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meli

Manual

MELI (1) General Commands Manual MELI (1)

NAME

meli — terminal e-mail client μέλι is the Greek word for honey

SYNOPSIS

meli [ --help | -h ] [ --version | -v ] [ --config path ]

--help | -h

Show help message and exit.

--version | -v

Show version and exit.

--config path

Start meli with given configuration file.

create-config [ path ]

Create configuration file in path if given, or at $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/meli/config.toml . If path is - the result is printed to the standard output stream.

test-config [ path ]

Test a configuration for syntax issues or missing options. The configuration is read from path if given, or from $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/meli/config.toml . If path is - the configuration is read from the standard input stream.

man [ page ]

Print documentation page and exit (Piping to a pager is recommended).

install-man [ path ]

Install manual pages to the first location provided by MANPATH or manpath (1), unless you specify the directory as an argument.

compiled-with

Print compile time feature flags of this binary.

edit-config

Edit configuration files with EDITOR or VISUAL.

help

Prints help information or the help of the given subcommand(s).

print-app-directories

Print all directories that meli creates and uses.

print-config-path

Print location of configuration file that will be loaded on normal app startup.

print-default-theme

Print default theme keys and values in TOML syntax, to be used as a blueprint.

print-loaded-themes

Print all loaded themes in TOML syntax.

print-log-path

Print log file location.

view

View mail from input file.

DESCRIPTION

meli is a terminal mail client aiming for extensive and user-friendly configurability.

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STARTING WITH meli

When launched for the first time, meli will search for its configuration directory, $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/meli/ . If it doesn’t exist, you will be asked if you want to create one and presented with a sample configuration file ( $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/meli/config.toml ) that includes the basic settings required for setting up accounts allowing you to copy and edit right away. See meli.conf (5) for the available configuration options.

At any time, you may press ⟨ ?⟩ (

shortcuts.general.toggle_help ) for a searchable list of all available actions and shortcuts, along with every possible setting and command that your version supports.

The main visual navigation tool, the left-side sidebar may be toggled with ⟨ `⟩ (

shortcuts.listing.toggle_menu_visibility ).

Each mailbox may be viewed in 4 modes:

Plain views each mail individually,

Threaded shows their thread relationship visually,

Conversations collapses each thread of e-mails into a single entry,

Compact shows one row per thread.

If you’re using a light color palette in your terminal, you should set theme = light in the terminal section of your configuration. See meli-themes (5) for complete documentation on user themes.

See meli (7) for a more detailed tutorial on using meli .

SHORTCUTS

See meli.conf (5) SHORTCUTS for shortcuts and their default values.

VIEWING MAIL

Open attachments by typing their index in the attachments list and then ⟨ a⟩ (

shortcuts.envelope_view.open_attachment ). meli will attempt to open text inside its pager, and other content via xdg-open . Press ⟨ m⟩ (
shortcuts.envelope_view.open_mailcap ) instead to use the mailcap entry for the MIME type of the attachment, if any. See “FILES” for the location of the mailcap files and mailcap (5) for their syntax. You can save individual attachments with the following command:

save-attachment INDEX path-to-file

INDEX is the attachment’s index in the listing.

If the path provided is a directory, the attachment is saved with its filename set to the filename in the attachment, if any.
If the 0th index is provided, the entire message is saved.
If the path provided is a directory, the message is saved as an eml file with its filename set to the messages message-id.

You can pipe individual attachments to binaries with the following command:

pipe-attachment INDEX binary ARGS

Example usage with the less (1) pager:

pipe-attachment 0 less

If the binary does not wait for your input before exiting, you will probably not see its output since you will return back to the user interface immediately. You can write a wrapper script that pipes your binary’s output to

less

less -r

if you want to preserve the ANSI escape codes in the pager’s output.

