mirror of https://github.com/tLDP/LDP
733 lines
29 KiB
XML
733 lines
29 KiB
XML
<?xml version="1.0"?>
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<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DocBook XML V4.1.2//EN"
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"http://docbook.org/xml/4.1.2/docbookx.dtd" [
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<!ENTITY ldpsite "http://www.tldp.org/">
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<!ENTITY howto "&ldpsite;HOWTO/">
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<!ENTITY mini-howto "&ldpsite;HOWTO/mini/">
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<!ENTITY home "http://www.catb.org/~esr/">
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]>
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<article id="Mail-User-HOWTO">
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<articleinfo>
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<title>The Linux Mail User HOWTO</title>
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<author>
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<firstname>Eric</firstname>
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<othername>Steven</othername>
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<surname>Raymond</surname>
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<affiliation>
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<orgname><ulink url="&home;">
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Thyrsus Enterprises</ulink></orgname>
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<address>
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<email>esr@thyrsus.com</email>
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</address>
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</affiliation>
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</author>
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<copyright>
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<year>2005</year>
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<holder role="mailto:esr@thyrsus.com">Eric S. Raymond</holder>
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</copyright>
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<abstract>
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<para>This document is an introduction to the world of electronic
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mail<indexterm><primary>electronic mail</primary></indexterm>
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(email<indexterm><primary>email</primary></indexterm>) under Linux. It
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focuses on user-level issues and typical configurations for Linux home
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and small-business machines connected to the net via an ISP.</para>
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<para>You need to read this if you plan to communicate locally or to
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remote sites via electronic mail. You probably do
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<emphasis>not</emphasis> need to read this document if don't exchange
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electronic mail with other users on your system or with other
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sites.</para>
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<para>For information on configuring and administering mail, see the
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Mail Administrator HOWTO.</para>
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</abstract>
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</articleinfo>
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<sect1 id="introduction"><title>Introduction</title>
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<para>The intent of this document is to explain how email works, and answer
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some of the questions that appear to meet the definition of
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`frequently asked questions' about e-mail software under Linux.</para>
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<para>Modern Linux distributions give you a usable, preconfigured
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setup for electronic mail out of the box, usually featuring a late
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version of
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sendmail-v8<indexterm><primary>sendmail-v8</primary></indexterm>.
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This HOWTO will assume that you have such a setup and a working
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Internet connection.</para>
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<para>(For information on how to set up a PPP or SLIP link to an ISP,
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see the <ulink
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url="http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/ISP-Hookup-HOWTO.html">ISP
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Hookup HOWTO</ulink>.)</para>
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<para>Accordingly, unlike Vince Skahan's 1.x versions, this HOWTO focuses on
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user issues and architecture; most technical hair about UUCP, IDA
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sendmail and other formerly important topics has been dropped.</para>
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<sect2 id="newversions"><title>New versions of this document</title>
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<para>This document will be posted monthly to the newsgroup <ulink
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url="news:comp.os.linux.answers">comp.os.linux.answers</ulink> You
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should also be able to view the latest version of this HOWTO on the
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World Wide Web at <ulink
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url="http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/Mail-User-HOWTO.html">
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http://metalab.unc.edu/LDP/HOWTO/Mail-User-HOWTO.html</ulink>.</para>
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</sect2>
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<sect2 id="hardware"><title>Hardware requirements for email programs</title>
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<para>There are no specific hardware requirements for mail under Linux.
