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Date:      Thu, 25 Mar 1999 03:26:27 -0700
From:      Steve Carter <scarter@globalcenter.net>
To:        trout2 <trout2@advancenet.net>
Cc:        Freebsd <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Re: using fetchmail
Message-ID:  <19990325032627.A7607@globalcenter.net>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.05.9903250307540.1236-100000@trout.in.the.milky.way.org>; from trout2 on Thu, Mar 25, 1999 at 03:11:28AM -0600
References:  <36F9C2C2.4EC1DBA3@lvdi.net> <Pine.BSF.4.05.9903250307540.1236-100000@trout.in.the.milky.way.org>

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Fetchmail 'pops' your mail and then delivers it to you via port 25 and
whatever SMTP mail software you listening there, usually sendmail.  The
SMTP mail software puts the mail wherever your system is configured to put
it, usually /var/mail/<username>.  This is excellent, because if you use
procmail, or some other mail filtering/dispositioning software, it works
riggh out of the box without non-standard configuration.

I don't want this to sound too snotty, but your question about whether
/var/mail will fill up is stupid.  A general rule about file systems (and
just about anything else for that matter): 

'If you continue to put stuff in them, and never remove anything they will
eventually fill up and the time it takes to fill up depends on how big
it is and how fast you put stuff in'.

Therefore, if you read your mail and delete the stuff you don't want any
longer then, chances are, your /var filesystem will not fill up.  If you
are really concerned, us the 'df' utility to watch your filesystem usage
and start deleting/moving emails if the file system utilization gets
scary.

-Steve

trout2 wrote:
> 
> hey there:
> 
>  i have just set up my machine to download my mail from my isp using
> fetchmail. i have two questions:
> 
> where does fetchmail put the mail
> and
> do i need to periodically delete mail that builds up in this place?
> 
> i'm pretty sure that it puts the messages in /var/mail
> but will this fill up eventually?
> 
> thanks
> -aaron
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
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