popping mail

popping mail

[Chris Peterson]

Hi all,

I've been doing some playing and I definetly love mutt.  Thanks to buddy and
Chris for their information.

Btw, since I believe this was brought up earlier, The default key to toggle
display of headers is a lower-case h.  So, if there is an "ignore *" line in
.muttrc, you can use the h key to display the headers of a message if you
want to see them for some reason.

Okay, so here is my question.

Currently I'm popping all my mail (from four accounts) so I can check it and
manage it in one place.  So, what would be the best way to do this in
gnu/linux?

I think I saw someone mention this a while back, but I'm feeling lazy.

I've also figured out how to get mutt to pop from one account and, from what
I've read, which isn't the whole man page, I am sure it can do all four.  My
question is, is this the best way to do this?  Is there a daemon that I can
run to do this for me so I can be notified of new mail without having to
have mutt up to hear about it?

Thanks a lot!
Chris

Re: popping mail

[Thomas Ward]

Use a program called fetchmail. You can download all your email from all
your accounts, and then can view them in whatever email program you choose.

----- Original Message -----
From: Chris Peterson <capeterson@visi.com>
To: <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2002 2:20 AM
Subject: popping mail


> Hi all,
>
> I've been doing some playing and I definetly love mutt.  Thanks to buddy
and
> Chris for their information.
>
> Btw, since I believe this was brought up earlier, The default key to
toggle
> display of headers is a lower-case h.  So, if there is an "ignore *" line
in
> .muttrc, you can use the h key to display the headers of a message if you
> want to see them for some reason.
>
> Okay, so here is my question.
>
> Currently I'm popping all my mail (from four accounts) so I can check it
and
> manage it in one place.  So, what would be the best way to do this in
> gnu/linux?
>
> I think I saw someone mention this a while back, but I'm feeling lazy.
>
> I've also figured out how to get mutt to pop from one account and, from
what
> I've read, which isn't the whole man page, I am sure it can do all four.
My
> question is, is this the best way to do this?  Is there a daemon that I
can
> run to do this for me so I can be notified of new mail without having to
> have mutt up to hear about it?
>
> Thanks a lot!
> Chris
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

Re: popping mail

[Amanda Lee]

I'd like to know how to do this in pine as I can't figure out how to point
to other pop3 servers or is this what they mean by incoming folders?

Amanda Lee


----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Peterson" <capeterson@visi.com>
To: <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2002 2:20 AM
Subject: popping mail


Hi all,

I've been doing some playing and I definetly love mutt.  Thanks to buddy and
Chris for their information.

Btw, since I believe this was brought up earlier, The default key to toggle
display of headers is a lower-case h.  So, if there is an "ignore *" line in
.muttrc, you can use the h key to display the headers of a message if you
want to see them for some reason.

Okay, so here is my question.

Currently I'm popping all my mail (from four accounts) so I can check it and
manage it in one place.  So, what would be the best way to do this in
gnu/linux?

I think I saw someone mention this a while back, but I'm feeling lazy.

I've also figured out how to get mutt to pop from one account and, from what
I've read, which isn't the whole man page, I am sure it can do all four.  My
question is, is this the best way to do this?  Is there a daemon that I can
run to do this for me so I can be notified of new mail without having to
have mutt up to hear about it?

Thanks a lot!
Chris



_______________________________________________
Speakup mailing list
Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: popping mail

[Thomas Ward]

Hi, amanda. Pine doesn't support pop3. It's something they simply haven't
done.
So you have to use something like fetchmail to retreave the mail, or change
your inbox path to the server where your mail gets kept.

----- Original Message -----
From: Amanda Lee <amanda@shellworld.net>
To: <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2002 5:37 PM
Subject: Re: popping mail


> I'd like to know how to do this in pine as I can't figure out how to point
> to other pop3 servers or is this what they mean by incoming folders?
>
> Amanda Lee
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Chris Peterson" <capeterson@visi.com>
> To: <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
> Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2002 2:20 AM
> Subject: popping mail
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> I've been doing some playing and I definetly love mutt.  Thanks to buddy
and
> Chris for their information.
>
> Btw, since I believe this was brought up earlier, The default key to
toggle
> display of headers is a lower-case h.  So, if there is an "ignore *" line
in
> .muttrc, you can use the h key to display the headers of a message if you
> want to see them for some reason.
>
> Okay, so here is my question.
>
> Currently I'm popping all my mail (from four accounts) so I can check it
and
> manage it in one place.  So, what would be the best way to do this in
> gnu/linux?
>
> I think I saw someone mention this a while back, but I'm feeling lazy.
>
> I've also figured out how to get mutt to pop from one account and, from
what
> I've read, which isn't the whole man page, I am sure it can do all four.
My
> question is, is this the best way to do this?  Is there a daemon that I
can
> run to do this for me so I can be notified of new mail without having to
> have mutt up to hear about it?
>
> Thanks a lot!
> Chris
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> 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
>

Re: popping mail

[William F. Acker WB2FLW +1-303-777-8123]

Now why would you say that, Thomas, Why?

