Re: newbie: filtering email
On Sun, Jun 15, 2008 at 10:42:25PM -0500, Kyle Wheeler wrote:
> On Sunday, June 15 at 08:32 PM, quoth Don Raikes:
> > I am a newbie to mutt, having just set it up last week.
>
> Welcome!
>
> > I receive a ton of email and I want to knwo the best way to filter
> > the email into folders.
>
> The "best" way depends on your situation. For example, if you're
> leaving your email on a remote server, the IMAPFilter program may be
> more appropriate for your needs.
No I pull my messages down to my local system using pop.
I have a .fetchmailrc file setup, and can use it if it is the most efficient
method. I also have the pop_host setup in my .muttrc file so I can use the
<ctrl+g> to retrieve my email.
>
> Procmail is... well, the best that can be said about it is that it is
> a tool best used by people who really know what they're doing (or who
> are pretty stubborn---which is why I use it). It has some pretty
> glaring flaws (doesn't handle delivery failure very well), and you're
> probably better off learning to use something like maildrop. Depending
> on who you ask, maildrop has a simpler and/or more obvious syntax.
I will take a look at maildrop to see how it works.
>
> > I have looked at some examples of procmail recipes, but can't figure
> > out how to tie mutt and procmail together.
>
> Procmail and maildrop are MDAs - mail DELIVERY agents. That is, they
> receive mail and deliver it to mailboxes. Then you use mutt to read
> those mailboxes. Procmail and maildrop are NOT for taking a large
> folder of email and sorting it into sub-folders (though there are ways
> of using them to do that, it's generally not the most obvious or most
> efficient way to use them); instead they are designed for being part
> of the mail delivery process (i.e. they should be triggered by your
> mail server or by your fetchmail/gotmail program).
As I said earlier, while I can setup getchmail to run in a cron job, I was
trying to use the <shift+g> keystroke to retrieve mail not fetchmail.
I am certainly open to usign the fetchmail methodology though.
>
> Does that help, or am I just confusing you?
Kyle, It actually helps a lot. I will look into maildrop and see how that works.
Thansk for the quick reply.
>
> ~Kyle
> --
> This is my simple religion. There is no need for temples; no need for
> complicated philosophy. Our own brain, our own heart is our temple;
> the philosophy is kindness.
> -- Dalai Lama
>