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List:       procmail
Subject:    Re: splitting up mbox with formail?
From:       Christopher Lindsey <lindsey () ncsa ! uiuc ! edu>
Date:       1998-08-27 6:18:55
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> My only complaint is in swatting flies with bazookas.  I don't
> think, in the scenario outlined by the initial message writer,
> that it *does* have to be very tedious to save the messages
> in a UNIX mail program.

I suppose that it's all relative.  To me, a large mailbox would consists
of about 10,000 messages per month (that's about what I get).  That would
mean that my mailbox would contain 60,000 messages in 6 months.  I sure
as heck wouldn't want to skim through it all or even try to load it up
in an MUA.

> I would think I'd have the job done inside two minutes without rushing.
> So why (other than for the intellectual exercise and to collect yet
> another model of application) would you want to do this one-time task in
> procmail?  Admittedly, if he will later continue to store by month then
> the extended recipe has more value.

For some it's not a one-time job.  My intent was to provide a script that
catered to the lowest common denominator.

> On another note, I was hoping someone would have responded to my
> question of yesterday to this list re. how I might use mail from work to
> trigger the wholesale shipping of my home mail spool to my work address.
> I had provided a draft recipe that I was afraid to test because my
> procmail coding is so rusty. . . .  Did that somehow not get posted to
> the list?  I forgot to pay attention to whether it appeared here.

I don't remember the specifics, but I think you were pretty close.  You'll 
probably want to use the -f flag with sendmail when you forward your 
messages if you want to keep the From_ line moderately intact -- otherwise
you might lose it.  Could be important if filtering on this header.

   cat mbox | formail -s procmail -m procmailrc

Your procmailrc file would look something like this:

   :0
   {
      :0
      * ^From \/[^ ]+[ ]+
      | $SENDMAIL -f$MATCH my@work.account
   
      # catch the extras
      :0
      ! my@work.account
   }

You may end up with an X-Authentication-Warning header, but it's harmless
and worth it when you consider what would happen to your From_ header
otherwise.

If you're going to do this with a lot of messages, I'd recommend sticking
the messages in the queue and letting sendmail deal with it later.  
Otherwise you're bound to kill your server.  Unfortunately, I can't
remember the flag for the life of me right now.

Chris

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