
change the current working directory at runtime).

Note: A hook remembers the configuration file it was defined in
and sets the context to that file when executing its commands.
As a result a source command inside a hook is executed in the
context of the configuration file the hook was defined in. Thus
relative filenames are interpreted relative to the configuration
file the hook is defined in.

spam regex format
nospam { * | regex }

NeoMutt has generalized support for external spam-scoring fil-
ters. By defining your spam regexs with the spam and nospam com-
mands, you can limit, search, and sort your mail based on its
spam attributes, as determined by the external filter. You also
can display the spam attributes in your index display using the
%H selector in the $index_format variable. (Tip: try
"%<H?[%H] >" to display spam tags only when they are defined for
a given message).

For further information on spam-scoring filters, please consult
the section "Spam Detection" in the NeoMutt manual.

subjectrx regex replacement
unsubjectrx { * | regex }

The subjectrx command specifies a regular expression which, if
detected in a message subject, causes the subject to be replaced
with the replacement value. The replacement is subject to sub-
stitutions in the same way as for the spam command: %L for the
text to the left of the match, %R for text to the right of the
match, and %1 for the first subgroup in the match (etc). If you
simply want to erase the match, set it to "%L%R". Any number of
subjectrx commands may coexist.

Note this well: the replacement value replaces the entire sub-
ject, not just the match!

unsubjectrx removes a given subjectrx from the substitution
list. If "*" is used as the argument, all substitutions will be
removed.

subscribe-to imap-folder-uri
unsubscribe-from imap-folder-uri

Tell the IMAP server to subscribe to or unsubscribe from the
folder imap-folder-uri. The argument must be an IMAP URI, e.g.
"subscribe-to imaps://mail.example.org/inbox".

Subscription is an IMAP protocol feature where the server man-
ages a list of subscribed folders. This list can be queried by
clients like NeoMutt.

NeoMutt uses that list in various situations, see
$imap_list_subscribed and $imap_check_subscribed.

timeout-hook command
startup-hook command
shutdown-hook command

The Global Hooks feature introduces these hooks to NeoMutt. They
are called when global events take place in NeoMutt. startup-
hook and shutdown-hook are most likely to be useful to users of
notmuch(1).

timeout-hook runs a command periodically when NeoMutt checks for
new mail. This hook is called every $timeout seconds.

Before NeoMutt opens the first mailbox when first starting, Neo-
Mutt will run the startup-hook for the given command.

Before NeoMutt is about to exit, and before the mailbox is
closed, NeoMutt will run the shutdown-hook for the given com-
mand.

unhook { * | hook-type }

This command permits you to flush hooks you have previously de-
fined. You can either remove all hooks by giving the "*" charac-
ter as an argument, or you can remove all hooks of a specific
hook-type by saying something like "unhook send-hook".

Special attention has to be paid when using regular expressions inside
of patterns. Specifically, NeoMutt's parser for these patterns will
strip one level of backslash ("\"), which is normally used for quoting.
If it is your intention to use a backslash in the regular expression,
you will need to use two backslashes ("\\") instead.

You can force NeoMutt to treat EXPR as a simple STRING instead of a
regular expression by using "=" instead of "~" in the pattern name. For
example, "=b *.*" will find all messages that contain the literal
STRING "*.*". Simple substring matches are less powerful than regular
expressions but can be considerably faster. This is especially true for
IMAP folders, because substring matches can be performed on the server
instead of by fetching every message. IMAP treats "=h" specially: it
must be of the form "Header: substring" and will not partially match
header names. The substring part may be omitted if you simply wish to
find messages containing a particular header without regard to its
value.

Patterns matching lists of addresses (notably c, C, p, P and t) match
if there is at least one match in the whole list. If you want to make
sure that all elements of that list match, you need to prefix your pat-
tern with "^".

This example matches all mails which only has recipients from Germany.

Matching all addresses in address lists: ^~C \.de$

You can restrict address pattern matching to aliases that you have de-
fined with the "@" modifier. This example matches messages whose recip-
ients are all from Germany and who are known to your alias list.

Matching restricted to aliases: ^@~C \.de$

To match any defined alias, use a regular expression that matches any
string. This example matches messages whose senders are known aliases.

Matching any defined alias: @~f .

Nesting and Boolean Operators
Logical AND is performed by specifying more than one criterion.

For example: ~t work ~f smith

would select messages which contain the word "work" in the list of re-
cipients and that have the word "smith" in the "From:" header field.

NeoMutt also recognizes the following operators to create more complex
search patterns:

• "!" -- logical NOT operator
• "|" -- logical OR operator
• "()" -- logical grouping operator

Here is an example illustrating a complex search pattern. This pattern
will select all messages which do not contain "work" in the "To:" or
"Cc:" field and which are from "smith".

Using boolean operators in patterns: !(~t work|~c work) ~f smith

Here is an example using white space in the regular expression (note
the "'" and """ delimiters). For this to match, the mail's subject must
match the "^Junk +From +Me$" and it must be from either "Jim +Somebody"
or "Ed +SomeoneElse":

Quoting regex: '~s "^Junk +From +Me$" ~f ("Jim +Somebody"|"Ed
+SomeoneElse")'

Note: If a regular expression contains parenthesis, or a vertical bar
("|"), you must enclose the expression in double or single quotes since
those characters are also used to separate different parts of NeoMutt's
pattern language.

For example: ~f "user@(home\.org|work\.com)"

Without the quotes, the parenthesis wouldn't end. This would be sepa-
rated to two OR'd patterns: ~f user@(home\.org and work\.com). They are
never what you want.

Searching by Date
NeoMutt supports two types of dates, absolute and relative for the "~d"
and "~r" pattern.

Absolute Dates
Dates must be in dd[/mm[/[CC]YY]] format (day, month, century and year
-- all parts, with the exception of day, are optional, defaulting to
the current month and year). An example of a valid range of dates is:

Limit to messages matching: ~d 20/1/95-31/10

Alternatively, you may use YYYYMMDD to specify a date.

When given a two-digit year, NeoMutt will interpret values less than
"70" as lying in the 21st century (i.e., "38" means 2038 and not 1938,
and "00" is interpreted as 2000), and values greater than or equal to
"70" as lying in the 20th century.

If you omit the MINimum (first) date, and just specify -dd/mm/YY, all
messages before the given date will be selected. If you omit the MAXi-
mum (second) date, and specify dd/mm/YY-, all messages after the given
date will be selected. If you specify a single date with no dash ("-"),
only messages sent/received on the given date will be selected.

You can add error margins to absolute dates. An error margin is a sign
("+" or "-"), followed by a digit, followed by one of the units in ta-
ble "Date units" below. As a special case, you can replace the sign by
a "*" character, which is equivalent to giving identical plus and minus
error margins.
+--------------+------+-------+--------+-------+
| Date Unit | d | w | m | y |
+--------------+------+-------+--------+-------+
| Description | Days | Weeks | Months | Years |
+--------------+------+-------+--------+-------+
+--------------+---------+---------+-------+
| Date Unit | S | M | H |
+--------------+---------+---------+-------+
| Description | Seconds | Minutes | Hours |
+--------------+---------+---------+-------+

Example: To select any messages two weeks around January 15, 2001,
you'd use the following pattern:

Limit to messages matching: ~d 15/1/2001*2w

It is possible to give multiple error margins:

which cumulate: ~d 1/1/2001-1w+2w*3d

Relative Dates
This type of date is relative to the current date, and may be specified
as:

• "<offset" for messages newer than offset units
• "=offset" for messages exactly offset units old
• ">offset" for messages older than offset units

offset is specified as a positive number with one of the units from ta-
ble "Date units".

Example: To select messages less than 1 month old, you would use:

Limit to messages matching: ~d <1m

Note: All dates used when searching are relative to the local time
zone, so unless you change the setting of your $index_format to include
a "%[...]" format, these are not the dates shown in the main index.

CONFIGURATION VARIABLES
abort_backspace
Type: boolean
Default: yes

If set, hitting backspace against an empty prompt aborts the
prompt.

abort_key
Type: string
Default: "007"

Specifies the key that can be used to abort prompts. The format
is the same as used in "bind" commands. The default is equiva-
lent to "Ctrl-G". Note that the specified key should not be
used in other bindings, as the abort operation has higher prece-
dence and the binding will not have the desired effect.

Example:

set abort_key = "<Esc>"

Please note that when using <Esc> as the abort key, you may also
want to set the environment variable ESCDELAY to a low value or
even 0 which will reduce the time that ncurses waits to distin-
guish singular <Esc> key presses from the start of a terminal
escape sequence. The default time is 1000 milliseconds and thus
quite noticeable.

abort_noattach
Type: quadoption
Default: no

If set to yes, when composing messages containing the regular
expression specified by $abort_noattach_regex and no attachments
are given, composition will be aborted. If set to no, composing
messages as such will never be aborted.

Example:

set abort_noattach_regex = "\\<attach(|ed|ments?)\\>"

abort_noattach_regex
Type: regular expression
Default: "\<(attach|attached|attachments?)\>"

Specifies a regular expression to match against the body of the
message, to determine if an attachment was mentioned but mistak-
enly forgotten. If it matches, $abort_noattach will be con-
sulted to determine if message sending will be aborted.

Like other regular expressions in NeoMutt, the search is case
sensitive if the pattern contains at least one upper case let-
ter, and case insensitive otherwise.

abort_nosubject
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes

If set to yes, when composing messages and no subject is given
at the subject prompt, composition will be aborted. If set to
no, composing messages with no subject given at the subject
prompt will never be aborted.

abort_unmodified
Type: quadoption
Default: yes

If set to yes, composition will automatically abort after edit-
ing the message body if no changes are made to the file (this
check only happens after the first edit of the file). When set
to no, composition will never be aborted.

account_command
Type: command
Default: ""

If set, this command is used to retrieve account credentials.
The command is invoked passing a number of --key value arguments
with the specifics of the account to lookup. The command writes
to standard output a number of key: value lines. Currently sup-
ported arguments are --hostname, --username, and --type, where
type can be any of imap, imaps, pop, pops, smtp, smtps, nntp,
and nntps. Currently supported output lines are login, username,
and password.

alias_file
Type: path
Default: "~/.neomuttrc"

The default file in which to save aliases created by the <cre-
ate-alias> function. Entries added to this file are encoded in
the character set specified by $config_charset if it is set or
the current character set otherwise.

Note: NeoMutt will not automatically source this file; you must
explicitly use the "source" command for it to be executed in
case this option points to a dedicated alias file.

The default for this option is the currently used neomuttrc
file, or "~/.neomuttrc" if no user neomuttrc was found.

alias_format
Type: string
Default: "%3i %f%t %-15a %-56A | %C%> %Y"

Specifies the format of the data displayed for the "alias" menu.
The following printf(3)-style sequences are available:
%a Alias name
%A Full Address (Name and Email)
%C Comment
%E Email Address
%f Flags - currently, a "d" for an alias marked for deletion
%i Index number
%N Real name
%t Alias is tagged (selected)
%Y User-defined tags (labels)
%>X right justify the rest of the string and pad with charac-
ter "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 $index_format docu-
mentation.

