Beyond Linux From Scratch - Version 6.1

Chapter 20. Mail/News Clients

Procmail-3.22

Introduction to Procmail

The Procmail package contains an autonomous mail processor. This is useful for filtering and sorting incoming mail.

Package Information

Installation of Procmail

Install Procmail by running the following commands as the root user: 

make LOCKINGTEST=/tmp install &&
make install-suid

Command Explanations

make LOCKINGTEST=/tmp install: This prevents make from asking you where to test file-locking patterns.

make install-suid: Modifies permissions of the installed files.

Configuring Procmail

Config Files

/etc/procmailrc and ~/.procmailrc

Configuration Information

Recipes have to be written and placed in your ~/.procmailrc for execution. The procmailex man page is the starting place to learn how to write recipes.

Contents

Installed Programs: formail, lockfile, mailstat and procmail
Installed Libraries: None
Installed Directories: None

Short Descriptions

formail

is a filter that can be used to format mail into mailbox format.

lockfile

is a utility that can lock a file for single use interactively or in a script.

mailstat

prints a summary report of mail that has been filtered by procmail since the last time mailstat was ran.

procmail

is an autonomous mail processor. It performs all the functions of an MDA (Mail Delivery Agent).

Last updated on 2005-08-01 13:29:19 -0600