The Mutt E-Mail Client
``All mail clients suck. This one just sucks less.'' -me, circa 1995
Mutt is a small but very powerful text-based mail client for Unix operating
systems. Some of its features include:
- color support
- message threading
- MIME support (including RFC1522 support for encoded headers)
- POP3 support
- support for multiple mailbox formats (mbox, MMDF, MH, maildir)
- highly customizable, including key bindings
- searches using regular expression
- Delivery Status Notification (DSN) support
- PGP/MIME (RFC2015)
support [US/Canada only]
- invoke a web browser on URLs found in messages
- postpone message composition for later recall
- include attachments from the command line when composing
- reply to or forward multiple messages at once
- .mailrc style configuration files
- easy to install (uses GNU autoconf)
- small and efficient
- It's freeware!
Though written from scratch, Mutt's initial interface was based largely on
the ELM mail client. To a large
extent, Mutt is still very ELM-like in presentation of information in menus
(and in fact, ELM users will find it quite painless to switch as the
default key bindings are identical). As development progressed,
features found in other popular clients such as PINE and MUSH have been
added, the result being a hybrid, or ``mutt.'' At present, it most closely
resembles the SLRN news
client.
Here are a few screenshots which demonstate some of Mutt's capabilities.
Disclaimer
Mutt is alpha software. This means that new features are still being
added. Mutt is fairly stable at this point, but things do tend to break
from release to release. Consider yourself warned.
Where to get Mutt
The current version is mutt-0.76, released June 6, 1997.
The non-export version, which contains PGP/MIME support, is export
controlled (it is open to interpretation whether or not the US government
restricts code of this nature from export under ITAR, so I have to cover my
ass). If you are a citizen of the U.S. or Canada, please see README.US-only and
follow the instructions.
The non-export version has been exported against my wishes, but can be
found on the following sites:
Mutt Links
What other people have to say about Mutt:
Those interested in the grungy development details might be interested in
the following:
Mailing Lists
The following is a list of Mutt related mailing lists. To subscribe to a
list, send mail with the word subscribe in the subject to
list-name-request@cs.hmc.edu. Note that all messges posted
to mutt-announce are automatically forwarded to mutt-users so
you do not need to be subscribed to both.
If you would like to see previous articles to the lists, you can
FTP the archive.
Last updated on July 7, 1997 by
Michael Elkins.
URL:<http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~me/mutt/index.html>
© 1996,1997 Michael R. Elkins. All rights reserved.