mutt and SMTP

mutt can't speak SMTP ... wait, it can ...

... or why mutt should not but slowly becomes an "all-in-1" program.

mutt was developed with the concept of "one task per tool", enabling performance through combination with other high quality modular programs. This is an aspect of the "unix philosophy".

Putting too much into an application wastes unused resources --either in storage (HDD/RAM) or in run-time performance-- when in many cases people don't even use this extra functionality, or it is covered by some other specialist tool. (With a commercial program you'd even have to pay for the unused code, would you do that if you had the choice?)

That's why --so far-- things have been kept separate (or out of mutt).

For quite some time basic MRA functionality has been included in mutt, which some consider a breach of the concept and therefore demand inclusion of SMTP support as well (and because "all the other MUAs have SMTP as well"). The original reasons for the MRA part are not recorded (ed: anyone who knows shall fill in), but it makes sense to have MRA in mutt and not MTA:

MUA+MRA access&store msgs within your control-reach (pull),

MTA passes msgs beyond your control boundary (push).

On this abstract level, MUA+MRA combined cover  area so they can both go into one application like mutt, while MTA covers another. IMAP already works with a folder system, so it's a simple step to include that into mutt, and with the URL-syntax POP can be treated like a remote folder, too.

"This entire concept is rubbish and the mutt developers are just plain lazy [to add all the good stuff]."

Well, it seems the force of the masses is hard to withstand though ... recently experimental minimal SMTP support has been added to mutt as an option. If you fail to use a separate local MTA with mutt, try this failsafe. But still the preferred way is the MTA way. Choose your own optimal way for (multi-account) maintenance.

set envelope_from=yes

set from='youremail@mailserver.com'

set realname='nickname'

set use_from=yes

set smtp_pass='yourpassword'

set smtp_url="smtp://mail.mailserver.com:25" #注，这是25端口没有使用加密，url也可以使用smtp://smtp.mailserver.com:port

set smtp_authenticators='gssapi:login'

smtp_url="smtp://myemail@mail.com@mail.mailserver.com:25"

smtp_url="smtp://myemail@mail.mailserver.com:25"

./configure --prefix=/opt/tmp/mutt --enable-smtp --enable-debug  --with-sasl  --enable-pop  --enable-imap

Debugging Tips

Make sure your mutt is built with debugging support enabled and run

mutt -v

and look for

+DEBUG

If it isn't, you'll have to rebuild mutt with debugging support:

Build-enable debugging in mutt

pass the --enable-debug flag to configure along with any other flags you need.

it can also be useful to run make as make CFLAGS=-ggdb in order to get better debugging symbols

Generating a trace file

To produce a debug trace, run mutt with the -d2 flag. -d takes a number from -, corresponding to increasing levels of verbosity:

errors

network tracing, important state changes

less important information

log spam, e.g. status updates from functions that are called very often

everything, even very confidential information like passwords

For most purposes, level  provides the right amount of detail for a bug report.

It may also include some confidential information (email addresses, server URLs), so you should read it over before you send it to anyone.

Feel free to sanitize it -- we'll ask for further information if necessary.

Analyzing a crash

We'd love to see a debugger back trace.

If you have a core file

If mutt has produced a core file, run gdb /path/to/mutt <core file>, then enter backtrace at the (gdb) prompt and cut and paste the output.

If you don't

One common reason for not getting a core dump when mutt crashes is ulimit.

If running ulimit -c returns , that means core dumps are disabled in your login session. Try executing ulimit -c unlimited, then running mutt again.

If you still don't have a core dump, you can always run mutt inside of gdb, then generate the backtrace when it crashes:

gdb /path/to/mutt

(gdb) run -d2 [other arguments you use]

(make mutt crash)

backtrace