MELI(7)

NAME
meli - Tutorial for the meli terminal e-mail client

SYNOPSIS
meli [...]

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

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INTRODUCTION
To quit meli press at any time. 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 for a searchable list of all available actions and shortcuts, along with every possible setting and command that your version supports.

Each time a shortcut is mentioned in this document, you will find a parenthesis next to it with the name of the shortcut setting along with its section in the configuration settings so that you can modify it if you wish.

For example, to set the toggle_help shortcut mentioned in the previous paragraph, add the following to your configuration:

    [shortcuts]
    general.toggle_help = 'F1'

Or alternatively:

    [shortcuts.general]
    toggle_help = 'F1'

To go to the next tab on the right, press .

INTERACTING WITH
You will be interacting with meli in four primary ways:
1.
keyboard shortcuts in NORMAL mode.
2.
commands with arguments in COMMAND mode.
3.
regular text input in text input widgets in INSERT mode.
4.
any kind of input that gets passed directly into an embedded terminal in EMBED mode.

MODES
meli is a modal application, just like vi(1) . This means that pressing the same keys in different modes would yield different results. This allows you to separate how the input is interpreted without the need to focus your input with a mouse.

NORMAL
    This is the default mode of meli . All keyboard shortcuts work in this mode.

COMMAND
    Commands are issued in COMMAND mode, by default started with and exited with <Esc> key.

EMBED
    This is the mode of the embed terminal emulator. To exit an embedded application, issue <Ctrl-C> to kill it or <Ctrl-Z> to stop the program and follow the instructions on meli to exit.

INSERT
    This mode is entered when pressing <Enter> on a cursor selected text input field, and it captures all input as text input. It is exited with the <Esc> key.

ACTIVE SHORTCUTS POPUP
By pressing at any time, the shortcuts popup display status gets toggled. You can find all valid shortcuts for the current UI state you are in.

    ┌─shortcuts──Press ? to close────────────────────────────────┐
    │                                                           ▀│
    │  use COMMAND "search" to find shortcuts                   █│
    │  Use Up, Down, Left, Right to scroll.                     █│
    │                                                           █│
    │  pager                                                    █│
    │                                                           █│
    │       PageDown  page_down                                 █│
    │         PageUp  page_up                                    │
    │              j  scroll_down                                │
    │              k  scroll_up                                  │
    │                                                            │
    │  view mail                                                 │
    │                                                            │
    │              c  add_addresses_to_contacts                  │
    │              e  edit                                       │
    │              u  toggle_url_mode                            │
    │              a  open_attachment                            │
    │              m  open_mailcap                               │
    │              R  reply                                      │
    │            C-r  reply_to_author                            │
    │            C-g  reply_to_all                               │
    │            C-f  forward                                    │
    │            M-r  view_raw_source                            │
    │              h  toggle_expand_headers                     ▄│
    └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Shows active shortcuts in order of the widget hierarchy.

MAIN VIEW

     ┌───────────────────────┐
     ├────┼──────────────────┤
     │___ │  ___________     │
     │ _  │ _______________  │
     │ _  │__________________│
     │ _  │      ___________ │
     │    │  _____           │
     │    │                  │
     └────┴──────────────────┘

The main view's layout.

This is the view you will spend more time with in meli .

Press to toggle the sidebars visibility.

Press to switch focus on the sidebar menu. Press to switch focus on the e-mail list.

On the e-mail list, press to scroll up, and to scroll down. Press to open an e-mail entry and to exit it.

The sidebar.

    ┌─────────────┉┉┉┉┉✂
    │ mail▐  contact li✂
    │personal account  ✂
    │ 0  INBOX         ✂
    │ 1   ┣━Sent       ✂
    │ 2   ┣━Lists      ✂
    │ 3   ┃ ┣━meli-dev ✂
    │ 4   ┃ ┗━meli     ✂
    │ 5   ┣━Drafts     ✂
    │ 6   ┣━Trash      ✂
    │ 7   ┗━foobar     ✂
    ┇ 8  Trash         ✂
     ✂ ✂ ✂ ✂ ✂ ✂ ✂ ✂ ✂ ✂

Press to scroll up, and to scroll down.

Press to open an entry (either a mailbox or an account name). Entering an account name will show you a page with details about the account and its network connection, depending on the backend.

While focused in the sidebar, you can “collapse” a mailbox tree, if it has children, and you can open it with . You can have mailbox trees collapsed on startup by default by setting a mailbox's collapsed setting to true . See meli.conf(5) section MAILBOXES for details.

You can increase the sidebar's width with and decrease with .

The status bar.

    ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────┈┈
    │NORMAL | Mailbox: Inbox, Messages: 25772, New: 3006
    └────────────────────────────────────────────────────┈┈

The status bar shows which mode you are, and the status message of the current view. In the pictured example, it shows the status of a mailbox called “Inbox” with lots of e-mails.

