The Sidebar shows a list of all your mailboxes. The list can be turned on and off, it can be themed and the list style can be configured.
This part of the manual is suitable for beginners. If you already know NeoMutt you could skip ahead to the main Sidebar guide. If you just want to get started, you could use the sample Sidebar neomuttrc.
Let's turn on the Sidebar:
set sidebar_visible set sidebar_format = "%B%?F? [%F]?%* %?N?%N/?%S" set mail_check_stats
You will see something like this. A list of mailboxes on the left. A list of emails, from the selected mailbox, on the right.
Fruit [1] 3/8| 1 + Jan 24 Rhys Lee (192) Yew Animals [1] 2/6| 2 + Feb 11 Grace Hall (167) Ilama Cars 4| 3 Feb 23 Aimee Scott (450) Nectarine Seas 1/7| 4 ! Feb 28 Summer Jackson (264) Lemon | 5 Mar 07 Callum Harrison (464) Raspberry | 6 N + Mar 24 Samuel Harris (353) Tangerine | 7 N + Sep 05 Sofia Graham (335) Cherry | 8 N Sep 16 Ewan Brown (105) Ugli | |
This user has four mailboxes: “ Fruit”, “ Cars”, “ Animals”and “ Seas”.
The current, open, mailbox is “ Fruit”. We can also see information about the other mailboxes. For example: The “ Animals”mailbox contains, 1 flagged email, 2 new emails out of a total of 6 emails.
The Sidebar adds some new functionsto NeoMutt.
The user pressed the
“
c”key to
<change-folder>to the
“
Animals”mailbox. The Sidebar automatically updated the indicator to match.
Fruit [1] 3/8| 1 Jan 03 Tia Gibson (362) Caiman Animals [1] 2/6| 2 + Jan 22 Rhys Lee ( 48) Dolphin Cars 4| 3 ! Aug 16 Ewan Brown (333) Hummingbird Seas 1/7| 4 Sep 25 Grace Hall ( 27) Capybara | 5 N + Nov 12 Evelyn Rogers (453) Tapir | 6 N + Nov 16 Callum Harrison (498) Hedgehog | | | |
Let's map some functions:
bind index,pager \CP sidebar-prev # Ctrl-Shift-P - Previous Mailbox bind index,pager \CN sidebar-next # Ctrl-Shift-N - Next Mailbox bind index,pager \CO sidebar-open # Ctrl-Shift-O - Open Highlighted Mailbox
Press “ Ctrl-Shift-N”(Next mailbox) twice will move the Sidebar highlight to down to the “ Seas”mailbox.
Fruit [1] 3/8| 1 Jan 03 Tia Gibson (362) Caiman Animals [1] 2/6| 2 + Jan 22 Rhys Lee ( 48) Dolphin Cars 4| 3 ! Aug 16 Ewan Brown (333) Hummingbird Seas 1/7| 4 Sep 25 Grace Hall ( 27) Capybara | 5 N + Nov 12 Evelyn Rogers (453) Tapir | 6 N + Nov 16 Callum Harrison (498) Hedgehog | | | |
Functions
<sidebar-next>and
<sidebar-prev>move the Sidebar
highlight
. They
do not
change the open mailbox.
Press
“
Ctrl-Shift-O”(
<sidebar-open>) to open the highlighted mailbox.
Fruit [1] 3/8| 1 ! Mar 07 Finley Jones (139) Molucca Sea Animals [1] 2/6| 2 + Mar 24 Summer Jackson ( 25) Arafura Sea Cars 4| 3 + Feb 28 Imogen Baker (193) Pechora Sea Seas 1/7| 4 N + Feb 23 Isla Hussain (348) Balearic Sea | | | | | |
The Sidebar shows a list of mailboxes in a panel.
Everything about the Sidebar can be configured.
Visibility
Width
Display all
Limit to mailboxes with new mail
Whitelist mailboxes to display always
The order in which mailboxes are displayed
Unsorted (order of mailboxes commands)
Sorted alphabetically
Sorted by number of new mails
Sidebar indicators and divider
Mailboxes depending on their type
Mailboxes depending on their contents
Hide/Unhide the Sidebar
Select previous/next mailbox
Select previous/next mailbox with new mail
Page up/down through a list of mailboxes
Misc
Support for Unicode mailbox names (UTF-8)
Everything about the Sidebar can be configured.
For a quick reference:
The most important variable is
$sidebar_visible. You can set this in your
“
muttrc”, or bind a key to the function
<sidebar-toggle-visible>.
set sidebar_visible # Make the Sidebar visible by default bind index,pager B sidebar-toggle-visible # Use 'B' to switch the Sidebar on and off
Next, decide how wide you want the Sidebar to be. 25 characters might be enough for the mailbox name and some numbers. Remember, you can hide/show the Sidebar at the press of button.
Finally, you might want to change the divider character. By default, Sidebar draws an ASCII line between it and the Index panel If your terminal supports it, you can use a Unicode line-drawing character.
set sidebar_width = 25 # Plenty of space set sidebar_divider_char = '│' # Pretty line-drawing character
$sidebar_formatallows you to customize the Sidebar display. For an introduction, read
format stringsincluding the section about
conditionals.
