mutt and exim on debian

mutt and exim on debian

[Thomas Stivers]

Does anyone know why I get a /var/mail/xxxx is not a mailbox when I use
mutt to check mail? I use exim on debian/testing and as far as I can tell
it should work. Alternatively where can I get the pine package for debian?
Thanks
--
Thomas Stivers
stivers_t@mail.utexas.edu

Re: mutt and exim on debian

[Raul A. Gallegos]

Can you be more specific?  Are you using mutt locally on the box where
exim is? or are you using mutt from another box and retrieving you mail
from the pop3 features of mutt?

I have debian testing with mutt and exim locally here and it all works
fine using /var/mail/mailboxname



Thomas Stivers said the following on Mon, May 13, 2002 at 07:31:01AM -0500:
> Does anyone know why I get a /var/mail/xxxx is not a mailbox when I use
> mutt to check mail? I use exim on debian/testing and as far as I can tell
> it should work. Alternatively where can I get the pine package for debian?
> Thanks
> --
> Thomas Stivers
> stivers_t@mail.utexas.edu
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

-- 
If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a procedure can
go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way will promptly develop.
Raul A. Gallegos - http://www.asmodean.net

Re: mutt and exim on debian

[Thomas Stivers]

They are both on the same box. Sorry I didn't make this more clear. I
simply get the message that my mailbox is not a mailbox. I can use less to
look at the mailbox and there are definitely messages in it.
--
Thomas Stivers
stivers_t@mail.utexas.edu
----- Original Message -----
From: "Raul A. Gallegos" <raul@asmodean.net>
To: "speakup list" <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Monday, May 13, 2002 10:54 AM
Subject: Re: mutt and exim on debian


> Can you be more specific?  Are you using mutt locally on the box where
> exim is? or are you using mutt from another box and retrieving you mail
> from the pop3 features of mutt?
>
> I have debian testing with mutt and exim locally here and it all works
> fine using /var/mail/mailboxname
>
>
>
> Thomas Stivers said the following on Mon, May 13, 2002 at
07:31:01AM -0500:
> > Does anyone know why I get a /var/mail/xxxx is not a mailbox when I
use
> > mutt to check mail? I use exim on debian/testing and as far as I can
tell
> > it should work. Alternatively where can I get the pine package for
debian?
> > Thanks
> > --
> > Thomas Stivers
> > stivers_t@mail.utexas.edu
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Speakup mailing list
> > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>
> --
> If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a procedure
can
> go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way will promptly develop.
> Raul A. Gallegos - http://www.asmodean.net
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

Re: mutt and exim on debian

[Toby Fisher]

On Mon, 13 May 2002, Thomas Stivers wrote:

> They are both on the same box. Sorry I didn't make this more clear. I
> simply get the message that my mailbox is not a mailbox. I can use less to
> look at the mailbox and there are definitely messages in it.

Hmmm, only thing I can think of is a permissions issue, Exim behaves quite
nicely here.

Cheers.

-- 
Toby Fisher	Email: toby@g0ucu.freeserve.co.uk
Tel.: +44(0)1480 417272	Mobile: +44(0)7974 363239
ICQ: #61744808
   Please avoid sending me Word or PowerPoint attachments.
   See http://www.fsf.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

Re: mutt and exim on debian

[Raul A. Gallegos]

Are you using the default settings of mutt and exim?

when you set up mutt did you change anything?  there should be a
setting such as set spoolfile="/var/mail/xxx" where xxx is the name of
the mailbox.

mutt by default will use the variable $MAIL to read from that spool.  so
to see what $MAIL is do: 'echo $MAIL' and see what it is set to.  If it
is different than where you mail is then you will have to either change
muttrc with the correct value or just set the  $MAIL variable to the
correct setting.  remember that Debian stores it's mail spool in
/var/mail, and not /var/spool/mail however a simlink is provided for
backward compatibility.

Hope this helps.

