manitou-mdx has a configuration file, whose default location is: /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 Section 2.3.3, “db_connect_string” entry that contain the parameters for the connection to the database may be changed, and a spool directory may be specified, otherwise no new mail will be automatically imported into the database. The configuration options are all 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).