DOKK / manpages / debian 12 / aerc / aerc-stylesets.7.en
AERC-STYLESETS(7) Miscellaneous Information Manual AERC-STYLESETS(7)

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

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

The styleset is described as <object>.<attribute> = <value> pairs.

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 keys to configure multiple style objects at a time.

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

<object>.fg = <color>

The foreground color of the style object is set.

<object>.bg = <color>

The background color of the style object is set.

<object>.bold = true|false|toggle

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

<object>.blink = true|false|toggle

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

<object>.underline = true|false|toggle

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

<object>.italic = true|false|toggle

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

<object>.reverse = true|false|toggle

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

If the value is false, it doesn't change anything.

<object>.normal = true

All the attributes of the style object are unset.

The value doesn't matter.

<object>.default = true

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

The value doesn't matter.

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.
msglist_result The messages which match the current search.
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 bg 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.

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.

The selected modifier can be applied to any style object. The style provided for the selected modifier is 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.

Some styles, (currently the msglist_* and dirlist_* ones) are applied in layers. If a style differs from the base (in this case *list_default) then that style applies, unless overridden by a higher layer.

The order that msglist_* styles are applied in is, from first to last:

1.msglist_default
2.msglist_unread
3.msglist_read
4.msglist_flagged
5.msglist_deleted
6.msglist_marked

So, the marked style will override all other msglist styles.

The order for dirlist_* styles is:

1.dirlist_default
2.dirlist_unread
3.dirlist_recent

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 terminal palette index. Valid numbers are between 0 and 255.

aerc(1) aerc-config(5)

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/.

2023-04-23