MUTT(1) User Manuals MUTT(1) 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/lo‐ cal/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 ver‐ bosity. 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 mes‐ sage. 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. Com‐ monly 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 prompt‐ ing first. PGPPATH Directory in which the user's PGP public keyring can be found. When used with the original PGP program, mutt and mutt_pg‐ pring(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 over‐ write the Mutt installation directory. Used for testing trans‐ lation changes. FILES ~/.muttrc ~/.mutt/muttrc $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mutt/muttrc User configuration files. /usr/local/etc/Muttrc or /usr/local/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. /usr/local/etc/mailcap System definition for handling non-text MIME types. ~/.mime.types User's personal mapping between MIME types and file extensions. /usr/local/etc/mime.types System mapping between MIME types and file extensions. /usr/local/bin/mutt_dotlock The privileged dotlocking program. /usr/local/share/doc/mutt/manual.txt 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 bind‐ ings 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/is‐ sues. NO WARRANTIES This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MER‐ CHANTABILITY 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/rfc‐ markup/5322 (obsoletes RFC2822 and RFC822) AUTHOR Michael Elkins, and others. Use to contact the de‐ velopers. Unix July 24, 2020 MUTT(1)