The following sequences are deprecated; they will be removed in
the future.
%c Use %C instead
%n Use %i instead
%r Use %A instead

alias_sort
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 .neomuttrc)

Note: This also affects the entries of the address query menu,
thus potentially overruling the order of entries as generated by
$query_command.

allow_8bit
Type: boolean
Default: yes

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

allow_ansi
Type: boolean
Default: no

Controls whether ANSI color codes in messages (and color tags in
rich text messages) are to be interpreted. Messages 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 (see also
$crypt_timestamp).

arrow_cursor
Type: boolean
Default: no

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.

arrow_string
Type: string
Default: "->"

Specifies the string of arrow_cursor when arrow_cursor enabled.

ascii_chars
Type: boolean
Default: no

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

ask_bcc
Type: boolean
Default: no

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

ask_cc
Type: boolean
Default: no

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

ask_followup_to
Type: boolean
Default: no

If set, NeoMutt will prompt you for follow-up groups before
editing the body of an outgoing message.

ask_x_comment_to
Type: boolean
Default: no

If set, NeoMutt will prompt you for x-comment-to field before
editing the body of an outgoing message.

assumed_charset
Type: string list
Default: ""

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 assumed_charset="iso-2022-jp:euc-jp:shift_jis:utf-8"

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

attach_charset
Type: string list
Default: ""

This variable is a colon-separated list of character encoding
schemes for text file attachments. NeoMutt uses this setting to
guess which encoding files being attached are encoded in to con-
vert them to a proper character set given in $send_charset.

If unset, the value of $charset will be used instead. For exam-
ple, the following configuration would work for Japanese text
handling:

set attach_charset="iso-2022-jp:euc-jp:shift_jis:utf-8"

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

attach_format
Type: string
Default: "%u%D%I %t%4n %T%d %> [%.7m/%.10M, %.6e%<C?, %C>, %s] "

This variable describes the format of the "attachment" menu.
The following printf(3)-style sequences are understood:
%C Charset
%c Requires charset conversion ("n" or "c")
%D Deleted flag
%d Description (if none, falls back to %F)
%e MIME content-transfer-encoding
%f Filename
%F Filename in content-disposition header (if none, falls
back to %f)
%I Disposition ("I" for inline, "A" for attachment)
%m Major MIME type
%M MIME subtype
%n Attachment number
%Q "Q", if MIME part qualifies for attachment counting
%s Size (see formatstrings-size)
%T Graphic tree characters
%t Tagged flag
%u Unlink (=to delete) flag
%X Number of qualifying MIME parts in this part and its
children (please see the "attachments" section for possi-
ble speed effects)
%>X Right justify the rest of the string and pad with charac-
ter "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 $index_format docu-
mentation.

attach_save_dir
Type: path
Default: "./"

The directory where attachments are saved.

attach_save_without_prompting
Type: boolean
Default: no

This variable, when set to true, will cause attachments to be
saved to the 'attach_save_dir' location without prompting the
user for the filename.

attach_sep
Type: string
Default: "\n"

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

attach_split
Type: boolean
Default: yes

If this variable is unset, when operating (saving, printing,
piping, etc) on a list of tagged attachments, NeoMutt will con-
catenate the attachments and will operate on them as a single
attachment. The $attach_sep separator is added after each at-
tachment. When set, NeoMutt will operate on the attachments one
by one.

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

This is the string that will precede a replied-to message which
is quoted in the main body of the reply (this is the case when
$include is set).

For a full listing of defined printf(3)-like sequences see the
section on $index_format. See also $attribution_locale.

attribution_locale
Type: string
Default: ""

The locale used by strftime(3) to format dates in the attribu-
tion strings. Legal values are the strings your system accepts
for the locale environment variable $LC_TIME.

This variable is to allow the attribution date format to be cus-
tomized by recipient or folder using hooks. By default, NeoMutt
will use your locale environment, so there is no need to set
this except to override that default.

Affected variables are: $attribution_intro, $attribu-
tion_trailer, $forward_attribution_intro, $forward_attribu-
tion_trailer, $indent_string.

attribution_trailer
Type: string
Default: ""

Similar to the $attribution_intro variable, this is the string
that will come after a replied-to message which is quoted in the
main body of the reply (this is the case when $include is set).

For a full listing of defined printf(3)-like sequences see the
section on $index_format. See also $attribution_locale.

auto_edit
Type: boolean
Default: no

When set along with $edit_headers, NeoMutt will skip the initial
send-menu (prompting for subject and recipients) 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.

Note: when this option is set, you can't use send-hooks that de-
pend on the recipients when composing a new (non-reply) message,
as the initial list of recipients is empty.

Also see $fast_reply.

auto_subscribe
Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, NeoMutt assumes the presence of a List-Post header
means the recipient is subscribed to the list. Unless the mail-
ing list is in the "unsubscribe" or "unlist" lists, it will be
added to the "subscribe" list. Parsing and checking these
things slows header reading down, so this option is disabled by
default.

auto_tag
Type: boolean
Default: no

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

beep
Type: boolean
Default: yes

When this variable is set, NeoMutt will beep when an error oc-
curs.

beep_new
Type: boolean
Default: no

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

bounce
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes

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 mes-
sage. Setting this variable to no is not generally useful, and
thus not recommended, because you are unable to bounce messages.

bounce_delivered
Type: boolean
Default: yes

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

braille_friendly
Type: boolean
Default: no

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

browser_abbreviate_mailboxes
Type: boolean
Default: yes

When this variable is set, NeoMutt will abbreviate mailbox names
in the browser mailbox list, using '~' and '=' shortcuts.

The default "alpha" setting of $browser_sort uses locale-based
sorting (using strcoll(3)), which ignores some punctuation.
This can lead to some situations where the order doesn't make
intuitive sense. In those cases, it may be desirable to unset
this variable.

browser_sort
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 by name)
- count (total message count)
- date
- desc (description)
- new (new message count)
- size
- unsorted

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

The "unread" value is a synonym for "new".

browser_sort_dirs_first
Type: boolean
Default: no

If this variable is set, the browser will group directories be-
fore files.

catchup_newsgroup
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes

If this variable is set, NeoMutt will mark all articles in news-
group as read when you quit the newsgroup (catchup newsgroup).

certificate_file
Type: path
Default: "~/.mutt_certificates"

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 cer-
tificate 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 certifi-
cates is also automatically accepted.

Example:

set certificate_file=~/.neomutt/certificates

(OpenSSL and GnuTLS only)

change_folder_next
Type: boolean
Default: no

When this variable is set, the <change-folder> function mailbox
suggestion will start at the next folder in your "mailboxes"
list, instead of starting at the first folder in the list.

charset
Type: string
Default: ""

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

Upon startup NeoMutt tries to derive this value from environment
variables such as $LC_CTYPE or $LANG.

Note: It should only be set in case NeoMutt isn't able to deter-
mine the character set used correctly.

check_mbox_size
Type: boolean
Default: no

When this variable is set, NeoMutt 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 "mail-
boxes" directives occur in configuration files regarding mbox or
mmdf folders because NeoMutt 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.

check_new
Type: boolean
Default: yes

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

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

collapse_all
Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, NeoMutt will collapse all threads when entering a
folder.

collapse_flagged
Type: boolean
Default: yes

When unset, NeoMutt will not collapse a thread if it contains
any flagged messages.

collapse_unread
Type: boolean
Default: yes

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

color_directcolor
Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, NeoMutt will use and allow 24bit colours (aka true-
color aka directcolor). For colours to work properly support
from the terminal is required as well as a properly set TERM en-
vironment variable advertising the terminals directcolor capa-
bility, e.g. "TERM=xterm-direct".

NeoMutt tries to detect whether the terminal supports 24bit
colours and enables this variable if it does. If this fails for
some reason, you can force 24bit colours by setting this vari-
able manually. You may also try to force a certain TERM envi-
ronment variable by starting NeoMutt from a terminal as follows
(this results in wrong colours if the terminal does not imple-
ment directcolors):

TERM=xterm-direct neomutt

Note: This variable must be set before using any `color` com-
mands.

compose_confirm_detach_first
Type: boolean
Default: yes

When set, NeoMutt will prompt for confirmation when trying to
use <detach-file> on the first entry in the compose menu. This
is to help prevent irreversible loss of the typed message by ac-
cidentally hitting 'D' in the menu.

Note: NeoMutt only prompts for the first entry. It doesn't keep
track of which message is the typed message if the entries are
reordered, or if the first entry was already deleted.

compose_format
Type: string
Default: "-- NeoMutt: Compose [Approx. msg size: %l Atts: %a]%>-"

Controls the format of the status line displayed in the "com-
pose" menu. This string is similar to $status_format, but has
its own set of printf(3)-like sequences:
%a Total number of attachments
%h Local hostname
%l Approximate size (in bytes) of the current message (see
formatstrings-size)
%v NeoMutt version string
%>X right justify the rest of the string and pad with charac-
ter "X"
%|X pad to the end of the line with character "X"
%*X soft-fill with character "X" as pad

See the text describing the $status_format option for more in-
formation on how to set $compose_format.

compose_preview_min_rows
Type: number
Default: 5

This variable specifies the minimum number of rows that have to
be available for the message preview window to shown.

compose_preview_above_attachments
Type: boolean
Default: no

Show the message preview above the attachments list. By default
it is shown below it.

compose_show_preview
Type: boolean
Default: yes

When set, Neomutt will display a preview of message in the com-
pose view.

compose_show_user_headers
Type: boolean
Default: yes

When set, Neomutt will display user-defined headers (set via
my_hdr or from editing with edit-headers).

config_charset
Type: string
Default: ""

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

Please note that if setting $charset it must be done before set-
ting $config_charset.

Recoding should be avoided as it may render unconvertible char-
acters as question marks which can lead to undesired side ef-
fects (for example in regular expressions).

confirm_append
Type: boolean
Default: yes

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

confirm_create
Type: boolean
Default: yes

When set, NeoMutt will prompt for confirmation when saving mes-
sages to a mailbox which does not yet exist before creating it.

content_type
Type: string
Default: "text/plain"

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

copy
Type: quadoption
Default: yes

This variable controls whether or not copies of your outgoing
messages will be saved for later references. Also see $record,
$save_name, $force_name and "fcc-hook".

copy_decode_weed
Type: boolean
Default: no

Controls whether NeoMutt will weed headers when invoking the
<decode-copy> or <decode-save> functions.

count_alternatives
Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, NeoMutt will recurse inside multipart/alternatives
while performing attachment searching and counting(see attach-
ments).

Traditionally, multipart/alternative parts have simply repre-
sented different encodings of the main content of the email.
Unfortunately, some mail clients have started to place email at-
tachments inside one of alternatives. Setting this will allow
NeoMutt to find and count matching attachments hidden there, and
include them in the index via %X or through ~X pattern matching.

crypt_auto_encrypt
Type: boolean
Default: no

Setting this variable will cause NeoMutt 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 $smime_is_default is set, then OpenSSL
is used instead to create S/MIME messages and settings can be
overridden by use of the smime menu instead. (Crypto only)

crypt_auto_pgp
Type: boolean
Default: yes

This variable controls whether or not NeoMutt may automatically
enable PGP encryption/signing for messages. See also
$crypt_auto_encrypt, $crypt_reply_encrypt, $crypt_auto_sign,
$crypt_reply_sign and $smime_is_default.

crypt_auto_sign
Type: boolean
Default: no

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

crypt_auto_smime
Type: boolean
Default: yes

This variable controls whether or not NeoMutt may automatically
enable S/MIME encryption/signing for messages. See also
$crypt_auto_encrypt, $crypt_reply_encrypt, $crypt_auto_sign,
$crypt_reply_sign and $smime_is_default.

crypt_chars
Type: character string
Default: "SPsK "

Controls the characters used in cryptography flags.
Character
Default Description
1 S The mail is signed, and the signature is successfully
verified.
2 P The mail is PGP encrypted.
3 s The mail is signed.
4 K The mail contains a PGP public key.
5 <space> The mail has no crypto info.

crypt_confirm_hook
Type: boolean
Default: yes

If set, then you will be prompted for confirmation of keys when
using the crypt-hook command. If unset, no such confirmation
prompt will be presented. This is generally considered unsafe,
especially where typos are concerned.

crypt_opportunistic_encrypt
Type: boolean
Default: no

Setting this variable will cause NeoMutt to automatically enable
and disable encryption, based on whether all message recipient
keys can be located by NeoMutt.

When this option is enabled, NeoMutt will enable/disable encryp-
tion each time the TO, CC, and BCC lists are edited. If
$edit_headers is set, NeoMutt will also do so each time the mes-
sage is edited.

