mu.1

.TH MU 1 "May 2011" "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

.B mu [options]

.B mu index [options]

.B mu cleanup [options]

.B mu find [options] <search expression>

.B mu view <file> [<files>]

.B mu mkdir [options] <dir> [<dirs>]

.B mu extract [options] <file> [<parts>] [<regexp>]

.B mu cfind [options] [<regexp>]


.SH DESCRIPTION

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

\fBmu\fRs 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 of the \fBmu\fR commands 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
\fBcleanup\fR
for removing messages from the database for which there is no longer a
corresponding message file in the file system. See
.BR mu-cleanup(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. By default, this is
disabled, but you can use the \fI--color\fR/ option to enable it. Even that,
colors will only shown when output goes to a sufficiently capable terminal
(this roughly mirrors the \fI--color=auto\fR of the GNU-version of the
\fBls\fR-command).

Instead of the \fI--color\fR/, you can also set the \fBMU_COLORS\fR
environment variable to non-empty to enable colors.

Currently, \fBmu find\fR, \fBmu view\fR, \fBmu cfind\fR and \fBmu extract\fR
support colors.

.SH DATABASE AND FILE

Commands \fBmu index\fR, \fBfind\fR and \fBcleanup\fR work with the database,
while the other ones work on invidual mail files. Hence, running \fview\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 a number of 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, \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/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 BUGS

Please report bugs if you find them:
.BR http://code.google.com/p/mu0/issues/list

.SH AUTHOR

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

.SH "SEE ALSO"

.BR mu-index(1)
.BR mu-cleanup(1)
.BR mu-find(1)
.BR mu-cfind(1)
.BR mu-mkdir(1)
.BR mu-view(1)
.BR mu-extract(1)
.BR mu-easy(1)
.BR mu-bookmarks(5)