Ubuntu Manpage: aerc-config - configuration file formats for aerc(1)

Provided by: aerc_0.8.2-1ubuntu0.3_amd64

NAME

       aerc-config - configuration file formats for aerc(1)

CONFIGURATION

       There  are  three  aerc config files: aerc.conf, binds.conf, and accounts.conf. The last one must be kept
       secret, as it may include your account credentials. We look for these files in your XDG config home  plus
       "aerc", which defaults to ~/.config/aerc.

       Examples  of  these  config  files  are typically included with your installation of aerc and are usually
       installed in /usr/share/aerc.

       Each file uses the ini format, and consists of sections with keys and values. A line beginning with #  is
       considered  a comment and ignored, as are empty lines. New sections begin with [section-name] on a single
       line, and keys and values are separated with "=".

AERC.CONF

This file is used for configuring the general appearance and behavior of aerc.

GENERAL OPTIONS
These options are configured in the [general] section of aerc.conf.

default-save-path
Used as a default path for save operations if no other path is specified.

UI OPTIONS
These options are configured in the [ui] section of aerc.conf.

index-format
Describes the format for each row in a mailbox view. This field is compatible with mutt's printf-like
syntax.

Default: %D %-17.17n %s

┌──────────────────┬───────────────────────────────────────┐
│ Format specifier │ Description │
├──────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ %% │ literal % │
├──────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ %a │ sender address │
├──────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ %A │ reply-to address, or sender address │
│ │ if none │
├──────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ %C │ message number │
├──────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ %d │ formatted message timestamp │
├──────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ %D │ formatted message timestamp converted │
│ │ to local timezone │
├──────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ %f │ sender name and address │
├──────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ %F │ author name, or recipient name if the │
│ │ message is from you. The address is │
│ │ shown if no name part. │
├──────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ %g │ message labels (for example notmuch │
│ │ tags) │
├──────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ %i │ message id │
├──────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ %n │ sender name, or sender address if │
│ │ none │
├──────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ %r │ comma-separated list of formatted │
│ │ recipient names and addresses │
├──────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ %R │ comma-separated list of formatted CC │
│ │ names and addresses │
├──────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ %s │ subject │
├──────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ %t │ the (first) address the new email was │
│ │ sent to │
├──────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ %T │ the account name which received the │
│ │ email │
├──────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ %u │ sender mailbox name (e.g. "smith" in │
│ │ "smith@example.net") │
├──────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ %v │ sender first name (e.g. "Alex" in │
│ │ "Alex Smith <smith@example.net>") │
├──────────────────┼───────────────────────────────────────┤
│ %Z │ flags (O=old, N=new, r=answered, │
│ │ D=deleted, !=flagged, *=marked) │
└──────────────────┴───────────────────────────────────────┘

timestamp-format
See time.Time#Format at https://godoc.org/time#Time.Format

Default: "2006-01-02 03:04 PM" (ISO 8601 + 12 hour time)

this-day-time-format
Index-only time format for messages that were received/sent today. If this is not specified,
timestamp-format is used instead.

Default: "03:04 PM" (12 hour time)

this-week-time-format
Index-only time format for messages that were received/sent within the last 7 days. If this is not
specified, timestamp-format is used instead.

Default: "Monday 03:04 PM" (Week day + 12 hour time)

this-year-time-format
Index-only time format for messages that were received/sent this year. If this is not specified,
timestamp-format is used instead.

Default: "January 02" (Month + month day)

sidebar-width
Width of the sidebar, including the border. Set to zero to disable the sidebar.

Default: 20

empty-message
Message to display when viewing an empty folder.

Default: (no messages)

empty-dirlist
Message to display when no folders exists or are all filtered.

Default: (no folders)

mouse-enabled
Enable mouse events in the ui, e.g. clicking and scrolling with the mousewheel

Default: false

new-message-bell
Ring the bell when a new message is received.

Default: true

pinned-tab-marker
Marker to show before a pinned tab's name.

Default: `

spinner
Animation shown while loading, split by spinner-delimiter (below)

Examples:
• spinner = "-_-,_-_"
• spinner = '. , .'
• spinner = ",|,/,-"

Default: "[..] , [..] , [..] , [..] , [..], [..] , [..] , [..] "

spinner-delimiter
Spinner delimiter to split string into an animation

Default: ","

sort
List of space-separated criteria to sort the messages by, see sort command in aerc(1) for reference.
Prefixing a criterion with "-r " reverses that criterion.

