Subject: Re: Mailutils not shown in Raspbian source ./. Was: Citadel? Courier? Cyrus? Dovecot? - I just want to backup my emails

Markus Robert Kessler <no_reply@dipl-ing-kessler.de> writes:

On 20 Jan 2026 07:41:06 +1000 Computer Nerd Kev wrote:

[..]

If you want the same build to run on Debian and "Redhat / Mageia", then
static linking can achieve that more reliably. Note that it will prevent
security updates to gnutls being applied when running Mailutils with
encrypted connections, until you rebuild the static binary. You should
be able to use the Debian x86_64 Mailutils packages at least, so you
probably don't need to try running the Mageia build on there. Just
compile and install Mailutils normally on "Redhat / Mageia for intel"
and "debian for ARM" as two separate processes.

Yes, and now I try to install the GNU Mailutils source package on a Pi3B with Bullseye OS. Meaning, try to rebuild the (ancient) package as is, and as next steps, to replace the source tgz, do some adaptations and try to

bullseye?s mailutils is ancient because bullseye is ancient, two full
releases out of date. If you need recent software then upgrade to trixie (mailutils 3.19).

By some reason, Synaptic install GUI does only show the sources for a few packages, and Mailutils is not among them.

Synaptic doesn?t provide source packages, you use ?apt-get source? for that.

/etc/apt/sources.list contains

deb http://raspbian.raspberrypi.org/raspbian/ bullseye main contrib non-
free rpi
# Uncomment line below then 'apt-get update' to enable 'apt-get source'

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

deb-src http://raspbian.raspberrypi.org/raspbian/ bullseye main contrib non-free rpi

Is there one more repo to activate, so that it shows up for downloading?

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Subject: Re: Mailutils not shown in Raspbian source ./. Was: Citadel? Courier? Cyrus? Dovecot? - I just want to backup my emails

On Fri, 23 Jan 2026 12:24:02 -0000 (UTC), Markus Robert Kessler wrote:

By some reason, Synaptic install GUI does only show the sources for a few packages, and Mailutils is not among them.

/etc/apt/sources.list contains

deb http://raspbian.raspberrypi.org/raspbian/ bullseye main contrib non-
free rpi

<http://raspbian.raspberrypi.org/raspbian/pool/main/m/mailutils/>

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Subject: Re: Mailutils not shown in Raspbian source ./. Was: Citadel? Courier? Cyrus? Dovecot? - I just want to backup my emails

Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> wrote:

You could look at the Debian package info/downloads
on the web like LDO suggested.

My mistake, he linked to the location on the Raspbian mirror,
here's what I meant:

https://packages.debian.org/source/bullseye/mailutils

But, again, I'd ignore that myself and just build it like you did
before.

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Subject: Re: Mailutils not shown in Raspbian source ./. Was: Citadel? Courier? Cyrus? Dovecot? - I just want to backup my emails

Markus Robert Kessler <no_reply@dipl-ing-kessler.de> wrote:

On 20 Jan 2026 07:41:06 +1000 Computer Nerd Kev wrote:

[..]

If you want the same build to run on Debian and "Redhat / Mageia", then
static linking can achieve that more reliably. Note that it will prevent
security updates to gnutls being applied when running Mailutils with
encrypted connections, until you rebuild the static binary. You should
be able to use the Debian x86_64 Mailutils packages at least, so you
probably don't need to try running the Mageia build on there. Just
compile and install Mailutils normally on "Redhat / Mageia for intel"
and "debian for ARM" as two separate processes.

Yes, and now I try to install the GNU Mailutils source package on a Pi3B with Bullseye OS. Meaning, try to rebuild the (ancient) package as is, and as next steps, to replace the source tgz, do some adaptations and try to
get this built, also.

I'd just build from the latest source code manually like you did on
Mageia, but whatever floats your boat...

By some reason, Synaptic install GUI does only show the sources for a few packages, and Mailutils is not among them.

