[Grml] Text based Email: what do I need?

[s. keeling]

Incoming from Branko Vukelic:
> 
> Now for the question. I used to be a Windows user, and a MS-DOS user 
> before that. About [a] year ago I switched to Linux. I decided to give my 
> [email] routine a bit of a twist by using grml for Email and backing up 
> the msgs to my USB stick.
> 
> However, I am completely lost in the vast array of software involved and 
> need a quick tour of what old-school text-based mail is about and what I 
> need to know in order to make a quick (and dirty) setup.

IMO, there's no such thing.  Sorry.  :-(

> What I want to do is:
> 1. set up POP access (using SSL) to my Gmail.com account,

fetchmail pops.  How to fit in SSL, I don't know (never needed it).
Google.

> 2. filter mailing list messages and etc. into different folders,

Either mailfilter (easy) or procmail (deep!).

> 3. send mail using Gmail.com's SMTP server,

Set your SMTP (exim, postfix, sendmail, ssmtp, ...) to use gmail.com's
SMTP as a smarthost.  Incoming mail's popped, outgoing mail goes
through your SMTP to smarthost:

      fetchmail  <--  your ISP  --> mailfilter|procmail --> MUA

      MUA --> SMTP --> smarthost

> 4. locating and backing up messages to USB stick.

Trivial.  Which archive creation proggie do you want to use?  Whatever
output file it creates, cp that file to plugged in, mounted USB
filesystem.  Eg.:

   tar cvzf $HOME/$TODAY_mail.tgz $HOME/Mail

[I prefer afio over tar.  YMMV.]

> I've googled about quite extensively, but it's just too much info for an 
> absolute CLI mail beginner.

It's not trivial.  Something like Thunderbird can do SMTP, so you
avoid SMTP altogether, but TB's filtering can't begin to approach the
control I have using fetchmail+exim+procmail+mutt.  SSL's a
complication I know (and care) little about.  I've just never needed it.


-- 
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(*)    http://www.spots.ab.ca/~keeling      Please don't Cc: me.
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