NAME

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

SYNOPSIS

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. Alternate files can be specified via command line arguments, see aerc(1).

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 =.

This manual page focuses on aerc.conf. binds.conf is detailed in aerc-binds(5) and accounts.conf in aerc-accounts(5).

aerc.conf 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 = <path>

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

pgp-provider = auto|gpg|internal

If set to gpg, aerc will use system gpg binary and keystore for all crypto operations. If set to internal, the internal openpgp keyring will be used. If set to auto, the system gpg will be preferred unless the internal keyring already exists, in which case the latter will be used.

Default: auto

use-terminal-pinentry = true|false

For terminal-based pinentry programs (such as pinentry-tty, pinentry-curses or pinentry-vaxis) to work properly with aerc(1), set this to true.

In some setups aerc(1) will not be able to determine the correct tty. In those cases, you have to manually set GPG_TTY to the output of tty(1) before running aerc(1) as recommended by GnuPG for invoking a GPG-agent. Add the following to your shell initialization scripts:

GPG_TTY=$(tty)
export GPG_TTY

Default: false

unsafe-accounts-conf = true|false

By default, the file permissions of accounts.conf must be restrictive and only allow reading by the file owner (0600). Set this option to true to ignore this permission check. Use this with care as it may expose your credentials.

Default: false

log-file = <path>

Output log messages to specified file. A path starting with ~/ is expanded to the user home dir. When redirecting aerc's output to a file using > shell redirection, this setting is ignored and log messages are printed to stdout.

log-level = trace|debug|info|warn|error

Only log messages above the specified level to log-file. Supported levels are: trace, debug, info, warn and error. When redirecting aerc's output to a file using > shell redirection, this setting is ignored and the log level is forced to trace.

Default: info

disable-ipc = true|false

Disable IPC entirely. Don't run commands (including mailto:... and mbox...) in an existing aerc instance and don't start an IPC server to allow subsequent aerc instances to run commands in the current one.

Default: false

disable-ipc-mailto = true | false

Don't run mailto:... commands over IPC; start a new aerc instance with the composer instead.

Default: false

disable-ipc-mbox = true | false

Don't run mbox:... commands over IPC; start a new aerc instance with the mbox file instead.

Default: false

term = <TERM>

Set the $TERM environment variable used for the embedded terminal.

Default: xterm-256color

enable-osc8 = true|false

Enable the embedded terminal to output OSC 8 (hyperlinks) escape sequences. Not all terminal emulators handle OSC 8 sequences properly and can produce confusing results, disable this setting if that occurs.

Default: false

enable-quake-mode = true|false

Enable Quake mode which consists of a persistent drop-down terminal session that appears at the top of aerc and can be toggled on or off.

Toggling is done with the F1 key. Do not use this key in your key bindings in Quake mode.

Default: false

default-menu-cmd = <cmd>

Default shell command to use for :menu. This will be executed with sh -c and will run in an popover dialog.

Any occurrence of %f will be replaced by a temporary file path where the command is expected to write output lines to be consumed by :menu. Otherwise, the lines will be read from the command's standard output.

Example:

default-menu-cmd = fzf

UI OPTIONS

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

index-columns = <column1,column2,column3...>

Describes the format for each row in a mailbox view. This is a comma separated list of column names with an optional align and width suffix. After the column name, one of the < (left), : (center) or > (right) alignment characters can be added (by default, left) followed by an optional width specifier. The width is either an integer representing a fixed number of characters, or a percentage between 1% and 99% representing a fraction of the terminal width. It can also be one of the * (auto) or = (fit) special width specifiers. Auto width columns will be equally attributed the remaining terminal width. Fit width columns take the width of their contents. If no width specifier is set, * is used by default.

Default: flags:4,name<20%,subject,date>=

column-separator = "<separator>"

String separator inserted between columns. When a column width specifier is an exact number of characters, the separator is added to it (i.e. the exact width will be fully available for that column contents).

Default: " "

column-<name> = <go template>

Each name in index-columns must have a corresponding column-<name> setting. All column-<name> settings accept golang text/template syntax.

By default, these columns are defined:

column-flags = {{.Flags | join ""}}
column-name = {{index (.From | names) 0}}
column-subject = {{.ThreadPrefix}}{{.Subject}}
column-date = {{.DateAutoFormat .Date.Local}}

See aerc-templates(7) for all available symbols and functions.

timestamp-format = <timeformat>

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

Default: 2006 Jan 02

this-day-time-format = <timeformat>

Index-only time format for messages that were received/sent today. If this is empty, timestamp-format is used instead.

