meli/docs/meli.7

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MELI(7)                Miscellaneous Information Manual                MELI(7)

NAME
     meli  Tutorial for the Meli Mail User Agent

SYNOPSIS
     meli [...]

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

     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'

INTERACTING WITH meli
     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
               ⟨:⟩ (shortcuts.general.enter_command_mode) 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.

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

           The main view.

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

     Press ⟨`⟩ (shortcuts.listing.toggle_menu_visibility) to toggle the
     sidebars visibility.

     Press ⟨Left⟩ (shortcuts.listing.focus_on_menu) to switch focus on the
     sidebar menu.  Press ⟨Right⟩ (shortcuts.listing.focus_on_list) to switch
     focus on the e-mail list.

     On the e-mail list, press ⟨k⟩ (shortcuts.listing.scroll_up) to scroll up,
     and ⟨j⟩ (shortcuts.listing.scroll_down) to scroll down.  Press
     ⟨Enter⟩ (shortcuts.listing.open_entry) to open an e-mail entry and
     ⟨i⟩ (shortcuts.listing.exit_entry) to exit it.


           ╌╍─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╍╌


           personal account
            0  INBOX
            1   ┣━Sent
            2   ┣━Lists
            3   ┃ ┣━meli-dev
            4   ┃ ┗━meli
            5   ┣━Drafts
            6   ┣━Trash
            7   ┗━foobar
            8  Trash
            9  Archived

        The sidebar.

     Press ⟨k⟩ (shortcuts.listing.scroll_up) to scroll up, and
     ⟨j⟩ (shortcuts.listing.scroll_down) to scroll down.

     Press ⟨Enter⟩ (shortcuts.listing.open_mailbox) 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 “uncollapse” it with ⟨Space⟩
     (shortcuts.listing.toggle_mailbox_collapse).  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
     ⟨Ctrl-p⟩ (shortcuts.listing.increase_sidebar) and decrease with ⟨Ctrl-o⟩
     (shortcuts.listing.decrease_sidebar).


           ╌╍─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╍╌


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

        The status bar.

     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.


           ╌╍─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────╍╌


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

        The number modifier buffer.

     Some commands may accept a number qualifier.  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.

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

AUTHORS
     Copyright 2017-2022 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.)

     https://meli.delivery

Debian                         September 4, 2022                        Debian