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<H2><A NAME="s2">2.</A> <A HREF="manual.html#toc2">Getting Started</A></H2>
<P>This section is intended as a brief overview of how to use Mutt. There are
many other features which are described elsewhere in the manual. There
is even more information available in the Mutt FAQ and various web
pages. See the
<A HREF="http://www.mutt.org/mutt/">Mutt Page</A> for more details.</P>
<P>The keybindings described in this section are the defaults as distributed.
Your local system administrator may have altered the defaults for your site.
You can always type ``?'' in any menu to display the current bindings.</P>
<P>The first thing you need to do is invoke mutt, simply by typing mutt
at the command line. There are various command-line options, see
either the mutt man page or the
<A HREF="manual-6.html#commandline">reference</A>.</P>
<H2><A NAME="ss2.1">2.1</A> <A HREF="manual.html#toc2.1">Moving Around in Menus</A>
</H2>
<P>Information is presented in menus, very similar to ELM. Here is a table
showing the common keys used to navigate menus in Mutt.</P>
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
j or Down next-entry move to the next entry
k or Up previous-entry move to the previous entry
z or PageDn page-down go to the next page
Z or PageUp page-up go to the previous page
= or Home first-entry jump to the first entry
* or End last-entry jump to the last entry
q quit exit the current menu
? help list all keybindings for the current menu
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
</P>
<H2><A NAME="editing"></A> <A NAME="ss2.2">2.2</A> <A HREF="manual.html#toc2.2">Editing Input Fields</A>
</H2>
<P>Mutt has a builtin line editor which is used as the primary way to input
textual data such as email addresses or filenames. The keys used to move
around while editing are very similar to those of Emacs.</P>
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
^A or <Home> bol move to the start of the line
^B or <Left> backward-char move back one char
Esc B backward-word move back one word
^D or <Delete> delete-char delete the char under the cursor
^E or <End> eol move to the end of the line
^F or <Right> forward-char move forward one char
Esc F forward-word move forward one word
<Tab> complete complete filename or alias
^T complete-query complete address with query
^K kill-eol delete to the end of the line
ESC d kill-eow delete to the end ot the word
^W kill-word kill the word in front of the cursor
^U kill-line delete entire line
^V quote-char quote the next typed key
<Up> history-up recall previous string from history
<Down> history-down recall next string from history
<BackSpace> backspace kill the char in front of the cursor
Esc u upcase-word convert word to upper case
Esc l downcase-word convert word to lower case
Esc c capitalize-word capitalize the word
^G n/a abort
<Return> n/a finish editing
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
</P>
<P>You can remap the <EM>editor</EM> functions using the
<A HREF="manual-3.html#bind">bind</A>
command. For example, to make the <EM>Delete</EM> key delete the character in
front of the cursor rather than under, you could use</P>
<P><CODE>bind editor <delete> backspace</CODE></P>
<H2><A NAME="ss2.3">2.3</A> <A HREF="manual.html#toc2.3">Reading Mail - The Index and Pager</A>
</H2>
<P>Similar to many other mail clients, there are two modes in which mail is
read in Mutt. The first is the index of messages in the mailbox, which is
called the ``index'' in Mutt. The second mode is the display of the
message contents. This is called the ``pager.''</P>
<P>The next few sections describe the functions provided in each of these
modes.</P>
<H3>The Message Index</H3>
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
c change to a different mailbox
ESC c change to a folder in read-only mode
C copy the current message to another mailbox
ESC C decode a message and copy it to a folder
ESC s decode a message and save it to a folder
D delete messages matching a pattern
d delete the current message
F mark as important
l show messages matching a pattern
N mark message as new
o change the current sort method
O reverse sort the mailbox
q save changes and exit
s save-message
T tag messages matching a pattern
t toggle the tag on a message
ESC t toggle tag on entire message thread
U undelete messages matching a pattern
u undelete-message
v view-attachments
x abort changes and exit
<Return> display-message
<Tab> jump to the next new message
@ show the author's full e-mail address
$ save changes to mailbox
/ search
ESC / search-reverse
^L clear and redraw the screen
^T untag messages matching a pattern
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
</P>
<H3>Status Flags</H3>
<P>In addition to who sent the message and the subject, a short summary of
the disposition of each message is printed beside the message number.
