elm

Additional Notes

elm is an interactive, full-screen email client for the terminal. It provides a menu-driven interface for reading, composing, replying, forwarding, and managing email messages. It was one of the early popular email clients on Unix systems before mutt and pine gained prominence.

The name stands for "ELectronic Mail." elm supports local mailboxes (/var/mail), MH folders, and can send messages via a local MTA or SMTP relay. It provides a built-in address book, message filtering, and user-configurable aliases.

Syntax

elm [options] [address...]

Parameters

• address: Recipient address. If given, elm starts in compose mode addressed to that user.

Common Options

• -f mailbox: Open an alternate mailbox instead of the default inbox.
• -i file: Include the contents of a file in the message when composing.
• -s subject: Set the subject line when composing from the command line.
• -a file: Attach a file to the message.
• -c cc-address: Set a CC address when composing.
• -b bcc-address: Set a BCC address when composing.
• -d level: Enable debugging at the specified level.
• -h: Display help.
• -m: Check for new mail.
• -p: Print the current message to stdout.
• -z: Exit immediately if there is no mail.

Examples

elm

Open the main mailbox interface.

elm user@example.com

Compose a new message to a recipient.

elm -s "Report" -i report.txt user@example.com

Compose a message with a subject line and included file body.

elm -f ~/Mail/archive

Open an alternate mailbox folder.

Practical Notes

• elm is less common on modern distributions; many users have migrated to mutt, alpine, or neomutt.
• Commands within elm use single-key shortcuts: n for next, d for delete, r for reply, s for save, q for quit.
• Local mail is typically stored in /var/mail/$USER for the system mailbox.
• Configuration is in ~/.elm/elmrc.
• For sending mail in scripts without an interactive session, prefer mail or sendmail directly.