MuttWiki: MuttFaq/Maildir

How can I search multiple Maildirs for strings all at once?

Use grep or others. Mutt doesn't support a recursive search. Or use Mairix. It indexes the mails in the maildir folders. When a search is invoked, it puts symlinks for the found mails in a designated folder. It can be invoked using "!" within Mutt. See http://www.rc0.org.uk/mairix for more.

Which mailbox format is better - [mbox] or [Maildir]?

http://cr.yp.to/proto/maildir.html (technical advantages)
http://www.courier-mta.org/mbox-vs-maildir/ (performance advantages)

Decide on your own which one best fits your needs. See also MaildirFormat and ExtendedMaildirFormat.

What is the best directory layout for Maildir folders?

There are two ways, some favour the first, some the second, again decide for your own:

1. ExtendedMaildirFormat

Supported by Courier, dovecot and probably other IMAP servers and apparently Kmail (it works yet Kmail's method of saving drafts and sent mail is slightly different but compatible) this allows you to easily share your folders with another MUA or an IMAP server to access remotely. (Remember that Maildir allows simultaneous access without the need for locking).

See ExtendedMaildirFormat for example layout and how to create folders.

To get mutt to work nicely with this setup use the following in your muttrc:

 set mbox_type=Maildir

 set spoolfile="~/Maildir/"
 set folder="~/Maildir/"
 set mask="!^\\.[^.]"
 set record="+.Sent"
 set postponed="+.Drafts"

 mailboxes ! + `\ 
 for file in ~/Maildir/.*; do \ 
   box=$(basename "$file"); \ 
   if [ ! "$box" = '.' -a ! "$box" = '..' -a ! "$box" = '.customflags' \ 
       -a ! "$box" = '.subscriptions' ]; then \ 
     echo -n "\"+$box\" "; \ 
   fi; \ 
 done`

 macro index c "<change-folder>?<toggle-mailboxes>" "open a different folder"
 macro pager c "<change-folder>?<toggle-mailboxes>" "open a different folder"

(Note: When copy/pasting this, make sure you remove whitespace from the end of the lines as otherwise the backslashes at the ends of the lines will not work, resulting in a syntax error.)

The '!' adds the user's default mail spool location, '+' the base folder to the list of mailboxes. This may be necessary if, for example, the system uses mbox. The above code assumes your Maildir being ~/Maildir and containing Drafts and Sent subfolders as commonly used by other MUAs via IMAP. It uses the mailboxes feature to make the folder browser work, ignoring the .customflags and .subscriptions files dovecot puts into Maildirs.

Note that there should be no trailing spaces behind the backslashes ('\') at the end of the lines, blame the Wiki and remove them after pasting or you will see errors like "echo: unknown command"! Also ensure that the lines mailboxes` and done` are on the same line such that without the backslashes so that it looks like

 mailboxes ! + `... done`

To additionally get to the folder browser when copying and moving mail, add the following:

 macro index C "<copy-message>?<toggle-mailboxes>" "copy a message to a mailbox"
 macro index M "<save-message>?<toggle-mailboxes>" "move a message to a mailbox"

2. custom layout of separate Maildirs

First note that there are directories and folders and that an item cannot be both in Mutt. This means that Maildir folders (which are Unix directories) should not be used to store subfolders. If you want subfolders, create folders in subdirectories (which in turn do not contain messages themselves).

Let's make an example: there are folders peter, mike, mutt, and debian. A flat structure would like the following:

 ~/Mail/
    peter/
      cur/ new/ tmp/
    mike/
      cur/ new/ tmp/
    mutt/
      cur/ new/ tmp/
    debian/
      cur/ new/ tmp/

To group things, create new directories. If you have messages that fit into a category, but not into a sub-category, create a new folder, e.g. misc.

 ~/Mail/
    friends/

      peter/
        cur/ new/ tmp/
      mike/
        cur/ new/ tmp/
      others/
        cur/ new/ tmp/
    software/
      mutt/
        cur/ new/ tmp/
      debian/
        cur/ new/ tmp/
      misc/
        cur/ new/ tmp/
    archive/
      cur/ new/ tmp/

again: don't reuse folders as directories!
if possible, make sure that all directories and folders start with a different letter to make them <tab>-friendly

So far for the theory part. The whole truth is that you can indeed create subfolders inside Maildir folders. The problem with that is that Mutt's directory browser cannot know whether you want to enter the folder when you press enter on the item, or whether you want to go to the subdirectory to see the subfolders there. You can still enter the folder's full name at the 'c'hange folder prompt, but the folder browser will not work.

I can see size in bytes, but not lines, is there a fix?

Maildir does not produce the required header lines to support this. However, if you use procmail, you can add it yourself! Add the following code to your .procmailrc:


# MAILDIR LINES
# Add Lines header for mutt with Maildirs. Mutt shows lines based on Lines
# header.  We have to do this manually for Maildir delivered messages.
:0 BWfh
* H ?? !^Lines:
* -1^0
*  1^1 ^.*$
| formail -A "Lines: $="

I have a whole Maildir folder structure, how can I get it to show up in Mutt?

This script is a simple modification of the one provided above. The difference is that it scans one level deeper into the folder structure--it also makes the root of the maildir structure only show up once instead of twice in the list. Note that this assumes that your maildir is "~/.maildir"

 mailboxes + `\ 
 for file in ~/.maildir/.*; do \ 
   box=$(basename "$file"); \ 
   if [ ! "$box" = '.' -a ! "$box" = '..' -a ! "$box" = '.customflags' \ 
       -a ! "$box" = '.subscriptions' ]; then \ 
     echo -n "\"+$box\" "; \ 
   fi; \ 
done; \ 
 for folder in ~/.maildir/*; do \ 
   if [ -x $folder]; then \    
         box=$(basename "$folder"); \ 
         for file in ~/.maildir/$box/.*; do \ 
                box2=$(basename "$file"); \ 
                if [ ! "$box2" = '.' -a ! "$box2" = '..' -a ! "$box2" = '.customflags' \ 
                 -a ! "$box2" = '.subscriptions' ]; then \ 
                   echo -n "\"+$box/$box2\" "; \ 
                fi; \ 
         done; \ 
    fi; \ 
  done`

(Note: When copy/pasting this, make sure you remove whitespace from the end of the lines as otherwise the backslashes at the ends of the lines will not work, resulting in a syntax error.)