Workaround (don't laugh; it works)

[D. Hugh Redelmeier]

| From: waltdnes-SLHPyeZ9y/tg9hUCZPvPmw at public.gmane.org

|   It almost looks as if it *INSISTS* on a real live shell.  Here's what
| I get when using -i
| 
| bash: no job control in this shell
| No value for $TERM and no -T specified
| No value for $TERM and no -T specified
| sh: line 1: gettext: command not found
| No recipients were specified.

Apparently it doesn't work.

You are trying to trick an interactive command to be run from a
script.  Expect crap like this.  These messages might be from bash or
from mutt -- both will want TERM to be set.  You could set it to some
fictional value, say "ansi".

expect(1) is probably the best way to script an interactive command.
I think it uses ptys so that the interactive command feels right at
home.

I still suggest fetchmail is cleaner and simpler way to accomplish
your goal.

If mutt were a real UNIX application, it would probably not do pop3
itself.  Since it does, it should have a flag to do non-interactive
mail pick-up -- does it?  I don't see one in the manual.  Two strikes.
(I use pine which may sin the same ways, but I don't use it to pick up
mail.)

Hugh Redelmeier
hugh-pmF8o41NoarQT0dZR+AlfA at public.gmane.org  voice: +1 416 482-8253

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