On 10/9/2013 5:48 AM, berenger.morel@neutralite.org wrote:
Le 09.10.2013 04:48, Jerry Stuckle a écrit :On 10/8/2013 9:13 PM, berenger.morel@neutralite.org wrote:Hi. I finally decided myself to install a software to manage my mails. So, I think I'll go for mutt: it appears quite often on the list ( so I might ask if I have problems, before trying another one when everything will be ok ) and runs into a terminal, which makes it perfect for me since I use a tiling window managers: it will never spawn ugly dialog in my face for a reason or another, and for the situations when I simply want to run a TTY without X, it will fit perfectly too. But now, it seems ( says this article http://nongeekshandbook.blogspot.fr/2009/02/mutt-email-client-that-sucks-less.html ) that it needs 2 other tools: one to fetch mails from server, and another one to send them. For the fetcher, I am surprised that debian does not seems to recommend or suggest using one, so I will not spend time on that -for now at least- and will do as the article says, unless I discover something interesting in the process. But for the tool to send mails, things are different: I can count 16 alternatives. Some are obviously wrong for my use, like lsb-invalid-mta, postfix or exim ( those last ones are probably too big for my simple usage, they seems designed for big boxes where mailing is an important task ), but even after removing some obvious ones, I still have a lot of choice. So, here is my question: What would you use as a MTA on a Debian system made for an end-user? Of course, I could take one of them at random and try to go with it, but I would like to take the occasion to learn basics about that, without installing a tool from which I will never use or understand 10% of the features... So, I would like something which: _ supports IMAP, POP3 and SMTP ( this does not sound excessive I think, but if there are other important protocols, I do not even know their existences or uses ) _ is not a daemon running constantly: why should I have a daemon running to send mail when I am not connected to Internet or not taking care of my mails? Something which is started by the client ( MUA it seem? ) is good enough for me and does not consume time when starting or shutting down my computers. _ is lightweight, because I always aim to have a system which let all possible resources to my compilers, and which respect my batteries. I bet that if I can still survive 4H with wifi after 3 years of intensive use, it is partly because I do not use heavy softwares. _ is configured by raw text in the good old UNIX way because I have learn so many from Debian's configuration files and their comments, which are very useful when you messed everything and can not even access Internet :) Does it even exists? If not, what is, in your opinions, the better to fit those goals? Thanks. PS: sorry for the long description of my request, but I tried to be as complete as possible. Hopefully it makes things I aim for more clear...I use Exim on my servers - and they don't handle much mail, and have ever since I started with Debian. It can be a real pain to configure due to its flexibility, but the default configuration will probably work for you. And SpamAssassin installs nicely into the Exim4 configuration.I guess it will probably works out of the box, yes. I trust Debian a lot for that, but I am the tinkerer kind of users, so it will quickly be out-of-order because of my changes in the search of the optimal system ;)I've done a fair amount of custom configuration, especially to keep spam down. But that's also been done over a period of years, not all at one time.Since my intent ( I forgot to explicitly mention that ) is to simply get my mails from an Internet mailbox ( the one I'm currently using ) I do not really feel the need to redo the job the admins made. I'll prefer to move them to the dedicated section of the distant MTA where a bot will learn from them, which will contribute to overall quality of the service instead of only my computer.
You probably don't want an MTA then. An MTA's job is to move messages between servers, and is not used for retrieving messages.
If you want to move your messages on the server, you'll need to either put hooks into the server's MTA configuration (which can be done with most MTA's) or run another program, either on the server or your laptop, to move the files around. In the latter case, since it wouldn't be hooked into your MTA, you would need a means to start it (i.e. cron or starting a program on your laptop).
If you do decide to do it on the server, you will be limited to moving the messages to different mailboxes or folders in an IMAP mailbox, or you won't be able to retrieve them.
You could set up an MTA on your netbook, but to do it and have all of your mail forwarded from your existing host would require changing the host MTA's configuration (MTA's push mail, not pull it) and wouldn't do the filtering on the server you wish.
One thing you do need to be careful with, no matter which MTA you use. Don't make it an open relay - you'll soon become a source of SPAM. And you should take steps to prevent bots from guessing your userid and password (I use fail2ban). JerryShould I guess from this that I'll have to configure my router for some port forwarding? It's not something hard, but it will not be possible everywhere I could go with the netbook... But I'll keep that in mind anyway. It must not be so hard to only relay mail from localhost... Thanks for your reply
No, it's a matter of configuring your MTA properly. For instance, you have to allow sending to your domain without signing in, or other MTA's won't be able to send you email. However, you do NOT want to allow email to be sent off-domain without signing in.
Jerry