Re: Exim4 and Mutt for beginners?
On Thu, Oct 19, 2006 at 10:51:16PM +0000, Tyler wrote:
} I really want to try Mutt. However, I'm more than a little overwhelmed
} by the documentation. I understand that Mutt requires a properly
} configured MTA, and that Exim4 is the recommended, default MTA for
} Debian. However, Exim4 seems like a very big hammer for a very small
} nail -- I just want to send and receive mail via my pop-mail account on
} my laptop. Two questions:
}
} Should I wade into the Exim4 docs and try and figure that out, or is
} there a simpler option for someone with minimal experience with such
} matters?
}
} If Exim4 is indeed the best option, is there a recommended point of
} entry? The Debian Reference is very terse, and assumes a fair bit of
} knowledge that I don't have (I need a little more hand-holding than
} "configure these files to make it work"). The Exim4 Specification is
} very detailed, but aimed at people who already know something. Do I
} really need to sit down and work through a full-length book before I
} even start with Mutt?
}
} Currently I'm using Thunderbird, but I'm finding all the
} point-and-clickies are more distracting than enabling. Thanks for any
} suggestions!
When you install exim4, debconfig walks you through the important options.
If you missed it, you can run dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config to go through
it again. I recommend splitting into small files, and you'll want "mail
sent by smarthost; received via SMTP or fetchmail". The system mail name is
largely, though not entirely, irrelevant and you can accept the default
unless it gives you trouble. You can accept the default for the incoming
SMTP connection address, the other destinations for which mail is accepted,
and the machines to relay mail for. The machine handling outgoing mail for
this host (smarthost) is your ISP's SMTP server. This is the same server
you used in Thunderbird for outgoing mail.
Once you have that done, you should be able to send mail with mutt. As for
receiving mail, I recommend using fetchmail to retrieve POP mail and use
mutt to read a local mail spool. My personal setup has fetchmail retrieving
POP email and sending it via SMTP to exim4, which uses procmail to pass
it through spamassassin (actually using spamc/spamd), and delivers it to the
appropriate Maildir in my home directory, which is available both for local
reading with mutt and via IMAPS using courier-imap. That is probably
overkill for your current purposes, however.
} Tyle
--Greg
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