Thomas Stivers said
the following on Mon, May 13, 2002 at 11:49:25AM -0500:
> They are both on the same box. Sorry I didn't make this more clear. I
> simply get the message that my mailbox is not a mailbox. I can use less to
> look at the mailbox and there are definitely messages in it.
> --
> Thomas Stivers
> stivers_t@mail.utexas.edu
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Raul A. Gallegos" <raul@asmodean.net>
> To: "speakup list" <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
> Sent: Monday, May 13, 2002 10:54 AM
> Subject: Re: mutt and exim on debian
> 
> 
> > Can you be more specific?  Are you using mutt locally on the box where
> > exim is? or are you using mutt from another box and retrieving you mail
> > from the pop3 features of mutt?
> >
> > I have debian testing with mutt and exim locally here and it all works
> > fine using /var/mail/mailboxname
> >
> >
> >
> > Thomas Stivers said the following on Mon, May 13, 2002 at
> 07:31:01AM -0500:
> > > Does anyone know why I get a /var/mail/xxxx is not a mailbox when I
> use
> > > mutt to check mail? I use exim on debian/testing and as far as I can
> tell
> > > it should work. Alternatively where can I get the pine package for
> debian?
> > > Thanks
> > > --
> > > Thomas Stivers
> > > stivers_t@mail.utexas.edu
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Speakup mailing list
> > > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> >
> > --
> > If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a procedure
> can
> > go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way will promptly develop.
> > Raul A. Gallegos - http://www.asmodean.net
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Speakup mailing list
> > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> >
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

-- 
If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a procedure can
go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way will promptly develop.
Raul A. Gallegos - http://www.asmodean.net

Re: mutt and exim on debian

[Thomas Stivers]

Well I didn't change anything in either config file aside from putting in
my domain name and the like. The $MAIL variable is set correctly and the
permitions for mailboxes are 0660 and they are owned by the users and the
group mail. Maybe I need to add myself to the mail group, but i wouldn't
think so.

On a good note I did get speakfreely for windows working, and as is the
case with so many windows programs it resumed functioning with no changes
to the settings and I still don't know why. Oh well... *smile*
--
Thomas Stivers
stivers_t@mail.utexas.edu
----- Original Message -----
From: "Raul A. Gallegos" <raul@asmodean.net>
To: <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Monday, May 13, 2002 12:02 PM
Subject: Re: mutt and exim on debian


> Are you using the default settings of mutt and exim?
>
> when you set up mutt did you change anything?  there should be a
> setting such as set spoolfile="/var/mail/xxx" where xxx is the name of
> the mailbox.
>
> mutt by default will use the variable $MAIL to read from that spool.  so
> to see what $MAIL is do: 'echo $MAIL' and see what it is set to.  If it
> is different than where you mail is then you will have to either change
> muttrc with the correct value or just set the  $MAIL variable to the
> correct setting.  remember that Debian stores it's mail spool in
> /var/mail, and not /var/spool/mail however a simlink is provided for
> backward compatibility.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Thomas Stivers said
> the following on Mon, May 13, 2002 at 11:49:25AM -0500:
> > They are both on the same box. Sorry I didn't make this more clear. I
> > simply get the message that my mailbox is not a mailbox. I can use
less to
> > look at the mailbox and there are definitely messages in it.
> > --
> > Thomas Stivers
> > stivers_t@mail.utexas.edu
> > ----- Original Message -----
> > From: "Raul A. Gallegos" <raul@asmodean.net>
> > To: "speakup list" <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
> > Sent: Monday, May 13, 2002 10:54 AM
> > Subject: Re: mutt and exim on debian
> >
> >
> > > Can you be more specific?  Are you using mutt locally on the box
where
> > > exim is? or are you using mutt from another box and retrieving you
mail
> > > from the pop3 features of mutt?
> > >
> > > I have debian testing with mutt and exim locally here and it all
works
> > > fine using /var/mail/mailboxname
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Thomas Stivers said the following on Mon, May 13, 2002 at
> > 07:31:01AM -0500:
> > > > Does anyone know why I get a /var/mail/xxxx is not a mailbox when
I
> > use
> > > > mutt to check mail? I use exim on debian/testing and as far as I
can
> > tell
> > > > it should work. Alternatively where can I get the pine package for
> > debian?
> > > > Thanks
> > > > --
> > > > Thomas Stivers
> > > > stivers_t@mail.utexas.edu
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > Speakup mailing list
> > > > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > > > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> > >
> > > --
> > > If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a
procedure
> > can
> > > go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way will promptly
develop.
> > > Raul A. Gallegos - http://www.asmodean.net
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Speakup mailing list
> > > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> > >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Speakup mailing list
> > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>
> --
> If you perceive that there are four possible ways in which a procedure
can
> go wrong, and circumvent these, then a fifth way will promptly develop.
> Raul A. Gallegos - http://www.asmodean.net
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

Re: mutt and exim on debian

[Adam Myrow]

I'd suspect your mailbox is corrupt.  I'd go through it with less, find the
good messages, then delete the mailbox.  It will then get re-created.
Another thing to try is to see if mailx can read it.  Mailx is the most
primitive mail tool in existence on Linux, but if it can read it, it's
better than nothing.