procmail
[Top] [All Lists]

Re: Defer message delivery for a certain time

1998-05-21 07:08:55
On Thu, 21 May 1998 02:18:36 +0200 (MET DST),
"Kay Hayen" <Kay(_at_)kayhayen(_dot_)com> writes:

I have a "problem" with several mailinglists that I'm subscribed
to. They generate a lot of messages and most of them will not be
read during the weekend when I'm in a different place than during
the weeks.

Now my idea was the following:

I'd want to have the delivery of these messages not done until
Monday evening if it's after Friday morning. This would save me
from receiving messages through my POP account that I would not
read or care for anyway.

Now there are certain alternatives:

[...]

b) Could I deliver to a folder (how is that done, need I do more
than just specify the absolut path to it or need "mailboxes" some
more preparing?

If so. Would I be able to simply move the files created in a folder
(not another POP mailbox) into the dir that seems to represent my
POP or would this be dangerous in that it could overwrite already
existing files (could be solved I guess by renaming?). Or would the
POP not know how to handle this?

I am not qualified to answer your other alternatives, but they sound
like a lot of trouble and possible risk.  This is very similar to
something I set up a couple of months ago with the help of David
Tamkin and others on this list.  I forward the procmail list to my
workplace during normal business hours, excluding the weekends so the
mbox isn't filled with stuff I've already read when I walk in Mon AM.
You can see the final installment of the thread at:
www.rosat.mpe-garching.mpg.de/mailing-lists/procmail/1998-01/msg00063.html
and follow it backwards if necessary.

What I have done is:

   :0:
   *
^(X-Loop|X-Mailing-List):.*(procmail(_at_)informatik|spamguard(_at_)spconnect)
   {
     # from Sun 7:00p to Fri 3:59:59p forward a copy to the office
      :0 c
        * ! ^^From .* (Sat |(Fri .* (1[6789]|2.)|Sun .*
(0.|1[0-8])):..:)
        ! dhammond(_at_)nac(_dot_)net
      :0:
     $DEFAULT
   }  

You would need to work on the regexp for the date/time in the envelope
From_ header to suit your needs, eliminate the braces and the copy flag,
change the first action line to deliver to a folder, and eliminate the
second action line.  Maybe something like:

   :0:
   * your test for mailing list(s)
   * ^^From .* (S(at|un) |(Fri .* (1[2-9]|2.)|Mon .* (0.|1[0-7])):..:)
   folder_name

which should deliver all messages passing the mailing list test, and
which have a date/time in the From_ line between Fri noon and Mon 5:59p,
to be delibered to "folder_name".  Then you just get "folder_name" at
your convenience.  As far as concatenating this folder later or
re-delivering these messages to the spool mbox, I'll leave that to
someone more qualified.  If the issue is reading these messages within
your favorite mail reader, even 'bin/mail' can read from a file other
than the spool so I'd be surprised to find one that can't do the same.  

Hopefully this is at least gets you started.

 - Don

<Prev in Thread] Current Thread [Next in Thread>