published: 2022-09-07
title: Set email priority with mutt
tags: previous [‘How I started programming’] next [‘My first custom Fail2Ban filter’] parent directory [‘Blog’]
Since I switched to (neo)mutt[4] as email client, many of my daily
neomutt [‘(neo)mutt’] email routines have changed quite a lot, mostly to the better, becoming more efficient and better organized. In the beginning however I also had to do without some extras that I took for granted in the full-blown email/calendar/contacts client I was using before.
I started writing this post because, even after years of using it, I still discover new things I didn’t know about email in general; today it was how to send an email flagged as important. However, I realized I might as well write some more about the less obvious things I discovered while using mutt for my email.
This may be the most popular principle of the UNIX philosophy[5]. A UNIX program is supposed to do one
unixphilosophy [‘UNIX philosophy’] task, to make sure the program runs correctly and robust and as simple as possible.
Yes, I confess. I was using Outlook for email before I started mutt. Actually I used Netscape as a child and also tried Thunderbird and Evolution for some time, but I really have a soft spot for terminal applications, so when I failed with the Alpine mail client (because of my incapability) I was lucky to find a good entry into mutt.
That’s when I first realized what “Do one thing” actually means. Where I was using only Outlook before, I now have a battery of smaller programs that each do their thing. I use
While the advantage of having multiple programs instead of one may not be obvious, here is what I love about this setup:
mblaze