Default: 15:04

this-week-time-format = <timeformat>

Index-only time format for messages that were received/sent within the last 7 days. If this is empty, timestamp-format is used instead.

Default: Jan 02

this-year-time-format = <timeformat>

Index-only time format for messages that were received/sent this year. If this is empty, timestamp-format is used instead.

Default: Jan 02

message-view-timestamp-format = <timeformat>

If set, overrides timestamp-format for the message view.

Default: 2006 Jan 02, 15:04 GMT-0700

message-view-this-day-time-format = <timeformat>

If set, overrides timestamp-format in the message view for messages that were received/sent today.

message-view-this-week-time-format = <timeformat>

If set, overrides timestamp-format in the message view for messages that were received/sent within the last 7 days.

message-view-this-year-time-format = <timeformat>

If set, overrides timestamp-format in the message view for messages that were received/sent this year.

sidebar-width = <int>

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

Default: 22

message-list-split = [<direction>] <size>

The default split layout for message list tabs.

<direction> is optional and defaults to horizontal. It can take one of the following values: h, horiz, horizontal, v, vert, vertical.

<size> is a positive integer representing the size (in terminal cells) of the message list window.

See :split in aerc(1) for more details.

empty-message = <string>

Message to display when viewing an empty folder.

Default: (no messages)

empty-dirlist = <string>

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

Default: (no folders)

empty-subject = <string>

Text to display in message list, when the subject is empty.

Default: (no subject)

mouse-enabled = true|false

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

Default: false

new-message-bell = true|false

Ring the bell when a new message is received.

Default: true

tab-title-account = <go_template>

The template to use for account tab titles. See aerc-templates(7) for available field names. To conditionally show the unread count next to the account name, set to:

tab-title-account = {{.Account}} {{if .Unread}}({{.Unread}}){{end}}

Default: {{.Account}}

tab-title-composer = <go_template>

The template to use for composer tab titles. See aerc-templates(7) for available field names.

Default: {{if .To}}to:{{index (.To | shortmboxes) 0}} {{end}}{{.SubjectBase}}

tab-title-viewer = <go_template>

The template to use for viewer tab titles. See aerc-templates(7) for available field names.

Default: {{.Subject}}

pinned-tab-marker = "<string>"

Marker to show before a pinned tab's name.

Default: `

spinner = "<string>"

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

Examples:

spinner = "-_-,_-_"
spinner = '. , .'
spinner = ",|,/,-"

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

spinner-delimiter = <string>

Spinner delimiter to split string into an animation

Default: ,

spinner-interval = <duration>

The delay between each spinner frame

Default: 200ms

sort = <criteria>

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:

sort = from -r date

dirlist-left = <go template>

Template for the left side of the directory list. See aerc-templates(7) for all available fields and functions.

Default: {{.Folder}}

dirlist-right = <go template>

Template for the right side of the directory list. See aerc-templates(7) for all available fields and functions.

Default: {{if .Unread}}{{humanReadable .Unread}}{{end}}

dirlist-delay = <duration>

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

dirlist-tree = true|false

Display the directory list as a foldable tree.

Default: false

dirlist-collapse = <int>

If dirlist-tree is enabled, set level at which folders are collapsed by default. Set to 0 to disable.

Default: 0

next-message-on-delete = true|false

Moves to next message when the current message is deleted, archived, or moved.

Default: true

auto-mark-read = true|false

Set the seen flag when a message is opened in the message viewer.

Default: true

completion-popovers = true|false

Shows potential auto-completions for text inputs in popovers.

Default: true

completion-delay = <duration>

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

Default: 250ms

completion-min-chars = <int>

The minimum required characters to allow auto-completion to be triggered after completion-delay.

Setting this to manual disables automatic completion, leaving only the manually triggered completion with the $complete key (see aerc-binds(5) for more details).

Default: 1

border-char-vertical = "<char>"
border-char-horizontal = "<char>"

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

Default: " "

stylesets-dirs = <path1:path2:path3...>

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:

${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-~/.config}/aerc/stylesets
${XDG_DATA_HOME:-~/.local/share}/aerc/stylesets
/usr/local/share/aerc/stylesets
/usr/share/aerc/stylesets

styleset-name = <string>

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.

icon-unencrypted = <string>

The icon to display for unencrypted mails. The status indicator is only displayed if an icon is set.

icon-encrypted = <string>

The icon to display for encrypted mails.

