evolution

Start Evolution

$ evolution

$ evolution --component=[mail|calendar|contacts]

$ evolution mailto:[user@example.com]

$ evolution --import [file.ics]

$ evolution --force-offline

evolution [options] [URI]

Evolution is the GNOME personal information management application. It integrates email, calendar, contacts, tasks, and memos into a single application, similar to Microsoft Outlook.
Evolution supports multiple email protocols (IMAP, POP, SMTP, Exchange), calendar standards (CalDAV, ICS), and contact formats (CardDAV, LDAP). It includes features like encryption (GPG, S/MIME), spam filtering, and search folders.

--component name

Start with specific component: mail, calendar, contacts, tasks, memos.

Import file (vCard, iCal, etc.).

Force online mode.

Force offline mode.

Request running instance to quit.

Start in express mode.

Display help.

- Multiple email accounts
- CalDAV and Exchange calendars
- CardDAV and LDAP contacts
- Task and memo management
- GPG and S/MIME encryption
- Spam filtering

Heavy resource usage compared to simpler clients. Some Exchange features require additional packages. First-time setup wizard is mandatory. Background processes may continue after closing.

Evolution was originally developed by Ximian starting in 1999, acquired by Novell in 2003, and later became part of the GNOME project. It was one of the first Linux applications to offer comprehensive groupware functionality.

thunderbird(1), gnome-contacts(1), gnome-calendar(1)