424 lines
8.8 KiB
HTML
424 lines
8.8 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
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<HTML
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><HEAD
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><TITLE
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>Mail User Agents</TITLE
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><META
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NAME="GENERATOR"
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CONTENT="Modular DocBook HTML Stylesheet Version 1.7"><LINK
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REL="HOME"
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TITLE="The Linux Mail User HOWTO"
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HREF="index.html"><LINK
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REL="PREVIOUS"
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TITLE="Introduction"
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HREF="introduction.html"><LINK
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REL="NEXT"
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TITLE="Advanced topics"
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HREF="advanced.html"></HEAD
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><TR
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><TH
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COLSPAN="3"
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ALIGN="center"
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>The Linux Mail User HOWTO</TH
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></TR
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><TR
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><TD
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WIDTH="10%"
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ALIGN="left"
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VALIGN="bottom"
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><A
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HREF="introduction.html"
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ACCESSKEY="P"
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>Prev</A
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></TD
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><TD
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WIDTH="80%"
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ALIGN="center"
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VALIGN="bottom"
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><TD
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WIDTH="10%"
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ALIGN="right"
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VALIGN="bottom"
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><A
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HREF="advanced.html"
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ACCESSKEY="N"
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>Next</A
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></TD
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></TR
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></TABLE
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><HR
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ALIGN="LEFT"
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WIDTH="100%"></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect1"
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><H1
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CLASS="sect1"
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><A
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NAME="mua"
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></A
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>2. Mail User Agents</H1
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><P
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>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).</P
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect2"
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><H2
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CLASS="sect2"
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><A
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NAME="editor"
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></A
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>2.1. Setting your mail editor</H2
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><P
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>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 <TT
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CLASS="envar"
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>VISUAL</TT
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>, 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.</P
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><P
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>Popular values for <TT
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CLASS="envar"
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>EDITOR</TT
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> include
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<B
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CLASS="command"
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>vi</B
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> and <B
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CLASS="command"
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>emacs</B
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>.
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<A
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NAME="emacsclient"
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></A
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>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 <TT
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CLASS="envar"
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>EDITOR</TT
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> is to the value
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<B
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CLASS="command"
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>emacsclient</B
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>. Use this with the following lines in
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your <TT
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CLASS="filename"
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>~/.emacs</TT
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> file:</P
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><TABLE
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BORDER="0"
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BGCOLOR="#E0E0E0"
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WIDTH="100%"
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><TR
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><TD
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><FONT
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COLOR="#000000"
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><PRE
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CLASS="programlisting"
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> (autoload 'server-edit "server" nil t)
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(server-edit)
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</PRE
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></FONT
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></TD
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></TR
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></TABLE
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><P
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>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.</P
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><P
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>When you are ready to hand the file back to the mailer for
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sending, type <SPAN
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CLASS="keysym"
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>C-x #</SPAN
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>. 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.</P
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><P
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>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.</P
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><P
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>If you're running XEmacs rather than GNU Emacs, these directions
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change slightly. In this case you waant to set <TT
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CLASS="envar"
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>EDITOR</TT
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>
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to <B
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CLASS="command"
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>gnuclient</B
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>. In recent versions, your init file
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will live at <TT
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CLASS="filename"
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>~/.xemacs/init.el</TT
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> rather than
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<TT
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CLASS="filename"
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>~/.emacs</TT
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>.</P
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect2"
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><H2
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CLASS="sect2"
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><A
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NAME="mutt"
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></A
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>2.2. mutt</H2
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><P
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>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 <A
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HREF="http://www.mutt.org"
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TARGET="_top"
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>Mutt home page</A
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> on the web.</P
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><P
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>Mutt respects the EDITOR/VISUAL convention.</P
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect2"
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><H2
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CLASS="sect2"
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><A
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NAME="elm"
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></A
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>2.3. elm</H2
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><P
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>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 <A
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HREF="http://metalab.unc.edu/pub/Linux/system/mail"
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TARGET="_top"
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>Metalab mail user
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agents directory</A
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>. Here are a few points that occasionally
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trip people up:</P
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><P
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>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.</P
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><P
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>Elm respects the EDITOR/VISUAL convention.</P
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect2"
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><H2
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CLASS="sect2"
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><A
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NAME="pine"
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></A
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>2.4. pine</H2
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><P
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>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 <A
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HREF="http://www.washington.edu/pine"
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TARGET="_top"
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>http://www.washington.edu/pine</A
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>.
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</P
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><P
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>Pine respects the EDITOR/VISUAL convention.</P
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect2"
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><H2
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CLASS="sect2"
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><A
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NAME="netscape"
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></A
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>2.5. Netscape</H2
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><P
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>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.</P
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><P
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>Netscape supplies its own mini-editor, the same one used throughout
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the browser (e.g. for text fields in forms).</P
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect2"
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><H2
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CLASS="sect2"
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><A
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NAME="emacs"
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></A
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>2.6. Emacs rmail/smail and vm.</H2
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><P
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>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 <A
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HREF="mua.html#emacsclient"
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>emacsclient</A
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>
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elsewhere in this document).</P
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><P
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>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 <B
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CLASS="command"
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>M-x
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unrmail</B
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> from the Emacs command line.)</P
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><P
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>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 <A
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HREF="http://www.wonderworks.com/vm/"
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TARGET="_top"
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> http://www.wonderworks.com/vm/</A
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>.</P
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><P
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>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.</P
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><P
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>Emacs smail/rmail/vm do not respect the EDITOR/VISUAL
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convention. Instead, you use the Emacs they're embedded in.</P
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect2"
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><H2
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CLASS="sect2"
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><A
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NAME="bsdmail"
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></A
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>2.7. BSD mail</H2
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><P
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>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.</P
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><P
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>BSD Mail invented the EDITOR/VISUAL convention.</P
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="sect2"
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><H2
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CLASS="sect2"
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><A
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NAME="othermuas"
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></A
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>2.8. Other user agents</H2
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><P
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>The following also are known to run under Linux. Consult `archie' to
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find them...</P
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><P
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></P
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><DIV
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CLASS="variablelist"
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><DL
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><DT
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>mush</DT
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><DD
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><P
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>mail user's shell, very powerful for filtering andbatch processing</P
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></DD
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><DT
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>mh</DT
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><DD
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><P
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>mail handler, yet another mail user agent</P
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></DD
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></DL
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></DIV
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><P
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>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.</P
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></DIV
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></DIV
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><DIV
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CLASS="NAVFOOTER"
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><HR
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ALIGN="LEFT"
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WIDTH="100%"><TABLE
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SUMMARY="Footer navigation table"
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><TR
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><TD
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WIDTH="33%"
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ALIGN="left"
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VALIGN="top"
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><A
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HREF="introduction.html"
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ACCESSKEY="P"
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>Prev</A
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><TD
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WIDTH="34%"
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ALIGN="center"
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VALIGN="top"
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><A
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HREF="index.html"
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ACCESSKEY="H"
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>Home</A
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></TD
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><TD
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ALIGN="right"
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VALIGN="top"
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><A
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HREF="advanced.html"
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ACCESSKEY="N"
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>Next</A
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></TD
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></TR
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><TR
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><TD
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WIDTH="33%"
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ALIGN="left"
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VALIGN="top"
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>Introduction</TD
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><TD
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WIDTH="34%"
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ALIGN="center"
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VALIGN="top"
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> </TD
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><TD
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WIDTH="33%"
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ALIGN="right"
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VALIGN="top"
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>Advanced topics</TD
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></TR
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