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If you have the hardware necessary to connect to the Internet, it
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can support email over that link.</para>
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</sect2>
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<sect2 id="sources"><title>Software sources for email programs</title>
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<para>The software you will need for email support is probably
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preinstalled in your Linux distribution. You will find updates on the
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<ulink url="http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux">Metalab Linux
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Archive</ulink>, especially in the <ulink
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url="http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/mail">mail
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subdirectory</ulink>.</para>
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</sect2>
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</sect1>
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<sect1 id="mua"><title>Mail User Agents</title>
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<para>This section contains information related to user agents, which means
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the software the user sees and uses. This software relies on the
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transport agents described in the Mail Administrator's HOWTO (which
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also include user-agent configuration and troubleshooting tips for
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administrators).</para>
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<sect2 id="editor"><title>Setting your mail editor</title>
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<para>Mail user agents call out to some editor to assist composition of
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mail. Which editor is the default varies. Most of them respect
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a convention going back to Unix's early days; the contents of the
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environment variable <envar>VISUAL</envar>, if it exists, is taken as the name
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of your preferred editor. If VISUAL is not set, the variable
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EDITOR is checked.</para>
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<para>Popular values for <envar>EDITOR</envar> include
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<command>vi</command> and <command>emacs</command>.
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<anchor id="emacsclient"/>But if you are,
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like me, the sort who always has a GNU Emacs running, the most useful way
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to set <envar>EDITOR</envar> is to the value
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<command>emacsclient</command>. Use this with the following lines in
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your <filename>~/.emacs</filename> file:</para>
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<programlisting>
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(autoload 'server-edit "server" nil t)
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(server-edit)
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</programlisting>
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<para>The emacsclient program, when it runs, tries to establish
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communication with an Emacs instance you already have running and
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hand the mail message temporary file to that Emacs to be edited.
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The effect of this will be that when your mailer calls out for an
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editor, a mail composition window pops open inside your Emacs.</para>
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<para>When you are ready to hand the file back to the mailer for
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sending, type <keysym>C-x #</keysym>. The mail buffer will leave
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your display and the emacsclient instance your mailer called will
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return, handing control back to the mailer.</para>
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<para>It is possible to have more than one emacsclient instance open at once
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without confusing Emacs. However, calling up another Emacs while an
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emacsclient session is running can confuse emacsclient enough that
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it won't be able to find either instance afterwards. If this happens,
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shut down all your Emacs instances and restart just one.</para>
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<para>If you're running XEmacs rather than GNU Emacs, these directions
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change slightly. In this case you waant to set <envar>EDITOR</envar>
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to <command>gnuclient</command>. In recent versions, your init file
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will live at <filename>~/.xemacs/init.el</filename> rather than
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<filename>~/.emacs</filename>.</para>
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</sect2>
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<sect2 id="mutt"><title>mutt</title>
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<para>This is what I use and recommend. It is descended from elm and
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has similar commands by default, but is much more powerful and
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configurable. It can be a POP3 or IMAP client, and includes excellent
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support for MIME and PGP. There is a <ulink
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url="http://www.mutt.org">Mutt home page</ulink> on the web.</para>
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<para>Mutt respects the EDITOR/VISUAL convention.</para>
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</sect2>
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<sect2 id="elm"><title>elm</title>
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<para>Elm was the first modern, screen-oriented Unix mailer, but has
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been stagnant for years now and is being displaced by Mutt. Some
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versions of elm have POP3 support built in. For more information, see
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the elm sources and installation instructions in the <ulink
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url="http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/mail">Metalab mail user
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agents directory</ulink>. Here are a few points that occasionally
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trip people up:</para>
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<para>No, stock elm is not PGP-aware. There are PGP support patches,
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but Mutt's PGP support is superior. If you want to use PGP, I
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recommend Mutt.</para>
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<para>Elm respects the EDITOR/VISUAL convention.</para>
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</sect2>
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<sect2 id="pine"><title>pine</title>
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<para>Pine is a user agent designed for novices; it includes
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news-reading capability and built-in support for the IMAP remote-mail
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protocol. A lot of people swear by it for new users. I find its
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impoverished command set, limited configurability and native editor
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hard to take. It has excellent built-in IMAP support, however. If
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you want to check it out, the distribution is available at <ulink
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url="http://www.washington.edu/pine">http://www.washington.edu/pine</ulink>.
