[comp.unix.questions] .forward problem

lm03_cif@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (Larry Moss) (11/01/90)

According to documention, man pages, and several other people I know, I
should be able to have my mail sent to me and through a program if my
.forward looks like:
	\lm03_cif,"|/u/cif/lm03_cif/prog"

When I do this, I do get a copy of the mail, but the second copy bounces
back with the error "unknown mailer 1".  I also get "getwd: can't stat .".
The program is readable and executable by world.  The directory it's in
is executable by world and every parent directory to that is executable.
Oh, this is on SunOS 4.0.3.  I hope that's enough information.

Does anyone have any suggestions?

thanks for any help,
Larry
-- 
lm03_cif@uhura.cc.rochester.edu / CLARKE'S THIRD LAW:
lmo3_ss@db1.cc.rochester.edu   / Any sufficiently advanced technology is
lmo3_ss@uordbv.bitnet         / indistinguishable from magic.

merlyn@iwarp.intel.com (Randal Schwartz) (11/01/90)

In article <10161@ur-cc.UUCP>, lm03_cif@uhura (Larry Moss) writes:
| According to documention, man pages, and several other people I know, I
| should be able to have my mail sent to me and through a program if my
| .forward looks like:
| 	\lm03_cif,"|/u/cif/lm03_cif/prog"
| 
| When I do this, I do get a copy of the mail, but the second copy bounces
| back with the error "unknown mailer 1".  I also get "getwd: can't stat .".
| The program is readable and executable by world.  The directory it's in
| is executable by world and every parent directory to that is executable.
| Oh, this is on SunOS 4.0.3.  I hope that's enough information.
| 
| Does anyone have any suggestions?

We had that problem until I noticed that some bozo had made the "prog"
mailer csh (blech) in the sendmail.cf.  When I removed that, things
went away.  As a further guess, lemme suggest that maybe your program
is a csh script, and that you shouldn't do that unless *all* the
directories to the script are *readable* as well as executable, since
the script will run "setuid you", and csh's pwd will have problems
unless the dirs are "rx" at least.

If it's neither of those, mail me back, cuz I really like to be told
when I'm wrong (he says, setting himself up for a flame :-).

And by the way, *my* mail handler is a Perl script.  :-)

Just another mail handler,
-- 
/=Randal L. Schwartz, Stonehenge Consulting Services (503)777-0095 ==========\
| on contract to Intel's iWarp project, Beaverton, Oregon, USA, Sol III      |
| merlyn@iwarp.intel.com ...!any-MX-mailer-like-uunet!iwarp.intel.com!merlyn |
\=Cute Quote: "Intel put the 'backward' in 'backward compatible'..."=========/

lwall@jpl-devvax.JPL.NASA.GOV (Larry Wall) (11/02/90)

In article <1990Nov1.013706.12652@iwarp.intel.com> merlyn@iwarp.intel.com (Randal Schwartz) writes:
: And by the way, *my* mail handler is a Perl script.  :-)

Gee, so's mine.  What a coincidence!   :-)

Larry Wall
lwall@jpl-devvax.jpl.nasa.gov