Re: Frustrating mutt address problem
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/
To answer your question, I considered using msmtp, but there is no deb of
it available via Ubuntu. I am using Kubuntu at home. Maybe this is a
noob thing, but I am afraid of compiling programs on my own because of
potential dependency problems. It has been my understanding that, if I
don't install a program with apt-get install, I'm opening myself up to
dependency hell.
Is this true or am I worrying needlessly?
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.
I have this line in my muttrc:
set sendmail="/usr/sbin/ssmtp"
I had assumed this would tell mutt to use ssmtp instead of sendmail, which
I don't have on the box to begin with.
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?
With the line I quoted above.
What is the rest of your mutt configuration that might affect this?
That's what I don't know. I have gone over the entire muttrc several
times, trying to see what might be doing this. I am unable to see
anything that would be forcing it to address all e-mails to
seth@xxxxxxxxxxx
Why are you thinking that mutt is to blame?
I don't know for sure that it is. One possibility is that it's a line in
muttrc that I don't understand, either missing or set incorrectly.
More generally, it seems that ssmtp is actually getting the mail as far as
my ISP's server, where it gets the "mailbox full" error message, so it
seemed that perhaps ssmtp might be working OK, and that the incorrect
address problem might be from an incorrect or missing line in muttrc.
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?
No, I haven't. I don't know how to do it. Not sure what you mean by
"send a mail by hand." I have sent mail from the console using SMTP as
described in section 10.2 of Rutebook (http://tinyurl.com/nmw9w), but I
don't know how to get ssmtp involved in it.
If you could outline the procedure, I'd be grateful.
Why did you decide not to use the advice I gave you the last time you
asked this question on this mailing list?
You mean the patch from Brendan Cully? The url you quoted was unavailable
all yesterday afternoon and up til I quit working on this yesterday
evening. A bigger problem is that I am such a newbie that I don't know
how to install or run a patch in the first place. I have learned what
little I know about Linux from books, no humans to teach me in person, and
this is something I haven't figured out how to do. Generally speaking I
am afraid to do something that might disable my entire box at home, given
that I do a lot of freelance work that depends on having that box working
for me. In the early days with Linux I compiled a program or two myself
and wound up with horrific problems that eventually forced me to nuke the
hard drive and start over again. I am hoping to avoid such trouble in the
future. Undoubtedly if I knew more about how to do such things, I
wouldn't be so fearful, but I just don't know enough about compiling
programs or running patches.
However, if you think that compiling msmtp is the way to go, I will try it
when I get home this evening and see what happens. I notice there are
instructions at that website for doing so, so maybe I can manage it. I am
guessing I'd have to do an apt-get remove on ssmtp first to get it off my
system?
Seth Williamson
Slings Gap
Franklin County, VA
~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