Running mutt on Windows 98 box?

[Clarke Echols]

I have installed Cygwin on my Windows 98 machine. My ISP has a POP3
mail server named "mail.<isp>.com, as usual. I can use ftp to access
their ftp server with no problem, so I know the DSL connection is
working for at least some Cygwin utilities.

I have set up a .muttrc file in $HOME directory with settings:

set pop_host="mail.<isp>.com
set pop_user="<my_name_on_mail_machine>"
set pop_pass="<my_password>"
set pop_delete="ask-no" #Don't want to delete before everything

set folder=~/Mail
set spoolfile=+Inbox
set mbox=+mbox

The last 3 are just to experiment with while I try to get it working.

When I execute the command:

mutt -s test <my_email_address> < text_file

I get an error 127, child failure error. I have no clue what the
"child" is. I assume that mutt has spawned a new process, or tried
to run some equivalent to sendmail, but I have no idea what it is.

If I compose a message using "vi" and do the normal "send", I get
the same error.

I've looked all over the place at mutt.org and elsewhere for some sort
of tutorial on how to set up mutt on Windows 98 boxes to directly
receive mail from the POP3 server and how to send messages to the
server without some MTA such as sendmail, but haven't found anything
useful. My ISP is no help. They've been immensely knowledgeable
about my other questions, but they know nothing about mutt.

So is there anyone out there in Usenet land who knows how to do this
and make it work, or where I can find the info I need?

I'm looking for a replacement for Netscape 4.77 Messenger, but need
to know how to get mutt to download/receive incoming messages from the
POP3 server, and send messages to the server for forwarding on to
their various destinations.

I'd also like to be able to bring in email from multiple accounts into
an assortment of inboxes, one per account, and process them. Back in
my HP-UX days, this was easy because sendmail was running in the background,
(and I wasn't the sys admin who had to make it all work :-) ).

Anbody out there willing to do a "brain dump" or send me to a good place
to find the info I seek? Google hasn't been very helpful, so far.

Clarke

[Cory T. Echols]

Hello Clarke. Could you be my long-lost evil twin?

Post by Clarke Echols
I have installed Cygwin on my Windows 98 machine. My ISP has a POP3
mail server named "mail.<isp>.com, as usual. I can use ftp to access
their ftp server with no problem, so I know the DSL connection is
working for at least some Cygwin utilities.
set pop_host="mail.<isp>.com
set pop_user="<my_name_on_mail_machine>"
set pop_pass="<my_password>"
set pop_delete="ask-no" #Don't want to delete before everything
set folder=~/Mail
set spoolfile=+Inbox
set mbox=+mbox

The POP3-related settings above are only useful for fetching your mail
from the ISP. POP3 is a fetch-only protocol. For sending mail off of
your box, the SMTP protocol would be used. Mutt relies on an external
program (typically sendmail) to send mail via SMTP. Sendmail would
definitely be overkill in your case. Fortunately cygwin includes a
lightweight program called ssmtp that you can call from mutt to push
your outgoing mail up to your isp's SMTP server.

You'll want to install ssmtp (using cygwin's setup program) and read its
man page. It's mostly sendmail compatible. Then in your .muttrc file,
you'll need to check the 'sendmail' option and set it to use ssmtp.

I run my mutt on linux, and I don't use ssmtp, so my ability to help
sort of drops off at this point. However, the following web sites might
get you going from here:

http://www.geocities.com/win32mutt/
http://www.qnd-guides.net/qnd-ssmtp.html

Hope this helps.

[Clarke Echols]

Cory,

It works! I went to the
http://perso.efrei.fr/~parmelan/mutt/guckes/setup.html

page, added the "set sendmail" line in .muttrc, and sent a message
using "mutt -s subject valid_email_address < filename" and hit
[Enter]. Worked like a charm. I already had the download side
set up in .muttrc but didn't know about the 'G' directive to mutt.
When I tried that after posting (found it on another site) it logged
in on the POP server and found no mail waiting -- just what it should
have found.

So it looks like I'm up and running.

My wife still wonders if you're my brother's son, also named Cory. :-)

Thanks a bunch,

Clarke

Post by Cory T. Echols
Hello Clarke. Could you be my long-lost evil twin?

Post by Clarke Echols
I have installed Cygwin on my Windows 98 machine. My ISP has a POP3
mail server named "mail.<isp>.com, as usual. I can use ftp to access
their ftp server with no problem, so I know the DSL connection is
working for at least some Cygwin utilities.
set pop_host="mail.<isp>.com
set pop_user="<my_name_on_mail_machine>"
set pop_pass="<my_password>"
set pop_delete="ask-no" #Don't want to delete before everything
set folder=~/Mail
set spoolfile=+Inbox
set mbox=+mbox

The POP3-related settings above are only useful for fetching your mail
from the ISP. POP3 is a fetch-only protocol. For sending mail off of
your box, the SMTP protocol would be used. Mutt relies on an external
program (typically sendmail) to send mail via SMTP. Sendmail would
definitely be overkill in your case. Fortunately cygwin includes a
lightweight program called ssmtp that you can call from mutt to push
your outgoing mail up to your isp's SMTP server.
You'll want to install ssmtp (using cygwin's setup program) and read its
man page. It's mostly sendmail compatible. Then in your .muttrc file,
you'll need to check the 'sendmail' option and set it to use ssmtp.
I run my mutt on linux, and I don't use ssmtp, so my ability to help
sort of drops off at this point. However, the following web sites might
http://www.geocities.com/win32mutt/
http://www.qnd-guides.net/qnd-ssmtp.html
Hope this helps.
--
Cory T. Echols