On Fri, 14 May 1999, JF wrote:
>
> This does not just apply to just one topic, but the one I'm wondering
> about right now is mail utilities and programs for linux. There pine,
> elf, mutt, fetchmail, sendmail, procmail, etc.
>
PINE, ELF, and Mutt are what are called MUA (Mail User Agents). Fetchmail
is a special type of user/delivery agent. I'm not sure what it's
technical termination is, but it's sorta a delivery agent. And Sendmail
and procmail are transport/delivery agents.
PINE is the easiest to use of the three, IMHO, and has many useful
features.
>
> For instance, I'm familiar with pine, but wonder if mutt might be better
> for our needs. (I'm not sure if I want to go with pop or imap --
? probably both actually.) I can delve into info on procmail and
Ok, Here's my current setup: I use PINE to read and write mail. Pine
hands sent mail to sendmail. Fetchmail gets my mail from my POP mailbox
every 20 seconds. It's almost as if mail were getting directly routed to
my mailbox. It's a nice setup :). It's not too hard to setup either...
just use fetchmailconf to setup fetchmail, and change two or three lines
in /etc/sendmail.cf, and you're all set. Make sure pine uses localhost as
the SMTP server, and you're done configuring. ;) It's not that hard, and
it's pretty darned efficient. I get my mail within three minutes of
someone pressing "send," unless it's on a mailing list, in which case it
takes a bit longer depending on the demand of the server. ;)
> fetchmail, but I'd have to study quite a lot of stuff about each of
> these and try them all before I could determine which one(s) I want to
> use.
Fetchmail and procmail do NOT do the same thing. Fetchmail works with
sendmail which works with procmail. It's a chain. :)
>
> Another question is is the format for e-mail in linux consistent? That
> is if I'm using say pine and switch to mutt am can I transfer my mail
> dirs from pine to mutt (or just point mutt to the dir) and have the file
> format be compatible?
Yes. They all use the UNIX format mailbox if you have your system
configured properly (usually, it's /var/spool/mail/username). You can
then use any of the mail programs (PINE, Elm, Mutt, or even Netscape Mail
on workstations). It'd be the users choice. Your best bet would be to
let the users decide what they need. They can tell if they need
fetchmail, and all that stuff. Give them the directions that they need to
set the stuff up for their own account. :) This gives them the freedom
and choices so that they're not constrained to whatever your decision is.
Maybe there's someone that wants to use BSD mail. (I actually know
someone that prefers that mail program over ANY other!) You should let
them have that choice.
> And are these formats compatible with netscape --
> which I'm currently using for my own mail in imap mode (until I can get
> ftape or some type of backup working in linux).
>
They're all compatable with everything. Linux uses standardized formats.
That's the beauty of it.
> Anyway, I've looked through howto's etc. for such an overview of MAIL
> programs and utilities in linux and have come up empty. Anyone know of
> one, or a good book, which provides such an overview?
>
No, but you can ask questions and we can try to answer them :). That's
why we're here! ;)
----------------------------------------------------------------
Michael B. Trausch
President of Linux Operations, ADK Computers
----------------------------------------------------------------
ADK Computers, Walbridge Office E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
----------------------------------------------------------------
"Scattered showers my ass!" - Noah
