NAME

       mu-extract - display and save message parts (attachments), and open them with other tools.

SYNOPSIS

       mu [COMMON-OPTIONS] extract [OPTIONS] [FILE]

       mu [COMMON-OPTIONS] extract [OPTIONS] FILE PATTERN

DESCRIPTION

       mu  extract  is  the mu sub-command for extracting MIME-parts (e.g., attachments) from mail messages. The
       sub-command works on message files, and does not require the message to be indexed in the database.

       For attachments, the file name used when saving it is the name of the attachment in the message. If there
       is no such name, or when saving non-attachment MIME-parts, a name is derived from the message-id  of  the
       message.

       If  you specify a regular express pattern as the second argument, all attachments with filenames matching
       that pattern will be extracted. The regular  expressions  are  basic  PCRE,  and  are  case-sensitive  by
       default; see pcre(3) for more details.

       Without  any  options,  mu extract simply outputs the list of leaf MIME-parts in the message. Only `leaf'
       MIME-parts (including RFC822 attachments) are considered, multipart/* etc. are ignored.

       Without a filename parameter, mu extract reads a message from standard-input. In that  case,  you  cannot
       use the second, PATTERN parameter as this would be ambiguous; instead, use the --matches option.

EXTRACT OPTIONS

   -a, --save-attachments
       Save all MIME-parts that look like attachments.

   --save-all
       Save all non-multipart MIME-parts.

   --parts parts
       Only  consider the following numbered parts (comma-separated list). The numbers for the parts can be seen
       from running mu extract without any options but only the message file.

   --target-dir dir
       Save the parts in dir rather than the current working directory.

   --overwrite
       Overwrite existing files with the same name; by default overwriting is not allowed.

   -u,--uncooked
       By default, mu transforms the attachment filenames a bit (such as by replacing spaces  by  dashes);  with
       this option, leave that to the minimum for creating a legal filename in the target directory.

   --matches pattern
       Attachments  with  filenames  matching pattern will be extracted. The regular expressions are basic PCRE,
       and are case-sensitive by default; see pcre(3) for more details.

   --play
       Try to `play' (open) the attachment with the default application for the particular file type. On  MacOS,
       this  uses  the  open program, on other platforms it uses xdg-open. You can choose a different program by
       setting the MU_PLAY_PROGRAM environment variable.

COMMON OPTIONS

   -d, --debug
       Makes mu generate extra debug information, useful for debugging the  program  itself.  Debug  information
       goes to the standard logging location; see mu(1).

   -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  standard
       logging location.

   --nocolor
       Do not use ANSI colors. The environment variable NO_COLOR can be used as an alternative to --nocolor.

   -V, --version
       Prints mu version and copyright information.

   -h, --help
       Lists the various command line options.

EXAMPLES

       To display information about all the MIME-parts in a message file:
              $ mu extract msgfile

       To extract MIME-part 3 and 4 from this message, overwriting existing files with the same name:
              $ mu extract --parts=3,4 --overwrite msgfile

       To extract all files ending in `.jpg' (case-insensitive):
              $ mu extract msgfile '.*\.jpg'

       To extract an mp3-file, and play it in the default mp3-playing application:
              $ mu extract --play msgfile 'whoopsididitagain.mp3'

       when reading from standard-input, you need --matches, so:
              $ cat msgfile | mu extract --play --matches 'whoopsididitagain.mp3'

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 1.12.9.

       Copyright   ©   2008-2025   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.

SEE ALSO

       mu(1)

                                                                                                   MU EXTRACT(1)