3. Configuration

While the default configuration (or ``preferences'') make Mutt usable right out of the box, it is often desirable to tailor Mutt to suit your own tastes. When Mutt is first invoked, it will attempt to read the ``system'' configuration file (defaults set by your local system administrator), unless the ``-n'' command line option is specified. This file is typically /usr/local/share/mutt/Muttrc or /etc/Muttrc. Mutt will next look for a file named .muttrc in your home directory. If this file does not exist and your home directory has a subdirectory named .mutt, mutt try to load a file named .mutt/muttrc.

.muttrc is the file where you will usually place your commands to configure Mutt.

In addition, mutt supports version specific configuration files that are parsed instead of the default files as explained above. For instance, if your system has a Muttrc-0.88 file in the system configuration directory, and you are running version 0.88 of mutt, this file will be sourced instead of the Muttrc file. The same is true of the user configuration file, if you have a file .muttrc-0.88.6 in your home directory, when you run mutt version 0.88.6, it will source this file instead of the default .muttrc file. The version number is the same which is visible using the ``-v'' command line switch or using the show-version key (default: V) from the index menu.

3.1. Syntax of Initialization Files

3.2. Defining/Using aliases

3.3. Changing the default key bindings

3.4. Defining aliases for character sets

3.5. Setting variables based upon mailbox

3.6. Keyboard macros

3.7. Using color and mono video attributes

3.8. Ignoring (weeding) unwanted message headers

3.9. Mailing lists

3.10. Using Multiple spool mailboxes

3.11. Defining mailboxes which receive mail

3.12. User defined headers

3.13. Defining the order of headers when viewing messages

3.14. Specify default save filename

3.15. Specify default Fcc: mailbox when composing

3.16. Specify default save filename and default Fcc: mailbox at once

3.17. Change settings based upon message recipients

3.18. Change settings before formatting a message

3.19. Choosing the cryptographic key of the recipient

3.20. Adding key sequences to the keyboard buffer

3.21. Executing functions

3.22. Message Scoring

3.23. Setting variables

3.24. Reading initialization commands from another file

3.25. Removing hooks