> Hello All,
>
> Connected intermittantly to internet using PPP to an ISP who uses POP3
> for mail. I am attempting to minimize the number of packages needed
> to run mail. It seems there are many mail packages but not a great
> deal of information on there interrelationships.
Basic interrelationships:
There are three different type of mail packages: Mail Transport Agents
(MTA), Mail Delivery Agents (MDA), and Mail User Agents (MUA).
The job of the MTA is to move email from one machine to another.
Sendmail, exim, zmailer, qmail, smail are all standard MTAs. I also
consider fetchmail (and fetchpop) as an MTA, although I believe this
view to be non-standard. You usually only have one MTA running on a
system, except for fetchmail.
The job of the MDA is to place the mail where the user can find it,
once the MTA system gets it to the machine where it gets delivered.
Deliver and procmail are both used as MDAs. Many MTA's include basic
MDAs, and some MUAs also come with MDAs. mh, an MUA, ships with
slocal, an MDA that can filter and sort mail.
The job of the MUA is to allow the user to read, file, compose, and
send mail. Usually, the MUA takes mail from where the MDA leaves it
and stores it elsewhere.
> Am running on X the following Debian mail-related packages : exim,
> fetchmail, mh and exmh with subsidiary packages of metamail and
> mime-support. I know one needs both mh and exmh to do mail
> processing if exmh is used. Also POP3 support is needed for mail to
> and from the ISP.
POP3 is needed to get mail FROM the ISP. POP3 is not a protocol for
sending mail, just receiving it. You need to use some other MTA to
send mail. If you setup works, it probably is because exim is doing
that job.
With the exception of qmail instead of exim, your mail packages are
identical to mine. I also have procmail installed, but I haven't
converted my slocal setup to procmail yet, so I'm not actually -using-
procmail. I use fetchmail for all incoming mail, and qmail for all
outgoing mail.
>
> Are exim and fetchmail also required? Can one one just use mh
> and exmh by themselves to do all mail composing and handling as well as
> receiving and sending mail via POP3 to the ISP?
I believe that mh and exmh can be configured to get mail via POP3, but
I haven't bothered to figure out how. I don't believe that mh has the
capability to send mail without an MTA.
Why do you want to minimize the number of packages you install?
If you truely want to minimize the number of packages, you could remove
-all- the packages you listed (with the possible exception of the two
MIME packages), and use Netscape Mail. It will handle receiving mail
via POP3, sending it via SMTP, etc. I wouldn't recommend it, though (I
don't like Netscape as an all-in-one package, especially when there are
alternatives).
>
> <P>I tried mutt and think it's great for subsidiary usage.
>
> <P>Victor</HTML>
>
>
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