The default value is
%B%* %n
A more detailed value is
%B%?F? [%F]?%* %?N?%N/?%S
Which breaks down as:
%B- Mailbox name
%?F? [%F]?- If flagged emails
[%F], otherwise nothing
%*- Pad with spaces
%?N?%N/?- If new emails
%N/, otherwise nothing
%S- Total number of emails
Table 2.1. sidebar_format
| Format | Notes | Description |
|---|---|---|
| %B | Name of the mailbox | |
| %S | * † | Size of mailbox (total number of messages) |
| %F | * † | Number of Flagged messages in the mailbox |
| %N | * † | Number of New messages in the mailbox |
| %n | * | If there's new mail, display “ N”, otherwise nothing |
| %! | “ !”: one flagged message; “ !!”: two flagged messages; “ n!”: n flagged messages (for n > 2). Otherwise prints nothing. | |
| %d | * ‡ | Number of deleted messages |
| %L | * ‡ | Number of messages after limiting |
| %t | * ‡ | Number of tagged messages |
| %>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 |
* = Can be optionally printed if nonzero
† = To use this expandos, you must first:
set mail_check_stats
‡ = Only applicable to the current folder
Here are some examples. They show the number of (F)lagged, (N)ew and (S)ize.
Table 2.2. sidebar_format
| Format | Example |
|---|---|
%B%?F? [%F]?%* %?N?%N/?%S
|
mailbox [F] N/S |
%B%* %F:%N:%S
|
mailbox F:N:S |
%B %?N?(%N)?%* %S
|
mailbox (N) S |
%B%* ?F?%F/?%N
|
mailbox F/S |
$sidebar_delim_charstells Sidebar how to split up mailbox paths. For local directories use
“
/”; for IMAP folders use
“
.”
This example works well if your mailboxes have unique names after the last separator.
Add some mailboxes of different depths.
set folder="~/mail" mailboxes =fruit/apple =fruit/banana =fruit/cherry mailboxes =water/sea/sicily =water/sea/archipelago =water/sea/sibuyan mailboxes =water/ocean/atlantic =water/ocean/pacific =water/ocean/arctic
Shorten the names:
set sidebar_short_path # Shorten mailbox names set sidebar_delim_chars="/" # Delete everything up to the last / character
The screenshot below shows what the Sidebar would look like before and after shortening.
|fruit/apple |apple |fruit/banana |banana |fruit/cherry |cherry |water/sea/sicily |sicily |water/sea/archipelago |archipelago |water/sea/sibuyan |sibuyan |water/ocean/atlantic |atlantic |water/ocean/pacific |pacific |water/ocean/arctic |arctic
This example works well if you have lots of mailboxes which are arranged in a tree.
Add some mailboxes of different depths.
set folder="~/mail" mailboxes =fruit mailboxes =fruit/apple =fruit/banana =fruit/cherry mailboxes =water mailboxes =water/sea mailboxes =water/sea/sicily =water/sea/archipelago =water/sea/sibuyan mailboxes =water/ocean mailboxes =water/ocean/atlantic =water/ocean/pacific =water/ocean/arctic
Shorten the names:
set sidebar_short_path # Shorten mailbox names set sidebar_delim_chars="/" # Delete everything up to the last / character set sidebar_folder_indent # Indent folders whose names we've shortened set sidebar_indent_string=" " # Indent with two spaces
The screenshot below shows what the Sidebar would look like before and after shortening.
|fruit |fruit |fruit/apple | apple |fruit/banana | banana |fruit/cherry | cherry |water |water |water/sea | sea |water/sea/sicily | sicily |water/sea/archipelago | archipelago |water/sea/sibuyan | sibuyan |water/ocean | ocean |water/ocean/atlantic | atlantic |water/ocean/pacific | pacific |water/ocean/arctic | arctic
Sometimes, it will be necessary to add mailboxes, that you don't use, to fill in part of the tree. This will trade vertical space for horizontal space (but it looks good).
If you have a lot of mailboxes, sometimes it can be useful to hide the ones you aren't using.
$sidebar_new_mail_onlytells Sidebar to only show mailboxes that contain new, or flagged, email.
If you want some mailboxes to be always visible, then use the
sidebar_whitelistcommand. It takes a list of mailboxes as parameters.
set sidebar_new_mail_only # Only mailboxes with new/flagged email sidebar_whitelist fruit fruit/apple # Always display these two mailboxes
Here is a sample color scheme:
color sidebar_indicator default color17 # Dark blue background color sidebar_highlight white color238 # Grey background color sidebar_spoolfile yellow default # Yellow color sidebar_new green default # Green color sidebar_ordinary default default # Default colors color sidebar_flagged red default # Red color sidebar_divider color8 default # Dark grey
There is a priority order when coloring Sidebar mailboxes. e.g. If a mailbox has new mail it will have the
sidebar_newcolor, even if it also contains flagged mails.
Table 2.3. Sidebar Color Priority
| Priority | Color | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Highest |
sidebar_indicator
|
Mailbox is open |
sidebar_highlight
|
Mailbox is highlighted | |
sidebar_spoolfile
|
Mailbox is the spoolfile (receives incoming mail) | |
sidebar_new
|
Mailbox contains new mail | |
sidebar_flagged
|
Mailbox contains flagged mail | |
| Lowest |
sidebar_ordinary
|
Mailbox does not match above |
If you haven't used Sidebar before, you can ignore this section.
Some of the Sidebar config has been changed to make its meaning clearer. These changes have been made since the previous Sidebar release: 2015-11-11.
Table 2.4. Config Changes
| Old Name | New Name |
|---|---|
$sidebar_delim
|
$sidebar_divider_char
|
$sidebar_folderindent
|
$sidebar_folder_indent
|
$sidebar_indentstr
|
$sidebar_indent_string
|
$sidebar_newmail_only
|
$sidebar_new_mail_only
|
$sidebar_shortpath
|
$sidebar_short_path
|
$sidebar_sort
|
$sidebar_sort_method
|
<sidebar-scroll-down>
|
<sidebar-page-down>
|
<sidebar-scroll-up>
|
<sidebar-page-up>
|
