[OT] fetchmail, procmail and mutt (oh my!)

[Andrew L. Gould]

On Wednesday 30 June 2004 10:37 pm, Erik Trulsson wrote:
> On Wed, Jun 30, 2004 at 09:46:31PM -0500, Andrew L. Gould wrote:
> > Background:
> > When I travel, I use access a home server via ssh and deal with my
> > email using console applications.  I obtain my email from several
> > sources using fetchmail.  I have a .procmailrc file that properly
> > puts the emails into specified mbox files -- so far so good.
> >
> > Problem:
> > If I put 'mda /usr/local/bin/procmail' in the .fetchmailrc lines,
> > procmail puts the emails in the correct mbox files; but mutt
> > complains that the files are not valid email files and refuses to
> > read them.
> >
> > If I let fetchmail put the emails into my system mbox and use
> > formail to process the emails, copies of the emails get put into
> > the correct mbox files and mutt will open the files; but I have to
> > go back and manually delete the emails in my system mail box.
> >
> > How can I get both valid mbox files and without having to manually
> > delete emails in my system folder?
>
> From the fetchmail(1) manpage:
>
>     As each message is retrieved fetchmail normally delivers it via
> SMTP to port 25 on the machine it is running on (localhost), just as
> though  it were  being passed in over a normal TCP/IP link.  The mail
> will then be delivered locally via your system's MDA (Mail Delivery 
> Agent, usually sendmail(8)  but  your  system  may  use a different
> one such as smail, mmdf, exim, or qmail).  All the delivery-control 
> mechanisms (such  as .forward  files)  normally  available through
> your system MDA and local delivery agents will therefore work
> automatically.
>
> From the procmail(1) manpage:
>
>     If procmail is not installed globally  as  the  default  mail
> delivery agent  (ask your system administrator), you have to make
> sure it is in- voked when your mail arrives.  In this case  your
> $HOME/.forward  file should  contain the line below.  Be sure to
> include the single and dou- ble quotes, and unless you know your site
>  to  be  running smrsh  (the SendMail Restricted SHell), it must be
> an absolute path.
>
>     "|exec /usr/local/bin/procmail || exit 75"

I tried using the .forward file a couple of months ago -- it was a huge 
disaster.  But then, the line above is much less complicated than the 
advice I received from one of my peers here.  The line above worked 
wonderfully.

Thanks,

Andrew Gould