SEARCH

Each e-mail storage backend has a default search method assigned. IMAP uses the SEARCH command, notmuch uses libnotmuch and Maildir/mbox performs a slow linear search. It is advised to use a search backend on Maildir/mbox accounts. meli , if built with sqlite3, includes the ability to perform full text search on the following fields: From , To , Cc , Bcc , In-Reply-To , References , Subject and Date . The message body (in plain text human readable form) and the flags can also be queried. To enable sqlite3 indexing for an account set search_backend to sqlite3 in the configuration file and to create the sqlite3 index issue command:

reindex ACCOUNT_NAME

To search in the message body type your keywords without any special formatting. To search in specific fields, prepend your search keyword with "field:" like so:

subject:helloooo or subject:"call for help" or "You remind me today of a small, Mexican chihuahua."

not ((from:unrealistic and (to:complex or not query )) or flags:seen,draft)

alladdresses:mailing@example.com and cc:me@example.com

Boolean operators are or , and and not (

alias: ! ) String keywords with spaces must be quoted. Quotes should always be escaped.

Important Notice about IMAP/JMAP

To prevent downloading all your messages from your IMAP/JMAP server, don’t set search_backend to sqlite3 . meli will relay your queries to the IMAP server. Expect a delay between query and response. Sqlite3 on the contrary at reasonable mailbox sizes should have a non noticeable delay.

QUERY ABNF SYNTAX

not = "not" | "!"

has_attachment = "has:attachment" | "has:attachments"

quoted = ALPHA / SP *(ALPHA / DIGIT / SP)

term = ALPHA *(ALPHA / DIGIT) | DQUOTE quoted DQUOTE

tagname = term

flagterm = flagval | flagval "," flagterm

flags = "flag:" flag | "flags:" flag | "tag:" flag | "tags:" flag | "is:" flag

from = "from:" term

to = "to:" term

cc = "cc:" term

bcc = "bcc:" term

message_id = "message-id:" term | "msg-id:" term

in_reply_to = "in-reply-to:" term

references = "references:" term

header = "header:" field_name "," field_value

field_name = term

field_value = term

all_addresses = "all-addresses:" term

subject = "subject:" term

FLAGS

meli supports the basic maildir flags: passed, replied, seen, trashed, draft and flagged. Flags can be searched with the ‘flags:’ prefix in a search query, and can be modified by

flag set FLAG

and

flag unset FLAG

TAGS

meli supports tagging in notmuch and IMAP/JMAP backends. Tags can be searched with the ‘tags:’ or ‘flags:’ prefix in a search query, and can be modified by

tag add TAG

and

tag remove TAG

(see meli.conf (5) TAGS, settings colors and ignore_tags for how to set tag colors and tag visibility)

COMPOSING

Opening the message Composer tab

To create a new mail message, press ⟨ m⟩ (

shortcuts.listing.new_mail ) while viewing a mailbox. To reply to a mail, press ⟨ R⟩ (
shortcuts.envelope_view.reply ). Both these actions open the mail composer view in a new tab.

Editing text

Edit the header fields by selecting with the arrow keys and pressing ⟨ Enter⟩ (

shortcuts.general.focus_in_text_field ) to enter INSERT mode and Esc key to exit.
-

At any time you may press ⟨ e⟩ (

shortcuts.composing.edit ) to launch your editor (see meli.conf (5) COMPOSING, setting editor_command for how to select which editor to launch).
-

Your editor can be used in meli ’s embed terminal emulator by setting embed to true in your composing settings (

You can return to meli at any time by pressing ⟨ Ctrl-Z⟩ )
-

When launched, your editor captures all input until it exits or stops.

To stop your editor and return to meli press ⟨ Ctrl-z⟩ and to resume editing press the edit command again.

Attachments

Attachments may be handled with the add-attachment , remove-attachment commands (see below).

