The purpose of this package is to ease the pain of unix-lovers forced to live in a Microsoft environment. For now, this means providing an easy-to-install package of basic unix mail tools.
There are several benefits to using ports of exiting unix tools instead of building a new mail system specifically for windows. First, it means even an immature project like this one can provide and amazing set of features. Second, it means you can use the muttrc and vimrc files that you have already worked hard to get Just Perfect. And finally, you can feel confidant that the file formats used are open and well-understood.
Hopefully this package will soon have procmail, abook, some sort of biff, etc. Perhaps eventually it will even include real integration with MS apps, like calendars and such.
The source package contains a framework into which you can drop unix tool tarballs. Then this Unixmail for Windows framework will configure, build, and install these tools into a binary directory tree. The installer is a snapshot of this point in the build process. Finally, a TcL/TK script (with some Perl at the backend) helps build configuration files for all of the tools so that they will work together under Windows, and will conform to your environment.
Since the build process makes few assumtions about which version of each tool you have, it should be simple to keep this build up-to-date with the unix tool sources.
Mutt in a DOS window viewing a GPG-decrypted
message.![[screenshot]](ss-0.3-01.png) |
TCL/TK-based installation and configuration.![[screenshot]](ss-0.5-01.png) |
Download files from SourceForge.
- unixmail-bin-0.6.bat [4,111K]
- This is an installer executable, and is all that most users will want. Download it, run it, and it will prompt you for all the information it needs to get you up and running. Check out the requirements section below to be sure you have what you need for Unixmail for Windows to work properly.
- unixmail-src-0.6.zip [175K]
- This is a zip file of the Unixmail for Windows sources. It provides the structure in which the original unix sources can be compiled and run in Windows. Besides the basic requirements needed for any installation, in order to build Unixmail for Windows you will also need original sources for all of the unix tools involved. You can get these from their respective sites, listed under links, or you can get a bundle of the sources used for version 0.5, below.
- unixmail-xsrc-0.5.zip [5,057K]
- This is a zip file of the all unix tool tarballs used to build Unixmail for Windows 0.5. You should only need this if you want to build Unixmail for Windows from the sources, instead of just using the installer, and you're too lazy to go to the various tools' home pages to get the latest versions. In order to build Unixmail for Windows, you will need this xsrc zip file as well as the src zip file above.
- Microsoft Windows (only NT 4.0 and 2000 have been tested)
- Perl for Windows (I recommend the package from ActiveState)
- CygWin
- Project page at SourceForge
- Discussion forums at SourceForge
- Download page at SourceForge
- SourceForge Main Home Page
- Microsoft
- Microsoft Windows NT
- Microsoft Windows 2000
- ActiveState
- Perl for Windows from ActiveState
- Downloads from Perl.com
- CygWin