mutt

Section: User Manuals (1)
Updated: January 2009
Index Return to Main Contents

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NAME

mutt - The Mutt Mail User Agent  

SYNOPSIS

mutt [-nRyzZ] [-e cmd] [-F file] [-m type] [-f file]

mutt [-Enx] [-e cmd] [-F file] [-H file] [-i file] [-s subj] [-b addr] [-c addr] [-a file [...] --] addr|mailto_url [...]

mutt [-nx] [-e cmd] [-F file] [-s subj] [-b addr] [-c addr] [-a file [...] --] addr|mailto_url [...] < message

mutt [-n] [-e cmd] [-F file] -p

mutt [-n] [-e cmd] [-F file] -A alias

mutt [-n] [-e cmd] [-F file] -Q query

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: Thismanualpagegivesabriefoverviewofmutt'scommandline options. You should find a copy of the full manual at http://www.mutt.org/, in text, HTML, and/or PDF format.  

OPTIONS

-A alias

An expanded version of the given alias is passed to stdout.

-a file [...]

Attach a file to your message using MIME. When attaching single or multiple files, separating filenames and recipient addresses with "--" is mandatory, e.g. mutt -a image.jpg -- addr1 or mutt -a img.jpg *.png -- addr1 addr2. The -a option must be placed at the end of command line options.

-b address

Specify a blind-carbon-copy (BCC) recipient

-c address

Specify a carbon-copy (CC) recipient

-d level

If mutt was compiled with +DEBUG log debugging output to ~/.muttdebug0. Level can range from 1-5 and effects verbosity. A value of 2 is recommended.

-D

Print the value of all configuration options to stdout.

-E

Causes the draft file specified by -H or include file specified by -i to be edited during message composition.

-e command

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

-f mailbox

Specify which mailbox to load.

-F muttrc

Specify an initialization file to read instead of ~/.muttrc

-h

Display help.

-H draft

Specify a draft file which contains header and body to use to send a message.

-i include

Specify a file to include into the body of a message.

-m type

specify a default mailbox type for newly created folders.

-n

Causes Mutt to bypass the system configuration file.

-p

Resume a postponed message.

-Q query

Query a configuration variables value. The query is executed 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.

-v

Display the Mutt version number and compile-time definitions.

-vv

Display license and copyright information.

-x

Emulate the mailx compose mode.

-y

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

-z

When used with -f, causes Mutt not to start if there are no messages in the mailbox.

-Z

Causes Mutt to open the first mailbox specified by the mailboxes command which contains new mail.

--

Treat remaining arguments as addr even if they start with a dash. See also "-a" above.

 

ENVIRONMENT

EDITOR

Specifies the editor to use if VISUAL is unset.

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 pgpring (1) rely on this being set.

TMPDIR

Directory in which temporary files are created.

REPLYTO

Default Reply-To address.

VISUAL

Specifies the editor to use when composing messages.

 

FILES

~/.muttrc or ~/.mutt/muttrc

User configuration file.

/etc/mutt/Muttrc

System-wide configuration file.

/tmp/muttXXXXXX

Temporary files created by Mutt.

~/.mailcap

User definition for handling non-text MIME types.

/etc/mutt/mailcap

System definition for handling non-text MIME types.

~/.mime.types

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

/etc/mutt/mime.types

System mapping between MIME types and file extensions.

/usr/bin/mutt_dotlock

The privileged dotlocking program.

http://www.mutt.org/doc/devel/manual.html

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 http://bugs.mutt.org/.  

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.  

SEE ALSO

curses(3), mailcap(5), maildir(5), mbox(5), mutt_dotlock(1), muttrc(5), ncurses(3), sendmail(1), smail(1).

Mutt Home Page: http://www.mutt.org/

The Mutt manual  

AUTHOR

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

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Index

NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

OPTIONS

ENVIRONMENT

FILES

BUGS

FLEAS

NO WARRANTIES

SEE ALSO

AUTHOR