Date: Sat, 6 Jul 1996 14:54:24 -0700 (PDT) From: Annelise Anderson <andrsn@andrsn.stanford.edu> To: James Raynard <fqueries@jraynard.demon.co.uk> Cc: root@andrsn.stanford.edu, zach@blizzard.gaffaneys.com, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG, jfieber@indiana.edu Subject: Re: Sorting Incoming Mail Message-ID: <Pine.BSI.3.94.960706141539.12893A-100000@andrsn.stanford.edu> In-Reply-To: <199607041526.PAA01288@jraynard.demon.co.uk>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Thu, 4 Jul 1996, James Raynard wrote:
> Indeed! (BTW did you know there's an Emacs for VMS?)
Forgive me for not being wildly enthusiastic. <:)
>
> > What I don't quite get is subscribing to different groups under
> > different names--e.g., instead of subscribing to doc as andrsn@
> > andrsn.stanford.edu, I'd subscribe as fdocs@andrsn.stanford.edu,
> > create a user (without a valid shell or some such, so even if the
> > user had a password it would never need to be used) named fdocs,
>
> It's probably a good idea to put an asterisk in the password field
> if you want to prevent anyone from logging in as that user. (Not
> strictly necessary if they have an invalid shell, but a useful extra
> precaution).
>
> > and then use procmail to sort all mail to fdocs into the
> > appropriate folder/file in /usr/home/andrsn. Is that how people
> > do it?
>
> I'm too lazy to learn how to use procmail, and I keep meaning to get
> around to setting up GNUS. At the moment, I just log in as each
> pseudo-user and read their mail, but Zach's posting has inspired me to
> have a go at finally sorting this out.
>
> James Raynard, Edinburgh, Scotland
I figured out how to do this (with pine 3.94, which provides "access
to mailboxes in accounts with a different log-in name." Not using
system-wide procmail, just a .procmailrc file and a .forward file
in each user's home directory.
I created a group called rmail and made rmail the group owner of the
other users' mailboxes and log files (defaults defined in .procmailrc),
and made the files group readable and writable. I put myself ("andrsn",
the reading user) in the rmail group. This works for a user
with a valid shell and password, and also for a user without a password
(with a * in the password field, as you recommend). However the user
without a valid password ("maildrop) nevertheless needs a valid shell;
otherwise can't receive mail.
Then I added an incoming mail box (in pine) for the "real" user and
the "maildrop" user....so this should work in any mail program that
lets you access files in someone else's home directory, assuming the
ownership and permissions allow it.
Annelise
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?Pine.BSI.3.94.960706141539.12893A-100000>