manitou-mdx has a configuration file, located by default in: /etc/manitou-mdx.conf. The initial contents as set up by make install contain a series of commented entries with default values. Before launching manitou-mdx, it is advised to review and edit this file. At least, the db_connect_string entry that contain the parameters for the connection to the database should be set, as well as mail origins (spool directory, or maildir) for new incoming messages to be automatically imported into the database.

A minimum configuration file could be:

[common]
db_connect_string = Dbi:Pg:dbname=mail;user=manitou

[name@example.com]
spool_maildir=/var/lib/manitou/Maildir

All configuration entries are documented in Chapter III, manitou-mdx (Mail Database eXchanger)

manitou-mdx is launched in daemon mode by

$ manitou-mdx --fork

Once the program is launched, it logs information about its activity through syslog with the LOG_USER facility, which generally ends up in /var/log/user.log (otherwise see the syslog configuration).