[Cialug] bsd mail/mailx reading

[Josh More]

For me, it's because, as Barry discovered, the commands in the clients are
somewhat esoteric.  I use grep all the time and don't have to remind myself
how to use them.

And really, on my servers, the only time I should get mail is when
something goes horribly wrong, and in those situations, I just need enough
data out of the email to put into a tracking system and then the emails can
go away.

Processing to zero is usually more cost effective than keeping the emails
around for "reference", especially since there has not been a single
instance in over 15 years that I've needed to refer to an email on a server.

-Josh



On Fri, Dec 28, 2012 at 11:33 AM, David Champion <dchamp1337 at gmail.com>wrote:

> Captain Obvious says: Why not just use mutt or (al)pine?
>
> -dc
>
>
> On Fri, Dec 28, 2012 at 11:05 AM, Barry Von Ahsen <barry at vonahsen.com
> >wrote:
>
> > yeah, vi works just as well - delete messages by regex: d/Message: :)
> >
> > (may require vim)
> >
> >
> > -barry
> >
> >
> > On Dec 28, 2012, at 11:01 AM, Josh More wrote:
> >
> > > I use grep and less directly on the mail spool files.
> > >
> > > Then I use "rm *"  :)
> > >
> > > -Josh
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > On Fri, Dec 28, 2012 at 10:59 AM, Scott Yates <Scott at yatesframe.com>
> > wrote:
> > >
> > >> ish, that sucks.  Time to install Pine or Elm.  lol
> > >>
> > >>
> > >> On Fri, Dec 28, 2012 at 10:57 AM, Barry Von Ahsen <barry at vonahsen.com
> > >>> wrote:
> > >>
> > >>> thanks - I think I found that in the past from 'help', but I forgot
> to
> > >>> mention this is on CentOS, which is slightly confused about what it
> can
> > >> and
> > >>> can't do.  I tried that and:
> > >>>
> > >>> & l
> > >>> Commands are:
> > >>> next, alias, print, type, Type, Print, visual, top, touch, preserve,
> > >>> delete, dp, dt, undelete, unset, mail, mbox, more, page, More, Page,
> > >>> unread, U, !, copy, chdir, cd, save, source, set, shell, version,
> > >>> group, write, from, file, folder, folders, ?, z, headers, help, =,
> > >>> Reply, Respond, reply, respond, edit, echo, quit, list, xit, exit,
> > >>> size, hold, if, else, endif, alternates, ignore, discard, retain,
> > >>> saveignore, savediscard, saveretain, core, #, clobber
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> attempting to run 'list', which it says is a command, gives the same
> > >>> message again:
> > >>>
> > >>> & list
> > >>> Commands are:
> > >>> next, alias, print, type, Type, Print, visual, top, touch, preserve,
> > >>> delete, dp, dt, undelete, unset, mail, mbox, more, page, More, Page,
> > >>> unread, U, !, copy, chdir, cd, save, source, set, shell, version,
> > >>> group, write, from, file, folder, folders, ?, z, headers, help, =,
> > >>> Reply, Respond, reply, respond, edit, echo, quit, list, xit, exit,
> > >>> size, hold, if, else, endif, alternates, ignore, discard, retain,
> > >>> saveignore, savediscard, saveretain, core, #, clobber
> > >>>
> > >>> so it's probably a CentOS issue
> > >>>
> > >>> -barry
> > >>>
> > >>>
> > >>> On Dec 28, 2012, at 10:48 AM, Scott Yates wrote:
> > >>>
> > >>>> I THOUGHT it was just  "L" (lower case) to list the messages, but i
> > may
> > >>> be
> > >>>> mistaken.  It has been a few years.
> > >>>>
> > >>>>
> > >>>> On Fri, Dec 28, 2012 at 10:46 AM, Barry Von Ahsen <
> barry at vonahsen.com
> > >>>> wrote:
> > >>>>
> > >>>>> does anybody use bsd mail/mailx for reading?  since it's often
> > >> installed
> > >>>>> for sending, it's also useful for reading and not needing to
> install
> > a
> > >>>>> "real" client like mutt or (al)pine
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> my question is: when you first run mail, it lists the messages and
> > you
> > >>> can
> > >>>>> operate on them.  after the operations, though, the list goes away.
> > >> is
> > >>>>> there a way to redisplay the messages without quitting and
> > restarting?
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> example: login, start mail, it displays that I have 1000 messages.
> > >> run
> > >>>>> d1-998 to delete the first 998, 999 to read that message, d999 to
> > >> delete
> > >>>>> it.  how do I re-list the messages to show the headers for message
> > >> 1000
> > >>>>> (like when I launched mail)?  now I just quit, then restart mail
> and
> > >> it
> > >>>>> shows the one message (as message 1)
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> nothing end of the world, but there must be a Better Way(TM)
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>> -barry
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>
> > >>>>>
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