Re: [gentoo-user] mutt configuration advice

[Walter Dnes]

On Mon, May 27, 2013 at 01:49:47PM +0100, Mick wrote
> I would be grateful if some kind soul guided my hand on configuring
> mutt to behave like ... errm ... kmail!  O_o

  Hi; a long-time mutt-user here.  The authoritative source for info is
http://www.mutt.org/  You can subscribe to their mailing list.  They
also have the comp.mail.mutt newsgroup.

 First, let's look at what mutt *ISN'T*.  It's not a singing-dancing
all-inclusive "integrated" monstrosity.  It reads email, writes email,
and hands it off to your local MTA for delivery.  In addition to mutt I
also need "getmail" (or equivalant), procmail, and "ssmtp" (or
equivalant).  And the organization of my inboxes controls mutt, not visa
versa.  My setup here at home...

  I can receive email from 3 sources...
my personal domain MX
my Google account
my ADSL ISP
my emergency backup dialup account

  I use maildir format storage.  I run a script that calls getmail for
each account.  getmail passes the emails to procmail, which passes the
emails to the appropriate inboxes.  I set up a separate inbox for each
mailing last or group that I belong to.

  mutt reads the email.  It "sends" to ssmtp, which is a very simplified
sendmail.  All it does is push the email out the door to my ISP's MTA,
which does the real work.  I dislike only one thing about ssmtp.  It
*INSISTS* on installing "sendmail" symlinks in 3 or 4 different
locations, all pointing back to /usr/sbin/ssmtp.  My most embarressing
moment as a user was when a chatty daemon started sending a bunch of
stuff to "root@" my ISP.  I did not appreciate that.  After that, I
tightened down what stuff gets sent where by daemons, and set up a
script that wipes the symlinks.  I have to rerun it after each ssmtp
update.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes@××××××××.org>
I don't run "desktop environments"; I run useful applications