     Amanda: to use pop3 with pine, set your inbox variable in pine to 
something like: {pop.isp.com/pop3}inbox note the braces.
This assumes that your username on the server is the same as it is on the 
local system.  If it isn't do: 
{pop.isp.com/pop3/user=remote_user_name}inbox
It's possible that the server also supports IMAP.  In that case just leave 
off the /pop3 part.  Imap is much nicer.  It's even possible to set Pine 
to use all your remote folders as if they were local with IMAP.



          HTH.
          Bill


On Sun, 3 Feb 2002, Thomas Ward wrote:

> Hi, amanda. Pine doesn't support pop3. It's something they simply haven't
> done.
> So you have to use something like fetchmail to retreave the mail, or change
> your inbox path to the server where your mail gets kept.

Re: popping mail

[Richard Wells]

While we are on the subject of Pine, Assumming one is using Pico as the
editor, is it possible to cut more than one line at a time when replying
to the list? This is probably somewhere in help, but I have not been able
to find it sso far.

Thanks

Re: popping mail

[Janina Sajka]

Of course. Use Ctrl-6 (on the top row, not on the numeric keypad) to mark 
the beginning of the text you want to cut. Move to the point you want to 
cut to and press Ctrl-k.

If, later, you want to retrieve that text somewhere else in your message, 
move your cursor to that point and press Ctrl-y. You can issue Ctrl-y as 
often as you like.
 On Sun, 3 Feb 2002, Richard Wells wrote:

> While we are on the subject of Pine, Assumming one is using Pico as the
> editor, is it possible to cut more than one line at a time when replying
> to the list? This is probably somewhere in help, but I have not been able
> to find it sso far.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> 

-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina@afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175

Chair, Accessibility SIG
Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
http://www.openebook.org

Re: popping mail

[Buddy Brannan]

Yep.

Mark the beginning of your block to cut with ctrl-6

Move to the end of the block

Press ctrl-k

Voila...
-- 
Buddy Brannan, KB5ELV/3  | I choose you to take up all of my time.
Email: davros@ycardz.com | I choose you because you're funny and kind
                         | I want easy people from now on.
                         | --the Nields

Re: popping mail

[Charles Hallenbeck]

Richard -

You can mark a block and then delete the entire block in the pine
composer. At the beginning of the block you mark it with "ctrl-^"
and then at the end you delete it with "ctrl-K".

HTH - Chuck


On Sun, 3 Feb 2002, Richard Wells wrote:

> While we are on the subject of Pine, Assumming one is using Pico as the
> editor, is it possible to cut more than one line at a time when replying
> to the list? This is probably somewhere in help, but I have not been able
> to find it sso far.
>
> Thanks
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

Visit me now at http://www.valstar.net/~hallenbeck
The Moon is Waning Gibbous (51% of Full)

Re: popping mail

[Charles Hallenbeck]

Caution - Janina meant to say "ctrl-U" to Undo a deletion.

On Sun, 3 Feb 2002, Janina Sajka wrote:

> Of course. Use Ctrl-6 (on the top row, not on the numeric keypad) to mark
> the beginning of the text you want to cut. Move to the point you want to
> cut to and press Ctrl-k.
>
> If, later, you want to retrieve that text somewhere else in your message,
> move your cursor to that point and press Ctrl-y. You can issue Ctrl-y as
> often as you like.
>  On Sun, 3 Feb 2002, Richard Wells wrote:
>
> > While we are on the subject of Pine, Assumming one is using Pico as the
> > editor, is it possible to cut more than one line at a time when replying
> > to the list? This is probably somewhere in help, but I have not been able
> > to find it sso far.
> >
> > Thanks
> >
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Speakup mailing list
> > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> >
>
> --
>
> 				Janina Sajka, Director
> 				Technology Research and Development
> 				Governmental Relations Group
> 				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)
>
> Email: janina@afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175
>
> Chair, Accessibility SIG
> Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
> http://www.openebook.org
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

Visit me now at http://www.valstar.net/~hallenbeck
The Moon is Waning Gibbous (51% of Full)

Re: popping mail

[Steve Holmes]

Yes, I especially like this so I can read my mail, currently housed on my
linux mail server at home, from several different machines including one I
use at work running pc Pine for Winblows.  Can I do imap with mutt? if
not, I'll have to stick with pine.  I'm curious about mutt but if I go
pop3, I lose this flexibility I mentioned above.