Example: "from -r date"

Default: ""

dirlist-format
Describes the format string to use for the directory list

Default: %n %>r

dirlist-delay
Delay after which the messages are actually listed when entering a directory. This avoids loading
messages when skipping over folders and makes the UI more responsive. If you do not want that, set it
to 0s.

Default: 200ms

next-message-on-delete
Moves to next message when the current message is deleted

Default: true

completion-popovers
Shows potential auto-completions for text inputs in popovers.

Default: true

completion-delay
How long to wait after the last input before auto-completion is triggered.

Default: 250ms

border-char-vertical border-char-horizontal
Set stylable characters (via the 'border' element) for vertical and horizontal borders.

Default: spaces

stylesets-dirs
The directories where the stylesets are stored. The config takes a colon-separated list of dirs. If
this is unset or if a styleset cannot be found, the following paths will be used as a fallback in
that order:

~/.config/aerc/stylesets
~/.local/share/aerc/stylesets
/usr/local/share/aerc/stylesets
/usr/share/aerc/stylesets

Default: ""

styleset-name
The name of the styleset to be used to style the ui elements. The stylesets are stored in the
'stylesets' directory in the config directory.

Default: default

Have a look at aerc-stylesets(7) as to how a styleset looks like.

fuzzy-folder-complete
When finding a folder with cf or move, for example, the popover will how not only the folders
/starting/ with the string input by the user, but it will show coincidences of folders /containing/
the string in any position of their name. This is case-independent.

threading-enabled
Enable a threaded viewing of messages, works with IMAP (when there's server support) and NotMuch
backends.

This option should only be set to true for specific accounts accordingly. See Contextual UI
Configuration below.

Default: false

Contextual UI Configuration
The UI configuration can be specialized for accounts, specific mail directories and message subjects. The
specializations are added using contextual config sections based on the context.

The contextual UI configuration is merged to the base UiConfig in the following order: Base UIConfig >
Account Context > Folder Context > Subject Context.

[ui:account=<AccountName>]
Adds account specific configuration with the account name.

[ui:folder=<FolderName>]
Add folder specific configuration with the folder name.

[ui:folder~<Regex>]
Add folder specific configuration for folders whose names match the regular expression.

[ui:subject~<Regex>]
Add specialized ui configuration for messages that match a given regular expression.

Example:
[ui:account=Work]
sidebar-width=...

[ui:folder=Sent]
index-format=...

[ui:folder~Archive/d+/.*]
index-format=...

[ui:subject~^[PATCH]
index-format=...

VIEWER
These options are configured in the [viewer] section of aerc.conf.

pager
Specifies the pager to use when displaying emails. Note that some filters may add ANSI escape
sequences to add color to rendered emails, so you may want to use a pager which supports ANSI.

Default: less -R

alternatives
If an email offers several versions (multipart), you can configure which mimetype to prefer. For
example, this can be used to prefer plaintext over HTML emails.

Default: text/plain,text/html

header-layout
Defines the default headers to display when viewing a message. To display multiple headers in the
same row, separate them with a pipe, e.g. "From|To". Rows will be hidden if none of their specified
headers are present in the message.

Default: From|To,Cc|Bcc,Date,Subject

show-headers
Default setting to determine whether to show full headers or only parsed ones in message viewer.

Default: false

always-show-mime
Whether to always show the mimetype of an email, even when it is just a single part.

Default: false

COMPOSE
These options are configured in the [compose] section of aerc.conf.

editor
Specifies the command to run the editor with. It will be shown in an embedded terminal, though it may
also launch a graphical window if the environment supports it. Defaults to $EDITOR, or vi(1).

header-layout
Defines the default headers to display when composing a message. To display multiple headers in the
same row, separate them with a pipe, e.g. "To|From".

Default: To|From,Subject

address-book-cmd
Specifies the command to be used to tab-complete email addresses. Any occurrence of "%s" in the
address-book-cmd will be replaced with anything the user has typed after the last comma.

The command must output the completions to standard output, one completion per line. Each line must
be tab-delimited, with an email address occurring as the first field. Only the email address field is
required. The second field, if present, will be treated as the contact name. Additional fields are
ignored.

