the mail trail...sendmail

[rado]

> > Sendmail sends mail & receives mail on port 25, as you have said.
> > It also handles delivery of mail (i.e. puts new mail in /var/spool/user)
> 
hi Paul!
> Actually sendmail uses another program (the default in FC being
> procmail) to handle local delivery. Sendmail runs the program it's
> configured to use for local delivery to put the file
> in /var/spool/mail/user or wherever (e.g. it will be different for
> someone using the cyrus mail system).
> 
> Paul.
yes, I am using sendmail and procmail the evolution to read/reply etc
k...so who actually dumps the mail in /var/spool/mail/rado/ sendmail or
proc? I think sendmail actually puts it in the spool dir... just want
that point clear  in my head.
thx Paul

Hi Alexander!
> 
> http://sial.org/howto/sendmail/
> 
> There you find some good documentation and even illustration.

oh ya, this is a good one!
> 
> > Here is where I am hung up. What actually takes place now? 
> 
> Sendmail is only an MTA (Mail Transfer Agent). It does not care itself
> for mail storage.
> 
> > In just a basic, Sendmail system w/out many changes at all that came
> > stock w/FC3, can I assume that: Say a msg comes in for rado, does it go
> > to var/spool/mail/rado? 
> 
> Correct. And this is the case because Procmail is configured to be the
> local delivery agent (LDA).
>  
> > when exactly does procmail get in the game?
> 
> As soon as Sendmail wants to pass the mail over to the LDA.
> An alternate can be to let Sendmail pass the mail over to the mail
> storage / mail access server - for instance Cyrus-IMAPd which comes too
> with Fedora Core - by using LMTP. This is a protocol very similar to
> SMTP. LMTP stands for Local Mail Transmission Protocol. Instead, which
> is the old way how Sendmail and Cyrus-IMAPd communicated, Sendmail could
> use the deliver binary of Cyrus to pass the mail over to him. A third
> way could be to use Sendmail -> Procmail -> (cyrus-)deliver ->
> Cyrus-IMAPd's storage.
> 
> > I notice that in /home/rado there is lots of stuff concering mail.
> 
> Because /var/spool/mail/$USER is just the spool mbox for INCOMING. If
> you run an IMAP and move mail over to a specific folder, then the mail
> goes from INBOX /var/spool/mail/$USER by default to an mbox in
> $HOME/<IMAP-folder-mbox-file>
> 
> > ~/Mail, ~/mail, ~/.evolution.
> 
> They should result from mail application usage. So with .evolution that
> is obvious. I am not sure which application will store information in
> ~/Mail and which one in ~/mail. You may find out by just doing a content
> listing in there.
> 
> > I really don't want to get too, too, tech here, just a little
> > understanding of where the mail trail goes and how to follow it.
> 
> That is a fair approach.

> Alexander

> 
> Am Mo, den 28.03.2005 schrieb rado um 17:54:
> 
> > mail is in var/spool/mail/rado i.e. where sendmail planted it.
> > now then, is it a deal where, along in thru here, sendmail tells
> > procmail it's your turn, do what you want or procmail watching all this
> > at this point, after sendmail puts it in the mail folder that procmail
> > takes over?
> 
> Sendmail passes the mail over to the LDA, in this case we are speaking
> about, Procmail. If anything happens then with mail, Sendmail does not
> know about. It is Procmail's responsibility to handle the mail
> correctly. If doing something wrong in configuring Procmail you can even
> loose your mail!
> Don't get confused to think Procmail is a filter. Primary it is an
> MDA/LDA. It has capability to do things with mail aside from simply
> storing it in mbox or Maildir format. This, Procmail can store the mail
> at places different from default, based on rules in the procmailrc file.
> It too can call other programs to let them process the mail and get it
> back at later point. A typical scenario is to let Procmail pass the mail
> over to spamc/spamd and let SpamAssassin analyze the mail against spam
> criteria, and when SpamAssassin is ready the mail gets back to Procmail
> which then stores it according to defined rules. So maybe a mail with >
> 10 SA spam credits may go to a $HOME/certainly-spam folder, while > 20
> SA spam points it may go to /dev/null (electronic nirvana).
> Procmail first reads in an existing /etc/procmailrc and then an existing
> ~/.procmailrc file. If none exist, it simply processes it's defaults.
> 
> > does procmail go to /var/spool/mail/rado ...see what's there and filter
> > it and send it where you filter it to?
> 
> Procmail first processes the mail following either it's own defaults or
> according the custom rules from a procmailrc file. The last part is
> storage.
> 
> > I am really interested in procmail, ummm, to make up recipes in
> > procmail, it has to know where your mail is sitting at, I am sure, don't
> > have that recipe tutorial in front of me. sure it needs this tho and
> > where you want to put mail filtered w/ this or that...from this or
> > that...
> 
> http://userpages.umbc.edu/~ian/procmail.html
> http://laku19.adsl.netsonic.fi/era/procmail/mini-faq.html
> http://pm-doc.sourceforge.net/
> 
> > my main project here is bottom line, I am not interested in procmail's
> > spam filtering techniques right now, I just want procmail and rsync
> 
> Procmail is no spam filter.

oh, googling...I have just seen web page headers, like "using procmail
to filter spam", that sort of thing. that's why I referred it like so.
> 
> > together or whatever; I just want to keep whatever mail is in rado's
> > maildir to end up on machine "B" which is trying to sync up w/machine
> > "A". 
> 
> I am not sure about your setup, but I would consider to simply run rsync
> frequently by a cronjob. Else let Procmail copy the mail to host B and
> on that host let Procmail use formail (not formmail) erase or exchange
> the mail header entries resulting from the copy procedure.
> 
> Alexander
kk.. ok, wow! ...a wealth of info right here in this msg, I am about to
send back! It's also going in a text file in ~rado/mail-trail.
My mail setup is spelled out above replying to Paul.

As far as the total pic, Alexander, It's all part of this HA project
that Bob Chiodini has been helping me on. I refer to this project often.
Syncing up the mail is a big part of the actual sync of data between the
two systems.

Well, y'all put a bunch of bullets in my gun now and I thank you for
this. I can see it lots clearer now

thx,
John Rose
-- 
You ever notice the expression on your neighbor's face when you start
talking about linux?