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_1.10.8-2build3_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 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. If you don't want colors,  you  can  use
       --nocolor.

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

       Commands mu index and find and cfind 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.

COMMON OPTIONS

   -d, --debug
       makes mu generate extra debug information, useful for debugging the program  itself.  By  default,  debug
       information  goes  to the log file, ~/.cache/mu/mu.log.  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.

   -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 log file.

   --nocolor
       do not use ANSI colors. The environment variable NOCOLOR 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. Typical values are
       2 (no matches found), 11 (database schema mismatch) and 12 (failed to acquire database lock).

   no matches found (2)
       Nothing matching found; try a different query

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

   failed to acquire lock (19)
       Some other program has exclusive access to the mu (Xapian) database

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 1.10.8.

       Copyright  ©  2022-2023  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.