Sending

Finally, pressing ⟨ s⟩ (

shortcuts.composing.send_mail ) will send your message according to your settings (
see meli.conf (5) COMPOSING, setting name send_mail ). With no Draft or Sent mailbox, meli tries first saving mail in your INBOX and then at any other mailbox. On complete failure to save your draft or sent message it will be saved in your tmp directory instead and you will be notified of its location.

Drafts

To save your draft without sending it, issue COMMAND close and select ’save as draft’.

To open a draft for further editing, select your draft in the mail listing and press edit .

CONTACTS

meli supports three kinds of contact backends:

an internal format that gets saved under $XDG_DATA_HOME/meli/account_name/contacts .

vCard files (v3, v4) through the vcard_folder option in the account section. The path defined as vcard_folder can hold multiple vCards per file. They are loaded read only.

a mutt (1) compatible alias file in the option mutt_alias_file

See meli.conf (5) ACCOUNTS for the complete account contact configuration values.

MODES
NORMAL

is the default mode

COMMAND

commands are issued in COMMAND mode, by default started with ⟨ :⟩ (

shortcuts.general.enter_command_mode ) and exited with ⟨ Esc⟩ key.
EMBED

is the mode of the embed terminal emulator

INSERT

captures all input as text input, and is exited with Esc key.

COMMAND

Mail listing commands

set plain | threaded | compact | conversations

set the way mailboxes are displayed

Image grohtml-901021-1.png

sort [
subject | date ] asc | desc

sort mail listing

subsort [
subject | date ] asc | desc

sorts only the first level of replies.

go n

where n is a mailbox prefixed with the n number in the side menu for the current account

toggle thread_snooze

don’t issue notifications for thread under cursor in thread listing

search STRING

search mailbox with STRING query. Escape exits search results.

select STRING

select threads matching STRING query.

clear-selection

Clear current selection.

set seen | unseen

Set seen status of message.

import FILEPATH MAILBOX_PATH

Import mail from file into given mailbox.

copyto, moveto MAILBOX_PATH

Copy or move to other mailbox.

copyto, moveto ACCOUNT MAILBOX_PATH

Copy or move to another account’s mailbox.

delete

Delete selected entries.

export-mbox FILEPATH

Export selected threads to mboxcl2 file.

create-mailbox ACCOUNT MAILBOX_PATH

create mailbox with given path. Be careful with backends and separator sensitivity (eg IMAP)

subscribe-mailbox ACCOUNT MAILBOX_PATH

subscribe to mailbox with given path

unsubscribe-mailbox ACCOUNT MAILBOX_PATH

unsubscribe to mailbox with given path

rename-mailbox ACCOUNT MAILBOX_PATH_SRC MAILBOX_PATH_DEST

rename mailbox

delete-mailbox ACCOUNT MAILBOX_PATH

deletes mailbox in the mail backend. This action is irreversible.

Mail view commands

pipe EXECUTABLE [
ARGS ]

pipe pager contents to binary

filter EXECUTABLE [
ARGS ]

filter and display pager contents through command

filter

select a filter from pager.named_filters configuration value (

See meli.conf (5) PAGER for its syntax )

list-post

post in list of viewed envelope

list-unsubscribe

unsubscribe automatically from list of viewed envelope

list-archive

open list archive with xdg-open

Composing mail commands

mailto MAILTO_ADDRESS

Opens a composer tab with initial values parsed from the mailto : address.

add-attachment PATH

in composer, add PATH as an attachment

add-attachment < CMD ARGS

in composer, pipe CMD ARGS output into an attachment

add-attachment-file-picker

Launch command defined in the configuration value file_picker_command in meli.conf (5) TERMINAL

add-attachment-file-picker < CMD ARGS

Launch command CMD ARGS . The command should print file paths in stdout, separated by NUL bytes. Example usage with fzf (1):

add-attachment-file-picker < fzf --print0

remove-attachment INDEX

remove attachment with given index

toggle sign

toggle between signing and not signing this message. If the gpg invocation fails then the mail won’t be sent. See meli.conf (5) PGP for PGP configuration.