Zero or more of the following ``flags'' may appear, which mean:</P>
<P>
<DL>
<DT><B>D</B><DD><P>message is deleted (is marked for deletion)</P>
<DT><B>d</B><DD><P>message have attachments marked for deletion</P>
<DT><B>K</B><DD><P>contains a PGP public key</P>
<DT><B>N</B><DD><P>message is new</P>
<DT><B>O</B><DD><P>message is old</P>
<DT><B>P</B><DD><P>message is PGP encrypted</P>
<DT><B>r</B><DD><P>message has been replied to</P>
<DT><B>S</B><DD><P>message is PGP signed, and the signature is succesfully verified</P>
<DT><B>s</B><DD><P>message is PGP signed</P>
<DT><B>!</B><DD><P>message is flagged</P>
<DT><B>*</B><DD><P>message is tagged</P>
</DL>
</P>
<P>Some of the status flags can be turned on or off using
<UL>
<LI><B>set-flag</B> (default: w)</LI>
<LI><B>clear-flag</B> (default: W)</LI>
</UL>
</P>
<P>Furthermore, the following flags reflect who the message is addressed
to. They can be customized with the
<A HREF="manual-6.html#to_chars">$to_chars</A> variable.</P>
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
+ message is to you and you only
T message is to you, but also to or cc'ed to others
C message is cc'ed to you
F message is from you
L message is sent to a subscribed mailing list
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
</P>
<H3>The Pager</H3>
<P>By default, Mutt uses its builtin pager to display the body of messages.
The pager is very similar to the Unix program <EM>less</EM> though not nearly as
featureful.</P>
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
<Return> go down one line
<Space> display the next page (or next message if at the end of a message)
- go back to the previous page
n search for next match
S skip beyond quoted text
T toggle display of quoted text
? show keybindings
/ search for a regular expression (pattern)
ESC / search backwards for a regular expression
\ toggle search pattern coloring
^ jump to the top of the message
$ jump to the bottom of the message
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
</P>
<P>In addition, many of the functions from the <EM>index</EM> are available in
the pager, such as <EM>delete-message</EM> or <EM>copy-message</EM> (this is one
advantage over using an external pager to view messages).</P>
<P>Also, the internal pager supports a couple other advanced features. For
one, it will accept and translate the ``standard'' nroff sequences for
bold and underline. These sequences are a series of either the letter,
backspace (^H), the letter again for bold or the letter, backspace,
``_'' for denoting underline. Mutt will attempt to display these
in bold and underline respectively if your terminal supports them. If
not, you can use the bold and underline
<A HREF="manual-3.html#color">color</A>
objects to specify a color or mono attribute for them.</P>
<P>Additionally, the internal pager supports the ANSI escape sequences for
character attributes. Mutt translates them into the correct color and
character settings. The sequences Mutt supports are:</P>
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
ESC [ Ps;Ps;Ps;...;Ps m
where Ps =
0 All Attributes Off
1 Bold on
4 Underline on
5 Blink on
7 Reverse video on
3x Foreground color is x
4x Background color is x
Colors are
0 black
1 red
2 green
3 yellow
4 blue
5 magenta
6 cyan
7 white
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
</P>
<P>Mutt uses these attributes for handling text/enriched messages, and they
can also be used by an external
<A HREF="manual-5.html#auto_view">autoview</A>
script for highlighting purposes. <B>Note:</B> If you change the colors for your
display, for example by changing the color associated with color2 for
your xterm, then that color will be used instead of green.</P>
<H3><A NAME="threads"></A> Threaded Mode</H3>
<P>When the mailbox is
<A HREF="manual-6.html#sort">sorted</A> by <EM>threads</EM>, there are
a few additional functions available in the <EM>index</EM> and <EM>pager</EM> modes.</P>
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
^D delete-thread delete all messages in the current thread
^U undelete-thread undelete all messages in the current thread
^N next-thread jump to the start of the next thread
^P previous-thread jump to the start of the previous thread
^R read-thread mark the current thread as read
ESC d delete-subthread delete all messages in the current subthread
ESC u undelete-subthread undelete all messages in the current subthread
ESC n next-subthread jump to the start of the next subthread
ESC p previous-subthread jump to the start of the previous subthread
ESC r read-subthread mark the current subthread as read
ESC t tag-thread toggle the tag on the current thread
ESC v collapse-thread toggle collapse for the current thread
ESC V collapse-all toggle collapse for all threads
P parent-message jump to parent message in thread
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
</P>
<P><B>Note:</B> Collapsing a thread displays only the first message
in the thread and hides the others. This is useful when threads
contain so many messages that you can only see a handful of threads on
the screen. See %M in
<A HREF="manual-6.html#index_format">$index_format</A>.