/etc/apt/sources.list contains

deb http://raspbian.raspberrypi.org/raspbian/ bullseye main contrib non-
free rpi
# Uncomment line below then 'apt-get update' to enable 'apt-get source' deb-src http://raspbian.raspberrypi.org/raspbian/ bullseye main contrib non-free rpi

Is there one more repo to activate, so that it shows up for downloading?

As a guess: maybe the Raspbian package repo doesn't have sources
for packages they copied from Debian instead of rebuilding
themselves? You could look at the Debian package info/downloads
on the web like LDO suggested. I'm not sure how building from
sources automatically via Apt works, so I'm not sure how you'd use
the Debian package repo with that.

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Subject: Re: Mailutils not shown in Raspbian source ./. Was: Citadel? Courier? Cyrus? Dovecot? - I just want to backup my emails

On 24/01/2026 01:25, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:

As a guess: maybe the Raspbian package repo doesn't have sources
for packages they copied from Debian instead of rebuilding
themselves?

Raspbian doesn't copy packages from Debian, it just uses the Debian
repos. The Raspberry Pi's own repo doesn't contain userspace packages
unless they're pi-specific.

The issue is probably that /etc/apt/sources.list only has a line for
"deb" packages and not "deb-src" packages, by default.

Such a line is easy to add.

(If the OP were using Trixie it would be a matter of adding "deb-src"
after "deb" on the line starting "Types:" in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.sources).

--
Cheers,
Daniel.

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Subject: Re: Mailutils not shown in Raspbian source ./. Was: Citadel? Courier? Cyrus? Dovecot? - I just want to backup my emails

On Sat, 24 Jan 2026 11:20:25 +0000 Daniel James wrote:

On 24/01/2026 01:25, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:

As a guess: maybe the Raspbian package repo doesn't have sources for
packages they copied from Debian instead of rebuilding themselves?

Raspbian doesn't copy packages from Debian, it just uses the Debian
repos. The Raspberry Pi's own repo doesn't contain userspace packages
unless they're pi-specific.

The issue is probably that /etc/apt/sources.list only has a line for
"deb" packages and not "deb-src" packages, by default.

Such a line is easy to add.

(If the OP were using Trixie it would be a matter of adding "deb-src"
after "deb" on the line starting "Types:" in /etc/apt/sources.list.d/debian.sources).

I just modified the list of sources in /etc/apt/sources.list and /etc/apt/ sources.list.d/debian.sources and tried to upgrade from bullseye to trixie directly, but this failed. Maybe this was not a good idea.

At least the machine boots and runs properly, but no further update
possible. - Is there a way to revert back and first upgrade to bookworm
and then to trixie, or is the only proper solution to set up a new
install?

Thanks!

--
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Subject: Re: Mailutils not shown in Raspbian source ./. Was: Citadel? Courier? Cyrus? Dovecot? - I just want to backup my emails

not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) writes:

Daniel James <daniel@me.invalid> wrote:

On 24/01/2026 01:25, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:

As a guess: maybe the Raspbian package repo doesn't have sources
for packages they copied from Debian instead of rebuilding
themselves?

Raspbian doesn't copy packages from Debian, it just uses the Debian
repos. The Raspberry Pi's own repo doesn't contain userspace packages
unless they're pi-specific.

This is evidently untrue simply from looking at the Raspbian repo's
contents. I found out the hard way that some packages like Firefox
there are built only for Debian's target ARM architectures, not the
early Raspberry Pi boards.

Also I haven't seen the Debian repo used in Raspbian sources.list,
though I haven't used the more recent RPi OS versions.

It uses both debian.org (or mirrors thereof) and raspberrypi.org. The
latter has RPi-specific packages (e.g. raspi-config) and RPi-specific
rebuilds of standard packages (e.g. vlc), but excludes packages where
the binaries are shared with Debian (e.g. coreutils).

Would this even work seeing as there'd be conflicting packages for the
same programs? In my experience with Debian on PC, it wouldn't since
Apt doesn't favour one repo over another - it just selects whichever
package versions look latest.

It works fine...

The issue is probably that /etc/apt/sources.list only has a line for
"deb" packages and not "deb-src" packages, by default.

He posted that there was a "deb-src" line already.