save-draft

saves a copy of the draft in the Draft folder

Generic commands

open-in-tab

opens envelope view in new tab

close

closes closeable tabs

setenv KEY=VALUE

set environment variable KEY to VALUE

printenv KEY

print environment variable KEY

quit

Quits meli .

reload-config

Reloads configuration but only if account configuration is unchanged. Useful if you want to reload some settings without restarting meli .

manage-jobs

Inspect background jobs.

manage-mailboxes

Inspect all mailboxes of an account, subscribed or not. Pressing the ⟨ Enter⟩ (

shortcuts.general.open_entry ) shortcut allows you to rename, move, toggle subscription and delete the mailbox under the cursor.

EXIT STATUS

meli exits with 0 on a successful run. Other exit statuses are:

catchall for general errors

101

process panic

ENVIRONMENT
EDITOR

Specifies the editor to use

MELI_CONFIG

Override the configuration file

NO_COLOR

When defined (regardless of its value), prevents the addition of ANSI color. The configuration value use_color overrides this.

FILES

meli uses the following parts of the XDG standard:

XDG_CONFIG_HOME

defaults to ˜/.config/

XDG_CACHE_HOME

defaults to ˜/.cache/

and appropriates the following locations:

$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/meli/

User configuration directory

$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/meli/config.toml

User configuration file, see meli.conf (5) for its syntax and values.

$XDG_CACHE_HOME/meli/*

Internal cached data used by meli.

$XDG_DATA_HOME/meli/*

Internal data used by meli.

$XDG_DATA_HOME/meli/meli.log

Operation log.

/tmp/meli/*

Temporary files generated by meli .

Mailcap entries are searched for in the following files, in this order:

$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/meli/mailcap

$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/.mailcap

$HOME/.mailcap

/etc/mailcap

/usr/etc/mailcap

/usr/local/etc/mailcap

STANDARDS
-
Waldo Bastian

Allison Karlitskaya ,
Lennart Poettering , and
Johannes Löthberg ,
XDG Base Directory Specification ,
https://specifications.freedesktop.org/basedir-spec/basedir-spec-latest.html ,
May 08, 2021 ,
Version 0.8 .
-
Daniel J. Bernstein

maildir ,
https://cr.yp.to/proto/maildir.html ,
1995 .
-
Dr. Nathaniel S. Borenstein

RFC1524 A User Agent Configuration Mechanism For Multimedia Mail Format Information ,
Legacy ,
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc1524/ ,
September 01, 1993 ,
mailcap file .
-
Keith Moore

RFC2047 MIME (Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions) Part Three: Message Header Extensions for Non-ASCII Text ,
IETF ,
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc2047/ ,
November 01, 1996 .
-
Rens Troost

Steve Dorner , and
Keith Moore ,
RFC2183 Communicating Presentation Information in Internet Messages: The Content-Disposition Header Field ,
Legacy ,
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc2183/ ,
August 01, 1997 .
-
Joshua D. Baer

and

Grant Neufeld ,
RFC2369 The Use of URLs as Meta-Syntax for Core Mail List Commands and their Transport through Message Header Fields ,
Legacy ,
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc2369/ ,
July 01, 1998 .
-
Frank Dawson

and

Tim Howes ,
RFC2426 vCard MIME Directory Profile ,
IETF ,
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc2426/ ,
September 01, 1998 ,
vCard Version 3 .
-
Tim Showalter

RFC2971 IMAP4 ID extension ,
IETF ,
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc2971/ ,
October 01, 2000 .
-
Thomas Roessler

Michael Elkins ,
Raph Levien , and
Dave Del Torto ,
RFC3156 MIME Security with OpenPGP ,
IETF ,
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc3156/ ,
August 01, 2001 .
-
Keith Moore

RFC3461 Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP) Service Extension for Delivery Status Notifications (DSNs) ,
IETF ,
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc3461/ ,
January 23, 2003 .
-
Mark Crispin

