Conditional Dates Feature

Use rules to choose date format

1. Support

Since: NeoMutt 2016-03-07

Dependencies:

nested-if feature

2. Introduction

The “Conditional Dates” feature allows you to construct $index_format expressions based on the age of the email.

NeoMutt's default $index_format displays email dates in the form: abbreviated-month day-of-month – “Jan 14”.

The format is configurable but only per-mailbox. This feature allows you to configure the display depending on the age of the email.

Table 13.1. Potential Formatting Scheme

Email Sent Format Example
Today %H:%M 13:23
This Month %a %d Thu 17
This Year %b %d Dec 10
Older than 1 Year %m/%y 06/14

For an explanation of the date formatting strings, see strftime(3).

By carefully picking your formats, the dates can remain unambiguous and compact.

NeoMutt's conditional format strings have the form: (whitespace introduced for clarity)

%< TEST ? TRUE & FALSE >

The examples below use the test “%[”– the date of the message in the local timezone. They will also work with “%(”– the local time that the message arrived.

The date tests are of the form:

%<[nX? TRUE & FALSE >

  • “n” is an optional count (defaults to 1 if missing)

  • “X” is the time period

Table 13.2. Date Formatting Codes

Letter Time Period
y Years
m Months
w Weeks
d Days
H Hours
M Minutes

Table 13.3. Example Date Tests

Test Meaning
%[y This year
%[1y This year
%[6m In the last 6 months
%[w This week
%[d Today
%[4H In the last 4 hours

2.1. Example 1

We start with a one-condition test.

Table 13.4. Example 1

Test Date Range Format String Example
%[1m This month %[%b %d] Dec 10
  Older %[%Y-%m-%d] 2015-04-23

The $index_format string would contain:

%<[1m?%[%b %d]&%[%Y-%m-%d]>

Reparsed a little, for clarity, you can see the test condition and the two format strings.

%<[1m?        &           >

    %[%b %d] %[%Y-%m-%d]

2.2. Example 2

This example contains three test conditions and four date formats.

Table 13.5. Example 2

Test Date Range Format String Example
%[d Today %[%H:%M ] 12:34
%[m This month %[%a %d] Thu 12
%[y This year %[%b %d] Dec 10
  Older %[%m/%y ] 06/15

The $index_format string would contain:

%<[y?%<[m?%<[d?%[%H:%M ]&%[%a %d]>&%[%b %d]>&%[%m/%y ]>

Reparsed a little, for clarity, you can see the test conditions and the four format strings.

%<[y?                                       &%[%m/%y ]>  Older
   %<[m?                        &%[%b %d]>             This year
        %<[d?         &%[%a %d]>                       This month
             %[%H:%M ]                                 Today

This a another view of the same example, with some whitespace for clarity.

%<[y? %<[m? %<[d? AAA & BBB > & CCC > & DDD >

AAA = %[%H:%M ] BBB = %[%a %d] CCC = %[%b %d] DDD = %[%m/%y ]

3. Variables

The “Conditional Dates” feature doesn't have any config of its own. It modifies the behavior of the format strings.

4. neomuttrc

# Example NeoMutt config file for the cond-date feature.

#
# The default index_format is:
#       '%4C %Z %{%b %d} %-15.15L (%<l?%4l&%4c>) %s'
#
# We replace the date field '%{%b %d}', giving:
set index_format='%4C %Z %<[y?%<[m?%<[d?%[%H:%M ]&%[%a %d]>&%[%b %d]>&%[%m/%y ]> %-15.15L (%<l?%4l&%4c>) %s'
# Test  Date Range  Format String  Example
# --------------------------------------------
# %[d   Today       %[%H:%M ]      12:34
# %[m   This month  %[%a %d]       Thu 12
# %[y   This year   %[%b %d]       Dec 10
#  —    Older       %[%m/%y ]      06/15

# vim: syntax=neomuttrc

5. See Also

6. Known Bugs

Date parsing doesn't quite do what you expect. “1w” doesn't mean the “in the last 7 days”, but “ this week”. This doesn't match the normal NeoMutt behavior: for example ~d>1w means emails dated in the last 7 days.

7. Credits

Aaron Schrab, Eric Davis, Richard Russon

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