The number modifier buffer.

     ┈┈────────────┐
                12 │
     ┈┈────────────┘

Some commands may accept a number modifier. For example, scroll down commands can receive a multiplier n to scroll down n entries. Another use of the number buffer is opening URLs inside the pager. See PAGER for an explanation of interacting with URLs in e-mails.

Pressing numbers in NORMAL mode will populate this buffer. To erase it, press the <Esc> key.

MAIL LIST
There are four different list styles:
-   "plain" which shows one line per e-mail.
-   "threaded" which shows a threaded view with drawn tree structure.
-   "compact" which shows one line per thread which can include multiple e-mails.
-   "conversations" which shows more than one line per thread which can include multiple e-mails with more details about the thread.

Plain view.

    │42     Fri, 02 Sep 2022 19:51  xxxxxxxxxxxxx <  [PATCH 3/8] │
    │43     Fri, 02 Sep 2022 19:51  xxxxxxxxxxxxx <  [PATCH 2/8] │
    │44     Fri, 02 Sep 2022 19:51  xxxxxxxxxxxxx <  [PATCH 1/8] │
    |45     Fri, 02 Sep 2022 19:51  xxxxxxxxxxxxx <  [PATCH 0/8] |
    │46     Fri, 02 Sep 2022 18:18  xxxxxxxx <xxxxx  Re: [PATCH 3│

Threaded view.

    │12     9 hours ago            xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx    [PATCH v3 0│
    │13     9 hours ago            xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx     ├─>[PATCH │
    │14     9 hours ago            xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx     ├─>[PATCH │
    |15     9 hours ago            xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx     ├─>[PATCH |
    │16     9 hours ago            xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx     ├─>[PATCH │
    │17     9 hours ago            xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx     └─>[PATCH │
    │18     2022-08-23 01:23:51    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx    [RFC v4 00/│
    │19     2022-08-23 01:23:52    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx     ├─>[RFC v4│
    |20     2022-08-30 10:30:16    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx     │ └─>     |
    │21     6 days ago             xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx     │   └─>   │
    │22     2022-08-23 01:23:53    xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx     ├─>[RFC v4│

Compact view.

    │18  2022-…:38  xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  [PATCH v3 3/3] u…_l() (2)   │
    |19  2022-…:49  xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  [PATCH v8 0/7] A…e (3)      |
    │20  2022-…:10  xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  [PATCH v8 2/7] f…s (2)      │
    │21  2022-…:38  xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  [PATCH v8 3/7] b…s (2)      │
    │22  2022-…:53  xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx  [PATCH v6 00/10] p…g (31)   │

Conversations view.

    │[PATCH v2] xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (5)  │
    |1 day ago▁▁▁▁xxxxxxxxxxxxx <xxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx>, xxxxx│
    │                                                            |
    │[PATCH v2 0/8] xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx│
    │1 day ago▁▁▁▁xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <xxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>, xx│
    |                                                            │
    │[PATCH 0/2] xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (4)    |
    │2 days ago▁▁▁▁xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx <xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx>, xxxxx│
    │                                                            │
    │[PATCH 0/8] xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx (12)  │
    │2 days ago▁▁▁▁xxxxxxxxxxxxx <xxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxx>, xxxxxxxxx│

Performing actions on entries and/or selections.

Press to toggle the selection of a single entry. "select_entry" can be prefixed by a number modifier and affixed by a scrolling motion (up or down) to select multiple entries. Simple set operations can be performed on a selection with these shortcut modifiers:

-   Union modifier:
-   Difference modifier:
-   Intersection modifier:

To set an entry as "read" , use the shortcut. To set an entry as "unread" , use the command

which also has its complement

action.

For e-mail backends that support flags you can use the following commands on entries and selections to modify them:

For e-mail backends that support tags ( like "IMAP" or "notmuch") you can use the following commands on entries and selections to modify them:

(see meli.conf(5) TAGS , settings colors and ignore_tags for how to set tag colors and tag visibility) You can clear the selection with the <Esc> key.

PAGER
You can open an e-mail entry by pressing . This brings up the e-mail view with the e-mail content inside a pager.

    ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
    │Date: Sat, 21 May 2022 16:16:11 +0300                      ▀│
    │From: Narrator <narrator@example.com>                      █│
    │To: Stanley <427@example.com>                              █│
    │Subject: The e-mail ending                                 █│
    │Message-ID: <gambheerata@example.com>                      █│
    │                                                           █│
    │The story, and the choices, or what have you, and therefore█│
    │by becoming it is! So on and so forth, until inevitably, we │
    │all until the end of time. At which time, everything all at │
    │once, so now you see? Blah, blah, blah, rah, rah, rah...    │
    │We've eaten too much and it can't be just yet. No, no!      │
    │Until two-hundred and forty-five! But the logic of          │
    │elimination, working backwards, the deduction therefore     │
    │becomes impossible to manufacture. It went on for nearly    │
    │ten thousand years, until just yesterday. Here and there,   │
    │forward and back, and never a moment before lunchtime. It   │
    │can't be! It's the only thing there is! How many billions   │
    │left until so much more than forever ago! Which is why I    │
    │say:                                                        │
    │                                                            │
    │The story, and the choices, or what have you, and therefore │
    │by becoming it is! So on and so forth, until inevitably, we▄│
    └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

The pager displaying an e-mail.

