[ILUG] gpg, mutt, netscape

[John P. Looney]

On Wed, Jan 05, 2000 at 08:00:45PM +0000, kevin lyda mentioned:
> *anyway*, what do i want in a mailer?  aliases (all pass), the ability
> to edit more than one message at a time (elm fails), the ability to play
> nice with mime (netscape passes the best here), the ability to easily
> attach files (netscape passes *really* well here - it has to be dead
> simple because i rarely do it), the ability to set my from address since
> i'm too lazy to configure sendmail, gpg signature/encryption (netscape
> fails).

 Mutt will do all this and more. Though I'm not sure on the "multiple
mail" thing. Mutt will let you "postpone" sending a mail, and doesn't get
/too/ cranky when you have multiple mutt's looking at the same mailbox
(whether it's IMAP, POP, Mbox (like netscape) or MailDir.

> this comes up because i just snarfed a 2.2.14 kernel that i'll be
> putting on a production box and it occurred to me that it might be wise
> to verify it.  :)  so after snarfing gnupg from a few places and making
> sure they all agreed with one another i installed one.  so now that it's
> here i'd like to use it for my messages.

 Right. Seemless GnuPG integration is a sorta complex thing. I'll be
covering it it my tutorial on Saturday week, in TCD. If you can't wait
that long, checkout my mutt config from
    http://www.redbrick.dcu.ie/~valen/mutt.tgz 
and work it out yourself - send me any questions you have...

 Ah. Just noticed DCU isn't around. Mail me, and I'll send you the mutt
stuff as an attachment.

> so, my main box for email is a laptop.  it follows me to work and to
> home.  insert nursery rhyme here.  so...  mutt...  can it easily import
> netscape mailboxes? 

 Not a problem. They are just mbox format, AFAIK.

 can i configure my from address?

 And your reply-to, and any other variable, based on what folder you are
in, who you are sending to, who recieved the mail, whether or not you
consider the mail to be a "mail list" message. etc. etc.

>  can it snatch
> mail from $MAIL? 

 You can do "set spoolfile=/var/spool/mail/valen" or "set
spoolfile={mailhost}/inbox", if you are an imap user. It'll also let you
set your mail folders as a string of folders, so:

 set folders /var/spool/mail/valen {valen at mailhost}/inbox
{tempuser at testmail}/inbox - if you want to have multiple inboxes, on
different machines, with different usernames. Kicking, huh ?

> can it let me edit more than one message at a time? 

 Will multiple xterms be acceptable ? Else, use job-control type stuff
by postponing stuff.

> can i use vi?

 The author of mutt is a Vim fanactic. Vim comes with syntax highlighting
for mutt mails :)

>  can i easily view/create attachments?

 As long as your mailcap is OK, it's OK too. I've got stuff like "autoview
MSword stuff, using mswordview & lynx" etc. setup. Can't do that in
Netscape :)

> how does the view
> interface work - i.e. when an attachment comes up does it let pick
> save/view/ignore?

 You can set it to autoview, but it's best just to hit the "v" key, when
it's got attachments, so you can see what's the story. Then map enter to
"view attachment with mailcap entry". For awkward attachments, "T" will
view it as text.

Kate

-- 
Microsoft. The best reason in the world to drink beer.
http://www.redbrick.dcu.ie/~valen