[NBLUG/talk] Setting up mutt

[Dave Sisley]

Hey, everybody.

I'd like to switch from mozilla mail to mutt, and I've got it to work, 
sort of, but my setup is not quite right.  My biggest problem is my weak 
knowledge of how email is handled:  I don't quite understand how I'm 
supposed to get mutt to play along with fetchmail, sendmail &/or 
procmail.  I also don't understand how I should store messages I've 
read, or how to separate mail sent to one address into different folders 
(for instance, nblug talk goes to my main email address, but I've told 
mozilla to put it in a separate NBLUG folder).

Here's the scenario:
I have 4 email accounts at my ISP.  Ideally, I would like to be able to 
fire up mutt, have it check each of the accounts and let me know which 
(if any) have new mail.

I've set up a .muttrc file using the web-based and addded the following 
lines to it:

account-hook . 'unset imap_user; unset imap_pass; unset tunnel'
account-hook . 'unset pop_user; unset pop_pass'

mailboxes 'pop://dsisley@mail.arczip.com'
account-hook pop://dsisley@mail.arczip.com 'set pop_user=dsisley 
pop_pass=xxxx'

mailboxes 'pop://joeblow1@mail.arczip.com'
account-hook pop://joeblow1@mail.arczip.com 'set pop_user=joeblow1 
pop_pass=yyyyy'

mailboxes 'pop://joeblow2@mail.arczip.com'
account-hook pop://joeblow2@mail.arczip.com 'set pop_user=joeblow2 
pop_pass=zzzzz'

mailboxes 'pop://joeblow3@mail.arczip.com'
account-hook pop://joeblow3@mail.arczip.com 'set pop_user=joeblow3 
pop_pass=qqqqq'

So when I enter mutt -y, I can see these mailboxes;  when I select one 
and hit enter, it goes and grabs some mail.  Unfortunately, there is no 
idication that there is new mail in them; I need to check them one at a 
time.

I thought maybe fetchmail would help, so I tried setting up a 
.fetchmailrc file with the following:

poll mail.arczip.com with proto AUTO
user dsisley at arczip.com there with password xxxxx is myLocalName here

poll mail.arczip.com with proto AUTO
user joeblow1 at arczip.com there with password yyyyy is myLocalName here

poll mail.arczip.com with proto AUTO
user joeblow2 at arczip.com there with password zzzzz is myLocalName here

poll mail.arczip.com with proto AUTO
user joeblow3 at arczip.com there with password qqqqq is myLocalName here

...but I don't think mutt is using fetchmail.  If I run fetchmail alone, 
it seems to go out and check the accounts and apparantly downloads 
anything in them.  I don't know where this mail is put, and I don't know 
how to tell mutt to find them.

I've been reading a lot the last few days, but (sadly) I understand very 
little of it.  A lot of the documentation I've been looking at is geared 
toward big networks, not a single machine.

I'd appreciate whatever help is out there, either directly or a pointer 
to a good doc source.

Thanks!
-dave.

-- 
Dave Sisley
dsisley at arczip.com
http://users.arczip.com/habsmoi