Mutt-i, GnuPG and PGP Howto

• Index
• Introduction
• Copyright and discharge of responsability
• Sending mail to and receiving mail from the internet
• Mutt configuration
• PGP and GnuPG
• PGP and Mutt integration
• Interesting Macros for Mutt
• Procmail notes and tips
• Interchanging signed/encrypted messages with different MUAs and platforms
• Programs and versions used
• More information

4. Mutt configuration

Next file is a valid example to start using Mutt in a basic way, including paths for alias file, sent messages and postponed messages. You can further personalize it attending to the Mutt manual indications and /usr/doc/mutt/ or /usr/doc/mutt-i/.

Simple example of ~/.muttrc:

set folder=~/Mail
set alias_file=.alias
set postponed=.postponed
set record=SendMessages
set signature=.signature
my_hdr From: Name Surname <Name@domain.com>
source =.alias

It is necesary that the directory ~/Mail exists, that is the one that appears as an "equal to" sign in the configuration file .muttrc (that is, =.alias is to Mutt as ~/Mail/.alias, and =.postponed is to Mutt ~/Mail/.postponed). Nevertheless it is possible to have these files in another directory provided we indicate the complete path in ~/.muttrc, and we have the necesary permissions to work in this directory.

It is also necesary to personalize the my_hdr line with the name and electronic mail address you need. In the ~/Mail/.signature file you caninclude the signature that will appear in all the messages that are sent.

This configuration file can end up being made very big, so it is common to separate some of its commands in different files. For the time being, the PGP or GnuPG configuration lines are easily detachable, and the keyboard macros that we will personalize. To do that, it will be necesary to add the following lines to the ~/.muttrc file:

source = ~/Mail/.mutt.macros
source = ~/Mail/.gnupgp.mutt

and to use the ~/Mail/.mutt.macros and ~/Mail/.gnupgp.mutt files to put in them the keyboard macros and the PGP or GnuPG configuration that are commented forward.

To get a more extensive and complete information over the use and configuration of Mutt, and about advanced features, see the Mutt manual http://www.mutt.org.