[comp.mail.misc] Can I use the "filter" program?

chip@ateng.ateng.com (Chip Salzenberg) (06/02/89)

[Followups directed to comp.mail.misc]

According to jeff@cjsa.WA.COM (Jeffery Small):
>I am running smail 2.5 under elm and need to automatically forward a set of
>mail messages which match a certain pattern, to another site.  Is there any
>way to get "filter" working without running sendmail or is there another
>method of achieving the same result?

Filter may work.

IMHO, a better solution is the "deliver" program, which by some mysterious
coincidence was written by yours truly.  With deliver, you write shell
script(s) which are executed for each incoming message.  Those shell scripts
control what is done with the message.  Forwarding based on sender,
recipient, contents, time of day, phase of moon, etcetera, etcetera are a
SMOSP (Small Matter Of Shell Programming).

Deliver is currently at patchlevel eight.  It's available via anonymous UUCP
from ateng.  Here are the files in ~uucp/deliver:

  -rw-r--r--   1 network    26101 Feb 15 20:36 deliver.01.Z
  -rw-r--r--   1 network    18446 Feb 15 20:36 deliver.02.Z
  -rw-r--r--   1 network    21081 Feb 15 20:36 deliver.03.Z

Here is an L.sys (Systems) entry:

  ateng Any ACU 2400 18138824934 ogin:--ogin:--ogin: nuucp

-- 
Chip Salzenberg             <chip@ateng.com> or <uunet!ateng!chip>
A T Engineering             Me?  Speak for my company?  Surely you jest!
	  "It's no good.  They're tapping the lines."

dheller@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Dan Heller) (06/02/89)

In article <1989Jun1.193715.908@ateng.ateng.com> chip@ateng.ateng.com (Chip Salzenberg) writes:
> According to jeff@cjsa.WA.COM (Jeffery Small):
> >I am running smail 2.5 under elm and need to automatically forward a set of
> >mail messages which match a certain pattern, to another site.  Is there any
> >way to get "filter" working without running sendmail or is there another
> >method of achieving the same result?
> 
> IMHO, a better solution is the "deliver" program, which by some mysterious

Why is a separte program necessary?  I don't know-- I think I should
really get and build Elm so I know what I'm talking about when it comes
to issues like this.  but in mush, all you have to do is:

pick -s "pattern" | mail -f <address>

This forwards all messages matching a particular pattern to another site.
Dan Heller	<island!argv@sun.com>

chip@vector.Dallas.TX.US (Chip Rosenthal) (06/02/89)

dheller@cory.Berkeley.EDU.UUCP (Dan Heller) writes:
>chip@ateng.ateng.com (Chip Salzenberg) writes:
>> IMHO, a better solution is the "deliver" program
>Why is a separte program necessary?

Because "deliver" is a very powerful generalized tool.  It just happens
that it solves the original problem very nicely.  I've got an entire
system for gatewaying an Internet mailing list into USENET built upon
deliver.
-- 
Chip Rosenthal / chip@vector.Dallas.TX.US / Dallas Semiconductor / 214-450-5337
"I wish you'd put that starvation box down and go to bed" - Albert Collins' Mom

chip@ateng.ateng.com (Chip Salzenberg) (06/04/89)

According to dheller@cory.Berkeley.EDU (Dan Heller):
>Why is a separte program necessary?  I don't know-- I think I should
>really get and build Elm so I know what I'm talking about when it comes
>to issues like this.  but in mush, all you have to do is:
>
>pick -s "pattern" | mail -f <address>
>
>This forwards all messages matching a particular pattern to another site.

Elm is quite capable of taking an already-arrived message and sending a copy
of it to another user.  The "bounce" command performs that function.

However, the original question referred to the "filter" program, provided
with Elm, which forwards mail *at the time of its arrival*.  My pointer to
deliver is based on my own (biased) opinion that deliver is a better solution
than filter to the forward-on-arrival problem.

jim@tiamat.fsc.com (Jim O'Connor) (06/04/89)

In article <1989Jun1.193715.908@ateng.ateng.com>, chip@ateng.ateng.com (Chip Salzenberg) writes:
> [Followups directed to comp.mail.misc]
>
> According to jeff@cjsa.WA.COM (Jeffery Small):
> >I am running smail 2.5 under elm and need to automatically forward a set of
> >mail messages which match a certain pattern, to another site.  Is there any
> >way to get "filter" working without running sendmail or is there another
> >method of achieving the same result?
> 
> Filter may work.
> 
> IMHO, a better solution is the "deliver" program, which by some mysterious
> coincidence was written by yours truly.  With deliver, you write shell

Just so Chip doesn't have to blow his own horn all the time, I'll add my
opinion.  I have found that "deliver" is more reliable (i.e. mail actually
gets handled the way you want it to), more flexible (I've done things with
deliver that I don't see a equivalent for in filter), and is easier to set
up than filter.  I like the summaries that filter produces, but you can
create log files by way of the shell scripts you use with "deliver", so you
can actually keep different logs of different types of mail handling.

I have also noticed some of the filter rules don't always work as advertised.
With deliver, there are no "rules" only actions directed by the code in
your shell scripts.  You define your own rules.
------------- 
James B. O'Connor			jim@tiamat.fsc.com
Filtration Sciences Corporation		615/821-4022 x. 651

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