For example, you could use "%?M?(#%03M)&(%4l)?" in
<A HREF="manual-6.html#index_format">$index_format</A> to optionally
display the number of hidden messages if the thread is collapsed.</P>
<P>See also:
<A HREF="manual-6.html#strict_threads">$strict_threads</A>.</P>
<H3>Miscellaneous Functions</H3>
<P><B>create-alias</B>
<A NAME="create-alias"></A> (default: a)<BR></P>
<P>Creates a new alias based upon the current message (or prompts for a
new one). Once editing is complete, an
<A HREF="manual-3.html#alias">alias</A>
command is added to the file specified by the
<A HREF="manual-6.html#alias_file">$alias_file</A> variable for future use. <B>Note:</B>
Specifying an
<A HREF="manual-6.html#alias_file">$alias_file</A>
does not add the aliases specified there-in, you must also
<A HREF="manual-3.html#source">source</A> the file.</P>
<P><B>check-traditional-pgp</B>
<A NAME="check-traditional-pgp"></A> (default: ESC P)<BR></P>
<P>This function will search the current message for content signed or
encrypted with PGP the "traditional" way, that is, without proper
MIME tagging. Technically, this function will temporarily change
the MIME content types of the body parts containing PGP data; this
is similar to the
<A HREF="#edit-type">edit-type</A> function's
effect.</P>
<P><B>display-toggle-weed</B>
<A NAME="display-toggle-weed"></A> (default: h)<BR></P>
<P>Toggles the weeding of message header fields specified by
<A HREF="manual-3.html#ignore">ignore</A> commands.</P>
<P><B>edit</B>
<A NAME="edit"></A> (default: e)<BR></P>
<P>This command (available in the ``index'' and ``pager'') allows you to
edit the raw current message as it's present in the mail folder.
After you have finished editing, the changed message will be
appended to the current folder, and the original message will be
marked for deletion.</P>
<P><B>edit-type</B>
<A NAME="edit-type"></A> <BR>
(default: ^E on the attachment menu, and in the pager and index menus; ^T on the
compose menu)</P>
<P>This command is used to temporarily edit an attachment's content
type to fix, for instance, bogus character set parameters. When
invoked from the index or from the pager, you'll have the
opportunity to edit the top-level attachment's content type. On the
<A HREF="manual-5.html#attach_menu">attachment menu</A>, you can change any
attachment's content type. These changes are not persistent, and get
lost upon changing folders.</P>
<P>Note that this command is also available on the
<A HREF="manual-5.html#compose_menu">compose menu</A>. There, it's used to
fine-tune the properties of attachments you are going to send.</P>
<P><B>enter-command</B>
<A NAME="enter-command"></A> (default: ``:'')<BR></P>
<P>This command is used to execute any command you would normally put in a
configuration file. A common use is to check the settings of variables, or
in conjunction with
<A HREF="manual-3.html#macro">macros</A> to change settings on the
fly.</P>
<P><B>extract-keys</B>
<A NAME="extract-keys"></A> (default: ^K)<BR></P>
<P>This command extracts PGP public keys from the current or tagged
message(s) and adds them to your PGP public key ring.</P>
<P><B>forget-passphrase</B>
<A NAME="forget-passphrase"></A> (default:
^F)<BR> </P>
<P>This command wipes the PGP passphrase from memory. It is useful, if
you misspelled the passphrase.</P>
<P><B>list-reply</B>
<A NAME="list-reply"></A> (default: L)<BR></P>
<P>Reply to the current or tagged message(s) by extracting any addresses which
match the addresses given by the
<A HREF="manual-3.html#lists">lists or subscribe</A>
commands, but also honor any <CODE>Mail-Followup-To</CODE> header(s) if the
<A HREF="manual-6.html#honor_followup_to">$honor_followup_to</A>
configuration variable is set. Using this when replying to messages posted
to mailing lists helps avoid duplicate copies being sent to the author of
the message you are replying to.</P>
<P><B>pipe-message</B>
<A NAME="pipe-message"></A> (default: |)<BR></P>
<P>Asks for an external Unix command and pipes the current or
tagged message(s) to it. The variables
<A HREF="manual-6.html#pipe_decode">$pipe_decode</A>,
<A HREF="manual-6.html#pipe_split">$pipe_split</A>,
<A HREF="manual-6.html#pipe_sep">$pipe_sep</A> and
<A HREF="manual-6.html#wait_key">$wait_key</A> control the exact behaviour of this
function.</P>
<P><B>resend-message</B>
<A NAME="resend-message"></A> (default: ESC e)<BR></P>
<P>With resend-message, mutt takes the current message as a template for a
new message. This function is best described as "recall from arbitrary
