MU(1)

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 uses whatever the MU_HOME environment variable is set to; if it is not set, ~/.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

BUGS
Please report bugs if you find them: https://github.com/djcb/mu/issues

AUTHOR
Dirk-Jan C. Binnema <djcb@djcbsoftware.nl>

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)