Default: [e]

icon-signed = <string>

The icon to display for signed mails where the signature was successfully validated.

Default: [s]

icon-signed-encrypted = <string>

The icon to display for signed and encrypted mails where the signature was successfully verified. The combined icon is only used if set, otherwise the signed and encrypted icons are displayed separately.

icon-unknown = <string>

The icon to display for signed mails which could not be verified due to the key being unknown.

Default: [s?]

icon-invalid = <string>

The icon to display for signed mails where verification failed.

Default: [s!]

icon-attachment = <string>

The icon to display in column-flags when the message has an attachment.

Default: a

icon-new = <string>

The icon to display in column-flags when the message is unread and new.

Default: N

icon-old = <string>

The icon to display in column-flags when the message is unread and old.

Default: O

icon-replied = <string>

The icon to display in column-flags when the message has been replied to.

Default: r

icon-forwarded = <string>

The icon to display in column-flags when the message has been forwarded.

Default: f

icon-flagged = <string>

The icon to display in column-flags when the message is flagged.

Default: !

icon-marked = <string>

The icon to display in column-flags when the message is marked.

Default: *

icon-draft = <string>

The icon to display in column-flags when the message is a draft.

Default: d

icon-deleted = <string>

The icon to display in column-flags when the message has been deleted.

Default: X

fuzzy-complete = true|false

When typing a command or option, the popover will now show not only the items /starting/ with the string input by the user, but it will also show instances of items /containing/ the string, starting at any position and need not be consecutive characters in the command or option.

reverse-msglist-order = true|false

Reverses the order of the message list. By default, the message list is ordered with the newest (highest UID) message on top. Reversing the order will put the oldest (lowest UID) message on top. This can be useful in cases where the backend does not support sorting.

Default: false

reverse-thread-order = true|false

Reverse display of the message threads. By default, the thread root is displayed at the top of the tree with all replies below. The reverse option will put the thread root at the bottom with replies on top.

Default: false

select-last-message = true|false

Positions the cursor on the last message in the message list (at the bottom of the view) when opening a new folder.

Default: false

sort-thread-siblings = true|false

Sort the thread siblings according to the sort criteria for the messages. If sort-thread-siblings is false, the thread siblings will be sorted based on the message UID. This option is only applicable for client-side threading with a backend that enables sorting.

Default: false

threading-enabled = true|false

Enable a threaded view of messages. If this is not supported by the backend (IMAP server or notmuch), threads will be built by the client.

Default: false

force-client-threads = true|false

Force threads to be built client-side. Backends that don't support threading will always build threads client side.

Default: false

threading-by-subject = true|false

If no References nor In-Reply-To headers can be matched to build client side threads, fallback to similar subjects.

Default: false

client-threads-delay = <duration>

Delay of inactivity after which the client threads are rebuilt. Setting this to 0s may introduce a noticeable lag when scrolling through the message list.

Default: 50ms

show-thread-context = true|false

Enable showing of thread context. Note: this is not supported by all backends.

Default: false

msglist-scroll-offset = <int>

Set the scroll offset in number of lines from the top and bottom of the message list.

Default: 0

dialog-position = top|center|bottom

Set the position of popover dialogs such as the one from :menu, :envelope or :attach -m.

Default: center

dialog-width = <width>

Set the width of popover dialogs as a percentage of the total width of the window. The specified value should be between 10% and 100%.

Default: 50

dialog-height = <height>

Set the height of popover dialogs as a percentage of the total height of the window. The specified value should be between 10% and 100%.

Default: 50

quake-terminal-height = <int>

Set the height of drop-down terminal as the number of lines from the top.

Default: 20

THREAD PREFIX CUSTOMIZATION

You can fully customize the thread arrows appearance, which is defined by the following configurable prefix parts:

thread-prefix-tip = <string>

Define the arrow head.

Default: ">"

thread-prefix-indent = <string>

Define the arrow indentation.

Default: " "

thread-prefix-stem = <string>

Define the vertical extension of the arrow.

Default: "│"

thread-prefix-limb = <string>

Define the horizontal extension of the arrow.

Default: ""

thread-prefix-folded = <string>

Define the folded thread indicator.

Default: "+"

thread-prefix-unfolded = <string>

Define the unfolded thread indicator.

