Dec 31st, 2025 @ bertyuan's web page
Although GitHub now occupies a large share of the market for code hosting services, many projects still prefer to use mailing list for communication and patch submission.[1] In this post, I will outline my thoughts for using Aerc and NeoMutt configured with Mutt-Wizard.
Please let me ramble on.
Aerc is available on most GNU/Linux distributions and macOS via Homebrew. (Sorry, no Windows here)
Check for official installation instructions of Aerc.
And the same for NeoMutt:
Check for official installation instructions of NeoMutt.
It is recommended to use Mutt-Wizard from Luke Smith to set up NeoMutt, which simplifies the configuration process significantly. But for those who prefer manual configuration, you can either set every component up, or use your own configuration files to override Mutt-Wizard's defaults.
It is widely known that both Aerc and NeoMutt are customizable, especially NeoMutt.
Here I will list some of my configurations for reference.
> tree
.
├── accounts.conf
├── aerc.conf
├── binds.conf
└── stylesets # optional for custom stylesets
└── foo
In accounts.conf, I add this line: copy-to-replied = true, to make threads in the same mailbox.
Or you can set threads by notmuch with its virtual folder feature. Then you do not need this config.
Therefore, I need to set up threads in aerc.conf as well:
threading-enabled=trueAlso, I do not like the default setting of replying to self in Aerc, so I add this:
reply-to-self=false
In binds.conf, I set up some keybindings for convenience:
# make `d` to move to Trash
d = :read<Enter>:move Trash<Enter>
[messages:folder=Trash]
# d = :choose -o y 'Delete Forever' delete-message<Enter>
d = :prompt 'Delete Forever?' delete-message<Enter>
# mutt-like keybindings
l = :view
h = :close
The last one (optional) for Aerc is to set up a custom style in stylesets/foo:
Here's mine:
*.selected.bg = #1793D1 # arch blue
*.selected.fg = 15 # while or change to default
*.selected.bold = true
# Arch Linux blue borders
border.fg = #1793D1And don't forget to source it in aerc.conf:
styleset-name=foo
After setting up NeoMutt with Mutt-Wizard, I would like to make some changes to the default configuration, as the dafault ones are for Luke himself, not for me.
So I changed the colors first in ~/.config/mutt/muttrc:
# Default index colors:
color index white default '.*'
color index_author blue default '.*'
color index_number white default
color index_subject white default '.*'
color status color8 default
color sidebar_highlight blue defaultThen the bindings:
bind index,pager \Cl list-reply
bind index,pager J sidebar-next # ======================================
bind index,pager K sidebar-prev # The same bingding as in Aerc,
bind index,pager L sidebar-open # while keeps the dafault ones from Mutt
Unfortunately, Mutt/NeoMutt does not support patch highlighting like Aerc does.
