Jen Lyons <lyonsj(_at_)bgnet(_dot_)bgsu(_dot_)edu> writes:
The machine I want to use procmail on does not keep mail locally; rather,
it connects to another server where the mail is stored. I have installed
fetchpop to get the mail to /var/spool/mail/lyonsj, and now I'd like to
use procmail. I've set up the .forward and the .procmailrc files, and
nothing is happening. When, exactly, is the .forward file invoked? Is it
upon the appending of the /var/spool/mail/username file?
Nope. The .forward file is read by sendmail when it is figuring out
how to deliver to your address. The reason it's not working for you is
that fetchpop doesn't give the incoming messages to sendmail, but
rather just delivers them itself. The solution is to switch from
fetchpop to fetchmail, a completely different program which does all of
this correctly as well as a bunch of other things related to this. You
can get fetchmail from the fetchmail homepage at
http://www.tuxedo.org/~esr/fetchmail
Philip Guenther