As /var/spool/mail/paul was only being opened as read only, even after changing permissions on mutt_dotlock to group mail setgid as suggested, I foolishly changed permissions on /usr/bin/mutt in the same way. Now it won`t start at all, the error message is: mutt: I don't want to run with privileges! The only way so far that I`ve managed to get this to work is to add myself to the group mail but this is not recommended so please does anyone have any ideas? Also how do I change the permissions on /usr/bin/mutt back to the way they were: -rwxr-xr-x 1 root root 417712 Apr 25 1999 /usr/bin/mutt In despair Paul -- Paul Walton * Powered by * Cambridge * Debian GNU Linux * U.K. * http://www.debian.org *