New to Mutt, unable to send messages in *any* attempted way

[Cameron Simpson]

On 07May2022 11:11, X Tec <xtec at trimaso.com.mx> wrote:
>On 2022-05-07 08:45:35, Cameron Simpson wrote:
>> Probably not? If you've been debugging the $smtp* variables (in
>> particular, having to debug the password) then it sounds like mutt is
>> actually sending directly with SMTP and _not_ using the local postfix.
>>
>> When you send with the local postfix, mutt just hands the message off to
>> the sendmail command and doesn't say anything about delivery - that is
>> sendmail's job.
>>
>I double-checked Mutt's current $sendmail variable, and it's certainly the default "/usr/sbin/sendmail" command mentioned in the manual.
>The route exists, and it's by Postfix package in the system I use.

The manual says that setting $smtp_url overrides $sendmail. So your 
$sendmail setting is not in play.

>Also, I tried sending email to myself, and checked the full headers. It does have the TLS thing you mention BTW, but on the other hand it has "User-Agent: Mutt 1.10.1"...

These are not in conflict. Anything you send with mutt normally has a 
mutt user-agent header. Have a look at the received headers. They should 
trace the path from where you sent the email from through to how it was 
delivered.

>Also, Mutt does not say additional stuff or command line output (just exit code '0') when sending email...
>I'm trying to use Mutt with external MTA/SMTP (Postfix in this case), as the correct way intended, instead of Mutt's builtin SMTP.
>Am I failing? If so, why?

You're failing in this because you have $smtp_url defined. Comment out 
it and the other $smtp* variables.

When you send with $sendmail (the local system's mail system, postfix 
for you) the smtp settings come from the main.cf file, not from mutt.

>By the way, in Mutt default pager for reading emails, your words between underscores '_' (_not_, _may_, etc...) are not being displayed... Why?

I think someone suggested turning off any colouring settings you have 
active. Possibly some colours match the terminal background colour.

Are the words invisible (gaps in the text) or missing (no gaps)?

>If sending email from the webmail, I'm sure it gets send from the email 
>address account/SMTP.

This is because the ISP itself is running the delivery, either by 
internal SMTP or its own sendmail equivalent.

>Same if sending from the popular "official" email clients (Outlook, Thunderbird...)

That's because they're using SMTP, probably the the ISP SMTP service 
with a username/password (or better) authentication.

>But *not* sure when sending from Mutt...

According to the manual, if you set $smtp_url mutt will send with SMTP 
(or try) and send with $sendmail otherwise.

>And finally, what key to manually force to check for new mail, instead 
>of waiting or quitting and starting Mutt again?

The "$" key is usually bound to the <sync> command, which updates the 
state of the current folder.

>Evidently just doing "any" activity in Mutt does not refresh/fetch new 
>email...

See http://www.mutt.org/doc/manual/#new-mail (particularly new mail 
Detection) and http://www.mutt.org/doc/manual/#mailboxes

Cheers,
Cameron Simpson <cs at cskk.id.au>