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<div class="SECT1">
<h1 class="SECT1"><a id="BASIC-NETWORK-COMMANDS-EMAIL"
name="BASIC-NETWORK-COMMANDS-EMAIL">13.7 email</a></h1>

<p>Electronic mail is one of the most popular things one can do on the Internet. In 1998,
it was reported that more electronic mail was sent than regular mail. It is indeed common
and useful.</p>

<p>Under Slackware, we provide a standard mail server, and several mail clients. All of
the clients discussed below are text-based. A lot of Windows users may be against this,
but you will find that a text based client is very convenient, especially when checking
mail remotely. Fear not, there are many graphical e-mail clients such as KDE's Kmail. If
you wish to use one of those check its help menu.</p>

<div class="SECT2">
<h2 class="SECT2"><a id="BASIC-NETWORK-COMMANDS-EMAIL-PINE"
name="BASIC-NETWORK-COMMANDS-EMAIL-PINE">13.7.1 <tt class="COMMAND">pine</tt></a></h2>

<p><tt class="COMMAND">pine</tt>(1) is not <tt class="COMMAND">elm</tt>. Or so the saying
goes. The University of Washington created their program for Internet news and email out
of a need for an easy mail reader for their students. <tt class="COMMAND">pine</tt> is
one of the most popular email clients in use today and is available for nearly every
flavor of Unix and even Windows.</p>

<div class="FIGURE"><a id="FIG-BASIC-NETWORK-COMMANDS-EMAIL-PINE"
name="FIG-BASIC-NETWORK-COMMANDS-EMAIL-PINE"></a>
<p><b>Figure 13-2. The Pine main menu</b></p>

<p><img src="basic-network-commands/pine.png" /></p>
</div>

<p>You will see a menu of commands and a row of command keys at the bottom. <tt
class="COMMAND">pine</tt> is indeed a complex program, so we will not discuss every
feature about it here.</p>

<p>To see what's in your inbox, type <kbd class="USERINPUT">i</kbd>. Your messages are
listed with their date, author, and subject. Highlight the message you want and press
<kbd class="USERINPUT">enter</kbd> to view it. Pressing <kbd class="USERINPUT">r</kbd>
will start a reply to the message. Once you have written the response, type <b
class="KEYCAP">Ctrl</b>+<b class="KEYCAP">X</b> to send it. You can press <kbd
class="USERINPUT">i</kbd> to get back to the message listing.</p>

<p>If you want to delete a message, press <kbd class="USERINPUT">d</kbd>. It will mark
the highlighted message for deletion. <tt class="COMMAND">pine</tt> deletes the mail when
you exit the program. <tt class="COMMAND">pine</tt> also lets you store your mail in
folders. You can get a listing of folders by pressing <kbd class="USERINPUT">l</kbd>. At
the message listing, press <kbd class="USERINPUT">s</kbd> to save it to another folder.
It will ask for the folder name to write the message to.</p>

<p><tt class="COMMAND">pine</tt> offers many, many features; you should definitely have a
look at the man page for more information. It will contain the latest information about
the program.</p>
</div>

<div class="SECT2">
<h2 class="SECT2"><a id="BASIC-NETWORK-COMMANDS-EMAIL-ELM"
name="BASIC-NETWORK-COMMANDS-EMAIL-ELM">13.7.2 <tt class="COMMAND">elm</tt></a></h2>

<p><tt class="COMMAND">elm</tt>(1) is another popular text-based email client. Though not
quite as user friendly as <tt class="COMMAND">pine</tt>, it's definitely been around a
lot longer.</p>

<div class="FIGURE"><a id="FIG-BASIC-NETWORK-COMMANDS-EMAIL-ELM"
name="FIG-BASIC-NETWORK-COMMANDS-EMAIL-ELM"></a>
<p><b>Figure 13-3. Elm main screen</b></p>

<p><img src="basic-network-commands/elm.png" /></p>
</div>

<p>By default, you are placed in your inbox. The messages are listed with the message
number, date, sender, and subject. Use the arrow keys to highlight the message you want.
Press <kbd class="USERINPUT">Enter</kbd> to read the message.</p>

<p>To compose a new message, type <kbd class="USERINPUT">m</kbd> at the main screen. The
<kbd class="USERINPUT">d</kbd> key will flag a message for deletion. And the <kbd
class="USERINPUT">r</kbd> key will reply to the current message you are reading. All of
these keys are displayed at the bottom of the screen with a prompt.</p>

