mail/mailx

pfr

I hope that some of you here may have used the UNIX mail/mailx program before and can shed some light on how to set it up.

So far after reading the man page and a fair bit of googling I'm at a loss as to how to set it up. Most "tutorials" just explain how to use it. Surely I need to set up/configure it before hand?

I have tried a simple mail myemail@interwebz.com which then asks me for a subject and after entering the body text I get the EOT message and my prompt reappears. However I never receive the email.

The only thing I can think of (besides that I need to configure mail first) is that I need to add an exception in my npf.conf. However, even trying to send mail from the root user to my user account doesn't seem to work.

Any help is much appreciated. Cheers,

rvp

The standard mail/mailx is an old-fashioned local-only MUA (mail user agent); it is not a MTA (mail transfer agent, like sendmail/postfix/exim/qmail) or a modern internet mail protocol-aware MUA (like alpine, mutt, thunderbird, ...).

This means that mailx just manipulates your local mail boxes, but, needs other programs to deliver and retrieve internet mail.

For receiving, you'll have to use a package like fetchmail to collect mail using IMAP/POP3 and store it in the user's inbox (in actuality, fetchmail will retrieve mail and hand it off to the local MTA--postfix on NetBSD--which then stores it in the user's inbox).

When sending mail, mailx just hands your mail off to postfix (the MTA) which then sends it over the internet using the SMTP protocol. This means that, if you use mailx for mail, you will have to configure the local MTA to rewrite all the sender addresses correctly (eg. rvp@hostname.localdomain -> username@somesite.com).

It is simpler, and, much less intrusive to use a modern MUA like alpine/mutt/... which has SMTP/IMAP/POP3 support.

OTOH, if you really like the mailx interface, then install its modern replacement from pkgsrc:

pkgin install heirloom-mailx

In short, mailx is fine for local email, but, not so great for internet email.

pfr

rvp Thanks, this helps a lot.

And yes, I do very much prefer the mailx interface over something like mutt. In fact heirloom-mailx looks great. I really only need the ability to send mail (and attachments) from the terminal. However reading emails in the terminal with fetchmailalso sounds like a great alternative to mutt.

Curiously though..

rvp mail/mailx is local-only MUA (mail user agent); ...... mailx just manipulates your local mail boxes

I attempted to send mail from the root user to my user account using # mail user@localhost and this still did not work 😕

Oh, and welcome to the forum! 🥳

rvp

...reading emails in the terminal with fetchmail also sounds like a great alternative to mutt.

fetchmail is just a MDA (mail delivery agent)--it is not a MUA (mail user agent). It talks IMAP/POP3/... to download emails from, let's say, Google or Yahoo's IMAP/POP3 servers, then hands those emails to the MTA (postfix) running on your NetBSD machine, which then stores them in the user's inbox. Which is where the MUA like mailx (or, mutt) reads it from. Ie. you'll still need a MUA like mailx or mutt with fetchmail.

I attempted to send mail from the root user to my user account using # mail user@localhost and this still did not work

To send email to local users, on NetBSD, you should use:
a) just the bare user name, like $ mail rvp, or,
b) $mail rvp@localhost.

If you don't use either of those 2 forms, you'll have to use your FQDN (fully-qualified domain name).
Like this:
$ mail rvp@x202e.localdomain

This won't work:
$ mail rvp@x202e # this is not a FQDN
Use @localhost instead.

pfr

rvp you'll still need a MUA like mailxor muttwith fetchmail

Of course, sorry my reply wasn't clear but that was understood, however I do very much appreciate that you clarified this.

rvp This won't work:
$ mail rvp@x202e # this is not a FQDN
Use @localhost instead.

Wow, that was precisely my mistake. You have explained that extremely well. Thank you again! 😃

rvp

Of course, sorry my reply wasn't clear but that was understood, however I do very much appreciate that you clarified this.

Just to clarify things a bit more, here's how you can change the "From: " address using plain mailx(1).
Make sure that you give a valid from address so that rejected emails can be seen.

Send mail with your Gmail address:
$ mail you@your-company.com -f you@gmail.com

Now, if you check your your-company.com emails you may, or may not , see the mail sent with your Gmail address. The your-company.com email server (MTA) can:

a) Accept the mail for delivery (valid domain, even if coming from a non-domain address)
b) Accept, but, force a delay (reason: valid domain, but, comes from a non-domain address). In this case, your local MTA, postfix, will keep the mail in queue, and retry after the grey-listing delay.
c) Reject outright (reason: valid domain, but, comes from a non-domain address: Looks like Spam, spam, spam, lovely spaaam).
d) Accept it, then chuck it away quietly.

In cases a) & b) the message might end up in a Spam folder instead of the Inbox.
Without the -f email-addr option (which is actually an MTA option), all mail servers will simply reject the message--what the heck is ...@hostname.localdomain?

Try these tests, if you care:
$ mail you@gmail.com -f you@yahoo.com
Gmail will reject outright. Check on Yahoo for rejection.

$ mail you@yahoo.com -f you@gmail.com
Yahoo will accept, but, drop the message into Spam.

