Re: My experiences with Mutt to date: Suggestions for overcoming some issues
12021/00/30 09:27.95 ನಲ್ಲಿ, boB Stepp ಬರೆದರು: *snip* > > 1) I eventually want to migrate all of my Gmail to ProtonMail. I will > probably never entirely get rid of Gmail. For one thing it makes a good > honey pot for when I must supply an email, but do not want to give out my > preferred email. But I would like to at least minimize the data they collect > on me. > My distant end goal is to separate from Google software entirely, but doing > that seems > difficult until I determine how to solve my Android phone dilemmas. But that > is not a > concern for Mutt! > > I see two routes towards this migration: (a) Forwarding all Gmail to > ProtonMail and only have Mutt track ProtonMail. As I get time I will > notify everyone to use my new email address. (b) Track both accounts with > Mutt while doing the transition. What would your advice be? I have done exactly this, actually. I would connect Mutt to both accounts, simply because (as I found out) email migration is a giant PITA (pain in the a**). While you will be able to switch most of your accounts over quite quickly (if you have a record somewhere of where you have accounts open), there will be a 'long tail' of email addresses that simply won't update, and having quick access to both addresses, even if you mostly use the ProtonMail one, is quite useful. > > 2) I would like to remove all email storage from the cloud, that is, > whether Gmail or ProtonMail, once I have my mail on my local PC I want to > delete it from those accounts. What would be the best way to do this? If you use a separate mail syncing program like fetchmail or mbsync or whatever, you can tell it to delete emails on the server after (successfully!) fetching them. Personally, I don't know that I would recommend that, simply because you never know when you might actually need access to your emails from e.g. your phone. Also, unless you have impeccable backup practices (I know I don't!), having an extra copy always available on the server is useful. This is especially true if the mailbox isn't being monetised as in the case of ProtonMail. > > 3) I would like my local storage of my emails to allow for me to store > certain content types in sensible folders. For example, Python Tutor emails > that I want to keep I would like to store in a Python Tutor folder, Mutt > emails in a Mutt folder, etc. Probably I would best be served by a manual, > not an automatic, moving into desired folders as I will be picky as to those > emails I would like to keep. What would be the best advice on this? I would suggest tagging (using e.g. notmuch) over physically moving emails. This allows labelling one email with more than one tag and doesn't mess with the Maildir structure (you _can_ have subfolders and such within Maildir, but there are some differences of opinion over how this should be implemented and I personally recommend sticking with the regular "official" Maildir format - i.e. no sub-folders besides cur, new, and tmp). > > 4) I would like to be able to quickly search through all locally stored > emails. I think Andrew has already offered a good solution. Does anyone > have different thoughts on this from his? notmuch, period. > > 5) I would like to be able to auto-backup locally stored emails on my PC > to another hard drive on my local network. I guess this would be > facilitated by a sensible organization of my PC's email storage? Yes, backing up your emails should be part of your regular backup routine. I store all of my emails under ~/.local/mail/ with subdirectories for each account. HTH! - Chiraag -- ಚಿರಾಗ್ ನಟರಾಜ್ Pronouns: he/him/his publickey - mailinglist@chiraag.me - b0c8d720.asc Description: application/pgp-keys signature.asc Description: OpenPGP digital signature
Re: My experiences with Mutt to date: Suggestions for overcoming some issues
On Sat, Jan 30, 2021 at 07:44:52AM -0800, Andrew Marks wrote: 1) Mutt erratically loses connection with Gmail and I have to manually reconnect. Sometimes this happens rather frequently as in multiple instances within an hour. I am confident it is not my Internet connection, which is normally quite stable and fast. For instance my streaming music is never interrupted, the family's TV shows continue unimpeded, etc., but my connectivity to Gmail is interrupted randomly. If I have both Mutt and the web interface open, Mutt has its interruptions while the Gmail web interface appears to be updating normally. I'd recommend using an separate IMAP-maildir sync tool like isync/mbsync. (https://isync.sourceforge.io). Waiting for IMAP (and even SMTP) operations in mutt is slow (not because of mutt, but because you are waiting for network transactions to occur). This type of setup also enables working with mail while offline. I'll never go back after switching to isync and a local postfix or ssmtp instance. I no longer compile mutt with IMAP, POP, or SMTP support.