[aclug-L] Re: Using emacs for e-mail.

[Nate Bargmann <ka0rny@xxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, Jan 14, 2000 at 08:13:06PM -0600, Larry Bottorff wrote:
> I'd like to use GNU Emacs for my e-mail client. Unfortunately, the
> documentation has no ppp dial-up scenerio. My O'Reilly book babbles on
> about regular networked e-mail, but not a word about dial-in slobs like
> me. Does anyone know what I need to do?

Hi Larry.

With the proper tools, your dialup can act just like a networked machine
and emacs need not know the difference.

Firstly, you need to get at least these popular packages:
        fetchmail                               < get POP3 mail
        sendmail | qmail | smail | exim         < Mail Transfer Agent
        procmail                                < mail filter - optional

Most likely your distribution has one of the MTAs already installed
and the Mail-HOWTO is a good starting point.  fetchmail is drop-dead
easy to get going and you can save procmail until you get fetchmail
retrieving your mail from the POP3 server and your MTA is delivering
your mail to your standard mailbox, mostly likely /var/spool/mail/user_name
and is pointed to by the $MAIL variable.

procmail is great for sorting messages into folders and can be used
to reject mail from unwanted senders.

Yes, it takes a bit of work to get going, often an evening of tinkering,
but the rewards are great.  Once configured you can use one of many Mail
User Agents, MUAs, for sending and receiving mail.  If you are configuring
a Debian Slink (2.1) system check out my URL below for some tips on getting
the tools installed by Debian working.

- Nate >>

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