Ubuntu Manpage: mutt - The Mutt Mail User Agent

NAME

       mutt - The Mutt Mail User Agent

SYNOPSIS

       mutt  [-nRyzZ] [-e command] [-F rcfile] [-m type] [-f mailbox]

       mutt  [-Enx] [-e command] [-F rcfile] [-H draft] [-i include]
             [-b bcc-addr] [-c cc-addr] [-s subject]
             [-a file ... --] to-addr ...

       mutt  [-nx] [-e command] [-F rcfile] [-b bcc-addr] [-c cc-addr]
             [-s subject] [-a file ... --] to-addr ... < message

       mutt  [-n] [-e command] [-F rcfile] -p

       mutt  [-n] [-e command] [-F rcfile] -A alias

       mutt  [-n] [-e command] [-F rcfile] -Q variable

       mutt  -v[v]

       mutt  -D

DESCRIPTION

       Mutt  is  a  small but very powerful text based program for reading and sending electronic
       mail under unix operating systems, including support for color terminals,  MIME,  OpenPGP,
       and a threaded sorting mode.

       Note: This manual page gives a brief overview of the mutt executable command line options.
       A copy of the full manual is located in /usr/share/doc/mutt, in  text,  HTML,  and/or  PDF
       format.  Please refer to the manual to learn how to use and configure Mutt.

OPTIONS

-A alias
Print an expanded version of the given alias and exit.

-a file ...
Attach a file using MIME. Separating file and to-addr arguments with “--” is
mandatory. For example:

mutt -a image.jpg -- to-addr
mutt -a img.jpg *.png -- to-addr-1 to-addr-2

The -a option must be placed at the end of command line options.

-b bcc-addr
Specify a blind carbon copy (BCC) address.

-c cc-addr
Specify a carbon copy (CC) address.

-d level
If Mutt was compiled with +DEBUG log debugging output to ~/.muttdebug0. Level can
range from -5 to 5 and affects verbosity. A value of zero disables debugging. A
value less than zero disables automatic log file rotation; the log level is then
its absolute value. A value of 2 (-2) is recommended for most diagnosis.

-D Print the value of all configuration options to stdout.

-E Edit the draft file specified by -H or include file specified by -i during message
composition.

-e command
Specify a configuration command to be run after processing of initialization files.

-f mailbox
Specify a mailbox to load.

-F rcfile
Use rcfile instead of the user configuration file.

-h Display a short option summary and exit.

-H draft
Specify a draft file which contains header and body to use to send a message. If
draft is “-”, then data is read from stdin. The draft file is expected to contain
just an RFC822 email — headers and a body. Although it is not an mbox file, if an
mbox "From " line is present, it will be silently discarded. Draft files are
processed the same in interactive and batch mode; they are not passed through
untouched. For example, encrypted draft files will be decrypted.

-i include
Specify an include file to be inserted into the body of a message. Ignored if -H
is set. If include is “-”, then data is read from stdin.

-m type
Specify a default mailbox type for newly created folders. Can be one of the
following: mbox, MMDF, MH or Maildir. See also $mbox_type in the manual.

-n Do not read the system-wide Muttrc configuration file.

-p Resume a postponed message. Exit immediately if there are no postponed messages.

-Q variable
Query a configuration variable. The query is performed after all configuration
files have been parsed, and any commands given on the command line have been
executed.

-R Open a mailbox in read-only mode.

-s subject
Specify the subject of the message. Must be enclosed in quotes if it contains
spaces.

-v Display the Mutt version number and compile-time definitions.

-vv Display license and copyright information.

-x Emulate the mailx(1) compose mode.

-y Start Mutt with a listing of all mailboxes specified by the mailboxes configuration
command.

-z Exit immediately with code 1 if mailbox specified by -f does not contain any
messages.

-Z Open the first mailbox specified by the mailboxes configuration command which
contains new mail. Exit immediately with code 1 if there is no new mail in any of
them.

-- Treat remaining arguments as to-addr even if they start with a dash. See also -a
above. To-addr can be a local or network mail address as well as mailto: URL.

ENVIRONMENT

EDITOR, VISUAL
Specifies the editor to use when composing messages. If both EDITOR and VISUAL are
set, VISUAL takes precedence. If neither EDITOR nor VISUAL are set, the default is
vi(1).

EGDSOCKET, RANDFILE
Paths used to initialize the random engine for SSL library.

EMAIL The user's e-mail address.

HOME Full path of the user's home directory.

MAIL Full path of the user's spool mailbox.

MAILDIR
Full path of the user's spool mailbox if MAIL is unset. Commonly used when the
spool mailbox is a maildir(5) folder.

MAILCAPS
Path to search for mailcap files.

MM_NOASK
If this variable is set, mailcap are always used without prompting first.

PGPPATH
Directory in which the user's PGP public keyring can be found. When used with the
original PGP program, mutt and mutt_pgpring(1) rely on this being set.

REPLYTO
Default Reply-To address.

TMPDIR Directory in which temporary files are created. If unset, /tmp is used. See also
$tmpdir configuration variable.

LC_ALL, LC_CTYPE, LANG
Used to determine charset and locale to use.

TEXTDOMAINDIR
Directory containing translation files. If set, this path overwrite the Mutt
installation directory. Used for testing translation changes.

FILES

       ~/.muttrc
       ~/.mutt/muttrc
       $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mutt/muttrc
              User configuration files.

       /etc/Muttrc or /usr/share/mutt/Muttrc
              System-wide configuration file.

       /tmp/muttXXXXXX
              Temporary files created by Mutt.

       ~/.muttdebug0
              File  containing  debugging  output.   Log  files are automatically rotated by mutt
              changing the number at the end.  See -d option above.

       ~/.mailcap
              User definition for handling non-text MIME types.

       /etc/mailcap
              System definition for handling non-text MIME types.

       ~/.mime.types
              User's personal mapping between MIME types and file extensions.

       /etc/mime.types
              System mapping between MIME types and file extensions.

       /usr/bin/mutt_dotlock
              The privileged dotlocking program.

       /usr/share/doc/mutt/manual.txt.gz
              The Mutt manual.

BUGS

       None.  Mutts have fleas, not bugs.

FLEAS

       Suspend/resume while editing a file with an external editor does not work under SunOS  4.x
       if you use the curses lib in /usr/5lib.  It does work with the S-Lang library, however.

       Resizing  the  screen  while  using  an  external  pager causes Mutt to go haywire on some
       systems.

       Suspend/resume does not work under Ultrix.

       The help line for the index menu is not updated if you change the bindings for one of  the
       functions listed while Mutt is running.

       For  a  more  up-to-date  list  of  bugs, errm, fleas, please visit the mutt project's bug
       tracking system under https://gitlab.com/muttmua/mutt/issues.

NO WARRANTIES

       This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY  WARRANTY;
       without  even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.
       See the GNU General Public License for more details.

AUTHOR

       Michael Elkins, and others.  Use <mutt-dev@mutt.org> to contact the developers.