On Sun, 3 Feb 2002, William F. Acker WB2FLW +1-303-777-8123 wrote:

> Now why would you say that, Thomas, Why?
>
>      Amanda: to use pop3 with pine, set your inbox variable in pine to
> something like: {pop.isp.com/pop3}inbox note the braces.
> This assumes that your username on the server is the same as it is on the
> local system.  If it isn't do:
> {pop.isp.com/pop3/user=remote_user_name}inbox
> It's possible that the server also supports IMAP.  In that case just leave
> off the /pop3 part.  Imap is much nicer.  It's even possible to set Pine
> to use all your remote folders as if they were local with IMAP.
>
>
>
>           HTH.
>           Bill
>
>
> On Sun, 3 Feb 2002, Thomas Ward wrote:
>
> > Hi, amanda. Pine doesn't support pop3. It's something they simply haven't
> > done.
> > So you have to use something like fetchmail to retreave the mail, or change
> > your inbox path to the server where your mail gets kept.
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

Re: popping mail

[Frank Carmickle]

On Mon, 4 Feb 2002, Steve Holmes wrote:
> use at work running pc Pine for Winblows.  Can I do imap with mutt? if

Mutt does support imap.

-- 
     Frank Carmickle
phone:     412 761-9568
email:     frankiec@dryrose.com

Re: popping mail

[Amanda Lee]

Does mutt or some other Linux email client?

Amanda


----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas Ward" <tward@bright.net>
To: <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2002 6:19 PM
Subject: Re: popping mail


Hi, amanda. Pine doesn't support pop3. It's something they simply haven't
done.
So you have to use something like fetchmail to retreave the mail, or change
your inbox path to the server where your mail gets kept.

----- Original Message -----
From: Amanda Lee <amanda@shellworld.net>
To: <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2002 5:37 PM
Subject: Re: popping mail


> I'd like to know how to do this in pine as I can't figure out how to point
> to other pop3 servers or is this what they mean by incoming folders?
>
> Amanda Lee
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Chris Peterson" <capeterson@visi.com>
> To: <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
> Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2002 2:20 AM
> Subject: popping mail
>
>
> Hi all,
>
> I've been doing some playing and I definetly love mutt.  Thanks to buddy
and
> Chris for their information.
>
> Btw, since I believe this was brought up earlier, The default key to
toggle
> display of headers is a lower-case h.  So, if there is an "ignore *" line
in
> .muttrc, you can use the h key to display the headers of a message if you
> want to see them for some reason.
>
> Okay, so here is my question.
>
> Currently I'm popping all my mail (from four accounts) so I can check it
and
> manage it in one place.  So, what would be the best way to do this in
> gnu/linux?
>
> I think I saw someone mention this a while back, but I'm feeling lazy.
>
> I've also figured out how to get mutt to pop from one account and, from
what
> I've read, which isn't the whole man page, I am sure it can do all four.
My
> question is, is this the best way to do this?  Is there a daemon that I
can
> run to do this for me so I can be notified of new mail without having to
> have mutt up to hear about it?
>
> Thanks a lot!
> Chris
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> 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
>


_______________________________________________
Speakup mailing list
Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: popping mail

[Amanda Lee]

I'm behind on mail here so this may have been answered so bare with the
duplicity.


This works for pico and pine:


Go to the beginning of the block that you want to cut;

press ctrl plus shift plus number key which has the percent sign "%";" most
times it's the 5 key;

arrow down to the end of the block/I like this because you do not have to
hold down the shift key as you must do in WindBlows;

press ctrl plus k;

block is cut.

To retrieve this block:

press ctrl plus u and this block you cut will be retrieved to the position
where your cursor is and you willl see the last character to the left of
cursor..

Amanda Lee


----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Wells" <richwels@tampabay.rr.com>
To: <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2002 9:06 PM
Subject: Re: popping mail


While we are on the subject of Pine, Assumming one is using Pico as the
editor, is it possible to cut more than one line at a time when replying
to the list? This is probably somewhere in help, but I have not been able
to find it sso far.

Thanks



_______________________________________________
Speakup mailing list
Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: popping mail

[Amanda Lee]

O' and I went into rabbit mode! ha! and I meant the "^" which is typically
above the 6.

Amanda


----- Original Message -----
From: "Amanda Lee" <amanda@shellworld.net>
To: <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Monday, February 04, 2002 2:01 PM
Subject: Re: popping mail


I'm behind on mail here so this may have been answered so bare with the
duplicity.


