149 lines
4.9 KiB
Markdown
149 lines
4.9 KiB
Markdown
aerc-tutorial(7)
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# NAME
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aerc - the world's best email client
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# INTRODUCTION
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Welcome to aerc! This tutorial will guide you through your first steps in using
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the client. This tutorial is a man page - you can read it again later with
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*:help tutorial* from aerc, or *man aerc-tutorial* from your terminal.
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First, let's introduce some basic keybindings. For convention, we'll use *<C-p>*
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to represent Ctrl+p, which matches the convention used for writing keybindings
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for aerc.
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*<C-p>*, *<C-n>*
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Cycles to the previous or next tab
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Try using these now to switch between your message list and the tutorial. In
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your message list, we use vim-style keys to get around.
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*k*, *j*
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Scrolls up and down between messages
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*<C-u>*, *<C-d>*
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Scrolls half a page up or down
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*g*, *G*
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Selects the first or last message, respectively
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*K*, *J*
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Switches between folders in the sidebar
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*<Enter>*
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Opens the selected message
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# THE MESSAGE VIEWER
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Press *<Enter>* to open a message. By default, the message viewer will display
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your message using *less*(1). This should also have familiar, vim-like
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keybindings for scrolling around in your message.
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Multipart messages (messages with attachments, or messages with several
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alternative formats) show a part selector on the bottom of the message viewer.
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*<C-k>*, *<C-j>*
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Cycle between parts of a multipart message
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*q*
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Close the message viewer
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To show HTML messages, comment out the *text/html* filter in your aerc.conf
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file (which is probably in ~/.config/aerc/) and install its dependencies: w3m
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and dante-utils.
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# COMPOSING MESSAGES
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Return to the message list by pressing *q* to dismiss the message viewer. Once
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there, let's compose a message.
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*C*
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Compose a new message
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*rr*
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Reply-all to a message
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*rq*
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Reply-all to a message, and pre-fill the editor with a quoted version of the
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message being replied to
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*Rr*
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Reply to a message
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*Rq*
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Reply to a message, and pre-fill the editor with a quoted version of the
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message being replied to
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For now, let's use *C* to compose a new message. The message composer will
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appear. You should see To, From, and Subject lines, as well as your *$EDITOR*.
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You can use *<Tab>* or *<C-j>* and *<C-k>* to cycle between these fields (tab
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won't cycle between fields once you enter the editor, but *<C-j>* and *<C-k>*
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will).
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Let's send an email to yourself. Note that the To and From headers only accept
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RFC 5322 addresses, e.g. *John Doe <john@example.org>*, or simply
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*<john@example.org>*. Separate multiple recipients with commas. Go ahead and
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fill out an email (to yourself, perhaps?), then close the editor. You can add
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additional headers like Cc and Reply-To by simply adding them to the top of your
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email, adding a blank line between the email's headers and body.
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The message review screen is shown next. You have a chance now to revise the
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email before it's sent. Press *y* to send the email if it looks good.
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*Note*: when using the terminal in the message view, you can summon aerc's ex
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command line by using *<C-x>*. ':' is sent to the editor.
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# USING THE TERMINAL
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aerc comes with an embedded terminal, which you've already used to view and edit
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emails. We can also use this for other purposes, such as referencing a git
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repository while reviewing a patch. From the message list, we can use the
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following keybindings to open a terminal:
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*<C-t>*
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Opens a new terminal tab, running your shell
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*$*, *!*
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Prompts for a command to run, then opens a new terminal tab running that
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command
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*|*
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Prompts for a command to run, then pipes the selected email into that
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command and displays the result on a new terminal tab
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Try pressing *$* and entering "top". You can also use the *:cd* command to
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change aerc's working directory, and the directory in which new terminals run.
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Use *:pwd* to see it again if you're not sure where you are.
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# ADDITIONAL NOTES
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## COMMANDS
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Every keybinding is ultimately bound to an aerc command. You can also summon the
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command line by pressing ':', then entering one of these commands. See *aerc*(1)
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or *:help* for a full list of commands.
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## MESSAGE FILTERS
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When displaying messages in the message viewer, aerc will pipe them through a
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_message filter_ first. This allows you to decode messages in non-plaintext
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formats, add syntax highlighting, etc. aerc ships with a few default filters:
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- Emails which begin with "[PATCH" will be piped into a filter for rendering
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git-format-patch and hg export emails.
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- text/html is rendered with w3m in a network sandbox
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- text/\* is rendered with a simple filter for coloring quoted text
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## CUSTOMIZING AERC
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Aerc is highly customizable. Review *aerc-config*(5) (or use *:help config*) to
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learn more about how to add custom keybindings, install new message filters,
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change its appearance and behavior, and so on.
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# AUTHORS
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Maintained by Drew DeVault <sir@cmpwn.com>, who is assisted by other open
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source contributors. For more information about aerc development, see
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https://git.sr.ht/~sircmpwn/aerc.
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