$ mail you@gmail.com -f you@gmail.com
Here, the rejection message itself will be rejected. Who, then, gets that message?--Exercise left for reader.

Given all these problems, you can see why I suggested configuring and using modern MUAs like alpine or mutt.

pfr

rvp I take your point. However, does heirloom-mailx solve these issues?

I came across an MUA called mblaze while researching and this set of utils looks interesting. This is the kind workflow I'm after.

rvp

However, does heirloom-mailx solve these issues?

I use alpine myself, so I don't know for sure, but, glancing at the heirloom-mailx docs, it looks like mailx can do most of what alpine can (-the OAuth/TFA stuff). If you can configure Yahoo and Gmail (via the web) to use only SMTP+Auth for their relay and IMAPs/POP3s for retrieval, then heirloom-mailx should work just fine.

Try it out. If you run into problems, post here, and since I've recently installed NetBSD too, I'll be able to look into it for you.

I came across an MUA called mblaze while researching and this set of utils looks interesting.

Oh yeah! the maildir equivalent of nmh. I'm a fan of that kind of workflow myself, but:

a) mblaze works with maildir format mail messages, so you'll either have to make postfix store incoming email in that format (the default is the mbox--unix mailbox format) to use it natively, or, incorporate the mbox->maildir converter utility everytime in your workflow.

b) Like standard mailx, mblaze is a local-only MUA, so all the issues mentioned before re: mailx will apply to mblaze too: postfix will have to be configured to relay to different SMTP servers based on the From: address. This configuration is not too complicated (use Google: Postfix +Gmail), but, it is still there.

pfr

rvp Ok. good to know. I took the weekend off (relax time) so will try and take a look at this again during the week next week.

I'll be sure to come back here with my findings/issues 😀

pfr

So I tried to configure hairloom-mailx with gmails IMAP but it doesn't seem to work for me.

I followed This guide and my ~/.mailrc is posted below.

set ssl-verify=ignore
set nss-config-dir=~/.mozilla/firefox/74xyr0xy.default

set folder=imaps://my.email@gmail.com@imap.gmail.com
set MAIL=imaps://my.email@gmail.com@imap.gmail.com:993/INBOX
set-imap-use-starttls
set imap-auth=login
set imap-auth-user=my.email@gmail.com
set password-my.email@gmail.com@imap.gmail.com="***************"
set imap-cache=~/imap

set smtp-use-starttls
set smtp=smtp://smtp.gmail.com:587
set smtp-auth=login
set smtp-auth-user="my.email@gmail.com"
set smtp-auth-password="***************"
set smtp-auth-password-my.email@gmail.com@gmail.com="***************"
set from="my.email@gmail.com (My Real Name)"

I've read a few other guides but this one seems to be the most comprehensive and I've copied this ~/.mailrc from one of the comment the OP made near the bottom of the page.

Again, I wonder if my firewall settings have anything to do with it or if I just haven't set up my gmail account correctly.

$ mailx -v -s "test email" my.email@gmail.com
....Testing 
EOT 
Mail Delivery Status Report will be mailed to <dave>.
$

I still get no "mail Delivery Report when I use the mail command.

rvp

pfr
~~Use this config in~~ Append this to your ~/.mailrc:

account gmail {
        set ssl-verify=warn
        set folder=imaps://USERNAME@imap.gmail.com
        set record=+"[Gmail]/Sent Mail"
        set imap-auth=login
        set password-USERNAME@imap.gmail.com="YOUR GMAIL PASSWORD"

        set from="USERNAME@gmail.com (FULL NAME)"
        set smtp=smtps://smtp.gmail.com:465
        set smtp-auth=login
        set smtp-auth-user=USERNAME
        set smtp-auth-password="YOUR GMAIL PASSWORD"
}

account yahoo {
        set folder=imaps://USERNAME@imap.mail.yahoo.com
        set record=+Sent
        set imap-auth=login
        set password-USERNAME@imap.mail.yahoo.com="YAHOO_3RD_PARTY_PASSWD"

        set from="USERNAME@yahoo.com (FULL NAME)"
        set smtp=smtps://smtp.mail.yahoo.com:465
        set smtp-auth=login
        set smtp-auth-user=USERNAME
        set smtp-auth-password="YAHOO_3RD_PARTY_PASSWD"
}

Note:

For Gmail, first, enable "Less secure apps" in your account. Otherwise, authentication will fail.
For Yahoo, generate a 3rd-party password, then use that password in the config instead of your real Yahoo password.
For both Gmail and Yahoo, the USERNAME is just xxxx, not, xxxx@domain.com.
Don't use any :port for IMAP. If you do, you'll have to include that too in the set password- command, like this: set password-USERNAME@imap.gmail.com:993. Best to leave it out.
Usage:
/PATH/TO/mailx -A gmail # (retrieve Google mail)
/PATH/TO/mailx -A gmail somebody@company.com # (send mail using Google's server)

pfr

Ok so I'm now using that config file, however the command /usr/bin/mailx -A gmail isn't recognised.

