mblaze vs Sup
mblaze: Set of small Unix utilities for reading, searching, threading and composing mail stored in Maildir folders.
Sup: Curses email client in Ruby built around threads, labels and fast full-text search over local mail.
Differences
- mblaze is a command-line program; Sup is a full-screen terminal client.
- Only Sup has built-in mbox.
- On BSD, mblaze runs natively and Sup builds from source.
- Sup has Vim-style keys; mblaze does not.
- mblaze is written in C; Sup in Ruby.
- Configuration: mblaze uses ~/.mblaze/profile (header-style key: value lines), and Sup uses ~/.sup/config.yaml and ~/.sup/sources.yaml, plus Ruby hooks.
Side by side
| mblaze | Sup | |
|---|---|---|
| Interface | Command-line tools and prompts | Full-screen terminal interface |
| Language | C | Ruby |
| License | CC0 1.0 and MIT | GPL 2.0 or later |
| Latest version | 1.4 | 1.4 |
| Linux | Native | Native |
| macOS | Native | Native |
| Windows | Through WSL | Through WSL |
| BSD | Native | Build from source |
| Android | No | No |
| IMAP | Through a separate tool | No |
| POP3 | Through a separate tool | No |
| SMTP | Through a separate tool | Through a separate tool |
| JMAP | No | No |
| Maildir | Yes | Yes |
| mbox | No | Yes |
| notmuch | No | No |
| OpenPGP | via contrib scripts | Yes |
| S/MIME | No | No |
| OAuth2 sign-in | No | No |
| Threads | Yes | Yes |
| Search | mpick and magrep filter messages by headers, flags and content | Xapian full-text index with a query language |
| HTML mail | via a filter command in ~/.mblaze/filter used by mshow | via the mime-decode hook and an external viewer such as w3m |
| Mouse | No | No |
| Multiple accounts | via separate Maildirs and profile settings | Yes |
| Offline use | full; works only on local Maildir | reads local Maildir or mbox; sync with isync or OfflineIMAP |
| Calendar | No | No |
| Contacts | No | tracks recent contacts automatically |
| Vim-style keys | No | Yes |
| Configuration | ~/.mblaze/profile (header-style key: value lines) | ~/.sup/config.yaml and ~/.sup/sources.yaml, plus Ruby hooks |
Which to choose
Choose mblaze for
- Each command does one job, so mail handling is easy to combine in pipes and scripts.
- Works directly on Maildir with no index or database to maintain.
- Small C programs with no external library dependencies.
Watch out for
- No built-in IMAP, POP3 or SMTP; needs mbsync and msmtp or similar tools.
- Command-line only, with no full-screen interface.
- OpenPGP and S/MIME handling relies on unsupported contrib scripts.
Choose Sup for
- Fast full-text search over large archives
- Gmail-style labels, archiving and muting of threads
- Ruby hooks for custom behavior
Watch out for
- No built-in IMAP or SMTP; needs isync (or similar) and msmtp
- Changes sync back to Maildir only with the optional sync-back setting
- Packaged by Debian and Ubuntu (and the AUR); elsewhere installed as a Ruby gem with native Xapian bindings
Questions
What is the difference between mblaze and Sup?
mblaze is a command-line program; Sup is a full-screen terminal client. Only Sup has built-in mbox. On BSD, mblaze runs natively and Sup builds from source.
Which runs on Windows, mblaze or Sup?
On Windows, mblaze runs through WSL. On Windows, Sup runs through WSL.
See also: mblaze alternatives, Sup alternatives.