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</para>
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<para>Pine respects the EDITOR/VISUAL convention.</para>
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</sect2>
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<sect2 id="netscape"><title>Netscape</title>
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<para>The Netscape browser has POP3 and IMAP remote-mail capability built
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into it, so it can be used as a mail user agent. I don't recommend
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this; it doesn't specialize in being an MUA, and therefore does not
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offer many of the services that real MUAs do (such as aliases and
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PGP handling). It does, however, support LDAP and SSL.</para>
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<para>Netscape supplies its own mini-editor, the same one used throughout
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the browser (e.g. for text fields in forms).</para>
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</sect2>
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<sect2 id="emacs"><title>Emacs rmail/smail and vm.</title>
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<para>Emacs has a mode called smail that can send mail, and another
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called rmail that can read mail. The smail mode can be quite useful,
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as you get to compose mail inside a full Emacs environment (but see
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also the discussion of <link linkend="emacsclient">emacsclient</link>
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elsewhere in this document).</para>
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<para>The rmail mode, on the other hand, is not recommended. Every
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time you run it, it converts your inbox to BABYL format; ordinary mail
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tools will choke on that. (If this happens to you, do <command>M-x
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unrmail</command> from the Emacs command line.)</para>
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<para>There is a mailreader for emacs called `vm' that writes and reads
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standard V7 mailboxes. It is not distributed with GNU Emacs,
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but you can find its home page at <ulink
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url="http://www.wonderworks.com/vm/">
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http://www.wonderworks.com/vm/</ulink>.</para>
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<para>The most popular mailreader for emacs is probably GNUS, distributed
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with GNU Emacs. It is a client for USENET news as well as mail.</para>
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<para>Emacs smail/rmail/vm do not respect the EDITOR/VISUAL
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convention. Instead, you use the Emacs they're embedded in.</para>
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</sect2>
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<sect2 id="bsdmail"><title>BSD mail</title>
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<para>If you simply type `mail' to the shell on a Linux or any other modern
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Unix, you will invoke some variant of the BSD Mail program. It has a
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line-oriented interface originally designed for use on TTYs. It is,
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at this point, only of historical interest.</para>
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<para>BSD Mail invented the EDITOR/VISUAL convention.</para>
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</sect2>
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<sect2 id="othermuas"><title>Other user agents</title>
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<para>The following also are known to run under Linux. Consult `archie' to
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find them...</para>
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<variablelist>
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<varlistentry>
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<term>mush</term>
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<listitem>
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<para>mail user's shell, very powerful for filtering andbatch processing</para>
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</listitem>
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</varlistentry>
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<varlistentry>
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<term>mh</term>
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<listitem><para>mail handler, yet another mail user agent</para></listitem>
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</varlistentry>
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</variablelist>
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<para>I don't know enough about mh or mush to describe them in detail.
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They both have rather complex interfaces and are designed for
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sophisticated mail users.</para>
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</sect2>
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</sect1>
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<sect1 id="advanced"><title>Advanced topics</title>
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<sect2 id="aliases"><title>Aliases</title>
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<para>An `alias' is a way to set up a pseudo-address that simply directs
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mail to another (single) address. There are two kinds of aliases:
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MUA aliases and MTA aliases.</para>
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<para>An MUA alias is one you set up in your MUA as a kind of personal
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shorthand. Other people will not be able to see or use this alias.
