Provided by: aerc_0.18.2-1_amd64 
NAME
aerc-stylesets - styleset file specification for aerc(1)
SYNOPSIS
aerc uses a simple configuration syntax to configure the styleset for its ui.
STYLESET CONFIGURATION
The styleset is described as <object>.<attribute> = <value> pairs.
For example, in the line below, the foreground color of the style object msglist_unread is
set to cornflowerblue
msglist_unread.fg = cornflowerblue
The configuration also allows wildcard matching of the keys to configure multiple style
objects at a time.
ATTRIBUTES
The following options are available to be modified for each of the style objects.
<object>.fg = <color>
The foreground color of the style object is set.
<object>.bg = <color>
The background color of the style object is set.
<object>.bold = true|false|toggle
The bold attribute of the style object is set/unset.
<object>.blink = true|false|toggle
The blink attribute of the style object is set/unset. The terminal needs to support
blinking text.
<object>.underline = true|false|toggle
The underline attribute of the style object is set/unset. The terminal needs to
support underline text.
<object>.italic = true|false|toggle
The italic attribute of the style object is set/unset. The terminal needs to support
italic text.
<object>.dim = true|false|toggle
The dim attribute of the style object is set/unset. The terminal needs to support
half-bright text.
<object>.reverse = true|false|toggle
Reverses the color of the style object. Exchanges the foreground and background
colors.
If the value is false, it doesn't change anything.
<object>.normal = true
All the attributes of the style object are unset.
The value doesn't matter.
<object>.default = true
Set the style object to the default style of the context. Usually based on the
terminal.
The value doesn't matter.
STYLE OBJECTS
The style objects represent the various ui elements or ui instances for styling.
┌───────────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────┐
│Style Object │ Description │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│default │ The default style object used │
│ │ for normal ui elements while not │
│ │ using specialized configuration. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│error │ The style used to show errors. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│warning │ The style used when showing │
│ │ warnings. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│success │ The style used for success │
│ │ messages. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│title │ The style object used to style │
│ │ titles in ui elements. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│header │ The style object used to style │
│ │ headers in ui elements. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│statusline_default │ The default style applied to the │
│ │ statusline. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│statusline_error │ The style used for error │
│ │ messages in statusline. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│statusline_success │ The style used for success │
│ │ messages in statusline. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│msglist_default │ The default style for messages │
│ │ in a message list. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│msglist_unread │ Unread messages in a message │
│ │ list. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│msglist_read │ Read messages in a message list. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│msglist_flagged │ The messages with the flagged │
│ │ flag. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│msglist_deleted │ The messages marked as deleted. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│msglist_marked │ The messages with the marked │
│ │ flag. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│msglist_result │ The messages which match the │
│ │ current search. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│msglist_answered │ The messages marked as answered. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│msglist_gutter │ The message list gutter. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│msglist_pill │ The message list pill. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│msglist_thread_folded │ Visible messages that have │
│ │ folded thread children. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│msglist_thread_context │ The messages not matching the │
│ │ mailbox / query, displayed for │
│ │ context. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│msglist_thread_orphan │ Threaded messages that have a │
│ │ missing parent message. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│dirlist_default │ The default style for │
│ │ directories in the directory │
│ │ list. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│dirlist_unread │ The style used for directories │
│ │ with unread messages │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│dirlist_recent │ The style used for directories │
│ │ with recent messages │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│part_switcher │ Background for the part switcher │
│ │ in the message viewer. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│part_filename │ Attachment file name in the part │
│ │ switcher. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│part_mimetype │ Attachment/part MIME type in the │
│ │ part switcher. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│completion_default │ The default style for the │
│ │ completion engine. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│completion_gutter │ The completion gutter. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│completion_pill │ The completion pill. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│tab │ The style for the tab bar. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│stack │ The style for ui stack element. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│spinner │ The style for the loading │
│ │ spinner. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│border │ The style used to draw borders │
│ │ (only the bg color is used │
│ │ unless you customize border- │
│ │ char-vertical and/or border- │
│ │ char-horizontal in aerc.conf). │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│selector_default │ The default style for the │
│ │ selector ui element. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│selector_focused │ The focused item in a selector │
│ │ ui element. │
├───────────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│selector_chooser │ The item chooser in a selector │
│ │ ui element. │
└───────────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────┘
These next style objects only affect the built-in colorize filter and must be declared
under a [viewer] section of the styleset file.
┌────────────────┬──────────────────────────────────┐
│Style Object │ Description │
├────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│url │ URLs. │
├────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│header │ RFC-822-like header names. │
├────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│signature │ Email signatures. │
├────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│diff_meta │ Patch diff meta lines. │
├────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│diff_chunk │ Patch diff chunks. │
├────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│diff_chunk_func │ Patch diff chunk function names. │
├────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│diff_add │ Patch diff added lines. │
├────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│diff_del │ Patch diff deleted lines. │
├────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│quote_1 │ First level quoted text. │
├────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│quote_2 │ Second level quoted text. │
├────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│quote_3 │ Third level quoted text. │
├────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│quote_4 │ Fourth level quoted text. │
├────────────────┼──────────────────────────────────┤
│quote_x │ Above fourth level quoted text. │
└────────────────┴──────────────────────────────────┘
User defined styles can be used to style arbitrary strings in go-templates (see .Style in
aerc-templates(7)). User styles must be defined in the [user] ini section. Styles can be
referenced by their name (e.g. red.fg is named "red").
Example:
[user]
red.fg=red
User styles are layered with other styles applied to the context in which they are
rendered. The user style colors (fg and/or bg) will only be effective if the context style
does not define any. Other boolean attributes will be merged with the underlying style
boolean attributes.
