mutt - Man Page

• Open the specified mailbox: mutt -f mailbox
• Send an email and specify a subject and a cc recipient: mutt -s subject -c cc@example.com recipient@example.com
• Send an email with files attached: mutt -a file1 file2 -- recipient@example.com
• Specify a file to include as the message body: mutt -i path/to/file recipient@example.com
• Specify a draft file containing the header and the body of the message, in RFC 5322 format: mutt -H path/to/file recipient@example.com

tldr.sh

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

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.

-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.

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.

~/.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

The Mutt manual.

None.  Mutts have fleas, not bugs.

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.

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.

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)

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

abook(1), cntlm(1), fetchmail(1), fim(1), lbdbq(1), lei-mail-formats(5), mbox(5), mbsync(1), mount(2), mount(8), muttrc(5), nmudiff(1), notmuch-mutt(1), pgpring(1), public-inbox-edit(1), qsf(1), terminfo(5), tin(1), tin(5), tnef(1), t-prot(1), urlscan(1).