Beyond Linux From Scratch - Version 6.2.0

Chapter 20. Mail/News Clients

Mutt-1.5.11

Introduction to Mutt

The Mutt package contains a Mail User Agent. This is useful for reading, writing, replying to, saving, and deleting your email.

Package Information

Additional Downloads

Mutt Dependencies

Optional

GnuPG-1.4.3, OpenSSL-0.9.8d or GnuTLS (which needs libgpg-error then libgcrypt), an MTA (that provides a sendmail command), Aspell-0.60.4, MIT Kerberos V5-1.6 or Heimdal-0.7.2, Cyrus SASL-2.1.21, S-Lang-2.0.6, libidn-0.6.3, GDBM-1.8.3, and GDB

Optional (To Regenerate Documentation)

libxslt-1.1.17, and Links-2.1pre23 or w3m

User Notes: http://wiki.linuxfromscratch.org/blfs/wiki/mutt

Installation of Mutt

[Note]

Note

This version of Mutt is a development release. The BLFS staff has determined that it provides a stable program and fixes two issues in the current stable version of Mutt: a segmentation fault that occurs under certain conditions and a compilation problem when building with GCC-4.0.3. To find the current stable release, please refer to the Mutt home page.

Mutt requires a group named mail. You can add this group, if it does not exist, with this command: 

groupadd -g 34 mail

If you did not install an MTA, such as Postfix-2.3.3 or Sendmail-8.13.6, you need to modify the ownership of /var/mail with this command: 

chgrp -v mail /var/mail

Fix a security vulnerability in Mutt: 

patch -Np1 -i ../mutt-1.5.11-security_fix-1.patch

Install Mutt by running the following commands: 

./configure --prefix=/usr --sysconfdir=/etc \
    --enable-pop --enable-imap &&
make

This package does not come with a test suite.

Now, as the root user: 

make install

Command Explanations

--enable-pop: This switch enables POP3 support.

--enable-imap: This switch enables IMAP support.

--with-...: This switch enables the various dependencies.

Configuring Mutt

Config Files

/etc/Muttrc, ~/.muttrc, /etc/mime.types, ~/.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/samples/gpg.rc >> ~/.muttrc

Contents

Installed Programs: flea, mutt, mutt_dotlock, muttbug, pgpring, and pgpwrap
Installed Libraries: None
Installed Directories: /usr/doc/mutt

Short Descriptions

flea

is a bug submitter for Mutt.

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 that executes flea.

Last updated on 2007-02-05 14:09:23 -0600