How do I open a link from an email in mutt (without using the mouse)?

Question

One of the things I like about using Mutt is that I don't have to use the mouse pretty much at all. I get a lot of emails that contain links, though, whether they're validation ("click on this link to validate your account") or from Facebook or other similar sites. What I want to know is, is there a way to open these links without clicking on them?

Answer 1

Yes, the easiest method is with the urlview helper utility for mutt. The urlview utility is a curses program designed to be a URL extractor and launcher. The method of installation depends on your target operating system. It can be obtained from the mutt ftp site.

Once installed, place this in your ~/.muttrc:

macro pager \cb 'urlview' 'Follow links with urlview'

You can now use Ctrl + b to launch urlview in the pager.

Answer 2

An alternative to urlview is w3m, a text based web browser and pager.

macro index,pager \cb ": unset wait_key; set pipe_decode\n|w3m\n: set wait_key; unset pipe_decode\n" "call w3m to extract URLs out of a message"

After typing Ctrl-B to launch w3m, type : (a colon) to tell w3m to convert URL strings to links.

You may also want to w3m's Option Setting Panel (type o) and set the "Treat URL-like strings as links in all pages" to YES. Then you won't have to keep typing : as you page through the message.