For example, if the context style is:
fg=red bold
And the inline style is:
fg=yellow italic underline
The effective style will be:
fg=red bold italic underline
FNMATCH STYLE WILDCARD MATCHING
The styleset configuration can be made simpler by using the fnmatch style wildcard
matching for the style object.
The special characters used in the fnmatch wildcards are:
┌────────┬──────────────────────────────┐
│Pattern │ Meaning │
├────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│* │ Matches everything │
├────────┼──────────────────────────────┤
│? │ Matches any single character │
└────────┴──────────────────────────────┘
For example, the following wildcards can be made using this syntax.
┌───────────────────┬─────────────────────────────────┐
│Example │ Description │
├───────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│*.fg = blue │ Set the foreground color of all │
│ │ style objects to blue. │
├───────────────────┼─────────────────────────────────┤
│*list.bg = hotpink │ Set the background color of all │
│ │ style objects that end in list │
│ │ to hotpink. │
└───────────────────┴─────────────────────────────────┘
Note that the statements in a given styleset are parsed in the order in which they are
written. That means that with the following styleset:
msglist_marked.fg = pink
msglist_*.fg = white
The msglist_marked.fg attribute will be set to white.
SELECTED MODIFIER
The selected modifier can be applied to any style object. The style provided for the
selected modifier is applied on top of the style object it corresponds to.
If you would like to make sure message that are flagged as read in the msglist appear in
yellow foreground and black background. You can specify that with this:
msglist_default.selected.fg = yellow
msglist_default.selected.bg = black
If we specify the global style selected modifier using fnmatch as below:
*.selected.reverse = toggle
This toggles the reverse switch for selected version of all the style objects.
selected objects inherit from all attributes of their non-selected counterparts. selected
statements are parsed after non-selected ones and effectively override the attributes of
the non-selected style object.
LAYERED STYLES
Some styles, (currently the msglist_* and dirlist_* ones) are applied in layers. If a
style differs from the base (in this case *list_default) then that style applies, unless
overridden by a higher layer. If fg and bg colors are not defined explicitly (or defined
to the default color) they will be considered as "transparent" and the colors from the
lower layer will be used instead.
The order that msglist_* styles are applied in is, from first to last:
1. msglist_default
2. msglist_unread
3. msglist_read
4. msglist_answered
5. msglist_flagged
6. msglist_deleted
7. msglist_result
8. msglist_thread_folded
9. msglist_thread_context
10. msglist_thread_orphan
11. msglist_marked
So, the marked style will override all other msglist styles.
The order for dirlist_* styles is:
1. dirlist_default
2. dirlist_unread
3. dirlist_recent
DYNAMIC MESSAGE LIST STYLES
All msglist_* styles can be defined for specific email header values. The syntax is as
follows:
msglist_<name>.<header>,<header_value>.<attribute> = <attr_value>
If <header_value> starts with a tilde character ~, it will be interpreted as a regular
expression.
Examples:
msglist*.X-Sourcehut-Patchset-Update,APPROVED.fg = green
msglist*.X-Sourcehut-Patchset-Update,NEEDS_REVISION.fg = yellow
msglist*.X-Sourcehut-Patchset-Update,REJECTED.fg = red
"msglist_*.Subject,~^(\[[w-]+]\s*)?\[(RFC )?PATCH.fg" = #ffffaf
"msglist_*.Subject,~^(\[[w-]+]\s*)?\[(RFC )?PATCH.selected.fg" = #ffffaf
When a dynamic style is matched to an email header, it will be used in priority compared
to its non-dynamic counterpart. Provided the following styleset:
msglist_marked.fg = blue
msglist_*.Subject,~foobar.fg = red
An email with foobar it its subject will be colored in red all the time, since msglist_*
also applies to msglist_marked.
COLORS
The color values are set using any of the following methods:
default
The color is set as per the system or terminal default.
<Color name>
Any w3c approved color name is used to set colors for the style.
<Hex code>
Hexcode for a color can be used. The format must be #XXXXXX.
<Dec number>
Color based on the terminal palette index. Valid numbers are between 0 and 255.
DEFAULTS
Before parsing a styleset, it is first initialized with the following defaults:
*.selected.bg = 12
*.selected.fg = 15
*.selected.bold = true
statusline_*.dim = true
statusline_*.bg = 8
statusline_*.fg = 15
*warning.fg = 3
*success.fg = 2
*error.fg = 1
*error.bold = true
border.bg = 12
border.fg = 15
title.bg = 12
title.fg = 15
title.bold = true
header.fg = 4
header.bold = true
msglist_unread.bold = true
msglist_deleted.dim = true
msglist_marked.bg = 6
msglist_marked.fg = 15
msglist_pill.bg = 12
msglist_pill.fg = 15
part_mimetype.fg = 12
selector_chooser.bold = true
selector_focused.bold = true
selector_focused.bg = 12
selector_focused.fg = 15
completion_pill.bg = 12
completion_default.bg = 8
completion_default.fg = 15
[viewer]
url.underline = true
url.fg = 3
header.bold = true
header.fg = 4
signature.dim = true
signature.fg = 4
diff_meta.bold = true
diff_chunk.fg = 6
diff_chunk_func.fg = 6
diff_chunk_func.dim = true
diff_add.fg = 2
diff_del.fg = 1
quote_1.fg = 6
quote_2.fg = 4
quote_3.fg = 6
quote_3.dim = true
quote_4.fg = 4
quote_4.dim = true
quote_x.fg = 5
quote_x.dim = true
You can choose either to reset everything (except in the [viewer] section) by starting
your styleset with these two lines:
*.default=true
*.normal=true
Or selectively override style object attributes.
If you want to also reset the [viewer] section, you need to insert the same two lines:
[viewer]
*.default=true
*.normal=true
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/.
2024-07-30 AERC-STYLESETS(7)