# meli ![Established, created in 2017](https://img.shields.io/badge/Est.-2017-blue) ![Minimum Supported Rust Version](https://img.shields.io/badge/MSRV-1.70.0-blue) [![GitHub license](https://img.shields.io/github/license/meli/meli)](https://github.com/meli/meli/blob/master/COPYING) [![Crates.io](https://img.shields.io/crates/v/meli)](https://crates.io/crates/meli) [![IRC channel](https://img.shields.io/badge/irc.oftc.net-%23meli-blue)](ircs://irc.oftc.net:6697/%23meli)
**BSD/Linux/macos terminal email client with support for multiple accounts and Maildir / mbox / notmuch / IMAP / JMAP / NNTP (Usenet).**
Try an [old online interactive web demo ](https://meli-email.org/wasm2.html "online interactive web demo" ) powered by WebAssembly!
* `#meli` on OFTC IRC | [mailing lists ](https://lists.meli-email.org/ )
* Repository:
- Main < https: // git . meli-email . org / meli / meli > Report bugs and/or feature requests in [meli's issue tracker ](https://git.meli-email.org/meli/meli/issues "meli gitea issue tracker" )
- Official mirror < https: // codeberg . org / meli / meli >
- Official mirror < https: // github . com / meli / meli >
- Official mirror < https: // ayllu-forge . org / meli / meli >
**Table of contents**:
- [Install ](#install )
- [Build ](#build )
- [Quick start ](#quick-start )
- [Supported E-mail backends ](#supported-e-mail-backends )
- [E-mail submission backends ](#e-mail-submission-backends )
- [Non-exhaustive list of features ](#non-exhaustive-list-of-features )
- [HTML Rendering ](#html-rendering )
- [Documentation ](#documentation )
## Install
- `cargo install meli` or `cargo install --git https://git.meli-email.org/meli/meli.git meli`
- [pkgsrc ](https://pkgsrc.se/mail/meli )
- [openbsd ports ](https://openports.pl/path/mail/meli )
- [Pre-built debian package, static binaries ](https://github.com/meli/meli/releases/ "github releases for meli" )
- [Nix ](https://search.nixos.org/packages?show=meli&query=meli&from=0&size=30&sort=relevance&channel=unstable#disabled "nixos package search results for 'meli'" )
## Build
Run `cargo build --release --bin meli` or `make` .
For detailed building instructions, see [`BUILD.md` ](./BUILD.md )
## Quick start
< table >
< tr > < td >
```sh
# Create configuration file in ${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/meli/config.toml:
$ meli create-config
# Edit configuration in ${EDITOR} or ${VISUAL}:
$ meli edit-config
# Optionally, install manual pages if installed via cargo:
$ meli install-man
# Ready to go.
$ meli
```
< / td > < td >
See a comprehensive tour of `meli` in the manual page [`meli(7)` ](./meli/docs/meli.7 ).
See also the [Quickstart tutorial ](https://meli-email.org/documentation.html#quick-start ) online.
After installing `meli` , see `meli(1)` , `meli.conf(5)` , `meli(7)` and `meli-themes(5)` for documentation.
Sample configuration and theme files can be found in the `meli/docs/samples/` subdirectory.
Manual pages are also [hosted online ](https://meli-email.org/documentation.html "meli documentation" ).
`meli` by default looks for a configuration file in this location: `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/meli/config.toml` .
You can run meli with arbitrary configuration files by setting the `${MELI_CONFIG}` environment variable to their locations, i.e.:
```sh
MELI_CONFIG=./test_config cargo run
```
< / td > < / tr >
< / table >
See [`meli(7)` ](./meli/docs/meli.7 ) for an extensive tutorial and [`meli.conf(5)` ](./meli/docs/meli.conf.5 ) for all configuration values.
| | | |
:---:|:---:|:---:
![Main view screenshot ](./meli/docs/screenshots/main.webp "mail meli view screenshot" ) | ![Compact main view screenshot ](./meli/docs/screenshots/compact.webp "compact main view screenshot" ) | ![Compose with embed terminal editor screenshot ](./meli/docs/screenshots/compose.webp "composing view screenshot" )
Main view | Compact main view | Compose with embed terminal editor
### Supported E-mail backends
| Protocol | Support |
|:------------:|:----------------|
| IMAP | full |
| Maildir | full |
| notmuch | full[^0] |
| mbox | read-only |
| JMAP | functional |
| NNTP / Usenet| functional |
[^0]: there's no support for searching through all email directly, you'd have to
create a mailbox with a notmuch query that returns everything and search
inside that mailbox.
### E-mail submission backends
- SMTP
- Pipe to shell script
- Server-side submission when supported
### Non-exhaustive list of features
- TLS
- email threading support
- multithreaded, async operation
- optionally run your editor of choice inside meli, with an embedded
xterm-compatible terminal emulator
- plain text configuration in TOML
- ability to open emails in UI tabs and switch to them
- optional sqlite3 index search
- override almost any setting per mailbox, per account
- contact list (+read-only vCard and mutt alias file support)
- forced UTF-8 (other encodings are read-only)
- configurable shortcuts
- theming
- `NO_COLOR` support
- ascii-only drawing characters option
- view text/html attachments through an html filter command (w3m by default)
- pipe attachments/mail to stuff
- use external attachment file picker instead of typing in an attachment's full path
- GPG signing, encryption, signing + encryption
- GPG signature verification
## HTML Rendering
HTML rendering is achieved using [w3m ](https://github.com/tats/w3m ) by default.
You can use the `pager.html_filter` setting to override this (for more details you can consult [`meli.conf(5)` ](./meli/docs/meli.conf.5 )).
## Documentation
See a comprehensive tour of `meli` in the manual page [`meli(7)` ](./meli/docs/meli.7 ).
See also the [Quickstart tutorial ](https://meli-email.org/documentation.html#quick-start ) online.
After installing `meli` , see `meli(1)` , `meli.conf(5)` , `meli(7)` and `meli-themes(5)` for documentation.
Sample configuration and theme files can be found in the `meli/docs/samples/` subdirectory.
Manual pages are also [hosted online ](https://meli-email.org/documentation.html "meli documentation" ).
`meli` by default looks for a configuration file in this location: `${XDG_CONFIG_HOME}/meli/config.toml`
You can run meli with arbitrary configuration files by setting the `${MELI_CONFIG}` environment variable to their locations, or use the `[-c, --config]` argument:
```sh
MELI_CONFIG=./test_config meli
```
or
```sh
meli -c ./test_config
```