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Header Caching:

Mutt suffers from one of IMAP's deficiencies: every time you enter a new IMAP folder Mutt has to reread the contents of the entire folder in order to present you with the index. For folders with a lot of messages, or any folder if you're working over a slow connection, that can be the source of a very lengthy pause. Caching the headers takes care of the problem, by providing mutt with a mechanism for storing the headers locally; mutt then only needs to compare the contents of your IMAP folder with the local cache, and react accordingly. For most IMAP users, this is a huge improvement. Prior to about 2008, header caching was a patch you had to compile in yourself. These days, it's standard (it came automatically with my SUSE 9.2 distro). The header cache can take two forms: a folder of files, or a single file. If .mutt-headercache (or whatever you call it) is a file, your cache will be a single file. I prefer it to be a folder of files, so simply mkdir .mutt-headercache to do so. Make it a dot file so you don't have to look at it every day in my home folder. Once you've created a home for the cache, simply tell mutt where to find it, as follows:

set header_cache=/home/randymon/.mutt-headercache


next up previous contents
Next: Sending your mail: Up: Accessing your Mail at Previous: Getting your mail:   Contents
Randall Wood 2009-12-02