running procmail on the contents of /var/mail/$USER

[Tim Writer]

Robert Brockway <robert-5LEc/6Zm6xCUd8a0hrldnti2O/JbrIOy at public.gmane.org> writes:

> On Wed, 28 Jul 2004, William O'Higgins wrote:
> 
> > Yes, that's where the attempts above come from.  These recipies seem to
> > be based on getting processed via procmail, and I am trying to get an
> > mbox file *into* procmail.  I tried "cat /var/mail/$USER | formail -ds
> > procmail", but I get the same result - the command starts, but doesn't
> > do anything and needs to be Ctrl-C'd.  So, the problem remains - what
> 
> Sounds like a STDIN problem to me...
> 
> > syntax is required to get the individual messages in my spool to be
> > processed by procmail?  Thanks again.
> 
> Here is a working example I put together a few months back:
> 
> cat ./inbox | formail -s procmail ~foouser/etc/procmail.incoming
> 
> No the username is not really foouser but I'm not handing out real
> username info (even if the box is hidden behind several firewalls :)

Congratulations!  You both win a useless use of cat award. :-) Instead of:

    cat file | command arg1 ...

you can always write:

    command arg1 ... < file

Anyway, I don't see anything wrong with William's syntax.  There's no
requirement to specify an rc file with procmail, if you don't it will just
use your ~/.procmailrc.  In other words, William's syntax was equivalent to:

    formail -ds procmail ~/.procmailrc < /var/mail/$USER

Since it just sits there (and the syntax is okay), I would suspect a procmail
problem.  Do you have a procmail log?  What does it say?  Perhaps you do some
locking in your .procmailrc?  If you don't have a log file, add:

    LOGFILE=$HOME/procmail.log

to the top of your .procmailrc.

-- 
tim writer <tim-s/rLXaiAEBtBDgjK7y7TUQ at public.gmane.org>                                  starnix inc.
905.771.0017 ext. 225                           thornhill, ontario, canada
http://www.starnix.com              professional linux services & products
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