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For example, you could write:</para>
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<programlisting>
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alias esr Eric S. Raymond <esr@thyrsus.com>
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</programlisting>
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<para>in your mutt configuration file. This would tell mutt that when it
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sees `esr' in an address line, it should behave as through you had
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typed `esr@thyrsus.com', Or you can type `mutt esr' and the expanded
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address will be automatically filled in on the `to' line.</para>
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<para>An MTA alias is one your MTA expands; it will be usable by
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everyone, both on your machine and remotely. To create MTA aliases
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you must modify a system file, usually but not always
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<filename>/etc/aliases</filename> or
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<filename>/etc/mail/aliases</filename> (the location depends on your
|
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MTA). It may be instructive for you to look at the the aliases on
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your system; it should contain a number of standard aliases such as
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`postmaster'.</para>
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<para>Your MTA may also allow the target of an alias to be a filename, which
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will be treated as a mailbox the mail is to be appended to (this is
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useful for archiving mail). It may also allow the target of an alias
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to be a program, in which case mail to that alias will be passed to
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an instance of the program on its standard input.</para>
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</sect2>
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<sect2 id="forwarding"><title>Forwarding</title>
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<para>MTA aliases usually require administrator privileges to set up. But
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it is desirable for mail users to be able to set up forwarding of
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|
their own mail without administrator intervention.</para>
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<para>To support this, most MTAs follow sendmail's lead and look for a file
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called
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<filename>.forward</filename><indexterm><primary>.forward</primary></indexterm>
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in your home directory. The contents of this file is interpreted like the
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target of an alias which should receive all your mail; it should be a
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single address. The most common use for this facility is to redirect your
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mail to an account on another machine.</para>
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<para>To amplify: The existence of the .forward file, regardless of whats
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in it, tells the system to treat the contents of the file as an alias
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target for all your mail. If you create an empty .forward file, your mail
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disappears. Most people use this to forward their mail to another machine,
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so most often there is just one email address in the first line, and
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nothing else. The MTA will honor whatever is on the first line of your
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.forward file as the target of an alias. Everything else is ignored. If the
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target is misformatted, just like any other alias, then the mail
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disappears.</para>
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</sect2>
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<sect2 id="autoreply"><title>Auto-replying</title>
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<para>Another common use for the <filename>.forward</filename>
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facility is to pass your mail to a `vacation' program. A vacation
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program reads incoming mail and automatically generates a canned reply
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to it; they are so called because the most common form of canned reply
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is to inform the sender that you are on vacation and will not be
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reachable until a given date.</para>
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<para>There is no one standard vacation program that is in universal use.
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There are two good reasons for this: one, that such a program is
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very easy to write as a shellscript or filter rule (see below); and
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two, that vacation programs interact badly with mailing lists.</para>
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<para>You should temporarily unsubscribe from all mailing lists you are on
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before setting up auto-answering; otherwise, all members of the
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mailing lists mail find they are being flooded with canned messages
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by your vacation program. This is considered very rude behavior
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and will guarantee you quite a frosty reception on your return.</para>
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</sect2>
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<sect2 id="lists"><title>Mailing lists</title>
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<para>A mailing list is a pseudo-address that sends mail to more than
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one user.</para>
|
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<para>In its simplest form, mailing list is just an MTA alias with more than
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|
one recipient. Some small mailing lists are maintained this way.
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|
Sendmail assists by supporting a syntax in <filename>/etc/aliases</filename>
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that includes the contents of a given mailing list file in the target
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side of an alias. It looks like this:</para>
|
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<programlisting>
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admin-list: ":include:/usr/home/admin/admin-list"
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</programlisting>
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<para>with the advantage that the admin-list file can live in
|
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unprivileged-user space somewhere (root is only needed to set
|
|
up the original inclusion). Some other MTAs have similar features.</para>
|
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|
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<para>These simple lists are commonly called `mail
|
|
reflectors<indexterm><primary>mail reflectors</primary></indexterm>'.
|
|
There are a couple of problems with mail reflectors. One is that
|
|
bounce messages from failed attempts to broadcast goes to all users.
