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Mutt is a small but very powerful text-based mail client that for the most part can replace old mail/mailx client. The current stable public release version is 1.4.2.3; the current development release version is 1.5.23.
One important feature of mutt is the it is able to attach files to the mail.
Other Mutt's features include:
Mutt is a console based email client. It has built in support for multiple mail folders, POP and IMAP, PGP, aliases, mailing lists, powerful search capabilities and a pile of other stuff. Essentially it can handle a lot of email. This document assumes you are able to run commands in a shell.
This is optional but will make Mutt a lot nicer to use.
Copy the following into your shell:
cat << "EOF" >> $HOME/.muttrc
set sort=threads
set pager_index_lines=5 #You might want to increase this
set pager_context=1
set index_format='%4C %Z %{%b %d} %-15.15F (%4l) %s'
#Different colors for different levels of quoting
color quoted magenta black
color quoted1 blue black
color quoted2 red black
color quoted3 yellow black
color quoted4 cyan black
color quoted5 blue black
color quoted6 magenta black
color quoted7 red black
color quoted8 yellow black
color quoted9 cyan black
color signature blue default
EOF
To start Mutt type
muttin the shell. This will bring up something like
To quit press 'q'.
You are now in the index where all the messages in a folder are listed. Pressing '?'(question mark) will generally display all valid keys for a given screen. In the screenshot above you can see a full page of messages.
The arrow keys as well as page up and page down work but shouldn't be depended on.
Having selected a message pressing <Enter> or <Space> will open the message.
The bottom right corner indicates that only 45% of the message is shown.
Pressing <Space> will page froward while '-' (hyphen, dash or minus) will go back. 'j', 'k' and Tab work as above. 'q' or 'i' will go back to the index view.
You will note that some of the index view is shown - this is caused by the 'set pager_index_lines=5' in your Muttrc.
If you have a message selected as above pressing 'r' will reply to the sender. Mutt will verify the recipient and subject. You will then be dropped in an editor. Once you have finished creating your message and exited you will come to the compose screen:
Pressing 'y' will send the message. 'a' will allow you to attach files. 'e' edits the message. 'q' cancels sending the message.
If you want to reply to all recipients of a mail use 'g' instead of 'r'. It is considered bad practise to use 'g' on a mailing list - unless a CC is requested.
From the pager or index menu pressing 'm' will allow you to send a new mail.
Alternatively from the command line you could type
mutt [email protected]to send me a mail.
From the pager or index menu pressing 'f' will allow you to forward a mail. It will drop you in a n editor and allow you to make any changes necessary.
Another way(but a bit more advanced) is to use bounce ('b'). This will send an exact copy of a message to someone else.
Tired of having to remember difficult email addresses? Aliases can help. In your Muttrc:
alias brian [email protected] alias brazil [email protected] (Brian Brazil) #With full nameYou can also specify multiple addresses:
alias lads [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]
Now any time Mutt asks you for an email address you can use brian, brazil or lads.
In the index or pager view:
Note that you will be asked if you really want to delete the messages when you leave the folder or quit.
Normally Mutt read mail that is stored on the server. It can access mail on other servers though. For this you can use IMAPS. If you run
mutt -f imaps://[email protected] #Change as appropriateyou can read your Trinity Email address. Remember though that all you mail remains on tcd.ie servers.
If you would like to transfer all tcd.ie mail to your Matrix account use fetchmail(1).
Note: Instead of 'imaps' you can use 'imap', 'pops' or 'pop'. I prefer imaps because
If you have followed the Procmail Guide and have multiple mailboxes life can be a bit easier for you. Put the following in your Muttrc:
mailboxes imaps://[email protected] set imap_pass="my password" #Can be used without procmail. Also: See warning below
Be very careful about putting your password in files. If you are sure you want to do this make sure your Muttrc is not world-readable or everyone will be able to see your password.
Mutt has very good features for handling mailing lists. To enable them you must specify all the lists you are on. In you muttrc:
subscribe [email protected] #I'm on this list #Can have more than one on a line subscribe [email protected] [email protected] #I know these lists exist but I'm not on them list @lists.debian.org [email protected]
Now all mailing lists will be marked by an 'L' which can be seen in the first screenshot.
Now if you want to reply to a list press 'L'. This will avoid sending copies to previous senders which is considered bad form. If a CC is requested use 'g' instead.
If you get a lot of mail from mailing lists you might want to look at my Procmail on Matrix guide.
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Apr 01, 2015 | Stack Overflow
Andrzej A. Filip
My requirement is to attach all the .csv files in a folder and send them in a single mail.
Here is what have tried,
mutt -s "subject" -a *.csv -- [email protected] < subject.txt
The above command is not working (It's not recognizing multiple files) and throwing the error
Error sending message, child exited 67 (User unknown.).
Could not send the message.
Then I tried using multiple -a option as follows,
mutt -s "subject" -a aaa.csv -a bbb.csv -- [email protected] < subject.txt
This works as expected. But this is not feasible for 100 files for example. I should be able use it with file mask (as like *.csv to take all csv files). Is there is any way we can use like *.csv in single command?qqx Jun 27 '13 at 12:57
What version of mutt are you using? A command like your first attempt worked for me with my copy compiled from a recent version of the mercurial repository, but support for that started with the 1.5.15 release.
