mu Command Examples

Index and search emails from a local Maildir. More information: https://man.cx/mu.

• Initialize the email database, optionally specifying the Maildir directory and email addresses:

mu init --maildir={{path/to/directory}} --my-address={{name@example.com}}

• Index new emails:

mu index

• Find messages using a specific keyword (in message body, subject, sender, ...):

mu find {{keyword}}

• Find messages to Alice with subject jellyfish containing the words apples or oranges:

mu find to:{{alice}} subject:{{jellyfish}} {{apples}} OR {{oranges}}

• Find unread messages about words starting with soc (the * only works at the end of the search term) in the Sent Items folder:

mu find 'subject:{{soc}}*' flag:{{unread}} maildir:'/{{Sent Items}}'

• Find messages from Sam with attached images, between 2 KiB and 2 MiB, written in 2021:

mu find 'mime:{{image/*}} size:{{2k..2m}} date:{{20210101..20211231}} from:{{sam}}

• List contacts with Bob in either name or email address:

mu cfind {{Bob}}