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|
Another is that all subscriptions and unsubscriptions have to be done
|
|
manually by the mailing list administrator.</para>
|
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|
|
<para>A kind of software called a mailing list
|
|
manager<indexterm><primary>mailing list manager</primary></indexterm>
|
|
has evolved to address these problems and other related ones. Its
|
|
most important function is to permit mailing list users to subscribe
|
|
and unscubscribe without going through the list maintainer.</para>
|
|
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|
<para>A mailing-list manager keeps its own user-list information and
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|
hooks up to the MTA through a program alias in
|
|
<filename>/etc/aliases</filename>. For example, if the admin-list
|
|
above were going through the mailing list manager called SmartList on
|
|
a sendmail system, a portion of <filename>/etc/aliases</filename>
|
|
might look like this:</para>
|
|
|
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<programlisting>
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admin-list: "|/usr/home/smartlist/bin/flist admin-list"
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admin-list-request: "|/usr/home/smartlist/bin/flist admin-list-request"
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</programlisting>
|
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|
<para>Note that this is a pair of aliases. It is conventional for
|
|
real mailing lists to have a request
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|
address<indexterm><primary>request address</primary></indexterm> to be
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|
used for user subscription and unsubscription requests. It is
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|
considered rude and ignorant to send subscription/unsubscription
|
|
requests to the main address of such a list -- don't do it.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>The robot sitting behind the request address may offer other features
|
|
besides just subscription/unsubscription. It may respond to help
|
|
requests, allow you to query who is on the list, or give you automated
|
|
access to list archives. It may also allow list administrators to
|
|
restrict posting to known members, set the list to auto-subscribe
|
|
nonmembers when they first post, or set various security policy
|
|
options. Mailing-list managers differ primarily in the design and
|
|
range of these secondary features.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>Unfortunately, the format for sending commands to mailing-list request
|
|
robots is not standard. Some expect commands in the subject line,
|
|
some ignore the subject line and expect commands in the message body.
|
|
You need to pay attention to the response mail you get when you first
|
|
subscribe; it's a good idea to save such mail to a subscriptions
|
|
mailbox for later reference.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>The most important mailing-list managers to know about are majordomo,
|
|
listserv, listproc, and smartlist; majordomo is the most popular by a
|
|
considerable margin. Recently, <ulink
|
|
url="http://www.gnu.org/software/mailman/mailman.html">mailman</ulink>, a
|
|
list manager with a rather nice Web-based signon/signoff/administration
|
|
interface, has become very popular and may be in the pricess of obsolescing
|
|
the older programs. There is a rather comprehensive <ulink
|
|
url="http://www.catalog.com/vivian/mailing-list-software.html">list</ulink>
|
|
of such packages on the Web.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>For more about mailing list managers, consult the resources at
|
|
the <ulink
|
|
url="http://www.greatcircle.com/list-managers/">List-Managers Mailing
|
|
List</ulink>, including the FAQ (note: this list is
|
|
<emphasis>not</emphasis> appropriate for how-to questions).</para>
|
|
|
|
</sect2>
|
|
<sect2 id="filters"><title>Mail filters</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>A mail filter<indexterm><primary>mail
|
|
filter</primary></indexterm> is a program that sits between your local
|
|
delivery agent and you, automatically dispatching or rejecting mail
|
|
before you see it.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>Mail filters have a number of uses. The most important are spam
|
|
filtering, dispatching to multiple mailboxes by topic or sender, and
|
|
