On Sat, Dec 17, 2011 at 01:17:58PM +0800, yihect wrote: > > At 2011-12-16 22:58:25,"Jamie Paul Griffin" <ja...@kontrol.kode5.net> > wrote:>The spoolfile is defined in the environment with the $MAIL environment > >variable. The $spoolfile muttrc setting overrides the environment definition. > > Yes, there has been some description about this in the wiki. > I'm using native win32 port which cat get from : > http://www.geocities.ws/win32mutt/win32.html. I haven't set $MAIL > environment variable. > > > The system mailbox is usually created by the system MTA like postfix or > >send>mail, or an LDA like procmail. How is your mail received on your > >computer, are >you using an MTA on cygwin or are you using imap to read > >remote mailboxes? > > Actually, there isn't any MTA system in my windows pc, I want to using > pop/smtp to receive/send mails from/through mail servers provided by the > third party. > > I have been using outlook or foxmail in the past on my pc . Because of often > using mail list, I want to using mutt instead. > > So where to get the spoolfile, or How to create it by myself without using > any MTA system???? >
Well if your accessing remote mailboxes by pop you can use use a program like fetchmail to retrieve these messages, it will then deliver your mail into local mailboxes for mutt to read. You might find your mail provider will provide imap access as well as pop and you will better off using that . You would then set your $folder variable in muttrc to access the remote server, like this: set folder=imap[s]://serveraddress/[:port] then your folders could be specified something like this: set spoolfile=+INBOX set record=+Sent set postponed=+Drafts You should also use some other imap specific variables to specify your remote imap user name and even your password if you don't mind having the password in your muttrc file, something like this: set imap_user=username set imap_pass=password If you keep the password in the muttrc file, change permissions: chmod 600 ~/.muttrc For smtp, you would use the $smtp_url variable. Its syntax is similar to the one used for your imap server shown in $folder above. Similarly, mutt provides you the option to acces pop mailboxes and you would set variables in your muttrc like shown with imap above. Look at man muttrc and scroll down to read the $pop* specific settings. The manual has all of this information explained. Look on the internet for mutt pop folders, imap folders and smtp_url. It will all be there. There also other mail processing programs for accessing, delivering and sending mail that can be used with mutt. Some notable ones include: offlineimap, msmtp for sending, getmail. To clarify the point you made about creating a local spoolfile: you can create this but you don't need to. If you use mailprocessing software like the ones mentioned they will create the appropriate mailboxes for you usually, and you configure them to deliver to the folder you want to use. Setting up the environment to locate mail spoolfile is the usual way under UNIX systems. These software use the environment settings to do their job. Jamie