--- name: "neomutt" section: "1" platform: "linux" package: "neomutt" version: "1:20260616-1" release: "Arch Linux 2026-11-01" platforms: ["linux"] url: "https://new.carta.tech/neomutt" --- # neomutt(1) The NeoMutt Mail User Agent (MUA) ## 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 *address*es 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 *file*s 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). - **EMAIL** The user's email address. - **HOME** Full path of the user's home directory. - **MAIL** 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)](/maildir/5.md) 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)](/gettext/1.md) 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 \. ## 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)](/gettext/1.md), [**msmtp**(1)](/msmtp/1.md), [**notmuch**(1)](/notmuch/1.md), [**sendmail**(1)](/sendmail/1.md), **smail**(1), **RAND\_egd**(3), [**curses**(3)](/curses/3.md), [**ncurses**(3)](/ncurses/3.md), [**mailcap**(5)](/mailcap/5.md), [**maildir**(5)](/maildir/5.md), [**mbox**(5)](/mbox/5.md), [**neomuttrc**(5)](/neomuttrc/5.md). For further NeoMutt information: - • the full manual, see *FILES* section above • the home page, \ ## AUTHOR Richard Russon and friends. Use \ to contact the developers.