Baslinux mailing list

[cce.zizkov AT volny.cz]

 Mutt for BasicLinux  (updated 19.12. 2004)
 -------------------

 Mutt is a highly customizable e-mail client that works well with older 
 hardware. It can be run in Linux console as well as in an Xterm window. 
 Besides ordinary reading and composing capabilities the latest version 
 of mutt is also able to access the mailbox on a pop3 server online in 
 the same way as
 one of its own mail folders. This is a very comfortable 
 way to delete spam and download
 only those messages which you are 
 interested in. 

 I bundled Mutt with three small utilities catdoc, xls2csv and html2text
 which quite reliably display the most frequent attachments (html, rtf, 
 doc, xcl). Mutt also supports different national character sets. A few 
 fonts and key maps for for West-European, East-European and Russian 
 languages are included in the package. 
 
 1. Installation: 

    BL2: Untar mail-bl2.tgz to the root directory. If you want to install 
    mutt
 to the RAM version, you have to use the /tmp directory and create 
    symbolic
 links manually
   
    BL3: Run 'pkg mail-bl3.tgz'  this installs mutt into the BasicLinux 
    file system. 
   
    Run 'musetup' once to configure your internet settings. All mail folders 
    and configuration files will be stored in the directory /root/Mail. 
  
 2. Running the program

    Start the program with the command 'mu'. You can send or receive messages
    only while being online. If you are not connected to the internet 
outgoing 
    messages will be stored in the file /root/Mail/_outbox. Incoming messages
    got into /root/Mail/_inbox
   
    You can dial, hang up and call mail transport routines from within 
    the program or independently with the shell commands ppp-on, ppp-off 
    and mailmutt. Also the commands switching between Spanish, Czech and
    Russian character sets are available within Mutt. The easiest way is 
    to use Fkeys in mutt (for information on function keys type '?'):
    
    Ctrl D: dial
    Ctrl H: hang up

    F1: show manual
    F2: edit internet settings 
    F3: edit configuration file (.muttrc) 
    F4: define editor macros (.macro)

    F5: edit viewers to open attachments (.mailcap) 
    F6: Spanish (West European) settings for edit/view 
    F7: Czech (East European) settings for edit/view 
    F8: Russian settings for edit/view 

    F9:  send and receive mail
    F10: select folder
   
    These key bindings are defined in .fkeys. Change them according to 
    your needs (cf. comments in that file and hints in .macro). 


 3. Documentation

    You find very detailed documentation and some sample files for 
    customization in /usr/doc/mutt and /usr/man. The mutt manual 
    can also be opened from the program with the F1 key. 


 4. FAQ 

    How do I know that an outgoing message has actually been sent?

    --------------------------------------------------------------

    At the end of mail composing dialogue (type: y) mutt calls a script 
    called 'sendmail'. Unfortunately screen output is not possible here
    (if you have a soundcard you may want to add some kind of acoustic 
    signalization). When you compose mail online, sendmail will sent the 
    message out immediately through pmail. Otherwise it is stored to 
    _outbox and will be sent later: 

    a) when you compose another message and happen to be online 
    b) when you are online and use the shell command 'mailmutt' 
    c) when you press F8 in Mutt that also starts 'mailmutt'
    
    NOTE: Unfortunately the term 'postponed' is understood in a different 
    way by Mutt menu and by pmail documention. For pmail postponed  
    messages are all those which have not been sent out. Mutt uses  
    the term for message drafts you still have to finish. If you select 
    the menu 
option p in the mail composer, the message will not be handed 
    over to the sendmail script, but can be completed when you call the 
    mail composer the next time. 
 

    Changing fonts and character sets
    ---------------------------------
    
    The directory /usr/lib/kbd contains only a few fonts and keyboard
    mappings for West European, Central European and Russian languages.
    In order to switch between a Spanish, a Czech-German, and a Russian 
    keyboard use the commands 'es', 'cz', 'ru', 'ru2'. In Mutt you can 
    accomplish the same effect by pressing the function keys F6, F7, F8.
   
    The present configuration offers a maximum power according different
    international character encoding. If you never get mail with 8bit 
    characters or non-English attachments you probably will not notice. 
    In that case you do not need to read the following. 
    
    a) The scripts es, cz and ru are only examples. If you need a different
    national keyboard (Italian, Polish, Ukrainian etc.) you have to get
    them from the Slackware distribution (kbd.tgz) and create your own
    analog scripts. If you do not like the russian phonetic keyboard, use 
    ru2 instead of ru. 
    
    b) The scripts es, cz, and ru - no matter if called from the command 
    line or by a FNkey in Mutt - change not only the screen font and 
    the keyboard, but even the behaviour of links, catdoc and html2text.
    That means the links browser and the viewers for html, doc, rtf and
    xcl attachments will always convert attachments into the character set 
    belonging to the chosen language. If you are browsing messages and 
    find a message that is not readable, press F6, F7 and F8. One of these
    three should always display it correctly. 
    
    c) What to do if attachments do not display correctly even then?
    If it is a html attachment type 'v' to view them with links and
    change the language settings manually. If it is an rtf or doc you may 
    add a parameter to the catdoc line in .mailcap. E.g. -scp1252 indicates
    the encoding in source file and -d8859-2 the target charset. You 
    obtain a list of all available charsets with 'catdoc -l'.


    Spam filters
    ------------

    There are two ways of implementing a spam filter: You can add 
    filter routines to ~/.pmailrc or to ~/Mail/.muttrc - for more 
    information read the man pages and sample configuration files. 


 5. To-Do-List

    - Find a way how to send messages to a list of multiple undisclosed 
      recipients.
   
    - Add a module that parses the incoming mail and translates non-English
      quoted-printable text in header field.