[TAG] Mutt

[Benjamin A. Okopnik]

On Sun, Aug 13, 2006 at 12:09:06AM -0400, Claude S. Sutton wrote:
> Well, I am writing this on mutt.

Again, congratulations.
 
> I have sent a couple of messages to myself and determined that it is 
> working.
> 
> However, the complexity of it is somewhat intimidating.

Perhaps "complexity" isn't the right word here... actually using Mutt,
as I'm sure you've found, is very easy. There is, however, a tremendous
amount of functionality hidden behind that simple-seeming interface, and
learning all the ins and outs of that could definitely take a while.

> By the way, Immediatey, first crack, it went straight to /var/mail/me 
> and there were all 752 emails.

Exactly what a well-behaved mail client is supposed to do. :)
 
> At first, I was concerned that I was in the wrong folder because there 
> were many cron messages recording the crontab jobs, like running 
> rkhunter.  I have to change that.
> 
> I sure would like to get a config file that would get me started.

Mutt comes with several, and there are a lot of options. Take a look at
your '/usr/share/doc/mutt/examples'; there's a 'Muttrc' file there that
covers every possible option and explains it (don't get intimidated,
though; you don't need anything nearly that complex.) One directory up
from that, you have the complete reference for Mutt, 'manual.txt.gz' -
or you can read it on the Web, at 'http://www.mutt.org/doc/manual/'. You
could also copy '/etc/Muttrc' (the system config file) to '~/.muttrc'
and modify it to suit your needs.

>  I 
> have the need for an extensive address book, the ability to read .jpg 
> and other attachments, and the need for 5 or 6 mailboxes.  I like to 
> kekep mail from my family in one mailbox, etc.

All of it easily done; see above. Also, take a look at my 'No More
Spam!' article in LG#62 - it's a bit dated, but it shows you how to
configure Mutt and procmail as a flexible mail sorter and spam blocker.
 
> I have to read up on how to hook up with bogofilter.  I ran Evolution 
> for a while with bogofilter and spamassassin as a backup and I had spam 
> down to zero.  That was the best setup I ever had.

Again, see above.

> I also have to figure out how to get a speller, or else compose in OOo 
> and copy to here.

It's already built in. Just hit the 'i' key in the 'compose' menu of
Mutt (i.e., when you've saved what you've written and have returned to
Mutt); that stands for 'ispell', which is a common Unix spellchecker.
 
> I also use return receipts a lot.  I know there is controversy over 
> that, but that matters not to me.  I have just finished a 3 year civil 
> matter regarding the attempt on the part of an ex business associate to 
> beat me out of a very large sum of money and it really helps to know 
> that your lawyer got your email.
> 
> The same thing when sending serious information to a customer.  You want 
> to know that he got it.
> 
> Most corporate mail systems do reply.
> 
> So those are the things I am going to have to work on.

Mutt does support header addition and modification - again, see the
manual. Just add "Disposition-Notification-To: <your_address>" to the
header, and you're set.
 
> I have seen a couple of fairly good config files in various places, 
> several on the mutt.org page.

Yep; a great place to start.
 
> Thanks for the help.
> 
> Maybe I can make mutt into a better system for me than Thunderbird or 
> Evolution.

Personally, I wouldn't trade Mutt for either of the above by a country
mile; they're not nearly flexible enough for what I need.


* Ben Okopnik * Editor-in-Chief, Linux Gazette * http://linuxgazette.net *