While this is set, encryption can't be manually enabled/dis-
abled. The pgp or smime menus provide a selection to temporar-
ily disable this option for the current message.

If $crypt_auto_encrypt or $crypt_reply_encrypt enable encryption
for a message, this option will be disabled for that message.
It can be manually re-enabled in the pgp or smime menus.
(Crypto only)

crypt_opportunistic_encrypt_strong_keys
Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, this modifies the behavior of $crypt_opportunistic_en-
crypt to only search for "strong keys", that is, keys with full
validity according to the web-of-trust algorithm. A key with
marginal or no validity will not enable opportunistic encryp-
tion.

For S/MIME, the behavior depends on the backend. Classic S/MIME
will filter for certificates with the 't'(trusted) flag in the
.index file. The GPGME backend will use the same filters as
with OpenPGP, and depends on GPGME's logic for assigning the
GPGME_VALIDITY_FULL and GPGME_VALIDITY_ULTIMATE validity flag.

crypt_protected_headers_read
Type: boolean
Default: yes

When set, NeoMutt will display protected headers ("Memory Hole")
in the pager, When set, NeoMutt will display protected headers
in the pager, and will update the index and header cache with
revised headers.

Protected headers are stored inside the encrypted or signed part
of an an email, to prevent disclosure or tampering. For more
information see https://github.com/autocrypt/protected-headers
Currently NeoMutt only supports the Subject header.

Encrypted messages using protected headers often substitute the
exposed Subject header with a dummy value (see $crypt_pro-
tected_headers_subject). NeoMutt will update its concept of the
correct subject after the message is opened, i.e. via the <dis-
play-message> function. If you reply to a message before open-
ing it, NeoMutt will end up using the dummy Subject header, so
be sure to open such a message first. (Crypto only)

crypt_protected_headers_save
Type: boolean
Default: no

When $crypt_protected_headers_read is set, and a message with a
protected Subject is opened, NeoMutt will save the updated Sub-
ject into the header cache by default. This allows search-
ing/limiting based on the protected Subject header if the mail-
box is re-opened, without having to re-open the message each
time. However, for mbox/mh mailbox types, or if header caching
is not set up, you would need to re-open the message each time
the mailbox was reopened before you could see or search/limit on
the protected subject again.

When this variable is set, NeoMutt additionally saves the pro-
tected Subject back in the clear-text message headers. This
provides better usability, but with the tradeoff of reduced se-
curity. The protected Subject header, which may have previously
been encrypted, is now stored in clear-text in the message head-
ers. Copying the message elsewhere, via NeoMutt or external
tools, could expose this previously encrypted data. Please make
sure you understand the consequences of this before you enable
this variable. (Crypto only)

crypt_protected_headers_subject
Type: string
Default: "..."

When $crypt_protected_headers_write is set, and the message is
marked for encryption, this will be substituted into the Subject
field in the message headers.

To prevent a subject from being substituted, unset this vari-
able, or set it to the empty string. (Crypto only)

crypt_protected_headers_weed
Type: boolean
Default: no

Controls whether NeoMutt will weed protected header fields.
(Crypto only)

crypt_protected_headers_write
Type: boolean
Default: yes

When set, NeoMutt will generate protected headers for signed and
encrypted emails.

Protected headers are stored inside the encrypted or signed part
of an an email, to prevent disclosure or tampering. For more
information see https://github.com/autocrypt/protected-headers

Currently NeoMutt only supports the Subject header. (Crypto
only)

crypt_reply_encrypt
Type: boolean
Default: yes

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

crypt_reply_sign
Type: boolean
Default: no

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)

crypt_reply_sign_encrypted
Type: boolean
Default: no

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

crypt_encryption_info
Type: boolean
Default: yes

If set, NeoMutt will include an informative block before an en-
crypted part, with details about the encryption. (Crypto only)

crypt_timestamp
Type: boolean
Default: yes

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

crypt_use_gpgme
Type: boolean
Default: yes

This variable controls the use of the GPGME-enabled crypto back-
ends. If it is set and NeoMutt 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 .neomut-
trc; it won't have any effect when used interactively.

Note that the GPGME backend does not support creating old-style
inline (traditional) PGP encrypted or signed messages (see
$pgp_auto_inline).

crypt_use_pka
Type: boolean
Default: no

Controls whether NeoMutt uses PKA (see
http://www.g10code.de/docs/pka-intro.de.pdf) during signature
verification (only supported by the GPGME backend).

crypt_verify_sig
Type: quadoption
Default: yes

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)

date_format
Type: string
Default: "!%a, %b %d, %Y at %I:%M:%S%p %Z"

Instead of using $date_format it is encouraged to use "%[fmt]"
directly in the corresponding format strings, where "fmt" is the
value of $date_format. This allows for a more fine grained con-
trol of the different menu needs.

This variable controls the format of the date printed by the
"%d" sequence in $index_format. This is passed to the strf-
time(3) function to process the date, see the man page 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.
If the first character in the string is a bang, the bang is dis-
carded, and the month and week day names in the rest of the
string are expanded in the C locale (that is in US English).

Format strings using this variable are:

UI: $folder_format, $index_format, $mailbox_folder_format, $mes-
sage_format.IP Composing: $attribution_intro, $forward_attribu-
tion_intro, $forward_attribution_trailer, $forward_format, $in-
dent_string.

debug_file
Type: path
Default: "~/.neomuttdebug"

Debug logging is controlled by the variables $debug_file and
$debug_level. $debug_file specifies the root of the filename.
NeoMutt will add "0" to the end. Each time NeoMutt is run with
logging enabled, the log files are rotated. A maximum of five
log files are kept, numbered 0 (most recent) to 4 (oldest).

This option can be enabled on the command line, "neomutt -l my-
log"

See also: $debug_file

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

This variable controls how some hooks are interpreted if their
pattern is a plain string or a regex. i.e. they don't contain a
pattern, like ~f

The hooks are: fcc-hook, fcc-save-hook, index-format-hook, mes-
sage-hook, reply-hook, save-hook, send-hook and send2-hook.

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.

delete
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes

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.

delete_untag
Type: boolean
Default: yes

If this option is set, NeoMutt 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.

devel_security
Type: boolean
Default: no

If this option is set, NeoMutt will enable the Security develop-
ment features. See: https://github.com/neomutt/neomutt/discus-
sions/4251

digest_collapse
Type: boolean
Default: yes

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

display_filter
Type: command
Default: ""

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

When preparing the message, NeoMutt inserts some escape se-
quences into the text. They are of the form: <esc>]9;XXX<bel>
where "XXX" is a random 64-bit number.

If these escape sequences interfere with your filter, they can
be removed using a tool like ansifilter or sed
's/^\x1b]9;[0-9]\+\x7//'

If they are removed, then PGP and MIME headers will no longer be
coloured. This can be fixed by adding this to your config:
color body magenta default '^\[-- .* --\]$'.

dsn_notify
Type: string
Default: ""

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

Example:

set dsn_notify="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, DSN support is auto-de-
tected so that it depends on the server whether DSN will be used
or not.

dsn_return
Type: string
Default: ""

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

Example:

set dsn_return=hdrs

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, DSN support is auto-de-
tected so that it depends on the server whether DSN will be used
or not.

duplicate_threads
Type: boolean
Default: yes

This variable controls whether NeoMutt, when $sort is set to
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 tree.

edit_headers
Type: boolean
Default: no

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

Although the compose menu may have localized header labels, the
labels passed to your editor will be standard RFC2822 headers,
(e.g. To:, Cc:, Subject:). Headers added in your editor must
also be RFC2822 headers, or one of the pseudo headers listed in
"edit-header". NeoMutt will not understand localized header la-
bels, just as it would not when parsing an actual email.

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

editor
Type: command
Default: ""

This variable specifies which editor is used by NeoMutt. It de-
faults to the value of the $VISUAL, or $EDITOR, environment
variable, or to the string "vi" if neither of those are set.

The $editor string may contain a %s escape, which will be re-
placed by the name of the file to be edited. If the %s escape
does not appear in $editor, a space and the name to be edited
are appended.

The resulting string is then executed by running

sh -c 'string'

where string is the expansion of $editor described above.

empty_subject
Type: string
Default: "Re: your mail"

This variable specifies the subject to be used when replying to
an email with an empty subject. It defaults to "Re: your mail".

encode_from
Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, NeoMutt will quoted-printable encode messages when
they contain the string "From " (note the trailing space) in the
beginning of a line. This is useful to avoid the tampering cer-
tain mail delivery and transport agents tend to do with messages
(in order to prevent tools from misinterpreting the line as a
mbox message separator).

entropy_file
Type: path
Default: ""

The file which includes random data that is used to initialize
SSL library functions. (OpenSSL only)

envelope_from_address
Type: e-mail address
Default: ""

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

external_search_command
Type: command
Default: ""

If set, contains the name of the external program used by "~I"
patterns. This will usually be a wrapper script around mairix,
mu, or similar indexers other than notmuch (for which there is
optional special support).

Here is an example how it works. Let's assume $exter-
nal_search_command is set to "mairix_filter", and mairix_filter
is a script which runs the old but well loved mairix indexer
with the arguments given to mairix_filter, in the "raw" mode of
mairix, producing on the standard output a list of Message-IDs,
one per line.

If possible, it also filters down the results coming from mairix
such that only messages in the current folder remain. It can do
this because it gets a hidden first argument which is the path
to the folder. (This can be the type of clean and simple script
called a one-liner.)

Now if NeoMutt gets a limit or tag command followed by the pat-
tern "~I '-t s:bleeping='", mairix_filter runs mairix with the
arguments from inside the quotes (the quotes are needed because
of the space after "-t"), mairix finds all messages with "bleep-
ing" in the Subject plus all messages sharing threads with these
and outputs their file names, and mairix_filter translates the
file names into Message-IDs. Finally, NeoMutt reads the Mes-
sage-IDs and targets the matching messages with the command
given to it.

You, the user, still have to rewrite the mairix_filter script to
match the behavior of your indexer, but this should help users
of indexers other than notmuch to integrate them cleanly with
NeoMutt.

fast_reply
Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, the initial prompt for recipients (to, cc, bcc) and
subject are skipped when the relevant information is already
provided. These cases include replying to messages and passing
the relevant command line arguments. The initial prompt for re-
cipients is also skipped when composing a new message to the
current message sender, while the initial prompt for subject is
also skipped when forwarding messages.

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

See also: $auto_edit, $edit_headers, $ask_cc, $ask_bcc

fcc_attach
Type: quadoption
Default: yes

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

Note: $fcc_before_send forces the default (set) behavior of this
option.

fcc_before_send
Type: boolean
Default: no

When this variable is set, FCCs will occur before sending the
message. Before sending, the message cannot be manipulated, so
it will be stored the exact same as sent: $fcc_attach and
$fcc_clear will be ignored (using their default values).

When unset, the default, FCCs will occur after sending. Vari-
ables $fcc_attach and $fcc_clear will be respected, allowing it
to be stored without attachments or encryption/signing if de-
sired.

fcc_clear
Type: boolean
Default: no

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

Note: $fcc_before_send forces the default (unset) behavior of
this option. (PGP only)

See also $pgp_self_encrypt, $smime_self_encrypt

flag_chars
Type: character string
Default: "*!DdrONon- "

Controls the characters used in several flags.
Character
Default Description
1 * The mail is tagged.
2 ! The mail is flagged as important.
3 D The mail is marked for deletion.
4 d The mail has attachments marked for deletion.
5 r The mail has been replied to.
6 O The mail is Old (Unread but seen).
7 N The mail is New (Unread but not seen).
8 o The mail thread is Old (Unread but seen).
9 n The mail thread is New (Unread but not seen).
10 - The mail is read - %S expando.
11 <space> The mail is read - %Z expando.

flag_safe
Type: boolean
Default: no

If set, flagged messages can't be deleted.

folder
Type: mailbox
Default: "~/Mail"

Specifies the default location of your mailboxes. A "+" or "="
at the beginning of a pathname will be expanded to the value of
this variable. Note that if you change this variable (from the
default) value you need to make sure that the assignment occurs
before you use "+" or "=" for any other variables since expan-
sion takes place when handling the "mailboxes" command.

