aerc-stylesets - Man Page

aerc uses a simple configuration syntax to configure the styleset for its ui.

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

The configuration also allows wildcard matching of the keys to configure multiple style objects at a time.

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.

The style objects represent the various ui elements or ui instances for styling.

These next style objects only affect the built-in colorize filter and must be declared under a [viewer] section of the styleset file.

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:

And the inline style is:

The effective style will be:

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:

For example, the following wildcards can be made using this syntax.

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.

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:

If we specify the global style selected modifier using fnmatch as below:

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.

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

All msglist_* styles can be defined for specific email header values. The syntax is as follows:

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.

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.

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

aerc(1) aerc-config(5)

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/.

aerc(1), aerc-config(5), aerc-templates(7).