Re: Mutt Next Generation
Hi Thomas,
On Wed, Jan 26, 2005 at 12:47:55 +0100, Thomas Roessler wrote:
> We're on Unix, remember? "Do one thing, and do it well."
>
> There are command line SMTP clients around that you can integrate
> with mutt by changing a simple configuration variable, and for any
> kind of a complex setup (think queuing), you're better served with a
> full-fledged MTA anyway.
>
> In short, an SMTP client is one of the things that, in my view,
> *clearly* don't belong into mutt.
I administer a large mail server and what I am seeing is, that more and
more users start using SMTP AUTH. People move from one place to the
other with their laptops and they don't want to reconfigure the mail
relay every time they change the provider.
Some users want to use SPF (I don't like that myself, but that doesn't
change the fact that many users have a mail domain with SPF records),
which practically forces the users to relay the mail to their own mail
server.
I tried the 'sendmail' replacement commands ssmtp and esmtp, which
should allow you to use SMTP AUTH. The following problems would be
solved if the functionality was integrated in mutt instead of an
external program:
- asking for the password. Both commands can't ask for the password!
That's horrible, I don't want my Unix password in a text file in my
home.
- outgoing folder, resend manually. If some problem happens, as you say,
you need a proper MTA so that mails gets sent again. With SMTP AUTH
this doesn't really work however and it would be the easiest for the
user to have the undelivered mails in a folder with the possibility to
resend them.
- ease of configuration. Configuring ssmtp/esmtp and muttrc is ok for
me, but really isn't user friendly.
Please, reconsider the SMTP (AUTH) option. It might not be beautiful but
it would be useful to many users I think.
Cheers
David
--
David Schweikert | phone: +41 44 632 7019
System manager ISG.EE | walk: ETH Zentrum, ETL F24.1
ETH Zurich, Switzerland | web: http://people.ee.ethz.ch/dws