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

This variable allows you to customize the file browser display
to your personal taste. This string is similar to $index_for-
mat, but has its own set of printf(3)-like sequences:
%a

Alert: 1 if user is notified of new mail
%C

Current file number
%d

Date/time folder was last modified
%D

Date/time folder was last modified using $date_format.
It is encouraged to use "%[fmt]" instead, where "fmt" is
the value of $date_format.
%f

Filename ("/" is appended to directory names, "@" to sym-
bolic links and "*" to executable files)
%F

File permissions
%g

Group name (or numeric gid, if missing)
%i

Description of the folder
%l

Number of hard links
%m * Number of messages in the mailbox
%n * Number of unread messages in the mailbox
%N

"N" if mailbox has new mail, " " (space) otherwise
%p

Poll: 1 if Mailbox is checked for new mail
%s

Size in bytes (see formatstrings-size)
%t

"*" if the file is tagged, blank otherwise
%u

Owner name (or numeric uid, if missing)
%[fmt]

Date/time folder was last modified using an strftime(3)
expression
%>X

Right justify the rest of the string and pad with charac-
ter "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 $index_format docu-
mentation.

* = can be optionally printed if nonzero

%m, %n, and %N only work for monitored mailboxes. %m requires
$mail_check_stats to be set. %n requires $mail_check_stats to
be set (except for IMAP mailboxes).

followup_to
Type: boolean
Default: yes

Controls whether or not the "Mail-Followup-To:" header field is
generated when sending mail. When set, NeoMutt will generate
this field when you are replying to a known mailing list, speci-
fied with the "subscribe" or "lists" commands.

This field has two purposes. First, preventing you from receiv-
ing duplicate copies of replies to messages which you send to
mailing lists, and second, ensuring that you do get a reply sep-
arately 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.

followup_to_poster
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes

If this variable is set and the keyword "poster" is present in
Followup-To header, follow-up to newsgroup function is not per-
mitted. The message will be mailed to the submitter of the mes-
sage via mail.

force_name
Type: boolean
Default: no

This variable is similar to $save_name, except that NeoMutt will
store a copy of your outgoing message by the username of the ad-
dress you are sending to even if that mailbox does not exist.

Also see the $record variable.

forward_attachments
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes

When forwarding inline (i.e. $mime_forward unset or answered
with "no" and $forward_decode set), attachments which cannot be
decoded in a reasonable manner will be attached to the newly
composed message if this quadoption is set or answered with
"yes".

forward_attribution_intro
Type: string
Default: "----- Forwarded message from %f -----"

This is the string that will precede a message which has been
forwarded in the main body of a message (when $mime_forward is
unset). For a full listing of defined printf(3)-like sequences
see the section on $index_format. See also $attribution_locale.

forward_attribution_trailer
Type: string
Default: "----- End forwarded message -----"

This is the string that will follow a message which has been
forwarded in the main body of a message (when $mime_forward is
unset). For a full listing of defined printf(3)-like sequences
see the section on $index_format. See also $attribution_locale.

forward_decode
Type: boolean
Default: yes

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

forward_decrypt
Type: boolean
Default: yes

Controls the handling of encrypted messages when forwarding a
message. When set, the outer layer of encryption is stripped
off. This variable is only used if $mime_forward is set and
$mime_forward_decode is unset.

forward_edit
Type: quadoption
Default: yes

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

forward_format
Type: string
Default: "[%a: %s]"

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

forward_quote
Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, forwarded messages included in the main body of the
message (when $mime_forward is unset) will be quoted using $in-
dent_string.

forward_references
Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, forwarded messages set the "In-Reply-To:" and "Refer-
ences:" headers in the same way as normal replies would. Hence
the forwarded message becomes part of the original thread in-
stead of starting a new one.

from
Type: e-mail address
Default: ""

When set, this variable contains a default "from" address. It
can be overridden using "my_hdr" (including from a "send-hook")
and $reverse_name. This variable is ignored if $use_from is un-
set.

If not specified, then it may be read from the environment vari-
able $EMAIL.

from_chars
Type: character string
Default: ""

Controls the character used to prefix the %F and %L fields in
the index.
Character
Description
1 Mail is written by you and has a To address, or has a
known mailing list in the To address.
2 Mail is written by you and has a Cc address, or has a
known mailing list in the Cc address.
3 Mail is written by you and has a Bcc address.
4 All remaining cases.

If this is empty or unset (default), the traditional long "To ",
"Cc " and "Bcc " prefixes are used. If set but too short to in-
clude a character for a particular case, a single space will be
prepended to the field. To prevent any prefix at all from being
added in a particular case, use the special value CR (aka ^M)
for the corresponding character.

This slightly odd interface is necessitated by NeoMutt's han-
dling of string variables; one can't tell a variable that is un-
set from one that is set to the empty string.

gecos_mask
Type: regular expression
Default: "^[^,]*"

A regular expression used by NeoMutt to parse the GECOS field of
a password entry when expanding the alias. The default value
will return the string up to the first "," encountered. If the
GECOS field contains a string like "lastname, firstname" then
you should set it to ".*".

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

greeting
Type: string
Default: ""

When set, this is the string that will precede every message as
a greeting phrase to the recipients.

"Format strings" are similar to the strings used in the "C"
function printf to format output (see the man page for more de-
tail). The following sequences are defined in NeoMutt:

%n Recipient's real name
%u User (login) name of recipient
%v First name of recipient

group_index_format
Type: string
Default: "%4C %M%N %5s %-45.45f %d"

This variable allows you to customize the newsgroup browser dis-
play to your personal taste. This string is similar to "in-
dex_format", but has its own set of printf()-like sequences:
%a Alert: 1 if user is notified of new mail
%C Current newsgroup number
%d Description of newsgroup (becomes from server)
%f Newsgroup name
%M - if newsgroup not allowed for direct post (moderated for
example)
%N N if newsgroup is new, u if unsubscribed, blank otherwise
%n Number of new articles in newsgroup
%p Poll: 1 if Mailbox is checked for new mail
%s Number of unread articles in newsgroup
%>X Right justify the rest of the string and pad with charac-
ter "X"
%|X Pad to the end of the line with character "X"
%*X Soft-fill with character "X" as pad

hdrs
Type: boolean
Default: yes

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

header
Type: boolean
Default: no

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

header_cache
Type: path
Default: ""

This variable points to the header cache database. If the path
points to an existing directory, NeoMutt will create a dedicated
header cache database per folder. Otherwise, the path points to
a regular file, which will be created as needed and used as a
shared global header cache for all folders. By default it is
unset so no header caching will be used.

Header caching can greatly improve speed when opening POP, IMAP
MH or Maildir folders, see "caching" in the NeoMutt Guide for
details.

header_cache_backend
Type: string
Default: ""

This variable specifies the header cache backend. If no backend
is specified, the first available backend will be used in the
following order: tokyocabinet, kyotocabinet, qdbm, rocksdb,
gdbm, bdb, tdb, lmdb.

header_color_partial
Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, color header regexes behave like color body regexes:
color is applied to the exact text matched by the regex. When
unset, color is applied to the entire header.

One use of this option might be to apply color to just the
header labels.

See "color" for more details.

help
Type: boolean
Default: yes

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

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

hidden_host
Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, NeoMutt will skip the host name part of $hostname
variable when adding the domain part to addresses.

hidden_tags
Type: string list
Default: "unread,draft,flagged,passed,replied,attachment,signed,encrypted"

This variable specifies a list of comma-separated private not-
much/imap tags which should not be printed on screen.

hide_limited
Type: boolean
Default: no

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

hide_missing
Type: boolean
Default: yes

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

hide_thread_subject
Type: boolean
Default: yes

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

hide_top_limited
Type: boolean
Default: no

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

hide_top_missing
Type: boolean
Default: yes

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

history
Type: number
Default: 10

This variable controls the size (in number of strings remem-
bered) of the string history buffer per category. The buffer is
cleared each time the variable is set.

Note that strings (e.g. commands) starting with a space are
never recorded in the history. This is for example useful to
prevent leaking sensitive information into the history file or
for one off tests.

Also note that a string is not added to the history if it ex-
actly matches its immediate predecessor, e.g. executing the same
command twice in a row results in only one copy being added to
the history. To prevent duplicates over all entries use $his-
tory_remove_dups.

history_file
Type: path
Default: "~/.mutthistory"

The file in which NeoMutt will save its history.

Also see $save_history.

history_format
Type: string
Default: "%s"

Controls the format of the entries of the history list. This
string is similar to $index_format, but has its own set of
printf(3)-like sequences:
%C Line number
%s History match
%>X right justify the rest of the string and pad with charac-
ter "X"
%|X pad to the end of the line with character "X"
%*X soft-fill with character "X" as pad

history_remove_dups
Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, all of the string history will be scanned for dupli-
cates when a new entry is added. Duplicate entries in the $his-
tory_file will also be removed when it is periodically com-
pacted.

honor_disposition
Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, NeoMutt will not display attachments with a disposi-
tion of "attachment" inline even if it could render the part to
plain text. These MIME parts can only be viewed from the attach-
ment menu.

If unset, NeoMutt will render all MIME parts it can properly
transform to plain text.

honor_followup_to
Type: quadoption
Default: yes

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

hostname
Type: string
Default: ""

Specifies the fully-qualified hostname of the system NeoMutt is
running on containing the host's name and the DNS domain it be-
longs to. It is used as the domain part (after "@") for local
email addresses.

If not specified in a config file, then NeoMutt will try to de-
termine the hostname itself.

Optionally, NeoMutt can be compiled with a fixed domain name.

Also see $use_domain and $hidden_host.

idn_decode
Type: boolean
Default: yes

When set, NeoMutt will show you international domain names de-
coded. Note: You can use IDNs for addresses even if this is un-
set. This variable only affects decoding. (IDN only)

idn_encode
Type: boolean
Default: yes

When set, NeoMutt will encode international domain names using
IDN. Unset this if your SMTP server can handle newer (RFC6531)
UTF-8 encoded domains. (IDN only)

ignore_list_reply_to
Type: boolean
Default: no

Affects the behavior 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, NeoMutt assumes that the "Re-
ply-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-re-
ply> function; <group-reply> will reply to both the sender and
the list.

imap_authenticators
Type: string list
Default: ""

This is a colon-separated list of authentication methods NeoMutt
may attempt to use to log in to an IMAP server, in the order
NeoMutt should try them. Authentication methods are either "lo-
gin" or the right side of an IMAP "AUTH=xxx" capability string,
e.g. "digest-md5", "gssapi" or "cram-md5". This option is
case-insensitive. If it's unset (the default) NeoMutt will try
all available methods, in order from most-secure to least-se-
cure.

Example:

set imap_authenticators="gssapi:cram-md5:login"

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

imap_check_subscribed
Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, NeoMutt will fetch the set of subscribed folders from
your server whenever a mailbox is selected, and add them to the
set of mailboxes it polls for new mail just as if you had issued
individual "mailboxes" commands.

imap_condstore
Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, NeoMutt will use the CONDSTORE extension (RFC7162) if
advertised by the server. NeoMutt's current implementation is
basic, used only for initial message fetching and flag updates.

For some IMAP servers, enabling this will slightly speed up
downloading initial messages. Unfortunately, Gmail is not one
those, and displays worse performance when enabled. Your
mileage may vary.

imap_delim_chars
Type: string
Default: "/."