folders". It can conveniently be used to forward MIME messages while
preserving the original mail structure. Note that the amount of headers
included here depends on the value of the
<A HREF="manual-6.html#weed">$weed</A>
variable.</P>
<P>This function is also available from the attachment menu. You can use this
to easily resend a message which was included with a bounce message
as a message/rfc822 body part.</P>
<P><B>shell-escape</B>
<A NAME="shell-escape"></A> (default: !)<BR></P>
<P>Asks for an external Unix command and executes it. The
<A HREF="manual-6.html#wait_key">$wait_key</A> can be used to control
whether Mutt will wait for a key to be pressed when the command returns
(presumably to let the user read the output of the command), based on
the return status of the named command.</P>
<P><B>toggle-quoted</B>
<A NAME="toggle-quoted"></A> (default: T)<BR></P>
<P>The <EM>pager</EM> uses the
<A HREF="manual-6.html#quote_regexp">$quote_regexp</A> variable to detect quoted text when
displaying the body of the message. This function toggles the display
of the quoted material in the message. It is particularly useful when
are interested in just the response and there is a large amount of
quoted text in the way.</P>
<P><B>skip-quoted</B>
<A NAME="skip-quoted"></A> (default: S)<BR></P>
<P>This function will go to the next line of non-quoted text which come
after a line of quoted text in the internal pager.</P>
<H2><A NAME="ss2.4">2.4</A> <A HREF="manual.html#toc2.4">Sending Mail</A>
</H2>
<P>The following bindings are available in the <EM>index</EM> for sending
messages.</P>
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
m compose compose a new message
r reply reply to sender
g group-reply reply to all recipients
L list-reply reply to mailing list address
f forward forward message
b bounce bounce (remail) message
ESC k mail-key mail a PGP public key to someone
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
</P>
<P>Bouncing a message sends the message as is to the recipient you
specify. Forwarding a message allows you to add comments or
modify the message you are forwarding. These items are discussed
in greater detail in the next chapter
<A HREF="#forwarding_mail">``Forwarding and Bouncing Mail''</A>.</P>
<P>Mutt will then enter the <EM>compose</EM> menu and prompt you for the
recipients to place on the ``To:'' header field. Next, it will ask
you for the ``Subject:'' field for the message, providing a default if
you are replying to or forwarding a message. See also
<A HREF="manual-6.html#askcc">$askcc</A>,
<A HREF="manual-6.html#askbcc">$askbcc</A>,
<A HREF="manual-6.html#autoedit">$autoedit</A>, and
<A HREF="manual-6.html#fast_reply">$fast_reply</A> for changing how Mutt asks these
questions.</P>
<P>Mutt will then automatically start your
<A HREF="manual-6.html#editor">$editor</A> on the message body. If the
<A HREF="manual-6.html#edit_headers">$edit_headers</A> variable is set, the headers will be at
the top of the message in your editor. Any messages you are replying
to will be added in sort order to the message, with appropriate
<A HREF="manual-6.html#attribution">$attribution</A>,
<A HREF="manual-6.html#indent_string">$indent_string</A> and
<A HREF="manual-6.html#post_indent_string">$post_indent_string</A>. When forwarding a
message, if the
<A HREF="manual-6.html#mime_forward">$mime_forward</A>
variable is unset, a copy of the forwarded message will be included. If
you have specified a
<A HREF="manual-6.html#signature">$signature</A>, it
will be appended to the message.</P>
<P>Once you have finished editing the body of your mail message, you are
returned to the <EM>compose</EM> menu. The following options are available:</P>
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
a attach-file attach a file
A attach-message attach message(s) to the message
ESC k attach-key attach a PGP public key
d edit-description edit description on attachment
D detach-file detach a file
t edit-to edit the To field
ESC f edit-from edit the From field
r edit-reply-to edit the Reply-To field
c edit-cc edit the Cc field
b edit-bcc edit the Bcc field
y send-message send the message
s edit-subject edit the Subject
f edit-fcc specify an ``Fcc'' mailbox
p pgp-menu select PGP options
P postpone-message postpone this message until later
q quit quit (abort) sending the message
w write-fcc write the message to a folder
i ispell check spelling (if available on your system)
^F forget-passphrase whipe PGP passphrase from memory
