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When does one use the "f" flag on a recipe

1997-03-25 13:59:32
I have another "dumb" question that has arisen from my study of the 
procmail man pages....

Under what conditions do you use the "f" flag?

According to procmailrc, "f" means "consider the pipe as a filter."

There are various examples in procmailex where recipes pipe the message 
into various programs.  Sometimes the "f" is used and sometimes not.

Examples where it is used:

(Re-)generating "From " lines by piping message thru formail
Pre-converting encoded MIME formats to 8-bit formats

Examples where it is NOT used:

Appending the mail headers to a header log
Piping a digest thru formail to split it into a mail "folder"

I've studied the examples over and over and *still* don't quite understand 
why the "f" flag is required sometimes but not others.

<sigh>

My understanding of unixes if pretty rudimentary and my inability to 
"grok" this distinction probably involve the vagueness of my understanding 
of what a "filter" does.

I'd really appreciate a clue.

adTHANKSvance

Simeon

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