Anyway it still won't build him the latest Mailutils which would be
easy to do the same way he already did it on PC (providing the
dependency package names are changed to Debian ones), so I think I
give up at this point.

The answer was clear from the original post: OP didn?t know how to get
source packages.

--
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Subject: Re: Mailutils not shown in Raspbian source ./. Was: Citadel? Courier? Cyrus? Dovecot? - I just want to backup my emails

Daniel James <daniel@me.invalid> wrote:

On 24/01/2026 01:25, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:

As a guess: maybe the Raspbian package repo doesn't have sources
for packages they copied from Debian instead of rebuilding
themselves?

Raspbian doesn't copy packages from Debian, it just uses the Debian
repos. The Raspberry Pi's own repo doesn't contain userspace packages
unless they're pi-specific.

This is evidently untrue simply from looking at the Raspbian repo's
contents. I found out the hard way that some packages like Firefox
there are built only for Debian's target ARM architectures, not the
early Raspberry Pi boards.

Also I haven't seen the Debian repo used in Raspbian sources.list,
though I haven't used the more recent RPi OS versions. Would this
even work seeing as there'd be conflicting packages for the same
programs? In my experience with Debian on PC, it wouldn't since Apt
doesn't favour one repo over another - it just selects whichever
package versions look latest.

The issue is probably that /etc/apt/sources.list only has a line for
"deb" packages and not "deb-src" packages, by default.

He posted that there was a "deb-src" line already.

Anyway it still won't build him the latest Mailutils which would be
easy to do the same way he already did it on PC (providing the
dependency package names are changed to Debian ones), so I think I
give up at this point.

--
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Subject: Re: Mailutils not shown in Raspbian source ./. Was: Citadel? Courier? Cyrus? Dovecot? - I just want to backup my emails

On 24/01/2026 21:11, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:

Raspbian doesn't copy packages from Debian, it just uses the
Debian repos. The Raspberry Pi's own repo doesn't contain
userspace packages unless they're pi-specific.

This is evidently untrue simply from looking at the Raspbian repo's contents. I found out the hard way that some packages like Firefox
there are built only for Debian's target ARM architectures, not the
early Raspberry Pi boards.

I suppose it depends what you mean by pi-specific. Yes, there are builds
of some userspace applications in the pi repo (more than I realized, I
admit).

Also I haven't seen the Debian repo used in Raspbian sources.list,
though I haven't used the more recent RPi OS versions.

The debian.sources file in Trixie looks identical on my AMD64 box and my
Pi5. I don't have Bullseye installs around, any more, to check.

Would this even work seeing as there'd be conflicting packages for
the same programs? In my experience with Debian on PC, it wouldn't
since Apt doesn't favour one repo over another - it just selects
whichever package versions look latest.

apt is complex. It uses version numbers, priorities, pinning, and
preferences from /etc/apt -- it does seem to work, but I haven't worked
out exactly how.


--
Cheers,
Daniel.

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Subject: Re: Mailutils not shown in Raspbian source ./. Was: Citadel? Courier? Cyrus? Dovecot? - I just want to backup my emails

Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote:

not@telling.you.invalid (Computer Nerd Kev) writes:

Daniel James <daniel@me.invalid> wrote:

On 24/01/2026 01:25, Computer Nerd Kev wrote:

As a guess: maybe the Raspbian package repo doesn't have sources
for packages they copied from Debian instead of rebuilding
themselves?

Raspbian doesn't copy packages from Debian, it just uses the Debian
repos. The Raspberry Pi's own repo doesn't contain userspace packages
unless they're pi-specific.

This is evidently untrue simply from looking at the Raspbian repo's
contents. I found out the hard way that some packages like Firefox
there are built only for Debian's target ARM architectures, not the
early Raspberry Pi boards.

Also I haven't seen the Debian repo used in Raspbian sources.list,
though I haven't used the more recent RPi OS versions.

It uses both debian.org (or mirrors thereof) and raspberrypi.org. The
latter has RPi-specific packages (e.g. raspi-config) and RPi-specific rebuilds of standard packages (e.g. vlc), but excludes packages where
the binaries are shared with Debian (e.g. coreutils).

