I figured out whats wrong. it was more of a Unix thing than a procmail thing
(sorry, but it took me time to figure that out).
my mail server is the same as my nis/nfs server, and i happen to have a local
account on that server. so when i add a .forward to my nis home directory, the
mail server doesnt even see it, as i have a different home directory on that
server (which is being looked up from the local /etc/passwd file). So i had to
go and move the .forward on to the local home on the server and it works fine
now. Thanks for your time, I appreciate it.
My recipies work well and .procmailrc is read when I send a mail to myself,
Sent how?
entry in .forward, but its similar to that in the man page.
"|IFS=' ';exec /usr/local/bin/procmail || exit 75 #myID"
Which manpage of which version of procmail? In any event, try simplifying it:
"|exec /usr/local/bin/procmail"
The IFS bit has to do with circumventing a potential security problem (if
your current LDA is smrsh, it shouldn't be an issue for you), and the whole
" || exit 75 #myID" bit is for basically saying "gosh, I couldn't invoke
procmail properly, so I'm bailing with a requeue result."
There are probably errors being emitted into the system or maillog (see
/var/log/) which explain the problem the system is experiencing in your case.
The .forward I generally recommend is:
"|IFS=' ' && exec /usr/local/bin/procmail -f- || exit 75 #youruserid"
Though the following checks the procmail binary first:
"|IFS=' ' && p=/usr/bin/procmail && test -x $p && exec $p -f- || exit 75
#youruserid"
(this goes a step further and checks that procmail exists and is executable
before trying to execute it)
I dug around my archives, and the following link explains the reasoning for
the IFS variable change and makes the same suggestion to simplify your
.forward if you've got smrsh for an LDA:
<http://www.rosat.mpe-garching.mpg.de/mailing-lists/procmail/2001-07/msg00472.html>
I copied the mail which sneaked in to a file,
"Sneaked in to a file"? Is your mail system on 'ludes? Why is it >sneaking
around?
#sorry, it should have been "I copied the mail-which-sneaked-in to a file..
and fed it to procmail from command line and it was dealt with fine,
Which supports the likelyhood that the existing LDA doesn't much care for
your .forward or security.
and I saw the logs too. Permissions for .forward is 644, and .procmailrc 600.
.. and what are the perms on your home directory?
Refer to the procdiag.sh script linked from the disclaimer in my .sig - it
may reveal something for you. It might even identify procmail as the LDA
on your system, negating the need for a .forward.
---
Sean B. Straw / Professional Software Engineering
Procmail disclaimer: <http://www.professional.org/procmail/disclaimer.html>
Please DO NOT carbon me on list replies. I'll get my copy from the list.
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