Mutt E-mail

ILS advocates the use of Thunderbird and Bates Webmail as supported e-mail programs. In order to provide a secure SSH application that functions very similarly to both Elm and Pine e-mail programs, and supports digital signature capability, ILS is switching to supporting Mutt.

A comprehensive Mutt user manual can be found at: http://www.mutt.org/doc/devel/manual.html

Open Putty on the PC, or Terminal on the Mac:

For instructions on downloading and configuring Putty for Windows computers see: http://www.bates.edu/x166688.xml

For instructions on downloading and configuring Terminal for Mac computers see: http://www.bates.edu/x166686.xml

With SSH session open, at login prompt:

• Type in Bates username
• Press Enter
• Type in network password
• Press Enter
• At the abacus.bates.edu> prompt type mutt

On the Mac, using Terminal command line:

• login with Bates username and password
• at the abacus.bates.edu> prompt type in mutt

Comparisons with Pine and Elm:

• Inbox index messages are displayed by default
• Press enter to view a message
• Saves text attachments like pine

Key commands such as:

• d = delete
• m = mail, then:
  control/x
  followed by y
  then s to send
• j = move down in index
• k = move up in index
• c = change directory
• r = reply to message
• s = save message
• space bar to view a message
• type ? for a complete list of commands

Similar to other programs when you type q for quit, the program asks if you want to purge or delete those marked. Type logout when session is done.