AERC-TEMPLATES(7)
# NAME
aerc-templates - template file specification for *aerc*(1)
# SYNOPSIS
aerc uses the go text/template package for the template parsing.
Refer to the go text/template documentation for the general syntax.
The template syntax described below can be used for message template files and
for dynamic formatting of some UI app.
Template files are composed of headers, followed by a newline, followed by the
body text.
Example:
```
X-Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett
Hello,
Greetings,
Chuck
```
If you have a template that doesn't add any header, it *must* be preceded by a
newline, to avoid parsing parts of the body as header text.
All headers defined in the template will have precedence over any headers that
are initialized by aerc (e.g. Subject, To, From, Cc) when composing a new
message, forwarding or replying.
# MESSAGE DATA
The following data can be used in templates. Though they are not all
available always.
*Addresses*
An array of mail.Address. That can be used to add sender or recipient
names to the template.
- _{{.From}}_: List of senders.
- _{{.Peer}}_: List of senders or To recipients if the message is from
you.
- _{{.To}}_: List of To recipients. Not always Available.
- _{{.ReplyTo}}_: List of ReplyTo recipients. Not always Available.
- _{{.Cc}}_: List of Cc recipients. Not always Available.
- _{{.Bcc}}_: List of Cc recipients. Not always Available.
- _{{.OriginalFrom}}_: List of senders of the original message.
Available for quoted reply and forward.
Example:
Get the name of the first sender.
```
{{(index .From 0).Name}}
{{index (.From | names) 0}}
```
Get the email address of the first sender.
```
{{(index .From 0).Address}}
```
*Date and Time*
The date and time information is always available and can be easily
formatted.
- _{{.Date}}_: Date and time information when the compose window is opened.
- _{{.OriginalDate}}_: Date and time when the original message was received.
Available for quoted reply and forward.
To format the date fields, _dateFormat_ and _.Local_ are provided.
Refer to the *TEMPLATE FUNCTIONS* section for details.
*Subject*
The subject of the email (_ThreadPrefix_ will be empty unless threading
is enabled).
```
{{.ThreadPrefix}}{{if .ThreadFolded}}{{printf "{%d}" .ThreadCount}}{{end}}{{.Subject}}
```
The subject of the email stripped of any _Re:_ and _Fwd:_ prefixes.
```
{{.SubjectBase}}
```
*Threading*
When threading is enabled, these attributes are available in the message
list:
_ThreadPrefix_
If the message is part of a thread, this will contain arrows
that represent the message tree based on _In-Reply-To_ and
_References_ headers.
_ThreadFolded_
Will be _true_ if the message has thread children which are
hidden by *:fold*.
_ThreadCount_
The number of messages in the thread.
_ThreadUnread_
The number of unread messages in the thread.
*Flags*
List of message flags, not available when composing, replying nor
forwarding. This is a list of strings that may be converted to a single
string with *join*.
```
{{.Flags | join ""}}
```
*IsReplied*, *HasAttachment*, *IsFlagged*, *IsRecent*, *IsUnread*, *IsMarked*,
*IsDraft*
Individual boolean flags. not available when composing, replying nor
forwarding.
```
{{if .IsFlagged}}★{{end}}
```
*Labels*
Message labels (for example notmuch tags). Not available when composing,
replying nor forwarding. This is a list of strings that may be converted
to a single string with *join*.
```
{{.Labels | join " "}}
```
*Size*
The size of the message in bytes. Not available when composing, replying
nor forwarding. It can be formatted with *humanReadable*.
```
{{.Size | humanReadable}}
```
*Filename*
The full path of the message file. Not available when composing,
replying nor forwarding. For the notmuch backend, it returns a random
filename if there are multiple files associated with the message.
*Filenames*
A list of the full paths of the files associated with the message. For
maildir this is always a list with a single element. Not available when
composing, replying nor forwarding.
*Any header value*
Any header value of the email.
```
{{.Header "x-foo-bar"}}
```
Any header values of the original forwared or replied message:
```
{{.OriginalHeader "x-foo-bar"}}
```
*Message-ID*
The message-ID of the message.
```
:term b4 am {{.MessageId}}
```
*MIME Type*
MIME type is available for quoted reply and forward.
- _{{.OriginalMIMEType}}_: MIME type info of quoted mail part. Usually
_text/plain_ or _text/html_.