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
</P>
<P><B>Note:</B> The attach-message function will prompt you for a folder to
attach messages from. You can now tag messages in that folder and they
will be attached to the message you are sending. Note that certain
operations like composing a new mail, replying, forwarding, etc. are
not permitted when you are in that folder. The %r in
<A HREF="manual-6.html#status_format">$status_format</A> will change to
a 'A' to indicate that you are in attach-message mode.</P>
<H3>Editing the message header</H3>
<P>When editing the header of your outgoing message, there are a couple of
special features available.</P>
<P>If you specify<BR>
<CODE>Fcc:</CODE> <EM>filename</EM><BR>
Mutt will pick up <EM>filename</EM>
just as if you had used the <EM>edit-fcc</EM> function in the <EM>compose</EM> menu.</P>
<P>You can also attach files to your message by specifying<BR>
<CODE>Attach:</CODE> <EM>filename</EM> [ <EM>description</EM> ]<BR>
where <EM>filename</EM> is the file to attach and <EM>description</EM> is an
optional string to use as the description of the attached file.</P>
<P>When replying to messages, if you remove the <EM>In-Reply-To:</EM> field from
the header field, Mutt will not generate a <EM>References:</EM> field, which
allows you to create a new message thread.</P>
<P>Also see
<A HREF="manual-6.html#edit_headers">edit_headers</A>.</P>
<H3>Using Mutt with PGP</H3>
<P>If you want to use PGP, you can specify </P>
<P><CODE>Pgp:</CODE> [ <CODE>E</CODE> | <CODE>S</CODE> | <CODE>S<id</CODE>> ] <BR></P>
<P>``E'' encrypts, ``S'' signs and
``S<id>'' signs with the given key, setting
<A HREF="manual-6.html#pgp_sign_as">$pgp_sign_as</A> permanently.</P>
<P>If you have told mutt to PGP encrypt a message, it will guide you
through a key selection process when you try to send the message.
Mutt will not ask you any questions about keys which have a
certified user ID matching one of the message recipients' mail
addresses. However, there may be situations in which there are
several keys, weakly certified user ID fields, or where no matching
keys can be found.</P>
<P>In these cases, you are dropped into a menu with a list of keys from
which you can select one. When you quit this menu, or mutt can't
find any matching keys, you are prompted for a user ID. You can, as
usually, abort this prompt using <CODE>^G</CODE>. When you do so, mutt will
return to the compose screen.</P>
<P>Once you have successfully finished the key selection, the message
will be encrypted using the selected public keys, and sent out.</P>
<P>Most fields of the entries in the key selection menu (see also
<A HREF="manual-6.html#pgp_entry_format">$pgp_entry_format</A>)
have obvious meanings. But some explanations on the capabilities, flags,
and validity fields are in order.</P>
<P>The flags sequence (%f) will expand to one of the following flags:
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
R The key has been revoked and can't be used.
X The key is expired and can't be used.
d You have marked the key as disabled.
c There are unknown critical self-signature
packets.
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
</P>
<P>The capabilities field (%c) expands to a two-character sequence
representing a key's capabilities. The first character gives
the key's encryption capabilities: A minus sign (<B>-</B>) means
that the key cannot be used for encryption. A dot (<B>.</B>) means that
it's marked as a signature key in one of the user IDs, but may
also be used for encryption. The letter <B>e</B> indicates that
this key can be used for encryption.</P>
<P>The second character indicates the key's signing capabilities. Once
again, a ``<B>-</B>'' implies ``not for signing'', ``<B>.</B>'' implies
that the key is marked as an encryption key in one of the user-ids, and
``<B>s</B>'' denotes a key which can be used for signing.</P>
<P>Finally, the validity field (%t) indicates how well-certified a user-id
is. A question mark (<B>?</B>) indicates undefined validity, a minus
character (<B>-</B>) marks an untrusted association, a space character
means a partially trusted association, and a plus character (<B>+</B>)
indicates complete validity.</P>
<H3>Sending anonymous messages via mixmaster.</H3>
<P>You may also have configured mutt to co-operate with Mixmaster, an
anonymous remailer. Mixmaster permits you to send your messages
anonymously using a chain of remailers. Mixmaster support in mutt is for
mixmaster version 2.04 (beta 45 appears to be the latest) and 2.03.
