Re: Frustrating mutt address problem

[Kyle Wheeler <kyle-mutt@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

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On Wednesday, May 24 at 08:40 PM, quoth Seth Williamson:
> had written earlier with what I thought might be a problem in ssmtp
> and the way it relates to mutt.  Bottom line is that all mail is going
> to a single address, no matter what I put in the To: field in mutt.

First question: why use ssmtp? Every reference I see of it on google 
suggests that it is an abandoned project. It also has several 
outstanding security vulnerabilities. Those reasons are precisely why 
I avoid it. Personally, I highly recommend msmtp: it's an active 
project, and supports lots of higher-end features. Plus, it was 
designed specifically with mutt in mind. Here is the URL: 
http://msmtp.sourceforge.net/

Now, let's start with the mutt manual. The setting you need to review 
first is $sendmail. In order to tell mutt what program to use in order 
to send mail, you have to set that variable. From the manual:

    sendmail
    Type: path
    Default: "/usr/sbin/sendmail -oem -oi"

    Specifies the program and arguments used to deliver mail sent by 
    Mutt. Mutt expects that the specified program interprets 
    additional arguments as recipient addresses.

So, what have you set this variable to in your configuration? If you 
left it alone, there's your problem.

Since you haven't provided that information, let me tell you what it 
*should* be. Unfortunately, since I don't feel like installing ssmtp 
from Debian to get a man page, I don't know what ssmtp's configuration 
or command-line arguments are. So, instead, I'll explain how you'd set 
it up with msmtp.

First, you set your $sendmail:

    set sendmail="/usr/local/bin/msmtp -a default"

Then, in your ~/.msmtprc:

    account default
    host smtp.domain.com
    from orthodox@xxxxxxxxxx
    auth login
    tls
    user orthodox@xxxxxxxxxxx
    password pass

That's it.

> I hope I will learn something from this and not keep beating my head
> against a stone wall.  I have changed most options that looked likely
> over and over and can't seem to fix this problem.  I am beginning to
> think it might not be an ssmtp problem, but I don't know for sure.

The general way to do reporting of a problem is: report what you're 
trying to do, report exactly what you did, report what you expected to 
happen, and report exactly what the computer did instead.

How did you configure mutt to use ssmtp?
What is the rest of your mutt configuration that might affect this?
Why are you thinking that mutt is to blame?
Have you tested trying to use ssmtp to send a mail by hand (i.e. 
without mutt)?
What have you tried? What happened? What were you expecting to happen?
Why did you decide not to use the advice I gave you the last time you 
asked this question on this mailing list?

~Kyle
- -- 
This job of playing God is a little too big for me. Nevertheless, 
someone has to do it, so I'll try my best to fake it.
                                                         -- Larry Wall
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