Date: Sun, 21 Jan 2001 22:35:14 -0600 From: Timothy Legant <list-freebsd-stable@catseye.net> To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: MAIL set by whom? Message-ID: <20010121223513.A76438@mail.catseye.net> In-Reply-To: <3A6A50F3.307C9E06@nisser.com>; from roelof@nisser.com on Sun, Jan 21, 2001 at 04:01:07AM %2B0100 References: <3A6A50F3.307C9E06@nisser.com>
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On Sun, Jan 21, 2001 at 04:01:07AM +0100, Roelof Osinga wrote:
[snip...]
> But what I need is /home/{$USER}/Maildir/ in order for Mutt to
> work with Maildirs. The above /etc/login.conf parts don't do the
> trick and other occurrences of MAIL I can't find.
>
> So what gives? (IOW please help! :)
I've followed this whole thread and it appears there are two issues.
1. If you need to have MAIL set properly:
a. do it through login.conf, and
b. ensure "UseLogin no" is *NOT* set in sshd_config
2. You want to read Maildirs with Mutt
With the proper configuration of your .muttrc, you don't need to worry
about the MAIL variable. On my system...
% printenv | grep MAIL
%
I use Mutt both at home (in an rxvt in X) and through an ssh connection
from work. I use Maildirs for incoming mail and an mbox for saving
outgoing messages and for Mutt's postponed feature. Mutt automatically
detects which I'm using.
> PS I've read about:
>
> nl:~$ cat .mutttrc
> set mbox_type="Maildir"
mbox_type specifies which type of mailbox to create (Maildir, mbox, MH
folder, etc) when you create a new mailbox in mutt. Nothing more. It
does NOT specify anything about existing mailboxes.
> set mbox="$HOME/Maildir/"
mbox specifies where to move messages from your spoolfile once you've
read them. It doesn't apply to other mailboxes - only the one you've
specified as your spoolfile.
I have mine set to the same Maildir that is my spoolfile. In other
words, messages don't get moved at all. They stay where they are. You
can put them somewhere else, if you like.
> set spoolfile="$HOME/Maildir/"
This is your startup mailbox - what was traditionally /var/mail/$USER.
The concept of a spoolfile isn't so important anymore, since most of us
use procmail or the like to deliver into multiple local mailboxes. In
any case, it's the mailbox mutt displays first if you don't specify a
different one on the command line.
> but am wondering if that really is all there is?
Not quite. You should set the "folder" variable *before* you set any of
the other mailbox related variables. Then you can use either '+' or '='
as a shortcut to mean the directory where you keep all your mailboxes.
Also, "record" specifies which mailbox should store a copy of all your
outgoing mail.
Here is how I have mine set up.
% ls -l ~/Mail
drwx------ 5 thl thl 512 Sep 4 12:40 Bedtime
drwx------ 5 thl thl 512 Sep 4 12:40 Dns
drwx------ 5 thl thl 512 Sep 4 12:41 FreeBSD-STABLE
drwx------ 5 thl thl 512 Sep 4 12:39 Inbox
drwx------ 5 thl thl 512 Jan 21 00:28 Mix
drwx------ 5 thl thl 512 Nov 9 21:51 Mutt-Dev
drwx------ 5 thl thl 512 Sep 4 12:41 Mutt-Users
drwx------ 5 thl thl 512 Sep 4 12:43 Qmail
-rw------- 1 thl thl 2329652 Jan 21 03:31 outbox
-rw------- 1 thl thl 0 Jan 21 02:23 postponed
The directories are all qmail-style Maildirs. outbox and postponed are
mboxes. Here are the relevant pieces from my .muttrc
set folder=~/Mail # set this first, then use + as a shortcut
set spoolfile=+Inbox
set mbox=+Inbox
set record=+outbox
set postponed=+postponed
set mbox_type=Maildir # new mailboxes will be Maildirs
# this lets Mutt know about all the mailboxes I read, in order to cycle
# through them with 'c'.
mailboxes +Inbox +Qmail +Mutt-Dev +Mutt-Users + FreeBSD-STABLE +Dns +Mix
Mutt handles all the rest. My MAIL setting is not relevant. Mutt's
handling of Maildirs is excellent. People using mboxes sometimes have
difficulties detecting new mail with Mutt, since using another tool
(like grep or various biffs) can change the access time. Maildirs don't
suffer from this problem at all.
Good luck!
Tim
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