This contains the list of characters that NeoMutt will use as
folder separators for IMAP paths, when no separator is provided
on the IMAP connection.

imap_fetch_chunk_size
Type: number (long)
Default: 0

When set to a value greater than 0, new headers will be down-
loaded in groups of this many headers per request. If you have
a very large mailbox, this might prevent a timeout and discon-
nect when opening the mailbox, by sending a FETCH per set of
this many headers, instead of a single FETCH for all new head-
ers.

imap_headers
Type: string
Default: ""

NeoMutt requests these header fields in addition to the default
headers ("Date:", "From:", "Sender:", "Subject:", "To:", "Cc:",
"Message-Id:", "References:", "Content-Type:", "Content-Descrip-
tion:", "In-Reply-To:", "Reply-To:", "Lines:", "List-Post:",
"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, items should be uppercase
and not contain the colon, e.g. "X-BOGOSITY X-SPAM-STATUS" for
the "X-Bogosity:" and "X-Spam-Status:" header fields.

imap_idle
Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, NeoMutt 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 NeoMutt's
implementation. If your connection seems to freeze up periodi-
cally, try unsetting this.

imap_keep_alive
Type: number
Default: 300

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

imap_list_subscribed
Type: boolean
Default: no

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

imap_login
Type: string
Default: ""

Your login name on the IMAP server.

This variable defaults to the value of $imap_user.

imap_oauth_refresh_command
Type: command
Default: ""

The command to run to generate an OAUTH refresh token for autho-
rizing your connection to your IMAP server. This command will
be run on every connection attempt that uses the OAUTHBEARER or
XOAUTH2 authentication mechanisms. See "oauth" for details.

imap_pass
Type: string
Default: ""

Specifies the password for your IMAP account. If unset, NeoMutt
will prompt you for your password when you invoke the
<imap-fetch-mail> function or try to open an IMAP folder.

Warning: you should only use this option when you are on a
fairly secure machine, because the superuser can read your neo-
muttrc even if you are the only one who can read the file.

imap_passive
Type: boolean
Default: yes

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

imap_peek
Type: boolean
Default: yes

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

imap_pipeline_depth
Type: number
Default: 15

Controls the number of IMAP commands that may be queued up be-
fore they are sent to the server. A deeper pipeline reduces the
amount of time NeoMutt must wait for the server, and can make
IMAP servers feel much more responsive. But not all servers cor-
rectly 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 connec-
tions.

imap_poll_timeout
Type: number
Default: 15

This variable specifies the maximum amount of time in seconds
that NeoMutt will wait for a response when polling IMAP connec-
tions for new mail, before timing out and closing the connec-
tion. Set to 0 to disable timing out.

imap_qresync
Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, NeoMutt will use the QRESYNC extension (RFC7162) if
advertised by the server. NeoMutt's current implementation is
basic, used only for initial message fetching and flag updates.

Note: this feature is currently experimental. If you experience
strange behavior, such as duplicate or missing messages please
file a bug report to let us know.

imap_rfc5161
Type: boolean
Default: yes

When set, NeoMutt will use the IMAP ENABLE extension (RFC5161)
to select CAPABILITIES. Some servers (notably Coremail System
IMap Server) do not properly respond to ENABLE commands, which
might cause NeoMutt to hang. If your connection seems to freeze
at login, try unsetting this. See also https://github.com/neo-
mutt/neomutt/issues/1689

imap_send_id
Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, NeoMutt will send an IMAP ID command (RFC2971) to the
server when logging in if advertised by the server. This command
provides information about the IMAP client, such as "NeoMutt"
and the current version.

imap_server_noise
Type: boolean
Default: yes

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

imap_user
Type: string
Default: ""

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.

implicit_auto_view
Type: boolean
Default: no

If set to "yes", NeoMutt 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,
NeoMutt will use the viewer defined in that entry to convert the
body part to text form.

include
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes

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

include_encrypted
Type: boolean
Default: no

Controls whether or not NeoMutt includes separately encrypted
attachment contents when replying.

This variable was added to prevent accidental exposure of en-
crypted contents when replying to an attacker. If a previously
encrypted message were attached by the attacker, they could
trick an unwary recipient into decrypting and including the mes-
sage in their reply.

include_only_first
Type: boolean
Default: no

Controls whether or not NeoMutt includes only the first attach-
ment of the message you are replying.

indent_string
Type: string
Default: "> "

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

The value of this option is ignored if $text_flowed is set, be-
cause the quoting mechanism is strictly defined for for-
mat=flowed.

This option is a format string, please see the description of
$index_format for supported printf(3)-style sequences.

index_format
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 func-
tion printf(3) to format output (see the man page for more de-
tails). For an explanation of the %<...> construct, see the
status_format description. The following sequences are defined
in NeoMutt:
%a Address of the author
%A Reply-to address (if present; otherwise: address of au-
thor)
%b Filename of the original message folder (think mailbox)
%B Same as %K
%c Number of characters (bytes) in the body of the message
(see formatstrings-size)
%C Current message number
%cr Number of characters (bytes) in the raw message, includ-
ing the header (see formatstrings-size)
%d Date and time of message using date_format and sender's
timezone It is encouraged to use "%{fmt}" instead, where
"fmt" is the value of $date_format.
%D Date and time of message using date_format and local
timezone It is encouraged to use "%[fmt]" instead, where
"fmt" is the value of $date_format.
%e Current message number in thread
%E Number of messages in current thread
%f Sender (address + real name), either From: or Re-
turn-Path:
%F Author name, or recipient name if the message is from you
%Fp Like %F, but plain. No contextual formatting is applied
to recipient name
%g Message tags (e.g. notmuch tags/imap flags)
%Gx Individual message tag (e.g. notmuch tags/imap flags)
%H Spam attribute(s) of this message
%i Message-id of the current message
%I Initials of author
%J Message tags (if present, tree unfolded, and != parent's
tags)
%K The list to which the letter was sent (if any; otherwise:
empty)
%l number of lines in the unprocessed message (may not work
with maildir, mh, and IMAP folders)
%L If an address in the "To:" or "Cc:" header field matches
an address Defined by the user's "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 Author's real name (or address if missing)
%N Message score
%O Original save folder where NeoMutt would formerly have
Stashed the message: list name or recipient name If not
sent to a list
%P Progress indicator for the built-in pager (how much of
the file has been displayed)
%q Newsgroup name (if compiled with NNTP support)
%r Comma separated list of "To:" recipients
%R Comma separated list of "Cc:" recipients
%s Subject of the message
%S Single character status of the message
("N"/"O"/"D"/"d"/"!"/"r"/"*")
%t "To:" field (recipients)
%T The appropriate character from the $to_chars string
%u User (login) name of the author
%v First name of the author, or the recipient if the message
is from you
%W Name of organization of author ("Organization:" field)
%x "X-Comment-To:" field (if present and compiled with NNTP
support)
%X Number of MIME 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-La-
bel:" is different from Preceding message's "X-Label:"
%Z A three character set of message status flags. The first
character is new/read/replied flags
("n"/"o"/"r"/"O"/"N"). The second is deleted or encryp-
tion flags ("D"/"d"/"S"/"P"/"s"/"K"). The third is ei-
ther tagged/flagged ("*"/"!"), or one of the characters
Listed in $to_chars.
%zc Message crypto flags
%zs Message status flags
%zt Message tag flags
%@name@
insert and evaluate format-string from the matching "in-
dex-format-hook" command
%{fmt} the date and time of the message is converted to sender's
time zone, and "fmt" is expanded by the library function
strftime(3); if the first character inside the braces is
a bang ("!"), the date is formatted ignoring any locale
settings. Note that the sender's time zone might only be
available as a numerical offset, so "%Z" behaves like
"%z". %{fmt} behaves like %[fmt] on systems where struct
tm doesn't have a tm_gmtoff member.
%[fmt] the date and time of the message is converted to the lo-
cal time zone, and "fmt" is expanded by the library func-
tion strftime(3); if the first character inside the
brackets is a bang ("!"), the date is formatted ignoring
any locale settings.
%(fmt) the local date and time when the message was received,
and "fmt" is expanded by the library function strf-
time(3); if the first character inside the parentheses is
a bang ("!"), the date is formatted ignoring any locale
settings.
%>X right justify the rest of the string and pad with charac-
ter "X"
%|X pad to the end of the line with character "X"
%*X soft-fill with character "X" as pad

Date format expressions can be constructed based on relative
dates. Using the date formatting operators along with nested
conditionals, the date format can be modified based on how old a
message is. See the section on "Conditional Dates" for an ex-
planation and examples

Note that for mbox/mmdf, "%l" applies to the unprocessed mes-
sage, and for maildir/mh, the value comes from the "Lines:"
header field when present (the meaning is normally the same).
Thus the value depends on the encodings used in the different
parts of the message and has little meaning in practice.

"Soft-fill" deserves some explanation: Normal right-justifica-
tion will print everything to the left of the "%>", displaying
padding and whatever lies to the right only if there's room. By
contrast, soft-fill gives priority to the right-hand side, guar-
anteeing 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.

inews
Type: command
Default: ""

If set, specifies the program and arguments used to deliver news
posted by NeoMutt. Otherwise, NeoMutt posts article using cur-
rent connection to news server. The following printf-style se-
quence is understood:
%a account url
%p port
%P port if specified
%s news server name
%S url schema
%u username

Example:

set inews="/usr/local/bin/inews -hS"

ispell
Type: command
Default: "ispell"

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

keep_flagged
Type: boolean
Default: no

If set, read messages marked as flagged will not be moved from
your spool mailbox to your $mbox mailbox or to the "mbox" speci-
fied by a mbox-hook command.

Note that $keep_flagged only has an effect if $move is set.

local_date_header
Type: boolean
Default: yes

If set, the date in the Date header of emails that you send will
be in your local timezone. If unset a UTC date will be used in-
stead to avoid leaking information about your current location.

mail_check
Type: number
Default: 5

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

mail_check_recent
Type: boolean
Default: yes

When set, NeoMutt will only notify you about new mail that has
been received since the last time you opened the mailbox. When
unset, NeoMutt will notify you if any new mail exists in the
mailbox, regardless of whether you have visited it recently.

mail_check_stats
Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, NeoMutt will periodically calculate message statistics
of a mailbox while polling for new mail. It will check for un-
read, flagged, and total message counts. (Note: IMAP mailboxes
only support unread and total counts).

Because this operation is more performance intensive, it de-
faults to unset, and has a separate option,
$mail_check_stats_interval, to control how often to update these
counts.

Message statistics can also be explicitly calculated by invoking
the <check-stats> function.

mail_check_stats_interval
Type: number
Default: 60

When $mail_check_stats is set, this variable configures how of-
ten (in seconds) NeoMutt will update message counts.

mailbox_folder_format
Type: string
Default: "%2C %<n?%6n& > %6m %i"

This variable allows you to customize the file browser display
to your personal taste. It's only used to customize network
mailboxes (e.g. imap). This string is identical in formatting
to the one used by "$folder_format".

mailcap_path
Type: string list
Default: "~/.mailcap:/usr/local/share/neomutt/mailcap:/usr/local/etc/mailcap:/etc/mailcap:/usr/etc/mailcap:/usr/local/etc/mailcap"

This variable specifies a list of colon-separated files to con-
sult when attempting to display MIME bodies not directly sup-
ported by NeoMutt. The default value is generated during
startup: see the "mailcap" section of the manual.

$mailcap_path is overridden by the environment variable $MAIL-
CAPS.

The default search path is from RFC1524.

mailcap_sanitize
Type: boolean
Default: yes

If set, NeoMutt 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 ad-
vanced MIME stuff.