$ /usr/bin/mailx -A gmail dave@gmail.com                                 
mailx: unknown option -- A
Usage: mail [-EiInv] [-r rcfile] [-s subject] [-a file] [-c cc-addr]
            [-b bcc-addr] to-addr ... [- sendmail-options ...]
       mail [-EiInNv] [-H[colon-modifier]] -f [name]
       mail [-EiInNv] [-H[colon-modifier]] [-u user]

So I tried

$ /usr/bin/mailx -v gmail dave@gmail.com 
Unknown command: "account"
Subject: balls
yeah balls
EOT
Mail Delivery Status Report will be mailed to <dave>.
$

Not sure what the Unknown command: account is about.

rvp

pfr /usr/bin/mailx is the standard mail command.
Use /usr/pkg/bin/mailx, the Heirloom mailx.

pfr

rvp lol, what a silly mistake on my part.

Thanks, that works 😄 although the email that is sent does not include any text body, rather is send an attachement which I cannot open.

I really apreciate the help @rvp 🍻

rvp

pfr

although the email that is sent does not include any text body, rather is send an attachement which I cannot open.

Edit: 2021/06: unset MAILRC and set an explicit NAILRC in the hmail script.

That's odd--you do have the other, standard, directives in your .mailrc file, don't you?, If you don't, do this:

$ install -m 600 /usr/pkg/etc/nail.rc ~/.nailrc

Append your account directives to the ~/.nailrc file.
Remove the old ~/.mailrc file.
Add this to your shell login script(s) (~/.profile or ~/.bash_profile, ...)

export NAILRC=$HOME/.nailrc

These will make Heirloom mailx independent of the standard mail.

You can also execute these commands as root, to save some typing:

# install -d -m 755 /usr/local/bin
# cat > /usr/local/bin/hmail <<\EoF
#!/bin/sh
unset MAILRC
export NAILRC=$HOME/.nailrc
exec /usr/pkg/bin/mailx ${1:+"$@"}
EoF
# chmod 755 /usr/local/bin/hmail
# chown root:wheel /usr/local/bin/hmail

Assuming /usr/local/bin is in your PATH (it should already be), you can run hmail -A account user@xyz.com to send mail.

As, I mentioned before, I use Alpine, but, all the test mails I sent/received using Heirloom mailx were fine. However, I wouldn't be surprised if more configuration of .nailrc were needed (for remote folders and saving and stuff). The man page is pretty comprehensive. You should be able to figure most things out using it. Otherwise, ask here.

pfr

Success! That seems to work, cheers.

One question though:
While /usr/local/bin was in my PATH in .profile, that directory did not previously exist. So now I have /usr/local/bin/hmail and that is the only thing in that directory. Is it possible to use /usr/bin or an already existing directory so to keep the filesystem as clean as possible?

rvp

pfr

Is it possible to use /usr/bin or an already existing directory so to keep the filesystem as clean as possible?

Sure: there's no program called hmail, so you can drop it into /usr/bin, but, you should be aware that that's what /usr/local/bin is traditionally for: user created or installed, scripts and programs (which is also why it's already in the PATH). You might, in due course, write/install more binaries for your user and/or yourself. Cleaner, actually, I feel to put these into their own directory, rather than mixing it in with the system stuff.

In fact, I like NetBSD's /usr/pkg/bin and /usr/local/bin split better than FreeBSD's all-extras-in-/usr/local/bin scheme. There, I have to put my locally-written code into /opt/, or some-such, if I want to keep things separate.

Another thing I just discovered, and happen to like now in NetBSD, is this: both the mailx(1) and Heirloom mailx(1) man-pages on both BSDs reference the Mail Reference Manual, but, (for a system which claims to have comprehensive documentation,) FreeBSD doesn't have it. Anywhere. (I looked for it because I vaguely recall reading it on FreeBSD back when it was at version 2.2. They must've removed it in the interim.)

NetBSD still has it. It won't cover IMAP/POP3/SSL, etc, but it is a tutorial reference rather than simply a man-page. You can read in here on your local system (if you installed the misc distribution set):

/usr/share/doc/reference/ref1/mail/

pfr

It's been some time, and I am still using heirloom-mailx believe it or not. I've become fairly comfortable with the keybindings etc. but there is just one thing that I cannot figure out. That is, to begin reading messages from the top i.e. most recent.

Currently, when I open my mail with $ hmail myemail@gmail.com It lists mail in my inbox from the oldest first, requiring me to scroll multiple pages to get to the most recent mail. Ideally I'd like to set something in the config to reverse this but I'd also be happy with a keybinding to catapult me to the top of my emails without needing to page though several times.

I've looked a the man page but i couldn't identify if this was possible. Any ideas @rvp ?

rvp

pfr to begin reading messages from the top i.e. most recent.

In ~/.nailrc, add set showlast

pfr I'd also be happy with a keybinding to catapult me to the top of my emails

At the & prompt h$

pfr

rvp In ~/.nailrc, add set showlast

That didn't seem to work sadly 🙁

rvp At the & prompt `h$'

this works 🙂

rvp

pfr That didn't seem to work

It's a global setting, so pull it out of any account definitions. (Worked on FreeBSD's heirloom-mailx-12.4)