aerc-stylesets(7)

Name

aerc-stylesets - styleset file specification for aerc(1)

SYNOPSIS

aerc uses a simple configuration syntax to configure the styleset for its ui.

Styleset Configuration

Aerc uses a simple configuration file to describe a styleset. The styleset is described as key, value pairs. In each line, the key represents the style object it signifies and the color/attribute of that is modified.

For example, in the line below, the foreground color of the style object "msglist_unread" is set to "cornflowerblue"
    msglist_unread.fg=cornflowerblue

The configuration also allows wildcard matching of the style_objects to configure multiple style objects at a time.

  Style
The following options are available to be modified for each of the style objects.

fg
    The foreground color of the style object is set.

    Syntax: `<style_object>.fg=<color>`

bg
    The background color of the style object is set.

    Syntax: `<style_object>.bg=<color>`

bold
    The bold attribute of the style object is set/unset.

    Syntax: `<style_object>.bold=<true|false|toggle>`

blink
    The blink attribute of the style object is set/unset. The terminal needs to support blinking text

    Syntax: `<style_object>.blink=<true|false|toggle>`

underline
    The underline attribute of the style object is set/unset. The terminal needs to support underline text

    Syntax: `<style_object>.underline=<true|false|toggle>`

reverse
    Reverses the color of the style object. Exchanges the foreground and background colors.

    Syntax: `<style_object>.reverse=<true|false|toggle>` If the value is false, it doesn't change anything

normal
    All the attributes of the style object are unset.

    Syntax: `<style_object>.normal=<true>` The value doesn't matter

default
    Set the style object to the default style of the context. Usually based on the terminal.

    Syntax: `<style_object>.default=<true>` The value doesn't matter

  Style Objects
The style objects represent the various ui elements or ui instances for styling.

Style Object | Description
default | The default style object used for normal ui elements while not using specialized configuration.
error | The style used to show errors.
warning | The style used when showing warnings.
success | The style used for success messages.
title | The style object used to style titles in ui elements.
header | The style object used to style headers in ui elements.
statusline_default | The default style applied to the statusline.
statusline_error | The style used for error messages in statusline.
statusline_success | The style used for success messages in statusline.
msglist_default | The default style for messages in a message list.
msglist_unread | Unread messages in a message list.
msglist_read | Read messages in a message list.
msglist_flagged | The messages with the flagged flag.
msglist_deleted | The messages marked as deleted.
msglist_marked | The messages with the marked flag.
dirlist_default | The default style for directories in the directory list.
dirlist_unread | The style used for directories with unread messages
dirlist_recent | The style used for directories with recent messages
completion_default | The default style for the completion engine.
completion_gutter | The completion gutter.
completion_pill | The completion pill.
tab | The style for the tab bar.
stack | The style for ui stack element.
spinner | The style for the loading spinner.
border | The style used to draw borders. Only the background color is used unless you customize border-char-vertical and/or border-char-horizontal in aerc.conf.
selector_default | The default style for the selector ui element.
selector_focused | The focused item in a selector ui element.
selector_chooser | The item chooser in a selector ui element.

  fnmatch style wildcard matching
The styleset configuration can be made simpler by using the fnmatch style wildcard matching for the style object.

The special characters used in the fnmatch wildcards are:
Pattern | Meaning
* | Matches everything
? | Matches any single character

For example, the following wildcards can be made using this syntax.
Example | Description
*.fg=blue | Set the foreground color of all style objects to blue.
*list.bg=hotpink | Set the background color of all style objects that end in list to hotpink.

  Selected modifier
Selected modifier can be applied to any style object. The style provided for the selected modifier are applied on top of the style object it corresponds to.

If you would like to make sure message that are flagged as read in the msglist appear in yellow foreground and black background. You can specify that with this:

    msglist_default.selected.fg=yellow

    msglist_default.selected.bg=black

If we specify the global style selected modifier using fnmatch as below:

    *.selected.reverse=toggle

This toggles the reverse switch for selected version of all the style objects.

  Layered styles
Some styles, (currently the `msglist*` and `dirlist*` ones) are applied in layers. If a style differs from the base (in this case `{msglist|dirlist}_default`) then that style applies, unless overridden by a higher layer. The order that `msglist` styles are applied in is, from first to last:

    msglist_default
    msglist_unread
    msglist_read
    msglist_flagged
    msglist_deleted
    msglist_marked

So, the marked style will override all other msglist styles. The order for `dirlist` styles is:

    dirlist_default
    dirlist_unread
    dirlist_recent

  Colors
The color values are set using the values accepted by the tcell library. The values can be one of the following.

    default
        The color is set as per the system or terminal default.

    <Color name>
        Any w3c approved color name is used to set colors for the style.

    <Hex code>
        Hexcode for a color can be used. The format must be "#XXXXXX"

    <Dec number>
        Color based on the palette index. Valid numbers are between 0 and 255.

SEE ALSO

aerc(1) aerc-config(5)

AUTHORS

Originally created by Drew DeVault <sir@cmpwn.com> and maintained by Robin Jarry <robin@jarry.cc> who is assisted by other open source contributors. For more information about aerc development, see https://sr.ht/~rjarry/aerc/.