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mutt

Section: User Manuals (1)
Updated: January 2009
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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.

AUTHOR

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