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emailmacrosmutt

"Open attachment with" macro in mutt email client

Sometimes I receive email attachments whose mimetypes are not in my mailcap file. To open such attachments from mutt, I usually select the attachment from the list, hit s to save the file to /tmp, and then use ! to open the saved file with whatever application suits, using a shell command.

Is it possible to automate this with a mutt macro, which simply saves the selected attachment to /tmp, queries for an application name, and then opens the saved file with this application?

Solution

  • I will answer my own question. The following entry in .muttrc does what I want:

    macro attach O \
"\
<enter-command>unset wait_key<enter>\
<shell-escape>rm -f /tmp/mutt-attach<enter>\
<save-entry><kill-line>/tmp/mutt-attach<enter>\
<shell-escape> /tmp/mutt-attach &^A\
"

    Description (line by line):

    • map the macro to the O key in attachment mode
    • disable "Press any key to continue ..."
    • remove the file /tmp/mutt-attach if it exists
    • save the selected entry to /tmp/mutt-attach
    • start a shell command, input /tmp/mutt-attach & and go to the beginning of the line (^A)

    Then I can simply input the program I want to use and hit enter, which will open the selected attachment in the background.