Hello Philip,
[procmail's -m mode lets the rc decide]
your explanation of procmail's mailfilter mode is the knack I'd been
lacking. Having procmail step through the rcfile and bouncing or
default-delivering at the end is exactly what I will need to have the
"virtual" setup work.
[procmail is NOT the first step for me - it's the last that's left]
Just since you seemed to be a bit upset about me not planning ahead:
Well, I know exactly what I want, even if I'm sometimes not mentioning
it (for me, it's implicitly there, yet maybe not clear to everybody
else). I will explain in further detail:
The box will have to receive mail for multiple users in multiple
domains and decide upon delivering to some spool file. This spool
file will be retrieved via POP3. To achieve this goal I had to
extend an existing POP server - I chose cucipop, for the sake of
it - and will of course return my changes to the community (I'm
not what you'd call a newbie on the net ;-) ), so there's no need
to be upset about me using things commercially. I certainly will,
but I will not only take but give too. My only problem is that I'm
not too much into C programming (somewhat perlish, silly me), so
my solutions aren't necessarily very elegant, and I would not
undertake the mission to extend procmail's capabilities to database
lookups or the like (I'd use DBD scripts for that...).
Well, continued from the point where mail gets delivered to a
spool file: There will be one and only one user on the system
to whom each and every mail spool will belong. I just didn't
want to have a UNIX user for each mail account. As far as POP3
is concerned, the system is up and running; now delivery must
be hacked. If anyone's interested, they can look up the complete
solution on the web when I'm through with it (this will be
announced, if I don't forget it, so remind me ;-) ).
[ procmail's built-in defaults ]
What my second or so question meant was: Who defines procmail's
default behaviour (looking up user names in /etc/passwd e.g.) and
how can this be changed...
I was looking for the magical /etc/procmailrc, yet it seems to
be built-in (I didn't have the time to look at the sources yet).
[ the answer to all my questions ]
So, to answer your questions: if procmail reaches the end of the
specified rcfile, it bounces the mail (/etc/procmailrc is ignored).
Everything is up to the rcfile -- how to determine whether the address
is valid and where to put the message if it is.
This part is essentially what I needed :-)
[ too brief ]
You need to back up and start making some concrete decisions
about how things are going to be organized. Design, _then_ implement.
I hope it's all gotten a bit clearer now.
And if you're planning on making money off this, consider hiring
someone who knows how to do this.
;-) I have already been hired...
But maybe I've overlooked -m mode.
My regards to you,
Elmi.
PS: I've decided to return this to the list as well. Just press "d" if
you're not interested in such lenghty stuff *grin*.