(Nothing against mutt or the devs for including this support, I recognize including support for these protocols is good and lowers the barrier to entry for most users.) Your response has caused me to ponder. The whole Mutt experience has been a very educational one in that it is teaching me piecemeal more about how email actually works, at least within my time constraints to explore/research. So most of my pondering is centered around my end goals. For instance, your post makes me aware that I have never considered the need for offline access to my emails. Your advice makes a lot of sense. Unsolicited advice: Mail (that you are through with) left on the IMAP server is mail-debt you will have to eventually pay. I delete or archive mail off-IMAP the moment there is no action. Combine your off-IMAP archive with notmuch, mairix, mu, or some other indexer so you can quickly find what you need in your vast archives. I think I am already paying! I have accumulated a large amount of email in my Gmail account, a fair amount I actually want to keep. I think I have been going about this wrong. I will state my end goals and perhaps I will get better advice for how to achieve them than my initial approach. 1) I eventually want to migrate all of my Gmail to ProtonMail. I will probably never entirely get rid of Gmail. For one thing it makes a good honey pot for when I must supply an email, but do not want to give out my preferred email. But I would like to at least minimize the data they collect on me. My distant end goal is to separate from Google software entirely, but doing that seems difficult until I determine how to solve my Android phone dilemmas. But that is not a concern for Mutt! I see two routes towards this migration: (a) Forwarding all Gmail to ProtonMail and only have Mutt track ProtonMail. As I get time I will notify everyone to use my new email address. (b) Track both accounts with Mutt while doing the transition. What would your advice be? 2) I would like to remove all email storage from the cloud, that is, whether Gmail or ProtonMail, once I have my mail on my local PC I want to delete it from those accounts. What would be the best way to do this? 3) I would like my local storage of my emails to allow for me to store certain content types in sensible folders. For example, Python Tutor emails that I want to keep I would like to store in a Python Tutor folder, Mutt emails in a Mutt folder, etc. Probably I would best be served by a manual, not an automatic, moving into desired folders as I will be picky as to those emails I would like to keep. What would be the best advice on this? 4) I would like to be able to quickly search through all locally stored emails. I think Andrew has already offered a good solution. Does anyone have different thoughts on this from his? 5) I would like to be able to auto-backup locally stored emails on my PC to another hard drive on my local network. I guess this would be facilitated by a sensible organization of my PC's email storage? I think that is the gist of my objectives. I do wish to point out that my upgrade to Mutt 2.0.5 has greatly enhanced the stability of my Mutt sessions. The only glitch so far is not really Mutt's fault -- I auto-reboot my router at 3 AM each day, which, of course, interrupts Mutt's connection to my Gmail account. But sometimes in the morning it has still managed to reconnect, which it never did previously under the older Mutt version I was using. Also, I seem to have solved my issues with cleverly embedded links not being accessible from within Mutt. A combination of better understanding on my part and urlview has gotten me around this. However, I am currently researching extract_url.pl as a better replacement for urlview. And, finally, getting Mutt to notify me of new emails via a beep still has me scratching my head. Apparently I need to fig
Re: My experiences with Mutt to date: Suggestions for overcoming some issues
On Sun, Jan 31, 2021, Chinmaya Nagpal wrote: > I have a similar setup as yours, except I use the built-in SMTP. What > advantages are there to using an external sendmail program? Queueing.
Re: My experiences with Mutt to date: Suggestions for overcoming some issues
On Sat, Jan 30, 2021 at 07:44:52AM -0800, Andrew Marks wrote: > I'd recommend using an separate IMAP-maildir sync tool like > isync/mbsync. (https://isync.sourceforge.io). Waiting for IMAP (and even > SMTP) operations in mutt is slow (not because of mutt, but because you > are waiting for network transactions to occur). This type of setup also > enables working with mail while offline. I'll never go back after > switching to isync and a local postfix or ssmtp instance. I no longer > compile mutt with IMAP, POP, or SMTP support.(Nothing against mutt or > the devs for including this support, I recognize including support for > these protocols is good and lowers the barrier to entry for most users.) I have a similar setup as yours, except I use the built-in SMTP. What advantages are there to using an external sendmail program? Chin
