Date: Tue, 3 Feb 1998 00:06:12 -0600 (CST) From: "Matthew D. Fuller" <fullermd@futuresouth.com> To: Sue Blake <sue@welearn.com.au> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: they have mail Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.3.96.980203000221.11203B-100000@shell.futuresouth.com> In-Reply-To: <19980203122046.54922@welearn.com.au>
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On Tue, 3 Feb 1998, Sue Blake wrote: > On Tue, Feb 03, 1998 at 08:58:42AM +1100, Sue Blake wrote: > > I want to be notified (preferably by email) when mail arrives for a couple > > of users on my system. This will be a rare event which needs a reasonably > > quick response. > > > > I do not want to receive a copy of their mail, just know about it so I can > > advise them. > > Thanks to all those who offered suggestions. They all made sense, and > they all nearly worked. The most spectacular attempt so far > (user:user,"|/path/scriptname" in /etc/aliases) resulted in errors of > such magnitude (trying to forward to user called "|/path/scriptname") > that root was sent a copy of the whole disaster... and root mail gets > forwarded to me anyway so it was a kind of success :-) > > Well I'd better study up on this forward and script business some more, > then maybe I'll see a way to delete the private message body before it > gets sent to me. > > Meanwhile, bash seems able to check for other people's mail and that > might be good enough. Still fiddling with that one... Well, here's a suggestion. You can have xbiff point at different files. For instance, I have the various FreeBSD lists procmail'd to different folders, so I have a script that does the following: xbiff -geometry blah & xbiff -file /home/fullermd/mail/f-questions -geometry blah ... So, if you run xbiff as root, and point it at the user's mail file. This doesn't notify you, but it will beep on your screen. I would bet that there'd be some way to do this with procmail; execute a script of some sort when mail appears... *shrug* My $0.02. The xbiff would still be sitting there staring at you whenever you got back to the computer; that's the advantage. I have 6 xbiffs on my screen at the moment... ;-) Hope it helps!! *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-* | FreeBSD; the way computers were meant to be | * "The only reason I'm burning my candle at both ends, is * | that I haven't figured out how to light the middle yet."| * fullermd@futuresouth.com :-} MAtthew Fuller * | http://keystone.westminster.edu/~fullermd | *-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*-*
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