Example:
khard email --remove-first-line --parsable '%s'

Default: none

reply-to-self
Allow to include your own address. Otherwise, if set to false, do not mail yourself when replying
(e.g., if replying to emails previously sent by yourself, address your replies to the original To:
and Cc:).

Default: true

FILTERS
Filters allow you to pipe an email body through a shell command to render certain emails differently,
e.g. highlighting them with ANSI escape codes. They are configured in the [filters] section of aerc.conf.

The first filter which matches the email's mimetype will be used, so order them from most to least
specific.

You can also match on non-mimetypes, by prefixing with the header to match against (non-case-sensitive)
and a comma, e.g. subject,text will match a subject which contains "text". Use header,~regex to match
against a regex.

aerc ships with some default filters installed in the share directory (usually /usr/share/aerc/filters).
Note that these may have additional dependencies that aerc does not have alone.

TRIGGERS
Triggers specify commands to execute when certain events occur.

They are configured in the [triggers] section of aerc.conf.

new-email
Executed when a new email arrives in the selected folder.

e.g. new-email=exec notify-send "New email from %n" "%s"

Default: ""

Format specifiers from index-format are expanded with respect to the new message.

TEMPLATES
Templates are used to populate the body of an email. The compose, reply and forward commands can be
called with the -T flag with the name of the template name.

aerc ships with some default templates installed in the share directory (usually
/usr/share/aerc/templates).

These options are configured in the [templates] section of aerc.conf.

template-dirs
The directory where the templates are stored. The config takes a colon-separated list of dirs. If
this is unset or if a template cannot be found, the following paths will be used as a fallback in
that order:

~/.config/aerc/templates
~/.local/share/aerc/templates
/usr/local/share/aerc/templates
/usr/share/aerc/templates

Default: ""

new-message
The default template to be used for new messages.

Default: "new_message"

quoted-reply
The default template to be used for quoted replies.

Default: "quoted_reply"

forwards
The default template to be used for forward as body.

Default: "forward_as_body"

ACCOUNTS.CONF

This file is used for configuring each mail account used for aerc. Each section is the name of an account
you want to configure, and the keys & values in that section specify details of that account's
configuration. In addition to the options documented here, specific transports for incoming and outgoing
emails may have additional configuration parameters, documented on their respective man pages.

Note that many of these configuration options are written for you, such as source and outgoing, when you
run the account configuration wizard (:new-account).

archive
Specifies a folder to use as the destination of the :archive command.

Default: Archive

copy-to
Specifies a folder to copy sent mails to, usually "Sent".

Default: none

default
Specifies the default folder to open in the message list when aerc configures this account.

Default: INBOX

folders
Specifies the comma separated list of folders to display in the sidebar. Names prefixed with ~ are
interpreted as regular expressions.

Default: all folders

folders-exclude
Specifies the comma separated list of folders to exclude from the sidebar. Names prefixed with ~ are
interpreted as regular expressions. Note that this overrides anything from folders.

Default: no folders

enable-folders-sort
If true, folders are sorted, first by specified folders (see folders-sort), then alphabetically.

Default: true

folders-sort
Specifies a comma separated list of folders to be shown at the top of the list in the provided order.
Remaining folders will be sorted alphabetically.

Default: none

from
The default value to use for the From header in new emails. This should be an RFC 5322-compatible
string, such as "Your Name <you@example.org>".

Default: none

aliases
All aliases of the current account. These will be used to fill in the From: field. Make sure that
your email server accepts this value, or for example use aerc-sendmail(5) in combination with msmtp
and --read-envelope-from.

Default: none

outgoing
Specifies the transport for sending outgoing emails on this account. It should be a connection
string, and the specific meaning of each component varies depending on the protocol in use. See each
protocol's man page for more details:

• aerc-smtp(5)

outgoing-cred-cmd
Specifies an optional command that is run to get the outgoing account's password. See each protocol's
man page for more details.

Default: none

postpone
Specifies the folder to save postponed messages to.

Default: Drafts

source
Specifies the source for reading incoming emails on this account. This key is required for all
accounts. It should be a connection string, and the specific meaning of each component varies
depending on the protocol in use. See each protocol's man page for more details:

• aerc-imap(5)
• aerc-maildir(5)
• aerc-notmuch(5)

Default: none

source-cred-cmd
Specifies an optional command that is run to get the source account's password. See each protocol's
man page for more details.

signature-file
Specifies the file to read in order to obtain the signature to be added to emails sent from this
account.

signature-cmd
Specifies the command to execute in sh in order to obtain the signature to be added to emails sent
from this account. If the command fails then signature-file is used instead.

