I had this recipe. Note the typo in the condition:
* ! H ? ?? formail -rD $size $cachename
why were there no syntax errors logged for it? .... But why didn't
" ??" cause a syntax error in the log?
The way the procmail regex engine works (and I don't know whether this
is by accident or design - perhaps Philip knows if it is by design) is
that the '?', '*' and '+' metacharacters do not always act as
metacharacters.
In conditions like yours where you have a sequence such as ' ??', the
first '?' query clearly applies to the space. The second '?' isn't
legal as a metacharacter there and so, perhaps surprisingly, it acts as
a literal questionmark! ' ??' is a regular expression that will match
an optional space followed by a question mark. And ' ???' would be an
optional space followed by an optional question mark. ' *+??*' would be
zero or more spaces, an optional plus sign, and zero or more question
marks.
Interesting, no?
Martin
--
Martin McCarthy /</ PGP key available
`Procmail Companion' \>\ http://www.ancient-scotland.co.uk
Addison Wesley /</ http://www.ehabitat.demon.co.uk
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