.TH "MU" "1" .SH "NAME" .PP \fBmu\fP - a set of tools to deal with Maildirs and message files, in particular to index and search e-mail messages. .SH "SYNOPSIS" .PP \fBmu\fP [COMMON-OPTIONS] [[COMMAND] [COMMAND-OPTIONS]] .PP For information about the common options, see \fBCOMMON OPTIONS\fP. .SH "DESCRIPTION" .PP \fBmu\fP is the general command shows help about the specific commands: .IP \(em 4 \fBadd\fP: add specific messages to the database. .IP \(em 4 \fBcfind\fP: find contacts .IP \(em 4 \fBextract\fP: extract attachments and other MIME-parts .IP \(em 4 \fBfind\fP: find messages in the database .IP \(em 4 \fBhelp\fP: get help for some command .IP \(em 4 \fBindex\fP: (re)index the messages in a Maildir .IP \(em 4 \fBinfo\fP: show information about the mu database .IP \(em 4 \fBinit\fP: initialize the mu database .IP \(em 4 \fBmkdir\fP: create a new Maildir .IP \(em 4 \fBremove\fP: remove specific messages from the database .IP \(em 4 \fBserver\fP: start a server process (for \fBmu4e\fP-internal use) .IP \(em 4 \fBview\fP: view a specific message .PP Each of the commands have their own manpage *mu-~. .PP \fBmu\fP is a set of tools for dealing with Maildirs and the e-mail messages in them. .PP \fBmu\fP'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. .PP In addition to indexing and searching, \fBmu\fP also offers functionality for viewing messages, extracting attachments and creating maildirs, and searching and exporting contact information. .PP \fBmu\fP can be used from the command line or can be integrated with various e-mail clients. .PP This manpage gives a general overview of the available commands (\fBindex\fP, \fBfind\fP, etc.); each \fBmu\fP command has its own man-page as well. .SH "COLORS" .PP Some \fBmu\fP commands support colorized output, and do so by default. If you don't want colors, you can use \fB--nocolor\fP. .SH "ENCODING" .PP \fBmu\fP'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\fP, \fBview\fP, \fBextract\fP is always encoded according to the current locale. .PP The same is true for \fBfind\fP and \fBcfind\fP, with some exceptions, where the output is always UTF-8, regardless of the locale: .IP \(em 4 For \fBcfind\fP the exception is \fB--format=bbdb\fP. This is hard-coded to UTF-8, and as such specified in the output-file, so emacs/bbdb can handle it correctly without guessing. .IP \(em 4 For \fBfind\fP the output is encoded according the locale for \fB--format=plain\fP (the default), and UTF-8 for all other formats. .SH "DATABASE AND FILE" .PP Commands \fBmu index\fP and \fBfind\fP and \fBcfind\fP work with the database, while the other ones work on individual mail files. Hence, running \fBview\fP, \fBmkdir\fP and \fBextract\fP does not require the mu database. .SH "COMMON OPTIONS" .SS "-d, --debug" .PP 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. .SS "-q, --quiet" .PP 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. .SS "--log-stderr" .PP causes mu to not output log messages to standard error, in addition to sending them to the log file. .SS "--nocolor" .PP do not use ANSI colors. The environment variable \fBNO\d\s-2COLOR\s+2\u\fP can be used as an alternative to \fB--nocolor\fP. .SS "-V, --version" .PP prints mu version and copyright information. .SS "-h, --help" .PP lists the various command line options. .SH "EXIT CODE" .PP 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). .SS "no matches found (2)" .PP Nothing matching found; try a different query .SS "database schema mismatch (11)" .PP You need to re-initialize \fBmu\fP, see \fBmu-init(1)\fP .SS "failed to acquire lock (19)" .PP Some other program has exclusive access to the mu (Xapian) database .SH "REPORTING BUGS" .PP Please report bugs at \fIhttps://github.com/djcb/mu/issues\fP. .SH "AUTHOR" .PP Dirk-Jan C. Binnema .SH "COPYRIGHT" .PP This manpage is part of \fBmu\fP 1.10.8. .PP Copyright © 2022-2023 Dirk-Jan C. Binnema. License GPLv3+: GNU GPL version 3 or later \fIhttps://gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html\fP. This is free software: you are free to change and redistribute it. There is NO WARRANTY, to the extent permitted by law. .SH "SEE ALSO" .PP \fBmu-add(1)\fP, \fBmu-cfind(1)\fP, \fBmu-extract(1)\fP, \fBmu-find(1)\fP, \fBmu-help(1)\fP, \fBmu-index(1)\fP, \fBmu-info(1)\fP, \fBmu-init(1)\fP, \fBmu-mkdir(1)\fP, \fBmu-remove(1)\fP, \fBmu-server(1)\fP, \fBmu-view(1)\fP, \fBmu-query(7)\fP, \fBmu-easy(1)\fP