procmail
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Re: Super-simple recipie fails

1997-02-18 21:14:14
Kyle Ferrio <kbf(_at_)phy(_dot_)duke(_dot_)edu> writes:
This is a nearly minimal demonstration of the problem, for which I've been 
seeking help today.  Here is my rc file in all it's splendor :
...
If I send mail with subject 'gimmie' to myself at "user", I get the 
intended 'gift' file in my home directory.  

If instead I send the same mail to myself at "user(_at_)FQDN", I get no file.

Try putting the following line at the top of your .procmailrc:

        SHELL = /bin/sh

Here's what I suspect to be going on:  "phy.duke.edu" is really known
as "physics.phy.duke.edu".  Mail sent to <user(_at_)FQDN> is delivered on
that machine.  If smrsh is being used there, then $SHELL is smrsh, and
you'll be unable to execute any 'real' program actions because smrsh
doesn't like them.  Putting SHELL=/bin/sh at the top of your
.procmailrc should take care of that.

Why do things work when you send mail to <user> from
bigbang.phy.duke.edu?  Well, if sendmail (or whatever) is misconfigured
on it, then this could happen.  In particular, if the original Sun
sendmail is installed and you're using the 'R' option, then all bets
are off.  What you're seeing is one possible result of this.  So is
plain losing email, but it's just a fact that the stock Sun sendmail in
4.1.x (even after the security patches) is terrible, and should be
thrown out.

You should mention this all to your sysadmins, if just because email
might be misrouted when sent from bigbang.


Philip Guenther