This post was originally published on my personal blog mariadcampbell.com.
Table of Contents
- What is mutt?
- Installing mutt
- Sending an email locally to another user which contains an attachment
- Other user receives email and saves email attachment locally
- Asymmetric encryption and decryption series
What is mutt?
mutt
is a powerful
Command Line email client
that sends
and receives
emails via Terminal
. I use
it in addition
to mailx
, because unlike
mailx
, it is able
to send
real email attachments
as well
as save
those attachments
on a user
's local machine
.
mutt
supports MIME
, GPG
, PGP
, and threading
, making it a
powerful tool
for managing emails
directly from the Linux
Command Line.
mutt
also allows system administrators
to automate
and streamline
their
workflows
with automated notifications
. Email
plays a critical role
in
system security
and can be used
to deliver security alerts
, confirm
user
actions
, and even recover
lost passwords
. By properly
managing emails
using mutt
, we can enhance
the security
of our Linux
system.
There are many
other uses
for mutt
. To learn more
, please visit
the
article
entitled Mastering Mutt: How to Install Mutt Command in Linux.
Installing mutt
One thing to note: in
whichever directory
we initialize mutt
is the
default directory
where email attachments
are saved
.
mutt
is not native
to Linux
. We have
to install
it. I am
on the
Ubuntu
derivative Linux Mint
, so
I can install
it with
the
following command
(s
):
sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade
sudo apt install mutt
Since
I only want
to use
it locally
because I have Linux Mint
installed with VirtualBox
and only have
so much virtual
(and hard
)
disk space
to work with
, I decided
to pass up
on using
an external
(gmail
) email address
to send
and receive
emails. My main reason
for
wanting
to use mutt
was because
of its ability
to send
email attachments
and save received attachments
locally. There are
many
other powerful features
available, but this
is the feature
that grabbed
my attention
.
Sending an email locally to another user which contains an attachment
I want
to send
a file
to another user
on the local network
in Linux
using mutt
. I would
take the following steps
:
- First, I would
cd
into thedirectory
where Ifirst
initializedmutt
.In
mycase
, it was myhome directory
,/home/maria
. - Next, I would
determine
which emailattachment
Iwant
tosend
to theother user
.
Next, I will send
a text
file called email_attachment.txt
to local user
magdala
, which contains
the text
This is some dummy text for the mutt email attachment demo I am creating for my post entitled "Setting up and using the mutt email client in Linux."
I run the following command in Terminal:
mutt -s "Sending Magdala the email_attachment.txt" -a email_attachment.txt -- magdala@maria-VirtualBox
This opens up
the mutt
interface in the nano text editor. it looks
something like
the following
:
Then
I hit
the Return
key, and something like
the following appears
:
Next
, I hit Return
and the following appears
:
The next part
is very important
to follow correctly
. After
I have
completed
the body
of my email
, I hit Control
+ O
(not zero
) key and
then the Return
key, and then
the following appears
:
As shown
at the top
of the window
, I hit
the y
key to actually send
the email
to user magdala
. Then
, at the bottom
of the window
, "Mail
sent" appears, and then
I am taken back
to the Terminal
command prompt
.
Other user receives email and saves email attachment locally
Next, user
magdala opens
her emails
using the mutt
command, and
something like
the following appears
:
Next
, user
magdala makes sure
to select
the email
which contains
the
attachment
she wants
to save
to her local machine
using the Up
or
Down
arrow key
, and then
she hits
the V
key. This results
in
something like
the following
:
Next
, user
magdala hits
the S
key, and that
is when
the text
"Save to file: email_attachment.txt"
appears. And then
the following
appears after that
:
Next
, user
magdala hits
the Q
key, and is taken back
to the Terminal
command prompt:
And as
also shown
in the screenshot
, she
then runs
the ls
command to
make sure
that the email_attachment.txt
file has been saved
to her home
directory. And it was!
We have
now covered
the basics
of sending
, receiving
, and saving
email attachments
using mutt
.
Asymmetric encryption and decryption series
- Making and verifying digital signatures using GPG in Linux
- Making and verifying a detached signature using a PGP key pair in Linux
- Making and verifying a clear text signature using a PGP key pair in Linux
- Using a specific PGP key pair for digital signing
- Exchanging public keys using a PGP key pair
- Setting up and using the mutt email client in Linux
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