How To Install mutt on Debian 9

In this tutorial we learn how to install mutt on Debian 9. mutt is text-based mailreader supporting MIME, GPG, PGP and threading

Introduction

In this tutorial we learn how to install mutt on Debian 9.

What is mutt

mutt is:

Mutt is a sophisticated text-based Mail User Agent. Some highlights:

  • MIME support (including RFC1522 encoding/decoding of 8-bit message headers and UTF-8 support).
  • PGP/MIME support (RFC 2015).
  • Advanced IMAP client supporting SSL encryption and SASL authentication.
  • POP3 support.
  • ESMTP support.
  • Message threading (both strict and non-strict).
  • Keybindings are configurable, default keybindings are much like ELM; Mush and PINE-like ones are provided as examples.
  • Handles MMDF, MH and Maildir in addition to regular mbox format.
  • Messages may be (indefinitely) postponed.
  • Colour support.
  • Highly configurable through easy but powerful rc file. . This package is built with the NeoMutt patchset, which includes a number of additional features compared to the stock Mutt. Among them are:
  • Support for compressed mailboxes.
  • Support for the NNTP (Usenet) protocol.
  • Support for the notmuch mail indexer.
  • An optional Sidebar.
  • Various UI, security and performance fixes.

There are three methods to install mutt on Debian 9. We can use apt-get, apt and aptitude. In the following sections we will describe each method. You can choose one of them.

Install mutt Using apt-get

Update apt database with apt-get using the following command.

sudo apt-get update

After updating apt database, We can install mutt using apt-get by running the following command:

sudo apt-get -y install mutt

Install mutt Using apt

Update apt database with apt using the following command.

sudo apt update

After updating apt database, We can install mutt using apt by running the following command:

sudo apt -y install mutt

Install mutt Using aptitude

If you want to follow this method, you might need to install aptitude first since aptitude is usually not installed by default on Debian. Update apt database with aptitude using the following command.

sudo aptitude update

After updating apt database, We can install mutt using aptitude by running the following command:

sudo aptitude -y install mutt

How To Uninstall mutt on Debian 9

To uninstall only the mutt package we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get remove mutt

Uninstall mutt And Its Dependencies

To uninstall mutt and its dependencies that are no longer needed by Debian 9, we can use the command below:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove mutt

Remove mutt Configurations and Data

To remove mutt configuration and data from Debian 9 we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y purge mutt

Remove mutt configuration, data, and all of its dependencies

We can use the following command to remove mutt configurations, data and all of its dependencies, we can use the following command:

sudo apt-get -y autoremove --purge mutt

Dependencies

mutt have the following dependencies:

References

Summary

In this tutorial we learn how to install mutt package on Debian 9 using different package management tools: apt, apt-get and aptitude.