The pager is simple to use. Scroll with the following:

Go to next pager page

Go to previous pager page

Scroll down pager.

Scroll up pager.

All scrolling shortcuts can be prefixed with a number modifier which will act as a multiplier.

The pager can enter a special url mode which will prefix all detected hyperlinks and e-mail addresses with a number inside square brackets . Writing down a chosen number as a number modifier and pressing will attempt to open the link with the system's default open command ( xdg-open(1) in supported OSes, and open(1) on MacOS) . To override with a custom launcher, see " pager " configuration setting " url_launcher " ( see meli.conf(5) PAGER for more details) .

MAIL VIEW
Other things you can do when viewing e-mail:
-   Most importantly, you can exit the mail view with:
-   Add addresses from the e-mail headers to contacts:
-   Open an attachment by entering its index as a number modifier and pressing:
-   Open an attachment by its mailcap(4) entry by entering its index as a number modifier and pressing:
-   Reply to envelope:
-   Reply to author:
-   Reply to all/Reply to list/Follow up:
-   Forward e-mail:
-   Expand extra headers: (References and others)
-   View envelope source in a pager: (toggles between raw and decoded source)
-   Return to envelope_view if viewing raw source or attachment:

COMPOSING
To compose an e-mail, you can either start with an empty draft by pressing which opens a composer view in a new tab. To reply to a specific e-mail, when in envelope view you can select the specific action you want to take:

-   Reply to envelope.
-   Reply to author.
-   Reply to all.

To launch your editor, press . To send your draft, press . To save the draft without submission, enter the command

and select "save as draft" . You can return to the draft by going to your "Drafts" mailbox and selecting .

    ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
    │ mail▐  contact list  ▐  composing  ▍███████████████████████│
    │          COMPOSING MESSAGE                                 │
    │           Date     Mon, 05 Sep 2022 17:49:19 +0300         │
    │           From     myself <myself@example.com>░░░░         │
    │           To       friend <myfriend@example.com>░░         │
    │           Cc       ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░         │
    │           Bcc      ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░         │
    │           Subject  This is my subject!░░░░░░░░░░░░         │
    │                                                            │
    │          Hello friend!░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░         │
    │          ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░         │
    │          ░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░░         │
    │                                                            │
    │          ☐ don't sign                                      │
    │          ☐ don't encrypt                                   │
    │          no attachments                                    │
    │                                                            │
    │NORMAL | Mailbox: Inbox, Messages: 25772, New: 3006         │
    └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

The lightly highlighted cells represent text input fields.

If you enable the embed terminal option, you can launch your terminal editor of choice when you press edit .

    ┌────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
    │ mail▐  contact list  ▐  composing  ▍███████████████████████│
    │   ╓COMPOSING MESSAGE┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄┄╖   │
    │   ║ p/v/f/h/5/T/m/07f56b6e-ec09-49d9-b8d8-f0c5a81e7826 ║   │
    │   ║  7 Date: Mon, 05 Sep 2022 18:43:10 +0300           ║   │
    │   ║  6 From: Mister Cardholder <mrholder@example.com>  ║   │
    │   ║  5 To:                                             ║   │
    │   ║  4 Cc:                                             ║   │
    │   ║  3 Bcc:                                            ║   │
    │   ║  2 Subject:                                        ║   │
    │   ║  1 User-Agent: meli 0.7.2                          ║   │
    │   ║8 █                                                 ║   │
    │   ║~                                                   ║   │
    │   ║~                                                   ║   │
    │   ║~                                                   ║   │
    │   ║~                                                   ║   │
    │   ║ N…  <6e-ec09-49d9-b8d8-f0c5a81e7826   100% ㏑:8 ℅:1║   │
    │   ╚════════════════════════════════════════════════════╝   │
    │                                                            │
    │                                                            │
    │ ☐ don't sign                                               │
    │ ☐ don't encrypt                                            │
    │ no attachments                                             │
    │                                                            │
    │EMBED | Mailbox: Inbox, Messages: 25772, New: 3006          │
    └────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

nvim(1) running inside the composing tab. The double line border annotates the area of the embedded terminal, the actual embedding is seamless.

  composing mail commands

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 stderr, separated by NULL bytes.

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

THEMES
See meli-themes(5) for documentation on how to theme meli .

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

AUTHORS
Copyright 2017–2024 Manos Pitsidianakis <manos@pitsidianak.is>

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