This works for pico and pine:


Go to the beginning of the block that you want to cut;

press ctrl plus shift plus number key which has the percent sign "%";" most
times it's the 5 key;

arrow down to the end of the block/I like this because you do not have to
hold down the shift key as you must do in WindBlows;

press ctrl plus k;

block is cut.

To retrieve this block:

press ctrl plus u and this block you cut will be retrieved to the position
where your cursor is and you willl see the last character to the left of
cursor..

Amanda Lee


----- Original Message -----
From: "Richard Wells" <richwels@tampabay.rr.com>
To: <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2002 9:06 PM
Subject: Re: popping mail


While we are on the subject of Pine, Assumming one is using Pico as the
editor, is it possible to cut more than one line at a time when replying
to the list? This is probably somewhere in help, but I have not been able
to find it sso far.

Thanks



_______________________________________________
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

Re: popping mail

[Janina Sajka]

On Mon, 4 Feb 2002, Charles Hallenbeck wrote:

> 
> Caution - Janina meant to say "ctrl-U" to Undo a deletion.
Indeed I did, Chuck. Thanks for clarifying this. Guess I was getting 
confused with Emacs' "yank" command! <grin> 

U, Y, they're right next to each other, do you think they could get along?

> 
> On Sun, 3 Feb 2002, Janina Sajka wrote:
> 
> > Of course. Use Ctrl-6 (on the top row, not on the numeric keypad) to mark
> > the beginning of the text you want to cut. Move to the point you want to
> > cut to and press Ctrl-k.
> >
> > If, later, you want to retrieve that text somewhere else in your message,
> > move your cursor to that point and press Ctrl-y. You can issue Ctrl-y as
> > often as you like.
> >  On Sun, 3 Feb 2002, Richard Wells wrote:
> >
> > > While we are on the subject of Pine, Assumming one is using Pico as the
> > > editor, is it possible to cut more than one line at a time when replying
> > > to the list? This is probably somewhere in help, but I have not been able
> > > to find it sso far.
> > >
> > > Thanks
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > _______________________________________________
> > > Speakup mailing list
> > > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> > >
> >
> > --
> >
> > 				Janina Sajka, Director
> > 				Technology Research and Development
> > 				Governmental Relations Group
> > 				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)
> >
> > Email: janina@afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175
> >
> > Chair, Accessibility SIG
> > Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
> > http://www.openebook.org
> >
> >
> > _______________________________________________
> > Speakup mailing list
> > Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> > http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> >
> 
> Visit me now at http://www.valstar.net/~hallenbeck
> The Moon is Waning Gibbous (51% of Full)
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> 

-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina@afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175

Chair, Accessibility SIG
Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
http://www.openebook.org

Re: popping mail

[Richard Wells]

Here is another Pine question. What would I have to do to get Pine to use
aprogram such as ispell to spell check out-going messages?

Thanks

Re: popping mail

[Janina Sajka]

Go into the pine configuration menu and tell it to. Do a Ctrl-W search on 
"spell." 
On Mon, 4 Feb 2002, Richard Wells wrote:

> Here is another Pine question. What would I have to do to get Pine to use
> aprogram such as ispell to spell check out-going messages?
> 
> Thanks
> 
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
> 

-- 
	
				Janina Sajka, Director
				Technology Research and Development
				Governmental Relations Group
				American Foundation for the Blind (AFB)

Email: janina@afb.net		Phone: (202) 408-8175

Chair, Accessibility SIG
Open Electronic Book Forum (OEBF)
http://www.openebook.org

Re: popping mail

[Charles Hallenbeck]

Richard -

I did this for myself recently, and it was not that difficult.
You need to do two things:

1. create a script which runs  an editor and then runs the
spellchecker. You can run any editor you choose, pico for
instance, or another editor if you wish. I run 'nano' instead of
pico, and my script is given below. Put the script in
/usr/local/bin or some other place on your path, and be sure it
has execute permissions.

2. In the pine setup/configuration menu, go to
"invoke-alternate-editor-implicitly and check it. Then you must
give the name of your script, including its path, so that you are
actually invoking the script instead of the editor directly.

That is all there is to it. Of course there is a "ctrl-T" command
in the pine composer that invokes the spell checker, but you have
to remember to do that, and if you are like me you will either
not remember or will be so confident that you choose not to!!!