<p>The man page discusses <tt class="COMMAND">elm</tt> in more detail, so you will
probably want to consult that before using <tt class="COMMAND">elm</tt>.</p>
</div>

<div class="SECT2">
<h2 class="SECT2"><a id="BASIC-NETWORK-COMMANDS-EMAIL-MUTT"
name="BASIC-NETWORK-COMMANDS-EMAIL-MUTT">13.7.3 <tt class="COMMAND">mutt</tt></a></h2>

<p>&#8220;All mail clients suck. This one just sucks less.&#8221; <tt
class="COMMAND">mutt</tt>'s original interface was based on <tt class="COMMAND">elm</tt>
with added features found in other popular mailclients, resulting in a hybrid mutt.</p>

<p>Some of <tt class="COMMAND">mutt</tt>'s features include:</p>

<ul>
<li>
<p>color support</p>
</li>

<li>
<p>message threading</p>
</li>

<li>
<p>MIME and PGP/MIME support</p>
</li>

<li>
<p>pop3 and imap support</p>
</li>

<li>
<p>support for multiple mailbox formats (mbox, MMDF, MH, maildir)</p>
</li>

<li>
<p><span class="emphasis"><i class="EMPHASIS">highly</i></span> customizable</p>
</li>
</ul>

<div class="FIGURE"><a id="FIG-BASIC-NETWORK-COMMANDS-EMAIL-MUTT"
name="FIG-BASIC-NETWORK-COMMANDS-EMAIL-MUTT"></a>
<p><b>Figure 13-4. Mutt main screen</b></p>

<p><img src="basic-network-commands/mutt.png" /></p>
</div>

<p>if you're looking for a mail client that will let you be in total control over
everything, then you will like <tt class="COMMAND">mutt</tt>. all the default settings
can be customized, keybindings can be changed. if you like to add a macro, you can.</p>

<p>you probably want to take a look at the <tt class="FILENAME">muttrc</tt> manpage,
which will tell you how to configure everything. or take a look at the included example
<tt class="FILENAME">muttrc</tt> file.</p>
</div>

<div class="SECT2">
<h2 class="SECT2"><a id="BASIC-NETWORK-COMMANDS-EMAIL-NAIL"
name="BASIC-NETWORK-COMMANDS-EMAIL-NAIL">13.7.4 <tt class="COMMAND">nail</tt></a></h2>

<p><tt class="COMMAND">nail</tt>(1) is a command line driven mail client. It is very
primitive and offers pretty much nothing in the way of user interfaces. However, mailx is
handy for times when you need to quickly mail something, scripting a bulk mailer, testing
your MTA installation or something similar. Note that Slackware creates symbolic links to
<tt class="COMMAND">nail</tt> at <tt class="FILENAME">/usr/bin/mail</tt> and <tt
class="FILENAME">/usr/bin/mailx</tt>. Any of these three commands executes the same
program. In fact, you will most likely see <tt class="COMMAND">nail</tt> referred to as
<tt class="COMMAND">mail</tt>.</p>

<p>The basic command line is:</p>

<table border="0" bgcolor="#E0E0E0" width="100%">
<tr>
<td>
<pre class="SCREEN">
<samp class="PROMPT">%</samp> <kbd
class="USERINPUT">mailx &lt;subject&gt; &lt;to-addr&gt;</kbd>
</pre>
</td>
</tr>
</table>

<p><tt class="COMMAND">mailx</tt> reads the message body from standard input. So you can
cat a file into this command to mail it, or you can just type text and hit <b
class="KEYCAP">Ctrl</b>+<b class="KEYCAP">D</b> when finished with the message.</p>

<p>Here is an example of mailing a program source file to another person.</p>

<table border="0" bgcolor="#E0E0E0" width="100%">
<tr>
<td>
<pre class="SCREEN">
<samp class="PROMPT">%</samp> <kbd
class="USERINPUT">cat randomfunc.c | mail -s "Here's that function" asdf@example.net</kbd>
</pre>
</td>
</tr>
</table>

<p>The man page explains more of what <tt class="COMMAND">nail</tt> can do, so you will
probably want to have a look at that before using it.</p>
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