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1. Introduction

Mutt is a small but very powerful curses-based mail client for Unix operating systems. Some of its features include:

The best way to describe this mail user agent (MUA) is to say that it's a hybrid, or ``mutt,'' consisting of features from various other curses-based e-mail clients. Its interface is largely based on ELM, but hints of PINE and MUSH are also present. It is not a clone. Mutt has developed a personality of its own.

1.1 Supported platforms

Mutt has been reported to compile and run under the following Unix operating systems:

An ANSI C compiler (such as gcc) is required. You must also have a SysV compatible curses library on your system (if your system does not, you should first install the GNU ncurses package before compiling Mutt).

1.2 Where to get Mutt

Mutt is available from the following FTP sites:

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 ftp://cs.hmc.edu/pub/me/README.US-only and follow the instructions.

The non-export version has been exported against my wishes, but can been found on the following sites:

1.3 Where to get more information

In addition to this manual, there are several other WWW sites which contain information on Mutt:

1.4 Mailing lists

There are two mailing lists for Mutt. The first is ``mutt-announce'' which is a very low traffic list where I post announcents about new Mutt releases. To subscribe, send mail to mutt-announce-request@cs.hmc.edu with the word subcribe in the subject.

The second list is a higher traffic discussion list. This is where patches, bugs and suggestions are posted. To subscribe to the discussion list, send mail to mutt-request@cs.hmc.edu with the word subscribe in the subject. Note: if you subscribe to the discussion list, you do not need to subscribe to ``mutt-announce'' because messages are automatically forwarded.


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