*Original Message*
When using quoted reply or forward, the original message is available in a
field called _OriginalText_.
```
{{.OriginalText}}
```
*Signature*
The signature of the currently selected account obtained from
*signature-file* or *signature-cmd*.
```
{{.Signature}}
```
*Account info*
The current account name:
```
{{.Account}}
```
Currently selected mailbox folder:
```
{{.Folder}}
```
Current message counts for all folders:
```
{{.Recent}} {{.Unread}} {{.Exists}}
{{.RUE}}
```
IANA role of the mailbox, converted to lowercase:
```
{{.Role}}
```
*aerc* implements two additional custom roles: A 'query' role is given
to folders from a notmuch query-map
and 'virtual' indicates a virtual node in the directory tree listing:
```
{{if eq .Role "query"}}{{...}}{{else}}{{...}}{{end}}
```
Current message counts for specific folders:
```
{{.Recent "inbox"}}
{{.Unread "inbox" "aerc/pending"}}
{{.Exists "archive" "spam" "foo/baz" "foo/bar"}}
{{.RUE "inbox"}}
```
*Status line*
The following data will only be available in the status line templates:
Connection state.
```
{{.Connected}}
{{.ConnectionInfo}}
```
General status information (e.g. filter, search) separated with
*[statusline].separator*.
```
{{.ContentInfo}}
```
Combination of *{{.ConnectionInfo}}* and *{{.StatusInfo}}* separated
with *[statusline].separator*.
```
{{.StatusInfo}}
```
General on/off information (e.g. passthrough, threading, sorting, visual
mode), separated with *[statusline].separator*.
```
{{.TrayInfo}}
```
Currently pressed key sequence that does not match any key binding
and/or is incomplete.
```
{{.PendingKeys}}
```
# TEMPLATE FUNCTIONS
Besides the standard functions described in go's text/template documentation,
aerc provides the following additional functions:
*wrap*
Wrap the original text to the specified number of characters per line.
```
{{wrap 72 .OriginalText}}
```
*quote*
Prepends each line with _"> "_.
```
{{quote .OriginalText}}
```
*trimSignature*
Removes the signature froma passed in mail. Quoted signatures are kept
as they are.
```
{{trimSignature .OriginalText}}
```
*join*
Join the provided list of strings with a separator:
```
{{.To | names | join ", "}}
```
*split*
Split a string into a string slice with a separator:
```
{{.To | names | join ", " | split ", "}}
```
*names*
Extracts the names part from a mail.Address list. If there is no name
available, the mbox (email address without @domain) is returned instead.
```
{{.To | names | join ", "}}
{{index (.To | names) 0}}
```
*firstnames*
Extracts the first names part from a mail.Address list. If there is no
name available, the short mbox (start of email address without @domain)
is returned instead.
```
{{.To | firstnames | join ", "}}
{{index (.To | firstnames) 0}}
```
*initials*
Extracts the initials from the names part from a mail.Address list. If
there is no name available, the first letter of the email address is
returned instead.
```
{{.To | initials | join ", "}}
{{index (.To | initials) 0}}
```
*emails*
Extracts the addresses part from a mail.Address list.
```
{{.To | emails | join ", "}}
{{index (.To | emails) 0}}
```
*mboxes*
Extracts the mbox part from a mail.Address list (i.e. _smith_ from
_smith@example.com_).
```
{{.To | mboxes | join ", "}}
{{index (.To | mboxes) 0}}
```
*shortmboxes*
Extracts the short mbox part from a mail.Address list (i.e. _smith_ from
_smith.and.wesson@example.com_).
```
{{.To | shortmboxes | join ", "}}
{{index (.To | shortmboxes) 0}}
```
*persons*
Formats a list of mail.Address into a list of strings containing the
human readable form of RFC5322 (e.g. _Firstname Lastname
<email@address.tld>_).
```
{{.To | persons | join ", "}}
{{index (.To | persons) 0}}
```
*.Attach*
Attaches a file to the message being composed.
```
{{.Attach '/usr/libexec/aerc/filters/html'}}
```
*exec*
Execute external command, provide the second argument to its stdin.
```
{{exec `/usr/libexec/aerc/filters/html` .OriginalText}}
```
*.Local*
Convert the date to the local timezone as specified by the locale.