Mari Jun 27 '13 at 13:26
@qqx Oh is it? It's great then. Am using Mutt 1.4.1.. –
user80168
Mutt doesn't support such syntax, but it doesn't mean it's impossible. You just have to build the mutt command.
mutt -s "subject" $( printf -- '-a %q ' *.csv ) ...
The command in $( ... ) produces something like this:
-a aaa.csv -a bbb.csv -a ...
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From now on, this guide is going to assume that you have mutt installed locally, start by typing mutt in your console and hit enter. You may get a couple of warnings straight away; Don't worry, let mutt create a ~/Mail folder in your home directory and don't panic if there is no spoolfile for your username - This won't be created until you actually receive some mail.
The index viewerWhen you launch mutt, the first thing you see is a screen with a list of email messages. This initial menu is called the index.
These messages are in a default mailfolder, often called the mailspool, that you can think of as your 'inbox'. Use the k and j keys on your keyboard to move the highlighted cursor up and down the list of messages.
The pagerIf you are in the index and you want to view the contents of an email, hit the enter key on your keyboard, this will take you from the index to the pager. Mutt's built-in pager is just a scrolling text viewer like the unix programs 'more' and 'less', use the backspace and enter keys to scroll up and down the email. Most of the commands that can be used in the index can also be used in the pager.
Quit the pager and return to the index by pressing the q key.
The attachment vieweremail has a structure that can include attached parts such as files as well as plain text messages. From the index, press the v key to view the attach menu where you can see the 'mime-structure' of the email displayed as a threaded list.
If there is more than one part to a message, you can use the k and j keys to move up and down the list and the enter key to view any item. If the attachment can be viewed by mutt's internal pager as plain text then it will. If not, mutt will try and launch a suitable external viewer, and wait for it to finish.
Quit the attachment viewer by pressing the q key on your keyboard
The file browserTo change from your mailspool to a different mailfolder, press the c key. You can now either type in the location of the folder you want to open, or press the ? key to open the file browser. Use the k and j keys to select the folder you want to switch-to and open it by hitting the spacebar.
Tab completionA faster alternative to the file browser can be to take advantage of mutt's 'tab-completion'. Whenever you need to change folders, just hit c, type the first character or two of the folder's name and hit the tab key. Mutt will show you all the available options or simply fill in the rest of the name automatically.
Mutt supports tab completion everywhere, whether it's for files, addresses or even setting configuration options. This along with features like pervasive use of regular-expressions for pattern matching and command histories make mutt very fast to use compared with a mouse-oriented mailer.
The editorIn the index or pager views, hit the r key to reply to a message or the m key to create a new one. Mutt will prompt for the To: address and the Subject: line, then launch your favourite text editor (defined by your $EDITOR environmental variable). Type away, when you save and exit, you are done.
The compose menuAfter the editor, mutt drops you into the compose menu, here you can fine-tune your message headers, change the encoding, add file attachments or simply hit the y key to say yes and send your email on its way.
The muttrc fileMutt doesn't have a configuration interface, there is no properties menu or setup wizard. All configuration options can be changed at any time by typing a : followed by the relevant command. For example :unset help turns off the handy keyboard command hints at the top of the screen. To turn those hints back on, press up-arrow to retrieve the last command and change it so it says :set help.
If you can't remember the command you want to use, there is always tab-completion to help you.
You don't have to type all your preferred configuration commands each time you run mutt, you can save them in a file which is loaded every time the program starts up. This configuration file needs to exist in your home directory, it has to be called either ~/.muttrc or ~/.mutt/muttrc.
An example muttrc file is included with the distribution (look in docs/) or you can base yours on somebody else's such as Roland's .muttrc.
Context sensitive helpThis overview has mentioned just a small number of basic mutt keyboard commands. Mutt has many more commands than you would want to remember, so when you are stuck, hit the ? key and mutt will present a list of all the key-bindings relevant to the current view.
Other sources of helpThe mutt manual contains all the reference information you need to run and configure mutt. It also includes a complete step-by-step overview of mutt features, so read it.
If this overview has confused you, The Mutt Wiki has a lot of handy information including links to many other Mutt user pages in several languages. Otherwise, have a look at Randall Wood's mutt guide, Linda Harden's Learning Mutt or Norm Matloff's Introduction to mutt, they cover a lot of the same ground.
You can read the full manual at any time by hitting the f1 key on your keyboard, this is a pre-set macro that opens the local text-version in the 'less' pager. The mutt manual and the mutt FAQ should answer all the questions you have, if not then you can subscribe to one of the mutt mailing lists or visit the mutt usenet group and ask a question there.
This document was last modified on 2012-02-28 21:28:31.
Bruno Postle
Copyright © 2001 Bruno Postle and others. This guide is released under the Free Documentation License. http://www.gnu.org/licenses/fdl.txt
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This primer is an altered version of my Mutt primer for Matrix(Netsoc Server) users. Changes include more information on external(i.e. POP3 and IMAP) mailboxes. You might be interested in the original.
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