So I can only use this[2] to mannually highlight patches, though sometimes it would mistakely highlight non-patch emails:
# --------------
# Simple version
# --------------
# A
# color body yellow color234 "^(\>\ )*diff \-.*"
# color body yellow color234 "^(\>\ )*index [a-f0-9].*"
# color body yellow color234 "^\(\>\ )*\-\-\- .*"
# color body yellow color234 "^(\>\ )*[\+]{3} .*"
# color body brightgreen color234 "^(\>\ )*[\+].*"
# color body brightred color234 "^(\>\ )*[\-].*"
# B
# color body cyan color234 "^(\>\ )*@@ .*"
# color body green default "^diff \-.*"
# color body green default "^index [a-f0-9].*"
# color body green default "^\-\-\- .*"
# color body green default "^[\+]{3} .*"
# color body cyan default "^[\+][^\+]+.*"
# color body red default "^\-[^\-]+.*"
# color body brightblue default "^@@ .*"
# -------------------
# Complicated version
# -------------------
# Patch syntax highlighting
#color normal white default
color body brightwhite default ^[[:space:]].*
color body yellow default ^(diff).*
#color body white default ^[\-\-\-].*
#color body white default ^[\+\+\+].*
#color body green default ^[\+].*
#color body red default ^[\-].*
#color body brightblue default [@@].*
color body brightwhite default ^(\s).*
color body cyan default ^(Signed-off-by).*
color body cyan default ^(Docker-DCO-1.1-Signed-off-by).*
color body brightwhite default ^(Cc)
color body yellow default "^diff \-.*"
color body brightwhite default "^index [a-f0-9].*"
color body brightblue default "^---$"
color body white default "^\-\-\- .*"
color body white default "^[\+]{3} .*"
color body green default "^[\+][^\+]+.*"
color body red default "^\-[^\-]+.*"
color body brightblue default "^@@ .*"
color body green default "LGTM"
color body brightmagenta default "-- Commit Summary --"
color body brightmagenta default "-- File Changes --"
color body brightmagenta default "-- Patch Links --"
color body green default "^Merged #.*"
color body red default "^Closed #.*"
color body brightblue default "^Reply to this email.*"
# Default index colors:
color index white default '.*'
color index_author blue default '.*'
color index_number white default
color index_subject white default '.*'
color status color8 default
color sidebar_highlight blue default
# remove the ~T rule from mutt-wizard
uncolor index "~T"
uncolor index_author "~T"
uncolor index_subject "~T"
uncolor index_number "~T"
# replace the ~T rule with black text on white background
color index none black white "~T"
color index_author none black white "~T"
color index_subject none black white "~T"
color index_number none black white "~T"
###############################################################################
# Take over ALL index colors (override mutt-wizard defaults)
###############################################################################
# 1) wipe mw's index-color rules
uncolor index *
uncolor index_author *
uncolor index_subject *
uncolor index_number *
# 2) base scheme (apply to ALL mail)
color index none white default ".*"
color index_author none blue default ".*"
color index_subject none white default ".*"
color index_number none white default ".*"
# 3) NEW / UNREAD mail
color index none white default "~N"
color index_author none yellow default "~N"
color index_subject none white default "~N"
color index_number none white default "~N"
color index none white default "~U"
color index_author none yellow default "~U"
color index_subject none white default "~U"
color index_number none white default "~U"
# 4) FLAGGED mail
color index none white default "~F"
color index_author none blue default "~F"
color index_subject none white default "~F"
color index_number none white default "~F"
# 5) TAGGED mail ()
# Grey
color index none white color8 "~T"
color index_author none white color8 "~T"
color index_subject none white color8 "~T"
color index_number none white color8 "~T"
# 6) Deleted mail = red text
color index none white red "~D"
color index_author none white red "~D"
color index_subject none white red "~D"
color index_number none white red "~D"
# colors
# source ~/.config/mutt/mutt-colors-solarized-dark-16.muttrc
source ~/.config/mutt/mutt-patch-highlighting.muttrc
# source ~/.config/mutt/mutt-colors-steve-losh.muttrc
# source ~/.config/mutt/mutt-colors-neowolf-256.muttrc As Drew DeVault mentioned in his blog, the design/intention of "Always Online" is less than ideal when it comes to no internet connection scenarios. Frankly speaking, it rarely happens to me here in China. So I prefer using Aerc with its "Always Online" feature enabled. (though waiting for several seconds for connection is annoying compared to NeoMutt's offline mode) On the other hand, NeoMutt with Mutt-Wizard is a solid choice, when the Internet connection is unstable. Also as Drew DeVault said, you can use more than one email clients depending on your actual situation. So this is my strategy for using terminal email clients: use Aerc when the Internet connection is stable, and NeoMutt when it is not.
I was wondering if there's a way that one email system can download emails from IMAP server to the local storage, so that when I open the email client, I can read emails offline without delay. After opening and showing all the local emails, the client would automatically sync with the server in the background, downloading new emails and uploading emails. If we could do this in the terminal email clients, that would be perfect. Or maybe it is already achieved? If you know how to do this, please let me know.