ccandrew@brolga.cc.uq.oz.au (Andrew Vellnagel) (02/19/91)
I am using Sun OS 4.1 and the mail system is mmdf. In my .login I
issue the command 'biff y' yet when mail is sent to me I am not informed.
Could someone please shed some light as to why this is. Could you please
E-mail me any responses. If anyone else is having this problem let me know
and I will compile any answers I get and post to this group.
Thanks in advance,
Andrew Vellnagel.
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Internet: ccandrew@brolga.cc.uq.oz.au Phone: +61 7 365 4115
Postal: Andrew Vellnagel, Prentice Computer Centre
The University of Queensland, St Lucia, QLD Australia 4072.rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) (02/23/91)
In article <8671@gollum.twg.com> david@twg.com (David S. Herron) writes: >In article <1991Feb19.073900.13631@brolga.cc.uq.oz.au> ccandrew@brolga.cc.uq.oz.au (Andrew Vellnagel) writes: >> I am using Sun OS 4.1 and the mail system is mmdf. In my .login I >>issue the command 'biff y' yet when mail is sent to me I am not informed. > >Well.. for biff (and his good buddy comsat) to work there is a tiny >little protocol the MTA is supposed to use when delivering the message. >That protocol is a sendmail-ism, but possibly a useful sendmail-ism. >On the other hand nobody ever taught that protocol to MMDF ... (lack of time..?) The actual 'biff' is done at the direction of /bin/mail as it delivers the mail to the mailbox. It sends a message to 'comsat'. The /bin/mail sources are distributed with sendmail sources, so it is easy to extract the details of how you do this. A common problem, however, is that on Sun's often the mail is delivered on a file server, whereas you are logged into a different client work station. Even getting the standard 'biff' code working will not help you in this situation, as only those logged into the server are biffed. (I guess you could open a window to rlogin to the server, and just use that window for biff messages). -- =*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*=*= Neil W. Rickert, Computer Science <rickert@cs.niu.edu> Northern Illinois Univ. DeKalb, IL 60115 +1-815-753-6940
palkovic@linac.fnal.gov (John A. Palkovic) (02/23/91)
In article <1991Feb22.192111.23979@mp.cs.niu.edu> rickert@mp.cs.niu.edu (Neil Rickert) writes: >>In article <1991Feb19.073900.13631@brolga.cc.uq.oz.au> >> ccandrew@brolga.cc.uq.oz.au (Andrew Vellnagel) writes: >>> I am using Sun OS 4.1 and the mail system is mmdf. In my .login I >>>issue the command 'biff y' yet when mail is sent to me I am not informed. >[...] > A common problem, however, is that on Sun's often the mail is delivered on >a file server, whereas you are logged into a different client work station. Another problem is that there is a bug in SunOS 4.1 in.comsat. It is tickled when your username has eight chars (like palkovic or ccandrew). The upshot is you don't get biff'ed, even if you have done a "biff y." You can get the source for in.comsat from uunet and roll your own or get the patch from Sun. If anyone wants the home rolled version for a Sparc send me mail. This was posted in comp.sys.sun a few weeks ago: ----------- |From: dmk@reykjavik.njin.net (David M. Katinsky) |Newsgroups: comp.sys.sun |Subject: Re: Sun 4.1.1 'biff y' problem :-( |Message-ID: <1500@brchh104.bnr.ca> |Date: 28 Jan 91 21:32:42 GMT |X-Refs: Original: v10n31 |X-Sun-Spots-Digest: Volume 10, Issue 31, message 5 |X-Note: Submissions: sun-spots@rice.edu, Admin: sun-spots-request@rice.edu shahryar@eris.berkeley.edu (Persian Nightmare) writes: >I have a problem with the 'biff y' command on our Sun 4.1.1 system. Ever >since we have switched to Sun 4.1 OS, I have never been able to get the >'biff y' command to work. The weird thing is that only a few users does >this command work for, and for some it doesn't {including our Sys Admin}. I sent a source-code bug fix to Sun. It is filed as bug id 1047697. If memory serves (and it's been several months) the problem affects users with 8 character usernames. David M. Katinsky dmk@pilot.njin.net, dmk@njin.BITNET, {njin, rutgers}!dmk -- palkovic@linac.fnal.gov || {royko,tellab5,simon}!linac!palkovic