Re: [PATCH] Add $weed_unfold option.

"Kevin J. McCarthy" <[email protected]> Fri, 27 Feb 2026 11:00:22 +0800
Newsgroups	gmane.mail.mutt.devel
Message-ID	<aaEIxizF3imj3SIT@qinghai>
On Thu, Feb 26, 2026 at 05:09:38PM +0100, Rene Kita wrote:
>On Thu, Feb 26, 2026 at 12:19:48PM +0800, Kevin J. McCarthy wrote:
>> This option, when unset, modifies the display of email headers when
>> $weed is enabled.
>>
>> The default behavior is to unfold headers when $weed is set, and to
>> leave them folded when $weed is unset (in effect, displaying them as
>> they appear in the original email, subject to screen width wrapping).
>>
>> When $weed_unfold is unset and $weed is set, the headers will be
>> weeded, but will not be unfolded: displaying as they appear in the
>> original email.
>>
>> The option could be useful for those who 'unignore' long headers, such
>> as from Spam Assassin, that are formatted to be more readable in the
>> original email, but become unreadable when unfolded/refolded to screen
>> width.
>
>This left me a bit confused, but maybe it's just me. Just to clarify:
>$weed_unfold unset is the new behaviour while setting $weed_unfold is
>the old default? If so, wouldn't it make more sense to use $weed_fold?

To be clear, the default behavior is unchanged by this patch.

But I agree it is a bit confusing.  The *sending* MUA (and hops that add 
headers) fold the headers to be within the 72 char limit.

Currently, with $weed set (the default) Mutt will unfold those 
headers. So, with an exaggeratedly small fold width for example 
purposes, a folded subject line such as

   Subject: This is the
    subject line

will be displayed as

   Subject: This is the subject line

When you toggle off weed via 'h' <display-toggle-weed>', the subject 
will not be unfolded.  It will be shown as it is in the original 
(subject to folding by your display width).  So you will then see:

   Subject: This is the
    subject line

along with all the headers in the email.

So this new option by default preserves that behavior.  $weed_unfold is 
set by default, and so when $weed is on, the headers will be unfolded as 
before.

If you put 'unset weed_unfold' in your muttrc, then the subject and 
other headers you've unignored will be displayed without the unfolding:

   Subject: This is the
    subject line

>Also, unfolding in that case means that a nicely formatted header, a
>header that goes over multiple lines to be read by humans, is 'unfolded'
>to be a single line header, right?

The ticket creator was not happy because their SpamAssasin headers were 
"nicely" formatted, and Mutt was unfolding them and making them less 
readable.  But that's not necessarily the case for all headers.

If you still find the option name confusing, I could invert it, to 
something like $weed_leave_folded, default unset.  But the option 
doesn't haven't anything to do with "folding".

I hope that makes it clearer!  :-)

-- 
Kevin J. McCarthy
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