.TH MU 1 "March 2013" "User Manuals" .SH NAME mu \- a set of tools to deal with Maildirs and message files, in particular to index and search e-mail messages. .SH SYNOPSIS In alphabetical order: .B mu [options] general mu command .B mu add add specific messages to the database .B mu cfind [options] [] find contacts .B mu extract [options] [] [] extract attachments and other MIME-parts .B mu find [options] find messages .B mu index [options] (re)index the messages in a Maildir .B mu mkdir [options] [] create a new Maildir .B mu remove [options] remove specific messages from the database .B mu script [options] run a mu (Guile) script .B mu server [options] start a server process (for \fBmu4e\fR-internal use) .B mu view [] view a specific message .SH DESCRIPTION \fBmu\fR is a set of tools for dealing with Maildirs and the e-mail messages in them. \fBmu\fR's main function 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 ('indexing'). The results of this analysis are stored in a database, which can then be queried. In addition to indexing and searching, \fBmu\fR also offers functionality for viewing messages, extracting attachments and creating maildirs, and searching and exporting contact information. \fBmu\fR 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 (\fBindex\fR, \fBfind\fR, etc.); each \fBmu\fR command has its own man-page as well. .SH COMMANDS \fBmu\fR offers the following commands: .TP \fBindex\fR for indexing (analyzing) the contents of your Maildirs, and storing the information in a database. See .BR mu-index(1) \. .TP \fBfind\fR for finding messages in your database, using certain search parameters. See .BR mu-find(1) \. .TP \fBcfind\fR for finding contacts (names + e-mail addresses) matching a certain expression, and exporting the results in various formats for use in other programs. .BR mu-cfind(1) \. .TP \fBview\fR for displaying e-mail messages. See .BR mu-view(1) \. .TP \fBmkdir\fR for creating Maildirs. See .BR mu-mkdir(1) \. .TP \fBextract\fR for extract MIME-parts (such as attachments) from messages. See .BR mu-extract(1) \. .SH COLORS Some \fBmu\fR sub-commands support colorized output, and do so by default. If you don't want colors, you can use \fI--nocolor\fR. Currently, \fBmu find\fR, \fBmu view\fR, \fBmu cfind\fR and \fBmu extract\fR support colors. .SH ENCODING \fBmu\fR'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 \fBindex\fR, \fBview\fR, \fBextract\fR is always encoded according to the current locale. The same is true for \fBfind\fR and \fBcfind\fR, with some exceptions, where the output is always UTF-8, regardless of the locale. For \fBcfind\fR the exception is \fI--format=bbdb\fR. 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 \fBfind\fR the output is encoded according the locale for \fI--format=plain\fR (the default), and UTF-8 for all other formats (\fIjson\fR, \fIsexp\fR, \fIxml\fR). .SH DATABASE AND FILE Commands \fBmu index\fR and \fBfind\fR and \fBcfind\fR work with the database, while the other ones work on invidual mail files. Hence, running \fBview\fR, \fBmkdir\fR and \fBextract\fR does not require the mu database. The various commands are discussed in more detail in their own separate man-pages; here the general options are discussed. .SH OPTIONS \fBmu\fR offers several general options that apply to all commands, including \fBmu\fR without any command. .TP \fB\-\-muhome\fR causes \fBmu\fR to use an alternative directory to store and read its database and logs. By default, \fBmu\fR uses whatever the \fBMU_HOME\fR environment variable is set to; if it is not set, \fI~/.mu\fR is used. .TP \fB\-d\fR, \fB\-\-debug\fR makes \fBmu\fR generate extra debug information, useful for debugging the program itself. By default, debug information goes to the log file, \fI~/.mu/log/mu.log\fR. It can safely be deleted when \fBmu\fR is not running. When running with \fB--debug\fR option, the log file can grow rather quickly. See the note on logging below. .TP \fB\-q\fR, \fB\-\-quiet\fR causes \fBmu\fR 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 \fBmu index\fR is \fBmuch\fR faster with \fB\-\-quiet\fR, so it is recommended you use this option when using \fBmu\fR from scripts etc. .TP \fB\-\-log-stderr\fR causes \fBmu\fR to \fBnot\fR output log messages to standard error, in addition to sending them to the log file. .TP \fB\-v\fR, \fB\-\-version\fR prints \fBmu\fR version and copyright information. .TP \fB\-h\fR, \fB\-\-help\fR lists the various command line options, while \fB\-\-help\-index\fR, \fB\-\-help\-find\fR and \fB\-\-help\-all\fR list only the options for respectively the specified command or for all commands. .SH ERROR CODES The various mu subcommands typically exit with 0 (zero) upon success, and non-zero when some error occurred. The table lists the various error codes. .nf exit code | error ----------+------------------------------------------- 1 | MU_ERROR 2 | MU_ERROR_IN_PARAMETERS 3 | MU_ERROR_INTERNAL 4 | MU_ERROR_NO_MATCHES | 11 | MU_ERROR_XAPIAN | 13 | MU_ERROR_XAPIAN_QUERY 14 | MU_ERROR_XAPIAN_DIR_NOT_ACCESSIBLE 15 | MU_ERROR_XAPIAN_NOT_UP_TO_DATE 16 | MU_ERROR_XAPIAN_MISSING_DATA 17 | MU_ERROR_XAPIAN_CORRUPTION 18 | MU_ERROR_XAPIAN_CANNOT_GET_WRITELOCK 30 | MU_ERROR_GMIME | 50 | MU_ERROR_CONTACTS 51 | MU_ERROR_CONTACTS_CANNOT_RETRIEVE | 70 | MU_ERROR_FILE 71 | MU_ERROR_FILE_INVALID_NAME 72 | MU_ERROR_FILE_CANNOT_LINK 73 | MU_ERROR_FILE_CANNOT_OPEN 74 | MU_ERROR_FILE_CANNOT_READ 75 | MU_ERROR_FILE_CANNOT_CREATE 76 | MU_ERROR_FILE_CANNOT_MKDIR 77 | MU_ERROR_FILE_STAT_FAILED 78 | MU_ERROR_FILE_READDIR_FAILED 79 | MU_ERROR_FILE_INVALID_SOURCE .fi .SH BUGS Please report bugs if you find them: .BR https://github.com/djcb/mu/issues .SH AUTHOR Dirk-Jan C. Binnema .SH "SEE ALSO" mu-index(1) mu-find(1) mu-cfind(1) mu-mkdir(1) mu-view(1) mu-extract(1) mu-easy(1) mu-bookmarks(5) mu-query(7)