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

maildir_check_cur
Type: boolean
Default: no

If set, NeoMutt will poll both the new and cur directories of a
maildir folder for new messages. This might be useful if other
programs interacting with the folder (e.g. dovecot) are moving
new messages to the cur directory. Note that setting this op-
tion may slow down polling for new messages in large folders,
since NeoMutt has to scan all cur messages.

maildir_field_delimiter
Type: string
Default: ":"

Use the value as maildir field delimiter. This is a single-char-
acter used to accommodate maildir mailboxes on platforms where
`:` is not allowed in a filename. The recommended alternative on
such platforms is `;`. Neomutt supports all non-alphanumeric
values except for `-`, `.`, `\`, `/`. Note: this only applies
to maildir-style mailboxes. Setting it will have no effect on
other mailbox types.

maildir_header_cache_verify
Type: boolean
Default: yes

Check for Maildir unaware programs other than NeoMutt having
modified maildir files when the header cache is in use. This
incurs one stat(2) per message every time the folder is opened
(which can be very slow for NFS folders).

maildir_trash
Type: boolean
Default: no

If set, messages marked as deleted will be saved with the
maildir trashed flag instead of unlinked. Note: this only ap-
plies to maildir-style mailboxes. Setting it will have no ef-
fect on other mailbox types.

mark_macro_prefix
Type: string
Default: "'"

Prefix for macros created using mark-message. A new macro auto-
matically generated with <mark-message>a will be composed from
this prefix and the letter a.

mark_old
Type: boolean
Default: yes

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

markers
Type: boolean
Default: yes

Controls the display of wrapped lines in the internal pager. If
set, a "+" marker is displayed at the beginning of wrapped
lines.

Also see the $smart_wrap variable.

mask
Type: regular expression
Default: "!^\.[^.]"

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

mbox
Type: mailbox
Default: "~/mbox"

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

Also see the $move variable.

mbox_type
Type: enumeration
Default: mbox

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

This can also be set using the -m command-line option.

me_too
Type: boolean
Default: no

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

menu_context
Type: number
Default: 0

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

menu_move_off
Type: boolean
Default: yes

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.

menu_scroll
Type: boolean
Default: no

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

message_cache_clean
Type: boolean
Default: no

If set, NeoMutt will clean out obsolete entries from the message
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
(especially for large folders).

message_cache_dir
Type: path
Default: ""

Set this to a directory and NeoMutt will cache copies of mes-
sages from your IMAP and POP servers here. You are free to re-
move entries at any time.

When setting this variable to a directory, NeoMutt needs to
fetch every remote message only once and can perform regular ex-
pression searches as fast as for local folders.

Also see the $message_cache_clean variable.

message_format
Type: string
Default: "%s"

This is the string displayed in the "attachment" menu for at-
tachments of type message/rfc822. For a full listing of defined
printf(3)-like sequences see the section on $index_format.

meta_key
Type: boolean
Default: no

If set, forces NeoMutt 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".

mh_purge
Type: boolean
Default: no

When unset, NeoMutt will mimic mh's behavior and rename deleted
messages to ,<old file name> in mh folders instead of really
deleting them. This leaves the message on disk but makes pro-
grams reading the folder ignore it. If the variable is set, the
message files will simply be deleted.

This option is similar to $maildir_trash for Maildir folders.

mh_seq_flagged
Type: string
Default: "flagged"

The name of the MH sequence used for flagged messages.

mh_seq_replied
Type: string
Default: "replied"

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

mh_seq_unseen
Type: string
Default: "unseen"

The name of the MH sequence used for unseen messages.

mime_forward
Type: quadoption
Default: no

When set, the message you are forwarding will be attached as a
separate message/rfc822 MIME part instead of included in the
main body of the message. This is useful for forwarding MIME
messages so the receiver can properly view the message as it was
delivered to you. If you like to switch between MIME and not
MIME from mail to mail, set this variable to "ask-no" or
"ask-yes".

Also see $forward_decode and $mime_forward_decode.

mime_forward_decode
Type: boolean
Default: no

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

mime_forward_rest
Type: quadoption
Default: yes

When forwarding multiple attachments of a MIME message from the
attachment menu, attachments which can't be decoded in a reason-
able manner will be attached to the newly composed message if
this option is set.

mime_type_query_command
Type: command
Default: ""

This specifies a command to run, to determine the mime type of a
new attachment when composing a message. Unless
$mime_type_query_first is set, this will only be run if the at-
tachment's extension is not found in the mime.types file.

The string may contain a "%s", which will be substituted with
the attachment filename. NeoMutt will add quotes around the
string substituted for "%s" automatically according to shell
quoting rules, so you should avoid adding your own. If no "%s"
is found in the string, NeoMutt will append the attachment file-
name to the end of the string.

The command should output a single line containing the attach-
ment's mime type.

Suggested values are "xdg-mime query filetype" or "file -bi".

mime_type_query_first
Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, the $mime_type_query_command will be run before the
mime.types lookup.

move
Type: quadoption
Default: no

If this variable is set, then NeoMutt will move read messages
from your spool mailbox to your $mbox mailbox or to the "mbox"
specified by a mbox-hook command.

See also $keep_flagged.

narrow_tree
Type: boolean
Default: no

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

net_inc
Type: number
Default: 10

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

See also $read_inc, $write_inc and $net_inc.

new_mail_command
Type: command
Default: ""

If set, NeoMutt will call this command after a new message is
received. See the $status_format documentation for the values
that can be formatted into this command.

news_cache_dir
Type: path
Default: "~/.neomutt"

This variable pointing to directory where NeoMutt will save
cached news articles and headers in. If unset, articles and
headers will not be saved at all and will be reloaded from the
server each time.

news_server
Type: string
Default: ""

This variable specifies domain name or address of NNTP server.

You can also specify username and an alternative port for each
news server, e.g. [[s]news://][username[:pass-
word]@]server[:port]

This option can also be set using the command line option "-g",
the environment variable $NNTPSERVER, or putting the server name
in the file "/etc/nntpserver".

newsgroups_charset
Type: string
Default: "utf-8"

Character set of newsgroups descriptions.

newsrc
Type: path
Default: "~/.newsrc"

The file, containing info about subscribed newsgroups - names
and indexes of read articles. The following printf-style se-
quence is understood:
Expando
Description Example
%a Account url news:news.gmane.org
%p Port 119
%P Port if specified 10119
%s News server name news.gmane.org
%S Url schema news
%u Username username

nm_config_file
Type: path
Default: "auto"

Configuration file for notmuch. Use 'auto' to detect configura-
tion.

nm_config_profile
Type: string
Default: ""

Configuration profile for notmuch.

nm_db_limit
Type: number
Default: 0

This variable specifies the default limit used in notmuch
queries.

nm_default_url
Type: string
Default: ""

This variable specifies the default Notmuch database in format
notmuch://<absolute path>.

nm_exclude_tags
Type: string
Default: ""

The messages tagged with these tags are excluded and not loaded
from notmuch DB to NeoMutt unless specified explicitly.

nm_flagged_tag
Type: string
Default: "flagged"

This variable specifies notmuch tag which is used for flagged
messages. The variable is used to count flagged messages in DB
and set the flagged flag when modifying tags. All other NeoMutt
commands use standard (e.g. maildir) flags.

nm_open_timeout
Type: number
Default: 5

This variable specifies the timeout for database open in sec-
onds.

nm_query_type
Type: string
Default: "messages"

This variable specifies the default query type (threads or mes-
sages) used in notmuch queries.

nm_query_window_current_position
Type: number
Default: 0

This variable contains the position of the current search for
window based vfolder.

nm_query_window_current_search
Type: string
Default: ""

This variable contains the currently setup notmuch search for
window based vfolder.

nm_query_window_duration
Type: number
Default: 0

This variable sets the time duration of a windowed notmuch
query. Accepted values all non negative integers. A value of 0
disables the feature.

nm_query_window_enable
Type: boolean
Default: no

This variable enables windowed notmuch queries even if window
duration is 0.

nm_query_window_or_terms
Type: string
Default: ""

This variable contains additional notmuch search terms for mes-
sages to be shown regardless of date.

Example:

Using "notmuch://?query=tag:inbox" as the mailbox and
"tag:flagged and tag:unread" as the or terms, NeoMutt will pro-
duce a query window such as:

notmuch://?query=tag:inbox and (date:... or (tag:flagged and
tag:unread))

nm_query_window_timebase
Type: string
Default: "week"

This variable sets the time base of a windowed notmuch query.
Accepted values are 'minute', 'hour', 'day', 'week', 'month',
'year'

nm_record
Type: boolean
Default: no

This variable specifies whether, when writing a just-sent mes-
sage to the $record, the message should also be added to the
notmuch DB. Replies inherit the notmuch tags from the original
message. See $nm_record_tags for how to modify the set of not-
much tags assigned to sent messages written to the record.

nm_record_tags
Type: string
Default: ""

This variable specifies the notmuch tag modifications (addition,
removal, toggling) applied to messages added to the Neomutt
record when $nm_record is true. See the description of the <mod-
ify-labels> function for the syntax.

nm_replied_tag
Type: string
Default: "replied"

This variable specifies notmuch tag which is used for replied
messages. The variable is used to set the replied flag when mod-
ifying tags. All other NeoMutt commands use standard (e.g.
maildir) flags.

nm_unread_tag
Type: string
Default: "unread"

This variable specifies notmuch tag which is used for unread
messages. The variable is used to count unread messages in DB
and set the unread flag when modifying tags. All other NeoMutt
commands use standard (e.g. maildir) flags.

nntp_authenticators
Type: string
Default: ""

This is a colon-delimited list of authentication methods NeoMutt
may attempt to use to log in to a news server, in the order Neo-
Mutt should try them. Authentication methods are either "user"
or any SASL mechanism, e.g. "digest-md5", "gssapi" or
"cram-md5". This option is case-insensitive. If it's unset
(the default) NeoMutt will try all available methods, in order
from most-secure to least-secure.

Example:

set nntp_authenticators="digest-md5:user"

nntp_context
Type: number (long)
Default: 1000

This variable defines number of articles which will be in index
when newsgroup entered. If active newsgroup have more articles
than this number, oldest articles will be ignored. Also con-
trols how many articles headers will be saved in cache when you
quit newsgroup.

nntp_listgroup
Type: boolean
Default: yes

This variable controls whether or not existence of each article
is checked when newsgroup is entered.

nntp_load_description
Type: boolean
Default: yes

This variable controls whether or not descriptions for each
newsgroup must be loaded when newsgroup is added to list (first
time list loading or new newsgroup adding).

nntp_pass
Type: string
Default: ""

Your password for NNTP account.

nntp_poll
Type: number
Default: 60

The time in seconds until any operations on newsgroup except
post new article will cause recheck for new news. If set to 0,
NeoMutt will recheck newsgroup on each operation in index (step-
ping, read article, etc.).

nntp_user
Type: string
Default: ""

Your login name on the NNTP server. If unset and NNTP server
requires authentication, NeoMutt will prompt you for your ac-
count name when you connect to news server.

pager
Type: command
Default: ""

This variable specifies which pager you would like to use to
view messages. When empty, NeoMutt will use the built-in pager,
otherwise this variable should specify the pathname of the ex-
ternal pager you would like to use.

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

pager_context
Type: number
Default: 0

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

This variable also specifies the amount of context given for
search results. If positive, this many lines will be given be-
fore a match, if 0, the match will be top-aligned.

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

This variable controls the format of the one-line message "sta-
tus" displayed before each message in either the internal or an
external pager. The valid sequences are listed in the $in-
dex_format section.

pager_index_lines
Type: number
Default: 0

Determines the number of lines of a mini-index which is shown
when in the pager. The current message, unless near the top or
bottom of the folder, will be roughly one third of the way down
this mini-index, giving the reader the context of a few messages
before and after the message. This is useful, for example, to
determine how many messages remain to be read in the current
thread. A value of 0 results in no index being shown.

pager_read_delay
Type: number
Default: 0

Determines the number of seconds that must elapse after first
opening a new message in the pager before that message will be
marked as read. A value of 0 results in the message being
marked read unconditionally; for other values, navigating to an-
other message or exiting the pager before the timeout will leave
the message marked unread. This setting is ignored if $pager is
set.

pager_skip_quoted_context
Type: number
Default: 0

Determines the number of lines of context to show before the un-
quoted text when using the <skip-quoted> function. When set to a
positive number at most that many lines of the previous quote
are displayed. If the previous quote is shorter the whole quote
is displayed.

