mu/README.org

#+TITLE:mu
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Welcome to ~mu~!

*Note*: you are looking at the *development* branch, which is where new code is
being developed and tested, and which may occasionally break.

Distribution and non-adventurous users are instead recommended to use the [[https://github.com/djcb/mu/tree/release/1.8][1.8
Release Branch]] or to pick up one of the [[https://github.com/djcb/mu/releases][1.8 Releases]].

Given the enormous amounts of e-mail many people gather and the importance of
e-mail message in our work-flows, it's essential to quickly deal with all that
mail - in particular, to instantly find that one important e-mail you need right
now, and quickly file away message for later use.

~mu~ is a tool for dealing with e-mail messages stored in the Maildir-format. ~mu~'s
purpose in life is to help you to quickly find the messages you need; in
addition, it allows you to view messages, extract attachments, create new
maildirs, and so on. =mu= is fully documented.

After indexing your messages into a [[http://www.xapian.org][Xapian]]-database, you can search them using a
custom query language. You can use various message fields or words in the body
text to find the right messages.

Built on top of ~mu~ are some extensions (included in this package):

- ~mu4e~: a full-featured e-mail client that runs inside emacs

- ~mu-guile~: bindings for the Guile/Scheme programming language (version 3.0 and
  later)

~mu~ is written in C and C++; ~mu4e~ is written in ~elisp~ and ~mu-guile~ in a mix of C++ and
Scheme.

Note, ~mu~ is available in Linux distributions (e.g. Debian/Ubuntu and Fedora)
under the name ~maildir-utils~; apparently because they don't like short names.
All of the code is distributed under the terms of the [[https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.en.html][GNU General Public License
version 3]] (or higher).

* Installation

Note: building from source is an /advanced/ subject; esp. if something goes
wrong. The below simple examples are a start, but all tools involved have many
options; there are differences between systems, versions etc. So if this is all
a bit daunting we recommend to wait for someone else to build it for you, such
as a Linux distribution. Many have packages available.

** Requirements

To be able to build ~mu~, ensure you have:

- a C++17 compiler (~gcc~ or ~clang~ are known to work)
- development packages for /Xapian/ and /GMime/ and /GLib/ (see ~meson.build~ for the
  versions)
- basic tools such as ~make~, ~sed~, ~grep~
- ~meson~

For ~mu4e~, you also need ~emacs~.

** Building

#+begin_example
$ git clone git://github.com/djcb/mu.git
$ cd mu
#+end_example

Now, you have a choice. ~mu~ uses ~meson~ for building, but includes a good-old
~Makefile~ with some useful targets, which should work for typical cases.

#+begin_example
$ ./autogen.sh && make
$ sudo make install
#+end_example

Alternatively, for more control, you can run ~meson~ directly:
#+begin_example
$ meson build && ninja -C build
$ ninja -C build install
#+end_example

This allows for passing various ~meson~ options, such as ~--prefix~. Consult the
~meson~ documentation for details.