Default: ""

thread-prefix-first-child = <string>

Define the first child connector.

Default: ""

thread-prefix-has-siblings = <string>

Define the connector used if the message has siblings.

Default: ├─

thread-prefix-lone = <string>

Define the connector used if the message has no parents and no children.

Default: ""

thread-prefix-orphan = <string>

Define the connector used if the message has no parents and has children.

Default: ""

thread-prefix-last-sibling = <string>

Define the connector for the last sibling.

Default: └─

thread-prefix-last-sibling-reverse = <string>

Define the connector for the last sibling in reversed threads.

Default: ┌─

thread-prefix-dummy = <string>

Define the connector for the dummy head.

Default: ┬─

thread-prefix-dummy-reverse = <string>

Define the connector for the dummy head in reversed threads.

Default: ┴─

thread-prefix-first-child-reverse = <string>

Define the arrow appearance by selecting the first child connector in reversed threads.

Default: ""

thread-prefix-orphan-reverse = <string>

Customize the reversed threads arrow appearance by selecting the connector used if the message has no parents and has children.

Default: ""

Default settings (mutt-style):

[PATCH aerc v5] ui: allow thread arrow customisation
├─>[aerc/patches] build success
├─>Re: [PATCH aerc v5] ui: allow thread arrow customisation
├─+
└─>


  ├─>


  │ ├─>


  │ └─>


  │   └─>


  └─>

More compact, rounded threads that are also fold-aware:

┌[PATCH aerc v5] ui: allow thread arrow customisation
├─[aerc/patches] build success
├─Re: [PATCH aerc v5] ui: allow thread arrow customisation
├+
╰┬


 ├┬


 │├─


 │╰┬


 │ ╰─


 ╰─

thread-prefix-tip = ""
thread-prefix-indent = ""
thread-prefix-stem = "│"
thread-prefix-limb = "─"
thread-prefix-folded = "+"
thread-prefix-unfolded = ""
thread-prefix-first-child = "┬"
thread-prefix-has-siblings = "├"
thread-prefix-orphan = "┌"
thread-prefix-dummy = "┬"
thread-prefix-lone = " "
thread-prefix-last-sibling = "╰"

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.

[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.

Example:

[ui:account=Work]
sidebar-width=...
[ui:folder=Sent]
index-format=...
[ui:folder~Archive/d+/.*]
index-format=...

STATUSLINE

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

status-columns = <column1,column2,column3...>

Describes the format for the statusline. This is a comma separated list of column names with an optional align and width suffix. See [ui].index-columns for more details.

To completely mute the statusline (except for push notifications), explicitly set status-columns to an empty string:

status-columns=

Default: left<*,center>=,right>*

column-separator = "<separator>"

String separator inserted between columns. See [ui].column-separator for more details.

Default: " "

column-<name> = <go template>

Each name in status-columns must have a corresponding column-<name> setting. All column-<name> settings accept golang text/template syntax.

By default, these columns are defined:

column-left = [{{.Account}}] {{.StatusInfo}}
column-center = {{.PendingKeys}}
column-right = {{.TrayInfo}} | {{cwd}}

See aerc-templates(7) for all available symbols and functions.

separator = "<string>"

Specifies the separator between grouped statusline elements (e.g. for the {{.ContentInfo}}, {{.TrayInfo}} and {{.StatusInfo}} in column-<name>).

Default: " | "

display-mode = text|icon

Defines the mode for displaying the status elements.

Default: text

VIEWER

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

pager = <command>

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 -Rc

alternatives = <mime,types>

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 = <header|layout,list...>

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.

Notmuch tags can be displayed by adding Labels.

Authentication information from the Authentication-Results header can be displayed by adding DKIM, SPF or DMARC. To show more information than just the authentication result, append a plus sign (+) to the header name (e.g. DKIM+).

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

show-headers = true|false

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

Default: false

always-show-mime = true|false

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

Default: false

max-mime-height = height

Define the maximum height of the mimetype switcher before a scrollbar is used. The height of the mimetype switcher is restricted to half of the display height. If the provided value for the height is zero, the number of parts will be used as the height of the type switcher.

Default: 0

parse-http-links = true|false

Parses and extracts http links when viewing a message. Links can then be accessed with the open-link command.

Default: true

COMPOSE

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

editor = <command>

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.

