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6. Reference

6.1 Command line options

Running mutt with no arguments will make Mutt attempt to read your spool mailbox. However, it is possible to read other mailboxes and to send messages from the command line as well. 

-a      attach a file to a message
-c      specify a carbon-copy (Cc) address
-e      specify a config command to be run after initilization files are read
-F      specify an alternate file to read initialization commands
-f      specify a mailbox to load
-h      print help on command line options
-H      specify a draft file from which to read a header and body
-i      specify a file to include in a message composition
-n      do not read the system Muttrc
-m      specify a default mailbox type
-p      recall a postponed message
-R      open mailbox in read-only mode
-s      specify a subject (enclose in quotes if it contains spaces)
-v      show version number and compile-time definitions
-x      simulate the mailx(1) compose mode
-y      show a menu containing the files specified by the mailboxes command
-z      exit immediately if there are no messages in the mailbox
-Z      open the first folder with new message,exit immediately if none

To read messages in a mailbox

mutt [ -nz ] [ -F muttrc ] [ -m type ] [ -f mailbox ]

To compose a new message

mutt [ -n ] [ -F muttrc ] [ -a file ] [ -c address ] [ -i filename ] [ -s subject ] address [ address ... ]

Mutt also supports a ``batch'' mode to send prepared messages. Simply redirect input from the file you wish to send. For example,

mutt -s "data set for run #2" professor@bigschool.edu < ~/run2.dat

This command will send a message to ``professor@bigschool.edu'' with a subject of ``data set for run #2''. In the body of the message will be the contents of the file ``~/run2.dat''.

6.2 Configuration Commands

The following are the commands understood by mutt.