It does not support earlier versions or the later so-called version 3 betas,
of which the latest appears to be called 2.9b23.</P>
<P>To use it, you'll have to obey certain restrictions. Most
important, you cannot use the <CODE>Cc</CODE> and <CODE>Bcc</CODE> headers. To tell
Mutt to use mixmaster, you have to select a remailer chain, using
the mix function on the compose menu. </P>
<P>The chain selection screen is divided into two parts. In the
(larger) upper part, you get a list of remailers you may use. In
the lower part, you see the currently selected chain of remailers.</P>
<P>You can navigate in the chain using the <CODE>chain-prev</CODE> and
<CODE>chain-next</CODE> functions, which are by default bound to the left
and right arrows and to the <CODE>h</CODE> and <CODE>l</CODE> keys (think vi
keyboard bindings). To insert a remailer at the current chain
position, use the <CODE>insert</CODE> function. To append a remailer behind
the current chain position, use <CODE>select-entry</CODE> or <CODE>append</CODE>.
You can also delete entries from the chain, using the corresponding
function. Finally, to abandon your changes, leave the menu, or
<CODE>accept</CODE> them pressing (by default) the <CODE>Return</CODE> key.</P>
<P>Note that different remailers do have different capabilities,
indicated in the %c entry of the remailer menu lines (see
<A HREF="manual-6.html#mix_entry_format">$mix_entry_format</A>). Most important is
the ``middleman'' capability, indicated by a capital ``M'': This
means that the remailer in question cannot be used as the final
element of a chain, but will only forward messages to other
mixmaster remailers. For details on the other capabilities, please
have a look at the mixmaster documentation.</P>
<H2><A NAME="forwarding_mail"></A> <A NAME="ss2.5">2.5</A> <A HREF="manual.html#toc2.5">Forwarding and Bouncing Mail</A>
</H2>
<P>Bouncing and forwarding let you send an existing message to recipients
that you specify. Bouncing a message uses the
<A HREF="manual-6.html#sendmail">sendmail</A> command to send a copy to alternative addresses as if
they were the message's original recipients. Forwarding a message, on
the other hand, allows you to modify the message before it is resent
(for example, by adding your own comments).</P>
<P>The following keys are bound by default:</P>
<P>
<BLOCKQUOTE><CODE>
<PRE>
f forward forward message
b bounce bounce (remail) message
</PRE>
</CODE></BLOCKQUOTE>
</P>
<P>Forwarding can be done by including the original message in the new
message's body (surrounded by indicating lines) or including it as a MIME
attachment, depending on the value of the
<A HREF="manual-6.html#mime_forward">$mime_forward</A> variable. Decoding of attachments,
like in the pager, can be controlled by the
<A HREF="manual-6.html#forward_decode">$forward_decode</A> and
<A HREF="manual-6.html#mime_forward_decode">$mime_forward_decode</A> variables,
respectively. The desired forwarding format may depend on the content,
therefore <EM>$mime_forward</EM> is a quadoption which, for
example, can be set to ``ask-no''.</P>
<P>The inclusion of headers is controlled by the current setting of the
<A HREF="manual-6.html#weed">$weed</A> variable, unless
<A HREF="manual-6.html#mime_forward">mime_forward</A> is set.</P>
<P>Editing the message to forward follows the same procedure as sending or
replying to a message does.</P>
<H2><A NAME="postponing_mail"></A> <A NAME="ss2.6">2.6</A> <A HREF="manual.html#toc2.6">Postponing Mail</A>
</H2>
<P>At times it is desirable to delay sending a message that you have
already begun to compose. When the <EM>postpone-message</EM> function is
used in the <EM>compose</EM> menu, the body of your message and attachments
are stored in the mailbox specified by the
<A HREF="manual-6.html#postponed">$postponed</A> variable. This means that you can recall the
message even if you exit Mutt and then restart it at a later time.</P>
<P>Once a message is postponed, there are several ways to resume it. From the
command line you can use the ``-p'' option, or if you <EM>compose</EM> a new
message from the <EM>index</EM> or <EM>pager</EM> you will be prompted if postponed
messages exist. If multiple messages are currently postponed, the
<EM>postponed</EM> menu will pop up and you can select which message you would
like to resume.</P>
<P><B>Note:</B> If you postpone a reply to a message, the reply setting of
the message is only updated when you actually finish the message and
send it. Also, you must be in the same folder with the message you
replied to for the status of the message to be updated.</P>
<P>See also the
<A HREF="manual-6.html#postpone">$postpone</A> quad-option.</P>
<HR>
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