MUA Filters vs Procmail filters[was] RE: Mailing list procmailrecipe

[Ow Mun Heng]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jay Daniels [mailto:drs at pointyhats.com]
> 
> On Thu, Apr 08, 2004 at 10:01:12AM +0800, Ow Mun Heng wrote:
> > 
> > How about Archiving the emails? How do we do that using 
> Maildir format?
> > (one of the reason I've not moved my laptop's mail format 
> to maildir)
> 
> Use tar to archive Maildir or mbox.  Maildir creates a file
> for each message which uses an inode for each file.  You could have
> plenty of disk space left but run out if inodes and your system would
> crash!  This has happen to one system I was managing and I 
> learned about
> the "df -i" command to check disk inode use;)

Gotcha 

> If the only reason you are wanting to use Maildir format is because
> you want the mail delivered to your ~/mail instead of
> /var/spool/mail/$USER think about using a .forward file and procmail
> instead.

Actually, the reason for Maildir is cause I was thinking I can 
get procmail to just put the correct mails in the correct folder. 
But for this to happen, I found out also that I need to use IMAP
and not POP3/POP3s.

> 
> In my .forward I have:
> "|IFS=' ' && exec /usr/bin/procmail -f- || exit 75 #drs"

WHat's IFS?? I tried man .forward and man forward. No match.
I take it that the input mail and just forwards it to procmail
for processing?

> 
> In my ~/.procmailrc I have an entry like:
> # Deliver to ~/mail/inbox instead of mail spool to control
> # usage.  hum, no need to do maildir or run procmail suid;)
> # $HOME and ~/mail is chmod 700!
> DEFAULT=$MAILDIR/inbox
> 
> note: the $MAILDIR variable in the .procmailrc has nothing to do with
> Maildir format!
> 
> All my mail unless another filter catches it is send to ~/mail/inbox
> which is in mbox format.  I am working on setting this up system wide
> in /etc/skel

Let me understand properly. Mail comes in, .forward processes it and
forwards to procmail, procmail proceses the file for
SPAM/Virus/X-Been-There/
To/List-ID etc and puts it into (say Fedora-list) 
~/evolution/local/Inbox/subfolder/Linux/subfolder/Fedora and for whatever
that
procmail does not capture, it's sent by default to ~/evolution/local/Inbox

Did I get that right??

But that's presuming that the mails are received on the local Machine.
(via POP from Server)

For this to happen also on the server, the server must run maildir format
(and not mbox) and also IMAP protocol for user at local-machine to be able 
to connect to it and then he'll just have to transfer the emails to by hand
to his local folder. Hmm...not an elegent solution. (for someone that don't 
exactly stores mails on the server)

 
> Don't just insert those file if you want to do that inbox thing.

What inbox thing?

> There is a little more to it, read the procmail and .forward howtos.
> Search google on how to set it all up.
> 
> Maildir is not all it's cracked up to be and since Fedora is setup to
> use mbox by default, adding the .forward and using procmail will not
> affect any system config files or other users.
> 
> As for imap, imap lets your mail stay on the server which is good for
> home users so you can read all your mail from any network connection
> while using another computer.

I've no such need there

 
> About Maildir
> If anyone knows any reason to use Maildir format beside just putting
> mail in your home directory, please comment?  I personally don't see
> any benefits since mbox has worked great for years on many systems
> around the world.

I like Mbox format. Easier for me to save/archive. 
But then again, I'm biased, I've never used maildir before.


Thanks