auto-answering mail.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>Typically, you set up mail filtering by putting a program alias
|
|
for the filter program in your .forward file, and writing a file of
|
|
filtering rules. The format and location of the filter rules file
|
|
varies between filter programs.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>There are good feature summaries of the three major mail filters
|
|
(procmail, mailagent, and deliver) in <ulink
|
|
url="http://www.faqs.org/faqs/mail/setup/unix/part3/index.html">part
|
|
3</ulink> of Chris Lewis's Email Software Survey. The most popular of
|
|
these is (despite its rather nasty rule syntax) procmail, which is
|
|
universally present on Linux systems (and, indeed, is generally used
|
|
as the system's local delivery agent).</para>
|
|
|
|
</sect2>
|
|
<sect2 id="spam"><title>Coping with spam</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>Spam is sometimes known as `UCE' (Unsolicited Commercial Email)
|
|
or `UBE' (Unsolicited Bulk Email). As these names imply, it is an
|
|
obnoxious form of advertising that stuffs your mailbox with form
|
|
letters. (The term `spam' comes from a Monty Python's Flying Circus
|
|
skit in which a choir of Vikings endlessly repeats the chant "Spam
|
|
spam spam spam...").</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>Most spam seems to consist of solicitations for pyramid schemes,
|
|
ads for pornography, or (annoyingly) attempts to sell spam-sending
|
|
programs. A few individual spams (like MAKE MONEY FAST or the Craig
|
|
Shergold postcard hoax) have been so persistent as to become
|
|
legendary. Spam tends to be both verbose and illiterate. It's a
|
|
waste of time and a huge waste of network bandwidth.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>If you're being deluged with spam, get educated. Browse the <ulink
|
|
url="http://spam.abuse.net/">Fight Spam on the Internet!</ulink> page. The
|
|
<ulink url="http://www.mindworkshop.com/alchemy/nospam.html">Death To
|
|
Spam!</ulink> page is particularly effective on methods for stopping or
|
|
backtracking spam.</para>
|
|
|
|
</sect2>
|
|
</sect1>
|
|
<sect1 id="resources"><title>Other sources of information</title>
|
|
|
|
<sect2 id="usenet"><title>USENET</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>There are a number of Usenet groups devoted to electronic-mail
|
|
technical issues:</para>
|
|
|
|
<variablelist>
|
|
<varlistentry>
|
|
<term><ulink url="news:comp.mail.elm">comp.mail.elm</ulink></term>
|
|
<listitem><para>the ELM mail system.</para></listitem>
|
|
</varlistentry>
|
|
<varlistentry>
|
|
<term><ulink url="news:comp.mail.mh">comp.mail.mh</ulink></term>
|
|
<listitem><para>The Rand Message Handling system.</para></listitem>
|
|
</varlistentry>
|
|
<varlistentry>
|
|
<term><ulink url="news:comp.mail.mime">comp.mail.mime</ulink></term>
|
|
<listitem><para>Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions.</para></listitem>
|
|
</varlistentry>
|
|
<varlistentry>
|
|
<term><ulink url="news:comp.mail.misc">comp.mail.misc</ulink></term>
|
|
<listitem><para>General discussions about computer mail.</para></listitem>
|
|
</varlistentry>
|
|
<varlistentry>
|
|
<term><ulink url="news:comp.mail.multi-media">comp.mail.multi-media</ulink></term>
|
|
<listitem><para>Multimedia Mail.</para></listitem>
|
|
</varlistentry>
|
|
<varlistentry>
|
|
<term><ulink url="news:comp.mail.mush">comp.mail.mush</ulink></term>
|
|
<listitem><para>The Mail User's Shell (MUSH).</para></listitem>
|
|
</varlistentry>
|
|
<varlistentry>
|
|
<term><ulink url="news:comp.mail.sendmail">comp.mail.sendmail</ulink></term>
|
|
<listitem><para>the BSD sendmail agent.</para></listitem>
|
|
</varlistentry>
|
|
<varlistentry>
|
|
<term><ulink url="news:comp.mail.smail">comp.mail.smail</ulink></term>
|
|
<listitem><para>the smail mail agent.</para></listitem>
|
|
</varlistentry>
|
|
<varlistentry>
|
|
<term><ulink url="news:comp.mail.uucp">comp.mail.uucp</ulink></term>
|
|
<listitem><para>Mail in the uucp environment.</para></listitem>
|
|
</varlistentry>
|
|
</variablelist>
|
|
|
|
</sect2>
|
|
<sect2 id="books"><title>Books</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>The following is a non-inclusive set of books that will help...</para>
|
|
|
|
<variablelist>
|
|
<varlistentry>
|
|
<term>Sendmail</term>
|
|
<listitem><para>from O'Reilly and Associates is
|
|
the definitive reference on sendmail-v8 and sendmail+IDA. It's a
|
|
``must have'' for anybody hoping to make sense out of sendmail without
|
|
bleeding in the process.</para></listitem>
|
|
</varlistentry>
|
|
