Introduction to Mutt
The Mutt package contains a Mail
User Agent. This is useful for reading, writing, replying to,
saving, and deleting your email.
This package is known to build and work properly using an LFS 12.2
platform.
Package Information
Mutt Dependencies
Recommended (for a text version of the manual)
Lynx-2.9.2,
or Links-2.30 (or W3m, or ELinks) - please read the Note.
Optional
Aspell-0.60.8.1, Cyrus
SASL-2.1.28, DocBook-utils-0.6.14, GDB-15.1,
GnuPG-2.4.5, GnuTLS-3.8.7.1,
GPGME-1.23.2, libidn-1.42,
MIT Kerberos V5-1.21.3, an MTA (that provides
a sendmail command),
slang-2.3.3, SQLite-3.46.1,
libgssapi,
Mixmaster, QDBM or Tokyo Cabinet
Editor Notes: https://wiki.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/wiki/mutt
Installation of Mutt
Note
Mutt ships with an HTML version
of its manual, but the text version is no longer provided because
differences in the formatting from different text browsers
compared to the shipped version caused complaints. To get a text
file, the following are used in order of preference: lynx with overstriking (backspaces) for
emphasis, w3m or elinks: the latter two apparently provide
plain text. Plain text is generally preferred unless reading the
HTML manual, so the instructions below use lynx if available, or else links to produce plain text.
Mutt requires a group named
mail
. You can add this group, if it
does not exist, with this command (as the root
user):
groupadd -g 34 mail
If you did not install an MTA, you need to
modify the ownership of /var/mail
with this command:
chgrp -v mail /var/mail
Install Mutt by running the
following commands:
To ensure that a plain text manual is created when using
lynx or to otherwise use
links to produce it (instead of
elinks), run the following
command:
sed -e 's/ -with_backspaces//' \
-e 's/elinks/links/' \
-e 's/-no-numbering -no-references//' \
-i doc/Makefile.in
Now configure and build the application:
./configure --prefix=/usr \
--sysconfdir=/etc \
--with-docdir=/usr/share/doc/mutt-2.2.13 \
--with-ssl \
--enable-external-dotlock \
--enable-pop \
--enable-imap \
--enable-hcache \
--enable-sidebar &&
make
This package does not come with a test suite.
Now, as the root
user:
make install
Note
If you used a DESTDIR method to only install to a temporary
location as a regular user (as part of a package management
process), you will need to run the following as the root
user after completing the real install:
chown root:mail /usr/bin/mutt_dotlock &&
chmod -v 2755 /usr/bin/mutt_dotlock
An info file is now installed, so you will also need to recreate
the /usr/share/info/dir
as
described when Texinfo was
installed in LFS.
Command Explanations
sed ... -e 's/ -with_backspaces//'
...: This turns off the backspaces used for
overstriking when lynx is used,
resulting in readable plain text when using view.
sed ... -e 's/elinks/links/'
...: This allows links to be run instead of
elinks which is not
in the book.
sed ... -e 's/-no-numbering
-no-references//' ...: This removes switches which
are not understood by links.
--enable-external-dotlock
:
In some circumstances the mutt-dotlock program is not created. This
switch ensures it is always created.
--enable-pop
: This switch
enables POP3 support.
--enable-imap
: This switch
enables IMAP support.
--enable-hcache
: This
switch enables header caching.
--enable-sidebar
: This
switch enables support for the sidebar (a list of mailboxes). It is
off by default, but can be turned on by :set sidebar_visible in mutt (and
off again with ':unset'), or it can be enabled in ~/.muttrc
.
--with-ssl
: This parameter
adds SSL/TLS support from openssl in POP3/IMAP/SMTP.
--enable-autocrypt --with-sqlite3
:
These two switches add support for passive protection against data
collection, using gnupg and gpgme (gpgme is enabled by autocrypt).
See The Manual.
--enable-gpgme
: This switch enables GPG
support through the GPGME package. Use this switch if you want GPG
support in Mutt.
--enable-smtp
: This switch enables SMTP
relay support.
--with-idn2
: Use this parameter if both
libidn and libidn2 have been installed, and you wish to use libidn2
here.
--with-sasl
: This parameter adds
authentication support from Cyrus
SASL-2.1.28 in POP3/IMAP/SMTP if they are enabled. Depending on
the server configuration, this may not be needed for POP3 or IMAP.
However, it is needed for SMTP authentication.
Configuring Mutt
Config Files
/etc/Muttrc
, ~/.muttrc
, /etc/mime.types
, and ~/.mime.types
Configuration Information
No changes in these files are necessary to begin using
Mutt. When you are ready to make
changes, the man page for muttrc
is
a good starting place.
In order to utilize GnuPG, use
the following command:
cat /usr/share/doc/mutt-2.2.13/samples/gpg.rc >> ~/.muttrc
Contents
Installed Programs:
flea, mutt, mutt_dotlock, muttbug,
pgpewrap, mutt_pgpring, and smime_keys
Installed Libraries:
None
Installed Directories:
/usr/share/doc/mutt-2.2.13
Short Descriptions
flea
|
is a script showing where to report bugs
|
mutt
|
is a Mail User Agent (MUA) which enables you to read,
write and delete your email
|
mutt_dotlock
|
implements the mail spool file lock
|
muttbug
|
is a script identical to flea
|
pgpewrap
|
prepares a command line for the GnuPG-2.4.5 utilities
|
pgpring
|
is a key ring dumper for PGP. It is not
needed for GnuPG-2.4.5
|
smime_keys
|
manages a keystore for S/MIME certificates
|