Forwarding a message with attachments in Mutt (Shallow Thoughts)

Forwarding a message with attachments in Mutt

I've wanted to know forever how to forward a message with all or some of its attachments from mutt.

You can set the variable mime_forward so that when you forward a message, it includes the entire message, headers, attachments and all, as a single attachment. You can't edit this or change it in any way. If you want to trim the original message, or omit one of the attachments, you're out of luck.

I've found two ways to do it.

First: type v to get to the attachments screen. Type t repeatedly to tag all the attachments, including the initial small text/plain attachment (that's the original message body). When they're all tagged, type ;f (forward all tagged attachments). After you fill in the To: prompt, you'll be able to edit the message body, and when you leave the editor, you'll have the attachment list there to edit as you see fit.

If that doesn't work (I haven't tried it on HTML messages), there's a slightly more elaborate procedure: use
Esc-e   resend-message   use the current message as a template for a new one.
This calls up an editor on the current message, including headers. Change the From to your name, the To to your intended recipient, and edit the message body to your heart's content. When you're done, you're sent to the Compose screen, where you can adjust the attachment list and send the message.

Forwarding is pretty clearly not what Esc-E was intended for ... but it does the job and might be a handy trick to know.

Tags: mutt, forward, attachments, mime
[ 23:14 Aug 23, 2008    More linux | permalink to this entry | ]