When I am finished writing an email, I get something similar at bottom of my mutt screen:
Error running "vi '/tmp/mutt-MarahIII-1000-2799-33'"!

I have tried using:
set editor="/usr/bin/elvis"
set editor="vi"
set editor="/usr/bin/vi"
and even commenting out the line all together.

No matter what, I get the same "error".]
This is on my 12.2 system.

Once the error shows, the screen pauses for about 2 seconds and then goes on the the send screen.
Any ideas what is causing this? Yes, I have elvis installed and vi is soft-linked to elvis in /usr/bin.

Thanks.

Well, the things that come to mind all have to do with access. Typically, when a file is located in the /tmp directory, the expectation is that it can be readable, writable, and executable, and access rights can readily be modified. Typicallly the file protection scheme for /tmp is drwxrwxrwx, that is, the directory is readable, writable, and executable by the owner of the file, the group owning the directory, and others as well.

This would only NOT be the case if these common access rights were modified - or if for some strange reason the /tmp filesystem is mounted in a read only mode.

There could be other related reasons for the issue, but those are the ones that come to mind first. Check out both of these possibilities before fiddling with environment variables; I do not see them as the source of the problem; I see this as an access rights issue, unless I am completely mistaken.

yes, /tmp is drwxrwxrwx
I can write to it.
Thanks.

Actually /tmp should be drwxrwxrwt (or 1777) with the sticky bit set.

well, set the sticky bit, quit and restarted mutt, wrote an email, and got the same thing
/tmp is now: drwxrwxrwt

sorry for late reply. Have a bad flu

Have you tried clearing all the files from /tmp/ ?

yes, just tried. I don't think I needed to, but even rebooted and then tried creating email with mutt. Same thing.

Thanks for your help.

I have Debian on 2nd hd. I'll boot into that and see if I get the same error.

booted Debian and sent an email with no problem, so rebooted Slackware, logged in as root, and created email with mutt. No problems (I hit "q" before sending it), logged out, logged in as regular user, and I got the error again.
Something wrong with my normal user account.

What about setting tmpfile in your .muttrc to:

set tmpdir="/home/username/tmp"

I just posted my question on the mutt maillist also.
I have noticed that with mutt, 2 files are created in the /tmp directory. First one seems to be created when "m" or "r" is pressed to start an email. 2nd file is created when the editor screen is shown. The email is sent using the "edited" file and the error is for the 1st file.
I'll have to check this on other OS to see if it is the same, or perhaps this is the problem itself (2 files).
Overloaded with medication so I'm probably not being very clear

Hi multios

Using slack 12.2 also, when I
set editor="/usr/bin/elvis"
in .muttrc works for me, *but* I have this variable set:
SESSIONPATH
to point to use a directory in $HOME to hold temporary files:
export SESSIONPATH=$HOME/.elvis

I would also verify $TERM to make sure it look OK.
see man elvis

Jack

Here is something I just tried and it worked.
In my .muttrc, I set my editor to vim. I then created and sent an email using vim, and there were no errors/problems.
I then used vim to write a file to /tmp. I then typed "echo $?" and it returned 0
Using vi (elvis), I did the same and I got an 1 for "echo $?".
Evidently the problem is between my normal user and vi/elvis.
Any idea on where to look or what to look for?

After reading "man elvis", I looked at my home directory and found an .exrc file. I renamed that and now vi works fine as standalone editor or as set editor in mutt.
Some time ago, I was studying "ex", so maybe I downloaded the file? I don't remember doing that, but the file is there, so....

Thanks to all for your help any way!

m