[comp.mail.mh] Xbiff Blues

ziegast@ENG.UMD.EDU (Eric Ziegast) (10/25/90)

I write:
>"G. Bowden Wise" writes:
>>(2) The other scenario I would like to be able to do is have all my
>>    incoming mail automatically incorporated into my 'inbox'.  I 
>>    believe I have the same problem as I mentioned in number 1, but 
>>    I cannot remember for sure.  But, one thing I dont like when I do 
>>    this is that I no longer get notificatin that I have recieved
>>    mail.  I have tried using 'rcvtty' but to no avail.  Also, is
>>    there a way to let the X Windows client xbiff know that mail has
>>    been received?
>
>Maybe you should try:
>
>	default - ^ ? "/usr/local/lib/mh/rcvstore +newbox"
>
>and have your MAIL variable point to ~/Mail/newbox/1.
>
>If you have any "new" mail, there will be a (exactly one) message in
>~/Mail/newbox/1 and your xbiff icon will beep and light up.  You must
>use "setenv MAIL ~/Mail/newbox/1" before you start xbiff.  Otherwise, 
>it'll probably point to /var/spool/mail/$user where you will never get 
>new mail.

It appears as though I'm wrong. I look at the Mailbox widget source and
see that the mail box is really hard coded to:

    w->mailbox.filename = "MAILBOX_DIRECTORY/username"

For BSD this is /usr/spool/mail/$user
For SYS5 this is /usr/mail/$user

It can be changed by using the -file option in xbiff.

	xbiff -file ~/Mail/newbox/1

Oddly, this doesn't work on some systems here (at eng.umd.edu) while
on others it does.  I think our local X guru put in something to make
xbiff more intelligent by seeing if the file is in Mail (not mh or
any other file) format.  I'll look into it, though.
________________________________________________________________________
Eric W. Ziegast, University of Merryland, Engineering Computing Services
ziegast@eng.umd.edu - Eric@[301.405.3689]

wiseb@turing.cs.rpi.edu (G. Bowden Wise) (10/25/90)

>"Eric Ziegast" writes:
>
> It can be changed by using the -file option in xbiff.
>
>	xbiff -file ~/Mail/newbox/1

But the problem with this setup is that if you leave your messages
around for a while (like I do), the next message that gets
incorporated will be in newbox/2 or newbox/3 etc. Then, xbiff will not
detect the arrival of new mail.
--
----------------------------------------------------------------
- Bowden Wise, RPI, Computer Science Department, Troy, NY  12180
  internet: wiseb@turing.cs.rpi.edu      bitnet: bowden@rpitsmts

gary@cgdisis.cgd.ucar.edu (Gary Strand) (10/26/90)

  Having 'xbiff' point at ~/Mail/inbox/1 isn't the best way of doing it.

  'xbiff' checks for non-zero-length of the file it checks, so if you're
  using it to check /usr/spool/mail/$USER, it works fine. But, if you're
  using your .maildelivery file to automatically incorporate new mail,
  'xbiff' will always see your maildrop as zero-length.

  Also, if you get another new message, that is, ~/Mail/inbox/2 gets
  created, xbiff won't catch it, since message 1 is still around.

  *However*, there is a file in ~/Mail/inbox called '.xmhcache' that does
  increase it's length whenever you get new mail, and is zero-length when
  you don't have any. That's what I have my xbiff set to watch, and it
  works quite well.

--
Gary Strand                                        Look, it's trying to think.
Internet: strandwg@ncar.ucar.edu                      Voicenet: (303) 497-1383

ziegast@ENG.UMD.EDU (Eric Ziegast) (10/28/90)

"G. Bowden Wise" writes:
>"Eric Ziegast" writes:
>> It can be changed by using the -file option in xbiff.
>>	xbiff -file ~/Mail/newbox/1
>
>But the problem with this setup is that if you leave your messages
>around for a while (like I do), the next message that gets
>incorporated will be in newbox/2 or newbox/3 etc. Then, xbiff will not
>detect the arrival of new mail.

I never meant +newbox to stay around at all, it's supposed to move
to +inbox once the inc alias I provided was used.

But then again, from some of the replies I've seen, I see where my
method lacks in some ways.  I like the checkCommand method but don't
have a clue of how to use it.  For the one who mentioned it, is the
following the correct usage?

	xbiff*checkcommand: /homedir/user/bin/mycheckcommand
________________________________________________________________________
Eric W. Ziegast, University of Merryland, Engineering Computing Services
ziegast@eng.umd.edu - Eric@[301.405.3689]

mcgrew@ichthous.Eng.Sun.COM (Darin McGrew) (10/30/90)

ziegast@ENG.UMD.EDU (Eric Ziegast) writes:
>                            I like the checkCommand method but don't
>have a clue of how to use it.  For the one who mentioned it, is the
>following the correct usage?
>
>	xbiff*checkcommand: /homedir/user/bin/mycheckcommand

I think you need to capitalize it differently--

	xbiff*checkCommand: /homedir/user/bin/mycheckcommand

Darin McGrew			mcgrew@Eng.Sun.COM
Affiliation stated for identification purposes only.