Brennan's Gemini Blog

Mutt Terminal Email Guide

Mutt is a powerful text-based email client for the terminal. It's fast, efficient, and highly configurable.

What is Mutt?

Mutt is a small but very powerful text-based MIME mail client. It's highly configurable and well-suited for power users with features like:

• Key bindings and keyboard macros

• Mail threading

• Regular expression searches

• Pattern matching for selecting groups of messages

• PGP/GPG encryption support

Getting Started

Starting Mutt

mutt                   # Start mutt with default configuration
mutt -f <mailbox>      # Open specific mailbox file
mutt -s "subject"      # Compose new email with subject

Basic Configuration

Mutt uses a configuration file at ~/.muttrc or ~/.mutt/muttrc:

set from = "your-email@tilde.pink"
set realname = "Your Name"
set editor = "nano"    # or "vim"

Navigation

Index Menu (Message List)

j or ↓                # Move to next message
k or ↑                # Move to previous message
z or PageDown         # Next page
Z or PageUp           # Previous page
= or Home             # First message
* or End              # Last message
<Enter>               # View current message
q                     # Quit mutt
?                     # Show help

Pager (Reading Messages)

Space or ↓            # Scroll down
Backspace or ↑        # Scroll up
PageDown              # Next page
PageUp                # Previous page
i                     # Return to index
q                     # Quit pager
/                     # Search within message
n                     # Search next match

Message Management

Reading Messages

<Enter>               # Open message
<Space>               # Scroll down
-                     # Scroll up
r                     # Reply to sender
R                     # Reply to all
f                     # Forward message
g                     # Group reply (reply to all)
b                     # Save message
d                     # Delete message
u                     # Undelete message
D                     # Delete message without confirmation

Composing Messages

m                     # Compose new message
r                     # Reply to current message
f                     # Forward current message

In Compose Menu

<Ctrl-T>              # Attach file
<Ctrl-D>              # Edit description of attachment
y                     # Send message
q                     # Cancel (postpone)
f                     # Edit From: field
c                     # Edit Cc: field
b                     # Edit Bcc: field
s                     # Edit Subject: field

Folder Management

Mailbox Operations

c                     # Change folder
y                     # Show list of mailboxes
$                     # Sync mailbox (save changes)
!                     # Move to first message
/                     # Search pattern

Saving Messages

s                     # Save message to folder
C                     # Copy message to folder

Advanced Features

Tagging Messages

t                     # Tag current message
T                     # Tag pattern (tag messages matching pattern)
;                     # Apply next function to tagged messages
U                     # Untag pattern

Searching

/                     # Search forward
?                     # Search backward
n                     # Next match
N                     # Previous match

Threading

T                     # Toggle threading
<Ctrl-R>              # Reverse threading
v                     # Collapse/expand thread
ESC v                 # Collapse/expand all threads

Useful Settings

Add these to your ~/.muttrc for better experience:

# Basic settings
set editor = "nano"
set charset = "utf-8"
set folder = "~/Mail"
set mbox = "~/Mail/inbox"
set spoolfile = "~/Mail/inbox"

# Performance
set sleep_time = 0    # No delay after operations
set fast_reply        # Skip prompts when replying

# Display
set smart_wrap             # Smart line wrapping
set markers                # Show wrapped lines
set pager_index_lines = 6  # Show index in pager

# Colors (optional)
color normal white black
color header brightyellow black "^From:"
color header brightcyan black "^Subject:"

Common Patterns

Search Patterns

~f <sender>           # From specific sender
~s <subject>          # With specific subject
~d <date>             # From specific date
~b <body>             # Body contains text
~h <header>           # Header contains text
~N                    # New messages
~O                    # Old messages
~F                    # Flagged messages
~U                    # Unread messages

Tips for Beginners

Navigation Fixes

If arrow keys don't work as expected in pager, add to ~/.muttrc:

bind pager <up> previous-line
bind pager <down> next-line

Faster Operation

set sleep_time = 0    # Remove delays
set timeout = 15      # Connection timeout

Better Display

set smart_wrap        # Better line wrapping
set pager_context = 5 # Show context lines

Getting Help

• Press ? in any menu to see keybindings

• Read the manual: man mutt

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