NAME
neomutt - The NeoMutt Mail User Agent (MUA)
SYNTAX
neomutt [-Enx] [-e command] [-F config] [-H draft] [-i include] [-b address] [-c address] [-s subject] [-a file] ... [--] address ...
neomutt [-nx] [-e command] [-F config] [-b address] [-c address] [-s subject] [-a file] ... [--] address ... < message
neomutt [-nRy] [-e command] [-F config] [-f mailbox] [-m type]
neomutt [-n] [-e command] [-F config] -A alias
neomutt [-n] [-e command] [-F config] -B
neomutt [-n] [-e command] [-F config] -D [-S] [-O]
neomutt [-n] [-e command] [-F config] -d level -l file
neomutt [-n] [-e command] [-F config] -G
neomutt [-n] [-e command] [-F config] -g server
neomutt [-n] [-e command] [-F config] -p
neomutt [-n] [-e command] [-F config] -Q variable [-O]
neomutt [-n] [-e command] [-F config] -Z
neomutt [-n] [-e command] [-F config] -z [-f mailbox]
neomutt -v[v]
DESCRIPTION
NeoMutt is a small but very powerful text based program for reading and sending electronic mail under Unix operating systems, including support for color terminals, MIME, OpenPGP, and a threaded sorting mode.
Note: This manual page gives a brief overview of NeoMutt's command line options. You should find a copy of the full manual in /usr/share/doc/neomutt, in plain text, HTML, and/or PDF format.
OPTIONS
- --
-
Special argument forces NeoMutt to stop option parsing and treat remaining arguments as addresses even if they start with a dash
- -A alias
-
Print an expanded version of the given alias to stdout and exit
- -a file
-
Attach one or more files to a message (must be the last option). Add any addresses after the '--' argument, e.g.:
-
neomutt -a image.jpg -- address1 neomutt -a image.jpg *.png -- address1 address2
-
- -b address
-
Specify a blind carbon copy (Bcc) recipient
- -C
-
Enable cryptographic operations in the cases in which they're disabled by default. Those include:
- •
-
Batch mode.
- •
-
Sending a postponed message.
- •
-
Resending a message.
- -c address
-
Specify a carbon copy (Cc) recipient
- -D
-
Dump all configuration variables as 'name=value' pairs to stdout
- -D -D
-
-DD Like -D, but only show the config that has changed
- -D -O
-
Like -D, but show one-liner documentation
- -D -S
-
Like -D, but hide the value of sensitive variables
- -d level
-
Log debugging output to a file (default is "~/.neomuttdebug0"). The level can range from 1–5 and affects verbosity (a value of 2 is recommended)
-
Using this option along with -l is useful to log the early startup process (before reading any configuration and hence $debug_level and $debug_file)
- -E
-
Edit draft (-H) or include (-i) file during message composition
- -e command
-
Specify a command to be run after reading the config files
- -F config
-
Specify an alternative initialization file to read, see FILES section below for a list of regular configuration files
- -f mailbox
-
Specify a mailbox (as defined with mailboxes command) to load
- -G
-
Start NeoMutt with a listing of subscribed newsgroups
- -g server
-
Like -G, but start at specified news server
- -H draft
-
Specify a draft file which contains header and body to use to send a message. If draft is “-”, then data is read from stdin. The draft file is expected to contain just an RFC822 email — headers and a body. Although it is not an mbox file, if an mbox "From " line is present, it will be silently discarded. Draft files are processed the same in interactive and batch mode; they are not passed through untouched. For example, encrypted draft files will be decrypted.
- -h
-
Print this help message and exit
- -i include
-
Specify an include file to be embedded in the body of a message
- -l file
-
Specify a file for debugging output (default "~/.neomuttdebug0")
-
This overrules $debug_file setting and NeoMutt keeps up to five debug logs ({ file | $debug_file | ~/.neomuttdebug }[0-4]) before override the oldest file
- -m type
-
Specify a default mailbox format type for newly created folders
-
The type is either MH, MMDF, Maildir or mbox (case-insensitive)
- -n
-
Do not read the system-wide configuration file
- -p
-
Resume a prior postponed message, if any
- -Q variable
-
Query a configuration variable and print its value to stdout (after the config has been read and any commands executed). Add -O for one-liner documentation.
- -R
-
Open mailbox in read-only mode
- -s subject
-
Specify a subject (must be enclosed in quotes if it has spaces)
- -v
-
Print the NeoMutt version and compile-time definitions and exit
- -vv
-
Print the NeoMutt license and copyright information and exit
- -y
-
Start NeoMutt with a listing of all defined mailboxes
- -Z
-
Open the first mailbox with new message or exit immediately with exit code 1 if none is found in all defined mailboxes
- -z
-
Open the first or specified (-f) mailbox if it holds any message or exit immediately with exit code 1 otherwise
ENVIRONMENT
- EDITOR
-
Specifies the editor to use if VISUAL is unset. Defaults to the Vi editor if unset.
