[95455] in RedHat Linux List
Re: Procmail and Netscape
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Greg Fall)
Sun Oct 18 20:21:19 1998
Date: Sun, 18 Oct 1998 20:16:51 +0000 (/etc/localtime)
From: Greg Fall <gmf@dweezil.dyn.ml.org>
Reply-To: Greg Fall <gmf@dweezil.dyn.ml.org>
To: nicku@vtc.edu.hk
cc: Redhat List <redhat-list@redhat.com>
In-Reply-To: <362A7E7D.7CB222F4@iohk.com>
Resent-From: redhat-list@redhat.com
On Mon, 19 Oct 1998, Nick Urbanik wrote:
> I would like to be able to read mail using other mail programs as well
> as using Netscape Communicator 4.06. With that aim, I setup procmail to
> filter my mail. The result is that when cron runs fetchmail, (for
> reasons I don't understand) procmail automatically runs, putting the
> mail into the appropriate mail folders. Since the mail was being put
> into all the correct files and directories, and I could read it from my
> experimental ~/nsmail directory using Netscape, it all looked so good
> that I did cat ~/nsmail-test/<mail-folder> >> ~/nsmail/<mail-folder> for
> each folder (there are very many!)
>
> And now it seems that I can't read new mail!
>
> 1. What causes procmail to start automatically? ps auxw | grep
> procmail reveals procmail isn't running otherwise. .fetchmailrc
> contains nothing to start it. Is this something to do with
> sendmail?
I think that if you have ~/.procmailrc in RHL, procmail runs every time
sendmail or fetchmail grabs new mail (I could be wrong). A ~/.filter file
is the usual way to do this, and also works. Procmail only runs very
briefly when mail arrives. It does not run as like a daemon or something,
and that's why you shouldn't expect to very easily catch it with e.g. the
ps command.
> 2. Is appending the contents of one mail file to the end of another
> going to inevitably cause problems?
Shouldn't.
> 3. Is procmail incompatible with Netscape? I see no mention of
> procmail on Netscape's site.
Not sure. I don't know if Netscape uses MH-style folders, which would
require some adjustment to the usual setup of procmail. See the procmail
docs - I'll try to throw in a link in a minute.
> 4. Does anyone have any solution to the problem of having filters run
> independently of any one mail reader? The problem is that over the
> phone, Netscape runs very slowly; I want to be able to use other
> faster text-mode mail readers as well as Netscape locally, but
> since I get so much email daily, I want to filter it into the
> appropriate mail folders without being dependent on one program.
One snafu you can come across has to do with the different types of mail
folders different mail user agents use. I'm actually starting to think
about a GUI for setting up procmail regardless of the MUA you're using.
The dotfile generator has a machine for setting up procmail, and you may
try that out. As long as all the mail agents you use share the same
folder format, you can get them to cooperate. Often you have to set up a
bunch of symlinks. Here's an example:
pine uses ~/mail, and places copies of sent messages into ~/mail/sent-mail
xcmail uses ~/Mail, and it places outgoing messages into ~/Mail/outbox (or
is it ~/Mail/outgoing; I forget)
To make them play nicely together I have ~/Mail as a symlink to ~/mail:
% cd
% ln -s mail Mail
To make the outgoing mail all wind up in the same place, I do
% cd ~/mail
% ln -s sent-mail outbox
% ln -s sent-mail outgoing
Now ~/Mail and ~/mail are the same directory, and ~/Mail/outgoing and
~/mail/sent-mail are also the same file. You're sort of fooling the
different mail readers, I guess you could say.
It would be sorta nice if there were some kind of standard here, but then
again, cyber-liberty would maybe suffer a little from such organization.
If and when I put together a procmail-config program, it will have to just
keep up with the various specifics of the different mail agents available
out there. Mail folder formats appear to be the biggest potential hassle.
I think if I stick with the Berkeley MBOX format (pine uses it I think),
which appears to be the most common, then that will be a start.
To become better friends with procmail, see
http://www.ling.helsinki.fi/~reriksso/procmail/mini-faq.html
The dotfile generator site:
http://www.imada.ou.dk/~blackie/dotfile
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\/ / University of Michigan Fax: 734-763-7130
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__/_/ Ann Arbor, MI 48109 gmf@dweezil.dyn.ml.org
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