The (now deprecated) skip_quoted_offset is an alias for this
variable, and should no longer be used.

pager_stop
Type: boolean
Default: no

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

pattern_format
Type: string
Default: "%2n %-15e %d"

This variable describes the format of the "pattern completion"
menu. The following printf(3)-style sequences are understood:
%d pattern description
%e pattern expression
%n index number
%>X right justify the rest of the string and pad with charac-
ter "X"
%|X pad to the end of the line with character "X"
%*X soft-fill with character "X" as pad

pgp_auto_decode
Type: boolean
Default: no

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

pgp_auto_inline
Type: boolean
Default: no

This option controls whether NeoMutt 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. The GPGME backend does not support
this option.

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

Also see the $pgp_mime_auto variable.

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

pgp_check_exit
Type: boolean
Default: yes

If set, NeoMutt 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)

pgp_check_gpg_decrypt_status_fd
Type: boolean
Default: yes

If set, NeoMutt will check the status file descriptor output of
$pgp_decrypt_command and $pgp_decode_command for GnuPG status
codes indicating successful decryption. This will check for the
presence of DECRYPTION_OKAY, absence of DECRYPTION_FAILED, and
that all PLAINTEXT occurs between the BEGIN_DECRYPTION and
END_DECRYPTION status codes.

If unset, NeoMutt will instead match the status fd output
against $pgp_decryption_okay. (PGP only)

pgp_clear_sign_command
Type: command
Default: ""

This format is used to create an old-style "clearsigned" PGP
message. Note that the use of this format is strongly depre-
cated.

This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
possible printf(3)-like sequences. Note that in this case, %r
expands to the search string, which is a list of one or more
quoted values such as email address, name, or keyid. (PGP only)

pgp_decode_command
Type: command
Default: ""

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

The PGP command formats have their own set of printf(3)-like se-
quences:
%a The value of $pgp_sign_as if set, otherwise the value of
$pgp_default_key.
%f Expands to the name of a file containing a message.
%p Expands to PGPPASSFD=0 when a pass phrase is needed, to
an empty string otherwise. Note: This may be used with a
%<...> construct.
%r One or more key IDs (or fingerprints if available).
%s Expands to the name of a file containing the signature
part of a multipart/signed attachment when verifying it.

(PGP only)

pgp_decrypt_command
Type: command
Default: ""

This command is used to decrypt a PGP encrypted message.

This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)

Note: When decrypting messages using gpg, a pinentry program
needs to be invoked unless the password is cached within
gpg-agent. Currently, the pinentry-tty program (usually dis-
tributed with gpg) isn't suitable for being invoked by NeoMutt.
You are encouraged to use a different pinentry-program when run-
ning NeoMutt in order to avoid problems.

See also: https://github.com/neomutt/neomutt/issues/1014

pgp_decryption_okay
Type: regular expression
Default: ""

If you assign text to this variable, then an encrypted PGP mes-
sage is only considered successfully decrypted if the output
from $pgp_decrypt_command contains the text. This is used to
protect against a spoofed encrypted message, with multipart/en-
crypted headers but containing a block that is not actually en-
crypted. (e.g. simply signed and ascii armored text).

Note that if $pgp_check_gpg_decrypt_status_fd is set, this vari-
able is ignored. (PGP only)

pgp_default_key
Type: string
Default: ""

This is the default key-pair to use for PGP operations. It will
be used for encryption (see $postpone_encrypt and $pgp_self_en-
crypt).

It will also be used for signing unless $pgp_sign_as is set.

The (now deprecated) pgp_self_encrypt_as is an alias for this
variable, and should no longer be used. (PGP only)

pgp_encrypt_only_command
Type: command
Default: ""

This command is used to encrypt a body part without signing it.

pgp_encrypt_sign_command
Type: command
Default: ""

This command is used to both sign and encrypt a body part.

This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)

pgp_entry_format
Type: string
Default: "%4n %t%f %4l/0x%k %-4a %2c %u"

This variable allows you to customize the PGP key selection menu
to your personal taste. If $crypt_use_gpgme is set, then it ap-
plies to S/MIME key selection menu also. This string is similar
to $index_format, but has its own set of printf(3)-like se-
quences:
%a Algorithm
%c Capabilities
%f Flags
%i Key fingerprint (or long key id if non-existent)
%k Key id
%l Key length
%n Number
%p Protocol
%t Trust/validity of the key-uid association
%u User id
%[<s>] Date of the key where <s> is an strftime(3) expression
%>X Right justify the rest of the string and pad with charac-
ter "X"
%|X Pad to the end of the line with character "X"
%*X Soft-fill with character "X" as pad

See the section "Sending Cryptographically Signed/Encrypted Mes-
sages" of the user manual for the meaning of the letters some of
these sequences expand to.

(Crypto only) or (PGP only when GPGME disabled)

pgp_export_command
Type: command
Default: ""

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

This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)

pgp_get_keys_command
Type: command
Default: ""

This command is invoked whenever NeoMutt needs to fetch the pub-
lic key associated with an email address. Of the sequences sup-
ported by $pgp_decode_command, %r is the only printf(3)-like se-
quence used with this format. Note that in this case, %r ex-
pands to the email address, not the public key ID (the key ID is
unknown, which is why NeoMutt is invoking this command). (PGP
only)

pgp_good_sign
Type: regular expression
Default: ""

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

pgp_ignore_subkeys
Type: boolean
Default: yes

Setting this variable will cause NeoMutt to ignore OpenPGP sub-
keys. Instead, the principal key will inherit the subkeys' capa-
bilities. Unset this if you want to play interesting key selec-
tion games. (PGP only)

pgp_import_command
Type: command
Default: ""

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

This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)

pgp_list_pubring_command
Type: command
Default: ""

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

gpg --list-keys --with-colons --with-fingerprint

Note: gpg's fixed-list-mode option should not be used. It pro-
duces a different date format which may result in NeoMutt show-
ing incorrect key generation dates.

This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)

pgp_list_secring_command
Type: command
Default: ""

This command is used to list the secret key ring's contents.
The output format must be analogous to the one used by:

gpg --list-keys --with-colons --with-fingerprint

Note: gpg's fixed-list-mode option should not be used. It pro-
duces a different date format which may result in NeoMutt show-
ing incorrect key generation dates.

This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)

pgp_key_sort
Type: sort order
Default: address

Specifies how the entries in the pgp menu are sorted. The fol-
lowing 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)

pgp_long_ids
Type: boolean
Default: yes

If set, use 64 bit PGP key IDs, if unset use the normal 32 bit
key IDs. NOTE: Internally, NeoMutt has transitioned to using
fingerprints (or long key IDs as a fallback). This option now
only controls the display of key IDs in the key selection menu
and a few other places. (PGP only)

pgp_mime_auto
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes

This option controls whether NeoMutt will prompt you for auto-
matically 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)

pgp_reply_inline
Type: boolean
Default: no

Setting this variable will cause NeoMutt to always attempt to
create an inline (traditional) message when replying to a mes-
sage which is PGP encrypted/signed inline. This can be overrid-
den 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 NeoMutt internals for previously
checked/flagged messages.

Also see the $pgp_mime_auto variable.

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

pgp_retainable_sigs
Type: boolean
Default: no

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

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

pgp_self_encrypt
Type: boolean
Default: yes

When set, PGP encrypted messages will also be encrypted using
the key in $pgp_default_key. (PGP only)

pgp_show_unusable
Type: boolean
Default: yes

If set, NeoMutt will display non-usable keys on the PGP key se-
lection menu. This includes keys which have been revoked, have
expired, or have been marked as "disabled" by the user. (PGP
only)

pgp_sign_as
Type: string
Default: ""

If you have a different key pair to use for signing, you should
set this to the signing key. Most people will only need to set
$pgp_default_key. It is recommended that you use the keyid form
to specify your key (e.g. 0x00112233). (PGP only)

pgp_sign_command
Type: command
Default: ""

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

This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)

pgp_strict_enc
Type: boolean
Default: yes

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

pgp_timeout
Type: number (long)
Default: 300

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

pgp_use_gpg_agent
Type: boolean
Default: yes

If set, NeoMutt expects a gpg-agent(1) process will handle pri-
vate key passphrase prompts. If unset, NeoMutt will prompt for
the passphrase and pass it via stdin to the pgp command.

Note that as of version 2.1, GnuPG automatically spawns an agent
and requires the agent be used for passphrase management. Since
that version is increasingly prevalent, this variable now de-
faults set.

NeoMutt works with a GUI or curses pinentry program. A TTY
pinentry should not be used.

If you are using an older version of GnuPG without an agent run-
ning, or another encryption program without an agent, you will
need to unset this variable. (PGP only)

pgp_verify_command
Type: command
Default: ""

This command is used to verify PGP signatures.

This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)

pgp_verify_key_command
Type: command
Default: ""

This command is used to verify key information from the key se-
lection menu.

This is a format string, see the $pgp_decode_command command for
possible printf(3)-like sequences. (PGP only)

pipe_decode
Type: boolean
Default: no

Used in connection with the <pipe-message> function. When un-
set, NeoMutt will pipe the messages without any preprocessing.
When set, NeoMutt will attempt to decode the messages first.

Also see $pipe_decode_weed, which controls whether headers will
be weeded when this is set.

pipe_decode_weed
Type: boolean
Default: yes

For <pipe-message>, when $pipe_decode is set, this further con-
trols whether NeoMutt will weed headers.

pipe_sep
Type: string
Default: "\n"

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

pipe_split
Type: boolean
Default: no

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

pop_auth_try_all
Type: boolean
Default: yes

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

pop_authenticators
Type: string list
Default: ""

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

Example:

set pop_authenticators="digest-md5:apop:user"

pop_check_interval
Type: number
Default: 60

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

pop_delete
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-no

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

pop_host
Type: string
Default: ""

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

[pop[s]://][username[:password]@]popserver[:port]

where "[...]" denotes an optional part.

pop_last
Type: boolean
Default: no

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

pop_oauth_refresh_command
Type: command
Default: ""

The command to run to generate an OAUTH refresh token for autho-
rizing your connection to your POP server. This command will be
run on every connection attempt that uses the OAUTHBEARER au-
thentication mechanism. See "oauth" for details.

pop_pass
Type: string
Default: ""

Specifies the password for your POP account. If unset, NeoMutt
will prompt you for your password when you open a POP mailbox.

Warning: you should only use this option when you are on a
fairly secure machine, because the superuser can read your neo-
muttrc even if you are the only one who can read the file.

pop_reconnect
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes

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

pop_user
Type: string
Default: ""

Your login name on the POP server.

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

post_moderated
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes

If set to yes, NeoMutt will post article to newsgroup that have
not permissions to posting (e.g. moderated). Note: if news
server does not support posting to that newsgroup or totally
read-only, that posting will not have an effect.

postpone
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes

Controls whether or not messages are saved in the $postponed
mailbox when you elect not to send immediately. If set to
ask-yes or ask-no, you will be prompted with "Save (postpone)
draft message?" when quitting from the "compose" screen.

Also see the $recall variable.

postpone_encrypt
Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, postponed messages that are marked for encryption will
be self-encrypted. NeoMutt will first try to encrypt using the
value specified in $pgp_default_key or $smime_default_key. If
those are not set, it will try the deprecated $postpone_en-
crypt_as. (Crypto only)

postpone_encrypt_as
Type: string
Default: ""

This is a deprecated fall-back variable for $postpone_encrypt.
Please use $pgp_default_key or $smime_default_key. (Crypto
only)

postponed
Type: mailbox
Default: "~/postponed"

NeoMutt allows you to indefinitely "postpone sending a message"
which you are editing. When you choose to postpone a message,
NeoMutt saves it in the mailbox specified by this variable.