BINDS.CONF

       This  file  is  used  for  configuring keybindings used in the aerc interactive client. You may configure
       different keybindings for different contexts by writing them into different [sections] of the  ini  file.
       The available contexts are:

       [messages]
           keybindings for the message list

       [view]
           keybindings for the message viewer

       [compose]
           keybindings for the message composer

       [compose::editor]
           keybindings for the composer, when the editor is focused

       [compose::review]
           keybindings for the composer, when reviewing the email before it's sent

       [terminal]
           keybindings for terminal tabs

       You may also configure account specific key bindings for each context:

       [context:account=<AccountName>]
           keybindings  for  this context and account, where <AccountName> matches the account name you provided
           in accounts.conf.

       Example:
           [messages:account=Mailbox]
           c = :cf path:mailbox/** and<space>

           [compose::editor:account=Mailbox2]
           ...

       You may also configure global keybindings by placing them at the beginning of the file, before specifying
       any context-specific sections. For each key=value option specified, the key is the keystrokes pressed (in
       order) to invoke this keybinding, and value  specifies  keystrokes  that  aerc  will  simulate  when  the
       keybinding is invoked. Generally this is used to execute commands, for example:

           rq = :reply -q<Enter>

       Pressing  r, then q, will simulate typing in ":reply -q<Enter>", and execute :reply -q accordingly. It is
       also possible to invoke keybindings recursively in a similar fashion. Additionally, the following special
       options are available in each binding context:

       $noinherit
           If set to "true", global keybindings will not be effective in this context.

           Default: false

       $ex
           This can be set to a keystroke which will bring up the command input in this context.

           Default: <semicolon>

       In addition to letters, special keys may be specified in <angle brackets>. The following special keys are
       supported:

       ┌───────────┬─────────────┐
       │ Name      │ Description │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ space     │     " "     │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ semicolon │      ;      │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ tab       │             │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ enter     │             │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ up        │             │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-up      │   Ctrl+Up   │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ down      │             │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-down    │  Ctrl+Down  │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ right     │             │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-right   │ Ctrl+Right  │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ left      │             │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-left    │  Ctrl+Left  │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ pgup      │             │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-pgup    │ Ctrl+PageUp │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ pgdn      │             │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-pgdn    │ Ctrl+PageUp │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ home      │             │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ end       │             │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ insert    │             │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ delete    │             │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ exit      │             │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ cancel    │             │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ print     │             │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ pause     │             │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ backtab   │             │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-space   │ Ctrl+Space  │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-a       │   Ctrl+a    │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-b       │   Ctrl+b    │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-c       │   Ctrl+c    │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-d       │   Ctrl+d    │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-e       │   Ctrl+e    │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-f       │   Ctrl+f    │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-g       │   Ctrl+g    │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-h       │   Ctrl+h    │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-i       │   Ctrl+i    │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-j       │   Ctrl+j    │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-k       │   Ctrl+k    │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-l       │   Ctrl+l    │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-m       │   Ctrl+m    │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-n       │   Ctrl+n    │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-o       │   Ctrl+o    │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-p       │   Ctrl+p    │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-q       │   Ctrl+q    │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-r       │   Ctrl+r    │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-s       │   Ctrl+s    │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-t       │   Ctrl+t    │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-u       │   Ctrl+u    │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-v       │   Ctrl+v    │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-w       │   Ctrl+w    │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-x       │   Ctrl+x    │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-y       │   Ctrl+y    │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-z       │   Ctrl+z    │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-]       │   Ctrl+]    │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-[       │   Ctrl+[    │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-^       │   Ctrl+^    │
       ├───────────┼─────────────┤
       │ c-_       │   Ctrl+_    │
       └───────────┴─────────────┘

AUTHORS

       Originally created by Drew DeVault <sir@cmpwn.com> and maintained by Robin Jarry <robin@jarry.cc> who  is
       assisted   by  other  open  source  contributors.  For  more  information  about  aerc  development,  see
       https://sr.ht/~rjarry/aerc/.

                                                   2024-11-15                                     aerc-config(5)

NAME

CONFIGURATION

AERC.CONF

ACCOUNTS.CONF

BINDS.CONF

SEE ALSO

AUTHORS