2. Installation

2.1. System requirements

Muttprint was realized in the programming language Perl which requires a functioning Perl interpreter in version 5. This should be true on every Linux systems by default.

Make sure that a LaTeX distribution (I recommend teTeX higher than version 1.0) plus the programs psselect and psnup from the PS-Utils are available on your system. The last are only necessary if you want to use paper save mode and/or duplex printing.

All required LaTeX packages are included in teTeX. If you use another LaTeX distribution, read the file README.latex, which contains information about all required packages. You have to install all packages, that are not present on your system.

For parsing the date, Muttprint uses the Perl module Date::Parse[1] [2]. If the module is not installed, Muttprint works without problems except the function to convert the time zone and print the date in the local language, see Section 3.1.7.

2.2. Installation of the files on your computer

2.2.1. Manual installation

At first, you have to unpack the archive. This could be done by the command

$ tar xvfz muttprint-Version.tar.gz

Change in the directory which was created:

$ cd muttprint-Version

There is distributed a suitable Makefile with Muttprint. To adjust the locations on your system, edit the Makefile with your favourite editor.

You need Root permissions to install the program. After you have changed with the su command to the superuser, perform the installation with

# make install

The script should work now.

If you would like to uninstall Muttprint later and all files are still on the same location, execute simply

# make uninstall

as root.

2.2.2. Installation of the packages

If your distribution uses a package management system such as RPM or DPKG, it is a good idea to use the correlatively packages. The greatest advantage is the simple uninstallation.

Most Linux distributions use the RPM package management system. The easiest way to install the package is the command

# rpm -Uvh muttprint-Version-Release.noarch.rpm

All RPM packages are signed with my GnuPG-Key (ID DDAF6454). You get more detailled information about RPM and verification of signatures in Maximum RPM.

The Debian packages are created by Chanop Silpa-Anan <chanop@debian.org> and are normally available a few days after a new release of Muttprint. The could be installed by

# dpkg -i muttprint_[version]-[release]_noarch.deb

Take a look at the Debian "Developer's Corner" for more information about Debian packages.

Another possibility to install Debian packages is apt-get.

2.3. Integration of Muttprint in mail and news clients

Muttprint was orginally developed for the use together with Mutt only. However, it could be integrated in following mail programs without problems. I got some description of users. Muttprint would be work independently of Mutt in future, too.

2.3.1. Mutt

You have to add or change following line in the file $HOME/.muttrc or system wide in /usr/local/etc/Muttrc:

set print_command="muttprint"

Moreover you must make sure that all necessary headers are dumped when the mail is printed out. The easiest way is to write a small macro (in your ~/.muttrc) which makes sure that all headers are dumped. Only the most important headers are really printed (see Section 3.1.20).

Here's the macro:

# Dump all headers
macro index p "<display-toggle-weed> <print-message> <display-toggle-weed> <exit>"
macro pager p "<display-toggle-weed> <print-message> <display-toggle-weed>"

At first, the macro switches to the mode where all headers are shown, then the mail is printed and finally it switches back. It is necessary to turn the confirmation of printing off so that the macro works right:

# No confirmation before printing
set print="yes"

To print more than one mail sensible in one step, you should add following entry:

# Print every mail extra
set print_split

You'll find more information in the documentation of Mutt (/usr/local/share/doc/mutt/manual.txt(.gz)).

2.3.2. Slrn

Simply add following lines in your configuration file ~/.slrnrc:

% Use Muttprint for printing
set printer_name "muttprint"

If Muttprint should print more headers than this which are displayed on the screen, you have to use instead of the normal printing command y the combination Esc, 1, y (one after another). This is important for printing the X-Face header, see Section 3.1.4.

2.3.3. XFMail

In the dialogue Misc, Config Misc you have to do an entry in Print Command: /usr/local/bin/muttprint -f $f.

Note: With some versions of XFMail, problems are reported because XFMail does not add the headers in the printing. This is not a problem of Muttprint. To solve the problem you could look for a new version of XFMail which doesn't have this bug.
See also the XFMail developer mailing list archive for a solution.

2.3.4. Pine

Enter the print command muttprint in Setup, Printer, Personally select print command. Save the changes.

2.3.5. Sylpheed

To use Muttprint permanently as printing program, call Configuration, Common preferences, Other, Printing and entry muttprint -f %s.

2.3.6. Gnus

Muttprint could be integrated in Gnus, too. I got a Lisp code from a user that realizes the integration. Please ask me no questions about this because I don't know Lisp and don't use (X)Emacs myself.

You find the code in README.Gnus and I would like to refer to this file in this manual. If you use packages for the installation you should find this file in the /usr/local/share/doc/muttprint/ directory.

2.3.7. Exmh

Choose at first Preferences, then Text Print Command and set Text Print Command to muttprint -f $file.

2.3.8. Other mail clients

Muttprint works with all mail programs theroretically if they comply with following conditions:

The output must be plain ASCII text without any formattings.
You must be able to choose the printing command freely.

Newsreader are also supported because the To header is optional and the Newsgroups header is also evaluated.

If you use Muttprint with other programs than mentioned above, please send me a short message in which you describe how you've configured the program. I could add the description here.

Notes