neomutt - Man Page

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

tldr.sh

NeoMutt 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 NeoMutt's command line options. You should find a copy of the full manual in /usr/share/doc/neomutt, in plain text, HTML, and/or PDF format.

--

Special argument forces NeoMutt to stop option parsing and treat remaining arguments as addresses even if they start with a dash

-A alias

Print an expanded version of the given alias to stdout and exit

-a file

Attach one or more files to a message (must be the last option). Add any addresses after the '--' argument, e.g.:

neomutt -a image.jpg -- address1 
neomutt -a image.jpg *.png -- address1 address2

-B

Run in batch mode (do not start the ncurses UI)

-b address

Specify a blind carbon copy (Bcc) recipient

-C

Enable cryptographic operations in the cases in which they're disabled by default. Those include:

• Batch mode.
• Sending a postponed message.
• Resending a message.

-c address

Specify a carbon copy (Cc) recipient

-D

Dump all configuration variables as 'name=value' pairs to stdout

-D -O

Like -D, but show one-liner documentation

-D -S

Like -D, but hide the value of sensitive variables

-d level

Log debugging output to a file (default is "~/.neomuttdebug0"). The level can range from 1–5 and affects verbosity (a value of 2 is recommended)

Using this option along with -l is useful to log the early startup process (before reading any configuration and hence $debug_level and $debug_file)

-E

Edit draft (-H) or include (-i) file during message composition

-e command

Specify a command to be run after reading the config files

-F config

Specify an alternative initialization file to read, see Files section below for a list of regular configuration files

-f mailbox

Specify a mailbox (as defined with mailboxes command) to load

-G

Start NeoMutt with a listing of subscribed newsgroups

-g server

Like -G, but start at specified news server

-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.

-h

Print this help message and exit

-i include

Specify an include file to be embedded in the body of a message

-l file

Specify a file for debugging output (default "~/.neomuttdebug0")

This overrules $debug_file setting and NeoMutt keeps up to five debug logs ({ file | $debug_file | ~/.neomuttdebug }[0-4]) before override the oldest file

-m type

Specify a default mailbox format type for newly created folders

The type is either MH, MMDF, Maildir or mbox (case-insensitive)

-n

Do not read the system-wide configuration file

-p

Resume a prior postponed message, if any

-Q variable

Query a configuration variable and print its value to stdout (after the config has been read and any commands executed). Add -O for one-liner documentation.

-R

Open mailbox in read-only mode

-s subject

Specify a subject (must be enclosed in quotes if it has spaces)

-v

Print the NeoMutt version and compile-time definitions and exit

-vv

Print the NeoMutt license and copyright information and exit

-y

Start NeoMutt with a listing of all defined mailboxes

-Z

Open the first mailbox with new message or exit immediately with exit code 1 if none is found in all defined mailboxes

-z

Open the first or specified (-f) mailbox if it holds any message or exit immediately with exit code 1 otherwise

EDITOR

Specifies the editor to use if VISUAL is unset. Defaults to the Vi editor if unset.

EGDSOCKET

For OpenSSL since version 0.9.5, files, mentioned at RANDFILE below, can be Entropy Gathering Daemon (EGD) sockets. Also, and if exists, ~/.entropy and /tmp/entropy will be used to initialize SSL library functions. Specified sockets must be owned by the user and have permission of 600 (octal number representing).

EMAIL

The user's email address.

HOME

Full path of the user's home directory.

MAIL

Full path of the user's spool mailbox.

MAILCAPS

Path to search for mailcap files. If unset, a RFC1524 compliant search path that is extended with NeoMutt related paths (at position two and three): "$HOME/.mailcap:/usr/share/neomutt/mailcap:/etc/mailcap:/etc/mailcap:/usr/etc/mailcap:/usr/local/etc/mailcap" will be used instead.

MAILDIR

Full path of the user's spool mailbox if MAIL is unset. Commonly used when the spool mailbox is a maildir(5) folder.

MM_NOASK

If this variable is set, mailcap are always used without prompting first.

NNTPSERVER

Similar to configuration variable $news_server, specifies the domain name or address of the default NNTP server to connect. If unset, /etc/nntpserver is used but can be overridden by command line option -g.

RANDFILE

Like configuration variable $entropy_file, defines a path to a file which includes random data that is used to initialize SSL library functions. If unset, ~/.rnd is used. DO NOT store important data in the specified file.

REPLYTO

When set, specifies the default Reply-To address.

TEXTDOMAINDIR

Defines an absolute path corresponding to /usr/share/locale that will be recognised by GNU gettext(1) and used for Native Language Support (NLS) if enabled.

TMPDIR

Directory in which temporary files are created. Defaults to /tmp if unset. Configuration variable $tmp_dir takes precedence over this one.

VISUAL

Specifies the editor to use when composing messages.

XDG_CONFIG_DIRS

Specifies a X Desktop Group (XDG) compliant location for the system-wide configuration file, as described in Files section below. This variable defaults to /etc/xdg. Bypass loading with command line option -n.

XDG_CONFIG_HOME

Specifies a XDG compliant location for the user-specific configuration file, as described in Files section below. This variable defaults to $HOME/.config. Can be overridden by command line option -F.

See issue tracker at <https://github.com/neomutt/neomutt/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.

gettext(1), msmtp(1), notmuch(1), sendmail(1), smail(1), RAND_egd(3), curses(3), ncurses(3), mailcap(5), maildir(5), mbox(5), neomuttrc(5).

For further NeoMutt information:

• the full manual, see Files section above
• the home page, <https://neomutt.org>

Richard Russon and friends. Use <neomutt-devel@neomutt.org> to contact the developers.

mbox_neomutt(5), neomuttrc(5), nmudiff(1).