mu - Online in the Cloud

PROGRAM:

NAME

mu - a set of tools to deal with Maildirs and message files, in particular to index and
search e-mail messages.

SYNOPSIS

In alphabetical order:

mu [options] general mu command

mu add add specific messages to the database

mu cfind [options] [<regexp>] find contacts

mu extract [options] <file> [<parts>] [<regexp>] extract attachments and other MIME-parts

mu find [options] <search expression> find messages

mu index [options] (re)index the messages in a Maildir

mu mkdir [options] <dir> [<dirs>] create a new Maildir

mu remove [options] remove specific messages from the database

mu script [options] run a mu (Guile) script

mu server [options] start a server process (for mu4e-internal use)

mu view <file> [<files>] view a specific message

DESCRIPTION

mu is a set of tools for dealing with Maildirs and the e-mail messages in them.

mu'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, 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.

COMMANDS

mu offers the following commands:

index for indexing (analyzing) the contents of your Maildirs, and storing the information
in a database. See mu-index(1)

find for finding messages in your database, using certain search parameters. See mu-
find(1)

cfind for finding contacts (names + e-mail addresses) matching a certain expression, and
exporting the results in various formats for use in other programs. mu-cfind(1)

view for displaying e-mail messages. See mu-view(1)

mkdir for creating Maildirs. See mu-mkdir(1)

extract
for extract MIME-parts (such as attachments) from messages. See mu-extract(1)

COLORS

Some mu sub-commands support colorized output, and do so by default. If you don't want
colors, you can use --nocolor.

Currently, mu find, mu view, mu cfind and mu extract support colors.

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 (json, sexp, xml).

DATABASE AND FILE

Commands mu index and find and cfind work with the database, while the other ones work on
invidual mail files. Hence, running view, mkdir and extract 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.

OPTIONS

mu offers several general options that apply to all commands, including mu without any
command.

--muhome
causes mu to use an alternative directory to store and read its database and logs.
By default, ~/.mu is used.

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

-v, --version
prints mu version and copyright information.

-h, --help
lists the various command line options, while --help-index, --help-find and
--help-all list only the options for respectively the specified command or for all
commands.

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.

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

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