Very Computer

I'm trying to configure a .forward file to redirect emails into the
procmail program.

I looked at the mail filtering faq at:

http://www.faqs.org/faqs/mail/filtering-faq/

and the tutorial (section 2.2) which suggests a .forward file,
consisting of:

"|IFS=' ' && exec /usr/local/procmail -f- || exit 75 #username"

I checked that procmail was in that location, and set my username.
I then created the .procmailrc, ~/.procmail folders and then
~/procmail/rc.testing files:

.procmailrc
========

#Set on when debugging
VERBOSE=off

#Replace `mail' with your mail directory (Pine uses mail, Elm uses Mail)

MAILDIR=$HOME/mail

#Directory for storing procmail log and rc files
PMDIR=$HOME/.procmail

LOGFILE=$PMDIR/log
INCLUDERC=$PMDIR/rc.testing
INCLUDERC=$PMDIR/rc.maillists

~/procmail/rc.testing
==============

:0:
* ^Subject:.*test
IN.testing

After sending messages with and without test in their subject, no email
appeared in IN.testing or in my inbox.

Does anybody know why either procmail doesn't recieve the messages or
why (if it does), it doesn't do anything with them?

Regards,

Jonathan Rylands

(comp1)

On Thu, 27 May 1999 17:33:08 +0100,

One possibility is that some mail-delivery software will balk if
it discovers too-wide permissions on control files.  Check that
the permissions on:
  $HOME
  $HOME/.forward
  $HOME/.procmailrc
  $HOME/.procmail
  $HOME/.procmail/rc.*
do not grant write permission to group or other.

Additionally, you might want to double-check that the .forward
file is being interpreted.  Try using a .forward file which
does a simple redirect to some other account (either an
account of yours on another machine or the account of a
cooperating confederate).  If that works, check to see that
deliver-to-a-pipe is working on your system with a .forward
like:
  "|cat >>/your/home/directory/testpipe"
and see if the "testpipe" file is being written to.

                --Ken Pizzini