Also see the $postpone variable.

preconnect
Type: string
Default: ""

If set, a shell command to be executed if NeoMutt fails to es-
tablish 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, NeoMutt gives up opening the server. Example:

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

Mailbox "foo" on "mailhost.net" can now be reached as "{local-
host:1234}foo".

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

preferred_languages
Type: string list
Default: ""

This variable specifies a list of comma-separated languages.
RFC8255 : user preferred languages to be searched in parts and
display. Example:

set preferred_languages="en,fr,de"

print
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-no

Controls whether or not NeoMutt really prints messages. This is
set to "ask-no" by default, because some people accidentally hit
"p" often.

print_command
Type: command
Default: "lpr"

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

print_decode
Type: boolean
Default: yes

Used in connection with the <print-message> function. If this
option is set, the message is decoded before it is passed to the
external command specified by $print_command. If this option is
unset, no processing will be applied to the message when print-
ing 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.

Also see $print_decode_weed, which controls whether headers will
be weeded when this is set.

print_decode_weed
Type: boolean
Default: yes

For <print-message>, when $print_decode is set, this further
controls whether NeoMutt will weed headers.

print_split
Type: boolean
Default: no

Used in connection with the <print-message> function. If this
option is set, the command specified by $print_command is exe-
cuted once for each message which is to be printed. If this op-
tion is unset, the command specified by $print_command is exe-
cuted only once, and all the messages are concatenated, with a
form feed as the message separator.

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

prompt_after
Type: boolean
Default: yes

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

query_command
Type: command
Default: ""

This specifies the command NeoMutt will use to make external ad-
dress queries. The string may contain a "%s", which will be
substituted with the query string the user types. NeoMutt will
add quotes around the string substituted for "%s" automatically
according to shell quoting rules, so you should avoid adding
your own. If no "%s" is found in the string, NeoMutt will ap-
pend the user's query to the end of the string. See "query"
(https://neomutt.org/guide/advancedusage.html#query) for more
information.

query_format
Type: string
Default: "%3i %t %-25N %-25E | %C%> %Y"

This variable describes the format of the "query" menu. The fol-
lowing printf(3)-style sequences are understood:
%A Full Address (Name and Email)
%C Comment
%E Email Address
%i Index number
%N Real name
%t Alias is tagged (selected)
%Y User-defined tags (labels)
%>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 $index_format docu-
mentation.

The following sequences are deprecated; they will be removed in
the future.
%a Use %E instead
%c Use %i instead
%e Use %C instead
%n Use %N instead

quit
Type: quadoption
Default: yes

This variable controls whether "quit" and "exit" actually quit
from NeoMutt. If this option is set, they do quit, if it is un-
set, 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.

In order to quit from NeoMutt if this variable is unset, you
must send the signal SIGINT to NeoMutt. This can usually be
achieved by pressing CTRL-C in the terminal.

quote_regex
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 col-
ored 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 deter-
mined 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 ex-
pression.

read_inc
Type: number
Default: 10

If set to a value greater than 0, NeoMutt will display which
message it is currently on when reading a mailbox or when per-
forming search actions such as search and limit. The message is
printed after this many messages have been read or searched
(e.g., if set to 25, NeoMutt 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 $write_inc, $net_inc and $time_inc variables and
the "tuning" section of the manual for performance considera-
tions.

read_only
Type: boolean
Default: no

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

real_name
Type: string
Default: ""

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

If not specified, then the user's "real name" will be read from
/etc/passwd. This option will not be used, if "$from" is set.

recall
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes

Controls whether or not NeoMutt recalls postponed messages when
composing a new message.

Setting this variable to yes is not generally useful, and thus
not recommended. Note that the <recall-message> function can be
used to manually recall postponed messages.

Also see $postponed variable.

record
Type: mailbox
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
"my_hdr" command to create a "Bcc:" field with your email ad-
dress in it.)

The value of $record is overridden by the $force_name and
$save_name variables, and the "fcc-hook" command. Also see
$copy and $write_bcc.

reflow_space_quotes
Type: boolean
Default: yes

This option controls how quotes from format=flowed messages are
displayed in the pager and when replying (with $text_flowed un-
set). When set, this option adds spaces after each level of
quote marks, turning ">>>foo" into "> > > foo".

Note: If $reflow_text is unset, this option has no effect.
Also, this option does not affect replies when $text_flowed is
set.

reflow_text
Type: boolean
Default: yes

When set, NeoMutt will reformat paragraphs in text/plain parts
marked format=flowed. If unset, NeoMutt will display paragraphs
unaltered from how they appear in the message body. See RFC3676
for details on the format=flowed format.

Also see $reflow_wrap, and $wrap.

reflow_wrap
Type: number
Default: 78

This variable controls the maximum paragraph width when refor-
matting text/plain parts when $reflow_text is set. When the
value is 0, paragraphs will be wrapped at the terminal's right
margin. A positive value sets the paragraph width relative to
the left margin. A negative value set the paragraph width rela-
tive to the right margin.

Be aware that the reformatted lines of a paragraph are still
subject to $wrap. This means if $reflow_wrap is 40 and $wrap is
30, then the paragraph gets reformatted to 40 characters a line
(due to $reflow_wrap) and afterwards each 40-character-line is
split at 30 characters (due to $wrap), resulting in alternating
line lengths of 30 and 10 characters.

Also see $wrap.

reply_regex
Type: regular expression
Default: "^((re|aw|sv)(\[[0-9]+\])*:[ \t]*)*"

A regular expression used to recognize reply messages when
threading and replying. The default value corresponds to the
standard Latin "Re:" prefix.

This value may have been localized by the translator for your
locale, adding other prefixes that are common in the locale. You
can add your own prefixes by appending inside "^(re)". For ex-
ample: "^(re|sv)" or "^(re|aw|sv)".

The second parenthesized expression matches zero or more brack-
eted numbers following the prefix, such as "Re[1]: ". The ini-
tial "\\[" means a literal left-bracket character. Note the
backslash must be doubled when used inside a double quoted
string in the neomuttrc. "[0-9]+" means one or more numbers.
"\\]" means a literal right-bracket. Finally the whole paren-
thesized expression has a "*" suffix, meaning it can occur zero
or more times.

The last part matches a colon followed by an optional space or
tab. Note "\t" is converted to a literal tab inside a double
quoted string. If you use a single quoted string, you would
have to type an actual tab character, and would need to convert
the double-backslashes to single backslashes.

Note: the result of this regex match against the subject is
stored in the header cache. Mutt isn't smart enough to invali-
date a header cache entry based on changing $reply_regex, so if
you aren't seeing correct values in the index, try temporarily
turning off the header cache. If that fixes the problem, then
once the variable is set to your liking, remove your stale
header cache files and turn the header cache back on.

reply_self
Type: boolean
Default: no

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

Also see the "alternates" command.

reply_to
Type: quadoption
Default: ask-yes

If set, when replying to a message, NeoMutt 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 in-
stead. 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.

reply_with_xorig
Type: boolean
Default: no

This variable provides a toggle. When active, the From: header
will be extracted from the current mail's 'X-Original-To:'
header. This setting does not have precedence over "re-
verse_real_name".

Assuming 'fast_reply' is disabled, this option will prompt the
user with a prefilled From: header.

resolve
Type: boolean
Default: yes

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

Examples of such commands are tagging a message, deleting an en-
try, or saving an attachment.

resume_draft_files
Type: boolean
Default: no

If set, draft files (specified by -H on the command line) are
processed similarly to when resuming a postponed message. Re-
cipients are not prompted for; send-hooks are not evaluated; no
alias expansion takes place; user-defined headers and signatures
are not added to the message.

resume_edited_draft_files
Type: boolean
Default: yes

If set, draft files previously edited (via -E -H on the command
line) will have $resume_draft_files automatically set when they
are used as a draft file again.

The first time a draft file is saved, NeoMutt will add a header,
X-Mutt-Resume-Draft to the saved file. The next time the draft
file is read in, if NeoMutt sees the header, it will set $re-
sume_draft_files.

This option is designed to prevent multiple signatures, user-de-
fined headers, and other processing effects from being made mul-
tiple times to the draft file.

reverse_alias
Type: boolean
Default: no

This variable controls whether or not NeoMutt 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.

reverse_name
Type: boolean
Default: no

It may sometimes arrive that you receive mail to a certain ma-
chine, 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 ad-
dress 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.

Also see the "alternates" command and $reverse_real_name.

reverse_real_name
Type: boolean
Default: yes

This variable fine-tunes the behavior of the $reverse_name fea-
ture.

When it is unset, NeoMutt will remove the real name part of a
matching address. This allows the use of the email address
without having to also use what the sender put in the real name
field.

When it is set, NeoMutt will use the matching address as-is.

In either case, a missing real name will be filled in afterwards
using the value of $real_name.

rfc2047_parameters
Type: boolean
Default: yes

When this variable is set, NeoMutt will decode RFC2047-encoded
MIME parameters. You want to set this variable when NeoMutt sug-
gests you to save attachments to files named like:

=?iso-8859-1?Q?file=5F=E4=5F991116=2Ezip?=
=?utf-8?Q?z=C4=99ta.png?=

When this variable is set interactively, the change won't be ac-
tive until you change folders.

Note that this use of RFC2047's encoding is explicitly prohib-
ited by the standard, but nevertheless encountered in the wild
and produced by, e.g., Outlook.

Also note that setting this parameter will not have the effect
that NeoMutt generates this kind of encoding. Instead, NeoMutt
will unconditionally use the encoding specified in RFC2231.

save_address
Type: boolean
Default: no

If set, NeoMutt will take the sender's full address when choos-
ing a default folder for saving a mail. If $save_name or
$force_name is set too, the selection of the Fcc folder will be
changed as well.

save_empty
Type: boolean
Default: yes

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

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

save_history
Type: number
Default: 0

This variable controls the size of the history (per category)
saved in the $history_file file.

Setting this to a value greater than $history is possible. How-
ever, there will never be more than $history entries to select
from even if more are recorded in the history file.

save_name
Type: boolean
Default: no

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

Also see the $force_name variable.

save_unsubscribed
Type: boolean
Default: no

When set, info about unsubscribed newsgroups will be saved into
"newsrc" file and into cache.

score
Type: boolean
Default: yes

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

score_threshold_delete
Type: number
Default: -1

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

score_threshold_flag
Type: number
Default: 9999

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

score_threshold_read
Type: number
Default: -1

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

search_context
Type: number
Default: 0

For the pager, this variable specifies the number of lines shown
before search results. By default, search results will be
top-aligned.

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

A colon-delimited list of character sets for outgoing messages.
NeoMutt 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 in-
clude in the list an appropriate widely used standard character
set (such as "iso-8859-2", "koi8-r" or "iso-2022-jp") either in-
stead of or after "iso-8859-1".

In case the text can't be converted into one of these exactly,
NeoMutt uses $charset as a fallback.

sendmail
Type: command
Default: "/usr/sbin/sendmail -oem -oi"

Specifies the program and arguments used to deliver mail sent by
NeoMutt. NeoMutt expects that the specified program interprets
additional arguments as recipient addresses. NeoMutt appends
all recipients after adding a -- delimiter (if not already
present). Additional flags, such as for $use_8bit_mime,
$use_envelope_from, $dsn_notify, or $dsn_return will be added
before the delimiter.

Note: This command is invoked differently from most other com-
mands in NeoMutt. It is tokenized by space, and invoked di-
rectly via execvp(3) with an array of arguments - so commands or
arguments with spaces in them are not supported. The shell is
not used to run the command, so shell quoting is also not sup-
ported.

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