|
|
<varlistentry>
|
|
<term>The Internet Complete Reference</term>
|
|
<listitem><para>from Osborne is a fine reference book that explains the
|
|
various services available on Internet and is a great source for
|
|
information on news, mail, and various other Internet
|
|
resources.</para></listitem>
|
|
</varlistentry>
|
|
|
|
<varlistentry>
|
|
<term>The Linux Networking Administrators' Guide</term>
|
|
<listitem><para>from Olaf Kirch of the LDP is available on the net and is
|
|
also published by (at least) O'Reilly and SSC. It makes a fine
|
|
one-stop shopping guide to learn about everything you ever imagined
|
|
you'd need to know about Unix networking.</para></listitem>
|
|
</varlistentry>
|
|
</variablelist>
|
|
|
|
</sect2>
|
|
<sect2 id="periodic"><title>Periodic USENET Postings</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>Also worth mentioning is Chris Lewis' periodic posting on unix
|
|
e-mail software, which is available on <ulink
|
|
url="ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/comp.mail.misc">ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet/comp.mail.misc</ulink>
|
|
as the files named ``UNIX_Email_Software_Survey_*''. An HTMLized
|
|
version is at <ulink
|
|
url="http://www.faqs.org/faqs/mail/setup/unix/">http://www.faqs.org/faqs/mail/setup/unix/</ulink>.
|
|
At time of writing in 2005 this posting has not been seriously updated
|
|
since 2000, however.</para>
|
|
|
|
</sect2>
|
|
<sect2 id="dontgo"><title>Where <emphasis>not</emphasis> to look for help</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>There is no longer anything special about configuring and
|
|
running mail under Linux, relative to other Unixes. Accordingly, you
|
|
almost certainly do <emphasis>not</emphasis> want to be posting
|
|
generic mail-related questions to the comp.os.linux.*
|
|
newsgroups.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>Unless your posting is truly Linux-specific (ie, ``please tell
|
|
me what routers are already compiled into the SLS1.03 version of
|
|
smail3.1.28'') you should be asking your questions in one of the
|
|
newsgroups or mailing lists referenced above.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>Let me repeat that....</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>There is virtually no reason to post anything mail-related in the
|
|
comp.os.linux hierarchy any more. There are existing newsgroups in the
|
|
comp.mail.* hierarchy to handle <emphasis>all</emphasis> your questions.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para><emphasis>If you post to comp.os.linux.* for non-Linux-specific questions,
|
|
you are looking in the wrong place for help. The electronic mail
|
|
experts hang out in the places indicated above and generally not in
|
|
the Linux groups.</emphasis></para>
|
|
|
|
<para><emphasis> Posting to the Linux hierarchy for non-linux-specific
|
|
questions wastes your time and everybody else's...and it frequently
|
|
delays you from getting the answer to your question.</emphasis></para>
|
|
|
|
</sect2>
|
|
</sect1>
|
|
<sect1 id="administrivia"><title>Administrivia</title>
|
|
|
|
<sect2><title>Feedback</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>(Vince wrote this section, but my policy is the same.)</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>I am interested in any feedback, positive or negative, regarding
|
|
the content of this document via e-mail. Definitely contact me if you
|
|
find errors or obvious omissions.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>I read, but do not necessarily respond to, all e-mail I receive.
|
|
Requests for enhancements will be considered and acted upon based on
|
|
that day's combination of available time, merit of the request, and
|
|
daily blood pressure :-)</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>Flames will quietly go to /dev/null so don't bother.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>In particular, the Linux filesystem standard for pathnames is an evolving
|
|
thing. What's in this document is there for illustration only based on the
|
|
current standard at the time that part of the document was written and in
|
|
the paths used in the distributions or `kits' I've personally seen. Please
|
|
consult your particular Linux distribution(s) for the paths they use.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>Feedback concerning the actual format of the document should go
|
|
to the HOWTO coordinator - mail to <ulink
|
|
url="mailto:linux-howto@metalab.unc.edu">linux-howto@metalab.unc.edu</ulink>).
