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3. Command line options

Running mutt with no arguments will make Mutt attempt to read your spool mailbox. However, it is possible to read other mailboxes and to send messages from the command line as well.

-c      specify a carbon-copy (Cc) address
-F      specify an alternate file to read initialization commands
-f      specify a mailbox to load
-i      specify a file to include in a message composition
-n      do not read the system Muttrc
-p      recall a postponed message
-s      specify a subject (enclose in quotes if it contains spaces)
-v      show version number and compile-time definitions
-z      exit immediately if there are no messages in the mailbox

To read messages in a mailbox

mutt [ -nz ] [ -F muttrc ] [ -f mailbox ]

To compose a new message

mutt [ -n ] [ -F muttrc ] [ -c address ] [ -i filename ] [ -s subject ] address [ address ... ]

Mutt also supports a ``batch'' mode to send prepared messages. Simply redirect input from the file you wish to send. For example,

mutt -s "data set for run #2" professor@bigschool.edu < ~run2.dat/

This command will send a message to ``professor@bigschool.edu'' with a subject of ``data set for run #2''. In the body of the message will be the contents of the file ``~/run2.dat''.


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