[net.sources.d] checkmail: Unneccessarily complicated?

badri@ur-valhalla.UUCP (Badri Lokanathan) (08/15/86)

There have been several postings to net.sources about utilities to
check one's /usr/spool/mail/* file for current mail without having
to get into mail. What I dont understand is why not simply use egrep
or sed to examine the file? They are fast enough ..

e.g. egrep '^From:|^Subject:' /usr/spool/mail/user
seems to work fine.

tim@hoptoad.uucp (Tim Maroney) suggests storing a file which would
be used as a timestamp to check for an update on the spool file. A
sed or egrep line could be tacked on.
-- 
"It's better to burn out     ^   ^     ARPA: ur-valhalla!badri@rochester.arpa
 Than it is to rust;          . .      UUCP: {bullwinkle,cmcl2,columbia,cornell,
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 Till I turn to dust."        ^^^            !rochester!ur-valhalla!badri