| Mutt | |
|---|---|
 | |
 Mutt in action | |
| Original author | Michael Elkins |
| Developer | Kevin McCarthy |
| Initial release | 1995; 30 years ago (1995) |
| Stable release | 2.2.16[1]  / 22 November 2025 |
| Repository | |
| Written in | C[2] |
| Operating system | Cross-platform |
| Type | Email client |
| License | GPL-2.0-or-later[3] |
| Website | www |
Mutt is atext-basedemail client forUnix-like systems. It was originally written by Michael Elkins in 1995 and released under theGNU General Public License version 2 or any later version.[3]
The Mutt slogan is "All mail clients suck. This one just sucks less."[4]
Mutt supports most mail storing formats (notably bothmbox andMaildir) and protocols (POP3,IMAP, etc.). It also includesMIME support, notably fullPGP/GPG andS/MIME integration.
Mutt was originally designed as aMail User Agent (MUA) and relied on locally accessible mailbox andsendmail infrastructure. According to the Mutt homepage "though written from scratch, Mutt's initial interface was based largely on theELM mail client". New to Mutt were message scoring and threading capabilities. Support for fetching and sending email via various protocols such as POP3, IMAP andSMTP was added later. However, Mutt still relies on external tools for composing and filtering messages.
Mutt has hundreds of configuration directives and commands. It allows for changing all thekey bindings and makingkeyboard macros for complex actions, as well as the colors and the layout of most of the interface. Through variants of a concept known as "hooks", many of its settings can be changed based on criteria such as current mailbox or outgoing message recipients. Mutt supports an optionalsidebar, similar to those often found ingraphical mail clients. There are also many patches and extensions available that add functionality, such asNNTP support.
Mutt is fully controlled with the keyboard, and has support for mailconversation threading, meaning one can easily move around long discussions such as inmailing lists. New messages are composed with an externaltext editor, unlikepine, which embeds its own editor known aspico.
Mutt is capable of efficiently searching mail stores by calling on mail indexing tools such as Notmuch,[5][6] and many people recommend Mutt be used this way.[7] Alternatively, users can search their mail stores from Mutt by callinggrep via aBash script.[8]
Mutt is often used by security professionals or security-conscious users because of its smallerattack surface compared with other clients that ship with aweb browser rendering engine or aJavaScript interpreter.[9] In relation toTransport Layer Security, Mutt can be configured totrust certificates on first use, and not to use older, less secure versions of theTransport Layer Security protocol.[10]
either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