The following variables are defined in the editor's environment:

AERC_ACCOUNT

the name of the current account

AERC_ADDRESS_BOOK_CMD

the address-book-cmd specified for the current account in accounts.conf

Defaults to $EDITOR, or vi(1).

header-layout = <header|layout,list...>

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

edit-headers = true|false

Edit headers directly into the text editor instead of having separate UI text inputs.

When this is set to true, the :cc, :bcc and :header commands do not work, editing email headers are left to the text editor. address-book-cmd is not supported and address completion is left to the editor itself. header-layout is ignored.

Default: false

focus-body = true|false

Sets focus to the email body when the composer window opens.

Default: false

address-book-cmd = <command>

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.

This parameter can also be set per account in accounts.conf.

Example with carddav-query(1):

address-book-cmd = carddav-query %s

Example with khard(1):

address-book-cmd = khard email --remove-first-line --parsable %s

file-picker-cmd = <command>

Specifies the command to be used to select attachments. Any occurrence of %s in the file-picker-cmd will be replaced with the argument <arg> to :attach -m <arg>. Any occurrence of %f will be replaced by the location of a temporary file, from which aerc will read the selected files.

If %f is not present, the command must output the selected files to standard output, one file per line. If it is present, then aerc does not capture the standard output and instead reads the files from the temporary file which should have the same format.

Examples:

file-picker-cmd = fzf --multi --query=%s file-picker-cmd = ranger --choose-files=%f

reply-to-self = true|false

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

empty-subject-warning = true|false

Warn before sending an email with an empty subject.

Default: false

no-attachment-warning = <regexp>

Specifies a regular expression against which an email's body should be tested before sending an email with no attachment. If the regexp matches, aerc will warn you before sending the message. Leave empty to disable this feature.

Uses Go's regexp syntax, documented at https://golang.org/s/re2syntax. The (?im) flags are set by default (case-insensitive and multi-line).

Example:

no-attachment-warning = ^[^>]*attach(ed|ment)

format-flowed = true|false

When set, aerc will generate Format=Flowed bodies with a content type of "text/plain; Format=Flowed" as described in RFC3676. This format is easier to handle for some mailing software, and generally just looks like ordinary text. To actually make use of this format's features, you'll need support in your editor.

Default: false

lf-editor = true|false

By default, aerc will use RFC2822 standard \r\n (CRLF) line breaks when composing messages. Use this option for text editors that only support non-standard \n (LF) line breaks.

Default: false

MULTIPART CONVERTERS

Converters allow generating multipart/alternative messages by converting the main text/plain body into any other text MIME type with the :multipart command. Only exact MIME types are accepted. The commands are invoked with sh -c and are expected to output valid UTF-8 text.

Only text/<subtype> MIME parts can be generated. The text/plain MIME type is reserved and cannot be generated. You still need to write your emails by hand in your favorite text editor.

Converters are configured in the [multipart-converters] section of aerc.conf.

Example:

[multipart-converters]
text/html=pandoc -f markdown -t html --standalone

Obviously, this requires that you write your main text/plain body using the markdown syntax. Also, mind that some mailing lists reject emails that contain text/html alternative parts. Use this feature carefully and when possible, avoid using it at all.

FILTERS

Filters are a flexible and powerful way of handling viewing parts of an opened message. When viewing messages aerc will show the list of available message parts and their MIME type at the bottom, but unless a filter is defined for a specific MIME type, it will only show a menu with a few options (allowing you to open the part in an external program, save it to disk or pipe it to a shell command). Configuring a filter will allow viewing the output of the filter in the configured pager in aerc's built-in terminal.

Filters are configured in the [filters] section of aerc.conf. The first filter which matches the part's MIME type will be used, so order them from most to least specific. You can also match on non-MIME types, 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. Using .filename instead of a header will match against the filename of an attachment.

Note that aerc will pipe the content into the configured filter program, so filters need to be able to read from standard input. Many programs support reading from stdin by putting - instead of a path to a file. You can also chain together multiple filters by piping with |.

Some filter commands may require interactive user input. If a filter command starts with an exclamation mark !, the configured pager will not be used. Instead, the filter command will be executed as the main process in the embedded terminal of the part viewer. The filter command standard input, output and error will be set to the terminal TTY. The filter is expected to implement its own paging.

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

The filter commands are invoked with sh -c command. The following folders are prepended to the system $PATH to allow referencing filters from their name only.

