On 10/9/2013 5:48 AM, berenger.mo...@neutralite.org wrote:
Le 09.10.2013 04:48, Jerry Stuckle a écrit :
On 10/8/2013 9:13 PM, berenger.mo...@neutralite.org wrote:
Hi.
I finally decided myself to install a software to manage my mails.
So, I think I'll go for mutt: it appears quite often on the list ( so I
might ask if I have problems, before trying another one when everything
will be ok ) and runs into a terminal, which makes it perfect for me
since I use a tiling window managers: it will never spawn ugly dialog in
my face for a reason or another, and for the situations when I simply
want to run a TTY without X, it will fit perfectly too.
But now, it seems ( says this article
http://nongeekshandbook.blogspot.fr/2009/02/mutt-email-client-that-sucks-less.html
) that it needs 2 other tools: one to fetch mails from server, and
another one to send them.
For the fetcher, I am surprised that debian does not seems to recommend
or suggest using one, so I will not spend time on that -for now at
least- and will do as the article says, unless I discover something
interesting in the process.
But for the tool to send mails, things are different: I can count 16
alternatives. Some are obviously wrong for my use, like lsb-invalid-mta,
postfix or exim ( those last ones are probably too big for my simple
usage, they seems designed for big boxes where mailing is an important
task ), but even after removing some obvious ones, I still have a lot of
choice.
So, here is my question:
What would you use as a MTA on a Debian system made for an end-user?
Of course, I could take one of them at random and try to go with it, but
I would like to take the occasion to learn basics about that, without
installing a tool from which I will never use or understand 10% of the
features...
So, I would like something which:
_ supports IMAP, POP3 and SMTP ( this does not sound excessive I think,
but if there are other important protocols, I do not even know their
existences or uses )
_ is not a daemon running constantly: why should I have a daemon running
to send mail when I am not connected to Internet or not taking care of
my mails? Something which is started by the client ( MUA it seem? ) is
good enough for me and does not consume time when starting or shutting
down my computers.
_ is lightweight, because I always aim to have a system which let all
possible resources to my compilers, and which respect my batteries. I
bet that if I can still survive 4H with wifi after 3 years of intensive
use, it is partly because I do not use heavy softwares.
_ is configured by raw text in the good old UNIX way because I have
learn so many from Debian's configuration files and their comments,
which are very useful when you messed everything and can not even access
Internet :)
Does it even exists? If not, what is, in your opinions, the better to
fit those goals?
Thanks.
PS: sorry for the long description of my request, but I tried to be as
complete as possible. Hopefully it makes things I aim for more clear...
I use Exim on my servers - and they don't handle much mail, and have
ever since I started with Debian. It can be a real pain to configure
due to its flexibility, but the default configuration will probably
work for you. And SpamAssassin installs nicely into the Exim4
configuration.
I guess it will probably works out of the box, yes. I trust Debian a lot
for that, but I am the tinkerer kind of users, so it will quickly be
out-of-order because of my changes in the search of the optimal system ;)
I've done a fair amount of custom configuration, especially to keep
spam down. But that's also been done over a period of years, not all
at one time.
Since my intent ( I forgot to explicitly mention that ) is to simply get
my mails from an Internet mailbox ( the one I'm currently using ) I do
not really feel the need to redo the job the admins made. I'll prefer to
move them to the dedicated section of the distant MTA where a bot will
learn from them, which will contribute to overall quality of the service
instead of only my computer.
You probably don't want an MTA then. An MTA's job is to move messages
between servers, and is not used for retrieving messages.
If you want to move your messages on the server, you'll need to either
put hooks into the server's MTA configuration (which can be done with
most MTA's) or run another program, either on the server or your laptop,
to move the files around. In the latter case, since it wouldn't be
hooked into your MTA, you would need a means to start it (i.e. cron or
starting a program on your laptop).
If you do decide to do it on the server, you will be limited to moving
the messages to different mailboxes or folders in an IMAP mailbox, or
you won't be able to retrieve them.
You could set up an MTA on your netbook, but to do it and have all of
your mail forwarded from your existing host would require changing the
host MTA's configuration (MTA's push mail, not pull it) and wouldn't do
the filtering on the server you wish.
One thing you do need to be careful with, no matter which MTA you
use. Don't make it an open relay - you'll soon become a source of
SPAM. And you should take steps to prevent bots from guessing your
userid and password (I use fail2ban).
Jerry
Should I guess from this that I'll have to configure my router for some
port forwarding? It's not something hard, but it will not be possible
everywhere I could go with the netbook... But I'll keep that in mind
anyway. It must not be so hard to only relay mail from localhost...
Thanks for your reply
No, it's a matter of configuring your MTA properly. For instance, you
have to allow sending to your domain without signing in, or other MTA's
won't be able to send you email. However, you do NOT want to allow
email to be sent off-domain without signing in.
Jerry
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