Mutt Installation Guide

I've attempted to make Mutt as easy as possible to compile and use. For that reason I chose to use GNU's autoconf program to make a configure script which should analyze your system and produce the appropriate config.h and Makefile.

The first step is to look over config.h.in and make sure that the few manual configuration options are correct for your system. These are listed at the top of the file.

The second step is to run

configure

It has a few options worth noting:

--prefix=<install path prefix>
The default is to install mutt and its runtime help file into /usr/local. However, you can use this option to override that default and specify another directory structure.
--with-cursesinclude=<path to curses.h dir>
On some systems, the curses.h that comes with the ncurses package is placed in it's own directory, often where cpp cannot find it. This option allows you to specify which directory the curses.h that you wish to use is located.
Most likely you will be fine just running configure with no options.

Things to watch for: While configure is running, you should make sure that it finds your mail spool correctly, and also that it finds your correct domain name. If it does not, you should make sure to edit config.h to correct the errors before you continue.

Now you are ready to starting compiling. Type:

make

Mutt should compile cleanly (without errors) and you should end up with a binary called mutt.

To actually install it (not required except if your spool directory is SETGID), type:

make install.


Last updated June 23, 1996.
© 1996 Michael R. Elkins.