${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-~/.config}/aerc/filters
~/.local/libexec/aerc/filters
${XDG_DATA_HOME:-~/.local/share}/aerc/filters
$PREFIX/libexec/aerc/filters
$PREFIX/share/aerc/filters
/usr/libexec/aerc/filters
/usr/share/aerc/filters

If you want to run a program in your default $PATH which has the same name as a builtin filter (e.g. /usr/bin/colorize), use its absolute path.

The following variables are defined in the filter command environment:

AERC_MIME_TYPE

the part MIME type/subtype

AERC_FORMAT

the part content type format= parameter (e.g. format=flowed)

AERC_FILENAME

the attachment filename (if any)

AERC_SUBJECT

the message Subject header value

AERC_FROM

the message From header value

Note that said email body is converted into UTF-8 before being passed to filters.

If show-headers is enabled, only the currently viewed part body is piped into the filter command. A special .headers filter command can be defined to post process the full headers.

EXAMPLES

text/plain

Color some things, e.g. quotes, git diffs, links, etc.:

text/plain=colorize

The built-in colorize filter can be configured in the [viewer] section of styleset files. See aerc-stylesets(7).

Wrap long lines at 100 characters, while not messing up nested quotes. Handles format=flowed emails properly:

text/plain=wrap -w 100 | colorize

from,<sender>

Another example of hard wrapping lines of emails sent by a specific person. Explicitly reflow all paragraphs instead of only wrapping long lines. This may break manual formatting in some messages:

from,thatguywhoneverhardwrapshismessages=wrap -r -w 72 | colorize

subject,~<regexp>

Use rainbow coloring with lolcat(1) for emails sent by software forges:

subject,~Git(hub|lab)=lolcat -f

text/html

Render html to a more human readable version and colorize:

text/html=html | colorize

Use pandoc to output plain text:

text/html=pandoc -f html -t plain

Use w3m internal pager to interactively view an HTML part with coloring:

text/html=! w3m -I UTF-8 -T text/html

If img2sixel(1) is installed and your terminal emulator supports displaying images using the sixel protocol, use the builtin html-unsafe filter (to allow external URLs to be loaded) in interactive mode with explicit sixel inline images enabled.

text/html=! html-unsafe -sixel

text/calendar

Parse calendar invites:

text/calendar=calendar

text/*

Catch any other type of text that did not have a specific filter and use bat(1) to color these:

text/*=bat -fP --file-name="$AERC_FILENAME" --style=plain

.headers

Colorize email headers when show-headers is true.

.headers=colorize

message/delivery-status

When not being able to deliver the provider might send such emails:

message/delivery-status=colorize

message/rfc822

When getting emails as attachments, e.g. on some mailing lists digest format is sending an email with all the digest emails as attachments. Requires caeml(1) to be on PATH:

message/rfc822=caeml | colorize

https://github.com/ferdinandyb/caeml

application/mbox

Emails as attachments in the mbox format. For example aerc can also create an mbox from messages with the :pipe command. Requires catbox(1) and caeml(1) to be on PATH:

application/mbox=catbox -c caeml | colorize

https://github.com/konimarti/catbox

application/pdf

Render pdf to text and rewrap at 100 character width. Requires pdftotext(1) to be on PATH:

application/pdf=pdftotext - -l 10 -nopgbrk -q  - | fmt -w 100

https://www.xpdfreader.com/pdftotext-man.html

image/*

This is a tricky topic. It's possible to display images in a terminal, but for high resolution images the terminal you are using either needs to support sixels or the kitty terminal graphics protocol. The built-in terminal emulator of aerc (via the TUI library Vaxis) supports both. Furthermore if you don't set any filter for images, Vaxis will figure out what your terminal emulator supports and either use sixels, kitty graphics, or fall back to a pixelated half-block. You can turn this feature off, by setting a filter that is essentially no-op.

You can still set a specific filter, e.g catimg(1):

image/*=catimg -w$(tput cols) -

.filename,~<regexp>

Match <regexp> against the filename of an attachment, e.g. to split csv-s into columns:

.filename,~.*.csv=column -t --separator=","

See the wiki at https://man.sr.ht/~rjarry/aerc/ for more examples and possible customizations of the built-in filters.

OPENERS

Openers allow you to specify the command to use for the :open and :open-link actions on a per-MIME-type basis. The :open-link URL scheme is used to determine the MIME type as follows: x-scheme-handler/<scheme>. They are configured in the [openers] section of aerc.conf.

