johnb@HOBBES.MDC.COM (John Breen) (06/04/91)
I've recently subscribed to the mailing-list form of this newsgroup, since I don't have USENET access anymore (end of the semester, you know). However, mail isn't quite as nice as news. Is there any mail reader, sendmail configuration file, or other tricks that can make mail look more like news? In particular, I would like to: o automatically separate the mail from this mailing list (and others I may subscribe to) from my "personal" mail, and put it in separate mailboxes. In retrospect, it may have been better to have the mailing list mail sent to a "dummy" account. o read the mail with a mail reader that has some of the capabilities of rn, particularly the ability to follow "threads". Also, since I plan to make the mail available for others to read, something that keeps track of the read messages for each user (like rn does) would be nice. o automatically delete messages from the mailbox after a period of time. I'm willing to entertain any suggestions. Thanks for any help. ----- John A. Breen | johnb@hobbes.mdc.com McDonnell Douglas Missile Systems Co. | Tel: (314)234-4341
jwm@SUN4.JHUAPL.EDU (James W. Meritt) (06/05/91)
Are you running on a unix box? If so: >o automatically separate the mail from this mailing list (and others I may >subscribe to) from my "personal" mail, and put it in separate mailboxes. In >retrospect, it may have been better to have the mailing list mail sent to a >"dummy" account. This is easy. >o read the mail with a mail reader that has some of the capabilities of rn, >particularly the ability to follow "threads". Also, since I plan to make the >mail available for others to read, something that keeps track of the read >messages for each user (like rn does) would be nice. That would be a cute trick >o automatically delete messages from the mailbox after a period of time. Not so surce that I'd want that done in the first place... Jim Meritt
glenn@bitstream.com (Glenn P. Parker) (06/05/91)
In article <9106041612.AA11382@hobbes.mdc.com> johnb@HOBBES.MDC.COM (John Breen) writes: > o read the mail with a mail reader that has some of the capabilities of rn, > particularly the ability to follow "threads". Also, since I plan to make the > mail available for others to read, something that keeps track of the read > messages for each user (like rn does) would be nice. I can't offer a solution, only an approach. Why not write (or find) a filter that bursts the contents of your mailbox into the directory-based format used under /usr/spool/news? Then you can just go back to using your usual news reader. -- Glenn P. Parker glenn@bitstream.com Bitstream, Inc. uunet!huxley!glenn 215 First Street BIX: parker Cambridge, MA 02142-1270
rand@hwcae.cfsat.honeywell.com (Douglas K. Rand) (06/05/91)
** johnb@hobbes.mdc.com (John Breen) on 5 Jun 91 00:39:58 GMT
** in [Can I make mail look like news?] writes:
John> I've recently subscribed to the mailing-list form of this
John> newsgroup, since I don't have USENET access anymore (end of the
John> semester, you know). However, mail isn't quite as nice as news.
John> Is there any mail reader, sendmail configuration file, or other
John> tricks that can make mail look more like news?
You don't really have to make mail look like news, just install news
and pump your mail into news. We don't have a Usenet feed either
(yet). We are using News locally for "communications".
John> In retrospect, it may have been better to have the mailing list
John> mail sent to a "dummy" account.
This is how we do it. For every mailing list we subscribe to that more
than one person is interested in (and for a few that only I am
interested in :-) we created news groups for them.
For example, I read your article in our mailing-lists.apollo news
group. To do this, create an alias in your /usr/lib/aliases file that
looks something like:
apollo: "| /usr/local/lib/news/recnews mailing-lists.apollo"
And then tell the list maintainer to change your address to this new
alias. All of a sudden you have your mail in news. We are getting
about half a dozen mailing lists this way.
(The recnews program is part of B-news. I don't think C-news has
anthing that works like it yet. But then, I'm not a C-news expert.)
The draw back is that you cannot post to the news group. You have to
send mail. This isn't too awfully bad for us, as most of the folks
reading news are "reasonably intellegent". (Oh, they are reading this
too. Hi folks!)
--
Douglas Keenan Rand Honeywell -- Air Transport Systems Division
Phone: +1 602 436 2814 US Snail: P.O. Box 21111 Phoenix AZ 85036
InterNet: rand@hwcae.cfsat.honeywell.com UUCP: uunet!asuvax!apciphx!hwcae!randdpassage@tornado.Berkeley.EDU (David G. Paschich) (06/06/91)
In article <9106051541.AA20182@hwcae.cfsat.honeywell.com> rand@hwcae.cfsat.honeywell.com (Douglas K. Rand) writes: >** johnb@hobbes.mdc.com (John Breen) on 5 Jun 91 00:39:58 GMT >** in [Can I make mail look like news?] writes: > >John> I've recently subscribed to the mailing-list form of this >John> newsgroup, since I don't have USENET access anymore (end of the >John> semester, you know). However, mail isn't quite as nice as news. >John> Is there any mail reader, sendmail configuration file, or other >John> tricks that can make mail look more like news? > >You don't really have to make mail look like news, just install news >and pump your mail into news. We don't have a Usenet feed either >(yet). We are using News locally for "communications". > >John> In retrospect, it may have been better to have the mailing list >John> mail sent to a "dummy" account. > >This is how we do it. For every mailing list we subscribe to that more >than one person is interested in (and for a few that only I am >interested in :-) we created news groups for them. > >For example, I read your article in our mailing-lists.apollo news >group. To do this, create an alias in your /usr/lib/aliases file that >looks something like: > >apollo: "| /usr/local/lib/news/recnews mailing-lists.apollo" > >And then tell the list maintainer to change your address to this new >alias. All of a sudden you have your mail in news. We are getting >about half a dozen mailing lists this way. > >(The recnews program is part of B-news. I don't think C-news has >anthing that works like it yet. But then, I'm not a C-news expert.) > >The draw back is that you cannot post to the news group. You have to >send mail. This isn't too awfully bad for us, as most of the folks >reading news are "reasonably intellegent". (Oh, they are reading this >too. Hi folks!) Actually, the latest news software (I'm not sure if Bnews has it, but Cnews does) has a provision for moderated newsgroups, where messages it receives to be posted to a particular group are instead mailed to the moderator. You could set up your local news setup so that the mailing-lists.* newsgroups are moderated, with the moderator's address being the address of the newsgroup. Follow-ups to news.software.b, becuase this isn't just of interest to those of us stuck with Apollos. David G. Paschich Open Computing Facility UC Berkeley dpassage@ocf.berkeley.edu "They might be brain / They might be washed / They might be Dr. Spock's back-up band"
johnb@HOBBES.MDC.COM (John Breen) (06/06/91)
In a previous article, David G. Paschich writes: >Follow-ups to news.software.b, becuase this isn't just of interest to those >of us stuck with Apollos. That's fine, as long as the followups *also* go to comp.sys.apollo (or the apollo mailing list directly). Remember, my motivation for asking about this in the first place is that I *no longer have a news feed*. BTW, thanks to all of you who have responded. The concensus is that I should set up an internal news system, and have the mail sent to it. Sounds like a good idea to me (if I can only figure out how to install the news software :-). ----- John A. Breen | johnb@hobbes.mdc.com McDonnell Douglas Missile Systems Co. | Tel: (314)234-4341