mu(1) - f31

1MU(1)                       General Commands Manual                      MU(1)
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NAME

6       mu - a set of tools to deal with Maildirs and message files, in partic‐
7       ular to index and search e-mail messages.
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SYNOPSIS

11       In alphabetical order:
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13       mu [options] general mu command.
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15       mu add add specific messages to the database. See mu-add(1)
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17       mu cfind [options] [<regexp>] find contacts. See mu-cfind(1)
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19       mu extract [options] <file> [<parts>]  [<regexp>]  extract  attachments
20       and other MIME-parts. See mu-extract(1)
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22       mu find [options] <search expression> find messages. See mu-find(1)
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24       mu help [command] get help for some command. See mu-help(1)
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26       mu index [options] (re)index the messages in a Maildir. See mu-index(1)
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28       mu mkdir [options] <dir> [<dirs>] create a new Maildir. See mu-mkdir(1)
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30       mu remove [options] remove specific messages from the database. See mu-
31       remove(1)
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33       mu script [options] run a mu (Guile) script. See mu-guile(1)
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35       mu server [options] start a server process (for mu4e-internal use). See
36       mu-server(1)
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38       mu view <file> [<files>] view a specific message. See mu-view(1)
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DESCRIPTION

42       mu  is a set of tools for dealing with Maildirs and the e-mail messages
43       in them.
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45       mu's main purpose is to enable searching of e-mail messages. It does so
46       by  periodically scanning a Maildir directory tree and analyzing the e-
47       mail messages found (this is called 'indexing'). The  results  of  this
48       analysis are stored in a database, which can then be queried.
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50       In addition to indexing and searching, mu also offers functionality for
51       viewing messages, extracting attachments  and  creating  maildirs,  and
52       searching and exporting contact information.
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54       mu  can be used from the command line or can be integrated with various
55       e-mail clients.
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57       This manpage gives a general overview of the available commands (index,
58       find, etc.); each mu command has its own man-page as well.
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COLORS

62       Some mu sub-commands support colorized output, and do so by default. If
63       you don't want colors, you can use --nocolor.
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65       Currently, mu find, mu view, mu cfind and mu extract support colors.
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ENCODING

69       mu's output is in the current locale, with the exceptions of the output
70       specifically  meant for output to UTF8-encoded files. In practice, this
71       means that the output  of  commands  index,  view,  extract  is  always
72       encoded according to the current locale.
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74       The  same  is  true for find and cfind, with some exceptions, where the
75       output is always UTF-8, regardless of the locale.
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77       For cfind the exception is --format=bbdb. This is hard-coded to  UTF-8,
78       and  as  such specified in the output-file, so emacs/bbdb can handle it
79       correctly without guessing.
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81       For find the output is encoded according the locale for  --format=plain
82       (the default), and UTF-8 for all other formats (json, sexp, xml).
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DATABASE AND FILE

86       Commands  mu index and find and cfind work with the database, while the
87       other ones work on invidual mail files. Hence, running view, mkdir  and
88       extract does not require the mu database.
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90       The various commands are discussed in more detail in their own separate
91       man-pages; here the general options are discussed.
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OPTIONS

95       mu offers several general options that apply to all commands, including
96       mu without any command.
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99       --muhome
100              use  an  alternative  directory  to store and read the database,
101              write the logs, etc. By default,  mu  uses  XDG  Base  Directory
102              Specification  (e.g.  on  Linux  by default ~/.cache/mu, ~/.con‐
103              fig/mu). Earlier versions of mu defaulted to  ~/.mu,  which  now
104              requires --muhome=~/.mu.
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107       -d, --debug
108              makes  mu generate extra debug information, useful for debugging
109              the program itself. By default, debug information  goes  to  the
110              log  file, ~/.mu/log/mu.log. It can safely be deleted when mu is
111              not running. When running with --debug option, the log file  can
112              grow rather quickly. See the note on logging below.
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115       -q, --quiet
116              causes  mu  not  to  output  informational messages and progress
117              information to standard output, but only to the log file.  Error
118              messages  will  still  be  sent  to standard error. Note that mu
119              index is much faster with --quiet, so it is recommended you  use
120              this option when using mu from scripts etc.
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123       --log-stderr
124              causes mu to not output log messages to standard error, in addi‐
125              tion to sending them to the log file.
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128       -v, --version
129              prints mu version and copyright information.
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132       -h, --help
133              lists the various command line options.
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ERROR CODES

137       The various mu subcommands typically exit with 0 (zero)  upon  success,
138       and non-zero when some error occurred.
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BUGS

142       Please report bugs if you find them: https://github.com/djcb/mu/issues
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AUTHOR

146       Dirk-Jan C. Binnema <djcb@djcbsoftware.nl>
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