Ubuntu Manpage: mu - a set of tools to deal with Maildirs and message files, in particular to index and search e-mail

Provided by: maildir-utils_1.12.9-1_amd64

NAME

       mu  -  a  set  of tools to deal with Maildirs and message files, in particular to index and search e-mail
       messages.

SYNOPSIS

       mu [COMMON-OPTIONS] [[COMMAND] [COMMAND-OPTIONS]]

       For information about the common options, see COMMON OPTIONS.

DESCRIPTION

mu is the general command that shows help about the specific commands:

— add: add specific messages to the database.

— cfind: find contacts

— extract: extract attachments and other MIME-parts

— find: find messages in the database

— help: get help for some command

— index: (re)index the messages in a Maildir

— info: show information about the mu database

— init: initialize the mu database

— mkdir: create a new Maildir

— remove: remove specific messages from the database

— server: start a server process (for mu4e-internal use)

— view: view a specific message

Each of the commands have their own manpage mu-<command>.

mu is a set of tools for dealing with Maildirs and the e-mail messages in them.

mu's main purpose is to enable searching of e-mail messages. It does so by periodically scanning a
Maildir directory tree and analyzing the e-mail messages found (this is called `indexing'). The results
of this analysis are stored in a database, which can then be queried.

In addition to indexing and searching, mu also offers functionality for viewing messages, extracting
attachments and creating maildirs, and searching and exporting contact information.

mu can be used from the command line or can be integrated with various e-mail clients.

This manpage gives a general overview of the available commands (index, find, etc.); each mu command has
its own man-page as well.

COLORS

       Some mu commands support colorized output, and do so by default when writing to  a  TTY  (roughly,  to  a
       screen).  When  not writing to a TTY, for instance when redirection the output to a file or using a pipe,
       the default is to not show output.

       If you don no want colors, you can use --nocolor.

       If you want colors even when it is not the default, use --nocolor=false.

ENCODING

       mu's output is in the current locale, with the exceptions of the output specifically meant for output  to
       UTF8-encoded  files.  In  practice, this means that the output of commands index, view, extract is always
       encoded according to the current locale.

       The same is true for find and cfind, with some exceptions, where the output is always  UTF-8,  regardless
       of the locale:

       —   For  cfind  the exception is --format=bbdb. This is hard-coded to UTF-8, and as such specified in the
           output-file, so emacs/bbdb can handle it correctly without guessing.

       —   For find the output is encoded according the locale for --format=plain (the default), and  UTF-8  for
           all other formats.

DATABASE AND FILE

       The  index, find, and cfind commands work with the database, while the other ones work on individual mail
       files. Hence, running view, mkdir and extract does not require the mu database.

LOGGING

       mu logs to the standard logging location, which is either the systemd journal, syslog or a log  file  (by
       default,  ~/.cache/mu/mu.log), depending on your *system's setup; the first that appears to be working is
       used.

       When using a log file, it can safely be deleted when mu is not running. When running with --debug option,
       the log file can grow rather quickly. See the note on logging below.

COMMON OPTIONS

   -d, --debug
       Makes mu generate extra debug information, useful for debugging the  program  itself.  Debug  information
       goes to the standard logging location; see mu(1).

   -q, --quiet
       Causes  mu  not to output informational messages and progress information to standard output, but only to
       the log file. Error messages will still be sent to standard error. Note that mu index is much faster with
       --quiet, so it is recommended you use this option when using mu from scripts etc.

   --log-stderr
       Causes mu to not output log messages to standard error, in addition  to  sending  them  to  the  standard
       logging location.

   --nocolor
       Do not use ANSI colors. The environment variable NO_COLOR can be used as an alternative to --nocolor.

   -V, --version
       Prints mu version and copyright information.

   -h, --help
       Lists the various command line options.

EXIT CODE

       This command returns 0 upon successful completion, or a non-zero exit code otherwise.

       0.  success

       2.  no matches found. Try a different query

       11. database schema mismatch. You need to re-initialize mu, see mu-init(1)

       19. failed to acquire lock. Some other program has exclusive access to the mu database

       99. caught an exception

REPORTING BUGS

       Please report bugs at https://github.com/djcb/mu/issues.

AUTHOR

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

COPYRIGHT

       This manpage is part of mu 1.12.9.

       Copyright   ©   2008-2025   Dirk-Jan   C.   Binnema.   License   GPLv3+:  GNU  GPL  version  3  or  later
       https://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html. This is free software: you are free to  change  and  redistribute  it.
       There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law.