mutt

sycamorex · 06-06-2007, 02:38 PM

Hi
I use Debian Etch and have never done anything with mutt or fetchmail or ssmtp.
I followed the following tutorial

http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.p...ht=mail+server

to set up mutt to read my emails from gmail. However, when I start mutt at the bottom of the page it says:

Quote:

/home/sycamorex/mail/inbox/ is not a mailbox.

Why isn't it a mailbox? It's just a normal directory. What do I need to do?
my .muttrc

Quote:

set mbox_type=maildir
set mbox="~/mail/inbox/"
set spoolfile="~/mail/inbox/"
set folder="~/mail/"
set record="~/mail/sent/"
set postponed="~/mail/postponed/"
set editor="vim"
set include=ask-yes
set sendmail="/usr/sbin/ssmtp"

# set up mutt so i can run fetchmail at any time by pressing G
macro index G "!fetchmail\n" "Invoke fetchmail"
macro pager G "!fetchmail\n" "Invoke fetchmail"

# set from to ensure mutt doesn't put user@localhost.localhoset
set from="myemailaddress@gmail.com"
set use_from=yes
set envelope_from="yes"

# use abook with Mutt
set query_command="abook --mutt-query '%s'"
macro index a "|abook --add-email\n" 'add sender to abook'
macro pager a "|abook --add-email\n" 'add sender to abook'

~

my .ssmtp

Quote:

root='''myemailaddress@gmail.com'''

# The place where the mail goes. The actual machine name is required no
# MX records are consulted. Commonly mailhosts are named mail.domain.com
# mailhub='''smtp.gmail.com'''

# Where will the mail seem to come from?
#rewriteDomain=

# The full hostname
hostname='''myemailaddress@gmail.com'''

# Are users allowed to set their own From: address?
# YES - Allow the user to specify their own From: address
# NO - Use the system generated From: address
FromLineOverride=YES

AuthUser='''username'''
AuthPass='''password'''

UseTLS=YES
UseSTARTTLS=YES
mailhub=smtp.gmail.com:587
~

~

my .fetchmailrc

Quote:

poll pop.gmail.com with proto POP3 and options no dns
user 'myemailaddress@gmail.com' is 'sycamorex' here options ssl

Can you advise me what is wrong with it?
thank you

dive · 06-06-2007, 02:51 PM

An mbox type mailbox is not a folder, it's a file.

Delete the folder inbox
touch ~/mail/inbox

Then start mutt and see the next error

Same goes for sent and postponed. Just delete them, mutt will make them as needed.

sycamorex · 06-06-2007, 02:58 PM

thanks

but.....after I've deleted the three directories and touched the files I got:

Quote:

/home/sycamorex/mail/inbox/: Not a directory (errno = 20)

It would suggest that a program expects a directory, wouldn't it?

sycamorex · 06-06-2007, 03:36 PM

As you said Dive, they are supposed to be files, not folders, whereas my .muttrc indicates folders!!!

Quote:

set mbox_type=maildir
set mbox="~/mail/inbox/"
set spoolfile="~/mail/inbox/"
set folder="~/mail/"
set record="~/mail/sent/"
set postponed="~/mail/postponed/"
set editor="vim"
set include=ask-yes
set sendmail="/usr/sbin/ssmtp"

what do I do next to get my emails?
thanks

sycamorex · 06-06-2007, 03:39 PM

I tried to email someone, what I got is:

Quote:

ssmtp: Authorization failed (535 5.7.1 Credentials Rejected ...some long number

Quote:

Output of the delivery process -- (all)
Error sending message, child exited 1 ().

[EDIT] OK - solved this one, just got rid of all single quotes in:

Quote:

AuthUser='''username'''
AuthPass='''password'''

Now the questions remains how can I download the emails or only
the headers to my box.

dive · 06-06-2007, 04:21 PM

Ok I see you have them specified as maildirs - my mistake for not reading correctly. The solution I gave is for mbox format.

Heres a how to for maildir that might help:

http://www.elho.net/mutt/maildir/

dive · 06-06-2007, 04:59 PM

Or you could set 'mbox_type' to 'mbox' and do what I posted first. I'm experimenting with maildir at the moment.

Not sure if mutt supports maildir too well though as I'm getting some errors too.

*edit: It's best to mbox format it seems from here:

http://cygwin.com/ml/cygwin/2003-11/msg00799.html

sycamorex · 06-06-2007, 05:02 PM

I can't open the link

dive · 06-06-2007, 05:08 PM

This is from a cygwin support mailing list but I believe it applies to mutt running on pure linux.

Quote:

RE: Maildir Support broken with Mutt 1.4.1?

* From: "Gary R. Van Sickle" <g dot r dot vansickle at worldnet dot att dot net>
* To: <cygwin at cygwin dot com>
* Date: Wed, 19 Nov 2003 23:15:38 -0600
* Subject: RE: Maildir Support broken with Mutt 1.4.1?

