From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon Dec 20 23:53:55 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 493D316A4CE for ; Mon, 20 Dec 2004 23:53:55 +0000 (GMT) Received: from nic.ach.sch.gr (nic.sch.gr [194.63.238.4]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 412DD43D41 for ; Mon, 20 Dec 2004 23:53:51 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: (qmail 13544 invoked by uid 207); 20 Dec 2004 23:53:49 -0000 Received: from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr by nic by uid 201 with qmail-scanner-1.21 (sophie: 3.04/2.19/3.81. Clear:RC:1(81.186.70.31):. Processed in 3.111347 secs); 20 Dec 2004 23:53:49 -0000 Received: from dialup31.ach.sch.gr (HELO gothmog.gr) ([81.186.70.31]) (envelope-sender ) by nic.sch.gr (qmail-ldap-1.03) with DES-CBC3-SHA encrypted SMTP for ; 20 Dec 2004 23:53:45 -0000 Received: from gothmog.gr (gothmog [127.0.0.1]) by gothmog.gr (8.13.1/8.13.1) with ESMTP id iBJF6w3M097432 for ; Sun, 19 Dec 2004 17:07:28 +0200 (EET) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Received: (from giorgos@localhost) by gothmog.gr (8.13.1/8.13.1/Submit) id iBJF4v2H097372; Sun, 19 Dec 2004 17:04:57 +0200 (EET) (envelope-from keramida@ceid.upatras.gr) Date: Sun, 19 Dec 2004 17:04:57 +0200 From: Giorgos Keramidas To: Nikolas Britton Message-ID: <20041219150457.GB75824@gothmog.gr> References: <41C4FA1C.4090006@nbritton.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <41C4FA1C.4090006@nbritton.org> cc: freebsd-questions Subject: Re: migrating from thunderbird to mutt? X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 20 Dec 2004 23:53:55 -0000 On 2004-12-18 21:48, Nikolas Britton wrote: > > How do I get my old email (from thunderbird, mbox?) into mutt? I don't know what format thunderbird uses for storing email folders. If it's a plain, flat text file, in UNIX mbox format, you should be able to import the messages to Mutt by simply copying the folders from thunderbird's folder to ~/Mail. > Can mutt handle um like 5+ email address and have them all separated > and be able to send from diffrent email accounts? Yep. You can configure Mutt to automatically pick the "right" sender address depending on any number of criteria. Eg. to set the from address to something different when you reply to email sent to your business address, you can use something like: % reply-hook '~t .' my_hdr From: keramida@ceid.upatras.gr (Giorgos Keramidas) % send-hook '~t .' my_hdr From: keramida@ceid.upatras.gr (Giorgos Keramidas) % reply-hook '~t company\.com' my_hdr From: gkeramidas@company.com (George Keramidas) % send-hook '~t company\.com' my_hdr From: gkeramidas@company.com (George Keramidas) This will use keramida@ceid.upatras.gr by default, except for messages posted to one of the company.com addresses (in which case the second, more specific match will be used). Any number of reply-hook and send-hook patterns can be used to tweak the email address used by Mutt. If the hooks you have don't work 100% right, you can even edit the headers of the message *before* posting it, by hitting 'E' (edit-headers) instead of 'e' (edit) while preparing the message. > If I remember right mutt is just a mail reader, so how do I get mail > to and sent from mutt? The following programs are used in my email setup: Sendmail As a mail transfer agent; the program that gets requests for posting mail and makes sure their addresses are rewritten if necessary, that all messages are forwarded to the proper mail gateway (ISP, corporate, etc). fetchmail This pulls messages from various POP3 or IMAP servers, and stuffs them in the local Sendmail queue for delivery to user mailboxes on my workstation. procmail Filtering of messages delivered by the local Sendmail MTA is done by procmail. A set of filter 'recipes', as they are called in the procmail language, in my ~/.procmailrc file makes sure that email is delivered to the proper mail folder under ~/Mail/. I keep separate folders for each list I am subscribed and update this file every time I subscribe to a new list or unsubscribe from one. mutt Mail reading, sending and replying. The setup of mutt uses /usr/sbin/sendmail to post all outgoing messages through the local Sendmail installation. The incoming and outgoing email paths are similar to tha diagrams below: 1. INCOMING EMAIL ================= % +--------+ +--------+ % | POP3 | | IMAP | % | server | | server | % +--------+ +--------+ % | | % +-----+ | % | | +--------------------+ % +-------------|--|--+ | | % | | | | +-----------+ | % | | +---------> | localhost | | % | fetchmail | | | smtp | Sendmail | % | +------------> | port | | % | | +-----------+ | % +-------------------+ | | % +-|--|--|---|--------+ % +------------------------+ | | | % | +---------------+ | | % | | +------+ | % | | | | % v v v v % +--------------------------------------------------------------+ % | +--------+ +--------+ +--------+ +--------+ | % | procmail | filter | | filter | | filter | | filter | | % | | recipe | | recipe | | recipe | | recipe | | % | +--------+ +--------+ +--------+ +--------+ | % +------------------|-----------|-----------|----------|--------+ % | | | | % v v v v % +--------+ +--------+ +--------+ +--------+ % | mail | | mail | | mail | | mail | % | folder | | folder | | folder | | folder | % +--------+ +--------+ +--------+ +--------+ Mutt is configured to read email from the mail folders at the bottom of this diagram. The rest of the programs run in the background doing their work as they see fit. 2. OUTGOING EMAIL ================= The outgoing messages are handled by an even simpler setup. Mutt just forwards all the messages to Sendmail, which handles the rest (i.e. it forwards all email to my ISP's mail gateway): % +---------------------------+ % +-----------+ | +-------------------+ | % | Mutt |--------------->| Sendmail submit | | % +-----------+ | +-------|-|-|-------+ | % | v v v | % | +-------------------+ | % | | Sendmail Queue | | % | | Runner | | % | +-------|-|-|-------+ | % +-----------|-|-|-----------+ % v v v % +-------------------+ % | ISP's | % | mail gateway | % +-------------------+ > How does it handle hyperlinks, if I select something will it open up > in firefox or whatever? Not sure. I usually copy/paste the URLs from an xterm running mutt to an already open Firefox window. > Message filtering, for example I have all the different freebsd > mailing lists automatically put into different folders, and junk mail > sorting? See (1) above, for procmail :-) > Speell check? Mutt doesn't include a built-in editor. This is a major plus in my opinion, as you are free to use any sort of editor you want to edit the messages you post. I usually set editor="emacs" in my .muttrc file and use the spell-checking capabilities of GNU Emacs. > How do I set the thing up, config file help? The file `/usr/local/share/doc/mutt/manual.txt' is installed along with the Mutt port. It is the full Mutt manual. You should at least kim through it once, just to get a feel of what features Mutt has. You will probably never use all those features: some may be useless to you, some may be even annoying. Knowing what the mailer *can* do though, is going to be very helpful as you are configuring it. Ideally, Mutt is a zero configuration program. You just fire it up and run it without any sort of configuration. The default options are usually just fine. If you do have to add options to your .muttrc file, they will probably be something short like: set from="keramida@ceid.upatras.gr" # the default From: header address alternates "keramida@ceid.upatras.gr|keramida@linux.gr" Then the tweaking starts! Mutt has a ton of options to tweak the way it looks and acts. Apart from the manual in /usr/local/share/doc, which is the definitive reference for all options, you can find many sample configuration files online. Just search a bit in Google and on http://www.mutt.org. > I have more questions, I just can't think of them at the moment.