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---
date: "2000-08-30T20:23:00Z"
title: Mutt, Fetchmail, Oh My!
---
So I'm attempting to make the transition from
<a href="">PINE</a> to
<a href="http://www.mutt.org/">Mutt</a>. Of course, in order to do
that I had to set up
<a href="http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/fetchmail/">Fetchmail</a>, and
make a few minor changes to my existing
<a href="http://www.procmail.org/">Procmail</a> setup. I grabbed
the existing muttrc file from
<a href="http://www.linuxbrit.co.uk/">Tom Gilbert's page</a> and
spent some time tweaking it a bit, and I think I've got things
kind of working (actually, I just sent my first non-test email
about three minutes ago). Here's what I think so far: I really like
Mutt a lot -- it's packed with features, completely configurable,
and not actually that hard to get set up. As for fetchmail, it's
GUI config program and config language are almost completely idiot
proof. The GUI probed my IMAP server and set everything up for me,
and it even caught a few stupid mistakes I made.
<br /><br />
Now the cons: I've been using PINE for over 6 years, and switching
to new keybindings is a bit of a jolting experience. My setup for
PINE wasn't perfect, but everything worked. Normally I don't mind
tweaking with programs to get them working "just the way I want it",
but mail is one of those things I take for granted -- I just want it
to work without tweaking. Anyways, I felt the same way when I switched
to <a href="http://www.vim.org/">VIM</a>, and I felt the same way
when I switched to <a href="http://www.linux.com/">Linux</a>, and I
know all this will pass. The other thing that kind of concerns me
is using fetchmail to redirect all my mail. I'm used to using a
shell account on the machine with my mail spool -- I haven't used
POP3 or IMAP for at least 3 years. I've heard horror stories of
people's wacky mail-transfer setup blowing away weeks worth of email;
I'd prefer not to go through that experience. Anyways, I know
there are several mutt pros who read this page -- feel free to
drop me an email if you've got any transition tips for me.
<br /><br />
Oh yeah, I finally got around to installing
<a href="http://www.gnupg.org/">GnuPG</a>, the free software
replacement for <a href="http://www.pgp.com/">PGP</a>. I posted
a new <a href="/pabskey.asc">public key</a>, and I committed it
to several keyservers around the world. I don't have the
information anymore to revoke my old PGP 2.6.2 key, but the
email addresses are different anyways:
<a href="mailto:duncanpa@engr.orst.edu">duncanpa@engr.orst.edu</a> for
the PGP 2.6.2 key and
<a href="mailto:pabs@pablotron.org">pabs@pablotron.org</a> for the
OpenPGP (eg GnuPGP) key.
<br /><br />
Finally, I helped <a href="mailto:hammonss@ucs.orst.edu">Sean</a>
install Linux on his home machine today. Soon he will be a
linux h4x0r like the rest of us. :)
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