```
{{.Date.Local}}
```
*dateFormat*
Format date and time according to the format passed as the second argument.
The format must be specified according to go's time package format.
```
{{dateFormat .Date "Mon Jan 2 15:04:05 -0700 MST 2006"}}
```
You can also use the _.DateAutoFormat_ method to format the date
according to *\*-time\*format* settings:
```
{{.DateAutoFormat .OriginalDate.Local}}
```
*now*
Return the current date as a golang time.Time object that can be
formatted with *dateFormat*.
```
{{dateFormat now "Mon Jan 2 15:04:05 -0700 MST 2006"}}
```
*humanReadable*
Return the human readable form of an integer value.
```
{{humanReadable 3217653721}}
```
*cwd*
Return the current working directory with the user home dir replaced by
_~_.
```
{{cwd}}
```
*compactDir*
Reduce a directory path into a compact form. The directory name will be
split with _/_ and each part will be reduced to the first letter in its
name: _INBOX/01_WORK/PROJECT_ will become _I/W/PROJECT_.
```
{{compactDir .Folder}}
```
*contains*
Checks if a string contains a substring.
```
{{contains "<!DOCTYPE html>" .OriginalText}}
```
*hasPrefix*
Checks if a string has a prefix.
```
{{hasPrefix "Business" .Folder}}
```
*toLower*
Convert a string to lowercase.
```
{{toLower "SPECIAL OFFER!"}}
```
*toUpper*
Convert a string to uppercase.
```
{{toUpper "important"}}
```
*replace*
Perform a regular expression substitution on the passed string.
```
{{replace `(.+) - .+ at .+\..+` `$1` ((index .OriginalFrom 0).Name)}}
```
*.Style*
Apply a user-defined style (see *aerc-stylesets*(7)) to a string.
```
{{.Style .Account "red"}}
{{.Style .ThreadPrefix "thread"}}{{.Subject}}
```
*.StyleSwitch*
Apply a user-defined style (see *aerc-stylesets*(7)) to a string if it
matches one of the associated regular expressions. If the string does
not match any of the expressions, leave it unstyled.
```
{{.StyleSwitch .Subject (`^(\[[\w-]+\]\s*)?\[(RFC )?PATCH` "cyan")}}
{{.StyleSwitch (.From | names | join ", ") (case `Tim` "cyan") (case `Robin` "pink-blink") (default "blue")}}
```
*.StyleMap*
Apply user-defined styles (see *aerc-stylesets*(7)) to elements of
a string list. The logic is the same than *.StyleSwitch* but works on
a list of elements. An additional *exclude* option is available to
remove the matching elements from the list.
```
{{.StyleMap .Labels (exclude .Folder) (exclude `^spam$`) (case `^inbox$` "red") (case `^Archive/.*` "green") (default "blue") | join " "}}
```
*version*
Returns the version of aerc, which can be useful for things like X-Mailer.
```
X-Mailer: aerc {{version}}
```
*match*
Check if a string matches a regular expression. This is intended for
use in conditional control flow:
```
{{if match .Folder `.*/Archive-[0-9]+`}}{{humanReadable .Unread}}{{end}}
```
*switch*
Do swich/case/default control flows. The switch value is compared with
regular expressions. If none of the case/default arms match, an empty
string is returned.
```
{{switch .Folder (case `^INBOX$` "📥") (case `^Archive/.*` "🗃") (default "📁")}}
```
*map*
Transform a string list into another one. The logic is the same than
*switch* but works on a list of elements. An additional *exclude* option
is available to remove the matching elements from the list.
```
{{map .Labels (exclude .Folder) (exclude `^spam$`) (case `^inbox$` "📥") (case `^Archive/.*` "🗃") | join " "}}
```
*Function chaining*
All of the template functions can be chained together if needed.
Example: Automatic HTML parsing for text/html mime type messages
```
{{if eq .OriginalMIMEType "text/html"}}
{{exec `/usr/libexec/aerc/filters/html` .OriginalText | wrap 72 | quote}}
{{else}}
{{wrap 72 .OriginalText | trimSignature | quote}}
{{end}}
```
# SEE ALSO
*aerc*(1) *aerc-config*(5)
# AUTHORS
Originally created by Drew DeVault and maintained by Robin Jarry who is assisted
by other open source contributors. For more information about aerc development,
see _https://sr.ht/~rjarry/aerc/_.
