I've been some researching, with some help from a friend, and that's what we have found out.
It's possible to change the list of mailboxes (pressing "c" plus "?", for instance), but I think at the moment there is no easy way (but maybe there is a not-so-easy way) to change the names in the folder browser (I suppose that would change mutt-patched tree). From the mutt wiki FAQ about display:
How do I change the format/ display of the list of mailboxes/ folders (or any menu)?
The default display of mailbox folders includes a lot more information than sometimes needed. It is "N permissions owner group size date name" but you might prefer something shorter like "N size date name". You need to adjust the $folder_format variable to configure the look of the display of available inboxes (browser), look it up in the manual.txt. In general, you customize views with the *_format set of variables, there are some of them.
set folder_format="%2C %t %N %8s %d %f" # what I settled on
Here you can find the variables you can use to format it.
Can I personalize/ shortcut the display of or label the folder names in the folder browser?
No. :-)
Either try your luck with /RemoteFolder hints for shortening pathnames via $folder, or name the folders as needed (for sorting or saving typing).
And in the mutt wiki FAQ about RemoteFolder says:
How can I save typing long IMAP-pathnames?
If you have just 1 IMAP account and/or don't need the $folder variable to access local folders or use "~" to do so, then you can store the common path of a single IMAP-server in $folder and use "+" or "=" as a shortcut (see MuttGuide/Folders).
You can specify mailboxes to have more than 1 listed in the mailbox folder-browse mode (change folder, hit '?' twice to find the key to toggle "mailboxes view"). You can use $folder to save typing when specifying them (note to reset it at the end to a sane local value):
set folder=imap://AAA.tld
mailboxes +folder1 +folder2 ...
set folder=imap://BBB.tld
mailboxes +folder1 +folder2 ...
...
set folder=~/Mail
Or use macros in the different menus and contexts (changing or saving folders), especially if you have more than 1.
With hooks you can change $folder dynamically, get creative.
But I haven't had success, maybe somebody...
Another possibility, maybe would be with the @alias shortcut.
And, what seems to me to be the most definitive answer, there is a new enhancement ticket asking for, exactly, aliases for mailboxes. This ticket, even has an attachment that seems to fix the problem, but I haven't tested it (maybe I'll, but at the moment I haven't the time).
You can rename IMAP folder in mutt, while you are changing a folder and you are in the list of folders:
'c?'
(change folder, then use a list of folders).
When you are on the folder, which has to been renamed, use 'r' key and you will be asked for the new name of folder.
Best Answer
The
imap_list_subscribedoption may give you what you want, albeit in a roundabout way. From the documentation:If set to
no(the default), it will not check subscription status and will instead display all folders on the server (all of those returned by aLISTcommand).If you're not happy with that and want the folders to be subscribed to as well, a better approach may be to script a CLI tool (much like you use
imapfilter). The easiest may becurl, which supports raw IMAP commands. Simply fetch a list of folders (usingLIST) and then subscribe to them (SUBSCRIBE).