Recommend a console mail client?
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From: Theo Markettos on 5 Jul 2010 15:19 I use mutt for handling most of my mail. I'm generally happy with it, and I don't do anything hugely complex with mail, but there are a few 'features' in mutt that are really getting on my nerves: 1. mutt doesn't save state (which messages have been read, deleted, replied-to etc) on the server until you quit it, or explicitly synchronise. If it isn't quit cleanly (for example, the machine is restarted using the usual 'shutdown' command), all the state is lost. From what I read of the mutt mailing list, that's a deliberate design decision. If mutt dies unexpectedly, all the state is lost. 2. If mutt is left doing something else for too long, like running an editor or paused at a prompt, the IMAP session times out and all the state is lost. 3. I'd like a mail client that shows me the state of my folders (number of unread messages) on the same screen as the mailbox I currently have open. In mutt this is a keypress away (well, a list of the folders with new mail), but I'd like to be able to see at a glance whether any folders have new mail without changing screen. I'm thinking of the way GUI mail clients have worked for about 15 years. There's plenty of screen real-estate nowadays, so it's not like we're restricted to 80-column terminals any more. So can anyone recommend another console-based mail client that might address these? For example, PINE handles 1 and 2 fine, but is a bit clunky and doesn't do 3 AFAIK. If people can suggest a client that does 3 I can always test for 1 and 2 :) Thanks Theo
From: Szymon von Ulezalka on 5 Jul 2010 18:01 On 5 Lip, 20:19, Theo Markettos <theom+n...(a)chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote: > I use mutt for handling most of my mail. I'm generally happy with it, and I > don't do anything hugely complex with mail, but there are a few 'features' > in mutt that are really getting on my nerves: > > 1. mutt doesn't save state (which messages have been read, deleted, > replied-to etc) on the server until you quit it, or explicitly synchronise. > If it isn't quit cleanly (for example, the machine is restarted using the > usual 'shutdown' command), all the state is lost. From what I read of the > mutt mailing list, that's a deliberate design decision. If mutt dies > unexpectedly, all the state is lost. > > 2. If mutt is left doing something else for too long, like running an editor > or paused at a prompt, the IMAP session times out and all the state is lost. > > 3. I'd like a mail client that shows me the state of my folders (number of > unread messages) on the same screen as the mailbox I currently have open. > In mutt this is a keypress away (well, a list of the folders with new mail), > but I'd like to be able to see at a glance whether any folders have new mail > without changing screen. I'm thinking of the way GUI mail clients have > worked for about 15 years. There's plenty of screen real-estate nowadays, > so it's not like we're restricted to 80-column terminals any more. > > So can anyone recommend another console-based mail client that might address > these? For example, PINE handles 1 and 2 fine, but is a bit clunky and > doesn't do 3 AFAIK. If people can suggest a client that does 3 I can always > test for 1 and 2 :) > > Thanks > Theo maybe alpine? http://email.about.com/od/linuxemailclients/gr/alpine.htm
From: Gordon Henderson on 6 Jul 2010 04:11 In article <1fb16bf5-0039-4e3b-bbe9-912f54cdf7a3(a)j4g2000yqh.googlegroups.com>, Szymon von Ulezalka <atavus(a)interia.pl> wrote: >On 5 Lip, 20:19, Theo Markettos <theom+n...(a)chiark.greenend.org.uk> >wrote: >> I use mutt for handling most of my mail. �I'm generally happy with it, and I >> don't do anything hugely complex with mail, but there are a few 'features' >> in mutt that are really getting on my nerves: >> >> 1. mutt doesn't save state (which messages have been read, deleted, >> replied-to etc) on the server until you quit it, or explicitly synchronise. >> If it isn't quit cleanly (for example, the machine is restarted using the >> usual 'shutdown' command), all the state is lost. �From what I read of the >> mutt mailing list, that's a deliberate design decision. �If mutt dies >> unexpectedly, all the state is lost. >> >> 2. If mutt is left doing something else for too long, like running an editor >> or paused at a prompt, the IMAP session times out and all the state is lost. >> >> 3. I'd like a mail client that shows me the state of my folders (number of >> unread messages) on the same screen as the mailbox I currently have open. >> In mutt this is a keypress away (well, a list of the folders with new mail), >> but I'd like to be able to see at a glance whether any folders have new mail >> without changing screen. �I'm thinking of the way GUI mail clients have >> worked for about 15 years. �There's plenty of screen real-estate nowadays, >> so it's not like we're restricted to 80-column terminals any more. >> >> So can anyone recommend another console-based mail client that might address >> these? �For example, PINE handles 1 and 2 fine, but is a bit clunky and >> doesn't do 3 AFAIK. �If people can suggest a client that does 3 I can always >> test for 1 and 2 :) >> >> Thanks >> Theo > >maybe alpine? http://email.about.com/od/linuxemailclients/gr/alpine.htm I migrated from Pine to Apline recently - I'm not sure it covers point 3 above... What I did find was that Alpines filtering would cause it to stall completely for too long a period of time (ie. more than half a second) and as I get email in at a rate exceeding one a minute at times (lots and lots of automations) that was unnacceptable until I moved all filtering outside the MUA and into procmail... Gordon
From: Theo Markettos on 6 Jul 2010 07:17 Paul Martin <pm(a)nowster.org.uk> wrote: > In article <aAw*kWidt(a)news.chiark.greenend.org.uk>, > Theo Markettos wrote: > > > 2. If mutt is left doing something else for too long, like running an > > editor or paused at a prompt, the IMAP session times out and all the > > state is lost. > > set timeout=15 > set imap_idle=yes Thanks, those help a bit. Really the bigger problem is the client machine being rebooted while my session is still open (it runs under 'screen', so is quite vulnerable to maintenance periods that happen at night). Any time this happens mutt loses all its state. As it runs under 'screen' I rarely login anew and thus don't see the MOTD telling me of the imminent reboots. This is Really Bad Form IMHO, but the maintainers rejected patches that might fix it (sync state on SIGHUP, for example). Theo
From: Theo Markettos on 6 Jul 2010 07:21
Gordon Henderson <gordon+usenet(a)drogon.net> wrote: > I migrated from Pine to Apline recently - I'm not sure it covers point > 3 above... Yes, I use Alpine on another account, and I don't think it will show folders at the same time as an open mailbox. It seems fine, if a bit simplistic. Though I run it on a highly-shared server (30,000 users) where the configuration options are very locked-down, so I haven't tried many of the options. Theo |