{} is expanded as the temporary filename or URL to be opened with proper shell quoting. If it is not encountered in the command, the filename/URL will be appended to the end of the command. The command will then be executed with sh -c.

Like [filters], openers support basic shell globbing. The first opener which matches the part's MIME type (or URL scheme handler MIME type) will be used, so order them from most to least specific.

Example:

[openers]
x-scheme-handler/irc=hexchat
x-scheme-handler/http*=printf '%s' {} | wl-copy
text/html=surf -dfgms
text/plain=gvim {} +125
message/rfc822=thunderbird

HOOKS

Hooks are triggered whenever the associated event occurs. The commands are run in a shell environment with information added to environment variables.

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

aerc-startup = <command>

Executed when aerc is started. The hook is executed as soon as the UI is initialized and does not wait for all accounts to be fully loaded.

Variables:

AERC_VERSION
AERC_BINARY

Example:

aerc-startup = aerc :terminal calcurse && aerc :next-tab

mail-received = <command>

Executed when new mail is received in the selected folder. This will only work reliably with maildir and some imap servers.

Variables:

AERC_ACCOUNT
AERC_ACCOUNT_BACKEND
AERC_FOLDER
AERC_FOLDER_ROLE
AERC_FROM_NAME
AERC_FROM_ADDRESS
AERC_SUBJECT
AERC_MESSAGE_ID

Example:

mail-received = notify-send "[$AERC_ACCOUNT/$AERC_FOLDER] New mail from $AERC_FROM_NAME" "$AERC_SUBJECT"

mail-deleted = <command>

Executed when a message is deleted from a folder. Note that this hook is triggered when moving a message from one folder to another.

Variables:

AERC_ACCOUNT
AERC_ACCOUNT_BACKEND
AERC_FOLDER
AERC_FOLDER_ROLE

Example:

mail-deleted = mbsync "$AERC_ACCOUNT:$AERC_FOLDER"

mail-added = <command>

Executed when a message is added to a folder. Note that this hook is not triggered when a new message is received (use mail-received for that) but rather is only triggered when aerc itself adds a message to a folder, e.g. when moving or copying a message.

Variables:

AERC_ACCOUNT
AERC_ACCOUNT_BACKEND
AERC_FOLDER
AERC_FOLDER_ROLE

Example:

mail-added = mbsync "$AERC_ACCOUNT:$AERC_FOLDER"

mail-sent = <command>

Executed when a message is sent. This does not necessarily signify successful posting, if a queueing system like msmtpq is used.

Variables:

AERC_ACCOUNT
AERC_ACCOUNT_BACKEND
AERC_FROM_NAME
AERC_FROM_ADDRESS
AERC_SUBJECT
AERC_TO
AERC_CC

Example:

mail-sent = if [ "$AERC_ACCOUNT" = "gmail" ]; then mbsync gmail; fi

aerc-shutdown = <command>

Executed when aerc shuts down. Aerc will wait for the command to finish before exiting.

Variables:

•: AERC_LIFETIME

tag-modified = <command>

Executed when notmuch tags are modified in a notmuch account. The list of added and removed tags are passed as variables.

Variables:

AERC_ACCOUNT
AERC_ACCOUNT_BACKEND
AERC_TAG_ADDED
AERC_TAG_REMOVED

flag-changed = <command>

Executed when flags are changed on a message.

Variables:

AERC_ACCOUNT
AERC_ACCOUNT_BACKEND
AERC_FOLDER
AERC_FOLDER_ROLE
AERC_FLAG

Example:

flag-changed = mbsync "$AERC_ACCOUNT:$AERC_FOLDER"

TEMPLATES

Template files 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. The available symbols and functions are described in aerc-templates(7).

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 = <path1:path2:path3...>

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:

${XDG_CONFIG_HOME:-~/.config}/aerc/templates
${XDG_DATA_HOME:-~/.local/share}/aerc/templates
/usr/local/share/aerc/templates
/usr/share/aerc/templates

new-message = <template_name>

The default template to be used for new messages.

Default: new_message

quoted-reply = <template_name>

The default template to be used for quoted replies.

Default: quoted_reply

forwards = <template_name>

The default template to be used for forward as body.

Default: forward_as_body

AUTHORS

Originally created by Drew DeVault and maintained by Robin Jarry who is assisted by other open source contributors. For more information about aerc development, see https://sr.ht/~rjarry/aerc/.