> After upgrading to Mutt 1.4.1 I was no longer able to access my emails
> properly.
>
> As soon as a new mail arrived in the main folder (inbox), I could not even
> close mutt properly. It always gives me the error "rename file or folder
> does not exist (error=2)" in the status bar.
> It seems to me that Mutt tries to move the message from the "new" to the
> "cur" subfolder or so and fails with this operation.
>
> Downgrading to Mutt 1.4 solved the problem for me.
>
> I use Mutt together with procmail in Maildir mode. A search for previous
> postings showed, that there were already similar problems with an older
> version. The problem was that the filenames of the emails may contain
> characters like ":" that are allowed on POSIX systems, but not on Windows.
>
> Is it possible that a cygwin specific patch has not been applied to the
> most recent 1.4.1 version?

Maildirs have never actually worked properly because they use filenames which
are not POSIX compatible, and were apparently specifically designed to cause
grief for Windows and Mac systems. Compounding this problem, I erroneously
suggested people use Maildirs in older versions, before I knew the tragedy of
Maildirs. Probably what's happened is that mutt's error checking has been
improved, so you're now getting an error message when it would just silently
fail before.

So, to sum up:

1. Don't use Maildir, use mbox.
2. If you do use Maildir, put your mailbox on a Cygwin "Managed mount". This
may or may not work, I don't know.

--
Gary R. Van Sickle

sycamorex · 06-08-2007, 01:24 PM

Thanks dive,

Quote:

1. Don't use Maildir, use mbox.

I've changed the label Maildir to mbox in .muttrc
Is that what I was advised to do?

As I said before, I can send email now, but cannot fetch them yet.
Another thing is that when I email somebody, the person receives an email from:

Quote:

"Root at Debian" <myemailaddress@gmail.com>

Whereas I'd like it to be my name - not Root at Debian. Where can I change it? [EDIT] OK - I found it in .muttrc

thanks

sycamorex · 06-08-2007, 01:52 PM

At the moment my configuration files are as follows:

.muttrc

Quote:

set mbox_type=mbox
set mbox="~/Mail/inbox"
set spoolfile="~/Mail/inbox"
set folder="~/Mail/"
set record="~/Mail/sent"
set postponed="~/Mail/postponed"

# Unset Marking Mails Old
unset mark_old
# Cancel a message when subject is blank
set abort_nosubject=yes
# Set default editor
set editor="vim"
# Automatically include message when replying
set include=ask-yes
# Ask before printing
set print=ask-yes
# Delete messages without asking when Mutt is quit
set delete=yes
# Add an item for each mailbox
mailboxes ~/Mail/inbox
# Show only important stuff in the header
ignore *
unignore from resent-from reply-to x-mailer user-agent date to cc subject
# mail send options
set sendmail="/usr/sbin/ssmtp"
# Order to display the headers in
hdr_order From: Resent-From: Reply-To: X-Mailer: User-Agent: Date: To: Cc: Subject:
# sort messages by thread
set sort=threads

# Automatically quote message in reply
set include=yes

# Set quotemark to 1 byte
set indent_str="> "

# Only show the body when I edit a message
unset edit_headers

# set up mutt so i can run fetchmail at any time by pressing G
macro index G "!fetchmail\n" "Invoke fetchmail"
macro pager G "!fetchmail\n" "Invoke fetchmail"

# set from to ensure mutt doesn't put user@localhost.localhoset
set from=myemail@gmail.com
set use_from=yes
set envelope_from="yes"

# set realname
set realname="myname"

# # set some coloring for easier mail reading
# Color messages
color index brightyellow default ~N
color index brightred default ~D

# Use abook with Mutt
set query_command="abook --mutt-query '%s'"
macro index a "|abook --add-email\n" 'add sender to abook'
macro pager a "|abook --add-email\n" 'add sender to abook'

.fetchrc

Quote:

poll gmail.com with proto pop3
user username@gmail.com with password xxxxxxx is user here dropdelivered keep

.ssmtp

Quote:

root=myaddress@gmail.com
hostname=myaddress@gmail.com
FromLineOverride=YES
AuthUser=myaddress@gmail.com
AuthPass=xxxxxxxxx
UseTLS=YES
UseSTARTTLS=YES
mailhub=smtp.gmail.com:587

[EDIT] Is it anything to do with port 25 which is inaccessible on my router?

Quote:

sycamorex@ubacer:~$ fetchmail -v
fetchmail: 6.3.6 querying gmail.com (protocol POP3) at Fri 08 Jun 2007 20:48:45 BST: poll started
Trying to connect to 72.14.253.83/110...connection failed.
fetchmail: connection to gmail.com

op3 [72.14.253.83/110] failed: Connection timed out.

thanks