The Mutt E-Mail Client : Configuration : Setting variables
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## 3.25. Setting variables

Usage: `set` [no|inv]variable[=value] [ variable ... ]
Usage: `toggle` variable [variable ... ]
Usage: `unset` variable [variable ... ]
Usage: `reset` variable [variable ... ]

This command is used to set (and unset) configuration variables. There are four basic types of variables: boolean, number, string and quadoption. boolean variables can be set (true) or unset (false). number variables can be assigned a positive integer value.

string variables consist of any number of printable characters. strings must be enclosed in quotes if they contain spaces or tabs. You may also use the ``C'' escape sequences \n and \t for newline and tab, respectively.

quadoption variables are used to control whether or not to be prompted for certain actions, or to specify a default action. A value of yes will cause the action to be carried out automatically as if you had answered yes to the question. Similarly, a value of no will cause the the action to be carried out as if you had answered ``no.'' A value of ask-yes will cause a prompt with a default answer of ``yes'' and ask-no will provide a default answer of ``no.''

Prefixing a variable with ``no'' will unset it. Example: `set noaskbcc`.

For boolean variables, you may optionally prefix the variable name with `inv` to toggle the value (on or off). This is useful when writing macros. Example: `set invsmart_wrap`.

The `toggle` command automatically prepends the `inv` prefix to all specified variables.

The `unset` command automatically prepends the `no` prefix to all specified variables.

Using the enter-command function in the index menu, you can query the value of a variable by prefixing the name of the variable with a question mark:

> `

>     set ?allow_8bit

> `

The question mark is actually only required for boolean and quadoption variables.

The `reset` command resets all given variables to the compile time defaults (hopefully mentioned in this manual). If you use the command `set` and prefix the variable with ``&'' this has the same behavior as the reset command.

With the `reset` command there exists the special variable ``all'', which allows you to reset all variables to their system defaults.

The Mutt E-Mail Client : Configuration : Setting variables
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Next: Reading initialization commands from another file