mu(1) - f33

1MU(1)                       General Commands Manual                      MU(1)
2
3
4

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.
8
9

SYNOPSIS

11       In alphabetical order:
12
13       mu [options] general mu command.
14
15       mu add add specific messages to the database. See mu-add(1)
16
17       mu cfind [options] [<regexp>] find contacts. See mu-cfind(1)
18
19       mu extract [options] <file> [<parts>]  [<regexp>]  extract  attachments
20       and other MIME-parts. See mu-extract(1)
21
22       mu find [options] <search expression> find messages. See mu-find(1)
23
24       mu help [command] get help for some command. See mu-help(1)
25
26       mu index [options] (re)index the messages in a Maildir. See mu-index(1)
27
28       mu info [options] show information about the mu database mu-info(1)
29
30       mu init [options] initialize the mu database mu-init(1)
31
32       mu mkdir [options] <dir> [<dirs>] create a new Maildir. See mu-mkdir(1)
33
34       mu remove [options] remove specific messages from the database. See mu-
35       remove(1)
36
37       mu script [options] run a mu (Guile) script. See mu-guile(1)
38
39       mu server [options] start a server process (for mu4e-internal use). See
40       mu-server(1)
41
42       mu view <file> [<files>] view a specific message. See mu-view(1)
43
44

DESCRIPTION

46       mu  is a set of tools for dealing with Maildirs and the e-mail messages
47       in them.
48
49       mu's main purpose is to enable searching of e-mail messages. It does so
50       by  periodically scanning a Maildir directory tree and analyzing the e-
51       mail messages found (this is called 'indexing'). The  results  of  this
52       analysis are stored in a database, which can then be queried.
53
54       In addition to indexing and searching, mu also offers functionality for
55       viewing messages, extracting attachments  and  creating  maildirs,  and
56       searching and exporting contact information.
57
58       mu  can be used from the command line or can be integrated with various
59       e-mail clients.
60
61       This manpage gives a general overview of the available commands (index,
62       find, etc.); each mu command has its own man-page as well.
63
64

COLORS

66       Some mu sub-commands support colorized output, and do so by default. If
67       you don't want colors, you can use --nocolor.
68
69       Currently, mu find, mu view, mu cfind and mu extract support colors.
70
71

ENCODING

73       mu's output is in the current locale, with the exceptions of the output
74       specifically  meant for output to UTF8-encoded files. In practice, this
75       means that the output  of  commands  index,  view,  extract  is  always
76       encoded according to the current locale.
77
78       The  same  is  true for find and cfind, with some exceptions, where the
79       output is always UTF-8, regardless of the locale.
80
81       For cfind the exception is --format=bbdb. This is hard-coded to  UTF-8,
82       and  as  such specified in the output-file, so emacs/bbdb can handle it
83       correctly without guessing.
84
85       For find the output is encoded according the locale for  --format=plain
86       (the default), and UTF-8 for all other formats (json, sexp, xml).
87
88

DATABASE AND FILE

90       Commands  mu index and find and cfind work with the database, while the
91       other ones work on individual mail files. Hence,  running  view,  mkdir
92       and extract does not require the mu database.
93
94       The various commands are discussed in more detail in their own separate
95       man-pages; here the general options are discussed.
96
97

OPTIONS

99       mu offers several general options that apply to all commands, including
100       mu without any command.
101
102
103       --muhome
104              use  an  alternative  directory  to store and read the database,
105              write the logs, etc. By default,  mu  uses  XDG  Base  Directory
106              Specification  (e.g.  on  Linux  by default ~/.cache/mu, ~/.con‐
107              fig/mu). Earlier versions of mu defaulted to  ~/.mu,  which  now
108              requires --muhome=~/.mu.
109
110
111       -d, --debug
112              makes  mu generate extra debug information, useful for debugging
113              the program itself. By default, debug information  goes  to  the
114              log  file,  ~/.cache/mu/mu.log. It can safely be deleted when mu
115              is not running. When running with --debug option, the  log  file
116              can grow rather quickly. See the note on logging below.
117
118
119       -q, --quiet
120              causes  mu  not  to  output  informational messages and progress
121              information to standard output, but only to the log file.  Error
122              messages  will  still  be  sent  to standard error. Note that mu
123              index is much faster with --quiet, so it is recommended you  use
124              this option when using mu from scripts etc.
125
126
127       --log-stderr
128              causes mu to not output log messages to standard error, in addi‐
129              tion to sending them to the log file.
130
131
132       -v, --version
133              prints mu version and copyright information.
134
135
136       -h, --help
137              lists the various command line options.
138
139

ERROR CODES

141       The various mu subcommands typically exit with 0 (zero)  upon  success,
142       and non-zero when some error occurred.
143
144

BUGS

146       Please report bugs if you find them: https://github.com/djcb/mu/issues
147
148

AUTHOR

150       Dirk-Jan C. Binnema <djcb@djcbsoftware.nl>
151
152