Here is the script, which you can modify and maybe simplify if
you wish:

----------
#!/bin/bash
if [ "$1" = "" ]; then
echo Please include a file name
else
touch $1
/usr/local/bin/nano -R -k -p -x -r65 $1
/usr/bin/ispell -x $1
fi
----------

Good luck
Chuck


On Mon, 4 Feb 2002, Richard Wells wrote:

> Here is another Pine question. What would I have to do to get Pine to use
> aprogram such as ispell to spell check out-going messages?
>
> Thanks
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Speakup mailing list
> Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
> http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup
>

Visit me now at http://www.valstar.net/~hallenbeck
The Moon is Waning Crescent (41% of Full)

Re: popping mail

[Amanda Lee]

I should have read forward that is provided the ISP will allow me to do
this.  Obviously if running on my own box, then that's okay.

Amanda Lee

----- Original Message -----
From: <gshang@uq.net.au>
To: <speakup@braille.uwo.ca>
Sent: Sunday, February 03, 2002 2:57 AM
Subject: Re: popping mail


Hi:

IMHO, the easiest way to do what you want is to use fetchmail to pop your
mail down for you.  It is very easy to configure, however you also need a
working SMTP server which will accept messages from localhost for your
account, which may be a more fiddly operation.

Here is a sample .fetchmailrc file, with the password removed.

set daemon 300

poll fox.uq.net.au with protocol pop3:
username zzshangg
password "notshown"
fetchall, nokeep

This is pretty easy to understand.  The set daemon 300 tells fetchmail to
run in daemon mode and check for mail every 300 seconds (5 minutes).  In
the above example, the word "with" is included for clarity.  When testing
this, I'd change the "nokeep" to "keep" until you're sure that mail isn't
being downloaded and promptly being lost in the local delivery side of
things.

Make a file in your home directory called .fetchmailrc and make it only
readable and writeable by you.  If you don't, fetchmail will  refuse to
use it as the password for your pop3 account will have been compromised.
Then all you have to do is type "fetchmail" at the prompt and it will
begin running.  If you type "fetchmail" again at any time, it will stop
waiting for the required duration between checks and check immediately.
"fetchmail -q" will kill off the fetchmail process.  If you ever want to
see what fetchmail is doing, kill it off, then run "fetchmail -Nv".
Warning, this can generate a lot of output if you are expecting a lot of
mail, but it's very useful to see why mail isn't coming down.
Occasionally, fetchmail will get into a funny state and you will need to
restart it.  Such is life.

Checking multiple accounts is easy.  I have a second entry in my file that
looks like this:

poll pop-server.qld.bigpond.net.au with protocol pop3:
username gshang
password "notshown"
fetchall, nokeep

You can have as many of these as you want.  Fetchmail will check them all
at the specified interval.

Hope this helps.

Geoff.


_______________________________________________
Speakup mailing list
Speakup@braille.uwo.ca
http://speech.braille.uwo.ca/mailman/listinfo/speakup

Re: popping mail

[gshang]

Hi:

IMHO, the easiest way to do what you want is to use fetchmail to pop your 
mail down for you.  It is very easy to configure, however you also need a 
working SMTP server which will accept messages from localhost for your 
account, which may be a more fiddly operation.

Here is a sample .fetchmailrc file, with the password removed.

set daemon 300

poll fox.uq.net.au with protocol pop3:
	username zzshangg
	password "notshown"
	fetchall, nokeep

This is pretty easy to understand.  The set daemon 300 tells fetchmail to
run in daemon mode and check for mail every 300 seconds (5 minutes).  In
the above example, the word "with" is included for clarity.  When testing
this, I'd change the "nokeep" to "keep" until you're sure that mail isn't
being downloaded and promptly being lost in the local delivery side of
things.

Make a file in your home directory called .fetchmailrc and make it only 
readable and writeable by you.  If you don't, fetchmail will  refuse to 
use it as the password for your pop3 account will have been compromised.  
Then all you have to do is type "fetchmail" at the prompt and it will 
begin running.  If you type "fetchmail" again at any time, it will stop 
waiting for the required duration between checks and check immediately.  
"fetchmail -q" will kill off the fetchmail process.  If you ever want to 
see what fetchmail is doing, kill it off, then run "fetchmail -Nv".  
Warning, this can generate a lot of output if you are expecting a lot of 
mail, but it's very useful to see why mail isn't coming down.  
Occasionally, fetchmail will get into a funny state and you will need to 
restart it.  Such is life.

Checking multiple accounts is easy.  I have a second entry in my file that 
looks like this:

poll pop-server.qld.bigpond.net.au with protocol pop3:
	username gshang
	password "notshown"
	fetchall, nokeep

You can have as many of these as you want.  Fetchmail will check them all 
at the specified interval.

Hope this helps.

Geoff.