OK, maybe the sources.list has changed in newer versions, but
coreutils _is_ there the RPi repo, and updated in 2025:

http://raspbian.raspberrypi.org/raspbian/pool/main/c/coreutils/

Would this even work seeing as there'd be conflicting packages for the
same programs? In my experience with Debian on PC, it wouldn't since
Apt doesn't favour one repo over another - it just selects whichever
package versions look latest.

It works fine...

They did better than the developers of AntiX then, where Aptitude
would keep selecting Systemd-dependent packages from the Debian
repo when they were updated to a newer version than the Sysv ones in
the AntiX repo. I couldn't find any settings to prevent that so I
switched to Devuan which has its own separate repo for all
packages, though most are probably the same as the Debian packages.
I thought it worked like that in RPi OS as well, but I've switched
away from that now.

The issue is probably that /etc/apt/sources.list only has a line for
"deb" packages and not "deb-src" packages, by default.

He posted that there was a "deb-src" line already.

Anyway it still won't build him the latest Mailutils which would be
easy to do the same way he already did it on PC (providing the
dependency package names are changed to Debian ones), so I think I
give up at this point.

The answer was clear from the original post: OP didn't know how to get
source packages.

OP won't get source packages for the newer Mailutils version he
wants that way, just the old version used for the package, which
he's not happy with. But OP already has the sources he used for
building the latest version on PC, minus the Debian patches (which
might not work on the latest version anyway).

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Subject: Re: Mailutils not shown in Raspbian source ./. Was: Citadel? Courier? Cyrus? Dovecot? - I just want to backup my emails

Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> writes:

Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote:

It uses both debian.org (or mirrors thereof) and raspberrypi.org. The
latter has RPi-specific packages (e.g. raspi-config) and RPi-specific
rebuilds of standard packages (e.g. vlc), but excludes packages where
the binaries are shared with Debian (e.g. coreutils).

OK, maybe the sources.list has changed in newer versions, but
coreutils _is_ there the RPi repo, and updated in 2025:

http://raspbian.raspberrypi.org/raspbian/pool/main/c/coreutils/

Not in arm64 trixie.

$ curl -s https://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/dists/trixie/main/binary-arm64/Packages | grep 'Package: coreutils'
$

OP won't get source packages for the newer Mailutils version he wants
that way, just the old version used for the package, which he's not
happy with. But OP already has the sources he used for building the
latest version on PC, minus the Debian patches (which might not work
on the latest version anyway).

I?m not clear why it has to be a specific version anyway...

--
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Subject: Re: Mailutils not shown in Raspbian source ./. Was: Citadel? Courier? Cyrus? Dovecot? - I just want to backup my emails

Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote:

Computer Nerd Kev <not@telling.you.invalid> writes:

Richard Kettlewell <invalid@invalid.invalid> wrote:

It uses both debian.org (or mirrors thereof) and raspberrypi.org. The
latter has RPi-specific packages (e.g. raspi-config) and RPi-specific
rebuilds of standard packages (e.g. vlc), but excludes packages where
the binaries are shared with Debian (e.g. coreutils).

OK, maybe the sources.list has changed in newer versions, but
coreutils _is_ there the RPi repo, and updated in 2025:

http://raspbian.raspberrypi.org/raspbian/pool/main/c/coreutils/

Not in arm64 trixie.

$ curl -s https://archive.raspberrypi.org/debian/dists/trixie/main/binary-arm64/Packages | grep 'Package: coreutils'
$

That appears to be something different. Trying the same thing with
the raspbian.raspberrypi.org site the OP is using in their
sources.list as they posted earlier:

$ wget http://raspbian.raspberrypi.org/raspbian/dists/trixie/main/binary-armhf/Packages.xz
[snip]
$ xz -d Packages.xz
$ grep 'Package: coreutils' Packages
Package: coreutils

(yes I know you can use pipes there too, I don't like wasting data
and time if I want to run another grep)

They don't seem to have 64bit packages at raspbian.raspberrypi.org,
so I guess 64bit installs use "archive" or something else.

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