|
|
</para>
|
|
|
|
</sect2>
|
|
<sect2 id="copyright"><title>Copyright Information</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>The Mail-User-HOWTO is copyrighted (c)1999 Eric S. Raymond.
|
|
Copyright is retained for the purpose of enforcing the Linux
|
|
Documentation Project license terms.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>A verbatim copy may be reproduced or distributed in any medium
|
|
physical or electronic without permission of the author. Translations
|
|
are similarly permitted without express permission if it includes a
|
|
notice on who translated it.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>Short quotes may be used without prior consent by the author.
|
|
Derivative work and partial distributions of the Mail-HOWTO must be
|
|
accompanied with either a verbatim copy of this file or a pointer to
|
|
the verbatim copy.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>Commercial redistribution is allowed and encouraged; however,
|
|
the maintainer would appreciate being notified of any such
|
|
distributions (as a courtesy).</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>In short, we wish to promote dissemination of this information
|
|
through as many channels as possible. However, we do wish to retain
|
|
copyright on the HOWTO documents.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>We further want that <emphasis>all</emphasis> information
|
|
provided in the HOWTOS is disseminated. If you have questions, please
|
|
contact the Linux HOWTO coordinator, at
|
|
<email>linux-howto@metalab.unc.edu</email>.</para>
|
|
|
|
</sect2>
|
|
<sect2 id="disclaimer"><title>Standard Disclaimer</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>Of course, we disavow any potential liability for the contents of this
|
|
document. Use of the concepts, examples, and/or other content of this
|
|
document is entirely at your own risk.</para>
|
|
|
|
</sect2>
|
|
<sect2 id="acknowledgements"><title>Acknowledgements</title>
|
|
|
|
<para>This was originally authored by Vince Skahan. I have rewritten
|
|
it for the modern ISP-centric world in which UUCP is little more than
|
|
a memory.</para>
|
|
|
|
<para>In May 1999, the name was changed from "The Linux Electronic
|
|
Mail HOWTO" to avoid a collision with Guylhem Aznar's Mail HOWTO,
|
|
which will become the Mail Administrator HOWTO.</para>
|
|
|
|
<remark>
|
|
<revhistory id="revhistory">
|
|
<revision>
|
|
<revnumber>3.4</revnumber>
|
|
<date>2005-08-17</date>
|
|
<authorinitials>esr</authorinitials>
|
|
<revremark>
|
|
Minor revisions.
|
|
</revremark>
|
|
</revision>
|
|
<revision>
|
|
<revnumber>3.3</revnumber>
|
|
<date>2003-02-22</date>
|
|
<authorinitials>esr</authorinitials>
|
|
<revremark>
|
|
LDP site and my home site moved.
|
|
</revremark>
|
|
</revision>
|
|
<revision>
|
|
<revnumber>3.2</revnumber>
|
|
<date>2001-02-22</date>
|
|
<authorinitials>esr</authorinitials>
|
|
<revremark>
|
|
LDP Styleguide markup fixes.
|
|
</revremark>
|
|
</revision>
|
|
<revision>
|
|
<revnumber>3.1</revnumber>
|
|
<date>2000-12-08</date>
|
|
<authorinitials>esr</authorinitials>
|
|
<revremark>
|
|
Mention Mailman.
|
|
</revremark>
|
|
</revision>
|
|
<revision>
|
|
<revnumber>3.0</revnumber> <date>2000-08-08</date>
|
|
<authorinitials>esr</authorinitials>
|
|
<revremark>
|
|
First DocBook version.
|
|
</revremark>
|
|
</revision>
|
|
</revhistory>
|
|
</remark>
|
|
|
|
</sect2>
|
|
</sect1>
|
|
</article>
|
|
|
|
<!--
|
|
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|
|
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|
|
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|
|
compile-command: "mail -s \"Mail User HOWTO update\" submit@en.tldp.org <Mail-User-HOWTO.xml"
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|
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-->
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