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MUTT(1) · User Manuals · MUTT(1)

📝 NAME

mutt - The Mutt Mail User Agent

🚀 Quick Reference

Use Case	Command	Description
📥 Read mail	mutt -f /var/mail/user	Open a specific mailbox
✉️ Send mail	mutt -s "Subject" user@example.com	Compose and send a message
📎 Attach file	mutt -a file.pdf -- user@example.com	Send with MIME attachment
🕵️ BCC	mutt -b hidden@example.com to@example.com	Blind carbon copy recipient
👁️ CC	mutt -c carbon@example.com to@example.com	Carbon copy recipient
⏸️ Resume postponed	mutt -p	Resume a postponed message
🔒 Read-only	mutt -R	Open mailbox without modification
ℹ️ Version info	mutt -v	Display version and compile definitions
🐛 Debug mode	mutt -d 2	Enable debugging (level 2 recommended)
⚙️ Query config	mutt -Q folder	Query a configuration variable
📋 All config	mutt -D	Print all configuration values
📝 Draft from stdin	mutt -H - to@example.com	Read draft from stdin
📄 Include file	mutt -i body.txt to@example.com	Insert file into message body
📮 New mail shortlist	mutt -Z	Open first mailbox with new mail
📬 List all mailboxes	mutt -y	Start with listing of all mailboxes
🔧 Custom config	mutt -F ~/.mutt/muttrc	Use alternative config file
🚫 No system config	mutt -n	Skip system-wide Muttrc
📁 Default mailbox type	mutt -m Maildir	Set mailbox type for new folders
📭 Empty mailbox exit	mutt -z -f empty_mbox	Exit code 1 if mailbox empty
📝 Batch send from stdin	echo "Body" | mutt -s "Subject" to@example.com	Send message with piped input

📖 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 ℹ️ 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 overwrites 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.

📚 SEE ALSO

• mutt_dotlock(1), mutt_pgpring(1), pgpewrap(1), sendmail(1), smail(1), smime_keys(1), curses(3), ncurses(3), mailcap(5), maildir(5), mbox(5), mmdf(5), muttrc(5)
• 🌐 Mutt Home Page: http://www.mutt.org/
• 📘 The Mutt manual
• 📄 RFC5322 — Internet Message Format: https://tools.ietf.org/rfcmarkup/5322 (obsoletes RFC2822 and RFC822)

👤 AUTHOR

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

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Unix · July 24, 2020 · MUTT(1)

MUTT(1) · User Manuals · MUTT(1) 📝 NAME 🚀 Quick Reference 📖 SYNOPSIS 📋 DESCRIPTION ⚙️ OPTIONS 🌐 ENVIRONMENT 📁 FILES 🐛 BUGS 🦗 FLEAS ⚠️ NO WARRANTIES 📚 SEE ALSO 👤 AUTHOR