Subject: Re: using procmail with emacs RMAIL

From: "Susan G. Kleinmann" <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 24 Aug 1996 20:54:59 -0400

Hi Steve --

You asked:
>Can someone point me to info for the quickest, easiest way to use procmail
>with Emacs RMAIL to separate, say, the debian list into a separate folder?

Below I'm forwarding a big hint on this topic given by Dirk Eddelbuettel
to someone else a few weeks ago.  I found it quite helpful.

Regards,
Susan Kleinmann

------- Forwarded Message

Date: Sat, 3 Aug 96 13:18 EDT
To: [email-masked], Debian Users <[email-masked]>
Subject: Re: mail-delivery-agents? 
From: [email-masked]

Hi Lamar

I hope you don't mind that I put this back onto the list as other people
might wonder about this too.

  Lamar>  Hi, Dirk.  I seem to be having some trouble getting posts to the
  Lamar> debian-user list, so I'm mailing you directly.
  Lamar> 
  Lamar> You posted something about using procmail _and_ pop to sort your
  Lamar> mail.  I was wondering how you invoke procmail?  I, too, use
  Lamar> popclient to get my mail, and I'd _love_ to be able to have procmail
  Lamar> (or slocal or something) filter it for me.

It is all in the procmail manpages --- but as those are quite detailed it
hard to find as first sight. Note also that Debian procmail package has, as
many other packages, a lot of documentation in /usr/doc/<package> and 
/usr/doc/example/<package>.

1. I start popclient as (indented by a TAB for readability)
	popclient -s -3 -P ~/.file-with-password host.that.has.mail  
to get my mail to my local machine.

2. One needs a file ~/.forward of the following form
	"|IFS=' '&&exec /usr/bin/procmail -f-||exit 75 #edd"
where the end must  #<user-id>"  as a fallback strategy. This passes the mail
to the procmail program.

3. A file ~/.procmailrc describes the sorting rules. There are lots of
examples in the manpage, and the /usr/doc/examples/procmail directory. But as
a concrete example, here are some pieces. If it looks all to strange, than
it's probably time to review a Unix book with something on regular
expressions. I just show some entries as it is mostly repetitive

- ------------------------ ~/.procmailrc --------------------------------------
# edd 26.10.95	installed from adapted version from /usr/doc/examples/procmail

PATH=$HOME/bin:/usr/bin:/bin:/usr/local/bin:.
MAILDIR=$HOME/mail
# use `usual' default and not this one:  DEFAULT=$MAILDIR/mail.in
LOGABSTRACT=all
LOGFILE=$MAILDIR/log/procmail

:0:				# mail To or CC ctan-ann
* (^To|^CC|^Resent-).*ctan-ann@(shsu.edu|RELAY.URZ.UNI-HEIDELBERG.DE)
in.ctan-announce

:0:				# mail To or CC debian-announce
* (^To|^CC|^Resent-).*debian-announce@.*(debian.org|pixar.com)
in.debian-announce

:0:				# mail To or CC debian-bugs, debian-bugs-done
* (^To|^CC|^Resent-).*debian-bugs(-done)?@.*(debian.org|pixar.com)
in.debian-bugs

:0:				# Another one for new bugs system
* (^To|^CC|^Resent-)[email-masked]
in.debian-bugs

:0:				# mail To or CC debian-changes
* (^To|^CC|^Resent-).*debian-changes@.*(debian.org|pixar.com)
in.debian-changes

:0:				# mail To or CC debian-devel
* (^To|^CC|^Resent-).*debian-devel@.*(debian.org|pixar.com)
in.debian-devel

:0:				# mirror logs
* ^To: edd
* ^Subject: mirror update$
in.mirror-update
- -----------------------------------------------------------------------------

:0: always starts a new rule section. Line with * describes rules, if there
are several they are ANDed together. The last line shows the folder into
which a message is put. 

Hope this helps, Dirk

- --
Dirk Eddelb"uttel                             http://qed.econ.queensu.ca/~edd

------- End of Forwarded Message