Gentoo Archives: gentoo-user

From: Mick <michaelkintzios@×××××.com>
To: gentoo-user@l.g.o
Subject: [gentoo-user] [OT] Using mutt instead of kmail
Date: Sun, 08 Jan 2012 18:34:07
Message-Id: 201201081832.18571.michaelkintzios@gmail.com
1 Hi All,
2
3 There are a few mutt users here so I thought of asking here first.
4
5 I've tried setting up mutt to use as a mail client instead of kmail.
6
7 Having spent some time now I am not sure it will do what I expect of a mail
8 client, at least not with the ease that I hoped.
9
10 The basic requirements for my typical use cases are to be able to handle
11 gpg/pgp and s/mime signed and occasionally encrypted messages and to auto-
12 complete addresses.
13
14 I have several different s/mime certificates and gpg keys for two different mail
15 accounts. Of course only one certificate for each account is valid at any time
16 (the others are expired or revoked) and only one gpg public/private key pair.
17
18 However, the old keys are still necessary and available in my system to be
19 able to decrypt old emails that I have received over the years.
20
21 With kmail I do not have to specify gpg keys, or certificate IDs, to be able to
22 decrypt messages. The mail client itself reads the key/certificate and calls
23 gpgsm/kgpg which asks for my passphrase.
24
25 Also, when I want to send an encrypted message it knows from the Crypto
26 settings of the recipient in the Address Book which public key/certificate to
27 use to encrypt a message. if the recipient has both gpg and s/mime
28 certificates available in the Address Book it asks me which to use on each
29 occasion.
30
31 Finally, kmail has an auto-completion feature for the recipient address and it
32 suggests as I type the person to send to. Down arrow and enter is all that I
33 need to press.
34
35
36 Unlike kmail, with mutt I can't even start using certificates because I am
37 getting errors importing SSL certs like these:
38
39 3075245704:error:0D0680A8:asn1 encoding routines:ASN1_CHECK_TLEN:wrong
40 tag:tasn_dec.c:1319:
41 3075245704:error:0D07803A:asn1 encoding routines:ASN1_ITEM_EX_D2I:nested asn1
42 error:tasn_dec.c:381:Type=PKCS12
43
44 Mutt asks for s/mime ID Nos, on each message, which with the number of
45 certificates that I have amassed over the years I do not happen to have at hand
46 and it is a pain to type manually each time.
47
48 Mutt also does not seem to auto-complete any addresses. It uses aliases, but
49 that implies that I must set up such aliases and use these every time I want
50 to enter a particular address. This creates the problem of having to remember
51 each and every alias, rather than typing "fre" and getting a list of Freds,
52 Freddies, Frederics, etc. or part of the Surname, or part of the email
53 address itself.
54
55 The other difficulty is the key shortcuts in mutt do not behave as I would like
56 them to, but this is that something I could recode so less of a problem.
57
58 Is there anything that I could do to automate the digital signing and
59 encryption to a level similar to kmail and the auto-completion of email
60 addresses?
61 --
62 Regards,
63 Mick

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Replies

Subject Author
Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Using mutt instead of kmail Walter Dnes <waltdnes@××××××××.org>
Re: [gentoo-user] [OT] Using mutt instead of kmail Frank Steinmetzger <Warp_7@×××.de>