From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Ray Olszewski Subject: Re: smtp vs sendmail query Date: Thu, 10 Aug 2006 12:55:46 -0700 Message-ID: <44DB8F42.8030604@comarre.com> References: <000501c6a1f0$a79153a0$6900a8c0@ANCHORMAN> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: In-Reply-To: Sender: linux-newbie-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format="flowed" To: linux-newbie@vger.kernel.org James Miller wrote: > I think I'm finally ready to abandon Pine as my e-mail client and to > start using Mutt. I thought of doing this a few years ago, but looking > over Mutt documentation and config files left me bewildered. I'm sure I > will still be confused about some of the program's workings, but it > seems, after 4 years or so of using and admin'ing my Linux system(s), I > have good enough grasp of the program's basics and related e-mail > workings now that I'm ready to give it a serious go. This switch is also > partly precipitated by certain ways in which Pine has been failing me. > Despite what I've said above, the present message is not a Mutt-specific > query: I'll probably be directing those to the Mutt user list. What I'm > wondering about is something more fundamental about e-mail technology. > > One of the things that kept me from using Mutt previously was the fact > that it does not do smtp, but rather apparently relies on other programs > such as sendmail for passing mail to servers that in turn pass it to > other servers and eventually to recipients. I don't care how stupid I > might sound to the initiated in saying this, but for the > technically-challenged such as myself, having an extra layer of program > activity between the e-mail client and the outgoing server is confusing: > it's just another set of configuration files to edit and keep current, > and another place to look for errors should problems arise. At the same > time, I suppose there are good reasons for having a separate program to > do mail passing to outgoing servers. The most sensible reason I can > think of is that e-mailing is often done in an institutional > environment, one that has a machine on its network dedicated to mailing > functions. I have no experience of working in such an environment, so > I'm guessing at this, but that seems like it could provide a sensible > explanation for the separation between e-mail client and outgoing mail > server. > > Anyway, Pine does do smtp: you enter info about your smtp server in its > config file, and away you go with sending out your mail. Mutt, as I > understand it "will never do smtp" (quotation from a Mutt information > site I haven't checked for a couple years but which I assume to reflect > the current state of affairs). I will thus, I assume, need to look into > getting and setting up a program to interact with the smtp server I will > be sending mail through. Sendmail is one I recall reading about: can > anyone supply names of, and recommendations about, others? I want the > simplest possible program for this one-user (Debian) machine. > > Finally, can anyone enlighten me as to why a program like Mutt--which is > actually the only e-mail client I know of that won't interact with smtp > servers--will not do smtp? Is it for puristic reasons, i.e., because it > would somehow contaminate the program's perceived function by > introducing extra functionality? I.e., a line in the sand against > feature-creep? Could it be for some sort of security reasons? > > Sorry for the long message. Input will be appreciated. > > Thanks, James > > PS Recommendations for other text-mode e-mail clients would also be > appreciated. James -- I don't know why (or even if, really) the authors of Mutt don't build in smtp support. I could guess, but you don't need uninformed guessing. I'm replying only because you reminded us that you are a Debian user. The off-the-shelf smtp program for Debian is exim, and if you did anything resembling a standard install of any recent version of Debian, you already have exim4 on your system, along with a symlink that lets you run it as "sendmail": new-flagg:/home/autovcr# ls -l /usr/sbin/sendmail lrwxr-xr-x 1 root root 5 Aug 30 2005 /usr/sbin/sendmail -> exim4 The details on setting this up (this HowTo is for Debian-Sarge, but I expect Etch and Sid are almost the same) are at http://pkg-exim4.alioth.debian.org/README/README.Debian The short version (for Sarge or Sid, probably Etch too): as root, run "dpkg-reconfigure exim4-config" and tell it (I think, if I understand your setup right) "mail sent by smarthost; no local mail". The "smarthost" is the "smtp server" you identified to Pine. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-newbie" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.linux-learn.org/faqs