Displaying HTML emails in Neomutt's pager

README.md

Displaying HTML emails in Neomutt's pager

Neomutt configuration

My neomutt config files are huge and even their path is cusmotized with $VIMINIT.

I'm just sharing parts about auto_view and HTML mailcap, please update your config accordingly.

Customize and Build html2text

Clone rust-html2text

git clone --depth=1 https://github.com/jugglerchris/rust-html2text

cd rust-html2text/examples/

Use html2text.patch from gist on the html2text example

My patch customize Rich Annotations inline formatting and disable drawing borders.

patch html2text.rs -o html2text-patched.rs < html2text.patch

Build the patched example

cd ../
cargo build --features css --example html2text-patched

Copy the binary for user

cp target/debug/examples/html2text-patched $HOME/.local/bin/html2text

auto-view_html.sh

#!/usr/bin/env bash

# ~/.config/neomutt/scripts/auto-view_html.sh
# linked to ~/.local/bin/auto-view_html

# takes a temporary HTML attachment from Neomutt's autoview and
# return a cleaned, formated, colored output, ready for the builtin pager.
# requires 3 attributes: filename, charset, columns
# example: auto-view_html.sh %s %{charset} ${COLUMNS:-80}

shopt -s extglob

export LC_ALL="C.UTF-8"
export TZ=:/etc/localtime

if [[ $3 -lt 80 ]]; then
  _columns=$3
else
  _columns=80
fi

# To hide preview divs html2text needs to be compiled with
# the css feature and we need to use --ignore-css-colour option
# to hide hidden elements but not ovveride custom colors.
iconv -f "$2" -t UTF-8 "$1" \
  | html2text --width $_columns --wrap-width $_columns --colour --ignore-css-colour

# separation between message and links references.
echo

# Issue: html2text lack links references in --colour for now:
# Convert the same file in plain text but with links references,
# delete the message to keep only the references.
html2text "$1" \
  | sed -E '/^\[1\]: /,$!d' \
  | tr -d '\n' \
  | sed -E 's/(.)(\[[0-9]*\]: )/\1\n\2/g'

html2text.patch

--- html2text.rs	2024-05-30 20:42:40.295760837 +0700
+++ html2text-patched.rs	2024-05-30 20:44:45.296780972 +0700
@@ -27,41 +27,41 @@
         match annotation {
             Default => {}
             Link(_) => {
-                start.push(format!("{}", termion::style::Underline));
-                finish.push(format!("{}", termion::style::Reset));
+                start.push(format!("{}{}", Fg(AnsiValue(153)), termion::style::Underline));
+                finish.push(format!("{}{}", Fg(White), termion::style::NoUnderline));
             }
             Image(_) => {
                 if !have_explicit_colour {
-                    start.push(format!("{}", Fg(Blue)));
-                    finish.push(format!("{}", Fg(Reset)));
+                    start.push(format!("{}{}", Fg(AnsiValue(225)), termion::style::Italic));
+                    finish.push(format!("{}{}", Fg(White), termion::style::NoItalic));
                 }
             }
             Emphasis => {
-                start.push(format!("{}", termion::style::Bold));
-                finish.push(format!("{}", termion::style::Reset));
+                start.push(format!("{}", termion::style::Italic));
+                finish.push(format!("{}", termion::style::NoItalic));
             }
             Strong => {
                 if !have_explicit_colour {
-                    start.push(format!("{}", Fg(LightYellow)));
-                    finish.push(format!("{}", Fg(Reset)));
+                    start.push(format!("{}", termion::style::Bold));
+                    finish.push(format!("{}", termion::style::NoBold));
                 }
             }
             Strikeout => {
                 if !have_explicit_colour {
-                    start.push(format!("{}", Fg(LightBlack)));
-                    finish.push(format!("{}", Fg(Reset)));
+                    start.push(format!("{}{}", Fg(AnsiValue(7)), termion::style::CrossedOut));
+                    finish.push(format!("{}{}", Fg(White), termion::style::NoCrossedOut));
                 }
             }
             Code => {
                 if !have_explicit_colour {
-                    start.push(format!("{}", Fg(Blue)));
-                    finish.push(format!("{}", Fg(Reset)));
+                    start.push(format!("{}{}", Bg(AnsiValue(25)), Fg(AnsiValue(222))));
+                    finish.push(format!("{}{}", Bg(Reset) ,Fg(White)));
                 }
             }
             Preformat(_) => {
                 if !have_explicit_colour {
-                    start.push(format!("{}", Fg(Blue)));
-                    finish.push(format!("{}", Fg(Reset)));
+                    start.push(format!("{}{}", Bg(AnsiValue(25)), Fg(AnsiValue(229))));
+                    finish.push(format!("{}{}", Bg(Reset), Fg(White)));
                 }
             }
             Colour(c) => {
@@ -92,6 +92,7 @@
 }
 
 fn update_config<T: TextDecorator>(mut config: Config<T>, flags: &Flags) -> Config<T> {
+    config = config.raw_mode(true);
     if let Some(wrap_width) = flags.wrap_width {
         config = config.max_wrap_width(wrap_width);
     }

mailcap

# ~/.config/neomutt/mailcap

# HTML
text/html; dillo --local --fullwindow %s 1>/dev/null &; nametemplate=%s.html; x-neomutt-nowrap
#text/html; firefox-esr -P neomutt --offline --new-tab --private-window --class=firefox-neomutt '%s' &; nametemplate=%s.html
#text/html; netsurf-gtk %s 1>/dev/null &; nametemplate=%s.html; x-neomutt-nowrap
text/html; auto-view_html %s %{charset} ${COLUMNS:-80}; nametemplate=%s.html; copiousoutput; x-neomutt-nowrap;

neomuttrc

# vim: filetype=neomuttrc

## COMMANDS

alternative_order text/markdown text/html text/plain text/enriched text/calendar application/ics
attachments   +A */.*
attachments   -A text/vcard text/x-vcard
attachments   -A application/pgp.*
attachments   -A application/pkcs7-.* application/x-pkcs7-.*
attachments   +I text/plain
attachments   -A message/external-body
attachments   -I message/external-body
auto_view text/markdown text/html text/plain text/enriched text/calendar application/ics
ignore *
hdr_order date from to cc subject
mime_lookup application/octet-stream
unignore from: subject to cc date x-mailer x-url user-agent

Updated to work with rust-html2text new release 0.13.0-alpha.0.