- EGDSOCKET
-
For OpenSSL since version 0.9.5, files, mentioned at RANDFILE below, can be Entropy Gathering Daemon (EGD) sockets. Also, and if exists, ~/.entropy and /tmp/entropy will be used to initialize SSL library functions. Specified sockets must be owned by the user and have permission of 600 (octal number representing).
-
The user's email address.
- HOME
-
Full path of the user's home directory.
-
Full path of the user's spool mailbox.
- MAILCAPS
-
Path to search for mailcap files. If unset, a RFC1524 compliant search path that is extended with NeoMutt related paths (at position two and three): "$HOME/.mailcap:/usr/share/neomutt/mailcap:/etc/mailcap:/etc/mailcap:/usr/etc/mailcap:/usr/local/etc/mailcap" will be used instead.
- MAILDIR
-
Full path of the user's spool mailbox if MAIL is unset. Commonly used when the spool mailbox is a maildir(5) folder.
- MM_NOASK
-
If this variable is set, mailcap are always used without prompting first.
- NNTPSERVER
-
Similar to configuration variable $news_server, specifies the domain name or address of the default NNTP server to connect. If unset, /etc/nntpserver is used but can be overridden by command line option -g.
- RANDFILE
-
Like configuration variable $entropy_file, defines a path to a file which includes random data that is used to initialize SSL library functions. If unset, ~/.rnd is used. DO NOT store important data in the specified file.
- REPLYTO
-
When set, specifies the default Reply-To address.
- TEXTDOMAINDIR
-
Defines an absolute path corresponding to /usr/share/locale that will be recognised by GNU gettext(1) and used for Native Language Support (NLS) if enabled.
- TMPDIR
-
Directory in which temporary files are created. Defaults to /tmp if unset. Configuration variable $tmp_dir takes precedence over this one.
- VISUAL
-
Specifies the editor to use when composing messages.
- XDG_CONFIG_DIRS
-
Specifies a X Desktop Group (XDG) compliant location for the system-wide configuration file, as described in FILES section below. This variable defaults to /etc/xdg. Bypass loading with command line option -n.
- XDG_CONFIG_HOME
-
Specifies a XDG compliant location for the user-specific configuration file, as described in FILES section below. This variable defaults to $HOME/.config. Can be overridden by command line option -F.
FILES
Configuration files
NeoMutt will read just the first found configuration file of system-wide and user-specific category, from the list below and in that order.
But it allows building of a recursive configuration by using the source command.
| #N | system-wide | user-specific |
| 1 | $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/neomutt/neomuttrc | $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/neomutt/neomuttrc |
| 2 | $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/neomutt/Muttrc *) | $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/neomutt/muttrc |
| 3 | /etc/neomuttrc | $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mutt/neomuttrc |
| 4 | /etc/Muttrc *) | $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/mutt/muttrc |
| 5 | /usr/share/neomutt/neomuttrc | ~/.neomutt/neomuttrc |
| 6 | /usr/share/neomutt/Muttrc *) | ~/.neomutt/muttrc |
| 7 | — | ~/.mutt/neomuttrc |
| 8 | — | ~/.mutt/muttrc |
| 9 | — | ~/.neomuttrc |
| 10 | — | ~/.muttrc |
| *) Note the case of the filename |
Other relevant files
Unless otherwise stated, NeoMutt will process all grouped files in the order (from top to bottom) as they are specified in that listing.
- ~/.mailcap
/etc/mailcap -
User-specific and system-wide definitions for handling non-text MIME types, look at environment variable MAILCAPS above for additional search locations.
- ~/.neomuttdebug0
-
User's default debug log file. For further details or customising file path see command line options -d and -l above.
- /etc/mime.types
/etc/mime.types
/usr/share/neomutt/mime.types
~/.mime.types -
Description files for simple plain text mapping between MIME types and filename extensions. NeoMutt parses these files in the stated order while processing attachments to determine their MIME type.
- /usr/share/doc/neomutt/manual.{html,pdf,txt}
-
The full NeoMutt manual in HTML, PDF or plain text format.
- /tmp/neomutt-XXXX-XXXX-XXXX
-
Temporary files created by NeoMutt. For custom locations look at description of the environment variable TMPDIR above. Notice that the suffix -XXXX-XXXX-XXXX is just a placeholder for, e.g. hostname, user name/ID, process ID and/or other random data.
BUGS
See issue tracker at <https://github.com/neomutt/neomutt/issues>.
NO WARRANTIES
This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details.
SEE ALSO
gettext(1), msmtp(1), notmuch(1), sendmail(1), smail(1), RAND_egd(3), curses(3), ncurses(3), mailcap(5), maildir(5), mbox(5), neomuttrc(5).
For further NeoMutt information:
- • the full manual, see FILES section above
• the home page, <https://neomutt.org>
AUTHOR
Richard Russon and friends. Use <[email protected]> to contact the developers.