RFC3501 INTERNET MESSAGE ACCESS PROTOCOL - VERSION 4rev1 ,
IETF ,
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc3501/ ,
March 18, 2003 .
-
Randall Gellens

RFC3676 The Text/Plain Format and DelSp Parameters ,
IETF ,
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc3676/ ,
February 19, 2004 .
-
Alexey Melnikov

RFC3691 Internet Message Access Protocol (IMAP) UNSELECT command ,
IETF ,
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc3691/ ,
February 20, 2004 .
-
Clive Feather

RFC3977 Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) ,
IETF ,
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc3977/ ,
October 26, 2006 .
-
Kurt Zeilenga

RFC4505 Anonymous Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL) Mechanism ,
IETF ,
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc4505/ ,
June 12, 2006 .
-
Alexey Melnikov

RFC4549 Synchronization Operations for Disconnected IMAP4 Clients ,
IETF ,
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc4549/ ,
June 16, 2006 .
-
Kurt Zeilenga

RFC4616 The PLAIN Simple Authentication and Security Layer (SASL) Mechanism ,
IETF ,
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc4616/ ,
August 31, 2006 .
-
Rob Siemborski

and

Alexey Melnikov ,
RFC4954 SMTP Service Extension for Authentication ,
IETF ,
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc4954/ ,
July 23, 2007 .
-
Dr. John C. Klensin

RFC5321 Simple Mail Transfer Protocol ,
IETF ,
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc5321/ ,
October 01, 2008 .
-
Pete Resnick

RFC5322 Internet Message Format ,
IETF ,
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc5322/ ,
October 01, 2008 .
-
Julien ÉLIE

RFC6048 Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP) Additions to LIST Command ,
IETF ,
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc6048/ ,
November 22, 2010 .
-
Dave Crocker

Dr. John C. Klensin ,
Dr. Marshall T. Rose , and
Ned Freed ,
RFC6152 SMTP Service Extension for 8-bit MIME Transport ,
IETF ,
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc6152/ ,
March 07, 2011 .
-
Simon Perreault

RFC6350 vCard Format Specification ,
IETF ,
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc6350/ ,
August 31, 2011 ,
vCard Version 4 .
-
Abel Yang

Shawn Steele , and
Ned Freed ,
RFC6532 Internationalized Email Headers ,
IETF ,
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc6532/ ,
February 17, 2012 .
-
Cyrus Daboo

RFC6868 Parameter Value Encoding in iCalendar and vCard ,
IETF ,
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc6868/ ,
February 14, 2013 .
-
Alexey Melnikov

and

Dave Cridland ,
RFC7162 IMAP Extensions: Quick Flag Changes Resynchronization (CONDSTORE) and Quick Mailbox Resynchronization (QRESYNC) ,
IETF ,
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc7162/ ,
May 23, 2014 .
-
Neil Jenkins

and

Chris Newman ,
RFC8620 The JSON Meta Application Protocol (JMAP) ,
IETF ,
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc8620/ ,
July 18, 2019 .
-
Neil Jenkins

and

Chris Newman ,
RFC8621 The JSON Meta Application Protocol (JMAP) for Mail ,
IETF ,
https://datatracker.ietf.org/doc/rfc8621/ ,
August 08, 2019 .

SEE ALSO

meli.conf (5), meli-themes (5), meli (7), xdg-open (1), mailcap (5)

AUTHORS

Released under the GPL, version 3 or greater. This software carries no warranty of any kind. (

See COPYING for full copyright and warranty notices. )

Links

Website : https://meli-email.org
Main git repository and issue tracker : https://git.meli-email.org/meli/meli
Official read-only git mirror on codeberg.org : https://codeberg.org/meli/meli
Official read-only git mirror on github.com : https://github.com/meli/meli
meli crate on crates.io : https://crates.io/crates/meli Debian March 10, 2024 MELI (1)